Do you know a child who struggles with math?
Northwestern University's (NU) Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Labratory (DCN) is looking for 8-13 year olds to participate in a Math Research Study
The DCN Lab's Math Project aims to help us better understand the elusive learning disability, dyscalculia (math disability).
Please forward this notice to anyone you know who might want to be a part of this important research.
Who we are looking for:
8-13 year olds who struggle with math
To participate:
Anyone interested in participating should complete our simple DCN Lab Sign-up Form
Though this particular research study only is examining math difficulties in 8-13 year olds, families are welcome to sign up any children under the age of 13 who would be interested in participating in paid learning research studies at NU.
About the Math Project:
For the past two years, researchers at the DCN Lab have been investigating the way numbers are processed in the brain. Math disability affects about 6% of the childhood population and continues into adolescence. We hope that our research will improve diagnoses and remediation of children who struggle with math.
All testing takes place after school or on weekends and is done at Northwestern University on the Evanston Campus and the Center for Advanced MRI research on the Chicago Campus.
Participants who enroll in this research study will be paid.
You will receive a report of your child's performance on academic testing and pictures of your child's brain.
More questions? Contact us!
Phone: 847-467-3168, 847-467-1936
Email: r-mutreja@northwestern.edu
IRB# STU00004819
Monday, February 27, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Trend of ITBS Test Score Drop at Februrary Board Meeting
Below is a portion of the February 15 Pleasantdale School Board Meeting. Due to technical difficulties, the first two hours of the meeting were not recorded. The recording begins during the discussion of ITBS test scores.
At the January meeting, a parent pointed out that she noticed a five year trend of sagging scores in the area of math computation between grades three and four. This drop in scores over the last five years was not noted by district statistician Dr. John Wick. Dr. Wick mentioned at the January meeting that anytime the scores drop more than 8 points, it should be a concern. However, over the last five years, scores have dropped between 16 and 25 points every year.
This trend should have been noted by Wick who has been contracted for $100,000 over the last five years to analyze students scores. We plan to show you one of the error reports passed out to students and the tutorials assigned as homework to help RAISE THE SCORES! Sadly, this test only measures how well our students can perform on the test, not necessarily what they know, their depth of knowledge or how their learning aligns to the curriculm.
We think you will find this last hour particularly informative, especially the open forum comments in the last two segments. Enjoy!
At the January meeting, a parent pointed out that she noticed a five year trend of sagging scores in the area of math computation between grades three and four. This drop in scores over the last five years was not noted by district statistician Dr. John Wick. Dr. Wick mentioned at the January meeting that anytime the scores drop more than 8 points, it should be a concern. However, over the last five years, scores have dropped between 16 and 25 points every year.
This trend should have been noted by Wick who has been contracted for $100,000 over the last five years to analyze students scores. We plan to show you one of the error reports passed out to students and the tutorials assigned as homework to help RAISE THE SCORES! Sadly, this test only measures how well our students can perform on the test, not necessarily what they know, their depth of knowledge or how their learning aligns to the curriculm.
We think you will find this last hour particularly informative, especially the open forum comments in the last two segments. Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Texas Parents Push Test Opt-Out
DON'T LIKE THE EFFECTS OF STAAR TESTS ON EDUCATION? OPT OUT
Austin American-Statesman -- February 14, 20`2
By Edy Charmness
Vampires and guinea pigs have recently been noted in meetings in Austin in regards to the new State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness exams.
"You've created this one thing that the entire system is dependent on. ... It is the heart of the vampire," said Robert Scott, Texas' education commissioner, to State Board of Education members, according to the American-Statesman on Jan. 26.
Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, also recently remarked to parents about the STAAR counting for 15 perecent of high school course grades. "Make sure your voice is heard that this is not OK. Your children should not be guinea pigs," she said, according to the Jan. 25 American-Statesman.
Do you feel that your child is just a guinea pig with the implementation of the new STAAR tests? How can your voice as a parent be heard about the STAAR tests?
One simple way to be heard is to opt out.
We are Texas Parents Opt Out.
This spring, public school children across Texas will begin taking STAAR exams. Politicians have promised that these new tests will be tougher and more rigorous, and will more accurately measure the effectiveness of classroom instruction.
Our state government is using more than $400 million in taxpayer money to pay Pearson Education to develop the STAAR tests.
After spending millions of dollars on testing, there isn't any money left for classroom instruction.
Pearson Education profits while Texas public schoolchildren suffer needlessly.
High-stakes testing doesn't work. After 30 years of standardized testing in Texas, the quality of schools has not improved.
Every year, Texas teachers are compelled to interrupt hands-on, quality instructional time to "teach to the test." Students are marched through a series of practice tests and benchmark tests, and face boredom, test anxiety and depression.
To accommodate testing --- "the vampire" --- the curriculum has been narrowed to the point where the majority of elementary students spend nearly 75 percent of instructional time focused on the reading and math skills needed to pass the test.
High-stakes testing, including the STAAR tests, has led to corruption, profiteering and the destruction of effective instructional practices in our public schools.
There is a better way.
The Texas Parents Opt Out organization believes in authentic, hands-on, experiential learning, as well as inquiry and discovery-based approaches to help make classroom instruction meaningful and relevant for students.
Music, art, physical education, foreign languages, social studies and science education should be emphasized as much as reading and mathematics.
Student learning should be evaluated through authentic means such as portfolios, projects and experiments. We know that all students are unique individuals who learn and express themselves in different ways.
How can parents opt their children out of testing?
Chapter 26 of the Texas Education Code gives parents the right to remove their child from any activity that the parent believes is immoral or against their religious beliefs.
At Texas Parents Opt Out, we believe that high-stakes testing is immoral. Ten years of No Child Left Behind legislation have generated mountains of research on the negative effects of high-stakes testing.
Studies show what parents already suspected, that standardized testing:
Produces anxiety and depression.
Kills curiosity and children's desire to learn.
Narrows the curriculum.
Wastes valuable educational time.
If you believe that standardized testing is harming your child or depriving him or her of a quality education, and if you believe that current Texas laws concerning the 15 percent rule might harm your child's future educational opportunities, please join us by opting out of the STAAR tests.
It's your right.
- Chamness is the director of Texas Parents Opt Out;TexasParentsOptOutStateTests@yahoo.com.
Austin American-Statesman -- February 14, 20`2
By Edy Charmness
Vampires and guinea pigs have recently been noted in meetings in Austin in regards to the new State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness exams.
"You've created this one thing that the entire system is dependent on. ... It is the heart of the vampire," said Robert Scott, Texas' education commissioner, to State Board of Education members, according to the American-Statesman on Jan. 26.
Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, also recently remarked to parents about the STAAR counting for 15 perecent of high school course grades. "Make sure your voice is heard that this is not OK. Your children should not be guinea pigs," she said, according to the Jan. 25 American-Statesman.
Do you feel that your child is just a guinea pig with the implementation of the new STAAR tests? How can your voice as a parent be heard about the STAAR tests?
One simple way to be heard is to opt out.
We are Texas Parents Opt Out.
This spring, public school children across Texas will begin taking STAAR exams. Politicians have promised that these new tests will be tougher and more rigorous, and will more accurately measure the effectiveness of classroom instruction.
Our state government is using more than $400 million in taxpayer money to pay Pearson Education to develop the STAAR tests.
After spending millions of dollars on testing, there isn't any money left for classroom instruction.
Pearson Education profits while Texas public schoolchildren suffer needlessly.
High-stakes testing doesn't work. After 30 years of standardized testing in Texas, the quality of schools has not improved.
Every year, Texas teachers are compelled to interrupt hands-on, quality instructional time to "teach to the test." Students are marched through a series of practice tests and benchmark tests, and face boredom, test anxiety and depression.
To accommodate testing --- "the vampire" --- the curriculum has been narrowed to the point where the majority of elementary students spend nearly 75 percent of instructional time focused on the reading and math skills needed to pass the test.
High-stakes testing, including the STAAR tests, has led to corruption, profiteering and the destruction of effective instructional practices in our public schools.
There is a better way.
The Texas Parents Opt Out organization believes in authentic, hands-on, experiential learning, as well as inquiry and discovery-based approaches to help make classroom instruction meaningful and relevant for students.
Music, art, physical education, foreign languages, social studies and science education should be emphasized as much as reading and mathematics.
Student learning should be evaluated through authentic means such as portfolios, projects and experiments. We know that all students are unique individuals who learn and express themselves in different ways.
How can parents opt their children out of testing?
Chapter 26 of the Texas Education Code gives parents the right to remove their child from any activity that the parent believes is immoral or against their religious beliefs.
At Texas Parents Opt Out, we believe that high-stakes testing is immoral. Ten years of No Child Left Behind legislation have generated mountains of research on the negative effects of high-stakes testing.
Studies show what parents already suspected, that standardized testing:
Produces anxiety and depression.
Kills curiosity and children's desire to learn.
Narrows the curriculum.
Wastes valuable educational time.
If you believe that standardized testing is harming your child or depriving him or her of a quality education, and if you believe that current Texas laws concerning the 15 percent rule might harm your child's future educational opportunities, please join us by opting out of the STAAR tests.
It's your right.
- Chamness is the director of Texas Parents Opt Out;TexasParentsOptOutStateTests@yahoo.com.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Hot Topic - Math
This is a re-post with permission from one of our favorite bloggers. It is several days of blog posts combined into one. We got a laugh out of it and thought you would too. We're sure many parents in our district can relate. Enjoy!
2/3/2012 Mental Math Is Going To Make Me Mental
Amanda called me over a couple nights ago to help her on problem number 5 on her math homework. She was supposed to add 35 + 28 using a 100 number chart, so she started telling me she needed to go down and over. Down and over. Over and down.
And I was like, "What? Down and what?" as I clawed around for my reading glasses.
I told her, "Look. If you want to add that just add 5 + 8 and carry the one."
Right, internet? I mean, is that not how you add?
If you do not have a child currently enrolled in second grade, let me be the first to tell you that is not how you add nowadays. The way we learned to add is wrong.
When I showed them how to add, the three of them FREAKED OUT. There was drama. People were telling me I didn't know what I was doing. I was wrong. I don't know anything. I had to get Greg and a glass of wine and a box of Oreos and our reading glasses.
So imagine my surprise when this is how you add 35 + 28 now. You can do it like this in THREE steps.
Or you can do it like this in TWO steps.
"We are doing mental math.", Sarah told me.
It's mental, alright.
"Really?", Greg asked. "If they don't teach them to add in columns, what will they do when they get to 1,345,300 + 2,399,344?"
"Run for congress?", I suggested.
2/4/2012 Is This Correct?
On the way home (from basketball,) I asked the kids if the other team had 20 points and we only had 2 points, how many points did they beat us by?
They whipped out their laminated 100 charts out of their back pockets and found the answer.
I double checked it on the abacus I have welded to my dashboard, so I think this is correct.
I am happy to report that I spent 45 minutes teaching the children to add mentally and traditionally this morning. They can now add columns up to a million no problem. Mentally, they are struggling with the three step process for double digits. We'll crack the code yet, I just know it!
2/6/2012 I've Chosen A Side In The Math War
I started blogging on July 17, 2006. Since that time, I've written almost daily. This post is my 2160th post. I don't ever remember writing three days in a row about the same subject, unless I've just mentally blocked out writing about poop every single day when I was potty training three children.
But I will write again today about math because I fell down the rabbit hole into entire forums devoted to the Math Wars while I was teaching my children how to add ALL WEEKEND LONG. Did you know there are Math Wars? Did you know the Math Wars have been going on since 1989? It's a war between conceptual reform math and traditional math. This is how they teach multiplication with some of the fuzzy, conceptual math curricula, you guys. 247 x 38 = WTF?
First, let me back up and say it took me about five minutes per child to teach them how to add double digit numbers with the traditional algorithm of carrying.
It took me three days to teach all three of them "mental math". Three days to teach them a concept that should take five minutes, which made me wonder, "Why are we REINVENTING THE EFFIN' WHEEL?"
2 + 2 will always equal 4 and my kids don't need to count goddamn sticks like cave children to have a "deeper understanding" of math.
So I started Googling around the interwebz and found scathing, horrible reviews of the "fuzzy math" curriculum my school uses. We use enVision math, published by Pearson and developed by Scott Foresman. Here's the description from their website. I've highlighted all the bullshit in bold.
enVisionMATH uses problem based interactive learning and visual learning to deepen conceptual understanding. It incorporates bar diagram visual tools to help students be better problem solvers, and it provides data-driven differentiated instruction to ensure success for every student.
Translation: We aren't going to actually teach your kids math, we're just going to make pretty pictures and videos so your school district buys our curriculum and locks into it for 7 years.
In all honesty, Scott Pearson's other programs have much, much, much worse reviews than this latest one because this one at least does attempt to also teach them correct algorithms. He has a much fuzzier one called TERC Investigations that doesn't even teach the children long division. They use calculators. By fifth grade, all this fuzzy mental math falls apart and the children do not have the skills necessary to do higher level math in middle school. Parents have even coined the phrase, TERC babies, because the kids have never memorized their multiplication or division tables or basic addition and subtraction facts.
There are entire websites and movements in Utah and Illinois and New York fighting to get these math curricula out of the public schools.
Have you noticed the number of Kumons and Sylvan Learning Centers popping up all over the place? That's because they aren't teaching children BASIC math concepts in school. This drive toward conceptual math has actually left children in fifth grade learning "probability without multiplying fractions, statistics without the arithmetic means, 3-D geometry without formulas for volume, and number theory without prime numbers."
Hows that for a deeper understanding of math?
We just had a Performance Zone meeting where our elementary, middle, and high schools got together and our middle school teachers said, "Make sure the kids know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Give them to us with strong math facts and we'll take it from there."
They had to tell our elementary schools that because our math curriculum does not focus on teaching the kids the multiplications table by rote. My school does it outside the curriculum, but other schools do not.
So we are stuck with enVision math for four more years. Which means my kids will be using it all the way into middle school. I've read enough and I've decided to buy a traditional math curriculum to do at home with them. I haven't decided which one yet so if you guys have a strong opinion on a traditional math curriculum or your school is using one you like, chime in.
I've chosen a side in the Math War. I've chosen traditional.
This concludes my manic, obsessive math series. We'll talk about chickens or poop tomorrow.
EDITED TO ADD: Please watch this video for a complete tutorial on why shoddy math curricula, like Everyday Math and TERC Investigations is ruining your child's math education.
EDITED TO ADD: Please watch this video for a complete tutorial on why shoddy math curricula, like Everyday Math and TERC Investigations is ruining your child's math education.
2/10/2012 Their Childhood Is Slipping Away
I am happy to report that after purchasing the math practice program at IXL.com and having the children do additional math work every night for 30 minutes, they all aced their mental math test. I had IXL.com last year, let it expire, and realized that was a terrible mistake and renewed it this week.
Sarah and Gregory's teacher has a whole tutoring program that she does after school and parents pay her out of their own pockets. I get that now. I thought it was weird that all these parents were signing their very smart kids up for tutoring.
The math curriculum they use is a spiraling curriculum, so they only barely touch on a subject, then the next week they spiral off into a completely different topic. These parents have probably come to the same conclusion I have that their children need to gain mastery over the subject they were supposed to learn and are paying for it. Imagine that? Actually learning the subject you were introduced to!!!
This week they are doing patterns which has nothing to do with double digit addition. If the children didn't master the double digit mental math topic, oh well, it's patterns this week. They'll have their chance to learn that one again NEXT YEAR!
It pains me to force the kids inside to do even more work after they've been at school all day. It's been in the high 60s and low 70s. When I went to get them one day this week, they were in Hawai'i. They had skinned part of my palm tree and whittled the skin into knives and their scooters and their bikes were water boats and the concrete was water. Austin was in charge of finding meat. Amanda was married and had all her dolls in her water boat. I am seriously not kidding when I say it literally PAINED ME to make them come in and do their homework and the additional math work. The kids need to play after school. I think even having more than one organized activity in a week is just too much. They just need to play and unwind and use their imaginations. They need down time.
But we swam through the concrete water from Hawai'i to Nevada and did our math anyway. I can see their childhood slipping away before my eyes and it makes me sad.
2/11/2012 We Are All So Lucky
(Today at school) one of the teachers put popcorn in the microwave and hit 20 minutes instead of 2 minutes and then went outside to get her kids and by the time they got back in, the microwave had started on fire and smoked the kids out.
The poor teacher was traumatized beyond belief about it and we all felt so bad for her. It could happen to anyone. I really don't think it was her fault though. These were the instructions next to the microwave for how long you keep the popcorn in.
I think she was just confused.
Since I like to help at the school, I'm going to volunteer to put up less confusing directions.
I think she was just confused.
Since I like to help at the school, I'm going to volunteer to put up less confusing directions.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
OBAMA GRANTS WAIVERS TO NCLB AND MAKES A BAD SITUATION WORSE
THE PRESIDENT CORRECTLY SEES THAT NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND FORCES TEACHING TO THE TEST
BUT SO DO HIS SOLUTIONS TO THAT PROBLEM
The Daily Beast -- February 10, 2012
By Diane Ravitch
Secretary Arne Duncan is right about the No Child Left Behind law: It is an unmitigated disaster. Signed into law a decade ago by President George W. Bush, NCLB is widely despised for turning schools into testing factories. By mandating that every student in the nation would be "proficient" by 2014, as judged by state tests, it set a goal that no nation in the world has ever met, and that no state in this nation is close to meeting. The goal is laudable but out of reach. It's comparable to Congress mandating that every city, town, and village in the nation must be crime-free by 2014 ... or their police departments would be severely punished.
NCLB is the worst federal education law ever passed. About half of all public schools in the nation have been stigmatized as "failing" because they couldn't meet its utopian mandates, and the proportion is certain to grow every year. In Massachusetts, the nation's highest performing state, 81 percent of the state's schools are officially "failing" by the standards of NCLB. No national legislature in history has ever designed a law that resulted in the shaming of most of its public schools.
Since Congress has failed to reach agreement on the reauthorization of NCLB, Secretary Duncan has offered waivers to those states eager to escape the whip of NCLB, but only to those states willing to accept his ideas about school reform. Eleven states applied, and ten received waivers. More are expected to apply for a waiver in the future.
The sum of all these changes means that test scores will matter even more in the states with waivers than in the states oppressed by NCLB's heavy-handed regulations.
No one seems to recall that NCLB is George W. Bush administration's title for what was originally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. ESEA was passed during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, specifically to direct federal aid to schools that enrolled poor children. Its central purpose was equity, not global competition. It was certainly not contemplated at the time that the law would become a club with which to beat up and close the schools that enroll large numbers of poor children.
President Obama said that the waivers were necessary because the law was "driving the wrong behaviors, from teaching to the test to federally determined, one-size-fits-all interventions." But what neither the president nor Secretary Duncan admits is that Duncan's mandates will promote even more teaching to the test, while posing a heavy fiscal burden on the states at a time when they are strapped for cash.
Governor Jerry Brown decided that California would not apply for a waiver, because he wanted relief from federal regulatory burdens without preconditions. Brown has been outspoken in his criticism of testing, which is out of control in California and across the nation because of NCLB. In addition, California's State Department of Instruction estimated that it would cost $2.5-$3.1 billion to comply with Duncan's requirements for a waiver.
The states that won a waiver must agree to accept the Common Core State Standards, a national curriculum in mathematics and English language arts developed by non-government groups that has yet to be field tested anywhere; they must agree to evaluate teachers and principals based in large part on the test scores of their students; and they must agree to intervene forcefully in the lowest-performing schools. At the same time, the Obama administration is promoting merit pay, so teachers whose students get higher test scores will be paid more.
The sum of all these changes means that test scores will matter even more in the states with waivers than in the states oppressed by NCLB's heavy-handed regulations. Teachers will be evaluated based on whether their students' scores rise or fall. Testing experts agree that gains in student scores will be smallest for teachers of children with disabilities and children who are English language learners and probably greatest for those teaching children in relatively affluent districts. In other words, those who teach children with the greatest needs are likeliest to get a bad evaluation and eventually to be fired. This will add to the already high level of teacher turnover in the neediest districts.
The schools with the lowest test scores---the ones targeted for "intervention"---will be overwhelmingly located in poor neighborhoods, because poverty is highly associated with low test scores. The principals and teachers of many of these schools will be fired, and their schools may be closed. Many of these low-performing public schools will be turned over to private management, since the Obama administration and conservative governors alike believe in the power of deregulation and privatization in education. Some states will promote vouchers as a reform. Students in the most vulnerable communities will find that their neighborhood public school has been shuttered, and they will be sent elsewhere, all in the name of school reform.
The fact that privately managed charters and vouchers do not consistently improve student test scores or provide better education does not quench the zeal with which their advocates support them.
One thing that the waivers will not end is teaching to the test, even though President Obama said in his State of the Union that teachers should stop doing it. With so many districts and states endorsing merit pay (at the Obama administration's urging), teachers who want a bonus will be compelled to teach to the test. And with the careers of teachers and principals hinging on test scores, teachers who want to remain employed will be compelled to teach to the test. To avoid having their school fall into the pit of those marked for drastic "intervention" or closing, schools will concentrate as never before on teaching to the test.
What teachers will not be able to do is to teach with "creativity and passion," as the president also recommended in his State of the Union. Anyone who ignores the test scores of their students puts their job and the future of their school at risk. This is the madness now known as school reform. Future historians will no doubt consider this era to be a time when public education was subjected to an unending series of bad policies, an era in which the quality of education was sacrificed to an unquenchable passion for testing and accountability.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/10/obama-grants-waivers-to-nclb-and-makes-a-bad-situation-worse.html
THE PRESIDENT CORRECTLY SEES THAT NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND FORCES TEACHING TO THE TEST
BUT SO DO HIS SOLUTIONS TO THAT PROBLEM
The Daily Beast -- February 10, 2012
By Diane Ravitch
Secretary Arne Duncan is right about the No Child Left Behind law: It is an unmitigated disaster. Signed into law a decade ago by President George W. Bush, NCLB is widely despised for turning schools into testing factories. By mandating that every student in the nation would be "proficient" by 2014, as judged by state tests, it set a goal that no nation in the world has ever met, and that no state in this nation is close to meeting. The goal is laudable but out of reach. It's comparable to Congress mandating that every city, town, and village in the nation must be crime-free by 2014 ... or their police departments would be severely punished.
NCLB is the worst federal education law ever passed. About half of all public schools in the nation have been stigmatized as "failing" because they couldn't meet its utopian mandates, and the proportion is certain to grow every year. In Massachusetts, the nation's highest performing state, 81 percent of the state's schools are officially "failing" by the standards of NCLB. No national legislature in history has ever designed a law that resulted in the shaming of most of its public schools.
Since Congress has failed to reach agreement on the reauthorization of NCLB, Secretary Duncan has offered waivers to those states eager to escape the whip of NCLB, but only to those states willing to accept his ideas about school reform. Eleven states applied, and ten received waivers. More are expected to apply for a waiver in the future.
The sum of all these changes means that test scores will matter even more in the states with waivers than in the states oppressed by NCLB's heavy-handed regulations.
No one seems to recall that NCLB is George W. Bush administration's title for what was originally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. ESEA was passed during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, specifically to direct federal aid to schools that enrolled poor children. Its central purpose was equity, not global competition. It was certainly not contemplated at the time that the law would become a club with which to beat up and close the schools that enroll large numbers of poor children.
President Obama said that the waivers were necessary because the law was "driving the wrong behaviors, from teaching to the test to federally determined, one-size-fits-all interventions." But what neither the president nor Secretary Duncan admits is that Duncan's mandates will promote even more teaching to the test, while posing a heavy fiscal burden on the states at a time when they are strapped for cash.
Governor Jerry Brown decided that California would not apply for a waiver, because he wanted relief from federal regulatory burdens without preconditions. Brown has been outspoken in his criticism of testing, which is out of control in California and across the nation because of NCLB. In addition, California's State Department of Instruction estimated that it would cost $2.5-$3.1 billion to comply with Duncan's requirements for a waiver.
The states that won a waiver must agree to accept the Common Core State Standards, a national curriculum in mathematics and English language arts developed by non-government groups that has yet to be field tested anywhere; they must agree to evaluate teachers and principals based in large part on the test scores of their students; and they must agree to intervene forcefully in the lowest-performing schools. At the same time, the Obama administration is promoting merit pay, so teachers whose students get higher test scores will be paid more.
The sum of all these changes means that test scores will matter even more in the states with waivers than in the states oppressed by NCLB's heavy-handed regulations. Teachers will be evaluated based on whether their students' scores rise or fall. Testing experts agree that gains in student scores will be smallest for teachers of children with disabilities and children who are English language learners and probably greatest for those teaching children in relatively affluent districts. In other words, those who teach children with the greatest needs are likeliest to get a bad evaluation and eventually to be fired. This will add to the already high level of teacher turnover in the neediest districts.
The schools with the lowest test scores---the ones targeted for "intervention"---will be overwhelmingly located in poor neighborhoods, because poverty is highly associated with low test scores. The principals and teachers of many of these schools will be fired, and their schools may be closed. Many of these low-performing public schools will be turned over to private management, since the Obama administration and conservative governors alike believe in the power of deregulation and privatization in education. Some states will promote vouchers as a reform. Students in the most vulnerable communities will find that their neighborhood public school has been shuttered, and they will be sent elsewhere, all in the name of school reform.
The fact that privately managed charters and vouchers do not consistently improve student test scores or provide better education does not quench the zeal with which their advocates support them.
One thing that the waivers will not end is teaching to the test, even though President Obama said in his State of the Union that teachers should stop doing it. With so many districts and states endorsing merit pay (at the Obama administration's urging), teachers who want a bonus will be compelled to teach to the test. And with the careers of teachers and principals hinging on test scores, teachers who want to remain employed will be compelled to teach to the test. To avoid having their school fall into the pit of those marked for drastic "intervention" or closing, schools will concentrate as never before on teaching to the test.
What teachers will not be able to do is to teach with "creativity and passion," as the president also recommended in his State of the Union. Anyone who ignores the test scores of their students puts their job and the future of their school at risk. This is the madness now known as school reform. Future historians will no doubt consider this era to be a time when public education was subjected to an unending series of bad policies, an era in which the quality of education was sacrificed to an unquenchable passion for testing and accountability.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/10/obama-grants-waivers-to-nclb-and-makes-a-bad-situation-worse.html
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