Archives for the month of: August, 2012
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Neil Postman Had It Right in 1976

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
4

A reader recalls what Neil Postman wrote almost 40 years ago. He was known as a future-thinker, and this quotation proves he was:

I’m a public school teacher in NJ. Relevant in this context is a wonderful little book by Neil Postman entitled “The Disappearance of Childhood”. He ties the invention of childhood in the west over the past few centuries to universal literacy. In the book he argues that the concept of childhood peaked sometime in the first half of the 20th century, but since then has been worn down by a decline in literacy and our infatuation with other forms of entertainment media. Profiting from schooling, racing to the top, focusing on absurd objective criteria like standardized test scores might be further evidence of a declining belief in the idea of childhood, where children are something more like competitive employees than learners.

In his 1976 book “Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk” (now there is a title for our times!) Mr. Postman referred specifically to the trend toward objectivity in evaluating children:

‘In many communities around the country, the quality of education is being measured by the scores children achieve on standardized tests. Education thus falls under the jurisdiction of the language of statistics, and it is a fact that many schools are now designing their programs almost solely for the purpose of increasing their students’ mean test scores. Here, it is slightly unfair for me to repeat the joke about the statistician who drowned while trying to wade across a river with an average depth of two feet. The fault is not with statisticians, whose special language is a remarkably useful instrument for uncovering abstract facts. The fault is with those educators who have fallen under its spell and have allowed their purposes to be subverted by the seductions of precise measurement.’
Categories Accountability, Testing

Where Are the Miracle Schools?

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
4

Bruce Baker of Rutgers University has written a fascinating analysis of charter schools in New York City and Houston.

Do they enroll the same students as the nearby district schools?

Do they have higher test scores?

Do they spend the same amount of money?

These are very important questions, given the reformers’ belief that charter schools will close the achievement gap and solve the problem of poverty.

Spoiler alert: The charters do not enroll the same students; do not on average have higher scores than nearby district schools; and typically spend more money than district schools.

Please read this article. It has fascinating data.

 

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, NYC

What’s Needed Now: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
8

A reader comments on the discussion about parents, teachers, and students:

It is amazing to me how fast the conversation gets hijacked by those with an agenda to trash public education. I have stated before and will repeat it. Parents and educators must work together in partnership. It is the most productive way for our students to benefit from an education. It bothers me to hear disrespect directed toward either teachers, parents, or students.
As an educator I feel it should always be our position to be positive role models. Others may disagree, but I hope that those students and adults who I have worked with over the years have felt respected by me. No matter what behavior I am faced with, I always try to react in a positive way. Believe me, I am faced with these situations daily. I have had to learn this, over the years, because it isn’t always easy when you are faced with negative or disrespectful behavior. But I can say that a positive, respectful reaction almost always turns the situation around. A negative reaction almost always results in an escalation of the problem.
Thanks Diane, for being such a positive role model for us. I hope that we, as educators, are able to keep the fight for public education going in a positive direction, with positive results. It’s not easy when we are faced with such negative and false media reports, and especially negative parent reactions. We need to turn the tide back to a respect for educators.
Categories Parents, Students, Teachers and Teaching

A Line in the Sand in Washington State Against the “Trigger”

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
8

A reader in Washington State writes:

In Washington State, where we don’t have charters, we are fighting a charter initiative. It includes the MOST aggressive trigger in the U.S. It would allow an approved charter to circulate a petition to parents OR teachers at a school and, if a majority sign, the charter takes over, building and all. This applies to ANY existing school, failing or NOT. They could take over ANY school. Say you have an elementary school with 30 teachers and 16 sign the petition. An ENTIRE school community is flipped because of 16 people. It is jaw-droppingly crazy and we are not going to stand for it here. The line in the sand against charters and trigger petitions starts here.

Categories Charter Schools, Parent trigger

The Century of the Coldhearted?

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
6

Jeff Bryant reflects on the events and ideas that transformed American society in the past century.

A current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City describes the 20th century as “the century of the child.”

Now with technocratic ideas dominant in national policy, championed by both Obama and Romney and semi-articulated by Arne Duncan, Jeff wonders if this is “the century of the coldhearted.”

Categories Testing

What Does “Progress” Mean?

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
2

In California, there is a battle going on between a “reformist” group called Edvoice and the United Teachers of Los Angeles. California has a forty-year-old law called the Stull Act, which says that a teacher’s evaluation will include evidence of student progress. But how is “progress” defined?

Some “reformers” will use any and all opportunities to make standardized test scores the measure of teacher quality, because that guarantees that 1/2 of all teachers will be below the mean and thus many will be “ineffective” by design. Knowingly or not, they seem eager to create evidence of failure.

This principal says that “progress” means far more than bubble-test scores:

To willingly comply with policy that one knows is heinous, is nothing short of injurious to both individual teachers, teachers’ unions, and students. I have been a teacher and principal in California for my entire educational career (30+ years) and can tell you with certainty that VAM based on California’s Stull Act (AB 293) is a complete perversion of that bill’s purpose, and most importantly, practice.
I am not a lawyer, but I do know that past practice and precedent count for a lot in legal circles and California’s Stull Act has never been interpreted to mean that teachers must be evaluated on a student’s standardized test scores. The bill simply states that teachers will be evaluated on “student progress”, but since when is a student’s progress limited to a standardized test score? To go along with VAM based on standardized test scores is to make an assumption that the sum and substance of a student’s school performance and experience is limited to the bubbles he or she is filling in on any given day: an absurdity. Since 1971 when the Stull Act went into effect, “student progress” was something that was interpreted by the teacher being evaluated and the school principal. Yes, the evaluation could include test scores, but just as valid were criterion referenced tests, publishers tests, student portfolios, teacher observations, principal observations and, as of late, even the observations of other teachers or bargaining unit members. The important thing was the agreement between the teacher and principal about what was appropriate considering the teacher’s stated goals.
To indicate that UTLA should “go along” with despicable policy is a symptom of exactly why teachers across the nation have found themselves in a predicament like they’ve never before experienced. Standing up against policy that is just plain wrong has nothing to do with hiding anything. Indeed, going along with such policy as VAM shows a willingness to comply with atrocious policy, even though you know that it is injurious to both students and teachers, an act that doesn’t garner the respect of anyone. It’s time to draw the “line in the sand” and do what we know as professionals is the right thing: resist VAM and encourage our unions to fight it at every opportunity.
Categories California, Los Angeles, Testing

A Cyber Teacher of Physical Education Explains

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
8

A supporter of cyber charters wrote to say that many activities occur in a physical setting, not online. In response to our exchange, a teacher posted the following comment:

K12 Inc has the largest student population of all online cyber charter schools in the US and this is what they want from a PE/Health Teacher:

https://re21.ultipro.com/KIN1002/JobBoard/JobDetails.aspx?__ID=*A5FEACB4EE4E6E98

Other teaching positions are similar –“Virtual” means teachers do it from home. I know because I taught at an online school owned by them for four years. While their office was not far from me, I never went there even once, nor was I required to go to any other bricks and mortar location. Faculty and department meetings and PDs were conducted online and in conference calls. 

Categories Education Reform, On-Line Education

Pearson Plans to Award Degrees

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
10

Last year, for reasons not altogether clear to me, the British government issued a white paper saying that non-teaching institutions would soon have the power to award degrees. Now, as was anticipated, the Pearson corporation says that it plans to award degrees to complete its role as the ultimate education organization of our era. Of course, Pearson could just buy a struggling college or university and change its name, but it doesn’t plan to do that. It has already opened “Pearson College.”

This is all very puzzling. Businesses awarding degrees in business, technology, or maybe even in liberal arts, perhaps online. 

I am not enough of a visionary to understand why it is a good idea for a university education to be redefined to mean that you can pick up a degree over the counter or online without ever meeting a scholar. And I am no fan of for-profit universities in principle.

Is it about handing out degrees? Is it about dumbing down higher education? Is it a business plan to make money?

Or is it something else?

Categories Higher Education, International, Pearson

What I Think about Parents

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
17

Over the past few days, there has been a lively discussion about the rights and responsibilities of parents.

This was occasioned by a letter I posted by a teacher, who said that parents don’t always know what is best for their children and that some parents are irresponsible.

After this post appeared on a homeschooling website, and perhaps others as well, I received many comments making outlandish accusations, in effect, saying that I thought parents were abusive, irresponsible, and incompetent.

For starters, I would like to point out that I frequently reprint letters by other people expressing their views. Their letters may or may not reflect my own views.

Since many writers asked me to state my views about parents, I will do so here.

I am a parent. I had three children, two of whom are now grown. One of my children died of leukemia many years ago. I now have three grandchildren.

As a parent and grandparent, I don’t believe that any government official or teacher cares more or knows more about my children than I do. Other parents, I am sure, feel the same.

Every important decision about children should be made first and above all by their parents.

Parents know best what their children need.

The government has an obligation to provide a free education in a public school to all children.

If parents choose to homeschool their children, they have a right to do so.

If parents choose to send their children to a private or religious school, they have a right to do so.

Government cannot take away their right to make those decisions.

The government does not have an obligation to pay for religious or private schooling for any child.

The only time that the government has an obligation to step in and negate parental rights is when children are abused and harmed by neglectful parents.

It is rare that it happens, but it does happen, and children’s health and safety must be protected.

To be sure, there are exceptions to the generalizations stated above:

A medical doctor knows more about the child’s health than his or her parents.

A teacher usually knows more about math or science or history or foreign languages than the child’s parents.

But make no mistake: Parents are their children’s most important educators.

Parents shape the attitudes, values and behavior of their children.

And parents–not the state– have the primary responsibility to raise up their children as good and decent people.

Categories Parents

Which Public Services Should Have a “Trigger”?

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2012 //
33

What other public services might be subject to a “trigger” law?

Should 51% of the tenants of a public housing project have the authority to seize control and hand the property over to a private management company?

Should 51% of the patrons of a public library have the authority to seize control and privatize it if they don’t like the staff’s efficiency?

Should 51% of the riders on a public bus have the power to seize control of the bus and privatize it?

Should 51% of those using a public park have the power to seize control and give the real estate to a developer if they don’t like the way it is maintained?

This reader asks:

Can 51% of a community take over the local police force if there are too many burglaries? Can it take over the local hospital if too many patients are dying? Can it take over the local fire department if it couldn’t save a home from burning down? Can it take control of a local road and start charging a toll on it?

Do you have other ideas about how to improve public services by allowing 51% of its users today to seize control and privatize it?

Categories Education Reform, Parent trigger
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