Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ravitch on American Education

Diane Ravitch has delivered a serious blow to the proposed and seriously misguided Obama/Duncan market reforms for education with her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Routinely described as the nation's preeminent educational historian and a former proponent for many of the school reforms now in vogue, Ravitch traces her radical about face on school choice, testing, merit pay, and almost all of what No Child Left Behind brought us. She makes a compelling case that if the proposed Obama/Duncan reforms are followed, America's public schools will be the worse for it.

Diane kindly offered me a review copy of the book. It came in a week ago, but I took my time reading, rereading, highlighting, annotating, and totally devouring the excellent volume before finally writing a review, Diane Ravitch: The Death and Life of the Great American School System. While I won't reproduce the whole review here, let me share a bit from it where "she boldly addresses issues that I believe reformers and every administration after LBJ and the Great Society have been afraid to tackle because they have proved so unchangeable:"

...the authors of the [NCLB] law forgot that parents are primarily responsible for their children's behavior and attitudes. It is families that do or do not ensure that their children attend school regularly, that they are in good health, that they do their homework, and that they are encouraged to read and learn. But in the eyes of the law, the responsibility of the family disappears. Something is wrong with that. Something is fundamentally wrong with an accountability system that disregards the many factors that influence students' performance on an annual test - including the students' own efforts - except for what teachers do in the classroom for forty-five minutes or an hour a day.

Update:

Two related articles by Diane Ravitch have popped up on the web since I wrote the posting above. On her and Deborah Meier's Bridging Differences blog on Education Week, Diane writes about What I Did Not Recant or Abandon. On the Wall Street Journal, it's Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform.

Amazon appears to have sold out of its initial stock of The Death and Life of the Great American School System! But both Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million appear to still have the book in stock.

Investing in Innovation Fund (i3)

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan yesterday announced the "final priorities and the grant application for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund (i3)." Final Rules Unveiled for 'i3' Innovation Fund on Education Week relates changes made in the new program after the public comment period. School systems and non-profits working with school systems may apply for scale-up, validation, or development grants.

• DOE press release: Secretary Duncan Releases Application for $650 Million to Support Innovation
• Investing in Innovation Fund Fact Sheet (Oct., 2009)

Odds 'n' End

"I ripped the Obama sticker off of my truck. We worked hard for this man, we talked to our neighbors and our fellow teachers about why we should support him, and we’re having to dig the knife out of our back."

That's a quote from Zeph Capo of the Houston Federation of Teachers in Steven Greenhouse and Sam Dillon's School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President. Zeph's comment is in reference to the President Obama's support of the superintendent firing of the total teaching staff at Central Falls High School as part of her implementation of a Rhode Island school reform plan.

The agony of family homework by Boston Globe correspondent Nancy Shohet West is a good and humorous read.

Susan Carpenter's As LAUSD tightens belt, 'green' resolution helps trim water, energy costs in the Los Angeles Times tells some good news from a district that desperately needs it.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Copyright and Fair Use Webinar Tonight

PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 are sponsoring a free webinar tonight at 8 P.M. (EST), Copyright & Fair Use in the Art World and the Classroom. Experts will discuss the implications of copyright and Fair Use laws in the classroom and share best practices in student media production. From Wikipedia: "Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship."

Rhee Firing Folks...Again

An item by Leah Fabel from the Washington Examiner, Rhee fires 18 special ed workers, first caught my eye. But it appears that Candi Peterson had the story first on her The Washington Teacher blog. From both reports it appears that at least eighteen people have lost their jobs at the D.C. Schools either through a layoff or being fired outright. While the terminations may be budget related, it's unsettling that both articles referenced emails from co-workers that related most of the people who lost their jobs were African-American and "were outspoken in their concern for DCPS practices."

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Common Core State Standards

Another draft of the Common Core State Standards was released yesterday and is "open for public comment through April 2, before final versions are published later in the spring." Valerie Strauss's The problem(s) with the Common Core standards gives the best commentary I've seen on the ongoing process.

• New York Times: Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools by Sam Dillon
• Education Week: Draft Common Standards Elicit Kudos and Criticism by Catherine Gewertz
• The Washington Post: Governors, state school superintendents propose common academic standards by Nick Anderson

Odds 'n' Ends

Rural schools need more federal attention on eSchool News tells of a new report (706K PDF document) by the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) that attempts to draw government attention to the needs of rural schools. The report highlights rural school advantages while also noting teenage dropout and unemployment rates and challenges unique to rural schools.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Friday Blues

I've been searching for a catchy, upbeat diversion from some of the really depressing items recently posted here on Educators' News. Valerie Strauss's Why Obama, Duncan should read Linda Darling-Hammond’s new education book was definitely newsworthy, but also reflects the same dreary news of the misdirection of the Obama/Duncan education plan. Valerie must have had her coffee yesterday, as she cranked out five blog postings over the course of the day. And of course, reading the post cost me $29: $15 for Darling-Hammond's The Flat World and Education and $14 more for another title so I could "save" using Amazon's Free Super Saver Shipping. And when I clicked into my Amazon Associates account to create the text ads for the titles, my $0.04 commissions so far for the month of March greeted me.

I should have known better than to click into The Reflective Educator's The School Day Part I and Part II on his Filthy Teaching blog. They predictably turned out to be a recounting of part of one of his days teaching at DCPS. It's a story that needs telling, but not what I needed today.

Incidents, Birthdays & Fingernail Polish on Bellringers produced a diverting list of names for a fingernail polish color collection devoted to teachers. Can't I Get It Now on I'm a Dreamer is an interesting anecdote about a reluctant reader wanting another book NOW.

Had I wanted well written sarcasm or satire, Let's Fire All the Teachers on The Classroom Post and guest blogger Bruce W. on pay-for performance on John Spencer's Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher should have done the trick.

eSchool News's Critics: Obama’s ed policies no better than Bush’s told me what I already knew and probably what put me into my Friday Funk. But it's sub-head carried some heavy duty names: "Ravitch, Rothstein, and Berliner gang up on Obama's approach to education, charging the new policies are just as bad as his predecessor’s were."

Then the phone rang. Or rather, a funny ringtone sounded downstairs. Since my iPhone only carries one custom ringtone, Love At First Sight for my lovely wife, I knew Annie had forgotten her cellphone again. Checking the caller's number from her iPhone, I called her office number only to get her away-from-desk recording. That's not surprising, as she's an incredibly talented and busy computer tech working for a large, regional banking concern. But she did see my call when she got to the office and called to see if I'd had The Big One.

Love at first sight I know that this can't be happening No, not to someone like me Love at first sight So rare, and so exciting I only hope this love we found can last

In the course of our call, she once again made my day. (She does every day. :-) But this time, Annie had read a page in Time Magazine that I'd missed. Vivienne Walt's School Lunches in France: Nursery-School Gourmets should bring a smile to your face...unless you're heading for your school's cafeteria.

Odds 'n' Ends

It's been a depressing week. I guess today's posting sorta reflects that.

I really wasn't terribly happy with my review on Tuesday of Diane Ravitch's new book, but couldn't seem to do any better. Then I launched into a piece I'd begun writing in November, 2008, entitled Keeping the Pressure On. It began:

We've just finished an incredible election season where America once again "threw the bums out." Not enough time has passed, though, for the bums to have left Washington, D.C., and I find that I'm already having some qualms about the new group coming in!

This revelation may come as a surprise to frequent readers of Educators' News, as I was an early supporter of Senator Barack Obama's bid for the presidency. But a recent Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times, Obama and Our Schools, got me going.

President-Elect Obama is facing more problems than anyone should, so it may seem a bit premature for me to begin offering my sometimes caustic "suggestions" on education to the incoming Obama Administration.

I had stopped writing at that point, other than adding some random notes from time to time until a few weeks ago. I really felt our then new President deserved some time to get his feet on the ground without any of my helpful suggestions in print.

But a few weeks ago, I had an offer to do something for a national publication dealing with education "reform," and I thought this piece would fit. I'm sorry to keep putting the word "reform" in quotes, but the Obama/Duncan plan isn't education reform. It may be, as others have written, Bush III or NCLB 2.0. But more than anything else, I believe it's the wrong direction that will lead to another lost opportunity to do something positive to improve America's public schools. It may, in fact, lead to the near destruction of public education as we know it.

Just working on the piece made me realize that I can't be categorized any more as an Obama supporter. I know adequate health care will greatly improve our lot in the classroom and for our nation's poor. But his course on education, the deals with the drug companies on health care, and the pampering of financial institutions who caused the current recession that is nearly killing our schools have been enough to move me from my longstanding role as a bleeding heart, liberal Democrat into the ranks of independents who may or may not support an Obama re-election bid. (And no, I'm not joining the crazies and joining a tea party.)

I subbed on Wednesday in one of my favorite classrooms in a "failing school." When you walk into the school, it exudes a feeling of warmth, purpose, and even family. It's anything but a failing school in any other metric than Annual Yearly Progress. The rumor that the school may be closed and it's students dispersed to other "successful" schools in the district or reconstituted as a charter, with an excellent administrator and staff dismissed, really made me sad. But during the day, one of the non-verbal students with autism grabbed my hand to help him, with hand over hand assistance, print his first name. He then proceeded to arrange a set of four letters on cards into his name. While that victory will never be measured in AYP, it was incredible progress for this student.

A highlight of the week was a visit by one of our daughters, Erica, and her beau, who just returned from a deployment in Haiti. Another highlight was the most striking rainbow I've ever seen as I drove into town yesterday to mail a letter to our President. The letter was just an exercise for me, as I realize that the President and Secretary of Education have their game plan and will follow it to the letter unless forced to change. I have little confidence in Congress to effect such a change and only faint hope that the influence of wonderful folks like Linda Darling-Hammond, Diane Ravitch, Walt Gardner, Larry Cuban, Valerie Strauss, and the Broader, Bolder Approach will sway the administration from their current misguided proposals, programs, and "contests." Like Bonnie Tyler on the Footloose soundtrack cut, I guess I'm Holding Out for a Hero in education and our President isn't him. I really think that hero is going to have to be America's parents and teachers.

So Very Wrong

I really thought I was done with all the silliness of education reform today when a CEC Smartbrief came in with a link to the article National Academic Standards Call For Higher Bar In Special Education. The key paragraph from the article summarizes a draft of the introduction to the Common Core Standards. It's one of those things that happens when folks who've never taught students with special needs start trying to set policy for special education.

Special education students should be held to grade level standards in order to succeed beyond high school graduation, an introduction to the draft indicates. While students with disabilities will likely require appropriate supports and accommodation, standards should only be compromised in cases where students have “significant cognitive disabilities” and after such students are offered numerous ways to learn and express their knowledge.

This proposal is so wrong that I'm just about beyond rational words, so let me repost something appropriate I used here on February 1, 2010:

James Farwell, an educational psychologist from San Francisco, unloads in Fixing our failing schools in the San Francisco Chronicle. He writes:

Those who are the furthest removed from the classroom are the ones who create laws that impact our children's learning. Think tanks, special interest groups and politicians are the ones who have created one failed program after another over the past 40 years.

Farwell, without mentioning the President or Secretary of Education by name, takes direct aim at the Administration's current education "improvement plan" when he writes, "Top-down decision making will fail every time." He concludes, "Educational policy needs to be made by those who actually work with children and know what works - not by members of think tanks, special interest groups or politicians."

I'd suggest the folks working on national standards need to get out of their conference rooms and into some special education classrooms, or at the very least, talk to some special education teachers. "Grade level standards" can be a vicious weapon when applied to young learners several years behind their peers.

Note: The final item here has been edited since its original posting. Thanks, Ed.

Have a great weekend!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Saturday's Remorse

Having violated several of my rules of publication yesterday, gotten myself in trouble with my wife for posting a picture of her that she doesn't like, and possibly offending several readers with my "loading dock" vocabulary and my tastes in music, I return today properly chastised. After a kind email from a frequent reader late last night, I removed the offensive language from my angry posting about the special education requirements included in the introduction to the current draft of the Common Core State Standards. The photo and music references remain.

Besides my improprieties in publication standards yesterday, a couple of items this morning are worthy of a Saturday posting.

Obama’s Contradictions on Education

An excellent blog posting by Valerie Strauss appeared this morning on her The Answer Sheet, Obama’s contradictions on education. Noting that the President has repeatedly said his goal "is to make sure that every child has a quality education and the opportunity to graduate from college," Strauss takes the President and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the woodshed for implementing and proposing education policies that "cannot ever reach this goal."

Strauss reminds us of the President's abandonment of a frequent campaign promise: "Stop high-stakes standardized testing from driving our public education system." She points out that Secretary Duncan's Race to the Top contest has "encouraged practices in school districts that were unsuccessful in No Child Left Behind in closing the achievement gap - including a continued obsession with high-stakes standardized tests."

But her real target in the posting is the "obscene...way the Race to the Top has been structured." She writes:

Contests have winners and losers, but in this case, the losers aren’t adults who couldn’t answer a fifth grade science question correctly. In this competition, the losers are school children in states where the adults either did not know how to play Duncan’s game, or chose not to follow his rules.

The only way that poorly performing students will ever have a chance of doing better is if public schools are equitably funded. That means that they have the same resources, the same highly qualified teachers, as the best systems in the country.

A contest with winning and losing states is by its very definition unable to accomplish what is most needed.

Way to write, girl!

ESEA Reauthorization to Congress

President Obama today stated on his weekly radio address to the nation that he "will send to Congress our blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act to overhaul No Child Left Behind." The President took time during the address to praise Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the Race to the Top competition. Little detail was provided in the address, but the general feel was that the ESEA proposals will be a continuation of the Obama/Duncan misguided path for education "reform" as noted above by Valerie Strauss.

• Associated Press: Obama prepares education overhaul by Philip Elliott
• Christian Science Monitor: Obama's plan for education reform: short on specifics, so far by Patrik Jonsson 

Odds 'n' Ends

I checked the Apple Education Price List page early yesterday morning, but the lists hadn't been updated at that point to include education pricing for Apple's new iPad. An email on a tech mailing list from an Apple rep alerted me that the updates are there now.

The good news is that Apple is offering volume discounts for educational institutions for the Apple iPad. The bad news is that education individuals, folks like you and me, get to pay retail for the new tablet device, whether we're going to purchase it for personal use or for use at school. And even on the educational institutions price list, a single iPad will still cost schools full price!

Out of personal interest I've been searching the Amazon site for the "iPad" since Apple started accepting orders. It's not a surprise that as of this writing, Amazon isn't taking early orders for the device that will ship on or around April 3 and directly compete with their Kindle offerings.

I long ago shared my feelings about Apple's pricing for education in a column that brought me about a thousand flames from Apple fanboys. Seeing the pricing, both for the regular Apple Store and the stores for education individuals and institutions, I'll stick with what I wrote in 2001 in Never mind. Apple Education probably is dead.

Some Silliness About Grammar

I've got a thing about the hyphenated word "pre-order." Does it mean, as Apple and other vendors would like us to believe, to order an item before it's available? Or does it mean, as I literally read it, to order before your order?

I've avoided the use of the word here on Educators' News because of its apparent insult to good grammar. Would it be terribly difficult to change those order buttons from "pre-order" to "Early Order" or something similar and less confusing (to me).

And having now stood on my soapbox and proclaimed my aversion to the grammatical excesses of big business, I find that when I search mathdittos2.com for "pre-order," I have used the word without protest in a couple of postings.

As Saturday Night Live's Emily Litella used to say at the end of her Weekend Update rants, "Never mind."

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