This is really good news.
President Obama appointed famed Yale child psychologist Dr. James Comer to join an advisory panel, where he will be
“one of 15 appointees to a new President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
The commission is tasked with “improving educational outcomes for African Americans to ensure that all African Americans receive an education that prepares them for college, productive careers, and satisfying lives.”
Comer said he will stress to the committee the central importance of child development in helping disadvantaged minority kids succeed.
“The modern school reform movement that focuses on math and reading,” Comer said, “misses what schools are about. Schools are to prepare students to be successful in life.”
Dr. Comer has devoted his career to helping children by focusing on their social and emotional development and their relationship to their family and community.
He is not an admirer of the punitive stress of high-stakes testing, which harms children’s development. Dr. Comer understands that Race to the Top ignores what matters most in healthy child development.
Here is hoping that the President and his advisors take the sage advice of Dr. Comer.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, this is good news. This is a man who knows what children need and cares about them. If Obama listens to him, we might see some positive changes for all students, but especially for poor children of color.
for all children
Here’s some advice for Obama, whatever you want for your children, is what you should want for all children in America. Not, endless testing, data collection, and profiteering.
ditto
Finally, a shimmer of hope that common sense will prevail. And the glow from doing right by the African American children should shine on all children.
Diane, please keep us posted in their progress. May sanity rein!
All children!
I suppose we should start a pool on how long it takes for Comer to become a Goner.
I’m with you. I am in one of my cynical moods. Obama asked him to serve to lull educators into thinking that he “understands.” Who else is on the committee? It seems odd to think of him being used as a token on an advisory panel meant to enhance the education of black children living in poverty.
Hopefully Dr. Pedro Nogera will also be invited.
Sorry Pedro Noguera
Who is he..I could google but thought you would know
He has spoken at education roundtables and been interviewed by the press. What he said that resonates with our family’s devastation from “drill and kill” high stakes testing bullying is the recognition that our system of education is flawed.
Our “sort by birth year” educational system works for many students, but destroys other students. When he said that African American male students are the canaries of the coal mine, that reflects our experience. He has said that there are many students not well served by the design of the system. We dealt with many fine teachers, unfortunately we dealt with some teachers that solely blamed low test scores on student effort, not developmental appropriateness. Therefore even more homework was their solution to preparing for high stakes testing.
Unfortunately the Duncan.Gates.Rhee testing mania further exacerbates a flawed system.
Sorry, but Professor Noguera’s actions belie his words.
While he has written eloquently about the effects of poverty on students, he also, as head of the SUNY Charter School Commission, approved charter schools run by Eva Moskowitz that invaded public school facilities and treated their students with disgraceful inequity.
Mr. Noguera wants it both ways, to appear to be a voice for the poor and their schools, while aiding those who keep their boots on the necks.
He wants it both ways, but it doesn’t work like that.
Michael,
Thanks for the update. I didn’t realize he supported those charters. Has he supported Gulen charters?
Not to my knowledge, Chris; Noguera focuses on urban education, and Gulen has not yet established a beachhead in NYC yet.
Wonderful news!
Well, the dialogue needs to change…soon. The course being taken is serving no end but destruction. But, that seems to be the way it is just now.
One out of 15 is still an uphill battle. The cynical side of me thinks this is a ploy to placate those of us who really know what changes are needed. It’s kind of like those teachers who were asked for their “input” on Common Core by simply reviewing the standards after they were already crafted. They can always say they gave us a seat at the table without making any meaningful changes.
I have to agree with Mike Turner…
Back when I started teaching (1971) our we had a choice of wide-ranging topics for our PD. I signed up for Star Power, an organizational development role-playing game — from which I learned several important lessons that have informed my life ever since then.
One of the most important lessons was that, no matter how well-intentioned, it is nearly impossible for one person to influence a powerful group that is committed to a pre-existing agenda — even if they have been placed in that group with the intent of effecting change.
I hope at least eight or ten of the fifteen members of this group are people who understand the devastating effect corporatization and high-stakes testing are having on our public schools. That is where most of our high-risk children are — and that is where the people who work directly with those children need to be supported and helped.
“One of the most important lessons was that, no matter how well-intentioned, it is nearly impossible for one person to influence a powerful group that is committed to a pre-existing agenda — even if they have been placed in that group with the intent of effecting change.”
Very interesting. I guess we all know that on a gut level, but it is important to verbalize it. Oh for the days of meaningful PD!
Good news indeed!
The wonderful Michael Winerip, in the days when the NYT allowed him to cover education, observed that those who want “reform” in the public schools mostly attended private ones. Maybe we should target Michelle Obama instead of her husband on this question:
“Mr. Obama (Punahou School, Honolulu) will be remembered for his signature education program, Race to the Top. This program rewards states with hundreds of millions of dollars in grants if they develop systems to rate teachers based on their students’ test scores and if they agree to fire teachers and principals based on those scores. In contrast, Michelle Obama, who attended public schools (Whitney Young High, Chicago), has frequently spoken out against the education law’s reliance on testing. ‘If my future were determined by my performance on a standardized test,’ Mrs. Obama has repeatedly said, ‘I wouldn’t be here, I guarantee that.’ ”
@ Christine Langhoff.. excellent point but so sad that by her actions Michelle Obama is complicit in her husband’s complete and total support of corporate “ed reform” policies bent on privatization.
That’s true for one simple reason: Michelle Obama is as much of a storefront of shiny new window merchandise as her fraud-for-a-president husband is.
Michelle Obama is all airbrush and no heart.
She and Obama are the dream team who use the imagery of “race”, “democrat” and “progressive” to further anything but those causes.
They are both a national disgrace . . . . .
But they do not act in concert alone . . . . . .
Is Comer’s appointment window dressing or the sign of a shift in thinking? I’m going for the former… I don’t see Obama giving up on testing any time soon: the business community would accuse him of going “soft” and he won’t stand up to them… and while I wholeheartedly agree with Chris that our current age-based batching is exacerbated by testing I don’t see that changing either… it’s too embedded in the DNA of “school”…
As the mother of 2 black boys, one that is special needs, I’m tired of panels. I’m tired of “important”people scheduling meetings to talk about meetings, panels, conferences, etc. Black children need action! We know what the problems are, FiX THEM. Stop funding talks and start funding solutions. Staff schools appropriately, pay highly qualified teachers and pay them well, stop cutting art/music/gym. And feed children GOOD food for school lunch instead of cheap empty carbs. I could go on and on. Black children have obstacles that are specific to them and yet schools with dire need are often the first victims of harsh budget cuts and closures. We know what works and there is proof it works. Let’s get to it!
EXACTLY, RW. And a great start is what the Chicago teachers at Saucedo School are doing–following the brave lead of the Seattle teachers, but refusing to give the really BIG (& meaningless, except for millions of $$$ WASTED for Pear$on Tests–the ONE & ONLY reason the
faulty, invalid tests are still being used) IL State Achievement Tests.
What if teachers & administrators refused–in EVERY school in America? Just the tip of the iceberg, the beginning of (we would hope) the end of this COLOSSAL waste of our children’s valuable education time & taxpayer (yours & mine!) money, which SHOULD be going directly to the schools.
“Let’s get to it” indeed. Parents–ALL of you–OPT YOUR KIDS OUT NOW!!! (In Illinois, testing starts next week!)
Hmm, I seem to remember a great deal of excitement when President-elect Obama appointed Linda Darling-Hammond to something-or-other back in 2008-09.
How has that turned out for us?
Dear Diane,
If I may comment here. In LA an African American school board member recently passed away. She was a strong supporter of Adult Education, which Deasy in his first year as Superintendent tried his best to eliminate. I am heartened that Dr. Comer is looking into helping African Americans achieve in education. Ms. LaMotte, the deceased board member said of adult education, that it was a life line for her community. It was cut by almost 70 percent by Deasy. Why is adult ed important to the Hispanic and African American communities? Because when the graduate their job opportunities are extremely limited in our society. With manufacturing jobs etc. being sent overseas, their options are limited. Before the cuts, adult education offered over 300 low fee courses to these kids. From airplane mechanic, to pharmacy technician they could get a skill that would land them a job and pay as little as 300 dollars for the classes and books. It would seem that anyone who actually cared about low income, urban kids, with limited opportunities in life would embrace a program like this with open arms. But since the powers that be are divorced from the realities of these kids lives, and are making decisions based on unrealistic data driven corporate based curriculum funded by billionaires, they simply ignored this program and let it be almost destroyed. The UTLA union and the teachers and the community salvaged some of the program but the prices for the classes were raised and many students can no longer afford it. I do hope that Dr. Comer visits these communities and sees the value of learning job skills. I hope he adds a track to Highschool that allows kids, not interested in college, to avoid physics and algebra II , to take job skill classes such as car mechanic, nurse’s aide etc. That is what urban inner city kids are crying out for. Job skills to make it in life. And that is how education is failing them on every level. Not every child needs to go to college, not every child wants too. And those who don’t want to have very few ways to achieve the job skills they need to succeed in life. Adult education is a valid path for them. I pray and hope that it will be reestablished in LA and across the nation by Dr. Comer..
Excellent Post!
“Despite their lack of formal education, [Dr. Comer] said, his parents offered their children ‘respect, caring, belonging,’ the elements that helped them develop as human beings.”
Might to “develop as human beings” be the key hiding in plain sight?
Might it matter less whether parents or schools provide the environment for children to “develop as human beings” than to actually “develop as human beings?”
Might being “African American” or whatever be not the matter at all?
Quick story. A few months ago by invitation I sat to talk with an “African American” gentleman in Atlanta, the birth place of Dr. King, about his program proposal to improve race relations. The most illuminating part of our conversation went like this:
Me: Do you think of yourself mostly as a) urban, b) “African American,” or c) human being?
Him: Why, “African America,” of course!
I have put this question to a few “African American” students in Atlanta Public Schools and they usually choose “a” or “b” but not “c.”
Now ask the same question to other ethnic groups.
Being an African American means carrying around a lot of baggage inflicted on the individual due to attitudes of the white majority. Attitudes such as suspecting them of shop lifting when they browse through a store or that they are carrying a gun when their hand is in their pocket (instead of reaching for a bag of skittles candy) or that they have drugs in the car while driving through a suburban neighborhood. And these daily accusations are due to skin color – a fact which cannot be escaped.
When black children can look at two dolls and consistently pick the black doll over the white doll and claim that doll is good, not bad, that will be the day that the world has accepted them as human beings, not African Americans or former slaves.
And I don’t go around claiming to be a human being, either. I say I’m an American, although recently I’ve been ashamed of all the harm our country has been doing, not just to other countries, but to our own people. In spite of the fact the wealthy corporate world has taken over the land that I love, I am still an American. Not a white, middle class, suburban American who used to work in the city, but simply an American.