Gary Rubinstein writes in this post about Michael Johnston and his long association with him.
Today Johnston is known in Colorado as the state senator who wrote the most punitive, anti-teacher law in the nation. At present, Harvard students are protesting the invitation to Johnston to speak at commencement
Gary knew him from Teach for America. He describes a young man who understood and cared about his students, who saw the obstacles they confronted, and who appreciated the hard work of veteran teachers.
But something happened to Michael Johnston between 2002 and 2010. The man Gary knew turned into an accountability hawk. He became a harsh critic of teachers.
For a time he was leading the test-and-punish parade, but the parade seems to be in disarray. It is no longer the leading edge but the rearguard.
Michael Johnston was invited to be the commencement speaker at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for 2014, but some students objected and called on the school to withdraw the invitation. That’s not likely to happen, nor should it. The students and graduates should have a chance to debate the issues, to debate the value of the Rhee–Duncan-Spellings style that has long been favored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Now is a good time to review the research on value-added measurement. Now is a good opportunity to ask SenatorJohnston what happened to quash his youthful wisdom.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t have the time to do it right now, but I suspect a glance at his campaign contributors might offer a clue…
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Money.
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Exactly. $$$$$ Ka Ching
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The organization of TFA is a bit like a pyramid scheme. There are a bunch of VPs who are making a lot of money for a non-profit, certainly six figures. Then there are the majority of staffers, people who work in recruitment, teacher ‘effectiveness’, even the alumni team, IT, etc., who make much less. But regardless of the status of the TFA staffer, they all have one thing in common: They are all accessories to a $300 million annual fraud funded, in part, by taxpayers …
http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/my-advice-tfa-staffers
Guess who the author was for this November 2013 piece? Gary Rubinstein
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Yes, Lloyd, and it also has some of the elements of a Ponzi scheme, since if it doesn’t keep growing, it will collapse.
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Let’s face it, Teach For America is a detriment to public education and an enemy to real teachers. It is time our universities took a stand against them. No recruiting on campus, no commencements speeches, no promotion of any kind. If you are an institute training teachers you should not be an ally to TFA. If anything, teach future teachers about the history and deception that they represent.
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I love how people at Harvard believe this is a dissenting view that is being silenced.
“Public schools suck!” couldn’t be more mainstream. It is absolutely pervasive and everywhere; federal, state, every newspaper editorial board, tens of celebrities, hundreds of lobbying groups.
What would have been really daring would be to invite someone who actually values public schools. That would be bold and courageous.
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Chiara Duggan: simple truths written in clear English.
With all the ‘misleads’ and ‘decoys’ and ‘distractors’ [hint: think standardized test items] we are bombarded with on a daily basis, this is a refreshing dollop of sanity.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
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If there’s any silenced, mistreated group it’s ed reform politicians and billionaires. Hear their voices!
I mean, my God, you can’t shut them up. They’re everywhere. Doesn’t TFA have a specially-subsidized corps in Congress? Who else gets that kind of access?
Speak truth to power, Harvard! Shut down those future middle class teachers! They’ve commandeered this country long enough! 🙂
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More light from Chiara!
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The part you all are missing is not so much the money but the dominant culture supremacy aspect, which includes money. Johnston comes from money; he’s a rich kid from Vail. He simply subscribes to the idea that his way is best. It’s what’s been happening in public education for years with Black and Latino working-class kids, and it’s what gives TFA their raison d’etre. Those of you that keep ignoring at least the institutional racist aspects of his agenda and others, are making it worse. It’s time for allies to come out of the closet and hold their own accountable.
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I for one have no objections to the objections. Students should be aware of who is being invited and what the hidden agenda really is, and Harvard is a big player in the Reform Movement. After all, it’s the students who are graduating and earned it, and they should have some say regarding who gives the address. It’s not about “debate” since you really cannot “debate” a speech and there is no Q and A afterwards. You want to present a “dissenting view”, then arrange a lecture with a Q and A or real debate. Don’t hold these students captive to what is basically the ideology Harvard is spreading!!
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Dear Professor Ravitch,
A sincere thank-you for your continued attention to this issue. Raising awareness about Sen. Johnston’s brand of reform was one of the main reasons for putting the statement together.
Just some friendly pushback on your last paragraph; we do, indeed, call for chances to debate the issues with Sen. Johnston and other ed reformers in three separate places in the statement:
“(We are calling on you to) create more public venues where Sen. Johnston’s vision of education reform can be discussed, debated, analyzed, and unpacked.” (para 2)
“A far more suitable invitation for Sen. Johnston would be to engage in a debate with other Coloradoan educators who have experienced the negative effects of his brand of education reform.” (para 9)
“Finally, we urge that a broad cross-section of students have a voice in choosing future speakers at Convocation and other special events, and we encourage HGSE to design more interactive formats for invitees (e.g., debates) so the ideas of ed reformers like Mike Johnston can be critically questioned rather than uncritically celebrated.” (para 10)
But that’s not what’s happening at Convocation, where Sen. Johnston will be afforded an unchallenged podium to deliver his ideas. If we hadn’t spoken up, he likely would have peppered his speech — and he’s quite the polished speaker — with platitudes about “equality”, “access”, and “the new civil rights movement”, where very few except the most wonkiest of ed reform wonks, and/or the few Coloradoans in the audience, would have been able to cut through the rhetoric to see the substance and effects of his reforms. Related to this issue, Coloradoan educators and community members who helped give another side of Sen. Johnston’s reforms deserve a tremendous amount of credit, and we tried to feature and honor their voices in our statement, since they are so rarely heard at places like HGSE while the voices of folks like Sen. Johnston are heard all of the time (more on this in the next paragraph).
To Sen. Johnston’s credit, and to our dean’s credit, we’re told by Dean Ryan that Sen. Johnston has agreed to meet with the HGSE community before Convocation (details are still being worked out, we’re told). While this is indeed a positive step (which, of course, wouldn’t have happened had we not spoken up), there will still be an imbalance of whose voices get heard, since Sen. Johnston will ultimately have the final word in front of a much larger audience at Convocation. This is particularly frustrating, given that Sen. Johnston has already been afforded a place to speak on *three* separate occasions just this calendar year — once at a school-wide forum at HGSE in the fall of 2013, and in both of Professor Kay Merseth’s courses entitled “School Reform”, also in the fall. It is remarkable that some of our detractors have stated that we’re trying to “silence” or “censor” Sen. Johnston in light of these facts (note: I don’t think you’re arguing this, Professor Ravitch, but others certainly have).
That said, I truly do thank you for using your blog and its millions of followers to raise awareness about Sen. Johnston’s reforms and the institutional issues at HGSE. An important note: I don’t pretend to speak for the other 145 signers in my comments here and above, though I’d be surprised if many didn’t share my sentiments in thanking you and others who have supported us.
Sincerely,
Chris Buttimer
Ed.M. (’10); Ed.D. candidate (’16)
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Thanks, Chris Buttimer, for challenging Michael Johnston’s credibility as a “reformer.” His big idea of judging teachers, principals, and schools by standardized test scores. Someday people will look on these scores as an artifact of mechanistic, anti-humanistic ideology. Johnston’s brand of reform will one day be a lagging stock.
Thank you for your courage.
By the way, in the last few years, HGSE has hosted Margaret Spellings and Michelle Rhee were featured speakers. Not much balance there.
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Someday people will look on these scores as an artifact of mechanistic, anti-humanistic ideology.
Yes. Thank you, Diane, for working toward that great day.
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I’m confused. Is he speaking at commencement or convocation?
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Thank YOU, Professor Ravitch! And, just to be clear, it was far more people than me involved in this effort — most importantly, Coloradoan educators and community members — though I certainly appreciate the kind words. To your last point, hopefully our statement will urge HGSE to begin the process of including more voices beyond policymakers and academics in our public talks (as well as in our classrooms), and to create spaces where ideas are debated and challenged, as opposed to simply being presented uncritically. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Chris
P.S. In case you’re unaware, the day after HGSE students hear from Sen. Johnston at Convocation, they and all others graduating from the college and university will listen to Mayor Bloomberg deliver the commencement address.
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“the day after HGSE students hear from Sen. Johnston at Convocation, they and all others graduating from the college and university will listen to Mayor Bloomberg deliver the commencement address.”
Hilarious.
Why, that’s a very diverse selection of views! One view, two speakers.
You want more than one? How dare you! 🙂
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Wow.. what a reversal… I remember being captivated hearing Havel speak years back and his forewarning about the “world mall” obliterating culture. Now Bloomberg is speaking??? Ughh.. and corporate “ed reformer” mouthpiece, Johnston speaking… ughh…
What next … Harvard will have one of the Kardashians at the main commencement while the School of Ed graduates are forced to endure someone like David Coleman!!! Chris Buttimer is right to question how speakers are chosen!
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If students are graduating Harvard without having mastered the art of rhetoric than Harvard is not the Harvard of old.
The free exchange of ideas is essential to a free society. Bullying and surpressing the ideas of another appears to me that you are incapable of refuting them.
It certainly is easier to enforce the ideas of your master than to reason your own opinion through healthy debate, but I am more concerned about the silencing of opposition than I am of hearing the opinion of one I disagree
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Please do not correct my misspelling of suppress. I am from Boston and spelling phonetically. 🙂
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LOL.
Years ago, I took a job with what is now a HUGE textbook publisher. This publisher had just done a 50,000 copy run of a grammar and composition book that misspelled the word misspelled in the first paragraph of its spelling chapter.
The same publisher had misspelled grammar as GRAMMER in ENORMOUS type on the half title page that introduced the grammar section of its flagship grammar and composition program.
People not in publishing get very excited when they find an error in some book. I have spent a lifetime studying grammar. I’ve written house style sheets for large publishing houses. I NEVER read a book that isn’t filled with errors in grammar, usage, mechanics, spelling, and format. I’ve edited copy from some of the foremost public intelllectuals in the country, and they ALL make mistakes, frequently. We all do. I do. You do. We all do.
And often it’s those who have the most advanced language skills who do this most often. Talented writers often work very quickly. Talented readers take in large blocks of text at a time and don’t attend to every detail. That’s why good readers will have no problem figuring out what this says:
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor
of the hmuan mnid!
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,
it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last= ltteer
be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses
and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm.
This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/other-topics/701653-check-out-i-bet-you-can.html#ixzz32eVg9yQX
Harriet Monroe, who edited Poetry magazine for decades and published the likes of Pound, Eliot, Yeats, Williams, Frost, Stevens, Millay, etc., once wrote that Eliot was the only one of them who could spell worth a _____.
If I had a dime for every silly typo that has appeared in some post I’ve made on this blog, I could use it do send a very lovely get-well gift to Diane during her recovery from surgery. 🙂
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This is totally off the subject and not just for you Robert, but does anyone know what dyslexic students do with this? How about just plain struggling readers? The fact that we can read this points to a more sophisticated approach to reading instruction than an either/or battle between whole language and phonics.
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As an AP English teacher, recently retired from Cherry Creek Schools, a high-achieving district in the southern metro Denver area, I have had first-hand experience with the policies Senator Johnston has initiated. First SB 191 was very narrowly passed in the Colorado legislature. One of the provisions of this bill was that the teacher evaluation system requires administrators to evaluate every teacher every year and will result in pulling administrators away from other needed duties. The PARCC tests require students to take them electronically, causing severe financial hardships on Colorado’s poorer, rural districts.
Although Senator Johnston has had some experience in education, his view is colored by Teach for America, which posits that graduates from upper tier colleges can be trained in five weeks and become effective teachers for a few years on their way to a more serious profession. But, as is commonly known, teachers do not begin to master their craft until the fifth year of teaching. A politician who bases his decisions on such superficial experience does a disservice to his constituents and, more importantly, to students. In one of his speeches, Senator Johnston shared an experience he had as principal in a Colorado high school. Attempting to inspire his 9th and 10th-grade students on the first day of school, he had them form a circle, then told them that statistically, half of them should go home because they would not graduate high school anyway. This was his attempt to challenge them to try harder. Compare this method with a teacher, with over twenty years experience, who also has her students sit in a circle, but instead of threatening them with failure, she has the students say their names and their favorite animal. Using this word-association game, she would learn the names of every one of her 35 students that first day of class, and the students would learn a little about her and each other, too, creating a learning community.
An inexperienced educator confuses discipline with inspiration. Experienced educators listen to their students, value them as individuals, and base their instruction on the needs of their students, not on a predetermined laundry list of skills. This is what effective educators do. They apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They know a child cannot learn unless she feels safe and has been nourished, both physically and emotionally. I would suggest that any qualified and experienced teacher would give a better, more illuminating commencement speech.
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