Seattle Schools Community Forum

Why I love my readers?  They say the smartest (and darnest) things (about over testing):

From Diane Ravitch's blog via the group, FairTest : Today’s technical problems, which disrupted computerized testing in many Florida districts, are far from unusual. Many other states have experienced similar failures, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), which monitors standardized exams across the country. Earlier this month, the statewide testing systems in Kansas and Oklahoma both crashed. Last year, technical problems disrupted computerized exams in Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio and Oklahoma. In the recent past, new, automated testing programs collapsed in Oregon and Wyoming, requiring administration of replacement, pencil-and-paper versions. After root cause investigations, both Wyoming and Oklahoma levied multi-million dollar fines against Pearson, the same testing vendor Florida uses. Wyoming labeled the company in “complete default of the contract” and replaced it. Oklahoma let its contract with Pearson ...

Remember how I said the scores would low for Common Core assessments?  That we were warned they would be low?  This from Politico . New York released nearly 2,000 pages of data parsing the poor performance of students in third through eighth grade. In Rochester, for instance, just 5 percent of students scored proficient in math. Fewer than 9 percent of students in Syracuse passed the reading test. Statewide, just 19 percent of low-income students made the grade in language arts. From the NY Times : In New York City , 26 percent of students in third through eighth grade passed the tests in English, and 30 percent passed in math , according to the New York State Education Department.  Last year , under an easier test, 47 percent of city students passed in English, and 60 percent in math.   City and state officials spent months trying to steel the public for the grim figures. But when the results were released, many educators respon...

There has been many, many news stories out this last month that all lead me to believe that ed reform is starting to collapse.  Is it anywhere near full-collapse?  Nope and that's because there is a lot of money to be made so it will not go without a fight.  But the signs are all there.  Let's start with assessments and the posterchild that is Atlanta .  (But close on its heels is Rhee's D.C., Texas and Florida.)  What is this all about?  It's about a superintendent who wanted to make money for herself and for the administrators and teachers in her district, make a "name" for herself and the kids be damned. Today the first suspects in the Atlanta cheating scandal turned themselves in.  There are 35 educators who were indicted in a 65-count indictment last week including former superintendent Beverly Hall.  The indictments claim there was a pattern among the educators to cheat or conceal cheating or retaliate against any whistleblowers i...