Can We Close the Achievement Gap Between Success Academy and Democracy Prep, KIPP et al?

Emergency crisis emerges as Eva's Success exposes massive achievement gap amongst charters.

Moskowitz proclaims: They would have done better if not for those bad teachers at the charter schools. Clearly there are not enough choices out there for parents to choose between good and bad charters. But since we are the only good charter, I am changing my position on choice. We should be the only choice.

{OK, above it satire alert, though would it surprise you of Eva actually said that?}

Gary Rubinstein did some great work on the charter scores (Driven by data … right off a cliff). Gary uses their own data to hammer the nail.

The most stunning example is the famed Harlem Village Academy which had 100% passing in 2012, but only 21% passing in 2013 for a 79% drop....Democracy Prep officials didn’t respond to a request for comment...KIPP also did not respond to a request for comment.
I actually got one of the third grade questions wrong....these new tests have the opposite problem:  Students can do very poorly on them even if they do understand math.  This is why I don’t like to base 20% of my teacher rating on a single test that I didn’t write.
.... Gary Rubinstein

Gee, Harlem Village Academy suffered a bigger drop in scores than Michelle Rhee gained in her 10 minutes of teaching. HVA's Ed deform media darling Deborah Kenny, who had that noted educator Cathie Black on her board, will escape scot-free on this. I call for a recall on all her appearences on NBC's education shmation. Do any of these "experts" ever ask the question as to how a school gets 100% rates when it has enormous teacher turnover. [Below, in Afterburn, are a batch of ed notes links to Kenny and the school, including  a link to the fawning Brian Williams interview with her.

Gary also points to the hit in the big chains, KIPP and Democracy Prep, with TFA miracle workers, took.

Anyone have an eraser?

While DP won't comment, former chief Seth Andrews, wearing his yellow baseball/thinking cap, is probably thinking: I only left 6 months ago and they already fucked up our scam. Leonie Patrick Sullivan points out on the NYCParents blog:

The Democracy Prep results shouldn't be surprising to those who recall the earlier audit of Democracy Prep where DOE reviewers found “few lessons required higher-order thinking skills or deep analysis of concepts.” 

KIPP is already making plans to expand S.L.A.N.T.S. so KIPP can close the achievement gap between then and Eva's Success Academy. Can't let the competition get too far ahead. KIPP Amp dropped from 79% in 2012 to just 9% in 2013.

And TEP run by Zeke Vanderhoek, profiled on 60 Minutes, the NY Times, and the film "American Teacher" dropped from 76% to 20% in one year. Rewrite. [Also see Afterburn for Ed Notes links to TEP stories]. Gary sums up:

To see if most charter schools were like KIPP Star and Democracy Prep, scoring well below the 22% city average, or if most were still doing relatively well, like the Success Academies, I made another scatter plot, but on this one I marked all the charter schools (or at least the ones that had the word ‘charter’ in them) with a red circle.... charters are, in general, the ‘outliers’ meaning the schools that had the biggest drops relative to other schools with similar 2012 scores.  In the Stephanie Simon report she mentions that KIPP Star and Democracy Prep hadn’t done so well with their proficiency rate, but she doesn’t mention how far they had dropped.  Out of over 500 schools, which includes about 35 charter schools, of the one hundred largest drops, 22 were charter schools.

The Bronx Charter School Of Excellence, which recently received money from a $4.5 million grant to help public schools emulate what they do, dropped from 96% in 2012 to 33% in 2013.  So these are the schools that are the red ‘outliers’ hovering near the bottom right of the scatter plot.  In general, the average charter school went down by 51 percentage points compared to 34 percentage points for the average public school.  The most plausible explanation for charters dropping so much more than public schools is that their test prep methods were not sufficient for the more difficult tests.  In other words “you’re busted.”

evidence that charters are certainly not working the miracles they claim is very clear from this data.... if the ‘reformers’ really value their ‘data’ so much, they should really think about how to interpret the charter grade crash.... this suggests that maybe the hundreds of millions of dollars given to charters, both from the government and from private benefactors could be spent elsewhere in education more effectively.

Afterburn

Ed Notes Online: Harlem Village Academy Retained Only 4 Full ...

Sep 19, 2010

This year Harlem Village Academy opened its doors with only 4 full time teachers returning, a turnover of more than 75%. There are office staff, department heads and and administrators that returned (some of them teach one ...

Cathie Black on Board of Harlem Village Academies, HVA Head ...

Nov 29, 2010

Cathie Black's placement on the board of Harlem Village Academy as a way to get her ed creds- despite the fact that she didn't attend any meetings, has focused attention on this scandalous school and its relation to the ...

  

Ed Notes Online: NBC Bias on Deborah Kenny HVA Charter Scam ...

Jun 12, 2012

Why would you believe anything reported on NBC? Even more outrageous was the puff piece NBC's Today show and Brian Williams did in an interview with Harlem Village Academy founder Deborah Kenny. Leonie has done ...

Ed Notes Online: Steve Koss: The Cathleen Black story just gets ...

Nov 11, 2010

Seems that her singular claim to education involvement was being on an advisory board of some sort for Harlem Village Academy. However, the Times is reporting that she not only just joined that group a few months ago and ...

 

Ed Notes Online: NBC Bias on Deborah Kenny HVA Charter Scam ...

Jun 12, 2012

I was researching Deborah Kenny to see what teaching experience she has and to learn more about her credentials (and salary) and you were the second piece to show up on a Google search. Great writing, Ed. I'm definitely ...

Ed Notes Online: Cathie Black on Board of Harlem Village ...

Nov 29, 2010

"[Deborah] Kenny, who oversees 450 students, is paid $442,000, including a $140,000 "bonus" and $27,780 in "other" expenses.....Bloomberg has called the school a national "poster child" for school reform. Conservative ...

Ed Notes Online: Videos: FairTest Honors Diane Ravitch with the ...

Jun 10, 2012

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. ..... NBC Bias on Deborah Kenny HVA Charter Scam and NY .

--------------

Ed Notes Online: TEP: Hey, Buddy, Wanna Teach for 125 Grand ...

Oct 02, 2012

Remember a year ago at Education Nation at the premiere of American Teacher celebrated Zeke and TEP, which had lured a Harvard grad teacher away from Jersey who ended up being a low rated teacher based on flawed ...

Ed Notes Online: The Failures of Katie Couric as a Reporter: Biased ...

Mar 14, 2011

Couric did bring up the fact that TEP's scores were lower than the public schools in the area (only a 31% pass rate) but didn't drill too deep on that one. You know the line: it takes time to reverse the effects of those awful public ...

Ed Notes Online: UFT Leaders Show Disdain for Tweedies: We Don ...

Dec 17, 2012

This is for all non-TEP schools (TEP is Danielson Pilot schools). If your school is not in the pilot, please let me know if you have groups of people coming into your rooms to observe or to ask you for your lesson plans, etc.

Ed Notes Online: Reviewing "American Teacher": Ed Deform Wolf in ...

May 27, 2011

And presenting Zeke Vanderhoek as a hero (on the post-screening panel) who pays teachers at his TEP charter school $125 grand is enough to make you gag. Vanderhoek was featured on 60 Minutes (Ed Notes link) trashing ...

Rob Rendo on Common Core

Common Core or no Common Core, standards for what children should know by a certain age (skills or content) have always been in flux and controverted.

The CCSS is, I think, on an extreme part of that spectrum of flux.

The consensus reality and research that more or less corroborates what, for example, a fifth grader should be able to do in math or ELA, has been largely ignored by policy makers for the last 5 to 7 years.
Now we are faced with an intentional system that ties scores to teacher and student performance in a high stakes fashion, resulting in a demoralization that may as well require fish to climb trees.

Test results were used and should continue to be used to find out what we need to reteach. Results and data drive a large part of instruction. They sill do, but, alas, now with the added layer of sad, angering, and destabilizing punishment that if one underperforms, one is mischaracterized as “not bright”, “not strong”, “poor”, or for dedicated and hardworking teachers, “ineffective”, “developing”, or “unemployable”. All of this would seem very reasonable and perfectly productive if it were done in every school: charter, parochial, private, public, specialized, etc.

But it’s not.

The very school President Obama sends his children to has openly declared that they do not test nearly the same way as public schools are forced to, and they do not measure students and teachers the same way either. Conduct a survey of every private facility in the United States (calling all teaching economists!), from the most competitively priced to the most deluxe and expensive, and see a pattern emerging about the qualitative differences in evaluating students and teachers, never mind the differences in resources.

Even the public school facility I attended between 1969 and 1982, which was fueled mainly by a blue collar population, was a resplendent, resourced, open-green-fields, ample teaching space system, and teachers were closely watched and monitored with feedback. Yet, they were never blamed for low test scores, and they were treated, with appropriate critiques from the administration, with respect and trust. We were a racially integrated school system. We thrived upon art, music, and gym. Students could literally build platform lumber framed houses from the ground up, repair automotive engines, design and landscape gardens, weld, play football, study French impressionism, compete in lacrosse or tennis, learn to cut hair, type, experiment with test tubes, microscopes, bunsen burners, petri dishes, telescopes, and learn AP physics. There was something for everyone. The list was endless. No wonder my parents paid such significant taxes. They’d frown when the tax bill came due; they’d smile when they received our report cards.

We had small reading groups. We had teachers who loved us and always made us feel safe, socialized, stimulated, challenged, and affirmed. My elementary school was my safe haven . . . far more than my own household, I must admit. It was not supposed to have been as imbalanced as that, but that was the situation, and I didn't choose it.  The responsibility for a child's sense of safety and self esteem lies clearly first and foremost in his nuclear family. Schools and classrooms trail right behind that. Yet I am grateful I did not have to come to a school where the teacher’s incentivized focus was mainly on my scores instead of holistically upon me.

I therefore felt safe in school. That's the best word I can come up with: "safe". I fell head over heels in love with learning because of that very safety. I'll never be able to thank enough or repay the vast majority of my teachers. Although, perhaps the best way to honor them is to fight for the dignity and truth of the teaching profession.

Anyway, I was very fortunate to have grown up in the era I did, and I excelled in school: honors classes, fast track programs, advanced course work, AP credits. I ultimately achieved a B.S. in architecture from an impossibly rigorous and strong program, and an M.S. in linguistics from an equally rigorous program. I have never been in doubt of my abilities, knowing full well what I still need to focus on and improve in. I have never been in want of intellectualism or critical thinking. I’ve conducted research. I’ve written articles and have been published. I have turn key trained colleagues. I am a life long learner, but I have reasonable awareness and confidence of my competence in general.

Students don’t face this same type of balance or developmental track any more. They have become numbers, statistics, “production-ists” in need of making a test score quota. I am convinced had I been a student under this current system, I would have fared poorly in school or been labeled with an artificial, man-made learning disability because I read better as I aged. I was behind in literacy in first and second grade. By the time I was in fifth grade, I ended up in a gifted reading group with the assistant principal. It was nirvana!

We were never taught to write any kind of essay until 7th grade, where I became hooked on writing and thrived from the encouragement, discussions, and red pen critiques of my teachers. I did not do ANYTHING with algebra until I was in 8th grade, and once introduced, it was addicting.

We have come a long, long way since 1969 . . . or even 1982.

In fact, we have stepped a long way back into a new epoch of factory style education, where every student is a widget, and and every widget is hyper-inspected along the conveyor belt to see if its frame will hold up once sold to the consumer, who is now the future employer. And if the person hired to do the assembly messes up just a few times, they are fired and replaced. This process happens knowing full well the conveyor belt is moving at 45 MPH, up from 10 MPH several years ago.

Who can really produce that many widgets when the belt is rolling by so quickly? It conjures up the imagery of the classic factory chocolate making scene from “I Love Lucy”.

But it’s anything but cute or funny.

Students are not widgets. Teachers are not robots. The process of teaching and learning is a humanistic endeavor. There are bonds to be forged, even while measuring situations and outcomes with data. The data used to help contribute indispensably to that human bond. Presently, the bonding has been devalued, thrown aside, and the data has become the new humanism.

But with such a high stakes grip, data will only continue to dehumanize education and demoralize children, families, and educators. There is a keen difference between being told “You are not the center of the universe / you will always have a lot to learn” AND “You are a failure because you did not measure up to these untried, unproven, unresearched, Herculean tasks that you and your teachers were not even given time to be exposed to”.

Is this a failure of the highly experienced people using and executing the functions of the system?

Or is it a failure of the inexperienced people designing, promulgating, and enforcing the functions of the system?

You decide.

I have.

Rob Rendo

 

The Howler on Times Test Editorial: The New York Times had a very poor week

Does [editorial writer Brent] Staples have expertise in education? There’s no sign that he ever covered education, or that he knows any more about the topic that your neighbor’s pet duck.

That editorial was loud and unintelligent. When it comes to the public schools, this highly self-impressed board has been and remains a long-running joke—a long-running public disgrace

The Times is a fatuous, low-IQ paper. Powerful forces in our culture work to obscure that key fact ..... The Daily Howler

The alleged drops in scores!

Posted: 10 Aug 2013 08:03 AM PDT

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2013

The end to a very poor week: In our view, the New York Times had a very poor week.

.....notable was Thursday’s editorial about New York City’s new test scores. 

“Some candidates are looking for ways to blame Mr. Bloomberg for the drop in scores?” Pathetically, that seems to be true, but the editors don't seem to understand the key point—no one can be blamed “for the drop in the scores,” since there hasn’t been any “drop in scores” in any meaningful sense.

There is no way to compare this year’s passing rates to last year’s passing rates, since they emerged from completely different tests. That is a bone simple point, but the editors don’t quite seem to get it. Despite this, they demand that teachers improve the children’s reasoning skills!

More at: The alleged drops in scores!

Julie Cavanagh on Social Justice Unionism Prefaces Chicago Conf

Our union leadership continues to function from a “solutions-driven” unionism vision which results in our union leadership negotiating from the starting point of elected officials and corporate reformers rather than beginning with an agenda that is set by us, the folks on the ground, standing with students, families and communities. The only “solutions” that are devolved benefit the few and the powerful and the rest of us are told to accept these “solutions” because, “it could have been worse”.... Julie Cavanagh on social justice unionism

This weekend a bunch of MOREs headed to Chicago to meet up with teacher union members from around the nation to talk turkey about social justice unionism. 

Here is a statement from Julie posted on the MORE blog.

Newsday: drop in scores cd strengthen opt out movement

Imagine if they gave a test and nobody came. Grow the opt-out movement. Support the refuseniks. Join with Change the Stakes. Let's start organizing a parent boycott of the tests.

Leonie sent this Newsday piece.

http://shar.es/yYoR9

Hofstra Prof: Parents backed into corner

LI Supe: new data useless

The dramatic drop in student scores on state English and math exams could strengthen the movement by parents to have their children opt out of taking the high-stakes tests.
Less than 1 percent of students statewide in grades 3 through 8 were counted as "not tested," the state Education Department said Thursday. Parents and education experts said they expect their movement to gain momentum after the scores plunged more than 40 percent on Long Island and statewide.
"Parents can see opting out as a legitimate option to use in our fight to take back control for our children," said Jeanette Deutermann, 40, a parent of two children in North Bellmore, whose Long Island Opt Out page on Facebook has nearly 9,000 members. "The test results help our cause by forcing districts to publicly acknowledge the flaws in the state's testing policy, instead of defending them."
English scores: Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8
Math scores: Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8
More than 1.3 million students statewide, including 210,000 on the Island, were slated to take the tests in April. An exact figure of those who did not take the tests was not available Thursday.
Education Department officials, in releasing the scores Wednesday, pointed to new, more rigorous exams overhauled to meet national academic standards as the cause of the low scores. They had predicted a significant drop.
"Three years ago the Board of Regents adopted more rigorous standards and committed to reflect those standards in the state's exams," department spokesman Dennis Tompkins said. "The goal is to make certain that all students are on track to succeed in college and meaningful careers when they graduate high school.
"Parents who keep their children from taking these tests are essentially saying, 'I don't want to know where my child stands, in objective terms, on the path to college and career readiness' -- and we think that that's doing them a real disservice."
But Debra Goodman, professor of teaching, literacy and leadership at Hofstra University's School of Education, said that opting out of the exams is one way that parents can protest. She also noted that a number of school boards and school administrators have been highly critical of the state assessments.
"I think that some of the parents -- the entire educational community, in fact -- has been backed into a corner where the only response that is available is for parents to opt out of testing," Goodman said. "Parents are starting to think, 'What benefit does this have for my child?' "
On the Island, 37.5 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 passed the new math test, compared with 75.4 percent last year. In English, the percent of students across those grades passing the latest tests was 39.6 percent, down from 67.2 percent in 2012.
More than 300 students in the Rockville Centre district opted out of testing. Superintendent William Johnson said Thursday that the test scores don't have much meaning for his district, calling them "uninterpretable data."
"I will not be able to use them to place kids into any programs," he said. "We are going to have to rely on other information . . . or data to do that."
He added, "I would certainly think that parents will have second thoughts about the results since we are not going to be able to use them effectively to do anything in the school district."
Amy Connor, 52, of Northport, said her three children, who attend school in the Northport-East Northport school district, opted out of taking the state tests. Because the test results are so new, she said she hasn't heard of other parents deciding to opt out, but she hopes it will strengthen the movement.
"I'm hoping parents will see what's going on and what's happening, and more parents will step in and refuse," she said.

And then this:

NY Superintendent of Voorheesville Central School District speaks out

I have rejected these missives [talking pts from SED] because they reek of the self-serving mentality the ‘powers that be’ have thrust upon our students and parents. Our community is sophisticated enough to recognize a canard when it experiences one.  These tests were intentionally designed to obtain precisely the outcomes that were rendered.  The rationale behind this is to demonstrate that our most successful students are not so much and our least successful students are dreadful. 

http://shar.es/yYf6x

Commentary on Math & ELA Results
Dr. Teresa Thayer Snyder
Over the past several months school leaders have been receiving countless messages from the State Education Department preparing us for the dire outcomes associated with the most recent spate of State testing in grades 3-8 in Math and English Language Arts.  As the date for the releases of the test scores approached, we received many notices of “talking points” to inform our communities about the outcomes, with explanations of new baselines and how these tests do not reflect the efforts of students and teachers this year.  I have rejected these missives because they reek of the self-serving mentality the ‘powers that be’ have thrust upon our students and parents.
Our community is sophisticated enough to recognize a canard when it experiences one.  These tests were intentionally designed to obtain precisely the outcomes that were rendered.  The rationale behind this is to demonstrate that our most successful students are not so much and our least successful students are dreadful.  If you look at the distribution of scores, you see exactly the same distances as any other test.  The only difference is that the distribution has been manipulated to be 30 to 40 percent lower for everybody.  This serves an enormously powerful purpose.  If you establish a baseline this low, the subsequent growth over the next few years will indicate that your plans for elevating the outcomes were necessary.  However, it must be recognized that the test developers control the scaled scores—indeed they have developed a draconian statistical formula that is elaborate, if indecipherable, to determine scaled scores.  I would bet my house on the fact that over the next few years, scores will “improve”—not necessarily student learning, but scores.  They must, because the State accepted millions and millions of dollars to increase student scores and increase graduation rates.  If scores do not improve from this baseline, then those ‘powers that be’ will have a lot of explaining to do to justify having accepted those millions.
If you examine the distribution of the scores, the one thing that leaps off the page is the distance between children in high poverty and children in relative wealth.  While all have been relegated to a point 30 to 40 percent lower than previously, the exact curve is absolutely connected to socioeconomic status—which has been historically true in such testing for more than a century.
The tragic part of this story is the collateral damage—the little children who worked so hard this year, who endured so many distressing hours of testing, who failed to reach proficiency, all because of the manipulation of the scaling.  We will be talking with parents whose children scored level four last year, who now may have scored a level two.  It does not mean much; it only means they are the unwitting part of a massive scheme to prove how these “high standards” are improving outcomes over time.  It is time to pay attention to the man behind the curtain—he is no wizard, but he is wily! 
By the way, if you want to know what curriculum experiences are being promoted for even our youngest learners by the ‘powers that be’, check out curriculum modules on www.engageny.org .  How many of us truly believe that expecting first graders to understand and explain why Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization is reasonable?  How many of us truly even imagine that six year olds should be able to identify cuneiform and hieroglyphics or understand the importance of the code of Hammurabi?  Check it out—then I suggest you let your legislators, and the Department of Education know what matters to you.
As we digest the information and prepare for the upcoming year, please rest assured that Voorheesville remains committed to challenging and cherishing our students.

Ravitch: Shock Doctrine Using Tests Will Spur Opt-out Movement

We are already hearing calls for parents to hit the deformers where it will hurt. Teachers who help will be droned. But strategies for teachers to play a role will emerge. The uft wants the tests and opposes the opt-out movement for fear the NY Post will say they want to avoid accountability. I say screw them all. A union must do what is right. And it should join in full force. But the enablers and hand maidens of ed deform won't rock the new status quo.
I'm on a plane to chicago delayed by a maintenance issue (Jack is behaving so far) so can't pull up the link to Diane's blog but check out the full post. Here is a piece.

"The Shock Doctrine may be a boomerang that helps to bring down the madness of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Common Core, the Pearson empire, and every other part of the reformy enterprise.

New York may have inadvertently created by the most powerful recruiting tool for the Opt Out movement."

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

The WAVE: Block Parties and Block Genealogy

Published in The WAVE, August 9, 2013

Block Parties and Block Genealogy
By Norm Scott

Sandy recovery efforts take a number of forms. There are still contractors on my block every day and a dumpster on the corner. But one of the clearest signs of recovery are the block parties that this year have a very special meaning. We had ours last Saturday.

Summer has always been a time for block parties in Belle Harbor and points east and west. You can find them by the extremely loud DJs, sometimes blasting away past midnight. Or cars parked on streets that are usually clear on weekends. Or the sounds of an enormous number of kids having the time of their lives - and exasperated adults trying to keep track of them.

The day after we moved in, August 1979 , there was a block party the next day. People on the block were very kind in greeting born and bred Brooklynites invading a block of multi-generation Rockaway natives. After thirty four years we are still the newbies on our end of the block with four of our nearest neighbors with more seniority. One of them was born in the house 86 years ago. As I see he and another 86 year old neighbor scamper around I take a deep breath of Rockaway air.

Our block hasn’t had many block parties since the 80s. Kids grew up. (I wonder what an adult only block party looks like). In the days and weeks after Sandy with everyone outside, people bonded. There was talk about how we will celebrate our recovery at the summer block party. That seemed so far away.

Organizing takes time and effort and us old folks are often not up to it. Newer families with kids are up to the job. Our block party began with a breakfast hosted by a couple, both police who been on the block for about 5 years, with such generosity of spirit and warmth. We got to talk to people we had barely had contact with, one who has been there for 30 years. I guess it takes a block party – or a massive hurricane – to bring people together.

The mood soon turned somber with the street renaming ceremony for Michael Glover, who spent his early years on the block where his mom had a house directly across the street from his

grandparents. I only remember Michael from his early years when he lived two houses away. There was a marine honor guard, traditional bagpipes, a fire engine and a big crowd moved by the speeches, one by a marine buddy who witnessed his death in Iraq in 2006 and was the first to reach him. Another by his mentor, a Ranger, who went back to the location of his death to honor him. It was raining throughout the ceremony and that seemed appropriate. The sign at the corner was unveiled to many sad cheers. We found out that Michael’s first cousin, who spoke at the ceremony, was buying the house next door to us, another wonderful facet of the rich history of our block.

The sun did shine in the afternoon as the party heated up and guests arrived. I was enjoying all the excitement but at times melancholia and nostalgia intruded as I thought about all the people who have lived on the block. Some moved. Others died. Just last week one of our former neighbors passed away. She was a Rockaway lion. I thought of my former next door neighbors who both died of cancer within a short time of each other over 20 years ago. Also Rockaway lions. We were thrilled to see their eldest daughter at the ceremony for Michael.

As the day went on and I ran into people those names kept coming up. A visiting former resident said, “Oh, you live in the Gerber house. We used to play on the lot before it was built.” That was over 50 years ago. It only becomes “your” house after you’re gone. If you hear it referred to as the “Scott” house check the obits.

As the party wound down late into the night, I sat on my porch thinking about the history of the block and all the stories surrounding it and what an interesting way to tell the history of a neighborhood. I realized I knew almost nothing about even nearby blocks and what a fascinating way for some historian to tell the story of Rockaway through block genealogy.

Former NY St Ed Comm David Milton Steiner Opines in NY Post as StudentsFirstNY Quotes Randi

I pledge allegiance to ed deform

After Cathie Black does Milton have any credibility left? This Milton is has less vision than the real one. What a NYSED Commish crew over last 18 years. From Dickie Boy Richard Mills through John King. These people are a joke.

Leonie posted this tidbit:

On disastrous scores StudentsFirstNY cites Randi in defense of the Common Core (!!)  & misquotes Diane in one of the silliest most incoherent pieces  I have EVER read.   http://shar.es/yCy96

And in the NYPost, David Milton Steiner (yes he is now using his middle name) says this is necessary pain (for whom?)  and writes:  http://shar.es/yCKlJ 

The new Common Core standards are even more demanding than the ones we contemplated, and could cause an even more precipitous drop in graduation….

Ideally, we would have more prep time, more Common Core-aligned materials available sooner, more professional support for teachers. But New York rightly makes the same decision that John Silber and his team made for Massachusetts: that only by moving the stake in the ground, right now can we ensure that we all get serious about reform.

John Silber was an intolerant anti-gay bigot.  Amazing that he would cite him as a hero.  I would put the stake elsewhere myself --

Leonie Haimson

Executive Director

Class Size Matters

 Oh, and let's celebrate Eva's great scores. We know how these stories usually end up.

Network for Public Education News, August 8, 2013

Volume 1, Issue: #19 August 8, 2013 Inside NPE News Our New Endorsed Candidate, Ronda Scholting NYC Test Scores Drop 30% Sue Peters Goes On to General Election ALEC Protest Takes Place in Chicago Tell NPE Your Story It's summer, the perfect time to reflect on your school year experiences. Send your story to us at networkforpubliceducation @gmail.com and you could appear in our next newsletter! Greetings! Welcome to the nineteenth edition of our newsletter. This week we bring you news from around the country, including Sue Peters' outstanding victory in Seattle and today's ALECexposed protest in Chicago. We're also excited to announce our newest endorsement, Ronda Scholting for the Douglas School Board! Read it all here!  And like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and JOIN US at our website. Our New Endorsed Candidate, Ronda Scholting Help Support Ronda Scholting for Douglas County School Board This week we announced our strong endorsement of Ronda Scholting. This week we announced on our website our endorsement of Ronda Scholting, a candidate in the race for Douglas County School Board. As a parent of two public school graduates, Ronda has always been committed to supporting public education and believes that "quality education is the base of a strong community."  Ronda has a solid record of working to protect our children. In her capacity as an investigative journalist, Ronda brought to light a scandal regarding international adoption that instigated a U.S. Senate hearing on the matter. She also works with the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, an organization dedicated to helping children and their families afford the medical care they need.  It is for these reasons and many others that we excitedly endorse Ronda Scholting for Douglas County School Board. We invite you to read more about our endorsement on our website. You can also help support Ronda by visiting her website and following her Twitter and Facebook page. New York City's Test Scores Dropped 30%  NYC test scores dropped 30% in 2012, other cities may follow NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says to parents of the low test scores: "it doesn't mean that your child is doing any worse; it just means your child is now being measured to a higher standard." (Picture from the NYC Department of Education).  Earlier this week, the Department of Education in NYC announced that standardized test scores decreased by a whopping 30% in 2012. According to the data collected from the tests, only 26% of students in NYC are proficient in English, while 30% are proficient in math. These test scores are used to determine a number of things, including teachers' annual evaluations and whether students are held back.  Many see this as a sign that Mayor Bloomberg has failed his goal to be the self-proclaimed "education mayor," and democratic mayoral candidates are seizing the opportunity to emphasize how their educational policies would differ from Bloomberg's. On the other hand, Mayor Bloomberg defended his work by claiming that there is good news in these numbers--namely, that the rest of New York State is doing even more poorly on standardized tests.  There have been efforts to calm parents and students on the grounds that these scores do not necessarily reflect a huge change in students' abilities over the past year, but rather, reflect tougher standards. New York is one of few states that is beginning to implement testing influenced by the Common Core curriculum. Kentucky, the first state to tie its testing to the Common Core curriculum, experienced a similar 30% decrease in test scores.  Other states that plan to adopt the Common Core and implement similar testing within the next few years have been warned that their scores may drop just as drastically. This leaves much room for anxiety, particularly for teachers whose job security may rely on their students' ability to pass tougher exams.  To find out more on this news story, we invite you to read 'Shock Doctrine' by Class Size Matters and Diane's post on 'Punishing Kids for Adult Failures.' Sue Peters Will Go On to General Election   NPE-endorsed Sue Peters overcomes the odds, wins 41% of vote Sue Peters shares NPE's vision for protecting and enriching public schools. Last week, we announced our endorsement of Sue Peters for School Board in Seattle and asked that you help us support Sue and get out the word about her campaign. This week, we are pleased to announce that all of your help paid off! Despite being targeted by negative advertising and outspent 6-1 by her opponent Suzanne Dale Estey, Sue won 41% of the vote in the primary election, and therefore will continue on to the general election in November.  In response to the primary results, Sue told NPE: "[I] extend my deepest thanks to NPE for the timely and meaningful endorsement of my candidacy [...] I am confident that my positive and constructive message, and the value of my nearly decade of knowledge of the Seattle Public School District, will resonate with voters throughout the city as we go forth into the general election." Sue is an outstanding candidate who shares NPE's commitment to protecting public education and providing schools with a rich, engaging curriculum that does not shortchange the arts, humanities, music or physical education. So, let's help her win the general election! Please continue to support Sue by visiting her on her website, Twitter, and Facebook page.  ALEC Protest Taking Place in Chicago Today  ALEC Exposed is a growing movement focused on uncovering the truth about corruption and corporate greed in ALEC. Last week we published a piece about Expose ALEC, a growing movement of people who seek to uncover the truth about corporate corruption and mismanagement that is harming the lives of everyday people, as well as posing a threat to public education. Today, August 8th, is the long-awaited protest outside the ALEC Convention at the Palmer House in Chicago.  Yesterday, The Nation published a piece on the protesting, 'ALEC Convention Met with Protests in Chicago.' This is just one more example of how everyone can help in the effort to publicly expose the dangers that corporations and corporately-backed reformers pose to our society.  You can support Expose ALEC by visiting their website and continuing to tweet pictures and news from the protest with the tag #ALECexposed.  Tell NPE  Your Story   NPE wants to hear from you! We would like to publish real stories about the effects of misguided school reforms on our Friends & Allies. Please share this and send responses to networkforpubliceducation@gmail.com. Please forward this newsletter far and wide!    In solidarity,   The Network For Public Education

NYSED APPROVES TROJAN HORSE PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Struggling to fill seats, drum up false demand and justify hollow, multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, charter schools have come up with an ingenious TROJAN HORSE strategy in which they will poach students from popular public schools -- and get paid to do it!" .... Lorna F, parent

 This story in the DN the other day inspired the comment above.

NYSED charter schools getting $4.5 million state grant to teach regular public schools - Daily News

Top city charter schools will teach regular public schools how to better educate students in a new initiative funded by a $4.5 million state grant, Education officials said. Eight high-performing charter schools in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan will share instructional techniques with traditional district schools starting in September.

Parent Lorna F is pointing out that State Ed is helping undermine a popular trusted school using the Trojan Horse charter.

The copy for this should've been:

"NYSED APPROVES TROJAN HORSE PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Struggling to fill seats, drum up false demand and justify hollow, multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, charter schools have come up with an ingenious TROJAN HORSE strategy in which they will poach students from popular public schools -- and get paid to do it!"

I say this because this passage in the DN article is most telling:

"But PS 85 is a popular neighborhood school with a community of devoted parents, and the charter school wants to build its own connection to local families. So PS 85 Principal Ted Huster will help the charter school develop programs to draw in parents, and the charter will help Huster bolster student literacy."

The New York Times fails the latest tests! - Daily Howler on NY Times coverage

Howler goes into some depth so I'm cross-posting. Link is here.

SOURCES OF PARALYSIS: The New York Times fails the latest tests!

Posted: 08 Aug 2013 06:41 AM PDT

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2013

Interlude—Death in life: Intellectual paralysis grips the heart of our nation’s upper-end “press corps.”

You might think of this state as “death-in-life.” The New York Times announces this paralytic condition with the headline which banners page A19 in today’s hard-copy Washington Edition:

“Scores on Math and English Tests Plummet After State Adopts New Standards”

The headline serves to create excitement, a condition typically sought by the dead-in-life. They obsess about sex to make dead blood flow. They seek the enervation of “scandal.”

Sadly, this news report appears at the top of page A1—the front page!—in this morning’s New York Edition. In that location, it is accompanied by a thrilling trio of headlines.

That headline creates excitement! It also creates tremendous confusion, a trademark of the modern Times. So does the excited start to the newspaper’s news report, which appears at the top of page 1 all over the state of New York.

Understanding Test Results as Shock Doctrine While UFT Spins a Different Tale

The new Common Core exams and test scores are politically motivated, and are based neither on reason or evidence.  They were pre-ordained to fit the ideological goals of Commissioner King and the other educrats who are intent on imposing damaging policies on our schools.... Leonie Haimson, NYCPSP blog , five reasons not to trust the new scores

That the head of the NYC teachers union should accept these tests, and the standards that provide their springboard, is so much worse than pathetic, since it shows their continuing complicity in this shameful process...  It's beyond the beyonds that Mulgrew would lament, not the vicious deception of this entire process, but the lie that "our children are far behind where they should be." Our children are far behind in many things - after all, we do have the highest child poverty rate in the developed world - and too many of them are behind academically, but these exams reflect none of that. 
...Michael Fiorillo, ICE-Mail

I can't express it any better than Fiorillo did. Further proof to me that the union is on the other side and functions as an agent to control the labor force. It is why the Chicago TU presents such a danger to the ruling class and to the traditional labor movement -- they refuse to play that role. (I and a dozen MOREs are heading to Chicago tomorrow to talk about all that with educators from around the nation-- more on that later).

How did John King know the results of the test before it was given? This was the set-up.... they designed the tests so hard that the public would react the way they wanted --- Carol Burris, NY State Principal of the Year [paraphrased].

And how do they want the press and public to react? Seeing schools as failures and in need of more deform, not a reversal in direction. Carol, whose Washington Post piece The Answer Sheet:
What big drop in new standardized test scores really means, is reverberating around the internet (Jeff Bezos can't wait to hit the delete button) in a comment on Arthur Goldstein's piece quotes King from an April 2013 pre-test interview at the Albany Union: "It's the fault of the adults that we have a system that leaves 65% of students who start 9th grade unprepared." Of course the adults don't include Bloomberg or Klein or Tisch or King himself. So what adults is he talking about? Guess?

The WSJ says it openly: “There may be some who would try to use today’s results to attack principals and teachers." -  

Janine Sopp, parent activist with CTS asks: who might "they" be?


While the UFT won't call a spade a spade, Leonie and Carol Burris, with an unparalleled reputation as an educator get it. It's all a scam. Some call on the UFT to wake up but I think they are completely awake and know what they are doing. With unions under attack, they are making sure the rulers will keep them around as managers of labor.

The most shameless response has come from the UFT leadership, handmaidens and enablers of deform. Instead of calling for a reversal of ed deform and pointing to common core as crap, the UFT is casting blame on the DOE for not providing the tools to shovel the crap around in a better way.

Mulgrew: Poor test results show Common Core curriculum was rushed 

------

Just a sliver of things to read:

That WSJ article had this statement:

Charter schools in the city generally serve more impoverished students than the overall city school district but fewer students who have learning disabilities or who are still learning English.

I wrote to the reporter that claiming charters serve a poorer population is totally wrong -- I would bet my pension that every single charter has parents with higher incomes that the surrounding schools. She agreed and is changing it.

Don't Worry About Your Test Scores by Peter DeWitt

Fred Smith (on right back with CTS sign) commented:

It makes so many good points about the mess we're in and the shameless "leaders" who got us there. 

I just saw an interview with chancellors Tisch and Walcott on Channel 5.  They gave out the current lines about raising standards, the pain involved in taking this bold step, their concern over the achievement gap, the 21st century, and late in one of her raps Tisch said that the way forward with the common core would require teacher preparation and "parent training."

The latter point about parent training jarred me. Her level of condescension is galling. To my ear it sounded like paper training--you know, housebreaking pets.

If anything, parents should be toilet training Tisch for pooping in the halls of education for 17 years and Walcott for fouling up our schools during his short tenure.  They are arrogant beyond words.

carolburris18 minutes ago

This is exactly what the "set up" was. They designed tests so hard that folks like you would react just as you did. Read this
"It's the fault of all the adults that we have a system that leaves 65 percent of students who start ninth grade unprepared," King said. Albany Times Union in April before the tests.... So, how did he know the result, before he gave the test??

NYC Educator:

Here in Bizarro World Massive Failure Is Good News

I just read at Diane Ravitch's blog that Mayor Bloomberg has joined fellow know-nothings Joel Klein and Arne Duncan in hailing the massive failure on Common Core exams as a good sign. I'm rarely at a loss for words, but I don't know precisely what to say to this.

Arthur Goldstein: I couldn’t and shouldn’t give a test that most of my students would fail. (Daily News)

This is exactly what the "set up" was. They designed tests so hard that folks like you would react just as you did. Read this
"It's the fault of all the adults that we have a system that leaves 65 percent of students who start ninth grade unprepared," King said. Albany Times Union in April before the tests.... So, how did he know the result, before he gave the test??

• UFT chief Michael Mulgrew: The low scores show that teachers needed more support. (Daily News)
• Parent leader Zakiyah Ansari: The scores show that schools need a new direction. (Daily News)

Leonie Haimson nails them:
Shock Doctrine: five reasons not to trust the results of the new state tests -

She suggest reading the following:

For an eloquent critique of the callous thinking at work, please also read Carol Burris, NYS principal of the year, in today’s Washington Post, and Diane Ravitch, on the political motives of the people who are setting these standards.

Here is the NYT on the decline in scores, the NYSED press release and slides, and the district and school-based aggregate results.

And from David Dobosz:

   One of the commenters to Diane Ravitch's fine article on punishing kids for adult supervisional failures makes reference to Clarence Page's 2011 excellent article on how the corporate world is trying to make failure look chic and the mother of success and innovation. 

   Of, course, the whole point is spinning a cover-up to justify and legitimate corporate greed, corruption and the accompanying financial disaster unethical behavior can produce.

    Below is the link. 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-22/news/ct-oped-0622-page-20110622_1_failure-success-track-big-seller

   It is time for folks to put Page's excellent analysis beside the outrageous spin around the low test scores. The state and local honchos are engaging in an incredibly abominable exercise of self-justification over their disaster at our children's expense. Instead they should be expressing regret and changing course. Sadly they are too scared and cowardly to do so. So they hide behind a tacky front of fake arrogance. Would you please distribute this widely?

Thanks,

David

Joel Klein: The Good News in Lower Test Scores. HUH? Plus NY State Ed Cwies Bitter Tears

Shock doctrine at work. 26 percent of students in third through eighth grade passed the state exams in English, and 30 percent passed in math.  Only 5% of students in Rochester passed. Statewide, only 31 percent of students passed the exams in reading and math..... Leonie Haimson

Is this the same Joel Klein who ran our schools for 10 years and was constantly taking bows for increased test scores and winning the praise of the mayor? He must have little respect for the public's memory or critical thinking skills. ... Loretta Prisco

The irony is that Joel Klein used to say every year that the NAEPs were not reliable since they didn’t show the same improvement in scores that the state tests did for NYC – during the test score inflation era.  Now he is claiming in the NYP that the new scores are to be trusted b/c they match the NAEPs! ... Leonie H.

Joel Klein 

Click here: The good news in lower test scores - NYPOST.com
I would hate for people to think these ed deformers know not what they do. That they somehow goofed. Or that they allowed Bloomberg to be caught without clothes.

What they are doing is, after almost 15 years of ed deform failure starting in Chicago and here in NYC 11 years ago, is buying more time. They are not saying their deforms didn't work but that there were still too many obstacles -- mostly due to bad teachers and union obstructionism -- in the way. So now they are putting a system in place that will allow them to get rid of "bad" -- read, higher salaried -- teachers, close down more public schools and open up charters in their place. What will be their excuse in another decade if unions are gone? Which leads me to our pals at the local hangout at 52 Broadway, who I believe will never be gone, though with a reduced membership.

As the UFT withers away from the base, the  Unity people on top will maintain their little slice of power by offering themselves to the deformers as managers of the teachers to make sure things never get too far out of hand through militant action -- ie, controlling a group like MORE to constrain its growth for instance. Do they mind that tenured teachers get rooted out of the system? Not at all. The disappeared must be replaced by newbies at much lower salaries -- not only does the DOE get 2 for 1, so does the UFT -- 2 dues payers for one (think: collect $2000 a year in stead of $1000). A win-win for the deformers and the UFT.

More comments on the Change the Stakes listserve:

If I see the words "compete in a global economy" one more time I am going to throw up. Has anyone checked the global economy lately? Do they really want to be at the top of that heap? ... Ruth S.

Not to mention the student debt our college bound kindergarteners will be saddled with for life.....or is that the plan? .. Janine Sopp

These tests are not internationally benchmarked. And we do not know what the questions are.

The DOE's testing regime is akin to throwing darts blindfolded.

This idea comes up every year, but--perhaps we should challenge the mayoral candidates to ask to take the tests.... Edith B.

And NY State Ed issues some drivel. Here is Leonie's comment:

See especially talking points document , letter to parents, and press release w/ below quotes.  The PR battle begins. Interesting no supportive quote from Duncan or Walcott.  I don’t know about you, but I’m  really impressed by that quote from Kentucky!

Click below at your own risk of barfing.