Archives for category: Race to the Top
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Heilig: Feds Want to Reduce Collection of Data That Affect Civil Rights

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2013 //
14

This is an astonishing post by Julian Vasquez Heilig. He has a passion for equity, and he bridles when reformers lower the standards for becoming a teacher and claim they are doing it “for the kids.”

He asks, Would you rather fly with an experienced pilot or fly with one who had only five weeks’ training? Or how about one with 30 hours of training? If the answer seems obvious, and if you prefer that your children have teachers who are well prepared and highly qualified, wait until you see the chart in the middle of his post, showing the explosive growth in teachers with alternate certification.

Then consider that the U.S. Department of Education wants to STOP collecting this data. And that’s not all. In the Department’s single-minded commitment to something-or-other (not equity), this is what they propose to stop reporting:

“That brings us to the federal governments request to no longer keep track of this huge influx of teachers with a modicum of training to “pilot” our classrooms. The Department of Education is seeking public comments on the Civil Rights Data Collection process for 2013-2016. The feds have decided that it is no longer necessary to keep track of the FTE of teachers meeting all state licensing/certification requirements. The feds have also decided these data points are also no longer important for Civil Rights:

“Number of students awaiting special education evaluation (LEA)

“Whether students are ability grouped for English/Math

“Harassment and bullying policies (LEA)

“Number of students enrolled in AP foreign language(disaggregated by race, sex, disability, LEP)

“Number of students who took AP exams for all AP courses enrolled in (disaggregated by race, sex, disability, LEP)

“Number of students who passed AP exams for all AP courses enrolled in (disaggregated by race, sex, disability, LEP

“Total personnel salaries”

Categories Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Race to the Top, Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching, U.S. Department of Education

The NY Times Tires of Testing

By dianeravitch
July 14, 2013 //
21

For the past dozen years, there has been no louder cheerleader for No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and their demand for test-based accountability than the Néw York Times’ editorial board.

Despite the fact that greater test score gains were recorded before the implementation of NCLB than since; despite the finding of the National Research Council that test-based accountability was ineffectual; despite numerous examples of cheating, gaming the system, narrowing the curriculum, and other negative consequences of high-stakes testing, the Times’ editorial board has stubbornly defended this regime of carrots and sticks based on standardized tests.

Even now, in an editorial saying that testing had gone too far and had turned into a “mania,” the Times can’t resist referring to the passage of George W. Bush’s NCLB (based on the non-existent “Texas miracle”), as “a sensible decision.”

It was not. NCLB was a disaster for the quality of education in the United States. Furthermore, it sent the privatization movement into high gear, since “failing” public schools could, under the law, be closed, privatized, handed over to charter operators. We now know that none of these remedies actually works unless low-performing kids are excluded or kicked out, and we know that the overwhelming majority of so-called “failing” schools are schools that enroll mostly black and Hispanic students, many of whom are poor, have disabilities, or don’t speak English. Schools are being closed and privatized because they enroll the neediest students, not because they are “failing.”

Now the Times looks forward to the Common Core and the computerized testing it requires to bring the wonderful progress promised by NCLB.

It is good to see that even the Néw York Times and its education editorial writer Brent Staples recognize that enough is enough. If only they had said so five years ago, before so many schools were unfairly closed based on test scores. If only they would acknowledge that standardized tests mirror advantage and disadvantage. If only they would ask questions about how more rigorous testing will affect the kids who are now struggling with the current tests.

But let us be grateful that after 12 years of NCLB and four years of Race to the Top, the Times’ ardor for high-stakes testing has cooled.

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Testing

The Problems That Federal Legislation Studiously Avoids

By dianeravitch
July 13, 2013 //
15

The commenter who calls himself or herself “Democracy” says the following about the Reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently known as NCLB):

“Bill Mathis correctly points out that education legislation pending in the Congress “would still ‘disaggregate’ test results by ethnic affiliation and income levels so as ‘to shine a light’ on the disparities and inequalities of educational opportunities and outcomes.” He adds this: “These inequalities have been well-documented for the last half-century.” And yet, they persist.

The problem is that proposed legislation does nothing to address the inequities. To provide substance would “require politicians and inside the beltway actors to actually press for funding equal to the mandates. It would require significant investments in job, community and comprehensive educational support systems.”

Over at the Center for Education Reform, resident crackpot Jeanne Allen dispenses some horrifically bad information and advice on education “reform.” Allen claims (incorrectly) that “65 percent of America’s K-12 student population that is failing and falling through the cracks” (she must not read anything about NAEP scores or disaggregated PISA scores).

Allen says that “the federal role should be one of assessment and data gathering,” and “there must be firm consequences for federal spending at state and local levels” because “local control is a hallow theme when it is school board groups and teachers unions doing the controlling.” Yet, when it comes to charter schools, Allen wants no accountability whatsoever.

Allen demands merit pay for regular public school teachers based on student test scores, even though there is no solid research to support it. As Mathis notes, “test-based evaluation systems have such a high error rate that their use in teacher evaluation is unstable.” This troubles Jeanne Allen not at all. But then, the Center for Education Reform gets its funding from conservative organizations like the Arnold, Bradley, Broad, Kern, Milken, and Walton Foundations, and from the Gates Foundation.

To cite but two examples, the Arnold Foundation is a right-wing organization founded by a hedge-funder who resists accountability and transparency in derivatives markets but calls for them in education. Its executive director, Denis Cabrese was former chief of staff to DIck Armey, the Texas conservative who now heads up FreedomWorks, the group that helps to pull the Tea Party strings and gets funding from the billionaire arch-conservative Koch brothers.

And the Walton Foundation focuses on “competition”, “charter school choice,” “private school choice,” and teacher effectiveness. It funds groups like Teach for America, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (whose board of directors includes Rick Hess and whose advisory board includes a KIPP founder, a Walton board member, and education blatherer Andrew Rotherham) and the Charter School Growth Fund (interestingly, Kevin Hall sits on the board of both this group AND the Charter School Authorizers and was previously the “Chief Operating Officer of The Broad Foundation” and “worked at…Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Teach For America.”).

The corporate-style “reformers” – and their Republican and Democratic allies – care not for addressing the real inequities in American public schooling.

And that truly is a shame.”

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Poverty, Race to the Top, U.S. Department of Education, US Education

William Mathis: NCLB Reauthorization is a Bipartisan Disaster

By dianeravitch
July 12, 2013 //
10

William Mathis, a former school superintendent in Vermont, now associated with the National Education Policy Center, analyzed the proposed legislation of both Democrats and Republicans and finds that both parties have no understanding of the damage wrought by No Child Left Behind.

Washington insiders continue their hapless crusade to “reform” the schools by high-stakes testing and privatization. The Democrats want the federal government to do more of it, and the Republicans want the states to do it. Neither has a vision for the future.

Neither shows the slightest indication that they understand the real problems of American education, many of which have been inflicted by NCLB and Race to the Top.

So instead of ditching the failed policies of the past dozen years, both parties cling tenaciously to them.

He concludes:

“When Abraham Lincoln called on the mystic chords of memory, he drew upon those principles that bind us together. He drew upon the common good. At that time, equality was so embraced that it found Constitutional power and protection in the thirteenth amendment. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a wave of state Constitutional amendments enshrined public education because a functioning democracy demanded education and equality for all. In 1965, when we dreamed of a great society, we furthered our reach with the supportive help of the ESEA.

“Today, both Democrat and Republican versions of the reauthorization give vacant, distracted nods to these principles. They fail to ring with great purpose. They do not stir the soul. They are unlovely and parrot our social and economic strategies. In both they punish the poor, loudly proclaim liberty and
equality, and provide only the rhetoric of opportunities.”

 

Categories Corporate Reformers, Democrats, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Testing

Susan Ohanian Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
9

Susan Ohanian has been speaking, blogging, and agitating against bad education ideas for many years. Her writing is informed by a finely tuned sense of humanism–that is, she cares about people, especially children, more than big ideas and grand policies that treat people like widgets.

She speaks with honesty, candor, courage, and integrity. She is tireless. She is the real deal. She has taught every grade in school. To Susan, every issue always comes down the same question: is it good for children?

Susan Ohanian is a fearless advocate for children and good education, grounded in reality, not abstractions.

She is truly a hero of American education, and I gladly add her name to the honor roll of this blog.

To get a sense of her work, read one of her latest posts.

I especially enjoyed this tribute to Mr. Rogers.

Susan regularly posts cartoons that lampoon the madness of the NCLB-Race to the Top regime.

See here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Read her collection of Outrages.

And for more, read her running commentary on the Common Core.

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Honor Roll, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

TeacherKen: BAT Has a Website: Join Us

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
18

TeacherKen reports that the Badass Teachers Association has enrolled more than 20,000 members in only two weeks.

It has a new website, so you can join without going to Facebook. TeacherKen has the link. That’s great news for those of us who are not on FB.

Keep it going.

You don’t have to be a teacher to join. You have to be mad as hell at the mess the corporations, the foundations, and the federal government have made of education and what they are doing to our kids.

We can take back our schools and our profession.

Yes, we can.

Categories Education Reform, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

David Greene: Repeal Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
17

David C. Greene says it is time
to restore common sense and sanity to education. Remember common sense and sanity?

He writes the following on his blog (http://t.co/WSUIlWARVk):

Support State Bills to repeal acceptance of Race to The Top in your state.

I am almost 64 years old. I have spent all but 4 of those in NYS public schools either as a student, teacher for 38 years, coach, or teacher mentor.

This was on the front page of my local newspaper…. I bet it is not unlike yours. STATE FAULTS GRAD PREP. According to the state, and what they have given the ridiculous name of The Aspirational Performance measure… to be college and career ready, a high school graduate must score at least a 75 on their English Regents and at least an 80 on an Algebra Regents.

I went to the Bronx High School of Science, one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation because I passed a test in the 9th grade. I received a BA (cum Laude) from Fordham University, an MA from CCNY, and have earned an additional 90 graduate credits….

However, according to the State’s APM, I was neither college nor career ready because I never got higher than an 80 on ANY math Regents…. even at the Bx HS of Science.

How many of you are HS graduates? How many, like me would not have been “C&C ready”?

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I met 16 year-old Tyree 2 years ago while mentoring his TFA semi trained teacher in the Bronx. He was still in the 8th grade. He was on the verge of being tossed out of his Bronx middle school even though everyone knew he was one of the brightest kids there.

He and I connected. When I asked him why he was failing, he said… “I can’t stand this. Why should I be doing the same “frckn” thing since I was in 3rd grade?

He is typical. They took his passion, his curiosity, and his humanity and replaced it with boredom.

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When did we lose our way? The founding fathers knew that in a democracy public schools were necessary to have an informed citizenry.

Public schools are not just to develop reading and math scores. Public schools are meant for the development of well-rounded adults able to contribute to their communities in whatever way they can, as college professors and auto mechanics, computer scientists and sanitation engineers.

Public schools are meant to teach not just academics, but citizenship, and humanity.

Public schools, next to family, are the most important institution in the socialization process of developing mature capable adults in our society.

When did they turn into factories creating test scores, not adults?

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Many of you see your boys and girls, little and big, hating and getting stressed in school precisely because of what schools are increasingly forced to do in this DOE controlled prescribed manner.

But why is there a prescribed manner?

I taught American History for years. One extremely important era was the post Civil War Gilded Age when US Congress was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the powerful Trusts of that era.

A very famous political cartoon of the time depicted a legislative chamber watched over by HUGE figures of trusts represented by the FAT INDUSTRIALISTS of the era, like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie.

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Similarly, education bills all over the country today are being guided by our version of these Fat Cats: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Koch brothers, Eli Broad, and the Walton Family….

Today they are profiting from the education of our children by buying politicians from DC to Albany and indoctrinated them with their pseudo-science and their INADEQUATE $700 million BIG BUCKS!!!

George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee and countless other so-called educational reformers have hijacked our education system. They provide corporations like Pearson profit at the cost of our children!

They “embrace science whenever it supports their sacred values, but they’ll ditch it or distort it as soon as it threatens a sacred value.”

…Like the Common Core and Standardized testing.

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NYS, for better and worse, has had K-12 syllabi and curricula for decades that other states hoped to emulate. It wasn’t perfect, but it was not prescribed. It wasn’t forced down the throats of schools, teachers, and children. They replaced it with Race to The Top formulas and The Common Core.

We have to make our political leaders regret that decision to be bought off, bribed, and blackmailed by Arne Duncan’s and the Federal DOE.

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I went to elementary school in a poor working class integrated South Bronx neighborhood. I learned to love school in 2nd grade because I was encouraged to learn by Ms. Rita Stafford, a teacher who thoroughly engaged all of us… We learned astronomy by hanging a solar system from the ceiling. We learned how to help our parents in neighborhood stores by learning long division. We learned how to fight for civil rights and for what is right by writing letters to President Eisenhower during the Little Rock crisis. We were published in the NYT.

SHE is why I am here today.

I am the SEED she planted!

Because we love our children we must fight for their right to have a teacher like my Ms. Stafford, and perhaps many of yours who planted the seed of who you are today.

Because we love our children, we must fight for the education they and the future of this country deserve.

We must be sure we allow our children to flower as we have.

Fight to repeal RTTT in NYS.

Fight to get Assembly Bill A7994 passed.

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With apologies to Quentin Taratino, and the movie Inglourious Basterds..

“Ed deformers ain’t got no humanity. They’re the foot soldiers of a teacher hating, kid smothering maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed.

“…But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When we joined this command, we took on a debit. A debit we owe our children personally. “

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

NSBA: Dems Support Federal Control of Education

By dianeravitch
June 19, 2013 //
42

On a party-line vote, Democrats on the Senate committee reported out a bill that expands the role of the federal government in education and makes the Secretary of Education the national superintendent of schools. The National School Boards Association describes the legislation here, which NSBA opposes.

Summary of Senate HELP Mark-up of the Strengthening America’s Schools Act, S. 1094

The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. The Strengthening America’s Schools Act, S. 1094 was passed after two days of sometimes heated deliberation on a 12 Democrat – 10 Republican party line vote. Whether and when the bill will be considered by the full Senate is uncertain, but Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) expressed his intention to get it to the floor by the end of the year.

The issues voiced by NSBA in its letter to the Committee were raised frequently during the two days of discussion and voting. In fact, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) read from and held up NSBA’s letter during his opening statement as evidence of the strong objections to federal overreach and the overwhelming increase in reporting requirements in S. 1094 as introduced.

Without doubt the fulcrum of debate at the mark-up was the proper role of the federal government in education. Unfortunately, the partisan gap continues on what that role should be. Chairman Harkin characterized the bill as “a new partnership of shared responsibility,” and passed an amendment clarifying that states and districts could refuse Title I, Part A funds, and thereby be free of federal requirements. Meanwhile, Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) repeatedly asserted that S. 1094 creates “a national school board.”

The partisan gap prevailed in the Committee’s efforts to address all major issues. Of the 23 amendments offered, all but one Republican amendment was rejected, whereas all but 1 of the Democratic amendments were accepted to the base bill. This was despite recognition – acknowledged by Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) himself – that the Department of Education has exceeded its authority on ESEA waivers, and Congress has exacerbated the problem by failing to reauthorize ESEA. For example:

Role of the Secretary: The role of the Secretary of Education appears to have increased substantially in S. 1094. Throughout the bill, the Secretary is authorized to determine the overall quality and effectiveness of greatly expanded state plan requirements that will, in turn, impact the local level. The Secretary would appear to be involved in the design of programs, directing the specifics, for example, in addressing parent/community engagement and extensive data collection. In the case of data, the bill calls for multiple cross tabulations of a wide range of academic and non-academic student data that we believe will be overwhelming for many school systems to produce. The same can be said of new local plan requirements. Amendments described by their sponsors as attempts to eliminate new or onerous reporting and federal oversight requirements were rejected by the Committee. In fact, amendments were approved to create additional reporting requirements on military children, interscholastic sports, and career and technical education.

Turnaround models: Local educational agencies, including those receiving NCLB waivers from the Secretary, continue to be concerned with the limited flexibility in designing and implementing turnaround models for low performing schools. Several amendments intended to increase flexibility on how States and LEAs identify and improve low-performing schools were not approved.

Comparability: NSBA supports the concept of comparability and believes it is important to ensure that Title I schools receive comparable educational support. The proposed comparability provision in S. 1094 would change the method for how LEAs determine whether comparable services are being provided from local resources to Title I schools compared to other schools in the district. It would require local educational agencies to show that they spend no less at each Title I school – as determined by the combined state and local per-pupil expenditures for personnel and non-personnel – than they do at the average non-Title I schools in the district. Local school officials have determined that the provision is burdensome and not geared to achieving the desired educational outcomes. Efforts to address comparability were rejected by the Committee, so the unworkable language in the base bill stands.

Public Charter Schools Expansion: Local educational agencies continue to be concerned with the increased congressional support for public charter schools in the legislation and the apparent willingness of Congress to not hold public charter schools to the same accountability requirements as traditional public schools. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered, but then withdrew an amendment to hold charter schools to the same accountability requirements as other public schools. Chairman Harkin pledged to work on an amendment for the floor, however.

Other amendments on ESEA flexibility waivers, vouchers, Race to the Top, college access, special education, and teacher and principal effectiveness sparked spirited discussion and even a little table-pounding before S. 1094 was reported out favorably by the Committee on a 12 – 10 party line vote.

NSBA is not able to support S. 1094 in its current form, and will continue to urge Congress to reauthorize an ESEA bill that supports local school district governance. In preparing for the full Senate floor vote, NSBA will prepare amendments and work with the engagement of the state associations to secure support from targeted Senators.

House Action – Committee Mark Up Tomorrow – June 19

The Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives has released its version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Reauthorization, entitled The Student Success Act, H.R. 5 and it is scheduled for mark up this Wednesday, June 19, 2013. NSBA sent this letter Committee members.

Reminder: The Committee on Education and the Workforce determines the provisions in the law that best help local school boards to improve academic achievement for our students. Please contact your member of Congress if he/she sits on the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives through the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202-224-3121) as soon as possible.

Your Message to Your Member of Congress

As a local school board member, I urge you to:

1) Support the House Committee bill, The Student Success Act, H.R. 5 because the bill eliminates unnecessary and overwhelming administrative requirements and restores flexibility and governance to local school boards who are in the best position to address the needs of students in our local communities; but

2) Re-instate the maintenance of effort provisions for education to ensure that states provide at least the same level of funding for K-12 education from one year to the next.

Thank you for responding to our call to action. Please provide any feedback to kbranch@nsba.org.

Sincerely, Kathleen Branch & NSBA’s Advocacy Team

——————————————-
Kathleen Branch
Director, National Advocacy Services Programs
National School Boards Association
Alexandria, VA
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Categories Duncan, Arne, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

Public Education Is Not Failing, But NCLB and RTTT Are

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2013 //
27

Ron Berler has written about his year in a so-called “failing school” in Norwalk, Connecticut.

The school has a dedicated staff trying its best to raise the achievement levels of students who enter school far behind. Yet it is a “failing school” because no matter how much progress the students make,the children are still not as “proficient” as those in nearby affluent New Canaan.

Berler has a new book out, called “Raising the Curve,” explaining the utter failure of No Child Left Behind.

He wrote this note to me:

“The Title 1 school I wrote about — Brookside Elementary, in Norwalk, Conn. — is 0-for-NCLB. This past school year, the local school board cut $5.9 million from its budget, and applied 80 percent of those cuts to the city’s 12 struggling elementary schools. At Brookside that meant, among other things, eliminating the school’s literacy specialist and shuttering its 15,000-title library every other week. The Brookside principal and the Stamford, Conn., schools superintendent called it “a crime.” I wish this story had a happy ending. It doesn’t.”

It is popular treatments like Berler’s that will help the American public understand that public education is not “broken,” but federal education policy is broken and should be completely scrapped and rewritten to address real problems.

Categories Connecticut, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

Mike Petrilli: A Surprising and Welcome Offer

By dianeravitch
June 11, 2013 //
14

I always hold out hope that Mike Petrilli will be the conservative who one day leaves behind his brethren and realizes that the punitive policies of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top were a huge and costly mistake. Why do I hold out hope for Mike? I know him, and I know he is a good man. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has young children, and he will soon see how the testing monster will try to devour them and destroy their love of learning.

In his last exchange with Deborah Meier at “Bridging Differences” at Education Week, I see the glimmer of hope that I have been waiting for. Mike describes himself as a “Whole Foods Republican,” and then asserts that we are helpless to do much about poverty because we don’t know what to do. That is not a glimmer of hope, as I think we can forge poverty-reduction policies that work, as other nations have. We should not give up trying.

What gives me hope is not Mike’s sense of futility about poverty, but his proposal that states should have the authority to allow schools to opt out of the soul-deadening testing-and-accountability regime if they can show that their metrics are better than those of the federal and state governments.

Thus, he would give his consent to the New York Performance Standards Consortium, which has documented its success in graduation rates, college admission rates, and persistence in college rates. Granted, it took time to get that data. A group of schools needs a decade or more to generate the results of their program.

But think of the creativity and innovation that would be unleashed if schools were offered the freedom to opt out and select different ways to measure their success.

Good job, Mike.

Categories Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Testing
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