On October 22, I spoke at Wellesley College, my alma mater, to inaugurate a new annual lecture series on the subject of public education.
Here is a link to the speech, preceded by three introductions: one by Barbara Beatty, chair of the College’s Education department; Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association; and Linda Gottlieb, producer of the classic film, “Dirty Dancing,” a classmate of the class of 1960 and dear friend.
My purpose was to describe the current state of American education, the errors of the status quo, and what we must do to transform education for the future.
I am also funding student internships and research, and one day there will be a professorship. My hope is that one day Wellesley will be a center for generating sane and thoughtful education policy.
Next year’s speaker in this series will be Pasi Sahlberg, the great Finnish educational authority, who is a Visiting Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
I am hopeful that the initiative at Wellesley will eventually grow to sponsoring scholarly work, seminars, and visionary thinking about a better education for every child.
Thank you for continuing to fight this battle for our children and grandchildren.
Great choice for the speaker next year.
Agree Great plan for passing forward the important work you are doing.
This was a fabulous speech! One of my student teachers watched and wrote a detailed response to many of the ideas that were new to her. I think this should be shared widely, and I do hope that Wellesley women will use your generous funding to further the cause of improving public education for everyone. I think my favorite moment was when you described hearing the life lesson “a writer writes” in Alumnae Hall.
Inspiring message! Obama should be forced to view this “Clockwork Orange” style.
Diane has a wonderful line in that speech: “Can we create schools that encourage the love of learning, teach the discipline of craft and unleash the joy of performance”
My answer is hell yes we can and we can do it now! Don’t wait for the test to come back as teachers in the Indianapolis schools were told by Superintendent Dr. Woodson. Assess now because immediate response is needed to drive your school plans and improve every child’s ability to learn.
And may I add, make it whole child assessment that tells what a child has learned and needs to learn. After all the fundamental purpose of education is not to test well. And then give parents that information, not by a letter grade that says nothing, but by information.
And if children do not do well on an assessment, don’t pass by them going to the next chapter, Return and assure all children learn, even if it is at a different rate and in a different way.
And for the sake of the children, recognizing that kids are different, realize that it is not important that children graduate “on time” It is more important that they graduate even if it takes a little longer. They are not stupid, genius simply evolves at different times and in different ways. Not on a common core schedule.
Kudos for Diane,s great statement. It is time for those who have kept their powder dry, to act!
“Bootsie Battle-Holt, a middle school math teacher from Los Angeles, found herself on a couch in the Oval Office on Monday morning, telling President Obama about the barrage of tests that she is required to administer to her students.
“He said that he knows for sure at this point that many of our students are being overtested and he’s dedicated to a plan to mitigate that,” said Battle-Holt, one of two teachers invited to meet with Obama, along with a cadre of federal, state and city education officials.
The private meeting, which ran late because participants said the president was engaged in the topic, came two days after Obama acknowledged that his policies have helped lead to widespread overtesting in the nation’s public schools.”
I hope he doesn’t “take action” because the 2% plan in Congress is a terrible idea. First do no harm, Mr. President and ask someone outside the small circle of “movement” ed reformers this time, huh?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/obama-meets-with-educators-to-talk-about-standardized-testing/2015/10/26/5974f570-7beb-11e5-beba-927fd8634498_story.html
In more hopeful news, and thanks to (volunteer) advocates for public schools, Ohio kids will go from 40 days disruption to administer Common Core tests last year to 15 days this year because they dumped the contractor and hired a different one. We’ll also save money on testing. Good job, and thank you.
Big THANK YOU!
2% testing is what we can already protect our children from by refusing… The other 98% is what concerns me… That time is filled with inappropriate standards and test prep… Not to mention New York had already capped testing to 1% in 2014 but have ignored that legislation
I just watched Duncan bob and weave on PBS trying to defend testing..
Basically,
1) Teachers need to be force fed the tests because teachers haven’t a clue what they are doing in the classroom.
2) Tests are the end game and drive all instruction. The best aspect of tests is that test scores can be used to raise test scores.
3) Parents are clueless about their students, schools, and teachers. They need tests to know what is going on.
4) We need a one sized fits all strategy because it is critical that a student in Mississippi is accurately compared against a student in Alaska. This as opposed to adaptation and innovation as the worse thing that could happen is someone try something not in lock step with a standard.
5) Civil rights are now built upon testing. We need tests to tell us about inequity even if we already knew about inequity.
6) Teachers, students, and parents must be irrelevant because all I saw interviewed were two guys in suits who probably haven’t a clue what really goes on in classrooms.
And finally,
7) The reason no one likes tests is because the message is incorrect. Just wait! Better tests are just ahead!
Duncan talks a great deal, but understands very little. What he supports is not research based, and he cares nothing for facts. He has caused a great deal of harm during his “reign of terror.” He’s a lame duck that won’t be missed.
Excellent first lecture of the series, Diane!
An inspirational lecture. As a faculty member in the Dept of Education at Wellesley, I’m so thankful to you, Diane, for providing these opportunities to us! We will make great use of these new resources.
What a lovely gift that will keep on giving. Creating internships, research, and a professorship is such a pro-active approach. It inspires me to think of ways to make that happen in my community, on a smaller scale.
Finally finished watching this…I would like to use your terrific answer to the last questioner at your speech. I’m giving a presentation to a group of public school teachers next week. The question was:
[paraphrased] “I’m a fourth grade teacher and wondering what advice you would give to teachers who want to work towards improving the situation in public schools.”
Answer from Diane:
“1. You can’t do it alone. You must join with others. If you’re a teacher, get active in your teacher association and join with others who want to change things.
“2. You must become politically active because it’s the people in the legislature who are making decisions over which teachers have little or no control. In state after state, the only answer is to “throw the rascals out.”
“3. Keep within yourself the vision of what is right and what is ethical so that no matter what they tell you to do, even if you’re forced to do it, know that it’s wrong and don’t ever forget what’s right.”
Thanks, Stu.
We can’t change the attack on teachers and public schools unless we become activists.