Monthly Archives: August 2007

by | August 28, 2007 · 7:37 pm

Teaching to the Test

Sherman Dorn has a good post on the new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of public attitudes towards public education.

Excerpt:

My nomination for most significant result is from Table 14, asked of those who agreed in a prior question that “standardized tests encourage teachers to ‘teach to the test,’ that is, concentrate on teaching their students to pass the tests rather than teaching the subject.” The majorities answering yes to that first question (in Table 13) haven’t changed much between 2003 (when 68% of public-school parents and 64% of adults without children in school said yes, standardized testing encouraged teaching to the test) and 2007 (with 75% and 66% of each group saying testing encouraged teaching to the test).

While a clear majority has always seen testing as encouraging teaching to the test, American adults have changed their mind on whether that is good or not. In 2003, 40% of surveyed parents with children in public schools thought that teaching to the test was a good thing. This fits in well with arguments by David Labaree, Jennifer Hochschild, and Nathan Scovronick that a good part of the appeal of public schooling is to serve private purposes, giving children a leg up in a competitive environment. In that context, it makes enormous sense to value teaching to the test, since many parents understand how college admissions tests are related to access to selective institutions and scholarships. While 58% of public-school parents thought that teaching to the test was a bad idea in 2003, a sizable minority thought it was just fine.

That opinion has changed, dramatically. In the 2007 poll, only 17% of public-school parents thought that teaching to the test was a good thing. Fewer than one-half of one percent had no opinion, and 83% of public-school parents thought that teaching to the test is a bad thing. Adults who did not have children in school also have changed their minds, with 22% of those surveyed this year thinking that teaching to the test is a good thing.

Despite these findings, I don’t see an end to the obsession with standardized test data as the measure of districts, schools, teachers and students in the near future and this means that those who teach and learn “to the test” will continue to be praised and the discussion of what we want from our schools will continue to begin and end with test scores.

As always, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing has much to offer on testing in American education.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, National News, No Child Left Behind

by | August 21, 2007 · 10:41 pm

Where is the Outrage? Where is the Anger?

From Marjorie Passman (excerpted in the Capitol Times, full version below).

Where is the Outrage? Where is the Anger?

Has anyone noticed the education budget proposed by the State Assembly? If so, where is the outrage, where is the anger?

Because of the Republican promoted revenue controls on school districts, Madison schools have been compelled to reduce services by roughly 60 million dollars over the past dozen years. For the first time they have increased class size in elementary schools; the opposite of what should be occurring to promote increasing quality education, and next year’s budget cuts will reach into every curricular and extra-curricular area – there is nothing that will be left untouched. So how does our State Assembly plan to help? It proposes to fund our schools at $1200 less per student than the national average. Wisconsin should be THE leader in public education, not less than average. Our children deserve better.

According to the Wisconsin’s Department of Administration, rough estimates of revenue limit reductions under the Assembly 2007-09 Budget Plan seem to indicate that MMSD will be reduced by $4,932,419, and we will lose 66 teachers as a result. In fact, all school districts will suffer. Ashland’s total revenue loss is $444,902 with 6 fewer teachers, the Green Bay area will see a $4,008,270 loss with 54 fewer teachers, and Chippewa Falls will be down $966,865 so 13 teachers will have to be released.

Lest parents think that they can move out of Madison to nearby school districts, think again. The combined losses of the McFarland, Middleton-Cross Plains, Monona Grove, Oregon, Sun Prairie and Verona School Districts comes to a whopping 5 million dollars with a corresponding decrease of 59 teachers. There is nowhere to run.

And don’t fall for the claim that more money is actually going into education. More money may be going into the general fund for tax property relief but it is not earmarked for education. We all know by now that such undirected spending never finds its way into our children’s classrooms.

No longer can anyone claim that our state spends big bucks on education, that government spending must be brought under control by slashing taxes. It is certainly time to bury these old misconceptions, and to end this stubborn impasse on educational spending. The new school year is upon us. Shouldn’t the citizens of our state know what their school budgets will be before classes begin?

Our children deserve better than this political nonsense.

Marjorie Passman

There is a lot of outrage in our house, and from groups like, Take Back the Assembly. Now we just have to keep spreading the outrage!

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, School Finance

by | August 21, 2007 · 3:15 pm

The Teacher Voice in Data-Driven Accountability

From Randi Weingarten (President of the United Federation of Teachers, NY), via EdWonk.

Excerpt:

We hear a lot these days about what I call “3-D reform,”—data-driven decision making and about using tests to improve teaching and learning. Sadly, in this respect, too often, testing has replaced instruction; data has replaced professional judgment; compliance has replaced excellence; and so-called leadership has replaced teacher professionalism.

What is really happening is that more than ever there is this industrial techno-centric view of teachers as interchangeable cogs in an education enterprise. This approach rewards their compliance above their creativity, and results in the denigration of teachers and disregard for their contributions to learning.

Consequently, and with good reason, teachers often say they feel they are the targets and not the agents of reform. Their “wisdom of practice” and real world experience with children is discounted or disregarded in policy-making deliberations and decision making.

Teachers’ voices must be an integral part of the conversation; they are on the ground, they know what works, they know what kids need to succeed, and we must attend to their experiences, suggestions and requests.

When faced with dilemmas of public education, the route of “least resistance” and, I might add, of least effectiveness, is the “teacher proof” road. Rather than invest in teachers, and capitalize on their knowledge, policymakers and administrators attempt to create systems that they hope will obviate the need for excellent teachers. They attempt to substitute cook book curricula, step-by-step instructional practices, computer-based instruction and bubble-in testing, instead of rich, student-centered teaching and learning.

Read the full post.

I’ve long counseled “data guided” policy and practice and agree with most of what Ms Weingarten has to say.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Accountability, AMPS, Best Practices, National News

by | August 17, 2007 · 7:23 pm

What Works? Reading Recovery!

The Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse has released their evaluation of early reading programs and the top rated program is Reading Recovery.

From Education Week:

Just one program was found to have positive effects or potentially positive effects across all four of the domains in the review—alphabetics, fluency, comprehension, and general reading achievement. That program, Reading Recovery, an intensive, one-on-one tutoring program, has drawn criticism over the past few years from prominent researchers and federal officials who claimed it was not scientifically based.

Federal officials and contractors tried to discourage states and districts from using Reading Recovery in schools participating in the federal Reading First program, citing a lack of evidence that it helps struggling readers.

“Tried to discourage” is a little mild considering what happened in Madison. Can we get our $2 Million now (with interest)?

More on Reading First from Jim Horn at Schools Matter

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | August 15, 2007 · 6:13 pm

Who is to Blame?

(Hint, it isn’t the Oshkosh Area Board of Education.)

State Rep. Carol Owens (R. Oshkosh) issued a press release opposing school closings in the OASD. Owens voices such admirable thoughts as: “Our small community schools are
the backbone of the community,” and ““Our smaller, local schools need to be supported and not divided.” Bravo Representative Owens.

Of course sentiments divorced from actions are easy. Rep. Owens is in a position to work for meaningful state finance reform or at very least support the band aids and revenue limit increases in the JFC (or Senate or Governor’s) budget that would help some of the districts like Oshkosh and Madison avoid the draconian choices they face and truly allow Boards of Education keep under enrolled but vital schools open. Instead Owens votes the party line and our schools suffer.

Before posting this I tried to get a handle on the situation in Oshkosh and although it is a relatively low spending district, there are many things that parallel Madison. Strings programs are perennially targeted for cuts. Enrollment is relatively stable, but growing on one side of town and shrinking on the other. As Owens noted, attempts to deal with this (and the budget contraints of the state finance system, I’d add) have divided the community.

It is hard to say how intentional it is for some who resist adequate funding of education but the divisions created and the loss of popular programs because of fiscal pressures under the current system do result a loss of faith in and support for public education and that is certainly the long term goal of many anti-government, free market zealots.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | August 10, 2007 · 6:38 pm

Republican Education Offer

Not an offer you can’t refuse.

The Republican’s have sketched their new line in the sand on the education portions of the state budget (the linked document references this Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis).

There is a very little movement and the GOP is still clinging to limiting the growth of the revenue caps to $200 per member. The rhetorical bait and switch on school funding, state contributions and property taxes also remains.

Keep those cards, emails and calls going.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, School Finance, Take Action

by | August 8, 2007 · 9:38 pm

Early-childhood program pays for itself, study finds

A new longitudinal study shows the effectiveness of intense early education intervention in our schools.

excerpts:

“More than 20 years later, educational attainment is higher and felony arrests are lower for the alumni of a Chicago early-intervention program for low-income children.

The enrollees, who are now in their late 20s, are also less likely to describe themselves as depressed and more likely to have health insurance, according to a follow-up study released this week.

According to co-author Arthur J. Reynolds, a child-development professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the gains in terms of reduced social-welfare costs already have far exceeded the program’s $5,000 per student-year cost to the Chicago public school system.

“By the time they’re 65, a conservative estimate would be a 10-to-1 gain,” Reynolds said, considering reduced societal costs for remedial education, health care, incarceration and underemployment.”
……..
“These results have profound and encouraging implications for our ability to close the achievement gap” among disadvantaged children, said Gordon Berlin, the president of MDRC, a New York nonprofit agency that identifies social policy strategies that work.
………..
“This study begins to answer the question of whether a high-quality intervention could fortify Head Start and other early-childhood interventions, and power bigger results.”

Robert Godfrey

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by | August 8, 2007 · 7:26 pm

Sign the petition to end the madness

The Educator Roundtable have started a petition calling for the dismantling of the No Child Left Behind Act and is now online.

To reach the 2014 goal set by this legislation, the standards must rise annually. Even school administrators who aren’t having trouble with meeting the goals of the program at the present time agree a train wreck is coming.

In a recent Time magazine article about NCLB, a retired Ohio superintendent said, “NCLB is like a Russian novel. That’s because it’s long, it’s complicated, and in the end, everybody gets killed.”

Unless NCLB’s schedule is disrupted, there will be no public school systems left by 2014. Unfortunately groups like the NEA have tried to counteract the Educator Roundtable petition with their own, which again pushes for a band-aid approach that will not address the core deficiences of such a poorly conceived public policy.

We need our voices to be heard. It takes twenty seconds max to do this. Please pass it on to all your friends.

Robert Godfrey

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by | August 2, 2007 · 4:33 pm

(anti) NCLB Video

From Susan Ohanian via the Educator Roundtable and the Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency (EDDRA)

Click here to watch.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Gimme Some Truth, National News, No Child Left Behind