Ravitch Reviews Waiting for Superman: The Myth of Charter Schools at NY Review of Books

Excerpt:

Most Americans graduated from public schools, and most went from school to college or the workplace without thinking that their school had limited their life chances. There was a time—which now seems distant—when most people assumed that students’ performance in school was largely determined by their own efforts and by the circumstances and support of their family, not by their teachers. There were good teachers and mediocre teachers, even bad teachers, but in the end, most public schools offered ample opportunity for education to those willing to pursue it. The annual Gallup poll about education shows that Americans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the quality of the nation’s schools, but 77 percent of public school parents award their own child’s public school a grade of A or B, the highest level of approval since the question was first asked in 1985.

Waiting for “Superman” and the other films appeal to a broad apprehension that the nation is falling behind in global competition. If the economy is a shambles, if poverty persists for significant segments of the population, if American kids are not as serious about their studies as their peers in other nations, the schools must be to blame. At last we have the culprit on which we can pin our anger, our palpable sense that something is very wrong with our society, that we are on the wrong track, and that America is losing the race for global dominance. It is not globalization or deindustrialization or poverty or our coarse popular culture or predatory financial practices that bear responsibility: it’s the public schools, their teachers, and their unions. 

 MUST READ FULL REVIEW

Diane Defends Detroit - Advice From Ravitch and Nancy Flanagan: Never Stop

Nancy Flanagan writes: 

I asked Ravitch how teachers can organize to preach our own experienced truth, if our unions have been rendered toothless and the media juggernaut has overwhelmed reason and research.

Oh--never stop, she said. Teachers need to build their own networks of social capital. Form and join groups. Read good books to arm yourself with information. (She recommended Richard Rothstein, Daniel Koretz and Linda Darling-Hammond.) [see http://www.amazon.com/Grading-Education-Getting-Accountability-Right/dp/0807749397/ref=pd_sim_b_2 ] Know that the struggle will last for a long time. Refer to other high-achieving nations as models--countries that have systemically designed their public schools and their teaching profession as long-term investments in civic excellence. It can be done. So don't give up.
 -----
[Flanagan closes with] In education policy, we are witnessing a power grab of epic proportion; the very folks we hoped would lead us toward equity and opportunity have decided that it's easier to rely on the market. Oh well. Never give up. Never give up.

So, yes. Follow Diane's and Nancy's advice. Don't give up. Blog. Join groups. We have choices here in NYC. Last night's GEM meeting was packed with a bunch of new teachers, mostly young, who we met through our action at the Superman opening. Will they stay? Let's hope so. Join them. GEM's next meeting is Oct. 26 and will focus on closing schools. 

And look for our new video of the rally coming out today on ed notes, gem and the inconvenient truth behind... blogs.

I posted Nancy's full piece at Norms Notes. Here is the original link:

From Teacher Magazine - Education Week's Blog, Teacher in a Strange Land, Saturday, September 25, 2010. See http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2010/09/diane_does_detroit.html

DEFEND DIANE RAVITCH FROM JOEL KLEIN'S MINIONS!!

New Tweed hack supremo Natalie Ravitz goes after Ravitch - could be a song. Where's our pal David Cantor when you need him? Here Steve Koss issues an appeal on Leonie's listserve.



This call to everyone on the listserv who supports REAL educational reform (not the Bloomberg/Klein kind).

Yesterday, Klein's new Director of Communications (P.R. hack), Natalie Ravitz, posted her first "column" on the Huffington Post website. Why she merits this forum and why HuffPost gave it to her is beyond my understanding, but she nevertheless chose for her debut performance a scurrilous attack on Diane Ravitch's recent writings concerning the new NYS exam standards and cut scores and the sham those changes have made of Bloomberg/Klein's claims of staggering educational improvement under their watch. Ms. Ravitz conducted her attack in a manner eerily similar to Andrew Breitbart's recent "outing" of USDA's Shirley Sharrod, by taking a three-year old article of Diane's and quoting it completely out of context. She also made numerous remarks suggesting that Ms. Ravitch regards NYC public school children as "slackers," that she disparages any progress students might make, that she revels in students' failures, that she is inconsistent in her assessment of the NAEPs, and that "everything they [NYC public school students] have accomplished thus far is meaningless."

Her best and most ironic line: "It is easy to hurl insults from the sidelines." Yes, Ms. Ravitz, you certainly proved that in your first major effort on Joel Klein's behalf. Hurling insults and using Breitbart tactics to suggest that a woman who has devoted her entire career to public school education actually enjoys seeing children fail -- coming from someone who is likely clueless about public education and is certainly clueless about it in NYC.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. IF YOU CAN SPARE A MINUTE, GO TO THE HUFFINGTON POST WEBSITE, READ MS. RAVITZ'S RANT, AND POST A COMMENT. THERE ARE ALREADY 16 COMMENTS AS OF THIS MORNING, 100% OF THEM IN SUPPORT OF DIANE. LET'S MAKE IT 100 OR MORE!!

HERE'S THE LINK ADDRESS:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-ravitz/

IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, JUST GO TO www.huffingtonpost.com and do a search on Kravitz. FROM THERE YOU CAN CLICK ON HER ONE AND ONLY "COLUMN."

I tried submitting a comment questioning HuffPost itself -- why did they give Ms. Ravitz, clearly a rookie in her position, such an undeserved platform, and aren't they ashamed to have one of their "columnists" debuting" with a dishonest personal attack on someone with far, far, far greater credentials and reputation than she (who appears to have ZERO background in education). The moderator wouldn't post it.

Steve Koss

Lois Weiner: What's right - and wrong - in Diane Ravitch's new take on school reform

I could subtitle this piece, "It's neo-liberalism, stupid." We have long noted how the UFT/AFT disguises the ed deform attack on public education as being personality driven or due to local events. Rhee is bad. Klein is incompetent. Detroit has nothing to do with Washington DC or NYC. Sure, Michelle Rhee was not sent into DC as an advanced guard to set an example that could be used nationwide. For the 91 percenters who think Mulgrew is different, watch the UFT/AFT delegates performance at the convention in Seattle this July. GEM will have people there to take notes. At least Ravitch takes us on a national tour and creates links for us to follow. That takes us part of the way towards forging a national resistance.

Lois Weiner, who we hope to have as a guest speaker at an upcoming GEM meeting (she's out in Chicago now speaking to CORE), puts the Diane Ravitch book in perspective in the New Politics journal. You can see a video of a recent event where Weiner and Ravitch appeared at this link: http://www.blip.tv/file/3425447/

Susan Ohanian, who has been writing about this stuff for over well over a decade, commented: I agree with Lois Weiner that we should applaud much of Diane Ravitch's critique of school reform in Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice ARe Undermining Education. I think her book is on target with many valuable insights in the New York City and San Diego chapters and mostly on target about the Billionaire's Club. But I also agree with Lois that what is missing is a critique of liberalism and an exposure of the savagery of capitalism.

by Lois Weiner

Five friends, none of them teachers, have called to tell me they heard about Diane Ravitch's new book and her change of heart about the school reforms she advocated for a decade. "Lo! She's saying what you've been telling us!"

The publicity for Ravitch's book has certainly put her incisive critique of the reforms (privatizing education; using standardized tests to measure everything; looking to "choice" and charter schools drive improvement) in the news.

But it is revealing that Ravitch's book uses none of the scholarship that radical critics of NCLB published about the reforms she supported. Instead, she goes back and reinvents the wheel. (Susan Ohanian has traced the foundations that contributed $125,000 to the writing of the book.)

I noted in panel at New York University in which Ravitch, Edward Fergus, and I appeared, Ravitch should be commended for her courage in criticizing the extremely powerful think tanks and figures (the "Billionaire Boys Club") with whom she previously hobnobbed. Her drive to set the record straight on how the reforms are destroying public education should be welcomed.

Still, it's important to note what she gets wrong and why. In the book she explains being "caught up" in the widespread "enthusiasm" for market reforms. She will not, however, name this as the neoliberal project. By the political yardstick she uses in the book, the American Enterprise Institute is a "well-respected conservative think tank." Someone whose first job in New York was at The New Leader [pdf file], where she learned all about left sectarian politics and met Max Shachtman, (as she noted in our exchange before the panel), knows enough to name capitalism's latest iteration.

Ravitch won't name neoliberalism as the problem because it would force her to confront facts she'd rather ignore. Like the fact that 70% of the new jobs being created only require a minimal education. Or the fact that her idea of a great education is the Houston schools of her youth, a school system that was racially segregated.

Ravitch's very unpersuasive agenda to beat back the neoliberal assault is a return to the post WW2 welfare state, pre-Brown versus education and those messy social movements that created the culture wars. She wants a kinder, gentler neoconservative restoration, one shorn of neoliberalism's savagery. Her solutions include having parents (meaning minority parents) teach their kids how to behave right and read to them at home.

As I said in the panel, this solution won't do. I share Ravitch's critique but to halt this juggernaut we have to see the international dimension of the project and its roots in capitalism's appetite for greater profits from a workforce that competes in a race to the bottom.

Neoliberalism's project to privatize education and destroy the teacher unions (though perhaps they'll be permitted to exist in name only, in the West) can't be defeated with Ravitch's solutions. Diane will have to come on board with her radical critics if she's serious about reversing the destruction she describes so well in her book.

— Lois Weiner
New Politics
2010-04-11
http://newpol.org/node/292

We Are In Deep Doo Doo
Lois Weiner
Borderland transcription of NYU speech
2010-04-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=3955

Borderland has provided a transcription of Lois Weiner's trenchant
observations at the NYU  Radical Film and Lecture Series.

Hearing Teacher Voices? NOT!

At the Manhattan Institute luncheon for Diane Ravitch last week, I was raising my hand (in vain) as policy wonks and others were called on. It took Diane's intervention - let Norm Scott, a real teacher, ask a question - to for me to get the floor. I said I know how to fix so-called failing schools. Start with a drastic reduction of class size. You would have thought I dropped a stink bomb on the joint. Diane's antagonist, Rick Hesse, practically dripping venom, went off on how class size reduction has been proven not to work (a lie), studies this, studies that, blah, blah, blah. Almost the entire audience kept nodding in approval, while throwing darts at me. Leonie Haimson was in the audience but this was not a forum where she could get up and tear Hesse's head off with real facts.

The funny thing was that Hesse had previously talked about the 3 and a half million teachers in this country and how to reach them with good technology and lesson plans and more blah, blah, blah. I was tempted to call out, "Why don't you ask these millions of teacher what they think about class size? Then you wouldn't need no phony stinkin' research." But the dessert was pretty good and I wanted to be asked back.

Not so with my buddy and GEM colleague Antoine Bogard, a chapter leader in Harlem, who got up as they tried to end the meeting and insisted on asking a question. "I have the most important question," Antoine said. "Why are the voices of teachers, the MOST important voice, never heard?" Diane offered to take on that one. "They don't want to hear union voices," she said, a response I was very unhappy with and one of the major flaws in her book. Union voices were at the table for NCLB (Sandra Feldman and Randi Weingarten) and that is not what Antoine was asking. Union leaders are not the same as classroom teacher voices. In fact, quite different.

Many of us were not fooled about NCLB and its predecessors as Diane was. If instead of selling NCLB to their members and worse, keeping them in the dark as Sandy and Randi did, they had led a charge against it, we might not be in the position today. But Diane let's them off the hook.

There were two other teachers I knew at the MI Luncheon. Both are 20 plus year ATRs and we chatted as lot. What wonderful people and teachers (I am keeping them anonymous for obvious reasons.) These are the voices that should be heard but are not. By the ed deformers and by our union.

When teachers go to MI luncheons and identify themselves as a "real" teacher who is not a union hack, they are treated as a pet. Wow! Someone who actually spend 30 years teaching in the inner city. What an oddity to show up here!

When I checked out one of my fave bloggers, It's Not All Flowers and Sausages, I was pleased to see this relatively young teacher, the type of teacher the ed deform crowd holds up as the savior of the system, raise this same issue. Here are a few excerpts. Note how she trashes national standards, one of Diane Ravitch's pets.

I saw the following question, "Are educators' opinions factored into reforms?" and my immediate thought was, "NO. Duh." I know, my knee jerk reaction is to utter words of brilliance. It's a gift.

You see, I was reading this piece in EdWeek about how much or how little the opinions of real teachers factor into decisions made by policy makers. The article begins by saying that "...at no other time in the history of American education has there been more publicly available information about what teachers think about their profession, their students and the conditions under which they work."

Really? I mean, yeah, I guess we have blogs, and books (buy mine!), and surveys and things, but really? Who is looking at those? Other teachers? And who is listening? Because while I heart my readers, don't you feel like sometimes we're all just talking to a wall???? Just because we're saying it doesn't mean that the Powers That Be are listening, taking us seriously or think that we have anything intelligent to offer. I've worked at educational research organizations and more often than not, the concerns of Real Teachers are met by eye rolling. EYE ROLLING! By people who claim to care about education...

Later in the article, a few recently compiled teacher surveys are referenced. You know, like the one done by the Gates Foundation? But everyone who has a brain knows that you need to consider the source when reading reports of that nature..Can we just hear and listen to the voices of teachers? No surveys, no filtering, no compiling, no bubble sheets...just real, honest voices of the people doing the work that EVERYONE ELSE seems to have so many opinions about.

I mean, do we really even need to debrief on this whole situation where teachers get to weigh in and comment on the proposed National Standards? Does anyone else think that this feels a bit like flushing a twenty down the toilet? Like the proverbial tree in the forest? If a teacher posts a well thought out response to the National Standards but nobody listens, did she even make a noise?

How about we say enough with the surveys? How about we actually invite a REAL TEACHER (or better yet a WHOLE BUNCH OF TEACHERS) to the table when these policies and decisions are actually being made?!?!?

(insert jaw dropping on the part of policy makers everywhere)

(Close your mouths boys, you'll let all the flies in.)

I know that the article states that it is difficult to get teachers to donate their time to take a survey but maybe JUST MAYBE if someone offered to REALLY LISTEN and not just count our bubbles on a survey, I think the Powers That Be, who are so superficially concerned with the opinions of teachers, would find themselves with a line out the door.

Make sure to head on over and read her entire post:

Bitter and Cynical, Party of Two? Your Table Is Ready...

Additions:
I posted one of her wonderful pieces on the Rhode Island Central Falls Massacre where she said "You can't fire poverty." Diane Ravitch loved this line so much she linked to Flowers and Sausages in an article and used the line in her MI presentation.

Catching Up

I got a call yesterday from ICE colleague Julie visiting her daughter in LA asking why I wasn't blogging so she could keep up with the breaking ed news. (Check out her talented daughter Lucy's preview of the upcoming release of her next album.) Why does a retired educator still feels the need to take off for the break? When you think of it, we develop this habit from the day we enter school a 5 year old, so it is hard to break.

With wrapping up the UFT election distribution, dealing with the 25 people who invaded my house for a Seder on Monday - with an age range of 1.5 to 92, going to a friend's funeral, dealing with the loss of a cat, wrapping up the FLL robotics tournament and trying to control my 92 year old dad's interest in young women - which in his case means women in their 80's - it's been a busy few weeks and I haven't had much time for blogging. Or maybe it's all the Manischewitz Extra Heavy Malaga wine I swill all day. We still have an 18 and a half year old cat who is hanging in there and we're trying to decide whether to bring her in to the vet for a checkup or just let things lie. My hot yoga teacher, who has often cared for the cats, told me we were crazy and just let her be. As long as the cat keeps tearing up all those Staples bags, which my pals at the local store's copy center give me, I figure she is doing a OK.

(Here is Pinky feigning semi-indifference towards her late sister, Pippin, who she generally ignored when she was alive, but still is checking to find out where she went.)



There's so much to write about with the ed news that has been coming in from all over the place. In election news, here is a message from the UFT's Ray Frankel, who has run the elections for almost 40 years:

The ballot count will take place on Wednesday, April 7, at the Park Central Hotel, 870 Seventh Avenue (55th Street), the Manhattan Skyline Room. The count is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. with the opening of two envelopes.

This count is done by the American Arbitration Association and we will be there observing. Anna Philips from Gotham promises to be outside to pick up tidbits she can report. I told her I will trade tidbits for food.

No matter what the results, it is always fun to watch the process, especially with Unity and New Action always taking the results so much more seriously than ICE and TJC. Unity wants to keep ICE and TJC off the Exec Bd even it only the 6 HS people where we have the best chance. New Action is even more desperate to stop their slide and if they lose the high school seats, they will still have 5 EB seats handed to them by Unity, but they will be even more inconsequential than they are. There are still people who vote New Action thinking they are an opposition and Mulgrew's total will reflect the Unity plus New Action count and so will be higher than Unity alone. There is hope he can beat Randi's numbers which if it happens will make her cry.

ICE and TJC see the election as part of a building process from the ground up and most of us were more involved with the grassroots activities of GEM than with the elections. Most GEMers did run and were active in promoting the elections in their schools. The numbers of activists - the true test of building an opposition - are still small but the greater interest and outpouring of people handing out lit, while it may not translate into votes, is a sign of building up a new infrastructure (which was lost when New Action sold out to Unity). As some of our younger activists pointed out, this was a learning process for them. Thank goodness. Next time I can just put my feet up and enjoy the show.

The court case and school closings are at the top of the list of news here in NYC. Leonie's listserve has been active as usual and there's so much good stuff I want to save and publish, I just can't keep up, though I did put up a load of stuff on Norms Notes (which you should check out even over the past week for some great articles), which is where I try to throw up as many interesting articles and posts from others as I can. One of the most interesting was an advance copy of Rethinking Schools' article on Teach for America, which led to this comment:

Alice Mercer said...

THANK YOU! Our district is looking at bringing in TFA even in the face of what was originally 700 layoff notices. I had "heard" about this piece and I'm glad we will have it in time to share with board members before the next meeting.

There was the NYCORE conference a few weeks ago and my appearances at some schools to talk about the elections. Steve Conn from Detroit has been in touch and is urging a group from NYC to go on the march in Washington on April 10 calling for Arne Duncan's resignation. I attended the Diane Ravitch Manhattan Institute luncheon on Wed. which I will write about later and met up with ICE-TJC Elementary school candidate Yelena Siwinski afterwards for a few hours of good ed chatting, followed by an evening robotic year end wrap up at Credit Suisse. I wore a jacket and tie for the Ravitch event and actually looked like a teacher for a change. I ended up in a dumpy pizza joint at 9pm for some greasy pizza.

My attempt to diet has really suffered in the midst of all this. Lucky I had my physical a few weeks ago at my low weight. The doctor, who is now treating almost all of our friends, does not take kindly to fat, cholesterol laden people. I better jump off that Snickers bandwagon real fast before my next blood test.


Follow-ups:
I am working on dealing with the anti-Randi factor in the elections - does anyone in Unity and without have something nice to say?

Also some thoughts on the Ravitch event and some issues I have to take with where she is coming from. I am in the midst of the book and may do chapter by chapter summaries and comments.

Ravitch on Goldstein and More on UFT Elections

"Arthur, Thank you for a brilliant review of my book! It means a lot to me that a teacher in the trenches likes it and thought I hit a bulls eye." -Diane Ravitch

The comment from Diane Ravitch posted last Sunday at Gotham Schools in a thread following Arthur Goldstein's review of her new book is worth highlighting for the multiple bases it touches.

Now I must point out once again that Arthur is running with ICE-TJC for High School Executive Board in the current UFT elections. These 6 positions look to be winnable since ICE-TJC took 36% of the vote against the Unity/New Action combo in 2007. If we win those seats it would put Lawhead, Fiorillo, Kit Wainer, Marian Swerdlow and Peter Lamphere in addition to Arthur on the board. Compare any Unity/New Action people you can think of to these 6 and you come up empty.

Only high school teachers will see their names on the ballot, so it is especially imperative to get out the vote in the high schools. Since only around 4,000 out of 20,000 high school teachers voted in the last election, it will take constant reminders to get people to return their ballots with the ICE-TJC box checked off. If you want these voices on the UFT Exec Bd start reminding people Monday and do so for the next two weeks.

The rough numbers in 2007 were Unity: 2250, New Action: 550, ICE-TJC: 1550. (New Action ended up with 3 HS EB seats with a thousand less votes than ICE-TJC.) Thus if ICE-TJC and double the vote they would win handily. So go get em.

In this comment, Diane covers a lot of ground that touch on UFT policies.

Unions in charters
"You have read my book so you know my overall conclusion is that they range from excellent to awful but on average, they do not produce better results than regular public schools. Second, the charter movement is dominated by anti-union ideologues; charter schools succeed by hiring young, single teachers and having them work 50-60 or more hours a week. Of the 5,000 or so charter schools in the nation currently, I would guess that 95% of them are non-union. That is no accident."

This blows up the AFT/UFT strategy of organizing charters as a "solution". Where have they been up to now? They will continue to blow up every little victory while 95 charters open for every 5 they organize. The charters have incredible turnover and teachers often jump from charter to charter, so organizing is a moving target.

Even if they do organize charters - let's say every one in NYC, you end up with individual contracts for each school and the power of the UFT as an organization capable of shutting down a school system is dissipated. But the top level of the UFT would continue to flourish as dues keeps flowing in. They know this and will try to keep the lid on the cap not to protect public schools but to keep the dues rolling in.

On Green Dot charters, which the UFT has made a big deal of
"Green Dot took over Locke High School in Los Angeles to much fanfare. They cleaned up the school, established order, provided good maintenance. But after a year of publicity about the Locke miracle, the scores came out and they had not changed by even 1 percent. Of course, scores are not all that matter, and they are not always a good indicator of school quality. But the fanfare got a little quieter when it became a matter of record that the students had not turned overnight into college-ready scholars simply because private managers took over."

Leo Casey claimed at last week's forum that the UFT/Green Dot contract was better than ours.

Unity/UFT less than subtle attempts to stifle discussion
"I am shocked that anyone would suggest you might be disciplined by the NYC Department of Education for your free expression of opinion, including criticism of your bosses."

This was a response to UFT/Unity Caucus ideologue Peter Goodman's comments, with lots of others jumping in. I suggest you read through the thread to get the full gist.

Here is Goldstein's message to the staff of Francis Lewis HS:

Dear colleagues,

I’m running with ICE/TJC for the UFT High School Executive Board, and I’m asking for your vote. Given events of the last few years, like the disastrous 2005 contract, the union’s support of mayoral control, the erosion of seniority rights, the advent of perpetual lunch duty and hall patrol, and the inability to grieve letters in a file simply for their being incorrect, I’ve determined there’s a need for a new voice in the UFT.

I’d like to be that voice.

Unity is an invitation-only caucus that’s controlled the UFT since its inception. When people join, they agree not to vary from Unity positions in public. Whatever Unity tells them to say, they say. Essentially, it’s a loyalty oath. In recent times, many of Unity’s decisions, like those listed above, have not benefitted working teachers.

There is another caucus called New Action. It supports the top of the Unity ticket, pretty much guaranteeing more of the same. It was once an opposition party, but in 2003 Randi Weingarten bought them off with patronage jobs and a few seats on the UFT Executive Board. With your help ICE/ TJC can claim those seats and bring real independent voices and thoughts to our union leadership.

If elected, I will be your voice not only here, but also on the UFT. I will not support measures that hurt working teachers, or any UFT members. I will vigorously oppose measures that appease Bloomberg and Klein with vague promises of benefits to come. Such measures have not served us well.

I will fight for a fair contract, for professional treatment, the retention of tenure, and the concept that a raise means more pay for doing the same job—not for extra time, extra duties, and fewer benefits and privileges.

Please check ICE/TJC on your ballot. Vote for a change in the UFT.

After 50 years, it’s time.

Best regards,

Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader

Robotics
Well, it's off for a weekend of robotics at the Javits center, where Klein is supposed to make an appearance at 9AM this morning. I'll be doing my hair, but will get there later. I will be there all day Sunday handling registration for the 80 NYC teams taking part in the FIRST LEGO League tournament. Come on down. And you can also check out the over 60 high school teams from around the nation doing the big robots - they are there today too.

A Good Week for the Ravitches? - Updated

Updated: Mar. 3, 4pm

With rave reviews coming in for Diane Ravitch's new book and the news that Governor Patterson may be leaving the field for Diane's ex-husband, Lt. Governer Richard Ravitch, this is turning into quite a week for them.

Arthur Goldstein (running for HS Exec Bd on the ICE-TJC slate) was lucky enough to get a hold of a review copy of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” - a further sign that Arthur has become one of the most respected commentators on education not only in the city, but nationally. His review is a rave:

It is, frankly, a revelation, and anyone interested in education, particularly New York City education, needs to read it right now.

For anyone who’s wondered where on earth Joel Klein dreamed up his “reforms,” look no further. A substantial source of inspiration appears to be a three-stage process — a New York City experiment that gave a false impression of success, a San Diego experiment that eluded success altogether, and a stubborn determination to replicate both in overdrive.

As both Bloomberg and Klein were business experts using business models, they used a “corporate model of tightly centralized, hierarchal, top-down control, with all decisions made at Tweed and strict supervision of every classroom to make sure the orders flowing from headquarters were precisely implemented,” Ravitch writes. It appears they didn’t squander their valuable time on troublesome input from teachers, parents, or any contradictory voices whatsoever. In fact, Ravitch points out that though the mayor had promised increased parental involvement, it was actually reduced. Parent coordinators were hired, but in fact, they actually “worked for the principal, not for parents.”

Read Arthur's full review at Gotham Schools Ravitch Reveals All

I just hope Richard R reads his ex-wife's book, takes heed, and swats the co-conspirator NY State Ed Department before it causes more damage. But I'm not holding my breath.


Sam Dillon the NY Times today has a BIG STORY on Diane's turn around from a leading conservative to a major voice battling the Ed Deformers.

Leading Scholar’s U-Turn on School Reform Shakes Up Debate - NYTimes.com

I can remember years of disparaging remarks toward Diane from the Resistance to the Ed Deformers I have been associated with for almost a decade. When she received the UFT's John Dewey Award, I received an email from Jerry Bracey, one of her severest critics, asking if we were throwing up a picket line.

So when Leonie Haimson introduced me to Diane at the famous St. Vartus church Feb. 28, 2007 rally, I was a bit surprised. Diane joined Leonie's list serve and published some critiques on the brand new at the time NYC Parent blog. As I began to post her work on ICE mail I came under attack from some people on the list, who went after Diane. Over the past few years, she has won over more and more critics (some praise from Ohanian and Lawhead).

When I went to a Manhattan Institute luncheon honoring Chester Finn (who is mentioned on the Times piece) hosted by Diane, a close friend of his, I felt like a total outcast. Until Diane came by my table and whispered in my ear: Go Get 'Em.

I still line up more with Deb Meier on standards and the other issues she and Diane blog about (both are on Leonie's influential listserve and we get some special treats from their back and forth) but I have become a Diane Ravitch fan as much for qualities as a person as for her ideas.

Here is a link to a new radio interview:

http://radio.nationalreview.com/betweenthecovers/post/?q=ZWNkOGNjNTEyMzA2ZmI1ZTMzN2EyZjY1MmU2ZDM5Zjk

For a somewhat dissenting view from Jim Horm (thanks to Sharon Higgins) see:

Diane Ravitch and What's Underneath the Policy Makeover

Horn picks at the national standards issue that Diane supports and without going deep on my part, I tend to agree that if we end up where Diane wants us to, one day we will see a part 2 of her book.

Obama Calls for Public Option in Healtcare While Undercutting Public Option in Education

If you've been following the Obama/Duncan support for the Ed Deform plan, the headline pretty much says it all.

But you might want to check Diane Ravitch's first post of the school year at Bridging Differences, where she in The Start of an Interesting and Dangerous School Year she says:

Nationally, the most important event was the release of the federal government’s regulations for the “Race to the Top.” Those regulations made clear that the Obama administration has fully aligned itself with the edu-entrepreneurs who favor market-based reforms. As I predicted on this blog, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are now the spear carriers for the GOP's education policies of choice and accountability. An odd development, don’t you think? The Department of Education dangles nearly $5 billion before the states, but only if they agree to remove the caps on charter schools and any restrictions on using student test scores to evaluate teachers.

What is extraordinary about these regulations is that they have no credible basis in research.

Race to the Bottom

Diane Ravitch (Obama's Heavy-handed Education Plan) at Politico nails the Obama/Duncan plan to use stimulus money to extort states into pushing the ed deform program down our throats. You know the drill: mayoral control, teacher bashing, merit pay, charters galore.

Diane's summary of ed deform is more elegant than mine:

...lots more charter schools; lots more privatization; evaluate teachers based on the test scores of their students; open more alternate routes into teaching to break the grip of professionalism.

It's worked so well in Duncan's Chicago, which has ruined a generation over the last 14 years of mayoral control. Diane's point here is one that should be blasted all over the nation to counter the deformers.

If Duncan knows so much about how to reform American education, why didn't he reform Chicago 's schools? A report came out a couple of weeks ago from the Civic Committee of Chicago ("Still Left Behind") saying that Chicago's much-touted score gains in the past several years were phony, that they were generated after the state lowered the passing mark on the state tests, that the purported gains did not show up on the federal tests, and that Chicago 's high schools are still failing. On the respected federal tests (NAEP), Chicago is one of the lowest performing cities in the nation.

Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Foundation (not a foe of ed deform, by the way) calls it "Washington Knows Best at its worst." Diane asks,

"What if Washington doesn't know best?" What if the "reform" ideas are wrong? Just a few weeks ago, a respected Stanford University study reported that 80% or more of charter schools are no better than or worse than their neighborhood public school. Why replace struggling public schools with worse charter schools? There is a ton of evidence that evaluating teachers based on student test scores is a lousy idea (see the work of Jesse Rothstein at Princeton , for example).

Why is Washington pushing "reform" ideas that have so little evidence behind them, as well as ideas that will positively harm public education in America ?

Related
Robert Pondiscio at Core Knowledge:
http://www.coreknowledge.org/blog/2009/07/24/nineteen-points-and-one-very-bad-idea/

See a compilation of raw posts from the NYC Ed News listserve, including Diane's full piece, posted at our storage facility Norms Notes: Several Posts re: Obama/Duncan's Race to the Top

Obama's Education Policy is Third Term for President George W. Bush

In education, the new administration is as ruinous as the old

by Diane Ravitch, Historian of education, NYU, Hoover and Brookings

At Politico

Video and Written Testimony of Diane Ravitch on Mayoral Control...

.... calling for an independent board that will choose the chancellor. And an independent monitoring agency. Not quite the plan of the Independent Community of Educators, but...

See below for video and links to ICE positions.

Testimony of Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education, New York University, Hearings of New York State Assembly Committee on Education, February 6, 2009

I am a historian of education on the faculty of New York University. My first book was a history of the New York City public schools, entitled The Great School Wars. It was published in 1974. It is generally acknowledged to be the definitive history of the school system. Since then, I have continued to study and write about the New York City school system.

When the Legislature changed the governance of the school system in 2002, I supported the change. I supported the idea of mayoral control. I looked forward to an era of accountability and transparency. From my historical studies, I knew that mayoral control was the customary form of governance in our city’s schools for many years. From 1873 to 1969, the mayor appointed every single member of the New York City Board of Education. The decentralization of control from 1969 to 2002 was an aberration.

Having observed the current system since it was created, however, I have become convinced that it needs major changes.

It needs change because it lacks accountability. It lacks transparency. It shuts the public out of public education. It has no checks or balances. It lacks the most fundamental element of a democratic system of government, which is public oversight.

Never before in the history of NYC have the mayor and the chancellor exercised total, unlimited, unrestricted power over the daily life of the schools. No other school district in the United States is operated in this authoritarian fashion.

We have often been told by city officials that the results justify continuation of this authoritarian control. They say that test scores have dramatically improved. But no independent source verifies these assertions.

The city’s claims are contradicted by the federal testing program, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The federal tests are the gold standard of educational testing.

New York City is one of 11 cities that participate in the federal testing program. On the NAEP tests, the city’s scores were flat from 2003-2007 in fourth-grade reading, in eighth-grade reading, and in eighth-grade math. Only in fourth-grade math did student performance improve, but those gains had washed out by eighth grade. The eighth-graders were the product of the Children First reforms, yet these students showed no achievement gains in either reading or math. The federal tests showed no significant gains for Hispanic students, African American students, white students, Asian students, or lower-income students. The federal data showed no narrowing of the achievement gap among children of different ethnic and racial groups.

The SAT is another independent measure. This past year, the city’s SAT scores fell, reaching their lowest point since 2003, at the same time that national SAT scores held steady. The students who take the SAT intend to go to college; they are presumably our better-performing students. Yet the SAT reading score for New York City was an appalling 438, which is the 28th percentile of all SAT test-takers. The state SAT reading score was 488, much closer to the national average than our city students.

Are graduation rates up? The city says they have climbed from 53% to 62% from 2003-2007. The state says they have climbed from 44% to 52% from 2004-2007. Either way, the city’s graduation rate is no better than the graduation rate for the state of Mississippi, which spends less than a third of what New York City spends per pupil.

We must wonder whether we can believe any numbers for the graduation rate, because the city has encouraged a dubious practice called “credit recovery,” which inflates the graduation rate. Under credit recovery, students who failed a course or never even showed up can still get credit for it by turning in an independent project or attending a few extra sessions. A principal told the New York Times that credit recovery is the “dirty little secret of high schools. There’s very little oversight and there are very few standards.” (NY Times, April 11, 2008). Furthermore, the city doesn’t count students who have been discharged; these are students who have been removed from the rolls but are not counted as dropouts. Their number has increased every year. Leaving out these students also inflates the graduation rate.

We have all heard that social promotion was eliminated, that students can’t be promoted from grade 3 or 5 or 7 or 8 unless they have mastered the work of the grade. Nonetheless, a majority of eighth-graders do not meet state standards in reading or math. And two-thirds of the city’s graduates who enter CUNY’s community colleges must take remedial courses in reading, writing, or mathematics. These figures suggest that social promotion continues and that many students are graduating who are not prepared for postsecondary education.

The present leadership of the Department of Education has made testing in reading and mathematics the keynote of their program. Many schools have narrowed their curriculum in hopes of raising their test scores. The Department’s own survey of arts education showed that only 4% of children in elementary schools and less than a third of those in middle schools were receiving the arts education required by the state. When the federal government tested science in 2006, two-thirds of New York City’s eighth grade students were “below basic,” the lowest possible rating. These figures suggest that our students are not getting a good education, no matter what the state test scores in reading and math may be.

The Department of Education, lacking any public accountability, has heedlessly closed scores of schools without making any sustained effort to improve them. Had they dramatically reduced class sizes, mandated a research-based curriculum, provided intensive professional development, supplied prompt technical assistance, and taken other constructive steps, they might have been able to turn around schools that were the anchor of their community. When Rudy Crew was Chancellor, he rescued many low-performing schools by using these techniques in what was then called the Chancellor’s District. Unfortunately this district—whose sole purpose was to improve low-performing schools--was abandoned in 2003. There may be times when a school must be closed, but it should be a last resort, triggered only after all other measures have been exhausted, and only after extensive community consultation.

The Legislature owes it to the people of New York City to make significant changes in the governance of the New York City public schools.

First, the governance system needs checks and balances. Having the chance to vote for the mayor once in four years is no check or balance, nor does it provide adequate accountability. The school system needs an independent board, whose members serve for a fixed-term, to review and approve the policies and budget of the school system. This board would hold public hearings before decisions are made. It would review the budget in public and give the public full opportunity to express its concerns.

Second, the performance of the school system should be regularly monitored by an independent, professional auditing agency. This agency should report to the public on student performance and graduation rates. Those in charge of the school system should not be allowed to monitor the system’s performance and to give principals and teachers bonuses for higher performance. Such an approach does not produce accountability; instead, it only encourages principals and teachers to find creative ways to boost their test scores and graduation rates.

Third, the leader of the school system should be appointed by the independent board, not by the mayor. The chancellor’s primary obligation is to protect the best interests of the students. If elected officials say that they must cut the schools’ budget, the chancellor should be the voice of the school system, fighting for the interests of the children and the schools. If the chancellor is appointed by the mayor, his first obligation is to the mayor, not the children.

There are many challenges facing the New York City school system. Many of the students that it serves are disadvantaged by poverty, are English language learners, or have special needs.

Changing the governance of the school system will not solve all the problems of educating more than one million students.

Nonetheless, the Legislature must learn from experience. It should correct the flaws in the law passed in 2002. That law went too far in centralizing all authority in the Mayor’s office and in excluding the public from any voice in decisions affecting their communities and their children. It is time to change the law.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4617433714635450968&hl=en

Related
ICE Minority Report on School Governance Rejected at UFT Exec. Bd.

UFT Takes a Seat on Mayoral Control, While ICE Offers Alternative

What Will Diane Ravitch Say...

... Today at the NY State Assembly hearings on mayoral control?

Rumors are she will smash them to smithereens.

Will Diane's position come down closer to the UFT's tweaks or ICE's gutting?

10 AM at 250 Broadway, 19th floor

Diane Ravitch on Andy Wolf Piece in NY Sun

Wolf should have spoken of state scores in this context. The gains under Crew and Levy from 1999-2002 were larger on the state tests in both reading and math, than under Klein from 2003-2007. On the NAEP, there was a large gain from 2002-2003 in fourth grade reading. From 2003-2007, the reading scores in fourth grade and eighth grade have been flat.

Bear in mind that the NAEP tests of 2002 were administered prior to Bloomberg takeover, and NAEP tests of 2003 were administered in January-March 2003, before implementation of Klein program. --- Diane Ravitch

I'm not going to jump on board in elaborate praise for Crew and Levy as their "reforms" so lauded by the UFT, were no more than bandaids.

The Wolf piece is posted at Norms Notes.
Wolf's negative comments on City Council Ed Committee chair Robert Jackson as compared to a favorable view of his predecessor, Eva Moskowitz, resulted in much comment on Leonie Haimson's listserve:

Robert Jackson is the opposite of somnolent – he is the most active, energetic and committed critic of the DOE and has held countless hearings to point out the flaws of their policies. Moreover, he also provides tremendous support to parents and advocates. On the other hand, Eva was and remains brilliant at getting publicity.

Leonie Haimson

De-Kleining at the Manhattan Institute

It's been an interesting week. Tuesday morning I was at the Manhattan Institute (the conservative think tank) breakfast where Joel Klein was the featured speaker. He said the usual - a friend told me a colleague from the DOE was there too, couldn't stomach it and left before Klein finished.

Should MI members have their heads examined for supporting BloomKlein?

After Klein came the panel with his former employee Michele Rhee, who runs the Washington DC schools, Paul Vallas (Chicago, Philadelphia and now, New Orleans, and Tom Payzant (Boston, retired.) Don't any of these people have large school systems to run? I guess using their valuable time to go to these things is sign of the political ideology they are laying down. I've heard the line a million times about how schools should be there to meet the needs of the kids, not the adults. But that is what these so-called reforms are all about - the ideology, not the kids.

I had a bunch of questions to ask but didn't get called upon during this panel. I'll get into the details about Klein's speech and the panel in a future post.

The 2nd panel had David Bloomfield from Brooklyn College (who I know from Leonie's list) but he unfortunately supports Mayoral control with some slight modifications - he subscribes to the theory that BloomKlein are aberrations and the next mayor will make the system much more responsible. Dream on David.

Joe Williams was on the panel - the former reporter from the Daily News who now runs Democrats for Education Reform, another supporter of BloomKlein. I wasn't impressed with his presentation which talked about how bad things were before and how much better it is with one strong person in charge. My question (I didn't get called on again) would have been that having one person in charge makes it easier for them to cover up the same crap that happened before. I had a nice chat with Joe afterwards - he said he used to call me when he was a reporter and I used to tell him how I wouldn't talk to the press because they were so biased against teachers but then talked to him anyway. I have no memory about that, but a lot of brain cells have died since then.

Seymore Fliegel, a former Superintendent (and deputy under Anthony Alvarado in District 4 when AA made his bones before becoming chancellor) DOE flunky and current Bloomberg flunky ( someone told me he's on he payroll) told distorted anecdotes.


Finally, the piece de resistance - Diane Ravitch, who surgically dismantled every single thing Klein said, ripping apart the phony stats piece by piece. I was sitting next to parent leader from District 1 Lisa Donlon ( who made a great presentation arguing in favor of a localized community control governance plan at the City Council hearings) and I'm black and blue from her punching me every time Diane hit another zinger. The only problem with Diane from my point of view is that she, as everyone else up there, also supports mayoral control, but with what she terms checks and balances, which take the form of the mayor appointing a majority of a board, I believe for a fixed term - I don't get how this is a check. Or a balance.

Leonie Haimson was there and got in a good statement/question on class size.
The UFT's Joe Colleti (the designated attendee at these events) and Peter Goodman (Edwize and Ed in the Apple blogs) were there but the UFT doesn't send people to stand up for teachers in these forums (and I told Joe that they never effectively counter Klein's arguments) - which leaves it to me, but I didn't get called on again. I may have to wear a disguise. Almost feels like the old days when I tried to hide behind a seat at the Delegate Assembly to fool Randi into calling on me.

The event was taped and I hope it pops up on C-Span.

At the end of the meeting, I got to hang out with Ed Notes fave Elizabeth Green from The NY Sun (that was the day her article on the UFT Charter school was out) and she filled us in on her adventures the night before when the UFT didn't let her into the PTA meeting. Sol Stern came by to chat with Elizabeth. (Sol may be the only BloomKlein critic at the Manhattan Institute.) Since I was standing there, Sol and I finally made up (once again) after not talking for a year. After the ruckus he caused at last year's Radical Math Conference (it's coming up again next week) which somehow lead to our argument (more of my brain cells are gone so I don't remember the details) he is not interested in attending again. Some of the gang from NYCORE and RadMath often chide me for putting Sol onto them. I do enjoy jousting with Sol over ed policy and always come out sharper for it. So I'm glad we're talking again, though after writing this piece, he'll probably get mad again.

We shared a cab to the Sheraton to get press passes for the AERA Conference. Having a well-known journalist run interference got my dinky Wave press pass through, enabling me to hang out at the press office, drink coffee and eat bagels and danishes for the rest of the conference. More on that Friday.

Dropping Richard Rothstein on Chester Finn

I attended the Manhattan Institute luncheon at the Harvard Club for Chester Finn's new book "Troublemaker." Finn, known as Checker to his friends, is one of the gurus of the corporate attack on teachers and public schools. His old friend Diane Ravitch, who the phony ed reformers think has gone over to the dark side, was there to introduce him. Before they served the chicken she stopped by to whisper, "I see there's another troublemaker here.'

I asked a 2 part question (with just a little embellishment.) Basically I dropped a Richard Rothstein on him.

1. Finn had extolled Kipp,pointing to how they were doing things with kids that the public schools were not - meaning the hard core kids that are so tough to teach.

So, I asked Finn:
Are you claiming that if every child in America attended a KIPP school every one would become middle class and go on the college? He admitted that wouldn't happen but that 70% would which many dispute. I pointed out that in my school about 30-40% of the kids were doing ok and as Rothstein pointed out these are often the kids that end up at KIPP, not the 60% who are the most difficult to teach. I didn't get a chance to drop Rothstein 2-10 on him, since the Man. Inst.never wants real debate.

For a fuller picture, check Rothstein's Response to Chester Finn which can be found at

www.epi.org/webfeatures/viewpoints/www.epirothstein_finn/rothstein-response_to_finn.pdf

2. Part 2: Given that you have a close relationship with Diane Ravitch and her criticisms of the so-called reforms instituted in NYC, where do you stand on the implementation of so many of the ideas you espouse in NYC?

Finn saying he was not based in NYC said he would defer to Diane's judgment (can we take this as a slam at BloomKlein?). But if asked about Washington DC whose Klein Klone Michelle Rhee is running the schools and whom he praised on Thursday he could make a more informed comment. If Finn is deferring to Diane on NYC, and we know that Rhee is functioning along the same lines, then, excuse my math, can we assume if a=b and b=c, then a=c?

What was clear is that Finn is setting up an excuse for Rhee's failure by talking about the special interests like the union and others. Like there are no special interests on their side?

Thanks to Diane Ravitch for making me feel comfortable in what can be an intimidating pro-corporate environment (one guy told me after he managed Milton Friedman's money for years - since the business community thinks they can run school systems better than educators I was going to ask if I could manage some of their hedge funds in return.)

I was so inspired, I wrote lyrics to the Band's The Weight in honor of Diane:

Lyrics by Norm Scott
To the tune of The Band’s "The Weight"

I pulled into Harvard Club, was feelin' about half past dread;
Just need some place where I can lay my progressive e-e-ed.
"Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a red?"
He just grinned and shook my hand, and "No!", was all he said.

(Chorus:)
Take a load off Testing, take a load for free;
Take a load off Testing, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on accountabilty.

I picked up my Rothstein, I went lookin' for a place to hide;
When I saw Diane and the Devil walkin' side by side.
I said, "Hey, Diane, come on, let's go and some trouble make."
She said, "I gotta go intro this guy, but m'friend you can stick the stake."

(Chorus:)
Take a load off Testing, take a load for free;
Take a load off Testing, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on accountabilty.

Go down, Chris Cerf, there's nothin' you can say
It's just ol' Joel Klein, and Joel’s waitin' on the Judgement Day.
"Well, Joel, my friend, what about the young uns been screwed?"
He said, "Do me a favor, son, woncha keep schools in the hands of the few?"

(Chorus)

Crazy Chester went on and on, and he made me see through the fog.
He said, "If you accept KIPP, you’ll be allowed to eat your hot dog."
I said, "Wait a minute, Chester, you know KIPP can’t educate em all."
He said, "That's okay, boy, we’ll take 70% and public ed will take a fall"

(Chorus)

Catch a new governance now, t'take me down the line
Public ed is sinkin' low and I do believe it's time.
To get back to democracy, you know it’s the only one.
For teachers, parents, students and regards for everyone.

(Chorus:)
Take a load off Testing, take a load for free;
Take a load off Testing, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on accountabilty.

Million Dollar Diane

Great work by Sal Maglie, as usual

Kathryn Wylde Goes Wild on Ravitch - Tweed Hit Job

Wylde photo lifted from the eduwonkette blog which has excellent commentary on this issue. Also check out the brilliant Halloween parade of ed stars.


UPDATE Nov. 1

See Leonie Haimson and NY Sun article below showing Wylde's NY Post article aided by Tweed - thanks to reporting by one of our favorite reporters, Elizabeth Green. Yo, Wyldewoman, who's the one without integrity now? And to David Cantor, Tweed head of public relations: want to see a good file? Check out Bloomberg's file on sexual harrassment. Finally! Holy crap - I'm on the same side as Randi Weingarten and Sol Stern on this one. Gotta get my head x-rayed.

Bloomberg hack & flack Kathryn Wylde, one of those dilettantes dabbling in educational policy as president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, went wild in a vicious attack on Ravitch’s integrity for her daring to say the union bested BloomKlein. The wild Wylde writes, “When it comes to public education in NYC [Ravitch is] no longer a source we can rely on for fair-minded commentary.” Wylde wrote this in the NY Post, that paragon of fair-minded commentary.

While I agree with Wylde that this was not a win for the union, her attack on Ravitch is a sign of how critics of Ravitch’s stature are getting under the BloomKlein skin. And while I often disagree with Ravitch, I have absolutely no doubt about her integrity and indeed, have increasing respect for her for her stand on BloomKlein.

UPDATE from Leonie Haimson and NY Sun below

1. Yesterday, the NY Post published an oped by Kathy Wylde, head of the NYC Partnership, which claims to represent all the business interests in this city. The oped was a blistering, personal attack on Diane Ravitch.

Diane is a personal hero of mine. She’s the top expert in the country on the history of the NYC public schools, and a relentless critic of this administration’s wrong-headed education policies, whether that be holding back kids on the basis of their test scores, to the new merit pay proposals that will pay principals, kids, and now teachers for higher test scores at schools.

Diane has also been a big proponent of the need to reduce class size, and the right of parents and the public at large to be involved in the decision making process when it comes to our schools, which puts her at odds with this administration.

Today’s NY Sun reveals that this oped -- ostensibly written by Wylde – originated at Tweed. (See below article.)

Apparently, their highly paid PR department spent days researching in a file on her – to try to show that she had switched positions on a number of issues to use in an attempt to label her as hypocritical.

Yet if anyone is hypocritical, it is really the Mayor and the Chancellor, who refuse to reduce class size, and instead are trying to squeeze out better test scores by bribing principals and teachers and students. All their efforts are turning our schools into the sort of joyless establishments that they would never consider sending their own children to.

Clearly, the administration has decided that they cannot stand any dissent but are now using Wylde and the NYC Partnership as their attack dogs. It’s becoming like the Nixon White House with their enemy lists -- and our taxpayer money is paying for this!

Here is a link to yesterday’s NY Post oped, attacking Diane : http://www.nypost.com/seven/10302007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/hypocritical_critic.htm

The NY Sun article is below.

Please write a letter to the NY post in defense of Diane and her courage and integrity in speaking up for our kids, when so many others have been cowed into submission. letters@nypost.com

You can also write a letter to the NY Sun – decrying the city’s efforts to smear her, and the way our taxpayer money has been used in this effort: editor@nysun.com

2. The administration’s dishonesty was also in evidence in their attempt to obscure the fact that on their own parent survey, class size came out as the number one concern of parents from throughout the city. As recounted in articles in the NY Times, Post, and on our blog, the Mayor actually claimed that “enrichment” came out over two to one over class size, whereas smaller classes were chosen by 24% of parents, compared to enrichment at 19%.

Steve Koss, PTA pres. at the Manhattan Center for science and math HS and former CEC member, has just written a devasting expose on our parent blog – showing that parents at nearly 50% of our general ed public schools opted for smaller class sizes over all other nine options – as did parents at more than 55% of our failing schools – many of which continue to have classes of 30 or more.

There’s a lot more fascinating detail in his analysis --check it out at

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2007/10/parent-survey-results-more-spin-spin.html

But first, read the piece in the NY Sun below, and then write a letter to the Post and/or the Sun in support of Diane.

We need people like Diane, strong enough to stand up to the bullies in this administration, more than ever before.

leonie@att.net

www.classsizematters.org

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

Feud 'Twixt Wylde, Ravich Laid to City's Machinations

BY ELIZABETH GREEN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 31, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article

A scathing opinion piece deriding a prominent critic of Mayor Bloomberg's education policies was generated with the help of city officials, sources said yesterday.

The article, written by the president of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, and published in yesterday's New York Post, accuses Diane Ravitch of opposing the Bloomberg administration irrationally, despite formerly supporting the policies it has implemented, perhaps because of a personal grudge. It concludes that Ms. Ravitch is "no longer a source we can rely on for fair-minded commentary."

Ms. Ravitch yesterday said the piece plainly originated from the city's Education Department, calling it a "paid hit job" meant to silence all critics of the Bloomberg administration. "They're trying to intimidate me, and they're trying to silence me, and I'm not going to be silenced," Ms. Ravitch said.

Ms. Wylde said the idea for the piece was her own, but that she wrote it with the help of a research file composed by the Education Department that chronicles Ms. Ravitch's policy positions over the years. The seven-page document, titled "Diane Ravitch: Then and Now," tallies quotations by Ms. Ravitch on nearly a dozen topics, comparing comments she made in the 1990s to statements in recent years.

A spokesman for the department, David Cantor, defended the decision to make a file on Ms. Ravitch. "She's the most influential educational commentator probably in the United States. If she is typically either distorting what we're doing, or if she is reversing long-held opinions in order to attack us — that's an indication that there's something more there than fair-minded observation," Mr. Cantor said.

A former education aide to President George H.W. Bush who has written numerous books on American education, including the definitive history of the New York City schools, Ms. Ravitch was a strong supporter of Mayor Bloomberg's move to take control of the public system but has since ridiculed many of his education efforts.

Ms. Wylde's article accuses her of abandoning former support for more than a handful of policies, including merit-based pay for teachers; increased autonomy for principals; standardized testing as a way to set high expectations for achievement, and even the belief that every child is capable of academic success — all points that appeared in "Diane Ravitch: Then and Now." The reversals, Ms. Wylde writes, "seem more tied to her unhappiness with the personalities in the Bloomberg administration than its policies."

Ms. Ravitch condemned the characterization of "an odd Ravitch turnaround," saying it is grounded in misunderstanding.

The moment her disagreements with Mr. Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, emerged, she said, exemplifies the point. She had indeed long argued for setting a single standard curriculum in the schools, but when Mr. Klein implemented a new reading curriculum around the idea of "balanced literacy," Ms. Ravitch said she balked. Balanced literacy is a method of teaching that mixes phonics and other approaches, but Ms. Ravitch said she had never meant to advocate for a standardized pedagogy. What she wanted, she said, was a single curriculum mandating, for instance, when to teach American history.

Ms. Ravitch said her support for standardized testing has not wavered, either, though she has sniffed at Mr. Klein's emphasis on tests. She said that is because she has lost confidence in the ability of local and state governments to administer fair and reliable tests — the temptation to let political interests affect results is too strong. She said she still supports a national test.

Ms. Ravitch said her most serious concern with the Bloomberg administration is the way it responds to dissent. She said that many educators who are professionally reliant on support from the city, through grants or contracts, fear voicing any differing opinions.

"It's a very sad situation, when people don't feel free to speak their mind," she said.

"The Legislature eliminated the independent board; they eliminated the community boards, and now the mayor and the chancellor are trying to shut down all independent critics," she added. "That's dangerous to democracy."

Ms. Wylde disputed that characterization, citing the city's recent agreements with the teachers and principals unions over merit-based pay as evidence of its ability to cooperate with critics.

She said she and city officials have mulled their frustration with Ms. Ravitch for years, but she said the Bloomberg administration did not ask her to write the article. She said she decided to write it herself after Ms. Ravitch published an opinion piece criticizing a program to bring merit-based pay to public schools — a plan that Ms. Wylde's Partnership is partially financing. She said the attack was reminiscent of other critiques Ms. Ravitch has made against programs supported by the Partnership, which Ms. Wylde said she also felt were unfair.

"The largest fund-raising we have undertaken are in public education," she said. "It's damaging to those projects, to our fund-raising efforts."

The president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said Ms. Wylde's article offended her. "Anybody worth his or her salt in education has been both criticized and praised by Diane Ravitch," Ms. Weingarten said. "That voice should not be silenced."

Another critic of Mr. Bloomberg's education policies, the Manhattan Institute fellow Sol Stern, said: "It's been clear for a while that City Hall and the DOE want to cut off all serious debate about their education policies. But they've never stooped so low as to try to delegitimize the country's leading historian of education."