Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times editorial today is a plea to parents and teachers who have organized the opt-out of standardized testing movement. This is in response to the 200,000 plus students in New York State who did not take this year’s grades three through eight standardized tests.   While admitting that the tests are problematic, the editorial refers to the “ill-conceived boycott” as damaging the educational reform desperately needed in poor and rural communities and undermine the Common Core standards that offer the best hope for holding school districts accountable. The full editorial is below.

The editorial’s reasoning is specious in that this country has been on a standardized testing binge for fifteen years and it has done nothing to alleviate the achievement gap among urban, suburban and rural schools. In addition, the present day education reform movement has been promulgated by players namely neoliberal Washington D.C. pols, corporate America, corporate friendly-media including the New York Times, and others who continually dismiss the opinions of educators especially teachers. Lastly, parents and local community people are especially outraged by the way education policies initiated in Washington D.C. and endorsed by state education departments are forced upon local school districts which provide the vast majority of the funding for public education. The U.S. Department of Education has relied on quid pro quo arm-twisting to get states to bend to their policies and the result is a loud and effective resentment manifesting itself in the opt-out movement.  Let the movement continue until local school districts, parents, and educators are shown more respect for their opinions by the federal government and state education departments.

Tony

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New York Times Editorial

August 14, 2015

Opting Out of Standardized Tests Isn’t the Answer

An alarming 200,000, or 20 percent, of the students in grades three through eight in New York State public schools this year refused to take the state’s standardized tests in reading and math that are supposed to measure progress in meeting national academic standards.

This ill-conceived boycott could damage educational reform — desperately needed in poor and rural communities — and undermine the Common Core standards adopted by New York and many other states. The standards offer the best hope for holding school districts accountable for educating all students, regardless of race or income.

The 200,000 students, out of 1.1 million, who skipped the tests did not have a known valid reason, like illness. That was quadruple the number from the year before and by far the highest opt-out rate for any state. In some school districts the opt-out rate was above 80 percent. For the most part, those opting out were white and in wealthy or middle-class communities. In New York City, less than 2 percent opted out.

Many parents who oppose the tests say the tests are too difficult or do not track with classroom instruction. Of the students who took the tests statewide, only 31 percent had a proficient score on reading while 38 percent were proficient in math.

And teachers have complained that they will be judged unfairly based on how well students perform on tests that they consider faulty; at least one of their union leaders urged parents to boycott the tests.

Some of these complaints are legitimate. New York has adopted some of the most stringent testing standards in the country — equal to or higher than the bar set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which most experts consider the best measure of student performance — but has not done enough to train teachers to carry out a more rigorous curriculum.

In response to parental protests, the State Legislature last year forbade school districts to use test scores as the primary factor in grade promotions or to put the scores on a student’s permanent record. Current law also limits the use of test scores to rate teachers and requires that most of the rating be based on other factors, like classroom observations.

There may well be too much testing, but the math and reading tests, which come once a year, are not the ones to eliminate. And having a large number of students opting out of the tests could hurt efforts to document and close the achievement gap between low-income and minority students and more privileged students.

Federal law requires that at least 95 percent of eligible students take the annual tests, and districts that fall short may face penalties, including a loss of federal aid. But imposing penalties would further damage poor districts that already lack sufficient money to improve their academic performance or help subpar students with remedial tutoring. At the same time, financial penalties might not persuade districts with the highest opt-out rates — often the wealthier ones — to participate, since they are apt to receive little federal funding.

Although the state can also withhold funds, officials seem reluctant to stoke further parental anger.

With opt-out activists threatening to redouble their efforts next year, political leaders need to convince everyone involved — school boards, superintendents, principals, parents, state education officials, guidance counselors, and teachers and their unions — of the importance of these tests and find ways to help students and teachers meet the challenge they pose.

Dear Commons Community,

The Illinois University’s Board of Trustees has set the stage for a messy legal battle with Phyllis Wise, chancellor of its Urbana-Champaign campus. As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

“It has been an ugly few days for the flagship campus of the University of Illinois.

It will almost assuredly get worse.

With its decision on Wednesday to reject the terms of Phyllis M. Wise’s resignation as chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus, the university’s Board of Trustees has set the stage for a messy legal battle that could bring the two parties’ heretofore private disagreements into public view.

Rather than let Ms. Wise resign with a $400,000 retention bonus, to which she would have been entitled under her contract, the board’s executive committee has decided to move forward with proceedings to fire her as chancellor, an action that will compel the trustees to lay out in grim detail all of the reasons they think Ms. Wise is unfit to lead the campus.

Most trustees in similar situations just hold their noses and pay up. But Illinois is different. The board was under political pressure not to pay out the bonus, and misgivings in the state about presidential compensation are particularly acute.

Ms. Wise announced her intention to resign as chancellor last week, just before the university released hundreds of emails that the chancellor and others had sent from private accounts in an apparent effort to subvert public-records laws. The emails concerned some of the most contentious issues to arise during Ms. Wise’s tenure, including her decision to rescind a job offer to a scholar who had made inflammatory statements about Israel on social media.”

This will indeed be an ugly situation!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Media sources are reporting that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is ready to sell off Amplify and the company will be moving away from marketing tablets to schools districts.

Chief Executive Robert Thomson said that News Corp. is in negotiations with a potential buyer for its edtech operations, according to the Wall Street Journal. The digital education division, which was launched in 2012, will take a nearly $400 million write-down, according to reports.

Amplify’s tablets had hit several roadblocks in schools that were not wired correctly for kids and teachers to use them, and the tablets themselves often came with problems.

There was a botched rollout in the Guilford County school district in North Carolina — district officials had to pull the plug on the $33 million tablet program last year because the tablets had hardware issues, according to Education Week.

Murdoch had put former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein in charge of the edtech division, but officials now say they are abandoning the tablet business and won’t market to any new customers.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times is reporting that more than 200,000 third through eighth graders sat out New York’s standardized tests this year in a sign of increasing resistance to testing as more states make them harder to pass.

The number of students declining to take the exams quadrupled from the year before, and represented 20 percent of all those eligible to be tested, according to data from the State Education Department. The statistic not only showed the growing strength of the “opt out” movement against standardized testing, but also put immediate pressure on state and federal officials, who must now decide whether to penalize schools and districts with low participation rates.

While opt-out groups had closely estimated, based on surveys, how many students declined to take the test, the figures released on Wednesday were the nearest to an official count. The Education Department said that about 900,000 of the 1.1 million eligible test-takers took the exams, while the rest skipped without a “known valid reason,” such as an illness.

Hurrah for parents and students who made the “opt out” decision. Standardized testing in this country has become an obsession with policymakers and their corporate supporters. It is all about accountability and adds little to the education of children.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Teach for America has seen another significant drop in applications for the second year in a row. As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Teach For America, the controversial education nonprofit that places recent college graduates as teachers in disadvantaged classrooms, saw a decline in its number of accepted corps members after previously seeing a drop in applications for the second year in a row, the organization announced Tuesday. 

TFA received over 44,000 applications for the 2015-2016 school year. Last year, the organization received just over 50,000 applications. The previous year, the organization hit a high of over 57,000 applications, topping off years of growth.

At the same time, by maintaining an acceptance rate of 15 percent, the organization is welcoming a smaller class of teaching corps members than in previous years. TFA will have a new teaching corps class of about 4,100 this year, compared to around 5,300 the previous year and about 6,000 the year before that. 

The organization’s new class of corps members is also one of its most diverse. Less than half of TFA’s new teachers are white, and over 40 percent are African American, Latino or multi-racial or multi-ethnic. Thirty-three percent are the first in their families to graduate from college. By comparison, in 2011, just 7 percent of America’s teachers overall were black and 6 percent were Latino.

Teach For America is the brainchild of Wendy Kopp — now the CEO of the organization’s global parent, Teach For All — who came up with the idea for the organization during her senior year at Princeton in 1989. The idea was to take high-achieving young people and put them in low-income classrooms in an effort to fight educational inequity. Indeed, it wasn’t long before the organization glistened with prestige, attracting hordes of Ivy League graduates. Twenty-five years in, the organization boasts a network of alumni and corps members of over 50,000 — many of whom are still involved in the education world via advocacy or teaching. 

But critics who take issue with the organization’s model — which commits corps members to just two years of teaching after just a few weeks of training — say it fails to adequately prepare young people for teaching and creates a cycle of instability in already needy communities. Indeed, across the country, the neediest schools are often left with the least experienced teachers. Others assail the organization for its close ties to charter school networks, saying that it helps feed into efforts to privatize public schools. 

In 2014, a group of Harvard University students called the Student Labor Action Movement asked the university president to cut ties with TFA. TFA has an active presence recruiting students on campus at Harvard and has a number of ties to its graduate school of education.

“We’re calling on Harvard to support and provide the resources for people who want want to have lifelong careers in public education, not people who want to teach for a couple of years and then go to law school or business school,” said Blake A. McGhghy, a Harvard student at the time, according to the Harvard Crimson.

In 2013, a group of TFA alumni and corps members met formally to organize resistance against their employer. 

Representatives for TFA say this polarized discourse — coupled with a rebounding economy — is contributing to the group’s drop in applications. A recent report from education consulting firm Bellwether Education Partners found that when potential candidates were asked why did not apply to TFA, 70 percent said criticism of the organization played a role.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Governor Scott Walker has just signed legislation providing funding for a new sports arena to house the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. This may cost Wisconsin taxpayers as much as $400 million. As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed legislation Wednesday that commits hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to a new arena for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, a move that could complicate the Republican presidential candidate’s efforts to paint himself as the most ardent small-government conservative in a crowded field.

Walker and state GOP leaders pushed the arena plan for months, especially as the team’s owners threatened to move the Bucks to a new market. The deal requires the team’s current and former owners to cover half of the arena’s $500 million projected cost, while taxpayers will cover the rest — with interest, the public cost could rise to as much as $400 million.

…Walker’s plan drew pointed criticism even from some of his typical political allies. 

The Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group backed by the Koch brothers, slammed the plan earlier this year, arguing that “government shouldn’t be in the business of financing private sports stadiums.” Other conservative groups and blogs also criticized the deal.”

Bloomberg reported Tuesday.that two members of the Bucks’ ownership group donated $200,000 to the super PAC backing Walker’s presidential campaign,

This deal would not be so controversial except that Walker has been slashing Wisconsin’s budget in a number of critical social areas. For example, Walker’s proposed budget for next fiscal year, which he announced in January, included a 13 percent cut in state funds to the University of Wisconsin system and a $127 million cut in public primary school funding. The Republican presidential candidate called the $300 million in cuts for the university network “manageable,” though his plan was met with bipartisan criticism and layoff predictions.

His signing of the sports arena deal clearly shows Walker as a hypocrite who is deep in the pockets of big moneyed interests.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Hillary Clinton blasted Governor Scott Walker yesterday for his policies in Wisconsin that “slashed the state’s investment in higher education”.  As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton highlighted the education record of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) at a town hall in New Hampshire on Tuesday, contrasting her plan to alleviate student debt with the policies of the Republican presidential primary field.  

Walker’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which he announced in January, included a 13 percent cut in state funds to the University of Wisconsin system and a $127 million cut in public primary school funding. The Republican presidential candidate called the $300 million in cuts for the university network “manageable,” though his plan was met with bipartisan criticism and layoff predictions. 

Walker seems “to be delighted in slashing investment in higher education in his state, in making it more difficult for students to get scholarships or to pay off their debt,” Clinton said, adding that he is also “eliminating the opportunities for young people who are doctors or dentists who actually work in underserved areas in return for having their debt relieved, ending scholarships for poor kids, [and] … rejecting legislation that would have made it tax deductible for you on your income tax to deduct the amount of your loan repayment.” 

“I don’t know why he wants to raise taxes on students, but that’s the result,” Clinton added. 

In her comments, Clinton referenced legislation that was backed by Democrats in the state legislature but was never sent to Walker’s desk. It would have helped borrowers refinance their student loans and deduct student loan payments from their state taxes.

Walker questioned whether the proposal was “more than just politics.” 

The governor eliminated the loan forgiveness program Clinton mentioned, which was available to health care providers who worked in underserved communities for three or more years, in his proposed budget.”

I am glad to see the presidential candidates include higher education in their narratives. It is also quite possible that if the Republicans get over their present infatuation with Donald Trump, Scott Walker has a good chance to be the Republican nominee. Hillary Clinton is by far the frontrunner for the Democrats.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, has an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times entitled: “Why ‘Smart’ Objects May Be a Dumb Idea?”  Her main thesis is that the Internet lacks security safeguards and therefore jeopardizes the benefits and conveniences of many smart objects. Here is an excerpt:

“A FRIDGE that puts milk on your shopping list when you run low. A safe that tallies the cash that is placed in it. A sniper rifle equipped with advanced computer technology for improved accuracy. A car that lets you stream music from the Internet.

All of these innovations sound great, until you learn the risks that this type of connectivity carries. Recently, two security researchers, sitting on a couch and armed only with laptops, remotely took over a Chrysler Jeep Cherokee speeding along the highway, shutting down its engine as an 18-wheeler truck rushed toward it. They did this all while a Wired reporter was driving the car. Their expertise would allow them to hack any Jeep as long as they knew the car’s I.P. address, its network address on the Internet. They turned the Jeep’s entertainment dashboard into a gateway to the car’s steering, brakes and transmission.

A hacked car is a high-profile example of what can go wrong with the coming Internet of Things — objects equipped with software and connected to digital networks. The selling point for these well-connected objects is added convenience and better safety. In reality, it is a fast-motion train wreck in privacy and security.

The early Internet was intended to connect people who already trusted one another, like academic researchers or military networks. It never had the robust security that today’s global network needs. As the Internet went from a few thousand users to more than three billion, attempts to strengthen security were stymied because of cost, shortsightedness and competing interests. Connecting everyday objects to this shaky, insecure base will create the Internet of Hacked Things. This is irresponsible and potentially catastrophic.

…

Home builders and car manufacturers have shifted to a new business: the risky world of information technology. Most seem utterly out of their depth.

Although Chrysler quickly recalled 1.4 million Jeeps to patch this particular vulnerability, it took the company more than a year after the issue was first noted, and the recall occurred only after that spectacular publicity stunt on the highway and after it was requested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In announcing the software fix, the company said that no defect had been found. If two guys sitting on their couch turning off a speeding car’s engine from miles away doesn’t qualify, I’m not sure what counts as a defect in Chrysler’s world. And Chrysler is far from the only company compromised: from BMW to Tesla to General Motors, many automotive brands have been hacked, with surely more to come.”

Tufekci makes a good point in that the Internet was designed for information sharing.  It is vulnerable to hacking and lacks the security necessary for the Internet of Things.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As districts around the country get ready for the new school year, the New York Times has a featured article today reporting on teacher shortages that are occurring across the country. The main reasons for the shortages are the retirements of many current teachers as well as decreased enrollments in teacher education programs.  As reported in the article:

“In a stark about-face from just a few years ago, school districts have gone from handing out pink slips to scrambling to hire teachers.

Across the country, districts are struggling with shortages of teachers, particularly in math, science and special education — a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.

At the same time, a growing number of English-language learners are entering public schools, yet it is increasingly difficult to find bilingual teachers. So schools are looking for applicants everywhere they can — whether out of state or out of country — and wooing candidates earlier and quicker.

Some are even asking prospective teachers to train on the job, hiring novices still studying for their teaching credentials, with little, if any, classroom experience.

Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Oklahoma City; and Providence, R.I., are among the large urban school districts having trouble finding teachers, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban districts. Just one month before the opening of classes, Charlotte, N.C., was desperately trying to fill 200 vacancies…

In California, the number of people entering teacher preparation programs dropped by more than 55 percent from 2008 to 2012, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Nationally, the drop was 30 percent from 2010 to 2014, according to federal data. Alternative programs like Teach for America, which will place about 4,000 teachers in schools across the country this fall, have also experienced recruitment problems.”

Anyone following education policy and teacher demographics could see this shortage coming. Many states will now enact incentive programs to recruit candidates into the teaching profession.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Hillary Rodham Clinton  will propose today major new spending by the federal government that would help undergraduates pay tuition at public colleges without needing loans.  As reported in the New York Times:

“…her proposals, which would cost $350 billion over 10 years and include new refinancing options for those already struggling with debt, are an aggressive response to what many Americans — Democrats and Republicans alike — see as a worsening crisis forcing young adults to move back home with their parents and struggle to get out from under repayment bills.

Under the plan, which was outlined by Clinton advisers on Sunday, about $175 billion in grants would go to states that guarantee that students would not have to take out loans to cover tuition at four-year public colleges and universities. In return for the money, states would have to end budget cuts to increase spending over time on higher education, while also working to slow the growth of tuition, though the plan does not require states to cap it.

Many states have reduced college spending sharply since the recession; one of Mrs. Clinton’s Republican rivals in the presidential race, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, signed a two-year budget last month that cuts spending for the University of Wisconsin system by $250 million. Tuition and fees for in-state residents at public colleges nationwide have increased by more than 40 percent since 2004 after adjusting for inflation.

Mrs. Clinton would pay for the plan by capping the value of itemized deductions that wealthy families can take on their tax returns. The tax and spending elements of her proposal would need support from Congress — a tall order, since it is now run by Republicans — while the plan’s goals would depend on support from state governors and legislators, more and more of whom have been Republicans recently.’

This is a step in the right direction.  It is also  gratifying to see the front-running Democratic presidential nominee making this proposal, however, it would take enormous compromising with congressional Republicans to enact it into legislation should Clinton be elected.

Tony