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A Florida High School Student Speaks Truth to Power

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2013 //
11

What lessons do we teach young people about government when they see the lies told about their schools and their teachers by public officials? Are we teaching them that elected officials can say anything at all, with no regard for truth or reality?

This is a letter from a high school student in Florida. Please read it. She makes more sense than the deciders in DC and Tallahassee or the pundits.

Esther, don’t give up hope. We need your good sense to turn this nation and your state around.

She writes:

I am a high school student who attends a public school in Seminole County and I applaud you for this blog. This past year especially I have felt as if every other second I’m being force-fed a meaningless statistic about how wonderful the education is in Florida and how we are excelling by leaps and bounds, while I watch teachers and students alike suffer the consequences of these careless political decisions.

Our school’s media center is also a “Hub for Technology” computer lab to be used by teachers for testing, and 124 out of the 180 school days it is being used for just that – PERT, EOC, FCAT, AP, SAT, ACT, semester exams – when are teachers supposed to have the time to teach? We worry about budget cuts (to an already laughable budget), but while faculty and staff are being laid off and programs cut, the money is being handed away to test makers. These tests give us meaningless figures to show everyone we can that we’re “progressing” but personally I believe we are regressing.

And the evaluation systems for both teachers AND students are so ridiculous, it’s as if the public school system is a parody of itself. The pressure a teacher is put under to have all of the correct phrases, learning goals, and “percentile gain” methods on display in their classrooms; I honestly don’t know how they manage to do it. Stopping to have every high school student hold up a hand gesture and gauge their understanding on a lesson every time one is taught, just because these Marzano techniques were highly effective in ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS is, to me, insane.

I don’t even know what to do about any of this either aside from hope that someone with power, someone with common sense, someone with a love of EDUCATION, realizes what is going on and decides to take action. Because seeing my teachers crumpling under stress due to the greed of heartless politicians is something that I can hardly stomach.

Categories Florida, Students, Testing

Jay Mathews: Why Did Two Inspector Generals Ignore Cheating in DC?

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2013 //
7

Jay Mathews wrote a great column on the failure of two inspector generals to probe the DC cheating scandal.

Michelle Rhee is traversing the nation, selling her big “success” story in DC, but the cheating scandal continues to fester. The testing company reported a remarkable number of wrong-to-right erasures in a large number of schools. As Mathews reports, neither IG took the erasure evidence seriously.

As Mathews points out, the only genuine hero in the DC mess was Adell Cothorne, the new principal at Noyes who reported the cheating and got frozen out by top administrators for her integrity.

The failure to get to the bottom of the testing scandal is itself a scandal. Someday, hopefully, a serious investigation will not only inquire into why the scores went up so fast and why they plummeted, but why two slipshod investigations swept the evidence under the rug. Who decided to deep-six the cheating? Why?

Meanwhile, if Rhee comes to town to tout the DC schools as a model, don’t forget to raise two issues:

1) the DC schools have one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation;
2) the achievement gaps between blacks and whites and between whites and Asians in the DC schools are double the gaps of other cities tested by NAEP.

Apparently, Rhee got textbooks delivered to the schools on time. Let’s give her credit for that.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, Testing

Turning Gym Class into Test Prep

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2013 //
46

Remember the obesity crisis? Guess not.

In the mad obsession to raise test scores and to outcompete the world, physical education classes are being turned into opportunities to teach reading, math, geography, and almost anything that might be on the test.

The story reads:

On a recent afternoon, the third graders in Sharon Patelsky’s class reviewed words like “acronym,” “clockwise” and “descending,” as well as math concepts like greater than, less than and place values.

“Ms. Patelsky, the physical education teacher at Everglades Elementary School here, instructed the students to count by fours as they touched their elbows to their knees during a warm-up. They added up dots on pairs of dice before sprinting to round mats imprinted with mathematical symbols. And while in push-up position, they balanced on one arm and used the other (“Alternate!” Ms. Patelsky urged. “That’s one of your vocabulary words”) to stack oversize Lego blocks in columns labeled “ones,” “tens” and “hundreds.”………

“Spurred by an intensifying focus on student test scores in math and English as well as a desire to incorporate more health and fitness information, more school districts are pushing physical education teachers to move beyond soccer, kickball and tennis to include reading, writing and arithmetic as well. New standards for English and math that have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia recommend that teachers in a wide variety of subjects incorporate literacy instruction and bring more “informational text” into the curriculum. Many states have interpreted these standards to include physical education and have developed recommendations and curriculum for districts and teachers to incorporate literacy skills and informational text into gym classes.”

Stop.

This is going too far. Why should students be denied the physical activity they need in the service of test prep?

Somehow I suspect no one is doing nonsense like this at Sidwell Friends or Lakeside Academy in Seattle or Deerfield Academy or Maumee Country Day School in Toledo.

Categories Testing

Information About Save Texas Schools Rally

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2013 //
0

Click here to learn details about rally on February 23 in Austin.

Last year, the rally drew 13,000 people.

I am looking forward to joining with my fellow Texans on behalf of the schools that educated me from kindergarten through twelfth grades.

Categories Budget Cuts, Support for public schools, Testing, Texas

Here Is the Link for Save Texas Schools Rally This Saturday

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2013 //
0

I will be there.

So will John Kuhn and many more.

Join with thousands of Texas parents and educators to demand a restoration of the budget cuts.

Save Texas public schools: http://savetxschools.org/

Categories Budget Cuts, Support for public schools, Testing, Texas

Save Texas Schools Rally This Saturday!

By dianeravitch
February 18, 2013 //
4

I will be in Austin this Saturday to support the children and educators of Texas. Please join me!

Final Countdown

Save Texas Schools March & Rally This Saturday!

Dear Save Texas Schools Supporter,

WE NEED YOU to join thousands from across Texas calling for an end to under-funding and over-testing our children! This is a crucial week at the legislature, with education funding and testing bills being considered. An overwhelming response on Saturday can provide the momentum to turn the tide.

Confirmed speakers include Diane Ravitch, Supt. John Kuhn, Supt. Mary Ann Whitaker, former TEA Commissioner Robert Scott, Dineen Majcher from TAMSA and other Texas business, student, teacher and parent leaders.

According to Politifact, Texas put 25% LESS funding into schools in 2012 than in 2002, while requiring more and more from schools.

Now is the time to stand up to the state and say, “Put the funding back into schools.” Texas kids can’t be left standing outside a courtroom door for the support they need today!

Rally Details

11 am march on Congress Ave., noon to 1:30 pm rally at the Capitol.

Expected Attendance: HUGE! Let’s top 2011’s record of 13,000.

Save Texas Schools is launching a petition drive this week to call for a return of the $5.4 billion needlessly cut from public education in 2011. Sign today and make sure that our legislators hear loud and clear that Texas Kids Can’t Wait!

Just Added
Friday Night Dinner with Diane Ravitch

STS is sponsoring a pre-rally dinner with nationally-known education reformer Diane Ravitch on Friday, Feb. 22 at First United Methodist Church (west side of state capitol) from 6-8 pm. Light dinner included ($10 suggested donation). Click here to register. Open to the public.

Save Texas Schools | 5604 Manor Rd. | Austin | TX | 78723

Categories Budget Cuts, Support for public schools, Testing, Texas

Bedford School District Votes to Oppose Overuse of Testing

By dianeravitch
February 18, 2013 //
7

The school board of the Bedford Central School District in Westchester County, New York, voted a resolution against the over-use and misuse of standardized testing.

Will the Bedford resolution incite other districts to reject the heavy-handed mandates from Albany and Washington?

The board’s resolution criticized both the state and federal governments for its mandates and specifically opposed the use of test scores to evaluate teachers, a main feature of Race to the Top that is much admired by state commissioner John King.

According to the linked article, the district’s statement said, “Not to be confused with routine authentic assessments of student projects and work, grades, and routine quizzes and teacher developed tests; the resolution notes the over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused collateral damage in schools by narrowing curriculum, teaching driven by testing, reducing a love of learning, and undermining school climate.”

“The resolution, the statement continued, criticizes the testing system for diverting time and energy, and serving to curtail critical thinking and problem solving skills.

“For school board members, the reliance of tests feels less like an attempt to better the lives of kids and more like an intrusion from outsiders who are detatched from what goes on locally.

Board member Suzanne Grant called it “yet another mandate,” and noted that it has come from policy makers at the state and federal levels…….

“A survey of district residents done last fall for the district shows numbers that align with the board’s concerns, with support measured by how many people deemed an assessment to be very or moderately valuable. In the survey, 92 percent rated student essays, projects and experiments as such; 89 percent for teacher-designed tests; 76 percent for homework that was graded; just 64 percent felt the same way for standardized tests.”

.

Categories New York, Testing

This Is the Look You Get When……..

By dianeravitch
February 17, 2013 //
0

Treehorn Express in Australia posted this. NYC Educator reposted so you could see it too.

Look here.

Categories Testing

Former Texas State Commissioner Blasts Pressure to Adopt Common Core

By dianeravitch
February 17, 2013 //
7

Robert Scott, who recently stepped down as State Commissioner of Education in Texas, told Georgia legislators that he was pressured to adopt the Common Core standards before they were written.

He said, in the video that appears in the linked article:

“My experience with the Common Core actually started when I was asked to sign on to them before they were written. … I was told I needed to sign a letter agreeing to the Common Core, and I asked if I might read them first, which is, I think, appropriate.  I was told they hadn’t been written, but they still wanted my signature on the letter. And I said, ‘That’s absurd; first of all, I don’t have the legal authority to do that because our [Texas] law requires our elected state board of education to adopt curriculum standards with the direct input of Texas teachers, parents  and business. So adopting something that was written behind closed doors in another state would not meet my state law.’ … I said, ‘Let me take a wait–and–see approach.‘ If something remarkable was in there that I found that we did not have in ours that I would work with our board … and try to incorporate into our state curriculum …

 

“Then I was told, ‘Oh no no, a state that adopts Common Core must adopt in its totality the Common Core and can only add 15 percent.’ It was then that I realized that this initiative which had  been constantly portrayed as state-led and voluntary was really about control. It was about control. Then it got co-opted by the Department of Education later. And it was about control totality from some education reform groups who candidly admit their real goal here is to create a national marketplace for education products and services.”

Supporters of the Common Core dispute his claim.

Scott made national headlines when he was State Commissioner because he spoke candidly against the excessive testing of students in Texas. He said testing had become “the heart of the vampire” and had perverted the purpose of education. He didn’t last long in his job after being so brutally frank. Texas has long been obsessed with testing and accountability, and Scott spoke from the heart. He also helped to ignite the national anti-testing movement.

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Industry, For-Profit, Race to the Top, Testing, Texas

Zombie Ideas in Education

By dianeravitch
February 15, 2013 //
36

I have written on many occasions that merit pay is an idea that never works and never dies. It has been tried for over a century, and failed again and again. Yet it comes back. I didn’t realize it, but merit pay is a zombie idea.

There are many more zombie ideas, like the well-known adage that “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”

Today, the federal government mandates zombie policies in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. These programs might be called High Zombie. They rank and rate children, teachers, and schools. They fire people and cause their schools to close. They do not improve education. They suck the life out of it. Maybe they are Vampire policies. Flip a coin.

Arthur Camins, who has written brilliantly on the failure of current policies, here offers his list of zombie ideas in education.

“Zombies appear to be popular today. Paul Krugman talked about Marco Rubio’s zombie economics in today’s NY Times. Among the zombie education ideas (ideas that were dead or should have been) that keep coming back to life) are:
• People are motivated to do their best by rewards, threats and punishments.
• You can fatten the pig by weighing it. Frequent measurement will improve educational outcomes.
• When students aren’t performing well on current (low) standards, setting higher standards will cause improvement.
• People who are poor have lower levels of educational attainment and get lower paying jobs. Therefore, if they all have higher levels of educational attainment they will all get higher paying jobs and won’t be poor.
• People who are successful should be given more autonomy. People who are not as successful need rules and regulations (except charter schools that should have autonomy whether or not they perform well).
• Market place competition always improves quality.
• If one school even in unique controlled circumstances can “beat the odds,” so can all schools at scale.”

Dear Readers,
Please feel free to add your own zombie ideas.
Diane

Categories Accountability, Closing schools, Education Industry, Merit pay, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Testing
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