Supporters of corporate reform have several phrases they favor to persuade skeptics that resistance is futile.
One is to say that “the train has left the station.”
In other words, you have no choice. (Even though they prattle on about why kids need choice and how choice is the civil rights issue of the decade, they don’t think any educator or citizen should be able to choose to say no to their bad ideas.)
You must surrender or be fired.
Or they say, in states that were dumb enough to win Race to the Top funding, “the law is the law.” Even if the law is wrong, you must obey.
Even if value-added assessment has been rejected by dozens of research studies, you cannot refuse to obey.
Even if value-added assessment is inaccurate, you must not fight it.
You are allowed to argue about whether you want it to count for 20% or 30% or 50%, but not to insist that it is an absurd way to measure teacher quality.
Here is my take: Don’t comply with what you know is wrong.
Don’t agree with what you know to be unethical and demeaning, to you as a professional and to your students.
Don’t quibble around the edges.
Mobilize, organize, fight back. Get teachers and parents to understand that what the federal government has mandated has no research to support it. It is wrong. Do not compromise with what is wrong.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I thought Michelle Rhee looked suspciously like the Borg.
The pushback against parents asking to opt out of CCSS has begun in Illinios:
http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2013/03/illinois-superintendent-denies-parental.html
There’s plenty of push-back in New York too, but it’s all bluffing. The state can compel teachers to give high-stakes tests, but it simply cannot compel children to take them over their parents’ objections. Teachers and parents need to discuss openly how to organize boycotts both of the absurdly mis-used tests and the low-quality test-prep materials schools are force to buy to support them. Parents can send practice bubble-sheet homework back to the school demanding alternative, richer assignments. And yes, they can opt their kids out of the tests. My wife and I did last year and will again this year, and our kids were promoted based on portfolio assessments. When parents push, ultimately the authorities back down, because who can question our authority over our children’s education — especially when all we’re doing is demanding that our schools be free to adopt practices that professional educators regard as best for children’s development?
This is good sense. Courageous parents. Are there enough high-information voters to do the push back? I hope so, but since NY is a blue state I doubt it.
None of this will be resolved without strikes, or violence. I wish it were not so.
No, nothing will be resolved without civil disobedience, which might include opting out, demonstrations, occupations and strikes, as well as petitions, electing pro-public education officials and enacting new legislation But as educators, we are professionals who are taking the lead in partnership with parents and concerned community members, and violence should not be viewed as an option.
I do not think it should be viewed as an option, but I know how people can get. The violent are never heralded as heroes of change — nor should they be — but the truth is that sometimes they are. I wish it were not so.
But yes, by all means, civil disobedience.
“When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.”
-Victor Hugo
corporate ed-reform is definitely dictatorship
Yes, it is a dictatorship, but it’s not just about education. It’s about the 1% running our government and controlling the 99%. It’s important to help the 99% see how they are impacted in the big picture, since so many just don’t get it and because 60% of people don’t have kids in school and can’t relate to education issues. We have strength in numbers and other options for revolting than resorting to violence.
Teacher Ed, I agree with you about almost everything you’ve written. I’m not advocating violence, just pointing out that sometimes violent people have facilitated positive change — even if only by forcing those in power to look for an “out” by negotiating with nonviolent resistors who they would otherwise have ignored. And we should always eschew violent resistance when the cameras are rolling. I’m with you there, 100%.
Ron, exactly who would the violent people be in this scenario you’re describing? And what would the violence consist of? You say above that “none of this will be resolved without strikes, or violence.”
Strikes yes. But not violence, necessarily. Who’s going to call out the union goons on this?
I agree, tis time for sabotage!
Get the taxpayers to understand that it’s a giant waste of their limited money.
If only our union leaders would listen to Diane Ravitch! Imagine the impact of the combined forces of the NEA, AFT and the UFT telling their members to boycott proctoring the standardized exams. How about calling for a national teacher strike as long as VAM is in place. What are the union leaders waiting for? Could it be their guaranteed dues via payroll deductions discourages them from rocking the boat?
I, too, am disappointed in my union leadership (NEA). However, the union is “us.” So – I am disappointed in myself. BUT – I am tired. I am trying to survive. I have a child to feed. BLAH BLAH BLAH. I will resist. I think I have a right to expect more real leadership from my elected leadership.
Until the discomfort inflicted upon us by the profiteers and their minions outweighs the BLAH BLAH BLAH, we will continue to do nothing of substance other than choose to be victims or survivors. What you are saying is that you have not yet had enough.
I find that response insulting. It is easy to tell people that they haven’t had enough or they would be doing more – like making sure that my child has a roof over his head, insurance to cover his medical issues and food to eat isn’t as important. I do resist – but I will NOT endanger my job, and therefore my child’s welfare. I am THE major income in my house. I am the only STABLE income in my house. I write letters, I demonstrate, I educate, I agitate. But my child’s welfare is more important to me than my “principles” in this case. I will remain in a job that is breaking my heart because to live in the back of a car just so I can tell my child that at least we stood up for our principles is not a sacrifice I am willing to make at this point.
Then you are not yet uncomfortable enough. Don’t think they haven’t figured this out themselves.
They don’t care about letters to the editor, etc. They laugh and keep right on about their business. They will not stop until someone hits them where it hurts, and no one will risk doing that until they are so uncomfortable that they are willing to risk losing their job. Again, they know this.
Ellen, this is why it is first and foremost the job of PARENTS to stand up against what one of my friends calls “ed deform.” And let me tell you, I as a parent want teachers like you to STAY IN YOUR JOBS!!! Collective action with strong union support is possible, but individual teachers should not be expected to take actions that involve potentially losing their jobs. As far as I’m concerned, any educator who is keeping up with Diane Ravitch’s work is one whose professional heart is in the right place; do what you can as you ahve strength to educate parents and colleagues about these issues, but above all, stay with this career for the long haul. Our kids need you, right where you are.
Thank you. And, as a parent, I will be opting my child out of testing.
They’ve bought both political sides. You have to do this at the local levels and fight. Clinton is running for pres. soon. Do you think she cares or will she go for the big money? This has to be done by teachers and parents all uniting,
I don’t know, DeeDee. I am having a hard time envisioning ever voting for a mainstream candidate again. I have nothing to lose anymore voting 3rd party. I voted for President Obama, and would probably do it again in those circumstances, but I am deeply disappointed. Seriously battling regretting my vote. I made a supreme effort in the last election to look at the greater good and beyond just my own concerns. I will not do that again. I am having a hard time believing democracy can survive, and I am grieving public education.
Now you’re talking. A national proctor strike of NEA, AFT, and UFT might actually break through into the Obama suck up media. Will it happen? I doubt it. Union officers have already been paid off probably.
Florida public employees are prohibited by law from any type of work stoppage.
Same in Missouri!
Also in Connecticut.
In my opinion the worst thing is when the NYS BOE returns your APPR plan and threatens administrators that their classroom observations must correlate to the VAM or they could be reviewed by the BOE.
This threat is increasing the VAM scores to 100% and its implication is insulting and sickening!
Tim, has this actually happened? If so, it is a serious thing.
Here’s my take. Gates Foundation funds SLC/inbloom; Dell Foundation funds Ed-Fi (makes the databases interoperable; Gates funds LRMI (hashtags using CCSS taxonomy). LRMI tells vendors (who must use CCSS taxonomy) don’t worry — you’ll get traffic (I can document). How? Bing, Yahoo, Yandex & google develop schema.org, the pathway to the vendors in the Internet.
I’ve been thinking for a year there’s an anti-trust here — thinking the anti-trust was solely CCSS products. I still couldn’t figure out what was in it for Gates.
PERHAPS (I don’t know) Gates is investing in the CCSS products he helped create & send traffic to on the Internet. Same with Dell & other benefactors.
People who make money often make the money leveraging public & private dollars.
And I still think it’s control of the Internet, given the Learning Registry has stated they want to be the Dewey Decimal System for education content on the Internet.
The train has left the station. I heard people get hit by trains every day. We don’t read about all of them. We may hear about someone who fell on the subway tracks if you live in NYC. Or a train killing someone elsewhere. Point is — it happens every day.
The train has left the station. Let’s make sure it doesn’t harm children. It appears to be on track to harm children. If not just the curricula, the data management is reckless.
This post on Missouri Education Watchdog isn’t far from the truth, if not in fact, the truth.
Could eScholar Data Mining on “Bobby” be Considered Stalking?
http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2013/03/could-escholar-data-mining-on-bobby-be.html
Yeah, I’ve been trying to figure out what’s in it for Gates, too. Given the history of his unethical business practices, including the monopoly, I think it.very wise to investigate this angle.
It sounds like you are onto something big. However sinister it may seem, we just can’t put avarice past a guy like Gates. He and every other billionaire who claims to engage in philanthropy in order to improve the human condition, when their companies continue to outsource jobs and/or they oppose labor unions, are highly suspect. When they make an effort to eradicate poverty by advocating for livable wages for workers in the trenches, especially from highly profitable corporations, will be the day when I might consider them motivated by altruism. Until then, they remain worthy of in-depth investigations.
Thanks so much for sharing your insights. Keep up the good work!
The eScholar “myTrack” promotional video in that link communicates what’s disturbing about education data mining more clearly and powerfully than a thousand articles ever could. No commentary necessary.
The eScholar CEO’s YouTube video of his presentation at the White House is even more telling and alarming. After describing his data mining program, which is “P-20W”, i.e., Preschool through college (20) and through the Workplace(W), he says data’s obtained “from tens of thousands of different places”, and “This is what we’re doing with open data.”
OPEN DATA? from tens of thousands of different places? on kids? from Preschool through the Workplace? This is a whole lot of privacy violations –and it should be many lawsuits waiting to happen.
As all the details of CCSS are revealed, it becomes ever more evident that “reform” is just a business plan.
We need to be brave. Dr. Diane I agree wholeheartedly:
“Here is my take: Don’t comply with what you know is wrong.
Don’t agree with what you know to be unethical and demeaning, to you as a professional and to your students.
“Don’t quibble around the edges.”
obeying an unjust law is never the highest value.
Tell Harriet Tubman she was wrong to smuggle slaves out of Dorchester County MD to freedom
Tell Levi Coffin he was wrong to use his house as a stop on the Underground Railroad
Tell Mies Giep and her family they were wrong to harbor Otto Frank and his family, including his daughter Anne
tell those of us who broke the law during the Civil Rights demonstrations of the 1950s and 1960s were wrong
Power never concedes without a struggle.
Power can impose unjust laws, or in our system patently unconstitutional laws
Unless we are willing to challenge them, they will serve to impose tyranny.
Emerson once asked Thoreau why he was in jail for failing to pay his taxes for the expansionist Mexican War (that Abraham Lincoln also opposed), and Thoreau responded by asking Emerson why he was out of jail.
This is actually getting exciting. If teachers refuse to proctor, of course, the testing organization will bring scabs, and the school boards will fire them for insubordination, but it WILL be exciting. Testing time is coming up.
Sometimes people forget that many train wrecks occur between stations.
Especially with Snidely Whiplash tying his victims to the tracks all the time.
That reminds me, Alan, didn’t Henry J. Waternoose recently join the “Chiefs for Change”?
“I’ll kidnap a THOUSAND children before I let this company die! And I’ll silence anyone who gets in my way!”
I do believe this data gathering should be considered cyber stalking. In Louisiana they talked some time back about tying all data together in one longitudinal data system, including criminal justice. What about medical, etc.? This truly is Big Brother. And I always thought Big Brother would be the government, not big business. Oh, I forgot, they are one and the same.
Well, they are under THIS administration. Don’t let them retake the House in 2014 or they’ll be counting your armpit hairs. Vote TEA party.
Voting “TEA party” means letting ALEC, corporations, selfish politicians and the 1% rule our nation, because working people will then see the remaining unions become decimated and the last vestiges of pubic education become privatized. And remember all the other human rights that extreme right-wing conservatives aim to eliminate for women, minorities and gays. Don’t listen to this claptrap, folks!
The TEA party is mainly interested in smaller government, lower taxes, and government staying out of people’s lives. We are more libertarian than ever. TeacherEd Is calling us racist, and that just isn’t so. Gay marriage is almost 60% supported now, and I personally do. Abortion is settled law and I support Roe v. Wade. Where we differ from TeacherEd is that we don’t think government should pay for abortion and contraception. So TeacherEd conflates the two matters, “freedom to do” with “compelled to pay for.” Not the same thing, in my view. We do believe that virtue leads to prosperity and happiness and want a country where government doesn’t get in anybody’s way. TeacherEd wants to pick your pocket to pay for other peoples follies.
I should add that TEA party folks are in favor of local control of public education. I do concede there are proponents of vouchers. But they aren’t pushing to destroy responsible public education, only to have options when public school teachers promote socialism, anti-capitalism, and private property as TeacherEd seems to be. ALL government is funded by businessmen, mostly small. Support THEM and you’d get more sympathy. Keep sticking it to religion and profit, and you’ll get what you deserve, nothing. All the TeacherEds think they’re so much smarter than the common people that they SHOULD speak for them. But we drove out distant, authoritarian government in 1776 and we’ll do it again. You are just irritated to discover a challenge to your progressive (i. e. tax a lot) monopoly on education. We don’t accept your hypotheses any more and we aren’t cowed any more by your canards.
Just two words to remind people of what candidates in Harlan’s party talked about in the last election: “legitimate rape.”
I don’t know whether or not the train has left the station, but I am not hopeful that things will get any better. As someone who has always fought back, I am disheartened by the mental attitude of so many teachers, especially those in elementary, that they must do whatever someone they perceive in authority says they must do. So many times I have talked to my colleagues, and they would agree, and tell me they’re with me, and then when I lead the charge, and turn around, there is no one there. They are all scared of losing their jobs. With a Broad trained superintendent as we have in Syracuse, I can understand their fear. She totally ignores the union and our contract, and the union says “what can you do?” It’s frightening the things that she is doing. She is setting the teachers all up for failure, by depriving kids of needed supports (such as AIS and adequate ESL) and then she will turn to the community, and say, “See, I knew they were incompetent,” and lobby for an alternative to public education. I have been spreading the word about the new organization, and already several of us have joined, but the media either doesn’t care or has been co-opted, so whatever is actually happening inside schools is known by only those who actually work inside them. I was tremendously moved by the teacher from Louisiana who had had enough. I, too, have had it, and am leaving in June. I don’t see myself as making any difference. The educational leadership in this city is disgraceful. Ignorance and Arrogance are a deadly combination, and our political leaders in New York, local and statewide are about as ignorant as they come with regard to education, but all are arrogant enough to believe that they will save education in the state. I love to TEACH. What I cannot, and will not do, is narrow education to nothing more than test prep. I have had enough, and I can’t take it anymore.
If you don’t mind a 50% pay cut, real teaching is being done still in some private schools.
Harlan, I wouldn’t mind a pay cut, and I’ve considered switching to a private school. The pay cut wouldn’t be so bad, either, considering that most private schools have agreements where children of teachers can attend for a substantial discount (that’s how my parents were able to afford to send me to one). The real problem is that I actually LIKE working with the population at my school — poor ESL students from Cape Verde, the Dominican Republic, and various African nations (mostly). In short, some of the most needy students out there. I have spent over 16 years working with these kids and at this point my familiarity with their cultures is a real asset in the classroom. If I moved to a private school (and I had the chance a couple of years ago, as an old teacher at my alma mater informed me that there was an opening and encouraged me to apply), I would not be able to work with those kids.
My spouse earns over three times what I do as a public school teacher. We don’t NEED me to be earning as much as I do. I would happily take a pay cut if the nonsense like VAM, Common Core, “Transformation”, etc. could be removed from my building and I could just TEACH again.
For me, it really isn’t about the money — it’s about the kids. That’s why I’m staying put, for now. I haven’t quite had it yet. But I no longer see myself working in my school until I retire. It makes me very sad but I have to be realistic and I see myself and the rest of the staff accelerating toward a wall. I wish it weren’t the case.
In the south (no unions), teaching at a prestigious private it doesn’t necessarily come with any pay cut at all.
Nor any benefit cut..if that was the next stop.
I do understand. Kids can get to you that way. It sickens me that a slob like Obama can do so much damage but Diane and so many others still put him back in office. God help you if he regains a majority in the house in 2014. Linda and I are the only two teachers who didn’t vote for him, perhaps. If teachers can’t perceive who is their real enemy (he is the enemy of the whole American experiment), then they don’t deserve any better than they get. Help the sane part of America totally repudiate him. It’s you and your children and grandchildren he want to load up with debt. And what does TeacherEd want to talk about? Gay rights! Not jobs. Not the economy. Not national defense, but Yee gods, free contraception.
Harlan, I lean libertarian myself, and I agree with you on some things. I didn’t vote for Obama this time around and I know many other teachers didn’t vote for him either, or at least held their nose when they did (I voted for some third party candidate who I don’t even remember but would have voted for Ron Paul had he gone the distance). I also think that “gay marriage” is a distraction that is used by both sides of the aisle, and has a simple, elegant resolution that no one wants to talk about because neither side of that debate really wants what they SAY they want.
Meanwhile, what I said above stands. I am in this for the kids I know, but I’m afraid I’m going to end up being squeezed out by the nonsense.
Well, Harlan, you have one more “companion” who did not vote for Obomber either time.
But I would think that as a Tea Partier you would be absolutely thrilled with the war path that Obomber has continued on.
I didn’t vote for Obama last November either. But if this is just sour grapes from Harlan over who won the election, he needs to get over it and stop blaming teachers for that.
Corinne I’m with you. I too have had enough. Maybe those that have retired, collecting pensions, with no fear of losing their job should be helping. Union help?Any help? – deafening. The silence is deafening. Teachers are being whipped into compliance – this makes me sick!
“Don’t comply with what you know is wrong.” I.e. refuse and get fired. Now that’s great advice.
I did that and took a whipping. Threats too. Very toxic. One colleague in his 30’s was taken out in an ambulance. Thought he was having a heart attack, turned out he was having an anxiety attack. A teacher’s work environment is a child’s learning environment. Where is the joy of learning?? Our most vulnerable children need to feel safe in order to learn. If I do not feel safe I cannot be of value to them.
BTW – I am no newbie!!
BUT public school teachers didn’t protest the injustice of defined benefit pensions and big salaries as a public employee, so why should anyone have any sympathy when your own unions and the Democrats are stabbing you in the back? You didn’t refuse the cozy deals when there was money, and not the money’s run out you are whining. Did you think you had a RIGHT to proper working conditions and a job? Fools.
Harlan, I think people do have a right to proper working conditions. What is the alternative? That being said, you have something of a point, but I think we can chalk most of it up to the fact that the public sector is slow to react. When the economy crashes, the private sector feels it more or less immediately, while the public sector does not. Sooner or later you have a situation where private sector jobs are few and far between, salaries are lower, working conditions deteriorate, etc. and those in the private sector see the public sector workers who are still enjoying the comfortable “pre-crash” conditions. They react as you might expect. Eventually the public sector suffers the same hardships.
BUT — the economy never sucks forever, and when it bounces back the private sector again feels the benefits early on while the public sector lags behind. Eventually there comes a time when no one wants public sector jobs because they suck compared to jobs in the private sector, and the public sector is left to beg cap in hand for workers — “Please? Pleeeeease?”
Harlan,
I think your train has left the station. (fool)
I don’t know. I think Harlan is slowly changing his mind on some things. Not everything, but some things.
I think he harbors too much resentment and hatred to hear others.
Don’t get played.
He is just looking to stir it up.
Troll
Yep, definitely a troll trying to stir the pot for attention, but a hater, too. Big time.
Taking the NECAP test certainly showed me that a test designed for one purpose shouldn’t be used for another, VAM as well. I haven’t yet seen anyone posting who understands the basic economics and constitutional status of public education. Teachers are employees of the government and have no more intrinsic right to their positions than do private school teachers.
Harlan, I agree that I have no “right” to a job. I do, however, have a right to due process. You and I may disagree on exactly what that means when it comes to the details, but I think you agree in principle.
More importantly, I am pleased to see you coming around on VAM, which is really more important to most of us at this stage of the game.
Most teachers welcome evaluation, as long as it is sensible. The new push for “accountability” is misguided at best and very likely intentionally misleading.
What I want to know more about is how to do take hardcore action in a North Carolina, a right-to-work state with RttT money flowing into the schools and a General Assembly dismantling tenure and NEA support. There are a few NC teachers out there who I see getting involved, but we Southern teachers tend to be too complicit in these kinds of matters. Your thoughts?
Jim, organize a teacher-parent group.