Common Core Education And More About Federal Government Control

[Ross]

This is how to continue Dumbing Down America !
This is how to continue to Lower Teaching Standards !

I just recieved this information
in an e-mail I subscribe to:

Press Release

Study: Poor Performance of Other States
in PARCC Consortium Would Translate to
Lower Standards for Massachusetts

Attacks on MCAS for not producing "college-ready" graduates demonstrates lack of understanding of test's purpose


BOSTON - Political realities dictate that, as with any tests, passing scores on those developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) will be set at a level that avoids having an unacceptable number of students fail. Since Massachusetts is by far the highest performing of the states that remain in the PARCC consortium, the commonwealth's K-12 education standards have the farthest to fall, according to a policy brief published by Pioneer Institute.


"If too many students fail to reach the new threshold and are denied diplomas, our education system seizes up," said Dr. Richard P. Phelps, author of "Setting Academic Performance Standards: MCAS vs. PARCC."

Massachusetts' bar for scoring "proficient" on MCAS is currently the second highest in the nation for 4th grade math, third highest for 4th grade reading, fourth highest for 8th grade math and 23rd for 8th grade reading. The composite rankings for rigor associated with definitions of proficiency in the 11 states that were still part of the PARCC consortium in August (it has since dropped to seven states and Washington, D.C.) was 27th in 4th grade math, 20.5 in 4th grade reading, 25.3 in 8th grade math and 25.1 in 8th grade reading.

In this case, the inevitable reversion to the mean would translate to a one-half year drop in performance expectations for 4th grade math and reading and 8th grade math in Massachusetts.

Phelps also dissects a 2015 report from the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education that claimed the national standards known as Common Core and the Common Core-aligned PARCC tests would raise the Commonwealth's standards.     

"If the goal was to raise standards, it could have been achieved without all the pain and expense associated with Common Core and PARCC by simply raising the passing grade on MCAS," said Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios.   

Phelps claims that criticizing MCAS tests because not everyone who passes them is "college-ready" demonstrates a lack of understanding of the tests' purpose. MCAS is a retrospective, standards-based achievement test designed to determine how well students have mastered the material included in Massachusetts' K-12 education standards.

Determining college readiness requires an entirely different test - an aptitude or admission test designed to predict future performance. Phelps says that if Massachusetts adopts PARCC, it's unclear how the tests could serve as a high school exit examination.

Since federal legislation will allow anyone who scores "proficient" on PARCC tests to enroll in credit-bearing college coursework without taking a placement test, we won't know if proficiency actually translates to college readiness.

If students are not college-ready as we currently define it, the result over time will be a drop in standards for entry-level college coursework.

[redcliffsw]

This is not supposed to be like the Soviet Union or Germany.  Government has no business in education.

[Ross]

E-Newsletter
November 9, 2015

In the past decade, the state legislature has increased funding to schools by over $2 BILLION. Local school boards, which are responsible for deciding how to spend the money, have chosen to take that additional money and prioritize hiring manager positions over teachers.

KPI Blog - 2015 NAEP results: Not a good report card for Kansas
The U.S. Department of Education just released results of the 2015 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The results, also known as "the nation's report card," is administered to a statistically valid sample of fourth and eighth graders from every state in math and reading every two years.

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs124/1102590621053/archive/1122822744761.html

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No correlation between spending and achievement

Posted by Dave Trabert on Monday, November 16, 2015

The Kansas Association of School Boards produced a report recently which some are saying proves that spending more money leads to better outcomes, but even KASB says that is a misinterpretation.  I asked Mark Tallman of KASB if that was the case and he replied, "I specially [sic] said to the group of legislators we invited to lunch that we do NOT claim this report "proves" spending "causes" outcomes changes."

Mr. Tallman went on to explain that "...the data indicates that higher spending over time is more often than not a "predictor" of higher NAEP scores, and usually has a positive correlation with higher results. We do not say that correlation proves causation."

Our review of the data says otherwise, as does that of many other respected school funding experts including Dr. Eric Hanushek of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, who says, "...the outcomes observed over the past half century – no matter how massaged – do not suggest that just throwing money at schools is likely to be a policy that solves the significant U.S. schooling problems seen in the levels and distribution of outcomes. We really cannot get around the necessity of focusing on how money is spent on schools."

Bi-variate analysis

The KASB report takes only two variables into account – spending and achievement.  It's called a bivariate analysis (two variables), which doesn't allow for meaningful conclusions.  Dr. Benjamin Scafidi, Director of the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University, says, "...they do not control for the many other factors that impact student achievement.  Social scientists do not put much stock into bivariate relationships like the KASB [example] below."  Dr. Scafidi's remarks were directed at the 2013 KASB report that also only looked at changes in spending and achievement.

One such factor ignored by KASB is the impact of Common Core.  When Kansas' NAEP scores dipped in 2013, the Kansas Department of Education told legislators that they couldn't identify a particular reason but did note that the transition from previous teaching methods to Common Core may have been a factor.  They again honed in on the transition to Common Core to explain the 2015 NAEP decline to legislators this month.  KSDE did not blame funding in 2013 or 2015.

Data refutes notion that spending predicts outcomes

Read more and see charts at http://www.kansaspolicy.org/KPIBlog/130115.aspx

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Mon, 11/16/2015 - 4:48pm

KASB misses the mark linking money to test scores

A new report from the Kansas Association of School Boards says changes in education spending is a predictor of student outcomes, which is prompting some legislators and others to say that higher spending causes better outcomes and lower spending causes achievement to drop...even though KASB clearly says that their report makes no claim whatsoever about causation.

I published a detailed data analysis of the KASB report on the KPI Blog but asked my colleague David Dorsey, a 20-year teaching veteran, to share his thoughts from a teacher's perspective.  David honed in one particularly surprising element of the report in these remarks.

++++++
The results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), show that test scores across the country were lower, ending a trend that saw scores modestly increasing over the past several tests. Scores in Kansas fell even greater than the rest of the nation, inevitably leading to the question: Why?

(I skipped a few paragraphs to include the following statement.)

As teachers, we understand that the key to student success is quality instruction.

Read the whole article at http://cjonline.com/blog-post/dave-trabert/2015-11-16/kasb-misses-mark-linking-money-test-scores

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Mon, 11/09/2015 - 3:06pm

Are these student achievement outcomes acceptable?

It's not a trick question and I don't believe there is a 'right' or 'wrong' answer, but every Kansan needs to decide whether student achievement across the state is at acceptable levels.  It's understandable that those who find achievement to be acceptable would want to maintain the status quo – how students are taught, how schools are funded, how teachers are paid, etc.  But if you don't believe achievement is acceptable now or will get there soon at the current pace, it's time to start implementing substantive changes to our education system – or accept that tens of thousands of students will likely never get the education they need.

Here are the Kansas achievement facts.

2015 ACT scores and college-readiness

• ACT test results for the 2015 graduating class showed only 32% of students are college-ready in English, Reading, Math and Science.  The primary demographic breakouts put college-readiness at 37% for White students, 15% for Hispanic students and 8% for African American students.

• White students' ACT score was 22.8 and ranked #24 in the nation among White students.  Hispanic students scored 19.2, a gain of one-tenth of a point over the last ten years; at that pace, it will take them 360 years to catch up to White students' current score.  African American students scored 17.6, a gain of two-tenths of a point over the last ten years; at that pace, it will take them 260 years to catch up to White students' current score. 

2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

• Those who dismiss NAEP scores should know that the Kansas Department of Education issued a November 1, 2011 press release in which they declared scores since 2003 to be valid and reliable.

• 4th grade Reading – only 20% of low income kids are Proficient, which is unchanged over the last ten years; only 54% of other 4th graders are Proficient, a gain of 12 percentage points over the last ten years.  At the current 10-year pace, low income students will never catch up.

• 8th grade Reading – only 22% of low income kids are Proficient, a gain of one percentage point over the last ten years; only 47% of other 8th graders are Proficient, a gain of 4 percentage points over the last ten years.  At the current 10-year pace, low income students will catch up to other students in 250 years.

• 4th grade Math – only 27% of low income kids are Proficient, a decline of 3 points over the last ten years; only 58% of other 4th graders are Proficient, a decline of 1 percentage point over the last ten years.  At the current 10-year pace, low income students will never catch up.

• 8th grade Math – only 19% of low income kids are Proficient, which is unchanged over the last ten years; only 46% of other 8th graders are Proficient, a gain of 3 percentage points over the last ten years.  At the current 10-year pace, low income students will never catch up.

2015 State Assessment

• 75% of tenth grade students require remedial training to be college and career-ready in Math.

• 69% of tenth grade students require remedial training to be college and career-ready in English Language Arts.

I find these outcomes to be totally unacceptable and believe that substantive change to our education system is required to change the trajectory, but that should not be misconstrued as laying blame on any individuals.  The pragmatic, student-focused approach is to assume that everyone made decisions based on what they thought should be done with the best of intentions but didn't work out as expected. 

In other words, it's no one's fault but everyone's responsibility to get the system fixed.

So what do you think?  Are these student outcomes acceptable? 

http://cjonline.com/blog-post/dave-trabert/2015-11-09/are-these-student-achievement-outcomes-acceptable#comment-1277603

[redcliffsw]

Government education costs too much money - and it's socialist.

Someone was telling me that his property taxes increased this year in Greenwood County.  It wasn't the home schoolers who are causing the government to take more just because some people think that the government owes them a living.

Students are not learning about liberty in government schools.  How can they teach liberty in government schools and take your money by force?

[Diane Amberg]

Gee Whiz. On Thursday, The Newark Center for Creative Learning, a Montessori -like private school is coming to the fire house to see how we terrible socialists serve the community and put out fires and run the ambulance. They are also going to the police station and the little local urgent care facility. Aren't they afraid the kids will be brain washed? They are doing a unit on Communities. I can't wait to see how you attack this. HA!

[Ross]

Gee Whiz. On Thursday, The Newark Center for Creative Learning, a Montessori -like private school is coming to the fire house to see how we terrible socialists serve the community and put out fires and run the ambulance. The are also going to the police station and the little local urgent care facility. Aren't they afraid the kids will be brain washed? They are doing a unit on Communities. I can't wait to see how you attack this. HA!

Everything with you is an attack! Is this how you taught communication in school?

And this post of your has got what, to do with real educational standards?

I hope they learn that the people that actually work on the police force, the ambulance, the firetruck are paid employees of the taxpayer.

Most people wouldn't recognize actual brain washing if they saw it.

Some mature type, adult educational books are available, about education and today's present political agenda in higher education as well a primary education. Oh and they cover the past going way back.

Have you done any reading on the subject? How about, have you done any reading about Common Core and Obama Care and how they both came about through lies?

Did you read any of the above posts about Kansas Education costs and standards?

How can anyone brag about any school that is only doing average on the state level and having kids graduate and still have to take remedial reading and math in college?

I can appreciate teachers complaining about their pay!
But what is a school to do when they find they need to build larger buildings and larger sports arena's and have to hire more maintenance personnel and have larger monthly utility bills and they need more and more administrative personnel and can't afford to pay teachers more.

It simply means less money in teaching, less money into the classroom.

And then you throw in more students from a separate school district. That school district collects state aid for those students some where between 8 and 13 thousand dollars per kid and the school district that educates them gets nothing per student in state aid. Just where is the intelligence in that?

Using an average number of $8,000 and $13,000 gives an average of $10,500. That $10,500 X 26 students gives us a cost of  $273,000 out of pocket.  NO EXTRA MONEY for the class room!

From what I can gather Montessori schools differ from public schools in acouple of ways.
       1. They are private schools and probably expensive to send a kid to.
       2. The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. (now this would bother me as too much control, but that is just my opinion.)
        .3. The Wichita Montessori School is a private school for children ages 3 through 11, primary through 5th grade elementary.

And theMontessori School  have trouble just like any other school:
Montessori School Teacher Indicted on Child Abuse, Other Charges After Video Goes Viral: 'I Don't Deserve to Go to Jail
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Montessori-School-Teacher-Child-Abuse-New-Jersey-Hoboken-Kelli-Dugan-350622861.html

But you are talking about what a class field trip? I believe lot and lot's of schools send children on field trips, it really is no big thing except for the cost. I don't believe any one has said, anything about field trip brain washing, please show me where, if I missed it. Thanks. 

And we do have liberal socialist in higher education to thank for their presence. Jus take a look at the attitude of the communication professor at the Missouri University and what happened over there recently.       

[frawin]

Diane, I liked the Humor you injected in your Post, the little ones will really enjoy it, and so will the Police Department. It is a good thing your Department is doing showing the children around. Keep up the good work.I seem to remember you and your Department have done this for several years.

[Diane Amberg]

I've been doing tours and such with our volunteer fire company, since 1969.
We have some paid EMT's now, but most of us, and all the firefighters and line officers are all unpaid.
As I retired, I decided to do fewer of the programs in the schools themselves, but I have trained, (brainwashed, HA!) younger ones coming along to do them. The kids do get a lot out of it and this group is so close they can walk to us and will then walk two blocks uptown to see how a commercial kitchen operates and how "the front" of one of our Main St. restaurants( named "Home Grown") works.
  Actually, my "attack" comment was referring to Red.I still have Ross on ignore, so I have no idea what he had to say . I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.
I'm feeling kind of low right now, so it's time for a cup of tea and some quiet time.

[Ross]

I've been doing tours and such with our volunteer fire company, since 1969.
We have some paid EMT's now, but most of us, and all the firefighters and line officers are all unpaid.
As I retired, I decided to do fewer of the programs in the schools themselves, but I have trained, (brainwashed, HA!) younger ones coming along to do them. The kids do get a lot out of it and this group is so close they can walk to us and will then walk two blocks uptown to see how a commercial kitchen operates and how "the front" of one of our Main St. restaurants( named "Home Grown") works.
  Actually, my "attack" comment was referring to Red.I still have Ross on ignore, so I have no idea what he had to say . I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.
I'm feeling kind of low right now, so it's time for a cup of tea and some quiet time.

An attack is an attack and ou should be feeling low for doing it.

And still not a proper response about education in the schools class rooms.

And nothing about reading mature adult educational materials about what is happening in the educational world and how it relates to Common Core and Obama Care.

I guess it is too deep a subject to follow.

Oh, well ! Your ignore is still failing you had to respond to my post to tell me the and I quote. "  Actually, my "attack" comment was referring to Red." How is that an ignore? LOL

[Ross]

Congress Moves Forward on
No Child Left Behind Reauthorization

This week, Congress is expected to begin conference on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, more commonly known as No Child Left Behind. Earlier this year, both the House and the Senate passed separate bills to reauthorize the program, while they now must reconcile before a final version can be passed.

These bills are markedly different from one another, which is important considering that those differences now have to be ironed out. The House version, called the Student Success Act, contains some important educational reforms, including the elimination of more than 65 wasteful and ineffective programs. an expansion of school choice through support for magnet and charter schools, and increased local control of federal education dollars. The Senate bill, known as the Every Child Achieves Act, is considerably less bold in its approach.

In order to gain any support from conservative Members of Congress, the final bill will have to look a lot closer to the House bill than to the Senate one, as the Student Success Act was only able to pass in the first place due to the inclusion of these reforms.

Both versions of the bill contain language that the sponsors claim prevents the federal government from forcing Common Core onto the states. The problem is that similar language already exists in current law, and yet has not served as an effective deterrent to prevent federal meddling. Current law says, in U.S. Code, Title 20, Section 7371, says that the Department of Education may not "mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school' specific instructional content, academic achievement standards and assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction, as a condition of eligibility to receive funds."

The language in the new bill is not appreciably stronger than this, and it's hard to see how it will stop the Secretary of Education from doing what he wants, since he is doing so anyway. Without some real teeth, the passage of this new bill is unlikely to make much of a difference as far as Common Core is concerned.

Both bills also maintain federal testing requirements on the states, which is a major problem for advocates of educational freedom and local control. It should be remembered that the Constitution doesn't authorize any federal role in education at all, a fact consistently ignored by Congress as a whole.

The final conference bill, at the very least, needs to preserve the best reforms of the House-passed Student Success Act. ANything less would be an insult to parents, teachers, a local education officials, by continuing to force a failed system on them and their children.

http://www.freedomworks.org/content/congress-moves-forward-no-child-left-behind-reauthorization