I received the following sincere request for advice. I replied that I would ask readers to share their views. My own view is that RTTT is promoting privatization and standardization and offers little that will enrich education or improve the teaching profession. But I think the reader should hear from you.
She writes:
Diane. I read your blog and other resources about education because I earnestly want to understand all that is going on in education. I read things that make it seem as if education around us is blowing up and yet I see leadership going about equally as earnestly trying to do what I imagine they have interpreted to be appropriate for education. I don’t know what to make if it all yet, except that I know my contributions to education will need to be building back up what is blown up, if that is what is happening, and bring on board with what leadership points me towards as an educator. I am interested in the opinions of people more experienced than I am. I guess so I can be prepared to lead myself one day (since chance favors the prepared mind). So I wonder what do you have to say about the reports states who have adopted RttT share with their education work force. For example,
These links:
2. Dr. Atkinson Talks About the Common Core in Her Latest Blog
In her blog post for Feb. 7, State Superintendent June Atkinson talks about the Common Core State Standards and what they mean for educators and students in North Carolina. This blog post and earlier entries are available at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/statesuperintendent/blog/.
3. Updated Timeline for Measures of Student Learning on the Web
The Measures of Student Learning timeline has been updated and is available on the Educator Effectiveness website at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/educatoreffect/measures/. The Measures of Student Learning are common exams in selected subjects and grades that are not part of the state testing program, or assessments used in promotion decisions for students. The Measures of Student Learning are tools for school districts and charter schools to utilize as one part of the evaluation process for teachers.
——-
When I read these links they seem nebulous enough for a certain comfort level and forward-thinking optimism. Am I missing something? What is it I don’t see that has many of your frequent readers fired up? Anything? Trends towards anything? Or is it possible for a state to make the best of RttT? To churn out something productive and lasting even where other states might be set back? I genuinely want to hear viewpoints. I don’t know what to think except that I want to be a good educator and a good employee and a responsible citizen.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for asking.
One set of responses to this question can be found by looking at what various foundations do to try to help improve public schools. There has been a lot of discussion here about various foundations and what they have/are doing.
My apologies for responding a bit off topic, but I wanted participants to know that the Bush Foundation in Minnesota is seeking a new education program director. Bush gives away about $29.6 million/year in Minnesota, North and South Dakota. About 40% of their funds recently have been in education. More details for anyone interested in applying or learning more.
http://www.bushfoundation.org/about/our-people/job-opportunities/education-program-director#
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OP and others who might be unaware, please note, a plug such as the above for the Bush Foundation is an advertisement for privatization, charter schools and vouchers. The topic of this thread, RTTT, does not even apply to them. Generally, anytime you see info about “foundations” trying “to help improve public schools” or Bush, it’s typically a red herring that should be ignored.
Beware of big money, including government resources, such as RTTT, as they have many strings attached and are aimed at fulfilling an ideological agenda which goes far beyond helping “to improve public schools,” including changing state laws to raise caps on charter schools, acceptance of national standards, increased high-stakes testing and evaluating teachers based on student tests scores/junk science, All of that also costs a whole lot more than the meager funds RTTT allots to states and districts.
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Bush Foundation in Minnesota has nothing to do with Bush in Florida. Among other things, this foundation has given millions of dollars to colleges of education to promote collaboration with pubic schools. They also recently gave an award to a (district) public school that has worked with a local college to establish a program in which high school students can earn an A.A. degree before graduating from high school.
Since there is a lot of discussion here about foundations, I thought this might foundation and this job might interest some participants.
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The Bush Foundation in MN may be associated with a different Bush family, but they support the same value-added junk science measure for evaluating teachers based on student test scores, as well as NCTQ, which has such luminous corporate reform “educators” on their advisory board as Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp, Joel Klein, etc: telling colleges of education how to prepare teachers: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/category/nctq/
And your own bio states that you “helped write” “the nation’s first charter public school law,” so your own agenda is clear, too.
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Here is a list of advisors for the Bush Foundation Teacher Preparation Program:
http://www.bushfoundation.org/education/partners
They include the Director of Professional Issues for the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, Dean, Graduate School, the Bank Street College of Education, Dean of the College of Education at University of Washington, Director, New Teacher Center, retired Superintendent, Rochester, Mn Public Schools and others. Yes, they work with the alue Added Research Center at Univ of Wisconsin Pretty thoughtful people.
As to my own work, yes I helped write the nation’s first charter law. I also have worked with district public schools throughout the US, and our own 3 children attended and graduated from urban (district) public schools. My wife recently retired from more than 30 years as a urban public school teacher.
Our Center works to improve public schools, district and charter. I realize anything pro some charters is toxic for some readers. But there are some of us who see value in both the district and charter approach to serving youngsters.
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@Joe. Thanks for a list of your credentials, and mentioning that your wife gave 30 years of service in an urban school…and that your children attended such a school. I must admit, unless there are some details here you’ve not mentioned, you are not a normal ‘reformer’ in the sense that you may actually believe in what you are doing.
That still doesn’t mean its right, nor does it mean that charters, vouchers, choice, or a corporate approach to education (using test scores as some sort of ‘hard’ data, etc…) is correct. Given the evidence of vouchers and charters, they have not brought anything special to the scene other than stripping teachers of their union rights and draining real public schools of their funding.
I will not be duped, and apparently the courts will not either – there have been recent decisions where courts have deemed charter schools as private schools more than public.
If your approach was actually showing improvements in the system, I would be more likely to give credit where credit is due. But given the decades of teaching I’ve experienced, and the research I have done in earning multiple advanced education degrees, I find very few positive things your approach has brought to us.
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There are an array of choice programs. The 2012 Gallup Poll showed more than 65% of Americans support the charter idea, and more than 50% oppose the voucher idea (as I do). It’s not all or nothing.
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@Joe. Its not fair to sample a public that has been hounded with T.V. commercials of, “let’s fix this thing” (Exxon), while they have also endured numerous other attacks on public schools – even from our own president and Sec. of Education.
Those who know public schools, and experience them, and also have an unbiased eye, know public schools do a great job.
Other polls also show the public is very confident about their local public school systems while being very leery about the nation’s public schools. This is evidence that the campaigns of the billionaires, and politicians (and their little helpers like Michelle Rhee), have been successful of convincing people to believe lies.
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Dedicated leaders do their best to make mandates like RTTT work for their students, but having to do this is distracting and drains energy from the mission.
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” . . . having to do this is distracting and drains energy from the mission.”
It drains money as well. It’s ironic that in order to get the money that most districts desperately need, they had to “sign the RTTT contract,” agreeing to do whatever they said; however, that money is not beng used to buffer shortfalls, get supplies for students who cannot aford them, or pay for more teachers. No, class sizes are getting bigger, more middle-management/administrators are being brought on, and millions are being spent on “new curricula,” developed by highly-paid consultants.
When any organization is in “trouble” (and I’m not sure our education system is in “trouble”), going back to its roots, revisiting its history is the best way to see where it has gotten “off track,” where it has departed from its original mission. That process takes time. It takes time to talk to the people who brought the organization to where it is, to rediscover what they were trying to do. But that is only if someone wants to truly “fix” the problem.
I’m not sure anyone wants to “fix” our education system. They continue to simply throw money at the “problem,” and hope it will go away.
It won’t. And the capital that is being wasted in the long run is in human beings, our kids, our professional teachers. And when a culture wastes that kind of capital, it cannot truly be called a “democracy,” because the “people” are being thrown away.
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You should never be compelled to comply with mandates from the state or federal government that violate professional ethics. RTTT has no evidence to support any part of it.
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Any “innovation” supported by teachers and implemented earnestly by teachers will show improvement in whatever is measured. That is true for the latest software or PLC or charter school, etc. That is not the question. The question is, what do we want public education to be for the kids in America? Do we want it to operate on private sector notions or on the notions of service in the name of the public good? Schools subject to decisions and implementations by lay people become less than they can be in the name of competition, data collection, etc. Shall schools act more like General Motors or your church or family? I’ve been in this business for 40 years and am a school superintendent. The very best schools have dedicated, caring teachers supported by knowledgable and caring administrators where the entire process occurs in a familial climate, not a competitive one superimposed on the school. Yes, you may see improvement in data after an external private or lay mandatory implementation. But, we will create schools where no one wants to be. I think that is the point if one promotes charters and vouchers and any other strategy that shifts public dollars for education to the private sector.
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” Shall schools act more like General Motors or your church or family?”
I think the answer to that might depend on your ability to choose which church you attend. If the state assigned me to a church based on physical proximity, I would expect a great deal of standardization and regulation of the church by the state.
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@teachingeconomist – Your answer shows your bias – you want ‘choice’ in education, therefore, your response is constructed with built-in bias. In everything you respond to, you believe school choice is right. There is no evidence that school choice improves schools – it is an entirely philosophical argument that works to dismantle a system that took over 100 years to build. Our public school systems take any student, any time, no matter what, and gives them the opportunity to succeed. Your proposition is based on what individual parents want for their children, and if it is to be so, then they can take advantage of the myriad of private schools that are present throughout our country, without upending the services we provide to ALL students.
And you glossed over the family unit. Should we, or can we, choose our family?
Interestingly, public schools, and really any school, can (and should) be thought of as a family unit – an instrument where peers can play, learn, and grow.
We can’t pick our families, and we shouldn’t be able to pick schools. All schools should be given the resources to succeed, and all schools should be located in local communities in which families can be active participants – not where parents can take their children and plant them somewhere else.
Your philosophy is self-serving, and this insight is coming from myself who is CHOOSING to place my own children in private school yet still fully support my local public schools with my taxes, my time, and my energy. All kids deserve strong schools, not just the schools that have parents who choose to place their children there.
What’s currently happening is a mirage – people are being tricked that there is something wrong with our public schools (when there isn’t) for the sake of choice, vouchers, and charters. And it all extends from people like you who what your own particular brand of school to serve your own particular child using MY tax money, rather than biting the bullet and using a private school to truly get what you want.
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I am making no claim about choice improving schools. I am making the simple (and I would have thought uncontroversial) point that if the government forces students to attend a particular school there will be overwhelming pressure will be to make those schools as identical as possible. Do you really think that everyone in my elementary school zone would be fine with a Montessori elementary? Would be fine with a Chinese immersion elementary? There may be enough students in the district to justify such a school, but because they are scattered in the district, no specialized zoned school can exist.
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In what way is my position self serving? I am a product of public K-12 education, I teach at a public university. Unlike you, I have put two (working on the third) through K-12 public schools. Please clarify how my desire to increase student choices is self serving.
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Finally I note that you have skipped over the church illustration. Why should we allow you to choose your church?
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“Choice” is merely the “choice” for privatizers to make money off of school children. It is one big joke.
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No doubt you are a supporter of the common core. I am less comfortable with the notion that one size fits all.
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We are fired up but just like that carnival game of “whack a mole” when we quash poor thinking in one area another poor idea pops its head in the fray. I’d call a moratorium on all educational policiy development for one year to let dust settle. Remove profit from curriculum and materials and see who stays standing. Read should refer to quick Washington Post article regarding false assumptions, constructs.
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Several states –Missouri, Indiana and South Carolina, for example– have debated bills to withdraw their states from Common Core. This would be the best choice to return autonomy over education to the schools themselves.
I have watched the video of Seton Hall University Professor Christopher Tienken and read his research papers on the subject of common standards. He calls for an end to standardization and a return to innovation and diversification. He calls the making of ed policy on shaky or nonexistent grounds “education malpractice.” I think his video and scholarship needs wide dissemination.
Also needing wide readership: University of Arkansas’ Dr. Stotsky’s new model English standards are available to replace and improve Common Core (at no cost for any state)
In the words of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC):
• The nation’s “international economic competitiveness” is unlikely to be affected by the presence or absence of national standards.
• Common Core standards and assessments are unlikely to improve learning, increase test scores, or close the achievement gap.
• As testbased penalties have increased, the instructional attention given to non-tested areas has decreased.
• Policymakers need to be aware of the significant costs in instructional materials, training and computerized testing platforms the CCSS requires as it is unlikely the federal or state governments will adequately cover these costs.
• Only for schools and districts with weak or non-existent curriculum articulation, the CCSS may adequately serve as a basic curriculum.
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How can we end standardization and increase innovation and diversification when we base school attendance on geographic location? Zoned traditional schools are part of the reason there is a push for uniform standards.
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You’re assuming a premise you haven’t proved. Why are innovation and diversification necessarily incompatible with basing school attendance on geographic location? Why would having zoned schools necessarily lead to “a push for uniform standards”?
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Dienne,
What would my neighbors think if their children had to go to a Montessori elementary school because it is the neighborhood school? How would they react to not being allowed to go to a Montessori elementary school because they did not live in the right part of the district? Would native speakers of Chinese want their children to go to a Chinese language immersion school? Would everyone in a district want a Waldorf school?
The more diversification in schools, the more matching student to school philosophy matters.
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For most of the country, zone-based schools work very well to drive excellence — even from a narrow economic perspective. School quality is a powerful driver of property values, so everybody who owns property in a community has a strong economic interest in having good schools.
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Then how is it that there are Montessori public schools? And language immersion public schools? And nearly every other kind of public school?
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Many of the Montessori and Language immersion schools are provided as options within school districts. Sometimes they are self contained schools that draw people from throughout an area. Sometimes they are schools within schools. I have not done a systematic study on this but have observed this situation in numerous districts around the country.
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How? There are choices that parents and students have about which school to attend.
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So then, having zoned public schools does not stifle innovation or diversification.
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ZONED public schools can not specialize.
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No, zoned public schools cannot specialize school-wide. But that doesn’t mean they can’t innovate and diversify. They certainly can – and do, offer many different programs within the school. The po-dunk, middle-of-nowhere, 800 student high school I attended had strong arts, sports, languages and honors programs while I was there. AP was just getting off the ground at the time. They now have an IB program and a ROTC program, and one of the elementary schools is implementing a progressive program. All of this is possible without charters or vouchers.
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But none of it is possible without choice. Your examples depend on choice within a school. My examples between schools.
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“Choice” between schools only gives “choice” to those who had it to begin with – children of the rich and the savvy. Choice within a school gives choice to those who wouldn’t otherwise have it. A child of an incarcerated father and a drug addicted father can come to a public school and find a program that suits his needs. But “choice” between schools destroys choice within a school because it saps all the resources. So now that same kid comes to public school and finds his only “choice” is a drill-to-kill, “no excuses” test factory. And don’t tell me he has the “choice” to go elsewhere, because exactly how is he going to do that?
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Dienne, some district public school teachers in Minneapolis and St Paul, working with parents, have created Montessori public schools. They cite extensive research supporting the Montessori approach. These schools are available as options.
Other parents and teachers have created for example, French immersion or Spanish immersion schools. Others created a school based on the ideas of Howard Gardner. Again, these are available as options. None have admissions tests.
Are you opposed to these options being available as separate schools within a school district? Also are you a parent and/or public school teacher?
Since I asked you the question, I will say that I have been an urban public school teacher and administrator, and that our 3 children all attended and graduated from the ST. Paul, Minnesota public schools.
Thanks for considering these questions.
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Ugh, brain-o. I mean, a child of an incarcerated father and a drug-addicted *mother*. Sorry.
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Are the children of savvy parents not included in the “all” that Dr. Ravitch refers to in the title of this blog?
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Liars figure and figures lie…It is tough to figure out the truth in so much data, to say nothing about the need for such data…The current spin doctors leave no room for productive thinking…The educating of our children is not a business..Children have no time for trends…They need to learn today…I would feel more optimistic if the ‘leadership’ in all districts truly did work professionally with classroom teachers to partner learning…Instead we are ‘evaluated’ and judged by ineffective modes…And because we make everything thrown at us work, we become cogs in the ridiculous cycle…
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Very well put.
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The biggest issue is that districts have to divert money to implement these mandates whose results are unproven.
States make claims -based on data that is questionable (ie. studies, research, etc) that this “mandate” will result in more accountability on the part of teachers, and better outcomes for students. Then, regardless of data, every district must implement every single mandate.
Here is just one example from Connecticut:
Teacher Evaluation – districts have been evaluating teachers all along. Only now, for the “outcome” based measure, they are forced to find a metric and set a goal for improvement. Unfortunately, a huge percentage of teachers do not teach in a straightforward, cause-effect environment. So a math teacher may set a goal to improve her students scores. But then she is told to use last year’s results as a benchmark (different kids) or the scores from the grade below, extract her students, and make an educated guess based on how they might do in the current year. For example, she’ll look at 3rd grade math strand/student data, set a goal for 4th grade different material/math strands. Social studies teachers will set a goal for Language Arts skills such as writing. They may give writing assignments, but they are not the core writing teachers. The cause/effect is immediately questionable. This is like a baseball coach setting goals for his new team based on last year’s team results, or setting a goal for RBI’s based on last years pitching stats.
In effect, teachers are going to go to crazy being tied to these metrics because more often than not, they do not have direct control. Parents only hear “accountability” which makes the whole thing palatable.
Without regard to data, even a district with a solid footing as far as test scores has to go through this process which again wastes money. There should be a “means” test to determine if district is successul already, do they have to do this. There should be more evidence that a school’s failing scores are due to teacher practice and not something else.
Regarding the “practice” which is the observation in the classroom part of evaluation, one little requirement in Connecticut’s teacher evaluation is that in the first year of implementation, 100% of the teachers will need 3 formal evals and 3 informal (although they have modified this a bit.) While this may be possible in a school with a small population, this is completely unscaleable to a large school and will require towns to hire evaluators.6 evaluations per teacher with pre conference and post conference, Administrators scripting lessons and then coding to a rubric, training administrators, training teachers, making technology part of the collection process – all of this diverts time and money, inserts stress, all to practice something that there is no proof it works. According to Madison, CT, there is proof that it actually may be harmful. And the goal is to improve a teacher’s craft – this can be done with other models that are not this comprehensive. So to tie an evaluation to a practice that drains resources, uses up precious teaching time, and inserts stress into the system will impact every member of the community, and may have the opposite effect of what it is trying to do.
Another part of the teacher evaluation is parent surveys. Again, you may get 40 parents to answer the first survey, and decide you have a need to “improve home/school” communication. Well if your “post” survey gets answered by a different set of parents, how do you prove cause/effect?
Last part is a whole school goal. While teachers can show that they are all working toward the same goal, how do you prove the cause/effect of one teacher’s contribution to the process? What if one teacher does her part, but overall the score goes down, how does that get evaluated.
These are all great practices. If it was all to simply refine and support the practices of good teachers, and was scaled back, it would be more useful. Now it will suffocate under its own weight, and it will take teachers, administrators and children with it. The money that districts have already spent is outrageous and it hasn’t even been fully implemented.
And this is only one of the mandates. There are lots more. When you put them all together, they will actually cause schools to fail. No one is looking at children or people as if they are humans. This is a robotic process and the human element will make it fail.
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Phenomenal explanation. Mind if I send this to a state legislator on the education committee?
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There is always a simple rule to evaluate issues like these. It goes back to Watergate. “Follow the Money.”
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David, HOW TRUE! Whether its political scandals, illegal wars (just to prove that point, WHAT did Cheney do in his unpublished, PRIVATE meeting with the oil barons as they divided up the Iraq oil fields BEFORE the falsified war started? Darn sure wasn’t a meeting to raise the living standards for that ravaged country that has poisoned wells from our nuclear tipped bunker buster bombs), and now they are turning the ravenous, greedy eyes on yet another institution they feel will not only enrich them (and Jeb isn’t part of the Bush Foundation…try that out on Comedy Night at your locale club),
but also serve the purpose of eliminating such tenets of reading as CRITICAL THINKING that the Texas, GOP 2012 plank specified with the noble goal of keeping the kids from differing with their parents! I could go on with the goals of these ignorant reformers, but how many shipwreck results does anyone need to ascertain the hidden
motives? I’ll just end with that thoughtful, full quote referred to in this discussion: “there are lies, d… lies and statistics!” Disraeli posited that truth and its sophistic results are apparent 24/7 in the media
bought and paid for shills!
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Here is my view:
Common Core is a corporate “reform”. If all States have a common curricula just think how much easier it would be for companies like Pearson to make standardize test for all schools throughout the Nation. They would only have to make up 1 test for each grade to be used throughout the Nation. They could still charge the same but it would be 50 times easier. The same goes for virtual schools going National.
I know this sounds out-there but Politicians many times have no idea what they are voting on! They follow party lines or do as they are told. Well, some of the politicians are now saying that common core is too much government control and are starting to ask questions. This could cause some shake ups.
As for RTTT, this is really ugly. Besides being very costly to implement and time consuming for teachers and students, it does not improve education in its attempt to find “poor” teachers. The thing that gets my gall is that they think teachers are stupid enough to accept a method of evaluation based on a biased flawed VAM type measure.
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And to think, my principal asked the teachers in my department to write assessments based on the standards for each grade we teach. These assessments are to be used district-wide. Should we send the district a bill or our extra work?
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I feel for you as an educator who is at the mercy of those in Raleigh and Washington. Recently I was talking to a Superintendent who said, “If folks would just quit trying to “Reform” me, I know what to do! Hold me accountable, but let me have control.” While Dr. Atkinson means well, her blog did not give the whole story. I responded to her blog here: http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2013/02/08/what-does-common-core-mean-for-nc/
RttP takes more control from the state and local administration/staff.
While states are trying to get out from under the burdensome provisions of No Child Left Behind (otherwise known as ESEA), the recent Senate Hearings exposed new, even more controlling strings with the wavers. Seems these wavers include states agreeing to “standards that are common to a significant number of states,” which in the mind of the Education Department is the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Again, I feel for sincere, caring educators who are trying to work with students, and do what they know to be best, in the midst of this political mess.
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What I hear you saying is that you are somewhat confused about all that is swirling around education today. If I may suggest that much of what is touted as reform is intended to do just that–obfuscate and deny or almost a cloaked divide and conquer in the interest of gaining access to the enormous public education fund pool of $$$.
As a teacher who went through a university ed program with advanced degrees, my experience tells me that 1.) school-wide and classroom learning environment is the number one factor to improving student learning outcomes, 2.) parental involvement and SES (socio-economic status) is another key factor, and 3.) the community ‘gestalt.” Also important are the quality of so-called leadership and of the effectiveness of the classroom teachers both individually and collectively as they work together in each individual school building.
My mother used to tell me that whenever you face a confusing situation, you must deconstruct to the elemental parts. Usually that means follow the money or put another way, examine the incentives. Once you accurately determine the incentives then you can begin to make sense of all the “cow-pucky” and chart a course for your thinking and yourself.
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Diane: If you are working on a response to Obama’s State of the Union speech last night, I hope you will address these ironic statements that Obama made: “The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next” and “The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause another,” because that is precisely what has been happening in education for the past 30 years, ever since “A Nation at Risk” was published in 1983 under Reagan.
That was a manufactured crisis, as the issue has long been a matter of poverty that has largely been ignored, due to low wages for the parents of poor children, resulting in a growing class of Working Poor. Obama did address the issue of our eroding Middle Class, stagnant incomes for most of us while CEO pay has risen dramatically, and an increase to minimum wage tied to the cost of living, Sounds promising, but… pushing STEM and associate’s degrees in high school while ignoring the needs of students seeking trades preparation is rather disturbing…
And I will scream if I hear one more comment about bringing down the cost of higher education without any mention of the fact that those costs are going to pay senior administrators, while the majority of college faculty in this country are Working Poor, with advanced degrees and decades of experience. People like the hundreds of faculty at my college who are now earning $12.50 per week per course over a sixteen week semester. (I will probably be homeless and living on the street by April. I went through the threat of this last year, too, but I have no other resources today.)
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Data shows that the problem with our schools is in areas of high poverty. I would suggest doing your own independent research on how some schools in high poverty areas have become successful. Google — successful schools in high poverty areas. You will find that the reformers have some good ideas, but mixed with them are some strategies that are not only ineffective they are actually destructive. Key to getting those test scores up is for teachers and principals to work together and collaborate. The punitive attitude the reformers have toward teachers is the exact opposite of what is needed.
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The problem really is that the tests scores continue to be the metric of school success. Why is it that a flawed test is our only source for measuring students and schools. My high poverty (93% F/R) school is rated a D. We have continued to improve year after year, yet the letter grade criteria is a moving target year after year. The tests change, the curriculum changes, the grading criteria changes, the evaluation system changes,… It is a moving target in my state. The only thing that hasn’t changed is my student population. I take it back, they are so transient that 1/3 to 1/2 enter and exit my school each school year. The key to getting those tests scores up….Really??? How about removing the flawed corporate driven test and giving educators the ability to behave as the professionals they are? If the money and time spent on these flawed tests would be removed as a mandate, then I believe educators could go back to educating students.
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They key to getting test scores up is to teach to the test. We were told that because our average ACT scores are so low for our school, we need to include ACT sample problems in our teaching.
Testing is now perverted – tests should be designed to see how much a student KNOWS, not what or how they were taught. Test scores should be a diagnostic tool that should be used in shadows (by teachers and administrators) to give a little bit more insight as to what students are struggling and which are not. Now tests are designed to measure teaching, not how much a kid knows or doesn’t know. This is a fundamental problem that makes the outcomes of learning now more confusing than ever – students can score high on a test yet not have learned an iota – just memorized enough to pass the test.
Everything is backwards, and basing urban education outcomes based on test scores is even worse – we are not supplying poverty-stricken kids with the chance to be enlightened by the process of discovery learning. We just want them to pass the test. Principals are just as guilty as teachers – their schools are riding on the outcomes of these tests and will game the system and force teachers to teach to the test to get the scores up.
Sometimes even these aforementioned parties will cheat.
Reformers have very few “good ideas”, and most, as you say, use “punitive measures” because they want public schooling to be deconstructed in order to usher their new privatized version of schooling where the wealthier individuals get what they really want with my tax money – exclusive public schools that serve their children the way that aligns with their personal agenda, religion, and philosophy.
That choice is present, and always has been present, in the form of private schools.
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It has been made pretty clear to anyone who reads this blog that none of these reforms are based on any proven research, and has actually been disproved by the researchers (NEPC for example). The problem is that the media continue to report to the public the false rhetoric of these Ed Deformers. As long as the corporate deformers control the media message, then the public thinks they have all the info they need to make decisions, because that’s where they get their info. Here in Louisiana, our own dept of Ed puts their spin of false claims right on our DOE website. I don’t think most parents even think to question it.
The question I have been asking myself is: What if we just refuse to go along? Now I know this won’t happen bc we are afraid to lose our jobs, such as they are. We have families to support. But what if we did like the civil rights movement of the 60s and formed a mass protest? What if we all Just Say NO? As long as we as educators continue to play by their rules and let corporate business leaders with no educational background call the shots, then we are complicit in our own downfall.
I don’t think we as teachers have what it takes to stand up for ourselves. We know what we are doing is not good for children, but we follow along like lemmings and say we have no choice. Our district leaders continue to follow along bc they need the money to run the schools. They tell us what to do, and we comply. Now that the union busting is almost complete, we don’t stand a chance to organize in our defense.
I still say the key lies with parents and students. We have the ability, but do we have the will? Our job will be to clean up the mess made by corporate reformers after they make a shambles of our public education system. That is if there is a system left!
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Bridget, you are on the right track. The only way to stop this absurd attack on educators and public education is via mass protests. One teacher who says “no” will be fired. One school alone might be punished. If the educators in an entire district said “no” they will be heard. And they will have the support of parents and students and perform a great act of public education.
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It gives me courage when I read about students in RI zombie protesting, and teachers banding together, refusing to administer the tests with the support of patents and students. I’m not sure what our future holds, but I work hard to create a school environment that teachers, parents and students feel is their home. I may not be able to change what happens outside of my school, but I can create a supportive family in my school. I can only hope that this will be the key to our schools’ survival if there ever comes a time when they try to shut our doors. I hope that our community will fight with us, not against us.
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I have not lost faith in the power of educating policy-makers, and getting reasonable people into our state houses. We have the power to organize democratically and get people elected who will listen to us.
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Is the writer of this, supposed, pure inquiry trying to pretend she doesn’t “get it?”
Either she is willfully ignorant OR trying to justify the national destruction of education, it surely isn’t that oblique to anyone!
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It isn’t about HER. It is about the policies. Ad hominem does not help answer the questions; clearly, the questions are fair because the policies are in place despite what might be obvious to some. Educators know how to ask questions while considering possible merit to any side of an issue–that is what my understanding of being educated is–otherwise we would just all lead with our chins all the time and that is not a wise idea Asking questions is how good answers come about. If the answers were clear, it seems we would not be in the education quagmire our country seems to be in.
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Gee, it isn’t about HER? What a revelation! But it IS about the Trojan horses that appear innocent and just seeking a better educational model for the nation! If it were so, then WHY are the series of “cures” wrecking havoc with teachers and educational excellence? Charter schools, at least in Denver, have fudged
facts about the falsified success, quite in the line of Michele Rhee’s
“successes” that have more erasers than any honest test would have! IF your definition to being educated is to find merit in policies that have proven to destructive, what’s the value of that? If the premises that the NCLB, TtTT and Gates/Michele Rhee/Bush clan’s?
collective “wisdom, (is that teachers are bad, TFA, charters and wide spread destruction of older teachers are the answer, I”m not wasting my time to dig through their collective sophistry to try to glean a positive thought….that’s not their agenda! It would be like picking through a garbage dump to find a diamond! Maybe you haven’t been a victim of these folk who you credit with positive motives and germane, ideas based on KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE and proven strategies, but I have and so have hundreds of other DPS teachers who would find your open mindedness satirically, dark humor! When I see these self declared saviors of public schools advocate ONE thing that honors teachers, isn’t trying to destroy public education for the profit of corporations, then I might be able to summon up a positive thought that they have anything but their destructive agendas to “consider” and reject!
cryptic line of educational destruction !
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You have felt some pains I have not. It has not hit my state that hard yet. I am busy in the classroom trusting that the same state in which I was educated K12 and beyond will do what is best. The question allows for emotional views like yours to be expressed. But to accuse someone trying to understand of either being dumb or evil is disrespectful and unfair. I was raised to trust unless given a reason not to. Questions enable looking at everything and I do not consider that a shortcoming. Were the post that of a troll, I doubt Ms. Ravitch would have reported it. Slams like yours keep people who could learn from blogs like this from bothering to read them.
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“Reposted”it. Not “reported” it
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I did not call you “dumb” or “evil” those that I singled out for perverse motives are the instigators of teacher/pubic school demise that do not present FACTS, but very often posit “truths/test scores” that have been proved to be false. Those types, such as Michelle Rhee who do such sophistry don’t deserve anyone’s respect and participation in a reasoned discussion of policies that will help education and not destroy teachers!
You are lucky to be in a safe state. Wisdom is often painlessly learned through watching the entire vista of others experiences. I would never have even dreamed I would be a victim of the perverse, wide spread policies of the Gates, Bush, etc. people who are fused at the hip to corporations who are and will leave in their wake, destruction of careers and education, just as the “outsourcing” ruinous policies have devastated other areas of our economy. “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”
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This is the trend I see with all of these mandates and standardized tests and whatever else that is coming at teachers: no one trusts teachers. We are either incompetent boobs or the occasional superman. We have been blamed for the anything that goes wrong with society, and I’m sure that we’ll be blamed for blizzards, hurricanes, solar flares and the Hundred Years War next.
I am tired of being labelled as stupid or directionless because I chose to be a teacher. I was valedictorian of my university (quite a large one) with a 3.98 GPA, and told I was one of the most talented undergraduates seen in several years. I have taught for 11 years and have no desire to make policy or be an administrator. I love what I do, and I feel like I’m pretty good at it. But I’m no superman: I make mistakes and take time off to be a mother and would not have been considered an “irreplaceable” when I was first teaching.
So what is the problem with this alphabet soup of “reform?” That it stifles kids, and teachers, and learning. That it takes away money from things that matter and puts the money into things that will not and should not matter. That it tells kids (including my own son) that they are not smart or capable because they don’t learn like everyone else or don’t take standardized tests well or don’t jump through the right hoops. That we are being reduced to a society that can’t think and just wants answers handed to them.
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You can read about my experience with Race to the Top in Miami. It’s a disaster. http://kafkateach.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/the-quest-for-vam
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I would say that the biggest problem with the choice/charter/voucher system is that, in many places, the proponents don’t really want to help “all” kids, they want to help “some” kids (and their parents). In my district, we have several charter schools operated by the public system. A parent in our district can choose from most of the regular elementary schools (some are filled), several different programs within those schools, and also 3-4 charter schools.
However, these “reformers” simply label schools as “failing”. Well, our schools are not “failing” like they want people to think. In fact, in my district, we succeed for about 90+% of our kids (graduation rate). I would welcome a private charter school to work with those 10% for whom our system isn’t working very well. But, that is not what the private charter people want: they want to take from the 90%, then point to them and say, “Look, see how successful we are!” Well, our system is succeeding with those kids too, so why do we need a different system, especially one that is no better, and really no different?
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Read the last reference first from schoolsmatter.info See:
No evidence supporting the Common Core
Sent to the Los Angeles Times, Feb 6, 2013
The Times is correct to insist on “evidence-based, replicated, time-tested educational change.” (“Education miracles that aren’t,” Feb. 6).
Let’s add the Common Core Standards to the list of unsupported claims. There is no evidence that “rigorous” standards and massive testing improve student learning.
Stephen Krashen
Some sources:
Nichols, S., Glass, G., and Berliner, D. 2006. High-stakes testing and student achievement: Does accountability increase student learning? Education Policy Archives 14(1). http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v14n1/.
OECD 2011. Lessons from PISA for the United States, Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264096660-en
Tienken, C., 2011. Common core standards: An example of data-less decision-making. Journal of Scholarship and Practice. American Association of School Administrators [AASA], 7(4): 3-18. http://www.aasa.org/jsp.aspx.
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For a complete destruction of the concepts of educational standards and standardized testing as shown by the myriad sources of error in the process see Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at:
http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
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