Bill Cala: High-stakes testing is failing

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100711/OPINION02/7110322/1039/High-stakes-testing-is-failing

As New York state geared up for the first administration of the fourth-grade English Language Arts tests in 1998, along with a group of national researchers, I warned that ubiquitous implementation of high-stakes standardized tests would result in a watered-down curriculum and a lack of attention to social studies, science, music and the arts.

Additionally, we could expect a significant increase in dropouts (especially among the poor and children of color) and a massive disenfranchisement of English Language Learners and special education students.



There was not then nor today one study that demonstrates that standardized tests measure anything other than a student's potential score on the next standardized test.


Throwing all caution and common sense to the wind, policymakers ignored all evidence and adopted standardized tests for grades 3 through 8, and in New York five Regents exams became the gatekeeper to a high school diploma.



None of the tests given in New York is vetted by validity studies. In other words, there is no proof whatsoever that the tests assess what children learn in the classroom.
As we fast-forward to 2010, what do we have to show for more than a decade-long obsession with tests?

In New York, English Language Learners went from the highest diploma-earning sub-group to the lowest. Less than 20 percent of special education students earn a Regents diploma while IEP diplomas (certificates of completion, not a high school diploma) skyrocketed. GED diplomas have dramatically increased (a recent study shows that GED graduates earn no more than dropouts).
Graduation rates have not increased in over a decade, and less than one-third of African-American and Latino males earn a New York state diploma.

Charter schools are burgeoning, siphoning money and resources from regular public schools. This phenomenon has become a national directive (the federal Race to the Top educational reform initiative) under the Obama administration that is not supported by research. In a national study of charter schools (CREDO, Stanford University 2009) 83 percent of charter schools performed no better or worse than their regular public counterparts. Race to the Top has states adopting laws to lift charter caps and tie teacher evaluation to standardized test scores. The reward for lifting the charter cap and merit pay is the possibility of up to $700 million for state coffers ($122 per child in New York). Given the lack of evidence to support the efficacy of merit pay and the proliferation of charters, the requirements needed to win federal funds are tantamount to extortion.


The keystone of this entire movement is the use of flawed standardized tests. Performance-based instruction and assessment is well-documented on the national, state and local level with a 40-year track record of success yet ignored on a wholesale basis (http://performanceassessment.org). The time is long overdue for policymakers to pay attention to the research and provide an educational framework that inspires and motivates children rather than beat them with the club of unsound practices.



Cala, a former Rochester schools interim superintendent, is co-founder, Joining Hearts and Hands (www.joiningheartsandhands.org), which supports educational needs of African children.

Bill Cala: Out of Africa

Jambo, dear friends!

And so another mission trip to Africa is coming to a close.  From providing
shoes to countless children in three provinces in two countries, to the
initiation of a new goat cooperative in Katito, Kenya, Joanne and I feel that
much has been accomplished.

We have been working on the bids for the second phase of Hannah’s Hope and
expect that construction of two additional classrooms will begin in December.

Under discussion and consideration is creating a women's self-help group in Homa
Bay in conjunction with the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

Talks are underway for the construction of classrooms at Lufumbo in Western
Province of Kenya and Usambara Girls School in Tanzania.

We have partnered with the Rotary Clubs of Kisumu, Kenya and Walkill, New York
(one hour north of New York City) for an international grant to provide three
wells.  Rotary International has approved two wells in Usenge and one well in
Katito, Kenya.  Usenge is a very poor rural community that is in desperate need
of water, education and community services.  Together with the Christian Women’s
Partners of Kisumu, Joining Hearts and Hands will be discussing the possibility
of a community outreach center in Usenge.  This outreach center will provide
counseling of all types (HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, health and so on).  I have
attached two photos of the Usenge area.  If you look to the left of the photo of
the pond, you can see a woman collecting drinking water.  Women must travel for
miles to reach this pond which is very polluted.  Notice the green tint.

The second photo is at the site of one of the wells and the potential community
center.  Joanne and I are talking to nursery school children at that location.

Sincere and heart-felt thanks for your never-ending support.  Your generosity
has empowered the people of Kenya and Tanzania.


From Africa to you with thanks,


Bill and Joanne Cala



Make you tax deductible donations to:

Joining Hearts and Hands
9 Fieldston Grove
Fairport, NY  14450

www.joiningheartsandhands.org

2 Attached Images

Out of Africa....Final Edition by Bill and Joanne Cala

To All of Our Dear Friends,

We hope this letter finds you well and in good health. We cannot believe that it is already June, as we have been on the road continuously since we arrived in Kenya in mid-May. We know that all of the beautiful spring and early summer flowers are now in bloom in Rochester. Here in Kenya there are many flowering trees and bushes in bloom and in the early morning the unfamiliar bird calls wake us early. Generally the heavy rains subside by early June, but due to so many changes in the world climate, traditional patterns are not holding. Every night we have had rains which replenish the water storage tanks, but tonight we couldn’t believe what we saw. About 5 pm the dark clouds appeared and we knew that the air was heavy so it was mostly likely another evening rain. But within minutes the winds rustled and then the lightening and thunder started. We ran up to our room to close the windows, we gasped at each other when we saw frozen hail pound down on the metal roof and window sills. We are on the equator, it was about 85 degrees Fahrenheit and there was frozen hail like Rochester!

Since our earlier newsletter, we have been visiting each of our 65 scholarship students. Sometimes we travel three hours on very difficult roads to see one student, but in each case it is so worth every effort. When we visit, we meet with the Principal and often the lead teacher of the students to advocate for our orphan scholarship students. Then we ask that they be released from class for about 15 minutes so we can hug them, tell then they are dearly loved especially by their American sponsors and give them a small package filled with dormitory toiletries and supplies. We encourage them to do their very best at school and ask them if they are experiencing any difficulties. If they are, we fight vigorously to represent them and solve the problems. You see our scholarship students mostly live in boarding schools and do not have parents visiting them and advocating for them on the once per month student visitation days. Also during our visits, we take lots of photos for our dear American sponsors, so they can see how they are faring.

In the United States we have so much to be thankful for. Our children and grandchildren are assured of a solid and secure education Kindergarten through Grade 12. In Kenya, there are so many fees attached to education and the average working parent is very lucky to be employed and making $450 - $700 per year while secondary education costs at least $400 per year. Kenyans have a choice: Eat or send their kids to school!

This day in Kenya was Madaraka Day or the celebration of Kenya’s independence from colonization in 1963. Most major businesses and schools were closed. This was a good opportunity for us to meet families in Western Province from the Iranda and Lufumbo area who are involved in our IGLA (Income Generating Learning Activity) projects. We talked and visited with two families, but we will tell you about Francis and his family today. Francis is a member of the Lufumbo school management committee. We have known him for two years. At each school committee meeting he is selected by the chairman to say opening and closing prayers as he is a very spiritual man. Francis is strikingly handsome and always attends school meetings in a crisp clean shirt and neat slacks. By looking at him, you would think that he is a more advantaged Kenyan than most. A visit to his home really brought us back to African realities. Francis does have a decent size plot of land to raise a few chickens and to plant some crops from which to live, however, his home is made of mud with a tin roof. It is the size of many of our outdoor tool sheds in America. Like Francis, the house is neat and tidy as are the grounds. All around the house are 4 x 4 foot plots with different crops in each square. This is called square foot gardening. Some plots are circular, some square and some rectangular all bordered with earthen bricks. Francis said that he has given the gardens different shapes to add beauty. Truly, he succeeded as the area was as stunning as an English garden (only edible and life-sustaining!). Francis lives with his wife, two children and his elderly mother. The extended family lives in homes adjacent to their land.

Francis is the first participant in our dairy goat and breeding project called Shiebu. Today we visited to see the final construction of the raised shed that will house the 6 goats (5 does and 1 buck). We wish we were able to send you a photo of Francis, his family and this remarkable structure made of local materials. We will do so when we return to the States and the technology is a bit better. I lost count of how many children and adults were following us as we went from one area to another inside the goat pen. The line of children grew and grew as we left the goat structure and set out for the field of crops that were planted to feed the goats. Odera, (secretary of Shiebu) and Bill were at the head of the pack as we walked toward the plantation of caliandra trees. Bill stopped for a moment and turned to look at the path behind him and the line of children and adults was as long as a football field! How proud this small community was to be the first in the area to be able to raise and breed dairy goats that will support 12 families! It was a very moving moment.

After our tour, Joanne asked Francis if he sells any of his crops. Francis said that for the most part, the crops are to feed his family. When he has extra, he goes to market and sells his surplus. With the few shillings he makes he is able to buy items such as soap and other essentials.

This beautiful, proud, spiritual, grateful man is providing for his family and is loved by the community. He is a role model in his village as he is looked up to as a loving and caring husband, father and provider. We were also moved by the power and depth of this Kenyan family.

When we give presentations on Africa in the U.S., we often talk about the difficulty of returning home and “living large” American style after seeing what people in the rest of the world must endure and sacrifice in order to survive. When we return later this month, we will be faced again with the dilemma of riches. We will find comfort knowing that so many of you continue to support the less fortunate and that you are giving hope to thousands of people in Africa by providing them with a chance to be self-sufficient.

Thank you so very much for enabling us to bring your comfort to so many here in Africa. Without exaggeration, you are literally saving lives in a time when too many Africans do not know where they will get their next meal.

Asante Sana (Thank you very much)

Mungu Awabariki (God bless all of you)

Until America…….

Bill and Joanne Cala

Joining Hearts and Hands

9 Fieldston Grove

Fairport, NY 14450 USA

www.joiningheartshands.org

In Kenya: Novelty Guest House

Kisumu, Kenya

Cell in Kenya: 254- 0735-359989

Brizard readies for superintendent job

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071124/NEWS01/711240343/1002/NEWS

Gary McLendon
Staff writer

(November 24, 2007) — Jean-Claude Brizard will have a lot of moves to make when he becomes superintendent of the City School District in January. First he has to get here.

The transition from interim Superintendent William Cala to Brizard is a work in progress.

Brizard's contract negotiations are still under way. The school board must officially vote to name him superintendent Thursday. And his starting date, projected to be Jan. 2, is not yet final.

Weeks before that, he and Cala will publicly answer questions about the school district's leadership transition.

The forum is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 13.

About to embark on his first job as a superintendent, Brizard, 44, comes with ambitious goals and enthusiastic supporters — but also controversy and criticism.

Among his strongest supporters is Tim Quinn, managing director for The Broad Academy, a national superintendent training program.

Quinn said Brizard was easily in the top 10 percent of the academy's hundreds of graduates.

"He has a passion for this work and serving underserved kids," Quinn said. "He has a comprehensive understanding of not only what is important to do this work, but how to do it on the ground."

Brizard will need to.

In Rochester, which leads the state in poverty and violence rates, children dodge tragedy in the streets before and after school and live with it at home. The school district's 39 percent four-year graduation rate is the lowest in the state.

In a telephone interview this week, Brizard amplified points he made during a public forum last month about improving the academic outcomes of the district's nearly 34,000 students.

"When I look at Rochester, I see the biggest issues are in grades seven through 12. I see huge achievement loss in grades six and seven," Brizard said. "I know what works in terms of raising graduation rates."

Brizard said he intends to attack educational shortfalls at their roots; increase the number of children enrolled in prekindergarten; support children particularly in grades four through nine; hold principals accountable for meeting students' academic needs; and improve the graduation rate by focusing on technical career skills and helping students for whom English is not their first language.

Brizard also said he would bolster school security and encourage parents to become partners with schools.

Unpopular closure

Brizard is leaving the New York City Department of Education, where he has been the senior executive for policy and sustainability for less than a year; and before that was Region 6 superintendent, in charge of 100 K-12 schools with 100,000 students. That position was phased out by a district restructuring less than two years after Brizard began the job. While in that position, Brizard closed Samuel J. Tilden High School and phased in two smaller high schools within the same building.

Although Tilden's academic performance was mediocre, it had one of the few Haitian-Creole bilingual education programs in New York City. Community members and school staff said the school was not performing worse than some schools that were not being closed and asserted that district leaders weren't giving the school's new principal enough time to implement academic improvements.

Tilden bilingual education teacher John Lawhead said that closing the school would shift high-risk students, who were recent immigrants, to overcrowded Haitian-Creole bilingual programs at three other Brooklyn high schools.

Lawhead said Brizard represented ineffectual leadership in an "extremely top-down" operation. "He was kind of a front man for Superintendent Joel Klein."

"He came into our school saying the school was to close. It was obvious he didn't have a role in the decision at all," Lawhead said. "I can't describe how out of touch he was with people's feelings here, staff members, people who had gone to the school, people in the community."

Brizard said he played a large role in deciding to close Tilden. He said there was "absolutely no truth" to the charge that he, or the district, autocratically flipped the school upside down.

"I talked to teachers about how they felt about the school. We found hard-working teachers," he said, adding that he also found a number of apathetic people in a variety of roles who had given up.

"We saw the projections (for school academic performance). The trajectory did not show any substantial gains possible. It was slow incremental gains."

Brizard, who is a native of Haiti, said that as a teenager he pulled himself up through help from New York's bilingual public school program.

Brizard said he didn't close Tilden without first finding a way to bypass the practice of not providing English Language Learner programs in new high schools for the first two years.

One of the new schools "will replace the seats for the Haitian kids," said Brizard. "We did that at another school. At South Shore (high school) we made sure to replace what existed."

Lawhead said English Language Learner classes are continuing in the new schools and between 200 and 300 older students may graduate. However, he added that under the transition students won't have as many subject classes in their native language. He said the school has seen "a lot of kids transfer."

Qualms and praise

In Rochester, Brizard's bid for the superintendency hasn't been without political turbulence. And the school board's vote to officially name him on Thursday may not be unanimous.

Cynthia Elliott, the only school board member who chose not to attend the news conference announcing Brizard's selection, said she was not opposed to him but wanted to retain Cala for a few more months, perhaps as a deputy superintendent, so he could finish the cleanup job he's done in the district.

"I have until the 29th to change this," said Elliott, referring to her push to name Cala deputy superintendent.

Board Vice President Malik Evans said Elliott's request to keep Cala has not been discussed.

Two board members-elect, Melisza Campos and Allen Williams, said they were allowed to sit in on board discussions about superintendent candidates — and have nothing against Brizard — but would have liked to have had a vote.

"I am somewhat disappointed I didn't have much of a role other than as an observer for the most part," Williams said. "I felt we should be casting our votes because we will be working with the new superintendent for the next four years and two of (the current board members) won't be working with him at all."

Campos said she wished "the decision could have been postponed until Allen and I were on the board."

Brizard has the support of most of the current board members as well as of Mayor Robert Duffy, Cala and state Education Department Commissioner Richard Mills.

"I'm going to welcome him as a partner. ... I would hope that myself and Mr. Brizard can form a very strong working relationship and again put kids first," Duffy said.

Mills said: "He's a very committed urban educator, very experienced in New York City. He had a good record in turning around a high school, one that was low-performance. Rochester had a choice of good leaders. Very often, people act as if leadership is scarce. It's not. I think they picked a good education leader."

Brizard, meanwhile, says, "we're very close on a contract" — and he is readying himself for Rochester.

He'll soon be house-hunting and plans to marry fiancée Katherine Brooke Stafford this summer. An education researcher, she currently is the director of strategy and evaluation for the New York City school district and plans to look for work here.

Brizard, a commercially licensed pilot, said he's also looking to join a flying club.

He'll have to make trips to Long Island to see his daughter, Nyah, 6, who will continue living with her mother.

Brizard said cruising at 5,000 to 10,000 feet in the sky is relaxing — but also relates to running a school district.

"When I was doing my instrument reading, my instructor told me: 'Before a crash, there's a previous sequence of events. You have to stay ahead of the airplane, always looking to see what is coming at you.'

"Very often, when we look a district that's been declining for years, it happened because you did not see the signs."

GMCLENDN@DemocratandChronicle.com