I just got this post on Twitter by a student who wants no part of the DFER-like “Students for Education Reform,” created at Princeton to advance the corporate reform agenda. This student is amazing! Impressive research, real understanding about how words can be used to deceive, and a grasp of the issues.
There is a bottom-line question that no one ever answers: If DFER and SFER and SFC and TFA and StudentsFirst and other corporate reformers already know how to close the achievement gap, as they repeatedly claim, why are there no examples of it anywhere? It hasn’t happened in New York City, after ten long years of corporate-style reform; it hasn’t happened in New Orleans since Katrina even though 80% of the children are in charter schools; it didn’t happen in D.C., under Michelle Rhee (which still has the biggest gaps in the nation). Why do they keep saying they know how to do it when they haven’t done it? At some point, the dance ends. And the bill comes due for all those promises and claims.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane,
Thank you for posting. I just read and signed at the bottom. I will send to all on my mailing list. SFER came to our state during the reform battle. ConnCon gathered 30-40 unsuspecting college students and gave them tshirts, free subway sandwiches and a bus ride to the state capital building. Reporters tried to ask questions, but they were unable to verbalize why they were there or what SFER stood for; it was very embarrassing, you would think.
ConnCan, TFA, StudentsFirst, Stand on Children humiliated these students for their own purposes.
LikeLike
I want to support this brave, talented, intelligent young student and soon to be dedicated life long teacher. I left a comment similar to the one above. I encourage you to recognize her research and support her as well. Thank you.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Dhasty01's Blog and commented:
Furthermore hasn’t happened in Philadelphia. Hopefully the younger generation of teachers will take notice of this stagnant trend.
LikeLike
the question is not if they have achieved the the perfect culmination of their entire vision, which obviously they haven’t. the question is whether the half measures they did manage to get through have improved things in some situations. I live in brooklyn, where there are dozens of new schools where the teachers and principals have an educational philosophy I think is probably very similar to diane’s. why work so hard to stop schools like that from opening? I just don’t get it.
LikeLike
And, it was supposed to happen “faster” with the reformers at the helm. Not So Much. Thank You Diane.
LikeLike
We need more like her. The SFER background information and actual experience with the organization is valuable incite important to all of us.
LikeLike
Diane,
You must read the update on this student’s story. The program director wants to meet with her…
http://teacherunderconstruction.com/2012/08/08/sfer-post-3-days-after/
LikeLike
Yes, to try to stop the bleeding.
LikeLike
Ben Wheeler,
WAGPOPS! (Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools!) lives in Brooklyn as well – D14 to be precise. Many of our D14 public schools are only just beginning to experience the positive effects of gentrification – diversity in the classroom. In D14, like many NYC schools, increasing diversity means bringing white and middle class children into the schools. Our schools are not failing and our public school parents are largely happy with their neighborhood schools. We even have some super high achieving schools (according to the NYC measurements). All of them are under-enrolled. We already have some great choices and parents are far from obligated to attend a “failing” school. We even have an informal intra-district model of school choice in place with 8 magnet schools and pretty much every school under-enrolled.
WAGPOPS! has been fighting boutique charter schools marketed to white, middle class parents. These parents (while I don’t mean to condescend, I imagine you fit this profile) have easily exploited fears about urban education, little if any actual experience in their neighborhood schools, and only a minimal understanding of pedagogy, curriculum, and school programming. These boutique charter schools (purported to be designed by parents, but really coming from a chain of charters in Los Angeles) are not any more progressive than the neighborhood schools from whom they will drain resources, funds, and vital space (when inevitably they co-locate).
I am baffled by this idea that because the “half-measures” of education reform have failed – miserably – we should give them a chance to do even more damage.
WAGPOPS! and every other public school parent believes in putting our money, time, and effort behind PROVEN reforms that haven’t been given a chance to succeed: small class size, strong leadership, meaningful curriculum, engaged parents, wrap-around services for the most at-risk, diversity in the classroom, and experienced teachers.
We don’t want boutique charter schools for the white middle class parents who have been duped into believing that they’re getting something more progressive than their neighborhood schools. And we don’t want “no excuses” charter schools with a “pedagogy of poverty” for our lower-income families of color. We want all our kids in class together.
We don’t want to open more elementary schools in an under-enrolled district. That’s bad city planning.
LikeLike