Tim Slekar is dean of Edgewood College in Wisconsin. He is a tireless activist against mindless reform. He blogs at Busted Pencils. He explained in a comment why he was disappointed with the Senate version of the reauthorization of ESEA/NCLB:
Slekar writes:
“I’m not really that thrilled because while it addresses the excessive authority of the DOE, I can not find anything that recognizes the role poverty plays in the achievement gap and once again we have a bill that thinks improving schools is primarily the job of standards, curriculum, teachers and tests. Tests, Tests, Tests. Is it an improvement to get the federal government out of the school improvement business? Yes.
“However, why do we have any faith that state governments will actually attack the achievement gap without the status quo “test and punish” approach. Remember test and punish is an ideology that is still rooted in a hatred and disdain for public schools.
“This hatred and disdain is clearly present here in WI with “accountability” legislation being introduced at the state level that gives the finger to the feds but then simply puts in place a state level “test and punish” accountability system that will never help children, teachers and schools.
“It continues the system—test and punish—approach that blames public schools for the achievement gap. And there is nothing that allows the people to hold the state legislature accountable for purposely ignoring poverty and in a lot of cases creating the political culture that creates poverty.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“However, why do we have any faith that state governments will actually attack the achievement gap without the status quo “test and punish” approach.”
Absolutely. 100% agree. I listened to (part) of the Senate debate and it was really disappointing. It’s the same thing we’ve been hearing for 15 years, other than what was a purely ideological debate on federalism btwn some of the Democrats and some of the Republicans.
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Tim is right…so TRUE. Educators have been stabbed in the back with a huge hachet, and even now with the proposed reforms, that huge hatchet still remains in our backs and those of our students as well as their parents/guardians. The hatchet “might” be pulled out a bit, but we are still bleeding and the hatchet is still inside maiming, just not as deep. We call this reform and should be thankful? I think not. Ask: CUI BONO?
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To clarify, to me the congressional debate was limited to WHICH level of government should fund/administer the same old ed reforms. That’s perhaps an interesting legal/ideological debate if you’re a “states rights” conservative (I’m not) but it’s the same old narrow policy debate that has dominated DC for 15 years.
They didn’t debate ed reform.
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Excellent observation, and obvious in the shape of the revised ESEA in the works…failed pursuits teacher recruitment on the cheap, more tests just a bit different, pay for performance, expand charters and TFA hires.
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He has good points.
I describe it as deciding what dance moves we do while the ship goes down. I start to feel like I’m in the twilight zone when decision makers talk about the achievement gap as if Common Core and testing and progress monitoring are going to make it go away. It’s maddening.
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None of them can seem to shake the false mantra of “teacher/school accountability through testing”. This unsupported idea is at the very core of the philosophy which is driving policy. How long will it take for politicians to realize that they have been completely hoodwinked. Chris Gibson and Jim Tedisco here in NY are two voices of political sanity on education issues. The word is that Gibson is planning to challenge Cuomo in 2018. I wish him godspeed.
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Considering that so many of our legislators are in the millionaire category, they have no reason to shake the teacher accountability mantra. It’s so much easier to blame, rather than seek actual solutions. Are any of these people actually aware of what is going on in the public schools, and in the lives of the students, particularly in the areas where many of the students are living in destitute poverty?
In my opinion, most of these politicians do not look outside the bubble that they have enveloped themselves in. They just give lip service, and follow the polls, whichever way the wind is blowing. I wonder why we , the voting public, DON’T hold THEM accountable for their actions, particularly in light of all the scandals that have occurred recently in NY State.
Until there is a major mass coalition of parents and teachers protesting all of this nonsense foisted upon the public by these politicians, the song will remain the same.
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If the federal role will indeed be somewhat limited, it will only be because Congress is confident that enough ALEC-inspired laws have passed in state legislatures and enough Broad-trained reformers with their hoards of TFAers are in place in state departments of education to continue the madness.
IF things ever change, it will take generations.
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New ESEA leaves the ugly status quo in place while giving complicit Dem-GOP politicians cover for ’16 elections, a legalistic escape hatch to pretend accommodating to the massive unpopularity of CCSS/RTTT/SBAC on the left and the right of the two parties. This cosmetic adjustment changes nothing. Duncan has done his destructive job for Obama and Broad and can now be retired to a stud farm(Pearson, Broad, Amplify, Gates, Murdoch, Pritzker will provide the cash pasture for him). Reducing fed role in this ESEA reauthorization is meaningless at this point.
Local and state govts. have always been battlegrounds. Eva-style private charters are now legally embedded, entitled and authorized to claim public tax levies for their operating budgets, public funding for acquisition of sites, buildings, and equipment, and a cherished outrageous exemption from govt. oversight and accountability.
Our best weapon against this govt-billionaire attack is massive parental opt-out which can stop the commercial testing takeover. Refusing the tests is first campaign to stop Pearson, Gates, and their bought politicians. Needed now as well–a national pledge by the tens of millions of school parents, teachers, and administrators to REFUSE to vote for any candidate who supports private charters or standardized testing. Reject all who support the looting of the public schools and the abuse of our kids with endless hours of costly tests. Our union leaders will not join this rejection of anti-public politicians. Our PTAs will not lead this. Our School Board Associations will not lead this rejection of the status quo; they are agents of the status quo with seats at the table of money and power. We can do it without them, from the bottom up, b/c we are an immense majority.
No votes for the privatizers’ politicians; no testing in classrooms where teaching and learning must prevail, not sit and stare and fill in the blanks. Our kids, our schools, and our democracy are in our hands.
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One of the goals of the ed reformers was to create one huge market for their products. One national curriculum with one big test for all. This would allow the big greedsters to take over public education and game it to fill their coffers. The feds played a major role in this, first through NCLB and then with RTTT. I am hopeful that this latest legislation will help to break that one big market and go back to 50 different markets. Perhaps the big corporate folks will lose interest?
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Why pick on teachers? There are other professions which could use some monitoring, such as bankers, lawyers, coal mine owners, the oil drilling industry, and. shippers, truckers, construction managers, police officers, politicians, the last goes on.
Why just teachers?
Ellen #EvenCongressionalLeaders
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They are picking on the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on public education. Teachers just happen to be standing in the way. Its just a btch slap to the profession before pillaging.
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I find that there is a deep misogynistic streak running through the conservative movement. Publicly, they would never admit to that. But wait until Hillary announces and the Republican dog whistles will be blowing. Every so often, it bubbles to the surface for all to see. It is one reason Scott Walker exempted the traditionally male unions of police and fire and attacked the mostly female profession of teaching.
For neoliberals, it is more of an elitist agenda. Throw in some feigned concern over civil rights, and these Reformers see teachers as inferior and obstacles to solving poverty. “If only these lazy union teachers were better, we would solve the problems of society”.
You just can’t win.
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Teachers are an easier target than bankers and lawyers. Bullies pick the easiest prey and whatever will make them feel most powerful.
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Witness what happened recently with the police force of NYC, when they so openly and willingly did not perform their jobs, the so called “Blue Flu”. NOTHING happened to them.
I wonder why teachers allow ourselves to be so blatantly abused, and not use the tactics of other civil service workers to get our points across.l
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In essence, the federal and state government are passing “bashing rights” from Washington to your state government. The main agenda is test, test, test! Since evidence based is mentioned several times in the bill, they should be told that the intent of the bill has to be to help the neediest students. Therefore, they should be required to support vetted activities that help the poorest students. Where is the evidence that standardized testing and charter schools help the neediest students? If they cannot produce evidence to support the intent of the bill, then they should not be allowed to use public funds to pay for more useless projects.
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Speaking of Congress, we could use some real oversight here:
“Top state prosecutors from Oregon to Massachusetts, who contend they have evidence that thousands of Americans were fraudulently urged to take out federal student loans to attend dodgy for-profit schools, urged the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday to forgive the borrowers’ debts.
The group of nine Democratic attorneys general demanded that Education Secretary Arne Duncan use his existing authority to cancel debts for students who attended schools currently or formerly owned by Corinthian Colleges Inc., a once-multibillion-dollar company that owned more than 100 for-profit schools with names such as Everest, Heald and Wyotech.”
Why did the US Department of Education bail this for-profit college out? I have heard Warren ask about this but she has oversight authority in Congress. She could at least inquire into what happened here.
Congrats to these 9 state AG’s for doing their jobs, BTW. Where is Congress?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/09/federal-student-loan-forgiveness_n_7037128.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
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If Corinthian had been closed down, the students would not have been reponsible for paying the debts accrued for their useless coursework. To reinforce grit (?) students must pay their debts because Corinthian has been “wound down”. Student loan interest goes to Arne to play with. Speaking of Warren, see her here on the Daily Show, explaining all we need to know about student loans:
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/wb58yw/elizabeth-warren-pt–2
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So did the “old” NCLB….
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And once the schools are privatized? Then we will see a movement to show that it isn’t the entrepreneurs’ fault but the children’s. Suddenly the students will be accountable, and the entrepreneurs will need more money for motivational courses and teacher training for these courses.’
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