As the Senate got close to a final vote on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Democrats pushed to restore a punitive accountability system, much like NCLB.
Edweek reports:
“In the afternoon, senators voted on and rejected one of the most high-profile amendments the chamber has considered in its six days of debate—a proposal from Democrats to beef up accountability measures in the underlying bill to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act, the current version of the law.
“Among other things, the amendment would have required states to establish measurable state-designed goals for all students and separately for each of the categories of subgroups of students. It also would have required states to intervene in their lowest-performing 5 percent of schools and those that graduate less than 67 percent of their students.
“NCLB said a lot on this issue, and most of it wasn’t helpful,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the principal author of the proposal. “But the amendment we’re offering takes a very different approach. This is an education bill, but it’s not a worthwhile bill unless it’s also a civil rights bill.”
“As we wrote Tuesday, Democrats weren’t expecting the amendment to pass. But they were hoping to cobble together 35 or more votes to show that strengthening accountability is a top priority going into conference with the House on its version of an ESEA overhaul.
“That way the Democrats, along with the dozen or so Republicans they anticipate voting against the bill no matter what, would be able to block final passage of a conferenced bill should it not include stronger accountability language.
“But the National Education Association threw a bit of a wrench in their plan when it came out in opposition to the amendment and urged senators to vote against it.
“The 3 million-member union argued that the amendment would “continue the narrow and punitive focus of NCLB and overidentify schools in need of improvement, reducing the ability of states to actually target help to schools that need the most assistance to help students.”
“In a letter to senators, the NEA wrote that it agreed with the intent of the amendment, in that states should be required to specifically factor subgroup performance into their system of school identification. But that overall system, the letter stated, should be decided by the states, not the federal government.”
The Democratic Senators apparently don’t know that state takeovers mean privatization (a la ALEC), that charters do not get better academic results than public schools, and that the root cause of low scores is inequity, not “bad” schools. State takeovers have not protected the civil rights of under served children. Privatization has created profits for the charter industry.
The Dem senators + DFER = privatization.
Well, based on a review of the roll call, I am seriously considering a change in my support of the Democratic party. It is hard to believe that the Democrats are so inclined to promote the privatization of public schools and support an accountability system which is not based on any real research.
“The Democratic Senators apparently don’t know that state takeovers mean privatization (a la ALEC), that charters do not get better academic results than public schools, and that the root cause of low scores is inequity, not “bad” schools. State takeovers have not protected the civil rights of under served children. Privatization has created profits for the charter industry.”
We need to quit deluding ourselves by justifying votes as lack of knowledge. They know exactly what they’re doing and they are fully aware of all of those facts.
Actually, their funders and lobbyists are fully aware.
“We Don’t Know”
We know not what we’re doing
Except of course, we do
You know not whom we’re screwing
The latter would be you
Yes, geek….
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/hillary-clinton-president-walmart-business-feminist/
An article of Clinton’s history….not her new-found populist words.
I”ve been working crazy hard in the NEA, and am a little bit proud of the us for throwing that wrench. I talked with a Government Relations Committee lobbyist in Orlando last week at the Representative Assembly, and he actually helped me push through our amendment to the legislative agenda for the 114th Congress, strengthening our opposition to standardized testing.
The details will matter in the coming battles, but we know people traded their votes on dead amendments. At least this one is dead.
chemtchr…I support your position and would hope that all readers and writers at this site will click on your nom de plume and read your info at Daily Kos. You are right on…thanks for your insights.
Is the Democratic party now comprised primarily of right wing infiltrators like Corey Booker? It’s so disgusting to see how far to the right they will turn when they think they can pull the wool over people’s eyes, especially by dressing up what they do in “civil rights” garb. It’s really just one party now, the left-right anything-for-money party.
No wonder big business contributes to both parties. That’s why “As one Wall Street lawyer put it, ‘If it turns out to be Jeb vs. Hillary, we would love that and either outcome would be fine.'”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/hillary-clinton-president-walmart-business-feminist/
Reteach, follow the DFER money.
How do we get this turned around politically when both parties’ politicians are more worried about maintaining power by cuddling up next to wealthy campaign donors who see education as an area ripe for privatization, rather than focusing on fixing the root problems for our underachieving students? You can’t vote anybody out and put someone new in if they are all the same. You can’t start a third party because that never goes anywhere. I am a Republican who has threatened to become a Democrat because what has gone on nationally and in Ohio, but I don’t think it would make any difference.
I am totally serious….what can we do?
Steve, the best way to slow down this train is to support the opt out movement. If kids don’t take the tests, there are no data to label and rank the students and to fire their teachers. The whole inept and ruinous “reform” project crashes without data. Don’t take the tests. Urge the parents you know to opt their children out. It is an act of civil disobedience, the most important weapon in the hands of the people.
Ah, DFER, that explains a lot.
No wonder there are no desegregation protections in this law. If there were, increased money would go to magnets and busing again and those schools would be better equipped to compete with charters. Imagine if charters had to desegregate! That industry would probably collapse and there goes the cash cow for profiteers.
Thanks!
“The Choice of Wall Street”
Jebary is fine
And Hilladiah too
They really wouldn’t mind
Cuz either plays on cue
YES!
The Dems are in many ways the mirror image of the Repubs. That is why so many astute educators are supporting Bernie Sanders as the better choice for prez.
This other defeated amendment summarizes the tragic loss of opportunity and justice perpetrated by the whole charade.
“Senator Kirk’s (R-IL) amendment 2161, “to ensure that States measure and report on indicators of student access to critical educational resources and identify disparities in such resources, and for other purposes,” was rejected 46-50. Democrats and Sanders wanted it; only two Republicans voted in favor, and one of those was Kirk, the bill’s sponsor. Tester was the only Democrat to vote against it.”
https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/senate-esea-reauthorization-update-for-july-15-2015/
Is anybody really pretending that NCLB hasn’t been a remorseless degradation of the educational opportunity accessible to low income children and communities of color? With no justice in sight, it now descends on them again, with their Title I funding weaponized against them.
If that’s the amendment, it seems to require states to measure access to resources. I don’t f see testing in there, although one could say it’s implied.
This is an entirely different amendment, Peter, not about testing. This is the NEA’s Opportunity amendment. It measures the justice of input into the education system, rather than demanding authority to prescribe and enforce “measurable” outcomes.
In outcome measurement, 10% of the kids will be in the bottom 10%. Even if they aren’t, but their community is, then their schools will be liable for suspension of democratic control and involuntary privatization. There is a score distribution, of course, with a lot of overlap, but statistically it will continue to be skewed against communities of poverty, and especially of color.
So, measuring and alleviating the steady erosion of black children’s equal rights to education resources is the crucial step nobody is willing to take. I am enormously proud of my national NEA union for taking this demand to the halls of congress, and of the 7000 delegates last week in Orlando who played a part.
Chemteacher,
You ask:
“Is anybody really pretending that NCLB hasn’t been a remorseless degradation of the educational opportunity accessible to low income children and communities of color? ”
Well, yes, the major civil rights organizations demand more testing and accountability, exactly what NCLB inflicted.
No, Diane, major civil rights organizations don’t demand more testing and accountability. The specific leadership of these relatively few organizational levels within a relatively few civil rights organizations has taken that position, in the face of handsome gifts from the Gates foundation, in every single case.
Other NAACP leaders at all levels, as you know, take a different position. I was gratified that the newly militant NEA opposition was seen as important, although not sufficient. Gates has leveraged the NAACP leadership level that rates unions for their adherence to the corporate program, so Randi will get points for her collusion, Lily will lose points for her opposition. The pundit claims they got enough support to push the takeover language into the final bill, in any case.
Did the NPE lobby for any position on this specific amendment?
I thought we were told Democrats were going to push something other than testing? It was clear they would push testing but they said they had some kind of coherent approach to public education that differs from Republicans and would be revealed (if 6 years late) did they not?
What did they fight for outside of testing? Will they get anything other than testing?
Here’s a suggestion. If Democrats want parents to go along with testing regimes, maybe they could offer some positive benefit to public school children in return. That might work better than alternately scolding them and jeering at them.
What is the Democrats’ positive agenda for existing public schools? Can they answer that question without reverting to ed reform slogans?
You want to be careful with that “I thought we were told… ” passive construction, Chiara.
Congressional Democrats had 6 years to think about it and the best they could do was come up with the modified George W Bush plan on public schools?
What are they running on nationally? Jeb Bush + preschool?
Why don’t we just install the Bush family as education czars for life and get it over with?
Installing Billary will produce the same outcomes.
The UFT Committee on Political Education has utterly failed to educate Congress on the flaws in the act. The NEA cannot go it alone in fighting for rationality against the odds of Arnie Duncan, the influence of Gates and the Walton family, the hedge fund exploiters of education, and the equivocal press.
But the NEA isn’t fighting for rationality. They agree with the intent of the bill. They just favor doing it on a state rather than a national level.
The NEA is a little schizo on this. We turned the position around less than 2 weeks ago, in floor votes at an actual Representative Assembly. (I was in a wheelchair, struggling to keep my oxygen concentrator battery charged). We were able to amend some parts of the corrupted legislative platform, and the lobbyists went with that to the senate floor. I agree the “state level” argument sounds lame, Dienne, but we’re not arguing for the sake of arguing.
They are arguing that the NEA continues to support the supposed intent of accountability, but we can choose at the state level to provide actual resource assistance and opportunity equity for low-scoring schools, rather than the further punitive resource cuts and forced privatization called for in this amendment.
Is there a list of Democrats who supported this measure? And why was it the NEA and not AFT who fought against this. Where did Bernie stand? And something tells me Hillary would be behind this push as well.
“In a letter to senators, the NEA wrote that it agreed with the intent of the amendment, in that states should be required to specifically factor subgroup performance into their system of school identification.”
Honestly, I don’t expect Congress to understand education. They are, after all, Congress. The NEA on the other hand? No excuses.
Anyway, the original ESEA was strictly about equity in educational funding. What’s so hard about that? Make sure that poor schools and schools serving special needs kids get the resources they need. What does “performance” have to do with it?
Dienne, you are exactly right.
ESEA was about federal aid to education, specifically for poor kids. It had nothing to do with testing and accountability. NCLB wasted billions and achieved nothing. We had ample evidence of achievement gaps before NCLB.
NAEP continues to report state gaps. It is not necessary to test every child every year to assess progress.
This effort is driven by testing companies and data-driven mania.
Diane,
Do you feel there should be some form of state-level accountability based on NAEP results or should we administer the NAEP for informational purposes only?
By no means would I ever claim to speak for Diane, but here’s my answer (to paraphrase “Red” from “The Shawshank Redemption”):
I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it’s just a made up word. A politician’s word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job…. Accountability? It’s just a bullsh** word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don’t give a sh**.
No one ever should be held “accountable” for the actions of others. Whether judged by the NAEP or the PARCC, “accountability” is a bullsh** word.
Agree with you completely on ESEA, Diane. As an educational researcher then in schools around the US, my job using longitudinal studies was to ascertain that this true civil rights legislation was producing the intended outcomes. Generally, in the 1970s, it was producing results leading to equitable education of poor children of color. A far cry then from what the corrupt oligarchs have lobbied for and what the corrupt legislators caused it to morph into today. As Diane says….follow DFER.
Diene said, “No one ever should be held “accountable” for the actions of others.”
This is so astute and, frankly, quite obvious that it should always be the case in a free country, yet when it comes to public education, the rules are different.
If the government wanted to hold parents accountable for their children’s behavior, such as breaking the law or not doing their homework, people would be in an uproar. Teachers, not so much.
We know that some states have worse inequities in their school finance systems than others. We know some states privatize more than others. We know some states provide less support and more punitive sanctions to teachers than others. If the NAEP shows that a state has more significant gaps on the NAEP, should the federal government tie ESEA funding to state system change?
I’m not saying they should, but if state level NAEP data does not serve a specific purpose do we give it for large scale information purposes only?
Again, if the intent of the amendment was to continue to disaggregate results to identify racial disparities, then I think we could say we ALL agree to it.
The claim that we couldn’t disaggregate data without the accountability element was always spurious. But if there continues to be no data collected on actual discrimination in resource allocation, then people can use that as an excuse to buckle under.
Yes..chemtchr…only the data can show outcomes. And since Reagan on, through both Repub and Dem administrations, data studies design and collection by trained educators (and sociologists, cultural anthropologists, and techies) has been seen as an impediment to free market goals and has lost much funding, so that quite accurate (within the 3 – 5% error range) outcomes have become merely conjecture of the talking heads like Campbell Brown. As Diane alluded to the other day, they use these good looking but poorly informed mouth pieces to lead their ambitious plots like CC etc. while manipulating their information for wide public consumption.
No, no Ellen. Outcome “measures” are not going to clear anything up. They just show us which kids are poor and vulnerable.
Sorry to disagree with you, respected colleague. When viewed in longitudinal studies nationwide (designed and administered by highly trained educators, sociologists, and cultural anthropologists), results can show which programs, particularly in math and language arts, are more successful, or not, in which demographic areas. Added to this, some studies show which teacher training methods can be optimum, or not, to add to these outcomes.
The initial purpose of ESEA was to improve education for poor children of color. For about 12 – 15 years, teams of trained educational researchers were scattered over the US doing studies in stratified random selected districts and classrooms to investigate programs designed to better integrate these students with equity into the universal free public school system. Also, of course, Brown v. Bd. of Ed, a conglomeration of 5 cases narrowed to Brown, demanded the same standards a decade earlier.
To help keep the investigators balanced, the Feds mandated that the team make up included a white and an of color investigator. This was going on before many who are writing on this site were even born much less teaching.
Then Ronald Reagan, in his actor’s (and kitchen cabinet advisers) wisdom, decided the nation did not need any of this educational research, and he shut down most NGOs Education departments. No grant funding was made available.
With Clinton, funding for education, both research and programs, was appropriated but stayed in the DC coffers. And under Bush and NCLB, the funding was not even appropriated.
This is very sketchy but is a thumbnail of how we got to today….with RttT and CC, and testing, and privatizing. A slow road to hell from the Kennedy/Johnson civil rights era, to Obama and Duncan. Can you believe in just a few generations the Dem leadership could be so different?
I personally worked on these ESEA studies from 1972 – 1982 through grants at Systems Development Corporation (later Unysis), Stanford Research Institute, and other NGOs.
Read this tweet quoting Alexander. These people are delusional.
@PoliticsK12: Alexander on forthcoming #ESEA passage: it will be a remarkable accomplishment for the US Senate filled with 100 experts on education
The Toledo Blade joins the chorus slamming ed reformers in Ohio for reneging on their promise to start regulating charter schools:
“Ohio lawmakers inserted all sorts of awful provisions in the new state budget before they left for summer recess. But they didn’t get around to passing a badly needed charter school reform bill before the next school year starts. That lapse is inexcusable.
Lawmakers of both parties understand the need to rein in Ohio’s worst charter schools. Gov. John Kasich has pledged to work with the General Assembly to pass a strong reform bill. State Auditor Dave Yost calls Ohio’s charter school regulations “a broken system of governance.”
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Featured-Editorial-Home/2015/07/10/No-time-for-recess.html#l3ups68QQ5OHugjq.99
Does anyone in DC care what’s actually happening in states as a result of their pushing this “movement”? Ed reform in Ohio is a gigantic chaotic mess on everything from Common Core testing to charter schools. They’re not only harming charter school students with their refusal to regulate, they are now harming public school students. Still, the DC bandwagon plays merrily along, like it’s still 1998 and all of this stuff is “new”.
It seems to me that the William Barber speech that Diane posted yesterday should be placed personally into the hands of every democratic lawmaker in Congress. Could this serve as a wake-up call? Is there a way to accomplish this? An organization whose credibility Dems could not but recognize?
Let’s also place it into the hands of the corrupted national NAACP leadership, john.
I really do not think that all the Democratic support of “accountability” comes from “corporate donations”, etc. Some, but I think far from all. Are we to now think that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are “corporate shills”? “Right-wingers”?I think many have actually fallen for the fake “civil rights” rhetoric of the deformers. It is up to us to educate them, not just dismiss them as “bought”.
For those who say we should abandon the Democratic party? Really? True that more Republican politicians are opposed to Common Core, and anything federal. But look at their other education views (not even considering positions other than education for the moment, although there are also those to consider). Republicans are much more in favor of privatization–vouchers, charters, etc. They are also very anti-union, want to cut teacher pensions, and eliminate tenure, and want to cut funding for public education.
If anyone thinks that Scott Walker would be a better president on education than Hillary Clinton, or that there is “no difference”, that is a delusionary idea. And if you think that Bernie Sanders (who I like, but I don’t think has any real chance of becoming President) would be better on education, just look at his votes on the amendments to the Senate ESEA bill. Just not vote, because you “don’t like either party”? If so, you are just helping the GOP to win.
I think we need to do a better job of educating Democratic politicians about these issues, but not sure how. They are very heavily lobbied by the other side, by DFER, with their fake civil rights rhetoric, etc. What ever happened to DFPE, Democrats for Public Education, headed by Donna Brazile? When that group formed, it was great news, as DB is prominent in the Dem party? What happened to that group? Have they not been lobbying Dem politicians to counter the lies of DFER?
Yeah, and whatever happened to NPE? Surely they could ave raised significant opposition.
Mike…did you miss Obama’s big put down of Elizabeth Warren two weeks ago on her ‘lack of knowledge’ about the FED? His pat on her head and a nice little, ignorant, girl? She fought back instantly…but if it is more Obama behaviors in favor of the free market that you want, vote for Billary.
By the way, does anyone know, what happened to the Tester amendment to eliminate the annual testing mandate? Has that been voted on yet?
Looks like it didn’t get a vote.
Completely disgusted with Democrats.
COMPLETELY.
Public School supporters should run against these senators en masse.
Don’t forget that it was the Democrats, with only a minority of Republicans, who killed the voucher amendment, which most Republican senators supported.
Yet the votes of many Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, on some of the amendments has indeed been disturbing.
Slimy, slimy people. That’s how it all came to pass in the first place, corporate idiocy in education.
Ellen, are you aware that Elizabeth Warren proposed and voted for more testing? I believe Bernie Sanders did as well.
Also Ellen, Hillary’s recent economic speech sounded more like Elizabeth Warren than Barack Obama. In any case, this discussion is about education, not the economy. Warren’s votes on amendments to the Senate ESEA reauthorization were not good at all. Look them up.
Do I think that means EW is a “corporate shill”? No, not at all. I think many Dems (including EW) have actually been affected by the fake civil rights rhetoric of the deformies, and actually believe that voting for more testing is a vote for civil rights. Cory Booker (who is a very good speaker) and DFER have done a good job of indoctrinating them of that. That is why I wrote we must do a better job of educating them, although I am not sure how? (And I wondered what happened to the group that was supposed to counter DFER, DFPE, headed by Donna Brazile?)
Of course Billary’s speech sounded like Warren…it was designed, parsed, to do just that…to make her seem like a populist. Gee, Mike, do you think candidates only make honest speeches about what they believe and will do? The actual results of Obama’s erudite, patrician, and dulcet words v. the outcomes, should have disabused you of believing that politicians are honest and trust worthy.
Both Sanders and Warren voted against the Lee federal opt-out amendment, and I believe that both voted for the very bad amendment (which fortunately lost) described in this post. Not heroes of public education, although I think both are sincere.
Links to two roll call votes below:
Following is the link to the roll call vote of the amendment that Diane discussed in this post, S1177 Murphy. This is the bad amendment to “strengthen accountability provisions”. Please note that both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as most Democrats, voted for this bad amendment.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00241
Following is the link to the roll call vote of a good amendment, the Lee amendment # 2162 that would have mandated that all states allow parents to opt out. Please note that both Warren and Sanders voted against this good amendment:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00235
Elizabeth Warren voted today against the ECAA bill. I don’t know her reason, and would like to find out if she made a statement. about it. (My guess, however, unfortunately, is that her reasons would be similar to those Cory Booker would give– “not enough accountability”.
I think we should learn something from this–that a politician being more ‘left” and “anti-corporate”, does not necessarily mean they are on our side on education issues. Many fall for the “civil rights” rhetoric of the deformers. We cannot just assume that all on the other side are “bought by corporations”. Many actually believe that civil rights talk. (As in fact Diane once did, when she was involved in creating NCLB.)
I still think highly of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But they clearly have been misled about education, deform, etc. I think Diane’s title of this thread is very apt: “Evidence of How Little Congress Knows about Education”. So our job should be to help them learn more about education–to educate them about it, so to speak. I don’t know how we should do that, but it is important. (They are certainly hearing the other side, loud and clear.) Not only do we need to educate BS and EW, but also Hillary Clinton (whether you like her or not, the person most likely to be our next President), and also our Congressional and Senate representatives. (Here in California, as Barbara Boxer will be leaving soon, also important to speak to the person most likely to replace her–Kamala Harris.
I don’t think we should just write them all off, saying they are all “bought off by corporations”, and not try to educate them. And we cannot just assume that more “left” means more on our side.
You make a very good point, Mike, about we California educators getting our views across to Kamala Harris, who seems to be the likely replacement for Boxer. Some of us have been brainstorming on how to reach Harris, so if anyone here has her ear, please let us know.
I can be reached at
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
Anthony Cody…have you met with Harris???? If not, will you be talking with her soon? If so, may we send you our So. California thoughts honed by the LAUSD many misdirections?
Lily put up a message hailing the passage of ECAA. Not a surprise, but I’ll bet she also had one ready in case it didn’t pass. This has been my best effort (and maybe hers, too). We’re not done, but some of us need to rest.
So, let’s carry on fighting it together, teachers and kids and working class. Everybody with things to gain from corporate rationing of education resources has already gone over, taking their bylines and public offices with them. A few have come back, but at least what’s left is really us. And these are our children, and humane and powerful teaching is a righteous livelihood, and millions of ordinary people are looking to us for strength.
What you are doing is so vital, tchr….and we old war horses are needed to keep the history up to date for the strong younger educators who are inheriting the battle. Rest, but never retreat.
Wait a minute. Doesn’t the conference committee still have to hash out a compromise bill to return to their respective houses?
Thank you, chemtchr, for your lobbying the NEA. Keep it up.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Jon Tester deserves some strokes. http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/ensuring-every-montana-child-achieves/article_12b62d39-187d-52f5-be7a-90f94a7f8bc1.html