My website is dianeravitch.com. I write about two interconnected topics: education and democracy. I am a historian of education.
Diane Ravitch’s Blog by Diane Ravitch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at dianeravitch.net.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Media Advisory: Achieve’s Sandy Boyd to Discuss
2013 PDK/Gallup Poll Results
Washington, DC – August 19, 2013 – Sandra Boyd, Achieve COO and Senior Vice President, will appear on a panelto discuss the results of the 2013 PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools on Wednesday, August 21, 2013, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at The Gallup Building, 901 F Street, NW, Washington, DC.
Ms. Boyd will compare the results with the extensive Common Core polling and surveys Achieve has conducted over the past two years. The results of Achieve’s first two polls (here and here) found that the public is still not aware of the standards, but receptive to the states adoption of common, college- and career-ready standards.
Achieve will again be conducting more Common Core polling and releasing results this fall which will include trend data based on our previous work.
Media Contact: Chad Colby (202) 419-1570, ccolby@achieve.org
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Obama and Arne visit Syracuse this week. I want to gag.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/president_obama_will_highlight_say_yes_to_education_in_syracuse.html#incart_river_default
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Here comes the Obama/Duncan incursion into higher education, with college ratings tied to financial aid, as predicted: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/08/22/631547usobama_ap.html
“President Barack Obama is proposing a new rating system for colleges aimed at helping students identify affordable institutions.
The new ratings would be published before the 2015 school year. The White House says the president ultimately wants the ratings to be tied to federal financial aid.
The plan would require congressional approval.”
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That is detailed more in this NY Times piece.
Since colleges long ago shed their most costly expenditure by hiring 75% contingent faculty, that leaves the often outrageously high salaries of professors in professional fields such as medicine and law, as well as administrative salaries. I don’t see those coming down, but I do anticipate fewer scholarships and less options for middle and low income families.
BTW, this includes private colleges, since most accept students who are on financial aid.
At this point, I am seeing no backing off of the federal over-reach into education and am all for dissolving the Department of Education completely.
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D.C. Charters…testing…3..4..5..year-olds. Yup! A new low.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/08/22/d-c-charter-schools-to-give-standardized-tests-to-young-children/
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Charles Pierce, author of Idiot America, has written this latest on CPS and Rahm. Warning- Charles has coined a new sobriquet for Rahm that some may find a little distasteful.
Chicago’s Schools Open for Business
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rahm-emanuel-chicago-school-reform-081413?src=soc_fcbks
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Is that SOB-riquet a quote of something Rahm said in public?
Does anyone know the reference and have a citation?
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Diane, one thing that I have not seen mentioned yet about the recent Obama proposal to grade colleges is the insane idea that one of the metrics that will be used in the evaluation is the salary of students who graduate from the institution. That’s right, according to the New York Times story, the amount of money graduates make will be used to determine the grade a college receives.
If there were any lingering doubts about the ignorance and venality of those in control of education policy, this proposal should wipe them out for all time. We must shame these people publicly, not just to walk back these sick policies, but to resign and install people who know even the smallest bit about what education means.
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Take a gander at Tony Bennett’s biography here on the Chiefs for Change website: http://chiefsforchange.org/members/tony-bennett-2/
It’s as if the man never got caught with his pants down, having rigged his state’s school evaluation system specifically to benefit the charter of a politically connected donor, refused to use the same rigged system to help a pair of public schools avoid being taken over by a charter corporation (that coincidentally hired his wife as an administrator a short while after that), and had e-mails to staff exposed where he admitted to having lied about the situation for months.
He’s still giving talks and representing the organization!
These people have no shame!
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Yesterday, tens of thousands of people marched in DC to commemorate MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech but it was not a celebratory event for all. Many were there to protest inequities today, including a teacher who carried a sign that said, “CEO: $7,000/hour. Teacher: $19.42/hour. Absurd,”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-march-anniversary-20130825,0,272541.story
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So now anyone can hang a shingle, proclaim themselves a teacher and open up a “university”, huh? I had no idea there was a Trump University. The Donald is up the creek:
“Trump University Made False Claims, Lawsuit Says”
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Diane, When you read different online articles, how can you separate out how much is legit versus “hoax” material? I’d like to be able to do some of my own critical reading without having to always run to “an expert!” Thanks, Hannah
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Last Friday, my family and I were travelling from the DC area up north to visit relatives. We stopped at “Delaware House” on I95 along the way. During that time, I recognized someone who come into the building, but I just couldn’t place him. I thought that maybe he was a TV anchor or something. On our way out, he was leaving too, and chatting up my son. So I said to him, “I know you from somewhere.” He said, “Hi, I’m Cory Booker, mayor of Newark NJ.”
So, I introduced him to my family as the next senator from NJ. He was fabulous. And I was the only one to recognize him out of the whole place!
Then I said, “my wife is a school psychologist in the DC school system” to which he replied he was born in DC. I said “you really need to pay attention to Diane Ravitch and her writings about education policy. She’s writing very important stuff about education reform.”
He said he knew your work – or he knew you – I can’t remember which.
So, maybe you can send him your latest book and mention that “one of my fans” met you on I95 and wants you to hear me out.
I’m not a lobbyist (although I know a lot of them considering where I work) but I was surprised at how I jumped right into lobbying mode. Who knows, maybe I made an impact.
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Thank you, Adam. Since Cory Booker is on the board of Democrats for Education Reform–the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group that advocates for charters and high-stakes testing–I doubt he will want to read what I write. I wish he would.
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Here comes the beginning of standardized testing in higher ed:
“Not enough to graduate college: Now there’s an exit exam”
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/not-enough-graduate-college-now-theres-exit-exam-8C11006596
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Diane,
Here in Hoover, Alabama there is a huge kerfuffle over the cancellation of bus service. There seems to be connection between the sudden announcement of the cancellation of transportation services and some residents concerns that “those people” in lower cost apartments are driving down test scores at one the schools. The logic would be that making more difficult to get “their” child to school will drive more of “them” out of the city. (The dots start connecting here: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/08/hoover_bus_shutdown_will_yank.html).
[Scare quotes used because many of the supposed problem children are my children’s friends – they’re “us” not “them”]
It seems well demonstrated that test scores and income are strongly correlated. My question is this: Is this true mainly at the school level – average test scores vs average income, or at the individual level – your test scores will be high if your mother is a lawyer no matter where you go to school (within reason, of course)? Are “those people” ruining the education of some parent’s precious little Susie?
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Why solve problems when you can create new ones?
California School District Hires Contractor To Spy On Students Social Media Postings
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It’s time to stop saying that NY state commissioner John King
does not understand the negative ramifications of Common Core, Value Added, APPR etc. He does. These things are all part of a well orchestrated plan to discredit, undermine, and eventually eliminate public education. He is a key player in this well-funded cabal and understands exactly what he is doing.
It’s time for the gloves to come off and and denounce him and his agenda at every opportunity. A strong vote of no confidence in his leadership is absolutely called for at this point.
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I work at a non-profit organization in a state that currently does not have a law to authorize charter schools. We get a good amount of funding from LISC, which has just contacted us about pipeline opportunities if the law was changed in our state. It bothers me that they are so supportive of charter schools. I am trying to discover possible financial benefits to their organization and saw that they have sponsored investment seminars with Goldman Sachs on charters but would appreciate any other suggestions for how to discover board connections, etc. Thanks so much.
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Spitzer to audit standardized testing and NYC education.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/eliot-spitzer-education_n_3825669.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
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The Common Core State Standards: A First Draft
Much of what is written about the Common Care State Standards is based on a faulty premise about their quality. For example, on August 18, 2013 in The New York Times, Bill Keller wrote that the Common Core State Standards are “ the most serious educational reform of our lifetime and will raise public school standards nationwide”. Three days later, Charles Blow wrote that the Common Core State Standards will teach students “ to think critically and problem solve” and will “bolster” good teaching.
Not so. The Common Core Stare Standards will diminish student learning in high school English classes and will inhibit good teaching.
The CCSS harken back to the past and contradict the research of the past 70 years in the field of English language arts.
The CCSS will not develop strong readers. The authors of the standards herald the fact that they will require all students to read difficult literature. The truth is that assigning student to read books beyond their ability, rather than putting time and effort into developing the students’ skills and fostering their interest, will make them use the internet to locate summaries and analyses of those books instead of reading them. The CCSS do not address how to motivate students to actually sit and read a book, engage with its ideas and questions, and actively respond to those ideas and questions. With the CCSS, students will not be asked to BE readers.
The CCSS will not develop effective writers. All student writing will fit a prescribed formula for an argument in an impersonal, objective voice. Inductive reasoning and narrative thinking, the two other kinds of thinking that students need to develop through writing, are eliminated due to the CCSS concentration on the deductive reasoning of argument. Students will also be hampered in their development as writers because they will not be allowed to use the personal voice, as both Mr. Blow and Mr. Keller did in their pieces. Timed, in-class writing is valued rather than the deep thinking of multiple revisions. With the CCSS, the students will not be asked to BE writers.
David Coleman, the author of the English Language Arts Standards for the Common Core proudly says, over and over again in his stump speeches that English classrooms now prepare students for a world in which others care about what they think and feel, but in reality, he says, often with an unprintable expletive, “No one really cares what they feel or think.”
That is the world for which the CCSS will prepare the next generation, a world in which individual ideas and questions are absent.
There is an arrogance to the CCSS and to their spokesperson, David Coleman.
There is an arrogance to the English standards being written by people who have never taught English.
There is an arrogance to ignoring the rigorous standards of the professional organization of English language arts teachers, the National Council of Teachers of English, disregarding their published critiques of each draft of the CCSS, and being impervious to the fact that NCTE has not endorsed the Common Core State Standards.
There is an arrogance to saying that the narrow CCSS definition of what it means to read and what it means to write will help students to be the innovative thinkers and autonomous learners that the workplaces of the future will demand them to be.
There is an arrogance to saying that the standards that other countries have determined as measures of achievement, such as the ability to learn when faced with new situations or problems and the ability to think critically and creatively through collaboration with others, are not achievements because those skills are not on the narrowly confined tests aligned with the CCSS.
There is an arrogance to saying that student achievement can be defined only by the tests that the designers of the ill-conceived CCSS have commissioned.
It is time to look at the existing CCSS as a first draft. We have the knowledge and the expertise to write a next and better draft. As researchers, as English teachers, and as those who know well the workplace of the future, let’s work together to create standards which help all of our students to BE readers, to BE writers, to Be thinkers, and to create a world in which, indeed, we are all expected to have the motivation and the skills to express what we think and what we feel.
Ann Policelli Cronin, a recipient of national and state-wide awards for English teaching, curriculum design and professional development, has been creating English programs and supervising middle and high school English teachers in Connecticut for 27 years.
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Success Academy suspends and forces students out.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/success-academy-fire-parents-fight-disciplinary-policy-article-1.1438753
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Diane, do you have thoughts on Kentucky Ed Commissioner’s thoughts on Common Core? http://kyedcommissioner.blogspot.com/2013/08/top-10-things-you-need-to-know-about.html
The post reads like cheerleading, lacking any reasoned skepticism.
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Stevietheman, the post does read like cheerleading. Maybe Common Core is doing all the great things in Kentucky that the Commissioner says. If so, that is great. In New York, the tests caused passing rates to collapse and widened the achievement gaps.
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Thanks Diane for the response. I just cannot fathom many of the claims he’s making, based on what I read from other places, and the fact that Kentucky has implemented other reforms not tied into the corporate reform agenda that could explain better results. And in Kentucky, it appears that CCSS is being rolled out in a similar way as other states, without pilots.
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Ok, so let’s go ahead and get rid of all state songs too. That way when kids grow up they will all know one song and can be more global.
We can call it Common Core State Song (and music teachers won’t be told how to teach it, but kids must know it and then be tested on knowing it and to hell with all other state songs. And for that matter, we should all adopt the bald eagle as our state bird).
(To the tune of Kermit the Frog’s Rainbow Connection)
Why are there so many
Songs about states
And why they are Special, unique?
The States are just visions, and only illusions
We really should just all be the same.
So it is time to stop all of this nonsense
We need no identity, see?
Someday we’ll claim it,
The Common Core Connection
Reformers, Privatizers and me.
All of us under the sun
Should learn the same content
And be tested on it
So that we can finally be free!! (Key change)
Have you been half asleep?
Is this the sweet sound that lured the reformers?
I’ve heard it too many times before
Someday we’ll claim it
Our Common Core Connection
Reformers, privatizers and me.
Or to the tune of Yankee Doodle:
Common Core is what we are
It is our new ambition
States are silly, so are you
If you don’t help this fruition.
Common Core will lift us up
Common Core will save us
Who needs knowledge of their state
When Common Core eludes us!!
Or to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
Mine eyes have seen the coming of the blessed Common Core
It has trampled out the victory that reformers do deplore
It has loosed the fateful lightning of none other idea before
Homogeneity marches on!
Glory glory Common Core
Glory glory Common Core
Like no other notion ever tried before
Our no excuses core rocks on!
We have seen it in the neighborhoods of urbanite decay
We have seen it in the public school 100 miles away
Oh be swift all states to answer it
Be quick despite defeat
As Common Core marches on!
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SEND BACK THE SCORES -FROM NYSAPE——-
Dear Allies,
We have now posted a FB event page for what will hopefully be a state-wide Send Back the Scores campaign. Please help us promote this event by sharing this event. Also, please let us know if your group intends to sponsor your own, local campaign so that can share this information. Let’s send a strong message that NYS is united in our efforts to fight excessive testing!
https://www.facebook.com/events/238152966333080/
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Don’t know if this has been posted before, however, this nifty little app for your smart phone helps us to collectively support our principles through purchasing. The Buycott app is easy to install, and you choose which campaigns to support. There are campaigns that help you AVOID Koch industries and ALEC! Once you install it and choose your campaigns, all you have to do is scan the bar code of the item your considering, and the app tells you if you’re avoiding the company or if there aren’t any conflicts.
http://buycott.com/
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Thought this would be appropriate for Labor Day!!!! I’m using the app. to avoid non-union purchases!
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Teaching Channel is answering questions about Common Core. Their email says that the Experts are waiting to answer the tough questions. Should be interesting…
The email from Teaching Channel:
“September Special: Questions About the Common Core? Ask the Experts!
Hi ,
If you’re worrying about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Tch wants to help! Throughout September, we’ve lined up CCSS experts to answer your toughest questions. Get answers from CCSS experts from Student Achievement Partners (SAP), a nonprofit founded by contributing authors of the standards, and experts from PARCC and Smarter Balanced who are creating the CCSS assessments. This is a great opportunity for you to ask your grade-level and subject-specific questions. (And we know many of you have been trying out CC lessons, so jump in and answer a few questions!)”
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I am 67. I am so frustrated with the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s education reporting that I have offered my next social security check to a charity if he will tell his reporters to interview Michael Jones and O. Victor Benz. They are from St. Louis—both are on the state board of education. Jones is vice president. They dislike him and refuse to even mention his name. I framed the offer within a report that…..two wealthy foundation….Kaufman and Hall in Kansas city….put up 385,000 dollars for a study…the state board decided to spend the money on……the people who gave them the money in the first place……it is hard to explain why I feel so strongly…I do….http://interact.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=973611
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Diane,
Have you seen this? Unbelievable.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/04/tulsa-school-sends-girl-home-because-dreadlocks-and-afros-are-too-distracting/
How is this even allowed?
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I knew that the ultra-conservative UN conspiracy folks oppose Common Core, but I did not know that there is a faction who are also against charter schools. Did you know this, Diane? Do you know if they are getting much traction within the Republican party?
http://cherilyneagar.com/2013/04/early-roots-common-core-education-policy/
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Cosmic T, the Republican Party is split. The big corporations support Common Core, as do Jeb Bush and many far-right Republican governors. But the opponents within the party are worried about what they see as a federal takeover of education. The governors are trying to play a balancing act to satisfy the elites and the grassroots rebellion.
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Thanks! Great to know that the GOP is at least as divided as the Democrats.on a variety of education matters.
BTW, L’ Shana Tova / Gut Yontif!
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Heard on radio this morning that McCrory “found” 10 milliion dollars to go ahead and give the Master’s raise to those who are already enrolled in Master’s programs.
A bone, perhaps, since his approval rating is low? It’s good. Maybe it’s a start? Or maybe an isolated event.
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Still hoping to find about the company Horrace Mann and any ties it has to Bill Gates.
Not sure where to post a question like that (I did, but nobody answered it and it was off topic).
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Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon-Mobil weighs in on the Common Core in a WSJ editorial
How To Stop the Drop in American Education.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324747104579024892381188288.html
“The Common Core standards are based on the best international research. They are built on the statndards used by the most effective educational systems around the world, including Singapore, Findland, Canada and the U.K.”
I was unaware of this? Am I the only one?
Perhaps a flood of emails on the Exxon site might help to correct the misinformation he has been feed.
The only email I can find is on their site and it is a typical drop-down form:
http://www.exxonmobil.com/imports/contactus/contactus_contact.aspx
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What “drop” in American education? That is a hoax. Test scores on NAEP–tracked over the past 40 years–have never been higher than they are today.
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The headline writer must be on loan from the NY Post. Since CEO’s are the new education experts I’m sure his thoughts and opinions will probably carry some weight with many people. What troubles me the most is his belief or the blind faith he has put in someone’s talking points. Reading this you would think that CCSS is a god-send. Best research. Really? Where might we find the evidence for that statement, Rex? I was also unaware that they were built on the best standards of Europe, Asia and North America. Again, I would love to challenge him on that statement. Sadly, I’ll probably never have the chance. It’s troubling what some people believe without the facts or evidence to back up the claims. I would have thought based on what I’ve read and heard about Exxon, that he would have demanded proof before making those statements. I didn’t know that that was now the Exxon-Mobil way.
Lastly, my apologies for the misspellings. Today I guess is add an additional letter day.
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Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon-Mobil weighs in on the Common Core in a WSJ editorial
How To Stop the Drop in American Education
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324747104579024892381188288.html
“The Common Core standards are based on the best international research. They are built on the statndards used by the most effective educational systems around the world, including Singapore, Finland, Canada and the U.K.”
I was unaware of this? Am I the only one?
Perhaps a flood of emails on the Exxon site might help to correct the misinformation he has been feed.
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Can’t access the article. It’s only available to WSJ subscribers.
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Anyways, CCSS have led to the fewest (less than 10%) ever 8th grade class of 2014 having access to Algebra in Cambridge Public Schools.
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Sorry. Type in the title. That should work.
How To Stop the Drop in American Education
The Journal is strange. A lot of the articles are blocked if a link is posted. Sometimes, they can be found in their education section on their main page.
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http://www.theislandnow.com/opinions/article_00033866-1654-11e3-b5d9-001a4bcf887a.html
This is a great piece from Great Neck, one of the highest performing districts in New York State. But even here, CC and its incessant testing regime is causing huge problems. It is well worth reading. Some of the points made:
“…non-proficient designation automatically triggers expensive academic remediation” – so even if your district did relatively well, there will still be more than usual money spent on remediation. In times of budget cuts, art, music, small class sizes go.
If CC tests are supposed to measure college readiness, shouldn’t a district where 98% of students go on to and graduate from college have a 98% passing rate on exams???
High School Regents tests will be aligned with CC. Students need 5 to graduate. Does his mean we will see, 30% graduation rates in the future?
Great point – “If, as the commissioner claims, the purpose of raising the standards and these more difficult tests is to help schools then why are they released to the press within hours of their delivery to us?”
CC for the earliest grades are inappropriate and might even be harmful since there will be no time to work on the development of social skills and fine motor skills.
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Anyone have any thoughts about Teach a 2 hour program on CBS tonight at 8pm. Seems Superman’s director David Guggenheim will be presiding over the show. Bet there isn’t one regular public school shown, profiled, or visited. Call me a cynic or realist. Not the way I wanted to head into the weekend.
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Diane, you continue to be my personal hero, and you provide me with hope on a daily basis through your blog. I was lucky enough to meet you when you spoke a few months ago in San Diego when I still lived there, and now I am living and working as a teacher in Tennessee.
Have you seen this video by Craig Fitzhugh, a member of the Tennessee State Legislature? It is AWESOME! He is now a hero to me, and I am happy to know he is in the State Legislature here in TN – we need more like him who support public schools and teachers.
Here’s the link:
Thank you for all you do!
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Thank you, Mary H. In Tennessee. I can’t open Facebook. If you have another link, please send it. From San Diego to Tennessee: culture shock.
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Culture shock indeed! It’s been interesting, to say the least.
Try this link for the video:
Also, I wrote to Rep. Fitzhugh and thanked him for his dedication to teachers, and he wrote back the same day thanking me for my support and said, “We will not retreat from support for teachers.” It gave me (some, however limited) hope.
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Diane, I wonder if you have read The Book of Learning and Forgetting, by Frank Smith. It was highly recommended by Julie Brennan, the moderator of Living Math Forum, who is wiser than she knows. I finally read it, and it puts some of our conflicts about schooling in place for me. He contracts the ‘classic view’ of learning, that would recommend apprenticeships and considers learning effortless, because completely natural, to the ‘official theory’ of learning that requires control, testing, etc.
I wonder what you would have to say about his ideas. My email is mathanthologyeditor on gmail, if you’d like to reply by email.
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The issues, it seems, are not unique to NYS or LI. Attending a conference in GA this summer, I found that a similar strategy is warping its way through that state, through TX and others as well. In complicit maneuvering among administrations, certain legislators and special interest groups, an entirely new platform [or baseline] has descended upon the public with the mandate of improving learning and being “college ready”. This means new standards, new materials, new procedures, new tests aligned with the aforementioned with special interests leading the charge for the subsidies, country-wide. While psychologists like Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) and Thomas Sergiovanni (service-learning) have stressed the holistic development of the individual including a level of conscious awareness about others, our extended environments and our part in that engagement, the direction of the powers in control at the moment is directly in contrast. Educators like Montessori and systems like The Finland Phenomenon recognize the level of creativity of the human spirit in learning as fundamental towards individual and collective satisfaction and excellence. Without creativity, where would scientific invention and innovation be? Without the arts, music, electives, what would our world resemble? It feels as though we are atop a bucking bronco in its contained pen just before rodeo-release. “They” are tightening the leather-straps, causing a great deal of discomfort, pain and possibly damage. And those in power tighten the belt that much more regardless of consequences. The bronco released will jump, kick and react to the pain to the delight of those in the stands who appreciate these measures while “we” hang on for dear life, hoping to ride this one out and return to a kinder, more balanced approach to lifelong learning.
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Excellent comment J.Jill.
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Three more years until I retire, and I’m not retiring because of the kids. Wait! Don’t stop me!
http://centralcalifornian.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/for-young-teachers-classroom-management-kind-of/
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Diane and all – you may have seen this article and perhaps posted it here. I just came across it so wanted to share:
http://www.policymic.com/mobile/articles/62487/this-former-tfa-corps-member-thinks-you-should-join-city-year-instead
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I just read this article – http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/09/teacher-leaders-tell-tales-of-working-at-ed/comment-page-1/#comment-302358 – and watched the accompanying video. I tried to be charitable, to watch these earnest faces with a positive eye, but I still felt compelled to leave this comment (which is still awaiting moderation):
I want to know: if so much was brought TO Arne Duncan, so many concerns brought FROM teachers directly TO Mr. Duncan himself, then why in the world do so many teachers still feel unheard? Why are so many of us disenfranchised? Why our our concerns still dismissed, and best practice overridden by well-funded corporate-style initiatives with NO research-based benefit and in fact many cases of documented harm to students, teachers, and school communities?
Why are fellows talking about programs uniting the DoE with teachers as “outreach?” To me that conjures images of bringing Duncan’s message to the people. Should the process not be going the other way: FROM teachers TO the DoE?
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It appears that the TFA take-over of Washington, DC and DCPS is now complete. Today’s Post article.
Jesús Aguirre to be D.C.’s New State Superintendent for Education
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-gets-new-state-superintendent-for-education/2013/09/10/45761c22-1a43-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html
A little background on Jesus: He is a TFA alumni. He and his wife founded an Arizona charter about 10 years ago. His wife was appointed Principal at Oyster Bilingual after Rhee fired the previous and very popular principal.
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Dear Diane: I am a high-school history teacher in California. I am not a data-driven guy. I wrote the following on “classroom management,” and it kind of evolved into me finally (more or less) articulating my teaching philosophy. Love your blog and most of all the way you go to bat for all of us.
* * *
I always wanted to be among those teachers who seem to command the fondest memories and the greatest respect, and in my high school experience—-the school where I teach today-—those would be Sara Steigerwalt, my speech teacher, and Carol Hirons, my journalism teacher. They generate fond and respectful memories, and I was terrified of both of them.
I also loved them.
I knew another teacher, with a fabulous reputation and whom I observed for an education class, who terrified his students; in fact, tyranny was the bedrock of his classroom technique. He did not hesitate to use humiliation and he used it frequently, and he did it to push his kids into thinking and speaking and writing in ways that made them better students, and it worked. He was gifted, charismatic, and passionate, and I hated the way he taught.
In his defense, he really did care for his students. The English loved the Parthenon, too, which is why they mutilated it, breaking off huge chunks of Antiquity so they could sail them across the seas and up the Thames to the British Museum.
I tried to be a Tough Guy, like him, early on in my teaching career, but something unexpected happened: My stomach began to hurt so badly that I would actually have to stop and catch my breath. I couldn’t sustain it.
So I went back to being myself. And, as much as I’d like to, mostly to salve my male ego, I can’t be a tough guy. It saved my pride a little when I came to realize that I deal with children, not calves at branding time.
Don’t be mistaken: That doesn’t mean I’m not demanding. I expect a lot from my kids, and I hold them to those expectations. And my most demanding demands are for civility and effort.
But I fail, every year, the basic Jesuit rule about teaching: Don’t smile until Christmas. This is because if I couldn’t be funny when I teach-—I was my high school’s Class Comedian, 1970—-I would almost certainly die, and it also means that sometimes, especially when I’m watching students write an essay or take a test, when they’re not watching me, they make me so happy that I can’t help but smile. Children are so beautiful, and what’s just as beautiful is thinking about the kinds of people they will grow up to be.
Being in a classroom so full of potential reminds me of reading The Right Stuff, when Wolfe described the exponential acceleration of the heart rate of a Mercury astronaut as he sat alone atop a Redstone or Atlas missile, powerful, straining and shuddering behind and beneath him, in the final seconds of the countdown.
The potential power of the young people I teach is enormous. They will, I think, do a better job than my generation did.
It true: I teach “really smart kids.” I get that a lot from one or two teachers, who think teaching AP European History is easy. Here’s something they really need to do: Try it. The truth is that I, like almost every teacher I know, have taught all kinds of students, and I love teaching knuckleheads, having been one myself. One of my all-time favorite teaching experiences came in a support class for Alternative kids—the kids we try desperately to keep in school, and they taught me something valuable. They weren’t knuckleheads at all. They were some of the funniest and most honest and most decent kids I’ve ever taught, and some of them came from homes that would’ve made mine, a Reign of Terror with Dad as Robespierre, look like a Thanksgiving episode of The Waltons. They had potential, too.
I once took one of those education classes—and you know how I feel about education classes—when we observed a not-very-competent teacher on videotape and the prof asked for feedback after. Mine was that the teacher didn’t seem to like kids much. The professor looked at me as if I were the Village Idiot with two of his prize hens under my arms. “Who said,” he asked, both rhetorically and icily, “that it’s necessary to like kids?”
I later taught two of his children. They were brilliant students and gentle, selfless human beings. I liked them. I really liked them. I came to realize that my professor must have been going through a hard time; he would father these two a little later in his life, in another, better, marriage, and when I met him again, at Parent Conference Night—-I didn’t bring up our previous acquaintance-—he was a changed man. He was much happier and he was, most deservedly, a proud father. He had done a beautiful job with them, and the gift he gave me in those children trivialized that bitter moment years before in his classroom.
I need to point out that I am not a saint, plaster or otherwise, either. I’ve screwed up in the classroom in ways that still make me flinch, years later. I’ve gotten angry—-absolutely and flamboyantly lost my temper, and reamed a class with more fury, minus the profanity, than a Parris Island D.I. could summon, and left them shaken.
Two years ago, I completely mishandled a situation involving a young man throwing the F-bomb at a young woman sixty feet away. I was furious, he was suspended, and, it wasn’t until much later that I realized she probably was fluttering her eyelashes the whole time in shocked innocence. What he said was completely inappropriate, and the chances were that she completely deserved it.
But that was kind of an exception. This is the part I love about getting older. I seldom get angry anymore. At my students, anyway. I make an exception for most educational theorists, and that stems from their theories but it also has a lot to do with they way they savage the language I love so much. They B.F. Skinner English to death, and there’s nothing more infuriating and less enlightening than a sentence written by a typical Doctor of Education.
When I do get angry in the classroom, it’s more likely that I’m pretending to be angry. I’ve learned to pick my spots: those talks, at the right moment, can be marvelous motivators, and it’s fine with me if I’m the only person in the room who knows I’m delivering a monologue in the Globe Theater of my mind, usually as either Henry V or Richard III.
But when I do get genuinely angry, and, in the process, I belittle a student, here is what I’ve learned to do:
Apologize.
If possible, within earshot of that student’s friends.
Here’s why: Teaching is about human relationships, and a kid you’ve humiliated isn’t going to be in relationship with you. He’s going to shut down, he’s not going to learn, and you’ve failed him. And I do fail, with such blithe regularity, and in so many areas of my life, and while it’s all right for kids to see an adult fail, it’s essential for them to see that adult accept responsibility for his mistake.
The basketball player Charles Barkley was absolutely right when he said it wasn’t his job to be a role model. But it is for teachers.
Finally, all of us deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and I don’t have the right to take any student’s dignity away, and that is the difference between me and the brilliant, but abrasive, teacher I observed so many years ago.
That goes for my behavior outside the classroom, as well. If I want to buy something from the lunch ladies, I’ve made this a cardinal rule: Never cut in front of the kids. Wait your turn with them instead. Inside the classroom, I will never ask a student to do an assignment I haven’t done myself.
I believe these things so strongly and try to live them, too, because of the biggest single influence on my life: My Mom. She was no saint, either—-she had an Irish temper, on occasion, so I come by mine honestly. Tragically, she would take her own life when she was only forty-eight, but in our short time together she was, to me, one of the strongest—what she endured in mind and spirit would’ve killed most people years earlier—one of the most brilliant, and one of the most admirable persons I’ve ever known. Our relationship was not ideal, she was not an ideal mother, thank God, and we had some knockdown-dragout fights, but the fact remains that every moment I’m in the classroom is intended to honor her.
I think this is because I believe, as e.e. cummings wrote, that death is no parenthesis: my students know my Dad from the way I tell a story and my sense of humor, such wonderful gifts.
My values and my spirituality—-because, to me, teaching has always been a vocation, a ministry, and while my faith is mine, and personal, it includes Humanity—-are my way of letting my Mom touch, and inspire, through all the years of my career, the four thousand children who are hers, too, because she is so much alive in her son.
I’ve also discovered, years later, that “classroom management” isn’t about disciplining kids: It’s about disciplining yourself. It means thinking out your lesson—my role model in lesson design is Filippo Brunelleschi, the jeweler who designed the Florence duomo and engineered the incredible machinery that made its construction possible. It means you make your objectives clear, you know how to change the subject or the learning style at least three times in a class period, and you know your students–the last is as much intuition as it is science–and, most of all, it means what comes easiest for me: being excited about what you’re teaching and, for that matter, about the honor of being a teacher.
It is amazing how that last ingredient, which is so unmeasurable, is also so marvelously effective. Measuring is central to the lives of educational theorists, who adore the term “data driven,” and they’re easy to visualize–and such fun to satirize–with tape measures, calipers, and slide rules, always measuring, and meanwhile, in what we call reality-based reality, an eighth-grade girl has tied all of their shoelaces together.
But it also takes a tremendous amount of hard work. My easy workdays are ten hours. We don’t, despite the popular belief, go home at three. School is why we’re scribbling in our weekly plan books at our kids’ soccer games, or why I’m grading essays at the local coffeehouse while my peers are stopping by for a cup before they go on a bike into one of our beautiful coastal valleys, or sipping a cappuccino with the New York Times Book Review. That’s not how teachers spend their weekends.
And while I love kids, they can take a toll: I’m also a raging introvert, and all those surging emotions and all the needs and all the questions that young people have can wear me out. Sometimes, on my prep period, I have to turn out the classroom lights and put my forehead down on my desk and just let the exhaustion take over for a little while. That moment comes to every teacher. It’s a price, we’ve decided, that’s worth paying.
Fortunately, I am not so absorbed in my own noble suffering that I’m not willing to share some outrageously cheap stunts. in the name of classroom management, that might illuminate the gifted young teachers who will replace me:
Not getting an answer to a question you’ve asked? Threaten to hold your breath until you die, in which case it will all be their fault, and will have to live with that for the rest of their lives! Somebody will raise her hand!
Also, I will sometimes lie down on the floor and pretend to take a nap, and ask them to wake me up when they want to re-engage in the class discussion.
It’s useful to have a few stage tricks, too. Sometimes I will have to chew out a kid, but we’ll go outside to do it, get our signals straight again, and then I will hit a locker (darn it, they are gone now) with my fist and we’ll re-enter the classroom with the kid rubbing his arm and wincing. When they laugh, it’s because the joke is ours––mine and the kid who got into trouble––and we’ve turned the tables on something that could have been hurtful to him instead of to my fist.
I hate them in the classroom, but parents with cell phones are quite useful. It’s a marvelous thing to call to the door a student who’s frittering away a chance to study for an exam, hand him your cell phone, and whisper:
“It’s your Mom.”
By the way, I once asked a parent, who was texting during my Back to School Night presentation to turn the phone off. He did. That moment, and not one with a teenager, was the angriest I’ve ever been in a classroom.
Early in my career, in a Catholic high school, I had a rambunctious class that wouldn’t settle down for the lesson. I assigned them an essay instead, due the next day. I collected them at the beginning of class and then, in front of the classroom, ripped them all apart and threw them into the wastebasket.
“What you’re feeling right now,” I said, “is exactly what I felt yesterday. Do you understand?”
I believe they did.
Another time, I got so frustrated with a class that I left the room and walked out in seeming cold fury. Then I ran around to the other side of the building, where there’s a bank of windows, and crawled under the lowest ones and brought my face up, glowering, very, very slowly, as if I were a periscope. When they started laughing, I got them back.
I’ve gotten the kind of angry teachers can get with a kid that’s such a bad anger that it keeps you up all night. We lose a lot of sleep worrying about you, American students. Here’s what I finally learned to do: I go to the records office, find the student’s folder, and look at the first-grade school photo. That little, little boy, whose hair has been combed so carefully, is your student, too. And if his hair’s not combed, then you begin to understand how the two of you arrived your sad meeting place, and you can start to look for a better one.
At the same time, my humanitarian tendencies are tempered by a catalogue of snappy lines:
When they’re supposed to be doing quiet seated work:
“I can hear voices, and the last time I checked, I wasn’t Joan of Arc.”
I asked two chatty girls to leave the room, then went outside and asked them: “There are two variants of the Plague. What are they?” They knew: Bubonic and Pneumonic.
“Which variant are you two?”
Bubonic?
“WRONG! You are pneumonic, because you’re more contagious. You’re out here because the two of you were talking, and then there would be two more, and two more after that, and what that means is that one of your friends is going to miss a question on the next exam because they’ve been distracted. They’ve been cheated out of a chance to study. Do you understand?”
I believe they did. They nodded, and so enthusiastically that I was kind of flustered.
Two boys were sending eye signals when they were supposed to be reading. Some teachers would immediately launch an all-out nuclear strike. I waited instead, in the bushes, for twenty-four hours, then took them outside.
“Gentlemen,” I said. “I’ve been teaching for a long time, and can always tell the kind of guys who are going to give me trouble, the kind of guys I’m going to butt heads with.”
Pause. The pause is the most important part.
“And you aren’t those guys.”
Pause. I learned to pause from the sportscaster I so admire, Vin Scully.
“I like you.”
And then you describe the behavior, and why it’s a problem, and they get it.
They get it, too, when they get a good grade on a difficult test, or they try to answer a difficult question, or when they are kind to another student, because when I pass that student’s desk and give him or her just the briefest pat on the shoulder, they know what I’m saying: You matter, your did your best, your behavior is admirable, and I admire you, too.
When it comes to behavior, I am, ironically, the worst note-passer in my own class. A 15-year-old honors student last week told me she was having a panic attack and left the classroom in tears. Later I passed her a note:
I’ve had them, too. So have Lincoln, Adele, Johnny Depp, and John Steinbeck, We’re not weirdos. We’re humans, you and me. Love, Mr. G.
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AG – I was very moved by your post. Thank you for sharing.
From a feisty Irish public school librarian in Upstate NY.
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Thank you so much and God Bless the Irish!
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I was a public school teacher in Oxford, Massachusetts and a National Education Association (NEA) teachers’ union member for ten years beginning in 1973. During that period, I was fascinated to observe the classroom management styles of many colleagues. I saw petite women who ruled their classrooms with an iron fist and large, physically intimidating men who charmed their classes into shape.
To give you an idea what kind of teacher I was, let me have my former students and their parents give you the answer. In 2012 I received an email from a former student telling me to check out a Facebook page called You know you grew up/lived in Oxford, MA when… When I went to the site, I found a discussion between many former Oxford High School alumni of who was their best teacher. Nearly thirty years after they graduated, I was the first teacher they mentioned. Michael Powers, a former student of mine, is a successful entrepreneur (one of the original 16 founders of YouTube is among his achievements). He wrote a book called How to Program a Virtual Community and dedicated it to me and the Oxford Superintendent of Schools with the words, “Dedicated to Dr. Jones and Dr. Driscoll, two educators who gave me the gift of freedom to create.” (I am not a PhD, but did earn a Master of Arts in Education and a certificate in computers along the way.) In 1983 I went to work for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). A few years after I left teaching to work for DEC, a group of parents of my former students asked me to run for School Committee. Through their efforts, I beat my opponent by a two to one margin. So by the standard that matters most, the success and opinion of my former students and their parents, the evidence suggests I was pretty good at teaching.
Let me share a few thoughts about what made my former students have such positive memories of my classroom. I had the great good fortune to begin my teaching career in a district with outstanding leadership. Our Superintendent was Dr. Francis Driscoll. He was a visionary go-getter who was way ahead of his time in building relationships with industry. I taught at Oxford High School under the leadership of Irwin Pottle. He had been an educator for over forty years. I came from a fairly non-traditional path to teaching. I graduated from the US Naval Academy with an Engineering degree. After serving my obligatory four years of active duty, I had a choice of going in-country Viet Nam, or resigning my commission and becoming a civilian. With the wise counsel from my wife, Cheri, I chose the latter option.
I was able to take a summer-school program and get certified to teach. I found myself teaching school the next fall. Given my limited exposure to the teaching profession (from the teacher side) I was always looking for advice and good examples to follow. I vividly remember one day about six weeks into the school year, Mr. Pottle called me into his office to check on how I was doing. At one point he asked if I had any questions. I asked him, “What do you do to maintain order and discipline in the classroom?” His response was priceless! He simply said, “Whatever works for you.” It was great advice.
One of the things I brought from the Naval Academy was an old leadership maxim, “Praise publically, and criticize privately.” As the teacher, you can always prevail based solely upon the authority of your position. But you may prevail and lose. There is no way for a teacher to confront a student in class and come out the winner. It is nearly impossible to argue with a student in front of his or her peers without appearing to be the bully. On occasion, I would ask a student to take over leading a discussion while I stepped into the hall to talk with a disruptive student. As soon as we walked out the classroom door, the nature of the dialog changed. Neither of us had to ‘save face’ so the discussion became rational and reason could prevail.
Another valuable insight is that students would rather appear to be bad than to be stupid. A teacher must never put students in the position that ends up a choice between those two options. They’ll choose to be bad every time.
At one point I was working in an alternative school, getting dropouts to re-enter school and graduate. It soon became apparent that the vast majority of the dropouts were not intellectually challenged. In most cases, they came from a home and community environment that had convinced them that they were worthless. I learned very quickly that before I could get them to learn anything, I had to get them to have a positive image of themselves and a vision for a personally successful future. Until they have a positive self-worth, there is no way to motivate them to invest in themselves. Part of a teacher’s job is to give students hope for their future. If there is no hope, then there is no reason for them to put any effort into their education. It’s more than setting expectations. It’s helping them build a sense of self-worth.
In setting expectations, I shared a USNA lesson with the students. Rear Admiral Charles C. Kirkpatrick, Superintendent US Naval Academy, taught all of us plebes to believe, “You can do anything you set your mind to; and don’t you forget it!” He would proclaim this at pep rallies and then we would go out and win another football game. In hindsight, it might have had something to do with having Roger Staubach as our quarterback. Regardless of that questionable validation, I continue to believe in the message to this day.
As a teacher working with these troubled youth, the most important first step is to prove to each and every student that you are truly interested in their success and care about their achieving it. In William Glasser’s 1960s book, “Reality Therapy”, he makes the case that before your students will listen to you, they need to believe that you really care about their individual success. I suggest that you should not even consider getting into the teaching profession unless you really care about helping children develop into the best adults they can possibly be. John Wooden – legendary UCLA basketball coach (He won 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years – including 7 in a row.) said the same thing in another way, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
When we ask the students at our model schools at the Tracy Learning Center in Tracy California what makes the schools special for them, almost every time the first response is some variation on the acknowledgement that the teachers really know and care about each of them individually. So, yes we need to set high expectations for the students, but we need to start off with some very fundamental self-worth building. And we absolutely must eliminate any negative messages to any students about their potential.
One last piece of former teacher wisdom. It is also based upon William Glasser’s book Reality Therapy. His fundamental message is that your past can be used to understand how you got to the position you are in, but it does not have to be a predictor of where you are going. That is up to you. Students need to understand that important message.
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I was looking for an old article on portfolio assessment (because so little has been written about portfolios in P12 education since the standardized testing craze of NCLB), and I just happened across this incredible article, written in 2000, by Canadian Professor John McMurtry,
“The Case for Keeping the Corporate Agenda Out of the Nation’s Classrooms” in the online journal Canadian Social Studies:
http://www2.education.ualberta.ca/css/CSS_35_1/iconclast_john_mcmurtry.htm
What a harbinger of days to come in our own country, I thought. Then I discovered that he was the author of, “The Cancer Stage of Capitalism.” Must reads from this very perceptive and insightful scholar!
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Great find Cosmic Tinkerer. Very prescient article. Should be required reading for many- Arne and crew in particular.
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Truth-out has an article about the Philadelphia Public schools
———–
The Systematic Murder of the Philadelphia Public Schools:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/18610-the-systematic-murder-of-philadelphia-public-schools
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Remember when you asked where is Jim Hunt? Well, here he is:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/30/3150897/mission-critical-common-core.html
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Education reform must take a Two-Generation approach.
http://papagreenbean.blogspot.com/2013/08/it-takes-two-generation-approach.html
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… an issue that I wish public schools and unions would address… “ageism,” “educated-ism” and “experience-ism.” Some of these are my own made-up terms (perhaps there are real words for them), but they have the same implications. At some point in my career, I became too experienced, too educated, and soon “too old” to apply for elementary school jobs in public school. When I earned my master’s degree, I became too “expensive” for public schools to hire. I was also told that “the unions wouldn’t allow” me to be hired, because of my years of experience. I am pro-union. I think the unions are needed now more than ever. So the question for me is, how can this issue be tackled? I relocated from one state to another. I’d just earned a master’s degree, and I’d taught special ed. I had a fantastic resume… but no public school would touch me. The only place I could be hired was a charter school (and I’ve since quit knowing how detrimental they are to the public school system). There’s bias against higher levels of education, more experience, and being a older than just out of college age in the education system. Often, when I overhear people talking about what great teachers their children have, one of the descriptors is “young.” When I was young, I had tremendous energy. I don’t have that kind of energy anymore; however, I have MANY skills in my “teacher toolbox” that make up for the less energy. I’m lucky… I found a job teaching in Catholic school… I’m Catholic, and I enjoy integrating God into the curriculum… it’s spiritually fulfilling for me. I can REALLY teach (as opposed to the corporate reform droning that I was having to do in the charter school so kids could pass tests). What’s the price I’ve paid? I took a 30% pay cut. So, now I have job satisfaction, but I’m scrambling to make ends meet so I can continue paying on the astronomical student loans that I’ll be burdened under for the rest of my life. There is no house in my future… my education is my house… so I’m locked out of that aspect of the American dream. I’m not married either… career woman living alone (but that’s another post for another blog).
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Hi Diane,
As a father of three who has always taken education seriously, I learned of you through Christina Hoff Sommer’s book “The War Against Boys.”
I’ve developed a narcissism-based thesis that appears to explain what C.H.S. wrote about in “The War Against Boys” and “Who Stole Femininsm?” Though written for a popular audience, both thesis and manuscript for the first in a two-book work have received support from one academic who is a reformed former feminist.
When fully refined and articulated, the thesis will hopefully unify Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” with Christopher Lasch’s “The Culture of Narcissism.” The ideological feminism behind the decline in boys’ relative performance in school is a subset of what Lasch wrote about. Or, in other words, there are narcissistic mechanisms at play to ensure that girls’ performance in schools visibly surpasses that of boys.
There’s a rather remarkable Occam’s Razor appeal to it all.
If this is of any interest to you, I’d be happy to further discuss this or to send you a complimentary copy of the 1st book upon publication, which hopefully will occur in the Christmas time frame.
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Hi Diane,
Love your blog AND your book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Thought you would like this humorous piece: http://abbythewriter.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/education-its-time-for-those-in-power-to-stfu/
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Diane,
Just wanted to link you to an article I wrote back in 2006 that relates to James Milgram’s recent missive. What caught my eye was his reference to Clifford Adelman.
Back in 2006, Michigan was in the process of implementing more “rigorous” graduation requirements. The inclusion of Algebra 2 was a centerpiece of the proposed requirements. I happened to be in a graduate-level school law class at the time and chose to investigate the origins of the curriculum. This included filing a FOIA request for the notes from the “task force” that put the curriculum together. My quest led me into an e-mail exchange with Mr. Adelman. The end result was an article entitled “In Michigan, It’s All Business, All Usual.”
You may find it at my infrequently updated blog, PerfectlyDocile:
http://perfectlydocile.typepad.com/perfectlydocile/2006/10/index.html
I just finished writing the letters to exempt my daughters from both the MEAP and the NWEA MAP testing (again). They haven’t taken the state’s tests in years, yet have grown to be intelligent, knowledgeable, kind, and creative young ladies.
If you see anything else of the blog you find worth sharing, please feel free to do so. Your efforts on behalf of public education are greatly appreciated. You (and those other talented bloggers whose work you share) give me hope that we will recover from over a decade of misguided reform efforts.
Regards,
Scott Baker
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Diane, Considering all the dialogue about finding “common ground” with corporate “reformers”, I think that today’s article on EdWeek by Alfie Kohn looks very pertinent, “Encouraging Educator Courage.” However, it’s behind a paywall. Any chance you would be able to share it with us?
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P.S. I’m thinking this article might help educators to stand firm against corporate “reforms”, rather than seek common ground and acquiesce.
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Done
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Thank you!
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Diane,
i apologize if you have seen this already, but I wanted to bring this video to your attention and see if you would like to comment on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_zm-OlKAVY&feature=youtu.be “Developmentally Inappropriate Common Core Standards”
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By the way, this is a very fresh release, and pretty compelling.
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Sorry to say the video has been removed from Youtube.
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Someone else re-uploaded it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwe7kz6RoBg&feature=youtu.be
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Eli Broad does not donate his money without controlling everything. He has actually been sometimes a destructive force in the arts in Los Angeles. This is from a list a wishes by Roberta Smith in the NY Times concerning the arts which are also invades and shaped by corporate interests.
We Can Always Hope
Below, a list of events, not exhibitions, that I am looking forward to — but that in all likelihood will not be happening:
1. Eli Broad resigning from the board of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, thereby releasing this ravaged institution from his deadly grip and enabling it to sink or maybe swim — and attract a viable director — on its own.
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The Atlanta Journal Constitution had a good special on the flaws of the hastily made tests that are so common now.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/errors-plague-school-testing-ajc-investigation/nZwp4/
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Also, I am guessing this would be interesting to watch:
Dear NC Educator,
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has partnered with UNC-TV to produce an hour-long program, North Carolina Schools and You: What Changes in Our Schools Mean for Parents and Students. This program will be broadcast twice on UNC-TV: once on Thursday, September 19, at 10 p.m., and again on Friday, September 27, at 4:30 p.m. Featured in the program are segments taped in local public and public charter schools and questions from a studio audience to State Superintendent June Atkinson, Chief Academic Officer Rebecca Garland and Deputy Academic Officer Angela Quick.
North Carolina Schools and You offers information and discussion around recent important changes in public schools and how parents can be more productively engaged in their children’s success. Specific topics include:
– Teaching and Learning: What Students Are Learning and How;
– Measuring Performance: New Assessments and Accountability Model; and
– Parent Engagement: How Parents Can Support Learning.
To enrich viewer’s understanding about these topics, NCDPI has prepared the attached Viewer’s Guide with additional background information and helpful links to supplement the program. We hope these materials are helpful to you and your team as you work with parents and community members to support student learning.
Thank you!
Vanessa W. Jeter, director
Communications & Information division
NC Department of Public Instruction
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This one made my day.
One of the best Common Core headlines I’ve seen this year in Politico.
Online it’s: “Common Core Money War.” The print edition says it all. “Big Money Flows For and Against Common Core.”
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RE: Politico Common Core article
It can be found at : http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/education-common-core-standards-schools-96964.html?hp=l6
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Diane, did you see this terrific review of Reign of Error by “Teacher Tom”? http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.fr/2013/09/no-matter-what-happened-tuesday.html#.Ujmhd61ADvk.facebook
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Cosmic
That is a great review
Will post
Diane Ravitch
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Great! Thanks, Voice of Tuesday!!
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I saw this similar AP article in our, Warren, PA newspaper this morning.
http://standardspeaker.com/news/state-unveils-new-grading-system-for-schools-1.1554842
I have a third grader who we switched to a Catholic school in our area last year, partly because of the time the public school spent drilling on just math and reading, partly because of class size and reduced help in aides and other staff, and then knowing the Keystone testing begins in third grade. The classes at our Catholic school are smaller, there is more history and science covered along with rigorous math and reading, they have more library time, more free space to enjoy recess indoors in the winter, and they didn’t do the required state testing. I am worried that in order to be “graded” along with public and private schools, our school will begin testing due to pressure to conform in the state.
The new grading is based on 40% testing, and schools will be graded on attendance, graduation rates, and most disturbing to me, on participation in standardized testing. I understand that opting out of testing is legal if framed correctly (religious reasons?), but this part of the grading seems it will force the hands of school officials and the community as well, making even a popular uprising against standardized testing not possible. A person will feel they are letting down their community in any revolt against testing in this new grading system.
Another 40% is based on how much progress students make in a given year. That is complete code for how effective one single teacher is for the year of school in a child’s full 12 year continuum of education. As a teacher and parent I am exhausted with the heavy handed rule of our state government who seem to be taking up the causes dictated to them by larger national groups. I can hold out hope for 2014 elections and changing the field of Gov. Corbett and company.
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Diane,
Sorry for all the dud video links before, but I think this one is stable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wn_RAwF4k8 “Dr Megan Koschnick presents on Common Core at APP Conference”
This was presented at a conference sponsored by right-leaning organizations, but even as a progressive, I found her presentation to be compelling and commonsensical. As a layperson, this presentation was very approachable, and brought home the potential educational destruction potentially going on in K-3 with Common Core.
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Diane,
I came home from teaching, plopped down with the paper, and found myself staring at this article by Steve Gunn.
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/muskegon/index.ssf/2013/09/steve_gunn_118.html
I was a little taken aback since the letter he referred to had been written almost a year previously, spent several months in editorial limbo, was apparently handed to a local ISD superintendent so he could compose a rebuttal, and finally published alongside said rebuttal in January of 2013 (long after the MEAPs had been administered). I had to go back and re-read the entire letter and not once did I discuss teacher evaluation. I was so pis…peeved that I drove 30 miles to Barnes and Noble and just purchased three copies of Reign of Error. I was thinking of sending one to Mr. Gunn, but I picture his reaction being something along the lines of Jared Polis:
“Book heavy. Words big. Facts make head hurt. Facts BAD! Ravitch evil. GRRR! GRRR!
Anyway, I’ve typed up my reply to Mr. Gunn. I’ll let it sit ’til morning before sending it in and forward you a copy, or post it at PerfectlyDocile, where I also posted my original unedited letter.
Thanks for all you’ve done for public education.
Scott Baker
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Scott,
Keep up the good work. I am supporting Michigan teachers and my heart goes out to them and their students’ parents. The work of Diane Ravitch is outstanding and she offers hope for all in education. I plan on calling my local ISD and talk to their legislative advocate and making sure she is aware of Diane’s books and work. I suggest that you contact your ISD to see if there is a legislative person for your ISD. All the best. Your children need you and your students are lucky to have you as their teacher.
Keep learning and keep smiling!!!
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What happened to today’s post about Education Nation? It has disappeared.
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Diane, I posted a message for you on there, just before it became a 404 Not Found page, so please check it.
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P.S. Can you confirm that you saw the message, please, Diane? If not, I’ll post it again here.
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Never mind
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Read the paired reviews of “Reign of Error” and Michelle Rhee’s compendium of self-delusions.. Sense and nonsense being weighed in the same scale. Now I’ll have to read your book. Your loyal fan. 🙂
Alex Levy
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Just saw article in The Atlantic mentioned, The case against high school sports.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-sports/309447/
I’ve always thought that people should pay for there own transportation and after school sports. Save the money for in school P.E., arts, and music, equitably distributed among all students.
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Dear Diane,
Please see http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-co-common-core-arrest-20130920,0,7127220.story
My partner attended this Common Core parent forum on 9.19.13 in Baltimore County, MD, where we live, and she witnessed this parent being removed from the meeting by a security guard for standing up and voicing his concerns about Common Core. I have been a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools for 22 years, and I am seeing first-hand many of the ill effects of education reform. But the fact that a parent was arrested for speaking up at a public meeting in the county where I live is chilling. Please post this video and article. Thank you!
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In March, he got a 15-day suspension for “stomping on a teacher’s hand” and “throwing the teacher’s cell phone to the ground.”
Am I the only one who sees the above actions as grounds for suspension?
From Mr. Gonzalez’s article it seems that special needs children shouldn’t be held to a certain standard. That because they have an IEP, bad behavior should be tolerated. This shouldn’t be the case. Special needs or not, all children deserve to be taught and should not be allowed to hinder the learning of other children.
The DOE has been providing children in NYC with a mediocre education for years and do not like that a school such as this actually holds kids accountable for their actions.
They do not allow disruptive children to prevent others from learning. What is wrong with that?
Why aren’t parents upset that their children are receiving a less than standard education?
Why aren’t parents demanding their kids receive the same type of education this school provides to better the chances of kids actually learning something?
Aside from complaining about a school, what are parents doing to hold the DOE accountable for cutting programs? It seems like the DOE is using this school and other charter schools to take the focus away from what they are not doing to provide kids with a proper education.
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Ms. Ravitch,
I work at Success Academy and thought you might be interested in the following. Just heard that we are planning a pro-charter parent march on October 8th. Our schools are being closed for the morning. Teachers, parents, students, and central office staff are being required to join the march. Other charter schools are joining as well. Several emails from senior leadership make it clear that the event is not optional. It seems very unethical that adults and children are being forced into this political statement, but I don’t know what, if anything, can be done.
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Be sure and get the Sept 30 issue of Time. Article on Common Core.
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Hi Diane:
I am one of the hundreds of thousands of public school teachers in the US who are under siege. I work my hardest, have tried to improve every year for my 18 years teaching so far, and feel I have served my students well. Am I a “great teacher?” It depends on whether you ask my students and parents, or my standardized test scores. In today’s climate, I honestly don’t even know how to judge myself anymore.
I recently finished reading “Reign of Error,” and I loved your combined approach of “here are the problems” and “here are the solutions.” Your solutions about how to really fix America’s public schools seem right on target, based both on what data shows and what professional educators have been begging for for years. However, I feel as though there is another level of discussion that was left out of your book that is overdue for discussion. (This is not a criticism; addressing my concern might have tripled the size of your book!)
I am trapped under the reform movement. I cannot speak out against my principal, superintendent, state department of education, or US Dept. of Education without placing my livelihood in jeopardy. New evaluation standards in my state are written to be so punitive yet vague that I can easily be marked as Highly Effective or Ineffective based on subjective rubric interpretations. I am pushed to improve test scores while I see my students suffering as a result. I am fortunate to be in a school not at risk of closing (so far), but the fear of funding cuts has my local and state administrations willing to accept any mandates that have money attached. Unfortunately, if I were individually to disagree vocally with any of these policies, I could be easily terminated (or, more likely, my working conditions could be so easily manipulated that resignation would be the only choice). I am even nervous to post this on your blog with my name on it! It is as if I were in Soviet Russia; if I’m not a part of the Communist Party of reformers, then I’m an enemy of the state.
My real question is a sort of meta-question about your new book: how can we, the professional educators who still care about improvement, who see the corporate reform movement for what it really is, act together to fix the reform movement itself? In other words, how can we fight the money? Your book beautifully outlines the changes we need to make to fix public education, but how do we actually convince the people in charge? We educators are in a “hunker down and hope the storm passes” survival mode. Isn’t there anything we can do?
I would love leave the effort to the teachers unions, but unfortunately, they are first and foremost labor unions, and the public sees them as self-serving. In these days of education reform climate, unions are not well-respected as the voices of reason, because the public assumes that the unions’ real agendas are to try to get more money for teachers. Unfair as this assumption is, it means that the concerns of national unions are too easily dismissed by reformers, politicians, and the media.
I almost feel like we need to form a national party somehow, an “Improve Not Reform” party, obtaining real, monetary support from sponsors – a party with a real, positive message of improving public education for all students. Small, local resistance within faculties or school boards cannot fight the corporations. Marches on Washington or picket rallies only serve to make teachers seem as though they are protecting their salaries. One of the strengths of our US democracy is the multiple-party system, where Democrats and Republicans check each other. In education, there is only the Reformers party and the “enemy.” How do we stop being the “enemy” and become a national, organized party that politicians are willing to respect and join?
I am not by nature a political person or an activist, but I no longer want to just “hunker down.” I want to join the fight, but I don’t know how.
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Tom,
Join the Network for Public Education.
Join United Opt Out.
Find your allies and help them as they help you.
Diane
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Did you see this, Diane? “Mayor Rahm Emanuel unleashes rapid-fire construction plans for CPS”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/22653005-418/mayor-rahm-emanuel-unleashes-rapid-fire-construction-plans-for-cps.html
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Diane- I am a current charter school teacher at Achievement First, looking for your email so I can send you something to share on this blog regarding the poor treatment of students I have observed. Can you please let me know your contact information ?
Thank you
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Artbrooklyn,
My email is on my website.
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This article well expresses the decline in free play and the encroaching movement to fill every waking second of our children’s lives with organized learning and the regimented “play” of team sports. I have tried to provide freedom to play in my classes over the last 25 years. The kids loved my efforts; but I regularly battled administrators and order freaks who seem to live in fear that some child, some where, at this moment is not learning per premeditated instruction.
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/children-today-are-suffering-a-severe-deficit-of-play/
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I am not an educator, now retired and was active in volunteering at our elementary school. I live in Emeryville (Alameda County) which has a population of about 10,000 and about 800 students in two schoolsl: a k-8 and a high school. I have noticed a “conspiracy” between school administrators statewide and financial bond sellers (e.g. Caldwell and Flores) and their process of selling capital appreciation bonds. what galls me the most about cab’s which I only recently learned about through articles about other California counties is that our $17 million loan will end up costing taxpayers $70 million for a term of 32 years and 8 months. This after voters approved a school parcel tax in 2003 (Measure A) and a bond measure in 2009 for $95 million (Measure J) to pay for construction of combining the two schools on one site. The parcel tax was extended to 2019 with voter approval. Now I understand that a telephone survey is being conducted (paid by the school district) to see what the general opinion is about extending the parcel tax once again. Caldwell Flores contributed $5,000 to the Measure J campaign and the construction company who was selected for the construction donated $10,000. My letters to the state and county (Alameda) superintendents go unanswered as do my letters to our local elected officials.
Aside from throwing out the current school board of trustees, none of whom have any financial expertise, what can be done? Emeryville is a very small town but is still as corrupt as it was in the 80s. One school board member has removed his two children from the Emery Unified School district. The only other board member with a child in the school district was appointed, not elected, to replace an outgoing board member. the balance of the school board have no children in the school district.
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Can someone help me? I know that Arne, POTUS and others are big fans of this, but where did the idea germinate and what research is this based on? I’m curious, if a child after 12 years of test prep and now and in the future 12 years of CCSS decided to go to college; are we now going to eliminate such majors as: religion, art history, archaeology, philosophy, and social work to name a few since they don’t pay big bucks? Will there be regionally differences in the salary schedule built in. I’m betting that I’ll earn more for some majors in NYC than say, Fargo, North Dakota? (although that current oil boom may negate the differences for a time being)
What a fool-hardy and stupid, I mean really stupid idea.
Judging Colleges by Graduates Paychecks
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/education-judging-colleges-by-graduates-paychecks-97234.html?hp=r5
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Diane,
I was wondering when you were going to review and discuss Dave Guggenheim’s new “documentary” Teach? I may have missed the post if you did. In which case I apologize. Here is an interesting reaction to Teach.
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I did not see Guggenheim’s “Teach.” I was so disgusted by the propagandistic nature of “Waiting for ‘Superman'” that I have no interest in learning what he thinks about teachers. In WFS, he likes them in charters but thinks that anyone in a public school is a slacker. Nuff said.
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Diane, Did you know that corporate “reformers” are seeing the encroachment of vouchers etc in Douglas County CO as their first major foot in the door to suburbian?
See: The Most Interesting School District in America? A suburban Colorado county tests the limits of education reform by Frederick M. Hess & Max C. Eden http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358627/most-interesting-school-district-america-frederick-m-hess-max-c-eden See also Edushyster’s post on this.
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This whole common core is a lot more nefarious then most people realize. Please take the time to read what Robin spells out and then compare it to what Diane is experiencing. PLEASE http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/
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http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/09/24/did-bill-gates-admit-the-real-purpose-of-common-core/
Forgive me if this is old news, but I thought you would find this piece by Glenn Beck to be rather telling if Bill Gates’ intentions when he invested in Common Core.
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Have you seen this?
http://www.upworthy.com/teaching-children-in-this-awful-way-is-like-helping-a-person-who-is-on-fire-by-drowning-them
It brought tears to my eyes, both as a former teacher and the parent of a Kindergartener who brings home 20 page packets of homework each week and has to use a mouse and a computer to take reading tests.
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Diane, Jonathan Pelto thinks you “are absolutely a hero”: http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/09/25/diane-ravitch-hero/
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Diane: I had was in a meeting with my daughter’s middle school Principal where the discussion turned to Common Core. When I asked about teaching typing, she quite frankly told me that it might happen in the elementary schools, but never in the middle school or high schools. So much for my seventh grader! I asked if it was fair to judge students based on a skill they had never been taught and was told that I could teach her at home, in her “free” time. My daughter is a straight “A” student who is also a top ranked athlete. Between school and sport, she has little “free” time and we use that for family things. I respectfully pointed out that it would be very bad to have the GATE kids, who they count on to elevate the school scores, do poorly due to a lack of typing skill. I also suggested that I could instead have her “opt” out until they decided to teach all the skills necessary for success in the Common Core tests. That went over poorly. I think the State of CA is in for quite a surprise when they fully implement Common Core.
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Dear Diane,
Thank you so much for all you do! I don’t know if you saw this article about public pensions, but I thought that you may be interested in yet another scam created to demonize public employees and rob them of their pensions.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926?print=true
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Thank you Diane, for having so much courage. You are an inspiration.
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Diane,
I have been reading and enjoying your book and thinking about the over-emphasis on testing in this country. I thought you might enjoy a humorous take on the whole mess.
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2013/09/are-americas-toddlers-college-and.html
Russ
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Dear Diane,
As an outgrowth of reading your new book, “Reign of Error” and reading your blog, I have written the op-ed piece below to the Connecticut Post.
Thank you for all you do in your support of public education.
Regards,
Joe Ricciotti
The Developmentally Inappropriateness of the CCSS for Kindergarten Children
Ricciotti, Joseph
Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2013 12:57 PM
To:
edit@ctpost.com
To the Editor,
I recently had an opportunity to talk to a kindergarten teacher who taught in an urban school district in Connecticut immersed in implementing the Connecticut Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and was amazed at the changes that have occurred with kindergarten education over the years. As a former elementary school principal, kindergarten was always my favorite grade level as I enjoyed the innocence, naturalness and spontaneity of young kindergarten children and how much they loved school. Most amazingly was how impressively gifted and talented the kindergarten teachers were in accommodating to the intellectual, social, physical and emotional needs of these young children. It was inspiring to see how these kindergarten teachers planned lessons and activities that were intellectually challenging and creative yet very developmentally appropriate and how positively these precious young children responded to the lessons which enabled them to make giant strides and progress in their kindergarten year.
Unfortunately, education reformers such as Connecticut Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor don’t seem to think much about what is developmentally appropriate for kindergarten children in the zealous implementation the Connecticut Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Moreover, Commissioner Pryor and other reformers are thinking of how can we get these kindergarten children into college as their main focus. In the place of developmentally appropriate activities suitable for young children, Pryor and other “education reformers” want these kindergarteners to begin to work on “academic skills” instead of a kindergarten where creative play as well as language and number development use to be some of the central themes of the curriculum for these young children. Sadly, what we are are also experiencing with the Common Core Elementary Standards for these very young children is stress as many of these vulnerable young children are not prepared for this level of education.
In a recent speech given by the noted child psychologist, Dr. Megan Koschnick at the American Principles Project (APP) in Washington, DC, she cited how the CCSS “will cause suffering, not learning, for many, many young children.” Likewise, Dr. Carla Horowitz of the Yale Child Student Center claims ” the Common Core asks small children to behave like little adults and they are not little adults.” Noted child development expert, Dr. David Elkind wrote two books, “The Hurried Child” and “Miseducation” citing how schools have had a downward extension of the curriculum which have impacted children in their early years of schooling with inappropriate and test-driven instruction. He also believes that “miseducation” in the early years ” can leave the child with lifelong emotional disabilities.”
A parent of a kindergarten child in Palm Beach County, Florida shares her daughter’s experience in which she had her first test. According to the parent, each student taking the test in this kindergarten class was separated by a cardboard wall and were given a five page test on numbers. When the parent inquired from the teacher why these kindergarten children required testing, the teacher responded, “they have to be prepared for testing in first grade. ” In New York City, testing of young children has reached the point of absurdity in which many parents of preschool children are known to pay tutors $200 an hour preparing them for an entrance exam in order to enhance their chances of obtaining a place in one of the elite New York City private schools. One wealthy New York City couple even celebrated their daughter’s high test score with a catered bash at their Hampton’s home with the child’s closest preschool friends.
As Diane Ravitch, education historian and research professor of education at New York University, in her new book “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools” points out that “since the advent of No Child Left Behind, many schools have cut back on every subject that was not tested.” Hence, according to Dr.Ravitch, we find that many public schools are cutting back on other subjects such as history, literature, dramatics, art, music and foreign languages at the expense of basic skill subjects which are the ones that are tested. The subjects being eliminated were once the norm in ordinary public schools, as Dr. Ravictch belives that programs such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race To the Top (RTTT) have undermined the ideal curriculm in many public schools, especially in the more impoverished urban schools. The amount of testing for children of all ages in Connecticut schools including the very young in Connecticut will only intensify as Commissioner Pryor implements the Connecticut Common Core State standards which will also, in part, be used for the assessment of Connecticut teachers. Needless to say, the stakes are very high for teachers, students and parents.
Ms. Ann Policelli Cronin, an experienced high school English teacher in Connecticut believes that much of what has been written about the CCSS is “based on a faulty premise about their quality.” She disputes what New York Times editorial writers Charles Blow and Bill Keller have written concerning the importance of the CCSS as Ms. Cronin believes, “the Common Core State Standards will diminish student learning in high school classes and will inhibit good teaching.” When parents and teachers examine who are the staunchest supporters of the CCSS, they will find the likes of Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Jeb Bush who, in addition to advocating for the implementation of the CCSS in schools across the country, are among the most vociferous leaders of the corporate education reform movement.
If it hasn’t become obvious to Commissioner Pryor, CCSS could become another failed experiment of the education reformers as was the case with NCLB and RTTT, only its victims will be the many young children in public schools exposed to inappropriate developmentally curricula. The recent primary elections for the Board of Education in Bridgeport and for the mayoral race in New York City do not bode well for Commissioner Pryor and for his friends in the corporate reform movement.
One message that is quite clear from these elections is that the general public is starting to realize that more testing will not improve student learning and that the reformers’ obsession with testing has only made the country’s education worst, not better. As David Lee Finkel, a middle school teacher in Florida said, the general public, parents and teachers “want a public education system that isn’t an industrial factory spitting out test takers but want schools that are places for deep thinking, learning, creativity, play, wonder, engagement, hard work and fun.”
The public choice is becoming quite clear as an outgrowth of these recent elections as the high-stakes testing era may now be in its twilight years.
Joseph A. Ricciotti, Ed.D.
Teaching Internship Program Director
Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions
Fairfield University
jricciotti@fairfield.edu
203-254-4000, ext. 2284
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Diane, There’s a candidate for state rep. in the UP of Michigan who has been on the BAT page on FB. He’s interested in possibly being endorsed by NPE. I suggested he email you to find out how to do that. He says he will be at one of your tour locations. His name is Justin Zirkle. He’s been communicating with Gail Richmond (a very active BAT in NY). He seems to be pro-public ed & pro-union… the BATS are educating him on the issues in ed. right now. He’s been a deputy sheriff and substitute teacher who wants to make a difference in his “neck of the woods.”
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Oh… and of course, the first course of action many BATS told him was to read “Reign of Error!”
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… AND your blog!!!!
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Thanks. All candidates are invited to complete a survey expressing their views on the issues.
Diane
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Dear Diane,
I enjoyed your ‘Reign of Error’ interview on KBLA radio in San Francisco recently. Your information inspired me to pull off to the side of the road and talk with you during the program.
As an educator who taught for thirty-five years in the elementary school classroom, I share your perspective and passion for wanting to change the American public school system. My recent book ‘A Better Way-Reading, Righting and Rethinking American Education’ emphasizes quality lessons, teacher created assessments and making improvements in instruction to achieve meaningful goals.
In the future, if you put together an Educational Conference, I would love to offer my expertise and services. I have presented at conferences in many places across the country and know I can enhance and reinforce the critical message you want to bring to America.
Thank you so much for wanting to make a difference.
Sincerely,
Richard Pope
63 Belvedere Ave.
San Carlos, CA 94070
popeallstar@comcast.net
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BREAKING NEWS from DC-This is refreshing. DC files lawsuit against Options Public Charter School. They’ve even included some Board of Trustee’s directors.
http://dcist.com/2013/10/dc_files_lawsuit_against_former_pub.php
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On more on this from the WaPo.
Charter School Officials Diverted Millions, Lawsuit Alleges
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/charter-school-officials-diverted-millions-lawsuit-alleges/2013/10/01/05fdc4f2-2aae-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html
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I am sharing an alert from the TFT hotline, dated today. Texas has a waiver, but at what cost?
State/Federal Tango on NCLB Mandates, Teacher Evaluation
On September 30 Commissioner Michael Williams announced that Texas has obtained a “conditional waiver” from the “Adequate Yearly Progress” ratings and other requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the waiver was conditional and good only for 2013-2014 at this point, because the state has yet to complete new guidelines for teacher evaluation. Secretary Duncan has been using the NCLB waiver option as an inducement to states to embrace evaluation policies that give heavy weight to the standardized state test scores of a teacher’s students in evaluating each teacher.
The entire process, including the use of the NCLB waiver to drive Texas schools toward test-based evaluations, will bear close monitoring, and Texas AFT will help you get a word in edgewise at every opportunity for public comment. The legislature has declined to pass bills mandating a heavy emphasis on standardized state testing in the evaluation of individual teachers—a high-stakes misuse of state test scores that is not supported by educational research. The state evaluation initiative now blessed by the feds should not be allowed to become a back-door route to the same result.
As previously reported in the Hotline:
The Texas Education Agency in its waiver request said TEA has launched an effort to replace the existing Professional Development and Appraisal System. The PDAS has been in use since 1997 and is currently the appraisal option chosen by 86 percent of school districts, according to TEA. The agency said it wants to replace PDAS with a model more focused on “increasing student achievement” through “continual improvement of instruction by teachers and principals”—and a key part of this agenda is the development of “both a campus-wide and individual teacher value-added metric.”
TEA says final judgments on the “appropriateness” of the value-added metric’s use in the evaluation system will be reserved until later in the process, after receiving the results of piloted use in selected districts during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years. “Additionally,” TEA says, “we will begin exploring ways to provide districts with resources and guidelines for developing locally-based measures of student growth to be used at the district and campus levels.”
The current TEA timeline calls for the release of draft teaching standards for public comment in December of this year. The process would continue with piloting of new observation tools in 2014 and training on new rubrics and protocols in 2014-2015. At some point during the 2014-2015 school year the commissioner would update his rules relating to teacher appraisal based on results of the pilot—presumably providing another period for public comment. Statewide rollout of a new state-approved evaluation model is slated for 2015-2016.
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Diane PLEASE read or google the incident regarding the forcible removal of parent Robert Small from a “question & answer” session regarding common core curriculum. The session included information directly from state superintendent Lillian Lowry BUT only allowed written questions to be answered. PLEASE find the video on you tube………..it has gotten over 900,000 views. He is the husband of the Howard County PTA President (one of the more affluent counties in MD) I did not see any reference of this on your blog. It took place about a week ago. Someone is listening to our voice!
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Summer, I blogged that incident
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Ms. Ravitch,
I just learned about Common Core Standards this afternoon at a school orientation in Queens, New York. I have a 1st grader and a child in kindergarten. I am told my child will have a test tomorrow and he is expected to know how to read. He is in Kindergarten! He only recognizes every letter in the alphabet but I never took on teaching him to read at 4. He has to write the main idea of the story. This test will only make him feel frustrated and inferior. The parents in the class agreed with me and I said I will see what I can do, in terms of a petition, a class action lawsuit, or however I can make a difference. Please, please, I have parents on board, help me, what can I do next. Last night my 1st grader had 3 hrs worth of homework. By the time I fed them dinner, she was not done with homework until 9:30 p.m. I was not even able to read to her with all the homework that needed to be done. They are not sleeping the appropriate amount of time. I wake them up at 6:30. This is a traumatic time for us. I am turned off about sending them to school at all. They get no recess and are only allowed one gym period, bi-weekly! How can they burn off energy properly?
Please help me help my children.
Thank you,
Yesenia Gomez
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Ms. Gomez,
Join the Network for Public Education (google it).
Join Leonie Haimson’s Class Size Matters. leonie@att.net
Join the Alliance for Quality Education in NYC.
Join with others to protest and turn this absurd situation around.
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Ms. Gomez,
I have a 2nd grade daughter that I now homeschool because of the absurdities you mention above. I know from reading this blog that Ms. Ravitch does not agree with homeschooling or cyber schooling, but I think that is our only option as parents to withdraw from the public school system. While homeschooling is not for everyone, I liken it to the days of old when rich people’s children were privately tutored at home. I obtain my daughter’s curriculum from K12 and am very happy with it. The materials are of higher quality than what was being used in her school. My husband and I actually continue to be involved in our local grassroots movement to improve our local school system, but until I see improvement, my daughter will not be a part of it. An example from my local situation: When my daughter was in kindergarten she had 2 fifteen minute recesses per day, after Christmas break that was cut to 1 fifteen minute recess per day. “Because they have to practice for first grade” was the answer I was given. We parents have to do what is best for our children.
Sincerely,
Karrie McCoy
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I have been following and sharing your excellent work for many years now and think your readers might be interested in this recent breach of faith by “Time for Kids” magazine, which published a highly contentious and misleading piece on “school choice” under the guise of news: http://monologuesofdissent.blogspot.com/2013/09/times-leading-question-to-kids-if-you.html
The “Time for Kids” publication is required reading for hundreds of thousands of public school students, and this year’s back to school issue featured a cover story that posed the question: “If you had a choice, what type of school would you pick?” Since it’s well documented that the vast majority of parents and students choose traditional public schools for very good reason, I find it really irresponsible that “Time” would plant seeds of doubt and suspicion about public schools in our kids’ minds, knowing that these kids are in a situation where they have no “choice” but to read this propaganda.
Just wanted to pass this on and thought you might be interested in sharing or looking deeper. This is not “Time for Kids'” first offense in the questionable delivery of material department.
Thanks so much for all you do – just read an excerpt from the new book in “The Progressive” and can’t wait to read the rest.
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A recent graduate talks about the state of the teaching profession and job market:
http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/09/why_i_stopped_following_my_dream_and_gave_up_teaching_your_letters.html#incart_most-read
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Diane,
I like to fight fire with fire. Since the country is all about moving our public schools to a privatized business model, I suggest we use good business practices. This enjoyable and informative 10 minute whiteboard overview of the book “Drive” by business author Daniel Pink is a great look in the right direction.
http://www.danpink.com/2010/06/whiteboard-magic
According to his book we would not be using standardization, testing, merit pay, external rewards, narrow curriculum or any of the education “reform” practices to create a generation of innovative and productive workers. Since maintaining our economic superiority is the supposed reason our schools need reform, I find using their own research as a good tool for communicating with people who think all people against privatization must be socialist. I just want good business practices to improve our schools 🙂 I hope your readers will enjoy this video. It is worth the 10 minutes.
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Watching MSNBC Education Nation’s Student Town Hall this morning. The students are amazing and get what is happening to them because of the deformers. They have discussed how high stakes testing is doing real harm to their education. A student from the Providence Student Union talked about their “zombie” protest against high-stakes testing. Melissa Harris Perry brought up the iPad debacle in LA. Then they brought in David Coleman to discuss Common Core Standards. He was asked why some states are dropping out of adopting CCS. He didn’t answer the question and an incredibly brave student on the panel challenged him to answer. He actually lied to the students and nation and said there are no states dropping CCS! He also talked down to the students when explaining how CCS would be implemented. He asked the students (paraphrasing) wouldn’t you like to learn fewer things better? Wouldn’t you like to have lighter textbooks? No discussion about the big corporate money behind CCS. No discussion of how states were forced to accept CCS to get Race to the Top money. No discussion on how CCS have never been field tested. I think Melissa Harris Perry is knowledgeable about what education reform is doing to the country. My hope is MHP will invite Diane on her show in the near future to have an indepth discussion.
BTW, it was very sad to see NEA ads supporting CCS-shame on them!
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In New York City, the group called ‘Families for Excellent Schools ( FES) is trying to mobilize the parents it works with to play a role in the mayoral election.
This group has charters in NJ, PA, NY, and other states.
It is an AstroTurf group, which by getting parents who support charter schools involved with them, will form a parent movement, that will continue to push the corporate Ed reform agenda to privatize public education by electing politicians that support their agenda.
( They will never inform the parents of their TRUE agenda)
It is affiliated with Student First and it receives
donations from the Walton Foundations.
——
In today’s NY newspaper….
Why I’m Marching For Charter Schools. ( A mother urges Bill de Blasio to rethink his approach)
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/marching-charter-schools-article-1.1476867
—–
This article is about the FES group….( check out the info. in the Comment section)
Parents With Families for Excellent Schools Start to Get Political:
http://gothamschools.org/2013/04/23/parents-with-families-for-excellent-schools-start-to-get-political/
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Diane,
I just published my own review of Reign of Error on my blog. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it attracts more readers to the book.
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2013/10/reign-of-error-by-diane-ravitch-fairy.html
Russ
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Dear Diane,
I wanted to encourage all of your readers to check out a new website dedicated to stopping the incredible growth of the Rocketship charter school network:
http://www.stoprocketship.com
We’d love to invite you and your readers to support us by sending San Jose’s city council an email against the unchecked growth of Rocketships.
http://www.stoprocketship.com/take-action-now/
We are a small, low income, Latino community in downtown San Jose with two Rocketship schools in an 8 block span (one of which was the first Rocketship school, Mateo Sheedy). Rocketship has created deep divisions and animosity in our community. Now there is a plan to add a third Rocketship — all three just a few blocks from our thriving and successful public school, Washington Elementary. Our city councilman is married to Rocketship’s head of community relations, and they’ve hired a big money lobbyist to drive this through against the wishes of the community. We need some support!
Regards,
StopRocketShip.com
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Permission Request from INED21
Ms. Ravitch:
INED21 is one of the biggest learning and educational platforms in Spanish, http://www.ined21.com.
Given the quality of your line of content, we would like to request your permission to make use of it and to be part of the selected structure at INED21.
Please note that your content will always be referenced and linked back.
Our intention is to open a global space, plural and in depth, in which INED21 would like to see you there.
Thanks for your time,
José Luis Coronado/ Víctor González
http://www.ined21.com
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Feel free to re-post or use anything that appears on this blog.
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Many thanks for your support.
Rgds,
Victor González
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Our superintendent in Salem, Oregon is taking a job in the private sector (of education).
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20131008/UPDATE/131008015/Salem-Keizer-Superintendent-Sandy-Husk-resigns-college-readiness-program-position?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|Home
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Dear Diane,
Thank you so much for being our voice of reason. I have read your new book Reign of Error and I have been encouraging everyone I know to read it, including writing a review for our union local’s newsletter. Thank you for this book and for providing the research and documentation for everything educators know at heart.
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In tonight’s NJ gubernatorial debate, Chris Christie called public schools failure factories.
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Ridiculous! NJ public schools are among top 2 or 3 in nation. Shame on Gov Christie! He should visit some of NJ great public schools, not charters
Diane Ravitch
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I reviewed your book on my blog. I am writing this blog in an effort to document my efforts to be The Teacher I Want to Be, despite all the reformy stuff pushed down on us. Your book strengthens my stand.
http://dianeaoki.blogspot.com/2013/10/strengthening-my-stand-thanks-to-diane.html?spref=fb
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I agree, Diane! That’s why we are working so hard to elect a new governor.
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Have you seen the new NYS English Language Regents exam? http://www.engageny.org/sites/default/files/resource/attachments/2013.05.09_-_ela_regents_nti_document_final.pdf
It’s frightening. I don’t even know if I, an English teacher of 40 years, could complete this test in three hours and pass.
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MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEIR SOULS.
PLEASE RE-POST THIS SO OTHERS CAN SEE IT. THIS IS BEYOND FRIGHTENING. REMIND READERS THAT PASSING THIS TEST WILL SOOON BE A GRADUATION REQUIREMENT.
PARENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS MUST READ MUST READ MUST READ MUST READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS CAN’T POSSIBLY REFLECT WHAT PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS BELIEVE TO BE THE MINIMUM READING AND WRITING SKILLS FOR HS GRADUATION.
PREDICTED PASSING RATE STATEWIDE: 20%
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Why is it people have their epiphany after they leave a position of power and authority to make changes? I guess it is about politics.
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So, I think this is a good thing, right? She seems like a real reformer, not a corporate backed one.
Education Reformer Lisa Delpit to Speak at UNC Asheville October 24
Nationally acclaimed education scholar Lisa Delpit will speak about issues in education reform and diversity in a talk at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24 in UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center, Mountain View Room.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Delpit
I am meeting her next week at UNC Wilmington. She is speaking at the Lumina Theatre at 5:30 on October 15. She has several books on diversity. She is not corporate backed that I know of and has openly criticized TFA.
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Don’t miss Lisa Delpit.
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The Real News Network ( TRNN) had a short segment on Jesse Hagopian ( video and transcript)
—–
Seattle Teacher Jesse Hagopian Schools NBC’s Education Nation:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10856
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Diane, I was curious about the timing of the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s book, “I Got Schooled” and wanted to share a couple things of interest:
Shyamalan acknowledged in the book his William Morris literary agent, Ari Emanuel, brother of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel.
He also acknowledged former Simon & Schuster editor and ghost writer Bill Rosen, who worked “in collaboration” with Joe Kern, too, on his book, ” Your Teacher Said What?” –a book that pushes free-market capitalism, privatization, deregulation, etc. I would not be surprised if Rosen ghost wrote both books.
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Dear Diane,
I thought that you might be interested in my story about the impact of today’s academic kindergarten on one little boy – who happens to be my grandson. It’s posted on the Defending the Early Years website: http://deyproject.org/. As a former teacher and lifelong early childhood professional, it is discouraging and disheartening to know that many (most?) kindergartens have become as inappropriately academic as this one. – Blakely Bundy, (Outgoing) Executive Director of The Alliance for Early Childhood
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In an attempt to interest people in the issue of school reform here in Colorado, I have created two videos. Thought you would be interested. I enjoyed your book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”
School Reform Issues – Colorado
To the American School System – Poem
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Diane, Do you know Robert Reich? His “Inequality for All” sounded so promising, until I read that he supports Obama’s carrot and stick education policies. With RttT-Early Learning Challenge, the win/lose competition is already being extended into PreK and Obama wants that in higher education as well, which Reich supports. See: http://inequalityforall.com
I think P-20 education (including trade schools, not just colleges), should be government supported and free to all students, not another competition between schools for funds.
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Diane,
The numbers are in for last years’ teacher evaluations in Rhode Island. 95% of teachers were found to be Effective or Highly Effective, and only 0.5% were found to be Ineffective. This is according to the most rigorous, time and resource consuming evaluation system that Gist (ie her corporate reform patrons) could cook up.
The reaction in the local corporate reform friendly newspaper? Something MUST be wrong with the evaluation system, because not enough teachers have been found to be Ineffective!
I mean… it just HAS to be! Everyone knows that half the teachers in the state are Ineffective — right?
http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20131011-high-evaluation-ratings-for-most-r.i.-teachers-problematic.ece
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Your work is extraordinary as was and is the tiny village school where I received eight years of education before graduating. My graduating class totaled twelve. In l995 the smallest graduating class was five. For school size, it has claimed more individual and school honors in Wisconsin than anyone would expect except those who taught there and those who were students. I have returned to that wonderful village every five years or so. For me, a recent tour of the school was a stunner. I wanted to sit down in every elementary class and wait for the teacher to arrive. Each class was decorated and arranged in a most inviting way. The high school shop is enormous and includes eight large woodworking tables plus a long welding bench. I reached my industrial arts teacher and coach for the last two years before I graduated. It was his first teaching job, just back from Korea. Since leaving Phelps, he has cut a wide swath of fine education across east central Minnesota. His name is Robert Boeckman. A middle school was recently given his name. Now in his eighties, he vividly recalls his two years at Phelps High School as he never encountered another school with so much community support and hard working students. Why such success? They now receive so much property tax that they are forced to share with less fortunate districts. I suspect it may also be due to small classes and typically young and dedicated teachers, often, like Mr. Boeckman, in their first school.
If you ever need inspiration from a tiny school in a tiny village they would welcome a visit. It is great place for a summer vacation or for the fall colors in late September and early October.
Thank you for your fine work to improve our schools.
R. Larry Schmitt, M.D.
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