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Finding the Genius in Every Child

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2012 //
6

Robert D. Shepherd previously wrote a post about why standardization fails. Now he asks whether we want to standardize for a certain outcome or whether we want an education that discovers the genius in every child:

Every child born today is the product of 3.8 billions years of evolution. Between his or her ears, is the most complex system known to us, and that system, the brain consists of highly interconnected subsystems of neural mechanisms for carrying out particular tasks. Years ago, some Japanese researchers won the Nobel Prize for mapping the neural system in fruit flies that functions ONLY to detect movement from left to right in the visual field. Marvin Minsky calls this complex of interconnected systems a “society of mind.”Early in the twentieth century, a psychologist named Charles Spearman posited a single intelligence factor, “G.” A couple decades ago, Howard Gardner made a name for himself by positing seven (later eight) “multiple intelligences.” But that’s all hocus pocus. The truth is that there are, quite literally, billions of intelligences in the brain–mechanisms that carry out very particular tasks more or less well, many of them sharing parts of the same machinery to carry out subroutines.Over that 3.8 billion years of evolution, these many intelligences were refined to a high degree. Creatures, like us, who reproduce sexually and mix up our genes, are born with different unique sets of mechanisms, and these are pruned and refined based on our experiences, for the neural machinery is extraordinarily plastic. In other words,

1. People are extraordinarily variable, and
2. All have propensities to become very good at some things and not at others

In EVERY child some of these subsystems are extraordinary and some are merely adequate.

In other words, there are no standardized children. Almost every new parent is surprised, even shocked, to learn that kids come into the world extraordinarily unique. They bring a lot of highly particular potential to the ball game. And every one of those children is capable, highly capable, in some ways and not in others.

What if, instead of schools having as their purpose turning out identically machined parts, they, instead, existed to find out what a given child is going to be good at doing? What if children were carefully, systematically, given opportunities to try out the enormous range of purposeful human activity until we identified each child’s GENIUS? What if we said to ourselves, presented with a particular child, “I know that this little person is the product of 3.8 billion years of evolution, that he or she has gifts conferred by that history of fitness trials, and it is my responsibility to discover what those are?”

I heard an Indian elder, whose name, unfortunately, I forget, speak about this once. He said, “Look at the kids. Really look at them. You can see who the leaders are and who the followers.” This insight can and should be generalized.

Now, before you dismiss this as a preposterous idea, consider this fact: A child can be born with, say, perfect pitch and go through our entire K-12 education system without anyone ever discovering this about that child.

A society, to be a society, needs SOME shared common culture, and it’s valuable, for that reason, to have some common, shared set of knowledge and skills transmitted from one generation to the next. But a pluralistic society also needs the astonishing variety of attributes that people are born with or are capable of developing.

No list, however well vetted, will represent the natural variety of ability and potential that exists in children. Nor will it represent the variety of abilities that the society actually needs in order to function well. It’s bad for kids and it’s bad for society as a whole when someone has the hubris to come up with THE LIST of what everyone needs to know.

Let me be clear about what I am NOT saying: I am NOT saying that school should be a place where kids “do their own thing.” What I am saying is that it should be a place that enables kids and their teachers to discover what kids, given their particular endowments, can do. I believe, strongly, that every child has some genius among those TRULY multiple intelligences.

It would take a lot of re-envisioning to come up with a workable model of schooling that would do that properly and rigorously. And it wouldn’t look anything like what we are now doing.

Finally, to get to the specific question. The revolutionaries who founded the United States recognized that any system that awards people based upon the accidents of their birth rather than based upon their talents, whatever their birth, wastes a lot of human potential. They were committed to the idea that everyone deserved a chance to follow his or her genius, whatever the conditions of his or her birth. That’s why many of them were also committed to the idea universal education and why it is in the interest of all of us to end disparity of educational opportunity. The founders had this crazy idea that no one was disposable, that everyone had gifts to bestow on his or her fellows that would flower in the right circumstances. Any rigidly enforced system of standards treated as a curriculum is not going to enable the achievement of the founders’ vision because while everyone else’s children are toiling through the checklist of standardized skills attainment, the children of the elite will be having extraordinarily varied experiences enabling them to find and follow their bliss (what they care about and have the potential to do well).

If that’s the society that we want, the Morlochs and the Eloi, then uniform national standards treated as curricula, the same in every school, for every student, is the way to go.

That works for folks who think that there are the few gifted who are destined to rule and the great mass of interchangeable worker bees who need to be as identical and predictable as possible. It doesn’t work for people who believe in pluralistic democracy.
Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core, Curriculum, Education Reform, Students, US Education

What’s Needed Now: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
8

A reader comments on the discussion about parents, teachers, and students:

It is amazing to me how fast the conversation gets hijacked by those with an agenda to trash public education. I have stated before and will repeat it. Parents and educators must work together in partnership. It is the most productive way for our students to benefit from an education. It bothers me to hear disrespect directed toward either teachers, parents, or students.
As an educator I feel it should always be our position to be positive role models. Others may disagree, but I hope that those students and adults who I have worked with over the years have felt respected by me. No matter what behavior I am faced with, I always try to react in a positive way. Believe me, I am faced with these situations daily. I have had to learn this, over the years, because it isn’t always easy when you are faced with negative or disrespectful behavior. But I can say that a positive, respectful reaction almost always turns the situation around. A negative reaction almost always results in an escalation of the problem.
Thanks Diane, for being such a positive role model for us. I hope that we, as educators, are able to keep the fight for public education going in a positive direction, with positive results. It’s not easy when we are faced with such negative and false media reports, and especially negative parent reactions. We need to turn the tide back to a respect for educators.
Categories Parents, Students, Teachers and Teaching

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 NYC, Fair Student Funding Is Unfair

By dianeravitch
August 12, 2012 //
8

Not long after corporate reform started in New York City, the Department of Education adopted a formula promoted by conservative think tanks called “fair student funding” or “weighted student funding.” The surface idea was that each child would have the money he or she deserved “strapped to his/her back.” (Sorry for the clumsy effort to be gender neutral.) The real purpose, from the point of view of those on the right, was to enable students to go to charter schools or maybe even voucher schools bringing their public dollars with them. After all it was only “fair.”

In New York City, the funding system was designed by Robert Gordon, an economist and reformer who now works for President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget.

A reader in New York City examined how fair student funding was affecting the schools serving the neediest students. The answer: they get a raw deal.

Wouldn’t you think that in an effort to be fair, the DOE would attach MORE funding to students who have the greatest needs? It turns out that they aren’t even getting a fair deal.

The New York State Department of Education has expressed concern about New York City’s pattern of concentrating high needs students in specific schools. New York City has refused to acknowledge the merit of those concerns.  In fact, the leaders of New York City’s schools place all responsibility on individual schools as in this recent story.

Blaming schools and teachers seems to have become the go-to strategy of high-level education bureaucrats. This is one way to avoid personal accountability. All they need to do is “evaluate” schools using standardized exams and manage their “portfolio” of schools using a range of punitive measures. We decided to look at one area where these bureaucrats can’t deny their role in helping schools either ameliorate or worsen the effects of poverty on kids. Namely, how does the New York City Department of Education fund the richest and poorest schools? As can be seen in the charts below these bureaucrats have decided to fund schools in ways that increase these inequities. The richest 10 elementary/middle schools (as measured by the percent of students who are eligible to receive free lunch) receive an average of 89.1% of the funds they are entitled to by the city’s own formula. On the other hand, the poorest 10 schools receive an average of 82.7% of the funds they are entitled to.  The range of values also favors the richest schools. None of them receive less than 86% of their funding formula. Some of the poorest schools, on the other hand, receive 22% less money than they would be entitled to under the city’s “Fair” Student Funding formula. 

Richest Schools

% of Fair Student Funding Actually Received

School Name

% of Students Free Lunch
90.68 Special Music School

3.7%
88.52 P.S. 006 Lillie D. Blake

4.6%
89.34 The Anderson School

4.6%
88.08 P.S. 77 Lower Lab School

5.7%
86.09 P.S. 234 Independence School

6.4%
93.07 P.S. 098 The Douglaston School

6.4%
87.23 P.S. 89

6.7%
90.89 BATTERY PARK CITY SCHOOL

7.4%
88.1 P.S. 041 Greenwich Village

7.9%
89.16 P.S. 290 Manhattan New School

9.3%

 

Poorest Schools

% of Fair Student Funding Actually Received

School Name

% of Students Free Lunch
85.4 P.S. 167 The Parkway

98.9%
79.35 P.S. 199X – The Shakespeare School

99.1%
78.81 P.S. 115 Alexander Humboldt

99.5%
80.14 M.S. 302 Luisa Dessus Cruz

99.6%
102.67 P.S. 034 Franklin D. Roosevelt

99.7%
Closed M.S. 321 – Minerva

100.0%
84.76 P.S. 025 Bilingual School

100.0%
78.57 P.S. 230 Dr Roland N. Patterson

100.0%
78.02 I.S. X303 Leadership & Community Service

100.0%
79.46 P.S. 291

100.0%

 

Perhaps when these bureaucrats announce that “poverty is not destiny” they could explain why they insist on sending poor kids to schools that they have deliberately impoverished through their own decisions. Do they feel that schools with poor kids don’t deserve the same funding as schools with rich kids? 

Categories NYC, Poverty, Students

O Brave New World of School Reform

By dianeravitch
August 12, 2012 //
8

A retired teacher writes about her experiences teaching in an inner-city school in Hartford, Connecticut:

I retired last June, after nearly 38 years of teaching at M. L. King Elementary School, in Hartford, CT. ,one of the poorest mid-sized cities in the nation.   As I listen to the President, educational leaders, media commentators, and many in the concerned public, I am always distressed by the degree of blame and scorn heaped upon “failing” city schoolteachers and their “obstructionist “ unions.  While I believe that the expressed concerns regarding the state of education in our poorest communities are valid, the solutions seem to be leaving many of our most vulnerable students even further behind.

I began my teaching career with a Masters in Urban Education, from Columbia University.  Over the years, I earned 90 college credits beyond my masters, all in efforts to improve instruction.  My last year of teaching, as in most other years, I was at school daily until 5, 6, 7, or even 8:00 PM.  In addition, I took work home at night, and over the weekend as well.  There are countless other teachers just like me. With all of our training, experience, and effort, we faced “failure” on a daily basis.

With the advent of “magnet”, and “charter” schools, I watched the population of King School decrease by more than half.  It had been, for years, a stable community school, with parents, children, and sometimes grandchildren being taught by the same teachers who spent their entire professional lives serving this community.  Out of district families often requested special permission to attend the school.  Over time, the student population of King School has decreased by more than half, with numbers of students leaving to attend “choice” schools.  Unfortunately, many, if not most of the students and families who left, were those who had greater economic, educational, emotional, and social advantages.  It takes time, knowledge, and energy for parents to apply to these choice schools. The application process is now on line.  Those families without time, computer skills, or even basic literacy are excluded.  Those students left behind require more resources, yet in the current decentralized, competitive school model, they receive far less.

Despite all of these disadvantages, Martin Luther King School teachers have demonstrated marked improvement on test scores for two consecutive years. They are no longer considered a “failing school”. Yet in spite of these efforts, teachers were recently told that their school will be shut down.  Not immediately, but phased out over three or four years. King School will be replaced by a charter school.  Teachers will gradually be laid off.  The nine teachers who are being cut this year have been informed that they might not have the option to transfer to another Hartford Public School. It seems to me that we have stepped through the looking glass, with all reason and fairness having evaporated.

I can’t help but compare my teaching experiences to those of my sister, who works in a nearby suburban school.  She earns more money than the teachers in Hartford. She works in a brand new building, with state of the art equipment.   While she is a hard working teacher, she works far fewer hours.  She does not have to deal with an enormous amount of paperwork documenting her efforts to improve instruction for large numbers of academically deficient students.  Her students are overwhelmingly well cared-for, and it is highly unlikely that any of them have encountered drug dealers or traumatic violence in their neighborhoods.  These children have, for the most part, grown up with respect, and in turn, have been taught to respect others, particularly their teacher.  She has a wealth of supplemental materials she may need, at hand.  She’s never had to spend her own money on crayons, markers, copy paper, or other critical supplies.  When school begins in the fall, she is treated to a teacher’s luncheon, provided by the school PTA.  She has well-educated parent volunteers in her classroom every day, to assist her students while she delivers small group reading instruction.  At holiday time, she comes home with bags full of gifts given to her by the children, and their parents.  At the end of the school year, she gets expensive gift certificates, cooperatively given by the parents in her class, as a thank you gift for all she has done.  Most importantly, she is not blamed for her students’ failure to meet proficiency.  They are usually all at, or above proficiency.  She is a member of a teacher union that bargains for improvements in teachers’ pay and working conditions  (amount of preparation time, additional duties, etc.).  It is a source of counsel and support,  should she be harassed or mistreated.

Many teachers in Hartford are presently trapped, due to an economic situation which has resulted in few teacher openings, but this will soon change.  The “baby boom” generation of teachers is about to retire, and cities and towns will be in competition to hire the best and the brightest.  It doesn’t take an Ivy League education to see the stark disparity in the respect afforded teachers throughout the state and the nation.  When my generation entered the ranks of teachers determined to fight the “War on Poverty” in our cities, we understood that resources were unevenly allocated, and we’d no doubt have to work harder than our suburban counterparts.  At the same time, we worked collaboratively with administrators and, for the most part, received respect (if not appreciation) from the society at large.

In this brave new world of high stakes testing, and teacher accountability (note that there is little to measure parent, community, or student accountability), I fear for our most vulnerable children.  Who will choose to subject themselves to the very vulnerable position of teaching in our poor urban districts?  The disparity in pay, resources, and most importantly respect, will lead teachers to more stable careers in suburban school districts.  Our city children will be left further and further behind.  The tragedy of lost potential will only be magnified.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Parents, Poverty, Students

Will Fitzhugh Believes in Student Accountability

By dianeravitch
August 11, 2012 //
5

Will Fitzhugh created a publication called The Concord Review many years ago. It publishes excellent student historical research. If you read these history papers, you would think that some of them had been written by scholars with many degrees. It is amazing the quality of work that students can write when they have the motive and the opportunity.

Over the years, Will has written often about the importance of encouraging students to work hard and to take academics seriously. He created a “National Writing Board” to promote student research and writing. He speaks about “varsity academics.” He knows that when students have the chance to see their work published, they are inspired to do their best.

One other thing about Will. He quit his regular job as a history teacher to create and produce The Concord Review. This is a publication created and sustained by his passion. He has tried repeatedly to get money from foundations and has been turned down again and again. He has sought government grants, but no interest there.

Here is a fine sample of his work as a writer and thinker. Will reminds us that if students don’t do their best, teachers can’t make them.

Teachers know this. Parents used to know it. Only our nation’s policynakers think that teachers are solely responsible for what students do or don’t do.

 

Categories Accountability, Curriculum, Students

A Student Voice of Wisdom

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2012 //
9

I discovered Stephanie Rivera on Twitter. Ah, the power of social media. Stephanie took issue with Students for Education Reform, which is a mini-version of the Wall Street hedge fund managers group called Democrats for Education Reform. DFER thinks that charter schools will close the achievement gap, but sadly there is no evidence==other than an anecdote about a handful of charters–that this remotely possible on any scale. It hasn’t happened in Washington, D.C., which is awash in TFA and charters, nor in New Orleans, nor in New York City. Where is the evidence that they can close the achievement gap other than by skimming top students and kicking out low-performing students?

Stephanie met with the leaders of SFER in her part of New Jersey, and they tried to convince her she was wrong to be devoted to the public schools. Stephanie can’t understand why they would turn their backs on the schools where 90% of American students are. I think this is called “lifeboat” strategy, where you pluck a few kids and pat yourself on the back instead of trying to save the ship.

Well, as it happens, the ship is under attack from the likes of DFER and SFER and SFC and a long list of well-funded alphabet groups, but it is definitely not going down.

And the charters, we now know, are extremely varied. Some are excellent, some are dreadful, most are no different from public schools. And some are run by profiteers, who use tax dollars to pay off investors.

Lurking between the lines are class issues; the SFERs are at Princeton, Stephanie is at Rutgers. ‘Nuff said.

Be strong, Stephanie!

Many experienced and expert teachers are waiting to give you a hand when you join them.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Students

Michelle Rhee Is Wrong and Misinformed

By dianeravitch
August 9, 2012 //
47

My article with the title above appeared on CNN.com.

They heard from you. They invited me to respond and this is the article I wrote.

I think that if we all speak up again and again and again and again, and tell the truth, supported by facts and experience, our voices will be heard.

Write letters to the editor, comment on blogs, speak up at public meetings, do what you can, when you can, where you can.

Your actions will encourage others.

And that is how a movement is built.

From the ground up.

Not with billions of dollars, but with millions of willing hands and hearts and minds.

Categories Parents, Ravitch, Diane, Rhee, Michelle, Students, StudentsFirst, Teacher Evaluations, US Education

Why and How to End the Misuse of Testing

By dianeravitch
August 8, 2012 //
4

A reader comments, with more wisdom than anything now coming from the U.S. Department of Education. He also explains how to end the reign of error:

The flawed testing approach continues to be pushed without debate because open honest discussion, involving true experts in the fields of child development, education (and ed-research), and valid data gathering/application would reveal painful truths for those behind the brand of reform we are seeing.

Truth1: Increasing the amount of tests as a means of finding and firing bad teachers is a perversion of assessment in education. Assessments are tools for teachers to use in shaping instruction for their students’ individual needs, which vary between students and can change year to year. Once well-funded and empowered, schools identified and addressed these varying needs. Schools have been attacked and de-funded over time, leaving them less able to address the range of needs students have.  As the economy has further crippled average families, students come to school with more challenges, the attack on schools and the teaching profession has intensified.The intention of “reformers” to use assessment to attack the profession instead of inform it is undeniable  as teacher evals are based mostly on the test results-despite the fact that the brand new CCL standards haven’t been fully integrated with curriculum and the tests being used haven’t even reached final phase of development. Yet the identifying “bad” teachers using this amorphous data has been priority. Truth number one is that reform isn’t really about valid improvements to the education of children. It’s about: 1) control and redirection of public funds, 2) profits for a testing/charter industry that dominates the reform narrative, 3) intimidation of a profession with a long history of middle class empowerment and political activism.

Truth 2: The focus on schools and teachers as the source of educational ills is treating a symptom, not curing the disease. This isn’t a result of misguided naivete or ignorance, it is intentional. There is plenty of data linking economic hardship to family insecurity and disruption to lack of “school readiness” to final educational outcomes. Schools and teachers can work hard to maximize potential and help students surpass obstacles that might otherwise hold them back, but what if policymakers continue creating more obstacles? Well, they ARE creating those obstacles, and they know it. Unfortunately, as policymakers they currently have the power to not only create the obstacles-they also have the power to divert attention and shift the blame.

Truth number 3 is we need to take back our democracy. We can no longer be afraid to be politically active within our schools if we have to protect our students. We need to be heard, we need to vote, and we need as many doing it as we can possibly get.

Categories Accountability, Students, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, US Education

When Students Awaken, Everything Will Change

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2012 //
9

I just got this post on Twitter by a student who wants no part of the DFER-like “Students for Education Reform,” created at Princeton to advance the corporate reform agenda. This student is amazing! Impressive research, real understanding about how words can be used to deceive, and a grasp of the issues.

There is a bottom-line question that no one ever answers: If DFER and SFER and SFC and TFA and StudentsFirst and other corporate reformers already know how to close the achievement gap, as they repeatedly claim, why are there no examples of it anywhere? It hasn’t happened in New York City, after ten long years of corporate-style reform; it hasn’t happened in New Orleans since Katrina even though 80% of the children are in charter schools; it didn’t happen in D.C., under Michelle Rhee (which still has the biggest gaps in the nation). Why do they keep saying they know how to do it when they haven’t done it? At some point, the dance ends. And the bill comes due for all those promises and claims.

 

Categories Corporate Reformers, Stand for Children, Students, StudentsFirst
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