o que para mim sempre foi uma evidência...

bastava ler os clássicos e acompanhar blogues de referência na área da educação e políticas públicas...

via feedly...

coisas da educação... ainda não chegámos a este estado de coisas mas para lá caminhamos...?

Ravitch-Led Group Rates Most States Low on Its Education Priorities

By Daarel Burnette II on February 2, 2016 1:36 PM

 

Updated
Washington

"Many states rely too heavily on standardized testing, open their doors too easily to charters and other school choice options, and fall short in adequately paying and supporting their professional teaching force, according to a stinging report published Tuesday by the Network for Public Education, a group led by education historian and policy advocate Diane Ravitch.

 
The report, entitled "Valuing Public Education: A 50-State Report Card," rates the states and the nation on an A to F scale in a half-dozen categories and overall, based on the group's policy positions in areas such as teacher evaluation and compensation, testing, and the financial support of traditional public schools.

"The current policy framework that pushes for more testing and privatization has failed," Ravitch, the co-founder and president of the group, said at a press conference at the National Press Club Tuesday. The meeting was attended by several supporters. "It's insanity. Let's try some common sense for a change."

In its report card, the advocacy organization gave the nation as a whole a grade of D in every category except for high-stakes testing, where it was awarded a C. Thirty-seven states, in addition to the District of Columbia, scored an overall grade of a D or F, and 13 received a C, the highest overall grade awarded. (Some states received higher grades—including some A's—in particular categories.)

Among the specific factors that figured into those scores:

A rejection of high-stakes testing for student graduation, promotion, and teacher evaluations;
The degree of "resistance to privatization," including tighter restrictions on charter schools and rejection of parent-trigger laws and vouchers;
Measures aimed at gauging equity in school funding, as well as household income and employment, and school integration;
A wide range of teacher-related factors, including salary measures, a commitment to teacher experience, and rejection of merit pay;
How well taxpayer money is used, as measured by markers such as lower class sizes, pre-K and full-day kindergarten, and rejection of virtual schools.

"We give low marks to states that devalue public education, attack teachers, and place high stakes outcomes on standardized tests," Ravitch wrote in her introduction to the report. And she went on to say, "It is our hope as advocates for public education that this report will rally parents, educators and other concerned citizens to strengthen their commitment to public schools."

The Network for Public Education was launched in 2013 as a counterweight to what in its view was a barrage of attacks on teachers and traditional public schools after the release of the "Waiting for Superman" movie in 2010.

Among other things, the NPE opposes high-stakes testing, what it terms the privatization of public education, for-profit management of schools, and policies that contribute to a lack of support and respect for teachers.

Instead, the group advocates for racially integrated schools, funding of social services and replacing annual bell-curve tests with periodic sample tests such as the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Accountability systems should target those administrators at the top, rather than the teachers at the bottom, Ravitch said.

The group's report card comes less than two months after passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the updated version of the main federal K-12 law, which is expected to give states greater authority to shape their school accountability systems. State legislatures are expected in the next year to debate many of those policies.

The organization concedes in its report that it set a high bar in rating the states on its policy priorities. The report gives an overall failing grade to eight states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas.

But the report also noted what it called some "bright spots." It specifically cited Alabama, Montana, and Nebraska for rejecting high stakes testing and what it called privatization. And Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and West Virginia all received A's in the "resistance to privatization" category.

"There are no silver bullets in education," said Carol Burris, the executive director of the organization. "Turning schools around takes hard work, and it happens incrementally over time."

The NPE report card was modeled after national report cards issued by groups such as StudentsFirst and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which advocate for more charter schools and student choice, among other priorities.

Inez Feltscher, the director of the ALEC task force on education and workforce development, said charters and other school choice programs have proven to be effective.

"Giving parents the flexibility to place their children in the learning environment that works best without undue regulatory interference from state bureaucrats is a win for students, not a reason to give a state a lower grade," said Inez Feltscher, the director of the ALEC task force on education and workforce development.
The Network for Public Education has published its report online and plans in the near future to distribute individual report cards for each state."

via education week...

que o dinheiro não compra a felicidade já sabíamos, mas...

Bill Gates Still Throwing Millions into Promoting Common Core

 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all by dianeravitch  /  7min 

 

   

"Valerie Straus reports that Bill Gates continues to pour millions of dollars into organizations that might persuade people to like the Common Core. Usually when a product or service gets good word of mouth, it takes off. Unfortunately for Gates, who has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in establishing national standards, a national curriculum, and national testing, the public is not buying.

This past year, Gates expended another $42 million trying to buy friends for his standards. You might be surprised by some of the recipients.

Here are a few:

Editorial Projects in Education, which sponsors Education Week: $100,000

National Writing Project: $1.6 million

National Congress of Parents and Teachers: $1 million

The Boston Foundation: $150,000

There are many more. Someone should tell Bill, “Money can’t buy you love.”"

via feedly...

coisas da educação... a arte importa, e muito, para o sucesso educativo...?

Steven Singer: Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts

 

6 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all by dianeravitch  /  17min 

Steven Singer’s post is part of the series that Anthony Cody is running on his blog about the importance of the arts in education.

He writes:

Sometimes in public school you’ve just got to cut the crap.

No testing. No close reading. No multiple choice nonsense.

Get back to basics – pass out notebooks, crack them open and students just write.

Not an essay. Not a formal narrative. Not an official document. Just pick up a pencil and see where your imagination takes you.

You’d be surprised the places you’ll go.

You might invent a new superhero and describe her adventures in a marshmallow wonderland. You might create a television show about strangers trapped in an elevator. You might imagine what life would be like if you were no bigger than a flea.

Or you might write about things closer to home. You might describe what it’s like to have to take care of your three younger brothers and sisters after school until just before bedtime when your mom comes back from her third minimum wage job. You might chronicle the dangers of walking home after dismissal where drug dealers rule certain corners and gangs patrol the alleys. You might report on where you got those black and blue marks on your arms, your shoulders, places no one can see when you’re fully clothed.

My class is not for the academic all stars. It’s for children from impoverished families, kids with mostly black and brown skin and test scores that threaten to close their school and put me out of work.

So all these topics and more are fair game. You can write about pretty much whatever you want. I might give you something to get you started. I might ask you a question to get you thinking, or try to challenge you to write about something you’ve never thought about or to avoid certain words or phrases that are just too darn obvious. I might ask your opinion of something in the news or what you think about the school dress code or get your thoughts about how things could improve.

Because I actually care what you think.

Methinks that Steven is thinking of the famous line by David Coleman, architect of the Common Core standards, who once said that when you grow up, you learn that no one gives a —- what you think or feel. Steven Singer cares what his students think and feel. He wants them to think and feel.

He writes:

At times like these, I’m not asking you to dig through a nonfiction text or try to interpret a famous literary icon’s grasp of figurative language. It’s not the author’s opinion that matters – it’s yours – because you are the author. Yes, YOU.

You matter. Your thoughts matter. Your feelings. YOU MATTER!

via feedly...

educação e tecnologias... reflexões para o fim de dia...!

David Greene: Teachers or Technology?

By dianeravitch 

October 29, 2015 // 

"Teacher and teacher trainer David Greene tells a true story about a teacher in an unnamed district. 

Read it and see what you think. 

“Derrick’s Story” 

The other night I had dinner with a couple I’ve known for a long time. Let’s just say that one of these people is not named “Derrick,” but that’s the name I will use. It will be easy to understand why as I tell this story. The facts are correct, but I will not identify him nor identify the school so that I don’t put Derrick in a bad spot. 

Derrick is a retired high school teacher who was recently hired as a substitute in an upper-middle class suburban high school whose population is 80 percent white with less than ten percent of students considered to be economically disadvantaged. Approximately 70 percent of students take AP courses. Almost all meet ELA and math proficiency standards. 

It is a town similar to several NYC suburban towns. The estimated median household income was about $90,000, which is $30,000 higher than the New York state median. More than half of the town’s population has at least a bachelor’s degree, while more than a quarter has a graduate or professional degree. 

In short, this is not your average high school in your average suburban town. 

Derrick started by saying he has been learning a great deal of new technology while on this job. Great, I thought, but then he went on. 

His story soon morphed into a version of “The Walking Dead” or a parallel of the story of Clarisse McClellan, an unorthodox teacher, in the film and stage version of “Fahrenheit 451” — fired for not believing in Ray Bradbury’s fictional, high tech, book-burning, future society she lives in. 

Derrick began to describe how he had to learn the Smart Board, specific tablet apps, Infinite Campus, and Pearson-created, computer-directed curricula for his courses. He was forced to implement a rigid, computer-directed classroom where all students worked in groups, listened to a Kahn Academy-like lecture, followed computer-programmed procedures outlined on the Smart Board, and did assignments on their tablets. Lesson plans were only to be followed, not created, and rigidly broke the period down into timed sections. 

Derrick was told not to use the Socratic Method or any kind of class participation where he did anything more than monitor student progress on their work. He became a glorified babysitter. A cog in a machine. An automaton. 

A technician, rather than a teacher. 

Coincidentally, the next morning I read a New York Times piece related to this issue. Entitled, Lecture Me. Really., it told the tale of a college American history prof who inspected her new classroom and was pleased to see all the new technology there, but was surprised that there was no lectern for her to place her notes. She managed to get one after weeks of telephoning and emailing. 

Although she defended lecturing in her piece, of which I am not a fan, the tale is still important to this discussion. 

The point is that even if this room was used for a student-centered Socratic classroom, the emphasis was solely on the non-human technology. We need to combine active learning (which can easily be done via low or high tech tools) and the kinds of teaching tools that allow students to “keep students’ minds in energetic and simultaneous action and… a rare skill in our smartphone-app-addled culture: the art of attention, the crucial first step in the “critical thinking” that educational theorists prize. 

To quote the author, Molly Worthen, “Technology can be a saboteur. Studies suggest that taking notes by hand helps students master material better than typing notes on a laptop, probably because most find it impossible to take verbatim notes with pen and paper. Verbatim transcription is never the goal: Students should synthesize as they listen.” 

Derrick’s story, on its own, is scary indeed, but we also know that this is happening all across the country where school districts, even relatively wealthy ones such as his, are buying into the high tech trend regardless of what it does to the quality of teaching and learning. 

All districts want to upgrade their technology, so when giants like Pearson, Apple, or Microsoft tell them they will install everything and provide all students with tablets, many jump at the chance to sell their souls to the devil. The devil corporations or foundations give districts the hardware and software, but they are locked in to using their curricula and lesson plans. 

The result? Instead of technology creating great teaching tools for teachers, teachers become the tools of technology!"

matar uma profissão [professor]... é fácil, basta seguir a receita [lá pelos 'states']...!

"Michigan Superintendent: How to Kill a Profession

Steve Matthews, superintendent of the Novi school district, here explains how the education profession has been attacked and demonized, with premeditation.

He begins:

So you want to kill a profession.

It’s easy.

First you demonize the profession. To do this you will need a well-organized, broad-based public relations campaign that casts everyone associated with the profession as incompetent and doing harm. As an example, a well-orchestrated public relations campaign could get the front cover of a historically influential magazine to invoke an image that those associated with the profession are “rotten apples.”

Then you remove revenue control from the budget responsibilities of those at the local level. Then you tell the organization to run like a business which they clearly cannot do because they no longer have control of the revenue. As an example, you could create a system that places the control for revenue in the hands of the state legislature instead of with the local school board or local community.

Then you provide revenue that gives a local agency two choices: Give raises and go into deficit or don’t give raises so that you can maintain a fund balance but in the process demoralize employees. As an example, in Michigan there are school districts that have little to no fund balance who have continued to give raises to employees and you have school districts that have relatively healthy fund balances that have not given employees raises for several years.

Then have the state tell the local agency that it must tighten its belt to balance revenue and expenses. The underlying, unspoken assumption being that the employees will take up the slack and pay for needed supplies out of their own pockets.

Additionally , introduce “independent” charters so that “competition” and “market-forces” will “drive” the industry. However, many of these charters, when examined, give the illusion of a better environment but when examined show no improvement in service. The charters also offer no comprehensive benefits or significantly fewer benefits for employees. So the charters offer no better quality for “customers” and no security for employees but they ravage the local environment.

Then create a state-mandated evaluation system in an effort to improve quality…..

That is how it begins.

For his willingness to speak out honestly and courageously, I add Steve Matthews to the blog’s honor roll as a hero of public education."

no diane's ravitch blog... aqui.

comentário: 

nada a que já não estejamos habituados desde, pelo menos e no mínimo, a célebre milú, de execrável memória.

coisas da educação (!)... lá pelos 'states', reflexões para o fim de dia...!

no diane ravitch's blog... aqui.

coisas da educação... a ler...!

An Astonishing Editorial in “The New York Times” about “the Central Crisis in Education”

no diane ravitch's blog... aqui.

o referido editorial... aqui.

coisas da educação... 'data mining'

 "Laura H. Chapman: What You Need to Know about Data Mining of Students

A regular commenter on the blog, Laura H. Chapman, shares her research on data mining:

Policies on data mining? “The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.” Paul Valéry, poet.

It is no surprise that the Gates funded Teacher-Student Data Link Project started in 2005 is going full steam ahead. By 2011 his project said the link between teacher and student data would serve eight purposes:

1. Determine which teachers help students become college-ready and successful,

2. Determine characteristics of effective educators,

3. Identify programs that prepare highly qualified and effective teachers,

4. Assess the value of non-traditional teacher preparation programs,

5. Evaluate professional development programs,

6. Determine variables that help or hinder student learning,

7. Plan effective assistance for teachers early in their career, and

8. Inform policy makers of best value practices, including compensation.

The system is intended to ensure all courses are based on standards, and all responsibilities for learning are assigned to one or more “teachers of record” in charge of a student or class so that a record is generated whenever a “teacher of record” has a specific proportion of responsibility for a student’s learning activities.

These activities must be defined by performance measures for a particular standard, by subject, and grade level.

The TSDL system requires period-by-period tracking of teachers and students every day; including “tests, quizzes, projects, homework, classroom participation, or other forms of day-to-day assessments and progress measures.” Ultimately, the system will keep current and longitudinal data on the performance of teachers and individual students, as well schools, districts, states, and educators ranging from principals to higher education faculty.

This data will then be used to determine the “best value” investments in education, taking into account as many demographic factors as possible, including….health records for preschoolers. but the cradle is next, and it is part of USDE’s technology plan.

Since 2006, the USDE has also invested over $700 million in the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) to help states “efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, and use education data, including individual student records”…and make “data-driven decisions to improve student learning, as well as facilitate research to increase student achievement and close achievement gaps.” The newest upgrade of the concpt is for these state-wide systems to become multi-state…and a national system. This goes WAY, WAy beyond (and may pre-empt) routine data-gathering by the National Bureau of Education Statistics.

It is not widely known that in 2009, USDE modified the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act so that student data—test scores, health records, learning issues, disciplinary reports—can be used for education studies without parental consent (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. §1232g). Moreover, a 2012 issue brief from USDE outlined a program of data mining and learning analytics in partnership with commercial companies.

The envisioned data- mining program includes an automated, instant access, user-friendly “recommendation system” for teachers that links students’ test scores and their learning profiles to preferred instructional actions and resources. Enhancing teaching and learning through educational data mining and learning analytics: An issue brief. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/technology/files/2012/03/edm-la-brief.pdf p. 29).

USDE is also pressing forward a “radical and rapid” transformation of public education. The new system is marketed and funded as “personalized, competency-based learning” 24/365 from multiple sources. It is intended to dismantle place-based schools, seat time, grade levels, subject-specific curricula, traditional concepts about “teachers” and diplomas. Multiple certifications with flower along with an abundace of badges earne for completing learning paths and play-lists of learning options, awarded by profit and non-profit “learning agents.” The role of “teacher” is envioned as a relic, along with the institution of public schools. See USDE, Office of Educational Technology, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, Washington, D.C., 2010. http://tech.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/netp2010.pdf/////////!

no diane ravitch's blog... aqui.

coisas da educação... que já se começam a ver por cá...?

"She writes:

When the school board reached a severance agreement with Deasy in October, it issued a statement that board members do “not believe that the superintendent engaged in any ethical violations or unlawful acts” in regard to the emails. That statement was completely inappropriate considering that Bramlett’s investigation into the emails was still underway—as it is now. The board has no authority to direct the inspector general’s investigations—but it can hire and fire the person heading the staff office, and controls his office’s budget. (In fact, just a week or so before the board made its statement, Bramlett’s office pleaded for more funding, according to a KPCC report.) The statement could be seen as pressuring the inspector general not to find wrongdoing; in any case, board members are in no position to prejudge the matter.

For that matter, none of us are in that position. The emails could be perfectly legal and appropriate—or not. It’s unknown whether even a federal grand jury will be able to ferret out the full picture, since many earlier emails were apparently deleted and aren’t available. And if it uncovers ethical rather than legal problems, the public might never know; the grand jury is looking for evidence of crime. Federal crime at that. This might not be the best mechanism for examining the iPad purchase. But the investigation at least ensures that an independent authority is examining the matter, unimpeded by internal politics or pressures.

Yes, the public has a right to know and a right to expect that public officials will act in the best interests of students. As for the huge purchases for technology, we in New York have learned that even the sharpest and most ethical city officials have trouble monitoring the technology purchases. The largest financial scandal in the city’s history occurred recently, when a company called Citytime won an IT contract for $63 million in 1998 which ballooned into a $600 million payout; the principals went to jail. The school system’s ARIS project, launched in 2007, was supposed to aggregate data on the city’s 1.1 million students; it was recently dumped because so few teachers or parents used it, at a loss of $95 million. There were other instances where consultants bilked the city, in large part because no one supervised what they were doing.

Is there a moral to the story? Choose your own. Mine is that these multimillion dollar technology purchases must be carefully monitored, from beginning to end, to be sure that the public interest is protected and served. The problem is that many school districts lack the expertise to know whether they are getting what they paid for, or getting a pig in a poke. When even New York City and Los Angeles can be misled, think how much easier it will be to pick the pockets of mid-size and smaller districts."

no diane ravitch's blog... aqui.

curiosidades... educação, sociedade e rendimentos... reconhecem a situação...?

com as respectivas ligações... aqui.

coisas da educação [avaliação de desempenho docente]... lá chegará o dia em que estaremos a discutir uma situação similar [é que, por muito que nos custe, já se faz muita avaliação próxima desta]...!

com as respectivas ligações... aqui.

coisas da educação... há exemplos para seguir...?

aqui.

como quem não quer a coisa...?

aqui.

coisas da educação... e agora vão lá protestar [e já não refiro a ásia]...!

coisas da educação... que já vão acontecendo por cá...?

coisas da (des)educação... 'and now a word from a sad teacher'...!

coisas da educação... olha se a moda pega...!

pode ler esta entrada... aqui.

o melhor é não dar muitas ideias [que já são 'cráticas'] ao mec...!

coisas...

com as respectivas ligações... aqui.