This is an excellent article about “The Perfect Storm of Education Reform” by three scholars: Sheryl J. Croft, Mari Ann Whitehouse, and Vera Stenhouse.
It begins like this:
No Child left behind (NCLB), Race to the Top (rt3), and now Common Core embody over a decade of federal and state education reform purport-
edly designed to address inequities for global majority and low-income students. However, these policies have in fact expanded inequities and exacerbated a discourse of failure regarding teachers, public schools, and teacher preparation programs. Consequently, public confidence in teachers, teacher preparation pro- grams, and student performance is at an all-time low.
We contend that current reform initiatives (i.e., high-stakes testing and teacher evaluation from K-12 through higher education) are not, in fact, discrete singular efforts. Instead, they represent a confluence of systematic and orchestrated education reform efforts that are akin to storm fronts. These fronts comprise a perfect storm that is eroding the bedrock of public education in the United States through neoliberal policies.
Neoliberal principles prescribe that market forces should determine the success or failure of any entity or organization; they support a reduction in public services; and they promote choice, competition, and accountability.
Using the state of Georgia as a case study, we present three interconnected fronts: political climate change, the testing industrial complex, and the resulting mesoscale evaluation system. We propose these fronts as a means to illuminate the gulf between the stated policy intentions of corporate reformers and the actual educational outcomes for public education and teacher education.
Following our analysis of the interconnected fronts, we challenge the assertion that the alignment of the reforms will lead to the claimed outcome—that is, an in- crease of academic achievement/success and global competitiveness for students, teachers, and the United States as a whole. Instead, we assert that the orchestrated alignment is actually being experienced as an assault on the intended beneficiaries. We conclude with responses by students, teachers, and professors to the elements of the perfect storm of education reform and our recommendations for K-12 and higher education practitioners to not just stem but turn the tides.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From the article: “In nature, a mesoscale storm is comprised of individual storms that combine to form a larger persistent/perfect storm. Similarly, a mesoscale evaluation system is a combination of individual evaluation efforts spanning kindergarten through higher education that are meant to serve as mechanisms of accountability for educators and educator preparation.”
Yes, but he mesoscale evaluation system is perhaps better regarded as a non-stop and extended surveillance system, with “outcomes” for students and teachers now extending to their performances in the workplace.
Add the newest tests for “social emotional learning” (SEL) to the mix with RAND and HARVARD working on methods of standardizing tests for SEL in cooperation with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL is sponsoring design contests with $5000 to winners of new tests for SEL. All tests must be administered via computer and scored without resorting to “observations, student self-report, or teacher or parent ratings of students’ skills.” The contest calls for game-like performances from students as they encounter “technology-enhanced social simulations” (vignettes, scenarios).” I am now analyzing the winners and what “counts” as social emotional learning. http://measuringsel.casel.org/design-challenge/
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A Gatesoscale evaluation system is perhaps better regarded as a means of turning schools into a market for tech products.
And a Rheesoscale evaluation system (aided and abetted by a cheerleading “journalist” who will not be named) is perhaps better regarded as a personal crusade by the Wicked Witch of the West to “Get you my pretty teacher and your little student too!”
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“corporatization” evident in the institutions of the Catholic Church concerned with education…corporate takeover in the ministry of U.S. Catholic education… financial margin and efficiency become paramount”. (Robert O’Gorman, Prof. Emeritus, Pastoral Studies, Loyola University, Chicago)
Gates matched with $12,000,000 the donation of Cassin Educational Initiatives Foundation to the Cristo Rey Catholic school chain (now in almost 1/2 of the states). The chain buys Common Core aligned curriculum and incorporates blended learning. The San Jose Cristo Rey prototype school has 60 students, one teacher, one tutor and one coach. (Christensen Institute, “Innovative Staffing…”)
Gates got his model in the backdoor, when his scheme met resistance in schools that have democratically elected school boards. Ohio taxpayers fund $6,000 per student in vouchers to Cristo Rey.
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Perfect storms are products of nature. The tempest impacting public education is a man made invention of corporate pirates and billionaires seeking to transfer public money out of the common good and into the pockets of profiteers. This post does a fine job of describing the MO of this scheme. It does not describe all the dirty politicking behind the scenes designed to clear a political path for these privatizers. It does not tell the story of how dirty and manipulative these agents are. They tell lies, bash and fire professional teachers, pay for fake research, suppress democratic engagement and refuse to listen to minority community concerns. Evidence and facts mean nothing to them. These vandals have so much money they rise from the ashes of their bad ideas and pay for sycophantic “think tanks” and politicians that rubber stamp their devious agenda. They use their wealth as a weapon of public destruction.
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yes, now over fifteen years of very strategically creating this storm: “… It does not describe all the dirty politicking behind the scenes designed to clear a political path for these privatizers.”
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Obviously DeVos leads an assault on students and teachers. Her nefarious motive is profit from the public funds intended properly to fund public education.
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This is correct, but it did not start with NCLB. It started at least as early as The Nation at Risk, then NCTM “Standards”, then NSF/NCTM supported math programs… so at least 40 years. And if we consider Milton, then it can easily be 50 years in the making. And if we consider the switch from phonics to Whole Language nee look-and-see in the 1920s plus all the progressivist nonsense, then it is already a century in the making.
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Aspen Institute credits itself with the political change, starting with Pres. Clinton.
In an interesting NYT article about Stephen Bannon, his political schemes, and his allies (Gloria von Thurn und Taxis), Hillary Clinton’s
name surfaces. (Jason Horowitz 12-7-2018)
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It is difficult to see how anyone could read this without concluding that the education reform effort was ill-conceived and produced disaster. Another evidence of this is the consternation on the faces of teachers who take all this evaluation and hostility to heart and sob themselves to a tortured sleep each night, wondering how they can support a family on a job making less money and requiring more child care. This is the picture of what reformers want to see. This is a part of “disruption.” If we only had more teachers quitting because of their evaluations and test scores, we would close the achievement gap. Exactly why hostility to teachers is to produce learning is a good idea has escaped this reader. I prefer to think that it is really a scheme to spend less money on education so that more people will have lower expectations.
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I know this sounds over the top but perhaps not too far fetched considering that we have seen the slaughter of innocent individuals due to political propaganda. I fear that we in the US are not immune. This constant degrading of schools and those who work there could lead to serious consequences. We must address this on going propaganda.
Not only have our livelihoods been threatened, but so have our rights to freedom of thought, speech and due process. And left unchecked it could lead to the loss of all our rights. These statements are often dehumanizing and thoughtless. A friend once openly stated to me (she knows that I teach) that we cannot trust teachers to care for our students or to teach correct principles. I was very hurt but managed to quietly ask, do you think I become a zombie or check my morals at the front door of the school every morning? Do you think I forget about my personal education and responsibilities to serve the children in my class when I walk into my room each day?
I feel discriminated against because I chose to serve my community. I make significantly less income based on my education than others with similar education and experience. I accepted that coming in. But I did not ask for the constant daily complaints about my education, skills and morals.
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Some friend. Obviously she checked her ability for discriminating between good things to say and bad things to say at the door. I too have friends without filters, so much so that I have often suggested that we should have a group like Doctors without Borders. We could call it Friends without Filters.
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The plot is well-funded, well-entrenched and indeed, far reaching. At National Catholic Reporter, read about Tim Busch. At Center for Media and Democracy, read about Leonard Leo and, the Koch’s ALEC. At Theocracy Watch, read the training manual of Paul Weyrich who founded the religious right.
The goal is oligarchy. The method is authoritarian religion. Tribalism’s violence will provoke oppression, condoned by the public. Concentrated wealth’s deprivation created and fosters tribalism.
Public education is an asset targeted for takeover by Gates and Walton heirs, among others. Gates is the most reprehensible American capitalist the nation has ever known.
The Hand Maidens Tale looks like a possibility. Silicon Valley is notorious for its anti-woman bias. Republican funder, Peter Thiel, said women voting in a capitalistic democracy is an oxymoron.
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The projection for GOP House members in 2020 is 11 women out of 197 representatives.
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CAEP’s board chair is a person touted by the Gates’ Pahara Institute as the first university education dean the organization had. Pahara was founded by the same person who founded (1) Bellwether -in a 2019 recommendation for ed reformers in the south, Bellwether advised reaching out to churches (2) TFA, viewed by critics as anti-union and (3) New Schools Venture Fund. The founder said the goal of charters is, “…brands on a large scale”.
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The superintendent of Los Angeles Catholic schools became a Pahara Fellow in 2018.
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