Florida Republican Primary Debate: Will there be a question on education reform?

On Monday, January 23, Brian Williams will be in charge of the MSNBC Florida Republican Primary debate from Tampa, Florida. So far, there has been zero questions on what the candidates positions are when it comes to education reform initiatives. Will that pattern of silence change?

What is it that parents, community members, and taxpayers would like to know?

Here is a Grumpy Educators short list:

1) What is your position on the development of the student longitudinal database from birth to the first year of college, the sharing of some data without parent consent, and privacy and security concerns?

2) There is broad consensus on the need for accountability; however, there is also broad consensus that classrooms have been converted into centers of test preparation rather than centers of learning. What is your view of the federal role in education?

3) There is a widespread grassroots parent movement to opt-Out of testing. Do you support the parent right to opt out?

4) Some say the billions spent on testing and the database is required to evaluate teachers. How does the expense match the need to conduct employee evaluations?

5) What is your position on the federal role in the development of national standardized testing spending and the financial impact on states and communities?

6) What is your view of the role of locally elected school boards in decision-making?

7) Charter schools in Florida have a mixed record of success, on financial and academic success. What is your position on the expansion of charter schools?

What question do you want to hear asked?

High Stakes Assessments: Quality and Validity Issues

Independent analysis of end-of-course test questions finds quality problems.




Related article:
FCAT hits national news: "They are defending a test with no validity."

U.S. House of Representatives Consider Education Bills

Parents, community members, and taxpayers are researching, analyzing, discussing, and sharing information. Interest and understanding of the issues are increasing daily.

Below is one such analysis of three pieces of education legislation in the U.S. House.

Read the information, share it, discuss it, and form an opinion, and let your U.S. Congressman know what you think.


H.R. 2218 Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act
The Student Success Act
Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act

H.R. 2218 Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act
http://edworkforce.house.gov/UploadedFiles/HR_2218_Bill_Summary.pdf

Currently, under ESEA, competitive grants have been awarded states or charter school developers to provide financial assistance for the planning, program design, and initial implementation of charter schools, and support the financing of charter school facilities. H.R.2218 will streamline and modernize the Charter School Program to support the start-up, replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools; streamline program funding and administration at the federal and state levels; and promote choice, innovation, and excellence in education.

Recommendation: Do not support. The federal government should not be promoting, supporting, or funding charter schools in any manner. This should be left entirely up to the state without influence of any kind from the federal government.


The Student Success Act
http://edworkforce.house.gov/UploadedFiles/The_Student_Success_Act_Summary.pdf

This act supports the protection of state and local autonomy and limits the authority of the Secretary of Education. This act would end the school improvement grants (SIG) that created and funded four unproven and ineffective turnaround models. This act does away with AYP and repeals federal requirements for highly qualified teacher designation.

Secretary’s Authority: The bill protects state and local autonomy over decisions in the classroom and limits the authority of the Secretary of Education. The legislation: (1) prevents the Secretary from creating additional burdens on states and districts through the regulatory process, particularly in the areas of standards, assessments, and state
accountability plans; (2) prohibits the Secretary from supporting efforts around state standards and influencing and coercing states into entering partnerships with other states; and (3) outlines procedures the Secretary must follow when conducting a peer review process for grant applications that will bring greater transparency.

Recommendation: Support. This could be better but it is a move in the right direction.


Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act
http://edworkforce.house.gov/UploadedFiles/The_Encouraging_Innovation_and_Effective_Teachers_Act_Summary.pdf

The majority of the issues addressed in this act are ones the federal government should not be involved. Many of these issues should be left to the states address as they see fit. This act calls for making student achievement data a significant of evaluations. I do not support the use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers. While it sounds great, this is not a reliable way to evaluate teachers. Various reports and questionable research may recommend this but the solid research does not recommend this. I am okay with this data being used to evaluate schools and districts. This act also calls for performance based pay. I have been aware of a push for this for more than 25 years and have yet to see a plan or a plan in place that will work in the education arena, especially with teachers.

Recommendation: Do Not Support. Some of the issues in this act should not even be proposed or addressed. Many issues addressed in this act should be left entirely to the states without influence of any kind from the federal government.

Florida: Parent, community member, and tax payer opposition strengthens

Florida legislators introduced a Parent Trigger bill, calling it the Parent Empowerment Act. Under the bill, parents and teachers could vote to turn a public school into a charter school if 51% agree and the local elected school board has no say in the matter. However, in a combined statement, these Florida parent groups have come out publicly opposing the legislation:

• Florida PTA
• Fund Education Now
• Citizens for Strong Schools
• 50th No More
• Marions United for Public Education
• Save Duval Schools
• Support Dade Schools

The Tampa Gradebook reports Parents Across America - Florida opposes the bill.

Bill sponsors Rep. Michael Bileca, a Miami Republican and Senate deputy majority leader Lizbeth Benacquisto of Fort Myers did not comment on the opposing parent views.

Parent trigger advocates fail to acknowledge the lack of accountability at the federal and state for over ten years of failed education policy that developed both the US DOE and Florida DOE into overblown bureaucracies. Parent triggers merely change the deck chairs; but do not address the underlying expensive, expanding, and experimental unfunded and unfundable mandates driving U.S. education into the ground.

One central issue is the obsession with high stakes assessment, which has turned classrooms into testing centers instead of environments of learning. Florida is one of the recipients of Race to the Top funding and participating in the development of national assessments based on the common core curriculum. This initiative will increase the assessments students will take during the school year. In response, a petition is circulating to empower parents to opt-out of the FCAT.

The data required for the high stakes assessments and complex accountability systems rely on the student longitudinal database. New regulatory changes allows some student data to be shared with research organizations and governmental agencies without parent consent. Security and privacy concerns go unaddressed.

Florida is the next stop for the Republican primary candidates. So far, these important education matters have gone ignored at federal and state levels. Will that change? If not, Republicans are on notice with yet another petition.

Here's a petition you can sign and know exactly what you're signing: "Stop the Dept. of Education's Power Grab." The petition faults the media for never asking about education in the GOP debates; it faults the GOP for manipulating the candidates in such a way that the strongest candidate is the one who says nothing about education, and for pretending to be the opposition party when it accepts education reforms with open arms.

What do we want the winning GOP candidate to say? A few things:

1. Acknowledge that American public education is going bankrupt. We believe this fact is as important as the Afghan war or gay marriage. A civilization that ignores its young will not have a long life span.

2. Point out and oppose the great rip-offs of local control inherent in Obama's "Race to the Top" and "Common Core Standards": the dissemination of your family's personal information from the Dept. of Education to the federal government at large, a payout to publishing and testing corporations totaling $30 billion nationwide which the states will have to pay (who knows how?). The schools get nothing but the shiny new standards, laid off teachers, and, for the first time, control of curriculum from Washington.

To learn more, please go to the petition, scroll down to the bio of the petition author and the automatic signer. If you agree with our petition, sign it and send it to people and sites you think would agree. Thank you!

Republicans Put On Notice Over Education Reform

Florida’s legislative session opened with education bills pouring out like M&Ms.
With eyebrow raising speed, on opening day, the Senate Pre-K 12 Education committee considered and passed SB 962, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program on January 9, 2012 by a vote of 4 to 2, and came back on January 10 to revisit some changes, and on January 11, the bill moved to the Budget Subcommittee on Finance and Tax. The legislative analysis notes the fiscal impact on taxes, fees, and general revenues are unknown. Governor Scott has asked for $1 billion in educational funding, which raises eyebrows after last year’s deep cuts. Where’s the money?

The Palm Beach Post reports that activists were on hand to remind the legislature of widespread unhappiness. Henry Kelly of Florida’s TEA Party put constituent sentiment this way:

"If you remove party labels from the equation, there's just no confidence in our political leadership, either left or right, that they're doing the right thing," said Henry Kelley, a tea party leader from Fort Walton Beach who last year organized an all-day event on opening day attended by several GOP leaders. "The honest assessment is I'm not highly enthusiastic that citizens are going to win. But we're going to be there. We've realized what happens when we don't get involved. We're still going to show up and we're still going to try to influence because otherwise the choice is to do nothing."

In spite of the tens of thousands of words in blogs and news reports regarding cheating scandals, fraud, funding concerns, and ethics questions, Florida legislators turned a blind eye to move full steam ahead on so-called education reform initiatives. During the recent New Hampshire Republican debate, no question was asked about education reform initiatives. Parents, community members, and taxpayers find federal and state elected leaders across the board maintain no interest in the public’s legitimate concerns. Around the nation, school districts struggle to meet unfunded mandates from federal and state initiatives while budgets are cut.

What should a constituent do?

Republicans should look into the petition developed by retired California teacher, Doug Lasken – as a way to express frustration. Doug is a retired 25 year veteran of LA Unified, current private school debate coach and language arts specialist who has consulted for the California Dept. of Education (during its productive years before Common Core), WestEd and the Fordham and Pioneer Institutes. Doug’s petition disavows allegiance to and support for the Republican party regarding its education policy, or more accurately, its lack of education policy. Read the resolution below with its founding signatures.

UPDATE: If you agree, sign it, circulate it, and publish it. Contact Doug Laskin to add your name to the petition at: dlasken514@aol.com

We the undersigned do not agree on all things, but we are in close agreement on education, and in particular these five propositions:

1. The federal government is barred by the United States Constitution from imposing academic standards and public school curriculum on the states, the very thing it is attempting to do through the Obama administration programs Race to the Top (RttT) and the Common Core Standards (CCS).

2. In addition to imposing standards and curriculum on the states, RttT mandates that states collect extensive and detailed personal information on students, and that this information be submitted to the federal Department of Education, from which it will be available to other agencies. We oppose this on Constitutional grounds.

3. The national price tag for CCS is estimated at $30 billion (and perhaps as much as $210 billion) most of which cost is to be borne by the states. This money will enrich special interests- the publishing and testing empires- but will do very little to save America's bankrupted public schools. The undersigned believe that spending $30 billion on standards is like painting a car before junking it- good for the painters, a useless expense for the car owner.

4. The news media has decided that since conservatives object to spending money, and since conservative views are represented in the Republican party, then people who object to RttT and CCS must be represented by the Republican party. The undersigned have found, however, that the Republican party, as distinct from individual candidates, does not represent those seeking sound education policy. Time and again, at all levels from local to federal, the undersigned have encountered ignorance and indifference regarding RttT and CCS from the Republican party and the people it has helped to achieve office. Republicans as much as Democrats have been seduced by the $30 billion and slick sales talk into acquiescence to RttT and CCS.

5. Therefore, we the undersigned here state that the Republican party does not represent our views on American education, that the Republican party is in fact aligned with the Democratic party in pushing through wasteful and highly problematical Democratic programs, and that we therefore disavow allegiance to and support of the Republican party in its policies towards education, and we ask that the media acknowledge that this diminution of Republican support has occurred.
Founding Signers:

Doug Lasken , Teacher

Susan Holloday, Taxpayer

Catherine Banker
Former member of California Curriculum Commission

Marilyn Reed
12 year veteran of a public school board
Education Reform consultant with the Commonwealth Education Organization
Wexford, Pa

Veronica Norris


Wayne Bishop, PhD
Professor of Mathematics
California State University, LA

Payne-Naeger
Director-School Board, Francis Howell School District: 2000-2003

#OCCUPYEDUN17: Bring parent, community member, and taxpayer opposition out of the shadows

Public opposition to education reform initiatives is widespread although it receives little national news coverage. Legislators at all levels are unresponsive, uninterested, or part of the problem. The numbers of parents, non-educators, community members, and taxpayers who are becoming informed and organizing are increasing nationwide.

Weakening and undermining local control over education are outcomes of the education reform efforts. Local control is a cornerstone to our democracy and a constant in communities. There is broad agreement across ideologies on that fact.

In an effort to bring public opposition to education reform initiatives out of the shadows, below are some areas of consensus:

1. End the expensive, ineffective, and punitive high stakes assessment.
2. End classroom environments that have been converted into test prep and testing centers.
3. Use the savings from #1 and 2 to return interesting and valuable electives - drama, art, home economics, computer skills, physical education, and vocational education courses.
4. Use the savings from #1 and 2 to maintain manageable class sizes so that teachers are able to meet individual needs.
5. Stop sending large sums of dollars going to Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other companies for the purpose of implementing unfunded and unfundable compliance and data-driven mandates.
6. Use the savings in #5, to restore reasonable class size for core classes, vocational education, and electives.
7. Hold Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and these other companies accountable to the same degree as schools are being held accountable.
8. Apply greater transparency regarding deals and paid for "junkets" made with Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other companies jumping into the profitable education sector. Unsure on the "junkets"? Read about 10 state commissioners of education who traveled around the world on Pearson's tab, "When Free Trips Overlap With Commercial Purposes."
9.Ensure meaningful school-based accountability that meets the NUT principle (No Unnecessary Testing).
10. Use existing measures, such as NAEP, to give a snapshot of student achievement and to report on sub-group accountability.
11. Support local control via publicly elected School Board members and maintain a reasonable salary for those elected positions.
12. Ditch the preschool through college longitudinal database and maintain parent rights guaranteed under FERPA, requiring consent for sharing of student data.
13. Ensure parent rights to opt out of any and all assessments, punitive-free.
14. Leave it to local control to implement teacher evaluation systems that are not dependent on students taking high stakes assessment.
15. Support communities and families so that all students are fed, housed, and receive medical care versus supporting runaway testing initiatives.

Education Reform: Show me the money - still asking

More and more fact-based, smart, and talented parents, community members, and taxpayers are blogging on education reform initiatives, filling in a notable gap and spurring a better informed public on the current initiatives.

Grumpy Educators recommends Race to the Top is a Race Off a Cliff posted on the Seattle Education blog.

Education reformers like to use the words "disruptive innovation" to describe current initiatives. I see a lot of expensive disruption and little innovation.

Seattle Education details on the costly confusion and waste that Race to the Top is causing.

Florida: Bringing Parent Activism Out of the Shadows

In Brevard County, Florida, parents are fighting to keep the public schools in their communities open as the School Board looks for cost savings by closing schools that are considered too under capacity and moving the students to schools considered with room but not in the "under capacity" definition.

These closures have nothing to do with the performance of the schools, teachers, or students. Parents are certainly involved.

Under current conditions, Florida school boards are making tough budgetary decisions.

Little notice is given to parents who support the public schools in their communities.

This news report is worth paying some attention to.

Education Reform: Parents, community members, taxpayers, and experts excluded

In May 2011, Grumpy Educators reported that two experts involved in writing the Common Core standards refused to sign the final product. On October 29, Parents Across America published Stotsky's views on the development process. Stotsky says to her knowledge no parents were involved in the development process and the primary writers had no prior experience in writing standards.

She adds additional insights to the composition of the writing process:

What struck me when I first saw the CCSSI lists of committee members was that there were almost no high school teachers of math or English, or college-level instructors of either on these lists–and here was a project to develop college-readiness standards, supposedly. The exclusion of the two teaching groups most relevant to CCSSI’s explicit goal was my first tip-off that CCSSI had a different agenda.

Mainly testing people and a few employees of Achieve and America’s Choice were on these committees. The media never commented on such peculiar committee membership. After my complaints on the Validation Committee, one or two high school teachers were added. But Jim Milgram remained the only mathematician in this group, and I was the only one who understood ELA standards-writing.

Parents, community members, and taxpayers continue to be left out of education reform initiatives. At a presentation of the new statndards, New York city parents demonstrated their impatience with their exclusion from decision-making:

Bringing Homeschooling Community Opposition to Education Reform Out of the Shadows

Many bloggers are dedicated to topics of interest for the homeschooling community. Grumpy Educators is focused on education reform initiatives and leaves homeschooling to others. This week, however, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) published a statement opposing the current U.S. Senate bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that was renamed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001. The U.S. Senate HELP has a full committee hearing on Tuesday, November 8.

HSLDA admits they were less involved in 2001, but have observed the failures of NCLB. They are equally concerned about the increased federal control through the Common Core standards and assessment at the expense of local and parental control. While there is nothing specific in the legislation relating to homeschooling, the HSLDA sees a potential threat for the homeschooling community if the requirements of the bill in its current form federal take hold.

It is still unclear at this point whether homeschool protections will stay in the Senate’s education bill, but even if they do, the trend of national standards could lead to homeschoolers losing the freedom to choose the curriculum for their children. For these reasons, HSLDA is urging opposition to the Senate’s ESEA reauthorization legislation.

The HSLDA urges calls to U.S. Senators to voice opposition to the bill.

HSLDA’s federal relations staff have read this 868-page bill, and we believe that while it does not directly impact homeschool freedom, the bill will 1) increase the federal role in education at the expense of state, local, and parental control, and 2) will greatly increase the pressure on states to align their curriculum and standards, resulting in de facto national education standards.

News reports indicate a national increase of parents choosing the homeschooling route. In Florida, Volusia and Flagler counties report an 11.5% increase. Pasco county saw a 13.5% increase in homeschooling students at the start of classes this fall. Parents choose the homeschooling option for a variety of reasons and one often repeated reason is a rejection of the current test-driven curriculum and testing that they believe does not serve their child's needs.

The homeschooling community represents parents whose voices, objections, and concerns must also be brought out of the shadows.

Oregon Parent Opts Out of Standardized Testing

Oregon parent Jen Norman explains why she will not permit her son to take standardized tests this year.

We can complain about the choices our administrators make, but at the end of the day, their job is to get every student to pass the OAKS test. That’s the system that is in place, and they’re working very hard to ensure that it happens. They’re doing a good job; teachers are working hard, schools are trying innovative ways to raise test scores. The question is whether or not we as a society want this one test to be the only way we measure success for students and teachers.

It is time that we look at the bigger picture and grab the attention of the policy makers in Salem and Washington, DC. We need to tell them emphatically that the system is not working for our children and needs to be changed.

I’ve thought a lot about this since my son first began taking the state test three years ago. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is only one way to have our voices heard: withdraw our children from OAKS testing.

Read the entire statement here.

Charter Schools: The Tale of Many Cities

This week Florida Senator David Simmons, chair of the PreK-12 Budget subcommittee, commented at a recent meeting that charter failures in the state are worrisome. Simmons had this to say:

“The finanical impact is great,” he said. “Some of them are failing, and that’s a financial issue…Those that are failing are costing not only a human toll but a financial one.”

Some examples that may have crossed Simmons desk include:

The Miami-Herald reported that two Miami-Dade charter schools, the Academy of Arts and Minds and the Balere Language Academy, were shut down last week.

Many parents have been complaining that The Academy of Arts and Minds the school did not have enough books or teachers when school started in August. Parents have also complained about the school’s governing board decision-making, when the decided to hire the charter founder and landlord, Alonso-Poch, to also be "the school’s manager under a $90,000 no-bid contract." The chairwoman of the school’s board did not vote in this decision; however, Ruth “Chuny” Montaner is Alonso-Poch’s cousin.

Balere Language Academy troubles include a pending foreclosure lawsuit on its school building, $136,000 in outstanding debts, including $99,000 owed to a previous landlord, and is "under investigation after advertisements surfaced indicating that the school was being used as an adult-themed nightclub on the weekends. The school’s principal, Rocka Malik, has denied that the school was doubling as a club — though a phone number on the ads comes back to her husband’s business.

A West Melbourne charter school is in danger of closing due to poor performance. The charter's parent management company has sent $1 million to keep the school going and redirected to improvement. Nevertheless, parents have been pulling their children out of the school. A Florida Today article reviews the rather interesting real estate purchases and sales that has flowed into the investment. Two Imagine Charter schools, located in North Lauderdale, are also failing as identified in an investigative report by Scathing Purple Musings. This report revealed that 15 of 31 "F" schools in Florida are charters. Imagine Schools CEO Dennis Bakke was on Governor Scott's education transition team.

As charter applications are on the rise, Simmons interest is timely. Such events are not limited to Florida.

Who pays? Who benefits?

Florida Tea Party Network Want Governor Scott to Quit Race to the Top

Hat tip to Scathing Purple Musings for posting the announcement by Florida's TEA Party on Race to the Top. For months now, Grumpy Educators has been asking where they stood on the issue.

Here's a segment:

The Tea Party Network, a consortium of 70 tea-party organizations statewide, argues that “for states to regain control of education and bring it back to the local level, they must stop taking federal money and the strings that come with the money.”

Read the entire article Florida Tea Party Network Want Governor Scott to Quit Race to the Top for their complete statement.

UPDATE: Governor Scott signed the grant proposal and says he will return the money IF there are any strings attached. The Pre-K funding is not a gift and to know the strings, someone has to analyze the grant application and requirements first. Much has already been written about the requirements. Scott does not say what parts he found helpful and which less so.

NCLB Reauthorization: Who gets control?

The U.S. Congress is showing mixed results in addressing the reauthorization of NCLB legislation in spite of broad consensus that it requires urgent attention. According to the NY Times, the U.S. House education committee leadership wishes to proceed in a "piecemeal" fashion; however, few pieces have been forthcoming. The New York Times sees the House actions this way:

"The House leadership has appeared unwilling to move toward a full rewriting of the law, which could give Mr. Obama a domestic policy triumph going into an election year."

The U.S. Senate has filed a comprehensive bill. According to Senate education committee chair Senator Tom Harkin, this bill was developed in bipartisan fashion and returns some of the powers to the states that were taken away via NCLB legislation. Accountability remains in place.

"Mr. Harkin’s bill would keep the law’s requirements that states test students in reading and math every year in grades three through eight, and once in high school, and make the scores public.

But for about 9 of every 10 American schools, it would scrap the law’s federal system of accountability, under which schools must raise the proportion of students showing proficiency on the tests each year. That system has driven classroom teaching across the nation for a decade.

States would still face federal oversight for the worst-performing 5 percent of schools, as well as for the 5 percent of schools in each state with the widest achievement gap between minority and white students. Districts in charge of those schools could lose federal financing under the Harkin plan if they failed to raise their student achievement."

There are critics who maintain that local control is the problem.

“Harkin’s bill would return control to the state departments of education and the local school districts, and they’re the ones that got us into the mess that No Child was designed to fix,” said Grover J. Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who headed the Department of Education’s research wing under President Bush. “Districts and states have not been effective in delivering quality education to children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, so why should we think they’ll be effective this time around?”

Other groups advocating for minority and special education students fear that the relaxing of sub-group accountability turns back the clock for these students.

Ed Week provided more perspective on the Senate ESEA draft bill. Adequate yearly progress requirements will disappear and replaced by state identified continuous improvement and ability to use either a yearly test or interim measures that show progress. The comprehensive Senate bill proposes to:

• Codify the Race to Top, Investing in Innovation, and Promise Neighborhood programs, all top Obama administration reform initiatives.


• Require states to set college- and career-readiness standards, either with other states or alone.


• Largely keep the law's testing system in place, but eliminate the 2013-14 deadline for bringing all students to proficiency in math and reading.


• Require states to develop new teacher evaluation systems.

More groups pushing back on the Common Core initiatives

Via Truth in American Education.

In a letter to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, Alabama legislators ask that the state retain control over "academic standards, curriculum, instruction, and testing" and reject national initiatives.

The National Federation of Republican Women (Nebraska, Delaware, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Tennessee) passed a unanimous resolution, "Defeat National Standards for State Schools." The resolution opposes "national standards, national curricula, or national assessments."

South Carolina parent responds to charter school

On Friday, October 7, Education Week covered the complaint and concern of South Carolina parents of special needs student and high stakes assessments. Read here.

On Saturday, October 8, parent Gretchen Herrera received notification from the SCVS director that her son was expelled for her failure to give permission to her son to take assessments. She also protested the rules and regulations on the SC State House steps that day.

Yesterday, Mrs. Herrera replied to the charter school director.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My reply to the director's letter about Anthony's expulsion.

Ms. Reid,

I received a letter from you stating that my son is withdrawn from your school effective 10/10 because I refused to let him take the PASS test.

My son is a 12 year old little boy with Aspergers and a brittle diabetic. I presented Cherry Daniels and Donna Strom with a letter from his diabetes team stating my son should NOT take the test. It stated clearly that he would have a dramatic reaction in his health, but still he took the first part.

My son's blood sugar spiked over 200 points in 30 minutes!

I had sent ANOTHER letter in as well to his homeroom teacher stating that not only did his blood sugar go up, but while there was all of this turmoil, after I refused to let him get ill AGAIN by finishing the PASS tests, his overall blood sugar (A1C) was dangerously high! All of the stress he went through over will he or won't he be allowed to come back because he didn't return to a situation that made him physically and dangerously ill caused his A1C to reach 9.0 from a 7.0! That is documented.

Your school ignored the letter from his endocrinology team and subsequently caused him to be in a very harmful situation with his health.

Your letter states that you have to follow the SAME rules and regulations of the brick and mortar schools of this state. I have spoken to the SC DoE and was told my son can go in, sign in and leave. That would fulfill his participation. I have also spoken to my child's special needs director for Palmetto Pediatric and was told children with my son's illness and disabilities have been opted out before.

You had the appropriate documentation. Your school had a letter in hand stating clearly NOT for Anthony to take the PASS test. There was no doubt about what it was saying.

Yet, because he has a disability that exacerbates an already tricky condition, you've removed him from your school.

From where I sit Ms. Reid, your school is valuing it's testing prowess higher than a child's health.

Now surely, that can't be. Can it?

You were correct in your closing line. SCVCS didn't meet my son's needs. I trusted your school would WANT to keep my child safe. I see I was wrong.

Sincerely,

Gretchen Herrera

NY State DOE cancels deal with News Corp

Grumpy Educators posted the investigation into Rupert Murdoch's entry into the education sector and the deal under investigation with the NY Department of Education.

Follow up on this story is reported in the Huffington Post today. The NY Department of Education has cancelled the $21 million dollar deal with News Corp, using money NY received as part of its Race to the Top grant to obtain services related to the creation of a centralized student database for personal information.

New York "State Controller Thomas DiNapoli "quietly rejected" the contract, citing News Corporation's "incomplete record" for qualifications, the Daily News reports."

Reposting the following clip from last month that is fact-based and easy to understand the Rupert Murdoch/Wireless/NY State deal.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: In His Own Words

Recorded Wednesday, August 24, John Merrow interviews Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the first Twitter Town Hall. Merrow asks Duncan a variety of questions, beginning with the planned NCLB waivers.




http://ustre.am/:18Hlh

NUT Report: Parents, community members, and taxpayers

Who benefits from Race to the Top initiatives including expanded standardized testing? A lot has been written about publishers. Here's what McGraw-Hill says in the lower right-hand corner of the document:

How McGraw-Hill May Benefit:
New assessment and instructional materials: The Common Core movement has favorable implications for new assessment and instructional materials. There is an expectation that there will be more new purchasing as states adopt materials that incorporate the new standards

Less need for customization: As states adopt the new Common Core Standards, the demand for customized material may also be reduced, which could translate into cost savings in content development

Who else benefits?




A recent report on performance on the ACT test adds to the continuing evidence that the testing mandates have not provided a return on investment. Florida Commissioner of Education Gerard Robinson says this:

"Our current education reform strategies are aligned with this exact goal and I am confident that through the continued hard work of our educators and school leaders we will see significant progress in this area in the years ahead," he said in a statement."

Sound familiar? Parents, community members, and taxpayers have given up on unresponsive, unaccountable, and unrealistic policymakers and legislators, and have formed a group - OPT OUT OF THE STATE TEST: A NATIONAL MOVEMENT in an effort to reign in failed and entrenched standardized testing initiatives that have converted schools into test prep centers and not environments of learning. Will this group be successful in its mission? Check it out on Facebook.

NUT = No Unnecessary Testing

Secretary Duncan to Hold #AskArne Twitter Town Hall

The Department of Education announced today that Secretary Arne Duncan will participate in the first-ever #AskArne Twitter Town Hall on August 24, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Veteran education journalist John Merrow will moderate the town hall that will also be broadcast live on ED’s ustream channel.

Beginning today, Twitter users can submit questions to the Secretary using the hashtag #AskArne.

Read more here.

It's not going to be quite so easy to ask meaningful questions with Twitter character limitations, but I've got a few:
1) How much is the total cost down to the local level to implement the new generation of assessments?
2) Where is the money going to come from to fund this initiative?
3) Will sub-group comparisons still be required?
4) Why is it necessary to implement excessive standardized testing?
5) What recommendations do you have to confront the high turnover of teachers at charter schools?
6) What is the rationale for a database from birth to first year of college?
7) Given the rash of security breaches and hacking into secure sites, why should any parent or community have confidence FERPA Privacy protections will be maintained?
8) Why should parents be excluded from any access to their student's information?

Then, I might Twitter: "I am a NUT. No Unnecessary Testing."

What questions will you pose?