April 29, 2014

Dem governor's group DGA not supporting Wendy Davis campaign? Says Dems can't win in TX.

Democratic governors group lacks faith in Wendy Davis campaign

It occurred as Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, head of the Democratic Governors Assn., detailed for reporters the group’s target races this year.

Top tier: Maine, Pennsylvania, Florida. Second tier: Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. Fingers crossed: South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Arizona.

Notably absent was one of the supposed marquee races of 2014, Democrat Wendy Davis’ effort to derail Republican Greg Abbott in Texas.

Shumlin sent an unmistakable signal that the moneyed organization had better places to place its dough.

“We all understand Democrats haven’t won Texas in a long time,” he said, after a reporter noted that Texas had not been included among his targeted states.

Way to have faith in an outstanding candidate, DGA. Sounds like fear to me.

Meanwhile back in Florida which they do consider one of the top tier races, we have good old Bill Nelson standing by to enter the governor's race if Scott picks on Charlie Crist too much.

April 28, 2014

With "shaky voice and tears" Missouri teacher testifies about gagging teachers.

VIDEO: Missouri Kindergarten Teacher Testifies on Common Core Gag Order

Susan Kimball, a kindergarten teacher, testified in a Missouri hearing against Common Core. With a shaky voice and tears in her eyes, Kimball described how she was being bullied by her administrators not to say anything negative.

“I have been strongly discouraged from saying anything negative about Common Core by my administration and some school board members,” Kimball said, her voice shaking.

Kimball described different instances where she, and others, were warned about speaking out.

“In a professional development meeting, um, in-service in November, and at a faculty meeting in January, we were told in my building, and I quote, ‘Be careful about what you post on Facebook, or talk about in the public regarding Common Core. Don’t say anything negative. It could affect your job.’ ”

April 28, 2014

Pearson imposes gag order on teachers about test.

This will probably be one of my last posts about education at DU. Not worth the ugliness it brings out. Quite frankly I want to smile when someone says both the far left and far right are united against Arne Duncan's policies. It is just not true.

The far right is adamantly opposed to the new "reforms", but the left simply doesn't care enough to oppose them. Since the privatization of education has become a Democratic policy, those on the left seldom speak against it. Teachers and parents are getting very outspoken, but liberals in general don't really think it matters. It's really mostly a teacher/parent thing.

But I do think I will call attention to the fact that one of the largest testing companies has put a gag order on teachers.

The Backlash Against New York’s Standardized Tests Is Getting Serious

Last year's exams, designed by Pearson, which has a $32 million contract with the state and were the first to adhere to Common Core requirements, garnered lots of heat for being overly long, riddled with product placement, and including confounding questions that, to many educators, were "inappropriately difficult."

This year, says Schroeter, they're even worse. "Last year, everyone was ready for it to be a fluke. People thought, okay, first year, first time out, it's going to be a mess. And by the time this year rolls around, people thought, 'Oh, they've had time to get it together and make a better assessment," she says. "But it just wasn't. You're skimming through the booklet and going, 'What? Wait a minute.'"

She said her teachers reported that students found the exams "demoralizing" and "frustrating." Rather than evaluating reading comprehension skills, Jenny Bonnet, principal of P.S. 150 in Tribeca says they were "more about having students have to flip back and forth and look at structural things versus having a deep understanding of what the passage is about ... When I first looked at the test, I was just in shock. I was having trouble with my fellow teachers — we sat around and tried to answer some of the questions — and I thought, This is ridiculous. I'm an adult, I should be able to answer these questions. If it's hard for me, these poor kids — they must be incredibly confused."

Principals and their staff can't discuss specifics of the test because they're barred from doing so by a "gag order" — another major concern. Neither teachers nor parents see the results in their entirety. The stakes are higher this year, too, because not only do results determine, in some cases, where kids can apply to middle schools, but they're also linked to school and teacher evaluations. "The level of agitation is growing," says Schroeter. "Not only were the expectations and the standards raised, and the tests made more difficult, the stakes attached to them became higher and higher."

A principal speaks out in the New York Times:

We Need to Talk About the Test

I’d like to tell you what was wrong with the tests my students took last week, but I can’t. Pearson’s $32 million contract with New York State to design the exams prohibits the state from making the tests public and imposes a gag order on educators who administer them. So teachers watched hundreds of thousands of children in grades 3 to 8 sit for between 70 and 180 minutes per day for three days taking a state English Language Arts exam that does a poor job of testing reading comprehension, and yet we’re not allowed to point out what the problems were.

....At Public School 321, we entered this year’s testing period doing everything that we were supposed to do as a school. We limited test prep and kept the focus on great instruction. We reassured families that we would avoid stressing out their children, and we did. But we believed that New York State and Pearson would have listened to the extensive feedback they received last year and revised the tests accordingly. We were not naïve enough to think that the tests would be transformed, but we counted on their being slightly improved. It truly was shocking to look at the exams in third, fourth and fifth grade and to see that they were worse than ever. We felt as if we’d been had.

For two years, I have suggested that the commissioner of education and the members of the Board of Regents actually take the tests — I’d recommend Days 1 and 3 of the third-grade test for starters. Afterward, I would like to hear whether they still believed that these tests gave schools and parents valuable information about a child’s reading or writing ability.

We do not want to become cynics, but until these flawed exams are released to the public and there is true transparency, it will be difficult for teachers and principals to maintain the optimism that is such an essential element of educating children.

April 28, 2014

Obama to reward colleges of education whose grads get students to raise test scores. More testing??

You have got to be kidding me. I can't believe that with all the outrage from parents and teachers over the high pressure testing that he is going to add more of it.

It bothers me that Obama and Duncan support Teach for America strongly whose recruits have 5 weeks training in teaching. It bothers me that after all the attacks on teachers to the point that many GOOD teachers are losing their careers due to ed "reform"......that there is now a new front in the war on public education.

Now they are going after the colleges and universities and rewarding them if their graduates get students to have higher test scores.

No other country has this much high-stakes standardized testing. It seems like the testing companies have a stranglehold on our Democrats.

Obama plans new regulation on colleges of education

The Obama administration’s obsession with standardized test scores knows no bounds. The newest example: a plan to spend millions of dollars to reward those colleges of education whose graduates, among other things, are successful in raising their students’ standardized test scores.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan hopes to have a draft regulation ready by this summer and implement this program sometime within the next year, according to this story by my colleague, Lyndsey Layton. She quoted Duncan as saying: “Programs that are producing teachers where students are less successful, they either need to change or do something else, go out of business.”

The administration’s move will please school reformers and anger critics, such as Carol Burris, an award-winning principal in New York, who said:

“So what will this incentivize? Schools of education trying to help their students get jobs in more successful schools, rather than schools with at-risk kids or schools that are struggling. It will incentivize schools of education focusing on how to teach for the test. It is designed to reward the so-called teacher training programs such as Relay and Match, which are led by the charter school community. These schools focus on teaching test prep techniques. This is one more bow to the charter chains who are now getting into the teacher preparation business. This is one more example of a bad policy that comes from a Department of Education that has no understanding of teaching and learning”.

The White House policy director had this to say, and it leaves no doubt of their support of the testing and more testing policy. No doubt at all.

“What happens in the classroom matters. It doesn’t just matter — it’s the whole ballgame.” So using student outcomes to evaluate teacher preparation programs “is really fundamental to making sure we’re successful,” Muñoz said. “We believe that’s a concept … whose time has come.”

This makes it clear that test scores are the goal. Not learning for the sake of learning....but how the student scores on a test.

April 28, 2014

TN governor signs law to keep teachers' licenses from being revoked for student test scores.

That's some really good news out of Tennessee, and it's victory for the teachers' unions there. It's an especially good victory for teachers since the Education Commissioner is/was a VP of TFA, a former husband of Michelle Rhee (and works with her there in TN), and is a forceful education privatizer.

Haslam signs bill undoing controversial teacher license policy

Gov. Bill Haslam has signed into law a bill that will prevent student growth on tests from being used to revoke or not renew a teacher's license — undoing a controversial education policy his administration had advanced just last summer.

That marked a major repudiation of a policy the Tennessee Board of Education in August adopted — at Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman's recommendation — to link license renewal and advancement to a teacher's composite evaluation score as well as data collected from the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which measures the learning gains of students.

The bill to reject the policy had been pushed chiefly by the Tennessee Education Association, the state's largest teachers' organization, which engineered a petition drive to encourage Haslam to sign the legislation despite it passing with large bipartisan support.

"Huge, huge win for teachers," the TEA wrote on its Twitter page, thanking both bill sponsors as well as Haslam for "treating teachers as professionals."

That is rare good news in the education wars. But it comes just as Arne Duncan acts like a horse's behind and treats Washington state like a naughty child.

for the Tennessee teachers and for the legislature and governor who repudiated the awful bill.

April 28, 2014

Most WA state public schools will show as failing. They did not do as Arne Duncan dictated.

I say good for them for standing their ground. I say Arne Duncan is way overstepping his bounds. He is getting into territory that should not be his to control.

The two main reasons Arne Duncan is taking back the NCLB waiver he gave the state.....the state refused to link teacher scores to the test results and refused to pass laws to expand charter schools.

Arne Duncan brings hammer down on Washington state, pulling its ‘No Child’ waiver

The Education Department is for the first time yanking one of the waivers it gave to states that exempts them the most onerous parts of the flawed No Child Left Behind law.

As a result, Washington state will now have to comply with all parts of No Child Left Behind. Because of the peculiarities of the law, this means that virtually all of the state’s public schools will be seen as failing because they didn’t not meet set performance goals.

These waivers have been common for many states as the goals have been almost impossible to reach.

We have since moved on to Race to the Top supposedly, but if states refuse to follow Arne's desires more waivers can be revoked.

It has been universally acknowledged that the performance goals — which called for nearly all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014 — were impossible to achieve and even the authors called them “aspirational.” The law was supposed to have been rewritten seven years ago, but it has remained in force as Congress has been unable to craft a new K-12 education bill.

Washington state has carried out a number of the Duncan-approved school reforms, but the education secretary apparently wanted to send a message about how important he views the linking of evaluations to standardized test scores. When Washington’s waiver is gone, it will leave 42 states with waivers, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and eight school districts in California that applied on their own without state approval.

Even Arne admits "that returning to full compliance “is not desirable” and won’t “be simple.” But he’s making Washington state do it anyway. "

April 27, 2014

Florida doesn't regulate private schools though they get 2 kinds of vouchers.

There are attendance requirements and rules for the length of the school year. But Florida asserts very little control over private schools. There are two major vouchers types in Florida now which give public money to these schools....The McKay Scholarship Program for students with disabilities, and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program for children of families with limited financial resources.

So I think it is important to look at how this money will be spent as it lowers the taxes received by public schools by hundreds of millions of dollars.

From 2010. I don't have later figures.

The Florida Senate passed a voucher bill Wednesday expanding a corporate tax credit program that lets parents place their children in private schools – the first on a roster of controversial education bills that would have broad import for public schools.

The program allows corporations that make contributions deduct those gifts from their corporate income and insurance premium taxes. Economists expect the expansion would cost the state $31 million in lost taxes next year and as much as $228 million in future years – although those losses would be offset somewhat because taxpayers would pay less for students in the program than if they were attending public schools.

Here are the regulations or lack thereof that Florida puts on private schools.

Florida School Choice, Private Schools

This is a list from the public website of the Florida Dept of Education, so I assume posting a list is not breaking copyright rules.

Does the Florida Department of Education license private schools?

No. The Department of Education does not have jurisdiction over private schools. Legislative intent not to regulate, control, approve, or accredit private educational institutions, churches, their ministries, religious instruction, freedoms, or rites, is explicit. The owners of private elementary and secondary schools in Florida are solely responsible for all aspects of their educational programs.

Do private schools have to be accredited?

No. In Florida, private schools are not accredited by the state. Additionally, the Florida Department of Education does not officially recognize any of the various agencies that accredit private schools. Contact the private schools and accrediting agencies to determine the accreditation status.

Do private schools have to hire certified teachers?

No. The owners of private elementary and secondary schools in Florida are solely responsible for establishing duties, qualifications, and salaries of faculty and staff.

How do I know if a private school is legitimate?

Since private schools in Florida are not regulated or accredited by the state, the Department of Education is unable to determine the legitimacy of a school. You have the right and the responsibility to select the appropriate school to meet your child's learning needs. The Choosing a Private School in Florida Web page can help you to evaluate your private school choices to see if the needs of your child will be met.

Accountability and student records:

Do private school students have to take the FCAT or other standardized tests?

Student assessment, including the administration of standardized tests, is based on the decision of the owners and individual policies of private elementary and secondary schools. There are no state requirements for regularly enrolled students of private schools to take the FCAT or other standardized tests. McKay Scholarship and Florida Tax Credit Scholarshipstudents have the option to request to take the FCAT or other state wide assessments. Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students in grades 3 through 10 are required to take the approved norm-referenced assessment offered by their private school

Are private school transcripts or diplomas approved by the Florida Department of Education?

No. The owners of private elementary and secondary schools in Florida are solely responsible for establishing academic, graduation or promotion requirements. It is wise to check with the prospective college, university, or employer to determine whether or not diplomas and transcripts from a specific private school will be accepted.

Do private schools have to follow a certain curriculum?

No. Content and comprehensiveness of the curriculum are solely the responsibility of the owners of private elementary and secondary schools in Florida.

Many charter schools can not be regulated by local districts, instead they answer to their management company's board. That leaves only public schools that are regulated and held accountable at all times.

In fact there is a law that just passed the Florida House that would limit school districts' control over privately managed charter schools.

April 26, 2014

School cancels kindergarten show to prepare kids for college and career. Letter to parents.

Kindergarteners are now being tested like other grades. I imagine the ones signing this letter from the school do so with a sigh of regret at what the new education "reforms" are bringing. They have to prepare the students in different ways now, and there's not much time left for frivolous activities. (A touch of sarcasm there.)

Schooling in Capitalist America

The letter was sent home yesterday, Friday, April 25.

The following letter was sent to the parents and guardians of kindergarteners at the Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, which is in Suffolk County, New York. The letter explains that the school’s annual kindergarten show has been canceled. It is signed by the interim principal and several other individuals, at least some of whom are teachers. According to the organization that posted it on Facebook and Twitter, the letter’s authenticity has been confirmed by a parent in the school district. I also googled the names of the signatories, and several of them appear to be legitimate.

Here is the text of the letter.

Dear Kindergarten parents and guardians:

We hope this letter serves to help you better understand how the demands of the 21st century are changing schools and, more specifically, to clarify misconceptions about the Kindergarten show. It is most important to keep in mind that this issue is not unique to Elwood. Although the movement toward more rigorous learning standards has been in the national news for more than a decade, the changing face of education is beginning to feel unsettling for some people. What and how we teach is changing to meet the demands of a changing world.

The reason for eliminating the Kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers, and problem solvers. Please do not fault us for making professional decisions that we know will never be able to please everyone. But know that we are making these decisions with the interests of all children in mind.

Sincerely

April 25, 2014

Not-so-veiled threat to FL parents who opt out of testing.

Guess school officials wouldn't dare to just come out and say to parents that their child would be punished for opting out of the FCAT by not allowing them to take a field trip to Lego Land.

So they try to be vague. It's still pretty obvious.

Opting Out Of FCAT Can Have Consequences

But opting out might still come with some consequences. A parent forwarded us a letter sent home from school about an upcoming field trip:
A letter sent home warning parents their student may not be able to attend a field trip if they miss the FCAT.


A letter sent home warning parents their student may not be able to attend a field trip if they miss the FCAT. Courtesy of an anonymous source

The message may not say “Take the FCAT or else!” but that’s how this parent interpreted the note.

It’s one reason parents will push lawmakers to allow opting out of the new Common Core-tied exam which begins in 2015. Advocates are also pushing to make it easier for students with disabilities to be exempted from the test if there is a compelling medical reason.

April 25, 2014

Reporter for FL high school paper told she can't write about medical marijuana amendment for paper.

There is just something so wrong with a journalism teacher telling a student she can not do this. Even worse is the reason the teacher gave....that their school paper was about "marketing and being a mouthpiece" for the school.

I take this personally. Many years ago I wrote for, helped proofread, and get the articles and ads blocked for the printer.....for this very newspaper. A long time ago...but that high school paper then encouraged our minds to think and write about pertinent things.

We were not a marketing tool for the school, and we were not just a mouthpiece. Sure we had to be careful, and we had to get what we wrote approved by the powers that be. But that is to be expected.

LHS Student Fights for Publication of Article on Medical Marijuana


Abbey Laine, a Lakeland High School senior and reporter for the school magazine, the Bagpipe, wants to do a news story about medical marijuana, but has been turned down.
SCOTT WHEELER | THE LEDGER

An editor of Lakeland High School's student magazine wants to write about the proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize medical marijuana.

"It does not fit into what we do. That type of article does not fit our audience," said Frank Webster, director of the school's Multimedia Communications Academy. "We are primarily about marketing and (being) a mouthpiece for Lakeland High and Harrison School of the Arts."

....Laine had a cancerous tumor on her kidney when she was 2 and had to have a year of chemotherapy and radiation to recover. Her chemo treatments led to several other problems, including anxiety and heart problems.

The principal backed the teacher. As expected the county's school lawyer backed the teacher and principal, fearing a lawsuit over it.

Laine had another opinion from The Student Press Law Center.

Frank Lomonte, executive director at the Student Press Law Center, a national organization that advocates for student First Amendment rights, said that is problematic and could be grounds for a lawsuit.

He said schools have to present an "educationally reasonable" justification to keep an article out of a student publication.

I wish her good luck. Read about some of her interviews, and her own experiences with cancer.