The Best and Worst of Times
With apologies to Charles Dickens, “It is the best of times (to be an education reporter); but it is the worst of times (to be in a classroom).”
Why a field day for reporters? Let me count the ways: The ‘war’ that I wrote about in The Influence of Teachers in 2011 is far hotter today. Michelle Rhee and her non-profit advocacy organization, Students First, have been instrumental in persuading 25 states to use test scores to evaluate teachers. She also wants restrictions on collective bargaining and teacher tenure.
Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice have declared a national emergency in public education and have called for more “rigor,” a term I tend to associate with death (rigor mortis).
The other side is punching back. Diane Ravitch, the most prominent opponent of privatization, Rhee, Klein at alia, has formed a new organization, The Network for Public Education, which will, its press release says, “give voice to the millions of parents, educators, and other citizens who are fed up with corporate-style reform.” The organization’s treasurer is the less-well-known activist Anthony Cody, a