Ed Reform Isn’t About Education
Yes, I’ve written about this before, but in case you’ve forgotten, Ed Reformers have changed their motto from Charter Schools offer a superior education (compared to public schools) at less cost to Parent Choice! Which is really convenient since it allows them to ignore failing schools by claiming these schools are what parents want. Oh, ed reformers are quick to point out failing public schools in the name of supporting charters, but are mum on schools like Moyer Academy and Pencader.
Which brings me to an interesting article in the News Journal on Sunday…
While many consider Jack Markell an “education
reform” governor, a recent national report gives Delaware a squarely average ranking on reform efforts – and Markell’s office is backing away from embracing the label.
Some of Markell’s policies fit the “reformer mold,” like supporting more resources for charter schools
[…]
But according to a report from the Center for Education Reform, “the first state is in the middle of the pack when it comes to parent power. There’s hope though that we’ll see some movement with a more reform-minded executive in the Governor’s mansion.”
Parent power? Oh, if only that were true. It’s not, but parent’s like to kid themselves when it comes to education; they like to pretend the educational “choice” they made for their child is the best… better than yours, at least. Ya gotta hand it to Ed Reformers though. They are very good at propaganda. Selling snake oil to uninformed parents and making these parents believe they’re empowered and that all they have to do to guarantee their child’s academic success is to choice them out of a public school is quite an accomplishment. How’d that work for Pencader? How’s that working for Moyer Academy? For Prestige Academy?
And there’s the rub. Since Ed Reformer’s new motto is Parent Choice/Parent Power then the parent finds themselves on their own if they make the wrong choice. And let’s not forget that choice isn’t a yearly option for most students. There are designated entry points. Make the “wrong” choice in 1st, 6th or 9th grade and you’re pretty much stuck with it. There really isn’t room for a do-over with choice.
Back to the article…
“The Governor isn’t interested in labels or rankings,” spokesman Cathy Rossi said in an email. “He is focused on strengthening Delaware schools and recognizes that different schools are best for different students.”
Really? Not interested in labels or rankings? So explain why we label our schools superior, commendable, and Academic Watch? Those are labels and rankings. As far as recognizing “that different schools are best for different students” I’ll turn to Kilroy…
But he has no problem labeling teacher’s performance using f*cked-up means that excludes student attendance and parental involvement! Beat the teacher for failure in external factor. But God for bid Markell getting a bad grade from an study group!
Colorful language aside, Kilroy has a point. If the Governor recognizes and supports different schools for different students then why would he, and other ed reformers, support a one size fits all test?
In order to “improve” Delaware’s Parent Power ranking, the Center for Education Reform (Go read their website. I’ve never seen so much fluff) offers Delaware a to-do list:
• Create a voucher system that gives public money to parents who want to send their kids to private schools.
• Create an independent charter school authorizer outside of the Department of Education.
• Make it easier
• Allow state capital money to pay for charter school construction
• Place more emphasis on students’ test scores in decisions on teacher pay and layoffs.
Not much about improving education on that list, is there? But there is a ton about privatizing education (not good education, just education), using public money for private schools (vouchers), allowing tax payer funds to pay for capital expenses (construction/renovations) of charter schools – keep in mind, that unlike public schools, tax payers would not own these buildings – creating a private charter school authorizer (that I guess could tap into that capital money and could approve charters anywhere they saw fit, whether the community wanted one, or not) and, finally, linking test scores to teacher pay and layoffs.
I keep reading that list and all I get out of it is that ed reformers want public money. This is about power, but not parent power.
Before moving on to Steve Newton’s post, I’d like to say a few things about the standardized tests. WE ARE USING THEM ALL WRONG! When my children were preparing for the SAT they took the practice test on College Board. When the results came in we focused on their weakest areas. This allowed them to brush up on certain areas and raise their scores. Makes sense, no? So why do we keep using these standardized tests as bludgeons rather than tools for identifying where help is needed? If a school passes the test… Congratulations. However, if a school does not pass then why aren’t we targeting that school with all the resources we can throw at it? Are we serious about improving education, or just looking for a way to justify charter schools and tapping into all that public money? Well, looking at the to-do list above I gotta go with money being the prime motivator.
Steve Newton takes a look at the to-do list and notices something missing…
Please note what’s NOT in any of the goals for school reform:
There’s no mention of the need to provide an education for ALL students, regardless of how well their parents make choices, or how poor they are, or what color their skin is, or where they live.
There’s no acknowledgement of the fact that the overwhelming impact of this sort of reform is to transfer state money away from certain populations and toward others. The winners happen to be those who have more money, and who vote.
This CER agenda is nothing more and nothing less than another despicable piece of political pandering to pay off middle-class white suburban voters and continue the disenfranchisement of the people who aren’t in order to maintain political power.
Carried to its ultimate end, it will result in a public school system that would make the proponents of Plessy v. Ferguson proud.
Ouch! He’s right, of course. This to-do list isn’t about educating all children… only some children. And even among charters all choices aren’t equal. There are charter schools for mostly white, affluent kids and charters for poor minority children. And what I always come back to is this… where are all those supposedly superior high needs/mostly minority charter school graduates? Not at the Charter School of Wilmington. Why not? Probably because, just like public schools, all charter schools are not created equal, no matter how often Ed Reformers pretend they are (at least in public, in private they know the score. Unless you believe that an ed reformer whose child didn’t get into the Charter School of Wilmington would then consider Moyer Academy. Thought not.)
Steve’s on a roll:
What the education reform agenda amounts to is using your tax dollars to pick winners and losers among our children (this sounding familiar now?) and to create a massive new middle-class entitlement program (charter and/or “private” school education). The price tag on this program will only go up, and you will be eventually told that only a Federal takeover of education and education funding (with attendant higher taxes) can sustain it.
If you don’t believe me, ask yourself what the endgame is. Ask yourself what constitutes “victory” for the reformers.
They will be honest enough to tell you that they are committed to redefining the purpose of public education away from “educating all children” to “making sure all parents have choices.”
Yep, follow the money. This isn’t about education. If it were, they’d be concerned with all children, but they’re not. They hide behind the phrase “parent choice” because it gives them a pass when a parent makes a bad choice. This isn’t even about destroying all public schools. They can’t do that. They need public schools (a few, at least) to take the children charters won’t. Charter schools can’t exist without public “dumping ground” schools. Right off the bat, charters admit that they can’t/won’t educate all children.
Steve also points out who’s missing in the ed reformers message:
Oh, and a note for other “special needs” parents like myself, John Young, Dana Garrett and thousands of Delawareans: You and your children are not part of the reformers’ vision AT ALL. Educating special needs children is expensive, and playing on the fear of middle-class parents that their own healthy kids will be harmed by mainstreaming is a card that has been played already.
Sad, but true. Ed Reformers target their message and their educational offerings to middle class, non-special needs children who would do fine in any school. They have nothing to say about “special needs” children. It’s like they simply don’t exist.
Basically, I find ed reformers to be lazy. Their vision seems to be to cherry pick certain students for certain schools and then claim to be innovative – all the while ignoring the children who need them the most, leaving those children in our public schools (who are losing resources and programs) and then pointing a finger at these public schools (who are trying to educate the children charters refuse to take) and saying, “You suck.”
So… if you want a to-do list, I have one for you – one that involves far more than cherry-picking your population and then giving yourself a gold star for passing a standardized test.
- Start caring about all children.
- Use testing as a tool to help struggling schools, not punish them… or worse, using them as propaganda to pump up charter schools.
- Fund high needs schools with resources and programs. And I mean really fund them, not a teaching unit here and there. Fund them like you actually want them to succeed.
Let’s just start with those three for now.
You know, there was a time that we celebrated educational individualism and diversity, where it was a given that we’d be all over the Nobel Prize list forever, where we knew basing our education system on standardized tests was the road to mediocrity. But there’s a lot of money in standardized tests, charters, vouchers, online schools, etc. Not a lot of educating, but a damn lot of tax payer money.
Tags: Charter Schools, Education, Featured, Vouchers
This is only going to get worse. “Ed Reform” is a $525 billion FOR PROFIT industry.
There are a lot of parents in for a BIG college surprise when they discover these expensive standardized test don’t equal admission/scholarship into a good college. They are coasting, believing that these tests actually mean something. And that’s the scam.
Pandora wrote:
Actually, that’s correct, but you have it wrong: the idea is about educating the children who actually want to be educated, and getting them away from those who are being warehoused in schools and are simply walking disruptions rather than actual students.
The teachers in private and parochial schools are not better educated than the teachers in public schools, and there’s no particular evidence that says they are actually better teachers. But private and parochial schools do have one major advantage: if a kid is just a hindrance to the education of the others, they can kick him out, period.
The real problem is the parents: if their children aren’t disciplined enough to behave in school, it’s because they have rotten — or absent — parents. But nobody is willing to tell adults that if their kids’ school is crappy it’s because they have been rotten parents; that’s a sure vote loser. As long as the adults can blame it on other people, primarily teachers, then everything is fine.
So… let’s stop pretending that charter schools are public schools – they aren’t. Also, the worst education my kids received was at a private parochial school. Absolutely horrendous. Took me years to correct the damage that “high brow” school inflicted.
BTW, my son graduated from a public school and is on an academic scholarship to a major university. His major is mechanical engineering, and he made Dean’s list both semesters of his Freshman year. Just started his sophomore year.
My daughter is a junior in a PUBLIC high school and she’s been recruited (invited for all expenses paid weekends to major universiities, such Duke, BU and Vanderbilt) by top notch universities. Her school, as was my son’s, is very diverse. So stop the crap/propaganda about public schools.
Stop blaming the parents. They are only pawns in this ed reform game. And the joke’s on most parents, whose jaws drop open when little Mary and Johnny don’t get the scholarship their parents were sure they would get.
Honestly, I’m about ready to open a “preparing your kid for college” school, because 95% of charter/choice parents don’t have a clue. And discipline is the least of their problems.
The real problem is the parents: if their children aren’t disciplined enough to behave in school, it’s because they have rotten — or absent — parents.
That one, again? So if children have only one parent, or are being raised by other family members, or are in foster homes, or have a single parent holding two jobs to try to pay the rent and no time to help with homework–THEY are the problem holding your child back from an education? And your solution–plainly offered–is to boot any such child right out of the system–“No education for you, kid!”
You prove my point: it’s not about and never was about trying to educate ALL children. You don’t think those children deserve an education; only your (obviously well-behaved) kids do.
100% correct, Steve. And I’m getting sick and tired of the lies being spewed about public education.
Bam! Pow! Boom! This is excellent, pandora. Thank you for it!
Steve & Pandora–
I agree w/ you in general. My kids go to public school too.
Please tell me what part of the quote below is false or inaccurate:
The real problem is the parents: if their children aren’t disciplined enough to behave in school, it’s because they have rotten — or absent — parents.
That doesn’t mean the “bad” or “poorly parented” kids don’t deserve a public school education. They do, but their education should not come at the expense of every other kid who has to sit in class w/ these disruptive clowns.
OK I’ll play
their education should not come at the expense of every other kid who has to sit in class w/ these disruptive clowns.
First, note that you used the word “clowns” to describe children in situations that were not of their own making (abuse, neglect, poverty, divorce); that gives me a certain sense of where you are coming from, and it ain’t pretty.
Second, you parrot the meme that these kids are always (or at least generally) the disruptive source of ruining other (compliant; polite) kids’ education.
Problem is: you can’t actually prove that. Yeah, you can cite “common sense” or what “everybody knows” or anecdotal cases that suit your fancy. The reality is that research doesn’t bear out your prejudices.
If you put any suburban children into the situations these kids have to survive just to get to school every day, they’d be lost. They do require special instructional strategies, and more investment, but there is not any real research that shows they are ruining anyone else’s education. In fact, there is considerable evidence that their presence broadens the experience of their better-off peers.
I knew I shouldn’t have dropped by….I really have to knock out an article tonite, and there you guys are gonna go and bait, bait, bait me……
I’m cutting to the chase PC or not, research absent, road worn. ALL children deserve the right to be educated to a reach. Not necessarily to their potential, because dammit we gotta get real–but they need REACH—and RESILIENCY.
That being said–leave the parents alone. When a student shows up–TAKE OVER and DO YOUR CRAFT, PASSION, MAGIC, SKILL, ART, PROFESSION etc.. PARENTS–LET THEM. Know your place, and stay to the side. Ask if help is needed. Help, respond, intervene if the teacher so much as makes a “friendly reminder”–in 3 fold!! TEACH your child boundaries, and who’s in charge. Even teach them sometimes it really isn’t fair—but SUCK IT UP!!! Anticipate your child is a real child, who may have misunderstood, misused an item, misled a teacher (yea lied), missed an assignment, or even missed a class or a whole day!!! DEAL WITH YOUR CHILD FIRST!!! And prepare them to accept consequences. THEN communicate w/ the teacher. Again, I said COMMUNICATE. Not confront, condemn, command, counsel, or cuss out the teacher. In my world, and how I raised/raising mine, that next conversation should be like talking to the 3rd parent in my child’s behalf. Now about those broken homes, and bad or absent parents’ everyone is so sure is ruining your kid(s) day? Would it kill you to show up at lunch sometime and sit by the kid who’s name you always hear? Tell that child you hear all about them, and about how smart they must be……and you just know they could be a leader if……and that you bet anyone would love them if they knew……and tell me right now, who cares about you, so I can be sure……And if that absent, or drunk, or drugged, or disinterested or even incapable so and so in their life isn’t around, you now know as a society we are to build that child together to become a different adult. Because society is in no hurry to fix broken adults. So go ahead and let folks have their charter and “choiced” schools. Those kids had parents to fill out the paperwork–and hand it in. Believe it or not, the subculture “left” behind is only a crueler, legalized version of tracking, and the die-hards who believe “bloom where you are planted”. And many will bloom. But no thanks to the haters and self-interested. All of this wouldn’t even be necessary IF our blasted education system would embrace tracking from the get-go. It can certainly be more fluid than the days of yore, and the pariah view. And kids could and would stay put locally. But darn-it. It’s time. If an itchy, flippant, surly, rude, unprepared 6th grader is ruining your child’s class–don’t let a little paperwork prevent you from “making the world all better”. But guess which college essay is a better read? And guess which public schools will reflect our own legitimized caste system? Happy now? And on the public dime.
My father, who spent his career in education, said that everything changed for thew worse when the parents started believing the child’s side of the story over the teacher’s.
In my experience, the worse offenders of taking the child’s side of the story (the parents who are the biggest impediment to education) are found in private and charter schools.
The point of school choice is not merely about handing charter schools money, a la “Waiting for Superman”The point is every child learns differently and what students need is an atmosphere suited to their needs, not just more funding for public schools (for the record Delaware spends more than the national average on education, but has below average results). That means if a parent does not think the local public school is serving that child’s needs, but cannot afford an expensive private school, then the parent can send them to another school, or home school if that is better.The fact that your kids are succeeding has a lot to do with them having good parenting. Guess what? A lot of children, particularly those from single-parent or low-income households, do not have the solid middle/upper-middle class lifestyle all of you Delaware Liberals have. This is not an indictment of their parenting skills, but that the REALITY is that many do not have good parenting at home. For many children, including the city of Wilmington, the public schools are not a safe option. You talk about Pencader and Moyer, but what about Kuumba Academy? That charter school has been a success. Speaking of private schools, I would invite you to spend some time at Tall Oaks Christian Academy in New Castle. The students, about a third who are from low-income households and/or are minorities, are well-spoken and they have the highest average SAT score of any student in the state. Guess what else? It costs them less than the average Delaware public school spends on students per year (about $5000 vs about $13000).
The point of school choice is not to ship them off to charter schools. It is good that your kids did so well. For the record I too am a public high school grad (though I did attend a faith-based school for many years), and I also turned out OK and went to a private liberal-arts college in the northeast. But, I would not delude myself by thinking that because I did well and my brother was a National Merit Scholar, that everyone could be OK with just a little better parenting and more money dumped into the public schools. Every child is different, and you people ought to respect that instead of supporting one size fits all education.
The idea that public schools are a “one size fits all” approach is hogwash. Within Delaware’s great public schools you find professional teachers and a range of classes that address all learning styles and abilities.
It is the charter school movement and for profit “ed reform” industry seeking to impose “one size fits all” by ghettoizing the upper and lower ends of the spectrum.
And let’s not forget that “Choice” comes with obstacles. For example, if you choice your child outside of their feeder school then you must provide transportation to and from the choice school (or to the nearest bus stop). That’s great if you own a car, or two, and have a flexible work schedule. If you don’t… well, then your choice is limited. Unless you attend a charter school (an ALL choice school), then those choice students receive transportation.
And we wonder why choice/charter schools’ populations look the way they do. The system is set up for this.
Nationally the argument “it is the parent fault” has been permanently shut down. It was shut down because some one stood up and said… we’re here to fix problems; if it is the parent’s fault, how are you going to fix it?
There was no answer, because under our democratic system it is impossible to “MAKE” parents become a one income family, to “MAKE” them stay in a bad relationship so the child has 2 parents, to “MAKE” them eliminate all distractions in their neighborhoods, all those things required making those less economically endowed families become as good as parents as people like Dana think they should be.
So. Dana. You’re in charge… MAKE parents be good parents. What laws will you pass? How will you enforce them? How much of our tax dollars are you willing to spend to make it happen?
He’s owned. There will be no answer. There can be no answer.
But the contrary IS possible. WE CAN, make the schools a safe haven. WE can provide necessary basic functions, like food, safety during the day, and a positive learning experience. We CAN do this, just as easily as we can say, bomb Syria, or cut taxes, or build a designated gas-line just for a large business to set up a data-center. WE are the wealthiest nation on the planet… This IS NOT beyond our capacity.
WE can do this. What we CAN’t Do, … is what Dana implies… “Make Parents Do What Dana Wants”.
So we take the easy way out, invest in our schools, use our schools to compensate the social problems Dana helped create… nothing wrong with that. And I don’t mean to pick on Dana. Being of the tiniest extreme right wing faction of the extreme Right Wing of the Right leaning Republican Party, I’m sure his reading menu is limited. I’m sure that this little item that the “parent’s fault” meme has permanently been squashed as having no credibility, has not yet reached his extremely narrow reading list. lol.. 🙂
Excellent comment.
Everything jason said at 0823. Bad, absent, poor, drunk, or disinterested parents have always been around. What changed is the collusion we all had as parents, that kids are wrong until parent/guardian — great, bad, addicted, mentally ill, negligent, involved, or in jail got the 411 from some other interested party–than their maligned child. All those same aforementioned folks want their child to do well, but quite often don’t KNOW what to do.
I have worked and LIVED in some of the poorest catchment areas of this nation–with my oldest at the time enrolled in public school. I still am amazed at how this one public school, graffitti decorated, razor-enclosed dirt/broken up blacktop play area, totally TITLE Negative ONE community school, still had some of the greatest outreach within those walls to the marginalized populace they served and the caregivers of those children. Those mom-moms, mothers, baby strollers, grandpas, elders, aunts, lady-next-door were welcomed at set lunches and given “Make and Take” projects for use at home. I still have a clock-face for teaching time—and a Venn Diagram kit we all made together, as truly dedicated educational professionals instructed the attendees of “what a Venn Diagram” is……..and with fun and intent taught these households a small, but significant bit of learning that created a dignity I will bet they never thought they could aspire or regain.
On the opposite end, I’ve seen the other-end of societal spectrum, where you would have expected literacy, good behavior etc..–and you have a child w/ a Vera Bradley bookbag in kindergarten, yet never was read to, or told “no”, wait your turn. That is where I want to scream. So I’d be the last to jump on the whole assigned parenting/poverty meme. It’s all broken, once you give any child the gavel in how they are going to grow up. FWIW. Let the teacher be in charge for those 6-8 hrs. It can all be straightened out later, if really need be OK?
Steve Newton-
I was going to rebut your comment, but others have already done so far more eloquently than I would have.
Problem is: you can’t actually prove that. Yeah, you can cite “common sense” or what “everybody knows” or anecdotal cases that suit your fancy. The reality is that research doesn’t bear out your prejudices.
I can cite my personal experiences and those of my children. Can you cite the research that allegedly refutes those claims?
In my personal experience, I can name two DISRUPTIVE CLOWNS who fucked up every class they bothered to attend. One was an upper middle class white kid from Hockessin, the other is a very poor black kid from Wilmington. The white kid died in a motorcycle accident when he was 25ish (mid-’90s). The black kid was convicted of robbing banks & sent to Gander Hill for robbing banks in the early ’90s.
The white kid’s mom was a bitch who reamed out any teacher or administrator who DARED to discipline her little angel. I never saw or heard anything about the black kid’s mom.
So please, cite your sources or STFU.
Sadly, the nation does not want to make the hard choices it takes for educational reform.
All are welcome to attend the 21st National Quality Education Conference:
Creativity and Innovation; Keys to 21st Century Learning, Nov 18-19, Milwaukee – here’s the link:
– http://nqec.asq.org