This request was posted. Please feel welcome to post your comments and help our friends in Spain.
Dear Mrs. Ravitch,
My name is Amadeu Sanz and I am the publishing coordinator of STEPV, a union of teachers in Valencia (Spain).
In Spain, just as in the US, there’s a heated debate on the results of public schools in international assessment tests such as PISA, and our Minister of Education (José Ignacio Wert) wants to impose a reform of the educational system that advocates the de-regulation of the system to favor complete freedom of school choice and the introduction of the principles of accountability and competition among all kinds of schools (public, private and charter ones). this reform hasn’t been passed in our parliament yet, but we fear that the absolute majority that the party in government has will approve of it, even though there is a wide refusal towards it in all spheres of education (teachers and students unions, parents’ associations, prominent scholars…).
In addition to this, the economic and debt crisis in this country is a perfect excuse to significantly cut education budgets, fire teachers, reduce their salaries and increase the ratio of students per classroom.
The situation is becoming really awful, to the extent that we consider this reform and these cuts the biggest attack against the public school system that has been developed after the death of Franco and the transition to democracy in Spain.
As a response to this situation, STEPV, along with two other unions –STEi, from the Balearic Islands, and USTEC, from Catalonia, with whom we share the same language, Catalan- are developing an opposition campaign to the reform designed by our minister.
In order to enrich our arguments and proposals, we are planning to publish a critical analysis of the reform and we want to illustrate how similar proposals to these from minister Wert have worked out in other countries, being yours a very valuable example.
Because many ideas come from the U.S. and because we’re absolute fans of some of your books and videos, we would be really pleased if you would like to contribute to our critical analysis issue by writing an article about the effects of school choice and accountability on education.
Best regards,
Amadeu Sanz
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sr. Sanz,
Ojalá que ustedes derroten a las fuerzas avarientas de los que desean destruir el sector público, especialmente el de las escuelas públicas. Les aconsejo leer lo que el Sr. Noel Wilson ha escrito sobre la invalidación (por multiples errores) de los conceptos del estandarte y los exámenes uniformes que se puede encontrar en: “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 y “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” found at: http://www.edrev.info/essays/v10n5index.html
Click to access v10n5.pdf
Sigue la lucha y que todo se vaya bien.
Duane
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¡Qué horror! From what I understand, this is not a new problem in Spain. My husband from Asturias graduated back in the 80’s and said there were problems even back then.
I taught for 2 years before NCLB took affect, and got out of teaching 2 years later, as the various changes in law and new attitudes toward teachers and education began to pervade the profession, and teachers had to abide or get out – taking a tremendous toll on my overall health. There was no longer room for challenge and creativity. Teacher, essentially came to mean “glorified babysitter”.
I say one of the biggest culprits is the corporatized, teach-to-the-test mentality, and the greater significance placed on those tests for measurement of student potential and teacher performance. Many of my colleagues knew how to reach students, but it was the extra content they needed to cover by deadline X, and that they no longer had the time for discussion and hands-on activities, and making sure students fully absorb the content before moving on. All students seem to care about are what will be on the test, and what will be graded – and they’ve started to do little more than the minimum to get their desired grade.
I am neutral on the concept of school choice, because I think a lot of it boils down to the law, funding, and the district’s education philosophy – not so much teacher quality. In issues like harassment and bullying, I can see some legitimacy in school choice. But if all the public schools in the area are subject to the same curricula and academic program offerings as is here, I think the right curriculum and program changes could be just what the doctor ordered to keep most people happy with their neighborhood schools. That, and giving teachers more academic freedom, not less.
Many problems at my son’s elementary school (mainly the bullying and “dumbing-down”) caused me to pull my son out and home school him, until he was eligible to open-enroll at the the research and development school here in Iowa (a public school run by our public university).
He had the happiest and most engaging school year of his life there, until it was controversially closed last summer, forcing him to go to another public school. There is a stark difference in how the classes are structured, and students are assessed. He had periodic homework with meaningful learning objectives, where he now has homework for the sake of homework. Sure, he had tests and quizzes at the R&D school, but they weren’t as frequent, and didn’t seem to carry as much weight as they do at the new school, where he has at least 2-3 tests or quizzes per week, in addition to quarter and semester tests and a myriad of standardized tests and ACT prep tests. All the assessments at the new school leave precious little time for actual instruction and hands-on learning. In addition, the instruction at the new school involves more lecturing and note taking, as opposed to the interactive, hands-on approach at the R&D school.
When starting the new school, they gave him a placement test to determine which math class to put him in. Being more of a quality-over-quantity thinker, he has never been a good “timed-test” taker, and the results put him in regular 8th grade math. Anything my son may lack in giftedness, he makes up for in work ethic and enthusiasm. His standardized test scores rarely reflect his academic performance. He looked at the book and noticed that it was essentially his 7th grade math book, and wondered what the was in the curricula of the more advanced classes. (He only wanted to see the curricula, not necessarily jump into a new class.
I relayed his thoughts to the administration, who, in conjunction with with the TAG teacher, guidance counselor and his math teacher (2nd year teacher who was fine with it, but strong-armed into going along with them) determined he was right where he belonged. I asked him how 4 people who barely knew my son could base this decision solely on standardized test scores, alone.
They then asked his former R&D school math teacher, who said he could handle it. My son is now getting an A in the 9th Honors Algebra class they didn’t think he’d be able to handle.
I hope Spain doesn’t get go down this abysmal road. Our son is a dual Spanish citizen, and we’ve been considering sending him to Spain to escape the current academic situation.
We usually go to Spain in the summertime (usually in the northern part where my husband’s family lives, though my in-laws suggested meeting in the somewhere in the south, for a change). Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help your cause.
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Sounds like disaster capitalism (Naomi Klein’s term) is trying to take hold in Spain, a country that is suffering from EU-imposed austerity measures, rampant unemployment, and growing poverty.
We all know what “school choice” really means: privatization. It’s frightening how vast this privatization movement is, and how coordinated it seems to be. Surely this is no coincidence.
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I am very familiar with the situation in Spain. I know from years of research in the Barcelona area including inside an inner-city school. Essentially, Spain has gone already over the voucher system, although it’s not called that. Parents can send their children to private schools, called “concertadas,” most though by no means all run by the RC Church, with subsidies from the state in return for the school agreeing to follow curricular mandates. This makes private schools affordable to middle class families, which leads to diminishing enrollment in public schools. Public school teachers are better paid and more qualified, but public schools enroll everyone. Generally, when a public school reaches a tipping point in terms of student population from groups that many middle class and even lower middle class parents find undesirable,such as Roma (Gypsies), immigrants, or other lower class children, there is a general abandonment of that school by those parents, which leads to a familiar vicious cycle. This reduces costs of school administration because those parents are now paying part of the costs in the concertadas, and in addition with lower-paid teachers. Wert’s plan will accelerate this process by encouraging more public school abandonment.
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I feel really bad for the current situation is Spain. The current finacial crisis will make it very easy for forces to destroy your public system. I have worked in two urban charters in one of the most crime ridden cities in the US. The so called “non profit” charter has had almost a 100% turnover in staff in a mere 5 years. The school provides a limited curriculum and the teachers have had no real raises in those 5 years. The teachers have no retirement nor 401k. The CEO has hired several family members in upper management. They do not have to publish their salaries although they are being paid through public tax dollars. They live in the wealthiest suburb of the metro area. They wear expensive suits and drive expensive cars. The teachers are treated poorly and have little supplies to use in the classroom yet will be judged using test scores. I’ve seen colleagues labeled “ineffective” or “minimally effective” due to test scores. They are not ineffective teachers. The idea of “choice” in education is greatly exaggerated. The students in poor urban areas are only able to make the “choice” that is within walking distance or nearby. The school is run by a “board” that is appointed by the CEO. This is a sham. The people running the school are pulling all of the strings. The school does not really reflect the desires of the community because it does not have an elected board. Teachers are intimidated to pass students to keep graduation rates high. There are no miracles in this school. The students are performing well below grade level. You will have a difficult time fighting the privatizers because they have endless amounts of money to undermine your cause. The news media here has done a poor job of telling the truth about these schools. The wealthy suburbs here fight charters in their districts because they know it will eventually weaken their district. I wish you luck. The teachers who will suffer the most will be in areas with the poorest students. But, you will see unbridled greed from the CEO and family. They will make a tremendous amount of money off of the backs of students and staff. Do what you can to organize your parents and get the word out. Privatization will actually create an inferior school system in Spain. Maybe you could create groups in Spain that could come up with solutions to your current issues as counter solutions to the privatizers. Do what you can to stop it. It will turn teaching into a “job” rather than a profession.
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Do everything you can to educate the media so the word is spread. People without children in the schools are probably uninformed or ill informed. Buena suerte.
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Spain is such a wonderful country where children are shown much love and protection by their community and family. I sincerely hope the strength of this love will be the force that will outweigh the greedy goals of outside profit seekers. The strong and powerful bonds of family or community are your greatest strength in fighting corporate influence. Your country allows children to be children, and I believe your strong beliefs, your value of tradition, and the love of family should not be underestimated. There is nothing stronger than love, family and community.
As a retired American teacher who is fortunate to spend winters in southern Spain, I think America has much to learn from you. Thank you for sharing your beautiful country with me, and for standing up for the children and teachers of Spain.
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