Isn’t it Amazing When Deformers Pull Back the Curtain?

Sometimes you just happen to come across individuals in positions of power who show their hand and speak the truth at inconvenient moments. Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children, one of the many well-funded, manipulative organizations that play three card monte with the public dropped this revealing moment. At a recent Aspen Institute funded event, Edelman gloats over how they bamboozled their way past any ethical restraint in order to push forward unjust legislation.

Little Birdies, Racing to the Top!

So the US Department of Education has decided to initiate a competition addressing early education, children-at-risk and  Kindergarten readiness through–(sound the horns) more standards and assessment!  Early Childhood Education advocates and teachers heave a collective groan and pained sigh, and are left wondering just why money will be devoted to assessment rather than universal access to preschool.  Residents of Birdland weigh in on the DOE and its secretary, Barne Turducken.

“RIF Now, Pay Later”

cross-posted from the SOS March Blog

The following video was directed by Bob Arnold, a teacher at Roy Romer Middle School in Los Angeles. The school faces a 25% reduction of its staff because of budget cuts. This video incredible on a number of levels– it’s a beautiful testament to the talent of the school’s teachers and students, as well as an incredible demonstration of unity in the face of short-sighted public policy. Well done, RRMS– and here’s hoping it’s NOT too late to save your teachers and your school.

Still Stunned

Secretary Barne Turducken weighs in on the stunning revelations of this week that there is, wait for it,  evidence of cheating on tests so that schools and districts can make AYP and not suffer penalties from State and Federal governments.  But he’s not the only one who is stunned as you shall see:

Stunned?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is reportedly “stunned” by stories confirming cheating on test scores in Atlanta Public Schools.  Why is he stunned that school district cultures are heading in this direction?  Is he unaware of the laws that mandate closing of schools that are consistently low-performing on state tests?  When asked in the interview linked above, Duncan says he thinks such cheating is actually “very isolated” and he blames a systemic problem.  Does he not follow the news in education?

Another open letter to Arne

Regular (and even casual) readers know we’re big fans of open letters to our Secretary of Education around here. There’s an excellent one running on The Answer Sheet today, which I encourage everyone to read.

From the letter, written by a New York principal (if you’ve read it, scroll to the bottom of this post for an action idea!):

I am certain that you know that there are many educators across this nation who quietly and generously go above and beyond each day for their students. Some work in very difficult circumstances in schools that are overwhelmed by poverty and truly do not have the resources to serve their students well. Others, like me, are lucky enough to work in well-resourced districts with more limited numbers of students who have great need. I know that you would not want to deliberately harm the work that we do.

However, the punitive evaluation policies that New York State has adopted (and that many other states have adopted) due to the Race to the Top competition are doing just that. It is a dangerous gamble that might score political points but it will hinder what you and I and so many others want—better schools for our kids. We already know from research that reforms based on high stakes testing do not improve long-term learning.

Welcome (Back)!

(Re-published July 2011 for new readers. Originally published January 4, 2011.)

Dear Readers,

Happy 2011, everyone! Thanks for visiting and reading.

Though I’m not in the classroom this year, I still have that teacherly habit of taking a moment to review the rituals and routines of our space after returning from a break, so that’s what I’ll be doing here. I hope that frequent readers and newer ones alike will find it useful, as I’ve tried to include a round-up of what we do, why we do it, as well as some of the most useful and popular things we’ve done so far.

Why ‘Failing Schools’?

I started this blog/project last spring, as the two years I spent as a teacher in Denver Public Schools drew to a close. Though I absolutely loved (and still love!) teaching, my students, (most of) my colleagues, and the community I served, the experience of working for an organization that is often reactive and short-sighted (and self-serving, overly politicized, and downright corrupt at its worst) was hands-down the most negative experience of my life. (People who know the full extent of my personal history know just how strong a statement that is.)

The muddy process of discovery in DPS (updated, with photo)

Today I finally looked closely at my district’s teacher appreciation gift to us, one which, by the way, arrived well after the end of Teacher Appreciation Week.  We were given a plastic tumbler equipped with lid and straw which has a Mark Van Doren quote affixed to it, declaring: “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”  Those are nice words, and ones worth applying in my own teaching practice, yet they have an ironic ring to them considering the source sharing them.   My distaste for the contradictory use of this quote stems from DPS’ ongoing, increased lack of transparency.  Imprinting the quote on the tumblers may suggest that the discovery process is important to DPS leadership, but recent actions tend to muddy the water, provoking additional questions, rather than answering the ones at hand.  For example:

Fraud & abuse in FL voucher schools (updated)

I nearly vomited* while reading the Miami New Times’ account of some of the horrors taking place in Florida’s poorly regulated voucher school system, under the McKay scholarship program that gives tuition vouchers to special needs students. Abuses like these are a prime example of why it is so important to have a robust, healthy public school system, with real oversight by officials who are directly accountable to the public. De-regulating that system doesn’t typically encourage innovation, as privatization proponents argue; at best, most of these schools do no better than the schools with which they’re meant to compete. But often, de-regulation does encourage fraud. (According to the article, administrators receiving tax-payer funds for voucher schools include “criminals convicted of cocaine dealing, kidnapping, witness tampering, and burglary.”)

An excerpt from this chilling article (emphasis added):

Breaking the Code on Buzzwords

Money helps campaigns succeed and so do strong messages, especially when the messages are adopted and promoted by large sectors of the public.  Consider  sound bites such as the following: “Take back America”, “Yes we can”, “Drill, baby drill”–all uttered by public figures with publicly stated agendas. Like them or not, the above statements are clearly presented for approval– to debate or to support. However, there are more insidious campaigns taking place through coded messages, many of them sponsored by people with big money and big agendas.  People aren’t really aware that a campaign is occurring because the money goes quietly into multiple sources, spreading the message through media and through apparently well-meaning “grassroots” movements, often preying on sincerely good-intentioned people. Such messages start to emerge in a seemingly spontaneous manner, like a pop song that’s played everywhere you go.  Often we don’t even pay close attention because it seems agreeable and harmless enough.