Jose Vilson is one of New York City’s best teacher
bloggers. In
this post, he notes that Mayor Bloomberg experienced two
major setbacks within a matter of days: First, his education legacy
collapsed along with the new state test scores showing that most
students are “failing.” The Mayor felt compelled to defend the
lower scores, calling them “very good news,” when he should have
been calling foul play. Second, a federal judge said that the
Mayor’s prized policy of allowing police to “stop and frisk” anyone
at any time was unconstitutional, and ordered that the Police
Department must be monitored to see that it carries out stops in a
legal manner, one that is not racially discriminatory. Vilson
brilliantly connects these two seemingly disparate results. He
could not believe that most of his own students had “failed” and he
was suspicious of just how high the bar was raised and whether it
made any sense. Time to stop and frisk the test scores, not young
men who happen to be black or Hispanic and minding their own
business. For a terrific round-up of the best blogs about New York
State’s testing fiasco, read
Larry Ferlazzo’s roundup. Larry is a master cataloguer of
all things education.
This reader responds to the findings
of the PDK/Gallup poll, which showed a shift in public
opinion against testing, against using test scores to evaluate
teachers, and against public release of teacher personnel files and
ratings. “We said last year that we had a lot of hard work to do,
to inform and educate the parents we work with, to organize
communities and form effective coalitions of resistance…We said
it was going to be a herculean task. For the past year we each have
been busy doing just that. (I held a series of advocatcy workshps
for parents at my school, with my principal’s blessing) We have
been relentless promoting our cause in the media and on the
internet…constant unrelenting communicating and informing, always
learning. Knowledge is power. “Now we discover that since last
year, the percentages have shifted in favor of teachers, teacher
concerns and Public Education. I ask you, “Who said American public
educators are not effective teachers?” Just look at what we have
accomplished in a year! “We are AMAZING educators and incredible
motivators…Congratulations everyone (((cheers)))
(((applause)))… “Now we need to keep at it until every classroom
in our great nation is FREE of the corporate influence. Keep active
educating other teachers and supporting parents and encouraging
students to organize…the battle is shifting in our favor and it
is a battle, but the war is far from over. We can do
this!”
In this article in the New York Daily News, award-winning investigative journalist Juan Gonzalez examines the high suspension rates at the Harlem Success Academy charter schools of Eva Moskowitz.
Gonzalez writes:
“Success Academy, the charter school chain that boasts sky-high student scores on annual state tests, has for years used a “zero tolerance” disciplinary policy to suspend, push out, discharge or demote the very pupils who might lower those scores — children with special needs or behavior problems.
“State records and interviews with two dozen parents of Success elementary school pupils indicate the fast-growing network has failed at times to adhere to federal and state laws in disciplining special-education students.
At Harlem Success 1, the oldest school in the network, 22% of pupils got suspended at least once during the 2010-11 school year, state records show. That’s far above the 3% average for regular elementary schools in its school district.
“Four other Success schools — the only others in the network to report figures for 2010-11 — had an average 14% suspension rate.”
The kids pushed out by HSA then go to the public schools, which compare unfavorably to HSA, which got rid of them.
Fred Smith, a testing expert who worked for years at the
New York City Board of Education, now advises Change the Stakes, an
anti-testing group. In
this article, he analyzes the progress of nine schools in
New York state that bear the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The schools are located in different cities and communities but
they bear two common features: they are racially segregated, and
their test scores are abysmal. Taken together, 91% of the
children enrolled in these schools are black (67%) or Hispanic
(24%); 13% are considered to be limited in English proficiency.
About 90% receive free (85%) or reduced-price (5%)
lunches. At these schools, 2,883 students took
the statewide English Language Arts exams and 2,921 took the math
tests — providing 5,804 test scores. Most students were in grades 3
to 5….. What of the 8- to 10-year-old
children whose educations, hopes, formative development and chances
for future success are bound up in these wonderfully named schools
where circumstance has placed them? In 2009,
when the state exams were discredited for being ridiculously easy,
55% of the heirs to King’s legacy were found to be proficient in
reading, as were 71% in math. By last year, with the advent of
tougher “more rigorous” exams, the results had fallen to 24% and
31%. The April results released this month
fulfilled the prophecy: 7% and 6% proficiency in reading and math
at the nine schools. What a disgrace: 7% proficiency in
reading, and 6% proficiency in math. Perhaps Commissioner John King
can take over these schools and kick out the kids with low scores,
suspend those who don’t walk in a straight line, institute a
“no-excuses” culture of “high expectations.” Can we not do better
by the children in these schools and in all schools regardless of
what they are named? Must we treat them like little robots to
compel them to obey? Or can we not educate them with dignity and
purpose and prepare them to live fruitful lives?
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/sad-measure-dr-king-dream-article-1.1438608#ixzz2dGw25m3P
This parent says her daughter is a top student but found the Common Core tests confusing. She doesn’t have keyboarding skills. How will the district pay for the necessary technology? By increasing class size?
She writes:
“My children are enrolled in school in CA and my daughter’s 6th grade class was “chosen” to take the Common Core test. She is a GATE identified high achiever, with almost perfect CA state scores. She found the Common Core test to be confusing. She too echoed the complaints above. She has no typing experience (it is not on the test so why would they teach it) and so did not have enough time to finish the essays. She found the clicking and typing noises of others to be highly distracting. My kids go to one of the larger richer districts in Orange County and even they do not have the funds for computers for everyone. Where is this money going to come from? Oh yes, my first grader sat in a class of 29! This is a travesty.”
Alfie Kohn here chastises the New York Times Book Review for adding its
heft to the conventional wisdom: that our schools are “mediocre”
and need to find some other nation to emulate; that test scores
define success in school and in life; that test scores determine a
nation’s economic prospects; that children must be treated like
“hamsters in a cage” so they cram in enough facts to get those
all-important test scores; and that the only reason to go to school
is to make more money one day. These are what he calls “recycled
assumptions.” They are what I call the stale conventional wisdom.
These ideas are the underpinnings of No Child Left Behind and Race
to the Top. They are ruining the lives of children and teachers.
Left in place, they will turn education into a commodity that one
buys at Walmart or on the Internet, absent any human interaction.
That way: an ugly, soulless future. Alfie Kohn makes this
prediction: “Food for thought? Listen — I’ll gladly eat the front
page of the New York Times Book
Review if it ever features a book that challenges
these premises.” Inasmuch as I have a book that will be published
on September 17, inasmuch as it challenges the dead ideas of the
past generation, I hope he has that repast.
Aaron Pallas is one of the wisest education scholars in New York, and therefore (as we New Yorkers all believe) in the world.
He consistently brings a fresh perspective to the unfolding drama and spectacle that is now U.S. education.
And he is one of the few academics willing to enter the arena and engage with current events.
That is one of the clear benefits of tenure.
In this post, Pallas says that he predicted--with uncanny accuracy–how proficiency rates would change as a result of the Common Core tests.
He also notes the incomprehensible glee with which Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg reacted to the news that only one in five students of color are considered “proficient” after a full decade of their policies.
As he observes, Mayor Bloomberg sees everything on his watch as good news, whether scores go up, stay the same, or go down.
Pallas writes:
Here’s the dirty little secret: no one truly understands the numbers. We are behaving as though the sorting of students into four proficiency categories based on a couple of days of tests tells us something profound about our schools, our teachers and our children. There are many links in the chain of inference that can carry us from those few days in April to claims about the health of our school system or the effectiveness of our teachers. And many of those links have yet to be scrutinized.
Does Mayor Bloomberg understand the numbers? Perhaps he’d care to share with us the percentage of children in each grade who ran out of time and didn’t attempt all of the test items, and the consequences of that for students’ scores. Or how well the pattern of students’ answers fit the complex psychometric models used to estimate a student’s proficiency. Or how precisely a child’s scale score measures his or her performance. Or how many test items had to be discarded because they didn’t work the way they were intended. Or what fraction of the Common Core standards was included on this year’s English and math tests—and what was left out.
These are just some of the factors in the production of the proficiency rates that have been the subject of so much attention. And the properties of the test are just one link in the chain.
Hmmm. When no one understands the numbers, not the Mayor who is in charge of the schools, not the scholars who study the schools, not the State Education Department, no one: What does that mean?
David Gamberg is superintendent of the Sourhold district in
Long Island, Néw York. He
understands something that state commissioner John King
does not. Children are different. They develop in different ways
and at different rates. They have different strengths and
weaknesses. Experienced educators know this. The standard for high
achievement in mile-long races is 4 minutes. Runners tried for
years until 1954, when Roger Bannister
broke the barrier. Now many runners have, and it is the
standard. Does that mean you are a failure if it takes you 9 or 15
minutes to run a mile? No. Should all children score “proficient”
on a test that was deliberately made so hard that only 30/35% would
“pass”? What about the kids who are gifted artists and musicians?
What about those who can fix things and are great at solving
practical problems? What about those who are English language
learners? Should they “fail”? Should they be denied a high school
diploma? Sure, it is necessary to test kids periodically to see how
they are doing, but tests should be used to help kids and teachers,
not to punish them.
After much deliberation, I have decided to support Bill de Blasio for mayor of New York City.
I thought long and hard, because I know and respect some of the other candidates.
I issued the following statement to the de Blasio campaign.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants students with disabilities to take the same standardized tests as students without disabilities, reports Joy Resmovits at Huffington Post.
The change “could have profound effects on some of the nation’s most vulnerable learners.”
“Since President Barack Obama came into office, his administration has upheld and advanced policies that have increased the stakes of standardized testing, arguing that student progress ultimately matters above all other concerns. Policies such as the Race to the Top competition derive from the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which tied federal school aid to standardized test results.”
In the immortal words of Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid:
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
