Ten years ago, I wrote a book called EdSpeak, which ASCD published. It is sorely in need of updating. Nancy Bailey has the same fascination with words that I do. I hope she will help me revise EdSpeak as my co-author.
Read this and laugh out loud.
One thing I have noticed in the Brave New World of “reform.” Everything is opposite. Reform means disruption. Reform means privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reform means revanchism, profiteering and giving free rein to the Overclass’ will to power.
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Whoops: it also means manipulating and abusing language in service of the above.
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“choice” means parents actually have “no choice” or no power of which “choices” they get to “choose”, as that’s all forced on them without any of their input.
or
“choice” means privately managed charters have the choice of which students they will educate, and the choice of which kids they can to turn away, or later on, the choice of which kids they can kick out without any negative consequence.
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My favorite blood pressure raising word is “research-based”. Another word, which is not on Nancy’s list, is grit, the meaning of which is still mysterious to me.
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Grit: a grain that tastes great when served with fried eggs or shrimp or almost anything else; alternate, sand or some other hard mineral substance that gets stuck in your teeth.
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Let’s not forget the verb form: to clench the teeth, especially when faced with an unpleasant or painful duty.
Lotsa that going around when dealing with the disingenuousness, dissembling and straight-out lies of so-called education reformers…
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…when “research-based” actually means “data-manipulated”…
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When Joel Klein was busy trying destroy the NYC public schools on behalf of Michael Bloomberg and other so-called reformers, he and his arrogant/ignorant apparatchiks, would invariably respond to questions or critiques by saying, “Research shows…”
Translated into regular English, it meant, “Shut up and do as we say.”
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kind of like the arrogant avoidance of fact-checking now in play inside politics
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Two of my “favorites” that haven’t made the list yet:
1), “studies show”—typically rheephormsters can’t argue the facts and data in a logical and ethical manner themselves, so they hand off responsibility for the veracity of their sales points to “experts.” [Note ciedie aech above re “data-manipulated.”]
2), “rising tide that lifts all [public school] boats”—used to justify any and all efforts to promote charters and privatization whatever the cost to public schools. Translation from Rheephormish into standard English: “tsunami that swamps the vast majority of [public school] boats.”
Thanks to all for their comments.
😎
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Yes, well, KTA, we already had the Ronald Reagan “supply side economics” and the “rising tide that lifts all boats” (or was supposed to). And that didn’t work out too well economically for the majority of Americans, either.
Neither will this “rising tide” help the public schools.
It will help, however, the companies that administer and run and make money from the charter schools.
It’s always about “the Benjamins,” it’s never about what is best for the kids.
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‘My favorite blood pressure raising word is “research-based”.’
And of course the all time favorite “teach with fidelity” which I think means teach how we damn well tell you to teach it because it is “research based.”
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How badly in need of an update? I use EdSpeak heavily in my unit and lesson planning documents….
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I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I did laugh, it was hysterical, as were the comments there.
But we sometimes laugh to keep from crying, I think. We need to laugh once in awhile.
Thanks for posting this, Diane, and a big bunch of kudos to Nancy Bailey.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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I was just reading UPDATING AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION: KEEPING THE FOUNDATION – WHILE PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE Source: Partnership for the Future of Learning.
The Partnership for the Future of Learning includes over a half dozen foundations and an umbrella organization called the National Public Education Support Fund.
The Partnership for the Future of Learning identifies the paper as “evolving” and intended to create “a new, richer, and deeper education reform frame to support the transformation of US education systems that is necessary to realize college, career, and citizenship readiness for all students.”
Downloaded Oct 4, 2016 2016 https://d3ciwvs59ifrt8.cloudfront.net/f41b5a61-3f18-4177-a7b1-
The paper is filled with words and imagery that conjures old-school progressive thinking, even Deweyesque, about the importance of public education for the common good, citizenship, and so on.
But this whole paper is a set-up for so-called “deeper learning” a major initiative of the Hewlett Foundation among others. The current ( and anonymous) Partnership for the Future of Learning once met as a “new models for learning group.” I have searched in vain for the identities of the foundations responsible for this document.
The anonymous wordsmiths in charge of writing this “whiter paper” are intent on putting aside references to “reform.” Because reference citations are minimal, the target seems to equate reform with “top-down” accountability of the kind imposed on schools since NCLB. Misguided reform comes from government overreach. That seems to be the message.
In any case, the writer(s) have made generous use of the following terms fas they forward their notion of proper system-wide reform of public education:
“remodel,”
“renovate,”
“refresh”
“robust” and
“update”
A favorite adjective is “vibrant”
The whole pitch is filled with stereotypes about “traditional” and “reformist” public education in the US. It is a case of blaming schools for being indifferent to quality and to equity in opportunity. The answer, the panacea, is “deeper learning,”
I surmise that this pseudo-philosophical tome is intended to soften the organized and well-supported campaign to shift the meaning of choice in education from the crass “consumer choice” frame to choice as a virtue and necessity for a “vibrant” democracy. I found not much more than lip-service to the larger social and economic conditions, including budget cuts and cuts in social-service programs, that workers in public education are trying to address even as they are held being accountable for the well being, not just for their students, but also the economy and democracy. The document is a good case study for fans of George Lakoff and the double-speak of political speech in our era.
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Ironically, there is another pice about how words matter in Mediaite
View at Medium.com
Semantics — What does data science reveal about Clinton and Trump ? sample:
Data science has many fields of applications. From image processing to AI, its use is ubiquitous. One of its applications, semantic analysis, is very helpful in social media monitoring.
Here, we did not focus on tweets or Facebook comments, but on politics.
On the 21st of July, Donald Trump accepted the Republican Nomination for President of the US on the last day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, Ohio. One week later, on the 28th, Hillary Clinton was accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in Philadelphia.
Supported by their family and hundreds of thousands of fans, they wrote a new page of the history of the United States delivering their acceptance speech. We’ve analysed their words to better understand the hidden components of their political communication. This study focuses on three main features : vocabulary, style and rhythm.
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and in the UFT Newspaper The teacher: “Trump; Inhis own Words!
http://www.uft.org/news-stories/trump-his-own-words
Donald Trump makes a very big point. Where does Donald Trump stand on education and labor? While it’s difficult to nail down the Republican candidate for president on actual policy, he has been explicit in championing free-market competition for public education and in expressing his antipathy for teacher unions.
HERE IS A COLLECTION OF TRUMP’S STATEMENTS; from press conferences, interviews and books published under his name on topics of interest to UFT members.
On teachers’ unions:
“What stands in the way of the reform we all know is needed? It’s the balance of power: Teachers’ unions with too much power; parents with too little — less and less power, the lower down the economic income ladder you go.” (from Trump’s book “The America We Deserve,” 2000, co-written with Dave Shiflett)
“The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers might think they’re different from other unions — they may even call themselves professional associations to show they’re a cut above. But just because you’ve got chalk dust on your sleeve instead of drywall dust on your dungarees doesn’t change things. Unions are unions. That’s something I know all about. They help workers in the construction trades but not in education. All in all, it’s probably more refreshing to deal with the Teamsters than the AFT or NEA. At least the leaders of the Teamsters don’t blow smoke about professional this and academic that.” (“The America We Deserve”)
On school choice:
“I am proposing a plan to provide school choice to every disadvantaged student in America. … My plan will use $20 billion of existing federal dollars to establish a block grant for the 11 million school-age kids living in poverty. … We will give states the option to allow these funds to follow the student to the public or private school they attend. Distribution of this grant will favor states that have private-school choice and charter laws, encouraging them to participate. … I will use the pulpit of the presidency to campaign for this in all 50 states, and I will call upon the American people to elect officials at the city, state and federal level who support school choice.” (Campaign speech, Sept. 8, 2016, Cleveland, Ohio)
“We’ve got to bring on the competition — open the schoolhouse doors and let parents choose the best school for their children. Education reformers call this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competition — the American way.” (“The America We Deserve”)
On merit pay and teacher tenure:
“I will also support merit pay for teachers, so that we reward great teachers — instead of the failed tenure system that rewards bad teachers and punishes good ones.” (Campaign speech, Sept. 8, 2016, Cleveland, Ohio)
On gun-free school zones:
“I will get rid of gun-free zones in schools — you have to — and on military bases. My first day, it gets signed, OK? …You know what a gun-free zone is for a sicko? That’s bait.” (Campaign speech, Jan. 7, 2016, Burlington, Vermont)
On the federal Department of Education:
Trump has called for the elimination of the federal Department of Education — Republican presidential candidates going back to Ronald Reagan have made the same campaign pledge.
“We want to bring education local so we’re going to be cutting the Department of Education big league because we’re running our education from Washington, D.C., which is ridiculous, instead of running it out of Miami or running it out of the different places that we have so many people.” (Interview with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Florida, Aug. 11, 2016)
On the Common Core Learning Standards:
Trump said he would eliminate the Common Core Learning Standards, a power not granted to the president, since the standards have been separately adopted by each of the 42 states that use them.
“I believe Common Core is a very bad thing. I believe that we should be — you know, educating our children from Iowa, from New Hampshire, from South Carolina, from California, from New York. I think that it should be local education.” (Fox News Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015)
On right-to-work laws that undermine unions:
“I like it better because it is lower. It is better for the people. You are not paying the big fees to the unions. The unions get big fees. A lot of people don’t realize they have to pay a lot of fees. I am talking about the workers. They have to pay big fees to the union. I like it because it gives great flexibility to the people. It gives great flexibility to the companies.” (South Carolina Radio Network, Feb. 17, 2016)
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She missed my most cringe-inducing piece of jargonese:
“unpacking” the standards
And they can’t be ‘unpacked” without lots of additional jargon. A carousel of pure BS.
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good one.
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And then there’s various words with the base word “transform”
“transformational” or “transformational change” or “transformative”
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I just found a gold mine of corporate ed. reform jargon —TFA specific, that is. (I downloaded and captured this for posterity. Once a spotlight is put on it, Wendy’s might have it scrubbed from the Internet.)
It’s from a video of jargon produced by TFA folks themselves — attempting to poke fun at themselves, but actually and inadvertantly revealing their idiocy:
I started transcribing some examples from the video, but got sick of it. It comes off like dialogue that aliens use in a cheap 1950’s Sci-Fi movie.
Here’s what I transcribed so far:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
VARIOUS SOUNDBITES from TFA TEACHERS … errr… TFA CORP MEMBERS, and various TFA bureaucrats:
“I’m excited to jump into this conversation with you, but I think we need to set some norms first.”
“We need to push back on that.”
“Hey did you finish the pre-work?”
“I’m gonna go ahead and bucket these out.”
“This is something that I’m truly grappling with.”
“Hey, can I get the A-MEX for that?”
“I have a clarifying question.”
“He’s more like ‘wavering’ than like ‘likely accept.’ ”
“I’m gonna ‘yammer’ this out.”
“But at the end of the day, what’s going to be ‘transformational’ for kids?”
“So what I hear you saying is … ”
“This is my third marathon for this year.”
“Set this action plan, and align the vision with the goals.”
” … is really transformational, and truly path-changing.”
“So who’s owning this?”
“We have to put our stake in the ground.”
“We really need to do a deep dive, so we can capture that low-hanging fruit.”
“Well, I was thinking about being like a ‘CMA’ or a ‘CS’, but I was talking to the people at the ‘IMT’, and I think I decided that just being a ‘MTLD’ is just gonna be better this summer for my ‘PPA.’ ”
“This is truly path-changing.”
“I really need a thought partner with this.”
“So how does that resonate with you?”
“I think I need to push back a little bit on what you’re saying.”
“So is he going to reach out to me, or should I reach out to him?”
“Before we execute, I need to make sure you’re on board with this.”
“Can you watch my up-speak?”
“We’re gonna loop you in on something.”
“So we’re meeting in a little bit with the DTO, the ELT, the MTLD’s, . We’re gonna talk about BRIO and PPA, but then in the end, we just want to just loop it all back to TFA.”
“… truly fundamentally transformational … truly fundamentally fundamental.”
“We’re going to honey-badger the achievement gap.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
For a comparison, here’s a snippet form Ed Wood’s 1950’s classic PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
( 22:30 – )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYsUHRgKkkg
( 22:30 – )
ALIEN LEADER: “Do you have your report?”
MALE ALIEN: “We had to pull in here to Space Station Seven for regeneration. We’re returning to the Planet Earth immediately thereafter.”
ALIEN LEADER: “What progress has been made?”
MALE ALIEN: “We contacted government officials. They refused our existence.”
ALIEN LEADER: “What plan will you follow now?”
MALE ALIEN: “Plan Nine. It’s been absolutely impossible to work through these Earth creatures. Their soul is … too controlled.”
ALIEN LEADER: “Plan Nine. Ah yes. Plan Nine deals with the resurrection of the dead. Long distance electrodes shot into the pinneal and pituitary glands of the recent dead. Have you attempted to meet this plan as yet?”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
You know, Ed Wood’s aliens actually sound more normal that Wendy Kopp’s aliens… er I mean … Corps Members.
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Thanks, Jack.
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Yes, indeed!
NCLB, RTT, and ESSA are all oxymorons!
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If I hear one more time that some crappy standardized test is going to “inform my instruction,” I’m going to throw something.
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