Familiarity with technology makes a difference in testing

See if you can spot the gap in this article from the Herald:

Over the next three years, all Massachusetts students will be taking standardized tests on computers — a transition some school leaders caution may put inner city kids and budgets at a disadvantage. 

“There is a bit of a problem in places like Worcester. Our population is not as economically advantaged as other parts of the state. Some districts have laptops for every kid,” said David Perda, chief research and accountability officer in Worcester Public Schools 

“We’re working very hard to provide the kind of technological support for our students,” said Dan Warwick, superintendent of Springfield Public Schools. “The problem is some of our kids haven’t had enough exposure.” 

But state education officials said the move is appropriate as more students use technology out of the classroom. “It also reflects the reality that students are increasingly using technology in and out of the classroom to learn and to produce written work,” Mitchell D. Chester, the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said in a letter to superintendents.

Some of them aren't, though. That's the point.

What happens when teachers change positions?

I don't recall ever reading anything looking quite at this: what happens when teachers switch positions?

The money behind the charter cap lift (Question 2)

I've been sharing these like mad on social media (Twitter and Facebook) BUT I want to be sure that no one in Massachusetts is missing these: Professor Maurice Cunningham of the Mass Political Profs blog has been tracing the money behind the push to lift the charter cap in Massachusetts, which is on our November ballot as question 2.
He started back in mid-July with a close look at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance  of those involved. In sum? "The pro-charters operation is the tool of hedge fund and big finance players."
He then followed up last week with a post specifically on Strategic Grant Partners, demonstrating that the well-publicized $18 million being spent on this effort wasn't the whole story:

First, the privatizers had been raising and spending money toward their goal in ways that did not have to be legally counted. Second, the organizations funding the political battle did not have to report to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance or Secretary of State. Third, the campaign to privatize public schools has not been confined to campaign year 2016 but extends back several years. The key to understanding the deployment of this hidden money is by examining the activities of an Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) organization known as Strategic Grant Partners (“SGP”).

Today, Professor Cunningham is back with a post looking at who is funding the TV ad that urges a "Yes" vote on Question 2.

The Brennan Center for Justice recently reported about opaque entities like those we’ve met here that “There is no requirement that the names of these entities reflect their actual purpose or interests, and many use generic or even misleading names that obscure the nature of their funding.” Also, Brennan reports, the politically savvy operatives backing these organizations use positive sounding local names in recognition that if the true source of the funding was known, voters would consider that information and be less likely to respond positively to the ads.

Jennifer Berkshire then followed this up with a Q&A with Professor Cunningham here.
I urge you not only to read these yourself but also to SHARE THEM. There will be much rhetoric about "teachers unions" this fall: check out who wants to lift the cap on charters. It isn't anyone who has an interest in kids.
Or transparency.
Or democracy.

No Time to Lose: National Council of State Legislatures weighs in on the post-NCLB universe

The National Council of State Legislatures after 18 months of study today released a report on what successful school systems around the world are doing. Their interest is in influencing the post-NCLB, state-focused, U.S. education universe. The full report can be downloaded here.
NPR has a good summary of the first three points in their report:

1: More Help For The Youngest Learners In the U.S., poverty is a powerful drag on the youngest learners, with too many children showing up to kindergarten both hungry and lacking important cognitive and noncognitive skills. Research suggests that preschool, when done well, can have a profound impact on children's lives, but too often in the U.S. it's done badly or not at all...

2: Teachers Need To Be Better And, in this case, "better" is a big tent. The report's authors say it starts when future teachers are still students...Once these top-flight teachers enter the classroom, they also enter a very different professional reality — one that involves as much training as teaching. In some places, the report says, just "30 percent to 35 percent of a teacher's time is spent teaching students, while the rest is spent on activities such as working in teams with other teachers to develop and improve lessons, observing and critiquing classes, and working with struggling students." Too often in the U.S., teachers work in isolation, cut off from their fellow teachers. In contrast, Stephenson says, many high-performing countries have embraced a team-teaching model, where newer teachers are constantly observing veteran teachers and being observed, fine-tuning their skills in real time. Overseas, observation is about improvement — not just accountability. And then there's pay. Yes, other nations have higher standards for their teachers, but with those standards come increased respect and pay, on par with engineers and accountants. Imagine that. 

3: Fix Career And Technical Education (CTE) You know, the classes formerly known as "voc-ed" — auto repair, welding, carpentry, etc. The report suggests that, in the U.S., many schools have failed to adapt their CTE offerings to fit the needs of the modern economy, preparing students for jobs of the past instead of matching them with today's employers. It's strange given the mantra heard often from U.S. policymakers and educators, that today's schools should prepare students to be "college and career ready." In reality, Takumi, the Hawaii Democrat, says many schools "have kind of pushed career to the side." As a result, too often students need college in order to be career ready. To make matters worse, in the U.S. CTE also has a perception problem. Stephenson, the Utah Republican, says "it is considered a second tier for low-performing students. ... That is our tradition in America." . It's a chicken-or-egg problem. Whether that perception created the current reality or was created by it, both need to change.

The fourth item is "reforms that are connected and aligned as parts of a clearly planned and carefully designed comprehensive systems," which is not only difficult to summarize: it's also difficult to do.

It'll be interesting and informative to see which states do anything about any of this at all. 

Hey, remember that new charter school in Brockton?

The one the Board of Ed approved on a 7-3 vote, over community outcry, last spring? They've just had to ask the state for a change to their charter, as they aren't going to be open on time. And that's not all: after all the talk about the district need for such a school:

Also, as of the July 19 Brockton School Committee meeting, parents of only 170 students filled out the required release forms to transfer student records to the New Heights Charter School. The charter school said it plans to serve 315 students in its first year. Deputy Superintendent Michael Thomas broke down the numbers, stating that release forms were signed for 65 sixth graders, 60 seventh graders and 45 eight graders.

h/t to Diane Ravitch for picking this up

The FY17 foundation numbers

You can see what DESE presented to superintendents the first week of July on foundation budget numbers here. This includes the actual dollar amounts for each category of student, and it also has the deciles of funding for economically disadvantaged.
UPDATE (thanks, Melissa!): If you want to find your district's decile, you can find it on the bottom of your districts foundation budget spreadsheet (which you can find if you download the complete spreadsheet for FY17 from here). Check out line 14:

Overrides of the Governor's budget, part II

Again, you can find these by going to H.4450, clicking on "Bill History" and scrolling WAY DOWN. This time, the Legislature met for two days, so this weekend's updates start on 7/30. Round one post is here. 

• The earmarked funds within the DESE line item (7010-005) ($2.1M was vetoed, all of which was earmarked for programs around the state)
• literacy programs ($600,000 was vetoed from a $1.6M account, $400,000 for Reading Recovery and $200,000 specifically for Hopkinton)
• school nutrition ($250,000 for the Chefs in Schools program had been vetoed)
• federal impact aid ($100,000 for Lincoln had been vetoed)
• targeted intervention ($300,000 had been vetoed: $250,000 for a parent engagement program and $50,000 for the Randolph Public Schools)
• dual enrollment ($100,000 for Holyoke Community College had been vetoed)
• after/out of school programming ($935,000 had been vetoed for programs in Brookline, Lawrence, Brockton, New Bedford, Worcester, Fall River, and Boston)
• JFYNetworks for Accuplacer ($200,000 specifically for them had been earmarked,as best as I can tell from the language)
• innovation schools (the Governor had vetoed the full $350,000)
• adult education ($350,000 earmarked for programs in Boston and Lawrence)
• career to school connecting activities ($400,000 had been vetoed for programs in STEM, the Blackstone Valley Educational Foundation, and South Hadley High School)

If there is more, I will update the post!
Note that the above means that we HAVE A BUDGET!