John Thompson confidently predicts that corporate reform has passed the high-water mark.
The collapse of the Rhee story is the tip of a melting iceberg.
The “reformers” are facing a genuine popular revolt.
Nothing they advocate works.
All their alleged reforms are a sham.
Who will be the first to bail out?
Will the hedge fund managers go back to investing in polo ponies instead of charter schools?
It is too soon to pop the champagne corks but it is clear that what is called “reform” is headed for the ash heap of history.
Then we can get back to the serious business of improving our schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope you’re right. I’m tired of these people getting in the way of real attempts to improve things. And they just make it harder to make legit changes because now everyone is sick of hearing about changes that fail.
It’s unfortunate that the few effective independent people who created their charter schools to actually help students (actual educators), have to go against these Goliath corporations. Believe me, if our school district were hiring, charter school teachers would leave in droves to apply. It’s that bad.
Maybe you should tell Governor Andrew Cuomo about this along with his henchman Commissioner John King…they seem to still be going full steam ahead.
Dead man walking.
well said
If some industrious person were to do a picture montage of John King talking about his ideas on education over the past 3 – 4 years I think that it would be very telling. He does not look quite so comfortable and cock-sure full of himself these days.
I’m not at all confident that we should declare victory. There is too much money to be made privatizing schools and neither political party has backed away from “tough-minded” accountability based on tests. The high-rollers who support test-based accountability might be forced to acknowledge that the existing tests are flawed but they will only do so when they have a “new, improved” model to take their place. That’s the way the business model works! Never admit you have a bad product… just trumpet the fact you’ve improved it!
Exactly, Wayne!
Way too early to do a touchdown dance much less a victory dance We see the far end line as anything other than a barely visible line. We’ve been pinned down on our own 1 yd line, gained a little only to be set back by penalties called on us because the other side has paid off the refs. And it’s still just the beginning of the first quarter!
We’ve got a long way to go!
In my mind, the final victory will be when we get rid of the concept of sorting and separating students out via grading, test scores, etc. . . and provide a truly humane education that is appropriate for all students no matter the cost (but then again we might need to dismantle most of the MIC in order to provide the necessary funding, heaven foreffinbid).
I agree; while there’s a crack in the foundation, it is far too early to celebrate. The article mentioned litigation as being key to overturning the foolishness and he is right. Still, much of public sentiment still doesn’t support “greedy union teachers”. The amount of money to be made will dictate the outcomes of the reforms. When there is no more money to be stolen (ie NCLB was never fully funed, but RTTT was funded only the money went right past the schools and classrooms and into Pearsons/SmarterBalance/WirelessGenerations et al’s coffers) and no more court cases for the reformers to lose, will we be able to see a return to sanity.
I was always amused that until this year custodians and office clerks were evaluated by student test scores in DCPS until I realized that I was being held accountable for test scores in a subject matter I didn’t teach and for students who I only taught for six months. Yup, as Dandy Don would say…Turn out the lights the party’s over…
Well its a hot mess but inroads are being made. never underestimate the Hegelian Dialectic. Unless the creepsters like Gates , Coleman, Duncan, Darling Hammer, Jeb Bush and SirMichael Barber are boxed out this will not be over, really. also that little problem of the 48 states and their legal bills. and all the poor kids who’ve lost the last couple of years of their education due to common core confusion and collusion.
“It is too soon to pop the champagne corks but it is clear that what is called “reform” is headed for the ash heap of history.”
A great line.
Yes, too soon… still a battle ahead… they’re tenacious & pernicious. And the teaching realm has shifted so much for the worse in the last decade… any “newbie” who’s come “up” under this reform movement is BADLY brainwashed to blame, point fingers, compete, and undercut each other. It’s been terribly damaging to the children AND to the professionals… be they veterans or “newbies”… and the sad part, is the newbies just assume that that’s the way teaching is.
Hallelujah! The pushback is an organic response to a complete fraud. It will take time. That pendulum is back in motion, swinging as it searches for reason and common sense. Three years ago, at the first mention of Race to the Top (of Nowhere) as our district scurried to gather its teachers together for the uncloaking of this scam, I knew it was unworthy of our attention. Not that there are things wrong in education, but adding more wrong on top of it seemed like a disaster. And it has been. Now that morale is at its lowest in decades, divide and conquer is King, students and families are dazed and confused…it’s time to breathe. Get back to the real core of our profession…find the heart in our work and go to it with all our might. My first intuitions were correct. They usually are with us humans. We are in the human development business…we know a thing or two about it!
About a month age DFER and hedge fund mgr Whitney Tilson shorted K-12 Inc.