Arne Duncan responds to Krashen questions, sort of

Wolf Blitzer asks Arne Duncan about my criticisms of his Washington Post article. Duncan responds, sort of. My comments are included.

Duncan Washington Post article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010202378.html?referrer=emailarticle

My criticisms at: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/education-secretary-duncan/a-response-to-arne-duncan.html?wprss=answer-sheet

Both available at: http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrages.php?id=4085

THE SITUATION ROOM: Interview With Education Secretary Arne Duncan Aired January 4, 2011 –

…

BLITZER: All right. Let's talk about this article you wrote in "The Washington Post," because you suggested that there was an opportunity to improve education by dealing with poverty, which is the huge source (ph).

There was criticism of your article coming in from Professor Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California, saying, "Duncan gives the impression that overcoming poverty happens all the time under his administration. There is no real evidence that it happens at all."

Is there any evidence that you are overcoming this?

DUNCAN: Wolf, that's one of the biggest challenge our country is still -- folks to believe, that somehow poverty is destiny. I spent my whole life working in the inner city in a desperately poor community. I know those challenges as well or better than anyone.

Bright stars and young people from very poor communities, very tough family situations, lots of violence in the neighborhood. Despite those very real obstacles, with long-term support and guidance and real education opportunity, people go on to do extraordinarily well.

BLITZER: Is there any, like, real scientific evidence of that other than anecdotal evidence?

DUNCAN: There's evidence all over the country. You look at what Geoffrey Canada is doing to the Harlem Children's Zone, where they're basically closing the achievement gap. We've never had more high- performing, high-poverty schools around the country. That's why I'm so hopeful.

[SK COMMENT: (1) Duncan simply repeats his assertion that the evidence is there. It isn't. (2) In my response to Duncan, I specifically mentioned the Harvard Promise Academy of the Harvard Children's Zone, and Bracey's conclusion that the "success" was due to one grade, one subject and for one year. Bracey presents a through analysis of the research on this school. (3) There is no published analysis that I know of that supports Duncan's statement "We've never had more high- performing, high-poverty schools around the country." What we do know is that the number of high-performing high-poverty schools claimed to exist has been exaggerated. See the references in my commentary.]

The challenge, Wolf, is those kinds of opportunities aren't at scale yet. We have to invest in those best practices, we have to create more of those opportunities. Great principals, great teachers make a huge difference in students' lives.

BLITZER: The other criticism, he says, more of this testing is a disaster. He says, "We are about to make a mistake that will cost billions and make school life even more miserable for millions of teachers and students. The only ones who will profit are the testing companies. We should be talking about reducing testing, not increasing it."

DUNCAN: We need better evaluations. And right now, in part thanks to Race to the Top, we have 44 states working together and two consortia coming up with the next generation assessments.

Teachers, parents, students want real information. They need to know, are students learning? Where are they improving? Where are they not? Where do they need more help?

Those next generation of assessments are going to help us to get there. That leadership is being provided at the local level, not by us in Washington.

[SK: His answer: We need new tests! Teachers, parents and students already have real information. This real information is being discarded in favor of more tests imposed by outsiders.]

Those next generation of assessments are going to help us to get there. That leadership is being provided at the local level, not by us in Washington.

[SK: Duncan does not mention that the next generation of assessments will mean more testing that we have ever done before. According to the Department of Education Blueprint, it will include summative (end of year) testing, interim testing, and will encourage testing more subjects. Since the Blueprint also calls for value-added testing, we can also expect pre-tests at the start of the school year. And this "leadership" comes from Washington, from the Department of Education, not for the local level. ]

Real Reform and Faux Reform, by Tracey Douglas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/03/arne-duncan-new-congress-_n_803700.html

Teachers have been advocating for real reform: fully funding education especially at the most high-needs schools; implementi­ng a deep, well-round­ed, developmen­tally appropriat­e curriculum­; reinstatem­ent of vocational education; smaller class sizes; eliminatio­n of high stakes testing; freedom from scripted curriculum­; freedom to innovate; and opening addressing the effects of poverty on our children.

Arne, Gates, Broad and Company want faux reform: more testing; larger class sizes; minimally educated teachers; more charter schools; non-creden­tialed teachers (TFA, etc.); longer school day, week and year; no due process rights for teachers; scripted curriculum­; privatizat­ion of public schools so that charter management organizati­ons can make huge profits off of taxpayer dollars; administra­tors without a background in education; mayoral control of school districts; and the closing of “failing" (poverty) schools.

CA Charter Facilities Ruling

From the Courthouse News Service:

Court OK's Law on Use of Public School Facilities
By JEFF D. GORMAN
(CN) - A California appeals court upheld a state law requiring public schools to share their facilities with charter school students.

The California School Boards Association and three other educational groups took the State Board of Education to court to challenge Proposition 39, which voters approved in 2000.

Among other things, Proposition 39 required public schools to share their facilities with students from charter schools.

A lower court upheld some of the state school board's challenged regulations while invalidating others. On appeal, Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye ruled that all of the regulations are valid.

The plaintiffs argued that the regulations would require public schools to provide duplicate furnishings for charter school students. Cantil-Sakauye ruled that this was not the case.

"The fundamental flaw in the school district association's argument and example is the assumption that section 47614 requires school districts to purchase anything for the charter schools," the ruling states. "Section 47614 requires school districts to share facilities, including furniture and equipment."

Zuck Collects $50 Billion from Goldman Sachs to Keep Panopticon in the Private Hands of the Morally Insane

In the old days, they called them morally insane.  Today we call them sociopaths and give them billions of dollars if their manipulations and grandiosity can help corporate advertisers predict and control human behavior.  Privacy? Bah. Who needs it if we can pretend we have dozens or even hundreds of friends? Ooh, you like Coke Zero--me, too!!

Here is a clip of Zuckerberg sweating out an answer to a question about privacy issues and his sociopathic enterprise:

And 

Here is a list of ways to identify a sociopath. This list is from "Profile of a Sociopath". Is is a pretty good list of sociopathic indicators.

• Glibness/Superficial Charm
• Manipulative and Conning
• Grandiose Sense of Self
• Pathological Lying
• Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
• Shallow Emotions
• Incapacity for Love
• Need for Stimulation
• Callousness/Lack of Empathy
• Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature
• Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
• Irresponsibility/Unreliability
• Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity
• Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle
• Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility
• Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them
• Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them
• Authoritarian
• Secretive
• Paranoid
• Only rarely in difficulty with the law, but seeks out situations where their tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired
• Conventional appearance
• Goal of enslavement of their victim(s)
• Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim's life
• Has an emotional need to justify their crimes and therefore needs their victim's affirmation (respect, gratitude and love)
• Ultimate goal is the creation of a willing victim
• Incapable of real human attachment to another
• Unable to feel remorse or guilt
• Narcissism, grandiosity (self-importance not based on achievements)
• May state readily that their goal is to rule the world

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_know_if_someone_is_a_sociopath#ixzz19z3aVrYO

Answering Arne Duncan, part 3

Answering Arne Duncan, part 3

Stephen Krashen

Comment posted on Washington Post website.

Original article at: Arne Duncan, School reform: A chance for bipartisan governing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010202378.html?referrer=emailarticle

Duncan thinks that "More and more, teachers, parents, and union and business leaders want a real definition of teacher effectiveness based on multiple measures, including student growth, principal observation and peer review."

No: More and more, Arne Duncan, Bill Gates and companies in the testing business want value-added standardized test scores (widely acknowledged to be inaccurate in evaluating teachers), and want to video-tape teachers to make sure they are focused on test/standards-related items in class. There are no teachers, union members, or parents marching in the streets and writing angry letters demanding new and more rigorous measures for teacher evaluation.

Most important: There is no evidence that there is a crisis in teacher quality, no evidence that teacher quality has declined. When we control for poverty, American students score at the top of the world on international comparisons.

The problem is poverty.

Answering Arne Duncan, part 2

Answering Arne Duncan, part 2

Comment posted on Washington Post website.

Original article at: Arne Duncan, School reform: A chance for bipartisan governing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010202378.html?referrer=emailarticle

Arne Duncan claims widespread support for new tests.

Yes, we all want accurate ways of measuring student growth. But does this mean we must have new tests and more testing than has ever been done before? I think we already have a wonderful and accurate way of "accurately measuring what children know." It also "helps inform and improve instruction." It's called teacher evaluation.

There is no evidence that extensive testing does a better job than teacher evaluation done by professionals who deal with children daily. Please see Krashen, S. A Fundamental Principle: No Unnecessary Testing (NUT), available at www.sdkrashen.com, for supporting arguments and supporting data.

The plan presented in the Dept of Education's Blueprint calls for an astonishing amount of testing, far more than we have now with NCLB. The only people I know who support the testing plan have spent very little time in schools, haven't read the Blueprint, or just aren't listening to real education professions or students. Or all three.

We are about to make a mistake that will cost billions and make school life (even more) miserable for millions of teachers and students. The only ones who will profit are the testing companies. We should be talking about reducing testing, not increasing it.

Answering Arne Duncan

Answering Arne Duncan.

Stephen Krashen

Comment posted on Washington Post website.

Original article at: Arne Duncan, School reform: A chance for bipartisan governing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010202378.html?referrer=emailarticle

Duncan states that schools and their "local partners" are "overcoming poverty" by "investing in teachers, rebuilding school staff, lengthening the school day and changing curricula."

I know of no evidence that this is so. Rather, the research indicates that there are very few high-performing schools in high poverty conditions. Also, to my knowledge, no detailed studies have emerged with descriptions of rebuilt schools with longer days showing consistent, startling progress.

There have been occasional media reports (e.g. Felch, Song and Poindexter, 2010), but these cases of improvement are sketchy. It is not clear whether scores are being pumped up by test prep or are the result of genuine teaching and learning. The lack of comparison groups makes it impossible to dismiss the possibility that all students in the district are getting better, possibly due to the introduction of new tests and "test inflation," improvement due to greater familiarity with the test. Bracey (2009) reports that one highly publicized "success story" published in the NY Times about the Harvard Promise Academy, was true only for one grade, one subject and for one year.

Duncan gives the impression that "overcoming poverty" happens all the time under his administration. There is no real evidence that it happens at all.

Bracey, G. (2009). The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit.

http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report

Krashen, S. 2002. Don't trust Ed Trust. Substance 27 (6): 3.

Felch, J. Song, J. and Poindexter, S. "Teacher Quality Often Ignored in Reform of LA School," 12/23/10, available at http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/12/23/mct_cateacherquality.h30.html#comments.

Succs For All: From One Form of Scripted Bullshit to Another

During the heyday of the Paige/Spellings federal disaster-in-motion-at-ED, Reid Lyon, Doug Carnine, Roland Good, and other disciples of Engelmann's Direct Instruction held sway, with Robert Slavin's brand of parrot reading shut out of the Reading First dollar bonanza. 

It is predictable to see Slavin re-emerging to claim his millions in delayed expertise, with another version of the same teacher-proofed crap passed off as reading instruction.  The only literacy approach that ever passed in all four categories of reading literacy was Reading Recovery, which is too expensive to encourage when you have billions to give away to the Oligarchs' sidekicks in the charter biz and the testing industry.  From an old post:

Six years ago when Margaret LaMontagne (Spellings), Reid Lyon, and Doug Carnine loaded the Reading First review panels with their direct instruction stooges and cronies, they set back reading instruction by decades, who knows how many. As ED's own Inspector General's reports have shown, states that applied for Reading First grants were manhandled into choosing reading programs aligned with the Lyon and Carnine back-to-brutality phonics orthodoxy. And if grantees ended up off the direct instruction reservation, Reid Lyon's Reading First Director, Chris Doherty, could simply pull the plug, as he did in Rockford, Illinois:

Mr. Doherty then directed the state to freeze the district’s funding, and ultimately to withdraw the grant. Those actions prompted another e-mail from Mr. Lyon: “wow – Talk about a guy with smarts, integrity AND balls,” he wrote. “I am talking about you Chris.”

The Lyon and Carnine Cabal's most hated reading program was the balanced literacy methodology of Reading Recovery, a holistic and humane literacy approach grounded by empirical research. It is suitably ironic, then, that Ed Week reports that Reading Recovery has emerged in the latest federal research from Spellings's own shop as the only program "found to have positive effects or potentially positive effects across all four of the domains in the review—alphabetics, fluency, comprehension, and general reading achievement:"

. . . .That program, Reading Recovery, an intensive, one-on-one tutoring program, has drawn criticism over the past few years from prominent researchers and federal officials who claimed it was not scientifically based.

Federal officials and contractors tried to discourage states and districts from using Reading Recovery in schools participating in the federal Reading First program, citing a lack of evidence that it helps struggling readers. . . .

How sweet it is!! It's just too bad that so many states are now stuck with the McGraw-Hill Open Court parrot reading system that they were force fed by hacks and crooks in order to get Reading First grants.

Wow, There's a Chicago Mayoral Candidate that Favors Democratically-Controlled Public Schools

No, it's not Reptilian Rahm or Mosely-Braun or Gery Chico.  It's Danny Davis for Mayor.  From the Chicago Tribune:

The major candidates in the Chicago mayor's race are split on today's proposal that the city’s school board be elected instead of appointed by the mayor, though none of them embraced the plan wholeheartedly.

Three candidates --- former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, ex-U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico, who once served as Chicago Board of Education president --- each said they are opposed to the idea and argued it could further politicize public education in Chicago.

U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis said he supports the concept of an elected school board, although he didn’t necessarily back the proposal presented today by a group led by the Chicago Teachers Union. 

City Clerk Miguel del Valle said he supports the “eventual transition” to an elected school board, but said in order for it to be effective, the city needs to implement public financing of political campaigns. He also said there should be provisions in the law to guarantee the mayor has some accountability for the condition of the schools. . . .

 

Massachusetts Teachers Should Repudiate Union Prostisuit, Paul Toner

MTA president, Paul Toner, is trying to buy his way to the front row of the Oligarchs' feeding trough.  The deal to introduce an unscientific and pedagogcally-brain dead test score tied teacher evaluation scheme represents a betrayal of teacher, student, and parent interests for the benefit of Toner's own career aspirations.

Massachusetts teachers should send Toner and other union prostisuits a clear message by voting down the corporate approved plan.  From SouthCoastToday.com:

By BRUCE C. DITATA

Bruce C. Ditata lives in Wareham.

December 30, 2010 12:00 AM

The first thing a union leader must remember is to protect members from injustice. It is, apparently, the first thing Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, forgot.

At flashpoint is Toner's position — the rank and file have not voted on it — that using test scores from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is a legitimate measure of a classroom teacher's competency.

Diane Ravitch, a former proponent of high-stakes testing and an assistant secretary of education under George H. W. Bush, speaks to this highly volatile and controversial position in her recent book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System."

"The problem (is) the misuse of testing for high-stakes purposes, the belief that tests could identify ... which students should be held back, which teachers ... should fired or rewarded, and which schools should be closed — and the idea that these changes would inevitably produce better education," wrote Ravitch. She goes on to say, "... testing (is) not the problem. If testing inspires a degree of loathing, it is because it has become the crucial hinge on which turns the fate of students and the reputations and futures of their teachers."

One of the problems with using the MCAS as a measuring stick of teacher effectiveness is that MCAS, in the opinion of many critics throughout the commonwealth, is a flawed instrument. A list of its debits is long and includes being unfair to limited-English-speaking, minority, special education and poor kids. Essentially, Toner has surrendered before the real battle has been joined. And how does he justify such blatant appeasement?

Get out ahead of education reform, see the national trends, be proactive about the inevitable changes sure to come in the state education board's new evaluation policy regarding teacher evaluation. These are all talking points for a union leader who has, consciously and without consensus, performed an act of self-immolation. The power brokers who inhabit superintendent's offices throughout the commonwealth must be chortling with glee at Toner's willingness to plead no contest to this hot-button issue of tying test results to teacher evaluations.

American Federation of Teachers President Thomas Gosnell wisely rejects the linkage between testing and teacher evaluation for those he represents, predominantly in the inner-city areas such as Boston, Lowell, and Lawrence. Does Gosnell simply have a better grasp of what constitutes education reform? Or is it possible he has the best interests of kids and his membership at heart? Perhaps he is not looking ahead to his next job, climbing the money ladder to a more cozy seat at the table of local and national power brokers.

Unfortunately, Toner's preemptive strike affects SouthCoast teachers, who are not members of the AFT and the enlightened leadership of Gosnell. Their membership is MTA and in Fall River and New Bedford, especially, the fallout from MCAS has placed a burden on educators, and now, Toner has deepened the chasm.

It is one thing for the MTA president to assert a position that improves the education of students and improves the process of teacher evaluation, but quite another to capitulate on principles, undermining the people he was elected to represent. . . . .