How many times have you heard a leader of the reform privatization movement say,
“We don’t have time.”
“The kids can’t wait.”
This reader from Montgomery County, Maryland, which has the nation’s best teacher evaluation system (it does not rely on test scores but on professional judgment) writes:
We in MoCo don’t hire inexperienced people. The people that are hired in Montgomery County are well vetted professionals with earned degrees and experience. They are also well compensated and most who opt to come here can be reasonably assured of a long and productive career.
In addition, in MoCo there is a culture of high expectations for all students. Parents, teachers and students are involved and engaged in the schools and the educational process. Employees are treated with courtesy and respect. Unlike their teaching counterparts in major urban areas, their isn’t the daily and constant teacher bashing, vilification and demonization in MoCo.
In addition, we spend over $2.2B per year on our public schools. One last thing, unlike the major urban and close in suburban schools that are supposedly “failing” in MoCo they aren’t testing every day in the name of achievement. Surprisingly, there is real teaching and learning taking place. What’s not to like.
Can this model be replicated? Yes. Will it in urban areas? No. Why? It takes time. Something, according to Arne, Michelle, and Joel we don’t have.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The real reason “we don’t have time” is their consistent mantra is so they can continue to baffle us with bullsh%# and make as much as possible while boosting their already overly inflated egos. These slogans will continue until the gig is up. It has nothing to do with teaching and learning and the real teachers live this lie everyday.
By the time the entire nation figures out they are hucksters, liars and connivers they will have cashed in and moved on to another scheme. They just can’t wait to cash in which is why we are told time is running out. As if the kids even have a choice….it is being shoved down their throats….a legally sanctioned, government endorsed form of child abuse.
“. . . a legally sanctioned, government endorsed form of child abuse.”
No doubt and also a form a bullying against the generally powerless teachers. Do what we want or lose your job, plain and simple.
A little off the topic, but pertinent to the big picture:
In the back of my mind I’ve been wondering when and if this issue would raise it’s head. If it gains the momentum that it has the potential to, it could crush the voucher/ privatization efforts in Texas, not in a loud and violent way, but in a behind the scenes “good ole boy” way. Maybe only those who live in Texas understand the power of “Friday Night Lights”, but the loss of a towns football team (or even the suggestion) will bring out everyone from bankers to grandmas. Whoa be unto the politician who contributes to this demise.
http://smmercury.com/2012/10/11/pac-high-school-football-imperiled-by-vouchers/
We saw the stark differences in citizen reactions to the replacement refs lockout and the NFL vs. the Chicago strike and TFA teachers.
It would be an indicator of our warped values if a community is upset about the loss of a quality football program more so than the loss of support/funding of their public high school.
Educators would hope the “crushing” is led by a community’s outrage over the pilfering of their tax dollars to support privatization of a public good.
Most likely the vultures will prey on the poorest city unless they happen to have some great athletes, too.
But you’d have to admit – nothing would be better to the ignorant citizens in our society (ignorant of the damaging effects of school reform) than to even attempt to strip football, or sports in general. They’d have a cow, which might be a good thing.
Realistically, this could be an argument against charters. Being curious, (because I really don’t know) how many charter have sports programs?
And what could be the damaging effects of school choice in general when a bunch of parents get together and “choose” a certain school to stack a football team. It’s already illegal for public schools to recruit players from non-feeder schools or other schools in general.
The “We don’t have time” mantra is endlessly repeated not because of the needs of children, who are little more than data sets to be monetized by corporate ed deformers, but because it furthers their strategy of constant destabilization and fragmentation of the public schools. Their euphemism of choice is “disruptive innovation.”
Hmmm, why does “we don’t have time” sound so strikingly similar to “Hurry! Offer ends soon!”?
Or WMDs will be landing in this country, or Iran’s nuclear weapons capability will be attained this year (only for the last 20 years or so according to BB N.)
“We don’t have time…” really means “we don’t want to spend as much as Montgomery County does for teachers”…
Can this model be replicated? Yes. Will it in urban areas? No. Why? It takes time. Something, according to Arne, Michelle, and Joel we don’t have.
Education Week predicted than union staffers would undermine the NEA’s “new unionism,” which is fundamental to the MCPS reforms. Bob Chase himself linked “new unionism” to the quality efforts adopted by MCPS.
In Ohio, these same quality principles are promulgated through the authority of our state constitution’s education clause–the same clause adopted by West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Yet MCPS is the only district among these six states to receive national recognition for actually doing what our state constitution requires.
Perhaps the lawyers working for teachers’ unions have not yet figured this out. Like they say, “With friends like these…”
The Montgomery County Education Association (Teacher’s Union) originally proposed the successful Peer Assistance Review Teacher Evaluation model currently in use. http://www.mceanea.org/teaching/teachereval.php
The Montgomery County Public School officials were wise enough to listen to the teachers and patient enough to develop something that was generally satisfactory to all.
Have we seen this same level of respect toward teachers across this country? No.
Thanks for the link:
“For example, Broad Acres Elementary School serves a population almost completely composed of students of color and free/reduced lunch students. In 2000, it was on the verge of state takeover and a reconstitution that would have included wholesale replacement of school staff and leadership. But a collaborative approach initiated by MCEA and embraced by the school leadership led to a sustained process of renewal and reform that has dramatically improved student performance and school culture. According to the school’s principal, ‘The reason Broad Acres succeeded was teacher leadership and everyone holding themselves accountable for every student.'”
Things would be better if President Obama showed up in person to deliver the gold medal MCPS earned. Vice President Biden might not have grasped the significance of that award.
A few quick Googles indicate it took 9 years for NEA to report on Broad Acres. RttT was underway…
Some time back Labor Lawyer asked a question about why PAR had not been pushed as an alternative to test heavy teacher evaluation. No one answered, so I thought I would bring it up again as long as we are discussing Montgomery County Schools.
Because PAR would not make anybody a profit?????
Peer review has a mixed record–once upon a time, there was high hope for test-based accountability (despite lack of evidence). Who (decision makers) would listen to peer review supporters in 2009?
Even failed markets have momentum… Especially with government billions.
Peer review is the norm in higher education, it seems like it should work in K-12 as well. Has it been adopted anywhere other than Montgomery County?
Toledo is frequently cited; Some civil rights activists are dubious and Brill says its effectiveness is over-rated.
Columbus is mentioned but I have no idea of implementation status there.
The MCPS effort aligns with an umbrella approach to school quality: “Education Criteria for Performance Excellence.” Think of that as a version of Deming that can stand up in court.
Albeit the premise of what Montgomery County is doing for teachers is great such as valuing teachers, one aspect that isn’t mentioned about Montgomery County public Schools is that Montgomery County is filled with professionals working in DC such as Georgetown University or the World Bank. I know of 5 students who graduated from Wooten High School in Montgomery County and all went to Ivy League universities. Resources are bountiful in Montgomery County. It’s not that poor parents don’t want to pay for their children’s education, it’s just that some parents/families/aunties, just can’t afford to pay the rents to live in those districts. So yes, resources for families to help prepare their kids in schools such as jobs.
Nonetheless, the valuing teacher model is much more effective rather than judging them.
Does anything that’s rushed ever turn out well? Whenever any of my students try to get away with doing a rushed and less than adequate job with their work, I refer them to the sign on the wall:
“If you don’t have time to do it right, you must have time to do it over.”
They quickly learn the importance of taking the time to be right, thereby saving time and effort in the long run. We should demand and accept no less from the reformers, no excuses. Children get one chance at an education, we don’t have time to do them over.
And we should demand the same from those that defend the status quo.
First the status quo IS reform. It technically started with The Nation at Risk in 1983, based on bunk. Then Goals 2000, then the NCLB Act (2001), and now the RttT initiative.
There’s a reason why changes in education have, at least up until recently, occurred at a snail’s pace.
BECAUSE THERE ARE CHILDREN INVOLVED.
Do no harm.
I think I could equally well argue that change in education has preceded at a snails pace because the system was working reasonably well for the those involved with political power.
Your argument would be wrong. Nothing much as changed in education…same buses, same buildings, same structure of schooling.
Of course, we have better teachers, armed with better technology, and with what I would argue modest, but sufficient, funding.
We have smaller class sizes now than ever before, on average.
I don’t think there is much difference in our standings in international testing – if anything, we’ve gone from bad to less bad, at least on PISA. Of course, as more countries were added, that muddied the waters in terms of comparing historically.
NAEP scores are their highest ever, even for subgroups, although there is a gap, and that gap has widened.
We have the highest graduation rate now than we’ve ever had.
I’d say the system has worked, and still works. It only works better for the middle and upper class because they send their kids to school ready to learn, whereas the poverty-stricken families deal with conditions that do not lend to an emphasis on education other than possibly in the form of lip service.
Furthermore, the reform effort is about breaking public schools. Privatizing education brings forth loot. The vultures want it.
Therefore, we get a national smear campaign that schools are broke and that teachers should be able to advance poor kids in the same manner as rich kids.
Not gonna happen, it never has, and never will.
I think one significant change from the time I was in school is that woman have many more career choices now. I don’t think public education has really come to terms with having to compete for talented employees.
A second difference is that society now expects more students to graduate from high school and more to attend college.
Why? I think part of the reason valuing teachers, besides taking time, won’t work on being replicated is that Montgomery County is filled with homes and families who are wealthy and uber educated; therefore, families have the means to provide their children with adequate resources (if the off chance that their public school isn’t what they want) or the habits necessary for succeeding in school.
For instance, let’s take Wooten High School, most children their graduate and attend prestigious universities. Many of their parents are also working in DC at institutions like Georgetown and the World Bank. So replication is harder simply because families can make up for any “deficit” that a school may have or their voices might resonate more loudly with public officials.
I was raised in a poor household (according to national standards of family income level; not poor emotionally, culturally, lovingly). If my parents could afford to rent a house near Wooten HS, I bet they would have loved to have sent me to a public school. Instead, they valued education and realized that their neighborhood public school was bad (and still is), so they paid for my brother and me to attend a parochial school (not good one at all but class size was a bit smaller, albeit staff were impersonal with families). The morale of my story is that class plays a huge factor in how a school is shaped, envisioned and valued.
I envision a day when we all pay just a little more for our neighbors across town, who live on the other side of track, so their children can have the resources I have today.
Sorry, not to bombard, but please disregard my first reply (it was my draft, and I couldn’t find it in the blog world).
Rhee and company say there isn’t enough time?
Didn’t I hear her say that there hasn’t been enough time to judge her DC system effectively and that we need to see how things are in a few year to gauge its effectiveness?
Oh, there’s time….just time for THEIR reforms…
We have no time to wait to implement their schemes, but no one can judge them for ten years
Diane
The wheels came off in DC when she was here. We don’t need to wait any longer. We need to acknowledge her screw up and reinstall the wheels.Pronto.
Some of the old saws ring startlingly true. Diane recently mentioned one I hadn’t heard for many years: “A promise made, is a debt unpaid.” Everyone who commented above should remember the old adage “act in haste, repent at leisure.”
I have been a full time elementary school teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools for 26 years, and after my first year have always received strong evaluations i.e. have never been in danger of requiring PARS. That being said, however, in recent years my autonomy to work for my students’ best interests has been steadily eroded, and more and more time each school year gets used up for standardized assessments. Innovations I have created using puppets in the classroom have pretty much been necessarily set aside in order to keep up with the unwieldy Curriculum 2.0, which specifies what is to be covered every week, yet with almost no guidance as to how several content areas are to be integrated into a lesson plan simultaneously. Which curriculum I have read that Pearson is trying to sell under the name Pearson Forward in other parts of the country. This, at the same time I have recently been receiving emails from students I had 8, 10, even twenty years ago, telling of work becoming doctors, entering an international baccaulaureate program, and training to become a combination special education and ESOL (my specialty) teacher, among others. They have all thanked me for my unusual approach, which they said has stayed in their memory, and they all ask if I am still using my pet dinosaur Din-Din in the classroom. I am feeling the same demoralization of colleagues who tell me they are feeling the joy and creativity getting sucked out of what they do in the classroom. Yes, there are several wonderful caring administrators and teachers in MCPS, but all is far from well here. To understand this, just listen to a third grade teacher on the verge of tears because she’s afraid she accidentally committed a violation in the complicated administration of a standardized test. Or watch a kindergartner literally trembling with fear as she is asked to read nonsense words on a palm pilot reading skill assessment for which instruction has to be halted for at least a week at a time three times a year. These are among my grim experiences over the past decade.
I originally entered this profession because it was something I could do with a clear conscience, but what I am expected to do in recent years often leaves me feeling very troubled, that I may very well be doing more harm than good. Am presently considering an early retirement that back in the mid nineties I would not have imagined.
Dr. Ravitch, thank you so much for your courageous documentation of what has been happening to public schools nationally. Reading your work has been a source of great comfort both for me and for other colleagues whose attention I have drawn to your blog, your previous dialogue in Education Weekly, and your book. But please understand that for me and several of my colleagues, both veterans and newcomers, all is far from idyllic in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Thank you, David.
Not “idyllic,” yet so much better than what is happening in most places.
Why?
Hear Hear David! I believe that MCPS (in which I have worked for the past 8 years) is better that many places. That said, I know there is something wrong when I have colleagues who I believe to be exceptional teachers- truly exceptional- who are questioning their ability to teach. Like all other districts we are handed mandates that haven’t been tested or fully funded and we are expected to make them work without training or materials. We do make it work because we are highly skilled, but the cost is high. The evidence is in David’s email. He is a colleague of mine and one of the exceptional teachers and he is contemplating leaving. He is not the only exceptional teacher I know that is thinking of leaving the profession. That is a tragedy.
Does anyone with knowledge of young children have input into any of this? Last week I had another second-grader in tears because he could not figure out how to begin a district assessment. I try to downplay these tests as much as possible, but an hour is an eternity to little kids. I am now fighting to block the implementation of a 45 -minute assessment that is to be administered individually THREE times a year. I keep trying to point out the amount of time there will be no instruction going on in my classroom, just busy work to keep the kids entertained and quiet. Do any of these people remember being seven, or even have children?
Here’s a blog by MCPS parents that articulate their displeasure with the Pearson curriculum authorized and ushered in by former Super Jerry Weast and the MCPS Board of Education.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/05/mcps-curriculum-20-to-be-sold-as.html