Political Morning Education reports a big event in D.C. tonight where partisans of the test-and-punish education policies of the past twenty years will gather to rededicate themselves to their failed programs. Will these advocates for accountability accept any accountability for the misguided practices they have foisted on American education? Will they hold themselves accountable for the billions of dollars spent on testing and privatization that should have been spent on reducing class sizes and raising teachers salaries and opening health clinics in schools? Wouldn’t it be something if they invited someone like Jonathan Kozol or Anthony Cody to explain why NCLB and RTTT failed and how to have a better approach to teaching and learning other than carrots and sticks?
BUSHES SPOTLIGHT READING, LITERACY AMID GRIM ASSESSMENTS: Events starting tonight at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will bring together members of the Bush family, best-selling authors and entertainers, philanthropists, and education and business leaders to celebrate reading and mark the foundation’s 30th anniversary.
— “I believe that literacy is an essential foundation for democracy,” former first lady Laura Bush said in a statement provided to POLITICO. Bush, one of tonight’s honorary co-chairs, will deliver remarks during a program that will include a special performance by country music singer Tim McGraw and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham, co-authors of “Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music that Made a Nation.”
— The events, including the foundation’s inaugural summit on adult literacy on Wednesday, coincide with grim results on the Nation’s Report Card and an announcement today from the Collaborative for Student Success about an effort with 11 other organizations to address the results.
— Among the organizations are The Education Trust, the National Urban League, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. They’re calling for, among other things, increasing federal investment in evidence-based, comprehensive literacy efforts at the state and local levels.
— “The persistent gaps in reading achievement for students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities on the NAEP require urgent action,” said John B. King Jr., former Education secretary and president and CEO of The Education Trust.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Orwell would deplore the way we used the word “literacy”. We use it incorrectly. Literacy is knowing words and the world that words describe. The more one knows, the more literate one is. The Bushes do not understand this, but neither do most teachers. We persist in believing literacy is demonstrating “literacy skills” on badly-designed tests. A true literacy-building education informs kids about the world.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
” They’re calling for, among other things, increasing federal investment in evidence-based, comprehensive literacy efforts at the state and local levels.”
When was the last time the Bushes looked at evidence. “Reform” has been a failure. Standardized testing undermines legitimate education. Charters and vouchers undermine public education. Students need professional trained human teachers. Vouchers and personalized learning are a waste of money. Stem cells have saved many lives, and, of course, let us not forget the biggest faux pas of all. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Our invasion of Iraq helped spawn ISIS. The Bush family should look up the term “evidence” in the dictionary.
“Students need professional trained human teachers.” — does this imply that as of now teachers are not professionally trained? Could you elucidate the curious case of your daughter, who, by your own admission, struggled in math in middle and high school, how did this happen?
BA, More snark from you. Can you EVER stop making nasty cracks about teachers and students? Do you ever have a positive thought? Ever?
BA,
Almost every comment you make requires a decision by me about whether to post it. You never have anything positive to say. You sit at your computer and complain about teachers and students. Why? Have you never met a teacher who was ten times smarter than you? I have. But then I am probably not as brilliant as you.
BA, no that is not necessarily the logical conclusion.
Professionally trained=Not TFA or Relay
Human=Not computers that supplant real teachers
“Professionally trained=Not TFA or Relay Human” — was your daughter’s math teacher a TFA alumnus?
BA, you have such deep-seated hatred for public school teachers that I begin to wonder what colored your views. Please explain. Are you a teacher? A principal? A college professor? Why do you despise public school teachers? Not specific public school teachers, but all public school teachers.
YES: when was the last time any of the reformers actually looked at evidence and acted accordingly — evidence gets in the way of the profiteering games
Another bunch of “talking heads” who don’t know squat.
Has anyone noticed how many of these politicians and oligarchs are trying to REWRITE their own history?
Another one of those events where the the taxpayers take a hit – the money spent for the venue, food and Tim McGraw concert is presumably tax deductible.
I wanted to look past the PR for this one event. The event is a launch for a
new campaign capitalizing on “stagnating” NAEP scores and persistent gaps among students “who have been underserved.”
The reformists are calling for “evidence based” methods of teaching using only “high quality, standards-aligned, content-rich curriculum.” Suddenly these reformists think “deficits in content-knowledge” matter. But these reformists are really fans of the Common Core and have a lonh history of ignoring much else worthy of study, content in the arts and humanities for example.
In addition to being sponsored by the Collaborative for Student Success, this “new literacy campaign” is sponsored by Achieve, The Alliance for Excellent Education, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Learning Heroes, Literacy Now, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Council on Teacher Quality, National Urban Alliance, National Urban League, Military Child Coalition, and The Education Trust. These have been supporters of the Common Core, and many love high-stakes tests.
The Collaborative for Student Success is a multi-faced project of the New Venture Fund. It is supported by: Bloomberg Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, ExxonMobil, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. The website markets three of the Collaborative’s favorite math programs, but it also features “campaigns” of the Collaborative. Each campaign has a separate website. All campaigns are based on the premise that states are not living up to the requirements of ESSA. Truly, the sponsors of the Literacy Initiative are die-hard defenders of the Common Core and ESSA. Here are the camaigns in progress.
A web-based “Assessment HQ” offers test scores and demographic breakouts for test scores “for more than half of states in grades 3-8.” This campaign is designed to claim that state assessments are not tough enough or fully reported to parents. The Collaborative scoops up state assessment results in math and ELA and puts these together in an interactive map. The Assessment HQ is actually sluggish and out of date. It is presenting data from the 2014-15 school year and it was designed to push PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests.
The “Check State Plans” campaign offers ratings of the state plans for ESSA based on their strict conformity to ESSA. The Collaborative asked 45 reviewers to judge state plans, back in 2017, at about the same time that Bellwether Education Partners also put together a panel to review state ESSA plans. The Collaborative wanted to see “the following principles” honored in state plans. “Set the bar high for what students need to know and understand; Focus on closing the achievement gap in math and English; Ensure that parents and communities have access to meaningful data; Have a real plan for helping those schools that have been historically failing.”
The “Educators for High Standards” campaign has offered about 12 fellowships to teachers willing to voice enthusiasm for ESSA, along with “partners” from the following groups, all known to push for high-stakes tests and the Common Core: The National Network of State Teachers of the Year, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, PARCC, Teach Plus, Student Achievement Partners (Achieve the Core), National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Hope Street Group, The New Teacher Project (TNTP), Teach for America, Center for Teacher Quality, and Educators4Excellece.
The” Military Families for High Standards” campaign features the work of advocates for schools serving military families. Among the resources is an article from the Center for American Progress titled “How the Common Core Improves Education for Military-Connected Children.”
“The Honesty Gap” campaign asserts that states must take NAEP’s definition of “proficiency” as the standard for judging the “honesty” in state tests. State tests that claim students are “proficient “are dishonest unless the state standard is the same as for NAEP tests. The “honesty gaps” for each state are shown on an interactive map. The explicit message is that schools are often lying to parents about student achievement. The website should be called Arne Duncan’s BS. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=246201831
The “Understanding ESSA” campaign provides news about USDE activities (up-to-date) and links to state actions that comply with ESSA.
The whole website is devoted to a belligerent judgments of states, districts, and schools while bolstering advocacy groups who will insist on “strict fidelity” to ESSA in state plans.
These birds of a feather intent on repeating the misery of two decades of top down reform.
They have learned nothing.
I wrote SLAYING GOLIATH to document their serial failures.
They are the STATUS QUO.
We need change from their failures.
They have learned a lot! They are raising a glass and toasting to their disruption of public schools and they are planning the final nail in the coffin for public education. These are smart business people never to be underestimated.
Laura, your list is a nice overview of the network of fake education advocacy groups that have been building up over several years sustained by money fed to them by captured DoEds and vulture philanthropists. Its as if they all pass money among themselves, spending it on a limited & predetermined set of pet projects.
It’s why we will never hear anything innovative from this group. They won’t vary from their failed ideas that are rarely ever independently peer reviewed. They’re stale. They’ve failed. They remind me of the dying Russian aristocracy in Tolstoy’s “The Cherry Orchard.”
Ahh, George W Bush and his wife Laura, two of the most beloved figures in the US, what with the NCLB, the Iraq War, and their brilliant response to Hurricane Katrina. And Tim McGraw was a real popular country singer — when Bush was president. And they’re gonna talk about test scores? How exciting. I’m sure this event will be a smashing success. Smashing.
Smashing Pumpkins???
More education, more funding, more enrichment?
Let them eat Scantron!