President Obama is stumping for FAFSA again, the ubiquitous all-purpose college loan/family finances proctological exam that is the gateway to college financial aid.
In a White House PR piece about the President's visit to Florida on Friday, Obama is quoted being concerned that we still need to get more students in college. “Unfortunately, there are still a lot of young people all across the country who say the cost of college is holding them back,”he said. There are families worrying about how to find the money. FAFSA is the answer, says the President, as he challenges every single child in America to fill out a FAFSA whether they think they're going to college or not.
It's natural that the big FAFSA push should come this time of year-- it's paperwork time. The theme this year seems to be "money on the table," as in "many students didn't get government loans last year and left a bunch of money on the table." I would personally like to see this table, with its prodigious piles of money. I also can't help wondering if this is the same table at which Bill Gates allegedly doesn't have a seat.
But mostly the renewed hard sell on college loans reminds me of this news from last November: that in 2013, the US Government cleared $41.3 billion in profits from student loans. If government student loans were a corporation, it would have been the third most profitable in the world, behind only Exxon and Apple.
So the feds being sad that more students can't afford college is kind of like a used car salesman expressing disappointment that more people can't afford his great cars as he settles into his giant mansion and washes his dogs with gold-encrusted champagne.
If you are setting the price for a service so that you make massive profit, you can't convincingly puzzle over how that service might be provided more inexpensively.
If the President and Arne are worried about the high cost of college-- well, the government is helping decide set that cost. Message to the White House and USDOE: If you're worried about students affording college, you guys don't need a federal investigation or a better sales pitch- you just need a mirror. If you are concerned about the loan sharks who are holding onto the massive amount of student debt in this country, you can reach them through federal inter-office mail.
Duncan's USDOE did respond to these numbers, sort of, back when they were released. The responses seem to have been:
1) We are charging less than many high priced loan sharks, so families are still winning.
2) There are many types of accounting systems and they are very confusing. We would rather use one that says we didn't make a profit on these loans.
3) "It's actually neither accurate nor fair to characterize the student loan program as making a profit," said Duncan. So, you know, that settles it.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren suggested that student loan rates be set near the borrowing rates paid to the Federal Reserve by giant banks (you know, the ones where the criminals who trashed our economy still work at their own tables of money). As of today, the administration does not seem to be considering that proposal. (Periodically we also hear a proposal to just forgive student loans; even I think that's dumb.)
So, lip service aside, it seems that college loans are one more economic sector where the administration is fighting hard for the interests of the big guys. That money on the table is money that students will have to give back, with more money, so it can sit on a huge banquet table of cash somewhere in the back where ordinary citizens don't get to see.
There are many reason, complicated reasons, that college has become so fantastically expensive. None of those issues are addressed by an administration that encourages students to rack up more debt while ignoring its own role in the ever-spiraling costs.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Brookings Wins Gold in "Most Clueless CCSS Commentary" Olympics
Brookings Institution released a paper yesterday by Joshua Bleiberg and Darrell M. West entitled "In Defense of the Common Core Standards." Do they have anything useful to add to the conversation? And will I be able to understand a paper written by economists?
Their starting point is simple. The CCSS "are under attack from the right and the left. Liberals fear that policy makers will use the standards to punish teachers. Conservatives believe the Common Core is an attempt by the federal government to take over schools." Oversimplified version of the opposition, but okay. Their goal is to mount "a fresh defense of the Common Core."
They explain how educational standards are supposed to work in paragraphs that seem designed to explain human schools to Martians (or, perhaps, economists). They summarize many of the objections to the CCSS, and get most of the major ones into a few sentences, including referencing the research that shows no connection between standards and student achievement.
And then this "fresh defense" goes off the rails.
"Common Core will succeed where past standards based reform efforts have failed," they boldly declare. Why, you ask? Sadly for this "fresh defense," you already know all the answers.
The CCSS were designed with teacher, researcher, and pedagogy expert feedback. This is duly cited with a reference to the CCSS website, so you know it must be true. A recent analysis of standards show that the Core are better than many states (citing the Fordham Institute research bought and paid for by CCSS backers).
The CCSS assessments are better. You can even take them on computers! The authors argue that this is better because computer testing is cheaper (!), it eliminates written answers (hard to score!) and can include accommodations for special needs students (someday, probably). And those tests can be adaptive so that they match the skill level of the student. Not a word about test validity, but hey-- at least they're cheap, right?
The cost of CCSS implementation is difficult to predict. I would recommend addressing it in an easily-scorable multiple choice tests; select between a) a bunch, b) very much, c) holy smokes, and d)Oh my God!! Brookings here repeats the talking point about how states currently buy separate tests, and their combined buying power will totally drive costs down. You know-- like buying standardized tests at Costco.
Next comes a technical discussion of economics and standards. This involves a long explanation of how standards work in many fields, leading up to a conclusion I'll summarize as "Educational standards don't work anything like all these others." So thanks for that explanation, Brookings. Also, standards' effects on books can be better predicted than their effect on teaching. I'm beginning to suspect these boys may be better with books than with carbon-based life forms.
Next come the benefits of standards. This again begins with a general discussion of how standards work in economics, which leads to some writing about the Great Baltimore Fire which is quite zippy and seems to have been written by an actual live human being, in contrast to the rest of the paper. The fire was an unnecessary mess because of 600 different fire hose couplings in the country. So, standards.
Eventually we arrive at a point. "Standards...are meant to simplify complicated problems." And here's our next standard talking point. "We ask too much of teachers. It is unreasonable to give them a classroom full of students and take full responsibility for teaching them on their own." And I'll take a moment here to get a glass of water so I can do a spit take. Yes, teachers-- we need CCSS because our jobs are too hard for us. Why, gosh, thanks, boys.
There will be indirect network effects for individuals and for district who adopt the standards. I think we're back to massive buying power because we're all getting the same textbooks at Costco. And this sentence: "Minimum quality standards can help ameliorate information asymmetries." I can't tell if districts will have better info for buying books, or students will have better info for selecting schools. Maybe both. Myself, I'm just excited about going out this weekend with the wife and ameliorating some information asymmetries, if that's what the kids are calling it these days.
Standards can help because we'll reach a tipping point and then everybody will have the standards. So standards are good because they'll get people to have them? Also, personalized learning systems will be totally awesome and perhaps the best thing to come out of standards. [Insert standard PR about personal learning systems here.]
Finally, some policy recommendations.
1) Common Core should enforce their licensing so that textbook publishers can't randomly slap "CCSS aligned" on anything and everything. Protect your brand. Try not to think about SONY and Betamax.
2) The feds should offer more money for CCSS adoption. Ideally they could put this in a reauthorized version of the ESEA. Great idea, Brookings. You should probably call for the reauthorized ESEA to include ponies for everyone, plus snowmobiles for traversing hell (because that's when ESEA will be reauthorized by Congress-- har!).
3) Government (all levels) should be curriculum agnostics and standards fundamentalists. Give schools more money for implementation, if they need it. Can I have a show of hands for needing it?
4) "The leaders of the Common Core need to engage teacher unions." Wait-- there are leaders of Common Core? Is that a real job description. Because if we could find guys who would actually claim that title, I think it might be kind of awesome. Oh no wait-- it gets better. "Formal support of the Common Core from the NEA and the AFT would serve as a huge boon to the process of national standards. Government officials ought to make the compromises necessary to gain such support."
Okay, first I'm going to get a bucket of water so I can do a triple spit take. Then, I will borrow from my colleague from South Carolina, look at these Brookings boys and say, "Oh, aren't you sweet." How can you not know that the unions have been giving CCSS big wet kisses, or that government compromise wasn't nearly so necessary as Giant Gates Foundation Grants. I'm beginning to imagine that Brookings Institute is just a big collection of guys like the ones on Big Bang Theory.
I actually scrolled back to make sure I wasn't accidentally reading something from five years ago. But no-- yesterday's date. So with that, I award Brookings the gold medal for Most Clueless CCSS Commentary of 2014. Boys, sadly. your "fresh defense" is a collection of time-worn, over-used, discredited CCSS talking points. I mean, it does have the virtue of cramming as many of them into one space as I have ever seen. But fresh? I've seen fresher things on the Sci-Fi channel on a Saturday afternoon.
Their starting point is simple. The CCSS "are under attack from the right and the left. Liberals fear that policy makers will use the standards to punish teachers. Conservatives believe the Common Core is an attempt by the federal government to take over schools." Oversimplified version of the opposition, but okay. Their goal is to mount "a fresh defense of the Common Core."
They explain how educational standards are supposed to work in paragraphs that seem designed to explain human schools to Martians (or, perhaps, economists). They summarize many of the objections to the CCSS, and get most of the major ones into a few sentences, including referencing the research that shows no connection between standards and student achievement.
And then this "fresh defense" goes off the rails.
"Common Core will succeed where past standards based reform efforts have failed," they boldly declare. Why, you ask? Sadly for this "fresh defense," you already know all the answers.
The CCSS were designed with teacher, researcher, and pedagogy expert feedback. This is duly cited with a reference to the CCSS website, so you know it must be true. A recent analysis of standards show that the Core are better than many states (citing the Fordham Institute research bought and paid for by CCSS backers).
The CCSS assessments are better. You can even take them on computers! The authors argue that this is better because computer testing is cheaper (!), it eliminates written answers (hard to score!) and can include accommodations for special needs students (someday, probably). And those tests can be adaptive so that they match the skill level of the student. Not a word about test validity, but hey-- at least they're cheap, right?
The cost of CCSS implementation is difficult to predict. I would recommend addressing it in an easily-scorable multiple choice tests; select between a) a bunch, b) very much, c) holy smokes, and d)Oh my God!! Brookings here repeats the talking point about how states currently buy separate tests, and their combined buying power will totally drive costs down. You know-- like buying standardized tests at Costco.
Next comes a technical discussion of economics and standards. This involves a long explanation of how standards work in many fields, leading up to a conclusion I'll summarize as "Educational standards don't work anything like all these others." So thanks for that explanation, Brookings. Also, standards' effects on books can be better predicted than their effect on teaching. I'm beginning to suspect these boys may be better with books than with carbon-based life forms.
Next come the benefits of standards. This again begins with a general discussion of how standards work in economics, which leads to some writing about the Great Baltimore Fire which is quite zippy and seems to have been written by an actual live human being, in contrast to the rest of the paper. The fire was an unnecessary mess because of 600 different fire hose couplings in the country. So, standards.
Eventually we arrive at a point. "Standards...are meant to simplify complicated problems." And here's our next standard talking point. "We ask too much of teachers. It is unreasonable to give them a classroom full of students and take full responsibility for teaching them on their own." And I'll take a moment here to get a glass of water so I can do a spit take. Yes, teachers-- we need CCSS because our jobs are too hard for us. Why, gosh, thanks, boys.
There will be indirect network effects for individuals and for district who adopt the standards. I think we're back to massive buying power because we're all getting the same textbooks at Costco. And this sentence: "Minimum quality standards can help ameliorate information asymmetries." I can't tell if districts will have better info for buying books, or students will have better info for selecting schools. Maybe both. Myself, I'm just excited about going out this weekend with the wife and ameliorating some information asymmetries, if that's what the kids are calling it these days.
Standards can help because we'll reach a tipping point and then everybody will have the standards. So standards are good because they'll get people to have them? Also, personalized learning systems will be totally awesome and perhaps the best thing to come out of standards. [Insert standard PR about personal learning systems here.]
Finally, some policy recommendations.
1) Common Core should enforce their licensing so that textbook publishers can't randomly slap "CCSS aligned" on anything and everything. Protect your brand. Try not to think about SONY and Betamax.
2) The feds should offer more money for CCSS adoption. Ideally they could put this in a reauthorized version of the ESEA. Great idea, Brookings. You should probably call for the reauthorized ESEA to include ponies for everyone, plus snowmobiles for traversing hell (because that's when ESEA will be reauthorized by Congress-- har!).
3) Government (all levels) should be curriculum agnostics and standards fundamentalists. Give schools more money for implementation, if they need it. Can I have a show of hands for needing it?
4) "The leaders of the Common Core need to engage teacher unions." Wait-- there are leaders of Common Core? Is that a real job description. Because if we could find guys who would actually claim that title, I think it might be kind of awesome. Oh no wait-- it gets better. "Formal support of the Common Core from the NEA and the AFT would serve as a huge boon to the process of national standards. Government officials ought to make the compromises necessary to gain such support."
Okay, first I'm going to get a bucket of water so I can do a triple spit take. Then, I will borrow from my colleague from South Carolina, look at these Brookings boys and say, "Oh, aren't you sweet." How can you not know that the unions have been giving CCSS big wet kisses, or that government compromise wasn't nearly so necessary as Giant Gates Foundation Grants. I'm beginning to imagine that Brookings Institute is just a big collection of guys like the ones on Big Bang Theory.
I actually scrolled back to make sure I wasn't accidentally reading something from five years ago. But no-- yesterday's date. So with that, I award Brookings the gold medal for Most Clueless CCSS Commentary of 2014. Boys, sadly. your "fresh defense" is a collection of time-worn, over-used, discredited CCSS talking points. I mean, it does have the virtue of cramming as many of them into one space as I have ever seen. But fresh? I've seen fresher things on the Sci-Fi channel on a Saturday afternoon.
The Barriers to Dialogue (TL;DR)
This is a piece that got completely away from me, but I've left it because it fulfills the primary purpose of this blog-- to help me get stuff off my chest and out of my head. While simplifying issues is my stock in trade, sometimes I have to back up and try to see a bigger picture first. TL;DR. Or at least read at your own risk.
A guest writer on Peter DeWitt's blog this morning issued about the fifty gazillionth educational essay on the general topic of "Can't We All Just Get Along?" I sympathize. I am by nature a peacemaker. I don't like conflict and I hate confrontation. But over the years, fatherhood, failing at marriage, and leading a striking local have taught me some things about how and when and why conflict and confrontation have to be dealt with.
I wish that we were having a dialogue about the current state of American public education, but by and large we are not, no matter how much we'd like to be. Here's why we're not having a discussion now, and why we likely will be soon.
Can Reasonable People Disagree
Let's take care of this first. People can share values and goals and still disagree. In education we know this because it is how we live our professional lives. From staff meeting to department meeting to teachers' lounges, we regularly argue about the best way to educate students.
But you know what? We are not the ones saying, "If you really understand what's going on, you'll understand that the only correct conclusion is ours." That would be a reformer line. No room for deviation. Standards set in stone. Follow your script. Lifetime educators know that disagreement is not only okay, it's normal and necessary. It is the reformeisters who have declared their ideas beyond discussion.
We Don't Want the Same Things
From the WSJ reporter who told Diane Ravitch, "There are people on both sides looking to make money" to the invocation of "Curse of Knowledge" in the above-mentioned column, people keep suggesting that all the involved parties really want the same thing and all we have here is a failure to communicate.
This isn't a surprise. False equivalency is apparently now a regular course of study in journalism school. We are regularly told that all sides of debates are equally valid and so science and creationsim, flat earth and round earth, paper and plastic are all just different points of view. We just need to talk about it.
What we are experiencing in American public education is not a communication problem. We do not all want the same thing.
Some of us want what's best for students. Some of us want to make a bundle of money. Some of us want to create a streamlined efficient system of education. Some of us enjoy the exercise of power.
If the reformers really wanted the best for students, they would do what the best teachers have always done-- search far and wide through acres of materials for Things That Work. Instead, they imposing a system that values control and power and profit over students.
Clearest evidence? The reformers do not want these reformy things for their own children. That's not just a rhetorical flourish of an observation. I believe there is one value we do all share-- we want the best for our own children. And when it's time to make that choice, the reformy folks do not choose their own programs. Those programs are for other peoples' children.
When people vandalize your home, when they are spray-painting your front door and setting fire to your car, the problem is not a failure to communicate. The problem is that there are vandals attacking your home. You do not all want the same thing. You do not all value the same things. A conversation is not going to fix this.
They Don't Need To Listen
When teachers are told that we need to dialogue about reformy stuff, we get cranky because one of our major complaints is that we have been ignored through every step of this process. CCSS was created without any meaningful teacher input. Implementation has been hammered through without any meaningful teacher input. When teachers are even talked about, it has only been to complain that we are a barrier to education in this country.
Coleman, Gates, Broad, Duncan, Rhee-- the list goes on for people who have no real experience or training in education. What they do have are rich and powerful friends.
A while back I made fun of Mike Petrilli at Fordham Institute over a video he made. He and some Fordham folk read it and did not threaten to squash me like a bug, but rather did some quick joshing in return and moved on. They didn't need to seriously bother with me because today Mike Petrilli is going to put on a nice suit and go to work in a nice office where he can call powerful, influential people and enjoy an expensive lunch. I am going to go to my classroom where I will try to get 16-year-olds to write some decent paragraphs and wonder how I'm going to finance the emergency hot water heater replacement I had to do yesterday (true story). Nobody's going to offer me a fat speaker's fee or a book deal, and when I finally post this later, probably only a couple hundred people will read it.
The Powers That Be haven't been talking to us. They haven't been listening to us. They don't need to.
That was one of the lessons of NCLB. When it first hit, the state would send trainers who fervently tried to get us to drink the kool-aid, but gradually, they decided they didn't need to bother. Nowadays, the trainers' attitude is, "Drink or don't drink. We don't care. You're doing this."
I don't imagine Gates Foundation executives tossing and turning at night, wondering if teachers are upset with them. I don't imagine thinkee tank guys fretting, "Oh, I hope this next repor goes over well with teachers." In some cases, I'm certain that teacher displeasure is viewed as proof that the reformers are on the right track. If we're unhappy, they must be doing the right thing.
The hard political truth is that you only have to talk to people who can help you or hurt you. The folks driving the reformy bus decided years ago that teachers can do neither. Make some contributions to the national unions, fund some "teacher of the year" contests as a sort of spokesperon audition, and that should be enough.
Saying teachers should talk more to reformers is like saying that ants should do a better job of explaining themselves to elephants.
We've been talking all along. We won't shut up. Granted, some of us are yelling in rage. This is to be expected. People want to be heard; when they don't think they are being heard, they will just keep raising their voices. Even if it means rage-yelling. A few folks get it-- if somebody is rage-yelling at you, it's because they don't think you hear them. If you want them to back off, a good first step is to show that you hear them, even if all you can get is "Boy, you are angry."
Will There Be Dialogue?
I think so. And I think sooner rather than later. Because soon, the "reformers" are going to need us.
The Common Core is becoming shakier by the minute. Bad testing and bad materials are awakening public opposition to CCSS, and supporters are starting to waver. "Oh, it's just a bad implementation" is taking its place alongside "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play" in the Gallery of Hilariously Clueless Responses to Bad Situations. From Dennis Van Roekel to the Brookings Institute, folks are starting to suggest that some tweaking is needed. The new party line is, "Well, of course we're going to need to be flexible in implementation," as if they had never previously declared that no deviation would be allowed.
Let's delay the tests. Let's delay evaluation. Let's delay some inconsequential piece of paperwork. Reformy fans are trying to negotiate, hoping that they can save the whole structure by giving up a piece. But the structure of reformy stuff is composed of so many shaky spires leaning against each other and resting on shifting foundation of money. Any piece that goes will take the rest with it.
Soon the reformers will be looking for help, trying to save some portion of their tottering edifice. They will be ready to talk. The trick will be for them to propose talks while they still have the power left to compel educators to come to the table they've been so long barred from.
The dialogue will also depend on the structure of the resistance at that moment. Like any other movement, the public education resistance movement contains a full range of voices. Out on the wings, we have some crazy-pants ragers, balanced by a full wing of quieter and calmer heads. Both have their place. The craziest person in the room may, as the old political saw suggests, set the agenda, but it's the cooler heads that run the meeting and settle the issues.
The ragers create help create the pressure to talk. They just don't excel at the actual talking. The corporate raiders will not want to give up an inch of profitable territory. The politicians will want to angle for a winning side. The professional bureaucrats will want to protect their incomes. When the conversation finally comes, it's going to be messy and complex. I hope there are some folks who have the strength to manage that mess when it finally arrives.
A guest writer on Peter DeWitt's blog this morning issued about the fifty gazillionth educational essay on the general topic of "Can't We All Just Get Along?" I sympathize. I am by nature a peacemaker. I don't like conflict and I hate confrontation. But over the years, fatherhood, failing at marriage, and leading a striking local have taught me some things about how and when and why conflict and confrontation have to be dealt with.
I wish that we were having a dialogue about the current state of American public education, but by and large we are not, no matter how much we'd like to be. Here's why we're not having a discussion now, and why we likely will be soon.
Can Reasonable People Disagree
Let's take care of this first. People can share values and goals and still disagree. In education we know this because it is how we live our professional lives. From staff meeting to department meeting to teachers' lounges, we regularly argue about the best way to educate students.
But you know what? We are not the ones saying, "If you really understand what's going on, you'll understand that the only correct conclusion is ours." That would be a reformer line. No room for deviation. Standards set in stone. Follow your script. Lifetime educators know that disagreement is not only okay, it's normal and necessary. It is the reformeisters who have declared their ideas beyond discussion.
We Don't Want the Same Things
From the WSJ reporter who told Diane Ravitch, "There are people on both sides looking to make money" to the invocation of "Curse of Knowledge" in the above-mentioned column, people keep suggesting that all the involved parties really want the same thing and all we have here is a failure to communicate.
This isn't a surprise. False equivalency is apparently now a regular course of study in journalism school. We are regularly told that all sides of debates are equally valid and so science and creationsim, flat earth and round earth, paper and plastic are all just different points of view. We just need to talk about it.
What we are experiencing in American public education is not a communication problem. We do not all want the same thing.
Some of us want what's best for students. Some of us want to make a bundle of money. Some of us want to create a streamlined efficient system of education. Some of us enjoy the exercise of power.
If the reformers really wanted the best for students, they would do what the best teachers have always done-- search far and wide through acres of materials for Things That Work. Instead, they imposing a system that values control and power and profit over students.
Clearest evidence? The reformers do not want these reformy things for their own children. That's not just a rhetorical flourish of an observation. I believe there is one value we do all share-- we want the best for our own children. And when it's time to make that choice, the reformy folks do not choose their own programs. Those programs are for other peoples' children.
When people vandalize your home, when they are spray-painting your front door and setting fire to your car, the problem is not a failure to communicate. The problem is that there are vandals attacking your home. You do not all want the same thing. You do not all value the same things. A conversation is not going to fix this.
They Don't Need To Listen
When teachers are told that we need to dialogue about reformy stuff, we get cranky because one of our major complaints is that we have been ignored through every step of this process. CCSS was created without any meaningful teacher input. Implementation has been hammered through without any meaningful teacher input. When teachers are even talked about, it has only been to complain that we are a barrier to education in this country.
Coleman, Gates, Broad, Duncan, Rhee-- the list goes on for people who have no real experience or training in education. What they do have are rich and powerful friends.
A while back I made fun of Mike Petrilli at Fordham Institute over a video he made. He and some Fordham folk read it and did not threaten to squash me like a bug, but rather did some quick joshing in return and moved on. They didn't need to seriously bother with me because today Mike Petrilli is going to put on a nice suit and go to work in a nice office where he can call powerful, influential people and enjoy an expensive lunch. I am going to go to my classroom where I will try to get 16-year-olds to write some decent paragraphs and wonder how I'm going to finance the emergency hot water heater replacement I had to do yesterday (true story). Nobody's going to offer me a fat speaker's fee or a book deal, and when I finally post this later, probably only a couple hundred people will read it.
The Powers That Be haven't been talking to us. They haven't been listening to us. They don't need to.
That was one of the lessons of NCLB. When it first hit, the state would send trainers who fervently tried to get us to drink the kool-aid, but gradually, they decided they didn't need to bother. Nowadays, the trainers' attitude is, "Drink or don't drink. We don't care. You're doing this."
I don't imagine Gates Foundation executives tossing and turning at night, wondering if teachers are upset with them. I don't imagine thinkee tank guys fretting, "Oh, I hope this next repor goes over well with teachers." In some cases, I'm certain that teacher displeasure is viewed as proof that the reformers are on the right track. If we're unhappy, they must be doing the right thing.
The hard political truth is that you only have to talk to people who can help you or hurt you. The folks driving the reformy bus decided years ago that teachers can do neither. Make some contributions to the national unions, fund some "teacher of the year" contests as a sort of spokesperon audition, and that should be enough.
Saying teachers should talk more to reformers is like saying that ants should do a better job of explaining themselves to elephants.
We've been talking all along. We won't shut up. Granted, some of us are yelling in rage. This is to be expected. People want to be heard; when they don't think they are being heard, they will just keep raising their voices. Even if it means rage-yelling. A few folks get it-- if somebody is rage-yelling at you, it's because they don't think you hear them. If you want them to back off, a good first step is to show that you hear them, even if all you can get is "Boy, you are angry."
Will There Be Dialogue?
I think so. And I think sooner rather than later. Because soon, the "reformers" are going to need us.
The Common Core is becoming shakier by the minute. Bad testing and bad materials are awakening public opposition to CCSS, and supporters are starting to waver. "Oh, it's just a bad implementation" is taking its place alongside "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play" in the Gallery of Hilariously Clueless Responses to Bad Situations. From Dennis Van Roekel to the Brookings Institute, folks are starting to suggest that some tweaking is needed. The new party line is, "Well, of course we're going to need to be flexible in implementation," as if they had never previously declared that no deviation would be allowed.
Let's delay the tests. Let's delay evaluation. Let's delay some inconsequential piece of paperwork. Reformy fans are trying to negotiate, hoping that they can save the whole structure by giving up a piece. But the structure of reformy stuff is composed of so many shaky spires leaning against each other and resting on shifting foundation of money. Any piece that goes will take the rest with it.
Soon the reformers will be looking for help, trying to save some portion of their tottering edifice. They will be ready to talk. The trick will be for them to propose talks while they still have the power left to compel educators to come to the table they've been so long barred from.
The dialogue will also depend on the structure of the resistance at that moment. Like any other movement, the public education resistance movement contains a full range of voices. Out on the wings, we have some crazy-pants ragers, balanced by a full wing of quieter and calmer heads. Both have their place. The craziest person in the room may, as the old political saw suggests, set the agenda, but it's the cooler heads that run the meeting and settle the issues.
The ragers create help create the pressure to talk. They just don't excel at the actual talking. The corporate raiders will not want to give up an inch of profitable territory. The politicians will want to angle for a winning side. The professional bureaucrats will want to protect their incomes. When the conversation finally comes, it's going to be messy and complex. I hope there are some folks who have the strength to manage that mess when it finally arrives.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
TFA One Step Closer To ... Something
On March 4, TFA Co-CEOs Matt Kramer and Elisa Villanueva delivered a huge one-two punch of speeches to a huge audience of TFA faithful that signaled the possibility of some significant changes for the 24-year-old organization. Those changes to the TFA program appeared in a context that was somewhat less encouraging, so I turned to the printed text of the speeches for a closer look.
Historical Framework
Kramer's speech opened with everything there is to loathe about the hubris and arrogance of the organization. Kramer frames his own personal journey from Junior Master of the Universe to Education Guy as nothing less than a cosmic mission assigned to him by the universe itself. The universe! And he's still here to fight--FIGHT!-- "for our children and our communities, and for our integrity." Kramer is doing Really Important Work.
Next it's time for a look back. TFA is in 48 regions, 35 states. 11,000 corps members. 32,000 alumni are out there, and they surveyed them. 10,000 are teaching, 750 are "school leaders," 1,000 are assistant principals or deans, 600 are instructional specialists, 185 are school system leaders, 70 are elected officials and 100 are union leaders. By my count that comes in a little under 13,000. The rest? Social services, law, medicine and other fields. "Nearly 90% of the 32,000 alumni of Teach For America are working full time for our kids." Once again, TFA conflation of teaching and non-teaching jobs reveals a bias that the Real Work of education really doesn't take place in a classroom.
The speech opened with all the things that TFA-haters hate. The arrogance. The self-importance. The odd elisions-- even as TFA leaders talk about how challenging teaching is, they rarely-if-ever talk about joining in with the hard-working teachers who are already out there, but address teaching as if it is a field they invented, a foreign land that nobody else has ever set foot upon. Nor is there any word in this speech about the original mission-- to fill empty teaching jobs for which there were no teachers.
So it would be easy to check out at this point. But wait-- there's more.
New Stuff for Headlines
Kramer and his Co-CEO went on a listening tour. They heard some things, and they formulated some commitments to areas for improvement. Better listening. Approaches based on local needs instead of national strategy. Temper data-driven nature with greater appreciation for human stories. More support for corps members. Organizationally more limber with more local decision-making. And this is where we turn to the two new programs that have been making modest headlines.
First, the longer training.
Without ever saying, "Yeah, that five week training thing is ridiculous," TFA is poised to launch a senior-year-long program to rain in learning theory, pedagogy, cultural stuff, and some actual in-class practice.
This is exactly what some teacher training programs provide. My teacher training (Allegheny College, Meadville, PA) was non-traditional. I majored in English, took ed courses senior year, student taught in an urban setting with huge training support while in the field. It was very similar to what TFA is describing, so that could be good. Of course, TFA's rather broad description could also describe a couple of loose meetings of a non-credit no-grade study group. So this will be one of those proof is in the pudding things.
The other new program is not really a program at all. It's a suggestion? thought? promise to back you up? that TFAers might want to stick around for more than two years. Kramer says that nowadays most corps members teach beyond two years, an assertion which is supported by a Harvard study, though only 15% stuck it out for five years. Interestingly, non-white TFAers were more likely to stick around. The study also reports "the top reasons TFA corps members said they left teaching were to pursue a position other than K–12 teacher (34.93 percent), to take courses to improve their career opportunities within education (11.79 percent), to take courses to improve their career opportunities outside of education (10.26 percent), and poor administrative leadership at their school (9.83 percent)."
So, TFA is prepared to provide more support up front and past the second year, which means that TFA is edging closer to the traditional teacher prep programs that it circumvents.
Red Meat
After Kramer, Villanueva delivered a pep talk that was more in keeping with the TFA tradition of unvarnished baloney. "We are a force for good," she repeatedly asserted. She talked about dedication to kids and how they are not numbers or statistics and a few other things that every working teacher in the country would agree with. It's the standard TFA template that always leaves me wondering two things.
1) With whom do they think they're arguing? Villanueva laid out some pretty controversial assertions, like "children are important," as if she is taking a radical hard-core challenge to The Man. One of the reasons TFA raises traditional teacher hackles is that they so often combine telling us things we already know with chastising us for things we never said.
2) I cannot decide if TFA is deluded or disingenuous. I agree that students are not a number or statistic, but I'm not the one supplying ground troops for the people who treat students like data-generation units. Either TFA's leaders don't know who their supporters are, or they know and they're committed to lying about it.
This is why it's hard to trust announcements of Big Changes-- because I can never decide whether TFA is just deluded or if TFA is wildly dishonest. Are they guileless tools or manipulative collaborators?
So...?
If TFA is really going to move closer to providing real teacher training, that's not a bad thing. One of the most inexcusable acts committed by TFA over the years is the wasting of strong, committed young people who could have made great teachers, but were thrown into tough classrooms without adequate preparation or support. Fixing that is the very very least that TFA could redeem itself. Now if they used their money and clout to provide support, promotion, and recruitment for already-existing teacher programs, we'd really have something useful.
The changes proposed, if they are really done and really done right, could make TFA bodies somewhat more functional in classrooms (they could also render TFA redundant to actual teacher programs). But if they really want to convince me they #dontbackdown, they'll need to commit to an actual lifetime of teaching. Schools need stability and the teaching profession needs people who want to be there. Lord knows that some teacher training programs are terrible. But the solution is not half-baked training for short-term temps.
Historical Framework
Kramer's speech opened with everything there is to loathe about the hubris and arrogance of the organization. Kramer frames his own personal journey from Junior Master of the Universe to Education Guy as nothing less than a cosmic mission assigned to him by the universe itself. The universe! And he's still here to fight--FIGHT!-- "for our children and our communities, and for our integrity." Kramer is doing Really Important Work.
Next it's time for a look back. TFA is in 48 regions, 35 states. 11,000 corps members. 32,000 alumni are out there, and they surveyed them. 10,000 are teaching, 750 are "school leaders," 1,000 are assistant principals or deans, 600 are instructional specialists, 185 are school system leaders, 70 are elected officials and 100 are union leaders. By my count that comes in a little under 13,000. The rest? Social services, law, medicine and other fields. "Nearly 90% of the 32,000 alumni of Teach For America are working full time for our kids." Once again, TFA conflation of teaching and non-teaching jobs reveals a bias that the Real Work of education really doesn't take place in a classroom.
The speech opened with all the things that TFA-haters hate. The arrogance. The self-importance. The odd elisions-- even as TFA leaders talk about how challenging teaching is, they rarely-if-ever talk about joining in with the hard-working teachers who are already out there, but address teaching as if it is a field they invented, a foreign land that nobody else has ever set foot upon. Nor is there any word in this speech about the original mission-- to fill empty teaching jobs for which there were no teachers.
So it would be easy to check out at this point. But wait-- there's more.
New Stuff for Headlines
Kramer and his Co-CEO went on a listening tour. They heard some things, and they formulated some commitments to areas for improvement. Better listening. Approaches based on local needs instead of national strategy. Temper data-driven nature with greater appreciation for human stories. More support for corps members. Organizationally more limber with more local decision-making. And this is where we turn to the two new programs that have been making modest headlines.
First, the longer training.
Without ever saying, "Yeah, that five week training thing is ridiculous," TFA is poised to launch a senior-year-long program to rain in learning theory, pedagogy, cultural stuff, and some actual in-class practice.
This is exactly what some teacher training programs provide. My teacher training (Allegheny College, Meadville, PA) was non-traditional. I majored in English, took ed courses senior year, student taught in an urban setting with huge training support while in the field. It was very similar to what TFA is describing, so that could be good. Of course, TFA's rather broad description could also describe a couple of loose meetings of a non-credit no-grade study group. So this will be one of those proof is in the pudding things.
The other new program is not really a program at all. It's a suggestion? thought? promise to back you up? that TFAers might want to stick around for more than two years. Kramer says that nowadays most corps members teach beyond two years, an assertion which is supported by a Harvard study, though only 15% stuck it out for five years. Interestingly, non-white TFAers were more likely to stick around. The study also reports "the top reasons TFA corps members said they left teaching were to pursue a position other than K–12 teacher (34.93 percent), to take courses to improve their career opportunities within education (11.79 percent), to take courses to improve their career opportunities outside of education (10.26 percent), and poor administrative leadership at their school (9.83 percent)."
So, TFA is prepared to provide more support up front and past the second year, which means that TFA is edging closer to the traditional teacher prep programs that it circumvents.
Red Meat
After Kramer, Villanueva delivered a pep talk that was more in keeping with the TFA tradition of unvarnished baloney. "We are a force for good," she repeatedly asserted. She talked about dedication to kids and how they are not numbers or statistics and a few other things that every working teacher in the country would agree with. It's the standard TFA template that always leaves me wondering two things.
1) With whom do they think they're arguing? Villanueva laid out some pretty controversial assertions, like "children are important," as if she is taking a radical hard-core challenge to The Man. One of the reasons TFA raises traditional teacher hackles is that they so often combine telling us things we already know with chastising us for things we never said.
2) I cannot decide if TFA is deluded or disingenuous. I agree that students are not a number or statistic, but I'm not the one supplying ground troops for the people who treat students like data-generation units. Either TFA's leaders don't know who their supporters are, or they know and they're committed to lying about it.
This is why it's hard to trust announcements of Big Changes-- because I can never decide whether TFA is just deluded or if TFA is wildly dishonest. Are they guileless tools or manipulative collaborators?
So...?
If TFA is really going to move closer to providing real teacher training, that's not a bad thing. One of the most inexcusable acts committed by TFA over the years is the wasting of strong, committed young people who could have made great teachers, but were thrown into tough classrooms without adequate preparation or support. Fixing that is the very very least that TFA could redeem itself. Now if they used their money and clout to provide support, promotion, and recruitment for already-existing teacher programs, we'd really have something useful.
The changes proposed, if they are really done and really done right, could make TFA bodies somewhat more functional in classrooms (they could also render TFA redundant to actual teacher programs). But if they really want to convince me they #dontbackdown, they'll need to commit to an actual lifetime of teaching. Schools need stability and the teaching profession needs people who want to be there. Lord knows that some teacher training programs are terrible. But the solution is not half-baked training for short-term temps.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Coleman Speaks Out (Sort of)
Oh, the interwebs were alive with the sound of David Coleman today. His fervent presentation about the new, CCSS-infused SAT roused journalists (Wall Street Journalist), sort of journalists (Huffington Post), and tweetists (now we're on my level) galore. I read splintered quotes of Colemania, which must have merely scratched the surface, because I also read that his SAT speech earned the Standing O from the crowd in Austin
But I couldn't be there (I was busy, you know, working for a living). So now, using such classic faux journalist techniques as "Splicing Together Secondary Sources" and "Reading Real Journalism" and even one I like to call "Making Shit Up," I am going to bring you, loyal reader, David Coleman's presentation of the the ideas behind the New SAT!
Let's face it. The SAT is a doddering dinosaur of a test. Research just proved for the umpteenth time that it doesn't predict college success as well as high school GPA, and proving that is laced with loads of cultural bias has become a training exercise for freshmen-level research assistants. The old girl needs a facelift, a tummy tuck, and a boob job. It's not that I particularly care about the validity or usefulness of the test, but we are losing market share to the ACT and some colleges are starting to ignore us altogether. We've got a product to move, and that means releasing this year's hot new model to stir up the customer base.
So what have we done?
Well, that essay portion that colleges just kept ignoring because it didn't effectively test anything except a student's ability to locate the piece of paper-- that's gone. Well, "optional." If you still want to take it, knock yourself out.
But that won't matter because we are expanding writing in the rest of the test. Students are going have to write stuff based on documents from other disciplines-- in other words, none of that literature crap. God-- where we ever got the idea that anybody should read, like, that Shakespeare guy is beyond me. No, it'll be historical documents and biology charts and stereo instructions and quarterly earnings reports-- things that really matter.
Their essays will be evidence based. So all they have to do is come up with the correct interpretation of the reading, support it with the correct evidence from the excerpt, and assemble the evidence in the correct manner. This makes the SAT invaluable, because the ability to regurgitate a pre-determined single reading of a text is central to college studies. The ability to repeat what they're told is important for all American citizens, but real excellence is in being able to figure out exactly what we want them to say, and how, without us having to spell it out for them.
We're also going to get rid of all that fancy-shmancy vocabulary. We're chucking out words like "sagacious" and "ignominious" and putting in vocabulary like "empirical" and "synthesis" and "actuarial tables" and "return on investment."
Now, I know that many students in this country get an unfair advantage on the SATs by hiring private tutors and prep programs, and I feel that it is completely unfair that this going on. Specifically, I feel that it is unfair that this is going on and we aren't benefiting from it. But we have been learning from facebook and your grocery store customer card and every on-line retailer in the world, and we will be happy to provide you with some free test prep products and even a handful of other free services for a select few-- all you need give us in return is all your personal information and the chance to market many of our other products directly to you. See? We are just a big bunch of humanitarians.
Look, these tests have become "disconnected from the work of our high schools," by which I mean that I used CCSS to redefine what the work of high school should be, and I promised that it would line up with college, and now in this new job I get a chance to make my own prophecy come true. I don't just get to move the goal posts-- I get to declare that now a football game will be won by the team that hits the most home runs. Is this a great country, or what?
And to all you sunsabitches who griped about my Common Core work-- how do you like me now? One way or another, I am going to force you to teach what I personally think ought to be taught the way I think it ought to be taught. Your students pee themselves over the SAT-- they will beg and bully you to teach math and English the way I want you to in mortal terror that they'll get a low score and end up working as a part-time cart-bearing greaser at some Wal-mart.
I am David Effing Coleman. I'm an education amateur, but I'm a well-connected one and I have personally redefined what it means to be an educated person in America. No more of this namby-pamby reading and writing about thoughts and feelings and ideas and the rest of that shit. From cradle to grave, you'll focus on the only thing that matters-- practical, literal stuff that helps people make money. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty"-- what the hell was that Keats character smoking, anyway? The liberal arts?? Who in the bloody blue hell needs the liberal arts???!
Yes, the SAT was a biased test. It still is-- but now it's biased the right way. My way. We've got the CCSS and the SAT lined up. Next we'll get your three-year-olds properly rigorized, and once that's happening colleges won't be able to keep from becoming the proper vocational training centers they're supposed to be. Quality of life? Quality of life comes from money, baby. Education has something to do with a greater understanding of our world and our humanity and how we make sense of them, how we express our deepest connections to each other and the universe in a process of discovery, expression and wonder that continues our whole life? You're killing me.
Look, an educated person is one who can do well the tests assigned by his betters, can fulfill a useful job for the corporations that hire him, and will behave properly for the government that rules him. If you wanted something more out of life than that, you should have arranged to be rich. In the meantime, enjoy the new SAT.
At least, that's what I imagine him saying today. I might have paraphrased a little.
But I couldn't be there (I was busy, you know, working for a living). So now, using such classic faux journalist techniques as "Splicing Together Secondary Sources" and "Reading Real Journalism" and even one I like to call "Making Shit Up," I am going to bring you, loyal reader, David Coleman's presentation of the the ideas behind the New SAT!
Let's face it. The SAT is a doddering dinosaur of a test. Research just proved for the umpteenth time that it doesn't predict college success as well as high school GPA, and proving that is laced with loads of cultural bias has become a training exercise for freshmen-level research assistants. The old girl needs a facelift, a tummy tuck, and a boob job. It's not that I particularly care about the validity or usefulness of the test, but we are losing market share to the ACT and some colleges are starting to ignore us altogether. We've got a product to move, and that means releasing this year's hot new model to stir up the customer base.
So what have we done?
Well, that essay portion that colleges just kept ignoring because it didn't effectively test anything except a student's ability to locate the piece of paper-- that's gone. Well, "optional." If you still want to take it, knock yourself out.
But that won't matter because we are expanding writing in the rest of the test. Students are going have to write stuff based on documents from other disciplines-- in other words, none of that literature crap. God-- where we ever got the idea that anybody should read, like, that Shakespeare guy is beyond me. No, it'll be historical documents and biology charts and stereo instructions and quarterly earnings reports-- things that really matter.
Their essays will be evidence based. So all they have to do is come up with the correct interpretation of the reading, support it with the correct evidence from the excerpt, and assemble the evidence in the correct manner. This makes the SAT invaluable, because the ability to regurgitate a pre-determined single reading of a text is central to college studies. The ability to repeat what they're told is important for all American citizens, but real excellence is in being able to figure out exactly what we want them to say, and how, without us having to spell it out for them.
We're also going to get rid of all that fancy-shmancy vocabulary. We're chucking out words like "sagacious" and "ignominious" and putting in vocabulary like "empirical" and "synthesis" and "actuarial tables" and "return on investment."
Now, I know that many students in this country get an unfair advantage on the SATs by hiring private tutors and prep programs, and I feel that it is completely unfair that this going on. Specifically, I feel that it is unfair that this is going on and we aren't benefiting from it. But we have been learning from facebook and your grocery store customer card and every on-line retailer in the world, and we will be happy to provide you with some free test prep products and even a handful of other free services for a select few-- all you need give us in return is all your personal information and the chance to market many of our other products directly to you. See? We are just a big bunch of humanitarians.
Look, these tests have become "disconnected from the work of our high schools," by which I mean that I used CCSS to redefine what the work of high school should be, and I promised that it would line up with college, and now in this new job I get a chance to make my own prophecy come true. I don't just get to move the goal posts-- I get to declare that now a football game will be won by the team that hits the most home runs. Is this a great country, or what?
And to all you sunsabitches who griped about my Common Core work-- how do you like me now? One way or another, I am going to force you to teach what I personally think ought to be taught the way I think it ought to be taught. Your students pee themselves over the SAT-- they will beg and bully you to teach math and English the way I want you to in mortal terror that they'll get a low score and end up working as a part-time cart-bearing greaser at some Wal-mart.
I am David Effing Coleman. I'm an education amateur, but I'm a well-connected one and I have personally redefined what it means to be an educated person in America. No more of this namby-pamby reading and writing about thoughts and feelings and ideas and the rest of that shit. From cradle to grave, you'll focus on the only thing that matters-- practical, literal stuff that helps people make money. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty"-- what the hell was that Keats character smoking, anyway? The liberal arts?? Who in the bloody blue hell needs the liberal arts???!
Yes, the SAT was a biased test. It still is-- but now it's biased the right way. My way. We've got the CCSS and the SAT lined up. Next we'll get your three-year-olds properly rigorized, and once that's happening colleges won't be able to keep from becoming the proper vocational training centers they're supposed to be. Quality of life? Quality of life comes from money, baby. Education has something to do with a greater understanding of our world and our humanity and how we make sense of them, how we express our deepest connections to each other and the universe in a process of discovery, expression and wonder that continues our whole life? You're killing me.
Look, an educated person is one who can do well the tests assigned by his betters, can fulfill a useful job for the corporations that hire him, and will behave properly for the government that rules him. If you wanted something more out of life than that, you should have arranged to be rich. In the meantime, enjoy the new SAT.
At least, that's what I imagine him saying today. I might have paraphrased a little.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Why the Hell Are We Racing Anywhere?
Race to the Top had been rather quiet as a brand until President Obama revived it in his new budget proposal. Unfortunately, the new iteration underlines the metaphorical problems with the nom de regulation. For a guy who launched his career by being a moving speaker, Obama has hit on a real tone-deaf clunker here.
This time, we are racing for equity, which means, I guess, that we are going to Race To The Top To The Middle. Seriously, how does this metaphor even sort of work? How does a race for equality work, exactly?
My first thought is that we are about to see a real-life Diana Moon Glampers to preside over a race in which the swift are properly held back. But no-- we're clearly supposed to be competing for excellence. Excellence in...not being any more or less excellent than anybody else??
But the metaphorical muddle that is Race To The Top To The Middle only raises a more important question which is-- why were we ever racing anywhere?
Competition in pursuit of excellence is highly overrated.
First of all, we only compete with other teams. The five members of a basketball team do not compete with each other to score the most baskets; if they did, they would be a terrible team and they would lose very much, and nobody would say, "Wow, those guys are really excellent!" Not even if they competed with great rigor.
So who is supposed to be the other team in this race? Other schools? We are supposed to beat other schools and teachers and students and leaving them whipped and beaten and in this way we will achieve excellence?
Or is it just possible that, in the education game, every American public school that uses teachers to educate American children-- that every one of those schools is on the same team and not in competition at all?
Second of all, even in economics and business, competition is really great until it isn't. Rockefeller created Standard Oil by absorbing competition, by buying up every last one of his competitors. At no point did he say, "You know what? For me to be really excellent, I need to have some competition." No-- he said, "In order for me to be really excellent, I need to control and organize most of this big, messy industry. Competition must go away." You know who else thought ending competition would be a good business strategy? Bill Gates.
Granted, Gates and a few others toyed with making their workers compete with each other. They stopped doing it, because it was bad for the team.
So don't tell me the business world loves competition, because they don't. At best, the people who are losing pay it lip service which lasts right up until they aren't losing any more.
And they aren't wrong. Rockefeller and Gates both brought order to industries that were messy and wasteful, industries that were throwing away valuable resources and opportunities fighting against each other. Competition did not improve the industry; it made it sloppy and inefficient.
Obama et al seem to believe that races advance all racers, just like Reagan's rising tide raised all boats (or trickled down on submarines, or something). They remain convinced that the folks in the back of the pack are only there because they are slackers, lazy, unmotivated, and that somehow the shame of losing will spur them to finally get their acts together. We've heard about compassionate conservatives. Here we see loveless liberals, compassion-free with a Nietzschian disregard for the under-menschen.
"But," they are going to protest, "we can't keep giving medals to everybody no matter what." And you know what? I agree. The self-esteemy movement to reward students just for having a pulse was a mistake. But our mistake was not giving medals to everyone. Our mistake was giving unearned medals to everyone.
"But," they are going to mansplain, "in the race of life, there are winners and losers." And I am going to say, not in school there aren't.
This is the problem with people who play too many sports. I'm a musician. You know what happens when you go to a concert and everybody plays their very very best? We don't declare one a winner and one a loser no matter what. We applaud like crazy, because when everybody does a great job, it's freakin' awesome!
In my classroom, there is no useful purpose for having a race. There is no useful purpose in declaring winners and losers. If all my students learn today, today everybody wins. And we don't have to race for that to happen.
Racing is a terrible awful no good very bad metaphor for what should be happening in schools. It is a stupid way to frame the whole business and cheap besides. Competition will not improve education-- not on the macro-national scale, not on the district scale, not on the building scale, not on the classroom scale.
We are not racers. We are builders. And building takes time and care and attention. It takes an understanding of your materials and the place in which you are building. It requires time and care and harmony and craft and attention. And every beam, every bolt, every square inch of surface matters. Every aspect of the building rests on and supports other aspects. And if you build a great building next to mine, it does not diminish me, but adds to my work.
Mr. President, I reject the language of scarcity, the language that says we will only support those who finish the race first, the language says that we are not a team, but a country of competitors in a dog-eat-dog world where there is only enough to support a chosen few. I am not going to race to any damn where.
This time, we are racing for equity, which means, I guess, that we are going to Race To The Top To The Middle. Seriously, how does this metaphor even sort of work? How does a race for equality work, exactly?
My first thought is that we are about to see a real-life Diana Moon Glampers to preside over a race in which the swift are properly held back. But no-- we're clearly supposed to be competing for excellence. Excellence in...not being any more or less excellent than anybody else??
But the metaphorical muddle that is Race To The Top To The Middle only raises a more important question which is-- why were we ever racing anywhere?
Competition in pursuit of excellence is highly overrated.
First of all, we only compete with other teams. The five members of a basketball team do not compete with each other to score the most baskets; if they did, they would be a terrible team and they would lose very much, and nobody would say, "Wow, those guys are really excellent!" Not even if they competed with great rigor.
So who is supposed to be the other team in this race? Other schools? We are supposed to beat other schools and teachers and students and leaving them whipped and beaten and in this way we will achieve excellence?
Or is it just possible that, in the education game, every American public school that uses teachers to educate American children-- that every one of those schools is on the same team and not in competition at all?
Second of all, even in economics and business, competition is really great until it isn't. Rockefeller created Standard Oil by absorbing competition, by buying up every last one of his competitors. At no point did he say, "You know what? For me to be really excellent, I need to have some competition." No-- he said, "In order for me to be really excellent, I need to control and organize most of this big, messy industry. Competition must go away." You know who else thought ending competition would be a good business strategy? Bill Gates.
Granted, Gates and a few others toyed with making their workers compete with each other. They stopped doing it, because it was bad for the team.
So don't tell me the business world loves competition, because they don't. At best, the people who are losing pay it lip service which lasts right up until they aren't losing any more.
And they aren't wrong. Rockefeller and Gates both brought order to industries that were messy and wasteful, industries that were throwing away valuable resources and opportunities fighting against each other. Competition did not improve the industry; it made it sloppy and inefficient.
Obama et al seem to believe that races advance all racers, just like Reagan's rising tide raised all boats (or trickled down on submarines, or something). They remain convinced that the folks in the back of the pack are only there because they are slackers, lazy, unmotivated, and that somehow the shame of losing will spur them to finally get their acts together. We've heard about compassionate conservatives. Here we see loveless liberals, compassion-free with a Nietzschian disregard for the under-menschen.
"But," they are going to protest, "we can't keep giving medals to everybody no matter what." And you know what? I agree. The self-esteemy movement to reward students just for having a pulse was a mistake. But our mistake was not giving medals to everyone. Our mistake was giving unearned medals to everyone.
"But," they are going to mansplain, "in the race of life, there are winners and losers." And I am going to say, not in school there aren't.
This is the problem with people who play too many sports. I'm a musician. You know what happens when you go to a concert and everybody plays their very very best? We don't declare one a winner and one a loser no matter what. We applaud like crazy, because when everybody does a great job, it's freakin' awesome!
In my classroom, there is no useful purpose for having a race. There is no useful purpose in declaring winners and losers. If all my students learn today, today everybody wins. And we don't have to race for that to happen.
Racing is a terrible awful no good very bad metaphor for what should be happening in schools. It is a stupid way to frame the whole business and cheap besides. Competition will not improve education-- not on the macro-national scale, not on the district scale, not on the building scale, not on the classroom scale.
We are not racers. We are builders. And building takes time and care and attention. It takes an understanding of your materials and the place in which you are building. It requires time and care and harmony and craft and attention. And every beam, every bolt, every square inch of surface matters. Every aspect of the building rests on and supports other aspects. And if you build a great building next to mine, it does not diminish me, but adds to my work.
Mr. President, I reject the language of scarcity, the language that says we will only support those who finish the race first, the language says that we are not a team, but a country of competitors in a dog-eat-dog world where there is only enough to support a chosen few. I am not going to race to any damn where.
How Green Are Your Roots?
The world of reformy stuff has altered my life; specifically, it has changed my daily routine. In the morning before school, I read. At lunch, I read. And sometimes in the evening, I read. And when I need a break from reading, I write.
There are soooooo many powerful writers out there covering the world of education, the high stakes test-driven status quo, and the many fronts in the ongoing battle to reclaim public education. The long list to the right of this column only scratches the surface. And to stay fully informed, I also read the work of the corporate champions of the high stakes test-driven status quo, the various organizations that fight and claw to keep the dream of educorporate schooling alive. So I've had plenty of opportunity to see what separates the two groups, what distinguishes the Network for Public Education from, say, StudentsFirst or TFA or any of the groups that shoehorn "Education" and "Quality" into their names.
The difference is money.
So many of the supporters of Reformy Stuff are bought and paid for. So many of the opponents are not.
If the Gates Foundation woke up tomorrow and discovered that all its money had turned into, I don't know, expired gift certificates for a free breakfast at Denny's, support for CCSS would collapse. If the Common Core and Teach for America and the Charter Movement had to survive on actual merit, this whole fight would be over in a week. If rich white guys couldn't buy studies and then buy other groups to study the studies and then buy organizations to praise the studies, the support for Reformy Stuff would evaporate.
You would think that the acolytes of meritocracy would want to say, "Look, if our concepts cannot survive in the marketplace of ideas strictly on their merit, then they don't deserve to live." But they are fans of another sort of meritocracy, one in which money proves one is a virtuous person, and therefor one's every idea must have merit and deserve to be rolled up in twenty dollar bills that are then shoved down less virtuous throats.
I watched and read about the Network for Public Education conference, and I can't help noticing that it does not include any people who are getting rich off fighting reformy stuff. In fact, I see quite a lot of people spending their own money and uncompensated time to fight this fight.
In the meantime, "I completely waived my speakers fee today and traveled at my own expense because I really believe in my message," said no Michelle Rhee ever. "Fixing schools" is making some people wealthy.
Time after time, Gates Foundation and other sources like it plant money in the ground and a group springs forth, ready to say whatever they are paid to say. People are making very good livings pushing this stuff.
But others of us are fighting it for free. I'd love to say something moving about how our righteous virtue in the support of a good cause gives us a homespun Davidian strength that no Goliath-like corporate heartless hucksters can overcome, but I don't think so.
I think Diane Ravitch has it right. They have to lose. The Masters of Reforming Our Nation's Schools are like farmers who have had to fill their field with plants that they bought at the store and transplanted on their own. When those plants die, they go back to the store and buy more. But every plant they buy and transplant fails.
They have bought (and bought and rebought and bought again) the illusion that they know how to raise those crops, but the truth is that they haven't a clue and every thing they have tried has failed, turned dry and dusty in the hard sun of reality. The successes they have enjoyed depend on nothing but a large supply of money, and eventually they will either run out or simply tire of spending it. What success can they point to that they did not prop up with money-based illusion? What words of support can they point to that haven't been paid for? What would happen to it all if the money went away?
The Reformy Stuff movement has no roots. Where roots should be there is only a large and impressive supply of money. But for those of us on the other side, there are roots that go deep, roots that were already planted by our love and passion for education and that have driven deep long before the fake foundation farmers came along. They can only keep this up as long as they can afford to pay for it. We can only keep this up as long as we have breath and brains, fingers to type, voices to speak.
It's not that their dependence on money makes them evil or dirty. Their dependence on money makes their movement unsustainable. But those of us fighting back and teaching and blogging and talking? We can keep this up all day, every day.
There are soooooo many powerful writers out there covering the world of education, the high stakes test-driven status quo, and the many fronts in the ongoing battle to reclaim public education. The long list to the right of this column only scratches the surface. And to stay fully informed, I also read the work of the corporate champions of the high stakes test-driven status quo, the various organizations that fight and claw to keep the dream of educorporate schooling alive. So I've had plenty of opportunity to see what separates the two groups, what distinguishes the Network for Public Education from, say, StudentsFirst or TFA or any of the groups that shoehorn "Education" and "Quality" into their names.
The difference is money.
So many of the supporters of Reformy Stuff are bought and paid for. So many of the opponents are not.
If the Gates Foundation woke up tomorrow and discovered that all its money had turned into, I don't know, expired gift certificates for a free breakfast at Denny's, support for CCSS would collapse. If the Common Core and Teach for America and the Charter Movement had to survive on actual merit, this whole fight would be over in a week. If rich white guys couldn't buy studies and then buy other groups to study the studies and then buy organizations to praise the studies, the support for Reformy Stuff would evaporate.
You would think that the acolytes of meritocracy would want to say, "Look, if our concepts cannot survive in the marketplace of ideas strictly on their merit, then they don't deserve to live." But they are fans of another sort of meritocracy, one in which money proves one is a virtuous person, and therefor one's every idea must have merit and deserve to be rolled up in twenty dollar bills that are then shoved down less virtuous throats.
I watched and read about the Network for Public Education conference, and I can't help noticing that it does not include any people who are getting rich off fighting reformy stuff. In fact, I see quite a lot of people spending their own money and uncompensated time to fight this fight.
In the meantime, "I completely waived my speakers fee today and traveled at my own expense because I really believe in my message," said no Michelle Rhee ever. "Fixing schools" is making some people wealthy.
Time after time, Gates Foundation and other sources like it plant money in the ground and a group springs forth, ready to say whatever they are paid to say. People are making very good livings pushing this stuff.
But others of us are fighting it for free. I'd love to say something moving about how our righteous virtue in the support of a good cause gives us a homespun Davidian strength that no Goliath-like corporate heartless hucksters can overcome, but I don't think so.
I think Diane Ravitch has it right. They have to lose. The Masters of Reforming Our Nation's Schools are like farmers who have had to fill their field with plants that they bought at the store and transplanted on their own. When those plants die, they go back to the store and buy more. But every plant they buy and transplant fails.
They have bought (and bought and rebought and bought again) the illusion that they know how to raise those crops, but the truth is that they haven't a clue and every thing they have tried has failed, turned dry and dusty in the hard sun of reality. The successes they have enjoyed depend on nothing but a large supply of money, and eventually they will either run out or simply tire of spending it. What success can they point to that they did not prop up with money-based illusion? What words of support can they point to that haven't been paid for? What would happen to it all if the money went away?
The Reformy Stuff movement has no roots. Where roots should be there is only a large and impressive supply of money. But for those of us on the other side, there are roots that go deep, roots that were already planted by our love and passion for education and that have driven deep long before the fake foundation farmers came along. They can only keep this up as long as they can afford to pay for it. We can only keep this up as long as we have breath and brains, fingers to type, voices to speak.
It's not that their dependence on money makes them evil or dirty. Their dependence on money makes their movement unsustainable. But those of us fighting back and teaching and blogging and talking? We can keep this up all day, every day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)