The Rhode Island state board of education will vote today on whether to renew Deborah Gist’s contract as State Commissioner of Education.
It seems likely she will be reappointed since Governor Lincoln Chafee favors her, as does the new chair of the state board.
Rhode Island teachers don’t like her.
In a poll, 85% said they opposed her reappointment.
Rhode Island students have opposed Gist’s insistence on high-stakes testing, especially her use of a standardized test (NECAP) as a requirement for high school graduation.
For the Secretary of Education to inject himself into state or local politics is unusual, though not for Arne Duncan.
When mayoral control in New York City was up for renewal before the state legislature in New York in 2009, Duncan called a major civic group and urged it not to propose that members of the central board serve for a set term, with a measure of independence; he agreed with Mayor Bloomberg that board members appointed by the mayor should serve at the pleasure of the mayor.
Duncan succeeded in stopping that small-gauge effort to create a semblance of checks and balances in New York City.
Curious alliances these days: Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s ultra-conservative Chiefs for Change, and she has the support of Duncan and charter advocates, but not the teachers she leads or the activist students in the public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is a rally planned for 4:30 PM at the Knight Campus of CCRI before the meeting.
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Thanks for the info, Robert!
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One more example of the rot at top echelons of education reforms.
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Rhode Island resident here.
This is a letter I wrote to our governor, as well as others such as the board of education:
* * * * *
Mr. Governor,
My name is Ron Poirier. I am a lifelong resident of Rhode Island and the father of four school aged children. For over fifteen years, I have been a teacher of English and ESL at Shea High School in Pawtucket. I am writing to express my concerns about the possibility that Deborah Gist will have her contract renewed in the near future.
It is my belief that the renewal of Deborah Gist’s contract would not be in the best interests of Rhode Island’s students. There are several reasons for this, but some of them are difficult to explain fully in a short missive.
I could elaborate on Gist’s concerning connections to known supporters of what some call the “corporate education reform” movement, a national movement that seems more about making public education funds available for corporate exploitation than actually improving the lot of public school students — but my guess is that you have already heard enough about this to have made your own decisions about what you believe and what you do not. The truth is that neither I nor anyone else can truly know the hearts, minds, and intentions of the likes of Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and other very wealthy and powerful people who have set their money-muscle to pushing through many recent education reforms across the country. However, it is clear that they are doing so, and it is clear that Gist is heavily influenced by them, if not enjoying direct patronage (consider Arne Duncan’s unprecedented telephone conference earlier today where he voiced his support for Gist’s contract renewal; note that Duncan has close ties to Eli Broad and the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy from which Gist herself graduated). As a parent, while I may at times question the influence of the teacher unions on our local politicians, there is no doubt in my mind that the interests of public school teachers dovetail with the needs of my children far more than the interests of the billionaires who are funding Gist’s style of education reform and supporting the renewal of her contract do.
I could mention Gist’s concerning manipulation of words and data, such as in a 2010 speech that she paid $10,000 for a ghost writer to prepare for her where she insinuated that a high proportion of ESL students in a school should be considered irrelevant to outcome expectations because Imperial High School in California had a high proportion of Hispanic (not ESL) students, but was able to match the state average on English standardized test scores. While this was technically true, what was left out was the fact that while the proportion of ESL students at the school was high, the state of California boasted a similar proportion of ESL students. Therefore, Imperial’s matching the state average was merely what one would expect, not some kind of beating-the-odds accomplishment. Gist didn’t lie — I have never caught her in a direct lie — but this is only one of many examples of her using the truth to mislead, and I believe that a person who makes a habit of such should be considered a liability.
What I would like to focus on, however, is the fact that Gist’s policies are ineffective and ultimately destructive. I will offer a pair of observations from my own experience, both of which concern Gist’s insistence on the misuse of high-stakes tests in order to measure student and teacher accomplishment.
First, it is my understanding that if a student scores a 1 out of 4 on their Junior year NECAP test, they will not be allowed to graduate unless they show “improvement” on a retake. It is also my understanding that this “improvement” may be shown without the student actually scoring higher than a 1 on their second try, so long as they answer a sufficiently higher number of questions correctly. Gist seems to be ignoring the fact that she has set up a perverse incentive for students who know that they historically score a 1 on their NECAP tests to intentionally “bomb” the test in their Junior year in order to make it easier for them to achieve “improvement” on their retake. This is not idle speculation — I have had students approach me and ask me if this strategy would be effective. They are already aware of the loophole in Gist’s system. Of course, teachers who are being evaluated in part based on their students’ NECAP test scores will have their own evaluations negatively affected by students intentionally “bombing” their Junior year NECAP tests in order to game the system.
This brings me to another flaw in Gist’s reforms. As I mentioned earlier, I teach English and ESL at Shea High School in Pawtucket. For years, we have been using the SIOP method of ESL instruction, informed by the ACCESS test put out by the WIDA consortium. The ACCESS is a standardized test specifically designed to measure the English language proficiency growth of ESL students. This year, a review of my ESL students’ ACCESS scores revealed that they had made average gains of 150% of the projected gains for their cohort (ESL level 3). While this indicates great success, I have no doubt that their limited English proficiency will result in very low NECAP scores, as the NECAP is not designed to measure growth on the scale that ESL students of their level are expected to make. Therefore, I will likely receive a poor rating on the VAM-based portion of my evaluation — even though my students made 150% of expected gains! Something is very wrong with any system where this is a likely possibility.
I could go on, but I wish to keep this missive as brief as I can. If you wish, I would be happy to speak with or in any other way inform you further about any of the points I have raised here; the best way to reach me is via e-mail.
I thank you for the time you have taken to read my thoughts on this matter, and I sincerely hope you make the right decision.
Yours,
– Ron Poirier
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I posted this letter to projo.com (the Providence Journal’s website) as a response to an article about Duncan stumping for Gist. One of the DoE’s PR men responded by pointing out that we aren’t using NECAP test scores to evaluate teachers. This is technically correct in that this year high stakes test scores will not be used to evaluate high school teachers; however, teacher evaluators know that the plan is to use high stakes tests in this way in the near future (most likely the CCSS tests once the NECAP has been replaced by them).
I thanked the PR man for revealing that the best rebuttal to my letter that he could come up with was pointing out a largely irrelevant technicality.
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I should have said that the PR man pointed out that RI isn’t using NECAP test scores to evaluate HIGH SCHOOL teachers. He admitted that elementary and middle school teachers WILL be evaluated based on their students’ NECAP scores.
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Deborah Gist is just another educational nihilist.
It’s our hope that the governor gives her a one-year contract instead of a full three years. He saves face (at least he thinks he does) and she finds another state to screw up. Rhode Island is small. There are city districts around the country with larger student populations. Any state save *North Dakota will be a “step up” for her. She’ll go to a more populous state with no union or a weak union. If she gets the full three year contract get ready for some creative civil disobedience. Teachers in Rhode Island have been battered these past few years. Our pensions were gutted and our profession is being deprofessionalized.
Not trying to pick on North Dakotans. I just picked it because of the small population.
Gist is an interesting character. She’s a media hound. A product Eli Broad. Everything out of her mouth sounds scripted and rehearsed. She can say or write something that makes no sense. And when she writes? The woman needs to get a copy of Strunk and White. I’ve never seen the exclamation point abused so much. It’s getting a bit less because her enthusiasm seems to be waning. Or maybe it’s because she has a ghost writer.
She had a ghost writer when she went to DC to get Race to the Top money. Someone paid $10,000 for it. You can’t make this stuff up.
http://www.vsotd.com/Article.php?art_num=4546
The propaganda machine of the ed reformers is strong. The general public is buying the narrative. Maybe with enough education the country will come to reason.
It all goes back to Thomas Jefferson: “A democratic society depends upon and informed and educated citizenry. Now where’s Sally? I need to be tucked in.”
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My last post. Here’s the guy who paid the ten grand for Gist’s RTT speech.
http://angusdavis.com/
Check out his ties to DFER, etc.
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This guy’s a real beauty – While he was a member of the Board of Regents in RI, he actually attempted to explain his genius – in his official bio – with a story about how he had hacked into a phone system at Phillips Andover and was kicked out (only to be relocated to another posh finishing school at the bequest of his wealthy granddad.) Meanwhile, kids in the Rhode Island schools he helped Deborah Gist ‘turn around’ would be serving hard time for such a crime. Rich white people are awesome!
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From that bio:
began my entrepreneurial career taking my grandmother’s magazines, clipping articles, stapling them together into my own creation and selling them door-to-door.
Stealing?
Copyright violation?
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Chafee, another fallen Democrat. Oh well!
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Arne Duncan was not the key figure in the re-authorization of mayoral control in NYC in 2009: Randi Weingarten was.
Just as when it was first authorized in 2002, the UFT had a lot of say over whether, and how much, control over the schools the mayor should have. It was Weingarten who agreed to give him unchecked power, which he has since used to close over 140 schools, give politically-juiced charters free rein over public school facilities and scapegoat and degrade teachers.
In 2009, I served on a UFT committee that was charged with developing an alternative system of school governance. The committee worked hard and came up with a proposal that, while not going far enough, would have been a tremendous improvement, and it was approved in a vote by the union’s Delegate Assembly.
However, Weingarten, ignoring the vote of what is ostensibly the Union’s highest governing body, then unilaterally threw her support behind continued mayoral control of the schools, a position that her successor maintains.
She had the unmitigated chutzpah to write at that time, “…mayoral control can, and does work. In fact, in New York City, my home district, mayoral control has brought stability, consistency and resources…” (www.education.nationaljournal.com/200907/is-mayoral-control-the-answer.php)
Rather than the “stability” Weingarten claims for mayoral control, we’ve had constant disruption and school closings. Rather than the “consistency” she refers to, we’ve had constant re-organizations. Rather than “increased resources,” we have increased class size occurring simultaneously with more money directed toward testing, no-bid contracts and parasitic consultants.
She also performed this betrayal after doing nothing to prevent Michael Bloomberg from bribing City Council members into allowing him to run for a third term, overriding a term limits law that had twice been affirmed by the voters of the city. She and her successor then remained neutral – a de facto endorsement – in that November’s election, in which Bloomberg could have been beaten.
When the history of this sordid era is written, it will be clear that the destruction of the teaching profession and the urban public schools could not have taken place without the connivance of Randi Weingarten and the Unity Caucus she controls.
She’s earned her trips on Michael Bloomberg’s private jet, though the teachers she claims to represent, and the students they serve, have paid for it.
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I did not say Arne was the key figure. I said he intervened, admittedly on a fine point. When I worked in the U.S. Department of Education, we understood that cabinet secretaries were not supposed to intervene in state and local political issues. Things have changed.
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Point taken, Diane: I noticed the same when re-reading your post.
Nevertheless, while your main point – the inappropriateness of federal officials interfering in state and local issues – is correct, I felt the need to point out that Duncan’s involvement was minor and inconsequential.
On the same topic, why has nothing been said about the fact that Meryl Tisch, the head of the NY State Regents and a political appointee, endorsed and is chair of Bill Thompson’s mayoral campaign?
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Michael,
I have serious qualms about the ethics of the situation you describe: the chair of the New York State Board of Regents endorsing and serving as chair of the campaign of a mayoral candidate. The candidate, Bill Thompson, has taken issue with the Regents’ testing policies. It is hard to know whom to believe. Meanwhile, Tisch’s husband has endorsed the Republican candidate. He was active in the Romney campaign. Another member of the Tisch family, Merryl’s brother-in-law, is on the board of K12, the for-profit virtual charter company.
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Though it probably isn’t necessary, Diane, I do want to say that my rhetorical question about Tisch was not directed at you, but was really intended as a criticism of the mainstream media that has given her a free ride on this ethical breach.
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@Michael Fiorillo – Don’t forget her seat on Arne’s annual September tour bus in. Not bad for a substitute teacher with little to no time in the classroom. Too bad for the students, teachers, and parents who have to deal with the results of her policies and lack of knowledge.
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Mark,
The list goes sickeningly on and on: accepting money from Gates and Broad, featuring Gates as the keynote speaker at the 2010 AFT convention, on the governance committee of InBloom, having the AFT provide workshops on non-profit and for-profit opportunities in education at the Aspen Institute…
She’s a one-woman Vichy government.
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This is the letter that I sent to Governor Chafee on May 21, 2013 regarding the potential renewal of Gist’s contract:
Dear Governor Chafee, Two years ago I sent you the following email. After much soul-searching and angst, I decided to retire from the RI School for the Deaf shortly after, at the end of the 2011 school year. My decision was greatly influenced by what I knew was coming in the form of unreasonable demands on students and teachers, demands which would not only not improve the academic achievement of our students, but would deteriorate it. Most unfortunately, that is what has been happening under the leadership of Commissioner Deborah Gist. I hope you have a chance to read the testimony that was so eloquently and passionately provided at yesterday’s forum for teachers at Cranston West High School. Do you really want to ally yourself with those who characterize these dedicated teachers as sub-par at best, and union thugs at worst? Our children are being subjected to an inhumane barrage of testing that is withering their curiosity and thirst for learning and accomplishment. Our teachers are being subjected to bizarre and overwhelming evaluation schemes that qualify for the theater of the absurd and are having terrible effects on their creative energy and morale. Surely no objective person can possibly say that these changes have been warranted and are having the desired effect. Please consider carefully what teachers, parents, and students across the state are saying, and do not acquiesce to the renewal of Commissioner Gist’s contract. Thank you. Sincerely, Sheila Ressseger
May 5, 2011
Email to Gov. Chafee re Diane Ravitch’s visit reported in projo May 4, 2011 and RISD PLA status
I am writing to express my great appreciation to Governor Chafee for his role in bringing Diane Ravitch to speak in RI. I have read her latest book and admire her courage both in changing her position on what is necessary to improve teaching and learning in America, and in standing up to the special interests who, though seeming well-intentioned, are creating havoc in public education to the potential detriment of students. As quoted in the May 4, 2011 projo article, Governor Chafee seems to think that we don’t have demonizing of teachers going on here in RI. While that may be true on an official level, we have seen more than our share in the press and media of blaming teachers for the ills of society and for draining the taxpayers’ pockets with their benefits and pensions. I am also very concerned that in the zeal for accountability for students, teachers, and schools, RI is relying far too heavily on standardized test scores. I have been teaching at the RI School for the Deaf for more than 25 years. Is the Governor aware that the RI School for the Deaf has been identified by RIDE as a Persistently Lowest Achieving school, triggering one of the four models for improvement that made the news last year in Central Falls? This designation was based largely on our students’ NECAP scores, even though it is almost universally accepted that this large-scale assessment is not an appropriate measure of our students’ strengths, growth, and needs.
In a projo article from Sunday, October 10, 2010, “In Rhode Island, preparing for NECAP often means cramming for test by Jennifer D. Jordan, Commissioner “Gist says test scores perform important functions. First, she says, they are ‘a barometer’ of how well a child is doing in school, providing valuable information to parents and teachers about areas where a student might need additional support.” At RISDeaf, where every student has an IEP, teachers and professional support staff have the expertise to identify each student’s strengths and needs in English literacy, math, and science, and communicate this to the parents quarterly, and annually at the IEP meeting. Many of our students, due to the effects of their hearing loss and other learning obstacles, are performing far below their grade level as tested by the NECAP. The RI Department of Education itself since at least 2007 has been aware of the inadequacy of large-scale assessments like the NECAP to meaningfully assess the achievement of special needs and ELL students. (A number of RISDeaf students are from non-English speaking families.) (See http://www.necompact.org/Reaching_students_in_the_gaps.pdf ) [unfortunately this link is no longer active]
The article continues quoting Commissioner Gist that “NECAP also provides the state with information about how well a school and district are serving students, exposing problems and pushing schools to address them.” NECAP obviously has not been normed on deaf and hard of hearing students, and so it is not an appropriate measure of how well the school is serving its population of deaf and hard of hearing students, many of whom have additional cognitive challenges and/or come from non-English speaking families, and many of whose parents do not fluently communicate with them in the students’ preferred modality of sign language. According to the RI Deaf Children’s Bill of Rights, all assessments given to deaf and hard of hearing students need to be valid and appropriately normed for that population. *
The article continues that “If they fail to do so, the state steps in, as it did earlier this year when it identified several schools as ‘persistently lowest-achieving,’ including Central Falls High School and four schools in Providence. Millions of dollars in federal ‘school improvement grants’ are scheduled to flow to these schools, which have to provide detailed transformation plans to Gist.” According to what we have been told by the RIDE Chief Transformation officer, the five lowest performing schools would be competing for this SIG money.
Gist is further quoted in the article as saying, “ ‘The way students should be prepared for NECAP is through year-round, excellent quality of instruction. The simple belief that the tests are to blame for poor instruction is misguided.’ ” This statement assumes that low test scores imply poor instruction. This assumption is unproven and unwarranted in general education, and it has no place in the characterization of deaf and hard of hearing students, their teachers, and their school as failing. No matter which model is chosen, we are all committed to working as hard as possible to provide our students the best possible chance to maximize their potential and live productive and satisfying lives. I am concerned that the assessments that will be used to measure their progress going forward be appropriate to their unique challenges and strengths.
http://www.projo.com/education/content/why_test_10-10-10_8NK8FCE_v65.1d24f2b.html
*TITLE 16
Education
“CHAPTER 16-25.2
Instruction for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Students
SECTION 16-25.2-3
§ 16-25.2-3 Assessment. – Individuals involved in administering assessment tools to students who are deaf or hard of hearing shall be proficient in the student’s primary communication mode, style, or language as determined by a language assessment consistent with the requirements of § 16-25.2-2. All assessments shall be delivered in the student’s primary communication mode, style, or language as determined by a language assessment consistent with the requirements of § 16-25.2-2, shall have been validated for the specific purposes for which they are used, and shall be appropriately normed. ”
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What’s remarkable is the cluelessness. Duncan is completely out of touch. He’s stumping for his preferred candidate while the vast majority of public school parents have no idea what the Common Core is or why anyone would want it. We were told our states had “adopted” it after the fact and there’s been no public debate or discussion. Obama is giving an education speech today where he’ll outline his school technology initiative, or preschool, I can’t tell which. So there’s two more huge DOE projects that will be conducted with no public input and an absolute lock-step adherence to whatever maybe 150 high-profile school reformers demand.
The idea that I’d support funneling more money for another “competitive grant” process where traditional public schools are the designated losers is insane. This isn’t a “level playing field.” Duncan supports charters over traditional public schools. Although the vast majority of US kids attend traditional public schools, the entire DOE K-12 focus is on 150 politically-connected celebrity reformers and the maybe 10% of kids who go to charter schools. It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense.
Duncan can go get funds from the billionaires he listens to. It’s all going back to their favored schools anyway.
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Everyone should be aware that Deborah Gist is a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/lwcgckf
Arne Duncan was on the board of the Broad Foundation until he became Secretary of Education.
Broad Foundation Annual Report Page 25. Also see Page 5 and Page 10.
http://tinyurl.com/6w5sps2
Duncan is a frequent presenter of the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education.
http://tinyurl.com/lhul7ze
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Duncan, Gist and their ilk, awful as they are, are ventriloquist dummies, and have not been as insidious as Weingarten, who is a person of intelligence, energy and craftiness.
On page 11 of the 2009 Broad Foundation report, “We decided at the outset of our work to invest in smart, progressive labor leaders like Randi Weingarten.” (www.broadfoundation.org/asset/101- 2009.10%20annual%20report.pdf)
Broad made a smart investment decision, since having Weingarten as an asset has paid tremendous dividends for so-called reformers, far more than the chump change they’ve spent on figureheads like Duncan and Gist.
Had they been the only people teachers needed to worry about, and if teachers had good faith leadership, the unions could have allied with public school communities to mobilize against these attacks.
Instead, teachers were betrayed by leaders of the institutions nominally dedicated to protecting them.
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