Mercedes Schneider heard an interview with Jill Biden in which she pledged that a future President Bidennwoyld choose a Secretary of Education who has spent time “in the classroom.” That set Mercedes’ teeth on edge. “In the classroom” could mean a Teach for America tyro who spent two years “in the classroom.”
No, sir-ee. If you want the votes of millions of teachers, you have to do better than make a fuzzy promise.
She writes:
On the surface, that sounds fantastic. On the surface.
The problem is that the education reform movement specializes in its members having temp time “in the public schools” as a resume-padding device designed to catapult them into leadership positions in K12 education, such as district and state superintendents. So, technically, one of these classroom-exiting, sleight-of-experience resume padders could slide right on in as the next secretary of education, without spending but a moment’s time as a classroom teacher, and you, sir, might not know the difference because the person is *technically* able to declare having been “in the public schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“If you want the votes of millions of teachers, you have to do better than make a fuzzy promise.”
Dear Ms. Schneider,
I have enormous esteem for you, and your essential point here is well taken. Are you, however, recommending that unless Joe Biden demonstrates a better understanding of what it means and what it takes to be a professional educator, millions of teachers either vote for Donald T***p or sit out the 2020 presidential election? I pray that you are merely being rhetorically fervent, and I eagerly await your clarification. Thank you.
In solidarity,
Bill Rosenthal
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I doubt that Mercedes means anything close to what you suggest. You are putting words in her mouth that never came out. Sad, indeed very sad.
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Assuming that anyone challenging a top Democratic candidate over a specific agenda that matters to millions of teachers is a suspect of secret Trump fan is a kind of prerogative.That’s exactly the reason why so many liberal/Lincoln project pundits are now criticized for McCarthyite witch hunting and conspiracy.
Your behavior is of a kind. Sad.
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the pledge by Senator Warren to put a former teacher as head of Dept of Education is what began this….when we all know that the most toxic Superintendants were once, briefly, teachers, before they abandoned it for more lucrative positions. Meanwhile, non classroom teachers like Diane Ravitch are enormously well informed and in a position to make outstanding policy. So, no Senator Warren and the rest, you don’t need a former teacher to run the Dept of Education. You need a person committed to America’s children and determined to end the standardized testing that penalizes everyone by distorting the curriculum out of what it used to be.
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definitely we need a person who gets the ‘long view’
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Let us provide the Biden Campaign with a list of Candidates. Educate Biden NOW. “Dear Joe. These are the kinds of resumes that you should consider for the DOE top job. In fact, here is a solid list of people to staff the entire department, as the restoration/cleanup will be decades-on once we get Betsy and her minions GONE.”
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Peter Greene of Curmuducation would be great. Anthony Cody. Jose Vilson. Carol Burris. I could add more. Those are just off the top of my head.
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Argh! How could I forget Mercedes Schneider herself? She’d be amazing, what with her research skill and doctorate in statistics.
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Argh! How could I forget Mercedes Schneider herself? She’d be amazing, with her research skill and doctorate in statistics.
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Teachers must remain active and alert if Biden wins the election. The truth is that Biden like Obama is getting a lot of money from Silicon Valley and Wall St. If Biden appoints White or any other deformer, teachers, students, parents and social justice groups should be prepared to launch a “Red for Ed” march in Washington. We should protest this betrayal loud and clear. We do not have bundles of cash so we need to use the power of the people to voice our dissent. We do not give Biden a pass like the one that was given to Obama. We know that “choice” is a smokescreen for racism and privatization. We know what test and punish and privatization do to public education, and we require our government to fairly serve public schools.
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This is an interesting article that attempts to look at several issues in K-12 education. It also attempts to imagine what K-12 education policy may look like under a Biden administration.https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/08/19/how-a-biden-white-house-could-diverge.html
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If Biden appoints White or any other deformer, teachers, students, parents and social justice groups should be prepared to launch a “Red for Ed” march in Washington.
Agreed! The response should be immediate and strong.
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No, Bob, preemptive action is needed, not a response.
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I have long, long wished that the national teachers’ unions would organize actions against the standardized testing regime. It’s obscene that they haven’t and shows ignorance of why the tests are not valid instruments.
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Maria Montessori based her whole method on two years in the classroom. 19th Century TFA/snake oil saleswoman.
I will vote for Biden twice despite Jill’s remark.
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Twice as in 2020 and 2024, or as in in-person and by mail? I think I know — just checking.
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twice. lmao.
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In other news, Pear$on (“Profit$ over People) has issued a “$ocial impact bond” offering that differs from other social impact bonds in that it is not tied to any measures of $ucce$$ because, you know, accountability is for prole children and their teachers and not for actual or a$piring ma$ter$ of the universe. The money will be used to prop up its Connection$ Academy virtual $chool$ and to drive more $tudent$ to the GED program$ it runs after taking over the GED, Common Coring the te$t, and making it a lot more difficult to pa$$, thus en$uring that that $tudent$ will have to put off their dreams, take the te$t $everal time$, and pay for this again and again at the new, higher rate$ that Pear$on charge$. Pear$on recently sold off, in a fire sale, its dreadful, failing, Common Core-y K-12 textbook offerings, but it held onto its lucrative te$ting and online bu$ni$$e$.
It remains to be seen whether the new Pear$on $ocial impact bond will have the intended social impact of improving the socioeconomic level of the parties that top leaders in the racket are invited to.
https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/pearson-raises-nearly-460m-social-bond-virtual-career-programs/
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I would hope that Randi Weingarten will support a lifetime educator — with bona fide years of experience in the classroom and demonstrated leadership as a school principal or administrator–to be the next S of E. Someone, perhaps, who has opposed the abusive testing that children and teachers have suffered.
Although Randi herself might not qualify, she knows the real deal and should use her influence to prevent the kind of hustler Ms Schneider fears might have a shot in DC under Biden. I appreciate the red flag she is raises in her letter. Joe (and Jill’s) choice will make a profound statement, about what they truly believe our endangered public schools need and what the future demands.
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Fred Smith says “I appreciate the red flag she is raises in her letter. Joe (and Jill’s) choice will make a profound statement, about what they truly believe our endangered public schools need and what the future demands.”
I agree. I have no idea who is advising the Biden/Harris campaign on a Secretary of Education or policies, but Mercedes’ red flag is a reminder to all of us. We should be better informed about who is setting agendas and making recommendations on appointments.
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I think Laura H. Chapman would make a fine Secretary of Education.
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DON’T MISS THIS– it makes the very POINT of this blog the TRUTH — that we the teachers ARE the INTRINSIC ELEMENT in order for LEARNING to happen!. Period! That is “Observable Reality,” which is — according to Bloom ( and everyone who knows what’s REAL and what is not) — the truth!
FOR LEARNING TO OCCUR, the professional in the room — like the doctor in the hospital, or the attorney in courtroom — must have (in addition to the education and knowledge of childhood psychology) the practice in the one place which the job REQUIRES! In the classroom with the child. https://www.dropbox.com/s/b0q9sn6glh39quw/SFUSD%20Final%205.29%20%28pathway%29.mp4?dl=0.
The video shows how SFUSD’s Pathway prepares teachers to enter the classroom! BTW— 65% of the teaching participants in the Pathway to teaching identify as people of color.
Of course, to educators and parents alike, besides education and practice, teaching requires a special *’talent’ — one that is INTRINSIC to a child’s learning — the RAPPORT with the teacher. Kids learn because teachers KNOW HOW TO engage and motivate them!!!!!!
Other factors will also determine what a child takes away from the classroom experience, but anyone who has ever watched a child learn from an adult, knows that learning is not merely memorizing facts.
FYI: Jennifer Steiner, the Executive Director for Professional Growth & Development in SFUSD is my niece. She appears first in the video, “Pathway To Growth,” and twice more, as she explains what teachers need, and introduces the resources that are crucial, not merely necessary in order to build a community of HIGH Quality, authentic, *professional teachers who can reach/teach children.
Trust me, folks — this executive director is a brilliant, dedicated woman who was, of course, **first a teacher — before she was the principal of a very successful elementary school in a latino district, and became the E.D. after her next principalship of the K to 12 Horace-Mann HS, in SF.
Because she began her career in the classroom, and knows what is needed there — for learning to take place,, and then she went on over her careers principal –to oversee the development of teachers in the schools Now she wants others to know what resources must be in place in order to DEVELOP TEACHERS’ GROWTH
And one last thing, the monied monarch$ of this nation talk about “teaching but never about genuine teachers, or about real learning! Their only purpose is to sell their product and make profits.
They profit not the education of the child in this nation.
They OWN the hedge funds that push their products such as “online programs”, or Charter Schools; THEY decide what the CONVERSATION WILL BE because they own the media and the politicians– the legislators who cut funding for public schools.
Know this– when The Pew New Standards Research came into NYC, and chose my practice to be the NYC cohort for the research on Harvard’s “The Principles of Learning” — THE CONVERSATION that began every seminar I attended, was WHAT does LEARNING Look LIKE?
So to sum up: Jennifer Steiner and me (Susan Lee Steiner/Schwartz) recognize when a child is learning… and we know what makes that happen… and it begins with the TEACHER… not the text book, or the computer lesson.
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For now I’ll say, if Joe Biden nominates a toothbrush for secretary of education, that’s fine. Let’s be honest here — in two more months.
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Oral B is better than Anal B any day of the week.
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I’d vote for a woodpecker to beat Dangerous Donald and Delirious DeVos.
Any brush will do,
Sick of fighting cavities caused by Duncan Donuts with just DeFloss.
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also Read my essays at OPED. “Magic Elixir. No evidence Required”
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html or this one
“Learning not Teacher Evaluation should be the emphasis of media”
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Learning-not-Teacher-evalu-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-111001-956.html
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Even if Biden just meant having attended public kindergarten, that would still be more time than Betsy ever spent in any public school classroom.
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Having attended public kindergarten for just one day.
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I listen periodically to the Hidden Brain segment on NPR. It often highlights interesting psychological research and ponders its implications. A few weeks ago, it explored the process by which human beings forget how they felt about something only a short time before. It reminded me of teaching.
The tendency to forget how we felt as teachers as school winds down every spring brings many teachers back in the fall. Trauma like the thing we are experiencing now helps us see more vividly the frustration of a past year, which goes a long way toward explaining the massive exodus of teachers this year, despite the longer than usual break.
All of which points to the problem of centralizing education in the form of a an education secretary. Different parts of a country as vast as this one have different needs. Rural poverty does not treat people the way urban poverty does. Education needs around a high tech industry needs to look different from education where people are more likely to exist in a very stable agricultural community.
Thus whether a secretary of education is a former teacher of not seems less important than the degree to which that person places its own vision of what education should be above that of the local vision. DeVos places the vision of education for a small fraction above all local vision. This is the thing that disqualifies her for her position.
The nation secretary of education should have one goal: the equitable distribution of educational opportunities to all citizens. I doubt my being a teacher for the better part of the last 42 years would qualify me as a decent advocate for all students in the political area. Rather, I think it might handicap me.
When Biden makes a statement that he is picking a secretary of education from the field of those who are experienced, he is only trying to get votes. This is how people get elected. They get votes. When Warren makes her policy statements, she is trying to get votes, and so for every other political candidate who is successful. This is the way a system like we have works. Knowing that, I can, like Mercedes S, say things to push a candidate in the direction I want them to go, or even vote for,someone who represents me more on balance. It is the way we work in lieu of shooting. The shooting this summer and in the past should give us pause about how well our political leaders are responding to the needs of those who vote or choose not to.
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BTW, a lot of comments up here are echoing, in some form, what Dienne has been saying/warning us about, especially what retired teacher said up there at 10:57 AM tofay, 9/6. There are already some doozy picks for other positions that have been reported, are under discussion. Lots of articles (WaPo, NYT), & NPR, MSN.com, etc. are reporting on “Wall Street’s Big Money is Betting on Biden & Dems,” & other such headlines.
Yes, I’m definitely voting against it45…& we’ll all be out (hopefully, as early as Nov. 4th) to put pressure on the new administration.
&, to me, getting rid of DeVos doesn’t mean just picking a toothbrush. We already suffered through Arne & White (double backstab!). American public education deserves much, much better…in fact, the best.
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