Columnist Dan Carpenter of the Indianapolis Star understands what Tony Bennett was doing with the A-F grading system imported from Jeb Bush in Florida.
It was never about improving but about labeling so that here would always be a fresh crop set up for closure and privatization.
He writes: “Educators, from those with traditional public schools to those operating charters to those teaching teachers in universities, already had warned him about A-F. But they saw the jeopardy the other way around: It was and is a blunt instrument that treats parents choosing schools like shoppers for backpacks. And it sets schools up for state takeover, and management by private businesses with political connections, without giving them and their communities a fair chance to explain their numbers and describe their needs. It tends to financially reward the affluent.”
The A-F system contributed to Bennett’s loss last fall to Glenda Ritz. The relentless testing that Bennett imposed was his downfall. He lost to Ritz even though he had a 10-1 funding edge, which should have sufficed in a red state. One of his biggest contributors: testing giant McGraw-Hill.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As with anyone familiar with this… Show me the zip code, I’ll tell you the grade…
McGraw-Hill is also poised and ready to “assist” with Common Core:
http://www.commoncoresolutions.com/resources.php
Mercedes: I always respect your posts so much and the research that you do and know how to do.
I have a question: do you see a generational reliance on statistics? That is, did the generation before ours (I assume you are a contemporary; I graduated high school in 1995) learn to rely on statistics more and thus value them more for determining merit and worth? Or is that truly the line of thinking across the board and the problem currently in ed reform is that statistics are being manipulated? Can you expound on that a little? When is reliance on numbers and statistics too much reliance? And if so, what else should we rely on?
I would very much appreciate your thoughts on this. I have no preconceived notions.
I know you were addressing Mercedes, but I hope you don’t mind if I offer an opinion. I am of that previous generation (graduated high school in 1980) and don’t think that we value statistics more than the next generation. In fact, teachers were trained, early in our careers, to a philosophy called “whole language” that was later criticized for its lack of reliance on drills and numbers. And I can tell you that we didn’t have parents who represent other professions in that time period coming to the school asking for hard data. The conversations we had with parents centered around the artifacts of their children’s learning.
Are statistics manipulated by profiteers and politicians? Absolutely. In fact they’ve been caught on numerous occasions doctoring graduation rates and testing data. I’m sure Diane could refer you back to some of the research she’s done and posted. Make no mistake… those who are propagandizing to an end of profit want the public buzzing around data and “bad teachers” (a.k.a. public school teachers). It is their means to profit. Dealing with real issues like poverty won’t make them any money.
Moth lit: I appreciate the reply.
I also want to know about those who finished school in the 60s. That’s the generation I mean.
it is interesting how Tony Bennett has Jon Gubera as his Chief Accountability Officer. They are both listed as reformers in “The Foundation for Excellence in Education” along with Arne Duncan, Chris Cerf, Joel Klein,etc.
The slime seems to ooze into a huge mucus mass at the Foundation for Excellence in Education!
These deformers are an incestuous group, aren’t they?
spell check: ‘incestous’
You had it right the first time.
Bennett took two of the four others involved with the E’s with him to Florida. Will Krebs and Dale Chu are with Bennett in Florida DOE!
In Nevada, schools are being “rated” on a Triple-A-style star system. It’s all a bunch of bunk, since schools that have high transient rates will ALWAYS score low.
I am confused about something: does Bush’s grading system have anything to do with RttT? What is the Venn diagram there?
Also, here is a quote by a trusted friend and I want to know what readers here think:
“Though it is clear that the Obama administration is following the advice of the most prominent, perhaps the most objective, professionals on the globe (not just in the US or from idiots like Broad), he is doing far more than any other president to shore up the public schools WHILE seeking to enliven the system with the best practices that any school can develop, public or private (including Charters).”
Anyone?
I would argue that your trusted friend has drunk the Kool-Aid and is badly deluded.
Once Obama dumped Linda Darling-Hammond as his education adviser (for being too pro-union) and pulled Arne Duncan out of a hat as Education Secretary is became obvious that his advisors were only going to be neoliberal reformers and everyone else was shut out of the conversation.
To claim that these people are “prominent” and “objective” is part of the failed “smartest people in the room” neoliberal strategy and is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Obama is drawn to the richest people in the room, always, and sees financial success as expertise.
Just see today’s defense of Larry Summers to the Democratic members of the House of Representatives. That also demonstrates his stubborn refusal to listen to and hear contrary views that don’t agree with his neoliberal tendencies.
Obama did not, as he promised on the campaign trail, end the abuses of NCLB. He put them on steroids and made it far more punitive and damaging than the original law, which was dying of unpopularity and disgust until he resurrected it and created it’s evil twin Race to the Top.
The clues are in your friend’s remarks: they are all reformy talking points of the neoliberals, from “objective” to “shore up” to “best practices”. Another is his stubborn inclusion of merit pay, VAM, increased testing, unquestioning support of the CCSS, and refusing to support the teachers in Wisconsin and Chicago and unions in general.
During the last election I told my friends and colleagues that I felt I was forced into making a deal with the devil: support the sitting president who is destroying my profession or support his opponent who will do the same but with more vindictiveness and less pretense at caring about schools, teachers, students, and public education in general.
I still feel that way.
There’s always third party candidates. I know, I know, they don’t have a snowball’s chance. But until the Democrats are genuinely afraid that enough people will defect to third parties, they have absolutely no motivation to do anything other than neoliberalism.
Thank you. My instincts, based on reading, observations and just my hunch as a teacher and parent indicated exactly what you said.
I appreciate your feedback.
Dienne: Prince William married Kate–first time in history a “commoner” entered the royal line. So, ya know, maybe a third party will swoop in.
Or maybe one of the other two parties will realize they need a different strategy.
Time will tell.
I remember saying to my administrators “What will happen in 2014 when none of the schools have 100% passing rate”? The reply was a simple shrug of the shoulders.
NCLB was pretty much of a nuisance, we had classes that just taught for the test, Math and English classes were to design problems similar to Test items, electives where cut back and students were pulled from Music and Art classes. As one study confirmed, Students improved slightly in English and Math but their knowledge of History declined! Students lost valuable Education in “other” areas!
Now we have the RTTT programs. They are not the “evil twin” of NCLB but the “evil offspring” of NCLB! There are many evil offspring including Merit pay, Teacher evaluation, CCSS, Charters, Student Teacher evaluation, Vouchers and increased (NCLB) standardized testing! One offspring is just as destructive as the other. Each of these was born to destroy Public Education and each of these will reduce Students knowledge in “other” areas!
Start with a National Resolution on A-F Grading Schemes like the National Resolution on High States Testing to counter ALEC.
http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/
Vote all legislators with ties to ALEC out of office.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/10/1096225/-ALEC-strikes-again-Berger-s-NC-Ed-reforms-don-t-work#
Parents in every state can form grassroots organizations like TAMSA to oppose ALEC and the bogus A-F rating systems that are designed to destroy public education. Testing nonsense started in Texas and Texans through TAMSA are working to hold Pearson, the legislators, the lobbyists, the Texas Education Agency and the State Board of Education accountable.
Before parents, students and teachers across Texas organized and raised questions about Pearson’s high-stakes tests and related contracts, $2.00 every second of every day for the last 15 years has been funneled from the Texas Education Agency to Pearson. That’s $50,400.00 every seven hours or three teachers per day or 1277 teachers per year every year.
Texas Senate Education Committee hears first-person testimony
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs142/1102070697430/archive/1112694226177.html
http://www.tamsatx.org/about-us.html
Click to access 2013-01-13-tamsa_overview.pdf
http://jasonstanford.org/2013/07/why-are-test-takers-being-held-more-accountable-that-test-makers/
In 2014, TEA will implement the A-F rating system. So again, parents, students and teachers will need to organize and get the facts out about ALEC’s bogus A-F school rating legislation designed to undermine local public schools.
Maybe too much testing, out of town moneyed interest, bashing of teachers will ultimately doom all these deformers who destroy the current system and leave chaos as their outcome. The public might be getting the idea that what their pushing is not advantageous for their children. Yeah!
At least Hoosier voters last fall had the good sense to pink slip Bennett. Florida Gov Scott would do well to follow suit.
If Bennett gets canned here, no other Politician would pick him up. He would have to go work for Rhee, TFA, Chiefs for change or hidden in Walmart somewhere. Maybe a “greeter”?
Here is a snippet from Robert J. Samuelson (He figured it out)
Newsweek “Why School ‘Reform’ Fails
Sept 6, 2010
“The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If the students aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a “good” college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school “reform” is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers. The reality is that, as high schools have become more inclusive (in 1950, 40 percent of 17-year-olds had dropped out) and adolescent culture has strengthened, the authority of teachers and schools has eroded. That applies more to high schools than to elementary schools, which helps explain why early achievement gains evaporate.
Motivation has weakened because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard, and don’t do well. The conflict between expanding “access” and raising standards goes against standards. Michael Kirst, an emeritus education professor at Stanford, estimates that 60 percent of incoming community—college students and 30 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges need remedial reading and math courses.
Against these realities, school-“reform” rhetoric is blissfully evasive. Duncan urges “a great teacher” in every classroom—akin to having every football team composed of All-Americans. With that sort of intellectual rigor, what school “reform” promises is more disillusion.”
.I wonder about that Samuelson piece, which I googled & read in its entirety. His thesis is that decades of reform have done nothing to change NAEP scores 1971-2008, & he quotes nearly unchanged numbers. This causes him to posit (a)no one has been able to bottle curricular & pedagogical improvements & distribute them uniformly to all schools, & (b)the part you quoted– student motivation is lacking.
(a)seems like common sense & (b)gratuitous & unsubstantiated. Meanwhile in this blog’s 6-27-13 post “The Latest NAEP Report: Don’t Believe What You Read About It,” Diane reports significant gains 1971-2008 (NAEP long-term trends) for whites, blacks, & hispanics, & all students at every grade level tested. Which undercuts the whole thesis.
If one actually could measure & demonstrate declining motivation in secondary-school students 1971-2008– & I’m just a layman speculating here– I would look for reasons outside the bubble of pedagogy/ reforms, etc, to the demise of mfg & overall decline in promising job prospects for middle & working classes
Maybe there is no crisis, and America has always tested poorly in comparison to Europeans and Asians, Russians, etc. I believe that Russia always beat us on international tests – always has, always will. Their culture is more intellectual and school in Russia is much harder and more demanding. We are too busy posting pictures of ourselves on Facebook or watching “Who’s got Talent” or “Kardashians”. So what? How many genius scientists does a country need? How intellectual does the average citizen need to be? It is dangerous to make the average joe too smart because they won’t want to work at Walmart or Target anymore. If we don’t produce scientists, we always are able to lure them from more intellectual countries or provide a place for them to work in safety (Einstein). We also can just grab some like the Nazi rocket scientists and use them to build NASA. (von Braun) How many American-born students are in graduate-level engineering programs in American colleges? Not many at all. Research it. That’s too hard. Not much time to party if you study engineering. The American undergraduates take intro to Physics (requirement) and then move on to other less demanding things like drinking beer and watching people throw balls in baskets.
It’s OK. Americans have a talent for selling plastic things, playing sports and eating. We are also good at making nonsensical movies that the world watches.
The very grading system Bennett fought for and implemented is the same system he seeks to deviate from and avoid.
I think citizens should protest peacefully right on the road his very own family residence is situated upon . . . . signs, banners, and all.
Check this out from the Orlando Sentinel on Tony Bennett.
Now a few pols are going after him.
Maybe now they will build a new amusement park ride at Disney World in his (dis)honor and name it “The World of Coverup and Hypocrisy” . . .
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-florida-democrats-bennett-resign-20130731,0,7707950.story
To the pols in the not-so-sun-shiny state, I say this, “Go get ‘im!” . . . .
So what if one looks at the Indiana State takeover schools…
The only one I looked at in depth was George Washington Community High School which was given to The New Teacher Project and Wireless Generation to run starting Sept 2012. After, of course, Wireless made significant political campaign donations to Bennett.
I told that tale to many education reporters paired with the multiple School Improvement Grant schools that Wireless Generation received funds to run in Wash DC in 2011-2012 school year.
still waiting for that story…
Why is the WG school management story not on the front page of every newspaper in the US if Murdoch is running schools through Wireless Generation? Educators and parents in the UK will be interested – how about contacting Nick Davies of the Guardian?
Christel House Academy-Grade Levels KG – 12
http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/eca.aspx?type=school&id=5874
Algebra 1 only, Grade 10
24% passed
76% did not pass
Christel House Academy, Report Card, Accountability Rating – A
http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/reportcard.aspx?type=school&id=5874
Using advanced search, I noticed several charters with ratings of F including Hoosier Virtual Charter School, enrollment 3,832.
http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/reportcard.aspx?type=school&id=5290
http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/eca.aspx?type=school&id=5290
Algebra 1 only, Grade 10
33.8% passed
66.2% did not pass
Indianapolis Lighthouse Charter, Report Card, Accountability Rating – C
http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/eca.aspx?type=school&id=5523
Algebra 1 (all grades)
86.3% passed
13.7% did not pass
Reporters, parents and educators must investigate Bennett’s A-F grading scheme. If given a “pass”, Bush, Bennett, Williams in Texas, the ALEC insiders, media outlets, lobbyists, etc. will push A-F ratings to all states for the purpose of funneling money to charters and corporations.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.