Jeff Bryant wrote in the LA Progressive about President Biden’s “golden opportunity” to strengthen public education by throwing out two decades of failed “reforms.”
As we now know (and Jeff did not when he wrote the article), Biden got off on the wrong foot by mandating another round of standardized testing this spring. This unwise decision was foretold when the news came out that the Biden administration had hired Ian Rosenblum as Deputy Assistant Secretary in a key part of the Department of Education, where policy and strategy are forged. Rosenblum was never a teacher. He previously worked for the pro-testing Education Trust New York, where John King was his mentor. When King was Commissioner of Education in New York, his heavy-handed advocacy for Common Core and high-stakes testing created the parent-led Opt Out movement.
The Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has not yet been confirmed; he is not anti-testing, but might he have been more thoughtful about mandating a renewal of testing in the midst of a global pandemic? Deputy Secretary Cindy Marten has not yet been confirmed; she knows that testing is an after-effect, not a cause of sensible education policies. But neither of them was in place. Was Rosenblum left on his own to impose a national mandate? I suspect that President Biden never heard of Ian Rosenblum, yet this young man has made millions of parents and teachers angry with his insensitive, heavy-handed announcement.
Yes, President Biden has a “golden opportunity” to rebuild and strengthen public education. But not by relying on people molded by the twenty years of failed “reforms” of the Bush-Obama-Trump years.
As Bryant points out, the schools need a new vision for education, not a stale, warmed-over dose of testing, accountability, and privatization. No, we do not need another dose of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and Every Student Succeeds–all of which failed. It’s time to break free of the status quo. It’s time for fresh thinking. Filling up the U.S. Department of Education with retreads from the Obama years–and their progeny–will send us backwards, not forwards. Now is a time for sensitivity, not stupidity.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Filling up the U.S. Department of Education with retreads from the Obama years–and their progeny–will send us backwards, not forwards. Now is a time for sensitivity, not stupidity. ”
Amen.
Obama also had a Golden Opportunity (TM) — to reform Wall Street — and we know how that turned out.
He cashed in on it.
And, anti-trust action against the tech monopoly.
Yup.
& still is…big time!! ($11 million waterfront home in Martha’s Vineyard)
#1 best-selling book…about what?
A false idol.
Dollars and centsitivity.
🙂
“Hey, I’ve got a great idea! Let’s treat the patient with leeches to draw off the bad blood.”
“Uh, we’ve been doing that. Regularly. And whenever we do that, the patient shows no improvement whatsoever. In fact, often, the patient passes out. And then dies.”
“But Master Gates says. . . .”
“Well, yes. He is certainly a great authority on leeching.”
“Indeed. The problem is clearly that we haven’t been leeching the patients enough.”
“Whatever you say, Dr. Ian. More leeches! Bring in the leeches!”
Sadly, so true. Sort of like the beatings will continue until morale improves.
exactly like
The high-stakes standardized testing is expensive, useless, abusive, and curriculum- and pedagogy-devolving, and 20 years of it has resulted in a) no statistically significant increase in test scores and b) no decrease in racial gaps
One would have to be a) a blind ideologue, b) a rapacious seller of testing and testing-related materials, c) a dupe, d) an idiot, e) a meretricious con artist in the pay of rapacious sellers of testing and testing-related materials, or f) some combination of the above to be continuing to support this.
It is particularly appalling that the major national teachers’ unions have STILL not committed to organizing to end the federal high-stakes standardized testing mandate. This is obscene. It’s a national scandal.
But, then, 60 percent of American adults, according to a recent poll, support vaccinating all teachers before requiring that they return to in-person instruction, and the leaders of the teachers unions haven’t even caught up to that!!!!
It’s appalling. Truly appalling. Unconscionable.
That the major national teachers unions haven’t organized to end the mandate is, indeed, truly appalling. Why haven’t they? It isn’t as if this is a recent mandate.
That’s been my surprise since coming to this blog and becoming acquainted with the many problems of privatization on the one hand, and the mandates of standardized testing on the other.
I see organization of the other side massively influencing legislators, but little on the side of public education.
What will it take to even bring to the attention of the average person the threat going on behind their backs in the halls of legislatures.
I’ll ask a question I asked elsewhere today. Are there any billionaires on our side?
👍👍👍 Great article!
Yet another hire from the Obama Adminstration/ ed reform echo chamber:
“Congrats to scottsargrad for his appointment as deputy chief of staff for policy & programs at usedgov! A good sign for #edreform too. (We’re counting on you Scott!) ”
The ed reform lobbying groups and think tanks are celebrating these hires- they’re interpreting this as a sign they’ll continue to run federal education policy, as they have the last 20 years.
Bad news for students who attend public schools.
There is a link between a characteristic of the republican party, and the testing industry. Perhaps too many of the newly-rich media have noticed. Short phrases like….”the fake media”, “the election was stolen”, “abortion is murder”, “they want to take away your guns”, “stop spending” are daily staples………How wealthy are those who tell us how good and bad our schools are from developing tests which have four short answers to choose from….easily graded, easy to tabulate charts to give easy to understand numbers..I am not sure if that is a fair charge to make….so I will play by their rules…”the testing industry is rotten”.
the newly-rich media pundits have failed to notice……Short phrases are difficult for me to make……
Not a bad idea, Joe! We need short, pithy slogans that can be repeated over and over again with no conscious thought. I remember my oldest son, as a toddler, repeating the telephone number for a hair replacement outfit ad infinitum. Their TV ad was ubiquitous.
I long for the day when millions of kids sit down on test day and write at the top of the bubble sheet:
Sorry, but my mind is not standardized enough to formulate the requested responses.
That carpet guy’s TV ads too, speduktr! “Fiive-eieight-two, threee-twoo-hundred, EMMMPIIIRRE!”
.
🙂
Before there was Trump and DeVos, it became obvious that the only point the rapidly polarizing political parties agreed on is that teachers need to be disrespected. Trump and DeVos tried to ignore schools and promote vouchers.
That the modern Democratic Party cannot use this as a significant issue to separate itself from their opponents is simply amazing. Or proof of corruption, a thing really believed by all Trumpism. If the Democrats do not grab this issue, it could bury their chances.
Meanwhile, in the real world inhabited by public school parents:
Thanks Diane. As you say, I wrote this before Biden went back on his campaign promise to end standardized testing. His betrayal is a disappointment for sure.
More than a disappointment, Jeff. Betrayal. Grand larceny.
Just like our kids are “more than a score.”
Appointment of Podesto’s protege, Neera Tanden, is further betrayal. She’s an oligarch-funded, wringer of hands about minimum wage, who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Biden also has a Golden Opportunity to pass a $15 an hour minimum wage bill.
But he won’t do it, and not because he can’t.
After all, his VP could overrule the Republican Partyliamentarian, an unelected hack who has no legal or Constitutional standing, the so that excuse simply doesn’t wash.
Elizabeth MacDonough, who gets paid $171k a year — 11X what a minimum wage earner gets — plus great health insurance — is clearly not basing her ruling on the facts of the case, which means she is not even honestly doing the job she is paid handsomely to do.
With her blatantly partisan ruling, she is denying millions of American a decent wage and thereby keeping them in poverty.
She must be very proud of herself.
And what makes it worse still is that we — you and I — are paying this person’s salary with our taxes.
Seriously, who does she think she is? God?
Sargrad and Tanden- from billionaire- employed to taxpayer burden- same agendas to gut Main Street for the benefit of Wall Street and tech tyrants.
Then again, maybe her ruling was actually done at the behest of Biden.
Given that Bicen/Harris have declined to overrule it, that remains a plausible possibility.
I hope Harris did not ever want to become President because she just ensured that that won’t happen.
Imagine her trying to “explain” during a future Democratic primary to millions of minimum wage earners how she was the only one standing in the way of the wage hike.
It ain’t going to go over well. Just as it ain’t going to go over well in the 2022 midterm elections for the Democrats.
But apparently Biden and Harris do not care.
Raising the Federal Minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers.
https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/
It’s just absurd to claim that such a raise would have no impact on the Federal budget.
Slaves by definition don’t pay taxes.
Libertarians like Bill Gates, Charles Koch, Walton heirs and Bezos use political hacks to drive down the taxes they pay.
All of it is part of the plan to create a colonialist society.
America never left colonialism.
The Constitution is still serving the same people for whom and by whom it was created: the monied/propertied class.
And despite the common misperception, Thomas Jefferson was no “democrat.”
His belief in democracy extended no further than his back door, beyond which his slaves lived.
He even proposed a “Four percent Theorem” regarding the increase in his wealth due to growth (via births) in his slaves population.
The folks who excuse him by saying “You can’t judge him by today’s standards” are completely missing the point. There were plenty of people even in Jeffersons time who knew that slavery was wrong and even pointed out how Jefferson’s slaveholding contradicted his flowery rhetoric about all men being created equal.
allow nothing for losses by death, but, on the contrary, shall presently take credit four per cent. per annum, for their increase over and above keeping up their own numbers.”
As the U.S. evolved and immigrants and their descendants built its GDP, answered the call for military service from the commander in chief, etc. the promise of equality of economic opportunity and political power found footing. It was an accomplishment that at one time was a beacon for developing nations.
Tangentially related, Poet, “keeping up their numbers”-
Religious teaching against suicide protected the slave owners from loss of their human assets. “Committing suicide, committing a sin”.
An authentic pro-life statement based on humanity would be, “lost a life to suicide”.
At least Jefferson was right about religion, in all ages, in all countries the priest aligns with the despot.
Sanders is acting Presidential in this case
Parliamentarian,’ Sanders to Force Vote on $15 Minimum Wage Amendment
“I regard it as absurd that the parliamentarian, a Senate staffer elected by no one, can prevent a wage increase for 32 million workers.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/02/urging-senate-ignore-parliamentarian-sanders-force-vote-15-minimum-wage-amendment
Biden is acting like a corporate waterboy, hiding behind the parliamentarian’s skirt.
It’s pathetic.
If Biden is not up to the job, people should just ignore hm and follow Sanders’ lead.
And now another fake Virginia Democrat , The Man from La Mansion ,has weighed in on the call to eliminate the killibuster.
Cried Manchin
“Jesus Christ! What don’t you understand about never?”
He forgot the H. for emphasis
It’s “Jesus H. Christ”
I thought everyone knew that.
And if you really want emphasis
It’s ” Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle!” (Also the name of a climb in Utah)
But maybe that’s just a Utah term, so wouldn’t expect La Man from La Mansion to be familiar with it.
La Man from La Mansion is very confused about which party he belongs to.
La Man from La Mansion also wants to lower the threshold for the covid relief checks and also reduce unemployment from (an already measly $400 ) a week to (an even measlier) $300 a week.
With Democrats like la Mansion, who needs Republicans?
La Man and daughter from La Mansion and La Mylan
If Koch hasn’t already reached out to Manchin in his bid for bi-partisanship, it’s a-comin’.
So tired of the same old English curriculum; no one teaches the writing process any more, and essays aren’t even graded! Let alone forcing below level readers to tackle Shakespeare and Sophocles!