Lady E.L.A.

Here are the words of Lady E.L.A. to our immigrant children and, I quote:   

About two dozen teachers at International High School are refusing to administer the NYC ELA Performance Assessment in Prospect Heights.  They are protesting the detrimental effects of the exam upon their population of largely English-Language Learners (ELLs).  Apparently many parents stand in unison with these teachers; fifty percent of the students will be refusing the exam. 

Twenty-First Century Totems to Educational Deformity!

As another three-day cycle of Common-Core-aligned tests begin today in N.Y.S., my heart goes out to all those young minds who will strive and sometimes struggle with the math and try to make sense of our twenty-first-century testing totem.  I comfort myself that my third grader, several others in class and many more across the state, will be otherwise engaged.  

Are Civil-Service Exams a Civil Service?

I have read that the infatuation with measuring teachers (and now even teacher programs) by the test scores earned by students extends far up the chain to President O-v.a.m.-a, himself.  If this is true, I am deeply disappointed.

I look for a time when test scores meant so much to a society.  I fondly remember dynastic China.  Here, the tests favored at certain points were very different from the tests fabricated by Pearson.  

There was some merit in the Chinese civil-service system which evolved over time.  Although not all discrimination and favoritism could be rooted out, the exams helped the gentry and commoners have a shot at helping the emperor rule the empire. For a time when there was no democracy, this was not a bad step in that direction.  

These civil-service tests operated at different levels of the government and served as the gateway, allowing a greater variety of qualified persons to achieve status in dynastic China. The tests broached such subjects as Confucian classics, math, law, calligraphy and, for a time, poetry. 

The tests changed significantly in format over time.  In 115 A.D., test takers were required to master the "Six Arts."  I am very happy to say this list included music.  It also included math, writing, knowledge of rituals, archery and horsemanship. At a later point, during the Sui Dynasty, the "Five Studies" replaced the "Six Arts."  What's in a name?  The "Five Studies" actually expanded the curriculum to include government finance, military strategy, farming, geography and the Confucian classics.

In some ways, as one might imagine, these tests, as all tests, indeed, seemed less than ideal.  At one point, there was an oral part to the exam, but this seemed to work against some with less than favored dialects.  Large parts of the exams relied upon memorization.  Test takers needed to rote memorize exact quotes and reproduce them to perfection.  Part of the tests included filling in blanks with the words of Confucius.

Security was always a major concern, particularly at the exam's highest level.  Palace exams were held every three years.  Test candidates had to arrive at the Imperial palace with the barest necessities for survival.  They brought a water pitcher, food, bedding, a chamber pot for what might be their only relief during the testing cycle, and writing implements.  Test takers were imprisoned in cells for three days, lacking heat, good light and proper sanitation.  

There were 7500 testing cells in Guangdong, China, and, I believe, 10,000 in Beijing.  

From what I have read although the tests largely relied upon rote memorization, they did not test knowledge, per se.  And, they did not even ask about science or business.  Instead, they focused on judgment and character.  

In some key aspects, the Chinese civil-service exams seem very different from the tests of today.  As far as I know, the tests were not manufactured by an imperial version of the profit-hungry Pearson corporation.  The teachers of the test takers suffered no negative consequences for the performance of any of their students.  The test takers needed to pass the test only once at each level.  If they achieved rank, they were trusted as a professionals, not retested or repeatedly harassed by a Department of Education.

For a time, as stated earlier, the tests also required some original composition of poetry.  Here, I would point to the beloved tale of Double Happiness.  When the young scholar takes ill on his journey toward the exam, he is nursed to health by a herbalist doctor and his lovely daughter.  Of course, they fall in love.  The young man recovers and dutifully departs for the exam.  Before doing so, however, the young woman gives him the right-hand part of a couplet:  

"Green trees against the sky in the spring rain while the sky set off the spring trees in the obscuration."  

I can think of few better parting gifts.  This does not necessarily mean I have a handle on its meaning.  That is the great thing about art.  It encapsulates emotion which can never satisfy Bill Gates' insatiable quest for metrics as a measurement of life. 

Well, as it turns out the emperor tests the young man by asking him to complete his left-hand part of a couplet: 

"Red flowers dot the land in the breeze's chase while the land colored up in red after the kiss."

The scholar replied with the antithetical couplet that his darling had left him as a parting gift.  And, what do you know, it matched perfectly.  The young man was awarded first place in the exam.  Go figure!  He returned to his sweetheart--who in this case--proved herself "highly effective," albeit not exactly by Danielson's standards. They were married.  And, of course, lived happily ever after. The rest (or should I say, "the test") is history.  

The examiners went to great lengths to prevent cheating, but, alas, the system was not fail-proof.  Papers were given numbers and recopied in strange hands so as to obscure the real authors. Yet, despite risking the death penalty, test takers appeared to have cheated.  The photo below is precious.  It shows crib notes written on a cloth meant to be worn as underwear during the exam.

I wonder what this says about the test takers "judgment and character" when under intense pressure.  The more things change, sometimes it is truly amazing how much remains the same.

Given all this knowledge and our president's supposed faith in the value-added measures to determine teacher worthiness, I wonder if we might not enshrine tests as even more sacred in our system.  

Given that unlike Dynastic China, we have a greater level of merit-based achievement here, why don't we pick our presidents and, indeed, all important leaders, based primarily upon their test scores?  Pearson could manufacture some test with all kinds of questions about talking pineapples and such.  Pearson might even dare to necessitate that presidential candidates try their hand at creating original poetry.  It is a window into the soul. We could choose the highest test scores and beg those persons to be our next President and Vice-President, our next Secretary of Education, the possibilities are limitless.  

I do have one concern, however, when we try to cut costs by hiring people via Craigslist to grade the exams, will we have a margin of error?

College and Career Ready, At Any Cost!

Thank you, Common Core, for making all our children college and career ready and teaching us that it's never too early to start dashing young people's dreams!  Maybe this year the suit and tie with briefcase will sell out as the Halloween costume of choice!

In some most extraordinary news, and a sign of the times, the Harley Avenue primary school in Elwood, L.I., cancelled its end of year Kindergarten play despite the fact that it is a beloved school tradition.  According to district officials, the play might be viewed as a distraction from making kids college and career ready.  I see it as a distraction from test prep for the next Pearson slam-banger!  One letter to parents argues, "We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills."  They are axing cherished tradition in the name of helping children become "strong readers and problem solvers"! 

Anyone who is in the least bit interested in the social and emotional health and happiness of children should view the online petition to reinstitute the play.  Consider signing.  Somehow, I made it successfully through life without having all the joy and happiness of my early years stripped away in the name of college and career readiness.  And the things I remember best, the things that left the most lasting imprints, and the things which help build character, were things exactly like this play, whether I was in it, my friends, or a sibling.  These are strange days, indeed!    

Learning Modules at EngageNY

I read an article yesterday at Perdido Street explaining that NYSED will hold regional Common-Core institutes for teachers to revamp lesson plans at EngageNY.  In the pit of my heart, I feel it is an attempt to coopt teachers by making it seem that the Common-Core is now teacher-driven.  I hope it is not too expensive, given so many better uses for that money.  And, the A.F.T. already has a site with numerous educator-created classroom resources at http://www.sharemylesson.com/.


NY state paid  three organizations or corporations $12.9 million of R.T.T.T. money to compile the teaching modules currently found at EngageNY. Some districts apparently mandate that their teachers follow the scripted, sometimes stilted curriculum. In other districts, teachers may fear observations and fall back upon this state-sponsored stuff for safety's sake.

The old stuff seems to be of varying quality.  Last December there was much discussion at atthechalkface.com about the first video below.  Most commentors seemed to find the lesson akin to seal training.  They found the teacher to be unwelcoming and inflexible.  The lesson seemed tiresome and tedious.  

http://www.engageny.org/resource/common-core-video-series-kindergarten-mathematics-double-10-frames

Someone rallied to the teacher's defense.  As part of the defense, a link was attached to the same teacher in the video below.  

http://www.engageny.org/resource/common-core-video-series-kindergarten-mathematics-counting-sticks

Beyond a doubt, the teacher seemed far more human and less robotic here.  She seemed to be interacting with children more than training animals.  

The overall quality of the "modules" varies greatly. And, I assume the same will be true of future modules.  If the new ones are sub par though, teachers can be wholly blamed.  I hope no teachers or students will be force fed either the new or the old stuff.  It takes all the fun and creativity out of our business.  


Teachers should teach to their strengths and the interests of their students.  A lesson that works with one class may flop with another.  Students are different; their abilities are different; their interests are different.  Indeed, the entire dynamics of the classroom are different.  


Modules must be growing things.  Just as a plant cannot be uprooted and transplanted without regard to climate, soil type, hours of sunlight, etc., learning modules cannot be scripted for universal success.   If the old or new stuff is force fed, NYSED may find that at great expense they have created yet another Frankenstein. 

If I Only Had the Common-Core Diploma!

Do you ever wonder what we did before we had "The Core"? How did we survive?  L. Frank Baum might tell us we were very much like the Scarecrow, the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion before they earned their rewards from Oz.  

If I Only Had the Core (Based on Ray Bolger's Classic)

I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the scholars,
Consultin' Pearson's store.
And my head I'd be testin'
while my mind is busy stressin'
If I only had the Core.
I'd suffer all kinds of troubles, fillin' in nasty bubbles,
In grade three or in four.
With stuff that's really ratin',
you could strut about Bill Gaitin'
If you only had the Core.
Oh, I could tell you why the pineapple's no more.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin' my head all full of stuffin'
My brain an open door.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had the Core. 

See Below:  The Scarecrow Gets His Common-Core Diploma.

As Gates, the Great and Terrible, might inform us, "Where I come from they have Common-Core aligned schools (aside:  but my kids won't attend them), seats of great test prep where men go to become great test takers and when they come out they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have!"

The "Pottervillization" of Educaction

It has been many Christmases now that I have watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with a tear in the eye.  It usually comes at the point when Clarence tells George Bailey that "every man on that transport died!  Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry.  You see George you really had a wonderful life."  I have even watched that movie in the dead of summer to remind me that Christmas is always coming.

I think many teachers are the George Baileys of the world. Many have sacrificed potentially higher salaries and greater prestige to try to work some good in this world.  Instead of favoring personal advancement, many try to help kids learn their strengths and overcome their weaknesses.  There are no dramatic rewards by society's standards or expectations of fame, just a sense of personal satisfaction.

Within the past decade, it seems the world of education has been rapidly transforming into a Pottersville.  The forces of corporate greed seek to destroy the Bailey Parks of the world. They reach in with their tentacles and attempt to privatize, largely for spectacular salaries and profit-making opportunities, a public trust, public education.  

Some "reformers" may actually try to convince themselves that they are working good and justify their own salary of a half a million dollars.  They wear blinders.  Some may disregard the fact that segregation is only growing.  Some may never want to know "how the other half lives."  Some may avert their gaze from the over-packed, essentially underfunded classrooms and trailers of the City's public-school system.  Others may gloat over it.

The privatization of public education is coming at great costs to society.  Communities are usually cemented around their public-school system.  When public-schools are closed and children forcibly moved, sometimes across gun-infested territories to new schools, as in Chicago, communities are victimized.  Major U.S. cities have witnessed the tractors of educational reform raze their local schools.  The means may be different, but the ends remind one of Robert Moses' "revitalization" plans that sought to raze entire neighborhoods.    

This "Pottervillization" of  education is merely symptomatic of a larger problem.  Teachers are replaced by cheap labor. Teaching now loses the status of a dignified profession or career choice.  It is seen as something any fool can master with a few good scripts.  TFA supplies a steady stream of scabs who work for minimal salary and few protections.  They move on before earning any pension.  In the name of cutting costs, work in the United States is being wholly transformed into temp. work.  I am sure this is the way that Mr. Potter would have wanted it.  From behind his great desk, with an elevated chair, he is looking down at the rest of us and gloating.

What's Noble in the Noble Network?

In a recent April post "A Former Charter Teacher Defends the Noble Network in Chicago," Diane Ravitch quotes a teacher's letter raising serious concerns about the Chicago public-school system.  The teacher says she could teach her children at the Noble charter school.  Apparently, she cannot do the same as a CPS teacher.  She defends the disciplinary practices that earn Noble $400,000 in student fines.  She critiques public-school teachers and students.

I'm not surprised she had a better time teaching her students at Noble. If she'd been unable to teach them, the students would have been discharged from Noble and sent back to the Chicago public-school system.  When she states that she cannot teach her students at CPS, I wonder sadly if she has given up on these kids who deserve, and could probably benefit most from, a free public education.

If the institution was really "noble," it would take all its additional private funding and use it to teach many of the kids with the greatest needs or the ones that are the hardest to teach in a non-segregated environment.  "Noble" would provide students with a very low student-teacher ratio.  They would ensure wraparound services for all plus a great deal of positive personal interaction with students, parents and guardians.  They would not give up on students and push them out the door.  They would put people over profit.  

In my opinion, there is little "noble" in what noble does.   They keep the best students and discard the ones with the biggest needs.  They return these students to a now more highly segregated public-school system.  They destroy the public school system by sapping it of its much needed resources at the same time as they feed it the neediest children and co-locate.  Then, charters gloat about higher test scores--which sometimes aren't even higher.  They pave the way for more privatization. 

The other day I found myself at the Bronx Zoo.  I spied a group of Success Academy children in the butterfly garden.  I actually watched them with as much, if not more, interest than the butterflies.  Their uniforms were almost as pretty! 

I saw a teacher and several parent chaperones; I saw happy smiles and youthful faces aglow.  Of course, all the people in the zoo appeared this way to me.  I'm pretty sure I was smiling, too.  It was a perfect day despite the threat of rain.

I find great irony in the name Success Academy.  Moskowitz is certainly successful with her near-half-a-million-dollar salary. Indeed, her schools form an exclusive club for only the successful.  It is not truly a public school.  If you do not measure up, you are booted back to the New York public-school system.  There is success for those who would have succeeded anyway.  

In my mind, real success would be helping the neediest achieve greater heights.  If charters really want to be noble or successful, they would take their superior wealth and focus it on helping those with the greatest needs.  They would use their millions to move ahead those whom charters now leave behind. They would make radically smaller class sizes, offer phenomenal wraparound services and maintain constant contact with the parents and guardians of these children. Wouldn't that be real success?  Wouldn't that be truly noble?

E.L.A. Exams and Product Placement: Just Do It!

There has been a lot of recent discussion about product placement on the 2014 N.Y.S. E.L.A. exams.  Frankly, I don't see any problem.  I think all future N.Y.S. Regents exams should include much of the same, particularly the United States History and Government Regents.  Given our capitalist economy and its downturn in the last decade, it is only patriotic to do so!  Here are some revised editions of past questions to illustrate my point:

1.  #35, August 2013

A Key purpose of this World War II poster was to

(1)  encourage protests against the war

(2)  gain support for MUG root beer

(3)  influence the Axis powers to end the war

(4)  illustrate the nature of modern warfare

2.  #18, June 2013

This cartoon is expressing support for

(1)  the Populist crusade

(2)  I-pods and Air Jordans

(3)  national Prohibition

(4)  protective tariffs

3.  #22 and #23, June 2010

The cartoon illustrates the actions of President Theodore Roosevelt in

(1)  securing a safe pocket for his Lifesavers

(2)  leading troops in the Spanish-American War

(3)  ending the war between Russia and Japan

(4)  improving diplomatic relations with Latin American nations

Critics of the actions shown in this cartoon claimed that President Theodore Roosevelt was

(1)  causing environmental damage

(2)  requiring massive tax increases

(3)  following a policy of keeping his breath as tangy as it gets

(4)  producing major trade deficits with China

4.  #43, January 2013

What was one result of the boycott called for on the poster?

(1)  The sale of lettuce and grapes increased.

(2)  The power of large landowners over their laborers grew.

(3)  Federal troops were sent to suppress violence on farms in the West.

(4)  Public support for Barbie dolls increased.

Bring Your Child to Work Day

It's another Bring Your Child to Work Day, Thursday April 24th, 2014.  With each passing year, however, I fear the direction in which the workplaces of America are headed.  In the name of staying competitive and cutting costs, we are stripping away human dignity.  

As it stands in 2014, my kids eagerly look forward to this day. They can begin to feel it coming once we flip the calendar to April.  I couldn't hide it from them even if I tried.  They ask me, "Mom, when is Bring Your Kid to Work Day?"  Funny and all together fantastic, my big kids love to meet my little kids.  And, at this point at which my two full-time careers happily intersect, that of Mommy and that of teacher, few things make me happier.

Come spring, I Google the date.  When I find it, I share the news with many of my colleagues who have children of their own.

I realize the nature of work has changed a lot in the past couple of centuries.

We are now living in a modern world with so many more machines to power us forward.

Yet, despite the safety valves now in place in society, the chances given children to escape the drudgery and dangers of nineteenth-century-style industrial life via the guarantee of a free public education, we are sadly slipping backwards.

When parents bring their children to work in the future, what will be the nature of the conditions? Will parents want to have their children at work with them?  Will work once again be overtly dangerous and demeaning? 

There was a time when people earned their dignity at the workplace and carried it home with them. Now, I am afraid, that is being lost.   

There is a startling 2011 article at TIME, "The Dirty Work: The Creeping Rollback of Child-Labor Laws" that make my fears seem all too real. Businesses court minors as sources of cheap and more malleable labor.  States like Maine and Missouri have attempted to rollback child-labor laws. They want increasingly younger children to work later into the night at less than minimum wage. The fast-food industry has been particularly vocal.  They claim it provides children with "greater flexibility" in their work lives.  And, they gain more experience.  As the author so aptly points out, "it is not clear how valuable the experience of handing burgers out of a drive-through window after 10 p.m. on a school night actually is."  I say the job is better left to someone else. 

People make many of the same arguments about temp. workers. I am not sure though how many people actually want to live without vacation, sick days, insurance or a pension (NBC News: "For Many Americans 'Temp' Work Becomes Permanent Way of Life").  Temp. workers live as bedouins. Before they can grow roots, they are ripped from the soil.  From a purely capitalist standpoint, they are temporary, disposable and fully dispensable human beings.  How unsettling!  They are like ATRs, except with the added stress of living without any job security, benefits or pension.  

Those who seek to rollback child-labor laws have little consideration for the importance of education. According to the study in TIME, children who work more than twenty hours a week are more likely to dropout.  They also experience higher incidences of academic and behavioral problems.  

Wouldn't it be nice if the paperboys and girls of the world could actually throw us some good news in the future, and not on school time, or at the expense of their education?  Wouldn't it be nice to read about a world in which teachers are not used as the scapegoats for increased poverty?  Wouldn't it be nice if businesses and legislatures set about protecting human dignity at the workplace instead of relegating teachers and others to the status of temp. workers? Read all about it!  Read all about it!  Society thanks its teachers!  Society thanks its workers!

It's a Good Time for the Great Tests of McD.O.E.'s!

How much testing is too much testing?  At what point does testing become unhealthy, particularly for children?  And why don't the people who concoct these recipes for failure subject their own children to the same?  

Why do teachers differentiate instruction, making a menu with many flavors upon it, if testing is standardized, high-stakes style?  You definitely won't be having "it your way" at McD.O.E.'s.

When people's children are involved, why should the contents of the test be kept secret?  In the United States, grocery items and even fast-food items come with caloric counts and food-labeling information important to maintaining health and protecting the consumer.  Why should it be any different for the manufacturers of tests?  Shouldn't there be a Truth In Testing Act?  Don't we have a right to know what is being, so to speak, stuffed down the throats of our children?

Common Core for Your Head and For Your Headstone

On this Earth Day 2014, why not think about returning back to it? Now, available for immediate purchase, Common-Core Aligned Headstones!  When you die, let the world know whether or not you were college-and-career ready.  For a minimal additional expense, you can add your Common-Core aligned state test scores and/or your salary at time of death to your headstone. With metrics like these, how could St. Peter fail to open those pearly Bill Gates???

NWLB: Imagine a Federal Program that Didn't Scapegoat Teachers as the Cause of Poverty in the United States

For too long now, the humble profession of career public-school teacher has been blamed for poverty in the United States.  How much longer must teachers be the scapegoats for society's ills?

In NYC during the Bloomberg years, the dismantling of public schools coasted along side by side with increases in poverty rates.  The privatization of public education and the harassment of teachers has not proven to be a panacea.  It has just sharpened the divide.  Indeed, public-school children have fared far worse in overcrowded, underfunded, now segregated public-schools. 

Since NCLB and its successor RTTT seem to miss the mark, I suggest a new federal program:  No Worker Left Behind.  Wouldn't it be nice if honest, hard-working civil servants and other employees actually merited respect?  Wouldn't it be nice if the economy could grow to support our college graduates?  In a country like South Korea, sited by Arne Duncan as a model of educational excellence, unemployment rates and suicide rates for college grads remain high.  Wouldn't it be nice if more people could be paid a living wage?  Wouldn't it be nice if more people could obtain full-time jobs with benefits instead of acting as temps to cut business costs?  Wouldn't it be nice if fewer jobs were outsourced to cheap labor working under potentially hazardous conditions, now illegal in the United States?  Wouldn't it be nice if pension systems were not robbed and their very survival threatened?

Think of all the metrics we could devise to see if NWLB, No Worker Left Behind, was actually working.  Perhaps all the statisticians who now use their junk science to harass public-school teachers could be redirected to new offices.   I just wonder if teachers were no longer the scapegoats of the wealthy and well-endowed who might really turn up as the real threats to the continued well-being of society! 

Stop! We're Not McKinney!

I've read enough about the deals worked out in Albany to give charter schools a free ride in the City.  It is sickening to the soul. Charters are supposed to move into underutilized schools, rent-free, or receive alternative space at the taxpayer's expense.  

Is there anyone who actually believes for a second that the City can spare any "underutilized" space.  De Blasio and, indeed, many who elected him, supported his attempts to expand pre-K. Where will these schools find space?  Currently, there are many overcrowded schools in the City.  We are in a pressure cooker and I shudder to think what will happen in the event of a true emergency.  

At other schools, students are banished from their buildings to the backfields to learn in trailers.  Can you guess what kind of message this sends to public-school students about their place and value in society?     

Last June, the Daily News carried the story about violations of building codes in the City's schools. There were a total of 9,693 violations.  Fifty-seven schools had more than two dozen violations. Ninety percent of buildings had violations.  There were loose wires, jammed doors and inadequate ventilation. Some violations threatened student health.  Union officials pointed out that the 2010-2014 capital budget was $500 million less than the 2005-2009 budget.  Shouldn't we guarantee that all our public-school children have safe, secure and satisfactory learning environments before more public space is deeded over to charter schools?

According to the U.F.T.'s Safety and Health Department, Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts had insufficient space to pair up with a Success Academy.  Yet, Eva got her way.  She was allowed to commandeer the school's third floor for K-2. Then, of course, she needed more space to expand into a K-4 operation.  Her schools continue to grow like parasites on the public-school system. McKinney lost its string program and computer lab. They lost access to most of the third-floor, including its bathrooms.  McKinney students have become second-class citizens in their own building.

Stop!  We're Not McKinney!

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Go Back from whence you came.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Your school is to blame.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

We take a favored few.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Our door is closed to you.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Just more doors in your face.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

But we'll take all your space.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

We make Fort Greene greener.

Stop We're not McKinney!

Blessed is our demeanor.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Through our door you won't pass.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

You are the second class!

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

In our uniforms so neat.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Our eyes must never meet!

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

But we are what you lost,

Stop We're not McKinney!

We come in free of cost!

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Your art school needs no strings

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

We really are the kings.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

We use the royal "We."

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

We just rule by decree.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

Get your hand off our door.

Stop!  We're not McKinney!

This is charter-school war.

Should Money Make a Student's World Go Round?

On this Easter 2014, I think about how many pieces of silver it cost to sell out our NYC public-schools system.  And, I highly doubt that any of the money that changed hands between charter-school interests and our Albany representatives will ever be returned by consciences filled by remorse.  Things are far more likely to change via the voter or the court system.   

I ponder how money can be used for good, but also for evil.  Ninety-four percent of the City's students who attend public schools suffer in the name of feeding greedy and overbearing charters at public expense.  I won't name any names because I read the other day that she didn't like being singled out.  But how could she not be?  Sadly, I wonder if money should make a student's world go round or if it should make anyone's world go round.

Some charter schools measure students' behavior in terms of real and imaginary dollars.  At Noble Charter School Network in Chicago, before the policy fell under sharp criticism, kids faced frequent suspensions, costing five dollars each. At the Coney Island Prep charter school, kids receive imaginary credits and debits in the form of PRIDE dollars based upon their behavioral practices. Similarly, at Harlem Success Academy 5, students earn "scholar dollars" by exhibiting good behavior, punctual completion of assignments and good overall grades. These "dollars" can purchase items, including candy, non-permanent tattoos and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.  Might there not be better things for which kids might learn to save their money?  How about helping Mom or Dad with a 529?  

In N.Y.C., former mayor, Michael Bloomberg, devised a program by which low-income students could be paid for taking tests ($5-$10) and obtaining high scores ($25-$50).  Participating schools could receive up to $5,000 and individual students as much as $500.  

Money does make some people's world go round and, true, we all need money for survival and in order to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.  Yet, the value system seems "whacked."  I remember Rhee's D.C. merit-pay schemes and its accompanying erasure scandal.  The ends do not justify the means.  Money, in my mind, will never be more valuable than personal integrity.  For those who are primarily motivated by money, corruption is sometimes not too many steps behind.  

I would hope students find internal satisfaction in their own sense of accomplishment.  When students move on to college, not many will be paid for their grades.  If they have not internalized the satisfaction of doing well and developed a personal sense of responsibility, as separate and distinct from earning cash, they may default on their own education.  

We would do better to inculcate and reward other values.  I am glad when students do well on a test. I am happier, however, when I see students listening to each other, respecting divergent opinions and feeling comfortable to voice their own.  I value a person's sense of good citizenship, concern for others and desire to build a better world.  These things are not measurable on standardized tests and, even if they were, I would not choose to reward them with money.  I believe these things are of immeasurable value in holding our society together. 

There are many hallmarks in the lives of young children.  Rewarding them with money, cheapens the achievement.  When children begin to walk, should parents shake some moola to get them to move?  Is it ever too early to teach the importance of money?  Gee, maybe I could have used it to help speed up the potty-training process!  Happy to say, it's too late for that now!  When children learn how to ride their bikes without training wheels, should we cut them a check?  

It always seemed to me that parents who showered money and gifts upon their children were doing it more to assuage their own sense of guilt than to develop the character of their children.  They used it as a substitute for spending time and sharing real human emotions with their children.  For some, their high-powered, high-earning jobs drag them sorrowfully away from their beloved children.  In this case, I wonder if these parents made the right decision in being motivated primarily by money.  

Some parents, I realize, work two or more jobs to get by and it is sad, but unavoidable.  And they work these jobs because they love their children dearly and need to meet their basic material needs.  I'm betting children can sense whether people are motivated primarily by love or money.  For children, there can be no substitute for genuine love or the priceless pride a parent takes in an offspring's achievements.  The best things in life will never be measured in points on a standardized test or in dollars and cents.  

Snow White Considers Accepting a Federal Grant in Return for Adopting Common-Core Aligned State Standards!

What Prospect-Park Peacocks Taught Me About Educational Reform

When I was out and about on my travels yesterday, I thought I recognized a couple of ed. reformers. They wore their regal attire, more than money can buy most.  They seemed at ease in each other's company, but I felt oddly out of place.

With the glossiest pamphlets to advertise their schools and a budget to buy lots of air time for deceptive ads attacking the interests of 94+% of us, I guess they felt justified parading about in all their splendor.  

I saw the spread of the beautiful plumage behind the still barren tree before me.  How could a bird like this do less than impress the stoutest soul?

Then, I noted right before my eyes, the lone peahen. She wandered about her business, showing little if any concern for the royal plumage unfurled a short distance on the other side of the barren tree.  Then, I realized why she was not impressed. Like a concerned public-school teacher or a concerned public-school parent, she had taken the time to look at things from the other side. 

She saw the true nature of the educational reform. She saw it for what it was really worth.  And, she knew she wanted none of it!

High-Stakes Testing: No Trivial Pursuit!

A recent Washington Post editorial favoring standardized tests written by Michelle Rhee began, "No, tests are not fun." 

I would answer, "Then, let's make them fun!" 

Tests can truly be fun!  After all, didn't so many of us revel in being bombarded with questions when we and our friends played Trivial Pursuits? There were always one or two kids who knew all the answers.  Some spied the answers, but others merely prepped at home, meticulously studying the questions one after another so as to appear to be the genius and win the game.  

Not much has changed these days with standardized tests.  Students who study the cards, so to speak, and the teachers who help them with this task, will appear to be the geniuses of the world.  They will seem to be the winners in this high-stakes game.  But will they be the winners in life?  Time will tell.  It is no Trivial Pursuit!  

I would like to propose a new, really fun method for high-stakes testing in this game of life.  I am hoping the leading educational luminaries of today will recognize its merit and, perhaps, cut me a paycheck for proving that tests really can be fun!

A New and Improved VAM Formula!

Some Old Formulas:

1.  Formula for achievement level at age t:

2.  Formula for comparing current with prior achievement:

3.  Formula for NYC Value-Added Model:

It is great to be judged by the test scores of others even though there are so many factors that are totally out of my control.  I could probably name in a matter of minutes a few hundred factors in the lives of my students over which I have absolutely no control.  I have decided, however, to include just a few here for my

New and Improved VAM Formula: 

A_st=β_upX_id+β_idP_iot=β_pubT_lic+λ_sc­A_hool+√_te+∫_ac+φ_her+n_0!

The new formula introduces variables which take into consideration all of the factors below: