By adding an end of the year assessment for students in every grade at every level, as the Regents are now calling for by the 2014-2015 year for grades 3-11.
See here.
Notice that ALL of this was brought to us by President Obama and Arne Duncan.
Change we can believe in.
Would you have voted for Hopey/Changey had you known he was going to promote a policy that would implement standardized tests in every grade at every level, then use those scores to "assess" whether teachers had "added value" to their students' scores from one year to the next and fire the teachers who wind up at the bottom of the "value-added list" after publishing all the names in the newspapers?
I KNOW I wouldn't have.
I have never regretted a vote for a politician the way I have regretted my vote for Obama.
The change this man has brought will harm public education for a long, long time.
Do they really think adding all these high-stakes "assessments will not bring very simple consequences: more teaching to the test, more reductive curriculum, more regimented, top-down, one-size-fits-all teaching and more cheating?
I will say again, I think they DO realize this.
The ed reform being performed by the Obama administration and other ed deform politicians at the state and local levels has NOTHING to do with improving education.
It has EVERYTHING to do with blowing up the system as it exists, replacing it with some smaller privatized alternatives (e.g., small for-profit charter systems), adding lots of "online instruction" in the next few years to save millions in school and labor costs, and firing hundreds of thousands of veteran teachers and de-professionalizing teaching so that any 22 year old with a BA can be shoved in front of a classroom to read the "teaching script."
Boy, he got so many excited about change and a fresh approach before the election. As far as actually being the leader people "thought" they were voting for..."Mission Accomplished".
ReplyDeleteEven 22-year-olds with a BA would be seen as too expensive for the likes of the World Bank. Try people with only a middle school education "teaching" students using scripts.
ReplyDeleteThat's where we're headed. Education is seen by the "reformers" as a waste of money, not as an investment.
Susan, I fear you are exactly right about how they view education.
ReplyDeleteI waver between outrage at the way things are going and despair.
I think despair is just anger turned inward.
So I am going to direct my anger OUTWARD - at the Bloombergs and Obamas and Kleins and Rhees and their corporate funders - Gates, Broad, the Walton Family, the hedge fund managers and Wall Street CEO's.
But it does feel daunting to try and battle this very well-funded and very well-organized corporate attack upon teachers and public education.
Pogue, I do think he is going to be frog-marched out of Washington in the next two years. The Repubs are going to have some nasty people in power and they WILL try and take him down. Dunno what "scandal" they will trump up, but they will go after him.
And given that he is going after teachers with "trumped up" test scores, I will not lift one finger to help him.
You're leaving one thing out - MEGA profits for the likes of that Ho Meryl Tisch's brother, who heads K-12, the large online education firm. Once again, the scorched earth policy of complete and utter victory, AND mega profits for the victor.
ReplyDeleteThroughout history, some of the wealthiest concerns were publishing powers. Tests, online instruction of all kinds, electronic media of all types, etc., etc. it will all be centralized for the select club, like Ho Tisch's brother and the like, to pick the ed. carcass clean for generations. LOTS of boodle to be made once they burn away all of the front line workers. Google Ho Tisch's comments yesterday about the court case. Enough to make you puke. By the way,sh'e Bloomberg's next door neighbor on the Upper East Side. Greedy bitch.
I voted for Cynthia McKinney!
ReplyDeleteI think Obama's a nerdy kind of neatnik who loved filling the bubbles of the multiple choice tests that got him through Harvard.
I think the Republicratic party has to come to an end. Why are we bemoaning Obama's election because I think now, and I did not want to believe it before, that there is a power elite made up of old money and new money (made by the electronic media) that controls both parties. Their plan is simple--a third rate education for most Americans and a first rate education in charter schools for those who they want to bring into their fold. Those getting the third rate education will be the drones who will get minimum wage for most jobs not out sourced in this country. Therefore, I think we must leave the Democratic Party and form an effective third party made up of true progressives. We have to regulate these kiddy billionaires that rule the Internet. Unless we stop this destruction of public education, the end of our present democratic system cannot be far behind. People have forgot the real purpose of public education as stated by Mr. Jefferson--to have an educated citizenry who can make competent political decisions at the ballot box. This is what the far right and the kiddy billionaires want to destroy.
ReplyDeleteJefferson would be rolling over in his grave and fast enough to supply the power for the entire metropolitan region.
ReplyDeleteHe warned what would happen if the banks could coin our money. The Federal Reserve Private Banking Monopoly is a great example.
This seems to be a combination of the 19th century with it's robber baron's and the Third Reich.
We have free market fundamentalists in control. The only problem is that the market is free to only those exhalted and annointed few, who pull the levers of power.
Judging by the last thirty years of elections and domestic and foriegn policy in the U.S., this is clearly the case.
The people have no power and the constitution and the bill of rights has been eviscerated.
Until there is some form of political takeover by the people, we are doomed to an acceleration of what we have been witnessing.
Cheers,
Angry Nog