Archives for category: Corporate Reformers
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Louisiana: Why Business Supports the Common Core

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
4

The business leaders of Louisiana are strong supporters of the Common Core.

They believe it will prepare students to be competitors in the global marketplace.

They expect it will strengthen their knowledge of STEM subjects.

They believe it will have a dramatic power to transform every part of the education system.

They see it as the key to future prosperity.

I am not sure they really know anything about the Common Core, but they feel very strongly that it will work, even though it has never been tried anywhere.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Testing

Anthony Cody: Bill Gates and the Invasion of the Profiteers

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
11

Anthony Cody draws a contrast between Lakeside Academy, where Bill Gates and his children were (and are) students, and the current model of education “reform,” which is driven by entrepreneurs and profit-seekers.

Lakeside Academy values the relationships between teachers and children. Greatschools like Lakeside, Cody writes, “emphasize experiential learning, empathy, and above all, relationships between teachers and students. And of course, class sizes are kept below twenty to make all this possible.”

Cody writes:

“The model offered by Lakeside is decidedly not efficient — at least when efficiency is defined as spending the least amount of money spent for a minimally satisfactory result. It requires experienced, expert teachers, small class sizes and excellent facilities. We could simply devote our efforts to making sure all schools got the funding they need to pay for these three basic things, and loosely monitor progress as such schools do, through occasional tests. But where would the profit be to “drive innovation”? So the drive for profits has led to a system redesign, with the introduction of new elements, required not for educational purposes but for the needs of the profit makers. Our education system is being remade to emulate a consumer-driven marketplace. What are the key components we must have?

1. A standardized testing accountability machine. In order for schools and various educational delivery systems to be compared, we must have a common set of standards and an efficient means of comparing the student learning that they produce.

2. A system by which schools that do not yield desired results are quickly dispatched, so as to create opportunities for innovators.

3. Standardized tests, test-aligned curriculum, and software designed to prepare students for tests.
Computer labs, laptops or tablets to allow for “personalized” instruction, delivery of computer-based instruction and assessment, and significantly larger class sizes.

4. Funding systems that allows money to “follow the child” to whatever form of schooling the parent might choose; including private, parochial, virtual, or home.”

Why don’t we do what the best schools do, instead of aligning our system for the benefit of what Cody calls “parasitic profiteers”?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

Warning to New Teachers in Houston: You Are Disposable

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
24

Want to know how well “reform” is working in Houston? Read this. I wish Superintendent Terry Grier would read it too. I would love to get a comment from him in response to this letter.

This letter is about a teacher awakening to the grim political reality of what is deceptively called “education reform.” Her letter should go viral.

She writes:

“This is the sick process education reform has created in big city districts. They just churn through teachers, especially new ones, as fast as they can with no regard to the person’s life, skill set, or qualifications. The harm they do to the students by destabilizing their neighborhood schools cannot be measured. They don’t care if you are a blazing success in the classroom; your teaching certificate is basically meaningless to the administration.

She goes on to add:

” In the student’s mind, a standard classroom teacher is a disposable throwaway. They see no reason to follow the rules, do their homework, or take the exams seriously. They know the teacher will probably get fired, possibly in the middle of the year. They have no respect for their teacher, and no reason to believe their teacher has any ability to discipline or instruct.

“This is the message inner city students have been receiving for over a decade. This is the message reformers convey to the students, the parents, and the taxpayer.

“At new teacher orientation you are led to believe something much different; at the job fair, and in the media, you are told that working for HISD is wonderful, with a fair evaluation system, great pay, and fabulous bonuses.

“Working at HISD is the biggest mistake I have ever made.

“I was warned about education reform. I was told not to do this, and I didn’t listen.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know what “education reform” meant…I thought it was a bunch of talented people swapping ideas about how to best educate the children of poverty. I thought it would be fun, challenging, and engaging. In my ridiculous mind, I could see a group of teachers sharing ideas, lesson plans, and stories. I really believed I was going to learn something positive about public school. I didn’t know it was a scam engineered to deprofessionalize the teaching business, and hand the jobs off to cash strapped ivy leaguers that couldn’t find positions in their fields of study.

“Now I know that people like Michelle Rhee made millions off the backs of the teachers she fired. I know that most of these people have cheated, including some in my own Apollo program. The Atlanta Journal Constitution even did a nationwide study, and can prove mathematically that these districts have failed to educate these students in spite of their “so-called” reforms. This wrong-to-right erasure math is indisputable…

“As for me, I don’t need a study; I can tell everyone about the chaos, the achievement gap, the poverty, the filth, the lies, and the smokescreen.

“It is funny that Arne Duncan (Obama’s Secretary of Education #erasetothetop) came out here and toured Lee HS with my SIO, and he listened to a few talented students, and the police cracked down on the school before his arrival, and they managed to sign up all of the students to some kind of college (mostly 2 year institutions) and convince Arnie that it is a “turnaround success.” But you only have to look at him closely to see he is a Walmart kind of guy. And now we have the privatization of the public trust…we have the Walton Foundation, The Broad Foundation, The Gates Foundation, and countless other vultures, and venture capitalists, including Pearson (the great testing empire), all throwing money to this “teacher witch hunt” fully engaged in the age-old philosophy of “you gotta spend a buck to make a buck.” So, they are making the bucks off of me and my students, and I am helpless to stop them.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Teachers, Texas

Karen Lewis Connects the Dots

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2013 //
14

Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, told the Chicago City Club that the city’s elites were failing the city’s children and public schools. She blamed school closings on public officials, “rich white people,” and banks that decided to disinvest in black communities. She singled out Bank of America as an institution that had exacerbated inequality.

“Lewis said, “there is nothing radical about me other than I want each and every student in Chicago to get the best education we have to offer,” and added the union is more than willing to work with the Board of Education and the Emanuel administration to solve the myriad issues facing the school system, but “we can’t work together on these issues because they keep creating new problems.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Privatization

Florida Teacher: Please Tell Me About Groups Fighting Back

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2013 //
24

From a reader:

“As a public school teacher in Miami, FL I would like to reach out to you and express my similar hope in developing a long-term coalition and eventual movement of teachers, parents and community to fight back against the pro-corporate anti-public education policies being pushed in FL. If someone knows of any organization or coalition that is already up and running please let me know. There are thousands of disgruntled parents, students, and teachers in schools in Miami whom I think would act and fight back alongside other across the state if there was an entity to unite us. I strongly propose we create this if it doesn’t yet exist.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Florida, Privatization, Support for public schools

The Reformy-to-English Dictionary You Have Been Waiting For

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2013 //
22

Valerie Strauss published a terrific column by a Chicago public school parent, Karen McKeegan Fraid.

Fraid has written a wonderful translation of some of the reformers’ favorite phrases, which they repeat ad infinitum.

It begins thus:

“Assessment (noun): A test made by a corporation and protected from peer review and public scrutiny by intellectual property laws and strict confidentiality agreements.

Data-Driven Assessment (noun): A test made by a corporation and protected from peer review by intellectual property laws and strict confidentiality agreements whose purpose is to provide numbers too complicated and nuanced for the general public to understand, but vague enough that they can be molded into a variety of purposes as the need for “data” to support reforms arises.

Failing School (noun): A school for poor children of color whose intended funding subsidizes corporations.

For the Children (phrase): This actually doesn’t mean anything. The Reformy equivalent to chanting “USA! USA!”

You can see the possibilities of exposing the rhetoric that masks failed and harmful policies.

What is promising is that people are beginning to see behind the rhetoric and the mask. That is a danger to the corporate reformers, who use words to deceive and mislead.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry

South Carolina Will Adopt Privatization Strategy

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2013 //
2

Public education in South Carolina, already suffering because of underfunding and intensely segregated schools in some districts, will sustain another blow. The privatization movement claims another victory. Now parents will be able to get a tax-credit when they send their children to little religious academies where the teachers are uncertified and the curriculum is Bible-based.

South Carolina poised to become 23rd state with private school choice

Adopted state budget includes tax-credit scholarships for students with special needs

COLUMBIA, SC (June 19, 2013)—South Carolina is on the verge of becoming the 23rd state to enact private school choice, pending Gov. Nikki Haley’s signature. Today the House and Senate approved the conference committee’s state budget report, which includes a tax-credit scholarship program for students with special needs.

Under the proposal, taxpayers can receive a credit worth no more than 60 percent of their state tax liability when donating to nonprofits that distribute private school scholarships to children with special needs. Scholarships cannot exceed $10,000 per pupil. The statewide limit on tax credits distributed is $8 million. According to 2011-12 data, more than 12 percent of South Carolina students are identified as having a disability that would qualify them for the program.

“This is an important step toward giving South Carolina parents access to the schools that work best for their children,” said Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. “Although it’s available only to a small percentage of students, we applaud state leaders for taking this historic action.”

Currently there are 15 tax-credit scholarship programs operating in 12 states. Just this year, Alabama created its first such program, while Georgia and Iowa increased their caps on available tax credits. Including vouchers, education savings accounts, and individual tax credits and deductions, there are 42 private school choice programs in 22 states and Washington, D.C.

“South Carolina is part of an ongoing trend in which private school choice is growing and reaching new states,” said Enlow. “And, encouragingly, states that have small school choice programs are expanding them to assist more families.”

States that specifically make students with special needs eligible for school choice are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia. For more details on those programs, and others, visit www.edchoice.org/ABCs.

About the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice

The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, solely dedicated to advancing Milton and Rose D. Friedman’s vision of school choice for all children. The Foundation promotes school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

That NCTQ Report on Teacher Education: F

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2013 //
99

The just-released NCTQ report on teacher education gives an F to the nation’s colleges of education. It was published in association with U.S. News & World Report.

But the report itself deserves an F.

To begin with, there are professional associations that rate the nation’s education schools, based on site visits and clear criteria.

NCTQ is not a professional association. It did not make site visits. It made its harsh judgments by reviewing course syllabi and catalogs. The criteria that it rated as most important was the institution’s fidelity to the Common Core standards.

As Rutgers’ Bruce Baker pointed out in his response, NCTQ boasts of its regard for teachers but its review of the nation’s teacher-training institutions says nothing about faculty. They don’t matter. They are irrelevant. All that matters is what is in the course catalog.

There are many reasons not to trust the NCTQ report on teacher education. Most important is that it lacks credibility. Not only is it not a professional association. It lacks independence. It has an agenda.

NCTQ was founded by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in 2000 with the explicit purpose of harassing institutions of teacher education and urging alternative arrangements. I was on the board of TBF at the time. Initially, the new organization floundered but was saved by a $5 million grant from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Just lucky.

So, knowing NCTQ’s history, and reading Mercedes Schneider’s posts about the organization, I conclude that NCTQ cannot be considered a fair, credible, independent judge of the quality of teacher training institutions.

I certainly agree that some such institutions are weak and inadequate, though I don’t think NCTQ’s superficial methodology identifies them.

I also agree with the report’s recommendation that teacher education institutions should have higher standards for admission.

But I don’t agree that the mark of a great education school is how many courses it offers on the Common Core standards or how attentive it is to raising test scores..

The great Robert Hutchins once wrote that the purpose of a professional school is to teach students to criticize the profession. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the profession would prepare them to make it stronger. The NCTQ report–looking at education schools from a mountain top–would have them conform to the status quo, to the conventional wisdom. This is not a prescription for the future, nor for the creation of a profession of strong teachers. It is a prescription for docility and conformity. Robert Hutchins would not approve.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Higher Education, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)

What Is the Role of Profit in School Reform?

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2013 //
10

Ken Previti, a retired teacher, has been watching the evolution of school “reform,” and he wonders when the public will catch on to the schemes and fear-mongering. What is it all about? Sell-sell-sell.

Just doing what business does. Monetizing the children.

Categories ALEC, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Reader: How to Describe Corporate Reform in Plain English

By dianeravitch
June 17, 2013 //
31

A reader commented on an earlier discussion with these thoughts:
***************************************************************************

“”Does anyone else feel like we are basically being ignored?” – 2old2tch

While I applaud the sentiment and aspirations of this letter I am saddened with the weak tea rhetoric and carefully qualified points in academic insider language. This is how academics exchange views at conferences. Arne Duncan is not an academic and he has yet to show any respect for or interest in anything academics have to say.

Offering a long list of research citations is great if your are publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. Otherwise they indicate a false belief in the authority of the research, which the reform movement has largely ignored and dismissed all along. This high flown rhetoric doesn’t stand up well to Duncan’s canned talking points outside of academia.

A non-academic reading this might well ask: So what exactly are they saying? What exactly are they asking for? Where’s the beef?

Can we get a plain-spoken English translation, something like: You are destroying public schools and the teaching profession. Standardized testing is out of control, cruel, and useless in determining success of students and teachers. Your “Race to the Top” creates losers as well as winners. These programs have been tried over and over and always fail — why are you still promoting them?

If the purpose was to convince other academics then it serves that purpose well, a preaching to the choir moment. If the purpose is to impact and change wrong-headed policies then the audience should be much broader and the language much less academic and their tone much more forceful. That’s how the game is played today.

“Does anyone else feel like we are basically being ignored?” – 2old2tch

“Yes.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Vouchers
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