Archives for category: Students
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Michael Hynes: The Mental Health Crisis in K-12 and the Disappearance of Play and Recess

By dianeravitch
August 5, 2018 //
43

Michael Hynes is a visionary superintendent in the Patchogue-Medford public schools on Long Island in New York. He has written and spoken frequently about the importance of a healthy environment for children to learn and grow.

He writes here about the toxic environment caused by federal and state mandates and the mental health crisis in K-12.

Arne Duncan would say, in response, do we have the “courage” to test them more and close their schools.

Those who really put children first, decry testing and privatization, disruption and destabilization.

Now that we are fully aware of the failure of. O Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, it’s time to listen to the voices of wisdom and experience, not to those who think that life is a race, and the devil take the hindmost.

Categories Accountability, Childhood, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Play, Students

American High School Students Win World’s Hardest Math Competition–Again!

By dianeravitch
August 4, 2018 //
17

America’s high school math team just won the International Mathematical Olympiad!

Our kids are the best in the world!

And most of the kids on the winning team are children of immigrants (attention, D.J. Trump and Stephen Miller, the Trump administration’s point person on keeping immigrants out).

Last month, the United States made an extraordinary achievement: For the third time in four years, it won the International Mathematical Olympiad.

This is staggeringly impressive. The Math Olympiad is the hardest and most prestigious math competition for high school students in the world. University professors often cannot solve more than one or two of the six problems on the exam. Since 1978, Math Olympiad gold medalists have made up more than a third of the winners of the Fields Medal, the Nobel Prize equivalent for mathematics.

Yet from the U.S. team, James Lin from Phillips Exeter Academy received one of two perfect scores at the competition. (The other went to Britain’s Agnijo Banerjee.) Also from the U.S. team, Andrew Gu, Vincent Huang, Michael Ren and Mihir Anand Singhal all won gold medals, and Adam Ardeishar received a silver medal.

The team, led by mathematics professor Po-Shen Loh of Carnegie Mellon University, is about as American as you can get. After all, its members celebrated their victory by going to McDonald’s. But in this time of charged debates about immigration, it is worth noting that many of the team members are second- or third-generation immigrants. Loh, in fact, is the son of immigrant parents from Singapore. The team’s deputy leader, Sasha Rudenko, is the son of Ukrainian immigrants.

Here is a photo of the team.

Categories Students

Wisconsin: Gubernatorial Candidate Kelda Roys Writes a Letter to Teachers

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2018 //
12

Here is the voice of a genuine progressive.

Kelda Roys is running for the Democratic nomination for Governor so she can run against Scott Walker.

The primary is August 14.

She released this letter to teachers.

She really gets it. She speaks to the hearts and minds of all who have suffered the insufferable Walker, who has walked all over teachers, students, and public schools. He has bulldozed the Wisconsin Idea.

Wisconsin needs Kelda Roys.

She writes:


This is a message of hope. A promise to you of what kind of governor I will be, and a heartfelt statement to demonstrate that I hear what you’ve been saying and empathize with what you’ve been experiencing.

Throughout the past eight years, you, your pocketbook, and your profession have been under attack.

You are constantly asked to “do more with less” as a result of the historic budget cuts to your classrooms. Without proper funding, the schools you work in, especially in rural communities, continue to close. You are often forced to “‘teach for the test” as opposed to engaging young minds in the joy of learning and helping develop students’ whole selves. Your class sizes are going up, but your professional autonomy is being ratcheted down.

As a result of Act 10, your collective bargaining rights were eliminated, compensation reduced, and work devalued. Your median salaries have continued to fall: as of the 2015-26 school year, your average pay was more than $10,000 lower than it was before the passage of Act 10. The policies of the Walker administration have done serious harm to Wisconsin’s once-great public education system. A record number of your colleagues have left the profession altogether.

In the numbers-driven, high-stakes testing approach that many school districts are taking, your autonomy is lost. This is bad for you and even worse for students. In the ever-expanding push for “accountability,” teachers are too often punished — never administrators, or politicians who fail to remedy the social and economic injustice that follows students into the classroom. Rather than addressing the teacher retention and pipeline problem by increasing pay and restoring joy to the profession, Walker and the DPI are undermining teacher qualifications by enabling fast-track “alternative” licensing for people without teaching degrees. And the expansion of privatization, from the voucher programs to so-called “independent” charters, steals resources away from our public schools and the kids you serve. It’s no wonder so many teachers feel demoralized and are leaving — your ability to practice the profession you love and teach your students is constantly questioned, challenged, and denied by the very people who should be supporting you.

Despite all this, I am asking you to not to leave.

As a small-business owner, as a mother, and as a proud graduate of Wisconsin’s public schools, I know how critical you are to our state and our future. To attract and retain the best teachers, Wisconsin must become a better state in which to be a teacher — we must invest in public schools and educators.

As governor, I pledge I will do everything in my power to restore the funding our schools deserve, the rights, wages, and benefits you lost, and the autonomy and respect you deserve.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, Students, Teacher Pay, Teachers, Walker, Scott, Wisconsin

Do You Know Any Students Who Attended “No Excuses” Charter Schools?

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2018 //
4

I received the following request:

A former charter school teacher,who was a strong advocate for the students, currently is working on her PHD.

She’s wants to speak with former, “No Excuses” students to learn their point view from being constantly suspended and asked to leave (if that was their experience, course).

The target population would be former students of KIPP, AF, Success, Uncommon, or any of those types of schools. They don’t have to be adjudicated or a part of the criminal justice system, just former students who were “counseled out.”

She wants to focus on the former student’s voices because there is not enough research on their experiences and when they go to the media, they tend to be dismissed. So far, she has been able to uncover the inherent racism in their ideology (She will be presenting that this fall) but to put it all together, she needs to talk to kids and see if they recognized their schooling as discriminatory. It’s ok if they didn’t; she just want to talk to some kids or young adults to gain their insights.

The email address to reach out to Ms. Williams at rkp5@illnois.edu, please share this with other education advocacy groups.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Discipline and Suspensions, Students

David Gamberg: Five Steps to Building a Better School: Reformers, Please Note!

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2018 //
27

David Gamberg is an experienced educator who marches to a different drummer, not to federal mandates or the lure of Reformer money. He has a clear vision of what is best for students, teachers, staff, families, and the community. He does not worship at the shrine of test scores. He is superintendent of two small, contiguous districts on Long Island in New York. He understands the organic relation between communities and schools and knows that neither stands alone.

He wrote about his philosophy in Education Week.

Forget the title. This article is about what education should be, if only we had leaders with thoughtfulness, mindfulness, love of children, love of learning, and vision. Such people exist. Gamberg is one of them.


I am convinced that the foundation of a good education is about the concept of building—building a school, building a community, building relationships, and building a sense of self. School works for many students to provide a pathway into the future. It offers a foundation of rich experiences that inspire and form the basis of students’ life stories. Education and schools, however, can never be fully responsible for the outcomes that our students achieve. We cannot blame schools and teachers for the very complex mix of factors that result in any one person’s success in life.

I’ve been thinking recently about how we can alter the school experience for students and staff to better meet the needs of our learning communities. Some of the very structures and experiences that harken back to an earlier era in education may in fact be part of the future of teaching and learning. While it may be counterintuitive in our sophisticated high-tech world, building, manipulating, and creating inside the physical spaces of our school environment are essential in future learning….

1) Create a culture and environment that attends to the authentic learning experiences of the students.

There are many ways to engage students and teachers in authentic learning experiences. Tending a garden offers students a chance to shape their environment and participate in the natural transformation of seed to plant. Putting on a theater production shapes their experience of others, turning the audience into an integral part of learning. Students might create a gallery or museum display in a real process of honoring history and art. They might build a robot, which encompasses a wide range of design and scientific principles. The list of possibilities for school communities to come together and build something is as universal as it is unlimited.

2) Focus on building community; it matters more than raising test scores.

Our students face a growing list of pressures both real and imagined. School boards and superintendents, in particular, should take note of mental-health and substance-abuse issues and concerns. These are reaching crisis levels across the country. Students of all ages need a compelling experience that engages them in their respective learning communities. Sorting students by test scores will never answer the call for safer and healthier learning communities. Establishing deep and abiding personal relationships and building a sense of community will, and it’s urgently needed.

3) Reshape schools; don’t seek to reform them…

4) Engage stakeholders in re-envisioning the schoolhouse.

If the future is ever more unpredictable, then is keeping things basically the same still an option? Whether it is the students, teachers, policymakers, or families in any learning community, we must look at which tools we keep and which tools we should discard to help us build our schools…

Schools of the future may require a new vision for how they are structured, built, and financed. Let us not forget that no matter how schools are set up, it is the relationship between child and adult that stands at its center. From that center, we can work together to impart lessons, build understanding, and build capacity.

5) Don’t see school improvement as a technological fix.

We can have Smart Boards in every room but fail to update the pedagogy used 30 years ago. This is not a criticism of how we engaged our students in the past. In fact, I would argue that a way to engage students that is more than 2,400 years old still applies—even more so today. I am referring, of course, to the Socratic method…

Let’s make the process of learning and what takes place in school so compelling that it cannot be replaced by an algorithm. Let us ensure that our students continue to be great problem-solvers, fearless learners, courageous citizens, and creative thinkers who contribute greatly to the world around them.

If students become engaged in solving real-world problems, then wouldn’t they be better prepared to build their future? If they had permission to alter the physical space in their school, wouldn’t they alter their view of school in the process? I believe that with each passing generation, we inherit a space, with a covenant to uphold the values and principles of those who have come before us. We have an opportunity to build on their contributions while we forge our own. Is it not true that at all times we stand on the shoulders of others? Let us work together to build on the opportunity that has been given to us.

Categories Education Reform, Real Education, Students

Oklahoma: Anti-Tax Lobby Pushes for Special Session to Repeal New Taxes to Pay Teachers’ Salary Increases

By dianeravitch
June 11, 2018 //
25

After the massive teacher walkout in Oklahoma, the governor and legislature pledged to raise taxes to pay for higher teacher salaries.

Now former Senator Tom Coburn is leading an anti-tax group demanding a referendum to roll back the taxes. Coburn contends that the state can pay raises without raising taxes. If his group Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! can collect 42,000 signatures by July 18, there will be a referendum. Meanwhile there are legal challenges to the referendum.

Oklahoma Republicans live in a dream world where public services can be funded while the richest individuals and industries in the state get tax cuts.

That’s why some schools in the state operate on a four-day week. The oligarchs of Oklahoma don’t want the children of the state to have a good education. They want teachers who will work for the lowest wages in the nation to teach their children four days a week.

The future will take care of itself as long as the oil and gas industries pay low taxes. Right?

Categories Oklahoma, Students, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Mercedes Schneider: DeVos Denies Utah Parents their Right to Opt Out

By dianeravitch
June 8, 2018 //
16

Betsy DeVos claims to be an advocate for parental rights. She is not.

Utah passed a law recognizing the right of parents to opt their children out of state testing. The US Department of Education rejected the Utah ESSA Plan because it respects parents’ rights.

I want to remind every reader to recognize that the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed parental rights in a 1925 decision called “Pierce v. Society of Sisters.”the right of parents to make decisions about their child.” That decision rejected an Oregon law that required every child to attend public schools, not private or religious schools. The court said, in a decision that was never reversed and has often been cited, that the child is not a “mere creature of the state,” and parents have the power to make decisions for their children, excepting (I believe) where their health and safety are concerned.

Given DeVos’ advocacy for school choice and parental rights, it is shocking that she has agreed to punish the schools, the children and families of Utah for recognizing the rights of parents to refuse the state test.

In New York State, education officials are threatening financial punishments and other more drastic actions for schools that don’t meet the 95% participation rate. Very few schools in the state did. We will see a state takeover of 90% of the schools in the state?

ACLU, where are you?

Categories Accountability, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), New York, Opt Out, Parents, Students, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, Utah

Kentucky: The High School Valedictorian Told the Class He Was Quoting Trump, and They Cheered, Then He Said “Sorry, I Quoted Obama”

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2018 //
30

Read what happened when high school valedictorian Ben Bowling gave his speech at graduation, and included an inspiring quote that he attributed to Trump. The crowd cheered heartily.

Then, he said, Sorry, that quote was Obama.

Ben Bowling’s graduation speech was one of the rare instances where electoral polling numbers can help us understand humor.

The 18-year-old is the valedictorian of the Bell County High School Class of 2018, about 80 miles north of Knoxville, Tenn.

The closest a 21st-century Democratic presidential candidate has come to winning the hearts and minds of the people of Bell County, Ky., was in 2004, when John F. Kerry got 39 percent of people there to punch a ticket for him.

Every other race has been (more of) a landslide by whoever happened to be on the Republican side of the ballot: nearly 71 percent for John McCain in 2008, according to the state’s board of elections. Mitt Romney got 76 percent in 2012, and Donald Trump received an overwhelming 82 percent of Bell County’s votes in 2016.

On Saturday, Bowling was slated to give a speech before his cap-and-gown-wearing peers and their families, as he noted in one fourth-wall breaking segment.

Read the inspiriting quote and the crowd’s response.

Categories Humor, Kentucky, Obama, Students, Trump

Lockport, New York, Is Buying State-of-the-Art Face Recognition Technology for Security

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2018 //
52

You knew this would happen. Security corporations are selling the latest thing to schools worried about shootings.

Lockport, New York, bought a facial recognition system that is programmed to identify the students and teachers who belong and to identify the criminals and sexual predators who are in its data system.

Next school year, Lockport schools will have in place the kind of security software used at airports, casinos and sensitive government installations.

Facial recognition and tracking software will add an unprecedented level of security at the schools. District officials have decided locked entrance doors, bullet-proof glass and sign-in registers at the front desk are not enough.

“We always have to be on our guard. We can’t let our guard down,” Lockport Superintendent Michelle T. Bradley said. “That’s the world that we’re living in. Times have changed. For the Board of Education and the Lockport City School District, this is the No. 1 priority: school security.”

Depew schools want to install the same system, as soon as a state funding request is approved.

“When it comes to safety and security, we want to have the best possible,” Depew Superintendent Jeffrey R. Rabey said. “From what I’ve seen, there’s no other like it.”

Studies have shown the technology doesn’t always work well, but the consultant to the district says a Canadian company has worked out the bugs that plagued earlier facial recognition software.

“Lockport will be the first school district in the world with this technology deployed,” said Tony Olivo, an Orchard Park security consultant who helped develop the system.

The software is used by “Scotland Yard, Interpol, the Paris police and the French Ministry of Defense,” Olivo said. “There are a lot of facial recognition systems out there. There is nothing in the world that can do what this technology does.”

Lockport will spend $1.4 million of the state’s money on the Aegis system, from SN Technologies of Ganonoque, Ont., in all 10 district buildings this summer. It’s part of a $2.75 million security system that includes 300 digital video cameras.

Lockport played a role in the system’s development. Olivo said in the summer of 2015, the software creators used Lockport High School for test videos featuring various types of guns.

Rabey said that because Depew has three buildings on one campus, rather than 10 different locations as Lockport has, Depew would need only 75 cameras, and the cost would be $188,000.

“We believe it’s innovative. We believe it’s an investment. And it’s meant to intercept unwanted people and items,” Bradley said.

But Jim Shultz, a Lockport parent, calls the upgrade a waste of money. And it won’t prevent a school shooting. He said the district would at best gain a few seconds in response time if a crazed killer rushed into a Lockport school with an AR-15.

The new system does not have X-ray.

It can’t detect metal, concealed weapons or explosives.

What it can do is alert officials if someone whose photo has been programmed into the system – a registered sex offender, wanted criminal, non-custodial parent, expelled student or disgruntled former employee – comes into range of one of the 300 high-resolution digital cameras.

“A school is now a target, unfortunately,” said Robert L. LiPuma, Lockport’s technology director. “Based on recommendations, things we saw, drills we did, pilots we did, we assessed all of that and we thought this was the best option, economically and responsibly, for the safety of our community.”

If a known bad guy is spotted, or a gun or other weapon is visible to the system’s cameras, the software could flash an alarm to any district officials connected to it, and also to police.

In the last five years, all of the major school shootings in the U.S. have been carried out by current or recent students of the school in question.

At the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, the shooter was a mentally ill 20-year-old who shot his way through a locked entrance door before killing 20 children and employees. Police arrived five minutes after the killer entered.

Failed recognition

Studies have shown that commercially available facial recognition software simply doesn’t work very well.

Researchers have discovered that it works well only on white men and is much less effective on people of color, women and children.

In one of the most drastic examples, facial recognition software was tested last June on the crowd at a championship soccer game in Cardiff, Wales. The system triggered 2,470 alerts for matches with a police database – but 92 percent of the “matches” turned out to be false. The police blamed the poor quality of the photos in the database.

If the shooter is a current student, the system will not identify him. It would have been no help in Columbine or Santa Fe, Texas.

The system will have the capacity to track students’ movements in the building.

A good way to prepare for life in a surveillance state.

Categories Education Reform, Privacy, Safety, Students

Matt Barnum: What High School Students Say about Common Core Math

By dianeravitch
May 20, 2018 //
43

Matt Barnum, writing in Chalkbeat, describes the mixed reactions of high school students to Common Core math.

Some hated it.

Some liked it.

Some found it confusing.

The Common Core standards were supposed to get students to understand math more deeply. For some California high school students, it didn’t work out that way.

“I like working in the old books, because they actually explain it to me,” one said. “Do you want me to learn it? Or do you want me to stare at the problem?”

That’s one response from a survey of students who experienced the shift to the new standards in their math and English classes. The study is quite limited, emerging from interviews from just 54 high-achieving seniors. But it gets at something often overlooked in the political controversy that would eventually surround the standards, which most states adopted in 2010: what it felt like for students to see their classrooms change.

Some of the student’s responses, published last month in a peer-reviewed academic journal, may be surprising. Many blamed the Common Core for encouraging more group work — something they almost universally disliked. In some schools, though, the students appreciated what they perceived as a move away from teacher-led instruction.

Categories Common Core, Students
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »