Have you ever gotten one of those seemingly innocuous phone calls where the caller asks if you will participate in a survey? You know, market research or social science.
Here is a fascinating account of a “push poll” that starts off innocuous and then turns into advocacy for Mayor Rahm Emanel’s agenda of privatization and teacher-bashing.
Was the caller really working for the University of Chicago? Who knows?
They called the wrong person. He knew too much.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
OY! Good that the responder knows too much. Thanks…your posts help is to be informed.
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Well, as the home of Milton Friedman, Godfather of Neoliberalism, and once known as the University of Standard Oil because of its initial funding by John D. Rockefeller, it’s not a big stretch to imagine that the Unversity was behind this so-called poll.
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I found one statement by John K interesting and I am curious about what folks here think about it. In response to a question about teacher “quality”, John K said “I disagree with that analysis at all so I won’t even answer that question. That’s absolutely incorrect. The quality of the teacher has nothing to do with it, barely almost anything to do with the performance of the child.”
Do folks here agree?
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I don’t agree that it has *nothing* to do (paraphrasing) with a child’s performance, although it certainly has plenty to do with a host of other non-tested things (attitude toward learning, self-esteem, overall positive association with school, possibly social skills – plenty of variables depending on the child-teacher-class dynamic). That said, it has been estimated that teacher quality is one of the least-impactful factors on a child’s academic performance.
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Other peers in the classroom and their attitude towards learning, would be a slice of the pie too.
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I think peers have a huge influence on outcomes, but that
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Is not usually a concern here. Sorry about the two part post.
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I sent an email to NORC and the Chicago Tribune letting them know how disgusted I am that they are stooping to doing Emanuel’s dirty campaigning for him, and that if they publish one word of this “study” I will do my best to make sure that their “methodology” gets broadcast far and wide.
Full disclosure: I graduated from the University of Chicago. I’m getting more disgusted with my alma mater by the day.
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Rahm is not your friend, teachers. In fact, it’s a miracle if he has ANY friends of his own. He’s all yours, Chicago. Figures. Misery loves company. Corruption is part of the brick and mortar in that city. Keep him far away from education. Same goes for Duncan.
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i was shocked that they called me. I thought I was being punked. remember i was trying to be reporter, educator, union guy and parent all at the same time. lucky me, i had my tape recorder near.
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It’s a mixed bag at The University of Chicago. I know. I attended four years as an undergraduate there and lived an extra 3-4 years in the neighborhood. Some of us know what sorts of shenanigans some play there – from Argentina to Alaska and from the U.S. all the way back. And some of us think the best way to counteract these shenanigans is first by informing folks of what’s going on. But there’s an old saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make that horse drink…http://www.scribd.com/doc/106337306/THE-CHICAGO-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS-ALLERGIC-TO-ACTIVISM
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