Wednesday Cartoon Fun: Red Or Blue? Edition: Updated

For Mom: Updated (Reposted)

Happy Mother's Day!

This was originally posted on election eve, the night Obama won. I feel the need to re-post it because mom's words--and mine--were so heartfelt at the time. I have become skeptical, but mom and her new love, Bill (a great guy, a former Chicago organizer, professor, and worthy of her) are still so hopeful--even in their seventies.

And since it's mom's birthday today I thought a little history of her was in order, again...

She was born in Kansas in 1933--the enlightened daughter of less enlightened parents, younger sister to a less enlightened one. These people are my maternal family. They didn't go to church, they worked hard for whatever they had, and they were tacitly racist. Not my mom.

My mom had dreams. She dreamed of being an actress, a singer, a director, a producer, a mother, a grandmother. She dreamed of the real world where people deserve respect, no matter their container. She fulfilled those dreams, not to the height she may have hoped, but she achieved them all with grace, kindness, thoughtfulness, and hard work.

She still dreams. She is a dreamer. She dreamed her way into my Jewish father's heart, and presto! here I am, 45 years later, her Jewish, atheist, teacher, blogger son.

Mom is a force. She raised 2 sons, and very nearly 2 granddaughters. She fairly recently buried my dad, and too recently, my big brother. She watched as her sister delved deeper into religious intolerance, ignorance, and prejudice. It made mom stronger. She is the strongest person I know.

She was a Hillary supporter until it became apparent that cause was lost. Barack's blackness never made an impression. She's as far from racist as one can be. She looks into your heart to find out who you are. She became an Obama supporter easily.

She spends her time nannying (for money, she ain't rich!) and organizing her community. She hosts dinner-discussions with the neighbors who don't quite understand how this feisty little woman can bring people together so easily, so lovingly, so gently, and with such focus; she invites local legislators to join in on these meetings--and they show up! She IS the neighborhood. Her neighbors tell me so every time I go up to see her. She knows it too. She's focused, purposeful, driven.

Last night, in her newly adopted home in the pacific northwest, she was out with the revelers as Obama became president. She called me around 9pm near the drum circle, much like a child would call out with joy, to share in her feeling of inclusiveness, and wonder, and satisfaction as she participated in her city's eruption of relief and hope.

If there is another mom out there like her, I don't believe it. She wrote this because she had to. She doesn't hold in her feelings, especially when they are feelings of hope and joy (and she has a thing for words):

In a park in downtown Chicago, in November, the night was cool and comfortable. On the stage, accepting the decision from the people of the United States of America to be their 44th president was a tall, slender black man with the voice of an orator. What, in this picture, would you draw an ironic? All of it, right? It would seem that the stars were aligned to make this particular moment in history hopeful and filled with promise. “Yes we can!”, shouted the crowd, “Obama”, on the next go around…tears rolling down cheeks, eyes bright with disbelief looking up at this smiling, Lincolnesque man on the stage, turning and waving, turning and waving, and as we gaze, forgetting all the disappointment and frustration of the last 8 years we gently place on his shoulders the hope that he will perform miracles. “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it”. Abraham Lincoln: February 1850

I have faith! I believe, with all my heart that we citizens of this country have a man, now our president, who will act to restore our respect, heal our wounds, inspire us to new heights, and do no harm. He will carry out his mandate and urge us to sacrifice for the good of what is needed. We can do that…we’ve done it before! He won’t ask us to walk through fire, but whatever he asks, we won’t do it alone. Obama will be right there beside us, our general, with the mud on his shoes and the fatigue on his face, encouraging us, “just a little farther, just a little more, we’re almost there”. I am so proud to be alive at this moment in history. Vive l'Amerique!!

This, dear readers, is the essence of what happened last night. Hope leading to the desire to work hard--real hard--to see that hope realized. My mom knows what's ahead. She'll be working hard, like she always does, to make the world worthy of her, all the while wondering if she is worthy of us. She is. She'll do the all the work she can. Will you? Will I? Hope. Realize the hope!

Levon Helm, R.I.P. Updated

Woodstock's Levon Helm, who was as much beloved for his salt of the earth integrity as he was for his earthen voice and in-the-pocket drumming, died Thursday afternoon in New York.

Helm was surrounded by friends and family, including his wife Sandy and daughter Amy, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. There will be a memorial service, but details have yet been finalized.

recordonline.com

Update: This from Charles Pierce is worth a read:

It was a hot summer night very long ago, when my career in this racket was brand-new and distinctly alternative. I was in a beneath-the-sidewalk joint in Harvard Square called Jonathan Swift's, and I was listening to Levon Helm play with the Cate Brothers, who were formidable players in their own right, and old friends of Levon's from Arkansas. We were all deep into the howl of the evening when it occurred to my friend and I that we were enjoying the show so much that we really ought to buy Levon a beer. So we ordered one up, and the waitress brought it out to the stage and Levon took a long pull, looked down at the two of us, touched his drumstick to his forehead and said, "Thank you, neighbor."

It was what they were all about, Levon and the rest of The Band, in 1968, when the country was coming apart at the seams. Nothing was holding, least of all Mr. Yeats's center. There were tanks in Prague and there was blood on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. The traditional American values of home and family and neighborhood were being fashioned into cheap weapons to use against the people who saw the death and gore as the deepest kind of betrayal of the ideals that made those values worth a damn in the first place. The music was disparate and fragmented; the Beatles were producing masterpieces that they couldn't or wouldn't take on the road. Brian Wilson was long gone, spelunking through the canyons of what was left of his mind. Jim Morrison, that tinpot fraud, was mixing bullshit politics with kindergarten Freudian mumbo-jumbo and his band didn't even have a damn bass player. Elsewhere, there was torpid, silly psychedelia. The British were sort of holding it together, but, in America, even soul was coming apart. Nothing seemed rooted. Nothing abided. Nothing seemed to come from anything else. The whole country was bleeding from wounds nobody could find.

h/t Doug Noon

Some Blog Weirdness, Updated

Do you see 2 rectangular outlines that are completely out of place here near the top and left side of the blog? If so, how do I make them go away? I did nothing. I haven't dealt with the template in a long time.

Why the weirdness?

Update: I'll tell you why the weirdness; it was all the Facebook Like Boxes. Blogger knows this is an issue but can't fix it. The only way to fix it is REMOVAL. So they've been removed. They still exist on their dedicated page which can be found under the Title banner of the blog --Facebook/BTR Links.

Occupy NEA Run By Jerks, Updated

Occupy NEA is a newish Facebook Community Group asking for NEA folks to tell the leadership how to better serve their members.

They are doing this by banning people; they banned Sahila Changebringer and me, in a heartbeat.

They suck. If you "Liked" them you may have made a mistake.

The admin is a guy named Tommy Flanagan, and he's a hypocrite. Please lay it on thick and heavy over there and get this guy to open up his page, or we will try to shut it down.

Jerk.

Update: You can join the Actual Occupy NEA if you would rather.

A Concerned Father And 8th Grade Test Prep Classes: Updated Again & Again & Finally Again

A father is concerned for his 8th grade son's new-found worry over high-stakes tests.  Sorry about all the italicized question marks posing as names.

Dear Principal ?????? of ?????? Middle School,

I have a comment and a question or four.  My son, ?son?, brought home a flier that asked him to participate in a test prep class because he scored a 3 in ELA, but it was a low 3.

The class was presented as an opportunity for him to improve his score.  Why would he need to bring up his score?  He scored proficient.  And the test has no bearing on his life.  None whatsoever.  Why would you tell him that his score was low and that he needs a class to improve his score?  And if his score was low in ELA, why isn't he being tutored in ELA as opposed to being tutored on how to take a test?  Who is teaching the class? How many kids are in the class? What is the curriculum of the class?

I am very concerned that he is being used as a way for ?school? to raise its AYP due to fears of PI status.  I want to know the real reason for the class, why my son was asked to participate, and I would like to know if kids who scored Below Basic or Basic are being asked to participate in the test prep class.

The simple act of telling him he should take the class has instilled in him the notion that he is a bad test taker and not the good student he actually is; he is an A student, as you know.  He is active in school leadership and has always performed very well academically.  He is now not sure if he is a good student.

High-stakes tests cause kids to question themselves, all for nothing.  The state tests have no impact on my son, but have a huge impact on the school, unfairly in my opinion.

I am very upset with the decision to offer the class to my son--effectively telling him he needs it--without first consulting his parents. 

I am aware my son can opt out of the state test, as can any child if their parent wants them to.  I am aware that teachers are not allowed to offer this information.  I am free to offer it, and I will encourage all parents of public school students to kindly refuse to take the test.

A await your response.

--?father?, father of ?student?

Okay, there is the email from the concerned father. And now for the Principal's response.

Mr. ????, Thank you for you email. You are correct, ?son? did score in the low Proficient range last spring. The class is being offered to the students who we feel can benefit from working in small groups on test taking strategies and dissecting some of the pre=release questions from the California Department of Education. This is not intended to be a negative experience for our students, we hand select the students that we are extending an invite to for participation. I understand clearly how this has impacted ?son? and will let him know that we did not intend make him feel negative and that the class is totally optional.

?Principal?
Principal, ????? Middle School

Notice not one question was answered, but another offer was made to make the son uncomfortable. And the father's response to the response:

I would prefer you not mention anything to ?son?. I know the class is optional, as does he. But he is now convinced he needs it.

Again, do not mention anything about our correspondence to ?son?.

--?father?

And a bit more from the father because that previous email needed to go out immediately to stave off more unwanted nonsense from the Principal to the son:

The flier said he would be tutored in the area he scored poorly in, ELA. But that is not true? It is pure test prep?

And I still would like to know which kids were invited, and why.

Again, this conversation between you and me (and those cc'd) is not for ?son?.

--?father?

You knew this response was coming from the Principal:

Mr. ?father?, I am sorry, but I already spoke to ?son?. We will support what ever decision is made regarding his participation.

Principal, ????? Middle School

I don't know about you, but this is exactly why the high-stakes tests do nothing of value for kids. Please, opt your kids out of the high-stakes tests!

Update: Some more of the exchange is dribbling in. This from Dad:

I am very upset you would talk to my son before talking to me. I am also concerned that none of my original questions were answered.

Please, answer my previous questions about who was invited to participate (broken down by B, BB, P, or A), who the class actually helps (students or school's AYP), who is teaching it, what the curriculum is, and also please tell me the status of ?school? in terms of Program Improvement.

I am concerned that the class is a response to not making AYP last year and has little to do with helping educate my son but instead is a method to raise the average score of ?school? students on the CST--I hope I am wrong, but as a former teacher I am pretty sure I am right. I really want, and deserve, answers to these questions.

--?father?

And the response from the Principal:

Mr. ?father?, I will be glad to discuss the class with you and the teacher Ms. ?teacher? in person not thru a shared email. I am not at liberty to share with you who was selected or how. If you would like to know how the class is structured and what material will be used, please schedule a time with Ms. ?teacher? to come in and observe the class. It is unfortunate that you do not see the value in what we are doing at ?????, and ????? Class is only one of the many positive experiences that we offer to our students. If you want to set-up an appointment with me, please email your contact information.

Thanks,
Principal, ????? Middle School

There you go. The principal won't answer the questions. Do you know why? She isn't allowed to, because the class is for the school, not the kids, and to admit that would be an admission of malpractice. But that's what high-stakes tests do, they cause educators to commit malpractice, and then lie about it.

Shame! Shame! Shame!

Update II: Response from Dad:

That is an incredibly unsatisfying response, and a bit condescending. I am not asking for the names of students participating, I am asking for their rank only.

When I taught I attended a meeting where the principal told us to focus on Basic students because raising them would help AYP, and focusing on Below Basic students would not help because they were unlikely to make Proficient. I was astounded at the time and said something. She didn't like that. I am now concerned this was not limited to my principal, but is a district directive. Your statements sound very similar to what I heard a few short years ago. I would love to be wrong.

I have told you that the class has caused my son to question himself, yet you claim that I "do not see the value in what [you] are doing at ?????," as if the damage to my son's sense of self was a benefit to him. Please.

I would like a meeting with you and whoever is in charge of the class, its participants, its structure, its intended purpose and knows its history.

Please let me know a time this week.

Update Again: And the final response from the principal:

Mr ?father?, I will arrange for a meeting on Thursday. We will be glad to share with you an overview of the program. You will not be given the other information that you have requested. I am concerned that you have stated that we have harmed your son with our invitation and I must state that ?son? has not been forced to participate, and he indicated to me that he wants to attend. Since you have such strong feelings about the opportunity, we will be glad to resend the invitation. You do not have to agree with how we support and engage our students at ?school?, but it is unfair of you to indicate that we are only focused on a select student population and not engaged in addressing all of our students needs. You did not send your contact information, please email a phone number where you can be reached tomorrow and I will call you with a meeting time to confirm our meeting. This will be my last email, I will contact you tomorrow.

Principal, ???? Middle School

Notice how she phrases that part about the father's feelings about the "opportunity" she has provided. Tell me, is the principal wrong here when she tries to spin the class as an opportunity, or is it actually an opportunity?  And does she mean rescind or resend?  She is concerned that the father stated there was harm done to the son; she is not concerned about the harm, but about the statement.

Also, she has the contact information for the father--it's all over the son's file, as is the mother's information, as all students' files should have.

And what kid, who is concerned about doing well, as this son is, wouldn't want to take the class the teacher says he should take because he fucked up the test so badly last time?  So yeah, I'm not surprised the kid, like most bright, interested, grade-centric kids, wants to take the class.  That's why the parents should be asked first, not the kid.

I would love comments.

Update III: The dad chose not to have a meeting.  He realized it would do nothing except make him mad and possibly put the son in an uncomfortable situation.

But the kid went to the class on Tuesday and Thursday.  I will paraphrase for you what the kid reported back to the father about the 2 sessions.  The kid pretty much confirmed the dad's fears that it was about AYP.  The teacher apparently told the prep class exactly why they were chosen: because they were all low 2s and hi 3s hi 2s and low 3s and could impact the school's AYP.  This was told to the class, explicitly, and the teacher referred to the class as her "special team" of kids who are going to raise the school out of PI status, or keep them from going into PI status.

So, here we have one of the greatest examples of the horrors of high-stakes testing.  Schools now use students as a marketing tool.  I hope the kids are getting paid and not working for free.

Now would be a good time to check out the bartleby project.

Final Update: Yes, this is actually about my son and me.

The DOE Would Like To Ruin Public Schools: The Proof (Updated)

This document, from your government, basically enshrines the notion that teachers should be evaluated based on the scores of their students, that teacher certification is for fools (hire TFA instead), and unions and job security are bad ideas. Thank your President, Barack Obama for hiring the idiot Arne Duncan whose work we see below. The definition of "douche-bag" is "Arne Duncan."

SUPPORTING EFFECTIVE TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOM 

THE PROBLEM:

The teacher quality policies under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were intended to encourage better educators in schools. But in the 10 years since the law’s enactment, the “Highly Qualified Teacher” requirements have placed too much emphasis on a teacher’s credentials and tenure and imposed significant burdens on states and schools, while paying little attention to student learning.

When it comes to getting better teachers in our schools, these “Highly Qualified Teacher” provisions can do more harm than good. As former elementary school teacher Deborah Ball stated at a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, “Right now, teachers are considered qualified simply by participating in an approved program or completing an academic major. This means that being qualified does not depend on demonstrating that you can teach.”

THE SOLUTION:

Parents know the best teachers are the ones who keep students motivated and challenged in the classroom. Instead of relying on teacher credential or tenure requirements, which provide little information about teachers’ ability to help students excel in the classroom, the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act will ensure states and school districts have the tools necessary to effectively measure an educator’s influence on student achievement.


THE STUDENT SUCCESS ACT AND THE ENCOURAGING INNOVATION AND EFFECTIVE TEACHERS ACT

-Repeal federal "Highly Qualified Teacher" requirements.

-Support the development and implementation of teacher evaluation systems to ensure parents have the information they need to make decisions about their child’s education.

-Set broad parameters – including linkages to student achievement data – that must be included in any teacher evaluation system, but allows states and school districts to design their own systems.

-Require states and school districts to seek input from parents, teachers, school leaders, and other staff as they develop the evaluation system.

-Encourage states and school districts to make personnel decisions based on the evaluations, as determined by the school district.

-Consolidate teacher quality programs into a new Teacher and School Leader Flexible Grant, which supports creative approaches to recruit and retain effective educators.

Your Government

Update: I should not have said this was a DOE document. It's not. It's an Education and the Workforce Committee document, like the banner shows. I got ahead of myself.

Tim Furman (SchoolTechConnect) in the comments gently pointed that out to me. And he also made an interesting point--this came out of a Republican led committee and only Republicans voted for it. Still, it includes many of the things Duncan and Obama want. So why did it get published? Is it for, as Tim put it, a bad cop/worse cop scenario?

I put nothing past the reformers. Arne will love this document. It might as well be a DOE document. I predict, in large part it will become one anyway.

Help Me Get A Premium Account At Blog Talk Radio (Updated)

I have mentioned this before; I have a free account at Blog Talk Radio which is rather limiting. I cannot do shows during prime time. I can only do half hour shows. I can't upload more than 3 audio files. I cannot offer Skype connections to callers. It's very limiting.

A premium account would allow me 2-hour shows during prime-time with Skype calling available, as well as toll-free calling.

My radio show is growing. I began a new feature I call #SOSChat Kid Radio to get student voices out there to be heard. Alex just appeared yesterday. And second-career teacher and blogging partner David Russell appeared last week for a very interesting discussion of the Common Core, mastery learning and other stuff. He's sort of awesome.

Upcoming I have some great shows: Principal Brian Killeen of Florida will be on March 6; Dr. Michael Marder and I have been trying to set a date and we are close; Mike Butz, a fellow commentator over at the Students First Facebook page has finally decided to come on as well.

With all the interest now being shown in my show I really want a premium account. It costs $400/year, an amount I just don't have.

Here's the cool part: an anonymous donor has offered to match the next $100 in donations. Please consider a donation to the cause; help get the word out about education reform and how it is damaging our public schools, and therefore our future, not to mention our children.

Donations can be made by clicking on the TFT/Paypal logo just under this blog's title, right there near the top of the blog, or the little Donate button below.

Thank you in advance.

Bonus: Donors can be anonymous or I can recognize you publicly. Let me know if you want recognition. The default is for you to be anonymous. Donors who contribute $100 or more get a free TFT mug. Of course, you can't be anonymous if you want the mug--I'll need your name and address. I could just send you a picture of the mug...

Update:  I have raised $300 $341 of the $400 I need!!! Thanks to all who donated! We're almost there!

Prop 8 Overturned! Humans Free To Love Each Other Again!! Updated

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional but agreed to give sponsors of the bitterly contested, voter-approved law time to appeal the ruling before ordering the state to resume allowing gay couples to wed.

Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz

Update: Some analysis of the ruling: (h/t DWT)

Let's be clear at the outset what the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did and didn't decide in its ruling today on the constitutionality of California's ballot-approved Proposition 8, which you'll no doubt recall had the (intended) effect of overturning the state law, already in effect, that had legalized same-sex marriage.

(1) What the panel did decide

Yes indeed, the ruling -- written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt (appointed to the court by Jimmy Carter) on behalf of himself and Judge Michael Hawkins (appointed by Bill Clinton) -- says that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

(2) What the panel did NOT decide

The ruling goes out of its way to make clear that the panel is not saying that it is necessarily unconstitutional to legally ban same-sex marriage.

Are we all clear on that? Anyone who says, or imagines, that the Ninth Circuit panel ruled today that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional doesn't know what he's talking about, or perhaps is just fibbing for reasons you'll have to ask him to explain.

SO WHAT DID THE PANEL RULE UNCONSTITUTIONAL?

Teaching Is An Art (So Is Lawyering). VAM Can't Work: Updated

I came across a quote today from Sandra Day O'Connor:

"Attorney errors come in an infinite variety and are as likely to be
utterly harmless in a particular case as they are to be prejudicial. They
cannot be classified according to likelihood of causing prejudice. Nor can
they be defined with sufficient precision to inform defense attorneys
correctly just what conduct to avoid. Representation is an art, and an act
or omission that is unprofessional in one case may be sound or even
brilliant in another."

Yeah, teaching too. VAM can't work. It just can't.

Update: So I admit a friend and I are having an email exchange about this science vs. art thing. Here is why I say teaching --and lawyering and doctoring-- is more art than science:

Lawyers, doctors, teachers all have basic knowledge without which they
could not practice the art. These professions are art in the same way
jazz is art--it requires knowledge of music, but then you get to be
creative.

When 2 or 3 different people could perform the job differently and still
end up with a good expected outcome, that implies there is more than
science to it, there must be art.

My surgery required dumping my guts onto the table. I am sure there are
a few ways to do that and a few outcomes depending on the different
ways. I assume there is more than one good or bad way to do that.

Same with trying a case, or teaching a concept, or sewing up my gut.

Update II: Here is the rest of the email exchange. My friend, referred to below as "The Law" is a lawyer. I have summarized her emails to just the pertinent questions I am responding to.


TFT:

The science part of teaching is understanding how kids learn, not the subject matter (though in upper grades the subject matter knowledge is clearly crucial, but still it's not the sole science part). And, how kids learn varies, and science has a hard time pinning much down in this domain, leaving it to art and situational awareness that comes with practice.

Aren't the best trial lawyers performance artists as well as highly knowledgeable about precedents, torts, and whatever else you lawyers have to know about that you learn in law school and then promptly realize it wasn't all that helpful and the only way to get good at trial lawyering is to do it? And we measure trial lawyers by wins and losses, right? Not by their actual performance in the courtroom. Right? And surgeons are rated on survival rates, not on procedure, unless the outcome was bad, then procedures are looked at, right? All this sounds like teaching--we look at outcomes. Except that for teaching, like the family doctor, much of what they do is dependent on things they don't control--diet, homework, and the rest.

You can't measure art, really, can you? I mean, perhaps in the most rudimentary way--painters should use paint and understand something about form, shadow, line, and all that stuff (the science of the art), but one person's art is another person's garbage, right?

Art certainly isn't VAMable, I don't think.

Can we measure my progress by looking at (name redacted) [a middle class, white, gifted student who loved my class and was challenged, and who was tender to the Hispanic student. Sweet.]? Or should we look at (name redacted) [a Hispanic student whose father was in jail and was homeless off and on during the year and scored poorly but whose attitude towards life seemed to improve in my class], whose life was basically devastated from birth? [Middle class student] would have advanced without me. [Hispanic student] didn't advance much, but his sense of self I think got better in my class. Can we measure [Hispanic student]'s sense of self? I don't think so.

I think teaching is a lot like the 1984 case you write about--it's a judgement call reserved for those in charge--professional judgement. There is no standard we can measure against, so we have to measure against what the professionals have gleaned over their years as professionals practicing their art.

Perhaps my use of Art and Science are too broad, but I don't know how else to separate the 2 domains. I also think that there are fewer rules for teachers than other professions. It's more like a therapist than a doctor or lawyer. There are standards of care, policies about privacy and pedagogy (therapy) but each patient (class) is different and will be taught (therapized) differently. In both cases the professional is steeped in the science underpinning their profession, but the actual doing of it seems more like art--the thing the science-knowledge frees you to do.

How's that?

The Law:

Your first sentence answers one of my original questions, I wanted to know whether there was a science to the teaching, as opposed to the subject matter.

TFT:

VAM can't control for family attributes (SES). Of factors that impact a child's ability to learn (do well on a test, more accurately, which is NOT an accurate measure of the child's true ability), most knowledgeable folks say that between 10 and 30% of factors come from school, the rest come from home, as [made obvious] by [Hsp student] and [MC student], among others.

The test--the high stakes test at the end of the year--is what VAM uses. That fact alone makes VAM useless, as one test on one day does not accurately reflect much of anything about the teacher or the student. I suppose that if the whole class did incredibly well, or badly, one could generalize about the teacher. But that's obvious. It's when VAM is used to differentiate between teachers who, on the whole, are relatively similar. VAM does not have the power to do it--it's too prone to error. It is not a measure that can be used, as the variables can't be controlled like they can in industry by controlling inputs (materials/students).

Reformers would have you believe that there is a science to teaching (pedagogy) and charters have figured it out. And that's bullshit. Charters have figured out how to control inputs. There is no science of pedagogy, really. That's my argument--pedagogy is an art. Teaching is an art. Sure, it has some science behind it--brain development, motor development, some stable psychological concepts, but for the most part, it's art.

So, the reformers abuse science's power by giving it more than it deserves in this domain, and they belittle the art of teaching by scripting teachers with curricula that claim to be research based (science) when they aren't cuz there ain't no science they can actually point to, and the research is usually not actual research but a working paper from the publisher or a CMO funded meta-review. Remember, Everyday Math is "research based" but most mathematicians pillory it for its stupidity. It was pushed through after packing the board of the What Works Clearinghouse.

The actual research performed over the past 70 years shows, unequivocally, that home factors make or break a kid. Not teachers. Not schools. Not curricula. Home is where the issues are. And that is where poverty lives.

The reform movement uses bullshit disguised as science (the NYT article on that latest "study" being a perfect example). They can't acknowledge poverty because that would undercut their scheme that claims they know how to save kids with their new pedagogy that is in evidence in their charters that do well. Except few of them do, and the ones that do well control their inputs. Ask KIPP, Aspire, HCZ, HSA and the rest. They've all been in trouble for scheming the inputs.

How's that?

The Law:

Or is good teaching like pornography -- I know it when I see it?

TFT:

Yes. It's exactly like pornography--you know it when you see it. Seriously. Like your lawyer scenario. Porn, teaching, lawyering--non-VAMable.

Activists, educators and academics you should be aware of include:

Dr. Diane Ravitch
Dr. Deborah Meier
Dr. Stephen Krashen
Dr. Shaun Johnson
Anthony Cody
Leoni Haimson
Matt Damon
Jon Stewart
P.L. Thomas



Here are some links to experts. Some are a bit long, but you can and should do it!

--Richard Rothstein looks at An overemphasis on teachers

--and Rothstein again, with others:

Narrowing the Achievement Gap for Low-Income Children: A 19-Year Life Cycle Approach

By Richard Rothstein, Tamara Wilder and Whitney C. Allgood | 2008

--One and another by Jim Horn (of Cambridge College) on VAM.

Chancellor Katehi Admits UC Davis Is Unsafe For Students (Updated)

Watch from 13:42 for about a 45 seconds (it starts here* at 13:42 for your convenience). Go on. Watch it.

Did you watch it?

You heard her. She said the campus may be unsafe for some students because, as we have seen in the past, you never know if it (it? the protest, I guess, as a whole) will remain peaceful or if "students will get hurt." Did I get that quote right? Isn't that what she said at 14:14? I think so.

The students will get hurt. Not might. Will. And nobody else will get hurt. Just students. And why might those students get hurt? Because the police feel threatened.

Sorry. She's gotta go.

Update: * I forgot the link to the video that starts at 13:42. It's there now.

Mottos Of Some Police Departments, Updated

• Carabineros de Chile: Orden y Patria (Latin: Order and Fatherland)
• Chicago Police Department: We Serve and Protect
• Detroit Police Department: Making Detroit a Safer Place to Live, Work, and Visit
• Los Angeles Airport Police: Serving the Aviation Community
• Los Angeles Police Department: To Protect and to Serve
• Maine State Police: Semper Aequus (Latin: Always Just)
• Minneapolis Police Department: To Protect with Courage, To Serve with Compassion
• New South Wales Police: Culpam Poena Premit Comes (Latin: Punishment Follows Close on Guilt)
• New York Police Department: Fidelis ad Mortem (Latin: Faithful until Death)
• Philadelphia Police Department: Honor, Integrity, Service
• Prince Georges county Fire & EMS: Keepin it Safe
• Queensland Police: With Honour We Serve
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Maintiens le droit (French: We maintain the Right / Uphold the law)
• San Francisco Police Department: Oro en Paz/Hierro en Guerra (Spanish: ''Gold in Peace, Iron in War)
• Thames Valley Police: Sit pax in valle tamesis (Latin: Let there be peace in the Thames Valley)
• Trinity House: Trinitas in unitate (Latin: United in the Trinity)
• Veterans Affairs Police: Protecting Those Who Served

Wikipedia

Update:

University of California: Fiat Lux (Latin: Let there be light.)

(Crossposted) TFT Has Something To Tell You About Students First: Updated

This was originally posted at my students?first blog.

Michelle Rhee's Students First Facebook page, like Education Nation before it (prompting my Miseducation Nation response), has stopped allowing people to post on their wall. It seems to have happened at around 2pm Pacific on Monday, July 25, 2011.

This tactic is popular with folks who are trying to get their lies believed. They need to obfuscate, cheat and squash any and all dissent, especially dissent with facts to back it up.

Students First is in the business of convincing the public that poverty is a choice and can be overcome. Well, to be fair, they say that since poverty is such a huge problem they have decided to focus on the one factor in a school they know they can get popular support for--teacher bashing. They admit poverty is a much larger problem, and they go on to admit that it's too big for them, so they will focus on teachers, or something.

They are confused. They have no good reason for ignoring poverty as they claim to want to put students first.

Bullshit.

Poverty's effects account for 60-90% of factors negatively impacting a child's ability to learn. Teachers and schools have effects that account for the other 10-40% (most researchers agree that the low number --10% -- is the more accurate measure of the effects. Ninety percent of factors fall outside of school. Rhee want to focus on the 10%, and she want one billion dollars to do it).

If it weren't so dishonest it would be funny.

Update: Here is the proof that my assumption about SF being responsible for cutting off access to posting to their page was on purpose and not a glitch as they first claimed--a claim which has been scrubbed and replaced with the truth:

1) Here we have two comments where the missing SF claim of a glitch used to be. SF's original claim, that is was a glitch, was transposed by Sahila:

"StudentsFirst is not responsible for the removal of wall posting privileges, nor do we sensor any material that is not deemed abusive or profane. Unfortunately, Facebook is experiencing technical difficulties across the platform. We are working on having the issue resolved, thank you for your patience."

It used to be between the 2 comments you see below, but it was removed.

2) Here we have the new comment from SF saying they did it, not FB, and they offer no explanation of the removal of their first comment that was a lie.

So, they lied, and were caught. And Michelle Rhee wants you to trust her. She lied. Again. Again? Yes, again. She lied about her students' scores as a teacher, she lied about all those screwed up teachers she fired as Chancellor (remember they were rehired at huge expense?), she lies about the negative effects of LIFO and tenure, and she lies about the root causes and solutions to poor school performance by our most vulnerable kids.

Why does anyone trust her? Oh, they don't. She's a tool of the Oligarchy, and trust has nothing to do with it.

PISA And The Lies The Reformers Tell (I Got Yer Truth Right Here!) Updated

Results from PISA 2009 disaggregating OECD countries and United States schools by the level of child poverty. Inspired by a blog posting of Mel Riddle, but with new data from UNICEF.

We are #1! America, fuck yeah! (In the graphs, FL means "free lunch" which is America's poverty school  measurement.)

Update: Sorry I didn't post the link to Marder's site before.

Powered by Tableau

Value Added Measures: Fail (Shanker Blog): Updated

Much of the criticism of value-added (VA) focuses on systematic bias, such as that stemming from non-random classroom assignment (also here). But the truth is that most of the imprecision of value-added estimates stems from random error. Months ago, I lamented the fact that most states and districts incorporating value-added estimates into their teacher evaluations were not making any effort to account for this error. Everyone knows that there is a great deal of imprecision in value-added ratings, but few policymakers seem to realize that there are relatively easy ways to mitigate the problem.

This is the height of foolishness. Policy is details. The manner in which one uses value-added estimates is just as important – perhaps even more so – than the properties of the models themselves. By ignoring error when incorporating these estimates into evaluation systems, policymakers virtually guarantee that most teachers will receive incorrect ratings. Let me explain.

Each teacher’s value-added estimate has an error margin (e.g., plus or minus X points). Just like a political poll, this error margin tells us the range within which that teacher’s “real” effect (which we cannot know for certain) falls. Unlike political polls, which rely on large random samples to get accurate estimates, VA error margins tend to be gigantic. One concrete example is from New York City, where the average margin of error was plus or minus 30 percentile points. This means that a New York City teacher with a rating at the 60th percentile might “actually” be anywhere between the 30th and 90th percentiles. We cannot even say with confidence whether this teacher is above or below average.

...
[Update! I forgot the following paragraph!!]

Now, here’s the problem: In virtually every new evaluation system that incorporates a value-added model, the teachers whose scores are not significantly different from the average are being treated as if they are. For example, some new systems sort teachers by their value-added scores, and place them into categories – e.g., the top 25 percent are “highly effective,” the next 25 percent are “effective,” the next 25 percent are “needs improvement,” and the bottom 25 percent are “ineffective.”

Read the whole thing @Shanker Blog

A Taste Of What We Face, Updated Again

Cindy represents the tortured logic of many Americans when talking about the economy, education, or anything, really.

Update:

In this part of the thread Cindy says,

"Warren Buffet - what about him...and he said clearly, "We are winning." In reference to a perceived war on rich."

Buffet's whole quote was, "There’s class warfare, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."

Then this:

Update II: I neglected to link to the thread.

Michael Marder Confirms Poverty Is The Problem: Updated

For those of you who remain convinced Charters are better, your debunktion is here. For those of you who think poverty can be overcome by schools and teachers, your debunktion is also here.

Update: From The Texas Tribune:

Michael Marder prefers pictures to words. A sentence can be constructed to support any position, but data cannot be so easily dismissed. Lately he's been looking at data about public education in Texas, and his findings have suprised him.

Marder, it should be noted, has a vested interest. In addition to being a professor in the University of Texas' department of physics and a member of their highly regarded Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, he is also the co-director of the university's UTeach program, which focuses on preparing and encouraging university graduates to become secondary math and science teachers — a boost of which the state desperately needs.

I Can't Let It Go (*Updated)

*Thanks to H.Hertzberg

Last Friday night I was in a debate on The Total Tutor's radio show along with a fellow liberal and a couple conservatives. I want to talk about one of the conservatives, A Conservative Teacher, and what I see on his blog as well as on some other right-wing blogs. U.S. passport applications have substituted "Parent 1" and "Parent 2" for "mother" and "father" to the consternation of the religious right, and A Conservative Teacher:

People who voted for Obama and the Democrats did indeed vote for a change in America- they voted for a brave new world where it is 'old' to have a mother and father, and where it is an 'improvement' to instead have 'parent 1' and 'parent 2'. The attack on the traditional family continues, and rather than a family structure built as God intended with a mother and a father parenting children who honor them we are having the government (provided for by taxpayers like you) push for a family structure where parent 1 and parent 2 have children who call them impersonal names like parent 1 and parent 2.

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's I ran a small summer day camp for a local temple. It was considered (and still is) one of the premier day camps in town. It was a temple camp, so it was affiliated with the congregation, but it was not a religious camp experience. Not at all, especially during my time there, as the Jewish atheist director.

Anyhoo, the applications had a space for the names of the parents--mother and father. The problem was that I knew of more than a couple gay families where there were two fathers or two mothers. I knew these people, liked them, respected them, and felt it was a rather silly thing to have an application where an assumption was made that was wrong--that a particular child had a mother and a father raising them.

So, without fanfare (or committee approval) I changed the wording on the application to Parent 1 and Parent 2. Nobody seemed to care--until one of the gay families came to me to say thank you for my sensitivity, to tell me it was unnecessary, but very much appreciated. That was the end of it, and it remains to this day, 20 years later.

A Conservative Teacher is clearly a right-wing religious fanatic, and he teaches children. Let's hope his intolerance doesn't seep into his instruction (you know it does).

In another post, and on a different topic, ConTeach (as I will now call him) is up in arms about Obama's lack of "natural grace, dignity, and energy" that apparently was on display during the Bush administration.

Is this guy for real?  He is a union buster.  He is a right-to-lifer.  He is intolerant.  He teaches children.

TFT And Others Will Be On Blog Talk Radio Friday Evening, Updated, Again

This Friday, January 7th at 9pm (EST) 11pm (EST--that's 7pm 8pm in California), Bronx Teacher, The Total Tutor, Larry Sand, A Conservative Teacher and I will be on Blog Talk Radio on Neil Haley's Total Tutor Show discussing, well, education.

Neil has tried to get 2 sides--liberals and conservatives--to come together to see how close or far apart we are from each other in our perspectives on education reform.

I am pretty sure the conservative guys are union haters. Not sure if they are Rhee lovers, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Tune in! 6pm 8pm on the West Coast, 9pm 11pm on the East Coast, Friday evening.  Be there.  Listen and send me link references as ammo.

Update: It was a good show, except for some brief echoes in 2 small spots. Who won? That's up to you. I think the right--Larry and CT--put up straw man after red herring, while we--SoBronx and me--made perfect sense, using only facts.

Place your vote for who won in comments. Vote for right or left.

The Story Of The Mangled Dishwasher: Updated

Do you see the little white rectangular thing, the right side of which is obscured by the sharp edge of the sheared whatever within the red circle? Good. And you clearly see the wires, still attached to the hanging, broken whatever (referred to previously), wires which are hot. Indeed, if you notice, there are 3 little lights on telling me that my dishes will air dry, on a normal cycle, with high heat. On the right side of the bent whatever (okay, it's a faceplate) you can see the dial, the controller, command central. It's in great shape, still seated properly and rotating as if what precariously gapes to its left never happened.

The Frustrated Son (TFS) and I have had Thanksgiving here at home, just the 2 of us, twice. Both times we brined the turkey and did everything perfectly. At some point at the first Thanksgiving--3 years ago--I had to get something from the oven, forgot an oven-mit, and burned my hand. Otterpops work great in that situation (as an ice pack). This year, nothing and nobody was burned.

However, there did come a point in this most recent Thanksgiving when there was something in the dishwasher we needed. Normally this would pose no problem. But, as I have indicated previously, I have had some major appliance problems (get it?), so why should the dishwasher be any different?

I reached to open the door of the dishwasher, which opens with a bar that works by putting your hand on it like a car door, from underneath, but you sort of push up instead of pulling out. For a while I could tell that the mechanism was getting worn, or loose, because you really had to jam it up there to get the thing open for the last year or so. So I jammed that sucker up there, and it snapped. You could hear it, and I felt it. The door was locked shut.

TFS is not fond of my methods in certain situations, and in a general sense. Rightly so. I looked, briefly, for a way to get the faceplate off so I could get to the mechanism inside and fix it, or at least open the door. After 2 or 3 seconds of studying it I began to manhandle it. I was able to do the damage you see above quickly and easily, without the need for tools other than my powerful hands. I opened the door by pushing down on the little white thing in the red circle, and after our delicious dinner we put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and ran it. Awesome.

It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I realized the wires were hot, and 3 of them had become disconnected. I realized it when I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through my wet hand and up and down through my body (when TFS was very little, he called electricity, "trick city" the cute little f*cker). I have since taped the wires up, poorly, with blue masking tape.

How much are dishwashers?

Update: They cost about $350 (well, they also cost $1500), but then you have to spend another $125 for installation.  I thought of installing it myself, but then realized it would cost me a lot more that $125 when I screw the whole thing up.

The new one is white, quiet, has nylon racks to prevent rusting, and best of all has no center spout taking up prime lower-rack real estate.  It also has no hot wires sticking out of it, nor does it leak.  I think I forgot to mention that the old one up there in the picture also leaked.

I have purchased all the appliances from a small, local business.  They are nice, knowledgeable, prompt, fair and always easier and more personal than the big box stores.  I like supporting my little town, too.

I hope I don't see them for a long time.