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John Thompson: What Do School Report Cards Mean?

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2023 //
7

John Thompson, historian and retired history teacher, analyzes the use and misuse of Oklahoma’s school report cards.

He writes:

As usual, the 2023 Oklahoma school Report Card prompted headlines about “struggling” students. But counter-intuitively, State Superintendent Ryan Walters stressed the declines during his time in office!?!?

Two tales of the Report Card are being told. As the Tulsa World reports, Walters “claimed that the data was from ‘previous years,’ even though all of the academic achievement indicators are from state tests administered just seven months ago.” Yes, taking office as State Superintendent in January 2023, Walters hasn’t had time to achieve many gains in learning, even if he’d really tried to. But the chaos during 2023, combined with the disruption he’d spread since 2020 as head of the Education Department, provided plenty of time for disruption.

As the Oklahoman reports, Walters cited the greatest decline under his watch, 8th grade reading proficiency which saw “a 5.7 percent decrease,” although “No other grade had more than a 0.4 percent decrease in reading scores, and some others “saw a very small uptick in reading scores.” Walters then promised “we are taking a Back to Basics approach,” which is the opposite of what it takes to increase proficiency.

The wisest narrative, illustrated by the Education Watch’s Jennifer Palmer, places the 2023 Report Card within the context of the massive decline of scores due to Covid, and the 2022 report. The 2023 report saw “no big swings in proficiency rates in any of the three tested subjects content,” while noting the overlooked fact that “a score of basic means a student demonstrated foundational knowledge and skills.”

Then Palmer tweeted background information on the differences between what basic means, as opposed to the widely misunderstood grade of proficiency which, I must add, has been misrepresented since the Reagan administration in order to denigrate public education. Oklahoma’s 8th grade reading proficiency grade requires that “students demonstrate mastery over even the most challenging grade-level content and are ready for the next grade, course or level of education.” It requires mastery of grade level skills that include interpretation, evaluation, analysis across multiple texts, and critical thinking. Mastery in requires use of evidence, argumentative response and synthesis of to create “written works for multiple purposes.”

As Palmer tweeted, we need a more nuanced” understanding of “reading.” And “the 8th graders who didn’t score proficient, but are in the ‘basic’ category, can still do all this” and then she linked to the challenging goals that are required for that grade, which include: partial mastery of interpretation, evaluation, analysis across multiple texts, critical thinking, use of evidence, argumentative response and synthesis.

Granted, these definitions are not necessarily the same as the more reliable NAEP scores. But as Jan Resseger explains, the nation’s NAEP proficiency grade “represents A level work, at worst an A-” and, basically, the same applies to Oklahoma’s tests. She asks, “Would you be upset to learn that “only” 40% of 8th graders are at an A level in math and “only” 1/3rd scored an A in reading?”

Ressenger also cites the huge body of research explaining why School Report Cards aren’t a reliable tool for measuring school effectiveness. We need a better understanding why the proficiency has been weaponized against schools, but we also need to master the huge body of research which explains why Report Cards aren’t a fair, reliable, and valid measure of how well schools are performing.

I’ll just cite one of the scholars that Ressenger draws upon. Stanford’s Sean Reardon’s 2022 research explained why “test score gaps may result from unequal opportunities either in or out of school; [but] they are not necessarily the result of differences in school quality, resources, or experience.” Reardon documented:

The socioeconomic profile of a district is a powerful predictor of the average test score performance of students in that district. The most and least socioeconomically advantaged districts have average performance levels more than four grade levels apart. … Achievement gaps are larger in districts where black and Hispanic students attend higher poverty schools than their white peers… and where large racial/ethnic gaps exist in parents’ educational attainment. The size of the gaps has little or no association with average class size, a district’s per capita student spending or charter school enrollment.

And that brings us to chronic absenteeism. As the New York Times reports, across the nation, “nearly 70 percent of the highest poverty schools experienced widespread, chronic absenteeism in the 2021-22 school year,” and “in these schools, about a third or more of the student body was considered chronically absent.” Of course, the Times notes, “Students cannot learn if they are not in school, and they cannot benefit from interventions, such as tutoring, that are supposed to help them make up pandemic losses.”

And Palmer reports:

Across the state, 20% of students were chronically absent last year, a half a percent increase over 2022. Some student groups were even higher: 24% of Hispanic students, 25% of economically disadvantaged and 31% of Black students were chronically absent …” Moreover, excessive absences are more prevalent now than before the pandemic. In 2019, 14% of Oklahoma students were chronically absent.

Tulsa World had previously reported that “About half of the Tulsa high school students are chronically absent” and explained why this complex and serious problem is “showing no signs of improvement.” The World cited the work of Georgetown’s Phyllis Jordan who explained the need to reconnect “what’s going on in the school and what’s going on outside the school.”

On one hand, that is why Patrick Forsyth, a University of Oklahoma professor who had analyzed the state’s A-F report card system, said “using attendance to measure school effectiveness is like using rates of tobacco use to measure hospital effectiveness.” On the other hand, as the Oklahoman reported, the Attendance Works’ Hedy Chang said, chronic absenteeism is an “all-hands-on-deck moment.” She also called on schools to “learn the specific barriers to attendance that their students experience before crafting a response to those unique challenges.”

That gets us back to the tragedy of two tales about what the Report Card means. Sadly, Ryan Walters uses it as one more weapon for disrupting public education. The other side must use these flawed metrics not to punish but for diagnostic purposes.

Categories Education Reform, NAEP, Oklahoma, Standardized Testing

Florida: Conservative State Supreme Court May Block Referendum on Abortion

By dianeravitch
November 27, 2023 //
7

Supporters of reproductive rights are gathering signatures to put a referendum on the ballot in November 2024. However, the state Supreme Court must approve the language of the referendum or block it. Anti-abortion advocates have criticized the proposed referendum because it does not define “viability,” the point at which the fetus is able to survive outside the woman’s body.

Opponents of abortion know that referenda to protect abortion have been approved in other red states, like Kansas and Ohio. They have to find a way to block the vote. First, they raised the vote needed to change the state constitution from 50.1% to 60%. Now, they are counting on a hyper-conservative state Supreme Court to disqualify the referendum on technical grounds.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Floridians are signing petitions to put abortion rights to a vote of the people next fall, but they could meet an insurmountable setback from the state’s conservative Supreme Court.

The high court must approve the ballot initiative’s language, and if it doesn’t, the amendment won’t be on the 2024 ballot.

The amendment’s backers also still need to gather more than 400,000 signatures to get on the ballot, counter an anti-abortion ad campaign already taking shape and win at least 60% of the vote to secure passage.

Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody is fighting to keep the measure protecting abortion rights off the ballot, arguing it is misleading because it doesn’t define “viability.” The public has differing interpretations of what that term means, she wrote in a legal brief.

It’s an argument that could carry weight with the court given its “extremely conservative makeup,” said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University.

One justice is married to a sponsor of Florida’s six-week abortion ban and pushed anti-abortion bills when he served in Congress. GOP presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed five of the seven justices.

Categories Education Reform

Ohio: GOP Politicians Try to Undo Voters’ Will on Abortion Rights

By dianeravitch
November 27, 2023 //
6

Barbara McQuade, experienced prosecutor and lawyer, posted this disturbing commentary at Cafe Insider. Republican legislators in Ohio are trying to overturn the recent state referendum on abortion, where 57% of voters chose to protect reproductive rights by writing them into the state constitution.

Elections, as they say, have consequences. Last week in Ohio, voters approved an amendment to their state constitution that protects reproductive rights. But some GOP lawmakers apparently would rather damage democratic institutions than accept election results that they strongly oppose. 

Ohio recently became the seventh state to enshrine the right to abortion into their state constitutions following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Dobbsopinion, of course, overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that had recognized abortion rights under the U.S. Constitution since 1973. But despite the election result, some Ohio Republican legislators are refusing to accept the will of the people of their state. 

Two days after the election, attacks on the democratic process came on three different bases. First, GOP Representative Jennifer Gross claimed, without evidence, that the amendment was passed as the result of “foreign election interference” with the money of “foreign billionaires.” If true, such outside influence would violate election laws. But there is nothing to suggest that the claim is true. This claim was made not by an extremist activist, but by an elected member of the Ohio legislature. A public official’s claim of foreign influence can undermine public confidence in elections, which, in turn, leads to voter apathy, and discourages them from casting ballots. Such cynicism erodes the strength of our democracy. 

And Gross didn’t stop there. She joined three other GOP lawmakers in a second attack, announcing an audacious plan to strip their state courts of authority to interpret the new amendment. “Issue 1,” the name of the ballot proposal, ensures the right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions” regarding birth control, miscarriage, and abortion. The amendment, which goes into effect in December, retains the state’s ability to regulate abortions after a fetus is able to survive outside the womb. The amendment locks into the state constitution the current law permitting abortions up to 22 weeks, but it conflicts with a number of other state laws on the books that regulate reproductive rights, such as one that imposes a 24-hour waiting period and another that prohibits abortions after detection of certain fetal conditions. A “heartbeat” law, passed in 2019, that prohibits abortions after six weeks with no exception for rape or incest, had been tied up in courts before the election. 

Ohio House Democrats have proposed a bill to repeal the existing laws that conflict with the new amendment, but GOP majorities in both houses will likely block their efforts. Instead, litigants will need to challenge these laws in court to get them off the books. 

But that’s where Gross and her team come in. They said they would shift power over interpreting the amendment from the courts to the GOP-controlled legislature. According to their public statement, “Ohio legislators will consider removing jurisdiction from the judiciary over this ambiguous ballot initiative.” They explained that this move was necessary, “[t]o prevent mischief by pro-abortion courts.” Instead, they propose that “the Ohio legislature alone will consider what, if any, modifications to make to existing laws based on public hearings and input from legal experts on both sides.” Draft legislation would vacate all court orders and even expose judges to criminal prosecution and impeachment for handling cases involving the amendment. 

Except that’s not how it works. One of the first cases law students read in Constitutional Law class is Marbury v. Madison. The case stands for the proposition that it is the role of courts to review laws and to decide whether they are unconstitutional. And while Marbury v. Madison dealt with federal courts, the proposition is no less true in the states. Ohio’s constitution creates a judicial branch, composed of courts that are vested with “the judicial power of the state.” Interpreting the law is the fundamental role of courts. Legislatures write the laws; courts interpret them and decide whether they violate the state or federal constitutions. By seeking to wrest control of judicial review from the courts, the legislators are corrupting the structure of government and the separation of powers. This attempted power grab is a dangerous affront to our democratic institutions. We can’t simply deconstruct the apparatus of government whenever we fear the outcome of its work. Such attacks would render our judiciary toothless and unrecognizable.

But that’s not the end of it. A third affront to our democratic process came in the remarks of one of the four GOP legislators behind the effort, who appeared to put her own religious views ahead of the will of the people. Representative Beth Lear stated in support of the legislation, “No amendment can overturn the God-given rights with which we were born.” She no doubt genuinely believes the truth of her comments, but the First Amendment entitles her to practice her own religion, not to impose it on others. 

Before the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, opponents of abortion rights frequently argued that the issue should be left to the states to decide. Now that voters in the states are consistently approving abortion rights, those who oppose reproductive rights are looking for new ways to fight for bans, even if it means supplanting the will of the people. 

Regardless of the convictions of one’s views on any issue, a power grab to override the results of an election is destructive to democracy. 

Stay Informed, 

Barb

Categories Education Reform

Politico: House Republicans Want Deep Cuts to Education Funding

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2023 //
4

Political parties show their true colors when they offer a budget. Republicans, who control the House of Representatives just showed that they don’t care about funding education. They especially don’t care about funding schools attended by poor kids. They want to slash Title I—the most important federal funding for poor kids—by 80%. Remember that the next time that Republicans cry crocodile tears for poor kids.

Politico reported:

HOUSE TAKES UP EDUCATION FUNDING AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS: As House leaders wrangle votes for a stopgap measure to head off a shutdown at the end of the week, House Republicans are also turning to longer-term appropriations for education programs. The House is set to consider on the floor this week Republicans’ education funding bill that would make deep cuts to federal education programs, including drastic reductions to aid for low-income schools.

— What’s in the bill: The GOP bill to fund the Education Department for the 2024 fiscal year would provide $67.4 billion of new discretionary funding, a reduction of about 15 percent compared with 2023. But the bill would also rescind more than $10 billion of funding for K-12 education that was already approved by Congress, bringing the overall cut to the Education Department to about 28 percent from fiscal 2023.

— Among the most drastic proposed GOP cuts would be the $14.7 billion reduction to federal spending on low-income school districts under Title I, an 80 percent reduction. Democrats say that funding level would translate into 220,000 fewer teachers in classrooms across the country.

— The bill also includes policy riders that would block a slew of Biden administration education policies, such as its overhaul of Title IX rules and new student loan repayment program known as SAVE. The bill would also end the administration’s safety net program that eliminates most penalties for borrowers who miss their monthly payment for the next year.

— The GOP’s top-line funding levels for education won’t survive negotiations with the Democrat-led Senate and White House. A bipartisan proposal by Senate appropriators calls for keeping overall spending on education at roughly the same level as 2023. Biden’s budget requested a 13.6 percent increase.

— But the vote on making deep cuts to funding for schools could put some moderate House Republicans in a tough spot and hand Democrats some election-year messaging fodder.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Cruelty, Education Reform, Evil, Extremism, Funding, Poverty, U.S. Department of Education

Florida: How Koch Industries Closed a Mill, Laid off 500+ Workers, and Got in Line for a Tax Break

By dianeravitch
November 12, 2023 //
6

Some stories are too outrageous to be true, and yet they are. This is one of them, as reported by Jason Garcia on his blog “Seeking Rents.”

Koch Industries owns a major pulp mill in Taylor County, Florida, where one of five people lives in poverty. Koch recently announced that it was shutting down the mill and laying off all of its 500+ workers. At the same time, the closed mill might receive a large tax break because some of its machinery was damaged by a hurricane. This is not helpful to the workers who will be unemployed but will be a nice gift to Koch Industries, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Always annoying to see our tax dollars flow to needy billionaires, instead of laid-off workers.

Garcia, a journalist who exposes corporate corruption, writes:

In mid-September, just three weeks after Hurricane Idalia tore through Taylor County in North Florida, the tiny community suffered a second disaster.

The company that operates a large pulp-and-fiber mill in the area — a 69-year-old factory known locally as the “Foley mill” that has long been one of the region’s most important employers — announced that it would shut the facility down and lay off all 500-plus people who work there.

It’s a devastating blow to Taylor County, a timber-dependent community with a shrinking population of fewer than 22,000 people where one-in-five families live in poverty. A report by the University of Florida estimates the Foley mill closure will lead to the loss of approximately 2,000 jobs in total, including the truckers and loggers who supply the mill with slash pine.

And now Florida might hand a farewell tax break to the fleeing company — which is part of Koch Industries, the global conglomerate led by billionaire Republican donor Charles Koch.

The potential tax break for Koch Industries is included in a roughly $420 million hurricane aid package that Florida’s Republican-controlled state Legislature is expected to approve this week, during a four-day special session in Tallahassee.

The same tax-break legislation meant to ease the damage wrought by Hurricane Idalia showers benefits on another multi-billionaire.

Garcia writes:

The problem is that most of the timberland in this particular area is owned by one person: Billionaire investor Thomas Peterffy, one of the 100 wealthiest people in the world, according to Forbes.

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Peterffy owns Florida’s Big Bend. He purchased more than 500,000 acres in the region about eight years ago — an enormous tract of land that was believed the largest contiguous piece of undeveloped property in private hands east of the Mississippi River.

Property records show that Peterffy owns about 380,000 acres in Taylor County alone, through his company, Four Rivers Land & Timber. That’s more than half the land in the entire county. And virtually all of it is in timber production.

And while there’s little doubt that Peterffy’s timber lands were hit hard by Hurricane Idalia, a land baron worth an estimated $25.3 billion probably doesn’t need help from taxpayers to deal with it.

To be clear: I’m not suggesting that Florida lawmakers drew up these tax breaks specifically to help Koch Industries or Thomas Peterffy — both of whom have been big donors to DeSantis during his time as governor.

But it is reasonable to ask, as Garcia does, why tax breaks are being doled out to billionaires who don’t need the money, while there are so many people in Taylor County who do.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Economy, Education Reform, Ethics, Florida

ProPublica: Voters in Midland, Texas, Defy Billionaire, Pass School Bond Issue

By dianeravitch
November 12, 2023 //
3

Last week, ProPublica wrote about billionaire Tim Dunn and his efforts to defeat a $1.4 billion bond issue in Midland, Texas. Dunn ran his campaign through a Dark Money nonprofit that is staffed by his colleagues. Dunn wants a voucher program for the state and opposes new funding for public schools.

Allies of influential Texas billionaire Tim Dunn are pushing ahead in Austin with efforts to create a private-school voucher system that could weaken public schools across the state. Meanwhile, Dunn’s associates in his hometown of Midland are working to defeat a local school bond proposal that his district says it desperately needs.

Dunn, an evangelical Christian, is best known for a mostly successful two-decade effort to push the Texas GOP ever further to the right. His political action committees have spent millions to elect pro-voucher candidates and derail Republicans who oppose them. Defend Texas Liberty, the influential PAC he funds with other West Texas oil barons, has come under fire after The Texas Tribune revealed that the PAC’s president had hosted infamous white supremacist Nick Fuentes for an October meeting and that the organization has connections to other white nationalists.

Less known are Dunn’s efforts to shape politics in his hometown of Midland, which will come to a head next week. On Tuesday, residents in the Midland Independent School District will vote on a $1.4 billion bond, the largest in its history, after rejecting a smaller measure four years ago. A dark-money organization whose leaders have ties to Dunn’s Midland oil and gas company, as well as to a prominent conservative public policy organization where Dunn serves as vice chairman, have become among the loudest voices against the bond.

On Sept. 21, less than two months before the Midland bond election, three Midland residents with deep connections to Dunn and his associated public policy organization registered a “social welfare” nonprofit called Move Midland.

The nonprofit is headed by Rachel Walker, a public affairs manager for Dunn’s oil and gas company, CrownQuest Operating LLC, according to public records. A second member, Ernest Angelo, is a former Midland mayor and board member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that Dunn has helped lead for more than two decades. The third member of the nonprofit’s board is Elizabeth Moore, a former West Texas development officer for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

But then the voters got a chance to be heard. They said NO to Tim Dunn!

Update, Nov. 8, 2023: On Nov. 7, Midland school district voters approved a $1.4 billion bond proposal by a 56% to 44% vote, rejecting arguments against the measure from a nonprofit led by associates of billionaire oilman Tim Dunn.

Categories Billionaires, Dark Money, Democracy, Education Reform, Elections, Privatization, Texas

Texas: Black and Brown Activists Invite You to Join Them Sunday Morning at State Capitol in Austin

By dianeravitch
November 11, 2023 //
1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From: Black Brown Dialogues on Policy co-founders: Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D. and

Gary Bledsoe, Esq. , Chair of the Texas NAACP

 

For more information, please contact Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D. at

blackbrownpolicy@gmail.com (512) 232-6008

 

In this moment of a dismantling of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Texas colleges and universities, along with toxic, polarizing battles in the Texas State Legislature and in local school boards throughout Texas, we invite you to the Inaugural Black Brown Dialogues on Policy Capitol Storytelling Event during the Texas Book Festival.

This in-person and online event takes place in the Member’s Lounge (E2.1002), at the Texas

State Capitol on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. CST in partnership with National LULAC, the Texas NAACP, Mexican American Legislative Caucus, Latino Texas Policy Center, and the Texas Center for Education Policy.

Virtually, this event will be livestreamed and available live online at www.facebook.com/TeamBlackBrown.

Now, more than ever, we must come together as a Black and Brown community to amplify our collective power through community storytelling.Treat yourself on this day to oral stories of Black and Brown coalitional and partnership work that has been carried out throughout time in Texas. Author and Texas oral history researcher Dr. Max Krochmal will present from his book, Civil Rights in Black and Brown (University of Texas Press). UT History Professor Emilio Zamora and Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe will share instances in history when Black and Brown people worked together in solidarity. The Honorable Aicha Davis will discuss the importance of Black and Brown coalitional work at the Texas State Board of Education.

Former Ft. Worth ISD Board Member Dr. Jacinto “Cinto” Ramos, My Brother’s Keeper

Director Rickie Clark, Round Rock ISD’s Tiffanie Harrison will present on local school board struggles. Independent Scholar Martha P. Cotera will share her wealth of experience in Austin and enduring accomplishments by Austin’s Black and Brown working class community. A panel of students will close the event with their reflections of what was shared and how we move forward.

“Organizing this event is a dream come true,” says BBDP co-founder Gary Bledsoe. “It is to our own detriment if we fail to come together as a Black and Brown community to address matters of mutual concern.” This event is free and open to the public. We encourage community members, university faculty, students, advocates, and lawmakers to attend in person and online.

For more information about the town hall meeting, please contact Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D. at

blackbrownpolicy@gmail.com.

WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Member’s Lounge (E2.1002), Texas State Capitol Annex Underground

Virtual: https://facebook.com/TeamBlackBrown

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY: Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D. and Gary Bledsoe, Esq.

Categories Censorship, Civil Rights, Creativity, Education Reform, Equity, Freedom, Joy, Texas

Robert Hubbell Rages About Media Bias Against Biden

By dianeravitch
November 11, 2023 //
80

Robert Hubbell is an unusually well-informed and perceptive blogger. After the Democrats’ smashing electoral victories this past week, Hubbell was outraged that so many major media downplayed the recent electoral victories and immediately began bashing President Biden. Are they trying to help Trump by ignoring the Democrats’ wins at the polls and Biden’s considerable successes?

He writes:

Most of the time, it does little good to rant about the media. But today, it matters. The media is exhibiting bias and incompetence to a degree that can only be described as complicity in Donald Trump’s second attempt at a coup. Their complicity matters because it confounds and demoralizes Americans who are doing their best to defend democracy against the greatest threat it has faced in 150 years.

On Wednesday, there was one big story: The president’s party “ran the table” in Tuesday’s elections as Republicans doubled down on policies that are antidemocratic, racist, and misogynistic. Many media outlets gave the obligatory nod to the Democrats’ victory in a “Just the fact, Ma’am” fashion. But the media could not wait to pivot to the “Biden is old” and “But, but . . . inflation!” narrative. Journalists have consumed the anti-Biden Cool Aid in copious quantities.

          Before I proceed further, let me skip ahead to the solution: You and me. We must become the medium and the message. We can no longer hope for help from major media outlets in speaking the truth about the danger that Donald Trump poses. It is true that there are exceptions, even in the pages of irresponsible major media outlets. But from an editorial policy perspective, the major outlets have decided to push the “Biden is old” and “inflation is out of control” stories to maximize profits—even if it breaks our democracy..

          So, it’s you and me, buddy! Or rather, it is all of us. We must be messengers for Biden and Democrats. We must prod and correct media outlets that act recklessly in normalizing Trump while they choose—as an editorial policy—to dismiss, diminish, and mock Joe Biden and his supporters.

          Yesterday, a reader sent a note complaining that I was “Preaching to the choir.” Guilty as charged! My response to the reader’s criticism is that we need to make “the choir” so big that we overwhelm the negative narrative spun by the media.

          We must write the narrative, not the media. You can help by spreading the words of Heather Cox Richardson, Jessica Craven, Simon Rosenberg, Joyce Vance, Jay Kuo, Judd Legum, Thom Hartmann, Lucian Truscott, Robert Reich, and me (and others) from Substack. (Don’t stop there; there are many other important voices on Substack.)  Also, the writers at The Bulwark(Charlie Sykes, Jonathan Last et al.) are by our side every step of the way.

          Promote, praise, and support opinion writers like Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern at Slate, Ian Millhiser at Vox, Politics Girl on YouTube, Rebecca Solnit at The Guardian, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, and Dennis Aftergut and Larry Tribe wherever they choose to write. And if you are a brave soul still competing on Elon Musk’s “hellish landscape,” be a warrior for truth.

          So, what has prompted my harsh criticism of major media a day after Democrats’ incredible victories on Tuesday?

          Let’s take the New York Times. It featured an “above the fold, column one” headline, “Abortion Rights Fuel Big Democratic Wins, and Hopes for 2024.” Fair enough. But the online version of the Times featured this “discussion” among alleged experts on page one, under the headline: Opinion | ‘He’s 80 Years Old, and That Colors Every Impression Voters Have’: Three Writers Dish on Biden and the G.O.P. Debate.

          The three writers “dishing” on Joe Biden were Frank Bruni, Nate Silver (founder of FiveThirtyEight), and Katherine Mangu-Ward. Here is how their “dishing discussion” started (with minor edits for brevity):

Frank Bruni: Should Biden at this late stage consider not pursuing re-election? Would that likely help or hurt the Democrats in winning the White House? And if not Biden, who would give the party the best chance? Nate, let’s start with you.

Nate Silver: . . . I think whether Democrats would be better off if Biden dropped out is very much an open question — which is kind of a remarkable thing to be saying at this late stage. There’s a whole cottage industry devoted to trying to figure out why Biden doesn’t get more credit on the economy, for instance. And the answer might just be that he’s 80 years old, and that colors every impression voters have of him.

Katherine Mangu-Ward: The voters in these polls just seem to be screaming, ‘He’s too old, and I feel poor!’

          Gosh! It’s almost like the thumping Biden gave Republicans on Tuesday didn’t happen. And for a smart guy, Nate Silver should be able to figure out “Why Biden doesn’t get more credit on the economy.” Since Nate is apparently flummoxed, I will help him out: It is because “experts” like Nate Silver obsess over his age and price inflation to the exclusion of Biden’s historic accomplishments. 

          And in case the Times’ editorial slant isn’t clear from the above, the Times’ chief political analyst Nate Cohn (not Nate Silver) doubled down on his pre-election op-ed trashing Joe Biden. Nate Cohn wrote an article on Wednesday that attempted to dismiss the significance of Tuesday’s win for Democrats. See Nate Cohn op-ed in NYTimes, Tuesday Was Great for Democrats. It Doesn’t Change the Outlook for 2024. Cohn writes, “A pattern continued [on Tuesday] with success in low-turnout elections, which favors highly engaged voters. Presidential years tend to be different.”

          We can be sure that if Republicans won big on Tuesday, Nate Cohn would not be dismissing the victories as “low turnout elections.” 

          Or how about the Los Angeles Times, which did not include a front-page story on Tuesday’s elections? But it did manage to place this headline on the front page: Biden support down sharply among California voters for first time in presidency, poll shows. So, to the LA Times, polls matter more than elections! Why? Because negative news drives readers and clicks. The LA Times doesn’t care about the truth. It wants you to buy the soap it sells in its advertising. Truth is a casualty in the profit equation.

 [In the interest of brevity and a valiant act of self-restraint, I omitted several additional paragraphs of examples. You are welcome!]

          I will stop before I lose your attention, patience, and goodwill. You get the point.

          But indulge me as I repeat a question posed by Michael Podhorzer in his response to the NYTimes poll (Mad Poll Disease Redux), which is relevant in considering the media’s post-election coverage:

I’d like to ask members of the media this question directly: If Trump wins—and if he fulfills any of his long list of deranged promises, some of which involve breaking America beyond repair—how do you think history will judge how you covered this election? [¶¶]

The media needs to decide whether they are covering this election as if it’s an election like any other, or the election that will decide whether the MAGA movement succeeds in ending American democracy.

Sadly, the post-election coverage by major media outlets suggests that they are “covering this election like any other.” We can’t let that happen. We must become the medium and the message…

Every time I appear at meetings of grassroots organizations, I leave with renewed optimism. There are hundreds of thousands—millions?—of dedicated grassroots volunteers who are working every day to ensure that democracy wins in 2024—and beyond! They are the secret superpower of the Democratic Party. And yet, to the major media, they do not exist. But their influence is real—and cannot be ignored.

          The victories on Tuesday were due, in part, to the hard work of groups like Indivisible, The States Project, PostCardsToVoters, Markers for Democracy, Heather’s Herd, BigTentUSA, Vote Forward, The Civics Center, Movement Voter Project, Sister District, Field Team Six, 31st Street Swing Left, VoteRiders, AirLift, Senate Circle, and hundreds of others. (Please do not take offense if I did not mention your group!)

          Grassroots groups are laser-focused on registering new voters and motivating existing voters to show up. If the major media is oblivious to the existence, reach, and effectiveness of grassroots groups in the Democratic Party, they are understandably underestimating the ability of the Democratic Party to “get out the vote.”

          Here’s the point: As we endure the major media’s dismissive attitude about Democratic victories and prospects, we should take confidence and optimism from our collective persistence and tenacity. We will defeat the anti-democratic forces that have coalesced under the MAGA label; it is just a question of “When?” 

With that certain knowledge, let us resume the fight with renewed vigor and righteousness. I know I will! Join me!

Categories Education Reform

Home Schooling Is on the Rise: For Good or Ill?

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2023 //
50

The Washington Post published an article asserting that home schooling is the fastest growing sector on American education. I’m leery of the dramatic statistics, however, because a small number can grow by 70% and still be a small number. In the example on the article page, the D.C. home-schooling numbers are offered: “Washington, D.C.’s school district saw a 108% increase in home-school enrollment since the 2017-18 school year. There were 88,626 students enrolled districtwide in the 2021-22 school year.” But the number of home-schoolers declined from 1,126 in 21-22 to 977 in 22-23. That’s a very small percentage of students enrolled in the District. It would have been interesting to post the number in privately-managed charter schools (far larger than those home schooled) and the number who use vouchers.

My home district in Brooklyn enrolls nearly 20,000 students. The number of home schoolers grew by a whopping 216% since 2017. Sounds impressive, no? From 89 to 281. In the last year, the number of homeschooled students grew by 11. A little more than 1% of the students in this urban district are homeschooled. Not so impressive.

You will have to open the link to see the data in the article because I was unable to copy the numbers. Most are in the opening, not behind a paywall.

Home schooling is illegal in most countries in the world. Where it is permitted, there are often conditions, such as oversight by authorities.

For what it’s worth, I oppose home schooling. I believe it is important for students to be taught by a well-qualified teacher. Few parents are equipped to teach the full range of school subjects. I believe there is value in learning alongside students from different backgrounds and being exposed to different points of view. In this country, people have the right to home school, but I think they should entrust their children to professionals. They should get medical care from doctors. They should seek legal advice from lawyers. They should fly in airplanes with certified pilots.

The article in The Washington Post begins:

Home schooling has become — by a wide margin — America’s fastest-growing form of education, as families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky embrace a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe, a Washington Post analysis shows.

The analysis — based on data The Post collected for thousands of school districts across the country — reveals that a dramatic rise in home schooling at the onset of the pandemic has largely sustained itself through the 2022-23 academic year, defying predictions that most families would return to schools that have dispensed with mask mandates and other covid-19 restrictions….

The growth demonstrates home schooling’s arrival as a mainstay of the American educational system, with its impact — on society, on public schools and, above all, on hundreds of thousands of children now learning outside a conventional academic setting — only beginning to be felt…

The Post acknowledged how hard it is to get accurate data. “In 11 states, including Texas, Michigan, Connecticut and Illinois, officials do not require notification when families decide to educate their children at home or monitor how those students are faring. Seven additional states have unreliable tallies of home-schooled kids, The Post found.”

But it did collect data for 32 states and D.C.

Examination of the data reveals:

  • In states with comparable enrollment figures, the number of home-schooled students increased 51 percent over the past six school years, far outpacing the 7 percent growth in private school enrollment. Public school enrollment dropped 4 percent in those states over the same period, a decline partly attributable to home schooling.
  • Home schooling’s surging popularity crosses every measurable line of politics, geography and demographics. The number of home-schooled kids has increased 373 percent over the past six years in the small city of Anderson, S.C.; it also increased 358 percent in a school district in the Bronx.
  • In 390 districts included in The Post’s analysis, there was at least one home-schooled child for every 10 in public schools during the 2021-2022 academic year, the most recent for which district-level federal enrollment data are available. That’s roughly quadruple the number of districts that had rates that high in 2017-2018, signifying a sea change in how many communities educate their children and an urgent challenge for a public education system that faced dwindling enrollment even before the pandemic.
  • Despite claims that the home-schooling boom is a result of failing public schools, The Post found no correlation between school district quality, as measured by standardized test scores, and home-schooling growth. In fact, high-scoring districts had some of the biggest spikes in home schooling early in the pandemic, though by the fall of 2022 increases were similar regardless of school performance.

Because they do not cover every state, the figures cannot provide a total count of the country’s home-schooled children. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in 2019 — before home schooling’s dramatic expansion — there were 1.5 million kids being home-schooled in the United States, the last official federal estimate.

Based on that figure and the growth since then in states that track home schooling, The Post estimates that there are now between 1.9 million and 2.7 million home-schooled children in the United States, depending on the rate of increase in areas without reliable data.

By comparison, there are fewer than 1.7 million in Catholic schools, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. About 3.7 million students attended charter schools in the fall of 2021, according to the most recent federal data.

It is a remarkable expansion for a form of instruction that 40 years ago was still considered illegal in much of the country.

Over the past three years, American interest in home schooling has soared. In this series, The Washington Post explores how that rise is transforming the nation’s educational landscape — and the lives of hundreds of thousands of children who now learn at home rather than at a traditional school.

Many parents say home education empowers them to withdraw from schools that fail their children or to provide instruction that better reflects their personal values. But there is little to no regulation of home schooling in much of the country, with no guarantees that kids are learning skills and subjects to prepare them for adulthood — or, for that matter, learning anything at all.

Home-schooled children have attended Ivy League schools and won national spelling bees. They have also been the victims of child abuse and severe neglect. Some are taught using the classics of ancient Greece, others with Nazi propaganda. What all share is the near-absolute control their parents wield over the ideas they encounter.

“This is a fundamental change of life, and it’s astonishing that it’s so persistent,” said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.

The rise of home schooling is all the more remarkable, he added, given the immense logistical challenges many parents must overcome to directly supervise their kids’ education.

“The personal costs to home schooling are more than just tuition,” Malkus said. “They are a restructuring of the way your family works.”

In most states examined by The Post, home schooling has fallen slightly from its peak, while remaining at highs unmatched before the 2020-2021 school year. In only two, Georgia and Maryland, has it returned to pre-pandemic levels. And in four — Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana and South Dakota — home schooling has continued to expand.

Celebrated by home education advocates, the rise has also led critics of weak regulation to sound alarms. Home-schooled kids don’t have to submit to any form of testing for academic progress in most states, and even states that require assessments often offer loopholes, according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, which urges greater oversight.

Many of America’s new home-schooled children have entered a world where no government official will ever check on what, or how well, they are being taught.

“Policymakers should think, ‘Wow — this is a lot of kids,’” said Elizabeth Bartholet, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School and child welfare advocate. “We should worry about whether they’re learning anything.”

If there is a capital of American home schooling, it may be Hillsborough County, Fla.

The Gulf Coast county of 1.5 million — including Tampa and its orbit of palmetto-studded suburbs — is famous as a barometer of the nation’s political mood. Its vote results have predicted the winner in 22 of the last 24 presidential elections. Now it is a harbinger of a different trend: the widespread adoption and acceptance of home schooling.

There were 10,680 children being home-schooled at the beginning of the 2022 academic year within Hillsborough County’s school district, the biggest total in The Post’s home-schooling database. The county’s home-schoolers outnumber the entire public enrollment of thousands of other school districts across the country, and their ranks have grown 74 percent since 2017. Over the same period, public school enrollment grew 3.4 percent, to 224,538 students.

Just as remarkable is the infrastructure that has grown up to support home-schoolers.

Their instruction still happened at home much of the time when Corey McKeown began teaching her kids 14 years ago in Carrollwood, a Tampa suburb. Once or twice a week, parent-run co-ops offered a chance to mingle with what was still a small community of home educators.

Today, Hillsborough home-schoolers inhabit a scholastic and extracurricular ecosystem that is in many ways indistinguishable from that of a public or private school. Home-schooled kids play competitive sports. They put on full-scale productions of “Mary Poppins” and “Les Miserables.” They have high school graduation ceremonies, as well as a prom and homecoming dance.

The Christian home-schooling co-op that had about 40 kids in 2011 when McKeown joined it — a co-op she would go on to direct — has grown to nearly 600 students.

“Home-schoolers in Hillsborough County do not lack for anything,” she said. “We have come such a long way.”

Of the 10 districts with the most home-schooled kids in The Post database, nine are in Florida. That’s partly because of the state’s large school districts, but also because its elected officials have grown friendlier to home education as they saddle public schools with politically charged restrictions on what can be taught about race and gender.

Home-schooled kids in Florida aren’t required to sit through the same standardized tests as their public-school peers. But they are allowed to join the same high school sports teams, and are eligible for the same scholarships at public universities.

“It’s a tremendous imbalance,” said Hillsborough County School Board member Lynn Gray. After decades as a public and parochial school teacher, Gray taught history part-time for several years at a Catholic home schooling co-op. She said that experience left her worried about many home-schooled kids’ academic preparation and lack of exposure to diverse points of view, and she is convinced home education should not be most families’ first choice.

“I can tell you right now: Many of these parents don’t have any understanding of education,” she said. “The price will be very big to us, and to society. But that won’t show up for a few years.”

Some of home schooling’s immediate costs to society will soon be more directly measurable in Florida. Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), following the lead of policymakers in other conservative states, expanded the state’s educational voucher program. Children who learn at home are now eligible if their parents submit instructional plans and they take an annual standardized test.

As a result, families in Hillsborough County may be getting their most powerful incentive yet to home-school: up to $8,000 per child in annual taxpayer funding.

Open the link to conclude the article.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Home Schooling

Virginia: Public School Parents Take Back Most School Boards

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2023 //
9

For the past few years, Virginia was a hotbed of dissension over “parental rights.” Governor Youngkin won office by attacking public schools, teachers, trans kids, and libraries. On Tuesday, Virginia’s parents took back most school boards from MAGA extremists.

Pundits cast Virginia’s Tuesday general elections as a referendum on abortion rights. It was more than that. Further down the ballot those votes also sent a strong message to those trying to disrupt public education: listen to parents. Parents who came out to vote in Fairfax, Loudoun and even Spotsylvania, the epicenters of vitriol and fantasy, voted with a resounding “no” to candidates who focused on anti-CRT, book bans and transphobia. Parents overwhelmingly voted for moderate candidates campaigning on safe schools, feeding hungry kids and supporting our teachers.

After almost four years of vile accusations of racism, pedophilia, incompetence and more, voters in Fairfax rejected the lies and returned Rachna Sizemore Heizer, Melanie Meren, Ricardy Anderson and Karl Frish to the School Board, along with a sweep of all pro-public education newcomers. Rachna Sizemore Heizer said “Today, Fairfax County resoundingly rejected the GOP’s divisive politics and relentless attacks on our schools, students and staff, and stood strong in support of public education. It has been a tough four years on the school board, but we’ve stood strong knowing the majority of Fairfax County shared our values of an excellent education in a welcoming and inclusive environment. Now on to work making our great schools even better for every child.”

Spotsylvania County, with one of the most “toxic” school boards in the Commonwealth, flipped from MAGA extremist to centrist, teacher-focused sanity. Carol Medowar, a newcomer to politics, and part of the wave that flipped the Spotsylvania school board, stated “I’m just so happy for the students, families, and educators who really get to breathe a sigh of relief for this race. It’s a huge flip on the Spotsy school board.”

In Loudoun County, the genesis of the politization of public education education, pro-public school supporters held their ground in a clear referendum on Youngkin’s plan to dismantle public schools, drive out teachers and humiliate trans-kids. The acrimony and chaos of the last four years drove every member of the prior school board out of the race. However, the new board, with all new members, will maintain a strong pro-public school majority, despite Youngkin’s concerted, last minute attempt to influence the race. According to Loudoun public school advocate Andrew Pihonek, “a brand new school board will be a breath of fresh air for many in Loudoun.”

Albermarle-Charlottesville followed the same trend as Loudoun, Fairfax and Spotsylvania, rejecting candidates who tried to re-write our history and ban books.

If Glenn Youngkin and his minions truly want to listen to parents, now is their chance. Parents across the Commonwealth, in their first opportunity since his election to send a clear message, have rejected fear-mongering, white-washing, transphobia, sabotage and lack of civility. The question is no longer will we listen to parents, but will he? As Carol Medowar, successful Spotsylvania candidate, pleaded a few weeks ago, “Let’s make school board meetings boring again.”

Categories Accountability, Censorship, Curriculum, Democracy, Education Reform, Freedom to Read, History, Parents, Supporting public schools, Virginia
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