Get Ready For More "Personalized" Online Learning

Not much on the education front in today's state of the state/budget address by Cuomo, unlike in previous years when he was slamming teachers for all the ills in society and calling for the "death penalty" for failing schools, but this proposal seems education-related to me:

PROPOSAL 10: Dramatically expand and improve access to high-speed Internet in communities statewide. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul detailed this proposal shortly after the New York State Public Service Commission voted to approve the merger of Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications, which will dramatically improve broadband availability for millions of New Yorkers and lead to more than $1 billion in direct investments and consumer benefits.

Additionally, the state issued a $500 million solicitation for private sector partners to join the New NY Broadband Program, which will greatly expand Internet access in all regions of the state, with a focus on unserved and underserved areas.

In order to begin shedding humans in the education system and switching to "personalized" computer learning, they need to ensure "unserved" and "underserved" areas have widespread broadband Internet access.

So the "dramatically expanding and improving access to high-speed Internet" proposal is not specifically about education but it is education-related.

The future is not only online education and testing in schools, it will be online schooling at home.

This will be a disaster for society in the long run of course, but in the short term it will be a boon to the state and municipality coffers when they shed payroll, building costs, et al.

With public sector unions expected to lose large swaths of their membership after the Supreme Court rules on the Friedrichs case, who will be around to stop them when they decide urban and rural areas are going to have "personalized" learning at home?

Sure the suburban parents will make sure this doesn't happen in their communities, but you can bet they're aiming to make it happen elsewhere where the pushback will be minimal.

Just add "dramatically expanded and improved high-speed Internet access" and you're ready to go.

Elia Announces Online Testing, State Moves Forward On Broadband Push

Coincidence?

ALBANY — New York state’s third through eighth grade students could be putting away their number 2 pencils and instead completing standardized tests online in the 2016-17 academic year.

The state began the push toward computer-based testing in 2012, but is now setting the timeline for implementation as part of its $44-million, five-year contract with Minneapolis-based testing company Questar Assessment, Inc.

“We need to move to where we can use the power of technology to give us feedback more quickly,” state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia told POLITICO New York. “So online testing is a positive thing and allows us to not have this long and drawn-out system that we have.”

And today:

New York is moving forward with an expansion of broadband to under served areas of the state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office on Thursday announced.

Cuomo today announced the request for information process had started in the broadband push — considered one of the last steps in laying out the program’s guidelines.

The broadband push — which is aimed at expanding Internet service to urban and rural swaths of the state — was first announced last year during Cuomo’s re-election campaign.

The move is designed to encourage private companies to bring broadband service to areas with slower-than-average Internet speeds with the addition of state funds.

“High speed internet access has become an essential ingredient of any strong economy and New York is leading the nation to close the broadband gap,” Governor Cuomo said. “With this action, we are engaging providers, municipal leaders and other stakeholders to help ensure the New NY Broadband Program leverages the State’s investment in the best way and fulfills its goal of providing access to high speed Internet to every New Yorker in every corner of this state.”

The goal of the broadband program is to have every New Yorker receive access to high-speed Internet by 2018.

2018?

Just in time for the online tests - oh goodie!

This of course was always one of the big rationales for Cuomo's broadband push.

Vote NO On Cuomo's Smart Schools Bond Act

Gary Stern at LoHud does a great job of giving both sides of the Smart Schools Bond Act story.

Here's why critics are opposed to Cuomo's technology bond for schools:

Opponents of the bond act say that borrowing $2 billion to pay for computers and other items with limited life spans would be an unprecedented move that has not been supported by analysis.

Nicholas Tampio of Mamaroneck, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University who has tried to incite opposition to the bond act, said money from the bond act will ultimately tie districts to the state's agenda. The state Education Department's goal, he said, is for districts to prepare for online tests aligned to the Common Core.

"School districts face a choice: Submit investment plans that (state Education Commissioner) John King wants or relinquish any chance of having the plan approved," Tampio said. "And what John King wants is the technological infrastructure to support online Common Core testing."

If the bond act is approved, each district would be eligible to receive a set amount based on the state's aid formula. But districts would need to have spending plans approved by a high-powered review board consisting of King, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and state Budget Director Robert Megna.

And:

E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, a conservative think tank in Albany, has been the most prominent critic of the bond act. He said Cuomo has no research that proves New York needs to borrow $2 billion for school tech.

"There was no assessment of need and no one asked for this," he said. "This is the most ill-conceived and wasteful bond act to be put in front of New York voters in 30 or 40 years."

He noted that the state Board of Regents, which sets educational policy, has not endorsed the bond act.

"The governor treats the need for this as self-evident: Tech is good," McMahon said.

Why in the world would anybody want to vote for a $2 billion dollar boondoggle bond act that gives John King and Nancy Zimpher the right to approve or reject what districts do with the money?

You can be sure King and Zimpher, staunch Common Core proponents and testing advocates, will want every district to use the money for infrastructure for the PARCC (or some other online tests) to grade students, rate teachers and evaluate schools.

We ought to call this the Infrastructure For Online Computerized Testing Bond Act, because that's exactly what it is.

Don't be fooled, thinking much (or any, for that matter) of this money will go to building schools or getting rid of trailers in the city schools.

This is tech bond, pure and simple, meant to get the state up and running for the coming online PARCC tests.

Vote NO on the Proposition 3 on Tuesday.

Cuomo Appoints Geoffrey Canada To Smart School Initiative Commission That Looks To Upgrade Classrooms For Online Testing

Another day, another Cuomo commission - this one a commission to make recommendations for what to do with $2 billion in "Smart School Initiative" bond money Cuomo hopes to get the public to pass in order to provide "smart classrooms" (i.e., classrooms wired for online testing) in schools:

Though voters are yet to consider a $2 billion bond act for education infrastructure and technology upgrades at New York schools, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday named a commission that would provide recommendations on how best to spend the money.

Included on the commission is Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman and former CEO of Google, a company that is best known for its search engine, but has also entered the laptop and tablet computer market in recent years.

In addition, Cuomo is also turning to Harlem Children’s Zone President and CEO Geoffrey Canada and Constance Evelyn, Superintendent of the Auburn School District in Cayuga County.

“It is a simple fact that disparity remains in our education system, with some schools providing tablets in the first grade and others where the most sophisticated piece of electronic equipment is the metal detector that students walk through on the way to the classroom,” Cuomo said in a statement. “In the State of the State, we called for a $2 billion Smart Schools Initiative to transform our classrooms from the classrooms of yesterday to the classrooms of tomorrow. This panel will help guide this bold initiative and reimagine our classrooms to provide New York’s students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century economy.”

The $2 billion borrowing proposal still has to be approved by voters, who are due to consider the ballot referendum this fall.

Cuomo proposed the bond act in January as way to improve technology in the classroom as well as potentially build more space for pre-Kindergarten programs.

Gotta love that Cuomo thinks it's a big plus that some districts are giving tablets to first graders - that tells you everything you need to know about how Cuomo is looking to have this bond money spent.

Strike one.

That he stuck Canada on the commission is strike two and the Google CEO is strike three for me.

I am opposing the Smart Schools Initiative because it's clear Cuomo plans to use the money as a boondoggle for his tech buddies, not to build new schools or provide more classroom space for smaller class sizes.

You know what smart classrooms are?

They're ones where students have the adequate resources to learn, including computer and Internet technology when appropriate, but also enjoy small class sizes and personalized contact with their teachers.

This is not what Cuomo plans to use the money for, however.

Rather, he seems to envision this:

Why Is Obama So Desperate To Improve Internet Access In Schools?

President Obama has decided to tack on a $5 a year fee to every cell phone account for the next five years in order to raise funds to increase high speed internet access in schools around the country.

The fees are expected to generate $6 billion dollars in three years and sunset in 2017.

The move has generated a lot of criticism, but according to the NY Post, the Obama people just don't get why it has:

Obama is relying on the fee hike to avoid dealing with a Congress that White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest yesterday described as “dysfunctional.”

“You would think that connecting schools to the information superhighway would be a pretty noncontroversial topic,” Earnest told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard, where the first family is on vacation.

Just why is Obama so desperate to raise $6 billion in funds to improve Internet access in schools around the country that he has launched an end run around Congress?

Could it have something to do with the high stakes Common Core testing program that his administration has been pushing, first through Race to the Top, then through NCLB waivers, that will force states to test every child in every subject using "high-quality Common Core-linked assessments"?

You bet it could.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about how the two consortia that are working on the Common Core tests are doing all their work for nothing if states do not have the technological capacity to handle the online tests.

Just yesterday, Gotham Schools covered that problem here in NY State:

The computer-based testing would allow tests finally to require the kinds of critical thinking that the Common Core asks students to do, advocates say. In the online tests dreamed up by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, screens replace bubble sheets, students type their essays, and math problems are solved by dragging and dropping answers. Expedited grading would return results to schools in weeks, offering teachers valuable feedback before the end of the year.

State officials have long signaled an intention to shift to the PARCC tests once they become available in the 2014-2015 school year. But they still have not formally committed to that plan.

...

But administering online tests would also require significant technology upgrades in schools. Schools would need to be equipped with computers and expanded wireless bandwidth to allow many students to take online tests at the same time.

A one-time windfall of technology funding will soon be available to needy schools to subsidize the costs of upgrading their infrastructure. But that might not be enough to prepare schools in less than two years.

“This is a huge undertaking,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said of the ambitious timeline. “There’s no way we would be ready for this.”

Thus we get an end run around Congress by the Obama administration to try and get a few extra billion dollars to give to schools to upgrade their technology infrastructure so that these tests can get off the ground.

And you can bet the fees will never sunset, that the extra $2 billion the federal government raises every year off cell phone users will remain in perpetuity.

Gee, I can't imagine why this end run around Congress in order to get money to fund technology upgrades so that online testing can be done in schools all across the country would be controversial, can you?

Of Course Online High Stakes Tests Are Going To Be A Mess

I don't know why anyone in power in the education world would think moving to all-online high stakes standardized tests by 2014-2015 would go smoothly.

This Education Week article says education and political officials have had their confidence shaken by a recent spate of online testing failures.

That means these people were once confident all-online testing could be carried off relatively problem-free.

Clearly these boys and girls have never used NYCDOE bandwidth to check their email at High Noon when it takes ten minutes for each screen to load.

I never develop a lesson for class that relies solely on the Internet.

I learned that lesson when I couldn't get a film I needed for one class to stream for more than 15 seconds at a time before it stopped running.

It's difficult to run a lesson about the differences between a play text and a film adaptation when you have to re-enact the film version with hand puppets.

If I, a lowly classroom teacher lacking an Ivy League degree and too stupid to have already fled the classroom and gone into policy with the TFAers, have learned that an over-reliance on technology in the classroom without a non-tech back-up is a problem, how come the geniuses running the schools systems around the country haven't learned that lesson yet?

Is it because these people believe their own pro-tech propaganda rather than the reality of their own experiences with technology?

Are they blinded by their own optimism?

Or do they figure once the online testing juggernaut starts rolling, nothing - not even a rash of online failures - can stop it?

I dunno, it's hard to get into the fevered minds of the education reform/online testing pom-pom crowd and figure out what's going on in there.

But if the reformers don't figure out a way to get these tests rolled out without major difficulties, they are going to find their vaunted new reforms - the ones they worked so hard to shove down the throats of people in 45 different states - are going to go the way of the abacus.

In fact, given how bad the online testing has been, the abacus and other implements of an age long gone just may come back:

John Althardt, a spokesman for the 30,000-student Indianapolis public schools, said students in 50 buildings experienced testing disruptions, and the district was just focusing on getting through the testing cycle before thinking about how to proceed in the future.

“Some of our folks would say they’re ready to go back and use stone tablets at this point,” Mr. Althardt said. 

I wonder who has that stone tablet contract for schools these days?