Bloomberg Can't Wait for School Failure

Even though NCLB guarantees that the vast majority of NYC schools will fail by 2014, Bloomberg and the privatizers are not waiting for that slow ship to come in, especially since it seems now that it might sink before reaching the docks.

Bloomberg and Klein, rather, are on the fast track to privatization with Green Dot, Inc. poised to be the big recipient of taxpayer money beginning next year. With Randi Weingarten betraying the teachers of NYC with bonus pay plans for test scores and deals cut to allow Green Dot to gain a foothold in the South Bronx, Bloomberg is sitting pretty with at least 50 public schools, maybe a hundred, on the chopping block as a result of his new school "report cards."

From the NY Times:

Under a blunt new A through F rating system that judges schools not just on performance but also on progress, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg designated 50 New York City public schools as failures yesterday, saying they were so dismal that their 29,000 students would be allowed to transfer elsewhere.

A “not insignificant number” of those F schools, and even some of the 99 schools that received D’s, could be closed or have their principals removed as soon as this school year, Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference announcing the grades. He added: “Is this a wake-up call for the people who work there? You betcha.”

The grades released yesterday contained many surprises, with some schools with top-notch reputations receiving B’s, C’s, D’s — and even F’s, to the astonishment of some parents. . . .

The Worm Has Turned

The sheer idiocy of the unceasing test obsession in schools is finally starting to become apparent for all to see: children who are controlled and man-handled through years of elementary school testing get to high school with a deep hatred for a practice that has robbed them of all the joy that was supposed to be a part of their earlier education. Here is just one example from Illinois:

When students in third- through eighth-grade classrooms in Whiteside County took state exams last school year, 84 percent hit the mark on tests in math and reading. In Lee County, it was 87 percent.

However, in Whiteside, only 51 percent of the county's class of 2008 high school students met basic standards on achievement tests. In Lee County, it was 61 percent of this year's seniors.

The story is similar in all 102 Illinois counties: Students perform fairly well through eighth grade but the percentage of juniors meeting state standards in high school is much lower, an Associated Press analysis of new state data shows. . . .

The message is already registering loud and clear in Broward County, Florida with a group of teachers and parents who have organized to return learning to their schools. Test prep just became optional for some. Unfortunately, poor children who are suffering most from the non-stop testing will have to wait for testing epidemic to die out further:

Efforts to reduce the FCAT frenzy kicked into full swing Tuesday as students got the chance to opt out of pre-tests and a team of educators tried to figure out how to purge the all-FCAT, all-the-time mentality from Broward County classrooms.

Tired of letting the high-stakes test consume daily classroom lessons, the School Board more than a month ago ordered the superintendent to find an answer. His plan of attack launched Tuesday.

"As a first step in the School Board's commitment to decrease the FCAT frenzy, the Benchmark Assessment Test [BAT], our district-developed assessment, will not be administered to all students this [school] year," Superintendent James Notter said in a letter to parents that was dated Tuesday.

Students who score a level 4 or 5 out of 5 on the reading and math sections of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test can pass on the district diagnostic, which is meant to measure progress but is not mandated by the state. It is given three times before FCAT testing begins in February.

The FCAT is more than a way to assess student achievement. Student graduation, teacher bonuses, funding and school image are tied to the test, which is given to third- through 11th-graders and measures progress in reading, math, writing and science. Students who score a 3 or higher are considered to read and perform math at grade level.

Parents of students who no longer must take the test but who want their kids to continue anyway must fill out a permission slip on the back of the letter and return it to school by Nov. 14, about two weeks before the next round of BAT tests begin.

Middle and high school students take the district test from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30. Elementary school students take it from Dec. 10 to 14.

"I think it's about time they did something," said parent activist Jeanne Jusevic, whose son and daughter attend Monarch High School in Coconut Creek. Her son regularly scores 4's in reading and math on the FCAT but "Christmas trees" the district's test, she said.

"He is so sick of the test, that he just fills it out," she said. "We really have caused school to be a painful experience for student and teachers."

Jusevic was one of about 20 parents, teachers, principals, students and district administrators who met Tuesday to determine ways to prepare students for the state's high stakes test without hurting other classroom lessons.

This was the first of several meetings that will occur over the next four months, and Tuesday the group created its mission: "How does the district transition from a FCAT prep environment focus to an environment where quality teaching of the curriculum is the focus?"

Several ideas came up, such as preparing high school students for college-entrance exams, which can be used in place of the FCAT for those students who are on track to graduate but failed the state's test. Also, creating a survey to ask students and teachers what they think would work best and developing a pilot program to see how schools would fare if they focused solely on curriculum.

"It's a real indication that enough is enough," said Deputy Superintendent Earlean Smiley. "We have to find another way to put the human element back into teaching and learning."

Utah Voters Reject Vouchers, As Voucher Supporters Insult Voters

Internet junk store operator, Patrick Byrne, carried the school privatizers' water all the way from Washington to Utah in hopes of getting the reddest of red states to support a state-wide school voucher plan. Even though he was able last year to buy a one vote victory in the state legislature, the measure was on the ballot yesterday as a state-wide referendum. Here's Byrne's remarks following the vote count:

Voucher supporter Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne - who bankrolled the voucher effort - called the referendum a "statewide IQ test" that Utahns failed.

"They don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box," Byrne said.

Want to guess which side won the vote? Here's a big chunk from the Salt Lake Tribune:

Voters decisively rejected the will of the Utah Legislature and governor Tuesday, defeating what would have been the nation's most comprehensive education voucher program in a referendum blowout.
"Tonight, with the eyes of the nation upon us, Utah has rejected this flawed voucher law," said state School Board Chairman Kim Burningham. "We believe this sends a clear message. It sends a message that Utahns believe in, and support, public schools."
More than 60 percent of voters were rejecting vouchers, with about 95 percent of the precincts reporting, according to unofficial results. The referendum failed in every county, including the conservative bastion of Utah County.
Voucher supporter Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne - who bankrolled the voucher effort - called the referendum a "statewide IQ test" that Utahns failed.
"They don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box," Byrne said.
Doug Holmes, a key voucher advocate and contributor, said, "We started hugely in the hole and it's always been the case. The unions have done this in four different states, where they take the strategy of confusion to the people."
But Holmes said, "You don't run away from something because the odds are stacked against you."
Utah's voucher program, supported by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Republican legislative leaders, attracted national attention because it would have provided tax-funded subsidies to any student, rich or poor, to enroll in a private school.
The law passed by a single vote in the Legislature, but voucher opponents, led by the Utah Education Association teachers' union, gathered 124,000 signatures to force it into a voter referendum.
The resulting public opinion campaign included thousands of TV and radio spots and burned through $8.5 million for a program the state estimated would cost $5.5 million in its first year.
The tidal wave of cash changed few minds, however. As far back as January - before the Legislature approved the voucher program - a Tribune poll showed voters opposing vouchers 57 percent to 33 percent.
Had it passed, the plan would have offered tax-supported subsidies of $500 to $3,000 - depending on family income - for each newly enrolled private school student. It would have been the country's broadest voucher program because it would have had no income ceiling - all Utah students would be eligible as the program phased in over 13 years. By the end of the phase in, the program was projected to cost taxpayers $430 million.
Most of the opposition's $4.4 million came from the National Education Association and state teachers' unions from Florida to Alaska. Voucher supporters countered with more than $4 million, nearly three-quarters of that from Byrne and his family. Byrne says vouchers are the only way America's "broken" public education system can stay competitive with other industrialized nations.
"What's got to happen and it might take Utah five to 10 years to understand," Byrne said, "they are at the bottom of the heap [educationally] and the heap is at the bottom of the international heap."
He shrugged off the fortune he poured into the referendum, saying he leads a fairly modest life as far as CEOs go. "The fortune that I'm making is all going toward educating lower income and especially African-American and Hispanic kids," Byrne said. "So this is not a terribly big deal to me."
Supporters argued the program would help Utah absorb a tide of 150,000 children expected over the next 10 years by diverting students into private academies.
The clash quickly became superheated, with voucher opponents warning the program would bleed needed money from the public system, which already ranks last in the nation for per pupil spending and teacher pay. In television and radio spots, they hammered home a message that the program had "too many loopholes and unknowns."
Supporters fired back, connecting their opposition to liberal icons such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy and out-of-state unions. Meanwhile, other media thrusts implied that good Mormons should support vouchers.
Both sides, at one point, embraced the governor, who Byrne blasted Tuesday for his lukewarm backing.
"When he asked for my support [for governor] he told me he is going to be the voucher governor. Not only was it his No. 1 priority, it was what he was going to be all about," Byrne said. "He did, I think, a very tepid job, and then when the polls came out on the referendum, he was pretty much missing in action."
Byrne said the referendum defeat may have killed vouchers in Utah, but "There are other freedom oriented groups in other states - African-Americans in South Carolina are interested in it." . . . .

WaPo and the Sandy Kress Spin Room on NCLB

Before NCLB even comes close to exhaling it final fetid breath, the revisionists led by Sandy Kress and the dupes at the Washington Post are already engaged in their conservative revisionist version of NCLB's history and how NCLB will have died, when it does find a final place of prominence in the Educational Atrocities Hall of Shame.

This WaPo piece by Peter Baker is sourced, no doubt, by the forked-tongued Sandy Kress, and it attempts to paint NCLB as a reasonable and successful program disrupted by a misplaced attempt to get revenge against a hated president who has repeatedly failed to provide the education monies he promised. Yes, there is surely that motive in the resistance to NCLB reauthorization, but the millions of parents and teachers who are fed up with this school derailing stealth privatization plan would be ready for mass civil disobedience regardless of whom the White House occupant happened to be, or regardless of how much money is pumped out of the Treasury to the testing companies and the tutoring and test prep corporations. Cutting out Bush or his ed industry cronies does not treat the cancer.

There is also the pretense in this piece that the goal of "basic proficiency" appears in the NCLBA, which would somehow make it more reachable, I suppose, than the "by 2013-14, all students will reach high standards, at a minimum attaining proficiency or better in reading/language arts and mathematics," which is the actual text that does appear in the Bill. Every testing expert and educator knows this expectation is impossible, and the ones who are not in denial know that it is the quickest way to paint the public schools as failures in order to turn them into for-profit and non-profit charter schools.

Then there are the claims in the Baker (Kress) piece that NCLB is responsible for NAEP gains and for closing the achievement gap--and that NCLB is supported by minority groups. Here are some facts.

The first clip here offers some analysis of the NAEP realities from Diane Ravitch, who has been, until recently, on the NCLB ship:

* Fourth grade reading scores were up by a modest 2 points from 2005 to 2007, from 219 to 221. Actually, scores for this grade on NAEP had been 219 in 2002. The biggest increase in reading scores occurred between 2000 and 2002, when the scores went up by six points. In other words, the gains since NCLB was enacted do not equal the gains recorded on NAEP in the years prior to NCLB.
* Eighth grade reading scores were up by only one point. The trend line for this grade in reading from 1998 to 2007 is a flat line. The score was 263 in 1998 and it is 263 in 2007.
* Fourth grade mathematics scores increased by two points, from 238 in 2005 to 240 in 2007. The trend line in this grade points steadily upward. The biggest gains occurred in the pre-NCLB period, when scores rose from 226 in 2000 to 235 in 2003.
* Eighth grade mathematics scores were up by two points, from 279 in 2005 to 281 in 2007. Again, the pre-NCLB gains were larger, when scores increased from 273 in 2000 to 278 in 2003.

And here's some more reality from FairTest:

The evidence from a look at NAEP scale scores shows that the rate of improvement on NAEP has slowed since NCLB was passed. Based on four years of evidence, NCLB, as a form of high-stakes-test based "school reform," is a failed strategy. Congress must pass a new education law, one that will actually help schools improve.

In general:

* NAEP gains have slowed or stalled since NCLB was passed.

* Score gaps by racial groups for the most part have not narrowed.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics:

"The average 8th-grade reading score . . . remains below the level of achievement shown in 2002."

“[Mathematics] gains made since 2003 are . . . not as large as those realized during some earlier periods.”

Below, find summary comments from each of the tables available in the attached short report. In each category, the comparisons are from the 2000-2003 pre-NCLB period (except grade 8 reading, which is from 1998) and the 2003-2007 NCLB period.

This material is on the web at http://www.fairtest.org/NAEP%20results%20show%20NCLB%20failing.pdf. Please review it there if the attachment did not come through.

And, finally, here's a list of the 140 organizations signing the joint organizational statement for the overhaul of NCLB:

Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
October 21, 2004 (list of 140 signers updated September 14, 2007)

The undersigned education, civil rights, religious, children's, disability, civic and labor organizations are committed to the No Child Left Behind Act's objectives of strong academic achievement for all children and closing the achievement gap. We believe that the federal government has a critical role to play in attaining these goals. We endorse the use of an accountability system that helps ensure all children, including children of color, from low-income families, with disabilities, and of limited English proficiency, are prepared to be successful, participating members of our democracy.

While we all have different positions on various aspects of the law, based on concerns raised during the implementation of NCLB, we believe the following significant, constructive corrections are among those necessary to make the Act fair and effective. Among these concerns are: over-emphasizing standardized testing, narrowing curriculum and instruction to focus on test preparation rather than richer academic learning; over-identifying schools in need of improvement; using sanctions that do not help improve schools; inappropriately excluding low-scoring children in order to boost test results; and inadequate funding. Overall, the law's emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement.

Recommended Changes in NCLB

Progress Measurement

1. Replace the law's arbitrary proficiency targets with ambitious achievement targets based on rates of success actually achieved by the most effective public schools.

2. Allow states to measure progress by using students' growth in achievement as well as their performance in relation to pre-determined levels of academic proficiency.

3. Ensure that states and school districts regularly report to the government and the public their progress in implementing systemic changes to enhance educator, family, and community capacity to improve student learning.

4. Provide a comprehensive picture of students' and schools' performance by moving from an overwhelming reliance on standardized tests to using multiple indicators of student achievement in addition to these tests.

5. Fund research and development of more effective accountability systems that better meet the goal of high academic achievement for all children

Assessments

6. Help states develop assessment systems that include district and school-based measures in order to provide better, more timely information about student learning.

7. Strengthen enforcement of NCLB provisions requiring that assessments must:
· Be aligned with state content and achievement standards;
· Be used for purposes for which they are valid and reliable;
· Be consistent with nationally recognized professional and technical standards;
· Be of adequate technical quality for each purpose required under the Act;
· Provide multiple, up-to-date measures of student performance including measures that assess higher order thinking skills and understanding; and
· Provide useful diagnostic information to improve teaching and learning.

8. Decrease the testing burden on states, schools and districts by allowing states to assess students annually in selected grades in elementary, middle schools, and high schools.

Building Capacity

9. Ensure changes in teacher and administrator preparation and continuing professional development that research evidence and experience indicate improve educational quality and student achievement.

10. Enhance state and local capacity to effectively implement the comprehensive changes required to increase the knowledge and skills of administrators, teachers, families, and communities to support high student achievement.

Sanctions

11. Ensure that improvement plans are allowed sufficient time to take hold before applying sanctions; sanctions should not be applied if they undermine existing effective reform efforts.

12. Replace sanctions that do not have a consistent record of success with interventions that enable schools to make changes that result in improved student achievement.

Funding

13. Raise authorized levels of NCLB funding to cover a substantial percentage of the costs that states and districts will incur to carry out these recommendations, and fully fund the law at those levels without reducing expenditures for other education programs.

14. Fully fund Title I to ensure that 100 percent of eligible children are served.

---

We, the undersigned, will work for the adoption of these recommendations as central structural changes needed to NCLB at the same time that we advance our individual organization's proposals.

Advancement Project
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)
American Association of School Administrators
American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA)
American Association of School Personnel Administrators
American Association of University Women
American Baptist Women's Ministries
American Civil Liberties Union
American Counseling Association
American Dance Therapy Association
American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
American Federation of Teachers
American Friends Service Committee
American Humanist Association
American Music Therapy Association
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
American School Counselor Association
Americans for the Arts
Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA)
ASPIRA
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
Association of Education Publishers
Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO)
Assocation of Teacher Educators
Big Picture Company
Business and Professional Women/USA
Center for Community Change
Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking
Center for Parent Leadership
The Center for Policy Alternatives
Change to Win
Children's Aid Society
Children's Defense Fund
Church Women United
Citizens for Effective Schools
Coalition for Community Schools
Coalition of Essential Schools
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
Communities for Quality Education
COSN (Consortium for School Networking)
Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc.
Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
Council for Exceptional Children
Council for Hispanic Ministries of the United Church of Christ
Council for Learning Disabilities
Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform
Disciples Home Missions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (DLD/CEC)
Education Action!
Education Not Incarceration
Episcopal Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Every Child Matters
FairTest: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing
Forum for Education and Democracy
Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GPAC)
The Holmes Partnership
Hmong National Development Indigenous Women's Network
Institute for Language and Education Policy
International Reading Association
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)
International Technology Education Association
Japanese American Citizens League
Jobs with Justice
Learning Disabilities Association of America
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Mental Health America
Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic justice of the United Church or Christ
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) National Alliance of Black School Educators
National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education (NAAPAE)
National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)
National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA)
National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities (NAEAACLD)
National Association of Federally Impacted Schools
National Association of Pupil Service Administrators
National Association of School Nurses
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
National Association of Social Workers
National Baptist Convention, USA (NBCUSA)
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents
National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE)
National Conference of Black Mayors
National Council for the Social Studies
National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP)
National Council of Churches
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Teachers of English
National Education Association
National Education Taskforce
National Federation of Filipino American Associations
National Indian Education Association National Indian School Board Association
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA
National Pacific Islander Educator Network
National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
National Reading Conference
National Rural Education Association
National School Boards Association
National School Supply and Equipment Association
National Science Teachers Association
National Superintendents Roundtable
National Urban League
Native Hawaiian Education Association
The Network of Spiritual Progressives
Organization of Chinese Americans
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG National)
Public Education Network (PEN)
People for the American Way
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Progressive National Baptist Convention
Protestants for the Common Good
Rural School and Community Trust
Service Employees International Union
School Social Work Association of America
Social Action Committee of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
Stand for Children
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
United Black Christians of the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Concerns, The
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
USAction
Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church
Women of Reform Judaism

---

(List of 139 signers updated September 14, 2007)

Today's Heroes: Dean Defends Teacher's Civil Disobedience Against 3rd Grade Test

The rumble against the educational genocide of high-stakes testing is getting louder. From the Vancouver Sun:

The dean of education at Simon Fraser University says a teacher who defied her employer by refusing to deliver a mandatory reading test to her Grade 3 students should serve as an inspiration and role model for all teachers.

In a speech to SFU graduates this month, Paul Shaker praised Kathryn Sihota, a Vancouver Island teacher, for engaging in civil disobedience to protect her students from "psychological and educational vandalism," despite knowing that she risked discipline and public disapproval for her actions.

"You should remember that you entered the profession at the moment when this courageous teacher was taking her principled stand," Shaker told graduates in a fall convocation speech now posted on SFU's website. "Let her character, conviction and willingness to act be an inspiration to you."

Although his comments landed in the midst of a province-wide debate about the value of standardized tests, Shaker said in an interview he was making a point about the need for professionals to take non-violent action in defence of their principles and he was not passing judgment on the tests.

But he admitted he is particularly sensitive to the debate about standardized tests because before moving to Canada he spent many years as an educator in the U.S., where he said students have been damaged through rampant abuse of high-stakes testing.

"I like to think that won't happen in Canada," he said, "but I don't think that we can be complacent."

B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond said it was irresponsible of Shaker to encourage teachers to engage in civil disobedience rather than working cooperatively with others on issues of mutual interest.

"It's unfortunate when political agendas become part of a graduation speech to teachers in the province," Bond added.

But the B.C. Teachers' Federation, which supported Sihota in her fight with the Sooke board, cheered Shaker's stance.

"It's so heartening to see someone outside of teaching and someone with the stature of Paul Shaker ... making those comments, especially to student teachers," union vice-president Susan Lambert said in an interview.

A longtime teacher and union leader, Sihota said she decided not to administer the District Assessment of Reading test to her students at Millstream elementary after seeing a nervous child break down in tears.

She said the test was not worth that amount of stress.

As a result of that decision, Sihota was called before the Sooke board of education last month and given a letter of discipline for insubordination, which her union has grieved.

Shaker, when asked by The Sun if he agrees the tests are damaging to students, insisted he wasn't taking a position on the tests. "That judgment would have to be made in the context of the teacher in the classroom," he said.

But in his speech to almost 300 new teachers, Shaker said they have a professional obligation "to protect our students, not only from bullets or brutality, as we have seen teachers regularly do, but also from psychological and educational vandalism against their spirits. And this is what Kathryn Sihota has sought to do."

Penny Tees, head of the B.C. School Trustees' Association, declined to discuss Sihota's actions but said she doesn't accept the contention that tests damage students' spirits. She noted that even B.C.'s representative for children and youth, Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond, has defended the tests.

"If every teacher had the right to eliminate the pieces of the curriculum that they personally don't agree with and don't want to teach, then we would have a very, very hard time managing a public school curriculum," said Tees.

Shaker said he does not have a problem with the most controversial standardized test in B.C. -- the Foundation Skills Assessment -- but is highly critical of the way it is used to rank schools.

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com

The Heroism of Ellen Foote vs. the Duplicity of Bloomberg and Klein

Bloomberg and Klein have given contractors $80 million so far to come up with a not-ready-for prime-time instrument intended to solidify their reform agenda of test, punish, and stupidify public school children across the city of New York.

They did not count on one brave voice like Ellen Foote among the principals and teachers who are, otherwise, cowering under orders to keep their mouths shut--or in modern corporate parlance based on the sunny-side brainwashing of positive psychology, "accept, adapt, and move on."

Now we find that the glue that was borrowed from Jeb Bush to hold together the Bloomberg-Klein charter conversion agenda was already failing when they authorized its use. Parents and teachers are fed up with "report cards" designed to blame the schools, blame the teachers, blame the parents, and blame the children, while the great reformers like Bloomberg and Klein offer a less-than-basics education plan for the working poor in order to prepare a new permanent underclass of stupid, if submissive, human capital trained not to think.

From the Times:

. . . . In Mr. Klein’s view, the report cards will hold high-achieving schools accountable, requiring improvement for even the very best. But educators are deeply divided over whether the grades will be an accurate measure of school quality, or overly reductive and misleading. Some say the enterprise simply calculates and recalculates test scores at the expense of teaching and learning.

Thirty percent of the grade is based on overall student achievement on state tests. An additional 15 percent is based on the school’s environment, measured by attendance and surveys. The largest portion, 55 percent, is based on student improvement on state tests from one year to the next, a “growth model” analysis.

Typically, rating systems compare, say, this year’s fourth graders with last year’s, the approach used by No Child Left Behind in most cases. The first time, the city’s report cards will examine 2006 and 2007; later it will look at scores over several years.

The final grade will also reflect a comparison of schools with similar student populations. Elementary school populations will be grouped mainly by racial and socioeconomic background; middle and high schools will be grouped by test scores.

The entire analysis hinges on the accuracy of the data. As recently as last week, some principals throughout the city, particularly in high schools, were panicked that the data was inaccurate. Department officials said they expected to fix most of the errors and would delay the grades for a few high schools because of inaccuracies.

Ms. Foote does not dispute any numbers used to calculate her school’s grade on the draft, which she expects will be final. According to the city’s formula, a primary explanation for the grade is a dip in student performance on state tests. For example, in 2006, 90.7 percent of sixth graders met state standards in reading. The next year, 84.2 percent of seventh graders met those standards. In the same period, the citywide percentage of students in all grades meeting state reading standards rose to 50 percent, from 47 percent.

But Ms. Foote said it was unfair to judge a school on just one year of test scores and ignore gains over the last several years. She said that the percentage of students reading at grade level in her school had increased steadily since 2003, when it was 65 percent. She also said she was surprised to see her school compared to middle schools that required a standardized test for admission, like the Lab School and East Side Middle School.

“I do not want to devote more time to teaching to the tests,” she said, adding that she would have to sacrifice art, music and individualized instruction. “Is that what’s required now to get a good grade on this progress report? That’s a compromise that I don’t think I am willing to make.”

Mr. Klein acknowledges that the grades will be more sophisticated when more data is used.

“This is the first year; the grade is a starting point,” Mr. Klein said. “What it says is students similarly situated in other schools are getting different results, and you’ve got an expectation to anticipate that your kids’ results will go up.” He added, “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Principals started receiving copies of their report cards, called progress reports, about a month ago, but were warned in a letter that speaking about them to the public or the news media before their formal release was “subject to disciplinary action.”

Ms. Foote said she was willing to speak about her grade because she felt strongly that it overemphasized testing and did not accurately reflect the learning that goes on in her school. . . .

Kill the Testing That Is Killing Our Kids' Education

From the Boston Globe yesterday by Dan Brown:

By Dan Brown | November 3, 2007

TEACHERS NEED to pick their battles. I scanned my fourth-grade students in the Bronx and considered several battles in my mind.

Battle Number One: Manolo arrived in my classroom determined to fight the world. His mother had died when he was in second grade and he had to repeat the year. However, Manolo took substantial steps when he began to write creative stories, favoring historical fiction in which he inserted himself into a famous event. His writing revealed great imagination and interest, but his spelling and mechanics remained poor, and state exams continued to label him a failure.

Battle Number Two: Sara entered my classroom leaps ahead of her peers. She wrote hilarious, irreverent poetry and had already mastered grade-level math. She fired off endless questions about current events. Sara was a dream student, hungry to be challenged. However, the administrators at my school discouraged creative lesson planning in order to cram in endless "drill-and-kill" packets of basic skills test-taking strategies.

Battle Number Three: Eddie was in his fourth year in fourth grade because of absences and test failures. It seemed impossible to get him engaged in class. However, he loved to draw and showed a remarkable, natural talent for perspective sketching. Tragically, my class was deprived of all arts in order to allot more time for standardized test preparation.

How could I help these children face their challenges? Every moment, I felt pulled in 26 directions, invariably drawn to the louder children who act out. And then there was the ever-looming Test.

Everyone involved in education policy claims to be on the side of students, yet I quickly learned that the needs of my students fell quite low on the school's priority list. Nearly six years into the No Child Left Behind era, American public schools have more money than ever, but students are still widely denied the most crucial tools for their success: individual attention and specialized support.

In a more rational, equitable system, Manolo would have access to small-group tutoring, Sara could flourish in a challenging, high-level classroom environment, and Eddie could explore his artistic inspiration in school. They would meet with guidance counselors (my school had a ratio of 550 students per counselor) and mentors. Knowing their school supported their individual needs would further engage these children.

However, the resources that my students badly needed were being spent elsewhere; the money was going into high-stakes testing.

We have entered a dangerous era in which the fad for education policy is to import statistics-driven paradigms from the business sphere. These mechanistic models are an ill fit in education, a wholly human institution. Testing may provide easy-to-crunch metrics, but it creates a negative, all-consuming test culture, and does not paint a comprehensive picture of students' abilities.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools, particularly in high-poverty areas, are under intense pressure to meet quotas on one-size-fits-all standardized tests. Prepping for the test and getting a well-rounded education are not the same thing, but there is not room in the school day for both tasks.

The suffocating squeeze that my students and I felt was not a case of a few rogue administrators misunderstanding the law, as Assistant Secretary of Education Doug Mesecar has said. A recent report by the Center of Education Policy discovered that 44 percent of schools have reduced instructional time in untested subjects (social studies, science, art and music, physical education, lunch, and/or recess).

It's not just the government trumpeting high-stakes testing as the way to get "accountability" from schools. The media have largely gone along for the ride as well, trumpeting minute shifts in test score graphs as headline-worthy successes or failures.

We have taken our eye off the ball on what is most important in schools - students' needs. Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate committee overseeing the creation of a new No Child Left Behind bill, has an opportunity to recommend changes to the sweeping law.

Manolo, Sara, Eddie, and every other child, parent, and teacher in America are counting on him.

Dan Brown is author of the just released "The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.

Green Dot Public Schools, Inc.

The only thing public about Green Dot Public Schools, Inc. is the the word "Public" in the corporate name and, of course, the public money that is handed over to the corporate leeches that operate them, now in L. A., but coming to NYC in the fall of 2008. Green Dot was recently handed John Locke High School in Watts, and they have big plans to expand their non-profit corporate charter school model to other urban areas, where franchise managers (principals) hire, fire, and with the help of the Green Dot Home Office, make decisions that were once made by local elected school boards about public expenditures for education.

Green Dot's biggest plans, however, involve money. More money, please. Obviously, the tax-supported per pupil expenditure does not get close to where this "non-profit" corporation wants to go. Not only are the Board members constantly priming the money pump from the likes of Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and the Walton family, but school staff are urged to get in the game as well. From the Green Dot site:

As you know, Green Dot raises capital to fund start-up costs for all of its schools, including facilities costs. We ask that you not submit proposals to foundations that are on Green Dot's target list, both to prevent confusion on the part of the foundations, and also because Green Dot's collective ability to raise money is probably greater than any individual school’s or classroom’s.

Having said that, I do not want to limit anyone’s entrepreneurial spirit in going after funders, particularly if school staff has a connection that Green Dot doesn’t. I do want to encourage a spirit where we’re working together to get the most money possible out of people who are giving it away.

At some point in this space, I will try to create a list of foundations not to contact. In the meantime, it is probably easiest if you run your targets by me, and I will go over them with you.

And it doesn't stop with staff and faculty. Parents, most of them being low-income or poverty families, are required to give 35 service hours each year to the children's school. For those families where parents are working two jobs to keep the rent paid, these folks can pay off their fines, er, service with $5.00 of supplies per service hour. And there will be no shirkers, you can bet. Here's part of Parent Coordinator instructions for those would-be slacker parents:

V. Enforce consequences for parents and students who do not meet hours:
Enforce the following consequences if parent service hours have not been met--

• Senior student not allowed to attend prom and any senior events

• Diploma held until hours completed

While the Green Dot police are arm-twisting "service" from impoverished parents, there was a big Green Dot Ball this past week, the first Annual in L. A. Why? To raise money, of course, in order to expand this corporate privatization of America's public schools.

Here are a few pictures from the fun night. First, President and CEO, Steve Barr (left) with SEIU President, Andy Stern (at right, representing the L. A. service workers, don't you know), and Eli Broad (center), who gave $10 million that night.

Here's the note I got from Danielle the day after the big ball. Sorry I couldn't make it--I had to teach that night:

Please find attached a few select photos from The Green Dot Ball: A Benefit for Public Education held at the Griffith Observatory last night.

The benefit was hosted by Green Dot Public Schools, the leading education reform organization, to help raise funds to open ten new schools in the watts area this fall. In addition, Steve Barr, CEO and Founder of Green Dot Public Schools, honored champions of great public schools: including, renown businessman and philanthropist, Eli Broad; SEIU President, Andy Stern; boxer, businessman and philanthropist Oscar de la Hoya, and Green Dot Educators for all their support on behalf of Green Dot. The event attracted over 800 distinguished guests including City Councilman, Tom LaBonge and Senator Gloria Romero.

Wolfgang Puck catered the event and Ferraby Lionheart provided musical entertainment.

Danielle

Danielle Rauschendorfer
The Rose Group
9925 Jefferson Blvd., 2^nd Fl
Culver City, CA 90232
310.280.3710

No, That Is No, NCLB Reauthorization This Year

To all the people who signed petitions, wrote letters, handed out flyers, made calls, talked to your neighbor, did research, prayed, threatened, screamed, cajoled, bribed, debated, made speeches, or otherwise attempted the impossible--CHEERS! for now. From Spellings' own media outlet:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top two lawmakers on the Senate Education Committee said Friday they are putting off consideration of a new No Child Left Behind law until next year.

Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., have decided that there's not enough time this year to complete work on the legislation, which has not yet been formally introduced.

The five-year-old law, up for a scheduled rewrite, requires math and reading tests in grades three through eight, and once in high school. Schools that miss testing benchmarks face increasingly stiff sanctions. The law, originally passed in 2001, is among President Bush's top domestic policy priorities.

Kennedy, the panel's chairman, had previously said he wanted a bill before the Senate this year. He now is aiming, however, to bring a bill up for consideration early next year, said his spokeswoman, Melissa Wagoner.

"We have additional work to do on key issues, but are confident that we can put forth a responsible package for consideration early in the new year that will enjoy strong support of the Senate," Wagoner said.

However, it may be even more difficult to pass a rewritten No Child bill next year because it is a presidential election year. It is harder to get the bipartisan consensus needed to pass major legislation against the backdrop of an intense presidential campaign. . . .

There will be plenty to do starting Monday morning to make sure that Spellings, Kennedy, and Miller are stopped in '08. Happy New Year!

Peter Henry has some sobering reminders:

So, another year of continuing to test kids until they bleed and vomit, more schools failing AYP, more threats, more school takeovers, more of everything, except the kind of innovation and quality schooling that our kids need in the 21st century.

This kind of myopic, stalemated, byzantine bureaucracy is precisely why I will argue until I die against a national curriculum, national standards and a national exam. Once the power is in Washington, it never comes back, it never improves people's lives and it never even gets off the bathroom floor.

Never give away our local control in education. Ever.

A New Majority of the Poor in Southern Public Schools

All across the South, small town businesses have been shuttered as new Super Wal-Marts spring up out on the bypasses, leaving the town squares weedy and broke, where people peck out a living from odd jobs and food stamps. Manufacturing jobs that once offered steady employment have been exported to China and India, where slave labor now makes the goods that show up on the toxic shelves of those southern Super Wal-Marts that offer the "everyday low prices" that the broke and destitute must now be thankful for.

The big houses on the west end of Main Street have been bought up by retiring yankees who have cashed out on Wall Street to enjoy their golden years in the sub-tropical glow of an imagined small town life that disappeared even before the original owners died. These new transplanted residents hire the illegals to cut their grass and clean their houses and boats down at the land-locked marina where the lake is disappearing. At night loud pickup trucks prowl the streets and roads, keeping alive an underground economy based on illicit trade, pot production, and the manufacture of crystal meth.

Back in the other world that most of us consider the real one, a new report from the Southern Education Foundation now shows that low income students constitute a majority of school populations in 11 out of 15 Southern states (AP piece here). A couple of their charts are included here (click charts to enlarge).

This is the new, New South, the hotter, drier one that is suffocating from an epidemic of morbid obesity, diabetes, and addiction--the one where anger is quickly replacing hope in those who have not yet entirely despaired.

Nooses in school yard trees? With the Federal government turning its back on civil rights enforcement and the economic, health, and education needs of its rural and small town people, I'm afraid you ain't seen nothing yet.