Under normal circumstances, when a teacher disagreed with the state educatuon department’s decision to switch from one test to another, it would be called a difference of opinion. Under normal circumstances, when teachers called attention to the state chief’s decision to ignore the recommendations of his evaluation team and pick a different assessment, it would be treated as criticism and grounds for debate.
When NBCT teacher Justin Parmenter and two other teachers in North Carolina called out their state superintendent for disregarding the recommendation of his evaluation committee and for choosing a product they rejected, the corporation owning the winning product threatened legal action to silence the teachers.
The superintendent in this instance is Mark Johnson, ex-TFA. His classroom experience was limited to two years. His failure to defend his state’s teachers reveals his character.
Shame on the owners of iStation.
Shame on Mark Johnson.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The ACLU should take an interest.
TFA seems to have more than it’s fair share of “real winners”
Is that because such types gravitate toward TFA because they see it as an opportunity for incompetents and/or grifters?
Why any truly idealist college grad would ever want to be associated with such an organization is a complete mystery.
Did you see the number of TFA dilettantes working as legislative aides to members of Congress (posted by a commenter yesterday)? Pretty nice gig.
most often only the anxious-to-get-ahead TFA types are in the news, while so many TFA teachers who have been pushed out and left in the dirt are out there…but not HEARD, no matter how hard they try to speak out.
Blame it on the average age of a college graduate when they graduate with a BA or BS.
The average age of a BA/BS graduate is about 23.
Changing Brains Mean that Adolescents Act Differently From Adults
“Pictures of the brain in action show that adolescents’ brains work differently than adults when they make decisions or solve problems. Their actions are guided more by the emotional and reactive amygdala and less by the thoughtful, logical frontal cortex. Research has also shown that exposure to drugs and alcohol during the teen years can change or delay these developments.
Based on the stage of their brain development, adolescents are more likely to:
Adolescents are less likely to:
These changes start around age 13 and continue until after age 25.
https://www.aacap.org/aacap/families_and_youth/facts_for_families/fff-guide/the-teen-brain-behavior-problem-solving-and-decision-making-095.aspx
This is also why young people in that same age span starting at age 18 are targeted by military recruiters starting in high school their senior year. Recruiters focus on those who act on impulse and don’t think before they act.
Lloyd
Age may have something to do with it, but my niece was only 22 when she graduated and she was onto TFA like a horsefly to a 🐎.
I never said a word to her about TFA and one day she just started talking about how they had tried to recruit her and how TFA was such a joke. I just nodded in agreement.
I suspect your niece is more perceptive than many her age. When I was teaching, I worked with kids that didn’t seem to be affected by the “adolescent brain” that, according to studies, exists from about ages 13 to 25.
The problem with commercial entities in education is that they are more interested in protecting their brand than hearing legitimate criticism. Teachers do no need Istation or any other commercial products to find out the reading level of a student. All they need to do is an informal reading inventory (IRI) that will take about twenty minutes per student. It costs nothing. If teachers really want to teach students to read well, use REAL BOOKS.
And, what a brand- iStation website, teachers and students wearing long, red capes with logos- “The Red Cape Nation”.
Gates’ Impatient Optimists devoted space to iStation in an article titled, “Tool-Hungry Teachers Swim with Developers in Shark Tank”.
Concentrated wealth has strangled economic opportunity and the result- the communities’ taxes flow away from Main Street to out-of-staters and the children of the 99% are cannibalized
Caffeinated Rage, July 20, “Follow the Money— Looking at Political Contributions Among Those Involved …”
Predictable demographics at the photo array for iStation’s management team- predictable credentials, COO- Yale and Stanford, on the Board of one of the largest charter chain networks in Texas. CFO- Harvard, formerly with a restaurant chain holding company.
This is really frightening. Are the corporations simply to own K-12 education and to use government to silence all opposition or dissent? That’s what fascism looks like. Mr. Parmenter is a hero.
Justin Paramenter, Chelsea Bartel and Amy Jablonski are heroes for democracy.
N. C. Policy Watch reported in February that Mark Johnson went to an invitation only, privately funded event to outline his education priorities.
Add Stu Egan as a hero.
Wow, what about the 88 superiendents speaking out too? They want us to protect kids but not from bad assessments!
You’re expecting supe adminimals* to speak out?
Please don’t hold your breath.
*Adminimal: A spineless creature formerly known as an administrator and/or principal. Adminimals are known by/for their brown-nosing behavior in kissing the arses of those above them in the testucation hierarchy. These sycophantic toadies (not to be confused with cane toads, adminimals are far worse to the environment) are infamous for demanding that those below them in the testucation hierarchy kiss the adminimal’s arse on a daily basis, having the teachers simultaneously telling said adminimals that their arse and its byproducts don’t stink. Adminimals are experts at Eichmanizing their staff through using techniques of fear and compliance inducing mind control. Beware, any interaction with an adminimal will sully one’s soul forever unless one has been properly intellectually vaccinated.
Did you know that charter schools didn’t have to switch to IStation?
How about the Texas charter network where iStation’s COO is on the Board?
North Carolina’s legislators and Mark Johnson evidently think Texans should benefit from N.C. taxes. They don’t care that the benefit of the economic multiplier effect of local education dollars spent locally is lost to the communities of North Carolina?
I think all districts should refuse to use Istation until it can be proven that no unethical, illegal actions were involved in the Istation selection process. (We ALL know what the results would be.) If districts use Istation, it’s like taking and using goods that you know the person who gave them to you stole them.
Posted at OpED news. https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Justin-Parmenter-Mega-Cor-in-General_News-Diane-Ravitch_Grading-Teachers_Shame-190721-822.html#comment739939
Stanford training? “Serve” on the board of a tax-funded contractor school network. The network buys products from the company that employs you in top management.
What could possibly go wrong for the students, communities and taxpayers?
In 2017, one of the lawyers of the Shanahan Law Group was appointed to serve as Chair of the N.C. State Ethics Commission.
So, this is the way it works, the legal fees that an ed tech corporation amasses are a business expense that gets passed on to the products’ buyers- the taxpayers.
If America’s education oligarch, Bill Gates, was just willing to contain his craze for control, and his greed for student data to stockpile, and, if politicians and appointed government employees served communities instead of profiteers, then, professionals could return to educating students without the harmful screen time of ed tech products. In other words, the children of the middle class and poor could have the education that Gates’ chose for his own kids.
I just spent a bit of the afternoon trying to persuade a centrist tech enthusiast about tech creep and anti-teacher neoliberalism, with limited success, so I really needed to start my evening reading just now with this from Parmenter’s site (Thank you.): “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. No not become bitter or hostile. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Never, ever be afraid to get in good trouble, necessary trouble. We will find a way to make a way out of no way. #goodtrouble”
These North Carolina teachers are my heroes and the tech company threatening them are true villains. I am proud that my three thousand miles away colleagues have not backed down. We shall overcome.
If the heroes need a GoFund Me page, I hope they post one.
Follow the money!!!!!! Someone is getting paid off!!!!