Jeffrey Weiss, a reporter at the Dallas Morning News, asked me why the Network for Public Education decided to hold its first national meeting in Austin, Texas.
I remembered something that Robert Scott, a recent state commissioner of education in Texas, said about high-stakes testing. He said it was “the heart of the vampire,” the heart of a new military-industrial complex.
He put it this way:
“The assessment and accountability regime has become not only a cottage industry but a military-industrial complex. And the reason that you’re seeing this move toward the “common core” is there’s a big business sentiment out there that if you’re going to spend $600-$700 billion a year in public education, why shouldn’t be one big Boeing, or Lockheed-Grumman contract where one company can get it all and provide all these services to schools across the country.”
So I told Jeff that NPE was meeting in Austin to drive a stake through the heart of the vampire in the place it was created. That gives a new meaning to the term “high-stakes testing.”
As the Opt Out movement spreads across the nation, as parents realize that testing has become more important than instruction, as awareness grows that the testing industry has taken control of education, as parents understand that the online Comon Core tests are being used for data mining, the vampire will die.
Join the Network for Public Education and help us spread the word and take action to restore real education to our schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
hat gives a new meaning to the term “high-stakes testing.”
LOL
Agree. LOL! Good one.
Please take your stake to Camp Philos and destroy all of the phony corporate reformers.
Interesting to note that within this military-industrial complex, 92 officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base were recently suspended for cheating on proficiency tests.
From a New York Times article of 1/30/14:
“The Air Force secretary, Deborah Lee James, said a “climate of fear” that was pervasive in the ballistic missile force might have encouraged launch officers to share answers to monthly proficiency tests. ”
“But both current and former missileers, as the launch officers are known, say that cheating has been a fact of life for decades. Ms. James said that during her visits to all three bases last week, crew members — while not admitting to cheating — told her that they felt pressure to score 100 percent on the proficiency tests. While 90 percent is considered a passing score, they said that their commanding officers would not promote them unless they scored 100 percent.
“I heard repeatedly from teammates that the need for perfection has created a climate of undue stress and fear,” Ms. James said. “Fear about the future. Fear about promotions. Fear about what will happen to them in their careers.
“The irony is that they didn’t cheat to pass, they cheated to get 100 percent. This is not a healthy environment,” she added.”
I find it odd that within the military portion of the military-industrial complex, there is a developing awareness that high stakes testing causes problems while at the very same time it is being touted as the cure for the low performance of students in public schools!
GE2L2R: what is astonishing is that when the same “geniuses” who push VAM and high-stakes standardized tests and the like in education, and do it elsewhere as in the specific case you mention—
They are surprised—astonished! amazed! in disbelief! disappointed! baffled!—that when they provide strong incentives to the people under them to cheat and fudge—the people under them cheat and fudge!
Just one other example: the Atlanta cheating scandal.
The undesirable results are not just predictable, they were predicted long ago.
By a very accomplished numbers/stats person, no less.
[start quote]
A numerical goal is a number drawn out of the sky. A numerical goal outside the control limit cannot be accomplished without changing the system. A numerical goal accomplishes nothing. What counts is by what method. Three words. If you can accomplish a goal without a method, then why weren’t you doing it last year? There’s only one possible answer: you were goofing off. May be numerical goal be achieved? Yes. We can make almost anything happen. But what about the cost? What about the loss? Anybody can achieve almost anything by distortion and faking, redefinition of terms, running up costs.
[end quote]
[THE ESSENTIAL DEMING: LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES FROM THE FATHER OF QUALITY W. EDWARDS DEMING, 2013, Joyce Orsini, ed., p. 55]
Simply look at what Deming said and wrote over 20 years ago about numerical goals driving distortion and faking and redefinition of terms and running up costs. Then apply this to the charterite/privatizer movement. They turn the admonitions and cautions of Deming against worst management practices into their opposite—while at the same time applying VAM and stack ranking/forced ranking/rank-and-yank/burn-and-churn and the like only to their subordinates and employees, never to themselves.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
http://www.ohio.com/news/about-this-charter-school-series-1.477269
An Ohio newspaper has begun an investigative series on charter schools.
Great stuff. They used journalism students to do the leg work.
“Publicly funded, privately run charter schools consume more than $900 million in state and local tax dollars. A comprehensive evaluation has been difficult.
This three-part series launches a multiyear project to create a database and publish authoritative stories so parents can make informed choices and the public can understand this form of government privatization.
This project will be led by the Beacon Journal and the NewsOutlet, a student-journalism lab headquartered at Youngstown State University in association with the University of Akron and Cuyahoga Community College.
Here are the installments in this first series:
Part 1: Many charter schools lack transparency.
Part 2: Close ties between for-profit management companies and the boards raise questions about tax-free, nonprofit status.
Part 3: Public school districts use local funds to transport charter-school kids.”
Love the plain language: “This form of government privatization”.
Words have meaning! Imagine that.
They couldn’t get even basic information on the schools; who owns them, what is the management company, etc.
“Gov. John Kasich, speaking at the February meeting of the Ohio Newspaper Association, responded to a Beacon Journal editor’s question about inability to obtain basic information from charter schools.
“We’ll work with you any way we can. I’m not going to hide from you,” Kasich said. “In terms of this specific information, where you can’t get anything about these charters, we have to dig into that. If you’re really not finding out where these dollars are going and how these schools are performing, you ought to have access to that, in my judgment.”
However, the legislature in 2005 removed the Ohio Department of Education from direct oversight of charters, and allowed creation of “sponsors,” which oversee charter operations. When reporters contacted the education department’s community school consultants to see if they could provide answers, the agency deferred to the sponsors.
“Sorry you’ve been getting the runaround,” said consultant Vicki Grosh, who offered to look into distributing the questions to the sponsors.”
Michelle Rhee’s lobby shop ranked Ohio in the top ten in the nation for “ed reform”
We’re a big success!
Don’t let this happen to your state.
Chiara, I really appreciate your support in our state. It’s been hard to keep track of legislation in Ohio, but this was passed to me today, and maybe you can help pass it on:
2:56pm Mar 31
Currently SB 229 which would amend the current teacher evaluation law in a somewhat positive way is bogged down in the House education committee. One of the most important things SB 229 does is reduce the portion of a teacher’s evaluation based on a measure of growth from 50% to 35 %. On the House education committee are several radical “education reformers” that have loaded down the bill with numerous poorly conceived measures that would make the evaluation system far more onerous. Please consider sending letter below to members of the House, particularly to those on the education committee. You can easily access the Ohio House Directory by clicking on the link below. Feel free to cut and paste as well as modify the letter as you see fit.
http://www.ohiohouse.gov/members/member-directory
Members of the committee are follow.
Gerald L. Stebelton (R)
Chair
Andrew Brenner (R)
Vice Chair
Teresa Fedor (D)
Ranking Minority
Nickie J. Antonio (D)
John Becker (R)
Heather Bishoff (D)
Tony Burkley (R)
Timothy Derickson (R)
Denise Driehaus (D)
Bill Hayes (R)
Michael Henne (R)
Stephanie Kunze (R)
John Patterson (D)
Debbie Phillips (D)
Kristina Roegner (R)
Marilyn Slaby (R)
Ryan Smith (R)
Fred Strahorn (D)
Andy Thompson
Please modify the letter as you see fit………………………………………
As an educator, I support the Senate passed version of Senate Bill 229 (R-Gardner), which makes important changes to Ohio’s teacher evaluation system and was unanimously passed by the Ohio Senate 33-0, with 27 co-sponsors. However, I strongly OPPOSE the drastic changes that the House Education Committee made to Senate Bill 229 when it unveiled a new version of the bill.
A bi-partisan bill that was intended to support teachers and administrators by providing local flexibility in teacher evaluations has now been turned on its head. The new House version piles even more burdens, complexities and bad policy on Ohio’s educators and is not focused on helping educators succeed. Instead of making teacher evaluations more accurate and fair, it makes them more complicated and silences the voices of educators.
I urge you to oppose the new House version of SB 229, which is a huge step backward in efforts to improve teacher evaluations. Thank you for your consideration and support for Ohio’s public schools.
Member Directory | The Ohio House Of Representatives
http://www.ohiohouse.gov
Vampire so so appropriate….bless Robert Scott’s heart! Maybe with that in mind, we could all show up at our child’s school on the day of STAAR and hold up a Cross!
Where did Robert Scott disappear too? He was replaced by the “Railroad Commissioner” who has done a great job of “railroading kids”!!
TEA Commissioner Williams is “all hat and no cattle” and best of friends with all the Pearson Lobbyists, like Bill Hammond! We need to “railroad” them!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz You bet we keep our eyes on Texas (we northeasterners). We in NJ & NY lost a ton of locals to Texas when Aramco et al relocated there in the ’70’s, & the bleeding of jobs to the southwest has continued. Texas cities have become, demographically, strange animals– amalgams of the old south, the northeast, & everything in between. The leading neoliberal edge, though spearheaded in Chicago (think Obama/ Duncan/ Emanuel),finds its leading voices in the southwest (think Clintons, Bushes), while the northeast founders along, wandering from its independent roots (Sanders), offering only copycats like Lieberman & Cuomo. I have great hopes that Texas, having led us into the valley of NCLB & seen it was no good, will lead us out again.
They (Texas) had sense enough to stay away from RttT and CCSS.
Spanish why do you always have rows of zzzzzzzzzzzs before your comments? Are you sleepy?
I always hear the roar of a jet engine swooping in when I see your comments.
Texas has TEKS…….equivalent of CCSS….as bad or worse!
Texas has its own demons (TEKS – Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) and egregious testing regime. Today, the first round of testing begins. The rules and regulations for the tests are suffocating and create a stressful environment.