Here is good advice for the Gates Foundation:
Mr. Gates,
I have been working on this letter for days now. I just can’t seem to get my thoughts down before my anger gets the best of me. Then it turns into a letter of rant which helps no one, least of all my students.
I am a 10 year veteran teacher. I have earned my BA and my MAT. I also have received National Board Certification. I am sick over this testing and evaluation mess that you sir created. It’s time that you clarify and clean up what you have caused.
You and your buddies The Walton’s and Broady’s need to finally understand that you have accomplished nothing to further education. You have caused a chasm, a divide. You have made matters worse. Because it suits your agenda you have fueled the ‘everything is the teachers fault’ fire. We know it and you know it. If you truly care about students and their success and not about dollars and data points, then you will put your resources behind proven policies.
Here are some ideas that you can research, study and then support. These are changes that have actually been proven to be successful.
1. No for-profit schools. No one should make a dime off of students.
2. No standardized tests until high school. PreK-8th grade should be the time to instill curiosity, a drive to learn and to find what excites them.
3. Schools of Education should be extremely selective. Only the best and brightest should be accepted.
4. Educators should be held in high esteem as the professionals they are and paid accordingly.
5. End the competition between public schools. Support collaboration and cooperation.
6. Teachers should be expected to teach 4 classes (approximately 4 hours) per day.
7. Teachers should be expected to collaborate during the school day.
8. School meals should be free.
9. Health care should be accessible. Nurses at all prek-8th grade schools.
10. Individualized guidance for all students.
You finally agree that teachers should be at the table for policy discussions. Here I am. Hear me now: We are mad and we are NOT going to take it anymore. STOP this testing craze. STOP the school to prison pipeline. STOP closing schools. STOP making money off our children!
We won’t back down,
One of many BATs
Diane Ravitch's blog 
He may know all of this, but dominance of the market, of education, and of our democracy requires avoiding it all. A “Yes, my free market is drowning you…but let me sell you the directions on how to find some driftwood to cling to” type heroism.
Great post. Thank you! And what BASIC items. You aren’t listing anything impossible here….and if these were met, then the next description would be of the incredible curriculum created by the liberation of time, nutrition/wellness and creative curiosity.
“They found interests that outranked the excitements of rebellion and resistance.”
Kathy
I wrote almost the same letter to Gates a year ago. There was no response.
Can you post both an email and a snail mail address? Thank you.
I disagree with number 3. There’s nothing inherent in being smart (or, worse, “the best and the brightest” – please be careful with that phrase) that makes one a good teacher. Sure, one needs to understand his/her subject material well enough to communicate it effectively, especially at upper grade levels. But being able to connect with kids is far more important. Sometimes some of the “dumbest” people (as measured by standardized tests) make the best teachers precisely because they know what it’s like not to understand the material and have to struggle in school. I don’t know how we would determine “the best and the brightest” to accept into education schools other than tests, which would shut out many of the best potential teachers.
If we want the best teachers, education school should be heavy on direct teaching experience under conditions as close to real-life as possible. People who have the ability to teach will have ample opportunity to demonstrate it. Those who don’t might be persuaded to reconsider their career field before they actually get into it.
The number 3 suggestion undercuts all of the other silly suggestions to Gates, as if Gates cares one bit what teachers think. When you repeat NCTQ talking points that the problem in education is with teacher training because only “morons” with low SAT scores go into the field, you have NO credibility.
The problem with public education stems from the propaganda that there ever WAS a problem with public education. You can’t reason with the “libertarian” mindset that says ALL public functions should be given to the “market.” They will never be convinced because these people have been brainwashed to support the crackpot notion public institutions are bad because they are “public.”
Agree, the “crisis” in public schools (and public everything) is a manufactured crisis.
I agree, the phrase “best and brightest” is, IMHO, to be avoided.
As always the rest of your suggestions are spot on!
Fun to read, but this makes no difference whatsoever. Bill Gates may or may not already know all this, but he doesn’t care. All the BATs in the country don’t have a combined wealth that equals his and so he doesn’t have to listen to us. Bill and cronies will win this war, cause it’s money that matters in the USA.
So what’s your point? Give up trying? Cynicism definitely will not win the war.
My comments on the list of ten:
1. Gates can fund all the for profit schools he wants. There is nothing inherently wrong about for profit (excess profit being a whole other story). Just do not take a penny of the taxpayers monies. And no, the public school monies do not “belong” to the student to use as the parents see fit. Those monies are all the taxpaying public’s money not any student’s at a given time.
2. No standardized tests whatsoever at any level. See Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 *
3. See Dienne’s comment above (beat me to the punch, again, Dienne!) “Best and Brightest-see Viet Nam.
4. Sounds fine to me.
5. Not sure that there is competition among public schools? Of what competition does the writer speak? If in the sense of standardized test scores and school/district grading systems then see #3 above and my comments below.
6. I’d be happy with five classes taught per day, four would be icing on the cake.
7. “. . . should be expected to collaborate.” Horse manure. Of what would this supposed “collaboration” consist?
8. For whom? If for the teachers, you’re nuts!
9. Why only PreK-8? Don’t you think that secondary students have various health needs, meds to be given, etc. . . .
10. Yes, for all levels in conjunction with the parents/guardians.
Overall, were I to be one who believes in grading I would give this letter a “D” at best.
*Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A quality cannot be quantified. Quantity is a sub-category of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category by only a part (sub-category) of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as one dimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing we are lacking much information about said interactions.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. As a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms shit in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it measures “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
As a non-teacher…who does believe Teacher Union leadership at time held back education advances, it is encouraging to see the caliber of comments. It is near impossible to prove motives…..but very easy to measure success, something
Common Core has yet to prove.
This may be a odd comparison for a teacher to digest but as I read the excellent
opinions…I saw similarities to the Tea Party. The issues may be different, but
the desire to have positive change is the same.
The comments of so many teachers give encouragement to non-teachers who are quick to blame them for what is going on in some schools.
I will add one suggestion, don’t let the DOE off the hook, like Gates improving the quality of education may be secondary to more spending on new programs that
burdens teachers, schools and states with wasteful, time-consuming paperwork
under treat of lose of Federal Funds.
Here is something EVERY teacher can do…work with your governor, supt of
public instruction and the legislature (No matter the party). and DEMAND they
tell the US DOE to stop the maddening policies which keep you from doing
your primary job…..educating our children.
Keep up the good fight…I respect what you do, its not a job, its a vocation.
ajbruno14 gmail
The letter writer has been brainwashed by NCTQ garbage. So the letter writer thinks “idiots” go into education and therefore the colleges have “easy” programs because there are a bunch of idiots going into the field? Sorry letter writer, you lost me with that nonsense.
Nice sentiments in this letter but I agree that it means nothing to a man like Bill Gates. At one point when Gates first started funding educational grants, we thought he was really trying to help public education instead of tear it down. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Money unfortunately supports all these anti-teacher, public ed destructive policy-making.
Apparently, everyone’s a critic.
Obviously, some of this needs to be said.
Let’s see you write a better letter in 350 words or less.
I apologize for sounding pedantic, but whenever an educator writes an open letter to anyone, he or she needs to be very careful about correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Even simple, innocent errors with apostrophes or commas make it very easy for teacher bashers to say “see? Teachers are morons.”
What’s a BAT?
Bad-Ass Teacher.
Supposedly “Bad Ass Teacher”.
Those here who have read my critiques know why I use the qualifier “supposedly”.
“why I use the qualifier “supposedly”.”
I always read you Duane, but I must have missed these posts…enlighten?
PS: I have become very interested in your ideas about grades/testing/Wilson’s work, etc.
Would love to hear about how it all plays out in your class room. I have been working on diminishing emphasis on grades and test scores with my students (mixed success).
May I contact you to discuss? (Don’t want to take up Diane’s space!)
Thank you for your consideration.
Ang,
Let’s just say I’m not enamored with the name. It’s not “school appropriate” and I think that it’s an unnecessary distraction. True bad asses don’t need to toot their own horn. They just do and are.
As far as Wilson’s work feel free to contact me at dswacker@centurytel.net anytime!. I am sometimes a little slow at getting to the email but I eventually get there. Please note in the topic that you’re getting in touch with me about Wilson’s work so that I don’t just delete, which I have a tendency to do if I don’t recognize a name/url.
You can have the best teachers in the world in New York or Chicago (all over the country) with fabulous buildings and support, and nothing will change. The kids themselves have to want to learn. The parents have to stress education. I see more of a cultural problem in America. Many kids are lazy in school, disruptive, and not curious to learn. Some are, but they are in the minority, let’s be honest teachers. Kids who like to read are in the minority- big time! I am not blaming the kids. I am just telling the reality of the situation. Without parental pushing, interest, or involvement, and no value placed on education, we will never perform like a culture that does care about education. I get students right off the boat from Korea, Japan, China, and Germany, and they have the highest grades in my classes, even with limited English (at first). There is a huge difference in attitude towards learning, respect for teachers, etc. This is a cultural problem, and it is not easy to change a culture. Most teachers are similar to what I saw teaching and assisting in Sweden and Germany. Some are good and some are mediocre, etc. As long as a teacher presents enough content, a good student can learn. I think we are all ignoring the elephant in the room here. We need a cultural wake up call. We need parents all over America to stop denigrating teachers and blaming them for their students lack of attention and work ethic, and start blaming little Johnny and Julie for not doing homework, texting in class, etc. That is what has changed in America since 1960, and everyone is afraid to talk about it. To me, this is all about our society, not our schools or teachers. We aren’t the same country anymore.
All kids want to learn. What needs to change is the factors that obscure kids’ desire to learn – mainly poverty and injustice.
BTW, there is, unfortunately, a big difference between wanting to learn and wanting to go to school. If we can reconcile those two, we will be a long way toward improving education.
Right on!
John,
You are so right!
“Without parental pushing, interest, or involvement, and value placed on education, we will never perform like a culture that does care about education.”
Attitudes anchored in the home are at the root of the achievement gap. If all parents/caregivers took an interest in the development of their children’s cognitive skills; realized how important it is to read to their children; provided creative play; engaged in conversation; and provided numerous cognitive experiences, there would not be today’s big “achievement gap.” Some parent/caregivers need to be shown how to care and work with their children through their various developmental stages before their children begin formal education.
Unless the parents value education, unless they accept responsibility at home, and until the parents realize that the schools can not do it all, there will always be an “achievement gap.” Homelessness, children going to bed hungry, is a very difficult situation. These children need intellectual stimulation and enrichment.
Some children have been read to from day one. Others have had little or no exposure to books prior to entering school. Can those 1,000 or more hours ever be made up or will the gap continue throughout their school years? How can the Achievement Gap be closed when some children entering school have been read to on a daily basis; have been provided with books and educational material including computers and iPads- to only scratch the surface of how some parents take an active role in their children’s academic development. There is a big achievement gap among the children when they enter school and it will only get wider through the years unless all parents are educated in how to help their children. Birth to three years of age children learn very rapidly when parents support their learning. To save money some districts only provide half day kindergarten and some districts provide no kindergarten at a time when educators are advocating pre-school.
“Thorndike, after studying reading comprehension in 15 countries, discovered two conditions that prevailed in strong readers. All had been read to from an early age and had come from homes that respected education.” Rdg. Teacher March 1989
Access to books is essential to reading development. The only variable that directly correlates with reading scores is the number of books in the home. However, most recent data describes a profound, even shocking gap: while the ratio of books to children in middle-income neighborhoods is approximately 13 books to 1 child, the ratio in low-income neighborhoods is 1 book to 300 children. In edition, over 80 percent of childcare centers serving low-income children lack age-appropriate books…
Neuman, Susan B. and David K. Dickinson, ed. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2. New York, NY: 2006, p. 31.
” “The single most important activity for building the
knowledge required for eventual success in reading
is reading aloud to children. ”
Commission on Reading in a Nation of Readers
“You do not have to read every night – just on the nights you eat.”
Dr.Carmelita Williams former president of the NRA
“Children’s first grade reading achievement depends most of all on how much they know about reading before they get to school… The differences in reading potential are shown not to be strongly related to poverty, handedness, dialect, gender, IQ, mental age, or any other such difficult-to-alter circumstances. They are due instead to learning and experience – and specifically to learning and experience with print and print concepts.”
Adams, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print, 494pp
All my grandchildren have been read to since birth. Infants love the sounds and rhythm of stories being read. A bedtime ritual was established early.
My one grandson became fascinated with print at a very early age. He knew all his letter names and sounds at the age of three. He could recite the alphabet backwards with out seeing the letters. He memorized Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. He could also read at the age of three. He is an independent reader at the age of four and can read all of Eric Carle’s books independently. My other grandson, at the age of two would sit with a book and as he turn the pages he would label the pictures; e.g., “Danger!” “Tunnel!” At three years of age, he tells his father what is going to happen next as his father reads to him. New vocabulary words fascinate him and he intentionally uses the new words in conversation. He is extremely verbal; he called his grandparents a dynamic duel.
My older grandchildren love reading and are all phenomenal writers. Common Core stresses factual text so the first grade teacher of my six year old granddaughter read a story about animal teeth. (How exciting!)The children were told to respond in writing apparently the teacher expected regurgitation of facts. Instead my six-year-old granddaughter went off on a ten page narrative of how a young girl, hoping to find money under her pillow, found Vampire Bat teeth. Everyone she encountered developed Vampire teeth. She and her friend found a solution to their problem by visiting a Wizard who stirred up a potion for them.
Her teacher made no comment – not even a sticky note; my granddaughter was heartily affirmed at home.
In all their narrative writings I can see the influence of the stories their mother read to them; I can hear their mother’s various moods of excitement, horror, suspense, empathy, determination…in their narratives. Their mother brings the stories to life with her dramatic rendition. At an early age before entering school, my granddaughters were dictating complexed stories to their mother to encode for them. Another grandson, at the age of two, turned to his mother after
breaking his arm asked, “Am I difficult like Max?” (Max, (Where the Wild Things Grow”)
Where there is a will there is a way to get books in the hands of the most needy. No excuse is acceptable. I have heard them all; there is a solution for them all. Where there is a will there is a way to help parents/caregivers support their children.
I really wish you knew how to use commas. Ah well.
Dear Diane,
Katie Lapham and I co-author the blog Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates. We hope this BAT will post her letter here http://teachersletterstobillgates.com/ as well. Our letters to Bill Gates serve a higher purpose than getting Bill and Melinda Gates to read them, we feel – just as your blog does, Diane.
We want to empower previously silenced teachers to share a window into their classrooms and lives as teachers. These windows give other teachers the sense that they are not alone. These windows also provide the public with a view far different from the angle of the lens that corporate reformers shine on teachers every day. These letters show the public how much teachers truly care for children and remove the film of demoralization placed as a shroud over teachers by the reformers.
Please write more letters to Bill and Melinda Gates! We have a great opportunity to inform the world about the impact of corporate reform. Post your letters in our comment section and we will make sure they become part of our collection. Our letters will be published and delivered to Bill and Melinda. Volume 1 will be printed and delivered this fall.
Send your letters here: http://teachersletterstobillgates.com/ .
Diane, we thank you for your support to both the Badass Teachers Association and for your support to Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates. By working together, the HOAX created by the corporate reformers will soon be a terrible part of America’s history. We are working together to expose the HOAX for what it really is: a house of cards. We are about to watch it collapse together. We have the truth on our side. We are many. They are few. We are creating hope together.
Thank you,
Susan DuFresne and Katie Lapham
Co-authors of Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates
Dear BAT Rep.,
Most of your ideas I support, such as getting rid of the Standardized testing- especially in the primary grades! There are plenty of ways to evaluate students without putting the fear of hell in them.
I suggest you add #11 as follows: get rid of the Common Core and use our State Standards. The Common Core is a Trojan Horse carrying Michelle Rhees, David Coleman, governors and all power hungry predators who want to get rid of the teacher unions, tenure, and pensions. They have everything well planned out.
First, the ground work of convincing the laity that our school system is in shambles is being accomplished. Read the erroneous statements Students First puts out.. (In case the link isn’t functioning: http://www.studentsfirstpac.com ) Our schools of higher ed are the best in the world; evident by the countless students from around the world petitioning to attend our schools – China, Korea, Congo, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, Afghanistan, Egypt… and the list can go on.
These individuals establish a new set of Standards that sound so enlightening, convincing many people that the Common Core must have originated from another Einstein – in reality just another Emperors New Clothes story.
Emanating from the Common Core is the belief that Standardized tests needs to be in place; but in reality these tests are too difficult for most students. Ahh! Now we have a failing school system. Now the Charter Schools promenade in, achieving their goal : control over the schools- no unions and no tenure.
Now they have their power and don’t care about the children and the havoc such a situation would create. But their goal is only partially achieved. International standards is next on the horizon. A Utopia is their goal. What about the children who are mentally challenged, or children with learning disabilities and all those children who don’t fit into the chute?
Presently they will be happy to rid the country of teacher unions. Teachers shouldn’t have to worry if they will have a job simply because the principal doesn’t like him/her. They need the freedom to speak out. Common sense spells out all the damage done when teachers have no protection or sounding board. Nothing is free; anything worth having will cost. Indenture servants don’t make creative, inspiring teachers. Let us not forget our history and the part that unions played in tearing down the Communist regime in Poland. Furthermore, a job as crucial as our teachers’ needs continuity and protection.
Back to your list, BAT rep., I wouldn’t want # 8. GMO foods may be the only choice. All other points I utter a resounding, “YES!”
Mary DeFalco
This list looks expensive. In particular number 6 and number 10 suggest a large expansion of staff at most schools, while number 4 suggests all existing and new employees be paid some unspecified amount more. How much of an increase in expenditure would this generate? Are we talking about a trillion a year?
I am puzzled by the call that lunch be free for all students in the school. I don’t think it fair that a family earning significantly less than my family be forced to pay part of the cost of my child’s lunch.
Dear Teaching Economist,
All the following already apply in our pubic schools on LI, NY – at least those that I taught in.
1. No for-profit schools. No one should make a dime off of students.
3. Schools of Education should be extremely selective. Only the best and brightest should be accepted.
4. Educators should be held in high esteem as the professionals they are and paid accordingly.
5. End the competition between public schools. Support collaboration and cooperation.
7. Teachers should be expected to collaborate during the school day.
8. School meals should be free.
(Meals are free for those who qualify for free lunch.)
9. Health care should be accessible. Nurses at all prek-8th grade schools.
( All the schools are supposed to have a full time nurse.)
10. Individualized guidance for all students.
( Individualization doesn’t mean one on one. It means teaching students on their instructional level which for reading is usually group work. Reading Recovery Program is a one-to-one program. This was common practice until Common Core was adopted.)
As the letter talked about changes, I was under the assumption that the majority of these factors were not the status quo in education. In particular, Dr. Ravitch certainly argues that teachers are not paid as professionals, even in relatively higher paying districts. Perhaps she is incorrect and all teachers are, in fact, paid as professionals.
What happened to point 6?
I certainly agree that meals should be free or subsidized for low income households, but that is not what the original post states. It states that meals should be free with no mention of a means test. Should minimum wage workers on my town pay higher taxes so the children of the university faculty get a free lunch?