Archives for the month of: February, 2014
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What Rough Beast Comes Slouching from Lansing?

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
6

With my apologies to W. B. Yeats, this blogger says it is too soon to pop the cork about what may be a momentary setback for Governor Snyder’s Educational Achievement Authority, where he hopes to aggregate the state’s lowest performing schools and subject them to large classes and inexperienced teachers.

He has other unsavory options up his sleeve.

She writes:

“Let us be perfectly clear here. This is a political ploy, a shell game of sorts, that is intended to look like a victory for Democrats. It’s not.

“Gov. Snyder, and all GOP legislators are up for re-election. Last month, Eastern Michigan University sounded an SOS when they laid-off nearly all of their education department teachers due to declining enrollment. Last week, Gov. Snyder learned that his education policies have earned him a 62 percent negative rating on his handling of K-12 education. GOP lawmakers know they are being painted with the same brush.

“This is electioneering of the most craven variety. Expect to see legislation, probably already being crafted, that will act as a substitute for the EAA bill. It will give sweeping authority to the state superintendent to play chess with local school districts that are in the bottom 5 percent. It may be held back until say, after the first Tuesday in November, but it will occur.”

Categories Michigan

What Matters Most in Teaching Can’t Be Quantified

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
29

Another great column from Myra Blackmon in the Athens (Georgia) Banner-Herald, explains the education industry and its obsession with data.

She writes:

“Some folks believe that if you can’t quantify something, it isn’t worth bothering with. People in power are often so obsessed with the data, the numbers, and the profits they often lose sight of the people behind the information.

Such is the case with the massive educational “evaluation” being pushed by so-called reformers. Many of these high-level reformers — Bill Gates, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others — know little or nothing about teaching and learning in our public schools. Bill Gates’ children attended Lakeside Academy in Seattle, where tuition approaches $30,000 a year. One of Michael Bloomberg’s daughters was featured in a documentary “Born Rich” about growing up with tremendous wealth.”

PS: the editors should note that Bill Gates put $200 million into the Common Core standards, not $200,000 (which would be chicken feed for Gates).

Categories Common Core, Education Industry, For-Profit, Pearson, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

A Reader Comments on the South Korean Model of Education

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
53

This came as a comment:

 

Why do Obama and Duncan insist on naming South Korea as a model? Other than testing results, there is little that is admirable about the South Korean education system and South Koreans would be the first to admit it (I am South Korean, although I was educated in the US because my parents immigrated to — you guessed it — spare my siblings and me from the South Korean education system). Public schooling is basically meaningless, kids start going to cram schools that run until 10pm or later while in middle school. Regular school is just for sleeping and socializing. Parents have only one kid (Korea has the lowest birthrate of any OECD country) because educating them is such an insane cash drain. Even so Korea spends much more of its GDP % on education than the US has or ever would. Korean schools can be better funded, standardized and operated because the central government provides most of the funding and sets the curriculum. Socially, Korea is a very horizontally integrated country (at least superficially) outside of certain well-known wealthy neighborhoods like Gangnam, so there are very few equivalents of inner city schools. Most kids, rich or poor, attend similar schools with similar resources.

However, it doesn’t really even matter that Korean public schools are supercifially decent across the board because the reality is that most of them don’t matter to an extent that makes a poorly performing inner city school in the US look like a fountain of opportunity in comparison. There are specific schools in Gangnam that everybody tries to send their kids to because they are known as magnet schools for the best universities. Average academic achievement is very high in Korea but the results are horrifically unjust – in a recent year it was found that 60% of the new hires by Samsung (the most prestigious employer in Korea) were graduates of a single high school in Seoul (plus of course one of the top three universities). Think about that. You don’t go to that high school and you’re basically screwed if you want to work for the biggest, most prestigious company in your country. No wonder the kids are committing suicide.

Korea has the highest immigration rate among OECD countries because even now, if you aren’t one of the lucky elite, you’re better off trying your luck in a foreign country. Imagine if the US had higher test scores but millions of our best and brightest left every year because the US had nothing for them to do. There is your South Korean “model.” That the President and the Secretary of Education know so little about what they are talking about when it comes to public schools makes me seriously worry about whether they know anything about the other things I don’t have any expertise on, and therefore have to take their word that they have a competent level of mastery on the subject.

 

Categories International, Testing

David Safier: Corporate Reformers Fund Fake Dems to Support Vouchers in Arizona

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
6

David Safier is a journalist and friend of public education in Arizona. In this post, he explains how the usual assortment of corporate reformers amd make-believe Democrats have descended on Arizona to push vouchers.

First, they donated handsomely to the campaign of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthaler, who uses his platform to promote the destruction of public education.

Now they are spreading campaign contributions to wispy-washy Democrats, hoping to divert more money away from public schools.

At some point, public education collapses, and Arizona has a pure choice system, with hyper-segregation.

And with it, the end of an essential democratic institution.

Is this what the plutocrats want?

Yes.

Categories Arizona, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

Michigan Hero of Public Schools Ellen Lipton Calls for Closer Watch on EAA

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
7

After the Michigan Department of Education ended its agreement to hand over low-performing schools to Governor Snyder’s controversial floundering Education Achievement Authority, Represenative Ellen Lipton called for stricter oversight of this entity.

She said:

““This is evidence of a governor, a state education department and an experimental educational entity flying off the rails,” Lipton said. “Why did Gov. Rick Snyder allow Superintendent Flanagan to give authority over school reform to an unproven entity – the EAA – managed by an individual with a track record of failure in his previous job in Kansas City? Why did Flanagan agree to give up his department’s authority for 15 years back in 2011? Why won’t Covington relinquish his control back to the state after being asked to do so by Flanagan? And why won’t the governor, through his control over the EAA Board of Directors that hired and can fire Covington, demand Covington to immediately return control to Flanagan or be removed from office?”

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, Honor Roll, Michigan

Ohio: Do Legislators Really Want the Best Education for Children? Or…

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
7

A reader asked the question:

 

Money for Education Misplaced
If Ohio legislators truly want the best education for all children then why are most public school students from third to tenth graders required to take 17 standardized tests, written by a variety of educational vendors, while private school students take one, the OGT?

Why is the state of Ohio giving tax credit scholarships for some students to attend one of at least 20 private schools that teach creationism and the age of the Earth to be between 6-10,000 years old?

Why are legislators defunding public schools to handover nearly a billion dollars annually to for profit businesses to manage charter schools?

The Columbus Dispatch reported in September 2013 that nearly 84,000 Ohio students, or roughly 87 percent of the state’s charter-school students, attend a charter ranked D or F by the state. For comparison, 75% of public schools were rated C or better. Since 1997, roughly 30% of the charter schools have closed and their median life is 4 years. Furthermore, charter schools now receive $5,745 per student from money that is deducted from the state aid going to the student’s home district.

So the state is taking money out of a system that could use it and spending it in a system in which 87% of their schools are rated poorly and 3 in ten 10 have closed over the last 15 years.

Charter schools also are exempt from hundreds of references in Ohio Revised Code. For example, charter schools do not have to follow the detailed prescribed curriculum like math, science, and reading that are required in public schools nor do they have to annually report the names, salaries, college experience, degrees earned, or type of teaching license held by their staff; hard to believe.
The irony to all of this is lawmakers must feel certain regulations would hurt charter schools, which is why they are exempted, yet legislators have no problem using these laws to regulate public schools and their students.
Ohio does have tough laws to close charter schools but loopholes in the law keeps these failing schools open under a new name and new management. It is time to let charter schools fund themselves and to keep public dollars in public schools.

 

Matt Bistritz
Twinsburg
216-990-3630

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Ohio, Privatization

EduShyster: This Marriage Was Not Made in Heaven

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
8

EduShyster reports here on the comings and goings at ALEC.

ALEC is a super-secret rightwing group sponsored by major corporations, whose members include about 2,000 state legislators who want to advance the corporate agenda.

In this post, EduShyster notes that scores of corporations abandoned ALEC after it got so much bad press following the Trayvon Martin murder in Florida (ALEC supports stand your ground laws of the sort found in Florida). But as the publicity-shy corporations bailed out, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute joined.

I was a founding member of TBF, and was sorry to hear the news. Although I left the board in 2009, I always thought that TBF tried to be center-right, not far-right. ALEC is far right. On education issues, they are awful. ALEC loves privatization. It writes model laws for vouchers and charters. It loves online learning and opposes any regulation of online providers. ALEC hates unions. It opposes certification for teachers or any form of rights, job security, or due process for teachers.

ALEC writes laws that would put an end to public education and the teaching profession. Some states have laws that were written by ALEC. It is surprising that ALEC is treated by the IRS as if it was not a lobbying organization. It is.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers

Surprise! Class Size Really Does Matter!

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
62

In recent years, the false “reformers” have told s again and again that having “a great teacher” (defined by test scores) is more important than the size of the class he or she teaches. They have proposed finding those great teachers (they are still looking, but haven’t found the right method to identify them), then assigning them classes of 35-40 or more. It never occurs to them that the great teachers might no longer be so great with large classes. They are looking at cost, not quality of education.

But now Professor Diane Whitmore Schanzanbach of Northwestern University has published a report demonstrating that class size really does matter. The needier the students, the more it matters.

” “Class size matters,” writes Schanzenbach, an economist and education policy professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “Research supports the common-sense notion that children learn more and teachers are more effective in smaller classes.”

“Citing evidence from the academic literature, Schanzenbach explains that “class size is an important determinant of a variety of student outcomes ranging from test scores to broader life outcomes. Smaller classes are particularly effective at raising achievement levels of low-income and minority children.”

“Conversely, she points out, raising class size can be shown to be harmful to children. “Money saved today by increasing class sizes will result in more substantial social and educational costs in the future,” she writes.”

So when false reformers say they are advocating for the civil rights of poor and minority children, point out that if they mean it, they will reduce class size for children who need the most attention.

Categories Class size

Who Are America’s Highest Paid Government Workers?

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
10

According to Education Week, the Center for Media and Democracy and Education has released a report on America’s highest paid government workers, and they are not whom you would think of.

In education, it is Ron Packard, who until recently was CEO of K12 Inc., which manages virtual charter schools. Packard, formerly of McKinsey, was paid handsomely. The company insists its schools are public schools,” as it sucks tuition dollars away from community public schools:

“The center says Packard earned more than $19 million in compensation between 2009 and 2013, and notes that that compensation rolled in as K12 achieved a lackluster academic showing in various states. As a company, the report says that K12 took in $848 million in 2013, with $731 million derived from its “managed public schools” operations.”

Packard announced in January that he was stepping down to head a new company but will remain on the K12 board.

And you wondered why we spend so much on education? Check out the burgeoning industry of for-profits and consultants and others who tell schools what to do and how to do it but never enter a classroom.

Categories Privatization

Advice for Robert Reich About K-12 Education

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2014 //
47

A reader whose tag is “Not a Public School Teacher” reacts to the news that Robert Reich has come out in opposition to the overuse of standardized testing:

“I was very grateful to see Reich’s stance in “Inequality for All”, but frankly, I think it’s about time he took a stand on K-12 public education. HIgh-stakes standardized testing is not a new issue. We’re talking about 12 years of standardized tests under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), longer in many locations, as well as ever increasing numbers of tests now, with the roll out of Race to the Top (RttT) and the Common Core national standards.

“If you look at the “Inequality for All” website, Reich was curiously silent on K-12 education, so this is a good start. However, Reich does not go far enough. For example, Reich made no mention of the ongoing national assault on public school teachers, the primary aim of which is to break unions and deprofessionalize the field, replacing unionized career educators with low paid non-union workers, such as the five week trained “teachers” from Teach for America.

“Reich also said nothing about the scheme to privatize public education. Does he not realize that, under the guise of “school choice,” neighborhood schools are being closed and replaced with unregulated or minimally regulated charters that have no elected boards or PTAs, which effectively eliminate community participation and democracy in education? That benefits no one more than corporate and entrepreneurial profiteers, such as the 16 charter school CEOs in NY who earn $500K per year –more than Obama is paid?

“On his “Inequality for All” website, Reich indicates strong support for Obama’s new policy plan for higher education. As a college professor, Reich should know about the fiscal issues of colleges, because their funds are certainly not going to the majority of college faculty, 70% of whom across this nation are non-union, low paid contingency workers with no benefits. He should also know better than to support the plan for higher education without very carefully scrutinizing it, because it is as much a TROJAN HORSE as K-12 policies are under NCLB and RttT.

“If Reich does not fully understand what’s happening in education, then he should read Diane’s book, “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools”

Categories Privatization, Teachers, Testing
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