Data-less predictions?

It looks like Duncan and the federal DOE won’t penalize California for opting out of useless 2014 testing. From SI&A Cabinet Report : “A survey of experts – many of whom have participated in similar disputes with the Department of Education in the past – say there’s virtually no chance of a drastic rollback in funding.”

But what are the implications of the statewide opt-out for the CORE confederacy? In the Sacto Bee yesterday, CORE president [sic] Michael Hanson writes: “The 10 CORE districts representing 20 percent of California’s students urge the governor to sign AB 484, but only if he adds resources to ensure that every student in California can take both these new assessments, giving all of California the opportunity to learn from the result…The California state budget included more than a billion dollars to help districts transition to the Common Core State Standards, and districts can use the money for new computers or other needed technology. It just makes sense to empower schools so they can make informed choices about how to spend these resources.”

I bet the CORE districts need their cut of that billion to pay for testing required by their waiver. Both Option 1 and Option 2 in the waiver’s School Quality Improvement System require “student achievement results.” At my old high school, the principal and staff from the SFUSD Research, Planning and Accountability office are directing department chairs to provide written “predictions” about student and grade level performances for 2013-204. Not much point to making predictions of test score gains if there aren’t going to be any test scores, and somebody has to foot the bill for the testing.

(BTW, it is indeed 10 districts now. Garden Grove and Clovis appear to be in the mix with Fresno, Oakland, Sanger, Sacramento, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco.)

DOE “red line” erasure exercise

After Gov. Brown makes it clear that he’s not caving to Duncan’s pressure, Arnie seems to be backing off his bogus threat to fine California for its educational independence: “‘We want to be flexible, we want to be thoughtful,’ Duncan told the newspaper. ‘We don’t want to be stuck. There are lots of different things happening across the country. I don’t want to be too hard and fast on any one of these things because I have not gone through every detail, every permutation.’” He’s even got Pearson “fellows” disagreeing with him. Now what will the CORE confederates do for testing?

And speaking of the CORE waiver, here’s CTA’s summary of what’s wrong with it. Clear, well-argued, and dated August 8, 2013. I don’t understand why they don’t have an RSS feed for their news items.

Cake without the eating?

State Supt. Torlakson issued a press release this morning noting support for AB 484 from the broad coalition of Californians Together:: “Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, Executive Director of Californians Together: ‘Approval …sends a clear message to every California school about our commitment to the urgent challenge ahead.'” Nothing directly from CTA or CFT, and not a peep from the CORE confederates yet, but their Board is meeting today.

If the governor signs AB 484 as is, will it cost the CORE districts money? LAUSD’s Deasy implied as much when he “furiously” told Ed Week that he’d be forced to go to his board for money to run the usual tests. I’ve only read the Exec Summary of the CORE waiver, but it seems that both its School Quality Improvement System options for “…evaluating teacher effectiveness” require use of student performance / test results .  So if the state isn’t footing the bill for the traditional tests, and the test results are required for the waiver, how does CORE pay the testing bill?

Might be that the eight CORE districts are not going to get away with having their cake and eating it too.

Hell hath no fury like a “reformer” scorned

Legislature Approves AB 484 – Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education): “Assembly Bill 484…passed the California state Assembly on concurrence vote today after Senate passage Tuesday.”

Oh boy, what will the CORE confederates do now with their fury? Maybe they’ll listen to colleagues like Wesley Smith, Executive Director of the Association of California School Administrators: “AB 484 is supported by thousands of California superintendents and principals because it helps ensure a smooth transition for students and schools to Common Core State Standards…”

Now Brown has to sign it.

Well, that didn’t take long

I pointed out the probable financial pinch the the CORE confederacy might take if AB 484 passes the Assembly. Looks like the threatened pinch has already hit a nerve.

CORE Districts Oppose California Plan to Scrap Most State Tests – District Dossier – Education Week: “That’s what leaders in the Los Angeles, Fresno, and other CORE districts are most furious about. Testing only a portion of students is unfair, they say, and asking districts to dig into their own coffers to pay for it isn’t right either.”

See, it’s alright for the eight confederate districts to opt out of a the state’s democratic process, ignoring the leadership of the elected state superintendent of instruction and completely ignoring the opinion and expertise of teachers, in order to score a waiver that gets them some federal dollars and a chance at a camouflaged version of Value Added Measures for teacher evaluation. But ohhhhh nooooooes, opting out of California’s process should not Not NOT come with a price tag!

BTW, “…Deasy said he was speaking for his fellow superintendents in other CORE districts, which include Fresno, San Francisco, Oakland, and Long Beach.” Can’t wait to read Caranza’s tweet on this, or board president Rachel Norton‘s informed commentary. Maybe the SF Board of Ed will cover the cost of extra testing.

Arnie draws his own red line

Watching Obama and Duncan in the last week is like watching a first year TFA recruit trying to control an unruly class of seventh graders. “Demerits! Detention! If you cross the red line, you’ll get both!”

Arne Duncan unsuccessful in 11th-hour effort to block state legislation – “…What seems far clearer is that Sec. Duncan’s 11th-hour effort to force the state’s hand on what tests it should administer to millions of students this spring has not earned him any new friends in California.” (Via EdSource Today.)

The interesting background question here is what this means for the CORE confederates. Does their waiver require testing that the Sacto is opting out of? If so, where do they get and how do they pay for the testing materials, administration and scoring? What will the local boards of ed say to the state, and vice versa?

And where does a federal cabinet officer get off punishing a state legislature, governor, and superintendent of education for the democratic process?

For SFUSD teachers, this waiver “declines to avail [them] of a known right…”

That delusion wasn’t Arnie’s; it was mine. The renegades (“rene-paids?”) waiver was, predictably, approved by the DOE. Reaction from Dean Vogel and CTA:

By approving this waiver, Secretary Duncan once again demonstrates how his rhetoric that educators be actively involved in education change is just that—rhetoric.  Not one of the local teachers’ associations in the eight school districts was included in the discussion or signed the waiver application.

“Not one.” The SFUSD contract has a clause, 25.3.7, which calls for similar active involvement by teachers in how a school is run.

25.3.7 The Union Building Committee shall meet with site administration to share information and ideas with the goal of achieving consensus agreement on matters of mutual concern regarding the operation of the site including staffing, assignment, programming, facilities management and planning, staff development, and budgeting, and including timelines and deadlines as set by district administration, and all other matters pertaining to school policy and operations.

That’s a local version of the inter-district state level  bullshit “rhetoric” to which the CTA press release refers. Only one administrator in my 25 years with the district ever willingly followed that clause.

I have no idea how former colleagues will weather this impending waiver disaster.

CalSTRS as a “devious-cruising Rachel’

That last post deserves a (possibly final) update. The grievance, the request for information, the unfair labor practice filing, and the civil law case are all prepared. There’s little chance of winning, but “no battle is ever won,” right? I’ll lose  $4K+ a year by pensioning out six months earlier than planned. These days, that’s cheap for a satisfying taste of integrity. The fiercely pro-union, wisely secretive librarian I’d headhunted to replace me will keep his (or her) full-time employment elsewhere. The school’s 50 years+ run of full-time librarian staffing will end. Its management-favored non-classroom classified and certificated staffing will increase.  The Potemkin village of “democratic” site-based decision making bodies will continue to camouflage destructive staffing and budget policies.  And finally, teachers already so disposed will find new reason to close their classroom doors and “shelter in place.” A valid choice. If the bosses’ and their factotums’ repeated response to potential and real violations of the contract is, “Well, go ahead and file a grievance!”, what exactly are teachers supposed to do? What building representative has the damn time to identify, investigate, research, write, and file that number of grievances? And how the hell can the union stay effective when grievances just pile up with no resolutions?

Public education has been sailed dangerously off course and, sadly, most teachers don’t see themselves as shipmates. Some will mutiny against petty tyrants and their pandering and Starbuck-loyal first mates. Bravo!  But solo defiance won’t accomplish what fierce solidarity might. Ferocity frightens most teachers. (What have we come to if boo-ing a horribly ignorant and union-busting secretary of education is considered cause for apology? Who the fuck does Jennings think Duncan is? I boo opera singers, forchrissakes.) And fear leads even able-bodied union members to collude with the crazy captains of their school and district vessels. 

Advice to the number crunchers, and word smiths and data dancers among the enablers of the search for the white whale of “school reform” –  If Ahab surrounds himself with quisling officers, it’s probably best not to help any of them in any way. Better to spend time building a bouyant coffin to share.