Kids can read during test time

There's a new N.C. twist to testing this year:  When students finish early, they can read books or magazines until the whole class is done.  State Superintendent June Atkinson sent a memo to superintendents this week reminding them of the change.

One might wonder why the state's top educator would bother calling attention to a relatively minor change buried deep in the state's 158-page testing manual.  The answer:  It's part of a complex negotiation between state officials and parents who plan to refuse to let their kids take exams.

Atkinson

As I reported earlier,  Deputy Superintendent Rebecca Garland wants to make it clear that North Carolina doesn't consider testing optional.  Parents may want to protest what they view as misuse of testing to rate teachers and schools,  but kids who refuse to answer questions will get a zero,  which could drop their class grade and bring other consequences.

After Garland's  "no opt-out"  memo went out,  parents with Mecklenburg ACTS met with Atkinson to argue that even if the kids get zeroes,  they shouldn't be forced to  "sit and stare"  if they're protesting.  The group suggested that Atkinson provide guidelines that note state disapproval of opting out but offer districts  "child-centered"  ways to handle refusals.

The message that went out doesn't specifically address test protesters,  but it's understood that some of the kids will be finishing very early.

"This is a good thing not just for students who are refusing the test,  but for those who finish the tests early.  Previously,  they had also been forced to sit and stare,  sometimes for a couple of hours,"  says Pamela Grundy,  one of the organizers of the opt-out push.

Duncan at EWA

North Carolina is part of a national testing resistance movement.  In New York City more than 30,000 students opted out this spring,  high school principal Carol Burris told education reporters at the Education Writers Association national seminar in Nashville earlier this week.

The uses and misuses of testing were a big topic there.  U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan emphasized the importance of setting high standards and using rigorous tests to measure student progress:  "We had so many states that dummied down standards to make politicians look good."  The Obama administration's  Race to the Top grants have pushed the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers,  but he acknowledged that some states have gone overboard on testing.

"Where there's too much,  we need to have the honest conversation and scale it back,"  Duncan said,  without citing which states he referred to.

Tennessee officials were quick to credit tougher tests with the state's significant math gains on recent  "nation's report card"  tests.  Several speakers,  including Gov. Bill Haslam,  noted that the state went from a state testing system that labeled 90 percent of eighth-graders proficient in math,  earning the state an F in truth in advertising from the national Chamber of Commerce,  to one that more accurately reflects a bleaker reality.

Dennis Van Roekel,  president of the National Education Association,  said misuse of student scores to create  "value-added"  ratings of teachers has created rebellion among teachers and families.  "Teachers are not opposed to tests,"  he said.  "We invented them."

Tommy Bice,  Alabama's state superintendent,  talked about his state's rollout of a testing system for grades 3-12 based on the ACT.  The series of exams measure everything from basic reading and math skills to college and work readiness.  But Bice said Alabama has made a decision that sets it apart from many states:  It uses the scores only to shape instruction,  not to rate schools,  teachers or even students.

"Once we begin to use this powerful assessment tool for something other than what it was designed for,"  he said,  "it becomes something else."

Dr. Seuss as education agitator

The U.S. Department of Education probably thought it would start a nice book chat when it celebrated Read Across America day by asking on its Facebook page what people are reading.  Instead,  it got a barrage of posts from teachers and parents protesting the Common Core standards and/or Education Secretary Arne Duncan's test-driven approach to education reform.

"I'm reading Reign of Error,  Mercedes K. Schneider's blog,  EduShyster,  Jersey Jazzman and everything else I can get my hands on that informs me as a parent to help my children escape from the pseudo-science of the corporate reform movement's nonsense curriculum," read a typical comment.

Diane Ravitch's "Reign of Error:  The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools" was cited by many of the 184 people who had posted as of Tuesday afternoon.  

Some got more creative.   “Race To The Top of Gates Mountain" and  “Harry Plotter:  Similarities Between the U.S. Department of Education and The Ministry of Magic,"  replied Jacob Rosecrants,  a former high school teacher.

Michael Bohr, whose Facebook page identifies him as a "contemporary insurgent,"  wrote a poem,  apparently inspired by the Dr. Seuss theme that's part of the official Read Across America event:

I am busy reading all the writings on the wall
Of which I doubt you've read any of that at all.
For if you did, I'm sure that you would probably see

That the Common Core is as bad, as bad as it can be. 

Thanks to Vivian Connell,  a former Providence High teacher who's now a lawyer working with Public Schools First NC,  for the heads-up on this entertaining thread.

Pushback on NC exams

State education officials and superintendents,  including Heath Morrison in CMS,  have asked U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan for a reprieve on using state exams to rate teachers.  The N.C. Board of Education is slated to take the matter up this week.

Now local teachers,  parents and advocates want to take things a step further.  The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators and Mecklenburg ACTS will ask the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board to boycott new state exams known as  "measures of student learning"  even if Duncan doesn't grant permission. The two groups are preparing a petition to present to the CMS board at its Sept. 10 meeting.

Duncan

"At a time of shrinking school budgets,  rising class sizes and plummeting teacher morale,  more tests are the last thing our schools need,"  says a news release sent out this week.

MSLs are exams given in addition to the end-of-year math,  English and science exams that are used to gauge student proficiency and rate schools.  They were created to measure teacher effectiveness in additional subjects.  Duncan has the final word because the state pinned its Race to the Top grant application and request for a waiver from No Child Left Behind to use of those tests in teacher evaluations.  Now the state wants more time to work out valid tests and make sure they're used properly to rate teachers.

According to the CMAE/MeckACTS resolution,  the MSLs given last spring were  "deeply flawed,"  "poorly designed"  and a waste of time and money.  "As a community,  now is the time to stand up for public schools and stand against statewide mandates for new,  excessive and unneeded standardized tests,"  it concludes.

In his weekly report to the school board,  Morrison said he and other superintendents want a chance to develop their own methods of estimating student growth and teacher effectiveness,  rather than being forced to administer more state exams this year.

High-poverty schools shortchanged?

The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that more than 40 percent of the nation's high-poverty schools are getting short shrift on local and state education money.

As many blog readers know,  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spends significantly more per student at schools with the highest levels of student poverty,  in part because the federal Title I program pumps in millions of dollars in aid.  The Ed Department set out to see whether school districts are using that money to supplant state and local spending,  shifting money to wealthier schools.  They pulled federal money out of the equation and recalculated 2008-09 per-pupil spending for schools in more than 13,000 districts.

According to the news release,  more than 40 percent of Title I schools spent less state and local money on teachers and other personnel than more affluent schools in the same district.

“Educators across the country understand that low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed,  but in far too many places policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it,”  U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says in the release.  “The good news in this report is that it is feasible for districts to address this problem and it will have a significant impact on educational opportunities for our nation’s poorest children.”

I downloaded their data from CMS (go here for the raw data),  and it doesn't look like high-poverty schools are coming up short,  even without the federal aid factored in.  Not surprisingly,  size and need seem to be the biggest factors in high per-pupil spending;  at very small schools,  administrative,  support and building costs are divided among fewer students.  Small alternative schools had the highest state and local totals,  led by $15,545 at Derita,  which served students with severe behavioral problems.

Garinger High was the highest regular school at $7,462.   At that time,  no CMS high schools had hit the 75 percent poverty mark that CMS uses to distribute Title I aid,  but it's a high-poverty neighborhood school getting lots of extra support from CMS.  In general,  the high-spending list was dominated by small high-poverty elementary schools,  such as Shamrock Gardens and Thomasboro,  and small magnets such as the Montessori schools,  Davis Military/Leadership and Davidson IB.

The lowest per-pupil state and local spending was at large suburban schools with low poverty levels,  according to the federal tally.  Alexander Graham Middle was lowest at $2,907,  followed by Community House Middle at $3,039.  Wilson Middle,  which closed this year,  was the Title I school that landed lowest on the spending list,  95th of 167 schools.