Archives for the month of: June, 2013
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John King’s Teacher Evaluation Plan

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2013 //
66

New York had the misfortune to win Race to the Top funding. That $700 million will eventually cost the state billions of dollars.

Commissioner John King just released his plan for Néw York City, where the mayor and the United Federationof Teachers failed to reach agreement. King’s big new idea? Student surveys will be part of teachers’ rankings. Imagine that! Starting in third grade, the kids help to decide whether their teacher keeps his or her job.

Here is the best round-up of reports on the plan.

Peter Goodman gathers more comment and warns that all the fireworks are unlikely to provide dramatic change. The school system does not have a large number of hitherto undiscovered “bad” teachers. And there is not a long line of super-teachers waiting to take their place.

My prediction: ten years from now, we will look back on all this hullabaloo and wonder why we poured billions of dollars into a bottomless pit.

Categories New York, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations

L.A. Times: Parent Trigger=Parent Trap

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
28

The Los Angeles Times is not at all pleased with the way the so-called “parent trigger” is working out. The editorial board wants a more open, transparent process.

The editorial does not point out that only one organization has pushed the idea that parents should seize control of a public institution. “Parent Revolution”–funded by billionaires–wrote the law, sends paid community organizers to gather parent signatures, and litigates to push its goals without full information to parents who don’t want to privatize their school or fire their principal or teachers.

The legislature should not tinker with this bad law. It should repeal it. The public schools belong to the community, not to those who may not even be parents next year in the same school.

Categories Los Angeles

Burris to King: Listen and Learn

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
58

Carol Burris, a principal of a high school in Long Island, New York, tells a sorry tale of a heavy handed effort by an official of the Néw York State Education Department to intimidate Peter DeWitt, an elementary school principal in upstate Néw York.

DeWitt has a regular blog hosted by Education Week. He ran a guest post by an author who wrote about “the testing bullies.” The post also said, erroneously, that Commissioner John King sends his own children to a private Montessori school that does not give the state tests.

DeWitt received a call from Tom Dunn, King’s communications director, who said that the school in question does give the state tests. DeWitt promptly removed the sentence, but the communications director warned that the State Education Department would continue to monitor his blog for comments offensive to Commissioner King.

As Burris wrote:

“DeWitt called Dunn back later, after he removed the sentence, and asked Dunn not to call him at his school again. DeWitt said that Dunn responded that if he printed anything that was not true, or if he printed anything that he (Dunn) did not like about John King, he would indeed call DeWitt again. DeWitt referred Dunn to the email address on the blog.

“On two occasions, I have heard Commissioner King complain of blogs and their “tone.” I am sure that he is not the only policymaker who is not pleased by the way social media has given voice and organization to those opposed to the current reform agenda. I would suggest that there is an alternative view of blogs — they can also serve as critical friends. As the commissioner for all of New York’s children, it is important that the State Education Department hear what parents, teachers and principals think, especially those who stand in opposition. Without buy-in, no reform can possibly be accomplished.”

It is a shame that King does not listen to critical voices, as Burris suggests. He has meager experience as a teacher or a principal, gained mainly in the charter sector, and King could learn by listening to people like Carol Burris and Peter DeWitt, who are far more knowledgeable and experienced than he is.

King should also remember that he is a public servant, not the boss of all educators. The State Education Department exists to meet the needs of districts, not to issue orders and mandates.

A touch of humility might help King gain the support of the many veteran educators in New York who could help him. Reform does not happen in the absence of trust and mutual respect.

Categories New York

Google and the Death of Privacy

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
20

There is good reason to be worried about the effort by the federal Department of Education to create a massive database. Doing so is part of Race to the Top.

There is reason to be concerned about inBloom, the project funded by Gates and managed by Rupert Murdoch.

In this review of a new book about Google, the writer says:

“The advance of information technology epitomized by Google heralds the death of privacy for most people and shifts the world toward authoritarianism.”

These trends are not inevitable. The time to stop them is now. Join with others and let your elected officials know that you will not abandon your privacy or your children ‘s.

Categories Privacy and Privacy Rights, Race to the Top

Sharp Increase in Homeless Kids in NYC

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
18

Yoav Gonen and Frank Rosario in the New York Post report a spike in the number of homeless students in the New York City public schools.

They write:

“More than 53,000 city public-school students lack a permanent home — a fivefold increase over 2008, figures show.

“While the economy’s collapse led to a huge spike in the number of homeless kids in public schools, the figure has continued to climb by more than 10,000 kids since 2010, according to city Department of Education data.

“As of October 2012, one out of every 20 public-school students was living in a shelter, at an address shared by multiple families or in a hotel or motel.”

Advocates for the homeless predicted that the numbers would increase.

Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless said, “The continuing economic crisis and the high cost of housing continue to be pricing out more and more kids and families from the housing market…At the same time, the failures of Mayor Bloomerg’s policies . . . have contributed to all-time records of homelessness.” He cited the Bloomberg administration’s decision to eliminate affordable-housing assistance as a major source of the problem.

The articles cite two schools where more than 40 percent of the students were homeless.

Homeless students have a hard time doing their studies. When the test scores come out, these schools are likely to have low scores. If so, the leadership of the Department of Education will label them “failing schools,” and they may be closed. This will increase the burdens on the students who are homeless.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Poverty

“Mrs. Ratliff” Lives

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
15

I received a letter from a veteran teacher who recognized herself as my teacher Mrs. Ratliff, whom I wrote about in chapter 9 of my recent book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. When I read about all the schemes to measure the worth of students by the test scores of their students, I thought about Mrs. Ratliff, who was both my homeroom teacher and my literature teacher. She had high standards, she was no-nonsense, she demanded the best of her students, and students lined up to get into her classes. I wondered if there would be more Mrs. Ratliffs, in light of the new demand that everything and everyone be measured by standardized tests. Mrs. Ratliff didn’t give any standardized tests. I wondered what she would think of the autocratic, mindless new world in which we live now.

Beverly Hart wrote (and I post here with her permission):

Dear Diane:

I was reading your latest book and came to the chapter “What Would Mrs. Ratliff Do?” The more I read about her, the more I realized that I was reading about myself! I was stunned to see the parallels: I teach high school English (and U.S. History), I insist on accuracy in students’ writing (do it over until you get it right), I wield a hefty red pen, I am stingy with A’s (you really have to earn an A, none of this grade inflation), and I love teaching the great writers and thinkers. (For many years I also taught Latin until, unfortunately, it died out.)

I am in my 45th year of teaching at the same small rural high school in central Illinois and am teaching children of my former students. I believe passionately in the value of a strong public education system, and I am troubled when bureaucrats who really know nothing about teaching proscribe from on high and reduce the art and science of teaching to standardized test scores that are based on many untenable assumptions. I feel like an anachronism as I try to uphold standards of excellence in a world of mediocrity.

I know why I have continued to teach for these many years—it’s all about my students. I get positive feedback from former students who have gone on to success in higher education and in careers. “Thank you, Mrs. Hart, for teaching me how to write” is an oft-heard comment. I also have my current students evaluate my classes anonymously. Recently my American Studies students (a double period class that integrates American literature and U.S. History) evaluated how the class was going so far after the first 9 week grading period. “I love this class” appeared on several papers. “You can definitely tell you enjoy teaching this class” wrote one student. “You really know your stuff. I’m excited to have a teacher who loves history so much” wrote another. “I appreciate your passion in this class. I come in here every day, and I learn” stated another student. I have a whole file bulging with student evaluations, but one comment has really stuck with me: “A very good teacher, the kind of teacher that makes it worth coming to school.” No standardized test can ever measure the impact of the Mrs. Ratliffs of the world.

For 14 years I served on the Board of Education in my home district and am now also an assistant principal with a focus on curriculum and professional development (in addition to a full teaching load). I certainly give the taxpayers their money’s worth. When students attempt to dissuade me from giving them an assignment, I remind them that I have to give them their money’s worth. Groans and the rolling of eyes follow this lecture about no free lunch.

Well, I have rambled on, and now it is time to close. I admire your taking a stand and speaking out on the state of public education in this country. I remain a strong advocate of a quality public education system that has made this country great.

Sincerely,

Beverly Hart

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

A Gift for You This Sunday

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
16

I love this poem, and I want to share it with you. It was written by W. H. Auden. It is like a song to me.

 

In Memory of W. B. Yeats
by W. H. Auden
I

He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree 
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness
The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,
The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;
By mourning tongues
The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,
An afternoon of nurses and rumours;
The provinces of his body revolted,
The squares of his mind were empty,
Silence invaded the suburbs,
The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities
And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,
To find his happiness in another kind of wood
And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.
The words of a dead man
Are modified in the guts of the living.

But in the importance and noise of to-morrow
When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,
A few thousand will think of this day
As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.

What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

 

II

     You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
     The parish of rich women, physical decay,
     Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
     Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
     For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
     In the valley of its making where executives
     Would never want to tamper, flows on south
     From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
     Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
     A way of happening, a mouth.

III

          Earth, receive an honoured guest:
          William Yeats is laid to rest.
          Let the Irish vessel lie
          Emptied of its poetry.

          In the nightmare of the dark
          All the dogs of Europe bark,
          And the living nations wait,
          Each sequestered in its hate;

          Intellectual disgrace
          Stares from every human face,
          And the seas of pity lie
          Locked and frozen in each eye.

          Follow, poet, follow right
          To the bottom of the night,
          With your unconstraining voice
          Still persuade us to rejoice;

          With the farming of a verse
          Make a vineyard of the curse,
          Sing of human unsuccess
          In a rapture of distress;

          In the deserts of the heart
          Let the healing fountain start,
          In the prison of his days
          Teach the free man how to praise.

 

Categories Personal

Professors at San Jose State: No Thanks to Online Courses

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
30

Faculty at San Jose State University have signed a letter opposing the administration’s decision to use online courses developed by faculty at Harvard, MIT, and other eastern universities. The San Jose professors see the adoption of online courses as a deliberate strategy to replace them and downsize their departments. The professors of the humanities are especially incensed.

Their letter was addressed to Harvard professor Michael Sandel, whose course on social justice was offered online to San Jose State.

An excerpt:

  • “In spite of our admiration for your ability to lecture in such an engaging way to such a large audience, we believe that having a scholar teach and engage his or her own students in person is far superior to having those students watch a video of another scholar engaging his or her students.”
  • “We fear that two classes of universities will be created: one, well- funded colleges and universities in which privileged students get their own real professor; the other, financially stressed private and public universities in which students watch a bunch of videotaped lectures and interact, if indeed any interaction is available on their home campuses, with a professor that this model of education has turned into a glorified teaching assistant.” 
  • “We believe the purchasing of online … courses is not driven by concerns about pedagogy, but by an effort to restructure the U.S. university system in general, and our own California State University system in particular.” 
  • “At a news conference (April 10, 2013, at SJSU) … California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged as much: ‘The old education financing model, frankly, is no longer sustainable.’ This is the crux of the problem. … The purchasing of (online courses) from outside vendors is the first step toward restructuring the CSU.”
  • “Let’s not kid ourselves; administrators at the CSU are beginning a process of replacing faculty with cheap online education.”
  • “Professors who care about public education should not produce products that will replace professors, dismantle departments, and provide a diminished education for students in public universities.”

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Higher Education, On-Line Education

Wisconsin: Vouchers Will Go Statewide

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2013 //
6

Governor Scott Walker is a hard-right conservative who wants a market-based school system–or no system at all, just a free market where consumers go to any provider they want. Despite the failure of vouchers in Milwaukee, Walker is pushing for statewide vouchers. He is getting his way, step by step. I wonder if he knows that Wisconsin public schools–which he deplores–have the HIGHEST
graduation rate in the nation?

Categories Vouchers, Wisconsin

G.F. Brandenburg Deconstructs Rhee

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2013 //
14

In this post, blogger
and former math teacher G.F. Brandenburg dissects a speech by Michelle Rhee. What he finds especially amazing is that Rhee doesn’t acknowledge her own role as chancellor of the D. C. Schools as she rid into the flaws of public education. He notes that the achievement gap grew during her time in office.

Categories Rhee, Michelle
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