Orange Co., CA H.S. Issues ID Cards Based on Test Scores

"John F. Kennedy High School Issues Illegal Student IDs Based On Standardized Test Scores (POLL)" --Huffington Post, October 6, 2011
The article begins:

An Orange County, CA high school has come under fire from state education officials after they issued student ID cards that are color-coded based on their standardized tests scores, the Orange County Register reported.

At John F. Kennedy high school, the cards come in three colors: Black, the highest level, gold, the second best, and white ... the worst.

The cards do more than just announce students' testing levels, however. The gold and black cards also give students access to a variety of discounts and campus privileges, while the white cards give none.

Los Angeles' KABC reported that some parents claim the status cards humiliate their children, after state officials have deemed them a violation of the students' privacy rights, the Anaheim Union High School District is reviewing the program.

Read the full article: "John F. Kennedy High School Issues Illegal Student IDs Based On Standardized Test Scores (POLL)" --Huffington Post, October 6, 2011

NYSUT (NY state teachers' union) wins in court decision on tests and evaluations

New York State's teachers union (New York State United Teachers, NYSUT) scored a victory on August 24, 2011 in a New York State-level court decision.
The New York City based "Chief" reported in the September 2, 2011 issue ("Exceeded Terms of NYSUT Deal: Judge Blocks State Bid to Up Teacher Test Liability) that school districts can count student test scores at the level of 40 percent of the teacher's evaluation only if the union approves.

Democratic New York State governor Andrew Cuomo opposed teachers on this one. ("Union, state battle over teacher evaluations," in "Rochester Democrat and Chronicle") He pushed for teachers to be evaluated with 40 percent of their evaluations based on students' test scores.

The over-riding principle was the collective bargaining process. The state union sued New York State in June over the evaluation formula, arguing that Cuomo was attempting to "circumvent collective bargaining." Cuomo's 40 percent formula went against the original state and teachers' union agreement that the student test scores would only use those scores for 20 percent of a teacher's evaluation. The New York State Board of Regents decided that local school districts would have the choice on using these test evaluations.

(No reaction yet from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg or city's United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew on this one.)

For more, pick up a copy of "The Chief" at the newsstand or read it at your local public library.

Diana Williams teaches Mulgrew that new rating system will lead to teaching-to-the-test

So pathetic: A broadcast journalist has to point out to United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew that the new teacher evaluation system (with plenty of observations --thanks, Ed Notes-- of what the system will mean, in action) will lead to more test-prep as "teaching":
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=7444645&pid=7444663
On Sunday, May 16, 2010, WABC-TV's Diana Williams pointed out that the new rating system, with its placing 40 percent of a teacher's evaluation on student performance on standardized test performance, will lead to more teaching-to-the-test.
The lame UFT president evaded that point.

Does anyone in the media ever consider the pitfalls of test-emphasis when so many factors are generally beyond a teacher's control, such as whether a student actually shows up to class?

Pertaining to the last point above, note these comments in reaction to a Washington Post article, "Is the public turning against teachers unions?":

if teachers had to deal less with bad parenting (behavior, morals, discipline, work ethic, etc...) and ineffective administrative practices (rules with unrealistic or little punishment, false threats, etc...) then we would be a little less "bad". i am SICK and tired of not having my students show up to school regularly, on time, with materials, and willing/ready to do any work. i guess it must be because i'm a bad teacher and has nothing to do with the fact that most of my students have no accountability nor support from home to push them to appreciate an education.

(Granted, the lower case first-person "i" doesn't look good.)

Data debunk Bloomberg administration claims of school failure and success

The New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg / Schools Chancellor Joel Klein administration is in an unprecedented fury to close down large high schools, called comprehensive high schools in the education field. The city is working to replace the schools with small schools, also called small learning communities. While the city has touted the small schools as the panacea for problems in education, academic studies and actual city data show that the city has not made improvements in students' performance.

The real "bible" for every education activist, whether the activist be a student, a parent or an educator should be NYC Schools Under Bloomberg, and Klein: What Parents, Teachers and Policymakers Need to Know. (Lulu, 2009, ISBN 978-1-56592-479-6) It has contributions by academics, education activists and journalists, Diane Ravitch, Deborah Meier, Deycy Avitia, David C. Bloomfield, James F. Brennan, Hazel N. Dukes, Leonie Haimson, Emily Horowitz, Jennifer L. Jennings, Steve Koss, Maisie McAdoo, Udi Ofer, Aaron M. Pallas, Steven Sanders, Sol Stern, Patrick J. Sullivan and Andrew Wolf.

David C. Bloomfield, a professor of Education Leadership, Law & Policy at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, contributed Small Schools: Myth and Reality to the New York City Schools. The essay indicates how private foundation money has dictated public policy. During the 2000s the (Bill) Gates Foundation dispensed $100 million into the creation of small schools in New York City. That foundation has channeled money through intermediary private foundations, the largest of these being the New Visions Foundation, as the Gates Foundation channeled $61 million to the New Visions Foundation. (Bloomfield, p. 49, 50)

The city touted "college readiness" as the sure-fire product of these conversions. Yet, huge percentage of the school graduates require remediation courses when they enter CUNY schools. Bloomfield cited the following excerpt from a study, that shows that New Century High Schools (another of the private foundations that has reshaped New York City Schools):

Examination of the Class of 2006 graduates in the two groups of schools indicates that graduates of comparison-group schools were more likely to earn a Regents diploma or Advanced Regents diploma, however, than were NCHS graduates (67 percent versus 46 percent). When the unit of comparison is students rather than graduates, however, the difference is less stark, with 41 percent of comparison-group students and 36 percent of NCHS students earning a Regents or Advanced diploma. (Bloomfield, p. 53-54)

As Bloomfield noted, this difference indicates that the New Century school students performed worse than students in the traditional high school students, as measured by receiving a Regents diploma.
He added (p. 54):

Like their large-school colleagues, most New York City small schools graduates earned so-called "local Diplomas," rather than Regents diplomas; these are so deficient that New York Sate is eliminating them because they fail to meet accepted standards of college readiness. It appears that, counter to their stated mission, the small schools are putting graduation over education without the academic rigor that [small school] advocates claim.

Remember, we are ultimately concerned with the students' long-time interests; but Bloomberg / Klein have failed with these school conversions:

Small schools students, too, have suffered from their schools' focus on reaching the administration's self-defined benchmarks rather than providing a substantive, well rounded education preparatory to post-secondary [i.e., college] opportunities. (Bloomfield, p. 55)

From Diane Ravitch's introduction to the collection of essays:

In late 2008, the Gates Foundation announced that it was curtailing support for small high schools because its own research showed that students in these schools were mot making as much progress in reading or mathematics as their peers in large high schools.

(Ravitch, p. 3)
Bloomberg made the mission of transforming the schools with the goal of making students "college-ready." The facts show that his makeover of the schools has been a failure toward the goal of college preparedness.

Bloomfield noted a study indicating that the future of a new school school does not improve over the earlier large school "unless the academic profile of incoming students is improved, a DOE contrivance well documented by Jennifer Jennings [New York University sociology professor] and Aaron Pallas [Teachers College, Columbia University professor of sociology and education]." (Bloomfield, p. 55. He pointed to "Jennings writing as Eduwonkette, 'Why Has the Education Press Missed the Boat? The Case of Small Schools,' Education Week, vol. 27, no 39, June 4, 2008 and Jennifer L. Jennings and Aaron Pallas, 'Who Attends Small Schools?,' presented at the American Educational Research Association annual conference, San Diego, CA, April 13-17, 2009.")

The New York State Report cards indicate that small schools, broken from large schools do not perform better than the traditional large schools. I have presented performance on Regents tests. Now, I recognize that authentic sophisticated learning is more than performing well on a standardized test, the test performance comparisons provide a standard measure from school to school. It is interesting that the data of "the system" or "the education establishment" do not show the small schools as performing better than the larger traditional schools.
Let's focus on the two more difficult New York State Regents tests that are mandated for all students, the Global History test and the Living Environment test. The previous passing grade was 55; for the newest graduating cohorts of students the passing grad is 65. Students that entered the ninth grade in 2007 (the class of 2011) must pass four of the mandatory tests to receive Regents diplomas. (The mandated tests are English, Math, Global History, U.S. History and Living Environment.) Local diplomas will be eliminated, beginning with the cohort of students entering the ninth grade in 2008 (the class of 2012).

Let's look at a sample of schools that have been broken into smaller learning communities, and then let's look at larger, comprehensive schools:
(The New York State Regents test data come from: https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb/Home.do?year=2008)
*Sampling of small schools, created in the 1990s and 2000s from large schools:
*Erasmus Campus (in the former Erasmus Hall High School, Flatbush, Brooklyn) Business/Technology:
(This small school-within-a-school academy is itself moving to closure; it does not have figures for the latest available year, 2007-2008)
percentages of students getting 55 and 65 scores, respectively, on tests:
Global History, 2006-2007: 66, 26
Living Environment, 2006-2007: 76, 35
*Erasmus Campus Humanities:
Global History, 2008-2008: 64, 18
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 60, 20
*(in Erasmus) Academy for Hospitality and Tourism:
Global History, 2007-2008: 60 48
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 63 37
*(in Erasmus) High School for Service and Learning:
Global History, 2007-2008: 65 48
Living Environment: 80 62
*(in the former Andrew Jackson High School, Cambria Heights, Queens) *Business/Computer Application High School:
Global History, 2007-2008: 49 29
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 85 57
*Humanities and the Arts:
Global History, 2007-2008: 80 66
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 73 46

*Traditional, larger, "comprehensive high schools" in comparable communities, central Brooklyn and east-central Queens:
*Boys and Girls High School, Bedford-Stuyvesant:
Global History, 2007-2008: 69 62
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 76 44
*Clara Barton High School, Crown Heights:
Global History, 2007-2008: 68 35
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 75 56
*Jamaica High School:
Global History, 2007-2008: 66 52
Living Environment, 2007-2008: 71 48

So this settles the issue. It will be necessary to pass four of the Regents exams with at least 65 to get high school diplomas in a few years. By New York State's own requirements, the performance scores in the small schools are not stronger than those in comprehensive high schools in comparable neighborhoods. The small schools are not meeting the challenge. So, why is there the tremendous urgency to shut down comprehensive schools and replace them with small schools? The city is publicizing so-called failures of the comprehensive schools. Why are large schools over-whelmingly the targets? Why are they not treating the small-schools or the academies-within-the schools not receiving comparable scrutiny? As I have just documented, the small schools are "failing" by New York State's own Regents requirements. Even the private foundation that engineered the makeover for small schools (the Gates Foundation) has abandoned the trend of breaking apart large comprehensive high schools.

As I have noted elsewhere on this blog, large schools afford benefits of economies of scale: music, art, performing arts, physical education facilities, including full size basketball courts or competition-ready pools, diversity of foreign languages of study, electives in English and senior year social studies, honors classes and advanced placement classes. Conversely, as Bloomfield noted, "Because of their size, small schools usually lack diverse curricula; depth in specialized faculty, particularly in math and sciences; professional guidance and college counseling; another strengths of comprehensive schools." The break-up of schools entails undue uneconomical duplication of administrative staff, not the least of which is the hiring of multiple $100,000+ principals per school building.
This break-up of comprehensive high schools is a civil rights issue; the break-up of schools has not been forced upon white or Asian communities. These school-break-ups are not happening in Forest Hills, Bayside or Midwood. These school break-ups are exclusively in African-American and Latino neighborhoods: eastern Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.

NYC Parents Blog makes case: Times is biased for Bloomberg

The New York Times is doing inadequate reporting on public education in New York City. It is the equivalent of printing press releases. It doesn't quote critics; it only quotes administration employees or consultants in the pay of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. No interviews with Leonie Haimson, Robert Jackson, Norm Scott, James Eterno or Betsy Combier.

These tests are bogus. Here's how the principals, city fix them:
1) Scrub the tests; schools grade their own tests. They should be graded outside the city.
2) Push the weak students out of being allowed into the test.
3) The tests are watered down and below grade level.

Graduation rates are not credible. The administration uses guidance counselors to weed the weaker students out of the regular population. This masks the drop-out rates. Here's a simple, but realistic assessment of the graduation rates: have state agency track the number of students entering ninth grade, and track them to 12th grade. Read Jennifer Jennings' report on graduation rates under Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein; the city's public advocate office published the report on its site.

On June 12 Elizabeth Green analyzed the math scores, beyond the hype, at Gotham Schools, citing a June 7 Daily News report, "State math exam scores have risen - but it's because tests have gotten easier" (albeit a newspaper which is biased, but less biased for the mayor). Green reproduced graphics of math tests, showing that the tests have been getting progressively easier, and she noted:

"A Daily News report this week cast doubt on the validity of the state’s math scores. A major problem the News pointed to is that the math tests seem to repeat themselves, broken-record style, making it easy for teachers to coach their students on how to give correct answers — without necessarily understanding the underlying math. A second problem is that the tests may be getting easier over time, the story said."

The Times needs to expose the blatant way that quoted pundits have direct interests in charter schools: Geoffrey Canada and Eva Moskowitz being prime examples.

NYC PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS' BLOG RESPONSE TO TIMES HYPE OF BLOOMBERG ADMINISTRATION:

August 3, 2009
NY Times falls in line with the Bloomberg PR spin control

Today’s New York Times article on the Bloomberg/Klein record on test scores is incomplete, biased, and in some cases, clearly inaccurate.

1- The article falsely claims that fourth-grade reading scores rose on the national exams called the NAEPs, whereas there has been no significant gain since 2003, when the “Children First” reforms were introduced.

2- As reported in our book, “NYC Schools under Bloomberg and Klein: What Parents, Teachers and Policymakers Need to Know,” there has been no closing of the achievement gap between racial or ethnic groups in any grade or subject tested by the NAEPs, considered by experts the "gold standard" of assessments.

3- The article fails to mention that in fourth grade math, the one area that did show a significant increase in the NAEPs, the student exclusion rate was 25 percent, far higher than any other city tested.

4- The article fails to mention that in 8th grade reading, NYC made less progress on the NAEPs than any of the nine other cities tested.

5- The article fails to quote any independent experts or point to any evidence of test score inflation on the state exams, including lower cut scores, the repetition of similar questions, or the narrowing of topics covered, as revealed in articles in the Daily News and elsewhere.

Instead, the article quotes at great length their favorite expert, Howard Everson, head of a panel assembled by the State Education Department, who says that “New York’s tests were “about as good as we can build them,” as well as Merryl Tisch, the head of the Regents, and Joel Klein himself, all interested parties who predictably claim that the results indicate actual improvements in learning.

And though the system is full of teachers and even principals who will attest to the fact that the exams have become easier over time, the reporter chooses to quote not a single one.

Given the evident bias of this article, it appears clear that the Times has been captured by the Bloomberg/Klein PR machine, and can no longer be trusted to provide objective analysis of their education record.

Ask the Times for a correction; write a letter to the editor; or email the Public Editor.
Posted by Leonie Haimson at 8/03/2009 03:44:00 PM
Labels: Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein, NAEPs, NY Times, PR spin, test score inflation, test score spin