Archives for the month of: April, 2015
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This Is Genius! Listen to This Student

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2015 //
6

This is a video of a spoken word poem by student Ryan Lotocki. It is genius. In fact, the poem is titled “This Is Genius,” and it shows all the different ways that students excel. Not just on a standardized test, but in living good lives that engage their interests and passions.

 

Can we show this to a joint meeting of Congress, or at least to the committees now rewriting No Child Left Behind? Or how about our state legislatures, who assume the power to decide that teachers by the test scores of their students?

 

Students have power. They are the primary victims of the disruption and distorted values that NCLB and Race to the Top and uninformed politicians have made of our education system.

Categories Accountability, Common Core, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Students, Testing

Peter Greene on the Demolition of Education in Arizona

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2015 //
22

Peter Greene read an opinion piece defending Common Core in a major newspaper in Arizona. With a bit of googling, he discovered that the writer–Rebecca Hipps– lives in Washington, D.C., and works for an organization that sells Common Core teaching materials. What surprised him even more was that with the author’s concern for the state of public education, she said nothing about the punishing budget cuts that have decimated its schools (as well as higher education, which Governor Doug Ducey seems to want to get rid of along with public schools). Greene calls his post “Razing Arizona,” which is a clever pun on the name of a popular movie called “Raising Arizona,” by the Coen brothers.

 

He writes:

 

Arizona has cut public ed spending steadily since the late oughts, and they rank 50th in college per-student spending. It’s a wonder that Hipps did not bring this up, as it would seem that Arizona is a poster child for spending bottom dollar on education and getting bottom dollar results.

 

Greene points out that legislators are responding to public criticism by making it illegal for educators to engage in public discussion or debates:

 

At least Hipps is able to speak out at all. Arizona’s teachers, superintendents, principals and school board members have spoke up about the slash and burn methods of their state leaders, and the state leader response has been to float a law that will require them to shut up.

Arizona lawmakers have attached an amendment to Senate Bill 1172. It prohibits “an employee of a school district or charter school, acting on the district’s or charter school’s behalf, from distributing electronic materials to influence the outcome of an election or to advocate support for or opposition to pending or proposed legislation.”

 

On the one hand, it’s a good idea that Mrs. O’Teacher not give her class an hour of self-directed worksheets while she stuffs envelopes for the new ballot initiative. On the other hand, there’s that whole First Amendment thing. And the law is so broadly worded that I imagine a citizen asking a school district employee, “I’m really worried about the new proposed law cutting all money to public schools. Will that hurt our programs here,” and said school employee must reply, by law, “I cannot share any information about that with you.” Other critics of the bill fear that it would even prohibit any discussion of educational programs that directly affect children with those children’s parents.

 

And while I’m not concerned, exactly, I am curious– would this law also prohibit charter schools from advertising?

 

The law is clearly one more attempt to push educators out of the political world. No more informational letters to parents and voters. No more taking a public stand against assaults on school funding by the governor and legislators. Presumably no teacher or administrator in Arizona could write a response to Hipps’ op-ed– at least not with any indication that they were writing their response from the perspective of a public educator.

 

In their wisdom, legislators have decided that the biggest problem of public schools is not the lack of funding, but the surplus of discussion of their funding. Best to shut up the educators.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Budget Cuts, Common Core, Education Industry, Funding

Our Blog Poet Connects Kafka to New York State Teacher Evaluations

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
5

Our blog poet–“Some DAM Poet”–regularly comments with witty poems. He/she is a good reason to read the comment section faithfully.

 

Here the the Poet’s reflection on the New York state mess:

 

“Metamorphosis” (certainly since I lived there)

 

Gregor Samsa woke quite late
Found himself in NY state
Though he’d turned to beetle queer
That was not his biggest fear

 

Governor was King of Hearts
Walking naked in the parks
Scaring parent and little kid
With every crazy thing he did

Categories Humor

Why I Changed My Mind: An Interview with “The Teacher Educator”

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
30

Last year, when I spoke in Indianapolis to the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, I was interviewed by Gregory J. Marchant, professor of educational psychology at Ball State University. He published the interview, and it was recently selected as the most read article in the journal in 2014. Greg asked some penetrating questions about my personal journey in the world of education research. You might find it interesting to read. He is a good interviewer, and I was very colloquial, as I tend to be.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Ravitch, Diane, Resistance, Teachers and Teaching

Tennessee Mom: Why the Scam that Devalues Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
8

A mom in Tennesse asks the fundamental questions:

“Why can’t all private industry contracted by the public education system be supportive to make public education better? We should be pursuing ways to create partnerships and increasing teacher quality, not creating hourly teacher tracks, devaluing university study, pushing hostile takeover strategies through charters, vouchers and for-profit charter schemes.

“By law we must educate children.

“Public education is not the post office with Fed_Ex and UPS and Amazon as its competition. I’m not forced by law to use the post office. And post office outcomes are not slanted by poverty of the customers they serve. Education is influenced by a child’s mindset to learn (ELL, disabled, just having a bad day). We are bettering lives with education. It should be our NASA.

“Business models discount the human and the need for childhood stability. When a parent is sick, when a child moves, things can disrupt a child’s learning. The public education system should be the safe haven. Something to count on. Your community should be there to back you up when everything else falls apart. We cannot reduce education to numbers and a free-for-all with choice. Education is the prime example of a government service that must work. Just like the military, roads, or police and fire.

“We are being held hostage by test scores. Our society is being scammed into thinking we don’t need this vital government service. And there are a lot of really smart people with their heads in the sand afraid of being politically active.”

Categories Education Reform

Perdido Street: If You Change Your Address Without Informing Big Brother, Bad Things Will Happen

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
61

Blogger Perdido Street discovered an astonishing part of the newly adopted New York state budget. If a teacher should change his or her address and fails to notify the State Education Department, he or she will be subject to “a moral character review” by the state.

 

Certificate holders shall notify the department of any change of name or mailing address within thirty days of such change. Willful failure to register or provide such notice within one hundred eighty days of such change may constitute grounds for moral character review under subdivision seven of section three hundred five of this chapter.

 

Words fail me.

Categories New York, Teachers

Reader: How Education Should Be Managed

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
36

Mate Wierdl, a professor of mathematics at the University of Memphis, explains to another reader why the management model of education is different from that of business:

 

 

“Another reader wrote: “Before you even ask those questions, I believe you have to establish a consensus about purpose. What are public schools supposed to accomplish? Then you ask, Are they accomplishing it? How well?”

 

“I gave my opinion on this in other posts in this blog thread: in math, kids need to understand math (calculating using crazy formulas they forget within a week is unimportant), they need to enjoy thinking, problem solving, experimenting.

 

“What teachers don’t accomplish very well is to get kids excited about learning. I submit, the main reason for this is overwork: US teachers and students have to work way too much. For example, in Hungary, a teacher’s daily load is four 45 min classes with 15 minute breaks between classes—about 60% of what US teachers have to endure.

 

“Since teachers have to keep kids excited, they also need to be excited, enthusiastic, but that’s impossible to do 6 hours a day—plus grading, preparing, communicating with parents. If we want to improve education, the first thing to do is reduce teaching load, and reduce school and home work time for kids.

 

“My understanding is that you are worried that if the public doesn’t look over the teachers’ shoulders, they won’t do a good job. But teachers have a completely different management style from corporations.

 

“Simplistically, there are two kinds of evaluation/management systems. One is what we can call the military style with its hierarchical chain of authority. This is what seems to be preferred by big corporations: the “CEO system”.

 

“The other one is the democratic management system where each worker has full authority over her work. In this system, the quality of work is ensured by a peer review process. This democratic management system has been used in education, but many small businesses have been using it too.

 

“The controversy is that powerful people like Gates, who believe in the almighty CEO system, refused to believe that the democratic system works well in education—or anywhere, and so they decided to implement the military style management in education. This happened despite the fact that the US had the best higher ed system in the world and it’s based on the democratic management system.

 

“When people on this blog are pissed about, say, Gates, and they say, they don’t want to be evaluated by a military system Gates invented for them, they don’t imply that they don’t want to be responsible to the public. No, they just have a democratic management system that has been working very well for decades, and in some instances, for centuries. What teachers see is that outsiders want to force a different management style on them which has been proven ineffective in education numerous times in the past.”

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Paul Karrer: Can We Trust Hillary?

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
50

Paul Karrer teaches fifth grade in California. He writes frequently about education.

 

 

Don’t Let Hillary Do An Obama On Public Education

 

I write to the leaders of our many education organizations. The time has come for educators collectively to push back.

 

If you are honest, you must admit we have not fared well politically. In fact it would be fair to say we have been vilified, punished, and demoralized. Teachers must face the ugly fact that President Obama has done the institution of public education and educators irreparable, long-term damage with his shocking warm embrace of “Ed Reform Inc.”

 

In the previous election the many arms of education threw their weight, money, and support behind President Obama far too early. Hillary Clinton was one of the few candidates to come out against No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind was the seminal poisonous blueprint for the destruction and financial demolition of our democratic public schooling institutions.

 

We received no return on our support for President Obama. Incredibly just the opposite occurred. He made Arnie Duncan his hatchet man and Arnie started chopping. President Obama became wedded to Wall Street, hedge funders, school privatizers, technocrats, and initiated the cannibalism of our educational system. Who would have conceived that the greatest educational betrayal in contemporary history would be by a Democrat and a minority member to boot? His Race To The Top, leveraged with more charter schools, was the ugly stepchild of NCLB. Strategically we thought we had to support Obama. He could only be better than any Republican we chanted. Sadly, in retrospect this is no longer a certainty.

 

We find ourselves in a similar juncture in the political road. Hillary seems to be our candidate BUT…she has said some very disturbing things of late. Things which make many of us a little questioning of her new leanings. I say this as an ardent Hillary supporter. She claims that the most important book she has ever read was the bible. No problem with that except she’s never mentioned this previously. Also, she’s made a very sharp right turn regarding Syria and probably Iran. She is now a big proponent of invasion – to show she’s tough. Both of these moves reek of pandering to polls. And they indicate a throwing out of previous values. Scary question is…will she throw public education and teachers under the bus for votes too?

 

We need Hillary, if she is to be our candidate, to be supportive of us in deeds not platitudes. Not just because of our power, and strength but also because we are the good guys. We believe in public service. That is why we teach.

 

Hillary needs to understand she does not automatically have our support and resources unless she guarantees the death of NCLB, teachers evaluated on testing, and the end of excessive testing. We need a presidential candidate who restarts a public schooling system based on what is good for children – not what is good for: politicians, hedge funders, Pearson, or charter school corporations.

 

So you our education leaders at the top of the food chain need to have a little sit-down with Hillary. She can’t do An Obama on us. An Obama is where he meets with a few teachers, tells them how great they are. Parades them on T.V. and blathers how society needs great teachers. And adds that we shouldn’t test too much.

 

And then he promotes industries many harmful reforms. That’s An Obama.

 

Don’t let Hillary do a Hillary on us.

 

 

Paul Karrer
5th grade teacher

Castroville Elementary School
2009 North Monterey LULAC Teacher of The Year
Monterey, California
93940

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Obama, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Poem: To a Teacher Whose Work Has Come to Naught

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
16

From a reader:

 

To a Teacher Whose Work Has Come to Naught

 

Consider Ms Jones, putting her best suit on,
chalking her name once more on the board last September,

 

and think of that first giddy moment a kid connected
to a Sexton poem. Think of the difference it made!

 

There above are the computers crimping verse into rubrics
and here are the shocked admins pumping past the doomed classroom

 

and think of the innocent test-
takers who are not doing well.

 

Larger than software, over the fog
and the blast

 

of the econometricians, she goes.
Admire her reckless bravery!

 

Feel the Gatesian fire at her neck
and see how casually

 

she gazes up and is caught,
a deer momentarily blinded

 

by ed-reform’s headlights. Who cares that
she scored inefficient?

 

See her acclaiming the poet and
come tumbling down

 

While her sensible principal
replaces her with a TFA.

Categories Education Reform

Who Is Rahm’s Constituency?

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2015 //
9

Anthony Moser writes a guest column for EduShyster, asking and answering some questions about Mayor Rahm’s campaign: Who is funding it? Who benefits most from the mayor’s determination to make (or keep) Chicago “a world-class city”?

Moser looks at the city’s TIF (Tax Incentive Fund):

“This, presumably, is the justification for Rahm’s obsessive focus on downtown. Nearly half of the money collected in TIF districts has gone to the central business district. In case you are unfamiliar, TIFs are a means of diverting property taxes from their normal destinations, like schools and parks, and instead earmarking the funds for *development.* As originally enshrined in Illinois law, they were tools for improving blighted districts. Of course the Loop does not fit most definitions of *blight,* but the complicated rules of TIFs allow money to be shunted around between adjoining districts, so that money collected in Englewood can fund development downtown. Wealth does not flow from the prosperous center to the impoverished fringes, but instead the growth of downtown is financed by the parts of our city most in need….”

“Our mayor came into power after living in the city for less than a year with a campaign funded by powerful, wealthy people across the country. He has rewarded them with city contracts and privatization schemes even as he fired ordinary working folks like teachers and janitors by the thousands. He sues to curb pension benefits, while turning over those same pension funds to his friends and donors. He stands before the national media, taking no questions, to celebrate investment by and for the richest among us (and, given his ties to New York, Washington and LA, not among us). The campaign contributions Mayor Emanuel accepts in a week are more than many of the city’s residents could earn in a lifetime.”

For the links to sources, read the article.

Categories Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Emanuel, Rahm
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