The New Orleans Imperative says:
July 22, 2012 at 4:54 pm
While the New York story played out differently because of the players. local and state politics the script for the wrong-headed school reformers is basically the same. In New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina we changed the criteria for failing schools thus declaring more than 100 public schools as failing and turned it over to the free market (charters). Just like New York the reforms created a failure, seven years later the New Orleans reformed school district ranked 69 out of 70 of all the school districts in the state taking mandated standardized tests last spring. Equally as disturbing, the high poverty schools in the reformed school district in New Orleans scored lower than the high poverty schools in several cities across Louisiana in 11 of 12 areas tested. The bottom line is that despite the billions of dollars from the federal government and foundations, firing of all those old bad teachers, no teacher union and no local elected school board the New Orleans reforms failed miserably.
But despite their failure, the Governor and the state department of education is taking its failed model to school districts across the state and have recently passed a ill fated voucher program that will take put more state funds in the private sector and fail more children.
Unbelievable but True!!!

The City Council is expected to approve a question for voters to decide
on Nov. 6 regarding a mayoral appointed Board of Education versus the
current system of electing members.

http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/will-voters-approve-a-mayoral-appointed-school-board/#more-35346
~
If Mayor Finch wants to appoint the BOE, he’s accountable for the test scores.

The City Council is expected to approve a question for voters to decide
on Nov. 6 regarding a mayoral appointed Board of Education versus the
current system of electing members.

http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/will-voters-approve-a-mayoral-appointed-school-board/#more-35346
~
If Mayor Finch wants to appoint the BOE, he’s accountable for the test scores.

With native English speakers we use the polite word ‘poverty’ as a proxy for a number of at-risk conditions involving the home life. Poverty is often a symbol of dysfunction.

Avon should never have lower scores than Hartford. Hartford will never have scores equal to Avon.

Comparing like groups of students is important to have any meaning. Not just socio-economic groups but historical testing groups. I still propose each class be given a number that reflects the the average number of years students failed to pass their Mastery Test (The Social Promotion Index). An 8th grade teacher in Avon dealing with a class that averages under.25 for the social promotion Index can’t be compared with a teacher in high poverty area with kids with a 4.5 on the Social Promotion index–indicating they were socially promoted 4.5 times out of 6.

Vouchers will give districts the flexibility they need to better serve their community by involving private, parochial and alt education.

Regional consolidation in Hartford to eliminate much of the administrative overlap between Hartford and the surrounding geo-contiguous cities would be a great cost savings. One CREC to rule them all and one regional bus system.

To be fair, using the new adaptive testing format (I’ve used it in technical exams for computer programming and networking) will take several years before there’s any real confidence that the adaptive testing can be compared to standard test scores. It gets more complex if students are given the choice between a standard test or an adaptive test and mix them up in various subject areas. 

I’m not a big fan of Dan Malloy’s changes as they read more like changes for the sake of change. OTOH the lobbying done by the unions to block the ‘Race to the Top’ funding and failure to come up with a credible application for $300 million in Federal funds leaves me with no choice but to say “no” to any proposed tax increases for those poor, picked on teachers. Cough up the $300 million first. Better yet, let’s see a RICO investigation. Or vouchers and put an end to the union monopoly on education. It clearly does not work and is not sustainable at the present rate of growth.

Check out this video on YouTube:

ALEC is working to ensure that public education dollars get diverted to private profits. Their approach is working — for them. Not so much for the students who pay the price in the form of a subpar education and poor performance.