Students First Changed Their "About"

Students First, Michelle Rhee's billion dollar, billionaire funded lobbying/propaganda machine have changed the "About" section on their Facebook page:

They claim they are a "grassroots movement" while at the same time claiming one million members (most of whom were duped into signing up with a shady Change.org petition) and a billion dollars.  Grassroots? Really? As they line up with and take money from Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, the Broads and the hedge fund managers? Really?

In the beginning of Students First they had a blog. On their blog they allowed comments. Folks like me started pointing out their misinformation --like "teachers are the most important factor"-- when they forgot to mention they meant "in-school factor." I made them correct that, however reluctantly. Then they ended commenting on the blog.

They did allow it on their Facebook page, so I comment there now, and have created a shadow blog, Students?First where SF's blog-posts can be commented on. Nobody goes there though.

SF is NOT a grassroots organization. They are well-funded and well-connected. They don't have a million members. And they lie. Constantly.

Ignore the hype.

Tonight At 7pm(PST) TFT Interviews Michael Butz

Tonight at 7pm (pst) is the big show. This has been in the works a loooong time.

Getting Mike to do the show took nearly a year. Why? He didn't like me, at first. I was mean.

But after sharing some killer music with him after finding out we had similar tastes, he softened and acquiesced.

There a number of us who seem to dominate Students First's Facebook page, and this show is really an opportunity for all of us to hear each others voices. My hope is that a few of them will call in and participate. Folks like Eileen, Jane, Diane, Sahila, Jon, Neil, Stu, Bronx, Michelle, Mafara, Hari and a few I am forgetting.

TFT's #SOSChat Radio Is Fully Funded!

We did it! You all donated and now I have a Premium account at Blog Talk Radio. Thank you so very much. I can now host whenever I want and for up to 2 hours! Awesome!

Many thanks to all who donated. In a year, I will have to ask for donations again, but don't let that stop you from donating today, or again! Do it frequently!

For the inaugural show I have invited Michael Butz (a fellow Deadhead and the reason for the picture above) to talk with me about education reform, especially as touted by Michelle Rhee and Students First. We will have an hour to talk and many guests have been invited to call in. We have a little community over at the SF FB page, and this show is an opportunity to actually speak with each other.

It was tough getting Mike to come on. I had to prove to him it would be okay. He now knows it will be fun. Good for him! He's right!

So, set the date: March 21st at 7pm PST.

This Is My Last Straw - Is It Yours Too?

By Dave Russell

As a teacher, I have sat and watched our children increasingly suffer needlessly as the life of the of the school day has been systematically suffocated to the pallor of a deathly grey. The gauntlet of NCLB has morphed into the scourge of the corporate take-over model which spawned a full on attack warrior in the form of Michelle Rhee and her "resistance is futile" lobby group, StudentsFirst. My blood boils every time she rolls out a new Madison Avenue savvy propaganda smear or full court press media blitz designed to further the Oligarch's planned agenda for education takeover, uh...I mean "reform."

As my anger and frustration has grown, nothing has enraged me to the boiling point more than the recent publicity buzz flying around the paper authored by Economists Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia. In this 92 page report, these economic experts claim to have tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years concluding that the kids with improving test scores had lower teen-pregnancy rates and higher college-enrollment rates than their peers. They also had higher earnings, lived in better neighborhoods, and even saved more for retirement. In a front page article about the paper, The New York Times concludes “test scores help you get more education, and that more education has an earnings effect" (how's that again...test sores do what now?).

It's not too surprising that nobody was quicker to pick up on this paper and trumpet the message from this cherry bit of propaganda than Michelle Rhee and the merry Jesters at StudentsFirst! The ballyhoo from StudentsFirst is as predictable as clockwork! Some kluged report jukes the data to develop erroneous conclusions that dance right into the laps of the Rhee/Duncan/Gates Cabal of reformists and BAM! it happens; you place the stick in their hand, they will bang the drum.

This report is hogwash and StudentsFirst should be ashamed for publicizing it. The authors admit that their conclusions are extrapolated from stale data that was gathered in bulk (not for individuals as the summary leaves readers to believe), run through an analysis tool that is so fraught with statistical noise (individual and often conflicting point-source influence on outcome) that their only conclusion --there is far too much noise to disaggregate (take apart) the most reasonable conclusion-- is that teacher quality HAS to be the driving force for the very gains that they couldn't actually track because it was stale and gathered, after all, in bulk. WTF?

But honesty and integrity are not the norm, nor are they qualities valued by this Reformers' Cabal. Instead, truth is denied, facts are skewed, research (real research - not this 5 and dime tinker-toy variety) is overlooked, and professionals at all levels across the nation are ignored and besmirched.

The agenda of StudentsFirst is to use well crafted rhetoric, propaganda and deceptive practices to create false hysteria, create mythic villains in teachers and unions, project horrific consequences should the fabricated travesty be allowed to continue unchecked, and then (wait for it!) charge in like the Knights in Shining Armor they believe themselves to be, carrying their Shield of Righteous Purpose, picture perfect, jiffy-tailored solution that not only sounds good and gives that ever so needed cozy-snugly feel of good satisfaction, but is hawked and carnival barked as the only effective, critical, and urgent fix, and to not support it dooms he world as we know it to inevitable implosion. By God! reading their agenda you would think StudentsFirst is single-handedly saving every child in every classroom every day from a hideous ordeal in the slash & burn world of the indifferent, self-important, selfish, ineffective teacher!

All StudentsFirst is interested in is changing the game so the new power brokers can continue to coerce states and districts into adopting unproven agendas such that expensive teachers can be arbitrarily, capriciously, and summarily tossed onto the curb like so much rubbish only to be replaced by unproven, untrained, two-year commit-me-not ivy-league Slam-Bam-Thank You Ma'amers.

And all this hinges on some snake oil smoke & mirrors algorithm called Value Added Analysis, which in and of itself hinges on students passing a test nobody has ever seen, nobody has ever ensured is aligned to the hundreds of varied curricula and texts, and not fact checked for accuracy or cognitive appropriateness. It is taken on faith by StudentsFirst and the rest of the Rhee/Duncan/Gates Cabal of reformists that the ENTIRE machine that sets the standards, writes the curriculum, formulates the textbooks, writes the tests, scores the tests is SO seamlessly perfect that all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, family (dis)function, language abilities, learning difficulties, or desire to participate, will excel if it weren't for the incredible prevalence of those damned ineffective teachers.

The most aggravating aspect of the agenda water-boarding perpetrated by the whole Rhee/Duncan/Gates Cabal of reformists is that the American public is either too drunk on their cool-aid, too stupid to understand the realities, or too apathetic to do anything but allow their children to be willingly led to the intellectual slaughter.

Too harsh you say? Ask any child in Florida or anywhere else in America how excited they are to come to school. Ask them how relevant the curriculum is to their lives. Ask them when the last time it was that they engaged in test prep - and for how long. Ask them why they even take the test. Ask them if they feel like the institution is encouraging them to live, learn, and grow according to their (student centric) needs as 21st century learners. You want harsh? Listen to these kids rail on the Bull Shit that is the result of decade of reforms designed by a Cabal of reformists who think that the best way to solve our problems is to use a white-hot blowtorch approach to intensifying the same thinking that created the problems in the first place.

To all the members of the Rhee/Duncan/Gates Cabal of reformists and to Race to the Top as well, you can kiss my ass and the collective asses of kids all across America!

An Anomaly Occurred At Students First!!

(Cross-posted from Students?First)

From Stephanie Rivera, who thought twice after reading about our concerns about StudentsFirst. Stephanie is a great example of someone who actually does the work before forming an opinion. Good for her.

Phew. That was intense.

It’s currently 3:04AM and I just spent the past 2 hours trying to understand why people were attacking  StudentsFirst’s (an educational reform movement) Facebook Page. I discovered SF a few days ago and briefly reading its purpose, I immediately thought–this is exactly what I need to take part of. I was planning to send in my application as a Campus Director tomorrow. Then this happened.

To begin, StudentsFirst was founded in 2010 by Michelle Rhee who is now the CEO. She’s done some fantastic and inspiring work for education. She taught with Teach for America, “created a Youth Cabinet to bring students’ voices into reforming the DC Public Schools,” and founded The New Teacher Project (TNTP).  Evidently, I found her phenomenal, how could anyone attack her and this movement?

So when I was just skimming through SF’s facebook page,  a comment by user “Tee Eff  Tee,” (Acronym for The Frustrated Teacher) caught my eye.

“Wow Amy, with so many silly statements, and erroneous ones, you’d think you would want to learn about the topic before posting.
SF is NOT a good cause. They are causing damage. Damage you don’t see, for some reason I will refrain from speculating on.”

I immediately thought, this guy doesn’t have a real name, he’s just a guy with no life attacking an incredible cause. Yet, then I saw more posts from him. They weren’t anything thoughtless either, there was clear effort. It caught my attention when one SF supporter wrote, “And what do YOU do to make an education change in our system?” And TFT replied: “I left the classroom. I started a blog. I helped with the SOS March. I work with kids with special needs the schools won’t or can’t work with. I interview people on internet radio about education reform.”

Obviously I do not have real proof that his statement is legit, but he does in fact have a blog.

Anyway, these lashing outs from supporters and non-supporters went on for over 55 comments on almost every post on SF’s wall. I was questioning to myself, “Is all I know a lie? There’s no way, this guy is just a fraud. But what if he’s not? I can’t apply or support something I have misconceptions about.” Then finally I decided, enough is enough of these biased opinions. I’ll do the research myself and make my opinion on that.
I watched her “Save Great Teachers” video which I think had a lot of great points. Yet, of course, comments stating her statistics were wrong and other attacks were not hard to find.

I read their Mission Statement, Michelle’s Bio, basically everything that could give me a clearer idea. I downloaded SF’s Policy Agenda. Read the first two pages and was ecstatic she was pushing for better training of teachers and better evaluations. Finding the flaw was a puzzle, I just kept thinking, “I don’t understand, where are these people finding a reason to attack her?” I went back to the FB wall in an attempt to find a more clear reasoning, but this time it wasn’t an attack from TFT, instead a teacher. Take a look for yourself:

 (I know it’s lengthy, so in a nutshell, he is basically questioning where in SF’s movement do they address critical issues in our education system)

There are about 50 more comments like these that address issues that StudentsFirst fails to address such as     the problem with our nation’s emphasis on test scores, he writes,

“The current environment in public schools has devolved to a test-score grind-house…Consequently, students are missing important experiences that…would give students a window onto the world around them thereby informing them and giving critical life experiences that are foundational to developing an ability to evaluate, discriminate, and critically think about problem solving.”

In addition asking how this will fix the achievement gap between those in lower socio-economic statuses. Although I understand this topic can get one with a lot of passion heated, this one made me say “ouch” out loud in this attack to George, an Ohio State Campus Director for StudentsFirst.

The question to you, George, is why you support predominantly low-income children of color being taught by TFA (Teach For America) teachers when research shows they would be better off if those teachers had more training before they’re put in front of that particular classroom. Consider that that middle class white school districts and elite private schools probably wouldn’t hire someone unproven and with only five weeks of preparation you must consider there’s a reason why TFA teacher are in Compton, California, and not in Beverly Hills. In our society it’s OK for low-income black and Latino children to have inexperienced teachers with only five weeks of training. That would never fly in wealthier and whiter school districts.

With about 20 more comments by others and 3 days later, Dave wrote:

“George – Do you have any answers to my questions? Are you reading the posts? Or is it that you can’t reconcile the conflict in your heart.“

Personally, I think that statement may have taken it too far.
So my final say on StudentsFirst? I’m not too sure yet. I will say it has excellent intentions, but it fails to address serious and primitive issues we have continued to ignore for too many years. Moreover, this  definitely open my eyes and made me realize I cannot take on reform in such a simple manner. Looking back now, I can’t believe I was about to apply for such a serious position without completely researching the facts. I just thought, “Oh, educational reform? It must be legit then!” I guess it’s good I learned this lesson now than later, though.

Of course I am excited that so many people are taking action and care for better education. But I am still new to the complexity of reforms and social change. I can’t rightfully make judgement on something I do not fully understand, so for now I will just continue to advocate the issues I believe need to be addressed. Because in the end, were all fighting for essentially the same thing.
What are your thoughts on this reform?

Mike Butz, The Prude Deadhead, Hates Blowjobs

Mike Butz is a Michelle Rhee fan and has even written for StudentsFirst. He says he's a Democrat, and I am sure he is. But he is very conservative, and now, apparently, he is showing he is also a prude.

He is not an educator; never was. He claims to understand science via osmosis. He rants and raves about how teachers, unions and districts don't know what they are doing, though he doesn't really know what they do. He constantly reminds us that he realizes poverty is a huge issue, he just doesn't think it's a huge issue in education. What? Yeah. That's his confused understanding of the root cause of our academic disparity.

He is also the kind of numbskull StudentsFirst loves; he's a registered Democrat, like the other DFER, neoliberals are, and he believes teachers suck, like all the reformers that never taught a day in their lives believe.

I mentioned this, with an off-color analogy that I thought was pretty good.

Mike was offended. Mike is a Deadhead. We have that in common. The prudishness Mike exhibits we don't share.