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Racing in Circles for Education Reform
Listening to school-choice cheerleaders you'd swear charter schools were the magic answer. The Way out of the "crisis" in public education.
So I was surprised to learn last week the Stanford New Charter School made the Golden State's preliminary list of "persistently lowest performing" schools.
The idea that charter schools aren't what they're all cracked up to be we've heard from traditional public school educators for a while now, though the criticism is often written-off as jealous jaw-boning to distract from the failures of the Old School way. But, as it turns out, charter schools aren't necessarily what they're cracked up to be - at least not most of them. And those aren't teacher union talking points.
Ironically, at least for the Stanford New Charter School, it was the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University that conducted the first national assessment of school choice options, raising questions about the charter-school mania sweeping the nation.
The study, "Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States," compared math and reading test scores of charter school students with those of their traditional public school peers.
According to the study, 37 percent of charter school math score gains were far below what students would have achieved if they went to a traditional public school, and 46 percent of charter schools with improved math scores were statistically indistinguishable from the average gains seen in traditional public-schools. If you do the math, that means only 17 percent of charter schools outperform traditional public-schools in raising math proficiency. And when it comes to reading, charter school students, on average, were found to be indistinguishable from their public-school counterparts.
It's worth noting because charter schools - and "ensuring not only that teachers and principals get the funding that they need, but that the money is tied to results" - play a key role in President Obama's "Race to the Top" (RTTT) initiative. (States are disqualified from receiving RTTT dollars if they don't lift charter school caps).
In comparing Obama's "Race to the Top" with W's "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) the only real philosophical difference I can find is that Bush used a top-down stick approach; while Obama prefers carrots - a bottom-up, states-can-opt-out program with a supposed emphasis on "research-based" and "data-driven" policy. (The carrot-stick dichotomy seems to be the only foreign policy difference between the two administrations too, but that's another column).
Apparently, neither Bush or Obama got Alfie
Kohn's carrots-and-sticks-are-for-
And you don't have to be John Dewey to know the most important variables in academic achievement are good pre-natal care, a normally-functioning brain, healthy diet, and a stable home environment - a garden that nourishes a child's inherent sense of curiosity. And that has more to do with economic security and family life than policies that hold teachers accountable for something they have little control over.
In a market-driven society, if you want the best teachers and a "Race to the Top," shouldn't we start paying them at least as much as firefighters and cops? At a minimum, if we're going to attract quality teachers presumably motivated by non-market incentives, we've got to stop paying lip service to good teaching while incessantly insulting the entire profession, as if teachers aren't trying hard enough or that by tying test scores to job advancement will suddenly make them try harder.
Holding teachers accountable for the classroom environment or for material that should be mastered is fine. Holding them accountable for the results of a self-directed process that lies entirely within the student is foolishness.
To take a page from the GOP playbook on health care reform, why not scrap both NCLB and RTTT and start from scratch? Until we find a way to ameliorate what market forces do to working-class families (e.g. eat up family time, force kids to bounce from school to school, limit access to health care and good nutrition), the education "crisis" will persist, no matter what brand-name "ed reform" policy-makers dream up.
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25 Comments so far
Show AllGood Lord! an article with a positive word about teachers. I never thought I'd live to see it. Too bad I retired from the profession this past spring.
Here are a few facts to add to those listed above. First, the "failing schools" frame has been around since at least 1983 when Reagan's pals published "A Nation at Risk." (For a concurrent rebuttal, see the Sandia Report.) American sheeple took up the belief that "our schools are failing." Regardless of any real reforms advocated, the true outcomes have been a constant cutting of school funds. Check your local schools for proof, and I don't even know where you live.
As for NCLB, I've posted here and other places before that after listening to a Ph. D. tell our collected staff what the new law meant, I asked her, "I understand my role as a teacher, but what is the responsibility of the students and the parents?" Her reply, "None. It's all up to you." As we can see from the perspective of history, she was right. However, the "Responsibility" for blame remained with the teachers and schools. Oh, and by the way, in my 36 years, no one asked the teachers how we could improve things, in fact the Administration went out of their way to block any improvement attempts teachers suggested or tried to employ.
The current push, RTTT, is about destroying the teachers' unions. Vouchers, charter schools, and merit pay are required by Obama and Rahm. Merit pay sounds good if you are the teacher who gets all the wealthy, highly motivated students. What if your classroom is filled by your Principal with children of poverty, gang bangers, and the unwanted? Think it doesn't happen? Think again. I got the latter because my Principal knew I'd do my best to give them a leg up in life. However, burn-out happens.
Face it. The elite want things just as they are.
Finally, like most stories published here about Education, I expect this one to draw about 12 comments. You see, we at Common Dreams are just a slice of America.
Considering that I am the eleventh of your predicted twelve, you might want to buy a lottery ticket. Seriously, I am applying for jobs as a first year teacher and I find your comments parallel points of view I have received in my program. I perceive that education is about community, and not just those families who have children in school. I am entering teaching to give my life a meaning it lost in my years in the business world. I proceed with a tenacious confidence and appreciate your words as wisdom, not as cynicism. Making art is what has saved me from many disasters in life and I hope to encourage the gift of creativity in others in my endeavors as an art teacher. I realize it is a hard road before me, but most things in life that have great value require dedication and persistence. The powers that be will always build their walls, but not without our complicity. It might require each brick to be removed one at a time, but who would have ever thought the Berlin Wall would have come down. I still have many years ahead and knowingly expect that change will not happen tommorrow. The community of learners in this country will be around far longer than the short-sighted likes of Obama. The revolution is not being televised.
Skeesyks,
"I expect this one to draw about 12 comments." Actually, the articles on education have been having quite a lot of comments lately--hundreds.
Good comments, especially about the history and perception of "failing" public education. Pure hogwash used to attempt to privatize public education.
I was walking to my class this morning and passed by a student who has had to have major reconstructive surgeries on his/her (don't want to identify gender of person-FERPA you know) jaw and face. He/she is a non English speaking special needs student who has a tracheotomy and wears a bib to catch the "drippings". He/she has progressed quite nicely as far as she can. My question to all the charter school advocates/privatizers "Would you take him/her as a student?". We have another student--quadraplegic, can't speak due to brain damage who has a full time nurse to help him/her. "Would you take him/her as a student?" And according to NCLB these two are supposed to be "proficient" on the state tests. HA, HA, HA!!! Pure joke that law is (not the students).
I think we know the answer. But these two are just a small part of the diverse student population. We, public schools take all!
OYE
skeezyks,
Just want you to know your message has been read and appreciated and understood.
There have been other recent articles at CD about education which have received hundreds of posts. They might still be here under "more news" or "more views."
We at CD are perhaps not a random slice of America as CD'ers seem to be mostly on the same page regarding the attack on public education you describe.
Maybe it's been all the articles about education on CD lately, but I am tired of writing about an issue that goes nowhere, however much we piss into the wind. There is no hope for change, none, not as long as reform starts from the top down with the likes of Arne Duncan and Barack Obama calling the shots. Their arrogance overwhelms me--two fools so confident they have all the answers when it comes to education. I can only say that, if I were shopping for schools for my kids, as soon as administrators started talking about students' performance on NCLB tests, I would be out of there so fast every open locker door would slam shut from the wake of my running out the building.
education: someone else do my work for me
The Democrats seem very ideological, whether it is private health insurance, private schools or private contractors (mercenaries), they just like things kept private. Oh, except for the massive trillion dollar debt, that one is public, that one you can have.
"According to the study, 37 percent of charter school math score gains were far below what students would have achieved if they went to a traditional public school"
This is an inaccurate use of statistics.
37% of the charter schools performed below the average traditional public school. Not all public schools are average. Many students attend public schools with sub-standard performance scores; scores that may well be on par with or worse than the low performing charter schools. Parents opting to enroll their children in low performing charter schools may well be choosing a better educational experience for their children.
The data suggests that 37% of charter schools perform below the average traditional public school, while 46% of charter schools matched and 17% exceeded the average traditional public school.
That's not bad for a relatively new experiment in public education. Initial charter school success was weak, but from this data it seems like the charter school experiment may be improving with time.
You do not discuss the other less tangible aspects of public school life. What are the other pros and cons regarding alternative schools v. traditional public schools? Why do parents elect to enroll their children in alternative school settings? What benefits do parents expect to derive from home schooling or alternative settings? Are any of these expected benefits successfully obtained?
You refer to Alfie Kohn, who is fairly vigorously opposed to the workings of the traditional public school. Read Alfie Kohn's books entitled:
"What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? And More Essays on Standards, Grading, And Other Follies"
and
"Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community" (a provocative challenge to the field of classroom management).
You will benefit from an investigation of the educational experience at the "Sudbury Valley School. Individuality and Democracy: A way of life." (http://www.sudval.org/)
And, you will want to read an American Psychological Association article entitled "Middle School Malaise" (http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/middle-school.aspx) Middle school malaise is a critique of the middle school model:
"Through this and other similar research, psychologists have discovered a "developmental mismatch" between the environment and philosophy of middle schools and the children they attempt to teach. At a time when children's cognitive abilities are increasing, middle school offers them fewer opportunities for decision-making and lower levels of cognitive involvement, but a more complex social environment."
Thom Hartman has an interesting perspective worth looking into. He critiques the authoritarian origins of the U.S. Public school system, which according to Hartman is Prussia. Do authoritarian schools inhibit learning and motivation?
Did you know that there is a school to prison pipeline perspective? Look into "Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline." (http://www.naacpldf.org/content/pdf/pipeline/Dismantling_the_School_to_Prison_Pipeline.pdf)
Finally, the U.S. agenda to improve math and science education in order to compete with other nations more effectively is just that: a national agenda with the best interests of the nation in mind. Meeting the national agenda may or may not be in the best interest of any given student. The best interest of each and every student must come first otherwise some children are likely to become fodder for a system that is designed to produce math and science "cogs" while potentially discarding the non math and science children, or at least diverting resources away from the non math and science children.
I'll look forward to reading more of your writing on public school eduction, what the issues are, and your developing ideas for resolving problems in a way that is beneficial to students.
Hey charter troll a.k.a kl40
"Not all public schools are average."
This comment is rife with ignorance. An average is a quantity, rating, or the like that represents or approximates an arithmetic mean. The comment assumes incorrectly that the writer is using the word, average, metaphorically instead of quantitively.
"Parents opting to enroll their children in low performing charter schools may well be choosing a better educational experience for their children."
This comment ignores the studies that are popping up all over the country regarding myths about charter schools. Charters are right-wing corporate take overs of public institutions committed to the equal education of all. Charters use a bogus "lottery" system to choose students. The lottery is supposed to be a random indiscriminate selection of students. The "lottery is, in fact, a ruse that allows charters to discriminate against any unappealing group they deem unfit. The lottery has no public disclosure or oversight. It is done behind doors.
A study published in the Los Angeles Daily News this month cited that charters failed to provide ramps and rails for disabled students. This is consistent with an agenda that excludes special needs students. Charters consider students with special needs unappealing because they do not score high on standardized tests. Another group that charters are notorious for exculding is children that do not speak English as a first language. This is yet another example of how charters discriminate against the public while accepting their tax money.
Look at who is behind charters. Eli Broad, a billionaire developer who has extracted much of his wealth from public contracts, buying politicians on the school board and the city of Los Angeles donates exclusively to charters. He practically owns the mayor and half the school board of Los Angeles. Several of Broad's staff members are taking jobs in Arne Duncan’s U.S. Department of Education. Arne like Obama love their corporate masters. With the kind of money billionaires are throwing into the charter kitty they should be doing much better. If public schools were receiving equal patronization by billionares, there would be no charters.
If charters were required to provide equal opportunity to all students, they would fail miserably. Much of the studies collected so far do not consider the fact that charters are skimming the "desirable" (good test takers) students from the community. Rather, under corporate America they will continue to reap the accolaides of corporate tycoons, and swindle public revenue while maintaining their mythic success under the guise of being equal opportunity organizations.
"In a market-driven society, if you want the best teachers and a "Race to the Top," shouldn't we start paying them at least as much as firefighters and cops?"
And how about building more schools, hiring more teachers, and making classroom sizes smaller and more manageable? I'm a first-year teacher already falling victim to budget cuts; I won't have a job this fall. In other locations, I hear of class sizes of 30-40 kids being the norm.
That's quite a cat's breakfast of readings, kl40 -- which of your college courses does it come from? I would dispute that Alfie Kohn is "fairly vigorously opposed to the workings of the traditional public school." Instead, I would suggest that Kohn is opposed to the current neoliberal reform trends such as standardized testing. I notice you failed to mention his book "No Contest: The Case Against Competition." You should probably also credit Henry Giroux as the first scholar to write about the school to prison pipeline for Black students. The Sudbury Valley School is an interesting inclusion, although I'm not sure what your point is -- you might also have mentioned home schooling which is similarly irrelevant. None of these references have anything to do with the original CD article, nor do they present any kind of coherent argument either in favour of or against charter schools as an improvement on properly funded and resourced public schools.
two engaged parents is what education is all about. Lack thereof requires adjustment, first by family, failing that, then society.
Schools have virtually no authority in this situation, other than to kick a kid out of school.
Judges, TANF caseworkers, police officers, social workers, mental health specialists, those are the folks with the 'teeth' necessary to obtain the necessary adjustment.
NCLB should actually be directed at these entities.
A school has an attendance problem, they send it to the judge. The judge, viewing the massive caseload in front, has no choice but to lecture the parents. He could have them spend the night in jail, but without follow through, it's a useless solution and he doesn't have the time to make the time, so he sends them on their way with a stern warning. Social workers, TANF caseworkers, Mental Health, all face similar obstacles, the problems are too large to add stupid attendance to their load.
NCLB, a massive jobs program, not to fix our roads, but our real infrastructure, our children's future, by increasing all of the employees in these areas, as "surrogate' parents, then telling them "that school doesn't improve by 10 percent, go find another job."
Attendance is where a child first learns that systems break their own rules all the time, they learn that by gaming the system, you can float. they learn it fast. kids who have all kinds of 'challenges' learn very fast after they find out they can not go to school and get away with it.
we see the results every day.
the only problem with this is actually firing a government employee for non-performance, good luck
Sean, Alfie Kohn points out that you should never judge schools by test scores. The model is very poor at reflecting what kids know or can do. The scores belong in the sports pages.
We should look at their portfolios, performances exhibitions and projects. These provide the big picture and are better reflections of what is really going on in the schools.
THOUGHT CONTROL -- BRAIN-WASH -- SMOKE SCREEN
Comes now unknown columnist Gonsalves, his unknown Cape Cod Times, and they to proclaim unknown illusions that have no basis in fact or reality. For like the last brainwash article published here on education in the slums, we are all born with the identical intelligence, and kids in the slums should not be so lazy.
INTELLIGENCE: Speed at which the mind can absorb knowledge,
process knowledge, rationalize a problem and take corrective action.
Gonsalves
__ “I know that getting a good education is
about self-motivation and self-discipline.”
LIGHT
Again an article all about the ability of slum kids to store knowledge in the mind, but not one word about what goes on in the mind. For according to Gonsalves, the most complex organism know to man, the human mind that is truly an absolute perfection in design, it is completely moldable like putty in the hands of we the gifted elite who are able to apply the right motivation and discipline.
Gonsalves
__ “37 percent of charter school math score gains were far below what
students would have achieved if they went to a traditional public school”
LIGHT
But, charter school supporters have as much or more research data they say proves the reverse. Truth is, charter schools are all about giving the most intelligent kids in the slums the same quality of education as kids in the intelligent middleclass schools. Goal being for our Empire to have the best educated people working in our military and highly competitive economy.
Gonsalves
__ “Holding teachers accountable for the results of a self-directed
process that lies entirely within the student, this is foolishness.”
LIGHT
(1) Yes, but how can a teacher know if she is feeding the proper type and quantity of knowledge into a student's mind, unless she properly tests and evaluates the mind, as it goes down the school year assembly line?
(2) For be it the ability to kill in combat, to compete in business or learn in school, this is in direct proportion to intelligence.
Gonsalves
__ “if you want the best teachers and a "Race to the Top," shouldn't
we start paying them at least as much as firefighters and cops?
LIGHT
A classic example of why our self-absorbed majority has always been enslaved by the super-intelligent rich, the brainwash that because we all have the identical intelligence, we must reward those who achieve the most by giving them bonuses the very best.
Truth is, we are all given a different level of intelligence as a test,
to see if we pass our excessive wealth down to those less intelligent where it belongs.
Truth_Light knows neither truth nor light. Palpable nonsense in this person's comments. IQ is a disgraced psychological concept. The super rich are no more intelligent than anyone else. They are merely more devious and ruthless.
NO CHILD LEFT WITHOUT A KICK IN THE BEHIND
That's what I call that evil, deceitful piece of legislation.
This and every other article on education COMPLETELY MISS THE POINT!
NCLB sold ALL of public education, charters included, to CORPORATIONS.
The testing is just the mechanism to phase in the takeover.
All the jibberish, including this article, just smokescreen the real issue.
In the beginning, around 20% of kids had to pass the "test"
For schools that don't pass, the school board "chooses" 1 of 3 national corporations to run the school.
Each year the percentage goes up.
in 2014, a school must get 97% to pass.
IT'S A SET UP!
Get it - NO SCHOOL WAS MEANT TO SURVIVE.
All in my state are almost taken over, expect a couple charters.
And, for the kicker, the corporations never have to measure up!
So, can I get someone to talk to me about this situation.
Or maybe the folks at commondreams will not let it happen since they erased my conversations from the other article being kicked around.
The corporations run the prisons and the schools look like prisons sans a razor-wire perimeter. The students are subject to searches and the buildings are locked down during school hours. The schools are simply getting the kids conditioned to the new police state.
So the author suggests starting from scratch.
once the corporations own the thing, which they do, it will take some fight to get the thing back
nobody yet even frames the struggle with the known target in the bullseye
how do you get past that one?
With the corporations running the show, everybody can talk all they want, the decision makers aren't obligated to do a thing.
The next big problem is that is the corporations were to give up the power.....give it up to who, or what?
The old education sucked - and was costly.
And ya know, it is EASIER to let the corporations do it all than have to handle it at the local level.
Lookin' bad to me.
I'm a fundamentalist.
I vote for turning the whole model upside down.
check out sudbury valley www.sudval.org if you get the chance
a democratic school
ages 4-18
kids run THE WHOLE ENTIRE SHOW
no classes - no age segregation -
kids go on to achieve !-
it's an awe inspiring model is all I can say
honestly, if the model proliferated, i could imagine a WORLD WITH A REAL, WORKING DEMOCRACY.
I don't have much hope for democracy otherwise.
i look at it this way - imagine if the people in my community came to the conclusion that becoming canoe experts was vital to our survival. And imagine that we NEVER TOOK THE KIDS TO THE WATER FOR THE FIRST 18 YEARS OF THEIR LIFE.
Pretty bad results.
That's how we handle our precious democracy.
We keep it in abstraction until a person reaches 18, then we expect THE BEST.
Well, fat chance.
Kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.
Give it over to the KIDS - not the corporations.
Check out sudbury - against everything you might expect - the kids do WONDERFULLY!
And we get some kick butt practitioners of a democratic world.
what's there to loose.
like to hear back from you.
if everyone gets to the top, then doesn't the top become a plateau?
What would be wonderful is if the nation actually gave more than lip service to schools. The schools are so different now, as compared to when most of our legislators went to school.
Children read when their parents read.
Reading leads to new ideas, and learning how to discern between the many ideas. Thinking comes from reading, and once a person reads, they do think , question, and feel free to pursue interests outside of what the media prescribes.
Sadly, we are living in the "quick fix and on -demand nation."
Not much thinking, but a whole lot of demanding.
There is no one school, no one way to teach, but to turn schools over to corporations , well, we've turned financing over to that quadrant, and look what it got us.
Schools aren't the only place where children can learn and it takes all kinds of people to produce an educated nation. It is amazing that the Texas textbooks are rewriting history. What a peculiar nation to have no common denominator of culture.
I have just come up with a wonderful scam so that I too can join the likes of the CEO's of Goldman Sachs, Haliburton, and Blackwater among the wealthiest recipients of State aid.
I have decades of experience in the science education sector. I will simply go to Washington and tell every Repug Congressman I meet that I can run all Schools at a profit and improve educational quality. Because I am running a private business I will have lower costs because I do not have to comply with pesky government regulations regarding the handicapped (both physically and mentally) and all the other red-tape that goes along with that.
Then, when I land the big government contract, I do the absolute minimum of education....after all, to paraphrase Hitler, a service worker need only know how to write their name and count to ten...I would load the course full of propaganda of whichever party was in power at the time so they couldn't object. Pay teachers almost nothing, use illegal immigrants as cleaning an secretarial staff, and funnel large amounts of public money in order to pay my salary and, of course, my big bonus. I can then charge the government as much, or even more, than they were paying in the first place for a fully public school system!
As the money I take in grows I can hire more and more professional lobbyists, many former Dept. of Education heads with the needed access, and attempt to change the laws so that my profit margins are locked in. Then, while sucking directly on the public teat, engage in a series of private overseas ventures of a similar nature...in effect, use tax money to fund investment outside the country. These investments could have a big return in providing educators from foreign countries who would be willing to teach in the USA much cheaper than US educators are allowed to work.
I could buy air-time on FOX news and get an interview with them where I will use the word "God" a lot so that they think I'm teaching "family values" ( = work very hard for no pay and no vacation and keep voting Republican anyway!)
I can then get quoted over and over again moaning about the deficit and how the government needs to cut Welfare and Social Security.
What a great scam!
IQ SCORE -- WEALTH
180 IQ --- 1% Super-intelligent Investor ruling class: 80% of wealth
150 IQ ---10% High-intelligence Country Club class: 10% of wealth
90 IQ --- 40% Intelligent middleclass: 10% of wealth
50 IQ --- 49% High school drop-out Laboring class: 100% of debt
30 IQ --- Homeless
That makes no sense. Even the middle class is in debt now. The banks are too. And I know plenty of high school drop outs that have much higher IQ than 50, and they don't compose 100% of the population in debt. You've obviously pulled this so called IQ percentage chart from a place where the sun doesn't shine.
Again as my good and true friend of Afro Caribbean background might say " Manino knying ko mungu."
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