Don't obey Arne? WA state schools must declare failure if even one student fails high-stakes test.

The schools in Washington state are being punished, you see. President Obama's Secretary of Education has rules, and those rules must be followed or else.

Getting Ready for PARCC Testing – What will it do to our Teachers?

PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. You can read more about it HERE. Standardized test results determine which teachers are good and which are poor. So teachers are struggling to understand what this new test requires and how to elicit the best scores from their students.

That’s right – because the state chose a different system for evaluating its teachers, Arne Duncan and the Department of Education are punishing Washington State schools. If they do not have 100% of their kids at grade level and above on the tests mandated by the Common Core curriculum, the schools are designated “failing.” So a school with a low-income population that raised its pass rate from 20% to 70% in the last three years is now a failure. In fact, 90% of public schools in Washington State, some in very fancy neighborhoods, are now failures.

Given the consequences, why would the state legislature in Washington choose not to evaluate teachers using student test scores? And why would thousands of schools in California, Iowa, Vermont, and Wyoming join them? Because, despite being punished by the Department of Education with the loss of funds and a mountain of paperwork required for failing schools, some folks are honorable enough not to play the game.

That game goes something like this: You agree to implement Common Core Sate Standards. You subject the kids to massive amounts of high stakes standardized tests, and you use those test scores to evaluate their teachers. If you follow the rules of the game, you get a waiver from the 100% proficiency requirement of No Child Left Behind. If not, you become an instant failure.

Diane Ravitch agrees in Reign of Error. She points out that because students who have special needs or are English language learners bring down test scores, teachers who choose to teach our most vulnerable children are punished. The instability of teacher evaluation that is based on students’ test scores has also been well documented. Ms. Ravitch cites the example of the “worst” teacher in New York City (and this was printed in the newspapers to compound her humiliation) who was a teacher of new immigrants who left her class as they became proficient in English. Her principal believed she was an excellent teacher, but the math just didn’t add up.

No one is listening to the teachers or administrators of public schools. In 2011 658 New York principals had a revolt against the policies of Arne Duncan. They were not heard.

658 NY school principals revolt against Obama's school policies.

As of last night, 658 principals around the state had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance.

It is hard to overstate how angry the principals who signed are. Mario Fernandez, principal of Stillwater High School near Saratoga, called the evaluation process a product of “ludicrous, shallow thinking.”

Katie Zahedi, principal of Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook in Dutchess County. said the training session she attended was “two days of total nonsense.”

“I have a Ph.D., I’m in a school every day, and some consultant is supposed to be teaching me to do evaluations,” she said. “It takes your breath away it’s so awful.”

Washington teachers are very fearful and upset. I can not blame them.

A Washington state school board member appealed to Arne Duncan. He asked him to Stop saying their schools were failing.

Dear Secretary Duncan,

Last week you revoked Washington State’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver, resulting in nearly every school in Washington being considered failing by your Department of Education. This summer, as a School Board Director in Lake Stevens, WA, you’re requiring I send a “failure letter” to parents of any school that receives your funding.

Your reason for revoking our waiver: we didn’t pass legislation you wanted. More precisely, we passed legislation, but it didn’t have the wording (actually, one specific word) you wanted.

Since you’re so distant from us – nearly 3,000 miles by one measure – let me tell you about this other Washington: We have strong leadership in our board rooms, schools, and classrooms; we have professional and effective educators; and our students are capable, confident, and work extremely hard. But don’t take my word for it – our SAT scores, among other measures, speak for us.

When NCLB was passed twelve years ago, it focused America’s resolve to elevate our children and our future. It was about accountability, about setting lofty and worthwhile goals, but it was also about believing in our educators, leaders, parents, and students. It was about what we would strive for, work toward. It was aspirational.

Today, NCLB has been subverted into a name-calling, label-applying bully pulpit.

Calling successful schools failing? Not a good idea. This is not right wing conservatives doing this as people here often point out. This is a Democratic administration forcefully putting into effect the policies of George Bush.

Something is seriously wrong with that.