Archives for the month of: July, 2013
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Governor Corbett to Public Schools: Sorry.

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
10

Governor Tom Corbett passed a budget that shows his disdain for public education, I.e., the future of the state.

Philadelphia got the back of his hand. The burden of paying down the debt created by the state’s own School Reform Commission (which reforms nothing) will be placed on the working class, while big corporations skip away with no responsibility.

One plan, says columnist Will Bunch, is to turn the schools into chicken coops, where nothing happens but bare bones academics because everything else was stripped away by layoffs.

Blogger Yinzercation says the budget doesn’t reach the funding levels of 2008-09.

This governor and legislature and business community don’t care about the children or the future of the state. They would not do to their own children what they are doing to other people’s children.

Categories Budget Cuts, Pennsylvania

The Empire Strikes Back Against Kids Who Opt Out Of State Tests

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
32

The New York City Department of Education is treating students who boycott state tests as failures and requiring them to go to summer school if they hope to be promoted. Even if their teacher recommends them for promotion, they will be punished. There are consequences for those who defy the DOE.

Categories New York City, Students, Testing

Three Dozen People Rally to Support Vallas

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
19

In a surging groundswell of support, about three dozen people rallied for ousted Bridgeport superintendent Paul Vallas.

The meeting was held in a church led by the president of the Board that appointed Vallas. The mayor of the city, Vallas’ strongest supporter, spoke on his behalf.

Mayor Finch is hoping that Vallas will do for Bridgeport what he did for Chicago, Philadelphia, and Néw Orleans.

Categories Connecticut, Vallas, Paul

Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst Fundraising Falls Flat

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
21

When Michelle Rhee announced on “Oprah” the creation of her group called “StudentsFirst,” she said she would raise $1 billion in one year.

Then she backtracked and said she would raise that amount in five years.

Joy Resmovits of Huffington Post got copies of the group’s tax forms (which are made public), and Rhee is far short of her goal.

“In the fiscal year starting August 1, 2011 and ending July 31, 2012, StudentsFirst raised $28.5 million, more than tripling its $7.6 million fundraising the previous year. During that period, the group’s political 501(c)(4) arm raised $15.6 million and spent $13.4 million. Rhee herself drew a salary of about $300,000.”

At the rate Rhee is raising money, it will take her more than 25 years to raise $1 billion.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Joel Klein Intervenes in NYC Mayor Race to Defend Record

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
10

Joel Klein lambasted the Democratic candidates in the race to succeed Mayor Bloomberg for their criticism of his policies.

Klein defended the policy of giving free public space to charters, even though many of the charters have billionaires on their boards. He also defended his record of closing schools with low test scores even though many of the replacement schools exclude low-scoring students.

He didn’t mention the fact that he resigned shortly after the collapse of city test score boasts in 2010, or that he was replaced by hapless publisher Carhie Black, or that the achievement gap remained unchanged during his eight years as chancellor, or that only 22% of voters want more of the same failed policies.

Categories Charter Schools, Klein, Joel, New York City

Anthony Cody: Accountability Begins at the Top

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
10

In another great post, Anthony Cody explains why he is fed up with all the mud being thrown at teachers by politicians, foundation heads, corporations, and pundits.

He asks, why no accountability for the banks and rating systems that lied and hid data and caused millions of people to lose their homes?

Why no accountability for the big corporations that greedily soak up tax cuts while refusing to pay their share of the taxes needed to support public education (all the while, blaming teachers in underfunded public schools)?

Why no accountability for the testing corporations that foist failed online programs on students while raking in millions?

Yes, it is time for accountability.

Paul Thomas used the occasion of Cody’s post to reprint a piece he wrote in 2011, which shares the same lesson. He reviews the failures of Rhee, Duncan, Gates, Canada, and Co. and concludes:

“Accountability appears to be something those driving the reform are using to mask the lack of expertise or accomplishment among the reformers themselves. And the media is playing right along, unwilling and possibly unable to hold the reformers themselves accountable — unwilling and possibly unable as well to discern that the education reform debate is being misrepresented as badly as education is itself.”

A bonus in Paul’s piece: He includes the great poem “Ozymandias,” reminding us and the reformers that their feckless and fruitless efforts will soon blow away and be forgotten.

Categories Accountability

Bloomberg DOE Hurries to Privatize As Many Schools As Possible Before He Leaves Office

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
18

This is an alarming account of the frenzied efforts by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Department of Education to cement his “legacy” of opening privately managed charter schools while abandoning the public schools for which he is responsible.

The high school named for the famed Socialist Norman Thomas will be closed and set aside as space for privately managed charters. This is a way of spitting on the memory of a crusader for the public sector, that is, if anyone at the New York City Department of Education ever heard of Norman Thomas.

The new charter high schools will not accept any transfer students; after all, they are not public schools, so why should they comply with the same rules as real public schools?

The article by Gail Robinson of City Limits says that the charter school community of hedge fund managers and equity investors is worried about what will happen after Bloomberg leaves office. There is always the risk that someone might be elected who doesn’t want to privatize public education.

“Until then, Bloomberg is doing what he can. When the new school year starts, the city will open 24 new charter schools, for a total of 183, with spending on the publicly funded, privately run schools set to top $1 billion. And the city Department of Education (DOE) continues to allocate space in public school buildings to many charter schools, which use the rooms rent free.

But the department is also looking beyond Bloomberg’s term, carving out rooms in district buildings for schools that will not open until fall 2014. One, PAVE II, got space in a Bushwick middle school building even though the state has not yet approved its existence. And DOE also has set aside space for a charter that was supposed to open in August 2011; the plan now is for it to finally begun admitting students in September 2014.”

PAVE Academy was started by a billionaire who prefers free space in public buildings, rather than buying or leasing space. Who can blame him? Why not take free public space if the mayor wants you to have it?

Bloomberg himself plans to open four new charter schools, in partnership with billionaire George Soros.

We can only hope and pray for a mayor who takes seriously his responsibility to improve the public education system, which enrolls more than one million children. The needs of those children have been treated as a measurement issue for a dozen years; the public schools have gotten no support, only threats of closure, as the mayor blithely pursues a free-market system, with favor and preference for schools that he does not control, the privately managed schools that enroll 6 percent of the city’s children. Who will care for the other 94%?

The first thing a new mayor should do is clean out the top layers of administrative personnel, those who have abetted the privatization of public education in the City of New York. Shame on them.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, New York City, Privatization

Arthur Camins: Why the Debate Over Standards Flounders

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
12

Arthur Camins has written an insightful critique of the current debate over standards. As he puts it, “the past gets in our eyes.”

Camins begins:

“The Common Core State Standards for Reading and Mathematics appear to be simultaneouslyunstoppable trains and under siege, making strange bedfellows of both supporters and opponents.

Two issues cloud the debate about their validity, value and efficacy: (1) The idea of standards
has been conflated with standardization; (2) Standards have become inextricably linked to highstakes assessments. This has superseded a deeper meaning of assessment- the daily cycle of
diagnosis and feedback to students that marks the practice of every effective teacher.
However, there is something deeper contributing the cloudiness. I am reminded of a classic
Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy laments upon missing a fly ball, “Sorry I missed that easy fly ball,
manager. I thought I had it, but suddenly I remembered all the others I’ve missed. The past got in
my eyes!”

Camins notes a strange paradox: The supporters of “reform” says that the best schools (i.e., charters and vouchers) have autonomy, while the opponents of the Common Core say that teachers need autonomy.

He writes:

“Ironically, the critique of standards as unwarranted, creativity-stifling impositionsis grounded in many of the same autonomy assumptions about the power of unencumbered individuals to drive innovation and improvement. For example, many supporters and critics appear to share the idea that regulation stifles creativity. What separates the two perspectives is a different notion of size and characteristics of the group that can be trusted with autonomy. For supporters of standards, high-stakes assessments, charter schools, and privatization, the group to be counted upon is small: the really smart entrepreneurs. For some opponents, the number is large: virtually everyone.

Curious, this idea that schools should have autonomy, but teachers should not.

Read this provocative article.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Letter from a Pennsylvania Student: Stop the Keystones!

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
27

A reader sent this letter written by her 14-year-old daughter. She should become active in the opt-out movement. She should contact Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson “At the Chalkface.”

Mother and daughter: resist. Join with others. Don’t let them destroy your education in the name of “accountability.” Hold the Mindless Testing Fanatics accountable.

She writes:

“Thank you for speaking up about these high stakes graduation exams. My 14 year-old daughter was required to take Algebra 1 this year (in 8th grade) and to take a first attempt at passing the new Pennsylvania, Keystone Exam. We live in the high achieving, suburban Philadelphia school district of Lower Merion, and have been extremely happy with our district until the Common Core Sate Standards and Keystone exams affected her this year. We know other children & families who feel much the same way.

“After day 1 of the exam, she came home a ball of stress. As a way of letting out her feelings, she wrote the essay below. At the end, she writes that she will never take a Keystone again, but unfortunately, that may be impossible. As I am sure you are aware, districts need to create projects for students who opt out or fail repeatedly. We have no idea what these projects entail. She is hoping that her essay will be published as a post. Thank you for considering giving her a voice.”

STOP KEYSTONES ONCE AND FOR ALL

My Story

By Jordyn Schwartz

Today I have experienced one of the most confidence breaking and mind troubling obstacles in my entire life; the Algebra 1 Keystone exam for the State of Pennsylvania. When I sat down to take this standardized test, I did not know what I was getting myself into. My math teacher had been preparing us for this test, but even with all that drill and practice, my mind could not take it all in. The first 14 questions took me over 10 minutes each when I was trying to solve the unfamiliar equations, long word problems, and words I didn’t even know how to pronounce. I was telling myself that I was going to be fine until all of the stress overwhelmed my body. I was frustrated. “I should know this,” I thought. I wasn’t even half way done when they announced that there were only 10 minutes remaining. I only completed my first set of grueling questions, and still had another set of them and 2 short answer sections containing at least 6 more questions each. I wouldn’t get help from a,b,c or d with these.

At that moment, my mind broke down. I was telling myself that I was stupid, and that these kinds of tests make me feel like I don’t know anything. After hours of work, I still had so much more. It is extremely difficult to continue concentrating at the same intense level as you did when you first started. I was sick and tired of looking at those same boring Algebra problems.

I am an A average student all around, and score advanced on PSSA’s. But I couldn’t even read the next problem without all of those discouraging thoughts spiraling in my mind. I tried telling myself to pull through, but I found myself not caring anymore, and just wanting to circle some letter. I did that for two or three questions and stopped. I dropped my pencil on my desk, tried taking some deep breaths, and thought of ripping my booklet into shreds. I poked holes in my booklet with my pencil, and started squeezing my hands tightly as if I was going to explode. I was that angry, outraged, fuming. I felt so incredibly frustrated that these stupid test companies don’t care what they are doing to the students of our country. All they want is the money, and the worst part is, nothing is being done to stop them. Why don’t the politicians making my generation the most over tested in history try the tests for themselves? I bet most of them would fail or do poorly. I mean, if smart, educated people don’t do well on these tests, than what do they show?

These Keystone tests are breaking kids down, making us feel dumb and not want to learn, instead of making us want to enjoy the wonders and greatness of education. I know that when most people in my grade hear the words, standardized testing, no one is jumping up and down with excitement. I am an 8th grade student in the Lower Merion School District: a district known for their excellent education. When kids here are complaining about how difficult it is for us to take these tests, who knows what kids in struggling school districts are experiencing. Why should these tests be a graduation requirement for high school?

After my big meltdown from the frustration of not knowing how in the world to do these problems, I didn’t continue my test. I told the guidance counselor I couldn’t take it any more, and how it made me feel horrible inside. Although I kept calm on the outside, on the inside I was bomb about to explode. I was holding back my tears. I bet many other kids felt this same way, even if it wasn’t as strongly as I felt. I will tell you one thing, I am never taking one of those tests again. No test shall ever make me feel as low and deflated as I did today. I don’t care what alternative project I have to do in exchange for the Keystone test. Let me be exempted. No one should experience what I have experienced today. Standardized testing needs to be stopped.

Categories Pennsylvania, Students, Testing

Susan Ohanian Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
9

Susan Ohanian has been speaking, blogging, and agitating against bad education ideas for many years. Her writing is informed by a finely tuned sense of humanism–that is, she cares about people, especially children, more than big ideas and grand policies that treat people like widgets.

She speaks with honesty, candor, courage, and integrity. She is tireless. She is the real deal. She has taught every grade in school. To Susan, every issue always comes down the same question: is it good for children?

Susan Ohanian is a fearless advocate for children and good education, grounded in reality, not abstractions.

She is truly a hero of American education, and I gladly add her name to the honor roll of this blog.

To get a sense of her work, read one of her latest posts.

I especially enjoyed this tribute to Mr. Rogers.

Susan regularly posts cartoons that lampoon the madness of the NCLB-Race to the Top regime.

See here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Read her collection of Outrages.

And for more, read her running commentary on the Common Core.

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Honor Roll, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top
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