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th their intended class due to the new math the district s reluctance to use the flexibility granted by the georgia department of education and the stubbornness of the powers that be in holding onto some facade of being a world class school district i can only imagine the outrage of the parents who had plans for their kids to get the hope scholarship to offset the costs of college tuition because they must maintain a 3 0 gpa in their core classes e g math language arts science and social studies a kid who has failed one or more of the integrated math classes can pretty much kiss their hopes for hope goodbye now silly me i was only worried about my son graduating from high school before he turned 21 where are my priorities stay tuned because i do plan to acquire the numbers broken down by ayp subgroup of students in gwinnett who failed the eocts for math i ii and iii before and after summer school 33 857328 84 019911 posted august 15 2011 by moniseseward in uncategorized tagged with achievement gap adequate yearly progress ayp ayp subgroups broad foundation broad prize in urban education education reform eli broad foundation georgia georgia public schools gwinnett county schools homeschooling hope scholarship integrated math curriculum j alvin wilbanks title i urban education what can i say that hasn t already been said 2 comments disclaimer i tried to avoid writing this because i knew i could go on and on i suggest you only read this if you have time to read from start to finish you ve been warned well aside from the childhood favorite i told you so i am no longer a child but i ll be damned if i didn t think that exact thought in my head when what i and anyone else with common sense already knew the final report regarding the cheating allegations within the atlanta public school system was released there was in fact cheating going on during the previous years crct administrations and by cheating i do not mean students looking on other students test sheets i mean teachers and administrators erased answers in an effort to boost the schools and district s test scores and ensure that both made adequate yearly progress ayp quite honestly i do not know where to begin with this tomfoolery on the one hand you have the students who thought they passed the test on their own merit i am sure some of them did but on the other hand you have teachers and administrators who violated testing protocol to ensure that their school made ayp read they cheated to make sure they got bonuses and kept their jobs some staff members even resorted to cheating parties where they took answer sheets to the home of an administrator during the weekend to change answers so now we have not one but two testing violations 1 changing answers on a testing sheet and 2 removing test documents from the school building without the authority to do so i decided against blogging about it see how long that lasted and opted to tweet a few thoughts instead it s possible very likely that everyone involved meaning teachers and administrators will lose their licenses and or face stricter penalties the state education officials need a scapegoat kathy augustine has been placed on leave as the new superintendent of the desoto independent school district and local media sources are in maui trying to locate beverly hall and no this is not a soap opera i am still in the process of writing my blog the truly sad part in this entire matter is that no one will address the issues and instances of bullying and intimidation suffered at the hands of administrators area superintendents and the like i am sure state officials will find other ways to tighten test security however the damage not completely irreparable has already been done someone needs to do the right ethical and difficult thing by addressing school culture and leadership in this case lack thereof ethical and moral leadership but i know that people in authority roles are more interested in making friends political allies and forging mutually beneficial monetary partnerships as i stated earlier officials need a sacrificial lamb in this case they got 178 of them now what grade inflation scandal those of us who have ever served time pun intended in a classroom already know that pressure exists to inflate grades to boost passing rates and g p a s i guess we need to wait another 5 10 years before officials catch on to that one but i digress parting thought i dodged a bullet 33 857328 84 019911 posted july 12 2011 by moniseseward in uncategorized tagged with administrators aps atlanta atlanta public schools beverly hall crct criterion referenced competency test desoto independent school district desoto isd edreform education education reform georgia schools high stakes testing kathy augustine metro atlanta nclb no child left behind standardized tests teachers teachers union test cheating urban education the results are in but don t celebrate just yet leave a comment earlier this week the georgia department of education released the overall results for the georgia high school graduation tests ghsgt which will become a thing of the past for the freshman class of 2011 read performance for the state and districts as a whole not the results for ayp subgroups those results will not be made public until mid to late july i won t go into my p o v on phasing out the test here instead i will save that for another day when i find myself putting off struggling to write today we got a glimpse of the overall performance on the state s criterion referenced competency test crct which is administered to kids in grades 3 8 those in grades 3 5 and 8 are required to pass the math and reading tests in order to be promoted to the next grade as i read the article in the ajc and maureen downey s ajcgetschooled blog i didn t even bother to dissect the scores or pop a bottle of champagne in celebration of the what they want you to think is good news instead i pulled a few snip its from the article tweeted them and added my own 02 which all follow below educationceo theparentseducator math scores highlight crct gains ajc com ajc com news math scor georgia crct testing education educationceo theparentseducator so they are spinning the test score results to say new math curriculum might be working how do we explain scores for h s students georgia educationceo theparentseducator and why in the heck are schools preparing for the test at beginning of year let teachers teach test prep is not necessary educationceo theparentseducator one student said a few questions were poorly written or confusing http ow ly 5eoaz this comment from a student is especially troubling educationceo theparentseducator i won t celebrate crct results until i see the ayp subgroup breakdown which takes them forever to release georgia and that last tweet is the motivation for writing this post we cannot and should not measure everything our kids are supposed to learn based on one test especially since that test does not measure growth and we cannot distract the public from the real issue the ever present and pesky opportunity gap yes my 4th grader passed all four sections on the first administration i had no doubts that she would pass but each day she came home and she said she was tired of testing she said the same thing last year boy wonder was one tired soul too as a high schooler he had to take end of course tests eoct in three subjects as well as final exams in all six classes that s just testing overkill i will credit state superintendent john barge for phasing out the ghsgt and instead using the eoct as 20 of the final grade however we still have to address the obnoxiously obese elephants in the room the new math curriculum and the toxic fall out including 1 the drop in ghsgt math scores 2 increase in the number of students taking remediation credit recovery courses and 3 the number of students who will be disqualified from receiving the hope scholarship because their low math grade lowers their overall g p a in core classes only yep boy wonder now fits into two of the three afore mentioned categories because he failed integrated geometry and miserably i might add despite that setback he still managed to crank out a 3 1 g pa this year but more than likely he will be disqualified from receiving hope both the scholarship and actual hope but seriously when are we going to start doing the things necessary to actually eliminate the opportunity gap no i am not speaking in terms of closing it because anything that is closed can easily be reopened right when you eliminate something it is gone and has no chance of returning unless those in power create the conditions conducive for its return hmmmm marinate on that one for a minute or hour day week month i think that in order to eliminate the opportunity gap we all need to acknowledge the reasons why there is a gap to begin with unfortunately there are too many people who are uncomfortable with the truth would rather believe that everyone has had an equal opportunity at eradicating generations plural of illiteracy poverty and just overall lack of opportunity i didn t set out to change the world with this blog post instead i just want people to keep their eyes and ears open use discernment and common sense when people try to convince you that we are making considerable strides in education 33 857328 84 019911 posted june 9 2011 by moniseseward in uncategorized tagged with ajc ajcgetschooled ayp subgroups crct georgia georgia department of education ghsgt graduation rate high stakes testing hope scholarship john barge nclb no child left behind opportunity gap promotion testing a school for the kids it s still calling me leave a comment you know how you have this one thing you really really wanna do but no matter how well planned your plan is road blocks and obstacles always seem to find their way in your way sometimes the plan is so grand and the vision so intense that you can t sleep or you find yourself drawn to it at weird hours of the day there may have even been a time or five where you thought to hell with this it s a waste of my time i could be doing xyz with those 16 hours i spend researching writing making phone calls etc surely i can t be the only person who has felt that way at some point or another right when i get to feeling that way i start thinking about langston hughes a dream deferred poem what happens to a dream deferred does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or fester like a sore and then run does it stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet maybe it just sags like a heavy load or does it explode it may sound simple but that poem provides me with some motivation why because i don t want to ever get to the point where i sit around thinking i wonder what would have happened if life is too short and precious to be filled with ifs can i get an amen well my dream was to open a visual and performing arts charter school i know there are many people out there who are against charter schools but for some of us they are our only option i will add that i am against these faux non profit predators organizations opening up schools in low income and predominantly minority neighborhoods promising parents that their kids will succeed and go to college hell depending on your definition of succeed anyone can promise that furthermore i can take a bus load of kids to a college campus let them step foot on the campus and then proclaim that they went to college just when we thought the last thing our communities needed was a liquor store on every corner but i digress our organization is truly a grassroots group made up of parents black white latino etc teachers and community members we had the passion purpose vision and research bases covered we had no idea we d be expected to turn water to wine raise a ridiculously large sum of money in such a short time we were all discouraged and rightly so i do believe no such demands were placed on other groups that is when i decided to walk away after i raised more than my fair share of hell of course so when i learned of the georgia supreme court s ruling on the charter commission here is what i thought initially like i always say god don t like ugly and by ugly i mean the way our group was treated as well as how other grassroots groups were dismissed because they did not have the name recognition of emo cmo groups or because their boards actually reflected the communities they planned to serve yep that s how it went down even uglier then state school superintendent kathy cox chose not to address the issues charter commission members ignored emails as did the georgia charter schools association yep those organizations created to help charter school developers turned their backs on us they turned their backs on our kids i guess because our school model was not controversial enough to garner national attention we were not worthy of their support or even an offering of mediation ok i see you but now the entire education community sees you and your obvious lack of research and knowledge of the law even though the individual responsible for drafting the language has a law degree and graduated from tfa laughable but i digress so this whole experience desire to open a school with a well developed arts program is coming full circle now as i was speaking with a student who is also a single parent i learned about the arete scholars fund as it turns out people and businesses that owe taxes to the state of georgia can donate those funds to a scholarship fund to pay tuition at a private school hmmmm this is obviously a well kept secret or at least it was until i found out about it i shied away from opening a private school because i knew that the students i wanted to serve would not be able to afford private school tuition now there is a way to open this school without the bureaucracy and politics of public education most importantly i don t have to deal with short men with napoleon complexes who expect me to kiss their arses as if my how the tides have turned assembling a dream team of educators time to change the game dream not deferred just re imagined stay tuned 33 857328 84 019911 posted june 2 2011 by moniseseward in charter schools public education school choice tagged with arete scholarship fund arts education ayp ayp subgroups charter schools cmo education reform emo georgia charter school commission georgia charter schools association georgia tuition tax credit scholarship program gwinnett county schools kathy cox low income students nclb private school scholarships public education school choice 2011 12 school year in review i m still sane leave a comment with all the faux pas major screw ups this school year i naively thought the last 3 days would be peaceful and incident free just when i thought the universe was conspiring for my greater good i have yet another fire to extinguish with this school run by bumbling idiots no more than twenty minutes after i enter the house b...