The Los Angeles Times became notorious in 2010 when it commissioned its own ratings of thousands of teachers in the LAUSD and published them. The newspaper was condemned widely by educators and researchers. Even some who supported such ratings said it was wrong to publish them. The LA Times strongly defended its decision to create the ratings and to make them public.
Now the LA Times is expressing doubts about the overuse of test scores to evaluate teachers. It even scoffs at some of the more absurd practices now flourishing in some states.
Why the turnaround? Bill Gates says that test scores matter too much. He has changed his mind. Many states, following his earlier views about testing, are emphasizing test scores too much.
I guess we have to wait for his next op-ed to find out what the nation should do next.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
LA Times writes, “When philanthropists have potentially useful ideas about education, they should by all means try them out, establish pilot programs, put their money where their mouths are. But before government officials incorporate those ideas into policy, they must study them carefully and make sure that what sounds reasonable in theory works in practice.”
Good advice.
Let’s define the word philanthropy….that is not what Gates is….so this doesn’t actually apply to the Emperor.
I agree, Linda. The word “philanthropists” applied to Bill Gates is misnomer.
I am also highly concerned about this part of the above quote from the LA Times article,
“When philanthropists have potentially useful ideas about education, they should by all means try them out …”
On whose children will they “try out” these ideas? Students do not come to school to be guinea pigs.
Leave education to experienced educators.
Linda, the word “villainthropy” comes to mind here. Gates, Bloomberg, et. al.–villainthropists!
Students should boycott the tests – like they have already started to do. A test boycott is the bus boycott of our times.
Parents, too, for children to young to advocate for themselves–parents–OPT OUT NOW!
All of this scientifically obtained “data” has simply been used to ruin so many lives. Yet, he can shrug it off. What a mess.
Americans are always ready to follow the Messiah of the Minute. Shame on us for not stopping and critically thinking about the snake oil that is constantly thrown at us. Let’s hope the current non-violent protests from students and parents drowns out the corporate nonsense.
It is bothersome how much that happens (but not really surprising when you look at history). I even feel like some of the legislators in NC parrot their Messiah of the Minute Jeb Bush and that other than that impetus there really was never any need for some of the changes they are trying to make in our state. Phil Berger talks about broken schools in NC—I never knew our schools were broken. It almost seems silly to hear that type of talk because it sounds like trying to apply somebody else’s situation to ours in order to rationalize changes they want to see so they can be like Jeb Bush. It’s like a bunch of middle schoolers. Or pre-schoolers. I guess because of the think tanks they participate in they pick up on the same language and causes, but if you really step back and look there is usually one large presence who seems to be being emulated. It’s like that in fashion. It’s like that in music. It’s like that in TV. And so it goes. . .
Joanna, your comment is so on-point. Reminds me of one of my favorite sayings-
What is popular is not always right.
What is right is not always popular.
Bill Gates didn’t lead the charge for accountability through standardized testing… it was gathering steam in the mid-80s when we was still focussed on making Microsoft into the behemoth it is today… I can recall debating with the local Chamber of Commerce in the early 1990s over the idea of using Maryland’s MSPP tests as the primary metric for measuring school performance in the district I led. They loved the idea that test scores provided a seemingly exact means of ranking schools, a notion that was reinforced by the newspapers in the community and across the State who published elaborate charts ranking schools based on test results. Politicians picked up on the idea of using standardized tests as accountability measures (as did conservative think tanks) and you know how the story ends. Gates wasn’t around when this all started: Gates Foundation wasn’t founded until 1997 and didn’t get into education until 2009.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/History
The business community seeking fast, cheap, free-market solutions to schools caused our current test mania. Hallelujah if the main stream media is beginning to see that testing kids is not getting us anywhere… and hats off to the Gates Foundation if their relatively recent entry into school reform is helping the media come to that conclusion.
I’m keeping my hat on!
From Anthony Cody’s Living in Dialogue Blog in Education Week
Bill Gates Dances Around the Teacher Evaluation Disaster He Sponsored
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/04/bill_gates_dances_around_the.html
Accountability for Mr. Gates: The Billionaire Philanthropist Evaluation
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/04/accountability_for_mr_gates_th.html
Gates’ website is incomplete. He was very active in education prior to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, for about a decade, he poured billions into a small schools initiative for high schools –which he has since said was a failure. He also supported charter management organizations and the expansion of their number of schools, such as EdVisions and HighTechHigh throughout the last decade. See http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/teachers/bill-gates-troubling-involveme.html and http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/17/22marshak.h29.html
Would we listen to a rich college drop-out on any topic other than Microsoft?We have allowed him to monopolize Education in the US, and he has influenced other countries to imitate our lack of success. We wait to see what else he is recommending. Stop giving him the attention he does not deserve. He single handedly ruined learning and wasted prescious time for millions.
Let’s have a moratorium and stop listening to him. Oh, yes, many are in Financial Bed with him and have to do what he dictates. Well, there you are! Remember, Dr. Beverly Hall in APS was his poster child educator, but she got caught.
Educators, we need to step up and do what we do best. Teach children!
Why yes–Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg. No mention, yet, of his education “policy”, but this may be one to keep an eye on.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-zuckerberg-lobby-20130412,0,7059550.story
Of all things…Higher Ed Standards? What does he know about that? Many educators have had bright children in our classes who, from day one, expressed that they were bored, knew all the content, did not want to show their steps doing math problems, did not think they needed to do the assignments, refused all that ‘stupid stuff’ and often received mediocre grades. Doting parents thought they were brilliant and beyond the average ability work.
Well, those kids grew up and some continued to be brilliant, created empires, and became super rich. Good for them, it’s the American Way. However, some grew up with unresolved teacher issues and probably could not wait to grow up and rule the world, including teachers.
Fast forward to today. School systems, teachers, kids & their parents are caught in this super rich kid net of pay-back. Suffering, and not another person richer, with morals and ethics to rescue them.
We are all having a horrible, terrible, no-good very bad day/year!
The End
But wouldn’t it be nice if even these bright students has access to stimulating classes?
Not so hot either, KYT. Famously gave $$$ to Corey Booker/Newark (w/Chris Christie smilingly looking on) on Oprah’s show!
Read Chicago Tribune front page story today, April 12,HIGH TEST SCHORES FAIL TO SAVE CPS SCHOOL by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, John Chase and Bob Secter. Read it all, but especially note the paragraphs on p. 7 that refer to the LEARN charter across the street from the closing school. Won’t be surprised if the LEARN charter moves across the street to new empty quarters. A most intriguing, sad read.
________________________________
Just goes to show that there was really nothing a Chicago public school on the list could have done to change the outcome. The whole disaster was a carefully crafted theatrical production, and the end was already written before the curtain rose.
2old2tch: I applaud your for your restraint. I would inelegantly sum up the Chicago Tribune article as “There was nothing the school could have done to avoid getting sucker punched.”
Please keep posting. I read every one of them.
🙂
The link to the Chicago tribune piece is: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-closing-calhoun-cather-20130412,0,5584373.story
I urge the viewers of this blog to read it—and judge it—for themselves.
🙂
EXCELLENT, truthful, fact-based reporting…and in the Chicago Tribune! Paula, I was also particularly struck (horrified, in fact) by how far (“more than 7% would have to travel 4-5 extra blocks; more than 4% would travel more than 5 additional blocks”) these children would have to WALK to get to school (remember, we have real winters in Chicago!), and how many busy and dangerous streets they would need to cross, not to mention the gang territories and unknown adults they would have to walk by.
But–you all really need to read this article (Krazy TA links below).
If I were one of these parents, I would feel as if my child(ren) and I were being consigned to the depths of hell. Unconscionable!
I’m guessing Bill is trying to distance himself from Rhee. Possibly, John Merrow’s investigative reporting is starting to make people uncomfortable.
WordsMatter: I agree with you but permit me the presumption of removing the word “Possibly” from your second sentence.
“There is no honor among thieves.” Red flags have been going up around Michelle Rhee for a long time, but that has never stopped her from being the favored darling of the edubullies. Turn red flags into a full-scale nuclear meltdown and suddenly, like the proverbial rats deserting a sinking ship, we will be witness to a chorus of outraged charterites/privatizers [especially her biggest defenders and promoters] claiming they were duped and used and led astray.
Should we believe them? “None so deaf as those that will not hear. None so blind as those that will not see.” [Matthew Henry] The edubullies will have done it to themselves.
‘Nuff said.
🙂
Yes, yes, yes! I love your comment and can’t wait to see the “nuclear meltdown.” Absolutely perfect!
I’ve known about the testing “irregularities” for some time because I was a witness to it, both as a teacher and a mother. When the Los Angeles Times decided to publish teachers’ names and label them as “effective” or “ineffective” I wrote to the Times to tell them that the scores were likely inaccurate. I asked them to please investigate and suggested that recently retired teachers would probably give them some good information, but of course I was ignored.
Here is the problem: the great newspapers are in trouble financially. The L.A. Times is in bankruptcy (or so I’ve been told). In order to survive, these newspapers cannot afford to have views that are independent from the people who own them. I believe this is why the Washington Post stood by Rhee and the New York Times reassigned Michael Winerip soon after he questioned Rhee’s results.The billionaires are now running our newspapers.
Scary.
Evaluations by “Clippy”
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1991915_1991909_1991755,00.html
“Edubullies” … hahaha. I had felt like we were bullied for several years.
In general, education WAS working in MOST schools. The intent was touted as a way to “fix” the schools whose students were “in danger”. Then it all morphed. Even the successful schools had to revamp their instruction to conform with unproven ways to deliver a “better” education.
For me, the last 15 years of teaching and particularly the last 7 were filled with stress. The kind of stress you feel when you are watching your parents die of cancer and heart disease (mine did).
This stress ruined my health. As it got worse, my confidence as a teacher became less secure, even though our school gets top scores.
I left (retired from) doing what I love, the people I love, the hope of my entire life, simply because the stress related health issued overtook my life and my attention.
I am having trouble letting go. That’s why I read this blog.
The Reagan administration started this garbage with its fraudulent “A Nation at Risk” report, which was debunked by the “Sandia Report” that George H.W. Bush quashed.
And “Why Johnny Can’t Read” …
“I am having trouble letting go. That’s why I read this blog.”
I know exactly where you are coming from. Hang in there.
Never trust a word Bill Gates says.
Look at his actions.
The L.A. Times is a mess and for years has done lousy reporting on education. Reporters have told us in private that if they do the real stories they will never work as reporters anywhere again. This is how it is since Clinton signed the 1996 Telecommunications Act which wiped out the free press. Accident, I don’t think so.
This could MAYBE be a turning point for the better. Let’s hope.
incredible how the mainstream press and so many other stupid people in this country just fall all over themselves when this bumptious buffoon opens his mouth
The L.A. Times, like many other publications,refers to Bill Gates as a “billionaire philanthropist.” My question is, Diane, when you are quoted in an article doesn’t the publication list your qualifications for voicing your opinion ? These qualifications are required of you even though you are not rearranging the bricks and mortar real life decisions of children and families or orchestrating legislation that keeps tax dollars flowing your way. Why does Gates get a pass on this?
Any reference to Gates regarding education should read: Bill Gates, billionaire philanthropist, with no background in the field of education…”
pattyjean: to use my FAVORITE Linda word, “Bill Gates, bloviating
billionaire villainthropist…”
I REALLY wish the Gates would have stuck to getting medical care and housing to third world countries, which is where they were doing good.
Hey! They could actually eradicate POVERTY in THIS country–now wouldn’t that be special?
THAT’s how they could improve education and, perhaps, even help SOLVE America’s education problems! How’s about it, Bill?
Ready to take up the challenge?
Wow, I’m so glad that Professor Gates has seen the light. When the Times published its horrendous VAM analysis, they completely ignored educators, psychomctrists, and statisticians in their quest for ‘truth’ and ‘accountability’. Now that Gates hath seen it, and it was NOT good, now they decide that “states and school districts have in some cases taken the use of students’ scores to extremes that have no grounding in research”, “there was little if any evidence that the scores had value as indicators of a teacher’s work”, and “When philanthropists have potentially useful ideas about education, they should by all means try them out, establish pilot programs, put their money where their mouths are. But before government officials incorporate those ideas into policy, they must study them carefully and make sure that what sounds reasonable in theory works in practice.”
I would extend those same cautions to amateurs in the media. That’s the most polite thing I can say about them right now.