For many years, Karin Klein wrote editorials about education for the Los Angeles Times. She took a buyout and now writes freelance on education and other topics. With occasional diversions, the L.A. Times faithfully followed Eli Broad’s lead on education. The billionaire is living proof that being very rich qualifies you as an expert on most everything. He spends lavishly on art and medical research and has anointed himself an education expert. His foundation gives the L.A. Times $800,000 for its education coverage, which may be his way of guaranteeing he will never be exposed as a know-nothing in his hometown paper.
Now that Klein is free, she writes that miracle schools are mirages. Her case in point: Ballou High School in D.C., which claimed that all its graduates were accepted into colleges.
“It shouldn’t surprise anyone to read about another supposedly phenomenal school accomplishment that ended up being more mirage than miracle.
“The latest example comes from Washington, D.C., where in June, it was widely reported that Ballou High School, where few students tested as proficient in math or English, had nonetheless, incredibly sent all its seniors to college.
“Incredible, indeed. When NPR and the local public radio station WAMU joined forces to re-examine the Ballou miracle, they found that half of the graduates had missed at least three months of classes in a single school year. A fifth of them had been absent for more than half the school year. Teachers complained that they had been instructed to give students a grade of 50 percent on assignments they hadn’t even handed in, and that they were pressured to pass students whose work didn’t remotely merit it.
“Students complained that they were utterly unprepared for the colleges that everyone had been so proud of them for entering. And credit recovery courses – which have been criticized as too easy – played a big role in their graduations. The NCAA rejects most of these courses for college athletes; why shouldn’t colleges have the same requirements for other students?
“More than anything else, though, the Ballou High case teaches us once again that when we place intense pressure on schools to meet certain numbers, they’ll find a way to do it – one that might not involve providing a superior education. Carrots and sticks alone don’t improve schools, certainly not in the absence of funding to reduce class sizes (and teacher workloads), or to help low-income students overcome obstacles.”
Will the L.A. Times editorial board acknowledge that intense pressure to raise test scores and graduation rates corrupts not only the measure but the process being measured?
Will someone tell Eli Broad or has he surrounded himself by yes-persons?
This is Campbell’s Law, which is inexorable.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article190028449.html#storylink=cpy
While I’m glad to see Klein finally pen something honest, but I’m not convinced she’s crossed over to the side of good just yet.
We can hope
“When NPR and the local public radio station WAMU joined forces to re-examine the Ballou miracle, they found that half of the graduates had missed at least three months of classes in a single school year. A fifth of them had been absent for more than half the school year. Teachers complained that they had been instructed to give students a grade of 50 percent on assignments they hadn’t even handed in, and that they were pressured to pass students whose work didn’t remotely merit it.”
Anyone besides me willing to give NPR credit for this story?
When NPR publishes a piece that favors the fraudsters reform movement for public education, there is no shortage of outrage and criticisms.
Someone, please explain the lack of praise when NPR published a piece with the truth about the reform fraudsters and liars.
“BBC and The Economist top the list of outlets that are trusted by every ideological group, while BuzzFeed and The Rush Limbaugh Show are at the bottom.”
They might not bat a perfect score but NPR and PBS are among the five most trusted news sources on that list. Fox news is below the halfway mark and Sean Hannity, one of Trump’s favorite (unintelligent, lying) news sources, is almost at the bottom.
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-and-least-trusted-news-outlets-in-america-2017-3
“Anyone besides me willing to give NPR credit for this story?”
I suppose, but only if they get the blame for the shoddy story that promoted this “miracle school” in the first place.
I think Lloyd addressed your point with: “When NPR publishes a piece that favors the fraudsters reform movement for public education, there is no shortage of outrage and criticisms.”
I was introduced to Diane Ravitch by the TEA newsletter and NPR. Like other listeners, I have been disturbed by trends in NPR broadcasts after the Gingrich defunding efforts several years ago. I have wondered if they can be unbiased about educational issues when their money comes from the Walton Foundation and Bill Gates. But where else can I turn for news? Internet sources have their drawbacks as well. TV is for people who have time. I could listen to Christian Radio, but I would never hear of the problems experienced by the least in society, a rather damning look at that medium.
So I listen as much as I can. I read where I can. If I agree with somebody, or partially agree with somebody, I try to consider their evidence. Same thing if I disagree. What else can we do?
Intelligence is not found in eschewing news sources, but in being so well informed that we know what to ignore?
What about the BBC?
Lloyd,
I agree with you. Like the NYT, NPR comes out with something once in a while that tells the truth and balances things out. NPR is to be praised for such a report.
But if you listen to their sponsorship and reporting, so much of it revolves around the “critical importance” of technology, and that’s because they get huge subsidies from Bill Gates and Silicon valley. They have a HUGE corporate sponsorships that dwarfs that of their listenership.
NPR has been basically a paid shill that favors charter schools and hates public schools, their teachers, and their unions. NPR has proven to be the biggest neoliberal crock of &#Q(@^ on public radio, much like PBS. You cannot compare the amount of air time that is pro-charter and privatization to pro-public schools and unions. And they deliberately leave out appropriate labels and terms to hide the privatization movement and play it down even through it’s going ahead in some areas full force and growing.
But in this day and age, one should take the good with the bad and use it to their advantage. Anyone not acknowledging the repo you mentioned would be foolish and crazy. More power to NPR if they can produce reports like that. The NYT has loosed up a bit about public education, but NPR has far to catch up.
What about the BBC?
The LA Times editorial board is filled with right wing operatives and is therefore extremist-level obsessed with test scores. Maniacally obsessed. Tunnel vision obsessed. Completely ignoring any and all facts that come to light obsessed. They joined the testing mafia a long time ago, and they don’t want out; they want to get pulled back in. They’re getting whiny about it too, since the California Department of Education seems able to ignore astroturf groups and the LA Times trying to subvert democracy and progressive values. They ignore facts. They do not care about truths. They DO NOT CARE about the quality of public education any more than Eli Broad cares about art. As with the artwork in Eli’s museum, they just want to monetize it while relieving their own tax burdens. Repeat: They just want to monetize it. And whatever and whoever can’t be monetized they want left to wither.
I should add that they are extremist level obsessed with any data that support privatization, no matter how invalid, and not just test scores, any numbers that can be posted to a “Great Schools” app.
Data, manipulated on not, have been a vehicle of state takeovers and privatization. Data have also been used to feed the “failing” public schools narrative for years. Now that we have abundant data on failing charters as well as waste and fraud in charter schools, the so-called reformers are a lot less interested in a media blast of this information.