Teacher World

I recently blogged regarding the announcement that half of the nation’s public schools failed to meet No Child Left Behind progress goals, which has added incentive for U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and others to give waivers to states allowing them to change the standards for “adequate yearly progress” in schools. One such state which plans to apply for a waiver happens to be my own home state of Ohio.

Ohio public schools did better than the nation, with 60 percent meeting federal goals during the last school year, but half of its districts failed to meet these goals.

Under current NCLB policy, all public school students are to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. To guarantee that this occurs, the federal government required states to set “adequate yearly progress” goals. Each year or every few years, these goals must be raised. Due to this practice, most states now require approximately 90 percent or more of their students to pass the state tests.

Since Ohio and Kentucky recently adopted demanding math and reading curricula and are also developing new, college-preparatory tests for students, Duncan has argued that this high bar penalizes states like these.

How bad is the problem in Ohio? Well, in the Cincinnati area, 45 percent of its public schools failed federal annual academic progress goals. The largest district, Cincinnati Public, had 67 percent of its schools fail, and the second largest, Lakota, had 9 out of 20 of its schools fail. Winton Woods had all six schools fail.

So what is the common problem within these schools? Steve Denny, the executive director of accountability for Winton Woods, says it is the schools’ diversity; he says that the more diverse the school is, the harder it is to meet federal requirements. Which makes a lot of sense.

Here’s how it works: for a school to meet federal standards, each demographic student group, or subgroup, must pass the tests. Subgroups are based on several factors including ethnicity, poverty, disability, and limited-English-speaking level of students. Schools that don’t have many of these students have few federal progress goals to meet. But, according to Denny, it only takes a few students in a subgroup to fail for the school and district to fail as well.

Janet Walsh, the district spokesperson for Cincinnati Public, explained that in the 39 schools in the district which failed to meet federal goals, learning disabilities were a factor. She went on to explain that about 5 percent of the students in the district are unable to take the regular state tests due to severe disabilities. Yet, Ohio only allows these schools to give alternative tests to one percent of its students. This means that the other four percent fail the tests.

Jeanine Molock, director of accountability at the Ohio Department of Education said, “Ohio is in a better position than most states. Our story wasn’t as dramatic as most states were reporting.” She explained that part of the reason for this is the fact that Ohio allows its schools to meet federal standards four different ways, which exceeds the chances which other states have.

First, there is the traditional way: if the required numbers of students pass their state tests, as in other states, Ohio schools can meet federal goals. However, if an Ohio school fails that, it can still pass if one of the following goals is met:

• its two-year average for passing grades meets the federal standard,
• or enough students are on a trajectory to pass tests within two years,
• or the percent of students failing declines by 10 percent from the prior year.

But, Molock said that, in spite of this flexibility, Ohio will seek a waiver from federal progress restrictions by February. Those of us who are Ohio teachers will be watching to see if our state gets a waiver, and if so, what exactly that waiver means for our schools.

low-performing schools, No Child Left Behind, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Arne Duncan, No Child Left Behind, Ohio, state achievement tests, state waivers

Education Week reported on a national survey commissioned by Common Core, a Washington-based research and advocacy group which has voiced concern for some time over the impact of No Child Left Behind on our schools’ curriculum. The results of the survey, which were released on December 8, are not all that surprising, but it is interesting, nonetheless, to hear what other teachers are feeling across the nation.

Not surprisingly, most of the random sampling of educators who were surveyed said they felt that the high-stakes testing in math and English/language arts is pushing out other important subjects from classroom instruction. In fact, about two-thirds of the 1,001 public school teachers who were surveyed specifically indicated that such subjects as art, social studies, and science are getting less instructional time than math and English/language arts.

Ninety-three percent of those surveyed said the crowding out of other subjects is due, to a large extent on the state tests. In fact, 60 percent felt that in recent years their school has devoted more time to teaching test-taking skills. And 77 percent of them felt that the extra time devoted to English and math affects all students, not just struggling students.

Lynn Munson, president and executive director of Common Core stated in a press release, “During the past decade, our public schools have focused—almost exclusively—on reading and math instruction” in an effort to make “adequate yearly progress” under No Child Left Behind. She noted that even though the federal law “clearly identifies our ‘core curriculum’ as reading, math, science, social studies, and even the arts,” many of these subjects have been “abandoned.” She concluded, “As a result, we are denying our students the complete education they deserve and the law demands.”

Interestingly however, 46 percent felt that the additional time given to English and math have improved students’ “skill and knowledge” in one or both subjects. Thirty-two percent disagreed with that statement and 22 percent were unsure.

In the survey, teachers were asked to identify which subjects they felt were specifically getting less attention. The following indicates the percent of teachers surveyed who felt the following subjects were getting less time:

• Art: 51 percent say it gets less time.
• Music: 48 percent
• Foreign languages: 40 percent
• Social studies: 36 percent
• Physical education: 33 percent
• Science: 27 percent

Other random but interesting facts include the response by 24 percent who felt that science was getting more instructional time, which is far more than any other subject besides English and math. And, oddly, 10 percent of educators surveyed thought math was taking a hit and 12 percent said English/language arts were getting less time. Go figure.

I strongly suggest that you follow this link to see the whole survey. There are some rather interesting responses regarding what the typical elementary school student, middle school student, and high school student will have done before moving on from that level of their education. I think you will find the responses very interesting.

Changes in Teaching, No Child Left Behind, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Common Core, No Child Left Behind, public school curriculum, state achievement tests

I apologize, but I feel compelled to postpone my Teach for America follow-up blog until tomorrow after hearing some late-breaking news today that I felt was so despicable that it needed to be addressed. It is the story of a former Philadelphia superintendent, Arlene C. Ackerman.

Ackerman is a Harvard graduate who, before being hired as Philadelphia’s school superintendent, had worked in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. schools. In her three year tenure in Philadelphia, Ackerman came under fire in spite of the fact that test scores in the district improved under her guidance and the graduation rate increased, improvements she was hired to bring about.

But this past summer, allegations surfaced suggesting that Ackerman both encouraged and took part in teacher-assisted cheating on the district’s standardized tests. If these allegations are true, she is guilty of knowingly and purposefully deceiving the community into thinking that progress was being made when that progress was really being fabricated and coerced.

Several unnamed teachers have admitted to cheating on these tests due to bullying and pressure from their administrators. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) But the official investigation into Philadelphia’s 2009 testing procedures has not been conclusive. This scandal naturally reflected poorly on Ackerman.

Apparently, she also bumped heads with Mayor Michael Nutter when he reneged on a no-new-taxes pledge in order to raise funds for a jeopardized kindergarten program, after she went ahead and found the needed funds without reporting to him immediately. And she also was reported to have issues with other community members and the district’s teachers union.

On August 19, an embattled Ackerman told hundreds of principals from her district who were gathered for a professional-development meeting, “Sentence me. I dare you. Or set me free. But I admit to you today that I am guilty. Guilty of just being me. Once I understood that being guilty of standing up for children was a good thing, I stood just a little taller, held my head a little higher, and I felt liberated, liberated knowing that whatever happens to me, I have touched the future of thousands of young people in Philadelphia, and for the better.”

Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But at the same time, rumors were circulating that high-ranking business leaders in the community were receiving calls asking them to donate money to a charitable education organization that would provide money to help buy out Ackerman’s contract. These donors backed out after critics criticized the deal’s lack of transparency.

On August 22, it was announced by Mayor Michael Nutter that Arlene Ackerman would be leaving the district. But she would be leaving it with a sizable severance check. Ackerman’s contract entitled her to more than $1.5 million, but in an effort to limit how much public money was spent to buy her out, she would walk away with $905,000, at the taxpayers’ expense!

Now, that is a ridiculous amount of money, I think we would all agree. So this woman, who was making a handsome $365,000 a year, walked away from a job which she apparently at the very least mismanaged, and at the very worst placed in the middle of a cheating scandal, with almost $1 million in lovely parting gifts? Does this not sound crazy to you?

Is it not ludicrous that the taxpayers of Philadelphia would still be helping to buy out her contract? To make matters worse, the district had to cut $629 million from its 2011-2012 budget, and has $35 million more to cut.

But wait! Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it was reported today that Ackerman has applied for unemployment!

No way, you say? Oh, yes! A spokesman from the district confirmed yesterday that she applied for jobless benefits and is eligible for $573 a week, the state maximum, based on her former salary.

Ackerman’s attorney claims that she qualifies for unemployment because she is now jobless and she wasn’t fired for cause. And apparently, as part of her separation agreement, the School Reform Commission agreed not to contest any future unemployment claims she might decide to file.

But many aren’t taking the news very well. One of these is Michael Lodise who is the head of the school police officer’s union. Lodise explained that he fought for months to get unemployment compensation for 120 school police officers who were laid off from their jobs in June. He eventually succeeded in getting them compensation.

Of Ackerman’s bid for unemployment, Lodise said, “These people were really hurting, really needed it. And here’s a woman with almost a million dollars, and she wants unemployment besides.  I just don’t understand it.”

I don’t understand it either. Here is a woman who claims to have been standing up for children, yet she has helped rob that district of much-needed money to provide adequate services for the children whose lives she claims to have touched. Oh, she touched them all right; while the district was entrenched in a cheating scandal and she robbed them blind! And now, she plans to pillage the unemployment agency.

It is up to the state employment compensation board to decide whether it will uphold Ackerman’s claim. Please, do the right thing and tell this woman that enough is enough!

low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Arlene C. Ackerman, cheating scandal, Philadelphia schools, unemployment claims

Teachers, how would you feel if your ability to earn a performance bonus was, in part, decided upon by the parents of the children you teach? Well, this is exactly what many school districts in the state of Idaho have decided to do. Let’s take a closer look.

Idaho is in the process of implementing broad education reforms which will require schools to award deserving teachers with performance bonuses. And about a third of their school districts will be asking parents to play a key role in the evaluation process.

To be exact, 29 school districts throughout the state are allowing parents to be an integral part of the decision regarding performance bonuses for teachers. For example, in the Challis district in the central Idaho countryside, teachers will be required to be in contact with each of their students’ parents at least twice every three months in order to remain eligible for bonuses.

Let’s explore that requirement for just a moment. My first question is whether this means that teachers who have more than one group of students which they teach would be required to make contact with the  parents of all of the students they teach the same number of times as an elementary teacher with just one class? Let’s just do the math for a moment. I team teach with another teacher, and together we have 57 students. If we each had to call all of those students’ parents two times every three months, that would mean 114 phone calls. If we stretched those phone calls over approximately 90 days, we would have to make 1 to 2 phone calls daily, along with all of our other duties (and there is no way of knowing how long these calls will take). I don’t even want to consider mathematically what this would mean for high school teachers.

My second question is this: When do you think you are most likely to reach the majority of your students’ parents? The evening, right? Most of our parents work and can only be reached in the evening when teachers are home with their own families. Now, these teachers in Idaho are expected to make school-related phone calls from their home on a regular basis? Is that fair to their own families? This would not only cut into their time with their family but would also cut into the time they set aside for grading and planning at home for school. And what about those parents who, for whatever reason, you are never able to reach? You have to keep calling repeatedly in the hopes that you are able to reach them twice in that 3-month period? And what if there are some parents, try as you may, that you just can’t reach? Does that take you out of the running for bonus pay? Seems very unfair to me.

In the farming town of Gooding, Idaho, near the Challis district, some teachers will receive 25 percent of their bonus pay if they can somehow get enough (not sure what is considered enough) of their parents to attend three meetings throughout the course of the academic year. Challis Superintendent Colby Gull told the Associated Press, “We’re a really little town in the middle of nowhere. Parents are pretty involved in what’s going on. But we wanted to get them more involved in the academic side of the school.”

Now, maybe in a small farming town this is a little easier for teachers to accomplish, but is this a fair expectation of teachers everywhere? Should teachers really be placed in a position of coercing their students’ parents to attend school meetings? I think this crosses the line, and I would be very reticent to contact parents to persuade them to do anything other than to ask for their help with an issue I am facing regarding their child.

Jeanne Sager, a parent and writer of The Stir, wrote, “In Idaho, a teacher’s raise could be rated on how many parents show up for conferences or how many parents return paperwork sent home. To me, that’s just bizarre. It’s not her (or his) fault if some parents don’t take an involved role in their kids’ education. As far as I can tell, going to a house to kidnap a parent, then carting them into a school building is still a felony!”

RiShawn Biddle at Dropout Nation says to get used to it. “Accepting families as lead decision-makers in education” is critical to addressing America’s education crisis. Parents aren’t “nuisances and enemies” — they’re a necessary part of any successful school.

I have had some wonderful, highly-involved parents over the years who have helped in the classroom, supported their child’s education, attended every parent-teacher conference and PTA meeting, and been an integral part of their child’s educational experience. On the flip side, I have had parents who have ignored my phone calls, emails, and letters home to come in for a conference, who never look at their child’s assignment book or help in any way with their child’s homework, who don’t even leave a working phone number in the office in order to contact them in case of an emergency, and who have the audacity, given the fact that they have rarely, if ever, even set foot in the school, let alone my classroom, to tear public education down in general and teachers down specifically.

Do I want parents to be a factor in determining my pay? The good ones, yes, the uninvolved ones, no way! Unfortunately, teachers will not be able to pick and choose which parents will be questioned. And if you don’t think that will influence how teachers teach and how they discipline the children in their classrooms, you are sorely mistaken. To please parents, teachers will have to please their children, and that is not always possible, especially when dealing with children who have behavior or academic issues.

As Jeanne Sager writes:”… some parents are more than happy to go on the attack because they don’t get what they want: flawless teachers who have personal time for every student and their parents. Now add in the parents who are always convinced their kid is right 100 percent of the time (we all know at least one). Plus the parents who start out every year convinced teachers have it easy because they have summers off. Oh, and we might as well throw in the parents who heard from a friend of a friend that this teacher did X, but have no real idea.”

“If these parents all get a say, what does that do to a teacher? More importantly, what does it do to a classroom? Suddenly the teacher has to decide whether or not she disciplines the class brat because she has to worry that his parents are determining her paycheck! And she’s spending more time on the phone trying to coerce parents to show up than actually teaching your kid 3 + 3.”

And the last piece of bad news for teachers in Idaho is this: One hundred five school districts and charter schools have written their own merit-pay plans so far, which use an assortment of benchmarks. Some of these include graduation rates, student attendance, and writing assessments. Fifty districts and charter schools in the state decided to comply with the state’s plan, which attaches bonuses to standardized test scores. And since teachers across the state will have to meet Idaho’s goals, test scores will be the one common factor upon which all teachers will be judged for performance bonuses.

Educational Reform, Merit Pay for Teachers, state achievement tests, teacher evaluations, Teacher-World's Blog Idaho's education reform, Jeanne Sager, teacher evaluations, Teachers' Perfomance bonuses

New York’s Department of Education has suggested some measures to make it harder for cheating to occur on state achievement tests, a necessary step since the outcome of these tests effect the futures of students, the ratings of public schools, and teachers’ careers. We need only look back at what happened in Atlanta and several other districts to be reminded of what happens when the ambition to procure high test results overrules integrity and reason.

With the recent prosecution of a college student who was accused of using a fake ID in order to take SAT college board exams for six of his friends, the revoking of eight Atlanta teachers and three school administrators teaching licenses for cheating, and investigations of cheating in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., New York’s Department of Education has recognized the necessity of dealing with this serious issue.

The report issued to the state Board of Regents targets cheating which occurs during the administration and scoring of Regents exams by students, teachers, and administrators. (Incredibly, it seems that in New York, teachers are involved in the process of scoring their own students’ exams. Now that is a recipe for disaster if ever there was one.)

The report zeroed in on “erasure analysis” since spot checks regarding wrong to right erasures on tests in seven unnamed schools noted “a statistically improbable grouping of scores” statewide which were just above the passing mark.

And records which were released on October 21 to The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Law request which was submitted in July uncovered an increasing apprehension regarding teachers prompting their students toward the right answers or inflating test scores. This was especially true with tests near the 65-percent passing mark.

Another issue mentioned in the state records provided to The Associated Press showed the difficulty for the state Department of Education to prove incidents of cheating when they operate with such a small staff. Many of these cases entail the erasing of wrong answers to correct answers with no direct evidence of what prompted students to make the changes in the first place; were they changing them on their own after careful consideration or were they being encouraged by someone else to change them?

The occurrences of cheating on these exams have caused frustration to both parents and students because sometimes all of the scores have been expunged due to cheating. This forces all students to retake the exams in the summer of the following year, whether they were cheating or not.

The report sent to the state Board of Regents on October 17 sets education policy and keeps the state from trailing most states in efforts to combat cheating, as they have been doing. It puts them on course toward taking and scoring Regents exams on computers by 2014, allowing faster analysis of answers and allowing teachers to score tests from other counties within their states. This would potentially mean that teachers would not score their own students’ tests, thus removing the temptation to cheat. 

Additional changes recommended by New York’s Department of Education, as reported by Education Week, include:

• Spending more than $2 million in the 2012-13 budget to spot check more Regents exams and move to greater analysis of all Regents exams and their scoring.
• Prohibiting most teachers from scoring their own students’ exams, although some benefit was seen in allowing teachers to be present during testing and proctor their students’ tests.
• Retaining tests for more than one year, as now required, for potential investigations.
• Moving to “centralized scanning” of multiple-choice questions to better spot possible cheating. New York is unique in relying on local scoring, “and significant investments have been made at the local level to develop infrastructure.” That includes assigning teachers to scoring duties and hiring substitutes to cover their classes.

state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Board of Regents, cheating on state tests, New York's Department of Education, Regents exams

Yesterday, I was at my beauty salon getting my hair done and had to spend some of that time under the hair drier, so I picked up a People magazine that was sitting there to kill the time. Little did I know that during those 15 minutes, I would enjoy one of the most inspirational stories I have ever read. And I knew that I would have to share this awesome story with all of you. So, sit back as I tell you about Sherrie Gahn, and when I do, I hope you will feel free to let the tears flow just as I do every time I listen to this truly remarkable woman.

Sherrie Gahn is the principal of Whitney Elementary in Las Vegas, a district where nearly 85% of her students are homeless. In a city with 12.1 % unemployment, the highest foreclosure rate in the whole country, and one out of every nine households receiving foreclosure notices, things are pretty bleak.

“When they leave here on a daily basis, we don’t know where they’re going. Their environment changes every day. Some days they may live in an apartment, some days they’re living in a hotel/motel, some days they may be on the streets. We don’t know where they’re going to go,” said Sherrie.

“I thought that I saw the ultimate poverty when I got here eight years ago and every year it has gotten worse and the recession made it ten times worse.”

She told CBS News, that the life-changing moment for her was when she saw kids stuffing ketchup packets into their pockets. When she asked the staff at the school why the children were taking ketchup packets home, she was told that they take them home so that they can eat that night by making ketchup soup for dinner.

This is when she realized that she had to do more than just make sure these students were learning. As she explained, she had to give these children self-esteem and a sense of safety.

“My goal was, if I can take that off their plate; if I can make them come to school and feel safe, and warm, and they have clothes, and just like any other child, and they’re on the same level playing field as any other child in school, then they can learn. I guess it’s sort of that fairy tale that, you know, you go to school and you get a new backpack, you get new clothes. Christmas, you get presents, and at birthday you get presents and a cake. And these kids don’t get that. It’s huge. It’s your self-esteem. It’s who you are. So, I decided to do it. I decided to give them those things,” she tearfully explained.

Gahn said, “I told the parents that I would give them whatever they need. All I need them to do is give me their children and let me teach them. In turn, I will give you food and clothes and we will take them to the eye doctor. I will pay your rent, pay your utilities, but keep your child here.” She said she agreed to do all of these things, “as long as you give me your child, and then help raise that child as a person of character.”

Due to the daily donations of local businesses and 500 donors, children at Whitney Elementary School get free clothes, free bread to take home to their families, and even free haircuts. Due to a functioning food bank staffed by several volunteers, students get food to take home on the weekends as well.

Additionally, the school has provided financial assistance to families who have overdue bills, have helped families keep their homes, have helped students to get the glasses they need, and have even, according to Shirley Hernandez, whose grandchildren go to school at Whitney, given families what they needed to have a Christmas.

Aside from the most obvious impact that Sherrie and her host of donors and volunteers have had on this community, students have also made gains academically. Test scores have doubled in reading proficiency on state standardized tests since Sherrie became the principal, a result, she says, of students’ needs being met and the new hope that her students have for their future.

“They have food in their bellies that they would not have had, they have clothes on their back they wouldn’t have had and for the first time someone believes in them. It’s beyond food and clothing,” she said.

Of the children who have been placed in Sherrie’s care, she says, “This does not define who they are. They can be better. And if I can give them that, and teach them that, and show them that, then I’ve done my job.”

And she makes them this promise, “I tell every fifth grade class, if you make it through junior high, and you make it through high school, and you can’t afford to go to college, you come see me, and I’ll make sure you go to college.” She went on to tell CBS News that the school has a small trust fund that has been started for just this purpose.

When CBS asked her what her success rate is, she tearfully said, “The look in their face that I made their life better. That’s my success rate when they hug me and thank me for the food, the clothes. Then I know it’s a good day.”

Sherrie recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show where she was awarded a $100,000 check from Target for the children at her school, and each child received a backpack with reading materials to help these students improve their reading skills. Those of you who are interested might want to send a donation to help this amazing woman help her amazing children. Or if you would like to make a more significant, long-term commitment, you might want to consider adopting a class and working alone or with a group to fulfill a classroom’s needs. If so, follow this link.

This is the ultimate example of service and dedication, and the impact that this woman, her staff, and volunteers are making in this impoverished community is truly inspirational! Bless you, Sherrie, and bless these children whose lives you are transforming!

state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Ellen DeGeneres, homeless, impoverished, Las Vegas, Principal Sherrie Gahn, Whitney Elementary

Finally, the Senate education committee approved a bipartisan rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act this Thursday, which will continue to face huge opposition as it moves forward. Some of that opposition will likely come from civil rights and business leaders who feel it is a step back on student accountability and from Republican lawmakers who are likely to say that it does not take away enough federal control of K-12 education.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and lead engineer of this bill, is hopeful that it can be brought to the Senate floor for a vote before Christmas, which would derail President Obama and Arne Duncan’s plan to offer state waivers from integral parts of the current law.

This bill would continue the system of testing students as they are currently tested in grades 3 through 8 and in high school, as well as continuing to provide achievement data for a variety of student subgroups. Some of these subgroups include students with disabilities, racial minorities, and English-language learners.

But, at the same time, this bill would significantly scale back the accountability system which was an integral part of the old NCLB legislation and had won such huge bipartisan support in 2001. The panel’s bill would also (as reported by Education Week):

* Do away with Adequate Yearly Progress
* Halt federally-directed interventions except for the lowest-performing schools and those with continual achievement gaps between low-income
* Based in part on the administration’s regulations for the School Improvement Grant program, it would spell out a series of federal interventions for turning around these lowest-performing schools
* Require states to create college-and-career standards, and although almost every state has already joined the Common Core State Initiative, they would not be required to do so
* Restructure the Department of Education, consolidating it into 40 programs from its current 82

During the panel’s discussions, multiple amendments were filed which provide some insight as to the hot issues that will be debated when this goes to the Senate floor. One of these includes Sen. Michael Bennet’s amendment requiring states to set performance targets which would include setting goals to move all students to proficiency by 2020 and cutting the achievement gap in half within various student subgroups. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., disagreed, arguing that such an amendment would be a “back-door way” of maintaining the AYP yardstick which has been widely ridiculed as an assessment tool.

Strangely, some of the debate has brought some interesting agreements between some very unlikely groups. For example, Sen. Harkin’s draft version of the bill which was released on Oct. 11, called for states to devise teacher evaluations which would take student achievement into account. However, Republicans on the committee disagreed, saying this would be a federal mandate dictating what should be a state and local issue. This was an argument that the National Education Association was on board with, as they also felt this provision was a federal intrusion.

Another issue that the NEA and GOP agreed on was one that would allow states to tender their own plans for turning around the lowest-performing schools to the U.S. secretary of education.

On the other hand, this issue brought heated debate between Democrats and Republicans. Sen. Alexander argued that his amendment would give states the opportunity and flexibility to create a turnaround plan that would best work in their circumstances making it more effective than the one spelled out in the bill.

However, seven Democrats on the committee voted this amendment, which passed unanimously by Republican members, down. Clearly, this will be a hot topic on the Senate floor, which is not surprising as it relates to how much federal control there should be in state and local affairs.

Some of the amendments that were accepted include:

* An amendment allowing students in the lowest-performing 5% of schools in a state to transfer to better-performing schools
* An amendment that would require new principals coming into turnaround schools to have a background in school improvement
* An amendment giving states the choice of using computer-adaptive tests for accountability purposes under the law
* An amendment to provide competitive grants to recruit and train principals to lead turnaround schools

Some amendments which were rejected include:

* An amendment which would have permitted teachers to be considered “highly qualified” only if they complete a state-approved traditional or alternative teacher-preparation program, or pass a meticulous state-approved teacher-performance assessment, and earn certification in their particular subject matter
* An amendment to do away with the approval for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which aids communities in developing cradle-to-career services

Several amendments were offered, but later withdrawn dealing with highly qualified teacher provisions, continuous improvement of schools, and scrapping authorization for the Race to the Top program, providing an interesting  preview of what is to come when this committee’s bill hits the Senate floor.

Educational Reform, low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog AYP, ESEA, highly qualified teachers, lowest-performing schools, No Child Left Behind, Senate committee, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin

I have a very intriguing story to tell you about a small, rural community that seems to be outperforming both American students from wealthier schools and students in developed countries around the world. So, what do they do that makes them so successful? Well, let’s take a look.

First, let me introduce you to the rural Waconda Lake area in North Central Kansas. The Waconda school district is made up of four small towns: Cawker City, Downs, Glen Elder, and Tipton, with seven schools that are spread over a 411 square mile area. The people in the community either work in agriculture or manufacturing. This is a quiet, agricultural community, whose best known local landmark is an enormous ball of twine, which they claim is the largest in the world.

But their real claim to fame is more academic, according to The Global Report Card, which was published in Education Next. According to this recent report, the average student, in this district of 385 students, scores better than 90% of students in 20 developed countries on their math and reading tests, and it is the second highest performing school district in math in the U.S., in spite of the fact that 65% of its children live in poverty.

Jeff Travis, the district’s superintendent for seven years, reported that 65% of the students in the district qualify for free or reduced lunches through the federal government. And yet, unlike other high poverty schools in our nation which tend to produce low test scores and high dropout rates, this district has risen above its poverty level and is outperforming affluent school systems.

What, I’m sure you’re wondering, does this district do to be so successful? Travis suggests that one possible theory is that the kids at Waconda have no realization that they are materially deprived. . “North Central Kansas is rural, and urban poverty is kind of different [from] rural poverty,” he said. “A lot of our people don’t even understand that they’re living in poverty.”

There are no students who need English learning classes, and most of them are white, according to state data. Travis also said that about 10% of the students are in foster homes. “We just [have] a lot of adults that care about kids, so it’s been a popular thing for parents to take in foster children,” he explained.

Travis also attributed their success to the simple matter of expectation. He said that after years of earning high test scores, it has become an expectation in the community that their students will excel. He said that in most years, no one drops out of high school! Imagine that! Additionally, over the past four years, the district has earned 14 Governor Achievement Awards and one national “Blue Ribbon Award School.”

Travis said, “It’s a tradition now, and they expect themselves to do well. Like a ball team that continues to win because of a tradition, we have an academic tradition. Everybody’s pretty happy [but] nobody understands how big a deal it is.”

He attributes three essential factors to the district’s great success. First, is the tremendous amount of parental involvement which occurs in these schools. Almost every parent attends their child’s parent-teacher conferences at the elementary level, and Travis says the participation is still very high in the older grades.

The second factor, according to Travis, is small class sizes. He explained that the district is committed to keeping classes from pre-kindergarten to third grade very small. With only 12 to 15 students in each class, he said, “We get to a lot of problems quickly and early in child development,”

The third factor is the district’s assessment card which follows each student from grade to grade. This is a card, created by the district, which lists the skills that the state expects children to master in each subject. These cards are updated by teachers all the time, which gives them a good idea of what they need to work on in order to pass their state standardized tests.

In spite of national education reform movements which advocate linking teacher pay to student test scores, Travis said that their district doesn’t keep up with these education trends. “We don’t believe in the next biggest thing or the next biggest theory. We’ve not made any major changes.”

But the news in Waconda is not all good; like districts everywhere, they face funding challenges. About 10% of their staff positions have been cut over the past few years due to budget cuts, and the average teacher only makes about $40,000, making theirs the lowest teaching salary of any district in their state. Travis acknowledged, “It’s going to get tougher as we go.”

Travis also shared that the district faces an additional challenge; many of the high-achieving students go to Kansas City rather than staying in their home towns.  “It’s where the services and the goods and fun are,” he said. But they do what they can to encourage them to come back after college by challenging them to design a small business plan for the area.

While one of the authors of The Global Report Card said that the small size of this district may have slightly skewed the results of their research, it is pretty clear to me that this district has something really awesome going on. And I think that Travis hit the nail on the head when he said that the community expects that its students will do well, and the parents are actively involved.

I wonder how many districts can say the same thing. Maybe education reform is more about attitude, expectation, and community involvement. Maybe this little community has a thing or two to teach us all…

Educational Reform, High Caliber Schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog high performing district, Kansas, poverty level, state standardized tests, Waconda school district

The Los Angeles Unified School District has been under scrutiny for 19 months while they underwent a civil rights investigation. On October 11, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the investigation showed the district created wide academic disparities since it has failed to provide an equal education to English-learners and black students.

The district agreed to resolve these disparities through various methods, and Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who revealed the agreement at a news conference which was held at LAUSD headquarters, said that the plan would ensure that every student in this school district, the second largest in the nation, would receive the same academic opportunities “regardless of race or national origin.”

Duncan said that he was encouraged by the district’s willingness and sense of urgency in voluntarily agreeing to resolve the disparities rather than waiting to be ordered to do so, especially since these issues are “incredibly complex and politically charged.”

“Though we still have a long way to go before we see that English learner students and African-American students are consistently getting what they need to perform up to their fullest potential, I’m confident today’s agreement will help address the causes of concern that prompted our review,” he said.

While Duncan did not say that students’ civil rights were being violated and didn’t reveal detailed results of the investigation, a statement by the Education Department made it clear that it will monitor whether the district is complying with the agreement until educational codes are being met.

This agreement resulted from a “compliance review” by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which was disturbed by wide achievement gaps between the district’s lowest performing student groups as compared to other students. For example, according to the district’s 2009-10 report card, only 5% of English language learners at the high school level ranked as proficient in either English or math. As for black students, 32% ranked as proficient in English and 9% in math. Yet, the overall district average was 37% in English and 17% in math.

John Deasy, the superintendent of LAUSD, acknowledged that disparities existed and worked with federal officials to reach a solution. The district will have to find ways to fund the measures as the plans for specific areas are developed.

A huge problem with this district’s English-language program is that it has allowed non-native speakers to stay in English-learning programs for years, sometimes through their whole school career, without ever meeting the criteria to move out into mainstream classrooms. As a result, many students have either fallen behind their grade level or dropped out of school in frustration. For example, in the 2009-2010 school year, only 14.4% of English learners were reclassified as fluent.

The district has now agreed to revamp this program by the next school year, placing special emphasis on high school students who haven’t been considered proficient in English, so that they will be able to take the courses they need to in order to graduate. This will be a challenge, as the district has the highest number of English-learning students in the United States.

Under this new agreement, English-learners will receive grade-level courses, teachers will be trained to work with multiple English-proficiency levels, and special education teachers will also receive English-instructional materials.

And there is a component in the program which targets black students in an attempt to boost their “academic language proficiency” beginning in elementary grades.

Three other areas of concern with the investigation were the findings that black students are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs but overrepresented in suspensions and disciplinary actions. Additionally, the investigation revealed that schools with predominantly black populations lack appropriate technology and library resources.

The district said it will work to resolve these disparities with evaluations for gifted and talented programs which are fairer for black students and fairer decisions regarding disciplinary actions. (It is a mystery to me how they will achieve this without letting students into gifted and talented programs who don’t really belong, just to pad the numbers, and decreasing the severity of disciplinary action so that there are less suspensions.) They also agreed to provide more computers and increase library book collections in schools that have a high black population. (I wonder where they will find the funds for that expenditure.)

Although no details were revealed, the agreement called for a school-based community pilot program to be launched in an African-American neighborhood which would provide health and social services for the community.

The president of the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, Warren Fletcher, praised the Education Department for shedding a light on the areas that need improvement, while at the same time pointing out that the district has laid off more than 1,200 teachers and has closed libraries in several of its schools.

Of the agreement, Fletcher commented, “It’s very general. We have to see how those services are going to be provided.”

As I read this article, I could not help but feel frustrated, as I’m sure those who teach in these schools are feeling, too. As usual, the fingers are pointing at the school district, but how does a district in the heart of Los Angeles cope with the problems of a big city, a huge non-English-speaking population, all of the challenges of city life with drugs, gangs, and violence, less government funding for sorely needed programs, a massively reduced teaching staff resulting in bigger class sizes, and now, more demands with no additional resources to meet those demands?

The school district is failing these students because the city is failing these students. Fix the problems in the surrounding neighborhoods, and the schools will be free to do what they are there to do; teach its students, not fix its students.

Funding Education, low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Arne Duncan, Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, LA Unified School District, minority students, U.S. Department of Education

Recent reports out of Atlanta concerning the teachers and administrators found guilty in our nation’s biggest school cheating scandal ever hit the news yesterday. And while it was the news most of us were probably hoping to hear, it couldn’t have been worse news for those who were involved.

If you recall, it was The Atlanta Journal-Constitution which first drew attention to statistically improbable test scores by students who attend Atlanta Public Schools last year. Its claims led to the state releasing audits of test results after the newspaper published its own analysis. This launched an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation which determined that at least 178 teachers and administrators were involved in this mammoth cheating scandal.

The GBI reported that under a cloud of “fear and intimidation” educators gave answers to students on their state achievement tests, changed the answers on tests, used nonverbal cues to get students to change wrong answers, and so on. Principals in these schools were usually the ones who encouraged and even orchestrated the cheating. Teachers who were not involved and tried to report the cheating faced retaliation and punishment. Some even lost their jobs.

Yesterday, a Georgia state commission voted to revoke the teaching licenses of eight of these teachers and three school administrators, implementing the first round of sanctions in what has been a horrific educational travesty.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission voted on this, the first batch of cases that stem from the GBI probe which was released in July. This probe revealed that widespread cheating had occurred in almost half of the district’s 100 public schools dating back as far as 2001. By the end of the year, it is expected that the commission will rule on all 180 teachers and administrators who were involved in the cheating scandal.

The eight teachers who lost their licenses can reapply for licensure in two years, if they choose to do so, but the administrators’ revocations are permanent. The ruling can be appealed up through state administrative and the Fulton County Superior Courts in the Atlanta area, and some of these cases may take years to be finally resolved under the appeals process.

Kelly Henson, head of the licensing agency, said, “These are 11 cases we felt like had compelling evidence to give to the commission. Education is the most honorable profession, and part of our job is to protect not only the students, but the integrity of the institution.”

Names of the educators who were sanctioned were not released by the commission, as it was noted that they have 30 days to appeal the commission’s decision.

Educators who have been named by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation could also face criminal charges as investigations continue in Fulton and DeKalb counties in the greater Atlanta area.

The state probe led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General and the Georgia Department of Education. They say that the district may owe thousands in federal money for low-income schools that have high test scores.

And investigators for the state also concluded that the superintendent at the time of the cheating scandal, Beverly Hall, who just happened to retire right before the results of the probe were released (does anyone think that was a coincidence?) either knew that cheating was going on or at least should have known what was happening in the district she was hired to serve. From the start, Hall has denied any allegations of involvement and apologized for not doing more to prevent what was happening.

Finally, as if all of this isn’t bad enough, the district is awaiting a decision regarding the possibility that it may lose its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and School over issues with its school board. The national agency had placed the district on probation in January due to these problems and is expected to rule on whether to revoke their accreditation completely in the coming weeks.

With all of the turmoil this district continues to face, I want to send out a heartfelt message to those who work in these shell-shocked schools to hang in there, and show a watching nation what truly dedicated teachers and administrators can do under extreme pressure.

low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog accreditation, Atlanta Public Schools, cheating scandal, Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Georgia Professional Standards Commisssion, licenses revoked, state achievement tests