John King's Priority Schools Classification Scam

It makes me all the more uncomfortable when that unilateral disregard for existing law is being used in a coercive manner - using access to federal funding to coerce states to adopt reform strategies that the current administration happens to prefer. The precedent at the federal level that legislation perceived as inconvenient can and should simply be ignored seems to encourage state departments of education to ignore statutory and constitutional provisions within their states that might be perceived similarly as inconvenient.  ---schoolfinance101

I want to follow up on our earlier post:

Insanity Reigns: Priority Designation of Schools Will Lead to Further Destruction of Neighborhood Schools and Privatization with some great follow-up stuff.

RBE takes a good shot: Obama NCLB Waiver Process Even More Damaging To Schools Then NCLB

Under the No Child Left Behind waiver the state received from the feds, the lowest performing schools must undergo major overhauls or be closed and turned into new schools. 

Leonie pointed to another brilliant post by Bruce Baker of Rutgers blogging at School Finance101. NCLB Waivers worse than NCLB? Bruce writes:

Implicit in these classifications - and the proposed response interventions - is the assumption that priority schools are simply poorly run schools - schools with crummy leaders and lots of bad, lazy, pathetic and uncaring teachers... who have thus caused their school to achieve priority status.

Really, having such amazing forces like Bruce Baker doing this work on our side is heartening. Here's the first part of his post in full -- click the link below it to read the rest.

Ed Waivers, Junk Rating Systems & Misplaced Blame: Case 1 – New York State by schoolfinance101

I hope over the next several months to compile a series of posts where I look at what states have done to achieve their executive granted waivers from federal legislation. Yeah... let's be clear here, that all of this starts with an executive decision to ignore outright, undermine intentionally and explicitly, federal legislation. Yeah... that legislation may have some significant issues. It might just suck entirely. Nonetheless, this precedent is a scary one both in concept and in practice. Even when I don't like the legislation in question, I'm really uncomfortable having someone unilaterally over-ride or undermine it.

It makes me all the more uncomfortable when that unilateral disregard for existing law is being used in a coercive manner - using access to federal funding to coerce states to adopt reform strategies that the current administration happens to prefer. The precedent at the federal level that legislation perceived as inconvenient can and should simply be ignored seems to encourage state departments of education to ignore statutory and constitutional provisions within their states that might be perceived similarly as inconvenient.

Setting all of those really important civics issues aside - WHICH WE CERTAINLY SHOULD NOT BE DOING - the policies being adopted under this illegal (technical term - since it's in direct contradiction to a statute, with full recognition that this statute exists) coercive framework are toxic, racially disparate and yet another example of misplaced blame.
States receiving waivers have generally followed through by using their assessment data in contorted and entirely inappropriate ways to create designations of schools and districts, where those designations then permit state officials to step in and take immediate actions to change the governance, management and whatever else they see fit to change in these schools (and whether they have such legal authority or not).

Priority schools are the bottom of the heap, or bottom 5% and are subject to the most aggressive, and most immediate unilateral interventions (seemingly with complete disregard for existing state statutory or constitutional rights of attending children, their parents or local taxpayers, as well as explicit disregard for existing federal law).

Implicit in these classifications - and the proposed response interventions - is the assumption that priority schools are simply poorly run schools - schools with crummy leaders and lots of bad, lazy, pathetic and uncaring teachers... who have thus caused their school to achieve priority status.

They clearly must go... or at least deserve one heck of a shaking up!

Couldn't possibly be anyone else's fault. After all, the state must have clearly already done its part to provide sufficient financial resources, etc. etc. etc. It must be the bad teachers and crappy principals. That's all it can be! Therefore, we must have immediate wide-reaching latitude to step in and kick out the bums - and heck - just close those schools and send those kids elsewhere, or convert those schools to "limited public access, privately governed and managed institutions" (privately manged charters) where layers of constitutional rights for employees and students may be sacrificed.

New York State's Waiver Hit List
New York State Education Department released their hit list of schools recently. 

 READ MORE

 

Insanity Reigns: Priority Designation of Schools Will Lead to Further Destruction of Neighborhood Schools and Privatization

This is the most ridiculous policy... cash rewards and options for opting out of some state regulations for schools that are doing great, which is correlated with population.  More external pressure and "accountability" for schools that are not, which has to do w/ population, but no policies to actually help these kids...  as long as we are going by test scores the results of programs like these will be the same:  schools with highest concentrations of ELL/Special needs/and children living in poverty will be "low achieving" and schools with low poverty rates (or no poverty) and small numbers of ELLs and special needs students will be "high achieving"... Meanwhile schools with large nos of at risk kids to be restructured or closed. .....a NYC special ed teacher and member of MORE

Here comes another assault on schools that will force the most struggling schools to focus resources on tests instead of doing what is necessary. And they can expect no help from Bloomberg/Walcott or from the next mayor for that matter.

Some say John King, pro-charter, pro-privatization State Ed Comm. is clueless. I don't agree. He is executing the ed deform agenda, in addition to executing these schools

Gotham has a story about this here. Go leave a comment.

Leonie Haimson had this quick analysis:

At first glance reward schools include some of wealthiest & most selective in city incl ps 6 on upper east side manhattan & anderson Stuy bronx science brooklyn tech & lehman these are the schools that are supposed to get cash  awards for doing so well?

Here are the comments that the MORE special ed teacher sent in this quick analysis:

As result of the NCLB waiver, all districts in NYC were identified for focus/priority except D31/Staten Island...there is a reward too, of course going to wealthiest schools, in d15 for example ps 321 park slope.

This is the most ridiculous policy... cash rewards and options for opting out of some state regulations for schools that are doing great, which is correlated with population.  More external pressure and "accountability" for schools that are not, which has to do w/ population, but no policies to actually help these kids...  as long as we are going by test scores the results of programs like these will be the same:  schools with highest concentrations of ELL/Special needs/and children living in poverty will be "low achieving" and schools with low poverty rates (or no poverty) and small numbers of ELLs and special needs students will be "high achieving"...
There will be an improvement plan based on 6 tenants of education effectiveness (whatever that means) and schools/districts will have to meet goals, provide data, have visits... Haven't seen what happens if goals are not met/there isn't improvement/test scores don't go up... But this newfangled thing has another group "priority" schools, which are schools "in more trouble" than yours (lowest 5% I think), those schools I think face more imminent action and I think the idea is the focus schools are targeted to prevent from becoming priority aka- stop them from becoming "the bottom 5"... Of course if u have a tiered system like this, there will always be a "bottom."

 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/accountability/ESEADesignations.html


This email was sent out to a staff by Jeff Kaufman, chapter leader of one of the schools.

As our school has been statistically struggling with some City and State metrics our struggle, unfortunately, continues. Today the State has designated Aspirations as a “Priority” school. This replaces our former SINI designation and was determined by 3 main criteria; ELA, Math scores and graduation rates.

Under the Federal NCLB rules New York applied for and received a waiver in order to comply with many of the mandates. With the State’s Race to the Top Application (conditionally approved but not implemented since our union has not agreed on evaluation of teacher criteria…there has been no agreement to change our U/S rating system) the Feds and the State revamped their list and terminology. The new designation that we received, Priority school, will release additional sums to change our ELA, Math and graduation stats. It also buys up to 3 years before the state will order the school closed or phased-out.

It is important to note that the state’s designation does not directly impact any city decision to close or phase out our school. The city’s power to transform certain low performing schools was severely curtailed when our union won a lawsuit prohibiting the city from excessing all staff without closing the school.

While I realize a lot of this is complicated and this short space is clearly not enough to explain all of the nuances I think it is important to understand that as we open the school year with the same commitment we have always had…to our students. We will undoubtedly be told we are not working hard enough or effectively and that if we don’t improve our school will close.

We will do our best, not for any state metric or to please an administrator, but because we are committed to the notion that if our students are to have any chance in this world it will be because that they are prepared for college or work, and while we can’t change their economic status or their poor prior education, we can impact our students in many ways which state or city metrics will never be able to measure.

I look forward to this year knowing there will be challenges and knowing that I will be working with some of the most dedicated teachers I have ever known.

As always, feel free to call or email me about this or any other issue. If you wish more information about our priority school designation and the process go to

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/accountability/ESEADesignations.html

See below for word from State Ed