Yesterday I gleefully reported that Karen Klein, who writes editorials about education for the Los Angeles Times, had opted her own daughter out of the state test. The Los Angeles Times has supported most aspects of what is called “reform ,” so I was glad to see that Klein had realized how the current overuse of testing had undermined the love of learning , not only for her child, but for all children. Far be it from me to criticize anyone for changing their mind. Klein has a powerful role, and her epiphany could signify a recognition by the LA Times of the harm that standardized testing inflicts when allowed to become both the measure and the goal of education.
Robert Skeels was not so forgiving.
He writes:
“I’m glad that you’re sparing your own child the abject effects of this year’s test. However, I recall sitting across a table from you in early 2013 when you conducted the school board endorsement interviews and having to endure your scoffing at me for suggesting that we end the high-stakes standardized test regime for all students. Your exact words were “if we do that, we’d go back to the ‘Johnny Can’t Read’ days.” I remember how astonished I was that a professional journalist covering education could be so ignorant of pedagogy that they’d cite Flesch’s right-wing phonics garbage as their defense of the unholy policy trio of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and Common Core State Standards.
“So don’t expect those of us who have been trying to defend all children from the effects of standardized tests—the worst of which robs them of that very fleeting joy of learning—to welcome you aboard. Unlike your offspring, privileged in every regard, there are countless other children who have had their opportunity to love learning stolen by mind numbing test preparation in the name of profits and propaganda.”
I understand Skeels’ anger. But I will welcome the repentant sinner into the fold with open arms if she does understand that her decision was not just about what’s best for her child but what’s best for all children. If her views change the LA Times’ editorial policy on high-stakes testing, then I count it as a signal victory for those who have fought this issue for many years, including Robert Skeels.
I know how hard it is to change sides, to admit error, to admit in public that you were wrong.
Those who oppose the current misuse of testing should seek more converts and welcome them with own arms.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I totally agree with you Dr. Ravitch. Anyone who has not change his/her mind has not grown much. Too: something about casting the first stone. WHO has not made mistakes over which they were mortified later on?
Gordon..this woman has a huge position of power with the LA Times and as their education editorial writer she has done immeasurable damage to our teachers and our public schools. She has rules the reporters and let’s them only write what she approves…that is generally in favor of Deasy and charters.
One teacher, by all accounts a good teacher, killed himself when the paper published his low VAM rating.
It’s easy for some people to say something different–or opposite to what s/he holds as a belief–thanks to media blitz. We just can’t see if it’s genuine is an act of pretense–or sock-puppet. It takes time for us to see one’s change of heart is real and how it changes one. Even for Dr. Ravitch, it took a while to see some people who didn’t like her due to her previous position gradually accepting her change of mind. We just don’t know if it’s right time to pass judgment on this editor’s shift of position yet. But we’ll see.
meant “we just don’t know,” is/or
Classic case of this educational standards and standardized testing finally catching up with the middle to upper class folk and now that is their kids that are being labelled “failures” they start to cry out. Maybe the Dunkster was right when he talked of “suburban white moms”. Scratch that, the Dunkster ain’t right about anything, whore that he is.
It’s just a selfish move on Klein’s part, nothing more, nothing less.
Thank you Bob Skeels for focusing on the real Karin Klein who generally uses her position as head of the LA Times education department and their editorials to slam teachers and public schools, and to support Deasy/Broad charter privatizers. She also supported the oligarchs school board candidates. One minor personal epiphany does not change a person’s opinion, nor their character.
It is strange that she was such a big supporter of standardized testing but, a year later she opted her own child out. Why did anyone believe that standardized testing would ensure that “Johnny can read”? Well, in the end I’m glad she stood up for her child. Just think, her child could have eventually been tested, then funneled into a career determined by her test scores. The news media has not been on the side of children. They have fought for the testing regimes.
The enterprise is premised on the idea that “good teachers change lives”, and that lazy teachers are keeping good life changing teachers from being in the profession, and that if you keep track of what teachers should accomplish vs. what they do accomplish, you can identify and toss the bad ones to let the good ones in.
You can’t do that without some objective criteria and involves creating a whole lot of standardization where it really doesn’t help the system to create measures that become gatekeepers to bad teachers/good teachers. Under the guise of objectivity and scientific support, the claims are that the tests identify the bad teachers without prejudice which it says current systems are subject to.
The problem is that the prejudices this system is subject to are much higher up and farther removed from the classroom, and have a lot more power and money pushing them even though they sound so right with their complexity and which no average person can HOPE to comprehend how they mathematically adjust for some things, and where those adjustments come from, and how valid they are, so they become so sophisticated no one knows enough to challenge them except for die hard math academics and statisticians.
The whole idea was noble enough of finding good teachers for every classroom….the method of getting there through letting the market drive out the good ones and creating levers for doing that….showed a very poor understanding of how classrooms function, what children need, and ignores the very substantial body of evidence with regards to segregation, peer effects, and outside influences…that the identified good teachers are majority white from high level colleges going to work in poor urban schools temporarily…reeks of something worse than the soft bigotry of low expectations, it reeks of outright racism.
Glad to see a convert if it is indeed one. When will we see a change of heart and an epiphany on education matters from Barack Obama? He changed his mind on gay marriage – any hope at all of it on RttT? So heartbroken.
“. . . an epiphany on education matters from Barack Obama?”
Right, the Obomber who should be dead right now (if there is a true arc of justice) for having ordered the killing of a 16 year old American citizen. In a just world he would have been tried, judged and hung.
Did she admot she was wrong or did she finally realize Dr. Skeels is right. Sounds to me like trends and tides tend to yank her chain. Thanks to those tests and these know it alls without a clue this is what teachers and students are dealing with
. “I’m sick and afraid about what’s going to happen to our school,” said Nydiqua Johnson, 16, a junior at West Side High School in Newark. “They’re closing my school, and I really don’t appreciate it. And most of our teachers are getting fired
This apology in Huff Post has a more genuine ring.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-weillgreenberg/public-school-teachers_b_5104289.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
At least the blogger asked students to address what is happening to our schools. No one at LATimes afforded students or teachers a voice unless it was astro turf out of teach plus, students first, E4E, CLASS, TFA, community coallition or students matter.With LATs complicity, LAUSD has liabled teachers , humiliated them, harassed them, defamed them, jailed them, displaced them, wrongfully terminated them, destroyed their lives. A teacher at Marimonte addressed a large group of parents and students at a press conference . She wept as she did so, expliaining how she had been so proud to be a teacher. By May 2012 she hated when someone asked her what she did. She noticed people reacted differently and that made. Her ashamed.
Her shame is understandable. We have been beat down, bludgeoened and belittled. A lot of teachers come to this blog and debate the tests and edtech. They try to ignore the casualties like me. But there are too many of us now to retend what we are saying is not so. These people are criminals and until we confront that we are doomed to lose far more than our schools.
It’s about time. Have people finally woken up? Teachers have lived in fear for many years now. It all needs to end.
The vast majority of teachers (and administrators) have been GAGAers, they’ve been part of the problem. They get what they deserve what they get with VAM and all that because they haven’t stood up to the edudeformers.
Ms. Diedrich, I always appreciate your kind words, but again, don’t deserve the title “Dr.” by my name. In fact, I finally earned a BA from UCLA just last month.
Congrats Bob…great accomplishment. Now, please run for school board again.
NPR had a segment on the Common Core and testing this AM (Thurs 4/9) Did not catch all of it , but I did hear the reporter say he had some difficulty with an eighth grade reading test. This guy must be an English/journalism major.
The word is getting out big time. As Al Sharpton would say. “We gotcha”. They (charlatan educators) are not going to win this fight, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
Yeah, Al Sharton who as a minister was a stooge for the FBI.
Sharpton
Yes, an FBI informer – we will eventually find out he was also informing on political allies, not just “mobsters” – and also a stealth operative for the Republicans, having sabotaged many Democratic candidates over the years.
The man truly is a charlatan and fraud.
Dr. Ravitch has clearly chronicled her “epiphany” in many posts, speeches, and books. Being on the wrong side of educational reforms in the past has caused her to be deeply aggrieved. The great majority support and admire how hard she works to effectively improve conditions for teachers, students, parents, and administrators against great odds. While Karin Klein’s change of heart is admirable, an apology to all those she has harmed in the past is due.
Diane Ravitch never had a simple-minded view of these matters, even when she was on the other side. Her pre-conversion writings remain invaluable. She did the courageous thing based on where the evidence led her. One hopes that Klein will do the same.
She needs to hear both reactions. Especially with her less than respectful responses just a year ago.
Hope all the bloggsters from LA join me at the CSUN “parents’ forum” put on by their Ed Dept. on April 16, so we can question their featured panelist, Gabe Rose of Parent Revolution, who Karin Klein often has her reporters laud, glowingly. It is this kind of biased journalism that she should be judged on, not one self serving article about her own child.
If this is the same paper that publishes teacher evaluations then I hope this will lead to the abandonment of that destructive policy.
Don’t hold your breath!
She’s taking this course because it’s a problem for her kid and therefore by extension she’s a parental failure. Can’t have that happen, eh!!
“But I will welcome the repentant sinner into the fold with open arms if she does understand that her decision was not just about what’s best for her child but what’s best for all children.”
As a teacher, I cringe a little when I hear anyone proclaim they know what is best for all children. Isn’t that exactly what Common Core does? And every state test?
Carlton, the point was not to dictate what everyone should do, but to recognize that it is a contradiction to say “I’m opting my child out, but I insist that all other children take the test.” The point of opt out is that the choice belongs to parents, not the state.
Perhaps this is her moment of epiphany. I am not so sure. Her piece on opting out her child still fawned over the engine that is driving the deform juggernaut, the egregious Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic].
She actually said in her piece that she hoped that these “standards” would reverse the test-obsessed decline that she has witnessed in recent years.
Bizarre.
I was thinking the same thing. She seems to be saying that her daughter had a gazillion tests and was burned out on testing (what a shock!) and she’s done the tests all the other years so missing one test one year would be ok. I didn’t see anything in her piece that said that she had a problem with the general idea of the tests.
No, just a selfish moment of realizing that what happens with her child is a reflection on her.
I agree Professor Ravitch. If Klein is truly contrite, open minded, and willing to make amends for her myriad crimes against the students and families of Los Angeles, then we should welcome her into the fold.
What RDS said. Forgiveness is a word widely used and poorly defined. For me at least one aplication of the concept involves the recognition that a wrong was committed and that the perpetrator acknowledges his/her responsibility to right that wrong. Our illustrious moderator of this blog is an excellent example of this.
Now, before we proceed to canonize Ms Klein notice that she said nothing about how she would work to right the wrong of punishing teachers and students by using test scores. Also she said nothing that resembles an apology for the damage done by her previous stand. There is no indication that she has the awareness to acknowledge that the reformy movement is harmful to other people’s children.
Am I the only reader of this blog that picked up on the cheerleading for upper middle-class white privilege and exceptionalism? Testing is boring for her precious tea-party deprived child who suffers because mommy’s working and can’t homeschool her but creating the possibility of those things being available to kids in the poorer parts of the state is not even on her radar.
Lastly check out the great disconnect with the role and stature of teachers in her world. For a public school teacher in Los Angeles using “Fear of Flying,” in any context would result in dismissal. In the present witch-hunt I think even the mention of the author’s name would result in firing. Thanks for nothing and take that world of Karin Klein.
She ain’t truly contrite!
Diane, you are absolutely right. It is extremely hard for any person, but especially one in her position, to come over. Some of us even remember Cronkite’s change of direction on Vietnam.
We need to realize that some even need a way to change directions gracefully. We also need to use any opportunity to welcome the change and use the wedge to take it even farther.
However, if she continues a total support of the reform agenda after this, the gloves should come off …
I think if she becomes too vocal at the LA Times against common core and closing public schools, they might just fire her. Isn’t this what happened to Glenn Beck? He came out against Common Core and lost his job at Fox the same month.
I can understand the anger but feel that it is unproductive and a lot easier to try and understand and forgive as long as THE REASONS FOR THE CHANGE OF OPINION ARE GENUINE (and I do believe they are genuine… especially as it is personal for her). This LA writer is in a great position to champion our cause particularly as she does understand the issues from a personal standpoint! If she were changing her stance because it was election time and only wanted votes or she was changing her stance because she wanted to hop on the “winning” bandwagon, this would be different. TIme will tell. I say.. hold off on the angry judgements to see what this writer does in the future. Although I admit that it is too frequent these days that “editorials” are often written by the “uniformed” posing as “informed” and without much substance.
“. . . especially as it is personal for her. . .”
More likely than not that is why she has a “change of opinion”, because her offspring is looking bad which makes her look bad.
Diane, because you’re one who has changed positions yourself, I understand where you’re coming from and respect that. However, I also respect and understand Robert’s point of view, because he’s coming from a position none of us have experienced. He put himself out there to run for office against Monica Garcia, who at the time was President of the LAUSD school board. He sat in the room with the editorial board of the L.A. Times, across the table from Ms. Klein, who refused to endorse him. He sees her “apology” from a perspective that NONE of us have. It makes a difference that Robert felt the consequences of Ms. Klein’s positions (no endorsement of his candidacy for school board).
Others may have more room to be gracious. You tell her, Robert.
I’m with Robert Skeels on this one. The L.A. Times has gone from being a quality newspaper, to a propagandistic hit rag. It’s not that it prints articles with which I disagree; until I stopped reading the Times, it printed only one side. Its uses mis- and disinformation in a particularly ugly fashion to turn citizens against public education and teachers.
I grew up reading the Times. For the first 25 years I taught, my morning routine included picking up coffee and the Times on the way to work. Students, particularly Laker fans, would come in before school and we’d read the paper together, and comment on daily events. Watching the transformation to serving as a lap poodle to billionaires has been a particularly painful experience.
While I am a teacher, and I live in L.A. Country, I never taught in the L.A. School System. My disgust is strictly with the non-existent journalism practiced by this newspaper.
Karen Klein does not appear to repudiate previous positions. Rather, she makes a not my kid, even in the affluent, privileged enclave of Laguna Beach type of argument. Count me as underwhelmed by her sincerity on this issue.
Judging from what I have seen, it may be some at the Times have figured out by using such cruel and extremist rhetoric, it is hemorrhaging readership. I personally know quite a few former readers who feel like I do. Teachers read newspapers, and have family and friends who do the same.
TAGO!
Hear hear, Marian.
Marian, the Times is just reverting back to its original ideological outlook; it had a temporary flirtation with liberalism under the leadership of Otis Chandler, but before that, the paper was for decades the most virulently anti-union rag in the country.
Los Angeles was for years – outside of the South – the center of the so-called “American Plan,” which was about keeping unions out.
Harrison Gray Otis, the paper’s publisher for many years, was fanatically anti-union, driving around in a car with a model cannon mounted on the hood. The paper’s headquarters was a designed to resemble a castle, with turrets on it. In 1910, the headquarters was bombed in retaliation for its publisher’s strident support of the (successful) union-busting tactics of local employers in the steel, bridge-building and metal working industries.
The Times’ quasi-liberalism of the 80’s – early aughts was the aberration, not the norm. Their attacks on teachers, their unions, and public education is consistent with its ideology throughout most of its history. They’re simply reverting back to form, and Ms. Klein is presumably aware that the ideological fence limiting acceptable discourse is electrified, and she will be harmed, if not professionally killed, if she gets too close.
Mike Davis’ magisterial book on Los Angeles, “City of Quartz,” has a fascinating chapter on the Times, Otis and the Chandlers, and their influence on the creation of 20th century LA.
Michael: Interesting, and thanks for the history lesson. I’ll have to read “City of Quartz”. My frustration is deeper than liberal vs. conservative. In my recollection, even prior to the 80’s, the Times had the feel of covering issues with some degree of journalistic integrity even if its editorial board took specific positions. Letters to the editor reflected articulate dissent. What has been blatantly noticeable in the last decade is the complete lack of balance in its educational coverage. Public education, and teachers, have been portrayed as villains in almost a cartoonish fashion. Publishing teacher rankings was simply the last straw. But you historical perspective is quite fascinating.
Agree Mike that the Davis book is a good history of LA and the Times.
But we who have grown up here, gone through the entire public school system including U. of California, and those of us who chose to become educators, follow our history carefully. The LA Music Center, which is world class and similar to the Kennedy and the Lincoln Centers in NY and Washington DC, would not have happened without the charitable pushing by Buffy Chandler, Otis’ mother. And Otis, who went to Stanford and then took over the LA Times and made it a world class newspaper in the same league as the NY Times and the Washington Post. All three were family run papers and could be counted on for real and accurate news…long ago. Now Jeff Bezos owns the WaPo, the Salzbergers still own the NY Times, and real estate mogul and Right Wing Sam Zell owns the Tribune Corp. and the LA Times.
But when Reagan became president, and when in his term of office, there were the most private bankrupcies in history, these papers were also affected. As the corporate stance became one of only looking at the quarterly bottom line to enrich stockholders, American business changed. Finally, the LA Times was lost to the Chandler family (and yes, Harry, Otis’ uncle, was a Right Winger and outright bigot, but then Prescott Bush and Averill Harriman were Hitler’s bankers).
My opinion as a lifelong reader of the LA Times, is that Otis is whirling in his grave at the degradation of his paper. It is now 90% ads, and 10% old stale news (which was on the net days ago), and that 10% includes the editorial and op ed pages which have been so degraded to make them generally not worth reading. There are no more national syndicated writers like Maureen Dowd, but these pages are filled too often with drivel.
Karin Klein is a product of this drivel.
She writes for money, and it those who hold the purse strings who make the decisions. Witness, the foul self serving op eds they feature written by Eli Broad in tandem with his charter loving buddy Richard Riordan, who repeatedly brag in print how important and brilliant and generous they are, and how they should be appreciated by the hoy palloy…which is all the rest of us.
This is Karin’s economic playground.
Ellen,
Agreed, the Chandler family has made legitimate philanthropic contributions to Los Angeles; I was mainly thinking of the patriarch, harry Chandler, who was a real s.o.b. I still come across links good reporting in the LA Times.
Though I occasionally come across links t good reporting in the LA Times, wasn’t it basically destroyed by corporate-buyout parasite, Sam Zell, who stripped whatever was left of the Otis Chandler legacy?
Tell that to the family of Rigoberto Ruelas. The LA Times murdered him the same as if they took a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
I agree Susan.
I agree with Dr. Ravitch that if she’s truly changed her mind (or even kind of changes her mind), we need to be welcoming. I read column, though, and I don’t really see the change of mind there. It seemed more a decision of exhaustion than thought. It could be that that’s the start of a real change, and that would be great, but I don’t think she’s there yet. Because there’s this:
“The decisions we make as parents sometimes have to be different from those we make as a member of the larger society.”
Maybe I’m interpreting that wrong, but it seems an awful like “testing for thee, but not for me.” Time will tell.
Yeah, it means she’s being paid to be a duplicitous b!tch!
I’m reminded of Simon Wiesenthal’s essay “The Sunflower” in which he recounts a deathbed confession of a Nazi soldier to him as “a Jew”. Even to whatever extent that soldier was sincere in his seeming repentance, there was no time left for him to demonstrate his new leaf-turning and to atone for what he had done.
“If” she has truly had a change of heart is too big of an “if”. I’m not counting any chickens until she demonstrates that she cares about other people’s children. And even f her repentance is genuine, she still has a lot of atoning to do. At least in her case, unlike the Nazi soldier, she does have time to do it.
I’ve kept up with Eric Zorn of the Tribune for years now and he has, many times, made it clear without the blink of an eye, that what he accepts for other people’s children is utterly different than what he wants for his own, and he seems to be oblivious to the contradiction. And he’s the Trib’s “liberal” columnist. I suspect Ms. Klein is cut from the same mold.
“what he accepts for other people’s children is utterly different than what he wants for his own,”
We see a lot of this, yes.
Especially perplexing to me are those who hold said belief system and wield power over other people’s children.
You know, I really cannot imagine the level of cognitive dissonance people like this must deal with.
How do they cope?
How do they justify?
What goes on in their tiny little heads (or perhaps more to the point, tiny little hearts)?
Indeed, Karen Klein says this: “The decisions we make as parents sometimes have to be different from those we make as a member of the larger society.”
It sounds to me like that says I as a parent am choosing differently from how I as a citizen would choose for your children.
Hey, she’s part of the bestest and britest!!
As far as I’m concerned she can go to hell right now.
While this appears as a step in the right direction, I wonder where Karen Klein stands on education reform? Does she, despite some excess testing, regard the corporate co-opting of public education as a step forward? What is her understanding of the challenges that students who live in poverty, and the schools and teachers that serve this population, have to deal with? Does she know that high stakes testing is a bad idea, in large part, because it treats a symptom- the achievement gap, as the cause that underlies poverty? Or is her decision mostly a case of “not my child”?
Jonathan…do a search at the LA Times archives and you can read her editorials. Go back over the last two years to see how much she favors the Eli Broadies.
Love it. They foisted the tests on us, but what I see NO WHERE is the authentic NATIONAL STANDARDS, WHICH WOULD PUT TO REST THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION ABOUT TESTS. This was the 3rd peel research for crying out loud, funded by PEW for zillions, and tens of thousands of teachers were observed to verify the results.
It boggles my mind, because of the 8 principles of learning, NONE mentioned standardized tests, and it was only in Principle 3, that the word ‘tests’ appeared at all.
In the Context of words like AUTHENTIC and GENUINE. The third principle of learning (not teaching) there is a need for authentic assessment and genuine evaluation of PERFORMANCE. These ‘tests’ are for the use but the classroom professional pedagogue -i.e the teacher- so the teacher can provide lessons that meet the needs of all the many emergent learners and learning styles in the room.
Why, Diane, do we not hear a word about the real standards. You nailed the false Bush idea of Standards, but his version of standards replaced the real criteria for learning. for LEARNING, and the national conversation followed that lead….evaluating schools and teaching became THE way things are.
I have been writing about this everywhere for 15 years now, and Lauren Resnick and Harvard, are SILENT… and it was their thesis.
I have wondered where the Ph’d s Learning & Research Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh are? Stephanie McConnachie (sic) replaced Resnick as the head of the LRDC, when she went to Harvard!
… and where is Vicki Bill, who was the ‘tools’ person at the LRDC, who went into the classrooms to collect the data on the INDICATORS FOR EACH PRINCIPLE, to which teachers (including myself) were expected to meet.
I mean, I have actual correspondence from her, and all the workshops that these master staff developers of our nation’s staff developers, gave to the districts who were chosen by Pew and Harvard. I know she exists, and I have a letter that describes how my work was celebrated at the Danforth Seminars, as one of six teachers who met every standard in a unique way. You won’t find it in my employment folder, which is empty of any history that demonstrates excellence, so they could fill it with slander, as the union looked the other way.
It didn’t stop NYC’s Joel Klein from allowing the superintendent of District 2, to put out charges of incompetence, nor did the NYS English Council “EDUCATOR OF EXCELLENCE AWARD only a few months earlier convince the NYC DOE that I was a valuable, dedicated, veteran professional. To Eva Moskowitz and her clones, it was necessary ( in order to replace public ed with charter schools) to remove the powerful voices of teachers like me –who chose all the materials and lessons to meet STATE OBJECTIVES IN THE STATE SYLLABUS– and were successful by any and all measures
Thus, you see, I have a unique perspective concerning the standards, the core curricula and testing, all of which- BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT ACCORDING TO THE GENUINE RESEARCH THAT HAS VANISHED– have no relationship to what I learned during this zillion dollar third level research that should have become THE BASIS FOR ALL DISCUSSIONS OF WHAT IS NEEDED FOR LEARNING TO OCCUR… but then, our national conversation is about teaching and how to evaluate teachers, so they can be found incompetent and removed before vested in pension and benefits….
Did I get that right, Diane?
“. . . NO WHERE is the authentic NATIONAL STANDARDS, WHICH WOULD PUT TO REST THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION ABOUT TESTS.”
Absolute bovine excrement Susan. Read Wilson to understand why. (if you need the reference let me know).
welcome all converts…
. . . to hell that is.
Robert Skeels,
I understand your disapproval of Ms. Klein and how you are slow to forgive and trust.
I am not a fan of Ms. Klein altogether, but I subscribe to the notion that there is such thing as a hardcore reality in which people change their thinking when they experience a situation first hand and not from afar.
Ms. Klein was no longer designing the road map here; she was actually driving on the roads she drew. Hence, it becomes easier for me to accept the notion that she has changed her orientation about high stakes standardized testing.
Robert, I am not telling you what to feel. I agree with your anger.
But what I am encouraging you to do is to consider the opposite scenario in which Ms. Klein could be writing in favor of all this reform. I don’t know about you, but I prefer the new and improved Karen Klein compared to the stale brand she has shown herself to be.
For now, I welcome her weather vane changing direction now that she and her daughter have felt the ferocious wind upon their face.
Will you consider doing the same? . . . .
Karen, I hope the LA TImes does not change your job description the way the NY Times did to Michael Winerip . . . . . . Karen, you were brave for writing what you did, and I commend you for your honesty and integrity.
Robert Rendo: what you said.
Let’s see what we can do with this very small opening.
And as always in such cases: not holding my breath. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst…
😎
KTA,
I am prepared for the worst. . . . . But I will take glimmers of hope when and where I can get them. . . . .
And remember that small openings in the dam – enough of them – can eventually make the whole dam collapse . . . . .
Thank you always for writing!
For one of the few times I wholeheartedly disagree with both Robert R. and KTA.
She’s being a self serving . . . (fill in your own expletive) who’s only concern is that her daughter’s bad standing in the results of this will make her look like a bad parent.
Self interest, that’s all this is, nothing more, nothing less.
Duane,
I don’t trust Klein in general . . . not until I see a series of articles from her questioning the validity and constructs of standardized testing and their roles in student achievement and teacher evaluation.
But I will take this slip of hers and use it to the pushback’s advantage.
We pushbackers stand to politicize things just as much as the reformers do.
Except that we have the truth in our court because those of us who teach, administrate, and conduct cognitive research know what real teaching and learning is all about, unlike those non-educators who make the policies . . . .
No es la verdad?
Klein’s opting her daughter out is a small largesse I can use to spend on my fort . . . . .
When you seek refuge in the fort, you stand to be better protected.
In the meantime, I will take Klein’s rhetoric, smile, shake hands, and keep in very guarded proximity to her . . . . .
I would love to know her position on the utility of publishing LA public school teachers’ rankings . . . . . If the news is not good, nothing would surprise me.
And Ms. Klein, where exactly is your sense of Tikkun Olam? You also have a responsibility as a journalist . . . . .
Robert Rendo…Tikkun Olam you say….no where in the world of capitalistic business is Tikkun Olam a practice…not even a thought.
The LA Times, owned by the Chicago Tribune and Sam Zell, recently came out of bankruptcy and was negotiating with both Eli Broad and the Koch Brothers in a truncated sale. This is not a corporate venture that has any vision of Tikkun Olam.
Certainly as a voice representing the basic philosophy of the paper, not a journalist but rather an editorial writer and boss of her department, Klein represents the corporate culture.
Duane Swacker: I too “wholeheartedly disagree with … KTA.”
😭
After reading Karin Klein’s response in the comments following her op-ed, I have changed my mind. I had hoped for the best but was prepared for the worst, and unfortunately she lived down to my lowest expectations.
What she wrote was essentially an opt-out of an opt-out. *Most specifically, that what she ensures for HER OWN CHILD is not what she will advocate mandating for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN. Rank self-serving hypocrisy.*
I cannot promise not to err in the future, but know that I do not take your admonition as anything more than a friendly correction.
Next time, my treat at Pink Slip Bar & Grille. No, make that two. Ang and Linda as well. I need to make amends. And you too, Robert Rendo. I won’t fault the two of us for hoping for the best…
Although Socrates is not always helpful at moments like this. Sometimes his mood swings, well, he can get so dour. I mean, really, a coupla cups of hemlock will NOT set this right…
😏
P.S. A libation of her choice to the owner of this blog too, if she hasn’t put her foot down where it shouldn’t go and can’t make it down to Pink Slip Bar & Grille under her own power.
😎
It was eminently clear where Klein’s values are when she gave prominent space yesterday to the photo op that Deasy set up…all the 375 chairs he had set up in the public street abutting the LAUSD building on Beaudry.
Where else could a Supt. get permission to close off a highly trafficed public street, surely with the help of the mayor, to once again use an orchestrated scheme to capture the attention of the media?
And Klein saw to it that her minions were there taking pics and writing far more column inches that this stunt deserved.
She has not changed her stripes.
It would be my pleasure to have a drink with KTA any day!
Here is Karin’s response to one of the comments to her editorial. “I never said that I wanted to eliminate the Common Core or the tests. I am a supporter of both.’ Nor was I outraged when my eldest scored somewhat poorly on a reading test; I knew her skills well enough to know that she had excellent reading comprehension. There are times when tests are a big wake-up call, I agree, and we’ve had our share of those. There are times when they just don’t mean all that much for a particular individual. The California standards tests, this year being replaced by the Common Core field tests, were not really designed to assess the needs of individual students; they were more meaningful for entire schools and districts. The Common Core tests might prove to be more useful for individuals; they’re meant to be and we’ll have to see how that unfolds over time.–Karin Klein” A lot of cognitive dissonance is going on in the mind of Karin Klein.
That’s good to know; that’s pretty much the vibe I got from her original article. Trust but verify…
“A lot of cognitive dissonance is going on in the mind of Karin Klein.”
Big time.
And as I posted above, I truly wonder how they (the deform crowd) deal with it.
As has been frequently pointed out, many of our deformers seem to want very different things for their own children in contrast with what they actively insist upon for our children.
She wasn’t upset when her daughter scored poorly… And she would not have been upset if her daughter’s teacher had been vilified in the press when publishing the VAM that her daughter contributed to.
You should read the rest of her comments on the thread. According to her, the lack of creativity in schools is not from excessive testing, but from an overly broad curriculum!
Her email in direct response to my letter bears out what many are saying here about her comments under the initial editorial in question. In the email she states that she still fully supports high-stakes standardized testing and its use for high-stakes consequences for students, educators, and school communities. She says she supports the use of scores in teacher evaluations (this a day after I sent her the ASA statement on VAM). I expected no less given the rivers of bile and vitriol she has penned over the years towards anyone opposing the corporate reformers, which is exceeded only by her seemingly irrational hatred of teachers. Ironically she accuses me of not recognizing her and the Times’ “nuance” on these issues, and goes on to say that her paper has been better on these issues than most of the mainstream (I read corporate) media.
My forty minute interview with her in 2013 led me to realize that she is profoundly ignorant on matters of pedagogy. It would seem her entire advocacy of neoliberal corporate reforms has been gleaned from executive summaries of policy papers from right-wing think tanks and corresponding groups like TFA. There were times when they’d (it was Klein and another female reporter) ask me a question that I’d answer outside the narrow confines of the dominant discourse, and they’d look at me like I was from Mars. Midway through the interview she spent several minutes extolling the nonexistent merits of the vile parent trigger. She dismissed my grassroots activism with parent/community resistance to Austin’s trigger takeovers as UTLA propaganda—never mind that I’m not affiliated with UTLA. When I brought up Dr. Krashen’s research, she scoffed at me. They had never heard of Kohn or Ohanian. Whenever they would debate something I said, I’d ask them if they knew of any peer reviewed research supporting their views and they would get visibly annoyed.
Some here have alluded to Klein’s seeming hypocrisy, based in white privilege and obvious socioeconomic advantages. I saw someone write “opt-out for me, but not for thee.” Based on what I’ve seen in Los Angeles—especially with the glut supporters of neoliberal reforms from the Hollywood crowd—that view is spot on.
I understand many here want to believe that Klein has had some kind of epiphany, and that the proverbial tables are turning. I sincerely wish that were true too. However, I think my initial reading of Klein was correct, and my response was appropriate. It would be nice if I were wrong. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Times suddenly stopped being a public relations firm for the Broad Foundation and the Manhattan Institute?
Either way, she’s given us a gift. If it were a real shift, nice. If after opting out, she continues down the same path, we have some pretty good ammunition.
Egotistical, self worshiping is what Klein is, only worried about her own self image and reputation.
First of all someone in Klein’s position is professionally trained to put her finger to the wind.
Secondly, who cares? Quit being interested in public figures who may or may not be for or against CCSS or anything else. People like Klein (and Klein herself) are no more than courtiers in a corrupt kingdom. You don’t get a job at the LA Times, NY Times, WaPo or any other establishment paper of record by doing real journalism. Her opinion should be disdained no matter what it is. Just another venal opportunist in a decaying empire trying to equivocate.
Common Core will soon be re-branded but the privatization will continue under a new acronym unless people protest relentlessly.
Stephan Colbert is ridiculing the common core on his show. Hope everybody sees it. It’s available on the internet if live broadcast is missed.
That’s good to see, since over the years he has been remarkably credulous about the so-called reformers, mostly giving them a free ride.
if I remember correctly, his show’s guest scheduler is married to Jonathan Alter, MSM windbag and bio-kinetic delivery system for so-called reform disinformation.
I should have mentioned the April 8th air date for anyone who wants to find it on the internet. If correct that Colbert’s scheduler is married to Alter then it seems pushback against common core is succeeding.
Reblogged this on Pilant's Business Ethics Blog and commented:
I’m going to side with Robert Skeels in this matter. I’m not that forgiving either. James Pilant
I’m puzzled (again).
Many of the commenters seem to think (as Diane Ravitch apparently does) that Karin Klein, editorial writer at the LA Times, has changed her position on standardized testing and the Common Core. Not so.
Klein opted her 11th grade daughter out of the Common Core testing in California (which is, as Klein notes, is only testing high school juniors this year) for a very specific reason, and she states quite clearly what it is:
“Eleventh grade also happens to be a big year for all kinds of tests. The PSAT. The SAT. The SAT 2 subject tests: three of them. There was a brief winter flirtation with the ACT. And next month, four Advanced Placement tests.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-common-core-test-optout-20140408,0,4198942.story#ixzz2yMyWXqPc
In other words, Klein opted her daughter out of Common Core testing not out of conviction but because of convenience. There were more ‘important’ tests at stake: the SAT and AP tests (with the ACT a consideration).
Now, guess who were two of the major players in the development of the Common Core? The ACT and the College Board (which makes the SAT and AP tests).
If Karin Klein were sincere – and informed – she’d have used her column to take apart the high-stakes standardized testing nonsense and to help educate the public on the severe limitations of the ACT, the SAT, and Advanced Placement program and AP tests. But she isn’t and she didn’t.
Karin Klein has not “changed sides” or “admitted error” or engaged in public contrition.
She’s merely displayed her hypocrisy.
Being in Florida, I have not paid attention to Karin Klein and have been unaware of her position – until I started reading the comments and checked around.
The disdain from so many is justified. However, it IS significant that someone of her stature and credentials, who has been supportive of corp ed reform now publicly denounces high stakes testing as meaningless, however late she has but dipped her toes into the water on this side. We need all the pushback we can get these days.
I realize that she has not denounced corporate reform.
We need an arrow aimed at the problem from EVERY angle. Every time we get one person from the other side who wants to step into the light a little, I have to think that in the big picture, it’s a huge step forward.
Chipping away at this little by little, the concrete is softening and one of these days, the wall will come down, hopefully sooner than later, so my young children can still have a shot at a decent education in public schools. I think about pulling them out way to often now. And I always come back to what happens when we all leave the public schools – we who can, that is. What will be left?
No, we should not roll out the red carpet for Ms. Klein, but we can and should use her. We should be inviting her to speak to the many parents who just don’t even have a clue, who have been much like her – whose children “test just fine, thank you very much”, who might say to themselves, “Jesus Christ, if SHE has been for reform and now comes out publicly saying the tests are meaningless, well, maybe I need to think about this.”
That’s what she can do for us now.