From the Washington Post's Answer Sheet
By Joanne Yatvin
I just found a book review I wrote for The Elementary School Journal in 1986. The book I reviewed was McDonogh 15: Becoming a School by Lucianne Bond Carmichael. (If you’ve never read it, you should get a copy, read it, and hold it close to your heart forever. Better yet, buy several copies and send them to your federal and state legislators.)
Reading it reinforced and expanded my own idea of what a truly good school is and the specific things it does to empower its students and strengthen its teachers. I will quote one section of my review: a definition and description of a good school based partly on Carmichael’s experience as a principal and partly on my own. Because I am taking the quoted section out of context and because educational terminology has changed over the years, I have altered some of it but the meaning remains the same:
To help you und erstand what I have learned from McDonogh 15, I will describe a good school as I know it and compare it to today’s popular ideal called an ”effective school.” Let me start with a general definition of a good school and go on with more detailed descriptions of both types of schools:
A good school is a place where children learn enough worthwhile things to make a strong start in life, where a foundation is laid that supports later learning, and where children develop the desire to learn more.
Specifically, a good school mirrors the realities of life in an ordered, adult society; it is rational and safe, a practice ground for the things people do in the outside world. The school creates a sense of community that permits personal expression within a framework of social responsibility. It focuses on learnings that grow through use--with or without more schooling--such as communication skills, decision making, craftsmanship, and group interaction. It makes children think of themselves as people who find strength, nourishment, and joy in learning.
In contrast, the effective school looks at learning in terms of test scores in a limited number of academic areas. It does not take into consideration problem-solving abilities, social skills, or even complex academic skills. It does not differentiate between dynamic and inert knowledge; it ignores motivation. When we hear of a school where test scores are in the 90th percentile, should we not also ask what that school does to prepare students to live the next sixty years of their lives?
A good school has a broad-based and realistic curriculum with subject matter chosen not only for its relevance to higher education and jobs, but also for family and community membership and personal enrichment. It uses teaching practices that simulate the way people live in the outside world. Children are actively involved in productive tasks that combine and extend their skills. They initiate projects, make their own decisions, enjoy using their skills, show off their accomplishments, and look for harder, more exciting work to do.
The effective school asks much less. Children who “cover” a traditional curriculum in order to “master” as much of it as possible are not initiators, seekers, or builders. They are at best reactors. The knowledge they dutifully soak up is not necessarily broad based or useful. It is taught because it is likely to appear on tests. It is quickly and easily forgotten.
Any school can become a good school when its teachers have made the connections to life in the outside world that I have been talking about. It operates as an organic entity—not a machine—moving always to expand its basic nature rather than to tack on artificial appendages. A good school is like a healthy tree. As it grows, it sinks its roots deep into its native soil: it adapts to the surrounding climate and vegetation; its branches thicken for support and spread for maximum exposure to the sun: it makes its own food; it heals its own wounds; and, in its season, it puts forth fresh leaves, blossoms, and fruit.
Because the passage above was written well before the time of our national obsession with test scores and their power to determine the fate of children and teachers, my criticism of so-called “effective schools” is far milder than it would be today.
Also, the passage does not identify the important part local control played in McDonogh 15’s success. In fact the core message of Carmichael’s book is that McDonogh15 began to improve only after it freed itself from outside management and assistance and found the strength within its own staff, students, and community to teach and learn authentically. That is the message I would like to deliver to today’s school reformers and critics. It is also the clarion call for all the principals, teachers, students, and parents who want to re-create a good school of their own.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-difference-between-good-schools-and-effective-schools/2012/01/31/gIQAlQIlsQ_blog.html
Monday, February 6, 2012
The lies Steve Wise tells
First I have to say I am more than embarrassed to grow up on the side of town that he represents. His annual actions to harm public education are very upsetting. He is part of the cabal that has wrecked education and then sat back in their comfy chairs and said, look how bad things have got, we need to further wreck public education.
His latest act of destruction is to force school districts already cash strapped to help foot the bill for charter school construction. If you think charter schools are public schools that just operate out of the normal chain of command you are mistaken. The vast majority of charter schools are for profit institutions. This means Wise wants to use public money to help their bottom lines. It is corporate welfare and our kids are paying the price!
Eighty people showed up to testify about the bill and it’s 13 amendemnts and were given only an hour to talk. Wise then said, maybe more discusion could happen later. He went on to say, “This Senate does not strong-arm people.” Though most of us rememebr how last year he tried to silence criticism from school boards by filing legislation that school board members should go unpaid. If that wasn't an attempt to strong arm critics, I don't know what is.
This man is a pox on our children, our schools and the city of Jacksonville.
His latest act of destruction is to force school districts already cash strapped to help foot the bill for charter school construction. If you think charter schools are public schools that just operate out of the normal chain of command you are mistaken. The vast majority of charter schools are for profit institutions. This means Wise wants to use public money to help their bottom lines. It is corporate welfare and our kids are paying the price!
Eighty people showed up to testify about the bill and it’s 13 amendemnts and were given only an hour to talk. Wise then said, maybe more discusion could happen later. He went on to say, “This Senate does not strong-arm people.” Though most of us rememebr how last year he tried to silence criticism from school boards by filing legislation that school board members should go unpaid. If that wasn't an attempt to strong arm critics, I don't know what is.
This man is a pox on our children, our schools and the city of Jacksonville.
What’s happening at Paxon High School?
In 2010 Newsweek ranked them 8th, in 2011 170, sources at the school aren’t even sure if they will be an A school next year. The problem might be massive teacher turnover. Since the beginning of this school year 12 teachers have left, 1 transferred to a district position, 1 was fired and ten decided to leave what was formerly one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation.
The problem however might be leadership.
Royce Turner formerly of Ribault high school, which had two Fs, and one D under his leadership, is now in charge at Paxon. What he did to merit the move is undetermined by the data, though Ribault has improved dramatically since he left earning a C grade this year. But that’s how the district does things. Sadly merit and ability are secondary to who you know in Duval County.
More on this to come.
The problem however might be leadership.
Royce Turner formerly of Ribault high school, which had two Fs, and one D under his leadership, is now in charge at Paxon. What he did to merit the move is undetermined by the data, though Ribault has improved dramatically since he left earning a C grade this year. But that’s how the district does things. Sadly merit and ability are secondary to who you know in Duval County.
More on this to come.
Want to see how Charter schools are buying Florida education policy
Click on this blog's title or cut and paste below into your browser. Then be prepared to be ill.
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/topcontributor.phtml?u=11009&y=0&incs=1&ince=1&incf=0&incy=0&so8=r#sorttable8
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/topcontributor.phtml?u=11009&y=0&incs=1&ince=1&incf=0&incy=0&so8=r#sorttable8
Steve Wise takes cash to hurt public schools
From Scathing Purple Musings
by Bob Sykes
It should really come as no surprise that Steve Wise is looking shift more taxpayer money to charter schools. Like several other current GOP legislators Wise has accepted cash from the nations largest charter school operator, Charter Schools USA. Included in the list are Erik Fresen, Anitere Flores, John Thrasher, Will Weatherford, Don Gates, Mike Haridopolis and Ellen Bogdonoff. As a member of the senate Pre-K-12 committee, Bogdonoff has received the most. Charter Schools USA has also been a big supporter of the Florida Republican Party, contributing $81,75o between 2004 and 2010. Charter Schools USA made no contributions to the Florida Democrat Party.
Charter Schools USA CEO , Jonathan Hage was on Rick Scott’s education transition team and is recognized on Jeb Bush education foundation web site as a prominent reformer.
http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/charter-usas-dollar-devotion-to-the-florida-republican-party/
by Bob Sykes
It should really come as no surprise that Steve Wise is looking shift more taxpayer money to charter schools. Like several other current GOP legislators Wise has accepted cash from the nations largest charter school operator, Charter Schools USA. Included in the list are Erik Fresen, Anitere Flores, John Thrasher, Will Weatherford, Don Gates, Mike Haridopolis and Ellen Bogdonoff. As a member of the senate Pre-K-12 committee, Bogdonoff has received the most. Charter Schools USA has also been a big supporter of the Florida Republican Party, contributing $81,75o between 2004 and 2010. Charter Schools USA made no contributions to the Florida Democrat Party.
Charter Schools USA CEO , Jonathan Hage was on Rick Scott’s education transition team and is recognized on Jeb Bush education foundation web site as a prominent reformer.
http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/charter-usas-dollar-devotion-to-the-florida-republican-party/
Martha Barret and Betty Burneu running for 4th and 3rd terms
They think so.
Mrs. Barret is running for her fourth term on the school board, Mrs. Burney her third. I really wonder what they are thinking? Do they think they are doing a good job or do they think they are about to turn things around? Do they think they bear no responsibility for the state of our school system? Which of the following I wonder makes them think they deserve four more years?
The state ranked our district 50th out of 67.
8 of our 14 neighborhood high schools are in the bottom 25 (out of 404), only one neighborhood high school is in the top 184 (Mandarin 85, Fletcher 185).
Teacher moral is rock bottom.
They paid an EMO nearly two million dollars to run four of our schools instead of coming up with solutions.
Rigor and discipline have been destroyed to inflate our graduation numbers.
66% or high school kids arrive not reading on grade level.
I could go on and on and on.
No wonder they voted to add three more public relations staff. They have a lot of spin to take care of.
They should resign right now and hope the city forgets about the sorry performances they have turned in.
Mrs. Barret is running for her fourth term on the school board, Mrs. Burney her third. I really wonder what they are thinking? Do they think they are doing a good job or do they think they are about to turn things around? Do they think they bear no responsibility for the state of our school system? Which of the following I wonder makes them think they deserve four more years?
The state ranked our district 50th out of 67.
8 of our 14 neighborhood high schools are in the bottom 25 (out of 404), only one neighborhood high school is in the top 184 (Mandarin 85, Fletcher 185).
Teacher moral is rock bottom.
They paid an EMO nearly two million dollars to run four of our schools instead of coming up with solutions.
Rigor and discipline have been destroyed to inflate our graduation numbers.
66% or high school kids arrive not reading on grade level.
I could go on and on and on.
No wonder they voted to add three more public relations staff. They have a lot of spin to take care of.
They should resign right now and hope the city forgets about the sorry performances they have turned in.
Higher standards don't mean increased rigor
From the New York Times
by Michael Winerip
The next time people try to tell you how much the data-driven education reform programs of President George W. Bush (No Child Left Behind) and President Obama (Race to the Top) have raised academic standards in America, suggest that they take a look at the Jan. 24, 2012, New York State English Regents exam.
This year, for the first time, high schools students must score at least 65 on the English exam, as well as on four other state tests — math, science, global history and United States history — to earn a diploma.
The three-hour English test includes 25 multiple choice questions; one essay; and two short responses that are each supposed to be a paragraph long. A short response is scored 0 to 2 points. A student who gets 1’s on both responses has a pretty good shot at scoring 65 and passing the exam.
Here, from the state teachers’ scoring guide, is an excerpt from a short response written by an unnamed student. The guide says it deserves a score of 1:
These two Charater have very different mind Sets because they are creative in away that no one would imagen just put clay together and using leaves to create Art.
Theoretically, passing the English Regents would mean that a student could read and write.
Here is the topic sentence of another student’s short response that, according to the state guide, also deserves a 1:
In the poem, the poets use of language was very depth into it.
Until recently there were two main graduation options in New York. Students could earn a Regents-endorsed diploma by passing several state exams, or they could earn a local diploma. But the two-tier system has been phased out. No longer will there be a local diploma option.
New York’s last three education commissioners, all leaders in the reform movement, have been suspicious of assessment instruments that rely too heavily on people who work in schools.
State officials have instead chosen to use one English test to assess every high school student in the state, which has caused another fairly gigantic problem: How do you create a single graduation exam for 200,000 seniors when some are heading to the Ivy League and others to pump gas?
If the standard is set too high, so many will fail — including children with special education needs and students for whom English is a second language — that there will be a public outcry.
But if the standard is set too low, the result is a diploma that has little meaning.
So far, officials have opted to dumb down the state tests.
The New York State education commissioner, John B. King Jr., and the chancellor, Merryl H. Tisch, say they want to change that. They are considering raising the passing English score to 75.
They are also counting on a new set of national learning standards, known as the common core, which are currently being developed in more than 40 states. The hope is that more sophisticated standards detailing what children should know, coupled with more sophisticated curriculums and exams, will result in a more rigorous public education system.
“The D.O.E./Board of Regents position on the passing score for this exam, with attention to college and career readiness, will be re-examined in conjunction with administering a revised exam in this subject area aligned to the Common Core State Standards,” a spokesman for Dr. King wrote.
The current state English exam appears to be the easiest in memory. From 1999 to 2011, the test was given in two three-hour sessions that required students to write four essays. But a series of school closings caused by snowstorms forced state officials to reschedule the two-day exams, which was a logistical nightmare. So in 2009, the Board of Regents voted to reduce the exam to a single session. (In the decades before 1999, the English exam was also one three-hour session, but required students to answer 60 to 65 multiple choice questions and write two essays.)
The English exam is graded on a sliding scale, meaning there are several possible ways to score a 65. A student can:
¶ Score 1 on each of the short responses; 4 on the essay (which is graded on a 1-6 scale); and answer 17 of the 25 multiple choice questions correctly.
¶ Score 1 and 2 on the short responses; 3 on the essay; and answer 17 of 25 correctly.
¶ Score 1’s on the short responses; 3 on the essay; and answer 20 of 25 correctly.
Below are two “sentences” from an essay that according to the scoring guidelines, deserves a 3:
Even though their is no physical conflict withen each other. Their are jealousy problems between each other that each one wish could have.
The January essay was supposed to focus on a quotation from Goethe, “No two persons regard the world in exactly the same way.”
These are the first few sentences from an essay that should be given a score of 4:
In life, “no two people regard the world in exactly the same way,” as J. W. von Goethe says. Everyone sees and reacts to things in different ways. Even though they may see the world in similar ways, no two people’s views will ever be exactly the same. This statement is true since everyone sees things through different viewpoints.
Despite a decade of state English testing under No Child Left Behind, the results are disheartening, even in New York City, where a data-driven system was put in place by a former chancellor, Joel I. Klein, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, two giants of the reform movement.
Sad to say, during the Bloomberg administration, little if any progress has been made, if test results are to be believed. In 2003, 52.5 percent of fourth graders were proficient in English, compared with 51 percent in 2011. In 2003, 32 .6 percent of eighth graders were proficient, compared with 35 percent today.
Perhaps, as leaders of the reform movement seem to believe, there are new and higher standards, stronger curriculums and better tests just over the next hill to solve all our problems.
But four now, Wm. Shakespare must Be a turnover in his Grave (1 point).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/education/despite-focus-on-data-standards-for-diploma-may-still-lack-rigor.html?_r=1&hpw
by Michael Winerip
The next time people try to tell you how much the data-driven education reform programs of President George W. Bush (No Child Left Behind) and President Obama (Race to the Top) have raised academic standards in America, suggest that they take a look at the Jan. 24, 2012, New York State English Regents exam.
This year, for the first time, high schools students must score at least 65 on the English exam, as well as on four other state tests — math, science, global history and United States history — to earn a diploma.
The three-hour English test includes 25 multiple choice questions; one essay; and two short responses that are each supposed to be a paragraph long. A short response is scored 0 to 2 points. A student who gets 1’s on both responses has a pretty good shot at scoring 65 and passing the exam.
Here, from the state teachers’ scoring guide, is an excerpt from a short response written by an unnamed student. The guide says it deserves a score of 1:
These two Charater have very different mind Sets because they are creative in away that no one would imagen just put clay together and using leaves to create Art.
Theoretically, passing the English Regents would mean that a student could read and write.
Here is the topic sentence of another student’s short response that, according to the state guide, also deserves a 1:
In the poem, the poets use of language was very depth into it.
Until recently there were two main graduation options in New York. Students could earn a Regents-endorsed diploma by passing several state exams, or they could earn a local diploma. But the two-tier system has been phased out. No longer will there be a local diploma option.
New York’s last three education commissioners, all leaders in the reform movement, have been suspicious of assessment instruments that rely too heavily on people who work in schools.
State officials have instead chosen to use one English test to assess every high school student in the state, which has caused another fairly gigantic problem: How do you create a single graduation exam for 200,000 seniors when some are heading to the Ivy League and others to pump gas?
If the standard is set too high, so many will fail — including children with special education needs and students for whom English is a second language — that there will be a public outcry.
But if the standard is set too low, the result is a diploma that has little meaning.
So far, officials have opted to dumb down the state tests.
The New York State education commissioner, John B. King Jr., and the chancellor, Merryl H. Tisch, say they want to change that. They are considering raising the passing English score to 75.
They are also counting on a new set of national learning standards, known as the common core, which are currently being developed in more than 40 states. The hope is that more sophisticated standards detailing what children should know, coupled with more sophisticated curriculums and exams, will result in a more rigorous public education system.
“The D.O.E./Board of Regents position on the passing score for this exam, with attention to college and career readiness, will be re-examined in conjunction with administering a revised exam in this subject area aligned to the Common Core State Standards,” a spokesman for Dr. King wrote.
The current state English exam appears to be the easiest in memory. From 1999 to 2011, the test was given in two three-hour sessions that required students to write four essays. But a series of school closings caused by snowstorms forced state officials to reschedule the two-day exams, which was a logistical nightmare. So in 2009, the Board of Regents voted to reduce the exam to a single session. (In the decades before 1999, the English exam was also one three-hour session, but required students to answer 60 to 65 multiple choice questions and write two essays.)
The English exam is graded on a sliding scale, meaning there are several possible ways to score a 65. A student can:
¶ Score 1 on each of the short responses; 4 on the essay (which is graded on a 1-6 scale); and answer 17 of the 25 multiple choice questions correctly.
¶ Score 1 and 2 on the short responses; 3 on the essay; and answer 17 of 25 correctly.
¶ Score 1’s on the short responses; 3 on the essay; and answer 20 of 25 correctly.
Below are two “sentences” from an essay that according to the scoring guidelines, deserves a 3:
Even though their is no physical conflict withen each other. Their are jealousy problems between each other that each one wish could have.
The January essay was supposed to focus on a quotation from Goethe, “No two persons regard the world in exactly the same way.”
These are the first few sentences from an essay that should be given a score of 4:
In life, “no two people regard the world in exactly the same way,” as J. W. von Goethe says. Everyone sees and reacts to things in different ways. Even though they may see the world in similar ways, no two people’s views will ever be exactly the same. This statement is true since everyone sees things through different viewpoints.
Despite a decade of state English testing under No Child Left Behind, the results are disheartening, even in New York City, where a data-driven system was put in place by a former chancellor, Joel I. Klein, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, two giants of the reform movement.
Sad to say, during the Bloomberg administration, little if any progress has been made, if test results are to be believed. In 2003, 52.5 percent of fourth graders were proficient in English, compared with 51 percent in 2011. In 2003, 32 .6 percent of eighth graders were proficient, compared with 35 percent today.
Perhaps, as leaders of the reform movement seem to believe, there are new and higher standards, stronger curriculums and better tests just over the next hill to solve all our problems.
But four now, Wm. Shakespare must Be a turnover in his Grave (1 point).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/education/despite-focus-on-data-standards-for-diploma-may-still-lack-rigor.html?_r=1&hpw
Teachers have all the accountability none of the authority
From Common Dreams
by Jim Horn
Last night I was re-reading a terrific little book from 1976 by Don Martin, George Overholt, and Wayne Urban: Accountability in American Education: A Critique. The book brings so many elements of the current edu-mess into focus, while giving a long view of history. What is evident in re-reading this book is that the threats to democracy that the authors feared in 1976 from the encroaching accountability juggernaut have become much scarier and much more real since then. Some would say inevitable.
The book reminds us of some of the history behind the stealing of the language of learning by social control behaviorists and the takeover of the knowledge definition by epistemological thugs who define what knowledge is and how it is measured. These moves have had crushing effects on humane pedagogy and schooling, while strengthening and centralizing the administration of schools far beyond what are now the minor functionaries of principals, boards of education, and even superintendents.
A story in a Texas Tribune story yesterday, in fact, that includes the recent epiphany by the current Texas State Superintendent, indicates clearly that he is one of many who sees the writing on the wall, and it wasn't written by him. His years of loyalty to the accountability cause have simply worked to make his job insignificant or disposable as power is moved to the ultimate corporate level, which in the end in not national but international--corporate socialism without boundaries--a fascism beyond nation states.
The three main criticisms of education accountability in Accountability. . . are now evident on a steroidal level:
Based on abstracted, or radical empiricism. Not only has the distinction disappeared between knowledge and its poor proxy of a test score, but observable experience has been reduced down to a test score measurement that now is even used to predict future earning in adulthood by examining what adults earn who had high test scores. As if standardized tests were not designed to maintain power by the privileged whose families had money and test scores to begin with.
Elitist and conservative in nature. These standardized tests, even going back to the first IQ tests, have been used as "scientific" confirmation of elitist assumptions that even precede social Darwinism. History tells us that those who are in controlling power positions are there because of a divine, an evolutionary, or a psychometric reason, and the modern the testing system has been devised to reward the privileged and the elite and to punish everyone else by keeping them in their places. (The current value-added fad adds a balm for the liberal conscience by at least acknowledging that the poor who will always be behind can at least receive smiley faces for making "progress"). Oh yes, progress.
Based on maintaining inequality. Based on a hypocritical and self-serving notion of meritocracy that embraces institutional inequality, the most able are identified as those who have the resources from birth that are needed to grow or buy the highest scores through whatever means necessary, whether it is a 30k a year pre-school, a 40k a year private school, thousand dollar tutoring sessions for the SAT, or just daily doses of an unending supply of the cultural and social capital that provide the needed boost when occasion requires it.
Decisions now about school curriculum and student assessment are handled by national consortia composed of hired academic and technical guns paid by corporations and their foundations to shape what is taught in schools based on the stupid and arrogant conceptions of a handful of oligarchs and the CEOs of the Business Roundtable. To enforce the teaching of this emerging national curriculum and national test are teachers whose jobs will depend upon how well their charges do on these tests. This is called teacher evaluation, or half of it, anyway. The other half is based an instructional catechism designed and place in a rubric (scoring guide) to incentivize the creation of miniature and identical autocracies in every classroom of America, where learning to handle knowledge (test scores) is Job #1.
And so I was thinking about all this as I drifted off to sleep last night, and I had the craziest dream. I dreamed that the hacker group, Anonymous, had shut down every data port that handles test score data and had posted these demands on the Arne Duncan's Facebook page and on every state department of education webpage:
1.Stop using test data to keep students from receiving their diplomas or moving to the next grade
2.Stop using test data to evaluate teacher effectiveness in any way
3.Stop using test data to close down public schools
4.Stop using SAT or ACT test data to make admissions decisions for college
5.When students graduate from high school, all test scores and collected psychometric data will be handed to each student and all other records will be expunged from the data system.
6.If these demands are met, your data systems may continue to operate. If these demands are not met, your data systems will be made useless. You have until summer vacation to make these changes at state and national levels. Welcome back to the real world.
Wow, what a dream!
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/05-4#comment-2045987
by Jim Horn
Last night I was re-reading a terrific little book from 1976 by Don Martin, George Overholt, and Wayne Urban: Accountability in American Education: A Critique. The book brings so many elements of the current edu-mess into focus, while giving a long view of history. What is evident in re-reading this book is that the threats to democracy that the authors feared in 1976 from the encroaching accountability juggernaut have become much scarier and much more real since then. Some would say inevitable.
The book reminds us of some of the history behind the stealing of the language of learning by social control behaviorists and the takeover of the knowledge definition by epistemological thugs who define what knowledge is and how it is measured. These moves have had crushing effects on humane pedagogy and schooling, while strengthening and centralizing the administration of schools far beyond what are now the minor functionaries of principals, boards of education, and even superintendents.
A story in a Texas Tribune story yesterday, in fact, that includes the recent epiphany by the current Texas State Superintendent, indicates clearly that he is one of many who sees the writing on the wall, and it wasn't written by him. His years of loyalty to the accountability cause have simply worked to make his job insignificant or disposable as power is moved to the ultimate corporate level, which in the end in not national but international--corporate socialism without boundaries--a fascism beyond nation states.
The three main criticisms of education accountability in Accountability. . . are now evident on a steroidal level:
Based on abstracted, or radical empiricism. Not only has the distinction disappeared between knowledge and its poor proxy of a test score, but observable experience has been reduced down to a test score measurement that now is even used to predict future earning in adulthood by examining what adults earn who had high test scores. As if standardized tests were not designed to maintain power by the privileged whose families had money and test scores to begin with.
Elitist and conservative in nature. These standardized tests, even going back to the first IQ tests, have been used as "scientific" confirmation of elitist assumptions that even precede social Darwinism. History tells us that those who are in controlling power positions are there because of a divine, an evolutionary, or a psychometric reason, and the modern the testing system has been devised to reward the privileged and the elite and to punish everyone else by keeping them in their places. (The current value-added fad adds a balm for the liberal conscience by at least acknowledging that the poor who will always be behind can at least receive smiley faces for making "progress"). Oh yes, progress.
Based on maintaining inequality. Based on a hypocritical and self-serving notion of meritocracy that embraces institutional inequality, the most able are identified as those who have the resources from birth that are needed to grow or buy the highest scores through whatever means necessary, whether it is a 30k a year pre-school, a 40k a year private school, thousand dollar tutoring sessions for the SAT, or just daily doses of an unending supply of the cultural and social capital that provide the needed boost when occasion requires it.
Decisions now about school curriculum and student assessment are handled by national consortia composed of hired academic and technical guns paid by corporations and their foundations to shape what is taught in schools based on the stupid and arrogant conceptions of a handful of oligarchs and the CEOs of the Business Roundtable. To enforce the teaching of this emerging national curriculum and national test are teachers whose jobs will depend upon how well their charges do on these tests. This is called teacher evaluation, or half of it, anyway. The other half is based an instructional catechism designed and place in a rubric (scoring guide) to incentivize the creation of miniature and identical autocracies in every classroom of America, where learning to handle knowledge (test scores) is Job #1.
And so I was thinking about all this as I drifted off to sleep last night, and I had the craziest dream. I dreamed that the hacker group, Anonymous, had shut down every data port that handles test score data and had posted these demands on the Arne Duncan's Facebook page and on every state department of education webpage:
1.Stop using test data to keep students from receiving their diplomas or moving to the next grade
2.Stop using test data to evaluate teacher effectiveness in any way
3.Stop using test data to close down public schools
4.Stop using SAT or ACT test data to make admissions decisions for college
5.When students graduate from high school, all test scores and collected psychometric data will be handed to each student and all other records will be expunged from the data system.
6.If these demands are met, your data systems may continue to operate. If these demands are not met, your data systems will be made useless. You have until summer vacation to make these changes at state and national levels. Welcome back to the real world.
Wow, what a dream!
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/05-4#comment-2045987
How Standardized tests ate education's soul
From Big Think
By Diane Ravitch
The rise of the testing movement can be traced through the twentieth century. But what we’re living now with is not just the rise of the testing movement but the overwhelming dominance of testing. It has become almost like the monster that ate American education. And we are so test-obsessed that schools are being closed based on test scores, even when those test scores reflect that the schools have a heavy enrollment of very poor kids or heavy enrollment of children with disabilities and children with all kinds of other needs. We don't look at the needs. We don't evaluate the problems that need to be solved in that school. We just say "These are low scores. We have to close the school."
I am very deeply concerned about what years and years of standardized testing does to children’s brains. I think it actually becomes destructive. If we think about what our needs are for the twenty-first century, and not just how do we compete in the world but how do we live in the world, how do we survive in the world, we need a generation of people who will succeed us who are thoughtful, who can reflect, who can think. You know, the expression is "think critically," and that's certainly important, but also who have imagination.
None of the characteristics that are important for thriving in the world of the twenty-first century are encouraged by standardized testing. In fact, they’re all squashed. So we’re doing something that is, actually, long term, harmful to children’s brains. We’re saying to them, year after year, "You will be judged by whether you can select the right answer, whether you can put your X in the right bubble." That's wrong. Whether we do it on a computer or do it with a number two pencil, it’s wrong, because we’re teaching children that every question has four possible answers, one of which is right and three of which are wrong.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/42089
By Diane Ravitch
The rise of the testing movement can be traced through the twentieth century. But what we’re living now with is not just the rise of the testing movement but the overwhelming dominance of testing. It has become almost like the monster that ate American education. And we are so test-obsessed that schools are being closed based on test scores, even when those test scores reflect that the schools have a heavy enrollment of very poor kids or heavy enrollment of children with disabilities and children with all kinds of other needs. We don't look at the needs. We don't evaluate the problems that need to be solved in that school. We just say "These are low scores. We have to close the school."
I am very deeply concerned about what years and years of standardized testing does to children’s brains. I think it actually becomes destructive. If we think about what our needs are for the twenty-first century, and not just how do we compete in the world but how do we live in the world, how do we survive in the world, we need a generation of people who will succeed us who are thoughtful, who can reflect, who can think. You know, the expression is "think critically," and that's certainly important, but also who have imagination.
None of the characteristics that are important for thriving in the world of the twenty-first century are encouraged by standardized testing. In fact, they’re all squashed. So we’re doing something that is, actually, long term, harmful to children’s brains. We’re saying to them, year after year, "You will be judged by whether you can select the right answer, whether you can put your X in the right bubble." That's wrong. Whether we do it on a computer or do it with a number two pencil, it’s wrong, because we’re teaching children that every question has four possible answers, one of which is right and three of which are wrong.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/42089
Millions to be taken from public schools and be given to defacto private schools
Contact your State Senators IMMEDIATELY and tell them to oppose SB 1852 http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/1852
This Bill will stripping millions more from School Districts by giving charter schools, managed and owned by private for-profit management companies, more of OUR TAX DOLLARS to run their schools.
If passed this Bill will result in loss of PE jobs and worst Yet our children in public schools having to go without.
Tell your Senators to urge all to Vote against this Bill as it goes to the Senate Committee on Education Pre-K -12 today at 3 pm http://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/ED/
This Bill will stripping millions more from School Districts by giving charter schools, managed and owned by private for-profit management companies, more of OUR TAX DOLLARS to run their schools.
If passed this Bill will result in loss of PE jobs and worst Yet our children in public schools having to go without.
Tell your Senators to urge all to Vote against this Bill as it goes to the Senate Committee on Education Pre-K -12 today at 3 pm http://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/ED/
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