Tuesday Open Thread
Looks like the School Board's manager, Erinn Bennett, is leaving as her job is being advertised. Rumor has it she might be the next in line for Holly Ferguson's job in Governance.
I haven't read it but the Washington Policy Center has put out a "Guide to Major Charter School Studies". The brief is not inspiring. Nowhere does it mention "peer-reviewed studies" which are the gold standard for any study. They also, right from the top, try to discredit the widely-used CREDO study. And they continue with the use of "ban" to say that Washington State "bans" charters. Show me that law. We don't allow them and that's because voters (remember us) have said - three times and we will a fourth - no.
Let's read it and we can discuss it further.
What's on your mind?
I haven't read it but the Washington Policy Center has put out a "Guide to Major Charter School Studies". The brief is not inspiring. Nowhere does it mention "peer-reviewed studies" which are the gold standard for any study. They also, right from the top, try to discredit the widely-used CREDO study. And they continue with the use of "ban" to say that Washington State "bans" charters. Show me that law. We don't allow them and that's because voters (remember us) have said - three times and we will a fourth - no.
Let's read it and we can discuss it further.
What's on your mind?
Comments
gates-funds-game-based-learning
I had a difficult time getting past "teacher's avatar."
See:
Architecture 101
Dora
Our school usually displays the classroom lists on the back doors of the school but the PTA has been told that it is against FERPA laws to do so. Instead, this year the school is mailing out post-cards. The post-cards will be put in the mail on the Thursday or Friday before the Labor Day weekend ... unless the mail is really speedy, students won't be finding out who their teacher is until Tuesday - the day before school starts.
Have other schools already switched over to mailing post-cards?
Curious in the NW
A few thoughts. I find it odd (and biased) that there is no description of what CREDO actually is or what its strengths are. Wouldn't the audience they are trying to educate need to know a little more to assess the criticisms that are highlighted? Staring off with a list of negatives really suggests that this is not an unbiased review.
Next, some of the criticisms are flat-out wrong, such as this one:
'The performance of charter school students was compared to the scores of hypothetical “virtual” traditional public school students that were invented by the study authors. Rather than comparing the performance of charter school students to their real-world traditional school peers...'
No, the controls were not *invented* by the authors! They used data from real students at real public schools who were matched to charter students on a number of variables, including scores on standardized tests from the preceding year when all students were in the same traditional schools. They *did* compare to the charter students' real-world peers! They used a matching technique similar to propensity score matching (a valid method used in epidemiology, BTW) and explain it clearly in their report.
After trying to show that CREDO is junk science, they then go on to say that 'the CREDO study still found that a large majority of charter schools, 67%, performed as well or better than...' Seriously? After telling the reader that CREDO was poorly done, they then try to spin the results in their favor? Which is it? Does it show that 67% are as good as or better than traditional schools or is the whole thing junk that should be disregarded? You really can't have it both ways.
Finally, later, they go on to say that observational studies are a gold-standard for charter school research. But guess what? CREDO is an observational study! Seriously, I can't believe they try to deny that.
Oh wait, another finally. One of their criticisms of CREDO is that it *only* used data from 15 states and therefore is not generalizable to other states, yet their list of "high quality studies" are either single-state analyses or multi-state analyses with fewer than 15 states in them! Are we to believe that this same concern about generalizability no longer exists in this cherry-picked list?
Wow, I don't know much about the Wa. Policy Center, but if this policy brief is representative of their work, I have to strongly disagree with their statement that they provide "accurate, high-quality research to policy makers..." Try again.
The Curriculum Reformation
and
commentary from Core Knowledge blog
-ED Hirsch fan
From the article:
The students left behind in some of these large districts are increasingly children with disabilities, in poverty or learning English as a second language.
Jeff Warner, a spokesman for the Columbus City Schools, said that enrollment appears to be stabilizing, but it can be difficult to compete against suburban and charter schools because of the district’s higher proportion of students requiring special education services.
In Cleveland, where enrollment fell by nearly a fifth between 2005 and 2010, the number of students requiring special education services has risen from 17 percent of the student body to 23 percent, up from just under 14 percent a decade ago, according to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
Such trends alarm those who worry about the increasing inequity in schools. “I see greater stratification and greater segregation,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Educators are concerned that a vicious cycle will set in. Some of the largest public school systems in the country are in danger of becoming “the schools that nobody wants,” said Jeffrey Mirel, an education historian at the University of Michigan.
Our school went to a slightly different model a few years ago. They used to post class lists on the door, but had to stop. Now, there's a postcard that goes out in the mail and you can ask about your child's placement at the back to school barbeque/grounds work party that's held a few days before school starts.
Reader
Solvay Girl
ITK
Eileen
10 or 12 years ago our SPS school did away with posting class lists because of security concerns. We got letters in the mail, and could ask in person at the school. No phone calls because identities could not be verified. I'm somewhat surprised the posting of class lists had survived anywhere past that point. Maybe they circled back at some point?
Can someone explain to me why Ms. Ferguson's job should be continued?
Deming stated that if a position adds nothing of value to the product or service delivered, it should be eliminated.
So what would happen if this position disappeared?
Looking at Mr Banda's past, he likely will not need someone to help him construct SBARs. Mr Banda has had a pattern of advocating for changes based on a positive track record. ... The New Technology Schools .. $800,000 give away for a defective product (horrible New Tech schools track record and false data in the SBAR) needed a complete BS SBAR ... I doubt Mr Banda will need such service.
http://yourethemannowdog.ytmnd.com/
A: John Carlson's Oompa-Loompas.
WSDWG
Callit Whatit Is
Reader
Callit
Doubtful reader
Callit
Callit
Hurrah!
Is this really a big problem? If it's critical to know your child's teacher in advance (and I would suggest that this is NOT usually the case), then just call or visit the building in mid-August, when some of the staff return, and ask directly.
Why do we need to be wasting money sending out postcards?
On the other hand, I definitely DO see the benefit in receiving the class supplies lists FAR in advance of the start of the school year, so frugal shoppers can take advantage of sales and not be in a crazy rush the day before school starts.
This is not going to be possible to put on a postcard. What's wrong with sending out a small packet with (optional) teacher placement, and a list of requested supplies and other pertinent information. It seems like we haphazardly received those letters some years and not others.
Although improving academic outcomes of American students compared to their international peers has been the focus of educational efforts of the last two presidential administrations, according to a new study released by Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, the efforts haven’t yet produced encouraging results. Over the past two decades, the American education reform movement gave birth to voucher programs, school choice, charter schools and new teacher evaluation systems that link student test results to tenure and salary decisions, but the PEPG study conclusions seem to indicate that none of these measures have had an impact on student achievement.
On top of the bad news for the US, which the study ranks at about the middle of the pack out of the 49 countries covered by the researchers, the data shows that students from countries both above and below the US are improving at double — and sometimes triple — the rate of American students.
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So instead of doing things that are proven to increase academic achievement ... the current well financed USA agenda is more crap that does not work.
Hattie's Visible Learning for Teachers lays out a direction for school improvement that is almost the exact opposite of current direction of CCSS, more testing, VAM, charters, differentiated instruction, etc. which will produce essentially zero... Until teachers are given the tools and autonomy to act in concert to improve the instructional delivery and climate for their students the centralized dictatorial directions coming from the Ed-Elites will expensively produce sub-standard results.
-- Dan Dempsey
Sick and Tired
But better a temp than somebody who could do lasting damage.
Sigh
n...
Sick and Tired
I believe that the USA could have done much better over the last score of years in regard to academic results. Publisher profits and Universities as grant recipients made out very well.
I do not believe that Economic factors are particularly significant in this report, given that a great many countries have had economic disruption.
I think the "vibrant middle class" argument is a cop-out.
Over the past two decades, the American education reform movement gave birth to voucher programs, school choice, charter schools and new teacher evaluation systems that link student test results to tenure and salary decisions, but the PEPG study conclusions seem to indicate that none of these measures have had an impact on student achievement.
Take a look at the "mathematical chaos" produced by among others the NSF. Look at the SPS math choices k-12 over the last decade.
Check out the positive results from Auburn SD elementary schools, when autonomy was put in place.
We have a Nation filled with educational fads based on ideological "never never land" thinking. .... Oh just a little tweaking and we can arrive at the end of the rainbow.
What possible excuse was there for continuing "whole language" other than Ed gurus liked it. The data was crap from the very beginning.
Look at the progression of nonsense pushed by the SPS over the last twenty years ... other districts were likely similar in this follow the leader for guidance fiasco.
Now try the fact that
social promotion" is not an effective practice. Note this result comes from an interesting large scale study of retention in Florida.
Once again read "Visible Learning" and check out the effect sizes. When practices with low effect sizes are pushed and effect sizes are ignored in making decisions..... poor results are often the result.
note: Hattie shows "retention" rather than social promotion as ill advisable ... yet in the particular case of Florida's ending of social promotion this was not the case.
Also the USA had best figure this "educational leadership business" out in the new economic reality that confronts us. Things are not likely to significantly improve financially in the future.
"To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data."
Enfield, MGJ, and Santorno were clueless ... read the action reports rationale for action.
-- Dan Dempsey
It is all part of the problem and must be part of the solution.
I agree with almost everything you post. But you have to look at the bigger picture when you start comparing systems from country to country.
n...
You might like to look at this paper re the effect of poverty on students in US schools:
Dr. David Berliner (AZ State U) explains, in excruciating detail, the stifling effects poverty has on young children, and how the money spent on testing could be much better spent ameliorating the effects poverty has on students.
It's an important read, and an exclusive preview of the yet-to-be published paper....
Nichold Final 1
n...
We aren't who we think we are anymore.
n...
Sped watcher
In the Florida study you cite, kids who were retained after third grade were required to attend summer school, were required to be placed in classes with "the most highly effective teachers" (though the authors had the good grace to note in their conclusions that they did not believe that teacher placement was a determining factor in these kids' success -- AND they were required to get an additional 90 MINUTES A DAY of reading instruction the following year.
So while it is true that social promotion wasn't working -- it is not at all clear that "merely retaining" students is what produced the positive effect (as opposed to the remedial measures, which adds up to a whopping lot of hours, when you throw summer school in as well).
I am not a proponent of retention OR social promotion. I am a huge proponent of intervention (and suspect you are too). I would love to know whether, if you took two groups of similarly "failing" students in 3rd grade, retained half of them (with the remedial interventions the authors discuss) and promoted the other half (with the remedial interventions the authors discuss), what the difference would be. Would those allowed to "remediate" without simultaneously having to handle more challenging 4th grade material do significantly better? Would those promoted think that the vote of confidence (that they could do 4th grade work, with extra help to get them caught up) do better? To me, THAT is the studey that would clarify the beneficial/harmful effects of retention vs social promotion. What this study does is clarify that if you promote (with no remediation), it is less effective than retention with significant (in excess of 300 hours of) remediation.
@DW ... our school let's each teacher create their own school supply list, hard to buy school supplies if you don't know who the teacher is until the day before school starts. Also, some kids need to be prepped a bit depending on who their teacher is going to be. Lastly, the office has said that they will not take calls or release the info in person, parents need to wait for the postcard.
I agree sending postcards is a waste of money ... why doesn't SPS just update the SOURCE the week before school starts?
Curious in the NW
Me too. Given how technology is touted as the thing these days that will reduce waste, spending, and lift all our boats, I too wonder why we can't get our SPS communications dept. to make better use of such tool. I have no idea why info as basic as this can't be streamline and deliver without so much fuss. For folks who don't have internet access, snail mail them the info along with basic supplies list, bus schedule, etc. But I guess that would take a bit of work to coordinate such thing. And this being summer and all.......
grumpy
Ten Man Brass Band
Junior All-City Marching Band (presented by Denny International Middle School, Chief Sealth International H.S., and the All-City Band)
Sumner High School Marching Band
Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder Drumline
Seattle Sounders Soundwave FC Band
Seattle Schools All-City Marching Band
It will be a fun night celebrating the best part of any parade - the marching bands. Hope to see you. Pass it on.
Band Geek
You have nailed it. "Retention alone" is nearly worthless or even worse than worthless.
At one time Seattle Schools had a "promotion/non-promotion" policy. It talked about needing skills to be promoted.... but the many interventions would be in place and implemented to help child gain acquired skills before any retention occurred.
The district never followed the policy during at least the last ten-years of its existence.
Holly Ferguson authored a ridiculous SBAR that argued the policy should be dumped because it does not work. She openly stated the policy was not being followed.
The idea of actually following the written policy was never considered. .... Typical SPS logic => ignore following a policy for a decade ... and then fault the policy.
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Speaking of grades received by students ... do they correlate with subject mastery? In middle school math in the SPS apparently not. The term read for High School math is just another sham.
The term "Ready for High School Math" is a sham ... see 2010 and 2011 data for 8th graders ready for high school math HERE.