Jersey Jazzman calls out journalist Jon Chait for being against political correctness except when it serves his purpose.
It seems Chait was deeply offended when I said that former CNN anchor Campbell Brown is no educational expert. Her campaign to eliminate teacher tenure won’t improve education, I dared to say. We might, as a test case, compare the academic performance of states that have tenure with states that don’t, but that involves a rudimentary knowledge of actual research.
It is highly offensive to those bashing teachers to suggest that their campaign to remove teacher tenure and to provide merit pay has no evidence behind it and is illogical. They don’t like it when you point out that VAM sounds good but doesn’t work. If they read the statement of the American Statistical Association, they would be informed, but that requires research, or if you open the link, reading.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good!
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Now that’s a real Jersey take on things. Great piece Jazzman!
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The same Chait, who lacked the journalistic integrity to add a disclaimer that his wife worked for a charter school, in a piece he wrote, favoring charters?
He’s been rightfully upbraided in a lot of forums.
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We academicians love to support our positions with claims of research and history. Unfortunately, the people we are dealing with usually don’t understand research or choose not to do things rationally. There is only one item they’re concerned with…$$$$ and busting the unions. This is usually one and the same. Scott Walker, Gov. of Wisconsin is a case in point. He never finished college but now has the total financial backing of the Koch brothers as they attempt to run Wisconsin unions into the ground. While I’m generally opposed to unions, I’ve come to realize that they are the last hopeful stand that teachers will be able to make against the monied interests. And, we’re not talking just money…we are talking about standing up to the the Kochs…the fourth and fifth richest men in the US. Wisconsin will be a bloodbath and as a former resident of the Badger State, it grieves me deeply to see what is being done by Walker.
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The Center for Media and Democracy broke a story yesterday about, Gov. Walker’s attempt to delete the words, “the search for truth”, from UW’s mission statement. While Wisconsin languishes with no job growth, $300,000,000 dollars is slashed from the school’s budget.
In Wisconsin, “college and career ready”, with no where to go.
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Reading and understanding the ASA statement mentioned supra would require a degree of critical thinking skills that Chait is entirely incapable of summoning. In that regard he is a perfect salesma…, er, spokesperson for the lucrative charter school industry.
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Dr. Ravitch,
Jonathan Chait is a Very Serious Person. As a result, he follows a very different set of rules and is judged accordingly by his esteemed peers. After observing this crowd for years, it seems accuracy is not highly valued…
Just ask Chait about Iraq or Libya to get a better idea of where I’m coming from.
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” …but that requires research, or if you open the link, reading.” You tell ’em, Diane. I really appreciate your no nonsense, common sense, straightforward responses to the ‘reformers’ holier than thou, I-know-better-than-you attitude.
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Jon Chait is cut from the same cloth as Michelle Rhee.
Staying on topic? Getting things right? Playing fair? That is so, like, 20th century, and the sneer, smear and jeer works oh so much better…
😧
Read Jersey Jazzman’s rather restrained take on the following assertion by Michelle Rhee:
“Those test-crazed districts need to be reeled in. But a new study by Teach Plus, an organization that advocates for students in urban schools, found that on average, in grades three and seven, just 1.7 percent of classroom time is devoted to preparing for and taking standardized tests. That’s not outrageous at all. Most people spend a larger percentage of their waking day choosing an outfit to wear or watching TV.”
Yet from the report itself: “These 1.7 percent figures do not reflect the many time demands that may be associated with testing such as preparing students or analyzing data.”
Hence Jersey Jazzman politely points out: “Let’s be very clear: in direct contradiction to Rhee, the Teach Plus report specifically says the 1.7 percent figure does not include test preparation time.”
Among the comments in the report that she Rheeally, but not really, read:
[start quote]
“We spend time practicing getting into our testing groups, taking practice tests, etc. We also typically take time from our usual instruction to focus on test prep in the week or two leading to the test. For example, I stop teaching the novel we are reading for a week to do multiple choice test prep. Also, during the week of the test, we have literally no instruction. I would say overall we lose about 15-20 days of instruction to testing to statewide testing. Another 20 days we are instructing, but it is focused on test prep.” – Seventh grade teacher
[end quote]
Link: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-is-michelle-rhee-wrong-about.html
It’s not just Jon Chait and Michelle Rhee. Look at another “data-driven decision-maker” like, let’s say, John Deasy, formerly of LAUSD. He took a 2% graduation rate and turned it into a 12% one just by leaving out all the rate suppressors he supposedly cares so much about. And look at today’s posting on this blog re the numerical magic that John White has tried so hard to apply to Louisiana ACT scores.
Ah, the sweet smell of $tudent $ucce$$. Sometimes, when meeting those ROI/MC [ReturnOnInvestment/MonetizingChildren] metrics, they just can’t help but leave things out or make things up…
😎
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Teach Plus-$4.5 million from Gates to “…..create a national network of informed teachers” ………morphing into, Educators 4 Excellence (E4E)-$3 million from Gates, reflecting no more than E4E’s limitation of 10%, from one donor. $27 million from Walton, Broad et. al.? Some of the budget was spent on PR firm, 270 strategies, “…(for) organizing plan to empower teachers…”
If the “empowered” teachers spoke, in one voice, to get rid of Common Core and high stakes testing,
would villainthropy funding dry up?
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In one of his charter cheerleader posts he refers to school children as “consumers”
Yuck. Ed reform in a nutshell.
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He ought to refer to them as indoctrinated silent prisoners. <–the charter school "way."
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