Ginia Bellafante has a dynamite article in The Néw York Times about a new protest organization called the “Hedge Clippers.”
The Hedge Clippers picket, demonstrate, and call attention to the political activities of the 1%. In addition to promoting the proliferation of charter schools, they lobby for low taxes–on the rich.
“Two weeks ago, several busloads of New Yorkers made a pilgrimage to Greenwich, Conn., to visit the waterfront estate of the hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones II, where, suffice it to say, they were not invited in to see the china. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and the protesters, many of them ordinary working people who have felt cheated by the inequities of a tax system that favors the rarefied few, were there to call attention to Mr. Jones’s educational agenda, built on the premise that the extravagantly rich know better how to teach reading, and to his support of Republican candidates and causes in the New York State Legislature that disadvantage the poor and working class.”
Mr. Jones was one of the funders last year of the multi-million dollar TV campaign to stop Mayor de Blasio’s effort to deny public space to charter schools and to charge rent to those that could afford to pay. Not only was that campaign to stop the mayor successful, but Governor Cuomo persuaded the legislature that all charters in Néw York City were entitled to free public space, regardless of their assets, and the city had to pay their rent if they were located in private space.
While fighting to protect and expand charter schools, the hedge funders supported a group called Néw Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, which helped Republicans retain control of the State Senate. That is their guarantee that there will be no new taxes on the 1% and minimal new funding for traditional public schools.
Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo received millions from Wall Street for his re-election campaign, and he spoke at a charter school rally last year where he declared his fealty to charters. Only 3% of the students in Néw York state are enrolled in charter schools. In 2012, Cuomo said he would be the “students’ lobbyist.” Now we know that what he meant was that he would be the charter students’ lobbyist.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
this is the big piece we have been funding this year- they are the ones doing all the work on swaps… And there will be more
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randi,
Please explain as I don’t understand what you are trying say.
Thanks,
Duane
The Governor seems to have ben drinking the Ed-Reformer Kool-Aid. What a JERK !!
Cuomo is a complete disaster with a mean streak. It is despicable that he is in bed with those looking to privatize a public institution.
I like it! Fits in with the notion that public shaming can be very effective. After all, the 1% or the 1% are knowable and number fewer than 500. Why not picket them on a rotating basis until they reveal what they’ve actually done for the rest of us. [Yes, many of these folks actually do make some substantial charitable contributions that should be honored. Of course, none help public education.]
Wonder if hedge clippers is hiring….I’ll be out of a job soon because the 1% owns cuomo and most of our politicians in NY
The sooner that the 90% of our country’s wealth that is now held by the top 10% is redistributed by a change in our present unfair tax system the better our country will be. Most of these individuals used their wealth to change government policies to their own benefit at the cost of everyone else but they are not interested in the Common Good. Time for things to change and the Hedgeclippers are moving US in that direction.
But that would be Socialism, right?
And if so, I’m ALL IN!
When do the reformers begin to own results? Twelve years of NCLB and it is clear that testing is not helping minority kids and kids from needy backgrounds. I have been around long enough to see the educational pendulum swing a few times. It will require stronger communications using non-traditional approaches–but soon the reformers will become accountable for the mess they have made of education. I hope it gets ugly for them very soon as they have intentionally mislead and distorted. Backlash might have come earlier except we keep shooting at moving targets. For example, it is clear that Common Core was initiated because NCLB’s test and publish/punish was not working–now we have changed assessments/cut scores to buy time so that the public keeps thinking that reformers just need a more time before their plans pan out. Still waiting for Superman–so far only found supercheats!
Pages 328-351 of my hardcover edition of “Reign of Error” contain a multitude of graphs and charts showing that minority students have made enormous strides on NAEP and graduation rates since 2004.
Tim, Cami Anderson’s Newark Renew schools did not show any progress (2012-14) two years after her firing principals, reassigning staff. Alliance for Newark Public Schools prepared two reports; they’re referenced on AFSA blog, NJ Spotlight, Bob Braun’s Ledger (sorry, I don’t know how to link).
Tim,
Reign of Error demonstrates that US public education is NOT in crisis, is not failing, is not broken. The progress shown in the charts covers 100 years of graduation rates, and NAEP scores from 1970. The biggest gain in NAEP scores occurred before NCLB. The biggest narrowing of achievement gaps occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
All of that is government data. Why do “reformers” lie and say our system of public education is broken?
“Why do ‘reformers’ lie and say our system of public education is broken?”
Maybe they’re not lying, but are simply incorrect, and will change their position later on.
FLERP, you have a point. Arne Duncan used to say at every opportunity that our schools are failing, failing, failing. After my book “Reign of Error” came out, showing that graduation rates and test scores are at their highest point ever, he began to change his tune. The problem is that it is hard to say “our schools are succeeding and they need radical changes.” The people who want more charters and more vouchers can’t use that line.
I should add that I have been on panels with people paid to promote charters and vouchers. I am sorry to say they do lie, especially the voucher salesmen. They make claims for the miracles of vouchers that are simply untrue, and they know it.
Tim (or economist guy reincarnate that used to troll here),
Sounds like you make a great argument for ignoring test scores as a measure of NCLB effectiveness – or teaching in general. The old causation v. correlation fallacy. A better metric of the overall well being of our minority and even middle class families is wage growth and wealth disparity. Not so good these days. Politicians ignore those measures as the solutions require real action, leadership, and responsibility from our leaders. Sadly, the trend is instead flawed test and punish models and blame the teacher rhetoric.
NCLB and the RttT has been a lesson in big government control of local education, complete with political ideology, corrupted leadership, and corporate greed. By the time it gets to the classroom, it looks like a disjointed collection of busy work and unfunded mandates.
This blog gets “gotcha ” contributors now and then. Cherry pick a few points, see the tree ignoring the forest , and post a few passive aggressive dodges. Nice try.
Nice try at dismissing someone’s argument by claiming that they must be a sock puppet (or a reformer, or a paid shill, etc.).
Much of “Reign” is devoted to an examination of the current state of America’s schools. The conclusion, backed by pages and pages of disaggregated NAEP results, is that America’s schools have never before performed at such a high level, regardless of poverty, segregation, and inequality.
It could very well be true that NCLB has ramped up test prep, caused a narrowing of curriculum, and made art, science, music, and history into afterthoughts. At the same time, black and Hispanic children have made significant, enduring progress in math and reading as judged by a no-stakes, unpreppable, very high-quality test with a huge sample size.
As always, there is a sensible middle ground out there just crying out to be discovered.
Memphis Louie, If PISA scores interest you, the US scores have been flat since the NCLB-RTTT era. In “Reign of Error,” I showed the US Department of Education data on steady progress of US students over recent decades: test scores are the highest in history; graduation rates are the highest in history; dropout rates are the lowest in history. However, poverty is at outrageous levels and poverty drags down test scores on international tests. Since 2000, the US has made no progress on PISA because we have done nothing to reduce poverty. Instead, we let them eat tests.
Tim and Memphis Louie,
Please open this link to see what has happened to US scores since 2000 on the PISA tests: https://dianeravitch.net/2015/03/04/a-stunning-graphic-on-the-failure-of-test-based-accountability/
As I noted in the comments on that post, the chart doesn’t account for changes in the demographics of US schools. Cumulatively, scores can be flat or even fall while at the same time scores for subgroups can rise. That has certainly been the case with NAEP: black and Hispanic fourth and eighth grade reading and math scores have improved by at least a grade level since NCLB.
Tim,
With billions spent for testing and test prep, one would expect scores to rise. But schooling is about so much more than tests. If you read my book, you drew the wrong conclusion.
From reading your books, I was left with the impression that NAEP is the gold standard in assessment, and that for a variety of reasons, it is effectively unpreppable.
Tim,
I like NAEP. It is unpreppable. The unfortunate fact, as other commenters have pointed out, is that test scores do not create jobs. Test scores do not create prosperity. Test scores are not the goal of education, they are a measure of one facet of education. It is like saying that you live to take your temperature. Maybe you do, but it is only one part of your life. I would be feeling awful if my temperature were 104, but having a perfect 98.6 every day does not define me. Nor do test scores define a child.
Tim,
If we are going to live and breath by correlation implying causation, then we might as well look at the inverse correlation between systemic poverty and low test scores, then the decline of unions and increase in wealth inequality. Those correlations are very strong, much more than some measure of NCLB-ness (how do you quantify that?) and standardized test scores.
I reread the ASA statement say. Perhaps you should , too. They repeat the claim only 1-14% of the *variability* (not direct cause) of test scores is attributed to the teacher. There are other variables affecting outcomes. For example, a closing of the achievement gap on a series of tests might be due to focusing on that test. Campbell’s Law and all.
Tests only test what is on the test. You must hypothesize the tests represent learning, after you define learning. Far from the exact science the Reformers lead the public to believe it is.
Are tests useful? Sure, if the results come from a variety of models, are transparent and timely, and viewed as diagnostic tools requiring human interpretation.
Mathvale,
not sure if Tim knows any stats, but most people don’t and therefore have no clue what it means to say that “teachers account for about 1% to14% of variability in test scores” and that “correlation does not imply causation”
While “1% to14%” should sound UNimpressive even to someone who just understands percentages and no stats, anyone who knows the first thing about statistics understands that that is tantamount to saying that any relationship that exists between teachers and test scores is very nearly random — certainly far below the level that any real scientist would take seriously.
In sciences like physics, chemistry and even biology, such a poor “correlation” would actually be considered “non-correlation” and anyone who made the claim that it should act as the basis for high stakes decisions (firing teachers and/or denying tenure) would be (and is) considered a crackpot.
But in economics, for some strange reason, they are held up as “geniuses” and given prizes.
Correction
I should have said “any relationship that exists between teachers and test score variability is very nearly random”
The US Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in 1993 Nobelman vs. American Savings sided with banks against homeowners. Value of the house is irrelevant, we move from asset-based to debt-based economy almost overnight. Securitize the mortgages, sell them as over-rated bonds, hedge fund insures the bonds against the ultimate default of the homeowner. (Not that difficult to understand…)
Now, the world will turn to China for infrastructure funding. Wall Street’s days are numbered.