A teacher in California writes:
I am just about finished with your book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, and as a public high school teacher of 22 years, I would like to thank you for your eloquent defense of public education. My wife is also a public school teacher, and we have made it a point to send our two sons to our neighborhood public schools. This means that as teachers and parents we have been eyewitnesses to the injustices that are being done to public schools in the name of “reform.”
A particularly egregious story comes from our sons’ elementary school, Toyon Elementary, in San Jose, California. The school was designated Program Improvement under the terms of NCLB some years ago, and struggled hard to escape the designation. This is not an easy thing to do: the school where I teach is also laboring under the PI designation (and stigma), and my experience suggests that it’s a bit like quicksand: the more you struggle to get out, the more you get sucked in.
Still, through hard work and determination and no small amount of heroism on the part of its teachers, Toyon Elementary managed to escape the quicksand of Program Improvement a couple of years ago. It was a wonderful thing to see. We likely disagree on this, but I believe that the shortcomings in NCLB are no mere design flaws, but in fact a very conscious attempt to destroy the public schools. So to see a school actually beat the devil that is NCLB was for us a sight to behold.
But soon after the school got out of PI, we received a letter informing us that Toyon was now designated “Low Performing,” under the terms of Race to the Top. It seems that the effort of some in our state to qualify for Race to the Top funds–particularly state senator Gloria Romero–had given us and our children whole new categories under which to be called “failures.”
So there you have it: public schools in this era are not even allowed to take satisfaction in their success–especially success as defined by their adversaries. Since its true goal is annihilation of the public schools, the beast of reform will not countenance even the slightest defeat; in such an emergency, it will merely change the rules and declare victory.
Sincerely,
Martin Brandt
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cheer up.There are companies waiting to help with almost ready to roll CCLS curriculum & testing materials, other companies waiting with some online ed software to help replace live teachers and classroom space…These people have been working silently and closely with lobbyists and politicians to make sure that this works well for everybody.
I’m at the point where I feel I can no longer jump through the hoops and over the hurdles. I will do my best as I always have. At this point in the game I think I would rather be forced out of my job than stay and deal with the insanity. I won’t need much of a nudge to get off this sinking ship.
My feelings of disenchantment and despair mimic yours. I, too, am “there.” It is unfortunate for us all.
This story sounds exactly what happened to my school.
“So there you have it: public schools in this era are not even allowed to take satisfaction in their success–especially success as defined by their adversaries. Since its true goal is annihilation of the public schools, the beast of reform will not countenance even the slightest defeat; in such an emergency, it will merely change the rules and declare victory.”
Isn’t it interesting, in a lamentable way, how the kafkaesque set-ups for failing schools described here are mirrored by the equally kafkaesque set-ups for evaluating/failing teachers.
I am at a small rural school that stands at the same precipice. For school improvement we have extended the day, have after school tutoring that amounts to having students on computers practicing test taking, we monitor every student’s performance on every question on every standard. I spend two hours a day updating charts and standards for the educrats. Only our small numbers keep them from classifying us, one kid in a class is over 5 percent. They want us to be classified using a statistical extrapolation. We are also the guinea pigs for using standard based report cards using Discovery Learning, an expensive boondogle leaving our district claiming they have no money to repair our air conditioners. I’m an old solder and an older teacher, like you, I think they will either fire us or wear us out. I count every day I show up, speak up, and teach a small victory in denying them their heart’s desire.
I am just about finished with your book…
I got sidetracked shortly after recently starting (although I’ve looked through parts as soon as I found it at B&N).
What startled me from the early pages is Dr. Ravitch’s experiences in US Department of Education. They seem to have gotten their introduction to quality (as in TQM, total quality management) from David Kearns. Kearns associate, Myron Tribus, would be the better choice–it’s the difference between the sales and the engineering sides of Xerox.
With the general ignorance at US Ed of how to deliver a quality work product on budget and on schedule, it’s no wonder that US Ed initiatives fail: Goals 2000, NCLB, RttT. Our economy, national security, democratic institutions, human rights, and public health consequently suffer.
As Duane observes:
“But the fundamental purpose of education is defined by each state’s constitution, so that, in essence, we have 50 different fundamental purposes (even allowing for the fact that many of those purposes overlap). So to me, the federal D of E really has no fundamental purpose other than ensuring that the states follow constitutional mandates. What the Funk [sic] Duncan has done completely oversteps the bounds of what the feds should be doing.”
If the states have higher constitutional standards than RttT envisions, then The Feds are bribing state officials to cheat schoolchildren–bribes payed with borrowed money, cosigned by children.
So the US Department of Justice should sue RttT states (equal protection or CERD).
… after the school got out of PI, we received a letter informing us that Toyon was now designated “Low Performing,” under the terms of Race to the Top …
Ohio’s 2011 PK-12 Social Studies Model Curriculum for American Government has a Content Elaboration for that:
“The complexity of public policy issues may involve multiple levels and branches of government. These levels and branches may engage in collaboration or conflict as they attempt to address public policy issues (e.g., 2010 Federal Race-to-the-Top education grants”
I don’t know how that will get taught without help from lawyers. Would teachers’ unions have any background information to contribute?
Under the CCSS, this rigorous, non fiction document itself can be taught to sophomore English students instead of the Odyssey or Hamlet or other such fluffy, fictional drivel.
Would ELA teachers present the context for standards documents, or simply ask students to read it as it stands without context?
There’s ooddles of knowledge needed to tackle that content–possibly more than teacher prep programs give their future social studies teachers (let along ELA)
Come to think of it, how would David Coleman teach those two sentences?
Look at who Gloria Romero is and stands for. She is the head of the California DFER which is a democratic right wing get rid of teachers and administrators can do no wrong group. They should be “Tea Partiers” not democrats. The truth is that there are almost no liberals or progressives anymore in positions of power. The dems have let the rats take them all the way over across the middle of the road in fact of policy. Obama is not a liberal, progressive or communist he is in fact of policy a right wing privatizer and corporatizer and has been since at least 1995 in Chicago. Mythology does not count in the reality world. I know this is hard to understand for many yet it is a fact. Has Obama done anything about the financial crisis, stopped privatizing and corporatizing, going after whistleblowers such as Julian Assange or really stopped the wars or the illegal drone strikes and looking into everything we do? Are you kidding so get a grip on what is really happening and with Gloria Romero. You can go into your search engine and enter George1la and you can see an uncut press conference with Gloria Romero. Watch what happens when we ask them direct questions. Have some fun.
Long before I retired, I said the schools were designed to fail. I was labeled a cynic and written off.
The qualifying exam for a high school graduate should to be reading his/her diploma out loud at graduation.
In my first semester of my credential program, I had the good fortune to work with a master teacher who made it clear that our charge as teachers is to engage students in critical thought – to expose them to a variety of ideas and teach them how to craft their opinions through careful consideration and critical thought. That was a lesson I took to heart and continues to inform my approach to education on a daily basis.
With that said, the struggle I have now as an administrator is pretty simple – even in the face of NCLB requirements and the coming CCSS entanglements: how to help teachers hone their craft and challenge students to think critically while knowing that our students will soon be tested on a litany of factual issues that don’t require critical thought. Even with the new CCSS testing models, the list of skills that students must master in the classroom sometimes makes it difficult to get to the heart of the matter: teaching students how to think and communicate effectively. I still have high hopes that we will (someday!) design a system that places these skills in the forefront and allows time for thought.
You seem to have a good understanding of what we’re up against and why teachers do what we do. The teachers who work for you are blessed. Keep up the good leadership.