http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/
1. "These two federal programs
(NCLB and Race to the Top), which both rely heavily on standardized testing,
has produced a massive demoralization of educators; an unprecedented exodus of
experienced educators, who were replaced in many districts by young,
inexperienced, low-wage teachers; the closure of many public schools,
especially in poor and minority districts; the opening of thousands of
privately managed charters; an increase in low-quality for-profit charter
schools and low-quality online charter schools; a widespread attack on
teachers’ due process rights and collective bargaining rights; the
near-collapse of public education in urban districts like Detroit and
Philadelphia, as public schools are replaced by privately managed charter
schools; a burgeoning educational-industrial complex of testing corporations,
charter chains, and technology companies that view public education as an
emerging market. Hedge funds, entrepreneurs, and real estate investment
corporations invest enthusiastically in this emerging market, encouraged by
federal tax credits, lavish fees, and the prospect of huge profits from
taxpayer dollars. Celebrities, tennis stars, basketball stars, and football stars
are opening their own name-brand schools with public dollars, even though they
know nothing about education."
2."No other nation in the world
has inflicted so many changes or imposed so many mandates on its teachers and
public schools as we have in the past dozen years. No other nation tests every
student every year as we do. Our students are the most over-tested in the
world. No other nation—at least no high-performing nation—judges the quality of
teachers by the test scores of their students."
SK: Re the amount of testing: HOW MUCH TESTING? Stephen
Krashen
July 25, 2012
Posted on Diane Ravitch’s blog: http://dianeravitch.net/2012/07/25/stephen-
krashen-how-much-testing/
3. "The Pearson Corporation has
become the ultimate arbiter of the fate of students, teachers, and schools."
4. "This is the policy context in
which the Common Core standards were developed. Five years ago, when they were
written, major corporations, major foundations, and the key policymakers at the
Department of Education agreed that public education was a disaster and that
the only salvation for it was a combination of school choice—including
privately managed charters and vouchers– national standards, and a weakening or
elimination of such protections as collective bargaining, tenure, and
seniority. At the same time, the political and philanthropic leaders maintained
a passionate faith in the value of standardized tests and the data that they
produced as measures of quality and as ultimate, definitive judgments on people
and on schools. The agenda of both Republicans and Democrats converged around
the traditional Republican agenda of standards, choice, and accountability. In
my view, this convergence has nothing to do with improving education or
creating equality of opportunity but everything to do with cutting costs,
standardizing education, shifting the delivery of education from high-cost
teachers to low-cost technology, reducing the number of teachers, and
eliminating unions and pensions."
SK: And most important, everything to
do with maximum profits for the .01%. And we should underline "shifting
the delivery of education from high-cost teachers to low-cost technology,
reducing the number of teachers,"
5. "The U.S. Department of
Education is legally prohibited from exercising any influence or control over
curriculum or instruction in the schools, so it could not contribute any
funding to the expensive task of creating national standards. The Gates
Foundation stepped in and assumed that responsibility. It gave millions to the
National Governors Association, to the Council of Chief School Officers, to
Achieve and to Student Achievement Partners. Once the standards were written,
Gates gave millions more to almost every think tank and education advocacy
group in Washington to evaluate the standards—even to some that had no
experience evaluating standards—and to promote and help to implement the
standards. Even the two major teachers’ unions accepted millions of dollars to
help advance the Common Core standards. Altogether, the Gates Foundation has
expended nearly $200 million to pay for the development, evaluation,
implementation, and promotion of the Common Core standards. And the money tap
is still open, with millions more awarded this past fall to promote the Common
Core standards."
SK: For just last year's Gates
Foundation investments, I mean donations, see: http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=632."
6. Integral to the Common Core was the
expectation that they would be tested on computers using online standardized
exams. As Secretary Duncan’s chief of staff wrote at the time, the Common Core
was intended to create a national market for book publishers, technology
companies, testing corporations, and other vendors.
SK: The whole story was exposed by
Susan Ohanian, who reported on Joanne Weiss' article in the Harvard Business
Review. Weisse was Arne Duncan's Chief
of Staff.. Ohanian's comment:
" Who would
guess Weiss' salary is paid for by US taxpayer dollars? Seems like it should be
coming from the Business Roundtable or maybe Wireless Generation and
McGraw-Hill. One thing is clear: The Duncan people feel no need to be subtle.
Weiss is very clear about the real purpose of the Common Core Standards and
Assessments."
7. "ExxonMobil is especially
vociferous in advocating for Common Core, taking out advertisements on
television and other news media saying that the standards are needed to prepare
our workforce for global competition. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed the
standards, saying they were necessary to prepare workers for the global
marketplace. The Business Roundtable stated that its #1 priority is the full
adoption and implementation of the Common Core standards. All of this
excitement was generated despite the fact that no one knows whether the Common
Core will fulfill any of these promises. It will take 12 years whether we know
what its effects are."
SK: I think the CC$$ are very necessary
for profits right now and in the immediate future. Nothing more. American education is still doing fine,
American business is doing fine. There
is no crisis. Only a crisis in how to funnel more money to the .01%. Plz see: Hacker, J. and Pierson, P. 2010.
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer And Turned Its
Back on the Middle Class. Simon and Schuster. Plz see also Emery, K. and
Ohanian, S. Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools?
8. "The Common Core testing
consortia decided that the passing mark on their tests would be aligned with
the proficient level on the federal tests called NAEP. This is a level
typically reached by about 35-40% of students. Massachusetts is the only state
in which as many as 50% ever reached the NAEP proficient level. The testing
consortia set the bar so high that most students were sure to fail, and they
did."
SK: Gerald Bracey presented excellent
arguments years ago that the "proficiency" level of the NAEP was very
very high, eg http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202004.html.
9. "The
financial cost of implementing Common Core has barely been mentioned in the
national debates. All Common Core testing will be done online. This is a
bonanza for the tech industry and other vendors. Every school district must buy
new computers, new teaching materials, and new bandwidth for the testing. At a
time when school budgets have been cut in most states and many thousands of
teachers have been laid off, school districts across the nation will spend
billions to pay for Common Core testing."
Please see: High Tech Testing
on the Way: a 21st Century Boondoggle? Stephen Krashen
and Susan Ohanian http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-
dialogue/2011/04/high_tech_testing_on_the_way_a.html
10. "The standardized testing should become optional. It should
include authentic writing assignments that are judged by humans, not by
computers."
SK: Tests in which writing style, or
form, are evaluated are really tests of reading. Nearly all of our ability to write
with an acceptable style comes from reading (eg evidence cited Krashen, 2004,
The Power of Reading). Writing helps us
communicate with others, but also helps us solve problems. The use of writing
to solve problems cannot be tested in any simple way.
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