If I had read this article, I would not have been surprised to learn that Bill Cosby joined the board of StudentsFirst.
I wonder if anyone told him that when Michelle Rhee left DC, it had the biggest black-white achievement gap of any urban district tested by NAEP. Like double the gap in other districts. Same for Hispanic-white gap.
Sad.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bill Cosby showed his middle class bias a few years ago when he held events charging low income African-American parents for beings responsible for their poverty and for the affects it has on their children.
For a different view, see this video of a talk given by Karran Harper Royal, a leader in Parents Across America, at the SOS conference held a month ago:
How [some] African Americans and Civil Rights Leaders Got on the Wrong Side of the Ed Reform Movement
We can all tweet him @BillCosby
Place a full-page advocacy ad to Cosby: “Bill, when Michelle Rhee left DC, she left behind the biggest b/w gap…Think again about which side you are on, sir.”
We cannot forget the coverup of the massive cheating on high-stakes testing that occurred while Michelle Rhee was Chancellor of Washington DC schools:
When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?
from USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm
The deafening silence on test cheating
from The Answer Sheet at the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-deafening-silence-on-test-cheating/2012/08/11/d4d565e2-e2fb-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_blog.html
D.C. schools cheating report thin and biased
from The Answer Sheet at the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/dc-schools-cheating-report-thin-and-biased/2012/08/11/569d3f5c-e40d-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_blog.html
The Stonewall to Protect Michelle Rhee and Teach for America
from Scathing Purple Musings
http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/the-stonewall-to-protect-michelle-rhee-and-teach-for-america/
When Atlanta Public Schools cheated it came to light, even though it took a long time. (I knew there was stuff going on in the early 1990s). Why can’t Rhee be similarly uncovered and investigated?
I think Bill Cosby’s son is/was a teacher. I wonder if he was TFA?
Bill Cosby son was killed. I believe he also struggled with a learning disability. I seriously doubt that Bill Cosby sees TFA as the solution, but he was a tough love proponent. I imagine the “no excuses” mantra roped him in.
Yes he was a teacher. No he was not TFA. He was working on a Masters in Education when he was killed. I seem to remember his having a learning disability also. Bill Cosby has a Ph.D in Education and the Cosby Kids cartoons were part of his dissertation.
I think Cosby has gotten frustrated with the continued problems he has seen with inner city schools, but has also gotten past the point in his life of being able to figure out what to do about it. I am really sorry to hear he has gone with Students First. It should be Teachers First so we can help the students.
If only StudentsFirst put students first, it wouldn’t be leading the attack on their teachers
Diane Ravitch
CTU President Karen Lewis: Race, Class at Center of Education Debate
Chicago Magazine – November 3, 2011
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/November-2011/CTU-President-Karen-Lewis-Race-Class-at-Center-of-Education-Debate/
Does anyone know how Karen Lewis became certified to teach? The interview talks about her trying times as a Dartmouth Student (I know some other women who were there at the time, and it was indeed a very unwelcoming environment) and her attending medical school for two years, but I did not see anything about attending a school of education.
From the Chicago Teachers Union website
http://www.ctunet.com/about
President Karen GJ Lewis was elected president of the 30,000-member Chicago Teachers Union on June 11, 2010. A member of CTU since 1988, Mrs. Lewis taught high school chemistry in the Chicago Public Schools for 22 years. She believes that students, parents, teachers and community members are educators’ natural allies. Her goal is to truly improve Chicago Public Schools and stand firmly against the privatization of public education. The only National Board Certified Teacher to lead a U.S. labor union, she also serves as executive vice president to the Illinois Federation of Teachers and as vice president of the American Federation of Teachers. Karen is a product of Chicago Public Schools, having attended Kozminski Elementary School and Kenwood High School, until accepting early admission at Mount Holyoke College. She later transferred to Dartmouth College, where she earned the distinction of being the only African American woman in the class of 1974. Mrs. Lewis comes from a family of educators — her father, mother and husband, John Lewis, who is now retired, all were CPS teachers.
What’s your point TE? What are you trying to prove or disprove? You are usually the wet blanket, the party pooper, the Debby downer.
Do you have anything positive to say about teachers, schools, learning?
Aw come on Linda, lighten up, TE is an economist, that explains it all-ha ha! (TE please take with a grain of salt).
I find that TE comes up with some valid questions/concerns and has a good eye for specious arguments. But other times, like this one he can be way off base (whatever that base is), but then again who can’t.
Linda,
When I read the interview given in the link, I was interested that Mrs. Lewis spoke of attending Dartmouth and medical school, but not about attending a school of education. Unfortunately the biography given by philaken also fails to mention any degree in education.
Many posts on this blog place great importance on the training that an education degree provides. I was curious if this prominent teacher had this qualification.
Thanks for clarifying. I think I need to take a break. I am exhausted. Sounds reasonable.
That was a great interview. I was pleased to see she went to Mount Holyoke. I went, too. It taught me how to think; it was great to be in a place where women ran everything: the newspaper, clubs,music groups. No one had to compete with men, and it was obvious that there were lots of very bright people there. I remember that going coed was a nasty fight at Dartmouth; those first classes of women would have had a very tough time. I was not one of their brighter stars, but I was always a late bloomer.
I don’t know of any posts that say that teachers need an education degree. I know of many that say that a five-week training program is inadequate. Would you go to a doctor who had five weeks of training?
I certainly think I remember posts speaking of the importance of the training provided by an education degree, especially the hours as a student teacher.
You are correct that I would not go to a physician who did not have a degree in medicine. I also agree that the same standards need not be applied to teaching.
Sorry, but I cannot imagine the schools of our nation staffed by inexperienced 22-year-olds.
You have a low opinion of the education profession if you think no professional preparation is required.
Let me know when you invite a bright young BA to join your department as a full professor.
I was agreeing with you that teachers do not need a degree in education. I don’t know why you object to my posts when I am agreeing with you.
I don’t believe teachers need a degree in education as undergraduates but I do believe they need to study cognitive science, pedagogy, curriculum, child and adolescent psychology, the sociology of the family and community and the economics, politics and history of education. Sounds like a masters degree.
Diane
That is why I was interested to learn if Mrs. Lewis had an MA in education.
In RI, where I teach, and many parts of the country, secondary teachers must have a dual major in both their subject and education–30 credits each–as an undergrad. We later must get MAs in either our subject or education. When I first started teaching we could get special lifetime certificates if we had an MA in the subject we teach.
Elementary teachers need to have a degree in education and a concentration in a general subject, such as social studies or science. They also must get an MA.
All must intern for a full semester as a student teacher.
Now that Broadie Deb Gist is in charge, TFA is fine, vapid PD hours are required, not an MA.
The old way was a good preparation program. Without academic credentials, how can teaching be a profession? Five weeks doesn’t
cut it, nor does boring, useless PD.
I really like the idea of requiring a Masters. I did not feel I was really a professional until I did. It’s not a profession without the academic credentials because you have the branches but no roots. It’s like the parable of the sower in the Bible where the farmer sowed his seeds and some fell on rocks where they sprouted quickly. But since they had no root system they withered when the heat came. (How’s that for an analogy?. Think Jesus knew something about education?) A friend who is a nurse said their profession is having the same problem where these young nurses who went through the for-profit schools in their short courses know what to do, but don’t know why and so cannot make professional judgments about treatment.
That has been my point to several groups and people who have praised TFA. There seems to be a praisefest going on in Baton Rouge’s paper, the Advocate lately (2theAdvocate.com. If you just put in Advocate you will get the gay magazine) regarding TFA, largely because our schools have gotten infested, especially the Recovery District schools, the ones that have been taken over by the state.
The 5week training thing I say this:, Would you take your child to an engineer who graduated at the top of his class and had taken a 5 week seminar in brain surgery if he had a head injury? I’ve never gotten an answer. That might stop some of them.