Reformers convinced kids, all that matters is the test.

By Greg Sampson 

Education reformers have been working for decades to convince the public, parents, and educators that we need a standardized test to tell us how well students have learned their lessons. Teacher judgment, irrelevant. Work portfolios, who needs those? Project-based learning, ridiculous. Where is the rubric? Teacher-created tests, well, teachers don’t know what they’re doing, do they?

It takes a once-a-year, produced-in-secret, not-subject-to-outside-review test to measure student learning.

It’s all about the test.

Teachers resist because they know the process of child development and learning is more than what can be measured by a standardized test, which is mostly multiple-choice even when it is disguised in drag-and-drop, drop-down box, or multi-select formats. They see how students know the answer but can’t put it into the computerized format so the answer will be scored correct. Teachers tend to think that means there is something wrong with how the test is administered.

Parents resist because they know their children, assist with homework, conference with teachers, and reject the labeling of their children by the tests. They see the stress the once-a-year standardized test places upon their children and they know how that stress prevents their children from demonstrating knowledge and skill on the test.

Principals resist … well, they can’t show it can they? Being on annual contracts, they have to play the game.

But the resistance is futile because students have bought into the test. They are not concerned with acquiring knowledge; they are not concerned with understanding ideas and the world around them. They are not concerned with mastery of a subject. They want to know how to choose the right answer when they are given choices A, B, C, or D.

A typical conversation in my secondary math classroom this fall:

Teacher, concluding the lesson, “And that’s how you do it.”

Student, “How will I recognize the right answer choice on the test?”

Teacher, “The test is not important. What is important is that you understand how to solve the problem.”

Student, “You have to tell me what answer choice to look for when I get that kind of problem.”

Teacher, “We are not about how to pass the test in this classroom. We are about learning and acquiring mathematical skills.”

Student, “I have to pick the right answer on the test.”

Teacher, “This is why I hate multiple choice tests. It’s not about picking the right choice. It’s about showing that you can find a solution.”

Student, “Why won’t you help me pass my test?”

Teacher, “SCHOOL IS MORE THAN PASSING TESTS.”

Entire Class, “OH, NO IT’S NOT. OUR ONLY REASON FOR BEING IN SCHOOL IS TO PASS -- THE --TEST!”

Congratulations, Reformers. You haven’t convinced the adults, but you have brainwashed the children. They have one job to do and they know what it is.

Superintendent Vitti and his willful violation of the law. (rough draft)

Here is the law about charter schools.

 b) Charter schools shall fulfill the following purposes:

1. Improve student learning and academic achievement.

2. Increase learning opportunities for all students, with special emphasis on low-performing students and reading.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String&URL=1000-1099/1002/Sections/1002.33.html

The super Tuesday night recommended a controversial new charter school be allowed to open up in District 2 at the beach. Superintendent Vitti said if the school was trying to go into neighborhoods that had low performing students he would not have recommended it.

You can listen to his own words at the 3:06:30 mark but to sum up he said, Charter Schools USA does a pretty good job with affluent kids but shouldn’t go anywhere near poor kids and if there application would have had them setting up on the Westside or the Northside he would have put his foot down and denied it.

And you know what nobody on the school board blinked.

http://duvalschools.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=5149eedf04c803dc83203cdff9f6808c

Where is the special emphasis on low performing students there? The super says they have no business being around low performing students but recommended the school for approval anyways. He in effect said, you know what I am just going to ignore that part of the law.

Furthermore this means the super and board have willfully violated the law numerous times.

I can’t imagine Vitti or the school board can claim ignorance either as the following is taken directly from the school board’s agenda item.

Expected Outcomes Charter schools are expected to: improve student learning and academic achievement; increase learning opportunities for all students, with special emphasis on low-performing students and reading; and provide parents with sufficient information on whether the child gains at least a year’s worth of learning for every year spent in the charter school.

The super and board feel they can just ignore special emphasis on low performing students because hey, screw it, lets just make our friends rich and outsource our kids futures to for profit companies and it doesn’t matter that they arguably do a poor job when compared to the city’s public schools.

Charter Schools USA has been opening up schools in our affluent/middle class neighborhoods for the last couple years and when they have set up in our poor neighborhoods they have performed poorly, worse than the public schools in those areas which leads me to believe that even if the schools in the middle class neighborhoods are doing well they have to be doing worse than the public schools there.

http://agenda.duvalschools.org/November%203,%202015,%20Regular%20Board%20Meeting%20on%20Tuesday,%20November%2003,%202015/FD882C17-513F-43D2-A3D4-C6077C3832CC-E3EEAF32-9EC0-4533-9352-AA7EAD1AA75B.PDF

Why would the superintendent and board vote to break the law? Well Fischer has taken thousands of dollars directly from charter schools USA so he has a financial reason to do so. Smith-Juarez has very close ties to the charter school industry too.

The superintendent during the meeting implied he is just going along with the state board and department of education who routinely approved charter schools despite what the law says but he too seems to have predilection for charter schools as well.

I think the real reason though is there is a quorum on this board that would privatize and destroy our public schools given the chance and the superintendent is enabling them.

Vitti says Charter Schools USA does a pretty good job with affluent kids shouldn’t go anywhere near poor kids.

From the “I can’t make this shit up” file, at the 3:06:30 mark superintendent Vitti starts to speak about how he feels comfortable with CUSA setting up shop in an affluent neighborhood at the beach but had they wanted to set up on the Westside or the Northsides of town he would have put his foot down and said no.

And you know what nobody on the school board blinked.

It appears we’re not looking to open high quality charter schools here in Jacksonville just ones that do well with middle class kids.

It’s unbelievable, shouldn’t one of the requirements be if they set up anywhere they would be successful?

Apparently not.

http://duvalschools.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=5149eedf04c803dc83203cdff9f6808c

Becki Couch points out Fischer and Shines are clueless.

Now she did not directly call them idiots say they were clueless, she is much to nice to do that but in reality that was what she did.

When talking about the opening of a new Charter Schools USA school, an organization that has given thousands to Jason Fischer, Shine and Fischer gave anecdotes as to why they like it. Fischer mentioned a constituent and Shine said, he heard some are great though he admitted some were not so great too.

Couch, most likely befuddled how these two men made it on the school board, said she could give anecdotes too about how they were not performing so well but instead she was going to use the facts to make up her mind and quite frankly the facts aren't to favorable for opening up the school.

Using facts, wow, if only we had more board members like her.

Superintendent Vitti is not doing his job.

Despite “serious reservations” Vitti recommends a for profit charter school, he’s not doing his job.

Last night Superintendent Vitti recommended a new charter school to be approved in district 2 (the beaches area) despite the fact he said he had “serious reservations”.

Maybe he had "serious reservations" because Charter Schools USA is a for profit company with a mixed track record especially here in Duval County. They have been in the news a lot recently for poor scheduling, missing grades and a possible civil rights violation case.

Maybe he had “serious reservations” because several of the proposed schools sister schools, notably the schools in Arlington and the Westside have performed poorly.

Maybe he had “serious reservations” because the six schools closest to the proposed site are all doing well, 4As, 1B and 1C and three of those schools are underutilized.

Maybe he had “serious reservations” because it will be managed by a board that wasn’t elected but also doesn’t live in Jacksonville and manages dozens of charters in several different cities.

Maybe he had “serious reservations” because the application met only six of nineteen benchmarks.

There are lots of reasons he may have had “serious reservations” but it made me think what he hasn’t paired the words “serious reservations” with.

I bet he never said, I have “serious reservations” about putting that principal in place.

I bet he never said, I have “serious reservations” about spending millions of dollars on whatever new technology the district is investing in.

I bet he never said, I have “serious reservations” about sending my children to whatever schools they are going to.

I imagine there are numerous things he never paired “serious reservations” with because as superintendent it is his job to keep children away from things that give him “serious reservations”. I guess with the exception of charter schools that will educate potentially hundreds or thousands of children. Why do charter schools get a pass? After all these schools can and many have done a lot of damage to students and communities.  

At almost the exact same moment Superintendent Vitti and the anti-public education members of the board were voting to approve the new Charter Schools USA school, Palm Beach County was saying no to them and they haven’t had nearly the problems with Charter Schools USA that Duval has had.

No they just said the school was not innovative, the supposed motivation behind charter schools, which were initially billed as parent teacher laboratories of innovation. Now most are little more than profit centers for corporations.

Palm Beach isn’t the only county saying no to Charter Schools USA either. Pasco County said no thanks too just last month.

Why are those counties saying no, while we are saying yes, despite the superintendent’s “serious reservations”?       

The superintendent and board have often lamented the loss of resources to charter schools which hurt our public schools but time and time again they have voted to approve new ones, even in neighborhoods that have successful public schools. It makes me wonder who they are really working for.

I have “serious reservations” about the job that this superintendent and board are doing and you should too.

Scott Shine is an absolutely terrible school board memeber

Now ask me how I really feel.

Like many of the board members Scott Shine district 2 has often lamented the loss or revenues to charter schools.

Well last night he had the chance to say no to a new charter school trying to set up shop in his district and despite the fact the application met only 6 of nineteen benchmarks, repeated problems with other schools managed by the same chain, all of the schools near the proposed sight doing well (4As, 1B and 1C) and half of them being underutilized he voted to approve the charter school.

In doing so he used some specious arguments to do so. He said parents must like charter schools because they keep sending their kids to them. Well what about the parents who sent their kids to the Acclaim charter school that failed abruptly last spring, the dozen or so other Duval charter schools that have failed or the hundreds that have failed statewide. Parents are often misinformed after all I imagine a few voted for him thinking he would be an able representative and parents are not supposed to be experts on education.

He also said that people in his district rarely sent their children to the districts magnet schools because they like their schools so much and whats not to like as almost universally they are doing well. Since that is the case why would he vote to open a new charter run by a for profit company and manged by people who don't live in Jacksonville which will siphon millions of dollars from the schools in district 2 undoubtedly hurting them?

Why? Why would he vote to injure his district by approving this new school. This is a question the people of district 2 and the city should be asking.

Chris Guerrieri

School Teacher

The surreal state of math in Duval County and the rest of the country too.

 I thought it was a great idea that the Duval County School Board was starting a nightly hot line to help parents and care givers help their students with math.  I know I would have a hard time helping students with advanced algebra, geometry, calculus and other higher maths.

Then I learned it was to help parents do what up till now was simple addition and subtraction. The type of problems that we as kids quickly mastered. 

We have gutted the education system that put a man on the moon and helped build the greatest country in the history of mankind in order to catch a few regions in a few countries in Southeast Asia. We have replaced it with a system that does not address poverty which is our real problem and we know it is because when we control for poverty our international test scores zoom to or near the top.

Then when we rob parents and guardians of the ability to help their children then the cure becomes worse than the disease.

We should get rid of common core math and return to common sense policies that deal with our real problems.

The scam of school choice

When republican politicians in Tallahassee talk about school choice what they are really talking about is privatization and the dismantling of public education.

What they never mention however is the cost and how hundreds of millions of dollars are directed away from public schools to options that quite frankly don’t deserve a dime of public money because they either don’t have any accountability or waste so much of it.

According to the Florida Department of Education 312 charter schools have opened, taken public money and closed, leaving communities in a lurch.

There are something like 1,800 private schools that take vouchers. These schools do not have to have certified teachers, a recognized curriculum and the vast majority don’t have to report how they spend the money given to them. Furthermore they are exempt from the state tests which have caused such angst over the years. Why are the tests required for public school students and not for kids that take vouchers? After all both of their educations are being footed by the citizens of Florida.

That brings us to cyber charters which are quickly expanding in Florida because every high school student is required to take at least one class on-line.  According to the Stanford CREDO one of the most regarded organizations studying school choice, students in online charters lost an average of about 72 days of learning in reading and lost 180 days of learning in math during the course of a 180-day school year. Friends the school year is only 180 days long. Taking a math class from an on-line charter, which you are helping pay for, is the equivalent of not taking a class at all.  

Instead of investing in these options which waste untold millions, it’s time we invested in our public schools.

Going to a cyber charter is the equivalent of not going to school.

At least in math anyways.

From the league of women voters: Three studies are combined in a report about online charter school achievement (or lack thereof).  The result is sobering.  Interesting that these research institutes are funded by pro reform foundations.   They are concerned and we need to be vigilant.

The Mathematica Report describes online charter schools, their students and their practices.  Highlights include:

• 60% of online schools report that more than half of their courses are self paced.  One third of the schools offer only self paced courses.
• A large majority of schools grant credit based on mastery, not seat time.
• Schools typically have less teacher contact time in one week than traditional schools have in one day.
• Online schools place significant responsibilities on parents.
• Maintaining student engagement is the biggest challenge.

Policy Framework for Online Schools reviews policies and management improvement strategies.

• Two thirds of online charters contract with for-profit management firms.   These firms often have strong lobbying forces to fight regulation.  Companies often receive a percentage of revenue which can incentivize lower quality standards.
• Only 5 of 27 states fund charters based on course completion.
• Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia require online courses in K12.
• Colorado, North Carolina, and Oklahoma have better regulation and accountability.  Online education should be taken out of charter framework.
• 27.7% of the online for profit company K12 Inc. students met 2010=11 annual yearly progress standard compared with 52% average for traditional public schools.
• In 2014, NCAA no longer accepts course credit from 24 K12 Inc. schools.

CREDO  Online Charter School Study acknowledges that online learning is a good option for some, but not most atypical students.  The study reviews the impact on academic progress of online studies, the relationship between  the type of online school and student achievement, and the relationship between state policies and academic achievement results.  The study compared ‘matched’ sets of students in online and traditional schools.  Charter online students tend to return to public schools in two years.

• Twenty two percent of online charter school students eventually return to public schools.
• Academic gains, on average, for online charter school students in math (-180 days) and reading (-72 days) are significantly lower than for traditional public school students matched by demographic characteristics.  The impact was less negative for ELL and special education students.
• Online students in Michigan and Wisconsin, however, perform better than their matched sets in traditional public schools.
• Some self paced courses improves performance but 100% self paced courses in a school has a negative impact on achievement.
• Teacher monitoring of performance improves achievement gain.  Parent involvement in student online instruction has a negative impact on learning.
• In reading, access to recordings of lectures and in math, access to paper textbooks had positive effects on achievement.
• Allowing mastery based credit has a negative impact on achievement gain.
• Access to special education faculty had a positive effect, but tutors did not.

Overall, the study concludes that online charter schools have significantly lower achievement gains than matched traditional public schools.  Few  online school practices have a strong impact on student achievement other than those cited above.  Changes in state policy do have an impact as in Wisconsin and Michigan, but more study is needed to tease out specific policies that can improve performance.

http://lwveducation.com/cyber-schools-the-latest-threat-to-quality/

Oy vey, more from the Washington Post:

• Students in online charters lost an average of about 72 days of learning in reading.
• Students in online charters lost 180 days of learning in math during the course of a 180-day school year. Yes, you read that right. As my colleague Lyndsey Layton wrote in this story about the study, it’s as if the students did not attend school at all when it comes to math.
• The average student in an online charter had lower reading scores than students in traditional schools everywhere except Wisconsin and Georgia, and had lower math scores everywhere except in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/31/study-on-online-charter-schools-it-is-literally-as-if-the-kid-did-not-go-to-school-for-an-entire-year/

Speechless.

Is Vitti playing lip service to play

I got the following comment from a reader and it is something I have herd now several times.

From a reader: I spoke to my child's teacher about this yesterday. She said that until the district relaxes the pacing of the curriculum guides there is no way these children will get to go out for recess anymore than they currently do. If she were to take her children out to play and someone came in and saw that they were behind on their pacing guide she would be in a whole heap of trouble. 

Basically our superintendent is giving lip service to parents.