A reader writes about the injustice of closing schools in Chicago instead of helping them.
It s odd to think that Chicago is now our national model of school reform, as Chicago continues to rank in the bottom tier on NAEP in reading and math, in fourth grade and eighth grade.
| In Chicago, 10 more schools lost ALL their staff and administration to turnarounds this year . They will be opening in the fall with a much younger, less-diverse staff but the same students (Black and Hispanic).
One school, Pablo Casals, posted an 8% gain in its ISAT scores , in a year when the system average gain was only 0.9%. It is at par with all its neighborhood schools, and outscored over 100 elementary schools in Chicago ( even in 2011). Still, it was put on the list and acted upon by CPS , and now its teachers ( the ones who helped achieve that 8% gain) are spread out across the city. Weary from this process, many moved on to much “better” schools, not wanting to land in another school that might be on next year’s list for turnaround. The toxic policies of Arne Duncan have to stop . They didn’t work in Chicago, they still don’t work in Chicago, and he has exported them to the other states. This ill-motivated man , who has never taught a day in his life, has to stop being the puppet of the billionaire’s club that is trying to steal education away from educators. He has to stop being our Secretary of Education. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amen!
Really well said!
A good time to share this political cartoon of Arne Duncan by retired teacher and expert education blogger Fred Klonsky.
All anyone has to know or see is just how much of a non issue education is in this years’ presidential election. Both candidate have the exact same policies. Mr. President, even if you could not keep your promise and walk that “line” in Wisconsin, you did not get anyone to represent you, either. You never used the bully pulpit on the workers behalf, and you sent your daughters’ to private schools. Just imagine the statements you could have made.
Instead because it was not cops and firemen in the front of the line, you stayed out of it. If you actually had backed the teachers who were on the front lines, you would have admitted that your business led education policies were just that, because you would have had to go against your own policies to join the fight.
Just think of the statements you could have made, if you could have gotten a bunch of people with juice to join Wisconsin (even if you could not make it known publicly) or if you would have sent your children to one of the Washington DC public schools.
Alas, you are in the tank for Murdoch/Pearson.
FIRE DUNCAN! Hire Ravitch.
Chicago has been the testing ground for ‘reform’the for many years. They instituted, sight and say/Whole language and “PROVED” they could dumb down an entire city’s young students in about 3 years. They never intended to empower but rather to control. Create a citizenry that is functionally illiterate was and remains the goal…..mission accomplished .
Now any teachers who still have the desire and ability to TEACH will be culled out. The dumbing down is not quite finished.
For them it has never been for the children. Duncan and the Federal dep’t of education must go away. There are so many broken children and good teachers who need our help.
Hard to see how any rational person could conclude that replacing the principal/teachers with different (particularly less-experienced) principal/teachers would somehow improve student test scores (or education generally) at a school.
A rational analysis would ask what was causing the low test scores and then what can we do to remedy the cause of the low test scores.
Does the evidence suggest that incompetent principal/teachers are causing the low test scores? No — with regard to virtually every school with low test scores, we find that the other schools in the area that share the low-test-score school’s SES characteristics also have low test scores. This is strong evidence that something other than principal/teacher quality is responsible for the low test scores.
Instead of assuming — irrationally — that principal/teacher quality is responsible for low test scores, we should focus on observable characteristics of a school that differentiate the low-test-score schools from high-test-score schools. Most of these differentiating characteristics relate to family SES — students from high-SES families score much higher, on average, than students from low-SES families. Of course, school systems cannot convert low-SES to high-SES families. So school reformers must look beyond the family-SES factor and identify differentiating characteristics that are subject to least partial school system control.
Two pretty obvious differentiating characteristics are student behavior and reading levels. Students at low-scoring schools generally exhibit much worse school-related behavior and generally read at a much lower level than students at high-scoring schools. So, rather than focusing on teacher quality (i.e., high-stakes-testing, teacher evaluations, eliminating tenure) or on siphoning off the stronger students to a more supportive environment (i.e., magnets, charters, vouchers), school reformers should focus on identifying/implementing reforms in low-SES schools that improve student behavior and raise reading levels.
Amazingly, virtually no one — corporate reform advocates or corporate reform opponents — in the school reform debate even mentions student behavior and reading levels. Where’s the rational analysis?
Thank you. There is no rational analysis. I’ve been wondering how 5,000 schools will find new staff. Or will they just trade places?
Diane Ravitch
And, once again, the point must be made that the “standardized” tests, themselves, are neither standard, reliable nor valid. Having read Pearson’s tests (& test prep. materials) over the years (I was a special ed. teacher), I can assure you, there were many, many invalid questions AND answer choices. Not to mention how the written portions of tests have been scored (& the incompetencies of those who scored them; for more, PLEASE read Todd Farley’s 2009 book, Making the Grades, and then his more recent posts on Huffington.). It isn’t rational to base every opinion of how students are doing on one test; moreover, that that one test that is extremely flawed.
There is NO “rational analysis,” LaborLawyer. There is only the
money that is being made on the backs of our children and our
teachers.
ReTiredbutMisstheKids,
You are absolutely correct about all the errors/invalid questions and answers that the standardized tests have. I read through the SAT 9 one year and was thoroughly appalled at the amount of errors. They fall into the category of error that Wilson calls “construction” errors, one of thirteen identified error categories involved in educational standards and standardized testing regimes. An error in one basically invalidates the whole process of the standards regime. And it has all thirteen categories of errors scattered throughout the whole process so said process is invalid. But we keep on using standards and standardized testing to no end.
See Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577
Voting out Obama gets rid of Duncan and America loses two zeros. Whoever Romney selects as Sec Ed can’t be any worse for children or teachers and just might be an improvement. At least it would give some hope.
It’s hard to believe that Romney could do worse in selecting an Ed Sec but just think if Jeb. Bush accepted the appointment (I doubt as he appears to want the Big Kahuna in ’16). My only reason for voting for Romney would be that the “creative destruction” of the oligarchical, plutocratic rigged system would come crashing down that much quicker. That’s not what I want, I’d prefer a softer landing. But I won’t vote for the lesser of two evils and I didn’t the last times around, but vote for who I think has the best policy ideas and prescriptions even though him/her are a super long shot-we’re talking holing out from 360 yards for a double eagle on a 690 yard uphill par 5 dog leg left.
I agree with Ed. It can’t really get worse, and Romney, as a Republican, would leave the states alone more. The rich elite would get their tax breaks..The Republicans say that they are against the idea of the Department of Education, right? It seems like the states could do a better job, or at least teachers could try to avoid working in certain states, etc. Obama has been a terrible disappointment on many levels. Just to see Arne Duncan lose his job would be worth anything. It would be a very happy day, in my book.
Agreed – it can’t be worse. Also, maybe the Democratic leadership would finally get the message that it cannot disrespect teachers and expect their votes.
If you look at the schools that are “turned around” in Chicago you will typically find a significantly smaller enrollment when these new schools open compared to the last enrollment figures before turnaround.
It is totally routine in Chicago for the bottom 15%-20% of students – demoted students, students with behavioral issues, students with bad grades, etc. – to be distributed among nearby neighborhood schools to pave the way for the “new environment” at the turnaround. Of course, this typically causes lower scores and additional problems at the receiving neighborhood schools, which then makes them eligible to be turned around, too.
The biggest tragedy in all of this is that the Chicago education model depends on a scarcity of resources – not enough money for everyone and not enough schools for everyone. This is intentional. There are huge swaths of the city where there is no neighborhood school at all. Families must send their children away because the “new” schools – turnarounds and charters – do not accept all students from within attendance boundaries.
These types of policies would never, ever be supported or implemented in wealthier neighborhoods or in the suburbs where parental and community involvement is high. It really is educational apartheid.
I think you have to consider the possibility that Arne Duncan’s real job is to make public education so distastful, that the older competent educators leave, schools fall in to chaos, only young or temporary teachers staff the buildings and people then turn to charters and vouchers as a way to provide education for their children. And for profit schools and their parent corporations will be their to greet them.