More micromanagement than ever

Sent to The Hill, Feb. 26.

In " Lawmakers push officials on No Child Left Behind rewrite," Feb. 25) Congressman John Kline praises the new education law, saying that “If we learned anything throughout the process to replace No Child Left Behind, it’s that the American people are tired of Washington micromanaging their classrooms."
It looks like there will be more micromanagement than ever before. The new law, in sections 1201 and 1204, provides grants for the development of "innovative assessments" based on competency-based education.
Competency-based education (CBE) replaces regular instruction with online "modules" that students work through on their own. Students take tests in order to move to the next module. It is supported by the National Governor's Association, Pearson and now federal law without consulting educators and, admittedly, without a proper research base. 
It appears that the huge testing burden of the common core will be replaced with a perpetual cycle of working through packaged programs. It is possible that we will now have testing every day.

Stephen Krashen

original article: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/270795-lawmakers-push-officials-to-implement-education-reform-law

Computer coding fever in Florida

Sent to the Miami Herald, Feb 26.
Computer Coding Fever
Sen. Ring thinks that knowledge of computer coding is needed for "everything we are going to do." ("Florida Senate endorses making computer coding a foreign language," Feb. 24).
This is not true. What is needed is knowing how to use a computer. Very few professions require knowing how to program and design software.  Driving a car does not require a deep knowledge of auto mechanics. 
My daughter has pointed out to me that to learn how to use many programs, all you need is a good friend to show you how.

Stephen Krashen
original article: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article62291447.html#storylink=cpy

During Black History Month, Reconsider

A Twitter Call and Response

NY Public Library ‏@nypl

Teachers and librarians, Michelle Obama has a message for you about @openebks, a free e-reader for children in need: http://on.nypl.org/1oH0g86 

Susan Ohanian ‏@susanoha

@nypl @OpenEbks How nice children in poverty can read books on smart phones. 

Alternative: I just donated 100 new books to local Food Shelf

Is there a shortage of STEM workers?

Sent to the New York Times
"A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding," (Feb. 21) repeats the claim that there is a "lack of skilled workers" in science and technology but does not mention the considerable amount of research concluding that this shortage does not exist.  In fact, several reports suggest that there is be a surplus.
In addition to published reports in scientific journals and books, articles describing this research have appeared regularly in the media. 
Readers may want to start with Michael Teitelbaum's thoroughly researched book,  Falling Behind? Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent, and Hal Salzman's journal paper, "What Shortages? The Real Evidence About the STEM Workforce," Issues in Science and Technology, volume 29(3), 2013. (http://issues.org/29-4/what-shortages-the-real-evidence-about-the-stem-workforce/)
Stephen Krashen


Original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/business/a-rising-call-to-promote-stem-education-and-cut-liberal-arts-funding.html?_r=0

In Education Policy, Language Abuse Begets Child Abuse

                 

 by Susan Ohanian

I know better than to read wedding announcements in the New York Times but when an e-mail teaser identified the groom as  “a principal consultant to the education industry for Infinitive, a management consultancy specializing in digital marketing, ” I decided to take a look at what  these guys do.

At their website, I encountered language more curdled than month-old milk. Here’s a sample:

Get in the know and keep current with big-picture thinking and actionable insights.

  http://www.infinitive.com/hot-topics/blog/#sthash.jefxMkzd.dpuf

And it gets worse.

                  Customer Intelligence. Activated

Today’s consumers expect businesses to engage with them seamlessly and personally, across an ever-evolving ecosystem of human and digital touch points. Companies seeking to improve their delivery of such omni-channel customer experiences must optimize the ways in which they manage and leverage first, second and third-party customer information. Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Customer Officers who master this domain make it possible to engage customers with tailored messages delivered in a timely fashion through the most relevant channels.

 Indeed: And here's how they activate intelligence.

• ·         ever-evolving ecosystem of human and digital touch points

• ·         omni-channel customer experiences

• ·         optimize the ways

• ·         manage and leverage information

Certainly, we wouldn't buy a used car from someone who talks this way, but collectively, more and more people in our profession seem willing to cede decision-making for what goes on in our classrooms to them. I think we must take back our language so that we can take back our classrooms.

WGU's Dismembered Faculty Model for Comptency Based "Learning"

Below is the intro to an ad for the online diploma mill, Western Governors University:

Judge Refuses to Stop Unfair and Unreliable Value Added System

Not in the bolded section of this news story, the federal judge notes that the teachers have a strong case against the unreliable nature of the the Tennessee VAM system known as TVAAS.  He just refuses to do anything about it.

....TVAAS is a complex algorithm that aims to isolate the impact of individual teachers on their students’ learning, as measured by state tests. One of the nation’s first “value-added” formulas, it has inspired similar efforts in other states.

TVAAS scores have been calculated since the 1990s but started being used to help determine ratings, bonuses and tenure status only since 2011, when Tennessee overhauled its teacher evaluation law.

Under state law, TVAAS scores make up 35 percent of teachers’ ratings, with the rest based on in-person observations and “achievement measures,” which can include graduation rates, students’ AP or IB exam scores, or school-wide TVAAS scores.

The two teachers who filed the lawsuit, Lisa Trout and Mark Taylor, had strong ratings from classroom observations but TVAAS scores that were too low to make them eligible for bonuses from Knox County Schools. The district gives bonuses of up to $2,000 a year to teachers with strong ratings. Trout and Taylor charged that those scores should be discounted because only some of their students took the end-of-course exams used to generate the TVAAS scores.

Taylor’s rating was based on scores of just 22 of his 142 students, he said, rendering his TVAAS score meaningless.

Court documents reflect an exchange between William Sanders, the statistician who designed TVAAS, and Taylor’s parents, with whom he is acquainted.

Sanders was asked if a TVAAS score based on test scores of only a small fraction of a teacher’s students reflect a proper use of TVAAS. His answer: “For an overall evaluation of the effectiveness of the teacher to facilitate student academic progress, of course not.”

Mattice said in his ruling that he found the criticism compelling. But ultimately, the court ruled that Knox County had the right to hold back bonuses based on Taylor’s TVAAS. And he said the court did not have authority to tell the state legislature to come up with a different way to factor student learning into teachers’ ratings.

“It bears repeating that Plaintiffs’ concerns about the statistical imprecision of TVAAS are not unfounded,” the opinion reads. “However, this Court’s role is extremely limited. The judiciary is not empowered to second-guess the wisdom of the Tennessee legislature’s approach to solving the problems facing public education.”....

From Anti-Social Media to De-Personalized and Conformance Based Learning

Political Pronouncement: Books for Kids

by Susan Ohanian


 Today I decided to make a political statement. I donated 100 NEW books to my town's Food Shelf.

This list is a combination of selections of middle-grade favorites compiled by my local children's bookstore and also some golden oldies for which I have fond kid connections. Kid stories travel with these books. I figure you can never go wrong with Junie B. Jones and Miss Nelson. And if you haven't read Owl in Love: Schoolgirl by day, owl by night, do it!

NOTE: None of these books appears in the Common Core retinue of sacred writings, but I'd testify that any one of them could help a child become college and career ready.

"New" is a critical element here. It does not refer to the date of publication but to the fact that these books are sparkling and shiny. Untrodden.  I set off on this effort when I heard that the Food Shelf does have a few volumes--tattered and torn. Leftovers.  I figure that making sure every local child has at least a handful of new books  is the best contribution I can make to the well-being of our country

Think about it: How many times have you heard "the needs of children" mentioned in the very noisy political campaign? I say "children's needs" start right here.

Right now.

• War of the Werelords
• The Wolf Princess
• Phantom Tollbooth
• How to Catch a Bogle
• Beyonders 01: World Without Heroes
• Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
• UFiles #1: World without Heroes
• Lionboy3: The Truth
• Clementine01
• The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans!
• Where I Belong
• Shug
• Giver 1
• Long Road to Freedom
• Madman of Piney Woods
• Secondhand Magic
• Star Rise
• Lemonade War 01
• Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures: Great Egyptian Grave Robbery
• A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher
• Encyclopedia Brown Carries On
• Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon
• Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
• Wayside School: Sideways Stories
• The Magic Finger
• Koya Delaney and the Good Girl Blues
• Punished!
• 10 Turkeys in the Road
• Mrs. Lane is a Pain
• The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids: Skeletons Don't Play Tubas
• Underpants for Ants
• The Family Under the Bridge
• Stone Fox (3 copies)
• Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus
• Miss Nelson Has a Field Day
• Horrible Harry Goes to Sea
• National Geographic Readers: Trucks!
• Black Lagoon Adventures: Back-to-School Fright from the Black Lagoon
•  Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash
•  Hatchet: Brian's Winter
•  Silly Street: Selected Poems
•  Radio Fifth Grade
•  Cam Jansen Mysteries: The Scary Snake Myster7
• Now Everybody Really Hate Me
• The Truth About Cats
• Wanted: Perfect Parents
• Tarzan
• Tarzan: Always in My Heart
•  CrookJaw
• Joe on Sunday
• Mudigush
• What If. . . .
• Oh say can you Say?
• Invitation
• Chicken
• Busy Buzzing Bumblebees
• Night/Knight
• On Grandpa's Farm
• Twice Upon a Time: Rapunzel: The One with All the Hair
• Fat Fanny, Beanpole Bertha, and the Boys
• A Big Fish Story
• The Clothes Horse and other stories
• Belli's Deli 
• Aesop's Fables
• Cat Up a Tree
• Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears and Other Amazing Alphabet Anecdotes
• Frog in a Bog
• Up in the Mountains and other poems of long ago
• The Rainbow Hand
• Hello Mr. Chips! computer Jokes and Riddles
• The Good Little Girl
• The Voyage of Odysseus 
• Aesop's Fables
• Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth Century Art
• Pinocchio
• Words with Wings:a Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art
• Ride a Purple Pelican
• A Chair for My Mother
• Monday's Troll
• Edna St. Vincent Millay: Poetry for young people
• A Thousand Cousins
• Something on my Mind
• Chickens! Chickens! 
• Tales of Tails
• Peacock and Other Poems
• Someone could win a polar bear
• The Something
• Daddy-Long-Legs
• Noah's Ark
• Bad Kitty
• Red Dog Blue Fly: Football Poems
• Owl in Love: Schoolgirl by day, owl by night
• Are all the giants dead?
• Library Lion
• Baby See, Baby Do!
• Fly with the Birds
• I Spy on the Farm
• What Will You Wear, Claude