E Wayne Ross – Page 138 – Critical Theories in Education

Study faults high-stakes testing

Dallas Morning News: Authors cite low rate of improvement, effects on minority students

Study faults high-stakes testing
Authors cite low rate of improvement, effect on minorities

09:59 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 20, 2005

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – High-stakes testing in Texas and across the nation has had little impact on student achievement and is disproportionately targeting minority students – as evidenced by increased retention and dropout rates in many states – according to a study by researchers in Texas and Arizona.

The study, which examined the impact of high-stakes testing in Texas and 24 other states, found “no convincing evidence” that the pressure associated with those tests – such as threatened sanctions for low scores – produced better student achievement than would otherwise have been expected.

“A rapidly growing body of research evidence on the harmful effects of high-stakes testing, along with no reliable evidence of improved performance by students, suggests that we need a moratorium in public education on the use of high-stakes testing,” said Sharon L. Nichols of the University of Texas at San Antonio, lead author of the report.

The study, released Tuesday by the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University, was undertaken to gauge the impact of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. States are required under the law to administer standardized tests that are used to hold schools and school districts accountable for student achievement.

Dr. Nichols and the research team reached their conclusions by creating a so-called Pressure Rating Index that ranked states based on how much pressure they put on schools to improve test scores. Texas had the highest index – based on tougher requirements and other factors – and Kentucky had the lowest among the 25 states.

Scores of each state on the National Assessment of Educational Progress were then evaluated against the indexes to determine whether a higher level of pressure on schools produced higher scores on the national test.

“The theory of action implied by this accountability program is that the pressure of high-stakes testing will increase student achievement,” the researchers said. “But this study finds that pressure created by high-stakes testing has had almost no important influence on student academic performance.”

Among the key findings of the study, titled “High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act,” were:

•States with greater proportions of minority students implemented accountability systems that exerted greater pressure on educators and their schools. An unintended consequence is that problems associated with high-stakes testing disproportionately affect minority students.

•Increased testing pressure is related to increased retention and dropout rates. High-stakes testing in some states has increased the number the number of students – beginning with the eighth grade – who will leave school before their senior year in high school.

•Reading scores on the NAEP – administered in grades four and eight – did not improve as a result of increased testing pressure. That finding was consistent across all ethnic groups. While there was a weak correlation between pressure and fourth-grade math scores, researchers said the connection was more likely the result of “teaching to the test.”

Dr. Nichols said Tuesday that while all states fall under the basic mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, states have discretion in meeting the requirements – such as the minimum percentage of students that must pass the state achievement test for the school campus or district to hit annual improvement targets.

In Texas, schools must show “Adequate Yearly Progress” on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

Unlike Texas, which puts most of the emphasis on TAKS scores, Kentucky considers other criteria such as teacher evaluations of students, according to Dr. Nichols.

This year, nearly 87 percent of school districts and 77 percent of campuses in Texas made adequate progress under the federal law. Both figures were down sharply from a year ago because of tougher standards that took effect in the 2004-05 school year. For example, more students had to pass the math and reading sections of the TAKS.

E-mail tstutz@dallasnews.com

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/092105dntextesting.1294db47.html

The Legendary K.O. (aka K-otix): George Bush Doesn’t Like Black People

Listen to “George Doesn’t Like Black People”

Watch the video here.

And here’s Black Latern’s video of the tune

And

Check out the latest patriotic posters from WhiteHouse.org: “Brownie you’re doing a heck of job” and “Let them fly coach”

Kelefa Sanneh in the The New York Times Rapping for a hometown in hurricane crisis:

September 19, 2005
Rapping for a Hometown in Hurricane Crisis
By KELEFA SANNEH

ATLANTA, Sept. 18 – “I lost my house,” said one victim of Hurricane Katrina, although this particular victim was equipped with some wildly refractive ornamentation and, more importantly, a very loud microphone. The crowd fell silent. “I lost my cars,” he continued. “But it ain’t about me.” Then, without pausing to acknowledge the absurdity, he delivered an exuberant, bare-chested ode to the shiny rims on the wheels of vehicles he no longer had.

This was, in a twisted way, one of the most moving moments of Saturday night’s concert. The victim was the New Orleans rapper (and reality-TV veteran) known variously as Young City or Chopper, an aspiring star who joined loads of established ones inside the Philips Arena for a concert called Heal the Hood, a hip-hop fund-raiser for – and, in a few cases, by – victims of Hurricane Katrina. (A New York hurricane relief benefit is to be held Monday night at 10:30 at the B. B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan.) On Saturday, Atlanta’s famously competitive hip-hop stations had joined forces to promote an event that would be, as the jocks constantly reminded their listeners, historic.

And they were right. The night was organized by the tireless Mississippi rapper David Banner. He had corralled an impressive lineup of rappers, especially Southern rappers: Young Jeezy, T. I., Big Boi from OutKast and many others. The cause had everyone excited, but the “because” had everyone even more excited: the night was made possible by the extraordinary continuing success of Southern hip-hop.

No other event has ever mobilized so many rappers so quickly. Just about everyone heard Kanye West’s impassioned claim that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Fewer know that some stars (like T. I. and Fat Joe) hit the radio airwaves for impromptu telethons. Others, like Paul Wall, led clothing drives. And yet others, like Eminem, wrote sizable checks. Rappers from the fertile New Orleans hip-hop scene responded particularly gracefully: Juvenile was one who lost his home, but he plays down his own story, focusing instead on those who lost much more.

Even by these standards, David Banner’s response has been extraordinarily energetic. He says he turned his tour bus into a relief truck for victims on the Gulf Coast. (“I got back to Mississippi before our government did, with food and supplies,” he says.) And since then, he has turned his charitable foundation, Heal the Hood, into a disaster-relief clearinghouse.

From all this came the idea for the Heal the Hood concert, a small benefit that ballooned into one of the year’s most important hip-hop shows. A few hours before it started, Banner was in a small hotel room, wearing flip-flops and socks with a tight tank top that turned his enormous, shoulder-to-shoulder tattoo into a crossword clue: starts with an M, ends with an PI, lots of letters in between.

David Banner has a birth name that might be even better than his stage name. He is Lavell Crump, a Mississippi native and a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge. He renamed himself after the “The Incredible Hulk,” and he clearly relishes playing the part of the superhero. In 2003, he released both his major-label solo debut, “Mississippi: The Album” (SRC/Universal), as well as its sequel, “MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water” (SRC/Universal).

Those albums established him as a wildly versatile and often thrilling rapper and producer, careering from the anatomically minded club hit “Like a Pimp” to the slow-motion gospel moan, “Cadillac on 22s.” On Tuesday he is to release his far-reaching but uneven new album, “Certified” (SRC/Universal). But he’d rather talk about the Gulf Coast. “If this would have happened in New York,” he says, “water probably wouldn’t be on the ground now. And the president would have been there the next day.”

Rappers are often criticized for their perceived greed, but as Young City’s bittersweet boasts made clear, being flashy doesn’t mean forgetting where you came from; in fact, it can be a way of remembering. Not so coincidentally, the impoverished New Orleans neighborhoods that were hit so hard by Katrina are the same impoverished neighborhoods that popularized the term “bling bling,” the name of the 1998 breakthrough hit for the New Orleans rapper B. G.

On Saturday, contradictions like that were on display all night. The Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy thrilled the crowd with his addictive rhymes about life as a drug dealer. “Look, I’m tellin’ you, man/ If you get jammed up don’t mention my name,” he rapped, in a drawl thick enough to make the lines rhyme. Then he abruptly switched directions for a startling and effective hypothetical. “This could have been us in Atlanta right now, living in this building,” he said, and suddenly the arena looked very different.

The night’s program began with gospel music and ended with Nelly, a not-quite-Southerner (he’s from St. Louis), who asked, “If we don’t heal our own hoods, who will?” In between came five hours of entertaining and sometimes ragged earnestness, shamelessness and exuberance; the crowd was appreciative, if somewhat subdued.

T. I., who has one of the South’s most elegant rhyme styles, used his set to showcase his group, P$C, which makes a solid major-label debut tomorrow with “25 to Life ” (Atlantic); he also insulted his main rival, whom he didn’t name. (Let’s follow his example.) “If you can’t put nothing up for the cause, I don’t wanna hear it,” he said.

The Tennessee pioneers 8Ball & MJG showed off their tough but smooth style; Big Boi spit motor-mouthed rhymes with his Purple Ribbon crew; the emerging Atlanta group D4L came armed with gaudy, infectious rhymes and gaudier (and, let’s hope, less infectious) outfits.

And then, of course, there was David Banner himself. His set included a shirtless romp through “Gangster Walk” and a besuited (and then, by the end, shirtless) version of his sex-rap “Play,” both from the new album. And when it came time for “Like a Pimp,” he found a way to deliver a topical introduction. “Bush is giving his homeboys Halliburton the rebuilding contracts to our cities,” he said, continuing, “Bush is the biggest pimp.”

Banner also made a heartfelt plea to the evacuees. “I need y’all to be sure that you go back home,” he said, finding a new twist on his usual message of hometown pride. “They been waiting to tear our ghettos down and separate us from our land.”

Hours later, when the concert was over, Banner could still be found signing autographs and posing for pictures with a handful of the fans who remained. As he no doubt knows, the hard work is just beginning: after a concert this size, there will be lots of scrutiny of his foundation.

It’s true that this concert coincides with the release of his new album, and it’s true that the Heal the Hood campaign has given him more exposure than he has ever had. But skeptics should know this: Banner spent most of Saturday in front of microphones of one kind or another. And all day long, he resisted the temptation to advertise his new album.

Teachers’ salaries and affect on students

Q & A: Teachers’ salaries and their affect on students”

“Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers” is the provocative title of a new book that attempts to address such issues as teacher salaries and what effect their pay has on students.

The book includes firsthand accounts of teachers’ efforts to make ends meet, arguments why a substantial raise for teachers is necessary and case studies of schools around the nation that have undertaken salary reform.

Published by the New Press, the book is co-written by Dave Eggers, author of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” journalist and teacher Daniel Moulthrop, and Nínive Clements Calegari, founding executive director of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing center in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Calegari discussed teachers and their work in two telephone interviews last week.

The militarization/whitewashing of New Orleans aka New Oraq

From Democracy Now!: Militarization of New Orleans [read the transcript, listen or watch streaming video on the Democracy Now! web site.

Jeremy Scahill reports from Louisiana on the invasion of mercenaries from Blackwater, B.A.T.S., and Israeli paramilitary (former members of Shin Biet, GSS, and IDF) into New Orleans and the how the US government is handing out contracts to Republican cronies. Scahill also reports that the business community in New Orleans is discussing how the economic and racial demographics of the city can be change to reduce the number of poor and black residents.

“I mean, what they’re really trying to do is to settle the poor and the African-American populations of New Orleans elsewhere. And to make New Orleans a nice, white city, for white, rich businessmen. There’s no other way to put it. That’s exactly what we’re seeing right now. They want to take areas for instance like the ninth ward and turn them into big — you know, Wal-Mart type neighborhoods. In fact, we heard mayor Nagin talk yesterday about how one of the first things they want to do is set up a gigantic Wal-Mart so people returning can have a place to shop in New Orleans. This hurricane is the greatest thing to happen to Wal-Mart since the superstore. And this is a very serious racist series of actions that we’re seeing here right now. This is has everything to do with class and everything to do with race, and it’s very, very frightening. And yes, we attended a conference where grassroots activists are talking about a plan for rebuilding New Orleans, but it’s on right now, and they’re not a part of it. The people that are a part of it are old-time Louisiana white Republican families working in conjunction with their friend, mayor Ray Nagin, and there’s no other way to put it. They love Ray Nagin. He’s pro-business. He’s their guy.

Look at the comments of James Rice, a local businessman, who is one of the leaders of the private Audubon Place, the gated community. The only privately owned in the city of New Orleans. He told The Wall Street Journal, “Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way, demographically, geographically and politically. I’m not just speaking for myself here. The way we have been living is not going to happen again or we’re out.”

Capitalists: “Impeach Bush”

There’s lots of anti-Bush rhetoric to be found in the media these days, but this column by Paul Craig Roberts caught my attention for a couple of reasons.

First, the column appeared in both The Chicago Tribune (and other MSM outlets via Creators Syndicate) and the muckraking newletter Counterpunch, which is edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair’s. Strange bedfellows.

Second, and more importantly, Roberts is not a Democrat/liberal/moderate, but someone with right-wing bona fides that are, well, unimpeachable.

For example, Roberts is the John M. Olin fellow at the Institute for Political Economy, research fellow at the Independent Institute and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. A former editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, he writes a political commentary column for Creators Syndicate. He also writes a monthly economics column for Investors Business Daily. In 1992, he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 1993, he was ranked as one of the top seven journalists by the Forbes Media Guide.

So, when I guy like Roberts says impeach Bush now, it’s a matter of life and death, you pay attention. (It’s not not the same as Bill Maher saying Bush must go.) Roberts says the Bush administration is “the most incompetent government in American history,” and says the “neo-conservatives” must go.

Lot’s of folks would agree, but the question becomes who would fill the void? That’s where differences in the anti-Bush camps immediately crop up. Here’s a bit from Roberts’ column:

“The destruction of New Orleans is the responsibility of the most incompetent government in American history and perhaps in all history. Americans are rapidly learning that they were deceived by the superpower hubris. The powerful US military cannot successfully occupy Baghdad or control the road to the airport–and this against an insurgency based in only 20% of the Iraqi population. Bush’s pointless war has left Washington so pressed for money that the federal government abandoned New Orleans to catastrophe.

The Bush administration is damned by its gross incompetence. Bush has squandered the lives and health of thousands of people. He has run through hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars. He has lost America’s reputation and its allies. With barbaric torture and destruction of our civil liberty, he has stripped America of its inherent goodness and morality. And now Bush has lost America’s largest port and 25 percent of its oil supply. Why? Because Bush started a gratuitous war egged on by a claque of crazy neoconservatives who have sacrificed America’s interests to their insane agenda.

The neoconservatives have brought these disasters to all Americans, Democrat and Republican alike. Now they must he held accountable. Bush and his neoconservatives are guilty of criminal negligence and must be prosecuted.”

Maher to W: “Take a Hint”

One of Maher’s New Rules: America must recall the president.

[Check out the streaming video and get all the “new rules” and see the new line of greeting cards from the Bush administration:

Streaming Video in Real media format

Video in Windows media format]

“That’s what this country needs. A good, old-fashioned, California-style recall election! Complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses and action film stars. And just like Schwarzenegger’s predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so unpopular, he must defend his jog against…Russell Crowe. Because at this point, I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. In fact, let’s have only phone throwers. Naomi Campbell can be the vice-president!

Now, I kid, but seriously, Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you anymore. There’s no more money to spend. You used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard’s bare, the credit card’s maxed out, and no one is speaking to you: mission accomplished! Now it’s time to do what you’ve always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It’s time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman?!

Now, I know what you’re saying. You’re saying that there’s so many other things that you, as president, could involve yourself in…Please don’t. I know, I know, there’s a lot left to do. There’s a war with Venezuela, and eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote. But, sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You’ve performed so poorly I’m surprised you haven’t given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man.

Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans…Maybe you’re just not lucky!

I’m not saying you don’t love this country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he’s saying is, “Take a hint.”

View today’s social studies movie here: After you’ve watched the movie, rate your community on these four scales:

View today’s social studies movie here:

After you’ve watched the movie, rate your community on these four scales: