Archives for category: On-Line Education
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Kids Know How to Game the System

By dianeravitch
September 6, 2012 //
7

A reader sent this comment:

Here is my take.  Our school in NYC used an online, computer based reading program for the first time last year.  Some of our students were clocked in as reading 600 articles and having their lexile scores increase by 4 grade levels.  At the end of the year, the representatives from the program came to the school and gave an assembly for all of the students who participated; giving out prizes and accolades to the most prolific readers.  One student in particular kept going up to the stage to receive accolade after accolade.  NYS’s ELA and Math scores recently came in, and guess what? – she did not show any growth from last year.

Here’s the problem:  When I observed the students who were clocking in an inordinate number of articles, I noticed that they were just answering the questions in order to get the “rewards” that the system gave out.  I asked them why they weren’t reading the articles. Their response was that it was boring.  You see, it’s like a video game.  They are doing it for the rewards that the system produces; not for the enjoyment of reading.

 There is always room to game the system.  Ask any video game player about “cheats” and they will tell you.  Kids will always find a way to game the system.  Online publishers will always find ways to game the system as well.

Categories Accountability, Blended Learning, NYC, On-Line Education

How the Online Industry Moves the Goalposts

By dianeravitch
September 6, 2012 //
6

A reader sent the following comments about the online for-profit schooling industry (by the way, that line about “current performance is no prediction of future performance” comes right from the prospectus of investment funds):

Interesting story about the K12 schools performance in Tennessee: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/31/andy-berke-criticizes-dismal-scores-of-for/?politics

What’s truly stunning is that, according to the article, the K12 schools performed in the bottom 11% of all TN schools tested using the state’s value-added assessment.  As I recall, value-added assessments have been championed by the same reformers who also push for on-lines schools.

K12’s response has been familiar–move the goal posts and change the game.  They claim that current performance is no prediction of future performance–why don’t we who support public education get to use that line?–and their own testing using the private Scranton Performance Series shows they are meeting or beating the Scranton norm group in all categories.   In other words, in their own private world they’re doing just fine. So, why don’t the public schools in TN get to use these tests too?

And they’re making improvements to improve future outcomes.

So, let me get this straight–K12 in TN can’t hack the very performance tests the reformers have shoved down the throats of the public schools.  In response, they get to claim that current performance is no indication of future performance.   But public schools are roundly condemned on the basis of their current performance.  K12 then gets to tout its own private testing results that show–surprise!–K12 is doing just fine, compared to norm among the customers of the private testing service.  But the public schools have to be tested using national and international standardized tests that are not private.  Finally, despite claiming they’re doing just fine in their own little universe, they are working to improve.  Of course, the public schools–that are doing better than K12–are beyond help.

Oh-Kay!

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, On-Line Education, Tennessee, Testing

School of One Dropped by 2 of 3 Pilot Schools

By dianeravitch
September 5, 2012 //
19

A bombshell report about the highly touted “School of One” revealed that students in the program did no better on state tests than those in traditional math programs.

School of One is an online program that was piloted in 3 schools.

Two of the three schools have dropped it, but the Bloomberg administration plans to expand it to more schools.

School of One was developed by Joel Rose, who was TFA, Broad Academy, Edison, then worked for Chis Cerf and Joel Klein at the NYC Department of Education. The NYC Parent Blog describes the history of the School of One here and points to some important ethical issues.

Time magazine cited School of One as one of the best inventions of 2009, before it was implemented.

It won a $5 million grant from the US Department of Education as one of the most innovative programs in the nation.

The city put $9 million into the program so far, and previously projected the cost at $46 million. It will be added to four more schools, with the help of the federal grant.

Categories Blended Learning, Curriculum, Klein, Joel, NYC, On-Line Education

NOT the Ugly Face of a Tea Party Educator! UPDATE

By dianeravitch
September 3, 2012 //
25

UPDATE: Several members of the Indiana Tea Party have written to say that they oppose Tony Bennett because of his support for Common Core standards. Jeb Bush supports Common Core, so of course, Tony Bennett supports them. And so do the Jeb Bush “Chiefs for Change.” But the Tea Party does not! Read the comments. The Tea Party supports local control.

So, let’s say that Tony Bennett’s desire to take control of local districts is just a power grab by a far-right politician.

Tony Bennett (not the singer) is State Commissioner of Education in Indiana.

He follows the ALEC/Jeb Bush script in everything he does.

Vouchers, charters, reducing or eliminating standards to become a teacher, for-profit schools, for-profit online “schools.”

Whatever ALEC wants, Bennett delivers.

He recently announced that he wants the power to take control of entire school districts, if in his judgement they are failing.

He says he believes in local control. He doesn’t.

He believes in power.

He believes in privatization.

Thats part of the ALEC script too.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, On-Line Education, Privatization

Understanding the Online Scandal in Maine

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
12

If you read this article about how online companies bought American education, you would not be at all shocked or surprised by the scandal in Maine. There, the state commissioner of education is following the instructions of Jeb Bush’s education advisor and implementing the ALEC model legislation to change the laws to bring in for-profit online corporations.

Corporations will make millions. Many children in Maine will get a lousy education, and the taxpayers in Maine will be ripped off.

That’s known these days as reform.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Education Reform, For-Profit, On-Line Education

For-Profit Online Charter Scandal

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
18

Maine’s State Commissioner of Education Stephen Bowen went to San Francisco to hear Jeb Bush tout the glories of for-profit online charter schools. Jeb Bush’s foundation paid for the trip. The commissioner met with Jeb’s chief education aide, Patricia Levesque, whose company lobbies for the online corporations. She promised help.

This is what the Maine Sunday Telegram found after getting access to public records of the correspondence:

Bowen was preparing an aggressive reform drive on initiatives intended to dramatically expand and deregulate online education in Maine, but he felt overwhelmed.

“I have no ‘political’ staff who I can work with to move this stuff through the process,” he emailed her from his office.

Levesque replied not to worry; her staff in Florida would be happy to suggest policies, write laws and gubernatorial decrees, and develop strategies to ensure they were implemented.

“When you suggested there might be a way for us to get some policy help, it was all I could do not to jump for joy,” Bowen wrote Levesque from his office.

“Let us help,” she responded.

So was a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.

In the months that followed, according to more than 1,000 pages of emails obtained by a public records request, the commissioner would rely on the foundation to provide him with key portions of his education agenda. These included draft laws, the content of the administration’s digital education strategy and the text ofGov. Paul LePage’s Feb. 1 executive order on digital education.

A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.

K12 Inc. of Herndon, Va., and Connections Education, the Baltimore-based subsidiary of education publishing giant Pearson, are both seeking to expand online offerings and to open full-time virtual charter schools in Maine, with taxpayers paying the tuition for the students who use the services.

Categories ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Wisconsin Districts Drop For-Profit eVendors

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
5

This is good news. 

Some of the school districts in Wisconsin are canceling their contracts with for-profit vendors of online schooling.

Last year, four out of the state’s five biggest online schools were run by for-profit corporations.

This year, the number is down to two, because school officials concluded the vendors had a conflict of interest: Their first obligation is to their shareholders, not the students.

The districts will run the virtual schools without the for-profit corporations.

Categories For-Profit, On-Line Education, Wisconsin

Another Online Teacher of Physical Education Speaks Up

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2012 //
7

Are online schools doing a good job? Some readers have written to defend them.

The research is clear that students in online schools get lower test scores and have lower graduation rates. And see here. The virtual schools collect more tax dollars than it costs them for each student. Online instruction may be just right for some students, like the home-bound, or the athlete in training for the Olympics, or the child actor with no time to go to school, or some other special cases.

But the online corporations have an incentive to recruit more and more students, because each student represents profit to them (and revenue if the company is a non-profit). That explains why every time you turn on your computer, there is an ad for an online school. The name of their game is recruitment, because in addition to low test scores and low graduation rates, they also have high attrition rates.

This came in response to an earlier post:

I taught online PE. I had a student state they ran a mile in 3 and a half minutes. 0 accountability in online PE programs

Categories Education Reform, On-Line Education

Who Might Be Romney’s Education Secretary?

By dianeravitch
August 27, 2012 //
33

Education Week has an article by the always well-informed Alyson Klein that speculates about Romney’s possible choice for Secretary of Education.

The possibilities include:

Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, who shaped the Romney agenda for privatization of the nation’s schools;

Tom Luna, the state superintendent in Idaho who is known for his allegiance to online corporations and his efforts to increase class size;

Joel Klein, the former chancellor of NYC, now selling technology for Rupert Murdoch, another supporter of privatization and opponent of unions, seniority and tenure;

Michelle Rhee, leader of a national campaign to remove all tenure, seniority and collective bargaining fromt teachers;

Chris Cerf, acting commission in New Jersey, who is leading Chris Christie’s push to privatize public schools in that state;

Here is the big surprise:

Arne Duncan, who is seen by Republicans as compatible with Romney’s agenda and, as the article, says, eager to stay on.

There are other names, but it is interesting to realize that at least four of the six listed here are allegedly, nominally Democrats.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Klein, Joel, Luna, Tom, On-Line Education, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, Romney, Mitt, Technology, Computers, U.S. Department of Education, Unions

An Invitation to Screening of Parent Trigger Movie

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2012 //
18

A teacher in Florida received an email from Students First inviting him to a screening of the parent trigger movie at the GOP convention.

He doesn’t know how he got on the StudentsFirst email list. He  probably signed a petition to support “great” teachers and didn’t know he was duped into joining StudentsFirst.

This is the email he forwarded to me. Remember this the next time you hear Michelle Rhee claim that she is a Democrat. A “Democrat” who works for the nation’s most conservative Republican governors, attacking unions, tenure, seniority and promoting vouchers, charters, for-profit schools, and online schools.

StudentsFirst, Twentieth Century Fox & Walden Media
Invite You and a Guest to a Complimentary Private Screening

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis play two determined mothers­, one a teacher, who will stop at nothing to transform their children’s failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children. This powerful story of parenthood, friendship and courage mirrors events that are making headlines daily. WON’T BACK DOWN will be released by 20th Century Fox on September 28, 2012.


During the GOP Convention
Tuesday, August 28 – Tampa, FL
Further location information to follow.

12:30 PM Reception with Special Guests:
Blues Traveler Band & Caroline Kole

2:00 PM Private Screening of Won’t Back Down

Panel immediately following screening with:
Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Former Secretary of State
Gov. Jeb Bush, Chairman of Foundation for Excellence in Education
Michelle Rhee, Former DC Chancellor; Founder of StudentsFirst
Daniel Barnz, Director, Won’t Back Down
Campbell Brown, Moderator

STAND UP, SPEAK OUT, FIGHT FOR SOMETHING BETTER
Space is limited/first-come-first-serve

Click here to REGISTER NOW and see the trailer.
Save your access code, you will need it to register: GOPSF

For you & one guest; Invite is Non-Transferable
If you are unable to register please email: info@WizEventTech.com

 
Categories Education Reform, On-Line Education, Parent trigger, Rhee, Michelle, Unions
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