Barbara Stam describes what passes for “reform” as “the rich folks hoax.”
The hoax is the idea that constant testing and test prep improves education.
This is a hoax.
It is not for their children.
But it is good enough for other people’s children.
So what if the teachers of art and music and PE lose their jobs?
Someone else can do it, even though it is not their subject.
It is good enough for other people’s children.
Those who understand the dangers of privatization and the fraud perpetrated when charters claim they do a better job with “the same kids” can take heart whenever someone in the mainstream media sees what is happening.
Here is a journalist in the Connecticut Post who has figured out what is going on. The charters are skimming the kids in poor communities who are least expensive to educate, then crying that they don’t get enough money. Hugh Bailey has a commonsense idea: Send the money where the needs are greatest. Not to the charter schools, but to the struggling inner-city public schools, which have the kids the charters don’t want.
Thanks to a reader for pointing out that I forgot to add the link in this story about a brave columnist in Arkansas who dares to criticize the Walton hegemony.
Here is the post. I added the missing link. Please read it.
One of the most adamant critics of the Texas legislation to reduce the number of tests that students must take to graduate happens to own franchises for Sylvan Learning Centers, which offer test preparation and tutoring.
Was it a conflict of interest? No, he said, everybody votes on things that affect their self-interest.
He was just concerned about keeping standards high.
In Texas, that is known as “bidness as usual.”
The Waltons, with their vast fortune, dominate the political life in their home state of Arkansas.
They use that vast wealth to promote market-based schooling and to undermine public education across the nation and even beyond.
But here is proof positive that they don’t own everyone in Arkansas.
Bravo to freedom of thought and expression!
Bravo to brave dissidents!
Keep thought alive in America, even in Arkansas.
This just arrived in the morning email
It is a question for a multiple-choice test.
Write your own.
Here goes:
I am part of a small group of educators (hoping to grow teacher and parent awareness – via our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NJ-Educators-United-to-Protect-Public-Education/350194368424508 – where – among other articles – we have been transcribing and posting YouTube “homerun” statements that you have made via speaking venues).
Anyway, here are my simple thoughts and a sample standardized question:
————————————————————-
Does history repeat itself? You bet!
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thing-for-new-orleans-schools/
http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/mike-fiorillo-on-duncans-katrina.html
“The following paragraphs are in response to a post at GothamSchools after Sect’y of Education Arne Duncan remarked that ___________ was the “best thing” for the __________ school.
‘This despicable statement by Duncan represents a common motif among Democrats and Republicans alike, and validates Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine thesis, namely, that ruling elites create or opportunistically use crises to implement policies that would otherwise be blocked. In the case of New Orleans, it’s the wholesale privatization of the school system, with the schools being turned over to large charter school chains…Where were these people when the urban schools were suffering from decades of neglect and under-investment? They certainly weren’t teaching in them, or sending their children to them. Why are they only now proclaiming their “passion” for education, which is based solely on their lust to dominate and control them, driven by an agenda that, PR rhetoric aside, is about their will to power and profit?’”
Proposed Standardized Test Question: Take out the words “Katrina” and “New Orleans” from the above excerpt and fill in the blank:
a.) State Takeover; Camden
b.) School Closings; Chicago
c.) All of the above
While I am a believer in optimism in the face of difficulty, the reformers have taken this to a new, unholy level:
I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
— John D. Rockefeller
Count on G.F. Brandenburg to read the fine print, have a long memory, and share what he has learned with his readers.
The excerpts from the Atlanta indictments may remind you of the PBS Frontline special about Michelle Rhee. Remember how she interviewed each principal and asked, “How many points will your scores go up?” “What can you promise?”
Maybe it is time to look at that episode again.
Here is a link to the episode, the PBS ombudsman comments, and the controversy that followed.
According to the story in the New York Times, the schools in Atlanta where the scores soared lost federal aid for struggling learners. One school where cheating is alleged lost $750,000 that could have been used for reduced class size and to provide enrichment classes and tutoring. And that was only one school among many.
The rise in scores gained Beverly Hall a bonus of $500,000.
That must be one of the strategies that the Atlanta school board learned when they received training by the Broad Foundation about reaching targets and using incentives to succeed.
Remember the stories about the “New York City miracle”? That’s when the passing rates went up so fast and so high that very few children were eligible for extra tutoring. When the state revealed in 2010 that the state scoring was defective, the “miracle” disappeared. But the children never got the extra help that they needed as officials crowed about “their” accomplishments. NYC even won the Broad prize in 2007 for its vastly inflated test scores. The prize was announced just a few weeks before NAEP reported that NYC had made no gains at all.
I posted earlier today a letter from a parent to a high-level NYC official, complaining about the city’s threat to cut the school’s funding if too many children opted out of state testing.
What do you think the official replied: we must follow the law. We must do as we are told.
Don’t you long to hear a governor or mayor or superintendent say to the parent: You are right. The law is idiotic. We will join you in a mass action of civil disobedience.
Don’t expect to hear it from anyone who works for the testing-obsessed Bloomberg administration. This is a mayor who has used his autocratic control to close more than 140 public schools based on their test scores. Without those scores, he would not know what to do next.
Here is the response from Shael Polansky to Jeff Nichols:
Jeff, the State Education Department has issued guidance that all eligible students are expected to participate; there is no formal provision allowing parents to opt their students out of State tests. The State also requires that all students in attendance during test administration are given the opportunity to take the exam.
With respect to the federal rule on participation – this is something that is out of our control – the application of this rule is governed by federal law and only impacts state accountability designations.
That said, any consequences that flow from being designated as a Priority or Focus school by New York State are within our purview and we carefully look at all the quantitative data as well as the qualitative information we have about the school. The purpose of this review is to come to a decision on the best way to improve the school. I can’t imagine a good school being penalized on our watch solely because they didn’t meet AYP as a result of the 95 percent participation rule.
Last year, there weren’t many students who opted out of the exams, approximately one hundred students out of several hundred thousand, and in these cases parents kept students at home.
For promotion purposes in NYC, we always use a combination of exams and student portfolios so students who miss exams for any reason can be considered for promotion based on a rigorous assessment of a portfolio of their work.
The larger issue you are raising though is about the quality of the exams and how they impact teaching and learning in our schools. I would agree that historically our state exams have not done a good enough job measuring the deeper skills of critical thinking and problem solving. This is beginning to change, partially in response to concerns that both parents and educators have raised.
I would welcome the opportunity to continue this important dialogue in person as I don’t think the exams are going away, but I do believe we can work together to strengthen them and ensure the information they generate is used in a thoughtful and balanced way.
Best, Shael
Matt D Carlo evaluates Néw Jersey’s
decision to take over the Camden school district.
Di Carlo says it may have been justified or not.
But state officials did not make their case.
Sounds like Chris Cerf should hire a statistician.
