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 
I would like to relate my experience with Common Core. I am. Classroom teacher in Tennessee. I advocated more rigor in education for over thirty years.
In Geometry,which is my main focus, Common Core seeks to unite the Cartesian approach and the traditional approach to The topics studied. The unfortunate aspect of this approach is twofold.
First, the development of the traditional Euclidian approach to Geometry goes back to Euclid himself. His uniting of these concepts created a body of knowledge that has remained intact for centuries. Common Core essentially rejects topics that may only be approached in a Euclidian fashion. Not that they say this. To read the standards you wouldn’t think so. But all the testing depends on the Cartesian approach.
Due to this approach, and due to the nature of the testing, only topics that may be approached in the Cartesian manner are treated. Teachers will surely be teaching less, not more. This brings us to the second point. High stakes testing will restrict teachers to practicing in a very specific way. In our training in Tennessee,the emphasis is more on technique in the classroom than it is on what is to be taught.
Those of us who teach in high schools across America have long desired rigor. To go to meetings where people seem to feel that this rigor is their idea is nothing short of insulting to those of us who have been trying to unite the disciplines for decades. Every good teacher knows what the ideal is. We have been trying to do this for all of our careers. Having Bill Gates give me his opinion does no one any good. Having his opinion become national policy will not serve anyone.
Roy Turrentine
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“Having Bill Gates give me his opinion does no one any good. Having his opinion become national policy will not serve anyone.”
Oh, you are wrong about that. There are those who it will serve…
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Think this video should get more attention – it’s titled SLO Anger, and describes what NY teachers are dealing with.
BTW, enjoyed your talk in Bedford last week very much.
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sorry forgot the URL:
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Dear Diane,
I was honored to be the scriptwriter for the documentary “Rise Above the Mark.” Having seen your interviews countless times as I worked with video creator/editor Jack Klink to create the flow of the movie and the script, I feel that I already know you! I look forward to meeting you when you are in Indianapolis on February 28th for a showing of the documentary.
I am also the author of a forthcoming book published by Purdue University Press—”The Deans’ Bible: Five Purdue Women and Their Quest for Equality.” Five deans of women and deans of students served Purdue from 1933 to 1995 nurturing students. Collectively, they wove a sisterhood of mutual support in their common, sometimes thwarted, pursuit of shared human rights and equality for all. They thought of themselves as educators, thinking of the whole student, even when others on campus did not.
I believe you know Patricia Albjerg Graham? Pat has graciously written the Foreword for the book, as she knew all of the deans whose lives are depicted.
Dorothy C. Stratton, Helen B. Schleman, M. Beverley Stone, Barbara I. Cook, and Betty M. Nelson opened new avenues for women and became conduits for change, fostering opportunities for all people. They were loved by students and revered by colleagues. While the book focuses on changing attitudes on one college campus, “The Deans’ Bible” opens a window onto cultural change in America as a whole, exploring how each of the Deans participated nationally in the guest for equality.
As each woman succeeded the other forming a five-dean friendship, they knitted their bond with a secret symbol—a Bible. Originally possessed by Purdue’s first part-time Dean of Women Carolyn Shoemaker, the Bible was handed down from dean to dean with favorite passages marked.
On this day to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I write you of the great women of “The Deans’ Bible” who abetted each other, female students, faculty, and administrators. These women of great substance aided minorities, people with disabilities, and any student—male or female— who needed a good listener and a word of hope.
If by chance you would be interested and willing to read an advanced copy of “The Deans’ Bible,” and perhaps be moved to write an endorsement or be interviewed on camera about the book when we see you in February, please let me know. Here is a link to learn more: http://www.amazon.com/The-Deans-Bible-Equality-Founders/dp/1557536767
I would be happy to send you a PDF of the book or a coil-bound copy.
Thank you for your consideration. Onward and upward for public education!
Sincerely,
Angie Klink
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How did it go on the ed show? one of the few days I missed it…….heard you mentioned KC and St. Louis……….just learned that Mary Danforth Stillman is starting an all girls charter school in the st. Louis district…startup money from undisclosed sources…..then tax payers take over…..those who live in the district are disenfranchised regarding school issues….a point I mentioned after reading the pd report on MLK.
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http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morning_call/2014/01/stillman-plans-all-girls-charter-school.html Mary Danforth Stillman plans all-girls charter school
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Diane, I talked to a teacher in Virginia, which did not opt into RTTT, but it sounded like Virginia has just as much emphasis on standardized testing, data collection, and evaluating teachers by test scores as my state, Maryland, a RTTT state. I have been trying to educate colleagues on the ills of RTTT, but now I am wondering if that is the problem. Can you shed some light on this?
I’d also like to ask you if you are familiar with Stephen Krashen as a speaker on education policy. I know of a teacher group that may ask him to speak and the teachers have some concerns about presenting a balanced view of issues.
I am looking forward to hearing you when you speak at Towson University in April!
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Diane- as you sit in a Charlotte airport look at this Orwellian pay proposal for NC teachers. I am too stunned to even comment yet. http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/01/21/latest-nc-teacher-compensation-plan-would-significantly-reduce-education-spending-encourage-teacher-turnover/
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Just wanted to pass on this from the News and Observer in North Carolina:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/20/3550057/charter-school-to-open-near-gated.html
Apparently a developer just received approval to build a charter school just outside his new gated golf community. As a North Carolina resident and teacher, it’s hard for me to be surprised by anything in the news, but this managed to catch my attention.
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With Broad alum, Lillian Lowery as State Superintendent, you are in deep, in Maryland. RTTT is the means to enslave public education to the feds and reformers.
Lillial Lowery cares little for teachers, and with the implementation of RTTT on a statewide level, which requires adoption of Common Core, and VAM, demonstrates no real concern for students.
I know of which I speak. I lived through Lowery as a district superintendent, and State Secretary of Ed in your neighboring state of Delaware.
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I can see that we are all in the same situation, but I don’t see what is being done about the attack on the schools. I teach in Massachusetts and have been following the events in New Bedford where the superintendent will fire ALL the teachers and only rehire 50% of them. The president of the MTA, Paul Toner, wrote her a letter. Wow. He can’t argue against these parameters to which he agreed without the majority consent of the teachers of the union. Our local EBoard voted for RTTT money without the input of the members. What use is our state union now? What use is the NEA? Conspicuously absent in supporting teachers. I could complain all day, but my solution is to bring a class action lawsuit against the schools and make them show that Sp. Ed. and ELL supports were at appropriate levels for all students. Also make the district prove that every student was disciplined when they broke the rules and that the administrators created a culture of respect for teachers and learning. This is the only way to combat these massive ILLEGAL firings.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/21/reaction-to-ravitch-a-different-view-of-common-core/
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Diane, If you happen to have de Blasio’s ear, he really needs to know that the info being provided to him about situating State PreK in charters is very short sighted and not in the best interests of young children. (See: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/nyregion/de-blasio-a-critic-of-charter-schools-may-need-them-for-his-pre-k-agenda.html )
While charters are unregulated, private preschools and child care centers are highly regulated by states and sometimes cities as well, so they should really be the preferred setting for children that age. This is how it’s done in places like Illinois, which has universal PreK for 3 AND 4 year olds, primarily situated in existing licensed child care centers, not charters. In my experience, even public schools are not the best location for children that age, because they don’t have to meet the same state and city licensing requirements as child care centers must, such as regarding space requirements, maximum group size and child:teacher ratios. Private PreK programs accepting district funds for State PreK can also be required to employ certified Early Childhood teachers for children in that program, as they do in Illinois.
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Diane, Here are your state’s child care regulations:
http://nrckids.org/index.cfm/resources/state-licensing-and-regulation-information/new-york-regulations/
Please note they stipulate that child care centers located in public schools are exempt from meeting state child care licensing requirements, just like in Illinois. As a consequence of that, such regulations as 35 square feet per child of classroom space (which is required in NY, too), as well as the maximum group sizes and child:teacher ratios for specified ages do not apply. So, I’ve seen numerous PreK classrooms in public schools where way too many kids are packed into tiny spaces with high student:teacher ratios, unlike in private child care centers where those regulations must be met.
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Chi-Town Res,
I expect lobbyists for the private child care industry wrote the NY regs
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BTW, Diane, Generally, in my experience, the private child care industry absolutely HATES the space allocation requirements, maximum group sizes and child-teacher ratios typically mandated in state licensing regulations for child care centers. Of course, that is because many of them would love to be able to pack as many kids into as small a space as possible, with very few teachers, in order to increase their profit margins. However, although they’ve tried, in 40 years, I have yet to see them be successful in overturning those requirements.
Your states’ child care regulations regarding these matters (which are truly critical issues) are very similar to my state’s requirements, and they are also consistent with best practices according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
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Diane, Yes, that wouldn’t surprise me, since in Illinois, the private preschool owners association employ full time lobbyists and they have repeatedly succeeded in limiting the qualifications of child care teachers and administrators here.
However, child care teacher qualifications DO NOT apply when private programs accept State PreK funds. Teachers in State PreK must have a BA and state certification in Early Childhood. Most private programs in Illinois do accept State PreK because they want the additional students and funding stream, and State PreK teachers are usually paid considerably more than other teachers in private child care programs.
It really depends on location. If your state has regulations for public schools that include specific required space allocations for PreK, such as 35 square feet per child, maximum group size limits and required child-teacher ratios, then public schools would be the preferable settings for State PreK. If those regulations don’t apply to charters, since they do apply in private birth – 5 licensed child care programs, then private programs would be preferable to charters.
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Another post that may interest you. Includes Graff’s criticism of you. Also I put in Peter Greene’s lates blog which is one of his best! http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/on-public-schools-and-common-core-graffs-critique-of-ravitch/comment-page-1/#comment-4549
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Interesting that this video was made by “usedgov”, where “tough questions” are asked to Arne Duncan about the role of corporate money in education. The first thing I noticed was that comments were disabled. Curious, eh?
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Interesting that this video was made by “usedgov”, where “tough questions” are asked to Arne Duncan about the role of corporate money in education. The first thing I noticed was that comments were disabled. Curious, eh?
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Column about closing McDonogh in New Orleans by Jarvis DeBerry:
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2014/01/john_mcdonogh_is_closing_what.html
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Ms. Ravitch — Have you seen this empirical data about Newark Public School’s “One Newark” plan. You are going to love it!
Click to access weber-baker_onenewark_jan24_20142.pdf
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Diane, In Teacher’s Edition (magazine from Dept. Ed) Arne Duncan has a video with 2 teachers questioning him about corporate sponsorship in public education. I hope lots of people challenge him on his comments.
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Op-ed in Times Picayune is spot on: http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2014/01/john_mcdonogh_is_closing_what.html
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Diane:
It looks like your blog entry from Jan 21st that had your speaking schedule for spring 2014 has been removed. I hope this doesn’t mean that your schedule has been cancelled. I would love to have the chance to meet you.
Howard
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Diane – In the most optimistic way possible, is there any one person in NYC that is an influencer that has enough power to change the way business is done with vendors? I am sure all vendors have a good story to tell, how do we get a chance to tell it to the masses?
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The most influential person in NC who could have an impact is former Governor Jim Hunt. He was as great advocate for education and teachers and kids.
He runs the Hunt Institute now.
He wrote an opinion piece on why teachers’ salaries should be higher but stayed away from the legislature and governor’s effort to destroy the teaching profession.
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Hi DIane, I started a short comment three days ago that turned into a longer letter about my CCSS concerns. I’d like to send it. Am I supposed to do that this way?
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Christine, post your comment here.
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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410
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This article just came out in the Journal News…Rockland and Westchester County in New York State…parents need to answer back by having their children REFUSE the NYS 3-8 tests:
http://www.lohud.com/article/20140125/NEWS02/301250047?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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Diane,
I thought you might enjoy this approach to the growing problem that is our Secretary of Education.
In 2009 two things happened that we’re bad for children: Elmo’s World stopped production and Arne Duncan became Secretary of Education.
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2014/01/arnes-world.html
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January 26, 2014
Dear Ms. Ravitch:
Thank you for your blog and Reign of Error. Both have been an important source of information for me.
I am not an educator or blogger. I have a fourth grader and a ninth grader in public school. Today I am going to dare to question the Common Core standards.
As I read the education news and blogs, I repeatedly notice that many politicians, union leaders, educators and journalists are reluctant to criticize the actual standards.
The reasoning typically goes that national standards are a good thing in general, and that certain reasonable people (usually unidentified) find some value in this particular set (CCSS). Often, the commentator finds fault with the process that produced the standards, but argues the standards are here or all we’ve got, so we should just get on with it and do the best we can. These people point to implementation as the sole place to fix problems that are the result of CCSS, but are not willing to consider whether the problems may be the result of flawed design.*
“They are just a string of standards,” I have heard over and over again. “You can put them together however you like and do whatever you want with them.”
I think this view trusts that good teachers will be able to teach well around any standards, even those that may be ill-conceived. Or maybe those propounding this view don’t want to speak against endorsements from unions or professional organizations in support of CCSS? (I worry for the teacher trying to remedy the standards in the classroom, because I have read that Student Achievement Partners is drafting evaluation criteria specifically tied to the standards and that Bill Gates has suggested putting cameras in classrooms to evaluate teaching.) The clear message is that it is foolish or forbidden to question the standards.
As a parent with children in public schools subject to these standards, I am shocked by this kind of easy pass. Maybe national standards generally are a good thing and maybe there’s some value in CCSS. And maybe lots of professional organizations have come out in support of them. But here’s my news for everyone who refuses to entertain that there are faults in the actual standards: There is something seriously wrong with Common Core math.
In the real world of my child’s fourth grade math class, the standards that are supposed to provide more depth interfere with actual learning, frustrate children, and divert energy into bizarre, developmentally inappropriate tasks or nonsense busy work. (And by the way, my child has an excellent teacher and principal doing all they can.)
But don’t believe me. Any cursory search of the internet will pull up videos and web pages of parents from Arkansas to New York to Indiana, from all kinds of political persuasions, reasoning, begging and arguing with educational boards for help and relief. **
In some cases, the “rigor” of the math is simply inappropriate, setting children to tasks misaligned with their development. In my town, kids’ first quarter math tests were multiple pages long and so difficult adults with advanced math degrees were taken aback.
The so-called new “rigor” also presents itself in absurd and time consuming tasks. On many evenings when homework time comes around, the email chains from parents looking for help start circulating. (We have no books to use for reference. Homework appears in the form of copied sheets–that’s an implementation problem.) Our children are asked NOT to solve problems, but to engage in equation writing, array and area model making and other activities–supposedly representing “rigor”–that often take hours and drive them to distraction.
These activities are valued over areas of math that are not considered “worthy” of teacher time–like solidifying math facts or solving for answers.***
These developmentally inappropriate and absurd tasks are clearly linked to the “rigor” required by the standards. In my district, parents were shown a a “Rigor” chart prepared by Achieve the Core. org. The chart showed large amounts of new content never before taught coming into grades 1-8, with high percentages of it being pushed down from higher grades.
For example, at fourth grade, 38% of the material was new, with 32% coming down from unspecified higher grades. At 5th grade, 64% was new, with 36% pushing down from higher grades. Could this kind of chart reflect the back-mapping of “rigor” that has been built into CCSS and delivered to children across the country without prior examination, testing or question?
I now know many middle class kids in k-5 schools who are so overwhelmed with the particular notions of “rigor” in CCSS that their parents have signed them up for tutoring. Tutoring for elementary grade, good students. No way to study at home. Less focus on basic skills. What does that suggest for closing the opportunity gap?
I have a friend whose 3rd grader has decided girls just must not be good at math. My own fourth grader, an old soul if ever there was one, resignedly plows through the work, When it’s done, it’s forgotten. He now feels that school is just something to get through. He’d prefer not to go. He thinks we adults have lost it.
And he’s right. By any measure, an education that turns off kids and causes them to disengage is a failure. And please, to all the governors and union leaders and educators and journalists, don’t tell me it’s just the implementation. My kid’s curriculum is directly tied to the standards themselves. Our district’s Chief Academic Officer just explained at a public meeting that teaching is now completely standards based.
In our district we had a standards-based math curriculum that took years to develop and put in place. This careful planning by real educators, skilled in working with and teaching children, managed to be developmentally appropriate and still move kids into Algebra, and some beyond, in middle school. Our prior standards and curriculum allowed for a path to higher levels of math all the way through high school.
With a recklessness that takes my breath away, this working math curriculum has been dumped out for back-tracked Common Core standards written by a bunch of consultants who were not educators, never worked as k-12 teachers, and did not bother to test them. (Anthony Cody, Mercedes Schneider, you and many others have described this process in detail.) After all is said and done, CCSS really is just a new unproven theory about what children should learn, and when.
In my district, math k-8 is now a mess. The district is trying to determine which CCSS standards it can pull out, while making “implementation” excuses about having had to cram in too much rigor, too fast. But the back- tracked rigor will always be imbedded in the year-by-year standards, no matter how they are “implemented.”
Shame on the consultants for doing such a flawed and untrustworthy job. Shame on the Gates Foundation and think tanks for pushing it. Shame on President Obama, Secretary Duncan, our Governors and State Education Officers for compounding the original error by foisting an unproven and unquestioned CCSS upon us, and then binding our children and schools to it through the power of Federal and State governments.
It is not our children or parents or teachers who lack grit and perseverance, it is our ruling class. How dare they decide that the people making policy decisions and writing standards for over 50,000,000 of our nation’s children should be able to forego the years of careful educational study and experience needed to be qualified to do that work. Since when did a lot of money, a business degree, work at a business consulting firm, or playing time on a basketball court make a person an expert in education?
Certain educators and commentators are beginning to support what many parents have already learned by watching their living, breathing children.
Carol Burris, the honored High School principal from New York whose posts can often be seen on Valerie Strauss’s The Answer Sheet has posited that while implementation has been difficult, the standards themselves are problematic.
Discussing Why Young Kids are Struggling with Common Core Math?, she and her colleague John Murphy explained that certain CCSS aligned problems were not developmentally appropriate on the Piaget scale–specifically citing–wait for it, 4th grade math. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/09/why-young-kids-are-struggling-with-common-core-math/
Burris also examined first grade problems here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/31/a-ridiculous-common-core-test-for-first-graders/
As noted in your Blog, Gary Rubenstein has explained that the 7th grade math standard CCSS.Math.Content.7.NS.A.2a applies principles studied at the level of a junior in college. https://dianeravitch.net/2014/01/09/gary-rubinstein-an-open-letter-to-the-new-leaders-of-tfa/
Johnathan Kantrowitz has been examining the standards against his state’s own. Speaking about third grade math, he writes that the “Common Core [math] Standards are difficult to understand and challenging to teach.” http://jonathanpelto.com/2014/01/23/jonathan-kantrowitz-fact-based-assessment-common-core/
In the rush to promulgate the standards, I am concerned that both writers and endorsers forgot that children are not mini-adults. Sets of standards should not be compared to see which are the most “rigorous,” but which sets are most appropriate. I would like to see educational associations stop trying to make CCSS “happen,” and start trying to make sure the “rigor” is appropriate.
By now, we have all learned that early childhood development specialists actively protested the standards as in conflict with “compelling new research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development and early childhood education about how young children learn, what they need to learn, and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades.” http://www.edweek.org/media/joint_statement_on_core_standards.pdf ) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/29/a-tough-critique-of-common-core-on-early-childhood-education/
Who will speak for grades 3-8? And beyond?
Not to slight the language arts standards, the so-called close reading standards required by the CCSS for language arts are giving many concern. Here is yet another thoughtful critique by Daniel E. Ferguson, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Common Core: A critical reading of “close reading,” in rethinking schools. http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/28_02/28_02_ferguson.shtml. Criticism of close reading has also been made by other writers speaking of the Gettysburg address and has been referenced in your Blog. https://dianeravitch.net/2013/11/28/common-core-on-teaching-the-gettysburg-address-what-a-travesty/ Also see Common Core Close Reading Comes Home questioning whether CCSS Language Arts “close reading” disrupts the order for learning set forth in Bloom’s Taxonomy. http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2014/01/common_core_close_reading_come.htm
So what is the reason so many politicians, union leaders, educators and journalists keep ignoring what so many kids and parents are experiencing?
Are they afraid that admitting that the CCSS need reform, means that they have recklessly changed public education? Or that the standards-as -magic-pill-remedy will fall apart?
Have they all taken too much federal, state, or foundation funding linked to CCSS?
Are they concerned they will be seen as speaking against the need for standards? Or speaking against the current Administration? Do they fear busting up the “national marketplace” for education or offending the so-called “reformers”?
I would like to know, because whatever it is, the reason is disconnected from real children trying to learn in real schools.
It is time for everyone to stop protecting and promoting the idea of CCSS over the living children in school.
If states need new standards, then let them go back to the drawing board. Let recommended, but voluntary standards be developed through open, democratic processes led by the educators charged with implementing them. Throw open the discussion and invite in the childhood development specialists and national educational associations. Districts within states should be allowed to keep what they have in place if it is working. Any new standards should be tested to make sure they will improve education for children before they hit the classroom.
I want my President and Governor and all elected officials to know that I hold them personally responsible for recklessly compromising my children’s education. I will not vote for any candidate who continues to promote the unexamined and untested CCSS to the detriment of my children.
Yours,
Christine****
*In New York, where the parents, teachers, principals and 135 school boards have been up in arms over the Common Core, the Governor has just weighed in calling the “implementation” flawed and criticizing certain standardized testing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/22/gov-cuomo-seeks-changes-to-flawed-common-core-implementation/
The insightful Mercedes Schneider has recently written two pieces about union leaders who use similar terms, and in her opinion are always careful not to call the standards themselves into question. http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/connecticut-teacher-does-not-want-common-core-weingarten-refuses-to-validate-the-sentiment/ http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/lets-help-neas-dennis-van-roekel-forsake-his-common-core-guessing/ This Blog posted a thoughtful piece by Linda Darling-Hammond where she writes she would have preferred a better method to set national expectations, notes that there are “some elements of the CCSS documents that are potentially useful…” and that “CCSS is what we have now,” so, among other things, we should develop curriculum resources. https://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/24/linda-darling-hammond-on-the-common-core-standards/
Instead of discussing people’s concerns with CCSS, writers often skip over them and label any disagreement the product of conservative vs. progressive politics. Compare these two posts: http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/funkhouser/col-diane-ravitch-rebellion-common-core-state-standards-education.html http://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-common-core-backlash-comeback.html –Not that it is anybody’s business, but I would call myself a progressive democrat.
**http://stopcommoncorenc.org/2013/12/09/beginning-common-core-syndrome/,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZEGijN_8R0 http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/ , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwagOYvixiQ, “Most people would say teach them the fundamentals and stop the romantic notions of eight year olds thinking like mathematicians.” http://hoosiersagainstcommoncore.com/yes-common-core-tell-teachers-teach/
***I think what is “worthy” and “unworthy” of teaching by teachers should be decided through a broader discussion, and that even if settled to some degree, should be allowed to change given each school’s and classroom’s needs. I think that public schools are obligated to teach foundational math proficiency because they are charged with providing an education to every child who walks in the door. The same problems of poverty that plague performance in all areas of education would interfere with necessary work pushed outside of schools. For example, not every kid is going to practice math facts at home. In my opinion, one way of reinforcing math facts that moves beyond drilling, is to have kids use them to solve lots of problems.
I also wonder if classifications of worth are being defined by what somebody thinks can be taught by placing a child in front of a computer.
****I will happily provide Diane with my full information privately.
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History Question:
when the schools were integrated, was there any effort at balanced teaching staff members (racially)? Did black teachers retain their jobs same at whites? And was it assumed, at that time, that white facilities were superior, in that white schools consumed black ones?
Can you point me to something to read that would enlighten me on that?
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High Stakes Tests:
Give them a shot… are any confusing? If you find any parts confusing, how would kids react to them?
Here’s PARCC:
http://www.parcconline.org/computer-based-samples
Here’s Smarter Balance:
http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/
Interested in others’ thoughts.
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http://www.ncae.org/decline2sign/
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Here’s a starting point for How Desegregation was implemented.
Click to access 782_ASWells041504.pdf
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Additionally, this is another examination
Click to access deseg_decent_final.pdf
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Hi Diane, thank God for Carol Burris’s latest “Why Support for Common Core
is Sinking”!! (and Valerie Strauss’s The Answer Sheet for posting.) I sent you my three-days- in-the-making comment yesterday, and this is exactly what it I was saying from a parent perspective. Parents are seeing these inappropriate and misinformed levels of rigor every day and we need educators to point them out in ways we can’t. Thank you Principal Burris and thank you Diane for re-posting!
Christine
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Diane, Just how egregious does someone’s ongoing invectives have to be before they are warned about repeatedly posting insults here, such as regarding union teachers? (Re: “MS”) I am not a union teacher, but I feel for them.
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Hi Diane – Last year I wrote a blog about snow days that appears to have gone viral in the U.S. today (25,000 views today alone). It appears to have hit a nerve with teachers everywhere.It’s not as serious or deep as many of the important articles I have read here, but I thought you might enjoy it. It’s all about respect.
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So looks like Berger will hang his unpopular reading law on our state supe.
http://www.wral.com/lawmakers-grill-schools-chief-over-reading-tests/13335753/
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Or did June want the law to fail?
Regardless this is a disaster for NC. And so unnecessary.
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AND our state really is being tar heeled. The tenacity of our left (June, loving the Common Core and rigor, rigor, rigor even it means 70% of third graders fail) and our ALEC guys (mad that they will now have to pay for 70% of third grade to go to summer camp with no realization that maybe pre-canned ALEC laws are not good for NC, but who have not joined the over 75 legislatures from around the country who have dropped out of ALEC).
Tar Heels. (Head shaking).
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I really think they have made chaos out of relative repose.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4EyKZ0PXK2AeHlDdHh0aGlKWDg/preview?pli=1
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Milwaukee Public Schools is under fire to go the Charter route.
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Dear President Obama,
Let’s face it.
Race to the Top is an epic fail just like No child Left Behind. Our children should not be the pawn of politics. Left or right, both have not gotten it right about education reform and it’s time we put that in the forefront.
I’m so tired of talking points. Some theories sound great on paper not in practice and there are testimonies after testimonies that children are NOT thriving with over-emphasis on state tests. Of course, we want children to learn how to think critically but saying that and making it happen needs serious input from EDUCATORS and our country might want to consider putting one in a position as important as US Secretary of Education. And perhaps, we need a NY Commissioner of Education that actually listens to what the feedback is and just perhaps we need Gov Cuomo to make a stand for our children because it’s inexcusable to distance himself from this whole issue.
And as the leader of the greatest country on Earth, please know that American’s excellence comes from our freedom, our love of this country and the promise of our children. Let’s get off the campaign trail you started many years ago and really make the people you put in charge of Education to do the right job for our children.
Please support the teachers that have been the inspiration for our children and please create a better initiative that truly rejects “filling in bubbles” because that is exactly what they are doing now and you need to stop the madness.
Thank you.
An American mother whose family fled Communist China and then left the oppressive British education in Hong Kong and was saved at age 8 by the love of American teachers who taught me to embrace the love of learning
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Here is a link to a forum presented by Ann Cook, Director of the New York Performance Standards Consortium. She and several students and a teacher talked about what it is like to learn and teach in a school that does not assess on the basis of high stakes standardized tests. Instead, the schools have been granted a waiver from testing (except for ELA) and do true performance based assessments that do not stop learning but rather promote learning. The forum was sponsored by the Bloomfield (NJ) Board of Education, Montclair Cares About Schools, Save Our Schools New Jersey and the Montclair Education Association. Enjoy.
http://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T00304&video=183474
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An article by Edith Lederer (United Nations – AP) “At least 250 million of the world’s 650 million primary school age children are unable to read, write or do basic mathematics, according to a report Wednesday commissioned by the U.N. education agency.” “UNESCO’s U.N. representative Vibeke Jensen said this global “learning crisis” is mainly caused by a lack of well-trained teachers, especially in impoverished areas.”
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Diane,
All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl!
Peter Gray has a wonderful new book out: “Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.” He provides an article-length version of it here: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/give-childhood-back-to-children-if-we-want-our-offspring-to-have-happy-productive-and-moral-lives-we-must-allow-more-time-for-play-not-less-are-you-listening-gove-9054433.html
In the article, he makes the disturbing observation:
“Researchers have raised young monkeys and rats in ways such that they are allowed other types of social interactions but are deprived of play. When these animals are tested, in young adulthood, they are emotional cripples. When placed in a moderately frightening environment, they overreact with fear. They panic and freeze in a corner and never explore the environment and overcome the fear as a normal monkey or rat would. When placed with an unfamiliar peer, they may alternate between panic and inappropriate, ineffective aggression. They are incapable of making friends.
Some people object, on moral grounds, to experiments in which young animals are deprived of play. What a cruel thing to do. But consider this: over the past 50 to 60 years, we have been continuously decreasing the opportunities for our own children to play. School became more onerous, as breaks were reduced, homework piled up, and pressure for high grades increased.”
Best,
Mary
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I am from Philadelphia. A month ago, when our insightful governor first mentioned appointing Bill Green as the head of our School Reform Commission, I wrote to Mr. Green and requested he read your book, Reign of Error. I asked him to reflect on his beliefs in light of the information you provide in this book. (He is a proponent of closing neighborhood schools, opening more charters, and vouchers). Of course, I have not received a reply or acknowledgement of the letter I sent. Today, in the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, there is an article about M. Night Shyamalan’s book, I Got Schooled. Apparently this is the movie director turned educational reformer’s book on how to get it right in public education. (Meanwhile, his children go to a prestigious, private school.) At the end of the article, City Councilman, Bill Green says he is heavily influenced by this book, and is quoted as saying, “It’s a compendium of the best data and evidence that exists out there.” I haven’t read this book but I was wondering if you had thoughts on Mr. Green using this as his frame of reference?
Philadelphia Inquirer January 30, 2014 Local Section, pg. 2, Filmmaker’s New Focus on Education by Kathy Boccella
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Diane, here is another article, an interview really, with M. Night Shyamalan talking about his new book. Similar to others, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the article, book and interview.
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Sorry, forgot the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/i-don-t-know-anything-why-m-night-shyamalan-wrote-a-book-on-education/281381/
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I read a great article today that showed, once again, how education is much more than just a test score.
http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/
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Author name: Mrs. Tova Markowitz
Subject: Dianne Ravitch- Common Core
Literacy Specialist, Long Beach, NY Mother, Lynbrook, NY
I just read Dianne Ravitch’s article, “Everything you need to know about
Common Core,” which was published in ” The Answer Sheet” of the Washington
Post.
I am a concerned Lynbrook, NY citizen, a mother of two children 13 and 10
years old and an educator in the Long Beach, NY Public Schools.
I wanted to share what I consider a must read regarding the implementation
of the common core as well as the impact it is having on schools, teachers,
students and communities.
I think we are all in agreement that the implementation of the common core
was expedited too soon with inadequate professional development and
community awareness. But, that is now in the past and rather than continue
with this pattern we have an opportunity to to revise our methods.
Attaching high-stakes testing to a child’s development, a teacher’s career
and a school district’s status is not the democratic society that our
county is based on. Whenever you rank someone you should rank them on
their progress. The common core and high stakes testing seems to have
ignored that fact. All kids/students were not created equal. Our county
thrives on its diversity, It is a fact that everyone may not commence at
the same start line, yet everyone at their own rate and in their own time
will get to a finish line if they are allowed to progress at their own rate
and in their own time.
You may or may not know that I am a runner. I completed my second marathon
in November in New York City. I amongst thousands of runners got to the
finish line that time. We got there in our own time and at our own pace. If
there was a ranking of 4,3,2,1 with a 4 being given to those who crossed
the finish line at 2 hours, a 3 for 3 hours, a 2 for 4 hours and 1 for
anyone finishing in 5 hours or less I would have gotten a 2. I don’t think
of myself as a runner who is meeting expectations but needs remediation. I
put in as much effort, devotion and time training as my peers who got in
faster and feel just as accomplished. Yet, not sure I would feel the same
way, if now I was ranked a 2 for running. Not even sure I would want to
ever even want to run again, if I continued with a finish of 4 hours and
would always be looked at as someone below average in running.
Even more so, I don’t think of my running coaches as failures nor would I
fire them because they couldn’t get me to run a marathon is less than 4
hours.
I teach remedial reading students some of them are English Language
Learners, some are diagnosed with learning disabilities, some are living
below the poverty line and some are like Leo, late Bloomers ( Leo The Late
Bloomer by Robert Kraus). These students are not starting at the the same
start line as their “peers” who are labeled as achieving and on grade
level. Yet, they will take the same test and they will (hopefully) finish
the test. I am hopeful they will show progress and demonstrate achievement
but they may not meet grade level expectations. Hence, they may get 1’s or
2’s and under the new system of attaching high stakes tests and evaluations
their class room teachers will be ranked poorly. Where is the democracy in
that? Where is the reward and acknowledgement that this child showed some
progress when still in the eyes of the evaluator (being the state) these
children did not meet grade level expectations.
As you read the article here are some thoughts to consider regarding the
common core and the high stakes attached to it.
1.Have you ever wondered why we teach kids to reflect and revise yet there
is no room to do that with Common Core?
2. Lack of developmental appropriates for Grades K-2.
3. No modifications or solutions on how to deal with the ever rising Gap?
(You can’t get a 60 watt bulb to shine 120 watts, yet the light bulb
doesn’t get told it’s inafective)
4. David Coleman and his crew didn’t think about having current classroom
teacher educators involved on his committee when writing the common core.
Afterwards, didn’t think to ask an educator for suggestions on how to
implement them? Is that gathering a committee of stakeholders?
5. Why is the United States one of the only countries to over test their
students? Why isn’t trust placed on teachers who work beyond the call of
duty? Why is emphasis not placed on a teacher’s own observations,
anecdotes, notes interaction with kids, and authentic assessments?
6. What is our need to all be mediocre Common and Standardized? Our
greatest inventions came from Out of the Box, esoteric thinker.
7. Do we really want to create a word where there will always be a rise of
meritocracy? Do we want to encourage our students who are excelling but
cannot close the gap to feel inferior and think they have no opportunities
open to them?
8. Why has education become this race? Aren’t we all on top if we show some
success? Even better, aren’t we successful if we feel good about ourselves
as people and are not considered a number or a rank?
I ran a 4:17 marathon. I hope to run again in November. Regardless whether
my time will be slower or faster, I will feel successful because I know I
put in a lot of effort. In addition, I will let my coaches know they too
are successful and should not feel judged by my performance.
Please read. I think you’ll find some enlightenment if not get some history
regarding its creation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/
Literacy Specialist, Long Beach, NY
Mother, Lynbrook, NY
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New Jersey’s Education Cerf-dumb:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/31/new-jerseys-education-cerf-dumb/
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Diane, Finally, someone in Hollywood really gets it! Or maybe it’s because he still lives in Maryland, but last fall, David Simon, journalist and creator of the TV series The Wire and Treme, told Australians at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, “My country is a horror show.”
So, this week, Bill Moyers interviewed him after the State of the Union Address, and he said, “The horror show is we are going to be slaves to profit.”
And, “People are saying ‘I don’t need anything but my own ability to earn a profit. I’m not connected to society. I don’t care how the road got built, I don’t care where the firefighter comes from, I don’t care who educates the kids other than MY kids. I am me.’ It’s the triumph of the self.” He talked about shameless greed, the loss of a social compact, our bought Congress, etc.
You can watch it here (part 2 will be aired next week): http://billmoyers.com/episode/david-simon-on-america-as-a-horror-show/
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Two teachers in Michigan forced to resign over special ed test scores:
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20140123/OPINION01/301230038/Forcing-teachers-out-black-eye-district
The superintendent’s response: http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20140130/OPINION02/301300033/Here-s-what-community-needs-know-about-recent-teacher-resignations?odyssey=obinsite
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I’m a special ed teacher, and I appreciate you posting this.
The state tests in Oregon are valid for my students within a year of grade level. Outside that, they are invalid (but are given anyway).
That a student could score six years lower on a test between Spring and Fall suggests a problem with the test.
A “psychometrician” should have caught that.
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Diane, It really feels to me like your blog, you and others here are under constant attack by MS. I noticed you told him, “enough is enough,” but he had said the other day that he has a “job” here and I don’t think he ever intends to quit, so I feel like shouting myself. ENOUGH! PLEASE!!!
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Teacher Ed, here is what to do when a commenter becomes relentlessly boring, saying the same thing over and over and over. Ignore him or her. This is a site where discussion and dissent are welcomed, so long as it is civil. No one compels anyone to read the blog, or to read the comments they post.
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I don’t think his discourse is civil, so I’ll just quit myself. Bye.
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I am a graduate student in biology education at the University of Southern Mississippi and I have just finished reading two of your books on NCLB. They were great! I am working on a meta analysis paper for class and wanted to ask you what area of the NCLB current issues you might suggest to direct me in a topic that so much information has been published on. I have looked at other authors work and I find yours the most informative and I would appreciate it immensely to have your opinion. Thank you, Kim Hardy khardy@eccc.edu
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Kim Hardy, try to find evidence of the “Texas miracle.” Or why NCLB set a deadline of 2014 for 100% proficiency.
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You probably already saw this but it hurts my head. New York PTA gave a survey with results definitively anti-CCSS. But their conclusions are from another world. They still strongly support CCSS.
Click to access Report_CCLS_Survey_Jan_2014.pdf
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David Brooks may not be willing to admit it, but his column in today’s NY Times says high stakes testing is a waste.
“Being able to be a straight-A student will be less valuable — gathering masses of information and regurgitating it back on tests.”
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NC’s Read to Achieve mess- http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/03/3588355/third-grade-reading-gets-political.html
Champion of Read to Achieve’s (Senator Phil Berger) distressing defense- http://www.philberger.com/news/entry/berger-responds-to-atkinson-s-call-to-restore-social-promotion
As the parent of a 3rd grader, I’m very alarmed and posted about it here http://ncparentsforlearning.blogspot.com/2014/02/whats-wrong-with-ncs-read-to-achieve.html
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Good news Angie! http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/02/06/state-board-of-ed-approves-alternatives-to-read-to-achieve-portfolio/
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“Tests Changed School For Worse”
A letter to the editor submitted by a 7th grader: “Before the Common Core standards, I really enjoyed English and was very enthusiastic. The Common Core standards force every student to learn at the same pace with no creativity, marching like soldiers who get criticized if they fall.”
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/letters/hcrs-18524–20140130,0,88426.story
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Florida Testing: Over the top!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/04/parent-of-dying-boy-has-to-prove-her-son-cant-take-standardized-test/?hpid=z4
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I wish to call attention to a February 5, 2014 article in a Madison, WI newspaper:
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/speaking-up-madison-s-education-academics-get-involved-in-the/article_9f74c7b7-fcc7-5d74-8156-93e401fea1ee.html
Rick Foral
Retired Educator
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/04/3591118/unhappy-side-to-nc-vouchers-society.html
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This is an interesting take on the fallacy of comparative “grading” of schools.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_25071195/colorados-school-testers-flunk-themselves
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In a current and ongoing email exchange with the MA Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education, they are saying parents can not opt out of PARCC field testing. The email exchange has been posted on Facebook in Stop Common Core Massachusetts and MA Parents Interested in Common Core. I saved the exchange in word if you need it. The person who has been emailing with them has CC’d multiple local news stations and papers with this exchange. But I doubt they will cover it.
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STATE HOUSE: National anti-Common Core activists face off with S.C. educators who support standards
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/05/3246618/state-house-national-anti-common.html#storylink=cpy
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This was posted by LLC1923 but worth a look about Merrow and Rhee. The incredible disappearing emails saga continues. I am glad he is still looking into it. I smell a smoking gun.
http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6767
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Hi Diane!
I am registered for the upcoming Network for Public Education National Conference, and I can’t wait!
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, where I moved recently from California, there are some good things happening. I came across this policy brief of a research study conducted by a Vanderbilt University professor and thought it was noteworthy:
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/03/education-reforms-demoralize-teachers/
Thank you for your blog and all you do!!
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Diane,
A little humor for your weekend.
The House that Gates Built: A Cautionary Tale
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-house-that-gates-built.html
Thanks, Russ
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Money for Education Misplaced
If Ohio legislators truly want the best education for all children then why are most public school students from third to tenth graders required to take 17 standardized tests, written by a variety of educational vendors, while private school students take one, the OGT? Why is the state of Ohio giving tax credit scholarships for some students to attend one of at least 20 private schools that teach creationism and the age of the Earth to be between 6-10,000 years old?
Why are legislators defunding public schools to handover nearly a billion dollars annually to for profit businesses to manage charter schools? The Columbus Dispatch reported in September 2013 that nearly 84,000 Ohio students, or roughly 87 percent of the state’s charter-school students, attend a charter ranked D or F by the state. For comparison, 75% of public schools were rated C or better. Since 1997, roughly 30% of the charter schools have closed and their median life is 4 years. Furthermore, charter schools now receive $5,745 per student from money that is deducted from the state aid going to the student’s home district.
So the state is taking money out of a system that could use it and spending it in a system in which 87% of their schools are rated poorly and 3 in ten 10 have closed over the last 15 years.
Charter schools also are exempt from hundreds of references in Ohio Revised Code. For example, charter schools do not have to follow the detailed prescribed curriculum like math, science, and reading that are required in public schools nor do they have to annually report the names, salaries, college experience, degrees earned, or type of teaching license held by their staff; hard to believe.
The irony to all of this is lawmakers must feel certain regulations would hurt charter schools, which is why they are exempted, yet legislators have no problem using these laws to regulate public schools and their students.
Ohio does have tough laws to close charter schools but loopholes in the law keeps these failing schools open under a new name and new management. It is time to let charter schools fund themselves and to keep public dollars in public schools.
Matt Bistritz
Twinsburg
216-990-3630
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Diane:
Here is a link to an interesting presentation called “The One Comic That Explains Just How Screwed Up America Is.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/26/1103368/-The-One-Comic-That-Explains-Just-How-Screwed-America-Is?detail=email#
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Hi Diane, I’ve been following and sharing your blog for some time now. I’m the mother of four. I have homeschooled, taught in private school, and in public high school and middle school. I have a master’s degree in education, and a lot of concerns and opinions. One of my greatest concerns is that the CC is developmentally inappropriate. By the time my students reach me in high school, they have reached a crushing level of apathy. I have no doubt the CCS are only going to serve to make this worse. I’ve recently written a post about the ways in which the CCS are killing the joy of reading in our children. I believe the love of reading has to start at home, but even if parents do their part, day after day of soul-sucking drudgery is bound to take it’s toll.
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Dr. R –
When the GREAT are ousted by the few – when will American education ever be able to compete with the rest of the world? Please let everyone know that a respected Superintendent of the largest Colorado district has been forced out by a biased and politically motivate Board majority. Shame on them.
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A Declaration of Independence from Corporatist/Behaviorist Education
Posted on February 7, 2014
When, in the course of a teaching career, it becomes essential to break from excessively rational beliefs and schemes and to begin thinking openly and freely, disregarding the dictatorial influences of political hacks, the insidious prodding of education gurus and the bleating of complacent peers, it is necessary that the thinking educator admonish the world with the whys and wherefores of their intended independence from those scourges of productive learning, Corporations and their Behaviorist lackeys.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that education is best described as a journey, not a destination; that education is not a medicine or treatment to be inflicted upon learners; that a partnership between willing learner, skilled teacher, and supportive guardian forms the foundation of productive education; and that a democratic society sustains itself by practice of its ideals within the educational environment. Numerous corporations and anti-public education fronts—including, but not limited to, the Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, ALEC, State Policy Network, Teach for America, Stand for Children, and Teach Plus— plot and contrive to dictate educational policy, conduct and beliefs. When unelected billionaires use their financial clout to promulgate a destructive vision for American education, it is the right—nay, the obligation—of every educator to break all the Windows® they can, chop down every Solution Tree that stands, consign their Common Core lesson plans to the reformatorium, and renew their commitment to student-centered instruction in order to preserve their claim to professional status, ensure their future happiness, and maintain their present sanity.
A glance at the attempts by corporatist forces to deform public education provides ample evidence that ideas and opinions formed in the business world are all too tempting to politicians who rely on corporate funds for re-election. Behold: political narrow-mindedness, focus on data rather than humanity, the tendency to blame those who teach for the ills of society, and an unwillingness to consider humane methods of instruction as acceptable alternatives to techniques of indoctrination serve as warnings to the nation’s teachers and learners that they, too, are doomed to a future of boredom and inner turmoil if they do not act against the domination of Corporations and their Behaviorist toadies in public education today.
When narrow-mindedness reaches that point where afflicted educators are shamed for considering alternatives to the shallow reasoning and attitudes taught them by the nefarious Dufour Duo, their uprising is most justified. So have I and my fellow educators suffered. We rise above this morass of ridiculous ideals today to present several of the offenses of the Corporatist/Behaviorist Cabal for consideration:
They assert a corporation’s right to legal status as individuals in order to exert unrestricted financial influence over public policy, while also enjoying exemptions from the obligations which citizens affected by those policies must endure.
They degrade democracy by excluding teaching professionals from the process of creating standards and imposing those standards without public debate.
They devalue the professionalism of teachers by demanding the surrender of all autonomy in favor of scripted lessons and prescriptive standards.
They claim without evidence that setting “standards” will transform education for the better.
They threaten the privacy of students and seek to transform public schools into another source of profit.
They demand unswerving loyalty and obedience from educators, rather than encouraging professional discourse and promoting respectful dialogue.
They vilify the professional associations of educators and encourage citizens to view teachers and other public servants as parasites on society.
They use non-profit fronts to conceal profit-seeking enterprises.
They alienate youth from their educations by placing undue emphasis on outcomes as opposed to personal investment in the process of learning.
They reduce the beauty and complexity of academic endeavor to atomistic standards as part of their crusade to deprive educators of professional discretion.
They strip seasoned professionals of dignity and destroy their morale.
We, therefore, educators of America, straightforwardly and without dissembling, appealing to the Master Instructor for the iGeneration, do, in the name—and assuming the authority— of public school teachers throughout this Land, brazenly publish and declare that we are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent of Corporate Influence; that we are absolved of allegiance to Arne Duncan and his ilk, and that all connection between educators and Bill Gates’ connivances is hereby dissolved, and that as Free and Independent Tutors, we have full power to offer learners a democratic environment, disregard the CCSS, ignore John Hattie’s latest work of fiction, and do all things that free-thinkers of the world might do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the dearly-departed Socrates, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives (such as they are after semester grading), our meager salaries and 403(b)s, and what little honor we have left after attending PLC conferences.
WE SIGN OUR NAMES…
David Sudmeier
outcave.wordpress.com
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My column in today’s Athens (GA) Banner-Herald. Why should we let the people with the money override parents, teachers and those who know children and education?
bit.ly/1gjQeiX
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And why is the Montessori community willing to be influenced by a few wealthy individuals?
http://jola-montessori.com/article/addressing-external-standards/
http://jola-montessori.com/article/bill-gates-maria-montessori-the-teacher-and-the-child/
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Myra, the link does not work.
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http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-02-08/blackmon-best-aspects-teaching-cant-be-evaluated#newComments
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Curious. Here is another bit.ly http://bit.ly/1dbJZ1G
And here is the direct link
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-02-08/blackmon-best-aspects-teaching-cant-be-evaluated
They don’t show as links in this box, but they both worked for me. You may have to copy and paste?
Thanks so much,
Myra
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Thanks, Myra, please let your editor know that Gates spent nearly $200 MILLION on Common Core, not $200,000
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Diane,
StudentsFirst’s PA chapter is holding a town hall meeting on Wednesday, February 19th at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA in coordination with PA Sen. Mike Folmer (R-48), the chair of the PA Senate Education Committee. I found out about this event by happenstance. I would love to pack the town hall meeting with folks like us who are interested in truly improving education for all children, not the nonsense the “reform” movement pushes. Would you be able to help publicize this so we can make other passionate education advocates aware of this opportunity to interact with Sen. Folmer? Details are as follows:
Date: Wednesday, February 19th
Time: 6:30PM
Location: Lebanon Valley College (Neidig Garber Building, Room 203)
Address: 101 College Ave, Annville, PA 17003
The email forward that I received describes this event as “an open forum for residents to express your thoughts, desires and concerns about education to your elected official”, though later in the email, it asks the original recipient to RSVP if they are interested in attending. We’ll see just how open they are interested in being. Thanks for helping spread the word.
Ken Phelps
A teacher’s spouse, a student’s father and an advocate for public education
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Indeed. That was my mistake and I’ll ask for a correction. I can send you a corrected Word copy if you’d like. He may be able to correct it online.
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My editor is correcting the online edition (and running a correction in print). I’ll re-post when that is accomplished.
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/09/3607114/apnewsbreak-gop-seeks-higher-nc.html
Now they can say they gave raises. But it’s only for those in the first five years of teaching.
The snow has started in Asheville! So sad I did not make it to Raleigh.
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Sorry you did not make it Joanna- I did not either. Let me know if you find an explanation for how they are handling teachers in year 6-8. So they will be making less than teachers 0-5? People are saying this in comments but I have not seen it in print. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/fbs/finance/salary/schedules/2013-14schedules.pdf
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Sorry you did not make it Joanna- I did not either. Let me know if you find an explanation for how they are handling teachers in year 6-8. So they will be making less than teachers 0-5? People are saying this in comments but I have not seen it in print. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/fbs/finance/salary/schedules/2013-14schedules.pdf
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Is anyone from the blog going to be at the Durham event tommorrow? I’ll be there and it would be nice to meet some of you.
Howard
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Corrected version of my Athens Banner-Herald (GA) where I raise the question of whether the super-rich or parents and teachers should decide what is best for our children. http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-02-08/blackmon-best-aspects-teaching-cant-be-evaluated#.UvmKJqtsKD4
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Ms. Blackmon, I don’t for a minute believe they are about education. If you look at the subject matter and theories used for Common Core, it becomes evident it’s about control. Control of the elite over the masses.
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I am sitting here listening to your speech at the Emerging Issues Forum. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your honesty and standing up for North Carolina teachers. So well said! I am so inspired to know someone understands.
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For those of you that were unable to attend Diane’s talk this afternoon in Durham, here is a link to a recording of it.
https://app.box.com/s/v9j4lyww903mg44x9889
It was a terrific afternoon, we had 2 members of the Durham City Council, a County Commissioner, 2 State Senators and I counted 4 members of the school board in attendance.
It was wonderful to meet Diane.
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Thanks for sharing this. I am jealous you got to go and meet Diane in person. A friend of mine who was there sent me this quote today . . . “”When I FLY HOME today I hope I have an experienced pilot and not a novice rookie” -Ravitch
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A good thing for NC to know about
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Sirota PBS Pension follow-up.
http://pando.com/2014/02/14/why-wont-pbs-release-details-of-its-3-5m-deal-with-a-billionaire-heres-a-possible-answer/
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Diane,
Do you know anything about Quad Learning, Inc (http://quadlearninginc.com/) and the American Honors program? Pierce College, a community college near Tacoma, just announced their participation in the program. It’s sounds great, BUT Quad Learning is only two years old and it’s a DC based education company which makes me leery.
–Shannon Ergun
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I thought you might be interested in the letter I sent to President Obama.
President Barak Obama January 29, 2014
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
I have been a big fan of yours for a long time. During the presidential campaign, I made phone calls on your behalf. I watched your State of the Union Address with great interest and hope. During the speech, you mentioned letters from ordinary citizens that helped you illustrate your points. I realize that those letters were selected by staffers and most of them never get in front of you. Hopefully, this one will reach you because I think you need to see it.
You and your administration have puzzled me with your approach to fixing the problems with Pre-K through 12 public education. You correctly state the importance of fixing the problems while systematically exacerbating them. For example, you say that every child should have an excellent education, but you support expanding choice and charter schools. Both choice and charter school programs make a better option available to some students while leaving a larger number of students behind in the schools from which they came. Race to the Top (RttT) basically picks winners and losers. We need a program that makes everyone winners. The groups that are benefitting most from the current round of reforms are the charter school operators and testing companies who are reaping huge windfall profits at the expense of our children; and the politicians who want to weaken the influence of the union workers. If that is your intention, (and I don’t believe it is) you can stop reading here. If you truly care about providing quality education to every child in America, read on.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Report is correctly cited as proof that America needs to improve K-12 education. Unfortunately, the rest of the excellent information in the report goes largely unheeded. The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) produced an analysis of the PISA report titled, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, benchmarking America’s programs and practices with the countries ahead of us in the PISA rankings. I was present when Arnie Duncan participated in the announcement of the report. The results of their analysis can best be summed up with the following brief quote.
“The Dog that Did Not Bark – “It turns out that neither the researchers whose work is reported on in this paper nor the analysts of the OECD PISA data have found any evidence that any country that leads the world’s education performance league tables has gotten there by implementing any of the major agenda items that dominate the education reform agenda in the United States.”
Given that clear message, why do we continue to pursue the reforms that are not working? By the way, teachers unions are a vital part of the excellent performance of schools in those countries that lead the US. According to the PISA Report, you don’t need unions to help make it easier to fire ‘bad teachers’. Instead, you need unions to help identify ineffective teachers and improve them.
Charter schools were conceived to allow passionate creative educators to test innovative learning programs. They worked! We have some excellent charter schools; but more importantly, we have some excellent proven educational innovations. Rather than create more charter schools, it’s time to take the proven innovations and use them to transform existing public schools.
In her 1996 book It Takes a Village, Hillary Clinton quoted the old African saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The inverse is also true, “It takes a good school to raise a community.” There needs to be a carefully developed and maintained symbiotic relationship between a community and its schools. Instead of emphasizing and supporting the important roles of schools in their communities, the present national educational programs like RttT are identifying poorly performing schools and closing them down. While the intention is to put the students into better schools, the unintended consequence is the destruction of a vital community resource.
Schools are at the very heart of their communities. It begins in elementary schools and continues through high school – evidenced by the large numbers of people who attend Friday night football games to support their local teams. Go to a game and watch the social, cultural, political, educational, and economic (not to mention romantic) activity that occurs there – of course, there is also a football game. The neighborhood school is the gathering place for local businesses and service organizations. By eliminating ‘poorly performing’ schools, the NCLB and RttT programs are damaging their communities.
RttT starts off in the right direction by identifying the schools that are failing to meet the needs of the students and the community. However, after identifying them, the response should not be to close them but to improve them. It is time to stop experimenting with student lives. There are proven comprehensive transformational models. We need to be replicating these proven models, not trying to find another model that might work.
Under the RttT, after identifying poorly performing schools, the district then moves from that determination to a set of punitive and destructive options. Because of some long-term funding and other socioeconomic issues, the vast majority of these identified poorly performing schools will come from disadvantaged minority communities. Instead of punitive actions, the emphasis must be on investing in the resources and people needed to improve the disadvantaged schools and rebuild the communities based upon the proven models from the successful charter schools.
Race to the Top, in its present form, will not get us there!
You can’t be in favor of a program that tacitly accepts some schools will be better than others and seeks equity by balancing access instead of raising quality. If you believe that everyone has the potential for greatness, then you must also want to ensure that every child is nurtured to achieve that greatness. And you should not only want it on moral or ethical grounds; you should also want it on economic grounds. There are many reports on the economic and social benefits of providing equitable access to quality K-12 education. America has some excellent public schools, but that is not enough. America’s future is at risk as long as we continue to allow poor schools to exist.
In April of 2009, The McKinsey & Co. published, The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools. The report summarized the issue as follows:
“This report finds that the underutilization of human potential in the United States is extremely costly. For individuals, our results show that:
• Avoidable shortfalls in academic achievement impose heavy and often tragic consequences, via lower earnings, poorer health, and higher rates of incarceration.
• For many students (but by no means all), lagging achievement evidenced as early as fourth grade appears to be a powerful predictor of rates of high school and college graduation, as well as lifetime earnings.
For the economy as a whole, our results show that:
• If the United States had in recent years closed the gap between its educational achievement levels and those of better-performing nations such as Finland and Korea, GDP in 2008 could have been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher. This represents 9 to 16 percent of GDP.
• If the gap between black and Latino student performance and white student performance had been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher, or 2 to 4 percent of GDP. The magnitude of this impact will rise in the years ahead as demographic shifts result in blacks and Latinos becoming a larger proportion of the population and workforce.
• If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher, or 3 to 5 percent of GDP.
• If the gap between America’s low-performing states and the rest had been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $425 billion to $700 billion higher, or 3 to 5 percent of GDP
Put differently, the persistence of these educational achievement gaps imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession. The recurring annual economic cost of the international achievement gap is substantially larger than the deep recession the United States is currently experiencing. The annual output cost of the racial, income, and regional or systems achievement gap is larger than the US recession of 1981–82.”
There is a solution. You should look at the transformational model at the three schools at the Tracy Learning Center (TLC) in Tracy, California. By designing and building the solution as a new system, the solution can be delivered within existing budgets. The annual per-pupil cost at the TLC is less than $7,500. By empowering the teachers to manage the whole program, the system adapts daily in response to needs that arise. From the beginning, this school was built to be a model for transforming public schools – not building more similar charter schools.
In eleven years of operation, the school, with a diverse population, has had less than 1% dropouts! In the same timeframe, very few teachers have left their positions. In 2013, the TLC elementary school was ranked as the third best charter school in the state by the USC Rossier School of Education. (There are about 1,000 charter schools in California.) As good as the present model is, the program does not promote or include any radical new ideas. The system is a comprehensive integrated set of selected, proven, student-centered and organizational best-practices. If you would like to get a better idea of the program at the TLC, look at the U-Tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg38Y60bX20&feature=related
The program at the TLC has been favorably reviewed by people from both sides of the political spectrum. Bill Brock, Secretary of Labor under President Reagan and Ed McElroy, President Emeritus of the American Federation of teachers both endorse the TLC model and are both supporters. Randi Weingarten (AFT) and Dennis Van Roekel (NEA) have both said that their unions recognize the TLC model as one they would support for transforming K-12 education. Raul Yzaguirre, former head of La Raza and your ambassador to the Dominican Republic is another supporter of the TLC model. During your first campaign for President, Linda Darling Hammond served as your education surrogate. She was and is fantastic. You need to read her book, The Flat World and Education, or call her in for a refresher course. Linda supports the model at the TLC. When I described what they are doing at the TLC to Vint Cerf, Google’s Internet Ambassador, he commented, “That’s the way we work at Google.”
I live in nearby Haymarket, VA and would love to assist you in any way I can to improve America’s schools. The following quote from my friend Jack Taub sums up the situation.
“Together, we will create a national movement to unleash America’s largest, unlimited, and virtually untapped source of renewable energy: the minds of all of our children!!!!
The chorus from Whitney Houston’s beautiful song, “The Greatest Love of All”, should inspire us all.
I believe the children are our future,
Teach them well and let them lead the way,
Show them all the beauty they possess inside,
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier,
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be.
We can transform America’s public schools. Let’s get to work!
Regards,
Allan C. Jones
571-222-7195
15697 Prosperity Dr.
Haymarket, VA 20169
Cc: Ed McElroy, Bill Brock, Arnie Duncan, Randi Weingarten, Dennis Van Roekel, Raul Yzaguirre, Linda Darling Hammond, Mark Tucker, Vint Cerf
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After reading all the VAM stuff there is one point I have not seen made. So I wrote this piece and not sure what to do with it.
I was a student of Dr. Frank Hewett (of the engineered classroom fame) at UCLA in the early 1990’s. He had a theory of the P-E fit where he explained most behavior disorders were not in the person but came from the person not fitting in well with their environment. Ever since then I have been very cognizant of the context of teaching and learning and behavior. In my mind, I see more of the “Teacher-Student Fit”. Not all students fit well with all teachers and not all teachers fit well with all students.
This brings me to my point, the myth of the “highly effective” teacher. I am considered an excellent teacher and I made great gains with students with special needs when I was a public school teacher, and now with my university students. But no matter how wonderful my evaluations say I am, I am not “highly effective” for 100% of my students. Every semester, there are usually a few in my class for whom I am really only and average teacher. Either they do not like me or need me very much or they have other distractions where my class never resonates as the most amazing experience in their lives. I am fortunate that the majority of my students let me know I inspired them in one way or another but I certainly do not reach every single person in my classes.
I also make mistakes. In the past 3 years there are 2 students I feel that I did not catch their problems in time to help them in my class. In these two cases, one student was saved in later classes by other faculty members, and one was not. I have kept tabs on him and he is doing well now at another university.
The point is that even effective teachers are not effective for all students. I often placed my children into classes with teachers who had excellent reputations. I found these teachers were fabulous with my compliant high achieving daughter. But in one case, the same teacher who was wonderful with my daughter was a mess with my son. She kept accusing him of misbehavior for months before we realized he had a vision problem and kept getting out of his seat in the back of the room so he could see the board. Even after he had glasses she really just never “clicked” with him and is made for a difficult year.
Maybe the reason no one talks about teacher/student fit this is we do not know how to measure it. But the reform movement keeps trying to identify highly effective teachers with test scores so we can give them more students, and fire those ineffective teachers so they no longer harm children. The flaw in this reasoning is the effective and ineffective teacher may be the exact same person; it may just depend on their fit with each individual student.
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LOVE this point! In my belief system, and in many, we believe that God gives us free will. The problem with the reform movement is that the assumption is made that we have control over everything and everyone… but ignores the free will of individual human beings. You’re right… you can click for some kids, but not for others… whether it’s personality conflict, behavioral choices, etc. Thank you for sharing this perspective.
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Social Studies education is going “down the tubes” with very little fanfare:
In the 2006 National Geographic survey, it was found that 63% of American 18-24 year olds could not find Iraq on a map, and 90% of them could not find Afghanistan on a map, this despite the fact that we had hundreds of thousands of troops in those countries at the time. In that same survey, 54% of those young adults did not know that Sudan was in Africa, this despite the genocide that was raging in that country. In the 2010 NAEP test of historical knowledge, only 12% of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency, with 88% falling in the bottom category. On that test, only 2% of test takers were able to tell what social problem the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was supposed to resolve. Finally, and most recently, in 2013 Public Policy Polling found that only 39% of those who felt that “Benghazi was the biggest political scandal in American history” could accurately say what country Benghazi was in. Does this matter? Following are some of the campaign gaffes made by a variety of candidates for the Presidency in 2012. My concern is whether most 18 year olds would pick up the mistakes.
Sarah Palin mistakenly declared that the US should stand by its “North Korean allies”. (Note: The US is allied with South Korea, not Communist North Korea!) Michele Bachman said: “What people recognize is that there’s a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward….” (Note: the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.) Herman Cain said that China was “trying to develop nuclear capability.” (Note: China has had nuclear weapons since 1964.) If you’d prefer a non-Global Studies example, you’ll remember when Michele Bachmann told the crowd in Concord, New Hampshire that they were “the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord.” In contrast to the aforementioned, 2008 Republican Presidential candidate, John McCain, is very literate in regard to these issues.
The question I would ask is whether there is a certain amount of “Social Studies” literacy expected in our citizenry if we are to have a functioning democracy. George Washington wrote that “without an educated population, a democracy couldn’t work, because you need people to understand the issues, discuss them and be able to read about them.” Thomas Jefferson concurred: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” Washington and Jefferson might very well be disappointed if they saw the dramatic reduction in the breadth of history content learned by the average, non-AP, high school student today as compared with a decade ago. The cutback in coverage is not the intention of the teachers or the administrators. The reason current Western Civilization students might only get up to the Renaissance, when ten years ago they got through World War 2, is due to all sorts of well- meaning initiatives which are unwittingly crowding out historical, political and geographical content.
Below I cite 20 reform measures which all have some benefits. However, they also have their costs and, in this case, the collective cost is much less breadth of content covered. As a result of the 20 factors below, I can only anticipate a continued drop in the prior knowledge of students coming into the 100 level International Politics course I teach.
(1) In high schools, generally, there is less lecturing /less teacher presentations/less direct instruction (2) Student presentations are much more common (3) Alternative, more time consuming, assessments are being used more frequently (4) Cooperative learning in small groups is being used to a much greater extent (5) Heterogeneous grouping (6) Differentiated instruction, because of heterogeneous grouping (7) Graduation by Proficiency, in many schools, involves the production of a Portfolio (8) Allowing re-writes of papers and re-takes of tests
(9) Flexible deadlines for handing in homework (10) Limitations on how much homework can count in a quarter grade;10-15% is common (11) The introduction of Advisory period (12) Common Planning Time (13) There are no US History or World History content standards approved by Rhode Island (14) “Testing more and more; teaching less and less!” (15) Block Scheduling (16) Extensive use of pre-assessments, and formative assessments
(17) Extensive time spent by the student reflecting on what has been learned (18) Teachers are only minimally evaluated in regard to their own breadth of knowledge (19) Reduction in the use of textbooks
20) A general “less is more” philosophy promoted by many decision makers
If you’re interested in the details of the 20 assertions, please access my blog and counter my point of view, or add a 21st factor: http://www.rihssocialstudies.blogspot.com
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” – FDR
Jim Buxton retired from South Kingstown HS in 2009. He currently serves as an adjunct professor in the URI Political Science Department, and in the Salve Regina Education Department, although he doesn’t speak on behalf of either of those departments.
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“We have always been at war with Southeast Asia.”
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Help. I cannot remember the name of the powerful academic author who wrote about how US students are harmed because they are almost constantly surveilled and have little autonomy or down-time. I recall her first name as Carol or Barbara (but I almost certainly am wrong) and I read the article in a big journal such as Teaching and Teacher Ed. She has been referred to on this blog on several occasions. Can someone jog my memory, please?
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We have collected the data. We have analyzed the quantitative results of tests upon tests. It is time to look at some qualitative anecdotes—it is time to ask the students and teachers who are having to put up with endless testing and unrealistic goals what they want and what they need. They know. And they can tell us. We just need to listen to them.
I teach at small, independent, community school in Afton, VA, called North Branch. It’s a magical little place. Thursday at recess (that time of day children can run around unfettered by adult intrusion) three boys, let’s call them Simon, Joe, and Emmet, made a kite. At the end of school, I was sitting in my room, catching up on some work, and these three boys hustle through, look at me, and Emmet says, “You’ve got to come see this.” Simon stops with the kite and shows me.
“Is this a science project?” I ask.
“No,” Simon answers, simply.
“Math?”
“No—we made it at recess,” he says.
“Tell me about it.”
Simon reflects on the process. The concept is easy: joy in building, using simple materials and classic design. Paper, dowels (where they procured dowels, I have no idea), Scotch tape, duct tape, and twine. I follow the boys out to the field and watch as they run with their kite…Emmet holding the string, Simon holding the kite, and Joe running alongside with a stop watch. It was beautiful.
I invoke the spirit of Ted Sizer, who maintained that relationships between students and teachers are essential for motivation. How can teachers know students if they have anywhere from twenty-five to forty-five students per class? I wonder how he would react to the story of Barb Wagner, an English teacher at Clackamas County High School, in Oregon. She teaches 215 students. If she assigns an essay and spends only ten minutes grading each one, that adds up to 35.8 hours. Untenable.
I wonder how John Dewey would react to a tour of public schools today, where students often are not allowed to go to the bathroom during lunch. I have a new student in my 4th grade class, let’s call him Julian, who, for the first month of school, would ask me every time he needed to go to the bathroom. I finally sat him down and said, “Julian, when you gotta go, you gotta go…just leave quietly and be quick about it.” His father later told me that the reason he did that was because he was not allowed to go to the bathroom during lunch at his old school and he was worried I wouldn’t let him go. I wonder if the teachers at his old school studied Abraham Maslow’s hierachy of needs.
I wonder what Horace Mann would say to this, according to one mother of two home-schooling students I know: students having to walk silently in single file, staying on the third line of tiles in the hall, as they walk to their music class, which only occurs once a week for thrty-five minutes in a six week rotation.
And I wonder what they would think of Columbine and Newtown? What is education, and where is it heading?
I teach, yes, but I also learn. Every day, I learn. I am pursuing the M.Ed. at Mary Baldwin College, as well. I love learning about teaching and the process of how children and adults learn—together and separately. I am focusing on the idea of relationship’s role in education. And these children teach me endless lessons of patience, respect, goodwill, and the pure awe of wonder. I am privileged and grateful to work in a school that fosters not only the intellectual growth of the child, but also the improbable hopes and dreams of the child. What is education? And where is it heading? I have more passion than answers, but I am asking questions and looking for solutions. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, I remember the Kite Makers. They give me hope.
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Does Music Lie?
“Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.” Jimi Hendrix
But what is music? That might sound like a ridiculous question, but I wonder how our history might have been different if Standards Based Music Education had been the focus of schools in the 1940s or ‘50s.
I can only imagine what “standards” would have been imposed on little James Marshall Hendrix. Who would have been selected to write the standards? Certainly not the musicians that led the way in jazz, blues or bluegrass—Duke Ellington, McKinley Morganfield and Bill Monroe need not apply. The more likely candidate — Will Earhart, a music educator who you’ve probably never heard of. Earhart was convinced that the “beauty” of music should be appreciated by all students. Appreciate beauty? Great idea, isn’t it? But how would it be measured or described? Earhart’s standard for beauty clearly excluded the amplified instruments used in rock and roll or the loose approach to rhythm that characterizes blues music. Jimi would have failed according to such standards—his playing was frequently ahead of or behind the beat, his amplifier distorted, with feedback shrieking. Some music educators today might still side with Earhart.
Standards tend to be written by academics, and the standards they produce are essentially conservative—they preserve the status quo rather than encourage learners to challenge accepted practice or extend the boundaries of a discipline. A standards-oriented musical academic of that era might have told Jimi, “You’re right, music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, it better happen outside of music. And what you’re doing isn’t music.”
History has spoken on that subject. Jimi changed the face of popular music, and had to do so entirely outside of the academic scene. How many other “Jimis” have been made to feel inadequate, unwanted, or inept at school because their interpretation of content, concepts or skills lay beyond an accepted academic norm?
If you’re a parent of a student, consider the impact that a standards-based education may have on your child’s ability or desire to “think outside the box.” The more we reduce knowledge or skills to a list of arbitrary standards, the more likely that we pre-empt constructive and creative change because we lie to students—we lead them to believe they have “mastered” a subject if they can check off the various boxes on whatever list we proffer.
Does music lie? No. Neither does mathematics, history, or any other field of human endeavor. The truth is that no field of knowledge will ever be complete, nor can a list of “standards” encompass any of the disciplines. When we reduce knowledge to a set of “standards,” we not only encourage students to view education as a finite experience, but also encourage teachers to eliminate anything that didn’t make the cut. Education then ceases to be that open-ended journey that both students and teachers might contribute to.
Don’t lie to students. They deserve to explore the truths we have discovered thus far, and to add their discoveries to the ever-flowing river of learning.
© David Sudmeier, 2014
Follow Dave’s blog at Outcave.wordpress.com !
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I am proud of the extent to which I responded to a columnist in St. Louis, when he said this…related to the effects of de-segregation in St. Louis. “Sometimes I feel like I am a character in a science fiction story in which I am the only person in the world with a memory.” This is a columnist who e-mailed information to me about a former special education student who had been murdered. It seemed to me to be designed to steer me away from suspicions of many that the 12 bullet execution was related to a lawsuit against a well-known coach. The homicide detectives he talked to might or might not have been real, but he became angry when I posted what he told me. I am not sure the same information was shared with the boy’s father, and whether there are laws against a situation like that. I believe the almost total lack of follow up was related to worries that it would interfere with an angry attempt by the Mayor and big financial backers to take over the St. Louis schools. I posted an article about someone who would have been able to affect the media that way, but I did not accuse him. The stuff I posted is not completely disorganized, but there is a lot of it, including news articles eliminated from archives. I have long wished to have somebody take a look at it…it might be too much to ask. If not…here is a link to my comment page in the post dispatch….http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/bill-mcclellan/mcclellan-with-friends-like-these/article_429a433c-a6b1-5fc8-892b-b5832719897e.html?mode=comments
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Diane – Thank you for coming to Indianapolis and for appearing in the “Rise Above the Mark” documentary. It was a pleasure to see you in person and to witness the rousing reception you received.
A few years ago, you wrote an article entitled “The Myth of Charter Schools” in which you referenced a study saying that 60% of student achievement is attributable to factors OUTSIDE the schools. I’ve not been able to locate that study and am hoping you can send me a link to it. Thanks for your help and your distinguished advocacy.
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I am not Diane but she has cited this talk by Haertal discusses the effect size of teachers on achievement scores. https://www.ets.org/s/pdf/23497_Angoff%20Report-web.pdf
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Good morning Diane,
The Chicago Teachers Union just released a report on the experiences of CTU members of the 2012 strike and the turn to social organizing union model. The intent behind the report is to give other teachers unions and public sector unions an understanding of how social organizing unionism not only strengthens their own cause but also transforms the member into a more engaged union member and civically engaged citizen. You can find that report here:
http://www.ctunet.com/quest-center/research/a-sea-of-red
Thank you.
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I am a former classroom teacher turned lawyer, and I wrote this thing about professionalism and teaching. You might appreciate it. People seem to like it.
http://parentingthecore.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/the-teachers/
I first read one of your books in an undergraduate class titled “Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education” back in the fall of 1992, I think it was. We critiqued your thinking mercilessly in that class. While I did not always agree with you then, and I still do not always agree with you now (I’ve recently read Rise & Fall of the Great American School System and am currently reading Reign of Error), I appreciate your contributions to the discussion. I think it would help if more of us could listen to each other, appreciate each other, respect each other, and hear each other. There are no easy answers, but it helps to ask the questions.
Best regards,
Sarah Blaine
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Smartboards: Commentary on Long Island Opt Out Facebook by Joseph Mugivan
Looking at the Common Core math lessons, they are tailored to meet the technology of the Smartboard, which reduces the ideas of math to number “lines”; unit displays of ones, tens, and hundreds; as well as the naming of geometric shapes. It is all direct instruction around singular problems.
This reduces the ability of children to do multiple math problems at the same time in a collaborative way.
With a blackboard teachers were able to place numerous problems on display and children could go to the board to resolve them in a social construct. Now the teacher uses only direct instruction and linear thinking to solve isolated problems, while children’s ability to perceive the math ideas in numerous ways is precluded. The imagination is no longer able to embrace the problem on its own terms.
Such education molds the thinking patterns of children whose minds are malleable. This may be well and good for children who are being trained to be engineers, but parents should have the option of making that decision.
There is a deadening of the brain formation with this kind of direct instruction and the brightest will have much trouble sitting through it. The opportunity of children to see the problem holistically is reduced.
Children are being educated on Smartboards without having a relationship with the teacher, who is memorized in the technology, but a machine. The teacher must follow the script; his/her mind is unable to respond to the moment, in the classroom, where alternative ideas of learning may be possible.
There is no space for student interaction with each other during such an event, when the lights are dimmed and all seating is focused on the lesson. Classroom seating is now being arranged to view the Smartboard and group seating with cooperative learning possibilities are eliminated. Shades are drawn in all of the classrooms and natural light is no longer available. Studies show that children respond best in natural light and are hyperactive in artificial light.
Krista, I am pleased that you had a good experience with your demonstration. The Smartboard in conjunction with the Common Core is eliminating the opportunities for children to actually be writing numbers in a notebook, but instead writing numbers on a ditto which is formatted by the publisher, and many times does not allow proper spacing for these problems. Children should be able to write the questions as well as the answers. Children’s minds may race ahead of the teacher and are forced to listen to the programmed script that is already underway. Everyone moves at the same speed, a one size fits all. You mentioned students going to the board, but only one problem can be done on a Smartboard by one person at a time. The Smartboard blocks off black or white board space and in many classrooms there is no place to write on a board. With the Smartboard, many teachers have just paved over alternative board space with posters and charts, feeling that they are obsolete. Groups of children are unable to use board space for multiple problems. Speed and efficiency can be a quality, but it brings the teacher’s focus to the technology away from the struggling student where students may help each other. Your teacher, I believe, is the exception and not the rule.
Tamika, I always looked for opportunities for children to move around the classroom and interact about math. Children are interested in what their peers do and a great source of inspiration in doing the work. I was always able to have children functioning at different levels according to their abilities with multiple math activities. Smartboards have all children doing the same thing at the same time. They no longer have ownership of their advancement. Teachers are following the script of the publishers. This is why the Common Core is dangerous. Teachers are conditioned to follow programs precisely as teachers guides direct them, you no doubt being the exception.
Kids who finished first became big brothers and sisters. Children were asked who needed one?, no obligation. Kids learn better from their peers. I see teachers lost in the technology and not moving around the class. Some classrooms are impassable, aligned for the direct instruction. Teachers depend on the publishers to direct their instruction. Time is an element with all of the stress now where teachers are unable to try different things. They have “staff development” by commercial companies, rather than being able to share ideas with things that they have learned, that may actually be fun and enjoyable, to talk about how they address learning for different students. Someone once said that all learning is about “relationship” which is lacking in a Smartboard. The Smartboard is interactive on its own terms. Smartboards direct teachers, more than the other way around. Elementary schools are becoming power point presentations, and the power is with the publishers.
Thank you, these are all thoughtful observations.. I used to be able to put 10 problems on a board in about 5 minutes, and once the first one is up children are on task. Brian had a good comment about the research. It may be “interactive” to the outside observer, but is it effective? I once visited a K class and the teacher had a multimedia presentation going with beautiful pictures in foreign countries, music with a beat, and interactive activities with children going up and touching and moving the days and months of the year to create the days date. It seemed very exciting. Later that day I asked the child what month and day it was? She had no idea what I was talking about!. Children begin to process time and space at age 7. That is why they play. Does a Smartboard know that? Smartboards are an idea in time, an open classroom is so much more. I feel sorry for the new teachers scrambling with the Common Core nonsense, never to have a chance to sort things out in reaction to their students. I do not see the joy in their eyes and their creativity that is being snuffed out before it is born. A senior teacher once said to me, “Young teachers just don’t know, that they don’t know”. Smartboards should be a tool for teachers, but I feel that the teachers are becoming a tool for the Smartboards. Who controls that medium, controls children’s (and teachers’) minds.
I am so grateful to hear from all of these concerned teachers. We must recognize that over thousands of years, we are entering a time when teachers no longer control the medium. The pencil was created in the 1500’s in England, which may have produced Shakespeare. Teachers have always been able to produce their ideas in writing; whether on boards or in sand.
Only one person can write at a time. It is not an ideal medium for writing. The board also takes up much space and eliminates white board and black board space that used to be available. Teachers drag out single problems, when kids can be doing multiple problems at the same time. One parent at this site said that her son became disruptive and troublesome after sitting for a one hour Smartboard lesson. I am surprised at the teacher who said that it is no longer fashionable for kids to go to the board. There is no board to go to. We may have to begin strapping them down to meet the linear reductionist thinking that is required.
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Here is a good way to do math, if you have the room…http://www.360degreemath.com/
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A very worthy investigation. thank you.
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You’re welcome.
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This guy running for Mayor in Washington, DC gets it.
He also runs the acclaimed Busboys & Poets bookstore. May not win…but You can always dream.
Shallal criticizes D.C. school reform efforts, saying he would chart a different course.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/shallal-criticizes-dc-school-reform-efforts-saying-he-would-chart-a-different-course/2014/02/18/4ba4b45a-97f7-11e3-9616-d367fa6ea99b_story.html
“Education reform is just not working in Washington,” Shallal wrote in a white paper released Friday, criticizing the city’s emphasis on using standardized tests to judge educators and schools as a “war on teachers” and a strategy of “intimidation and punishment.”
“If we keep harping on this idea that the schools are doing great, we are misleading people,” Shallal said in an interview Monday.
Shallal’s 13-page white paper, the most detailed and confrontational education proposal released by a candidate to date, outlines a different course. Hinting that he would drop the school system’s controversial IMPACT teacher evaluations, he said he would focus on reducing class sizes, developing strong leaders and teachers, broadening the curriculum, establishing wraparound social services for struggling families, expanding summer school programs and extending the city’s early childhood programs to more 3-year-olds.
In response Gray’s spokesman said:
“Chuck Thies, Gray’s campaign manager, accused Shallal of “playing with fire” by casting doubt on the city’s education efforts.
“What Andy Shallal wants to do is mess with success, and the only reason he wants to mess with success is an effort to get attention and be elected mayor,” Thies said.
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Here’s a possible reason that Brookings isn’t so liberal anymore.
Rahm Emanuel: Mayor America –
Edward Luce
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/45e05e62-9445-11e3-a0e1-00144feab7de.html#slide0
At Emanuel’s request, WBC (World Business Chicago) commissioned a 10-point plan from McKinsey and the Brookings Institution to revitalize Chicago’s economy.
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Syracuse to add 5 new schools to failing I Zone
http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/11/at_syracuses_innovation_zone_schools_its_still_the_same_old_education_commentary.html
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The American Public School Under Siege:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brenner/the-american-public-schoo_b_4804416.html
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Here in Palm Beach County, FL, we definitely are experiencing way too much testing. Diagnostic testing fills up the months of September and January. The FCAT, the annual standardized test, takes up another half of a month. Here’s my talk before the School Board tonight:
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Excellent article !
New Jersey’s Occupied School Districts:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/14/new-jerseys-occupied-school-districts-2/
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Some good news coming out of NC. I heard the legislature may delay Smarter Balanced another 2 years but I have not seen it documented. But the superintendents came out supporting teacher pay and professionalism. http://www.nhcs.net/wordpress/timmarkley/2014/02/20/top-nc-superintendents-speak-about-importance-of-recruiting-and-retaining-great-teachers/
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Regarding the Corporate speak from NC, we must oppose such language as ”
Higher standards, new learning technologies and the need for graduates with more highly developed skills”, This is the language that turns teachers into technocrats, what are these highly developed “skills” ? and such nonsense language as “smarter balanced”.
Why not “Mom and apple pie balanced”
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Hi Diane, Here in Philadelphia, Governor Corbett appointed a new School Reform Commission Chair and a new member. The Chair is Bill Green a pretend democrate, a proponent of public school closures, charter school openings and union busting. The member is Farah Jimenez a republican of the same philosophy. Thursday was the first meeting with Mr. Green at the head. A good number of community groups and individuals came out to share their dissent and concern. I spoke as well and asked Mr. Green two questions. For both instances, he stared coldly at me for about 10 seconds and then stated, “proceed.” He would not acknowledge the question or even suggest a format for asking and answering a question. (I guess when you are appointed from on high, you don’t have to concern yourself with answering questions from the annoying public.) Anyway one of my questions was about whether he read your book (Reign of Error). Since he refused to answer my question, I presented him with a fresh, new copy of the book at the conclusion of my remarks. We’ll see if it makes any difference. I’m not inclined to think it will. I have included my remarks here. Thank you for all you do.
I am here today as a parent of public school graduates, a recently retired teacher and a resident of Philadelphia. I would like to begin with two questions to Mr. Green.
On December 31, 2013, I wrote a letter to you regarding your views on how public education should look in Philadelphia. In the Inquirer, was an article in which you stated that you had read M. Night Shymalon, the movie director’s book, I Got Schooled and that you found it to be a valuable resource. In my December letter, I asked if you had read, Diane Ravitch, a life-long educator’s book, Reign Error. Since you never answered my letter, I am asking again, have you read that book?
My second question, could you provide the evidence and research that you have used to base your position of closing public schools, and providing alternative private settings as a solution to the public education problems in our city? How will you make this information available for public evaluation and review?
I would next like to comment on Mr. Hite’s Action Plan 2.0. Although this plan is filled with lots of wonderful language that would in some areas be hard to dispute as desirable, it also contains language of public school closures and continued charter school openings as solutions. In addition, there is little in the way of “nuts and bolts” language on how the wonderful words will come to be. Further, there is, once again, no mention of the poverty and segregation that plagues our city as the very real factor affecting educational outcomes. Roughly ¼ of the children in this country live in poverty. It’s as if we can mitigate the circumstances of poverty and segregation by trumped up corporate reform initiatives and convoluted language.
Teachers in this city work every day at carrying out scripted tasks, test-prepping and test giving, watching the mountains of paperwork they complete only serving to bury their children’s needs, teaching ever larger numbers in the classroom, working without the basic educational necessities of nurses, counselors, librarians, supplies, marching in fear to the district’s newest drumbeat and now facing the arbitrary and much published inaccurate measure of evaluation…VAM make their work environment ever more oppressing. Does any of this help children succeed? No, quite the contrary, it is oppressive to the education of children because it is not real reform….it is a corporate model that has been labeled “reform” and is not succeeding in reforming anywhere but largely succeeding in making money for a few.
The voices of dissent that you hear in this room deserve a valid place at the table and not a token “round-table discussion.” The PFT deserves a fair and reasonable contract that will continue to protect the working conditions of its members and in extension the learning conditions of the children. It is time for convoluted theories and language to end and honest and straightforward dialogue to begin.
Ms. Jimenez, you spoke on a WHYY interview and stated that you believed that one of the red-herrings in this discussion was possibly budget and funding – considering the great financial hardships Philadelphia is dealing with, I found this an astounding statement. I would like to suggest the red-herring in this room is Action Plan 2.0 and corporate reform models that only serve the adults at the helm.
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Truth in Labeling
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Inigo Montoya: The Princess Bride
I hate buying things and finding out they aren’t what they were advertised to be, don’t you? You’d think that when people put a label on something, that “something” should be exactly as described. I either feel cheated or manipulated when stuff like that happens, and I’m unlikely to respect or trust the company or person who treated me that way. I remember accompanying a friend to an auto dealership—he was looking for a truck, and was assured by a salesperson he had talked to over the phone that the “Custom Deluxe” model had all the bells and whistles he’d ever need. Upon examination, it became obvious that the truck’s label ought to have been “Generic Unequipped.” It didn’t even come with a radio or floor mats…you had to select each desired option and wait weeks for the items to be shipped from the factory for installation. Neither of us has ever purchased a vehicle from that automaker since walking (running?) away from the lot.
“Professional Learning Communities” are another good example of mislabeling. They are neither professional nor learning-centered, and are as likely to be divisive as they are to unify.
When I first heard of Professional Learning Communities, I had high expectations of meaningful dialogue and exploration of ideas in education. I love ideas, and an opportunity to sit with respected colleagues and engage in heated discussion as we debated new (or old) educational initiatives sounded ticky-boo to me. Imagine my discomfort after discovering that no debate was included—I was treated to a PowerPoint on the “correct” way to teach and collaborate. A behaviorist definition of learning was assumed; students have objectives to master, they demonstrate competency or are assigned involuntary “interventions” to assure that they progress in lockstep with their peers. Every teacher uses the same “common formative assessments” so that every student receives a “guaranteed” education. After the PowerPoint, I got to sit down with my peers and “clarify essential outcomes” so that our “achievement data” would be aligned for later “discussion.” Over time, I’ve discovered that challenging the underlying assumptions or the practices of PLC dogma is enough to trigger questions of one’s “professionalism.”
Yawn.
Professionalism, in my book, is a concept that deserves more consideration before being equated with compliance with one philosophy of education or learning. Professionalism means making decisions based on a deep understanding of the history and philosophies related to a discipline; it means autonomy within a range of practice; it means being part of a self-governing body of practitioners. I try to behave as a professional, but I’m pretty sure I’m not treated as one by society, and I’m convinced that the PLC folks have hijacked the term for purposes unrelated to its true meaning. They want to eliminate teacher autonomy and replace it with lists of standards to comply with.
Learning, as a concept, has also been corrupted by the PLC folks. If you accept their limited definition of learning (“what you know and can do”), you’re likely to accept the rest of their dogma without question. I don’t accept it, because I believe that their definition is only one of many ways to parse the term. Humanists often describe learning as an ongoing process rather than as attainment of a particular goal. To constructivists, the act of imparting meaning to the world by assimilating and accommodating experiences is an internal process a teacher can assist, but only occasionally trigger. There are many other definitions, but it’s sufficient to say that the PLC brigade rejects them all because they do not focus on utilitarian outcomes open to measurement. The absolutist attitude of this behavioral stance should be repulsive to anyone who wants to treat education as an interactive journey of exploration rather than a prescriptive march to an unwavering end. Try suggesting an alternative to the PLC definition at a staff meeting—it’s guaranteed to cause administrators to blanch and assessment supervisors to gasp at your heresy. They want certainty, and any suggestion that acceptable alternatives exist endangers the house of cards they are building.
Community is a term that connotes kinship and identity, but that’s not what is being created by PLC. I have kinship with my family, and they certainly provide me with an identity, but I am not expected, by virtue of my family membership, to believe or behave in exactly the same manner as my parents or siblings. The advocates of PLC demand exactly that. No? Then why is there an entire book devoted to the subject available for sale on the Delusion Tree website called Working With Difficult & Resistant Staff? If you’re not on board with every detail of the PLC belief system, you will be plastered with a label. You must be one of these:
An Underminer (Or are you just digging a hole to jump in and hide?)
A Contrarian (Because you must be a negative person not to drink the Kool-Aid…)
A Recruiter (“Come to the dark side of progressive thinking, Luke…”)
Challenged (…you can’t possibly be “normal” since you have an alternative viewpoint…)
An On-the-Job Retiree (You’re just bellying up to the public trough, aren’t you, you slacker?)
The Resident Expert (Hey, that master’s degree on your wall isn’t really yours, is it?)
An Unelected Representative (Gee, and you hadn’t even considered running for office…)
A Whiner & Complainer (Just stick a hanger in your mouth before the next meeting, huh?)
The Spanish Inquisition comes to mind as I peruse the list. There is no room for dissent if you call yourself an educator! True believers will burn you at the stake. Straw man arguments like this do not bear up to the slightest examination, and are insulting to those who think deeply about education—but think differently than devotees of the PLC cult. PLC is a belief system akin to a religion, requiring the faith of believers rather than the contributions of thinking skeptics.
Just as the truck my buddy and I went shopping for deserved a truthful label, so does what is now termed “PLC.” Let’s call the initiative “ABC,” or Amateurish Behaviorist Congregations. After all, it advocates a sloppy and un-professional treatment of the multi-dimensional concept of learning according to behaviorist maxims, requiring unthinking obedience from the converted.
I claim religious freedom as my ticket out.
If that won’t work, just burn me as a heretic and scatter my ashes on the doorstep of the Gates Foundation.
© David Sudmeier, 2014
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Diane
Please post this on your blog.
http://stopcommoncorenc.org/2014/02/22/new-nc-superintendent-consortium-recommends-7-year-common-core-lock/
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Diane, I am a parent of a public school 1st grader in Stamford, CT. I am active in school issues here and follow your blog. I want to share two pieces that ran in the Stamford Advocate last Sunday and my letter to the editor that ran today. One is a column by Wendy Lecker of The Education Law Center about the demands of kindergarten and the other is an article about city employees who make six-figure salaries, teachers and administrators among them. My letter supports Lecker’s column about the Common Core robbing young children of developmentally appropriate learning. I also respond to the criticism of highly-paid teachers and administrators. Here are the links:
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Lecker-The-disturbing-transformation-of-5256686.php
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Letters-Lecker-column-news-story-both-right-on-5263495.php
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Six-figure-salaries-soar-in-Stamford-4397523.php
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Today’s news from the National Urban League (posted without comment):
NUL
Empowering Communities.
Changing Lives.
National Urban League Endorses Common Core State Standards – Here’s Why: Part One
Marc Morial – President & CEO, National Urban League
To Be Equal #8
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
“You can’t allow 15,000 school boards to home bake their own little standards subject to their own political pressures and think we are going to have international competitiveness. We have to at least have some bare minimum core standards if our young people are going to compete.” Congressional Black Caucus member, Rep. Bobby Scott
NEW YORK, NY – There is a quiet – yet increasingly disruptive – revolution underway in American education. Since 2010, 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense have adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in their schools. This represents an historic opportunity to raise academic standards and better prepare students for college and good jobs. If implemented effectively, CCSS will help bridge the achievement gap by leveling the playing field so that all students, regardless of race, geography or income, have an equal shot at gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century global economy. The National Urban League and a broad cross-section of civil rights, public policy, business and education leaders are in full support. But while a majority of states are implementing these new and more rigorous standards in English Language Arts and Math, CCSS remains a mystery to many parents and students, giving its critics an open lane to spread misinformation and undermine progress. Today’s column represents the first of three – and possibly more – that I am writing to help clear up the confusion and set the record straight.
First, let’s clarify exactly what CCSS is and what it is not. The Common Core Standards were developed by Governors and chief state school officers from both sides of the aisle who brought together teachers, parents, school administrators and education experts to write them. Despite what some of its critics claim, CCSS is not a top-down, “Big Brother,” federal program. The states determined that these standards were necessary to improve outcomes for students, and 90% of the states within our union have decided that they are critical to better prepare our country’s students for the challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow.
Second, we are talking about academic standards, not a standardized curriculum. Common Core standards establish what students need to learn at each grade level, but they do not dictate how teachers should teach. Teachers will continue to devise lesson plans and tailor instruction to the individual needs of the students in their classrooms, ideally utilizing the state standards to create even more engaging and educational approaches and content.
In order to move us forward, it was determined that the Common Core State Standards must be:
Aligned with expectations for college and career success
Clear and consistent across all states
Inclusive of content-based knowledge and high-order reasoning skills
An improvement upon current state standards and standards of top-performing nations
Reality-based for effective use in the classroom
Evidence and research-based
Finally, it must be said that CCSS can only be successful if it is equitably and similarly implemented in a high-quality manner. Given that excellence and equity are inseparable, states, districts, teachers and principals must have the resources and supports necessary to fully realize the promise of Common Core State Standards.
The National Urban League will continue to join parents, educators, as well as civic and business leaders, in insisting that implementation is resourced equitably and responsibly. However, it is neither fair nor accurate to assert that the Common Core State Standards are a failure because of recent implementation challenges – for any innovation requires adjustments on its path to success. We do not need to figure out new standards; we need to figure out how to implement these effectively and equitably. Our children our counting on us, and we must get this right – for them, their future and our nation.
We have long advocated a leveling of the playing field in education and the injection of additional quality as we do so. It does not serve our nation or our future when some children are systemically less prepared than others, nor does it serve our nation to have this issue tossed onto a political battlefield where it becomes a casualty of partisanship and deliberate misinformation. Instead this moment should be an opportunity for education stakeholders – parents, students, teachers, policymakers and reformers alike – to build a common agenda towards our shared goal of better educating the nation’s children and youth. It is our belief that by raising and developing better standards for everyone, CCSS can pave the way to a 21st century American educated citizenry and workforce that is second to none.
In an upcoming column, we will talk more about CCSS – dispelling more of the myths and misinformation about the standards and focusing on the equity in education that we can build through a system of higher standards and stronger schools for all of our children.
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http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/02/26/discriminatory-practices-abound-in-north-carolinas-prospective-voucher-schools/
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Diane, I don’t get it. Why allow verbal abuse here? OK, it’s a huge stretch but maybe I might be able to understand why you would overlook a regular Tea Party troll saying “the fundamental concept of freedom has been replaced in school… by the progressive/nazi concept of equality,” But why allow a fanatical charter school agitator to put attack others and put disgusting words in people’s mouths, including yours, such as by repeatedly claiming that you are telling “70,000 children in public charter schools” to “Drop Dead!!!” ???
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I just got an e-mail about this from the AFT: “Cashing in on Kids”:
http://cashinginonkids.com/
Has Weingarten finally turned over a new leaf? It’s about time!
What are our thoughts on this website?
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I got it yesterday too- mass mailing. Not sure what to think.
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Are We Simply Mad?
Bedlam.
The word invokes images of madmen chained to walls, ignored by society, abused by caretakers. We cringe at the idea that places like Bethlem Royal Hospital (nicknamed “Bedlam”) actually existed to isolate the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, under the oppressive watch of “keepers” like Helkiah Crooke and James Monro. You could end up in Bedlam if your behavior did not fit social norms, if you stuttered, if you suffered from strabismus or physical deformity…or just about anything else that might set you apart from society. A lifetime of imprisonment and abuse accompanied the label of insanity.
So, what determines that a person is “mad” today? The recent publication of DSM5, the new diagnostic manual for mental disorder, has touched off a firestorm of debate within the medical community. The National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) has declared that it “will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories.” It’s fascinating that scientists are rejecting a cookie-cutter approach to defining mental disorders and advocating for the conscious application of subjective professional judgment when the educational community seems hell-bent on doing just the opposite.
Educators live in bedlam today, and Charlotte Danielson, Robert Marzano, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and their ilk are our new Helkiah Crookes. The Gates Foundation funding of Common Core State Standards has given rise to a new House of Bedlam, created without any meaningful input from public school teachers. The U.S. Department of Education, eager to subvert the delegated state power over public school curricula, has leveraged Bedlam by requiring states to accept the CCSS or forgo federal funding for schools. The Danielson Group tools for teacher and principal evaluation places educators in Bedlam cells of specific, measurable, attainable, (un-)realistic, and time-bound goals. Bob Marzano’s Professional Learning Community (PLC) scheme promotes itself with quasi-evangelical workshops that demonize educators resistant to the dogmas of standards-based education.
Conservative political lust for objectifying learning outcomes has blinded us to the value that professional judgment offers. When we accept that “standards” should function as an adjunct to qualified discernment—and not as a replacement for it—we will emerge from bedlam.
We’re mad, you know.
© David Sudmeier, 2014
Follow Dave’s blog at http://www.davidsudmeier.com
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A post you may want to look at http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-public-fools/2014/03/opt-out-and-reclaim-our-schools/ It is posted by a southside Chicago Public school’s mom and explains in detail the testing regimen in our lower schools.
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Hi Diane – great to see your wonderful blog discussing education issues. I’m an educator who likes using non-traditional approached to education. We’re trying to launch our new Youth Environmental Ambassadors Program on an arctic expedition this summer for high school kids. Wondering if you would be willing to write a short piece about us and our campaign to raise the funds to launch our program? My website is http://www.biosphere-ed.org and our campaign is at http://igg.me/at/arcticYEAP2014/x/2930228.Thank you, Shelley
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Have you seen the new group “Support our Public Schools” in Dallas ISD? They are trying to make Dallas ISD a home-rule charter district via a 1995 law. One of the key questions is if they could they split DISD into smaller districts. “If the Dallas ISD initiative makes the November election, it will be on the same ballot as the Texas governor — a race that historically draws about 400,000 voters in Dallas County.” and “The law requires that a minimum of 25 percent of registered voters in the district participate in the charter election.” Many of those who turn out to vote in DISD would probably like to be removed from DISD. http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20140303-rawlings-endorses-home-rule-charter-plan-for-dallas-isd.ece
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Titanic, 2014
I am finishing the eighth week of my twenty-seventh year of teaching in public schools.
Today I had a startling insight- that somehow I have been given the task of saving the sinking Titanic. Public schools are the Titanic, run aground against icebergs of state-mandated test scores and the failing family structures of our children.
I’m instructed, prodded, encouraged, and held responsible for saving all the students who may have little or no support. And there certainly aren’t enough lifrafts or life preservers to meet their needs. There are no other sturdy crafts nearby to rescue them.
I alone am responsible for this future generation.
And the band plays on deck with strains of, “No Child Left Behind”, “Higher Order Thinking Skills”, Hands-on Learning,” and “Data Driven Instruction.” I hear “Key Academic Vocabulary” and “Learning Objectives” played between each set.
And though I hum and sing and dance with all the rhythms, the deck still capsizes. Children are still struggling to hang on until I can reach them.
Believing that “all children can learn” is our lighthouse. All children can learn, as the beam pronounces. Yet as it circles I remember……they can’t all learn in the same way or on a state-mandated timeline.
The lives I save are measured by “my scores”, while in reality, the scores are very faulty life-preservers for our children. Those scores reflect a single moment in time, like a tiny ripple in the ocean of their lives. And many children perform unbelievably well when the reality of their tsunami-riddled lives are filled with abuse, neglect, alcohol, drugs, and hunger, with very little room left over for worry about a test score. But they hang on, and they try to hum and sing and dance and move, except for when they are distracted by the memory that their dad gets out of prison next week and their mama needs them to babysit tonight because she has to work late.
So I inflate their little life vests with a hug, a joke, a smile. I give them a pencil and read them a book and we laugh, and for a moment, the ship is stable. And they read a book in English for the first time, and we celebrate, and I pretend that the iceberg has melted and we will sail again.
Because I love this big old ship and all the passengers it holds, and I treasure the message of the lighthouse. But the reality of the iceberg is not just sinking our ship. It is bruising and battering those of us who serve it and seek to save our children.
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Law professor opts her kids out of testing – pandemonium ensues…
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/03/standardized_testing_i_opted_my_kids_out_the_schools_freaked_out_now_i_know.single.html
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What’s Really Behind the Education Policy in Newark?:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/22306-whats-really-behind-education-policy-in-newark
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Hi!
I just signed the petition “New York Governor: Support language in the 2014-15 NYS Budget to extend annual school aid growth to tuition rates for Special Act Public School Districts and 853 Schools serving school age students with disabilities.” on Change.org.
It’s important. Will you sign it too? Here’s the link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/new-york-governor-support-language-in-the-2014-15-nys-budget-to-extend-annual-school-aid-growth-to-tuition-rates-for-special-act-public-school-districts-and-853-schools-serving-school-age-students-with-disabilities?recruiter=20653765&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition
Thanks!
Ellen
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Please look into Pearson’s new report (Feb. 2014) about the Ocean of Digital Data and their assertions that student performance data can or should be integrated and tied to electronic devices (ebooks, smartphone, tablets, etc.) in order to “enhance” instruction and give feedback. In reality, it sounds like just a very creepy way to collect student data for marketing purposes and a further invasion of students’ lives and the teaching and learning process.
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