Reposting because I forgot the link.
Joe Bower teaches in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. He blogs
and tweets about education with a singular passion for students and
learning. In this post, he makes some strong statements about
“Reign of Error.” He calls it “The best book on education you can
read today.” He writes: “This book was written to challenge those
who believe in the corporate reform movement. This book was written
for those who are aware of the ills of the corporate reform
movement but need more facts to articulate a sound argument. This
book was written for those who suffer from apathy and cynicism.
This book provides the energy and encouragement we need to provide
schools that all of our children deserve. “The only thing necessary
for destructive mandates and cancerous education policies to
succeed is for good teachers, parents and students to say and do
nothing. When far-off authorities invoke their ignorance with the
force of law, remember that your silence is read as assent — and
at some point your silence is betrayal to those who do speak up and
take action. “It is said that Franklin D. Roosevelt once met with a
group of activists who sought his support for legislation. He
listened to their arguments for some time and then said, “You’ve
convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.” The spirit of
Roosevelt’s advice is likely what inspired Robert Reich to say,
“Nothing good happens in Washington unless good people outside
Washington become mobilized, organized, and energized to make it
happen.” “Like democracy, public education is reserved for those
who fight for it, and Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error is the rally
cry we can use to mobilize, organize and energize the fight for our
public schools.”
“When far-off authorities invoke their ignorance with the
force of law, remember that your silence is read as assent — and
at some point your silence is betrayal to those who do speak up and
take action.”
Well, that was me; asleep and disengaged. Thank you Dianne for informing me about education today. I’m a mother and grandmother that believes public education is critical to our future as a nation, and is everyone’s birthright. I had no idea it was in jeopardy. Consider me another foot soldier in your service.
Diane, this isn’t about Joe’s review, but can you help us here in Massachusetts?
When my district began our training teachers on the new RttT integrated information system last week, we saw that we are all actually logging onto a site run by a private contractor called thinkgate.
http://thinkgate.net/about-us/partners/
I’m already in the site, and so are all my students. Teachers of all grades are being ordered to create and upload four dummy classroom assessment points this year. My students are supposed to submit their responses directly to the vendor’s site, on their iPads. The dashboard also displays a feature which will collect and upload “district assessments”.
The site promises to centralize data-driven decisions for individual students, and I found it shocking to see my students’ names already listed there.
I questioned out loud whether it is educationally sound to demand that daily decisions about each child’s learning had to be data-driven through the interface with this program, as was being demanded. I asked where the data was going, and for how long, and who would see it, and whether ill-conceived data-driven decisions on emerging English students or special ed might compromise a student’s future educational opportunities, and whether parents were being informed. I am very brave, but even I feel a little sick from being so exposed to retaliation.
I’m even more concerned now, after a few days’ research. Parents have no idea this is underway, and have no way to opt their child out of the system. Confidential student academic and discipline records are being used in “complex” statistical calculations that flag individual students, without parental consent. The Massachusetts DOE site recommends not informing parents that the system has labeled their child at “high risk” for low performance on an upcoming high stakes exam, for instance.
I sent you an email with a few more links. Can you put something up about the iis rolloouts across the country, to alert people in different states to these operators?