Darling-Hammond explains

[mzteris]

April 19, 2010 | Posted At: 10:53 AM | Author: Alexander Russo

"In this email, Linda Darling-Hammond decries this recent New York Times' article as riddled with errors and describes the ins and outs of her involvement with the elementary school and the high school. I meant to contact her earlier in the week, and will now see what the Times reporter Carol Pogash has to say. Meantime, read the email below. Picture unrelated.

The couple of stories I’ve seen, especially one from the New York Times, were riddled with errors. I thought you might want to have the facts.

. . . The high school has made great progress over the years since it was founded. It has created a strong, highly personalized college-going program and currently has a graduation rate of 86 percent, far above the state average. In addition, 96 percent of graduates are admitted to college (including 53 percent to four-year colleges) - twice the rate of African American and Latino students in the state as a whole. Over the last seven years, the high school increased its API score by 180 points. An Early College program now enrolls 125 students a year (half the students in the school) who earned 550 college credits this past year. 40% of students earn "A's" in their college courses (a better track record than the college has among its own students) and many graduate with close to a full year of college credits under their belts.

A few years ago the state required the charter to add elementary grades because the district is an elementary district (one of the weird things in California's school governance structure). The brand new elementary was only 3 years old and had only 2 years of data for a few grades when the 5 year charter renewal came up last week. I was not involved in the elementary school, and most of this work occurred when I was away from the board. The elementary grades' test scores were lower than the high school and those of other more established elementary schools in the district. They were averaged in with the high school because the 2 schools exist as a single charter. This brought down the average API of the high school as well.


http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/04/media-darlinghammond-tells-her-version.html#more

[donco6]

1. I know Linda D-H.

If she's defending it, I would trust her.

[mzteris]

2. It sounds like

the "study" and the "journalism" were both poorly done.

[Hannah Bell]

4. no, it doesn't. it sounds like she was tripped up by the standards she helped design & enforce on

other schools. who also had lots of reasons measuring their students' achievement on scores alone wasn't fair.

but she didn't care when it was *those* schools.

[elleng]

15. You really should learn a thing or two about her.

http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/today2.html

[elleng]

5. I know her too, and I agree!

Her kid(s) attended my daughters' school, in DC, YEARS ago.

[Hannah Bell]

3. The school deform crowd: hoist on their own petard!

"Ms. Darling-Hammond — who told the board that the school “takes all kids” and changes their “trajectory” — was angered by the state’s categorization of the charter as a persistently worst-performing school. “It is not the most accurate measure of student achievement,” she said, “particularly if you have new English language learners.” "


oh, rilly? test scores not a good measure of achievement, specially if you have new english language learners?

shoulda thought of it before you rammed the same criteria down the throats of public schools.

tell it to the laid-off teachers at central high.

[elleng]

6. Who 'rammed' what?

[elleng]

7. Try some 'uncomfortable' facts:

'The state’s high school completion rate is 80 percent, Stanford New School is 86 percent; and an impressive 96 percent of the charter school’s seniors are accepted to college, even though the most current state numbers show that the average SAT scores per subject hover in the high 300s.

The school “puts a lot of attention on a variety of skills and provides opportunities that don’t necessarily promote higher scores,” Dr. Stipek said.

One day this week, for example, Japanese-Americans who had been interned during World War II spoke to one class, while another class toured Cisco Systems to learn about jobs.

“If you’re just looking at test scores, then you don’t see what we’re learning,” said Jonathan Solis, a sophomore.

Students receive a rubric of evaluations, not grades. High school students have one teacher/adviser who checks that homework is done, and when it is not, the teacher calls home. Teachers know students’ families and help with issues . . .'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/education/16sfcharter.html?pagewanted=1

[Hannah Bell]

9. so what? their test scores are abysmal! fire them all!

darling lindaton helped make the new rules!

[elleng]

12. 'helped make' what rules?

[Hannah Bell]

16. lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas

[elleng]

17. SOME of us are a little more sophisticated than that.

Please read about her, here and 'above.'

The Hatchet Job on Linda Darling-Hammond.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/the-hatchet-job-on-linda_b_155104.html

[Hannah Bell]

18. you're so muchmore sophisticated than me. i was musing on how she allowed (?) herself to be used by

the admin & before that by the small schools/gates deformers.

idealistic cover for the crooks: "teachers need to improve"

hey, ok, here's the criteria & we shitcan them & their schools if they don't

[elleng]

19. Still not informing yourself about her, I guess.

Take some time, please.

http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/today2.html

[Hannah Bell]

20. i think we're talking past each other.

started out as sarcasm. not very good sarcasm, i readily admit.

[elleng]

24. Sorry I missed the sarcasm.

:hi:

[elleng]

8. Test Test Test

'professors parsed test statistics, while unimpressed board members simply looked at the scores'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/education/16sfcharter.html?pagewanted=1

[Hannah Bell]

10. who cares? darling linda made up the rules, let her school die by them.

no exceptions!

[elleng]

11. She 'made up' what rules?

[elleng]

13. Why Obama, Duncan should read Linda Darling-Hammond’s new education book

Folks here could learn a few things!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/education-secretary-duncan/why-obama-duncan-should-read-l.html

[mzteris]

22. supposedly they all did -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7912907

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x21445


Maybe it didn't say what they thought it was going to say.

[elleng]

25. Thanks for these

actual discussions!

EVERYONE should read this, from her The Right to Learn:

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hammond-learn.html

[elleng]

14. 'Only a Teacher'

PBS interview w. Linda D-H

http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/today2.html

[mzteris]

21. just a few weeks ago Linda was the - er - DARLING

of this forum...

what happened??


though I have no idea what exactly is being said about her here, I put on earmuffs long ago.... (see my sigline)

[Hannah Bell]

23. if you have on earmuffs, why comment? i thought the point of "ignore" was to ignore.

but you just keep talking, you just never have to listen, or acknowledge any facts counter to your spin.