Archives for the month of: August, 2012
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My Interview on CNN

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
87

I taped the interview a few minutes ago.

It airs tomorrow at 9-10 am EST.

It was a gotcha session.

This is the letter I sent to my contact at CNN.

This was one of the most biased interviews I have ever done, and I have done many. 
Randi Kaye asked me about NAEP scale scores, which was technically a very dumb question, and I was stunned. 
She thinks that a scale score of 250 on a 500 point scale is a failing grade, but a scale score is not a grade at all. 
It’s a trend line.
She asserted that the scale scores are a failing grade for the nation.
That is like saying that someone who scores a 600 on the SAT is a C student, because it is only 75% of 800. But that’s wrong. 
The scale is a technical measure. It is not a grade, period.
Then she asked me about an issue in Michigan, which fortunately, I had written about. But it was clear she was trying to blindside me. 
The point of her question was to blame teachers, and I refused to be pushed into her trap.
Then she read two hostile comments about my CNN post and asked for my response.
Was that supposed to be a balanced or fair interview? 
There was no effort to elicit my views, only a determination to prove me wrong and to assert that US education is terrible.
Shame on CNN.

Categories Ravitch, Diane

When Reform Turns Orwellian

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
1

The author of the article “Is Literature Necessary?” writes a comment:

Thanks for mentioning my essay. I agree that the reform movement is getting more Orwellian by the day. We are told test scores are way up when they are stagnant. We are told that poverty doesn’t matter. We are told that “enthusiasm” trumps experience.People who have spent little or no time in the classroom, like Gates, Rhee, and Coleman, are now the architects of public education going forward. Who needs algebra, literature, music, or any of the arts? In the face of an obesity epidemic among our children, the mayor mandates smaller soda cups while eliminating or reducing physical education. It all feels surreal, but it is happening all the time and unless the trend changes, I fear we may lose public education altogether.
Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Coleman, David, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Rhee, Michelle

How Prescriptive Are Common Core Standards?

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
3

There is usually a long distance between standards as drafted and their implementation. A reader comments:
Categories Common Core, Curriculum, Education Reform

What’s Wrong with Privatization?

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
22

Someone tweeted me a few days ago and asked “what’s wrong with privatization?”

I didn’t have time or space to respond in 140 characters, but fortunately someone else has done it for me.

See this article.

Let me be clear. I believe in the value and strength of the private sector. Long ago, I traveled in the Soviet Union and in China, and I developed a deep respect for the efficiency of the private sector in supplying goods to markets for consumers.

But I believe that a healthy and decent society has a strong private sector to provide goods and services (contractors, plumbers, electricians, repairs, etc.), and a healthy public sector to provide essential public services, like public education, roads, postal service, parks, beaches, transportation, government, police, military, fire fighting, libraries, and healthcare for those who can’t afford to buy it in the private sector. I may be forgetting other essential public services, but you get the point, I hope.

Privatization of public services is not in the public interest. The services are inevitably more expensive to the consumer and the taxpayer, who must now pay profits as well as the cost of the services. And the services are not more efficient; they are even less efficient because there is less money available to pay for the same service. And as the enclosed article shows, there is actually an incentive for failure. Privatized schools want public schools to fail so they can get more customers. Privatized prisons want more criminals for them to house.

We need a healthy private sector and a healthy public sector.

Unfortunately, there is a movement to privatize public education. Big money is going to fund political candidates in both parties who are committed to privatization.

The privatized schools–whether voucher or charter–do not outperform our public schools.

We must resist the current well-funded effort to privatize our public schools.

Categories Corporate Reformers, For-Profit, Privatization

The Common Core for 4-Year-Olds

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
18

A reader writes:

As an early childhood teacher I saw first hand last year the effects of the Common Core on my pre-k students.  The ELA was not so dreadful.  It was more or less consistent with what I had been doing.  The math was another story.  Asking 4 year olds to master addition and subtraction while they were just trying to grasp basic math concepts such as one to one correspondence was stressful; not just for my students, but for me as well.  How to make teaching concepts beyond their understanding without stressing everybody out.
That, however, was the least of it.  The performance tasks that came with the lessons were not only stressful for teacher and students but it was so incredibly labor intensive as to take away precious instructional time.  Time that I might have better used providing opportunities for my students to learn how to share and be kind to each other and maybe recognize the letters in their names.
Instead I had to take 4 children at a time and tell them we were going to play a game although they saw that I had papers and a pencil in front of me so they knew I wasn’t telling the truth, and read a script which would ask children to do addition and subtraction problems while I manipulated little mice or small cubes or counting bears.  Some children cried, some refused to respond, and some didn’t mind at all.  The accompanying rubric did not allow for children whose experiences may not have been the same as those children attending Sidwell.
In the end, we wasted a ton of time, the data was copied and sent to suits in far away places and i went back to teaching.
We had to do this twice last year.  Who knows what this year will bring.
One of my goals is how to give the suits what they want without stressing my students and not taking away from instruction.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core

Where the Government Leaves You Alone

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
26

A reader suggests where to find a nation-state where the government truly leaves you alone to do whatever you want:

As I have read here and there on the blogosphere, if you really want a truly individualistic, no governmental “interference”, no taxes kind of society, go to Somalia.

On the other hand, I’ve also been reading about man-made nation-states on the high seas. Presumably, when they don’t get what they want, all the pooh-bahs will pack their bags and become expatriates on a floating gated community. If this works out anything like ed reform, they’re in for a rough ride (hurricanes anyone?).

Education reform is a scam, of course, but very few people will be headed to Somalia, they’ve convinced folks they can have their cake and eat it too. With any luck maybe wise people can turn this around!

 

Categories Education Reform

In Praise of Gary Rubinstein

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
10

Gary Rubinstein writes a terrific blog. He is a math teacher and an early alum of TFA.

Whenever he writes, he has important insights.

Last week, I got a note from a friend praising Deborah Kenny and quoting her recent book, where she claims that the secret of her miracle school, Harlem Village Academy, is that she seeks great teachers and treats them with respect. But I recalled reading Gary’s post about that school, and he pointed out that it has a teacher turnover rate every year of 50-60%. Teachers don’t exit so fast from schools where they are treated with respect. I sent that to my friend and urged him to remember what Ronald Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.”

My way of verifying claims of miracle schools is to check with Gary Rubinstein. He has no ax to grind. He is a straight-shooter.

Whenever some public official or self-promoter claims that he has found a miracle school, Gary checks the facts. He goes to the state education website and what he usually finds is a school with a high attrition rate or high teacher turnover, or some other trick that has created a faux miracle.

Gary is a regular thorn in the side of TFA, because he was one of its early graduates and he wants TFA to be what it originally promised to be–a program to recruit young teachers for hard-to-staff jobs–not a helpmate to the corporate reformers.

His review of Steven Brill’s Class Warfare is a powerful critique of the most common reformer myths and well worth reading.

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll

What and Who Is EdVoice?

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
12

A group called  EdVoice filed a lawsuit to compel the teachers of Los Angeles to comply with 40-year-old legislation (the Stull Act), requiring that student performance be part of teacher evaluation. The Los Angeles teachers’ union has opposed the suit, and they are currently in litigation.

The issues are supposed to be resolved in December. There are many ways to demonstrate pupil performance, not just standardized test scores.

There are so many of these “reform” groups that it is hard to keep track of them.

What and who is EdVoice?

Here is an answer from Sharon Higgins, an Oakland parent activist who is a relentless researcher, and who maintains two websites, one called “charterschoolscandals,” the other called “The Broad Report.” Higgins is an example of the power of one voice, devoted to facts:

Here are a few more specifics about EdVoice, the education lobbying group.

EdVoice was founded in 2001 by Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix, Microsoft board member, Green Dot founding funder) and John Doerr (venture capitalist, investment banker), along with and former CA state Assembly members Ted Lempert and Steve Poizner. Eli Broad and Don Fisher (deceased CEO of The Gap and major KIPP supporter) once served on EdVoice’s board.

EdVoice has received a ton of money from all of the above as well as from Carrie Walton Penner and Fisher’s widow, Doris. Penner lives in the Bay Area and is a Walton Family Foundation trustee. She also sits on KIPP’s board, as does Reed Hastings, and the Fishers’ son, John.

Back in 1998, Hastings also co-founded Californians for Public School Excellence with Don Shalvey. This is the organization that pushed for the Charter Schools Act of 1998, the law that lifted the cap on the number of charter schools in the state.

Don Shalvey was involved with starting the first charter school in California, just after the passage of the California Charter School Act of 1992 (CA was the second state to pass a law). He is also founder and former CEO of Aspire Public Schools. Reed Hastings has been a major source of Aspire’s financial backing, including its launch. In 2009, Shalvey stepped down from his post at Aspire and went to work for the Gates Foundation, but for a while he stayed on Aspire’s board. The Gates Foundation has given generously to Aspire.

In 2011, Hastings and Doerr pumped $11M into DreamBox Learning, an online education company started by a former Microsoft executive and the CEO of a software company. It was acquired by Hastings with help from the Charter School Growth Fund.

BTW, EdVoice co-founder Lempert is currently president of an Oakland-based org called Children Now; he occasionally teaches at Cal. Poizner, a conservative Republican and wealthy Silicon Valley high tech entrepreneur, was defeated by Meg Whitman in the June 2010 gubernatorial primary, and is now the State Insurance Commissioner. For several years he worked for Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant.

More conniving fun and games.

Categories Boston Consulting Group, California, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Everyone Needs Goals!!

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
10

Let’s set goals for the future. Everyone needs goals.

If other fields were like education, we would not only set unrealistic goals, but Congress would mandate punishments for those who do not meet them.

A reader suggests these:

We need to focus on the same kinds of ridiculous and unfair expectations to show how asinine they really are.

All doctors will achieve 100% cure rate by 2025!

All dentists will end tooth decay by 2015!

All judges will achieve a 100% fairness score by 2020! No wrongful convictions allowed!

All lawyers will achieve 100% wins in their cases by 2030!

All clergy persons will achieve a record of 0% divorces in the marriages they perform by 2015!

All CEOs will achieve a 25% profit for their shareholders every year starting today!

All manufacturers will sell nothing but 100% successful merchandise that is 100% failsafe, foolproof, and unbreakable by 2025!

All fishermen will achieve a 100% catch rate every time they go fishing!

All athletes will achieve 100% wins starting in 2015!

All parents will raise 100% successful children that graduate from Ivy League schools by 2030!

All politicians will achieve a record of 100% success in passing all legislation they put forward and receive 100% of the vote in order to be elected!

I could go on. These are all things that research shows would benefit our society immensely. Let’s get to work on perfection for all!

Categories Accountability, Education Reform

The Unmitigated Gall of the Bullies

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
7

This teacher is sick of the people who bully and harass him; sick of those who interfere in his work but could never do it themselves; sick of the know-it-alls who are ruining his profession:

I am in my 44th year as a teacher. I have taught from Prep to Grade 12, but mostly in Primary school and Special Education. I can fully sympathise with the teacher who retired early after 20 years and I have been doing what Vance is doing, for most of my 44 years.Teaching is about children. Each child is unique and each standardised test is an attack upon that uniqueness. There is no such thing as a “normal ” child. The children I taught in the class for those with “intellectual disability” were certainly not “normal children”. Each child had his/her own unique set of abilities and interests. Each had a unique set of educational needs and a unique set of pre school life and experience making him/her the person that he/she was.I am sick of education in general and teachers in particular being deprofessionalised, bullied and harassed by people who have no idea what they would do if they were put before a class; people who have no idea how to teach a child to read from scratch and no idea how to assess a child’s wealth of knowledge, skills and attitudes, and cognitive readiness to move on to the next level.It wasn’t always like this. This is not to say that at some time in the past we experienced a golden age of education. It is just to say that in the hands of bean counters and politicians, education has descended to the sorry state it is in today. And the perpetrators have the unmitigated gall to blame it on the teachers.
Categories Education Reform, Special Education, Teachers and Teaching
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