Diane Ravitch--A Double Standard on Test Scores (Milwaukee Study)

[Starry Messenger]

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2010/05/dear_deborah_last_month_a.html

A Double Standard on Test Scores
By Diane Ravitch on May 11, 2010

Back to Milwaukee. When the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported state scores in reading a few weeks ago, it turned out that African-American students in Wisconsin have about the lowest scores in the nation. Two-thirds of the African-American students in that state live in Milwaukee, so it seems fair to say that they gained little or nothing from the flowering of vouchers and charters. In fact, African-American students in Wisconsin have test scores that are about the same as those of African-American students in Mississippi. The competition with charters and vouchers did not lead to higher scores for African-American students in regular public schools. There was no rising tide, no boats were lifted.

Considering the fact that the public schools in Milwaukee and elsewhere are regularly pummeled for failing to raise test scores of African-American students, one begins to sense a double standard at work. When public schools fail to raise test scores, it is a sign of their decrepitude and failure; when voucher schools fail to raise test scores, well, so what, they weren't supposed to do that.

Now, with the Obama administration firmly in the charter camp, touting the benefits of competition, expect to see a continuing effort to dismantle public education. I just wish that choice proponents would stop promising that charters and vouchers will bring us closer to that date when 100 percent of all children reach proficiency. If evidence mattered, they would tone down their rhetoric. But I won't hold my breath.

[Hannah Bell]

1. wow! and wisconsin is one of the ground zeroes for charter schools, too.

shocking failure.

[Starry Messenger]

2. Yes, evidently the state was something of a pioneer

The "school choice" legislation was a bipartisan effort led by a Democrat actually, in the early 1990s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Polly_Williams

You'd think that after so many years that this innovation would be showing the dramatic improvements it is always touted for. It is so sad that a Democrat gambled the futures of school children on a risky free market scheme. The charters drain several million dollars from the traditional public school system to the parallel "alternative" system they have set up in its stead. And for what? This?

[Hannah Bell]

3. always glittering success stories to begin with, miserable mediocrity or worse once the PR assault

is over.

What a fraud.

[Starry Messenger]

4. And oh what a shock, look what's next on the agenda:

http://milwaukeetalkie.blogspot.com/2010/05/reforming-teaching-profession-part-1.html

Thursday, May 27, 2010
Reforming the teaching profession, part 1: Tenure reform

Milwaukee is often called ground zero for education reform, and for good reason. We have been on the forefront of reforms such as budget decentralization, school-to-work, neighborhood schools, parental choice, charter schools and, the most recent attempt, governance reform.

There are two hot-button issues, however, that have not been on the agenda here: merit pay and tenure reform. But, with both of these tactics garnering more attention across the country, it seems unlikely Milwaukee will be a hold-out for long.

<snip>

In one way, tenure reform has gained a foothold in Milwaukee. The recently passed legislation that gives the state Department of Public Instruction with greater powers over the Milwaukee Public Schools also eliminated tenure for principals in MPS. (MPS is the only district in the state with represented principals.) But it does not tackle teacher tenure, or permanent status, head-on.

Will a district and a city accustomed to being at the cutting edge of education reform sit out this latest wave of reform efforts? The clock is ticking on when tenure reform will become part of the discussion about the urgent need to improve student outcomes in Milwaukee.

My, Milwaukee seems quite the hot-bed of right wing social agendas for education. What got into the water there?

[Hannah Bell]

5. walmart money? my god, it's a cesspool: they're even bringing in the racist charles murray:

MADISON — According to a new report in U.S. Senate Candidate Ron Johnson’s hometown newspaper, the Oshkosh Northwestern, Johnson led an effort to bring extremist education “expert” Charles Murray to speak to education and business leaders in Oshkosh – leading the community to demand an apology for Murray’s elitist, offensive theories.

Murray has made a career trying to “resume some of the most poisonous battles of the late 1960s and ’70s,” by making the case that some groups and ethnicities are more superior to others for biological or genetic reasons.

http://millermps.wordpress.com/


oooooh. what a good guesser am i!

"Meanwhile, school politics have been dominated by privatizing forces for two decades. Over the years, the RIGHT WING BRADLEY AND WALTON FOUNDATIONS have successfully pressured politicians—Democrats and Republicans alike—into expanding Milwaukee’s school voucher program into the nation’s largest."


Looks like there's been some push-back, though:

"But recent events in Milwaukee, Wis., offer hope to despairing teachers, parents, and education activists throughout the country. Since last August, a remarkable struggle has unfolded in which grassroots organizing has stopped what appeared to be an inevitable mayoral takeover of the public schools."

http://millermps.wordpress.com/

yay for the spirit of democracy!

oligarchs go home!

[Starry Messenger]

6. My goodness, the author of "The Bell Curve" Charles Murray

A refresher for those following at home:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

The Bell Curve is a best-selling 1994 book by the late Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and American Enterprise Institute political scientist Charles Murray. Its central argument is that intelligence is a better predictor of many factors including financial income, job performance, unwanted pregnancy, and crime than parents' socioeconomic status or education level. Also, the book argues that those with high intelligence, the "cognitive elite", are becoming separated from those of average and below-average intelligence and that this is a dangerous social trend. Most of the controversy concerns Chapters 13 and 14, in which the authors wrote about racial differences in intelligence and discuss the implications of those differences. The authors were reported throughout the popular press as arguing that these IQ differences are genetic, and they did indeed write in chapter 13: "It seems highly likely to us that both genes and the environment have something to do with racial differences." The introduction to the chapter more cautiously states, "The debate about whether and how much genes and environment have to do with ethnic differences remains unresolved."

The book's title comes from the bell-shaped normal distribution of IQ scores. The normal distribution is the limiting distribution of a random quantity which is the sum of smaller, independent random phenomena. The message in the title is that IQ scores are normally distributed because a person's intelligence is the sum of many small random variations in genetic and environmental factors.

Shortly after publication, many people rallied both in criticism and defense of the book. Some critics denounced the book and its authors as supporting scientific racism. A number of critical texts, including The Bell Curve Debate, were written in response to the book.

I had noticed that there had been a recent attempt to rehabilitate Murray's reputation in the press via comment on Education issues, but I would think that a school reform movement like Milwaukee's that is intent on improving the learning environments for minority schoolchildren would have better sense to provide a bullhorn for a notorious racist. :( Of course, the New York Times provided him with a pulpit for this article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/opinion/05murray.html without mentioning his extremely seedy origins. I swear this country has the institutional memory of a fruitfly.

[Hannah Bell]

7. yes, mr "black people are genetically inferior" himself. it's 1933 all over again.

the tenure thing isn't the only new "reform" being proposed in milwaukee:

MADISON, Wis. — Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann is proposing to get rid of state certification for teachers as part of an education reform plan that would encourage competition between public schools and private and charter schools.

Neumann is a partner in a company that uses public funds to run three private schools in Milwaukee and one in Phoenix known as Hope Christian Schools."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-governorsrace-ed,0,380767.story?obref=obinsite


but wait! i've been told that charter schools are all *public* schools -- on this very board!

what the hell is going on, eh?

[Starry Messenger]

8. Well, perhaps that should actually be Public Schools©

The only website I can find that calls them "public" is http://www.publiccharters.org/about Perhaps they feel they can call themselves that since they *take* public money for their own. Maybe if I rub myself with vinegar, I'll turn into a pickle.


Interesting thing about Mr. Nuemann there. His education reform plan has planks that we've seen advocated on this very board! Perhaps even in this forum. :(

http://www.wisconsininternetnews.com/2010/06/23/neumann-proposes-%E2%80%98clean-slate%E2%80%99-of-wisconsin-education-reforms/

Mark Lichte joined Neumann. He added, “I, a Superintendent at Lake Country School District, believe that we
can find more than 10% savings by eliminating state mandates that do not affect the quality of education in
the classroom if we implement Mark Neumann’s plan.”

Neumann proposes the following:

· Form a blue ribbon panel of representatives from throughout the education system and parents
tasked with transforming the educational model in Wisconsin. Neumann will personally chair
the panel, which will be created within his first 60 days in office.

· Define a means of measuring outcomes that will require use of standardized exams with
national norms already established. The most appropriate tests will be selected with local
officials then deciding which one to administer. Any person or school receiving state dollars shall
be required to take one of the selected tests.

· Define a “Performance Bonus System” where, based on the measured outcomes, individual
teachers and individual schools compete for bonuses based on academic growth.

· Develop a system whereby any form of alternative education system, including choice and
charter are encouraged to exist provided the outcomes meet or exceed desired growth rates
and the costs are at least 10% lower than public schools.

· Define a system to grade publically funded schools based on measured outcomes with grades of
A, B, C, D, or F. Successful and failing schools will be identified based on academic growth as
measured by the standardized tests.

· In areas served by schools that are rated as D or F for two consecutive years, the reimbursement
rate for alternative educational systems shall equal the amount being spent on public school
students. The goal is to enhance competition.

· Eliminate state mandates that prevent schools from providing education in a more cost effective
manner without hurting educational quality. The target is the elimination of enough mandates
to allow for a 10% across the board savings in the cost of educating children.

· Eliminate state regulations that impede greater local control by teachers, school administrators,
and school boards.

· Develop a model where the state dollars in education follow the child as opposed to being sent
directly to an institution. The intent is allow for the expansion of school choice, charter, and
other innovative schools, involve the parents more directly in education, and encourage schools
to compete for students by providing the best educational opportunities.

· Define suggested qualifications for school personnel including teachers and administrators, but
include a plan to eliminate state-mandated teacher and administrator certification. The panel
will empower local schools boards to control hiring practices.

· Eliminate the income and enrollment caps for Milwaukee’s school choice program.

· Seek ways to make taxpayer-owned, unoccupied educational spaces available to the private and
public charter schools with a lease rate not to exceed $1,200/student. In the event more than
one non-public school wished to lease the same facility then a bidding process shall be used.

What naturally goes unmentioned, as I'm sure Mr. Nuemann would prefer not to have this broadcast, is that he himself a virulent bigot.

http://uppitywis.org/mark-neumann-gov-please-jesus-yes

The Knockdown

Neumann's problem is that he is a rabidly anti-gay, rightwing extremist with a long record of hateful ideological baggage that would make George W. Bush blush.

In a widely reported address to the La Crosse Christian Coalition in 1997, Neumann said that he would not hire a person who applied for a position in his legislative office after stating a gay or lesbian orientation.

“If somebody walks in to me and say, ‘I’m a gay person; I want a job in your office.’ I would say, ‘that’s inappropriate’ and they wouldn’t be hired because that would mean they are promoting their agenda. The gay and lesbian lifestyle (is) unacceptable, lest there be any question about that.”

In a March 9, 1997 address to the Madison Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) church, Neumann said his political advisers warned him not to mention his religion in his 1998 run for the Senate against Sen. Russ Feingold who is also up for reelection in 2010.

“When I first ran I had all kinds of consultants telling me not to mention religion. They told me to tone down any discussion we might have. … they did ask me to tone down the concept of religion or values that are taught in our churches and synagogues as being a part of what we were,” said Neumann.

I would certainly hope that any liberal with a passing care for social justice would take a harder look at their fellow travelers on the positions they espouse on teachers, public schools and unions. It would be tragic if more Democrats fell in thrall to the Radical Right Wing agenda via this shady "school reform" and "school choice" Trojan Horse.

[Hannah Bell]

9. ...i agree. mr. neumann, btw, gets a lot of public cash despite his free market stance.

and he pays his son $106K/year.

profit, graft, nepotism, jesus, racism.

[Scuba]

10. I'll consider supporting Charter schools when they take their fair share of special needs kids.

The conditions in inner-city Milwaukee are deplorable. These kids have little chance of succeeding in life because of where they were born.

[Starry Messenger]

11. Would you mind telling us a bit more about Milwaukee?

I have to confess I don't know anything about the conditions there. My eye has been on what is happening in Detroit and all of this information about what is going on in Milwaukee with the schools is new to me.

[Scuba]

12. Here's a start...

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/63569632.html

Unemployment, single mothers with no jobs, no skills, no hope. Rampant drug use. Half of blacks males between 19 and 29 are either in jail or on probation.

It's a disgrace that we allow this to happen in America.

[midnight]

13. I'm curious how such a large population of children can fail?

About four years ago, someone on D.U. posted an article that uncovered the scoring of college entrance exams and that those scores were being manipulated by the company that did the scoring.

[mzteris]

16. some issues

Nearly 80 percent of MPS students get free meals at school because their families are impoverished. Some have been for two or more generations.

District Speech Teacher Colleen Haubner says long- term poverty affects children in other ways you might not expect, such as in the development of language skills.



Hopkins Street School Psychologist Amanda McEwen says MPS staff daily deal with the effects of homelessness.

snip

McEwen says constant movement prevents children from forming friendships, which can lead to isolation or depression.

Violence Prevention Specialist, Beth Herman-Ukasick says Milwaukee has concentrations of poverty and household chaos, and those conditions hinder children from developing empathy.

snip

Herman-Ukasick and the others we spoke with say the effects of poverty and violence can corrode the MPS mission of meeting the educational needs of its students.

snip

Steve Dykstra is a Milwaukee psychologist who works with scores of area youngsters. He says the sheer volume of problems in MPS creates a spillover that can overwhelm. “You can make the case that all of the students in MPS have those challenges because even if they don’t have them personally, they’re in a classroom with a large number of students who do. It’s one thing if you have a child in your school who’s suffering through that kind of stress and is under that kind of burden. It’s another thing if you have 30, or you have a hundred, or two hundred. Very quickly your personal and other resources can be stressed,” Dykstra says.

http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_news.php?articleid=6264

[midnight]

17. Thank you. Poverty causes low scores, and the MPS needs the county to step in and ease the poverty

However, knowing what Scott Walker,tea bagger extraordinare, has done to the county, that is not going to happen. He is to busy showing everyone that he has cut taxes. Those behind the scenes see the explosion of a strange combination of furloughs and overtime that are running a zero savings.

[Hannah Bell]

18. but according the school deform people, poverty doesn't matter.

their programme was supposed to raise scores regardless.

it hasn't. it won't.

because poverty, class division, lack of jobs, decaying cities, & all the rest -- *do* matter.

twenty years of school deform in milwaukee & the results are zip.

except for the privatizers, of course. they made profits from the public purse.

[mzteris]

14. the Choice / voucher program is completely separate and apart

from Charter public schools.


Keep your bashing straight. . .


edit to add - you had that misconception in common with Charles Murray. From Ravitch's article to which you linked:

"Murray wrongly believed that the Milwaukee study reviewed the performance of both vouchers and charters and found both wanting. His article was erroneously titled "Why Charter Schools Fail the Test," when the study referred only to students in voucher schools, not charter schools."

[mzteris]

15. the study on the voucher program

(and you know I don't support vouchers). I just like to be informed and help other be informed, too.

http://www.uark.edu/ua/der/SCDP/Milwaukee_Eval/Report_11.pdf