This essay was written by Horace Meister, a young untenured scholar who cannot use his own name for fear of retribution. Read it and judge it by the evidence.
This is what happens when policy is based on ideology, not evidence.
He writes:
The power and reach of the federal Department of Education (DOE) has grown dramatically since 2009. The DOE has used Race to the Top and the controversial granting of waivers from the legal mandates of No Child Left Behind to force states to implement very specific policies. These policies include increasing the number of charter schools, evaluating teachers through value-added measures, and implementing the Common Core Standards and associated assessments. The DOE has also attempted to improve the “lowest-achieving schools” by closing them, turning them over to private operators, or firing the principal and/or the staff.
Unfortunately, not a single one of these policies has any supporting evidence. As a sector charter schools do not have better student outcomes than public schools.[i] Value-added metrics are unreliable measures of teacher quality.[ii] The adoption of standards has no effect on student learning.[iii] The “lowest-achieving schools” are statistically schools that work with a more challenging student body, not schools with failing teachers and principals.[iv]
It is bewildering to see an entire department of the federal government taken over by what can only be described as mass hysteria. With no evidence backing their policies, we are left with ideology and the power of special interests as explanations for what is happening. This refusal to use evidence in evaluating educational policies is apparent in the work of Arne Duncan’s chief speechwriter, David Whitman. In 2008 he wrote a book, Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism.[v] The book profiles six “no excuses” schools and argues that they show the way to a radically improved education system in the United States. But let’s see if the evidence actually supports this claim.
The first school profiled in the book is the American Indian Charter School in Oakland, California. Whitman forgot to mention that “half the 6th grade students performing poorly in 2007 had left the school before graduation, and only 39 of the 51 students who started in 2006 completed their middle school years with AIPCS[vi].” He also forgot to mention that “Chavis [the principal] routinely abused his students verbally, humiliating them in front of their classmates, to force them [to] score higher on tests or quit the school altogether… At minimum, Chavis’ schools appear to be nothing more than a rigged system in which mostly high-scoring students apply to get in, are accepted, and then continue to score well on tests.[vii]” Another story noted that “there’s evidence to suggest that the school’s high scores aren’t the result of an unusually high caliber of teaching or organization, but rather the educational equivalent of bringing in ringers… the school appears to be asking parents to submit test scores as part of their student’s applications.[viii]” Strangely enough Whitman claimed on page 80 of his book that the school was “hardly an example of selective recruiting or creaming from the top of the local academic ” It appears that he didn’t dig deep enough.
Moving on to the second school profiled in the book– Amistad Academy, an Achievement First school in New Haven, Connecticut. Here is what’s really going on at Amistad “Data show that for nearly one of them [i.e. graduating seniors] who walked across the stage Wednesday, another was “lost” along the way. Students “lost” to Amistad include one senior who withdrew in March to attend adult education…Of the 64 students who entered Amistad High in 2009 as freshmen, plus two who joined the group after freshman year, 25 are graduating this year and heading to college; seven were retained and plan to graduate high school next year; and 34 withdrew from the school.[ix]” Whitman notes (on pages 119-120) that every Achievement First school “is expected to keep student attrition to less than 5 percent a year.” He somehow forgot to mention that Amistad fails to meet this expectation.
Another aspect of the Amistad “model” is captured by this parent comment “the middle school is a stressful, mentally abusive, black children being degraded mess! I have never seen a kid get so many DEDUCTIONS, OSS, ISS in my life. If you are so much about kids getting their education, why are you so quick to kick them out of class and/or suspended them?[x]”
The third school profiled is Cristo Ray Jesuit High School in Chicago, Illinois—a school that requires all students to work one full weekday a week to pay off tuition costs. An interview with G.R. Kearney who wrote More Than a Dream: The Cristo Rey Story: How One School’s Vision Is Changing the World noted that “Almost half of the student who enroll in Cristo Rey fail to graduate from Cristo Rey.” To which the Kearney added “Cristo Rey has a fairly rigorous application process, though there is no entrance exam. The school goes to great pains to ensure that the students selected to attend are capable of graduating and attending college. In theory, those students who would be true negative influences are screened out in the application process.[xi]” The interviewer also mentioned that the descriptions of disciplinary issues at the two schools dramatically differ between the two books “Whitman seemed to describe it as a place where discipline problems almost magically ceased to exist while Kearney provides a slightly different picture.” This raises some questions about whether or not Whitman’s descriptions of the schools he profiles mirror reality.
We are halfway through the list of schools that Arne Duncan’s chief speechwriter believes should serve as the model for transforming the entire American education system. So far we haven’t seen anything at all compelling. What comes next? The forth school profiled is KIPP Academy in Bronx, New York. Much space in Whitman’s chapter is devoted to describing the orchestra in which every student participates. When describing the school’s academic outcomes Whitman acknowledges (pages 176-78) that KIPP Academy serves students with higher incoming academic performance than the district average, many fewer English Language Learners (who score poorly on standardized exams), and many more female students (who in aggregate do better on standardized exams than male students). He nonetheless insists (page 175) that “the usual demographic suspects fail to explain the superior performance of KIPP students.” It is clear that Whitman has not done his research and neglects to mention lots of relevant data. “On their math tests in the fourth grade (the year before they arrived at KIPP), KIPP students in the Bronx scored well above the average for the district, and on their fourth-grade reading tests they often scored above the average for the entire city.[xii]” “KIPP Academy had one of the highest suspension rates among New York City charter schools.[xiii] Despite Whitman’s claim that “like their peers at comparison schools, KIPP students are likely to live in poverty (page 175)” the data actually show that KIPP schools in New York City have dramatically fewer free lunch students than local public schools.[xiv] KIPP schools in New York City serve many fewer high need special education students.[xv] And KIPP Academy has a 20% cohort attrition rate in middle school.[xvi]
Ironically, KIPP schools in New York City have done rather poorly on the policies that Whitman writes speeches for Duncan defending. Reporting on the Common Core test results Politico noted “the highly touted KIPP network also stumbled, with proficiency rates well below the city average for several grades and subjects.[xvii]” KIPP teachers also receive lower value-add scores than teachers at comparable schools.[xviii]
The fifth school profiled by Whitman is SEED, a boarding school in Washington D.C. The sky-high attrition rates at this school make it anything but a model for nationwide reforms. One analysis noted that of students who began 7th grade at SEED “most of their cohort was gone by the time graduation rolled around.[xix]” The SEED high school alone has attrition rates of over 50%, although Whitman only acknowledges attrition as an issue in the middle school.[xx] The New York Times describes “The incoming class of 70 students slowly dissipated each year so that by senior year, the remaining students barely filled a gym bleacher. The high attrition made the school’s much-lauded college acceptance rate less impressive: If a class of 70 seventh graders fell to 20 students by the time of graduation, those remaining 20 students were arguably among the best — at least in terms of self-discipline and a willingness to stick it out — of the original class.[xxi]”
We now come to the final school model, University Park Campus School, in Worcester, Massachusetts. This is the only public school profiled by Whitman and it has a number of interesting characteristics. Unlike the other schools in the book, which focus on lecture-centered pedagogy, University Park Campus School’s focus is on group work. This is more aligned to the teaching style used in schools that serve America’s middle and upper class students than the militaristic methods focused on obedience all too common in “no excuses” schools serving America’s lower class students.
Whitman mentions some demographic differences, such as more students coming from “intact families” than the district average. He forgets to mention a lot of others– including half the number of African-American students and three times the number of Asian students as the district average.[xxii] He also forgets to mention that the school serves half as many English Language Learners and half as many special education students as the district average.[xxiii] Whitman claims (page 244) that “its attrition rate is effectively zero” but the data show that the attrition rate is actually 8% a year and five times higher among African-American and Hispanic students than White and Asian students.[xxiv] English Language Learners attrite at a rate 4% higher than the student average.
Whitman’s claim (on pages 243-44) that “unlike the two other high schools profiled… University Park has succeeded not only in eliminating the college attendance gap but the achievement test gap as well” is demonstrably false. According to the data the school has a 15% AP exam pass rate, well below the national average.[xxv]
So where does this all leave us? It is no fun to debunk the work that schools, principals, and teachers across America are doing. Each and every one of the schools discussed here has dedicated leaders and teachers doing amazing work with students every single day. In the current political climate claims about the performance of some schools are used by our Secretary of Education to bludgeon and demean the rest.[xxvi] That is not OK and the misrepresentations must be addressed. Hopefully, there will be a shift in policies at the federal level to reflect evidence and data.
We all want great teachers for every student. So let’s provide the training and on-the-job professional development that teaches teachers how to be great teachers.[xxvii]
We all want teachers to be held accountable for doing a great job with students. So let’s increase the use of peer-to-peer observation, feedback, intervention, and dismissal when appropriate.[xxviii]
We all want great schools for our students, especially students living in poor neighborhoods. So let’s build community schools that provide wraparound services for students.[xxix] And yes, let’s acknowledge that without addressing underlying issues of poverty, racism, and social inequality in neighborhoods and homes we will never close the achievement gap.
We all want our children to have rich and engaging curricula. So let’s ensure that our school districts are providing their schools with such curricula that teachers can modify and adapt for their students.[xxx]
We all want to know how are students are doing in school. So let’s let teachers create assessments that make sense for their classes and students. As has been done throughout history teachers will share the assessments and student progress in a transparent fashion with students and parents. A high-quality standardized exam given to a sample of students every other year will suffice to serve as a standardized measuring stick to norm across schools.
We all want to know the truth and create an education system that works for all students. So let’s stop perpetuating myths and falsehoods for ideological reasons.[xxxi]
[i] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/24/the-bottom-line-on-charter-school-studies/
[ii] https://www.amstat.org/policy/pdfs/ASA_VAM_Statement.pdf
[iii] http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/pb-options-2-commcore-final.pdf
[iv] http://shankerblog.org/?p=8664
[v] A pdf of the book can be found here http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED502972.pdf
[vi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Public_Charter_School
[vii] http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2012/06/18/its-time-to-close-the-american-indian-public-charter-schools
[viii] http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/are-american-indian-public-charter-schools-test-scores-inflated/Content?oid=3233632
[ix] http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/amistad_signing_ceremony/
[x] http://www.greatschools.org/connecticut/new-haven/1440-Amistad-Academy/reviews/ typos have been corrected.
[xi] http://www.edpolicythoughts.com/2009_09_01_archive.html
[xii] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/magazine/26tough.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
[xiii] http://school-stories.org/2012/05/pushed-out-charter-schools-contribute-to-the-citys-growing-suspension-rates/
[xiv] http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/zip-it-charters-and-economic-status-by-zip-code-in-ny-and-nj/
[xv] https://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/20/inflated-claims-of-charter-success-in-nyc/
[xvi] http://miracleschools.wikispaces.com/KIPP+Academy+New+York
[xvii] http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/new-york-fails-common-core-tests-95304_Page2.html
[xviii] http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/what-do-the-available-data-tell-us-about-nyc-charter-school-teachers-their-jobs/
[xix] http://shankerblog.org/?p=1078
[xx] http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/07/charter-school-attrition-exposes-bs-of.html
[xxi] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27Boarding-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
[xxii] http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=03480285&orgtypecode=6&leftNavId=300&
[xxiii] http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=03480285&orgtypecode=6&leftNavId=305&
[xxiv] http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/attrition/default.aspx?orgcode=03480285&fycode=2014&orgtypecode=6&
[xxv] http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/massachusetts/districts/worcester-public-schools/university-pk-campus-school-9570/test-scores
[xxvi] http://garyrubinstein.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/arne-debunkin/
[xxvii] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html
[xxviii] http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/spring-2014/one-piece-whole
[xxix] http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/Page/CCSFullReport.pdf
[xxx] http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2009/10/14-curriculum-whitehurst
[xxxi] http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Threaten-Americas-Public-Schools/dp/0807755249
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“It is bewildering to see an entire department of the federal government taken over by what can only be described as mass hysteria.”
No, there’s another name for it. I’d call it mass greed. They’re all looking at their next place of employment. I really don’t know that ideology plays that much of a role, except that people do tend to believe what their salary demands that they believe.
I’d say if there is any hysteria at DOE, it is because they can see that “Duncan bridge is falling down” (and takin’ a dunkin’)
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down.
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
Full tilt lately.
Common Core is on the floor,
on the floor, on the floor,
Common Core is on the floor,
Full tilt lately.
Built it up with tests and VAMs,
tests and VAMs, tests and VAMs,
Built it up with tests and VAMs,
Full tilt lately.
Tests and VAMs are breaking DAMs,
breaking DAMs, breaking DAMs,
Tests and VAMs are breaking DAMs,
Full tilt lately.
Built it up with charter schools,
charter schools, charter schools,
Built it up with charter schools,
Full tilt lately.
Charter schools are breaking rules,
Breaking rules, breaking rules
Charter schools are breaking rules,
Full tilt lately.
Built it up with carrots and sticks,
carrots and sticks, carrots and sticks,
Built it up with carrots and sticks,
Full tilt lately.
Race to the Top and other tricks,
other tricks, other tricks,
Race to the Top and other tricks,
Full tilt lately.
Got Bill Gates to work the ruse,
work the ruse, work the ruse
Got Bill Gates to work the ruse,
Full tilt lately.
But the public did refuse,
Did refuse, did refuse
But the public did refuse,
Full tilt lately.
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down.
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
Full tilt lately.
Agreed. Paternalism, power, profits, and greed.
Sad to say, but I think the current Dept of Ed is even worse than the Bush Dept of Ed. Some corollaries – unqualified hot air at the head – but at least a few more scholarly types in the background. Now it’s pretty much all Gates Foundation and former ed profiteers, with the latter trying to make sure they score a good contract for their for-profit companies that they can return to once this farce of a gov’t job is done.
Federal regulatory agencies in general are dominated by the corporate interests they are supposed to police. Now, its DOE’s turn to be totally captured by the private sector when it’s task is to nurture public education. Dems enabled this final capture.
On the subject of the Obama children’s education vs. the “No Excuses” charter model that the above six schools follow (and on display on the video below) …
… here’s thought experiment.
Imagine what would happen if Barack and Michelle paid a visit to their school, snuck in the back of the class (the point-of-view of the camera) and witnessed this indefensible horror:
I imagine Barack and/or Michelle interrupting this atrocity, screaming,
————————-
“STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!!! What the BLEEP do you think you’re doing to my child, and to the rest of these children???!!!
(to the teacher)
“What’s your name?! Where’s the principal?! We need to talk to her right now!!!!”
(taking Sasha or Malia by the hand, talk to her)
“We’re getting you out of this freak show before you suffer any more damage!”
————————-
However, we all know that the teaching in this video does not and never will happen at…
Sidwell Friends (the Obama’s kids school),
or at Lakeside in Seattle (where Gates kids go)
or at the Montessori school (where NY State Ed. Commish John King sends his kids),
or at Chris Christie’s kids private school,
or at the Chicago Lab School (where Emanuel sends his kids and also where my own nephew and niece attend, by the way)…
as there is a difference between the education enjoyed by the children of the elite—including the Obama kids—and the education that “corporate reformers”, in their end game, are designing for “other people’s children—those of the middle and working classes.
Is there anyone in Congress questioning what Arne Duncan is doing?
A fine piece, but I have a quibble.
The “mass hysteria” that the author mentions is not something felt by the perpetrators of so-called education reform – they are quite cold-blooded about everything they do – but is rather a manufactured crisis, a tactic used to bring about their desired results of privatization, control fraud (also known as looting) and social engineering.
We’ve had over thirty years of induced mass hysteria about the “failures”of the public schools, starting with “A Nation At Risk in 1983,” a Big Lie propagated to neutralize those (mainly teachers and their unions) who would defend public education. It has worked all too well and, given the betrayals of the UFT/AFT and NEA (mis) leadership and a cooperative media, barring a sudden upsurge of widespread resistance, the endgame is in sight.
Melville captured it best when he had Ahab, in his fatal obsession with the White Whale, say, “All my means are sane; my purpose is mad,” and it appears that Gates, Broad and their ilk have never even had that momentary flash of lucidity and self-awareness.
Michael Fiorillo: as I see it, I think you are right that “mass hysteria” doesn’t adequately describe the state of mind of the DoE and other leading lights of the self-styled “education reform” movement.
Over and over again, there is a casual cruelty that is a direct result of keeping at arm’s length [or as far away as possible] the actual human beings that are affected by their destructive policies and mandates. It ties in with their obsession with numbers & stats: it is easier for them to deal with their massaged and tortured figures than it is to talk with, relate to, and hear from people that suffer the consequences of their “innovative disruption.”
And then there is the simple fact that they focus, first and foremost and always, on the bottom line, the one metric that trumps all else, $tudent $ucce$$. With blinkered eyes so narrowly focused on one thing, and one thing only, everything else gets blocked out.
And when the ‘rabble’ insist on being heard? Then you do as Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute does when he invites Cami Anderson to have a chin wag—you disinvite those folks that are the unfortunate “beneficiaries” of all that he holds near and dear.
After all, “grit” and “determination” and such like in the service of public discussion and debate are only for the hoi polloi, dontcha know? And our social betters, like Cami Anderson, has had her feelings hurt because people in Newark have criticized her. Shut up already! Give the poor woman a break!
😱
This self-serving protection comes from the same crowd that used to blather about all the ‘touchy-feely’ proposals of genuine education reformers, the same crowd that insists on ‘no excuses’ for everyone else but themselves, the same crowd that finds democracy at home a burden and obstacle and praises to high heaven China’s traditionally authoritarian ethos in education as the next magic feather of EduExcellence.
I wish it were easy to simply attribute their errant words and deeds to what might have been said by an very old and very dead and very Greek guy:
“Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” [Euripides]
It’s not madness. Mahatma Gandhi pointed to a large part of it:
“There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.”
And then there is that little Ayn Rand that sits on the shoulders of the edupreneurs and edubullies and and educrats and edufrauds and constantly whispers in their ears:
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
Thank you for your comments.
😎
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
DOUGLAS ADAMS
DC is an exclusive club, and we’re not in it.
They don’t work for us because they literally DON’T work for us. They work for other members of the club, or their future private sector employers.
On the subject of influence and capture of government, this is sort of interesting:
It’s tape of an Eastern Michigan University Regent discussing how the Michigan Education Achievement Authority came to be.
The university was approached by Governor Synder and a representative of the Broad Foundation. They made promises to the university on funding if EMU would agree to sponsor the privatized district in Detroit. EMU never got the promised increased funding.
So one of two things happened. Either EMU got badly suckered by the governor and Broad, or EMU wants people to believe they got badly suckered by the governor and Broad.
When you’re a neolib, and your goal is to destroy the public sector for private looting, facts are not important. These people are literally slaves a cult, and they have infested both political parties. The American people are about to lose everything because of these crooks.
There are updates about the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland. It’s been in a battle with the Oakland school district, which wants to shut it down, and the decision to revoke its charter is SUPPORTED — repeat, SUPPORTED — by the charter sector because of the school’s record of financial improprieties. The San Francisco Chronicle:
“A 2012 state audit of the charter organization found several instances of financial impropriety, including $3.8 million in payments to the school’s former director, Ben Chavis, and his wife through real estate deals, consulting agreements and other services, raising ethical questions and conflict-of-interest concerns.
“The decision (to revoke the charter) was supported by the state’s leading charter school advocates.
” “In this situation, it is clear that academic performance is not enough to either overlook or excuse the mismanagement of public funds and the unwillingness from the board of directors to respond in ways that would satisfactorily address the legitimate concerns raised by OUSD,” said Jed Wallace, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, in a letter to the board in support of the revocation.”
http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/No-reprieve-for-Oakland-Indian-charter-schools-4622492.php
BTW, please be careful of using the rephormers language. For instance:
“We all want great teachers for every student. So let’s provide the training and on-the-job professional development that teaches teachers how to be great teachers.”
Well, maybe, I guess, but first I need to know what a “great teacher” is and no one has yet been able to tell me. If you think about the “best” teacher you had in school, you could probably find many fellow graduates of your school to tell you how awful s/he was. And, similarly, if you think about “worst” teacher you had, you’d probably find plenty to tell you how great s/he was. I don’t give a rat’s patoot about which teachers are raising test scores (actually, in fact, I do sort of, but in a reverse kind of way, because those doing the most to raise test scores may very well be the ones most focused on test prep, which I think is the very worst kind of “teaching”), so what other means are we going to use to determine who is a “great” teacher and how to get more of them? And in any case, even if we determine who is a “great” teacher and who isn’t, how much credit/blame does administration get? For instance, I don’t think most teachers who “burn out” do so because of teaching per se, but more likely because of poor or even abusive administration.
“We all want teachers to be held accountable for doing a great job with students.”
No, because, again, I don’t know what a “great job” looks like. Teachers can’t be held accountable for students when there are so many factors outside a teachers’ control.
“We all want to know how are students are doing in school.”
No, I want to know how my students are doing in school. Your students and every other student are not my business. I trust that the vast majority of schools are doing the best they can with what they have to work with.
I agree. There are several things this young scholar needs to think about.
It is easy to forget that USDE tried to sell Race to the Top by overuse of the word “great” — “great teachers and great leaders and great schools.” The “great” (whatever) is another version of “the right stuff” and “top talent” memes USDE loves, the latter from McKinsey & Co. Casual use of “great” as if a solution to a problem is not wise.
In addition, I don’t think the phrase “mass hysteria” is an apt phrase for the policies that have come down the pike from USDE. These are not “spontaneous collective delusions” that are propagated with no apparent cause. The policies are carefully crafted to forward an ideology. The vision of proper education is pitiful, with no evidence to support it.
A really tragic aspect of this young scholar’s exercise in close reading of the book—a book designed to make charters look great– is this: The young scholar is under the same threat/risk as many other workers in education. His academic freedom is impaired. He feels compelled to be critical of policies designed to damage public education. He cannot reveal where he is employed for fear of not passing ideological muster and losing his job. He is NOT protected by due-process hearings. This is a clear signal that the intellectual integrity of his faculty/school has been corrupted.
His post via Diane leaves out some important information.
David Whitman, the author of Sweating the Small Stuff, became the chief speechwriter for Arne Duncan in June 2009. Just before that job he was a free-lance writer who was paid by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute to “research” and write this very book, filled with cherry-picked data. Wow, conveniently published the year before he landed his job a USDE.
Before that job for the Fordham, Whitman held the post of Senior Writer at U.S. News & World Report for seventeen years, with a focus on social policy, later on environment and energy.
Before that job he wrote case studies on public policy dilemmas—course content to teach graduate students at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Two books came from that work.
The most relevant to this thread was titled ”Impact: How the Press Affects Federal Policymaking: Six Case Studies” (1986). By Martin Linsky (project leader) with Jonathan Moore, David Whitman, and Wendy O’Donnell. The six case studies examined: the 1969 reorganization of the Post Office; the resignation of Vice President Agnew; President Carter and the neutron bomb; relocation of families near Love Canal in New York State; the Bob Jones University tax exemption battle; and, suspension of Social Security disability reviews in 1984.
I think it fair to say that Whitman had the know-how to be an investigative reporter but chose to push the ideology for which he was rewarded with a post at USDE. He comes from a long line of propagandists.
That’s a 100 size font TAGO Dienne!!!
Thank you, Dienne. I am so tired of hearing of the need for great teachers as if there was a cookie cutter solution. In full agreement about students, too.
There is NO denying the observations of Horace Meister as there is NO denying
the complicity (consent) required for the adaptation of the absurd. Hello GAGA.
What if a war was scheduled and NO ONE showed up? WE have the numerical
advantage (head-count)! Who doesn’t remember “go shopping” blathered by “shrub”?
How about “starve the beast” as per raygun? Would that “starve the beast” be a two-
way street? Where does the funding of the “money brains(sic)” come from?
Exposing the absurd may gain “some” of their attention. Getting into their wallet should
gain more attention. What do you suppose their response would be if the money machine
grinded to a halt? Every transaction funds either good or bad via tax collection. The
transactions also add money to “them”. Drum roll…Put your money where your mouth is.
DON’T put it where your mouth isn’t. Stop funding the PUKES already, by buying into
their products.
A national NO SHOP day (no collect sales tax day) might get their attention, as to our
collective might.
Meister should share his results with Donna Brazile and her newly minted Democrats for Public Education. It’s about time we had someone with some political clout on our team.http://www.democratsforpubliceducation.com/
Thank you for writing this, Horace Meister. Great job debunking Whitman’s propaganda.
“In the current political climate claims about the performance of some schools are used by our Secretary of Education to bludgeon and demean the rest.[xxvi] ”
“Bludgeon and demean” –good choice of words.
While we strongly disagree with several of the general assertions in this piece, we are responding directly to the misstatements about Achievement First.This blog post cherry-picks outdated statistics and contains several inaccuracies. More generally, it fails to take into account the broader picture: that Achievement First is helping more than 9,500 students from historically underserved communities on the path to college graduation.
Specifically regarding the Achievement First Amistad High graduation statistic, this information is dated and incomplete. The original 2013 article from which the writer drew this statistic also states that AF Amistad High had a 75 percent four-year cohort graduation rate that exceeded the district average. Achievement First takes attrition very seriously, and we are committed to educating every student who walks through our doors. The post fails to mention the success of our high school graduates, who have gone on to attend schools including Brown University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Connecticut, University of Pennsylvania and Morehouse College.
This post also includes one negative, anonymous comment from a schools’ rating website. This is clearly not an accurate representation of parents’ overall feelings about the school. The same website gives the school in question—Amistad Academy Middle—four out of five stars based on anonymous reviews. On the school’s 2013-14 parent survey, which was also anonymous, 91% of Amistad Academy Middle parents reported that they would give the school an “A” or “B” grade overall.
If the parent comment cited in the article is not representative then why the heck are so, so many of your students leaving the school. Calling data from 2013 outdated is ridiculous. Why don’t you stop spending your time producing propaganda and devote your energies to figuring out how not to lose over half of your students in each cohort? Finally how could you possibly have a 75% graduation rate when over half of your students don’t graduate?! You can only create such a statistic by fudging your numbers. Which is exactly one of the points the author makes, schools such as yours use a bag of tricks to make their data look good. But you aren’t really educating all students and your aren’t a model for other schools.