Jeff Bryant writes a comprehensive review of what he calls “Bennett-gate,” and shows that the A-F grading systems initiated by Jeb Bush is itself a phony way to judge the quality of schools.
He cites Matt Di Carlo, who reviewed Indiana’s grading system, and determined that the grades reflect the characteristics of the students in them:
“Di Carlo’s analysis showed, “Almost 85 percent of the schools with the lowest poverty rates receive an A or B, and virtually none gets a D or F.” Conversely, over half of the schools with the highest percentages of the poorest students received “an F or D, compared with about 22 percent across all schools.”
His conclusion, “as is the case with most states’ systems, policy decisions will proceed as much by student performance/characteristics as by actual school effectiveness.” (emphasis original)
“Under Indiana’s system, a huge chunk of schools, most of which serve advantaged student populations, literally face no risk of getting an F, while almost one in five schools, virtually every one of which with a relatively high poverty rate, has no shot at an A grade, no matter how effective they might be.”
By definition, the A-F system must label some schools with a D or F, so those schools are set up for privatization.
One of the beneficiaries was Charter Schools, USA, a for-profit corporation that hired Tony Bennett’s wife when they moved to Florida.
Frankly, the idea that a school should get a letter grade, like a restaurant, is ridiculous on its face.
Imagine if your child came across from school with a report card that contained nothing but a single letter. As a parent, you would be outraged at the stupidity and simple-mindedness of such a way of gauging “quality.”
A report card should be comprehensive, including both resources available as well as outcomes, and there should be multiple ways of assessing both resources and outcomes, such as teacher turnover, student poverty levels, etc.
No report card will capture every dimension of school performance, but a single letter captures almost no dimension of school performance.
That is why the A-F system is a fraud and a scam, meant to set up schools for privatization.
And let’s be clear: When schools fail, those who should be held accountable first are the leaders of the state and the district. They are the ones who decide when and where to allocate crucial resources. They should not crow about closing schools when it is they who failed to provide the necessary supports for the schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks Diane!
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So many hundreds of millions spent by politicians and “philanthropists” to go out of their way to avoid coming to the conclusion that poverty is a crucial factor in not getting a quality education.
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They “go out of their way” to avoid poverty’s impact on education because it doesn’t fit their agenda: to privatize education and rake in bucks. These monsters continually sniff out large pools of public money and then figure out way to get their mitts on it. You know that wall that’s being proposed on the southern border? Has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with Halliburton, et al, wanting new money-making projects now that their war projects are declining.
For greed, these politicians, “philanthropists,” hedge fund managers, and billionaire boys clubs, are willing to sacrifice your children, your home, your retirement fund, your health, and the entire US economy. They aren’t just avoiding this issue of poverty in education; they have purposefully constructed an elaborate ruse blaming teachers and falsely claiming the whole system to be broken. It does not serve their financial goals to deal with the facts.
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We agree on the impact of poverty on school readiness and achievement. What remedy do you propose?
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HU,
A more progressive tax system.
Hey, you asked. And no it’s not stealing others private property. Arguably this country was most prosperous when the tax rates were the most progressive.
Duane
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And your answer is a possible one, Duane, and moreover a feasible one politically. I appreciate that when I ask a question you do reply with an answer rather than a spray of skunk-duck essence. I do note the historical economic argument, but merely add that probably income and outgo at that time were more balanced than they are now, under the current federal administration, and the “entitlements” expenditures back then were not as unfunded as they are now. I have also heard the argument that there isn’t enough money among the rich to fund current levels of spending, and so we borrow ruinously. Detroit borrowed to fund pensions, and then just ran out of income. So there are differences between those times and now. I think that the revenue is pretty strong; what is ruinous is the “government spending.”
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HU,
For some historical background on “government” spending see: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.html . Yes, the federal government spends a bit more as a percentage of GDP now than in the 50s but I would consider it to be that great a difference.
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A quick look just proves my point, even though we are at war.
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For a look at more historical data see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/historicals
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I am curious as to where this “grading schools” notion first came onto the scene. I know that as early as 2007 or 2008 Michael Bloomberg initiating this bogus school grading system in NYC and got so much griping from everyone as weak schools were getting “A’s while very strong ones were getting “c” and below. The reasoning was absurd… the 80 million dollar computer system aggregating this information was directed to lower a schools standing if its students did not make improvements on high stakes tests each year. So this meant that a school where 96 percent of students were advanced but in the next year only had 95 percent students were advanced… would get a lower “grade” than a school who had 20 percent proficient one year and 25 percent prficient the next! Ludicrous. And now Bloomberg is requiring restaurants to “get grades” and post them on their front windows. Ughh!
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Here in Texas we had the designations of Exemplary, Recognized, Acceptable and Not-Acceptable, until recently changing from the TAKS test to the STAAR test. Funny how those Bush brothers think a like. Schools of high poverty were always in the lower two categories, especially the latter. For some reason we just keep electing these imbeciles who would have trouble passing these tests and they come from affluent families. Sickening.
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We teachers seem to have few reservations about grading the performance of individual students. The school grades seem to aggregate the performance levels of all the students in a school. How is that any different in principle from what we ourselves do? Except now the teachers are lumped in with their students. Did Eva Moskowitz fake her scores? Or do they just work harder there than most of us?
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Truth be known, Harlan, I think grades in anything is a worthless undertaking. Pass-fail is good enough for me with students. Some have a need to make everything into a competition. The Socratic method would tell us all we need to know. But I digress. Shh…don’t tell anyone I said that.
Also, this test is a one day thing. Maybe we should show up at government agencies and corporate headquarters on a random day to see how they are doing. We know much more about our students over the course of the year than this asinine test could ever show. But then again we aren’t trying to destroy public education.
Have a good one.
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Rick,
“Pass-fail is good enough for me. . . ”
Why even make that distinction? What are you telling the students who are designated as “failures”? Why are we teachers supposed to be the judge of what a student learns? Are we not just purveyors of societal information and norms? Or is there some “higher” purpose to our profession?
Duane
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Duane,
I wouldn’t make that distinction at all but it’s better than what we have in place now. I’m speaking of classroom issues here, not high stakes testing.
Personally I don’t think any student is a failure if any learning occurs. The Socratic method (as I said) offers a better glimpse into the child and the knowledge base. Why take one sentence and use it out of context? I would hope that there is a higher purpose to our profession! Do you really need to ask that question?
I provide students much more than just societal information and norms. That’s why we are in this fight to preserve public education. We should always teach our students to think independently and question everything. The ed-reformers want robots to conform to the think tank..
Rick
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I agree with you about the Socratic method, but I won’t tell anyone on you. Of course, you do realize, do you not, that questioning a student in the manner in which Socrates questions those with whom he dialogues SEEMS to presume that one in fact knows the right answers, or one could not effectively question each successive answer with a refined question as one leads our interlocutors toward a realization that they didn’t really understand the implications of their words. The EUTHYPHRO is an early, excellent example. But my guess is that not a single public school teacher in the entire United States can tell me what happens in that dialogue, except perhaps you.
I ask questions here, but few wish to follow a line of dialectic because they are offended that I think I know more than they do. Usually, I don’t, but just questioning what someone says seems to be regarded as insulting, and sometimes I don’t have the gracious good manners of Socrates.
But unlike Socrates, who may be presumed to have been employing irony, I really don’t know the answers, and would like to have discussions on topics where people WOULD answer my questions. Unfortunately, most interlocutors here run away, and refuse to engage civilly, I can only presume because they do not like to be exposed for the shams they are. They would rather haul me into court and accuse me of selfishness or naivete, or a “troll” (whatever that is), or being a disciple of Ayn Rand or Rand Paul or even worse.
Ultimately most of the debates come down to “How do we eliminate poverty, then” or “Where will we find the money?” To neither question do I often get a straightforward answer, let alone a well reasoned answer.
I’m not sure that Socratic questioning is ultimately gentler than testing, however. A solid, good, but fundegelical student I once taught said to me, “I don’t like Socrates. He jerks people around.” He does, and his conclusions are so often “Well, I guess we really don’t know.” That, of course, is as anathema to any politician who has an agenda, usually theft from some of the people to give it to his own friends, as it is to any religious figure who likes to pontificate or fatwaize without submitting to questioning. INHERIT THE WIND presents the drama of someone (Bryan) who agrees to answer questions and finds out that within that simple agreement lies a bottomless pit.
How arrogant is it of me to challenge 600,000 American school teachers to explain what happens in the EUTHYPHRO and to apply the same method to their own pronouncements? Pretty arrogant. “Who the hell do you think YOU are?” But that’s just the point. If you can’t stand up to the questioning of a nobody, should you be exhaling your political passions in the first place? I could ask the same about the how many millions of priests, rabbis, imams, ministers, and pastors. By common agreement, however, we have carved out an exemption for religious speech and have enshrined it in the constitution.
But public school teachers do not have that exemption, though they WANT it. They want to be above examination in the Socratic sense. So some poor fool who wanders into this union hall and asks simple questions is beaten into silence and thrown out.
HOW DANGEROUS QUESTIONING IS.
I don’t think anyone should be exempt from question, especially myself, but no one on this blog, so far, has wanted to calmly and respectfully trade question and answer. I’m willing to acknowledge my own ignorance, but no one wants to join me on that common ground. It’s easy to ask, What’s the Pythagorean Theorem and know if someone knows and can explain it. Harder it is to take the next step and say WHY is that equation true? President Garfield did. But when we get into the economics of the schools and the status of the schools most arguers have only words, not substance, and since that interferes with their political agendas and passions, the person who asks questions eventually becomes loathed because s/he is not cheering for the public educationalians.
So, FROM those who should be most enthusiastic about Socratic thought, I get almost invariably, though not perhaps from you, “Shhhhhhhsh. Don’t ask questions.” From my position peeking out from under a pebble, that seems like irony to me, at the least, and maybe what’s wrong in spirit among one of the hardest working and most noble souled group of people in the country, public school teachers.
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Harlan,
I agree with you. I see far too many talk the talk because they have heard what they are saying from somewhere else and may not really understand what they are saying. That happens quite a bit on twitter. I ask for clarification and get ignored. It’s usually the ed-refomer types though.
I don’t mind stating what I think even if no one agrees with me. I don’t mind answering questions to the best of my ability. I realize I don’t know everything. I don’t mind conflict for the sake of expanding my knowledge base or someone else’s. This is what I try to get students and/or staff understand. Learn to defend your position and be open to others opinions, that way we can all learn from each other. I believe everyone should understand it’s o.k. to be wrong, just learn from it, don’t be afraid of it.
I think public school teachers are afraid (I know many are here in Texas) to vary from the we should all be on the same topic, the same day, at the same time of day because many administrators who can’t think out of the box will write them up for taking time to “teach”. If high stakes testing and all its baggage were gone, I believe many attitudes would change because teachers would no longer be afraid to speak their minds and possibly lose their jobs.
And yes, I agree challenging the status quo and questioning social norms of any group, entity or individual causes people to lash out or ignore they person asking the questions. Currently, with teachers being the targets of this version of “The Red Scare” I can’t blame some of them.
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HU,
“Did Eva Moskowitz fake her scores?”
My hunch is that there probably were some shenanigans going on as that is usually the case in which “X” school/teacher appears to “out do” all others in these standardized testing regimes-see one Rhee, M.. But then again, maybe she just got lucky!!
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No, they don’t work harder than I do. I’m not sure that’s possible, and I expect most teachers could say the same.
In my state, a former senator wrote a very laudatory article about how wonderful grading schools was. I wrote a rebuttal, which was never published, arguing against it. He compared grading schools to how his son got lower than expected midterm grades, and so he and his son worked to bring up those grades before the term ended.
I stated that it is not fair to compare school grading to specific grades of a specific student. Unlike state tests, student grades are composed of many, many assignments and tests, not just one snapshot a year. Furthermore, students and parents can see the daily work and tests and can see what to do to improve. Schools don’t get scores until very late in the year or in the summer, and they can’t even see the test questions to know where to improve. Finally, schools are not all created equally. My school, which is close to Title I, has 25-30 percent moving a year (and I know that there are many schools that are much worse).
If a student moved in the day of a classroom test, I don’t know a single teacher that would require that student to score well on the test (I usually just have them take it so that I can see what level they come to me, and then give them 100%). In school tests, though, if a student arrives the day of the test, or a week before or whatever, the score still counts on that school’s test. Furthermore, I don’t know a teacher who wouldn’t work with a student who is testing that is experiencing life difficulties: eviction, parent or sibling illness or accident, etc. Yet, the school grades don’t care about any of that, and so compare schools where mobility and poverty are low to schools where they are high.
In my mind, HU, those are the main differences.
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Thank you for your serious response. You have persuaded me.
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Evaluation is fairly meaningless without baseline data, and that data is rarely incorporated into assessments of schools in any meaningful or useful way. For the past 50 years, since Milton Friedman introduced the non-solution of school vouchers, the simplistic, self-serving goal of many conservatives has been to privatize k-12 education.
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That sounds crazy that a school would be assigned a letter grade. There are SO many factors to determine a school’s success. Can a school actually fail? Maybe, but I would imagine many would get C’s, just like their students.
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In some cities and states, a school that gets an F or even a D is set up for closure. That’s why it matters a lot that these grades are incoherent. So much rides on them.
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