NYT: Looking for Opinions on Excess Testing

The New York Times is asking for readers to respond to this letter to the editor.   Responses will be published in the NYT Sunday Dialogue:

Invitation to a Dialogue: An Excess of Testing  

Published: July 17, 2012

The writer, Stephen Krashen, is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. 

 In his opinion, The mediocre performance of American students on international tests seems to show that our schools are doing poorly. But students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in the world on these tests, which means that teaching is not the problem. The problem is poverty.

What do you think?  Comments welcome here and to the New York Times:

E-mail:letters@nytimes.comSTEPHEN KRASHEN

Education Reform for Children Living in Poverty

I wonder when education policy makers will address the effects of poverty on student outcomes? 

I found this compelling and frightening article in Valerie Strauss's column, the Answer Sheet.

Posted at 01:50 PM ET, 07/17/2012

The hard bigotry of poverty: Why ignoring it will doom school reform

by Brock Cohen, a teacher and student advocate in the Los Angeles Unified School District who contends that we can no longer afford to trivialize the critical role that poverty plays in a child’s learning experiences – and that true school reform begins with social justice

Get Ready for the Pennsylvania Keystone Exams

Are you aware of the new assessment requirements (standardized tests) for students in PA?  And the new graduation requirements for children graduating in 2015?

The changes will begin this school year.  PA Department of Education has released a proposed plan for transitioning to the new PA State assessment standards including the Keystone Exams.

According to the PA Department of Education's Standards Aligned Systems (SAS) website:

The Commonwealth’s new graduation requirements will help guarantee that a Pennsylvania diploma reflects the skills and knowledge graduating students need to be successful in college and the workplace. These requirements will allow districts to ensure students – beginning with the class of 2015 – are meeting state standards. Through the SAS site, the Pennsylvania Department of Education will provide downloadable resources to guide planning and implementation, customizable tools and templates to help educators better inform parents and students, and general information and frequently asked questions concerning the new graduation requirements, including the Keystone Exams.

You may want to bookmark the SAS website where you can find information on Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Keystone Exams, PA Assessments and even podcasts.

What changes can you expect for this 2012-2013 school year?  Here is a link to the Proposed Transition Plan from the PA Department of Education: (note- the transition plan is 6 pages into the document)

PA Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Carolyn Dumaresq Presentation taken from July 13, 2012 Education Policy Leadership Center Notebook


Do you believe that additional testing will better prepare our children for life after high school?

Should Substitute Teachers Be Held to the Same Standards?

Putting my Special Education hat on today to comment on this article:

Substitute Teaching Undergoes New Scrutiny

By Jaclyn Zubrzycki Education Week Published Online: July 17, 2012

11:58 AM on July 17, 2012, My reply:

Substitute teachers are of particular concern to me because my child has special needs and is fully included in the general ed classrooms. When a substitute is there, his accommodations and modifications (legally required to be followed in accordance with his IEP) are rarely followed.

Education Cartoon Break

While searching goggle for an education cartoon this morning, I stumbled upon this blog by Joe Bower a teacher in Canada.  Gotta love this.......

Read More: for the love of learning: Best. Education cartoon. Ever.: June 13, 2012

"Imagine the student who is in our class and is constantly distracted by the real world." 

PA Legislation Mandates Change in Teacher Evaluation Process for 2013-2014

PA House Bill 1901 (Act 82 of 2012) approved by PA Governor Tom Corbett on June 30, 2012 replaces the old system of teacher evaluation (satisfactory or unsatisfactory).

Source: PA Dept of Education, Pennsylvania's State Assessment System, Proposed Transition July 2012  from the Education Policy and Leadership Center. 

If you live in Pittsburgh you must be wondering how this law might effect the teacher furlough process. According to the current collective bargaining agreement between the Pittsburgh Public School District (PPSD) and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers (PFT), teacher furloughs are based strictly on seniority.

You may recall, on April 25, 2012, the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors passed a resolution that called for the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Linda Lane, to talk to the Union leadership (due to anticipated furloughs of about 20% of the teaching workforce):

"to improve the current furlough process for teachers in order to consider factors beyond seniority in light of the growing body of evidence around teacher effectiveness as well as the disproportionate impact that seniority-based furloughs have on the district's most vulnerable schools."

Read the article by Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, July 3, 2012 12:44 pm: School board wants end to seniority-based layoffs

The controversial resolution caused an uproar in Pittsburgh with teachers, parents, organizations quickly taking sides: Union vs. the District, pro-seniority vs. anti-seniority.  The Union and the District each took a hard stance on either side of the issue (yes, this is the same Union and District that received national recognition for working together to create the Empowering Effective Teachers plan funded with $40 million dollars by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).

Many argued that for three years PPSD utilized a system developed collaboratively by PPSD and PFT to measure effective teachers, the Researched-based Inclusive System of Evaluation (RISE). In addition, PPSD has available data from two other research-based measures of effective teaching, Value Added Measures (VAM) and the Tripod Student Survey.  Furlough decisions then, in addition to seniority, must consider these data to identify the District's lowest performing teachers.    

Others argued that the collaboratively designed effective teacher measurement system, RISE, was developed only to improve teacher practice, not as criteria for furlough decisions.  William Hileman, Vice-President of the PFT, wrote an editorial (Pittsburgh Post Gazette July 3, 2012 12:44 pm) to convince readers that,

"Teacher-effectiveness measures are not yet adequate to guide layoffs in Pittsburgh"

Read more: Overturning teacher seniority would hurt students

Now, all PA public school teachers, with the exception of Charter School teachers (more about this in last week's post: Charter Schools have a pass), beginning in the 2013 school year will be evaluated based on a system of teacher performance measures instead of their old system of satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance.

For more information, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has published a list of FAQ's (here).  There is no mention of using teacher evaluation measurements as criteria to determine furloughs.

Do you believe this legislation will lead to a change the PPSD teacher furlough process prior to the next collective bargaining agreement due on June 30, 2015?

Highly Effective Teachers are Not Enough

Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Empowering Effective Teachers Program, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes to increase student achievement by ensuring that there is a highly effective teacher in front of every student.

Others have noted that other factors create barriers for children to succeed in our public schools.  

This column by Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund highlights one such obstacle,

"Millions of children in America are denied the opportunity to receive a fair and high quality education. In March, the U.S. Department of Education released new information showing that children of color face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous course offerings, and are more often taught by lower paid and less experienced teachers."

Read the full column here: CHILD WATCH® COLUMN: "AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS: STILL UNEQUAL AND UNJUST"