Brown Puts the Testing Juggernaut On Ice, Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th

(I thought I posted the top article, early yesterday, but  

here it is, not in my ‘sent’ file. If, by a cruel joke of Mama

Nature, you already got it, skip to the just added Birthday

section and, for many, reflect on incredible music and an era. -Ed)

 

I send you this for two reasons.  1. It’s good for the kids,

and 2. It’s a role model of reason and sanity in the midst of

national bedlam. (also ups my/our impression of Brown, a lot.)

Do pass this one on, especially to people in other states. -Ed

 

From: Portside Moderator [mailto: moderator@PORTSIDE.ORG]

 
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/05/california_governor_puts_the_t.html

 

California Governor Puts the Testing Juggernaut On Ice

 

by Anthony Cody: May 18, 2011

 

Education Week Teacher

Teacher Blogs - Living in Dialogue

 

California Governor Jerry Brown has taken a big step towards

reducing the testing mania in the nation's most populous

state. Up until his administration we have been on an

accelerated path towards the comprehensive data-driven

system that test publishers and corporate reformers have

convinced leaders is needed to improve schools. But in the

May budget outline from Brown's office, he makes it clear he

is putting on the brakes.

 

From the Thoughts on Public Education blog comes this:

 

    Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing to suspend funding for

    CALPADS, the state student longitudinal data system, and

    to stop further planning for CALTIDES, the teacher data

    base that was to be joined at the hip with CALPADS.

http://toped.svefoundation.org/2011/05/17/calpads-put-on-ice/

 

What is even more encouraging is the explanation Brown

offers, which shows a great deal of understanding of these

issues. The document states:

 

    A number of problems have been identified with

    California's state testing, data collection and

    accountability regime. Testing takes huge amounts of

    time from classroom instruction. Data collection

    requirements are cumbersome and do not provide timely -

    and therefore usable - information back to schools.

    Teachers are forced to cub their own creativity and

    engagement with students as they focus on teaching to

    the test. State and federal administrators continue to

    centralize teaching authority far from the classroom.

 

    The (Brown) Administration proposes to deal with these

    issues by carefully reforming testing and accountability

    requirements to achieve genuine accountability and

    maximum local autonomy. It will engage teachers,

    scholars, school administrators and parents to develop

    proposals to

 

    (1) reduce the amount of time devoted to state testing

    in schools;

 

    (2) eliminate data collections that do not provide

    useful information to school administrators, teachers

    and parents; and

 

    (3) restore power to school administrators, teachers and

    parents.

 

    The goal is to improve the learning environment in every

    classroom, thereby encouraging the demanding pursuit of

    excellence. The May Revision proposes to suspend funding

    for CALPADS in 2011-12 pending this continued review of

    data collection requirements.

 

Praise be!

 

Jerry Brown is unusual among our nation's governors. He got

a bit more involved than most in on-the-ground school reform

while he was serving as mayor of Oakland. He learned the

hard way how schools are a reflection of deeper social

issues. In a statement he wrote to respond to Arne Duncan's

Race to the Top a year and a half ago, while he was

California's Attorney General, he said:

 

    You assume we know how to "turn around all the

    struggling low performing schools," when the real

    answers may lie outside of school. As Oakland mayor, I

    directly confronted conditions that hindered education,

    and that were deeply rooted in the social and economic

    conditions of the community or were embedded in the

    particular attitudes and situations of the parents.

    There is insufficient recognition in the draft

    regulations that inside and outside of school strategies

    must be interactive and merged.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2009/09/jerry_brown_to_arne_duncan_thi.html

 

Even more revealing was what he wrote about federally-driven

education "reform":

 

    The basic assumption of your draft regulations appears

    to be that top down, Washington driven standardization

    is best. This is a "one size fit all" approach that

    ignores the vast diversity of our federal system and the

    creativity inherent in local communities. What we have

    at stake are the impressionable minds of the children of

    America. You are not collecting data or devising

    standards for operating machines or establishing a

    credit score. You are funding teaching interventions or

    changes to the learning environment that promise to make

    public education better, i.e. greater mastery of what it

    takes to become an effective citizen and a productive

    member of society. In the draft you have circulated, I

    sense a pervasive technocratic bias and an uncritical

    faith in the power of social science.

 

We all know that Secretary Duncan did not heed Jerry Brown's

thoughtful advice, and still has not. But Brown's proposed

budget takes on the testing machine from the top, and that

is a very hopeful sign.

 

By the way, yesterday I shared news of a new book, The Myths

of Standardized Tests. The authors will be guests at a free

Save Our Schools March webinar Thursday night, May 19, at

8:30 pm Eastern time, 5:30 pm Pacific time. Please register

to join the conversation here.

 

What do you think? Might this be a sign of sanity?

 

[After 18 years as a science teacher in inner-city Oakland,

Calif., Anthony Cody now works with a team of experienced

science teacher-coaches who support the many novice teachers

in his school district. He is a National Board-certified

teacher and an active member of the Teacher Leaders Network.

With education at a crossroads, he invites you to join him

in a dialogue on education reform and teaching for change

and deep learning. For additional information on Cody's

work, visit his Web site, Teachers Lead.

http://www.teacherslead.com/ ]

 

* * *

 

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From: Greygoosemusic@aol.com [mailto:Greygoosemusic@aol.com]
Subject: Forever Young: Celebrating Bob Dylan's Folk Years on His 70th Birthday

 

May 24 • Tuesday

Music: Bob Dylan’s 70th

Forever Young: Bob Dylan’s Folk Years 1961-1964. A 70th birthday party in absentia hosted by Ross Altman. Carolyn Hester accompanied by daughters Karla and Amy Blume, and Len Chandler are featured artists along with Andy Hill and Renee Safier, Paul Zollo, Jeff Gold, Jill Fenimore, Daddy Bone, John Keller, Andy Manoff and Dennis Davis doing Dylan songs emphasizing the early ones. 7-10 PM; The Talking Stick, 1411 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica. $10. (310) 450-6052.       

                Bob Dylan, America's greatest living songwriter, will be celebrated with a concert of his early songs on his 70th birthday, Tuesday evening, May 24 at The Talking Stick Coffeehouse in Venice, CA.  A select group of Los Angeles based performers will take turns singing his groundbreaking early protest songs, love songs and poetic masterpieces that expanded the vocabulary of what could be done in songwriting.

Featured artists include folk singers Carolyn Hester, accompanied by her daughters Karla and Amy Blume, and fellow Broadside recording artist Len Chandler.  Carolyn Hester gave Dylan his first big break in New York City by inviting him to play harmonica on her early Columbia Records’ album, his first appearance on record, which led to his own contract with the label.  Len Chandler, topical songwriter and civil rights activist, joined Dylan as an artist in the pages of Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen's Broadside Magazine, where Dylan's Blowing In the Wind was first published.

Los Angeles folk singer Ross Altman will host and perform in the show, along with a small folk song army of veteran LA performers, including Andy Hill and Renee Safier (producers of Dylanfest), Paul Zollo (whose published Dylan interview reveals new insights into his craft and art), Jeff Gold, Jill Fenimore, Daddy Bone, John Keller, Andy Manoff and Dennis Davis.

The purpose of the celebration is to highlight Dylan's breakthrough early folk period, which helped to launch the modern folk revival in Greenwich Village, New York. Out of this extraordinary renaissance of political and later personal songwriting, spearheaded by Dylan and others collectively known as "Woody's Children" the soundtrack of a decade of change in the 1960's was born. Dylan's own anthem, The Times, They Are a' Changing, gave voice to a new generation dedicated to social change in both the civil rights and antiwar movements.                                

These and many other Dylan songs will be sung in an extraordinary evening of music and recollections.  While Mr. Dylan will not be there, his spirit will certainly pervade the coffeehouse in both poetry and song. There will also be a birthday cake for all to share, along with many chances to sing along for those so inclined.  For those who have been inspired by Bob Dylan’s voice and songs for the better part of their adult lives, for whom his well known signature lines, such as “Don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters,”  “to live outside the law you must be honest,” and “money doesn’t talk, it swears” are chapter headings in a moral dictionary, this evening will be a welcome opportunity to revel in the fellowship of like-minded fans and friends.

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