|
The month of April will provide some important opportunities for each of us to impact education policy and direct the future of our public schools. Please read below on 1. the reauthorization of NCLB, 2. National standards, and 3. the removal of Colorado's negative penalty for students who opt out of CSAP. 4. Free desk copy of Seeds of Tomorrow for those considering the book for course adoption. 5. Video of Sir Ken Robinson on Schools today. Don't forget to send your comments to the House Education Committee.
No Child Left Behind faces reauthorization
Despite clear and unprecedented evidence of the failures of reforms linked to high-stakes testing, lawmakers have committed to a bipartisan overhaul of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (previously titled No Child Left Behind). Full committee hearing is scheduled for April 14, 2010 on How Data Can Be Used to Inform Educational Outcomes.
Please take the time to E-mail your comments to House Committee on Education and Labor, Chairman George Miller, at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Two important articles that address the Arne Duncan plan:
"School Reform We Can't Believe In" by Stan Karp, April 5 2010
"A Blueprint That Needs More Work" by Richard Rothstein, April 5, 2010
Problems with the US Dept. of Ed. Blueprint:
- Obama calls for college/career readiness by 2020 yet according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics only 21% of jobs nationwide have a primary source of education with a bachelors degree or higher. http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_106.pdf
- Competitive grants will only increase school funding inequities that are at the root of achievement disparities.
- States must conform to performance pay models that tie teacher pay to student scores on standardized tests. It is not evidenced based when the outcomes of high-stakes testing reforms demonstrate lower graduation rates, further widening of the achievement gap, and a reduction in student services and opportunities. Nearly a decade of grading schools based on test scores has degraded our educational system and emphasize the least important skills and qualities. Student or teacher performance must never be defined by a single measure. Standardized tests are inadequate measurement tools. Tennessee and Delaware, recipients of the 600 million dollars in "Race to the Top" grants have tied 50% of teachers pay to standardized tests. Colorado Governor has issued an executive order requiring the same.
- Navigating this economic crisis require that we spend wisely on the educational essentials: classrooms, curriculum, and kids. The current administration is proposing to spend $350 million developing new assessments, and states will have to spend billions more on the implementation of the National Core Standards (see below). The blueprint includes 4.5 billion dollars going to states who will concede their rights with the prettiest grants just so they can play by the corporate policies of federal government. Critical resources misdirected represent wasted educational opportunities and untapped student potential. According to Stan Karp, "Teachers and Students, already sinking in a swamp of data-driven drivel, may drown. Test publishers and data systems companies will get richer."
Alternatives to the proposed changes to No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing reforms:
- "The only true road to educational reform is the reduction of class size to allow teachers to individualize to meet the needs of nonstandard children. Parents and educators know this… Reducing class size is costly, but so too is wasting money and energy on national standards which have already been tried and discarded in countries like England." David Elkind
- The original application of the Elementary Secondary Education Act targeted funding to children of the highest need: low-income, ELL, and children with disabilities. From the perspective of evidenced based models, directing resources and services to children who need them most is what improves graduation rates, narrows the achievement gap, and increases student's opportunities and ours. Outcomes demonstrate the people make a difference, not the tests.
- Compromise is essential to every negotiation. Performance Pay is driven out of a response to teacher tenure. I propose replacing tenure with annual evaluations (including parent, student, and peer surveys), teacher intervention/support plans, and termination review panels. Due process would still be preserved and we would simultaneously bolster the authority and responsibility of local school leaders. NCLB centralized the control of our neighborhood schools to distant federal bureaucracies. We need to return education decision making to local districts and our educational experts. Local government is more cost effective and better equipped to resolving the challenges specific to our unique communities. States recognize that economic viability and social vibrancy are directly tied to the quality of their public schools.
Regardless of the specifics of your position, every parent, teacher, and student is encouraged to weigh in on the current debate over how to serve America's young people.
Once again, send your comments to be heard by the House Education Committee:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
2. National Standards
From, colleague and Education Advocate, Conny Jensen, Greeley Parent Advocacy Group
The Common Core Standards Initiative is being pushed through at a break neck pace. These national standards are being funded by the Gates Foundation and written by consultants. The drafting of these standards was done in a few months time in secrecy and have only been published on-line since March 10. See: www.corestandards.org
Click here to hear the radio show with Ed Miller, from the Alliance for Childhood.
Ed Miller of the Alliance for Childhood about the new K-12 core standards. Skip to the midpoint (till after the commercial) for the interview with him to begin.
As you hear the call for evidenced-based programming and outcome driven policies consider this:
- Miller mentions the long term studies on early childhood education that show that kids who enjoyed play based kindergarten scored better in every area by the time they were ten, than kids in academically oriented kindergartens, such as those we have today.
Examples of the new common core standards for kindergarten:
- For math all kids will have to be able to count to one hundred and also be able to count backwards, starting at any number.
- For reading all kids will have to be able to count all syllables on a given page.
Miller mentioned that the children of both President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan attend highly regarded private schools which have extremely creative, playful curricula that do not have the kind of drilling and testing regime that are being advocated for public schools. His question: Why is that kind of education not appropriate for every child?
Excerpt from the interview:
These common state standards are designed and promoted by the National Governors Organization, Council of Chief State School Officers (school superintendents of the 50 states) and a third organization, Achieve, working behind the scenes that has not received as much prominence in the news articles. This group consists mainly of governors and CEO's of major corporations including high tech corporations, banks and insurance companies. These are not governmental groups; in fact, they are private groups.
They claim these are not national standards and that states are free to adopt them or not, but 48 of the 50 state have already said they intend to do so. Furthermore the U.S. Department of Education has said that for states to be eligible for federal education money they have to adopt these standards.
Read the Joint Statement of Early Childhood Health and Education Professionals on the Common Core Standards Initiative
"Overuse of didactic instruction and testing cuts off children’s initiative, curiosity, and imagination, limiting their later engagement in school and the workplace, not to mention responsible citizenship. And it interferes with the growth of healthy bodies and essential sensory and motor skills—all best developed through playful and active hands-on learning...
3. Important Change to Colorado Statute Regarding Opting Your Child Out of CSAP:
You know you have officially arrived when the Colorado Department of Education releases memos to your e-mail communications. Read my letter to the Greeley-Evans Board of Education and the memo from the Colorado Department of Education. Then feel free to post any comments to my new blog: http://www.angelaengel.com/blog/?p=49
- School academic performance ratings (SAR) will no longer be assigned for Colorado schools. The Education Accountability Act of 2009 (SB 09-163) repealed previous SAR law. Negative weights for Unsatisfactory and No Score percentages are not in effect anymore.
And also:
From the Proposed SB 163 Rules Submitted to State Board for Notice of Rulemaking on 1.13.09
- Page 39 - 10.01 (A) Information concerning the percentages of students at the Public School who are not tested on the Statewide Assessments will not be factored into the analysis of the Public School’s attainment on the Performance Indicators, but will be factored into the determination of which type of plan the Public School must implement.-- Read More
4. Professors considering Seeds of Tomorrow; Solutions for Improving our Children's Education for course adoption click here to receive your free exam copy.
5. Why teaching is 'not like making motor cars' - CNN
In common striving,
Angela Engel
AngelaEngel.com
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter”. --MLK, Jr.
|
