Cloaking Inequity

Happy Fathers Day!! Now that the discussion of whether NCLB would actually close “achievement gaps” by 2014 is nearly in our rear view mirror (it is not going to happen, not even close— it is going to take 80 more years based on recent NAEP research, NCLB actually slowed our progress) let’s take a look […]

Cloaking Inequity is back! I am now stateside from a hiatus to attend meetings at the Brazilian Senate in Brasilia. I am addicted to pão de queijo. A few photos from the signing of a new collaborative agreement Brazil and the University of Texas at Austin. Speaking of the Senate… As young children, Americans are inculcated with […]

Harkin has released his Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013. A re-authorization of ESEA and revision to NCLB. I will try to produce Cloaking Inequity’s analysis in the next few days. Press release: http://lnkd.in/nZJjKT Bill: http://lnkd.in/mrG3Ns Bill summary: http://lnkd.in/DvA3pY See Cloaking Inequity’s posts on high-stakes testing and accountability. I am in Brazil for meetings at the Senate in […]

Happy Memorial Day! On this day I remember my grandfather and all the courageous men and women who fought for freedoms. As of today, Memorial Day 2013, it appears that House Bill 5 is headed to Gov. Perry’s desk and that students in Texas will get some freedom from high-stakes testing— at least on the […]

Last week I was told that I was a “intellectually unrigorous pseudo-scholar” and “obsessed” with being perceived as important and influential.” My response to the microaggression? At the core of my being, I do what I do everyday because I hope that the counter-narratives that we discuss here on Cloaking Inequity will impact equity and the educational […]

Mr. President, welcome to Austin! I was looking over your “Forward” education platform and I thought I would share it with the readers of Cloaking Inequity. I think they will be super excited about your progressive stances on education. The Democrat’s strategy is based on sound principle. Parents have the right to choose the best […]

Zoinks! With gobs of kangblabla Michael Williams, current Texas Education Commissioner and former Railroad Commissioner, recently announced the 2013 Texas Accountability approach: I have heard the criticism of the previous accountability system, with its overemphasis on a school’s lowest performing areas and its blind spot to what a district or charter might be doing well…The new system makes […]

WTF: Why the Finnish? It is ironic that reformers and the popular discourse (such as films like Waiting for Superman) often cite Finland, the “West’s reigning education superpower,” but actually completely ignore their approach to reform. They often use Finland as an example of success and then overlay their own ideas for reforms that are […]

Reblogged from Crazy Crawfish's Blog: I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed by all the rapid changes happening in the education sphere. I’m positive I’m not alone in feeling this way - based on the feedback, articles and correspondence I’ve been receiving from local and national groups and individuals. As I struggled […]

Texas politicians continue to be interested in finding elegant ways to reduce funding for public schools. Now they are aiming at the gems of our educational system— our colleges and universities. No Child Left Behind is coming to a Texas college and university near you. Yes, the Legislature that birthed NCLB wants to apply their […]

How can you make a post about an academic paper winning an award interesting? Start with Charlie Sheen quotes of course! I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. I’m not bi-polar, I’m bi-winning. I win here and I win there. […]

The Washington Post recently reblogged a post that appeared on the Education Opportunity Network, a new online publication edited by Jeff Bryant. Here is an excerpt from the post entitled An education reform warning for Democrats. Holding School Accountability To Account To answer that question, Texas-based education professor Julian Vasquez Heilig has spent a lot of time examining […]

We all have that friend that looks around mystified because they have accidently forgotten their wallet— again. I remember one Valentine’s Day in college I was invited by two Puertoriqueñas to dinner. After dinner, I realized my wallet was missing. One of the Puertoriqueñas said, “Typical.” Fortunately, that day my wallet had just fallen out of my […]

Our work group has had many questions on how a Community-Based Accountability process would occur on the local level (For CI’s full thread on Community-Based Accountability go here). I noted in a prior post that California had recently developed a Local Control and Accountability plan as part of their school finance reforms. I also noted […]

If you loosely based the generations of accountability in Texas on the testing regime, you could say that with the STAAR, Texas is in the midst of its third generation of accountability (Pre-NCLB TAAS being the first and Post-NCLB TAKS the second). We know that the state currently spends nearly $100 million a year for […]

There have been several articles describing the “Don’t Mess with Texas Revolt” against its own approach to high-stakes testing and accountability that was legislated in No Child Left Behind. Many Texans, regardless of their political stripes, are fed up with the current approach to high-stakes testing and accountability birthed here in the Lone Star State. There […]

Policymakers from Texas to California are either taking notice of Community-Based Accountability, and/or they are thinking on the same wavelength. The first positive sign that I posted on around New Years was that the High Performance Coalition of 20 districts in Texas empowered by SB 1557 were seeking to adopt a Community-Based Accountability and Assessment […]

From Edweek Living in Dialogue: In the past, I have shared the ideas of former Nebraska Commissioner of Education Doug Christensen, who speaks of the importance of local initiative, and also Yong Zhao, who has written about what he calls “mass localism.” Now, Julian Vasquez Heilig, along with a long list of co-authors, has offered a comprehensiveframework […]