Peter Greene sees signs that educators are fed up with the top-down mandates from non-educator Arne Duncan, fed up with the failed punitive policies of NCLB and Race to the Top. Now we know that Washington cares about one thing only: test scores, and now we know that the beneficiaries of Washington’s obsession are the testing companies. We have now had nearly 15 years of test-based incentives and sanctions and ample evidence that this approach has driven joy out of learning and failed to achieve anything that benefits students or society.
As the school year begins, let’s hope that there will be more states following Vermont’s lead by rejecting federal mandates and setting forth their own vision of what good education looks like. Let’s hope that there will be more teachers like those in Chicago and at Garfield High in Seattle who insist on doing what’s right for their students. Let’s hope that there will be more superintendents like those in Washington State who were compelled by NCLB to send home a letter saying “we are a failing school,” but added a cover letter saying that it was not true. Let’s hope that integrity, courage, and candor break out everywhere.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here’s hoping!
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For me, this is the money quote: “But postponing a stupid thing does not make it any less stupid, and in the meantime, more and more people are starting to point out that the emperor’s clothes (which are no longer new) are woven out of air and empty promises.”
From my experience as a school board member and fighting the good fight against Common Core, one of the biggest obstacles to getting any sense of logic and sanity into these arguments is that the public is easily cowed by the educational “research” that is so readily peddled by bureaucrats, politicians, teachers, and administrators. Those of us who stand up and demand real explanations are shouted own as arrogant and obstructive—Here the “science”; they are “experts”; how dare you question them!.
But I now hope some new papers will help those of us who are sick of the charlatanry get a chance to be heard. The Washington Post “Answer Sheet” ‘blog posted this amazing report on a new research paper showing that only 0.13% of published educational research is independently confirmed. The authors concluded:
The other paper reported here questions the use of randomized controlled trials in the social sciences, explicitly consideration of their use in education.
Both of these papers should give any discussing education policy serious pause. If there are not reliable repeatable results, and RCTs are the “gold standard” in social sciences as they are in medicine, then the idea of data-driven education reform is a sham. And the idea that there are “experts” to guide schools, parents, students, and elected officials is nonsense.
We could be on the threshold of returning schooling to teachers and communities.
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” If there are not reliable repeatable results, and RCTs are the “gold standard” in social sciences as they are in medicine, then the idea of data-driven education reform is a sham. And the idea that there are “experts” to guide schools, parents, students, and elected officials is nonsense. ”
TAGP!* M&N!!
And how can we get that point across when so many have no sense of what valid research entails?
I guess keep on pointing out that fact and debunking any of that supposed research.
*That’s a Great Point! (for us acronym impaired folks).
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Educators are powerless, what does it mean to say “enough”? This has been going on for years, they need to say “enough” to their unions, which support organizations, which “seem” to support them. Teachers are lost in a corporate hall of mirrors. Getting out is how teachers say “Enough!”. Are we getting the best postings here or promoting books?
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One of the founders of unitedoptout leads by example. Read about it in this post:
http://www.pegwithpen.com/2014/08/parents-i-cannot-protect-your-children.html
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Many Teachers live in their own world, Their time is consumed by their own families and the children they teach. It is difficult to believe that our Educational system has been bought out by corporate interests and some reporters are still claiming that this is an :conspiracy theory.
With the infiltration of CCSS and evaluations into the classrooms, more and more Teachers are awakening to the flaws of this approach. Thanks to blogs such as Diane’s teachers have a source to turn to. A facebook group “Bad Ass Teachers” (BATs) has been in existence for a little over a year and has over 50,000 members.
Admittedly Teachers are a little slow to arouse but as a bear defends it’s cubs, a Teacher will defend it’s students!
Tim ^o^
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Peter, sadly, I don’t think the time has come for educators to say “Enough’.
My personal/professional opinion is that it is not realistic to expect that educators are going to defend their profession, since they have been indoctrinated into submission for too long, and are functioning like a dysfunctional family. The teaching profession has become increasingly patriarchal, especially during the last thirty years with more dominant corporate and federal government influence, rigid curriculum, hardship conditions, and a culture of fear and intimidation.
Teachers are now the frog in the pot of water that is increasingly getting hotter but they will not jump out.
My opinion as a former teacher, counselor, and observer of the system for many years, (as well as an advocate against this abuse), is that the teaching profession attracts young adults, mostly women, who were indoctrinated in authoritarian families and schools to be hard working, obedient and subserviant children, and became “people pleasers” with somewhat codependent personalities. They have a strong need to perform well and please authority to the point of becoming workaholics and perfectionists. (myself included).
We can recognize that teachers today who tolerate authoritarian mistreatment and allow themselves to be bullied, and allow themselves to be used to bully children, have a dysfunction. I call it the “Cinderella Complex”, but by whatever name, it is an unhealthy submission to authoritarian dominance that has the same characteristics on some level as the Stockholm Syndrome, or Battered Person Syndrome. Most teachers today are submissive in a culture of oppression that is equal to that which kept the black culture of the South submissive for a hundred years after the Civil War.
The same social system that caused black Americans to accept their inferior status in an oppressive environment for so long, without trying to change it, has been doing the same for teachers for a long time. As in the Heart of Darkness, it is a creeping thing.
Most teachers feel helpless and may complain to some extent, but they will not take meaningful actions that will change anything. They fear losing their jobs as a means of their own survival, and their indoctrination via fear and intimidation, punishment and reward, has created a culture of loyalty to abusive authority. It took the Freedom Riders coming into the Old South in the 1960’s to wake up the black culture, and it will take something revolutionary to change the culture of the teaching profession now.
My opinion is that it will require extreme public outrage and new laws to make a difference. I think it will take strong advocacy from the mental health profession and universities to make people realize the psychological damage that is being done to children. I think the public outrage needs to be directed toward:
(1) Dismantle DOE and relinquish federal control of public schools to state/community
(2) Taxpayer money used only for public education, not charter or private.
(3) Improve teacher training programs to include holistic education that addresses developmental needs of children and establishes standards for a “healthy” learning environment.
….just my thoughts!
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Joyce, your characterization of the typical teacher rings true to me.
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Me too! It is a profile that fits. I can see myself as one of the workaholic “Cinderellas” who didn’t have a life or an identity except teaching. Through the last twenty years as the classes got larger and the budgets got smaller and the demands became overwhelming, I finally had a personal reckoning and resigned. The demands of teaching battered me to the point that I gave up my career and started working at a landscape nursery. It was the most healthy thing I could have done for myself, but I feel sad for the children who are left in that environment of chronic stress.
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Sad to say I don’t agree with this post.
Why did it take both the NEA and AFT years to say Enough! to Duncan? Why did they embrace the Reforms? Why is my union endorsing Reform candidates? The only way teachers will say “Enough” is when we have union leaderships that also says and believe it. But most of all, follows through!!
I see apathy growing more and more each year. I really feel that the majority of teachers are sheep or have a “Don’t rock the boat” attitude. I was a union rep and when my term was over decided not to run again. The teachers had no concept of solidarity. That was over a decade ago and I haven’t seen any big changes when it comes to the internal politics of a school. Teachers won’t sign petitions or grievances. Teachers “bitch” but that’s about it. Then again, after the UFT endorsed the ’05 contract that basically took away our right to grieve and our excessing seniority, I didn’t want to grieve either. That was also the time that the Rubber Room came into existence. A teacher could be sent there for any reason and not know why. And the UFT did little to expedite their hearings. So teachers were put in a position of keeping their mouths shut or be sent to Siberia on phony charges.
I am truly demoralized by the actions of teachers than the actions of administrators and politicians. My PAC funds are going towards candidates who embrace testing, charters and VAM. And I just read a blog by Norm Scott which revealed it also supports Al Sharpton’s organization. Sharpton who embraces vouchers and Reforms in general!!! Teachers have a great power in their votes, but after what happened in Florida, I do not trust teachers to be on the side of public education. And I fear they will not come out in large numbers next week to support Teachout over Cuomo. I doubt many NYC teachers even know who Teachout is.
Funny how the Reformers argue it’s the teachers who are destroying education. In a way, they are right. That’s exactly what they are doing when they hide their heads in the sand.
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This could be the year Mulgrew punches himself out, publicly, literally.
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Educators have been complaining for years, but no one in the Federal agenda is listening, or cares to listen.
Until “all” parents get involved with their children’s education, until all parents start disciplining their children in the way of education and their responsibilities thereof, until students value education more than their cell phones, tablets, games and social media, nothing will change in education.
Teacher have only a short period of time per day to make a change in the aptitude and behaviors of students – no where enough to make changes in values, attitudes and learning by other.
However, we educators must always “Keep the Quest Alive!”
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Oh, and vote Teachout!
NY primary!
Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!
Sept 9th!
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