EduShyster Interviews Dale Russakoff

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1. Laura H. Chapman says:

   September 19, 2015 at 10:24 am

   Did anyone ever say: “Throwing more money at schools can’t fix them?”

   Reply
2. Chiara says:

   September 19, 2015 at 10:41 am

   I thought it was wonderful because she focuses on system effects and I think that’s sorely lacking to non-existent in ed reform.

   Schools are systems and so are communities. The pieces interact. What benefits one piece might harm another. I think it’s borderline insane not to admit that. There is risk involved with radical change and that has to be reckoned with. I see it again and again and again in ed reforms in this state. They just pile changes one atop another and there’s no recognition that these changes are operating within a really complex whole. When the system downside becomes clear there’s this hurried rush to “fix it” but why wasn’t the possible downside even considered in the first place? If you’re piling the Third Grade Reading Guarantee on top of a new test that fails 70% of students there will be effects OUTSIDE 3rd grade. If you’re opening a charter school across the street from a public school, the public school students are IN that decision, whether they want to be or not.

   I think it comes out of the “free market” philosophy of ed reform and that’s why it’s so stubborn. It feels to me like they cannot consider downside without damaging some free market pillars, so they just don’t. It’ll “work” because markets “work”, but there are winners and losers in markets. That’s HOW they work.

   Reply
   • KrazyTA says:

     September 19, 2015 at 11:02 am

     Chiara: a small editing tip—

     Your sentence. “I think it’s borderline insane not to admit that.”

     Word number four is superfluous and it takes up too much space.

     Remembering, as always, that succinctness is next to, well, Dorothy Parker wrote:

     “Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”


     Oops! Don’t know how that crept in there. Rheally! It was just a Johnsonally sort of mistake that anyone could make on the journey from the 13th to the 90th percentile…

     Thank you for your comments.

     😎

     Reply
     • Chiara says:

       September 19, 2015 at 11:14 am

       Here’s a downside consequence of Common Core:

       “Common Core will take a ton of resources and energy to do really well, which will mean there will be fewer resources and less energy to devote to other things in public schools”

       For people who are always crowing about making hard choices they sure ignore a lot of reality. The President should come out and say “we decided to prioritize math and english and that will mean some trade-offs in your average low income or middle income public school” but he doesn’t. say that. Instead he insists it’s all “plus/and”- “lots more math and english and also everything else!”

       That’s not true. Trade offs will happen. That’s how systems work.

       I had a parent who wants an “arts” charter here tell me it is no one’s business if they open an arts charter because it impacts no one but the children who choose that school. Nonsense. It impacts every public school in the system and all of the students in those schools and so every public school in the system should have a voice.

     • KrazyTA says:

       September 19, 2015 at 2:13 pm

       Chiara: again, you point to a very difficult but important issue re “choice.”

       Not just a pedagogical decision. Not just a question of money and resources. There is a deeply troubling moral issue at the heart of rheephorm: the self-styled enforcers and peddlers of charters and the like push people to concrete actions that will involve, and affect, and determine the futures, of many many others. This involves morality.

       Hence, the maniacal insistence on infusing their clients/customers with the idea that there is no such thing as community or human connections or responsibility for others. It’s all about YOUYOUYOU and MEMEME and don’t be troubled to think through the consequences of your actions.

       Of course, when it comes to the leading rheephormistas and THEIR OWN CHILDREN, well, peruse the Lakeside School [Bill Gates and his children] website and note how they have a very different attitude and approach.

       Thank you for your comments.

       😎

   • SomeDAM Poet says:

     September 19, 2015 at 11:52 am

     And these are not only systems but living systems, which means it is quite possible to push them beyond a stage where they will not come back — ie, to render them seriously disabled or even kill them

     But, of course, some would say that that is the whole point.

     Mainstream ‘economics” is inimical to “ecology” even though the words have the same root.

     Reply
     • Chiara says:

       September 19, 2015 at 12:07 pm

       The put in new 3rd grade graduation requirements AND new high school graduation requirements in my state, and then they put in the Common Core.

       I mean, come on. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out these three things interact. Does anyone in that “movement” care about the possibility that there might be changes that are NOT positive as a result of this barrage of incoherent and ever-shifting reforms or do they all just demand and get everything they want, and we pile the whole mess on top of public schools and order them to figure it out?

       They’ve already moved on from the Common Core now that the tests are in place. They’re now conducting a giant marketing campaign on “blended learning”. Does anyone ever sit down and list all these “reforms” and consider how ONE public school might be buried under them?

     • Susan Lee Schwartz says:

       September 19, 2015 at 3:24 pm

       Now, THAT is a question.

       I think the answer is in my 2 comments above… which make it clear that NOBODY IS WATCHING WHAT THESE SCOUNDRELS AND CHARLATANS DO, and THAT is why nothing changes.

       They can do whatever they want.
       How the brain learns aka education is LIKE MEDICINE or LAW is actually a complex subject, which needs explanation!

       The folks who are ‘explaining’ what TEACHING should be, and what TEACHERS must do, are not interested in LEARNING or how LEARNING TAKES PLACE…. or the real NATIONAL STANDARDS RESEARCH by PEW, ON THE principles of learning WOULD BE leading the conversations.

       For two years while I was the NYC cohort,, “What does Learning LOOK like?” guided EVERY single seminar by the LRDC of the University of Pittsburgh’s, IN WHICH us cohorts for the REAL STANDARDS RESEARCH out of HARVARD, were participating.

       Chiara, the media is telling the narrative the billionaires want to prevail.Only us ED JUNKIES, talk endlessly about the observable reality.

       As Lenny Isenberg yells at me so often when I complain, ” You are preaching to the chorus.!”

       You see, Chiara, until the MEDIA or a presidential candidate STEPS UP AND ACTUALLY tells the public that they have been bamboozled and the schools are DISAPPEARING, no one will grasp it.

       The time for Hillary or Bernie to actually describe the destruction is NOW, but then they cannot ignore the actual methodology that took our the ‘schools’… the ASSAULT ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF TEACHERS.
       http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
       VAM, and the Coomo Core crap are the next stage of the war now that the tens of thousands of veterans are LONG GONE, and no teacher lasts long enough to tell the tale.

     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       September 19, 2015 at 1:44 pm

       Ecologist Jeremy Jackson has some relevant things to say about what happens to complex living systems when they are subjected willy nilly to multiple stresses

       The people running reform either don’t consider the consequences of what they are doing or don’t care (or perhaps both).

       The mere fact that some of them call their technique “disruption” is very telling.

       There are lots of ways that you can disrupt a living system and the vast majority of them are not good.

       They might be good for short term profits , but they are certainly not good for the actual system over the long term. What we have done to the oceans is a perfect example.

3. Gale says:

   September 19, 2015 at 10:58 am

   This kind of “reform” that is imposed by outsiders is so anti-democratic it makes me weep. The arrogance of reformers is frightening. When did ignoring the community, their desires, or their real needs equate to reform. I am reminded of 19th efforts to assimilate native Americans by putting the children in boarding schools far from their native languages, families & support systems. The results were predictable cultural genocide. Why won’t these “reformers” admit the problems of inequality & poverty which affect so many children & families. Why are they so deaf?

   Reply
   • retired teacher says:

     September 19, 2015 at 1:52 pm

     As long as we have laws on the books that are partial to charters, allow corporations to get tax credits while they use taxpayer money to make profit, and have little oversight, we will get more charters. The system is set up to incentivize their creation. Only the public can stop them by demanding changes to the laws.

     Reply
4. Chiara says:

   September 19, 2015 at 11:03 am

   It’s been amazing to watch how far they’ve been able to push the debate just since Obama was elected, too. The MODERATE position in ed reform is now “public schools will continue to exist”. That’s as opposed to “charterize the whole thing”.

   Is that really what they ran on or were elected to do? That’s a hugely radical change in the US. I mean, I listened to these politicians and there was no mention that half of them had already decided to privatize all schools and the other half were sort of resigned to having to stick with public schools for the near-term but hoped to charterize the whole thing in stages. What? Why wasn’t this elite consensus mentioned when they ran for office? I don’t think voters consented to this in my state and I know for a fact President Obama didn’t run on it.

   Reply
   • caligirl says:

     September 19, 2015 at 11:48 am

     So many teachers voted for Obama…

     Reply
     • Chiara says:

       September 19, 2015 at 12:19 pm

       Well, this was him last week: art and music aren’t extras and every public school has to do art and music well.

       Saying that doesn’t make it so and pretending that there aren’t priorities and his administration has busily put those priorities in place and this is the result is The Truth. They’re big truth tellers, so tell that one.

       He can’t appease all the factions of the ed reform “movement” in one public school. His administration went with accountability and “choice” above all else and that was a decision on priorities. Done.The Common Core and everything else will reflect that. All the touchy-feely language added AFTER for the benefit of the Democratic base won’t matter.

     • retired teacher says:

       September 19, 2015 at 1:56 pm

       That’s why all the testing designed by non-educators is a weapon of mass destruction. They have rigged the system to continue the proliferation of charters while ignoring the needs of the majority of students in public schools.

5. wdf1 says:

   September 19, 2015 at 11:26 am

   Dale Russakoff is also supposed to be interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air on Monday.

   Reply
   • wdf1 says:

     September 22, 2015 at 2:09 am

     NPR’s Fresh Air, 9/21/2015: Assessing The $100 Million Upheaval Of Newark’s Public Schools

     Reply
6. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

   September 19, 2015 at 11:44 am

   Aha! You introduce new language to me,”education junkie.” Is that what I am.
   I defined myself as a teacher, in another lifetime, and for sixteen years I have simply be following the news, looking for the truth, what I know as observable reality, aka…the FACTS.

   I simply want to know what the ‘heck’ happened to me!
   I sat with Dan Rather, in that other lifetime, and he was incredulous that a teacher such as he knew I was, could be facing such ignominy, let alone the end of a lifelong career which had recently brought attention and fame to the methodology and the giftedness which brought to what they called a ‘classroom,’ but which was by definition my professional practice.

   Now, sixteen years later, as I digest the daily ‘junk’, I know exactly what happened, as you do, too, Diane, (and Leonie, and Anthony).

   I watch with astonishment as the public remains in the dark, even as the public system disappears.

   I watch with despair, as I try desperately to connect with my classmate, Bernie Sanders, to make it crystal clear, that all his talk about income inequality does not address the root cause, the inequality of education that children get from the time the neurons in the brains are searching for symbols and inforrnation. Listening, speaking and only then reading and finally writing.

   I wonder how blind my brilliant alumnus could be to the fact that the state legislatures across the nation , including his birthplace are ending equality for those to poor to buy a good education… like the ones that 25k a year provides for my 2 grandkids at a private academy.

   And as I wait for Bernie to call me or YOU, Diane, I see the “malleability of truth’ described in the NY Times, and read the columnist discussing the astonishing descent into the kingdom of liars, where facts are ignored… like the fact that Obama is a Christian.

   And hidden in the ‘junk’ which passes as news, (for I am a ‘news junkie’…must know what is afoot in my landscape) is the presence at high levels of government, the same mendacious, morally bankrupt people whom I met when I was in the smaller bureaucracy, which we call a school system.

   And, with excruciating honesty, –even as NY schools have been decimated,– in the NY Times, an article appears about the collapse of Las Vegas Schools.

   LOL. The same people who were the liars and cheaters in the school system where I worked, are running the legislature and now, wish to be president.

   I was an educator and now I am an education junkie, because the people whom I TRUSTED to administer a complicated system and to support my practice, were corrupt to the core, and with no consequences attending their shenanigans and outright lawlessness, they rose to the top of the food chain… and brought us to vouchers and charter schools… to NO CHOICE for most of our citizens to meet teacher like me, and Robert Rendo, or like Lenny Isenberg, Pi Lian Tu, Walter Porrs, or Francesco Portelos,

   Junkie I am, I follow the outrageous STILL HIDDEN conspiracy that could put and end to ME!
   http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html

   I follow Lenny in LA and so should you and everyone, because he wants to end the JUNK. so that all professional educators can enjoy their civil rights and not be dragged out of their life and their livelihood by the very same narcissist behavior that we observe in the man who would run this nation, this empire — at a most dangerous moment.

   That is how LYING destroys a culture.
   When no one holds the principals and superintendents, and the chancellors accountable for the destruction that their mendacity and complicity enables, they come to believe, as Machialvelli knows, that they are princes, and we employees are mere servants to their will.

   And, as Mandlebrot explains, the smallest part of the design is a complete picture of the largest — so it is that at the very top of our nation’s prospective presidents, reside the same egos, the same culture of infallibility and entitlement, that I witnessed at East Side Middle School, at District 2 and in the NYC Board of Ed. Lawless, immoral narcissists with the power to make CRUCIAL DECISIONS…. about who teachers and who cannot, and what materials and practices can take place other FEIF!

   As an ed junkie and an intellect,, I see it all, at last, how the 21st century American culture of ‘anything goes’, and ‘if you think it you CAN (and should) do it’, has been corrupted and enabled by people with wealth so vast and corrupting!
   That mere humans hold the wealth once reserved for entire nations, means that anything goes, and the first thing that GOES, Diane, is TRUTH!!

   When 84 people own more that ALL the rest of the world, they (behind the scenes) can bring down the pillars of a community with ease, for they have access to our lawmakers and our media!

   An it is ACCESS,NOT money that is the currency today.

   As an ed junkie, I NOW see exactly how “they” do it, and moreover, I see that “they’ ensure the people are TOO BUSY being entertained, and SO STRESSED by their austerity policies, that they cannot see the disappearance of the supports of democracy… THE INSTITUTION of public education… THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS SI ONLYTHE OUTWARD MANIFESTATION OF the end to the crucial institution for THE COMMON GOOD. All the talk about schools turns people off. Years ago, the publisher of OEN was clear,” I am not interested in the TOPIC OF SCHOOLS, he said, displaying and ignorance that knocked me out.., knowing how brilliant he is.

   I became the ‘ed junkie’ their, but refused to be an editor, because I am just a watcher on the wall.

   Shared knowledge is at the very roots of democracy.

   Click to access hirsch.pdf

   Yeah, I am an ed junkie, and I report the crap to Oped News (OEN) but I also offer the readers at that newsy, the wonderful voices of people WHO WRITE HERE, and who EXPOSE THE TRUTH in the face of the continued lies from people like our own mendacious governor, Cuomo!

   I read this blog and recommend it to everyone because I look for THE FACTS, THE EVIDENCE the observable reality, no the media ‘spin’ because THEY OWN THE MEDIA.

   I report what I learn for I believe that the TRUTH WILL OUT, eventually!

   …. and it certainly will –>>> if I GET 15 MINUTES WITH BERNIE SANDERS so I can explain why he needs to speak to DIANE…. before the primary.!

   Reply
7. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

   September 19, 2015 at 2:54 pm

   While we are on the subject of books that uncover the truth, I cannot recommend HIGHLY ENOUGH this astonishing narrative from Lorna Stremcha, a Montana teacher.
   

   “Bravery,Bullies&Blowhards” blew me away, when I first read the manuscript, when it was still titled: “The Sins of the Schools; after the Bell Rings,” — for indeed it IS SINFUL that we dedicated Americans can be subject to such treatment in the workplace!

   The immorality is clear when a teacher is denigrated and judged not on accomplishments or professional practice, but by some subjective criteria concocted by a lawless supervisor with power to do anything to rid the budget of the salary. But Lorna’s story is special because it shows how far a school administrator who is a failed human being can go when THE CULTURE ALLOWS IT, and their is not a shred of TRANSPARENCY OR ACCOUNTABILITY.
   http://www.amazon.com/Bravery-Bullies-Blowhards-Lessons-Classroom/dp/0991309936/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dptop_dn1Avb040EW4Q_tt

   Hey, wanna see this BEHAVIOR in the larger culture. Look at the cop who took down the athlete Blake. Yeah, he was a rogue. Cops are brave, honest protectors and we trust them. But the culture did not punish him when he came up against the CIVIL RIGHTS of the citizens he willfully hurt.

   It is this culture of deceit and dishonesty that permeates our whole culture, all the people we trust. Look at VW deceiving us, so blatantly. They will ‘settle’. NO one settled with the educators who lost everything that they had worked for all their lives… their careers and reputations:

   I met Lorna many years ago, in cyberspace after joining NAPTA and beginning the conversation about teacher abuse, with its creator, Chicago teacher, Karen Horwitz.
   http://www.whitechalkcrime.com

   All of us had been caught unaware, like a deer in the headlights of a truck.

   AT Karen’s site,:
   http://endteacherabuse.org/index.html
   you can read the stories of hundreds of teachers hounded and harassed — a sad chronicle of the war on teachers and public education.

   Karen and Lorna have much in common as they BOTH sued the school system for the most egregious disregard for their civil rights.
   http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html

   Lorna, like David Pakter in NYC, won, and Karen lost.

   Lorna lost all her savings for her daughter’s college,
   http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2013/10/lorna-stremcha-and-her-rubber-room.html
   but finally made it CRYSTAL clear, PROVING IN civil COURT, that the principal of her high school HAD INDEED set her up to be assaulted by a student!

   Not that he was ever arrested.
   Not that he lost his job.
   Not that her reputation was restored.

   But she did work with the state Senator to end workplace bullying in Montana and has told the story that all educators need to read, so they can grasp WHY THE REIGN of Terror and “ERROR” must end!

   I do not know why the final title, “Bravery, Bullies&Blowhards” was selected by the publishers, or why it is a ‘novel,’ based on her story…. which was true!

   I get the ‘bravery’ part of the title! You hear about Esquith, and other teachers who are risking so much to fight back and not run!

   I see Dania Hall, in Belmore Long Island, still brave and
   http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2008/12/north-bellmore-ny-teacher-dania-hall.html
   still fighting a decade after they erased her from the schools despite her gifted practice. but she is afraid to publicly talk about this endless battle to show how she was utterly obliterated by the Bellmore principal and superintendent.

   Certainly, the administrative dogs that I have met in the mid-eighties and nineties were all ‘blowhards’, and a few of them were much more than ‘bullies’ — they were fearless mongrels whose need to be at the top of the food chain was so overpowering, that nothing would stand in their way, not the least being The Constitution.

   I cannot help but see our would-be PRESIDENT, Trump, in THAT role of bully and blowhard. He exhibits all the characteristic behaviors of egos who believe implicitly that voice that they hear in their heads, people who believe that they have no barriers (ethical, moral or legal) to doing what they please.

   Karen lost her case as did the hero fireman turned teacher, Walter Porr, and so many others who were FORCED TO GO TO A COURT OF LAW , simply to to enforce their CIVIL RIGHTS —>> which THEIR CONTRACT outlined, and should have been defended by their unions.

   The union’s blindness and the undeniable EVIDENCE OF COMPLICITY is the story ALL OF US who lost our careers and reputations, grasp!

   Read Lorna’s book… it is a great story… if only every word was not true!

   Reply

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