I recently revised my 2010 book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.” The revised edition reflects my understanding that national standards and tests do not improve education.
My opinion piece will appear in the Sunday New York Times.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don’t forget that the Washington Post Company owned the Kaplan corporation and made millions on educational testing durin the GWB administration era.
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Magical thinking:
A democratic vote is a vote for
Diane Ravitch — Secretary of Education
Arthur Goldstein — Schools Chancellor (NYC)
Louis C.K. — NY State Ed Commissioner
Magic, magic, magic.
It could happen. What?
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Akademos,
Yes!
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You killed it!
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Thank you for making it clear to the readers of the NY Times that the Common Core was paid for by the Gates Foundation and that there is plenty of evidence that the “accountability” measures and “choice” options put in place since 2000 have done nothing to mitigate the root causes of the “achievement gap.”
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Right. It’s about POVERTY.
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Just read it online and submitted a comment. I am so glad that the NYT printed it – it helps to counter the “reform” narrative.
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Cross posted the NY Times article
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Common-Core-Costs-Bill-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Common-Core_Diane-Ravitch_Education_Law-160723-917.html#comment608516
with this comment,which has embedded links at the article post:
” If you want TRUTH, read her NY Times opinion piece, because it offers us the chance to make sense of what has happened to the schools.
“Diane was Undersecretary of Education for 2 administrations, and IS the top academic on our education system! 24 million people have visited her blog, this special ‘teacher’s room,’ where teachers and parents talk… and tell it the way it is IN OUR SCHOOLS.
“She has revised her 2010 book ” “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education” to reflect what she has seen unfold in the 15 years since she supported the Bush plan, which has left all our children behind, and given the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX a golden opportunity to profit from the demise of PUBLIC EDUCATION.”
Click to access eic-oct_11.pdf
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Thank you, Susan.
The blog has registered more than 27 million views
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The Times closed comments very early – unable to comment as of this morning.
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Great news. It’s about time that the NYTimes helped to examine the benefits of an inclusive public school system. Gates analytics based upon false assumptions of achievement tests and teacher evaluations coupled with fortunes transferring funds from public schools to charter schools have almost destroyed education for 40 percent of the students in America’s cities. Keep writing. We need your research and wisdom.
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Please leave a comment so the Times know what teachers and parents think
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You bet I will comment!
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Just read it
Sent from my iPad
>
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Well, in the words of (unfortunately) Joel Klein, that should garner some national attention. Now perhaps many temporarily deluded but intelligent people will read your books, mainly these last two. That should disabuse them.
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Thank you, Diane.
Your integrity as a scholar is only enhanced by being willing to change your viewpoint when new evidence arises, something sadly lacking in many of today’s educational ‘leaders’. It is never easy to admit that something you once thought was true is no longer true, especially when you are a highly visible public figure.
In a world of Emperor’s with no clothes, Humpty Dumpty clones whose words mean whatever they want them to mean, and where economists and billionaires are given more creedence than professional educators when discussing public schools, you are a beacon of light.
Three cheers for Diane: Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!
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Thanks, Chris!
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Congrats, Diane. You go!
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One little beef. (ya had to know it was coming Diane!-ha ha)
“Standardized tests are best at measuring family income.”
The tests measure nothing, they is no standard unit of measure, no exemplar of that unit of measure, no scale/measuring device calibrated against that standard unit. In other words attempting to measure the “nonobservable” as testing proponent Richard Phelps contends they do, without a measuring device defies logic.
It’s a farce, a farce that harms too many students.
Better said: “Standardized tests are best at reflecting the student’s family income.”
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Copy and pasted my comment to the NYTimes with the correction of “there is. . . ” from “they is. . . “
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You’re up, Duane.
Get the Times to publish your brief outline of Wilson:
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Thanks for the info, Akademos!!
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It would actually be much more accurate to say that “family income is a good predictor of student performance on standardized tests” because that indicates the direction of the relationship.
The only actual “measurement” of family income is the number of dollars the family takes in.
Anything else (house size, number of cars, pool in the back yard, test scores, etc) is just a proxy, at best.
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Quite correct, SDP!
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Sent my comment in three times now and it still has not made it into the comment section. No explanation as to why not!
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Duane,
It is a conspiracy — against Wilson and against you.
Wilson could bring down the whole house of cards testing edifice and must be stopped!
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Heh, heh!!
I’m currently reading two books authored/edited by Richard Phelps, a hardcore standardized testing supporter, “Kill the Messenger: The War on Standardized Testing” from 2003 and “Correcting Fallacies about Educational and Psychological Testing” from 2009.
I can understand why Wilson’s critique might have been overlooked in 2003 as that was only around 5 years after Wilson’s work was published in what might have been at the time considered to be an obscure source, the Educational Policy Analysis Archives out of Arizona State University. I first read Wilson’s work in the very early ’00s.
But for Phelps and the other authors to not know about Wilson’s concerns in 2009 is rather striking to me. And hints at a deliberate snuff/ignoring of his work. As it is the “Correcting Fallacies. . . ” sets up a bunch of topical strawmen and attempts to mow them down with a machine gun rapid fire of a few twisted arguments.
The silence is deafening and the best way to silence an author is to completely ignore him as has been being done with Wilson and his work by all of the standards and testing proponents. Not a single word in rebuttal or refutation have I found in 15 years of looking, searching, asking, and pleading.
To the dustbin of history for Wilson by those who promote invalid, unjust and unethical malpractices that are educational standards and standardized testing.
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..and Duane
Keep safe and stay away from the grassy knolls.
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Or high rise buildings in NYC, eh!!
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..and even low rises like libraries (book depositories)
I would not leave the house if I were you. The international testing cartel is onto you Duane.
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“The silence is deafening and the best way to silence an author is to completely ignore him”
Yes, it has been done in other prominent cases as well. 🙂
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Our nation’s greatest teacher, Dr. Diane Ravitch teaches Times readers how to support one another, how to get along, how to learn, to learn from mistakes, and how to grow. This is not politics; this is education. Hearty and heartfelt thanks to Diane, my respect for whom is without bounds.
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Thank you, Left Coast Teacher. Writing is teaching.
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Dr. Ravitch – I agree that there is too much testing. I agree that kids spend too much time preparing for tests. My soon to be second grader is asking me at night what the tests are like in 3rd grade (when students begin to take the PARCC). I agree on all of that.
However, I have a couple of questions/comments:
– When you agreed with the ideas of a national curriculum, why was that? Was that because you saw that some states had lesser standards in terms of education than other states? That some teachers had lesser standards than other teachers?
So, when you write, “we would give teachers the autonomy to tailor instruction to meet the needs of the children in front of them and to write their own tests” – is there any fear in your mind that in doing so some teachers could have lesser standards than others on those tests?
– I wonder if you would be for a National Curriculum that wasn’t the Common Core. If it were to be created in such a way so that modifications and accommodations were allowed?
– I also agree that there needs to be more differentiation in general – every child is not the same. I see that in my household where I have my own social experiment of sorts every day – twin seven year olds that are VERY different in terms of academics (as well as other things)…Yet they get the SAME homework and take the SAME TEST. However, I do feel that there should be minimums that my children should reach before leaving each grade (note – neither of them have special needs, if so I certainly think accommodations should be in place – similarly if they were ELL learners). You mention NAEP – but do all kids take NAEP. Do all schools? I don’t think so…
In the spirit of the new VP nominee Tim Kaine, I believe that there needs to be more discussion, dialogue and confidence. I know that the difference between you, Dr. Ravitch, and I is that you have completely trust in the teachers of this country to do what is right. I wish that I had the same trust. I know, I know, as many have said before, if 10% or 20% are bad, do we throw everything out? No, we shouldn’t. But at the same time, I do believe we do need a system that insures that those teachers that aren’t doing the right thing have some levels to achieve. I also have seen enough cronyism in education that these teachers are allowed to stay in the classroom. We need to eliminate that as well.
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Jlsteach,
The effort to standardize children and schooling has failed. I thought it would help but we now know it didn’t.
As for those “bad teachers,” the administrators are responsible for kicking them out. Why didn’t they?
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Dr ravitch…there are many reasons why administrators haven’t just kicked them Out: tenure laws in districts, cronyism in schools, etc. it’s not past tense (they didn’t), poor teachers are still in schools today…one of the worst rules is the “involuntary transfer” where a teacher is guaranteed a job but is so inefficient they are just shuttled from school to school…nothing can be done because these teachers have tenure…
So how do we handle this situation?
Also two things you didn’t respond to:
1) Since NAEP is not given at every school how can we know how each school is doing (and don’t just say ask the teacher)
2) if we don’t have a common standard do u believe it’s ok that kids in Mississippi or Alabama or other states have less rigorous HS graduation standards than states like Maeyland and Massachusetts? If so isn’t that saying inequality is ok?
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JLS,
Teachers don’t give tenure to themselves; principals award it. If principals are giving tenure to incompetent teachers, we have a bad administrator problem.
We can know how every school is doing by having good teachers in every school, good principals supervising them, and good superintendents in charge of the district.
Every test-based rating system measures family income. Schools in affluent districts look great, while schools with large numbers of impoverished students, ELLs, and students with disabilities get low scores.
Do you learn anything by giving everyone the same test? Nothing you didn’t already know.
You can’t have a common national standard unless you equalize resources across the nation and make sure that everyone comes from a middle-class family, at least.
Again, you will learn that the schools with the kids from middle-class and upper families have the highest scores.
We don’t lack information.
We lack the will to do anything about the information we already have.
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In response to your line “we can know we have good schools by having good teachers…”
Where are the specifics to make this happen? We don’t have enough teachers to fill positions in the first place
You mention it’s ok to use NAEP which had no consequences for students…or teachers. If someone gave you a test and said they your best but it doesn’t matter how you do would you put forth full effort. Yes for younger grades I see and believe that logic is true. Now tell that to a HS student who already doesn’t like school… How do we know he/she will not just bubble in the answers?
Should any assessment for students ever be consequential? If not…what message are we giving them for life?
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Of course tests have consequences.
The teachers should write them, not distant corporations.
The teacher knows what she taught; the corporation does not.
If the corporation decides what will be tested and taught, there will be no autonomy for teachers, no possibility of creativity and experimentation or individualization in the classroom.
Then Pearson determines what should be taught and teachers are no more than deliverers of prepackaged lessons
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“Then Pearson determines what should be taught and teachers are no more than deliverers of prepackaged lessons”
Might be part of the plan, Diane.
Less experience and expertise = smaller salary. This would create more flexibility in the school budgets, allowing for a shift in funds towards technology and all the costs that are associated with it.
What’s not being taken into account is the teacher’s ability to spark interest and manage a classroom. That’s a completely different story and, much like a doctor’s “bedside manner”, is often a critical part of the equation.
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Dr Ravitch
I’m not at all against experimentation in education….and i would love to believe that teachers could be trusted to create assessments that measure what should be taught in a particular content..
However let me paint a scenario I’ve seen happen more than once (and sort of experienced myself)…students come to a math class (say algebra I) without the foundations. Teacher decided to focus half the class on those missed foundations (including testing them on the material). But by the end of the year the students haven covered all they need in Algebra I. They are graded on what they’ve done but haven’t really done what’s in the class..So they move on to algebra Ii without the foundations…and the cycle starts again…students continue to fall behind
I understand not wanting Pearson or a corporation create the tests. What if professional associations such as NCTM (national council for teachers of mathematics) did it? Look at national board certification – although it’s given as a “Pearson” test it actually was created by the national board of professional teaching standards – a group of educators
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Jlsteach,
What your children learn, create, and contribute is beyond measure. It cannot be measured with any meaningfulness. Grading students is more a matter of creating goals with them for themselves than it is a matter of rating and categorizing them against a standard or each other. The goal is to learn, to grow, not to fit a standard peg. Yes, there are certain standard math formulas and scientific and historical facts they must understand with context to be successful in university study, the ability to craft intelligible writing and whatnot, but most of what they do in class is unrelated to standards or baselines. They are developing, not jumping hoops.
Regarding your difficulties trusting in employed U.S. public educators to deliver the above, or in your possible difficulties trusting in your state to deliver on the responsibility of supporting quality and equality in education, I hear you. I understand your concerns. Some teachers are good at one thing, others are good at something else, same as students. But I disagree that standardization will address those concerns. It seems the solution to your problem of trust is not in the recent development of computerized data analytics with standardized tests, but in the American development democratic leadership. As with everything, the answer lies in community, in participation, and in face to face communication, not in technology. Not in standardization.
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And to answer those last questions about how we ca know how everyone is doing all the time: We can’t.
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jlsteach,
Your distrust of teachers is disconcerting for me. Having spent 21 years in two districts, I did come across some teachers who were less than up to snuff and they were counseled out. I don’t remember seeing/hearing of any due process teachers (we don’t have tenure) that fit your descriptions of “bad” teachers but I saw more than my share of administrators who fit my category of being “adminimals” (minimal thinking administrators).
Also your concern with standards for across the country prompts me to ask: How in the world did this country get to be the supposedly top dog nation without those vaunted national standards? Do you believe that these standards will somehow magically transpose this country to even higher levels (whatever that may mean)?? Do you realize that none of the guidelines or protocols for making and using a standard as outlined by NIST or the ISO were followed in the process of developing the CCSS? Have you read Wilson’s work on standards and standardized testing?
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One more thing, a homework assignment, if you don’t mind. It’s about technology and accountability. Please read The Circle, by Dave Eggers. It’s entertaining as well as elucidating. (Not illuminating — I leave that to P Diddy.)
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I’ve read it…reminds me of Nucleus in the show Sillicon Valley
Look, I get it…particularly around technology (I think the idea of having all of the tests online was rather short sighted)
As for accountability, you may ask why I’m so passionate for it…it’s because if so many of the students that I taught in DC public schools that currently are in minimum wage jobs, dropped out of college, or left due to debt and now cannot go back. Someone was not accountable to those students
And now in my local counties they are advocating for a 50% rule (kids cannot get less than a 50% on assignments as long as they make a good faith effort, like putting their name on the paper)…
Without any accountability how many kids are we setting up for failure? Also so often it’s the kids who are in poor schools that have teachers that aren’t held accountable…which leads to a continuation of the cycle of poverty
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So some of the students you taught did not go on to startup multibillion dollar companies? And you blame your colleagues? Or you blame not labeling those children failures soon enough? I was trying to be polite and reasonable, but there is so much wrong in your way of thinking and your tone, and I am so insulted, I give up.
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I never said start up billionaire companies. I’m saying they did not even attend college. They are in minimum wage jobs struggling daily. And I’m not “blaming” anyone. Certainly the students make choices..some of them had me as a teacher and made choices that weren’t the best…personally I wonder what I could have done to make things better. I’m not saying it all lays at the hands of the teachers. But I am saying that I personally worked with teachers who didn’t do things to help their students.
There is nothing worse than when students say “I didn’t learn anything from (fill in the teacher)”
I know you and Duane will say couldn’t it be stents respnsiblity…but this is why is say the real answer is in the middle…why donee have to “blame” anyone…instead why not focus on solutions so there isn’t anyone to “blame”
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jlsteach,
Did your plumber go to college?
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I don’t know. However I hope he or she had options and choices out of HS to succeed in college if he/she wanted to. And didn’t feel like plumbing was his/her only option
If what your getting at is that not everyone has to go to college then I agree with you. However I do believe that students should be able to be prepared for whatever path they want and not feel forced into a particular pathway because they were ill prepared in high school
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Career choices are largely circumscribed by social class. Until the the social class structure is overturned, this is our reality. Did I have the educational advantages of Donald Trump, Jr.? My parents working together never earned the equivalent of his tuition in the dollar value of my childhood. We try to play the hands we were dealt to our best advantage. The notion that all children in the United States are competing on a level playing field is absurd. The choices being offered parents in the inner cities would never be deemed suitable for a child of the ruling classes.
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^^^What she said^^^
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No disagreement there…however when we let states decide education policies then students in those states can have lower expectations and consistently be disadvantaged…
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Excellent!!!!
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I too thought the idea of coherent standards across states made sense in theory. After all, there is logic to knowing that if a child moves from one state to another, the curriculum has a commonality. However, seeing how the Obama administration handled the whole hap hazard implementation, void of teacher input, changed my opinion. All the tests with rigged cut scores allowed me to understand that the purpose of the tests was to fail large numbers of students and provide misinformation about schools and teachers. These tests have no educational merit, and they waste valuable instructional time.
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Pervasive poverty in urban districts where logic tells us children in these zip codes are likely to score poorly and low family income for some in affluent neighbors doom many students. We know this to be true. Costs to create and deliver standardized tests eat up financial resources in many school districts, The only good I can see in the Common Core movement is that it has shown how far behind many school districts were and many still are in having the digital tools that 21st Century students need. Fixing all elements of poverty is a mammoth problem, but the cost to wire schools and provide computers is a surmountable problem.
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And after you wire all the schools, you will still have enormous achievement gaps and underfunded schools.
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I say this with respect, Jill, as I can see you’re coming from a place of true concern and experience in the classroom:
Wiring all schools is an expensive proposition…as is providing equally effective hardware/software and software packages to all schools and districts throughout the nation.
Add to this the additional costs of maintaining the equipment, buying and renewing subscriptions (all subscriptions are not created equal), and, eventually, replacing the obsolete equipment and upgrading the wiring to allow for the added information that now flows through the lines. Now the costs REALLY start to kick in.
And don’t forget about the cost of printer/copier ink and toner. Unreal if you’ve ever taken a look at any school budget that relies on the technology and has given up on student text/workbooks.
Then add the cost of at least one tech person per school in order to train the teachers, keep track of existing equipment (theft is a problem), perform repairs and troubleshoot, write grant requests, responsibly dispose of and replace obsolete equipment, etc. It’s a very, very, very big job and many schools are not walking that walk when it comes to that key ingredient to keeping the wheels oiled and turning effectively.
The disconnect between the businesses who are profiting off of the education system and the limited budget resources in so many of our public schools is a serious shortfall in the shift towards a classroom that includes technology in it’s presentations.
I remember one city wide tech meeting where a rep from the company that had sold us our interactive whiteboards was explaining the limited warranty and the new costs of upgrading to the latest software (and how the outdated software wouldn’t work with the upcoming computer operating systems). One of the most brilliant techs in the room raised his hand and said, “So you’ve taken away our chalk and talk, which cost peanuts, and replaced it with a system that is ever changing and will completely alter and decimate our budgets”.
There was no answer for that from the rep.
But beyond the financial implications, there’s also the question:
Even if we could find a means of distributing equal technology delivery systems and software to all schools along with the same CCSS curriculum attached, would this create an equally excellent education system for all students at all schools, district to district, state to state, throughout the entire USA? The developers of software curriculum which places the teacher into the position of classroom monitor and data feedback go between would have us believe so. As a teacher of 22+ years who believes wholeheartedly in the inclusion of technology in the classroom, I would say, “absolutely not”.
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You can’t forget that there is NO data that online competency-based education is effective. I absolutely agree that this is decimating public school budgets – and spending on ed tech is diverting funds from what all students need, which is small class sizes, safe buildings, arts, music, social workers and assistance for children with special needs – the list goes on and on.
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It just hit me!
In the title of the post Diane is saying we don’t need a national test. Diane, does that include NAEP then?
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Duane,
I am okay with NAEP. It is not a test for individual students. It is a sample in every state and across the nation. It reports trends. There are no consequences attached to it.
No individual student takes the entire test.
There are no reports for individual students or schools.
Trend data can be useful.
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Thanks for the clarification, Diane!
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“Trend data can be useful”
I question how useful that data can be when we know that all data gleaned from the results of an invalid process-standards and standardized testing, by definition is corrupt. What to use in place of the NAEP, I don’t know since I haven’t really looked at, given much thought to how we might discern various trends.
Other than “It’s the only thing we have” how do you, Diane, justify using bad data (as proven by Wilson) to inform policy decisions?
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NAEP functions as an audit.
There are no consequences.
No one knows who took it or who will take it.
It is good to have trend lines
NAEP is not subject to Campbell’s Law
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I understand what you are saying, especially not being subject to Campbell’s Law. But if NAEP is supposed to function as an audit it cannot possibly tell a true story as the results from which the data is gleaned is invalid. Would an ethical auditor accept auditing cooked books and verify them? Perhaps but only in a fraudulent situation. Should we accept the fraudulent nature of the cooked results of standardized testing such as is NAEP?
While NAEP doesn’t suffer some of the drawbacks of high-stakes standardized testing against which you are comparing it, NAEP still suffers the many onto-epistemological errors, falsehoods and assumptions (like being able to “measure” the “nonobservable” or reducing the assessment process down to a single number or category) that Wilson has identified that render any results completely invalid.
I don’t understand your stance.
P.S. Do you know where I might obtain a copy of the NAEP testing manual that has all the psychometrics and other information? If so please let me know.
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Duane,
Go online and find the National Assessment Governing Board. Send an email to its chairperson or communications director.
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Thanks!!!
Will try that.
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Your advise is so appreciated!
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Duane
In the district that i live in and the one that i worked in, as I mentioned before, there is involuntary transfers where teachers that are not performing up to snuff are moved from one school to another. Due to tenure laws or that they were grandfatherd in because they have been in the classroom for years they cannot simlply be removed. I’ve seen it with my own eyes more than once. Schools don’t have choices on taking involuntary transfers. It happens
As for your believing we are the top dog, well recent world wide rankings would say we’re not. But I’d say that it’s all how you view things. If one man has 1,000,000 and 99 have $1, then the average amount of money each person has is $10,999. Does this mean that everyone is doing great? Nope. Similarly is one state says that it’s kids only have to take two years of math to graduate and another says you need four years does that mean it’s fair?
What if in one school they give an addition test as a final exam for pre-calculus and in another they actually give pre-calc? Is that fair to those that took the exam that had nothing to do with the content but still passed
I believe in the rush to improve education too many reformers are willing to take shortcuts (such as easy credit recovery to boost the HS graduation rate)…where does that leave many kids? With a diploma that’s worthless, in debt from having to take remedial classes in college, etc…
Also…too often in this nation we take one or two of ththe outstanding stories (it happened here when we discussed one or two kids getting perfect scores on the AP exams) and use them as evidence that everything is alright. When in reality it’s not
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Not done. You’re saying Washington D.C. teachers get transferred when they get poor evaluations and not because of enrollment changes? Fact check, please. Second, good grades and diplomas are not worthless — unless they’re gained at Trump University. Third, TFA much?
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jlsteach,
“Due to tenure laws or that they were grandfatherd in because they have been in the classroom for years they cannot simlply be removed.”
Without knowing the district and state determining whether or not a veteran teacher can’t be removed is nigh on impossible. Even with due process rights it is quite easy to get rid of a teacher who is not up to snuff provided that the administrators do their job, have worked with and documented trying to help the teacher improve and then have documented the exact reasons for the dismissal. It’s possible if the will is there. And if the will isn’t there then the problem lies not with the teacher(s) but with the administrators.
Overall I agree with your last two paragraphs except that I’m don’t think that those “outstanding” stories are used “as evidence that everything is alright.” At least not by the public schools. That seems to be a tool of the charters who claim 100% graduation/college acceptance rates when over 50% who started at the school are not part of the graduating cohort. (Just a made up example for illustration purpose, but many examples abound of that sort of thing.)
“Similarly is one state says that it’s kids only have to take two years of math to graduate and another says you need four years does that mean it’s fair?”
It may or may not be fair depending upon the curricula for each course of study.
And while I can understand your challenging my statement of “top dog” status it seems to me that this country survived and thrived without standardization. Please explain how/why your so desired national standardized curriculum would serve us better. (and no, not wanting to hear about students who move from state to state as that population is actually quite small as a percentage of the total student population. What is it? Maybe 1% or less?)
Duane
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So even if students didn’t move from state to state you think it’s ok that there are states where all students here are like the $1 in my example (yes it know it’s probably more like a bell curve) And yes I know that you need other fixes like poverty, etc…But what I find interesting is how many folks are anti test and anti national standards but think the inequality of state set standards for graduation is ok
Remember that it was this inequality that lead to NCLB in the first place…a bill the liberal Lion Ted Kennedy supported…yes things have swung in a far direction, yet why does the reaction have to be to swing all the way back? Why can’t we stop I the middle and consider things
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To answer your question, jlsteach. That stop in the middle was NCLB with bipartisan support. Which for me shows that “the middle” isn’t always where we need to meet.
“But what I find interesting is how many folks are anti test and anti national standards but think the inequality of state set standards for graduation is ok”
First, no state has any “standards”. They have curriculum. No state has followed the protocols/requirements of standards organizations like NIST or ISO for promulgating standards.
And then, you are misunderstanding what inequality and equality entail. Notwithstanding your statement about the reason for NCLB, the same curriculum does not always signify equal curriculum for many reasons. The reason states have had dissimilar curriculum is because each state, as mandated by each state’s constitution, has to determine that for themselves. Public education is a state function, not a federal one. There is nothing that prohibits any state from using whatever curriculum it deems necessary (unless that curriculum is deemed unconstitutional as in teaching the bible, koran, or torah, etc. . . .) Where would you rather have the decision making on public education: at the state level or the federal level? Personally, I believe it best to be at the local district level (again with the caveats about constitutionality) as that is the level closest to the people who have the most at stake-the parents of school age children.
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Duane
I am viewing standards/curriculum/expectations as one in the same
And yes I know our founders gave education to be states…I bet when the framers wrote that they never imagined a country with 50 states or millions of people having rights to education (remember then it was only the elite that were educated and people of color – well they were mainly slaves)
I wonder if the founders were able to sit down now would they change things?
Speaking of our founders…look at th compromise that created the house of rep and the senate…some may say that this has lead to inefficiency but to me it was a sign of people working together to consider the middle
Finally, so keeping education in local control…isn’t that how states in the south justified that African Americans were sent to different schools and learned different things? Is that what you want to happen with local control? Because giving local control will have that happen…lawmakers will find ways to walk a fine line with the constitution
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Jlsteach,
“I am viewing standards/curriculum/expectations as one in the same” Yes I realize that and that is why I referred to curriculum and not standards as they are not the same thing at all. I would post my chapter on standards and measurement here but it is a tad long. If you would like to read that chapter email me at dswacker@centurytel.net and put “book chapter” in the subject line and I’ll send it to you. I think you will find it quite informative.
And to answer your penultimate question-No, I wouldn’t say that was the cause of the “unequal” systems. Those were eventually deemed unconstitutional. And your last question. No, why would I want that to happen? Because that is not going to happen, again because of already determined constitutional restraints wouldn’t allow it to happen although I agree that politicians do seem to find ways to “walk that fine line”. Is it because the majority of politicians are lawyers? (rhetorical question, nothing more or less)
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70% of the students in the community college where I am an adjunct take at least one remedial class.
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I don’t know where you work, but in NYC and LA the two biggest school districts in the nation, tenured teachers were under attack in the nineties and tensor thousands were sent into rubber rooms, and then sent out the door with no access to 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
These were not ‘bad teachers. These were the cream of the crop the best experienced professionals, but the unions failed to protect them and honor their contracts. When the schools failed, as hospitals would if the experienced practitioners were removed, they were replaced by charters. Here is the tale of what happens to a working school system that only needs FUNding, when ‘tenure’ can be broken at will.
In public schools that remained, novice practitioners replaced experienced ones, and by their 3rd year, the top-down management label them and ‘documented ‘t heir incompetence…out they go… and a revolving door of teachers replace them.
No need to worry about tenure anymore. Jlsteach. Now there are bogus tests that prove the teacher, not the child, is the reason for failure.
I have read all your comments here. You are obviously sincere in looking for answers.. But you are so lacking in understanding of what is happening across the nation, the assault by the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, that you ask questions and come to conclusions that do not reflect the reality of what is afoot.
There are 15,880 school districts in 52 states, and your experience in your school system which is informing your ‘take-away’ while valid for you, and clearly demonstrates a dilemma, does not address what is really happening… which is a genuine assault on teachers.
You ask for evidence. Take a look here:
http://endteacherabuse.org/
and here
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
and here
http://blog.ebosswatch.com/2013/05/one-womans-legal-fight-against-workplace-bullying/
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2013/10/lorna-stremcha-and-her-rubber-room.html
and here
LAUSD’S TREACHEROUS ROAD FROM REED TO VERGARA- IT’S NEVER BEEN ABOUT STUDENTS, JUST MONEY http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
or http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/FINALLY-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Agenda_America_Corporate_Corruption-150708-830.html#comment553842
It ain’t teachers who are the problem, it is administrations with no accountability:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGMBKF2UMq4&feature=em-share_video_user
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Susan – I am well aware of the “rubber rooms” and yes, you are right some good teachers were sent there, or not protected. On the other hand, where I work (in DC) and were I live (in a suburb of Maryland) there are things like involuntary transfer where teachers are simply shifted from place to place. There are also other ways that teachers can be pushed out (i.e. giving them the worst class assignments on a regular basis, essentially harassing someone, within the legal limits, until they just quit.
One can point to wrongs on both ends. I DO get the issues. I am NOT saying that it’s an easy solutions. You write about over 150,000 school districts in the nation – yet you only point to a few samples as proof that there is an overall attack on teachers. I appreciate your understanding that I am informed by my experiences – that is certainly true. As are you. The difference between us is that I am not willing to jump to broad conclusions and use bombastic language like teachers are under attack, etc.
as for your point about administrators without accountability – I agree with that to some extent…For every article that you come up with, I can probably counter with situations where teachers were sleeping in the classroom, checking their phones the entire time, etc. Look at the situation that has happened with the police in our nation recently. There are some that will say ALL police are bad due to a few incidents. And then when articles are written about police officers going above a beyond, others will note that some police are good…It’s not about an extreme.
I admit that there are some good teachers that were removed unfairly. Do you admit that there are SOME poor teachers that are protected and cannot be removed? And if this is the case, how can clearer heads come together to create a process that helps lessen (but honestly probably not eliminate) either one of these situations?
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You just don’t get it. They count to the fact that there are almost sixteen THOUSAND DISTRICTS, AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING anywhere.
You want me to argue with you here, as if I have not been reporting this for a decade.
It is nationwide! Use the search field here, and put in legislatures or legislative, and see how many states have taken over the ‘failing’ schools.
Put in PRIVITIZATION, or charter school fraud and YOU do the research…or go to my series at Oped. I am 75 years old, and I do not write here to do more that inform you ‘youngsters’ (LOL) that what you are seeing now is THE RESULT of a conspiracy.
I gave you all the links you need… go toPerdaily, and see how THIS SECOND LARGEST DISTRICT IN THE SYSTEM was DISMANTLED, once the FIRST LARGEST was destroyed so easily.
YOU are in a bubble my friend. I am on the same page as you when I say we need to ensure that the universities prepare teachers to deal with the problems one faces when trying to enable the human brain to learn skills,; I, too have seen gross incompetence, but I have also seen, over 4 decades how ADMINISTRATORS support and help teachers.
I am not writing at this blog to convince you of anything.
but here are my posts… most of them thanks to Diane Ravitch WHOM YOU QUESTION as if she is hearing such questions for the first time.
Get out of your bubble… sixteen thousand… AND IT WHAT IS HAPPENING IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE!
http://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html
Series
charter school fraud
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
privitization series
http://www.opednews.com/Series/PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html
legislative taekover
http://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
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So having standards for learning automatically leads to privatization??
Yes I know of all of the fraud. You may say I live in a bubble but the fact is that I know that there is fraud in both regular public and charter schools…
The interesting thing here is that my point of view isn’t even acknowledged as being possible…but rather you use all caps to show how far off base I am
Is there money impacting education. Yes. Just like there is money in politics, various levels of govt. and yes I too have seen lots of great administrators that I’ve worked with.
Not all teachers are great. Not all teachers are bad. Not all charter schools are corrupt. Not all those involved in the “privitization” or alt cert (think TFA) are bad.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way why not focus on the solution
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Yes… the solution, which is what the NPE is doing, and what the webinar that Diane gave sought.
You obviously did not grasp what I said, or go to the links I provided.
You miss what Duane and Diane say, too.
I for one am tired of your style, your demands that we answer your questions as if they are in some way unique?
You offer nothing new to the conversation.
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Susan
I apologize if my style has offended you or others. That certainly isn’t the case… You say that NPE and others are focused on finding the solutions…that may be where we disagree to an extent…there are many things about NPE that I do agree with…yes I think that getting rid of teachers without cause is horrifric…and I do feel there is too much testing (standardized testing) in schools. That being said I am not sure that the opt out movement is the best solution. I’m a parent and I want to know where my kids are at and what they are learning. You can say just ask the teacher. As a parent who is involved I can and do just that…however for many parents who may be brand new to this country or work two jobs, they may not have the time/feel comfortable to approach the school..
To me…I see NPE as more progressive (say Bernie sanders-esque). And I find myself more aligned with a Tim Kaine…someone who is more moderate…if you or anyone is willing to listen to my perspectives instead of attacking when questions are raised then maybe there can be discussion…I think one of the best blog posts that I read here from Dr Ravitch was her exchange with a venture capitalist, someone she seemingly vehemently disagreed with…there was dialogue, discussion debate.
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May I suggest that you listen to john Oliver this week, especially when he interviews Newt Gingrich, and brings up a subject that I am reading in many places– about “feelings.” Like in “I feel that climate change is just a theory and the evidence is not there”
–You feel that… ‘To me” you say, and the clause that follows is supposed mohave the import of facts.
The entire conversation initiated at the NPR is how people “feel that…” or ‘sense that…”
But facts are facts, and truth is truth, and your limited view point and history do not make what you say either interesting or TRUE.
For a while, good folks will argue with someone who “feels” this or that, and then, sir, they tire, when they realize that nothing thing that can enter the bubble of perception.
Facts are facts. People at this site are often very, very intelligent, and accustomed to arguing. You are not the first to ‘argue’ as you do, nor the first to be impervious to the facts that others bring.
I am sorry. You seen sincere enough, but you are living at a time when ‘feelings’ become’ truth by repetition and endless argument.
Go back and read Diane’s posts on privatization, the posts by Peter, Mercedes and other teachers who know what is afoot, and how teachers are taking the brunt of the blame.
Opt out is the only way to deal with bogus tests that humiliate kids, end teachers careers and plunge schools into an abyss from which they cannot emerge. That you “feel’ differently says worlds about you.
As for me, I welcome you to this place where you can listen and read and learn, but I will skip your feelings from now on, and concentrate on OBSERVABLE REALITY.
Sorry…
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Solutions require knowing what happened.
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As the Obama era starts to truly wind down, Diane offers what might be the best written post-mortem on one of the administration’s most disastrous policy decisions. I can’t help imagining one of those tombstones that has an eye-catching epitaph: “Here lies the body of the Common Core. It helped the rich and hurt the poor.”
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I like that!
Here’s mine
“Tombstone”
Here lies Ed U. Cation
Died from Common Core
Teacher devaluation
Charters, tests and more
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Love it
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Read it.. Awesome.. KC
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Great piece, Diane. Thank you so much for all you do.
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“Teachers are told what to teach and when to teach it, and are given strict timelines for completion in preparation for centrally aligned and created assessments. Data is crunched externally and presented in easily consumed charts and graphs. Many new teachers now enter the profession never having to create anything— it’s all done for them. Some may see this as progress; it is not. Becoming a highly skilled teacher is a process. We learn as we create and try new things. To deny teachers this responsibility is to limit opportunities for growth. Efforts to centralize the most critical aspects of what it means to be a teacher has led to the McDonaldization of our classrooms— it isn’t great, but at least it’s the same.”
(From: Reclaiming the Classroom: How America’s Teachers Lost Control of Education and How They Can Get It Back)
Good teachers have always had standards: objectives or goals of the lessons and units and courses they’re teaching. The problem with the standards movement we currently have is one of standardization and high-stakes accountability. Instead of raising the profession and empowering teachers, we are stripping the profession down and creating an environment of dependency and distrust.
I agree with your stand on standards and high-stakes testing. To quote one other sentence from the book: “As long as we are using tests to hold people hostage to their results in the name of accountability, we will find unethical practices and teaching to the test and corner-cutting and narrowing of the curriculum and all of the other distorted practices that come from our thirteen-year experiment with Campbell’s law.”
Thank you, Diane, for speaking out.
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Excellent post, Cindi. Thanks.
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Regarding the large number of college students in need of remedial courses:
I think that the terms “poverty”, “class”, etc and how they relate to a sound education and job opportunities can become somewhat meaningless due to the sheer number of times that you see them used in all forms of the media.
As a means of creating a more graphic representation, I’ll submit one of my many experiences as a classroom teacher in schools of the inner city (NYC):
Joseph is a good kid at age nine. Smart but not exceptionally bright. Doesn’t test very well. His grandmother (mom and dad aren’t in the picture) wants only the best for him but she doesn’t have much money. She tried to get him into a charter school, but it just didn’t work out.
So she’s sent him to the district school he’s assigned to. K through 9.
This is a very violent neighborhood and nothing’s different in this overcrowded school. As an example, before the school day begins, a local gang arranges one or two times (to the minute) in which they will disrupt their respective classes during instructional time. The teacher predictably kicks them out of the rooms (there is no crisis room). They then converge in a previously arranged stairwell and start to make a LOT of noise. Classroom teachers and admins on all 5 floors (it really is that loud) close and lock their doors, placing cardboard over the windows so that they won’t be seen. The gang moves to whatever floor they’ve decided on, destroying bulletin boards and throwing glass bottles against the wall. Then they bolt before the cops show up.
A security guard is soon assigned to all doors and stairwells. The gang members stay in the classroom. Do I have to tell you what it’s like when they stay in the classroom? If so, trust me: you wouldn’t want to be there.
The school is eventually closed due to excessive violence and the kids (all of them) are relocated to another already crowded school in another district.
Joseph does his best and avoids the gangs. Besides the difficulties presented in enacting their daily lesson plans, the teachers are being mugged on their way to and from their cars (which get vandalized if the kids don’t like you) or the subway/bus. They are overwhelmed but do their best. Joseph is an oasis for them and he easily passes through the system with grades that are good enough to get him into the local community college.
His grandmother has stressed the need for that diploma from day one and he won’t let her down. But his education throughout childhood and teen years has “holes” in it, due to the many disruptions that I’ve detailed above and more. As a result, Joseph is told that he needs remedial classes in such and such an area in order to meet the college requirements for graduation.
Not fiction, people. Just one of many reflections of poverty and how it can effect the people who are in the midst of it.
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Wow what a powerful story…thank you for sharing…your story demonstrates how education is impacted by poverty and other social ills that must also be addressed…
I too know of students who have had to take remedial classes because instead of coming to school they must watch after a sick sibling at home while the parent (often a single parent home) works…one of the key differences between those with means and those without means is choices…
But that’s why I am advocating for some type of common expectations around what is taught. I know that such a solution will not solve all of the societal ills that Joseph and some of my students face…but i do think it’s a step in helping kids have similar opportunities
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“But that’s why I am advocating for some type of common expectations around what is taught. I know that such a solution will not solve all of the societal ills that Joseph and some of my students face…but i do think it’s a step in helping kids have similar opportunities”
I think that, in theory, this sounds good. But I see as getting lost is found in the term, “kids”.
I know you know, but is worth saying that we’re not talking about a group. We’re talking about “A” kid. One kid. And how millions of that one kid adapts to his or her environment in the growth process. And many kids are easier to reach than others. Some are more compliant. Some are not as interested. Some like sports and/or art. Or music. Some hate math. Some hate the teacher and anybody else that represents a figure of authority.
I don’t think that any national, state, or local standard, curriculum, or government program will create a world where everyone is academically “smart”, engaged, and socially well adjusted. Kids, teens, teachers, and admins are just too complex for that to work. We’re all individuals trying to work within the system. Or take advantage of it. Some with more success than others.
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“But that’s why I am advocating for some type of common expectations around what is taught.”
Perhaps one can think of this as what occurs in the restaurant business. There are certain city/county codes by which the restaurant must abide to stay open. Think of those codes as what schools must follow in tracking attendance, student/teacher ratios, number of counselors, etc. . . .
Now each restaurant (actually the owner/franchisee) can pick and choose it’s own menu within certain restrictions with franchises being very restricted in what they offer and gourmet restaurants being almost unlimited in what they offer. Schools districts used to be more like the gourmet end of the spectrum with the local boards determining what the community needed. Now with standardization the schools are left with the menu the franchiser (state or fed department of ed) gives them and everything is supposed to be done down to crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s at the same time.
Which restaurant system is going to give you a finer dining experience, the franchise or the singular gourmet restaurant? Which school system is going to give you the finer education, one that is standardized or one that delivers the gourmet education?
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So here the fallacy…with restaurants one can chose or not choose to attend those places. With schools in many cases those in poverty don’t have choices…imagine if the restaurant in your city only served grade D meat (assuming that was legal and it met other qualifications). Yet the restaurant in the next state served grade A meat? What If instead there were minimum expectations that all restaurants had to at least serve grade C meat…one could chose to go above this but at least there were minimum standards that all people got…it’s a floor not a ceiling
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Yes, there should be minimum standards for offering a clean, well resourced school with credentialed teachers, with a full curriculum, librarian, library, school nurse, instruments for music, etc.
Absolutely!
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Jean Marzollo, celebrated author of children’s books (I Spy), tried to post the following comment to the NY Times, but the comment section was closed. She asked me to post it here:
Thank you, Diane Ravitch, for publicly and frankly discussing the pros and cons of national education laws you helped to establish. I hope you have inspired our presidential candidates to tell us specifically what education laws they would like to see abolished or improved, which education laws they presently support, and what new education laws they hope to create. And thank you, teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents for all you do to educate our country’s children despite existing education problems.
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Ok…but there shouldn’t be standards as well as what is taught in the schools? That to me doesn’t make sense. Yes I agree that all schools should be clean, well staffed, etc…and as I have said many times here -if other people (whether administrators, state officials, policy makers) were doing their jobs that we always had amazing teachers in every school then we wouldn’t be having these discussions
But the fact is that they don’t. And kids often in poor situations get shortchanged into believing that minimum standards are ok…
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And we have seen what happens with that floor before. The floor ends up being the goal, think outcome based education of the 90s (which served to be a part the impetus for NCLB), or programmed learning from the decades before. Again when X number of outcomes are delineated, X number of outcomes are taught to/covered.
Again, feel free to email me to get a further discussion of standards and measurement (which is the modern version of outcome based education is with a layer of scientificity to supposedly legitimize it).
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Duane – so if the floor becomes the ceiling, well, then it’s a matter of implementation that needs to be addressed…I am not saying outcome (or competency based education) should be used. sure, there will be some that will only teach certain things and that’s it, but there maybe that’ s better than them NOT teaching things.
No one has yet to address my issue – that by placing things BACK to states (or districts) WILL lead to inequalities (yes, I know that there are lots of inequalities now, due to poverty, etc) but by leaving things in the hands of districts, to me, isn’t the answer…
BTW, Duane – you seem to always site ONE study – Wilson…I have learned that you can’t just trust one source. so are there others?
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jlsteach,
To address your issue/opinion: I’m not so sure that what you say will happen will necessarily occur. I doubt that it will but I am no seer. I do know that many, including myself consider that choices in the political process are always best considered locally first as those are the people who are intimately connected with the situation. I guess I have more faith in local vs state or federal than you.
As far as other sources: If you’ve read any history on standardized testing you should realize that the concept has been contested from the very beginning. So, how about Banesh Hoffman’s “Tyranny of Testing”. What he said back in the early 60’s still holds true of standardized testing. How about folks as disparate as Richard Feymann, considered by many as a greater physicist than Einstein, or Gerry Spence, THE pre-eminent defense lawyer of the 2nd half of last century, both of whom condemned the usage of standardized tests as filters for advancing either academically or professionally.
I have used Wilson because his work is impeccable. I’ve been searching, begging, pleading in all manners, forums, blogs, etc. . . and have yet to find a single rebuttal or refutation of Wilson’s work. So I ask you to please direct me to anything that would/could shake my confidence in what Wilson has explicated. I’d appreciate it.
Now my question to you, a simple yes or no: Have you read Wilson’s “Educational Standards and The Problem of Error”?
And a not so simple: If you have read it do you understand what he is showing? And if you don’t agree with what he says, would you please let us know?
Gracias,
Duane
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Duane
I will read it soon…but here’s my question…why is it that your the only person I’ve heard of share Wilson?
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Because I’m special-ha ha!! That’s a joke, jls**
Really, though, I can’t say, I don’t know as I’ve been putting it out on this site and others for years now. I think many are intimidated by the fact that it is a dissertation and it takes the ability to wade through “dissertation talk” to get through it. I’ve read it dozens of times and always come away with something new. It has that much in it. Your not hearing of it from others also may be due to Wilson being Australian and not having it in the US doctorate data bases.
Be glad to help you through it if you would want.
**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVAdt5bH2tE
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I can honestly say that my eyes and brain get a bit fatigued after reading a page or two of Wilson’s work….but I do see the validity, based on my own personal experience and that of my colleagues, as well. Worth checking out.
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If you have any questions about it feel free to email me at dswacker@centurytel.net . I’ll be glad to help try to clarify it.
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Ok, Duane…here goes my thoughts:
1. I happened to google Wilson’s work (mainly to first find a copy of it)…And it seems that nearly the only references made are from Wilson himself on his website, and well, you. I will say you are persistent aren’t you. I hope that Dr. Wilson gives you at least a nickle for every time you reference his work…as I’m sure it can add up. (I also happened to note that Dr. Wilson gave you kudos on his own website for spreading his work!)
2. As for why it’s not accepted, well your excuse of being in Australiia is a rather weak one. I have read some of the work from John Hattie, also an Australian, and well, it’s rather well known here in the US and around the world. So I think the factor is a mute point.
3. I did find this reference to Wilson’s work on an NCTM (National Council for Teacher of Mathematics Forum):
http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=9722883
And I think that one of the respondents here really summed up some of my feelings on the matter:
“I think it’s kind of like how democracy is the worst possible form of government … except for all the others. I’m still waiting to see the alternative measures that are superior. ”
I tired to read Wilson’s work, but it was so all over the place (some on the math forum noted the horrific writing – I would agree!). But I also happened to see many of your summaries of his work. And here are my thoughts:
1. Yes, whenever an assessment is given, someone has a power position in the situation – Duane, I am guessing YOU gave assessments when you taught/teach Spanish right?. So you are guilty of this too, correct?
2. In some ways Wilson seemed to be against grades, against tests, against ANY measures…Maybe I am mis-reading this, but if one cannot measure validity in these tests, then well, what’s the point of ANY assessment at all?
3. I look at it this way – when I taught, I would backward map – I would begin with the question, “What do I think my kids should know?” Yes, Wilson would ask why am I the judge there. Why am I deciding and have the power. Well, I could say it’s my BS in Mathematics, it’s my award winning teaching, it’s what I have discussed with those that are at colleges and universities, etc. It’s also YEARS of what mathematicians and math books have noted should be covered on a topic….Anyway, I start with that and work backwards. When creating an assessment, I made sure that each topic was presented.
Now…onto the topic of testing/standards, etc. Something that I managed to read did strike me – as I am a parent of two seven year olds. Wilson talked about the standards of good behavior. Yes, those standards are different for every parent – some things I may not allow other parents may think is ok, or vice versa. That being said, there are some things in a societal viewpoint that probably are not tolerated at all – think a kid running into the street without looking both ways. Why do we not tolerate those – because of the danger that could happen…
I’m getting off track here, so I will end with two thoughts. Ok, standardized tests are the best. I think we all agree with that. And that kids are tested too much. Well, Duane, if we leave it into the hands of each educator, how do we know THEIR tests are valid. Or maybe we don’t assess kids at all, and let everyone go about their business thinking they know what they are supposed to know.
My issue with Wilson is that his work is not practical. It doesn’t address the kids trying to get into college, or trying to get a job, and finding out that the HS classes they thought (and trusted) to prepare them really didn’t do that.
Instead of throwing Wilson around. why not come up with a better solution for how to determine kids are really succeeding, to determine if teachers are really during their job (AND that students are doing their part too – it’s not just one or the other). I have mentioned time and again…I hear a lot of what folks are against (against testing, against edTPA, against, etc)…and lots of generalities of what we are for (good teachers in every classroom). but I haven’t heard lots of HOWS…
Finally, an anecdote. When I first began teaching at an application STEM school in DCPS, I recall the first parent teacher conference, when kids who normally had gotten A’s in math were suddenly getting D’s in my class. The principal backed me up on my teaching. You know what the issue was – the issue was that in middle school the kids were allowed to get high grades with doing little work. I had to kindly explain to parents that the standards of the previous school were not the standards of our school that would get their child ready to either attend college OR be able to begin a decent STEM-field position right out of HS. Those parents, and those kids, had the wool pulled over their eyes by teachers who seemingly thought they were doing the right thing for kids. The problem was they weren’t. Such situations STILL happen all over this country. How do we stop it (and it’s not enough to say that principals should remove such teachers, etc, etc) How do we make sure that parents and students know that what is happening to them?
IF we had standards or something to point to, then a kid could ask why they hadn’t learning X topic so far in algebra I. They could advocate for themselves…
Do I think that PARCC and CC were rolled out way too fast – like many education ideas – yes (just like having NCLB claim states would have 100% proficiency by 2014 – without fixing some of the poverty issues). But I think that we have to have something.
I quickly scanned what other nations do, and found this quote from our neighbor to the north: “There is no federal level education ministry. Instead, each of the ten provincial and three territorial governments is responsible for developing curriculum and determining major education policies and initiatives. However, each provincial ministry of education recognizes the importance of maintaining high standards and best practices, and they use one another as benchmarks when formulating major policy decisions and initiatives. This collaboration is aided by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), which is comprised of each of the heads of the provincial ministries of education. Studies on Canada’s varied provincial education systems indicate that many of the provinces’ key policies are very similar” – Imagine such collaboration among our 50 states around education.
Ok, I’m done now.
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Wow, not sure what else to say, but wow.
1. Ok.
2. I didn’t mean using Australia as an “excuse”. As I stated “I didn’t know why” and I threw that out as a possibility nothing more, certainly not as an excuse. Please don’t read other things into what I write, take it as it is.
3. Saw nothing there that did anything to rebut/refute Wilson’s work. The “it’s the only thing we have to use” argument just doesn’t cut it as a rebuttal or refutation. I can understand your difficulty in reading, especially since you are a math person which is quite a bit different reading and thinking than other subject areas. Perhaps it is because I am used to reading not only Spanish where long convoluted sentences are the norm, or because I’ve read a fair amount of the French/Continental philosophers that I don’t have as much problem reading Wilson as you do.
On to the next set:
1. Yes of course I gave tests and quizzes (which evolved over the years to be less and less of the “grade”). At the same time I also discussed the invalidity of grades with the students and that the object was to learn, not get a grade.
2. Yes, Wilson and I contend that the “grading” of students is highly problematic. Assessing student’s work is not the same as grading. Assessing the student’s work in cooperation with the student and, especially if younger, the parents in an open communicative fashion is my preferred method. Dialogue and discussion dominate not assigning a grade or percentage as a grade.
3. No, I don’t believe Wilson would ask that question. By not having completely read his work you have misunderstood what he is saying. He might point out that you are a “judge” and that that position should be openly revealed and discussed as part of the assessment process. The process for mapping your classes isn’t that far off from what I did in class. Seems like a wise course of action especially since Spanish is like math in that it’s very hard to continue working in the subject if one doesn’t “get” what the prior lessons are. There are those who would disagree that learning a second language is necessarily progressive and cumulative. I disagree with them.
“Ok, standardized tests are the best. I think we all agree with that. And that kids are tested too much. Well, Duane, if we leave it into the hands of each educator, how do we know THEIR tests are valid. Or maybe we don’t assess kids at all, and let everyone go about their business thinking they know what they are supposed to know.”
No, not at all. I certainly don’t agree with the statement that “standardized tests are the best”. Quite the opposite, “they are the worst”. Now I agree students are over-standardized tested. Don’t know about if they are over-tested by their individual teachers or not but I suspect not. The options are not limited to assessing or not. That is a false limitation you are placing on the discussion. It’s absurd.
“Instead of throwing Wilson around. Why not come up with a better solution for how to determine kids are really succeeding, to determine if teachers are really during their job. . . .”
You know not how much I despise that meme!! Suffice to say I address it in the afterword to my book:
“A tactic of administrators or any powers that be to silence those bold enough to critique their policies and practices, even after agreeing with one’s critique, is “Well, you’ve criticized what we are doing but “What is your solution?” usually said with such tone and emphasis as if they have now trapped the perpetrator in a debate dilemma. The administrator knows that it is impossible to come up with a feasible solution to your critiques in the minute or two they allot you to do so, solving his/her problem of the critical thinker in their employ. He/She walks away smug in his/her confidence that he/she won that verbal battle. And you’re left standing there thinking “What a smug ass bastard!”
It takes an immense amount of ego, of hubris and gall to think that one person can solve long standing, seemingly intractable structural problems in the public education realm especially on such short notice. To attempt to do so guarantees failure. Not only that but who am I to propose solutions for everyone else? Our society doesn’t work that way. So I offer no specific answers but I do offer some general guidelines in struggling to lessen the many injustices that current educational malpractices entail. . . . ”
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One point of clarification….if I said that standardized tests are the best…that should have been they are not the best
You miss my points Duane…and honestly I don’t understand your stance against asking you or anyone to come up with solutions…some folks are problem solvers. Others just point out problems. Which one are you?
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Please explain how I miss your points. And to answer your question:
Neither and/or both!
Rest assured that I have solved many problems in many different positions that the person before in that position couldn’t solve. And the main reason I could solve/handle those positions was because I was first able to correctly identify the problems involved BEFORE diving head first into solutions. Incorrect diagnosis can only lead to incorrect treatment to put it medically.
I believe the main problem of our “misunderstandings” stems from a difference in world viewpoints. As a math oriented person you see things in a yes/no, correct/incorrect, black/white fashion, a dichotomous mode of being.
Whereas, being a language teacher and being more of a see the grey, the multitude of solutions, the vagaries of language usage type thinker, although that doesn’t always hold true-which in and of itself demonstrates that principal, I tend towards skeptical free thinking.
In other words it seems that you utilize a more orthodoxical mode of thinking/being whereas I use a more free thinking mode of being. And that might point to why you struggle with reading Wilson and I don’t, although I did at first.
All of which points to the fascinating character of human nature and the multiple variations of manifestations of that character. As it is said “To each his/her own.”
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Duane – a few final thoughts:
– Actually I think that it’s reversed. You see things in black and white – standardized tests or no standardized tests. It’s either this or that.
Here’s another issue with Wilson (and with some of your thinking about how to assess students) – it’s too abstract and does not live in the real world of choices, limited resources and limited time. For example, you mention that ideally at younger ages teachers should work with parents on assessing students. You write:
“Assessing the student’s work in cooperation with the student and, especially if younger, the parents in an open communicative fashion is my preferred method. Dialogue and discussion dominate not assigning a grade or percentage as a grade.”
Sure, I agree this is ideal. And even on math tests, or math assessments there were times that I would have open discussions with my students on their work. However, how long does that take. Say 5 min (and yes, I know that’s not a lot of time)(? Multiply that by 30 students – that’s 150 minutes – or two and half hours. So when will all of this happen? At night? Will you extend the school day? If you do that, you will have to pay janitors overtime (or hire more folks). Will you do this over the weekend?
You mention ideally getting parents involved – what about the families with two working parents, who work in different shifts (one works during the day taking care of the little ones at home, then at night the other parent goes to work). When will you work with them? And what if they don’t speak the language you speak? Then what? Will you hire translators (they cost money too, right?)
See where I am going here…it’s one thing to say “Oh I wish that we had this or that…” It’s another thing to really think all of the variables through.
Two examples related to this – I had petitioned my principal to have the school open on Saturdays so that I could offer extra tutoring to anyone who wanted to come…My first principal essentially skirted the rules of the school and would open the building (not having the maintenance forman or others come in – OR even better, there may be another event happening in the building that was paying for the foreman and the security guard to be there, and he would piggyback off of that to have the building ope). The person who followed him used the costs as excuses for NOT opening up on Saturdays. He was short-sighted, in my mind, on how to use things to get what needed to get done.
Second thought – one of the things that sometimes bugged me about the opening of the school was that some teachers were not as strong as others. There were some TFA teachers (and younger teachers) that I thought for the most part were very strong. And, by chance, they were, like me, not teachers of color. And they were all young. The school was 99% minority, mainly African American. The principal realized the politics of needing diversity both in race and years of experience in the staff…He had to make choices. There were other factors that impacted things.
So, back to testing…Yes, it’s not ideal. But why do we do it then? Cost? Time? Other reasons. IF someone comes up with an assessment that may increase a few of those other factors but have greater impact on student teaching, then great.
Finally, one other thought – too often policies are created from emotion as opposed to thinking through logic. Those that advocate for such tests may have seen, like I have, poor teachers in classrooms. They have probably witnessed these things first hand. Now, some take those emotions and go to extremes (just look at the RNC). First of all, I think anyone in policy has to acknowledge someones feelings – rational or not – as what they are. Then we have to try and find compromise…I don’t see your nor Wilson trying to do that around assessing children.
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And a final reading for you, jlsteach:
Click to access bracey_standard-tests.pdf
Have a good day today and all the rest of the days!
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Who told you that feelings must be acknowledged.
Let me try that! Hmmm. Oh boy, I can see that you feel strongly, based on your limited experience in DC. I can see why you feel that way.
Ok, you FEEL that these tests were created because “They have probably witnessed these things first hand. ” The things being ‘bad teaching.’
OK..I acknowledged your feelings.
Let me be clear, AUTHENTIC evaluation of the performance of teachers is crucial, so they can be helped and supported to do better….but that is NOT the reason for these tests. Period.
Diane nailed the truth. She has witnessed the the whole thing, over decades and from the top as eduction secretary (ass’t) and I have witnessed it with tens of thousand of other teachers, wonderful , successful ones, thrown out of careers to which they dedicated themselves, despite low pay and no support..
It is conspiracy to silence the voices of the only ones who know WHAT LEARNING actually LOOKS LIKE IN THEIR CLASSROOM, so eduction would become a market place for magic elixirs. and profiteers. The tests just BAMBOOZLE THE PEOPLE.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
You don’t have to acknowledge my FEELING. It is fact!
If there are many ‘bad’ teachers where you work, then your district has a problem.
Newt says that he feels that our people sense that crime is on the rise.
The FBI shows the figures that show the opposite.
So, he points to a few cities where crime is increasing, even though the figures for the nation show the opposite. He is impervious to truth because he feels is feelings should be acknowledged.
This ‘entitlement’ to ones opinion is not the same as the right to put them out there and have them acknowledged as fact.
If you continue to do that here… well….
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Too me you clearly don’t want to try and reasonablely communicate, which is your prerogative. but you claim that I am cherry picking facts to say that all teachers are bad (comparing me to playing with statistics like New Gingrich)…How many educators play with statistics and show that the graduation rate is increasing when really the standards and expectations for graduation are lowered (such as online credit recovery)
My mentor in education – my first principal in DC – taught me something that I think is very valuable in conversations – unfortunately it’s nearly impossible to do online. When faced with a tense situation – an upset parent, a frustrated colleague, someone that you may disagree with, he said that you should do three things: 1) Listen, 2) Ask clarifying questions, 3) respond.
I’ve listened here to the calls against standardized testing. I agree with many of them. I don’t believe that teachers should be judged on test scores – however, I do think that how well students do should be some measure of how well a teacher teaches (I’m not exactly sure what that measure should be, but I think that it makes a lot of sense – should student learning be a part of determine how good a teacher is?). I am simply asking clarifying questions, based upon my own experiences. Maybe feelings is the wrong word, but a person’s perspective is often determined by their experiences. Yours is clearly determined what are certainly tragic situations where, as you say, good veteran teachers were removed from the classrooms for no reason. I am not arguing with you on those cases. I don’t know all of the FACTS behind every single case (just wondering, do you?). But I respect them. I am just providing another side, for which I have been insulted for my supposed lack of experience and the blame is simply placed on the district for not getting rid of poor teachers.
Which brings me back to my point all along – if districts like mine are allowed to keep poor teachers around – how many other districts are there like that (yes, I know, some districts are also getting rid of great teachers)
To me, this situation is a rather complicated one. It’s one that has no easy solution. My frustration is when those think that it does have an easy solution…
Hope you enjoy the rest of the Democratic Convention – I felt that Mrs. Obama (and Sen Booker’s) speeches were very powerful
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I do think that how well students do should be some measure of how well a teacher teaches (I’m not exactly sure what that measure should be, but I think that it makes a lot of sense – should student learning be a part of determine how good a teacher is?)
Pew spent millions and did this. the principles of learning… I wrote about it here.
You must have missed it.
It disappeared… with the NCLB.
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You miss the point sir.
Your ‘questions’ have been asked and answered many times. You appear suddenly and argue YOUR POV, and demand that others answer to your satisfaction.
Yes, this a a wonderful place for rational discussions, but you badger, and then wonder why you do not receive the answers you want… Use the search field… the answers lie there.
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Nice analogy Duane!
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That’s excellent, Duane.
I’ll have a chopped sirloin on a bun with sharp cheddar cheese, well fried onions, tomato, and lettuce, please. Medium rare. Oh…and that special sauce, too. Side order of freedom fries, thanks.
Oh…yeah…that’s right: a Big Mac. Thanks. With fries.
😦
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Thanks Abigail Shure and gitapik for the kind words!! Sending good karma your way!!
I use the restaurant analogy mainly because my eldest is a chef. He gave me his texts to read and it helped me understand a lot better what goes on in the restaurant business. But as with anything one has to do it to be good at it. I am a cook, he is a chef! (although my Hollandaise sauce is better than his, at least according to my daughter!!)
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I’m an avid reader of your postings! What’s your opinion on the edTPA as a state teaching credential?
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Patricia,
I don’t think anyone preparing to be a teacher should be judged by a standardized test or by evaluators watching videos of the teacher. New teachers should be held to high standards by the state, by their principals, and by the institution where they learn to teach. But edTPA is not a valid instrument for predicting success in teaching.
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Dr Ravitch
If all states or all TPP held new teachers to high standards them your are right we wouldn’t need things like Edtpa or standardized tests to measure teacher readiness…but would you agree that at least some don’t hold them to the same set of standards (including alt Ed like TFA)…so my question to you is how do you get states or programs to get teachers to be held to those standards?
I agree Edtpa is not a panacea…it’s not perfect. But to me it’s better than praxis (which most states now use)…and is a step in a right direction in that it assesses actual teaching
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JLS,
I oppose standardized testing for future teachers, other than a simple literacy test of basic skills.
For complex skills, like teaching, a standardized test is worthless.
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So we agree…get rid of praxis II pedagogy and content…but then that means we must trust higher Ed that the grades one earns in a content are truly representative of the knowledge
You have yet to answer how we can assure that TPP are doing their jobs…
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JLS,
No standardized test will answer that question. Professionalism involves respect for the judgment of trained people.
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But what if they aren’t doing their job? We can assume that they are – but what if they aren’t? Of what if someone’s standards for entering the profession are lower than they should be? Then what?
BTW, while many believe edTPA is a “standardized” test, I would disagree. There is not one correct answer for each rubric. There are certain skills that one would think that all teachers would want to have, but there is no one way to succeed on the assessment.
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Why doesn’t anyone ask the successful veteran teacher who 3 4 and 5 decades ago emerged from college ready to teach. How were they evaluated/ How did they get their first jobs? how did they gain experience? Who helped them? Who judged them?
I graduated in 1963.
Who judged me?
The parents and the kids,of course… because it was clear to both of them that LEARNING WAS ONGOING… and this the principal, whose job it was to SUPPORT ME ( organize the school, order supplies, make schedule, hire competent support personnel) barely saw me teach twice in a year…. he didn’t need to… my students met the objectives by the end of the year, and were promoted…. and happy, too… because they were successful, not failures on some test that tests nothing they learned.!
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Susan – I appreciate your service. But I think that you would probably agree that teaching in 1963 was probably VAST different than teaching in 2016 – more students are in K-12 education than back in 1963. And probably more in poverty, more with lots of different needs.
Furthermore, you mention that they were successful. I am sure that you were a fantastic teacher, and well, one blog post doesn’t leave me to not believe you, but how do I know that they were successful? Sure, one assessment wouldn’t say anything (and, BTW, I do not believe that teachers should be evaluated on test scores). How do we know that you taught them well enough? For many principals, as long as kids weren’t sent out of the room – well that meant that the teacher was a good teacher…
Should we simply just take the word of anyone who is in the classroom? I would LOVE to think we could, but as I have stated on this blog before, I have seen too often teachers short change their students, and it’s only the students that suffer. And yes, Dr. Ravitch, the administration SHOULD have done something about it, But cronyism exists in K-12 education. And if you ask why folks didn’t speak out – it’s fear – fear for losing their jobs, etc…
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I agree , teaching was vastly different… because we were given the classroom keys and a few supplies and a state list o objectives and told to TEACH.
Some my classes were 43 kids.
My first class, a special service school, had 32 children, all very poor, and many ‘held-over.” No one told me how to teach them or what to do. I only knew the objectives, and what I had learned in my ‘training’ and eduction…a nd yes, I has an instinct that kids liked rewards and not punishment.
I taught in schools where free lunch meant most o f the kids would get at least one meal.
I taught in schools, where I feared for my life when I ventured on the street.
I also taught in suburban schools where parents watched everything I did, and were quick to find fault if their sweet, little honey child complained. The one thing that was different was that eaten every principal, until that last assignment supported me.
All that changed in 1990, when I was given the entire 7th grade on the East Side of Manhattan, in a new school. Once again, given a room and nothing else, I stocked it, wrote the curricula that I felt would meet he objectives, and in one year put the school on the map with the highest reading scores in NYC. That continued, but once the school was successful, and with Gates, Pearson and friends waiting in the wings, suddenly when a parent complained I came under attack…and much more… but my story is not for this place.
ou do not have take my word. Go here for a very short intro to my history… and while you are there, read Bamboozle them, Magic Elixir, or my article on how LEARNING not teaching should be the mission.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
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Susan
Thank you again for sharing…it’s an impressive story…I will agre with you about the learning part being important. I aka agree with you that there has been a shirt since the 1990s…when I was still in HS what the teacher said or did was the rule, and in my case if I did poorly on a test it was my fault, not the teachers…when taught in the 2008 if a student did poorly the blame was often on the student
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Sorry for the typos, that autocorrect make worse.
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What a shame that high stakes standardized testing has become the new norm. And the fact that teachers with a wealth of experience both in conventional and experimental have to explain and defend their positions as though they’re dinosaurs taking EDU101 in the new and improved modern day teaching work force.
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jlsteach,
“BTW, while many believe edTPA is a “standardized” test, I would disagree.”
Then you are disagreeing with the whole standardized testing community.
I am currently reading the last three testing bibles “Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing”, and two books that defend standards and standardized testing either edited or authored by Richard Phelps. And yes, according to those sources, edTPA is a standardized test. Just because it is not a multiple guess or short answer response doesn’t mean it’s not a standardized test.
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“But what if they aren’t doing their job? We can assume that they are – but what if they aren’t? Of what if someone’s standards for entering the profession are lower than they should be? Then what?”
Name me one profession in which all employees and/or practitioners consistently function on or close to a level of excellence.
I’ve worked union and management positions throughout my lifetime in many different fields (haven’t always been a teacher) and the situation is always the same on both sides of the fence: some people work their tails off, some try to get away with doing nothing, and there’s a whole lotta people in between.
Education is an imperfect science. It involves children. It’s different from the business world where expectations of the adult workforce are more easily recognized, standardized, and enforced.
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I posted this at the NY Times comment section for your article:at suelee10901 at the nY Times comment
suelee10901 Pending Approval
I have been following Diane Ravitch for 3 years, as I follow all the activists who have been reporting the WAR on the INSTITUTION of public education. At Oped News, on the internet, I report the facts I gather from her impeachable sources:
http://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html
Anyone who wants to know the speed at which the EIC (EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX) is taking down our schools in order to put ‘schools’ into A MARKETPLACE with no regard for LEARNING nor for the education of our citizens so they can learn real skills, and attain income equality. They– the people you will see at this link-https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf
CREATED the FAILURE and then turned the ‘failing’ schools (as judged by their tests) over to the state legislatures who give taxpayer $$$ to charter schools without a shred of accountability.
I got this link at the Ravitch blog, and it offers to you a look at who has engineered the fiasco we see today. The also totally own the media, so the people get only their spin about those bad teachers and their spin on ‘reform,’ and Orwellian term for DEFORMING real education.
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“. . . my article on how LEARNING not teaching should be the mission.”
Exactly, Susan!!
That is why I always talk about the teaching and learning process, and I consider that process to be a two way street on which the teacher learns more about his/her students so that he/she can help the students TO LEARN.
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Yes, Duane. I know we are on the same page. May king does ,too.
It is ALL about learning!
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Thank you, Diane! I am grateful and doing a happy dance!
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IMHO, I would take musical notes as standardized code. Musical professionals and learners at all level from K-12 and beyond, will thrive according to their natural talent and effort.
In education, the basic standardized code would be to sharpen body, mind and spirit in human beings, so that the ultimate goal (=conscience in humanity and democracy) should be equalized in all learners from K-12 and beyond.
Track and field, soccer, swimming, cooking, sewing, painting and playing guitar should be the COMPULSORY extra curriculum for all children in elementary in K-5
Field trip to museums and to all states, where history and economy are relatively taught in the curriculum, must be a compulsory compliance in order to build the patriotic sense in citizens from grade 5-10.
From grade 8-12, Liberal arts and STEM courses should be heavily concentrated, so that students will have a chance to explore in learning, practicing and making up their mind to be specialized in University or Community College.
As per educational aspect, it is arrogant to want an exemption for an amateur to learn in the same level of the professional, the disable kid in the same class with the prodigy.
There is no shortcut, but an effort to learn in remedial courses to be qualified for what people want to achieve. My degree in my own language and my country curriculum cannot be automatically reconsidered to be equal to the same degree in Canada. Back2basic
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In regard to the idea of “bad teachers”, the administration, teachers and school board must create clear language explaining the goals for each teacher, administrator and their students, and support growth opportunities for teachers and students when needed. Next, they must set aside professional time to meet at least several times each month and discuss progress toward meeting the goals and any additional needed support. When administration and teachers have a collegial relationship and work collaboratively, then there is maximum time spent on meeting the needs of the students and thereby, greater progress toward reaching the collaboratively determined goals. Consistent collaboration and appropriate professional development opportunities are keys to student success.
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How much does misery cost? About $12.1 billion over the next one to three years.
That should be some first-class misery. Oh! And it’s on you. Your treat! Enjoy.
This reform is not a reform at all. It’s a charade. A masquerade.A carnival.
The vulture capitalists can smell your misery from miles away … and they’re the first on the scene to pick your wallet clean. Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Banks were just warm-up routines for Big Education. Education will become the investment oasis of the planet with a renewable stream of your tax dollars until … until we all come to our senses. Or go broke.
Common Core is mutating before our very eyes. Tutoring shops are popping up like nail salons … poised to teach your children the mathematics you can’t even understand. There’s on-line stuff and review books. In some cases, elementary parents have hired tutors to deal with the Common Core weirdness and the homework chaos … “I tried to help—but it was just too much and I had to find a tutor,” one mom confessed. That little mea culpa costs her $300 a week. Do the math … the old way … or you’ll be here until Thursday.
After school tutoring programs … like Japanese jukos … are the rage. What’s childhood without a severe dose of anxiety, right? “I work with a lot of frustrated moms and dads who can’t seem to help their 6th grader with their math homework,” said the owner of Bright Kids. Bright Kids? I’m not touching that irony … at all.
These are money-making ventures with handsome returns on investment. Private tutors now boast of Common Core expertise as well as SAT talents. There’s even an on-line search engine just for “affordable tutors”. Misery IS big business … and there’s plenty of misery to go around.
Families are held hostage by this reform. Parents have to pony up for tablets and technology up-grades, Common Core texts and workbooks. Testing costs are mounting… and teacher training is a budgetary concern. This, folks, is the cost of misery … and failure … and incompetence.
So, this is the face of educational reform … curriculum chaos, never-ending technology up-grades, and expensive after-school efforts just to survive third grade.
This is the price we’ll all pay to become one of those forgettable Third World countries. And to think what we over-paid for that privilege.
How did we allow this all to happen? And when do we stop this mutating mess?
Denis Ian
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Denis – You raise a few interesting points…parents turning to tutors around common core is an issue. We need our SCHOOLS to do a better job getting parents in. We need teachers to send home examples and explain the logic behind the “new ways”…
What I find interesting is that many see Common Core as standardization and yet the principals behind many it are to help explain the critical thinking behind why things are done.
Take subtraction: 14 – 9. Most folks now would automatically put a slash through the 1, put a little 1 next to the four (making it 14) and then say 14 – 9 = 5. No explanation of why – just do it. And do LOTS of practice problems like this. Memorize the procedure. Like robots,.
Do you know why we did this? (I am guessing you do, but if not, it because we are re-writing the 1 in the 10s column as 10 1’s and so we are saying now we have 14 1’s and can now take away 9 1’s to make 5 1’s, or 5. CC asks students to show visually this process so that kids understand the process. It’s getting the students (and their parents) to understand the why behind how things are done…
Or is it better that we should all be like robots, just doing things a particular way, without knowing or understanding why it’s done that way? This thinking only gets us so far – leads to people in department stores thinking that if something is 50% off (and then the sign says take an extra 50% off) that it’s actually free!
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Everyday Math was compulsory for all schools in NYC at first. General and special ed. The introductory section of the teachers editions explained the need for daily intensive parental involvement with the homework assignments. The curriculum even included letters to the parents along with detailed explanations of how the math was being done for the parents to study in order to provide that necessary daily intensive involvement.
We provided the parents with everything they “needed”. As always we invited them to visit and or contact us for guidance and support. It made no difference. Most didn’t even bother to read the instructions or letters. Those that did became confused and frustrated. They’d ask me why I couldn’t simply teach their kids? They had two jobs to hold down and didn’t have the time…
On the homefront, my first grade daughter would bring her friends home with her to spend an hour every day on their math assignments because I was the only grownup that knew what was expected and why. This because the parents knew I’d been trained on how to teach using that particular program. Very well educated parents with high pressure jobs that took up a great deal of their time and energy.
Easy to say that the schools need to do a better job. We’ve been hearing that for decades and getting slammed for our “lack of success”. As with NCLB, we’ve been given an impossible goal and are being held accountable for nothing less than a positive outcome. The schools (teachers and sometimes admins) are the problem. Not the program and those who created and distributed it on such a massive scale with such large scale changes in methodology.
When you put the cart before the horse, there is only one direction in which one can reasonably assume to go.
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Thanks for this post Diane – I hope you will write a post about the ed tech take-over of public schools. It is not just buying computers to take yearly standardized tests.
What is coming next is worse – it is huge data mining, and FAR FAR more time on computers for children, including young learners. People talk about how great it is that we can assess kids “anytime, anywhere” if they each have their own computer through- this will direct more and more learning online on a daily basis. This is happening not just in charter schools – it is happening in Baltimore County Public Schools with enormous expense, and no data to support effectiveness. I believe Gates et al will make even more money with so-called “personalized learning.” We cannot fight high stakes testing and not pay attention to what is coming through the side door, pushed by all the same characters.
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Well said.
As the main tech for our sites, I’ve seen this growing for years. The end result will be kids sitting in front of a screen for much of the school day.
It’s not healthy and it leaves out a very important facet of education: the socialization process.
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I thought this article was extremely valuable. Glad to see it in the Times. I agree with many of your points.
However, I’d like to emphasize that while national standards and standardized testing certainly do not improve education, in of itself, they can provide useful data when done well.
I am hoping as the educational community moves forward, we don’t simply throw away things because they didn’t work but that we think through exactly why some things failed and exactly why some things succeeded (and go further than that–I know that no excuses discipline show some short term success, but they are a strategy for long term failure).
I am working on curriculum materials to address many of the problems you and others have raised, and I hope that we can someday connect so you check them out. Regardless, thank you for being such a tireless fighter for students in America!
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Thank you, thank you Alice – you did a much better job expressing many of my sentiments that I clearly were not expressing that well.
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Oh, I’ve been lurking in the education community for a long time, and mulling through all of the things that people say. Thank you for being an active participant so I can summarize some of your ideas!
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“. . . national standards and standardized testing certainly do not improve education, in of itself, they can provide useful data when done well.”
The concept of national standards and standardized testing lack onto-epistemological underpinnings. To understand why, read Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine.
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other words all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
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I am guessing you are trying to say some things to argue against me. That’s rather unclear though. If that’s the case, you haven’t said anything that contradicts it.
I follow Diane Ravitch’s blog because while I do not agree with everything she thinks or says, she has highlighted excellent examples of how charter schools, standardized testing, and the existing national set of standards have been failures in the US for the past decade or so.
All that still does not contradict the statement of mine that you quoted.
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Yes, Alice…we agree again. Duane seems to use cut and paste of this posting every time the mention of standards or testing is provided. Like you, I too follow this blog for the things it points out about charters, testing and even standards. That being said, also like you, there is some potential – depending on how things are used.
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Alice,
Yes, it does rebut/refute your statement. When the data is corrupt, that is, invalid as proven by Wilson, then any results gleaned are “vain and illusory” as Wilson has also proven.
Have you read Wilson’s work?
Here’s another on validity issues (or rather invalidity issues) in that data:
From a little less than valid:
To the extent that these categorisations are accurate or valid at an individual level, these decisions may be both ethically acceptable to the decision makers, and rationally and emotionally acceptable to the test takers and their advocates. They accept the judgments of their society regarding their mental or emotional capabilities. But to the extent that such categorisations are invalid, they must be deemed unacceptable to all concerned.
Further, to the extent that this invalidity is hidden or denied, they are all involved in a culture of symbolic violence. This is violence related to the meaning of the categorisation event where, firstly, the real source of violation, the state or educational institution that controls the meanings of the categorisations, are disguised, and the authority appears to come from another source, in this case from professional opinion backed by scientific research. If you do not believe this, then consider that no matter how high the status of an educator, his voice is unheard unless he belongs to the relevant institution.
And finally a symbolically violent event is one in which what is manifestly unjust is asserted to be fair and just. In the case of testing, where massive errors and thus miscategorisations are suppressed, scores and categorisations are given with no hint of their large invalidity components. It is significant that in the chapter on Rights and responsibilities of test users, considerable attention is given to the responsibility of the test taker not to cheat. Fair enough. But where is the balancing responsibility of the test user not to cheat, not to pretend that a test event has accuracy vastly exceeding technical or social reality? Indeed where is the indication to the test taker of any inaccuracy at all, except possibly arithmetic additions?
A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review
Click to access v10n5.pdf
From a little less than valid:
“To the extent that these categorisations are accurate or valid at an individual level, these decisions may be both ethically acceptable to the decision makers, and rationally and emotionally acceptable to the test takers and their advocates. They accept the judgments of their society regarding their mental or emotional capabilities. But to the extent that such categorisations are invalid, they must be deemed unacceptable to all concerned.
Further, to the extent that this invalidity is hidden or denied, they are all involved in a culture of symbolic violence. This is violence related to the meaning of the categorisation event where, firstly, the real source of violation, the state or educational institution that controls the meanings of the categorisations, are disguised, and the authority appears to come from another source, in this case from professional opinion backed by scientific research. If you do not believe this, then consider that no matter how high the status of an educator, his voice is unheard unless he belongs to the relevant institution.
And finally a symbolically violent event is one in which what is manifestly unjust is asserted to be fair and just. In the case of testing, where massive errors and thus miscategorisations are suppressed, scores and categorisations are given with no hint of their large invalidity components. It is significant that in the chapter on Rights and responsibilities of test users, considerable attention is given to the responsibility of the test taker not to cheat. Fair enough. But where is the balancing responsibility of the test user not to cheat, not to pretend that a test event has accuracy vastly exceeding technical or social reality? Indeed where is the indication to the test taker of any inaccuracy at all, except possibly arithmetic additions?”
Read Wilson, understand what he is saying and then please get back to me with any rebuttals/refutations of his work. I’ve been looking, begging, pleading for over 15 years for a refutation/rebuttal and have not found a legitimate one yet. May you, Alice, be the first one then!
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You offer some valid arguments as to why the existing standardized testing is inadequate and how it can be misused. Again, that does not negate the statement of mine that you quoted.
Please think more thoroughly.
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First I guarantee that I have thought these malpractices through and through more that 99.999% of the educators who use them. Telling me to “think more thoroughly” is like telling a dog to think more doglike. (can I get a winking eye emoji)
Here is your statement: “However, I’d like to emphasize that while national standards and standardized testing certainly do not improve education, in of itself, they can provide useful data when done well.
The key being “when done well”. And that is what Wilson has proven: That standardized testing can’t be “done well” due to all the onto-epistemological errors, falsehoods and psychometric fudging involved in the process which, therefore, renders any results and the interpretation of those results invalid.
Since the results and interpretations of the results are invalid how can they provide “useful” data?
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He has not proven that. I will consider writing up something to help you think more thoroughly, if I get the time. At this point in time, I do not have that kind of time. Best of luck to you.
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Alice, Wilson sure has. Just because you say “he has not proven that” holds no water, that dog don’t hunt. I’ve seen this song and dance before from standards and testing ideologues and they’ve never come back with a refutation/rebuttal. As I offered jlsteach and others before, I offer to help you understand Wilson’s work. Just email me at dswacker@centurytel.net . I’ve got the time.
But until you give us a solid legitimate rebuttal/refutation, well, your point is mute. That’s nothing new, no one else has refuted or rebutted his work that I know of.
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jlsteach,
“Duane seems to use cut and paste of this posting every time the mention of standards or testing is provided.”
Quite correct!
The question becomes “Why the hell would he do such a thing?”
So allow me to answer:
I’m taking a cue from advertisers who know that repetition can have a desired effect. Or if you want to put it in academic terms, repetition, going back over can be a major factor in long term retention.
Added to that is that there are, or at least I assume that there are many new readers here everyday and I want them to get a chance to understand the most cogent criticism of educational standards and standardized testing that I know of.
Yes, I do use the post repetitively because there are many posts on these topics.
I know that you, jlsteach, meant your comment as a dig/cut at me. No problem I have thick skin. You’re implying that I don’t have enough intellectual capability to argue forcibly by/for myself. I’ll gladly challenge you on that one. Bring it on, because I’ll make intellectual mincemeat pie out of your ramblings.
Yeah, jlsteach, you managed to push my button with that comment. I almost never raised my voice or yelled at a student in my classroom (except the two times I broke up fights in other teacher’s rooms). And administration knew that if I sent a student to the office (less than one a year on average over 21 years), that the student really crossed a line, “pushed my button” so to speak. You, jlsteach “pushed my button” this time.
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Ooooppss, sorry for the double posting on that post! Not sure what happened.
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An Ode to Special Education July 25, 2016
I’m not sure this writing will be melodic, perhaps, more nostalgic, as my career in education has spanned the tenure of P.L. 94-142 or IDEA or IDEIA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act), as amended in 2004. I want to use my voice to sing the praises of special education, and I am heartened by other voices, more credible than mine, who are part of the chorus.
Back in 2010, one of my favorite researchers, Douglas Fuchs and his colleagues, helped to summarize the changes in special education, looking “back to the future” which sees special education teachers as problem solvers who provide intensive instruction for students who do not learn in the lock-step manner of general education. More recently, our neighbors down the road, Sharon Vaughn and Elizabeth Swanson (UT Austin, 2015) present further praise for special education in their article, “Special Education Research Advances Knowledge in Education.” They state that “special education research has contributed significantly to knowledge and practice not just related to individuals with disabilities but for all learners.” The synthesis of research suggests that the complex knowledge and skills needed for mastering reading and math “take extensive time within a systematic and explicit instructional approach.” While typically developing students appear to learn independently, these researchers state that “special education students cannot.” These students “…most require precision in their instruction….”
A recent survey whose results were printed in the Austin American-Statesman (7/21/16) shows discontent with Texas’ high-stakes testing. One of the highest areas of agreement (94%) was for wanting “better ways to test students with special needs.” A breath of fresh air on this issue comes from Senator Tim Kaine who reminds us that “it’s about the individual!” He stated in an opinion piece in the Richmond-Times Dispatch “…that the most important reform has been under our noses since 1975, when legislation was passed to guarantee children with diagnosed disabilities receive individualized learning plans tailored to meet their specific needs.”
The current pressure in many districts now appears to devalue or diminish special education services, focusing on co-teaching and inclusion. While these arrangements are certainly useful for many students, our IDEIA remains the law, which guarantees that students will be educated in the “least restrictive” environment. In fact, the ARD team or multidisciplinary team is charged with considering “LRE Service Alternatives” and documenting this evaluation in the student’s individual education plan. Special education services are to be individually determined and agreed upon by this team which includes the student’s parents/guardians.
Another argument used to diminish special education is that students do not have access to the “general education curriculum” if they are participating in special education. This argument sounds very similar to the call across our country by education “reformers” who want “higher expectations” and more “rigor” in what is taught. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has been a mantra for last several years, i.e. using technology or other mechanisms to help students learn general education curriculum. Special education, in all of its manifestations, uses whatever is necessary to help students learn. But the emphasis is on the individuality of each learner. UDL, access to rigorous curriculum, co-teaching, inclusion are viable if these approaches help the individual.
A “business model” has high-jacked education. Expensive audits are the norm to find ways to improve education. Expensive “experts” and coaches are another layer of administration that takes away from face to face instruction by competent teachers who build necessary relationships with students. Many districts have established “professional learning communities” and vertical team alignment at the school level to improve instruction. Principals and assistant principals are the designated educational leaders on campuses. A refrain for my ode could be “trust teachers.” Teachers are people who care about students and want to do a successful job. With the help of school level administrators, teachers should be empowered to provide excellent instruction. Special education teachers should be looked on as the competent problem-solvers they have been trained to be.
Special education does not use an “assembly line” or lock-step approach, nor should special educators be forced to push students into “regular” settings if there is no “systematic and explicit instruction” tailored to their needs available. General education has learned from special education research and is incorporating it into the general education classroom. The thought of administrators is that general educators should be able to meet the needs of all students. With the class size constraints, the demands of new programs, and the diversity of learners, general educators are being charged with overwhelming responsibilities. Special educators have a vital role to play in supporting special education students and their general education teachers to provide the best instruction possible. As Senator Kaine suggests, “Let’s use the insight gained through advances in educating kids with disabilities to leverage new technologies and teaching methods that can individualize learning for each child. “ And let’s keep singing the refrain: “trust teachers.”
Jayne D. Baker, Ph. D.
Public School Special Education teacher
San Marcos, TX
bakerj@grandecom.net
512-878-4234
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Great post, Jayne. I’m a 22 year teacher of special ed in New York City. You nailed it, here. Thanks.
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we keep letting others frame the issues, e.g. Why are short people underrepresented in the NBA? and then we go off half-cocked look for solutions. Usually these are solutions looking for problems but that is another story. Part of the problem is we are tremendously poorly organized. A nation of our wealth should have a number of education watchdog groups pounding away at the basic issues (poverty, racism, political highjinks) reinforcing those issues with evidence every time they come up. we are letting others steer our education agenda and it is eroding our democracy.
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And yet Duane it seems no one but you use Wilson as a source…so many academics and none of them use it…wonder why?
Also, just wondering…he/you discuss a lot of reasons why data is invalid…so what data would be valid?
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Yes, jlsteach, I do wonder why. My guess is that they do not know about it. Or if they do know about it, such a damning critique has to be ignored and confined to the dustbin of history if you are in the standards and testing camp.
Do you have an answer for your own question, if so, please let us know. Really, I mean that. Why do you think Wilson’s work has been either ignored or is not well known?
What data would be valid: Number of students, student/teacher ratio (although there are problems with the definition of who/what counts as a “teacher”), budget numbers, figures on extra-curriculur participation, number of write ups/referrals (similar problems with those as to the definition of teacher), number of school days, number of periods in the school day, need I go on?
There is plenty of valid data available but standardized testing scores cannot be counted due to the invalidity issues as proven by, you guessed it, Noel Wilson.
Read Wilson and get back to me, eh! If you can’t do that then you are arguing from a very weak position in attempting to discredit me and by extension Wilson. In other words you have very little to offer in the educational standards and standardized testing debates other than personal jabs at “the poor schmuck retired Spanish teacher”.
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Last comment here for a while…
As for why Wilson’s work is not accepted – in part because the writing is so convoluted that is is very hard to follow (yes. Duane I’ve tried reading it)…Taking a line from Sen. Kaine last night, Mr. Trump constantly repeats that folks should Believe him…do you think his repeating that all the time makes it true or makes it worth listening to?
Oh, as for your “valid data” – some of it can easily be manipulated…Number of referrals (or take it further – number of suspensions)…how many of either of those go unreported JUST to make it seem like programs are working – does that make the data valid?
Look as I have mentioned before – too me Wilson’s work lives in a theoretical bubble – the Barenaked Ladies (rock band from the 90s) once had a song “If I had a million dollars…” and listed all the things they could do – building a tree house with a fridge was one option…My point is what’s the purpose of being so theoretical that one doesn’t address the issues of reality…Yes, I think everyone here (including me) is not a fan of standardized tests. Even those that are advocates of assessment (such as Sec. of Ed Duncan) realized that there is too much testing…however, there is also common agreement that students and teachers need to be assessed. You mentioned in a previous blog about how your ideal assessment would be partnering with parents and having discussions around work. Both of these are noble and ideal…however, I noted some potential road blocks (time, money, parents that cannot make it into work) as barriers to this ideal…
hope you enjoy the rest of your summer.
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“too me Wilson’s work lives in a theoretical bubble” And that’s just it. It’s not theoretical. Wilson was in the belly of the testing beast for years Down Under and his concerns are very real, not theoretical at all. Is his method of looking at things a bit different than what you are used to, perhaps.
Again I make the offer to help you understand Wilson’s work. We can go chapter by chapter and hash it out for you. Let me know if you so wish at dswacker@centurytel.net.
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I think “data” is overrated. I prefer authentic assessment and teacher observations.
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But don’t both of those provide data?
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Yes.
I’m contrasting them to the proverbial “BIG Data” which is fed through the testing industry pipeline.
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Ze’ev Wurman is a tease. Not a fantasy tease. More like a teasey sneeze that won’t quite finish the job.
Mr. Wurman acknowledges the wisdom of Diane Ravitch’s recent New York Times op-ed, but … like that elusive sneeze … he can’t quite enjoy the full “achoo”.
It’s good, of course, for him to reveal some maturity in regard to this school-wrecking reform. Some influential folks have finally looked under the hood of Common Core … and they are almost as confounded as the rest of us. Almost.
The writer nods that Common Core was a “rush job” … authored by bad authors … and sold as a “panacea” that would shrink the gaps between the races … and between the haves and have-nots. But then the writer can’t quite leave the indictment alone. Nope.
He caveats his approval of Ravitch’s position by insisting that “her unqualified attribution of ‘poverty and racial segregation’ as ‘the main causes’ of poor student achievement caught me short.” What?
What is it about even the most progressive school inspectors in America that they can assign poverty to this and that issue with stellar consistency … but not when it comes to education?
How is that the impact of poverty can affect so much of our society … but loses its vigor as it approaches the schoolhouse door? How is that possible? How is that logical?
It’s not possible … nor logical … and here’s why.
Schools alone cannot cure all of the symptoms of poverty.
Ze’ev Wurman goes on to virtue high-performing, inner-city charters in high-poverty circumstances. And from this he rationalizes his disagreement with Ravitch. But one essential factor is never mentioned in his broad-brush blurt: parents. These high-performing, low-income kids come from home situations where parents … very poor parents … wrestled for these school slots because they knew the importance of the moment in their child’s life.
Those parents are among the too, too few who rise above their own grinding poverty. In all the vignettes of inner-city success … be it from Dr. Ben Carson to some other notables … the common success-factor was parents … and their very unusual devotion to changing the curve of the future for their kids. That gets no mention at all. None.
Ze’ev Wurman is wont to acknowledge that those wonderful success stories are rarities. Life is too raw for millions of other inner-city families who just don’t have that great leap in their repertoire.It’s crowded out by the powerful forces of poverty.
But he thinks these successes are easily replicated with the right sort of teachers, prepared the right sort of way, so these kids respond with the right sort of attitude … so the right sort of results will bring them straight out of poverty into a new and tinseled life.
BIG psssst! here …
Students can’t just swerve around their poverty … even with a cast of Mr. Chips whispering in their ears. Poverty is not some easily visualized mound that’s simple to climb. It’s an extra-vertical palisade … as dizzying to imagine as it is to conquer. Hard realities are not so easily vanquished.
Soapy logic like that doesn’t help nine year-olds thick in the middle of an alcoholic circumstance … or a single-parent kid who frets hunger … all the time. Is it really necessary to litany all of the other real scenarios?
Super-prepared teachers … with satchels of pixie dust … would still face defying odds because they are in the lives of these children for only a slice of their days. Miracle-making is not a part-time gig.
Too many young learners will continue to live in despair because too many overly-righteous … and otherwise very good … people still see academic failure as something unrelated to something they cannot themselves relate to … and that is the ominous and perpetual cloud of poverty that smogs the lives of too many kids in this land of great, great plenty.
Perhaps this remark by J.K. Rowling will “Potterize” Mr. Wurman as he muses his next look under the hood of this school reform.
“Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts … that is something on which to pride yourself … but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.“
Don’t be foolish.
Denis Ian
h/t Teri Sasseville
http://thepulse2016.com/zeev-wurman/2016/08/09/the-new-york-times-gets-it-mostly-right-on-common-core-mostly/
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Ze’ev is one of those conservatives who loves charters and hates the Common Core. I, on the other hand, reject Common Core as a solution to anything (I don’t hate it, I just don’t see it as a panacea), and also reject privatization.
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