On January 20th, the Mat-Su Borough asked the Dr. Deena Paramo, the Superintendent of Mat-Su Schools to debrief them on the Common Core and the relationship between education in Mat-Su, Alaska, and the Alaska Academic Standards. Boroughs are limited in what they can determine regarding education policy, and many mandates come from the state department of education. The borough wanted to understand what the district is doing and gather information to intelligently answer questions by residents.
What this blog seeks to do is unpack some of the information that came from that meeting. There is a podcast on RadioFreePalmer.org and on the Mat-Su Borough website. There is far more than is presented here, so this is just a small gleaning. This is not in a spirit of "I got you" sort of thing. This is in the spirit of trying to determine what district superintendents know and don't know. After all, if Commissioner Hanley is being less that straightforward with the Alaska Legislature, then why would one expect him to be honest with the superintendents? If Dr. Paramo regards this as an attack on her or her district, it is not. They do some great things in all the big four districts, and this is not a slight on her district. As one of the more tech savvy and "in the know" Superintendents, Dr. Paramo is likely to best reflect the state of understanding of the superintendents in the districts.
Sadly, one area where the discussion did not go was the structural deficit looming in the district's near future and its relationship to the common core. Budget issues did not get addressed in the discussion. Dr. Paramo spent a considerable amount of time highlighting district programs and features that were superfluous to the topic. While she did present answers to the questions submitted, some of her information detracted from the discussion. No one doubts that Dr. Paramo is committed to a strong math curriculum, and the large segment of time that she spent on that detracted from what the overall discussion was about Common Core implementation, the Danielson framework for teacher evaluation and the psychometric indicators from some of the digital learning platforms that are being generated for vendors for which the district is paying. One can hardly blame a superintendent for pursuing such a path, but it only delays the discussions that are likely to ensue in the coming weeks on the budget.
However, some insight did emerge. At this meeting, she actually was willing to talk about Common Core more freely and display her knowledge of matters. She also revealed many tidbits and insights, and thus it is useful to unpack those statements. There are many things to "unpack" but I will highlight only a few items.
One highlight of the meeting was an exchange between the Mayor and the Superintendent. As Dr. Paramo turned her discussion from a general overview of Common Core to the district itself, she said the following:
"We have done absolutely zero in language arts in the Mat-Su Borough School District. We are not ... it is not in our classrooms, we don't have any new text books, we are still using the textbooks that we have. Teachers are getting familiar with them, but we are not teaching any kind of new standards, our Alaska Academic Standards. We are not doing that right now. We are just focused on math, that is the biggest change."That is when the Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss interrupted for clarification. "You need to back up for the farmer," he stated, "you are doing math?"
Dr. Paramo replied, "We are currently teaching the new Alaska Standards in Math, yes."
Mayor DeVilbiss followed up, "Is that Common Core?"
Dr. Paramo replied, "I'll get to that. It is very close to Common Core, yes, uhum, yes, yes, yes." She continued, "There is a nuance of change, but it isn't really that big."
She never did really did get back to it because of her need to expound on her well known commitment to rigorous math education. But I am left wondering if they have the reading books and they haven't rolled them out yet because the teachers are 'getting familiar with them' or is it the standards they are getting familiar with? Is Dr. Paramo waiting for the Common Core Career Curriculum, believed to be the substance of the "informational texts" which begin in Kindergarten? It seemed unclear from her presentation. That statement also seemed to conflict with other evidence from schools in the district that is beyond the scope of what will be covered here.
But if you are in the Mat-Su Borough, you now know the official answer. You are very close to Common Core. How close? You are snuggled up against it. Here is the sound bite with additional comments on the math curriculum.
Here are some things to take away from Dr. Paramo's presentation.
A) Dr. Paramo appears to be a follower, or is highly influenced by the works of social justice Professor Dr. Linda Darling Hammond. Paramo's major defense of the Common Core rested on a book which she referenced at least twice in her presentation, The Flat World and Education by Linda Darling Hammond. She also quoted several statistics from that book without referencing it directly on other occasions, particularly as they apply to Finland outperforming the United States. Thus, Darling Hammond's book and philosophy appears to have a role in forming the direction of policy in the Mat-Su's Schools.
Paramo repeats the data on Finland in several places in her talk, particularly in her answer to board member Mr. Steve Culligan. Kudos to Mr. Culligan for pointing out the flaws in many of these international comparisons.
So who is this person that Paramo holds in high regard? Currently, Dr. Darling Hammond is the Senior Advisor to Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia and to UNESCO. Hammond ruined a generation of educators with nonsense such as the Learning to Teach For Social Justice, and now she wants to inculcate a generation of Americans with her socialist predilections and a math curriculum rejected by the Soviet Union long ago that uses psychometric indicators to math students to career paths suitable for their talents in a managed economy. Well, perhaps she doesn't realize that is what is going on, and perhaps she thinks that Dr. Darling Hammond is just a sweet ol' gal. Well, those who were faculty in the Illinois University system know better. Here is an excerpt from the audio of Dr. Paramo's presentation followed by Dr. Darling Hammond's views and products.
If you listen to no other audio clip in this blog, listen to this one. The volume varies in the clips.
In addition to her work in educational research, Dr. Darling-Hammond is also involved with the Gordon Commission that is setting the standard on the use of fine grain data that companies accumulate from digital platforms. Programs like Math 180 and APEX generate "fine grain data" on students and companies use that information. The Gordon Commission addresses how the information should be shared.
Dr. Paramo appears to be a great deal of stock in the study by Schmidt and Huang's (Michigan State University) of the similarity of math topics in the Common Core covered by the A+ performing countries based on the test scores in the (TIMSS). While Paramo didn't cite the specific study, she repeated the talking point from the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Schmidt and Huang study comparison made its way into powerpoints presented to several state school boards, state legislatures and business groups. This study has been thoroughly debunked by several mathematicians, including Dr. Ze'ev Wurman, Hoover Institute Fellow and Silicon Valley Executive. (His most recent piece on the Common Core Math is here.)
Here is what was shown to those state officials and business leaders from Schmidt and Huang, which has been quoted several others to support the use of the Common Core Math.
The TIMSS topics are on the right and the Common Core topics are on the left. To the casual observer sitting in a lunch hour power point at a Chamber of Commerce or professional society banquet, it appears that the math topics in the Common Core follow the nice triangle of the TIMSS A+ countries. But a careful inspection shows that the authors of the study rearranged the topics to give the common core topics the nice smooth triangle. When the Common Core topics are placed on the TIMSS's topics, there are glaring gaps in the topics included and it becomes apparent that the Common Core topics are in no way aligned to the TIMSS. Thus, to suggest that any scores generated by a Common Core math curriculum will result in higher TIMSS scores is at best naive.
The interested reader may find Ze'ev Wurman's written comments on the Common Core and TIMSS data here. Mat-Su is supplementing their Common Core math with another Common Core program. This isn't going to eliminate the problem in topic coverage.
As a side note, Schmidt has a separate study that he shows in his powerpoints on the degree agreement between current state standards and that of Common Core. That shows Alaska's new Standards to be completely Common Core. We are more Common Core than Louisiana, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Jersey, and Kentucky. That is what has been presented before several state legislatures. Thus, efforts to attempt to deny that is what Alaska is doing is futile, at best. How Common Core are we? More that most of the nation. We are 17th in Common Core "closeness."
If Dr. Paramo had really paid as much attention to Dr. Milgram and Stotsky as she claims, she would be aware that 2/3s of the mathematicians who were were on the Common Core math writing team were not satisfied with the math standards in Common Core. They are clearly NOT College and Career ready. The Common Core Standards were not written for higher end colleges and they are not for STEM. Jason Zimba, the principal author of the Common Core math writing team made this quite clear.
In addition to Jason Zimba, another member of the math writing team has been less than enthusiastic about the Common Core math. Bill McCallum, at a society for mathematicians stated in January 2010 stated regarding the Common Core Math Standards:
“It's not what we aspire to for our children. It's not what we as a nation want to set as a final deliverable. I completely agree with that, and we should go beyond that.”
The only member of the math committee that has not come forward with a perspective on the Math standards on the record is Mr. Phil Darro. His background is in English, and he is noted for writing the California Math Standards that brought that state to the bottom of the nation in Math. His influence in the writing of the common core is quite telling. Any mother who has had to help her child with math homework can see the clear influence of an English teacher on those standards.
C) Dr. Paramo continues to insist that Alaska did not take Race To the Top money. Perhaps Dr. Paramo is not as knowledgeable as many give her credit. She may simply be repeating Commissioner Hanley's talking points and perhaps she honestly doesn't know that the I-3 money was Race To The Top.
The very letter that she refers to, the Patrick Gamble letter, was written by University President Patrick Gamble to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan for the No Child Left Behind, or the ESEA Flexibility, waiver. The same letter and in the same paragraph in which the waiver is discussed, a validation grant is mentioned. That validation grant was on teacher education and was given under the I-3 program that was part of the Race To The Top package. But the I-3 priorities included standards writing and enhanced data systems (P-20W) and School Improvement Grants (SIGs). Below are screenshots from the I-3 program powerpoint given by the U.S. Department of Education.
It is possible that Dr. Paramo was not aware of the total parameters of the grant. She was assistant superintendent who became superintendent through the sudden death of a boss, who was probably a good friend and mentor. That is a fairly stressful event and she probably accepted the Commissioner's talking points on the matter. While she is aware that the I-3 program exists and that it is from the University, and it hires retired teachers to help new teachers, the priorities of the grant in the slide above are pretty clear, and teacher improvement is a small part of the matter. The I-3 was a bit more than the mentoring component that she addressed later in the meeting. What extent she is aware of the rest of it remains uncertain.
However, U.S.Secretary was pretty clear that Race To the Top and I-3 were integrated. From his speech on June 8, 2009, before the Fourth Annual Institute of Education Sciences Research Conference, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated,
"Today’s speech is the first in a series of policy speeches around those four assurances, leading up to the Race to the Top and the Invest in What Works and Innovation grants that will be coming soon. Race to the Top and Invest in What Works and Innovation funding provides $5 billion in discretionary money."Arguing "Alaska did not take Race To the Top funds" is about as old and tired as "Alaska isn't implementing Common Core." Clearly, it is the same program; Race to the Top created the consortia; I-3 went to the states to develop the system to plug into the consortia. The money went to the University rather than DEED, but that doesn't mean the state isn't doing it.
D) Dr. Paramo's discussion of FERPA was quite dated. Either she was being rushed to cover everything or she is unaware of the changes in FERPA and the White House directives regarding FERPA. Simply put, FERPA was gutted, and just about any corporation or entity can access student data without the permission of the parent if the request is crafted correctly. Dr. Paramo would be wise to listen to Jane Robbin's presentation that applied to FERPA and other matters of digital privacy that was in the December 9, 2014 administrative review. Robbins is an attorney that specializes in this area. I won't belabor the point here, but perhaps the boroughs and school boards, not just in Mat-Su, should review these changes.
E) Dr. Paramo incorrectly represented the testimony by Dr. Stotsky and Milgram in the State Senate. Their testimony on January 7, 2014 was not that of mere professionals; they were on the Common Core validation committee. She stated they have put their name on the standards and took them off. That is not correct. They never put their name on the standards to be removed from it. In fact, only 6 of the 25+ members of the validation committee signed off on the standards. Not all of them are able to speak freely about the experience for a variety of reasons. Milgram and Stotsky have.
Their objections were not merely "how it was moving" or "how it was implemented." Their objections, were far more detailed than that, and to suggest that is the corpus of their critique is almost insulting. Dr. Stotsky's did discuss the committee, but her comments were quite pointed on the standards. Further, she was not merely "a professional." Dr. Stotsky's standards resulted in Massachusetts having test scores that were well beyond the rest of the nation.
Dr. Milgram's comments are quite pointed toward Superintendents who use his words to defend Common Core adoption. On page 10 of Lowering the Bar, published in September 2013 by Stotsky and Milgram, they stated:
"..Milgram’s remark that Common Core’s standards are better than 90% of the state standards should not be construed as a compliment to Common Core but as an indictment of most state standards. Milgram is saying that as weak as Common Core’s standards are, about 45 states had even weaker standards. This situation requires something other (and much more) than the weak Common Core standards to correct."
More Common Core (Math 180) to supplement Common Core isn't the answer.
[PS: KITE is an open source application from Agile Technology Solutions (see custom application development) based out of India with offices in Dallas, Ipswich, and other places].
As the vanguard of data privacy for her district data, she didn't seem to grasp the data flows or didn't want to be forthcoming.
Dr. Paramo's comment that the P-20W is a grant system and that she had never seen it in our state is laughable. Yup, that is what she said! It is not a grant system, it is a database housed at the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education. It rather shocking to find out that she thinks the grant was given back to the federal government. It is on the website of the Alaska Council on Postsecondary Education, better known among Alaskans as the "student loan people."
Further, Dr.Paramo has referenced the "enterprise system" numerous times, both in Regulatory Review and in this presentation. Perhaps she doesn't understand what that is? From the federal government's' own request for proposals (RFP)
It is data on the personal level, not aggregated data.
The plan to track students interact with Alaska's education system even after they leave the state. At least, that is what Alaska's application says.
The P-20W is funded by the federal government, but all the data from Alaska's OASIS and fine grain data from digital learning platforms goes into it. It is interoperable and completely sharable with other states and the federal government. Since the federal government is paying for it, you better believe they have access to it.
In fact, Alaska is so far advanced, that they are helping other states set up their databases!
The 2014 update on the database management is listed in a powerpoint here. Alaska's program is highly touted on the national scene, as this National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education shows on page three of this brochure. Alaska is so far ahead of the game they helping other states set up their P-20W systems, like Mississippi and Arkansas.
If Dr.Paramo really doesn't know about the P-20W, she had better learn. All the data from her school goes into this data set and it goes to the federal government after it has been identified through PFD matching and validated and cross referenced with the UA and DOL data sets and other state agencies. It circulates at the individual level.
Note the reference specifically to OASIS in the K-12 data from DEED below.
While the claim is that the data is "de-identified," it takes very little to re-identify someone in the database.
The database is operated by the Teach and Learn division of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. It is built on the PFD architecture. Alaska is regarded as a leader in the nation in data providers, and digital learning platforms in schools contribute a considerable amount of "fine grain" data. It links to other states and the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education. How do I know? It was a condition of the grant.
It includes meta data generated by digital learning platforms from external providers. At least, that is what the governance document of the grant states. Typically, metadata is generated in digital learning platforms about a student, and that data can be linked back into the database. I would imagine that Questar is in the feedback loop.
The P-20W also appears to have the ability to match social security numbers from the PFD to various attributes of a student to ensure data validity. This is done through a Master Person Index that is generated from the PFD. As Dr. Paramo may be aware, the maiden name of the mother is also included in the file, as well as some very interesting attributes about the student's family. Religious preferences are included in the data set, as well as medical information. I was hoping to find out how from the questions posed to Dr. Paramo how key variables such as weight gain of the mother when pregnant with the student would support instruction of 2nd grade teachers or even facilitate an AP teacher.
Lest anyone believe that this data is merely on students, rest assured that all employees at the school are also in this database; indeed, all members of the Alaska workforce are in it. Ever file a grievance? Well in the P-20W, that becomes part of your permanent record. So, all you people out there with moms who porked out during pregnancy and all you who filed grievances, know that this is part of your permanent record. Since mother's maiden name is part of the database, there is an ability to track family lines in a way that the DAR could never do.
A large amount of data from Dr. Paramo's district goes into this database. Yet she seemed unaware of its existence. Well, maybe Dr. Paramo wasn't being very forthcoming on purpose, or perhaps she has not been well briefed by the Commissioner of Education or her colleagues. I leave it for the residents of the Mat-Su Borough decide.
Dr Deena Parmo should start asking some questions. The other superintendents should take notice too.
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