Don't Believe The Obama Administration Jive On Capping Testing Time (UPDATED - 3:35 PM)

From the "We caused it - now we're trying to walk it back without really walking it back" file:

Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.

... 

“I still have no question that we need to check at least once a year to make sure our kids are on track or identify areas where they need support,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, who has said he will leave office in December. “But I can’t tell you how many conversations I’m in with educators who are understandably stressed and concerned about an overemphasis on testing in some places and how much time testing and test prep are taking from instruction.

“It’s important that we’re all honest with ourselves,” he continued. “At the federal, state and local level, we have all supported policies that have contributed to the problem in implementation. We can and will work with states, districts and educators to help solve it.”

So long as teachers and schools are rated based upon test scores, the "cap" on testing time the Obama administration educrats talk about is meaningless.

In New York State, teachers currently have 20% of their ratings based upon state test scores (even if they don't teach classes that end with state tests) and 20% based upon so-called "local assessment" measures that may be state test data crunched a different way.

Last spring Governor "I want to break the public school monopoly" Cuomo shoved through a reiteration of the evaluation system tied to school funding that increases the weight of state test scores to 50% because not enough teachers were being rated ineffective and fired under the old system.

In addition, he shoved through a school receivership plan that forces "persistently struggling schools" to increase their test scores in one year and "struggling schools" to increase their test scores in two years or be taken over by the state.

With such a test-centric environment (one that was absolutely encouraged by the Obama administration's Race to the Top program and their NCLB waiver system), the Obama educrats can call for a cap on testing time all they want - nothing about the system will change so long as the scores are used to fire teachers and close schools.

In any case, the administration isn't going to put out "guidelines" until January on the testing changes, so for now all we have is some meaningless rhetoric that may excite Randi Weingarten but will have little practical effect on what happens to all the overtesting that is currently going on in schools.

In short, the Endless Testing regime continues no matter the Obama administration public relations statements.

UPDATED - 3:35 PM: Peter Greene points out in comments that the Obama administration has hawked this testing cap gambit before. 

He's got a new post analyzing today's announcement and finds they're

offering pointless PR nuggets and avoiding the real discussion, which is why, exactly, we need the BS Tests at all, and what possible justification there is for using the BS Tests to measure, rank and rate students, teachers or schools.

But the tests are a "civil right," don'tcha know?

John Oliver: Let's Put The Tests To The Test

So Long As Tests Are Used For High Stakes, Endless Test Prep In Schools Will Continue

Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan plans to "draw a line in the sand" in a speech calling for a NCLB revision, demanding that students still be tested every year in math and reading (3rd-8th grade) and he's going to add three tests in science during those years.

But it is said Duncan will call for an end to "unnecessary tests" in his speech:

Duncan won't back away from policies the Obama administration has embraced from the get-go. Those include investing in teacher quality—and teacher evaluations; a state-federal partnership on accountability akin to the NCLB waivers the administration granted; and, yes, maintaining NCLB's annual summative tests. As he's said before, Duncan sees annual statewide assessments as an important part of the picture when it comes to ensuring that all students, especially disadvantaged kids, are making academic progress.

...

The secretary is open to changes in how standardized tests are used. The administration also wants to allow states to incorporate measures other than test scores into their accountability systems—flexibility that's largely already offered to states through the NCLB waivers (even though many haven't taken advantage of it).

And the secretary wants to ensure that states and districts aren't going overboard with a lot of unnecessary or redundant tests, something he's signaled before by applauding efforts by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools to help their members take a hard look at their assessment systems and weed out unnecessary or low-quality tests.

Okay, here's the deal.

So long as state tests are used for high stakes decisions to close schools, evaluate teachers, etc., an unhealthy emphasis on testing and test prep will remain in operation.

That's the deal.

Duncan and other ed deformers can say "Oh, we want to lessen testing by getting rid of unnecessary tests or "low-quality tests" (whatever the hell that means - as far as I an tell, they're all "low-quality"), but the truth is, so long as state tests are used to bludgeon teachers, close schools, etc., there will be an inordinate amount of time, energy, and resources spent on making sure as many students as possible pass the state tests.

That means the Era of Endless Test Prep will continue unabated in most schools despite Duncan's call for an end to "unnecessary tests."

And btw, the Education Privatization Secretary knows this, as do all the other reformers calling for an end to "unnecessary tests."

Duncan is trying to respond to the growing anti-testing movement, but he's simply paying lip service to it and not really listening.

Deformers need the testing to continue as high stakes because this is the weapon they use to destroy schools, teachers and public education.

You can see that in New York, where Cuomo complained about the Common Core roll-out and hammered NYSED and the Board of Regents over it, but still used the CCSS test scores as proof positive for why teachers suck and need to be fired.

Deformers need the tests to remain and they need the high stakes to remain to carry out their destructive plans to "break" the public school "monopoly."

It's a cynical ploy by Duncan and other deformers here to call for an end to "unnecessary tests" when they know that really won't change the obsessive testing culture in the system at all.

They need to be called on that cynical ploy.

Goodbye To Race To The Top

It's Monday, but this should make you smile:

WASHINGTON – Opponents of Common Core standards for K-12 students will be happy that the fiscal 2015 budget bill Congress is expected to send to President Barack Obama by Monday morning would defund the administration's Race to the Top program.

It's official, folks.

Barack Obama is a lame duck, Arne Duncan's political juice has dried up and outgoing NYSED Commissioner John King sure isn't going to change any of that.

While the defunding of RttT doesn't change much of the educational insanity we have in New York courtesy of Andrew Cuomo and Merryl Tisch, it is one more reminder that as bad as things look in public education, there's sometimes a little something to make you smile.

And I gotta tell you, nothing makes me smile as much as hearing that Barack Obama's signature education reform program has just lost its funding.

Some Good News Out Of The Election - Race To The Top Is Probably Not Long For This World

A Republican-controlled House and Senate is almost certain to try and dump the Obama education agenda, including Race to the Top and the school turnaround program:

Conservatives will almost certainly use the budget process to try to eliminate the Obama administration's favorite competitive-grant programs, such as Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, and the School Improvement Grant program. GOP lawmakers in the House have tried for the past few years to scrap those programs, but Senate Democrats have always championed them in budget negotiations.

Conservatives will undoubtedly push school choice and vouchers.

But we may also see a NCLB Jr. bill come to the president's desk that gets rid of some of the more controlling features of NCLB Sr:

 Alexander, a former U.S. Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, has already laid out his education priorities, which include overhauling the NCLB law and tackling higher education legislation.

...

The starting point for Alexander would be a bill he introduced last year to renew the NCLB law. The plan garnered support from every GOP member of the committee, but didn't get a single Democratic cosponsor.

The measure would significantly scale back the federal role in K-12 policy, allowing states to devise their own accountability plans, among other things. As under the current law, schools would be required to test students in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school, and report the results, including for subgroups of students, such as English-language learners and those in special education.

Obama won't want to sign anything like this into law even if it comes to his desk, so what we may end up with over the next two years is gridlock on these issues.

But if Lamar Alexander is going to push for more local control of schools, put a leash on Arne Duncan and his USDOE goons, scale back the accountability measures set by the feds and let states do some of their own setting, well, I'm all for that.

And if Alexander and his fellow Republicans kill RttT and the turnaround program, well, I'm all for that too.

The way politics works these says, especially around education issues, there's no red vs. blue dichotomy that works for me any more.

I may not support choice and vouchers as the GOP will push in this next session.

But I surely can support some of the other items on Alexander's list.

And if he goes after Common Core, well, I'm all for that too.

We'll see if these GOPers put their money where their mouths are on these issues.

After all, there are some corporations that stand to lose millions if education policy changes.

But if they do follow through on some of that stuff like getting rid of RttT and the turnaround program, I can get on board with that.

Howie Hawkins: Get Rid Of Common Core - And Standardized Testing

Here's why I am supporting Howie Hawkins for governor in next month's election:

ALBANY—Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins has entered the fight among liberals and conservatives over which side is more opposed to the Common Core standards.

Hawkins, during a conference call with reporters on Monday morning, said he wants New York to ditch the curriculum standards that New York adopted with the majority of U.S. states. But he also wants to get rid of statewide standards—and standardized testing—altogether, a position that he says sets him apart from his Republican opponent, Rob Astorino, who is running on a third-party line entitled “Stop Common Core.”

“My position is we need to opt out of Common Core because it’s dumbing down education,” Hawkins said. “It’s forcing our teachers to teach to the test. That whole high-stakes testing regime, which is part of Common Core, is a big drain on time and money in schools.

“We should let the local teachers and parents and school boards make the decisions about standards, curriculum and assessment,” he continued.

When asked about Astorino, Hawkins said: “He’s talking about setting up our own standardized assessments in New York. I think we’ve got to get away from that and let the teachers teach.”

During that conference call, a reporter noted that many of the state tests are part of a federal mandate:

“If the law says you gotta do it, you gotta do it,” Hawkins said, responding to a question about the federal requirements. “But we are adding to the tests by opting into the Race to the Top money.”

Hawkins' reference was to the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, a grant competition through which New York won $700 million in 2010. The funds required the state to adopt curriculum standards that aimed to boost college- and career-readiness, such as the Common Core.

The grant program also required New York to develop a statewide teacher-evaluation system that rates educators partly based on students' test scores. The evaluation system has resulted in more local testing in some districts, although some confuse that testing as being tied to the adoption of the Common Core.

Indeed, the mandates were made much worse by Race to the Top.

APPR?

Tied to Race to the Top.

inBloom?

Tied to Race to the Top.

Common Core?
 
Tied to Race to the Top.

All that testing added to every subject in nearly every grade in New York schools?

Consequence of APPR which is tied to Race to the Top.

It's true, the Obama administration has now tied some of the worst reforms to No Child Left Behind waivers, so even sending the RttT money back to the feds won't make some of the worst stuff go away overnight.

But the sun is getting ready to set on the Obama administration in a couple of years, so Arne Duncan and the rest of his merry men and women in reform aren't going to be in power forever.

There can be some post-RttT/post-NCLB waiver sanity.

Vote Howie Hawkins on Election Day.

Politico: Obama's Teacher Evaluation Reform Agenda In "Disarray"

It's a mess out there:

The idea seems simple enough: Identify the best teachers and reward them. Pinpoint the worst and fire them.

That’s been a linchpin of the Obama administration’s education agenda from the start.
But now the administration’s initiative is in disarray, with states scaling back, slowing down and, in some cases, putting off tough decisions until Obama is out of office.

Teachers union pressure, error-riddled evaluations and a wave of more difficult tests for students have won many teachers a reprieve from the newfangled evaluations during the school year now getting underway.

Teachers have filed suit in a half-dozen states to block complicated new evaluation formulas that in some cases have rated them based on the test scores of students they never taught. Parents have protested that their children have been required to take tests created for the sole purpose of evaluating teachers. One county in Florida is developing 724 new final exams — in classes like welding and P.E.

And after spending millions to develop modern evaluation systems, many states find they’re not identifying all that many bad teachers. In Rhode Island, 95 percent of teachers were rated effective or highly effective last year. In Florida and Indiana, it was 97 percent. In Tennessee and Michigan, 98 percent.

“It would be nice if we could have some kind of objective external measure to say, ‘This is what constitutes good teaching — or good enough teaching.’ But the fact is, there’s no way the statistical measures can do that,” said Brian Gill, a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research who works on so-called value-added calculations.

How much longer until it all falls apart?

Hard to say in New York, where Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is a staunch education reformer who claims teacher evaluation reform as one of his big accomplishments in his first term.

But the more these systems are revealed as error-riddled, the more the public learns that teachers are being rated on test scores for students they didn't teach or for subjects they aren't licensed in, the more teachers sue over the error-riddled ratings, the more teachers remind parents angry over testing that many of the tests their children are taking are for the sole purpose of rating teachers, the faster this evaluation reform agenda falls apart.

With NYSED and the Board of Regents in New York State now looking to make the test score component of the APPR teacher evaluation system 40% of a teacher's rating, you're going to see a lot of teachers getting rated using test scores for students they never taught or for subjects they aren't licensed in.

It behooves teachers rated "ineffective" or "developing" on that test score component to sue SED, the Regents and the governor over that system.

And of course continued pressure on the politicians who back this crap is important - helping Tim Wu beat Kathy Hochul for lieutenant governor is a way to send a message to the Common Core-supporting, education-reform shills in Albany that they may pay a price for pursuing that agenda.

A few years ago, the Endless Testing regime, the Common Core implementation and evaluation reform seemed like a done-deal in New York State, baked into the system, with little parents or teachers could do to fight them.

But as it becomes more and more apparent that much of this reform agenda is half-baked, error-riddled, indeed, even harmful to students and teachers, the more likely it is we can get this stuff pulled.

When Joe Nocera starts writing columns about the toxicity of the Endless Testing regime and test-based accountability for teachers on the Times opinion page, we're starting to get there.

Much work to be done yet.

But as we start a new school year here in New York City, you've got to smile to see a front page story in Politico about the Obama administration's evaluation reform agenda being in "disarray" and on life support that looks like it will be pulled when Obama leaves office.

Arne Duncan Says New York Is One Of Two States NOT Eligible For Testing "Flexibility"

Yesterday I posted that it seemed ironic Arne Duncan was now giving states flexibility around testing and teacher evaluations since his DOE had just threatened New York State in June that de-linking teacher evaluations from student test scores would result in New York losing nearly $300 million in Race to the Top money.

Well, tonight we learn that Duncan is saying New York is one of two states that is not eligible for that "flexibility."

This is a report from Capital NY and it's behind the paywall so I have no more details than this from State of Politics:

New York is one of two states not eligible for new “flexibility” policies announced by the federal government to help states transitioning to the Common Core standards.

How about that?

Duncan says testing is sucking the oxygen out of the classroom, taking the joy out of education, and therefore waiver states get another year before they have to link teacher evaluations to test scores.

Except for New York and one other state - they have to use test scores in teacher evaluations or have their No Child Left Behind waivers taken from them. 

More on this as details come in.

Duncan Threatened NY Over Test-Based Teacher Evals, Now Says "Fine For Another Year"

Back in June:

New York might lose out on $300 million if last-minute negotiations on teacher and principal evaluations untie Common Core test scores from final ratings, federal education officials warned Tuesday.

That’s how much New York is due to receive to implement a new evaluation system as part of its participation in Race to the Top, a competitive grant program launched by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009. New York won a total of $700 million after legislators allowed more charter schools to open, moved toward adopting the Common Core standards, and approved new teacher evaluation requirements.

...


But students’ poor performance on the first years of Common Core state tests, and a rocky rollout of the new teacher evaluations, have increased pressure on lawmakers to discount those scores. Ann Whalen, who oversees implementation of Race to the Top at the U.S. Department of Education, said that would “undermine four years of hard work by the state’s educators, school leaders and stakeholders.”

“Breaking promises made to students, educators and parents and moving backward on these commitments—including stopping the progress the state has made to improve student achievement—puts at risk up to $292 million of New York’s Race to the Top grant for improving schools and supporting their educators and students,” Whalen said in a statement.

Today:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Thursday that states could delay the use of test results in teacher-performance ratings by another year, an acknowledgment, in effect, of the enormous pressures mounting on the nation’s teachers because of new academic standards and more rigorous standardized testing.

Sounding like some of his fiercest critics, Mr. Duncan wrote in a blog post, “I believe testing issues are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools,” and said that teachers needed time to adapt to new standards and tests that emphasize more than simply filling in bubbled answers to multiple-choice questions.

Over the past four years, close to 40 states have adopted laws that tie teacher evaluations in part to the performance of their students on standardized tests. Many districts have said they will use these performance reviews to decide how teachers are granted tenure, promoted or fired. These laws were adopted in response to conditions set by the Department of Education in the waivers it granted from the No Child Left Behind law that governs what states must do to receive federal education dollars. The test-based teacher evaluations were also included as conditions of Race to the Top grants that have been given by the Obama administration.

...  

In his blog post, Mr. Duncan wrote that “too much testing can rob school buildings of joy, and cause unnecessary stress.” He also accepted responsibility for the federal department’s role in pushing states and districts too quickly toward new standards and tests.

The nearly 40 states that changed evaluations did so because of the pressure Duncan and the Obama USDOE put on them to do so.

The reason there is so much testing is because Arne Duncan and his boss, Barack Obama, wanted all this testing.

The reason my evaluation will be based on test scores - 20% state tests, 20% local "assessments" (which were even more horseshit than you think) - is because Arne Duncan's DOE pushed New York to institute these changes and threatened New York if any changes were made to them.

Now Arne Duncan is concerned that testing is taking the joy out of school?

Is he fucking kidding me?

In large measure, Arne Duncan and Barack Obama, along with the business people who pushed them into power and sustain them now, are at fault for all the testing, all the stress on kids and teachers, and all the joy being squeezed out of education.

You can tell reformers are feeling the pressure when even Duncan kinda acknowledges this.

Doesn't help me any if I come up "developing" or "ineffective" on my Regents-based evaluation component or local assessment (MOSL) component, however.

And God forbid I come up "ineffective" on both, I'm "ineffective" overall.

That's the law in New York State, thanks to Arne, Barack, Andy, the legislature and the Regents.

Even though Arne Duncan now says there's too much testing and too much stress related to the testing and the evaluations and the new standards and schools need time to implement them better.

Thanks, Arne.

I'd say this is better late than never - but it's really not.

Business As Usual At AFT Convention: Pro-CCSS Resolution, Lame Arne Duncan "Development Plan" Pass

I wrote yesterday that I wasn't going to be all that impressed if the delegates at the AFT convention voted to call for Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan's ouster.

See, even if Duncan goes, his boss, Barack Obama - the guy whose education policies Duncan implements - will still be in power.

Nonetheless Norm Scott and others thought the AFT leadership would probably let such a resolution pass because they don't like to be seen as less radical than the NEA.

Since the NEA passed a resolution calling for Duncan's ouster, it was assumed the AFT would follow suit.

In the end, they did something pretty lame instead  - they put Duncan on a "Secretary of Education Improvement Plan":

Yeah, I know - I bet you think I'm joking here.

Alas, I am not:

#AFT14 Duncan deflection - call for Duncan to "improve" - Mulgrew, et al support - Randi said let members decide - we knew they had a plan
— Norm Scott (@NormScott1) July 13, 2014

So cheeky amdmt passes, 2 implement "Secy Improvement Plan" on Duncan, & if he doesn't improve, having been treated fairly, to resign #AFT14
— David Dayen (@ddayen) July 13, 2014

The AFT also passed a pro-CCSS resolution, heavily promoted by the AFT leadership, that the Common Core Federal Standards have lots of "promise" but have been corrupted by corporations looking to profit from them as well as poor implementation:

I can't believe we would agree to CC$$ because we're worried about bad press. When we present our reasoned arguments, we win. #AFT14
— Karen Lewis (@KarenLewisCTU) July 13, 2014

Stunning from member "Notice all voices pro Common Core were union leaders all against were rank and file." #AFT14 @AFTunion (Gunderson)
— Wilhelm II (@knightofgood) July 13, 2014

Here is Lacetothetop putting the AFT convention into perspective for us:

#AFT14 Next yr will start w same standards, high-stakes tests, & false accountability. Make sure green laces are on the back to school list.
— lacetothetop (@lacetothetop) July 13, 2014

On Friday I wrote that you should always watch what they do at the AFT and UFT, not what they say, because their actions often undercut their words.

That's what we've just seen at the AFT convention this weekend - AFT leaders leaking how they would be "escalating" the "union opposition" to corporate reform and the Obama Administration this weekend, but in the end, they issued a few lame resolutions that are meaningless in the real world and it's back to business as usual.

The Tide Turns On The Common Core

Imagine a story on Common Core a year ago and ask yourself, would the tone have been this skeptical?

Common Core was created in 2009 and is meant to even the playing field by giving every state a universal set of standards to measure learning. The program is incentivized with federal grant money that is given to states that implement the standards.

Massachusetts is typically held up as an example of how the Common Core is supposed to work. The state is considered a success story, with education officials noting improving test scores and reading skills.

But Michael Benezra, a legislative director for the Massachusetts Senate, told Business Insider that the tide is turning in the Bay State on both sides of the aisle.

"Inside the [legislature], the general attitude is that Common Core ... is institutionalized and it's not going anywhere," Benezra said. "I'm starting to see the teachers unions and the charter school people kind of agreeing on the issue that Common Core needs to go."

Common Core emphasizes critical thinking, and the tests are designed to test students' comprehension about what they read and how they come to solutions for math problems. The tests are so intense, taking the average student eight to 10 hours to complete. And teachers are under so much pressure to prepare their students to do well that instruction becomes less individualized and critical thinking in students can be hampered.

"The reliance on testing pigeonholes the teachers to teach only to the test," Benezra said. "So the kids are coming out and what they're learning might not be conventional. So they might know some obscure facts about American history, but they might miss why the revolution started."

Common Core tests could end up defeating the purpose of the standards themselves.

"I think it's kind of counterintuitive to students getting the big picture because they're required to test so much," Benezra said. "In order to perform well on the test, you have to memorize things. ... You can say we're trying to get them to think more critically and read closely … but at the end, the students take a test, they don't write a long essay where they're forced to think deeply about the issue."

Proponents of the Core thought they had won total victory when the Obama administration had forced Common Core, the Common Core tests and teacher evaluations tied to those tests to both the Race to the Top carrot and the No Child Left Behind waiver stick, forcing states to adopt the Obama corporate education deform agenda whole.

But as the opposition against the Core has mounted, so too has the opposition to the ancillary reforms that go with the reform, like the testing.

As Jay Greene noted:

As the Common Core effort crumbles, its supporters are not just failing, but losing ground on previous accomplishments.   If you liked accountability testing, Common Core has done more to set back your efforts than Randi Weingarten ever could have done on her own.

...

 Several states will soon have no high stakes testing while they adopt a moratorium on stakes in their supposed transition to new tests.  The Gates Foundation has backed a two year delay in the hopes of rescuing their effort from collapse.  Like a retreating army suggesting a cease fire, they will find their opponents have little reason to keep the delay temporary.

We've got a long way to go before there is a stake through the heart of the Common Core and it's buried in four different crossroads and I'm under no illusions that the attacks against teachers and public schools will cease because the corporate deformers lost the Common Core War.

But you can see how much ground the CCSS proponents have lost in the last year even in how CCSS stories are framed in the media, let alone how people are talking about the Core at PTA meetings.

Core supporters and proponents once had the upper hand in this fight.

But no more.

The tide has turned and it's not turning back.

Best Present NY State Could Get - Losing Its Race To The Top Money

In mid-June, the bureaucrats at the USDOE warned any changes to teacher evaluations in NY State would result in NY losing its Race to the Top money:

New York state could lose nearly $300 million in Race to the Top funds if the state follows through on a proposal to put off incorporating test scores from common-core-aligned exams in teacher evaluation.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and policymakers in the state are mulling plans to put off using scores on new common core tests as a factor in teacher evaluations, after widespread complaints about the rollout of the standards in the Empire State, according to published reports. Adding to the pressure: State test scores fell sharply last year when the new common core tests were in place.

But delaying the use of the tests in evaluations would run afoul of the state's plan for improving teacher effectiveness, as outlined in its Race to the Top proposal, and could result in a loss of coveted federal funding, said Ann Whalen, the director of the department's implementation and support unit in a statement first provided to the online news site Chalkbeat New York.

The state eventually put into place a compromise that keeps test scores as part of evaluations but allows teachers who are tied to the CCSS test scores an opportunity to appeal bad ratings.

The sad thing is, this was a perfect opportunity to make progress on two fronts - canning the use of test scores in teacher evaluations (known as Voodoo VAM in these parts) and forcing the USDOE to take back what's left of the RttT money, thus saving the state's children, teachers and schools future Race to the Top reforminess.

We know that in NYC, almost 78% of the RttT money was spent on nothing more than the NYCDOE central office and consultants - in other words, very little of the RttT money made it to individual schools, let alone classrooms, students or teachers.

On top of that, think about all the other changes NY State had to put into place to "win" the RttT money - the evaluation changes, the state standards changes, the changes to the state tests, the data tracking programs (most famously inBloom Inc.) - how much money, in the end, did "winning" the Race to the Top contest actually cost NY State taxpayers and just what return on that investment are they getting?

What they got is a whole heap of upheaval, a lot of changes to the school system, many more tests for their children to take (many of which are given simply to grade and evaluate teachers, not students) and a ton of money spent on consultants, bureaucrats, test development, and computer programs to track all of the changes.

Back in June when the USDOE was threatening to pull NY's RttT money away, I thought "Great! Couldn't be a better way to end the school year than have Arne Duncan take away NY's test development/evaluation money in a fit of pique!"

And now, nearly a month later when we get the data to show that NYC wasted its RttT money on bullshit, I maintain the same stance on the issue.

Nothing could be better than instituting changes to the system that forces the hacks at the Obama USDOE to pull the RttT money away.

77% Of The Race To The Top Award Money In NYC Went To Pay For Consultants, Central Office Work, And Support Staff

Remember when they told us we had to win Race to the Top because that money was so desperately needed for the kids?

Yeah, turns out that was NOT what they planned on spending the RttT cash on:

Less than a quarter of the $107 million that the school system received in federal Race to The Top funds last year was sent directly to school principals.

The decision on how to spend most of the money — $83 million — was made by the central Department of Education, which channeled the federal funds to support staff, consultants and fringe benefits, according to a study by the Independent Budget Office.

This isn't a surprise to those who were paying attention to what was happening around the RttT reforms - they were NEVER supposed to help children or teachers.

Rather, RttT was always about the consultants, the accountability measures and data tracking programs - in short, a lot of the stuff the NYCDOE spent the RttT cash on.

Obama administration hacks and RttT supporters say that stuff DOES help children and teachers, but those of us working in schools and parents with children in the schools know better.

RttT brought CCSS, the Endless Testing regime, APPR teacher evaluations that mandate so many extra tests so that the scores can be used to fire teachers, and the data tracking programs that were meant to account for all this stuff.

If the politicians in charge really wanted to help children and teachers in schools, they would have used the money to lower class sizes, build new facilities, get the kids out of the mold-infested trailers, etc.

But education reform isn't about helping children or teachers.

It's about making it look like they're trying to help children and teachers while really spending billions on the pet projects run by their friends and cronies.

Obama Administration: NY Must Use Tests That Don't Count For Students To Evaluate And Fire Teachers

No other way to read this:

A federal education official warned Tuesday that if New York delays using student test scores as part of teacher evaluations this year, the state risks losing up to $292 million of a grant tied to making these reviews more rigorous.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers have been meeting in recent days to find a way to postpone linking test scores to teacher ratings due to widespread complaints that the rollout of the Common Core standards was botched. Last year, students' scores plummeted on new state exams tied to the higher expectations.

Ann Whalen, a U.S. Department of Education official who oversees implementation of what is known as Race to the Top, said by email that delaying using student growth on tests as part of teacher and principal evaluations would "undermine four years of hard work by the state's educators, school leaders and stakeholders."

"Breaking promises made to students, educators and parents and moving backward on these commitments—including stopping the progress the state has made to improve student achievement—puts at risk up to $292 million of New York's Race to the Top grant for improving schools and supporting their educators and students," Ms. Whalen said.

The warning was reported earlier by Chalkbeat New York, which covers education news.

The USDOE loves that famous "objective" evaluation system in New York that's based on Common Core tests scores that don't count for students but do count for teachers.

So what if the CCSS roll-out has been a mess?

So what if the EngageNY curriculum is garbage?

So what if the kids are being tested on material they've never seen?

New York teachers MUST be evaluated using the CCSS test scores or Arne Duncan is going to take away RttT money.
 
You know, that money that can't be used to lower class sizes or hire more teachers, but can be used to develop data tracking systems and buy tests.

Gee, it would be a shame if New York lost that money.

Diane Ravitch Calls For An Investigation Into Bill Gates' Common Core Coup

How did the richest man in America buy himself the public education system?

The story about Bill Gates' swift and silent takeover of American education is startling. His role and the role of the U.S. Department of Education in drafting and imposing the Common Core standards on almost every state should be investigated by Congress.

The idea that the richest man in America can purchase and -- working closely with the U.S. Department of Education -- impose new and untested academic standards on the nation's public schools is a national scandal. A Congressional investigation is warranted.

The close involvement of Arne Duncan raises questions about whether the law was broken.

Thanks to the story in the Washington Post and to diligent bloggers, we now know that one very rich man bought the enthusiastic support of interest groups on the left and right to campaign for the Common Core.

Who knew that American education was for sale?

Who knew that federalism could so easily be dismissed as a relic of history? Who knew that Gates and Duncan, working as partners, could dismantle and destroy state and local control of education?

The revelation that education policy was shaped by one unelected man, underwriting dozens of groups. and allied with the Secretary of Education, whose staff was laced with Gates' allies, is ample reason for Congressional hearings. 

One person must be added to the scandal list Ravitch posts - Barack Obama.

Arne Duncan didn't hijack public education alone.

He did it at the behest of his boss, Barack Obama.

Time for the investigation into the Common Core coup.

Is NYSED Admitting EngageNY Modules Are Crap?

Chris Cerrone tweeted the following this afternoon:

​Is NYSED admitting modules are flawed? Do taxpayers get a $12.9 million refund? http://t.co/Y1SUna6f9b via @AlbanyBizReview
— Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) April 27, 2014

Megan Rogers of the Albany Business Review reports this:

The New York state education department wants teachers to revamp the state's online curriculum resources for the Common Core learning standards.

The state education department released a request for information on a proposal to create regional Common Core Institutes, where educators from school districts, BOCES or charter schools would work full-time to develop new online instructional materials for the 2015-16 academic year.

Educators would serve as Common Core Institute Fellows during the 2014-15 academic year. The teachers would work on one grade level in K-12 math or 9-12 English language arts.

The state has some curricular materials on EngageNY.org.

I've covered the EngageNY modules a bit here at Perdido Street School blog:

NYSED ELA Lesson Module - 17 Days On One Short Story

EngageNY Modules Make No Sense - An Emblem For Common Core As A Whole

The NYSED Common Core Modules - Meant To Dumb Down A Whole Generation Of Children 

The EngageNY modules have been widely mocked, ridiculed and criticized by parents and educators, students have complained about the drudgery of the lessons, so perhaps the flacks at SED have just gotten sick of defending the indefensible and are ready to throw even more cash into the Common Core curriculum development process.

This time they seem to want to hire actual teachers to do the development work, as opposed to ferreting out the work to private corporations to the tune of $12.9 million Race to the Top dollars.

Nonetheless, this is the kind of thing that could have been avoided if the autocrats at SED and the Board of Regents had slowed down the implementation process and taken the time to think through and collaborate on that process - including the curriculum development, the test development, the evaluation system for teachers, etc.

Instead everything got shoved through at once, a la Shock Doctrine-style, with top-down mandates coming from the self-described geniuses at SED and the Board of Regents, with an assist from another self-described genius in the governor's office.

So now SED seems to be admitting that they lit the $12.9 million they spent on EngageNY modules on fire, that the entire process needs to be redone, this time by actual teachers (though we'll see about that - I suspect the "teachers" SED looks to get for these Common Core Institutes will have to be Common Core-friendly ones, though this is a group that gets smaller and smaller by the week.)

This is just another sign of how the corporate education reform agenda as developed by Regents Chancellor Tisch, SED Commissioner King, Governor Cuomo and the Abany educrats/Gates Foundation employees is falling apart.

One of the fatal flaws of the Common Core/education reform agenda was the hurried way everything was shoved through, which ensured much of the reforms were going to be half-assed and badly done.

The autocrats and plutocrats running the system wanted everything shoved through at once so that no dissent would be encountered.

That worked initially, but now that hurried agenda implementation is helping to mobilize critics across the state to the reforms and getting much of the public on board as they see just what crap the EngageNY module material is.

We'll just have to see if SED and the Regents can salvage this mess by creating these Common Core Institutes (how Orwellian a name!) and developing new CCSS modules and resources for 2015-2016.

The problem for SED and the Regents is that the opposition to the CCSS reforms may be so broad and widespread by that time frame that even if the CCSS Institutes developed useful materials, the whole process may be so poisoned by what came beforehand that no one will dare to use any of it anyway.

Who Benefits From The Race To The Top "Powergrab"?

When New York State was up for the Race to the Top money a few years ago, the editorial boards across the state admonished the legislature and the unions to make sure the changes necessary to win RttT came to be because New York's kids needed that extra money for their schools and education.

Given all the changes needed to "win" that Race to the Top dough - including changing the state's standards, tying teacher evaluations to test scores, creating a statewide database for sharing student information - New York was going to spend much more money on the changes needed to get the RttT cash than the state was going to "win" if Arne Duncan made them a RttT winner.

A letter to the Times-Union puts this into perspective

Recent Times Union reports made available two valuable facts related to education in New York. The first is: $22 billion, the amount of this year’s state education aid. The second is: $700 million, the amount over four years provided to New York from the federal Race to the Top grant.

Here’s a problem that is unlikely to be on any of the 2014 math assessments. Yet, it is a problem that, if our Board of Regents, chancellor, legislators and governor had been able to answer, the condition of public education in New York would be far better today.

Perform a cost-benefit analysis of New York’s participation in the Race to the Top dividing $175 million (year four of the grant) by $22 billion to answer the following: “Consider these points: The abandonment of the New York State Learning Standards in favor of the new, untested Common Core Learning Standards written by non-educators paid for by the Gates Foundation; the requirement that junk science utilizing student scores on new assessments be used to evaluate teachers (even for those teachers that don’t provide direct student instruction); the result that teachers teach to a test for fear of losing their jobs; the release of family privacy data to for-profit companies; and the massive new unfunded school mandates. Now, answer this question: Is the financial benefit from this grant worth the true costs?”

Is the short term .795 percent of aid from the federal Department of Education — less than 1 percent of New York’s education budget — worth throwing students, families, teachers, school districts and taxpayers under the bus? Exactly who is benefiting from this power grab?

Ted Smith, Ph.D.
Delmar

The RttT cash was a small carrot dangled out to ram through such radical changes to the education system that the post-Obama public education system looks nothing like it did before "Change We Can Believe In" won the election.

The entities that benefit from all these changes - the edu-entrepreneurs, the tech companies, the testing regime, "non-profits" who front for corporate education reform, and the charter school industry - are eating away much more than the $700 million NY "won" for RttT.

The lie that the RttT changes needed to be made so the money could be used "for the kids" was egregious even when it was first being made back in 2009 - it was obvious the massive change RttT was requiring was going to cost way more than the $700 million NY could "win."

You rarely here the reform functionaries make this argument anymore because it's so obvious that RttT reforms cost way more than what the state got from the Obama administration (and yeah, I know the NYSED claims a lot of the money is still around and unspent, but that doesn't account for all the money districts around the state have had to spend on APPR, testing, PD, and other expenses required by the RtttT mandates.)

But in the end it was never about the money - it was always about using the money to shove through radical change to the system.

That, my friends, is what the "Change We Can Believe In" president, backed by Gates and Broad money, has brought us.

And make no mistake, these are Obama reforms, not Duncan reforms.

I still see people blaming Arne Duncan for the education policies pursued by the Obama administration.

But the buck stops with Obama - these policies are in place because Obama wants them in place.

The damage Obama has done to public education, the teaching profession schools is the kind that President Goerge W. Bush and his education reformers only could have dreamed of back in the day.

Feds Threaten NY Over Race To The Top Funding

From Newsday:

A top U.S. Department of Education official warned yesterday that New York and other states risk losing millions of dollars in Race to the Top incentives if they back away from efforts to strengthen teacher job evaluations or other initiatives financed by the federal money.

The admonition came from Ann Whalen, director of the department's implementation support unit, who at a Washington news conference reported on the progress of New York, 10 other states and the District of Columbia in boosting educational achievement through Race to the Top funds.

Whalen acknowledged that New York State had scored significant successes, including the establishment of a training website, engageNY.org. The website is widely used by teachers and principals, both in New York and elsewhere, to get tips on teaching lessons based on the national Common Core academic standards.

But Whalen, in response to a reporter's question, cautioned that recent moves by New York State lawmakers to slow or derail Common Core initiatives, if pursued further, could jeopardize a portion of the state's Race to the Top award.

"In terms of New York or any state making significant change from the scope of the work or the commitments it made to win Race to the Top funds, there could be implications to its grant funds," Whalen said.

So much for not federally mandating Common Core.

So much for not dictating education policy from Washington.

So much for federalism.

Of course the funniest thing about this is how the feds think EngageNY is a "significant success."

Don't know any teachers who think that.

Or students who have been taught the EngageNY modules who think that either.

Who the hell wants to spend 17 lessons on one short story?

Nothing good about that - unless you're John King, Merryl Tisch, Andrew Cuomo, Bill Gates, and the USDOE.

Obama Should Apologize To ALL Teachers

In case you didn't hear, Obama slammed art history last week:

WASHINGTON — President Obama issued an artful apology Tuesday, taking back a “glib” remark encouraging students to ditch art history for more lucrative pursuits.

Playing to the lunchpail crowd at a General Electric plant in Wisconsin late last month, Obama took a swipe at art-history courses while trying to persuade young people to pursue more practical skills.

“A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career, but I promise you, folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art-history degree,” he said.

Immediately sensing that he had painted himself into a corner, Obama kept going:

“Nothing wrong with [an] art-history degree. I love art history. I don’t want to get a bunch of ­e-mails from everybody. I’m just saying, you can make a really good living and have a great career without getting a four-year college education, as long as you get the skills and training that you need.”

So an art history teacher wrote Obama demanding an apology:

Obama’s backtracking didn’t satisfy Ann Collins Johns, an art professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who fired off a letter through the White House Web site.

Johns told the art website Hyperallergic that she wrote Obama to point out that her courses “challenge students to think, read and write critically,” as well as educate them about art history.

Johns, who runs UT’s program in Tuscany, was stunned to get a handwritten apology from the president himself on White House stationery.

“Ann — let me apologize for my off-the-cuff remarks. I was making a point about the jobs market, not the value of art history,” he wrote.

“As it so happens, art history was one of my favorite subjects in high school, and it has helped me take in a great deal of joy in my life that I might otherwise have missed,” Obama said in the 13-line note.

He added: “So please pass on my apology for the glib remark to the entire department, and understand that I was trying to encourage young people who may not be predisposed to a four-year college experience to be open to technical training that can lead them to an honorable career.”

He signed the letter, “Sincerely, Barack Obama.”

Two things to say here - this art history professor says she still "loves" Barack Obama and was sorry for putting him on the spot, so not exactly the toughest pushback ever from a teacher.

Second, Barack Obama owes an apology and an about face for his school privatization policies, for Race to the Top, for all the schools closed and all the teachers demonized by his education policies and his Secretary of Education/Gates Foundation, Arne Duncan.

As Micahel Brenner so articulately put it at Huffington Post:

A feature of the Obama presidency has been his campaign against the American public school system, eating way at the foundations of elementary education. That means the erosion of an institution that has been one of the keystones of the Republic. The project to remake it as a mixed public/private hybrid is inspired by a discredited dogma that charter schools perform better. This article of faith serves an alliance of interests -- ideological and commercial -- for whom the White House has been point man. A President whose tenure in office is best known for indecision, temporizing and vacillation has been relentless since day one in using the powers of his office to advance the cause. Such conviction and sustained dedication is observable in only one other area of public policy: the project to expand the powers and scope of the intelligence agencies that spy on, and monitor the behavior of persons and organizations at home as well as abroad.

There's more, much more, that Brenner lays at Obama's feet, including the firing of those teachers at Central Falls, Rhode Island and the hailing of that firing by Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan and Obama himself, the preferential treatment the Obama administration has given to the charter school industry, the way the president has scapegoated teachers and schools for the 2009 financial crisis.

These are the reasons Obama should be apologizing to teachers, along with abandoning those policies that are deliberately meant to undermine the public education system and privatize it.

But we get no apology from Obama on this, and no turnaround on these policies either.

For that, Obama should be put on the spot by teachers all across this land and never mind the concern that Ann Collins Johns has that you're taking up the time of a "busy man."

To be frank, Obama is busy destroying American public schools - it would be good to take up all the time you can from him and his merry men and women in reform at the USDOE.

The Cost Of Common Core And The Race To Top Reforms

From State of Politics:

New Yorkers for Students’ Educational Rights, an education advocacy group, is suing Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Board of Regents and state Education Commissioner John King, claiming the state has systematically shortgaged the public school system by failing failing to comply with an agreement that followed the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity Ruling of 2006.

The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, maintains the state is $4 billion behind in making good on the deal then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer struck in 2007 to settle CFE.

After the first two years of the phase-in of this agreement, however, the state first froze and then dramatically slashed aid for education, the suit notes, and in so doing, failed to fulfill its constitutional requirement to provide every student with a sound, basic education. The suit also alleges that the property tax cap successfully pushed through the Legislature by Cuomo has exacerbated the shortfalls in state education aid and denied districts the resources necessary to meet instructional needs.

The suit mentions the Common Core curriculum, noting additional federal funds districts have received through Race to the Top have constituted less than one-third of the amount needed for proper implementation, and the state has so far not provided additional funds to cover that cost, or the additional costs of the new teacher performance evaluation requirements.

The state "won" $700 million dollars for Race to the Top in return for agreeing to tying teacher evaluations to test scores, increasing the charter cap, creating a data tracking system for student information and "strengthening" the state's educational standards.

The costs of these reforms is way over the $700 million the state "won" from Obama and Duncan.

Gary Stern at LoHud took a look at just what the "cost" of the RttT reforms was for some districts:

Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s ambitious but controversial education initiative, is turning out to be a major expense for local school districts at a time they can least afford it.

When New York applied for a piece of the highly competitive $4 billion program, school districts were told that most would get a share of the pot to pay for programs required by Race to the Top. In August, New York became one of 12 states to win the race and was awarded a maximum $700 million federal prize.


But of 54 districts in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, eight got no federal money. And 31 districts received grants of less than $50,000.


At the same time, school officials are finding they will have to spend significantly more — perhaps 50 to 100 times as much, in some cases — to meet Race to the Top’s demanding requirements. These include the rapid development of a new teacher and principal evaluation system that many educators oppose and preparation for the adoption of new national learning standards, known as the Common Core, by 2014.

...

South Orangetown got a $23,366 piece of the state’s Race to the Top pie and spent it in two days during the summer on administrator training, Mitchell said. But the district expects to spend almost $2 million over four years to meet the program’s demands.



Most districts have not had reason to calculate their Race to the Top costs. Doing so is complicated because it involves not only training, software, textbooks and other tangible expenses, but the manpower hours put in by school officials who have to take time away from working on their budgets or other necessary tasks.


But South Orangetown and five other Rockland County school districts tried to quickly crunch their anticipated Race to the Top expenses and reached a startling conclusion. The six districts got $393,398 in Race to the Top money — but expect to spend about $10.9 million on the program over four years.

Race to the Top was a bait and switch - $700 million in federal aid for the "reforms" the ed deformers wanted and in the end, the reforms cost way more than $700 million and a lot of that money ends up right back in the deformers' pockets (i.e., Pearson, McGraw-Hill, College Board, Amplify, et al.)

And Cuomo is still hawking that jive stat about NY paying so much per pupil and not getting a return on investment.

Who's he kidding?

Most of that money never gets anywhere near a classroom.