Valerie Strauss reports that almost all the superintendents in the state of Maryland signed a letter protesting the rushed timetable for Arne Duncan’s favorite reforms.
She writes:
“Nearly all of the superintendents of Maryland school districts have signed a statement that criticizes federal and state education officials for forcing them to implement several major reforms, including the Common Core State Standards, on what they say is an unrealistic timetable.
“The document, approved by 22 of Maryland’s 24 superintendents from districts educating more than 800,000 students, asks for more time and resources to put the reforms in place, including the use of new Common Core tests expected in the 2014-2015 school year. The statement (which you can read here) represents the first time that such a high percentage of schools chiefs in Maryland have come together to publicly call out education officials over school reform.
“Parents, elected officials, community leaders and pundits are reacting sometimes with alarm as local school systems throughout the state deal with the challenges of implementing the many components of education reform,” says the document, obtained by The Washington Post. Carl Roberts, executive director of the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland and a former superintendent, organized the joint statement but would not identify the two superintendents who did not sign on.
“Though affirming that they wholeheartedly support the Common Core standards as “a more rigorous path through pre-kindergarten to grade twelve for all students,” the superintendents wrote that there are serious problems with the introduction of the reforms. They specifically cited the fact that Maryland plans to continue using an outdated test — the Maryland School Assessments — while the state has shifted to a new curriculum that isn’t aligned with the old test. They also said it is inappropriate for new test-based teacher evaluations and accountability measures to roll out before the reforms have been fully put in place.”
It bears noting that Duncan’s faith in evaluating teachers by test scores has not worked anywhere it has been tried. In New York, for example, tens of millions of dollars (perhaps more) were spent to determine that 1% of teachers were “ineffective,” and that 1% might have been misidentified. The Common Core standards have not yet been validated for any purpose, except on paper. Some 500 early childhood experts have declared them to be inappropriate for the early grades.
The federal government apparently wants everyone to jump into the deep end of the pool, whether they can swim or not, and without looking to see if the pool has any water in it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Short version: We need more time to do the wrong thing right.
Strikingly absent from the letter is ANY criticism of the standards themselves. Dienne has “translated” their letter perfectly. 😦
So true, Dienne. Well said.
“Doing the Wrong Thing Righter”
The proliferation of educational assessments, evaluations and canned programs belongs in the category of what systems theorist Russ Ackoff describes as “doing the wrong thing righter. The righter we do the wrong thing,” he explains, “the wronger we become. When we make a mistake doing the wrong thing and correct it, we become wronger. When we make a mistake doing the right thing and correct it, we become righter. Therefore, it is better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right.”
Our current neglect of instructional issues are the result of assessment policies that waste resources to do the wrong things, e.g., canned curriculum and standardized testing, right. Instructional central planning and student control doesn’t – can’t – work. But, that never stops people trying.
The result is that each effort to control the uncontrollable does further damage, provoking more efforts to get things in order. So the function of management/administration becomes control rather than creation of resources. When Peter Drucker lamented that so much of management consists in making it difficult for people to work, he meant it literally. Inherent in obsessive command and control is the assumption that human beings can’t be trusted on their own to do what’s needed. Hierarchy and tight supervision are required to tell them what to do. So, fear-driven, hierarchical organizations turn people into untrustworthy opportunists. Doing the right thing instructionally requires less centralized assessment, less emphasis on evaluation and less fussy interference, not more. The way to improve controls is to eliminate most and reduce all.
Former Green Beret Master Sergeant Donald Duncan (Viet Nam) did when he noted in Sir! No Sir! that:
“I was doing it right but I wasn’t doing right.”
And from one of America’s premier writers:
“The mass of men [and women] serves the state [education powers that be] thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailors, constables, posse comitatus, [administrators and teachers], etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.”- Henry David Thoreau [1817-1862], American author and philosopher
How far they’ve come from since September when the outspoken father was arrested at a BOE meeting. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-09-23/news/bs-md-arrest-small-20130923_1_common-core-standards-police-officer-new-standards
I wonder what ever happened to that father? Wondering if he pulled his kids out of public school?
He was sent to a common core re-educational work camp. He spends his days locked in a cell chanting about standards and producing scantron answer forms for common core assessments. That will teach him. His child was forcibly incarcerated in a militarized charter school where he does nothing but bubble in scantron sheets all day. Haven’t you heard this story yet? I am planning to open my open common core re-educational camp. Parents who try to opt their kids out of common core tests will have their children forcibly removed and be forced to manufacture common core answer sheets. A few years of that will teach them proper values.
And their lunches will be taken away from them (and thrown out) and their hands will be stamped.
This is the first I’ve seen this. It was terrible how this parent was treated for simply speaking up. Frightening, and sad. I hope things came out for him okay and that he got support from the community.
Momoffive, I don’t know if his kids are still in school, but charges were apparently dropped: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-09-23/news/bs-md-arrest-small-20130923_1_common-core-standards-police-officer-new-standards
The best way to slow the runaway freight is to come up with a viable alternitive, with input from parents, teachers and administrators. Show them how it’s done not just tell them. here’s a jumping off spot. http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html
“Parents, elected officials, community leaders and pundits are reacting sometimes with alarm as local school systems throughout the state deal with the challenges of implementing the many components of education reform,”
Good for them. Someone had to say “no” to someone at some point. Every ed reform group can’t get every single item on their wish list.
What did Eli Broad say in 2008? Something like “the stars are aligned”? Maybe they shouldn’t have imposed mass public school closings, unlimited charter expansion, vouchers, every school and teacher evaluation under the sun, online learning ALONG WITH public school budget cuts in 34 states AND the huge Common Core all at the same time.
But here’s the thing that has me upset as a Maryland mom: They are NOT saying “no.” They’re just saying “later.”
I am waiting for someone to say, “These standards are BAD for young children,” among other things. THEN I will celebrate. Otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, this is token resistance. They need to go all the way and call for MD to withdraw from RttT to satisfy me at this point, and calling for Lillian Lowery’s resignation wouldn’t sit badly with me either.
Exactly! Ms. Broad Academy Lowery has to go!
Those suups didn’t get to where they are by challenging these educational malpractices but by cheerleading and implementing them not being smart enough to realize that the snake was going to turn around and bite them. Now that its their asses on the line they want to “slow things down” so that they can try to figure out what the next PR blitz will be to show that they have things “under control”. Brilliant educational leaders (sic) that they are. Those suups are part of the problem, certainly not the solution, they make too much jack to upset the cart that much.
Yes, Duane, to use DuaneSpeak, “GAGAs” all!
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.