John Merrow asks the question: How did this woman with little experience and meager accomplishment and a penchant for braggadocio become a major media figure?
She did, by burnishing her resume.
The media did, by basking in her harshness.
Merrow did, by broadcasting 12 segments on national TV about her.
And unions did, by their intransigence.
What do you think?
Karen Lewis taught a powerful lesson from the Torah at a synagogue in Evanston.
This is the rabbi’s account of her moving reading of Numbers, in which she connects the Biblical story to recent events in Chicago.
“Her portion, Shelach Lecha (Numbers 13:1-15:41) relates, among other things, the story of the twelve scouts send by by Moses to report on the Promised Land. Ten of them return with words of discouragement – they reported that they saw giants in the land. “We felt like grasshoppers to ourselves,” they said, “”and so we must have looked to them!”
“In her presentation, she pointed out that forces of domination in society can often have this effect on us. In the case of Chicago schools, it is easy to feel cowed by the powerful political-corporate interests that are decimating public education in our city – and in fact, in cities around the nation. The key, Lewis said, is not to be daunted or to give in to a slave mentality that “idealizes Egypt.” The answer, as ever, is to organize and fight back.”
Once again, the powerful oppress the weak. It falls to us to defend the powerless. We must not be intimidated by the oppressor.
This November, the Denver school board will be up for grabs.
As you will see in this article, the privatization movement has decided to make a play to take control of the board. You know what they want.
If the Denver race plays out like the one in Los Angeles, billionaires and Wall Street hedge fund managers, along with Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, will pour millions into the race. Expect big gifts from Rupert Murdoch and Philip Anschutz, maybe the Koch brothers. They will turn the schools and the children over to the free market.
If you care about public education, now is the time to stop the corporate takeover.
Jersey Jazzman read Merryl Tisch’s comments about how she understood test anxiety. He wondered how she might identify with such feelings because she never attended a school with high-stakes. Nor did her children.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Michelle Rhee responded to questions about John Merrow’s “smoking memo,” the one that showed that she and other top officials were aware of allegations of widespread cheating but failed to investigate.
Howard Blume of the Times reports that Rhee met with the editorial board of the paper.
When Merrow had asked her about the memo, she said so many memos crossed her desk that she couldn’t remember this one. Now she says the memo was not important.
“In an interview with The Times editorial board, Rhee said that although she “didn’t see the memo” at the time, consultant Sandy Sanford “was just writing a memo based on something that we already broadly knew.””
So now she says she didn’t see the memo, and even if she had, it contained nothing new. Everyone already knew there was widespread cheating, so there was no reason to investigate.
This article in The Economist recounts the anxiety and confusion surrounding the adoption of the Common Core. Officials say it is a great thing, but parents are not so sure.
He writes:
“Why has New York decided to subject students to these exams well before the standards have been fully implemented in the classrooms? (Most states are holding off until 2015.) My daughter is a strong math student, and loves taking tests, but when she was given a practice test over the winter holiday that contained high-level work with fractions, division with three-digit numbers and even a dab of algebra, her eyes grew wide. Nothing like this had ever appeared in a lesson in her third-grade classroom. Her teacher has been scrambling to teach these concepts over the past few weeks to get the 8-year-olds ready, but it’s bound to be too little, too late. The teachers are not at fault: much of the content on the practice exams was a surprise to them as well. With school ratings and teacher evaluations hinging on the results, everyone has an investment in this perverse and premature exercise.”
A mother writes this story of harassment by school officials:
“My daughter, who is in the 11th grade, was victimized by her principal and teacher today because she submitted an opt out letter. She was made to feel wrong and unsupportive of her school because she wasn’t going to take the test.
“She is currently her class president, a link-crew mentor to younger students, tour leader, sports team member and future ASB president… that makes her the face of the school… or so says her teacher and principal. She has certain responsibilities to live up to, one of which is to take the test. Because, well, as they told her, the API score affects home prices.
“They even went as far as to say that what was doing was thinking only of herself… not of the greater community at large. They wanted to know if she was going to grow up and not vote because, well… because she doesn’t want to – even if it affects the city, the county, the state, the nation… and yes, the world. They said that – to a 17 year old. An impressionable young lady who has logged 53 volunteer ASB hours for March, and 30+ for each of Jan and February. And that is just 2013… she’s been arriving to school an hour early every day of high school. This is where she wants to be, this is what is important to her… to support her school.”
A teacher in North Carolina contacted me to let me know that Students for Education Reform, an offshoot of DFER, will hold a rally this Saturday from 2-5 pm at Halifax Court in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
No doubt they will mimic their parent group in demanding more high-stakes testing, more privatization, more evaluation of teachers by test scores (but NOT in charter schools), and other aspects of the corporate reform agenda.
With the NC legislature poised to pass legislation to create a state commission to open charters that are exempt from criminal background checks, exempt from conflict of interest laws, exempt from diversity requirements, and free to hire uncertified teachers, this is not an opportune time to show support for this radical agenda.
Just last week, the California Democratic Party passed a resolution specifically naming DFER as a front for corporate interests and Republicans. DFER in fact was created by Wall Street hedge fund managers to introduce disruptive change into public education. Everything they advocate has demoralized teachers, closed schools, and harmed children and communities.
Show up to demonstrate your support for public education.
This is the letter:
“Dr Ravitch-
“Good afternoon. I’m a teacher in Raleigh, NC, and an avid
reader of your blog…I wanted to let you know that various university
branches of SFER are planning a rally at Halifax Court (which is
directly behind the state legislature and adjacent to our Department
of Public Instruction building) in downtown Raleigh on this Saturday
the 20th from 2-5pm.
“I’ve been made aware of this by a local college student who invited me
and my colleagues via our school email addresses. I have written her
back explaining at length my concerns about SFER, in hopes to educate her and her peers on the true goals and origins of that organization.
I also explained to her that I will attend the rally, but to oppose
the efforts of SFER, and not to support them.
“Might you be able to publicize this rally on your blog in hopes of
drawing teachers and parents to show up to demonstrate for our
children and against SFER?
“Thank you so very deeply on behalf of every professional educator I
know for your tireless efforts in support of education.”
Matt Farmer, Chicago public school parent, asks an important question: when does Mayor Rahm Emanuel consider a class of 23 to be underutilized? When does he think it is just right?
A public school in Chicago can be closed down if it has a class size of 23.
But where is it just right?
A teacher in upstate New York wrote me to say that the state English language arts test for 8th grade (written by Pearson) contained a passage that his students had read a week earlier—in a Pearson 8th grade textbook! The story is “Why Leaves Turn Color in Fall,” by Diane Ackerman. The story appears on page 540 of the Pearson textbook.
Moral of the story: if you want your students to succeed on the state tests written by Pearson, be sure to buy the Pearson textbooks.
The teacher wrote:
I am an 8th grade teacher in Xxxx, NY. On Day 1 of the NYS ELA 8 Exam, I discovered what I believe to be a huge ethical flaw in the State test. The state test included a passage on why leaves change color that is included in the Pearson-generated NYS ELA 8 text. I taught it in my class just last week. In a test with 6 passages and questions to complete in 90 minutes, it was a huge advantage to students fortunate enough to use a Pearson text and not that of a rival publisher. It may very well have an impact on student test scores. This has not yet received any attention in the press. Could you help me bring this to the attention of the public?
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