I received an email notice informing me that I am the #1 Global Guru on a list compiled by a research organization based in London. I don’t know anything about them.
The list is very odd. There are some terrific people on it, such as Pasi Sahlberg, Andy Hargreaves, Edward Deci, Michael Fullan, and Deborah Meier, who are true global gurus.
But further down on the list is the disappeared Michelle Rhee; we are informed that her organization StudentsFirst has brought about the passage of 110 pieces of “child-centered” legislation. The only legislation that I associate with StudentsFirst is the kind that takes away rights from teachers and promotes the privatization of public schools. Nothing “child-centered” about it.
I don’t understand the rationale behind these selections.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A lot of these lists are just a way of worshiping power for power’s sake. Not a healthy impulse imo.
It’s a way of saying, We create value by calling attention to it. We made you and we can break you.
Here are the criteria burried in the website, where you can also vote to move the rating of the guru from “good” to inspirational.”
In judging the contenders of the various Global Guru Categories, we focus on two groups, which excluded political, military and business people and focused on those practitioners, trainers, speakers and consultants who develop and instill competency in others. The Top 30 Gurus, in their respective categories are the “Cream of the Crop”, the World’s Top 30 most influential Professionals Speakers, Trainers and/or Consultants in their areas and have received more than 500 votes each. All not only apply their own principals to achieve superior results in their organisations, but develop and influence people and organisations throughout the globe.
Our research came from e-mails sent to 22,000 business people, consultants, academics and MBA’s around the world for nominations and our public opinion poll.
We shortlist 60 names then did a Google search for ranking, then requested voting.
The criteria for judging the TOP 30 focused on:
Public opinion – 30%
Originality of ideas – 30%
Impact of original ideas – 10%
Practicality of ideas – 10%
Presentation style – 10%
Number of publications and writings – 5%
Guru factor 5%
I agree that the list is a mixed bag, but I am not surprised that you are numero uno.
“consultants and MBAs” = profiteers and BS artists!
“Originality of ideas”??? How do they judge that? Do they have their own VAM algorithm to judge it?
And then Impact of ideas was only 10%, so it doesn’t matter nearly as much if your ideas had any impact or not. Does negative impact count too?
The best one though was Guru factor. I can see a web site now. http://www.whatsyourgurufactor.com/. Competitor to klout.com I guess.
Ed reformers must be thrilled. Public schools are now just like McDonalds:
“A billboard on Vine Street just north of the fairgrounds is typical. Drivers who bother to look up will see an ad for McDonald’s sweet tea and soft drinks. One dollar. Every size….
The next billboard is selling something, too. But it’s different, decreeing the value of Cincinnati Public Schools. “A Strong Foundation for a Lifetime of Success,” it says, next to a picture of three children working at a table. “Enroll now for preschool and kindergarten.”
Catholic schools have long taken their share of students from CPS. Now, charter schools – about 50 different ones – are drawing children, too. More and more, CPS and traditional public schools like it are pushing back.
CPS gets about $4,000 per student from the state, and it loses about $7,000 for each child that leaves for a charter school. That funding is the lifeblood of any district.
For that most recent enrollment campaign, CPS scattered nine billboards around the city, costing about $500 each. The district also regularly runs television commercials and radio ads.
It’s a fight for students. A fight for money.”
Let the hunger games begin! The big winners will be the adults in marketing and advertising. Look for a whole new industry to develop around making claims on which school is better – we won’t be able to trust any of the claims because it will be completely unregulated.
What a shame that the adults have turned these kids schools into just another commercial venture. They’re now just disconnected consumers in their own neighborhoods- buying a service from a contractor.
Did anyone in elite ed reform circles consider what would happen when they created this “market”? How stupid and coddled and insulated do you have to be not to anticipate the downside of markets?
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2016/05/12/selling-our-schools-competition-rise-s-fight-students/83923032/
Well, of course the schools have become “just another commercial venture.” More and more governmental functions have been, and are being, privatized so that various corporations can make more money in various ways, the public be damned.
Whatever happened to the idea of “the common good”?
Or, as stated in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America: “promote the general Welfare”?
Not the “corporations” Welfare. The “general” Welfare.
Thanks for recycling this. One of the BATs told me the Cincinnati Public Schools has a $300,000 budget for advertizing–obsene was to spend moey but part of the logic of market-based policies.
I know all of our leaders are completely insulated from the real economy, but wouldn’t you think one person in either Party would honestly address this?:
“The recent unemployment rate for college graduates ages 21 to 24 was 5.5 percent, compared with 4.3 percent in 2000. Their underemployment rate — which includes the unemployed, those who have briefly left the work force and those stuck in part-time jobs — was recently 12.3 percent, compared with 7.1 percent in 2000. And in 2015, nearly 45 percent of college graduates ages 22 to 27 were in jobs that did not require a college degree, compared with 38 percent in 2000. Over the same period, student debt has soared, which means that many of today’s graduates are trying to pay off more debt with less secure jobs.
The situation for new high school graduates is far bleaker, in part because many lower-wage jobs are being filled by college graduates. Among high school graduates ages 17 to 20, unemployment is nearly 18 percent, compared with 12 percent in 2000. One in three are underemployed, compared with roughly one in five in 2000.
The soft labor market has depressed wages, with average hourly pay for young college graduates, recently $18.53, barely higher than it was in 2000, adjusted for inflation. Young high school graduates are averaging only $10.66, lower than in 2000, adjusted for inflation.”
I don’t know- maybe crash a Clinton or Trump rally and notify the multi-millionaire candidates? Would carrying a sign with one-syllable words do it? They don’t seem to be getting it.
You’re not kidding. And in the “education field,” heavy hitter Bright Horizons prefers to hire college graduates, better yet, Ed majors, and start them at between $8.00 to $10.50 per hour. You’ll be an aide, or a floater placed where needed daily, or a Pre-K teacher, who has to write your own curriculum, and try to keep in ratio when the kids are pulled out for “specials.” Specials are puppet shows and square dancing that parents pay an extra premium for – at the expense of the “teacher” who is trying to teach and every time kids are pulled the lessons are interrupted.
At BH, you barely accrue vacation or sick time, and when you put in for a day off are given a hard time. Benefits are pretty much nil. They tout tuition assistance, but it is for a total of not more than $250, and that is really for aides who want to get a child care license. There is a revolving door of “teachers” who were treated like dirt, and when you give 2 weeks notice, those last 2 weeks are even more torturous, Yet, BH is a Fortune 500 company and boasts its “best places to work” status, which is a crock. I know 5 Ed majors who worked there, and its just shameful what goes on.
Now the government wants to oversee more Pre-K centers, and send certified teachers there for $10/hourly? Clinton wants to cap what people spend on daycare/pre-k? Clinton wants family visits (who is going to do that – “certified” home-health aides?
The government needs to get out of telling states what to do, and certainly needs to get out of its overreach via common core, standardized tests across states, its pushing and investment in charters and TFA, and that is that.
Lists like this want to aggrandize themselves, so they list good folks like you Diane, but they list Michelle Rhee because some who would pour over the list believe she also is a guru and without finding her on the list, some critics would dismiss the list. Sad that criteria are that loose.
This teacher gets my vote as a “global guru.” He runs a mobile library riding to villages on a bike to bring books to children in remote villages. https://momentummag.com/afghani-teacher-bikes-books-children-cant-go-school/
“I don’t understand the rationale behind these selections.”
No need to expend the brain energy in trying to understand the unreasonable, irrational, and incomprehensible! Just bask in the pseudo-glory while you can!
My how far you’ve come in three short years. From a “once great education scholar” to the #1 Global Guru. Congrats.
I wonder how the 2016 re-write would read?
http://www.city-journal.org/html/closing-diane-ravitch%E2%80%99s-mind-13600.html
Diane, the only time I would use your name and Ms. Rhee’s in the same sentence is to show the difference between good (you, of course) and evil. I expect to see your name on a who’s who list of education experts, and unfortunately deformers will be on there as well. Thank goodness you are on the side of good, and provide a voice here (even for the detractors) where we can get the word out. If I did not have teacher relatives, I wouldn’t have a clue what was going on in education since I don’t have kids in the game.
They look at polls, and numbers…no deep thinkers there…but you are my guru for education.
There is probably a marketing angle to this for the maker of this “list”. The fact that they put you along with Rhee on this same list says they do not know a thing about what they are claiming to know about! If I were a well known and respected scholar of public education and put on a list alongside of Rhee, I would respectively decline to have my name on that list and explain exactly why! Also, I would ask them what the specific purpose of this “list was”, how it was created, the experience in education by those involved in its making etc… Ughhh… Rhee? Rheely? 😦
Has anyone seen all the grammatical errors on the “guru” webpage?
While Diane and Pasi both would be deserving to receive such mention, a webpage such as the Guru Who Who page looks like it was haphazardly thrown together. Michelle Rhee? The destroyer of public education who now works in a field more toward her suiting…the refinement and marketing of manure?
Perhaps it was written by PARCC or Pearson…by the same robot destined to grade high school regents essays. Stacking and Ranking? How Microsoft has evaluated its employees.
A disservice to true public educators as Ms Ravitch, Mr Sahlberg, and other genuine individuals on this list.
“I don’t understand the rationale behind these selections.”
We seem to have an insatiable need to rate and rank. I guess it means people chosen by the Guru people think you have an important voice. If that means someone is listening to you, that certainly is important to those of us who no one listens to.
I listen to you.
Well, Diane, just take the gold medal and be happy.
And don’t look at number 4 (or be happy that you beat him)
MICHAEL FULLAN
Michael Fullan is a Canadian researcher on education and the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He is one of those who reform educational system to achieve moral purposes of all children learning. As an award winning author, he also received several awards through his books including Leading in a Culture of Change, Breakthrough with Peter Hill and Carmel Crevola, Turnaround Leadership in Higher Education with Geoff Scott and Change Wars with Andy Hargreaves.
Worth seeing the first video at
http://www.michaelfullan.ca/
They probably used a VAM-like algorithm…. the kind of AI formula that tries to make something mathematical out of a quality that is completely subjective so it can be measured “objectively”, ranked, and sorted…
They probably were named “global gurus” the same why I became an ordained ministers from the Universal Life Church and got my PhD from Stanford and Sons University. They’re authentic, but their legitimacy is certainly questionable.
“Diane is my Guru”
Diane is my Guru
My Yogi and my See-er
I’d willingly eat tofu
If I could simply be ‘er
First the high Klout Score: https://dianeravitch.net/2015/08/26/ednext-ranking-of-education-policy-people-on-social-media/
…and now this!
But Diane, you only got 3 out of 5 “inspiration” bars.