A Comment from Karen Lewis about the simultaneous deluge of “reforms,” none of which is grounded in research or experience:
“Any decent researcher knows that when you change more than one variable in an experiment, you have to do some pretty heavy lifting in order to determine which one had more effect than another. So in Chicago we have a new evaluation, Common Core, a longer day and year, a new contract, school closings and the usual suspects of attacks on an urban system. The key is to be clear about what and whose purposes all of this serves.
“We now know with the Wall Street Journal “exposing” how America tests in relation to other countries, that the scope of the hand-ringing is to make sure parents of children in good schools will begin to question their efficacy in order to move to a purely private system. Public schools, with the promise of democracy, citizen-building and the common good are in danger of disappearing. If the billionaire dilettantes have their way, public schools will be for the “throwaway” kids and their teachers will be temps.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Just look at your cable bill, and imagine you are paying for your children’s education just that way.
Don’t have broadband? Hey, just suck it up, do not pass Go, send your kids straight to jail.
LikeLike
This has been the case for many if not most urban parents for a long time. Can’t afford private school? Can’t afford to live in Tribeca? Can’t move from Detroit to the suburbs? Suck it up.
Here in NYC, there’s a reason parents put themselves and their kids through the wringer for a chance to pay $40,000 per year for kindergarten, and well over a half million dollars for K-12. And that reason is not that they’re misinformed about how good the local public school options are.
LikeLike
http://www.rrstar.com/opinions/letters/x1353216398/Letter-Destruction-of-public-education
My latest letter to the editor…
LikeLike
Isn’t it interesting that corporate reform is being run by a bunch of people with business degrees. Studies show that of all the college degrees possible, business majors are the most likely to cheat because they think it is expected and acceptable.
Ironic isn’t it that half of America thinks there are subversive conspiracies cheating them out of the middle class wealth they think is due to them, yet they can’t see the one that is right in front of their face and they even unknowingly participate in it. ?????
LikeLike
There is reform, but not to create better students. It is all about cutting the overhead. Teachers will burn out faster. Turn over means more people on the low end of the pay scale.
LikeLike
People who can’t afford the expensive private schools in Chicago move to the suburbs- period. The remainder, those who are trapped- either financially or psychologically- stay in the CPS system. Let’s be honest. These kids’ parents are not connected and are completely powerless in Chicago. The mayor and others can close every CPS school tomorrow, and there is no one in power who has any kids there who would care at all. The entire CPS system (except for a few selective magnet schools) is a dumping ground for those who are “stuck” in Chicago or not willing to leave. Those are the facts.
In a way, the kids themselves and their families are to blame for what is happening. If the families valued education and respected teachers more, their schools wouldn’t be closed now. Poverty is not sufficient. Have you ever been to Asia? I don’t care how poor those kids are, they respect their teachers- period. I went to Uganda and saw kids who would do anything to learn in a school. Our culture is messed up, and large sections of our population (of all races and ethnic groups) have no interest in the intellectual life. This whole nightmare would never have happened if kids had actually tried to learn, or come to school, etc. Many parents have dropped the ball here. Teachers in the big cities have a very tough job. You can’t fight the whole culture!
LikeLike
There are excellent schools in Chicago. Some enroll selectively, some are neighborhood schools. Many folks have decided to move back to the city from the suburbs and do enroll their children in Chicago Public Schools. The word “stuck” is often used pejoratively about schools that have been grossly underfunded and neglected and populated by Black children. There are parents who come the Board of Ed meetings regularly and initially demand, then plead, then beg for the capital improvements for their schools as they watch other neighborhoods receive the largesse they have patiently waited for. Blaming children and their families is not productive, it exacerbates the problem. So who will be the voice of the voiceless? Our children live in a country where they can see with their own eyes that other people have vast wealth while they suffer. So now little children are responsible for the world adults created. This makes me sadder than I ever thought I would be. Let’s hope for a world in which everyone, including the corporations who are people too, pay their fair share and let us all be ashamed that in a country of riches, we tolerate a 25% child poverty rate and blame the children for it.,
LikeLike
I am a big fan, Ms. Lewis, so don’t misunderstand me. Yes, it is a very unfair system. Frankly, those in power could care less about the poor. They just think that everyone poor is lazy. It doesn’t matter if all the jobs have been sent overseas, or if they inherited their money, etc. If we had an educated population, like in Germany or France, they wouldn’t give these so called “reformers” the time of day. But alas, we don’t live in Europe, and most people are not smart enough to understand what is happening. Teachers know what is going on, but they have been demonized and effectively silenced. That was quite an effective first move on their part. These people aren’t dumb. They have a plan, and you always discredit your critics before they have time to respond. This attack on public education is a very coordinated, professional job. They must have some top-level advertising and P.R. people working on this. Also, you have to notice the way education stories in the news are always slanted in one way. It didn’t take them long to turn the entire public against the teachers, did it?
Good luck to you and Dr. Ravitch, and keep fighting the good fight!
LikeLike
Alan, I understand and yes the privatizers have money, PR and host of other advantages. But their messages ring hollow. “Teachers don’t care about children” – hogwash. “Poverty doesn’t matter” Oh but it does. “25% of these kids will never amount to anything and I’m not throwing money at them” – How do you choose who is in the 25%? The tied will turn, but it won’t if we throw in the towel. The pendulum will swing back towards reality, evidence and justice. It will take people willing to stand up and fight.
LikeLike
Mrs Lewis,
You make excellent points about teachers, schools and poverty and I greatly appreciate what you are saying.
But please be wary of the pendulum metaphor.
It has been used one time too many with regard to education (and politics) by the hear no evil, see no evil crowd.
Every new thing (read: education deform, extreme right wing political position, etc) that came along, we would be encouraged to “hold on” or “just get through”, and “wait a bit”… because the pendulum would someday swing back.
After all, a pendulum is governed by the natural laws of physics. It will swing equally to both sides.
But it has not.
It will not.
The pendulum is off its hook.
And there is nothing natural about what is happening.
If we want justice, truth, reality we are going to have to confront the injustice, lies and manufactured crises that we are continually bombarded with.
PS: Please do not read my comment as in any way disrespectful of your position or efforts. And I hope I don’t appear to be one of those internet creeps who pick apart trivial points contained within the posts of others.
I am just worried that the “pendulum story” and the “don’t worry about it, just close your door and teach” story and others like these (analogies, metaphors and examples that imply the things that are going on are natural, inevitable consequences of “life” and will eventually pass) are helping to keep us quiet and passive.
Apologies for any offense.
Thank you for all you are doing.
LikeLike
Keep fighting, Mrs. Lewis…we are behind you….wish you would come here and run the UFT.
LikeLike