Education's Public Defender

Education's advocate, Diane Ravitch is revealed in an article in the New Yorker by David Denby. At one time she was a supporter of No Child Left Behind, but due to disappointing results for students, she has tirelessly fought for a better system for our nation's children and grandchildren. According to Ravitch the reform movement took on a business format when test-based accountability (NCLB) spearheaded a detour from professional teachers to teaching technicians by turning schools over to non-union for-profit charter school, including some that are totally online charter schools.

The constant test prep in reading and math has required schools to cut back on science, history, languages, art, and in some cases physical education. A 2009 survey, conducted by Stanford, concluded that only 17% of charter schools outperformed the local public schools in math and 37% had worse results than the public schools. Plus cheating scandals were found in some states and some states made the tests too easy so students would pass.

Even Rupert Murdoch, of the British News Corporation phone tapping scandal, has put his wallet into the education game by forming an education subsidiary in the US called Amplify. Education is a place to make millions or billions in the software business for testing and Charter schools. If you look at the website, it looks really amazing. But when you see what they do, they develop technological software for devices. It's all about the money. The rest is smoke and mirrors. Do we really need a guy who ran a company that invaded people's privacy for profit involved in our educational system for our children?

Miss Ravitch believes that poverty is one reason that student achievement is low. That does not mean that poor students can't learn. It means that their needs may be different and need to be addressed. We have immigrant children, who may not speak English, students with disabilities (some which may be caused by lack of nutrition), and kids with no quiet place to study or even sleep. Combine this with the growing number of autistic children with special needs in public schools, educationally motivated families moving to charter schools, and increasing class size due to lack of funding, and it is not rocket science to see why public schools are at a disadvantage.

Although the future is uncertain, Diane Ravitch believes in public education. She believes in tenure for teachers and believes that union representation gives professionals a seat at the table when state legislatures try to make cuts in school funding. She does not believe  merit pay should be the primary measurement for teacher performance.  She is tentatively supporting Common Core Standards which began to be implemented in 2010 in some states (not California), but reminds us that they have not been field tested anywhere. If you are a teacher, Diane Ravitch believes in you. She believes teachers are highly dedicated. She believes neighborhood public schools fulfill a democratic function where those of all faiths, races, countries, ethnicity's, and social status can meet, learn, and support each other. Daily, as teachers teach each subject, they help children learn to work and play together in peace. If you are a parent or grandparent, she believes American public schools are not failing your child. Need more information take a look at Diane Ravitch's blog.

Death and Life of the Great American School System

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch is a look at many attempts to make the public school system work for all students. She is a former Assistant Secretary of Education and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. This is a scholarly work with statistics to back up her change of heart from Choice to support for the neighborhood public school. "With so much money and power aligned against the neighborhood school and against education as a profession, public education itself is placed at risk." She makes the point that community schools allow the public to engage in discussions with their neighbors which is the very basis of our democracy. She defines how charter schools, testing, and the business of education has become a cottage industry in the United States. Often it's about making money, not about what is best for children and their schools. The history of Alvarado Elementary, as shown on this blog, clearly shows it is a long standing community school.

After retiring from 25 years of teaching, I am well aware there were many programs developed to improve students academic success. Here are some of the programs, often thought of as "silver bullets", designed to lead to superior student success that I have seen, personally used, or participated in developing. Some of these were in other districts and I am sure there are many more programs. Some are a renamed combination of strategies. Some of these address the big picture such as Strategic Planning; some address what happens in the classroom, basic teaching strategies; and some address both, such as No Child Left Behind.

*Split reading
*Phonics only
*Clusters
*Open Court
*Sullivan reading
*Plan, Do, Review
*KWLH charts
*Whole Language
*Sheltered English
*Interactive Writing
*Terry Johnson Strategies
*CELL California Early Literacy Learning
*California Literature Project *S.T.A.R.S.S. Successful Teaching of Academic Reading to Struggling Students*Just in Time Teaching
*Rebecca Sitton Spelling
*ExLL Extended Literacy Learning
*IBM Writing to Read - Technology Based
*Reciprocal Teaching
*Word Wall - Glad, Clad, Cell
*GLAD
*Non Fiction Matters
*Read Naturally
*Grouping, Non Grouping,
*Tracking, Non Tracking
*Differentiated Instruction
*Buddy Systems-student and teacher
*Conflict Resolution
*Best Practices
*Power Standards
*Strategies That Work
*Technology Based (Road Ahead Grant)
*Literacy Coaching
*Scaffolding
*Learning Walks
*Writers Workshop
*Character Education
*Reading Recovery
*Balanced Literacy
*Intervention: Before, After, and During School (pull-out)
*Strategic Planning
*Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Collaboration
*Data Driven Instruction, testing
*No Child Left Behind (NCLB)- testing, testing, testing
*Critical Literacy
*Human System Dynamics
*Targeted Instruction
*Race to the Top (Grant)

Some of these ideas are from for profit companies who have sold a bill of goods to superintendents, and they in turn have sold the bill of goods to their school boards. Many of these ideas are about making money for a company. Some work exceedingly well, but they are often limited by the number of children with access to the program or even the materials. Teachers pay a high price in time spent exploring these options after school, in the evening, or even in the summer. Often in the next few years they are dumped for new strategies. Then teachers are off learning new techniques spending more hours and hours in training or in meetings at the district office. The good part is experienced teachers have an arsenal of strategies to pull out when needed. The bad part is good teachers get frustrated with the system and leave teaching. There is only one thing certain about schools and that is "constant change".

Probably the most useful to teachers and students is intervention, which could be in the classroom or Read Naturally or Reading Recovery, and voluntary PLC's. Required PLC's often do not work unless there is a very cohesive staff in most grade levels. If all these worked all the time on all the students, we wouldn't have to have NCLB. The principal's eye needs to be always on the prize. The prize being all children reading on or above grade level. The best people need to be hand picked to do the best job whether it's classroom teaching or some type of intervention. I have seen very experienced and well trained aides successfully teach intervention outside of the classroom. Those aides were very disciplined, allowed no excuses for work not done or lack of effort expended by the students, and worked well as a team. Since little effort is spent training aides this is rare. Usually it is the classroom teacher who has the skill and the discipline, and that skill is not easily replicated. Districts are always trying to replicate good teaching. Can it be done effectively? Each teacher is so unique. It is only each teacher's skill at that time, in that place, with a particular child that makes a child successful. It's what the teacher knows and how they use it to spin it to each child's best advantage. It's one child and one teacher, one on one.Charter schools, poverty, and disenfranchisement, which includes drug use, are premier issues facing the public school system. Diane Ravitch's book is an attempt to look at what has happened in the past and what should happen in future to save the American public school system. Ravitch does not support President Obama's education agenda for merit pay plans. According to her, "test-based accountability removes all responsibility from students and their families for students academic performance". She is not against private schools or even Charter schools. She is against taking parental support, motivated students, and funding away from public schools. She also examines the success rate of the business or army model used by foundations, such as the Gates foundation, and adapted by some charter schools.

Her last chapter is titled, "Lessons Learned" where she explores options for public schools. This chapter relates how generations of immigrants have adjusted to the American way of life through participation in the free public school system. Teachers and staff have seen this on a daily basis at Alvarado. She believes we should establish a general national curriculum which includes the liberal arts, sciences, physical education, and the social behaviors and skills that make learning possible. When schools are in trouble, then whatever needs to be done to correct the problem needs to be done and it might be different from school to school from community to community.

The author's challenges parents, teachers, and students to go to their law makers. On National Public Radio she recommended these groups go to their congressmen, even naming George Miller, a powerful voice on the education committee from Contra Costa County, as one who knows little about what really goes on in public schools. Her final conclusion is that it's all about good teachers and good principals. Teachers and principals with experience, knowledge, and empathy. That's the magic.