"Reformers" Seek to Overturn California Education Laws Based Solely on Evidence-Free Beliefs, Part Two
As I explained last week, the "astroturf" school "reform" organization, Students Matter, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group want to strike down five education laws that supposedly "are destroying California's public education system, demoralizing the teaching profession, and robbing California children of their future." InVergara v California, they claim "California's Schools Hire And Retain Grossly Ineffective Teachers At Alarming Rates." So, they want the court to strike down five laws protecting the rights of teachers. Vergara also demands that schools use teacher "effectiveness" i.e. test scores for firing teachers.
Don't get me wrong. I would strongly support a civil rights lawsuit, grounded in the law and based on solid evidence, if it was likely to help - not hurt - poor children of color. Vergara, however, is based merely on the beliefs of some powerful non-educators.
Vergara takes some legitimate research out of context, ignoring their disclaimers that their findings should be used with caution. For instance, it cites "The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood" (Working Paper 17699, Dec. 2011) by Chetty, Freidman, and Rockoff. But, the
Why "a Blind Eye" about KIPP?
Former Rutger's basketball coach Mike Rice is the outrage of the moment, but his firing took months and a viral video:
Video shows Mike Rice's ire
Maybe a moral response to Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) requires a viral video.
Apparently that is what it takes for organizations and the public to respond to inexcusable but prevalent behavior—especially when that behavior is mostly by white men in authority at the expense of mostly African American young men who are essentially powerless.
Charles Blow confronts and names the culture surrounding Rice's behavior as a coach:
Opt Out Goes Viral
Video shows Mike Rice's ire
Maybe a moral response to Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) requires a viral video.
Apparently that is what it takes for organizations and the public to respond to inexcusable but prevalent behavior—especially when that behavior is mostly by white men in authority at the expense of mostly African American young men who are essentially powerless.
Charles Blow confronts and names the culture surrounding Rice's behavior as a coach:
From my experience, his behavior seems an a extreme version of what is generally accepted
Opt Out Goes Viral
Opt Out Goes Viralfrom Yinzercation
"We’ve gone viral again! And the Governor is listening. On Sunday, the Post-Gazette published Kathy Newman’s terrific Op Ed about why she is opting her son out of high-stakes-testing. [See “A Plague of Cheating”] In the past 48 hours, over 23,000 people have shared that story on Facebook from the paper’s website and it has generated an incredible nationwide discussion with over 300 public comments. Yes, over twenty-three thousand people have not only read about our grassroots movement but have shared the story (we know the actual number of readers is much, much higher and still climbing fast as I type).
So it comes as no surprise that Governor Corbett’s office is paying attention. The press secretary for the PA Department of Education, Tim Eller, has a letter-to-the-editor in today’s
