I previously commended Helen Gym for her activism as a parent advocate for public education in Philadelphia.
She is on the honor roll as a hero and an exemplar. And, boy, Philadelphia needs her now!
Philadelphia is Ground Zero for the fake reform movement.
The fake reformers are well on their way to obliterating public education in that great American city and proud of it.
With all the wealth and power concentrated in that city and state, the power brokers and financiers have decided to extinguish public education.
One person standing in their way is Helen Gym.
Read about what she has done these past few weeks.
She gave a TED talk (and look at that slide over her head: $26,000 per child in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, vs. $14,000 in Philadelphia).
She was named one of the most powerful people in Philadelphia.
She was selected by the White House as a “champion of change.” (Ha! fighting the Obama administration’s rightwing education policies.)
She helped other parents fight the parent trigger.
She joined me at AERA and chastised the nation’s education researchers for abandoning cities like Philadelphia.
Helen Gym is a hero and an inspiration for us all!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Like Diane, she is a Superwoman! Who needs Superman when u don’t have to wait for Superwoman! Question- where are our civil rights leaders? The children need you.
To Helen Gym:
“And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.” [Homer]
Most krazy props.
😎
Thank you so much to Diane and her/our entire community. Diane has been a huge champion of highlighting the extraordinary struggles of all of us ordinary parents, teachers, community members and youth fighting for better public schools. Thanks for helping build a sense of movement and voice amidst all this chaos. I am so grateful.
I forgot to add that the coolest thing by far in speaking with Diane was actually witnessing her deftly pounding out a post – links and all – on her iPad in the 20 minutes before our session started. Awesome.
Helen has been fighting to save public education in Philly for many years. We are lucky to have her. She has been an inspiration to all of us fighting the same fight.
Read the excerpts from Helen Gym’s AERA presentation. They are powerful and on the mark.
AERA now publishes peer-reviewed articles designed to forward the reputations of people who are pushing products and services for profit.
A typical arrangement pairs one or several “legitimate” scholars and/or doctoral students with the for-profit’s “scholar” or a think-tank fellow.
These arrangements give credibility to-profit ventures as “evidence-based,” complete with a journal citation.
Unemployed scholars also find work in these venues. Some who are employed earn extra bucks as “consultants” for profit-seekers.
In addition there is a serious “shrinkage” of support for educational research in higher education unless it is funded by grants.
Here is an example of the emerging hybrid of promotional scholarship. One author works for Metametrics, a firm that markets the computer-based “Lexile Score” for selecting K-12 readings for the CCSS. (An MIT professor generated some Lexile scores from gibberish).
Williamson, G. L., Fitzgerald, J., & Stenner, A. J. (2013). The Common Core State Standards’ quantitative text complexity trajectory figuring out how much complexity is enough. Educational Researcher, 42(2), 59-69.
In nutshell, the authors describe their theoretical mapping of “aspirational trajectories toward graduation targets” in reading skills as analogous to “modifying the height, velocity, or acceleration respectively of a projectile launched in the physical world” (p. 63). They envision their growth velocity standards as a tool to seek greater precision in setting targets and cut scores for grade-to-grade progress in meeting the CCSS.
I’m having trouble finding her TED talk…
Did they shut it down?
Not to be disparaging, but TED does have a place (perhaps a big place) in their heart for corporate love. They have also been known to “not host” the speakers who don’t share a devotion to Bill Gates…
Can you direct me to the link, and assuage my fears that TED is little more than corporate lickspittle…
This was a local TEDx talk in Philadelphia, not TED mainstage, and our organizers were very cool. The talks should be on YouTube sometime this month.
Thanks!!! Looking forward to it!