When I launched this blog, reader Adrian DeVore urged me to "broaden my educational reporting palate" by looking beyond Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and paying more attention to the national scene.
It's an excellent suggestion; it can be tough to watch the forest when the trees of breaking local news keep falling on me. But this stretch is as slow as it gets on the CMS beat, so I thought I'd share a couple of things I'm delving into, in case any of you have an urge to fill your summer leisure time.
First, the Hechinger Report and Washington Monthly have teamed up to produce an in-depth report on national efforts to cut dropout rates, with close-ups on successes and failures in New York City, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore.
That couldn't be more timely. North Carolina's report on 2010 test scores and graduation rates is due later this month. As you may recall, CMS logged an anemic 66 percent four-year graduation rate for 2009, with even lower levels for low-income, black and Hispanic students. Superintendent Peter Gorman assigned top staff to craft a plan for improvement. That report, originally expected this spring, is now slated for August.
Next, Kathy Ridge of Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education has passed along a copy of Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education."
Ravitch is an education researcher who helped promote No Child Left Behind when she worked as an assistant secretary of education. The book chronicles how and why she soured on the promises of choice and accountability to improve public schools.
That alone is interesting. I've seen a similar progression in many local education leaders, who applauded No Child Left Behind when it debuted but now seem sympathetic with Ravitch's conclusion that "Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools."
Most intriguing, though, is a chapter on "The Billionaire Boys' Club," which I'm still working my way toward. It analyzes how foundations powered by billionaires such as Bill Gates and Eli Broad are gaining significant control over public education by pumping big bucks into reform efforts. That's clearly playing out here in Charlotte, and I'll admit it's something I've had a hard time getting my head around. I'm looking forward to reading Ravitch's take, and discussing it with other folks who know the local scene.
Let me know what you think -- and feel free to share your own suggestions for "must-read" books and articles.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Dropouts, billionaires and summer reading
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14 comments:
Yes, it is critical to see the forest through the trees (my thoughts yesterday on the subject of CMS flight).
I like this Blog despite my highly annoyed teenager telling me I'm entirely too old to be participating in such youthful endeavors.
I hope this space can facilitate honest and open dialog about educational issues that is solution oriented instead of the usual personal attacks that often take place between parties on most Observer comment boards.
Ann, I'm still looking forward to your "must read" book. Or perhaps, a novel or screenplay? So much material!
Your teen needs to realize young folks get their technology for about five minutes before us old folks dive in! Blogging is mainstream these days.
I've been impressed by the quality of comments so far. Yeah, a couple of posters have called each other "bonehead," but overall, the comments have been intense, interresting and on point. Knock on wood!
As long as it's still OK to occasionally refer to a school board member as a "bone-head" I'm good. Although, this new group has been so darn civil to the point of ruining the fun.
I'm going mainstream! Woo-hoo!
-moo
The reason the billionaires have so much power in reform is simple logic. With budgets being cut, he who has the gold, is in a position to make some new rules.
The only reason Race to the Top is having such success in getting states on board is the promise of funding, even though some of its pillars like the Charter movement and Pay for Performance have been shown to be no better (or worse)than traditional education.
I just finished the book. It is exellent reading though it can bog you down if not versed in statisitics to understand how some school systems are "gaming" the testing. Anyway, the final chapter "Lessons Learned" can stand alone. It is an excellent perspective. Oh not to be surprised, everything that CMS does is counterproductive but what other conclusion can you come to looking at CMS over the last 10 to 15 years.
I want to follow this blog, as I am in despair over the state of public education in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and have been since my children entered the system in 1983. I watched the decline as my three children progressed through CMS. I was delighted in 2001 to be finished with CMS personally. I was educated in public schools in MD and MA, but never encountered the absolute poverty (of mind, spirit and body) I encountered in students and their parents while volunteering at CMS. Can any amount of money fix this? No book can ever grasp the reality of the lives of people who just don't care about education.
CM,
I think it's a good sign that people with differing viewpoints regarding CMS issues are still "intense", "interesting" and "on point". If a day comes when few people are engaged in conversation than the state of education in the Queen City truly has reached a state of despair. I pulled my children out of CMS due to frustration and simply getting ticked-off at being jerked around like a pawn through layers of beuracracy. I don't think my children received a bad education in CMS although they were behind in science and writing in the private school they now attend. My TD child was placed in a "regular" science class - not an honors class. At the time, NC did not include science as part of it's state EOG testing so the subject was placed on the back burner. On the other hand, I don't think science was ever a real strength of my so-called gifted child to begin with. Neither of my children will be headed to Harvard or Yale. I still volunteer at a CMS school with some students and parents who don't care about education which is counter to a CMS propaganda orientation meeting I once sat through. NO CMS, not every parent cares about their child's education and some students are heck bent on being disruptive. I try to look beyond this and focus on the kids who do care and want to learn. Even the worst schools in CMS have students who want to achieve and are searching for mentors and roll models despite some heart wrenching obstacles. I have little tolerance for disruptive behavior -particularly at the high school level - that I am not afraid to tackle head on. I believe an education is a privilege not a God given right. This is why Oprah refused to build and support a school in Chicago and built one in South Africa instead where students have to compete to receive an education. Great story in today's paper about a boy from Sudan who is teaching people to read under trees in his native village with a 90% illiteracy rate. It's these kinds of stories that give me hope.
As an educator, I have witnessed the decline in the quality of teaching and learning in this country and would propose several categories for contemplation. We, this community and society at large, are responsible for the shape we're in because our educational systems reflect our values as a whole.
1. Let's run schools as businesses creating models and plans that everyone must adhere no matter the unique circumstances that arise when dealing with human beings.
2. Let's devalue teachers as professionals taking all decision making away from them and say that the principal is the most important person in the school building. All decisions and ideas for reform will come from the top.
The teaching profession in CMS has not policed itself by helping the bad ones improve, mainly because this system has created a hostile work environment by turning teachers against each other for survival.
3. Let's use testing data to hold teachers and schools accountable (mainly teachers) giving the community an arbitrary number to use to judge effectiveness. Along with that, let's say to kids, parents and the community that if a kid doesn't learn, it's the teacher's fault.
4. Teachers, as a whole in CMS, have not believed strongly enough in their purpose and work in the classroom to fight for what is best for kids. A myriad of reasons account for that, but fear of losing jobs, lack of support, mobility of teachers, working conditions and just becoming tired of the battles top the list.
5. Raising test scores very quickly, which administrators say is the only thing that matters, can only be done by teaching to the test, keeping weak students from taking the test, or cheating.
6. Our Standard Course of Study requires covering a tremendous amount of content. The pacing guides of these courses allow no time for in-depth analysis and discussion by students. There is no time in class to cultivate and model the higher level thinking skills required for higher education and the workforce.
Note: At least the state is working on this problem with the new essential standards that will be forthcoming.
7. Let's jump on every new idea that comes along, from within and without, then not implement it completely or give it enough time to produce results.
8. Let the children run the households, making decisions about what's best for them educationally.
9. Only complain about the teachers who are trying to uphold higher standards because your children are saying "they're too hard" and whining about the effort required for high grades.
10. Let's celebrate mediocrity in this country, giving praise that has not been earned on a scale too great for the accomplishment.
11. Let's continue to call students and adults who are highly intelligent and/or studious "geeks", "nerds", etc. and laugh at them in the movies.
Well, this is getting too long so I'll stop now. The list is in no way complete, but we all are a part of the problem. How can we all become part of the solution?
I propose several categories for contemplation:
1. Running schools as businesses creating models and plans that everyone must adhere no matter the unique circumstances that arise when dealing with human beings.
2. Devaluing teachers as professionals taking all decision making away from them. All decisions and ideas for reform will come from the top.
3. Using testing data to give the community an arbitrary number to use to judge effectiveness knowing how those numbers can be manipulated, Along with that, telling kids, parents and the community that if a kid doesn't learn, it's the teacher's fault.
4. Teachers not believing strongly enough in their purpose and work in the classroom to fight for what is best for kids. A myriad of reasons account for that, but fear of losing jobs, lack of support, mobility of teachers, working conditions and just becoming tired of the battles top the list.
5. Pressuring schools to raise test scores very quickly which can only be done by teaching to the test, keeping weak students from taking the test, or cheating.
6. Jumping on every new idea that comes along then not implementing it completely or giving it enough time to produce results.
7. Letting children run their households, making decisions about what's best for them educationally.
8. Celebrating mediocrity in this country. Giving praise that has not been earned or on a scale too great for the accomplishment.
9. Continuing to call students and adults who are highly intelligent or studious "geeks", "nerds", etc. and laugh at them in the movies.
Aren't we all part of the problem? How do we all become part of the solution?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-ayers/obama-and-education-refor_b_154857.html
How do our schools here and now measure up to the democratic ideal?
Much of what we call schooling forecloses or shuts down or walls off meaningful choice-making. Much of it is based on obedience and conformity, the hallmarks of every authoritarian regime. Much of it banishes the unpopular, squirms in the presence of the unorthodox, hides the unpleasant. There's no space for skepticism, irreverence, or even doubt. While many of us long for teaching as something transcendent and powerful, we find ourselves too-often locked in situations that reduce teaching to a kind of glorified clerking, passing along a curriculum of received wisdom and predigested and often false bits of information. This is a recipe for disaster in the long run.
Educators, students, and citizens must press now for an education worthy of a democracy, including an end to sorting people into winners and losers through expensive standardized tests which act as pseudo-scientific forms of surveillance; an end to starving schools of needed resources and then blaming teachers and their unions for dismal outcomes; and an end to the rapidly accumulating "educational debt," the resources due to communities historically segregated, under-funded and under-served. All children and youth in a democracy, regardless of economic circumstance, deserve full access to richly-resourced classrooms led by caring, qualified and generously compensated teachers. So let's push for that, and let's make it happen before Arne Duncan or anyone else grants us permission.
Please read the entire article at the site above.
Eloquently stated points an the subject of the democratic ideal...
My thoughts on standardized testing (besides ah!!!!); a necessary evil as a way of measuring growth and student achievement. I don't think the practice should be abolished.
In theory, the NCLB act was designed to ensure equal educational opportunities for all youth in a democracy regardless of economic or racial circumstances - a worthy goal we can all agree on. However, in practice, the NCLB act has serious flaws. The greatest flaw, from my perspective, is the complete lack of national standards which allows states to design their own willy-nilly tests. Each state is then allowed to measure and rate themselves accordingly while trying to avoid threatened federal sanctions and school closings. The tests also quickly divide schools into winners and losers which common sense leads me to conclude contributes to bright flight.
As much as I hate the overemphasis placed on SAT's and ACT's, at least both tests measure student achievement consistently across the country although some colleges, including Wake Forest, allow students to apply without submitting scores. Greater indicators of student success are high school grades and the difficulty of high school courses completed. Most colleges throw out high school GPA's and recalculate them based on their own criteria. In addition, most colleges are more interested in creating well rounded student bodies rather than having nothing but so-called well rounded students - so don't underestimate that superbly executed high note on the french horn or award winning pottery piece if you're not a star quarterback or National Merit Scholar winner.
And now we return to CMS's annual EOG and EOC ranking of schools with speeches and press releases about how G-R-E-A-T! the system is doing...
Rephrased:
how G-R-E-A-T! our "urban" public school system is doing compared to Detroit...
CAUTION, CAUTION...
Huffington Post article posted at July 8, 2010 11:26 PM is written by Bill Ayers (self proclaimed anti-American terriorist).
The Broad Foundation is like Teach For America for managers, only worse. They buy their way into school districts and essentially pay off the districts to hire their "graduates" for management positions.
In turn, they get to advertise that their graduates have worked in/led large school districts, and the cycle continues. This organization cares little about the quality of education and more about perpetuating the myth that they have all the answers to the maladies of public education.
Eli Broad was a home builder. And after he became a billionaire, he suddenly became an expert in public education. So when you hear of a person going through the prestigious Broad Academy, it really isn't all that impressive at all. Just new spin in the good 'ol boys club.
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