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Christine Langhoff: The Corporate Reformers Are in Control of Massachusetts Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2017 //
11

Christine Langhoff teaches in Massachusetts and is a member of the Network for Public Education.

She writes:


Massachusetts public education is being run by a cabal of reformsters, many of them affiliated with a local thinkster tank, The Pioneer Institute. Jim Peyser, state Secretary of Education, is a former director of The NewSchools Venture Fund, having run the Pioneer Institute from 1993-2000. Gov. Weld named him as undersecretary of education in 1995, shortly after the introduction of charters to the state, for which Peyser was – and is – an advocate. In charge of higher education is perennial gadfly Chris Gabrieli, failed gubernatorial candidate, who has developed no fewer than three reformy edu-businesses. (Time on Learning – extended day and year no extra pay; TransformEd – measuring grit and feelings; and Empower Schools, which seeks to destroy union contracts and impose a “third way” in urban districts – so far 3 and counting). So, to use the local dialect, all of them are wicked reformy.

Things have not been going so well for Chester. He signed on as chairman of PARCC, but that boat sank under the weight of the Common Core. This past November, when he thought the charter cap would be lifted and privatization could proceed apace, that too went down to an ignominious 2-1 defeat, in the process awakening parents and taxpayers to the charter scam. He has lately signed on to be a Chief for Change. Reformsters, unlike teachers, don’t need tenure because they have sinecures.

I think this latest peevish salvo stems from Chester’s frustration at being unable to simply sign executive orders and command the world as he would have it. Recently, after testimony from Lisa Guisbond of Citizens for Public Schools, he was forced to revise a punitive policy for students opting out:

“On the related issue of state testing, I thought you should know that some teachers are being given these instructions for handling students whose parents have chosen to opt them out:

‘When a student opts out they will remain in the classroom, listen as the test directions are being read and given the test. If after 15 minutes the student doesn’t write anything down, then, and only then, may the teacher remove the test.’

A 4th grade teacher shared her reaction:

‘This is public shaming, will cause emotional harm, and is a travesty to the precious relationship between teachers and students. Remember we cannot say anything except the scripted words on the test document or we are threatened with job termination, legal and or criminal action.’

So we have a fourth grader embarrassed and crying and a teacher who could lose his or her job for consoling the child. The teacher must ignore this child in need and say nothing.

I trust that these instructions are in error, and that your humane instructions from last year, Commissioner Chester, that students should not be pressured or punished for opting out, remain in place. I urge you to communicate this to the field.”

Delay and Revise MA ESSA Plan to Help, Not Harm, Struggling Schools

At the April 18 board meeting, one of the topics under discussion was the use of the scores from this year’s round of testing. Chester proposed to have 2017 scores included in the average for determining school levels. That was nearly unanimously rejected by the Board due to the use of several variants of tests in the past three years. Previously, it had been agreed that schools would be “held harmless” during the transition to a new test.

A recess was called, during which time Secretary Peyser expressed his belief that if the 2017 scores were not included, teachers would deliberately have students tank the exams so that they could increase scores in future years. In other words,he believes teachers across the state would INTENTIONALLY have thousands of children do poorly on tests in order to create a low baseline. NB: At the time of the discussion, we were already halfway through the testing period.

These people have no respect for the work teachers do. They do not believe we have any integrity. They do not treat us as professionals. It is indeed shameful.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Massachusetts, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Calling Campbell Brown! Sexual Abuse at Elite Boarding Schools!

By dianeravitch
April 27, 2017 //
17

Campbell Brown first became an education “reformer” in 2012 when she discovered that there were teachers in the New York City public schools who had been accused of inappropriate sexual contact with students. They were in the so-called “rubber room,” awaiting a hearing, and she wanted to know why they had not been fired outright. She concluded that the union was protecting sexual predators. Since then, she has gone on to became one of the faces of “reform,” attacking tenure, unions, and public schools and promoting charters and vouchers. And of course, she pals around with Betsy DeVos, who has helped to fund Campbell Brown’s website; and Brown, in turn, was on the board of the American Federation for Children, DeVos’s organization that lobbies for charters and vouchers.

But, lo!

The New York Times revealed that there is a practice at elite boarding school of covering up instances of sexual misconduct by teachers. When they are asked to leave, they move on to another private school or even to a public school, with no one the wiser. This is known, says the article, as “passing the trash.”

Davis Guggenheim, in his mendacious film “Waiting for Superman,” said that ineffective teachers were shifted to other public schools, in what is known as “the dance of the lemons.” If he ever gets around to writing about elite boarding schools, he might take a look at “passing the trash.”

Since the elite private schools don’t have unions or tenure, whom shall we blame for this indifference to the well-being of students in their care?

Categories Accountability, Scandal, Students

Betsy DeVos Withdraws Protections for Students from Predatory Loan Agencies

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2017 //
16

In an inexplicable move, Secretary of Education DeVos canceled rules–some of which date back to the first Bush administration–to set standards for student loan agencies.

This benefits the industry that fattens on student loans, but it will harm students.

The New York Times editorial board asks “Whose Side is Betsy DeVos on?” I think we know.

“Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is inexplicably backing away from rules that are meant to prevent federal student loan borrowers from being fleeced by companies the government pays to collect the loans and to guide people through the repayment process.

“On Tuesday, she withdrew a sound Obama administration policy that required the Education Department to take into account the past conduct of loan servicing companies before awarding them lucrative contracts — and to include consumer protections in those contracts as well.

“The department is doing the loan industry’s bidding at a time when student debt has crippled a generation financially and the country’s largest loan servicing company, Navient, is facing several lawsuits accusing it of putting its own interest before that of the borrowers it is supposed to help.

“A suit brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claims that Navient saved itself money by steering borrowers into costly repayment strategies that added billions in interest to their balances. But as Stacy Cowley and Jessica Silver-Greenberg reported in The Times on Monday, states’ lawsuits are especially damning with respect to Sallie Mae — the company that spun off Navient in 2014.

“The Illinois and Washington attorneys general argue that Sallie Mae engaged in predatory lending, saddling people with private subprime loans that the company knew in advance were likely to fail because borrowers would not be able to repay them. The two attorneys general — part of an investigative coalition of 29 states — argue that borrowers deserve to have these tainted private loans forgiven.

“The scenario outlined in the court documents bears a frightening resemblance to the subprime mortgage crisis of a decade ago — when mortgage companies caused millions of borrowers to lose their homes by steering them into risky, high-cost mortgages they could never hope to repay.

“The Illinois and Washington lawsuits argue that Sallie Mae used subprime private loans to build relationships with exploitative schools that then helped the company make more federal loans to their students. Those loans were the jackpot for the company, the lawsuit argues, because they were guaranteed by the government, which steps in to reimburse the lender when a borrower defaults.

“The defaulted private loans destroyed the financial lives of students. But they benefited the schools — which sometimes made deals with Sallie Mae to subsidize the losses — allowing them to comply with federal rules requiring that no more than 90 percent of a school’s revenue can come from federal financial aid. The case shows the dangers inherent in letting companies service federal and private loans simultaneously.”

Will it make America “great again” by impoverishing a generation of students?

I thought she was a Christian. What would Jesus do? Didn’t Jesus throw the money-lenders out of the Temple?

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Higher Education, Student Financial Aid and Student Debt, Students

Should Your High School Be Recognized for Its Success in Providing Equal Opportunity to All Students? Apply Now.

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2017 //
1

The National Education Policy Center is inviting high schools to apply for recognition as a “school of opportunity.”

A School of Opportunity is one that works hard to make sure that all children have equal opportunity to succeed.

The deadline for applying is May 1.

Learn more by going to this site: schoolsofopportunity.org

High schools still have three weeks left to apply for recognition for working to close opportunity gaps: schoolsofopportunity.org @NEPCtweet #schoolsofopportunity

Here are the criteria:

At the most basic level, a School of Opportunity must strive to ensure that all students have access to rich, challenging and supported opportunities to learn. This means that the school’s best opportunities cannot be exclusive or rationed. For this reason, we will recognize a school as a “School of Opportunity” only if it declines to restrict or stratify student access to those best opportunities. In addition, we seek to highlight schools with strong and welcoming cultures, therefore we will only recognize schools if they reject “zero tolerance” policies and other discipline policies that unnecessarily exclude students from opportunities to learn.

Accordingly, all applicants need to address the first two practices, Criterion 1 and 2. Then applicants may choose which four of the remaining eight criteria they wish to highlight in their application.

Criterion 1: Broadening and Enriching Learning Opportunities, with Particular Attention to Reducing Disparities in Learning Created by Tracking and Ability Grouping

Criterion 2: Creating and Maintaining a Healthy School Culture, with Attention to Diversity and to Reassessing Student Discipline Policies

Criterion 3: Provide More and Better Learning Time During the School Year and Summer

Criterion 4: Use a Variety of Assessments Designed to Respond to Student Needs

Criterion 5: Support Teachers as Professionals

Criterion 6: Meet the Needs of Students with Disabilities in an Environment that Ensures Challenge and Support

Criterion 7: Provide Students with Additional Needed Services and Supports, Including Mental and Physical Health Services

Criterion 8: Create a Challenging and Supported Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Criterion 9: Build on the Strengths of Language Minority Students and Correctly Identify their Needs

Criterion 10: Sustain Equitable and Meaningful Parent and Community Engagement

Categories Equity, Justice, Students

Ira David Socol: Why “Instructional Tolerance” Matters

By dianeravitch
April 9, 2017 //
8

Ira David Socol wrote a provocative post that ties together how we educate children on a daily basis with how we live in a democracy. At heart, he argues against the adult authority structure that imposes control over children. His argument echoes John Dewey, the progressive education movement, and the free-school reformers of the 1960s.

Categories Childhood, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Anna Allanbrook: How Our School Became “the Opt Out School”

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2017 //
6

Anna Allanbrook is principal of the Brooklyn New School in Brooklyn, New York. She explains here how her elementary school became “the Opt Out School.” Very few children in New York City opt out. Some are afraid they won’t get into a good middle school or a good high schools if they don’t have scores. Some are afraid the Immigration Police will come for them. Some are intimidated by administrators who want to play it safe. Read what happened at BNS.


Dear Families:

Tomorrow on April 4, 2017, fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, at Riverside Church and forty nine years after he was shot and killed, we will join with communities across the country, by reciting a few excerpts from those words. This reading is an initiative organized by the The National Council of Elders. Just as Martin Luther King saw a need to condemn silence in 1967, so too does the National Council of Elders see that need today. They have asked schools, churches, civil rights groups, labor organizations, museums, community organizations, and others to join in the building of a movement to break silence, promote dialogue and engage in nonviolent direct action.

In that speech, Martin Luther King said, “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

As the daughter of someone born in Vienna, Austria in 1924, I can’t help but remember his story when grappling with recent times. When we think of that big fifth grade curriculum question: What Are You Willing to Stand Up For?, I am reminded of Martin Niemöller’s famous quote:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Educators in the public schools are told not to talk about anything political. This puts us in somewhat of a bind as in the last twenty years, politicians have made school performance a political issue. But there is hope and that hope is reflected in the story of the Opt Out Movement.

At BNS the idea of not taking a state test started with one child and one mom, a mom who said, “No, my child would not be taking the citywide tests.” Within just a few years, BNS became known as the “Opt Out” school. Lots of folks ask how this happened and the answer is very simple. The staff in our school came together around our thinking about the tests. We did this because of what we saw happen when kids took these new tests. We did this by meeting and sharing ideas, first amongst ourselves and then with others. Simultaneously, parents were mobilizing and talking to parents in and outside of the school community. Teachers and parents held meetings to talk about assessment in general, and to talk about the Pearson tests, the specific tests that led to such a major revolt. Teachers described what they saw when kids were testing: children banging their heads, children throwing up, children crying.

Opting Out gave Brooklyn New School the freedom to not teach to the test. In fact our third to fifth grade teachers met again and decided as an entire school not to do any test prep. This became BNS policy. That in a nutshell was the result of one family initially saying no to the test.

This year, the opt out movement may not seem that important. Somehow what has happened nationally is more frightening and certainly more destructive than six days of standardized testing.

There is a sense of urgency today in the United States of America.

We must frame our actions in our commitment to our children, knowing that a big part of our work is the development of the citizens of tomorrow, people who are thoughtful, who read, who think, and who have the skill set to distinguish between facts and alternative facts.
The reality is that many of our New York City public schools are already doing that, offering rich curriculum and programming, which invites learning and encourages inquiry and reflection. As a part of our work, just as social media has made protest visible, we need to make public education visible and we need to work with our colleagues to embrace the possible.

All too often, folks come into our school and marvel at our projects, our trips, the art, the music, the science, saying, “I didn’t know this was happening in public schools.” It is happening in public schools and it could happen even more. The potential is unlimited. Schools that have the freedom to determine what it is they are teaching and how they are teaching, are working in remarkable ways.

If we reframe the conversation to be about kids, if we remove the stigma of low test scores and focus not on bad schools and good schools, but rather on giving our children what they need, we have the power to effect change.

We have no idea how the new administration is going to affect us, although we know that the decisions of prior Secretaries of Education have had tremendous impact. And we know that decisions made at the national level can hurt us locally unless we stay focused on our vision.

At BNS, we took away the impact of standardized tests by reminding parents of their rights. In the next days, weeks, months, we need to be attentive and vigilant, never tiring, being active citizens, and always staying true to the children.

It is not the nineteen thirties, but it is worth remembering the years of my dad’s childhood when it was decided that he and other Jewish children would no longer be allowed to go to school with the Gentiles. That was not normal, and resistance did happen. As policies that are not normal are implemented today, we need to stand together as educators to do what is right for our kids.

All for now,

Anna

Quote of the Week:

Anonymous, as told by the ELA testing proctor: “I think two answers are right. Where should I explain (in writing) my thinking?”

Categories Childhood, New York City, Opt Out, Parents, Students, Teachers

Kansas: Student Journalists Investigate New Principal with Dubious Diplomas, She Resigns

By dianeravitch
April 6, 2017 //
20

The students are our future. And the students give me hope.

When I hear “reformers” like DeVos and Gates and Klein and Rhee claim that our schools are “failure factories,” that they are “obsolete,” that they are a “deadend,” and that our students are woefully undereducated, I will think of the students at this typical high school in Kansas. They unmasked a fraud. They engaged in critical thinking. No one paid them to do it. They demonstrated initiative, intelligence, and persistence. They are far smarter than the “reformers” who run them and their generation down.

In Kansas, student journalists checked out the credentials of their newly hired principal. The “university” that she cited as the source of her MA and doctorate didn’t exist. They investigated further and broke the story. The new principal resigned without ever taking office.

Connor Balthazor, 17, was in the middle of study hall when he was called into a meeting with his high school newspaper adviser.

A group of reporters and editors from the student newspaper, the Booster Redux at Pittsburg High School in southeastern Kansas, had gathered to talk about Amy Robertson, who was hired as the high school’s head principal on March 6.

The student journalists had begun researching Robertson, and quickly found some discrepancies in her education credentials. For one, when they researched Corllins University, the private university where Robertson said she got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago, the website didn’t work. They found no evidence that it was an accredited university.

“There were some things that just didn’t quite add up,” Balthazor told The Washington Post.

The students began digging into a weeks-long investigation that would result in an article published Friday questioning the legitimacy of the principal’s degrees and of her work as an education consultant.

On Tuesday night, Robertson resigned.

This is a reminder why freedom of the press is so important to our democracy.

Categories Fraud, Freedom of the Press, Kansas, Students

Nashville School Board Member Amy Frogge: Why I Love Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2017 //
5

Amy Frogge is an elected member of the Metro Nashville school board. She is a lawyer and a parent. In her first election, she was outspent overwhelmingly by corporate reform forces, although she was unaware of their push for privatization. In her second election, Stand for Children poured huge sums into the effort to defeat her, but once again she won handily.

In this post, which appeared on her Facebook page, she explains why she loves public schools and why her children are thriving in them.


Like many parents, I initially worried about enrolling my children in our zoned public schools, because I heard negative gossip about local schools when we first moved to our neighborhood. But our experiences in local public schools have been overwhelmingly positive. This year, my daughter is a 7th grader at H.G. Hill Middle School, and my son is a 4th grader at Gower Elementary School. They have attended our zoned neighborhood schools since pre-k (my son) and kindergarten (my daughter). Our local schools are Title 1 schools (Gower recently came off the Title 1 list) serving widely diverse populations.

If you have not considered Nashville’s zoned public schools, you really should. These are just a FEW of my children’s experiences in our schools:

My children have taken many educational field trips over the years. My son has traveled to Chattanooga to visit the Challenger Space Center and the Creative Discovery Museum. My daughter has visited the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Discovery Park of America in Union City, TN, and Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge, TN. This year, she is heading to Six Flags for a second time with her middle school band. (Last year, she played at Six Flags over Atlanta, and this year, she’ll play at Six Flags over St. Louis.) As part of this year’s band trip, she’ll also tour The Gateway Arch and Museum of Westward expansion.

Here in Nashville, my children have taken field trips to the Adventure Science Center and planetarium, Traveler’s Rest (to learn about history), the Nashville Zoo, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall (where they learned about instruments from a symphony member and a Nashville sessions player). They have sung with their elementary school choir at the State Capitol, Nashville City Hall, and the County Music Hall of Fame. They have both studied songwriting in a special segment which brings professional songrwriters to their school to set their songs to music. This year, my children both participated in the Project Based Learning Expo at Trevecca Nazarene University, where my son presented a project on the book “I am Malala” and my daughter presented a project on Samurai.

My children have both performed in a 1950s-60s music revue and in numerous choir and theatrical performances. My son played “The Prince” in “Cinderella” last year at Gower and this year will play “Scar” in “The Lion King.” His drama teacher suggested him for a NECAT children’s show, so he also went to a studio this fall to film a television production.

In elementary school, my children helped hatch baby chicks in the classroom in spring. The teacher that hatches chicks also operates an animal camp each summer at her nearby farm, where children learn about both farm animals and exotics- and also just spend time playing in the creek! My children have also attended other summer camps through the school, including Camp Invention, where they built their own pinball machines and more.

My daughter now plays in three bands at her middle school: the 7th-8th grade band, the Honor Band, and a rock band. She recently participated in a band competition at MTSU and was thrilled when her middle school band won awards. My daughter has learned to play three different instruments and also has been invited to sing solos with her rock band (for which she also plays the piano). She has played soccer, played basketball, and currently runs track at H.G. Hill Middle, where she also serves as a Student Ambassador and gives tours of the school to prospective families.

My children have both participated in numerous clubs at their schools, including robotics/coding (my son can now code games on his own), cartooning club, gardening club, and the Good News Club. In Encore, my daughter built rollercoasters to learn about physics, and my son has extracted DNA from strawberries. My son was excited to learn today that he will soon study special effects makeup in his drama class, and he will also soon participate in the school’s “Wax Museum”: In 4th grade, every student dresses up as an historical figure and shares that person’s story with those who come to tour the “museum.”

My children have experienced ALL of this because of public education in Nashville. They are learning SO much- not only academically, but also about their community and the larger world from their friends who come from many different countries and speak many languages. I believe the education my children have received in our often underappreciated zoned schools rivals any they would receive from private schools in Nashville or the more coveted public schools in more affluent areas of Middle Tennessee. My children are both doing well academically, and they are getting all they need to be happy, well-rounded, and confident.

Public schools rock!

Please support our public schools! Our public school teachers, leaders and staff work hard to serve our children well.

Categories Nashville, Parents, Stand for Children, Students, Supporting public schools

Fred Smith: The Pathetic Lies of the New York State Education Department, in Service of the Testing Regime

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2017 //
13

Fred Smith is a testing expert who worked for the New York City Board of Education for many years. In retirement, he volunteers for parent groups fighting to stop excessive and pointless standardized testing. The testing starts tomorrow across the state, and the State Education Department is pulling out all the stops to hinder, deter, and block the opt-out movement.

The New York State Education Department (SED) has been campaigning to dissuade more parents from abandoning the annual testing program.

Last year the parents and guardians of 220,000 children opted out of the English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams. They are given to 1.2 million children annually in grades 3 through 8. Their administration becomes the center of attention for six school days. They are due to begin on Tuesday.

The effort to keep parents onboard this year depends on repeating the same misleading information the state provided in 2016. It must be challenged. There are also important test-related matters SED fails to advise parents about.

Seeking to turn back the opt-out movement, misinformation about testing has been reduced to a few scripted points to help SED and education administrators convey the idea that the testing program has improved: The number of questions on the exams has been reduced; more teachers have been involved in developing them; and the tests are untimed.

On the surface these seem attractive. But, fewer items make less reliable tests. The teachers who were involved reviewed but didn’t write the questions, which were developed by test publisher Pearson. And the removal of time limits means the tests are no longer being conducted under standard conditions, thereby nullifying attempts to measure growth.

Effectively, the results of the 2017 exams cannot be used to make meaningful comparisons over time. This should end their already shaky use to assess student progress, or be factored into value-added formulas to judge teacher effectiveness, or enter into the evaluation of school performance. Ipso facto, the inability to make year-to-year comparisons of achievement is a sufficient reason for opting out.

Another selling point the state makes is that, while the tests will continue to be given, no teachers or principals will be affected by the results. This may lull people concerned about the misuse of the tests into accepting their administration because negative consequences have diminished.

My experience tells me something different. Whenever there is an investment in testing, a use for the scores will be found to justify the cost and to shield decision makers, who lean on the results, from taking direct responsibility for their actions.

There is a darker side to the propaganda. In announcing the improvements, an SED spokesperson said, “It’s up to parents to decide if their children should take the tests and we want them to have all the facts so they can make an informed decision.”

Then why does State Education Commissioner Elia withhold information on a parent’s right to opt out of the exams? And why has the state continued since 2012 to keep parents in the dark about the field testing of questions that allow publishers to develop future exams for free by trying out test questions on children?

Both omissions are most notable in a one-page document posted on SED’s Engageny , titled The 2017 Grades 3-8 New York State Assessments: What Parents Need to Know. Evidently, they must know the tests are untimed, shortened, reflective of teacher involvement and the fact that some districts will give them on computers. The ultimate goal is a transition to universal computer-based testing. No reason they should know about opting out or about the field tests.

This is pure arrogance. Presenting information in a need-to-know manner implies that parents are like soldiers told only those things that are essential to the discharge of their duties—in this case, an obligation to take the tests. This is how we “enage” parents?!

Here are some more facts about 2017’s field testing that parents don’t need to know:

There are two approaches publishers follow to develop questions and determine which should be kept for subsequent exams. The preferred way is to embed try-out material (reading passages and associated questions) in the test booklets that students are striving to complete. In theory, students can’t tell which questions are experimental and do not count in scoring their tests from the operational ones that count. Thus, they should be motivated to do well on the trial items.

This year, 22% of the ELA multiple-choice items that appear in Test Book 1 (March 28) are being field tested. In grade 3, 25% of the items are being tried out. That is, one reading passage and six out of the 24 items are developmental. They don’t count, but they require time and energy to complete and their inclusion on the tests can have an impact on the results.

In math, embedded items will make up 14% of the tests, interspersed among the operational items. They are contained in Test Books 1 and 2 (May 2 and 3). Statewide, 1.2 million children have been volunteered to participate. Parents haven’t been asked for their consent.

The less preferred way to try out items, known as stand-alone field testing, has also been taken by SED, because embedding has not yielded enough items to build new tests. So, separate field tests are used to generate sufficient material for the next round.

Here too, parents are not told about these tests. The state has targeted 3,073 schools for ELA or math stand-alone field testing on one grade level any day between May 22 and June 9. 973 of them are being tapped to participate in the computer-based testing part of this experiment.

What makes stand-alone field testing weak is that students are not motivated to do well on tests that are given late in the year consisting entirely of questions they know don’t count. Therefore, the information obtained about how the try-out items functioned is tenuous when publishers must choose which ones will become operational.

Stand-alone field testing has been discredited and criticized as contributing to poorly constructed Common Core exams. There are no negative consequences for rejecting this shoddy approach.

Clearly, not leveling with parents shows contempt. It is part of SED’s conspiracy of silence designed to keep mass testing in place. Parents and their children, the lifeblood of the public schools, should strongly consider opting out of the 2017 exams.

Categories Lies, Opt Out, Parents, Propaganda, Standardized Testing, Students

A Great Night at Southold High School: A Personal Report

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2017 //
10

Superintendent David Gamberg leads the schools of two adjoining school districts on Long Island, Greenport and Southold on Long Island. Gamberg has a holistic view of education. He believes in the full development of young children as happy, healthy, well-rounded people. He thinks that the arts are far more important than test scores. He wants the children to explore their talents. His schools have a garden, where the children raise vegetables and share them. Southold schools have an amazing array of musical activities, including an orchestra, a choir, and a jazz band. It also has an award-winning robotics team. And its rate of opting out from state tests is one of the highest in the state.

Superintendent Gamberg invited Mary and me to attend the major school production of the school year: “Les Miserables.”

We had seen it many years ago in both London and New York. It is a big, ambitious production, with a huge cast and demanding musical numbers. I couldn’t imagine how students could pull off this sprawling and complicated musical.

The event was held in the high school auditorium, which holds about 700 people. Lucky we had reserved seats because the house was packed, as were all the other performances. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and local community members from every walk of life.

The music was supplied by the school’s 16-piece orchestra, and it was fabulous. The show was spectacular.

We were blown away by the acting, the singing, and the staging. The student talent was amazing. Some of the kids had acted in school productions for four, five, or six years. There must have been fifty students in the cast, maybe more, and many more working behind the scenes. The story of Jean Val Jean and Inspector Javert was presented with zest, passion, and the energy of youth.

It was really, really funny to see these beautiful children standing on the barricades and singing about the revolution and waving a big red flag in a community that voted by a small margin for Trump.

We loved the show and so did the rest of the audience. The cast and orchestra received a standing ovation and cheers that rocked the room.

We looked at each other and said, “Now we know why we pay taxes, and it is money well spent.”

An event like this performance is what makes a public school a community school. You can bet that the next bond issue will easily pass. Not just because of this production, but because of the vision that produces an education that unifies the community and gives all children a chance to shine.

America has many thousands of communities like this one. The public schools are the cement of the community.

Betsy DeVos doesn’t understand that. She never will. Sad.

Categories Arts Education, Joy, Students
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