This is one of the most powerful letters I have read. I hope Diane Sekula doesn’t quit. I hope she changes her mind and stays to fight.
Veteran teacher to resign over Common Core and SBAC
A statement from Diane Sekula, experienced educator and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Moldova, ’99-01):
I have been a teacher for well over a decade and this spring, I will turn in my resignation because of Common Core and its associated data collection through SBAC and other means.
Common Core is substandard and the required data collection highly UNETHICAL. It is causing stress amongst students, teachers, and parents alike and has taken much joy out of teaching and learning.
I have witnessed extreme anxiety and tears from both teachers and students because of the pressure, confusion and uncertainty surrounding Common Core and SBAC Testing.
When I taught in the Soviet Union as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1999-2001, I was told by our federal government to help teachers design lessons that included opportunities for creativity and innovation as this was not done under Soviet Rule. Under Soviet Rule testing was everything and you were labeled because of it. Labels work for bottles of poison BUT NOT FOR CHILDREN OR DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES. Our ability to nurture individual dreams encourage innovation is one of the things that makes the United States better than socialized countries in many ways.
The Common Core is not what it was sold as.
It encourages uniformity through one-size-fits-all standards at the cost of individuality, individual thinking and individual differences.
The Derryfield School has referred to it as INFERIOR.
It is not used at Thomas Hassan’s school, Philips Exeter.
The way this is going, public school children will be trained as workers while those who can afford it will get a true education.
New Hampshire children, families and teachers deserve better than Common Core.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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A friend of mine did this.
>
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Don’t quit! Resist and make them fire you! And then take them to court.
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This is a good newspaper series on what I think is probably closer to the reality of CC testing in Louisiana than the cheerleading we’re given by the promoters:
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2015/03/common_core_tests_immune_to_te.html#incart_related_stories
I thought this was interesting:
“Adding to the complexity of the test questions is the inclusion of the clock. The new test is timed. The former Louisiana state tests, LEAP and iLEAP, also were timed, a state Education Department spokesperson said. However, educators say the exams were largely untimed the past couple of years, and that students will find the combination of the new test’s time limits and rigor daunting.”
Louisiana quietly stopped timing standardized tests “the past couple of years”? I think the focus on speed over good work is the worst part of standardized testing, so I would agree with that, but I didn’t know states could just opt out of timing standardized tests prior to the national CC tests.
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“Labels work for bottles of poison BUT NOT FOR CHILDREN OR DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES.”
TAGO!
And for many years I described the edudeformer agenda as being the Sovietization of public education but most folks had no idea what I meant so I changed it to the McDonaldization of public education. And the fact is that they are two sides to the same plutocratic oligarchical coin.
But I do take issue with this statement: “Our ability to nurture individual dreams encourage innovation is one of the things that makes the United States better than socialized countries in many ways.”
Ah, the Great American Exceptionalism raises it’s hubristic head again! We’re Number One (middle finger pointed upwards to the rest of the world). And what is a “socialized country”??
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“Ey dere, Jimmy — see, dis ‘ere Common Caw WOIKS! ‘At’s anuddah high earnin’ teachuh we kin replace wit’ a low-paid newbie!”
“Way ta go, Cholly! Wuz she pension vested yet?”
“Ten years? Mebbe not!”
“Awright! High Five!”
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How is it that the Common Core is all these terrible things, but a state curriculum is not?
What makes data collection unethical if it is used solely for analysis?
Who is making the decision to narrow the curriculum in response to what is being measured?
Stress in children regarding the tests is almost all being caused by the adults they interact with. Where are the consequences of poor test results so dire that they justify the stress that those in schools (from BOE down) are inflicting on students? How many schools have been shut down due to test results? How many teachers have lost their jobs? If it’s less than 1%, where is the justification for all of this?
Why is it that my local district labeling 21% of kids as special education is fine, but “labeling” with test scores is not? Besides, what are the negative consequences of this labeling? If scoring a “1” gets mandatory academic intervention services, has no implications for promotion, etc., who exactly is this labeling bad for?
This manufactured crisis is about the public negotiating with public employees about how to create some accountability and raise the bar on public education. That it has turned into crappy, top down test regimes, the opt out movement, and stress for students is all an indication of the dysfunctional nature of the institution.
The only thing powerful about this letter is the emotion.
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I don’t think anyone can guarantee that the CC 1 thru 5 scale will have no “negative consequences” for students.
Those decisions will be made at the state level. My state, Ohio, just gave students a “safe harbor” for one year. Since the state is guaranteeing “safe harbor” for one year I assume Ohio will use the scores for high stakes decisions for students, depending on the whims of the legislature.
I don’t think anyone has any idea how these scores will be used, nor does anyone at the federal level or in the various non profits have any control over how the scores will be used. The tests were over-sold as THE reliable measure of College and Career Readiness during the marketing and promotion roll-out I think it will be extremely difficult for promoters to walk back those claims when (not if) states over-rely on the tests.
Huge experiments often involve unintended consequences. Risk has a downside.
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Don’t forget the data, no one knows how they’ll be used either.
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I think we can fairly assume the data will be monetized; in the eyes of the so-called reformers, that’s what it’s there for.
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So the point is that this teacher quit her job because nobody can “guarantee” that there will be no negative consequences for students? Or because “we can fairly assume the data will be monetized”?
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Straw men arguments aside, let’s focus on the issues at hand.
Read this posting in conjunction with the one that follows on the results of the “Chilean miracle” in voucherite/ privatizer “education reform.” Then read Yong Zhao’s WHO AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD DRAGON: WHY CHINA HAS THE BEST (AND THE WORST) EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE WORLD (2014) and Anthony Cody’s THE EDUCATOR AND THE OLIGARCH (2014).
Self-proclaimed “education reform” is a series of proven failures in both the management (worst practices) and education (worst practices) spheres. CCSS is just its poison of the moment.
It’s toxic effects are features, not bugs, of the drive to eliminate public schools and convert everything into vouchers & charters & privatized schools whose single greatest goal is to have a bottom line that is black and not red.
Here’s just one example of how charterite/voucherite/privatizer accountability really—and Rheeally—works.
It’s called the “midyear dump.” Refer to my comment in the thread for a posting on this blog—
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/08/28/beware-the-charter-attrition-game/
[the above is just one example; google for many more hits.]
This is how self-styled “education reform” gets the ‘hard data points’ aka numbers & stats used to label, sort and rank—in preparation for meager rewards and massive punishments of—public schools and their staffs and their students and their parents and the communities in which they reside. And it’s a twofer: charters get the putatively good results and press and the bulk of the year’s monies for the students they cast aside while public schools are unfairly blamed for rheephorm failures and are starved of the resources and monies they need to adequately deal with the needy students abandoned by charters.
An isolated example of how figures are massaged and tortured to ensure rheephorm success at the expense of the vast majority of us? Again, one example out of many: this blog, 3-25-2015, “The Secret of the ‘Missing Questions’ On NY’s Common Core Exam” and its thread.
Their whole approach derives from drivel-driven decision making aka 3DM:
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts – for support rather than for illumination.” [Andrew Lang]
Is it too much to ask that those in mad dog pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$ realize that the above was not meant as encouragement?
Or is that too much to ask of those that have “pineapple” and “hare” tattooed on unseen (and unseemly) body parts?
Just askin’…
😎
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KrazyTA,
I agree with Diane’s call for accountability and think that charter and district school performance should be measured from baselines that include *all* kids who were in the school regardless of whether they stayed or not.
There are studies (Boston, KIPP) that are done this way and still show substantial growth for charter students. I think ideologically-driven critics can’t bring themselves to acknowledge the value of some studies and some charters, which contributes to the lack of nuanced discussion.
I agree that any claim of school results *has* to be coupled with attrition information to have any meaning. Yet, when a school or charter network or study embraces that transparency, they get zero credit for doing that.
As for mid-year dumping of students, my district has claimed that for years and never been able to provide any data to substantiate it. There are anecdotes about this, but if it were truly happening, I have to believe that there’d be more than a very small handful of upset parents in the media about it. I also have to believe that a school district would publish the sources and numbers since they obviously have access to the information. Instead, I only hear union and district PR flacks talking about this like it’s fact with no data offered.
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“What makes data collection unethical if it is used solely for analysis?”
When the data is invalid (as is all data from any standardized testing situation as proven by Wilson) then any results are themselves invalid and any usage/analysis to make any decisions is unethical.
When the data collection has not been legally authorized, as in most K-12 tests, by the parent/guardian (and in most testing situations that authorization is not done). Minors cannot authorized data collection on themselves.
In other words almost all the data collection to which you are referring is unethical.
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Duane,
I read Wilson, and I get the point, but in the real world, there is a big and meaningful difference between a “1” and a “4” on a state test. Tell me how a 5th grader who can’t read can get a “4” and I’ll entertain the notion that the tests are meaningless.
As for data collection, if FERPA is complied with, there is no problem with data collection or analysis. Can it be abused? Sure, and that should be prosecuted. But, it sure seems like those who don’t want data collection fear what it says and what it might be used for more than the potential for misuse.
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John, when you were a child, did you take tests that lasted eight hours? Did you know that the scores are reported 4-6 months after the testing? Did you know that teachers are not allowed to see how students answered questions, right or wrong? What value does it have to give a child score of 1, 2, 3 or 4 without any information about what they do and do not know?
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Diane, I’m not a fan of most state testing systems. I think norm-referenced assessments are much more valuable. Yet, test critics refer to those as “stack ranking our children”, etc.
I think it’s safe to say that most critics of assessment are against all external assessments, without acknowledging that a teacher’s own tests do not measure whether they are covering the curriculum, and the grade on them is meaningless outside of the individual classroom.
4% of the incoming kids to my middle school have ever passed a state test, yet their parents report them getting “B”s in school and being told they are doing fine. External assessments are critical for parents and for society. It’s too easy to hide serious problems, whether for individual students, subgroups, or even schools, without them.
Improving them is important, but getting rid of them would be a huge mistake.
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John – are you speaking for your children or every one else’s kids?
Ellen #WhatsGoodForTheGoose . . .
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John,
The “real world” strawman doesn’t cut it for an argument in my “real world”.
When something is proven invalid then it is just that-invalid. It doesn’t matter if the whole effin world believes the invalidity to be true, it isn’t and can’t be. No amount of “real world” arguments changes that fact. When something is invalid it is wrong/unethical to use any results for anything, plain and simple.
You have read Wilson but certainly have not understood his arguments for in the real “real world” falsehoods such as the educational malpractice of standardized testing should surely be rejected as irrational.
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“There are studies (Boston, KIPP) that are done this way. . . ”
Please cite those studies as without being able to analyze those studies your mention of them means nothing.
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Duane,
Here’s one example: http://www.kipp.org/mathematica
From the study:
“Our estimates of KIPP’s impact reflect the effect of having ever enrolled at KIPP— students who leave before completing 8th grade remain part of the KIPP “treatment group” after leaving, thereby ensuring that we do not artificially inflate KIPP’s estimated impact by focusing only on students who persist at KIPP for four years.”
So, in that study, a student who ever attended a KIPP middle school is considered part of the KIPP group. Obviously this is pretty biased towards lowering the measure of KIPP’s effectiveness, yet the study still shows “(KIPP) middle schools have significant and substantial positive impacts on student achievement in four core academic subjects: reading, math, science, and social studies.”
To quote Diane, ”When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views.”
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John,
It seems to me there is a large difference between labeling a bottle and labeling a child. When used in context with people, to label is a pejorative act; with consumer products, not so much.
For a child to be “labeled” as “Special Education” is not at all the same as “labeling” someone, let’s say, a “troublemaker.” We do not “label” a child as “college-bound,” after all — any labeling in that case would no longer be negative. Most likely, we’d use the verb “identified,” as in “has been identified as “highly capable.” “Labeled as highly capable”? Not so much.
When children are assessed — see what I did there? — as being in need of support, we as teachers — or I, as a parent and teacher — welcome the information, because now we can hope to get the support services our children need. When a child — or a teacher, or a school — are “labeled” as “low-performing,” again, not so much. How is it to you that “label” the noun, and “label” the verb, have the same connotative weight?
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It was the original post that used the word “label”. As you point out, it’s in the use made of the scores, not the scores themselves.
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The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, so she could not have taught in the Soviet Union in from 1999-2001. This alone makes me question this author’s authenticity. That and the fact that she immediately compares the Core as socialism and what she rails against is really the curriculum, not the Common Core. The Common Core are just a set of standards. It is not a plan on how to teach. For a better insight, read this piece written by a teacher for the Washington Post: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2015/03/27/Up-with-the-Common-Core/stories/201503270174
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The official line is that Common Core is a list of standards, not a curriculum. The direct thing of them to ever-increasing numbers of high stakes exams, determining the future of teachers and schools, belies that.
In reality, the tests are the curriculum, with Common Core as the distractor and mask for that.
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Sorry for the poor proofreading: the second sentence should read, “The direct tying of them…”
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Bill Marx & Michael Fiorillo: just to clarify…
Unimpeachable testimony from a charter member of the rheephorm establishment. I give you Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute:
[start quote]
In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).
But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do. And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind. When they refer to the “Common Core,” they don’t just mean the words on paper–what they really have in mind is this whole complex of changes.
[end quote]
For the link below and more contextual info go to—
Link: https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/the-american-enterprise-institute-common-core-and-good-cop/
Cat completely out of the bag.
Bazinga!
😎
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You’re right: Hess is far too indiscreet for the benefit of his so-called reformer colleagues.
There was also his blog post for Edweek (“The Common Core KoolAid” I think it was called), in which he blurted out that the real reason so-called reformers support Common Core is because they expect it, via politically-gamed cut scores, to rupture support for the public schools among suburban parents.
The privatizers already control and are busy trying to dismantle the school systems in most urban areas, but the suburban schools have thus far remained out of reach of their claws. The hope is that Common Core will solve that for them, and increase the flow of public dollars to private interests.
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Bill,
My statement clearly should have said, “Former USSR” . I’m a little tired from trying my best to teach what I still can and fighting CC. I was a health teacher in Calarasi, Moldova from ’99-’01. I will comment here over the weekend on my statement and give further explanation as to both my disgust for this current incarnation of the reform movement and my reasons for my planned resignation. I will be sure to provide a photo of my Peace Corps D.O.S. , and perhaps a picture of a younger, slimmer version of myself with some of my former students if I am able to post them in my comments. – Diane Sekula
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This teacher’s voice needs to be heard, and joined with thousands of others concerned citizens in a national movement. There is no doubt that the CCSS and the tests and the data gathering on students, teachers, and their parents…and those who work in teacher education…has become a destructive force. “A Nation at Risk” that launched this regime of boot-camp thinking about education must be rewritten to privilege the wisdom of teachers, educators, and others who care about this generation as human beings, not just as drivers or drains on the economy.
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The anti-excessive testing movement has had a real upside for Ohio public schools. I haven’t seen this much attention focused on Ohio public schools by lawmakers in the last decade.
I hope they take on funding next. They’re effective advocates for public schools. That testing commission they convened in Ohio under pressure from anti-excessive testing advocates actually reflects the state education system-it isn’t controlled by the national ed reform lobbying groups.
Bravo. They did what no one else in this state has managed to do. They reminded Columbus that 90% of the kids in this state attend public schools and these experiments should be evaluated by the people affected by them.
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Powerful! As an educator I can empathize with Diane. We can only change education by becoming advocates and staying in the classrooms to do what we can for the children while this wave of misguided reform is put to rest.
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I meditate each morning and afterward I usually have the need to write. It is weird how that works, but anyway this is from this morning Tuesday 12-9-14.
VERY ROUGH DRAFT JUST QUICKLY TYPED
Dear Governor Cuomo and fellow like-minded minions,
Your hyperbolic statement of public schools being the last monopoly is incorrect. A better analogy is that you and others like you who are making demands of teachers teaching children in public education is analogous to a slave owner demanding his slaves pick more cotton faster than is humanly possible or face punishment for no wrong doing of their own but rather inhumane demands and treatment. The technology of the cotton gin didn’t reduce slavery as it was hoped by the inventor but rather ramped up the desire for profits…more slaves and increased the level of inhumane demands and treatment for greed of excessive profit. This profit in no way benefitted the enslaved population.
We the Citizens of the United States who teach children in the public school system are not some outsourced industry to some newly industrialized nation where the citizen workers are being exploited because the workforce is abundant and workers are easily replaced once any exploited worker is injured or dies trying to keep up the inhumane pace.
Yes there is a breakdown in the system…we realize this as the teachers of children. This is after all the GREAT EXPERIMENT WE CALL THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We the Amazing citizens of the Amazing United States. Today’s educational system isn’t about educating faster and cheaper like exploited labor sewing in a sweatshop. This is about educating human children better not faster and cheaper. Time has come to reallocate resources for new models of public education that values the human capital of teachers who pay to educate themselves as instructed by the rule book with Master’s degrees and seeking continual opportunities to learn, grow, and improve as educators.
We started out with a public education model to educate all in the 1800’s, and now we want that to evolve into a 21st educational model that isn’t about cheaper and faster, and that lays waste to those students who need more and deserve more. From the accelerated student to the challenged student, to the accelerated student with their own learning needs and all in between all students deserve more than the system is allowing these children, yet expecting the same accomplishment from all of these children.
They don’t all begin with the same physical needs, emotional needs, and educational needs.
The system created by No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top has attempted to create a future workforce that feels it is not enough as a human and deserves less as a person, worker and so he, she, they, don’t ask or expect protections in the workplace and society as a consumer. That is who you Governor Cuomo and others like you are training and what you are training into existence with the laws you have adopted.
We are the citizens of the Amazing United States of America, our children are citizens and they deserve smaller class sizes, appropriate models of comparison to the schools that people pay $40,000 dollars a year or more to send their children to as examples of the best ways to educate children. Is my tuition waiver to a charter school going to cover the cost of $40,000? But your child will get that education and you want to make mine cheaper now by paying the human capital less. (We do most of the living, breathing, buying and dying that makes the economy move.) And if for some reason this is counter than yes by all means take more money from the top earners to change this picture.
We aren’t exploited laborers working with a piece of metal…slow down the assembly line Henry Ford…We are teachers working with children and in both cases our work deserves to be valued and justly compensated.
(Technology is used to improve the process not dehumanize the process, cheapen the process but rather enrich the process)
(If you have power and influence nothing in this process matters because you can buy your way through it with tutors or influence over the system itself)
BUT for the vast majority of us we can’t buy our way into that club of influence. We need a real education that provides real opportunity and not admittance to exclusivity. ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN AND WANT TO LEARN AND LEARN DEEPLY, INTENSELY, PASSIONATELY, at a sophisticated level.
To those of you who think this is a poor hyperbolic analogy let us recall that THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARIES from the streets of Boston to the House of Burgesses compared their plight as colonists of England to slavery and that was for paying taxes that were less than those paid by the British in mother England.
Sam Adams was a hypocrite after the American Revolution because he condemned those participants in Shays Rebellion for doing the same things the Sons of Liberty did leading up to the American Revolution. So Governor Cuomo you have reached the point of power like the early revolutionaries and now you want to deny the pathway to others. Your ancestors and mine hailed from Italy on a boat to make something more of themselves with the opportunities in America. Some of those same ancestors like my grandfather died in WWII to preserve the opportunities for future generations to come like his daughter and grandchildren nieces and nephews. He didn’t lose his life so those who came after him would have the same struggle he had, hard work yes but not extinguishing opportunities.
All children deserve more and to learn how they learn best. Testing that screens learners for how the learner learns best to create well educated, involved, citizenry of excellence. Not some smoke and mirrors version of testing that doesn’t improve students and education but rather relegates them to the sidelines sooner much like the communist test of the COLD WAR ERA that all of us who grew up during the 70’s and 80’s were appalled by as we learned about it during history class or while listening to a biography of an athlete from the SOVIET UNION or WARAW PACT countries during the Olympics.
We teachers are creating leaders with skills to lead themselves (AS IN KNOW BE LEAD)
We teachers are creating leaders with skills to make the world, humane, effective problem solvers, and creators of a world where problems are engineered out or minimized before the creation is manifested. We are creating our world…
It isn’t about profit or perfection it is about the journey of excellence.
My words are to inspire the next leg of this journey if you are reading this what can you do to help create a manifestation of this school of excellence into existence.
Famous people are quoted to inspire us daily and one such quote is
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
Students and teachers are experiencing the antithesis of this quote when they should be trying and failing and learning and growing to bring the best into the present.
Cuomo has teachers chasing their tails like the private sector has employees running a race that sucks the life out of humans. All this exhaustion and defending to prove we are worthy of humane treatment as employees and consumers, who are trying to do our best to maintain our families and communities. Many maybe even most feel unable to put energy to protect what generations before us fought for and what our generation should be rebuilding and expanding to ever more humans, a decent way of life where we are respected along with the ideals espoused in our pledge to the flag, the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
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I am just glad that people are waking up, especially the parents who need to protect their children against the deformers whose main interests are indeed $$$$$ and ultimate control over the populous. Former teachers (both those who are retired or have quit) have huge voices…USE YOUR VOICES.
Heck we have Western Governors University formed by 19 governors. OY!
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It seems as if there have been more and different posters in the last month or so which is good. At the same time it seems as if there has been a corresponding increase in posters attempting to defend the edudeformer status quo.
Am I the only one seeing/sensing this trend?
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Yes, Duane. Lots of new voices. Maybe we should retire (shut up)? There is so much information in the archives and so many talented people who have done and continue to do the research. I do wish those who come on with accusations of hyperbole would read before they speak. There is a lot of good solid research to support concern around the reform agenda. The repeated demands for the hard data are annoying when it is readily available and has probably been mentioned, linked, and archived.
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Duane Swacker: I agree.
But, having followed this blog since its inception, I also think it goes in waves. Although this latest surge seems more significant…
More than anything else, lately I have sensed that the supporters and beneficiaries and enforcers of the education establishment seem to be getting increasingly exasperated and desperate and are more actively voicing their displeasure. They envision truly humungous amounts of $tudent $ucce$$ and ego stroking and reputation enhancing being theirs for the asking and yet there is increasing resistance by ever greater numbers of people to taking the bitter poison of “education reform.”
So we see a lashing out at critics of the Potemkin Village Business Plan for $tudent $uccess.
2old2teach: I agree with you about some folks not doing their ‘homework’ but look at the example set by the intellectual heavyweights they model themselves after—
[from KrazyTA comment of 12-8-2014, start]
From the blog of Aaron Pallas, 6-19-2013, the entire posting:
[start quote]
Yesterday, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its first national ratings of teacher-preparation programs. Passing judgment on 1,200 undergraduate and graduate programs across the country—but not other routes to teacher certification, such as Teach For America—NCTQ painted a dismal picture. Only four institutions rated four out of four stars: Furman, Lipscomb, Ohio State and Vanderbilt Universities. One hundred sixty-two programs received zero stars, earning them a “Consumer Alert” designation, and an additional 301 were awarded a single star.
The release of the ratings, and their damning character, came as no surprise to schools of education and their supporters. NCTQ has made its mission over the past decade to promote a particular vision of teacher education emphasizing criteria such as the academic performance of teacher candidates, instruction in the teaching of school subjects via scientifically proven methods, and rich clinical experiences. No one really knows if meeting NCTQ’s standards results in better teachers—but that hasn’t slowed down the organization a whit. If an ed school had a mix of goals and strategies different than NCTQ’s and chose not to cooperate in this institutional witch hunt, well, they must have something to hide.
To be sure, few of us relish being put under the microscope. But it’s another matter entirely to be seen via a funhouse mirror. My institution, Teachers College at Columbia University, didn’t receive a summary rating of zero to four stars in the report, but the NCTQ website does rate some features of our teacher-prep programs. I was very gratified to see that our undergraduate elementary and secondary teacher-education programs received four out of four stars for student selectivity. Those programs are really tough to get into—nobody gets admitted. And that’s not hyperbole; the programs don’t exist.
That’s one of the dangers of rating academic programs based solely on documents such as websites and course syllabi. You might miss something important—like “Does this program exist?”
Today, the editorial board of the Washington Post praised the NCTQ ratings, while blaming ed schools for why “many schools are struggling and why America lost its preeminent spot in the world for education.” Sunspots too, I suppose.
I look forward to the Post instructing their restaurant reviewer, Tom Sietsema, to rate restaurants based on their online menus rather than several in-person visits to taste the food.
[end quote]
[from KrazyTA comment of 12–8-2014, finish]
I give a link for this blog on which I got this because the original link to Aaron Pallas’ blog no longer works—
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/12/08/arnes-worst-idea-yet/
But I hasten to add that, to be fair, apart from trolls and shills, we do get some [important qualifier] folks commenting in threads on this blog that are accustomed to swallowing rheephorm word salad and cognitive dissonance whole. You know, like “if you’re going to teach to the test, make sure it’s a test worth teaching to” and “don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good” and “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” They are truly nonplussed, offended and amazed that the rest of us just won’t get down on bended knees and genuflect before the awesomeness of their awesomely awesome rheephorm jingles and slogans.
Do their homework? Spark a little electrical activity in their grey matter before moving the bodily parts that produce speech? What kind of attitude and behavior would that be like?
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
Frederick Douglass. Right then. Right now.
Right on!
😎
P.S. Thank you both for your comments.
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Duane and other old friends –
There is so much disinformation out there and the general public believes the mantra that America is falling behind so we need these tests to force teachers to do a better job or be fired.
Our only hope is the parents who see the results of this policy on the behaviors of their children (anxiety and stress). When we, as teachers, try to explain, we come off as self serving.
Ellen T Klock #DontGiveUpTheShip
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So now it is the Libertarians and Republicans and Democrats who are opting for communist style education? From now on, I’ll just call them pinkos. And to think, I was prevented from playing “communist spy” in elementary school circa 1953!!
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West Coach Teacher
– I agree. Our policies are sounding more and more communistic.
Ellen #SeeingRed
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The only way is to band together, resist, and keep upholding public education as children’s rights. In Richmond, NEA is sponsoring a march on April 18th to support the kids.
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I have been making the analogy of current educational design and the Soviet Union for years. We need to put democracy and American values back into American education. We cannot expect students to learn democracy and citizenship inside a context of totalitarianism!
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TAGO!
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Last week, a statement I made in support of NH HB-101, a bill prohibiting the state of New Hampshire from forcing schools to implement Common Core State Standards, was picked up by your blog. In my statement, I referenced the fact that I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Former Soviet Union from 1999-2001. There were at least one or two of your readers who seemed to doubt my existence or the authenticity of my statement. I’d like to take the opportunity to set the record straight. Not only am I real, but I stand by my statement and welcome questions and opportunities to discuss my Peace Corps service in general, and also in terms of the way I view current education, “reforms”.
After completing my Peace Corps training (I tried to put a copy of my training certificate below but don’t think photos are allowed as I couldn’t do it), in the Village of Pelivan, I was placed in the city of Calarasi where I was assigned to teach health. Living and teaching in Calarasi allowed me to experience things that many Americans do not have the opportunity to, and that no textbook could ever do justice. I will forever be grateful for this experience.
In Calarasi, I briefly tried living on my own in an apartment. When winter set in and I was faced with seeing my own breath inside of my apartment because the centralized heating system was turned off, I moved in with my wonderful friend, Raisa, who had a wood burning stove. While teaching in Moldova had a significant impact on me, the friendships I made with Moldovans like Raisa had an even more significant impact on me both as a person and an educator. Through these friendships, I gained meaningful insight into what life and education were like under the umbrella of the Soviet Union and a very deep appreciation of Moldovan culture. I also gained a deeper appreciation of my own culture, which, through its schools, embraced diversity and fostered individual dreams.
Under Soviet Rule, students were held to the same standards, testing was used to determine your ability to retain information, gauge your aptitude for certain things and to determine where you might best fit into the workforce. It was under this system that my friend Raisa became a food scientist.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and she was able to change her career path, she later became an accountant. Evidence of the fact that people were not given many choices or opportunities to question were both shocking and abundant. The vast majority of Moldovans I met were appreciative of the fact that they now had some control over their own future and furthermore could question the government.
Do I think that it will ever get to the point here in the United States where students are put on career paths by those in power who think they know best instead of being able to choose their own path? I’d like to think that this won’t happen, but sadly, I’m not so sure that it couldn’t anymore. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned that we are already going down a path where students are considered workers instead of individuals with individual dreams. Common Core isn’t used at elite private schools for a reason. I also never thought I’d see the kind of data collection public schools are currently engaged in in my own country. Where and when will this end? Who will have access to student data and what will they do with it? Why are Arne Duncan, Marc Tucker and others talking about tracking our children from cradle to grave? These things worry me. But, what bothers me more is the amount of money corporations and philanthropists like Bill Gates have put behind this misguided ideology. We now have a situation where the populace itself has little to no input. We cannot allow for this to continue.
Sadly, I do plan on turning my resignation in this spring. I don’t think that I can go on like this anymore. I teach English Language Learners. I have a hard time watching them struggle with developmentally inappropriate standards that are antithetic to what is known about language acquisition and I certainly don’t want anything to do with the SBAC test. I’ve seen some of the practice questions, they aren’t developmentally appropriate either. Many students will give up and feel stupid. Others will just try to get through it as fast as they can; trust me, they are sick of testing. What does this mean for them? Will they be labeled? I don’t like labeling, it’s a tricky business. I can furthermore tell you that the parents of these children did not immigrate to America for this, “transformation”. They came here for their children to be educated in a country that fosters individuality and embraces personal goals. I’m not so sure that this is what we have anymore. I have a hard time finding good with any of this.
I may be resigning, but I will not be giving up. I will continue to fight. I’m looking at law school. I’m interested in finding ways to restore dignity to teachers and bring a sense of community back to schools. Schools should be a place where both students and educators are respected, a love of learning is cultivated and learning is fun. Even if this goes away tomorrow, there is still a lot of work to be done.
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