I taped the interview a few minutes ago.
It airs tomorrow at 9-10 am EST.
It was a gotcha session.
This is the letter I sent to my contact at CNN.
This was one of the most biased interviews I have ever done, and I have done many.
Randi Kaye asked me about NAEP scale scores, which was technically a very dumb question, and I was stunned.
She thinks that a scale score of 250 on a 500 point scale is a failing grade, but a scale score is not a grade at all.
It’s a trend line.
She asserted that the scale scores are a failing grade for the nation.
That is like saying that someone who scores a 600 on the SAT is a C student, because it is only 75% of 800. But that’s wrong.
The scale is a technical measure. It is not a grade, period.
Then she asked me about an issue in Michigan, which fortunately, I had written about. But it was clear she was trying to blindside me.
The point of her question was to blame teachers, and I refused to be pushed into her trap.
Then she read two hostile comments about my CNN post and asked for my response.
Was that supposed to be a balanced or fair interview?
There was no effort to elicit my views, only a determination to prove me wrong and to assert that US education is terrible.
Shame on CNN.
It seems that CNN and other corporate media outlets are more concerned with “creating a narrative” rather than reporting facts and challenging opinions based on fact. Over and over one sees “reporters” respond with hostility when their narrative is challenged by contrary facts or when their grasp of the facts and lack of preparation is so nakedly exposed by a knowledgeable guest. Thank you for standing up for teachers and students in the face of the encroaching hostile corporate take over of public education.
Disappointing. Sorry to hear this. Thank you, as always, for fighting the good fight.
Look at all of the negative attention NBC got with the Olympics through Twitter. That became a news story unto itself. I know this audience isn’t as large, but I believe we can have an impact if we tweet and retweet and so forth.
Thank you. I’m counting on you.
Diane
Thanks for the heads up on some of the interview. Even though you may have been asked some really strange questions, no doubt you professionally, succinctly and as politely as possible put her in her place. That we can count on. Thanks for that!
Diane, You’ll have to tell us if they edit the interview. That’s another trick used to distort.
If things proceeded as Diane outlines — and she is very careful in what she says on this blog — then an attempt to sucker punch her is hardly unexpected. But this sort of thing can backfire.
Let me relate a personal experience. I went to what was called an “all-city” school in Detroit in the mid-1960s, very highly regarded. While walking down the hallway during class change, I heard someone call me from behind. As I turned I was literally sucker punched full in the face [and very hard] by someone I didn’t know. I was taking judo at the time, so I blocked his next punch, threw him down without hurting him, and held him until school staff could separate us. After I threw him down I could have done him great damage [broken his arm, choked him unconscious or worse, elbowed him in what was then politely called his 'private areas, and so on], but I just immobilized him until the situation could resolve itself peacefully.
As any reality-based person could expect, I was promptly informed by the assistant principal in charge of ‘discipline’ that I would be suspended for fighting. My mother — a teacher of course! — promptly marched down to school with me, went right to the AP, and forced this miscreant to admit that with literally dozens of witnesses to the whole incident, that I had been viciously attacked and had defended myself with great restraint. The AP was, quite obviously, not used to someone using the ‘weapons’ of courage and truth and honor against him, and without even a moment’s hesitation beat a complete retreat. Surrender without conditions. I was right, he was wrong, and let’s all just pretend the threat of suspension was a hasty, er, misunderstanding because, uh, some subordinate of his had somehow misinformed him — or some such malarkey.
I never got attacked in school again [word of my not being blamed for my own victimization apparently spread widely, so any would-be attacker knew he would not be shielded by a immoral administrator]. So courage and truth and honor will out, though not always in the short run. More often then not, one has to run a gauntlet of blows before claiming victory, but I think Diane can handle those who try to sucker punch her.
And she will claim victory.
In the end, those cowards who sucker punch others just dishonor themselves.
Just when I thought that public education might finally get a fair hearing on CNN, I was disappointed to hear that you were blind-sided. I will watch the interview tomorrow, and after I give some thought to how the questions have been framed and answered, I will write another e-mail to CNN expressing my views.
The most disappointing part of this is that the cable networks have decided to lionize faux prophets like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg and others from the Billionaires Boys’ Club while showing disrespect for true educational leaders like you, Diane.
What is even more creepy is the Teachers Rock show which is on CBS right now. The hits just keep on coming.
I’m taping it now. I’m not sure I’ll watch it Phyllis. Is it a celebration or a beat-down?
The purpose of the show was two-fold – to show how much influence teachers have in the lives of children, as demonstrated by a list of celebrities with very positive recollections – and also, to advertize the upcoming pro-charter movie “Won’t Back Down”. Excerpts of the movie showed a nightmare of public school victimization and rejection by a teacher(s?) unable to meet the needs of a ‘dyslexic’ student. The launch of an inclusive, positive and successful charter school, headed up by Viola Davis, provided the alternative. It’s based on a true story. Apart from demonstrating the successful, joyful, engaged students through rote shouted responses to Ms Davis’ unfinished questions – cf. videos of call and response type morning meetings on gung ho charter school websites – there was a great deal of justifiable passion and bureaucratic obtuseness. Albert Shanker’s dream of alternative schools which could implement new, experimental pedagogies deserves respect, and is demonstrably true in some cases. The polarization of two extremes is clearly exploitative, but if it’s a true story, and isn’t generalized from one particular instance – then it’s just a movie!
It is not a true story. It is not even based on a true story because it never happened.
The only saving grace of all that righteous indignation was that it actually happened! Diane, hearing that it’s purely a piece of propaganda, and that serious actors evidently bought into it (Gyllenhall and Davis) – that’s so depressing! Also, did Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Josh Groban et al know they were being connected to that message? I hope they just wanted to lift up and celebrate their favorite teachers! However, parents do need to be involved in their schools, and I think that’s one of your main themes – they are being excluded from the debate, and they are also being woefully misinformed by a highly efficient marketing machine with unlimited funds. You held the line in this interview, no question!
Diane,
Sorry that CNN doesn’t seem to be interested in giving a fair picture of what’s going on in education. Thanks for standing up for teachers.
Here is a link to an interview from the UK. Even Michele has moments when her propaganda machine fails:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18592185
I heard this story on NPR just the other day about CNN losing money and seeking a new direction that may involve more opinion-based programming. I wonder if there’s a connection.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/16/158908783/low-ratings-force-cnn-to-find-a-new-direction
There is some hope. Rachel Maddow is a possibility. Ed Shultz interviewed Diane recently and I believe he agreed to invite her back. There is the possibility of Elliot Spitzer on Current. (he may have some charter school baggage as a result of his term as Gov. of NY) There is also Cenk on Current TV’s The Young Turks. He’s done several stories ranging from the UVA fiasco, to US/Finland educational systems and he recently covered the Poway Unified School District financing snafu. How $100 M grows to $1B.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/article_c83343e8-ddd5-11e1-bfca-001a4bcf887a.html
Write letters, send emails and Tweet em. It never hurts. There are also petition sites that won’t have you sign up for StudentsFirst. Just saying. Use the media before it uses you.
I will have to wait for CNN to link it to their website. But take a page from politicians. When asked a loaded question, turn it around to and make it an opportunity to express your views. But something tells me you did fine.
Diane, You have to be one of the kindest people ever. But I am sure you will be ready for any interview after this. We all can’t be Matt Damon putting that horrible reformer reporter at the SOS Save Our Schools in her place. He even took on the camera man
That interview always cheers me up
I’ve been burned by the local media many times. I will not trust them and only issue written quotes. These so called “journalists” do not come in with the idea of gathering good info and reporting. They come with their biased opinions and attempt to find a way to fulfill their pre-conceived beliefs.
I think everyone must wait to see the interview and then respond but all comments must be free of vulgarities, curses, etc.. otherwise the narrative will be that we are left leaning loons who can’t deals with tough but fair questioning. Which we all know from Diane’s words that they weren’t. I think the best defensive to shrug our shoulder and state over & over how sad & unprofessional CNN & other journalists are. if we get emotional although warranted, it gives these ahem uninformed people reason not to look at their behavior. We don’t them to somehow play victims.
Hang in there Diane, we all know the truth and so does whoever you believe to be your higher power.
Much Love & support your way
Sorry, Diane. When you are disrespected we all are. I am re-reading your Death and Life of the Great American School System again and can only wish you had chance to respond to some legitimate questions. But again this testing ‘gotcha’ gets us all. People do not understand “testing” and almost all fall back on their visceral fears from their own school experiences. Tests, they mistakenly think, prove your worth, not your transitory moment in our learning continuum.
This is why I stick to Jon Stewart or the PBS Newshour. It’s so indicative of the absence of intelligence in any mainstream education journalism that an interviewer can’t understand NAEP scores and twists their meaning to invent fiction. what an unpleasant experience for you Diane, I’m sorry.
You are a voice crying in the wildness. We are living in an age when people who have little or no experience in the field of education pretend to know everything AND THEY DO NOT LIKE BEING REMINDED OF THE FACT that they know so little. Please continue your excellent work! Those of us who do have experience in the field appreciate what you do. Thank you.
CNN is Fox News lite.
Does anyone now doubt that our media is controlled? This also tells us that the reform movement will “win.” The only question now is how long the new system will last. We haven’t had a fair and balanced media for 30 years now. The elites will win this fight. They pull all the strings. This just reaffirms how bleak this situation is.
Now that I have watched the interview, it seems clear that this “rheeporter” was a merely a mouthpiece for the privatizers. This was not an interview, but a cross-examination. So much for objective journalism. Somebody ought to be bold and host a Rhee/Ravitch debate, so that both sides can present their views with minimal interference.
Diane,
I thought you smacked down everyone one of her assertions. If she said there were both positive and negative comments, why did she only read one negative. This was not an interview. Alan is correct.
I no longer have any faith in CNN to report the truth.
It was pretty apparent that the “interviewer” was picking and choosing her “facts.” Thank you, Diane, for your effort.
I forgot to add how I noticed the absence of the “scaled score vs. grade” segment that had been mentioned here. I guess they didn’t like how they came out on that one.
Unfortunately, it’s not just CNN. As a public educator in Texas, it seems to be the entire media lashing out against public education. This was obviously a biased interview, but I was cheering you on after each of your answers! Thank you for having such solid data to respond to each of her questions! Our Texas legislation is gearing up to push vouchers again even though they have consistently failed. They are also ready to privatize our retirement fund which is one of the most solid in the country right now – so much for ever being able to afford to retire. I just feel beat up!
I thought Diane held her own-VERY WELL. Thank you Diane for hitting every question with a direct answer and great rebuttal in such a short time. I did have to wonder who wrote the questions-some were so lame-I had to wonder if a StudentsFirst employee wrote the questions for CNN or Michelle Rhee herself.
Is the interview video online anywhere?
It will be and I will post the link
This interview was indeed shocking. I don’t know iwhether to be discouraged by CNN’s Foxification or encouraged by the fact that your brilliant argument aired.
Can we get a video link to the interview, Diane? I can’t seem to find it on CNN. Great job!
Just curious. What Michelle Rhee’s interview broadcast at 10am EST?