In a hard-hitting essay, Anthony Cody describes how accountability has been turned into a weapon to create demoralization, failure, and privatization of public schools.
He reviews the recent fiascos involving Tony Bennett and New York’s Common Core testing.
He notes that both the AFT and the NEA are trying hard to meet the demands of the corporate reformers. Both are trying to help teachers prepare for the Common Core sledge hammer, but Cody says it is a fruitless enterprise. The game is rigged. The reformers’ goal is to generate failure so they can advance privatization.
Cody writes:
“Our response must be, as members of the teaching profession, and as members of the unions that represent educators, to reject as baseless these phony, politically-driven accountability systems. These systems to rate schools based on proficiency rates are really much more accurately reflecting levels of poverty, rather than the quality of teaching in effect. Many of those advocating them are, like Tony Bennett, attempting to promote their own favored competitors, in a race in which they have made themselves the rule-makers and referees.
“When someone sets up a competition that is rigged from the start, our response cannot be to ask for more time to prepare. The answer is to expose the machinery at work behind the scenes, and demand that our schools be accountable not to some state or federal bureaucrat, but to the students and parents of their communities. We will not overcome poverty by firing those who have chosen to work with the poor. Our schools and students need support, not more means by which they can be ranked and rejected. Real support from our unions means educating and organizing members to respond with vigor and pride about our students, our schools, and our work as professionals. Teachers cannot “succeed” under these systems because that is not their design. So rather than trying to prepare for tests many of our schools were never meant to pass, we need to prepare teachers to defend and reclaim their schools, and reject the accountability scam.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So when do the unions stop being the stooges of the reformers and start working to put power back in the hands of teachers, subject, of course, to accountability to PARENTS and LOCAL COMMUNITIES?
When they stop taking Bill’s money.
Education unions are in business for themselves, Robert.
Except CTU and Karen Lewis . . .
Yes, the union leaders are seem to be siding with the reformers. I’m seriously considering dropping my NCAE/NEA membership!
Ms Dee,
“United we stand, divided we fall”. so apparent in the 1700s, so apparent now.
If all would listen to you, and drop memberships, how fast do you think the union would reconsider their stand when it learned why so many were disappearing.
Of course if all falls on deft ears, the same thing happening now, will continue to happen, at the expense of the membership.
This should be a lesson to all citizens as well, regarding what all has taken place since the obama came into power. What a freaking cesspool that one has created.
Ms Dee and Cherry, if you really are in a union, then you can vote for new leaders, like they did in Chicago. The union only makes us strong if we fight for it.
CORE started another page of history, if you think about it, which is also ours to write on.
chemtchr,
While you are correct that Chicago teachers have taken back their union, for structural and historical reasons that is an extremely difficult thing to do with the UFT or AFT (which is essentially controlled by the UFT leadership).
The AFT President is not elected by rank and file teachers, but by delegates elected in local elections. In NYC, those delegates are controlled by the UFT’s Unity Caucus, which, along with NYSUT delegates, determines who shall lead the national union. It’s no accident that, aside from a caretaker administration after the death of Sandy Feldman, AFT leaders have come from new York,
Unity Caucus, which has controlled the union as a one-party state (there exists a captive “opposition,” New Action Caucus, but it is there to get union jobs for its members and give the appearance that the leadership shares power) since its inception, and which requires signing a loyalty oath as a condition of membership, is virtually impossible to remove by electoral means.
Last year it passed an amendment to the union’s by-laws giving even greater weight to the retiree vote, at the expense of working teachers. The result? The past April’s election saw less than 20% turnout by active teachers, and over 50% of the vote cast by retirees.
Part of the crisis teachers face in NYC is that demoralization and passivity are a policy goal of the DOE, since they aid in the goal of a constantly churned, intimidated, docile workforce. But that demoralization leads to the apathy that helps Unity Caucus stay in power. In this sense, management and the union leadership collude and serve their own narrow interests.
Michael Mulgrew and his administration have made it painfully clear that their primary concern is to co-manage the teaching workforce in NYC, particularly regarding the acceptance of Common Corporate Standards and the tests and evaluation systems they are a springboard for. He has been sending out disgraceful emails to the membership, not questioning the dishonesty and viciousness of the testing regime, but the fact that they “prove” what the so-called reformers claim.
While this “collaboration” – Randi Weingarten’s term, not mine – might serve the interests of a self-seeking, intellectually corrupt union leadership for the time being, this spring’s election results show that the union leadership’s collusion with the so-called reformers will eventually result in an existential crisis for the union.
Unless things change here in NYC, a fifth columnist group such as E$E, funded by Randi’s pal Bill Gates, will eventually initiate a decertification campaign that many teachers will be erroneously tempted to sign on to. After all, without a clear understanding of the importance of having a union, even a bad one like the UFT, many teachers will be happy to find other uses for the $!,000+ of their money that goes to 52 Broadway every year.
Thus the emerging paradox for NYC teachers: the power dynamics that cement the leaderships control are the same one’s that could lead to the union’s demise.
But don’t worry about Michael Mulgrew if that happens, he’ll land on his feet, unlike the many teachers who will be ground to bits by the testing and evaluation system he’s shilling for. His sister is currently working for a company with millions in Tweed contracts; maybe he’ll join her.
Chemtchr,
Whether or not you are Karen Lewis (I was hoping you are), I do see your point, and the right kind of unions are always something worth fighting for . . .
If you are Ms. Lewis, and you don’t want to reveal it because you are uncomfortable doing so, I am a big fan.
These reforms are often said to derive from application of business principles to education. But business people should be the first to understand that one doesn’t get the best results by disempowering workers. Consider this passage from the Maintenance Engineering Handbook, for example:
“Self-directed work teams . . . not only do the work but also take responsibility for management of the work–a funciton that was formerly performed by supervisors and managers. Why is this concept of self-directed teams growing? . . . The real answer is simple, effective use of self-directed work teams have results in improved quality productivity, and service; greater flexibility; reduced operating costs; fathers response to technological change; fewer, simpler job classifications; better repsonse to workers’ values; increased employee commitment, and ability to attract and retain the best people.”
A friend of mine who is a teacher now after having spent years as a marketing manager in the business world says, “Never have I seen such an occupation in which everyone on the outside thinks that he or she knows better what should be done, when, how, and by whom.”
You want reform. Give teaching back to teachers. And the unions, of all organizations, should stand against ALL attempts to wrest control over curricula and pedagogy out of teachers’ hands and to place it in the hands of state department educrats, federal educrats, politicians, and plutocrats, including enforced standards and curricula.
The unions stop when we elect the union leaders that reject these reforms instead of trying to deal with them. If the unions are not responding they way we want, then the teacher members only have themselves to blame. We need to let our union leaders know that we reject the corporate involvement in education and we will vote out the ones that do not do as we wish. Instead of quitting your union (as the corporate hacks want us to do) become more involved. Stir things up and make some change.
It is NOT about (what is supposed to be OUR) unions “helping” teachers with the Common Core. It is about ALL of us supporting each other and simply REJECTING the Common Sore (oops, I mean Core). What can’t my fellow teachers understand????????
I totally agree with you, Donna!
You mean common corporate core or possibly corporate corpse.
Or “corporate coprolalia” or “corporate coprolite”???
Judging by the lack of thinking by the adults involved in school reform, they confirm that the schools have failed. Thinking and problem solving were missed somehow.
They excel at lying, scheming and manipulating teachers, parents and children.
The most enlightened essay written so far. The unions should be helping teachers become political through organizing, not acquiescing to the CC and the evil behind it. The AFT leadership has shown once again that it cannot lead. History teaches use what happens when we try to appease the bullies. Making nice with corporate reform will end public education as we know it.
The AFT is in business for itself and could not give half a hoot about its members because whether or not teachers have jobs, the position itself under closed shops will force dues to be paid to the AFT . . .
But Randi Weingarten did donate $20 to NPE just to prove with documentation that she’s “open minded”.
She and the AFT are part of the problem, not the solution. But we teachers who don’t work hard enough to vote other types of delegates into the unions are also hurting ourselves.
Don’t leave out the NEA!
Sorry, Ms. Dee.
The NEA is to blame also.
Accountability is not only designed to set schools up to look like failures, but it is also set up for quick change over. If what the ed-reformers are doing to make schools look bad doesn’t work plan B goes into effect to change the rules of what failure means. How can you meet standards if you don’t know what they are from one year to the next.
Yes Donna. Instead of asking students and parents to opt out of testing, teachers everywhere should reject these test by refusing to administer them. That will be the moment we all become true child advocates.
De acuerdo.
As disappointed as I am that my state is beholden to RttT and Common Core, and as aggravated as I get knowing that leadership has led us down a garden path, I still believe it is blind optimism that led them there. Perhaps they were led by ill intentions, or blind greed, but I still believe that in non-union states, the leadership was simply too trusting of the DOE.
Having wrestled with the fact that my work and the schooling of my children is tied to this giant mess (scheme, as some would say), I have had to learn to really look forward and begin focusing on what can be done down the road. I have left my political party (so that I can feel free to approach public education from a completely non-partisan stance), committed myself to reading and learning everything I can, and disciplining myself to not be angry–but to be listening, informed and ready to help make changes.
Already I have kept my school from including language about “global economy” from our new dual language program’s brochure (and they took my advice). Whatever it is that we are to learn from all this, I look forward to it revealing itself.
I love this article by Cody. I will share it.
But as I had to acquiesce to my parents splitting up and marrying other people, and as I had to embrace two children who were not my own when I married my husband, so too do I know that we will get through this. Our public schools will not be vanished.
All readers of this blog have their strengths to bring to the fight to save public schools (while most of the population still does not even seem to know there is a fight). I hope the strength I can contribute is creative optimism. In fact, it is the only thing that has ever helped me survive.
Keep positive. Keep informed, but keep positive. That is my wish for those who are working for the survival and success of public schools.
And opting kids out. 🙂
Although teachers are probably legally bound to administer the test and really don’t have the option not to participate we must continuously ask ourselves: “Is this really what is best for our students?
Everyone should go see Elitesium, er, Elysium. It’s a perfect prophecy of the kind of world we’re headed toward if we don’t recover our principles pronto.
I was thinking the parole officer robot would make a good accountability coach.
STOP TALKING ❢❢❢
I was wondering the other day if Matt Damon had that thought in the back of his head…
Teachers in the suburbs don’t have to worry about job security from a low school grade. Their hill to die on might be opposing the CC, but their livelihood is not at risk. Three of my colleagues lived in limbo this spring regarding their contract renewal, because they presided over double D schools (School grade of D two years in a row).
It didn’t matter that in one of those schools, more than 30 languages are spoken by students, many of whom have been in the US for less than five years. This year, my school (95% free and reduced lunch and 60% ELL) dropped from close to a B to a D. Could I be next?
Policies are bad throughout the current state of public education, but those of us who have dedicated our lives to working with the poor are most at risk, and need the most support to protect our students,ourselves and “the Great American School System.” I’ve yet to hear AFT or NEA address this. Perhaps educators who work in low income schools should form their own union.
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
-Assata Shakur
Please all UTLA members in LAUSD, work toward electing Alex Caputo-Pearl as the union leader in the coming election.