Archives for the month of: October, 2012
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President Obama’s Disappointing Response

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
51

This is the disheartening response from the White House to a reader who wrote to complain about the destructive effects of Race to the Top.

So a letter that explains the pernicious consequences of RTTT gets a response saying it’s just a wonderful initiative. It’s all about the kids. It’s succeeding. Hello?

We have been wondering together: Will the President listen? Here is the answer:


October 17, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Diane,

I mailed my letter this Saturday. I got this response via email. They must have had my email in their database. I suppose everyone will be getting this form letter. I handwrote a note saying I did not want a RTTT form letter. I suggested they save the paper, stamp and the staff person’s time and buy a book for a D.C. child instead.

Well, I guess they didn’t read my note or they didn’t really care.

Here is a cut and paste of the email letter I just received.

October 17, 2012

Dear Linda:

Thank you for writing. My Administration is working to ensure all America’s young people have educational opportunities worthy of their potential, and I appreciate hearing from you.

There is no stronger foundation for success than a great education. We must provide our children with the world-class schools they need to succeed and our Nation needs to compete in the global economy. Our classrooms should be places of high expectations and success, where all students receive an education that prepares them for higher education and high-demand careers in our fast-changing economy.

My Administration has made historic investments to strengthen our education system, including our Race to the Top program—the most ambitious education reform our country has seen in generations. Race to the Top focuses on what is best for our students by engaging state and local leaders and educators in turning around our lowest performing schools, developing and rewarding effective teachers, adopting meaningful assessments, and tracking the progress of our students.

To comprehensively reshape our educational system and better meet state and local needs, we also need to reform the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—a law that has helped advance accountability and expose disparities in opportunities and outcomes, but labels too many schools as failing and imposes too many unworkable remedies. Because America’s students could not afford to wait any longer for Congress to act, my Administration launched a new Federal-State partnership to provide States flexibility to advance educational reforms in exchange for a commitment to raise standards, improve accountability, and help teachers become more effective. The first round of States to receive flexibility was announced in February 2012, and while they are required to maintain a focus on underserved students, they can now move away from one-size-fits-all interventions and mandates and instead do what is best for students.

The future of America’s economic strength is determined each day in classrooms across our Nation. To be successful, we must cultivate a learning environment with an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective principal in every school. Supporting a strong teaching workforce and inspiring school leadership is a top priority for my Administration. In these challenging financial times for State and local budgets, we have worked to help schools keep teachers in the classroom, preserve or extend the regular school day and year, and maintain important afterschool activities. My Administration has also put forward a robust plan to strengthen and transform the teaching profession through a series of investments to help States and districts pursue bold reforms at every stage of the profession. This includes attracting top-tier talent and preparing educators for success, creating career ladders with opportunities for advancement and competitive compensation, evaluating and supporting the development of teachers and principals, and getting the best educators into the classrooms of the students who need them most.

Across our country, young people are dreaming of their futures and of the ideas that will chart the course of our unwritten history. A world-class education system will equip our Nation to advance economic growth, encourage new investment and hiring, spark innovation, and ensure the success of the middle class. Preparing our students for higher education and rewarding careers fulfills our promise to our Nation’s young people and strengthens America for generations to come. To learn more about my Administration’s work, please visit http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Issues/Education.

Thank you, again, for writing.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

Reply

Categories Obama

Feel Good About America: A Public School in Mississippi

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
2

Michael Vandveckhoven is a proud parent of a student in the public schools of Meridian, Mississippi.

This is a video that shows his son’s school. The school is half white, half black, about 40% low-income.

For someone like me, who grew up in the age of legal segregation, this is a heartwarming sight.

This is American public education at its finest. It’s not about test scores, it is about building a better society for our future.

Michael is a businessman. He is strongly opposed to charters because he worries that they will restore segregation and ruin his son’s good public school.

Categories Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Students, US Education

How Michelle Rhee Became Isolated from the Democratic Mainstream

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
7

Jeff Bryant has written an insightful article about Michelle Rhee’s increasingly strained effort to promote the policies of the far-rightwing and ALEC, while claiming to be a Democrat. Rhee goes from state to state, funding GOP candidates and a few Democrats who are anti-teacher, anti-union, and anti-public education. She is not a centrist Democrat but a conduit for major corporate interests who are pushing a reactionary agenda of privatization.

Categories Democrats, Rhee, Michelle

If Teachers Ran Their Classes Like NYC Runs Schools, Then….

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
2

A reader in New York City offers a thought experiment. He invites you to participate:

If teachers ran their classes the way New York City runs its schools…

• Students would get their grades 4-5 months after they finish the teacher’s class. (Progress Report grades for schools are distributed 4-5 months after the end of the previous school year).
• The grades students are given would have no connection to the actual quality of the work they did/the effort they put in. (The school report cards have been shown to rely on questionable use of standardized exams and suffer from irredeemable methodological flaws http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/10/05/i-dont-know-about-art-but-i-know-what-i-dont-like/.)
• Teachers would incessantly praise only specific students. Those students would turn out to cheat in legal, but ethically questionable, ways. (The Mayor and the Chancellor consistently praise charter schools although they have been shown to carefully screen out challenging students http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/03/at-kipp-i-would-wake-up-sick-every.html and kick out those they missed the first time http://www.edwize.org/middle-school-charters-suspending-their-way-to-the-top.)
• Teachers would give better supplies and resources to the richer students. (New schools, already receiving special extra funding, get higher budgets than other schools as well http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-09-04/news/33567092_1_turnaround-schools-new-schools-budget-cuts.)
• Teachers would say that “there is nothing to be done” for struggling students in their classes and would remove them from their class lists. (Schools that work with students facing greater incoming challenges are closed down http://www.edwize.org/closing-schools-for-vulnerable-students-a-lesson-in-darwin. This “strategy” is claimed to be a good way to make schools better even though the new schools “fail” at the same rate http://www.edwize.org/meet-the-new-schools-same-as-the-old-schools.)
Do you think this is any way to teach kids? Then why should we believe it is a good way to run a system of a million kids? And why would we want to spread these crazy ideas across the nation?

Feel free to add your own in the comments section…

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, NYC

Jersey Jazzman Writes to the President

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
5

Jersey Jazzman is one of my favorite bloggers. He is an educator who consistently writes with precision, accuracy and passion, a great combination.

Here is his letter to President Obama.

Categories Education Reform

“Won’t Quiet Down”: The Next Big Hollywood Movie

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
3

Diana Senechal has written about the latest Hollywood release: “Won’t Quiet Down.”

This is a sequel to “Won’t Back Down.”

It is the next phase of “reform.”

Get ready for the Student Trigger!

Before you write to comment, please be aware that this is satire.

Categories Humor

How to Spot Propaganda

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
7

A reader sent us a useful description of propaganda techniques:

“How to Identify Propaganda Techniques”

(So many parallels to the “reform agenda”.)

1
Look for the use of “glittering” generalities in the form of catchphrases, sweeping and vague statements. Slogans using positive and uplifting concepts such as love, honor, family, peace and freedom are often the tools used by propagandists because they appeal to the masses .

2
Watch for the use of symbols that are attached to authority or things most people respect. The Nazi swastika is an example of a symbol used to elicit an emotional response from the public such as, intimidation or fear. A respectful symbol, such as the American flag is used during the Pledge of Allegiance to unify people’s patriotism, reinforce their belief in God and loyalty to the country. This is the transference technique used to appeal to people’s emotions and get them on the propagandists’ bandwagon.

3
Be alert to name-calling. Propagandists will often make negative statements against groups or institutions they are attempting to denounce rather than positively tout the merits of their own proposals and concepts.

4
Be leery of testimonials by those who might garner respect from the public. Testimonials may be presented by a person who really doesn’t have the authority to gauge the value of the product or concept being presented, but is respected in the community. The “expert” may also have a vested interest in backing the propagandists’ agenda.

5
Be on the lookout for “plain folks.” Propagandists will often use spokesmen who claim to be from humble beginnings to gain the respect and trust of the crowd.

6
Watch for suggestions that if you’re not on board with the concept or product being hyped, you will be left out. Propagandists try to get followers on the “bandwagon” to avoid feelings of isolation and loneliness.

7
Be alert to strong, one-sided facts that support the propagandists’ case. “Card-stacking” is the most difficult propaganda technique to identify, GMU points out. The propagandists will stack the cards in their favor, only using facts and arguments that support their agenda, ignoring evidence that contradicts or invalidates their point of view.

How to Identify Propaganda Techniques | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_10061890_identify-propaganda-techniques.html#ixzz27d7iJU8k

Categories ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization

How the Testing Industry Ate Education

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
4

A teacher in Illinois writes:

I gave the first Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT) the first time it was given many years ago. As the reading teacher at my school, I was in charge of overseeing the first iteration of the test. After my colleague and I had administered the test to the students, which by the way was a Herculean task and became more so as more tests were added every year, we went to the administration of our school and suggested all teachers sign a letter of protest about the waste of time and the money needed to give such poor tests when students had no stake. We were told this was the future.

Up to this point, we had given pre-and post- reading tests to freshmen and seniors, respectively. We compared “apples to apples,” measuring growth in those students who had been with us for four years. We always showed growth in at least 94% for our students.

The ISAT, however, compared one class to another over the years and had a format which was most confusing to students. As more tests were added to the battery, more time was needed for preparation of students, teachers, and administrators. When these tests were required in junior year for students, it became onerous. It was a cloud that loomed over our heads for the entire school year, and we spent hours trying to train our students how take these tests.

Students at the end of their junior year of high school spent two days testing but had no motivation to do well on the Prairie State portion of the tests while everyone was required to take the ACT, especially students who were enrolled in vocational courses. I watched students aimlessly and randomly mark answer sheets, but we were forbidden by the rules of the tests to omit these flawed testing results. Even our brightest students played games with the tests, which we discovered as we analyzed their tests’ results. To further complicate the validity of these tests, in some years, they were not given to students until the end of their senior year.

During that time, many vocational courses were dropped from the curriculum because “all students should be prepared for college.” Our welding, electricity, carpentry, graphic arts, typing, shorthand and office machines classes were phased out. Of course, today we are told that these types of jobs must be outsourced because we have no “trained workers in this country.”

Who profited? Not the children but the Big Business of testing and those wishing to send our jobs out of the country.

I have read about the new round of testing for Core Standards. The test format is even more horrendous and will require hours of coaching to help students understand how to take these tests, and they will not reveal what students know. I am sad by what is happening to the education of our children and teachers.

Sincerely,
Marjorie

Categories Accountability, Testing

James Meredith on Saving Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
5

James Meredith bravely integrated the University of Mississippi fifty years ago. It is hard to imagine now, but at the time it took nerves of steel and a willingness to die. Mississippi was the most racist state in the nation (others were close contenders), and black people put their life at risk by speaking too boldly. Meredith put his life on the line to enroll in the university.

He has published a memoir. I have not read it yet, so I am not reviewing it here. Next time the Wall Street hedge fund managers or Condoleeza Rice or Mitt Romney or Joel Klein say they are leading the “civil rights movement of our time,” think about this man who was willing to give his life to integrate the most segregated state in the nation.

This is a press release about the book:

CIVIL RIGHTS HERO BLASTS OBAMA AND ROMNEY FOR DESTROYING AMERICAN EDUCATION

On the Eve of 50th Anniversary of his Historic Desegregation of the University of Mississippi on September 30, James Meredith Urges Citizens to “Storm the Schools”

September 21, 2012: Civil rights giant James Meredith, author of the provocative, just-released book A MISSION FROM GOD: A MEMOIR AND CHALLENGE FOR AMERICA (Simon & Schuster), charged today that both President Obama and Governor Romney are contributing to the destruction of American K-through-8 public education by proposing failed or unproven policies, supporting the continued waste of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds on education, and neglecting America’s children, especially the poor.

“There is no real difference between the two candidates and parties when it comes to the most critical domestic issue of our age, public education,” Meredith says. “Both Obama and Romney are in favor of multi-billion-dollar boondoggles and money-grabs that have little or no evidence of widespread benefit to K-through-8 children or the community at large, like over-reliance on high-stakes standardised testing; over-reliance on charter schools and cyber-charters; and the funding and installation of staggering amounts of unproven computer products in schools.”

According to Meredith, “Education is much too important to be left to politicians. They have failed. They came up with No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, both of which are largely failures. It is time for parents, families and teachers to take back control, and to step up to their responsibilities to take charge of education.”

His solution? “Storm the schools,” says Meredith, echoing the challenge he issues in his book A MISSION FROM GOD, which has been compared by one reviewer to a work by Dostoyevsky and hailed by Publishers Weekly as “lively and compelling.” He says, “I call on every American citizen to commit right now to help children in the public schools in their community, especially those schools with disadvantaged students.” He also suggests that citizens flood the schools with offers to volunteer to read to young children, and flood every school board and political meeting to demand that politicians and bureaucrats justify, with concrete evidence, every proposal made and every dollar being spent on public education, line by line.

While Meredith does not endorse either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, and does not endorse most individual education policy proposals, he is announcing a 4-point Manifesto to Rescue American Education, that calls for America to:

• Suspend billions of dollars of public spending on unproven high-stakes standardized testing and unproven computer products in schools, and redirect those and other necessary funds to;
• Support sharply boosting teacher quality, qualifications and pay, especially in the poorest neighborhoods,
• Expand early childhood education and community schools, especially in the poorest neighborhoods, and,
• Strengthen the back-to-basics fundamentals of K-8 education, including play-based learning for youngest students; add or restore history, civics, the arts, music and physical education to the core subjects of math, science and English; and provide proper nutrition, medical and social support services for poor children through the schools.

“The outrageous, unjust public shaming and scapegoating of teachers by politicians and self-appointed pundits must end, our problems are mostly not their fault,” says Meredith. “Teachers should be respected, revered, compensated, empowered, loved and supported to give our children the education they desperately need. And that will only happen when we, as a people, take back control of our schools.”

About James Meredith: Meredith’s one-man crusade to desegregate the University of Mississippi at Oxford exactly 50 years ago, on September 30, 1962, is considered one of the great turning points and triumphs of the civil rights era, and led the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. to place Meredith at the top of his own list of heroes in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail. In 1966, Meredith was shot while leading a “March Against Fear,” a campaign that helped open the floodgates of voter registration in the South.

Written with award-winning author William Doyle, A MISSION FROM GOD: A MEMOIR AND CHALLENGE FOR AMERICA is published to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the “Battle of Oxford” and reveals the inside story of James Meredith’s epic American journey and his challenge for Americans to save their education system.

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, US Education

Today Is the Day to Support Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2012 //
10

Two weeks ago, in response to many readers who were frustrated by destructive federal policies, this blog launched a Campaign for Our Public Schools. The immediate goal was to stimulate an outpouring of letters and emails to the President to let him know the views of many teachers, parents, students, administrators, and concerned citizens. A hoped-for additional goal is to mobilize a citizens’ group to speak up for our public schools.

The target date for receipt of letters and emails is today, October 17. You can still send your emails to this blog or to anthony_cody@hotmail.com.

All the letters and emails will be collected by Anthony and posted for public review.

Please raise your voice against high-stakes testing and privatization.

Let the President know, let other elected officials know, let the media know how you feel, what you know, what you believe is the right path to improve our schools and the lives of children.

We must raise our voices. We must be heard. This is democracy in action. Join us.

Categories Education Reform
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