American education has always been characterized by the principle of federalism–until now.
Federalism meant a careful balancing among districts, states, and the federal governments. Schools had a fair amount of autonomy within that framework.
The federal government role was to level the playing field by providing resources for the schools with large number of poor kids. The state set general guidelines and supported the work of the schools. The districts oversaw their schools.
All that changed with NCLB. Now the federal government controls every school, tells it how to “reform,” punishes it if it fails to comply.
The state education departments mimic the federal government. They now tell the districts and schools what to do. They demand compliance.
Unfortunately many state commissioners are not experienced educators. Several have meager experience, coming out of the charter sector.
Peter DeWitt, a principal in upstate Néw York, decided it was time to stand up and ask questions, even to say no.
It is time for more principals and superintendents to say no to the blizzard of mandates.
Realize that you are on a runaway train and the engineer does not know what he is doing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When will someone at some point file a law suit questioning the Federal Government’s participation in education at all. Education in terms of schools is no where found in the Constitution. This was for a reason. It was for the exact reason that we watch happening before our eyes.
LikeLike
Please read, “Yes, We Are STUPID in America!” It provides information on the federal government’s futile role in reforming education in America over the last 40 years. You are absolutely right in that the US Constitution leaves education up to the states. I say we abolish the ED and send those billions of dollars to the states.
LikeLike
What’s worse is since the advent of NCLB— and especially since the economic downturn in 2008– State DOEs have been ravaged by budget cuts. This makes them dependent on grants and vulnerable to seeking grants from the “billionaire boys club”… it also makes them incapable of effectively regulating schools… creating a vicious cycle…
LikeLike
There was also a rash of attacks on state boards on the eve of anticipated NCLB reauthorization–perhaps a rehersal for the anticipated reauthorization. Several CSSOs (Ohio, Illinois) lost their jobs; Maryland’s highly regarded CSSO had a close call:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2008/03/when_you_start_calling_your_st.html
LikeLike
Having served as Supt for 10 years in MD I can say that Nancy Grasmick’s high regard was well deserved. If ALL CSSO’s performed like Nancy we would not be implementing unproven ideas like VAM at a breakneck pace. She listened to and respected the people in the field and helped us get our message to her Board, the politicians, and the public.
LikeLike
Thanks. Good to know that sometimes good deeds go unpunished.
LikeLike
It was bad enough when states had unfunded mandates and local districts had to find a way to pay for them … even if the mandates were absurd.
Now we have the states trying to comply with federal mandates. They pass those costs to local districts, withhold money, and allow private companies to swoop in and take over. It is ridiculous. From the onset NCLB set the goal of 100% proficiency and we’ve run scared ever since.
When and how do we stop the insanity?
LikeLike
It is my opinion that local officials have given up their power as well. They have become whores to the money. Our school district allows children from Philadelphia to remain in its schools just to get the money from the state and the federal government while Philadelphia schools are closing their doors. They do not think this is a crime, but it is. There is no such thing as a victimless crime when it screws a child out of its education. The sense of community is gone even in small school districts by shuffling children around just to get the money. Power has been taken from the parents and the community and placed in the hands of politicians on all levels that have their own agenda and DO not listen to the people.
LikeLike
Yes, Diane is right, there has been a de facto coup here, with federal and state authorities seizing power to micromanage local school policy and curriculum in favor of privatization and computerized testing, enrichening corporate players, driven by many officials with little school experience. This`is a corporate culture war against public schools and teacher unions to transfer the immense tax-levy budgets of public schools to private hands and to hand over the vast physical assets of public schools to corporate entities. Kids are pawns in a national plunder of the public sector. This is not about improving achievement. It’s about improving the corporate revenue stream. The leaders of this plunder are vulnerable if we keep talking up and talking back, if we consolidate and work towards a rolling boycott of their regimes and a parent-teacher defense of our local schools, staffs, kids, and budgets. The billionaires are deep in this to win and so are we.
LikeLike
Connecticut:
Reforming a district that doesn’t need reform! It is difficult to argue reform in “failing” districts because there is always someone who says, “Well, we HAVE to do something!!” Yet if more districts like ours stood up to the experimental and mis-directed nature of “reform”, we could mitigate the destruction of districts who will implode under all this pressure!
If you look closely at the ones that don’t need fixin’ it really forces you to question the motives. Social engineering, experimental programs, data collection, loss of local control, all to satisfy the RTTT overthrow and corporatization of public education!
I am watching my very affluent and successful district spend money left and right as they use every one of these “mandates” to usurp local control over education and drastically alter our public school. “Mandate” is lobbed across the room at the mere mention of any financial cut. It is ridiculous.
We will collect SSP data in the form of social and emotional surveys and NEVER-TESTED 6 year long college/career initiatives, we will change our curriculum to engineer our children with social and emotional instruction without parents suspecting a thing despite the “research” that says they should be involved, we have the money to electronically assess and survey up the wazoo about academics, school climate, cyberbullying, etc. while unwitting parents stand by and allow those results to further dictate changes in the district, we will enhance our teacher evaluation program and refine it into a well-oiled teacher manipulation machine, technology costs will continue to skyrocket as we spend on teaching programs, online testing, and technology for the Common Core data collection/testing, salary costs will jump in 2016 when teachers, in order to get a professional certificate, MUST have a Master’s degree, and (since our kids would do well no matter what because we have uber-involved parents) it will look like everything our Administrators are doing at the State’s recommendation made all this success happen.
We will be the model for the State (if we aren’t already) because of Administrators who eagerly acquiesce to the mandates, remove local control of our educational decisions and handed the reigns over to the State instead of fighting mandates while we have a leg to stand on!
LikeLike
I think there is still hope. I know what I can do at my school to keep teachers heads above water but eventually I will need to ensure that every tax paying member of my school’s community understands the ramifications of federal control. Where I work students graduate and go to local colleges and many end up returning to raise their families. There is a direct connection between the community and the school, which is a gift. That being said, the majority of our tax payers do not have school-aged children, which means the only way they know if our schools are performing is by our publicized test scores and our “report card.” Most people responding to this post are people who are living through the current reform and we know the strain it is putting on our system of education. We understand the benefits of local control, but does everyone else? Do communities want control? That’s the ultimate question. I think they are the ones that gave it up.
LikeLike
Stood up 09/11 – got fired 02/13. I am a traditionalist Assistant Principal who has now been silently Blacklisted. Any one interested in the story Google ” Sun Westerly RI Spellman ousted”. If you know of a District that still hires The Old Guard, please contact me. Jim Spellman jaspellman@comcast.net Cell 401-219-1441
God Bless All and Semper Fi,
Jim Spellman
100 Brook St.
Groton, CT 06340
LikeLike
Diane,
Thanks, as always, for highlighting my blog. You help bring the collective voices of educators and parents together. If we truly want to see change we need to keep speaking up. Every day we can get a collection of more and more voices.
One of the issues that I see, as both the writer of the blog and an administrator, is that those in charge at the state and national level believe what they are doing is right. They believe their own rhetoric. We may never get them to change their minds but we can apply public pressure to change the person in charge.
One of the issues I worry about with educators is that we are all fighting against issues, but there seem to be so many to fight that we cannot always get our balance. We need to prioritize what we feel is most important.
In addition, I see my administrative colleagues near and far complain about mandates and accountability behind closed doors but they keep moving forward in public. That does nothing more than show pseudo-compliance as they lead their staff into the slaughter house of accountability.
LikeLike
I think this mentality in this clip demonstrate the ideology of total federal and state control: Kids belong to the collective.
http://www.infowars.com/your-kids-belong-to-the-collective/
LikeLike
Anyone who does not have the proper knowledge and ethics has no business in running of schools as the results can be too devastating for all of society or way to long of a time. It can be generational as we are seeing now with uneducated parents which results in their children coming into the school system not properly prepared. This is a cycle that must be broken.
LikeLike
This all really comes back to the lack of real concern by the public. They have the vote. They vote to put in the crazy people who then have the legislative ability to do what we are complaining and fighting which is the corruption of the public school system. An example is at LAUSD. The public voted for 4 board members who vote against their best interests and what do they do? They allow Roy Romer to come in and start the real destruction. Then they put in an former admiral and that did not work out. You might ask how did an admiral get there. All you have to do is look at who he was in the Navy. He was in charge of shipping all military material around the world. Who did that put him in contact with? Then out of the blue comes Deasy. I warned the board before the vote. I called each office and found out that not one of them did any research. Not even putting his name into Google. I had a chief of staff on the phone and asked “Are you sitting in front of a computer? Yes. Type in John Deasy, University of Louisville. One minute later I hear I see. Then I say Not a rumor anymore is it?” She saw the stories on Deasy’s phony PHD.” Before the vote in public and on T.V. I spoke about his phony PHD again. Like cult members they walked over the cliff. If they had any ethics they would have thrown him and Gates out the door. So in the end we can blame the public for all that is happening nationally, internationally and in our schools. We have not slammed Obama on the fraud he is perpetrating on us all and not in our best interest.
LikeLike
Diane,
The engineers don’t know what they’re doing?
I thought we were all joining them in mid air to build a passenger jet . . . while the passengers are sitting in the cabin as the rest of us cling to the craft thousands of feet up in the air and add a wing, a tail, some wheels, and hope and pray none of us drop our tools at such speed and altitude.
It was the engineers who told us in no uncertain terms that we’re building this together, so I guess the physics of it all are supposed to work out according to the current laws of gravity, friction, weight, mass, and vector forces.
Remember this depressing mirth? . . . . It would be funny if it were not so horrific.
If anyone can find that stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid PR film from NYSED, kindly send me the link on this forum.
LikeLike