Even as CPS opens more new schools, children with special needs have a tougher time finding options. Placements in private therapeutic schools are scarce, and some charters are reluctant to enroll them.
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In the News: City schools face Common Core struggle
By: Cassandra West / November 15, 2011
Some of the best Chicago public schools are struggling to measure up to the recently adopted tougher Common Core curriculum, according to the Tribune.
Also, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard announced Monday a new online tool that will allow the public to read school reports for each CPS school over a map of the city. Sitting with a group of parents, Brizard acknowledged that the information on the report card, some of which is based on ISAT scores and some of which is based on harder tests, can be confusing. He said that is what district officials wanted because it will spur parents to ask questions. (Sarah Karp, Catalyst)
Chicago Public Schools is planning to do away with a regional gifted program at South Loop Elementary School, the Tribune reports.
Local media outlets picked up a video of Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis making jokes about U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and herself during a teachers' conference in Seattle earlier this year. Lewis, the Sun-Times notes, is a former stand-up comic. Lewis on Monday called Duncan to apologize, according to the Tribune.
IN THE STATE
Waukegan schools will launch its Parent/Guardian Educational Workshop series on Friday, Nov. 18, with a seminar aimed at educating parents on the process for gaining permanent residency or citizenship in the U.S. (Sun-Times)
IN THE NATION
An unprecedented number of public schools in New York state are considered in need of improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind program, officials said yesterday. In all, 1,325 of the state’s 4,685 public schools are on the list. (New York Post)
Biometric technology in use in middle and high schools in West Virginia's Cabell County will allow students to pay for their lunches using their index fingers. (Education Week)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Broward schools chief Robert Runcie, a former Chicago Public Schools administrator, urge support for President Obama's jobs bill. (Miami Herald)
The General Educational Development program, or GED, is undergoing the biggest revamping in its 69-year history, according to Education Week. The move is driven by mounting recognition that young adults’ future success depends on getting more than a high-school-level education.
cps self smear campaign
Here we go again. Cps is going on its own smear campaign. For which ends, I fear to guess. If they are basing this information on the amateurish common core test they gave to the cps students they need to relax. The test was about 35 questions. Every kid had the same exact test, it looked like it was put together over a weekend. Kids were sent to the computer lab with no warning and took an online test , being tested on “standards” that are meant to be mastered by year’s end. . However, the cps common core test seriously looked like a an education major's college freshman education project. I almost feel like Brizzard and set the schools up to fail…and then went to their PR machine (ie the Chicago Tribune) to tell how BAD our schools are…well Mr. Brizzard do you have any proof this test is even valid??. Again 35 questions, on a new testing format really says nothing!
cps self smear campaign
Here we go again. Cps is going on its own smear campaign. For which ends, I fear to guess. If they are basing this information on the amateurish common core test they gave to the cps students they need to relax. The test was about 35 questions. Every kid had the same exact test, it looked like it was put together over a weekend. Kids were sent to the computer lab with no warning and took an online test , being tested on “standards” that are meant to be mastered by year’s end. . However, the cps common core test seriously looked like a an education major's college freshman education project. I almost feel like Brizzard and set the schools up to fail…and then went to their PR machine (ie the Chicago Tribune) to tell how BAD our schools are…well Mr. Brizzard do you have any proof this test is even valid??. Again 35 questions, on a new testing format really says nothing!
Twisting Truth
The school progress reports are actually based on the Scantron/NWEA (3rd-7th grades) tests as well as the (prek-2nd grades) and Explore (8th grade) tests. The real issue is that none of these tests are meant to be used for evaluative purposes. CPS teachers have been lied to by the CPS administration in this regard. These tests are meant to provide teachers with data "snapshots" that can be used to aid them in their attempts to differentiate instruction for each student. The minute that these test results are used to evaluate schools (which has obviously just happened on a grandiose scale), their true purpose is forever altered.
Now, schools will proceed with caution when giving these tests. They will think twice before administering them to any student (ELL or Special Ed.) who is not mandated to take them. Before, they may have administered the test to these students as a way of assessing them and hopefully helping them! Again, these tests were proclaimed to be "low stakes"!
Contrary to what our maor and CEO seem to think, this new CPS map is not grading the schools or the teachers, rather it is passing judgement on the students who live in our neighborhoods, their families, and their economic means, or lack thereof. No matter how much the mayor or CEO wants to blame the teachers, the truth is that poverty has always been a much more accurate determinant of academic success than any other variable.
Please do not misread this post as an excuse for poor teachers or adminstrators. I am a Nationally Board Certified teacher who cares deeply about education and about my students. I do believe that we can and do make a difference for our students, even those who live in poverty. Yet, I am absoutely fed up with the anti-teacher rhetoric and blatant falsehoods being promulgated by education "reformers" who have no idea what they are talking about. I fear that the "tyranny of testing" is causing irreparable harm!
Are Scantrons even valid?
I find it concerning that Scantrons are given such a central role in the school report cards. As I understand it from teachers who have administered it, the science version was hastily thrown together and excludes areas of science that are covered, focusing rather narrowly on a few topics only, some of which are not at all part of the curriculum. Please correct me, if I am wrong, but CPS is risking serious damage if it continues to misuse data or use the wrong data on which to base its decision-making.
It's also disturbing that 14 of the AUSL schools are on probation and that only one of them made AYP. Six of them are Level 3 schools. So it makes me wonder about the data, since I hear good things about those schools and their leadership. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Now remind me, Common Core does what?
As much as I would like to believe that Common Core is the centerpiece for reform these coming years, it seems as if the process of teaching to a test will remain the same as the last few years. So we develop a tougher Common Core high stakes test administered annually, supplemented with interim formative/summative assessments quarterly, to drive data-driven instruction. Somehow that doesn't sound all that different from the last few years with ISAT/Scantron, Benchmark, NWEA/Performance Management.
If you were to teach a child how to throw a baseball, or do a high jump, or tie shoelaces, it seems that the instruction is more fluid and less... analytical. You wouldn't break down the process of throwing such that the elbow has to be here at this point in time, or the weight on the opposing leg of about 60%, etc. You would just model and correct. You wouldn't engage in analysis paralysis where the details confuse and distract from the true core of what should be learned.
What exactly should be learned at the end of elementary grades, in 25 words or less? - I think the ability to read to learn and the ability to do the fundamental mathematical operations. For high school? - I think the ability to apply the skills learned in elementary to content areas, such as physics, history, etc. Now if the ability to design an iPad could be measured by taking a standardized test, now that would be something and I'm sure Apple would be really interested.
If our students are to be college and career ready, maybe we should be asking the recepients of our students, colleges and corporations, what they would like to see in our students. I bet their responses will be in 25 words or less.
It doesn't seem as if Common Core will raise the competitiveness of US students. Sure it raises the standard, but is lack of rigor the real reason why Finns and Singaporeans perform at a higher level than US students?
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