Common Bore Hysteria: Branding Common Core as Right Wing Conspiracy While Ignoring the Left

I have read the Times consistently my entire adult life and I do not recall a single instance in which two writers [Bill Keller, Paul Krugman] wrote essentially the same article two days in a row on the same subject... Raging Horse

Port Jefferson rally last Sat.

Our pal, Raging Horse (another great MORE member blogger) has followed up other great bloggers on the NY Times hysteria over defending CC (New York Times Editorials Reveal A Complete Ignorance of Common Core).

...two days after a sizable anti-Common Core rally in suburban Port Jefferson, Long Island, the venerable New York Times saw fit to publish not one but two editorials in two days, not merely praising the Common Core State Standards, but attempting to reduce almost all criticism of it to right wing nut jobs like Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. To make matters worse, the editorials were written by Times heavy hitters Bill Keller and, sadly, Paul Krugman. Both articles reveal Keller and Krugman to be completely ignorant of both the Common Core Standards themselves, their genesis, as well as to the ever widening and deepening political opposition to the entire billion-dollar Common Core campaign.

Boy that Port Jefferson rally is scaring the b-Jesus out of the

deformers, as it the general revolt on Long Island, including the Supe in Rockville Center (Carol Burris' turf). Deformers (Diane Ravitch's blog
A Hero Superintendent in Long Island Says: “To Hell with These Scores. They Do Not Matter” -) are using "Glenn Beck hysteria" to try to scare the left into jumping on board. And anti-common core Lawn Signs urging parent to opt-out? Holy shit! We - teachers and parents and anyone who gets what ed deform is all about -- need to play a role in making a massive opt-out movement happen. (Change the Stakes will be leading the way -- next meeting is Tues, 5:30.) If I were running the union I would print a million of these things and blanket the state.

But instead we get this: Mulgrew "Frightened" By Opposition To Common Core with this comment by RBE:

Why should a debate over Common Core frighten you, Mike? Oh, right - I remember now. You head the UFT, an organization which eschews debate, shuts down opposition within the ranks and otherwise works to quell anything and anybody that isn't AFT- and UFT-leadership approved. Well, get ready for a frightful year, Mikey. ... APPR and Common Core are your babies. You were, God help us all, in at the conception of both. 

(Can someone photoshop Randi and Mulgrew as parents giving birth to CC and APPR?)

If one tracks back opposition to the CC it is clear that the uprising came from the left, not the right, which came late to the issue. Witness Susan Ohanian's campaign from DAY 1 years ago. And Leonie Haimson. And I remember when in the initial stages Diane Ravitch took a neutral "wait and see" attitude to study the issue before moving firmly into the "left" wing of opponents.

Ed Notes too took an early stand against CC not because I did any studying or thinking deeply but because of the groups and individuals who were humping it: Duncan/Obama, Gates, Randi, Walcott -- you know when the union and Tweed push something with a heavy hand it is time to run.

(Sorry I don't have the time to find links to the above -- I need to spend time on my deck contemplating my backyard while watching things grow (or try to). Every individual plant needs some cheer leading. And we are also doing some Fringe Festival plays over the last few days.)

Back to business. Right wing states are pulling the plug on support for the CC while the left rallies parents to start opting out -- deny the beast as Karen Lewis told us in Chicago two weeks ago (video will be up this weekend.)

I did a mid-term summary of the bloggers on the issue when Krugman spoke: Jumping All Over Paul Krugman on Common Core

And NYC Educator jumps in with a 3rd NY Times columnist: Charles M. Blow Joins NY Times Common Core Lovefest.

It looks like, in the space of a week, three NY Times columnists have come out swinging in favor of the Common Core. The latest is Charles M. Blow, who I'd previously found thoughtful and worthwhile. His opening salvo informs us we are not keeping up with other countries, yet our lower test scores align precisely with our disgraceful higher poverty levels. 

Back to Raging Horse:

by insinuating that most opposition to the CCSS derives from the far right, the articles are simultaneously an insult to the hundreds of thousands of educators from coast to coast who distrust or even loathe the Common Core and all that it stands for — particularly the very real fear that intrinsically related high stakes testing combined with junk science testing will lead to their termination — as well as to leading education scholars and activists such as Diane Ravitch, Lois Wiener, Gary Rubinstein, Leonie Haimson, Arthur Goldstein, Carol Burris, Anthony Cody, and Susan O’Hanian, to name but a few. Both Keller and Krugman seem oblivious to them all.

For his sake, I hope Krugman, always the most prescient and intrepid of the Times scribes, was drunk when he wrote it so that he might be excused for employing such extravagant or even silly language such as “ entirely praiseworthy” to describe a subject he clearly knows absolutely nothing about. 

Read all of it here.

Political Tidbits: Norm in The Wave, August 23, 2013

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Political Tidbits

By Norm Scott
www.rockawave.com

School Scope began as a column about education. Since Sandy, it has morphed into a mish-mosh. Today I have politics on my mind.

Erich Ulrich in The Wave: “Where have all the hospitals gone?” Did he ask Michael Bloomberg, who he has supported? Fran Lebowitz answered Ulrich’s question: “He thinks of himself as the public health mayor. How many hospitals closed under Bloomberg? Hospitals: that’s public health. Smoking, soda, salt? That’s private health.” Peninsula’s closing was related to free market health scams and St. Johns is in trouble (sorry, next time I fall off a bike and break something I’m going to Maimonides). Ulrich mentions a plan by surging mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio (my leading candidate because Liu or Albanese can’t win – I’ll elaborate next time) calling for the State to use $10 billion in Medicaid savings to modernize hospitals. “Is this the solution,” Ulrich asks? “Maybe not,” he says while applauding de Blasio for suggesting it. Nice way to take a stand. Is Ulrich reluctant to hold government responsible for providing such a basic public service as health care, the usual Republican “let the free market determine?” If Rockaway doesn’t have a hospital it must be our fault because there are not enough rich people to pay for it. What is Ulrich’s plan? Would he support raising taxes on millionaires so Rockaway could have decent health services? Government should be as responsible for health care as it is for fire, police and schooling (fast fading under Bloomberg’s privatization scheme).

Bill Thompson told The Wave how much he cares about Rockaway. He will “explore” reactivation of the Rockaway Beach LIRR line. Translation: study the issue, then toss in to the circular file.  Speaking of Thompson and hospitals, reporter Wayne Barrett exposed ties between Thompson and another millionaire scam artist whose actions have led to the threatened closing of Interfaith Hospital in Bed-Stuy, Thompson’s own neighborhood. Blogger Reality-Based Educator, a NYC teacher told the story in this  headline: “Bill Thompson - Political Hack And Walking Conflict Of Interest.” (http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/07/bill-thompson-political-hack-and.html).

Anthony Weiner, on a visit to The Wave said, “Why do you believe [personal behavior is] relevant to the job of mayor?” Let me get this straight. You engage in risky, insane, irresponsible behavior that blows up your career and harms your family and others in incalculable ways, and you want us to trust you with the lives of 8 million people? I couldn’t care if it was your sexting or the awful way you treat people who work for you or your arrogance. No thanks. But I will say that I like Weiner’s ideas on Rockaway transportation (Weiner has a proven record of having good ideas that he could not execute.) I agree – give up the mythic battle to restore the LIRR line but instead fight to improve what we have - an extra express track and express A trains. (Get rid of the shuttle - Why not an A leaving and returning to B. 116^th St every hour?)

Scott Stringer for Comptroller over Spitzer. Ok, so he couldn’t manage to run a bar 20 years ago but he wants to manage our money. But for an education issue nut like me there are 2 factors that will make me vote for him. As Manhattan Borough president he appointed Patrick Sullivan, the major voice opposing Bloomberg ed policies, to the school board (Panel for Educational Policy). That would be deemed sufficient for me. But he also defeated evil Eva Moskowitz 8 years ago. She might be running for mayor now instead of opening up charter schools while trying to destroy neighborhood schools. But the thought of having her run the city is even scarier – I’d vote for Weiner over her. Besides, if Eliot Spitzer wins, how much pension money will be invested in houses of ill repute? Well, if that would earn 8%....

Leticia James for Public Advocate: Not many people know of her and her chances of winning are not great but I’ve admired her for some time for her stands on charter schools invading public schools and other issues. See her dynamic speech at the December, 2012 Panel for Educational Policy meeting (www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tURc0tBGXw) where she says, “This is nothing more than an attempt to beat the clock to the end of this administration to privatize public schools and bust unions.” If you are involved in education in any way, as teacher or parent or activist or concerned citizen, Tish James is the way to go. (Besides, chief opponent Daniel Squadron is being shilled by the increasingly sleazy Chuck Shumer. 'Nuff said.)

I almost forgot about SCHOOL STUFF.  By now you heard about the disastrous drop in test scores which puts the Bloomberg ed deform back to ground zero as the achievement gap between white/Asian and Black/Latino kids is where it started when Bloomberg became education dictator 12 years ago. Parents will be able to find out the exact scores this week and the fur will fly. It’s all due to the Common Core (or bore) which aims to have every child in the nation doing exactly the same thing at the same time (just joking – sort of). With all the test prep and so many kids vomiting on the tests, we expect the parent opt-out of the test movement (you can opt out you know) to grow this year. If interested, contact changethestakes@gmail.com. The next meeting is Aug. 28, 5:30 at CUNY (34^th St and 5^th Ave – bring id).

Sweetest words of the week: Poll: 2/3 of NY'ers Say Schools Same or Worse Under Bloomberg.  Norm blogs at ednotesonline.com.

Lamenting left attack on de Blasio from the differing left prespectives

We know that the 1%, charter slugs and many others, including the Merryl Tisch/UFT, are jumping on de Blasio for obvious reasons.

These comments popped up on ICE-Mail. First an attack from the right.

I guess people are afraid of him
Click here: De Blasio downtown fund-raising galas eyed as illegal campaign contributions - NY Daily News

Then this lament about the left attack on de Blasio:

Here's the Left (Old? New? Occupy?) doing what is has always done so brutally well— finding fault with one of its own who has ventured outside the cabal.

This article/blog reveals some interesting stuff about NYC Democratic primary mayoral candidate Bill Di Blasio, and the ensuing comments show the Left at its feeding frenzy best, i.e.,  We should abandon Di Blasio (who has a chance of actually becoming mayor) because he is proof that politics, indeed, do make strange bedfellows (bedpersons?), and unearth ( in order to "support") the Green Party candidate who has zero chance of really impacting on the lives of New Yorkers, let alone zero chance of becoming mayor:

http://louisproyect.org/2013/08/16/a-dossier-on-bill-de-blasio/

And a response - which is where I am coming from -- maybe vote for him but still thinking of Sal Albanese (see below). I was thinking of Liu until tonight when we were out with friends, a businessman who dealt with Liu -- not good things to say about honesty. Put your Weiner out there in tweets or try to screw someone -- character still counts for me.

While I may bring myself to vote for De Blasio in the primary, in what universe is he "one of its (the Left's) own?"

He was campaign manager for a carpetbagging Hillary Clinton, and while he may not be as openly vicious and contemptuous of us as Bloomberg - because he happens to need us at the moment - don't think for a minute that if elected he will not be sat down by some Worthy from the New York City Partnership and be told how the world works concerning the schools, zoning/real estate, control of the police, etc.

And he will do what they want.

De Blasio and Bruce Ratner are not strange bedfellows, but power center and affiliated political  broker.

The problem is not the Left cannibalizing its own - which it does do - but liberals and pwogwessives continually deluding themselves about the poses these characters assume during election season. 

Anybody remember "Hope" and "Change?" That didn't turn out too well, did it?

Just as Abby Hoffman said, "Don't buy advertising: make news," the Left should be saying, "Don't pay attention to candidates, make them pay attention to you."

Then these comments about Sal who just maybe is the protest vote even if he can't win. I really don't think the outcomes based on the choices we have will be as different as people think. Best case to teach that lesson is: de Blasio wins and turns into Bloomberg light.

On August 8 (two weeks ago), The NY Times published an editorial about the status of the Albanese campaign:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/opinion/what-about-sal.html?_r=0

August 8, 2013

What About Sal?

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

On Tuesday night voters in New York City will be able to watch a live televised debate in the Democratic campaign for mayor. Five candidates were invited: Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio, William Thompson Jr., John Liu and Anthony Weiner. Sal Albanese was not.

He didn’t meet the eligibility requirement for the debate, which WABC-TV is co-sponsoring with Univision, The Daily News and the League of Women Voters. Invitations were sent in April to the candidates who at the time seemed likely, in the sponsors’ judgment, to raise enough in donations to qualify for matching public funds under New York’s campaign-finance law.

Mr. Albanese, a former City Council member, might eventually qualify for public funds but hasn’t yet, and organizers felt sure in April that he wouldn’t — so he’s out. Mr. Albanese complains that the organizers bent and broke their own rules — first by adding Mr. Weiner, who wasn’t around in April, and then by keeping Mr. Liu, who has no public funds (the New York City Campaign Finance Board voted this week to withhold money from the Liu campaign, citing evidence of fund-raising violations).

Mr. Albanese notes that another big exception was made for the Republican debate, which has only three candidates, two of whom, John Catsimatidis and George McDonald, are not taking public funds. Organizers figured Joseph Lhota couldn’t debate himself, so they invited everybody. They did the same with the comptroller debate between Scott Stringer and the self-financed Eliot Spitzer.

This is a shabby way to treat Mr. Albanese. Yes, he is low in the polls, but he has been a thoughtful contributor to this long, lively campaign. Shame on the organizers, especially the League of Women Voters, for not standing up for Mr. Albanese. They should let voters hear about his plans to fix the schools, his ideas on mass transit, sanitation, public safety, parks. If there is room for only five candidates, then drop Mr. Weiner.

EIA Reports: Weingarten Attacks “Austerity-Mongers” in Speech at Jamaica Resort

Weingarten chose an unfortunate time and place to go after the heartless money-grubbers. The biggest issue currently facing the 24,000-member Jamaica Teachers Association is the disappearance and apparent embezzlement of at least $52 million from its accounts.  ... Educational Intelligence Agency

The big Weingarten stories are her comments on St. Louis (where she wants to help fire "bad" teachers) and Philadelphia where schools are getting the royal screwing from Democratic politicians the AFT local SUPPORTED. Oh well. But this snarky (as usual - which is what we love about anti-union Mike Antonucci) post about Weingarten in Jamaica is so criss.

Note that Randi argues that poverty is important. Did she call for family incomes to be factored into VAM? Just curious since I am a bit out of touch. Let me know if she did.

Mike has the video of Randi up on his site.

Weingarten Attacks “Austerity-Mongers” in Speech at Jamaica Resort

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Intercepts

A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

• About Mike Antonucci

Weingarten Attacks “Austerity-Mongers” in Speech at Jamaica Resort

Written By: Mike Antonucci - Aug• 22•13

 

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten delivered the keynote speech last Monday at the annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers Association, held at the Sunset Jamaica Grande resort in Ocho Rios. She used the occasion to draw parallels between AFT’s situation and that of the JTA.

“I call them ‘austerity-mongers’,” Weingarten said. “They say that education is really important, but then, when we say that family poverty makes a difference, they say that’s an excuse.”

Weingarten chose an unfortunate time and place to go after the heartless money-grubbers. The biggest issue currently facing the 24,000-member Jamaica Teachers Association is the disappearance and apparent embezzlement of at least $52 million (Jamaican) from its accounts (about $512,000 U.S.).

The teacher delegates were further dismayed when it was revealed that the extent of the fraud could, in fact, reach $112 million (about $1.1 million U.S.), as the auditor’s report showed that amount in difference between it and the organisation’s financial statements.
According to the JTA financial statements, the organisation made a surplus of $72 million for the period. However, the auditor’s report reflected a deficit of $40 million.
“How come we don’t hear of anybody being fired or anybody resigning?” one delegate questioned. Another suggested that persons be jailed for the fraud.

That’s a possible theft of $46 U.S. per member. The average Jamaican teacher earns about $18,000 U.S. annually. Four employees of the union’s account department were placed on paid leave during the investigation, with one person of interest, Marlon Francis, still at-large. He is being sought by the Fraud Squad.
It’s not known whether Weingarten offered any advice to JTA from her wealth of experience on how to deal with union fraud, but JTA seems to have learned American communications strategy pretty well. There is no mention of the missing funds on JTA’s web site.

NPE: News on Diane's Book, CPS Bulldozes La Casita in the Night, More States Starting to Question Common Core

Volume 1, Issue: #21 August 22, 2013

Inside NPE News Diane's New Book Opens Heated Dialogue CPS Destroys La Casita Under Cover of Night Philly Gets Grant for Schools to Start On Time States Line Up to Question the Common Core Tennessee Ties Teacher Licensing to Evaluations Tell NPE Your Story As the summer comes to an end, it's the perfect time to reflect on your summer experiences in the fight to save our schools. Send your story to us at networkforpubliceducation @gmail.com and you could appear in our next newsletter!

Greetings! Welcome to the twenty-first edition of our newsletter. This week's newsletter is overflowing with news from across the country, including the CPS demolition of La Casita in Chicago, dire budget cuts and what they'll mean for Philly's schools, and states that are starting to question whether implementing a Common Core curriculum is really a good idea. Plus, Diane's new book is coming soon, and already it is beginning to stir up heated criticism and ardent support. Read it all here!  And like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and JOIN US at our website. Diane's New Book Opens Heated Dialogue Diane's new book draws pre-publication criticism, but why are Diane and others being monitored and ignored? Diane's new book will not be released for another month, but already we are seeing a glimpse of the dialogue it may open up. After Peter Cunningam (Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach in the U.S. Department of Education) published 'Ravitch Redux' online, many of Diane and NPE's supporters popped up immediately to decry Cunningham's piece in blog posts and other social media (we have a list of links to particularly great pieces below).  More importantly than being "shoddy and unsubstantiated," Cunningham's piece points to a significant truth: Diane and other members of the fight to save our schools are being systematically monitored and ignored by education officials. Cunningham and others are clearly hearing the critiques posed by Diane and other members of the genuine education reform community. However, instead of listening to any opposing opinions, Cunningham and others are choosing to monitor dissenters and attack any criticisms of their corporately backed policies. In his piece 'Monitored and Ignored--Ravitch and the Rest of Us,' Anthony Cody suggests one way that we can fight this phenomenon: preorder Diane's book now, and when you do so, order an extra copy and send it to your Congress person or state legislator. We must raise our voices and change the status quo, go from from being 'monitored and ignored' to watched and listened to.  Here are some more well-written and provocative pieces we encourage you to read about the attack on Diane's book: 'Fifty Shades of Ravitch: A Book Review' by Reclaim Reform  'Just When You Think It's Safe to Go Back into the Media' by Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face  'Arne Duncan Sics His Flying Monkeys on Diane Ravitch' by NYC Educator CPS Destroys La Casita Under Cover of Night Pilsen community woke up on Saturday to find out its community center will be replaced with a private school's soccer field A dad holds a moving bulldozer away from La Casita at Whittier Elementary School. (Photo courtesy of Tracy Barrientos via Xian Barrett.) On Saturday morning, Chicagoans woke up to the sound of bulldozers approaching La Casita, the field house belonging to Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen. The demolition of the field house by the CPS caused uproar among members of the school community. Twitter and Instagram were bombarded by the tags #Whittier and #LaCasita. The Internet was quickly ablaze with pictures of parents and students protesting the demolition crews and security guards holding them back. Whittier Elementary School is not any ordinary school-it is a school with an incredibly strong community and history of intensely engaged parents.  In 2010, parents staged a 43-day sit-in to save the school's field house, which was also used as a makeshift library for the students and a volunteer-run community center. At the time, the community won and the CPS agreed to keep the field house in place. Anger over the demolition increased as new information came to light. Members of the community were outraged when they discovered that Mayor Emmanuel plans to replace the community center with a soccer field that will serve a neighboring private school, Cristo Rey.  Parents from the previous sit-in still have a letter in hand from the CPS in which it promises to renovate, not demolish, the field house. Not only did the CPS break this promise, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered the demolition without even acquiring a legally required permit to do so. The CPS claims that it was within its rights to tear down the building, but many are questioning the legality of the action, pointing to the fact that the CPS felt the need to hide the demolition by holding it overnight. Despite legal concerns and previous promises, the CPS ultimately did demolish La Casita, after which members of the Pilsen community held a vigil for their beloved community center. Without a doubt, this demolition will only increase the already extremely high tensions between Chicago school communities and the CPS.  Philly Gets Grant for Schools to Start On Time Philadelphia's schools will open on time, but at what cost? The Philadelphia Student Union is one of many groups protesting major cuts in funding and staffing for Philly's public schools. This week brought with it more news on how dire the financial crisis for Philadelphia's public schools really are. Faced with a $304 million budget shortfall for the district, the city managed to receive a $50 million grant that will allow it to continue functioning. The first day of school will not be delayed, but at what cost? Parents protest that while the $50 million grant may allow schools to open, it is not nearly enough to allow schools to continue holding classes and extracurricular programs that students need. "Nobody is talking about what it takes to get a child educated. It's just about what the lowest number is needed to get the bare minimum," says Helen Gym, who has 3 children in the city's public schools. "That's what we're talking about here: the deliberate starvation of one of the nation's biggest school districts." Many agree with Grey's assessment of the situation, including Philly's public school students, who have begun to unionize and protest the district. The students argue that the city is looking for how it can spend as little as possible on public school students, regardless of whether the amount will suffice to provide the students with a good education.  To follow this story further, please visit our website, where you can also read the story 'Why America Should Care About Philadelphia's Children.' States Line Up to Question the Common Core NY, Florida, Maine newest states to hesitate on implementation FACCE is one of several groups that are protesting planned Common Core implementation in Florida. According to a recent PDK-Gallup poll, a well-regarded annual poll, most parents dislike high-stakes testing, a practice that has become increasingly implemented in recent years. This poll comes at a time when states are beginning to implement harsher standards for high-stakes testing, based on the Common Core curriculum. There have been many critiques of the Common Core curriculum, including fears that it replaces ELA curriculum substance with test prep and that its test implementation is almost exclusively in the hands of mega-publisher Pearson, a company that has committed quite a few mistakes in its testing practices and score reporting.  Up until now, higher-up officials and politicians have been largely dismissive of Common Core critiques. However, some states that have announced that they will implement the Common Core are beginning to have doubts.  In New York, critics of both the Common Core and high-stakes testing have been protesting both practices after a statewide test based on Common Core standards caused New York's test scores to drop 30% from last year. On Saturday, 1,500 people gathered in Long Island to denounce the Common Core. Now, the New York legislature is holding hearings in September to review testing practices and revisit whether the Common Core is worth implementing.  In Maine, two groups announced this week that they are looking to hold a statewide vote to repeal the implementation of the Common Core standards, a move that is the first of its kind in the country. The Maine Equal Rights Center and No Common Core Maine plan to submit a ballot measure proposal to the state to repeal the standards. In Florida, the Common Core standards have invited criticism from school communities, and a group called Florida Parents Against Common Core is urging Floridians to call state officials and protest the implementation of Common Core Standards. Furthermore, Common Core standards have caused political turmoil within the state's Republican party. Conservatives and Tea Party groups are outraged by the standards, claiming that implementing national standards is a mistake because curricular decisions should be made by state governments and local elected school boards. Tennessee Ties Licensing to Evaluations Photo by Ron Cogswell, Creative Commons license. Many states have begun to tie teacher evaluations to teacher salary and tenure, a practice that is critiqued by teachers and school communities as unfair. These evaluations are poor measurements of ability, they say, as they are based on arbitrary evidence such as students'  test scores and do not take classroom practices into consideration.  While many are arguing that teacher evaluations should play a less significant role in serving teachers consequences such as decreased salary and lost tenure opportunities, some states are actually making the stakes higher in teacher evaluations. Most noticeably, this week Tennessee announced that it plans to tie teacher evaluations to certification, taking away teaching licenses from teachers whose students perform poorly on standardized tests--a practice that has been found to be unjust. The Tennessee Education Association strongly opposed the move, and protested at hearings and forums held to discuss the plan.  The plan was approved earlier this week, but critics insist that they will continue to fight the decision. Tell NPE  Your Story   NPE wants to hear from you! We would like to publish real stories about the effects of misguided school reforms on our Friends & Allies. Please share this and send responses to networkforpubliceducation@gmail.com. Please forward this newsletter far and wide!    In solidarity,   The Network For Public Education

Brian D'Agostino in DN: Mike’s school management muddle: Choice vs. centralization—a contradiction

I've known Brian for about a decade.  I know his story and that of people in his family. He's seen the bad and the ugly of Bloomberg's management of the school system. I so believe there's some good  - which I believe an archeologist one day may find vestiges of one day.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/mike-school-management-muddle-article-1.1433726

Mike’s school management muddle:

Choice vs. centralization—a contradiction

By Brian D'Agostino / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, August 22, 2013, 11:19 AM

No future mayor can improve New York’s public schools without a sound evaluation of the Bloomberg legacy. Yet none of the politicians and pundits who have spoken at length on this subject has noticed the fundamental contradiction at the heart of this mayor’s entire school reform experiment.

On the one hand, Mayor Bloomberg has aggressively promoted choice in the form of charter and other small schools and an open market for hiring teachers. On the other hand, he has aggressively negated choice by centralizing key decision-making about individual schools in the chancellor’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters.

This concentration of power has taken many forms. For example, the chancellor has chosen to close dozens of schools with little input from their stakeholders, often over their strenuous objections. His administration has also converted the hiring of principals and assistant principals — which previously included significant input from teachers and parents — into a process typically dominated by centrally appointed “network leaders.”

Who, then, is really empowered to determine educational quality — the local stakeholders, as the rhetoric about choice suggests, or the educrats at Tweed?

For Bloomberg, this contradiction does not exist. He believes that educational quality can be reduced to numerical data and that rational decisions — whether by policymakers or stakeholders — should be driven by those numbers. The most important of these metrics are gains on state test scores for the lower grades and four-year graduation rates for high schools.

These “hard data” provide the mayor and chancellor with an educational equivalent of the corporate bottom line. And just as Wall Street evaluates companies by the criterion of profit, the administration has chosen which schools to close and which educators to reward and fire primarily on the metric of test scores or graduation rates. If stakeholders don’t agree with these decisions, it must be because they have a vested interest in a dysfunctional status quo.

There is something seriously wrong with this picture. If teachers can lose their jobs or receive merit pay based on improvements or declines in test scores, many will focus on raising the scores even if it means neglecting their students’ individual learning needs. This corruption of instruction will then corrupt the data, because teaching to the test or cheating can produce better data than putting children first, invalidating comparisons between teachers based on the test scores.

The same applies to principals and schools. Test scores and graduation rates provide at best a partial picture of educational quality and at worst can be highly unreliable and misleading.

There is a better way: Truly believe in the language of parental choice you endlessly recite.

Free educators to do the best jobs they can, then let stakeholders decide what is good or bad about their own schools and what should be done to improve them. Some teachers and parents think that traditional skill-building is the essence of a good education; others emphasize progressive pedagogy and critical thinking. Some think high test scores are important; others prefer portfolio-type assessments.

Let a thousand flowers bloom. The Common Core testing fiasco shows what happens when educrats impose centrally planned systems. If a school is bad by any criteria, teachers won’t want to work there and parents won’t want to keep their children there. A school of choice that does not meet the needs of its stakeholders will lose enrollment until it has to close its doors. There is no need or value for policymakers to play God on the basis of centrally managed, “objective” criteria.

Bloomberg’s unprecedented arrogation of power over the public school system has gone hand in hand with an unprecedented expansion of testing, test preparation, data collection and incentive systems. Research has shown some improvement in test scores under this regime, but this may mean that students have received more testlike instruction, not that they have learned more.

Meanwhile, teacher morale has plummeted, good principals are leaving the system and students and parents have become more alienated from their schools than ever before.

The next mayor needs to break with this paradigm. Instead of a school system that holds educators accountable for their test scores to remote power holders, New York needs a system in which administrators, teachers, parents and students hold one another accountable for quality, as defined by the stakeholders themselves.

D’Agostino teaches history at Empire State College and taught for 11 years in New York City public schools. He is author of The Middle Class Fights Back: How Progressive Movements Can Restore Democracy in America .

Christine Quinn's campaign events are "EMBARGOED UNTIL DATE AND TIME OF EVENT"

Why Is Christine Quinn Hiding Public Appearances from the Public? Every morning I receive an email from Azi Paybarah with the best coverage of NYC politics at Capital New York.

And he always lists the campaign appearances of all the candidates.
Except Christine Quinn where this appears.

Christine Quinn's campaign events are "EMBARGOED UNTIL DATE AND TIME OF EVENT"

Which means the press knows but are not allowed to tell anyone till the event actually takes place.

Below that we actually get to see where all the other candidates will be today - and every day. Except for Quinn.

Jumping All Over Paul Krugman on Common Core

Is it my fault that the other day I challenged Krugman to bring his sensible analysis to education issues (Howler Howls at Krugman and Press Corps)? I compared him so favorably to his  nincompoop NY Times fellow columnists Brooks and Kristof? Ooops! Krugman must have heard me, but his sensibility deserted him.

The blogging crew is out in full force, leaving me nothing much to say - other than a message to Michael Oppenheimer (Leonie's husband) who teaches at Princeton with Krugman: get him straight on what is going on.

NYC Educator

Krugman Becomes a Duncan Dittohead - It's pretty suspicious that, on the eve of Diane Ravitch's book release, the dunces are in confederacy against her, and for Common Core. It's particular...

Raginghorseblog

New York Times Editorials Reveal A Complete Ignorance of Common Core - But two days after a sizable anti-Common Core rally in suburban Port Jefferson, Long Island, the venerable New York Times saw fit to publish not one but tw...

 

Daily Howler: What is Bill Keller talking about!

 

Perdido: Photos From Port Jefferson "StudentsNotScores" Rally

Via the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association site, here are some great photos from Saturday's rally at Comsewogue High School against the Common Core testing regime:  

Perdido: Education Reformers Are Trying To Smear Common Core Critics As Know-Nothings And Cretins Former NY Times editor and current columnist Bill Keller attacked opponents to th

Here Comes Student Ratings of Teachers (Grades 3-12) as Part of Teacher Eval

I personally wouldn't mind having students tell me what they think -- it would sensitize me to their point of view. But do it this way? No way.

Leonie sent this hot potato along.

I have a real problem with any [very expensive] survey like this that does not control for the factor of class size.  I have emailed Ferguson in the past  -- the Harvard prof who developed this survey -- with no response.

The state required that the results of this survey be part of the teacher eval system w/out the UFT's consent.

Stories
http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2013/08/19/students-teachers/

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that the committee voted on the contract on August 19, the committee will vote on the contract on August 26.

City students will begin grading their teachers under the new teacher evaluation system rolling out next school year.

On Monday, the New York City Department of Education’s Committee on Contracts will vote on a one-year, $5.9 million contract for a system of student surveys that will allow 3rd through 12th graders to evaluate their teachers.

While during the first year of the new teacher evaluation system the results of these surveys will not be included in the teacher evaluation formula, next year teachers’ marks on these surveys will account for five of the 60 percent of teacher evaluation scores not determined by student performance on state tests.

With more than 700,000 students enrolled in city public schools in those grades, the year-one survey contract will cost about $8 a student.

The Tripod student survey of teachers, created by a Harvard economist, will go to every 3rd to 12th grader starting this school year. The above is a sample from a Gates Foundation–sponsored study.

The city will be contracting with Cambridge Education LLC of Westwood, Mass., a division of the Mott MacDonald Group, a global consulting firm, for the services. While Dr. Ronald Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, developed the program, Cambridge Education owns the intellectual property and is the sole licensed provider of the surveys.

Ferguson’s program, called the Tripod Project, asks students questions aimed at evaluating their teachers on the “Seven Cs:” caring about students, captivating students, conferring with students, controlling behavior, clarifying lessons, challenging students and consolidating knowledge. (Some past Tripod surveys can be found here.)

In its promotional documents, Cambridge Education asserted that “no observer, no matter how well trained, has more first-hand experience than the students in any particular classroom. Tripod student survey assessments are designed to capture key dimensions of classroom life and teaching practice as students experience them, first-hand in real time.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching program, which sought to develop and test different measures of teacher effectiveness, tested the usefulness of these student surveys in 2010, giving 100,000 students Tripod surveys. Researchers found a positive correlation between high ratings on the student surveys of teachers and high rankings on teacher observations by superiors and growth in standardized test scores.

Other research has come to different conclusions. The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards & Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Education & Information Studies found no correlation between Tripod survey results and student performance on standardized tests, though did suggest the surveys were valuable nonetheless.

Cambridge Education is the only teacher-evaluation firm currently authorized by the state education department to conduct such surveys in local districts, which have the option of adopting them. In the case of New York City, however, the state ordered that these evaluations be a part of the teacher evaluation plan it created through binding arbitration between the teachers’ union and the city, after they failed to reach a deal.

According to Jonathan Burman, a New York State Education Department spokesman, the city requested that Tripod be a part of the evaluation system.

Encouraged by the Gates study, the New York City Department of Education first started using the Tripod program in some of the schools that participated in a Teacher Effectiveness pilot program. The UFT has been against the use of student surveys since and objected to their use in the teacher evaluation system.

In 2012, Gotham Schools reported that United Federation of Teachers Secretary Michael Mendel said that the union’s position was that it is wrong to ask students to make high-stakes decisions about their teachers because it could incite teachers to put students’ approval first.

Cambridge Education has a history of working with the state education department. In 2012, the state used federal stimulus dollars to enter into a contract with the company for the design of a principal evaluation system.

New York is not alone in embracing Tripod. Hawaii will spend $1.1 million next year for the surveys, while Memphis schools will spend $500,000. In Connecticut, districts may elect to have 5 percent of their teacher’s scores be based on Tripod results. Santa Rosa County, Florida, will do the same.

While New York City will only be using the surveys in grades 3 through 12, Cambridge Education offers surveys for students in grades Kindergarten through 12.

Why Leticia James for Public Advocate? Watch this Video

This is nothing more than an attempt to beat the clock to the end of this administration to privatize public schools and bust unions... Tish James at PEP, Dec. 2012.

Leticia James for Public Advocate

This Friday is the last day that she can take in campaign contributions before the primary.http://www.letitiajames2013.com/
 
Not many people know of her and her chances of winning are not great but I’ve admired her for some time for her stands on charter schools invading public schools and other issues.
If you are involved in education in any way, as teacher or parent or activist or concerned citizen, Tish James is the way to go. (Besides, chief opponent Daniel Squadron is being shilled by the increasingly sleazy Chuch Shumer. 'Nuff said.)

See her dynamic speech at the December, 2012 Panel for Educational Policy meeting.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tURc0tBGXw