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Tearing Our School Apart: Is it Worth It?

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2014 //
33

Under current federal and state laws, test scores are supposed to go higher every year. Every year, the students are a different cohort, but their scores must be higher than those who preceded them. High expectations–no matter how unrealistic–are supposed to produce high achievement. Think of it this way, if students are running track and can barely jump over a 3′ bar, raise the bar to 4′ and see what happens. The assumption (usually by politicians) is that raising the bar will cause students to jump higher. But many will fail because the theory doesn’t work.

A seventh -grade teacher in a Title I (high-poverty) school in Texas writes:

“I can say from personal experience that the “scores” are ripping my department apart. Last year two-thirds of our group were shuffled between grades because of low test scores. Result, even worse scores this year. All I can say is that failure begins at the top. Ugly comments have been made, morale could not be lower.. The students are beginning to check out.

“Is it worth it all?”

Categories Testing, Texas

Jack Hassard: Protect Your Children, Opt Out of Testing

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2014 //
11

Jack Hassard, emeritus professor of science education ay Georgia State University, describes what happened when a family in Marietta decided to opt their child out of state testing. Their school used scare tactics, threatening to have them arrested. They stood their ground, and the school backed down.

Hassard contacted parents in Texas who told him of the bullying tactics in Austin schools, all intended to raise scores. The Austin superintendent has been hired by Atlanta. Hassard says the Opt Out movement is strong and growing stronger in Texas.

Georgia has just contracted with McGraw-Hill for $110 million to design new tests for Georgia. Hassard says all this testing is unnecessary. Georgia could learn all it needs to know sbout its students either from NAEP or by administering no-stakes, sampled tests like NAEP.

Hassard concludes:

“If high-stakes testing is revoked, we will make one of the most important decisions in the lives of students and their families, and the educators who practice in our public schools. Banning tests, throwing them out, eliminating them, what ever you wish to call it, will open the door to more innovative and creative teaching, and an infusion of collaborative and problem solving projects that will really prepare students for career and college.

“Making kids endure adult anger is not what public education is about. Why in the world are we so angry and willing to take it out on K-12 students? Why do we put the blame on children and youth, and if they don’t live up to a set of unsubstantiated and unscientific standards and statistics, we take it out on teachers?

“The best thing for students is throw the bums (tests) out. The next best thing will be for teachers because without standardized test scores, there will be no way to calculate VAM scores as a method to evaluate teachers.”

Categories Georgia, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Texas

Even Conservative Texans Know that K12 is a Hoax

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2014 //
19

Donna Garner is a retired teacher in Texas. She is conservative, politically and pedagogically. She is furious that the State Education Department is expanding the virtual charter school K12. Her commentary below shows what a hoax K12 is. Imagine getting credit for two years of Spanish in only eight weeks, and credit for one year of Environmental Science in only two days! Meanwhile, K12 gets full state tuition for enrolling these students. The corporation will use some of its profits to pay handsome executive salaries (its most recent CEO was paid $5 million a year), and it will use taxpayer dollars to advertise heavily for new students and to pay lobbyists to win entry into new markets or assure funding equal to that of real schools. This is about as close as one can get to a Ponzi scheme in education.

Donna Garner’ s post reminds us that the operative principle here is profit, not ideology.

5.18.14 – POSTED ON FACEBOOK BY TEXAS PARENT RE: TEXAS VIRTUAL SCHOOLS NETWORK (TXVSN)– FURTHER DOCUMENTATION THAT THE TXVSN IS A TOTAL FARCE!

[After I wrote and published the following article about the Texas Virtual Schools Network (5.18.14 – “Texas Virtual Academy: Another Failed Education Experiment” — http://www.educationviews.org/texas-virtual-academy-failed-ed-experiment/ ), a frustrated parent posted her comments on Facebook telling about her son’s experiences in TXVSN in their local school district.

Please read these comments from the bottom of the page upwards. I have removed the identifiers to protect this parent and her son. – Donna Garner]

8:00pm May 18
From S. Oh, and the grades were 90’s or better

Comment History

From S.
7:59pm May 18
Donna, I questioned the curriculum dept, the virtual academy facilitators, teachers, school board and superintendent. I was made out to be the bad guy for questioning the program. How can a kid get a YEAR of Environmental Science in 2 days and 2 YEARS of Spanish in 8 weeks? My son will tell you he knows nothing about Spanish yet he got 2 credits for it.

Donna Garner

7:43pm May 18
I can’t tell you how furious S.’s message makes me. I taught Spanish I and Spanish II for many years. When I think how hard my students had to work day in and day out for a full year to get that course credit, and then S.’s son finished those courses in a matter of weeks, I want to say bad words. How any school district could approve of such a plan by the Texas Virtual Academy [TXVSN] shows how truly lacking in concern for academic excellence many of our school administrators really are.

From R.
6:17pm May 18
So who decided to have the virtual business academy at XXXX High School?

From S.
5:56pm May 18
My son took several classes through the virtual academy [TXVSN]. He finished Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 in just weeks and Environmental Science in 2 days. I brought up this issue and NO ONE in the district seemed concerned but me.

Donna Garner
Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Categories K12 Inc., On-Line Education, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Texas

Shocker: Texas Lifts Enrollment Caps on K12

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2014 //
14

K12, the online charter corporation founded by the Milken brothers, has received a series of terrible evaluations. The NCAA recently denied a score of K12 “schools” credit because of the poor quality of instruction. A CREDO study in Pennsylvania concluded that virtual charters performed wose than public schools or brick-and-mortar charter schools.

Major stories in the Néw York Times and the Washington Post have reported that K12 virtual charters have high attrition rates, low test scores, and low graduation rates.

But K12 is good at two things: recruitment and lobbying.

In this article, Jason Stanford reports that Texas Commissioner of Education Michael Williams just lifted the enrollment cap on K12. Williams was previously head of the Railroad Commission, which theoretically “regulates” the energy industry.

According to Stanford, Williams is a friend of K12’s lobbyist. He, along with other key state officials, attended her lavish birthday party in Wine Country. The GOP candidate for governor has pledged to increase funding for K12.

In Texas, it seems the #1 criterion for education funding is not need, but lobbying. Kids come last.

Categories K12 Inc., Texas

Paul Jones: A Hero Superintendent in Texas

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2014 //
13

Every once in a while a superintendent tells the parents in his district what is in his heart, not the bureaucratic blather that usually comes out automatically.

Paul Jones is the superintendent of the Paris Independent School District in Texas. He posted a letter to the parents in his district on its website letting them know that the test scores do not define their child. No doubt he also understands that the scores are arbitrary and depend on whatever passing mark the test company or state official chooses.

He wrote:

“Next week, you will be receiving your child’s STAAR/TAKS results for the 2013-2014 school year. I’m writing this letter on behalf of PISD administrators, teachers, staff, and board members. These results should be considered as one of many instruments used to measure your child’s growth, not the end-all of your child’s learning for the year.

“These assessments do not reflect the quality of teaching or learning in our classrooms. Instead, they reflect a punitive; one size fits all test-driven system. Our students are much more than a once-a-year pencil and bubble sheet test. Your child means immeasurably more than just a number generated in Austin. There is no test that can assess all of what makes each child unique. The state mandated assessments are used by the state to score and rank our campuses and our district, however, this is not the only assessment we use for Paris ISD students. We have higher standards. Your child’s achievements must be measured by a multitude of accomplishments throughout the year. Your individual child’s academic growth is what is important, and we assess your child’s growth from the start of the school year to the end of the school year.

“In contrast, your child is assessed by the state with a criterion-referenced test (STAAR), which assesses how your child performs on a single day and uses those results to compare your child to a predetermined standard set by bureaucrats in Austin and a testing company headquartered in London, England.

“We all know students do not master skills at the same rate; each individual child has their strengths and weaknesses. This single test cannot measure what we know about your child. Many of our students play sports, play musical instruments, dance, sing, speak multiple languages, write and perform poetry or songs, and create amazing works of art. We have students working multiple jobs at night to help support their family. Many of our students are the main caregivers for younger siblings late into the evening hours. Our classrooms are reflective of a multi-faceted student involved in a wide variety of activities, both academic and extra-curricular. It is not just drill and kill for one test.

“Although the data from this assessment will help us know when to offer enrichment or intervention, we will use the state assessment for the purpose the original assessment system was created–a diagnostic tool for identifying areas of concern as well as strengths. Individual student data will be aligned with local assessment data to develop educational plans that ensure continued progress for our students. Your child’s growth and love of learning are our main goals at PISD.

“Unfortunately, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and Austin have designed a one-size-fits-all assessment system that doesn’t necessarily reflect your individual child’s growth and achievements. Our students, not the state assessment, will be our main focus and top priority. Our instructional goals are to prepare each child to be college and/or career ready for the 21st Century.

“So, yes, we live in a time when standardized test results are a reality. However, let’s not let the STAAR test overshadow what is truly important–each individual child. Let us not forget to celebrate the vast and numerous accomplishments and successes the students of PISD have achieved this school year. It has been a great one!

“Paul Jones,
Superintendent Paris Independent School District”

If you open the link, you will see that the reporter from the Dallas Morning News is less impressed than I am. He thinks that it is important to measure basic skills with a standardized test (if the test is worthy) and that Jones took a cheap shot at Pearson for being based in London.

I don’t agree. The standardized tests made by Pearson have no connection to what children were taught unless the district bought the Pearson textbooks. The teacher should test what she taught, not what Pearson prefers. Look, Texans should be outraged that the state paid Pearson nearly $500 million for five years, when Néw York got a five year contract for only $32 million. Sorry, Jeff, this is big business, not education. Nationally, billions are at stake. Superintendent Jones knows it. He also knows that every child needs to be appreciated for what they can do, not punished for what they can’t do.

What is admirable about Mr. Jones is that he understands that the tole of the school is human development, not the ranking and sorting of children for industry.

He has judgement, wisdom, a heart, and a brain. And that’s why I am adding him to the honor roll.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Honor Roll, Texas

John Kuhn Explains How Budget Cuts Devastate Rural Schools

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2014 //
7

John Kuhn is the superintendent of the small Perrin-Whitt Independent School District in rural Texas. He is an eloquent speaker and supporter of public education. He has spoken at national events and recently published two new books. He knows that the schoolssuffernot only fro budget cuts but from Washington’s wildly unrealistic expectations. He knows it would be nice if every student were bound for college but he knows it is unrealistic and turns success into failure.

This is a wonderful interview with the Texas Tribune. You will enjoy reading it.

This is the last Q&A:

“Trib+Edu: How has your life been different since 2011?

Kuhn: Not a whole lot different in terms of my day-to-day life. I still basically do what I’ve always done for a living and that is work in a rural public school and try to serve my community to the very best of my ability. I’ve been invited to give some speeches here and there and I’ve written a couple of books … I think speaking out like I did put me in a situation to where I’ve been educated in the political reality that affects local schools.

Previously, I just kind of accepted whatever rolled down from Washington, D.C., and whatever rolled down from Austin. I kind of thought the role of a teacher and educator was just to live with dumb policies. And I don’t think that anymore. I think now that I have a moral obligation to speak up and say, “Hey, this policy is dumb. It doesn’t work and this is what we’re seeing on the frontlines.”

I’m a fan of public education. I grew up in a little, rural Texas town where the public school was the center of what we did in town. There was no mayor’s office. It’s an unincorporated town and the school was the heart of the community. And I think, politically, we’ve kind of forgotten how important public schooling is in Texas.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Supporting public schools, Teacher Evaluations, Texas, U.S. Department of Education, US Education

Julian Vasquez Heilig: Uncovering Lies in Arne Duncan’s Graduation Rate Miracle Story

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2014 //
9

Julian Vasquez Heilig, a professor at the University of Texas, deconstructs another one of those miracle stories that turns out to be too good to be true.

 

Secretary Arne Duncan is collecting high-fives for a solid leap upwards in the high-school graduation rate, but Heilig says that what he is reporting is manipulation of graduation rate data.

 

Heilig uses Texas as an example. He shows how state officials played with the data, so that Texas went from 29th in the nation to 4th in the nation in only three years.

 

That’s a miracle, but as Heilig shows, the data don’t support the claim.

 

Categories Graduation rates, Texas

More on Houston Lawsuit Challenging VAM Methods to Evaluate Teachers

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2014 //
12

As readers of this blog know, using value-added-assessment is a very poor way to gauge teacher quality. The research and evidence do not support this methodology. Teacher quality cannot be judged by computers. Test scores reflect only a small part of what teachers do. And as the American Statistical Association recently said, teachers account for about 1-16% of the variation in test scores, yet their rating will be heavily influenced by test scores.

Here is a press release about the lawsuit filed in federal court in Houston, challenging VAM:

 

For Immediate Release
May 1, 2014

 

 

 

Contact:
Gayle Fallon, HFT
713/623-8891
Janet Bass, AFT
301/502-5222
jbass@aft.org

Seven Houston Teachers, Houston Federation of Teachers File Lawsuit
Challenging Constitutionality of Value-Added Measure for Evaluations
HOUSTON—Highly recognized, good teachers are receiving poor evaluations because of a grossly flawed value-added algorithm that should be changed, seven Houston teachers and the Houston Federation of Teachers said today in an unprecedented lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
　
The lawsuit details numerous problems with the Houston Independent School District’s Education Value-Added Assessment System, or EVAAS. Its statistical methodology uses a student’s performance on prior standardized tests to predict academic growth in the current year, though what is considered a sufficient level of growth is not defined. A teacher’s EVAAS score is supposed to measure the effect, or added value, of a teacher on a student’s academic growth over the school year. The school district uses this deeply flawed methodology for decisions about teacher evaluation, bonuses and termination, yet it is a “black box” system in which the methodology is considered proprietary and confidential.
　
“Due to a faulty, incomprehensible and secret formula, good teachers like the ones filing this suit are being labeled failures and our entire education system is being reduced to a numbers game,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “Testing isn’t aligned with the purposes of public education. It doesn’t measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, resilience, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities that great teaching brings out in a student. The fixation on testing has literally drained the joy out of learning. We’ve always been leery of value-added models, and we have enough evidence to make clear that not only has VAM not worked, it’s been really destructive and it in no way helps improve teaching and learning.”
　
Daniel Santos, an award-winning sixth grade social studies teacher at Jackson Middle School, said the evaluation system is failing him, his students and his profession.

“It’s dispiriting and insulting to be told I’m ineffective, a judgment that doesn’t mesh with my classroom performance or the time and effort I devote to my students. Texas is using a broken evaluation system that isn’t properly identifying who really needs help to improve,” Santos said, adding, “My students are being tested on material that is not aligned with our curriculum.”

While there have been other suits challenging VAM, the Houston suit is unique because it was brought by highly recognized teachers who contend their poor EVAAS ratings do not correlate with their actual performance nor take into account socioeconomic or demographic variables in predicting student performance. The complaint also charges that the district directed and/or pressured school administrators to “manufacture deficiencies or otherwise find fault with the instructional practices” by teachers who received low EVAAS ratings. Those teachers would be placed on a growth plan to correct the supposed faulty instructional practice.
　
Myla Van Duyn, who teaches ninth grade biology at Davis High School, received an unwarranted low EVAAS score and contends her classroom observation scores were artificially lowered to be aligned with the EVAAS scores.
　
“This is demoralizing,” said Van Duyn, who is leaving the school district at the end of the school year, a decision motivated in part by the flawed evaluation system.

“EVAAS is driving out great Houston teachers because they’d rather work in a place that respects　teachers. Everybody can do better, but the EVASS method does not accurately account for all of the variables that go into a child’s ability to answer questions on a multiple choice test,” Van Duyn said.
　
Andy Dewey, another plaintiff, is a history teacher at Carnegie Vanguard High School who developed the curriculum for two history courses and has been consistently rated well by his administrators. “Houston’s evaluation system is sold as a system to support and strengthen teaching, but it’s actually a bait and switch sham that’s weakening instruction and not helping teaching or learning at all,” Dewey said. “Teachers are told their scores are low but are not given information about what they did or did not do to cause their students to perform less than predicted.”
　
Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said: “The district is using a woefully inaccurate, educationally destructive evaluation system. If a car had as many design defects as the EVAAS system, it would be recalled as a lemon. EVAAS should be replaced with a fair and meaningful system that will actually help improve teaching and learning.”
　
AFT’s Weingarten said the real culprit is school districts’ fixation on testing, noting none of the top-performing countries subjects their students to as much testing as the United States.
　
“The testing obsession has turned kids into test scores and teachers into algorithms. Rote memorization and testing don’t prepare our students for the 21st century. We need to help kids problem solve, think critically, learn to be persistent and work in teams,” Weingarten said. “This country has spent billions on accountability, not on the improvement of teaching and learning at the classroom level, and value-added models are the leading edge of this misguided effort,” she said.
　
Weingarten said districts should develop, with teachers, a comprehensive evaluation system based on multiple measures that accurately identifies teachers needing improvement and that provides targeted help. To reclaim the promise of public education, she said there should be safe and welcoming neighborhood schools, access to early childhood education, wraparounds services at schools to address health, social and emotional issues, and project-based instruction.

Weingarten first questioned the fairness and accuracy of value-added metrics in 2007. It also has　been criticized　as inaccurate and an unstable measure of teacher performance by, most recently, the American Statistical Association, as well as RAND Corp. researchers, the National Academy of Sciences and the Economic Policy Institute. The ASA said the majority of the variation in test scores is attributable to factors outside the teachers’ control.
　
The federal lawsuit states teachers’ due process constitutional rights are being violated because the EVAAS system is not an accurate or reliable indicator of teachers’ performance and because “a cloak of secrecy” prevents teachers from verifying or challenging their EVAAS score. The suit also contends teachers’ equal protection constitutional rights are being violated because the school district directs and/or pressures school administrators to align teachers’ instructional practice scores with their EVAAS scores—two separate evaluation components—so those with below-average EVAAS scores receive arbitrary, harsher instructional practice scores. The suit also contends that the standards for acceptable growth are arbitrary, vague and constantly being recalibrated.
　
In addition to the Houston Federation of Teachers, Daniel Santos, Myla Van Duyn, and Andy Dewey, the other plaintiffs are Ivan Castillo (a fourth-grade bilingual teacher who has taught at　 Briscoe Elementary School since 1994, was the school’s bilingual teacher of the year in 2013-14 and is a finalist for bilingual elementary teacher for the Houston Independent School District) ; Paloma Garner (a ninth-grade biology teacher at David High School, has received several national awards recognizing her mentoring skills and has a consistent record of strong performance); Araceli Ramos (a ninth-grade English teacher at Austin High School who was selected in 2014 by a school official to tutor teachers on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System) and Joyce Helfman (an eighth-grade English teacher at Johnston Middle School who has had a consistent record of strong performance and is well respected by her colleagues).

 

 

Categories Accountability, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, Texas

The Story of Houston Teachers Suing District’s Test-based Evaluation System

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2014 //
45

Here is the story of the Houston Seven, the teachers suing to invalidate the evaluations based on student tests scores.

How nutty is this?

“Andrew Dewey is an award-winning history teacher at Carnegie Vanguard High School in Houston. In 2011-12, he earned the top merit pay award that his school district gives out and had “most effective” teacher status through a controversial evaluation system that uses student standardized test scores. The next year, after teaching similar students in the same way, he went from being one of the district’s highest-performing teachers to one that made “no detectable difference” for his students.

“Dewey is one of seven high-achieving teachers who, along with the Houston Federation of Teachers, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas late Wednesday alleging that the Houston Independent School District uses a badly flawed method of evaluating teacher effectiveness, known as the “Educational Value-Added Assessment System.” The teachers argue that the EVAAS is inaccurate and unfair but that it still plays a large role in determining how much teachers are paid and whether they can keep their jobs.
The method, generically known as “value added measures,” or VAM, is increasingly in use around the country — with the support of the Obama administration — after Michelle Rhee pioneered the method when she ran D.C. public schools several years ago. The result of this lawsuit could affect evaluation systems well beyond Texas.”

Just think: if the Houston teachers win, and the evidence is on their side–they take down the central theory of Race to the Top and Rhee, as well as laws in dozens of states that will face similar lawsuits.

“Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that the obsession with standardized testing that has driven education policymakers to make standardized test scores the key metric of accountability for students, educators and schools, is bastardizing public education.

“This country has spent billions on accountability, not on the improvement of teaching and learning at the classroom level, and value-added models are the leading edge of this misguided effort,” she said.”

Start with Race to the Top. $5 billion wasted.

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Texas

Seven Houston Teachers Suing Over Flawed VAM Ratings

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2014 //
16

Seven teachers in Houston are suing the district over the use of test-score-based evaluations.

Good for them!

As a K-12 graduate of HISD, I am proud of these teachers for standing up for their profession.

I hope they will introduce as evidence the recent statement of the American Statistical Association cautioning about the limitations of VAM, as well as the joint statement of the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association, warning that VAM produces results that are inaccurate and unstable.

Here is a good list of references the plaintiffs can use.

VAM is junk science when used to rate individual teachers. The ratings change if a different test is used. VAM says more about the composition of the class than the quality of the teacher.

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Texas
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