Joel Klein on TV in Oz

Our Aussie contact Trevor Cobbold sent us the latest on the adventures of Joel in Oz.

Hi everyone,

You might be interested that Joel Klein re-appeared on Australian national television this week after a long absence.

I have attached the transcript. It can be accessed directly at: http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/102#transcript.

Background on the program is at: http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/102

This appearance was in the context of a vigorous debate going on in Australia about the imminent introduction of national reporting of school results and the publication of school performance tables in a couple of newspapers recently.

For more information see: http://soscanberra.com/league-tables

Best wishes

Trevor Cobbold

National Convenor

Save Our Schools

http://soscanberra.com/

Eduwonkette in Australian TV Program on NYC Schools

You and your readers may be interested in this report on NYC schools aired on a public affairs program on a public broadcast TV station in Australia last weekend. The program is called Dateline. The Dateline website is: http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/

The video of the program is available at:
http://video.sbs.com.au/player/news/index.php?mmid=31566&chid=13

As you will see it is disappointingly uncritical, although it does interview Jennifer Jennings (Eduwonkette) who makes a salient point.

Regards
Trevor Cobbold
Save Our Schools

Klein Lied to the National Press Club

Trevor Cobbold of Save Our Schools has been in touch. They have followed up on Klein's recent visit. Leonie Haimson sent out this excerpt of their report. (See below for links to full document.)

Click to enlarge (page 1 only)

Check out the latest report from the Australian organization Save Our Schools. Here is an excerpt from "Klein Lied to the National Press Club":

New York City Schools Chancellor, Joel Klein, was exposed as a dissembler at his National Press Club address in Canberra last week. Under forensic questioning from The Canberra Times’ education reporter, Emma Macdonald, Klein resorted to lies and deceptions to justify his claims of increases in student achievement in New York City schools.

Macdonald challenged Klein on his claims by citing national reading and mathematics assessments which show that there has been no improvement in student achievement in NYC since 2003, except for 4th grade mathematics. She questioned him on whether the grades given to schools in this year’s school progress reports had been manipulated by reducing the cut-off scores to achieve an A or B.

Klein denied both charges. He said that Macdonald was wrong on both facts. His response was to falsely assert that the cut-off scores for school grades had not been reduced, falsely claim that New York State tests were a better measure of student achievement than the independent national assessments, and to selectively cite evidence about the success of African-American students.

Check out the entire document, complete with bibliography.

By the way, it was our own Steve Koss who first figured out the cut-off scores had been manipulated in this way: Don’t Like the Results? Change the Scale!

Full SOS document posted at Save Our Schools web site and Norms Notes.

RELATED:
Paul Moore - "The likes of Klein will perish in the blaze."

Aussie News: "Rubbish" To Klein School Reforms

The Melbourne newspaper, The Age, reports on Joel Klein's visit this week. Australia's Ed Minister Julia Gillard Agrees with Rupert Murdoch, who possibly wants to be the Aussie Bill Gates, who has criticised Australia's schools. The first stage of the corporate takeover of education is to undermine public confidence in the schools. A Nation At Risk started the ball rolling in the US 25 years ago. (UFT/AFT President Al Shanker's signing off on it also started the ball rolling on teacher union complicity in the corporate attack.)

This article punches some big holes in the entire scheme. Here's an excerpt:

The only qualification that Murdoch has to judge our schools is that he owns about 70 per cent of capital city daily newspaper circulation. When billionaire media magnates speak, the rest of us listen.

The same cannot be said for the other American citizen, New York schools chancellor Joel Klein, who Gillard has brought to Australia, "impressed" by his education reforms, especially school league tables, which had produced "remarkable outcomes".

Rubbish. Internet comments on the test results show the improvement in school performance measurement comes from manipulating the tests by prepping students. Klein also makes claims about the results that cannot be supported by any fair analysis. Statisticians [Eduwonkette] who have examined the results say they can be explained by random error.

Klein, a corporate lawyer and political apparatchik, is here to spruik the virtues of Gillard's wacky plan to publish a rating system for schools. Critics point out that the system, based on experience in Britain and the US, "names and shames" poorly performing schools whose output is predictable based on socio-economic background and lack of funding.

The scheme's great political virtue is that it allows governments without any real commitment to raising the standard of poorer schools to appear to be doing something.

The entire piece.

A NY Times City Room blog piece on Klein's visit is here.

Graphic by David

Joel Klein's School Trip to Australia

Save Our Schools media release welcoming Joel Klein to Australia.

It is also posted on the SOS website http://www.soscanberra.com/

Leonie, Patrick and crew have issued

A warning at the NYC Public School Parents blog to Australians:

Don't let your kids suffer, as have ours!

And if you'd like to read some of the propaganda Joel is putting out for Aussies to read check this at Norms Notes.

Click to enlarge.

Message From Oz, Ready to Welcome Joel

Norm,
Thank you for the nice run you gave SOS today. I hope we can deliver some uncomfortable moments for Joel. We have done a lot of work briefing several journalists who will attend his address to the National Press Club here in Canberra next Tuesday.

The right wing the Centre for Independent Studies (which is funded by major Australian and international corporations) published a report here yesterday supporting school reporting and league tables (see http://www.cis.org.au/). It is an appallingly slipshod report.

It is interesting how much publicity a large well-funded organisation like this can get for basically shoddy work while a substantive report like the SOS study of NYC results goes unreported. Yesterday, the Sydney Morning Herald gave the CIS report's author, Jennifer Buckingham, space for an opinion piece. Yet, SOS has been unsuccessful in its request to have an opinion piece published on NYC.

However, I did get a little run in the Melbourne Age yesterday in response to the CIS report
(http://www.theage.com.au/national/report-cards-would-improve-failing-schools-20081119-6blv.html ) and also in today's Canberra Times, but the article is not online.

cheers
trevor

Klein Took a Beating at the PEP, Heads Off to Australia to Heal

Have one on me, Joel

I reported on Monday's Panel for Educational Policy meeting the other day.

Read Patrick Sullivan's accounts on the budget cuts (Tweedies put them into buckets) and
Klein Stiffs Special Ed Parents on the NYC Public School Parent blog. Patick did his usual great job as the Manhattan PEP rep raising questions. Why is he the only borough rep, all of whom have to be parents, to do this while the other 4 sit there like statues? (Contact your borough President and ask that question.)

I was sitting a few feet away from Joel Klein while one person after another used their 2 minutes to hammer him. Special ed parents were so angry (and poignent) after Klein cancelled the special ed agenda item so Jim (Drone) Liebman could deliver his ARIS presentation. (Remind me if I am ever on death row not to hire Liebman.) Klein also had angry ATRs and rubber room people to deal with. And had to answer questions from people connected to Jeremy Garrett's rubber room movie, at one point saying something like, "Ok already, I know you're making a movie."

Well, did sit there an take it and was looking pretty pale. I had an interesting interchange with Klein which was illuminating (to me) but will report on that another time.

I told him to enjoy his trip to Canberra, Australia next week where the government seems to think Klein and Bloomberg have done a great job and are considering a similar system of school grade accountability. (I always ask this, but doesn't Klein have a massive school system to run instead of racing to every single opportunity to propagandize?)

One of our internet buddies, Trevor Cobbold and "Save Our Schools" are awaiting Klein with a 12-page report called New York is Not Working. Email me if for a copy or sign up at the SOS site.
Some of the headings are:

No improvement in average student achievement No reduction in achievement gaps Misleading and inaccurate data

An SOS press release states:

The Federal Education Minister is bringing Klein to Australia this month to tout education reforms which she wants in Australia, such as reporting individual school results, but which are clearly not working.

National tests in reading and mathematics show that student achievement in New York City schools has mostly stagnated under the reign of the City’s Schools Chancellor, Joel Klein. The less reliable state tests show a mixture of small increases and declines, a pattern which is similar to the four years preceding Klein.

Average scores have not improved and the large achievement gaps between different groups of students have not reduced.

Average scores in reading and mathematics in Grades 4 and 8 in New York City have mostly stagnated since 2003, with virtually no improvements for Black, Hispanic and low income students.

There has been little or no change in the difference in average scores between Black and White students, Hispanic and White students and low income and other students in New York City since 2003. The achievement gaps remain as large as they were when Klein took charge.

Mr Cobbold said that the Federal Education Minister and her advisors have been much too uncritical of Klein’s claims of success.

The SOS research reveals that the NYC Schools Chancellor resorts to several artifices to claim success for his reforms.

For example, he often uses the 2002 results as the comparison benchmark instead of 2003. The 2003 tests were conducted 6 months prior to the implementation of his reforms, so this is the appropriate comparison point. Using 2002 exaggerates the impact of the reforms because there were significant increases in student achievement from 2002 to 2003, but this was well before Klein’s changes were made.

He refuses to report the margins of statistical error on test results, which is vital information for interpreting changes in test results. He generally uses the less reliable state test data instead of the independent national results.

The main SOS site is here: http://www.soscanberra.com/

Some in Australia Prepare "Big Welcome" for Joel Klein Visit

To be forewarned is to be forearmed! - Leonie Haimson

And forewarned and forearmed our Aussie friends will be. It looks like the blogging efforts of the NYC Public School Parents blog, Eduwonkette, Ed Notes, NYC Educator, A Voice in the Wilderness, Under Assault, Diane Ravitch and all the other watchdogs of the Joel Klein theory of shock doctrine management of schools have had their words reach into the Land of Oz. One of our correspondents in Canberra, Trevor Cobbald of "Save Our Schools," has been helping prepare the way in giving Klein the reception he deserves when he visits in November.

According to the Australian paper the Age, the Australian teachers union and education advocates are not buying the unreliable NYC school grading system that Joel Klein is pitching to them down under. Don't expect the union to lie down and roll over like the UFT.

The federal president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the Australian Government should not be importing "flawed" approaches from the US, a nation that was consistently outperformed by countries such as Finland which did not publicly rank schools.

Canberra-based public education advocacy group Save Our Schools last week called on Ms Gillard to release the details of her performance reporting plan to ensure it did not reproduce the problems of the New York system, which it said had led to league tables and dissimilar schools being compared with each other.

"Let us have an informed debate while Klein is here and not just a one-sided presentation to bolster Gillard's secret negotiations with state and territory governments," SOS spokesman Trevor Cobbold said. "It seems it is all being decided behind closed doors with the axe of Commonwealth funding held over the heads of state and territory governments to ensure compliance."

Doesn't Klein have a school system to run? I guess it's not that hard a thing to do as he and Michelle Rhee seem to have a hell of a lot of time for politics. But that is what this ed reform thing is all about, mate! Well, guys, throw another shrimp on the barbie for Joel so he doesn't go home hungry.

Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/a-new-york-state-of-mind-20081012-4yyk.html?page=-1

Joe Klein to visit Oz

Trevor Cobbold from down under sends us another example of how the Bloomberg/Klein/Rhee, etc. gang race all over the world to try to impose their failing vision of ed reform. It's not educational, mate, it's an ideological crusade.

Will Klein wash up to the Aussie shore like a Bondi cigar?

Norm,

You will be interested to know that Joe Klein has been invited by the Aust. Govt Education Minister, Julia Gillard, to visit Autsralia in November.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/05/2382401.htm

Her idea is to use Klein to convince our State Govts. to sign up to a her proposed school reporting system to be based on the New York model.

This is going to provide a good opportunity for teacher unions and parent organisations to focus on the failings of the NY reporting system. I would appreciate it if you can forward any useful material or sources you or your colleagues have on the problems of the New York system.

I will keep you informed of developments on the visit.

Trevor Cobbold
Save Our Schools

OK, gang. Let's help Trevor out. No diatribes. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Forget the "look what they did to the teachers" stories because the public not only doesn't care, but thinks teachers deserve it. Leave those fights for inside the sell-out UFT.

The fudging of test scores, the phony grad rates and the use of "seat time" to hand kids diplomas, the forced migration of kids from one closed school to the next, the high class sizes, the enormous sums spent outside the classroom, etc, etc, etc.

BloomKlein Model in the Land of Oz

I received an email from Trevor Cobbold, a parent activist, who is based in Canberra, Australia's capital and is involved with Save Our Schools Canberra.

He wrote an article for the Canberra Times addressing the situation in New York in terms of school reporting:

Ideology win in school reporting

The Rudd Government's ''education revolution'' is looking more and more like an extension of the Howard government's school policies. All the same elements are there choice and competition, reliance on markets, and now public reporting of school results.

The model for the new school reporting scheme comes direct from New York. Julia Gillard has been enthusing about the New York system ever since her audience with the New York schools chancellor, Joe Klein. She says she is ''inspired'' and ''impressed'' by Klein's model.

If Gillard had looked more closely, she would have seen major flaws.

The New York system produces unreliable and misleading comparisons of school performance and student progress. It is incoherent, can be used to produce league table,fails to compare like with like and is statistically flawed.

He goes on to cite Diane Ravitch and Jennifer Jennings (Eduwonkette) and concludes with:

Australia and Finland are two of the highest-achieving countries in the world in school outcomes according to the PISA surveys conducted by the OECD. Neither country got there by reporting school results.

Why the Rudd Government is choosing to emulate the reporting policies of much lower-performing countries such as the United States and United Kingdom can be explained only as a triumph of ideology over evidence.

Read the entire piece here.

Trevor also sent this blog site for reference.

http://www.futuredforum.blogspot.com/

I have disagreements on an article he wrote on class size at Save Our Schools where he talks about cost effectiveness and teacher quality as excuses not to jump into class size reduction across the board. While praising the STAR project, he also cites research on teacher quality, which no one seems to be able to define:

There is evidence that improving teacher quality contributes more to increasing student outcomes than class size reductions. Recent studies by Doug Harris and David Plank at Michigan State University and by Dylan Wiliam, Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, show larger improvements from increasing teacher ability and skills than by class size reductions.

Too many researchers have agendas based on where their funding is coming from and the TQ people have a lot more money than advocates for class size. I find it interesting that the "quality" issue is not raised when it comes to putting more police on the street to reduce crime or firemen on the job to cut down fires or doctors in emergency rooms.

I have to ask him what he thinks about all those Aussies Klein hired (at up to $1000 a day) to run around schools in NYC as consultants.


Personal Aussie Note
We visited Canberra in the early 90's to attend the Scherr scion's Bar Mitzvah. We had to smuggle in the yarmulkes - apparently it's tough to get them engraved in Canberra but I did manage to get them through customs despite the yarmulke sniffing dogs. The Scherrs, now living in Perth/Freemantle, stayed with us for 3 weeks last summer (and we're still talking.) Their son Sam is now 30 and a founding member of Capital City, a rock band in Australia. Dan Scherr, a native of the TenEyk housing project in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, keeps me informed of ed events in Western Australia.