Parents Anticipate Report as Assault on Low-Income Neighborhood Schools

The Deputy Mayor for Education, with a 100,000 dollar grant from the Walton Family Foundation, engaged IFF (Illinois Facility Fund) to study the capacity and performance of DCPS and public charter schools.

Click Map to Enlarge

IFF has authored reports in Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, using a defined method to determine what they term "performing" or "non-performing" seats. This analysis is being done with an eye to "right sizing" district schools which beyond consolidation could include reconstitution and replacement with school management organizations.

Mary Levy, independent public school analyst, applied IFF methods to DCPS and public charter school data and found that where "performing seats" are located correlates with household wealth and family income of students. So that ALL schools in high wealth neighborhoods are "performing" and those in low wealth neighborhoods and with large numbers of children from low income families are "non-performing" with a very few exceptions, as illustrated in a map and data-tables. The IFF findings are expected to be issued at the end of November. There has been no public input or discussion solicited on the methods, criteria, or purpose of this study.

Illinois Facilities Fund Hired to Study School Closing/Opening Needs in DCPS

Valerie Strauss correctly questions in her column today why DCPS would want to hire a pro-charter school company from Illinois to advise the city on which additional public schools might be closed and where charter schools might be opened. The contract with IFF is for $100,000. Meanwhile, our own local 21st Century Schools Fund has been studying DC's facilities needs and advising DCPS for years. They already have the data being requested, including school utilization figures. Just a year and a half ago they published an excellent study of the not very plan-full way that charter schools had been located and the resulting inequitable access to educational services, by neighborhood in the city. The point person bringing in the new consulting company is Deputy Mayor for Education DeShawn Wright, who formerly helped oversee and promote charter schools in both Newark and NYC.

Photos from the Save Our Schools Rally and March, July 30, 2011

How High Stakes Testing Led to Cheating Scandals in Atlanta and Washington DC

Dana Goldstein has penned another insightful column on the origin of the testing scandals and hits the nail right on the head. This time the piece appeared today in Slate Magazine.  The only problem is that although what she says must be occuring in DCPS, as of now, there has been no real investigation of cheating in DC, so the article is based on conjecture. Why has there been no real investigation? Where are the grown-ups?

Wishing Erasuregate Away DCPS Learns Nothing from Atlanta

In an article in the Post this morning, Bill Turque paints a picture of a stark contrast between the approach taken in Atlanta and DCPS with very similar testing scandals. In Atlanta employees lied initially and it was only when questioned under oath that they told the truth. It took 60 full time investigators with subpoena powers, to uncover the truth. At first the improprieties seemed isolated and small, but further investigation led to 178 participants in 44 schools with a massive coverup by the central administration.

If anything, the culture and conditions in DCPS seem more ripe than Atlanta for cheating. There has been too much emphasis on testing and test-prep over four years. There is a culture of fear in schools. The stakes --huge bonuses and unceremonious firing, the rewards and sanctions for test scores on a single test, are way too high. The level of cynicism from years of constant conflict is also high. Nevertheless, it turns out as revealed in Turque's piece today, DCPS is doing as little as possible to investigate what USA Today revealed are an abnormally high number of erasures in 103 schools.

Kaya Henderson asked the DC Inspector General to do the investigation. One investigator was assigned and a grand total of 10 people have been interviewed. According to the Post article today, no subpoena powers have been used by the DC IG. The US Department of Education has also asked to get involved, but it is unclear whether they will be doing a forensic analysis of test results or using subpoena powers to question people under oath or using a sufficient number of investigators. Do they too have a stake in a cover-up? Will the public stand for continued mystery about whether test scores have been fixed for the past three years? Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Washington Examiner newspaper local opinion editor Barbara Hollingsworth sums it up this way.

Robbing Schools to Fatten Central Administration

There seems to be a need for greater DC Council scrutiny over the DCPS budget. Either DCPS budget expert Mary Levy is right and the proposed school system budget for next year is growing by $77 Million, none of it targeted for schools, or there is over $50 Million unaccounted-for in the DCPS budget for the current year. Mark Simon and Mary Levy's Op-Ed in the Washington Post today points out that the only publicly available data shows a massive transfer of funds from schools to central administration. Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson says however that such a conclusion is drawn comparing the Budget Books for the two years, but that the "real budget" is in conflict with the "Budget Books" that Mary Levy and the DC Council have used. Spending in the current year, she says is actually $823 MIllion, $50 Million higher, making the increase for next year not so much. But... neither the DC Council nor the general public are allowed to see the "real budget." Is the school system leadership allowed to do this? Does Mayoral Control mean "trust us" and we don't have to account for monies spent anymore? And what did happen to all that extra money in the current year that never made it to the budget books?

Teacher Evaluation that Works -- Designed Together With Teachers

Doug Prouty, MCEA President

The NY Times reported today on the Montgomery County teacher evaluation system, built collaboratively with the union, and working perhaps better than anywhere else in the country. Although it is praised by Secretary Duncan as ..."where the country needs to go," it stands in stark contrast to what school districts are being incentivized to do. Praised by State superintendent Nancy Grasmick as "an excellent system for professional development," Montgomery is nevertheless locked in a major conflict with the state because the district refuses to use student test scores as any percentage of a teacher's evaluation, and Maryland got $250 Million premised on all teachers being evaluated using standardized student test scores for 50% of the judgment.

Meanwhile, in DCPS, the system continues with the IMPACT evaluation, unchanged, even though teachers have voted overwhelmingly that it be ended. The district is planning to greatly increase both the amount of student standardized testing and its use in teacher evaluation, and a scandal of possibly widespread cheating by administrators and teachers over the past two years is waiting for a thorough investigation. What a difference in the approach. What works seems irrelvant to the policy makers. Full-speed ahead.

Read the NY Times piece here.

USA Today Features Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform Petition

With over 3,700 signatures collected on our petition for a federal investigation of "erasuregate," USA Today followed-up on their original expose with a report on our petition. Read their report here.

UPDATE: And this afternoon, May 6th, Washington Post columnist Valerie Strauss wrote a great piece about our petition on her blog. It will be in the print edition on Monday.

Sign the Petition !!

   DC public schools, under former Chancellor Michelle Rhee, has become obsessed with testing. Teacher pay is tied to test scores. Principal bonuses are tied to test scores. Teacher evaluations are tied to test scores. School funding is tied to test scores. Students are pulled from their regular classrooms for days or weeks each year, to be prepped for the tests. What's this got to do with a quality education? Chancellor Rhee used to ask each principal, individually, to name the percentage point gain they would produce on test scores each year. She’d follow up with an email, reminding them of their commitment. Principal’s jobs were on the line if they didn’t produce.
   In such a system, cheating is nearly inevitable. Sure enough, USA Today recently broke a major investigative story about apparent cheating in DC public schools, on standardized assessments. It wasn’t the kids who were cheating. It was the kids who were cheated.
   Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform DC has initiated a petition campaign for a thorough investigation and a moratorium on the test-crazy practices in DCPS.
   The petition calls on the General Accounting Office (GAO), which has jurisdiction over DC, or the U.S. Department of Education's Inspector General to investigate the DC testing scandal – and to determine how DC’s test-obsessed culture contributed to it. In addition, we’re demanding that DCPS immediately place a moratorium on all high stakes attached to the tests. Read the petition. Sign the petition. Help stop this craziness.

Sign the Petition Here.

USA Today Reveals Possible Widespread Test Irregularities Under Michelle Rhee

USA Today published Monday a lengthy analysis of possible widespread cheating at the majority of schools during the tenure of DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, leading to test score gains that seemed to reinforce Rhee's draconian strategies. Defending her record, Rhee lashed out at the USA Today piece, but Diane Ravitch, one of the nation's foremost critics of test-based reform and privatization took Rhee on pointing out that her entire record in DC may be a chimera.
Update: And in a follow-up by Jay Mathews, Michelle Rhee retracted on Wednesday her attack Tuesday on the USA Today piece, calling her own comments "stupid." What Rhee failed to acknowledge, however, is that back in 2009, when State Superintendent Deborah Gist wanted a real investigation of testing improprieties, Rhee and Fenty blocked a real investigation, preferring the chimera of rising test scores. Gist resigned as State Superintendent shortly thereafter. So we have a ways to go before the full story has been revealed.
Further Update: With growing interest in the need for a thorough investigation of the cheating scandal under Rhee, and suspicion and rumors that doctoring test answer sheets was taking place at many schools with a cover-up at the central office, Valerie Strauss on Wednesday proposed a real investigation as the only way to get to the bottom of what took place and who knew about it. USA Today also followed up today raising the question of whether Officials in DC really want to get to the truth or are still engaged in covering up the extent of the scandal.

DCPS Budget and Teacher Data Included in Testimony Presented Friday

Findings from my analysis included in testimony to the DC Council on Friday, March 4 and presented again as testimony to Mayor Vincent Gray on Monday include:

 1.  The number of DCPS central administration employees rose by 112 or 18% from 2007 to 2010 (the tenure of Michelle Rhee), while enrollment went down by 6,600 or 12%. Since FY 2003 central office FTEs are up 38% while enrollment is down by 28%.

2.  As of October 1, 2010, about 100 of the central office staff have salaries of over $100,000 per year.

3.  Per student spending went up 28% during Ms. Rhee’s tenure, compared to inflation of 6%, leading to the possibility that better student/staff ratios, smaller classes and other resources were responsible for the modest test score improvements that did occur. Unfortunately, the level of spending – which is high compared to other school districts -- can’t be sustained.

4.  DCPS is now losing half its teacher workforce within 5 years, and half its new teacher hires within 2 years.

5.  The percentage of inexperienced (first and second year) teachers has risen to almost 20%.

6.  Beginning teachers (first and second year) are 25% of the teachers in three wards with mostly low-income students (1, 5, and 8).

7.  Basic budget and expenditure information is not available to the public – such as financial reports, current budgets for both the system and local schools.

Copies of the testimony and the attached tables are posted here. A more detailed analysis of central office positions is here and more information is on the SHAAPE web site here under High School Policy Areas-Budget Analysis.

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"Middle-America" Uprising in Wisconsin

Student Achievement Under Rhee No Better than Her Predecessors

According to a new study of DCPS student achievement on NAEP scores, "the nation's report card," Alan Ginsburg, former director of policy and program studies for the US Education Department, finds that improvements under Rhee were no better than the upward trend under Superintendants Vance and Janey. In fact, achievement improved the most under former Superintendent Paul Vance. Ginsburg makes clear that his analysis is not that of the US Department of Education, but his own. The full study can be read here.

In spite of these findings, former Chancellor Rhee, in Florida this week advising Governor Rick Scott and urging the State Legislature to support school vouchers, claimed once again record NAEP score gains under her leadership in DCPS. “Over the three years that I was there, we saw really record gains in academic achievement on the NAEP examination,” she said. “We went from being last in the entire nation to leading the entire nation in gains in both reading and math at both the fourth and eighth grade levels. And we were the only jurisdiction in the entire country in which every single subgroup of children improved their academic standing.”
Well, not exactly. It turns out now that the gains had been greater under Vance and Janey, Rhee's predecessors.

School Budget Allocations Under Scrutiny

DCPS has now postponed for the third time release of local school allocations for next year. The question of hard to defend inequities in school allocations during the Rhee years got a bit of sunlight thrown on it in an article by Bill Turque in the Washington Post today. Drawing on testimony delivered by SHAAPE [the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators] the article voices concern about the lower level of funding that the large, comprehensive high schools have received relative to the specialty schools. Schools like Cardozo High, with really tough student populations, have to make do with significantly lower funding. The article raises the stakes on Kaya Henderson's administration as they get ready to release the preliminary school budget allocations -- any day now.

40% of DCPS Teachers Eligible for Bonuses Reject Them

WAMU's Kavitha Cardoza reports this week in an important scoop that fully 40% of the teachers who earned cash bonuses under Michelle Rhee's IMPACT teacher evaluation system last year are refusing to take the money. This astounding expression of alienation from the IMPACT bonus program, which has received strong editorial support from the editors of the Washington Post, was also reported in Bill Turque's Washington Post blog on Friday.

New Study of Value-Added Modeling Reveals Problems



Jesse Rothstein

 University of California at Berkeley researcher, Jesse Rothstein, has taken another look at a Gates Foundation study released in late 2010 that purports to show that value added scores are correlated with broader, higher level teaching and learning competencies. Rothstein's new analysis reveals that the data in the Gates research study actually shows the opposite of what their conclusions state.  The fact that there is surprisingly little correlation between value added scores and broader teaching competencies measured by other tests means that teachers with low VAM scores might actually be excellent teachers when other, richer measures are used. The Rothstein correction calls into serious question the use of value added modeling in teacher evaluation, such as that used in the DCPS IMPACT system.

"Data craziness is starting to hurt," says Kaya Henderson

In an interview with WAMU's Kavitha Cardoza, Tuesday, Kaya Henderson stepped away from the Michelle Rhee script and began, for the first time, to articulate what might be a different approach. "I think we've gotten something wrong," she said. "The goal is to educate children. And I think the swing of the pendulum from absolutely no accountability to what I might call data craziness is starting to hurt." Read Bill Turque's account here.

Diane Ravitch Responds to Bill Gates' Questions

Bill Gates has increasingly come to articulate the dominant narrative on education reform in the US. In this week's Newsweek he takes on Diane Ravitch and terms her his main adversary. Ravitch responds today in Valarie Strauss' Post Column to the questions Gates poses to her in Newsweek. Its a thought provoking interchange, particularly Ravitch's response.

Is DCPS's new IMPACT Evaluation System Rigged?

On November 1, Valarie Strauss invited Columbia Teachers College professor, Aaron Pallas to analyze just how the new IMPACT teacher evaluation system works and his simple description (here) is a shocker. It turns out that teachers are not being evaluated against a standard of good teaching, but rather against the student test score achievement of similarly situated teachers in DCPS. So half the teachers will always be rated ineffective, and half effective, no matter how good the quality of teaching really is.  The question is, would it be the best use of DC tax dollars to extend the test based IMPACT model, now used only in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades, on lots of new standardized tests so that teachers can be evaluated in this way at all grade levels and subject disciplines? Read the Pallas analysis and you'll probably demand that IMPACT be drastically modified so that its about good teaching, not a zero-sum game based on which student scores are higher and which lower.

[...which reminds us of a joke about two teachers camping in the woods. When they were about to go to sleep for the night, the one teacher started putting on his sneakers. "Why are you doing that?" asked his friend. "Bears," said camping teacher #1. "You can't outrun a bear," said camping teacher #2. "I don't have to outrun the bear, said #1. I just have to outrun you."]

Responses to Simplistic Approaches

Co-Chairs of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education -- Helen Ladd, Pedro Noguera, and Tom Paysant -- issued the following statement on behalf of the network of thousands of individuals who signed the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education campaign statement in 2008, including the now secretary of education, Arne Duncan. The statement was issued as a timely response to "simplistic approaches."
-- Mark
_________________________________________
New Material on a Simplistic Approach to Teacher Evaluation and School Improvement
Many policymakers have recently become enthusiastic about using student test scores, and gains on student test scores, to evaluate and compensate teachers. We agree that every classroom should have a well-educated, professional teacher, and school systems should recruit, prepare, and retain teachers who are qualified to do the job. But evaluating and compensating teachers primarily by their student test scores can corrupt the educational process. Even the use of "value-added" test scores, in the absence of a holistic evaluation of teacher quality, can narrow the curriculum, encourage gamesmanship in education, and misidentify more and less qualified teachers.

The Economic Policy Institute has recently published two documents that elaborate on these points and that we want to share with you, our colleagues in the campaign for a Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. (click link to read further and if you are an education researcher or an educator, to sign-on to the statement on the use of student test scores)

What Went Wrong? Fenty's Real Mis-steps

The election confirmed what polls had shown for several weeks, that Fenty and Rhee had squandered their opportunity to reform the schools and the city. The question is how did this happen? The final vote: after Fenty's $5 Million warchest had been spent and the Washington Post editors had cheerled unceasingly for the Mayor and his accomplishments -- Vince Gray won -- 57% to 42%!

The Washington Post continues to insist in its post-election analysis that mayor Fenty's missteps were all about his personality and his failure to listen to his paid advisors. In the first salvo of their post-election analysis, reporters Nikita Stewart and Paul Schwartzman traced back examples of Fenty's hubris over the past year. But their analysis manages to maintain the myth that his policies and accomplishments really deserved to get him re-elected.

What the Post seems incapable of understanding, but what those close to the ground in DC schools know only too well, is the story of how the missteps and reform strategies of the Rhee administration served to alienate at least as many parents and teachers as they served to inspire. The very constituencies that should have been supportive of the reforms, those that were desperate to improve the quality of teaching and learning in DCPS, were growing to hate the sloppy teacher evaluation process, the increasingly test-driven strategies, and the autocratic, demoralizing fear-based culture that is so antithetical to respect for teachers and good teaching. Its time the Post started to ask why the Rhee reforms are so unpopular among accomplished teachers and activist parents?

"Rheeform" -- What Went Wrong?

The meltdown of Adrian Fenty's re-election bid and the surprising Washington Post poll indicating that the Chancellor's approval/disapproval rating is 40% to 41% after three years has caused thoughtful DCPS watchers to begin to discuss the blunders that have been made that have so alienated parents and teachers. The Journal Rethinking Schools is publishing one analysis later this month that puts Michelle Rhee's leadership into a bit of historical perspective. A pre-publication copy of the article is available here, without pictures. Rethinking Schools is a national education journal written by and for teachers that has been published for more than 20 years with some of the most thoughtful and well-researched journalism in the field of education.
And Mark Simon got a Washington Post Op Ed published on what the Rhee administration did wrong and caused Fenty to be un-elected as a corrective to the lack of journalistic scrutiny of the Washington Post's coverage.

Washington Post's blind allegiance to Michelle Rhee

There is a larger story overshadowing the report on DC test score achievement gaps in the Washington Post dated Aug. 27, 2010 by Bill Turque: Michelle Rhee's "reform" program is a failure.
DC test scores, which began to improve under Mr. Janey's tenure, have flattened. The Post struggles to defend Ms. Rhee by pointing to the nationwide pattern of lagging test score gains; quoting Ms. Rhee's spokeswoman (Jennifer Calloway) cautioning against drawing broad conclusions from single-year test data; and in a last desperate line of defense, suggesting that perhaps there was "some anomaly in the tests."
I would like for the Post to stop cheerleading for Ms. Rhee and look at the facts: her "reform agenda" is not working. Demonizing veteran teachers, relentless teaching-to-the-test, imposing a flawed and overly-subjective evaluation system (which, hypocritically, places strong emphasis on single-year test scores) have not succeeded.
Ms. Rhee, Mayor Fenty, and the Post cannot have it both ways: if test scores determine whether a teacher receives a raise or loses his/her job, then they should rightly redound on our city leaders in the same fashion. Why are teachers not given 3, 5, or 7 years to improve their students' test scores? Ms. Rhee calls the disparity "unacceptable" and pledges to eliminate it, but she offers no new plans. Increasingly it seems she and the Mayor have succeeded in firing alot of teachers and building some new schools while achieving little educational impact.
Buried at the end of the report is a telling quote from Bruce Fuller: "Part of this hitting the wall may be the troubling fact that we may need to somehow attack family poverty before we see greater progress in closing achievement." Troubling fact indeed! The Mayor and Chancellor have placed the entire responsibility for improving the education of our youth on classroom teachers when a broader societal effort is necessary. Until we face this issue testing, charter schools, Teach for America, IMPACT, and Ms. Rhee's "reform agenda" will have no positive and lasting effect.

Civil Rights Coalition Calls for Changes in Obama Approach to Education

A coalition of the leading Civil Rights organizations released today a 17 page report titled "The Opportunity to Learn Campaign," in which they take to task the approach of the Obama administration to the reauthorization of NCLB. Specifically, the report critiques the "Race to the Top" concept of competitive grants, stop-gap grant-driven innovations that amount to a revolving door of programs of the moment, and systemic reform that relies on charter schools. The Civil Rights groups oppose school closure as a strategy. Instead the report urges reliance on the tried and true, research supported efforts involving early childhood programs, wrap-around services, and targetted resources to communities in need. Valarie Strauss commented on the report in her column today, pointing out that though polite, the report basically "skewers" the programmatic centerpieces of the Obama administration education program. Ed Week has a good piece that points out that the Civil Rights groups seem to have a lot in common with the assumptions behind the Broader Bolder Approach founded in 2008. We may see a rebirth of that effort in the Fall of 2010.

Drop In Test Scores Should Make Us Think

Valarie Strauss points out in her Post blog column yesterday, that the whole house of cards that has been built by the Rhee administration in which tests scores are the be-all and end-all is brought into question by the reactions of the administration, and for that matter the editors of the Washington Post, to the recent drop in scores. Jay Mathews has had to have a similar "epiphony." The fact is that standardized test scores are not a good enough proxy for learning, or for teacher quality, or for school quality, or for that matter for the quality of a Chancellor. They admit that when the scores drop, but when they're rising, foolishly calibrate the quality of everything on this very imprecise measure.

The other point that Strauss fails to mention is that rises in test scores are frequently followed by a drop because the little cheats -- the test prep tricks or removal of low scoring students, or just the fact that kids get used to a particular test format and process and therefore do better regardless of whether they actually know more or not -- that caused the scores to go up have played themselves out. So the lack of an unnatural bubble makes it look like you've had a drop.

So the new consensus is the drop in test scores doesn't mean much. Test score results are only ever meaningful to the politicans, not so much to the students. Valarie Struass' epiphony is that they perhaps shouldn't have been touted as meaning so much when the scores went up, either.

New Study on Teach For America

Valarie Strauss reports today that a new study that reviews the the national literature on Teach For America (TFA) out of the University of Texas at Austin, shows that 50% of TFA recurits leave after 2 years and 80% leave after 3 years. TFAers also get worse test score results in reading and math than fully credentialed recruits. The only clear win is when TFAers are brought in to a district that had been filling vacancies with non-certified, unqualified teachers. The authors of the study caution that districts considering using TFA consider both the long term cost implications of having to continuously retrain new recruits, and alternative ways to spend the same dollars for better results.

Wash Post Article Gets It Wrong on School Funding Equity

The following is a response from Mary Filardo, Director of the 21st Century School Fund to the June 6, 2010 article on the front page of the Washington Post, entitled “Spreading D.C.’s money around, Recent data on projects indicate Fenty doesn’t favor particular wards”

The quality of the physical school environment makes a difference to students and teachers—their health, focus, and curriculum—and thankfully the District government is investing in much needed public school building projects throughout the city. However, the taxpayers of the District will be paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually to repay the billions in bonds that finance these projects, so it is important that this use of these public funds is covered by the Washington Post. But “Spreading D.C.’s money around, Recent data on projects indicate Fenty doesn’t favor particular wards” is not telling an accurate story.

In her Sunday, June 6, 2010 article Nikita Stewart says “…some critics of Fenty (D) have long branded the mayor as favoring white neighborhoods at the expense of black communities. But a Washington Post analysis of city data on school construction, parks and recreation projects, and funding for new libraries and schools over the past three years shows that the reality is more complex.”

It was so complex the reporter got it wrong for schools, the lion’s share of the capital spending.

The DCPS school construction spending of the City since 2007 has favored Wards 2 and 3 far more than the rest of the city. The average spending on DCPS public schools in Ward 2 was $152 a square foot and in Ward 3 it was $118 a square foot. Not so in the other wards. The next highest spending was for Ward 5 DCPS schools at $74 a square foot, followed by Ward 6 at $62 a square foot, Ward 8 at $54 a square foot, Ward 1 at $52 a square foot, Ward 7 at $40 a square foot and Ward 4 at $37 a square foot.

Funding per building square feet gives the best characterization of the quality of the physical teaching and learning conditions. However, funding per student also gives a measure of equity and fairness. This is where it is more complex.

When looking at school construction funding per student, DCPS schools in Ward 3, rather than being the second highest falls to the fourth highest in spending per student. Ward 2 DCPS schools still top the list due to major modernization projects at School Without Walls HS, Hardy MS, Hyde/Addison and Thomson elementary schools. Ward 4 DCPS schools were again dead last. Another factor contributing to the inequity: Ward 7 and 8 had 34% of all of the DCPS students—14,388 students in the 08-09 school year, while Wards 2 and 3 enrolled only 19%—8,199 students.

There is good data and valid experience to support concerns about equity and how the District is making decisions about school construction projects and funding. Maybe it is not so complicated after all. Communities without social capital lose out on public investment when there is poor planning and no intentional public policy for equity.

Mary Filardo
Executive Director, 21st Century School Fund

DCPS Teachers Approve New Contract Overwhelmingly - But What Does It Mean?

Washington Post reporter, Bill Turque today summarized the new WTU Teachers Contract approved ovewhelmingly by teachers in the vote tallied yesterday, and reported some reactions to the agreement. Only Randi Weingarten was honest enough to accurately characterize the agreement. Far from being a model for the country, the WTU agreement is a very traditional, "industrial" style contract, said Weingarten. "At the end of the day, this is still one of the industrial model contracts where a lot of the authority is reposed in the chancellor herself," said Weingarten, adding that the union was able to incorporate checks and balances into the contract that lend more transparency to Rhee's power. The aggregeous proposals to take away due process and impose a two-tiered salary structure put forward a year ago by the Chancellor were all eliminated. Commitments to professional development and joint engagement on evaluation and discipline, insisted upon by the union are new. So the AFT and the WTU made the best of a conflict-ridden, punitive approach being taken in the city. Other comments by Rhee, by Kate Walsh and by both Parker and Saunders seemed like pure wishful thinking and spin in comparison. Teachers voted for the much needed 21% pay increase, which by the way, only brings DCPS teachers up to par with surrounding suburban jurisdictions.

Pedro Noguera Critiques Obama Administration Approach to Ed Reform

NYU's Pedro Noguera, one of the nation's foremost advocates for equity in the schooling for poor and minority youth, writes this week's cover editorial in the Nation magazine and delivers one of the most articulate critiques of the Obama Administration's approach to reform. After the Obama administration was elected on the need for change away from the failed NCLB policy, Noguera maintains, Obama's education Department set to work continuing that failed approach, exhibiting a profound lack of understanding of what was wrong with NCLB. The Obama administration has no vision of its own, says Noguera, serving up instead a hodge podge of quick fix programs that resemble George W Bush's philosophy of punishment, blame, and narrow test driven accountability. The Nation's education edition also features pieces by Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Ravitch. Its worth picking up at your newstand and is probably worth the cost of a subscription its so good. Click here to read.

Valarie Strauss Again Sets the Record Straight on Charters

In responding to the puff piece on charters and edu-entrepreneurs in the New York Times magazine today, Valarie Strauss pointed out that Steven Brill got his facts wrong on charters and a number of other things. The Times piece hailed the Obama administration, leaders like Michelle Rhee, and edu-entrepreneurs like John Schneur for standing up to the evil teachers' unions. But to make his case, Brill distorted what tenure means for public school teachers, glossed over the fact that at least in New York and Chicago, mayoral control has brought little in the way of improved NAEP scores, and can not be counted a success based on the data. The NY Times piece faithfully adhered to the myth-making narrative that consistently ignores the facts on the ground and the research. There are far too few Valarie Strauss' to hold the myth makers to account.

WTU Contract Funded, according to Gandhi. Now goes to members for a vote

According to a Washington Post story by Bill Turque last week Fenty and Rhee announced that they had received Natwar Gandhi's blessing and had come up with the funds to pay for what they previously negotiated with the WTU. The tradeoff will be other cuts in the system.

Rhee Contract with WTU Invalid???

Looks like there's an adult in the room. Natwar Gandhi, the DC CFO is refusing to certify the negotiated contract because it is premised on funds that might or might not be there. That's what the article in the Washington Post will read tomorrow. Certification by the CFO is a requirement in order for it to be sent out to the WTU membership for a vote.

It just came to light in the past few days that the Billionaire donors loaded on political conditions, like keeping the chancellor in place, that allows them to pull the money. The implications of donors getting to dictate policies does seem to cross the line in a public school system.

DCPS Budget Mismanagement -- What A Mess!

City Councilmemebers are demanding Michelle Rhee's "report card," and according to the Washington Post's Bill Turque, the unions want a meeting to get answers. All this because Michelle Rhee premised paying for the new teachers contract on a $34 Million surplus that DC Chief Financial officer Natwar Ghandi says isn't there. According to Ghandi, the Rhee administration overspent in the central office by $29 Million, effectively using up the surplus. Given the level of contracting out of central office services, we're not surprised.

The Same Budget that Was in Crisis Causing Firings Now Finds $34 M Surplus to Fund Teacher Raises

Teaching asks a lot of teachers. An effective school system is one that inspires teachers to give their all for a life of inspired teaching. A sick school system is one with a culture of mistrust, cynicism, and disrespect. It is one run at the whim of autocrats based on fear. The culture becomes us vs. them. As Diane Ravitch argued on her blog a few weeks back, there are two kinds of superintendents and two kinds of school system cultures, one is professional, the other industrial.

I was hopeful that this new contract, which seems like a good one given the circumstances, could mean a new day. I was hopeful that the Chancellor perhaps has learned that you have to work with and inspire trust from teachers to imporve the quality of teaching, and that the WTU perhaps has learned that a labor intensive focus on the quality of teaching has to be central for the union as well. I still think its a pretty good contract, but...

The cynics and mistrusters are going to come out of the woodwork on this one. In testimony before the City Council, according to the article by Bill Turque in today's online Washington Post, and even harsher pieces in the City Paper and the Examiner, Michelle Rhee tried to explain that the same budget that had caused her to have to fire 266 teachers in the fall now has a $34 Million surplus that can be used to fund the newly negotiated rasies. The explanation? A mistake in math by DCPS. Trust that!!

Whether this will "blow up" the contract ratification, as the City Paper Article implies is open to question, but bad faith it clearly seems to be.

My Thoughts on the Proposed WTU Contract

On Wednesday, April 7th I attended the WTU informational session on the proposed new contract. Two things that jumped out immediately were the large pay increases and the assurance that tenure would not be removed. I was happy to see that we have moved beyond the false notion that tenure means a job for life, when in actuality it serves as protections for basic due process.

We received an overview of the proposed new contract, but I am looking forward to reading the details. I have a few questions that need to be answered.

1. Involvement of School Stakeholders

• Fortunately, contract language increases the involvement of LSRTs and other school-based committees in school management decisions. Will teachers, parents, and others in the school community have a real say in improving the school?
• Will these changes be enforced or remain on paper like previous attempts at school community involvement?
• How will the changes ensure that LSRTs have meaningful input in decision making at all schools?
  

2. Merit Pay

• Although the merit pay program is voluntary, why would we, as educators, reinforce the idea that tying teacher pay to student achievement will lead to improved teaching?
• Is there clear evidence that merit pay increases student achievement?
• What will be used to accurately determine student progress and achievement in the classroom?
• Will this lead to more teaching to the test or pruning of poor performing students from classes?
• Too many students are already "dumped" from non-neighborhood schools because of truancy, behavior problems and poor academic performance. In a similar fashion, will it lead to students being removed from classrooms when teachers recognize they are adversely affecting their chances for merit pay?
  

3. Removing Ineffective Teachers

• Streamlining DCPS's ability to remove ineffective teachers is a good thing as long as it is done fairly. What will be the exact criteria for determining "ineffectiveness?"
• Currently, many teachers do not get the basic supports they need to effectively teach. At the same time IMPACT holds teachers to extremely high, and in some cases, unrealistic expectations. Is this the system we want to use to determine teacher effectiveness? (I realize that teacher evaluations are a nonnegotiable issue in the contract, but there needs to be a discussion about these important issues.)
• Will IMPACT be revised so that it becomes less subjective and reflects the realities of classroom teaching?
  

4. Foundation Money

• Will the $65 million in donations influence DCPS education policy in areas beyond pay raises?
• Can we really expect these private funders to give money without any strings attached?
• Do we want to promote the practice of a small group of wealthy donors using their private money to influence education policy (e.g., Gates' money used for small high schools)?
  

The contract can be an important tool in improving the quality of teaching and education in DC. However, we must ensure that it addresses the fundamental problems existing in many schools. I am reserving judgment and hope to have my questions answered soon.

Kerry Sylvia

Tentative Agreement Reached in WTU Contract Negotiations!

WTU president George Parker has called a membership meeting for Wednesday, April 7th at McKinley HS, to review the details of the tentative agreement signed with DCPS. Mike Debonis of the City Paper published today a summary of the agreement and a leaked Q & A piece prepared by the WTU. The contract will be retroactive to 2007 when Michelle Rhee's tenure as Chancellor began. Negotiations have lasted for almost three years. At first blush, the agreement looks quite different and much more reasonable than the proposal the administration made public over a year ago. Although the reaction of teachers will be colored by the rhetoric of the campaigns for WTU president, we look forward to commenatry from teacher bloggers on Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform after tomorrow's meeting.

Inexcusable: Empty promises to a D.C. school

This is the very important story about Bruce-Monroe at Park View ES that was not explained in the print edition story (Three closed D.C. schools won't reopen soon) in the POST this morning. It appeared later in the Online Washington Post in Valerie Strauss' Blog today. Providing the perspective that was missing from this morning's story, Strauss calls it "inexcusable" to promise a successful school, with solid enrollment and making AYP, that they'd be quickly renovated, temporarily relocated to another building (where they would be consolidated with another school), only to have that renovation plan go awry. Is there a pattern: Hardy, Ellington, Bruce Monroe -- successful schools disrupted, communities ignored? The print article focused primarily on Rhee and Graham’s statements. That was not the whole story.

Link to: Inexcusable -- Empty Promises to a D.C. School

Reacting to the "Low Performing School" Label at T.C. Williams HS.

Patrick Welsh, who teaches English at T.C.Williams HS in Alexandria, VA, writes today in the Washington Post, describing the reaction among teachers at his school when they found it was on the US Department of Education list of the nation's lowest performing schools. T.C. Williams has been celebrated as a school with great teachers who add tremendos value to it's low income students' accomplishments. The label is all about the socio-economic background of the students. Welsh's piece manages to capture both the inaccuracy of the battering ram approach of the Deaprtment's labeling and the germ of truth that will cause educators to implement some long overdue reforms.

Two New Books Recommended by Valarie Strauss

Washington Post columnist Valarie Strauss in her column today applauds the advice and the research from Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Ravitch in their respective new books. It seems that there finally are some voices emerging -- even in the Washington Post -- with an alternative to the consensus that has dominated Washington for far too long. If only it was as simple as Obama and Duncan reading these books and seeing the light as Strauss suggests.

For those of you without the time to read books or who tried to order it from Amazon and found that Diane Ravitch's new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, is sold out in its 5th printing in 16 days after its release, here is a nifty summary of the book from Slate magazine.

Two Kinds of Superintendents.....Which One Do We have?

Diane Ravitch's new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System is out. It takes on the so-called reform movement of the past three decades and declares it a failure. According to the Daily Kos, This is "a book of critical importance."

Diane Ravitch has a post on her Ed Week blog that is full of insight into the two fundamentally different ways that school systems are being run these days. It's worth a read. In some ways, it was the longing for the kind that understands and cares about the quality of teaching and learning that led us to form Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform.

The Press Got it Wrong says Ravitch

The editors and reporters at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Education Week, were flat out wrong about what Randi Weingarten said in her speech, says Education commentator Diane Ravitch on the Huffington Post today. We agree with Ravitch. The speech has particular relevance in DCPS, but its import was distorted by editors and even reporters who seem strangely locked into paradigms that prevent them from recognizing common sense when the source is a teacher union president.

Weingarten Proposes "A New Path Forward"

In a comprehensive speech at the National Press Club, AFT president Randi Weingarten charted a new path for public education reform. With clear reference to ill conceived strategies "that fixate on the supposed silver bullet of doing away with bad teachers," born of her frustration with Michelle Rhee's approach, Weingarten offered instead an integrated approach with four components: 1. a new template for evaluation, standards and student outcomes, 2. a new expedited approach to due process, 3. a focus on the conditions teachers need to be successful, and 4. relationships of trust and respect for teachers. "The problem with the so-called "bad teacher" refrain isn't just that it's too harsh or too unforgiving," Weingarten said, "The problem is that it's too limited. It fails to recognize that we have a systems problem." The film clip of the speech can be viewed at the AFT's "A New Path Forward" web site .

Hardy MS Parents Confront Rhee

Chancellor Rhee met with predominently African American parents and teachers who had demanded that she explain why their beloved, talented, principal was being "promoted" out to start an arts magnet school in antoher part of town. She may not have anticipated the firestorm she got. The history of Rhee's tenure in DCPS may record this as yet another misstep in the name of shaking things up. See the clip here. Hardy MS is a newly renovated school in the white, upper income Georgetown neighborhood that serves students who predominently live outside the neighborhood. Sunday's Washington Post covered the "firestorm" of a meeting at Hardy MS in an article by Bill Turque.

Showdown Over Individual Teacher Talent May Be the Wrong Focus

The escalating conflict over firing and hiring individual teachers may be the result of an ill conceived reform strategy in DCPS. To the extent that even the budget crisis that led to firing 229 teachers after hiring over 900 over the summer fits into a long term strategy of turning over the teacher workforce, that strategy may fly in the face of research on what works.

In a new Policy Brief released October 26th by the Economic Policy Institite, Harvard Professor Susan Moore Johnson argues that reforms focused on individual teachers falls short. Johnson summarizes recent research by several teams of researchers, including an important new study by Jackson and Breugmann (2009), a mathematica study of new teacher mentoring programs, as well as her own work over many years. This new research supports the conclusion that the effect of a teachers' colleagues and the culture of the school on student achievement may be greater than the individual characteristics that the teacher brings to the equation.

The conventional wisdom that the way to improve education is to find talented teachers, assign them to classrooms, and hold them accountable for raising students' standardized test scores does not, it turns out, lead to the hoped for results. Rather, Johnson argues, we need to focus on the social organization and professional culture of schools as organizations.

The implications of this analysis for DCPS are huge. To the extent that we are sacrificing or failing to invest in the collegial and professional culture in schools and are placing brand new teachers in schools with dysfunctional professional culture where teachers draw defensively into their isolated classrooms, that misplaced emphasis could actually lead to further deterioration in the quality of teaching and learning. To the extent that teachers view themselves in a battle with the DCPS administration over jobs, while their needs for professional supports, respect and trust remain unmet, the atmosphere that is needed to build within-school collegiality is undermined.

Uniting for Real Education Reform -- a teacher reports on the impact of the Oct. 8 Rally for Respect

After a stressful few weeks of uncertainty from the impending RIFs followed by 16 lay offs at my school alone, it was a welcomed feeling to board a bus full of colleagues to last Thursday's Washington Teachers Union rally. New teachers alongside veteran teachers rode together as we joined the thousands of others rallying around the unjust budget cuts made a month and a half into the school year.

Despite all of the rhetoric and finger pointing by Rhee/Fenty and the City Council, those of us directly impacted—teachers, parents and students—were finally uniting and standing up to the lack of planning and transparency that has become the MO of the Rhee Administration. Enough is Enough! Young and old, white and black, custodian and teacher, fired and employed—we rallied together with a sense of unity and purpose.

From the beginning of the mayoral takeover phrases have been used to divide us—adults vs. students, red tier vs. green tier, veteran teacher vs. new teacher. Yet, the RIFs served as a unifying force because they were the latest and most egregious example of the disconnect between central office decisions and their impacts on schools. Adding fuel to the fire were the repeated assurances by the Mayor and Chancellor that the RIFs were not going to impact children and that only incompetent teachers were fired. The Washington Post’s article about Marie Fonrose is just one example of how these comments are more propaganda for an administration that seems more concerned with PR than providing basic resources to classroom teachers.

At the rally I saw community—something that has been seriously lacking in the school reform efforts under Michelle Rhee. If we are going to transform our schools, we need to work together to create positive and conducive teaching and learning environments. That requires long term planning, transparency, stability, and a willingness to unify all stakeholders. We need to get beyond the management vs. union confrontation that has allowed many to think that teachers only care about a paycheck and a job for life. The WTU must broaden the dialogue to expose the realities of the current reform so that the solution can’t be reduced to more TFA and KIPPs as Richard Whitmire’s attempts to do in today’s Post. I wonder if Mr. Whitmire has spent any real time in a DC public school or was he spewing out the latest reform rhetoric.

The RIFs were a glimpse for many of the big picture of instability and poor planning that has continued to make teaching and learning difficult for teachers—both TFA and veteran. I hope the rally serves as the spark that ignites a demand for accountability from the reformers. There's way too much at stake for those of us in the trenches not to speak out and demand an active role in DCPS reform. The students of DCPS can't wait another 5 years to get things right.

Rhee Fires Teachers, Apparently Without Cause -- Budgetary or Competence

The RIFs came down Friday as 229 teachers and others totaling 388 school employees got pink slips. They will be put on paid leave until November 2, when they will no longer have jobs. The Washington POST dutifully wrote an editorial Saturday applauding the RIFs. Incredibly, the POST reasoned that since there are some bad teachers in DCPS, therefore any firing of teachers must be justified, no matter whether those bad teachers were the ones fired or not. Meanwhile, City Council Chairman Vincent Gray questioned why any cuts were needed given that DCPS has more money in the current budget than they did the year before. Independent budget analysist Mary Levy fired off a quick analysis that documents why the cuts were not needed at all. Meanwhile, no evaluation of teachers was used to identify who should be cut. Principals had been instructed how many teachers to eliminate and came up with lists. Broad criteria provided by Rhee instructed principals to rank their teachers using "needs of the school" for 75% of the determination, the lowest ranking teachers to be cut. So this highly disruptive action, one month into the school year, was based on a process no one trusts based on a budget cut that has not been justified. Even those who want attention to the quality of teaching and want bad teachers removed had trouble defending these RIFs, except the editors of the Washington Post.

At some of the most challenged high schools, significant numbers of students will have to be re-scheduled into classes a month into the year. Cardozo HS is losing 16 teachers, 18 at Ballou HS and 15 at Spingarn HS. Parents and teachers throughout the City are scrambling to figure out what the impact will be on their kids. A demonstration has been called for Thursday, October 8 , from 4:30 to 6:00 at Freedom Plaza in front of the Wilson Building.

SHAPPE Letter Questions $ Cuts and RIFs

On this day when budget cuts were due to be translated into pick slips delivered to teachers in every school, the Senior High Alliance of Principals, Parents and Educators (SHAPPE) today delivered a carefully worded letter to the City Council. It called for Council hearings and closer oversight over DCPS to make up for a lack of central planning and accountability that schools need from the system. "The absence of requirements in the law for public process, transparency and reporting has left us wondering whether all this disruption caused by the budget cut to schools was necessary," the letter said. It is posted on the SHAPPE web site under "Letters and Testimony." Also in the letter is a careful accounting of the factors that contributed to the budget cut one month into the school year.

The Cat's Out of the Bag on Budget Cuts

Over the weekend City Councilmember David Catania revealed privately to "Teachers and Parents for..." member Kerry Sylvia that the purpose of the contrived budget cuts was to get principals to ID their least competent teachers for removal. Today the Washington Post announced the same thing in their lead editorial. So what's the problem with this?

The problem is that the Chancellor has had more than two years to come up with a way to credibly evaluate teachers based on an objective assessment of their competence, according to a commonly held standard of what good teaching looks like. She has failed to do this. She didn't even start trying to come up with such a system until this year. And the budget cut process even bypasses the system she has just recently created. And quite frankly the teachers union has also failed to step up to the plate to offer an alternative way to effectively evaluate teachers.

Telling principals to come up with an arbitrary list of positions to cut to satify a budget cut quota randomly assigned to each school is at best a crude, blunt instrument. Budget watcher Mary Levy questions whether there is a need for cuts at all. Members of the Council also question the need for cuts. It will create ill will, unnecessary instability in every school as students are re-assigned one month into the year, and in many cases the wrong decisions will be made. It seems to us that it will also open DCPS to lawsuits on the part of people who lose thier jobs without adequate rationale or due process. The problem of teachers teaching who should have been subject to a better evaluation system is real, but this way of addressing it avoids the hard work that the Rhee administration was hired to do two and a quarter years ago.

Mass Hiring and Mass Layoff -- What Gives?

DC teacher Dan Brown's September 18 Huffington Post article on the DCPS budget cut to schools hits the nail on the head. He explains why hiring 900 newbies over the summer and mass teacher layoffs in the fall is an ill conceived strategy.

Marginalized For Life

Ten years working with students as a DCPS social worker and I can confidently say that David’s situation is not remarkable. Due to concerns about privacy I am not going to discuss specifics about his life but speak about typical circumstances of students like him.

Who shares the blame for David being in the fifth grade and not being able to read? It is a multi-system failure starting with his family. Parents not having the skills to manage their own lives let alone raise a child are disturbingly common among DCPS students. Substance abuse, mental illness, illiteracy, incarceration, medical problems, poverty, joblessness are chronic conditions that plague too many families.

David lives in a city where affordable housing and health care as well as access to adequate mental health and substance abuse services are scarce to non existent. Public schools have been neglected for decades and used as a rallying cry by politicians for everything from scapegoating anything publicly run, to breaking the union, touting change for change sake and shedding mostly crocodile tears.

Yes, DCPS has failed David but promoting year round standardized testing as one of the hallmarks of reform is not going to improve his reading or writing skills. Why make so many children suffer through taking tests where most of the content is completely unfamiliar and if you can’t read, incomprehensible?

Special education in DCPS is a mess and the move towards more inclusion without the proper staffing will only make the chances for David to learn to read, graduate high school and get a decent paying job very remote.

I hate to be so doom and gloom about the future but that is the reality David lives in and I work with every day. I want to participate in a reform effort that brings people (students, parents, teachers and community members) together to discuss these challenges in an honest and open dialogue. While overwhelming David’s challenges are not insurmountable. It will, however, take a collective effort that is not so politically charged.

* This entry is a continuation from "Marginalized Taking the DC BAS" and in response to some of the feedback sent to me.