Archives for category: Students
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

NYC: On Thursday, Join a Demonstration for Education!

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2013 //
2

This just in:

Hope you can join us and spread the word!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 6th, 2013

NYC public school children will sign John Hancocks to their own “Declaration of Education” on Chancellor’s Day

City Hall Park gathering injects a positive message into the standardized testing debate, favors giving administrators room to create learning communities and giving teachers time to do what they do best: teach!

MANHATTAN—Parents, New York City public schoolchildren and community members will gather in City Hall Park on Thursday, June 6th at 10:00 am for a Chancellor’s Day event that will feature music, giant puppets and a participatory social studies lesson inspired by the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

“We’re coming together in support of our amazing public school teams,” said Jody Drezner Alperin, one of the event’s organizers. “The high-stakes testing culture handcuffs our teachers and administrators and keeps them from doing what they do best. We want to see the tests return to being just one valid measure of success among many.”

Vicky Finney Crouch, another event organizer, said “This isn’t about opting out, it’s about redressing the balance. We don’t send our kids to school to just take tests and do endless test prep; we send our kids to school to learn. We don’t want our schools turned into test-taking factories; we want them to be nurturing communities of learning again.”

At the gathering, as part of an interactive lesson, kids will offer suggestions for what they believe are the fundamental ingredients every school should have, and their ideas will be inscribed on an enormous scroll, the “Declaration of Education”. Candidates for mayor and City Council have been invited to attend.

The scroll, which the kids will sign, will be delivered later to New York State Education Commissioner John King. Copies will go to Mayor Mike Bloomberg, NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, NY State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, NYC City Councilmembers, city members of the NY State Legislature, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

“We’re helping New York City Public School children share their strong and important voices with the powers that be,” said Drezner Alperin. Added Finney Crouch, “This will remind decision-makers how fantastic kids can be when they’re encouraged to think for themselves. And it will show them that when kids are actively engaged, real learning happens – the kind of learning can’t happen during test prep and isn’t valued by standardized tests.”

Media Contacts: Jody Drezner Alperin: 917.902.0944. jd.alperin@gmail.com
Vicky Finney Crouch: 917.608.4321. vickyfinney@mac.com
Robin Epstein: 917.658.8803. robinepsteindesign@gmail.com
####

Categories New York City, Parents, Students, Testing

Does Anyone Care?

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2013 //
18

Two mothers meet at a rally to protest the school closings in Chicago. One mother shows the other her cell phone. It has pictures of children on it. It is a Facebook page.

The second mother explains, these children will be killed if they cross the line into another neighborhood. That’s my son’s picture. He has been marked to die.

She went to the police. They turned her away. She went to school authorities. No one could help her.

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm, Students

It’s Time to Get Mad

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2013 //
50

Adam Kirk Edgerton is mad. He is mad at President Obama because he acts like a Republican.

Edgerton runs the Upward Bound program at Salem State University in Massachusetts. His students are losing their scholarships. Many students are losing scholarships.

Edgerton writes:

” I woke up mad today because when it comes to education policy, there is little daylight between a national Democrat and a national Republican. Dismantling civil-rights era social programs and replacing them with market-based reforms is what truly brings President Obama and the Republicans together.”

He adds:

“What I will argue is this: a Democratic administration is deliberately funneling funds away from direct services to poor people and towards administrators and consultants and bureaucrats. Race to the Top pays some pretty good grant-funded salaries to curriculum writers in Central Offices. It puts on a good conference (I’ve been to one). What it doesn’t do is teach kids, or shelter them in safe homes, or feed them healthy food.”

Categories Higher Education, Poverty, Students

Monica Ratliff: A Challenge to the Status Quo

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
14

Imagine this: a candidate for the school board who was constantly thinking of students, not hoping for a political stepping stone.

Imagine this: a candidate who thinks of students–not in the abstract–but as real children with names and faces, children she knows.

Imagine this: a candidate who doesn’t make absurd campaign promises because she understands the problems and needs of children, teachers, and schools.

That’s Monica Ratliff. She hated asking people for money. She taught her class every day instead of campaigning. She didn’t wring her hands and long for someone who had the power to make changes that helped students and teachers and schools..

She took responsibility and ran for the Los Angeles school board. She was the longest of long shots. She didn’t have powerful backers. She was outspent nearly 50-1. And she won. She is the real deal.

She is a challenge to the status quo.

She is the embodiment of the famous statement by Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Students, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching

Providence Students Challenge Commissioner Gist to Debate Issues

By dianeravitch
May 20, 2013 //
4

That amazing, pro-active, brilliant Providence Student Union has challenged Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist to a debate about high-stakes testing with them.

Will Commissioner Gist agree to debate them?

The students thinks it is wrong to use NECAP–the state assessment–as a requirement for graduation. The corporation that created the test agrees with the students that the test was not designed as an exit exam. Gist is sticking to her guns and has the support of the lawyer who recently was appointed to chair the state board of education.

The students know that the failure rate will have a disparate impact on students with disabilities, English language learners, and those who are poor.

Isn’t it odd that high school students know so much more than their titular leaders? Isn’t it impressive that they have such a keen sense of justice, which is not shared by those in charge?

This came to me from the Providence Student Union:

Students will be at one of these podiums.

Will the Commissioner agree to stand at the other?

Dear Diane,

We wanted to make sure you had heard the news – the Providence Student Union (PSU) has challenged Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist to a debate about her Department’s testing policies.

“In the name of open discussion and the free exchange of ideas,” students wrote in a letter to the Commissioner, “we, the members of the Providence Student Union, respectfully request that you participate with us in a public debate regarding Rhode Island’s new high-stakes standardized testing graduation requirement.”

PSU members do not seem nervous about possibly engaging with an accomplished adult communicator like Commissioner Gist. “It’s about the issues,” explains Yvette Gonzalez, a freshman at Mount Pleasant High School. “We know how this policy is actually affecting us every day in the classroom, and we feel confident enough to describe and defend our positions in public. The Commissioner also seems confident about her position, so we are hopeful she will be willing to debate us.”

The public has not yet received an official response from the Commissioner, but we want to give her a little time. After all, what reason could there be to not join students in this important civic exercise?

Of course, organizing an event like this debate will require major time and resources from students and staff. But you can help by making a tax-deductible gift to the Providence Student Union today.

Will you support PSU with a $10 donation?

With your help, students will be able to continue creating the platforms they need to make their voices heard on this and other important issues. Thanks so much for everything.

Sincerely,

The PSU Debate Planning Committee (Tim, Jinnelle, Garren, Cauldierre and Yvette)

To learn more about the Providence Student Union, get in contact, or make a donation: http://www.providencestudentunion.org

At the Providence Student Union, we organize to build the collective power of high school students across Providence to ensure youth have a real voice in decisions affecting their education.

Categories Students, Testing

Rhode Island Board Chair Defends Status Quo

By dianeravitch
May 20, 2013 //
14

Eva-Marie Mancuso, chair of Rhode Island’s state education board, passionately defends the status quo.

Over the protests of parents, students, and teachers, Mancuso supports high-stakes testing. Despite overwhelming evidence from researchers that evaluating teachers by test scores is inaccurate, unstable, and demoralizing, Mancuso wants more. Despite the protests of student leaders across the state, Mancuso insists that standardized tests–the NECAP–should be a graduation requirement.

A recent poll of teachers found that 85% oppose a new contract for the state superintendent Debirah Gist. Mancuso doesn’t care. Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s hard rightwing Chiefs for Change, which includes the most conservative, test-loving, privatizing superintendents in the nation.

Gist was the superintendent who wanted to fire every teacher and staff member at Central Falls High School in 2010 because test scores were low. No teacher or staff member had been evaluated.

Mancuso is prepared to stand and fight for the status quo.

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Deborah Meier: Am I Part of the Problem or the Solution?

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2013 //
19

Deborah Meier has been blogging recently with Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Deb is known as a progressive, Mike as a conservative. Deb was one of the founders of the small schools movement and a leader of opposition to standardized testing through her involvement in Fairtest. Mike strongly supports standardized testing, charter schools, and competition a drivers of change.

In his previous post, Mike asked Deb whether she was part of the problem (because of her opposition to standardized testing and her general skepticism towards what is called “reform” today, I.e., No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top).

This is a good exchange. I wonder if they can bridge their differences.

Deborah answered here. I won’t begin to summarize what she said. Let me just say that she is at her best and what she wrote about children, about the shrinking middle class, and about what schools can and cannot do. Please take the time to read what she wrote.

Categories Accountability, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Parents, Poverty, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Is the School of the Future in the Cloud?

By dianeravitch
May 17, 2013 //
66

Having studied the history of education for some decades, I have a built-in resistance to claims about the school of the future, particularly when it involves the end of schooling. Over many years, I have seen predictions about that Great Day when all children are self-motivated, all learning comes naturally, and instruction by adults becomes superfluous. The archetype of this idea was A. S. Neill’s “Summerhill,” which was a huge bestseller in the 1960s. But it was preceded by many other visions of schools without books, without tests, without classes, without teachers, without stress, without walls, without without without.

Here is the latest: a school in the Cloud, with Grannies to answer questions as self-motivated children use the Web to learn at their own speed, as they wish. The man behind this proposal won a $1 million TED prize for this idea.

What do you think?

Categories On-Line Education, Students, Technology, Computers

Please Help the Providence Student Union

By dianeravitch
May 12, 2013 //
3

I am re-posting this appeal to help a great group of high school youth.

For their valiant, smart, witty efforts to save their schools and future generations from the blight of high-stakes testing, I name them to the honor roll as champions of public education. May they grow and flourish!

I am a huge fan of the Providence Student Union.

I just donated to them to help them continue their movement and to encourage students in other cities and states to organize against high-stakes testing.

Please consider going to their web page and supporting them. I love their energy, their idealism, their wit, and their creativity.

I share their belief that education should be engaging, exciting, and a source of inspiration and joy. They have energetically protested the soul-deadening emphasis on high-stakes testing in Rhode Island. And they have expressed their own vision for real education.

Best of all, they have mastered the art of political theater to publicize their work.

First, they held a zombie protest in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education building, protesting the state’s dead zombie policies.

Then, they persuaded accomplished professionals to take a test made up of released items from the NECAP test, which the state has inappropriately made a graduation requirement.

Just days ago, they delivered their First Annual State of the Student Address, describing their vision for real education. They timed it so that it was one hour before the State Commissioner Deborah Gist’s annual state of education address to the Legislature. Gist, you may recall, won national acclaim for threatening to fire every employee of Central Falls High School due to its low test scores.

Because of the PSU’s political theater, the Boston Globe came out against the use (mis-use) of NECAP as a graduation requirement.

The Providence Student Union represents the best of American youth. They are independent, creative, active, fearless. They are what we hope for our nation in the future. Help them thrive.

Categories Honor Roll, Students

Why Business Models Fail in Education

By dianeravitch
May 5, 2013 //
57

A comment on the post about “Zombie Education Policies”:

Having spent years in business, I cringe at blindly applying business models to education. 360 evaluation is a business fad that will join MBOs and matrix management. I tried student evaluations. Students are usually upset over not getting a certain grade on the most recent test, angry over a detention, or at the other extreme, like the teacher and don’t want to say anything negative. I eavesdropped on two of my high school students evaluating their teachers and a “good” teacher had more to do with being lenient, funny, and good looking. It took me years to later appreciate my good teachers – not at the time the most popular. Most parents mean well, but often have only glimpses of the classroom from their child’s perspective. Often the truth is difficult and not always well received. Peers are OK, but not all peers are objective or can separate politics. Administrators may not have spent enough years in a math or language arts classroom – perhaps moving up through phys ed – to understand content and delivery. Third party evaluations are too disconnected and have conflicts of interest.

So a better solution? First, and this principle is also overlooked in business, IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT. Not all schools are failing, and then, not all for the same reason. Blanket, scorched earth solutions never work and just replace one set of problems with another. Improving upon what exists takes skill and savvy. Second, if you want to know what makes a good teacher, ask a good teacher. We all know who they are. Mentoring is by far the best system with centuries of success. Make it work. Third, start listening to teachers, not politicians, billionaires, and opportunists. The latter have other interests. Teachers, in contrast to the constant demonizing, are in the classroom everyday and want their students to learn.

The best approach to education is there is no single approach to education. Students are individuals and human. Not data points in a multi-level statistical model. Teachers know this. Will anybody else listen?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Students, Teacher Evaluations
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »