Archive for the ‘Arne Duncan/US DOE’ Category

Margaret Spellings

Daniel Malloy, the AJC’s reporter in Washington, D.C., sat down with former U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings for an interview at an event in Washington today.  Here are her answers to a series of questions on major education issues:

DM: Cheating scandal call testing into question?

Spellings: I think obviously the vast majority of educators and education leaders take assessment seriously and the integrity seriously and don’t cheat. When it does happen it ought to be addressed and attended to vigorously. Obviously, we saw that exact same thing play out in Atlanta and what encourages me when I think about the Atlanta case study, the business community, as you know, was very engaged, got a little sideswiped by the scandal, a little aggrieved by their engagement that was rewarded with this sort of behavior. I think to their credit they’ve stayed engaged and active and continue to be and are moving forward to the benefit of kids. Often we take our …

Continue reading Former U.S. ed secretary on legacy of No Child Left Behind »

One of the foundations of Georgia’s new teacher evaluation system will be classroom observations by administrators, which are supposed to occur twice a year and last 30 minutes each.

There are already doubts about whether these classroom visits will occur given the time constraints on principals or whether they will yield reliable information on teacher effectiveness. (See comment from the leader of the DeKalb teachers group that he is hearing complaints these observations are not happening as required in the pilot program under way.)

Here is new research that will add to the concerns. This is from Indiana University School of Education:

Classroom observation measures don’t necessarily provide a clearer picture of teacher effectiveness than value-added measures based on student test scores, according to a review of the most recent report from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project’s large-scale examination of teacher evaluation methods. The review was led by Cassandra …

Continue reading Do classroom observations of teachers give us reliable info? »

NBC brought its “Education Nation” project to Atlanta today with a two-hour town hall meeting with teachers at the Georgia Aquarium.

The web-streamed event revisited the usual education topics, teacher effectiveness, career and college readiness, the global workplace, charter schools and the role of technology.

While each of the four panels had a theme, panelists often strayed, so the discussions traveled far and wide. The teachers on the panel and those in the audience were articulate and committed; they certainly put forth Georgia’s best face in education. Many were National Board Certified teachers or county Teachers of the Year.

One of the panelists was a Georgia Teacher of the Year, Jadun McCarthy, a Bibb County high school teacher. (I have quoted the outspoken and eloquent Mr. McCarthy frequently on the blog in the past; he was more constrained under this format than when simply loosed at a microphone.)

McCarthy credited Georgia with applying for and winning a waiver …

Continue reading NBC’s Education Nation: In Atlanta today with teacher town hall »

The AJC has published the second installment in its major series on test score disparities nationwide. Today’s stories look at the improbable score patterns in some of the nation’s most highly decorated schools, National Blue Ribbon Schools.

AJC reporters included a winning school that even merited a visit from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Highland Elementary in Maryland.

“This school, just four or five years ago, wasn’t a Blue Ribbon school,” Duncan said that morning in September 2009, according to video of thew award event. “It had the same type of children, same type of families, same type of community — but dramatically different results.” Now, he said, “this school has more students at the advanced level than any other school like it in the state. It’s absolutely remarkable.”

And remarkably unlikely, according to the AJC analysis. It is essential to verify the achievement at these heralded school as they are held up as role models.

According to …

Continue reading AJC cheating series: National Blue Ribbon Schools that may be red-faced at these revelations »

A DeKalb reader sent me a note about local school districts no longer having to provide transportation for AYP transfer students next year. The reader said: “I think this will lead to a lot of angst, especially in DeKalb, where we had hundreds of transfer students.”

I agree.

Here is the letter from DeKalb County schools to parents, explaining the change:

As of June 30, 2012, there will no longer be a Public School Choice (ESEA Choice) transfer option under ESEA as reauthorized under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001  and the DeKalb County School District will no longer be required to implement ESEA Choice or pay for ESEC Choice transportation as implemented under the ESEA.

This change will go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year. All currently authorized travel reimbursements will continue to be processed through the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

Any student that has previously transferred to another school by exercising ESEA Choice must be allowed to attend that …

Continue reading Next year, parents on their own in transporting kids who transferred under No Child »

The release of teacher ratings in New York has led to discussion in the legislature there to limit general public access to the information while still allowing parents to see how their child’s teacher performed.

The debate in New York ought to closely watched here in Georgia where teaching ratings are just around the corner as part of the state’s Race to the Top reforms.

It is still unclear whether those ratings will be released in Georgia. Education policy leaders involved in Race to the Top have said in the past that they will not seek publication of teacher ratings, but the Legislature or governor may disagree.

According to The New York Times: (This is only an excerpt. Try to read full piece.)

With the Legislature preparing to go into session next week, the question of how much privacy teachers are granted could soon be resolved. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Monday that he believed in preserving the public access guaranteed by current law. The city released its …

Continue reading New York lawmakers may reconsider public’s right to see how teachers are rated »

Congratulations to Renfroe Middle School in Decatur, Lakeside High School in Evans, Ga., and Walton High School in Cobb. The three schools are the Georgia finalists in the Energy Department’s National Science Bowl Finals.

From the White House:

Demonstrating the Obama Administration’s commitment to improving the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the list of 113 regional middle and high school finalists that will compete in the Energy Department’s National Science Bowl Finals in Washington, D.C., at the end of April.

Since January, nearly 14,000 students have competed in regional tournaments in which teams of four or five students were tested via a fast-paced Jeopardy-style format on a range of science-related topics including biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, astronomy and math.

“Congratulations to the finalists of our 22nd …

Continue reading Congrats to Renfroe Middle in Decatur, Walton High in Cobb and Lakeside High in Evans for science prowess »

The state will release the Georgia high school graduation rate tomorrow based on a new federal formula considered a more accurate reflection of what is happening. The new “cohort” formula also will enable us to compare states, something we could not do when each state had its own methods of figuring out graduates and dropouts.

Georgia’s authentic graduation rate is open to debate. Independent research has placed it as low as 58 percent, although the state DOE places it above 80  percent.

Georgia has been using the National Center for Education Statistics “leaver rate,” which defines a graduate as a student who leaves high school with a regular diploma in four years. This does not include certificates of attendance or special education diplomas. About half the states use the leaver method, but critics contend the leaver methodology is flawed because it relies on incomplete dropout data.

The cohort rate takes the number of students who graduate in four years with a …

Continue reading DOE will release newly configured grad rate Tuesday. Here is a primer. »

The folks at FairTest have been raising the alarm about excessive testing and its impact on education long before most people.

Here is a response to the AJC investigation into nationwide disparities in test results from Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest: the National Center for Fair & Open Testing

By Robert Schaeffer

Across the U.S., the politically mandated misuse of standardized tests is damaging public schools and the children they serve. The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s investigation of suspicious test scores around the nation is just the latest example. Experts may debate the methodology, but there is no question that cheating on standardized exams is widespread. In just the past three academic years, FairTest has documented confirmed cases of test score manipulation in 33 states plus the District of Columbia.

These scandals are the predictable result of over-reliance on test scores. As the renowned social scientist Donald Campbell concluded more …

Continue reading High-stakes testing cheats children out of a quality education »

Here is a post to start off the month of April from Peter Smagorinsky, distinguished research professor of English education at the University of Georgia. Smagorinsky is the author of several interesting posts to the Get Schooled blog and also contributes pieces to the Washington Post Answer Sheet blog.

Enjoy this new essay on testing:

By Peter Smagorinsky

A recent study concludes that teachers who produce high test scores affect their students’ lives down the road. High income and other rewards, goes the argument, follow from high test scores, and so it behooves schools to produce those scores to ensure affluent futures for their students.

You can’t have test scores without tests, and in Georgia, we test, and then test again, often quite soon. Preparing for and administering multiple-choice tests pretty much dominate instructional time these days, because being graded by teachers trained in a discipline just isn’t good enough evidence of students’ learning.

Our …

Continue reading The billion dollar question for Arne Duncan: Why has testing become the driver in school reform? »