Archives for category: Honor Roll
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A Brave State School Board Member

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2012 //
14

Lottie Beebe, an elected member of the state school board in Louisiana, spoke out bravely at the last meeting.

She decried the privatization of public education.

She questioned why the state was spending nearly $1 million to bring in ill-trained TFA members even as districts are paying an additional $2,000-4,000 for each TFA recruit.

She asked why the board had hired a TFA person to be its executive director.

She was, of course, voted down.

Governor Bobby Jindal controls the board.

The last person elected to the board is the executive director of TFA in New Orleans.

Lottie Beebe believes in public education; she believes that children should have well-prepared professional teachers.

She is out of fashion.

But she is right. When we compare ourselves to the top-performing nations in the world, they all have strong public school systems staffed by professional educators.

Now I will have to create a new category for brave members of state and local school boards. I hope it is a long list.

Categories Honor Roll, Louisiana, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

A Superintendent Added to the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2012 //
9

Jere Hochman is superintendent of the Bedford School District in New York state. I am adding his name to the highly elite honor roll of superintendents. Hochman understands that a school functions best as a community. He has created an evaluation system for teachers that will take the pressure away from “teaching to the test.” New York State requires that all districts judge teachers in this way: 20% based on state tests; 20% on measures devised by the district; 60% on observations. Some districts are allocating 40% of the state tests because they don’t have the money to buy new tests. Jere Hochman decided that the second 20% would be based on the ELA test and that the whole school would dedicate its efforts to promoting literacy.

Here is his explanation:

  • It’s the right thing to do for all students: literacy everywhere
  • We are not writing (1,000s of hours and dollars) “SLOs” for teachers/class that do not have a state test.
  • It saves hundreds of hours of class time lost to testing, local test grading, and teacher pull out of classroom
  • Teachers who do not have a state test will not have to use/give TWO “local” tests to measure growth and achievement (one SLO and one local assessment)
  • It rallies the entire school around writing, reading, thinking, and speaking across the disciplines – and everyone teaches vocabulary.
  • It means every teacher gets the same “points” on the school-wide goal which clusters the total score, taking the stress off of it. 
  • It lowers the parent scrutiny because a teacher’s “score” isn’t just about that one teacher.
  • It gets us all focused on the foundation of everything no matter if it’s an Ivy-league bound kid or a non-English speaker: literacy!
  • It reinforces the systemic approach to closing the achievement gap, raising all students instead of accusations of focusing more on “lower achieving kids”
  • The union likes it (and teases me) because of all of the above and because they know I hate anything that is one-size-fits-all and they are getting pleasure out of this “union-like” approach of “one-size-fits all”
Categories Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Honor Roll

The Hero Superintendent from Maryland

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2012 //
11

I am starting an honor roll for hero superintendents.

As of now, there are four.

If you know of others, nominate them with your reasons.

They deserve our thanks and praise.

Paul Perzanoski of Brunswick, Maine, stood up to a bullying governor.

John Kuhn of Perrin-Whitt Independent School District is a national model of bravery in opposition to political meddling.

Vickie Markavitch of Oakland, Michigan, spoke out against the state’s mislabeling of districts.

Here is another: Joshua Starr of Montgomery County (Md) public schools.

He did not want his district to participate in Race to the Top funding, and his board agreed.

His district refused to sign the state’s RTTT application.

He opposes the RTTT emphasis on rating teachers by test scores.

Montgomery County has a widely hailed teacher evaluation system called Peer Assistance and Review, and Starr wants to keep it.

He recognizes that NCLB and Race to the Top are a reversion to an “industrial model” of education.

Faced with the bewildering roll-out of federal and state mandates, Starr proposed a three-year moratorium on all standardized tests, “while we figure all this out.”

According to the Washington Post article about him from last April:

“Starr critiqued the growth models and rubrics being developed as contradicting research on what motivates teachers. He said Montgomery’s current system, which mentors struggling teachers for a year before decisions about termination are made, is a “hill to die on.”

And he said that singling out teachers as the culprit for education failures and shaming them is the most “pernicious part of the national reform movement.”

Accountability for student success should rightly extend to “you, me, and the entire community,” he said.

But in the midst of all the flux and change, he struck a hopeful chord. He said the transition could give Montgomery a chance to carve a distinct path.

“As No Child Left Behind is dying its slow death, it’s an incredible opportunity to fill that void with what we believe we should do for kids,” he said.”

Joshua Starr is an educational leader of the highest caliber.

He doesn’t comply and follow harmful orders.

He insists on thinking what is best for students and teachers and the community.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Common Core, Education Reform, Honor Roll, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Our First Hero Superintendent

By dianeravitch
August 31, 2012 //
20

John Kuhn, superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt Independent School District in Texas,  is a hero superintendent. He has been a voice of reason and at the same time an exemplar of passion and courage since he burst onto the national stage a year ago at the national Save Our Schools rally in Washington, D.C. 

That is when many people discovered this fearless advocate for education and children.

He has said loud and clear that schools must serve the neediest children and raise them up, not avoid them for fear of dragging down the school’s ranking and scores.

He has taken to the national arena to oppose high-stakes testing.

He has encouraged those who want to boycott testing.

See here and here and here too.

If every superintendent were as outspoken as John Kuhn, we could take this nation back from the privatizers and restore our ideals and mission.

Categories Accountability, Honor Roll, Testing, Texas

Another Superintendent Takes a Stand

By dianeravitch
August 31, 2012 //
10

Here is another brave superintendent. 

Dr. Vickie Markavitch, the superintendent of the Oakland, Michigan, schools created a video to protest the state’s designation of so-called “focus” schools. She said this was part of a political agenda to mislabel and discourage successful schools. The state’s system is labeling higher achieving schools as under achieving to advance its political agenda.

In her accompanying letter, she decried the attack on public schools by their own state education department.

Now we know of two superintendents who were courageous enough to stand up to the rightwing assault on public education by their state’s leaders. There is one in Brunswick, Maine, and now another in Oakland, Michigan.

Do you know of any others?

Categories Accountability, Honor Roll, Michigan

Brave Maine Superintendent Rebukes Governor

By dianeravitch
August 28, 2012 //
20

Maine Governor Paul LePage has made a name for himself insulting Maine educators and proposing vouchers, charters, and evaluating teachers by student test scores. One superintendent, Paul Perzanoski of Brunswick, decided he had had enough.

In his back to school letter to school staff (not parents or children), he proposed that the governor take the SAT and publish his scores.

This is how the local  press described his letter and the reaction to it.

“The legislators passed new laws on bullying this spring but they failed to include the Blaine House,” Perzanoski wrote. “Remediation is on the governor’s mind and I agree, he needs remediation in civility, public speaking, telling the truth, diplomacy and following the law. I think we should challenge him to take the SAT and then make the results public.”

But that wasn’t all.

“There comes a time when you have to stand up and say enough is enough,” Perzanoski said on Wednesday. “Our educators work harder now than they ever had before, and their reward for it is additional unfunded mandates and then political bashing based on whatever statistics they choose to use and the cliche of the day.”

And this:

“Public school bashing has become the favorite political sport since a statistically flawed document called ‘A Nation at Risk’ was released in 1983,” he wrote. “The main goal of this 29-year attack is not to improve public education but to demean it enough so public dollars pay for private and religious schools.”

When asked by a reporter about his bold statements, Perznoski–a 40-year veteran of public education– said “sometimes you have to take a risk” and speak your mind.

“We don’t have to put up with this,” he said about his message to staff. “We have a voice. We need to use it. We need to stand up as one.”

This man should get a gold star for courage.

Here is his email: pperzanoski@brunswick.k12.me.us.

Let’s thank him for using his voice and speaking truth to power.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Honor Roll, Vouchers

In Praise of Peter DeWitt

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2012 //
10

Peter DeWitt is an elementary school principal in upstate New York who blogs for Education Week.

Whatever he writes is grounded in deep experience and respect for students, parents, and teachers.

Peter is especially concerned with the social and emotional well-being of his students.

That puts him out of the mainstream today, where the only thing that matters is test scores.

He sees the big issues from the perspective of how they affect students.

He cares too much about kids to command the attention of the powers that be.

That says a lot about where we are today.

We are fortunate to have someone with his wisdom regularly speaking out about the issues.

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll

In Praise of Gary Rubinstein

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
10

Gary Rubinstein writes a terrific blog. He is a math teacher and an early alum of TFA.

Whenever he writes, he has important insights.

Last week, I got a note from a friend praising Deborah Kenny and quoting her recent book, where she claims that the secret of her miracle school, Harlem Village Academy, is that she seeks great teachers and treats them with respect. But I recalled reading Gary’s post about that school, and he pointed out that it has a teacher turnover rate every year of 50-60%. Teachers don’t exit so fast from schools where they are treated with respect. I sent that to my friend and urged him to remember what Ronald Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.”

My way of verifying claims of miracle schools is to check with Gary Rubinstein. He has no ax to grind. He is a straight-shooter.

Whenever some public official or self-promoter claims that he has found a miracle school, Gary checks the facts. He goes to the state education website and what he usually finds is a school with a high attrition rate or high teacher turnover, or some other trick that has created a faux miracle.

Gary is a regular thorn in the side of TFA, because he was one of its early graduates and he wants TFA to be what it originally promised to be–a program to recruit young teachers for hard-to-staff jobs–not a helpmate to the corporate reformers.

His review of Steven Brill’s Class Warfare is a powerful critique of the most common reformer myths and well worth reading.

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll

In Praise of Valerie Strauss

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2012 //
7

All of us who are frustrated and occasionally outraged by current federal and state education policy owe a debt of thanks to Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.

Her daily blog “The Answer Sheet” is a source of sustenance, information, and wisdom.

She has provided a regular outlet for teachers, researchers, and everyone else who has important things to say about high-stakes testing, privatization, the war on teachers, the politics of education, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and almost everything else that is on the minds of education-minded people these days.

When my last book was published, I was very fortunate to be interviewed by Valerie on C-SPAN. I had never met her. The hour passed very quickly, as we enjoyed the conversation. Over the past two years, many of my articles have appeared on her blog. She helped me find my audience, as she helps educators everywhere know that they are not alone.

Thank you, Valerie, for all you do to encourage the people who dedicate their lives every day to educating the nation’s children. Thank you for your support for teachers, principals, and administrators. Thank you for understanding parents and children. Thank you for your wisdom, your courage, and your steadfastness.

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll, Parents, Privatization, Students, Teachers and Teaching

In Praise of Linda Darling-Hammond

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2012 //
7

One of the wisest and sanest voices in the nation on the subject of teacher quality, teaching quality and teacher evaluation is Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University. Linda has been involved for many years in studying these issues and working directly with teachers to improve practice. During the presidential campaign of 2008, she was Barack Obama’s spokesman and chief adviser on education, but was elbowed aside by supporters of Arne Duncan when the campaign ended. The Wall Street hedge fund managers who call themselves Democrats for Education Reform (they use the term “Democrats” to disguise the reactionary quality of their goals) recommended Duncan to the newly elected president, and you know who emerged on top.

Linda, being the diligent scholar that she is, continued her work and continued to write thoughtful studies about how to improve teaching.

After the 2008 election, the issue that predominated all public discussion was how to evaluate teachers. This was no accident. Consider that in the fall of 2008, the Gates Foundation revealed its decision to drop its program of breaking up large high schools. Recall that the foundation had invested $2 billion in breaking up big schools into small schools, had persuaded some 2,500 high schools to do so, and then its researchers told the foundation that the students in the small high schools were not getting any better test scores than those in the large high schools.

Gates needed another big idea. He decided that teacher quality was the big idea. So he invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a tiny number of districts to learn how to evaluate teachers, including thousands of hours of videotapes. Where Gates went, Arne Duncan followed. The new Obama administration put teacher quality at the center of the $5 billion Race to the Top. If states wanted to be eligible for the money, they had to agree to judge teachers–to some considerable degree–by the test scores of their students. That is, they had to use value-added assessment, a still unformed methodology, in evaluating teachers.

In response to Race to the Top and Arne (“What’s there to hide?”) Duncan’s advocacy, many states have now passed laws–some extreme and punitive–directly tying teachers’ tenure, pay, and longevity to test scores.

No other nation in the world is doing this, at least none that I know of.

The unions have negotiated to reduce the impact of value-added systems but have not directly confronted their legitimacy.

After much study and deliberation, Linda Darling-Hammond decided that value-added did not work and would not work, and would ultimately say more about who was being taught than about the quality of the teacher.

The briefest summary of her work appears in an article in Education Week here.

She recently published a full research report. Here is a capsule summary of her team’s findings about the limitations of value-added assessment:

“Measuring Student Learning

There is agreement that new teacher evaluation systems should look at teaching in light of student learning. One currently popular approach is to incorporate teacher ratings from value-added models (VAM) that use statistical methods to examine changes in student test scores over time. Unfortunately, researchers have found that:

1. Value-Added Models of Teacher Effectiveness Are Highly Unstable:

Teachers’ ratings differ substantially from class to class and from year to year, as well as from one test to the next.

2. Teachers’ Value-Added Ratings Are Significantly Affected by Differences in the Students Assigned to Them: Even when models try to control for prior achievement and student demographic variables, teachers are ad- vantaged or disadvantaged based on the students they teach. In particular, teachers with large numbers of new English learners and students with special needs have been found to show lower gains than the same teachers when they are teaching other students. Students who teach low-income stu- dents are disadvantaged by the summer learning loss their children experi- ence between spring-to-spring tests.

3. Value-Added Ratings Cannot Disentangle the Many Influences on Student Progress: –––Many other home, school, and student factors influence student learning gains, and these matter more than the individual teacher in explaining changes in scores.”

The application of misleading, inaccurate and unstable measures serves mainly to demoralize teachers. Many excellent teachers will leave the profession in frustration. There will be churn, as teachers come and go, some mislabeled, some just disgusted by the utter lack of professionalism of these methods.

The tabloids will yelp and howl as they seek the raw data to publish and humiliate teachers. Even those rated at the top (knowing that next year they might be at the bottom) will feel humiliated to see their scores in the paper and online.

This is no way to improve education.

Diane

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/01/kappan_hammond.html

 http://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/creating-comprehensive-system-evaluating-and-supporting-effective-teaching_1.pdf
Categories Darling-Hammond, Linda, Duncan, Arne, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Honor Roll
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