Gary Rubinstein’s analysis of the charter schools founded by Congressman Jared Polis showed that the schools posted low test score growth. Congressman Polis responded in a comment (posted below) that this was understandable because his charter schools enroll very low-performing students, many of whom barely speak or read English, and many of whom are overage for their grade and far behind. It is understandable, he says, that these kids are not posting big score gains. He also notes that the teachers at his schools are not judged by value-added assessment, given the students they serve.
Congressman Polis is making my case for me but he doesn’t realize it. He should read my book.
He would discover that I support charter schools that enroll the kids who didn’t make it in public schools. They should exist to do what the public schools can’t do. They should exist to help kids who were left behind, not to skim the brightest kids from the poorest communities. Schools should not be closed because of their low scores, and their teachers should not be judged by test scores. Charter schools and public schools should collaborate, not compete. Charter schools should fill a need, as Polis’ schools seem to do, not fight public schools for market share.
If Congressman Polis would read my book, he would see that his are the kinds of charters I endorse.
If he would take the time to familiarize himself with the research on test-based accountability, he would join me in opposing it. He would withdraw his support for Colorado’s SB 191, which bases 50% of a teacher’s evaluation on student test scores. This is one of the nation’s worst, most punitive, and most ignorant teacher evaluation law, based on no research or evidence, just the whim of young State Senator Michael Johnston, ex-TFA. There are good ways to evaluate teachers, and test-based accountability is not one of them. That is why Jared Polis’ charter schools don’t do it.
Since we have now found common ground, despite the fact that Polis called me “an evil woman,” and despite the fact that he stubbornly refuses to apologize for his outburst, I invite him to meet with me in Brooklyn to discuss whether he can overcome his irrational contempt for traditional public schools. Even though he is a billionaire, I will pick up the check for breakfast, lunch, or dinner on one condition: read my book. If you don’t like it, Jared, I will give you your money back. Just promise not to throw it at me.
Here is his comment on the blog in response to Gary’s post:
“Thank you for your post defending the efforts of New America School. New America School (NAS) serves almost entirely NEP (non-English-proficient) and LEP (limited English proficiency) students, many of whom are several grade levels behind when they enter NAS. Nearly all of their students are drop-outs or have major gaps in their education.
“Given that the tests are only available in English, the NAS students have a significant disadvantage.
“A primary metric the school uses to demonstrate success is measuring the acquisition of the English language. Many NAS students are 19 or 20 years old, and only have a 6th grade or 8th grade education prior to entering NAS. Sadly in Colorado students “age out” of public education at age 21, and few students can accomplish 4 or 5 years of learning in 1 or 2 years. But even if they don’t earn a diploma, the students gain functional English language literacy.
“This analysis is a good example of why test scores should not be the only criteria used to evaluate schools or teachers. NAS teachers are hard working and dedicated and have literally transformed lives. To be clear, I support transparency on aggregate test scores, and Mr. Rubinstein is welcome to use that information to make whatever charts he wishes to show that a school is good, bad, or otherwise but it is important to educate the reform community about the importance of alternative education and serving all kids.
“Rubinstein mentions that “Colorado is one of the states that has been most aggressive about tying standardized test scores to teacher evaluations and to school rankings. ” but NAS does not use standardized test scores to evaluate teachers, nor has any kind of “ranking” hurt the school’s effort to fulfill its mission “to empower new immigrants, English language learners, and academically under-served students with the educational tools and support they need to maximize their potential, succeed and live the American dream.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So a wealthy CO legislator with a big heart wants to open a PRIVATE FOR-PROFIT school “…to empower new immigrants… and under-served students” but doesn’t expect them to meet the same standards or follow the same rules as he set for PUBLIC NON-PROFIT schools who have the same mission. And the legislature he serves on passes laws that close down PUBLIC schools who don’t meet standards and replaces them with FOR-PROFIT PRIVATE schools who don’t HAVE to meet standards. Polis in Wonderland!
First of all, I look forward to getting together with you and discussing common ground. I should be in NYC in a few weeks, will follow up privately.
You won’t need to pick up the check for breakfast, we’ll go Dutch. If I was a billionaire I would gladly treat you, but alas I’m not.
I was able to borrow a copy of your book from a friend, so I have no need of a refund and no guilt for purchasing it. I have completed reading it and would be happy to post some thoughts and share some with you privately as well.
Making accountability work for alternative schools is challenging. I don’t believe that the answer is no accountability, but it’s hard to get right. I think where we might differ is that I also support high-performing charter schools. I see the successes of schools like KIPP and Rocketship and the differences they have made in the lives of children. Without them, many of their students would have been forced to attend failing public schools. So why not improve the failing public school they came from, you might say? Absolutely we should and we must. There is no single proven model for school transformation but closures should only be used as a last resort. This is hard work for educators in districts and in charter schools. There’s no silver bullet.
Maybe we can work out alternative accountability too, I’ve seen great examples of Presentations of Learning and other methods.
SB 191 is a reasonable framework for evaluating educators, and it was supported by AFT. No teacher loses their job under SB 191, but if students in the classroom are not learning and a teacher is evaluated poorly for two years in a row, they lose the protection of tenure. If their Principal thinks they are doing a good job, they still don’t lose their job. The implementation isn’t easy, but we are working on it in CO and involving stakeholders to make it work. No system is perfect and hopefully CO can improve on SB 191, but it’s better than having nothing.
Of all the chapters in your book, however, chapter 13 on Teacher Tenure and Seniority is actually the best and the closest to the mark.
The framework that you propose in Chapter 13 is sensible:
“It is the job of the state and district to negotiate a fair and expeditious process to handle charges and hearings. The hearings should be resolved in months, not years”
“Senority as such has nothing to do with competence; there was no way of asserting that a teacher with twenty-two years of experience was better than a teacher with fifteen years of experience”
“Senority becomes a major issue when there are budget cuts and teachers are laid off Traditionally, teachers are laid off based on senority: the teacher with the least Senority gets the first pink slip. There should be a better way to do it.”
and finally your most radical:
“No teacher should win tenure automatically”
I dub thee honorary reformer! If the goals you mention could be accomplished in a better manner than SB 191 I think the effort would have broad support from the education reform community.
The reason that your book invokes such strong negative feelings in myself and others is the way you characterize the reform community and their beliefs. Many people of good faith who have dedicated their lives to improving our schools look in the mirror and say: I’m not any of those things Diane Ravitch says nor do I believe those things.”
Things like (these are just some notes from chapter 1):
Pg. 14:
“… agree to ‘turn around’ their lowest performing schools by taking such dramatic steps as firing staff and closing the schools”
Even the administration includes other methods that superintendents can use like extending the learning day or becoming a charter school. Firing the staff and closing the school are the most radical and should be the most rarely used.
Pg. 16
“Some reformers hoped that poor results of the new tests would persuade even suburban parents to lose faith in their community schools and demand not only new products but school closings, charters, and vouchers”
If someone has this belief, they are NOT an “education reformer” they are an anti-public education activist. I am friends with and know many reformers, and not even in their private moments and innermost thoughts would they ever want parents to lose faith in their schools.
Pg. 17, the example of Andre Agassi’s fund to provide capital costs for building charter schools. If charter schools could participate in district bonds (as they can in Colorado) or are able to use un-utilized public school property (like in NYC and other areas) then these kinds of funds wouldn’t be necessary. If the for-profit sector is the only place charter schools can turn to borrow to build their schools, they will turn there.
Page 31:”Neither candidate in the 2012 election supported public education.”
In any event, I am glad that you see a role for charter schools that serve at-risk kids.
I think that you could serve your purpose better without mischaracterizing large segments of the reform community. Truth is that public education has plenty of real enemies out there, and we don’t advance the cause by forming a shooting circle of friends
Jared Polis
“Truth is that public education has plenty of real enemies out there, and we don’t advance the cause by forming a shooting circle of friends.”
Practice what you PREACH sir!
Montgomery County, MD has an evaluation system that is far superior to VAM, even as you describe it in CO. It is called PAR, and I’m not just surprised that you seem unaware of it, I think you must be avoiding that admission. You have a well deserved reputation of being whip smart and of getting it right on other issues relating to the best interests of your constituents. What I see as your dissembling on your lack of awareness simply doesn’t pass the smell test. The buy in and complete commitment from all stakeholders in Montgomery County and the success they have had at removing teachers who cannot or will not improve far surpasses anything that VAM has or will ever achieve. The political reality of PAR is that it remains unpopular with “reformers” because it does not lend itself to the extraction of profits from our schools. This is the simple truth, a better method of teacher evaluation that is also a strong professional development tool is avoided for all the wrong reasons.
Mr. Polis:
Diane Ravitch exemplifies how human beings should always treat each other; with kindness, decency and civility, even when a person has been mean-spirited, deceitful and vicious in his actions and words, such as you’ve been here.
But, unfortunately, I’m NOT Diane Ravitch, as fine a role model as she is for most of humanity. And thus, I’m trying to remember how to be civil as I write this. Your smug, condescending, and noxious attitude still permeates what you’ve written.
There is not a trace of humility, self-awareness or personal accountability in your pompous posting.
On the contrary, it reeks of self-congratulatory prose, the type usually penned by smirking adolescent boys when they should be genuinely sorry for what they’ve done.
You’re pretty disgraceful. Do you know that?
You’ve never apologized to Ms. Ravitch for your truly awful actions: Do you always throw books at people you disagree with? Is screaming at someone’s mother and grandmother, in front of your colleagues, while demanding your money back, a normal event for you?
Is that why there has been no apology, or even acknowledgement from you for such odious behavior? Are you suffering from the delusion—as some full-of-themselves politicians are—that you are somehow always right and that only someone “evil” could possibly oppose you.
Is that why you also haven’t apologized to Ms. Ravitch for calling her “evil” just a few days ago?
And did you think that you could run and hide from the fact you posted it by then quickly trying to erase it from public view?
“I was able to borrow a copy of your book from a friend, so I have no need of a refund and no guilt for purchasing it.”
Guilt for purchasing it? Again, your spirit is just overwhelmingly magnanimous.
Are your constituents aware that their “progressive” congressman behaves like a snarky, petulant troll when he dislikes what a prominent education historian and theorist writes?
You may be well educated and very wealthy—the latter status primarily due to your luck in unloading a couple of online turkeys to a group of gamblers who “bet wrong” that day and were taken to the cleaners—but you lack the decency and
Diane Ravitch is a woman of understated class and dignity. For her to overlook and forgive your vile actions and odious comments speaks very well of her.
In contrast, your patronizing and effete tone underscores what many of us now know about you and yes, the overwhelming majority of your egotistical, power-obsessed, union-hating little camp of isolated elitists who are funding this deliberately destructive demolition derby.
A foppish dandy like yourself—who spent every single one of his formative years in a lovely “country day academy”, followed by the Ivy League and multi-millionaire status before he was 30—is in no position to judge our public schools. You know absolutely nothing about them and the good people who work there!
While I agree that the broadly and mendaciously classified, “Ed Reform” movement is far from a monolith, the overwhelming majority of your rich cohorts—the MONEY behind the privatization mania—are indeed enemies of education, sharing a deep, visceral hatred for established teachers, local school boards and parents like myself who have caught on to your shell game and are fed up with it.
So, Jared, you can make all the claims you’d like about being a supporter of education. Most of us who follow this issue and understand what charters, vouchers, accountability and other consciously specious terms REALLY mean aren’t buying it.
Again, given the fact that you never spent one minute of your life in a public school, and grew up isolated within well-cushioned surroundings with the children of wealth and privilege, you’ll understand it when I tell you that what you’re doing and saying just won’t wash, Jared. It just won’t wash.
Puget Sound Parent,
While I agree with you 100% that Rep. Polis’ past actions can be described as classless, I think that your not-so-subtle swipes at his sexuality move beyond that and are hateful and bigoted. If you really think it’s appropriate to characterize an openly gay public figure as “effete” and a “foppish dandy”, I have a question for you: What planet do you think you live on (and in what century)?
Clearly, this issue is very emotional and you are upset, but I think that letting these feelings manifest themselves in distasteful pejoratives speaks to a fundamental lack of character. That’s just my outsider’s view, however, and I hope your words/tone don’t accurately reflect your innermost beliefs. Knowing, as I do, the aspersions and ridicule that members of LGBT community go through, I am sure characterizations such as yours are nothing new to Rep. Polis, however that hardly justifies them. In the future let’s remember that we can disagree with someone, even dislike them, without vile stereotyping.
Please take some time Mike to speak to Jared about calling people evil. Spread your indignation to all. Maybe Polis will listen to you. He seems to believe he is above all of the lowly teacher peons on this blog.
I apologize. I inadvertently sent you only a partially completed 13th paragraph. Here’s the complete version of what should have been in my original posting:
You may be well educated and very wealthy—the latter status primarily due to your luck in unloading a couple of online turkeys to a group of gamblers who “bet wrong” that day and were taken to the cleaners—but you apparently lack the decency and humility to concede, as some wealthy people do—that luck played a role in your good fortune.
Perhaps you aren’t yet a billionaire, or may never be one. But your net worth must be upwards of $400 million dollars; or even twice that amount. And, like a lot of mere millionaires who aspire to be billionaires, you’re playing “follow the leader” in this struggle, obediently marching right behind The Terrible Trio of Broad, Gates and Walton.
Are you hoping to be admitted to their inner circle, Jared? Is that why you’ve given we average and low income people the back of your hand?
Mike – I see nothing offensive toward gays about “foppish dandy”. It’s a slam at rich dilettantes, not gays. From Urban Dictionary:
“Foppish Dandies are gentlemen of wit and learning, who are known to jape and jest at the expense of others. They wear only the finest doublets and waistcoats, and their devastating bon mots are feared by ladies and gentlemen of good standing every-where.”
I think “effete” is also meant in terms of pretentiousness, affectation, self-indulgent.
Linda, I agreed that his actions were classless. I can spread further indignation as well, but it seems like that’s pretty well covered here. Not familiar with Colorado politics, but the teacher evaluation bill he’s touting seems deeply flawed and people here have said that his characterization of the AFT endorsement in misleading. If I was one of his constituents, the way he conducts himself would factor into my voting decisions. He seems entitled and like he has problem controlling his emotions (see my previous comment for my feelings on that).
However, I don’t think any of that is cause for the kind of characterizations made in PSP’s post. I am also a lowly teacher peon, so not sure my thoughts would carry anymore weight.
Dienne. Not sure if you’re joking (Urban Dictionary!? I hope you instill better source practices in your students!). But context and tone matters. I certainly picked up on a trend of contempt in the post that seemed to stem from Polis’ perceived “un-masculine” (in the most backwards, hetero-normative sense) characteristics. Fop and dandy certainly have class implications, but carry much stronger connotations (in the literate, non-Urban-Dictionary, world) of an affected sort of aesthetic and personality that is frivolous and “feminine” (again backwards hetero-normative). As for the use of ‘effete’, well that pretty much speaks for itself.
Honestly, I didn’t see having to defend my previous post. I agree with much of what PSP said regarding policy. All I was doing was calling for decency and civility. To make our arguments with integrity and sensitivity and not disparage some one because who they are as a person. I didn’t think it’d be so controversial.
Mike @12:48 pm
Hey, I do not personally know Puget Sound Parent, but he or she is one of our most progressive regular commenters around here. I really have a hard time ascribing a hatred of the LGBT community to this person considering their many pervious posts on this blog.
I sincerely hope you might reconsider tossing around the whole bigoted, homophobic, hateful thing in this case.
I, for one, had no idea Jared was openly gay. Perhaps outside Co that is not well known? Anyway, I did not find PSP’s remarks to be quite to the level of “vile stereotyping”. “Foppish” and “effete” can be used to describe some members of the “ruling class” without reference to sexuality, IMHO.
All that said, if you were personally offended, please feel free to say so.
Let’s be clear. Effete is derived from the word fetus and means ‘feminine’ in the sense of being weak-willed, frivolous, and all together not like a ‘real man’. It just about always carries this connotation. It’s not a pretty word. To me, using this word to describe an openly gay individual is seems intentionally derogatory.Obviously it’s origins aren’t exactly flattering to women either. But perhaps you’re right ANG, it’s possible that PSP used the words in the way others have suggested and meant them in a way that refers to his class rather than his personality. Either way, I certainly did have an unpleasant, almost visceral reaction to the way they were used. I guess I could take a lesson in tempering my reactions a bit.
New America School is Non-profit, not for-profit.
Just like the NFL?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/25/1241265/-Wait-the-NFL-is-a-non-profit-organization
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/24/225775287/nfls-a-nonprofit-author-says-its-time-for-football-reform
Great! Sorry for my misinterpretation… I need to read more carefully 😉
Please post the salaries of the administrators and any other contracts with eduvendors so we can see where the money goes. Non-profit can still benefit those at the top and/or family and friends.
In FY13, three employees of New America Schools made over $100K: the principal ($118k), The Super ($176K), and the Chief of Business Ops ($139K).
This seems more or less on par with the districts with which I’m familiar (large urban districts in the Northeast). Service contracts exceeding the federal minimum of $100k (which strikes me as high) are to the Colorado Community College System, the company they rent their space from, their health insurance provider, and a public school district.
Hope that helps, Linda. For future reference, most nonprofits of a certain size release their federal 990 forms where all this information is provided. I’m always a bit surprised by how many questions I see in these comments that can be easily answered by a passing familiarity with publicly available tax and budget records.
Mike,
“I’m always a bit surprised by how many questions I see in these comments that can be easily answered by a passing familiarity with publicly available tax and budget records.:
I see your point and agree the information is often available. However,I think when many of us post such questions we are trying to make a point.
Point being; the designation “Non Profit” , contrary to assumption/misunderstanding of many folks, does not necessarily indicate any of the following:
no money generated/charity/serious do gooder.
There are plenty of ways to generate big bucks/avoid taxation/siphon off public money through non profits.
Again, recall that the NFL is a non profit.
In response to “Mike”, who responded to my post on September 30, 2013 at 12:48 pm:
Mike, you’re right. You DON’T know me. If you did, you would have never put that spin on my posting.
And if you don’t believe me, maybe you should ask the many close friends and family members who are part of the LGBT community.
Tell that to my friends in high school and college when I was often the ONLY person at the lunch table, defending the human rights of all people to love whom they choose.
Tell that to my many buddies who know I stood with them—literally—in the 1980’s when a wave of hatred and hysteria swept over much of the country during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. They’ll tell you about the open letter I wrote to an old friend running for political office who publicly announced his support for a “quarantine” against anyone who was HIV-positive; I ended the friendship with this person and called him out publicly about it.
Tell that to my co-workers in the early nineties—when I steadfastly insisted that our military should admit all without consideration of one’s sexual preference. They then acted as if I had endorsed sexual relations with children when I responded “YES!” to the question, “Well, now you don’t think those people should be allowed to get married. Do you?”
I paid a price for it too. Word got around and the Christian fundamentalists who had a monopoly on the executive suites—and who I had gotten along with, quite well, before that—stopped inviting me to certain meetings and looking the other way when we walked by each other in the hallway.
My position was then “eliminated” within the year, in a “company reorganization”, despite my consistently good job performance of the previous 6 years, my strong, personal relationships with major customers, and the fact that our company was experiencing the highest growth and profitability in its short history.
I most definitely paid a price for my defense of human dignity and fair treatment for ALL people. And, despite the personal consequences for vocalizing my “radical, extremist views”, I’d do it again in a nanosecond, no matter the setback for my career ambitions.
Sometimes we just have to do the right thing, and not sell out, regardless of the circumstances.
I could go on and on; I’m happy to even send references. 😉
But I suspect, Mike, that you get the point.
I’m not now, and never have been homophobic. And accusing me of it, maybe because you disagree with what I wrote about Mr. Polis and “education reform”, isn’t helpful.
However, all that being said, I have to tell you that I have never considered the words “effete” or “foppish dandy”, to be anti-gay slurs.
I was using them to describe a person who appeared to be ultra-privileged, extremely wealthy and isolated, and focused much more on personal comforts, appearance and self-aggrandizement than on doing the greatest good for the greatest number.
But since I read your post, I went online and discovered that yes, your criticism is valid. Those words have been used as blatantly offensive, anti-gay slurs. They are a form of hate speech and my ignorance of that fact is no excuse.
I am accountable for using them even if my intent had absolutely nothing to do with the sexual orientation of Mr. Polis. And despite the fact that I did not, in any way, intend to say anything at all about Mr. Polis and his personal life, I was wrong to have used those words. I should have known better and done a more thorough job before hitting “Post Comment”.
So, I sincerely apologize to Mr. Polis for using those words and for any insult or harm they may have caused. Again, I didn’t know that those words had any anti-gay implications, and it surely was not my intention to ever say anything about anyone’s sexual orientation.
I’m glad you told me. It won’t happen again. I will stick to what I consider to be fair criticism of Jared, based on his writings, personal behavior, and support of bad policy.
Puget Sound Parent: in response to your exemplary posting of 3:03 PM, I would expect Congressman Jared Polis to issue an equally exemplary posting apologizing for his inexplicably rude public conduct towards the owner of this blog.
That would be what an honorable person does.
That’s what you did.
Thank you for taking the high road.
🙂
Diane, did you see Bob Somerby’s piece on the latest media hit job on public schools?
You’re mentioned:
“It’s clear that Ripley has done a lot of background work during this transformation. It also seems clear that her work should be regarded with a great deal of skepticism—partly due to her lack of experience, partly due to her apparent dishonesty in service to Elite Corporate Themes and the edicts of Hard Pundit Law.
Consider a part of her book which we’d be inclined to call repellent. It deals with the amazing success Finland has had with its immigrant students.
For the record, Finland doesn’t have many such students. Korea and Poland have so few immigrant kids that the PISA can’t even present any data on immigrant kids in those countries.
That isn’t the case with Finland. Finland has started permitting some immigration in recent years. The country now has enough immigrant students to generate PISA data.
Sure enough! Ripley sets out to tell the world about Finland’s astonishing work in this area. The inspiring story begins on page 158, under the eye-catching headline, “Black people in Finland.”
As she starts unspooling a scam, Ripley presents some basic data. “Kim” is an American exchange student on whom Ripley relies for anecdotes:
RIPLEY (page 158): The more time I spent in Finland, the more I appreciated the rare balance it had struck. Finland had achieved rigor [in its schools] without ruin. It was impossible not to notice something else, too: During my time in Pietarsaari, I saw exactly one black person. In Kim’s classes, everyone looked basically the same. Nationwide, only 3 percent of Finland’s students had immigrant parents (compared to 20 percent of teenagers in the United States).
In the source Ripley cites, the more precise figure for Finland is 2.5 percent.
After several pages of bashing the way American schools treat “black, Hispanic and immigrant kids,” Ripley begins to introduce the paradisical Finnish experience.
“Let them come to Berlin,” John F. Kennedy said. Ripley went to Tiistila:
RIPLEY (page 161): Finland was a homogeneous place, but getting less so. The number of foreigners had increased over 600 percent since 1990, and most of the newcomers had ended up in Helsinki.
To find out how diversity changed the culture of rigor [in Finland’s schools], I went to the Tiistila school, just outside Helsinki, where a third of the kids were immigrants, many of them refugees. The school enrolled children aged six to thirteen. It was surrounded by concrete block apartment buildings that looked more communist than Nordic.
At this remarkable school, Ripley encounters kids from an array of nations. Right on cue, she also encounters an inspiring sixth-grade teacher.
As he offers his saintly remarks, Vuorinen seems to have come right out of central casting. He also seems to have walked straight out of a Standard Elite Pundit Script.
Vuorinen tells Ripley that he doesn’t want to “label” his students. He doesn’t want to focus on their cultural challenges or on their relative poverty.
“He seemed acutely aware of the effects that expectations could have on his teaching,” Ripley admiringly writes, reciting a familiar point right out of the Standard Playbook. At this point, she drops an ugly, unintelligent bomb.
“I’d never heard a U.S. teacher talk this way,” Ripley inexcusably says.
At this point, Ripley launches a minor attack on Diane Ravitch. In Ripley’s view, Ravitch has overstated the effects of poverty on American students. “In Finland, Vuorinen said the opposite of what Ravitch was saying in America,” Ripley rather pointedly says.
The public hanging continues from there as Ripley counts the ways this Finnish school is better than anything here. Averting our gaze from this journo porn, let’s discuss what she has already said.
According to Ripley, Tiistila’s fifth graders had tested above average in math two years before. Indeed, the brilliant little (one-third) immigrant school had outperformed the rest of Finland! Given Finland’s international status, this meant that the school had outperformed almost every place in the world!
The drift of this eight-page passage is perfectly clear. The Finns work miracles with their immigrant kids, unlike their ratty counterparts over here in the States.
Ripley is thrilled by Vuorinen’s sincerity and by his thinning blond hair. Indeed, she’s so thrilled that she forgets to provide the actual data about Finland’s immigrant kids! We refer to the data which aren’t anecdotal—the actual data which actually come from the actual PISA itself.
How well is Finland actually doing with its immigrant kids? According to results on the PISA, the truth is quite different from the impression conveyed by Ripley’s anecdote—and plainly, Ripley knows this. She cites the corresponding data for the United States, France, Germany and Australia in an earlier, scolding passage on page 160. But she never remembers to cite the data for brilliant Finland itself.
In fact, large achievement gaps exist between native-born Finnish students and Finland’s immigrant students. We don’t offer that as a criticism of Finland’s schools, and certainly not of those immigrant children, who face so many challenges. We offer that to suggest that Ripley is conning her readers again in that passage about Tiistila, which is so “inspiring” and so unlike the U.S.”
http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/09/amanda-ripleys-believe-it-by-law-let.html
Why is it that Bob Somerby and Kevin Drum the only two liberals who are taking apart these reform claims outside “ed blog” circles?
Somerby can be very good exposing the phony baloney Rheeform propaganda but sadly he has also been quite unfair and unkind to Diane Ravitch at times.
Back to Finland: Finland has a child poverty rate of less than 5% while the US rate is about 23%. Finland is a solidly middle class country with very low income inequality because they do have universal health care, comprehensive social programs that we can only dream of and free university education.
It seems to me that local public schools have difficulty educating the brightest kids, especially in high school. This is part of the reason that some jurisdictions have magnet schools that skim the brightest out of the traditional zoned school.
It is good to see that Dr. Ravitch disagrees with many of the regular commentators here and sees a role for nontraditional approaches to education in the public school system. Now the discussion can move on to the issue of who decides if a student would be better served by a nontraditional choice school or a traditional zoned school.
“It seems to me that local public schools have difficulty educating the brightest kids, especially in high school.” Really, what do you base that statement on?
In part the experiences of some students at the traditional zoned high school my children have attended, in part the existence of magnet high schools like Thomas Jefferson high school in Fairfax County that have radically different curriculum than the traditional schools (offering, for example, vector calculus and differential equations, sophomore level mathematics courses at the university where I teach) and in part from the reading I have done about gifted education.
His son…most of it is based on his sons, therefore these conditions exist everywhere for ALL children…that’s TE logic for you.
Every year there is at least one student from one high school taking undergraduate classes at my local university. Every three years or so there is a high school student taking graduate classes at my local university. That suggests to me that there are many students capable of doing more advanced classes than is typically available to students in a high school. Many of those students will not have easy access to a college or university or magnet school like Thomas Jefferson.
Anecdotal evidence.
I suppose you could say that, but that kind of evidence is not uncommon here.
I do think that the existence of academic magnet schools with very non-standard curriculums suggests that public school districts like Fairfax County also believe that traditional zoned high schools do not provide an appropriate education for unusually bright and motivated students. Do you think those school districts are incorrect?
Both within every school, and within almost every school district, we offer different types of classes, or different programs of study for students with different academic abilities and challenges.
I’m not an educator, but I tend to not have many issues with this concept. People aren’t all alike, at any age, so why should we expect our children to be.
Magnet schools—not all of which are necessarily designed for the district’s academic elite—can have a lot to offer. They also have a long history and track record. And they are run by people who meet all of the standards of any public school, with none of the viciousness of the Charter/Voucher/Union Hating of your typical privately run school that uses taxpayer dollars.
Innovation in education is good. In some cases it’s very, very good and new subject matter, or processes or curricula can yield truly wonderful outcomes for any individual student.
What a growing number of us are strongly opposed to is Privatization. There is absolutely NOTHING in K-12 education that “can only be done by a private company”—whether classified as “profit” or “non-profit”. That’s just a hoary canard used to justify the lust some private entities have for our property tax dollars.
It’s actually a very crude and awkward tactic: Convince the public that the public schools “stink” and that our “competitiveness” as a country will suffer—even to the point where it constitutes a “National Security Risk” (Gasp!) and then…gradually…over time…with the help of various billionaires and a Propagandistic Documentary…followed by a Propagandistic Feature Film—still coming in at no higher on “Rotten Tomatoes” than “Dude, Where’s My Car?”—and people will forget about how much they like their own neighborhood school and become convinced that “everyone else’s school” is terrible and MUST be reformed.
And then…the Trojan Horse of Charters gets pushed into the gates of the city we all worked so hard to build.
“Conspiracy Theory!” you claim. Really? Well, don’t take my word for it. Ask Rupert Murdoch who publicly admitted he was salivating about the potential to take control of our nation’s education tax dollars, which he just described as “a market waiting to be tapped.”
Sociopathic. No doubt.
Innovation, not Privatization. The former is a necessary part of any human organization. The latter, in this context, is a vile and hideous abomination.
But recent events tend to confirm that the US is weaker than it has been in a hundred years. I attribute that in part to the failure of the public school system to teach American values, and sound academics over the last 20 to 50 years. Since it seems IMPOSSIBLE to send the entire teaching corps to “reeducation camps,” I suspect that those people who still see capitalism as fundamental to this country have decided to take their money and try to privatize the entire American education system as a way to neutralize the power base of the Bolsheviki who run it. What puzzles me is why the Biggest Bolsheviki of them all, the President, is cooperating so assiduously.
Harlan, I seldom respond to your provocative comments. This one is untrue and you know it. Our economy is driven by corporate leaders, not school teachers. Our standing in the world depends on the decisions of our elected leaders, not teachers or children.
I think we are in agreement about the value of magnet programs of all types.
My point, Diane, was that the electorate put the people in position in government, and that they showed very bad judgement in the last two presidential elections, bad judgement arising, in my opinion, from ignorance.
“Now the discussion can move on to the issue of who decides if a student would be better served by a nontraditional choice school or a traditional zoned school.”
Shall we also discuss who shall pay for it and why?
Sure, that seems reasonable.What do you think are the issues of concern?
Issue of concern:
Who do you expect to pay for your son to attend a “non traditional choice school”?
Thomas Jefferson high school is paid for by the taxpayers of Virginia and a private effort called the Jefferson Partnership Fund. That seems like a good place to start. Do you object to this funding model?
I have no son attending a nontraditional choice school nor any prospects of a son doing that in the future. This is not of personal interest to me but more a question of public policy.
How’s the football team at TJ High, btw?
I have no idea how good their football team is, or if they even have one. My college has dropped their football program and I doubt it is missed. The same is probably true for TJ high school. Perhaps there are some teachers from TJ that read the blog and can comment.
“Now the discussion can move on to the issue of who decides if a student would be better served by a nontraditional choice school or a traditional zoned school.”
Oh, please. Do you think we haven’t seen this tactic before? (I first noticed it when I was a kid, as a fast-talking used car salesman tried to convince my parents that “Since you just agreed with me that THIS is the best place to buy your next car, our discussion can move on to the issue of which model and financing plan will best meet your needs…so, just come along with me back to the office and I’ll begin the preparations, working with our main lender…”
My dad told the guy to stop twisting his words for his own self gain. And then he told my mom and the kids that “It’s time to go” and we walked out.
If you want to engage in a real dialogue TE, as opposed to the lurking and snarking and trolling you appear to have unlimited time for on this site—actually makes me wonder who might be paying you for this—then most of us would welcome that.
But now you’re resorting to taking Diane Ravitch’s words out of context and attempting to convince everyone that “she agrees with education reform now.”
Nice try. It’s not true. And, it won’t work. We’re big boys and girls here. Now run along and see if you can peddle it to the next house. We’re not one of your “prospects.”
My post was based on this statement in the original post by Dr. Ravitch:
“He would discover that I support charter schools that enroll the kids who didn’t make it in public schools. They should exist to do what the public schools can’t do.”
I don’t think I am misinterpreting Dr. Ravitch’s statement or taking it out of context, but we need not speculate about what Dr. Ravitch meant by the statement if she decides to add a comment elaborating on the statement in the original post.
PSP,
It appears that we do need to speculate about exactly what Dr. Ravitch meant when should wrote about the areas where she supports charter schools. I take it you disagree with my understanding of Dr. Ravitch’s opinion. What do you think her opinion to be?
TE:
I was a high school gifted teacher in three high schools. The kids had IEPs and it was not hard to find things to keep them challenged with the local Universities, activities I set up with other gifted kids from other districts etc.
remember high school is also about football games, clubs, prom, meeting boys (girls), learning how to be social. That is part of it. It is painful to watch academically minded kids who do not know how to talk to people in a social context.
I never sensed that the gifted kids I taught wanted to go somewhere else or were “trapped” by their zoned schools. They were happy, well balanced kids who went off to Ivy League schools.
Functioning in a social context is important. Bullying is not acceptable, but knowing how to avoid a bar brawl as a kid gets older comes from hanging out with peers who have different strengths.
Everyone has to chat up a bar tender at some point. Those skills start in high school.
The world is not a secluded place of like minded folks gathering. Or if it is I can’t think of anything worse. Variety of society, yo. Kids need that. It will not hold back the genuinely motivated or academically gifted.
I certainly agree that gifted students with access to university undergraduate and graduate classes do fairly well. Do you think that is the majority of students? As for football games, you might want to read an article in the latest Atlantic about sports (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-sports/309447/). At my local high school the district spent a million renovating the two high school football stadiums in the same year that the drama program budget was cut to $0.
“At my local high school the district spent a million renovating the two high school football stadiums in the same year that the drama program budget was cut to $0.”
It does make you wonder.
I’m surprised you haven’t discussed the Washington Post article where Bill Gates acknowledges he doesn’t know if his “grand experiment in education” will work. Maybe i missed it?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/27/bill-gates-it-would-be-great-if-our-education-stuff-worked-but/
You missed it.
The only entity in the discussion about school choice that has no choice is the traditional public school. They have to take every student in a defined geographical area and try to meet each student’s individual needs. My problem is with the continuing comparison of these (apples to oranges) schools to charters that do not have to meet the needs of all children. I tried to make this point, several months back, in a post about the highly performing, accelerated- curriculum BASIS schools in Arizona. A few BASIS parents followed up with comments along this line: “Don’t take away my kid’s challenging school. If other kids can’t cut it, let them go back to public school.” I felt their comments made my point. As an Economics teacher, TE, I’m sure you are familiar with many ways statistics can be distorted, especially averages. Think of the old joke about Bill Gates walking into a bar with 100 unemployed people and what that does to the “average” income of everyone in the bar. If you truly want to have a discussion about what serves students, then you should acknowledge that ED Deformers always ignore this. Bob Somersby does a great job with this. You should read some of the things he’s written about Michele Rhee and her contortions with numbers.
I don’t see school comparisons as the main issue in this thread, rather it is the ability of traditional public schools to educate students who fall outside of the mainstream of students. Courts and legislatures have ordered schools to provide appropriate education to some out of the mainstream, but others are without court protection.
In my mind the interesting question is if the education of the brightest and most motivated students is to be used as a means to give the less bright and/or less motivated students a better education or educating bright and motivated students should be viewed as an end in itself. If it is the former, bright and motivated students should be restricted to traditional zoned schools in the hope that there will be a positive impact on other students, if it is the latter bright and motivated students should be allowed to band together and enhance each other’s education.
Actually, there are many who have no choice. Stakeholders such as parents and teachers do not have a seat at the table or even a view through the window when the choices that will be made available are being decided upon. They are excluded from the process at the front end since as the deformers know, the choices most likely to be made by informed and educated stakeholders will not correspond to the profit and ideological goals of the deformers. We have already seen this take place, parents saying they want their regular schools to get the support and resources they need before any other thing is tried.
Charter schools are also required to meet the learning needs of every student. Some charter school, just like some neighborhood schools, have a lower special-ed rate. Other charter schools specialize in particular special-ed needs and have a higher rate than the district. But they are required to meet the learning needs of every kid. In Colorado, it’s fairly common for charter schools to contract with the school district to help provide special ed services.
But that isn’t how ed reform was sold to the public. We were sold “great schools!” and “excellence in education!” Understandably, then, many public school parents are now asking “how has reform benefitted public schools?”
It’s a fair question.
If the charter school isn’t doing a better job are we now down to “choice” as the one and only reason to set up a separate system?
It’s fine if we are, but recognize that isn’t what was sold to us by Democrats. Remember? “Great schools!” “Agnostic on whether those schools are public, charter or private”.
Can you continue to claim you’re “agnostic” if you’re promoting private and charter schools that DON’T do any better than public schools? What is the rationale for reform? Has it changed to “choice!” for the sake of choice? That wasn’t what was sold to the public.
At this point can you honestly claim that reform is benefitting ANY of these schools, public, charter OR private? It certainly hasn’t benefitted my local public school, but my assumption was it was benefitting some school, somewhere, and my district was just the big loser under reform.
Actually the public schools must provide services for the charters even though the charter keeps the per pupil expenditure. Many charters have ways to force out the struggling learners, the poor test takers, the non compliant – the ones that don’t chant, slant and finger snap on command. If they leave, the charter keeps the money. The $$ doesn’t follow the kid back to his pubic school. We know the tricks…keep calling the parent at work, inconvenience them and hopefully they will take the kid out. Inform the parent your child will need to repeat the year, but if you leave we will give you credit for the full school year and you can advance to the next grade in your local public school. Read the charter chapters, Jared…catch up. Funny you’re worried about enemies when you call historians evil…Pot calling kettle.
In Ohio and Pennsylvania there’s a growing call to re-regulate charter schools.
Did ed reformers deregulate recklessly? What was the thinking? Was it not that “markets” would take care of poorly-performing charter schools? Has that happened? It isn’t happening in Ohio. Parents continue to choose even poorly performing charter schools. We now have two separate systems in urban areas, and one does not out-perform the other. What is the point of having two separate systems? Simply “choice” for the sake of choice? Was “choice for the sake of choice” what was sold to the public? Weren’t we sold “great schools!”
Did market theory fail on charter schools, and if it did, should we re-regulate charter schools? Why are states finding it so difficult to regulate these schools? Has there been capture of state legislatures by for-profit management companies? Did reformers anticipate this capture might occur, or is it a surprise?
Well said. What IS the point of two separate systems? And what do we give up when we choose not to have a single public system?
Garrison Keillor once wrote something along these lines: Public school is the place you go to find out about people who are not like you. We live in a pluralistic democracy, and our schools can best prepare students if they, too, are pluralistic, rather than little enclaves that serve only this or that type of student.
My response to TE’s concern would be this: The traditional comprehensive high school may in fact be the best place for students who have unusual academic needs. A large school can provide an array of classes, course sequences, and services, from which students can choose the opportunities that suit them best. A large school will reliably have enough gifted students to make it worthwhile to set up a dual-credit program with a nearby college or university. More and more public high schools are offering an International Baccalaureate curriculum for their most motivated students, giving kids the opportunity to stretch themselves in classes like “Theories of Knowledge.” A large public high school will have enough students to offer intellectually challenging extracurriculars in languages, math, engineering, and design. Most of all, the public high school provides gifted students the benefit, which should interest them, of knowing more about the world and the people in it. This is knowledge that is well worth having, whatever path students may take later in life.
Gloria,
Here is the math curriculum at Thomas Jefferson High in Fairfax County, an academic public magnet with very high admission standards:
Advanced Geometry with Discrete Mathematics
Advanced Algebra 2 with Trigonometry and Data Analysis
Advanced Precalculus
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
Advanced Topics in Calculus (both semesters)
Multivariable Calculus (fall)
Complex Variables (odd years, fall)
Numerical Analysis (even years, fall)
Advanced Mathematical Techniques (spring)
Linear Algebra (spring)
Differential Equations (spring)
AP Statistics
Mathematics of Finance (both semesters)
Even large traditional comprehensive high schools will not have this curriculum available to their students. In any case, most of the high schools in my state are not large: the median size high school has fewer than 250 students. The best hope for those students will access to advanced class material over the internet.
Chiara & Linda: not only is the “non-answer” the new “answer,” “non-reading” is the new “reading.”
If this is indeed Congressman Jared Polis responding and posting on this blog [and not a lowly aide on loan from Michelle Rhee’s bloated staff assigned the thankless job of defending his public persona], then he has developed the ability to skim superficially and quickly but not to reflect deeply and accurately.
Am I being unfair? Look at his remarks above re Chapter 13 in REIGN OF ERROR: “I dub thee honorary reformer! If the goals you mention could be accomplished in a better manner than SB 191 I think the effort would have broad support from the education reform community.”
He has suffered a KO in the first minute of the first round. Lying on the canvas, bleeding uncontrollably from deep gashes on his face and eyes already swollen shut, he is bitterly complaining that the referee, the ring doctor, and other concerned folks are unfairly taking him out of the fight. All this while they are trying to keep him still so he can loaded onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital for an MRI to determine if he has suffered undue permanent damage to his brain.
On a lighter note [?]: is there anyone else out there that would have the patience and decency Diane has shown to have a meal with an sneering multimillionaire [poor fella! not a billionaire! cry me a river!] to decode a few sentences in her book?
Not me.
Most Krazy props to KrazyHistoryLady.
Even if she is, er, shrill and strident.
🙂
There is no one particular model of teacher evaluation that reformers hold out as perfect. There are multiple ways to reach the goals enumerated by Dr. Ravitch, and most reformers are excited to have that discussion.
Define “reformers”.
“and not a lowly aide on loan from Michelle Rhee’s bloated staff assigned the thankless job of defending his public persona”
All 73 aides that Michelle Rhee loaned me are so busy I had to post it myself
Congressional offices are smaller than people think We have 15-20 people (currently 17 for us) and a few interns. We have one policy person who does Education and she is paid by the US Government, not Michelle Rhee.
Jared
Please, Jared, I have no staff at all. Not a secretary or an assistant.
dianerav: reading this thread reminds me that blind adherence to updated but failed Marxist dogma is never a good idea—
“A staff of 15 or 20 would understand REIGN OF ERROR. Send someone to find a staff of 15 or 20.” [paraphrase of Marx]
Yes, yes, yes…
Groucho
🙂
[P.S. Original: “A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” Although strangely, this bit of foundational Marxian thought might fit this thread as well…]
Jared – as a CO voter, taxpayer, parent, and teacher I would like to thank you for considering the ideas Diane puts forth in her book. At the end of my teaching career I worked with many literacy teachers (including Spec. Ed.) across many schools and found that, in the name of accountability, the amount and kind of testing was alarming. The most vulnerable children (like those in your schools) were tested the most. This cut down on instructional time for these children but the more alarming trend I saw was that the non-classroom teachers hired to provide additional instruction for these children were used by the school to give tests and this resulted in even less instruction for the vulnerable children! It would be like a farmer who has planted a field of carrots being told that he needed to pull each carrot up once a week to see if it was growing. The farmer’s carrots would start dying because he’s not only yanking them up all the time, he’s so busy yanking them up he doesn’t have time to fertilize them (with organic fertilizer of course). When the agriculture overseer arrived she’d note that the farmer’s carrots were too dead and would order the farmer to increase the frequency of his carrot test (pulling out the carrots) and change fertilizers. The farmer would try to explain that his experience with this breed of carrot would suggest that what the young carrots needed was more time to absorb the good, organic fertilizer and take root but the overseer wouldn’t buy that argument (after all she had a 20 page rubric on carrot growing she used). She would tell the farmer that her assessment showed that the farmer was a bad farmer who was unable to grow good carrots. A new, young, inexperienced but promising farmer would be brought in to take over the carrot field. This new farmer would pull the carrots up more often and try out new fertilizers. Unfortunately for the carrots, they never took root or grew in time to pass the test.
Colorado Teacher: your comments are a real treat.
No disrespect to anyone who posts on this blog, but the truly memorable postings are infrequent.
“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” [Aristotle]
Thank you for sharing your understanding with us and providing one of those infrequent treats.
🙂
Thank you for being an educator, and for sharing your thoughts.
Testing has always been around and is nothing new, but it does feel to many educators like there are more tests these days. Whether that is true or not depends on what each district was doing ten or twenty years ago, some had extensive testing some had very little.
It is true that time spent in testing takes away time from classroom instruction. I am hopeful that adaptive testing will help provide better information to teachers about where a student is in a shorter period of time.
“Charter schools are also required to meet the learning needs of every student.”
That may be the law, but many charters have found ways to circumvent it. The BASIS schools are a perfect example. They advertise themselves as accelerated. Students enrolling know they will be expected to do at least 3 hours of homework a night and take 9 AP classes in their HS years. Parents know they will be expected to provide transportation and lunch. This alone narrows the population served to those who are willing and able to do so. Then, when students fail, for whatever reason, they are “counseled” that perhaps the school isn’t a good fit for them and they should find another school. And, for the most part, the zoned public school has to take them back. This has been discussed here and I have read comments about such practices in school districts from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. The New Orleans mess is the biggest example of this now. And, as a personal anecdote, I discussed this with the women who took my job when I retired. She noted that this was increasingly happening. My old, zoned school kept getting the drop-outs from the local, accelerated charter. And it’s funny how it always happens after the student count day (when money is allocated by enrollment), but before the State tests. I think is admirable the schools you started work to meets the needs of ELL’s. I just read something here, Congressman Polis, that you don’t evaluate teachers by their students’ scores. Why do you advocate that for traditional schools? As I wrote before, traditional schools must meet the needs of every kid who walks in the door, no matter how wide ranging those needs are.
It would be helpful if Polis acknowledged the truth about what you’re saying, rather than continuing the Pollyanna act.
“I don’t see school comparisons as the main issue in this thread, rather it is the ability of traditional public schools to educate students who fall outside of the mainstream of students.” This might not be the main issue in this thread, TE, but it is happening throughout this country. It is the principal cry of Ed Deformers. One local example was a man who had been the CEO at Intel (I think). He was also on the board for BASIS and an on-line charter, and he had position in the State Government. (Sorry for the lack of specifics. Don’t want spend time look for the reference) He wrote an editorial in the Arizona Republic decrying the poor state of public schools and asking why they all couldn’t be doing the great job that the BASIS schools do. Funny, he didn’t use the on-line charter in his editorial.
oops- principle not principal (I’ve had principals who fit the description “the prince who is my pal”)This principle of comparing zoned schools to niche-market charters is neither principled nor princely.
I keep catching my typing mistakes after I post. I wish this had an edit function. I also wish I could share my thoughts as eloquently as Linda. I learn as much from commenters on this blog, sometimes, as I do from Dr. Ravitch.
Tenure guarantees due process so that a teacher is not unfairly railroaded out of his/her job. I am sick and tired of the attacks on tenure, it doesn’t guarantee lifetime employment if the principals and administrators are doing their jobs properly. Last in first out or LIFO (meaning the younger teachers with the least amount of years would be let go first when they are getting rid of teachers for budgetary reasons) is the fairest way to handle the reduction in force of teachers. Of course the reformers want to get rid of tenure, LIFO and seniority so they can expel, trash or fire the older more expensive teachers no matter how great they are. They might keep one or two token older teachers to prove that they are not engaging in ageism.
Don’t know if anyone covered this above, but in reading some comments from/in? local media in Boulder, on person familiar with Polis’s schools says that the turnover among teachers in them is atrocious, and that would definitely be a major contributing factor to their low test scores.
Maybe these charter schools want a high turnover of the teachers so they can keep the wages low; newer more inexperienced teachers are easier to manipulate and push around and are willing to accept more hardship since they don’t have that many years invested in their careers.
Off topic to Jared Polis- I learned in a comment on another blog that your mother is the poet, Susan Polis Schutz. I’m volunteering in a wonderful charity thrift shop with a great book collection. I’m in charge of pricing the poetry books and often get donations of some of her books. I love her poems, but I doubt the writers of the CCSS would think they showed adequate “rigor”. I know from a career working as a children’s librarian that kids love poetry. They love the word play, the puns, the rhythm & rhyme. Rhyming is a great tool for memory, hence helpful as a predicting strategy for beginning readers. I have a relative who volunteers as an adult literacy coach for ELLs. She told me of her frustration in finding appropriate materials at their level. She was told she wasn’t supposed to use children’s books. But, she said, the best book she found to work with a Japanese lady was Sharon Creech’s LOVE THAT DOG. It’s a free verse poem with simpler vocabulary (It won the Newberry Award). Too bad, with CCSS, students will be introduced to even less poetry with the push for more non-fiction.
http://web.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/bisbee%26books%20110.JPG?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=221841&part=2
Not what you mean about the rigor of mom’s poetry, but my mother is a far better poet than me. Here’s my latest composition:
What a Sham
I do not like Ted Cruz reading Green Eggs and Ham
I do not like it, patriot I am.
I do not like him reading it when government is in a jam
I do not like his fake filibuster scam,
I do not like it when we’re recovering from a flood,
I do not like it when we need help clearing mud,
I do not like it when Obamacare repeal he tries to ram
or says to breast-cancer survivors “Sorry ma’am”
“I will not insure you in a boat,”
“I will not insure you across a moat,”
“I will not insure your child with asthma”
“I will not insure your disorder of plasma”
“No I will not ensure you or your fam,”
“I will not insure them, Ted Cruz I am”
No, I do not like Ted Cruz reading Green Eggs and Ham
And shutting down government without giving a damn,
No I do not like it, I do not like it,
I do not like it, patriot I am.
by Jared Polis
I like your poem ! And kids like piggy-back poems and songs too. The structure of the original can give them confidence to try things. Of course, you need prior knowledge of the original to make it work. Giving students prior knowledge is also something controversial in some of the CCSS teaching methods. The teacher is suppose to get students to practice “close reading” and make their arguments or summaries only from what is in the text. I think one thing that would be a great help with this is the use of books like ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN by Donald Sobol. But that’s more children’s fiction and we “have” to use more nonfiction. Thank you for engaging with this community. I would like more dialog and discussion, but it’s hard to do when reading reformers in the MSM make generalizations about traditional public schools. Arizona has many charter schools, good and bad. My argument earlier is that we can’t compare them directly because they often have different missions and serve different populations.
Another correction. I should have noted she was the editor/compiler, not the author of all the works.
Sorry, I was unable to copy a link from an email attachment (a picture of some of Susan Polis Schutz’s books) Dang that Microsoft Windows, I always seem to go in circles. Perhaps someone can tell me how. It’s why I’m glad I could retire, I know books better than computers.
Congressman Polis,
I’m glad to see you tempering your comments. You need to do more of that and think before you write.
You’ve shown some evidence of thoughtfulness (but not enough) since your initial “evil” outburst that started this particular outpouring of anti-Polis invective.
Now, I hope you will really start to think–deeply and reflectively–about your education positions, because what I see you expressing is internally inconsistent. To some extent, you’re still quoting “soundbite” types of information–for example, AFT supported SB-191 in Colorado–then you talk about how test scores are not good measures of teacher evaluation. You and I both know that there was exactly one AFT school district in the state–Douglas County–that suppported SB-191 and their extremely right wing school board has abolished its contract with them, so that’s not good evidence to support SB-191 and you know it. The rest of the state’s teachers belong to NEA, which adamantly opposed it, for all the reasons you’ve read on these posts and that you yourself now admit. Today, all the teachers in the state are stuck with this terrible legislation that we’re trying to implement in some meaningful way, instead of the harsh, punishing way in which it seems to have been intended, all because it was directed as a Race to the Top policy which you still say you support.
Allow yourself to stop, think, and reflect.
The polarization on issues that we’re seeing now (which could lead to a government shutdown in a few days) is clear in these heated exchanges. We all need to be more civil toward each other and listen, without coming into situations with our minds already made up. When we disagree with other people, that doesn’t make them evil. Calling anybody evil for his or opinion (especially on education policies; we’re not talking about genocide here) stops any kind of civil discourse in its tracks.
Be civil. Listen. Think. Reflect. Furthermore, apologize. You’re being petulant about this, and it’s getting you nowhere. You’ve made some moves in the right direction. Keep moving.
Leigh Campbell-Hale: another restrained yet deeply thoughtful and constructive posting on this thread.
Thank you.
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” [Voltaire]
🙂
“I am hopeful that adaptive testing will help provide better information to teachers about where a student is in a shorter period of time.”
I worked with special ed adolescents living in a low socioeconomic community with a large minority population. Watching them take these adaptive computer assessments was painful. They became more and more frustrated as they went on and on whether they did poorly or relatively well. Moreover, they gave me little information I didn’t already know and were especially damaging to those kids struggling to learn English when they were not even literate in their first language. Here I was teaching students who were typically no less than five years behind and who were typically dealing with multiple issues that affected their learning. What was the administrative focus? The attainment of grade level test scores.
They are all delusional fools, especially Arne…he’s preaching about existing in a bubble?
Sent: 9/30/2013 2:08:09 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Duncan chastises the Washington ‘alternate universe’
9/30/13 2:07 PM EDT
Education Secretary Arne Duncan railed against Congress and Washington today, labeling some of the thinking inside the beltway an “alternate universe,” a “bubble” and a place where too many vapid arguments happen in “140 characters or less” on Twitter.
In the “real world” outside Washington, educators aren’t questioning the need for meaningful testing or tying student growth to teacher evaluations, he said during a speech at the National Press Club. The notion that the Common Core standards amount to a federal takeover is the “height of silliness,” and educators across the country are moving forward with reform without waiting for congressional action on a reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, he said.
“Right now, our country faces stark choices,” he said. Congress can continue to play politics with the budget and the debt ceiling or figure out a way to fund the government and education. He stressed that he literally can’t do anything to mitigate the effects of the sequester and that the Education Department will work to assuage student fears over the effects of a government shutdown, but Congress must act to move away from recurring budget crises.
Duncan indicated confidence that Congress would work it out soon, possibly before the government is set to shut down at midnight.
“We have until midnight to solve this, and one thing I’ve learned in Washington is when there’s a will, there’s a way.”
I never write on these blogs but I have to chime in here and defend a caring, generous and integral member of our community, Rep. Jared Polis. For all of you who feel it’s completely ok to guess at his overall character based on the fact that he is wealthy–shame on you. Jared is not concerned with “leading a cushy personal lifestyle.” He works hard every day to represent the people who live in his district, and he does it with thoughtfulness, and yes-dare I say it-humility. He is a kind person who listens to all people’s opinions, even if he disagrees with them. He is a philanthropist who has donated so much support to public education throughout the state of Colorado. Ask some of our local public school teachers if they believe Jared cares about them and supports their hard working efforts, and the resounding response will be, Yes! Before you judge him haphazardly please research his many good deeds in Colorado: from founding New America School, an alternative high school for English language learners, to founding the Academy of Urban Learning, an alternative high school in Denver that supports youth struggling with unstable living conditions, homelessness and many other at-risk factors, to a foundation that supports schools and teachers throughout the state of Colorado, to philanthropy and direct giving supporting education, the environment, health and diverse communities throughout Colorado. Focus on the issue at hand and make your points, don’t personally attack someone you don’t even know.
Concerned Coloradan, thanks for taking the time to write in praise of Congressman Jared Polis. Did you know that he began this exchange by referring to me on Twitter as an “evil woman”? I did not provoke his outburst by any statement about him. He has not apologized. Before you lecture the readers of this blog about making “personal attacks,” why don’t you contact Congressman Polis and tell him not to make personal attacks? Then suggest he apologize. That would be a good start, and would demonstrate that he has good manners.
Diane Ravitch