Friday, October 8, 2010
EDUCATION NATION: Summary! (Sir Ken Strikes Again / RAISING the EDUCATION REFORM CONVERSATION BAR and/or KRYPTONITE!)
Sir Ken Robinson
EDUTOPIA April 2008 #1 / Education Policy and Creativity http://www.edutopia.org/sir-ken-robinson-creativity-video
EDUTOPIA April 2008 #2 / Creativity & Pedagogy http://www.edutopia.org/sir-ken-robinson-creativity-part-two-video
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
If YOU thought K-12 EDUCATION was PROBLEMATIC, CHECK-OUT THE EMERGING COMMUNITY COLLEGE CONVERSATION! The Next Conversation? The Failure of Siloed 4 YEAR U.S. EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS! So If WE Want to KNOW Where U.S. EDUCATION COMPETITIVENESS Will be in 10 Years CHECK-OUT U.S. BUSINESS COMPETITIVENESS TODAY! Are WE Having Any FUN Yet?
More Blow-back
September 28, 2010, 03:59 PM ET
NBC's Education Nation: Policy Summit or Puppet Show?
I’d like you to imagine the following. Suppose we are going to have a national summit on health care. Do you not suppose that a substantial number of the voices included would be from professionals in health care, including doctors and nurses? Would you have three people with just the head of the AMA to represent doctors?
Or how about legal reform – would not lawyers scream if such a conference were organized without a substantial portion of the main participants being members of the profession representing the range of opinions within the legal field?
Why then is it when it comes to education that people think it is appropriate to have major discussions about education without fair inclusion of the voices of those who bear the greatest burden for the education of our children, the parents and the teachers? --Kenneth Bernstein, Cooperative Catalyst
So I tied off my upper arm and mainlined anti-nausea drugs Sunday and Monday in order to stomach hours of biased, dishonest, irresponsible NBC hate propaganda paid for by, you guessed it, for-profit higher ed vendors and foundations devoted to privatizing public schools.
Just as Obama's pursued the Republican party line on education, NBC has taken a page from Fox News and Oprah. Their lineup on a two-day policy summit with a dozen conference panels--you know, the kind of panels usually filled with folks with credible expertise in the topic--features politicians, astronauts, TV anchors, musicians, corporate executives, and charter-school entrepreneurs.
NBC did include one or two figures associated with parent organizations. Just not those representing the real views of most actual parents--you know, the real parents who on balance are unhappy with Obama's education policy, who fired a mayor to get rid of Michelle Rhee, and who, when given the chance to vote, overwhelmingly support teacher-run schools over charter-school operators.
But somehow they completely failed to include practicing teachers, scholars of learning, or even recognized analysts of education policy. All day Monday and Tuesday, the only figure in the summit remotely acquainted with the scholarship of learning was Randi Weingarten, AFT president. She had to do double and triple duty, since she was simultaneously the only voice for practicing teachers, or for any policy recommendation other than those endorsed by Duncan's Race to the Top.
Burn the Witch!
Incredibly, Weingarten played the same role all day Sunday. On Meet the Press and other programs, she was consistently positioned as a solitary voice against a solid bloc of panelists and journalists pounding away at the Duncan-Rhee party line. NBC positioned her on the extreme edge of the outdoor panel, literally in the wind, with her hair flying sidewise like the Wicked Witch piloting a broomstick.
Later, she faced an even larger panel completely united against her, this time featuring the propagandists who scored her appearances in Waiting With Superman with ominous chords redolent of Darth Vader.
Why then is it when it comes to education that people think it is appropriate to have major discussions about education without fair inclusion of the voices of those who bear the greatest burden for the education of our children, the parents and the teachers? --Kenneth Bernstein, Cooperative Catalyst
So I tied off my upper arm and mainlined anti-nausea drugs Sunday and Monday in order to stomach hours of biased, dishonest, irresponsible NBC hate propaganda paid for by, you guessed it, for-profit higher ed vendors and foundations devoted to privatizing public schools.
Just as Obama's pursued the Republican party line on education, NBC has taken a page from Fox News and Oprah. Their lineup on a two-day policy summit with a dozen conference panels--you know, the kind of panels usually filled with folks with credible expertise in the topic--features politicians, astronauts, TV anchors, musicians, corporate executives, and charter-school entrepreneurs.
NBC did include one or two figures associated with parent organizations. Just not those representing the real views of most actual parents--you know, the real parents who on balance are unhappy with Obama's education policy, who fired a mayor to get rid of Michelle Rhee, and who, when given the chance to vote, overwhelmingly support teacher-run schools over charter-school operators.
But somehow they completely failed to include practicing teachers, scholars of learning, or even recognized analysts of education policy. All day Monday and Tuesday, the only figure in the summit remotely acquainted with the scholarship of learning was Randi Weingarten, AFT president. She had to do double and triple duty, since she was simultaneously the only voice for practicing teachers, or for any policy recommendation other than those endorsed by Duncan's Race to the Top.
Burn the Witch!
Incredibly, Weingarten played the same role all day Sunday. On Meet the Press and other programs, she was consistently positioned as a solitary voice against a solid bloc of panelists and journalists pounding away at the Duncan-Rhee party line. NBC positioned her on the extreme edge of the outdoor panel, literally in the wind, with her hair flying sidewise like the Wicked Witch piloting a broomstick.
Later, she faced an even larger panel completely united against her, this time featuring the propagandists who scored her appearances in Waiting With Superman with ominous chords redolent of Darth Vader.
They can feature both the director and composer of the film who painted her as the captain of the Death Star but not one credible authority on the positions being pushed by the film?
Interestingly, despite the outrageous set-up, on both programs Weingarten spoke more than any other participant--nearly as much all of the other participants combined.
Seems the shows' hosts had to ask her to talk to nearly every point precisely because she was the only person who could provide any other perspective.
Perhaps also because she was the only person who actually had anything to say?
A Failed Hit Job
The one place where NBC allowed teachers--not scholars of learning or credible policy analysts--to have a few words was in a carefully scripted "town hall" program, segregated from all of the marquee shows and policy conference.
They stacked the audience with school administrators and charter-school teachers, allprimed to spout their propaganda: "Teachers are under attack and we should be!" shouted one, on cue. "We young teachers don't need tenure to do our jobs," said another.
Even in the complete absence of journalistic scrutiny, the stories of these plants didn't stand up to their own telling.
One charter-school hero stood up to mouth the no-excuses "challenge education" mantra that anybody can overcome any learning obstacle if they are confronted with sufficiently absurd expectations.
As an example, he cited his willingness to offer free day care to one of his students' siblings in his classroom from 7am to 7pm, freeing the student from family-care responsibilities and allowing her to do her homework.
While laudable, his willingness to address the poverty of the student's family in this way is not, as they say, a scalable solution to the problem. Um, duh, most teachers have families of their own that they can't and shouldn't neglect to offer 12 hours of day care to others.
Right on the surface of this vignette is the cruel hypocritical absurdity--that those who are already sacrificing (the half of teachers who don't quit in despair in the first five years) are not just asked but are really being forced to sacrifice more.
For instance, we could solve a lot of poverty-related issues if physicians or TV journalists or Wall Street banks turned their facililties into day-care centers and staffed them after hours.
Hey, let's just say that everyone should work 12 hours a day for a teacher's wage!
Any takers? I didn't think so.
Nose Ring vs. Soul Patch
NBC made the mistake of letting a few actual veteran teachers in the room (actually a tent on Rockefeller plaza). And the atmosphere was apparently charged: anchor Brian Williams called the room "a beehive, a cauldron of activity and emotion," and joked about being in "physical danger." (He also called one reporter "honey," and flirted with one of the teachers on stage. Patronizing and chauvinist much? Guess we really are heading back to the Eisenhower era.)
Because NBC failed to make sure everyone in the room was an administrator or a twentysomething working-slash-volunteering before law school at a charter, we saw a couple of flashes of honest teacher feeling and insight.
Interestingly, despite the outrageous set-up, on both programs Weingarten spoke more than any other participant--nearly as much all of the other participants combined.
Seems the shows' hosts had to ask her to talk to nearly every point precisely because she was the only person who could provide any other perspective.
Perhaps also because she was the only person who actually had anything to say?
A Failed Hit Job
The one place where NBC allowed teachers--not scholars of learning or credible policy analysts--to have a few words was in a carefully scripted "town hall" program, segregated from all of the marquee shows and policy conference.
They stacked the audience with school administrators and charter-school teachers, allprimed to spout their propaganda: "Teachers are under attack and we should be!" shouted one, on cue. "We young teachers don't need tenure to do our jobs," said another.
Even in the complete absence of journalistic scrutiny, the stories of these plants didn't stand up to their own telling.
One charter-school hero stood up to mouth the no-excuses "challenge education" mantra that anybody can overcome any learning obstacle if they are confronted with sufficiently absurd expectations.
As an example, he cited his willingness to offer free day care to one of his students' siblings in his classroom from 7am to 7pm, freeing the student from family-care responsibilities and allowing her to do her homework.
While laudable, his willingness to address the poverty of the student's family in this way is not, as they say, a scalable solution to the problem. Um, duh, most teachers have families of their own that they can't and shouldn't neglect to offer 12 hours of day care to others.
Right on the surface of this vignette is the cruel hypocritical absurdity--that those who are already sacrificing (the half of teachers who don't quit in despair in the first five years) are not just asked but are really being forced to sacrifice more.
For instance, we could solve a lot of poverty-related issues if physicians or TV journalists or Wall Street banks turned their facililties into day-care centers and staffed them after hours.
Hey, let's just say that everyone should work 12 hours a day for a teacher's wage!
Any takers? I didn't think so.
Nose Ring vs. Soul Patch
NBC made the mistake of letting a few actual veteran teachers in the room (actually a tent on Rockefeller plaza). And the atmosphere was apparently charged: anchor Brian Williams called the room "a beehive, a cauldron of activity and emotion," and joked about being in "physical danger." (He also called one reporter "honey," and flirted with one of the teachers on stage. Patronizing and chauvinist much? Guess we really are heading back to the Eisenhower era.)
Because NBC failed to make sure everyone in the room was an administrator or a twentysomething working-slash-volunteering before law school at a charter, we saw a couple of flashes of honest teacher feeling and insight.
These included thoughtful defenses of tenure as due process and analyses of the real issues (funding, poverty, support for professional development, workload, retention).
You could have heard a pin drop on Fifth Avenue when one California principal described her guilt at hiring a new teacher on the salary she was allowed to offer: "I basically condemned her to never owning her own home," she said.
Astonishingly, one teacher that made it onto the show because she was acquainted with the anchor actually compared Davis Guggenheim to Hitler's most brilliant propagandist, calling him "the Leni Riefenstahl of 2010."
Personally I think that kind of comparison isn't worth the backlash, but I think it could prove the most telling moment of the week.
You could have heard a pin drop on Fifth Avenue when one California principal described her guilt at hiring a new teacher on the salary she was allowed to offer: "I basically condemned her to never owning her own home," she said.
Astonishingly, one teacher that made it onto the show because she was acquainted with the anchor actually compared Davis Guggenheim to Hitler's most brilliant propagandist, calling him "the Leni Riefenstahl of 2010."
Personally I think that kind of comparison isn't worth the backlash, but I think it could prove the most telling moment of the week.
In my experience, persons reaching for the Nazi comparison are intellectually or emotionally stunted, or else desperate. Since this apparently kind and thoughtful, intellectual person was evidently not the former, I think she was struggling to communicate--in the few seconds she was permitted--the stifled frustration and outrage of the tens of millions of parents, teachers, scholars and students who are being hurtled toward yet more schoolroom misery by this tsunami of pro-Duncan propaganda.
If you want to capture the essence of the tension that kept erupting through this scripted event, just fast forward to the middle of program, the second featured panel.
Comprising a charter-school reading teacher in blond dreadlocks and nose ring, and a public-school science teacher of the year sporting a soul patch, the panel was intended to talk about teaching technique.
Asked to describe how she succeeded as a teacher, Nose Ring was unable to manage a syllable describing or defending her teaching practice. She floundered helplessly ("well, you just show them how far behind they are in the world") until the moderator let her off the hook, summarizing her philosophy: "Just teach 'em hard, huh?"
Invited to share his own teaching tips, Soul Patch, a public school teacher of the year, gently rebutted much of the propaganda previously circulated. American top students, he pointed out, perform at the same level as the top students anywhere in the world. The problem is inequality and unfairness, he observed.
Asked to celebrate the Duncan-Obama grim focus on STEM fields, science teacher of the year Soul Patch demurred, pointing out that his own practice and education research showed the importance of "right brain" creativity, of "movement and music right in the science classroom."
Anti-social media
Up until a firestorm of complaint forced them to open the forum, NBC aggressively censored the one place where teachers and parents were mainly allowed to participate--on a Facebook page promoting the event. Even established columnists for national mainstream education journals like Education Week were repeatedly "unfriended" or had their comments removed.
Obama's Today Show interview
This was only about 20 minutes on education before Lauer moved on, but kudos to Lauer for acting more like a journalist than anyone else NBC has put forward.
To his credit, Lauer only gave the administration props for the one initiative (pre-K schooling) actually supported by research, and showed that research in the video package. He challenged the president on the unfair demonizing of teachers and teacher unions in Waiting for Superman. He pointed out that most charter schools underperform union schools.
Above all, he kept the focus on funding and support, quoting Clinton: "It's not just a money thing, but it is a money thing." Obama tried to counter with the Republican bromide that it "isn't a problem we can spend our way out of," and began mouthing accountability and competition cliches.
But Lauer kept at it finally getting the President to concede that there is no problem recruiting teachers into the profession--just a massive problem retaining them.
Most young teachers find they "can't afford to stay" in the profession, Obama confessed, "especially when it comes to having families of their own."
If you want to capture the essence of the tension that kept erupting through this scripted event, just fast forward to the middle of program, the second featured panel.
Comprising a charter-school reading teacher in blond dreadlocks and nose ring, and a public-school science teacher of the year sporting a soul patch, the panel was intended to talk about teaching technique.
Asked to describe how she succeeded as a teacher, Nose Ring was unable to manage a syllable describing or defending her teaching practice. She floundered helplessly ("well, you just show them how far behind they are in the world") until the moderator let her off the hook, summarizing her philosophy: "Just teach 'em hard, huh?"
Invited to share his own teaching tips, Soul Patch, a public school teacher of the year, gently rebutted much of the propaganda previously circulated. American top students, he pointed out, perform at the same level as the top students anywhere in the world. The problem is inequality and unfairness, he observed.
Asked to celebrate the Duncan-Obama grim focus on STEM fields, science teacher of the year Soul Patch demurred, pointing out that his own practice and education research showed the importance of "right brain" creativity, of "movement and music right in the science classroom."
Anti-social media
Up until a firestorm of complaint forced them to open the forum, NBC aggressively censored the one place where teachers and parents were mainly allowed to participate--on a Facebook page promoting the event. Even established columnists for national mainstream education journals like Education Week were repeatedly "unfriended" or had their comments removed.
Obama's Today Show interview
This was only about 20 minutes on education before Lauer moved on, but kudos to Lauer for acting more like a journalist than anyone else NBC has put forward.
To his credit, Lauer only gave the administration props for the one initiative (pre-K schooling) actually supported by research, and showed that research in the video package. He challenged the president on the unfair demonizing of teachers and teacher unions in Waiting for Superman. He pointed out that most charter schools underperform union schools.
Above all, he kept the focus on funding and support, quoting Clinton: "It's not just a money thing, but it is a money thing." Obama tried to counter with the Republican bromide that it "isn't a problem we can spend our way out of," and began mouthing accountability and competition cliches.
But Lauer kept at it finally getting the President to concede that there is no problem recruiting teachers into the profession--just a massive problem retaining them.
Most young teachers find they "can't afford to stay" in the profession, Obama confessed, "especially when it comes to having families of their own."
Scrutiny Blow-back: National Conversation on Education Nation
AUDIO of BELOW: http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/elev8ed.mp3 (The audio is somewhat broken-up but is well worth being patient)
* Time zone observes Daylight Savings Time (DST).
Presenter(s)
Waiting for Superman Debuted in Detroit (Well actually Royal Oak)
THE DEBATE OVER ‘SUPERMAN’
DOCUMENTARY TAKES ON TEACHERS UNIONS, BUT FILM’S CRITICS DEFEND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The documentary “Waiting for Superman” doesn’t open in the Detroit area until Friday, but it’s already generating national buzz, even as it kindles debate about how to improve public schools.
The movie, by director and co-writer Davis Guggenheim, who won an Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth,” argues that union politics and teacher tenure issues plague public schools while charter schools can focus on student achievement.
“This is a film that screams for education reform,” Gov. Jennifer Granholm said after viewing the film during a preview Monday evening at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak. “It’s no longer a mystery what works; there are schools like the Harlem Children’s Zone (a high-performing charter school portrayed in the movie) that have figured out how to ensure that every child goes to college, no matter what their circumstances.”
Proponents of traditional public schools say the movie offers a one-sided view.
“The movie says charter schools are the answer, but studies show there are excellent charters; there are charters that are OK, and there are bad charters,” said David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers Michigan, which includes teachers in Detroit’s struggling public schools. The same is true of traditional public schools, Hecker said.
The debate aside, the movie’s message is that we are all waiting for an educational Superman, a hero with a silver bullet to fix what’s ailing public education.
Superman was, of course, fiction. The question the movie leaves hanging is whether we’ll continue to wait, or get serious about improving the future for all American children.
Francisco and his mom in “Waiting for Superman,” a movie that argues charter schools are better than public schools. “This movie, from everyone who’s seen it, sends a compelling case for education reform,” Gov. Jennifer Granholm said.
Film looks at ways to reform schools
Unions call movie unfair; others hope that it spurs fixes
Do education superheroes wear charter school hats, or can they be found among union-card-carrying traditional public school teachers? That’s the question coming out of “Waiting for Superman,” opening Friday at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak.
The better question is whether, after years of education reform that has wrought few changes in America’s public schools, the movie will lead to serious education fixes for struggling public schools.
So far, the movie has helped to broaden national discussion on education reform as it portrays the desperation of parents and students stuck in low-performing schools, waiting to see whether they win a lottery space in a high-performing charter school. It prefaces the tearful lottery scene with interviews and data pointing to a dismal state in U.S. schools in general, and schools in high poverty urban areas in particular .
Sandra York of Detroit, the executive director of the Michigan Parent Teacher Student Association, said the movie made many valid points.
“The one thing we all know is that children can be educated,” York said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
But not all viewers gave the movie high marks. Shomari Johnson of Detroit, an educational consultant and retired Detroit Public Schools math and science teacher, said the movie did not bring out the importance of family involvement, “and it demonized the teachers unions without showing the good stuff that they do.”.
“Superman” offers a damning indictment of teachers unions, which it portrays as more interested in preserving tenure than in removing bad teachers from the classroom.
Whether that’s a fair portrayal or not is open to debate. Even charter proponents point out that the charter schools championed in the movie are among the best the charter movement has to offer.
Still, “it portrays very high-performing charter schools as making a difference,” said Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, which advocates for charters. “What it’s really about in that sense is that we want more high-quality schools that parents have access to.”
Quisenberry said education can be improved by turning a failing traditional public school into a charter school.
“A charter school gives you a brand new opportunity, when you start out new,” he said. “I think we’re a key component” of education reform.
Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said at Monday’s preview that he hopes “Superman” elevates the national dialogue on school reform and reinforces his drive for teacher accountability. “A lot of it has to do with the rigor we’ve introduced into our schools,” he said.
But defenders of traditional public schools say the movie presents a one-sided view of charter schools and, by extension, education reform.
David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers Michigan, which represents teachers in Detroit Public Schools, said “Superman” is based on inaccurate or incomplete assumptions.
Hecker and others point out national studies showing mixed results for charters. The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, for instance, reported last year that only 17% of charter schools reported academic gains significantly better than traditional public schools.
Hecker said the movie portrays traditional public school teachers as incompetent, which Hecker said is not only untrue, but unfair. He argues that tenure does not confer a job for life, but merely ensures due process for teachers. He said the movie holds out teacher merit pay as a viable reform, when a study released last month by Vanderbilt University showed merit pay is not an effective motivator for teachers.
The attention given the movie before it even opens nationally has led some public school officials to send messages to parents about the movie’s unflattering portrayal of traditional public schools, and pointing out the good things in their district.
“We’re reacting to the buzz surrounding ‘Waiting for Superman,’ ” said Shira Good, communications supervisor for Berkley Public Schools, which sent such a letter to parents.
The letter outlines strides Berkley is taking to improve student achievement, including eliminating lower-track classes and setting high expectations, along with increasing ACT scores for Berkley students.
“We didn’t want any of our parents walking out of the movie and wondering what their son or daughter’s school is achieving,” Good said.
The one thing both sides of the charter-traditional school debate can agree on is that the attention the movie is generating about education reform is in everyone’s best interests.
“I think it’s going to be important in the sense that we are at a crossroads with our education system, especially Detroit Public Schools,” Virdell Thomas, an operations manager with Family Services in Detroit, said before Monday’s preview.
“I think all education systems are facing big challenges now,” she said, “so I’m looking for some sort of hope.”
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