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nightcap
June 30, 2009
Remainders: In the rest of the world, education policy goes on
- Excerpts from a parent listserv on the topic of tonight’s mayoral control deathwatch party.
- Did mayoral control really expire today? A Daily Politics reader says it might have.
- Business leaders in Chicago have concluded that Arne Duncan’s reforms failed. (Via Russo)
- A space fight in Red Hook between a district school and a charter school rages on. Norm Scott reports.
- Mike Petrilli thinks the Supreme Court’s “firefighter case” clears the way for teacher testing.
- A teacher says she’ll try to enjoy the summer, even though she has to return to the rubber room next fall.
- Our blogger Ruben Brosbe reflects on what he wishes he had known when he interviewed the first time.
- Where are Garth Harries’s special education recommendations? Insideschools wants to know.
- Speaking of Insideschools, today was most of its staff’s last day. More on this tomorrow.
- Los Angeles schools sup’t Ramon Cortines isn’t pleased that Brüno posed with his students.
- Britain’s schools chief, Ed Balls, is releasing a paper officially calling for NYC-style progress reports.
- Randi Weingarten’s most recent “What Matters Most” column is a reflection of her time at the UFT.
- Here’s an example of what not to write in your kid’s private school kindergarten application.
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June 30th, 2009 10:48 pm
There’s nowhere to put this, so here’s as good as anywhere. Who else got the “Mike Bloomberg’s Public School Progress Report” from “Bloomberg for Mayor 2009?”
Who else had trouble with the math?
To whit: The glossy mailer (with the United Colors of Beneton kids on the cover) claims that Math scores are “up 42 percentage points,” Reading Scores are “up 28 percentage points,” for scores “on 8th grade tests.” No references.
A little googling later… the NYSED website has powerpoints covering four years 2006-2009 (granted not the Mayor’s full seven years, spring 2003 - 2009) with the following:
Math test scores up from 640 to 668. Looks like +4.4% to me.
ELA test scores up from 639 to 653. Looks like +2.2% to me.
Heck, I’ll even “double down” and guess +8.8% and +4.4% for Math and ELA respectively for 7 years instead of 4.So what the heck is going on here? Hey campaign hacks! Got Accountability? Got ACCOUNTING? What WERE they COUNTING?
Could it be that the MikeBloombergNYC hacks are off by something on the order of a factor of 477% on Math (”42%” / 8.8%) and 636% on ELA (”28%” / 4.4%)?
Ken? Aaron? Eduwonkette?
Ref: GS from June 1:
http (colon) //gothamschools (dot) org/2009/06/01/new-state-math-scores-reflect-measured-gains-officials-say/
Also: http (colon) //www (dot) emsc (dot) nysed (dot) gov/irts/ela-math/ , and slides 41 and 40 respectively of the Math and ELA ppt’s. -
July 1st, 2009 8:00 am
Its not often that I’m tempted to complain about your judgments, but you got the effect of “the firefighter test case” backwards. I couldn’t believe that Petrilli believes that the case “clears the way” for teacher testing.
Actually the thrust of his post was the opposite that you implied.
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July 1st, 2009 8:03 am
I got cut off. Petrilli was focusing on a minor aspect of “reform” standardizing testing of teachers, but e correctly asserted that the incentive will be to shift to more “performance testing.” Thatapplies equally to the more important issue of using test data for evaluation, tenure, and assigning teachers.f
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July 1st, 2009 8:09 am
As I was trying to write, no longer will districts be able to just assert that their policies advance interests. They will need to show substantive evidence before taking away the rights of teachers. I sure don’t support the Roberts Court, but this will focus the minds of “reformers.” “Reformers” like at the Ed Trust, who don’t see anything wrong with moving teachers around like chess pieces to advance their theories about equity, just got their kness taken out.
Should I now press post, or just wait until this comment publishes itself like the last two prematurely posted comments? I don’t understand the gremlins in my computer.
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July 1st, 2009 9:43 am
I can’t believe I commented on some silly Supreme Court rulings before I read about the outrage against global community schooling in L.A.
Mr. Cortines, tear down this wall in your mind!
Bruno, we love you!
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