I have written on many occasions that merit pay is an idea that never works and never dies. It has been tried for over a century, and failed again and again. Yet it comes back. I didn’t realize it, but merit pay is a zombie idea.
There are many more zombie ideas, like the well-known adage that “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Today, the federal government mandates zombie policies in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. These programs might be called High Zombie. They rank and rate children, teachers, and schools. They fire people and cause their schools to close. They do not improve education. They suck the life out of it. Maybe they are Vampire policies. Flip a coin.
Arthur Camins, who has written brilliantly on the failure of current policies, here offers his list of zombie ideas in education.
“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.”
Dear Readers,
Please feel free to add your own zombie ideas.
Diane
Mmmmm, Brains ❢❢❢
The mythic image of the Walking Dead is an apt way to picture the thoroughly repressed personality. Why some business models and economic systems insist on cranking out that brand of lackluster lackey I do not know, since they never really work out all that well in the long run, but I guess they just seem safe in the short run.
At any rate, the Child In The Gray Flannel Suit is not what the future of our nation needs.
Reblogged this on Capitan Typo's Adventures in Education and commented:
Australia’s federal government keep talking about bonuses for teachers, in effect a watered down performance pay model. In this post, Diane Ravitch labels performance pay as a ‘zombie idea’ and highlights the flaws with implementation.
Another related idea is that the unregulated marketplace creates competition at all. In fact, unfettered greed creates monopoly and fewer choices!
“Teachers are incometent once promoted to administration. Therefore, the corporate world needs to come in from the outside and assume leadership of education. Experience is irrelevant. All that matters is the corporate perception of what constitutes ‘talent.’ Oh, and be sure to remove administrative salary caps so that the ‘talent’ can have their expected, corporate-level salary. Just remember, this is all ‘for the children.’”
Slight adjustment to your “Zombie Idea:” ALL teachers are incompetent, not just those promoted to administration. Of course, I do not agree with that.
I am slamming this video by Frederick Hess ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZHaZ6xQ6C0 ) — he is speaking to a group of lawyers and telling them that they need to place “talent” in educational leadership posiitons so that teachers are not “promoted beyond their competence.” Hess gets this idea from this Broad Foundation Manifesto: http://www.broadeducation.org/asset/1128-betterleadersforamericasschools.pdf
Low income students suffer because their schools have high teacher turnover and a lack of experienced, expert teachers. Therefore, provide them with novices with five weeks of training, the vast majority of whom leave after two or three years.
The best teaching is transmitted not in person in classroom with 15 to 20 students, but through videotaped lectures transmitted through a computer screen. We can depersonalize, save money, and call it innovation!
Public schools are old fashioned. Close them down against the will of the parents and students and call it “Choice”.
Let me add a felicitous phrase you used in a posting on your blog of 2-7-13: “Efficiency Without Excellence.” I hope I have your permission to expand this so that no one can misunderstand what I take is the thrust of your words: “Bogus Efficiency Without Actual Excellence.”
And with all deference to Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, authors of that unforgettable [?] classic of world literature PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, I will adapt their opening words to fit this posting: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an edubully in search of zombie ideas must be in want of more zombie ideas.”
I agree with you fully, with one caveat. While it is probably true that many low income schools have high turnover, I think my own school may be representative of many schools in poor communities: many many teachers spend their entire careers there, build ties with the community, and feel a great sense of pride in their students’ accomplishments, which may not be best measured by their test scores. Low income students suffer for myriad reasons, only one of which is high teacher turnover.
Samantha, I agree. We have many teachers who have been here for years and wouldn’t teach anywhere else. I am one of those educators and really want to work with these students to make a difference for them, they need us on their side.
Skimming is bad, unless it’s done by public schools, in which case it’s good, or unless it’s done by private schools, in which case it’s ok because private schools don’t get public funding, except for Pell grants, in which case it’s ok because we’re investing in America’s future, but otherwise anything people do with their own money is nobody’s business, because this is America, not the Soviet Union, for God’s sake.
I wish there was a like button.
Greg Palast called NCLB, “No Child’s Behind Left”.
http://www.gregpalast.com/no-childs-behind-left-2/
If we just improve the quality of teachers in our schools, then all children will achieve at high levels.
Teachers use the “poverty card” to maintain low expectations for students.
The purpose of education is to make the U.S. economically competitive with the rest of the world.
Teachers must differentiate instruction and simultaneously adhere to standardization. Can zombies be schizophrenic?
Because of this, Alan, I have always said that education is hypocritcal. Teachers are expected to differentiate for students, but yet were expected to conform and do the same thing (i.e. use the same lesson plan format) even if it doesn’t work for our individual styles.
“By scripting instruction we can provide educational equity.” Nevermind that this ignores each child unique needs and previous interactional histories.
If no child gets what they need, that is a kind of equity
Here are some zombies I’ve seen prowling about:
Veteran teachers are bad teachers. It’s much better to hire enthusiastic young people.
Play time for preschoolers is a waste of time. They need more academics.
Unions are run by bosses who write book-length contracts that are designed to prevent teachers from helping children. Once they get tenure, teachers just show up and collect their paychecks.
Teachers who talk about their students who are homeless, malnourished, abused, frightened by gang violence, or unable to get health care don’t really care about any of these things. They are making excuses for their own terrible teaching.
Students with learning disabilities, Down syndrome, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and seizure disorders should take the same standardized tests as all other students. Isn’t that what equal opportunity is all about?
If all teachers taught the same thing at the same time in the same way for the same length of time from the same script we would have excellence in the classroom. Students would just love this type of instruction.
Forget stories. Fiction is useless.
The purpose of education is to create good employees. Those who think we should encourage children to be kind, to participate in their community, to learn their country’s history, to be good neighbors, and to be artistic and imaginative are foolish and possibly dangerous.
Believing that schools and libraries lie at the center of public life is old-fashioned. Believing that nature is a great teacher is bizarre. Believing that making something with your own hands brings joy is just plain silly. We need to put children in front of screens and teach them how to click.
All true – especially the last one – Students just click to their heart’s content and think very little. It’s all about the clicking.
Shutting down a school, firing the staff, and turning it over to private management saves poor children from failing schools.
I really hate this because the stable family life that some students have is at school. Just think about how many kids go see their first grade teacher everyday.
All the bad teachers are in “failing” (affected by poverty) schools, because the test scores at these schools are lower and it has to be all the fault of the teachers. If you took teachers from “successful” (rich) schools that get higher test scores then students at the “failing” schools would do wonderfully without changing the conditions in which the kids live and there would be endless rainbow covered unicorns.
Ha. Yeah, I’ve taught and supervised in low SES and more affluent schools. I was underwhelmed by the pedagogy I saw that was helping the more affluent schools be successful. Such misinformation is an insulting disservice to the hard working teachers in low SES schools. Does anyone really believe that swapping the teachers of a low performing school out with teachers from a more affluent school would result in 90% passing rates?
Oh and wouldn’t it be a great idea to put teachers from affluent backgrounds into less affluent schools – no potential problems there…
How often have we heard that we should have teachers with more prestigious degrees teach in less affluent schools? Teachers frequently teach in neighborhoods like the ones they grew up in. It’s pretty hard to get into prestigious schools coming from less affluent neighborhoods. (This isn’t a probably with learning or ability but can boil down to basic finances.)
Zombie this: In high economic times, fewer students in the classroom is best practices, because students learn better with more individual teacher attention. In low economic times, packing more kids in the classroom works just fine.
Why are we all talking about these issues like there is a debate? It is not like the elites want to make education better- quite the opposite. It is not like using “logic” and “reason” will make one iota of change. Those who want to destroy public education control both parties, all the money, etc. This blog is really just a catalogue of losses. Dr. Ravitch is just making of record of the destruction. That is all. None of this conversation will make any difference. The path is already decided. Maybe 100 years from now some historian will look back and wonder how it all happened. This website (if it still exists digitally) will provide some testimony, etc.
Diane is a historian. I find talking about the current state of education in the United States hopeful. From a historical perspective, we have seen times that were far worse in this country. The more discussion that takes place, the better chance we have of finding a way forward.
In New Zealand we have a Zombie Idea that if if “Big Brother” – (USA, UK) is doing it then it must be much better than what we do here- lets copy.
We have a brilliant education system( just a wee bit behind Finland in PISA despite our poverty/ health levels) that is being tipped into the ditch of national testing and charter schools by our current government.
Failing schools cause students to have low academic skills. Students with low academic skills don’t cause schools to fail.
Reblogged this on From experience to meaning… and commented:
Zombies are a big hype, sadly zombie ideas in education too…
Good Scores = Good Teacher
My daughter has had some awful teachers but middle class parents supplement when this happens. We hire tutors, buy flash, cards send them to Russian math school for 5K and send them to summer programs.
Bad Scores = Bad Teacher
Similarly, there are reasonable excuses that children fail tests. They are in jail, psychiatric lockdown, in the hospital, lost a family member…
If someone’s job depends on these stupid tests it seems reasonable that there exist some legitimate reasons that someone in their class has failed other then the teacher sucks.
I also question that there are GOOD and BAD teachers. Some teachers work well with some students and not others.
Our so-called democracy is zombified.
http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=14489&Itemid=228
Margaret Flowers (a single payer activist) and attorney Kevin Zeese clarify the new vocabulary of our zombie leaders.
Managed Democracy: A governmental system that includes widespread voter franchise and competitive elections, but the elections are managed so that no matter what candidate(s) are elected, the elites win. The role of citizens in government is to choose between two pre-selected candidates, neither of whom will represent the people’s interests and both of whom will represent the elites’ interests. Chris Hedges refers to this as “political theater.”
Polyarchy: A term highlighted by Cliff DuRand, author of “Recreating Democracy in a Globalized State,” that is very similar to managed democracy. He calls it a low-intensity democracy that veils the rule of elites and allows citizens to think they are participating in power through contested elections that do not change the elite power structure.
Inverted Totalitarianism: Classical totalitarianism is the model of Hitler or Mussolini, an all-powerful government led by a charismatic leader that partners with business interests in a security state. Inverted totalitarianism is a similar marriage of government and business, but the measures employed to maintain this relationship are more subtle. It is the coming of age of corporate power, maintained through a security state working in tandem with corporate propaganda that permeates influential institutions such as the media, education, popular culture and evangelical religion.
Globalized State: This is a government that serves the interests of transnational capital devoid of any real connection to the people of the nation. The globalized state rules through economic structures such as trade agreements, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization and through international military actions.
Capitalism: An economic system based on private ownership of capital, goods and the means of production. Goods and services are produced for profit. It is an inherently unequal system. In feudalism, political power and the economy were united in the noble class. Under capitalism, there is a separation of political and economic power, which gives people the impression of participation.
Neoliberalism: The dominant economic ideology of the last three decades which insists upon an extreme separation of government and capital so that the market can operate “freely.” The market operates only in the interests of individuals without allegiance to the collective society. Government exists solely to provide basics such as standards for weights and measures, laws and courts to protect property and infrastructure for the market. Neoliberalism welcomes state intervention only when that intervention is to corporate advantage as in trade agreements, bailouts or corporate welfare. Under neoliberalism, state resources and public programs are decreasingly funded and increasingly privatized. DuRand states that neoliberalism is the “default position of capitalism to which it reverts unless restrained by popular struggles.”
Neofeudalism: This is the reconfiguration of political and economic systems to create an empowered tiny oligarchic elite class. Chris Hedges points to the structure described by George Orwell in “1984″ in which there is an inner party (2 to 4 percent) of corporate and political managers, an outer party (12 to 14 percent) that consists of managers, the security state and the propaganda arm, and the rest of the population exists as “proles.”…
We are living in a time of Inverted Totalitarianism, in which the tools used to maintain the status quo are much more subtle and technologically advanced. These include propaganda and control of the major media outlets that hide the real news about conditions at home and our activities around the world behind distractions such as high-profile citizen trials and celebrity gossip. The major electronic media, owned by six corporations nationwide, also routinely misinforms the public about domestic and foreign policy. A recent example is the “Fiscal Cliff.”
Another tool is to create insecurity in the population so that people are unwilling to speak out and take risks for fear of losing their jobs and being unable to afford food, a home and health care. Changes in the work environment, such as the attack on unions and the war on whistleblowers, have led to greater job insecurity. Changes in college education also silence dissent, including the trend toward adjunct rather than tenured professors. Adjunct professors, now comprising 85 percent of faculty, are less willing to teach topics that are viewed as controversial. This, combined with massive student debt, are tools to silence the student population, once the center of transformative action.
Zombie idea #3,412: Tell teachers that they will be fired and their school blown up if they don’t get more of their students to pass. Then stress that there should be no funny business, like just passing more students, or they will be fired and their school blown up. Always works!
There is no social promotion.