Archives for the year of: 2013
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MI District Broke, Teachers Offer to Work for Free, But Then…

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
16

In little Buena Vista, Michigan, the schools have been decimated by budget cuts and declining enrollments. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, the teachers offered to work for free. The district laid them all off and is closing the schools.

Who says that Americans don’t care about education? Maybe Governor Snyder will send in an emergency manager to give the children to a for-profit charter chain that will rehire the teachers and cut their pay and benefits.

The schools close officially on Tuesday, which is Teacher Appreciation Day.

Categories Budget Cuts, Michigan

Brian Ford: Why Pressure and Greed Are Not Good

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
4

Brian Ford, teacher and author, writes in a comment, responding to John Merrow’s investigative reporting:

It was John Merrow’s interview with Michelle Rhee, when she was still in charge of DCPS, that first raised my hackles. She said, “Pressure is good.” It was a bit like two decades ago, when Gordon Gekko declared, ‘Greed is good.’ In both cases the statement is presented as the hard, unvarnished truth that people are unwilling to accept because they are too politely unrealistic. That the declaration of the goodness of pressure and greed also serves the interest of the speaker is left unsaid.

That was the goal of Michelle Rhee and the others:

Creating A System Of Pressure —

–a system of pressure that would have people teaching children doubt themselves and blame themselves for things over which they had no control
–a system of pressure that would put more power into the hands of managers, just as it has in the university system
–a system of pressure that would come down on people who worked everyday, that would justify the accumulation of wealth by a few who the market selected and who our political system would not touch

It is worth remembering that the greed line didn’t first come from Michael Douglas playing a fictional character; it was originally said by Ivan Boesky addressing students at the Columbia Business school. There was a presumption behind the statement, that greed was so good that it deserved to go unregulated.

Of course, the law did catch up to Mr. Boesky and he spent 3 years in a minimum security prison from which he had a 3 day furlough every two months. It was tough, but he has had his consolations – he’s reportedly worth between 2 and 3 billion today.

We should link greed and pressure. Each is only one of many neo-liberal tendencies that continue to shape reform efforts in the education field. And they have a synergetic relationship – the concepts have in common dual presumption: for-profit enterpises show us how tenure hurts productivity and workers should be exposed to pressure in order to increase productivity.

Michelle Rhee’s ‘pressure is good’ statement is emblematic The full quote is, “People feel a little stressed out. They feel a lot of pressure. But that’s good. Pressure is good.”
(John Merrow’s interview with Rhee , from Leadership: A Challenging Course, Ep. 8, PBS, airdate 1-13, 09, http://www.challengingcourse.org/dc/segment8.html#transcript) It assumes that educators are not under enormous pressure already, that more pressure will increase their efficacy. This is an argument transplanted from the for-profit/business world, where it was accepted that the efficient use of resources was among the most highly leveraged concepts. This includes human resources. But is it good?

Aristotle thought leisure –the lack of pressure– was the condition of philosophy, but perhaps we don’t want philosophers. Maybe we want entrepreneurs, and if we do, then we are well served by the elements of contemporary education reform which, are embedded in a neo-liberal program, considers insecurity a positive and seeks to increase pressure on workers. Not that we would educate more entrepreneurs, but the lure of making money would draw in more and more enterpreneurs.

What would they do? Even if their teachers were quite good, the threat of an unsatisfactory ranking will put pressure on people to work harder and improve.
As we consider that, we should note that, unlike a steamfitter, Michelle Rhee has no way to measure the pressure already in the system or whether it is equipped to handle more. We can ask, if this is general through the society, is that the society in which we want to live? One based on greed and pressure?

Categories Rhee, Michelle

Chicago Will Close Down Some of Arne’s “Turnaround” Schools as Failures

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
22

This is an astonishing story.

In 2002, Arne Duncan began his infamous policy of shutting down schools in Chicago with low test scores.

Among the schools he closed was Dodge.

Dodge parents were outraged that their school was handed over to a private turnaround operator, but Duncan assured them it was for the best.

Fast forward to 2008, when President-elect Obama announced that he had picked Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education.

The event was held at Dodge Renaissance Academy, which the President praised as a “perfect example” of a turnaround school, an exemplar of Duncan’s great success.

Sadly, Chicago Public Schools is now closing Dodge Renaissance Academy as a failing school, along with Williams, another of Duncan’s “turnaround” schools.

What do you think this does to the children, the parents, and the community?

When is it okay to say that it is better to help struggling schools than to close them?

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Closing schools, Education Reform

How Is Enron Like Atlanta?

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
3

Jason Stanford writes a smart blog about education in Texas.

In this one, he explains that when the stakes get too high, bad things happen, whether in business or any other activity.

Most businesses are honest, most educators are honest. But it is wrong to tie a child or an adult’s future to standardized tests.

Stanford writes:

“Standardized tests have a valid role in education, but closing down schools or giving principals cash bonuses based on test results is new. That started when then-Gov. George W. Bush instituted a business mindset in Texas public schools and measured all schools by their tests scores. Enron did much the same thing with its stock price, gaming the system by hiding debt and booking future earnings. The stock price soared while the former pipeline company cratered. In Texas public schools, dropouts rose, preparing for the tests ate up more than half the schoolyear, and scores rose. Bush proclaimed it the “Texas Miracle.” Many of the schools he cited as proof of his miracle were later investigated for cheating, including Wesley Elementary in Houston, where the principal coached teachers “to administer a test the Wesley way,” which meant walking around the classroom and standing behind a student until they chose the correct answer. But by then, achieving miraculous gains on test scores had become a national goal.”

If we opened our eyes, he says, we would realize that what we are doing now is wrong. It is not working. It doesn’t help students and it doesn’t improve education. It is actually pretty dumb to put so much weight on bubble tests.

Categories Accountability, Testing, Texas

Voucher Decision a Blow to Jindal 2016 Campaign

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
5

Good article in the Washington Post about the major decision by Louisiana’s top court to strike down funding of vouchers with public school dollars.

More than 700,000 students in the state, only 8,000 have vouchers. Many vouchers used in schools that resolutely refuse to teach modern science, math, or history. Funny place for Jindal to stake his claim. He is determined to find the money some other way, though he would surely prefer to carve it out of the public school budget.

Jeanne Allen of the pro-voucher Center for Education Reform wants Jindal to appeal decision to the US Supreme Court, but nothing in the US Constitution guarantees the right to use public funds to pay for religious schooling.

6-1 is a pretty big rejection.

Categories Louisiana, Vouchers

Charter Appreciation Week and Teacher Appreciation Week

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
60

By some strange coincidence, Teacher Appreciation Week coincides with National Charter School Week.

Bear in mind that almost 90% of charters are non-union, that charters may fire teachers at will, that charter teachers do not have tenure, that many charters are known for high teacher turnover due to the stress of longer school days, and that many do not hire certified teachers. In some states, like Ohio, charter teachers earn half as much as public school teachers, because the charter teachers are typically younger and less experienced.

Just thinking about that when I read President Obama’s proclamation.

Categories Charter Schools, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Paul Thomas: Now Is the Time for Non-Cooperation

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
7

Paul Thomas reacts here to Randi Weingarten’s call for a one-year moratorium on high-stakes testing associated with the Common Core and to Jennifer Jennings’ apology to Secretary Duncan for being booed at AERA.

He warns that moderation and civility are not appropriate responses to extreme conditions.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Unions

Texas: The Surefire Plan to Destroy Public Education

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
37

You think it can’t happen here?

You think your state is immune?

Read about the war on public education in Texas and think again.

Some part of this radical agenda is being promoted in almost every state.

Yours too.

This comment was written by Bonnie Lesley of “Texas Kids Can’t Wait”:

“I worry a lot whether public schools will continue to exist in some states. Our organization, Texas Kids Cant Wait, has felt overwhelmed at times this legislative session about the sheer number of privatization bills, all either sponsored by Sen. Dan Patrick or by someone close to him. We have been battling a big charter (what is in reality the gateway drug to privatization) expansion bill, a parent-trigger bill, opportunity scholarships, taxpayer savings grants, achievement district, “FamiliesFirstSchools”, home-rule districts, vouchers for kids with disabilities, online course expansion, numerous bills to close public schools and turn them over to private charter companies, and on and on. A friend said it is as if they threw a whole bowl full of spaghetti at the wall, believing something would stick.

Every one of the ALEC bills we have seen introduced in other states has been introduced in Texas this year.

The privatizers have also held hostage the very popular bills such as HB 5 to reduce testing significantly unless their privatization bills advanced, and advance they have. So lots of folks are playing poker with kids’s lives and futures.

What keeps many of us fighting 20 hours a day and digging into our own pockets to fund the work is our understanding that these bills are not the end game. We’ve read the web sites, beginning with Milton Freidman’s epistle on the Cato Institute’s website, that lay out the insidious plan we are seeing played out. We have also read Naomi Klein’s brilliant book, Shock Doctrine.

First, impose ridiculous standards and assessments on every school.

Second, create cut points on the assessments to guarantee high rates of failure. (I was in the room when it was done in the State of Delaware, protesting all the way, but losing).

Third, implement draconian accountability systems designed to close as many schools as possible. Then W took the plan national with NCLB.

Fourth, use the accountability system to undermine the credibility and trust that almost everyone gave to public schools. increase the difficulty of reaching goals annually.

Fifth, de-professionalize educators with alternative certification, merit pay, evaluations tied to test scores, scripted curriculum, attacks on professional organizations, phony research that tries to make the case that credentials and experience don’t matter, etc.

Sixth, start privatization with public funded charters with a promise that they will be laboratories of innovation. Many of us fell for that falsehood. Apply pressure each legislative session to implement more and more of them. Then Arne Duncan did so on steroids.

Seventh, use Madison Avenue messaging to name bills to further trick people into acceptance, if not support, of every conceivable voucher scheme. The big push now as states implement Freidman austerity budgets to create a crisis is to portray vouchers as a cheaper way to “save” schools. The bills that would force local boards to sell off publicly owned facilities for $1 each is also part of the overall scheme not only to destroy our schools, but also to make it fiscally impossible for us to recover them if we ever again elect a sane government. Too, districts had to make cuts in their budgets in precisely the areas that research says matter most: quality teachers, preschool, small classes, interventions for struggling students, and rigorous expectations and curriculum. See our report: http://www.equitycenter.org. Click on book, Money STILL Matters in bottom right corner.

Eighth, totally destroy public education with so-called universal vouchers. They have literally already published the handbook. You can find it numerous places on the web.

Ninth, start eliminating the vouchers and charters, little by little.

And, tenth, totally eliminate the costs of education from local, state, and national budgets, thereby providing another huge transfer of wealth through huge tax cuts to the already-billionaire class.

And then only the wealthy will have schools for their kids.

Aw, you may say. They can’t do that! My response is that yes, they most certainly will unless you and I stop it!”

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Alternate Route To Certification, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Pre-K, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, Texas, Vouchers

John Merrow’s Investigation of Michelle Rhee

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
31

John Merrow deserves enormous praise for his dogged investigative journalism in pursuing the allegations of widespread cheating in the DC public schools during the tenure of Michelle Rhee.

Perhaps even more impressive is that he recognized his own error in his past coverage, which had presented Rhee in a heroic light. Merrow, by his account, ran a dozen PBS segments on Rhee, which were very positive. It was only towards the end of his last story that he began to dig deeper, especially after he heard the story of Adell Cothorne. Cothorne was the principal at Noyes campus who says she walked in on a grade-changing meeting of staff; she reported it at once to central headquarters. In no time, she was a pariah. Merrow wanted to know why.

Kudos to John Merrow.

Here is a compilation of his reports: REPORTING ABOUT MICHELLE RHEE.

The curious part of this story is that no one cares. No one is investigating. Even after Merrow’s exposé, even after he reported that the DC schools are worse off now than before Rhee and her protege Kaya Henderson started, Rhee goes on unscathed. She is still claiming dramatic gains on her watch. In one of his documentaries, Merrow showed Rhee confronting principals and demanding higher scores–or else. Beverly Hall used the same tactics to pressure principals in Atlanta and is facing serious jail time. But Rhee is doing well indeed. The far-right, anti-public education Walton Foundation just gifted her organization with $8 million to promote her failed policies across the nation.

John, please keep following the story. It is not over.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Anthony Cody: Will a Moratorium Save Common Core?

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
19

In one of his characteristically thoughtful and provocative essays, Anthony Cody ponders Randi Weingarten’s call for a one-year moratorium on the high stakes associated with Common Core testing. Randi praised the Common Core standards lavishly but warned that they would fail if high stakes are attached to them before teachers and students are prepared to master them.

Cody does not agree. He maintains that the Common Core testing will have even higher stakes than NCLB. Not only will there be more testing, but teachers and principals will be fired, schools will close, communities will be harmed–as Common Core raises the bar and failure rates grow.

How does raising the bar help those who can’t clear the bar now?

As Cody writes:

“We have this entire project based on the premise that raising the bar will bring up those on the bottom, and make them better able to compete. In fact, when you raise that bar, you create huge obstacles for those at the bottom, and in effect, rationalize and reinforce their own sense of worthlessness, and society’s judgment that they are subpar. You further stigmatize these students, their teachers and their schools, based on their performance in this rigged race.”

He concludes that a moratorium on high stakes test is insufficient:

“We must move beyond not only the bubble tests, but beyond the era of punitive high stakes tests. Only then will we be able to use standards in the way they ought to be used – as focal points for our creative work as educators. I would be glad to have a year’s delay for the consequences of these tests, but I think we need to actively oppose the entire high stakes testing paradigm. The Common Core standards should not be supported as long as they are embedded in this system.”

Categories Common Core, Teachers and Teaching, Testing
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