Paul Thomas considers some of the research verities that have recently been exploded, like “the marshmallow test,” “growth mindset,” and “the word gap.”
He might have added “grit” to the list of recently debunked nostrums. Christine Yeh of the University of San Francisco wrote a terrific piece in Education Week last year titled “Forget Grit. Focus on Inequality.” She is right, of course. If a child is hungry, grit won’t fill her tummy. If she is hungry and homeless, grit doesn’t change the objective facts of her life.
He writes:
“It may well be true that everything you know is wrong, but that doesn’t mean it must stay that way. Good intentions and missionary zeal must be replaced by greater philosophical awareness and the sort of skepticism a critical lens provides.
“This is not about fatalism—giving up on research—but about finding a better way forward, one that rejects programs and blanket ideologies and keeps our focus on students and learning along with the promises of formal schooling as a path to equity and justice, not test scores and compliant students.”
It takes courage to think for yourself, especially in a culture that values compliance and conformity.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, and there are some others to add to the list, like the omissions of truth-telling as one of Duckworth’s “character strengths.” No big surprise that she is collaborating to offer TFA’s training along with Doug Lemov’s no-nonsense disciplinary techniques for tykes.
Since you don’t follow me on Twitter, I am posting here. My advice is to actually speak with me about education policy before you post tweets, knowing nothing about me, calling for me, “to go” based off of Stephen Dyers mostly garbage information. My cell is 740.602.5033.
Andrew,
Are you the same elected official who called public schools “socialism?”
Are you the chair of the Senate Education Committee who has diverted hundreds of millions of dollars to failing charter schools and failing voucher schools and failing online schools?
Is that you?
Did you hold oversight hearings on ECOT when it was clear it had swindled the state for $1 Billion?
Let me know, and I will call to find out why you hate public schools.
If you want to talk to me feel free to call me. You have my number.
By the way, Andrew, I’m glad to see that you read my blog. If you read it daily, you would become an avid supporter of Ohio’s public schools. 85% of Ohio’s kids go to public schools, not the charters or voucher schools you have opened across the state.
How in hell do arrogant people like you keep getting elected? So everyone should follow you on Twitter? Is your Twitter feed some sort of river of divine wisdom?
How about instead of people following you, you follow people? As Diane suggests, reading her blog (and the comments!) would be a great place to start.
Good news, Andy Brenner. I am following you on Twitter. I asked about your failure to oversee the $1 Billion ECOT scam. I asked why you trash the public schools that educate 85% of Ohio’s children. I asked why you fight for failing charters and vouchers. Help me understand.
🙂
“Academic and economic success and failure are far less about any person having or not grit or a growth mindset and more about systemic privilege and disadvantage.”
When we view students from a deficit model, we can blame students, teachers and schools for the problems that students face. We ignore the social, economic and cultural factors We can ignore systemic racism in our society, lack of support for poor families and the state’s obligation to educate all students. We can play the blame game instead of addressing social, political and economic inequities. We can use these “deficiencies” to monetize our poorest, most vulnerable students under the guise of addressing these “deficiencies.”
Privatization is a way for the haves to exploit those that do not have in order to create a separate and unequal playing field while hiding the real motives behind some notion of social justice. Privatization is a way to suppress democracy and provide students with less under the guise of providing “choice.”
Excellent article, spot on! Thanks for sharing, Diane!
Add to your list the Stanford Prison Experiment. It’s been recently shown, by recordings made during the “study,” that many, if not all, of the subjects were acting.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/trump-wants-to-be-called-tough.html
Interesting link, TOW. Thanks.
Spot on! Thank you very much, all (all except Andrew Brenner). I needed to read this today, “It takes courage to think for yourself, especially in a culture that values compliance and conformity,” and be reminded that “growth mindset” is just another phrase autocrats use to keep control over everything they can find to micromanage. To the administrators who abusively accused me last month of not having a growth mindset and labeled me a less than stellar teacher when I insisted on using books and paper instead of Competency (computer) Based products: ha! To the wastefully superfluous consulting groups who blamed racial inequality, homelessness, poverty, and mass incarceration on my school for teachers not having the growth mindset to accept Competency Based Education: ha! Reading this post helps me regain my strength after being attacked by so many for so long. Thank you. It does take courage to insist on thoughtful academic freedom, and I get that courage from the smiling faces of my students and their parents, and from reading this blog. Great post!
Loved Thomas’s article. I lost my last job because I didn’t follow a canned reading program “with fidelity.” Never mind that very little of what the program required as part of the protocol was part of what was provided by the district. More importantly, my expertise as a special educator tasked with developing IEPs for students to meet their individual needs was dismissed. I was to treat all students to the same protocol, no matter what they might need. While I liked a lot of what the program provided, the administrators with authority had no special ed background and were stuck at a marketing level of knowledge.
Indeed. That is the truth. All kids with IEPs get the same canned, scripted reading program. BUT, it’s research based! Can’t argue with that. If the kid isn’t showing enough progress, well, I must not be following the script with fidelity. Perhaps I would benefit from another training or some more PD in script reading. Or maybe the kid needs a sticker chart to improve motivation to listen to me read a script.
This is slightly off topic but concerns what is being put into schools.
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Scholastic Under Fire for Children’s Book Portrayal of Trump
“On November 8, 2016, Americans voted for president. The race was close, but Trump won. Many people were happy. They looked forward to a brand-new government. They hoped for a stronger country.”
That’s an excerpt from a 32-page book called President Donald Trump, published last year by Scholastic, a billion-dollar global corporation whose educational materials can be found in 9 out of 10 US classrooms. The book, by children’s author Joanne Mattern, is included in Scholastic’s Rookie Biography series, aimed at first- and second-graders, kids ages 6 and 7.
It weaves a simple narrative of how Trump made his fortune in real estate, gained fame as host of a reality TV show, and became a president “millions of Americans are counting on to improve their lives.”
Maybe if it were about any other U.S. president, this might be the end of the story. But Scholastic is being taken to task by a growing army of educators, librarians, and parents not for what the book says about Donald Trump, but for what it omits…
Check out this article: https://truthout.org/articles/scholastic-under-fire-for-childrens-book-portrayal-of-trump/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=mashshare&utm_campaign=mashshare
Children’s books on all the presidents (and many others) omit lots and lots of important but unpleasant details. Do we really want a children’s book on Bill Clinton that talks about NAFTA, welfare reform and a stain on a blue dress? Do we want Dubya’s children’s book to include Iraq and the Patriot Act? Do we want Obama’s to include Libya, Honduras, Haiti and Anwar al-Waki’s 16 year old son?
I’m against the OVERLY rosy description of Trump and all of his happy followers who are ‘looking for a brand new goverment’. He is an unfit disaster for this country and is working to destroy our government. I’m not sure about how it should be worded but as the article says,”Scholastic is being taken to task by a growing army of educators, librarians and parents”. I’m not the only one who finds it distasteful. Dictatorships put out this type of garbage and starts its indoctrination at a young age.