Valerie Strauss does an excellent job of deconstructing the disaster of Obama’s education policy.
Remember when candidate Obama in 2008 spoke of hope and change. That encouraged many educators to believe that No Child Left Behind would be ended, tossed into the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
Sadly, President Obama built his Race to the Top right on the flawed foundation of NCLB, and made teaching to the test a necessity.
As the for-profit charters proliferated, he said nothing.
As radical governors destroyed collective bargaining and teacher due process, he said nothing.
As cyber charters grew, garnering huge profits but terrible education, he said nothing.
As vouchers spread, he said nothing.
As privatization accelerated, he said nothing.
The very idea of a “race to the top” refutes the principle of equality of educational opportunity.
The Bush-Obama program will go down in history as a disastrous effort to force the children of America into a standardized mold, while unleashing free market forces to make big bucks with scarce dollars.
It will be held up as an example of what school reform is NOT.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t particularly want to get into a political discussion. But, I can tell you that the union busting state are being controlled by Tea Party Republicans and “governors” who are beholden to them. There may be things we wish Obama had done, but I ask you, with this current Congress, what COULD he do? I don’t like Race to the Top either because it puts the cart before the horse. Our district (in Ohio) voted AGAINST it, but it wound up in the paper that our teachers just didn’t want “to be evaluated every year” … as if THAT was the issue. We do not want to be unfairly evaluated by an instrument that wasn’t even yet designed.
It is a mistake to let Obama off the hook so easily. Remember, he CLAPPED when those teachers were fired in RI. As for what could he do? He could speak out, but as Diane as pointed out, Obama has been silent. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” MLK
Use the bully pulpit. He didn’t have to remain silent. His RTTT says it all.
Yes, Obama clapped! My mouth fell to the ground when I saw him clap. Then smoke came out of my ears.
Obama chose Duncan.
And why does Gates get a seat with Obama? Answer: $$$$$. So who does Obama represent?
Deb, the reality is that the Democratic governors are just as much to blame and ate equally culpable. Just spend some time in NYS under the Cuomo regime. You will understand that this attack transcends party lines.
Yes, I live in Illinois and, although Gov. Quinn somehow manages to fly under the radar, he is as virulently anti-union as any Republican.
He CHOSE Duncan.
Could have chosen Ravitch….or many other actually qualified, actual experts in education.
Don’t be so quick to let him off the hook.
Yeah I have heard people (who do not work in education nor have children) sort of mock that teachers are afraid of the evaluation instruments. I just stand strong, stay calm and say I think teachers just find them cumbersome and distracting from actually teaching. In this economy it is popular to tease and taunt state workers. Best to compartmentalize that that is the real issue. Healthy compartmentalizing is the key to getting through this mess
“mock that teachers are afraid of the evaluation instruments.”
My response to this is to say:
Neither I, nor any teacher I know, have any fear of being accountable…for things under our control.
I will happily be accountable for content knowledge, for maintaining a safe, orderly, atmosphere in my room, for having appropriate, engaging lessons, etc.
But we do not want to be accountable for student test scores.
Way too many variables out of our control.
(If they still don’t get it…list some of the thousand reasons a kid may get a low test score that a teacher would have zero control over)
People outside of education seem to find this reasonable, and I have succeeded in getting some of them to reconsider their position.
Maybe this isn’t the appropriate forum for my following remark: Obama’s deeds run contrary to his words.
Too many people seem to think that he means well, but just has bad advisors. He knows exactly what he is doing, and he is responsible for his administration’s policies. People marched and died so that all Americans could have equal rights, including access to an education, but he doesn’t care. In my opinion, he has no conscience whatsoever.
Very simply, Obama could have decided to not get in bed with Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and the Tea Partiers.
He could have decided that the education he wanted for his daughters was good enough for all American children.
He could have decided that using children for corporate gain ws something that would not happen on his watch.
I don’t know why people are surprised. He and Rahm were big charter guys from the get go… I’m shocked more at people’s naïveté.
Agreed.
Thanks Diane for pointing out that people we think are friends of public education (and working people) really aren’t. There are plenty of other Dems out there who are the same (yes, I’m looking at you Cory Booker!), but we cut them slack because they *tend* to be better than Republicans. This is what “better than Republicans” has done for us. And as for the silence, remember the words of MLK: In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Obama’s educational policy was pretty clear during the 2008 campaign and he did what he said he would do. Clinton spoke out about NCLB but Obama claimed that Kennedy was his mentor and the bill and NCLB wasn’t just a Bush baby, it was Kennedy’s bill as well. Clinton who was a major sponsor of standardized education while the Director of the Children’s Defense Fund and wife of the Arkansas governor, backtracked and reputed NCLB while Obama mentioned that it could be tweaked a bit mainly in the adjustment in AYP. The major unions supported Clinton during the primaries and only turned to Obama after it was apparent he would be the nominee. Democratic governors are also pursuing the breaking of teachers’ unions and the closing of schools as well as mayors. NYS governor Cuomo criticized 3 schools districts in Buffalo, Rome and Greece, NY for making deals that this school year would be a pilot year and no teachers would be fired or penalized based on the Common Core standards. He is ordering new negotiations between those school districts and unions.
I don’t think it was clear at all. Was Common Core and the selling of private student data discussed during the 2008 election? No. Was the Broad Academy and its influece on schools districts all over the country discussed? No.
In fact anybody who asked too many questions about his policies or tried to hold him accountable was quickly shut down. I doubt the Democrats who voted for him thought they were voting for the elimination of public schools and the transfer of public school assets and funds to a few billionaires.
Agree Susan. So in 2016 we now know we have to ask very detailed questions and make sure we’re electing local candidates that are listening to people who want to uphold the philosophy of the middle class. Vote locally, Vote Locally.
And speak up locally, that’s my resolution.
I also think that people who care about public education and democracy need to organize and recruit local school board candidates instead of just letting the two major parties choose candidates who have already been vetted by privatizers.
Common Corporate Standards and InBloom didn’t exist in 2008. The question then is, does he oppose them now? Apparently not.
As a candidate in 2008, he was explicit in his support of charter schools, most of which already incarnated so-called education reform ideology and practice: the creaming and counseling out of students, the sweatshop-length school day, the focus on testing, the churned-through, abused teachers, the insider dealing.
Voters concerned about public education should have taken their cue from that, but the inspiring (and manipulated) narrative, the glittering generalities – “Hope,” “Change” – and the eagerness to believe took over.
Obama is trying to initiate totally needless cuts to Social Security, something Bush was never able to get close to achieving. Given that, handing the public schools to the Overclass is almost to be expected.
Michael @9:24
Agree.
As always, great post.
“eagerness to believe took over.”
That about sums it up for the young, starry eyed, Obama supporters of 2008 IMOH.
I recall being told numerous times in early ’08 how he (Obama) “reminds me of Bobby (Kennedy)” by people so young I was not even sure they could pick Bobby out out of a line up.
Marketing is VERY powerful.
I saw a story on local tv about a large minority district that had financial trouble was now having at least 30% of their instruction through the computer. At least 30%!!! In my state a Tea Party governor is helping create legislation that was gifted to the states through RTTT. The education for minority/non-minority children during Obama’s admin has gotten worse!! IT is a crime.
This is the kind of school education reformers like:
http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/nation/2012/10/12/a-new-kind-of-elementary-school-rocketship-si-se-puede-academy/1630549/
Depressing
I honestly can’t stand seeing Obama bs-ing about his usual nothingness. I’m sorry, if you’ve ever worked in a charter you would completely understand.
One piece of good news today as reported in The Washington Post. “Va.’s largest online school at risk after losing partner.” Long story short, at least for the time being, K12, Inc., is out of business in Virginia! This is a victory and we have the Carroll County School Board to thank.
The way it works in Virginia is that the state constitution gives local governments jurisdiction over public education (no statewide school districts to oversee virtual schools). So, in order to operate in the state (as they have been doing since 2009), K12, Inc. has to partner with a school district. Of course they chose a rural county that receives more in per pupil state aid than most districts because of its higher poverty rate. All but $500 of the per pupil state funding went straight into K12’s pockets instead of Carroll County which had 29 people administering this program on behalf of 350 students, of which only 5 were from Carroll County. It was a total scam – a virtual school receiving more state aid than most VA counties, while using Carroll County employees for administrative purposes, & its “students” scoring well below the state averages in all standardized tests. The funding formula when it came to light (in a Post article a year or so ago) became controversial & Dems in the VA legislature started scrutinizing it & K-12’s campaign contributions to McDonnell.
“The decision to close what was also the state’s first online school deals a blow to Governor McDonnell’s goal of expanding virtual education options.”
But watch out: “We are aggressively looking for a new partnership to keep the school open” says Jeff Kwitowski from K12.
Obama is a wolf in sheeps clothing as was Bill Clinton. Only democratic presidents could pull off this major scam going on now. Both are bought and sold by the arrogant billionaires who run the game worldwide. They both have no ethics when push comes to shove. No party gives us a real choice anymore. Only big money runs the game. It is all bought and sold up to and including the Supreme Court which is just another political reactionary group supporting the wealthiest. As my friends grandfather taught him “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.”
Would it be possible for all you wonderful bloggers and researchers to point us in the direction of credible sources that explain the philosophies of folks like Duncan, John King, David Coleman, and even Mr. Obama. What motivates them seems, at times, almost a religious fervor for these reform policies. money and power are, of course, motivating, but their use of jargon seems to indicate more. It would be helpful to have a centralized source so that we can educate colleagues and others who are skeptical, clueless, or in denial about things they will never read, view, or see in the mainstream media.
Perfectly put!
..and it was Clinton who ushered in Welfare to Work, and now there are over 90,000 homeless children living on the streets of LA and going to LAUSD when they can, due to that junk legislation…and it was Clinton who gave us NAFTA, killing union jobs in the US by off-shoring them to Asia…and it was Clinton who helped Phil Gramm kill Glass Steagal..that unkindest cut of all which led to the Gramms/Leach/Bliley bill and the pairing of commercial and investment banks for the first time since 1934 when FDR saw that danger of casino-like gambling with derivatives and so he created Glass Steagal….and we saw the world’s economic system drown because of much of this, and it still does not recover for the poor and Middle Class, but the stock market is at all time highs for those investors who have money to buy stocks, and the banksters remain un-indicted.
So Clinton and Barak cheated all of us who worked our tails off to get them elected.
Obama fooled most of us because we so much wanted a Patrician black president who understood about a rising tide lifting all boats…sheer crap. But we are awake now. So what do we do next?
I was duped by both, starry eyed supporter for both. One benefit of getting older I guess: getting wiser.
Was very pro Hillary but now am worried because I fear she is the same. She is so far ahead in all polls.
It’s especially sad in light of President Obama’s words in Essence Magazine in March of 2010:
“I know in my own life it’s only because I was pushed and prodded by my folks that I was able to succeed.”
There it is, the “secret” to a good education from the President of the United States. What happened? Sadly I’m guessing some of those billionaires contributed to his campaign and now it’s payback time. What a profound disappointment for those of us who expected so much of him!
Of course, in the same article he talked about the importance of the teacher as well. Would any of us disagree with that? No.
It takes a partnership among parents, teachers and student to realize a high-quality education and no amount of tests, charters or “reconstitutions” will change that. We are in the midst of another huge, expensive and hopeless fad in education.
All we can do now is hope the President, free from having to campaign again, will do what’s right for America’s children, and encourage Congress to strengthen support for the people who educate the nation’s children: parents and teachers.
I pray every day President Obama finds the strength and courage to do what is morally right for children and for America.
Today, in addition to billionaire Pritzker, he also appointed Mel Watts to replace De Marco…Watts voted for Gramm/Leach/Bliley to kill Glass Steagal…Obama does not even attempt to hide his corporatist bent. It is so blatant that you have to be Helen Keller not to recognize it. He has sold his soul
Helen Keller was a radical socialist – she would have recognized it.
Plain and simple:
Barack Obama is a bastard.
He is a traitor to Democrats, progressives, middle and working class people. He is a traitor to “people of color” (I dislike that expression, but it’s become a mainstream term in minority advocacy).
One is compelled to remove the “bama” from his name and replace it with “pportunist”.
He is no better than the good old white boys network that have mostly been ruining this country for decades.
But the United Corporations of Oligarchy America is an equal opportunity employer. . . . It’s true.
Just ask Penny Pritzker.
Barack Obama is a privatizer all the way.
He is colluding with others to turn the public trust of education into an entrepreneurial realm.
Penny Pritzker and her husband are heavily connected to Rahm Emanual and the closing of 20 Chicago public schools.
As far as education, teachers, parents, children, and adminsitrators go, Barack is slime, pure slime. That’s about as far as I can go in public parlance.
And, I’m coming to this late, but he just appointed Penny Pritzker commerce secretary? Is thiis today’s sign that the apocalypse is upon us?
No, Sheery, It’s merely a sign of how much this guy is deceitful and false. He is a master planner and rhetoritician and a genius at seducing and lying to the public.
I have only voted Democrat my entire adult life, but Barack Obama is by far the WORST president we’ve had. . .. in a way worse than George W. Bush because with Bush, we knew what to expect.
WIth someone like Paul Ryan and even Michael Bllomberg, what you see is what you get.
WIth someone like Barack Obama, the superhero who campaigned is now the villain who governs.
I can kick myself for voting for him in his first term. He’s disgusting.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
The Florida lawsuit against the merit pay law was dismissed. Boo!
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-teacher-merit-pay-lawsuit-20130502,0,7038859.story
This reply is for Sheery who wonders about the Pritzker apocalypse…..Pritzker, of the inherited wealth, as owner of the Hyatt Hotel Chain Worldwide, is on the Forbes list of richest Americans, and was a member of the Chicago School Board. She is a vociferous supporter of charters, Rhee, Broad Academies, Deasy in LA, and she is joined in her influential deeds by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. She is also a major donor funding Obama’s campaigns, and a supporter of Race to the Top, the failed plan of Barak and his basketball buddy, the hedge fund guy, Arne Duncan who ran the Southside schools into the ground when he was their overseer.
The current Chicago Supt. of Schools, a woman who also trained at the Broad Academy is the actual ‘decider’ to shut down or’ charterize’ 54 inner city schools, the largest number of such closures in the US. Many Chicago teachers feel this overkill is a punishment for their strike some months back. This may not seem a big deal to North Siders, nor those late to the game, but to the inner kids of color who now have no public school to attend in their neighborhood, it is a display of uncaring oligarchic behavior…my words…and leaves them once again at the bottom of the socio economic heap.
Can we hate these people any more than we already do?
Thank goodness for social skills. . . . .
She’s also a failed banker!
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/19851174-418/penny-pritzkers-failed-superior-bank-lost-customer-savings-in-subprime-crisis.html
“One of the banks that went under after making a lot of subprime loans — leaving 1,400 of its customers without part of their savings — was Chicago’s Superior Bank.
At the helm of Superior Bank at least some of the time was Obama’s national finance chairwoman, Penny Pritzker, an heiress to the Pritzker fortune. Obama’s campaign notes that Pritzker stepped down as chairwoman of the bank’s board in 1994, seven years before it failed. She then went on the board of the bank’s holding company.
But a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows that until the end, Pritzker appeared to be taking a leadership role in trying to revive the bank with an expanded push into subprime loans.
Pritzker wrote in May 2001 that her family was recapitalizing the bank, and she pledged to “once again restore Superior’s leadership position in subprime lending.” The bank shut down in July 2001.”
Thank you for explaining the Pritzker mess. It is all an insidious web.
I had commented on an earlier post that (IMHO) if Obama appointed Penny Pritzker Secretary of Commerce well, that’s the end. Yep–he sealed the deal: with this action, he has absolutely written in stone just what he stands for. In speaking of the appointment–& in consideration of both Ellen’s and Susan’s comments–Obama proudly referred to his pick as a woman who has built businesses from the ground up.
Excuse us, but Pritzker’s wealth is INHERITED! Also, I would refer people to the book, Supermob by Gus Russo, which will enlighten you as to the Pritzker $$$ way back when. Therefore–and with respect to Susan’s comments, in particular–can someone explain HOW she is qualified for this new position? (Oh, yes, she contributed big $$$ to Obama, and also was a major fundraiser.)
That having been said, forget about Obama. Forget about Arne Duncan. March for justice (Chicago is having a 3-day in May). Start putting up candidates for local and state offices. Organize (don’t agonize!) where you are and DO what you must to keep your public schools viable. If you’re squeaky clean and you’ve been politically active (PTA President, leader in League of Women Voters, community organizer {where O got HIS start!}, school board member)– RUN for office!
Nobody can help us but ourselves, and David CAN beat Goliath. You’ve read it here in Diane’s blog. Yes, WE can!
Brilliant!
Powerful!
TRUE!
“to force children into a standardized mold”
This is precisely the problem with the overemphasis on standardized testing. Children are on very, very different developmental schedules, and they have very, very different talents and propensities. School should be about highly structured and highly various exploration on the part of the child so that he or she can, under expert guidance, discover and develop those unique talents and propensities. And no one knows, with a given child, what will develop.
Consider the following school report:
“In a class of thirty-one boys, he was sixth in classics, twenty-seventh in mathematics, eighteenth in modern languages and nineteenth in English. His general work was only fair. Perhaps better in Latin than in any other subject. Very poor in spelling. His writing difficulties obviously held him back.”
That was the report for WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, age 11.
One of the many problems with the standardized testing mania embraced so heartily by Bush and Obama are that it typecasts kids, despite their very different developmental schedules, very early in the game. Then the Golem Effect kicks in, and they become what people expect them to become. Another is that it fails to recognize that kids are extraordinarily different from one another and all have propensities and potentials that no one recognizes but that it is the responsibility of a school to ferret out. This cannot be done by a system that treats all kids identically.
I cannot say this often enough, kids don’t come standardized, and it is criminally abusive to try to standardize them. One thing I am sure of: the seed of genius was there in young William Butler Yeats, and fortunately, it managed to survive his schooling. I doubt that today, in the age of the standardized test, that would have happened.
“[T]he education system . . . consists in making children ashamed of what they are.” –Jean-Paul Sartre. Being and Nothingness. Trans. Hazel Barnes. New York: Washington Square P., 1992. P. 303.
One of the important roles that testing could play would be to assist in ferreting out (and developing, even) those unique propensities. This child is telling us, look, I am a dancer. This one is telling us, look, I am a cartographer. But standardized tests won’t do that. We need nonstandardized, non-high-stakes tests, and lots of them, lots of little ones, that are embedded in extremely varied and rich curricula. In other words, there is an important role to be played by testing completely unlike, diametrically opposed in fact, to what the kind of assessment we are currently doing.
Very true! I am currently grading an essay test that I wrote for my students. I have seen exciting and unexpected things from various kids, including insights I had never thought of before. A multiple choice test won’t tell me any of that.
Here is one of Mr Obama’s Race to the Top Money Questions used to TEST EC TEACHERS, certainly not the students in the EC Teacher’s class whose IQ’s are below 70.
The students in the class do so many things that are so important but since what they do…fundraisers…recycle…clean streets…clean stadiums…charitable events, and basically anything and everything that involves humanitarian issues.
Just look at this question…
.Mr Obama needs to step down..I am so disheartened with his Race..
This question was given to me by an EC teacher whose students have IQ’s below 70.
This is what they must know or he will be fired..
This question is a clone of the original that appeared on a sample exam
I think the original used rabbits in the country or something such as that..
A city plans to renovate an overgrown and rodent plagued area of town.
The function r(x) = 4〖(2.0)〗^x models the population of rodents in the area after x months before any rodents were eliminated.
The function s(x)=〖 2(2.0)〗^x models the number of rodents eliminated from the population after x months.
Which function f(x) models the total number of rodents in the area after x months?
My answer to this question
WHO CARES??/
I am very anxious to see the rest of the sample questions.
And now supposedly Sugar Mommy Penny Pritzker is contributing $17.5 million dollars and recruiting other power brokers to put up an additional $17.5 million dollars to buy Obama and his family a $35 million dollar retirement home on prime property in Hawaii.
The Reagans had people buy them their retirement home in California, but it was under $5 million.
I don’t think the Clinton’s home in Chappaqua is more then $2 million.
Obama is pure hyprocrisy, pure selfishness, and has used his position to accumulate personal wealth. He’s gross, but no better than many of his Anglican counterparts.
Nevermind the money Obama will make in speeches throughout the world; Bill Clinton has amassed $75 million doallrs in speaking fees ever since he finished out his presidency.
These people are vile because they are disconnected with the average working class person.
And I don’t have sour grapes because I am financially comfortable, but the moves and actions of Obama nauseate me because he is constantly posing himself as something he is not and never will be.
Agree with especially your last paragraph, Robert. I believe that most of us who comment here are not so much about “sour grapes,” but about the millions of people (especially America’s children) who are being–and will be in the future if not now–irrevocably damaged by his destructive policies, in other areas as well as in education. Particularly infuriating–recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. For doing what? And–was the money ever donated?
One State is approaching this whole mess appropriately: Vermont. See this post for a brief overview. http://waynegersen.com/2013/05/03/getting-out-of-ayp-jail-in-vermont/
What do you mean Obama stood by and did nothing? He did a lot. He was at the healm with Duncan driving all that is going wrong in education. If you are President, the federal education department is doing your bidding. Wake up teachers! He’s a huge part of the problem. What amazes me is what a pass he’s been given by America’s educators.