Arne Duncan sets up confrontation with teachers' unions over more testing.

[madfloridian]

Obama's Secretary of Education has a real thing about testing students in order to judge teachers. He is confronting teachers in states who are already doing that....in fact under NCLB all states are.

But his goal is more testing, and he is willing to withhold education stimulus money if they don't do more of it.

Part of the stimulus money, he told Sam Dillon of The New York Times, will be used so that states can develop data systems, which will enable them to tie individual student test scores to individual teachers, greasing the way for merit pay. Another part of the stimulus plan will support charters and entrepreneurs.

..."Duncan paid his first visit to New York City last week ("New Education Secretary Visits Brooklyn School," New York Times, Feb. 19, 2009). He did not visit a regular public school, but a charter school. Such decisions are not happenstance; they are intended to send a message. Bear in mind that the regular public schools enroll 98 percent of the city's one-million-plus students.

At the charter school, Duncan endorsed the core principles of the Bush education program. According to the account in the Times, Secretary Duncan said that "increasing the use of testing across the country should also be a spending priority." And he made this astonishing statement: "We should be able to look every second grader in the eye and say, 'You're on track, you're going to be able to go to a good college, or you're not...Right now, in too many states, quite frankly, we lie to children. We lie to them and we lie to their families."

Using the education stimulus to build databases to judge teachers over the student testing. This is not going over well with teachers. I guess they are considered expendable under the new rush to charter schools.

It seems he is determined to get his way and is willing to browbeat teachers with great knowledge in their fields in order to get what he wants. Many of us who were teachers are quaking in our shoes over this. We see what is happening to the public school system, and it is heartbreaking.

These two articles indicate that things are coming to a head between Duncan and teachers' unions.

Administration Takes Aim at State Laws on Teachers

Legislatures in New York, California and some other states have enacted laws that limit, to one degree or another, use of student achievement data in teacher performance evaluations. Both national teachers’ unions oppose the use of student testing data to evaluate individual teachers, arguing in part that students are often taught by several teachers and that teacher evaluations should be based on several measures of performance, not just test scores.

“This is poking teachers’ unions straight in the eye,” Mike Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a research group that studies education policy, said of the proposed fund eligibility requirement dealing with student data.

The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said in an interview that she thought New York’s law would not render the state ineligible for financing and that her union would “take advantage very aggressively of the 60-day comment period” on the proposed rules.

..."“This administration is challenging unions on some issues that are at the core of the union agenda,” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit group that studies teachers’ union contracts.

This is a deliberate marginalization of teachers' unions. Here is another article.

U.S. education secretary is expected in a speech today to threaten to withhold millions of dollars in education stimulus funds if the state doesn't comply with his demand.

California could lose out on millions of federal education dollars unless legislators change a law that prevents it from using student test scores to measure teachers' performance, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to announce in a speech today.

California has among the worst records of any state in collecting and using data to evaluate teachers and schools.

Moreover, a 2006 law that created a teacher database explicitly prohibited the use of student test scores to hold teachers accountable on a statewide basis, although it did not mention local districts. Only a few of the state's nearly 1,000 districts evaluate teachers by using their students' scores, though a dozen more are considering such moves, according to state officials. Los Angeles Unified, the state's largest, does not grade teachers based on student performance.

Data-driven school reform is a major focus of the Obama administration's education policies. Duncan, who has repeatedly chastised states with similar laws, plans to withhold some economic stimulus money from those states, according to an advance text of his speech to be given today at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington. Money from the administration's Race to the Top fund, about $4.35 billion, is intended to help states boost reform efforts at a time when most are facing severe budget cutbacks.

Students are not robots that teachers can program to do well on tests. Their test-taking abilities are different, their brains are unique to each student. They are individuals. They are feeling the pressure of being responsible for teacher rating.

It bothers the ones who are decent and kind. It does not bother the tough macho types, at least overtly.

I will never forget that two boys in my class informed me they would not take the FCAT. This was two weeks before the test. They said they hated testing, and no one could make them do it. The principal talked to them, so did the parents and the guidance counselor. We could not get them off the testing list, so they brought the score down for the whole class. Luckily that was the year I retired, and I never bothered to check out the class scores.

I am sorely disappointed in Arne Duncan. I think he does not really care about the teachers and finding true and honest ways to get find out their skills and abilities. Because using the unpredictable nature of student testing is surely not going to do it.

There are too many folks being left out of the equation right now, and it worries me. DADT is still in force, and no one in the administration is especially worried. The new health care plan is not likely to pay for abortion, and some groups may keep it from paying for birth control.

Now the teachers' and their unions are being confronted in unpleasant ways by the administration.

Not such a good idea to alienate so much of your base to appeal to the base on the right.

[Gabi Hayes]

1. it's all part of the plan to privatize public education. just as they want to

privatize as much as the infrastructure as possible. that's where the money is. they've drained the banking/insurance system, as well as wall street, for as much as they possibly can, until the heat wears off a little, anyway, and they can't really dig much deeper into the defense/intel trough at this point.

so, where else is there to go?

great post, as always.

isn't it sad what they're doing to those poor kids? I work in a section 8 housing-dominated area of my mostly affluent district, and our kids are SICK to DEATH of the testing (mainly of the methods that are forced upon the staff to teach to the test), and what that entails. I see it as they progress from K through the 6th grade: the way their enthusiasm for learning is stomped on by the cookie cutter curricula forced upon them and teachers by the state/district

I don't even want to think about how bad it's getting.....

[madfloridian]

2. Kids' self images have suffered immensely with all this forced testing.

This kind of testing assumes all are the same. That is just ignorant stuff and harmful. Humans are not the same, their abilities and interests are different, their method of learning is different. One of our sons is a high level engineer and planner with a big company....but he was never that good at taking tests. He always did like I did....he read too much into the questions.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. Even the ones who do well on the tests?

:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Yes because those tests don't prove a darn thing

except a kid knows how to do well on one day on one test. BFD. That's not reflective of learning or academic achievement. We teachers have been screaming this for years. But no one listens to us. Especially Arne.

[madfloridian]

13. "not reflective of learning or academic achievement" Amen!

It does tell if they can repeat rote learning....but does not always indicate real understanding.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. They tell us to teach with 'rigor' and are now making us align everything

with DOKs. Forget Bloom, no one knows who Piaget was anymore, but those DOKs are now the bible.

Yet we test rote learning. :wtf:

[madfloridian]

15. I see the unrecommends are starting.

Every topic now, everything Democrats used to stand for like public schools....will get unrecommended here.. Or maybe it's just because of who posted it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Time to post this once again

For the non believers:

A true story about Bill Bennett
user-pic
By Reed Hundt - October 1, 2005, 7:53AM

When I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Eventually Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller, with the White House leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, put that provision in the Telecommunications Law of 1996, and today nearly 90% of all classrooms and libraries do have such access. The schools covered were public and private. So far the federal funding (actually collected from everyone as part of the phone bill) has been matched more or less equally with school district funding to total about $20 billion over the last seven years. More than 90% of all teachers praise the impact of such technology on their work. At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views. The key Senate committee voted almost on party lines on the bill, all D's for and all R's against, except one -- Olympia Snowe. Her support provided the margin of victory. On the House side, Speaker Gingrich made sure the provision was not in the companion bill, but in conference again Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, with White House support, made the difference. The Internet has been the first technology made available to students in poorly funded schools at about the same time and in about the same way as to students in well funded schools.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2005/10/01/a_true_story_about_bill_bennet/

[madfloridian]

21. Thanks for that comment by Bennett. They DO want public schools to fail.

.

[Wednesdays]

19. No un-rec here

:shrug:

I rec everything that I see you post. :hi:

[George II]

29. Perhaps it's the continued and constant negativity toward DEMOCRATS that is being posted.......

....the attitude here causes one to wonder if some consider even george bush a better president than Obama.

[alarimer]

56. Well if the shoe fits...

Since when are Democrats are above criticism?

They are doing a lot of shitty things. Those Blue Dogs are simply DINOs- they are really Republicans in disguise, and they do real damage.

Arne Duncan and all the DLC types are also dangerous. School privatization is what they are after. They will not be satisfied until public schooling is completely discredited. Fuck that noise. They are worse than Republicans because they are traitors to what Democrats allegedly stand for.

I am not a cheerleader for anyone, not Obama, not any member of the Democratic Party. If you are looking for cheerleading, you should probably find another message board.

[George II]

59. Democrats are not above criticism, but check the posting history of the person with this OP...

....I'd guess it runs about 90% against Democrats and Obama. There is yet another posted just a while ago today, another anti-Democratic post. It is very disturbing and is something one expect on Free Republic.

[xocet]

34. Interesting...

I agree with you vis-a-vis testing and rote learning and would like to know if you have any good reference materials - on teaching as it is currently done in the USA - which you could recommend that I read.

I have thought about teaching, but was always put off by the extra time (years) needed to be certified. Some teachers I know look at things like teaching philosophy as so much boilerplate. I never have bought that attitude, though. In my (possibly unrealistic) view, all students barring students with extreme mental issues (I don't want this to indicate that they should be swept aside, but dealing with special education is not something I have thought about much, and addressing it would go off-topic considerably: please don't interpret this cursory treatment as throwing a particular group under the bus.) should be treated as having equal potential for learning and should be exposed to whatever material that they are being taught in all detail, so that a proper foundation is laid and solidly put in place. In my opinion, some rote learning may be necessary, but generating and analyzing questions must be included, too. It is my opinion that the understanding of how to formulate and address questions is more important than volumes of rote learning - this is to say, take the rudiments of a subject and hammer away with rote learning initially, but then analyze every last piece of the rote learning and build the subject up again from scratch by the use of questions, comparisons and analogies. Compare and contrast rationalism and empiricism in the subject. Lastly, point the way to other areas and let the students know that the same methods apply universally and should be so applied. This is my philosophy for teaching in a nutshell.

I just don't see how schools are structured to allow for this sort of education. My attempts to implement this sort of model in a tutorial situation had me spending 5 hours a day, 5 days a week for about 4 weeks writing up solutions and commentary on methods of solution for 60 basic science problems. A lot of the notes were redundant, but I think that repetition of reasoning is important. I had about 8 contact hours with the student over a 6 week period to explain what I could before I sent him home with the notes and the condensed version of the solutions. He did exceptionally well on exam he wanted to prepare for - I just hope that he learned a lot from the experience. I did not get to the more general ideas of rationalism, empiricism and methods with him - that would have gone too far away from understanding vectors, Newton's laws, forces, etc.

Anyway, I figure the prep time to have been something like 100 hours for 8 contact hours and I just don't see how this level of focus and thoroughness could be maintained for a school year if things are the way they are now. After all, grading and administration and discipline never even entered into the situation which I outlined.

This post is getting a bit long, but I would really be interested in discussing teaching with people who have done it professionally.

Thanks for your time in the consideration of this post.

[madfloridian]

51. I always had a philosophy when I was teaching.

Well, I had it as long as the powers that be let me really teach.

I always did my own assessment of where the students were, then I made plans to take each one as far along as they could go. It's just a pipe dream to pretend that all kids learn alike and perform equally. It is simply not true. Too much of real life gets in the way.

Start where they are, take them as far as you can down the road of real education.

The greatest compliment I had when I was retiring was from a feisty grandmother who gave other teachers' fits. She came up and hugged me. She said I was the only teacher who saw her grandkids as people with feelings. She said the school system could not afford to lose teachers like me but that they were driving them away with all the "new-fangled" experiments in teaching.

Of all the notes and cards I got, that was the most special. I figured that one was earned.

[madfloridian]

3. Kick from page 4 for teachers who might not know how fast things are moving

on this issue.

[madfloridian]

4. Duncan's got great powers over education. Seems to love to use them.

He sounds as if he has all the answers, and that truly scares me. Anyone who has been in a classroom for a while knows that you learn from the class and from the individuals who are in it.

Duncan sounds like he is going to play God with Obama's blessing, and this concerns me.

This is not getting attention because of the Gates event and the birthers and all the other stuff going on.

But this will have a permanent effect on our education system. From ABC News:

Race for School Billions Will Have Winners, Losers, Duncan Says

It appears the winners will do exactly as he says.

Linking Teacher Pay to Student Performance

Despite the many challenges of administering these grants, the Obama administration is sending a clear message to America's teachers: Embrace merit-based pay or risk losing out on millions of dollars of stimulus money.

Long opposed by teachers' unions, the application requires educators to be evaluated by the achievement of their students and calls on states to provide opportunities for effective teachers to receive additional compensation. The Race to the Top also challenges the tenure system by encouraging states to fire under-performing tenured teachers.

..."Encouraging Charter Schools

The Race to the Top also gives charter schools a clear seat at the table. To compete for the Race to the Top, states must not place limits on the number of charter schools.

Duncan explained his interest in this often controversial type of school system.

"I'm not a fan of charter schools," he said. "I'm a fan of good charter schools, and I'm a fan of innovation. And great charter schools around the country are helping to lead the charge of dramatically closing the achievement gap.

Looks like only those two views will permeate education for the future. That is real power in one man.

[YvonneCa]

26. He has just set up a conflict in both California and...

...New York over linking teacher evaluation and student test scores. This is from his ED.gov blog:


http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/07/23/37race.h28.html?tkn=YSUFYIm%2BMA2jCca4Ty69mm89stWNLqKb4Eu2

[madfloridian]

44. Thanks for that article.

I saved it to my computer.

I used to be able to read articles there, but now for some reason I can't. I am not going to pay them for it.

I appreciate your linking to it. I tried to get access earlier and they wanted me to pay.

[YvonneCa]

46. You are very welcome. Don't be...

...too afraid when you read it. It is kind of scary. :scared: :7

[yurbud]

5. privatize ed so Wall St can do the same wonderful job to kids they've done to our economy

[madfloridian]

9. Yes.

That is just about right. They have been talking down public schools for so long that people have totally swallowed their meme about how bad public schools are. They have won the battle.

I just hate to see Democrats put the final nail in the coffin of real public education.

[yurbud]

18. it's another good measure of which Democrats are on the take, just like opposing public option or

single payer.

[madfloridian]

22. I feel stunned that Democrats would defend testing students as the only way

to success.

I guess times have changed until rote learning is the only way to judge everything.

[YvonneCa]

25. I think Democrats just want education to finally work. So do...

...I. But I think they (politicians) are all basically ignorant on the issue of education. They listen to the loudest person...or organization...who says they know what to do. Trouble is, those who relly could help them...teachers...aren't loud enough. Personally, I think that's because the job keeps us too busy to notice and get involved in the bigger picture. :7

[yurbud]

52. it's like saying the way to cure ebola is taking the victim's temperature more often...

[QC]

6. Only Nixon could go to China, and only a Democrat can destroy the unions once and for all.

United Auto Workers, check.

American Education Association and national Federation of Teachers....

[madfloridian]

8. Sad, but true.

I am glad I am retired, but it still breaks my heart to see that arrogant Arne hurting schools with the permission of the president.

[QC]

23. Have you noticed that "pragmatic" lately means "right wing as all hell"?

Funny how that's worked out, isn't it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. The only way we could do more testing in my district is if we extended the school year

Screw you Arne. If I thought you cared what I said I would comment. But I believe you are going to do whatever you want to do regardless of what we teachers say. Screw You.

[Tim01]

28. Well, if the kids were taught nothing but what is on the test........

oh, wait a minute.....

[dana_b]

31. he still sees teachers as a "special interest group"

he has no clue but has it in his mind that all teachers are only out for their own interests instead of what they really care about - the education of the students. he's an embarrassment.

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. Why is it so hard to understand that teachers are not teaching for the $$$

[dana_b]

54. lol yeah - it's hard to resist all the big bucks there, isn't it?

I really think he's another one who feels that public education is a waste and a drain so we should go to charter/private education.

[MadHound]

12. This is going to effectively move us further towards a two tier education system

And sadly, the overall knowledge of students will suffer and the dumbing down of America will continue.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Like we aren't already there?

I see it every day. We definitely have a two tier system.

[anonymous171]

20. Oh please. We are already there. nt

[pnorman]

24. I understand your reluctance to engage in what could be perceived as "self-promotion".

But that's the sort of information I needed. I'll go through it carefully later.

I had edited my previous posting before I saw your latest, but I see no reason to modify it in any substantial manner.

pnorman

[pnorman]

30. DANG! I put this in the wrong thread! (It makes no sense at all here)

n/t

pnorman

[madfloridian]

36. It makes sense to me.

:hi:

Cause I read the other thread.

[George II]

27. Yet another anti-Obama post?

[kath]

32. Many tried to warn that Duncan was yet another baaaad pick by Obama...

[Jakes Progress]

33. Teachers need another strategy.

Here in Texas the lege had the idea a few years back that they could improve education by giving a literacy test to teachers. Stupid test. Didn't tell us anything needed. But teacher groups protested, saying that the government was wasting money and the it wasn't fair to test teachers. You can imagine how the public read that protest. Teachers looked silly. Much better would be if they said "Go ahead. Test me if you want. Then let's test the legislators and the police and the governor. I wonder how the legislature would appreciate being tested.

My favorite thing from that period was a bumper sticker that read: Can you read this bumper sticker? So can I. You just paid 23 million dollars to find that out?"

That is a part of testing that doesn't get the press it deserves - the cost. In Texas, testing takes up a bigger portion of the education budget than anything other than salaries. It crowds out programs and improvements.

Perhaps a way to attack Arne and his love for the testing corporations is to attack the tests themselves. I worked on a national program to develop tests that would accurately measure student performance. We can do it. No one wants to pay for the kind of tests that are really worthwhile. We used performance portfolios and demonstrations. The kids thrived with the program, but they weren't cheap, scanable tests so the program was basically changed to trying to write scantron test that would be valid. That cannot be done.

[YvonneCa]

41. I agree teachers need another strategy. How about HYPOCRISY...

...??? In the health care debate, Dems say OVER and OVER how important it is that professionals are listened to...doctors in this case. But when it comes to education policy, they NEVER say that...they listen to eveyone BUT teachers and just forge ahead on their predetermined plan for fixing schools.

Teachers are also educated professionals. It is hypocracy to treat doctors as valuable to reform of the practice of medicine...and turn right around and ignore teachers. We need to call them on their hypocrisy.JMHO.

[madfloridian]

55. Exactly right. They talk down to teachers, won't treat them as professionals.

[YvonneCa]

57. Tell me what you think on this...

...madfloridian, please. I think this is because, as a profession, we have taught them how to treat us. We LET them do this...we don't fight back EFFECTIVELY. What do you think?

[madfloridian]

58. I agree. Teachers in our area of Florida never fought back on anything.

It became worse when Jeb came in 1998. He was worshipped just like his brother, and he was allowed to do anything with impunity.

Teachers do not stand up much and their unions cave far too easily.

[Jakes Progress]

60. I would hate to see how many teachers

vote republican.

[madfloridian]

48. The testing itself is a nod to corporations.

Somebody has to get paid to make up that stuff.

:evilgrin:

[Jakes Progress]

49. Texas testing started out

without releasing the tests. They used portions more than once and used the results of one test to refine questions. Schools got all hot and bothered about wanting to see the tests. The argument was that they wanted to know what was being tested. Of course the schools were given guidelines about what the tests measured. Wasn't enough. "Give us the tests!" they cried.

Two things resulted. The first was that as the tests were released, the curriculum quickly degraded into only those items on the tests. There still are massive "item analysis" programs to determine just what a particular kid misses on the test. All of this is stupid and show that school administrators don't know how assessment works. The test is meant to measure indicators not knowledge. As the tests are picked to death by cadres of teachers and central office personnel, they turn classrooms into places where knowledge and comprehension and problem solving are irrelevant. All that is taught is the indicator skills.

The second thing that happened is that the tests became exponentially more expensive. Now, instead of a bank of items, there must me new ones developed and tested for each year. The testing companies were ecstatic. They rake in millions of dollars that aren't used for buying books or computers or building classrooms or paying teachers or providing any kind of meaningful training.

Actually a third thing happened. The more details about the test they release and the more "training" in the test items take place, the lower the scores go. The more they analyze each tiny particle of the test, the worse the kids do on the tests.

It is a win-win for the corporations and the neocon agenda. Arne should be so proud.

[Spike89]

35. The irony is maddening!

So many levels of it.

Just as much of the rest of the world is moving away from highly regimented drill-and-test educational programs, hoping to create the innovative and effective learners the U.S. has been known for, we're in the process of tossing it away for the dubious goal of being the world's best test-taking nation!

With the tools to actually make student-centered learning a reality in the classroom, we mandate teaching to the test. These efforts are going to be disasterous to a whole generation of students. Geez, it makes my blood boil!

[Mithreal]

37. K&R nt

[Amos Moses]

38. Obama sure seems to enjoy union busting.

:patriot:

K&R

[tblue37]

39. I am glad that I teach in college rather than in public school, but there is

now a movement toward the same sort of shallow, ineffective "accountability" in college as well.

My sister teaches 8th-grade English, and after just 8 years of teaching, she is on the verge of burning out, as are most of her colleagues--all because of NCLB.

Once all her kids were grown up, she returned to college in her mid-40s to get a teaching certificate, after five years as a paraprofessional in the public schools. Teaching is something she loves and that she has always wanted to do, but NCLB has really made it hard for her to do what needs to be done to teach those kids.

[madfloridian]

40. NCLB was intended to be "ineffective accountability" IMHO

It and the test in Florida called the FCAT are wearing down students and teachers and frying their minds with all the empty rote words and phrases.

It is not teaching.

I am still amazed when at a Democratic forum I see so many supporters of this mindless testing. I don't think they understand that kids are people and not reflections of their teachers...teaching was never intended to be that way.

[YvonneCa]

43. It puts a 'straight jacket' on...

...good teaching.

[ColbertWatcher]

42. Go fuck yourself, Arnie! k+r, n/t

[edc]

45. The die was cast

on education privatization long ago by very wealthy people who never attended a public school. The same is being done inexorably with all public services. A strong public sector is essential in a representative democracy. It is a waste of resources in an capitalist oligarchy based upon global financial speculation. Such systems have no national allegiances. Countries are merely markets, people are "human resources", and essential services just commodities.

[Thothmes]

47. Change you can believe in. n/t

[MichiganVote]

50. What "Arne" doesn't tell you Mom and Dad public is what it costs to get the money from the stimulus

or from this round of grants. Think is comes via the air? Think again. For every grant that is every sought, every dime...it will take on average 4-5 people to run this paperwork through. And that is not an exaggeration.

Money takes money. Always.

So those federal dollars=local dollars to make it work.