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| Asleep in Mid Air |
You’ve all seen the pictures, little creatures falling off a cliff to certain death. It’s happening right now across America. Many educators, academics, journalists, foundations, politicians, and parents are killing teachers and children. They follow without question the popular corporate model that only test results are an accurate measure of student learning and teacher effectiveness. Like the filmmakers in the 1958 nature documentary about lemmings, corporate interests have done a magnificent job of staging lies as truth. They have created an environment where otherwise sane people engage in utter madness. The “oh shit” moments came for me in late spring and summer when I read a series of articles about education reform.
Follow the Money
My first shock was The New York Times article published on May 22, 2011. (“Behind Grass Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates” by Sam Dillon). Here’s how the Gates Foundation is using their money:
· They fund advocacy organizations like Teach Plus and recruit local teachers. Their job? Convince state legislators to pass reforms. In Indiana, the recruits conveniently forgot to mention they represented Teach Plus. They claimed to be just teachers interested in reform. No, they are puppets whose strings are pulled by what Gates wants. Such is the power of corporate money.
· The foundation also pays data specialists from Harvard to work inside school districts and make changes to curriculum; they pay education analysts to explain the issues to journalists; they give grants to media organizations like Education Week and public radio and television stations. Well, that certainly takes care of things doesn’t it? I mean, all this money allows the foundation to control how people think about public education! Who’s going to present a conflicting viewpoint, or even a truthful one and possibly lose millions of dollars?
Oh, and by the way, in 2009, the foundation spent $373 million on education. The current plan: $3.5 billion over the next five or six years.
Whatever Happens, Don’t Listen to Expert Advice
Valerie Strauss writes an education blog for the Washington Post called “The Answer Sheet.” On May 22, 2011, she published a letter from ten academic researchers to the New York State Board of Regents urging them not to evaluate teachers and principals based on student test scores. These experts represent several universities from across the country: UCLA, Stanford (4), Duke, Columbia (2), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (2). These people have been involved in extensive research around testing and measurement. A group one would perhaps want to pay attention to, right? Here’s what they told the Regents:
· Methods to estimate teacher effectiveness (known as value- added models) based on test scores show that “these measures are too unstable and too vulnerable to many sources of error to be used as a major part of teacher evaluation.” These models cannot take into account that some teachers will have students with more difficulties (poor attendance, homelessness, learning issues), which can impede performance on tests, and make it look as if a teacher is not effective.
· The value-added models also cannot separate out the influence of prior year teachers, or school and home conditions on learning. For example, a teacher in a school that is able to provide resources to support learning and serves children from stable families may appear to be a more effective teacher.
Of course the Regents ignored the evidence and so, beginning with this school year, teachers and principals in New York will have 40 percent of their evaluations based on student test scores. The state of Texas also plans to adopt similar evaluations for their teachers. This is what happens when one voice is heard, the corporate one. Forget innovation. Isn’t it just easier to go along?
And Then, There’s the Cheating
There have been lots of headlines about spectacular testing gains by students in urban school districts. I’m thinking about Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Houston. The testing virus has spread, the drumbeat of reform screams loudly, and the great reformers are rewarded. Superintendent of the Year for Beverly Hall in Atlanta, Michelle Rhee is now a national media star, and Terry Grier got a big, fat bonus.
Except there’s a wee problem, and it’s growing. The headline in The Christian Science Monitor on July 5, 2011: “America’s Biggest Teacher and Principal Cheating Scandal Unfolds in Atlanta”. According to Patrik Jonsson, the testing gains in Atlanta’s public schools were based on widespread cheating by 178 teachers and principals. Why the fuck should this come as a surprise? When the test is all that matters, cheating happens. Teachers and principals get bonuses for performance and are threatened with job loss when the scores are bad. The response from districts? Well, most teachers don’t cheat. Really? Isn’t teaching to the test a form of cheating? Based on what I’ve seen, teaching to the test begins the first week of school. And, on top of that, the Atlanta school district refused to investigate the cheating. (You might want to sit down for this one). They wanted to prove to the Gates Foundation and others that the money invested in Atlanta would have an impact on urban education.
Atlanta is not alone. There are reports that show student irregularities in Washington, D.C. (see USA Today, March 28, 2011), and in Houston, students in two schools said that teachers helped them on the tests (not the first time cheating has happened in that city). Update: add Philadelphia to the list.
Robert Schaeffer of the anti-testing National Center for Fair and Open Testing, said it best, “How many wake-up calls have they had? When people’s careers, income, and self-images depend on boosting test scores, some will find ways to boost scores by any means necessary.” It doesn’t seem to matter that this reliance on testing is wrong. There are alternate voices everywhere and those in power aren’t listening. The corporate voice runs it all. Over the cliff we go.
