I have to admit that while I have been generally supportive of Obama - his educational policy is a disaster, a good reason not to vote for him in 2012. I can understand limitations his administration faced regarding banking, economic stimulus, or health care reform - but they did not have to adopt the race to the top policy. It is pretty vile - perhaps not as vile as privatization of Medicare, but in the same league.
As I see, this whole push toward school reform results from unholy triumvirate of business interests who seek privatization of public education for profit, Republicans who seek busting teachers unions, their political nemesis, and the brand of liberals who believe that tinkering with education is the sole remedy to all social-economic problems, class inequality, etc. in this country. It is the latest that I find most despicable - they are useful idiots providing the cloak of legitimacy to vile profiteering and union-busting. These are the same forces that legitimated dismantling of the mental health care system some forty years ago.
Wojtek
On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Chris Sturr <sturr at dollarsandsense.org> wrote:
> Wojtek: Did you and your wife see the article about the Montgomery schools
> in today's New York Times?
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/education/06oneducation.html. The gist is
> that they have a teacher evaluation system that involves peer-review (vs.
> just looking at test scores) that has supposedly been successful, but will
> have to be scrapped because of Arnie Duncan and Race to the Top. I couldn't
> tell from the article, though, whether the peer-review system was actually a
> good thing, but the article makes it sound as if the union folks are in
> favor of it.
>
> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 12
>> Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 09:40:23 -0400
>> From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Liberals
>> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>> Message-ID: <BANLkTi=ANFy+RN=R6jq-BmJ9SogWm24c5A at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Joanna: "They are currently being run by bureaucrats who have no
>> knowledge of content but understand "faster" "earlier" and "more", the
>> sum of which equals success. And they are the ones who set curriculum
>> and decide whether teachers are competent."
>>
>> [WS:] Yes, indeed. My wife who teaches at Montgomery County Public
>> Schools - which is a Mercedes of public education in the US - says
>> pretty much the same thing. According to her, the most disastrous
>> effect of these policies is a rat race to the top that leaves most
>> kids behind (my phrase, not hers.) For example, kids whose
>> educational needs have been neglected and do not understand basic math
>> are nonetheless forced to take Algebra II, which they are bound to
>> fail and eventually drop out.
>>
>> According to my wife, tailoring instruction to the level and needs of
>> students would remedy this, but teachers cannot do this because
>> curriculum that teaches to standardized tests requires meeting imposed
>> from above standards.
>>
>> As to "teachers' qualifications' - she says that it is very difficult
>> to find qualified teachers, because people are leaving the profession
>> in droves. Oftentimes, nobody even applies to open positions
>> especially in math and science - as people who are qualified to teach
>> these subjects can find better paying and less stressful jobs
>> elsewhere.
>>
>> Stress is a major factor that affect teachers. One major source of
>> that stress is idiotic policies of "more," "earlier" and "faster"
>> imposed by the no-child-left-behind policies and teaching to
>> standardized testing. Another major source is parents. Wealthy
>> parents are particularly obnoxious because they often threaten
>> lawsuits if their kids do not get the grades they expect. Fearing
>> lawsuits, schools administration puts pressure on teachers to alter
>> grades or in some case to do work for such students!. The poor
>> parents, on the other hand, either do not have time and skills to
>> guide their kids (many of them are FOBs who do not speak English and
>> work several jobs) or do not care about their kid's education and
>> become combative when school contacts them. I've heard horror stories
>> of students being abused or neglected by their parents. There not
>> that many services available to remedy this in the first place, but
>> obtaining even those limited services requires heroic efforts on the
>> part of the school. Oftentimes, kids get no services unless they are
>> court-ordered.
>>
>> Schools are expected to provide not just instruction, but social
>> services as well. However, facing cost cuts, schools district cut
>> services right and left - but not the administration size! - increase
>> class size and require teachers to work extra hours without pay. For
>> example, my wife routinely works from 7AM to 5Pm (10 hours, not
>> counting extracurricular duties) without being paid overtime, because
>> her position is qualified as "supervisory" (she is a "resource
>> teacher" which is nominally a supervisory level position.) As a part
>> of her position, she takes "leadership" training courses which focus
>> on how to squeeze more out of teachers, circumvent union contracts,
>> etc. Her favored quote was a recommendation against giving teachers
>> "professional time" (i.e. paid time outside the instruction time)
>> because teachers would use this time to grade papers, which they
>> normally do in their non-working i.e. unpaid time.
>>
>> It is really hard to imagine why someone with marketable skill would
>> want to be a teacher. The job is extremely stressful, not respected
>> by anyone including students and their parents, the pay is not that
>> great, given qualifications required, the work schedule is extremely
>> inflexible, and the pressure to work unpaid extra hours is tremendous.
>> And on the top of it, teachers are scapegoats for everything that is
>> wrong with the upbringing of children in this country.
>>
>> Wojtek
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>
> --
> --
> Chris Sturr
> Co-editor, Dollars & Sense
> 29 Winter St.
> Boston, Mass. 02108
> phone: 617-447-2177, ext. 205
> fax: 617-447-2179
> email: sturr at dollarsandsense.org
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