Michelle Rhee Is Shameless
I have resisted watching the ad that Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst created and played on NBC.
A reader sent it to me, and I relented.
It is disgusting.
It is a lie.
It smears America.
It smears our teachers and our students.
It makes fun of obesity.
A few facts:
1) the US was never first on international tests. When the first test was given in 1964 (a test of math), our students came in 11th out of 12.
2) On the latest international tests, students in American schools with low poverty (10% or less) came in FIRST in the world
3) As poverty goes up in American schools, test scores go down.
4) The U.S. has the highest child poverty rate–23%– of any advanced nation in the world.
Michelle Rhee says nothing about poverty, which is the most direct correlate of low test scores.
She is shameless.
Proof that Campbell’s Law Works
Teachers Must Educate Their Legislators
Stop the Lies about U.S. Education
A reader sent it to me, and I relented.
It is disgusting.
It is a lie.
It smears America.
It smears our teachers and our students.
It makes fun of obesity.
A few facts:
1) the US was never first on international tests. When the first test was given in 1964 (a test of math), our students came in 11th out of 12.
2) On the latest international tests, students in American schools with low poverty (10% or less) came in FIRST in the world
3) As poverty goes up in American schools, test scores go down.
4) The U.S. has the highest child poverty rate–23%– of any advanced nation in the world.
Michelle Rhee says nothing about poverty, which is the most direct correlate of low test scores.
She is shameless.
Proof that Campbell’s Law Works
A reader in Florida saw that the school grades were phony, as noted in an earlier post. But no matter how many times the grades were shown to be meaningless, everyone accepted them, organized their schools to get them, changed their instruction to raise those grades. worked to get the bonuses, worked to avoid the sanctions, on and on.
And still the grades tell us which schools enroll poor kids and which kids don’t.
There is a lesson here. Something about adjusting to absurd demands and therefore making them seem reasonable.
But if you step back, they are still absurd.
Giving a school–a complex organization with many moving parts–a single letter grade is insulting, demeaning, and stupid. It is the product of people who know how to count but don’t care what they are counting.
And still the grades tell us which schools enroll poor kids and which kids don’t.
There is a lesson here. Something about adjusting to absurd demands and therefore making them seem reasonable.
But if you step back, they are still absurd.
Giving a school–a complex organization with many moving parts–a single letter grade is insulting, demeaning, and stupid. It is the product of people who know how to count but don’t care what they are counting.
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Teachers Must Educate Their Legislators
A reader in Wisconsin has an excellent suggestion. What do teachers do best? They educate. Time to educate your legislators:
I just passed this information along to my state representative here in Wisconsin. She’s a Republican who leans to the choice, accountability, measuring aspects of school…not to mention voted to end collective bargaining with Scott Walker’s Act 10. Instead of writing her off as the enemy, I’ve instead developed a working relationship with her where we’ve exchanged ideas and she is working with me to try to bring about some change in Wisconsin’s education reform movement which is pretty typical of the reform movement in other parts of the country. I would highly recommend to the readers of your blog to do the same, especially if their state
I just passed this information along to my state representative here in Wisconsin. She’s a Republican who leans to the choice, accountability, measuring aspects of school…not to mention voted to end collective bargaining with Scott Walker’s Act 10. Instead of writing her off as the enemy, I’ve instead developed a working relationship with her where we’ve exchanged ideas and she is working with me to try to bring about some change in Wisconsin’s education reform movement which is pretty typical of the reform movement in other parts of the country. I would highly recommend to the readers of your blog to do the same, especially if their state
Stop the Lies about U.S. Education
I get so tired of reading about the “decline” and “failure” of American education.
It is not true.
A reader wrote the other day to say that NAEP scores in reading have been flat since 1971. She read it somewhere.
I went to the NAEP reports, the ones produced by the federal government, and here are the facts about NAEP
It is not true.
A reader wrote the other day to say that NAEP scores in reading have been flat since 1971. She read it somewhere.
I went to the NAEP reports, the ones produced by the federal government, and here are the facts about NAEP
