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Who Will Speak Up for the Nation’s School Boards?

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2013 //
15

In the last few years, there has been an all-out attack on local control. Most of the attack comes from the privatization movement, which thinks that school boards debate too much, listen too much, move too slowly. The privatizers prefer mayoral control in cities to get fast action. And they push laws and constitutional amendments allowing the governor to create a commission to override local school boards that reject charters. This is the ALEC agenda.

Happily, leading members of the National School Boards Association will have a chance to ask Arne Duncan why he pushes mayoral control, which has done so little for Cleveland and Chicago–and is now approved in NYC by only 18% of the public.

And they can ask Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia what he thinks about that state’s recent drive to strip local school boards of control of their districts. They might also ask him what he thinks of the re segregation that charters are promoting.

Media Advisory

Contact: Linda Embrey
Communications Office, National School Boards Association
Office: 703-838-6737; Cell: 571-437-7425
Onsite Press Room as of January 27: 202-797-4820; lembrey@nsba.org

Secretary of Education, Key Congressional Leader to Address National School Boards Association’s Advocacy Conference

Alexandria, Va. (Jan. 25, 2013) – U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee & Member, Senate Finance Committee will speak at the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) 40th annual Federal Relations Network Conference on Monday, Jan. 28. The conference is taking place January 27 to 29 at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D.C., and will be attended by more than 700 school board leaders from across the country. Attendees will participate in sessions on major public education issues and meet with their members of Congress and Capitol Hill staff to discuss key education policy issues.

The following events are open to the press and are being provided to the media for planning purposes. Items are subject to change.

Monday, Jan. 28:

3 p.m. – Remarks by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He will speak about progress in K-12 education and the Obama administration’s goals for education reform going forward. A question-and-answer session will follow.

3:30 p.m. – Remarks by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee & Member, Senate Finance Committee.

Media are welcome to cover these conference sessions. Valid credentials must be shown before obtaining a NSBA press pass. The press room and press registration will be located in the Embassy Room, Terrace Level. Please contact Linda Embrey at 703-838-6737 (office), 571-437-7425 (cell/onsite), 202-797-4820 (onsite press room on Jan. 27), or at lembrey@nsba.org .

# # #

Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their more than 90,000 local school board members throughout the U.S. Working with and through our state associations, NSBA advocates for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership. http://www.nsba.org

If you would rather not receive future communications from National School Boards Association (NSBA), let us know by clicking here.
National School Boards Association (NSBA), 1680 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 United States

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Race to the Top

The Secret Strategy of Corporate School Reform?

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2013 //
80

I want to test out a theory. I invite you to tell me what you think. It’s a thought experiment but very close to reality.

Suppose you wanted to destroy public education.

Suppose you wanted to make it so unpleasant to be a teacher or a student in a public school that everyone began to long for a way out. What would you do?

Let’s see. You would subject kids to tests repeatedly to the point that their parents complained bitterly. You would take away art and music, maybe physical education too, to make more time for testing. You would open a few charters, which would scoop up the best students, the strivers, and exclude the troublemakers. You would leave the public schools as refuges for the kids rejected or unwanted by the charters. Wouldn’t it be likely that all the motivated parents would clamor for a way to get their kids out too? Then there would be charters for the “good” kids and the public schools would be the dumping grounds.

Do the same for teachers but in different ways. Threaten them with termination if they don’t comply. Tell them their experience and education don’t count. Tell them their quality will depend on their students’ test scores. Watch their spirits droop as their best students leave for charter schools. Be sure to put non-educators in charge and lecture them regularly about how they are responsible if any child should fail. Snap the whip to keep them on their toes. Never treat them as professionals but as lazy time-servers who need constant reminders of their inadequacy.

In time, public education would be stigmatized and avoided by all who could get away. Is this where Race to the Top is going?

These thoughts, which have been percolating, were inspired by the following comments from a reader.

She wrote:

I was pleased to learn, thanks to Diane Ravitch, that the head of the principals’ association here in NC came out against testing last week. Ironically, my state superintendent just announced that NC will be paying (millions, I assume) to Pearson, a British company, to create tests that I and other NC teachers will have to give. NC is a nightmare to teach in right now. There have never been unions, so teachers have always been asked to do things administration could never get away with in a union state, but every work day this year is devoted to Race to the Top. My next semester begins on January 23 and the work day on the 22nd is occupied with RttT instead of finalizing my grades or planning for new students and courses. One of our RttT workshops involved using string, tape, spaghetti, and marshmellows to construct something. We also watched 30 second Disney/Pixar clips which were referred to constantly as “authentic texts.” I have been teaching English since the 1970s, and I have never seen anything like the direction public schools are going in now. I know Ms. Ravitch is strongly against charters, but I am for anything that is exempt from this madness that has over-taken public education. Public education is apparently for sale, and teachers and students are the victims. Like the Titanic, I am not sure it can be saved.

Categories Budget Cuts, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Los Angeles Community Fights to Block School Closing

By dianeravitch
January 13, 2013 //
14

Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasey plans to shut down Crenshaw High School, which has been making rapid strides with its school improvement plan.

The school community is fighting back.

Here is the exciting news: Community organizers from several cities (LA, Philly, New Orleans and others) are joining together to file a Civil Rights complaint against the US Department of Education around school closings.

If you are in LA, join parents and the community on January 14 and 15.

This email came from Alex Caputo Pearl, a teacher at Crenshaw High School

From: Caputoprl@aol.com

Some CRITICAL, NEW updates. First, we hope to see as many of you as possible (and please forward this broadly and bring more!!!) at both Monday’s, Jan 14, 4:00pm parent-led press conference in front of Crenshaw High School (5010 11th Avenue, LA, 90043) and Tuesday’s, Jan 15, 3:30pm action at the LAUSD School Board (333 S. Beaudry, parking in the lot on 4th/Boylston or on 4th Street around Bixel). Parents and organizers will be outside the Board Room on Tuesday as you arrive to describe the tactical plan (which may be shifting, depending on events). These Mon and Tues actions are critical events in support of real, progressive reform and against scorched-earth destabilization of schools that LAUSD is pushing forward, particularly in South LA. We can draw a line in the sand here — parents, students, community, and faculty/staff are doing that and need support.

KEEP READING FOR IMPORTANT NEW UPDATES

Deasy’s proposal on the agenda for this Tuesday states that he wants to “magnet convert” Crenshaw and 2 other schools (Wright Middle and CRES 20). As far as Crenshaw, it states “tentative” themes for the magnets, but does not give much more detail — including no detail on how existing student programs or staffing are proposed to be handled. The school community’s demands are below, and now include a demand to postpone any Board vote on Crenshaw until the other 3 demands (Support for Extended Learning Cultural model, No reconstitution, Money for programs) are engaged.

MORE IMPORTANT UPDATES HERE. The organizing around this is hot and potentially ground-breaking. Coming out of the panel yesterday with LA’s Labor/Community Strategy Center and Community Rights Campaign (CRC), and organizers from Chicago, Philly, and New Orleans, the CRC and Crenshaw will collaborate on joining the federal Title VI Civil Rights Act complaint against the U.S. Department of Education on the disproportionate and racist impact of unproven, damaging school restructurings on students of color. CRC and Crenshaw will likely send parents and organizers to a hearing on this complaint with the US DOE and Congressional members in Washington, DC in late January. We’ll announce this Monday and Tuesday.

LAST IMPORTANT UPDATE HERE. And, our coalition is broadening in interesting ways. Our allies at the Sierra Club — which is a part of Crenshaw’s Extended Learning Cultural model, providing students with learning experiences while organizing for environmental justice and recreational space in their community — have launched a national online petition protesting Deasy’s reconstitution and supporting the Crenshaw school community’s demands. There are already hundreds and hundreds of signatures from LA and across the country. Sign it at http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=271865.0

The Crenshaw basic flyer and 2-page fact sheet are below, for your reference, again. Please forward this email broadly, recruit people to Monday and Tuesday, and send your emails and make your calls to the LAUSD Board Members (below as part of flyer). HOPE TO SEE YOU MONDAY AND TUESDAY.

Best, and thank you, Alex Caputo-Pearl, Crenshaw High School

LAUSD Threatens Crenshaw High’s Model That Is Showing Gains
Superintendent Deasy Is Disrespecting Parents and Community By Not Consulting Them; He Is Pushing to Magnet Convert and Reconstitute Crenshaw

Take Action! This is Not a Done Deal! Support the Model That Shows Gains!

Crenshaw has a plan to reach excellence. The Extended Learning Cultural model created test score gains and other improvements in 2011-12, and set a pathway for more success.

Deasy is disrupting the model and hurting students by pushing to magnet convert and reconstitute Crenshaw. Reconstitution means forcing all teachers/staff to re-apply, with very few returning, including most or all who sponsor critical student programs. Educational research does not support reconstitution.

The Superintendent has not consulted parents, students, staff, or community about his plans – continuing a history of LAUSD disrespect for our community.

Deasy’s actions go against the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which requires parent involvement. He is putting money from the federal SIG grant and national foundations at risk. Deasy is jeopardizing the school’s positive accreditation review by bringing more instability to Crenshaw.

Crenshaw’s Extended Learning Cultural model is based on supporting all students. Deasy’s plans would likely lead to certain students being excluded and increasing drop-out rates.

The school community demands that LAUSD:
A. Postpone any vote on Crenshaw at the School Board until discussions of these demands are engaged.
B. Support and provide resources for Crenshaw’s Extended Learning Cultural model.
C. Reverse plans to reconstitute. Collaborate with Crenshaw stakeholders on any and all plans. Rather than forcing teachers/staff to re-apply, support the teacher/staff locally-developed commitment letter.
D. Provide money to build on current efforts to provide social services for students, more college counseling, Positive Behavior Support programs, and parent engagement resources.

Come to Crenshaw’s Parent-Led Press Conference on Mon, 1/14, 4:00pm, 5010 11th Avenue

Come to the LAUSD School Board on Tues, 1/15, 3:30pm, 333 S. Beaudry

ASAP Call & Email Deasy and All Board Members to Show Your Support for the School Community Demands Above
Superintendent John Deasy – 213-241-7000 – john.deasy@lausd.net
Board Member Marguerite LaMotte – 213-241-6382 – marguerite.lamotte@lausd.net
Board Member Monica Garcia – 213-241-6180 – monica.garcia@lausd.net
Board Member Tamar Galatzan – 213-241-6386 – tamar.galatzan@lausd.net
Board Member Steve Zimmer – 213-241-6387 – steve.zimmer@lausd.net
Board Member Bennett Kayser – 213-241-5555 – BoardDistrict5@lausd.net
Board Member Nury Martinez – 213-241-6388 – nury.martinez@lausd.net
Board Member Dick Vladovic – 213-241-6385 – richard.vladovic@lausd.net

More information on reverse side of this flyer. To get involved further and to RSVP for 1/14 & 1/15, call 323-907-4681.

LAUSD Threatens Crenshaw High’s Model That Is Showing Gains
Facts Every Stakeholder Should Know

Crenshaw’s Extended Learning Cultural model is based on:
· Personalized and theme-based instruction through small learning communities
· Cultural relevance
· College preparation
· Services and behavior supports for students
· A well-rounded curriculum
· An extended school day
· Learning activities outside of school such as internships and leadership experiences, that help students understand themselves and contribute to their community
· Supporting excellent teaching. Crenshaw was awarded Ford Foundation monies for professional development. The school formed partnerships with USC, the Bradley Foundation, and West Ed for ongoing teacher support.

Crenshaw’s Gains and Improvements — In 2011-12, using the Extended Learning Cultural model, Crenshaw High:
· Improved its API by 15 points and met all California API growth targets except for 1, often far exceeding targets (for example, a 92 point API gain among special education students).
· Improved its API among African-American students to levels higher than 6 of the other 7 major South LA high schools.
· Increased proficiency rates on the CAHSEE math among Limited English Proficient students by 300%.
· Increased the percentage of students who scored Proficient and Advanced on the Algebra 2 CST from 3 percent to 19 percent, an increase of over 600%.
· Increased the percentage of students moving from the Far Below Basic and Below Basic bands into the Basic band on the Geometry CST from 5% to 10%, a doubling in one year.
· Increased the percentage of students moving from the Far Below Basic and Below Basic bands into the Basic band on the World History CST by 10 percentage points, a 50% jump in one year.
· Increased by 7 percentage points the number of students in the Proficient and Advanced bands of the Chemistry CST.
· Increased the number of African-American 10th graders passing the CAHSEE English and Math sections, and increased these students’ math proficiency by 7.7 percentage points.
· Increased scores in CAHSEE Language Arts on all of the content strands except for writing strategies and writing conventions.
· Improved social services, college counseling, and parent engagement, while making plans for Positive Behavior Support and Restorative Justice programs to support students socially and academically.
· More work needs to be done for Crenshaw to reach excellence. However, the gains above are impressive 1-year improvements for a school that LAUSD has constantly destabilized (33 LAUSD administrative changes in the last 7 years) and for a school that fell in some test scores between 2009-11, largely because of a principal who was imposed on the school by LAUSD.

Reconstitution (forcing all faculty and staff to re-apply):
· Led to the majority of staff not getting accepted back at Manual Arts and Fremont. Many staff who were forced out at those schools were African-American. Many had been running important student programs, teaching Advanced Placement, and coaching sports. Most replacement teachers were not connected to the community and were not teachers of color. Some only had commitments to teaching through the time period it would take to pay off their student loans.
· Would end the Extended Learning Cultural model. The model has been built by the current staff, in collaboration with others, including prominent African-American educational researchers. Forcing staff to re-apply, and then not accepting them back, would end the Extended Learning Cultural model.
· Is not supported by educational research. Dr. Tina Trujillo from UC Berkeley writes that reconstitution “destabilizes schools organizationally . . . undermines the climate for students and teachers . . . increases racial and socioeconomic segregation . . . does not improve the quality of new hires . . . and it actually breeds more problems with turnover.”

Superintendent Deasy’s plans disrespect parents and community by not consulting them, and also break the law:
· Federal ESEA section 1116(b) states that when a District decides to restructure a school, it must provide “prompt notice to teachers and parents” and that this must be “in a language the parents can understand.” Many Crenshaw parents never received notice of Deasy’s plans. The letter that was sent out by LAUSD to some Crenshaw parents – not received by many – was not in Spanish (over 30% of Crenshaw’s student population come from homes in which Spanish is the primary language).
· Federal ESEA section 1116(b) states that when a District restructures a school, it must “provide teachers and parents with an adequate opportunity to participate in developing any plan.” This has not happened. Deasy says his office is writing a plan.
· Any change to the SIG grant plan or spending – Deasy’s plan would change both — must go through the Crenshaw School Site Council and the California Department of Education in Sacramento. Deasy’s plan has not been discussed with either. The SIG plan was written collaboratively at the Crenshaw school site – the grant was given to very few schools across the State of California.

Deasy’s plans put Crenshaw’s national foundation monies and WASC’s positive accreditation review at risk:
· The Ford Foundation wrote in November 2012 that the Extended Learning Cultural model “holds promise as an approach to deepen and expand the opportunities available to students.” Over 2011-12, Ford invested $225,000 in Crenshaw – Crenshaw was one of very few schools picked nationally for this grant. Ford was poised to invest more money into Crenshaw – and could have helped leverage more funding from other foundations — but Ford suspended those discussions on additional monies when Deasy announced his plans to undermine the Extended Learning Cultural model.
· In March 2012, WASC wrote that “the entire school is now working together as a team.” The WASC Committee recommended the school be given a chance to further stabilize. The Committee also recommended that Dr. Sylvia Rousseau from USC “continue as a coach or counselor for the next site principal.” LAUSD has not included Dr. Rousseau in Crenshaw High for months now. And, Deasy’s plan threatens to dramatically de-stabilize the school – against WASC’s recommendations.

The Crenshaw school community is not against magnet schools, but any new magnets must include all students and be created collaboratively:
· When Westchester was converted to magnets, many struggling students left the school or were pushed out. Magnet conversion is being used at other schools in LAUSD right now to separate students along academic performance lines, which is unjust and will raise drop-out rates.
· Crenshaw, with new magnets or not, must remain a school for the entire community – providing all necessary supports for all students.

Categories California, Closing schools, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Race to the Top, Support for public schools

Tennessee Governor and Legislature: Reformers All

By dianeravitch
January 6, 2013 //
7

Tennessee was one of the first two states to win a Race to the Top grant, so of course the governor and legislature are busy thinking of how to privatize their public schools. They heard glowing (if erroneous) reports about the parent trigger in California, so they want one too. They are thinking of vouchers and charters. The only awkward thing is the abject failure of the Tennessee Virtual Academy, a K12 school that is in the bottom 11% of he state’s schools.

Reading about their deliberations reminds me of one of Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander’s slogans from many years ago. He used to say of Congress: “Cut their pay and send them home.”

Categories Charter Schools, Parent trigger, Privatization, Race to the Top, Tennessee, Vouchers

AIR: VAM Not Ready for Prime Time

By dianeravitch
January 6, 2013 //
23

We have been saying it for months, no, since 2009, when Race to the Top started.

Value-added assessment or value-added-modeling is not ready for prime time.

Now we have a technical paper by American Institutes for Research that says it:

VAM is not ready for prime time.

Here is the takeaway:

“We cannot at this time encourage anyone to

use VAM in a high stakes endeavor. If one

has to use VAM, then we suggest a two-step

process to initially use statistical models to

identify outliers (e.g., low-performing

teachers) and then to verify these results

with additional data. Using independent

information that can confirm or disconfirm

is helpful in many contexts. The value of

this use of evaluative change results could be

explored in further research efforts….”

Is anyone at the U.S. Department of Education listening?

Hello?

Categories Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

The Problem with Choice

By dianeravitch
January 5, 2013 //
93

A reader from Oregon explains the destructive consequences of choice. School choice has been a goal of the right for decades and is now embraced by the Obama administration:

“For US education to thrive, charters must go.

“Some Win, Some Lose with Open Enrollment”. The headline in the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard may seem like an occasion for joy to the winning school districts but, really, it is just terribly sad for all of us. Open enrollment across district lines is the latest and most extreme version of a school choice movement that is on a trajectory to split public education in two – one set of schools for the haves and the other for those left behind.

School choice is probably the most popular of the signature elements of the current school reform movement – and is there any reason why alternative and charter schools shouldn’t be popular? They house some of the best teachers and some of the most innovative programs; they have more opportunities for enrichment because they are exempt from many of the requirements faced by regular schools; and the parents are more involved and more able to donate time and money – the last not because they care more about their kids. Rather it is because the parents need to be able to provide transportation and often are required to agree to levels of involvement not possible for families without a car and a stay-at-home parent.

The result: one set of schools with wealthier, less diverse students and fewer kids with special needs; the other serving children more diverse in ethnicity, income and educational needs (with fewer resources and more requirements). Public education was supposed to be the great equalizer, an inclusive, welcoming place that gives all kids a chance to climb the ladder of success. But current trends create a de facto tracking system based on socioeconomic status.

Of course we’ve always had school choice. Through the 1960s the choice was public or private. Over the last few decades, however, public school districts created alternative and charter schools and encouraged them to draw their students from the surrounding neighborhood schools. In a Darwinian battle the schools would compete for students with the best schools thriving and good riddance to the losers. It is really hard to believe that school “reformers” didn’t foresee the result: the non-charters left with the most needy kids, fewer resources and, inevitably, failure.

The fact that public alternatives and charters have many good teachers and leaders and involved parents is, itself, the strongest argument against public charters and alternatives. Those are the very resources needed by neighborhood schools to make them what they need to be. And it isn’t even a zero-sum game – it’s negative-sum. Services are duplicated and shifting enrollments make long-range planning impossible.

The parents of students who choose schools outside their neighborhoods are not the problem – good parents will always look for the best available school for their children. The teachers and administrators in those schools are not the problem – many of them are among the best. The problem is the system that sends parents school shopping in the first place.

It is a system that takes advantage of the parental instinct to provide our children with the best possible education. You don’t have to be a public school hater to participate; school shopping has become a mark of good parenting for parents of all persuasions. “I can’t send my daughter to the neighborhood school,” said one mom recently. “Those parents aren’t involved.” And, sadly, what used to be a myth is creating a reality as parents like her opt out of their neighborhood schools.

If, as I suggest, we are to end most school choice, it is important to be sure that we are sending our kids to excellent neighborhood schools. To be honest, part of the reason parents have been so willing to drive their kids across town (or now to a different town) is that some neighborhood schools had become rigid, take-it-or-leave-it, hostile-to-change institutions. Parents with concerns or questions were considered pests. Though they can’t be all things to all people, our neighborhood schools need to be what many already are; nimble, responsive, welcoming neighborhood centers providing an outstanding education to all kids.

The successful innovations that charter and alternative schools have devised wouldn’t be wasted. They – including language immersion – can and should be applied in the neighborhood schools. And charters and alternatives that step up to meet the needs of high school students when regular high schools are unable to do so should be allowed to keep working with, rather than competing against, the mainstream schools.

It is a cliché that if you are attacked from both sides of an issue, you are probably correct. But school “reform” seems to call for a corollary: if there is agreement on an issue from both sides of the aisle, it must be wrong. It is truly mind-boggling that free-market educational policies – so obviously counterproductive, ineffective and unsustainable – are supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The deck may be stacked against us but if we are truly committed to equity, diversity and efficiency in our public schools we’ll need keep working to convince officials, parents and educators that it is essential that we stop this suicidal intra- and inter-district competition, phase out school shopping and bring back new and improved versions of the centers of our neighborhoods – our schools.

Jim Watson, Eugene, Oregon

Categories ALEC, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Federal Waiver, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, US Education, Vouchers

On the Transiency of Big Ideas in Education

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2012 //
30

Diana Senechal has written a thoughtful reflection on the tendency of policymakers to foist big ideas on education. Fads come and go. The ones we live with today, say I, seem especially pernicious because they are backed by the power of the state in alliance with the profit motive.

Yet I remain confident that truly bad ideas will fade away. This is not from a sense of resignation or historical inevitability, but because I believe that educators and parents and school boards will rise up and say “Enough!” It is beginning now, and the roar of protest will grow.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

The Belly of the Beast

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2012 //
4

This article, published in The Times Educational Supplement (London), is an in-depth explanation of how the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) took shape and became powerful. Here you will meet Sir Michael Barber, who coined the idea of “deliverology,” and learn about his rapid ascent from trade union activist to Tony Blair advisor to McKinsey guru to Pearson strategist.

You will learn about the fierce struggle among advanced nations to have the highest test scores and be #1 on PISA and TIMSS.

You will watch as an ideology of struggle and compete takes over the minds of educators responsible for the care and nurturing of children.

It is an instructive and scary article.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, International, Privatization, Race to the Top

Joshua Starr Belongs on Honor Roll: Proof

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2012 //
21

I previously named Joshua Starr, superintendent of Montgomery County public schools in Maryland, to the honor roll for his courage and wisdom.

He rejected Race to the Top Funding because his schools have a nationally acclaimed peer review evaluation system. He called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing.

For daring to be different, he is now under attack.

He is wrong, says Checker Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, for not following in the footsteps of Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and Joel Klein.

Who thinks that Chicago or DC schools are a national model? In NYC, only 26% of voters approve of the Bloomberg-Klein reforms.

Josh Starr has dared to say what parents, teachers and 99% of educators believe. He belongs on the honor roll.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Honor Roll, Klein, Joel, Privatization, Race to the Top, Rhee, Michelle

Letter to President Obama from Connecticut Founder Of Parents Across America

By dianeravitch
December 19, 2012 //
37

Wendy Lecker, a parent activist in Stamford, Connecticut, has sent a powerful letter to President Obama.

The link is here.

The letter is here:

Parents Across America grieves with the community of Newtown, Connecticut over the loss of their precious children and educators. The following letter, sent yesterday to President Obama from the founder of Parents Across America-CT, expresses some aspects of what many of our members are feeling at this difficult time.

Hon. President Barack Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

As a public school parent of three in Stamford, Connecticut, I wanted to thank you for lending your support to the devastated community of Newtown. I listened intently to your remarks at the memorial service last night, especially to the questions you raised: “Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?”

You indicated that you were reflecting on these questions, alluding to the issue of gun control. I hope also, that these questions caused you also to reconsider your approach to education reform.

As you said last night, “our most important job is to give [children] what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear.” You described in vivid detail how skilled the teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School were at dealing with the immediate unthinkable trauma of the tragedy; how they managed to keep children calm and feeling safe in the face of life-threatening danger. We can predict that the teachers of the surviving children will have to be as equipped to handle the trauma these children will carry with them as they will be to teach them the subjects the children learn. We know that these teachers will have to help these children develop the non-cognitive skills that make all the difference to success in life- those skills we cannot measure on any standardized test.

We also know, as you mentioned, that those poor children in Sandy Hook are not the only ones who deal with trauma on a daily basis. Children today, especially those living in our poorest areas, face the stress that crime and poverty exact on their young lives on a daily basis. And we know from research, like that done at the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, that when children experience prolonged stress, it becomes toxic and hinders the development of the learning and reasoning areas of the brain. These researchers maintain that a nurturing environment is key to enabling these areas to grow properly. For many children, school is their safe haven; and science, and the awful events in Newtown show us that it is our paramount duty to maintain school as a secure and loving place.

In order to ensure that schools are a safe haven, where children can develop both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, they need to have preschool, reasonable class size, so children can get needed attention from teachers; enough supplies and books, and rich curriculum, including art, music sports and extra-curriculars, so children can explore and understand the world and have many outlets to express themselves; and enough support services, especially for children at-risk.

Many of our schools across this nation do not have the resources to make our schools a safe haven. As you noted in your recent report, for example, in New York City, the number of classes of 30 and over has tripled in the past four years. School districts across this country have been forced to cut support services, teachers, extra-curricular activities, music, art, even AP classes and core classes. They have to delay repairs until a roof collapses, endangering children.

Unfortunately, your policies toward our public schools are making it nearly impossible to keep public schools a nurturing and safe environment. Your chief strategies are evaluating teachers based on standardized test scores and implementation of the Common Core standardized tests in every grade, with a multitude of interim computerized tests as well as summative computerized tests. None of these preferred strategies of yours have ever been proven to raise achievement. Surely you are aware of the studies proving that rating teachers on standardized tests results in a 50% misclassification rate. The ratings vary by year, class, test and even statistical model used. The CCSS is not supported by any research showing that standards or tests improve learning. In fact, the National Research Council concluded that ten years of NCLB testing has done nothing to improve achievement.

Even more damaging, these strategies force teachers, administrators and children to abandon attention to all-important non-cognitive skill development, and focus primarily, if not only, on test scores.  This shift of focus includes a diversion of limited resources away from necessary educational basics. You have moved the focus from the well-being of children to the job status of adults.

A recent report from the Consortium of Policy Research in Education reveals just how harmful this strategy is. The report found that NCLB’s test-driven mandates provided little guidance on how to improve. Consequently, schools tried a hodgepodge of strategies akin to “throwing many darts at a target and hoping one of them hits the bulls-eye.” The only consistent tactic used to raise test scores was test prep. As CPRE acknowledged, test prep is shallow and narrow. The report recommends changing accountability systems so schools concentrate less on standardized tests and more on developing the “host of non-cognitive skills found to be related to later success.”

Other researchers found a disturbing trend caused by testing, standardization and scripting: America’s children are becoming less creative. While other countries strive to build creativity into the curriculum, American schools are increasingly forced to homogenize. Consequently, creativity, which increased steadily until 1990, has declined ever since, with the most serious decline appearing in children from kindergarten to sixth grade.

This body of research demands that we rethink our national obsession to use tests as the goal in education. A low test score should be an alarm, not that a school or teacher is failing, but more likely that there are stressors in a child’s life that warrant intervention.

Your waiver and Race to the Top programs, which push the use of standardized tests to judge all teachers and the implementation of even more standardized tests through the Common Core State Standards, only increase this hollow focus on testing. You hold hostage funding to provide the necessary resources described above to the implementation of these narrow and destructive goals. You encourage states to withhold basic funding as well, as evidenced by Governor Cuomo’s threat to withhold basic state school aid unless districts implement a teacher evaluation based on test scores. You hold up as examples of model schools privately run charters that often exclude our neediest children and often are militaristic-style test-prep factories. Moreover you encourage the proliferation of these schools, which are not answerable to democratically elected school boards, and therefore disenfranchise our neediest citizens.

My oldest child is in 12th grade and my youngest is in 7th. I have seen the increased scripting and narrowing of learning that has occurred in just the five-year gap between them. I have seen the increase in stress in my youngest, who has to suffer through meaningless computerized test after test, while units on poetry and other subjects that would expand his world, are jettisoned (to the point where I have opted him out of many of these tests). I have spoken to so many wonderful teachers frustrated and dejected by their new roles as simple proctors, rather than inspiring educators. I have spoken to school nurses who tell me that at test time, they see a spike in headaches, stomachaches and the need for anti-anxiety medication.

Is this the safe haven to which we aspire for our children? Can this stressful and intellectually-empty school experience really teach our children that they are loved, how to love and how to be resilient?

You said last night that we have to change. While I believe you were hinting at gun control, I respectfully request that you expand this resolve to change and include a rethinking of your education policy. We want all our children to feel safe and loved. We want them to be able to find their own, unique voices. We want to protect them and teach them ways to adapt and protect themselves. Please help us do that by helping schools expand our children’s world. Let us build our schools’ capacity to serve all our children, rather than tearing down the foundations of our public education system.

Sincerely,

Wendy Lecker

Categories Accountability, Obama, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing
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