Mike Deshotels is a retired educator in Louisiana who blogs as “Louisiana Educator.”
In this post, he appraises State Superintendent John White’s record as state superintendent.
He characterizes that record as “pitiful.”
John White, you may recall, is a “reformer,” that is, a specialist in Disruption. He is formerly TFA, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Academy, and before coming to Louisiana, worked for Joel Klein in New York City, preparing public schools for takeover by charter schools. He supports charters, vouchers, and high-stakes testing.
Deshotels writes:
After over 7 years of John White as Louisiana’s education reformer, Louisiana ranks 47th on national reading and math tests, and 49th on the ACT.
John White’s propaganda mill had the unmitigated gall to put out this press release Tuesday claiming that Louisiana was “number one in the country in 8th grade math improvement” as measured by The Nations Report Card. This tiny bit of data selection is insignificant compared to overall achievement of our students in reading, math and college readiness. The press release neglected to mention that despite all this “improvement” Louisiana still ranks third to last compared to the 50 states in 8th grade math. There is also no mention that Louisiana ranks 47th out of the 50 states in overall performance on all the latest NAEP tests. No mention was made that the latest ACT tests now rank Louisiana second to last in the country in college readiness! Our ACT test score averages have been declining significantly for the last 3 years. White’s press release trying to portray total stagnation in student performance as “nation leading outcomes” is pathetic.
Deshotels reviews the state’ low NAEP scores, then turns to the steadily falling ACT scores:
For ACT scores, there is no press release at all from the LDOE, probably because they have not yet found a way to spin three years in a row of declining ACT scores as some type of success. Average ACT scores in Louisiana was 19.6 in 2017, 19.2 in 2018, and 18.8 in 2019. This is a very significant drop in three years. Don’t just take my word for it that Louisiana is performing poorly in college readiness, just take a look at this article by Will Sentell in The Baton Rouge Advocate casually mentioning that Louisiana has now fallen to 49th in the nation on the ACT.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All fascist states have their state media that constantly run–guess what?–their production numbers, their “data” on production of pig iron and pork bellies. And these are all constantly said to be improving under the brilliant leadership of the Party until the system collapses under the dead weight of the Party’s bad ideas, its corruption and graft, and its failure to deliver on ANY of its promises. Just before the inevitable collapse, NO ONE believes the Party’s bs anymore, even those among its mid-level functionaries who were once true believers. Some of these functionaries nonetheless continue to search out and present evidence of improvement and admonitions to “stay the course” and will do so for as long as the Party is writing the checks.
Well, guess what, Reichsgauleiter White? The high-stakes testing, the VAM, the school grading, the takeover districts, the charter schools and vouchers, the data walls and data chats, the Race to the Top, the Common (I mean really common, as in mediocre, base, received, unexamined, pedestrian) Bore (renamed the Louisiana State Standards)–have brought about ZERO improvement on your own preferred measure–test scores–and NO CHANGE in achievement gaps. But hey, stay the course! Chin up! Let’s see that goose step! Remember the Gates Principles: “Data is God! Test them till they bleed! All your base are belong to us!”
It is time to end the Disrupter Occupation of US K-12 schools.
And how disappointing all this must be for Great Leader Gates, who had imagined that by now, having computerized and depersonalized all K-12 instruction in the US, the Party would be extending its occupation into the colleges and universities!!!
“All fascist states have their state media that constantly run–guess what?–their production numbers…”
This is indeed true, and true as well for their totalitarian brothers like Stalin and Mao. Right now as we enter into the growth of authoritarian regimes on the right (Brazil, Hungary, India, the Phillipines, my heavens, what a depressing list) it will be interesting to see if these governments join in the celebrating of production numbers as the years and months pass by.
Xi and Putin seem to be solidly in power despite some problems.
Brexit is either on the ropes or is being pulled by a rope.
World politics, like American politics, seem to be riding a careening locomotive.
The resurgence of ultra-nationalist regimes worldwide is disturbing, as is the ultra-nationalist rhetoric of Donald (J for Jabba) the Trump. I can’t look at a Trump rally without wondering where Leni Riefenstahl is to film all this.
“Great Leader Gates.” ack
Figures lie and liars figure.
Liars lie and figure badly.
And thank you, Mr. Deshotels, for calling out the bs in a clear, incontrovertible piece of first-rate writing!
This is the ed reform track record in Ohio:
“All jokes aside, Fordham owns this graduation standards mess. It was their idea and they convinced the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio General Assembly to go along for the ride.
And it’s always been about money. Lots of money. $8 million or more from the Gates Foundation starting in 2009.[19]
And what has all of the money, and whitepapers, and federal grants, and buzzwords like accountability and standards wrought? Worse schools.[20]
In 2010, Education Week ranked Ohio schools as the 5th best in the nation. In 2012 Ohio dropped to number 12. And in 2016, after years of common core and higher standards and race to the top funds, Ohio was ranked 23rd.[21]”
It’s been a disaster in this state, and one of the most prominent ed reform organizations is directly responsible for it. We’re given no explanation for why none of their promised “improvements” panned out, no one changes course or admits a mistake, and every single year they receive everything they demand from the state legislature.
I guess Fordham will be running my state’s education policy until we drop to 50th in the nation. We’ll have to hit rock bottom before anyone even questions any of this stuff.
https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Articles/v14n6.htm
“number one in the country in 8th grade math improvement” as measured by The Nations Report Card.
This is a page out of one of our recent school commissioners herein Tennessee. Their boast was that Tennessee was “fastest improving” which referenced some subset of data generated by NAEP (we spent some time on that yesterday).
The probability that a bureaucrat will find something to celebrate before the public for a failed initiative nears the multiplicative identity element. 1. 100%
The probability that the same bureaucrat will adopt “tough new standards” during the first year of tenure is the same. It is an old trick. Make things look terrible, then crow about the improvement.
“(we spent some time on that yesterday)”
Hey at least it gave the adminimals something to do.
I can recall shoveling a particular substance as a farmer that puts me in the mind of the data generated by testing. Except, of course, that substance helped make the field more fertile.
Yes, well said, Roy! It is unfair to s*** to compare it to the “data” produced by high-stakes standardized testing. At least the former can serve some useful purpose.
The irony of these people who so abuse numerical analysis styling themselves champions of “data” would be rich, indeed, if it weren’t so damaging. Eugenics, phrenology, astrology, Education Reform–all are similar in this respect. Garbage “data” in, mindbogglingly stupid conclusions out. Disruption and Deform isn’t science. It’s a cult and so is completely impervious to evidence.
Is The Nations Report Card even intended to be used this way? I ask because Arne Duncan used the scores to promote ed reform by saying it was working, and Betsy DeVos uses the scores to promote ed reform by saying all public schools are failing.
The common theme here seems to be “promote ed reform and ed reformers” – they could skip the testing completely and do the same thing. DeVos was bashing public schools and promoting charter and private schools last week before the scores were released and she continues that “work” today. What’s the difference?
We could all save a lot of time and money and just skip the test. The ed reform recommendations are identical whatever the results are anyway.
Scores are up? “Charters and vouchers are working!”
Scores are down? “Public schools suck and we should replace them all with charters and vouchers!”
The test at this point is just a rhetorical device to add a “science-y” sheen to what is marketing. Why put children through it?
NAEP was never intended to say what’s working and what’s not. It reports on test s ores to measure “progress,” but its results are always correlation, never causation
“It reports on test s ores to measure “progress,””
And that right there gets at the fundamental problem of the whole standards and testing malpractice regime. . . . There is no measurement whatsoever being done with the standards and the tests based upon them. It is the main BIG LIE that the psychomeretricians* have been stating for the last century, that the tests measure something. They don’t measure anything, especially “progress”.
What is the standard unit of measurement for measuring “progress”? Hint, there isn’t one. If there is no standard unit of measurement and no device calibrated against said unit how can there be any measuring of progress? Hint: There can’t be.
*Thanks to SDP, Roy T, Bob S, or FLERP or someone for coming up with that moniker.
Psychomeretricians!!! Not mine, but Lord, I wish it had been. That’s PERFECT!!! It’s the PERFECT term for the rogue’s gallery of folks like John White, John King, Arne Duncan, Mike Petrilli, Hannah Skandera, Lord David Coleman, Michelle Rhee and the many professional Vichy collaborator EduPundits who have banked on Disruption and Deform.
Leave it to Duncan, however, to be the LAST to figure out that the whole testy thing isn’t exactly working out. LOL.
They really took it to ludicrous extremes this time- ed reformers insist there is some causal relationship to membership in one of their lobbying groups (Chiefs for Change) and small changes on this test.
It’s nuts and it’s not “science”. It’s marketing.
Are they boasting about Detroit and Milwaukee, lots of choice in both cities.
One slight correction, Chiara, light bearer: that would be “Chiefs for Ka-ching.”
Arne Dunc-man has, predictably, an opinion piece in The Washington Post today in which he does what White did, but for the nation as a whole–sifts through the data for rare, minor “improvements” in random places and grade levels and declares these resounding successes of the Distruptions–of our testing kids until they scream, of firing teachers over test scores, and, of course, of our “higher standards” (heeee heee haaaa haaaaaaaaa. OMG. Make it stop. HAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Oh my Lord. That’s rich. “Higher.” HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!.
You see, if you give Duncan’s Magic Elixir to three million cancer patients, you can find one or two who improved slightly! It’s a miracle!!!!!
His advice: Stay the course. Double down. More magic elixir.
It’s tragically funny, ofc, that these “data” guys treat “data” in such a way. But this was always the case. Data-driven Disruption was always a variety of numerology. Purest pseudoscience, like phrenology or astrology.
Cherry picking is a hallmark of so-called reform whether it is students or data. They are persistent if nothing else even if they are often persistently wrong. Maybe they’re “high” on grit and $$$.
LOL. But no, Arne isn’t high. One could always count on him for this sort of low comedy. Slapstick.