Teachers Vicki Soto, Kaitlin Roig, Both Real Heros, One a Martyr in Newtown, Connecticut

In this era of shaming of teachers, people should extend their greatest appreciation to public school teachers and other school personnel who zealously shielded or guarded students from the gunman in yesterday's shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school, in suburban Newtown, Fairfield County, Connecticut. The heroism of these teachers should give pause to those making a career of attacking teachers.

Teacher Victoria Soto made the ultimate sacrifice for her students. The New York Daily News reported that the first-grade teacher put herself between her students and the shooter, shielding them from his bullets. She hid her students in closets. In the end, she was a victim to the killer's bullets. She told the shooter that her students were in the gym. He shot her and moved on. As the children were hiding in the closet, they survived.
She had been a dedicated teacher. Her only complaint, a neighbor said, was her long commute from her Stratford home. Just earlier that day, she had visited the school librarian, looking for a book for her class, on the things that animals can do.

* * *

ABC News broadcast lengthy excerpts of an interview with first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig. She saved her students by locking them with her in the classroom's bathroom, pulling a file cabinet to additionally block the door.

Roig and her colleagues are union members and career teachers. Let this not be forgotten, along with their valiant courage and heroism in selflessly protecting the children.

UPDATE:
MICHELLE RHEE EXPLOITS THE TRAGEDY OF THE SCHOOL SHOOTING:
South Bronx School blogger writes on the need to put the valiance of these teachers in the perspective of how they are evaluated, as well as Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst's exploiting the tragedy to say that the attack strengthened the group's resolve to reform Connecticut schools:

Our children are our most valuable assets, and we lost too many of them today. . . .
But events like these also strengthen our resolve to do exactly that -- improve schools for children and thereby improve entire communities. The entire StudentsFirst organization -- including the members of our team in Connecticut -- recommit ourselves to that mission today . . . . [--Rhee's StudentsFirst Facebook site]

[Perhaps Rhee's vulgar Freudian slip of seeing children as assets for corporate schemes will be her McCarthy v. Army that will prompt people to ask, Have you no shame?]

Both these teachers are heroes in their own way. Both these teachers did something extraordinary that cannot be measured with a test, with a piece of paper, with an observation. They did something that none of us put in their situation have no idea what we would do.

If their acts (and I am not omitting any other acts of bravery yesterday, just only know of these two thus far), are the ultimate acts, the very definition of effective teachers, what then would have become of them if they were subject to VAM as whether or not they are effective.

Now, I do not know what the new evaluation system in Connecticut consists of. I can only speak for what is coming or might come in NYC. [Ed.: read this post at NYCDOENUTS.] But what these teachers showed is what happens in schools all over the country in one way or another every day. Intangibles that are so subjective there is no way to measure.

Recounting these teachers' heroism, the Perdido Street School blog similarly put the valiance of teachers against the larger backdrop of the societal attack on teachers.

Reading these details, I couldn't help but wonder, will these acts of heroism be taken into account by Governor Malloy and his education reformers when they calculate the value-added measurements for these teachers?

I also couldn't help but ask myself, how many hedge fund managers/education reformers would selflessly sacrifice themselves to try and save children the way these educators did?

Most days, the media and the politicians are busy trashing teachers as lazy, greedy incompetents in need of a little "fire" to their feet to motivate them

But yesterday you saw the dedication and sacrifice and love that teachers in this country have for their students.

Researcher finds 95,000 NYPD Stop & Frisks Unconstitutional / Stop & Frisk to be Big Issue in 2013 Vote

According to a new report analyzing stop-and-frisk data made public by the New York Police Department, 95,000 stops were unconstitutional. MORE

At Capital New York, By Azi Paybarah, December 12, 2012 4:44 pm

According to a new report analyzing stop-and-frisk data made public by the New York Police Department, 95,000 stops appear to have been unconstitutional.

The report released today is from the Center for Constitution Rights and professor Jeffrey Fagan of Columbia University, a critic of stop-and-frisk who is currently part of a class-action lawsuit against the city.

The report says that "based on the information recorded on NYPD stop-and-frisk forms by police officers themselves, more than 95,000 stops lacked reasonable articulable suspicion and therefore violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures."

Asked about that claim, MYPD spokesman Paul Browne responded by email, "Stops save lives and they comport with descriptions provided by victims of violent crime."

Go to Capital NY for the conclusion of the article.
One of the more telling findings about the upcoming New York mayoral race in a new Quinnipiac poll of city residents is buried deep within the survey. MORE

At Capital New York, By Blake Zeff, November 21, 2012 12:42 pm

The article on a Quinnipiac University poll begins with the usual concerns of which candidate's ahead (the poll shows Quinn the first choice of 32 percent, versus 10, 9, 5, and 4, respectively for Bill Thompson, Bill de Blasio, John Liu, and Scott Stringer). However, this poll was taken before Stringer quit the mayoral race.

Yet, it closes with a note on how stop and frisk is heavily opposed by Democratic, African-American and Latino voters.

A more telling finding in the poll, in my view, regards police practices. New Yorkers strongly support the performance of police commissioner Ray Kelly (68-23) and that of the NYPD as a whole (62-31), but they sharply oppose stop-and-frisk tactics (by 53-42) that have mostly targeted black and Hispanic men. This dichotomy indicates that the disapproval of stop-and-frisk is not merely a proxy or byproduct of blind hatred toward (or even dissatisfaction with) the police department, but rather, a stand-alone concern about which there is very real discontent.

Dig deeper into the stop-and-frisk question, and the numbers are even more telling: Democrats oppose the practice by 62-33, black voters by 70-28, and Hispanic voters by 64-33.

Don’t think this has escaped the attention of the candidates and their campaigns. If you’re a Democrat running for mayor in 2013, this is an issue you must address if you want to connect with the base of your party.

New Yorkers have plenty of positive things to say about Michael Bloomberg’s tenure. Impressively, 57 percent think his health initiatives have either been right or have not gone "far enough.” Nearly two thirds are somewhat or very satisfied with the way things are going in the city today.

Stop-and-frisk is a glaring exception. I’d expect we’ll be hearing a lot about this from the candidates in 2013.

'Stop buying this rag:' Mayoral candidates react to a 'New York Post' cartoon | Capital New York

'Stop buying this rag:' Mayoral candidates react to a 'New York Post' cartoon | Capital New York

"The four major Democratic candidates for mayor denounced a New York Post cartoon depicting the sex life of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, who was revealed last week to have written an essay 33 years ago titled "I am a lesbian."

The candidates appeared at Al Sharpton's National Action Network on Saturday morning (before "Saturday Night Live" made a reference to the de Blasios in the "Weekend Update" segment)."

Fed. Court: NYC Board of Education Discriminated Against Black, Latino Teachers

On February 5, 2012, a U.S. District Court ruled that the New York City Board of Education discriminated against black and Latino educators. This case dealt with certification exams and dismissals of teachers in the 1990s. This case does not deal with the steep decline in percentage of black and Latino teachers in the last decade under mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Board's successor, the Department of Education. Here is the story, covered in Thomson Reuters, reported December 5, 2012, by Nate Diamond: NYC discriminated against black, Latino teachers: court

NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - New York City's Board of Education discriminated against black and Latino teachers by requiring them to pass a standardized test that wasn't properly validated to become licensed to teach in the city's schools, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan came in a long-running class action. The ruling permits the plaintiffs to seek the appointment of a monitor to evaluate whether the current version of the test has any of the invalid provisions in place from 1996 to 2000.

At the same time, Wood decertified the class of plaintiffs insofar as it was seeking back pay. The decision follows a landmark 2011 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Wal-Mart Stores Inc v. Dukes, which limited the ability of plaintiffs to group together in class actions.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said Wood's ruling left the door open for teachers who took the test and number in the hundreds if not thousands to seek damages individually or for the court to certify smaller classes.

Wednesday's ruling marked the latest instance of a federal judge taking issue with New York City employment tests. A federal judge in Brooklyn in March ordered the city to pay up to $128.7 million after finding New York City Fire Department exams had "discriminatory effects" on minority applicants from 1999 to 2007.

"These are two major federal court decisions invalidating public employment tests," said Baher Azmy, the legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the plaintiffs in both cases.

Eamonn Foley, a lawyer with the New York City Law Department, in a statement said the judge was correct to decertify the class with regard to its back pay and injunctive relief demands and that the city didn't break the law with regard to its use of an earlier test.

"The city is reviewing its options with regard to the remaining portions of the decision," he said.

FOUR TEACHERS

The lawsuit was filed in 1996 by four teachers -- three black and one Latina -- who claimed that the testing practices of the New York State Education Department and the New York City Board of Education were discriminatory.

To gain permanent licenses, the teachers had to pass the National Teacher Core Battery exam, which the state began using in 1984, and its successor, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, introduced in 1993. A newer version of the LAST has been in place since 2000 and wasn't at issue, the decision said.

The lawsuit claimed that white teachers passed at a higher rate than blacks and Latinos and that the exam had a disparate impact. First-time black and Latino takers of the LAST passed at 57.9 percent and 55.1 percent, compared to a 90.25 percent pass rate for whites, the plaintiffs said in a 2003 filing.

Those who failed the exam lost their conditional licenses. As a result, they could only work as substitute teachers and had lower salaries, benefits and seniority, the plaintiffs said.

About 8,000 to 15,000 teachers have suffered demotion, termination, reduced pay and other losses because they failed the tests, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights. The center's Web site did not provide a time frame for that statistic.

The city contended the exam was job-related, but Wood found that the test wasn't properly validated.

In granting the motion to decertify the class related to monetary damages for back pay, Wood said the class could remain intact for the purpose of seeking a court finding that the board violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Damages could, though, still be in play, said Joshua Sohn, a lawyer at DLA Piper working pro bono for the plaintiffs. How the damages would be determined will be the subject of a response from the plaintiffs the court requested by Dec. 13.

"(The decision) leaves the possibility to certify subclasses for damages, or we could propose some other framework to get there," Sohn said.

A status conference is scheduled for Jan. 10.

Since the case was filed, it has wound its way through the courts and passed through four judges.

A class of plaintiffs was certified in 2001 by former U.S. district judge Constance Baker Motley in Manhattan, the second judge to oversee the case after receiving it from Judge Deborah Batts. Following a five-month bench trial in 2003, the judge found the city and state's use of the exam did not violate Title VII.

In 2006, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Motley's findings. The appeals court tossed the teachers' claims against the state, leaving just the city as a defendant.

Motley died in 2005 before the 2nd Circuit ruled, so the case was later reassigned to Judge Sydney Stein. It was then transferred again, this time to Wood in 2009.

The case is Gulino v. Board of Education, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 96-08414.

For Gulino: Joshua Sohn, DLA Piper.

For the New York City Board of Education: Eamonn Foley, New York City Law Department.

Follow us on Twitter @ReutersLegal | Like us on Facebook

SIGNIFICANCE FOR ACTION GOING FORWARD The JD Journal reported December 7 that the decision opens the way for inquiries as to whether current exams contain invalidated portions:

Though the ruling came in favour of the plaintiffs in a class action, and it allows the plaintiffs ways to evaluate whether the current version of the test still contains the invalid provisions used from 1996 to 2000, the judge decertified the class, because it was seeking back pay.

The story in NY1.com.

CITY ON THE HOOK FOR NEARLY $0.5 BILLION
The Bed-Stuy Patch reported December 7 that New York City could be on the hook for $455 million:
"City on Hook For $455M After Judge Rules Bias on Teacher Exam: The city will pay about $455 million in damages to over 2,000 victims."

The affected teachers – anywhere from 2,000 to 3,500 – will not be entitled to back-pay, the judge also ruled.

During a court hearing on Jan. 10, the teachers are expected to discuss the filing of a separate action to seek compensation from the city.

The $445 million payout, a figure projected by the DOE in a 2011 fiscal report, would be more than triple the $128 million that the city will be paying out to minority FDNY applications, stemming from a similar case of entrance-exam discrimination.

Support Hurricane Sandy Victims with Fun at Shakespeare with Benefits

SHAKESPEARE WITH BENEFITS Monday Dec. 17 at 7:30PM at The West End Theatre on 86th St & West End.

All proceeds go to SANDY RELIEF via NY Cares.

Special guests are Olympia Dukakis & John Christopher Jones. See you on Monday Dec 17."

1 train to 86th Street Station

Who in Chicago awarded lucrative school contracts to Rupert Murdoch?

From the Madfloridian at DemocraticUnderground: Who in Chicago awarded lucrative school contracts to Rupert Murdoch?

Posted by madfloridian in General Discussion

Mon Nov 19th 2012, 01:51 AM
Rupert Murdoch sees $500 billion profit waiting in US public education. Getting his share in Chicago and some in NYC.

There's a battle being waged in this country against our public school systems. It's not irate parents, it's a corporate battle.

These education "reformers" have the money to buy up politicians in both parties to get laws passed for their benefits. Public schools have little resources to fight back.

Hey, lobbyist, leave them kids alone! [October 28, 2012 Oneonta, NY Daily Star column]

There is no doubt that the performance of U.S. students against their international counterparts continues to disappoint. But since the reasons for this are so difficult to pin down, a parade of self-proclaimed experts and “reformers” has emerged in recent years, touting the urgency of their proposed solutions – never mind if they require redirecting streams of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of their friends.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is among the more-recognizable faces of this movement, having purchased education technology firm Wireless Generation for $360 million in November 2010.

“When it comes to K-12 education,” Murdoch said at the time, “we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching.”

Despite the scandals associated with his name and his News Corp company, Murdoch is getting a foothold in the "reforms" going on now. He and his Wireless Generation company are getting a huge profit from a contract with the Chicago school system.

Just like I always say, accountability is only for public school teachers....never for the very rich.

Looks like Rupert Murdoch will profit from "reform" of Chicago school system. [August 20, 2012, Daily Kos]

In case Chicago missed it, Rupert Murdoch is now profiting from the testing craziness hitting Chicago's public schools. He owns an outfit called "Wireless Generation" that is now a contractor with CPS. Anyone who doesn't already know that the administration of Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third largest school system, is in the hands of amateurs (or worse, outsiders who want to destroy public education and turn it over to the private sector at all costs), should be contacting any of the 241 principals of the so-called "Track E" schools which begin receiving their students on August 13, 2012.

Things have gotten so crazy in the 2012 world of edits, memos, Power Points, orders, reforms, re-reforms, and re-re-re-reforms from the administration of former Rochester school supt. Jean-Claude Brizard and former "Relationship Banker" Rahm Emanuel that it would take a team of a dozen investigative reporters on the ground school-by-school (with a backup team of another dozen researchers) to separate out the greed, mendacity, incompetence, and silliness that is being foisted on Chicago behind the smokescreen of the latest iteration of "School Reform." Meanwhile, the city's communities, teachers, principals, and children will be facing centrally planned chaos as the first full year of Rahm's version of "School Reform" kicks in non Monday August 13, 2012. The 241 Chicago "Track E" schools would make this sub-system one of the 20 largest school districts in the USA were it a separate system. But it would be one of only three (the other two are Detroit and New Orleans) currently ruled by a group of outside mercenaries dedicated to destroying public education.

Murdoch was going to get 27 million from the Race to the Top money in New York City, but State Controller Thomas DiNapoli rejected the contract.

"New York City ditched a $27 million education contract with News Corp subsidiary Wireless Generation, citing the ongoing investigations into the phone hacking allegations related to News Corp's now-defunct News Of The World tabloid.

State Controller Thomas DiNapoli rejected the Education Department's contract with the company, the New York Daily News reports, which would have paid $27 million to create software to track test scores. The funding would have come out of the state's $700 million "Race to the Top" education funds, but DiNapoli's office said that there were concerns about News Corp's "incomplete record" and about the ongoing scandal.

"In light of the significant ongoing investigations and continuing revelations with respect to News Corp., we are returning the contract with Wireless Generation unapproved," wrote DiNapoli's office of the decision.

Daily Kos has this added news, citing the New York Daily News from August 13, 2012, that New York State has snuck in Wireless Generation as a subcontractor for a New York City schools contract.

Nearly a year after the state Education Department’s failed attempt to award a no-bid, $27 million technology contract to Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless Generation company, the state announced a do-over Monday.

The contract with the News Corp. subsidiary overseen by former city schools chancellor Joel Klein was initially rejected last August by State Controller Thomas DiNapoli, who raised concerns over allegations of illegal phone-hacking by News corp newspapers in England.

This time, Wireless Generation lost out to four other companies on a competitive bid for $50 million in technology contracts — though one of the companies will employ Wireless Generation as a subcontractor.

“They’ll get a small piece of a smaller pie than they would have received under last year’s proposed contract,” state Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn said.

The new contracts will help teachers, administrators and parents track student test scores and other data and will replace a costly system in use in city schools called Achievement Reporting and Innovation Systems, or ARIS, as soon as the end of 2013.

The writer at the Daily Kos closed, "They should not be getting any of the pie. Teachers are held accountable almost to the extreme, but those on the side of the "reformers" are not held to similar standards."

NM, OR, NC Veteran Teacher Quits, Letter Goes Viral

This cross-posted from a very thoughtful student teacher's blog, "Teacher Under Construction: Rutgers Student and Future World Changers Fighting for Educational Equity"

The linked author has also started a blog, Middle Grades Mastery: The Journey to Find the Best Ways to Teach Middle School Students

Teacher’s Letter Stating Why He Quit Goes Viral This entry was posted on November 7, 2012, in Uncategorized and tagged Education, Letter, North Carolina, Opinion, Schools, Standardized test, Teacher. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments
The letter below provides multiple reasons why I fight for my future profession.

See letter covered by The Washington Post [Valerie Straus, The Answer Sheet, with 112 comments] and Diane Ravitch [Diane Ravitch's Blog], and a post covering how he responded to his critics.

I QUIT

Kris L. Nielsen Monroe, NC 28110

Union County Public Schools Human Resources Department 400 North Church Street Monroe, NC 28112

October 25, 2012

To All it May Concern:

I’m doing something I thought I would never do—something that will make me a statistic and a caricature of the times. Some will support me, some will shake their heads and smirk condescendingly—and others will try to convince me that I’m part of the problem. Perhaps they’re right, but I don’t think so. All I know is that I’ve hit a wall, and in order to preserve my sanity, my family, and the forward movement of our lives, I have no other choice.

Before I go too much into my choice, I must say that I have the advantages and disadvantages of differentiated experience under my belt. I have seen the other side, where the grass was greener, and I unknowingly jumped the fence to where the foliage is either so tangled and dense that I can’t make sense of it, or the grass is wilted and dying (with no true custodian of its health). Are you lost? I’m talking about public K-12 education in North Carolina. I’m talking about my history as a successful teacher and leader in two states before moving here out of desperation.

In New Mexico, I led a team of underpaid teachers who were passionate about their jobs and who did amazing things. We were happy because our students were well-behaved, our community was supportive, and our jobs afforded us the luxuries of time, respect, and visionary leadership. Our district was huge, but we got things done because we were a team. I moved to Oregon because I was offered a fantastic job with a higher salary, a great math program, and superior benefits for my family. Again, I was given the autonomy I dreamed of, and I used it to find new and risky ways to introduce technology into the math curriculum. My peers looked forward to learning from me, the community gave me a lot of money to get my projects off the ground, and my students were amazing.

Then, the bottom fell out. I don’t know who to blame for the budget crisis in Oregon, but I know it decimated the educational coffers. I lost my job only due to my lack of seniority. I was devastated. My students and their parents were angry and sad. I told myself I would hang in there, find a temporary job, and wait for the recall. Neither the temporary job nor the recall happened. I tried very hard to keep my family in Oregon—applying for jobs in every district, college, private school, and even Toys R Us. Nothing happened after over 300 applications and 2 interviews.

The Internet told me that the West Coast was not hiring teachers anymore, but the East Coast was the go-to place. Charlotte, North Carolina couldn’t keep up with the demand! I applied with three schools, got three phone interviews, and was even hired over the phone. My very supportive and adventurous family and I packed quickly and moved across the country, just so I could keep teaching.

I had come from two very successful and fun teaching jobs to a new state where everything was different. During my orientation, I noticed immediately that these people weren’t happy to see us; they were much more interested in making sure we knew their rules. It was a one-hour lecture about what happens when teachers mess up. I had a bad feeling about teaching here from the start; but, we were here and we had to make the best of it.

Union County seemed to be the answer to all of my problems. The rumors and the press made it sound like UCPS was the place to be progressive, risky, and happy. So I transferred from CMS to UCPS. They made me feel more welcome, but it was still a mistake to come here.

Let me cut to the chase: I quit. I am resigning my position as a teacher in the state of North Carolina—permanently. I am quitting without notice (taking advantage of the “at will” employment policies of this state). I am quitting without remorse and without second thoughts. I quit. I quit. I quit!

Why?

Because…

I refuse to be led by a top-down hierarchy that is completely detached from the classrooms for which it is supposed to be responsible.

I will not spend another day under the expectations that I prepare every student for the increasing numbers of meaningless tests.

I refuse to be an unpaid administrator of field tests that take advantage of children for the sake of profit.

I will not spend another day wishing I had some time to plan my fantastic lessons because administration comes up with new and inventive ways to steal that time, under the guise of PLC meetings or whatever. I’ve seen successful PLC development. It doesn’t look like this.

I will not spend another day wondering what menial, administrative task I will hear that I forgot to do next. I’m far enough behind in my own work.

I will not spend another day wondering how I can have classes that are full inclusion, and where 50% of my students have IEPs, yet I’m given no support.

I will not spend another day in a district where my coworkers are both on autopilot and in survival mode. Misery loves company, but I will not be that company.

I refuse to subject students to every ridiculous standardized test that the state and/or district thinks is important. I refuse to have my higher-level and deep thinking lessons disrupted by meaningless assessments (like the EXPLORE test) that do little more than increase stress among children and teachers, and attempt to guide young adolescents into narrow choices.

I totally object and refuse to have my performance as an educator rely on “Standard 6.” It is unfair, biased, and does not reflect anything about the teaching practices of proven educators.

I refuse to hear again that it’s more important that I serve as a test administrator than a leader of my peers.

I refuse to watch my students being treated like prisoners. There are other ways. It’s a shame that we don’t have the vision to seek out those alternatives.

I refuse to watch my coworkers being treated like untrustworthy slackers through the overbearing policies of this state, although they are the hardest working and most overloaded people I know.

I refuse to watch my family struggle financially as I work in a job to which I have invested 6 long years of my life in preparation. I have a graduate degree and a track record of strong success, yet I’m paid less than many two-year degree holders. And forget benefits—they are effectively nonexistent for teachers in North Carolina.

I refuse to watch my district’s leadership tell us about the bad news and horrific changes coming towards us, then watch them shrug incompetently, and then tell us to work harder.

I refuse to listen to our highly regarded superintendent telling us that the charter school movement is at our doorstep (with a soon-to-be-elected governor in full support) and tell us not to worry about it, because we are applying for a grant from Race to the Top. There is no consistency here; there is no leadership here.

I refuse to watch my students slouch under the weight of a system that expects them to perform well on EOG tests, which do not measure their abilities other than memorization and application and therefore do not measure their readiness for the next grade level—much less life, career, or college.

I’m tired of watching my students produce amazing things, which show their true understanding of 21st century skills, only to see their looks of disappointment when they don’t meet the arbitrary expectations of low-level state and district tests that do not assess their skills.

I refuse to hear any more about how important it is to differentiate our instruction as we prepare our kids for tests that are anything but differentiated. This negates our hard work and makes us look bad.

I am tired of hearing about the miracles my peers are expected to perform, and watching the districts do next to nothing to support or develop them. I haven’t seen real professional development in either district since I got here. The development sessions I have seen are sloppy, shallow, and have no real means of evaluation or accountability.

I’m tired of my increasing and troublesome physical symptoms that come from all this frustration, stress, and sadness.

Finally, I’m tired of watching parents being tricked into believing that their children are being prepared for the complex world ahead, especially since their children’s teachers are being cowed into meeting expectations and standards that are not conducive to their children’s futures.

I’m truly angry that parents put so much stress, fear, and anticipation into their kids’ heads in preparation for the EOG tests and the new MSLs—neither of which are consequential to their future needs. As a parent of a high school student in Union County, I’m dismayed at the education that my child receives, as her teachers frantically prepare her for more tests. My toddler will not attend a North Carolina public school. I will do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.

I quit because I’m tired being part of the problem. It’s killing me and it’s not doing anyone else any good. Farewell.

CC: Dr. Mary Ellis

Dr. June Atkinson

LI's Newsday: Teacher evaluation systems proving costly

Teacher evaluation systems proving costly

Originally published: November 22, 2012 8:39 PM
Updated: November 22, 2012 9:27 PM
By JO NAPOLITANO jo.napolitano@newsday.com

The newly mandated teacher and principal evaluation system is costing Long Island school districts tens of thousands of dollars per year in training, testing and materials, even as they struggle with effects of the property-tax cap and putting in place other required education reforms.

The expense varies by district depending on its size and how it plans to satisfy the state's demands.

Go to the Newsday site for the remainder of the article.

U.S. DOE tells PA officials: use same standards to grade charter schools

From Kathy Mattheson at the Associated Press, reposted at the Lehigh Valley Express-Times, Pennsylvania:

Pa. told to re-evaluate charter school test scores
Nov. 22, 2012, 2:03 p.m. EST
AP

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal education officials have denied Pennsylvania's request to evaluate charter school achievement using more lenient criteria, saying they must be assessed by the same standard as traditional schools.

The rejection means Pennsylvania cannot substitute a less stringent method for measuring "adequate yearly progress," the federal benchmark known as AYP. Critics said the formula artificially inflated charter schools' performance for political reasons.

"I cannot approve this ... because it's not aligned with the statute and regulations," U.S. Assistant Education Secretary Deborah Delisle wrote in a letter released by the state Wednesday.

The issue surfaced in September when Pennsylvania's latest standardized test scores were reported. For the first time — and without approval from federal officials — state Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis treated charter schools as districts, not individual schools.

Schools must hit certain targets at every tested grade level to make AYP. But for a district to meet the benchmark, it needs only to hit targets in one of three grade spans: grades 3-5, 4-6 or 9-12.

Under Pennsylvania law, every charter school is considered its own district. So by using the grade span methodology, about 59 percent of charters made AYP — a figure that supporters touted, comparing it with the 50 percent of traditional schools that hit the target.

Yet only 37 percent of charters would have made AYP under the individual school method. Delisle ordered Pennsylvania to re-evaluate charter schools' AYP status using that standard by the end of the fall semester.

She noted that Pennsylvania can assess charters under the district method but only in addition to the school method.

The state will now assess charters under both standards, according to a Wednesday statement from Pennsylvania Education Department spokesman Tim Eller.

Previously, Eller had argued that the grade span calculation leveled the playing field for charters, which are publicly funded but operate independently of school districts.

And while acknowledging that standard can mask academic problems, Eller has said school districts have taken advantage of the methodology for years. The grade span calculation enabled 61 percent of districts to make AYP in 2011-12, while only 22 percent would have made AYP without it, Eller said.

Opponents say parents are much more interested in the performance of individual schools than districts as a whole.

AYP is a key component of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools that fail to make AYP receive additional oversight and, eventually, could end up with new staffs or be shut down.

Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson.

Other reports have these added comments (Sara Satullo at the Lehigh Valley "Express-Times"):

The U.S. Department of Education refuses to sign off on Pennsylvania's unauthorized change to the way it calculates whether charter schools made state testing benchmarks.

and:

Critics of the switch Pennsylvania attempted say that it makes it easier for charter schools to make adequate yearly progress but proponents say as charter schools have grown it makes more sense to treat them like school districts.

For an individual school to make adequate yearly progress , the overall student body must score proficient or above on math and reading tests. And in schools with certain demographics of 40 or more students if one group misses one target the entire school doesn’t make adequate yearly progress. And until this year charter schools were measured the same way.

The federal Department of Education cannot approve Pennsylvania's request to treat brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools only as "local education agencies" for adequate yearly progress purposes because "Adequate yearly progress determinations would be made for each charter school as an LEA but not as a school," according to a letter provided by the state.

"Moving forward, the department will calculate adequate yearly progress for each school building in every school district and charter school, as well as for each local education agency – traditional public school district and charter school," Eller said.

The federal government is requiring Pennsylvania go back and calculate school-level adequate yearly progress results for charter schools for 2011-12 PSSA data by the end of the first semester of the 2012-13 school year. Any schools identified with problems must implement improvement plans by the start of the second semester of the 2012-13 school year.

Follow @sarasatullo

Ravitch: Expose of Charter School Corruption in Arizona

From Diane Ravitch's blog, November 20, 2012, "Expose of Charter Corruption in The New Republic":

Timothy Noah, a senior editor of The New Republic, has written a stunning expose of charter school corruption. He begins with Arizona, where the laws are so lax that self-dealing by charter executives is the rule, not the exception. Noah points out that 90 percent of charter operators are exempt from state laws requiring competitive bidding. The state has never withdrawn an exemption.

Noah bases his observations about Arizona’s Wild West of charters on investigative reporting by Anne Ryman of the Arizona Republic.

He quotes from Ryman’s article:

“The schools’ purchases from their own officials,” Ryman writes, “range from curriculum and business consulting to land leases and transportation services. A handful of non-profit schools outsource most of their operations to a board member’s for-profit company.” A nonprofit called Great Hearts Academies runs 15 Arizona charter schools. Since 2009, according to Ryman, the schools have purchased $987,995 in books from Educational Sales Co., whose chairman, Daniel Sauer, is a Great Hearts officer. And that doesn’t count additional book purchases made directly by parents. Six of the Great Hearts schools have links on their Web sites for parents who wish to make such purchases. The links are, of course, to Educational Sales Co. Since 2007 Sauer has donated $50,400 to Great Hearts. You can call that philanthropy, or you can call that an investment on which Sauer’s company received a return of more than 1800 percent. I’m not sure even Russian oligarchs typically get that much on the back end.

Oh, yes, Great Hearts Academy. This is the same Arizona-based outfit that has been turned down four times by the Metro Nashville school board because it did not have a diversity plan. Because of its rejection of Great Hearts, the Nashville schools were fined $3.4 million by Tennessee’s TFA state commissioner of education Kevin Huffman. Huffman and the governor really, really want Great Hearts in Nashville and apparently they “won’t back down” until Great Hearts has at least three or four campuses in Nashville, regardless of what the school board says. The governor and legislature are set to pass an ALEC-model law to create a commission to overrule local school boards that have the nerve to turn down a charter school.

By the way, Great Hearts Academy just got permission to open charters in San Antonio.

Noah notes corruption in Ohio and California charters, including the Adelanto Charter School, which was shut down. It will now be replaced the the nation’s very first parent trigger charter, also in Adelanto, California, which was selected by only 50 parents in a school that enrolls more than 600 children.

Keep writing, Timothy Noah.

Haimson reports: 1st mayoral ed debate / Stringer leaves 2013 mayoral race / Quinn leads / Spitzer wonders if Liu is finished

Leonie Haimson on the the forum of prospective 2013 mayoral candidates to succeed New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg: "The First Mayoral Debate on Education!," NYC Public School Parents, November 19, 2012.

Azi Paybarah, "Eliot Spitzer wonders if Liu really counts as a contender anymore," Capital New York, November 21, 2012.

Dana Rubinstein's November 18 article after the forum of prospective mayoral candidates: "On education, the mayoral candidates vie to be the un-Bloomberg, Capital New York, November 19, 2012.

Azi Paybarah, "Quinn runs up-front, with qualifications," Capital New York, November 21, 2012. Paybarah offered the main qualification the fact that the poll was taken prior to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's leaving the field. Paybarah ventured that the poll actually represented name recognition.

Azi Paybarah in Capital New York reports that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has left the tentative field for 2013 New York City mayoral competition. Stringer will contend for the comptroller position, now held by John Liu.

Paybarah Saturday surmised reasons why Stringer left the race:

Why Scott Stringer's 2013 Mayoral Campaign Ended Before 2013

There's an unobstructed view of City Hall from the Manhattan borough president's office at 1 Centre Street. But for Scott Stringer, the mayor's office was out of reach.

On Sunday, Stringer is expected to announce formally that he is abandoning his all-but-announced campaign for mayor and running instead for New York City comptroller.

Stringer is bright and well-qualified, with impeccable liberal credentials, a solid donor base and even, improbably, a stable of celebrity supporters.

But this year, as became clear to him, that wasn't enough.

The political demise of former congressman Anthony Weiner, a progressive outer-borough Jew, and the fund-raising scandal surrounding New York City Comptroller John Liu, seemingly knocked out two well-funded formidable rivals.

But Stringer, overshadowed as the Manhattan candidate by Bloomberg ally and relative establishment favorite Christine Quinn, wasn't able to capitalize.

In part, it's a function of his office, which provides a public platform but few actual powers to its occupants. (Just ask Marty Markowitz.)

But it's also just the way the field was set up.

Stringer was the only Jewish candidate, once Weiner disappeared. But that didn't guarantee him much.

Two other mayoral candidates have clearly defined prospective bases: Former city comptroller Bill Thompson drew a large amount of support from African-American and Hispanic voters four years ago and is expected to do so again. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn is the outer-borough white candidate who has strong union ties but he's also hoping to attract some black support, on the strength of his African-American wife and family and his ties to the Clintons.

And then, right in Stringer's backyard, there's Quinn.

Since 2006, Quinn has been the speaker of the New York City Council, the second highest ranking Democrat in the city. She's well-known and tacitly backed, if only as the best of the plausible mayoral options, by the mayor and the Bloomberg-adoring business establishment. Quinn will likely get more slack from many progressives for her Bloomberg ties than she otherwise would, on the basis of her background as a gay-rights activist, and her status as the potential first female or openly gay mayor of New York.

Stringer had criticized her from time to time for not providing a strong enough check against the mayor,. and from the perspective of the Democratic primary electorate, he may have had a good point. But it wasn't an argument that was going to get him where he needed to go.

Mike Klonsky: One debate over Pearson

Mike Klonsky of Chicago opens today's blog with:

In Pearson we trust. Really? But our blood is never blue.

Remember back in April, when a single insipid test question sparked the pineapple rebellion and shone a light, not only on current standardized testing practices, but on the whole testing industry and its leading profiteer, Pearson Publishing? With lives, careers and the very existence of schools hanging in the balance, we have become totally reliant on Pearson and the testing companies to measure and arbitrate truth and correctness. Even more so, with the era of the Common Core curriculum at hand. But what happens when Pearson is wrong -- either in the content of their texts or in the proscribed answers on their tests?

Check out this exchange between Chicago Science/Math Teacher Oscar Newman and Pearson.

Click to the rest of the blogpost.