Carol Burris recently retired as principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center on Long Island, Néw York. She is now executive director of the Network for Public Education. She read recently that MaryEllen Elia, the new Commissioner of Education in New York, said that she would be “shocked” if any educators encouraged parents to opt out of state testing, and she said such educators (if they existed) were “unethical.”
Burris wrote:
“Well, Ms. Elia, be shocked. I am turning myself in to your ethics squad. I absolutely encouraged the opt-out movement last year. In fact, I did so right here on the Answer Sheet. I don’t think I could have been clearer when I wrote this:
‘But there comes a time when rules must be broken — when adults, after exhausting all remedies, must be willing to break ranks and not comply. That time is now. The promise of a public school system, however imperfectly realized, is at risk of being destroyed. The future of our children is hanging from testing’s high stakes. The time to opt out is now.'”
Yes, indeed, Burris encouraged opting out, as did many other administrators, both superintendents and principals.
Burris believed it would have been unethical to stand by in silence.
She wrote:
“It would have been unethical to not speak out after watching New York’s achievement gaps grow, indicating that the tests and the standards on which they are based are not advancing the learning of the state’s most vulnerable kids.
“It would have been unethical to ignore watching the frustration of my teachers whose young children were coming home from school discouraged and sick from the stress of test prep designed to prepare them for impossible tests.
“It would have been unethical to not respond to the heartbreaking stories that I heard from friends who are elementary principals—stories of children crying, becoming sick to their stomach, and pulling out hair during the Pearson-created Common Core tests.
“And it would have been unethical to not push back against a system of teacher evaluation based on Grade 3-8 test scores that is not only demeaning and indefensible, but also incentivizes all the wrong values.
“So if there is a place called Regents Jail, I guess that is where I will have to go.”
Burris noted that Elia would have to lock up her boss, Regents’ Chancellor Merryl Tisch as well, since Tisch recently said that if she had a child with disabilities, she would “think twice” about allowing the child to take the state tests.
Who is “unethical”? The educator who complies with orders regardless of her personal and professionsl values or the educator who refuses to do what she knows is wrong?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
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Carol,
Thanks for your efforts! And do not take this as a personal condemnation, but what would you have done if a teacher (I doubt there would have been more than one to have the guts to do so) that was in your school refused to participate in the testing nonsense? Why aren’t those supposed leaders of the schools out in front of this mess by instructing their charges to not play the testing game and all that it entails?
In my view the blame only slightly falls on the politicians and state educrats and more largely so on the teachers and administrators who allow the banality of evil of standardized testing to continue to cause harm to the students in their charge. See teacher Gus Morales address this concern at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulwHISm6x-8
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In my opinion and from experience, that really depends on the kinds and intensities of micromanagement (threats and firings) at various levels that are going on. In many situations, a few teachers among not so many or even a whole bunch among a large staff standing on principle and getting removed slowly or abruptly actually serves as a welcome example to maintain toxicity. Same for sane admin acting with conscience, only a lot more is at stake there, like the entire staff and enrollment.
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In NY, if you are a public school teacher, you are bound by law and a contract. That stand up against the man and rage against the machine stuff is just not supposed to be allowed… Not proper decorum for staff to make their employer (district or state) look bad (hence the “unethical” stuff) Supposed leaders of the school risk possible career ending consequences if they speak out against the real leaders (educrats and politicians)
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What is justice? Socrates claimed it was always following the law and took his own life as prescribed by the law at the time. We’ve seen countless examples of that definition of justice many many times throughout the history of mankind, should I bother with anymore?
Expediency cannot trump justice and what you, dmaxmj, contend is that expediency can in fact triumph over justice (ask the victims of the Holocaust if that is the proper stance. Oh, you can’t because they were all “legally” killed). But surely self-preservation/care has some merit, eh.
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [AC-S quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than [self] interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Andre Comte-Sponville in “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues”
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Not sure if a treatise on justice is what I dared to hope for, but I do see the difference between those who order it to be so, and those who make it so. Was Jean-Luc Picard TRULY captain, after all…in charge of anything? Or did he merely perceive himself responsible for the outcomes of the missions he commanded on that star-ship?
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You know, I think many come into the profession of teaching with a sense of realism about education in this society, since they have been through it themselves. Probably, they thought at the time roughly along these lines: Even though the system is far from perfect, let me be the one to mitigate damage and find ways to slip in something genuine, something that truly resonates, something truly special and helpful. Dropping out of the system simply removes all of that. More to the point, it becomes a very grey area and a thing very difficult to measure, when imperfection becomes so intolerable that one sacrifices his or herself, though it will likely make no difference or even make matters worse on the other end.
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Don’t know who Picard is. (other than Noel Picard the former NHL player) Have not read any of his work.
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Here are his logs.
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Captain's_log,_USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D),_2364
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Correct link didn’t quite come out completely. Will try once more. But you can find the logs around here at worst.
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Captain's_log,_USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D),_2364
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Amid all the negative news about education in this Era of “Reform” (or should I say “Error of Reform…”) as a classroom teacher I am filled with hope when I read about people standing up and doing the right thing, as Ms. Burris has. THANK YOU!
Today a friend shared a letter with me written this week by the superintendent of the Patchogue-Medford School District. He has chosen to start the new school year by openly supporting parents in whatever decision they make regarding their children and State testing. Hooray for these brave people who have chosen to speak truth to power! Sadly, this is a far more difficult thing to do as a classroom teacher. BUT WE STILL HAVE TO DO IT. Silence is the voice of complicity and those of us in the classroom are the ones with the greatest knowledge of what harmful education policy decisions do to actual students.
I encourage everyone to read a new book called “Intelligent Disobedience – Doing Right When What You’re Told to Do is Wrong” by Ira Chaleff. It will hopefully give people greater insight into what can happen when we don’t speak out, and maybe even give people the resolve to become intelligently disobedient for the sake our our kids. The premise of the book was taken from the training of seeing eye dogs. While the chapters specifically related to education may have benefitted from a more thorough study of the issues, the rest of the book gives example after example of what happens when people find themselves in situations where they either have to do or experience negative actions, or find the strength and personal resolve to stand up and speak out against wrongful directives. It’s worth reading.
And to all of us who are reading this blog – I hope more and more people will be inspired by Ms. Burris and Mr. Hynes words. We as the classroom teachers cannot let ourselves be pawns in a scary game played by corporations and politicians. If we don’t carry out their directives, then their damage can’t be done.
Thanks for reading.
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Elia is the epitome and de facto spokesperson for bad government, short of outright criminal corruption.
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We are a high school so it would not have been relevant. If I had been an elementary principal, I would have given them a different assignment.
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If that is a response to my questions, I don’t understand how “it would not have been relevant”. Please explain. TIA
And the second question?
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Although I am retired, I still work for the DOE in the summer for the Committee on Special Education conducting annual IEP reviews. Whenever parents start asking me things they heard about the tests, I just write the web address of Diane’s blog on a piece of paper and hand it to them. I also give them the state eds site and the page where it shows the percentage of disabled students that passed these tests. No one could be sent to jail or have a job taken away for recommending something to read and facts posted on a government agency that governs education.
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Who’s pocket does Elia have her hand in. #follow the money
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Carol, you are a role model for us all.
Your call to stand up and speak up is right in line with what is expected of us as educators. We must speak up when our profession is forced in a direction that is unethical, wrong and harmful to children and parents.
We have been trying to protect kids from politicians, exploiters and violators for years…no change. Actually, things could not get worse. I am in full support of stepping forward, speaking loudly and openly, tell the truth, share what is going on, do not participate in the Duncan-Down mandated violations, esp. for children with disabilities, parent rights, data theft, and ToxicTesting.
Educators must follow their Code of Ethics every day.
Stand Up!
Speak Up!
Show pride in being an educator!
Support Opt-Out to stop the madness.
Carol, thank you for your bravery.
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Contrast the courageous stands taken by Carol and Bill Cala, then Superintendent of Fairport, versus those of the NY State Supt Council and the NY State School Boards Association. Those organizations have become money grubbing, Albany insiders who want to maintain good relationships with those in power to the sacrifice of leading on important issues. The worst insider, money grubber is Tim Kremer the leader of NYSSBA an organization that used to champion local control but now espouses deference to Albany and the big money interests behind Elia and Cuomo. Why any school district pays the exorbitant dues of the NYSSBA to be represented by Timid Tim is a mystery to me. Taxpayers in those school districts should be up in arms about continuing to support an organization that has lost its way and is unwilling to speak truth to power!
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We have all heard about being paid with blood money. Elia is being paid with tear money. The tears of the children of NYS as they sit for 540 minutes of abusive tests designed to fulfill the coffers of the deformers.
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I attended a seminar last spring in which Ms Burris was a guest speaker.
In addition to being very knowledgable and informative of our rights as citizens, she also demonstrated many admirable qualities. She was warm, caring and concerned, and someone that I would want as an administrator in a school where my children would attend. She earned my trust, my confidence…not only as a principal, but also as a conscientious and ethical human being.
Ms Elia, on the other hand, represents everything that citizens in a civil society would choose to keep far away from their children. Instead of coming to New York and sitting down with students, parents, and professional educators…and demonstrating the capacity to not only hear our voices, but to actually listen to them, to understand our concerns, she instead displays the same tactics as John King, except she is more glossed over when the cameras are turned on, selects language that may be construed as conditionally confrontational, and reminds New York that she not only carries a billy club, but is prepared to use it against those she deems to be “shocking and unethical”.
What kind of society do we live in when someone like an Elia is “made” commissioner of education?
What does it say even further, of the unelected but “self-appointed and self-anointed” oligarchs that say, “put her in power, and here is your reward”.
And what does it say about our elected officials, those who placed one hand on the bible while raising the other and swearing before God, to “protect and defend” the Constitution and the people?
Millions of people have given their lives in the name of democracy and freedom. Fascist, authoritarian edicts, well-exemplified by Elia, are a threat…a “clear and present danger” to our liberties, our values, our truths, our customs and our norms.
Ms Elia…we will not scatter because you tell us to…we will not turn a blind eye when we see our children daily being harmed, our teachers being summarily punished by gauntlet, our public schools labeled as “guilty until proven innocent”.
Ms Burris does not stand alone…she is a shield that protects the children of New York, and its citizens proudly support her.
Ms Elia is nothing more than a dagger aimed directly at the hearts and souls and minds of our people.
I trust my children…those of my friends and neighbors…those of all New Yorkers under the protective watch and the moral servitude of Ms Burris.
And as for you Ms Elia, please take your poisonous policies back home with you…
…They have no place or value in our society.
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Good piece on Puerto Rico’s effort to keep their public schools.
You-all will recognize some of the names of the “reformers” 🙂
https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/parents-and-children-occupy-puerto-rican-school-refusing-to-let-corporate-vultures-raid-its-contents/
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Here’s a guide for parents, and the questions they should ask at Open House. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203324211985393&set=gm.1065100140167751&type=1&theater
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Carol’s excuses really caught me the wrong way. Let me explain a little about responsibility and accountability first.
As you know, I served on a Navy submarine. The captain is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on the sub. But he can’t always be everywhere at once and he is not always aware of various inputs we receive while out to sea. It is everyone’s responsibility to relay information up to the Officer of the Deck, the Navigatior and the Captain to ensure the sub safely maneuvers in the ocean. Sometimes, you must be a little aggressive to make sure your concerns are heard. But even if you are pretty confident you are correct, ultimately, the captain is both responsible and accountable for the actions on the sub. He has more experience and the powers that be have vested him with that authority. One can advocate all they want, but they must ultimately accept the decision of the captain (unless all the subordinates think he’s lost it but that’s another story).
When you are in a position of leadership, it’s also your responsibility to provide feedback up the chain. But you must also carry out policy. If you don’t feel you can support those policies any longer, resign. But let’s look at what happens when everybody feels they can do whatever they feel is best based on their own perspective.
On a sub, I may feel that we have a lock on our target and we can pursue and launch a torpedo to eliminate it. But the captain has more information. He may understand that we must steer clear of fishing nets or that there are other goals for the mission that preclude us potentially giving away our position just to get one kill. Or he may know that our perceived “lock” is elusive and he doesn’t have time to explain it to us. If everyone just does whatever they want, the sub cannot carry out its mission and may have serious accidents like this.
The same applies in a school. Under Carol’s philosophy, any teacher who thinks they know best has a license to do whatever they want. If Carol explains a certain policy one year, and a couple of teachers think Carol is just crazy, they can not only resist her anonymously, Carol’s approach is to allow those teachers to openly criticize and attack Carol’s strategy within that very school and even to the very students Carol is charged with overseeing. I’m sure Carol would not have appreciated teachers openly telling kids to ignore Carol’s entreaties to engage in community service (just an example) because in their view that was a waste of time.
Carol has since retired and she is free to openly resist testing and the use of VAMs. However, she was completely wrong last year. It wasn’t an act of civil disobedience. She was acting as a union activist, not as a selfless martyr who risked their life to further civil rights. Give me a break. Policies are made at the state level through democratic elections. Organize. Advocate. Get your folks in office to change the policy. For the most part, all of the decisions are made at the local level anyway. If you want to bite the hand that feeds you, the feds and the state should withhold all funding they provide. If you think you simply know better than what the rest of NY and the US have chosen to implement, you certainly shouldn’t be entitled to our money to do so. I’m sure this nonsense will stop in a hurry once all these school districts must fund their own activism.
Finally, whoever is placing stress on these kids is essentially responsible for child abuse. I don’t care what event it is – sports, college admissions, arts – nobody stresses out the participants. Yes, you want them to be motivated and reach their potential but that can’t happen when they are stressed out. Why would you put pressure on the kids when they have no repercussions whatsoever. Many of you have pointed this out. I don’t believe the kids all fail to even try, but it’s completely hypocritical to talk about the stress on kids and also talk about them not trying. Or take for example the new policy in Virginia. Even though there are no consequences to the kids, districts pressured kids to retake the SOL if they failed (375-399). Then, everyone knows which kids failed (FERPA violations galore) and the kids feel bad about themselves and stressed. All of that not to help the kids but to artificially raise the pass rates by 4% and make it easier to accredit schools. The administrators and policy makers should be so ashamed but by all accounts, they are gleeful that they stressed these kids out to make their own performance look better.
You see, all this has nothing to do with the kids. It’s all about the adults avoiding accountability and trying to get bonuses for their fake achievement. It’s so disgusting. I wish that Atlanta judge would come out of retirement and hold all of these adults responsible. You can see all you need to know about Carol when she complained about he high school rankings not giving her high school credit for the pass rates of middle school kids!!!!!!!! Diane is rather funny but I must admit I have absolutely no use for this Burris lady who would censor everything if she couldn’t get caught. (after she attacked me, my comment “awaited moderation” for about a week while others posted right away. Once I linked to this screenshot in WaPo, amazingly my comment was allowed through).
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Virginiasgp,
To begin with, Carol Burris has forgotten more about educating children than you will ever know.
Secondly, educating children is not the same as working in a submarine, where absolute obedience is required for the safety of all.
Third, if you were working in a submarine and your captain ordered you to point a torpedo at a ship that was an American troop carrier, would you do it? Would you kill your countrymen because your commander either made a mistake or was a lunatic (think Captain Queeg).
Schools don’t work as a chain of command, with strict compliance with orders. They should work as a team culture, with teachers and administrators helping one another, learning from one another, focused on what is best for each individual child.
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Diane/Ed Detective, of course folks should question decisions and policy. When everybody is just a “yes man”, then stuff like this happens. The word was that this captain was very capable but also dismissive of alternative suggestions. That led most on his boat to not question his decisions. As a result, there was a push for captains to observe and mediate as opposed to taking observations and making lower-level decisions by themselves.
I am not suggesting that only military organizations must follow policy. The same goes for social orgs (boy scouts), media, or virtually any business. It’s completely acceptable to continue to work to change policy. But not everybody gets to make the decisions. That’s called anarchy. And if nobody implements the chosen policy, then that’s recipe for a ship adrift at sea.
Clearly, a large portion of NY wants accountability. It is understandable that teachers want no accountability. Everybody notices that there are no teachers or activists who say they have a better system to evaluate teachers that’s actually accurate. There is only criticism for VAMs even though that same criticism would apply in spades to any other eval method. Teachers don’t like to stand up and say “of course 99% of teachers are effective” because they would be laughed out of town. So they try to change the subject and point out anecdotes and anomalies. You simply don’t get to choose the policies you want to follow and those you don’t. Start a charter school or private school if you want to do that. If the powers that be find out that principals/superintendents are openly flouting laws, then they should be stripped of their duties or at least have their funding pulled. Of course, those principals and supers should be allowed to continuously provide input into the future course of action. But everybody doesn’t get a veto.
The quickest way to demonstrate a policy doesn’t work is to follow it to the letter. By trying to undermine the policy (if it truly doesn’t work), you are only extending it. I’ve always thought these heterogeneous classes are nonsense. But if that’s the policy of the elected officials, teachers and principals must oblige. Once everyone sees that the slower kids feel bad about themselves and still don’t make progress and the gifted kids are bored out of their mind, it will stop. But if insiders secretly group kids when that’s against the policy, it actually makes everyone believes a foolish policy works.
Diane, I notice you are fond of asking questions and never answering any. Please explain why Carol wanted middle school test scores included into the evaluations of her high school? Simple question. I have a simple answer, do you? Also, please explain how Carol just forgot to allow my comments through to her blog when others were posting continuously including asking me questions? That’s a total joke. It’s her blog but she should stand up and state that she censors those she first attacks so that folks know what’s going on. Look, you don’t have to take my word for it. Carol has demonstrated she has no idea about STEM (oh, a kid can easily randomly guess a few answers (8) to a test and pass the regents exam was in one of her blog posts on WaPo, only there’s only a 3% or less chance of that ever happening). Carol’s only expertise as I recall comes in teaching Spanish to kids. That’s “exactly” what we need in this country, eh? Even the largest economy in South America speaks Portugese, not Spanish (Brazil).
Oh, and btw, how much do those class size reductions you advocate cost? Have you ever quantified the scale of the class size reduction other than “reduce class size”? Do you ever plan to quantify the cost of your plan to “reduce childhood poverty” or even refute the $2T/yr cost estimate I provided?
Ed Detective, as I recall Duncan had his kids in a public school in Northern Virginia. Some of these folks need extra security. The rest probably would like to have all high-VAM teachers as opposed to just 25% in their kids’ schools. I really can’t blame them but I don’t choose that route.
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Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”: “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
[6] As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way; its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is a change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body.”
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Virginasgp,
Please consider spewing forth your own vomit onto some other forum or group of people who are more like minded. Or better yet, gag on it and bore someone else with your teacher and union bashing and your unwillingness to analyze the evolution, genesis, history, causes, maintenances, facilitations, and ultimate effects of poverty.
You can take your utter lack of collectivist thinking and launch it with torpedo-like speed into your own personal posterior tunnels, the same tunnels where your cerebrum was unfortunately and anomalously formed.
Go back into the military, where MY federal tax dollars are pissed away, and start your own school where you can drill-sargeant the kiddies into rote learning.
No ad hominems here, but stupid is as stupid does . . . . .
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So, Virgoniasgp, you want to know how much it would cost to have small class size inpublic education?
Really?
It would probably costs far less than invading a country that ended up NOT having any weapons of mass destruction and it woukd cost less than bailing out Wall Street, and it would cost less than paying for the public assistance thousands of Walmart workers are on as a result of the company paying them crappola.
But you would know how money should be well spent.
And as a highly experienced and successful pedagogue, I can tell you that teachers do want to be held accountable, unlike people like Condoleeza Rice and Dick Cheney; they just want accountability system that has empiricism and fairness as its core.
How much does your army pension cost me? How many civilian lives lost and collateral damage are caused by the “expense” of small class size?
Do consider limiting your sheer stupidity to the confines of your family dinner table.
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Rendo, did you really change your last name to “Nationally Board Certified Teacher” like Metta World Peace? I have never known anybody to put such a title in their screen handle. And NBC has virtually no effects on student achievement (0.01-0.03 std dev).
Since the Wall St Banks paid back their loans with a profit to the feds, it’s going to be pretty hard to cost less than nothing! But if you mean the unionized companies like Chrysler and GM that did cause the US to take a loss, I still don’t think $12B/yr is going very far when the K-12 budget if $600B/yr+. I guess the only thing you’ve proven thus far is that you are financially illiterate.
How much does my “Army pension” cost you? Well, Rendo, in case you didn’t know, the Army does not operate submarines. That would be the US Navy (note that was one torpedo at the end that broke the warship in 2 pieces). However, since I served only about 6 years, the pension contributions made on my behalf every year are used to support others who served a full 20 years. Yep, that’s right. I get zippo for retirement from my six years in the service. I guess you are part of the “would not” crowd (as opposed to those who could not serve in the military) who enjoys freedom you won’t volunteer to protect.
As for your claims about the Iraqis being a paper tiger, Saddam admitted he planned to develop nuclear weapons as soon as the sanctions were lifted (or here for more). Sanctions that were falling apart by 2003. I’m sure you would much rather have Iraq and Iran racing to get nuclear weapons instead of just one of them these days.
Diane, note that this Rendo guy takes the cake for insults: “llaunch it with torpedo-like speed into your own personal posterior tunnels, the same tunnels where your cerebrum was unfortunately and anomalously formed”. No worries. I don’t whine like so many on here. And every word that Rendo makes helps my cause. In fact, every word of virtually every poster on here helps our cause. Get it all out on paper for citizens to see.
Dienne, you are so wrong once again. First, you can’t just disobey any order. It has to be a legitimately unlawful order. If you make a mistake, it’s not like you get the benefit of the doubt. In fact, the Air Force once tested the willingness of its members to initiate a nuclear launch. The compliance rate was abysmal because nobody wants to be responsible for that. But given that nuclear missiles could hit us in 20 minutes, the US must have a credible response. So they conducted new training and greatly improved the compliance rate. We studied at length all of the checks and balances in the system so we could be confident it wasn’t a bogus order. But if you get the order to launch those missiles, you hit the button.
But education is not the military. You can voluntarily quit (btw, that’s the biggest freedom civilians have – the ability to quit at any time). You cannot directly oppose your company/organization’s policy and keep your job. You have no idea what you are talking about. Certainly not in a leadership position.
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@virginiasgp I disagree with your opinion that the chain of command rules supreme. This is certainly the case on a submarine where the captain’s responsibility is a matter of life and death. I served in the Maryland Army National Guard where I was a fire control crewman in a Nike Ajax missile batallion. In basic training at Fort Knox the only officer I ever spoke to, and it was most infrequent, was the Second lieutenant who was the head of my platoon. He was a nice enough person, but with time I realized that something other the chain of command was running things. There was, as in most or all bureaucratic organizations, an informal network of mostly NCOs who got things done. So I witnessed tremendous waste of equipment and supplies that must even then have cost billions. The military and the CIA are today pouring our tax dollars down a rathole which enriches lot of unsavory people. The educational model, in this bureaucratic age, is increasingly top down in chain of command and the strings are being pulled by people whose eyes are only on the bottom line. The very existence of public schools is endangered, as Diane Ravitch has so well detailed. An alternate vision exists, that of a community of scholars. There decisions would be made on the basis of the soundest ideas, tested both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. And the mission would be firmly fixed so as to provide the best education for all the children of all the people. This is a Utopian notion, true, but the developing model of privatization and meaningless but harmful tests championed by Wall Street millionaires and eccentric billionaires is surely distopian. (My spell checker wants me to say “dustpan.” perhaps because I misspelled ‘dystopian’.)
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Virginiasgp,
First, I would like to thank you for your service to our nation. I’m sure your time spent aboard a Navy submarine can be quite demanding.
However, many of your comments would not only be worthy of a response, but a rebuttal as well. Comparing public education to the maintenance of a navy submarine would be an argument with moving floors and ceilings because variables do not align themselves here. But nevertheless, let’s begin:
1) Responsibility and Accountability
As the Captain aboard the submarine might be the person with whom final decisions rest, the Principal of a school is the person responsible for not only the day-to-day operations, but also for the well-being of the children in his/her care, while seeing to the education of the students. Ms. Burris, although retired, has earned the respect and honor, and is an exemplary individual in the field of public education.
Comparing orders that are issued and followed aboard a submarine, are not the same that teachers face as the well-coordinated attacks, well-financed, are being hurled against public education in the United States today.
2) “any teacher who thinks they know best has a license to do whatever they want”.
This claim is blatantly false. While teachers may place their own “fingerprint of individuality” on a lesson, choosing how to deliver a lesson, and applying differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students, the teacher should always follow a curriculum which details what is to be covered, and by when.
Furthermore, the children under a teachers’ care, as well as the entire school under a principal are protectors of the students. The systematic attacks against public education are non-existent in the United States Navy.
a) The U.S. Navy does not look to terminate well-trained professionals and replace them with cadres such as what teachers face today. Teach For America candidates do not have the qualifications, the skills, and the experience to step into a classroom and wave a magic wand. This would be similar if professional naval personnel were relieved of their duties and replaced with a “Cadets for America”. It would open the door for all kinds of disasters.
b) If VAM were used aboard your ship, you would find that a hidden percentage of shipmates would be deemed “ineffective”…perhaps the set 7% teachers today face, or the scale may slide as low as 3% or as high as 12%, depending on what those in charge would like to see in order to attain their goal(s). These percentages can be tweaked and manipulated annually. I am most certain that those aboard our ships not only know their responsibilities well, but also carry out their duties to the best of their abilities.
3) Civil Disobedience
During the school year 2014-2015, the parents of more than 225,000 students opted their children out of the Common Core exams. The decision to opt my children out of these exams came not from any union activists…but was reached after many months of inappropriate Common Core lessons and homeworks that went beyond the scope of acceptable academics. We welcome class lessons and homework for our children, but not when children are asked to complete assignments that they are cognitively unprepared to engage in. It would be equally unfair if one was training to become a naval cadet, and was then presented with exercises that were pre-set to determine a high failure rate.
Let’s also keep in mind that those aboard a naval vessel are legal adults…Ms Burris speaks out for those of the kindergarten through twelvth grade…minors, the children of parents who not only want them to succeed, but to also have an education that is nurturing, fulfilling, and ethical.
4) “Policies are made at the state level through democratic elections”.
The entire privatization movement to weaken and eventually destroy public education was conceived behind closed doors, without input from professional experts. It was literally pushed through in the middle of the night. If it were an enterprise of policies at state level through democratic elections, public education would then have the proper necessities to function. We would also not have an opt-out movement that grew from approximately 40,000 students in 2013-2014, to 225,000 in 2014-2015, and is literally on the launch pad to expand this year.
Decisions are not made at the local level. This becomes quite evident when look at the “donations and contributions”, where they originate, and their final destinations. Race to the Top included $4.35B to states that were financially strapped at the tail end of the 2008 recession, and in order for states to receive a financial portion, they had to agree to Common Core, the death of pu8blic eduation and the rise of charters, VAM, and longitudal databases to track students not only academically, but through extremely sensitive personal information, under the guise of “being able to meet the needs of students”.
5) Withholding money from public education.
The states are obligated by law to provide funds for the operations of public school systems.
6) Child abuse.
It is inappropriate what are students in public education face today. The parents and students, and yes, educators who support the opt-out movement do so because they care about the children, their own children. They want to protect them from the abuses levied on students and our public schools.
Anyone who would choose otherwise would be guilty of child abuse.
7) “artificially raise the pass rates”.
Professional educators are constantly under attack under a system designed to single out a set percentage of eduators as failures, when in fact, they may very well be, and most probably are, successful and proficient teachers.
I do not agree with raising of pass grades, but perhaps it is the culture you espouse that has sowed the seeds of this many headed monster. The goal of “100% of all students to be college and career ready” would exist in a perfect world. We do not live in a perfect world, and no other nation today, or throughout the history of humanity has been able to achieve this. While it is a most desired goal, it is probably unrealistic.
The proper goal is to teach our students to be productive citizens of our society, to fulfill their civic duties, and llive in a nation where we treat each other with the same respect and dignity we would want for ourselves.
Perhaps we should live in a society where 100% of all students have access to college. If we eliminate the “test and punish culture” that pervades our nation today, perhaps that would eliminate artificially raising pass rates.
You see, Virginiasgp…the opt-out movement has all to do with the kids. We do not shy away from accountability…as a matter of fact, we welcome it.
But we do not welcome a system methodically geared to
1) subject children to age-inappropriate lessons and morally corosive curriculum.
2) test children in material that is well beyond their educational ability and scope, and is manipulatively confusing, stressful, and causes harm.
3) set absurd and hidden failure rates, to condemn both teachers and public schools, to eventually close them.
4) force public schools to unfairly compete against private charter schools, in a disaster capitalist environment.
5) remove and destroy the desires of all children to learn at a pace beneficial to them, and prevents them from experiencing the joys that come with learning.
Virginiasgp…I am most grateful for the voices of public education heroes such as Ms Burris and Ms Ravitch. It is with their words and actions, along with the countless other voices across America, that give my family, and the families of the other 225,000 students in New York, hope and confidence for our society.
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Excellent post. Better than mine.
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>But even if you are pretty confident you are correct, ultimately, the captain is both responsible and accountable for the actions on the sub. He has more experience and the powers that be have vested him with that authority.
I’m pretty sure your order will please a bunch of whacky, crazy, Kamikaze pilots and submarine crewmen screaming “Emperor SGP BANZAI!” while they’re under suicidal mission.
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Basta contigo.
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Others have already pointed out the irrelevance of military obedience to a civilian organization. But I’ll point out that you apparently don’t even know the military as well as you think you do. There is no requirement for an underling to obey an unjust/unlawful/unConstitutional order. In fact, there is a duty to disobey. We don’t give the soldiers at My Lai a pass because they were ordered to destroy the village. We don’t give the Abu Graibh soldiers a pass because they were ordered to “soften up” the prisoners. At least since Nuremburg “I was only following orders” has not been an excuse.
BTW, Diane, I thought insulting the hostess and others was grounds for dismissal from this blog? “Diane is rather funny but I must admit I have absolutely no use for this Burris lady….”
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Amid all the negative news about education in this Era of “Reform” (or should I say “Error of Reform…”) as a classroom teacher I am filled with hope when I read about people standing up and doing the right thing, as Ms. Burris has. THANK YOU!
Today a friend shared a letter with me written this week by the superintendent of the Patchogue-Medford School District. He has chosen to start the new school year by openly supporting parents in whatever decision they make regarding their children and State testing. Hooray for these brave people who have chosen to speak truth to power! Sadly, this is a far more difficult thing to do as a classroom teacher. BUT WE STILL HAVE TO DO IT. Silence is the voice of complicity and those of us in the classroom are the ones with the greatest knowledge of what harmful education policy decisions do to actual students.
I encourage everyone to read a new book called “Intelligent Disobedience – Doing Right When What You’re Told to Do is Wrong” by Ira Chaleff. It will hopefully give people greater insight into what can happen when we don’t speak out, and maybe even give people the resolve to become intelligently disobedient for the sake our our kids. The premise of the book was taken from the training of seeing eye dogs. While the chapters specifically related to education may have benefitted from a more thorough study of the issues, the rest of the book gives example after example of what happens when people find themselves in situations where they either have to do or experience negative actions, or find the strength and personal resolve to stand up and speak out against wrongful directives. It’s worth reading.
And to all of us who are reading this blog – I hope more and more people will be inspired by Ms. Burris and Mr. Hynes words. We as the classroom teachers cannot let ourselves be pawns in a scary game played by corporations and politicians. If we don’t carry out their directives, then their damage can’t be done.
Thanks for reading.
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Well, if Ms. Burris is ever jailed for “lack of ethics” (and so-called education reformers accusing anyone of lack of ethics is a classic case of psychological projection), the so-called reformers can take double pleasure in knowing that she’d probably be sent to a private, for-profit prison, funded by the same wealth-extractors who seek the hostile takeover of the public schools.
After all, it’s disruptively innovative, no?
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Bravo to Carol Burris; she is Diane’s long lost twin separated at birth.
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Harlan Underhill and the banal TE are a piece of cake compared to Virginiasgp . . . . .
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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