Archives for the month of: January, 2014
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Anthony Cody: A Remarkable Statement by a Chinese-American Student on Common Core, Testing, Pearson, and Standardization

By dianeravitch
January 2, 2014 //
31

Please open the link and read Anthony Cody’s blog about Kenneth Ye, a high school student in Tennessee who spoke to his local school board in Knox County against Common Core, PARCC testing, Pearson, and standardization. Kenneth pointed out that he has aced all the tests that have come his way. He has extraordinary scores. But he sees no value in making the American system like the test-driven Chinese system.

He begins like this:

I am Kenneth Ye. I stand before you today as someone who has achieved within the mold of standardization. I speak as a student that has taken the tests and jumped through the hoops.

I’ve taken over 12 Honors courses and 18 AP courses so far in my high school career.

I’m a National Merit Semifinalist. A National AP Scholar. I scored a 35 on the ACT composite the first time I took it. And I am a proud product of Knox County Schools.

It’s my teachers that have inspired me to learn and pursue my interests. It’s my teachers that have sent me towards success in academics and extracurriculars. It’s my teachers that have FOSTERED a sense of creativity, inquisitiveness, and individuality that inspires me to learn.

Mr. Ye has no respect for the PARCC assessments of the Common Core standards. He said:

The problems presented on these tests, however, are of justification with no merit, a learning system inherently flawed. These tests are not fair assessments of student’s knowledge. If you look towards the mathematics section of the PARCC website, we see that it “calls for written arguments/justifications, critique of reasoning, or precision in mathematical statements”. As a student who has scored 5s on AP Calculus, AP Statistics, and is preparing to take Calculus 3 at a local college next semester, I can honestly tell you that I cannot answer and justify your First grade Pearson math test question “What is a related Subtraction sentence?”

In concluding his presentation, he said:

As we project towards the future, we must consider the implications of these policies being put into place. What will the standardization be like in 10 years? Shall we be taking the American equivalent of the Chinese entrance exams and Gao Kao? Our public education is striving to parallel the high technical efficiency of the Chinese, and as a student who has learned in both environments, I can clearly say that the increase in standardization and testing, coupled with the pressure that coalesces, will diminish the creative and inquisitive mindset that we seek to foster.

As someone who can perform on the tests you throw at us, I am not satisfied. I’ve taken your tests, aced them, pulled your state averages up, but what I show you on that test is not why I learn. CCSS.ELA-Literacy W.11-12.3e is NOT why I learn. I do not learn to fulfill some SPIs on the board. This is not what fulfills me as a student. I learn to ask questions. To develop opinions. To make a difference. It is with this that I beseech all of you to take a moment to reevaluate what you are doing to our schools. Is it truly in the best interest of the students? Should we be conforming to this ill formed bureaucracy?

After seeing the video of Kenneth Ye’s presentation, Anthony Cody reached out to interview him. In this question, he asked Mr. Ye to compare education in the United States and China:

What were your experiences with the education system in China, and what lessons should we take from this?

In my experience with the Chinese education system, a lot of the teaching and learning style is regimented. Speaking to the students there and even being there, you see that a lot of the teaching and even the thought process is based towards testing. A lot of students are focused completely on schoolwork and seem lost when it comes to personal opinions, because their education has shifted more towards memorization and regurgitation for testing. Students can tell you the precise number of words they need to know to pass an entrance exam, but often times if you ask for a simple opinion, you can expect blank stares.

From the students that I was with at a recent program, I’ve heard about the intensive measures that students will go towards to do well on a test. Whether it’s locking themselves in an isolated room and cramming for days on end or taking medication to reduce any biological influences on testing, I’ve seen that testing has taken over a lot of their lives. I think that we can learn a lot from this. Students in China are striving to attend schools in the US for a reason; we pride ourselves on being a society of free-thinkers. America has become a world power due to our innovative thinking – a thinking that is being oppressed in favor of standardized capability. I believe that if we’re continuing down this spiral of standardization, a lot of the creative mindset that we develop in schools will instead be taken over by sheer memorization and regurgitation.

It is an interesting reflection on the part of the student, because David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, once famously said that “as you grow up in this world, you realize people really don’t give a s–t about what you feel or what you think.”

Mr. Ye does not agree. He thinks that the ability to think for yourself and reach your own conclusion is what makes American education different and valuable as compared to nations that generate higher test scores.

 

 

 

Categories Common Core

Mercedes Schneider Eviscerates Fordham Grading System

By dianeravitch
January 2, 2014 //
18

Back in the 1990s, when I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (now the Thomas B. Fordham Institute), we began rating state standards and assigning letter grades to the states. Much to our surprise and delight, the media ate up the ratings. Whenever we released our grades for the states, there would be big stories in the newspapers in almost every state, and it helped to put TBF on the map.

Now, TBF–a conservative advocacy group for accountability, high-stakes testing, and choice–has become a major promoter of the Common Core. Coincidentally or not, TBF received significant funding from the Gates Foundation to evaluate the Common Core, which seems to be a wholly-owned property of theGates Foundation.

In this post, Mercedes Schneider reviews the reliability, validity, and consistency of the Fordham ratings of state standards when compared to the Common Core standards.

She ends her piece by including a bizarre video that TBF commissioned, in which its staff appear to be robots or zombies. They chant against smaller class size and in favor of the Common Core. If nothing else, you can understand the Institute’s priorities. Not for their own children, of course, but for Other People’s Children.

Categories Common Core, US Education

Ten Big Wins for Public Education in 2013

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
5

Owen Davis, writing for Alternet, lists ten big victories for public schools in 2013.

He begins:

“If what’s past is truly prologue, there’s a good chance 2013 will be remembered as the year the free-market education reform movement crested and began to subside. After a decade of gathering momentum, reform politics began to founder in the face of communities fighting for equitable and progressive public education. Within the year’s first weeks, a historic test boycott was underway, civil rights advocates confronted Arne Duncan on school closings, and thousands were marching in Texas to roll back reforms.

“Perhaps we should have sensed this coming: the Chicago Teachers Union strike in the fall of 2012 foreshadowed the education struggles that would take center stage in 2013. In addition to fair contract provisions, they called for a new course for public schools: well-rounded curriculum, fewer mandated tests, more nurses and social workers, an end to racially discriminatory disciplinary policies, and early childhood education, among other demands.

“The CTU’s chief victory lay in galvanizing public education advocates across the country around a vision for public education that took full form in 2013. At the same time, the year saw reform bulwarks like Teach for America and the Common Core standards suffer unprecedented shocks.”

The tide is turning. Corporate reform is not collapsing, not yet, but it is running into a firestorm of resistance. Rough sledding ahead for the corporate reformers as the public wakes up and parents organize to stop the theft of heir public schools and the joy of learning.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Supporting public schools, Teach for America

NYC Educator Shares Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s Resolutions

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
5

Arthur Goldstein, aka NYC Educator and teacher at Frances LewisHigh School, shares Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions.

They are better than mine. I just want to stay healthy, exercise, and eat heathy foods.

Categories Humor

Andy Borowitz: The 1% Will Miss Mayor Bloomberg

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
9

Andy Borowitz is a humorist who writes for “The New Yorker.” You can sign up for the Borowitz Report and receive it free in your inbox almost every day.

Here is his latest, which demonstrates how close satire is to reality.

PEOPLE WHO CAN STILL AFFORD TO LIVE IN NEW YORK PRAISE BLOOMBERG

Borowitz describes a farewell dinner for Bloomberg, as follows:
.

Harland Dorrinson, principal owner of the hedge fund Garrote Capital, hosted a black-tie dinner in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pay tribute to a mayor who, in Mr. Dorrinson’s words, “put living in New York out of the reach of everyone except the deserving few.”

To a lot of people, Mike Bloomberg will be remembered for reducing smoking and improving people’s diets,” said Mr. Dorrinson. “But that shouldn’t overshadow his greatest accomplishment, creating unaffordable housing throughout New York.”

“When Mike took office, this city was teeming with regular working people,” Mr. Dorrinson said, shuddering at the memory. “Today, it’s a magnificent tapestry of investment bankers, real-estate developers, and Russian oligarchs.”

The hedge-fund owner is such a fan of Mr. Bloomberg’s, in fact, that he has only one bone to pick with him: that he left office too soon “to finish the job.”

“There are still a few pockets in the city where, regrettably, the middle class seems to be hanging on,” he said. “The rent is too damn low.”

As for Mr. Bloomberg’s critics, Mr. Dorrinson was philosophical: “I know there are some people who think Mike was terrible for New York, that he took a city rich with diversity and ruined it. But fortunately, they all live somewhere else now.”

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Humor

2013: A Very Bad Year for Teachers and Public Education in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
37

2013 was a horrible year for teachers and public schools in North Carolina.

The legislature and the governor passed bill after bill intended to demoralize teachers, defund public schools, and expand the transfer of public funds to privately managed schools, private schools, and religious schools.

Here, Lindsay Wagner of NC Policy Watch describes the nine actions that were intended to crush public school teachers and privatize public education.

The movement to snuff out public education begins by funneling public dollars to private schools, home schools, and charter schools, none of which are accountable for their spending or actions.

Then it starts the dismantling of the teaching profession by turning teachers into temps, removing any due process rights.

Into the mix, increase the amount and importance of standardized testing.

And meanwhile, cut the budgets of public schools and higher education.

It’s time to quote Garrison Keillor again. I may have to quote him once a week.

“When you wage war on the public schools, you’re attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You’re not a conservative, you’re a vandal.”

― Garrison Keillor, “Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America”

Conservatives don’t destroy their community’s public schools. Conservatives don’t blow up traditional and beloved institutions.

Conservatives don’t place the free market above human values.

In North Carolina, the cultural vandals control the state.

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching, Vouchers

Did LA Schools Get Ripped Off by Apple?

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
35

Turns out the iPads purchased by LAUSD are way more expensive than what other districts are buying. And they have already been discontinued: obsolete already.

No wonder tech vendors are thrilled with Race to the Top: Ca-Ching !

$$$$$$$$$$

Lots of dough for devices. Not so much for the arts, libraries, small classes.

Categories Los Angeles, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

At de Blasio Inauguration

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
93

I am waiting for inauguration ceremonies to begin and just received this disturbing news.

According to Wash Post, Arne Duncan lobbied de Blasio to block choice of Joshua Starr, a vocal critic of high stakes testing.

Categories Bill de Blasio

John Kuhn: Five Resolutions for the New Year

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
12

Superintendent John Kuhn of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas is one of our heroes, for his passion, compassion, intelligence, and courage on behalf of his students and community.

Here he writes his resolutions for the New Year. Some of his year-end observations are similar to mine, and I swear we did not communicate. We share common concerns about the future of our public schools, teachers, principals, and students.

Any time John Kuhn speaks, he bowls over the crowd with his inspiring words. Here he is at a Save Texas Schools rally in Austin. Here he is at the national SOS rally in 2011 in D.C.

This is a man who tells the truth and doesn’t worry about the consequences.

I will offer one more resolution to the five he gives: Please resolve to read one or both of John Kuhn’s new books.

Test and Punish: How the Texas Education Model Gave America Accountability Without Equity (available only on Kindle, unfortunately)

And you can pre-order this one, called Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education, which will be available next month in paperback.

Categories Education Reform

Reflections on the Year That Was—from a Personal Point of View

By dianeravitch
January 1, 2014 //
50

2013 had some surprises for me, both good and bad.

This blog turned out to be a huge preoccupation. I spend 4-5 hours on it every day. You help me write it, as many of the blogs are your comments, explaining your experience as a teacher or parent or principal or superintendent.

The blog is now approaching 9 million page views, and it started only in April 2012.

I am not data-driven, as the numbers have no consequences for me or anyone else. I won’t get a bonus or be fired for not hitting a target. It is just great to know that there are so many people participating in the conversations, contributing to them, learning together about what is happening in other states and in one teacher’s classroom.

I blog more than I tweet, but I have been trying to cut back on the number of blogs, so that readers don’t feel overwhelmed. That is why some days you will see only 5 or 6 or 7 posts, whereas I used to send out 15 or 20, with no regard for what I was doing to your email inbox. So, yes, I am trying to restrain myself, and I turn to Twitter to tweet interesting stories that I don’t post.

My Twitter following is now over 70,000, which means that whatever gets posted here on this blog automatically reaches the Twitter followers. That enlarges the conversation. I direct the conversation, but I don’t limit it to people who agree with me. There can’t be a good discussion if everyone agrees on everything.

I thank you for helping me to create a space where we can celebrate, commiserate, and offer one another encouragement and information.

I consider all the readers of the blog to be my friends, and it is always a treat when someone comes up at a speaking engagement and introduces himself or herself by their blog name or Twitter I.D.

I know every one of you, believe it or not.

I try to read every comment.

Thank you.

A few more pieces of good news:

My latest book Reign of Error was published in September 2013 and was on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks. It was listed by Apple as one of the best books of the year and by the Nation magazine as the “most valuable” books of the year.

I won the Grawemeyer education award for 2014, not for Reign of Error, but for my previous book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. I will be in Louisville on February 1 to speak to the Kentucky School Boards Association, and will return to Louisville to receive the Grawemeyer award on April 16.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that when I was near the end of my fall speaking tour, I became very ill with deep vein thrombosis. That means blood clots in the legs, in my case, both legs. That means i must get up and walk around when I fly, and that means I am on blood thinners for the rest of my life to avoid a recurrence. I had to cancel speaking dates in Chicago, Madison, and Las Vegas. But I start up again in mid-January and I will be traveling again. I will post my spring schedule in the next couple of weeks.

I feel very hopeful about the future. I feel that the tide is turning in our struggle to reclaim our schools from the misguided policies of the past dozen years of NCLB and Race to the Top. All the competition, testing, accountability, merit pay, privatization, and other policies have failed. They fail again and again. They don’t improve education. They are damaging our precious public school system, skimming off the best kids when they can or discouraging them by taking away the joy of learning.. They are hurting children, demeaning education, demoralizing educators. They fail and fail and fail, and sooner or later the public will awaken to the great hoaxes that are being perpetrated in the name of “reform.”

I believe in the basic common sense of the American people. They will not willingly allow themselves to be tricked once they are on to the game. The game is almost over. there are no miracle schools, just games that adults play. The billionaires will get bored and go back to playing with their yachts and polo ponies. Common sense will prevail. We owe our children a far better education than the impoverished game of test-and-punish that is now mandated. We owe them more than test prep. We owe our teachers respect and honor. We owe our society a great educational system.

And I am convinced we will persist and we will reclaim education.

Categories Education Reform
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