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Fred Smith: How Did the Pearson-Designed, Common Core-Aligned Tests Perform?

By dianeravitch
April 22, 2018 //
23

 

Fred Smith is a testing expert who worked as an analyst for the New York City Board of Education for many years. In this study, he flips the question: Not, how did the students perform, but how did the tests perform?

He grades the tests and finds a remarkable increase in the number and percent of students who scored a zero, perhaps because they didn’t understand the question or provided a confused or incoherent response.

The increase in zeroes was particularly high for students with disabilities and English language learners. They were higher still for black and Hispanic students.

Smith writes:

”The data show that there has been an increase in the percentage of zero scores since the administration of exams aligned with the Common Core. We anticipate that officials will claim this outcome to be the consequence of tougher standards reflected by more rigorous exams.

“We argue that those assertions are insufficient explanations for what we found. Recall that a zero score indicates an unintelligible or incoherent answer. Certainly, some zeroes are to be expected. But the percentage of zero scores, particularly for students in grades 3 and 4, is unreasonable in our view. With so many answers deemed “incomprehensible, incoherent, or irrelevant,” we must ask whether such a program yielded any valuable information at all about our youngest students, as the testing was purported to do. The failure here is much more likely in the questions themselves and in the belief that it was acceptable to ask eight- and nine-year-olds to sit and take long exams over several days. That the data also indicate a widening achievement gaps cannot be ignored…

“Further evidence of flawed testing can be noted in the decline of zeros in 2016 — when the SED removed time limits — from the surge in 2013, for most grades. After three years of CC-aligned testing, the SED acknowledged that the time constraints imposed by the tests were an issue. This, in itself, is an after-the-fact admission that the tests were poorly developed, as test administration procedures, including timing, should be resolved as part of the test-development process before tests become operational.

“In taking stock of the testing program we must return to the fears and doubts that were expressed by a small number of people early on. Were New York State’s CC-aligned tests appropriate measures? Would they have a negative impact on students, especially the most vulnerable?

“The analyses and findings in this report vindicate these early concerns and give empirical grounding to the opt-out movement that grew to an astounding 20 percent of the test population between 2013 and 2015. Specifically, our findings raise questions about the efficacy of this kind of testing, particularly for our youngest students. They also open a needed discussion about the quality of Pearson’s work, the worth of its product, and SED’s judgment in managing the program.”

The unasked question is why we insist on testing every student in grades 3-8 every year. No other nation does it.

My guess: Congress is still inhaling the toxic fumes of NCLB, which was based on the nonexistent “Texas miracle.”

 

 

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, New York, Pearson, Testing

New York: No Democratic Legislator Has Endorsed Cuomo in His Primary Fight

By dianeravitch
April 18, 2018 //
42

 

From the outside, the Democratic primary for Governor in New York looks like a cakewalk: Cuomo versus an actress. Cuomo with a 40-point lead in the polls. Unions lining up to support the man who controls their funding.

But here is a curiosity: to date, not a single Democratic member of the Legislature has endorsed the Governor in his bid for a third term. The endorsements will come, no doubt, but at the moment the silence is deafening from these 133 elected officials in the State Senate and House.

Why? Cuomo has stiffed his own party, repeatedly. The leader of the Senate Democrats is an African American woman from Westchester County, and she has been left out in the cold by Cuomo’s tacit alliance with Senate Republicans and the eight Democrats (the so-called IDC) who caucus with the Republicans to keep them in power.

”The Legislature is tired of Cuomo’s business as usual. First, lawmakers are no doubt angered by Cuomo’s repeated exclusion of the chosen leader of the Senate Democrats, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, from budget negotiations and policy pushes. Never has this been more glaring than this year, when he publicly promised to seek her feedback on sexual harassment laws, and then reneged — but kept Senator Jeffrey Klein in these negotiations despite the accusations of sexual assault recently leveled against him. In a year where the #MeToo movement has flexed its considerable political power, Cuomo underestimated the impact of excluding women from negotiations (resulting in a sexual harassment package, and budget, that is not even close to as strong as it could have been).

“Second, Cuomo has mismanaged his preferred mechanism for excluding Senator Stewart-Cousins from the leadership, otherwise known as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC). Albany’s worst-kept secret is that this rogue group of senators, Democrats who have empowered Senate Republicans to run the State Senate since 2011, has been supported by Cuomo. Seven years ago, Cuomo could get away with this. Now, in the age of Trump, enabling Republicans is untenable.

“It took Cuomo too long to realize his support of the IDC hurts him at the polls, as it has with fellow Democratic elected officials. In fact, in a miscalculation of epic proportions, he kept the IDC on during budget negotiations. He could have had a trifecta of Democrats (himself, Carl Heastie and Sen. Stewart-Cousins) build the budget, achieved if he had called special elections earlier in the year. Instead, he waited, calling them for April 24 so he could keep Sens. Jeff Klein and John Flanagan in budget negotiations with him instead. As a result, the budget left out major planks of the Democrats’ progressive platform, like early voting, the Child Victims Act, criminal justice reforms, and more. New Yorkers noticed. In particular, many Westchester voters (those suburban voters that Cuomo so eagerly courts) noticed because they went unrepresented in budget negotiations, and their empty Senate seat could have tipped the balance of the upper chamber to the Democrats.”

Now begins the frantic lobbying to corral the endorsements. They will come, in time, slowly. With pressure, threats and promises. But not with enthusiasm.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York

Parent: Why I Will Not Let My Child Take the State Test

By dianeravitch
April 18, 2018 //
57

 

A parent in New York wanted to see what the testing experience was, so she went to the State Education Department website and tried the practice questions for third grade. Whatever her initial objections might have been, what she found most objectionable was the nature of the online assessment.

She wrote:

“I had the opportunity to take a practice grade 3 math CBT today. It sealed my decision to opt my children out. It was highly frustrating and difficult to navigate. The font was very small. At the beginning there were a multitude of directions explaining all the online “tools”. Not all the answer choices always fit on the screen, so you have to scroll up and down to navigate the entire question with answers. On a two step word problem I was required to show my work. To do this you have to tap on an algorithm and then plug in the numbers. For some reason, even though I chose a vertical algorithm, the two numbers were not properly lined up, which made adding them pretty tough. Even with three adults looking at it we couldn’t fix it. The problem also required carrying, and you basically had to do that in your head as there is no way to carry the extra ten to the next column. Also, I had to enter the answer from left to right, instead of adding the ones, tens, hundreds. These tests are already flawed in so many ways, and now we are adding extra anxiety to these kids. And how will the results not be invalid? How will we know if the kid really didn’t know an answer, or just couldn’t figure out how to navigate the computer? None of this is necessary for 8-14 year old children.”

Categories New York, Opt Out, Parents, Standardized Testing, Technology

NYSAPE Demands Commissioner Elia’s Resignation for Test Fiascoes

By dianeravitch
April 17, 2018 //
19

 

New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) issued a statement demanding the resignation or firing of State Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 17, 2018

More information contact:

Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com

Jeanette Deutermann (516) 902-9228; nys.allies@gmail.com

NY State Allies for Public Education – NYSAPE

Commissioner Elia and the Board of Regents Continue to Fail New York’s Children;

Parents Demand the Immediate Removal of Commissioner Elia

Parents across the state demand that the Board of Regents act immediately to remove Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. It is time the Board of Regents exercises control over the State Education Department to stop the runaway train of anti-public school “reform” that the commissioner represents.

Last week’s 3rd-8th grade ELA testing was an epic–and avoidable–fail for the children of New York State. The problems began before the tests were even administered, continued during their administration, and will persist unless there is a radical shakeup in the leadership of the State Education Department; in the way in which information about the tests and participation in the tests is communicated to families; and in how the tests themselves are constructed, administered, and scored.

The twin disasters of this year’s botched computer-based tests and an even more flawed than usual ELA test design prove that Elia is unequal to her duties and lacks the competence to helm the education department. Our children deserve better.

Leading up to the tests, some districts sent letters to parents asking whether their children would be participating in the assessments. Others, including the state’s largest district, New York City, sent home testing “info” riddled with spin, distortion, and outright lies regarding test refusal and its consequences. Many disadvantaged communities told advocates that they did not know they had a right to refuse the tests, even though it is their children who are most likely to suffer the negative effects of school closure.

Amy Gropp Forbes, a mother active in NYC Opt Out, wrote in a letter addressed to Chancellor Betty Rosa, “I urge you to issue a formal statement that clarifies a parent’s right to refuse state testing for their children. If the state allows some parents the right to opt out of state exams, it MUST give ALL parents this right, and consequences to schools and districts across the state must be equitable.” Gropp Forbes received no reply.

That the BOR and SED stood by and let this situation transpire despite having been made fully aware of the inequity–a statewide NYSAPE letter writing campaign generated over 200 complaints of “misinformation and intimidation”–is inexcusable. The absence of state-issued guidance also allowed some schools and districts to intimidate potential test refusers by instituting “sit and stare” policies.

Further evidence of a dereliction of duty on the part of BOR and SED came last week during the state ELA exam. The problems far exceeded the typical complaints associated with the state’s standardized exams. In fact, the problems were so egregious that one Westchester superintendent felt compelled to apologize to his entire community for what students had to endure. Social media flooded with teacher and proctor reports of children crying from fatigue, confusion, angst, hunger, pain, and more.

“Any good teacher knows how to judge time in lessons and assessments,” stated Chris Cerrone, school board trustee from Erie County. “As soon as I saw the format when I received the instructions I knew something was wrong. Day 1 would be short. Day 2 would be too long.”

Jeanette Deutermann, founding member of NYSAPE and LI Opt Out questioned, “Who was actually responsible for the construction and final version of these assessments? SOMEONE is responsible; that someone is Elia and the Board of Regents. The worst test since the new rollout has happened on their watch. Until a more capable leader is in place, we demand that all work on the construction of future tests be suspended immediately.”

Ulster County parent, educator, and NYSAPE founding member Bianca Tanis attributed last week’s fiasco in part to the state’s adoption of untimed testing. “Both SED and members of the Board of Regents continue to ignore the egregious consequences of untimed testing, misleading the public by claiming that the tests are shorter. For many educators, administering this test was the worst day of their career. The truth is out, and it cannot be ignored.”

“Enough is enough,” declared Dr. Michael Hynes, Superintendent of Long Island’s Patchogue-Medford district. “Not only are children and educators suffering, but with this untimed policy the state is in violation of its own law, which caps testing at no more than 1% (9 hours) of instructional time. Where’s the enforcement?”

“For a decade or more, SED and its vendors have proved themselves incapable of creating valid, well-designed, non-abusive exams that can be reliably used for diagnostic purposes or to track trends in student achievement over time,” said Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters.

“Since the Common Core was introduced, these problems have only gotten worse, with tests so difficult and confusing that teachers themselves are at a loss as to how the questions should be answered. A recent report from the Superintendents Roundtable revealed that the NYS exams were misaligned to excessively high benchmarks, meaning far too many students are wrongly identified as low-performing,” said Marla Kilfoyle, Long Island public school parent, educator, and BATs Executive Director.

Brooklyn public school parent and founding member of NYC Opt Out, Kemala Karmen, is calling on SED to notify every single parent of their right to refuse May’s upcoming math assessment. She added, “The state can and should halt its hellbent race towards computerized testing, for which it is clearly ill-prepared; stop farming out test construction to dubious for-profit companies; truly shorten the exams; and, most important, remove high stakes attached to the assessments.”

Here’s a compilation of observations made by parents, administrators, and teachers about the numerous problems with this year’s NYS ELA state test, and the suffering it caused students.

NYSAPE calls on the Board of Regents to stand up for equitable and authentic learning & assessments and immediately remove Commissioner Elia.

#OptOut2018 Test Refusal Letter: English​ & Spanish​

​NYSAPE is a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state.

###

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Failure, New York, Standardized Testing

This is What an Activist Does: Leonie Haimson Fights for Reduced Class Size

By dianeravitch
April 16, 2018 //
24

 

Leonie Haimson is a model of an activist who drives city and officials crazy, as well as the billionaires who think they can drive policy with their money. She has two passions: reducing class size and student privacy. She created two groups to fight for her causes: class Size Matters and Student Privacy Matters. Leonie and her allies (the Parent Coalition for Studebt Privacy)  killed inBloom, the data mining program of students that Gates and Carnegie funded with $100 Million. (Full disclosure: I am a member of her board [Class Size Matters] and she is a member of the board of the Network for Public Education.) With meager resources, Leonie writes, testifies, organizes, blogs, and is a force to be reckoned with.

This week, she and a coalition of parents filed a lawsuit against the state and the city to demand class size reduction. 

See the lawsuit here. 

“Advocates and city parents have filed a lawsuit calling on state Education Department officials and city schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to reduce class sizes in the public schools.

“The suit filed in Albany State Supreme Court Thursday was brought by advocates with Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education and nine parents from all five New York City boroughs.

“It claims the state and city Education officials have ignored a 2007 law called the Contract for Excellence that required the city to lower class sizes.

“Class Size Matters founder Leonie Haimson said the city has instead increased class sizes, with nearly one-third of all students in classes of 30 or more children.

“It is unconscionable that the state and the city have flouted the law and are subjecting over 290,000 students to overcrowded classes of 30 students or more,” said Haimson, citing a Class Size Matters analysis of city Education Department data.”

Categories Class size, New York, New York City, Privacy and Privacy Rights

Leonie Haimson: New York City and State Have Made No Gains on NAEP

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
32

 

Leonie Haimson points out that, despite much boasting, New York City and New York State have made no gains on NAEP from 2013-2017.

What she did not include is a graph showing that New York State’s NAEP scores have been flat from 2003-2017.

naep

Categories NAEP, New York, New York City

Why I Am Supporting Cynthia Nixon for Governor of New York

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
42

 

If you read the previous post, you know that Governor Andrew Cuomo declared war on public schools and their teachers in his 2014 campaign. He continued to lash out at teachers and the UFT as selfish and greedy even after he was re-elected. In 2015, after his election, he told the editorial board of the New York Daily News that the union (the United Federation of Teachers) had turned the public schools into a “teacher employment program.” He echoed the talking points of the charter sector, saying that 250,000 children were “trapped in failing schools” because of the greedy teachers’ union and the rest of the “education establishment.” He declared himself the champion of the state’s charter schools, which enroll about 5-6% of students, as opposed to 90% in the public schools. Cuomo gets large donations from hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives who have been the financiers of charter schools. His $30 million campaign chest consists mainly of donations from the same people who back privatization of public schools.

After Mayor DeBlasio was elected in 2013, he wanted to charge rent for the use of public school space to charters that could afford it. However, Cuomo persuaded the legislature to require the New York City Department of Education to provide free space to charter schools, to allow them to expand as much as they wished, and to pay the charters’ rent for private facilities if they could not find suitable public space.

Cuomo made his contempt for public schools clear in 2014, and nothing he has done since then has changed his image as a foe of public education. He insisted on a 2% cap on local taxes for public school districts that need to raise their revenues; a district can’t raise its own taxes unless the increase is approved by a supermajority of 60%. Cuomo’s hand-picked State University of New York charter committee authorizes charter schools, including Success Academy; it has been extremely lax in holding its charter schools accountable.  Only months ago, it voted to allow Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy to certify its own teachers, without benefit of the professional preparation offered by education programs at SUNY or elsewhere.

Cuomo has cynically helped Republicans retain control of the State Senate. In 2014, he won the endorsement of the Working Families Party by promising to help Democrats get elected to the Senate (a bizarre commitment by a Democratic governor). The day after he won the WFP endorsement, Cuomo broke his promise and continued to support the Independent Democratic Caucus, a group of eight “Democrats” in the Senate who caucus with the Republicans. This is not the behavior of a progressive Democrat.

Even now, Cuomo is bullying unions and progressive groups to support him “or else.” The UFT, which Cuomo ridiculed three years ago, has joined Cuomo’s efforts to marginalize small progressive groups or other unions that dare to support Cynthia Nixon. The leader of the Working Families Party said that Cuomo told small activist groups—Citizen Action, Make the Road and NY Communities for Change— that if they don’t support him, they can “lose my number.” Meaning, don’t bother ever to call me in the future. He pressured the unions to stop funding them, deriving them of needed income to survive. These are not the words or deeds of a man with a commanding lead in the polls (currently, 40 points ahead of Nixon). Or a man who knows how to live with dissent.

I will vote for Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo in the Democratic primary and now has the endorsement of the Working Families Party. I admire her willingness to step away from a very successful career as an actress to run against Cuomo. Unlike Cuomo, she is a public school parent, and she understands that urban schools in the state have been shortchanged. She has also criticized the insular atmosphere in Albany, where “three men in a room” make all decisions. She has promised an open and ethical government.

Four years ago, law professor Zephyr Teachout ran against Cuomo. Teachout had no money, no name recognition, no media exposure, and a threadbare campaign. Cuomo refused to shake her hand or even to look at her when they came face to face. When they met at a parade, he turned his back to her. Teachout nonetheless won 34% of the vote in the Democratic primary and swept large swaths of upstate New York, which is in deep economic trouble. Teachout, an ethics expert, is now the treasurer of the Nixon campaign.

Cynthia Nixon is fearless. When a journalist asked her why she was qualified to run against Cuomo, she responded, “My chief of staff was not convicted on three counts of bribery. That’s number one.”

A few days ago, Cynthia Nixon blasted Cuomo as a “corporate Democrat.” 

“The time is up for corporate Democrats, for politicians who campaign as Democrats but govern as Republicans,” Nixon said to a gathering of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C.

“It can’t just be business as usual anymore,” Nixon said. “I know that our country can do better. We have to turn the system upside down.”

Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo for both the Democratic and Working Families Party nominations, attacked Cuomo for “taking charter school hedge fund money and making education policy accordingly.” She vowed to halt the flow of public funds to charter schools.

Music to my ears, after eight years of watching Obama, Duncan, Jerry Brown, Dannel Malloy, and other prominent Democrats do flip-flops for campaign money from hedge funders.

To those who say Nixon is unqualified because she has not previously run for political office, I say that I would rather vote for an inexperienced candidate who shares my values than for an experienced politician who does not.

Cuomo is likely to get a lot of union endorsements because the unions want to be on the side of the likely winner. They are afraid to cross Cuomo. They know they will pay a price if Cuomo wins and they don’t endorse him. He gets even.

I am not a union member. I am one person. I am free to cast my vote for the person who has the best ideas and the best vision for improving life in New York State for everyone.

Call it a protest vote. Call it a vote of conscience. It is my vote and I will cast it for the person I hope will be the next Governor.

That is Cynthia Nixon.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Resistance

What Cuomo Said about Public Schools and Teachers in His Last Campaign

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
44

Lest we forget. This is the real Andrew Cuomo. 

I said when he ran for his second term in 2014 that he sounded like Scott Walker.

Vowing to break “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” Gov. Cuomo on Monday said he’ll push for a new round of teacher evaluation standards if re-elected.

Cuomo, during a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, said better teachers and competition from charter schools are the best ways to revamp an underachieving and entrenched public education system.

“I believe these kinds of changes are probably the single best thing that I can do as governor that’s going to matter long-term,” he said, “to break what is in essence one of the only remaining public monopolies — and that’s what this is, it’s a public monopoly.”

He said the key is to put “real performance measures with some competition, which is why I like charter schools.”

Cuomo said he will push a plan that includes more incentives — and sanctions — that “make it a more rigorous evaluation system.”

Cuomo expects fierce opposition from the state’s teachers, who are already upset with him and have refused to endorse his re-election bid.

“The teachers don’t want to do the evaluations and they don’t want to do rigorous evaluations — I get it,” Cuomo said. “I feel exactly opposite.”

He backed off because of the success of the Opt Out movement, after 200,000 students chose not to take the state tests.

He formed a commission and tempered his language. But he continues to privilege charter schools, because that’s where the big campaign contributions come from, the ones that have built a war chest for him of $30 million.

Will the unions that he blasted in 2014 support Andrew Cuomo in 2018?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Teacher Evaluations

Good News: Working Families Party Endorses Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2018 //
65

 

New Yorkers will have a progressive slate to vote for in the gubernatorial election. The Working Families Party has endorsed Cynthia Nixon for Governor and City Councilman Jumaane Williams for Lieutenant Governor.

Andrew Cuomo will be challenges from his left on education, housing, jobs, infrastructure, and every other issue. This should be interesting.

If you want to make a donation to their campaign on the WFP line, use this link.

 

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York

New York: Opt Outs Remain High on Long Island

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2018 //
49

 

Newsday reports that the opt out movement continues with vigor on Long Island, the heart of the test-refusal movement.

State officials did their best to intimidate, and some local officials tried to bully parents. The new chancellor of New York City public schools said that parents who choose opt out were “extremists.” The city’s schools have successfully suppressed opt outs by warnings of serious consequences to schools and students. Pundits predicted that the state had killed opt out.

But students and parents on Long Island were unbowed by threats.

”More than half of eligible students on Long Island boycotted the state English Language Arts test this week — a continuation of high opt-outs despite state efforts to win back students and their parents by shortening the exams.

“A total of 74,018 students in grades three through eight across Nassau and Suffolk counties refused to take the exam out of 145,127 students eligible, according to a Newsday survey that drew responses from 97 of the Island’s 124 districts. That’s a refusal rate of 51 percent.

“In Nassau, 28,831 students out of 67,630 students in the districts that responded, or 42.6 percent, sat out the latest assessments. In Suffolk, 45,187 students out of 77,497 in the responding systems, or 58.3 percent, refused to participate…

”So far, opt-outs in the Island’s schools are running close to the 52.2 percent peak recorded at this time last year. The boycott movement has now racked up six straight years of support, starting on a small scale in spring 2013 and ballooning to tens of thousands of students annually since 2015.

“The Comsewogue district, serving Port Jefferson Station, hit a new local refusal record of 90.3 percent.

“School systems reporting opt-out rates of 60 percent or more included Bellmore-Merrick, Malverne, Seaford, Babylon, Middle Country, Patchogue-Medford and West Babylon.”

Education Trust-New York expressed disappointment that so many parents didn’t understand the value of annual standardized testing.

Categories Education Reform, New York, New York City, Opt Out, Parents, Standardized Testing, Students
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