Teachers in Mexico latest target of extortion

Schools are shutting down across Mexico, as teachers have become the latest targets of extortion:

Since the anonymous threats began last month, when students returned to classes after summer break, hundreds of schools have shut down.
“This isn’t about money, this is about life or death,” Alejandro Estrada, an elementary school teacher, said as he marched in protest with thousands of other teachers down Acapulco’s seafront boulevard last week. “If you don’t pay, you die.”
The word here, in the tough neighborhoods that tumble down the far side of the mountains lining the once-splendid bay, is that everybody is paying protection money: doctors, taxi drivers, local stores.

The latest report from Acapulco is gruesome.
Am I alone in feeling that we ought to be doing something in solidarity with educators in Mexico around this?

Seeking a waiver: we're in

Massachusetts will be seeking a waiver from the federal government on No Child Left Behind.

Not wa(i)ving but drowning*

Besides getting University Park Campus School's designation wrong, just what was President Obama announcing on Friday?
If you remember your Schoolhouse Rock, the executive branch is there "to see that the laws get done" (to execute them, thus the Executive branch). What the Obama administration is doing is basically NOT executing No Child Left Behind, or giving waivers to particular parts of the law. Most notably, the waivers will waive the provision " that schools ensure that every student be proficient in math and reading by 2014 or risk escalating sanctions." For most schools, that will be most clearly demonstrated in no more measures of Adequate Yearly Progress, that ever-increasing line on the chart towards 100% in 2014.
One should also note that the President specifically said that he is doing this partly due to concerns about narrowing of curriculum and teaching to the test.
This does not, of course, come for nothing. The real news is in what the federal Department of Education led by Secretary Duncan will expect of states applying for a waiver. You can see the Ed department's public briefing here. The letter to state officials is here. The expectations are more or less what was required to apply for Race to the Top funding.

• College and career readiness: as the fed has already said that the Common Core is what it's looking for, and 44 states have adopted it, like it or not, that's the standard.
• "Systems of Differentiated Recognition, Accountability, and Support": instead of declaring all schools that don't make AYP a particular number of years "underperforming," instead we get the bottom 5% ("Priority" schools) and the bottom 10% ("Focus" schools). This more-or-less parallels what Massachusetts has done with Level 4 schools (and, as has been noted, is going to get silly when we do the bottom 5%, and another 5%, and so on, year after year).
• new teacher and principal evaluation systems: and yes, "including student progress over time." It doesn't specify test scores for that, but unless someone comes up with some funding, they're going to look like the cheap answer.

Applications for waivers for this year are due in Washington on November 14, and will be subject to peer review.
A few other points worth making. Both the Secretary and the President have repeatedly said they're only doing this because Congress hasn't reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (of which NCLB was the last go-round); in other words, that Congress has not done its job ("passin' laws" per Schoolhouse Rock). Several Congressional Republicans have accused the Department of overreaching its powers. (Interestingly, Republican governors seem to be lining up to get waivers.)
This doesn't rollback grades 3-8 testing. It doesn't take the emphasis off of reading and math (to the detriment of everything else) and it doesn't give states any particular incentive to use anything other than a comparatively cheap standardized test to judge students. Moreover, as states are now expected to have "measures that are comparable in a district" for all subjects, it could well lead to the nightmare some states are already experiencing, of standardized tests in art, music, and elsewhere.
Any state that applied for and got Race to the Top dollars probably already has done most of what the Secretary is asking, anyway--Massachusetts has--so they have no real reason not to apply for a waiver.
I did get a message over the weekend that Secretary Reville is considering it.
*with apologies to Stevie Smith

Union Hill playground

Photos from yesterday, about 10 am

He got it right today

 "Yesterday, I was with Ricky Hall, the principal of a school in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Every single student who graduated from Ricci’s school in the last three years went on to college.  But because they didn’t meet the standards of No Child Left Behind, Ricci’s school was labeled as failing last year."
You can see the transcript of the full Saturday address here. 

A few notes from Wednesday's forum

One can hardly pretend to be unbiased on such things, and you can get a holistic (if abbreviated) view of answers in the article by Jackie Reis.
The format was a one minute opening statement for each candidate, and a one minute closing statement for each candidate. In between, 15 questions were asked, each answered by two candidates. The questions (paraphrased from my notes) were as follows:

• Worcester is in the fifth percentile statewide when it comes to municipal contribution over the required contribution to the schools' foundation budget. Please comment. (This to Salmonsen & Biancheria)
• Massachusetts has now adopted the Common Core. Thoughts? (to Colorio & O'Connell)
• The new teacher evaluation system calls for incorporating "student outcomes." What are your thoughts? (to Monfredo & Mullaney)
• What would be your priorities for Worcester Public Schools facilities for the next five years? (to Trobaugh & Novick)
• What technology needs do you see for the Worcester Public Schools over the next five years? (to Foley & Ramirez)
• No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Ed Reform II...how do you see the balance of all of these with local control? (to Mullaney & Trobaugh)
• Looking, for example, at 3rd grade ELA and 7th grade math scores, what would you say is the community part in supporting our students? (to O'Connell & Colorio)
• Some parents have expressed concern with disciplinary policies and how they are implemented. Please comment. (to Monfredo & Biancheria)
• Given the great varities of people in Worcester, what is your plan to reach out to constituencies and neighborhoods? (to Novick & Ramirez)
• What affect would you say the changing demographics of the city have had on the policy, culture, and teaching and learning in the Worcester Public Schools? (to Foley & Salmonsen)
• What would you say are the three most pressing issues to the Worcester Public Schools? (to Colorio & Foley)
• What, in the Worcester Public Schools, are you most proud of? (to Biancheria & Ramirez)
• From your own educational experiences, what would you like students to have, and what would you like students to avoid? (to O'Connell & Salmonsen)
• Some parents have been concerned about all students having access to a demanding curriculum, particularly as it pertains to sorting of levels in middle schools. Please comment. (to Monfredo & Novick)
• What balance do you strike between management and School Committee? (to Mullaney & Trobaugh)

Thank you, Mr. President, but...

Mr. President,
We really appreciate your inviting Principal Ricci Hall down to Washington, D.C. for your speech today on reforming No Child Left Behind. We here in Worcester are also very proud of University Park Campus School, of the work the students there do, of the teachers who inspire them, and of the administration that guides them. We also are always grateful to Clark University for all the assistance they render us there.
That said, Mr. President, you and your administration revealed your perspective today when you called UPCS a charter school.
UPCS is not a charter school.
While UPCS is now among Worcester's five innovation schools, the things that have made UPCS excellent are things the school achieved as a Worcester Public School: answering to a central administration, having unionized teachers, and much else that public education is often beat up about.
Guess what, Mr. President? They've done it, and done it well.
The school has had a vision--not only about kids going to college, but about kids having a well-rounded education on the way there-- and had some leeway from central administration to get there. With a strong assist from Clark, the school is now, as you said, " in the top quarter of all schools in Massachusetts" with a student body that has many of the struggles of urban populations everywhere.
You see, Mr. President, you don't need to toss out publicly accountable school boards, transparent finances, and bargaining rights to get there.
You do, though, have to have a vision, and it has to be for more than test scores.
Respectfully yours,
Tracy Novick

More on the President's plan once I read through it