On Wednesday, a large group of high school students staged a zombie protest in front of he Rhode Island Department of Education. They said that the state’s high-stakes testing would turn them into the undead.
New York has zombies too. They are running the State Education Department and they fervently believe that testing is the very essence of education. They think that testing will help poor kids. The zombies think that testing will close the achievement gap. No one ever explained to them that standardized tests are based on a bell curve and the achievement gap is designed into the curve: IT NEVER CLOSES.
There are some brave humans on the New York Board of Regents who are among the living. They are Dr. Kathleen Cashin, an experienced educator who represents Brooklyn; Dr. Betty Rosa, an experienced educator who represents the Bronx; Roger Tilles, a lawyer and businessman who represents Long Island; and Harry Phillips, a business executive who represents The suburban counties north of New York City.
Phillips belatedly realized that New York State made a terrible mistake in accepting Race to the Top funding and accepting its mandate to tie teacher evaluation to test scores. It’s hard to admit that you made an error. He had the courage and wisdom to do so.
Now that there is a solid bloc of four Regents who understand the damage that Race to the Top is inflicting on the schools of the state, perhaps other Regents will shed their zombie status and return to the land of the living, where people and children matter more than data and formulae.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am glad to see your reference to the bell curve… As long as we use normative scales on assessments we will continue sorting and selecting based on the student’s learning speed at a given point in time. Normative scales assume learning is variable and time is constant. Mastery learning assumes everyone can learn given sufficient time and appropriate instruction. When you plot mastery learning scores it yields a “J curve”. If we want real reform in our school system we need to abandon norm referenced testing of all kinds and move to mastery learning and give students the gift of time.
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Right on! Educators understand what we need to do to assure mastery and success in school. We keep saying the same thing, support each other in our mission and point out the Tsunami wave of corporate greed in testing is hurting our kids. Nothing changes! The wealthy corporate grabbers are not going to give up their place at the endless trough of monies earned in testing, charter schools and $$ earned when syphoning monies for children in poverty. This greed is the characteristic of The American Way? We talk about improving education, but trample the professionals who have the knowledge, skills and experience to educate children. This only makes sense if kids and teaching are not what it’s all about. Actually, educators get in the way of using kids to increase profit margins. Since we continue to fight the same issues, it is clear that the Gates/Rhee/Pearson/Waltons/Duncan/Obama…have the upper hand. Hoping for a miracle!
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I agree. I am still agog over how twisted this has all become. Human beings are not all identical and how we learn cannot be quantified with some industrial model or whatever. And tying teacher evaluations to test scores is almost abusive to teachers and students alike. Sigh.
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Some lessons from zombies: http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/lessons-from-the-zombie-apocalypse/
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One more concern! I am in full support of appropriate developmental PreK for 4 year olds. However, I am petrified that the Corporate Greed Parade will ride the Toxic Testing Tsunami across those beautiful little munchkins. And why not? Nothing has changed. There will be huge profits connected to them and plans are in the works behind closed doors as we speak. Waiting to exhale!
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I agree. This constant feeding of the data dragon will have a damaging effect on our tender little preschoolers. In addition, it has become clear that profiteering and education creates a toxic mix for our students at all levels and the professionals that teach them.
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NCLB = No Child Left Breathing
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Diane,
Zombies appear to be popular today. Paul Krugman talked about Marco Rubio’s zombie economics in today’s NY Times. Among the zombie education ideas (ideas that were dead or should have been) that keep coming back to life) are:
• People are motivated to do their best by rewards, threats and punishments.
• You can fatten the pig by weighing it. Frequent measurement will improve educational outcomes.
• When students aren’t performing well on current (low) standards, setting higher standards will cause improvement.
• People who are poor have lower levels of educational attainment and get lower paying jobs. Therefore, if they all have higher levels of educational attainment they will all get higher paying jobs and won’t be poor.
• People who are successful should be given more autonomy. People who are not as successful need rules and regulations (except charter schools that should have autonomy whether or not they perform well).
• Market place competition always improves quality.
• If one school even in unique controlled circumstances can “beat the odds,” so can all schools at scale.
Arthur
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Testing students’ performance in learning is like measuring their height or size of their body. It wont change whatever we want to change simply by testing or measuring.
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Oh, of course not, but if a child isn’t growing properly – or is growing too much or in the wrong way, someone needs to be punished for that, don’t they? Or, at the very least, there needs to be “incentives” to shape up.
/sarcasm
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I know the zombie metaphor is popular, and has its place, but when I think of so-called education reformers, I think of vampires: soulless (see Rhee, Michelle) undead predators compelled to always seek new victims and drain the life out of them.
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Are there bell curve charms we can brandish? Will it burn the zombies like holy water to a vampire?
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Thank you for the focus on the crisis in New York and for identifying Regents who oppose/regret this trend. Keep shining that light on the corporate reform scandal in New York. We are in a war here.
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Those who have the money and the power also want control and dominance in their chosen territory. The “Reptilian Mentality” is still genetically intact, and so the rest of us still try to figure out how to avoid being their next meal. Our children are being cheated of a fair and proper education because of Corporatism Greed, and it is very unfortunate that so much money is being spent on anything BUT improving education. I don’t know what, at this point, will help solve this situation, but our first step is making it our business to know the daily movements of these “Reptilian Predators,” to give warning to the 99%’ers of their stealthy advances to pick us off, one by one, thus ensuring their survival and control of the resources.
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