Wow! How cool is this? You, me, and all of us are invited to join today’s thought leaders of education “reform” (aka, privatization and segregation) at a philophers” retreat.
I wish I were a thought leader in education, but apparently my thoughts don’t lead in the right direction (e.g., handing public money over to privately managed schools with no transparency or accountability, smashing unions, demoralizing teachers, eliminating pensions, making test scores the goal of education, firing teachers who can’t raise test scores higher and higher every year, stuff like that, which these days makes you a thought leader).
The meeting is billed as a three-day retreat, “a philosopher’s camp on education reform.” I wonder if the philosophers there will talk about Horace Mann or John Dewey or William James or William Torrey Harris or Sidney Hook? Somehow, I doubt they will. I kind of doubt that they ever heard of any of our eminent philosophers of education.
You too can attend for only $1,000. If you want to be a VIP, it will cost you $2,500.
Two other things: the meeting will be held at the Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid. Is there a coded message here?
And for the benefit of the assembled philosophers, they might want to be reminded that they have a spelling error on the invitation. It is James Russell Lowell that once attended a meeting at that lodge, not James Russell Lowes. Do they know the difference? But when you are a thought leader in education, why bother with details?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane – I am a teacher and General Manager of BATs – I am going to register to go to this with my own money. I think you should to and so should a bunch of other folks. This way we can go into their meetings to make sure the truth is told. I plan to ask my union to pay my way, I cant afford it, but I plan on going. I wont go as a VIP but I will certainly go armed with the truth.
@Marla.. your reasons are noble but the people who are going to this meeting know what the opposition is and unabashedly ignore it. The fact is they do not care about reality. I fear that the great expense you pay to go there will just help them further their cause. But on the bright side… if the press covers this “event” and surely they will because it is corporate, you will be there to voice opposition if they don’t shut you out.
Yes, I was hoping some organization could shell out the money for people in BATs or another group to go. Please tell us what you hear and see.
Maria Kilfoyle:
Witness.
Report.
Broadcast.
The leaders of the self-styled “education reform” movement are like those ‘creatures of the night’ in the old horror movies—they can’t stand the light of day.
You can be that light. And then we can watch how they scurry and hid from their own statements and plans.
😎
Good for you Marla. Where do I send a donation to cover the cost?
if you go, can you tell M. Night Shyamalan I want my money back for “After Earth”??
Seems M Night went to the dark side. Guess he doesn’t even have 1/6 sense
May as well advertise it as another fundraiser for Cuomo. What a crock. We will protest.
I think you should request a complimentary registration which appears to be available on the registration form!!!!! If not, maybe a press pass.
Register here and yes, choose the complimentary registration choice.
I am sure teachers will be welcomed for free:
https://register.edreformnow.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=1
Keep up the fight. Teachers need your voice. The hoax must be exposed.
Read Curmudgucation: Camp Philos! Take Me Away!
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/03/camp-philos-take-me-away.html
Diane,
would you be willing to go if we raised the money for the ticket and transportation ? I don’t even think you’d have to say anything. Your presence alone would scare the dickens out of most of these fine folk. Think about it, OK ?
Diane,
I bet we can raise the $$ to “VIP” you in within 10 minutes. Just let us know!
Yes!!! Let’s do it!!
LOL.
Diane. Don’t listen to these people!
Conserve your strength. We need you. Not among the jackals. Among the people.
It would be great to have folks outside protesting! Invite media…Lake Placid educators and parents please start planning! I am in Seattle, otherwise I would join you.
@AmyHephurn.. now there is an idea… to protest noisily outside. But for heaven’s sake… under no circumstance should anyone who cares about public education add one thousand dollars to the corporate “ed” coffers!
The Monday and Tuesday of the Camp Philos event falls on the first two days of the NY Pearson math tests in NY. Could kill two birds with one protest!
Perhaps they spelled Lowell’s name wrong because they are scared someone might look him up? He was not a philosopher but a poet, and his “The Present Crisis” was often quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It ends by warning us that we must not “… attempt the Future’s portal with the Past’s blood-rusted key.” A message for the so-called reformers?
Diane: Are you going to beard the lion in his den? It might be very disruptive if you attended. 🙂
I wish they would invite me to speak.
There is an email address on the registration form for asking questions. Let’s all email: Will Diane Ravitch be speaking?
Unfortunately, one must register completely before sending the form which asks if there are any special requests: dietary restrictions, accommodations for disabilities, etc. How about a diet of truth? Better not request accommodations, though. You know how that flies with the charter crowd.
James Russell Lowes? Maybe he furnished the place . . ? 🙂
We definitely need a few people in there. I love the idea of a protest, and we need a reporter . . . a few, to cover all of the meetings and strategy sessions. Lowes Lane, perhaps?
Merryl Tisch is married into Loew’s money.
Have you ever seen this? It’s a report on teacher unions funded by the anti-labor lobbyists at DFER.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/210147400/Teacher-s-Unions-Strength-Full-Report?secret_password=1i6uiwc2txhd1vsmx0uh
http://www.dfer.org/blog/2014/03/we_need_more_th.php
The lobbyists are plugging Landrieu at the event because they know she’s in trouble:
“our March Reformers of the Month, Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Kay Hagan (D-NC), are battling tooth and nail to hold onto their seats—seats that are crucial to keeping Democrats in the majority in the U.S. Senate.
Your help will protect the seats of these strong DFERs and our Party’s control of the Senate.
Senator Mary Landrieu is a courageous supporter of Obama’s education agenda, and her reelection is critical to making continued improvements to our public education system. While on the Appropriations Committee, she has led efforts to expand and fund high-quality public charters and authored legislation on teacher evals and training. Senator Landrieu gets that great schools and great teachers are what’s going to give children the best shot in life and what will deliver the promise of the American Dream.”
Landrieu funnels more federal money to charter schools and authors ridiculous federal legislation to evaluate and stack-rank local public school teachers, so it’s important we keep her in office apparently so she can keep those funds coming.
“In the final Fiscal Year 2011 spending bill, Senator Landrieu helped secure a 1% set-aside ($24.7 million) out of the Teacher Quality State Grants program for proven teacher training and enhancement programs like Teach For America and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In the Fiscal Year 2012 Omnibus federal spending bill, Senator Landrieu helped increase the set-aside to 1.5% ($37.1 million).”
There is literally not one word about public schools on her education reform site. Not one.
Are public schools completely gone in Louisiana, or is this an oversight on her part?
http://www.landrieu.senate.gov/?p=issue&id=12
“Concurrent Sessions
Tight-Loose Models for Ensuring All Kids Have Access to a Great Education
Collective Bargaining”
Oh, please.
The first one sounds like something out of the Fordham Foundation…
I mean Thomas B. Fordham Institute…
Tried to correct that. It’s the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
RAndall, Fordham started as the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.. For tax reasons, it changed its name to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. You were right both times.
“I wish I were a thought leader in education,”…
We wish you were recognized (by all, not just the side of the angels) as such, too!
Maybe if you just said some bad things about us you could score an invite.
😉
XO,
Ang
Lake Placid, far, far away from any distractions, like segregated, embattled public schools in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, NYC.
Yes, but Saranac Lake, 10 miles away is leading the charge in the Opt Out movement in the Tri-Lakes area. They have a strong union which doesn’t put up with BS. There will be protests.
@tuppercooks.. glad to hear this!!! I hope they are planning a noisy protest. I think someone with a plane with an advertising banner should fly noisily back and forth over “Whiteface” Lodge. Now what should that banner say? Hmmm
Yay!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Saranac Lake, Yay! They are my heroes for starting their own community department store, after theirs went out of biz & eventually Walmart came calling. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/business/a-town-in-new-york-creates-its-own-department-store.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Apparently they have kept the Waltons at bay (website shows they’re still going strong). I have no doubt this community-minded place will protest the walmartization of public schools.
The banner should say, of course, ABC–support public schools. (Anyone but Cuomo).
Only 2.5 hours north of Albany. Conveniently scheduled Sunday to Tuesday to make it unreasonable for most teachers to attend. Also the same dates as the Pearson math tests, grades 3 to 8.
http://www.campphilos.org/schedule
Boy, this grueling schedule they’ve given themselves is short on work and long on leisure.
I bet the public school kids who took those CC tests last week worked a lot harder than the privatization lobbyists and the politicians they bought will at this retreat.
That’s not fair. It’s exhausting, agonizing work writing those checks for commercials, campaign contributions, and buses to Albany.
This is exciting:
Innovative Teacher Prep
I’m not a teacher and I’d be embarrassed to seat a roundtable on teacher prep without a teacher present, but as we know humility is not hugely valued in the “movement”.
You should seat a panel on Innovative Lobbyist Prep.
It’s already been invented..it’s non-unionized 5 week training teach-for-awhilers.
They will just try to call it something else and pass if off as new and improved.
Ah, now the deformers have taken to using “Teacher Prep”
I suppose that that is an improvement on “Teacher Training” (as in “Sit up. Roll over. Good boy.”)
The arrogance of these people! The presumption! THEY are going to teach educators how to educate.
Love your post…you got it right.
Aah Linda…. I have the words for the banner for the plane hovering noisily above WhiteFace Lodge… “Practice what you preach attendees.. no education experience??? No worries.. get it in 5 weeks .. come work at my school as a Teach For Awhiler… We real teachers triple dare you!!!!!!
Might need 2 planes flying from above though. All the better to add more noise!
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20140329/OPINION/303290037?utm_content=buffer02bef&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Florida for profit charter chain and Michigan for profit chain open franchises in Louisiana.
“In August Charter Schools USA, a Florida for-profit corporation, will open two schools in planned developments and National Heritage Academies, a Michigan for-profit corporation, will open one school in the old Albertson’s on Evangeline Thruway.”
Remember, folks, these are “local schools”! Just community schools started by local educators and parents who wanted to “innovate”. Ignore the fact that they’re multi-state chains.
“The state’s Minimum Foundation Program provides about $9,200 per student: $3,900 from state taxes and $5,300 from local taxes.”
Why would people in Louisiana want to send local education dollars out of state? That’s nuts. The idea is to keep locally-collected public money circulating within communities, not to pack it up and ship it to charter executives in Florida or Michigan.
It’s yet another rip-off.
The thought of this makes me nauseous.
Yes – any of us who do go need to bring plenty of soap. Or maybe bleach. Takes a lot to disinfect after getting that kind of GERM on you.
My grandfather, Thomas Lowell Norton (CCNY and NYU Dean of Economics) had traced our family heritage back to Percival Lowell. How hysterical is it that these ‘reformists’ helped me find another ancestor because of their stupidity.
A great time will be had with much backslapping, cigars in the drawing room. I don’t think Paolo Friere’s ideas will be in the workshop.
Maybe they’ll get around to discussing some Foucault!
We know that Wilson will definitely be on The Agenda!
REFORM
RELAX
RETREAT
REDICULOUS
In today’s bureaocracy, the substitute for philosophical thought about public education in the United States is a. “theory of action,” that is, a version of “damn the torpedos, full steam ahead” from people who are captains of the education industry.
Meanwhile, “thought leader and statistician William Sanders–father of VAM”– is still defending his formula for judging teachers, even in the face of lawsuits in his home state of Tennessee. See the story at: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/03/29/inventor-teacher-evaluation-test-defends-data/7072073/
An interesting bit from this article:
SAS works with Tennessee purely on data, not policy, said John White, director of the company’s Education Value-Added Assessment System section. Tennessee pays $1.7 million annually to SAS to calculate [VAM] scores and put them online. How states choose to use the data varies.
Tennessee is 48th in per pupil spending.
Looked at the invitation. Decided to reply with this question.
“Have you no sense of historical accuracy in writing this invitation?”
Corporate reformers and destroyers of public education invoking the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Seriously?
That was exactly my thought.
After I got over my annoyance that they would call their discussions of their simple-minded nostrums “philosophy.”
Thanks For Your Interest in Attending and Supporting Camp Philos.
Registration is Now Open. Click the Register button at the top of the page to be a part of this inaugural event.
Please join:
The Honorable Andrew Cuomo
Honorary Chairman
Joe Williams
Executive Director, Education Reform Now
And Special Guests
Senator Mary Landrieu
Mayor Michael Hancock
Mayor Kevin Johnson
Russlynn Ali
M. Night Shyamalan
Adirondack Mountains
Lake Placid, NY
Whiteface Lodge
May 4 – 6, 2014
As in the summer of 1858 when the poets and scholars Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Russell Lowes, with Horatio Woodman retreated to the mountains for respite in kindred company:
Education Reform Now will convene Camp Philos in Lake Placid, NY.
Embark on three spring days of fun, fellowship and strategy with the nation’s thought leaders on education reform. The exquisite and secluded Whiteface Lodge, which ranks among North America’s top luxury destinations, is nestled in the majestic woods of our country’s largest wilderness park.
Reform
Relax
Retreat
For questions or additional information, please contact events@edreformnow.org
Do they really have the nerve to cite free thinkers free from constraint and uniformity?
justsaynottoedmitchell.. I think they do have the “nerve” because they are practicing a version of “adult pig latin” only in this game you just say the opposite of what is true and everyone else is supposed to do the same. Maybe if I click my heels three times while wearing red shoes, winds will blow and this adulthood game will be over. Going to get my red shoes now!
The (fake) philosophers they’ll be talking about are: Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Arne Duncan, the Walton family, Hedge Fund billionaires (etc.) and the message will be how you too may profit by taking money meant to teach our children and giving it to the wealthy.
Lloyd, you left the Koch brothers out of your catalog of envy.
Don’t forget Eli Broad whose money has “sprinkled” his style of “principal” all over the country.
Thanks. I have to make a list of all the billionaire oligarchs who are funding the fake reform movement. One of these days, I’ll get around to it. Then I can refer to the list. There’s too many of them funding this war.
I encourage all to occupy these faux philosophers and aggressively engage them in discourse. I encourage all to remind them that outside of their insulated bubble of billions and privatization there are real educators yearning to debate. I encourage all to remind these “philosophers” in the same equally demeaning manner that their philosophy is relegated to that of Broadism and playing professional “hoops.” Also, please remind the petulant puts from “democrats for education reform” is contrary to the ideals and tenants of true democrats not spineless “neoliberals.” However, given their history, they will run away as always. Nonetheless, we all need to increase the heat, the pressure, and don’t give up.
All those NOT selected as THOUGHT LEADERS raise your hand. Bravo … Yeah for us! We don’t have the “WRONG” stuff.
Date: April 19, 2014
Location: Asbury Park High School
Time: 3:30 pm
Event: Asbury Park Chapter of the National Action Network will host a Urban Empowerment Summit.
Theme:
“Your Community
Your Vote
Your School”
This Summit will feature:
1. Guest speakers from the major urban communities,
2. Feature networking opportunities (New Jersey Urban Educational Alliance),
3. Leadership panel led open discussion on the current state of urban education in New Jersey, 4. Keynote speaker will be the Honarable Rev. Al Sharption.
Oh please, Mr. Cuomo, would you be my thought leader? This trying to think on my own is so HARD.
Did anyone else notice that every bit of this invitation, from the name of the event to the descriptions of the sessions to the graphic design of the web page, is as hackneyed, as cliched, almost, as are the Common Core State Standards in ELA? The invitation looks to my eye very like an illustration from a 1950s cub scout manual.
Oh, the nostalgia! Leave the Beaver and Wally at home with the little woman and have your driver drop you off at the White Face Lodge, where Stepin Fetchit will show you to your room for a little Burma Shave before we get together for some Wonder Bread and baloney sandwiches and a little Father Knows Best time!
Back to the future, boys. Way, way, way back!
Feel the philos, folks!
I’m am beginning to think that cliches are the very livery of the Ed Deformer. This is not surprising from people who think that
that standardization and regimentation lead to creativity and innovation,
that testing kids to find out where to plop them down in some preprogrammed learning progression is personalization,
that we need the creative disruption of nationalized ed tech to replace all those messy human and humane transactions between teacher and learner,
that David Coleman is an educator,
that teaching is about extrinsic punishment and reward, and
that the learning is checking off items on the bullet list, the national educational Powerpoint copyrighted by the good people at the Commoners’ Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth and behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
By gum, by golly, we’ll have great fun, off in the woods, thinking BIG thoughts about BIG DATA, with our White Face friends at the White Face Lodge.
Yo ho, yo ho.
cx: on behalf, not and behalf, of course!
BTW, happy César Chávez Day, Diane and all!
A list of the distinguished “Education Philosophers” at EdReformNow, the organization sponsoring this event:
Charles H. Ledley, Board Chair of Education Reform Now, is an Analyst at Highfields Capital Management.
John Petry is the founder and managing principal at Sessa Capital.
Sidney Hawkins Gargiulo is a Partner at Covey Capital.
Brian Zied is the Founder of Charter Bridge Capital.
John Sabat is a Portfolio Manager at SAC Capital.
Michael Sabat is currently Vice President of Equity Derivative Sales and Trading at Sanford C. Bernstein.
Mr Shepherd,
Only Joe Williams is listed as attending, as suits his role as executive director. He has a background of some depth on educational reform, perhaps even deeper than your own. The others you mention, as if they are malefactors of great wealth simply because the noun “capital” appears in their resumés, are nowhere listed as “distinguished ‘Education Philosophers.'”
I read your thoughts on this site. i will look into what you are “talking” about in a few. I have to deal with Nassau County Family Court issues and my suspension from the NYC DOE without pay. So, unfortunately, I am unable to attend such an expensive conference at this time. However, hopefully, some money making business that I am working on will afford me the opportunity to become more involved than I already have in the past . Thanks,
Peter, my point is that not that being associated with capital makes one a malefactor but that this is yet another example of noneducators pushing education deform on actual educators nationwide.
Mr. Cohee, I have read a number of your articles, and I see that you are an experienced educator with a passion for local autonomy in education and a disdain for centralized control generally and for one-size-fits-all evaluation checklists in particular. I assume that this disdain extends to the creation of a Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth to promulgate invariant, mandatory bullet lists of what learning progressions everyone must follow and what outcomes matter enough, in every domain, to be tested. It seems that you would also be opposed to making the Commissariat the default national Censor Librorum for curricula. I would be interested in hearing what you have to say about these matters.
Bob,
Your research, into the organizers’ financial sector jobs, exposes the mercenary roles they are playing. It discredits them, from the starting gate, and makes them easily identifiable when they try to influence political policy.
Someone should pipe the student rap from Middletown High School, into the meeting. The organizers, if they have a conscience, won’t stop what they are doing but, at least, they’ll be forced to recognize they are hurting children for generations to come. And, it will, possibly cause a little reflection between rounds of golf.
I did minimal research, Linda. The sponsoring organization is Education Reform Now. That’s simply a list of the sponsoring organization’s board of directors.
I tire of these non-educators and their nostrums. Robert Graves long ago gave the following wonderful, self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek title to a collection of his essays:
Difficult Questions, Easy Answers
I think of those nostrums and am reminded of that title.
Russlyn and M. Night…now there are two powerhouse educational thinkers! Kind of like going to a plumber for a colonoscopy.
Well, Russlyn did work for Arne Duncan for four years, so that shows how deeply embedded she is in the status quo movement.
And, of course, Arne would have been able to teacher her a great deal about, uh, playing basketball.
M. Night Shyamalan is the “educational” guru of Philadelphia’s new head of the state run School Reform Commission. Green openly states the goal is a two tier school district.
Shyamalan believes class size doesn’t matter if there is a “good teacher”. His children attend a private school outside Philadelphia whose class size is 14.
Bill Green says M. Night Shyamalan’s education-reform book ‘shaped his thinking’
http://tinyurl.com/k9g6bty
Philaken,
I will be in Philadelphia on April 3 to speak at AERA. I tried to arrange a meeting with Bill Green, head of the School Reform Commission, but he said he was too busy to meet with me. I offered to arrive a night early to meet him but have not received a response. I assume he does not want to meet me. At a public hearing, a parent gave him a copy of my book and he promised to read it. He seems to be more impressed with the reform ideas of a film director, who, as you note, has his children in a school where the class size is 14. This returns us to the John Dewey quote that “what the best and wisest parent wants for his own children, that must we want for all the children of the community.” Next time you see Bill Green, ask him what he wants for his own children.
Well, at least they corrected the spelling of James Russell Lowell’s name!
Here’s a link to children in NYC attending school in trailers for the past 20 years: