EduShyster tries to imagine how Martin Luther King, Jr., would react to today’s corporate reform movement in education.
Would he agree with the corporate reformers that poverty is an excuse for bad teachers?
Would he agree that segregation doesn’t matter?
Would he agree that unions are an obstacle to high achievement?
Would he demand privatization as the way to close the achievement gap?
Would he throw in his lot with hedge fund managers and billionaires?
See how EduShyster answers those questions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
MLK would be despondent at what is going on currently. I think he would be shocked that the first U.S. president with African ancestry has supported NCLB and worse off, created RTTT – both policies that are directly responsible for limiting title one student’s education opportunities to “what is covered by high stakes tests”… MLK’s heart would bleed as he witnessed how the corporate world is profiting at the expense of the nation’s poorest students and the entire profession of teaching. His heart would sink at how the corporate world strategizes for the demise of unions. But one thing I am sure of, he would use his leadership skills to prevail! I have the audacity to hope that title one students across the nation and their parents will take a stand and refuse to continue wasting precious learning on test taking strategies and testing, and will refuse to have their students treated as data and addressed as “human capital” and will shout from the roof tops that title one students’ civil right to a good education cannot be controlled by “for profit” corporate interests and those organizations far removed from the classroom experience.
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gbl, I agree 100% with you. Hopefully the insanity will stop! I am not sure how reliable any standardized test is at measuring student progress or teacher performance. What I DO know is this: An over-abundance of testing our Nation’s children is KILLING their natural love of learning and leaving them BURNED OUT by the time they enter Middle School, if not sooner. This isn’t right. This MUST stop. WE MUST BE THE VOICE OF REASON. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wise and eloquent words ring out as true today as when he first spoke them: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Education matters. OUR CHILDREN matter. We must WAKE UP and TAKE UP this cause. Our children’s lives — ALL our lives — depend on it.
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” I am not sure how reliable any standardized test is at measuring student progress or teacher performance”
Well, any standardized test is not reliable nor valid. To understand why (and I suggest reading “A Little Less than Valid. . .” first) see: Noel Wilson in “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at:
http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
“A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” found at:
http://www.edrev.info/essays/v10n5index.html
Click to access v10n5.pdf
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Ummm, Duane, that was my point. I was being facetious.
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The Gates Foundation has provided a grant to the National Civil Rights Museum (site of Martin Luther King’s assassination), so that they “can be a platform for a national dialogue on equity in education.”
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/09/Education-is-the-Civil-Rights-Issue-of-Today
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This post on the Gates Foundation website about Martin Luther King Jr. barely mentions segregation and doesn’t mention poverty at all. The author overlooked what King thought were the crucial civil rights issues in his day. Are they no longer civil rights issues in our day?
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Diane,
Consider reading and posting:
NYCTF Retention, Resignation, and Despair
JANUARY 21, 2013
It is rare that I do not receive a desperate or despairing text message or email from a colleague in my NYCTF cohort. “I’m drowning” says one, “This is bullshit” says another, “We have all been set up for failure.” The latter is a message I’ve received from numerous colleagues in the program numerous times throughout the school year. It’s become an accidental mantra–when the truth must be spoken no matter how cutting: “We’ve all been set up for failure.” Not just us fellows, but our students as well. We fellows are, after all, sincere, dedicated overachievers. We do truly care about being–becoming–effective educators. Nonetheless, we are also honest, intelligent, and responsible people and it is impossible to deny the naked truth: “We all get screwed in this. Us, the kids. It’s awful.” This message came in from a colleague of mine who had been teaching in the Bronx. A Peace Corps alum, a brilliant and attentive student, and a kind generous heart. She too has been broken by this. There are many casualties.
http://thinkingoutsidetheschoolhouse.com/2013/01/21/nyctf-retention-resignation-and-despair/
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I didn’t know where to post this so here it is. Kevin Johnson tried to convince the Bridgeport, Conn. citizens that mayoral control was better than an elected school board.
(https://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/22/the-referendum-in-bridgeport-connecticut/)
Bridgeport Board of Education special meeting about Vallas
http://blog.ctnews.com/kantrowitz/2013/01/21/bridgeport-board-of-education-special-meeting-about-vallas/
The article points out how Vallas has increased the debt of this school district and how his behavior shows complete contempt for the board. But he wants an extension of his contract.
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I do believe that Dr. King would be quick to rebuke the Gates Foundation’s claim to have the answers for “the Civil Rights issue of our time”. He would recognize their profiteering agenda and insist on a quality education for all our children. He was a unifier not a divider.
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The people who lived in the neighborhoods of Chicago where Dr. King chose to march would have a different opinion of the unifier/divider distinction.
King worked with University of Chicago sociologists to find the greatest ‘brick throwing’ potential in neighborhoods before they decided where to march. T
hey picked well, and the ensuing violence served the causes purpose.
Instead of picking one of the well-educated neighborhoods where the march would have been celebrated, Dr. King picked in this
Neighborhoods with a high percentage of low-educated, blue collar, recent immigrants who were in close proximity to the rioting that had been going on all summer.
Dr. King chose 2 gang leaders to be the grand marshals of the parade, further inciting the fear in his targets. In the end, you had poorly educated, recent immigrants who owned homes that they had poured their entire lives into being marched upon. They feared for what would happen to their life savings and families.
Did they act badly in response to the march? Yes. Were they provoked by taking advantage of their insecurities, education, and precarious hold on staying afloat? Yes.
It wasn’t all peace and love.
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I lived in Chicago then and this account is nothing more than racist, revisionist history.
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Dr. King, on the purpose of education … Stunning and timely …
http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm
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Thank you! What a beautiful statement.
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I have asked this question before….Where are the civil rights leaders of today to give a voice to those who have none? Where are those who can fill the shoes of the great ones who have gone before us? Their silence is deafening!
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You’re welcome. His words are a treasure.
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Sadly, MLK would no doubt be weeping today at seeing how, under our first African American President, the NAACP, Urban League and other civil rights groups have been bought by Gates et al who promote agendas that are not in the best interests of the common man. Corporate Funding of Urban League, NAACP & Civil Rights Orgs Has Turned Into Corporate Leadership: http://blackagendareport.com/corporate-funding-urban-league-naacp-civil-rights-orgs-has-turned-corporate-leadership
That doesn’t mean Progressive blacks have no voice though. People like Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, Glen Ford and Bruce Dixon have been speaking out about how Obama has ignored poverty and how his policies have promoted segregation and undermined unions. Obama’s Race To The Top Drives Nationwide Wave of School Closings, Teacher Firings: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-race-top-drives-nationwide-wave-school-closings-teacher-firings
On days like today, when so much pageantry is bestowed upon our political leadership, I like to remind myself that it truly is honorable to have been born a commoner without any special advantages. For those of us who chose to work in social services and education and, therefore, remain common, our dignity is about having given our lives to ameliorating the human condition, for which there are no celebratory gala events, but at least we have Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. In honor of MLK and the commons he served:
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GBL and Christine, I totally agree with your comments! Love In Abundance has only been in Title One schools for the past seven years, but it is so disheartening to watch students excited about education become utterly frustrated and stressed out because the focus appears to be stronger on their test preparation than actually learning, and enhancing their innate desire to learn.
Because their parents work schedules prevent them from displaying the voice needed to demand their children be educated; Love In Abundance works to create a mindset of learning in lieu of the deficits experienced in education. The self esteem and self-efficacy of students with a passion to learn, but a limited interest in learning the test bombarding their learning experiences. Everything begins with students feeling about self and belief in what is possible for their future. All activities with new students begins with students saying five positives things about self, and three negative things about self. Most students get stuck at three positives, and an abundance of negatives. This is wrong. Or students are given an assignment to systematically write out their dreams for the future, with a sample of a dream and 8 steps to begin the process of defining their dreams. The responses were so sad that it brought tears to our eyes. If these students continue in this limited, non-creative learning environment in Intermediate school; where will they be by the time they reach high school?
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