Why Are We Failing English Language Learners? The Children of Immigrants Deserve to Be At the Top of Department Agenda, Not Ignored.

 

“betraying a whole generation of immigrant kids who are struggling to succeed”

 

The New York State Education Department, pointing out the “pluses” and “minuses,” released the High School Graduation data from the 2003 cohort (students graduating in June/August 2007). The SED reports that 25.2 % of ELL students enrolling in 2003 graduated, 29.4% dropped out, and 40% are still enrolled. The percentage of ELL students who are graduating is declining.

 

The percentage of ELL students graduating declined by 5% between the 2001 and 2003 cohorts.

 

The NYC Department of Education, in a gloating power point, report a rise in the graduation rate for ELL students.

 

The graduation rate among English Language Learners rose 3.1 points to 23.5 in 2007, after falling from 26.5 percent in 2005 to 20.4 percent in 2006.

 

The disparity in the State and the City numbers is distressing, especially since 76% of ELL students are in New York City.

 

The Immigrant Coalition slammed the low ELL graduation rates in an article in Gotham Gazette.

 

Who are English Language Learners (ELL)? 

 

* The U.S. Department of Education defines the term limited English proficient child as an individual

(A) who is aged 3 through 21;

(B) who is enrolled or preparing to enroll in an elementary school or secondary school;

(C) (i) who was not born in the United States or whose native language is a language other than English; (ii) (I) who is a Native American or Alaska Native, or a native resident of the outlying areas; and (II) who comes from an environment where a language other than English has had a significant impact on the individual’s level of English language proficiency; or (iii) who is migratory, whose native language is a language other than English, and who comes from an environment where a language other than English is dominant; and

(D) whose difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language may be sufficient to deny the individual– (i) the ability to meet the state’s proficient level of achievement on state assessments described in section 1111(b)(3); (ii) the ability to successfully achieve in classrooms where the language of instruction is English; or (iii) the opportunity to participate fully in society.

Source: Federal PL 107-110, The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Title IX, General Provisions, Part A Definitions, Section 9101(25)

Looking at the same data the City applauds themselves while the State sees serious inequities.

An acquaintance was visiting the City for the first time in over a decade; staying in, believe it or not, a bed and breakfast in Brooklyn. She strolled through a South Asian neighborhood along Coney Island Avenue to an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood along Avenue J to a Caribbean neighborhood through a Chinese neighborhood. Ethnic diversity is at the core of this wonderful City. Families from around the world, hardworking, conscientious, seeking what is best for their children; repeating the experiences of our ancestors who fled the bigotry and poverty of the old world.

What is so troubling is that we know what works. For example, the International High Schools, a network of nine public high schools serving 2700 ELL students around the City, has an outstanding record of serving the immigrant community.

Under the current organization principals are measured solely by the Progress Report grade, and, unfortunately, too many schools have no idea how to provide appropriate instruction for ELL students. No one monitors anything, and pushing aside ELL kids is not uncommon.

The 140,000 (13.4%) ELL students in the NYC school system are entitled to the best  instruction and this administration has been a failure.

Graduating to Oblivion: In the Knowledge Economy Basic High School Graduation Reguirements Are Inadequate, “Bling” versus Physics

 

 ‘After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, “Lies - damn lies - and statistics,” still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of.’

Leonard Henry Courtney (1832-191

 

One of the measures of school success, or failure, are high school graduation rates. The problem: States set their own graduation requirements and their own methodology to determine graduation rates. The National Governors Association is attempting to gain agreement that States will use a uniform definition of graduation rates.

 

In a Report entitled,  Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date 2008 the Association writes:

In 2005, governors of all 50 states signed the NGA Graduation Counts Compact to implement voluntarily a common formula for calculating their state’s high school graduation rate. The NGA Compact contained four key commitments:

• to use a common, four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate formula;
• to build state data collection and reporting capacity;
• to develop additional student outcome indicators; and
• to report annually on their progress toward meeting these commitments.

By 2012 the NSA predicts that all States will have completed their commitments.

 

The NYS Education Department has just released preliminary data on the 2003 graduation cohort. The major newspapers all reported on the release of the data, the NY Times, the NY Post and the NY Sun, all report the “up tick” in graduations. Rates have increased all over the State, the increase in New York City is at a faster rate, however, minority students and students with disabilities lag badly.

 

The DOE press conference, with power point and big screen has become the standard operating procedure. Understand that the DOE held a press conference to claim credit for the rising of the sun … Diane Ravitch and Sol Stern reminded Tweed that the sun has been rising for billions of millennia, Tweed communications director Cantor, responding, “While this may be so it does not reduce the role of the Children First Initiative.”

 

Elizabeth Green, in the NY Sun, writes:

 

An education professor at Brooklyn College, David Bloomfield, said the gains in graduation rates may be artificially inflated by principals trying to raise their figures, which are tied to prizes such as higher report card grades and salary bonuses.

Mr. Bloomfield named two practices that he called “gimmicks”: local diplomas, which are being phased out by the state but now allow students to graduate with lower scores on Regents exams, and credit recovery programs, which allow students to earn credits from classes they failed by completing last-minute makeup work.

The state’s education commissioner, Richard Mills, yesterday said he and Mr. Klein are instructing their staffs to study the credit recovery system after holding a meeting to discuss it last week.

From my perspective I proffer three reasons for the increase:

* Better Technology: You must give credit to this administration for the ease in accessing student data. Every school, with a few mouse clicks, can view cohort data as well as records for each and every student. The cohort “rules” are complex and require management by a school, i.e., kids entering during the school year may, or, may not have been in the NYC school system … did the bureaucrats enter the data correctly? is the kid in the “correct” cohort? Are kids who leave schools “good” discharges (to another school) or  “bad” discharges (dropouts)? Schools can now track all this datum on a granular, student by student level.

* Guidance Counselor/Student Ratios: Many of the small high schools have manageable GC/Student ratios … instead of 300 to 400 students per counselor it is not uncommon to have 100-200 ratios. The counselor is the key person - constant contact with students, ability to motivate, to seek the right placements, development those surrogate parent relationships that are so vital to our kids.

* Credit Recovery: Under, I can only whisper the words, the Board of Education, each high school was required to maintain a Course Accreditation Committee, including the UFT Chapter Leader; all “new” courses had to be approved by the Committee, and memorialized in the Superintendent’s office. For example a school might have a two-day camping trip to make up for a phys ed credit. In the regency of Tweed Credit Recovery is totally unsupervised, in fact, there are absolutely no records. If a student earns a Credit Recovery credit the school reverses the failing grade … there is no indication on the record how the credit was earned. In some instances, like the Hallway Project students have met the seat time requirement but failed the course, complete a teacher supervised, standards based project, a responsible approach.  In others credits are freely distributed in a blatant, disgraceful manner, with a “wink and a nod” from Tweed.

Yes, an increasing graduation rate should be applauded, but, the local diploma, a grade of 55 on four of the five required Regents exams, is bare literacy. Even the Regents diploma, passing five Regents exams with grades of 65 or better is barely proficient. The CUNY College Readiness Rubric is the equivalent of the advanced diploma - eight Regents exams, with at least one advanced math class. How many kids graduate with an advanced diploma? Three or four percent?

In spite of the yeoman efforts of teachers, guidance counselors and principals we are settling for bare literacy in a world that requires highly advanced skills. The Klein rubric, the Education Equality Project is the wrong approach … using fear of school closings, denial of tenure and teacher pay for performance as a motivation tool is blaming schools for the failings of a larger society. The Broader, Bolder Coalition acknowledges that schools are part of communities, and, unless we address the school within its community we are spinning our wheels.

It may sound trite but as long as role models are athletes, entertainers and celebs our kids will look for “bling,” not math and physics.

The Lesson of No Child Left Behind: “You Don’t Fatten a Pig By Weighing It”

 

“every farmer knows you don’t fatten a pig by weighing it,” 

aphorism 

 

 

No Child Left Behind has dominated the national education scene for years. A bipartisan law, that was hailed as a major step forward increasingly is assailed by virtually all.

 

The law relies on States to establish goals, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and sets increasingly severe penalties for schools that fail to reach AYP. Not surprisingly schools have moved to “drill and kill” curricula to achieve AYP, to the detriment of the subjects not tested.

 

The teacher unions, the NEA and the AFT have increasingly criticized the law, in fact, the supporters of the law continue to shrink.

 

 New Talk, sponsored a three day online discussion, “Do we need a basic re-write of NCLB?” -  the discussants included Randi Weingarten, (UFT/AFT President), Chris Cerf (DOE Deputy), Diane Ravitch, Sol Stern (City Journal), Checker Finn (Thomas Fordham Foundation), Philip Howard (Common Good), Arthur Levine (Woodrow Wilson Foundation, formerly Teacher College President), Sara Mead (New American Foundation) and a list of other “voices” in the educational community.

The discussion was hosted by John Merrow.

 

It is a must read!! 

 

The discussion evolved from spanking the law to offering a range of specific “new ideas,” both relating to the law and to educational policy in general. And, my dose of schedenfreude, watching Sol Stern skewer Chris Cerf as he tries, really hard, to be the neutral scholar-type instead of his true role, the Joel Klein hatchet man.

 

The original 1965 law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) drove federal dollars, Title I, to schools based on poverty. The dollars could not supplant tax levy dollars, and, frequently paid for “specialty” teachers in Reading, Math and Bi-Lingual/ESL education. The 2003 reauthorization changed the name of the law and added the AYP driven sanctions.

 

States are slow to make change, they are making incremental progress, for example, according to the National Governors Association, in establishing common measurements of graduation rates.

 

On the NCLB front views are across the spectrum.

 

Randi Weingarten laid out her “community school” plan and Checker Finn called it a distraction, lacking evidence.

 

Diane Ravitch addressed the testing issue in detail with targeted recommendations.

 

The New Talk discussion raised many questions, and answered few …

 

* What should be the role of the federal government?

* Can we trust States to measure their own progress?

* Do sanctions work?

* Should the law simply post test results and leave enforcement to the States?

* Shouldn’t we measure all students progress rather than the AYP concept?

 

While education has not emerged as an issue in the presidential election, aside from McCain attacking teacher unions, the reauthorization of NCLB will become a major issue in the next Congressional legislative session. The New Talk discussion clearly shows the lack of any consensus, but, it continues an increasingly public dialogue.

 

The outcome of this discussion, the still amorphous reauthorization, will shape American classrooms, for years, perhaps decades.

The Quest for the Leadership Gene: How Do We Find/Select the Best School Leaders?

 

Quietly, in the spring, the Department of Education introduced a test for principal candidates. For almost forty years candidates for New York City supervisory positions simply had to take courses and earn the appropriate supervisory certification from a college that has been approved by the State.

 

The civil service exam process lead by the Board of Examiners was overturned as a result of a lawsuit, Boston M. Chance, Louis Mercado v Board of Examiner, sustained on appeal in 1972, the Board of Examiners supervisory examination process was found to be discriminatory. The Board of Education decided not to challenge the decision of the trial judge.

 

The appeal comes to us in an unusual posture. Since plaintiffs attacked the method used to fill supervisory positions in the school system of the City of New York, one would surmise that their primary opposition would come from those in charge of that system, the Board of Education of the City of New York and its Chancellor, Harvey B. Scribner, both named as defendants in this action. However, although the Board of Education appeared below, it did not actively oppose the motion for a preliminary injunction and has not appealed from the district court’s order. The Chancellor has done even less. In a memorandum to the Board of Education, quoted by Judge Mansfield in his opinion, Mr. Scribner stated that to defend against plaintiffs’ case. “… would require that I both violate my own professional beliefs and defend a system of personnel selection and promotion which I no longer believe to be workable.”

 

Ironically the Board of Examiners, an independent public agency was created shortly after the consolidation of the boroughs into New York City in 1898 and the creation of a Board of Education. It was the brainchild of the reformers of the late nineteenth century, its purpose, to take the appointment of teachers and supervisors out of the hands of politicians and base their assignment on merit … on the results of civil service examinations with assignments to jobs based upon the grades on the civil service tests.

 

The Board of Education simply abandoned the examination system and placed the assignment of supervisors in the hands of the newly elected Community School Boards.

 

On paper the Department involved parents and teachers in the selection process (Chancellor’s Regulation C-30), in reality the selections made by school boards, in too many districts, were highly suspect. In spite of accusations that supervisory selections were driven by race, ethnic and religious groups, influenced by elected officials, and, in some cases outright “bought,” the system continued into the mid-nineties.

 

The Commissioner of Investigation, Ed Stancik, in coordination with the teachers’ union changed the law and took all personnel authority away from school boards.

 

One of the first major initiatives of the Bloomberg/Klein mayoral control was the creation of the Leadership Academy, a privately funded operation. In spite of the fanfare the Academy was simply top-down patronage … rather than jobs distributed by school boards we now had jobs meted out to friends of Joel.

 

Bob Knowling, a failed internet entrepreneur was chosen as the Leadership Academy head, at a salary of $250,000 plus perks.

 

In time the Academy cleaned up its act, selected Sondra Stein, a recognized scholar, as Chief Operating Officer.

 

The new competencies that are the core of the new “test” are crucial for the success of a principal.

 

However, “book knowledge” alone will not the great principal make.

 

Failing schools, i.e., SURR schools are always characterized by poor leadership.

A school leader may be able to analyze data, construct a budget, write an observation report, but, when they walk into the student cafeteria do the kids immediately stopping talk?

 

Are they master teachers? Can they model exemplary teaching?

 

Are they respected by the kids, teachers and parents?

 

Are they looked upon as leaders by those they lead?

 

In too many circumstances principals are not school leaders, they do not possess that difficult to define quality, the ability to inspire and lead by example.

 

Increasingly I have come to believe that some have that leadership gene and some do not. The new examination will filter out some, the Leadership Academy has stumbled, without school leaders that can lead schools will continue to sputter.

 

Bloomberg, Klein et. al., are entering their last year … no matter how much they pat themselves on the back data is stagnant.

 

Hopefully the next administration will understand that schools begin with school leaders … that friends of friends, carrots and stick and a duplicitous spinning of data are failed strategies.

Adam Smith, Plutocrats and Teacher Unions: Keeping Silent Because You Are Not a Trade Unionist Can be Fatal

 

When the Nazis arrested the Communists,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat.
When they arrested the trade unionists,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist.
When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest.

Martin Niemoller

 

Why aren’t schools doing better? What are the obstacles to school improvement? Is it the lack of funding to schools with the most disadvantaged kids? Is it the burden of poverty? the lack of adequate housing? healthcare? single parent households? crime ridden neighborhoods? new and/or poorly trained teachers? or, is it the “rigid work rules imposed by teacher unions”?

 

Jonathan Alter, a Newsweek columnist avers that the source of school failure is the “paleolithic teachers unions, ready to pounce on any challenge to the failed system they dominate.”

 

Mayor Bloomberg, in testimony to Congress blares,

 

 “Pay-for-performance leads us to the second key to closing the achievement gap: accountability….Based on the data we’re collecting, there are now rewards for success in our schools – and consequences for failure. If a school continuously fails its students, we will shut it down. And if a teacher continuously fails his or her students, we will work to give principals the tools to remove that teacher from the classroom.

“Unfortunately, this hasn’t been very easy to do in New York – or in many other cities – because of inflexible union work rules. and let me suggest one promising idea: Congress can use the power of the purse to withhold funds from districts that fail to take meaningful steps towards reform.

What inflexible union work rules?

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), compiled a searchable database of the teacher contracts in the fifty largest cities in 2006. They have just released a new report entitled Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining, lo and behold, teacher contracts throughout the country are largely silent on those odious, but invisible work rules. Those so-called union-favorable work rules, says the Report, are imbedded in State laws across the country, not in teacher contracts.

Teachers as individuals are powerless, teachers as members of democratic labor unions have power. The power to vote, the power to advocate for policies, the power to change, the power to create legislation.

The ideologues of the marketplace and their billionaire friends have the dollars to lobby, to fund “think tanks,” the power to influence, they abhor the power of the ballot box.

Bloomberg is appalled that teachers, that third grade teacher in the  Morrisiana, that kindergarten teacher in East New York, that high school teacher in Ozone Park, can, through their union, thwart the power of one of the wealthiest men in the nation. For Mike, the carrot is the answer to poverty.

The assault on teacher unions masks the source of educational stagnation. The gap in achievement reflects the gap in income … children of the poor are, in all too many instances, lacking early interventions, are condemned at birth.

 David Brooks, in his column in the NY Times points to current research,

 ….  high school graduation rates peaked in the U.S. in the late 1960s, at about 80 percent. Since then they have declined.

In “Schools, Skills and Synapses,” Heckman probes the sources of that decline. It’s not falling school quality, he argues. Nor is it primarily a shortage of funding or rising college tuition costs. Instead, Heckman directs attention at family environments, which have deteriorated over the past 40 years.

Heckman points out that big gaps in educational attainment are present at age 5. Some children are bathed in an atmosphere that promotes human capital development and, increasingly, more are not. By 5, it is possible to predict, with depressing accuracy, who will complete high school and college and who won’t.

The Obama education program emphasizes early childhood education, and rejects the imposition of market based solutions, i.e., imposed merit pay.

The invisible hand of Adam Smith, the cold, cruel world of the marketplace, with economic determinism as guiding force is the “answer” for the today’s neo-robber barons.

Journalists who blithely blame teacher unions for the ills of schools are hiding their heads in the sands of time. There will come a time when those same journalists will be the subject of the arrows of the economic plutocrats. 

Klein Inc., Spreading the Brand Across the Nation

 

You can’t go home, again

Thomas Wolfe

 

With outposts in New York, Washington DC and Baltimore and the Education Equality Project Joel Klein is poised to move his brand across the nation.

 

Based upon the writings of Sir Michael Barber and Bill Ouchi he rejects the traditional view of school improvement. He sees schools of education, curricula, the range of math and reading programs as distractions.

 

His is a market-based approach.

 

* The principal is the key player and should be invested with as much power and authority as possible - with clearly enunciated carrots and sticks, and a vigorous recruitment/training program to plug in new principals as others are discarded.

 

* Recruit the best and the brightest teaching candidates, Teacher for America, Teaching Fellows, etc., and accept a rapid turnover rate.

 

* School success/failure measured by test scores, the heart and core of a school, with both teachers and principals futures at stake. Salary and further employment solely based on student achievement measured by test scores, not seniority or longevity.

 

* A firm stick: teachers who do not succeed, in the opinion of the principal, or, in any way challenge the authority of the principals can be removed and dismissed. The function of tenure is to defend incompetence and insubordination, and impedes the effectiveness of the principal.

 

* Weighted Student Funding, Pay for Student Performance, rigorous evaluation of teacher, principal and school performance are all the bedrock of the project.

 

* The traditional District Office bureaucracy is generally useless and must be as small as possible, the use of technology can replace bureaucrats.

 

Washington DC is in the midst of contract negotiations with the teacher union. Michelle Rhee, the superintendent and Klein accolyte, according to the Washington Post,  is offering a dual system: large raises for teachers who chose to forgo tenure, and, smaller for those who chose not to opt in.

 

Watch the Merrow Report: features interviews with Rhee and Washington Teacher Union president George Parker, as both sides warily joust. 

 

In an op-ed piece Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut supports the Rhee/Klein agenda.

 

Many New York City teachers see the Klein brand fading as mayoral control sunsets. Unfortunately they delude themselves.

 

In Congressional testimony last week Bloomberg couldn’t resist.

 

In his testimony before a U.S. Congressional committee on Education and Labor on July 17, Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised UFT President Randi Weingarten for working with his administration to negotiate school-wide bonuses and other financial incentives for educators. However, he criticized “inflexible union work rules” as obstacles that keep the school system from getting rid of “ineffective teachers.”

 

In Los Angeles the worst high school in the city, Locke High School, opted by a vote of the staff, to become a charter school under the direction of Green Dot.

 

We are tip toeing into an uncertain future … we are not returning to the past …

 

Memories can be illusory: the size of the “fish,” the “comfort” with the centralized school system of Koch and Guiliani grows.

 

Unless teachers and their union seize the agenda of reform/change, the Kleins and Bloombergs and Rhees will mold the future.

Firing Novice Teachers: Weeding Out Incompetents? Playing to the Anti Union Crowd? Gloating? How Does Firing Newer Teachers Impact Teaching/Learning?

 

 

The Department gleefully announces the firing of a record number of probationary teachers .

 

Is it a “plus” or a “minus”?

 

How many of the “fired” teachers were hired by the principals that fired them? How many were Teach for America? Teaching Fellows? By Race? Ethnicity?  As usual the Department simply spins out press releases and withholds the source data.

 

One would hope that the Department values teachers as they gain experience, and, isn’t trying to establish a “fast food” model … a revolving door of employees … valuing the cost of the teacher over the experience of the teacher.

 

Some background: Teachers serve a three year probationary period and are rated at the end of each school year. The rating officer, usually the principal may rate  the teacher “S,” “D” or “U” in the first year and “S” or “U” in the following years. If a probationary teacher receives a “U” rating the rating officer can opt to “discontinue” the probationary teacher, in effect, “firing” the teacher. The teacher may appeal the “discontinuance,”  however, the hearing panel is an in-house administrative hearing that makes a recommendation to the chancellor. Virtually every discontinuance is sustained. At the end of the probationary period a teacher can chose to continue their probationary period, usually the option is the threat of  “discontinuance.”

 

The Department lauds itself and points to their Teacher Evaluation Unit that electronically informs principals of the probationary status of teachers.

 

Not so long ago Superintendents, remember them, personally observed every teacher before recommending them for tenure …  but, the Department has no memory since it has purged all documents/policies that preceded them …

 

In addition to the 600 teachers who were fired thousands of teachers leave voluntarily each year. To the best of my knowledge the Department does not conduct exit interviews or conduct an exit survey.

 

Wouldn’t it be helpful to know why teachers leave? or, switch schools?

 

The NYC Research Partnership is a little known effort to conduct creditable research, based upon the highly regarded Consortium on Chicago School Research .

 

Among the first studies released in October, 2007 was Who Leaves: Teacher Attrition and Student Achievement that found

Teacher attrition for novice teachers in New York City is marked by two dominant themes. First, teachers of low-performing students are more likely to leave their current schools during their first two years of teaching than are teachers of high-performing students. And, second, across both low and high-performing schools, teachers who are less effective in raising student achievement are more likely to leave their current school than are more effective teachers.

 

Why are more effective teachers leaving low performing schools? Isn’t this the opposite of the goals of Fair Student Funding?  What is the Department doing to retain more effective teachers in low performing schools? 

 

Should principals be the sole evaluators of teachers? Should teachers “reflect” on colleagues’ practice? How many schools utilize Critical Friends Groups?

 

Firing more probationary teachers may mean we purging the system of the incompetent? It may mean that principals are firing teachers hired by their predecessors? What is the impact on the rest of the staff? Will it improve the practice of the remainder of the staff? or encourage them to leave the school? What interventions did the principal utilize prior to the decision to terminate the teacher?

 

Gloating about firing more teachers may gain creds among the anti-union crowd, but we have no idea how it impacts teaching and learning.

A Naive Proposal: National Standards and National Exams for All Kids.

 

A naive proposal: why don’t we establish national standards and national exams?

 

No Child Left Behind had bi-partisan support in 2003 and was widely hailed. The law requires every school system that receives federal dollars to establish a system in which each school would have to reach preset goals, (Adequate Yearly Progress) measured by test scores each year until the entire school is “proficient” by 2014 … sort of the Lake Wobegon Effect.

 

Some States began with “little steps” that increase sharply as they approach 2014 while others had the same steps every year. The measuring tool, the test, had to meet “recognized” standards.

 

If schools fail to meet AYP the school comes under continuing scrutiny, and, if progress if is not made the State is required to intervene, and, can close the school.

 

The national teacher unions both oppose the law, the NEA wants it abolished  and the AFT  has a more nuanced approach.

 

The New York State Education Department finally released the results of the ELA and Math grades 3-8 exams with fanfare, and, we see sharp increases across the State. Hurrah!

 

Is it the result of the infusion of new monies into the schools, an emphasis on test prep, the fear of NCLB penalties and sanctions, the setting of the scale scores, or, maybe the secret addition of omega-3 into the State reservoirs?

 

The answer, however, is simple: the Commissioner set the scores so that the scores jumped in comparison with last year … nothing fancy. This is nothing new. Each year the State reviews the results of Regents exams, and arbitrarily sets scale scores, the number of correct answers necessary for a passing grade. The 9th grade Math Regents, an “easy” exam to begin with, only requires 30 points out of a possible 84 for a passing score of 65, so reports Andrew Wolf in the New York Sun.

 

In the morally bankrupt Department of Education the gnomes claim credit for the rising and the setting of the sun. Cheating is treated with a “wink and a nod” and numbers spin dross into gold. The model for increasing scores is Enron.

 

The recent “back and forth” between Deputy Chancellor for Spin, Chris Cerf and Sol Stern on Eduwonk was down right embarrassing for Cerf/Klein, but, nothing embarrasses these guys.

 

If States can set “baby steps” to meet AYP, if States can manipulate test scores to make themselves look better, if school systems can prevaricate, don’t we need a national system?

 

Shouldn’t all kids, whether in North Dakota or North Carolina have to meet the same standards? Isn’t mathematics, and reading and chemistry, and physics the same in every State?

 

On Monday Randi Weingarten gave her inaugural address to the American Federation of Teachers Convention.

 

“Let’s proudly present our vision of an America that offers all our children a fair start, a healthy start and a hopeful start in their journeys in life — the vision that inspires our ideals for community schools, healthcare for every family, college opportunity and career training for every American, and a strong and growing labor movement that empowers every worker and dignifies all work.”

Weingarten also argued that the No Child Left Behind Act is, in fact, leaving behind the very children it was intended to help, and has outlived its usefulness.

“These are the children who have the least opportunity outside the schoolhouse walls to be exposed to all the elements of a well-rounded education: the arts and physical fitness, the ability to think critically and to argue logically, the value of active citizenship, and a knowledge of different people and places. NCLB slams the schoolhouse door on what makes up modern civilization and replaces it with multiple choice questions,” she said.

“We need to prepare students for 21st century jobs. Employers say that they are looking for workers who can devise new solutions. But how will kids who have spent 12 years learning to keep their pencil marks inside the bubbles ever be able to think outside the box?”

A key aspect of Weingarten’s proposed solution is the expansion of the community school model — schools that serve the neediest children by bringing together all the services and activities they and their families need under one roof.

“Imagine schools that are open all day, and offer after-school and evening recreational activities and homework assistance; high schools that allow students to sign up for morning, afternoon or evening classes. And suppose the schools included child care and dental, medical and other services the community needs.”

 

A modest proposal, that was immediately attacked by the guys on the right.

 

Of course we require standards, but NCLB hasn’t achieved that, it has created the opposite, a school system based on test prep and scheme after scheme to lower standards and “game the test.”

 

In spite of relatively low standards in Math and Science education, according to a 2006 Reality Check survey,  parents don’t grasp the importance of raising the bar and this year, education has declined as a national issue.

 

It would be fascinating if Obama, swimming against the tide, supports a set of rigorous national standards that would raise the bar for all kids.

Is Joel McCain’s Consigliere? Has Klein Dumped Barack? Is He Dating McCain?

Who will be whispering in the ear of the monarch? Who will be Barack or John’s educational consigliere?

 

In New York City the clock on the “Kleindom” is ticking with a June 30, 2009 sunset date. Joel has spent his chancellorship treating everyone who may disagree with him with disdain. He failed to listen to Buddy Cianci, the former Mayor of Providence, who advises, “Beware, the hand you bite today may be attached to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.”

 

Throughout the spring a range of elected officials and organizations have been discussing what the next educational administration will look like. Virtually everyone praises mayoral control, and follows with a but …

 

The critics range from the City Council, the Public Advocate, a range of elected officials both on the Council and in Albany, the Teacher Union and many parent and advocacy groups, in fact, there is no public support for continuing the current governance system without substantial changes.

 

Will Joel try to fight to reauthorize the current governance plan? or, move on to the national stage?

 

Joel and his alter ego, Chris Cerf vamped off to Chicago to meet with a Barack advisor. Chris jousted with Sol Stern on Eduwonk, a national education blog. And, Joel and his new homeboy Al Sharpton are shopping their Education Equality Project, that blames teachers and unions for the ills of schools.

 

A Gates Foundation head praises Mike and Joel in a “Where is Gates Going” speech in early July.

 

McCain speaks at the NAACP Convention, and he sounds suspiciously like, you guessed it, Joel Klein and his Education Equality Project.

 

Is the meeting with Obama advisors a beard? Is Joel really whispering in the ear of McCain?

 

It looks increasingly like Obama is cozying up to the teacher unions and Joel, looking for a place to land after New York, is diddling with the McCain camp.

 

A McCain Secretary of Education Joel Klein?

Parsing Obama: Barack Defines His Education Policies, and, the Right Moans

 

 

Is Obama a closet educational conservative who supports vouchers, or, in the thrall of Bill Ayers, the left wing, former Weatherman, college professor? or,

 

Is Obama in the “pocket” of the teacher unions, or, has he distanced himself from the unions?

 

The blogosphere has been abuzz with chatter. (here, and here and here).

 

This year the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) conventions were held back to back in Washington DC and Chicago.

 

The NEA convention, with 9,000 attendees is always “bread and circuses,” themed t-shirts, silly hats, and little discussion of issues. The AFT, with 3,000 participants, has vigorous floor debate. Both organizations underwent changes in leadership as their presidents retired.

 

Obama spoke to both conventions, via satellite.

 

Obama’s comments at the NEA were carefully parsed with every nuance interpreted word by word.

 

At the AFT Obama disappointed the free marketeers and the anti-union folk as evidenced by the editorial in the New York Sun.

 

The AFT convention was ecstatic as he rolled out his education policies to the AFTers from around the country.

 

I am running for the president to guarantee that all of our children have the best possible chance in life … that begins with providing children, especially the most vulnerable children, with the support they need: quality, affordable early childhood education; expanded afterschool and summer learning opportunities, fully funded special education; and early intervention strategies that recognize the forces that lead to a high school student dropping out start well before the ninth grade … it also means ending the days of labeling a school and then abandoning them the next … I am tired of hearing you, the teachers who work so hard, blamed for our problems.

 

(Citing AFT locals in Chicago and Cincinnati) …You’ve shown that it is possible to find new ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them.

 

As his speech concluded you almost hear the air deflate the anti-union folks balloon.

 

The many millions of teachers, and others represented by teacher unions (school support staff, nurses and hospital support staff, colleges and universities) are scattered in every nook and cranny of the nation, and, they vote.

 

They not only vote, but, they work in elections, and they use their teaching skills to influence others. Whatever doubts, whatever allegiances to Hillary have been assuaged.

 

At a recent pro voucher conference a voucher supporter bemoaned the strategy employed by teachers: they forced the voucher issue onto the ballot, and it was soundly defeated. Democracy can be a bitch.