A journalist sent the following message about a previous controversy involving the author of TIME article on tenure.
Hi Diane — I understand that the cover of TIME is more strident than the article, but it rang a bell about an earlier controversy connected to the same writer.
The TIME reporter, Haley Sweetland Edwards, did a bizarre bash on S.F. Bay Area community colleges last year for the Washington Monthly that was rebutted by one of her main sources. The article got surprisingly little attention, and for that reason no one seems to have really dissected it, and I haven’t done that either.
It particularly bashed College of Marin, a low-poverty community college in suburban Marin County. I’m pretty sure but haven’t confirmed that the bash was largely due to a high number of students like my parents, now 87 and 91, who have taken ceramics, welding and music classes at College of Marin and have, gasp, failed to graduate or transfer to four-year colleges.
The article also bashed high-poverty City College of San Francisco, which has been threatened with losing its accreditation and has been fighting back with apparent success (and where I’ve also taken classes), but the College of Marin portion stood out as particularly bizarre.
The bash on Bay Area community colleges was a separate article accompanying a rankings feature in the Washington Monthly.
The article cited data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE).
Kay McClenney of the CCSSE objected to the use of the data and refuted the article’s substance in a strongly worded letter posted after the article (you have to scroll to find it). Excerpts from McClenney’s rebuttal:
“Edwards’s article includes multiple errors of fact and misuses of survey data. …
“As has occurred in the past, the Washington Monthly created the magazine’s rankings in large part through misuse of data drawn from the CCSSE website and then manipulated in ways not transparent to the reader. The ranking method thus is based on an undisclosed calculation combining CCSSE results and IPEDS data. There are so many things about this approach that are statistically wrong that it is impossible to overstate how spurious the results really are.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Time writers are being stack rated just like teachers. Too bad this writer still makes the cut. One of the criteria for rating is producing content that is benificial to advertisers.. look for that if you bother to read Time. Basically there is no longer a lard line between editorial and advertising.
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Also, the line may be porous at the editing point.
The Center for Public Integrity published an important article about a George Mason University seminar for judges, concerning pensions.
An inferred seminar bias, against pensions, was indicated by the multinational corporations that provided funding.
Subsequent to publication, David Sirota, reporting for IBT, identified a contribution from the anti-pension Arnold Foundation, to the Center for Public Integrity. Sirota, in addressing the absence (from the article)of the Arnold Foundation’s name and involvement, in the seminars, cited the Center’s explanation, which was, there were space limitations for the article.
The article’s author’s assured me there was a firewall between investigative reporters and donors.
.
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The same pretense of a firewall existings in EdWeek reporting.
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TIME to cancel my subscription.
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I cancelled my class subscription to Time for kids. They will never receive one red cent from me.
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I know you can roll out political tactics again and again, but the teacher-bashing seems stale to me, like 2010.
It worked to a certain extent in 2010, with the ed reform governors in the midwest, anyway (OH, WI and MI) but don’t they have to eventually come up with something new? At some point don’t they have to actually IMPROVE an existing public school, at least one, somewhere?
How long can they ride on “public schools suck!”? They’re RUNNING public schools now. They absolutely dominate public schools.
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“. . . my parents, now 87 and 91, who have taken ceramics, welding and music classes at College of Marin and have, gasp, failed to graduate or transfer to four-year colleges.”
Oh, those slackers! Obviously, they are sorely lacking Grit!”
: )
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And I bet there was little rigor in those classes!
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There appears to be a Twitter exchange between the author and the Badass Teachers and others who are attacking the story, the cover and TIME. Sweetland’s plea: “Friends, please read the whole story, not just the cover, before calling me names.” Makes me think she didn’t have anything to do with the cover. Doesn’t make anything better, of course…
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Reminds me of the authors of a NBER paper who, after research, wrote in their paper, that teacher credentials mattered. The NBER’s title for the paper, claimed the opposite (cited in earlier posts).
According to NBER’s website, multinational corporations fund NBER. A larger piece of their operating expenses are covered by investment income. I’m curious what people or organizations provided the assets.
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Here’s a good story about a labor union protecting reporters from retaliation when doing their jos gets them in hot water with their bosses:
“Chicago Sun-Times journalists, whose colleague Dave McKinney resigned this week, are asking the newspaper’s owners for reassurance that the latter won’t seek to influence editorial content.
The request comes in a petition that’s posted on the reporters’ union website. It follows the exit of Mr. McKinney, the Springfield bureau chief, who questioned in his resignation letter whether the newsroom is insulated from owners’ interests.
Mr. McKinney quit Oct. 22 after management pulled him from his beat after a story he co-wrote was unfavorable to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner. Mr. Rauner is a former investor in the newspaper’s parent company, Chicago-based Wrapports LLC, which is led by Chairman Michael Ferro and CEO Tim Knight.”
Any comparison/relevance to why public school teachers might need a labor union?
That would be a good Common Core essay question, don’t ya think ? 🙂
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20141024/NEWS06/141029854
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The lunacy of the data driven idiot savant strikes again. Silicon valley has incubated a new form of social ignorance of people who blindly follow numbers with no clue about what they are doing.
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Well put TC.
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And keep in mind it is from the Silicon Valley that we get a proposition to split CA into seven states. Shockingly, Silicon Valley would become the wealthiest “state” in the nation and they would be adjacent to one of the poorest in the nation. Makes it quite convenient for them to find slave labor. Same thing they are trying to do to public education. Steal the money for tech and place children in sweatshops with computer screens and Walmart greeters as monitors.
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Oh, well said, TC! May I request to quote you? My admin LOVES to gobble data with no clue what it means or what to do with it. I’d love to drop this line on them.
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“A stitch in Time”
A stitch in time saves nine
But stitch was not in Time
So now the tear
Unraveled there
And nine ain’t worth a dime
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And Time ain’t worth a dime either
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Ha! Thanks. Never thought it was.
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Edwards, another pseudo journalist from the “If it bleeds it leads” faction of sensationalist tripe pushers.
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Oh my! I think we broke twitter with all of the #TimeFail tweets!
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I did a screen shot of the cover, added the words “Boycott Time” and hung up a few copies in our teacher’s lounge. I also showed a copy of the cover to fellow teachers (it’s parent-teacher conference time, so many of us were camped out in the back half of the cafeteria. I also shared information on the effort in Massachusetts to link teacher license renewals to their student’s’ test scores.
Several of the teachers were surprised to hear about these development. So many are uninformed. I do my best to spread the word and refer teachers to Diane’s blog every chance I get.
I know we’re under a lot of pressure and stress, but we have to begin letting policymakers hear our voice.
Change begins from the bottom up.
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Reblogged this on seldurio.
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“Hedge Funds Drag Down Economy and Take Last Community Dollars”, would have been Time’s cover story, if the editors had the fourth estate’s, sense of responsibility.
If the magazine’s editors were capable of extrapolation and if, they were concerned about timeliness, they wouldn’t be bringing up the story’s, rear. The editors are out-of-touch, with what happens off of Wall Street and, outside of the beltway.
In the hands of Time editors, the Titanic story, would be published only if the ship carried wealthy patrons and docked in NYC. It would appear, years after the ship sank and, they would be cautious, not to offend the ship’s owners, IMO.
In contrast, Rolling Stone, IBT, Mother Jones and the Nation use their talents for the greater good. And, as a result, their influence grows, as Time’s wanes.
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I am surprised you all fail to recognize the advantages inherent with the use of this apparently offensuve cover. Who will buy that magazine ? Many readers will be those who have fallen in with the bashers . For whatever reasons they deeply resent the mythology that teachers are spoiked and entitled , never fired no matter how badly the perform or act out . The articie inside s not quite so biased and as he reads he has access to information he had not seen before. Ellen Lubic and others will chastise me for posting what they perceive as the enemies’ rhetoric . I know people who read the blog will make up their minds based on more than one article but even if this were true , it is never a waste of time to consider the arguments we are often opposed to just because they fail to embrace our position. I do nit see much chance of billionaires becoming cinverts but the ordinary person is who matters if you ask me.
I really gave the whole thing some thought after I sent off my letter abd added my name to the petition . While I need to read the article , I am thinking these complaints are kind of misguided and hardly an investment in what our unions continue to ignore because they conspired with districts to unload senior teachers, whistle blowers , rabblerousers and assorted undesirables
I do not see bombarding Time with shrill complaints achieving much more than distracting us from more important matters like making unions accountable to members they betrayed . To do this teachers are starting solidarity caucas outsude the grip of the union controls. Many teachers are filing class actions against unions to make membership an option because they are politically opposed to the way their dues are misappropriated.
In LA we discovered our union discontinued CTA legal coverage abruptly about 4 years ago, just in time fir Deasy’s witch hunts . We condirned this abd continue to catch the officers and thuggery in damning contradictions about why thus was done and why no policy has been purchased . They all stood by and watched us take horrible losses the never enforced a code or defended anyone . There is no way around the truth. The union colluded against us abd has to answer for it. We are not going to crawl away because some silly notions about unions bejng our only hope . We have had all hope torn from us and we have no reason to defer to such delusional thinking . If you are interesred in joining us contact me . I am coming up with a retainer for the class action by taking my oension begore John Arnold gets his grubby paws on it . I will only expect those involved to be forthright, reliable and respectful .
Hemlockrocks@gmail.com
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Why do we even trust the media anymore? Between TIME getting it wrong in this article and the LA Times consistently getting it wrong when it comes to education, I have lost faith in most media outlets. As a teacher librarian, I teach students to find reliable, credible, accurate sources. It seems that adults could take a class or two from a librarian!
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