The Pineapple Story Tests Us: Have Test Publishers become Unquestionable Authorities? – Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher
By Anthony Cody
This is one of the best revelations of the deep and dangerous system of allowing Peason test developers to have supreme power over our students’ education and teachers’ careers. It is my understanding that Pearson is working with Bill Gates to tweak the common core curriculum that Pearson will then earn a fortune testing.
I Don’t Understand Michelle Rhee – Bridging Differences – Education Week
By Diane Ravitch
…For one thing, the federal NAEP tests in 2011 showed that the D.C. public schools have the largest achievement gap of any city tested by that program; the D.C. black-white achievement gap is fully double the gap in the typical urban district. For another, USA Today documented a major cheating scandal in the D.C. public schools during her tenure. At the center of the scandal was a principal Rhee had repeatedly singled out, honored, given bonuses, and promoted. He resigned. Unlike the cheating scandal in Atlanta, the cheating scandal in D.C. has not been subject to an independent investigation to date.
Of all the images of Rhee, the one that sticks in my head is when she invited a PBS film crew to watch her fire a principal. She said to the crew: “I’m going to fire somebody in a little while. Do you want to see that?” Of course they did, and they filmed it. It was then that I realized that she enjoys hurting people. She enjoys watching people suffer.
In another infamous incident, Rhee told an audience of young teachers that when she was a teacher, she controlled her restless class by putting duct tape on their mouths; when the tape came off, their lips were bleeding. Apparently, the audience found that act of child abuse very funny.
via I Don’t Understand Michelle Rhee – Bridging Differences – Education Week.
Get Rid of Teachers or Encourage them To Stay — What is Best for our Schools? – Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher
Deadlocked Negotiators Fail to Reach Consensus on Teacher-Prep Rules – Teacher Beat – Education Week
Deadlocked Negotiators Fail to Reach Consensus on Teacher-Prep Rules – Teacher Beat – Education Week.
Stalking the Vampire in Texas – Bridging Differences – Education Week
Stalking the Vampire in Texas – Bridging Differences – Education Week.
Education Week: Where Teachers Are Replaceable Widgets, Education Suffers
We recently tried to test an idea for improving the middle school science curriculum through a multiyear randomized controlled trial in a big-city public school system. But the constant stream of teachers leaving the classes we were studying made it nearly impossible to get reliable results. After just one year, 42 percent of the teachers in 92 schools who began participating in our study had left it to take other positions within and outside the schools.
The instability was about the same in both the intervention group and the control group. Attrition among teachers is a well-known problem in urban schools. As many as half of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years. And even if they dont switch careers, many new teachers leave urban schools for jobs in the suburbs. A newly released study from the Center for Longitudinal Data in Education Research shows the harm that teacher attrition does to student achievement.
via Education Week: Where Teachers Are Replaceable Widgets, Education Suffers.
Why not Race to the Top for political reform? – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post
I love this concept.
However, standardized assessments produce easily ranked numbers, which are convenient for manipulating public opinion. Since the perception of failure enables politicians and corporate leaders to fulfill a variety of profit related goals (breaking collective bargaining agreements, employing education-management companies, and selling curriculum materials), the complex realities of teaching and learning — and the invaluable contributions that public education provides for our society — are irrelevant. What matters are numerical representations of achievement: scores and rankings that can be linked to revenue (such as future earnings of students or the economic success of the United States).
If this is our vision of a good society, then this type of accountability should be implemented widely and broadly. I suggest we start with political leaders. They might wish to begin with their own staff members, who would take a test, then be ranked according to their scores (it should be noted that the standardized achievement tests used to evaluate teachers are norm referenced and are, therefore, only useful if they result in a range of results. That is, a test that everyone scores well on would be considered a failure. In keeping with the metaphor of a race, the purpose of the assessments is to create winners – and losers.)
. . .
Even if a politician’s staff is performing brilliantly, one or two of the team members would be identified as in need of improvement. And unless improvement is demonstrated (on the next battery of tests), the lowest achievers would be fired and new staff members would replace them.
Now, critics might worry about the validity of tests for measuring characteristics of a successful political staffer. Clearly, this is not a worry shared by school reformers, who have faith that the assessments produced by test-making corporations are valid, reliable and meaningful. The fact that decades of research have proven otherwise, producing scholarship demonstrating that high-stakes standardized tests reinforce social inequality and are subject to corrupting influences at every level of implementation, should not stand in the way of reform.
Which leads us to the next logical step in this reform: testing political leaders. If it’s important to see how well students and staffers rate, it seems critical to ascertain the abilities of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of our government. Elections are a worthwhile endeavor, but they have inherent deficiencies. First, they occur infrequently, allowing undeserving politicians to remain in office for years; tests could be administered annually, or even several times a year, if necessary. Second, voters are subjective; test scores are neutral and impartial –a tangible measure of value. Clearly, elections are not nearly as dependable as test scores. And I am sure that, given a fair bidding process, numerous corporations would be willing to develop and profit from set of assessments intended to rank politicians. The expense is likely to be far less than campaign costs.
Testing is being touted as the means of making the U.S. education system competitive, even world-class. If we want the United States to be remain a world leader, shouldn’t reform start with our own leaders?
Why not Race to the Top for political reform? – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post.
Jack Hassard: Charter School Data Fuels Controversy in Georgia – Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher
I totally love this one.
Gwinnett County Schools v. Cox
On May 16, 2011, the Supreme Court of Georgias decision in Gwinnett County School District v. Cox found that the state constitution does not authorize any governmental entity to create or operate schools that are not under the control of a local board of education. According to the majority decision, no other government entity can compete with or duplicate the efforts of local boards of education in establishing and maintaining general K-1 2 schools. And it further states that local boards of education have the exclusive authority to fulfill one of the primary obligations of the State of Georgia, namely “the provision of an adequate public education for all citizens” Art. VIII, Sec. I, Par. I..
A new poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-much argument – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post
A new poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-much argument – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post.
Ignorance is Strength by Paul Krugman
So whenever you hear Republicans say that they are the party of traditional values, bear in mind that they have actually made a radical break with America’s tradition of valuing education. And they have made this break because they believe that what you don’t know can’t hurt them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/opinion/krugman-ignorance-is-strength.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB
