Votin' Republican? You Betcha!

There's been some talk among ed bloggers that teachers should vote Obama out and show Dems that we still wield a lot of power. There's certainly some wisdom in that. After all, could a Republican be worse than Obama? The idea started appealing to me more and more in recent weeks.

I've never voted Republican before and I wasn't sure I could pull the lever. So I tried out being a Republican for a few days. I kicked a street beggar. I traded in my Prius for a Hummer. I even bought some Haggar slacks with an elastic waistband. All in all, it didn't feel that bad. And then....

Newt Gingrich came out and said he supports going to war with Iran and North Korea. I guess the two wars we are losing right now just aren't enough for him. Then Newt said he believes that Sarah Palin will run in 2012. *shudder*

For what that might look like, I refer you to this video. In it, Andy Borowitz imagines a Palin presidency. I hereby bestow upon him the joke of the year award for claiming that if Palin became president, she'd "cancel the agreement between nouns and verbs". Give it a look.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Joel Klein's Bald Faced Lie

I'll keep this post short and sweet, but I have not seen this mentioned elsewhere so I thought I'd share it. In a letter to parents regarding the testing fiasco, Klein wrote:

As you know, we have made dramatic progress over the last several years. But this year, the State changed the way the tests were graded.

Look at that first sentence. It is a bald faced lie. The state education department hired Harvard researchers and discovered that the tests had gotten easier over the last four years.

The second sentence, while technically true, gives the impression that the decline in scores is due only to the state changing its scoring. That is a lie by omission.

I don't know how parents can trust anything coming out of the DOE or that man's mouth.

Test Scores: Worse than you Think

This week was actually a perfect time to release the new, revised test scores for a number of reasons. School is out, the mayor is back in, the governor is on his way out, and the Unity Crew of the UFT has already agreed to using test scores to evaluate teachers despite the fact that no one knows what the hell they mean, much less how teachers can "add value" to them.

Perhaps more importantly, test scores just could not be pumped up any further. At some point, they had to be readjusted. Now happened to be a good time because of all the above.

Unfortunately, I believe we are wrongly assuming that because the scores have been readjusted, they are now accurate. Nowhere have I seen the formula the state used to draw the cut lines where they did. Nor did the state disclose whether the scores would have gone down even without the change in cut scores. (If anyone knows how to find this information, please let me know.)

If the state willfully dumbed down the tests and changed the cut scores for years and years, as it now appears they did with gusto, what on earth is there to make us think the current scores are truly accurate?

Think of it this way. If the tests last year were easier than ever, resetting the cut scores to where they were four years ago still does not reflect the reality of student reading skills. And one more thing that disturbs me about the current numbers is that no one is discussing what happened on the writing part of the exams.

I scored three different writing tests in three different grades this year. Anyone who was there can verify that teacher-scorers were always told to give students the benefit of the doubt in grading. I first blogged about it here when I described how a single run on sentence could be graded a 3 (the highest score for mechanics). When grading the actual answers we were told to ignore the mechanics completely and give a 4 out of 5 (five being the highest score) to students who simply addressed the question, and a 5 if there was some evidence of "voice". A number of teachers who were deemed to have graded too leniently were publicly called out by the poobahs running the center and were told give higher scores. This was allegedly done in the name of making sure we were all grading students fairly, i.e., that we were all giving them the same inflated grades for the same substandard writing.

So even if we assume that the multiple choice portion of the ELA tests were re-calibrated correctly, which is a rather large assumption, it remains true that the the writing portions of the tests were inflated beyond all reality.

The math teachers I have spoken with told me the same thing happened to them when they were told to give high scores to students on their constructed responses. Teachers were told to give medium to high scores as long as students showed "some evidence" that they understood how to answer the question, regardless of whether they actually got the problem right.

So while it's a good thing that the scores were reset, it's pretty clear to me that they are still too high. And that is a bad thing, because come the 2011 school year we will all be evaluated on our ability to increase those scores.

Mr. Mulgrew? This is Opportunity Knocking...

I've heard from a few teachers and administrators who were stunned by the re-calibrated math and ELA scores. They wonder how we could have done so poorly. Let me set everyone straight. The scores did not go down; the bar was raised to where it should have been all along. Raw scores this year are about the same as last year. All that's happened is that the state stopped gaming the scores to make itself look good.

As expected, Mayor4Life and Joel Klein have wasted no time at all in spinning this year's test scores to make themselves seem less culpable. If they succeed, you know who will be scapegoated--teachers. But this was not a failure of teachers--this is a breakdown of honesty in a corrupt system that banked everything on test scores.

Rather than letting BloomKlein rewrite the narrative to their own advantage, Michael Mulgrew needs to seize this opportunity to step up and change the way things are done. He can prove--using that very data that BloomKlein so used to love--that the gains under the billionaire mayor and lawyer chancellor were all smoke and mirrors. Mulgrew took a stab at that, saying “The city desperately needs a real instructional strategy to improve our schools. As it starts to put one together, I hope that this time the mayor and the chancellor listen to people who know something about education, including the teachers who actually spend their days helping kids learn.” Sounds OK, but instead of letting the city set the agenda and hoping we get a seat at the table, we need to be proactive and set the agenda ourselves. You can bet that parents are angry about this chicanery by the city and state, so we can channel some of that anger to our benefit. Here's the agenda that Mulgrew needs to lay out, at least as I see it:

• It's time for Klein to be fired. His programs and agenda have led to scores that have flat-lined for the past 4 years of more. His tenure has been an abject failure. It's time for an educator to take the reins.
• We need a new evaluation system led by teachers. Until and unless the city and state can prove their numbers are genuine and reflective of the job done by individual teachers, test scores should play no role in the evaluation process.
• Let's demand an end to new charter schools in our city. Charters have underperformed city public schools and their drop this year was worse despite cherry picking their students and guiding poor students out.
• Dump all the unproven teaching systems that have handcuffed teachers and kept students back. It's time for America's Choice, Teacher's College, Everyday Mathematics, and Impact Math to go.
• Give teachers the opportunity to develop a curriculum that works for their school within the framework of the standards.
• De-emphasize test prep and return to teaching the basics, including thinking skills.
• Demand an end to mayoral control, which has been an unmitigated disaster.

That's all that crosses my mind at the moment. Feel free to contribute your thoughts.

Opportunity knocked once for Mulgrew when he assumed the role of UFT president with a 91% mandate, and he refused to answer. It's knocking once again, but this time he needs to seize the opportunity and make a real difference for the teachers he represents and the children of New York.

Test Scores Plummet! (yawn)

So, the state recalibrated the 2010 ELA and math scores to (maybe) where they should have been in the first place, and the scores dropped faster than Octomom's sextuplets. We are basically back to where we were four years ago, erasing all the "gains" that Mayor4Life used to show why NYers needed to give him an unprecedented 3rd term.

The philosophical question of whether something can be erased that never existed in the first place remains a mystery.

The state needed to hire a bunch of Harvard researchers to tell them that the tests and the scoring of those tests have gotten easier over the years. They could have saved a lot of money and time by asking bloggers. I just did a quick search of my own blog, and found quite a few posts about how easy the tests had gotten, like this one, this one, this one, and this one, to name a few. Perhaps I should get a job as a Harvard researcher.

Much ado will be made of this news, but in the end, the whole revelation about test scores will add up to little more than a big yawn. Once the dust settles, Mayor4Life will still be mayor, Klein will still be chancellor, Mulgrew will still be the UFT president, and the Post will still churn out editorials on why teachers are to blame and not the clowns who run the show. You, as a classroom teacher, will still be teaching in an overcrowded classroom, in an overcrowded school, with few supplies and even less respect.

The only real difference for you, dear teacher, is that your job will hinge upon these results come the 2011 school year. Good luck!

Donors Choose to Teachers: Drop Dead

Donors Choose decided to respond to the backlash against them due to their decision to take money from the anti-teacher, anti-union movie Waiting for Superman. The entire response amounted to little more than a giant FU to teachers. Let's look at what they said--their response is indicated by italics.

DonorsChoose.org believes that public school teachers know their students’ needs best, and we exist to facilitate as much support for their classrooms as possible.

That sounds reasonable, but it's unrealistic. If the KKK or American Nazi Party offered to fund projects for DonorsChoose, I'm assuming they would refuse, even if there were no strings attached. Their money would facilitate support as much as anyone else's, yet I feel fairly certain we won't be seeing those organizations listed as donors any time soon. Yet DonorsChoose sees fit to accept money from the makers of Waiting for Superman--a movie that glorifies Michelle Rhee, who just the other day fired 241 teachers, or 6% of her staff. She also threatened to fire another 700 teachers next year. That would amount to over 25% of the teachers in the DC public school system. In what way does this support teachers?

To do so, we work with people and institutions from a variety of education policy perspectives. For example, we collaborate regularly with school districts, AFT and NEA chapters, traditional schools of education, alternative teacher certification programs, traditional public schools, charter schools – organizations that all want to encourage public school teachers to seek classroom resources through DonorsChoose.org.

I know who you work with. No one is saying that part of your organization is suspect. The problem is who you take money from. At the top of your partnership page, you spotlight Build-a-Bear and Sonic Drive-Ins, which are pretty benign organizations. Reading further along, it seems Bill and Belinda Gates are big sponsors. Are you aware that Bill Gates--the richest man in America--recently said that teacher pensions were a huge problem and should be cut? Bing--a Microsoft company under Gates, contributed more than a half million dollars to you. Bloomberg, who would like the right to fire teachers, is also listed as a supporter. There appear to be a number of hedge funds and banks supporting you as well. Hedge funds in particular are driving the charter school movement that is threatening public education in this country. I'm not alleging any wrongdoing on your part, but you are known by the company you keep, and you keep company with a lot of anti-teacher donors.

The individuals and institutions supporting these teachers’ requests represent equally diverse viewpoints. We think "Waiting for 'Superman'" has the potential to make public education top-of-mind for even more people throughout the country, and we look forward to channeling this expanded interest into direct support for teachers and students.

Suppose you were promoting yourselves as a pro-animal organization, like HSUS, for example. Would you take money from hunting organizations or the NRA because they offer diverse viewpoints? Would you take money from Canadian baby seal clubbers because they also have diverse views, or would you look to support animals?

Canadian baby seal killers are to animals as Waiting for Superman is to teachers. Their "interest" in the issues is not to promote the general welfare but to bludgeon their victims in their own self-interest.

Donors Choose is not wielding the club themselves, but they sure as hell are holding the coats of the folks who do wield them.

If you want to join the Facebook page and boycott Donors Choose, please click here.

Boycott DonorsChoose!!!

I've set up a page on Facebook for people wishing to boycott DonorsChoose for their support of the movie Waiting for Superman. You can read all about the issue here.

Please join the page and show your anger! Click on the link to in the upper right of the blog, or just click here.

Thanks!