Parents in Cheshire, Connecticut, took the lead in ousting the Summit Online Learning Platform developed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as part of CZI’s plan to remake American education.
The Summit Program was developed by Summit “Public Schools,” which in fact is a privately managed charter chain that pretends to be public. It describes its approach as “personalized learning,” which is a euphemism for machine learning that moves at a different pace for each student, depending on algorithms. The parents preferred human teachers to machines.
“The fast-growing online platform was built with help from Facebook engineers and designed to help students learn at their own speed. But it’s been dropped because parents in this Connecticut suburb revolted, saying there was no need to change what’s worked in a town with a prized reputation for good schools.
“The Summit Learning program, developed by a California charter school network, has signed up over 300 schools to use its blend of technology with go-at-your-own-pace personalized learning.
“Cheshire school administrators and some parents praised the program, but it faced criticism from others who said their children were spending too much time online, some content was inappropriate, and students were not getting enough direct guidance….”
“The reversal was vindication for parents who started a petition drive against the program and blasted it at public meetings.
“What was broken in the Cheshire school system, a highly successful system, that they needed to experiment with our children?” parent Heidi Wildstein said in an interview.”
The superintendent believes that the parent Revolt was caused by misinformation circulated on social media.
“”Some people were more comfortable with a model where a teacher stands in front of a class and lectures for 40 minutes. We haven’t been comfortable with that model for a long time,” he said in an interview. “That’s an old factory model that doesn’t fit in to contemporary learning.””
The people of this Connecticut town need to fire their superintendent post-haste. What a condescending [something Diane wouldn’t like me to say]. As if, without Summit, teachers in this school would still be standing in front of the class lecturing for 40 minutes at a time because, y’know, I’m sure Connecticut schools haven’t advanced a whit in the past 100 years. I bet the desks are still bolted to the floors in rows too, right?
This kind of ignorance is bad enough from pundits, but from a superintendent??? Sheesh.
Just another good example of adminimal behavior. This line caught my eye “The superintendent believes that the parent Revolt was caused by misinformation circulated on social media.” This guy must be trying for an early admission to the Adminimal Hall of Fame, eh!
I was taught that lecture was a bad format for teaching. I learned this from a lecture. Irony.
I had the same reaction about the statements from the superintendent.
I think the reporter is also clueless, jabbering without understanding.
This is a nonsense statement:
“The organization (Summit Learning) is a proponent of personalized learning, a concept centered on the interests and needs of each individual child as opposed to universal standards.”
That ridiculous line caught my attention, too. As if a human can’t individualize or tap into child interests- only a computerized algorithm has that capacity. This is magical thinking.
Do these reporters just copy & paste from tech marketing materials? Or, are they so dazzled by Silicon Valley wizards that they believe the BS?
The underlying pedagogy that fosters creativity & analytical thinking remains a uniquely human endeavor. But don’t expect to read that bit of reality in articles about “personalized learning”.
My reaction exactly, Dienne. I even copied the same quote you did.
Agree, agree, agree.
I haven’t seen a teacher stand & lecture for 40 mins in K12 since the head of history, a colleague in a priv acad where I taught in early ’70’s– & he was then considered an old-school anachronism. I sat in on various pubsch midsch classes my boys attended in early 2000’s – not a one did this. I’m just going to take a long shot & guess it’s equally rare in the excellent schools of Cheshire, CN. Wonder how this supt’s district teachers felt reading his words. Probably cynical, understanding his aim was to replace teachers w/ paras monitoring “personalized learning” to cut costs. Kudos to parents for demanding more for their tax money.
“Summit flew the Cheshire administrative team to Oakland, California, for training and provided the district with 130 Chromebook computers. In the district of some 4,000 students, the program was introduced at the start of this year for about 540 students in fifth, sixth and seventh grades.”
All out of the sheer goodness of their hearts, of course. Those big-hearted business guys! So different than those self-interested teachers and their greedy unions (who, I’m sure, are behind the the misinformation that those misguided parents are swallowing)!
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
“Personalized learning,” is a euphemism for machine learning that moves at a different pace for each student, depending on algorithms. But most parents prefer human teachers to machines. And who is making a profit from This so-called (fake) personalized learning that few if any countries use in their public education systems?
Dienne, I am a parent from Cheshire, my child was affected by this, and I love your comments.
And thanks for your work in helping get rid of that educational malpractice, Theresa.
My fear is it’s not gone for good.
Theresa, FYI, in Silicon Valley, a rather costly place to live, upper management folks in many of the tech firms there send their kids to Waldorf schools that do not use or allow the presence of any types of screens at school.
I read the same thing
“Theresa Commune said her 11-year-old son just wanted more attention from teachers than he was getting.”
Theresa, I am a teacher from California, my future ability to resist automation was affected by this, and I love YOUR comments.
Theresa, thank-you for your astute skepticism of these unproven, pseudo scientific’ innovations’. One thing that struck me in this article was the superintendent’s dismissive tone of parental concerns. The implicit assumption seemed to be that change is hard for you Luddites.
We know what high quality education looks like and those evidence- based education models are not coming from Silicon Valley.
This is good news. Finally, parents and/or taxpayers understand that most privatization schemes are mostly hype and spin operated by corporations, not educators. More communities should stand up for their young people to resist the endless commodification of education that uses young people as guinea pigs for educational programming for which there is no basis in fact.
I liked this:
“Then, over the weekend, parents began pointing out a part of the seventh-grade curriculum that the district deemed inappropriate: a web page on ancient Rome that made reference to sex with animals. (When asked about that material, a Summit spokeswoman said it is constantly working to improve the platform and content.)”
Apparently parents would like their schools to be slightly more responsive to their valid concerns about the curriculum than their average cable provider is about crappy internet service. Sheesh.
Allow me to translate that bogus “misinformation on social media” nonsense. In a high performing school community with internet savvy, highly educated and involved parents, the usual machine learning propaganda was rapidly identified and dismissed for the garbage that it is by a community that could easily determine the difference between fact and fiction. One has to wonder how these reformers thought they could fool a bunch of lawyers, among others in the community who regularly operate in adversarial work environments.
If Chan-Zuckerberg are involved, well … think: guaranteeing their income flow so they can sue the people of Kauai again and again, because they don’t like the laws in Hawai’i meant to preserve the land, which sustains us.
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono, “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.”
Guess the don’t understand and NEVER will “get it” until they and others like them destroy everything good.
Chan and Zuckerberg may live on Kauai, but they will NEVER understand the culture and the people. They are greedy takers and care only about their $$$$$. SAD. I feel sorry for their offsprings.
Gates is building a MODEL CITY in AZ. https://dianeravitch.net/2017/11/16/bill-gates-is-building-a-model-city-in-arizona/
I suggest Chan and Zuckerberg go live there with GATES and others like them. And then BUILD A WALL to keep them all inside. LOL! This thought makes me smile.
Wonder why district ‘adminimals’ [thanks Duane] fall for ‘personalized learning’ despite oodles of evidence showing online-learning ‘academies’ get bottom-of-barrel results? Don’t they see the resemblance between the two concepts? Why would such a thing work any better in a classroom w/teachers [replaceable by paras] ‘monitoring’? Or are we to conclude that they, like Betsy DeVos, are simply presiding over a system they plan to destry?
I appreciated all the supportive comments on here. This is more than just one town’s fight. I am a parent in the town of Cheshire, CT, working with Theresa and a whole group of residents to, if not keep Summit out of the schools, make sure families are given the option to opt out. There is so much wrong with this program that we have ppl researching many different aspects of it and I can tell you, it really does take a village to come together to be heard and work this hard.
I have lost a great amount of respect for our Superintendent as a result of statements he’s made regarding the inappropriate content that surfaced, being the result of the parent’s history on the computer. He said it her to multiple times, once at recorded town meeting. The parent clarified it was discovered on a school-issued computer. I keep asking myself how did this program even make it this far? He sent an email on a Friday saying the entire platform had now been properly vetted and there was nothing on there that teachers and admins had not reviewed and approved. 24 hrs later my neighbor found the “Sex with a goose” article and some others. He went public and the following day our Superintendent suspended the program. The use of the word revolt is used to paint us in a bad light. We have been most respectful. Are we frustrated? Yes! Every thing brought to light indicates the weakness of this type of program…yet we have to light ourselves on fire to be acknowledged. And for the record, ppl in our town are so strong in their beliefs that this program is weak, inappropriate and down right detrimental that they have committed to pulling their kids from the public school to go to a private school, as well as 3 families I know personally, have said they will move to a neighboring town.
Kiki,
Don’t move. Stand and resist.
Do stay and fight. The Board will only see the research critical of “personalized learning” and for the education of children by trained professionals if the parents do the research. The superintendent’s report to the board will only give lip service to research that does not support his position. Many years ago I was involved in a battle to keep our neighborhood elementary schools while the superintendent was pushing consolidation. He ostensively had the teachers study the alternatives; he presented the results. Teachers quietly reported to us that any comments in favor of retaining the neighborhood schools were dismissed. It was soon made clear to those that did not agree with his proposed action that it would be unwise to disagree publicly, so they helped us behind the scenes. Parents went to work and presented the research evidence for retaining the smaller schools. We won, but it wasn’t easy. Good luck.
I know and am friends with some who are in the business of technology based education.
Every time the initiative they’re working on fails (so far it’s a 100% failure rate) they blame it on teachers and administrators who are still working with a 19th century mindset of education.
And every time I hear that I remind them that their initial construct is what’s holding them back. Technology works best as a tool for the teachers to use. Having the technology as the centerpiece of the classroom isn’t realistic in any scenario. We’re dealing with people, here. Young people who need to be exposed to and emulate adult and peer human interaction.
Makes no difference. The machine is just blindly searching for the magic bullet that will make teachers obsolete.
The superintendent needs to learn how to respect the parents in his district. We are more informedabout Summit than he and the entire BOE was. We didn’t get our information on social media! We care about our kids and we all took time to do the research. Which is what he should have done. He would rather play the blame game now like we are a bunch of village idiots. Ummmm NO that’s not the case. So please Mr Solan learn how to communicate effectively in a respectful manner, please.
Parents should fight against Summit. You are right to do so.
It takes a whole lotta chutzpah for someone to think that THEIR slant on what’s “right and necessary” should be adopted by millions of others. That’s what we’re looking at with Summit. That’s what we’re looking at with Common Core. Etc.
Like you and me, Gates, Zuckerberg, Bloomberg, and company are naught but mere mortals. They just so happen to have been in the right place at the right time with the right idea(s)…and they made a LOT of money as a result. But none of these men has worked any harder than I have. I promise you that. Like so many others, I just didn’t opt for pursuing the big bucks like they did.
Resist. Their egos will not allow them to stop unless we resist.