Dear Friends,
Never despair! We are winning.
John Tierney just published an article about “The Coming Revolution in Public Education.”
Tierney sees what we see. The insane obsession with bubble-guessing is out of control. The profiteers have over-reached. The Billionaire Boys Club do not own us nor can they buy our schools. They are losing. We are winning. We are winning because we are fighting for children and for better education for all. We are not fighting for profits and test scores.
Remember this line attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
They laughed when we fought their absurd ideas (“schools can be run like businesses”; “schools should compete for customers”; “schools should be closed if students have low scores”; “private entrepreneurs can fix education”; “young college graduates are better than experienced teachers”; etc.
They fought us and said that we were “defending the status quo” even though THEY are the status quo. Their ideas, their policies are squeezing all joy out of learning, making schools boring places, and destroying the education profession.
Now we are winning because their ideas fail and fail and fail. Their icon, Michelle Rhee, is ensnared in a scandal that refuses to disappear. Their favorite district, New Orleans, where more than 80% of students are in charter schools, is the lowest-performing district in a low-performing state.
We will not sell or lease or rent or give away our children or our public schools.
Friends, join the Network for Public Education.
Join our effort to reclaim public education.
Yes, a revolution is coming. You must be part of it. It will be a revolution where education is more important than test scores. Where people are more important than data. Where teachers are respected as champions of learning. Where every child counts, regardless of their test scores.
NOTE: When first posted, I erroneously identified the author as a New York Times journalist. Same name, but different person. This John Tierney is a retired college professor. Pardon my goof!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well that was timely and helped me respond to a rather bothersome comment on my own blog… http://saveourschoolsnz.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/choice-is-education-is-it-really-all-that-its-cracked-up-to-be/comment-page-1/#comment-1450 Keep up the fabulous work. ~Dianne
What an uplifting way to start the last day of state testing in New York State. I certainly noticed a lessening of stress and fatigue as I prepared to leave for school this morning.
I soooooo needed to read this. Thank you for this encouraging message and the powerful quote from Gandhi. Joining NPE is on my To Do list for the day.
Thanks for posting this, needed it today especially after reading an extremely nauseating article by 2013 Teacher of the Year, Greg Alquist. His editorial piece fawns over Corporate Core National Standards and David Coleman.
http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Academic-excellence-to-the-core-4463752.php
Sounds like I really don’t want to read your link as I would like to keep my breakfast this morning. But as the saying goes “Keep your friends close and enemies closer” so I’ll have to read it. Thanks for the link!
Yep, a true cool-aid drinker. Why wasn’t he doing the things he is doing now before?
My take on these “teacher of the year” awards is that many times they are nothing more than a popularity contest. How could I vote on a teacher of the year when I haven’t been in their class to see how they work. The ol “______ of the Year” awards need to go the way of the dinosaur.
They can be worse than a popularity contest when they are given to pro-reformies in a conscious effort to further the agenda by legitimizing their statements with a title.
I have been feeling that the tide was beginning to turn for a while now, but just chalked it up to excessive optomism. It’s nice to know that others are listening to us and understanding that current educational policies are a disaster for our children.
Thank you so much for this information; I have been feeling very lonely as a professional — my colleagues are retiring from full time work; we have been
classed as “deadly dinosaurs.” At least when I read here I know there are others working on the same issues. There is a report released in the last 3 weeks that
has Sandra Stotsky as one of 3 authors. I was pleased to read their summary of curriculum and the technology section. If anyone would like I can send the full reference. I am reviewing the current Conceptual Framework that just went through the NCATE process this year; I was not on the current committee at the local university this time around but I think it is to their credit that this process is “healthy”. One of my professors had been working at AERA and is now with NCATE etc so I am impressed by the developments.
Diane,
I found the article, but the link isn’t working. Is it just me?
I’m having difficulty opening it as well.
Same here.
I just refreshed the link. Took out the old, put in a new one. Try it now.
Try it now, let me know.
Link is working. Thanks!
Paul Krugman’s column, The 1% Solution” in today’s NYTimes speaks to the analogous erosion of support for austerity “in the world of ideas”. He concludes his column with these paragraphs:
“(I) wonder how much difference the intellectual collapse of the austerian position will actually make. To the extent that we have policy of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, won’t we just see new justifications for the same old policies?
I hope not; I’d like to believe that ideas and evidence matter, at least a bit. Otherwise, what am I doing with my life? But I guess we’ll see just how much cynicism is justified.”
I think we ARE winning “…in the world of ideas” but we need to start winning in the world of politics… and at this point I don’t see either political party pulling back from the very policies Tierney enumerates in his Atlantic article. Keep pushing that stone up the hill! It’s possible our emerging victory in the world of ideas will translate into the world of public education.
Diane, thanks very much for calling attention to my Atlantic piece. I hope it helps the cause. One side note: I am a retired college professor, not the John Tierney of the New York Times.
Thank you! I will fix it.
Thanks. I’m a big fan.
Thanks, John Tierney, for your great article! You give us all hope.
I do believe that the policies now called “reform” are backward-looking and destructive. I feel certain they will collapse like a house of cards. Your analysis is spot-on.
We shall win this. Of that I am certain. And we shall do so because the failures of this insanely misguided test-and-evaluate mania become clearer and clearer with each passing day. This terrible idea is self-defeating.
The question is, how long will it take? How much damage will be done before local schools and teachers will once again be given the autonomy to put learning and the particular needs and propensities of their students first?
(I cringe every time I read of the organization Students First, which has worked tirelessly to put students, with their unique needs and propensities, LAST.)
Arne Duncan will come to be known as the worst national education leader in history. His name will be infamous. And NCLB will come to be universally recognized as a blight upon the land. But how much damage will be done until these truths become abundantly clear to everyone?
There are very encouraging signs. There is a new coalition appearing of folks on the right and the left who oppose the testing and evaluation mania. When our children and our basic values are under attack, we put aside our differences and band together against the attackers. How horrific that we should be having to defend our children against our own government and a band of clueless plutocrats.
The subheader under the title states: “Critics say the standardized test-driven reforms pushed by those like Michelle Rhee may actually be harming students. ”
If I may correct that statement: Critics say the standardized test-driven reforms pushed by those like Michelle Rhee ARE {may} actually {be} harming students.
I encourage you to read these two posts by a friend of mine who teaches in a public middle school. He writes about the need for an edvolution and offers a proposal. http://toddmarrone.com/2013/04/15/the-necessity-for-metamorphosis-in-the-american-education-system/
The tide is in fact turning in our favor, but now is not the time to celebrate, rather, it’s the time to gain energy from our current success and double down with renewed resolve. This is the point in any battle, the time of flux and change, where variable things rapidly become more fluid and so can easily go in any direction. For example, the Replutocrat opposition to the Corporate Bore is not an example of a move toward a rational position but of sacrificing a pawn in pursuit of other victories, in this case the divide and conquer weakness of balkanization into control at the state level as a means to advance vouchers and privatization. As part of their general anti Obama strategy, they seek to attack the overall plan of the Obama administration’s DOE and substitute there own version of it. They have somewhat disconnected the CCSS from VAM based accountability in spite of their murmurs of unease about high stakes testing. That disconnect is a vulnerable point since it is part of a chain composed of weak links. Another weak link is the Big Lie of choice, where parents and tax payers have zero say in what the choices are and are merely being manipulated to manufacture consent for the G.E.R.M. agenda. The fight continues. Their over reach is our advantage, if we make use of it.
Sorry, missed the edit: varying parts of the fight, not variable things.
We are NOT winning in New Orleans. Katrina gave the school “reform” push a clean slate to work on! Every Teacher and School Board employee was fired! The hiring of Paul Vallas (not even an Educator!), sealed the fate of New Orleans schools – and students! Seven years later, most of our schools have been turned into profiteering charters, owned by out of state corporations. The crime rate here is soaring, as teenaged boys are kicked out of Charter Schools and end up on the streets!
>________________________________ > From: Diane Ravitch’s blog >To: libbamcenery@yahoo.com >Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 5:35 AM >Subject: [New post] We Are Winning! The Coming Revolution in American Public Education! > > > > WordPress.com >dianerav posted: “Dear Friends, Never despair! We are winning. John Tierney of the New York Times just published an article about “The Coming Revolution in Public Education.” Tierney sees what we see. The insane obsession with bubble-guessing is out of control. Th” >
Here’s a really great sign from Illinois –which runs counter to Rahm’s support of this fraudulent CMO whose CEO was Rahm’s campaign chairman (despite that being illegal for someone running a 501(c)3):
“State cuts off money to UNO charter schools over insider deals”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/19711841-418/state-cuts-off-money-to-uno-charter-schools-over-insider-deals.html
I would not call this a revolution. Winning against the corporate ‘deformers’ will still leave us worse off than we were before they ravaged the system, closing neighborhood schools left and right, and selling off private property. And the system they ravaged was a factory model of schooling/learning – dated and begging for real change.
A revolution would involve rethinking education more deeply. Perhaps you can invite Deborah Meier to write here. (Many of your current readers may not be aware of your joint writings previous to this blog, which is how I found you.) Perhaps you could ask readers for their visionary ideas, or invite colleagues you admire to guest post here with their visions. The best of the charter schools may be doing work the public schools can adopt.
OR the best of the public schools may be doing work the charter schools can adopt….Imagine that!
You are absolutely right, Linda. I am not a fan of charter schools in general, but I know of a few schools that are doing great things because of their freedom to be different, most of which are charters. However, Deborah Meier managed to work out a way to have the freedom to do things differently, long before there were charters, and got the union to agree to an alternate contract for her school, along with getting the district administration to agree. I love what Prairie Creek Community School, in Minnesota, does. And I hear great things from friends who work in unusual schools.
I have forwarded this article to many people. I suggest others do the same.
Very significant piece and especially being published in The Atlantic. The publisher and his wife haven’t been too friendly to public schools and I believe have been heavily involved in various charter causes in Washington, DC. Worth looking into and exploring more.
Yes Mark, I too was surprised to see the Atlantic publish this. The owner, David Bradley and his wife are indeed supporters of school choice and “reform.” They have made generous contributions to TFA, KIPP and to Michelle Rhee ($100,000 towards the fee of a publicist to improve Rhee’s image after leaving D.C.) The Bradleys also co-hosted an engagement party for Rhee and Kevin Johnson. Mrs. Bradley believes that education is the way out of poverty.
That being said, The Atlantic did in the last year or so publish a very good article on the things Americans could learn about education in Finland. And now there is this great article and the message is out there. There is a revolution and we cannot let that message die,
Would that the NY Times publish anything remotely like Tierney’s article which is actually in the Atlantic – NY Times or NPR for that matter.
I couldn’t find any one comment I wanted to respond to—there were just too many!
Thanks.
🙂
Just a reminder: the owner of this blog is pretty judicious in her use of words [rumor has it that she has even published a short article or two but I can’t vouch for that]. I hope y’all noticed that the title of her blog has NOT changed to “Diane Ravitch’s Blog A site that has outlived its original purpose of discussing a better education for all because there’s nothing left to accomplish.”
There is no end to learning, there is no end to discussing a better education for all, there is no end to improving education for all. Diane and her blog don’t appear to be going gently into that good night…
Although [sadly? happily?] this will be of little consolation to the edubullies because even without their mountains of money, media clout and political muscle, Diane [and I hope by extension, us] remain thorns in their sides because
“Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” [Mark Twain]
🙂
I believe in my heart of hearts that there are good, well-meaning people on both sides of the accountability debate. I also believe that there are certainly roles to be played by standards and evaluation systems and testing.
I fervently hope that we shall see, over the coming years, prudence, vigorous but respectful debate, more caution than has been shown to date with regard to new implementations, and real innovation, INCLUDING competing, vastly differing models for what school looks like. It’s complete hubris for ANY OF US to think that he or she has THE solution.
Consider, for example, online learning. On the one hand, it can be a godsend, allowing for immediate feedback, embedded formative assessment, and tailoring of education to particular students’ particular needs and propensities. On the other hand, it can mean warehouses of students doing what are basically worksheets on a screen with little interaction with teachers who might serve them as models of what a learner is. One can point to examples of really, really dreadful computer-assisted instruction and to really, really superb examples. And in everything related to these debates–with regard to standards, to high-stakes testing, to teacher evaluation systems, the same can be said: some of what is being done is wonderful. Some of it is really awful.
I doubt that anyone, except, perhaps, a few test prep publishers, really wants kids to be spending a third of the school year doing test prep drills. I doubt that anyone thinks that that is what his or her reform efforts sometimes amount to, and I think that a lot of folks would be horrified to find that that’s often the case. And it’s because I believe that most people involved, on both sides of the accountability and reform issue, are well-meaning, that I have hope that the egregious excesses we’ve seen from the reform movement can be addressed and that we can all find common ground on which we can have real dialog.
My personal position is that where there is competition between models, innovation occurs, and so I don’t like blanket prescriptions and blanket, top-down mandates from the left or the right.
I have followed Diane Ravitch’s work for many years now. I still think that her Left Back is the single best book ever written on American education. And I’ve known her, over the years, to be a stalwart defender of a rigorous, rich, broad-based curriculum in literature, the arts, history, and the sciences. And I have great respect for her as a scholar, someone who doesn’t believe in simple, magic solutions where there are complex underlying determinative phenomena that those solutions don’t address. I am grateful for her voice. We all should be. Vigorous, sometimes messy debate is the hallmark of a pluralistic democracy. I believe in standards. I believe in frequent testing that is NOT high stakes. But I’m not a supporter of mandatory standards, and I think that there are major problems with the CCSS in language arts. That said, I hasten to add that I like many of Mr. Coleman’s underlying ideas–his focus on what texts say rather than on isolated instruction in skills, his emphasis on having kids read related texts over extended periods. These are VERY IMPORTANT, VERY VALUABLE ideas. But I think that implementing those ideas is incompatible with turning our schools into test prep factories.
We need a lot less debate (and name calling) and a lot more discussion. We need a lot less precipitous prescription and a lot more cautious experiment.
One good idea that might lead to what you advocate would be taking the knives off of the teacher’s throats. There’s not much room for “discussion” in impoverished schools like my own, where everyone knows that their transformation leader has the power to snap their fingers and say “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”