@NJSenatePres 's @Path2ProgressNJ & the 800lb Gorillas In The Room

Expert analysis and witnesses are essential to the successful outcome of a trial, but in the court of public opinion, politicians often fail to enlist experts who may raise red flags about the policies they're trying to sell to the general public. In my little corner of the universe—education—it happens too frequently. Analysis is done by study groups and commissions that often lack any real, working K-12 educators. 

The latest example is Senate President Steve Sweeney's 'Path to Progress', which touts, among other things, regionalizing many of the state's school districts and slashing (yet again) retired public employees' deferred compensation. 

Here is the complete list of the commission's members: 

MEMBERSHIP

Co-chairs:

• Senator Paul Sarlo – Chairman, Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee
• Senator Steven Oroho – Senate Republican Conference Chair
• Assemblyman Louis Greenwald – Assembly Majority Leader

Legislative Members:

• Senator Steve Sweeney – Senate President
• Senator Dawn Addiego – State Senator
• Senator Anthony Bucco – Senate Minority Budget Officer
• Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin – Chairwoman, Assembly Budget
• Senator Troy Singleton – Chairman, Senate Military and Veterans’ Affairs

Subcommittee Chairs:

• Dr. Ray Caprio – Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy; Bloustein Local Government Research Center
• Frank Chin – Managing Director, American Public Infrastructure
• Richard Keevey – Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
• Dr. Michael Lahr – Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy and Rutgers Economic Advisory Service
• Marc Pfeiffer – Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy; Bloustein Local Government Research Center

Non-Legislative Members:

• Dr. Henry Coleman – Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy
• Lucille Davy – Of Counsel, Mason, Griffin & Pierson
• Feather O’Connor Houstoun – Adviser for Public media and journalism at Wyncote Foundation
• Ray Kljajic – American Public Infrastructure Inc.
• Robert Landolfi – Business Administrator, Woodbridge Township (retired)
• Senator Raymond Lesniak – Chair, Lesniak Institute for American Leadership
• Jerry Maginnis – Rowan University, William G. Rohrer College of Business
• Dr. Donald Moliver – Monmouth University, Kislak Real Estate Institute
• Dr. Joel Naroff – President, Naroff Economic Advisers Inc.
• Peter Reinhart – Monmouth University Kislak Real Estate Institute
• Kurt Stroemel – President, HR&S Financial Services
• Ralph Thomas – CEO/Executive Director, New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants

While this list may read like a Who's Who of New Jersey public policy experts, notice the one highlighted name: Robert Landolfi. He is the only K-12 representative on the commission—and he's retired. There are no real K-12 voices here, and none from South Hunterdon Regional School District, the only district in the past 25 years to successfully consolidate.

While Sen. Sweeney exults in the plan's proposed successes at town hall meetings across the state, he and his cohorts fail to address the three 800 lb gorillas in the room: 

1. Public schools are not businesses:

While consolidation may bring about some savings in certain situations, we must not forget that school districts are not convenience store chains. We don't sell soda and lottery tickets; we teach children, each of whom comes with different needs, and each district strives to meet those needs. Before we go down this road, the study commission needs to understand that what may be good for one district, may not necessarily be good for all of them. Special services for low income, special needs and ESL students must be the same or better than what they currently have. And when consolidation means going from a district of approximately 3200 to a merged district with close to 10,000 students, as would be the case with my central Hunterdon County district, there will be no savings, and services will suffer. The commission should look closely at what happened in the southern part of Hunterdon County: 

In 2016, NJ Spotlight reported on the five-year process of merging four very small Hunterdon County districts into one regional district with a combined population of less than 1,000 students: 

South Hunterdon’s merger of four school districts in 2013 has proven to be an example of both the good and the difficult in school regionalization. 

The good news is that the merger appears to have worked... 

The more cautionary news is that this was a long and labor-intensive process in what was actually one of the simplest mergers: four districts that were essentially unified in practice, if not in name. 

There are no regrets, the officials said, but they acknowledged that it doesn’t happen overnight... 

[School Board President Dan Seiter said that] the process started as far back as 2008, with an initial resolution of all four boards of education to look at consolidation: South Hunterdon Regional High School, West Amwell, Lambertville, and Stockton. Each among the smallest districts in the state, they already served as feeder districts into the regional high school. 

It took five years and “meetings after meetings after meetings” that led to a referendum to move toward a feasibility study, Seiter said, where voters in all four communities voted to proceed. (emphasis mine)

Voter buy-in is essential or the process will fail. We've seen this time and again. Whether the disastrous One Newark, or the Urban Hope Act in Camden, or other education 'reforms', shutting parents, taxpayers and local school officials out of the decision-making process is a recipe for disaster. Town halls are one thing; making sure taxpayers have a seat at the table is completely different. 

2. Charter schools:

Back in 2014, when Sen. Sweeney and then Asw. Donna Simon (R-LD16) were clamoring for municipal and school consolidation respectively, I wrote about the false narratives they were touting, and spoke with one of the state's preeminent school funding experts, Dr. Bruce Baker of Rutgers University, who had this to say about charter schools:

If consolidation is such a great idea, whether to promote integration, remove administrative redundancy, etc., then it would seem utterly foolish that we continue to expand charter schools. These schools tend to operate at inefficiently small size, further segregate our students, and when they do grow to a size where they operate as districts within our districts, they create significant administrative redundancy — a whole layer of "management corporation" siphoning district funds passed on to charters.  

We know, for example, from IRS 990 filings, that the administrative structure of Uncommon Schools has plenty of well paid admins—including their "managing director" for Newark Uncommon at about $200k in 2012. No doubt much higher now in 2014. So, in addition to Newark Public Schools, we've added, through this structure, additional governing layers that siphon resources, but don't show up on the traditional books. 

So, Newark has a superintendent with a $240k salary, but now has districts within it which use funds generated by management fees skimmed from the charter allocation (which passed through the district) to pay several entire additional administrative teams. (emphasis mine)

Consolidation without plans to end this redundancy is hypocritical. If charter schools are real public schools—as their supporters claim—they will survive the process, but the process will not survive if they are not included in it.

3. Another blow to retired public employees' deferred compensation:

Since 2011, when Gov. Christie signed the bill known as Chapter 78 into law, tens of thousands of public employees have seen their take home pay decrease every year as health insurance premiums and additional pension contributions have risen. Many have had to take on not only second, but third jobs to make ends meet. Others have simply left public service to make more money in the private sector. NJ public employees now pay the highest individual insurance premiums and the 10th highest family premiums in the country while earning less than their private sector counterparts. They will also have to work longer to collect their pensions and get less in return—if there's even a pension system left when they do retire. 

When Gov. Christie signed that law, he also instituted a cost of living adjustment (COLA) freeze on all retirees' pensions, and with the system on life support, that's not changing any time soon. Retirees are hurting.

Now, Sen. Sweeney wants "all new state and local government retirees to pay the same percent of premium costs they paid when working." I'm sorry, but that's not only unsustainable, it's downright cruel. 

Instead of proposing public employees pay more, why isn't the commission recommending a push for Medicare for All or some other type of universal healthcare? Why isn't the commission doing anything about containing the always-increasing cost of premiums? It's just so much easier to make the people who can least afford it pay more while you close the door on your mansion and forget about their struggles. And they can't even move out of state to save some money because Gov. Christie signed a bill into law that basically makes public employees indentured servants. We can't leave. 

I am not naive. The state's fiscal future is bleak. We have a projected $5 billion revenue shortfall for this fiscal year, the pension fund will run out of money in about 10 years, our credit rating is in the toilet, and property taxes are eating most of us alive. But all this isn't merely the result of Gov. Christie giving away billions in corporate tax breaks and in the Exxon settlement. No, there's plenty of blame to go around, on both sides of the aisle, and it goes back decades. Yet, some elected officials continue to put the burden of fixing the system they broke squarely on the backs of the students they purport to help and those of us who have been continually ordered to give more, do more, and receive less in return, with little thought of how we will be able to make ends meet. It's always the little guy who pays.

So, if Sen. Sweeney doesn't like it when people show up to his town halls and challenge these draconian measures, maybe he needs to remember what it was like to be a rank and file iron worker worrying about how to pay bills and keep a roof over his head. 

Teachers in eleven states have gone out on strike to protest draconian cuts to school funding, low pay and terrible working conditions—things that are not only sacrosanct to collective bargaining, but also make for excellent public schools, of which NJ has an abundance. If this commission pushes forward with their recommendations, I believe New Jersey may be next. 

The @StarLedger, #FakeNews & the #PARCC Propaganda Machine

Years before 'fake news' became a household word, New Jersey's largest newspaper, The Star Ledger started its very own propaganda machine to bash teachers and prop up PARCC testing. 

With the flurry of PARCC testing bills posted in Trenton in the past couple of weeks, the state's largest newspaper and education 'reform' cheerleader has been shaking its pom-pons recently in favor of the deeply flawed test, tossing out wild claims with little evidence to back them up (all emphasis mine):

Phil Murphy has long strained to appease powerful critics of the PARCC, namely the teacher’s union, which prefers we let kids graduate without the kind of tests that hold teachers accountable. 

The idea that an invalid, poorly designed and un-vetted test can hold teachers "accountable" is simply illogical. The Ledger offers no evidence to support this far-fetched claim. Even the Christie administration wasn't so sure it would work because they kept changing the test's percentage of our evaluations seemingly at random.

But we need the PARCC because an A in Millburn is not the same as an A in Camden. We have to ensure that all kids succeed, not just those in affluent districts.

If the Ledger's only measure of success is the number of prestigious colleges and universities a school's students attend, then why aren't they raising a ruckus about all those students in Camden who have been denied rich, deep curriculums in the arts, humanities, foreign languages and technology (like they have in Millburn) because the state decided the best way to 'fix' their schools is to cut their funding, deny public input, silence parents and test the kids to death? That would never, ever happen in Millburn, and no test will ever close that disparity gap.

The PARCC and SBAC (Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium) tests were rolled out to assess student mastery of the Common Core State Standards that, along with carrot-and-stick financial incentives from the Obama administration, were supposed to level the educational playing field across all 50 states. The concept was that a child from New Jersey could move to Oregon and get the same education. Except that education reformers overlooked the fact that the United States is so culturally and economically diverse that a one size fits all education system is not appropriate. Schools in rural Central Oregon serve a very different student population—and have very different state funding—than students in Millburn NJ. Poverty plays a huge role in a child's chances for educational success. But The Ledger doesn't like to talk about that.

The Boston Globe recently tracked 93 local valedictorians and found that one in four failed to earn a college diploma in six years. Their high schools left them woefully underprepared. Some lost their scholarships. Others dropped out in frustration. We have the same problem in New Jersey. At Essex County College in Newark, 85 percent of incoming freshmen need to take remedial math. In 2017, only 13 percent graduated. While social promotion also happens in wealthier districts, those kids have a deeper safety net.  

I am not an education researcher, but from what I read in the Boston Globe study above, grade inflation—not standardized tests—is the main reason those students struggled in college. No educator with a lick of professionalism supports that, but sadly, it does happen, and 'reformers' themselves have been caught in the thick of some of the most controversial as we saw in the Washington, DC and Atlanta testing scandals.

And as for the remedial math and graduation rates at Essex County College, The Ledger assumes the PARCC test will fix those too, despite no mention of how long it had been since those students actually took a high school math class. And the fact that the school has been embroiled in turmoil, turnover and fiscal mismanagement for a few years—which was actually mentioned in the very same link—was apparently overlooked.

But The Star Ledger forges ahead!

This is why we need an objective test. Yet because the PARCC is such a powerful diagnostic tool that can trace a student’s learning problem right down to a particular teacher’s lesson, it ran afoul of the union. 

As Joe Biden would say, "What a load of malarky!" Sometimes I ask myself why I bother to respond to these sophomoric tropes, but as an educator, I believe I have an obligation to facts. And here are a few facts from a post I wrote back in 2016:  

1. The PARCC test is not diagnostic. In order for any test to accomplish this, it must have at least 25 questions per assessed skill. The PARCC does not. Bari Ehrlichson, Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Education, admitted this last year in a panel discussion on the PARCC.

2. The PARCC does not consistently assess grade-level skills. Rider University Professor and reading expert Russ Walsh analyzed some of the sample language arts questions and found many of them to be several grade levels above the tested grade. This is not only unfair to both students and teachers; it is also demoralizing to students. How can anyone be expected to succeed at something when the odds are heavily stacked against them from the start?

3. Research has shown that student designed projects and research are far more effective and meaningful ways for both teachers and students to assess deep learning and understanding. Standardized tests in general are meant to show trends, and as such, PARCC falls far short on the assessment continuum.

4. The American Statistical Association has warned that standardized tests should not be used to assess educator effectiveness because the methods being used are simply not reliable. And with the enormous emphasis now put on data in teaching, teachers should not be evaluated based on a flawed test that provides flawed data.

5. Out of the 24 states originally in the PARCC consortium only seven plus the District of Columbia will be participating in the 2016-2017 testing. This should be a red flag warning to every parent and educator.*

6. PARCC is not a reliable predictor of 'college and career readiness'. Recent research shows that high school GPAs are the most reliable predictor of college success. Yet all across this state—and country—related arts classes that help build those GPAs are being scaled back or eliminated to make way for more Common Core study and PARCC prep.    

7. A recently released study published in the School Superintendent Association's Journal of Scholarship and Practice concluded that a higher percentage of the 2009 New Jersey high school core curriculum content standards in English language arts and math prompted higher-order thinking than the 2010 Common Core State Standards for those same subjects and grade levels. We are dumbing down our students. 

8. The amount of testing students will be subjected to starting with the graduating class of 2020 is not only against current law, it’s just plain cruel. Starting with this class, in order to graduate high school, students will have to take and fail the PARCC not once, not twice, but three times before any real assessment of their academic progress can be used. What educator in their right mind thinks this is best practice?

9. There are big problems with scoring. Officials from PARCC have admitted there are discrepancies in scores between students who took paper and pencil tests vs. those who took the test online, with the former group scoring on average higher than the latter. And, despite PARCC's promise of leveling the playing field for all students in all states, the PARCC consortium states have the option to change their cut scores. This is nuts.

10. The fact that in its recently released report, the Study Commission On The Use Of Student Assessments in New Jersey failed to honor and recognize the hundreds of people who testified against this test, and instead recommended a marketing campaign* to crush the Opt-Out movement and brainwash parents and the general public into thinking it will solve all the world’s problems is proof that this test cannot stand on its own merit and should be thrown out.

* The PARCC consortium is now down to two states: New Jersey and New Mexico.

In a 2015 interview, Shani Robinson, one of the teachers caught up in the Atlanta cheating scandal had this to say about all that testing:

Who should really be held accountable for cheating the children? Our children have been cheated by those who have willfully torn apart black communities through displacement and gentrification, underfunded and privatized public schools, and then have criminalized black educators for a dysfunctional system that was designed to fail. ... I feel like this case is extremely important because public education is under attack, as we've seen in places where teachers are striking, and the cheating scandal was used to portray public education as a failure and justify privatizing schools.  

Privatizing public schools... that is the story The Star Ledger should be covering.

Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time-Part 1

My blog was mostly quiet this summer. I made a conscious decision to dial back and re-charge my batteries after several years of non-stop work. But as if on cue, on the second day of school, this happened on Twitter and we were off to the races:

The exchange between Laura Waters, Derrell Bradford, Ryan Hill and I turned into an all-day affair with Save Our Schools NJ, Jersey Jazzman and a few other pro-public education advocates chiming in. It was a 3-pronged discussion focusing on:

1. Waters' continuous, illogical reasoning 
2. Hill's assertions that:
   - charter schools are underfunded compared to district schools
   - every child should have choice but only when that choice is a charter school
3. Bradford's assertions that:
   - I'm a teacher, therefore I am not an expert on public education
   - I'm a white, suburban woman so I should "say nothing"

Part 1: Laura Waters' Illogical Reasoning

Waters, a 'reformer', blogger and Lawrence Twp BOE member frequently posts at NJ Spotlight and is frequently excoriated in the comments for her illogical reasoning and inability to grasp basic public education facts, policy and research. See here, here, here. See Mother Crusader here, here; Jersey Jazzman here, here, here; Bob Braun here. 

Here's an example from her latest post that started all this (linked in the tweet above):

Notice she doesn't deny any of this. But in her world, calling out the district and Hill's charter schools for possibly violating both state and federal laws in numerous ways, including segregating students who are most in need of these 'miracle' schools, is defending "the status-quo". 

As for the "lobbying groups" comment? This is news? If Waters is so concerned about lobbyists pressuring legislators, perhaps she should look in her own backyard. The NJ Charter Schools Association (which stayed mum during the whole exchange) is one of many education 'reform' (*ahem*) non-profits including Students First (Michelle Rhee), NYCAN (Derrell Bradford is ED), The Foundation for Excellence in Education (Jeb!s baby), The Gates, Walton, Broad and Koch Foundations, ALEC and a zillion other pro-charter/pro-ed 'reform' organizations that spend a lot of time and money lobbying legislators. And yes, so do ELC, NJEA and SOSNJ. Unfortunately, that's the business of government, made worse by Citizens United. 

But what does New Jersey have to show for all that lobbying, and other stuff, by ELC, NJEA and SOSNJ (which is a volunteer organization)? Plenty! The list of accolades for NJ's public schools is long. We consistently rank as one of the top three in the nation, we outperform many countries, and our school funding forumla (at least what's left of it after Christie has hacked away at it) which the Education Law Center originally litigated and continues to fight for, is a national model for school funding. NJEA provides one of the largest educator professional development conferences in the country (that pesky convention in November that Gov. Christie hates), and despite his best efforts to weed out all those "bad teachers", over 97% of us were rated effective or better last year. All of this didn't happen by magic. It happened because of the continued efforts of organizations such as these. Don't believe me? Check out their mission statements, then tell me about the status quo. 

But... we are also home to one of the poorest, most dangerous cities in the country: Camden, with a staggering 52% of children living below the poverty level. And while poverty numbers in the rest of the country have declined, NJ's have risen. So, it defies all logic and reasoning—not to mention research—to think that slashing funding, closing public schools and opening charter schools will magically cure all the ills in our poorest communities. But pesky facts never stop 'reformers' from spouting stuff like this:

Speaking of reality checks: where's the link to the research that backs that claim? Which students? Special ed? ELL? Disabled? Free lunch? Free and reduced price lunch? Do better at what? Which schools? What about attrition rates? So many questions, no answers from someone who refers to herself as “one of the premier analysts of New Jersey education policy”. I would think that if she really wanted to make her case, she would have posted a link to some research or at least the NJDOE website. C'mon, throw us a bone... a scrap... something... anything?

And as for that question I asked? Yup, never got an answer. I have never seen nor heard a charter advocate admit that most serve a different population than traditional public schools even though recent research confirms this. And therein lies the rub.

In Part 2 I take on Ryan Hill and his "All you need is [choice]" mantra.

Dear President Obama

Welcome to the Garden State. I hope your visit to Camden is successful. 

This letter is a long time coming. I have drafted it in my head many times as I lie awake at night wondering how much longer I can afford to remain in my profession and still keep my integrity, passion, drive, and yes, my home. And now you're here, so here goes:

I openly wept on election night 2008 as you gave your historic victory speech to a nation of adoring supporters of all races who waited generations for that moment. I have been awed by your unyielding composure over the past seven years as Congress has behaved like—well—spoiled, rich, white men who couldn't handle the fact that someone not like them was now Commander in Chief. I have willed you on to make the right decisions, to move this country forward in the face of tremendous odds, and dig us up out of the Great Recession because I knew that you knew in every fiber of your being, because of your history, because of your place in history, that if the poor and the middle class couldn't make it in America, no one could.

Your presidency has epitomized the promise of Emma Lazarus' words:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But it pains me greatly to say that these huddled masses who look to you because you are just like them, have, in one significant way, no more relief than if Mitt Romney had won in 2012.   

Again, these words do not roll off my tongue easily, Mr. President, but you have failed our future—our children. Failed us in a way that is so profound, that it touches the very DNA of our nation. Your education policies are, in a word, disastrous. They are moving this country back to the pre-civil rights era. They are undoing all the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the brave men and women who gave their blood, sweat, tears, and yes, their lives, to ensure that every child had a thorough and efficient education, and who made it possible for you to be where you are right now. Your education policies are destroying one of the bedrocks of a democracy. They are further segregating our highly segregated inner cities like Camden. They are silencing the voices of millions of people who looked to you to be their "lamp beside the golden door". They are further marginalizing those already living in the margins, the "huddled masses", "the wretched refuse".

These are not just my sentiments, Mr. President. Since Arne Duncan, who never taught a day in his life, first rolled out Race to the Top, another civil rights movement has sprung up all across this country pushing back against your devastating 'reforms' that have turned education into a sick competition with winners profiting handsomely, and losers—namely public schools, teachers and students (particularly those of color and low economic status)—being left in the deep end of the pool without a life preserver. Educators, parents, and concerned citizens from coast to coast are outraged that our public schools have become under-funded test factories, our teachers reduced to scripted robots, and our students to CPU's—data in; data out—while those who are pushing, financing and profiting from this wretched agenda can afford to send their children to elite, private schools that wouldn't stand for this child abuse for one second.

I enthusiastically voted for you once. I half-heartedly voted for you the second time because the alternative would have been exponentially worse. But Mr. President, I am not alone. I'm willing to bet there are tens of millions of Americans out there who agree with me. Under your watch, our public education system is being sold off piece meal to the highest bidder while child poverty rages seemingly unchecked and teachers are simultaneously blamed and praised in a national theatre of the absurd that would leave even Eugene Ionesco scratching his head.

Mr. President, the new norm in teaching is that every year decades of experience are being lost as more and more veteran teachers are retiring early or leaving the profession altogether because they cannot and will not subject their students to this abuse. This is having a devastating effect on the long-term health of public education and the teaching profession. What does it say about an education policy that is so heavily invested in 'reforming' public education while simultaneously driving out those with the most to offer young educators? In a nation whose students not living in poverty are competing with Finland and other top-performing nations on the PISA, this will be your legacy. Are you prepared to live with that?

I expect this from Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Mitt Romney and all the rest in that crowd who want nothing better than to see public education turned into a voucher/corporate system so they can pad their coffers and maybe build yet another garage with an elevator, but not you. Never you. 

While you are in Camden today, I hope you take the time to speak with people whose voices have been silenced, who are no longer allowed to be part of the democratic process that runs wealthier, suburban New Jersey school districts. I hope you make the time to speak to parents whose children have been denied 'choice' in their public education because their neighborhood school was closed and they had no say. I hope you listen to the educators who are being robbed of their souls, forced to teach in a way that is antithetical to all that they have been taught and all that they believe about excellent teaching. I hope the voices of the citizens in the poorest and most dangerous city in America echo in your mind along with the voices of all those brave men and women who fought so long and so hard and sacrificed so much all those years ago, but who never lived to see the ultimate fruit of their labor: you in the oval office.

There is still time. You can still change this, if you dare.

The Star Ledger's Tom Moran is absolutely right!

Last week broke some kind of record. The Star Ledger started the week with a front page expose on the cost of the PARCC exam (no one really knows), and then, not one, not two, but three pieces of 'reformy' education propaganda appeared on its op-ed page. 

Education blogger Stephen Danley made mincemeat of the third one even before it hit the presses. More Camden schools are being closed and turned over to charters, and the good people of that city have no say because the Camden Advisory Board of Education is "accountable to one group, and one group only: our children." Lucky for them because if they were accountable to the taxpayers, things would be very different. Please read and share Stephen's excellent piece. We must continue to expose the denial of democracy in that city.

But back to the first two...

Jersey Jazzman, Ani McHugh and I have called out Tom Moran on his blind faith in education 'reform' numerous times, but for whatever reason, he refuses to take off his rose-colored glasses. So, I am throwing in the towel. I surrender! Tom Moran is absolutely right. "This hysteria about the PARCC exam needs to stop." This test will save humanity! Corporations, hedge fund managers and billionaires really are altruistically trying to save America's public schools (the ones their kids don't attend). There is no profit-making going on. It's all a conspiracy theory. We're all 'tin foil hat' crazies. Dear God, how could I not have known? 

WAKE UP, PEOPLE! THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY!

Friends, we need to stop running around like Chicken Little ranting that the sky is falling in on public education. It is vitally important that we stop the hysterics and focus on this test because...

[T]here is a broader public purpose here, one much more important than taking pot shots at the PARCC. One of the main reasons we need this standardized test is for parents in struggling districts like Camden or Newark, who would otherwise have no way of knowing whether their kids are in a failing school. The whining of parents in districts that don't have to worry about that sort of thing shouldn't take precedence. (emphasis mine)

Wow, I had no idea the PARCC opt-out movement was just a bunch of 'white suburban moms' being too overprotective. I thought parents in Newark and Camden were just as ticked off about it as the rest of us. But I guess Tom is right. It doesn't matter that far too many urban public schools are underfunded, falling apart, and have high concentrations of high poverty students. Parents in low income urban areas need this test to tell them how bad their public schools are because they are too ignorant to know any better, so suburban parents should just suck it up and force their kids to take this test for their sake. 

It doesn't matter that the test is flawed. It doesn't matter that the test is developmentally inappropriate, especially for special needs students. It doesn't matter that the test is not diagnostic. It doesn't matter that teachers, parents and students won't be able to see the answers. It doesn't matter that the prep and administration of this test has taken countless instructional hours out of the school day. It doesn't matter that school districts are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on tech upgrades for this unfunded mandate. It doesn't matter that many students have purposely thrown their test answers because they know it doesn't count for them this year. It doesn't matter that many teachers' jobs will be on the line because of those thrown tests. It doesn't matter that this test was never properly vetted nor piloted. 

But what do I know? I'm just a teacher. What do education researchers like Jersey Jazzman, Dr. Bruce Baker, Dr. Chris Tienken, Dr. Julia Sass Rubin, Dr. Diane Ravitch or any of the other researchers and bloggers who've been exposing the for-profit motives and flawed methods behind education 'reform' know for that matter? What do the parents who've taken the sample PARCC tests—and failed miserably—know? 

None of that matters because according to Moran, this test is the 'Great White Hope', that will finally defeat poverty in our mostly minority, urban areas. But that big, bad teachers union is messing things up:

"With the added variable of a multi-million dollar campaign against the test by the teacher's union, which doesn't want the PARCC to factor into teacher evaluations, the collective freak-out has reached a crescendo."

What a load of malarky! 

Yes, parents in poor urban areas need the test scores from kids in rich white districts to tell them their schools are 'failing'. And the teachers union is just messing everything up because, you know, The Gates Foundation, The Broad Foundation, Students First, The Koch Brothers, The Walton Foundation, they are the only ones spending millions of dollars on campaigns that push their education message.

I wonder how he'd feel if cardiologists were held accountable for their patients' health after McDonalds managed to convince America that Big Macs would cure heart disease? 

I am stopping short of calling Moran a liar because when one lies, they deliberately mean to deceive. I don't think Moran means to deceive. I think he is in denial like birthers, climate deniers and vaccine opponents who blindly cling to faith-based beliefs in the face of overwhelming research and evidence.

And he calls us conspiracy theorists...

.@pasi_sahlberg & David Hespe: A Tale of Two Education Leaders

Lest anyone think I was a fat-cat, lazy teacher, raking in the chips at a high-rollers roulette table at the Borgata last week, I actually attended the NJEA Convention—the largest professional development convention for educators in the United States.

There are no coincidences

I don't believe in coincidence. Too many things have happened in my life for that word to be relevant. Case in point: here's what happened last week:

• I read an article in the Star Ledger about why Dutch children are happier than ours
• I listened to Pasi Sahlberg's keynote address at the NJEA Convention in Atlantic City—a town whose economic fortunes seem to change like the tides that wash its shores every day, and right now, the tide is out 
• I attended the meeting with Acting NJ Education Commissioner, David Hespe, also at the Convention
• I read this post on Wallet Hub ranking the best and worst school systems in the country. 

Please excuse me while I puff up my chest with pride... Lookie who's #1:

... and look who's at the bottom: some of the highest concentrations of poverty in the country, including Michelle Rhee's 'miracle'—Washington, DC:

About the Dutch 

According to the article,

UNICEF recently conducted a study of twenty-nine industrialized nations and found that the Netherlands ranked highest in three out of five areas: educational well being, material well being, and behavior and risks. This study, named Child Well Being in Rich Countries, correlates with the findings of numerous other studies noting that Dutch children are seemingly happier.

Among the study's notable findings:

• The Netherlands retains its position as the clear leader, and is the only country ranked among the top five countries in all dimensions of child well-being: material well-being, health and safety, education, behaviors and risks, and housing and environment.
• Four Nordic countries — Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — sit just below the Netherlands at the top of the child well-being table.
• The bottom four places in the table are occupied by three of the poorest countries in the survey — Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, and by one of the richest, the United States.
• Indeed, the United States and Romania were the only two countries out of 29 surveyed to rank in the bottom third on all five measurements of childhood well-being. (emphasis mine)

The wealthiest nation in the industrialized world does not value the health and well-being of its children. 

That, dear readers, should be plastered over every picture of every jackpot bonanza on every billboard leading into this city-on-life-support. And it should be on the cover of every standardized test booklet Pearson prints.

Yea, so that won't happen. But I bring you the next best thing: Pasi Sahlberg's keynote speech and David Hespe's Q&(non)A with teachers—all within 24 hours! If you're not sure who Sahlberg is, read his bio here. Blogger Ani McHugh (TeacherBiz) wrote an excellent review of his talk. You can view his Power Point presentation here. Pull both up on your screen as a comparison to what follows. 

Before we get into the meat of Hespe's session, here's a handy little pocket guide to Finnish vs. US education (all quotes are Sahlberg's):

Before Hespe took questions, he talked about where we were, where we are and where we're going. As he talked, the groans, murmuring and comments from the audience increased. In the interest of readability, I've interspersed audience questions with his presentation comments.

So, do you have Ani's blog post open? Ok, here we go!

On 'college and career readiness' (whatever that means)

He started by acknowledging that there is an achievement gap between the rich and poor in NJ—finally! We are one of the highest-achieving states in the nation, and we should be proud of that, but our bar is set too low. He showed a slide of 4-year college graduation rates in NJ which he said aren't good enough. I'm sorry, I don't have a photo of this slide. It was tough to photograph in that room. If anyone has it, please post. He blamed this on students not being 'college and career ready'. Too many college freshmen have to take remedial math and language arts classes. 

Not being satisfied with the data he provided, I did a little research of my own and found a nifty little website chock full of all sorts of data. 

Consider this overview of NJ's state universities:

Not too shabby.

Or this comparison with the rest of the country:

I am not an education researcher, but I do know that data is often manipulated to tell a certain side of a story. These links to nj.gov websites provide additional info on NJ higher education. I invite you to do your own research:

• Enrollment numbers 2001-2011
• Retention numbers 2011 and 2012 

While Hespe and his ilk are quick to blame 'bad teachers', not enough 'rigor' and not enough standardized testing, the students themselves have a different take:

Students say they are delaying their degrees because of class-scheduling difficulties and overcrowded courses or the pressures of juggling part-time jobs and financial problems. That means many full-time undergraduates are taking five, six or more years to get a bachelor’s degree, if they finish at all.

Hmmm... the state hasn't fully funded our community colleges as per the law for years. Could there be a correlation? Call me crazy, but isn't it possible that this generation of college students—the first to go through some or all of their K-12 education in the NCLB years—is simply a product of that failed policy? Have the language arts and math college placement exams ever been evaluated? Do we know that they are true measures of what students should know? How much money do colleges and universities make on them? So many questions; no answers. 

On tech readiness for PARCC

Hespe claimed that over 90% of schools are technologically ready for PARCC testing. Cue audible groans and protestations from the audience. During the Q&(non)A, several educators told him their horror stories with practice PARCC tests: servers crashed, answers lost, not enough equipment, students not ready or able to keystroke essay answers. Even though school budgets have been slashed and staff laid off, the tests must go on! So districts are scrambling to find money to pay for all the upgrades which can cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Many are simply not ready because they don't have the money. But Hespe wasn't concerned. He said the DOE has about $1.3 million to give to districts throughout the whole state!  Yipee!! I feel so much better.

One educator wanted to know when the state was going to provide money to rehire all the lost staff. Pshaw! What a silly question! Why should districts re-hire bad teachers when data will solve every educational problem? 

On the opt-out movement

"I'm not seeing an opt-out movement in New Jersey."

"About 1/10 of 1% of parents are opting out."

"I see no opt-out movement in New Jersey."

Hey, Commish, check this out, and this, and this on Long Island. 

The PARCC was only piloted on about 10% of NJ students. It's only November. Once the rest of the state's parents see how much of their child's school year is spent on test prep, once they participate in the various 'Take the PARCC' events that are quickly popping up all over the state, once students are tested and their scores plummet (is anyone doubting they won't?), this movement is going to grow very quickly. This is not, as Arne Duncan said, 

white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — [realized] their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.

This is a movement of concerned parents all across the state who are fed up with their child's education being hijacked by data collection and profit-making.

Data Dave, standardized testing and the CCSS

It is abundantly clear that data is Hespe's friend. I think he loves data more than he loves students. I can't tell you how many times he used that word. He was giddy with anticipation about how all the data the NJDOE collects will be used to solve all our socioeconomic problems and manufacture a super human workforce! He was adamant that parents are hungry for data! Yea, and standardized testing and data were huge parts of FDR's New Deal, and LBJ's Civil Rights Act, and Brown v. Board of Education, and Abbott v. Burke, and...

Questions and comments from educators on data, testing and the CCSS: 

"We do not need data! We know what to do for our students!" 

"You have more than a decade of data. What are you doing with it?"

"My child isn't failing standardized tests. Standardized tests are failing my child. What will you do?" 

"The data teachers are expected to manage is unmanageable! Data is garbage collection!" 

"There is no correlation between standardized tests and student achievement. Why not scrap the tests and go back to teaching?"

"Where are the accommodations for special education students on PARCC?" 

 "There is no data that says the Common Core State Standards are effective. How can you support them when they're not proven?"

"Other than test scores, how do we define and measure success?"

"Our kids aren't 'college and career ready' because we are a culture of testing!" 

  

Cuts to related arts and other programs

Comment: We need leadership from you to preserve the arts.
Answer: Teach across the curriculum.

On Camden

Questions and comments from educators:

"Since the state takeover of Camden, teachers do not have the materials and curriculum to do their job. The materials are coming from North Star Academy [charter school]." 

"How do you support teachers when you appoint a Camden superintendent with no teaching experience?"

"When will you come to low-income communities to see what's going on?" 

Hespe actually answered this last question. He simply said, "Done!" I hope the person who asked that question holds him to it.

On Student Growth Objectives

When he asked the crowd of several hundred how many wrote their SGO collaboratively with their administrator, less than 10 people raised their hands. 

A ray of hope?

To his credit, NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer did his best to keep the questions to 30 seconds and the crowd from wielding pitchforks and torches. There was a lot of calling out when a question or comment was cut off, or simply not answered—and there was a lot of that. Hespe is first and foremost a politician. As a Christie appointee, he is there to do his bidding. He may have taught college classes, but he has absolutely no concept of K-12 education. 

The one sign of hope is the new board president, Mark Biedron. In September the Garden State Alliance for Strengthening Education held a symposium to "present a statewide action plan to connect critical elements supporting New Jersey public school educators and effective teaching." The coalition's founding members are:

• NJ Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
• NJ Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• NJ Education Association
• NJ Field Directors Forum
• NJ Parent-Teacher Association
• NJ Principals and Supervisors Association

In the audience were educators, legislators, NJ State Board of Ed members and DOE employees. I attended, and it was excellent. Too much to go into here, but suffice to say that it's a real plan to strengthen teacher training and retention in the state. Biedron and many in the state legislature are very excited about its implementation.

Final thoughts

The United States is indeed the most powerful country in the world. We can obliterate just about any other nation with the push of a button. But, can we really call ourselves the "greatest" when the plain, simple truth is we are neglecting our future—our children— because competition and profits are more important? 

Jesus said, "That which you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me." No matter what your beliefs about him—whether the Son of God, a really smart guy or a fictional character—he was absolutely right. 

When it comes to educating our children, the US and NJ are absolutely wrong.