Blog Archives

Testing the ELL Out of Children

11/28/2015

Another One Down...

"I'm another one down. Thankful for all you that continue to persevere."
—Kara Reeves, 5th Grade Math Teacher

"Another one down." That is what Memphis teacher, Kara Reeves posted to the Momma Bears Facebook page on Thanksgiving Day. She had just turned in her resignation to Shelby County Schools and wrote a heartbreaking blog telling us why she quit teaching in the middle of the school year.

I’m not going to be the messenger that tells my students that they have to take another test. I am not going to spend another class period telling them I cannot help them get through a test they don’t understand. They can get someone else to do that. It will kill my teaching soul to do it even one more time. Like all teachers, I have kids that read below grade level. I can’t help them though. I also have students that have only been in the country a few months. I can’t help them though. I even have students who don’t know our alphabet because their language is different than ours. I can’t help them though. And bless their hearts, they do it because I ask them to. Most of them would do absolutely anything I asked. They trust me and believe that what I am asking them to do is what is best for them.

Like this sweet teacher, Momma Bears are upset. We, too, are concerned about the harmful impact state mandated testing has on students who read below grade level, students who have only been in America a few months, and students who don't understand English because they speak a different language. And like Ms. Reeves, we think you need to know about it.

Our last blog revealed how students with learning disabilities have to fight for the text-to-speech accommodation on the new TNReady test. But they are not the only ones who struggle to read and are forced to take tests they don't understand. TNReady is a test that will be administered in English only to all students including English Language Learners (ELL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) students.

Accessing Students Who Don't Understand English

No child is spared from state mandated testing. Not children from other countries. Not children who can't speak English.

According to TNDOE's website: "Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, the department will transition from the ELDA assessment for EL students to the ACCESS for ELs assessment in order to determine English Language Proficiency Levels. This move will provide valuable results that serve as one criterion to aid in determining language proficiency for ELs. WIDA results will help guide decisions regarding student participation in content area classrooms without program support and state academic content assessments without accommodations. This assessment will also provide districts with information to aid in evaluating the effectiveness of EL programs."

Like the SBAC and PARCC common core assessments, ACCESS was created by a consortium of states and is now administered in multiple states. It is also an online assessment that requires 4th and 5th graders to type their answers for the writing assessment. Imagine third world refugee children who have been relocated to Tennessee and enrolled in public schools. These children may not even be literate in their native language. Yet, we expect them to take a test in English that requires them to use a computer and type on a keyboard?

If that were not bad enough, ACCESS is merely a precursor for even more testing. Scores on ACCESS determine whether an EL student is allowed to have any accommodations on TNReady. With this constant demand to test our most vulnerable students, no wonder Kara Reeves quit testing (er…we mean quit teaching). Teachers no longer get to decide if their students understand English well enough to meet the same expectations as other students. Now, we have state mandated tests to make that decision.

Ms. Reeves is not alone in her refusal to use her trusted status as a teacher to inflict harmful testing on her students. Last May, Diane Ravitch blogged about Mary King, a Pittsburgh teacher who refused to test her ELL students. Ms. King wrote, "It is my professional opinion that this experience will set my student back, that it will hurt his progress, but my professional opinion will never be weighed against the many requirements — federal, state and district-wide —which demand that these tests be given."

In the comment section of Diane Ravitch's blog, Deb Sherett says, "More power to you, Mary. You have my admiration and respect. These invalid tests measure nothing and help no one. They only serve to create a toxic environment for both students and teachers. The WIDA ACCESS test is one of the worst. When I taught ESL I was required to end services for an entire month in order to administer this travesty of a test. Hang in there, Mary and stay strong. If we stick together perhaps we can end this destructive malicious cycle of testing."

What Teachers Need to Know about ACCESS

Teachers and anyone else can access (pun intended) information on WIDA ACCESS here. The state will provide virtual training to Test Coordinators, Test Administrators, and Technology Coordinators. But the regional half-day trainings already took place on November 9, 11, and 13. Sadly, "there are no professional development sessions scheduled in Tennessee" and the webinar recording has not been added to the site.

But we have access to secret information that is not suppose to be posted on public websites or forums.

Nah, not really. We actually found this "SECURE & CONFIDENTIAL" document on TNDOE's public website. After reading it, we still are not sure what or how English proficiency is being tested to determine accommodations for TNReady. We sure hope teachers have better luck figuring it all out.

TNReady for IEP & 504 Accommodations?????

11/24/2015

In our last blog, we told you all about quirky new online TNReady testing platform. So, did you take the sample test? Better hurry if you didn't, links have a way of disappearing. But if you did take it, then you know what we mean about quirks.

Now, imagine a child with learning disabilities taking TN Ready.

Remember how common core requires kids to ground everything in evidence and provide multiple supports for every contention? Well, apparently that line of thought has now made its way into providing accommodations for SPED students while taking TNReady.

Students who are below reading level must now prove that they need "text-to-speech" (aka read-aloud) accommodation. And get this... An IEP or 504 plan may not be considered as sufficient proof. And that concerns Momma Bears!!!

An IEP team is made up of the students, their general education teacher, their special education teacher, a school administrator and their parents. The people who know this student and are in the best position to make decisions about this child's education. But now the state has told the schools that they better have a darn good reason to be giving this accommodation or else!! Or else what????

Or else the TN DOE can take the accommodation away or worse, invalidate the child's test score. This is very upsetting since these kids usually have a lot of test anxiety anyway. It would be a crying shame to put a child through this test for nothing.

So, what's a parent to do?

We reached out to some of the most voracious momma bears ever—the SPED advocates. And this is what they told us.

Parents need to prepare for IEP meetings by learning what criteria must be met in order to get the text-to-speech accommodation. And remember, you don't have to wait until your annual meeting. An IEP meeting can be called anytime. So what is the criteria for text-to-speech accommodation?

Take a look at what's in a TNDOE memo dated October 14, 2015 and let's break down each question.

Does the student have a documented decoding or fluency deficit which precludes access to printed text? If your child has an SLD in reading then the answer is yes.
Does the student have a goal to address deficit listed in the present level of educational performance? Again, if your child has an SLD in reading the answer better be yes. The IEP team should have addressed a goal for fluency and or decoding based on the Present Levels of Performance.
Is the student engaged in intense intervention to address specific deficit? Once again, if your child has an IEP then there should be goals for the reading deficit and in order to reach those goals your child should be in an intense intervention in a special education setting.
Is inability to access printed text included in the impact statement? Now, this one might be the one you need to address but it is easy to do. Check your child’s IEP, does the impact statement say your child struggles with reading but comprehension is high when content is read aloud? You need a statement similar to that.
Does the student need supported reading in core academic instruction? Does your child have read aloud for all of his/her classroom work and tests? Then this would also be a yes.

Got that? Text-to-speech requires a "yes" answer to all the above questions!! As long as the IEP passes the “stranger test” which means anyone can pick up the IEP and know exactly what the IEP is for and has passed all the criteria from above, the school should be good but we as parents need to make sure everything is covered.

Don't let schools say no to the text-to-speech accommodation without actually analyzing the situation. This could have a dramatic impact on your child's grades especially if your child is in high school. We do not want a situation where students reading below grade level are forced to read at grade level, or above on a test that will count up to 25% of their final grade.

Alarming info about TNREADY testing bomb

11/22/2015

Tick-tick-tick... is your child READY? Because they are about to bomb a major high-stakes test called TNREADY. When we say, "bomb," we mean fail.

This year, the state of TN is spending more money than they've ever spent before on a brand new test. Well, it isn’t actually a new test, but more like a recycled test since TN leased the test questions from Utah’s old SAGE test. Anyway, they stuck these expensive questions from Utah in a confusing test platform created by a company in North Carolina, and are now rebranding it as homegrown in TN. This test is called TNREADY.

Teachers across Tennessee kept alerting Momma Bears to concerns about the new TNREADY test. They said TNREADY is intentionally confusing for students, way too advanced for each grade level by several years, they said their schools have been and will continue to be disrupted by the testing schedules and lack of adequate technology, the teachers worry that higher numbers of students are predicted to fail it, and they complained that TNREADY requires even more precious class time to prepare for and administer than previous tests.

So, some of our Momma Bears bloggers spent a precious Saturday taking the sample TNREADY tests and trying to get answers. Here is what we observed on the Sample TNREADY computerized tests:

Difficult to read passages: A tiny 4-inch scroll window to read long passages of text. This requires good mouse skills and eye tracking. (see pic below) Students with knowledge of how to expand the reading pane using the little tab in the middle, and collapse it again to get to the test questions, will fare better. This format isn't like any of the internet sites or reading apps that most children are accustomed to; they will need to be taught how to navigate those tools for the sole purpose of taking this test.
Tiny window for the test questions: It was barely large enough to show all the answer options, and not large enough to show the “RESET/UNDO” buttons at the bottom of the question unless the student scrolled lower. See the photo below to understand how students are supposed to write an entire essay response in a text box that is about 4" square. Typing, mind you, which elementary students aren't fluent in doing; their hands aren't even large enough to reach all the keys properly. So, they will be hunting and pecking letter keys to write an essay in a box the size of a cell phone screen.
Distracting numbers on ELA test: Bold paragraph numbers along the left margin of the text passages.
4 Quite distracting
5 if you're trying
6 to read something.
7 Isn't it?

Read 2 long passages on the left side. Then write a freaking essay in that tiny box on the right. Do your best!

Wasteful of time and mean: We wasted 5 whole minutes of our lives reading a long, dull passage, but there wasn't even a question about it. That was the little kid test too! Just plain mean to do that to elementary aged children. Will it be that way on the real test? We'll never know since the test questions are top-secret, even if we ask for them. Teachers aren't even allowed to see the tests, and if they do and talk about it, they could lose their jobs.
Technology issues: The mouse was jumpy and the cord got in the way. This was on a laptop computer that was 1-2 years old.

Cumbersome mouse gets in the way of the scratch paper

Slow internet: This was at a school that was fortunate to have more wireless routers and newer computers than other schools in the district. It took considerable time for each passage and question to load. Schools with lots of students testing are prone to overload the system and have slower test connections. As one principal rightly remarked, “It is wrong to hold teachers accountable for the little spinning wheel while students wait for the test to load.”

Waiting for the answer choices to load.

Number lock button: How many students know to unlock the number pad for the math test? It took one mom a few minutes to realize why her numbers weren’t working because her home laptop doesn't have a number keypad lock key like that laptop did. Some students might know this keyboard trick, but kids without this same type of computer in their homes or classrooms are at a disadvantage. Cross your fingers and hope the person before your child didn't push the button down.
Confusing format: The “Done” button doesn’t mean “done with the question”… it means done with the whole test, and it exits the entire test if you click it. You have to click “NEXT” to stay in the test and go to the next question. How many times did one tech-savvy Momma Bear accidentally exit this 6-question test? Three times. Three frustrating times. Grrrr... Now multiply that times a classroom of kids. We see why teachers are concerned.

What is that white circle icon?

Strange icon buttons at the top of the test: We never really did understand the purpose of the square button with the circle in it. It seemed to make portions of the screen black if you clicked it and then dragged on the arrows on the margins. One teacher told us it was to “isolate” text for students who had trouble focusing. But teachers aren’t allowed to do it for students, so the student, who has trouble focusing, must focus enough to click that icon, drag it himself to the passage, and must then know how to click the tiny little X at the top corner to exit that tool, otherwise, the child won’t be able to see the rest of the question. It sounds like more trouble than it is worth. How many kids will click that button accidentally or on purpose and struggle trying to figure out the test?

This is what happens when a student clicks the white circle. Teachers may not help students navigate or exit this feature.

"Highlight" instructions: (see pic below) The question clearly says “highlighted” but do you see any highlighted words in the picture below? Nope, they are underlined. True, the underlined parts turn yellow when you scroll over them, but semantics, people. Our kids deserve correctness on such an important test. Think literally like a child. Even worse, you HAD to scroll over it because in one text, the whole paragraph was underlined but when you scrolled over it, it was really three highlighted sections. How many 3rd-5th graders are going to count for all 5 spots to answer before clicking the "Next" button?

No "highlights" in this passage. They are underlined, not highlighted.

Couldn't pick the answers we wanted to: This question below was impossible to answer because of the screen size. It wouldn’t let you drag and drop this answer choice to the 2nd slot because it wasn’t on the visible part of the screen. Yes, we could have put it in the 5th slot and then scrolled up and moved it, but then again, we’re tech-savvy and all from years of playing Tetris and packing diaper bags. Could a 9 year-old child figure this out easily?

Students should drag choices from the box at the bottom and put them in number order. Except it won't work.

Couldn't drag and drop this last box's sentence up to the empty #2 slot because it was not shown on the screen. Savvy students might be able to figure out how to move #5 back down, then scroll up, and then re-arrange. But what a hassle!

What the heck did we do? Ever seen a three-tiered fraction? Well, we somehow made one on the 3rd-5th grade test. Not sure how that happened.

Not sure how we got our fraction answer to look like that on the 3rd-5th grade sample test.

Multiple Choice Fakes: So, the TDOE claims that TNREADY is way better than the A,B,C,D multiple choice TCAP tests were. But the whole test is filled with the same concept of pick one of 4 choices! (see pic below)

Multiple choice. Pick A, B, C, or D without actually using letters.

Questions for younger grades were way too difficult. Seriously, these multi-step word problems were like what we remember seeing on the high school ACT college entrance exams. Except, this was for 3rd-5th grade children!

WHY???
We question the real reason for this test. Is it to test what children learned in a grade level? Or could it be testing children’s grit, frustration levels, and perseverance? Are they trying to make kids cry? Will the student give up or keep testing? Are these online assessments collecting data points to assess character traits? That’s crazy to consider… but then you read this paper from the Federal Department of Education, and you get a sick feeling in your stomach. These are children, for goodness sake! OUR children. It is not okay to screw with their heads. It is not okay to frustrate them with a test that is too difficult for them. It is not okay to label them as failing due to a stinking test that nobody is allowed to see. Crushing their spirits with mind-numbing, developmentally inappropriate tests and robbing them of the joy of learning is abusive.

Even worse, the cut scores of these tests are set in secret AFTER the tests are administered. The cut scores are set so that a certain percentage of students will be in the bottom failing tier no matter what. No matter what, kids will fail, even if they all magically answer nearly all of the questions correctly. What is that percentage for Tennessee? We're willing to bet there's already a number in some ogliarch's head of how many advanced, proficient, and failing kids there will be on the TNREADY. Don't believe us? Tennessee did it last year with the TCAP writing test when they only allowed 100 students to have "perfect scores" on their tests. TN Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen, is already predicting that scores for TNREADY will fall across the board.

You know which students will be in that bottom failing percentage category? Sadly, it is the poorest, most vulnerable students in the state... the ones that don't have parents who can afford tutors... whose parents don't understand this confusing Common Core math to help their children... students in communities with high crime, high poverty, and instability... students who speak little or no English... students with learning disabilities... students who are hungry because they didn't get breakfast that morning or dinner the night before... Those students will fail, their schools will be labeled as "failing," and will be handed over to charter school vultures to profit from. It is a vicious cycle of failure leading to the pocketbooks of those at the top of the food chain. These tests serve a purpose. Once you understand that, it makes you furious to see how students, teachers, principals, districts, and the media play right into their hands like pawns.

All of this testing madness begs the question…

What are we gonna do about it?

The TDOE says parents can’t do anything. Every child (except their own that are in private schools) must take TNREADY. Districts that allow parents to opt-out/refuse are at risk of losing desperately needed funding from the state. The state sent out this official memo to districts to bully parents. It says parents may homeschool or choose private school if they don’t want their children taking state mandated tests. So, there are your options: homeschool or private school. Is that okay with you? A group of APPOINTED people are saying this, by the way… The TN Board of Education, all appointed by the Governor… The Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen, appointed by Governor Haslam… even the Governor’s family won’t put their kids in public schools. Why is it okay for the rest of us "commoners" then?

Okay, so back to the million dollar question…

WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO ABOUT IT???

You can try refusing/opting-out. You will be told you can’t. Yes, that’s bull-poo-poo. They are your children and the Constitution is on your side. Even so, you'll be told you can't.

You can tell your child not to take the test. This method puts the burden on your child to refuse. Will they obey their parent... or obey their teacher? We don’t like this option, but it is better than nothing. This year, refusing the test shouldn’t hurt student report cards because the TDOE won’t even have the scores back to the districts in time for final report cards (NOTE: the test scores will still hurt teacher evaluation scores). The TNREADY scores are supposed to be sent to districts in October. That’s way into the next school year! How helpful is that to parents and teachers? Not at all.

Okay, so that’s one option. The other, for those of you that have the means, is to withdraw your child to homeschool during the testing windows. If you don’t want to go that extreme, you could schedule annual doctor appointments, dentist checkups, etc to get excused absences. The monstrous problem with that is that the TNREADY testing windows are ghastly long… Nearly 2 whole months of testing! We’re not kidding. Click HERE to see the testing windows for TNREADY set by the TDOE are:
February 8 - March 4 for Part I of TNREADY
April 18 - May 13 for Part II of TNREADY
April 25-May 6 for the Science TCAP (given on paper)

We don’t like that option, either. Missing school isn’t what is best for students. Parents in other states have the right to Opt-Out, but Tennessee does not (It's a long story involving expensive lobbyists paid for by the testing companies and generous campaign contributions to politicians...grrrr!). Other states have massive Opt-Out movements over tests just like the TNREADY. Other states are demanding change in testing by opting-out/refusing the tests. In fact, over half-a-million students opted out of state mandated tests last year in the U.S.A. So you can see that this high-stakes testing problem isn't isolated to Tennessee.

Alas, it looks like our hands are tied, parents. There's nothing we can do. Better just shut up and pretend this isn't happening, right? Sorry, Governor Haslam, today is not your lucky day. Even though our hands are tied, our voices are not. And parents, your voice is your strongest weapon to protect your child. You must use it. You need to call, email, visit, and royally bug the stew out of your elected officials until this mess goes away. Do the pestering politely, of course. But they need to know that voting parents are very concerned about this. Legislative session starts in January. The time to act is now.

Here’s a list of folks to contact:

school board members for your district
Superintendent for your district
Elected House Representative click HERE to find yours
Elected Senator click HERE to find yours
Governor Haslam! (gets most of the blame for this because he appointed the people who are making these awful mandates!)
TN State Board of Education (appointed by the Governor) click click HERE to contact them

Contact those important people

Lest you think this is an over-reacting Momma Bear rant, we give you this alarming fact:

We were told that 70 teachers in one district recently took the practice 3rd grade Social Studies test (you have to have a password to access that practice test). These were excellent teachers with over 50 of them being Level 5 teachers (the highest rating a teacher can get). Of these 70 excellent, college-educated teachers, how many of them PASSED the 3rd grade Social Studies practice test?

Take a wild guess.

ONE.

One single teacher passed the 3rd grade Social Studies practice test out of 70. One! If adults can't pass it, third grade children don’t stand a chance!

If that isn’t a huge red warning flag to you, then you must be squeezing your eyes shut and plugging your ears.

Still in doubt? Go to this link and see the sample TNREADY questions for yourself. Start with the 3rd-5th grade questions for English or Math. Or if you’re really fearless, attempt an older grade level’s test questions. There are only 6 sample questions for each, you have time to do six measly elementary questions, right? You’re smart enough to read this far in our blog, so you can surely answer half-a-dozen elementary standardized test questions...

Go on, try it. We’ll wait right here and hum the Jeopardy theme song while you do it. Take your time...

Brutal, huh? Did the test questions load quickly for you or did you get the spinny time wheel like we did? Were you baffled by the MIST testing layout and multi-step questions? Are you wondering how young children with little or no keyboard training, who have trouble opening a milk carton without spilling milk, are expected to navigate a keyboard and mouse just like a doctoral student? Remember, teachers’ jobs are on the line for this test. Your child’s test scores are a major part of their job evaluation scores. The stakes are high, and your children feel it. Better hope they are tnREADY.

We've heard from many teachers who said students were upset or cried during the practice tests in class. Teachers told us that their SPED students tended to lose hope and give up during the tests, so they just randomly click through the questions to get finished. Teachers confided to us that some of their brightest, most advanced students have tears running down their faces when they try to complete test questions covering material they haven't been taught yet. Students complain of stomachaches and headaches. Students have barfed on tests before. If that happens, don't fret, because there's a handy-dandy testing procedure to follow to save the test.

Parents, we must speak up. You know too much now. You know this is wrong. This testing obsession is harmful to children and wasteful of their time.

Share the sample test questions with your legislators and school board members. Show them this blog. Ask them to just try a few questions, and tell them to remember when they or their own children were 8 years old. Better yet, ask them to proctor a test or try to take the real test.

Okay, Momma Bears, Poppa Bears, GrannieBears, and GrampaBears, here is YOUR homework:

Contact that bright red list of important people we gave you up above in this blog. Make some noise! Be louder than the TNREADY radio advertisements that the Governor’s fake parent group is broadcasting in districts where citizens are speaking against the testing. Be bolder than their fancy billboards, more compassionate than their overpaid lobbyists, and more convincing than their slick colored pamphlets. We can do this!

TNREADY or NOT... HERE WE COME!!!

Update:

We heard from parents of SPED children who were extremely concerned about how the new TNReady test will affect them. So, we reached out to some of our most voracious Momma Bears, the SPED advocates and we have a new blog for you.

Update 11/24/15: Momma Bears wrote a blog for parents of SPED students with IEPs. Click HERE to read it.

Grass Roots Victory Over Testing!!

11/18/2015

We will win because the tide is turning as students, teachers, parents, and communities organize to fight high-stakes testing and privatization.—Diane Ravitch

Over 500,000 Students Opted Out of Standardized Testing

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing announced today, "Around the U.S. well over a half million public school students refused to take standardized exams during the 2015 testing season." The full report can be found here. “The opt-out movement and other assessment reform initiatives exploded across the country this year as more parents said ‘enough is enough’ to high-stakes testing overkill,” explained FairTest Executive Director Monty Neill. And FairTest Public Education Director Bob Schaeffer said there is no sign in sight of the grass roots movement slowing down. "In the 2016 testing season, we expect many more families to refuse to take part in unnecessary testing, which undermines educational quality and equity.”

State Opt-Out Statistics

FairTest gathered data from various state agencies, news sources and watch dog groups to put together a list of the top states with the largest opt-out figures. Number one on the list for the past two years is New York. Long Island parent organizer Jeanette Deutermann said opting out is a way of being an “upstander,” not a bystander.

New York: 240,000
New Jersey: 110,000+
Colorado: 100,000
Washington: 50,000+
Oregon: 20,000
Illinois: 20,000
New Mexico: 10,000

Wait a Minute, Where is Tennessee?????????

So, why is our state not on the opt out list??????

Oh yeah! Remember last Spring when the Tennessee Department of Education said that Tennessee parents can't opt their kids out of standardized testing because they chose to enroll their kids in public school? Christy Ballard, the big-shot state lawyer was pretty clear in her memo that if parents wanted to have control over their child's education, they would have to home school or private school. We could ask State Education Commissioner Candice McQueen if that's true. But what would she know about the rights of public school students? Her kids go to a private Christian school.

Then in the summer, we all found out about the (not-so) quick scores being calculated with a NEW formula and some magical test scores. So, Momma Bear and others called for testing reforms and more transparency. And we wondered if TNDOE would really be Tennessee Ready for these new online assessments?

Turkey Ready Coming Up...

We know your head is probably spinning right now. It's almost Thanksgiving and moms have a lot going on. The only turkey we want to think about is the one that will be served at our Thanksgiving table. But when the holidays are over, you can expect the testing season to be in full swing. And you just might find a turkey of a test this year. It will be much different from TCAPS in the past.

Time To Test The Test!

For those who live in the Memphis area, there is an opportunity to get a preview of the new Tennessee Ready Test and even take a third grade practice test. But you will need to register quickly. The event is this Saturday at Northaven Elementary School from 9:00am to 1:00pm.

Need a LIFT? The ASD does.

11/13/2015

The ASD in TN needs a lift

Well, well, well... It didn't take long for LIFT to show its true colors it was created for, which is to support and do damage control for the failing Achievement School District (ASD) in Tennessee. Last week, real parents at Raleigh Egypt Middle held a press conference to protest against the takeover of their children's school by the ASD because they are happy with how their school was improving. Wouldn't you know the paid parents of LIFT show up to try to diffuse the bad publicity about the ASD.

What a sham. LIFT claims to be a grassroots group of parents advocating for schools. LIFT keeps saying they're not affiliated with the ASD or charter schools, but that is so not true.

LIFT is no way part of the ASD? Honey, it is a dad-gum family affair!!!

LIFT is generously funded by a group called Democrats for Education Reform. And just who is the State Director of DFER in Tennessee? Why, that would be Natasha Kamrani, the wife of Chris Barbic, who is the Superintendent of the ASD. Coincidence? Of course not. Keep connecting the dots, because it gets worse...

Who funds DFER and employs Mrs. Barbic? That would be rich, white hedge-fund investors who want to privatize public education and profit from poor people. In fact, the California Democratic Party passed a Resolution against DFER saying, "the political action committee, entitled Democrats for Education Reform is funded by corporations, Republican operatives and wealthy individuals dedicated to privatization and anti-educator initiatives... Whereas, the billionaires funding Students First and Democrats for Education Reform are supporting candidates and local programs that would dismantle a free public education for every student in California and replace it with company run charter schools, non-credentialed teachers and unproven untested so-called “reforms”."

Indeed, the lines are blurry, hoping the public won't look past the smoke and mirrors to realize that these LIFT parents are really just puppets getting a paycheck from the very people who stand to profit richly at the expense of their neighborhood school.

But wait, there's more... It isn't just Barbic's wife who has ties to the ASD and LIFT. Ian Buchanan works for LIFT, too. Guess where he worked before LIFT? Bingo. The ASD. He was the Director of Community Partnerships for the ASD. But, nooooo, there's absolutely nooo connection to the ASD and this astroturf community group whatsover (they say with their fingers crossed behind their backs and their wallets filled with money). At this point, only a naive person (or the gullible media) would believe that LIFT is grassroots, volunteer, and without ulterior motive.

That's one Expensive LIFT!
Those matching neon t-shirts, free food (we heard LIFTers dine weekly at Bosco's, a pricey restaurant/brewery in midtown Memphis), a highly-paid professional community organizer in Nashville, and paid stipends for LIFT parents ($15 an hour to canvas neighborhoods to promote charter schools and the ASD) may get strategic publicity to fool the public, but facts don't lie. The ASD controlled schools now have even worse test scores than when they were public schools. That's why the ASD needs paid parent puppets to provide publicity to support their profitable privatization plans. <--- That's a whole lot of P in that sentence, and yes, it does stink like a urinal when you think about it.

LIFTing Critical Thinking...
One LIFT parent told a local news source that Raleigh Egypt Middle should be taken over by the ASD because they need more buses and books. More buses? So the unaccountable ASD charter chain can bus your Raleigh kids an hour across town to Orange Mound to boost test scores in their other failing charter school (just like one ASD charter school did to the Coleman Elementary children just a few miles away from Raleigh Egypt Middle). More books? Yeah, they really mean test prep for English and Math because other subjects will be dropped to get those 2 all-important subject test scores up which are the only ones that count to the state. Just take a look at the library of this school that is now part of the ASD:

Here's what a school library looks like in an ASD-run school. This is a photo of the library at Gestalt Community School, a charter school in Memphis operated by the ASD. They have no librarian or library time.

Interestingly, this LIFT "advocacy" group isn't advocating for adequate funding of public schools. They aren't outraged that the state isn't funding the BEP as it should be doing according to the law. LIFTers conveniently overlook the fact that the chronic underfunding of public schools has forced every school district in TN to make sacrifices in important areas (like textbooks and buses) while also paying for unfunded mandates from the State. LIFT isn't advocating for funding for smaller class sizes either, which would really, really help children in poor communities. LIFT isn't advocating for standardized testing transparency to even see the tests that hold so much power over their children and communities. Instead, LIFT is focusing on more charter "choice," which we all know means more "choice" for the charter schools to cherry-pick students and to profit at the expense of other students who get kicked out.

The ASD reality: Churn & Burn
The truth is that the ASD is a profit-making experiment, and it is failing miserably for students and communities. To keep the profits flowing, a massive amount of public relations and false advertising has to happen. It must be getting harder to keep up the facade. Just look at what has happened to the current ASD schools.... Beloved, hard-working teachers in those schools were let go. The ASD now has extremely high teacher turnover rates. Comparing ASD payrolls (links here and here), the 2-year turnover rates are 80%! That's 4 out of 5 teachers leaving every 2 years. That's a whole heck of a lot of "churning" and instability for children in communities that are already distressed. (Interestingly, this salary info for the ASD used to be on the State of Tennessee's website. Why it no longer lists the ASD salaries is suspicious).

To burn through all those teachers, the ASD charter schools rely on low-paid teachers with little or no experience, most with no teaching license or education degree, and have an obligation to do a mere 2 year-stint teaching so they can pay off student loans and move up their career ladder (Teach For America, The New Teacher Project, Memphis Teacher Residency). Poor kids are merely stepping stones on these young folks resumes. Even worse, those children will be guinea pigs as these brand new teachers learn how to teach and manage a classroom. Many of these ASD teachers have never taught before, and the 5 weeks of training in the summer doesn't prepare anyone adequately. Poor kids. No, this would never fly in a suburban school. Oh, and Music and Art may or may not be taught in your new ASD charter school, depending on what the charter chain decides to spend money on, and you as a parent or taxpayer have zero say over it.

Speaking of profit, this comment from "Tim" on the Edushyster article linked above is rather alarming, too.

Cha-ching!
Why Chris Barbic would leave such a cushy, high-paying job (that pays more than the State of TN Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen, or even more than the Governor makes), says a lot about the failure of the ASD. Maybe he can't keep spinning the lies? An unqualified replacement has already been appointed to take his place, Malika Anderson, of the infamous, unaccredited Broad Academy. (Interestingly, as an African American female, she will make a smaller salary than Barbic did.) People across the state are flabbergasted that someone with so little experience in actually working with children is now in charge. Just check out the public comments section on this fluff piece article about her. Not good. She will be a stone wall to the concerns and protests from parents, teachers, and communities.

No thanks, we don't need a LIFT
Wake up, parents and teachers! Work to improve your public schools because they belong to you, not to a private charter chain. Elect school board members that represent the best interests of your children instead of corporate charter chains and campaign donors. Trust us, don't take a LIFT from those people. They will bleed you, your children, and your community dry, and you will get nowhere.