Rotten to the CORE

February11

The following piece was written by fellow Sacramento Teacher, Lori Jablonski and appears on The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education Website:

Few would argue that we need relief from the test-driven reform failure that is No Child Left Behind; unfortunately, the remedy that President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have provided states and school districts through the Race to the Top waiver would prove even more harmful to the future of public schools, the teaching profession, and the education of our children.  That’s why the state of California has refused to adopt specific policies that federal education officials consider necessary to win a waiver from No Child Left Behind sanctions.  Among these is the mandated adoption of test-based teacher accountability measures.
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Why other State Governors wanted Common Core (and why Texas probably doesn’t)

August5

texas our texas
In WARNING: THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS MAY BE HARMFUL TO CHILDREN | Education News, a principal from Texas takes a look at the Common Core standards and concludes that they are developmentally inappropriate for K-5. She has some really great examples in primary, but I wanted to share this one for fifth grade:

In most of the Reading/Information standards, the same expectations for describing complex relationships among multiple items appear: (RI.5.5) Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.

For 5th graders, this standard would be even more difficult to meet than the previous one because it asks them to carry out two different operations on two or more texts that almost certainly differ in content, style, and organization.

And here is the “old” California standard (pre-Common Core):

Structural Features of Informational Materials
2.1 Identify structural patterns found in informational text (e.g., compare and contrast, cause
and effect, sequential or chronological order, proposition and support) to strengthen
comprehension.

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Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a sustainable education funding policy

September9

This post was submitted as a response to Teachers’ Letters to Obama:

It’s the depths of the Depression, and participants in a dance marathon are pitted against each other in a desperate race for prize money that is eventually revealed to be largely illusional. On realizing the hopelessness of both the contest, and her life, the main character, Gloria, tells her partner, Robert, that she’d be better off dead, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they? – Synopsis of “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?”

Americans love competition.  It appeals to our basic natures and intuitively fits in with many of our national myths about equality of opportunity and bootstrapping. But, forcing low-performing schools in our poorest neighborhoods for “fight” each other for money we know they need is wrong. It’s wrong morally. It’s wrong ethically. It’s also bad policy.

We know underperforming schools have not gotten the money they need. ESEA (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) in the Bush/NCLB (No Child Left Behind) era was never fully funded.  There are those that will pretend that money is not needed for significant reform, but let’s look at the facts. Successful charter schools get donations, and reform efforts like those in New York City  cost money. It has ever been so that because we all want something for nothing, schools seldom get what they need, let alone what they want.

Money under NCLB was not enough, but was spread around “evenly” through formulas, etc. RttT (Race to the Top) changes a critical part of the old system by forcing states to compete with each other. Given the desperate straits most states are in financially, this has not been pretty. States have rapidly, and with little investigation, adopted new standards (creating “national” standards, something that used to be seen as both politically and legally impossible). They have thrown out teacher tenure, and tied teacher pay to their students’ performance on tests. They’ve subverted existing federal grant programs in a desperate attempt to make themselves more “attractive” to the grant readers. The whole thing has the desperate air of that dance marathon in the depths of the Depression referenced above. Is Delaware really any more in need of extra funding for its schools than Mississippi? Does Rhode Island have a more compelling need than Colorado? How bad will it get? Let me share my story.

As part of RttT, the US Department of Education has expanded and changed the SIG, or School Improvement Grant program. Those funds are critical in states like mine, California, where “local district officials have “signed onto” RttT, by implementing legislation to meet with the grant application requirements, but have not been awarded SIG monies administered by the state.. States can use the SIG funds to help pay for the “reform” of schools designated as “persistently failing” under RttT rules (rules that states have to follow, even if they don’t win the RttT grants). The most famous example of this was Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, which was a single school district, which resulted in all the teachers being “fired” by the superintendent when they couldn’t get an agreement about the reform with the union. The school I have worked at for the last three years, Oak Ridge Elementary, was designated as such this spring. Once you have that designation, the school district can then apply for SIG funds for their Persistently Failing schools (Tier 1) and other schools designated as failing (Tier 2 and Tier 3). My district’s grant was disqualified by the state. LAUSD “lost” because their application included only Tier 1 schools.

So, we now have the prospect of doing a whole school reform at six district schools (3 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high school) with no additional monies from the state and the feds. The state has not just expectations but requirements for our reform; requirements (like changing curriculum and instructions models, increasing the school day, etc.) that don’t come for free, but they aren’t willing to pay for it. Just like with RttT, the state will “offer” another round of SIG grants next June to apply for. But, you have to wonder why we need to make the case for a reform the state says is not just necessary, but required? This is NOT the place for competition, this is the place for sober planning and execution, and a solid funding-base to carry reforms out.

It’s becoming clearer that there may be among the supporters of this scheme would would like schools like mine to be put out of their misery, and shut down or turned over to charter organizations, but if that is the answer to the question of low-performing, low-income schools, you have to wonder about not just the qualifications but the basic intelligence of the person giving that answer. The feds are holding states hostage, and forcing them to change decades of labor law that aren’t just about “protecting” teachers, but made teaching a profession.  The reforms being proposed have a poor track record of improving student achievement, but do a great job of undermining teachers, disrupting communities, and leaving kids high and dry. It’s time to say “no” to this type of fake reform, and man-up and fully fund public education. It’s the right thing to do.

RttT: Microblog version…

April5

I recently responded to a request for a “Cliff’s Notes” version of RttT and offered the tweet below. Here it is, complete with citations:

1. create rube goldberg criteria, 2. designate schools to trash, 3. repeat next year. I’m living the dream!

District Program Improvement Town Hall Meeting

October26

Last week was completely insane schedule-wise, and an invitation early in the week to a district town hall meeting for schools in PI (program improvement under NCLB) was the maraschino cherry that tipped it well-past being merely ambitious into Bedlam land. I did volunteer for this, but afterward I have to wonder why? The meeting was at a pretty rough time, 5-8 p.m. and on a Thursday to boot. I met with Larry Ferlazzo this weekend and when he asked me what happened,  I sounded like some passive-aggressive teenager who fell asleep in class, “I dunno?” I was not the only one, when I asked a fell0w attendee from my site what on earth happened, she had the same response.  Here is my attempt to glean something from the experience…

Just the Facts: The meeting was set up by the superintendent, a new one from Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC, and a Broad Academy grad. He apparently has made parent engagement as a priority, which I think is a good thing. They invited principals at schools in PI to bring 5 representatives, including two parents, and three teachers. They also asked middle and high schools to send a student representative. The turnout was somewhere in the 100 – 150 range, filling the entire community room where board meetings are normally held. They promised snacks, but had nice mini sandwiches, some veggies, cheese, crackers, and a selection of desserts. I was almost sorry I had treated myself to Der Weinersnitzel for dinner before the event. It started with an outline of the problem (test scores rising–but not enough) necessary for the community and parent folk (and probably more than a few of the staff, although lord know it feels like I have the school % proficient by significant sub-group, etc. tattooed on my frontal lobe). Then we were split up into homogeneous groupings (admins, teachers, parents/community folk, students), and went off in groups to identify the various problems in the way of achievement.

Where it starts to fade: From that point forward is starts getting more more hazy. We started off identifying problems that were global/systemic, about teaching, about process, etc. They were perfectly happy to have myself and a number of other teachers rant about the fact that with poor children, teacher may be the most significant in-school factor on student achievement, the out of school factors take precedence. Being earnest sorts, many also offered suggestions about things that were within the realm of control of not just the district (hey, could you stick to a plan for a while, and quite changing things so abruptly on us all the time?). The only coherent observation that I have from this, and it’s a pretty good one considering how whack I was feeling by the end of the session was this…some of the high school folks kept saying stuff about how we need to focus on the basics, we have kids coming up to us who can’t read or read at a fifth grade level. At the same time elementary teachers discussed  how for kids the curriculum was so restricted, lacking in more high-interest content (like Science), and is just not engaging or culturally congruent with our students’ lives or interest  in any way, shape, or form. I understand the point the high school teachers are making, but I think they don’t understand that when they ask for more of the “basics” they are exacerbating the reading problem they are having in high school. It’s not because they  haven’t been taught reading, it’s because they don’t or can’t learn material that is so far from their experience or interest as to be laughable. They need more science (with reading and mathematics) and less time on second rate stories that were picked for some silly notion of alignment.

Where I totally lost any sense of what was going on: We got back together to share what we found out in our separate groups. Students complained that they asked for help and couldn’t receive it in a way that worked with their lives. Specifically, she had to watch siblings, took a bus (no car), and couldn’t go to tutoring after-school which was the only time that her teacher offered it. A parent who I’ve seen at board meetings who didn’t like how numbers games were played by schools to stay out or get out of PI. Suggestions about programs that were working (a book club at one middle school to encourage reading) were also offered. Whoever summarized what teachers had discussed, offered something that not only bore no resemblance to most of the discussion in the group, it wasn’t even really coherent to myself or my neighbor. The rest is but a blur, and then we went back to our homogeneous groups to come up with “solutions”. We were behind, and  were barely able to get some comments from fewer than 10 of us (there were at least 40 -60 teachers), when we saw the administrators heading back down. We went back, and strangely, none of the administrators were there. The facilitator was looking for someone from either the admin or teacher group to share the “top” priority solution we had come up with. Since we hadn’t listed everything, let alone prioritized, I shared that there was a discussion about extending the school day or year, but that although we hadn’t had a chance to speak, I knew that myself and others felt that there was no way we were going to get to where we needed to, if we used that “extra” time to do more of the same. What else was said is lost on me now.

In conclusion: I hope they take all the index cards they had us pin up and come up with some notes, because I have no sense of what was discussed on at a global level at that meeting. I will say this meeting was the first time I heard the term PLN used in my district.

Below are Tweets I sent from meeting which may make more sense that all I wrote above. It’s in blog chrono order with the latest at top:

Some teachers want to extend day or year but I think it won’t get us where we need to go if it’s more of the same.7:51 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

This townhall marks the first time I’ve heard term PLN in my district7:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

teacher preaching to choir here it’s the parents not here at townhall7:06 PM Oct 22nd from txt

Parent talking about long lunch line at kids school is so long that they can’t get food in time.7:06 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Cmmty org at townhall discussed curriculum not being relevent among other points.7:02 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Should parents be involved? Kids some won’t care but they should.7:00 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

I AM a goddess and don’t you forget it.6:59 PM Oct 22nd from txt

Students need support but are embarrassed to get help.6:57 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Not interactive listening to teacher talk for two hours. His school does projects on their interests.6:55 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Backpack overload. Hey solution, at son’s school they have a single class set of text and one for home for each student.6:54 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Students want more support and are being pushed out. Some of the interventions don’t mesh w/schedule and life.6:51 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

What were our take aways? Student group is concerned about push for grades? not clear but hard 2 talk in lg grp6:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Saw the super doing walkthru of breakout6:37 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm
Tying test scores to teacher pay will exacerbate discrimination in high minority low score schools6:32 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

poorly done pcing schedule has little to do with reality6:28 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

those were my issues6:15 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#4 Equal start gap starts early and we need comp early childhood and parenting.6:15 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#3 we need to stop blaming each other, parents, schhols, kids and stop working ag each other6:13 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#2 the environment while teachers are the biggest IN school factor home and enviroment are bigger6:12 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#1 equity all schools are not equal need significant resources to erase gap.6:10 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Lady from parent ctr at SDSU is leading us in an activity where we list four issues impeeding achievement.6:08 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Breakout groups coming up5:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

teacher citing teachers as biggest factor is specious as teacher is biggest in school factor, but out of school has larger effect.5:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

That parent feels title one funds arer not being allocated well in general and schools are pushing out behavior problems.5:48 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Parent is dinging luther burbank because they got out of PI with scores from only 18 students, and thenis building a stadium.5:45 PM Oct 22nd from txt

a teacher talked about teachers being the most important factor for student success…5:44 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Trying to close achievement gap that is still a yawning hole in our test scores.5:38 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Crowd is somewhere in the 75-150 range at scusd townhall.5:37 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Next year our % goal for AYP is ~56% which will be damn hard as it’s a 11point jump5:33 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Surprised super is not here at townhall?5:26 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

as with most comtgs the intros and late start mean we just started the general session now.5:26 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Starting dist town hall on PI schools focus is on family engagement.5:18 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

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