Archives for category: StudentsFirst
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A Good Idea for StudentsFirst

By dianeravitch
August 8, 2012 //
33

This reader has some good ideas for StudentsFirst’s next campaign, now that the Olympics is over:

It really disgusted me how Rhee compares education in the US to being in the Olympics and how we wouldn’t want countries like Luxembourg and Hungary to get more gold medals than us, yet they are beating us in education. I mean, seriously?
Luxembourg?

Luxembourg has a $80,119 GDP and is one of the most wealthy of countries. Their children learn 3 mandatory languages in school, and they only have a 4.5% child poverty rate. Of course, those students are going to be more successful.

Hungary, on the other hand, only has a $19,591 GDP. However, when I looked at comparisons in literacy and math, the U.S. and Hungary were close in many areas, usually with the U.S. edging Hungary out a little. Hungary has a 10.3% child poverty rate.

The United States has a $48,386 GDP. Much higher than Hungary, but much lower than Luxembourg. The U.S. also has a 22.4% child poverty rate, second only to Mexico, which has 26.2. (I got these statistics from NationMaster.com)

To me, one of the greatest factors in education is poverty! It’s kind of like the little dirty secret that keeps getting swept under the rug. The U.S. needs to start addressing this. The school I teach at has a 75% free and reduced lunch population. These kids are more worried about the next meal than the next test. According to the US Census Bureau, “more than one in five children in the United States (15.75 million) lived in poverty in 2010. 2010. More than 1.1 million children were added to the poverty population between the 2009 ACS and the 2010 ACS. The 2010 ACS child poverty rate (21.6 percent) is the highest since the survey began in 2001.”

If StudentsFirst really cared about putting their students first, they would put their money into addressing the poverty issue instead of making insulting advertisements like the one with the out of shape Olympian.
Categories International, Poverty, StudentsFirst

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

Spoof on Offensive Rhee Olympics Ad

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2012 //
1

Tim Slekar and his merry band of public education advocates have just released a spoof of the offensive Michelle Rhee/StudentsFirst ad.

The Rhee ad ridicules the United States, students, teachers, public schools, obesity, and gays. The man in her ad is presented as flabby and effete, performing in an Olympic sport called rhythmic gymnastics that is for women only and falling on his back. He is supposedly a representation of American education.

Just as an aside, the international test score rankings are meaningless. They reflect the high rate of poverty among children in the U.S. When the international tests were first given, we came in 11th out of 12. That was in 1964. We have since then gone on to outperform the nations that had higher test scores by every economic measure. In the years from 1964 to the present, our students never had high scores on the international tests. They don’t predict anything.

Here is the spoof.

Categories Education Reform, International, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

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

Campbell Brown and Michelle Rhee: Another Odd Couple

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2012 //
4

Leonie Haimson is a leading parent activist in New York City and a co-founder of Parents Across America, which keeps tabs on the depredations of the corporate reformers.

Here is Leonie’s take on l’affaire Campbell Brown. One would think that Michelle Rhee and her organization StudentsFirst would be wary of getting too deep in the weeds with the issue of sexual misconduct. Yet they seem to want to exploit it to the full in a fact-free fashion.

The text of Leonie’s commentary follows, in full:

Campbell Brown was the first witness chosen to testify at the Cuomo Commission hearings last week,  all about how the UFT protects sex abusers.  She repeated the same claims in the WSJ a few days later. 

Bloomberg & Students1st NY (which essentially works for him, under the direction of Micah Lasher) are pushing a bill in the legislature, S.7497, that would allow him to fire any teacher accused of abuse, no matter what the arbitrator decided.

 Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Brown’s husband Dan Senor, a senior Romney advisor, is also on the board of Students1st. There is more on this here  and here – including about how Rhee’s own husband, Kevin Johnson has been accused of sexually molesting a minor under his supervision.

Here is the Students1st NY email blast sent out today:

We need your help, right now, to speak out against sexual misconduct in our school — and against sexism in the education debate.

On Monday, Emmy Award-winning journalist Campbell Brown — who previously served as White House Correspondent for NBC and as an anchor for CNN — wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about how New York law, supported by the teacher’s union, keeps sexual predators in the classroom.

Last night, the union responded — by attacking Campbell’s husband (who, among other things, serves on our Board).

National teachers union president Randi Weingarten took to Twitter and started republishing comments about Campbell’s “hubby” and his political views — as if Campbell’s accomplishments and perspective on this issue didn’t count. This morning, many of Ms. Weingarten’s colleagues have pursued the same line of attack.

Will you help us send a message that sexual misconduct has no place in our schools, and that sexism has no place in this debate?

Click here to speak out on Twitter. Tell Ms. Weingarten that she should focus more on protecting kids and less on sexist spin. Please use #protectourkids.

Of course, the union is looking for anything to distract from the issue at hand: that the union fights tooth-and-nail against giving school districts the authority to terminate anyone who engages in sexual misconduct.

Hopefully, if enough people speak out, we can convince the teachers union to put down the poison pen (and keyboard) and join us in trying to do something about this issue.

Click here to make your voice heard. Urge the union to put students first.

Chandra M. Hayslett
Director of Communications
StudentsFirstNY
http://twitter.com/StudentsFirstNY

 

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Parent Groups, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Why Does StudentsFirst Deceive?

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2012 //
10

A reader posts a particularly egregious example of the deceptive tactics used by StudentsFirst to enroll new members. I long ago reported that Change.org had decided not to allow Michelle Rhee’s organization to lure the unsuspecting into signing a petition that seemingly supports teachers, but actually enrolls them as in an effort to eliminate collective bargaining rights, tenure, seniority, and any form of job protection for experienced teachers. That’s what Change.org said, but it never acted on this new policy. It’s still enabling Rhee’s deceptive recruitment..

Diane, you have informed readers of your blog several times that you inadvertently signed a Students First petition because you did not know it was posted by Michelle Rhee’s organization.

In Philadelphia, the school nurses posted a petition to restore 100 positions that have been cut because it means nurses now have 1500 students they serve rather than 750, and most schools only have a nurse two days a week as a result. 

http://www.change.org/petitions/school-reform-commission-school-district-of-phila-restore-the-certified-school-nurse-ratio-to-1-nurse-to-750-students

When you sign the petition, you are taken to another petition which says vote on our petition “Good Teachers Deserve Decent Pay”. (I don’t know if this happens to everyone, it did to me.) In the fine print, it says this is a Students First petition. I’m sure many people click on it not realizing this is a vote in support of privatization.

By their deceptive methods, the deformers show their contempt for democracy. As far as they are concerned deception, lying, and stealing public property are OK as long as it promotes their privatization agenda.

Categories Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Who Is Irreplaceable?

By dianeravitch
July 31, 2012 //
20

A new report was released by The New Teacher Project, asserting that our schools were losing the very best teachers. They are the “irreplaceables.”

The report got the red treatment, with Secretary Duncan there to salute its findings. And it was funded by three billionaire foundations: Gates, Walton, John and Laura Arnold (big supporters of Michelle Rhee).

It seems that schools are losing their “best” teachers (the irreplaceables) and holding on to the ones who should have been fired.

Context helps. After Michelle Rhee left her brief teaching stint for TFA, she became an entrepreneur, as most good graduates of TFA do.

She created The New Teacher Project to find and place new teachers in urban districts where they are needed.

An altogether laudable idea, but in true TFA-style, having a good idea and making it happen is never enough.

It has to be the best idea in the universe. And the people who do it are the best ever. And those who don’t agree are awful people.

TNTP began issuing studies and reports to prove that their brand-new teachers were miles better than those jaded old veterans in the classroom. As time went by, there would be no doubt that the very best of all teachers was the one who had never taught before but came armed with enthusiasm and desire and a readiness to stop at nothing in the pursuit of higher test scores.

This is what Shanker Blog said about this latest report.  In three of the four districts in the report, the data are based on only one year of data. As we have seen in many  studies, one year of data is not reliable. The ratings are unstable. A teacher who somehow gets big score gains from her students in one year will not get them the next year; the teacher who look like a do-nothing this year is “irreplaceable” the next year.

Are there wonderful, outstanding, star teachers? Yes. Are there awful people who shouldn’t be there? Yes.

Is it necessary to turn all of American education upside down to root out the small number who are awful?

This is just one more useless salvo in the ongoing attempt to prove that America’s teachers are responsible for low test scores.

The current obsession with using test scores to find the best and fire the worst is wrong. Start with the fact that the tests weren’t designed for this purpose. Recognize that some excellent teachers don’t see huge gains year after year because they teach the gifted or the slowest or ELLs. Some very bad and uninspiring teachers can get score gains by doing endless drill and rote. And you have a formula that produces no improvement, just demoralization.

Someday these bad ideas will go away. Whenever it is, it won’t be a moment too soon.

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, StudentsFirst, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

When StudentsFirst Came to Alabama

By dianeravitch
July 31, 2012 //
3

Earlier this year, there was a big push to get charter legislation passed in Alabama. It failed. One of the pronents for charter legislation was StudentsFirst, which sent in an organizer from Florida to build support. She said that StudentsFirst has 17,000 members in the state, but when SF called a meeting in Montgomery, only 25 people showed up, some about half were anti-charter. A writer from Alabama sends this account:

So here is the deal with StudentsFirst.  I can become a member by going toChange.org and signing a petition that says nothing about this organization and if I write favorable comments about “pro reform” then someone with StudentsFirst  may even send me a gift card to my favorite restaurant.
And how do I know all of this?  Because a good friend signed a petition at Change.org and soon got an email from StudentsFirst welcoming her as a member.  And because I’ve met the field rep from Florida who is offering the chance at a free meal.
The Alabama Legislature went through a vigorous battle about whether or not to allow charters schools last spring and the lady in question was one of six lobbyists StudentsFirst registered with the Ethics Commission to support this bill.
I well remember the day I went to a brown bag luncheon at a local church to learn more about StudentsFirst.  At least that’s what I thought I was doing, but actually, I was instead encouraged to write letters, visit legislators and do whatever I could to pass the bill.  The free lunch lady referred to above ran the meeting.
She was nice, but hardly a warm person.  Said she lived in Florida where she taught school for eight years.  There were maybe 20-25 folks at the gathering.  She told us StudentsFirst had 17,000 Alabama members.  I wondered why none of them bothered to show up since at least half of the crowd did not seem to favor charters.
I’m on the state advisory board of a pre-K program.  The state director of this organization was also at the meeting and at one point distributed copies of an article detailing info about the Gulen Charter movement.
The lady from Florida did not appreciate this and quickly said this was just a scare tactic and that my friend should not be a bigot.
Well, being Alabama born and raised, I can probably spot a bigot about as well as the next guy.  And the one Ms. StudentsFirst accused of such ain’t one in no form or fashion.  You don’t work with high-poverty families for 20 years in this state if you are.
So I find it quite interesting that the lady who did the accusing that day in the church dining hall is now saying that her character is under attack because someone forwarded one of her emails!!!!
One other thing I remember from that meeting was that the lady told us StudentsFirst was in Alabama because the Governor and the Legislature invited them.  A few days later the Gorvernor’s chief of staff told me that the Governor DID NOT invite them.
I’ve never owned a new car in my life.  Which means I always buy used ones.  But I can gurantee you that if StudentsFirst was in the used car business, I would never been one of their customers.
Oh.  The charter bill failed and the Governor recently said he will not push this legislation next year.
Categories Alabama, Charter Schools, Education Reform, StudentsFirst

Michelle Rhee’s Shameless Ad, Again

By dianeravitch
July 29, 2012 //
19

I recently wrote a post about Michelle Rhee’s “Olympics” ad, in which she shows a flabby man doing rhythmic gymnastics and falling down because he is in such bad shape. This is supposed to be American education, in her view.

I wrote that she was ridiculing obesity and insulting our students, our teachers,  our schools, and presenting a humiliating picture of America to the world.

A reader wrote to say that the ad is also homophobic, and on reviewing, I agree. The man in the ad is engaged in a sport that is for women only in the Olympics. He is portrayed as effete and ineffectual. This is an insulting stereotype of a gay man.

If StudentsFirst has any wisdom, it would withdraw this ad.

Categories Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Character Assassination?

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2012 //
40

Earlier today I posted a letter that appeared on the NYC parent blog, in which Students First was offering a gift to anyone who posted the most comments on blogs.  I made no reference to the person who wrote the letter.

It has been reprinted elsewhere, including the blog of Coach Bob Sikes in Florida. Coach Bob got a response from the letter writer at StudentsFirst. She said she was the target of a well funded campaign of hatred and character assassination, apparently because her letter had been circulated.

I don’t know who assassinated her character. I find her reaction odd because she may be a fine person but the organization she represents spends millions to vilify teachers and unions and to urge legislatures to take away any job protection for academic freedom. It also just released an ad that not so subtly ridicules obesity and gays while presenting a humiliating and inaccurate portrait of American students and teachers to the world.

I wish StudentsFirst would consider the harm they do to hardworking educators.

 
Categories Education Reform, StudentsFirst
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