This is a really good article by Rick Hess of the DeVos-funded American Enterprise Institute about reformers’ credulous embrace of every claim made by D.C. and using it as their model for the success of “reform.” Having elevated D.C. as their paradigm, they were unprepared for and blindsided by the recent graduation-rate scandal.
He faults the Washington Post, for its infatuation with Michelle Rhee and Kaya Henderson. And he faults President Obama for saluting a fake graduation rate increase.
Kudos to Rick for his fearless chastising of his compatriots.
He writes:
“Lots of self-styled “reformers” had good reason to observe DCPS through rose-tinted glasses. A wealth of advocates, funders, consultants, researchers, and friends had a rooting interest in DCPS’s success — and had every incentive to focus on the good news. This includes the senior author of this piece, who counted many DCPS leaders as friends of long standing — and who wrote admiringly about some of their efforts.
“After all, Washington, D.C., as much as any city over the past decade, served as a laboratory where philanthropists, policy analysts, and high profile media outlets converge. Philanthropists have poured more than $120 million into the school system since 2007. By 2010, the nation’s largest 15 philanthropies were spending more on K-12 education in D.C. than in any other school district in America.”
Curiously, he places some of the blame on critics of these fraudulent reforms, because their criticism made the reformers circle their wagons.
Maybe the reformers should have listened to critics like Guy Brandenburg and others who blew the whistle early on, instead of closing their ears and circling the wagons. Maybe they should have taken seriously the testing scandal that USA Today reported in 2011, instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The next “reform” bubble that will eventually burst, after it damages our schools and students, is the push to put a lap top in front of every little child in the name of “personalized instruction”
and 21st century whatever. Where’s objective data to support this costly venture–pushed by sellers and their hype. Why are critics sidelined?
They’re doing the same thing with “blended learning”.
In the next 5 years there will be thousands of school systems all over the country suffering the equivalent of an “ed tech hangover” – mostly due to ed reformers vastly exaggerating the value of this stuff.
Still, I blame public school superintendents. We’re paying these people to think and make independent decisions. If they’re all going to follow the ed reform lemmings off every cliff what’s the point of having them?
Stop buying what they’re selling. The public won’t blame the salespeople- that’s what salespeople do – they sell stuff. The public will blame the gatekeepers who buy every ounce of snake oil these people peddle.
Stop buying blind. Stop following people who lead you down the same magical garden path over and over and over. Be wise. Act prudently. Ignore the hype.
Thank you, Where’s research to support any of these ed tech sales pitches? And what will come after the hangover? Pete Seeger asked, “When will they ever learn?” When?
Gullible?
I think not.
There are only three possibilities and gullible is not one of them
1) stupidity
2) willful ignorance (which basically is a sort of dishonesty)
3) outright dishonesty
The “gullible/naiive” excuse is not plausible or credible.
In fact, you’d have to be gullible to believe it (or stupid)
“Curiously, he places some of the blame on critics of these fraudulent reforms, because their criticism made the reformers circle their wagons.”
Nothing curious about it. That’s what Deformers excel at: blaming others (and making lame excuses like “we were just gullible or naiive”
Agreed, SDP. These guys eat irony for breakfast. There’s not a criticism they make of their critics that doesn’t redound to themselves.
Agreed. A lot of the hype comes from cherry picking data and willfully ignoring the negative. Some of it is fake research, sort of like fake news.
“The Ring of Wagons”
Deformers circled wagons
And then they fired IN
Like Gollum hunting Baggins
The Ring will never win
SomeDam Poet:
This is an excellent thread. What you and others have written is first-rate.
To follow up a bit on your remarks: given his evisceration of what he and others said and did—steadfastly, with carefully chosen words and calculated actions, year after year after year after year ad nauseam—
Why in the world should that NOT have attracted (while it was going on) constructive criticism and calls for supporting and encouraging genuine teaching and learning in public schools?!?!?
He writes in the same vein as those #nevertrump conservatives that put a large (if not decisive) share of the responsibility for Trump capturing the Republican Party on their critics, who had been pointing out for decades that the ground was being prepared for precisely the kind of takeover that occurred in the 2016 election and its aftermath.
I cannot end this without a tip of my hat to the owner of this blog, who for years has invited folks of all opinions into her digital living room. The chief beneficiaries and peddlers and enforcers of, and apologists for, corporate education reform, could not have asked for a more decent, caring and informed critic than her. Just to take one example: how many times did she appear on a televised panel—outnumbered three or four to one, with the moderator openly siding with the rheephormsters—and attempt, with logic, facts and courtesy to set the record straight and suggest better alternatives to the ruinous course the others were so gleefully touting? Name me ONE time she stormed off these dog-and-pony shows, claiming she wasn’t being given a fair shake? Name me ONE time she responded with the same sort of language [I use the word advisedly] with which the rheephormistas have described her?
No, Mr. Rick Hess, you and yours own it ALL. And your attempt to evade some of your own very personal responsibility [I would have used other words, but in deference to the good example of our host I am using self-restraint] smacks a bit of Laura Ingraham’s “apology” to David Hogg.
Nevertheless, in the spirit of “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discuss better education for all” I end with this: I sincerely applaud your change [however limited] of heart but suggest that you don’t simply tip your toes into the lake of virtue and truthfulness but jump full in, clothes and all.
You might be surprised how refreshing it can be to come clean.
Really clean! Not Rheeally clean…
😎
Laura Ingraham’s Wholey Weak appology has Rheeally set the standard to which all others can aspire, hadn’t it?
SomeDAM Poet:
I now I am dating myself, but when it comes to finding new bottoms for morality, I am reminded [I know it’s a bit out of context but humor me] this repeating line from the VENTURES’ 1960 song, “Limbo Rock”:
“How low can you go”?
Just when you think they can’t go any lower…
😎
Accurate account of the difference between Rick Hess and Diane Ravitch. Thanks for the well-developed contrasts.
Krazy TA: Well stated. It takes character and determination to swim against the tide as Diane has done.
retired teacher: agreed.
Apparently during her sojourn amongst the privatization [aka the “magic of competition”] crowd her then-colleagues failed to to realize that, once she broke ranks with the false idol of $tudent $ucce$$, the scalding water they attempted to boil her in wouldn’t act as a deterrent to her taking action and speaking out in favor of a “better education for all.”
¿😳?
Pardon. As in Eleanor Roosevelt’s prescient description of our online host:
“A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
They should have known better, but I digress…
😎
Thank you, KTA.
Spot on. As ever.
There are some good comments on the article including a lengthy one from John Merrow and the one from Ms. Freedman above. I very much liked this one:
Caroline Grannan March 27th, 2018
As a longtime unpaid volunteer critic of so-called education “reform” hype and skeptic about claims of magical miracles run by saints, I have to say we critics are the ones on the receiving end of the vitriol and ad hominem attacks. Do you know how many times I’ve been called a racist who wants to tear down the successes of low-income children of color? And again, we critics are largely the unpaid and powerless. Those attacking us are on the payrolls of billionaire-funded think tanks and foundations, and backed up by the MSM and political machinery across the spectrum.
Thank you!
Don’t forget that all these “reformers,” including Rick Hess, are paid to promote their policies, and are essentially mouthing a script — or improvising within the part they’re paid to play. So don’t forget never to assume sincerity or that they believe their own words.
I agree totally!
It’s easy to jump on the “let’s attack the Washington Post” bandwagon.
Hess doesn’t have any problem with a charter school losing 35% of their entering 9th graders and claiming graduation rates of 100% 3 or 3 1/2 years later.
What is the difference between keeping those students and funding the numbers so they graduate and simply throwing them out with the trash as so many charters do?
When I see Hess criticize attrition and care about it, I will know he isn’t just a hypocrite looking to attack anything connected with Democrats while looking the other way at the far worse abuses by those who his big funders still want to promote. These people have no ethics whatsoever.
The paid aspect can’t be overemphasized.
It’s one thing to do something because you believe in it.
It’s something else entirely to do it because someone is paying you to do it.
The problem with all these think tank wankers is you can’t ever know what they actually believe because they are getting paid (in some cases quite a lot) to support certain policies.
“think tank” is actually a misnomer because there is very little Independent thinking going on. What they really are is “stenography tanks” because all they really do is take dictation from the people paying their salaries.
Thank you, Ohio Algebra II teacher!
Reformers have had their wagons circled from day one. They bought bipartisan support. They paid for media propaganda. NO ONE was allowed to go off message. While I appreciate off the wagon Reformers like Mr. Hess who now try to gain credibility by stating the obvious, until he makes a full throated admission that HE WAS WRONG, he — and people like him — remain very dangerous and damaging.
“Circling the tanks” might be a better analogy ( where tanks can also refer to “think tanks”)
I think I will wait to take Hess seriously until he is doing as much to support public schools as he has done to destroy them. Actions speak much louder than words.
I know people on this site don’t like Jerry Brown but Jerry Brown does something that is much too rare- he questions ed reformers.
That’s the supposed value of political leaders. If they’re just going to follow along with every random lobbyist who shows up the statehouse we don’t need them at all.
Show me a single shred of evidence that says every public school in the country should be spending millions of dollars on devices and platforms. This is SALES. It isn’t science.
These people have managed to convince public school superintends that students REQUIRE expensive hardware and software TO LEARN. That’s not true. It’s nonsense.
Why anyone would listen to a 70 year old lobbyist like DeVos on what 15 year olds “need” is beyond me. And it’s worse than that. They’re made ed tech VENDORS, the people who sell this stuff, “the experts”. The guy who sells Apple product to schools is interviewed as an expert on education. I mean, come on!
This goes beyond “gullible”. It’s rank stupidity. It’s a complete abdication of responsibility.
I’m always on your side, Chiara, but I think you’re overly harsh towards superintendents. For the most part, at least in Ohio, their hands have been tied by the state. In Cincinnati, we’ve had many outspoken superintendents publicly renounce decisions from Columbus, but they still have to follow the laws.
The politicians are the problem. At a deeper level, the plutocrats funding the politicians are the bigger problem. At deepest level may be the impact of Citizens United.
I’m still waiting for politicians to be voted out for their education policies. Are there any? (Jeb and the presidency remain the closest I’ve got.)
Just to be clear, there are lots of public school superintendents who are really bad…and clueless.
If your supposed “decent” supe adminimals were truly decent they would refuse to implement the malpractices that they so willingly implement. GAGA Good German Supe Adminimals who freely and cheerfully force what they know to be malpractices onto teachers and students, using threats to have others comply with their cowardly schemes.
Their hands are not tied. That’s hogwash. They could do the right thing and refuse, but hey, Mammon calls and when Mammon calls supe adminimals are especially adept at coming.
With respect, Duane, I think it’s easy to say that from the outside. Schools are dependent upon money from the state, and that money doesn’t come if you ignore the law. It may not seem like much to you, but I appreciate superintendents who keep the public informed of the truth in the face of what they’re told by those in command.
Sorry OA2T,
I am not on the “outside”. As a citizen of the community and as a retired, after having seen the destruction wrought by those supposed “good” adminimals I cannot give them a break. Not a single one that I ever spoke with agreed with the policies and all believed that they would harm the teaching and learning process. But they never, ever fought against them, telling me one thing out one side of their mouth and Going Along to Get Along Good German talking points out the other in implementing the fallacious and harmful malpractices.
NOT A SINGLE ONE!
“ignore the law” To whom should our ethical allegiance be? To the law and administrative fiat or to the students in our charge? I contend that our first allegiance MUST BE with the students. Law takes second fiddle, unless one is an adminimal and needs to have the much higher salary than and control over the peeon teachers.
No, the adminimals don’t get a free ride from me.
Ya know, Duane, if you spoke the way you speak now while you were employed, I cannot imagine that some administrator didn’t see your value as a teacher as far outweighing your continued disrespect and obvious disgust for their GAGA behavior. That individual had cojones. I am beginning to feel that your standards are so high that almost no one could possibly meet them. Must we all go down with the ship to be righteous?
Yes, yes, and yes. In fact, I think this is one of the reasons my district is over $12 million in debt.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/education-as-a-weapon-of-struggle-rethinking-the-parkland-uprising-in-the-age-of-mass-violence/
“Under the Trump administration, the role of education as a medium of culture is reduced to a tool of management, conformity, and repression.”
But never forget what the DFERS did.
The piece by Rick Hess can hardly be called “good.” Or honest. Hess has exempted himself from his criticism of “reformers. As I’ve noted on this blog a number of times, here is what Rick Hess wrote about school vouchers and competition:
“The absence of competition means that public schools, like other government agencies, typically are not subjected to this kind of discipline. No matter how inefficient, employees have little to fear. Subjecting school systems to real competition would indeed produce more effective schools –and other benefits as well. It would provide quality control beyond that afforded by standardized testing, empower entrepreneurial educators to offer alternatives to reigning orthodoxies, and permit good schools to multiply without waiting for permission from resistant district leaders.”
In other words, fear in the workplace is a “good” thing. It leads to “effectiveness.” It causes “quality control.” It fosters the proliferation of “good schools.”
This is the kind of “reform” that Michelle Rhee implemented in the DC schools. It’s also the same kind of “reform” that Beverly Hall implemented in Atlanta. Both resulted in gig cheating scandals. But I suppose Rick Hess doesn’t think he had anything to do with this stuff.
John Merrow’s comments suggest otherwise. Here’s what Merrow had to say:
“Rick Hess has, sadly, been singing the praises of ‘school reform’ from the beginning. That he’s acknowledging error now is laudable, but it’s inaccurate, unfair, and disingenuous to suggest that no one has called attention to the fraud of the ‘test and punish’ approach championed by Rhee and Henderson.”
When Rhee ushered in her leadership by fear regime, closing schools, firing teachers and administrators, pushing “data-driven” nonsense, Hess said that “this is what transformational leadership looks like. And the WaPo editorial board once again got it right too, staunchly backing Rhee …” Hess said that Rhee’s brand of “reform” was “the only coherent strategy” for improving public education in places like DC.
And now Hess is chastising The Post for its blessing of Rhee, and – in the process – covering his behind? Nope. Sorry, Doesn’t work that way.
Hess is what he is. He owes American public educators great big gobs of humble apologies.
People like Hess are the mercenaries of Ed “reform.” He is just being a little more candid than most of the others that dare not veer from the approved messaging. It is getting harder for “reform” to hang on to their civil rights message now that the NAACP has come forward to object to charter expansion. The public is catching on, and they are seeing that “reform” is more about moving public money into private pockets than improvement. All the scandals and lies of privatization are finally becoming visible.
People like Hess are the “Hessians” of EDeform.
From dictionary.com
Hessian: a Hessian soldier in any of the mercenary units of the British Army in the War of American Independence or the Napoleonic Wars. (US) any German mercenary in the British Army during the War of American Independence.
Everybody supporting education “reform” is one of the mercenaries of education “reform.” It’s nearly impossible to find anyone putting any effort into supporting the education “reform” who isn’t paid to do so.
Oh, so our criticism of the pie-in-the-sky promotions is one of the reasons that these geniuses refused to take a second look at what they were pushing? No, no, no. They owe an entire generation of students a great big apology.
I certainly wouldn’t call a pseudo-mea culpa like Hess’s “a really good article”.
I’ve noticed lately that edudeformers like Hess are trying to find ways to save face (not that saving face in their fashion is any kind of grace) and/or throw the blame on others for their failed educational malpractices that they cheerled so hard for. Things like the “Failure to Fixes” conference of which Hess was a panelist. And of the 15 or so panelists there was a total of 7 1/2 years K-12 teaching experience-0 for Hess. The hubris of these arrogant SOBs is beyond my capabilities to understand. I have no experience with K-12 teaching but I’m going to tell you how to run K-12 teaching and learning. Where’s the frag when you need it?
Hell, even Merrow jumped on Hess in the comment section. May the edudeformers all choke each other off before any more educational malpractices and absurdities come forth from their mouths.
You gotta just love the circle of wagons firing in, doncha?
Will Rick Hess keep his job if it is a job or if he is a volunteer, will they give him the boot — lock him out? The corporate reformers of everything public ed only like minion cheerleaders that cherry-pick facts and then add lies to their fake praise.
“Volunteer Deformer” is, like David Coleman, an Oxford Moron.
You’re right. Deformers don’t volunteer unless they are minion morons. After all, the corporate reform movement of public education has nothing to do with teaching children. It’s all about money and how much can be siphoned off as profits that end up in the bank accounts of a handful of people that use it to buy more minions, influence and power.
The corrupt seem to be legion at this time.
I agree most of these comments. Hess and the other so-called reformers weren’t gullible. It was more like a combination of wishful thinking, intellectual dishonesty, and the previously mentioned mercenary nature of their work.
The American Enterprise Institute buys into (and peddles) the utopian fantasies of Milton Friedman, so anything their associates produce has to be spun in that direction. These paid advocates have the advantage of being school-ignorant and deaf to the voices of experienced teachers. As a result they have no problem jumping on any unproven bandwagon that fits their frame of reference.
It helps that people like Rhee and outfits like AEI operate along the lines of the “strict father” frame described by George Lakoff. Read Lakoff and others to understand why actual experience, data, and logic isn’t persuasive to these true believers in test-and-punish accountability.
Those who embraced and touted Rhee’s regime of threats and recrimination relied on sheer emotion–not evidence–both in being drawn to the appeal of her witch-with-a-broom act and in manipulating an uninformed public about the “broken” state of American education. Among the false but effective emotional appeals: “Bad teachers can’t be fired!” “American kids rank low on international tests!” “Urban schools are dropout factories!” “Lazy teachers aren’t doing their jobs!” “Teachers don’t deserve higher pay for advanced degrees and extensive experience, or lavish pensions–they’re paid too much as it is.” And so on. All these bogus lines of thought were financed by billionaires. They still are.
For Hess to brand supporters of public education as “anti-reform” is just another bogus framing device. To counter that will require us as public education supporters to base our advocacy on the moral and societal values America was founded on. That’s why Diane’s and Deborah Meier’s advocacy for public schools as fundamental to democracy is so important. Our appeals have to be based on American ideals that resonate with the average American. Ideals of the common good, fairness, equality of opportunity, neighborhood and community, and related concepts that don’t jibe with the harshly competitive assumptions the AEI and the billionaire libertarians bring to their advocacy.
I don’t believe that Trump bashing, even Hess bashing, will do the job.
I walked past the American Enterprise Institute several times last week. And the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. And the Brookings Institution. They sit in a row on Massachusetts Avenue. The Peterson Institute for International Econimics is across the street. I couldn’t help wondering who was in those buildings and what they were up to at the time. It’s amazing to me that “Think Tank Row” represents the tail that’s wagging the dog of American opinion. (Well, that and the Gates Foundation and the Koch Brothers, and a few other billionaires.) They wag the dog even though they occupy only a few hairs on that tail–or a few fleas, maybe. It’s time for the rest of the dog to get into the act!
Well said.