Archives for category: Texas
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

The Privatizing of San Antonio Schools

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2012 //
9

A big foundation in Texas is creating a $50 million fund to open 145 new charters for 80,000 children in San Antonio. The city already has one-quarter of its students in charters. One of the chains likeliest to grow there are Great Hearts, BASIS, KIPP, AND IDEA.

It seems that the goal is to create a privatized system of schools in San Antonio, with whatever public schools remain enrolling the kids the charters don’t want.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, KIPP Charter Schools, Privatization, Texas

IDEA Charters Make Claims That Are “Demonstrably False”

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2012 //
8

Tonight the Austin school board will deliberate the future of the IDEA charter school chain.

The chain claims to offer a “rigorous” college preparatory program. It claims that 100% of its graduates enter four-year colleges and universities and that 92% are either still in college or have graduated.

As researcher Ed Fuller shows, none of these claims is true.

71.4% of the IDEA graduates–not 100%–enrolled in a four-year institution of higher education.

Nearly half of them–43%–are failing in college. They were not well prepared.

Each year, the failure rate has gotten larger.

Despite these unimpressive statistics, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the IDEA charter chain a stunning $29 million.

Fuller concludes:

“One would think that given claims of the CEO, the marketing focus on being a college preparatory school, and the recent $29 million Race to the Top award from the US Department of Education, IDEA graduates would be showing improving performance in this area. Yet, this is not the case.

“In addition, this data calls into serious question the 92% persistence rate of IDEA graduates in universities as claimed in the IDEA annual report. While students earning less than a 2.0 GPA during the first year of college do not necessarily get removed from the university or drop out of school, the fact that nearly one out of every two IDEA graduates failed to earn a passing GPA suggests that more than 8% of IDEA graduates might fail to enroll after their first year of post-secondary work. Unfortunately, IDEA provides no data source or even data table to substantiate their claim about the persistence rate and, given that many of IDEA’s claims have proved to be untrue, one has to question the veracity of claims that are not substantiated by some independent data source.

“I have written about this issue before in more detail (see http://fullerlook.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/college-readiness-of-idea-and-other-high-schools-in-the-rio-grande-valley/) and shown that given the initial scores of IDEA students entering high school, IDEA students tend to under-perform on the SAT and college performance. Indeed, even when compared to high schools in the same labor market, IDEA students substantially underperform in college. This entry simply updates the previous post with a new cohort of students.

“Sadly, despite the rhetoric from IDEA, Tom Torkelson, and the US Department of Education, the college preparedness of IDEA schools has been moving in the wrong direction.”

Categories Charter Schools, Texas

Why Republicans Will Not Use the V Word

By dianeravitch
December 14, 2012 //
4

Why do Republicans like Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal fear to use the V word?

Why do they say “opportunity scholarship” when they really mean Voucher?

As with most everything else (as Gail Collins said in her latest book), the answer may be found in Texas.

Texas, as we all know, is a red red red state.

The next legislature is planning to take up the voucher issue.

It should be a slam-dunk, right, because Texas is a red state and Republicans love school choice.

But not so fast. It turns out, in a recent poll, that most Texans don’t want vouchers.

Most Texans want more money for public schools.

Even Republicans in the poll, by a 2-1 majority, want more money for public schools, not vouchers.

And that, dear readers, is why Republicans will not use the V word.

Even Republican voters don’t want vouchers.

They don’t want to blow up public education and hand it over to profiteers and religious institutions.

Democrats and Republicans alike want better public schools.

 

 

Categories Texas, Vouchers

Texas State Board Member: Too Much Testing!

By dianeravitch
December 9, 2012 //
23

Thomas Ratliff was elected to the Texas State Board of Education in 2010. A Republican, he has emerged as one of the most eloquent and powerful voices for public education in the state. In this article, explains; Testing in Texas is out of control.

But wait: here is Sandy Kress, architect of the reviled NCLB, insisting that every child in Texas has the right to be tested with super frequency. Testing is the very foundation, it seems, of the state’s economy. without it, where would Texas be? Kress is now a lobbyist for Pearson, which won a five-year contract for almost $500 million from the state of Texas. The legislature found the testing money at the same time they cut the public schools’ budget by $5.4 Billion. That’s B for Billions.

Sara Stevenson, a librarian at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, sent the following letter to the editor in response to Kress’s spirited defense of standardized testing:

“Surprise, surprise. Sandy Kress, a current lobbyist for Pearson, the
British testing company with a $468,000,000 five year contract with
Texas, argues in favor of the new tests. He believes that these new
tests will guarantee the state’s constitutional responsibilities for
“a general diffusion of knowledge” among the population. But Article 7
of the Texas constitution is more specific. It calls for the “support
and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

“Article 7 is about the state’s obligation to support public schools,
not to test them. Texas did not meet this standard when it cut 5.4
billion dollars for public education in the current biennium. Texas
successfully educated its citizens for over a century without these
increasingly onerous, standardized tests.”

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Testing, Texas

When Grover Whitehurst Testified Against Class Size Reduction

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2012 //
9

Most of the school boards in Texas are suing the state because of outrageous budget cuts (over $5 billion in the last legislative session), which caused increased class size. The state called as its witness Grover Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution, to testify that class size doesn’t matter. Whitehurst was in charge of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences during the administration of President George W. Bush.

In this account of his appearance, Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters points out that Whitehurst’s own department–during his time in office–had labeled class size reduction as one of the few truly effective reforms.

Does class size matter? Read this account and reach your own judgment.

Categories Budget Cuts, Texas

John Kuhn Explains Why the Status Quo is Wrong

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2012 //
7

John Kuhn is superintendent of a small school district in Texas. But his voice is mighty and powerful. Those who have heard him wish he were Commissioner of Education for the state of Texas or in another position where everyone would learn from his wisdom.

Kuhn was the first person to be named to the honor roll for his eloquence and courage in support of public education.

November 02, 2012 07:21 PM CDT November 02, 2012 09:04 PM

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20121102-point-person-our-qa-with-john-kuhn-on-schools-over-reliance-on-testing.ece

Point Person: Our Q&A with John Kuhn on school’s over-reliance on testing

Comments (3)
The Dallas Morning News

Published: 02 November 2012 07:21 PM
John Kuhn, superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Jack County, northwest of Fort Worth, is active speaking out and writing critically about public-education reformers. He’s gained some fame for his oft-quoted “Alamo letter” from 2011, in which he vowed never to surrender the fight for his students. Now that more than 850 Texas school boards have signed on to a resolution against over-reliance on high-stakes testing, we asked Kuhn what that movement is all about. (This is a longer version of the Q&A that appears in print.)
You’ve said some very pointed things about education reformers, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and their impact on schools. What worries you the most?
What worries me most as both a dad and an educator is the outsized influence of test-makers, statisticians, and economists on modern educational decision-making. Unfortunately, our wizards of data are not wizards of humanity, and they have foolishly elevated impersonal forces as the drivers of education.
The education of children is above all a human endeavor. We aren’t programming answers into computers; we are inspiring and encouraging and challenging and coaxing and pushing and pulling and hoping and praying and hugging and wiping tears and watching ballgames and telling them how nice they look in their prom dresses. The value of the factory model touted by today’s educational Taylorists is quickly disproved by its absence of the holistic and humane methods employed in the best private schools. Middle class kids need and deserve more art in their lives than the arrays of bubbles they pencil in. Elite reformers want what’s best for their kids, but they often only want what’s most efficient for yours and mine.
Ultimately, I want for my kids what caring parents, like our president, want for theirs: a thorough, non-standardized education of the whole child. Today we are so busy raising test scores that we are forgetting to raise children. The little red schoolhouse is fast becoming a little red widget factory, and that’s wrong for kids and detrimental for our future well-being as a people.
To what extent are your concerns shared by other local educators?
We are nearing critical mass. I only speak for myself, but there are hundreds of Texas schools suing the state in a lawsuit that has been called “the granddaddy of school finance lawsuits.” They aren’t suing for more money but rather for sensible policies and an honest accounting by the state of the costs of its mandates. Reduced education funding sometimes happens during hard times, but reduced regulation? Our recent $5.4 billion school funding reduction came with a brand new $500 million dollar contract with the London test-shop Pearson.
There are also hundreds of school boards in Texas that have signed a resolution that says standardized tests are strangling education and draining it of its vibrancy and excitement for learners. The resolution—started in Texas—has spread to several other states. Then there are Texas parents forming groups like Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment, Texas Parents Opt Out of State Tests, and Kids Can’t Wait. School board members have organized initiatives like last session’s “Make Education a Priority” movement. Over 20 school districts are participating in the Texas High Performance Schools consortium; they will pilot a new way of holding teachers and students accountable for learning that embraces modern technology instead of tools inspired by 19{+t}{+h} century scientific management theory. They will hopefully develop a new, less punitive and misleading accountability methodology that reduces the onslaught of bubble tests that our kids face today.
Are my concerns widely shared by local educators? I would guess yes, but I can’t prove it. Many educators prefer to keep quiet and keep their jobs (which aren’t as secure as they used to be) so you won’t hear too many speak out publicly about the burdensome and sometimes near-impossible demands they face. In fact, an educator who speaks up is usually condemned fairly quickly as an apologist for the status quo. Meanwhile, the real status quo is the expensive and ineffective testing-and-labeling we’ve been doing for 30 years in Texas.
Put it in human terms. What’s not happening in the classroom today because of focus on standardized testing?
High schoolers must pass five EOC tests per year; they’re often placed in remedial classes if they don’t pass. Sophomores may be losing one or two periods for a remedial class. That’s one or two electives gone. As time passes, some will stack up tests they failed two years ago, last year, and tests they face this year. A struggler who might flourish because of a trade won’t get his hands dirty. This is one size fits all; all kids are going to college whether they want to or not.
Texas Workforce Commissioner Tom Pauken notes that Texas has a shortage of welders and plumbers, but our system is built so that students most likely to benefit from technical training won’t get it. We’re channeling would-be highly-paid technicians not into available industry-recognized certification programs but rather into schedules that feature a paucity of hands-on experiences, so they can focus on their tests.
In elementary school, strugglers lose art, recess, music, or PE. We tell at-risk students to stay in school; then we take away classes they most enjoy. When we reduced education to a competition, we condemned exploration and discovery and settled for rote proficiency.
How does this affect how a teacher teaches?
Teachers face a perverse incentive to drill and kill in the classroom and focus intensely on the narrow curriculum that is tested. Principals face the temptation to enforce scripted approaches that overemphasize test prep. Marketers are pitching materials keyed to STAAR with great zeal; districts face an onslaught of big promises: “Raise STAAR Scores Now!” Some teachers and schools resist a test-centered approach in favor of a child-centered approach; but with livelihoods on the line if scores don’t rise, it’s as if teachers are being asked to teach under hanging anvils.
Teachers and administrators agree with the need for accountability and want to be held accountable for our results. What we ask for are honest measures that take into account all factors that contribute to our success or failure. Educational outcomes do not solely hinge on teacher quality. There are home and community and funding factors in play, but accountability gurus are happy to leave those variables out of their formulas. No one but the teachers are up for criticism in their world of selective accountability.
The U.S. Department of Education has chosen to set a 100 percent standardized testing pass rate as the goal, with constant classroom duress as the main motivator for teachers and students and absolutely no pressure on legislators to provide equitable resources from school district to school district. We shouldn’t be surprised to see unintended consequences as schools struggle to attain the impossible: getting 100 percent of their kids to pass the almighty bubble test by 2014. What’s good for test scores isn’t always what’s good for kids, but our punitive accountability fetish has established test scores as the measurably more important of the two.
But aren’t there poor teachers who fail to prepare their students, and don’t test scores help establish that?
Yes, poor teachers exist. No, a poor test score doesn’t establish poor teaching. It’s not that simple. A terrible teacher in an $8,000-per-pupil school may obtain higher scores than a wonderful teacher in a $4,000-per-pupil school. Those extra funds impact outcomes by providing smaller classes, fewer leaks in the roof, more and newer instructional materials, and various supports that aren’t available at the other school.
Our current system dissuades the best teachers from teaching in our toughest schools because they will be facilely scapegoated for things outside their control. Pinning everything on the classroom teacher lets policymakers and budget writers off the hook pretty easily. Accountability only falls on teachers, and politicians laugh all the way to re-election.
What does your “child-centered approach” look like, and how does the state make sure that all students learn the fundamentals?
Tom Pauken’s approach is child-centered, with multiple paths to graduation: a math/science path, humanities/fine arts path, and a technical/vocational path. Students get ownership of their education and focus on their strengths instead of adhering to one-size-fits-all mandates from outsiders. Elementaries need a well-rounded curriculum including core classes, arts, physical education, and recess for unstructured play.
Test advocates pretend a $500 million plan to test every student every year is the only way to monitor learning and that everyone who opposes this bamboozle opposes accountability. But many of us who wish to reform reform support smart testing using sampling techniques at certain grades to save limited instructional time and education dollars.
There are many additional ways to monitor outcomes if Texans will think outside the testing contract straightjacket. Online portfolios, NAEP scores, ACT-PLAN and PSAT scores, grades and passing rates, graduation rates, college-acceptance rates, dropout rates, and student surveys are just a few that come to mind. We can also require all graduates to show they are college-ready by means of college acceptance and/or ACT/SAT scores, or show they’re career-ready by obtaining an industry-recognized vocational certification prior to graduation. This isn’t hard; it just isn’t what lobbyists want to hear.
I admit that I am not sold on STAAR. I do not agree with the allegation that I therefore oppose accountability. In fact, I want accountability even for the accountability merchants.
More than 850 Texas school boards have passed resolutions objecting to the over-reliance on standardized testing. What impact do you expect that to have in next year’s lawmaking session?
I don’t know. I suspect that voting parents calling their representatives will have more impact than school board resolutions. It was telling months ago how quickly and publicly some Texas moms rebuked a prominent testing advocate when he accused superintendents of “scaring mom” over the testing issue. Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock said in a hearing last session that officials were getting lots of phone calls from parents about overtesting. At the same time, I understand that lobbyists representing the testing firms won’t go down without a fight.
I would like to note that these resolutions were adopted by elected local trustees. In Texas schools, school board members are often parents and involved community members; they are regular folks. This is representative democracy in action—local citizens are using the resolution to let their voices be heard alongside the lobbyists in Austin. If our leaders truly want to represent their constituents, the resolution will indeed influence their actions.
Why fight? Don’t you have a lot of common ground with advocates of standardized testing — high school graduates who are prepared to go into the workforce, onto more training or onto college?
I don’t think I have much common ground with folks who set impossible targets (100 percent of students must pass their standardized tests in 2014, under No Child Left Behind) and ignore the effects of funding injustices (Academically Unacceptable districts get funded an average of $1,000 less per student than Exemplary districts). These policies don’t help kids; they help to torpedo public schools.
Texas leaders have worshipped test-and-punish technocrats for over 20 years, and yet a testing advocate recently wrote “Wake Up – Schools Are Failing.” He says the solution is to “stay the course,” i.e., more of the same. But why are schools failing after two decades with accountability hawks in charge? When will their prescriptions work? It’s telling that Texas private schools are allowed to utilize the state’s testing system but politely say, “No thanks.”
Meanwhile, the universal failure of Texas public schools is preordained for 2014 — guaranteed by those who came up with the federal accountability targets — and news of their failure will be music to the ears of some. But to many of us, the school is still the heart of the community.
Our sons and daughters still grow up in the glow of Friday night lights, just as they have for generations. We still put their pictures in the paper when they do well at the spelling bee or win an essay contest; we still burn a bonfire and crown our small-town royalty. My son and I recently looked at my dad’s yearbook photo from 1951. Dad was a Pirate, and now, 60 years later, my sons and my daughter are all Pirates, too.
Some people may want a charter school or a virtual online school for their kids, and that’s fine — but many of us simply want Texas to stop undermining our humble community schools by carpet-bombing them with tests, paperwork, and inane targets … and maybe pat our hard-working teachers on the back once in awhile, too. To me, these things are worth fighting for.
These are the same public schools that educated the greatest generation and taught the Americans who won the space race. News of their demise is greatly exaggerated.
This Q&A was conducted via email and condensed by Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rodger Jones. His email address is rmjones@dallasnews.com. John Kuhn can be reached at johnkuhntx@gmail.com.
Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Childhood, Pre-K, K, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Honor Roll, Privatization, Testing, Texas, US Education

Student in San Antonio Objects to Electronic Tag

By dianeravitch
November 24, 2012 //
39

A high school in San Antonio initiated a bizarre requirement this fall.

Every student is expected to wear an electronic badge, presumably so the district knows how many students are in school and can track their movement.

When a student objected on religious grounds to wearing the tag , the district suspended her.

She is suing the district.

The district claims it needs to follow every student so as to make sure it was getting all the state money that is tried to attendance.

But there are genuine reasons to be concerned about breaches of civil liberties.

This affair is but one more evidence of intrusive practices that technology makes possible.

When we go online, someone somewhere is tracking whatever we do, whatever we purchase, which websites we visit, and this information is then sold to other companies.

Our personal information is being marketed without our knowledge or permission.

What is it that seems so objectionable about asking all students to wear a barcode?

Well, to begin with, they are human beings, not products on a grocery shelf.

People should not be treated as inventory.

When I think about tracking people, I think of the anklets that people are required to wear by judges, because they might be a risk to flee the country or go into hiding.

But students are not prisoners or suspects.

This matter is reminiscent of the kerfuffle over the galvanic skin response bracelets, which students are supposed to wear so that evaluators can measure students’ excitement or engagement and simultaneously (perhaps) evaluate the teachers’ ability to get them excited or engaged.

You have to wonder, first, who dreams up these ideas, and second, who reviews and approves them.

Categories Students, Texas

A Wonderful Article About Destructive Reforms

By dianeravitch
November 23, 2012 //
15

The New York Times has a terrific article today by Michael Brick about the destructive policies that are called “reforms.” This is the first time in my memory that an article in the newspaper of record–albeit an opinion piece–has acknowledged that both political parties share the same demented and punitive approach and that their ideas are hurting, not helping.

Please read it. It gives me hope that our message is breaking through the elaborate publicity machine of corporate education reform.

Here is a sample:

“For the past three decades, one administration after another has sought to fix America’s troubled schools by making them compete with one another. Mr. Obama has put up billions of dollars for his Race to the Top program, a federal sweepstakes where state educational systems are judged head-to-head largely on the basis of test scores. Even here in Texas, nobody’s model for educational excellence, the state has long used complex algorithms to assign grades of Exemplary, Recognized, Acceptable or Unacceptable to its schools.

“So far, such competition has achieved little more than re-segregation, long charter school waiting lists and the same anemic international rankings in science, math and literacy we’ve had for years.

“And yet now, policy makers in both parties propose ratcheting it up further — this time, by “grading” teachers as well.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Race to the Top, Testing, Texas

When Happy Talk Is Mandated

By dianeravitch
November 21, 2012 //
12

A reader in Texas responds to a post about the Dallas superintendent, who has sent out directions to schools to express themselves only in positive terms:

This blog reminds me: we got a new superintendent in our district where I was the deputy superintendent. His FIRST act was to send out a memo to all staff. His directive was that absolutely everybody had to start all letters and all memoranda and all emails with this statement: “Today is November 21, 2012, and it is a wonderful day!”

Many of us spent the rest of the day writing and sharing parodies. “Today is xxx, xx, xxxx, and it is a wonderful day! I am writing to tell you that due to budget restraints we have eliminated your position, effective immediately.”.

“Today is…., and it is a wonderful day! Due to the flu epidemic, we have determined it prudent to close our schools for the next three days in order to prevent more cases.”

“Today is …, and it is a wonderful day! Please join me in sending condolences to the parents of the young man who lost his life in the school bus accident last week.”

“Today is …., and it is a wonderful day. This letter is to inform you that since your daughter failed the exit assessment, she will not graduate with her class next week.”

“Today is …., and it is a wonderful day! The Texas legislature cut $5.4 billion from the education budget, so we must close schools, lay off staff, and eliminate preschool programs.”

Needless to say, we formed a pact and swore we would commit civil disobedience, and we did! He continued the ridiculous practice, but he never said a word to those who refused. This man lost every iota of credibility that he might have enjoyed simply by virtue of his position with that one demand for happy talk.

I know, I know. As deputy supt., I probably should not have led the coup. 🙂

Categories Humor, Texas

Dallas Administrator to Teachers: Tell Me How Happy You Are!

By dianeravitch
November 21, 2012 //
21

The new leadership of the Dallas Independent School District loves positive thinking.

On this blog, we earlier reported that the superintendent, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Avademy, had hired a public relations team to write power words and power phrases for the staff. If asked what they thought of the new administration, the PR team crafted an upbeat response.

Now we learn that an administrator has asked teachers at every school to write a tiny essay on the good things happening at their school. No suggestion box here for ideas on how to improve, just happy talk.

Can any parent trust what teachers or principals say when they are under orders to spew happy talk and positive spin? Will problems be acknowledged or hidden?

Are candor and honesty really that threatening? Can adults teach honesty to children if they are forbidden to speak honestly by their boss?

Categories Broad Foundation, Education Reform, Texas
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »