As I read President Obama’s speech to the Urban League yesterday I just kept thinking: Huh?
It reminded me of staff development meetings at work. Every couple of years the administration brings in some consultant and inevitably we do the “which color are you?” thing. Or the “which direction are you?”
“Green” = individualist. “East” = Good at collaboration.
A good 90 minutes of staff development time wasted. 90 minutes of your life you won’t get back. And when it’s done the obvious question is: What does this have to do with anything?
What did Obama’s speech have to do with anything?
Other than blaming teachers for not being good with change, was this really a defense of Race to the Top, of competitive grants, of the wholesale closing of schools, of turnaround demands that end up firing good principals and good teachers?
Did his speech address the issues raised by the report of the seven Civil Rights Organizations and the critique of Race to the Top that came out of the NEA RA?
Hell no.
And although it may have made some of those who put their name on the report back off a little, it won’t stop the criticism.
And how ironic that his speech took place one day after the news of the juked NY test scores.
After all, a central component of Arne Duncan’s reform plan has been mayoral control.
Juan Gonzalez in the NY Daily News:
So all those glowing school test results were a fraud, after all.
For years, Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and top education officials in Albany touted big jumps in math and reading scores statewide – and skyrocketing results among New York City’s pupils.
The scores, they said, were proof that mayoral control and Klein’s data-driven version of school reform had succeeded.
Schools were winning the “civil rights battle of our time,” the chancellor claimed, by closing the racial “achievement gap.”
To promote his reforms nationwide, Klein even founded a nonprofit group last year with the Rev. Al Sharpton. They called it the Education Equality Project.
Now, state officials have revealed a startling nosedive in test scores. Admitting that results from previous years had been inflated, the state announced tougher standards this year – resulting in the lower scores. Thousands of parents who had been told their children were at grade level are suddenly learning they aren’t.
So all those glowing school test results were a fraud, after all.
For years, Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and top education officials in Albany touted big jumps in math and reading scores statewide – and skyrocketing results among New York City’s pupils.
The scores, they said, were proof that mayoral control and Klein’s data-driven version of school reform had succeeded.
Schools were winning the “civil rights battle of our time,” the chancellor claimed, by closing the racial “achievement gap.”
To promote his reforms nationwide, Klein even founded a nonprofit group last year with the Rev. Al Sharpton. They called it the Education Equality Project.
Now, state officials have revealed a startling nosedive in test scores. Admitting that results from previous years had been inflated, the state announced tougher standards this year – resulting in the lower scores. Thousands of parents who had been told their children were at grade level are suddenly learning they aren’t.
The very next day, President Obama says that the main problem is us. That we aren’t willing to change. Or to be held accountable.
We’re not accountable.
Fred Klonsky 