CURMUDGUCATION: The Lesson of Detroit

The Lesson of Detroit Posted by Peter Greene: 18 Sep 2016 Last week a group of children in Detroit, Michigan sued the governor , the state board of education, the superintendent of public instruction, the director of technology, management and budget, and the state school reform/redesign officer. The lawsuit runs over 100 pages, but the table of contents provides a pretty clear outline of the argument: 1) Literacy is a fundamental right 2) The state of Michigan’s role in securing educational rights (subheadings: it has one) 3) The failure to provide access to literacy in plaintiffs’ schools 4) Failure to deliver evidence-based literacy instruction and intervention programs in plaintiffs’ schools 5) Failure to ensure educational conditions necessary to attain literacy (including failure to provide course selection, to maintain a decent physical plant for education, to meet students’ needs, to provide a supported and stable staff, and to demand accountability with charter and school closings). 6) The state’s failure to implement evidence-based reforms to address literacy The details and accounts of the state’s failure is stunning, almost unimaginable, from a “lake” in a classroom cordoned off with tape to the math classes taught by an eighth grader for a month– and that’s not because nobody was paying attention, but because that was the solution the school came up with for their staffing issue. A lot of outrage has been expressed as the lawsuit’s details have spread, supported by photographs from many sources. Yesterday, columnist Nancy Kaffer tried to explain to Detroit Free Press readers what the suit was about and just how bad things are for the largely African-American student population of the five schools named in the suit. But here’s the part of her piece that jumped out at me: (Follow source link below to read the full blog post)

Source: CURMUDGUCATION: The Lesson of Detroit

How much does it cost to educate a student with special needs? Nobody knows. | From Michigan Radio

Figuring out all the different pots of money that go into paying for special education is complicated, but you know what’s even more complicated?

Figuring out all the different pots of money that go into paying for special education is complicated, but you know what’s even more complicated? Figuring out how much special education in Michigan actually costs. And if we don’t know that, we don’t know whether we’re spending too much or too little on special ed.

It’s so complicated even the people who specialize in school finance can’t figure it out.

The Michigan Legislature last year paid $399,000 to the Colorado-based firm Augenblick Palaich & Associates (APA) to figure out how much an adequate education costs in Michigan, and they came back with an amount: $8,667 per student plus extra for at-risk students and English-language learners.

But there was one glaring omission in the report: the cost of special education.

According to the report, “there was difficulty ensuring that the study team could account for all district expenditures for special education students.”

In other words, APA couldn’t figure out how much money is adequate for students with special needs because APA couldn’t figure out how much districts actually spend on students with special needs.

From the report:

The study team recommends creating a system that better tracks special education expenditures from all sources. The report did not dig deeply into current special education expenditures by district, since accounting for these expenditures is complex. As mentioned in the data collection section, APA worked with Michigan Department of Education to identify the special education expenditures for each district. APA examined multiple sources and created different iterations of figures. After receiving feedback from the survey, it was clear to the study team that not all of the expenditure categories in special education had been identified.
So to recap:

We know how much the state spends on special education in Michigan ($973 million plus an additional $1.1 million to implement Special Education Task Force Reforms)
We know how much the federal government spends on special education in Michigan ($441 million)
We don’t know what it actually costs to educate Michigan students with special needs.
Part of that has to do with how we account for special ed expenses.

In Michigan, we use a reimbursement model, which most states have migrated away from. Districts have to tally up all their special education expenses, fill out a special form, give it to the state, and the state turns around and reimburses 28% of those expenses.

Sounds easy enough. But wait, there’s more… read on…

Source: How much does it cost to educate a student with special needs? Nobody knows. | Michigan Radio

There Is No Conflict Between Opting Out of Tests and Fighting Competency-Based Education

There Is No Conflict Between Opting Out of Tests and Fighting Competency-Based Education
by dianeravitch
What is competency-based education? Twenty or thirty years ago, it referred to skill-based education, and critics complained that CBE downgraded the importance of knowledge.

Today CBE has a different meaning. https://dianeravitch.net/2016/09/18/there-is-no-conflict-between-opting-out-of-tests-and-fighting-competency-based-education/

Diane Ravitch's blog

What is competency-based education? Twenty or thirty years ago, it referred to skill-based education, and critics complained that CBE downgraded the importance of knowledge.

Today CBE has a different meaning. It refers to teaching and assessment that is conducted online, where students’ learning is continuously monitored, measured, and analyzed. CBE is invariably susceptible to data-mining of children, gathering Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that can be aggregated and used without the knowledge or permission of parents.

The first time that I heard of CBE (although it was not called that) was in a meeting in August 2015 with The State Commissioner of Education in New York, MaryEllen Elia, after her first month in office. I organized a discussion between Commissioner Elia and several board members of NYSAPE (New York State Allies for Public Education), the group that created New York State’s massive opt out that year (and again this year). It…

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A teacher responds to the Chicago Tribune | from the BustED Pencils blog

 Found on Facebook, and shared in its entirety. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Here is my response to the Trib’s b.s. editorial today. I’m guessing they won’t print it, so I’m self-publishing. (Feel free to share!) Tribune Editorial Board: Today’s editorial is the most clueless piece of nonsense yet from the Trib editorial board. Does anyone on the board… Read more »

Source: A teacher responds to the Chicago Tribune | BustED Pencils

“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks

“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks
by seattleducation2010
All of the elements are in place: There’s piece work employment without financial security or due process. The opportunity for corporations to pay employees in script instead of actual cash. Smart Contracts and the possibility of a lifetime of servitude without compensation. Cradle to grave corporate surveillance of every citizen. If George Orwell wrote a sequel […]

Read more of this post https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/learning-is-earning-the-rand-corporation-way-with-digital-badges-and-edublocks/

Seattle Education

All of the elements are in place:

• There’s piece work employment without financial security or due process.
• The opportunity for corporations to pay employees in script instead of actual cash. 
• Smart Contracts and the possibility of a lifetime of servitude without compensation.
• Cradle to grave corporate surveillance of every citizen.

If George Orwell wrote a sequel to 1984, the idea of The Institute for the Future’s Edublocks and The Ledger would have a starring role.

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) prides itself on bringing “people together to make the future—today.”

IFTF is an outgrowth of The Rand Corporation and counts as partners corporate giants in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and advocacy.

Groups such as AARP, the American Medical Association, AT&T, GM, Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente and Shell – just to name a few of the heavy hitters who have hitched their wagons to IFTF. 

In case you’re not familiar with

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Writer’s Weekend Resources – Reading and Writing Links

Here’s to making your own way and your own world, facing whatever challenges come your way, and retaining your childlike qualities.
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Jamie Lee Wallace Hi. I’m Jamie. I am a content writer and branding consultant, columnist, sometime feature writer, prolific blogger, and aspiring fiction writer. I’m a mom, a student of equestrian arts, and a nature lover. I believe in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Introduce yourself on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. I don’t bite … usually.

Live to Write - Write to Live

A fiery sunflower to brighten your day.

Morning & happy Sunday.

While yesterday’s post was a little on the darker side, today’s will be – I hope – a little lighter. While I’m all for baring our souls and sharing our true feelings, I’m not much for wailing or wallowing. So – onward & upward. Acknowledge the challenges, and then get back to the work at hand. The Big Questions never really have black & white answers anyway, do they? They always exist as questions, and we live our lives in pursuit of the answers, which change as we change.

ANYway … I hope you enjoy this weeks selection of blog posts and other reads.

Happy Sunday & happy writing and reading!

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 Books I’m Reading:

I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about the film adaptation of Being There for a few weeks now. In the movie version of Jerzy Kosinski’s…

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Blues people. (An art project)

Fred Klonsky

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39 cents on the dollar. The problem for Illinois isn’t rich folks leaving. It is who is being left behind.

“There is this thing that happens when you talk to Republican (and some Dems too) politicians. I offer this up to readers who don’t have or don’t seek the opportunity to do that.

They are convinced that the problem with Illinois is that we have an economy and tax structure that threatens to force rich people and corporations to leave the state.

No matter that we have the most regressive tax system imaginable. No matter that we still allow the largest corporations in Illinois to collect and keep the state income tax they collect from employees.

I say to them, “You know who is leaving the state? High school kids because Illinois public colleges and universities are too damn expensive. 40% of Illinois high school graduates who go on to college have to go somewhere else.”

Yes. Props to State Reprsentative Will Guzzardi for introducing a bill to make college tuition free in Illinois.

I got into a discussion with one Republican candidate at yesterday’s Illinois Retired Teachers Association luncheon. He swore to me that taxes were driving the wealthy out of state.

“Which one of the many homes are they going to?” I asked. “How many is Rauner up to now? Nine is it? Including the one he bought to clout his kid into CPS’ Walter Payton?”

The recent news reports on the improvement in family income shows that the problem in Chicago and Illinois isn’t who is leaving the state, but who in the state is being left behind.

Across the country and in Illinois family income has risen for the first time since the Great Recession,.

The increase in family income does not include African Americans families.”

Fred Klonsky

There is this thing that happens when you talk to Republican (and some Dems too) politicians. I offer this up to readers who don’t have or don’t seek the opportunity to do that.

They are convinced that the problem with Illinois is that we have an economy and tax structure that threatens to force rich people and corporations to leave the state.

No matter that we have the most regressive tax system imaginable. No matter that we still allow the largest corporations in Illinois to collect and keep the state income tax they collect from employees.

I say to them, “You know who is leaving the state? High school kids because Illinois public colleges and universities are too damn expensive. 40% of Illinois high school graduates who go on to college have to go somewhere else.”

Yes. Props to State Reprsentative Will Guzzardi for introducing a bill to make college…

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Rocketship is a gross place

Rocketship is a gross place
by SPJ
I’ve always thought Rocketship was a really gross model for a charter school. It’s a terrible experiment for poor black and brown children, one that more affluent parents would would never stand for, and they’d run these hucksters out on a rail. What really grossed me out was catching Rocketship people poaching our students outside […]

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SPJ | September 18, 2016 at 10:39 am | Tags: charter school , rocketship | Categories: SPJ | URL: http://wp.me/pJX8i-bgY

Ohio’s Notorious ECOT Tries to Make Its Case In Court

Ohio’s Notorious ECOT Tries to Make Its Case In Court
by janresseger
Attorneys for the Ohio Department of Education and Ohio’s largest and most notorious online charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, have been in court all this week tussling, as the Columbus Dispatch’s Jim Siegel explains, “over ECOT’s lawsuit to block the state from using new attendance standards to impact funding….” “As the state’s biggest online school, ECOT has taken the lead in fighting efforts by the Ohio Department of Education and Gov. John Kasich to use log-in durations to determine whether students are getting state-minimum ‘learning opportunities.’ ECOT, which has claimed the state requires it to provide 920 hours of (annual) curriculum but not prove that students are actually participating in ECOT’s education program, could lose $80 million or more based on an initial attendance audit in March, which found students were logging in for only about an hour per day.”

The problem across Ohio’s very large on-line sector is that the schools—and there are several operated by specific school districts as well as the huge ECOT and the Ohio Virtual Academy, an affiliate of K12, Inc.—have not been keeping careful records to confirm full-time participation. Ohio, which says students at e-schools ought to be online for five hours per day, pays the schools over $6,000 every year for each full-time student. In the past, the state has not pressed this matter, but last fall the legislature enacted House Bill 2, a very basic law to begin to regulate charter schools. ECOT’s lawsuit claims that the state is applying the new HB2 retroactively and without sufficient warning.

Widespread press coverage of the scandal at ECOT has put pressure on the all Republican legislature that… (read more here https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/ohios-notorious-ecot-tries-to-make-its-case-in-court/)

janresseger

Attorneys for the Ohio Department of Education and Ohio’s largest and most notorious online charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, have been in court all this week tussling, as the Columbus Dispatch‘s Jim Siegel explains, “over ECOT’s lawsuit to block the state from using new attendance standards to impact funding….”  “As the state’s biggest online school, ECOT has taken the lead in fighting efforts by the Ohio Department of Education and Gov. John Kasich to use log-in durations to determine whether students are getting state-minimum ‘learning opportunities.’  ECOT, which has claimed the state requires it to provide 920 hours of (annual) curriculum but not prove that students are actually participating in ECOT’s education program, could lose $80 million or more based on an initial attendance audit in March, which found students were logging in for only about an hour per day.”

The problem across Ohio’s very large…

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