No Child Left Inside @ AAA City Schools

I receive via email all AAA PR community letters sent to ED partners. BS paper InSide Ed blog focus on City Schools CEO letter, “Learning from Our Results." What’s omitted mention by the district school system own internal operations failures a laser-like-focus on the micro-education classroom teaching and learning? That we do receive in our primary school PreK-5 is poor executive director leadership from Irma Johnson and more... The new Network Office executive director Landa McLaurin has not shown to have increased outcomes in area schools productivity and field support to principle/ teachers citywide in our area district school system teaching and learning in primary/ secondary schools are suffering and more...

The Office of Information Technology director Mike Pitroff network cyber education portal systems resources are severely-severely- underutilized by all the City School executive officers, directors, principals and teachers if any office deserves increase budget funding to produce immediate academic increase to lower the City Schools district academic achievement divide for all of our students it would be in the IT office network systems.

I agree that the IT office is underutilized but are all people involved ready to work with the education portals that are currently available? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Top that off with the lack of computer access in most schools and we are going to continue to be behind in training students how to survive in the current century. Our students are woefully behind in computer access and training. I don't know the solution but we have to do something to get back up to speed.

I honestly feel that all administrators and staff that participated in these violations should be exposed and let go. It is apparent that they will go to any method to be the top school when it comes to testing that they will compromise their own personal integrity. My son was violated in this testing situation at school #330 and I spoke with every administrator possible , the disability law center and they all teamed up with the school to protect those involved while no one protected my sons rights. I took it as far as the office of civil rights and they evaded the issues as if they turn a blind eye and deaf ear to it and it is sad that this is just escalating to other schools like an epidemic. I want justice for all kids who have been violated by this . Speak up parents if you see any suspicious scores rise higher than what your kids are used to getting on standardized tests. We have to be there advocates , because in the hands of these schools in question, we are all they have and can trust.

With all of the questions about test scores it seems odd that Ben Fieldman was "retired" last night at the school board meeting since he was a major part of investigating the data that showed when and where cheating happened. Ben was and remains a good person doing a good job. I hope the new person is as well qualified, but given the number of cheaters who have been caught it seems like it would have been worth it to ask him stay on to head an investigative team.

We have a number of kids who have come from schools where cheating was the norm. Some have come to us with scores that are clearly out of whack with where they are (kids who literally in 6th grade cannot identify letters in their name who somehow score advanced) and others who said during the tests asked why we weren't providing the answers like their other schools had done. I have been clear with my staff that no one is going to lose their jobs over a test. We are not going to be involved in anything that might stink of cheating. Anyone who thinks that this should go another way will be reported.

I agree with the other poster who said that anyone who was involved should be exposed and fired. I don't give a crap if a higher up says to do it and that's the excuse, everyone signs a paper accepting the rules. These folks are an embarrassment to the rest of us and they do a disservice to the kids. Dump them.

Here's the "thing" folks need to know about the MSA, AYP @ the whole "NCLB:
1. If you look closely at the schools that had a decline in test scores, remember a few things...the third graders are always new to testing (they're coming from second grade--and by the middle of first quarter of the second grade, they are just being exposed to those dreaded BCRs--in some jurisdictions they are working on BCR's in first grade) and forget the fact that they're mere babes expected to perform, because they've got to get ready for the big test next year; the fourth graders of 2010 were the third graders of 2009--if they were at 100% in 2009 and then dropped to 50% in 2010--that would raise a flag. The fifth graders of 2010 were the fourth graders of 2009--did their scores plummet as well? Then that is an additional flag.
2. Students don't forget that much from one year to the next--or do they?
3. I think the alleged test scandal is really bigger than we all think--and believe me---it is not just in the city. Out of over 500,000 plus students in the state jurisdications-do you really think in each and every high performing school that over 80%95% are proficient/advanced? And does every single jurisdiction have that many highly qualified/execellent teachers capable of advancing students every year? Especially when you have job fairs and get at least 10-20% new staff every year. And you know what folks want to say about teachers--those who have lower GPA's become teachers--which incidently is degrading.
4. It is difficult to get students to the mastery of state standards (which are not really teacher or parent friendly) in seven months don't you think---it is more like a mix of teaching to the test and ......(you can figure out the rest)
5. Has anyone really examined the definitions on MDs report card site for AMO, confidence interval, safe harbor, etc.?
What do they mean in layman terms really? Pay attention to the ratings given MD in Ed Week on the Teaching Profession section, MD got a C
Bottom line....NCLB, AYP needs to be fixed, because at the end of the day in 2014...when everybody is supposed to be at 100% ....what will come next--are we just satisfied that we've reached that target--after that what is the next expectation--especially for those that aren't at 100 by 2014--and folks that is just around the corner.

Questions about the Abbottston investigation:
1. Why wasn't the school investigated when the school had 100% of its students scoring proficient or advanced on last year's MSA? It seems to me that would have made more sense than investigating the current scores.
2. Also, what were the factors that were different from last year that might have contributed to the decline? Just wondering...