Archives for category: Duncan, Arne
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Reader: The Close Ties Between Arne Duncan and the Broad Foundation

By dianeravitch
June 7, 2013 //
30

A reader offered the following comments on the relationship between Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the Broad Foundation:

“There is no way Duncan limited testing when he was in Chicago because it would have impeded the corporate education reform agenda.

Arne Duncan was on the board of the Broad Foundation while he was the leader of Chicago schools. The modus operandi of Broad Foundation is deception. It is the method of implementing the Broad Foundations anti-democratic agenda.

On Page 10 of the 2009/2010 Broad Foundation Annual Report http://tinyurl.com/6w5sps2
it says:

“Prior to becoming U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan was CEO of Chicago Public Schools, where he hosted 23 Broad Residents. Duncan now has five Broad Residents and alumni working with him in the U.S. Department of Education.”

On Page 35 of the same annual report it says:

“The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned.

With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments—charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards—the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.”

Categories Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Race to the Top

Gist Contract Extended, RI Board Supports High-Stakes Testing

By dianeravitch
June 7, 2013 //
20

Over protests by teachers and students, the Rhode Island state board of education gave state Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist a two-year contract extension.

Teachers objected to Gist’s top-down management style. Students opposed Gist’s insistence on using a standardized test as a requirement for graduation. Gist had the support of Governor Lincoln Chafee, Secretary of Education Duncan, and the business community.

Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s ultra-conservative Chiefs for Change, which supports test-based accountability, charters, vouchers, and other market-based strategies.

Categories Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Testing

Will Deborah Gist Be Reappointed?

By dianeravitch
June 6, 2013 //
22

The Rhode Island state board of education will vote today on whether to renew Deborah Gist’s contract as State Commissioner of Education.

It seems likely she will be reappointed since Governor Lincoln Chafee favors her, as does the new chair of the state board.

Rhode Island teachers don’t like her.

In a poll, 85% said they opposed her reappointment.

Rhode Island students have opposed Gist’s insistence on high-stakes testing, especially her use of a standardized test (NECAP) as a requirement for high school graduation.

A few days ago, Arne Duncan placed a conference call to several journalists to let them know that he supports her.

For the Secretary of Education to inject himself into state or local politics is unusual, though not for Arne Duncan.

When mayoral control in New York City was up for renewal before the state legislature in New York in 2009, Duncan called a major civic group and urged it not to propose that members of the central board serve for a set term, with a measure of independence; he agreed with Mayor Bloomberg that board members appointed by the mayor should serve at the pleasure of the mayor.

Duncan succeeded in stopping that small-gauge effort to create a semblance of checks and balances in New York City.

Curious alliances these days: Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s ultra-conservative Chiefs for Change, and she has the support of Duncan and charter advocates, but not the teachers she leads or the activist students in the public schools.

 

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Duncan, Arne, Students

This Letter About Corporate Involvement in Education Policy Should Go Viral

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2013 //
37

Paul Horton, a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, wrote a letter to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), when the Senator announced his intention to retire.

Horton asked whether the senator was aware of the corporate influence on Race to the Top and the Common Core standards.

Horton told the senator that critics of these programs are not extremists:

“In fact…critics of the RTTT mandates and the CCS come from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. In the national education debate, the status quo agenda that is being pushed comes from the corporate middle of both parties that is backed by many of those who have been the biggest beneficiaries of the current economic “recovery” in Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Manhattan (and Westchester County) and large foundations.”

Horton urges Senator Harkin to call Secretary Duncan to a hearing to testify under oath and answer the following questions:

“How many of your staffers have worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? Who are they, and why did you hire them?

“What role did these staffers and Bill Gates have on the formulation of the RTTT mandates?

“How much classroom teaching experience do the principal authors of the RTTT mandates have, individually, and as a group?

“Why are these individuals qualified to make decisions about education policy?

“Were you, or anyone who works within the Department of Education in contact with any representative or lobbyist representing Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill, or InBloom before or during the writing of the RTTT mandates?

“What is the Broad Foundation? What is your connection to the Broad Foundation? What education policies does the Broad Foundation support? How do these policies support public education? How do these policies support private education? What was the role of the Broad Foundation in the creation of the RTTT mandates?

“How many individuals associated with the Broad Foundation helped author the report, “Smart Options: Investing Recovery Funds for Student Success” that was published in April of 2009 and served as a blueprint for the RTTT mandates? How many representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation assisted in writing this report? What was their role in authoring this report? How many representatives of McKinsey Consulting participated in authoring this report? What was David Coleman’s role in authoring this report?

“Do you know David Coleman? Have you ever had any conversations with David Coleman? Has anyone on your staff had any conversations with David Coleman? Did anyone within the Department of Education have any connection to any of the authors of the Common Core Standards? Did anyone in your Department have any conversations with any of the authors of the Common Core Standards as they were being written?

“Have you ever had any conversations with representatives or lobbyists who represent the Walton Family Foundation? Has anyone on your staff had any conversations with the Walton Family Foundation or lobbyists representing the Walton Family Foundation? If so, what was the substance of those conversations?

“Do you know Michelle Rhee? If so, could you describe your relationship with Michelle Rhee? Have you, or anyone working within the Department of Education, had any conversations with Students First, Rhee’s advocacy group, about the dispersal foundation funds for candidates in local and state school board elections?

“This is just a start. Public concerns about possible collusion between the Department of Education and education corporations could be addressed with a few straightforward answers to these and other questions.

“Every parent, student, and teacher in the country is concerned about the influence of corporate vendors on education policy. What is represented as an extreme movement by our Education Secretary can be more accurately described as a consumer revolt against shoddy products produced by an education vendor biopoly (Pearson and McGraw Hill). Because these two vendors have redefined the education marketplace to meet the requirements of RTTT, they both need to be required to write competitive impact statements for the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice.”

This is an extraordinary letter. Please read it. Send it to your friends. Send it to everyone on your email list. tweet it. These are questions that should be answered by the Secretary, under oath, in public hearings.

American education is being radically reconstituted and centralized, with little or no democratic deliberation. The public hears bland assurances about “high standards for all,” “college and career readiness for all,” and other unproven claims and assertions about sweeping changes that have not been subject to trial or open debate or careful review.

Horton asks tough questions. The American public deserves real answers–not flowery rhetoric– about who made the decisions to reconstruct the nation’s education system, with what evidence, and for whose benefit.

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Race to the Top

The Patron Saints of Standardized Testing

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2013 //
15

Two political leaders—Arne Duncan and Dannell Malloy, governor of Connecticut–recently held a press conference where they both pretended to disdain high-stakes testing. Duncan went so far as to claim that he had decreased standardized testing when he led the Chicago public schools.

If only it were true! Jonathan Pelto and Sarah Darer Littman did some fact-checking, and the only question is why these guys don’t own up to their public record. They are both champions of standardized testing. Their unwillingness to own up to their own record shows how unpopular the testing-accountability movement has become. Now if they would only practice what they preach!

Categories Connecticut, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Race to the Top, Testing

Camins: What Would Real Reform Look Like?

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2013 //
15

Arthur Camins is director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

In this excellent article, he notes that the advocates of the status quo are those who are in power and who impose high-stakes testing and privatization on districts and states. Oddly enough, the leaders of the status quo dismiss critics by calling them “defenders of the status quo.”

Camins suggests that real reform would be very different from the current evidence-free status quo.

He argues that: “the pillars of current education reform are more likely to preserve rather than change the status quo. Further, there are alternative policies that are more likely to mediate educational inequity, creating real rather than illusory movement. None of the pillars of reform will address either of these conditions at scale. Instead, they merely give some students a competitive advantage. Even if reforms redistribute these benefits or slightly alter the size of the advantaged group, they are still essentially maintaining the status quo, creating the illusion of movement, without fundamental change.”

One of the pillars of the “status quo reformers” is a devout belief in charters. Camins says this is not real reform: “Current policies that fund increasing numbers of charter schools is not a game-changer because there is no evidence that high-quality charters are a scalable strategy. Some argue that they should be part of a solution. However, since they only serve the few based on comparative advantage, this is in the end a cynical idea- a solution for the lucky few. Others argue that they are the solution. These folks see results-driven competition as a means to weed out ineffective schools through closings. This implies continual disruption in the lives of the disadvantaged children they are meant to serve. Rather than forward movement, it is an exacerbation of current conditions. The publicity around the limited number of effective charter schools creates the illusion of improvement for a few, while everything else stands still. Finally, since the evidence is mounting that charter schools are increasing rather than deceasing class and racial segregation, they are supporting not disrupting the status quo.”

The other pillar of the “status quo reforms” is high-stakes testing. This too is not real reform. “In reality, these reforms preserve rather than challenge the status quo because they do not address the fundamental causes of educational inequity. They preserve the core idea that competition rather than collaboration is the lever for fundamental change. Competition for rewards is only effective for short-term superficial goals while undermining the collaboration necessary for long-term improvement. Since teacher isolation is too often a feature of current school culture, a competitive reward system will only makes this situation worse. Again, we have the illusion of movement while leaving things in place. As many have argued, fostering intrinsic motivation is the only sure strategy for deep sustainable change.”

What would real reform look like? To begin with, it would address the root causes of poor academic performance. Camins says that “A focus on improving the collective culture of schools, rather than individual teachers, has far greater potential for substantive progress.” He has ten specific approaches that would lead to real reform and would liberate students and teachers from the punitive status quo. Read the article.

.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Vouchers

Anthony Cody: Is the Tea Party Right About Common Core?

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2013 //
40

There is a surprising overlap between the views of the Tea Party and those of some in the left towards the Common Core. In Indiana, Democrats and Tea Party activists combined to defeat far-right State Superintendent Tony Bennett and elect educator Glenda Ritz. Democrats opposed his support for privatization and his haughty treatment of teachers: Tea Party activists opposed him for his zealous support for the Common Core.

Anthony Cody here describes the issues that unite political opposites:

1. “Sharing of student and teacher data with third party developers of all sorts, with no guarantees of privacy. As noted in this post, there are plans in place in some states such as Illinois and New York, and others as well, to collect massive amounts of data, which will be housed in a cloud based databank maintained by inBloom, a non-profit created by the Gates Foundation for this purpose.” Parents of all persuasions are equally concerned about invasions of their children’s privacy.

2. Both sides are upset by the secretive proceeds in which the Common Core was developed and foisted on the schools across the nation.

3. The federal government is legally barred from interfering in curriculum yet the Department of Education has been deeply involved in promoting the Common Core.

But the two groups part company on other issues, such as allegations that Bill Ayers wrote the Common Core (he did not) or that Linda Darling-Hammond is part of some conspiracy (she is not).

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Race to the Top, U.S. Department of Education

Jason Stanford: The Cheating Will Continue Until….

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
41

Jason Stanford says that so long as there are high stakes attached to testing, there will be cheating.

Arne Duncan says districts need more test security.

A new report by the federal GAO documents instances of cheating in 33 states.

When Duncan was asked about a moratorium on high stakes, he couldn’t give a straight answer.

Stanford says:

“Removing the high stakes from standardized tests would take away the incentives to cheat and return testing to its original, intended purposes—to diagnose where schools and students need improvement. Sec. Duncan can do better than holding a meeting, issuing a report, and calling it a day, but until he addresses the root causes—to paraphrase the Japanese submarine commander’s famous phrase—the cheating will continue until morale improves.”

Categories Duncan, Arne, Race to the Top, Testing

Duncan: In Chicago, I Cut Testing by 50%

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2013 //
59

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy at a meeting with students in Hartford, Connecticut. The main topic was school security, but at one point a student asked what could be done to cut back on excessive testing.

This was the exchange:

“Student Justin Vega said he feels as if all the time and money spent on standardized testing has compromised the quality of his education. He asked whether the money might be better spent on security.

“Both Malloy and Duncan agreed that it makes sense to find the right balance in testing. Malloy noted that Hartford schools could potentially have a 40 percent dropout rate. “We have to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen. We need a multifaceted approach which doesn’t overemphasize [testing],” Malloy said.

“Duncan agreed about balance and noted that when he was the head of Chicago schools, he cut the amount of standardized testing by 50 percent.”

The student didn’t ask Duncan about what he had done in Chicago, but what he could do now to reduce the time and money spent on testing.

Does Duncan not understand that his zeal to evaluate teachers by the scores of their students has led to more testing than at any time in the past? Why didn’t he answer Justin Vegas’ question?

Categories Chicago, Connecticut, Duncan, Arne, Testing

What Does Rahm Believe?

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2013 //
2

This journalist found himself in the men’s room with Mayor Emanuel, then listened to him give a speech about how his policies are improving the lives of Chicago’s poorest children.

This is what he thinks he is doing by closing dozens of neighborhood schools. Against the will of their parents, he is tearing apart their lives and communities.

Just doing what Duncan did, and it catapulted him to national office.

Will Rahm’s reforms work for him too?

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Duncan, Arne, Emanuel, Rahm
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