Archives for the year of: 2014
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Mike Klonsky: Chicago’s Disastrous History of Top-Down Reform

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
15

Mike Klonsky documents the disastrous history of school reform in Chicago. It started when Secretary of Education Bill Bennett came to town and said Chicago’s schools were the worst in the nation. One reform followed another: Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, Rahm Emanuel….and a legacy of failure.

Rahm closed more public schools than any public official in history (not counting Hurricane Katrina). he loves to turn neighborhood high schools into selective-admission schools. This promotes gentrification and disperses the neighborhood kids. His current plan is to do this to Hancock High School:

“It’s Rahm’s fascination with selective-enrollment schools as a driver of neighborhood gentrification. In this case it’s his plan to turn around Hancock High School on Southwest Side, which now is home to mostly poor Hispanic students, by getting rid of all the teachers and students and calling it a selective-enrollment school. The school will no longer guarantee any of its seats to neighborhood children, about 95% of whom are Hispanic and 97% low-income, according to CPS.”

Yes, this will “turnaround” Hancock by getting rid of the students.

Categories Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Emanuel, Rahm

Salon: Why Left and Right and Center Turned Against the Common Core

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
41

Gabriel Arana, a writer for Salon, shows how Common Core became toxic, but he misses a few crucial points.

He notes that there were few actual classroom teachers on the committee that wrote the standards, but in fact there were none. A few members had taught in high school, but in the past. None had ever taught in elementary school or middle school.

He notes that Bill Gates paid for most of the cost of the Common Core, but it is more accurate to say that he paid for all or almost all, somewhere between $200 million and $2 billion, depending on who is adding the dollars. Here is one audit. Here is another that puts Gates’ investment at $2.3 billion. And here is the Washington Post’s description of Bill Gates’ “swift revolution.”

He says that other nations have standards to define what students should know, and we don’t. True. He doesn’t acknowledge that low-performing nations have national standards, as well as high-performing nations. National standards do not assure high or equitable outcomes.

Too bad he didn’t check out Tom Loveless’s prescient article, in which he predicted that the Common Core standards would make little or no difference.

But at least Arana had the good sense to recognize that the uprising against the Common Core is widespread, not partisan, and is growing larger as teachers and parents see how the Common Core actually works.

Categories Common Core

A New Argument for Vouchers

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
18

Voucher advocates used to claim that vouchers would dramatically raise test scores. They don’t. Then they said they raise graduation rates, which they do as long as you overlook high attrition rates.

Now, the new siren song is that they save money! Politico reports “the fiscal case for vouchers:”

“The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice touts vouchers as an ideal way to shake up the “government monopoly” on public education. Now the foundation aims to prove that vouchers make good financial sense, too. A report out today calculates that voucher programs in six states plus D.C. saved taxpayers $1.7 billion between 1990 and 2011. (States typically spend less on a voucher for private school tuition than educating a student in public school.) “Parents are already demanding school choice. Taxpayers should be, too,” said Robert Enlow, the foundation’s president and CEO. The report does not look at the quality of education in voucher schools, under fire in many states. Nor does it look at tax-credit scholarships, which allow individuals and corporations to cut state tax bills by donating to private school scholarship funds. The report: http://politico.pro/1rFrb2e.”

Just think: abolish public education and save hundreds of billions!

I thought the point was better education, not cheaper and worse education.

Categories Vouchers

Peter Greene Wonders Why Thomas Kane Doesn’t Trust Teachers

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
34

Fearless Peter Greene criticizes economist Thomas Kane for his latest paper, called “Never Diet Without a Bathroom Scale and Mirror: The Case for Combining Teacher Evaluation and the Common Core.”

Kane directed the study called Measures of Effective Teaching for the Gates Foundation.

Greene calls the new study “grade A baloney.” Kane calls for “a massive adult behavior change exercise,” not an easy thing to accomplish.

But Greene writes:

“The bathroom scale image is brave, given the number of times folks in the resistance have pointed out that you do not change the weight of a pig by repeatedly measuring it. But I am wondering now– why do I have to have scales or a mirror to lose weight? Will the weight loss occur if it is not caught in data? If a tree’s weight falls in the forest but nobody measures it, does it shake a pound?

“This could be an interesting new application of quantum physics, or it could be another inadvertent revelation about reformster (and economist) biases. Because I do not need a bathroom scale to lose weight. I don’t even need a bathroom scale to know I’m losing weight– I can see the difference in how my clothes fit, I can feel the easier step, the increase in energy. I only need a bathroom scale if I don’t trust my own senses, or because I have somehow been required to prove to someone else that I have lost weight. Or if I believe that things are only real when Important People measure them.

“Kane envisions the Core and new evaluations going hand in hand, leading to more successful implementation of the Core (he does not address the question of why a successful Core is a Good Thing, Much To Be Desired). And his vision of how evaluation will provide a connection to standards as well as the kind of continuous feedback by people who don’t know what they’re doing and whose judgment can’t be trusted.”

Kane says that one of the big problems in American education is teacher autonomy. He believes that teacher work must be carefully monitored, guided, and measured. He refers to Japanese lesson study as exemplary, but does not mention Finland, where teachers are highly prepared, then given considerable autonomy to do the work they were prepared for.

Greene says:

“My experience is that every good teacher I’ve ever known is involved in a constant, daily cycle of reflection and self-examination, using a rich tapestry of directly-observed data to evaluate her own performance, often consulting with fellow professionals. It’s continuous and instantly implemented, then instantly evaluated and modified as needed. It’s nimble, and it involves the professional judgment of trained experts in the field. That seems like a pretty good system to me.”

Categories Accountability, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Great News for Supporters of Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
31

The new organization called Democrats for Public Education commissioned a poll, and it brought good news, reported here by Politico.com:

NEW POLL DATA BUOYS PUBLIC ED ADVOCATES: With a month to go before midterms, the activists at Democrats for Public Education are urging candidates to speak up – loudly – about their support for neighborhood schools. DPE gave Morning Education a sneak peek at new poll data that shows voters strongly back liberal priorities such as increasing funding for public schools, lowering class sizes and expanding programs to help low-income children overcome the disadvantages of poverty. Voters also express strong support and admiration for public school teachers – who have been popping up in candidates’ campaign ads for months, precisely because they’re seen as such trusted emissaries. Read more: http://bit.ly/ZvgcxK

– The national poll of 1,200 active voters, conducted by Democratic polling firm Harstad Strategic Research, found that 79 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of independents and 45 percent of Republicans support increasing funding for public schools. By contrast, voters express serious doubts about reforms such as online learning, private-school vouchers, parent trigger laws and handoffs that let private companies take over management of public schools.

– Candidates across the country have already been playing up education as a theme; the adequacy of school funding is a key issue in the gubernatorial races in Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan and in the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina. DPE President Steve Rosenthal said he hopes more candidates take the poll data to heart and start beating the drums for public education. “This information could, and should, be used as a road map for those who want to speak out loud and clear in support of neighborhood schools and public schools.”

Categories Supporting public schools

Help Colorado Opt-out Coalition Buy Billboards

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
2

This is an appeal from a group of concerned educators and parents in Colorado who want to let parents know that they have a right to opt their children out of high-stakes state testing. They want to rent two big highway billboards. Can you help them? (Sorry I don’t have the graphic for the billboard. I bet if you email them, they will send you the graphic of the billboard.) I sent them a check. I hope you will too.

Dear Colleagues:

The good news is that our billboard campaign is off the ground. We have had a few early donations to the cause and our account at the Weld Schools Credit Union is just over $1,000. The donations have come from Boulder and Greeley, Colorado. Each year we have seen more parents exempt their children from this boondoggle of testing. The 2014 figures show that 1,412 parents exempted their children, up from 946 in 2013. I am attaching a photograph of last year’s billboard. This year’s boards will have a similar look, of course with the change of acronym to PARCC.

We have contracted with Mile Hi Outdoor Advertising for two billboards. One on Route 85 south of Greeley, and the other in a high visibility area in South Denver at Hampden and Santa Fe Avenues. The two billboards will cost $3,700 and will go up in mid-January, symbolically around the celebration of the works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will have the billboards for at least one month and likely for longer if all is well.

All donations are greatly appreciated, no matter the amount. “Revolutionary headquarters” is at the following address:

The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
2424 22nd Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80631

In appreciation and solidarity,

Don Perl
The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
http://www.thecbe.org

Department of Hispanic Studies
University of Northern Colorado
Greeley, Colorado 80639
don.perl@unco.edu
970-351-2746

Categories Colorado, Resistance, Testing

Forward Institute: Wisconsin Shortchanges Neediest Children

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
3

The Forward Institute completed a study of school finance in Wisconsin and concluded that the state does not provide equality of opportunity to the neediest children.

The study is called “Segregation of Opportunity.”

“The study concluded the following:

1. The school funding system is depriving many Wisconsin children and communities the resources they need to provide equal educational opportunities; these same communities are being forced to increase property taxes just to provide the basics. The situation has gotten worse over time.

2. Because of the unfair funding formula, the more high needs students (poverty, special needs, English language learners) a school district has, the less educational opportunities that are available to all children in that district.

3. The inequality of opportunity between different types of school districts with different student populations and community wealth has been getting worse over time – leaving more of our children and communities behind.

4. High poverty schools have significantly lower revenue limits, which deprive them of critical funding for educational opportunities. This negative effect is getting worse over time.

“The Heart of the Matter

“The final conclusion is that the system is not meeting its obligations, as shown between gaps in per pupil
funding and spending, resulting in a child’s educational opportunities being determined by where he/she lives.

“Ultimately what the study reveals is that Wisconsin’s funding formula no longer adequately funds all school
districts,” stated AEF President John Gaier. “This has resulted in widening gaps of opportunities for students
and communities. Low property value communities are shouldering a greater burden for funding local
school districts. A better funding system is needed for Wisconsin school students to have the opportunities
needed for them to be college and career ready, regardless of life circumstances or the community in which
they live.”

Categories Funding, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Wisconsin

Adrienne Hill: A Day in the Life of a Data-Mined Kid

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
28

Did you know that your child is constantly data mined? Adrienne Hill writes about how extensively most children are now tracked, usually without their parent’s knowledge or consent. The federal government has given states hundreds of millions of dollars to help build a giant database, called a “statewide longitudinal data system.”

Hill writes:

“The government isn’t the only one trying to figure out what’s working by investing in and gobbling up data about your kid.

“Sales of educational technology software for kids in kindergarten through high school reached nearly $8 billion last year, according to the Software and Information Industry Association.

“One of the biggest players is the field is Knewton. It analyzes student data that it collects by keeping track of nearly every click and keystroke your child makes during digital lessons.

“Jose Ferreira is Knewton’s CEO. In a video posted by the Department of Education, he says “We literally know everything about what you know and how you learn best, everything.”

“Knewton claims to gather millions of data points on millions of children each day. Ferreira calls education “the world’s most data-mineable industry by far.”

“We have five orders of magnitude more data about you than Google has,” he says in the video. “We literally have more data about our students than any company has about anybody else about anything, and it’s not even close.”

“Five orders of magnitude more data than Google is a whole lot of data.

“The promise is that all that data can be used to tailor lessons to individual kids, to their strengths and weaknesses. They will become better learners, and that will lead to higher grades and better graduation rates.

“Ferreira imagines a day when “you tell us what you had for breakfast every morning at the beginning of the semester, by the end of the semester, we should be able to tell you what you had for breakfast. Because you always did better on the days you had scrambled eggs.”

“If the right breakfast makes for a better behaved child, that will be measured, too.”

And more:

“We live in a 24/7 data mining universe today,” says Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media. “And I think most of us parents and teachers and kids don’t realize how much of our data is out there and used by other people.”

“Steyer is also a parent. He says what worries him most is that “information that’s very personal to me and my family, for example my kids disciplinary record or health record or something like that, is made available to somebody who it’s no business to have that.”

What will be done with all this data? Sell stuff to your child? Monitor her behavior? For what ends? For whose benefit? What brave new world is this?

Categories Privacy and Privacy Rights, Students

Test Prep University for “No Excuses” Teachers

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2014 //
21

You too can learn to be a “no excuses” teacher in a charter school that gets high test scores. There are a few changes required in your attitude; you too can earn a new graduate degree from a new graduate school that will remold your personality and teach you not to accept any excuses. Paternalistic? Yes. Colonialist? Call it that if you wish. Results are what matters.

All you need to do is enroll in a “graduate school” designed specifically for no-excuses charters. You will learn the tricks and techniques of raising test scores. You will learn the chants and slogans necessary for grit, silence, and lining up single-file. You won’t have to waste your time on the history, sociology, economics, or philosophy of education. You won’t waste your time on research. You will earn a masters degree that no genuine university rrecognizes.

But so what? You will learn how to get those test scores.

Categories Charter Schools, Higher Education

Harvard Students Ask University to Cut Ties with TFA

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2014 //
19

Progressivism is not dead at Harvard University.

A group of students called on the University’s President Drew Faust to cut ties with Teach for America unless the organization made major changes.

“The group’s demonstration comes as part of a larger movement initiated by United Students Against Sweatshops, which holds that holds that Teach For America is working to privatize education through its relationships with big-name corporations that are threatening the sanctity of public education. The group had a TFA Truth Tour during March and April earlier this year, wherein protests were scheduled and executed on college campuses, including Harvard University.

“In their letter to President Faust, the student group outlined the reforms they would like to see within the organization:

“Send Teach for America participants only to areas where there is a teaching shortage

“Work to provide these participants with more training and education

“Eliminate the ties the organization has with such corporations as Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil, and JPMorgan Chase.”

In other words, SLAM recognizes that TFA is an enabler of privatization and acts like scabs, taking the jobs of experienced teachers and busting unions.

Categories Resistance, Students, Teach for America
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