In This Issue:
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BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE DOES NOT APPROVE REQUEST FOR BOND FUNDS FOR MORE COMPUTERS FOR TESTING |
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STATE, LAUSD OFFICIALS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SPRING ASSESSMENTS + smf’s 2¢ |
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“It
isn’t how you play the game, it’s who keeps score that counts”: REPORT
SHOWS VARIATION IN HOW STATES STACK UP AGAINST INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS |
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High Scores, Empty Stomachs: TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS CANNOT LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD IN A BROKEN DEMOCRACY |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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An anonymous elementary school principal wrote in the AALA Update on Thursday | http://bit.ly/1ooMT5y:
“As I sat at our Elementary Principals Organization meeting last Friday
waiting for Dr. Deasy’s message, I wondered what words of inspiration
he would impart that day. Say what you will but if there’s something Dr.
Deasy knows how to do is deliver a motivational speech. His gift with
words is so powerful that I sometimes walk into a meeting grumbling
about some new District initiative but after hearing Dr. Deasy speak, I
leave the meeting somehow still believing, still hoping. It’s strange
but I’ve started comparing this to what an abused spouse must
feel...hearing the promised words of change that lulls one into trusting
that everything will be ok – only to repeat the cycle once more.
“After one of the most chaotic school openings ever, you could feel the
utter exhaustion of the elementary principals in the room. However
rather than hearing the anticipated message of encouragement, I was
taken aback by Dr. Deasy’s comments…“Don’t think, just do.” The context
of the message was in reference to a possible job action. I want to
believe that Dr. Deasy’s words were intended to take one thing off of
our very full plates. However, the message I received was far from
inspiring. It was demoralizing. These lackluster words were followed by
more encouraging words reminding us that our concern should primarily be
about how to teach that third grade student how to read. This message
was tantamount to someone telling me to “know my place and mind my own
business.” How can a roomful of elementary principals who are charged
with the task of creating the critical thinkers of the 21st Century be
told not to think? There isn’t a day that goes by that we are not asked
to
make decisions in order to maintain a safe and positive learning
environment for our students, staff and
community.
“It could be that [the] message intended was not necessarily the
message received because I’m overly sensitive or simply exhausted at
this point. We’re only a month into the year but it feels as if we’re at
the midyear point. While sage advice tells me that I should only be
concerned with instruction, since August 12 my duties have included:
technology (thanks to MiSiS which has helped school site staff become
experts), facility issues (no a/c along with many other schools),
staffing (unstaffed positions and employees who are already feeling the
stress of the year), conflict mediation and more…all with a smile on my
face because I am the school’s #1 cheerleader.
“If only our jobs were really just about instruction. But alas, I’ll
just ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ and maybe for my sanity consider following
Dr. Deasy’s advice, ‘Don’t think, just do.’ ”
______________________
smf: A 4LAKids reader wrote me last week with some new/some other horror
ongoing in the District, trying to get me engaged …to see if we could
get more folks motivated about whatever it was.
I asked him to please stay focused on the challenge at hand: Superintendent Deasy. Dr. DZ.
(I may not have actually said ‘Please’; part of the DZ contagion is that we forget to be polite/kind/patient/empathetic.)
Being done with DZ won’t change everything – but it will reverse the
overall direction. The downward spiral. The climate of
fear+helplessness. It starts us on the path out of here and ends the
speculation over How Will He Survive This One? …and the agonizing déjà
vu /all over again: Isn’t this where we were …exactly a year ago?
A year ago we didn’t know about the Apple-Pearson emails.
A year ago we hadn’t had the MiSiS Experience.
We didn’t know about the canceled-but-not-quite-really iPad procurement.
A year ago we didn’t know the answer to the question: What Else Can Go Wrong?
And if you are one of those driven by the fierce urgency of reform now
you have witnessed the lassitude and inertia of the current situation: A
standoff with neither retreat nor advance – just the knee-jerk
reaction-of-the-week to the crisis-of-the-week. We measure progress
where-we-find-it in minuscule increments – well within the rounding
error. And the parents and the educators and the students are waiting.
ON TUESDAY AT 4:01 PM THE BOARD OF ED MEETS IN CLOSED SESSION WITH THE
SUPERINTENDENT’S ANNUAL REVIEW ON THE AGENDA. We are assured that they
will not vote Tuesday, they won’t reach a conclusion – this is just a
preliminary meeting to establish whatever it is that needs
establishing.
“The meeting was called to give the seven school board members a chance
to discuss what criteria they would like to include in the
superintendent’s upcoming annual performance review, scheduled for Oct.
21.
“According to people familiar with the closed session agenda, board
members will have the opportunity to discuss what they consider fair
game for Deasy’s annual performance evaluation. Under no circumstances,
said one of the sources, would a vote be held to determine Deasy’s
employment. According to that source, Deasy has the right to attend, but
because it is not his official performance review, he isn’t required
to.” LA School Report. | http://bit.ly/1ss4mAV
For the curious, this just gets curiouser. LA School Report is not a
publication that parties opposed to the superintendent would normally
leak to. The author of the scoop about the closed session meeting was
neither a reporter nor an editor, but the very publisher herself.
“Who would have her on their speed dial?” you might ask if you believed
in Machiavellian machinations and man-behind-the-curtain intrigue. Who
indeed?
The Special Meeting schedule was posted dutifully on the Board of Ed
website – with a promise that the agenda would follow that very day:
[●Order of Business Available on 9/24/14]
That didn’t happen for 48 hours – and when it did it was:
a.) barren of information and
b.) posted as District offices closed on Friday afternoon.
If there is DZ Timing, this is it.
And, speaking of timing, seeing as how the pot is simmering already, why not give it a stir?
A story came out Friday – based on evidence previously undisclosed -
that seemed intended to cast discredit on new Board member George
McKenna: DOCUMENTS FILED IN MIRAMONTE LAWSUIT CLAIM SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
McKENNA KNEW OF ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CHILD PREDATOR | http://bit.ly/1xqmX1C . As a writer who has been known to write comedy I know how critical timing is. And how rarely accidental.
There is intrigue enough here for a Raymond Chandler novel – I am
waiting to see what the pseudonymous Martin Eden of “All The
Superintendent’s Men” (that unwelcome contributor to LA School Report)–
makes of it. Though I seriously doubt if LASR will publish it!
STAY FOCUSED: There will be red herrings and false leads. MacGuffins,
misdirection and sleight-of-hand. Don’t be distracted by Breakfast in
the Classroom or even the UTLA Contract Negotiations. Don’t even be
distracted by MiSiS – though that may take some effort! Miramonte was
horrible, horrible! – but it is yesterday’s news resurrected to
misdirect your attention from what is, and isn’t, going on at 333 South
Beaudry. Remember that almost every school district in almost every
state in the union will be taking Common Core Tests on computers this
spring – and apparently only one of them (¿guess who?) is relying on
School Construction Bond Funding to pay for the testing devices.
And when you hear that John Deasy is The Indispensible Man listen to
that warning voice that comes in the night And repeats- how it yells -
in your ear: “There are no indispensible men.”
There are no magic bullets. We are not waiting for Superman. Eli Broad
and Bill Gates are not Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in their spare
time.
Remember what our anonymous principal wrote: "...comparing this to what
an abused spouse must feel...hearing the promised words of change that
lulls one into trusting that everything will be ok – only to repeat the
cycle once more."
Remember what Churchill said about Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat? It’s
like that. Let’s stop the bleeding and get on with the rest.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE DOES NOT APPROVE REQUEST FOR
BOND FUNDS FOR MORE COMPUTERS FOR TESTING
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE PUTS BRAKES ON LA SCHOOL OFFICIALS’ REQUEST FOR MORE iPADS FOR TESTING
Annie Gilbertson | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/1ojGGI1
2014-09-25 16:37:33 :: Members of a bond oversight committee denied a
request by Los Angeles Unified school district officials to spend $16
million on 22,000 more iPads or Chromebooks for spring testing,
disagreeing with administrators' calculation of need.
The district's formula was based on students using devices two hours per
day and did not take into account many computers already in schools.
"We are asking for more realistic calculations,” said Quynh Nguyen, an
member of the School Construction Bond Citizens' Oversight Committee.
"Deep down, we don’t believe that’s what’s going on in the real world.”
Gerardo Loera, director of curriculum and instruction for L.A. Unified,
said the two-hour calculation was based on students' and schools'
testing capacity.
“Acknowledge the cognitive demands we are placing on our students in
these tests,” Loera said, arguing if devices were rotated in the
afternoon, the schedule would severely "limit a students' ability."
Every student is required to be tested in math and English for most
grade levels. Exams were administered digitally for the first time last
year - but test scores were not public because it was a "field test" - a
test of the test.
Stephen English, chair of the oversight committee, asked Loera to come back with data to support his claim.
“I think we have a better use of $16 million than to juice student test scores,” English said.
The committee must issue recommendations on projects that use school bonds before the school board can consider them.
Testing last spring was difficult. Internet connectivity was spotty and
iPads were not fully configured or were freezing, among other issues.
L.A. Unified tech support received an average of 800 calls per day.
Data shows many student didn't finish their exams. High school testing
rates were the lowest, with only 70 percent of students starting their
tests - and 65 percent finishing.
According to a district survey of school staff, only 30 percent of
respondents said they would recommend testing on iPads. Forty-four
percent said they would prefer desktops.
Ron Chandler, chief information officer for the district, said he was
suggesting only iPads and/or Chromebooks be purchased - in part because
L.A. Unified already has contracts for both devices and would not have
to put the purchase out to competitive bid.
The oversight committee instead told officials to hold off on the
purchase, reevaluate the testing schedule to reduce the number of
devices needed, consider the number of devices already at site, consider
the longer-term classroom use when selecting a device and consider
using savings to add more support staff.
Ron Miller, an oversight committee member, suggested it's outside their role to recommend policy changes.
“We [don't] ask what kind of air-conditioners they are going to use," Miller said.
But English said it's a matter of confidence, which he believes the district technology department hasn't established.
“It seems natural to me that we would be asking more questions,” English said.
The denial was the latest setback in the district's technology
expansion, which includes providing a computer to all 650,000 students.
Last month, Superintendent John Deasy canceled a $500 million contract
with Apple and Pearson to provide tablets loaded with educational
software.
The decision came after KPCC published internal emails showing Deasy
communicated with executives at Apple and publisher Pearson a year
before the tablet project went to competitive bid. Specific offerings
discussed in their emails later resembled requirements for bidding,
calling into question whether the process was fair.
Deasy insists it was fair and that those discussions and meetings referred to an abandoned pilot program.
The district purchased about 75,000 iPads with bond funds last year –
approximately 30,000 devices loaded with Pearson software plus 45,000
iPads for testing last spring.
During testing last year, teachers complained small screens frustrated
students. Wifi and technical issues sent students to more reliable
desktops in existing computer labs.
A recent report by contractors commissioned by the district to study the
program found L.A. Unified teachers struggled to meaningfully integrate
iPads into the classroom.
L.A. UNIFIED OVERSIGHT PANEL REJECTS $42 MILLION FOR COMPUTERS + smf’s 2¢
• LAUSD SAYS IT NEEDS $25 MILLION IN COMPUTERS IMMEDIATELY TO BE READY FOR STATE TESTS
• BOND OVERSIGHT PANEL SAYS LAUSD HASN'T PROVED URGENT NEED FOR COMPUTERS
• BOND OVERSIGHT PANEL FAULTS LAUSD FOR NOT HAVING A COMPLETE INVENTORY OF COMPUTERS IT ALREADY OWNS
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/YgWCE8
Sept 25, 2014 | 9:55pm :: The Los Angeles school district's bond
oversight panel rejected a move Thursday by officials to spend an
additional $42 million on new computers, including purchases under a
controversial — and recently suspended — technology contract.
The district's proposal was discussed for the first time in a meeting of
the independent School Construction Bond Citizens' Oversight Committee,
which reviews the use of school construction money. The bond panel
rejected the plan, saying that L.A. Unified had not proved that it
urgently needed these devices.
“You can't know what you need if you don't know what you have.” - Garrett Francis
The purchase request is the latest development in a $1.3-billion project
that was supposed to provide computers for every student, teacher and
campus administrator in the nation's second-largest school system.
In all, the Los Angeles Unified School District bought 109,000 iPads
before schools Supt. John Deasy suspended further purchases Aug. 25. He
said the district would begin a new bidding process because of the
evolving market, advances in technology and "lessons learned" in the
first phase of the effort.
Mark Hovatter, head of the facilities division, said the district was
looking for the best way to handle the need for computers. "We're just
looking for devices," Hovatter said. "We're not tied to this contract.
But it is an option that is available to us if it offers the best deal
for the district. We didn't terminate the contract."
Schools would be able to choose the iPads or different computers under other contracts, he said.
L.A. Unified officials Bernadette Lucas and Ron Chandler told the bond
panel that new, additional devices are needed urgently for students to
take standardized tests this year.
The district also wanted authorization to spend $16.5 million to buy
computers for every middle and high school teacher as well as for office
staff. The immediate purpose is to help teachers use a new online
student data system that malfunctioned across L.A. Unified at the start
of the school year. The computers can also be used for instruction.
The oversight committee again was concerned about potential overspending. It approved only a third of the requested amount.
The committee's actions are advisory and are not binding on the Board of
Education, which is expected to make a decision at an upcoming meeting.
Deasy suspended the contract for iPads days after the disclosure of
emails showing that the superintendent and his former top deputy had a
close relationship with Apple, maker of the iPad, and Pearson, which
provided curriculum on the devices. Deasy, who has denied any
impropriety, recused himself from involvement in the bidding because he
owned Apple stock.
New bidding has yet to begin, however, and the district said it needs
$25 million more in computers right away to be ready for state tests.
Those exams will expand to their full length this spring, requiring
twice as long, about eight hours, to complete.
A longer test means more computers will be needed at campuses where
students are sharing the devices, said Gerardo Loera, who heads of the
office of curriculum, instruction and school support.
Especially at high schools, with students moving from period to period
and having to fit in Advanced Placement exams and other tests,
scheduling the state testing with limited computers is "like an
engineering project to pull it all together," he said.
But members of the oversight committee challenged a district option to limit testing to two hours a day, all in the morning.
Committee Chairman Stephen English acknowledged that morning testing
might result in somewhat better test scores, but said he was more
interested in educational imperatives than purchases made to game the
test.
Members were also troubled by the lack of an inventory of devices the district already owns.
"You can't know what you need if you don't know what you have," said
Garrett Francis, the appointee of Associated General Contractors of
California.
Officials acknowledged the problem, adding that they lacked an
accounting of older devices and products bought at schools, not with the
central technology program.
●●smf’s 2¢: I do not know why The Times always puts pictures of Dr.
Deasy on these articles about the Bond Committee and iPads, etc. –
unless it’s to remind the committee what he looks like. While the $1.3
billion CCTP/1:1 computer initiative may be his signature program, he
has not appeared before the committee since he first announced the
program.
STATE, LAUSD OFFICIALS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SPRING ASSESSMENTS + smf’s 2¢
By Louis Freedberg | ED SOURCE TODAY | | http://bit.ly/1sDrPz8
September 21, 2014 | Last spring more than 3 million students in
California, the largest number ever to take an online test in the state,
took field tests of new assessments aligned to the Common Core state
standards without major technical breakdowns or system crashes,
according to state officials.
Just as California avoided the massive online breakdowns that occurred
with the federal healthcare.gov website, education leaders here are now
optimistic that when the full battery of tests are administered this
spring for the first time that the process should go relatively
smoothly.
The field tests of the assessments produced by the Smarter Balanced
Assessment Consortium were intended to be a practice run for the full
rollout this spring, when all of California’s 3rd- through 8th-grade
students, along with 11th graders, will take the assessments in both
English language arts and math for the first time. They will replace the
multiple-choice, pencil-and-paper tests, known as the California
Standards Tests, that students had taken each spring for 15 years until
2013.
After the field tests were administered, some news reports documented a
range of problems, including students struggling to master the
technicalities of taking a test online instead of filling in bubbles
with a pencil. But state and Smarter Balanced officials interviewed by
EdSource believe that some of the problems that occurred last spring
have been dealt with, or with additional preparation and planning can be
averted by this spring.
California Department of Education officials say their preliminary
conclusions about the field test process are based on online surveys of
school districts and eight focus groups of key education constituencies,
including parents and students. Two of the groups focused on English
learners and special education. The department will present an official
report of its findings to the State Board of Education in time for its
meeting in November.
What is still not known is how well students will perform on the most
important part of the new assessments – the academic content. No scores
on the field tests in either math or English language arts last spring
were published, and how well students do will only be known when their
scores are published for the first time after the full assessments are
administered next spring.
Because California has by far the largest number of students of any
state – more than 6 million – what happens here will have an impact on
the overall implementation of the most prominent reform now underway in
the nation’s schools.
“People were very nervous to begin with, and through our partners with
the Education Testing Service, county offices and everyone else
involved, things went remarkably well,” said Sue Burr, a member of the
State Board of Education, at its meeting in Sacramento on Sept. 3, in
response to a presentation by California Department of Education
officials.
Even in Los Angeles Unified, which issued a detailed report documenting a
range of problems at individual school sites, officials say the field
tests went well for the nearly half million students who took them.
“It was a major challenge, but it went better than expected,” said
Cynthia Lim, executive director of the district’s Office of Data and
Accountability. “A year ago, if you had told me that 450,000 students
would take this test online, I wouldn’t have believed it, but it
actually happened.”
Leading up to the tests, districts were provided with detailed
instructions about how to gain access to the online testing system. For
months beforehand, districts could participate in workshops or webcasts
on any number of issues related to the new tests.
Unlike other states that administered the field tests to a sample of
students, California chose to administer the field tests to all eligible
students. Of 8.9 million test sessions – some students logged in for
two or three sessions to finish the various parts of the new assessments
– 97 percent of students completed them.
At the local level, school districts are still working through a range of technical problems.
In Los Angeles, principals and test coordinators have identified
problems such as not having enough iPads, laptops or desktop computers
at some schools for students to take the test in a timely manner. In
some instances, Lim said, the field tests were spread out over a
six-week period so students could take the tests on a staggered
schedule. School personnel said that lengthy period of time was too
disruptive of school routines, and that the testing period should be
shorter. Officials also reported that students experienced “log-in
issues” with Smarter Balanced software, and students “were regularly
kicked off.”
Diane Hernandez, director of the Assessment Development and
Administration Division at the California Department of Education, said
that the report to be presented to the State Board of Education in
November will give a fuller picture of problems at the school site
level. She said there were “some gaps” in broadband access at some
schools, but mostly in small rural districts. To fill those gaps, the
department last month announced a fund of $26.7 million, known as the
Broadband Infrastructure Improvement Grant program. The state last week
released a preliminary list of 300 schools – many in remote locations –
that may be eligible to apply for the money.
Hernandez said the biggest problem encountered by districts was
resetting passwords they needed to gain access to the testing system,
known as TIDES, now renamed TOMS (Test Operations Management System).
But districts having difficulty were able to call the California
Technical Assistance Center using an 800 number to get immediate help,
Hernandez said. The state has contracted with the Education Testing
Service to run the center.
This year districts have received updated – and detailed – instructions
for administering the tests in the spring. Those are posted online on a
website dedicated to the new assessment system, known as the California
Assessment System of Student Performance and Progress (CASSPP).
GOING DEEPER
Smarter Balanced officials also said they experienced few major problems
with the field tests. “We did not have any interruption of service in
55 days of administering the field test,” Joe Willhoft, the executive
director of the Smarter Balanced consortium, said in a webinar earlier
this month.
He said some students had difficulties logging in due to unclear
instructions that were given by test administrators. Some also had
difficulties with “text to speech,” zooming, audio and other technical
features of the online assessments, but he said the Smarter Balanced
help desk was able to respond to those concerns, and those technical
issues have been fixed. Willhoft said there were disruptions due to
inadequate bandwidth at some schools, but that in general the feedback
has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Later this fall, districts will have another chance to prepare for the
spring administration of the new assessments when the Smarter Balanced
consortium provides them with “interim assessments” to gauge how
students are doing. Along with other districts, Los Angeles Unified’s
Lim said that the district learned a great deal from the field tests,
including “how to respond quickly to schools” experiencing difficulties
administering the test. The district is currently hosting focus groups
of test coordinators to ensure that things go more smoothly in the
spring.
Last year, 95 percent of field test sessions that students started at LA
Unified were completed, without students being bumped off due to
password malfunctions, bandwidth problems or other technical glitches.
This year, Lim said, the target is for all students to do so.
She said some teachers and principals said that despite the new
technical challenges of having to administer online assessments, they
prefer them to the more cumbersome pencil-and-paper tests. The online
tests have eliminated the need to collect test booklets, sort and bundle
them, and then take them to a test center for the results to be
collated. The district no longer needs a warehouse where for a full
month prior to the annual testing period under the old system employees
packaged and distributed test materials to the schools.
“This is much more manageable,” Lim said. “It is the wave of the future.”
For a detailed analysis by Cynthia Lim, executive director of the
LAUSD Office of Data and Accountability, of the district’s experience
with the Smarter Balanced field tests, go here: http://t.co/e2uhaaTjDc
For a PowerPoint presentation of “lessons learned” by Ron Chandler, LAUSD chief information officer, go here: http://t.co/0phNwZbvmH
- Louis Freedberg covers education policy reform and is Executive Director of EdSource.
●●smf's 2: In the interest of full disclosure: The optimism for spring
success was expressed by the folks quoted BEFORE the Bond Oversight
Committee withheld approval last Thursday for the large number of
testing devices they desired . (see http://t.co/e2uhaaTjDc & http://t.co/0phNwZbvmH)
● In further disclosure: Ms. Lim’s detailed analysis and the “Lessons
Learned” PowerPoint were not presented to the Bond Oversight Committee
Thursday as parts of and/or as supporting materials accompanying Ms.
Lim’s and Mr. Chandler’s presentations to the committee.
“It isn’t how you play the game, it’s who keeps score
that counts”: REPORT SHOWS VARIATION IN HOW STATES STACK UP AGAINST
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
By Caralee Adams in College Bound - Education Week | http://bit.ly/1rrgAY4
September 22, 2014 12:13 PM :: What states expect students to know
varies widely and often falls short of international standards for
learning, a new report from the American Institutes for Research shows.
Gary Phillips, a vice president and fellow at the Washington-based
institute, examined the share of students meeting proficiency standards
in reading, mathematics, and science in every state. He used
international benchmarks to grade states by statistically linking state
tests to the state National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP),
then linking national NAEP to national Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) or Progress in International
Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) data.
The results revealed large gaps.
For instance, Georgia considered 87 percent of its 8th graders
proficient in math in 2011, but international measures showed just 24
percent were proficient. On the other end of the spectrum, 35 percent of
Tennessee's 8th graders met its state math standards, but only 21 were
considered proficient by international measures.
The problem stems from the patchwork of standards that emerged after the
federal No Child Left Behind legislation gave states the flexibility to
define proficiency with their own metrics—an approach that the report
calls "fundamentally flawed and misleading."
Phillips discovered that states reporting the highest percent of
proficient students had set the bar the lowest. More than two-thirds of
the difference in state success is related to how high or low the states
set their performance standards, according to the report.
The expectations gap is larger than twice the size of the national
black-white achievement gap, the report said. The difference between the
states with the highest and lowest standards represents a variation of
three or four grade levels, according to Phillips.
"It represents a big opportunity-to-learn problem in states that set low
standards," said Phillips in a phone interview. Without high
expectations, students aren't challenged with rigorous courses, he
added.
Phillips said he thinks the rollout soon of common standards in most states will help.
"The Common Core will give some consistency to what students are expected to learn and a high level of expectations," he said.
The current lack of transparency among state performance standards
misleads the public because low standards can artificially inflate the
numbers of students who are deemed to be proficient and deny them the
opportunity to learn skills needed for college and career, the report
concludes.
High Scores, Empty Stomachs: TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS
CANNOT LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD IN A BROKEN DEMOCRACY
• HUNGER DOESN'T GO AWAY JUST BECAUSE YOU QUALIFIED FOR AP ENGLISH
• SOLID TEST SCORES AREN'T A SIGN THAT POVERTY HAS BEEN CURED
Op-Ed By Garret Keizer in the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1pkZhDJ
28 Sept 2014 :: In the fall of 2010, after a14-year hiatus from the
classroom, I began a one-year job filling in for a teacher on leave from
the same rural Vermont high school that I'd entered as a rookie 30
years before.
Almost from my first day, I was moved by the sight of what had always
been a good school straining to be a better one. Multiple tutoring
centers did a brisk business at every period and not infrequently after
the buses had gone for the day. Hardly a week went by when teachers were
not summoned to an early-morning meeting to discuss an individual
student's progress. Study halls no longer functioned as de facto prep
periods for their faculty minders or as down-time for sleepy kids. Foxes
have holes and birds have nests, but the boy who woke at 2 in the
morning to do his barn chores no longer had a place to lay his head.
By all official measures, the school was succeeding. Ranked as the
state's poorest on the basis of the number of its students eligible to
receive free or reduced-price lunches, Lake Region Union High School was
outperforming many of its more affluent competitors on standardized
tests. The year before I returned, its writing scores were the highest
in the state. The next year, the free-and-reduced-lunch students
performed above the state average in reading, writing, math and science
on the New England Common Assessment Program exams.
I threw myself into the mission with as much gusto as a man can summon
in late middle age. I did my best to coach for the NECAPs — yes, we took
time away from our lesson plans to do some teaching to the test — and
resolved to keep my skepticism about the ultimate value of the tests to
myself. There were good reasons for doing so. I knew that voters in the
community were likelier to approve the school budget if the tests
results were good. I also knew that some of the kids I coached and
cajoled would go on to surmount the social conditions that stood in
their way. I knew this because a few of them always had.
But I also knew the school's sincere efforts were in the service of a
cynical agenda. The battle cry of the school reform movement, that
“poverty should never be an excuse for poor academic achievement,” all
too often masks the blithe conviction that good academic achievement can
serve as an excuse for poverty. As long as the test scores are at par,
you see, we need not be overly concerned if the pantries are bare, the
parents jobless or jailed, and the gap between rich and poor more
appalling than it's been since 1928.
In the same county where Lake Region is achieving its impressive test
results, an estimated 1 in 4 children is “food insecure.” It's a phrase
that tries the imaginations of those who have the luxury of spicing
their security with complaint. “What to cook for dinner, always such a
dilemma.” Imagine waking up in a state of food insecurity and going to
school to take a standardized test. Imagine how ashamed you'll feel if
your school is judged to be failing because of you.
Not to worry, though, because the hunger goes away just as soon as
you've performed at grade level or are enrolled in an Advanced Placement
course. And within a few short years, you'll be getting the math right
when you divvy up your welfare check after your job at the furniture
mill has been outsourced or the family farm auctioned off.
In one of my classes was a girl who'd been rescued the previous winter
from an unheated trailer behind her grandparents' house. She was a tough
and determined kid, intelligent, ready to seek extra help, not afraid
to speak out in class, almost never behind in her homework. I happen not
to know her standardized test scores, but it's reasonable to assume
that her better-than-average application resulted in a performance that
was at least on a par with the better-than-average test scores of her
school. It is far less reasonable to assume that those test scores
significantly improved her lot. They certainly didn't improve her
grandparents' lot. They did nothing to allay the economic conditions
that made her every achievement in school outrageously more difficult
for her than it had to be.
No matter how dedicated, teachers alone cannot change conditions that
will take nothing short of a revolution to change. I didn't have to
teach for a year in a “high-performing” rural high school to recognize
the obscenity of using “failing schools” to ignore the implications of a
broken democracy. Or to recognize the moral futility of being charged
with the task of creating “a level playing field” so that society can
sort its winners and losers with a clearer conscience and a colder eye.
Of course, I can bear witness to the impressive academic achievements of
students from impoverished backgrounds. So can many other teachers, and
they should. To withhold one's applause for the sake of advocating
broader social progress is to insult those students and their struggles.
It is also to forfeit what may be our best challenge to a society of
mounting inequality.
After all, if food-insecure 16-year-olds can master a prescribed
curriculum, then what is the excuse of the richest nation in the world
for failing to master the common core of a livable wage, a color-blind
legal system and a society in which the word “class” refers to a course
you take and not to chances you never had?
• Garret Keizer is the author of "Getting Schooled: The Reeducation of an American Teacher."
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
GOV. BROWN SIGNS BILLS AIDING IMMIGRANT CHILDREN,
TROUBLED STUDENTS; VETOES $100 MILLION FOR REPAIRS AT UC’s+CSU’s | http://bit.ly/1mDMIHP
HOW TO SPOT A FAKE GRASSROOTS ED ®EFORM GROUP + HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT IS INFECTED BY THE BROAD VIRUS | http://bit.ly/1oopSQ7
FEDS VALIDATE THE CALIFORNIA SCHOOL CLIMATE, HEALTH & LEARNING SURVEY FOR ASSESSING SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT | http://bit.ly/1qHr68K
STATE, LAUSD OFFICIALS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SPRING ASSESSMENTS + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1yvbrDI
DENVER AREA STUDENTS WALK OUT OVER ‘MORE PATRIOTIC’ HISTORY CURRICULUM | http://bit.ly/1vfCZsM
DOCUMENTS FILED IN MIRAMONTE LAWSUIT CLAIM SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER McKENNA KNEW OF ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CHILD PREDATOR | http://bit.ly/1xqmX1C
BEFORE+BEYOND MIRAMONTE: LAUSD sets new records at bad record keeping …and at keeping their story straight | http://bit.ly/YqRGMJ
AGENDA/ORDER OF BUSINESS FOR SPECIAL MEETING OF THE LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION, 4:01 p.m. Tuesday, September. 30, 2014 http://bit.ly/1rrmIzQ
REPORT SHOWS VARIATION IN HOW STATES STACK UP AGAINST INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS | http://bit.ly/1wO8zwQ
PROPOSED FEDERAL LEGISLATION WOULD REDUCE TESTING REQUIREMENTS | http://bit.ly/1vo5Wlq
CRENSHAW PRINCIPAL TESTIFIES THAT TEACHERS’ DISMISSALS NOT TIED TO UNION ACTIVITY | http://bit.ly/1qCj5le
¡Not Updated!: LAUSD BOARD CALLS SPECIAL CLOSED-DOOR MEETING TO DISCUSS DEASY | http://bit.ly/1ss4mAV
L.A. UNIFIED OVERSIGHT PANEL REJECTS $42 MILLION FOR COMPUTERS | http://bit.ly/1BeCgI6
CLOSED LAUSD BOARD SESSION GREW OUT OF REQUEST BY RATLIFF | http://bit.ly/1ut6B73
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE PUTS BRAKES ON LA SCHOOL OFFICIALS’ REQUEST FOR MORE iPADS FOR TESTING | http://bit.ly/1qAda0a
Tweeting from the fault line: LA TIMES’ HOWARD BLUME FROM THURSDAY’S LAUSD BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE | http://bit.ly/1v6chTt
Never again: NEWTOWN STILL STRUGGLING | http://bit.ly/ZeDmrW
Letters to the editor: WHAT MAKES GOOD TEACHING IN THE 21st CENTURY? | http://bit.ly/1rm3vOz
COLORADO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WALK OUT TO PROTEST PROPOSED CURRICULUM CHANGES ...over protest and civil disobedience |http://bit.ly/1n0BUUE
REPORT CRITICAL OF CHARTER SCHOOL OVERSIGHT | http://bit.ly/1rlMF2e
LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD TO MEET TUESDAY; LIKELY TO DISCUSS DEASY’S FUTURE | http://bit.ly/1yrPc1g
LA SCHOOLS DATA SYSTEM CONCERNS AFTER PORT FIRE, TRANSCRIPT PROBLEMS | http://bit.ly/1wM2MYN
DZ: Cool as a cucumber in all this heat pic.twitter.com/8yMBJziYZx
Just in: LAUSD BOARD CALLS SPECIAL CLOSED-DOOR MEETING TO DISCUSS DEASY |
¿WAS WILMINGTON WHARF FIRE SCHOOL EVACUATION COMPLICATED BY MiSiS CRISIS? | http://bit.ly/ZdgQ2x
Parent re: Wilmington Fire: "It just seems to me the superintendent doesn't care about the students."
DELAYED EVACUATION OF SCHOOL NEAR PORT OF L.A. ANGERS PARENTS + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/ZdgQ2x
TEACHING+LEARNING MUSIC :: Q&A: Why Teaching Music Matters + This Is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain
Editorial: DEASY, LAUSD BOARD MUST DECIDE IF THEY CAN WORK TOGETHER | http://bit.ly/ZHqjPF
Bad guys in White Hats?: CHARTER SCHOOLS IN COURT IN OHIO | http://bit.ly/1uiI30s
Alex Caputo-Pearl: THE CENTRALITY OF ORGANIZING & CHALLENGING DEASY’S AUTOCRACY | http://bit.ly/1pbRV5s
TITLE 1 + MiSiS: Only 40% of students at one school have renewed meal applications, down from 76% last year | http://bit.ly/1CbuAZK
LAUSD TITLE 1 MONEY IN JEOPARDY OVER ENDURING MiSiS GLITCHES | http://bit.ly/1CbuAZK
AMID iPAD, ATTENDANCE SYSTEM CONTROVERSIES, SCHOOL BOARD TO WEIGH SUPERINTENDENT’S PERFORMANCE + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1r4XKqP
STUDENT PUT IN DETENTION FOR SHARING SCHOOL LUNCH | http://bit.ly/1B25xG3
Washington Post: STATE SAYS PRINCE GEORGE’S SCHOOLS CFO COMMITTED INSURANCE FRAUD, PLACED ON LEAVE | http://bit.ly/1tVSOo7
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Regular Board Meeting - September 30, 2014 - 4:00 p.m. - Williams Sufficiency
Start: 09/30/2014 4:00 pm
Special Board Meeting (Including Closed Session Items) September 30, 2014 - 4:01 p.m.
Start: 09/30/2014 4:01 pm
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress,
senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find
your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.
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