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A Brave Superintendent in Long Island

By dianeravitch
September 5, 2013 //
10

Steven Cohen is superintendent of the Shoreham-Wading River
Central School district on Long Island in Néw York. At a time when
others quietly acquiesce, Superintendent Cohen spoke out in
“Newsday.”

He wrote that the schools are being swamped by a
tsunami of untested “reforms,” at the same time that their budgets
are restricted by Governor Cuomo’s 2% tax cap, which voters may
override only by winning 60% of the local vote. Costs don’t stop
rising, so many district will be forced to cut teachers and
essential services to students. He bravely calls out the state
Regents for forcing a “reform agenda” on public schools that may
yet hurt children.

For his courage, insight, and willingness to
speak against an unjust status quo, Steven Cohen is a hero of
public education.

“By Steven Cohen Shoreham-Wading River Central
School District

“Shoreham-Wading River’s greatest challenges in the
2013-14 school year are the same as those of sister districts
throughout Long Island and the rest of NYS. Will we find ways to
preserve, and where possible improve, valued educational programs
without having sufficient resources to cover increasing costs? Will
NYSED’s demands to implement untested — and very controversial —
changes in curriculum standards and assessment, called for in the
Regents Reform Agenda, help or hurt children?

“We do not control increasing pension costs. We have little control over increases in
the cost of medical benefits. We have little control over costs
associated with state mandates. We are bound by the new tax levy
limit. What we do control is the size of our teaching and support
staffs. So if we do not get help to meet increases in pension
costs, health costs and mandate costs, either we must ask our
communities to provide greater resources by a supermajority vote
(while the economy continues to sputter), or we must increase class
size, eliminate valuable programs, or do both. And while we
confront these difficult fiscal problems, we are required to train
new teachers and retrain veteran teachers to instruct students
according to new, untested, curriculum standards, and assess both
students and teachers by methods whose reliability is highly
uncertain.

“Our public schools are being told to do things that no
private schools are forced to do. Private schools have not embraced
the so-called benefits of the Regents Reform Agenda (why not?). An
entire generation of children is being put at risk of receiving a
defective — and perhaps damaging — education should these
untested “reforms” prove to be what many of us fear: false gods.
Will the Regents, many of whom send their own children to private
schools that are not hobbled by insufficient resources, or subject
to their own “reforms,” insist that all children — whether they
learn in public, private or parochial schools — be forced to
benefit from their recommended improvements? “These are the
challenges we face in 2013-14.”

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Budget Cuts, Honor Roll, New York, Students, Teachers

Incredibly Good News: The Public Does Not Support High-Stakes Testing

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2013 //
30

The new PDK/Gallup Poll had some amazingly good news for those parents and educators who have been fighting the movement to test, standardize, and quantify every last child, as well as to destroy public confidence in public education.

What this poll shows is that the public is not buying what the U.S. Department of Education and the corporate reform movement are selling.

They like their teachers and their schools. They don’t believe that standardized testing has helped their school. They don’t want test scores used to evaluate their teachers.

The message: Corporate reform lacks a popular base.

Here are some key findings:

*Only 22% of Americans “believe increased testing has helped the performance of local public schools.”

*A majority (58%) “reject using student scores from standardized tests to evaluate teachers.” This is a reversal from last year, when 52% approved of this obnoxious idea. The more people see that it mislabels teachers and disrupts schools, the less they like the idea.

*A majority (63%) oppose publishing teacher ratings in the media. This is a reversal from last year, when 51% favored this humiliating idea.

*A decisive majority (72%) “have trust and confidence” in teachers in the public schools. When the question is asked of people under 40, who are likeliest to have school-age children, the proportion grows to 78%.

*A bare majority (52%) supported the right of public school teachers to go on strike.

*A huge proportion (88%) of public school parents say their child is safe at school. Their greatest concern is not intruders but other students.

*A majority (68%) support charter schools.

*A large majority (70%) oppose vouchers for private schools. This is a very large increase from 2012, when only 55% opposed vouchers.

*Almost two-thirds of the public have never heard of the Common Core standards.

*Of those who have heard of the Common Core standards, most say they will either make the U.S. less competitive or make no difference.

*More than  90% of Americans “believe activities such as band, drama, sports, and newspaper are very or somewhat important,” with 63% saying “very important.”

 

Bottom line: The American people like their public schools, respect their teachers, do not like standardized testing, and do not want teachers evaluated by test scores.

They want their children to have a well-rounded education.

All common sense.

 

Categories Accountability, Opinion Polling, Parents, Students, Teachers, Testing, U.S. education, Vouchers

Letters to NY Times: When Failure Is the Norm

By dianeravitch
August 9, 2013 //
21

Read these letters written in response to the New York Times’ terrible editorial favoring the test score debacle and the collapse of scores across the state.

But why listen to educators and parents? What do they know as compared to an editorial writer who sits in an air-conditioned office and ponders every day?

Categories Common Core, Parents, Teachers, Testing

How “Reformers” Are Lowering Standards for Educators

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2013 //
77

A reader sent the following commentary on reformers’ efforts to lower standards for educators and to welcome people without professional preparation and credentials to teach in and administer the nation’s public schools and charter schools. His response was prompted by a post about teachers in Arizona with online degrees. He writes:

“Arizona teacher: “I have seen staffs comprised of high school graduate teachers who bought their degrees online and took not one college level course.”

To the Arizona teacher… destroying the profession of teaching and filling it with unqualified faux teachers is not a bug in the privatizers’ “reform” model, it is a feature.

I just found this from the Connecticut Policy Institute—a “think tank” and “a non-partisan research institute on Connecticut economic policy and education reform” that fronts for for-profit business interests that are trying to profit from the privatization of education. To do this, they put out bogus “studies” and “policy papers” in support of these business interests’ practices and approaches to privatized education:

http://www.ctmirror.org/op-ed/2013/06/30/vallas-certification-debacle-reveals-shortcomings-education-reform-efforts

In this op-ed, Ben Zimmer defends Vallas’ lack of credentialing, but goes one further.

Not only should there be no credential requirement for Superintendents, THERE SHOULD BE NO CREDENTIALING OR EDUCATION REQUIREMENT OF TEACHERS (???!!!) as well as ADMINISTRATORS.

————————————————————–
Ben Zimmer: “With a few exceptions, Connecticut law requires teachers to have a degree in education, meaning many talented people who didn’t decide to become teachers until after completing their educations have difficulty doing so.

“This serves the economic interests of existing teachers and administrators by limiting competition for their jobs, but does not advance the goal of obtaining the highest quality teaching and administration possible.”
————————————————————

Don’t you get it? If the government entity in charge of education requires thing like ohhh… bachelor’s degrees, or even 2-year community college associate degrees… or even one single college course… well, you’re just “serving the economic interest of existing teachers and administrators by limiting competition for their jobs.”

Those teachers who’ve actually achieved these “worthless degrees” will bring along with them accompanying demands for a decent salary, health benefits, retirement, etc…. AND WHO NEEDS THAT when you’re trying to make a profit… err… excuse me… make “transformational change” in education?

Oh, you don’t believe this? Well, Connecticut Policy Institute’s “studies and papers” have “proven” all of this to be true… that you need nothing more than a high school diploma to teach in K-12 schools.

Zimmer goes on:

————————————————————
Ben Zimmer: “As the Connecticut Policy Institute has discussed in our papers on education reform, there is no evidence linking certification regimes to teachers’ or administrators’ effectiveness in increasing student achievement. They simply serve to limit the recruitment pipeline of outstanding educators and keep the antiquated education administration departments of the state university system in business.”
————————————————————–

An organization fronting for business interests that want to profit from the privatization of education—some of them charter school chain CEO”s making $500,000/year or more (Geoffrey Canada)—has its spokesman attacking education departments—some of them Ivy League universities… most of them having turning out quality teachers for 100-150 years or more—as only being “in business” to advance the selfish financial interests of their administrators and professors that work in them. They are deliberately blocking “outstanding educators” from entering the field because they are out for themselves, and not the students’.

Wow! I”m so glad someone’s finally blowing the lid off this!

But then look at this assclown Zimmer’s bio at Connecticut Policy Institute:

http://ctpolicyinstitute.org/about/bio/ben-zimmer/leadership

He proudly touts his own education credentials:

———————————————————————-
“Ben received a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he specialized in business law and economic policy, and a B.A., magna cum laude with highest honors in history, from Harvard College.”
———————————————————————-

But Ben, I thought those high-falutin’ things like degrees didn’t matter. Aren’t those “J.D.’s” and “B.A.s” and “magna cum laude’s” just worthless pieces of paper spit out by “antiquated” entities that are only trying to keep themselves “in business” to pay the undeserved salaries of the folks who work in them?

No, no, no… you see in Ben’s world, rigid requirements like… oh… years of post-secondary education, or even passing a certification test…. those things only matter in OTHER careers or professions. They don’t matter in the realm of K-12 education… as his noble “kids first” organization, Connecticut Policy Institute, has produced studies and papers” have “proven” that.

No, according to Ben, teaching is like working the fry machine at McDonald’s… just let anyone in the door—education and credentials be damned—to have at it and compete for the job, then just keep the ones who do it best. And THAT is how you end up with a staff of what Ben describes as a nation of “outstanding educators.”

Got that?

You see the way to get better teachers in front of kids is just simple… so simple that those antiquated ed departments full of money-motivated hacks have been missing it for over 150 years.

The way to fill our country’s schools with “outstanding educators” is to lower or even eliminate the standards and requirements for becoming one.

That’s it!!!! Why hasn’t anyone thought of that until now?

What’s that, you say? The highest achieving nations like Finland and South Korea don’t operate that way? In those countries, becoming a teacher is as difficult and demanding as becoming a doctor?

Well, that would never work here in the United States.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Alternate Route To Certification, Corporate Reformers, Teachers

Arthur Goldstein: Is Gotham Schools Psychic?

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2013 //
11

Arthur Goldstein, one of Néw York City’s best bloggers, is angry at the online publication “Gotham Schools.”

Goldstein says GS has been too quick to publish the Deep Thinking of Campbell Brown, the former CNN newsreader. Brown believes the teaching corps of NYC is teeming with sexual predators, and she has launched a campaign to find and fire these hidden offenders. She is pushing for new legislation, but her goal is not the legislation but the negative publicity about teachers.

Brown’s husband is on the board of StudentsFirst NY and was an advisor to the Romney campaign.

Interesting that under current law, a teacher would be fired for the same actions engaged in by mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, as Randi pointed out in a tweet quoted in this post.

Categories New York City, Teachers

Stop Bullying Now

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2013 //
28

I just learned from a reader about a new group in Pittsburgh to stop bullying.

It reminded me to share with you my thoughts about a current movie called “Bully.”

I saw it on a cable station as an “on demand” movie. A friend urged me to see it. He was right. It is gripping and heart-breaking.

It tells the story of several children who were bullied, taunted, teased, ridiculed on a daily basis by other students. Some were beaten up and attacked on the school bus. Some committed suicide. Some projected weakness because they “looked different” or were vulnerable in some way. Some were gay. Their parents couldn’t understand why their child had become an outcast, a target for meanness. Their teachers and principals tried but didn’t do nearly enough to protect them. Ultimately, we need not only to protect these children but to have a cultural sea change that makes bullying unacceptable.

Every community should have parent/teacher/community groups to take a stand and defend the right of children to live in peace and to be accepted by their peers and their community.

The reader posted this comment:

“We are starting a parent, teacher organization to prevent bullying of all types ( principal on teacher, student on teacher, parent on teacher teacher/principal on parent and kids. We want to take a community based public health approach to school based violence in Pittsburgh Public Schools. If people are interested in joining they can contact us at parentsagainstbullyinginpgh@gmail.com”

Categories Parents, Students, Teachers

David Kirp: Frequent Turnover of Superintendents Is a Bad Idea

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2013 //
4

David Kirp writes that the frequent firing and turnover of coaches in the National Basketball Association is destabilizing, and the same is true in the superintendency of school districts. Of course, bad superintendents should be removed, but when the superintendent is doing a good job, they should have time to get something accomplished. The bottom line is that school districts need stability, not churn or upheaval. The same is true for schools, where stability promotes a strong culture and good working relationships. Just as coaches need time, so do principals and teachers.

Kirp is the author of “Improbable Scholars” and is a professor of public policy at Berkeley.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Principals, Teachers

Warning to New Teachers in Houston: You Are Disposable

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
24

Want to know how well “reform” is working in Houston? Read this. I wish Superintendent Terry Grier would read it too. I would love to get a comment from him in response to this letter.

This letter is about a teacher awakening to the grim political reality of what is deceptively called “education reform.” Her letter should go viral.

She writes:

“This is the sick process education reform has created in big city districts. They just churn through teachers, especially new ones, as fast as they can with no regard to the person’s life, skill set, or qualifications. The harm they do to the students by destabilizing their neighborhood schools cannot be measured. They don’t care if you are a blazing success in the classroom; your teaching certificate is basically meaningless to the administration.

She goes on to add:

” In the student’s mind, a standard classroom teacher is a disposable throwaway. They see no reason to follow the rules, do their homework, or take the exams seriously. They know the teacher will probably get fired, possibly in the middle of the year. They have no respect for their teacher, and no reason to believe their teacher has any ability to discipline or instruct.

“This is the message inner city students have been receiving for over a decade. This is the message reformers convey to the students, the parents, and the taxpayer.

“At new teacher orientation you are led to believe something much different; at the job fair, and in the media, you are told that working for HISD is wonderful, with a fair evaluation system, great pay, and fabulous bonuses.

“Working at HISD is the biggest mistake I have ever made.

“I was warned about education reform. I was told not to do this, and I didn’t listen.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know what “education reform” meant…I thought it was a bunch of talented people swapping ideas about how to best educate the children of poverty. I thought it would be fun, challenging, and engaging. In my ridiculous mind, I could see a group of teachers sharing ideas, lesson plans, and stories. I really believed I was going to learn something positive about public school. I didn’t know it was a scam engineered to deprofessionalize the teaching business, and hand the jobs off to cash strapped ivy leaguers that couldn’t find positions in their fields of study.

“Now I know that people like Michelle Rhee made millions off the backs of the teachers she fired. I know that most of these people have cheated, including some in my own Apollo program. The Atlanta Journal Constitution even did a nationwide study, and can prove mathematically that these districts have failed to educate these students in spite of their “so-called” reforms. This wrong-to-right erasure math is indisputable…

“As for me, I don’t need a study; I can tell everyone about the chaos, the achievement gap, the poverty, the filth, the lies, and the smokescreen.

“It is funny that Arne Duncan (Obama’s Secretary of Education #erasetothetop) came out here and toured Lee HS with my SIO, and he listened to a few talented students, and the police cracked down on the school before his arrival, and they managed to sign up all of the students to some kind of college (mostly 2 year institutions) and convince Arnie that it is a “turnaround success.” But you only have to look at him closely to see he is a Walmart kind of guy. And now we have the privatization of the public trust…we have the Walton Foundation, The Broad Foundation, The Gates Foundation, and countless other vultures, and venture capitalists, including Pearson (the great testing empire), all throwing money to this “teacher witch hunt” fully engaged in the age-old philosophy of “you gotta spend a buck to make a buck.” So, they are making the bucks off of me and my students, and I am helpless to stop them.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Teachers, Texas

Secret Poll Urges Pa. Governor to Attack Philly Union to Improve His Image

By dianeravitch
June 19, 2013 //
14

A secret poll conducted on behalf of the Pennsylvania Republican Party found that Governor Tom Corbett is highly unpopular and likely to lose to his Democratic challenger.

Corbett’s biggest vulnerability is on education issues, which voters of both parties consider important. The poll recommends that the governor can improve his image on education issues by attacking the teachers’ unions.

Sixty-three percent of voters across the state disapprove of Corbett’s handling of education issues.

Most voters recognize that the problems of Philadelphia’s schools cannot be solved by Philadelphia alone.

91% believe that the Philadelphia public schools face an extremely serious funding problem.

62% of voters say that the state should provide greater funding to Philadelphia, as compared to 24% who say the district should declare bankruptcy, or 7% who say it should sell bonds.

The pollsters say that the governor should insist on such reforms as 1) allowing public schools to assign and transfer employees based on performance, not seniority; 2) allowing principals more say in hiring teachers for their schools; 3) no more automatic pay raises for years of service or degrees or certification. These are very popular with voters, who also believe that new funding should be tied to adopting these changes. Teacher union supporters agree with the first two, but not the third.

Most voters believe (despite the absence of any evidence) that these three reforms will improve education in the Philadelphia public schools while getting costs under control.

Some voters told the pollsters that these reforms would help “get bad teachers out of the classroom.”

Perhaps influenced by Rhee-style propaganda in recent years, voters think that the intense concentration of poverty and segregation in Philadelphia’s schools, as well as years of harsh budget cuts, can be cured by eliminating seniority and curbing the influence of the teachers’ union.

The pollsters conclude that Corbett can substantially improve his image as an “education reformer” and as someone who leads the battle for “change” by fighting the union.

The pollsters say that education is the wedge issue that Corbett can use to reverse his sagging approval ratings.

Categories Budget Cuts, Philadelphia, Teacher Tenure, Teachers, Unions

How Parents set the Record Straight for This Teacher

By dianeravitch
June 9, 2013 //
32

You may recall a few weeks ago a post about a teacher who was falsely accused of putting a state math question on Twitter. His principal suspended him. Eventually he was cleared of wrongdoing but there was a cloud over his head and a bitter taste in his mouth about the episode.

Then the parents in his school did something wonderful. Please read about it here.

Not only is it heartwarming but it reminds you that all the badmouthing of teachers is orchestrated by pundits and people with an agenda. The public, especially parents, know how hard teachers work, and they love their children’s teachers.

As Rlratto says, parents will save us from the mess we are in:

“Parents are organizing to opt their children out of high stakes testing. Parents are challenging the motive and research behind the Common Core Curriculum. Parents are challenging those who want to create a data base of their children’s information. Parent’s all across the nation are saying stop scapegoating our teachers, stop closing our schools, stop destroying our nations most important asset. Parents will be setting this all straight.”

Categories Parents, Teachers
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