Mark Naison, a co-founder of the Badass Teachers Association (BATS), is America’s Education Gadfly par excellence (that is, assuming that a BAT can also be a gadfly).
NAISON, a professor of African-American studies at Fordham University, knows how to get under the skin of the powerful.
He recently released a sharp video from his very own EduNews, criticizing Teach for America.
TFA—that financial and political powerhouse—promptly responded with a video on its website.
The BATS were delighted that Mark’s video struck a TFA nerve. Now, they are hopeful that TFA might respond to Julian Vasquez Heilig’s review of the evidence about TFA.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When the fake education reformers respond to anyone from the resistance, that means the resistance is becoming a threat and the fakes can’t ignore us any longer. It’s obvious that the resistance is no longer an irritating fly but is becoming many special-forces teams like the one that took out Osama bin Laden.
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Message clear, brief and to the point, metaphor of bleach a great choice, clear simple graphics inserted to amplify mesage. A real pro. Thanks for enlarging this megaphone.
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Still can’t figure him out. He appears to be supported by a conservative corporate sponsored NGO going back to the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations with Bad Ass Teachers.
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Diane, are you supported or linked to an NGO?
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The same NGO is linked to the “Standardized” film and United Opt Out
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Both links are to the Mark Naison video… the second one is intended for the TFA response, correct?
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The link to the TFA ‘response’ winds up back at the Naison video. Can you locate the TFA response so we can enjoy the latest Wendyisms? The ones I found are from a couple of years ago…
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@ George: jinx, you owe me a coke! teeheehee
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Maybe the point is…there IS no response?
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these may be orchestrated distractions. the issue is opting out and Common Core.
“Having worked out how to manage governments, political parties, elections, the courts, the media and liberal opinion, the neoliberal establishment faced one more challenge; how to deal with growing unrest, the threat of “peoples’ power”. How do you domesticate it? How do you turn protestors into pets. How do you vacuum up people’s fury and redirect it into blind alleys?”
Arundhati Roy (2014)
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“How do you vacuum up people’s fury and redirect it into blind alleys?
Well, one way to do quite successfully it is to rush to the front of the line a chameleon, Trojan Horse presidential candidate like Barack Obama.
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Please excuse the poor proofreading: That should read, “One way to do it quite successfully…”
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In Georgia, we have been inspired by the Resistance that is gaining in Texas via the Texas Parents Opt Out. This blog from Georgia State University professor, Dr Jack Hassard, has been helpful for us Georgia parents who are joining the effort here in Atlanta to bring quality rather than punitive “test quantity” to APS:
http://www.artofteachingscience.org/third-strike-against-teacher-evaluation-schemes-brave-new-parents-opt-out/
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I will say one thing for Mark Naison and the BATs: they’re great at self-promotion.
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Not as good as TFA, Michelle Rhee, Common Core, and Bill Gates….
But that ‘s what makes Mark/BATs genuine!!! Thanks Mark!
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still no answer about his links to the Middle States Association http://www.standardizedthefilm.com/resources/
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SoCal Teacher: when you are up against a billionaire PR campaign to privatize education, you need a counter campaign, without the billions
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Thank you, Dr. Ravitch, for the reply. My only concern is that I have seen many decent educators harassed within the BATs Facebook page for daring to disagree or even slightly criticize Dr. Naison or the BAT administrators. If you have a national reputation or a working relationship with one of the founders or admins, all is well, but heaven forbid you are just a humble classroom teacher who only works with students on a day-to-day basis.
I do appreciate much of what BATs have done, but I do find Dr. Naison’s ego a bit off-putting. That is all.
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I am in agreement with SoCal Teacher. Was absolutely harassed on the Badass site and numerous other teachers contacted me to express similar frustration. Your point about organized to counter billionaire campaigns is spot on, but there is an ethics to what we do that I won’t compromise and Badass does that. Mark Niason does not represent my interests as an educator, and that is unfortunate. In the end, he will do more harm than good.
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Mark Naison is a shameless self-promoter, piggy-backing on this movement in order to create what almost amounts to a personality cult. That, combined with the gross censorship that exists on their site, makes me trust him about as much as I trust Michele Rhee.
Additionally, BATS membership claims are fraudulent, since people are added to the membership lists without their knowledge.
Finally, where are all these thousands of BATS? Do they appear at school closing hearings? No, neither I nor anyone I know has ever seen them.
Do they appear at anti-testing demonstrations in front of Tweed? No.
Were all those thousands of BATS demonstrating in front of Governor Cuomo’s office in April? No.
Yet, if given a speaker’s role at a demonstration, we are forced to listen to one of his cringe-inducing raps, and are told he is a “leader” of this movement. He’s not; he’s an opportunist looking to plant himself in front of the parade and have himself anointed as the Great Dear Leader.
Sorry, but this organization is the closest thing to a Left astro turf group you’re likely to find, and people fighting to defend public education will come to regret it if Naison is allowed to push to the front of the line and be identified with it.
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Michael, do you know Mark personally? I’m just saying that your complaints about Mark have the ring of personal insight/grudge. Unfortunately, no matter how accurate you may be abut the character of this person, it’s something that we cannot share.
My experience as a regular reader of this blog, and the BATs website/facebook is that they are staunch supporters of public schools, and great allies in a worthy battle.
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James,
No, I have no personal animosity toward Mark Naison and, in fact, I respect the worthy oral histories he has done in the Bronx.
However, while BATs – the name, for one, is an embarrassment, since it’s an inappropriate name for a teacher’s organization, and because no real Badass calls themselves that – comes across with the correct positions on these matters, I feel that is overshadowed by
1) The censorship and intolerance that is rife on their site, with people banned for petty reasons. Contrast that with Diane’s blog, in which people who question or disagree with Diane or other writers continue to comment, even when those comments border on trolling.
Contrast Diane’s open and democratic attitude toward expression, with the BATs site, where even people who are active in the movement to defend public education are banned for minor departures from BATs groupthink.
Obviously, people have the right to set the rules for their own websites/Facebook pages, but don’t you think this refusal to listen to other voices is revealing, and would you want to give prominence in this or any movement to those who demonstrate such petty intolerance?
2) The membership claims of the group are grossly inflated, since people’s names are added to the membership list without their knowledge. This is a fact that even people sympathetic to the group acknowledge.
If this movement is going to counteract the lies of the so-called reformers, who lie about everything, then honesty matters.
3) The group essentially exists in cyber-space, and nowhere else. Call me old-fashioned, but I think noise-making bodies in the streets, school boards and council hearings count for far more than postings on Facebook. I have yet to see a contingent of BATs at any demonstration I have attended, and I have been involved in this movement for a long time.
3) Mr. Naison has a habit of making unsupported claims (“Some call us the conscience of the union,” an especially rankling one for me) that grossly overstate the importance of the group, and invariably place him in a questionable position of leadership.
Additionally, having often read his blog posts over the past couple of years, I find their most striking quality to be the quantifiable overuse of the first person subject, object and possessive pronouns. There’s an disproportionate amount of “I,” “me” and “my,” which is very revealing of character.
Anyway, I assume that some people may find my comments divisive, but so be it. I stand by my statement that the movement to defend public education will come to regret allowing Mr. Naison to grab a largely fictional position of prominence in it.
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“the name, for one, is an embarrassment, since it’s an inappropriate name for a teacher’s organization, and because no real Badass calls themselves that”
The name is extraordinarily cringe-worthy.
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Yes… The name is a bit contrived…. Maybe a big bit…
However, I would say that what I have read by him is good. I appreciate, even his first person narratives because they do reflect an angst that I, and most teachers, feel about the corporate deform movement.
It’s seems to me that he is another voice making a valuable contribution toward this progression we are making to restore sanity to the vocation of education. It may not be a voice that you like (clearly), but it has purpose, and worth.
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James,
While I think we’ve gone as far with this as we can or should, I’ll finish my bit by saying that my issue isn’t with Naison’s “voice,” – he has useful things to say – but with his actions: censorship/intolerance on the BATs site, playing fast and loose with the truth of membership claims, a tin ear politically, and an obsession with control and self-promotion at the expense of movement building.
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I’ll add, and close by saying that I have not seen these things. Hence my supposition that this may be personal. Perhaps it’s me that is uninformed. I have by no means read everything that he written, nor everything that is on the website.
Never-the-less I feel a part of that organization. Though I am not able to attend a rally (because I live in Portland Oregon) I stand in solidarity with Naison and the B.A.T.s principles and ideals. Furthermore, the visceral nature of some of his/their response to TFA etcetera, reflect my feelings about these organizations and people. I find comfort that people are responding to the greedy madness of corporate reform with a tone expressive of the outrage that has been engendered.
Make no mistake about it, I appreciate reasoned discourse, but at a certain point we have to say “You do not have the right to that opinion, because it is wrong. You do not have the right to my respect because you are knowingly misleading the people that are listening to you.” I think this is the tack that Naison has taken. I do not believe that’s intolerance.
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Good for Mark Naison exposing TFA. It would be great if ABC, NBC, or CBS would invite Diane and Duncan to be at the Round Table or Meet the Press, or Face the Nation for a discussion and transparancy of public education.
Here is another issue I struggled with today as I watched Secretary Shinseiki get raked over the coals by the Obama adm. for his management of veteran care. Representative of the veteran’s committee reprimanded him and his undersecretary, who resigned shortly thereafter, over national news for deaths caused by backlogs and that someone needs to “take substantive actions to hold any of its leaders accountable for negligence that harms veterans.” Also the veterans’s group of Iraq and Afganistan Veterans of America said, “We don’t need a scapegoat, we need an actual plan restore a culture of accountability throughout the VA”. Ironic how this could apply to America’s policies on Education.
Why is Duncan’s harmful policies on education not equally as important as what is going on with veteran affairs? Where are the watchdogs in Washington protecting the education system? Why are veterans’ group of America in the news media and teacher/parent advocate groups are not given equal attention? I hope we get there sooner than later.
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Jon, you ask good questions. Why do none of the national media pay attention to Arne Duncan’s efforts to destroy US public education? Why do they ignore the spectacular failure of Race to Top?
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Because the media is corporate America controlled, and they stand to lose if they go up against their commercial sponsors.
Plain and simple. . . . right to the point.
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Poor TFA. Watch. There are five teacher who taught 8th grade english in rich counties. it turns out they did .0002% better than the average. Tons of newspaper,TV and the headlines “TFA teachers excel over existing teachers.” Never mind the media can’t see the obvious “throw the marbles on the floor” statistics. Cherry pick the one out of a hundred even though on average they are huge failures, we will still have propaganda. Why do they call it propaganda? it is a system that truly convinces people of this – lies.
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We know that the video is hitting a nerve when we get tin foil hat trolling that seeks to tie Mark to an as yet un named NGO and old right wing money. Thanks for telegraphing your next moves reformers, but we here are quite aware of F.U.D. and all of it’s rather obvious manifestations.
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THANKS C.A.! I was having trouble making sense out of the NGO line of thought occurring in this posting… It’s just F.U.D.
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The Middle States Association mentioned in the previous posting. Money is available it appears through United Opt Out. I pass the tin foil hat to you. This is hardly a “grass roots” organization. I hope Diane has some surprise if she is free from NGOs.
In her new book, Indian author, Arundahti Roy, says:
“Armed with their billions, these NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations)
have waded into the world, turning potential revolutionaries into salaried activists, funding artists, intellectuals, and film makers, gently luring them away from radical confrontation, ushering them in the direction of multiculturalism, gender equity, community development- the discourse couched in the language of identity politics and human rights.”
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Arundhati Roy’s book “Capitalism: A Ghost Story” is a description of what is going on in INDIA. That sounds somewhat similar to the tactics of Kopp, Rhee, Broad, Gates, DFER and other American corporate education “reformers” and their astroturf organizations, not the grassroots resistance groups. If only the resistance here had at least one billionaire or NGO funding them, then maybe the other side of the story would make it into the popular press as often as the PR put out by those faux “reformers.”
I have no idea why a regional accrediting body of colleges and schools would be listed under “Resources” at the website for the film “Standardized,” but I think it’s a huge stretch to characterize them as a funder. Provide proof of the funding source. And for United Opt Out as well
Meanwhile, it is YOUR tin foil hat.
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Not sure where the TFA response video is, but here is a reply of their blog to Mr Naison…
http://www.teachforamerica.org/tfa-on-the-record/responses/may-15-2014-brooklyn-accent-blog?app_data=%7B%22pi%22%3A%2246940_1400177552_89389196%22%2C%22pt%22%3A%22twitter%22%7D
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I just read the link you enclosed–thanks! It’s interesting that this organization is billing itself as the largest source of “teachers of color.” They claim their last cohort was 39% minority, while nationwide, only 17% of teachers are minorities. Hmmm, I am wondering if that is because of all of the non-white teachers who have lost their jobs to make room for the Tfers.
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It is all staged. thanks for the entertainment. The Walmart family is not having sleepless nights over this video.
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Diane is hopelessly silent on these NGOs propaganda practices. She may be in shock about how her site has been co-opted.
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Joseph, I am “hopelessly silent” because I have no idea who or what you are talking about.
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Diane. I am still awaiting word from Mark about BATs link to a Pennsylvania NGO. You did not say yet that you are not connected to an NGO. Ms. Roy has seen the effects of her poor country in India. You may not be a fan of hers, but India is a precursor to this country.
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Joseph, I hate to disappoint you but I am not connected to an NGO. I am a research professor at New York University. Mark NAISON is a professor at Fordham University.
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Joseph, the Middle States Association is a regional accrediting group of long standing. Accrediting groups typically rely on peer review and professional expertise, so I don’t find their association (however extensive it is) with “Standardized” and other initiatives that emphasize professional expertise over test driven accountability surprising or disturbing.
In terms of size, Middle States Association isn’t exactly Oxfam or Médecins Sans Frontières either. Please explain what your concern is with Middle States Association, because I really don’t see the issue.
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Cynthia, take me to your leader.
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As a founder of United Opt Out I m so happy to read the comments by Joseph. I had no idea that we were a well funded NGO and that I am a salaried activist. I have one question though. Who the heck is impersonating me and taking my salary?
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Sir, could you and your NGO backers please stop ushering me “in the direction of multiculturalism, gender equity, and community development”?
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Tim, Could you please pay me retroactively for all of my years of unpaid work promoting the cause? I couldn’t find any link on your site for “$$ support”!
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Tim, then you are not linked to a Pennsylvania NGO? Your site offers $$ support.
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Jospeh is either a poor communicator, or a robotic mole trying to distract.
Joeseph, if you are flesh and blood, please use more detail and expressive language and BE SURE to contexturalize your posts so that the rest of us can understand the planet – or galaxy – you come from . . . . .
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Diane I was a professor too. You are saying that you and Mark are not related to an NGO. I accept that on your honor.
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Get a grip Joe.
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Huh? only with my parents at Opt Out LI.
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I urge viewers to click on the [now fixed] TFA link. *Note: there is no video re Mark Naison but a web posting.*
One of the most critical functions of critics of the education status quo is to make its members and enablers put themselves on record.
Note the first of three introductory points, apparently the most important: “Our role is to develop leaders both inside and outside of education who are committed to expanding opportunity for every student, starting with teaching for at least two years in an underserved urban or rural school. Eighty-six percent of our alums work in education or with low-income communities.”
This has been examined before. Note the use of the word “leaders” and the phrase “work in education or with low-income communities”—coded language for ‘we provide TeachForAwhiles that will replace/displace experienced expensive real educators’ and ‘we provide inexperienced but enthusiastic GAGAers for any well paying bureaucratic position in the education establishment.’
Swallow whole, don’t bother to ask for the crucial but revealing details about the vaguely uplifting tone of the numbers and stats.
Not much of an improvement over the old-fashioned way of misleading—
“In ancient times they had no statistics so so they had to fall back on lies.” [Stephen Leacock]
Unfortunately for the wrecking crews of self-styled “education reform” nowadays we have Gary Rubinstein, ex-TFAer and cogent critic, to keep them honest.
😎
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TFA claims the following on their linked rebuttal:
“The bottom line is that our corps members are subject to the same hiring practices as any other beginning teacher.”
The last time I checked, “any other beginning teacher” had to actually be qualified to teach. TFAers circumvent these requirements.
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lol
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Double that lol.
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Watched both videos and could not help but laugh at TFA’s rather obvious PR blunder… if they are actually trying to convince America that their organization is for the children and not for profit… they should make an attempt to hide who sponsors them… as I read their response, I noticed a slew of corporate logos switching on and off on the bottom of the response. There were too many companies to fit so one would appear and disappear so the next could surface. Here are some that I saw… Wells Fargo, Forbes, Fortune Magazine,Cisco, Capital Management…. Okay… the truth has a way of surfacing… does this fit into the category of “you cannot make this up…”???
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Diane, Mark has never denied his links to the conservative corporate funded NGO, but you do.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win.” [Ghandi]
Arundahti Roy (2014), says:
“Armed with their billions, these NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations)
have waded into the world, turning potential revolutionaries into salaried activists, funding artists, intellectuals, and film makers, gently luring them away from radical confrontation, ushering them in the direction of multiculturalism, gender equity, community development- the discourse couched in the language of identity politics and human rights.”
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Back in the day when Kopp and Rhee were coming through the higher education system, there was a movement among fairly smart students to create your own position if your major was one of those that was not in demand. They obviously did a good job in creating their own lucrative positions. This thing has gotten out of hand. My own state senator is a TFA grad and short term teacher. Real quick he became an aide to Alonzo in Baltimore and then hired by JHU school of ed for special programs. Real nice guy and I like him, but he is right from the TFA mold.
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Joseph, please explain what your concerns are with the Middle States Association. Are you against the regional accrediting associations in general?
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Mr/Ms.Stiles, why do you move off of the subject? are you with that organization? Who is funding it? I know that Bloomberg funds the Carnegie foundation, which created the public schools.
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Joseph, I am not an employee of the Middle States Association nor is my institution accredited by Middle States. I am in a different region of the country. My understanding is that regional accrediting associations like the Middle States Association and its commissions are primarily member funded.
I just browsed the web site for the schools commission and reviewed the policy on finances. http://www.msa-cess.org/RelId/606565/ISvars/default/MSA-CESS_Policies.htm. Looks member funded to me. Do you have evidence otherwise or are you speculating?
And for the record, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905. By 1905, 37 of the 45 states had enacted compulsory attendance laws.
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From a bystander’s point, it seems like you who are trying to gradually shift the subject by throwing ‘NGO’ curve ball.
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Agreed!
The Topic is TFA and it’s respective position as an agent of corporate reform, disguising itself as pro-teacher/pro-school. It’s is neither, and the BATs (Mark Naison as their spokesperson) have done the simple service of pointing that out -again. Thank you Mark!
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This is a simple inquiry about the role that this organization is playing and who funds it. Education policy is always set by foundations going back to the Ford Foundation particularly. There is no curve ball. “He who pays the piper calls the tune”.
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The evil Carnegie Foundation “that founded the public schools”. Yes, and they also founded the free public libraries all around the country. Once-upon-a-time, foundations actually supported the public interest. Don’t feed the trolls, especially ones on whatever “Joseph” is on.
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Americans did not always think that way:
In 1913, the Sixty Second Congress determined after one year of testimony about foundations created by corporate families, including Carnegie and Rockefeller, that:
“The giant foundation exercises enormous power through direct use of its funds, free of any statutory entanglements so they can be directed precisely to the levers of a situation; this power, however is substantially increased by building collateral alliances which insulate it from criticism and scrutiny.”
In Congress’ Second inquiry into foundation life in 1958, the chief counsel wrote:
“All its connections and associations, plus the often sycophantic adulation of the many institutions and individuals who receive largesse from the foundation, give it an enormous aggregate of power and influence. This power extends beyond its immediate power and associations, to those who hope to benefit from its bounty.”
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It sounds like “Joseph” is a follower of self-professed crackpot “anarcho-capitalist” libertarian, Lew Rockwell, who thinks public education is a conspiracy. Please go back to your hole, asylum, or wherever you crawled out of, Joseph.
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Harold your use of language undermines any information in your message. The medium is the message. Public education is not a conspiracy, it was developed in the open with a new Prussian model that came from Europe by large corporations and universities. Entities like Middle School Education is a “gatekeeper”. I cant see their interest in progressive educational movements
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This thread is about Mark Naison and Teach for America. Go away.
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Yes Harold, your postings have reduced the discourse about Middle States and their role in education.
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