This anonymous teacher liked Maya Angelou’s criticism of Race to the Top.
She wrote:
“She states, “Race To The Top feels to be more like a contest… not what did you learn, but how much can you memorize.” “Writers are really interested in forming young men and women,” she said. “… ‘This is your world.’ ‘ This is your country.’ ‘ This is your time.’ And so I don’t think you can get that by racing to the top.”
Yes and more…Race To The Top is segregating schools. It is designed to fail and it is destroying public schools, the teaching profession and the hearts and souls of our public school teachers. NCLB set benchmarks that ensure that every school will eventually fail systematically underfunded the most needy schools. RttT is throwing wrenches into working school systems with high stakes testing, SGOs and teacher evaluation systems that are designed to find failure.
In NJ the State requires that teachers receive 3-4 observations/year. That may not sound bad – but this is what it looks like in our school district – each administrator has to perform 65 observations, which include a pre and post conference. There are 180 days in our school year. Do the math. This does not include APR reports that range from 10-20 pages per employee. Administrators are shut behind closed doors, taking days off of work to write reports – they are not running schools. Teachers are not being trained in the new requirements and then being held accountable for the results of them. It is feels like a perpetual train wreck in action. And for what? New Jersey Public Schools rank #2-3 in the nation. We are not failure factories…but may soon be.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is such an important piece “anonymous” teacher because it reveals the importance of TEACHERS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATORS being on the same page in fighting “corporate ed reform”. RTTT and NCLB have gained traction due to divide and conquer strategies pitting principals against teachers and even teachers against teachers (and I have not even addressed unions here). We are fighting the same battle – control of our professions! A principal, rather than being stuck in office with door shut completing a sea of unending reports, should be going into classrooms interacting with students and teachers in informative non punitive ways. A principal with years and years of teaching experience should be welcome to come into a classroom and offer advice or to interact with students. But a principal who has a business degree, maybe one or two years of teaching at best who is mandated to create observations in which they are not actually allowed “input” but must do a series of “check-offs” from a rigid rubrik should be barred from a classroom (“objective” observations under “corporate ed reform” FFT model). Thanks for painting an accurate picture of a “day in the life” of a principal!
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We need to stop this! How do we collectively do it?
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I’m with you, MDG. How do we do it?
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Have you joined “BATs” are you involved with “parents against standardized testing” are you informing friends and colleagues as to what is going on?
Get involved and make some noise!!!
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@MDG and concerned parent.. somehow society at large has to understand what is going on. Be patient. This is starting to happen as there are more and more blogs, books being written and more people without jobs, paying higher taxes and whose children are languishing without jobs at the start of adulthood. There is literally no difference anymore between politics and big business and people are starting to wake up. I just watched Bill Moyer who interviewed yet another author starting to address this and we all must collectively spread the word that govt is supposed to be for and by the people and not FOR AND BY BIG BUSINESS. A new book out is called “Dollarocracy” The author conversation with Moyers was stunningly on point. Rober Reich is an economic heavy-weight who is talking about this at every turn. Hopefully there is power in numbers… the 99 percent is a lot larger than the 1 percent. We in the public education arena see very clear how big business has co-opted politics upsetting the checks and balances of democracy and how this has played out in education. So we can start by spreading the word about this at every opportunity. WE ALSO HAVE TO ENSURE THAT IN FUTURE ELECTIONS there are candidates who represent the 99 percent. We are already starting to see that people are fed up enough that even all the 1 percent money spent to back pro corporate agenda politicians is not working – thinking of the most recent – De Blasio.
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In my wife’s district in NJ, they simply hired more administrators to handle the increased number of observations. This included adding the Department Chairs in Math and Language Arts by splitting them K-5 and 6-12. (Not surprisingly, these are the two disciplines most pressured by Common Core and the incoming PARRC testing).
So there’s your tax dollars at work: high-priced administrators paid to complete state-mandated paperwork.
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Sullify64: less money for instruction, more money for testing and consultants.
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Tragic. Sad. What are these people doing? We have to grain the upper hand on this through what we do best as teachers. We love learning, have to learn their game and their motives, and share these in skillful ways with all.
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Well, Arne Duncan has a response for her. He was asked what reform got wrong. In a response that is perfectly in keeping with his whole approach to management, he could not identify a single thing HE did wrong, but offers this management-speak jumble of words as a critique of NCLB:
“Duncan: A huge thing: No Child Left Behind was very well-intentioned. It did lots of things to spotlight the achievement gap. What it didn’t get was the need for high standards. What actually happened, which is really, really insidious, is that you had almost 20 states, in reaction to the law, dummy-down their standards and lower their standards.
The worst thing that I think can happen to kids and families, and particularly disadvantaged communities, is that people expect less of them, to make politicians look good. What I think the reform movement got wrong fundamentally is it was very loose on goals but very tight on how to get there.
I just fundamentally believe in a different theory of change. I believe in being tight on goals – having a very high bar – and loose on how to get there. We should give people a lot more room and flexibility to create and to be innovative.
I think that the reform movement got that wrong in a big way. Not from lack of good intent. And I think that was big. It hurt the country in a way that we’re working hard to correct.”
Got that? Duncan made absolutely no mistakes with RttT, and he believes in “tight goals and loose on how to get there”. That’s the single difference btwn Bush and Obama: ridiculous, vague management-speak.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/a-report-card-on-education-reform/
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“dummy-down”
Dummy is as dummy Dunk does! (Apologies to Forrest)
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What actually happened, which is really, really insidious, is that you had almost 20 states, in reaction to the law, dummy-down their standards and lower their standards.
And here’s why. The AYP provision of the NCLB law required ALL students in grades 3 to 8 to be proficient in math and ELA by 2014. This included almost all IEP and ESL students. If Title 1 schools did not meet AYP they were punished under the law. They were stigmatized with SINI status and required to complete endless improvement plans.
Its as if you are told that you will be in big trouble if you don’t pass a math test – and oh by the way – you get to write the test!
So after 10+ years of NCLB, millions of students across the country could not meet these “dummied-down” standards. Arnie’s solution, much tougher standards.
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I believe in being tight on goals – having a very high bar – and loose on how to get there. We should give people a lot more room and flexibility to create and to be innovative.
This is the same line of crap spouted by John King. Ask any math or ELA teacher in NY whose administration or TIP plan requires the use of Enrage NY teaching modules how much “more room and flexibility to create and to be innovative” they have.
Its utter non-sense when test scores are directly linked to teacher evaluation. Threatening careers kinda takes the fun and the flexibility and the innovation out of the mix.
Arnie Duncan is a horse’s ass.
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No, NY Teacher. You’ve got it all wrong.
Arne Duncan is the material and substance spouting forth from the horse’s ass. Let’s not confuse the two.
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I envisioned “the material and substance spouting forth from the horses ass” to be Arnie’s words and ideas. I think I like your version better.
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I want to add that RttT did not segregate NJ public schools. Unfortunately, these schools were segregated long before some people realized and long before RttT. The people in the urban districts knew this long before this “revelation”. Many weren’t listening to them. It’s important that we not forget this narrative. Let’s also be honest with ourselves that this system was not designed for all people. We’ve placed bandaids on bullet wounds for those in the poorer communities and we forget about them…at least until now. I want to challenge this teacher to consider what education has been doing to communities of color and the poor…and think about what needs to change. I also want to challenge the assumption that public schools are serving everyone well. We tend to say because the wealthier districts perform so well, then that means we are all doing well. That’s a false narrative. If we take that stance, we ignore…and continue to marginalize the people who are not doing well.
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I am in the classroom teaching students every day. I work 60-80 hours a week. I teach the curriculum I’m required to teach even though I’m not provided all of the resources for the curriculum. I’ve spent thousands of my personal income purchasing crayons, markers, books, pencils, cleaning products, hand sanitizer for my students and classroom. I work in a classroom that is not air conditioned or regulated properly for heat. In spite of this – everyone of my students have made grade level benchmarks every year. I serve a diverse population with every ounce of my being. I agree with you that public schools aren’t serving everyone well. Challenge yourself to become educated as to why – read Reign of Error.
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So many evaluations per year sends the message that the administration doesn’t trust what is going on in the classroom. For experienced teachers, once a year formal evaluation should be sufficient. There should be agreed upon goals for the lesson, and a pre and post conference. And a vice-principal to help out, and extra personnel to cover classes so the principal can meet with the teacher. Oh. That’ll cost money. Forget it.
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I just got a look at Teachscspe.com–the evaluation CORPORATION my NJ district is paying into that has the following quote on its “About Us” page:
“Make every teacher highly effective so that every student can learn.”
So by requiring districts to hire more administrators/tech coordinators AND purchase a corporate evaluation instrument, reformers have forced the public to fund evaluations and not the staff and services that students need. Meanwhile there is a cry of poverty as the excuse for under-funding districts.
When are the people going to wake up and protest this nonsense?
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Did any of this come up at the NJEA concention last week—I had to stay with my own three kids during the days off, so I didn’t get to meet C. Danielson (the author of some of our misery) and ask her how she sleeps at night. Yes, I know, “on a big pile of cash.” Nor did I get to attend workshops on how to stop worrying and love the common core.
Were the destructive ideas and (individuals) challenged? Whose convention was it, the Union’s or DOE’s? I know it wasn’t the “teachers’ convention.”
Should NJ teachers invoke the Great Soul when we are asked about the “teacher’s union”: “I think it would be a great idea.”
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I could not attend…been sick. I will ask my colleauges who went when I see them. Apparently Cerf was there, too.
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eh, “convention”
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There’s no question that administrators got slammed. I guess the politicians thought they were just figure heads sitting in offices twiddling their thumbs. So true that the additional paperwork has changed the total nature of their jobs. This leaves the teachers rudderless.
Ultimately, both teachers and students are being treated like puppets instead of human beings. Our questions should be about the dubious motivation of the people moving the strings. Many of us already know the answers.
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Seems the Obama camp has two programs that nobody looked at or tested before implementing them. School reform and health care. Both programs were just put on us like Stalin would.
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The “paper chase”? Not only alive and well but expanding.
In WWII the saying was how to succeed in Washington: shoot the bull, pass the buck and make 20 copies of everything. Somehow this came back to me reading this nonsense.
CYA, does not mean cover your posterior. I first heard of the term when we had a superintendent that destroyed what we had spent years and INTENSE work building. Whenever the school board asked him to jump, he answered “how high”. He became the 2nd highest paid supt. in our county.
It all seems to be coming together. The way to succeed is to kiss the ring of those in power and forget integrity. AND document everything so that “superiors” can “evaluate” your work.
Question: who evaluates the evaluators? Don’t answer. It would be scary.
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