The New No Child Left Behind... 'Listening Tour' comes to Chicago...
Chicago Teachers Union lobbyist Kurt Hilgendorf prepares to testify on No Child Left Behind's successor during the Listening Tour. Substance photo by Jean Schwab.Tuesday September 27,2016, Simeon Career High School hosted an Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Title One "Listening Tour" on the new The New No Child Left Behind. The meeting was moderated by Melinda Wright, Title One Director, Division supervisor of Grants and Programs for ISBE.
According to Wright, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed in to law by President Obama on December 10, 2015. The ISBE website explains that “this bipartisan measure reauthorizes the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary (ESEA) the nations education law and longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students. The majority of the law does not take effect until 2017-18 with implementing occurring over the next year and a half. ISBE staff continue to review the nuances of the 1,000-page law and will engage in deliberate stakeholder involvement throughout the process.“
Wright said that the new law is less punitive and can be found at WWW.isbe.net/essa. “In preparation for the new law, ISBE is conducting a listening tour to discuss a plan that is based on support rather than punitive. The idea is to give support to all the schools. Our goal needs to be achievable and needs to address all kids. The belief is that all schools deserve extra support. Under ESSA the local school district will determine the extra help.”
Tammie Vinson, CTU member, asked whether PARC testing would still be used in elementary schools. Wright said the state just signed a contract to use the PARC through 2018. Wright stated that accountability will be discussed today. Wright asked us “Which is more important? achievement or growth or are they equal? Should behavior and attendance also be included? What should be used for Accountability? How many points should they have? What is more important? You can share your suggestions on the ESBE website.”
This reporter asked what the State does with schools that don’t have resources and staff to meet the needs for students? Wright answered that resources and staffing were left up to the District. The meeting then was open for speakers. Each speaker was instructed to identify themselves and group but this was often muddled. First to speak was a large group (12-15) from a group named Healthy Schools. “The money from ESSA needs to go to low income students and schools for physical and mental health and wellbeing.”
Equality in Education was concerned about the PARC test being used for the next 2 years. “ PARC is non-reliable and not valid. The test takes so long with preparation and taking the tests. We object to the automated scoring of the written parts of the test. Children that have had trauma in their lives are not factored into these tests.”
ACT NOW AFTERSACHOOL talked about how valuable afterschool activities and tutoring are in helping students stay safe and learn. “Afterschool is cost effective. It is a valuable strategy in helping low preforming schools. Those who participate in afterschool show improvements in behavior, reinforcing what is learned during the school day and provide additional instruction time. Research indicates that improvements in attendance, academic achievement and behavior with higher graduation rates.”
Several groups were concerned with English Learners, especially English Learners with Disabilities? How are you going to do this? Measuring proficiency in achievement is not fair. Students growth is more important.
Illinois Public Education asked What is accountability? “Taking an assessment and adding weights? Any assessment should take in account indicators such as poverty, English language learners, resources and curriculum. Attendance, some schools have high proficiency but low attendance and others have high attendance but low proficiency. How many A.P. classes do they offer? Sometimes students are proficient to begin with but do not grow. Look at other testing models like the Innovative testing model.”
English Learners were discussed more than any other subject. It was agreed by most that growth is more important than proficiency. The testing materials should be in Spanish (or the student’s native language) in schools with more than 30% English Learning students. We need to develop a longitudinal data to see improvement in learning for English Learning students, not an instant snapshot.
Every student in the state needs to be multi-lingual and multi-cultural whether they learn French, Chinese, Spanish or some other language. Money from title one needs to be spent in developing Spanish or other language speaking proficiency and bi-literacy. Teacher evaluation should not be based on high scores but on how are the students progressing.
Other speakers were concerned with the educational environment. Teachers are not trained to succeed in Urban Areas. Many of the students are suffering from trauma because of killings and shootings. Other people pointed out that there is a large teacher turn over in our schools because they are not trained (in dealing with urban schools.) Megan Cuseck, American Librarian Association stated that “Libraries are being taken out of schools. Students need libraries to give them information about what a school library should look like. Students in College do not use libraries because they don’t know what functions the library can provide. Libraries should be earmarked in title 4 plans. Librarians can help by bringing in more title 2 funds. The next speaker was a Librarian named Sarah who stated that Simeon Career High School does not have a librarian. Only 3 African American High Schools have a librarian in Chicago Public Schools. In fact, there is 1 Librarian per every 5,000 students in Chicago Public Schools. Librarians help students with homework, help with projects and research. Librarians co-teach with the teachers and teach technology. They also deal with the tech issues in the school.”
Megan Kowalski, Special Education Teacher at John Walsh Math and Science Academy, stated,” I love our school and do not feel that the current school rating system accurately reflects the hard work we do there. It is crucial for school ratings to take account of these factors; appropriate leadership, staffing that meets the needs of students, resources to support teachers in designing and carrying out high quality plans and facilities safe and a comfortable. Students cannot be comfortable in their school when they work in a computer lab that heats up to 100 degrees on a sunny day, or when teachers can’t implement some of the lessons because there are not enough books for each child and the air conditioners are not working or are working but the drinking fountain is a floor away. The current conditions created by Federal and State mandates with high demands on accountability cause each day to be a struggle to raise scores one point and provide an incredible stress and pressure on my colleagues. In order for schools to close the achievement gap, we need a higher level of trust in what teachers do each day. Until Best Practices are followed at the administrators’ level, quality of instruction can’t be accurately measured. We need greater independence from State and Federal mandates that lead us to document and do paperwork to prove our due diligence so that we can actually be diligent rather than do paperwork. “
By: Theresa D. Daniels
student growth vs. achievement
This article makes many important points on how measurements of "achievement" are faulty as found in the results of current testing practices, and how important (and nuanced) viewing student growth can be. Congrats to this journalist, Jean Schwab.