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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 2, 2013 3:30 AM
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By Sean C. Feeney: "Superintendents in New York State’s public school districts have for the last week or so been receiving what’s called the “growth scores” for teachers of grades 4-8 and principals serving grades 4-8 and 9-12. These scores are based on the new Common Core test results, which saw a 30-point drop in students being classified as “proficient.” Although our commissioner of education has repeatedly tried to assure the public that the dramatic drop in student scores does not reflect negatively on student, teacher or school performance, this message flies in the face of reality. As the state continues to “build its plane in the air” — meaning that it is implementing an educator evaluation system before it has really been properly designed – those of us who work in schools are seeing how destructive these poorly planned initiatives have been. As thousands of educators across New York State have publicly indicated, the excessive testing and use of student scores to rate teachers, principals and schools is misguided, not based in sound research and rushed in its implementation. These facts are ignored at the peril of our students and schools.
As we see more results of New York state’s initiatives, the more serious problems and contradictions are revealed. Looking deeply into the recently released scores, three glaring problems became immediately obvious..."
Full article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/10/good-or-bad-new-rating-system-cant-decide-about-this-principal/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 1, 2013 4:26 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
December 7, 2013 2:51 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 23, 2013 1:45 AM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 27, 2013 6:06 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 27, 2013 7:41 PM
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"Mercedes Schneider has undertaken an immense task. She decided to spend her free time -- when she is not teaching -- trying to figure out how much the Gates Foundation paid various organizations to write, develop, implement, promote, and advocate for the Common Core standards.
This is a herculean job because the foundation has been so free-handed with its money. To its credit, the Gates Foundation has a website that enables researchers to identify their grants over time. At a certain point, as you go through the list of who got how much money to "promote" the CCSS, you start to wonder "who DIDN'T get Gates money?"
This is her first post, where she shows that the Gates Foundation underwrote the organizations writing the Common Core standards: the National Governors Association, Student Achievement Partners (David Coleman), the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve. She sums up what she found: "In total, the four organizations primarily responsible for CCSS -- NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and Student Achievement Partners -- have taken $147.9 million from Bill Gates."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/bill-gates-common-core_b_4079447.html ;
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 4, 2013 5:18 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 4, 2013 4:10 PM
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(Excerpt from full post at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/dear-reformers-i-dont-mea_b_4100867.html
"...It is true. I heard from a mutual friend (well, not so much a friend anymore) that Bill Gates was very hurt by my comments about his effort to remake American education. He frankly could not understand how anyone could question his good intentions. Actually I have never questioned his intentions, but I certainly question his judgment and his certainty that he can "fix" education by creating metrics to judge teachers. He recently said that it would take a decade to find out whether "this stuff" works; in the meanwhile, teachers and principals are losing their jobs, schools are being closed, communities are being shattered -- because Bill Gates got a new idea that he wanted to try out using human subjects. I have also heard from other sources that reformers say I am "mean" or "harsh" when I say that some "reformers" have a profit motive or that their grand plans actually hurt poor minority children instead of helping them. They are baffled that I do not admire their efforts to create charters and vouchers to allow poor kids to "escape" public schools.
I confess that I was not thinking about their feelings.
I was thinking about the consequences of their actions.
I was thinking about purposeful efforts to dismantle public education.
I was thinking about the constant repetition of the blatant lie that American public education is a failure.
One of the things that a historian tries to do is to correct the record. When people say things again and again, even though these things are not true, it is the job of the historian to tell the truth. If others disagree, they should put their facts on the table too.
Historians understand that debate and dissent are part of the work of understanding history.
There is not one truth, but on the other hand, you can't just make up facts and narratives, hire a fancy PR firm, and rewrite history to suit yourself.
Are there profiteers in the business of school reform? Yes, indeed, and I document their profitable activities amply in the book. Meanwhile, dear reformers, please know that I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
I just wanted to let you know that your efforts to create a dual system of publicly funded schools turns back the clock to the shameful era before the Brown decision.
And I wanted you to know that your reliance on standardized testing is a grand mistake...." (by Diane Ravitch)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/dear-reformers-i-dont-mea_b_4100867.html
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 17, 2013 12:09 AM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 31, 2013 2:53 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 3, 2013 9:29 PM
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"The Common Core State Standards now being implemented in most states and the District of Columbia will soon be accompanied by new standardized tests being developed by two multi-state consortia — the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) — with $360 million in federal funds. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said repeatedly that he expects these exams, due to be rolled out in 2014-15, to go beyond the familiar multiple-choice standardized tests students have been forced to take for more than a decade and to be an 'absolute game-changer in public education.'
Is he right? Not so much. Here are seven myths and realities about the new tests, from FairTest, or The National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the misuse of standardized tests. You can find more here on FairTest’s website. - Valerie Strauss
Full WP Post at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/04/seven-facts-you-should-know-about-new-common-core-tests/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 3, 2013 8:46 PM
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"...What passes for reform today, Ravitch writes, is “a deliberate effort” to replace public schools with a market system. The “unnatural focus on testing” has produced “perverse but predictable results.” It has narrowed curriculums to testable subjects, to the exclusion of the arts and the full capaciousness of culture. And it has encouraged the manipulation of scores on state exams. 'Teaching to the test', once considered unprofessional and unethical, is now “common.”
Excerpt of book review written by Jonathon Kozol on Ravitch's "Reign of Error"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/books/review/reign-of-error-by-diane-ravitch.html?pagewanted=1&smid=tw-share
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 1, 2013 3:55 AM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 27, 2013 7:39 PM
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"The superintendent of schools in Pleasantville, New York, announced that the district was returning its Race to the Top funding and withdrawing from Race to the Top. The reason: the district wants to protect the privacy of its students. New York is one of the few states that has agreed to turn over all student data to inBloom, the Gates-funded data mining operation whose software was developed by a company owned by Rupert Murdoch . Since New York is not allowing parents to refuse permission to remove their names from this mammoth database in the “cloud,” the whole district has opted out of Race To The Top." http://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/26/pleasantville-schools-withdraw-from-race-to-top-to-protect-student-privacy/ ;
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 5, 2013 8:52 PM
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"Supporters often position Common Core as a bold and results-driven undertaking to finally address deep inequalities in public education by creating one set of clear expectations critical to producing graduates who can compete in a global economy."... "But vehement arguments rage across the country about the intentions of Common Core's framers and the standards' effects on students and curricula. Many opponents worry that Common Core's nationwide scope and uniformity will signal diminishment, or even the end of local control in public education, a bedrock value for many Americans. Anxiety about federal government overreach also frequently punctuates the criticism."... Full story by Paul Schott at:
http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Common-Core-The-debate-rages-4872155.php
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 16, 2013 1:45 AM
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"By all indicators, teachers are generally favorable to the new standards. But like its predecessor No Child Left Behind, the Common Core is proving to have many unanticipated consequences. Who would have thought, for instance, that adopting new academic standards would necessitate kindergartners barely able to hold pencils being made to take bubble-in tests?
In states, such as New York, that are on the advanced guard of implementing the new standards and their accompanying tests, multiple choice tests are being pushed down to the youngest students, not because they’re good for the kids, but because they’re required to evaluate whether teachers are teaching according to the new standards."... Selection from Valerie Strauss' article citing Jeff Bryant.
Full post at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/15/are-school-reformers-wrecking-the-common-core/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 3, 2013 8:38 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
December 7, 2013 2:43 AM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 26, 2013 5:12 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 3, 2013 9:38 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 5, 2013 9:28 PM
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