Peter Greene read a post that Checker Finn wrote for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s blog, in which Checker warned parents to be ready for the unpleasant news they would learn about their children’s failure when the Common Core tests results are reported. Peter did not agree with Checker because he thinks the tests are dumb, not the kids. Peter can’t understand why a “conservative” would want the federal government to take control of what all students in the nation ought to learn. He writes: Aren’t Fordham guys like Finn supposed to be conservatives? When did conservatives start saying, “The government should decide what a person is supposed to be like, telling people when they aren’t measuring up to government standards, and using government pressure to try to make them be the way the government says they should be.”
I am sort of in a tough spot here because Checker was my closest friend for many years. We worked together at the Educational Excellence Network, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (now Institute), the Koret Foundation at the Hoover Institution, and we shared many family events. However, when I turned against testing, choice, accountability, charters, and vouchers, our friendship did not survive. I am still fond of Checker, his wife Renu, and his children, but we don’t agree anymore about things we both care about, and we both understand that. I lost a very close friend when I changed my world views, and I am sad about that. But, I had no choice. Knowing Checker, he would do the same. But he didn’t.
I know that Checker has a low opinion of American students and teachers. He went to Exeter and Harvard, and very few meet his high expectations. When he was chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which oversees NAEP, he led the creation of the achievement levels so the American public would see just how ill-educated their children were. The established NAEP scale was a proficiency scale from 0-500. Checker thought that the public did not derive a sufficient sense of urgency because they did not understand what it meant to be 350 or 425 on a scale of 500. What they would understand, he thought (correctly), was proficiency levels: basic, proficient, advanced (and, of course, the worst, below basic). He wanted the public to be duly alarmed at the sad state of education. Congress recognized that there is an arbitrary quality to proficiency levels; they still considered them to be “trials.” Experts disagree about how to set them and what they mean. Ultimately, the NAEP levels are set by panels of people from different walks of life who make judgment calls about what they think students in fourth grade and eighth grade ought to know. This is not science, this is human judgment.
Unfortunately, the public didn’t listen to the periodic alarums from NAEP and NAGB. The reports came out, and they didn’t get much attention. But after the passage of No Child Left Behind, the nation went into full-blown crisis mode about the state of education, and a hungry industry grew up to tutor, remediate, and school the students who didn’t pass their state tests. Then the charter industry emerged, and the henny-penny-sky-is-falling movement saw that the way to create a demand for charters and vouchers was to generate a steady narrative of “our schools in crisis.” Suddenly the regular NAEP reports were headline news. Suddenly the public became aware of the number of students who were “not proficient,” even though proficient was a very high bar indeed.
Now we have Common Core, more rigorous than any of the other standards, and Common Core tests, designed to find 70% of American kids falling short of the standards.
This is where Checker comes in again, to warn parents that their children will surely fail. Imagine this: the most powerful nation in the world, with the most advanced technology, the most influential culture, the biggest economy, yet somehow the schools that educated 90% of Americans are terrible. How can this be?
Peter Greene steps in now to take Checker on.
Read the whole thing, but here is the windup:
Finn’s basic complaint is that parents aren’t being forced to understand the Hard Truth that BS Tests prove that their children are dopes, and that said parents should be alarmed and upset. The Hard Truth that Finn doesn’t face is that the PARCC and SBA provide little-to-no useful information, and that parents are far more likely to turn to trusted teachers and their own intimate knowledge of their own children than to what seems to be an unfair, irrational, untested, unvalidated system.
Yes, some parents have trouble facing some truths about their own children. There can’t be a classroom teacher in the country that hasn’t seen that in action, and it can be sad. I’m not so sure that it’s sadder, however, than a parent who believes that his child is a stupid, useless loser. Finn seems really invested in making that parents hear bad news about their kids; I’m genuinely curious about what he envisions happening next. A parent pulls the small child up into a warm embrace to say, “You know, you’re not that great.” A parent makes use of a rare peaceful evening at home with a teenager to say, “I wish your test results didn’t suck so badly. Would you please suck less?” What exactly is the end game of this enforced parental eye opening?
Okay, I can guess, given the proclivities of the market-based reformster crowd. What happens next is that the parents express shock that Pat is so far off the college and career ready trail and quickly pulls Pat out of that sucky public school to attend a great charter school with super-duper test scores. The market-driven reform crowd wants to see an open education market driven by pure data– not the fuzzy warm love-addled parental data that come from a lifetime of knowing and loving their flesh and blood intimately, and not even the kind of chirpy happy-talk data that come from teachers who have invested a year in working with that child, but in the cold, hard deeply true data that can come from an efficient, number-generating standardized test. That’s what should drive the market.
Alas, no such data exists. No test can measure everything, or even anything, that matters in a child and in the child’s education. No test can measure the deep and wide constellation of capabilities that we barely cover under headings like “character” or “critical thinking.”
Folks like Finn try hard to believe that such magical data-finding tests can exist. They are reluctant to face the Hard Truth that they are looking for centaur-operated unicorn farms. The unfortunate truth is that they have dragged the rest of the country on this fruitless hunt with them.
I actually don’t have any problem with higher standards. I don’t think test scores are the definitive measure of my kids anyway.
I don’t have any faith that the current (completely dominant) ed reform “movement” can be trusted to use the Common Core testing tool correctly or even responsibly. I think we saw that with NCLB and none of them have budged an inch or accepted any responsibility for how that turned out. Duncan has yet to admit that VAM drove increased testing. He relies on this legalistic defense “I didn’t add any tests!” that is just a complete dodge.
I think relying on a “better test” to change the “ed reform movement” is almost delusional. A better test isn’t going to make better policy and it isn’t going to change the approach of the ed reform movement.
The problem wasn’t the test. It was the people wielding the tests and the policy.
‘Tis a poor workmen who blames his tools.
One of my best friends in high score was who Finn would look down upon as a loser. Consistently failing classes, in fights, suspended. Our teachers never gave up. Most of those teachers would be judged “ineffective” today and removed. My friend graduated, worked for awhile, then returned to school becoming a lawyer. He makes 10 times what I make and has found peace. The elitists like Finn will never understand. These conservatives would rather step over and spit on fellow Americans down on their luck, while true progressives reach down and offer a hand up.
As far as losing a “friend”, my former company shoved me out the door because I had the misfortune of some grey hairs, temporary health problems, and a special needs child requiring a bit more attention at times. I worked 60-70 hour weeks, on call 24/7, saved the incompetent execs from their hubris and stupidity, and generated millions. Some pinhead in an office somewhere pushed a few buttons. My “friends” refused to offer are recommendation (I was a top performer) and suddenly became reachable. They and the whole conservative “free market” trust fund baby crowd can burn in #=!!.
My middle son did poorly in school. He’s really hitting his stride right now in skilled trades. I’m glad I didn’t box him in based on his ACT scores. He started community college on an academic track. He chose his own path once he got there.
I don’t know what would have happened to him if he had to pass the Common Core test to graduate high school. Actually I do know. My husband and I make enough to buy him extra help, which we would have done to get him past that test.
Good luck to your son! We are in the same boat getting our son a career, but he has challenges. Finn and his ilk can be thoroughly classified as Clueless People.
The dirty little secret that Finn and his pals know is that they would never have private schools take the same terribly written exams as public school students. I want to see how well private schools do — in NY State, the few private schools that opt-in to the exam have quite poor results — especially the Yeshiva schools! Could you imagine if that was publicized more? Some of them have almost no proficient students, according to the state tests. What does Finn have to say about that?
Having seen my own child’s common core prep homework, I have no doubt that if the top private school elementary school students all had to take this exam, some would not pass. Why? Because the exam is written to insure that no matter how much you know, there is a chance you will choose a wrong answer from the two ambiguous plausible ones.
The private school issue is really interesting. Ohio has vouchers, and certain private schools opted out of the testing.
I had the opposite compliant of most people. I thought the math was fine (although as you say designed to put 50% or better in the “failing” category).
I thought the english was dreadful. Dull and absolutely joyless. It’s a lawyer’s idea of english, of how to “read” something.
It’s as if they set out to drive any possible pleasure out of it.
I picked some books I loved when I was his age for my son this summer because I’m trying to counteract the grim horribleness of that test. It doesn’t have to be like that.
I have to say, too, they should get their talking points straight because this thing is incoherent.
The idea that I’m supposed to be encouraged that ed reformers won’t use these tests in narrow and punishing ways WHILE they are extending “safe harbor” to students, parents and teachers is not a selling point. It’s an indication of bad faith. It means nothing has changed. New test, old policy, same people. The problem wasn’t the tool.
Why do we need “safe harbor”? Maybe they could let us in on the sanctions plan after “safe harbor” expires, either that or admit they have no earthly idea how ed reformers at the state level will use these super-duper tests. I don’t like surprises.
How can PARCC and SBA tell parents how their children are doing when they can’t see the tests or the questions? These test tell them nothing because they don’t get to see whats really on them. They could have been educational tools but all they ended up being are business tools, used to fire teachers, close schools and open charters. They have nothing to do with how or how much students really learn.
Also, I can’t help but notice the dominant force in US education for the last 15 years never tells any “hard truths” about their own performance. They’re big truth tellers concerning other people.
I think I’ve heard enough scolding of teachers, parents and students. I get that they’ve identified the problem and it’s “us”.
Let’s talk about ed reform leadership for a while, including the think tanks, politicians, philanthropists and CEO’s. Any problems there?
“Truth to power” means challenging people who are actually powerful rather than punching down.
While people like Checker Finn may have an ideological connection to excellence, the hedge fund crowd that has recently embraced charters have done so because there is money to be made and laundered from charter schools. This is not about ideology, or improving academics for poor children. If Mr. Finn is an intelligent fellow, he should take off the ivy covered blinders and look at the facts. Charter schools have failed in their mission. They offer no magic bullets or solutions, and they only get better results than public schools under idealized conditions. Charter schools are more segregated while many minority and women have lost their middle class jobs, and it has served no purpose. They has cause widespread chaos and destruction of neighborhood schools that offered a comprehensive program instead of test prep camps. Worst of all this movement has spawned a devious type of snake oil salesmen that commit theft and fraud of public dollars, or those that create islands of middle class charter schools using Wall St. chicanery to use public funds to underwrite their segregationist agenda. Smart fellow Finn should open his mind to the researched based fact that poverty is the biggest problem of public education. He should understand that testing does not improve outcomes for students. Standards cannot be raised by waving a magic wand while testing students at their frustration level. This is failed practice! In fact, if he wants to raise scores, he should support raising the socio-economic levels of those being tested. That is what the data tells us.
Here’s a link I would highly recommend to Mr. Finn, if he wants to separate fact from fiction. http://thecrucialvoice.com/2015/06/01/distinguishing-truth-from-deception/
“He went to Exeter and Harvard”
I don’t think it is any exaggeration to say that education “reform” owes its very existence to elitist Harvard types : Gates, Duncan, Obama, Bush, Chetty, Friedman.
The “expectations” these people have are of a very particular kind. They “expect” that everyone else will simply do as they say — the kind of “expectations” that a dictator has.
And the “accountability” these people support is accountability for everyone but themselves.
I have always wondered whether these “values” were actually taught at Harvard or whether people possessed them before they went there.
I don’t care what they say, it IS weird that so many of them went to private schools.
Public schools and private schools are different. It’s a fundamentally different idea. I think that’s why they have so much trouble with the “public” part of public schools. It’s not supposed to be a hurdle one surmounts. If they’re knocking down the public on the way to public school reform then they’re failing at a really central part of the job. It’s not an “extra”, the public part. It’s a requirement.
Chiara,
It is not an accident that so few of the reformsters went to public school. They really have no understanding of the role that public education plays in a democracy. That’s why they are willing to turn to market-based “reforms” that will benefit a few and harm many.
Is it that they don’t understand, or that they do? Most of the rephomsters are business execs used to demanding and getting their own way. They tend to find democracy messy and inconvenient. If they could find a way to get rid of democracy while still letting people think they have it, well, wouldn’t that be the best of all possible worlds for them? What better way than to control education and the media?
Dienne,
I agree
I think many of these elitist types actually understand the link between public schools and democracy very well, which is why they are trying so hard to destroy public schools.
Some, like Alexander Hamilton who (who actually proposed the idea of a President and Senators for life), believe that most Americans are neither capable nor worthy of governing themselves.
and some of these folks, like the landed aristocrats who supported the British crown in their fight against the colonies, would actually prefer a monarchy as long as they got to keep everything they have.
“Rooting out Democracy”
Public education
Democracy in action
Demands eradication
By oligarchic faction
“Contempt for Democracy”
They don’t believe in democracy
In fact, they have contempt
For any vote by you and me
From which they act exempt
“The Elites”
They tell us what to do
They tell us what to say
They make us bow on cue
On every single day
It’s not taught there, but many who attend think they have all the answers. As a Harvard-educated public school teacher, I’ll paste in my speech to graduating seniors from last week. I’ll also note that I wouldn’t have become a teacher had I known what was coming.
Superintendent Kramer, Assistant Superintendent Matsudo, Mr. Olson, Mr. Kimling, President Gelis, Graduates-in-waiting for the Class of 2015,
Last month I attended my 20th Class Reunion at Harvard Law School. Just another event that lets you know you’re getting older and time is passing quickly. When you attend something like this, you can’t help but reflect and assess where you stand among your peers. The boy I played squash and poker with is the junior Senator from Texas and is running for President of the United States. The guy who put me in his makeshift home movie wrote the screenplay for “Precious” and won an Academy Award. Every one of my best friends from law school is making seven figures a year in exciting cities like New York, Washington DC, and Atlanta, and another one of my friends started an internet company that landed him in Forbes Magazine of richest people in the world. Everyone around me is rising, rising, rising. Meanwhile, I look in the mirror every morning and find myself exactly where I was 18 years ago…right here…teaching at Madeira High School.
Now it’s not like nothing has changed. Physically, I’m a little slower and weaker than when I arrived in the 90’s. The hair’s a little thinner, a little grayer, and there’s been an ever-so-slight deterioration of my natural good looks. Mentally, I tire a little more easily. I can’t do math in my head as well. I occasionally forget things, sometimes forgetting what I’ve forgotten. And I’m not even that old! I look to my more experienced friends in administration and…just teasing Mr. Olson!…But I have to believe what we lose in physical strength and mental sharpness, we make up for in wisdom.
The last time I spoke at Baccalaureate in 2007, I spoke about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay called “Compensation.” In this essay, Emerson spoke of the fact that for every loss you suffer, there is an equal and opposite gain – you just have to find it. I have been fascinated by this idea over the years, and I have found it to be true. So often disappointment is followed by fulfillment, defeat is followed by glory, pain is followed by a healing leaving you stronger than you ever were before.
I have always marveled at Helen Keller. This deaf, mute, and blind woman was one of the most brilliant philosophers our world has ever seen. Would she have had such insight had she been “normal” and “just like you and me?” Helen Keller is the model of compensation – someone who found the equal and opposite benefit associated with loss.
And compensation is all around us. Your class has shown me dozens of examples. Our terrific musicians and singers, our wonderful actors and artists, our award winning students in so many competitions including the state Latin convention, Budget Challenge, Cincinnati Academic League Tournament Champion Academic Team, and our National Champion Jets Squad, but the coach in me gravitates to the athletic field. I first met Toni Alloy when she moved to Madeira in junior high school and attended my soccer camp. I instantly knew that Toni was my kind of player – a combination of streetball meets master tactician – and I’ve loved watching her play both soccer and basketball in high school. When Toni was seriously injured last fall, my heart bled for her. I can remember in high school when I was injured and how much it upset me. You still root for the team, but there’s a tiny part of you that hopes that the team misses your presence. Toni refused to let the setback affect her attitude or her spirit. She vocally supported her teammates. When the team had big wins without her on the field, no one was more celebratory. Toni rehabbed behind the scenes, and somehow managed to return to action. Even at less than 100%, from central midfield, along with her fantastic senior teammates and Coach Brady, she was able to help lead our Zons to another District championship. Toni may have moved here, but from the classroom to the athletic field, she represents everything that is great at Madeira.
Kyle Rizzuto was the one member of the Varsity basketball team short enough that I can look at him eye-to-eye. For years Kyle worked on his ballhandling, passing, fitness, defense, and shooting to be able to compete well with players much bigger than he is, and his efforts were rewarded when he earned the starting point guard position. The team was doing well – much better than preseason expectations – but Coach Reynolds believed the team could be even better if Kyle would be available to give the team a spark off the bench. Being replaced in the starting line-up is difficult for anybody. Now, add in the fact that Kyle was replaced by a freshman. The situation could have easily shattered the team, and I’m sure it would have if the individual involved was someone with less maturity and less character. Not only did Kyle accept his new role with the same energy that he attacks all challenges, but he did everything in his power to help his freshman replacement thrive. I can remember when I was a freshman soccer player doing whatever I could to both survive and make a positive impression on the coach. I vividly remember the senior who tripped me in the middle of one of my sprints because I was trying too hard. I also remember well the senior who told me I could make it. Kyle, the consistent overachievement of your teams began with your example. At one of the best athletic small schools in the state, I want to congratulate you on being named the outstanding senior boy athlete. I salute you for your leadership, and I want you to know that your example will live on in future Mustangs.
One of those future Mustangs is second-grader Will Unger. I’m not sure there is a bigger Madeira fan than Will. Will’s favorite team this year, of course, was our awesome Madeira Amazons basketball team. I can’t tell you how many times he’s made me play Kline v. Kline on our front yard basketball hoop (he was always Celia, but don’t worry Mallory, I played lockdown defense on him). But Will’s imagination was also captured by a less publicized winter sport. On Friday, February 27th, four members of our school…including two of our outstanding seniors, Ryan Stephenson and Jack Mantkowski, competed in the Ohio swimming state championships. Thousands of laps, countless strokes, endless practices before school and late at night resulted in a number of dominating performances. Will and I saw these awesome competitors triumph multiple times in the District meet, and he peppered me with question after question about the swimmers who could become the first boy state champions at Madeira in over a decade. During the state meet, we were glued to our internet as the live results came in. In the 200-yard medley relay, we placed 5th. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, we placed 5th again. The final event of the meet was the 400-yard freestyle relay. With one lap remaining, our boys were in the lead. Coming down the stretch, we were stroke for stroke with Seven Hills. At the wall, it was impossible to see which team had won…but the electronic timer showed we had come in second place…by 5 hundredths of a second. Five hundredths of a second! 16 laps and 400 yards came down to the length of a knuckle. If the race is 1 yard shorter or 1 yard longer…we win. What possible compensation could come from this heartbreaking result?
The situation brought me back to one of my favorite soccer players on one of my favorite soccer teams. In 2006, I had a senior, Nate Ervin Class of 2007, a back-up who – despite battling a knee injury his entire career – did everything a coach ask for. His example raised the level of more talented teammates, and he became a legitimately strong substitute forward for our team. With twelve seconds remaining in the State Semifinals, our boys had valiantly fought to a one-one score against the #1 ranked team in the state, and it looked like we were heading to overtime when a ball flew out of bounds by our bench. Nate easily could have let the ball roll harmlessly to the fence. Instead, he made the sporting gesture of retrieving the ball for Worthington Christian. Our opponents took advantage of the situation by scoring a dramatic last-second game-winning goal and three days later followed up by winning the State Championship. To lose that way was shocking. Just like that, I was no longer coaching the most overachieving group of seniors I’d ever had the privilege of coaching. Needless to say, Nate was devastated. A few months later, I received a letter from the parent of a Worthington Christian player. In it, he wrote: “On watching the videotape of our winning goal against you, we were stunned to see that one of your players got the ball for us on the sideline. It was a class act by a class team. Through the years, we’ve learned that Madeira players show great respect for their opponents and great respect for the game.” The defeat was gut-wrenching, but what an unbelievable compliment this was to my player. As I told the boys after the game, you should never have to apologize for acting with decency and honor. That game and that moment were among my proudest as a coach.
I left law to become a teacher and a coach. I can say with complete honesty, that it kills me to be away from coaching. I want to thank the senior boys soccer players for making me feel as much a part of things as they possibly could. In the best programs, tradition never graduates, and thanks to you, it doesn’t retire, either. The greatest compensation I’ve had as a retired coach has been the opportunity to spend more time with my son. But, boy, does he wear me out with his questions. As I mentioned earlier, he couldn’t ask enough about our swimmers. And what could I tell him about Jack and Ryan? Both are outstanding students. Both are super citizens. Both are great friends to many. And, like so many of you, they are shining examples of this incredible class from this wonderful school. Was Ryan and Jack’s effort diminished by coming 1 inch short of their ultimate goal? The longer I coached, the more I understood Kipling’s famous quote: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.” Through the years I’ve learned that in the end, competition and participation is not about the glory, the wins, trophies, banners, or titles. Rather, it’s about the created memories, the character developed, the stories shared, and the relationships forged during a pursuit of excellence. As I told Nate Ervin back in 2006, if my son could grow up to be like Ryan Stephenson and Jack Mantkowski, I’d be a very proud father.
Over the past four years, I’ve read my fair share of books. I’ll read just about anything, but my favorite books are biographies and autobiographies of great men and women. I read these books in the hopes that I can learn from these people. Some common lessons have come through. Nearly every successful person I have read about has had a period in their lives where they were down and out, periods of terrible frustration, periods where they made horrendous mistakes, periods of desperation where achievement seemed beyond reach. Thomas Edison had over 10,000 failed experiments before he finally invented the light bulb. One of my favorite coaches, Joe Torre, set a Major League Baseball record for having the longest career as a player and manager without ever reaching the World Series. That was before he managed the New York Yankees to four World Series titles in five years. Anne Sullivan was Helen Keller’s phenomenal teacher. After being taken for granted and stymied by Helen’s parents, Ms. Sullivan, who was legally blind herself, became so depressed with her situation that she nearly left the Keller household in disgust before seeing even a fraction of what was to become Helen’s miraculous progress. Abraham Lincoln lived through “many days which tried men’s souls” before bringing a conclusion to the Civil War which ended slavery and saved the United States of America.
A common theme among nearly every great person who ever lived is that they were able to hang on just a little longer where other people may very well have given up. They were able to find the positive aspects of negative situations. They were able to demonstrate an understanding of Emerson’s compensation.
Understanding compensation and reaping its benefits largely comes down to your attitude. Will you be the type who wallows in self-pity? Will you be the one who always sees the sky falling? Or will you be the one who sees the silver lining in every dark cloud? And will you be the one who anticipates the sun coming up tomorrow?
As you move into your futures, I am not going to wish you a fairy-tale life where you live happily ever after. I am not going to wish you a road without bumps and dead ends and obstacles. I am not going to wish you a world without hardship. Instead, I am going to wish you the strength to persevere when everything around you is falling apart. I am going to wish you the ability to rise from the ashes and bounce back stronger than ever when it seems like nothing is going your way. I am going to wish you the faith, wisdom, and guidance to overcome all which comes to you, to find the silver lining in every cloud, to find the compensation in every loss. Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach, put it well when he said: “The glory is not in never falling down. The glory is in fighting to get up every time you do get knocked down.” Another writer said this thought in a different way which I have always found inspiring: “Only when the sky is darkest can I see the stars.”
Yes, my friends from Harvard are garnering fame, fortune, and power. They can order meals at the fanciest restaurants in the world, while I get to jostle with you in our cafeteria lunch line. They can pay for all the hired help they could ever need ten times over, but they can’t get the gratification I feel when students like Colin Voisard or Franny Barone or Madeline Gelis and many others are ready and able to help me with the cheapest of labor when I need help running a dodgeball tournament or keeping my son occupied during a basketball game. They get interviewed by the New York Times and Oprah, while I get interviewed by Bianca and “What’s up, Madeira?” You don’t become a teacher for the fame or the money. And I’ve got a news flash for all those educational policy experts in Columbus and Washington D.C. You don’t become a teacher to raise a student’s math score three points on a test. I didn’t enjoy the great company of Patrick Miller and Julie Yeomans nearly every day after school last year for them to become nuclear physicists but to learn that with extra effort they could do better than they every believed they could. I didn’t treasure Theodore Graeter’s otherworldly class participation in the hopes he might uncover some unknown theorem but to further develop his one-of-a kind personality. I had no illusions that making my good friend Marc Puma spend time on Khan Academy during all vacations to raise his otherwise unacceptable grades would lead to a Nobel Prize in Mathematics. Now, Jack Good, on the other hand… Like every teacher at this tremendous school, I became a teacher for many reasons. Maybe the biggest reason I became a teacher was to help my students dream just a little bit bigger, and to have just a little more confidence when pursuing those dreams and just a little more ability to achieve them. I am proud of my famous and successful friends, but I am just as proud of being a small part of your achievements. I look forward to many more of your success stories, and I look forward to sharing those stories with William Jason Unger, Madeira High School Class of 2025. It has been a privilege teaching you and an honor speaking to you tonight. I wish congratulations and Godspeed to the Madeira High School Class of 2015.
“It’s not taught there, but many who attend think they have all the answers.’
Thanks, I had a hunch that that was the case.
I suppose “taught” is probably not even the right word. “Did not discourage” or perhaps even “tacitly encouraged” might be more apt.
I graduated from a public university though I did go to an Ivy league university for my first two years (but not Harvard) so I can definitely relate to the “know-it-all ‘attitude. In fact, that’s primarily why I left.
Unfortunately, that attitude actually seemed to be prevalent among both students AND professors — which may be why certain schools seem to perpetuate (pass down?) such attitudes.
But you are obviously not one of the ones I have referred to. 🙂
Great graduation speech, by the way.
As an aside, one of the things that has always puzzled me is how so many people (particularly from Ivy league schools) can simultaneously “know it all’ and nonetheless have widely divergent claims regarding matters of fact.
I would call it the “know-it-all” paradox.
Shouldn’t everyone who knows it all agree with everyone else who knows it all on every single matter of fact?
Agreed on the irony, SDP.
I should note that I also found a great defensiveness towards admission of ever being wrong. And that manifests itself in the educational policy debate on issue after issue.
Thanks on the speech, btw.
OA II T,
Your speech is eloquent and will be remembered. How meaningful that these young folk will know before starting college or other pursuits that “success” is more than a megabucks income. Thank you for posting it!
Wow, thank you, this is beautiful and uplifting. Quite the opposite of Checker Finn’s removed from reality, fear mongering “hard truths” about our children. Who pays Finn’s checks?
The issue isn’t just the standards, but the fact that the cut scores on their attendant exams are gamed to suit the political agenda of the education reform industrial complex. The exams are, first and foremost, political documents, and have very little to do with measuring what children in the US know and can do.
Those “failures” that so horrify Mr. Finn are political artifacts that have very little to do with the quality of teaching and learning in the country, but everything to do with the ruling class consensus that its wealth and power must be further engorged by privatizing the schools, and that high stakes exams are the lever by which to do so.
In fact, the failure he should be truly concerned about is the utter moral bankruptcy of the nation’s Overclass, which in its greed and will-to-power feels compelled to cannibalize its education system.
Well stated and on the mark!
As we have seen with Wall Street banks, bankruptcy (of both the literal and moral kind) is not failure. Just the opposite. The CEO’s of banks like JP Morgan made out like bandits from the bankruptcy.
Well, we can’t let a good crisis go to waste, can we?
Several years ago I was in the audience when Finn spoke at a conference on vouchers at Catholic University in Washington. Finn said he was ashamed to be a Jew because the major Jewish organizations oppose vouchers. A prominent rabbi who was present replied appropriately. Finn is no friend of public education. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
Since we’re all being such hard truth-tellers with teachers, students and parents, maybe someone could educate me about “credit recovery”. I don’t have any problem with adding that to grad rates if it’s consistent and revealed, but if we’re relying on this mechanism to bump those rates up, isn’t it just like charter schools claiming “100%” graduation rates when they lose 1/3 of the cohort btwn 7th and 12th grade?
The Ohio leg is having this very odd discussion on how to “count” credit recovery schools and there seems to be this weird subtext that sounds to me like people are afraid to isolate that out.
About 20 years ago, my husband was teaching at an “alternative” high school, where nearly all the kids were court involved, some on very serious charges. A new principal came in with a set of goals, which included graduation and promotion targets. Because kids’ attendance was unstable due to truancies as well as the necessity of repeated court appearances, my husband (who taught Social Studies and computer ed) had developed individualized packets which kids could work through at their own pace as teaching to an entire class was an impossibility. This also gave him space and time to talk to kids on an individual basis as he considered counseling to be an intergal part of his work.
One sping day, the principal turned up at his door and told him he was to accept a student who would do “credit recovery” under his supervision. A few weeks later another administrator turned up with paperwork for my husband to sign affirming that the student, with about 6 days of attendance, had recovered enough credit to graduate. Refusing to put his signature on the bogus form ended up costing my husband his that assignment, though his right to his job was protected.
Guess that principal was just way ahead of the curve!
The conservative embrace of mandates, such as the common core (or for that matter imposition of rules about abortion or marriage) on the one hand and a market-based approach to education and health care is actually consistent. There are two core conservative ideas in the US that attempt to balance authoritarianism (for others) and autonomy (for the chosen few). Rhetoric aside, equity is not central value. The idea that some are inherently more able and/or deserving is a central value. In this view, some folks need to be told what to do and controlled, while others should be unencumbered. Many conservatives are not bothered by the resulting inequity, which they believe is part of the natural order. In fact, in this view society should be organized to enable and maximize opportunity for the deserving few.
See http://www.arthurcamins.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Past-Gets-In-Our-Eyes1.pdf for a more detailed account of this plays out in education policy and how some of the anti-reform rhetoric regarding autonomy and local control may support and individualist rather than a community responsibility approach to education improvement.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
Unfortunately, the attack on public education is not just coming from the conservatives, it is also being waged by neo-liberals that want to privatize many of our public services. The government is complicit in showing partiality to charter schools through tax write-offs along little or no oversight and accountability. Legislators continue to write laws such as the re-authorization of NCLB, that allow them to shift public dollars to private entities.
Since you knew Finn so well, do you have any words of advice for those of us in Maryland who now have him on our State Board of Education (along with Andy Smarick)?
What? How the heck did this Rheeformster get on the MD Bd of Ed? I thought MDers were smarter than that.
Sorry, Edd. 😦 MDers elected Hogan (OK, not in OUR county at least LOL), so that would be how. Valerie mentioned them by name (which is more than Diane did here), but referring to them as “Common Core supporters” is like calling a rabid dog “lively.” LOL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/26/maryland-gov-hogan-appoints-two-common-core-supporters-to-board-of-education/
#HoganKillingMdEd
Nor in my county either.
We’re in the same county. LOL
crunchydeb,
Unfortunately, neither Checker Finn nor Andy Smarick believes in public education. They are both staunch advocates for charters, vouchers, takeovers (that lead to charters), and anything else that squelches public education. What can you do? Start planning the next gubernatorial campaign. In the meanwhile, show up at state board meetings, organize parents and educators, and resist efforts to replace public schools with private management, virtual charters, or other forms of privatization.
Already on the agenda. That and planning my family’s exit strategy from Maryland. *sigh*
Diane, the Common Core English Language Arts Standards are NOT rigorous. Please do nor write that they are. I have designed, implemented rigorous English language arts programs and conducted the staff development of the teachers in those programs. The Common Core English Language Arts Standards do not teach the analytical thinking that reading literature offer and do not attempt to develop effective writers. The CCSS for ELA are based on the failed pedagogy (New Criticism) of the past. The scores will be low not because the standards challenge students to read and write and think but because they are “gotcha” exams with pre-determined cut scores.
Good thing Finn wasn’t around when I was a child. I probably would have never learned to read or go to college if he had pounded my mother with his message of our children are stupid and they are going to fail.
Back in the early 1950’s, I was one of those stupid kids who wasn’t supposed to learn to read or write let alone go to college. Thanks to my 1st grade teacher advising my mother what she had to do, I learned to read against all those odds that Finn is manufacturing artificially so he can crow that he is right.
The real idiot is Finn. Some children have to work harder and it takes longer for them to make it and they need encouragement and help to do that—fascist testing that would make Hitler and Stalin proud isn’t going to make that happen.
My understanding is that in reality, reformers including the Governor, Congress and even our President, know the truth. No amount of facts or figures will change their minds or perceptions of public schools. They’ve been bought and sold.
In addition, the country is headed in a very wrong direction, by allowing privatization of the main components of our nation, health, education and financial welfare.
In our country, we are all for profit. We have totally pimped out our financial system, a few years back, we did the same to our health care system and finally, we are hellbent on making money by privatizing our public school system and ridding ourselves of another wonderful public system, for the good of the people.
It has not dawned on us the damage done. We just want to be ubercapitalists to the extreme.
Not the good of the people. The good of the 1%—those turds who float to the top and fool themselves by thinking they are the bomb while looking down on everyone else as losers because they didn’t reach the 1% through theft, lies, fraud and corruption.