Yinzercation
YINZER NATION + EDUCATION = YINZERCATION
The Elephant at the White House
So there we were at the White House. Forty “education leaders” from Pennsylvania invited to meet with President Obama’s senior policy advisors as well as top staff at the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). The room contained district superintendents, school board members, principals, college presidents, education professors, representatives from a host of education associations, a super-PAC school privatizer, educational consultants, and various non-profit directors. And one elephant.
This elephant in the room fittingly started as a Republican beast, but has gained so much traction with Democrats over the past decade that it could just as well have been a donkey lurking there in the corner. Whatever its animal form, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was casting a pretty big shadow and it was time to talk about the consequences of labeling our public schools as failures, high stakes testing, and the demonization of teachers.
And so during the first discussion session, I stood to address Roberto Rodriguez, the President’s senior policy advisor on education. I reminded him of what I had told him back in March, when I implored the White House to stop participating in the national narrative of failing public schools. (See “What I Told the White House.”) And then I gave him the view from the ground here in Pennsylvania where our grassroots movement has been fighting massive budget cuts, to let him know what it looks like when our country stops believing that public education is a public good. When it chooses to cut teachers, tutoring programs, nurses, special ed, school buses, music, art, foreign languages, and even Kindergarten.
NCLB has created a culture of punishment and fear, with student “achievement” measured by highly problematic standardized tests that don’t begin to assess real learning, and teachers evaluated on those test scores and little else. It has narrowed the focus in our schools to reading and math, jettisoned real education in favor of high stakes testing resulting in a plague of cheating scandals, and nurtured a system of “teaching to the test” on top of weeks of school time spent on test taking and nothing else. NCLB set a pie in the sky target of 100% proficiency for all U.S. students by 2014, and as that deadline has approached and the proficiency bar has moved ever higher, more schools have “failed” and more teachers have been blamed.
All this supposed failure and blaming has served as convenient cover to gut public education in states like Pennsylvania, where Governor Corbett and the Republican controlled legislature acted as fast as they could to slash $1 billion from public schools, install voucher-like tax credit programs, and privatize struggling districts, handing their schools over to corporations run by their largest campaign donors. But they had plenty of help from the other side of the aisle, because faced with the relentless media barrage of the failing-narrative, far too many people have lost confidence in public education as a pillar of our democracy.
And this has been happening all across the United States, with the backing of mountains of ultra-right superPAC money and ALEC-inspired legislation as well as major new foundation players including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation. This is truly a national battle, and we can’t win this fight isolated in our trenches. We need tone-changing leadership from the top.
My report from the grassroots met with a rousing round of applause from attendees and was followed by a series of equally urgent remarks. Larry Feinberg of the Keystone State Education Coalition warned that President Obama’s policies have looked nearly identical to Republicans on education (with the exception of vouchers, which he does not support) and that he may backfire at the polls with teachers and educators. Feinberg sits on the Haverford school board, a wealthy district near Philadelphia, and reminded the President’s staff that middle-class students in well-resourced schools actually score at the top on international tests. We are ignoring poverty while adding ever more testing, which will drastically expand yet again this year in his district and many others. Similarly, Susan Gobreski of Education Voters PA argued that we ought to have a new national narrative of equity, and that we have choices and need to help the public see that we can make different ones.
For their part, the White House advisors and senior USDE staff seemed to agree. Roberto Rodriguez emphasized that we “need more investment in public education, not less” with a focus on early childhood education, curriculum, wrap around programs, and parent engagement. He reported on the 300,000 teaching jobs lost in recent years, noting the economic implications for the U.S. and warned that sequestration – which will happen if congress does not head off looming mandatory budget cuts this fall – will mean billions of dollars cut to Title I, special ed, higher ed, and other student programs.
Massie Ritsch, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the USDE, talked about the fact that NCLB will be up for renewal next year, and that we here at the community level need to keep talking about “the lunacy that this law has allowed to perpetuate.” Yes, those were his actual words. Think about that. Of those Americans who say they are very familiar with NCLB, nearly half now say that the law has made things worse in this country (and only 28% say it’s better). (See “What the Polls Say.”) And here was the top brass at the USDE agreeing, calling the fallout from this federal law “lunacy.”
Deborah Delisle, USDE Assistant Secretary noted that 30 states have now applied for NCLB waivers to gain some flexibility in dealing with its ever more stringent requirements. However, Pennsylvania is not one of them. Many in the room expressed serious frustration with Governor Corbett’s apparent preference to have our schools labeled failures and refusal to seek relief through the waiver program. And it was readily apparent that the PA Department of Education declined to send anyone to this White House forum, which was hardly a meeting of Corbett’s political foes (after all, Students First PA was there: that’s the group that funnels superPAC millions to the campaigns of legislators who promise to deliver vouchers and give away public funds to private and religious schools through tax credit schemes.)
Delisle also commented on the polarizing effect that NCLB has had on our nation. It has created a climate in which those who embrace the corporate-marketplace-inspired reform mantra of choice, competition, and test-based accountability smear professional educators and public school advocates as “defenders of the status quo” who only care about union perks and not children. But this educational “reform” movement of the past decade has been a bit like the king’s new clothes. A wide swath of America has lined the parade route – Republican and Democrat alike – loudly cheering for the king’s beautiful new royal robes of privatization, but there’s nothing there covering his privates.
This “reform” movement is premised on a false idea that American schools have been in steady decline for the past forty years, which is not supported by the evidence. Despite ample data to the contrary, these reformers continue to insist that our students are falling further and further behind their international peers and promote the NCLB inspired narrative of failing public education. (For an excellent analysis of the data, see Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.) What’s more, they accuse those who point out the obvious – that privatization is not working, that charter schools and tax credits are draining our public coffers of desperately needed resources, that we have to address the astonishing high rate of child poverty – of being satisfied with the persistent racial achievement gap and using poverty as an excuse.
We are at a cross-roads with public education in our country. If we are going to get serious about making sure that every student has the opportunity to attend a great public school – “A school,” as Assistant Secretary Deborah Delisle said, “that every one of us would send our child to” – then we have to get serious about restoring this country’s belief in the public good of public education. It’s time to name the elephant in the room, have a serious conversation about overhauling NCLB, and make the choice to adequately and equitably fund our public schools.
And, in all of this, the homeless children seem to be considered most expendable.
I think it is wonderful to hear the USDOE respond that way, so at that point they….
–threw the profiteers and consultants out of the meeting
–abandoned Race to the Top
–said that Mr. Duncan would not be part of the next administration
–promised to phase our testing and to remove test scores from teachers evaluations….
When they do the above, I will trust them. Thet opened to door wide so the elephant could get into the room.
We need to point to the “shared sacrifice” and “accountability” narratives as well. The attention paid to the perpetrators of the financial crisis came and went in a rather perfunctory manner. Suggestions of greater controls (regulations) and less lavish pay to folks in this slice of the private sector were met with claims that such measures would scare away the talent from these vital jobs. Nobody is pointing out that follow through and reforms in this area don’t seem to be priority they should be. The false “bad teachers” narrative has not gone away. Who benefits from such distractions?
Great piece of writing and analysis on the NCLB situation and our national conversation around making public education a better place to learn. Spot on!
Nclb may be insanity but their nclb waivers are worse; hope somebody pointed that out.
Thanks for making this point, Leonie. A good article on this (would make a good Diane Ravitch blog post): http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/ed-waivers-junk-rating-systems-misplaced-blame-case-1-new-york-state/
I recently reread Diane’s “Take Action” letter on her website.
To counteract all the misinformation about education reform,
Diane’s recommendations are urgently essential.
http://www.dianeravitch.com/action.html
Big thanks to Pittsburgh’s Jessie Ramey (Yinzercation) — active parent at my school and terrific organizer of the must-read blog, Yinzercation — for writing this. And to Diane Ravitch for sharing. I share Carol Burris’ frustrations in her comments above. USDE spokespeople seemed to be brave in this meeting — and then what? And now how is the Obama administration going to respond to the brave teacher/parent/community alliance in Chicago, where teachers are being forced to strike (Sept. 10) to defend and protect their students and schools? Guess that’s up to us to do, isn’t it. . .
Alas, he waiver is not a waiver, just a commitment to do other harmful tings! It’s important that at least we ourselves understand. Otherwise, what a wonderful summary of where we stand.
And another elephant in the room: of the 40+ educators who attended, only 2 were teachers. Teachers have professional expertise that needs to be acknowledged, cultivated, and sustained. Local, state and federal colleagues must commit to creating the effective working conditions so that teachers — and their students — can flourish.
Another shocking revelation: An ED official actually said that “Most Americans don’t understand the relationship between public education and democracy.” If this is true, we really ARE a nation at risk. And yet, perhaps local, state and federal educators can do more to develop that understanding: the purpose of public education is to create a democracy made up of critical and creative citizens who are life-long learners.
Isn’t that part of their job at the US Department of Education?
Shouldn’t they patiently explain the role of public education in a democracy?
It’s not just for job training or college prep.
It’s to make citizens.
I would suggest that you keep in mind that our Founders and Framers created a republic entirely dofferent for a democracy that can lead to tyranny through majority ruls
Ms.Ravitch
I like a number of things you have stated but i believe you and others are being a tad bit foolish.You are not going to be able to send all kids to great schools and from there to colleges and universities. Indeed I would suggest to you that not everyone is suited for college and does a lot better in vo-tech schools which, I believe should be entitied unto themsleves much like the Community Colleges. By pushing college educations you are really attempting to make everyone vanilla. On top of that those going to college leave with monstrous debt,something that conceiveably would keep students from being purchasers of homes, cars, and other items. As a history techer of 32 years in Bethlehem, with a BA in History, almost a forgotten subject, and a Masters in Education, I would tell you that the best thing you can do is exterminate the Department of Education. You need to hire more content oriented teachers today and move to a merit pay system for teachers and administrators. My school board in Nazareth has just announced that the first meeting of October will be a retreat. As you might guess I will not be attending. No Child Left Behind was a joke from the beginning given that we had Presidnet Bush and Senator Kennedy as the makers of that legislation. But let us not forget Goals 2000 by the senior Bush whose goal was to not only to make the school the center of the community, it also destroyed the family because parents went along with if because they did not have to do stuff like discipline their kids and could now make the kids their buddies, pals, girl friends etc.
, it also destroyed the family because parents went along with if because they did not have to do stuff like discipline their kids and could now make the kids their buddies, pals, girl friends etc.
?????????????!!!!!!!!!
I attended the meeting, and want to personally thank Jessie for her laser sharp comments and reality check for the special adviser to President Obama, Mr. Rodriguez and the other federal department of education members in the room. Accurately noted comments as well that “Race to the Top” is more of the same un-researched, unreliable, and feckless education policy that further demeans the profession and those of us who are steeped in the research of effective practice.
I handed a copy of my new book, WHY AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE THE BEST PLACE FOR KIDS (2012 available in all formats at http://www.rowman.com) to Mr. Rodriguez as he left and asked him to read the research within the pages of this book on why our public schools are essential. I also explain in this book how well public educators have done for so long and continue to do as the U. S. places a much greater emphasis on “whole child” growth than merely making widgets who do well on math and reading tests (such as China). Our children’s creativity scores have dipped over the past ten years (as I note in the book) while our test scores have slightly risen and we’ve produced better test takers yet possibly worse critical and creative thinkers, problem solvers, and researchers.
Let’s wrestle back control of our public schools by reading and sharing my new book with our local, state, and federal legislators (as I have done). Please get your hands on WHY AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE THE BEST PLACE FOR KIDS so you can use the obvious evidence within the book to share with community members, state legislators, school board members, and federal legislators so that they all begin to see the successes of our public schools. Public schools matter—because democracy matters, and everyone becomes a part of the democratic process when they are educated in our local public schools!
Dave F. Brown, Ed. D.