Randi Weingarten and I talked about what happens next: after the pandemic, how we protect schools and children from “opportunistic” tech entrepreneurs, what does Cuomo have up his sleeve, can we trust Biden to ditch Race to the Top bogus ideas?
Our conversation was recorded and live-streamed by the Network for Public Education. Carol Burris introduced us. The conversation wa facilitated by Darcie Cimarusti and Marla Kilfoyle, the fabulous staff of NPE.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In case you haven’t heard.
Indiana School Chief refuses to follow DeVos directive for CARES money. Awesome job!
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These conversations that Diane has been having, via webcam, with leaders of the Resistance around the country are simply wonderful. Diane has been posting links to these. It’s easy to sign up and join them live. And what a treat they are!!! I urge other readers of this blog to attend them. Solidarity!!!
BTW, speaking of solidarity, Joe and Bernie have put together teams to work out detailed joint position papers and policy proposals in advance of the Democratic Convention. This is a WONDERFUL development and should knock the Trumpeteers back on their bone spur-y heels. And WONDERFULLY, they have included the leaders of the two largest national teachers’ unions on their committees to develop these. This is the most positive news I’ve read in a long, long time. This article tells who is on the joint task forces developing the policy proposals:
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/13/21257078/joe-biden-bernie-sanders-joint-unity-task-forces-democratic-policy?fbclid=IwAR21ZKeO_R5V8BHl7zYppsAq388FdwKkNPYF8oDyETLovsHiZQoqp5nPXcg
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Note to Joe and Bernie: Diane Ravitch belongs on the education team. She is probably the single most important person for you to add to this group.
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yes
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I took advantage of a workday at school to listen to the conversation while I did things compatible with that activity (we are having time in school to close out the year. Trust me, social distancing is not a problem).
One thing I was struck by was Weing’s assertion that Obama and Alexander had rejected NCLB and RTT. It certainly did not seem to me the ESSA was a rejection of those programs at all. It kept much of the grading of schools and the emphasis on testing that were at the heart of the failure of those programs over the tenure of most of the past two decades.
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Weingarten should stop covering for Democrats’ bad education ideas. Fundamentally, ESSA was not a rejection of NCLB and RttT, but a softening of some, not all of the mandates. It certainly did not slow down privatization or improve teaching & learning conditions for public schools- things Weingarten should be demanding from politicians in the Democratic party.
Arne Duncan got everything he wanted in that law. ESSA requires continued grade level testing. It changed the decisions on testing and evaluating teachers & schools to states rather than DoEd. Duncan & Obams led infrastructure for testing & evaluating was already entrenched across the country in both state law & in DoEd regs so there was little chance they would be reversed. The Common Core has never gone away. Each state was permitted to pick it’s own standards and most had not done so given the money & time needed to develop new ones.
ESSA also lowered the standards for preparing teachers by removing the highly qualified provision. That was a gift to TFA, Relay “Graduate School” of Education and every for profit online school in the country to churn out teachers on the cheap.
Buried deep into ESSA is the allowance of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) to fund PreK. SIBs are a license for private financial entities steal money and deny services to children with disabilities.
I’ve been disappointed too many times expecting AFT and NEA to use their national and local community relationships to organize against any & all forms of privatization.
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Weingarten also needs to stop covering for Gates too.
Otherwise this was a good interview.of course Diane was the one most on point .
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I hope I was clear that ESSA is no better than its predecessors.
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Lots was said about charter schools during the last 25 minutes……well deserved. I had hoped to have a paragraph about choice schools discussed….perhaps the choice schools still have enough control and fairness from the public schools, that it remains a necessity…and the hugeness of the negative problems from charters is what has to be dealt with..I do not know much about Mr. Holman, but I did think he framed the situation in an understandable way: Dec 4, 2017
By Carlon Howard, New Leaders Council Rhode Island
This article is the first piece in a four-part series that examines the modern school choice movement in America. School choice is often a politically divisive topic that leaves many education reformers conflicted. On one end, school choice may be the answer for many families who feel their children are being deprived of a quality education. On the other end, it may prove to be a public resource drain that is contributing to the privatization of education. School choice may be able to provide a more immediate solution to educational disparities, but has the potential to create devastating long term consequences without sufficient accountability measures and equitable funding policies.
View at Medium.com
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An idea I tried at my school was to team teach utilizing 2 teachers with a special ed teacher and education assistant to divide up 60 kids. Thus. 15-1 ratio. The special ed teacher would take gen ed kids as well as sp ed based on individual needs while ed assistants could do activities like over see projects, computer work etc. The team, in block scheduling, could decide among themselves what to teach and when. It worked out great at my small middle school
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We devised separate pull out rooms so all students wouldn’t be in one place
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Another possibility is to utilize community learning centers for alternate days. Those like the ones run by the YMCA and others could provide the arts, physical fitness computer work etc
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I agreed with everything you said, Diane. I also agreed with most of what Randi said, but a few things she suggested were a little disconcerting. I disagree that Bill Gates listens to or cares about parents; instead, he blames parents for not being as financially successful as he has been in his meritocracy, and scoffs at the idea of anyone who works for a living having anything meaningful to say about anything. I disagree that state and district power players will refuse permanent depersonalized, online education just because students, parents, and teachers hate it; politicians don’t listen to us; New York students, parents, and teachers need Randi to be their voice on Cuomo’s task farce, not leave it up to the public to complain.
I also disagree that mayors like L.A. Mayor Garcetti should let school districts use up their educational resources, turning themselves into food banks for the general public. School budgets are tight enough feeding and educating students. Last and far from least, I must add that I disagreed strongly with something Randi said about charter schools and competition. She said that public schools should get better resources to better compete with charter schools. The competition for resources itself is what needs to end. She seems to think charters are superior competitors. They’re not. They’re just well-funded advertisers. Public schools shouldn’t have to compete for students. It’s difficult to push for a moratorium on charter expansion when powerful people buy into the competition mindset. Disconcerting.
All that off my chest, I thoroughly enjoyed participating, seeing so many of you there, and even being recognized by Diane aloud and Carol in the private chat space. I was also heartened to see Howard Blume of the L.A. Times in the meeting. It was a meaningful discussion and an honor joining you all.
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Charters have nothing to offer other than the opportunity to get away from “those” children, the troublemakers or the kids of a different race.
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And that’s why helping public schools “compete” will never help.
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Great interview. Thanks, Diane.
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