The toxic brew called “reform” is ruining public education. But this should not be surprising. This is the intent of the reformers.
They never will say so in their public statements. They will say they want “great teachers.” But they demonize and demoralize the teachers we have now.
What plans do they offer to replenish the teaching profession after they have driven away so many who are dedicated to teaching?
Magic. Out of nowhere, these “great” teachers will appear, teach for a few years and disappear.
Let’s face it. We are confronting a major crisis in education. It’s not because our schools are failing. They are not.
The crisis is caused by the constant attacks on public education and those who teach in public schools, by the effort to micromanage everything that teachers do and turn their work into data that can be used to evaluate them.
This terrible scourge that calls itself “reform” will one day be vanquished.
It must be. And it will be because it is destructive and anti-educational at its core.
| This will probably be my last year in the classroom as well. I have going on 20 years, but enough is enough. The addition of more and more “testing each year. The “common core”, which might not be so bad, but the administrators have so grossly misinterpreted what the intent is that that no one can believe it – we have been told that all fiction must be abandoned! that is not REMOTELY what the standards say! More and more money being spent on computers and tech toys, and then we are told again, “sorry – no money for teachers. You’ll have to do more with less.” The school board as rubber-stamp for the admin. Voters rejecting millage increases – TINY increases, which would be used to add desperately needed classrooms – year after year. The new “evaluation” system being imposed upon teachers beginning in 2014-2015 school year is an abomination, insulting, demoralizing – I could go on, but we all know.
I have had enough. I did not earn 4 degrees, including the PhD., multiple certifications, and embark on NBCT certification to be treated like crap. I used to be an engineer. I can go back to that world, get more money for less work, and I can even take a bathroom break if I want or need to. The deformers want the schools – fine. Take’em. And when everything implodes, in about 3 years time, who will they blame then? Not me. |
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
For those getting discouraged, reminders from Philadelphia about who and what we are fighting for. We just have to get the politicians and education deformers out of the way to change the world!
Chester Children’s Chorus lets kids’ voices – and hopes – soar
from the Philadelphia Inquirer
In the summer of 1997, as a young reporter scouring the suburbs for stories, I landed on the Sunday front page with a 1,000-word ode to a Swarthmore College professor’s belief that kids growing up in the ugliest of places could make the most beautiful music.
http://www.philly.com/philly/video/BC1732442831001.html
Fast Times at West Philly High
A preview from Frontline.
Students and teachers from West Philadelphia High School, a public high school serving one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Philadelphia, defy expectations as they design and build two super-hybrid cars for international competition and compete for the chance to be part of a technological revolution. In summer 2010, the high school’s EVX Team raced against mega-sized auto manufacturers, multimillion-dollar start-ups, and university teams from around the world in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE competition. The challenge: Build an affordable, 100 miles-per-gallon car. The prize: $10 million dollars. In Fast Times at West Philly High, FRONTLINE explores the viability of these cars, the potential that exists within our young people, and the prospects of effective innovation in public education.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/fast-times-at-west-philly-high/
Philadelphia Inquirer article about the West Philadelphia High School:
The story of West Philly High School’s hybrid-car team is now a documentary
http://tinyurl.com/7jktqee
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In answer to the question “who will they blame then” : obviously single mothers.
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In the little state of Rhode Island, record numbers of teachers retired at the end of this year. The media was dismayed. They wondered if it could be due to the draconian pension “reforms” where teacher’s pensions were slashed. they wondered if it was because there might be an inordinate number of older teachers in the schools. They didn’t wonder if it could be because of the new evaluation plan starting in earnest this coming academic year. An evaluation plan that ties teachers certification to student test scores. They didn’t even mention that this could be a reason.
I think, except for blogs and a few savvy reporters, the media hasn’t a clue what is happening to education. Even education reporters aren’t doing any digging. Maybe it’s because newspapers are owned by corporations connected to privatizing education,I don’t know.
I do know that the economy has pitted everyone against teachers and other public workers, due in part, to the fact that most workers no longer have pensions, or job security. The disenfranchised 99% need a scapegoat. In true divide and conquer fashion, the 1% has managed to focus the 99% against each other, private versus public workers,in a battle to privatize all public services. Education is first because it is the most lucrative, but police and fire are next. In Rhode Island, janitors are being privatized in some places.
I think what we’re looking at is the future takeover of the public sphere for private profit. Once that happens, democracy will be a memory. The media will ask how it happened.
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Education reporters have a journalism background not an education background. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the two backgrounds could me meshed. Then, it just might hit the front page and be the lead new story on the local and national t.v. scene.
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Yet journalist have no problem repeating the Gates line on education. Moint is that they don’t do their due diligence.
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This teacher’s lament is the best evidence that the corporate education reformers have no concern for improving the education system.
Every business person knows that lowering the quality of employees and demoralizing them results in an inferior product or service. Yet the reformers are bent on making teaching the least desirable profession in the United States.
The corporate reform talk of educational progress and global competitiveness is a little more than a disguise for designs on exploiting the $2 billion public education market.
The nature of markets is not to create a better society: their primary function is to create a better a wealthier profiteer. They are not concerned about the future of our children; when they are not immiserating their own domestic workforce, they are exporting jobs and the hopes of the next generation.
When we lose a great teacher, we lose part of our nation’s future.
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Lance, you’ve hit the proverbial nail on its head with this one:
“The corporate reform talk of educational progress and global competitiveness is a little more than a disguise for designs on exploiting the $2 billion public education market.”
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Candace is right. Education reporters are glorified press release copiers.
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that’s because so many know nothing about education and can’t evaluate what is in the press release as ever, critical thinking matters
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“critical thinking matters” I agree. Maybe that’s why Texas has banned the teaching of.
Sadly, that teacher’s lament will be one of many we’ll being hearing in the next couple of years. We may also be hearing that from students who once considered teaching as a career, not a job.
One more lunchtime ramble, the media. The good, old media of yore is no more. Wondering and questioning why. If they truly employed the skills they were taught in school, this story would not be told on blogs, twitter or with letters to the editor. It would be front page news and the lede story of the nightly national news. One day, very soon, I hope it will. Until then, all I can do is spread the news and hope others join me. It is our children, and- sorry for the pun, our nation at risk.
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Reblogged this on elketeaches and commented:
my biggest fear of becoming a Secondary School educator is that I will be “beaten down” by the over-complicated, red-taped, top-down approach to education. Thanks for another interesting post Diane.
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I’m in complete agreement with Dianne’s blog sentiments. Luckily for me I spent my 40 year career in the “golden age” of teaching. I looked forward each day to going in to the classsroom and (later) the guidance office. I retired just in time, I believe, and only wish I could enthusiastically recommend encourage young people to go into education. In good conscience, I cannot.
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Same here, Walter.
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Perfect. My feelings exactly. I’ve completed 13 extremely dedicated years to teaching high school English. I used to love it, now it’s next to impossible to get through a day when I have “children,” and I don’t mean the students, evaluating, giving ridiculous advice because they barely have teaching experience and got their positions because they said the “right” things, yet really do not know at all what is best for the future of our students. It’s a very sad situation.
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Mrs. Ravitch,
I’m a big fan. I read “The Life and Death of the Great American School System” last year and it was very eye opening.
I’m curious about something in education reform. Teachers are getting dismissed from not “making the grade” (no pun intended) by not meeting test expectations and other indicators. What I don’t understand is why bureaucrats don’t think to provide additional training for these teachers so that they’ll improve their practice. It’s a cycle that brands hopeful teachers as failures and surely new teachers are not familiar with the complexity of good teaching.
Hasn’t this pattern happened enough to show that it’s unsustainable?
Gary Johnston
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Of course it is unsustainable. But the US Department of Education pushes “teacher de-selection,” an idea put forward by economist Eric Hanushek. He claims that if we fire the bottom 5-10% of teachers based on test scores and replace them with average teachers, we will rise to the top of the international tables and our economy will grow by trillions. I think he’s wrong for many reasons. Test scores don’t identify the “worst” teachers, those fired may be replaced by even worse teachers, and there are not millions waiting in line.
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