Thank you for reading. Thank you for sending me links to stories in your local newspaper. Thank you for having my back, as I try to have yours.
Thank you for understanding, forgiving, and correcting my typos. Please know that most of my posts are written on my cell phone, often in a taxi, an elevator, or sitting on a park bench. I make mistakes. For those of you who are new to reading the blog, please know that I work alone; I have no assistants, no secretary. It is just me, the computer (or cell phone), and you. No advertising ever.
This blog practices a policy of free speech. Those who disagree are welcome to join in the conversation, but within certain limits. Be aware that you are in my virtual living room. If you become rude, crude, or uncivil, you will be asked to desist; if you do not desist, you will be kicked out. If you insult your host (me), you will be asked to leave, politely but firmly. If you habitually rant against teachers because you have a stereotyped image of them, out you go. It is a large living room, but there is no room for haters or conspiracy theorists.
Thank you for joining the Resistance. Thank you for fighting the Status Quo. Together we will prevail because the people financing the assault on public education have no successes; all their policies have failed. We fight for real education, where children can experience the joy of learning and the quest to know. We oppose the monetization and privatization of public education. We oppose high-stakes testing. We support the teaching profession. We support children’s right to learn without fear or labels or rankings or ratings.
We give one another courage and hope. We share the bad news and the good news. Be informed. Learn the language of doublethink so you don’t believe it.
What can you do to help? Join your local or state organization of parents and teachers supporting public education. Support the opt out movement. The best way to stop this monster consuming education is to take away its data. It is kind of like throwing water on the Wicked Witch. Don’t let your children become data points.
Come to the annual meeting of the Network for Public Education in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 16-17 and say hello. I have a selfie stick that was a gift from the Newark Students Union at the last annual meeting. We can take pictures together. Join us.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just hope you are archiving this blog in a different medium than just the Internet. It’s going to be an important source material for future historians, including the comment threads where people add what is going on in their communities and schools, and there are a lot of unanswered questions about the permanence and reliability of electronic media.
Also, congrats on the milestone!
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Congratulations, Diane! 🙂
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You are astonishing. I am so fortunate to have you as a source to expose the war on education.
Barbara is right about the resource. Somewhere in the future, when people look back at the devastation of our greatest resource,our people, through the privatization of education, they will be able to find the chronicle of the assault in your blogs. I already send people to the ‘search field to locate
legislative takeovers: https://dianeravitch.net/?s=legislature
charter school corruption: https://dianeravitch.net/?s=corruption
or privatization.: https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Privitization
and Diane, you do this alone? Get a secretary so you can have a life!
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Agree.and archive the blog.
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The blog is citizen journalism at its best and most effective.
Thank you Diane. Thank you a million times over.
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“Thank you for fighting the Status Quo.”
Not this Status Quo who have been together since the 60s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heoRXynvaD0
British rockers at their finest!
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Congratulations. I keep sending your posts to colleagues and friends. I am sure others do the same. This is how to spread the word.
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Yes…I do the same…send columns to many who need the education.
Congrats, Diane…this fulcrum is the best contact for us all, and a great learning tool for shared info. Thank you for it all.
Perhaps this year I can marshell this aged body for a trip to No. Carolina.
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Congratulations, Diane – you’ve created a monster.
Out of curiosity, are Randi and Lily returning to the NPE conference this year? I’m sure you have some more excellent questions for them. And I’m sure your readers would be happy to add their suggestions.
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No, they won’t do a second act. I thought they were a good team.
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Figures.
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Randi and Lily are taking their act on the road and will appearing in every major city in every major theater in “A Couple of White Chicks, Sitting Around Talking, Wreaking Havoc on Public Education” . . . .
A must-see . . . .
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Thank you for the invite into your living room. I have found it warm, inviting and most definitely informative.
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When it comes to this blog, I never tire of applying what some homegrown talent once observed:
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
Mark Twain. Always in favor on “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discuss better education for all.”
On to the next 24 million!
😎
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Thank you so much, for everything!!
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That number supplants anything that I could add. Along with everyone else, thanks so much for your work and for keeping in touch with us over such a vital issue.
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Diane, just a shout out thanking you profusely for everything you have done. Your support of teachers and good educational policy, your vigilance, your continual thoughtful information and commentary are desperately needed and appreciated. We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude in this continuing fight.
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Thank you so much, your work is our solace. We will continue to be grateful for you being the advocate for public education. We could not do it without you. When I feel like throwing in the towel, you bring ointment to my wounds. Thank you for all you do!!!
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Congratulations Diane!
Question: can I put on my resume that I am a member of the “Resistance”? I like the sound of that. Not sure what exactly I’ll be resisting though.
I am very impressed with your candor: “The best way to stop this monster consuming education is to take away its data”. Nothing about trying to analyze the data to get different conclusions. Nothing about changing the data collected. Just good ol’ put your head in the sand and ignore the data that proves VAMs signal effective educators. You know how I love honesty.
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“You know how I love honesty”
Well, Virginiaasgp, you know how we hate you . . . .
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Robert, I do love your shortened name. Much cleaner indeed!
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Speaking of “resumes”, virginiagp…
Several years ago when the VAM, APPR, BS ETC hit the fan in good ole NY, our local union advised us to put together a portfolio of all the ways we address the “Marshal Rubric”. You know, be ready to defend myself on, what, 60 different counts. Of course, teachers and administrators are guilty until proven innocent here in Cuomo-land.
There are 60 criteria measured on a 1 to 4 scale. For example, on one of the “classroom management” items, any highly effective educator, “Wins all students’ respect and creates a climate in which disruption of learning is unthinkable.” (What?? How in God’s name can someone judge what’s “unthinkable”? Do we crawl into other peoples’ brains?)
But, whatever….The idea is to bring this binder of “evidence” along in June when I go in for my big evaluation. So I do. I’ve got a family that counts on my paycheck so I’ve been trying to play this ridiculous game without comprising my integrity and being totally embarrassed by what teachers and principals are being forced to endure. Meanwhile, the whole wacky APPR law has morphed yet again into something even more bizarre.
I mention all my “evidence” and heaps of data because right in there, front and center in my big, black binder each year is everything I’ve ever posted on Diane’s blog -along with replies from people like you, too! Yup. Because that is what education should include…a dialogue of ideas, a respect for dissent, the opportunity to show our students the precious value of our 1st amendment .
Sure, data matters. But let’s be honest here, Virginia. We’re not “putting our heads in the sand”, as you allege. All this data is just being used to bury us alive. It’s all being dumped on teachers and their children -without regard to whether that data is reliable or valid or even coherent. Some of it is just plain crap. And, it’s being used to destroy healthy dialogue, to obfuscate and even oppress.
I’m as proud of being on this blog as I am of all the wonderful students I work with and the very complicated lessons I spend countless hours crafting.
So, thank you, Virginia, for contributing to the 24 million page views on this site. And, for helping me prove that I am, in fact, a good teacher.
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John, yes Diane believes in the 1st amendment unlike some folks in my own district. I never want to silence any voices.
I’m not suggesting all data is valid data. The error rates and consistency always need to be published. And it appears that some districts have added their own testing requirements to the simple, year-end NCLB tests resulting in nearly year-round tests. Not good. But for a limited number of subjects (math, ELA), we know the testing can be performed reliably and reasonably accurately measures effective teaching. No, a single year’s worth of data should not be used in isolation nor should any VAM ever be used as the sole measure. But to argue it’s invalid while other clearly subjective measures are “foolproof” just makes those proponents look like fools.
I’ve made this offer countless times. I will back efforts to stop all evaluations of teachers using VAMs if teachers will agree to one simple concession. Publish the VAM scores of each teacher to the public. The rest will take care of itself. No more evals on VAMs for you. How can you possibly not make that deal?
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Virginia, we know you love VAM. We know you don’t trust the American Statistical Association or the American Educational Research Association. I don’t believe in annual testing. I will settle for grade span testing. No high performing nation give standardized tests annually. We shouldn’t either. You say publish teachers’ VAM scores. Los Angeles and New York City did. In what way did that help their schools. The ratings had many errors. What a waste of money and time.
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Diane, if the cities had published the underlying source data, the market would have corrected those errors for them. Just take a look at the results of the 5M or so records I received from VDOE. I put these slides together to highlight the difference between high-VAM teachers and low-VAM teachers.
The bigger the bubble, the more kids that were taught. Some of these teachers are literally adding $1M+ in lifetime earnings to their students in a single year (very large bubbles with high median SGPs). And some are literally lowering $100K’s in lifetime earning from theirs. I know folks talk a big game about not caring what a teacher’s VAM score is, but if it were your child, would you seriously be just as happy getting a teacher with a low bubble as you would a high bubble? If you say yes, let’s put it into practice. According to your logic, it doesn’t matter since all teachers are great. Our children will just get a “great” teacher who also happens to have proven it via VAMs.
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Virginia, I never knew my teachers’ VAM scores! No wonder I got such a rotten education. I could have been somebody!
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Very nice!
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Diane, I never follow illogic, so I read
piece by accident and said HUH?
Fallacious arguments have no place here. What she alleges of YOU, is not true. I think if she argues so passionately and is prepared to offer data that allegedly proves her point, that she is clueless to the real issue that VAM is a tool with on purpose, to remove teachers from their practice. I have piles of The American Educator in my office, and there are wonderful proven methods to assess teacher performance, but the last on eI read, had the emphasis where it belongs, o all the factors that SUPPORT LEARNING.
I WAS FASCINATED by the recent Issue which talks about community schools, and what happens when community schools are strong: “ALL HANDS ON DECK” http://www.aft.org/ae/fall2015/fought
I love this: “You’ve likely heard the refrain: teachers don’t know how to teach and must be monitored and disciplined; anyone can learn to teach since the job requires little training; and teacher unions protect bad teachers, make unreasonable demands of the system, and hold educational reforms hostage.
Simply put, the goal of such nationwide campaigns against public education has been to undermine the powerful roles of teachers and their unions. These campaigns have used concern about legitimate challenges around inequity in schools to effectively build a coalition with others who are generally pro-public education and pro-teacher. And for many years, teachers found themselves on the defensive—trapped and powerless in their attempts to respond.
– See more at: http://www.aft.org/ae/fall2015/fought#sthash.N6nAV35I.dpuf
It is no accident that the main result of ‘reform’ has been the many states where the local control has been ripped from the people by the intentional failure of the schools.
The problem is that there are 15,880 local districts, and this divisions ripe for those who want the legislatures to take over the schools… with no educators on board.
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=legislature
If you want to grasp the core of Al Shanker’s idea to preserve a system of public education against those who would like to see it dismantled in favor of a system of private-school vouchers. http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/fall-2007/agenda-saved-public-education
Explaining his plan to defend public education by improving it, Al often said, “you can’t beat something with nothing.”
VAM is nothing but noise. Authentic assessment and genuine evaluation was a principles of the disappeared REAL National Standards… THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING… LOL NOT TEACHING…. learning…Love the adjectives.
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There are large teacher shortages in many states, Virginia. You could sign up and fill a gap. Since VAM is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I guess you would enjoy being evaluated by it.
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When the data that you so cherish vsgp is delusory. . . .
. . . . need I say more.
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All data must have been created equally, and all must go toward a just cause…
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Virginia said: “But to argue it’s invalid while other clearly subjective measures are “foolproof” just makes those proponents look like fools.”
This is a false dichotomy.
There is no “foolproof” method. Also, VAM is subjective. It is based around an erroneous quantification of value judgments.
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Yes, Virginasgp, I did shorten my name in honor and deference to your shrunken frontal cortex and ever diminuitive occipital lobe . . . .
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Congratulations, Diane. Great work, bold & courageous leadership. You give us hope and inspire us to fight for our democracy, freedom and justice. I look forward to every posting and the news of all the courageous teachers, parents, students, labor leaders, and lovers of democracy. YOU ALL ROCK!!!!!!
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And thanks for all your hard work. There is just no other source that comes near it. Paul Barton
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Thank you Diane, for everything you have done, and continue to do, to protect public education.
Though many battles have been tipped against us, and victories come too few and far between, I share your confidence that we will prevail eventually.
One day, we will all look back upon these times, and I hope that future generations of Americans will study the savage attacks against our public schools, our teachers, and most importantly, our children, and the theft and attempted destruction of our gift of a free, vibrant, and healthy public education.
The “21st Century Great Train Robbery”… paid for by the oligarchs, and implemented by their stooges, on both sides of the aisle.
They have the money to buy politicians, to set up hundreds of dummy corporations, but as you said, they have been wrong at every turn. The tide is turning…as more and more people fight for their rights, against the nightmare which was secretly launched against the American people in the dark of the night…
And for having people such as you…on our side.
Congratulations on another milestone…it is an honor and privilege to be welcomed into your “living room”.
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Thank you, Steve B.
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You are thanking me? No. Thank you.
For keeping me going in the darkest times.
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On your cell phone in a taxi or elevator? You are even more incredible than I realize. Thank you for keeping all of this vital information coming. I learn so much from you, your commenters and the articles you share here. It is eye-opening, but not as much as it was. There appears to be too much of the same old same old and progress seems to go in inches. We can’t give up or give in. Children are only children once. They deserve our very best efforts to help them grown and learn in healthy ways. Your commitment to our children and to society in general makes you a true hero! You inspire. Thank you so much for inviting us into your living room. It is an honor to be here.
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Thank you, Janet. Realize that this will be a long struggle to set things right and clean up the mess made by Duncan and his billionaire buddies.
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I’ve been wondering how you are able to post so much so often! I was envisioning grad students, grandchildren, personal assistants, someone to at least do all the typing.
I recommend your blog regularly and one of the things I tell my friends and relatives is about the enormous volume of material you feed to us – from sea to shining sea, literally.
If you want a crash course on what’s really going on in education, just check out dianeravitch.net – and joint the other 24 million!
Knowing it is just you, often from your phone, is a magnificent vision to cojure as I read (and sometimes type.)
This does feel like a resistance, and a brewing revolution.
Thank you for the leadership, inspiration, and model of determination just to keep questioning.
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Thank you, Alice!
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Thank you for always being an advocate for PUBLIC EDUCATION!!!!
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Congrats! It has been a humbling experience joining all of you in this resistance movement. I do not post often but I read everything. You all have taught me a lot but even more importantly this has been my virtual support group. Thanks Diane, thanks to all of you who post regularly , I sometimes think of you as friends since I can often predict some of your responses. Thanks to those of you who only post occasionally and lurk like me. I depend on you all.
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Diane, I’m a public school teacher in Camden, NJ who reads your blog daily. I hope you will view and share the short video clip below.Vida Neil, a Camden resident and activist, shows us ON CAMERA the 2 tier school system in Camden. Bonsall Elementary used to be a public school. This year, it was split in two. Uncommon Schools, a well known charter school, is on the top floor with the younger children, called a “Renaissance” school by the Camden City School District. The public school is on the bottom floor. Watch what happens when a brutal heat wave hits in September.
Vida Neil invests segregation in Camden Schools | | | | | | | | | | | Vida Neil invests segregation in Camden Schools | | | | View on http://www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo | | | | |
From: Diane Ravitch’s blog To: dusty6873@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 2:01 PM Subject: [New post] Today! 24 Million Page Views for This Blog! #yiv2249058827 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv2249058827 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv2249058827 a.yiv2249058827primaryactionlink:link, #yiv2249058827 a.yiv2249058827primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv2249058827 a.yiv2249058827primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv2249058827 a.yiv2249058827primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv2249058827 WordPress.com | dianeravitch posted: “Thank you for reading. Thank you for sending me links to stories in your local newspaper. Thank you for having my back, as I try to have yours. Thank you for understanding, forgiving, and correcting my typos. Please know that most of my post” | |
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I join others in thanking you for your steady voice and vigilance. I look forward to meeting you in Raleigh. Best wishes for good health, body, mind, and spirit.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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“The Fog Lifter”
The billionaire was beaten
By lady with a blog
Who managed to defeat him
By dissipating fog
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Thank you for letting me be part of this fabulous blog.
“Our glory is not in never failing , but in RISING every time we fall”
Dr. Yvrose Pierre Principal/Cahn Fellow 510 Clermont Ave Brooklyn, NY 11238 Phone 718-857-4646 Fax 718-857-0565 Email ypierre4@schools.nyc.gov
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