Time for a New Year’s Eve Laugh: Best Practices

20 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

1. Claudette Gerdjunis says:

   December 31, 2013 at 9:10 pm

   That is my husband’s company. They just implemented the top down ranking system, firing the bottom 10% of performers with devastating impact to morale, creativity and productivity. Although he is in upper management Dilbert is his life.

   LikeLike

   Reply
2. Da Coach says:

   December 31, 2013 at 9:15 pm

   The phrase “best practices” needs to be sent to the shredder.

   LikeLike

   Reply
3. KrazyTA says:

   December 31, 2013 at 10:21 pm

   Dogbert is an education consultant selling CCSS and iPads.

   The “pointy-haired boss” is an educrat who runs the second largest school district in the country.

   This cartoon is dedicated to all those that ₵ent¢ that $tudent $ucce$$ is the only true measure of a rheeal human being. Or as the leaders of the new civil rights movement of our time would phrase it—

   “The two most beautiful words in the English language are ‘check enclosed.’” [Dorothy Parker]

   😎

   LikeLike

   Reply
4. Hannah says:

   December 31, 2013 at 10:38 pm

   BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

   LikeLike

   Reply
5. wdf1 says:

   December 31, 2013 at 11:02 pm

   Da Coach: “The phrase “best practices” needs to be sent to the shredder.”

   Please refer to this article:

   Words for the Dumpster

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Joanna Best says:

     January 1, 2014 at 12:09 am

     And then I will resurrect it when I write a book called “Best Practices” because it is my name.

     LikeLike

     Reply
6. Old Teacher says:

   January 1, 2014 at 12:02 am

   I think I work for these guys!! I hope they cannibalize each other while I go about my business.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Robert D. Shepherd says:

     January 1, 2014 at 1:29 am

     HA!

     LikeLike

     Reply
7. bernie1815 says:

   January 1, 2014 at 12:03 am

   Dogbert could be anything. Your question reminded me of Peter Drucker’s implicit definition of a consultant: Somebody who asks such good questions, the client is able to solve their own problem.

   LikeLike

   Reply
8. Joanna Best says:

   January 1, 2014 at 12:15 am

   It is apt, though, considering how much leverage has been gained on the premise of: look around; we have a large gap in achievement between the haves and have nots; and you know about 75 years ago our country finally established schools accessible to everyone and striving to provide for everyone’s needs; and yeah there were people who worked in them; I think they were called teachers; and they had the nerve to make a profession out of it; yeah they even had families and bought houses and stuff; yeah so obviously this gap between what haves and have nots achieve us their fault! Yeah! They could have changed all that but instead they lived lives while they taught and called it a profession. We must take them down!”
   That argument has actually made it a long way. It’s as boggling as these cartoons. (Even if I did simplify a bit; I think that’s what it boils down to).

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Duane Swacker says:

     January 2, 2014 at 8:21 pm

     “. . . you know about 75 years ago our country finally established schools accessible to everyone and striving to provide for everyone’s needs. . . ”

     Joanna, see below for a timeline. And still many parents have to fight to get a “free and appropriate” education for their child.
     Duane

     1954 was Brown vs Board that said districts must comply with “all due haste”. Ten years later and that “due haste” was still like “due waste” of time.

     And (from Wiki) “Another educational sector to argue for access to equal educational opportunities for all students was the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC), which sued Pennsylvania in 1972 for not providing equal access to educational opportunities to children with disabilities. Soon after this, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 established that Federal programs could not discriminate on the basis of disabilities. However, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 forced parents to take any cases to the court system. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act created the option for parents to use an administrative hearing instead, which could decrease the litigation costs associated with filing a claim. Parents retain the right to appeal to a federal or state court. The EHA also created a specific affirmative right to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment for children with disabilities.[10]

     17 years later, in 1990, the EHA was replaced by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in order to place more focus on the individual, as opposed to a condition that individual may have.

     LikeLike

     Reply
9. Robert D. Shepherd says:

   January 1, 2014 at 1:21 am

   Well, Happy New Year everyone.

   It’s now 2014, and you know what that means:

   All students in the United States are now proficient in English and mathematics.

   That’s what we were told would happen if we passed NCLB.

   A little reminder. The story was that if we just forced the states to create rigorous standards in English and mathematics, and if we just had the kids all take criterion-referenced summative tests based on those standards, and if we held people accountable for achieving annual improvements in those test scores, then by 2014, all students would be proficient, and no child would have been left behind.

   But, of course, that was a completely ridiculous notion, unlike the NEW reform concept which is (drum roll please)

   that we have rigorous standards in ELA and mathematics and have kids take summative tests on those standards and hold people accountable for their students’ scores.

   In my book, doing more of the same thing that has clearly failed and expecting improvement is just about as idiotic as one can get.

   But that’s what the Gates Foundation and Achieve are selling as Education Deform v. 2.0.

   New year. Same old nonsense.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Robert. D. Shepherd says:

     January 1, 2014 at 1:26 am

     I used the word nonsense in lieu of a more colorful old Anglo-Saxon term in deference to Dr. Ravitch’s request that we refrain from coarse talk on this blog.

     Happy New Year, everyone.

     Here’s my resolution: to expose, at every opportunity, the idiocies of the CCSS in ELA and abusiveness of standardized testing as it is being practiced in U.S. K-12 education.

     LikeLike

     Reply
     • Duane Swacker says:

       January 2, 2014 at 8:24 pm

       I’ll say it-bullshit-because I’m a coarse older Anglo-Saxon/Germanic free thinker who generally cares little for “niceties” when coarseness is called for.

       LikeLike

   • Robert D. Shepherd says:

     January 1, 2014 at 1:33 am

     I used the word “nonsense” rather than a more appropriate (and venerable) Anglo-Saxon term that came first to mind in deference the Dr. Ravitch’s request that we refrain from coarse language on this blog.

     Happy New Year, everyone.

     LikeLike

     Reply
10. Harlan Underhill says:

    January 1, 2014 at 12:22 pm

    My friend has a child in sixth grade. A teacher at my friend’s child’s school announced at parent night, “I LOVE the Common Core,” and the parents ate it up.

    The school is a charter middle school.

    What am I missing?

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • patriciahale says:

      January 1, 2014 at 12:41 pm

      The teacher’s low pay, poor benefits, possibly lack of credentials, and no pension.

      LikeLike

      Reply
    • Joanna Best says:

      January 1, 2014 at 9:14 pm

      Harlan, CCSS is like microwave popcorn.
      That’s the best analogy I can come up with.
      You remember when microwave popcorn came out.

      LikeLike

      Reply
      • Duane Swacker says:

        January 2, 2014 at 8:25 pm

        Kinda like the best thing since sliced white bread???

        LikeLike

    • Duane Swacker says:

      January 2, 2014 at 8:27 pm

      You’re missing the connection between charter school and loving common curd, oops I mean core.

      LikeLike

      Reply