Archives for category: Corporate Reformers
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This is What People Will Say in 20 Years, I Predict.

By dianeravitch
August 4, 2012 //
8

When we look back 100 years, or even 50 years, we can see things that people did that seem bizarre to our modern eyes.

How could they have done that? That’s so cruel, that’s so inhumane, that’s so barbaric!

The thought occurred when a friend sent this article from the archives of the New York Times about a plan to “electrify” a classroom for children with special needs (they did not use such a polite term in 1912).

What were they thinking? How could they have thought of these children as lesser human beings, as subjects for experimentation?

Don’t you wonder what people will say about us 20 years from now, or fifty years from now?

Maybe they will be amazed that we ate meat or that we smoked little sticks with tobacco in them.

For sure, they will wonder why our public officials decided to ruin our education system, which produced the most successful nation and the greatest economy and most vibrant culture in the world.

What were they thinking, they will say. How could they have been so harsh and mean-spirited towards children? How could they have treated teachers with such disdain and condescension? Why did they let corporate greed take over their schools? It will seem so puzzling to them in the future.

I hope it won’t take 20 years to realize how stupid our policies are.

Please don’t lose your sense of ethics, your capacity for moral outrage.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform

Teachers: Make Your Voice Heard

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2012 //
10

Ralph Ratto, the author of the blog admonishing Campbell Brown for her unfortunate and ill-informed editorial in the Wall Street Journal has advice for other teachers:

These are trying times for those of us who love teaching. I refuse to sit back as we get pummeled in the media and on political platforms. We need to answer every accusation using every tool at our disposal. Those on the other side will stop at nothing to steal away our precious resources. We’re seeing that first hand with Student First’s underhanded methods.

I only wish, more of us would flood every social media site with responses every time any of us are unjustly attacked. We need to drive the discussion not respond defensively.

Good advice. If all the corporate reformers in the entire nation gathered in one place, they might fill a convention center. Maybe there are 20,000 of them. Maybe fewer.

There are more than 3 million teachers. Tell your story. Support your brothers and sisters. Speak out in every forum. Don’t let the ignorant and uninformed and self-interested destroy your profession or our public schools.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, StudentsFirst, Teachers and Teaching

Common Core: A Bonanza for E-Corps

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2012 //
16

A story in the New York Times says that the e-corporations are salivating over the Common Core State Standards.

They foresee the opening up of a multi-billion industry, with more tests, more online resources, more stuff to sell to schools complying with the Common Core.

The standards are indeed a boon for the edu-biz entrepreneurs.

It turns out that Joanne Weiss, chief of staff to Secretary Arne Duncan, was right when she predicted that the standards would open up vast new markets. She wrote:

The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in curriculum development, professional development, and formative assessments. Previously, these markets operated on a state-by-state basis, and often on a district-by-district basis. But the adoption of common standards and shared assessments means that education entrepreneurs will enjoy national markets where the best products can be taken to scale.

I mean, truly, isn’t this why we actually have a federal Department of Education, to meet the needs of American industry and to open up public education as a prime marketplace where entrepreneurs can pursue new business opportunities and make money?

Remember that as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s vision when he signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965, authorizing the first major program of federal aid to schools? No? Well, how about when President Jimmy Carter pushed to create the Department in 1979-1980? Not then either? Hmm.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit

What We Can Learn from Japan

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2012 //
5

The New York Times had a front-page story about a generational divide in Japan.

The article begins, “As Japan has ceded dominance in industry after industry that once lifted this nation to economic greatness, there has been plenty of blame to go around. A nuclear disaster that raised energy costs. A lack of entrepreneurship. China’s relatively cheap work force.”

The article says that the government’s decision to have a strong yen favors the elderly and protects their pensions, but makes Japanese products prohibitively expensive, which is “hollowing out the country’s industrial base” and “exacerbating the nation’s two-decade-long economic stagnation.”

As I read the article, I thought about how American policymakers look enviously at Japan’s high test scores on international assessments.

And it struck me that the economic problems in Japan are not caused by the schools. And the high test scores are not a source of entrepreneurship, nor have they guaranteed a strong economy.

All this deserves consideration. In our nation, our greatest strength is creativity, innovation, risk-taking, and imagination.

Now our policymakers want us to use Japan and other nations with high test scores as a model, claiming that this will lead us to even greater economic growth in the future.

Japan’s dilemma today disproves the theory on which contemporary corporate-driven school reform is based.

Let us learn from their example.

Economic decisions drive the economy. Creative people build a better economy. Higher test scores do not produce a better economy, nor do they nurture the creative genius needed for future innovation.

Will there be an “aha!” moment when leaders of the corporate reform movement realize they are on the wrong track?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Economy, Education Reform, Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), International, Testing

Chris Christie’s Plan to Privatize NJ’s Low-Performing Schools

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2012 //
21

The Education Law Center, an independent organization that advocates for the children of New Jersey,  obtained a copy of a proposal that the Chris Christie administration made to the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in Los Angeles.

The plan calls for aggressive state intervention in the state’s lowest performing schools. Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf wants to set up an “achievement district” for the low-performing schools. These schools would likely be closed and handed over to private managers as charter schools. The state plan calls for eliminating collective bargaining in these schools.

The amount requested was $7.6 million, of which the Broad Foundation has thus far supplied $1.6 million.

This should not be a difficult sell for Cerf. He is a “graduate” of the Broad Foundation’s unaccredited Superintendent’s Academy. And the chairman of the board of the foundation is his former boss, Joel Klein.

It’s somewhat strange that people like Cerf (and Arne Duncan, for that matter) think that a school gets “reformed” or “turned around” by firing the staff, closing the school, and handing it off to a charter operator. Cerf is a smart enough guy, and he surely knows that charters on average don’t produce better results than the public schools they replace unless they push out the low-performing kids.

One of the news stories says that Cerf wants to use New Orleans “recovery school district” as a model for New Jersey, but I wonder if he knows that 79% of the charters in New Orleans were graded either D or F by the state, and that New Orleans ranked 69th of 70 districts in the entire state.

How long can this shell game go on?

I understand that the people in the Abbott districts (the poorest cities where the lowest-performing schools are) may be accustomed to getting pushed around by the state, but how will the people of New Jersey feel about Christie and Cerf bringing in a raft of charter school operators to privatize what used to be their public schools?

Categories Accountability, Broad Foundation, Cerf, Chris, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Klein, Joel, New Jersey, New Orleans

What If We Had Medical Reformers in Congress?

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2012 //
9

Gary Rubinstein has played with an analogy. What if Congress and the Administration and the governors became alarmed about life expectancy rates?

What if they decided that we need a serious dose of med reform?

What if they followed the same principles as school reform?

What if these policymakers knew as little about medicine as they know about education?

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform

Teachers, Be Silent No More

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2012 //
18

This reader says–in response to an earlier post— there is a way for teachers to get involved in fighting for public education without risking their jobs.

Perhaps it would be easier to contact their publicists, agents, or managers:

1. Dave Grohl – Foo Fighters – Agent: Don Muller – WME 1325 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10019 T.212.586.5100 F.212.246.3583
2. Adam Levine – Maroon 5 singer – Manger: Career Artist Management – 1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 1100 | Los Angeles, CA 90024 |310.776.7640 (p) | 310.776.7659 (f)
3. Jack Black – Agent: WME 1325 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10019 T.212.586.5100 F.212.246.3583
4. Meryl Streep – Publicist: Leslee Dart. Dart Group. 90 Park Avenue. 19th Floor. New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212-277-7555.
5. Viola Davis – Agent: Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) 45 West 45th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10036 T. 212.687.0092 F. 212.245.5062
6. Morgan Freeman – Publicist: Stan Rosenfield & Associates, Inc., 2029 Century Park E., Suite 1190, Los Angeles, CA 90067, USA. Phone: (310) 286-7474, Fax: (310) 286-2255.
7. Josh Groban
8. Maggie Gyllenhaal (last, but not least)

I’m not sure if these are correct.  I pieced the information together from various sources found on the Internet.  I also noticed that some of these celebs have official website forums and facebook pages.  Maybe if enough teachers started posting the truth, it would get noticed.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

Pop Quiz about “The Irreplaceables”

By dianeravitch
July 31, 2012 //
6

This just in from California educator Robert Skeels:

POP QUIZ:
What do you call plutocrat funded “research” that isn’t peer reviewed and is conducted by an organization that has already drawn a priori conclusions? Answer: A policy paper.

Pretty much everything one would ever need to know about The new Teacher Project (TNTP) is summed up here:

TNTP is “a leading voice on teacher quality.” – American Enterprise Institute

With extreme right-wing credentials like that, how can TNTP go wrong with Arne Duncan? Nice the ED department is shilling for private corporations like TNTP. Glad my community’s tax resources are being used to promote junk science like VAM/AGT instead of being using in the classroom or school libraries. You know, stuff that actually promotes learning, instead of testing.

TNTP’s board features members from reactionary Ed-Trust and even Bain & Company, Inc.. The former, of course, being Mitt Romney’s “sister” company from which we get Green Dot Charter Corporation’s nasty little Marco Petruzzi from.

Categories Accountability, Alternate Route To Certification, Corporate Reformers, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations

Best Way to Eliminate Public Education

By dianeravitch
July 31, 2012 //
2

Lance Hill of New Orleans responded to blogger Mike Deshotels, who noted the double standard for charter schools and public schools. Public schools must meet standards, but voucher schools do not? Lance writes:

Mike, excellent post on the contradictions of the Louisiana accountability
plan.  

This isn’t even a policy debate: it’s a debate on simple logic.   Imagine a
hospital that graded doctors on mortality rates. If a hospital administrator
transferred all the critical care patients into the maternity ward, suddenly
the maternity ward doctors would go from an A grade to an F grade.    

If  a policy defies simple logic, there has to be some motive for it other
than its declared purpose.  In this case, I believe the hidden agenda for
grading teachers and schools is to use it as a means to privatize schools
and control the labor force.  The corporate reformers don’t care that a few
good schools and teachers lose out:  it is acceptable collateral damage.  I
predict that once control of public education is transferred to the private
sector,  then meaningful assessment policies will be implemented.  Indeed,
in the 2005 Gates-funded draconian “Tough Choices or Tough Times” report
which advocates “contract schools” and also advocates abolishing high-stakes
testing.  It is implicit that this federally-imposed plan would only
possible if public education were privatized and controlled by state or
federal government. 

Skills Commission member Anthony Carnevale’s dissent. This is the only
dissent I found on the net-amazing given some of the commission members.
It’s also a good short summary of the report’s recommendations:     
http://bit.ly/QpJfMy

Skills Commission 2005 Report. A little-read report but a blueprint for what
is happening all around us:
http://bit.ly/ObCVCL

The proof that the “accountability” plans are, in truth, “power and control”
plans is that the Jindal/White voucher plan initially imposed no
accountability standards for voucher schools nor performance standards for
teachers.  Why?  Because the non-public schools are already in the private
sector.  Vouchers were simply another way of undermining public schools so
the state could privatize them.  What at first appeared to be a double
standard-regulation for public schools but not for non-public schools-now
makes perfect sense as a means to an end.   


Lance Hill

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization

Beware! Sneaky Reformer Trick in L.A.

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2012 //
46

On August 14, there will be a benefit concert in Los Angeles to “honor” teachers.

The concert is a promotion for a new “Superman”-style film that vilifies public schools and promotes privatization.

The film celebrates the “parent trigger” law, which gives parents the power to seize control of their school, fire the staff, and turn it over to a charter chain. The parent trigger was promoted by charter advocates and billionaire foundations Broad, Gates, and Walton.

Strange way to “honor” teachers–by firing them and giving the school to a non-union private entity to manage, which may hire only young teachers willing to work a 50-60 hour week at low wages. More “honors” like this and there won’t be a teaching profession in America, just teaching temps.

The concert is sponsored by Walmart (the Walton family) and Walden Media. The Walton Family Foundation gave out $159 million last year for charters and vouchers.

Walden Media was one of the producers of “Waiting for ‘Superman.'” Billionaire Philip Anschutz, who owns Walden Media, funds rightwing groups, is anti-environment and bankrolled anti-gay referenda.

It’s sad to see Viola Davis involved in this sneaky push for privatization. I remember when she won the Academy Award in 2010 and announced that she was proud to be a graduate of Central Falls High School, right at the time that all the corporate reformers were gloating about the threat to shut it down.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Parent trigger, Privatization
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