Ed Notes Online: FairTest

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Testing reform in the news: June 6-12, 2013

From Fair Test:

Many major stories about assessment reform progress this week -- Texas significantly reduces standardized exam mandates; a rally in Albany opposes testing overkill, and major national groups call for a moratorium on Common Core tests.

All our weekly newsblasts are posted on the web at http://www.fairtest.org/news/other - this one will be up shortly.

Texas Governor Signs Bill Eliminating Two-Thirds of Required High-Stakes Exams

http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2013/06/perry-signs-bill-to-reduce-high-stakes-testing/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/10/texas-governor-signs-legislation-to-reduce-standardized-testing/
Rebellion Against a Culture of Testing Bubbles Over
http://www.summitdaily.com/news/6810995-113/texas-state-testing-bubbles

Thousands Protest Standardized Exam Overkill in State Capitol Demonstration
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20130608/NEWS01/306080043
Why we Rallied Against High-States Testing -- OpEd by a former school
superintendent
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/ricken-too-much-emphasis-on-school-standardized-tests-1.5424228
"Stop the Madness Song" Highlights Anti-Testing Rally
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Campus-Notebook-Testing-protest-meant-to-strike-4584931.php

North Carolina Governor: Public School Students Take Too Many Tests
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/05/2941170/gov-mccrory-public-school-students.html

Oklahoma Lifts Testing Requirement for Learning Disabled Students
http://www.news9.com/story/22553805/new-legislation-changes-testing-requirements-for-special-needs-students

MSNBC High-Stakes Testing Protest Overview
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/vp/52151738/#52151738

Major Ed Groups Support Moratorium on Common Core High-Stakes Tests
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/06/common-core-supporters-back-moratorium-on-new-tests-high-stakes/
Unwrapping the Flawed Common Core Tests
http://andreagabor.com/2013/06/03/unwrapping-new-york-states-new-common-core-tests/
Common Core Collides with "Education Spring"
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/?p=716&preview=true
See FairTest Common Core fact sheet "More Tests, But Not Much Better"
http://www.fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-more-tests-not-much-better

Parents Bill Pearson for School Time Wasted on Field Tests
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rEIh17ceiWc/UbJVly6ntpI/AAAAAAAAMvI/JtgJVFbOOZ8/s1600/Invoice+to+Pearson.jpg

Teachers Open Letter to Pearson: Send Profits Back to the Classroom http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/06/05/33tanenbaum.h32.html

Pearson Field Tests Earn an "F"
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/An-exam-that-gets-an-F-from-critics-4581122.php

Great Neck School Board Adopts Resolution Blasting Over-Testing
http://www.theislandnow.com/great_neck/article_26cc3ec6-ceb4-11e2-af0a-001a4bcf887a.html
Read the Great Neck Resolution
http://www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/gnps/pages/TestingResolution2013.pdf
Sign the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing
http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/

Third Graders Slam School Time Wasted on Testing in Letters to New York
Governor
http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/rockland-kids-slam-state-exams-write-to-cuomo-we-re-only-in-third-grade-for-heaven-sakes-1.5415097?qr=1

Indiana Computerized Exam Should Fail Independent Test
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/editorial-istep-failure-shouldn-t-pass-outside-test/article_428d4d4f-1b90-5912-8add-c001b5f1fc81.html

Local School Board Opposes Rhode Island State Grad Test Plan
http://www.heraldnews.com/newsnow/x793338210/Tiverton-School-Committee-blasts-NECAP-requirement-in-meeting-with-state-officials#axzz2W0b62ss0

Jeb Bush's "A to F" School Grading Scam Hurts High-Poverty Districts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/07/superintendent-virginias-new-a-f-school-grading-system-will-hurt-high-poverty-districts/

Play the Value-Added Evaluation Game or Help Your Students?
http://edge.ascd.org/_Play-the-Evaluation-Game-or-Help-Your-Students-You-Must-Choose/blog/6532486/127586.html

More Ed. Leaders Should Fight Damaging School "Reforms"
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2013/06/why_arent_more_school_leaders_fighting_against_ed_reform.html?cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS2

Asking the Right Questions to Close Achievement Gaps
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/210647341.html?page=1&c=y

An Alternative Vision of Real School Reform
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/civic_mission/2013/06/extraordinary_people.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW
Final Installment of Excellent Video Series "A Year at Mission Hill" --
The Impact of Testing Mandates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VduHn6GmVt4&feature=youtube

Sign a New Declaration to Overhaul Test-Driven Schooling
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/06/in_counter_to_joyless_schools_%20coalition_demands_supports_based_reform.html

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
ph- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
cell- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org/

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Videos: FairTest Honors Diane Ravitch with the Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education Award, June 7, 2012

Ravitch and Meier and Monty Neill plus Weingarten and Mulgrew in the same space, Plus lots of super attendees. So far the ed social event of the season for me.

Love was in the air to such an extent at this event, I even gave Randi Weingarten a hug. And smiled at Mulgrew. After all, being in the same space with Debbie Meier and Diane Ravitch is a very special occasion, especially as it was a fundraiser for a worthy organization. You know I just found buried in my archives a book by Debbie that I was reading around 1971 when I gave up my dream of an open classroom in frustration. I have followed her career since then but only got to meet her 5 years ago.

FAIR TEST has been leading the battle against high stakes tests for a quarter of a century and its director Monty Neill has been a major voice in the struggle, which if you have been following this blog you know has been heating up (Police Estimate 400 at Pearson Field Test Protest). It was the best $75 I've spent in a long time.

It was just a few short hours before we found out Walker had won in Wisconsin. And though I think that big labor bears part of the responsibility, the evening of good feeling transcended it all. Feeling a great deal of labor solidarity I had a brief but nice chat with Randi.

The entire video is worth an hour of your time and you can watch it at https://vimeo.com/43587373.

I also cut it into 4 chunks for those short on time.

I'm embedding this 19 minutes piece when Deb and Diane did a version of their Edweek (Bridging Differences) blog to end the evening. Just priceless stuff.

Meier and Ravitch in Conversation

https://vimeo.com/43759101

FairTest Award - Meier and Ravitch in Conversation from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

Here are other segments:

Deborah Meier Introduces Diane Ravitch
https://vimeo.com/43747985
Diane Ravitch Acceptance Speech
https://vimeo.com/43748488
And in this segment I collated all the other speakers:
Michael Mulgrew, Ann Cook, Monty Neill, Randi Weingarten
https://vimeo.com/43759471

The battle against high stakes tests has been in the forefront of Ed Notes from way back to our print publishing beginnings in 1996 when I was still working at a school that had been led since 1979 by a test/data driven principal (yes, even in those days) and I saw first hand what that did to deform education as the ability of teachers to control what they taught was being taken out of their hands. Thus, the issue was a key when ICE, followed by GEM were formed. The GEM committee, Change the Stakes, which began as a teacher dominated group has shifted into much of a parent/teacher group, with the sensibilities of both points of view making it stronger. Of course many teachers are also parents.

Also, on June 7, the afternoon of the Pearson rally, the education committee of MORE, the new caucus in town, held a great session on chapters 8 and 9 of Ravitch's book, with a depth of analysis that delved into what Ravitch left out and what she nailed with an intellectual rigor I haven't experienced in a while. In the room were some new teachers and some veteran ICE people, along with some NYCORE and GEM. Quite a mix -- the next meeting is June 21 (which I can't attend because we are having a party in honor of my dad where we will serve samples all of his favorite foods -- and have a barf bag ready just in case).

One major group we have to convince to get involved are the very people we work with. Organized, teachers can fight back against this testing mania and while the UFT/AFT make noises, they do nothing at the school level to get some pushback --- like how about getting a movement going to boycott some of the crap teachers have to do that has little relation to the children -- the waste of time monitoring crap?

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"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Meier and Ravitch in Conversation

Here are other segments: