When the news gets out that the corporate reformers’
narrative and their signature line are false, their crusade to turn schooling
into a marketplace loses its rationale. Here is a review
of “Reign of Error” by columnist/editorial writer Robyn E. Blumner
of the Tampa Bay Times. What if our schools aren’t
failing? What if Jeb Bush and his minions are wrong?
What if the cause of low test scores really is poverty?
Then the reformers’ pursuit of the “bad teacher” is a great distraction from the biggest problems of our day.
What if we require new thinking by those who have
economic, social, and political power? What if blaming teachers
hurts kids?
The tiny sound you just heard was another card dropping
out of the House of Cards. Maybe it was a card holding up the whole phony
structure.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
My current name for them is —
Greedy Raiders Of Public Education
you do the acronym …
So they based NCLB on messed up info from Texas. Now that’s a good way to steer national education policy. NOT! Standardized testing in preschool is developmentally in appropriate. The more you test, the less time you have to teach. Therefore, the less the students learn and then they do worse on the next test oh yeah and it’s the teachers fault. Increase rigor, if the students don’t understand what is being taught why would you want to make it harder? Sometimes you have to go back to move forward. There is no common sense in corporate education, or knowledge of best practice, developmentally appropriate curriculum and readiness. Students in one grade can be 11 months apart in age. 11 months is a lot, especially in the early years. Think of a newborn vs. an 11 month old child. You don’t expect them to reach the same milestones so why do they expect that in education? It doesn’t really even out tip fourth grade when the children have transition from concrete to abstract thought.
My concern is the degree to which “powers” will go to fight the truth, to twist the public perceptions (beyond what they have done already). Today I listened to NPR’s This American Life segment about the “CopStats” program in NYC/Brooklyn that became a template for every other major city police department. Data-driven policing (and carrot-stick mentality) was/is also a sham, yet even with proof of its faulty assumptions and false narrative it continues today.
This segment was played a year or more ago, but since it aired again today it can’t be played back until after 7:00 PM today (9/29/13), but I hope everyone will do so. Then share it, connecting the dots to what is happening in our schools.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent
I heard that same segment, and all i kept thinking was “it’s the SAME for education! the emphasis on the numbers, no matter what field is corrupting!”
Today, the LA Times, (which had published many letters to the editor in the past week which were all against the LAUSD iPad fiasco that is due to cost California taxpayers at least $ 1 billion) has a long article by their respected columnist Steve Lopez on this issue.
Lopez not only talks of the tremendous boondoggle and unnecessary costs, he finally places the blame where it belongs, first on the terrible decisions of Supt. John Deasy for buying this soon to be obsolete Apple product at above retail cost (when he is actually an Apple stockholder and did a commercial for them, and where his recently resigned Asst. Supt. Jaime Aquino was a former employee of Pearson, purveyor of the Common Core software for the iPads), and for not thinking ahead to all the surrounding costs and surrounding problems of hacking and lost or stolen iPads.
Lopez also places the onus of this situation on the LAUSD School Board members who are elected to oversee the Superintendent. And he calls for a review of it all.
In any other business, where the finger points directly to the manager who made a terrible decision such as this iPad one, that manager would be summarily fired.
We, in Joining Forces for Education, as well as other similar California education groups, urge keeping the pressure on the media and on the Board to consider if this huge failure of Superintendent Deasy should not mean the end of his association with LAUSD. Most of California taxpayers, and educators in LA, feel he should move on. Since his contract is up for renewal, time is of the essence for the Board to hear from all of us.
We also urge the School Board to no longer be influenced by Eli Broad, and that they must avoid his Broad Academy products who are corporate-trained and profit-minded, and they should do a national search for true trained educators to fill these vital roles of Superintendent and Asst. Supt. in the second largest school district in the nation.
Yes, Diane, the ship of education state seems to finally be slowly shifting, but we must all hang in an keep shouting out for teachers over technocrats.
Darn… I was hoping you were going to post evidence that they were in trouble. Losing rationale is not a problem if you have a big enoough budget.
Ellen Lubic is totally correct only it is worse than she says. CORE-CA is preparing the definitive expose on the I-Pads. We have from the Jaime Aquino Feb. 12, 2013 Power Point 5 different costs for the same device. It ranges from $200 with a 5 year guarantee to $1,598 each to start up. It also says that they will pay no more than $200 each and the cost will drop with time and a 5 year guarantee. The board just approved $1,000 each with a 3 year guarantee. CORE-Ca will show you the pages, what they say and the financial analysis of the power point and then we also have the documentation from Mar. 2012 to Aug. 2013 of Aquino planning all along to charge the parents for damage and theft. In fact. it states so in the power point. Then how is it that they are going to charge when at the board meeting where the board approved the $1,000 device Aquino, staff and Apple reps. stated that they were covered for three years against damage, loss and theft. Ethics and telling the truth problem I see. Billionaires lose again. If I can but a Dell, Google Chrome or Acer or such laptop for $250 retail for one what kind of deal do you think you could get by going to the manufacturer and saying I want 650,000 of those can I get a real good deal? Duh!!!!! This is carloads people not a single at Staples. I have done sales for large runs and believe me when you order a lot the price goes way down. I mean “Way Down.” How about $80 for the case. That is retail. How about $717 for the package? I have the docs and they are up at Hemlock on the Rocks. Soon, by Monday, the whole package is going out to the press and such and onto whoever wants this to stop this nationwide theft of our money. You will see a complete financial analysis that will show the spread between the $200 and $1,000 device is over $600,000,000. How would you like to have that extra? Just like in Philadelphia with the CORE-CA analysis which showed that the State of Pennsylvania put over $300,000,000 in their pocket just from charter schools in Philadelphia. Go read the analysis taken from their own 2013-14 budget. As we keep telling you, you cannot take them down unless you do the financials to make education relevant due to the ability to pay for necessary programs like the Arts. Educators in California please join Create California which is an organization to put the arts back into California Schools. This is another DUH moment.
I’ve been curious: which iPad exactly has LAUSD purchased? They are all quite remarkable devices, even the early ones are far from obsolete. If the kids are able to unlock the settings and filters, the entire internet is available; so maybe they can read Diane Ravitch instead of Pearson, Inc. Pandora’s Box?
This is obviously malfeasance; are there any legal actions in the works?
I dearly hope that all the kids will learn how to unlock these things. Back in 1903, H.G. Wells dreamed of a time when all the knowledge of the world would be available, instantly, “over wires.” Now that is so, and what do we do? We put a lock on the box so that kids can access only the junk CCSS curricula from a few providers. A glorious pull medium with enormous potential is in this way made into a push medium for the big-box educational materials providers. This is the further Walmartization of U.S. education.
Interesting that they chose that particular device, the iPad. If you aren’t a hacker, take a look at the possibilities for “jail breaking” an iOS device.
Robert…English majors at UCLA also read, in addition to H.G. Wells, E.M. Forster novelette, The Machine Stops. Totally relevant with this iPad nonsense.
A few weeks ago I bought a Samsung Galaxy retail for $165. California taxpayers were ROBBED.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Some schools are failing miserably, and others are doing a spectacular job. Teachers, choose the culture in which you want to teach. Administrators, choose the culture in which you can make a difference. And the rest–stay out of the way.
And just what are the demographics of those schools that are “failing miserably.” The term “failing schools” was invented by politicians to scapegoat themselves from their failure to address the non-school factors that affect student achievement such as poverty, health care, and housing among others.
Mike…in LAUSD the “failing schools” list shows 107 all in inner city neighborhoods where poverty is endemic. Most of the students are on free lunch which is how California evaluates poverty level subsistence. Each of these schools would benefit far more with adding trained teachers to lower class size, and most desperately need major repairs to the facilities. The last thing they need are $1000 iPads.
This is the growing separate, and unequal. To hell with Brown v. Bd. of Ed.
You must live in an alternate universe. In LA teachers and administrators have virtually no say in “choosing the culture” and get fired if they speak up. Guess you are new to the posts here where teachers from all over the country live in a culture of fear and do what they are told in order to keep their jobs and not end up flipping hamburgers at minimum wage.
My comment about living in an alternate universe was made to “changemaker”…
Our colleges are full of our children, the military is full of our children, hospitals have our children, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, welders, and many other tradespeople make good livings in this country. How are the schools failing?
Thanks, Diane, for working so darn hard to present clear evidence and facts on the situation.
Cafeteria door. Where are you?
Susie Keeler Gahan Principal Fairmont Elementary School National Title1High Performing School
Sent from my iPhone
I’m so glad to hear someone talking about this. . . .I’ve been feeling like the story of the “King’s (or Emperor’s) New Clothes”. . . . .I see that he’s naked, but everyone else (it seems, at least in the media, etc.) has been coerced (hypnotized) into saying, “What a beautiful new robe, Your Majesty”, or “What a good speaker you are, Mr. President”,
“Thank you for the hope and change away from those nasty conservatives”, etc. (I’m sure you can fill in many more). This whole Education debacle was a setup that began in earnest with GHW Bush who was the first to LOVE the word “GLOBAL”. (But read Diane’s book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” for a wonderful presentation). The point I’m making is that in order to create a whole NEW, controlled system of anything (in this case, Education, and ultimately, political power and control over the whole country and political process), you have to first DEMONIZE the existing system. . . . get the media to join in about how bad education has become, teacher’s are lousy, etc.. . . get politicians to be elected on the platform of making all of this better for your children, etc. (better than kissing babies). Then, when you have a large portion of the populace (gullible electorate) yelling, “We need CHANGE!”, that is your moment to act. . . .bring in your Common Core State Standards (after you’ve shown what a mess NCLB was, too,. . . which is was!), move out all the teachers who really WERE delivering quality education, but who would expose what you are trying to bring in for what it is. . . .make it seem real nice. . . . early retirement incentives, etc. The public will look on with such admiration of the “King’s (Emperor’s) New garment”, and then you’re off and running. . . . .running away with the future of the country in the form of the minds of our students. God help us!
jebster and his failed agenda are toast. we will finish him off by november next year!
Robyn has it right that public education isn’t failing, but for-profit ventures sure are. Fund managers are apparently building backfires, trying to isolate themselves from the coming collapse. They must be running scared, right?
And yet…
“Whitney Tilson’s Presentation Eviscerates A Stock That ‘Reminds Him Of Subprime Mortgage Lenders”
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/whitney-tilsons-k12-presentation-2013-9?op=1#ixzz2gL08AMPD
Tilson has been saying he’s short on K12inc , at least since last May. If you were out of the country in 2008, that means he’ll make money if the stock falls, just like he made his hedgefund fortune then.
For all the reasons we know (laid out on pages 167, 182, and 185-91 of Reign of Error) K12 is long overdue for a collapse from blatant corruption and rot, and yet the for-profit education industry had been so solidly fortified against reason and decency, the filthy thing just continues to grow. I wonder how long Tilson can hold out, in fact, if the stock just keeps going higher and he has to cover it?
Then, hours after Reign of Error hit the bookstores, Tilson emailed around that he was going to talk about K12 at the Value Investing Congress. Thus it came to pass that, on September 17, Tilson was delivered of a 110 slide Powerpoint presentation (linked above).
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Diane’s book has come along just in time to save Whitney’s assets from his own juggernaut?
Here is one more link, Tilson’s reaction to the reaction to his bombshell: Read it all, everybody.
“I’m embarrassed by my own ignorance and silence on this issue, so I’m determined to make up for this by using my bully pulpit to get the word out to my fellow reformers that we need to immediately end our collective silence for two reasons:
“1) It is morally unconscionable and rank hypocrisy to say we care about kids and …(etc)
“2) K12 and its ilk are giving the entire reform movement a bad name. They have cleverly positioned themselves as champions of charter schools, parental choice, and blended learning, with the result that their terrible schools and various bad acts give our enemies endless fodder to attack us and drag us all down.”
Whitney Tilson
http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/09/whitney-tilson-k12-short-3/
chemtchr: you are right. The link is dynamite.
The only difference between Whitney Tilson and most other self-styled “education reformers” at this moment is that he is a little sharper about proactively protecting himself from the consequences of his own actions.
With so much at stake—from $tudent $ucce$$ and public acclaim to future prospects and the continuation of lucrative connections—the leading charterites/privatizers are beginning to turn on each other.
It is going to get a lot uglier. For example, expect the pathetic kerfuffles manufactured against the owner of this blog to get much worse.
Hang in there. This too shall pass.
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” [Thomas Paine]
🙂
Speaking of corporate “reform”, Chicago Public Schools signed onto the Gates Foundation District Charter Compact in December 2011. The Compact requires that districts give charters equal funding to public schools; close 25% of the public schools and prioritize turning the buildings over to charters. This in exchange for the opportunity—not guarantee of funding—to compete with other school districts around the country for up to $27 million for professional development and capital dollars for charter schools only. To date Chicago Public Schools has only received $100,000 from Gates, while Microsoft walks off with an exclusive contract for cloud computing and who knows what other contracts for software. Chicago Public Schools has recently closed 50 schools in overwhelmingly African American neighborhoods. They fabricated a financial and utilization crisis utilizing incomplete and inaccurate data to justify the decisions.
Chicago Public Schools has also adjusted state-mandated funding formulas at the local level to equalize funding between the charters and public schools. As a result, local public school budgets have been decreased by over a quarter billion dollars ($260.6 million) while charter school budgets have increased by $80 million. Since the school closures, we have seen increased class sizes; inadequate local school budgets; increased violence; loss of jobs in impacted communities and severe hits to the school curricula.You mean to tell me CPS has destroyed neighborhood schools in return for $100,000?
Every school district around the country that has engaged in massive school closures while opening charters at warp speed have participated in the Gates District Charter Compact. The charters are expanding at a faster rate than their internal capacities can support. The data show that charters perform at about the same level as public schools. The distribution of the good,the mediocre and the bad are about equal between charters and public schools–in spite of the additional political and financial support the charters get.
The irony is a large part of the Gates fortune was gained through the public schools he’s destroying.
I bought a large number of copies of Reign of Error which were delivered on publication day. On September 27 and 28, we had our CORE convention here in Chicago. Twenty of the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union purchased copies of the book even before we learned that the book had reached the New York Times best seller list.
We will continue making sure that every teacher in Chicago has the change to read and study the book during the crucial coming months. Reign of Error is a handbook for our resistance — and ultimately for the reversal of these decades of error. Wednesday, at the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates meeting (800 delegates from more than 600 schools), we will continue working to make sure that every leader here begins to study this book in preparation for the struggles ahead.
We also need to make certain that the book is in every public library and every school library, from kindergarten through the university. Not only here, but “abroad.” Thus those who cannot afford to buy a copy of the book will be able to check it out and read it. Here in Chicago, Rahm Emanuel’s attacks on the public schools have been surpassed by his attacks on the public libraries. Not library in Chicago opens before ten in the morning now, and half have to open at noon half the days of the week. The same plutocrats we face in the struggle for public schools are working to destroy all other truly public rights, from schools to libraries to parks.
Educators and parents are standing up to the corporate reformers. Here’s a must read by Rob Miller, middle school principal – Accountability Goes Beyond Buzz Words.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Rob_Miller_Accountability_goes_beyond_buzz_words/20130927_65_A15_CUTLIN108944?subj=7
Thanks LLC…excellent article which says almost all of it. An added factor in California which has one of the largest Latino populations in the nation, if not the largest, many of whom are field workers who follow the crops to earn a meager subsistence living. Their children sign up for school, last a few weeks or months, and then disappear when their parents must move to a new crop site.
It is a great educational challenge with these children who are mainly ELL, and when mandated test days occur, it is inevitable that their scores will lower the average for students who are in attendance daily. The mitigating factors overlooked by the testing ‘perps’ like Coleman and Pearson and Duncan and Gates et al, are far reaching. How easy for these corporate leaders to blame it all on teachers, and to impose solutions that are doomed to fail.
Diane Ravitch WANTED for Education Commissioner in the State of Florida! Governor Charlie Crist will be in touch! (we hope!)
Can K-12 Education reform pushback make common cause with college reform pushback? http://ctmirror.org/community-colleges-time-to-be-revolutionary/