This is an open letter to Senator Bernie Sanders written by teachers who support him but oppose high-stakes testing and the Common Core standards. They wanted to let him know that they were disappointed that he voted for the Murphy Amendment to the Senate’s “Every Child Achieves Act.” The Murphy Amendment would have continued, in fact intensified, the punishments attached to No Child Left Behind. These teachers want Senator Sanders to know that they oppose punishments and sanctions based on test scores.
They write:
We are disappointed with your recent votes in the senate that contain provisions which perpetuate quantitatively based measures of education. Your Tennessee senatorial colleague Lamar Alexander correctly stated that what you just recently voted for, “Instead of fixing No Child Left Behind, it keeps the worst parts of it.”
Quantitative measures are invalid. They are masks for social inequalities. They merely highlight and then reflect economic and racial inequalities. Mel Riddile, “PISA: It’s Still ‘Poverty Not Stupid'” at the blog, “The Principal’s Corner”, found that numerical performance of districts mirrors the scale of economic inequalities of those districts. Statisticians have proven over and over again that the use of value added modeling is logically flawed. NCLB drove the use of value-added modeling (VAM) which negatively transformed the teaching and learning processes in the nation’s schools.
Furthermore, as union members we believe that the current education “reform” agenda is a relentless and insidious attack on unionism itself. This agenda’s usurpation of the language and iconography of the Civil Rights struggle and the limitlessness financial resources of the billionaires, hedge funders, and corporations who are championing and bank rolling it are reprehensible. It is therefore, sir, not merely an attack on children, teachers, and public education, but an undermining of the noblest and most progressive movements in American history: union rights and civil rights. We implore you to rethink your recent vote, which is wholly and utterly incongruous to your noble and progressive defense of the American working class.
That is only part of their letter. It appeared on the Huffington Post.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We need to continue supporting Mr. Sanders as a candidate while helping him to Feel the Bern on this one… #FeelTheBernBernie
Well written letter and I agree. Sanders is still clearly the best candidate for all non millionaires and I think he will consider the valid points contained in the letter.
Bernie must keep his base in place. I support Bernie and am displeased with his vote for the amendment. Good to read that dissident teachers are holding his feet to the fire.
I agree with you completely.
I agree that it’s well written except for, “the limitlessness financial resources. . .” Please edit. “Unlimited” was the word needed. Here’s another example from a teacher: “But the student, a sixth grader with some impulsivity issues and whose trust I’d spent months working to gain, was excited and spoke out of turn again.” The word should have been “impulse.” As educators, we need to express our views using standard American English. Credibility and effective persuasion depend on well written prose. It only takes a moment to reread your writing.
“Impulsivity” is correct. Different than impulse. This is often a symptom of a condition indicative of need for special education services, adaptations, and/or modifications.
You’re absolutely right. On behalf of all of us, I apologize. Have emailed HuffPo editors with correction and will correct it where it appears elsewhere.
“Murphy’s Law ”
“No Test Left Behind”
Means every Bernie is
That is what he’ll find
If he continues this
DIane, please see this NYT article titled “Giving Doctors Grades”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/opinion/giving-doctors-grades.html
You’ll love it, because it demonstrates why VAM and other punitive measures to weed out bad teachers are counterproductive.
I understand that some years ago evaluators of airline pilots faced a similar dilemma. If pilots felt they’d be punished for near misses, they wouldn’t report them. And if they didn’t report near misses, it would be harder to improve air traffic control systems. So a no-fault policy was instituted instead.
Evaluation of pilots is not as good an analogy as doctors, but both demonstrate the law of unintended consequences. For teachers, the wrong kind of evaluation is worse than none. It means more teaching to the test and less creativity in the classroom. It means more cheating and less willingness to take on the toughest cases.
Even the “right” kind of evaluation is worse than none. There are ways to give feedback without “evaluating”. Many of the more progressive companies have eliminated performance reviews and have found that performance actually improves. While people certainly like help and support, no one likes to be judged.
Same applies to students. Giving grades makes them worse learners and worse people.
Amen and Hallelujah, Brother Ed Detective!
Yes, if anything positive comes out of all this “accountability” nonsense, I hope it’s that teachers have a better appreciation for what external “motivation” does to people. If grading schools, using VAM or other test-based “accountability”, rewarding and punishing teachers, etc. is bad for teachers, then it’s bad for students too.
Or labels from standardized tests such as “Falls Far Below.”
The physicians I know are SICK of this kind of micromanaging.
I get the anger. I’m organizing for Bernie and was not happy. That said, give me a better candidate. He’s not a union buster. I sent his camp a direct message. The amount of support he’s getting is unprecedented, but they are overwhelmed at this point. Keep the faith, and join us on July 29.
https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/4jj4y
This was an *awesome* letter and I reposted it on Facebook. We’re going to take part in the July 29 Bernie Sanders gathering in our area (Portland, Oregon). I’d love to see Bernie really understand these issues (because he would get behind us if he did understand them!)
They’ll end up like the people who supported Obama and thought to blame his Education Secretary instead.
I, too, am with Sander’s vote, but will continue to watch him closely. Let’s hope he takes the letter seriously and does his homework.
I meant to say that I am concerned about his vote.
I believe this article from The Atlantic, which has an interactive map on which you can search and hover over any public school district in the US to note the population, student population, student poverty population, and poverty rates. If you look at your own district, surrounding districts, etc., and if you compare the data that has been produced surrounding standardized tests (most prior to the application or PARCC or SB), you will see that the “failing” school districts are in high poverty levels. The high achieving districts are in low poverty districts. It is not a coincidence. Just find the link within the text for the interactive map. Then hit the search icon, type in the state or district you are wanting to examine, and start hovering. You will find a correlation to the “successful” districts and the low poverty levels. Check it out if you are interested.
http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/07/how-school-districts-seal-their-students-into-poverty/399116/?utm_source=atlanticFB
I tried it, and it was interesting. The interactive map tells the poverty levels of districts;p it does not tell the poverty level of individual schools. Some larger districts may contain schools with very little poverty while others in the district may carry 50% so the average seems workable. The reality tells a different story.
Of course, it doesn’t show individual school poverty rates per school. You can find the information on state graphics. If you rank the schools by poverty rates, you will find a similar “success rate” on the tests, correlating poverty with lower scores. There are outliers, of course, but it is obvious that money needs to be spent to bring the poverty stricken students more opportunity and equity.
Not they should listen to me but I think their valuable time and energy would be better spent petitioning state lawmakers. DC is a lost cause on public schools. It’s been 15 years.
This is now the status quo and it will only get more entrenched as they all go in and out of jobs in government and the 500 ed reform orgs. I don’t think one can get a job in DC without adhering to the ed reform “movement” approach.
On another topic (real life, state level) I was wondering if any researcher was actually looking at the distribution of charter schools across the country instead of focusing on the charter systems in NYC, DC and New Orleans because those cities aren’t at all representative of the charter situation in the midwest- IN, OH, MI (and soon, IL).
Someone is! 🙂
Turns out the midwest/Great Lakes are dominated by several big chains, the majority of which are for-profit (as management companies). All we hear about are Success Academy and KIPP but that has no relation to reality in the Great Lakes states.
https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/whos-actually-running-americas-charter-schools/
You left out California which has the greatest number of charter schools in the nation…well over 2,000. LA has the most of any city. And yes, a study with comparisons, and breakdowns the type of charter, CEO and teachers pay, demographics of community served, matriculation rates and outcomes, etc. would be invaluable. Great project for a thesis. Our great statistician colleague, Mercedes, has probably already done this, or will have it for us in the next hours.
Off-topic, but if you haven’t seen EduShyster’s latest, you really should: http://edushyster.com/i-am-not-tom-brady/#comment-28602 Quite possibly the most horrifying ed “reform” idea I’ve read yet.
If Bernie can be shown how privatization is contributing to greater economic stratification, he would be more likely to support public education. Taking away middle class jobs while substituting subsistence wage jobs is exactly what is happening to thousands of teachers. Privatization is exploitative by nature. It makes the wealthy more wealthy, and middle class poor. The taxpayer underwrites destroying middle class jobs, and this is the goal of corporate education.
I think he does understand the privatization aspect and opposes it. What he doesn’t seem to get is how Common Core, standardized testing, VAM, etc. are all connected with that. I think he’s still in the “civil rights” mindset that the tests, etc. are necessary for equal educational access. That’s where we need to work with him to help him understand.
Then, he needs to be “schooled” in how the tests and VAM are being used to justify the need for privatization. He needs to look at the research showing that the testing is on the frustration level for most students so there will be many failures and many opportunities for corporations to insert themselves. This is all part of the corporate “fix.”
I know it’s hard for people in Washington to do so, but Bernie needs to actually listen to the people he claims to be speaking for.
When he was recently ‘challenged” to address Black Lives Matter” at a rally, rather than taking the opportunity to address this important concern, he instead acted annoyed.
He reminded me of Hillary (and that’s not a good thing, IMHO)
I’m going to cut him some slack on that one. The protestors interrupted repeatedly chanting “say her name”. Every time Bernie tried to speak, they chanted over him. I would have been annoyed too.
Second, he sent out a tweet later that day and added a section to his stump speech specifically addressing the issue, showing that he had indeed learned. And when the video was released yesterday he was the first to say that it was absolutely unacceptable.
Well, it’s not like he could not have taken five minutes to address the issue.
But if he has learned, that’s good.
We shall see.
I think he tried to address the issue, but the protestors weren’t interested in hearing what he had to say before he passed their test to “say her name”. Yes, he probably should have just said what they wanted and then tried to say his part, but I think he felt ambushed, which tends to put one in a defensive position.
I don’t understand what would have been hard about “saying her name”.
If he lets his own “annoyance” and stubbornness get in the way of doing what is right — and what is actually best from the standpoint of differentiating himself from Hillary — it will only hurt his own chances.
“Annoyed by Annoyance”
What I find most annoying
Is that they’re by us vexed
When we’re the ones employing
The Senators and Reps
Thank you for this. I’d like to think that Bernie can be educated.
I was behind Bernie until this. I’m not an educator but a parent and a progressive thinker and voter. The failure here is too big to overlook. I expected intelligence and advocacy. Same goes for E. Warren. So disheartened.
I think that Bernie Sanders is placed in an awkward situation with this bill. He is clearly opposed to privatization of public services, clearly supportive of unions, and clearly supportive of social justice. I do not believe that his support of this amendment is a signal that he supports VAM or that he favors testing as the sole means of accountability. Moreover, the presumptive nominee for the democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, is not subjected to a litmus test based on her support for or rejection of this amendment. My belief: if Hillary Clinton was still a Senator this would be the Booker-Murphy-Clinton amendment. I’ll be interested to see how he responds to this letter.
The above letter and comments have been an education for me. I happened upon this website while looking for a way to let Bernie know that he must never give up his run for President even after he is turned down by a “Democratic” Party who chooses fraudulent Hillary to oppose fraudulent Donald. We must resolve to expend every ounce of effort we can muster to ensure that neither of those candidates of the establishment are elected.
I am sure that after your educating Bernie on this issue he will stand with you union members when all is said and done. I can attest personally to the incredibly hard-working professionalism of public school teachers as I work as a substitute teacher here in California. I am pro-union, a member and former officer of one of the largest and most powerful unions in the country (letter carriers), so I know about the struggle!
Go Bernie! All the way!