Posted on 09/19/2013 12:56:34 PM PDT by Phillyred
Congratulations! Our state has won national attention in the public schools debate. Education historian and activist Diane Ravitch told an overflow crowd at the Free Library on Tuesday, "The state of Pennsylvania is ground zero for the destruction and privatization of education." Who wants to live at ground zero of a crisis? Apparently, we do, and the experts are coming. According to the latest Pew poll that shocks no one, the majority of Philadelphians think that our schools stink, that the city is a good place to live and a lousy one to educate children. Oh, and almost everyone is to blame. Ravitch's new book, Reign of Error, excoriates charter schools (specifically, Chester Upland) and online charters (Pennsylvania Cyber Charter, K12's Agora Charter). She calls for a moratorium on standardized testing and shuttering "failing" schools, a term she hates, along with "race to the top." She also wants to stop blaming teachers for low academic performance. Poverty and racial segregation cannot be removed from the equation, she argues correctly. In her view, there isn't much that the School District and state are doing right. She said to rapturous applause, "You cannot shift the burden of society's failure onto the backs of teachers." Michelle Rhee, the former Washington school chancellor and self-described education "radical" - that's the title of her book - spoke Monday at a teachers' town hall at Temple. She was heckled and a couple of unclassroom-like "shut ups" were yelled. "The civil rights issue of our time is education. We're dooming children to a lifetime of failure," said Rhee, a "reform" rock star among conservatives. "The current dynamic in this country is extraordinarily polarized." Her organization gives Pennsylvania a D+. (New Jersey gets a D.) On the importance of education, polarization, and that most districts serving the poor are failing, Rhee and Ravitch agree. After that, there is only fervent disagreement. The School District should have them debate and charge dearly to raise funds. Ravitch devotes an entire chapter to Rhee, labeling her "the quintessential corporate reformer." Rhee's policies are thin, many aren't working yet remain popular with many politicians. Rhee believes we're throwing too much money at the problem. Ravitch counters there are not nearly enough funds for the schools and too much is wasted on testing. Rhee advocates for teacher merit raises, and uniform standards for evaluating teachers. Ravitch counters that standardized testing rewards competition, not collaboration, among teachers. Instead, she favors school peer review and principals who are master teachers. Rhee is no friend of the unions. Ravitch is beloved. Her audience was notably whiter, older, and wealthier. Ravitch may be winning the popularity contest here, and her ideas have considerable merit. But it's Rhee's flawed policies that rule Harrisburg, which has considerable control over Philadelphia's schools. Ravitch wants for city students what affluent suburban pupils receive: small classes; teaching for knowledge, not standardized tests; counselors; a rich curriculum; robust after-school programs. I do, too. And she advocates, correctly, that we must start helping families earlier: neonatal care to reduce developmental issues, and prekindergarten classes to better prepare. The trick, as always, is funding and political will. Ravitch offers few funding solutions (other than eliminating tests). She's right that investing in children now will surely save money later by creating productive, taxpaying citizens. Asked how to keep politics out of the classroom, Rhee said elected officials should make the same education decisions for all students as they would for their own children. Ravitch agrees. But that hasn't happened in Harrisburg. Ravitch wants elected school boards, a potential disaster in Philadelphia. Look how well it has worked with electing judges. Get politics out of education? Good luck with that! Rhee is the president of a nonprofit and Ravitch the head of a PAC, which both endorse candidates to advocate their radically opposed policies. There's so much politics in public education, it's a wonder anyone learns at all. Contact Karen Heller at 215-854-2586 or kheller@phillynews.com. Follow her at @kheller on Twitter. Read the metro columnists' blog, "Blinq," at www.inquirer.com/blinq. Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130919_Two_radically_different_schools_of_thought.html#AAJU3WcFygMRYqed.99
Education historian and activist Diane Ravitch told an overflow crowd at the Free Library on Tuesday, "The state of Pennsylvania is ground zero for the destruction and privatization of education.”
Who wants to live at ground zero of a crisis? Apparently, we do, and the experts are coming. According to the latest Pew poll that shocks no one, the majority of Philadelphians think that our schools stink, that the city is a good place to live and a lousy one to educate children. Oh, and almost everyone is to blame.
Ravitch's new book, Reign of Error, excoriates charter schools (specifically, Chester Upland) and online charters (Pennsylvania Cyber Charter, K12's Agora Charter). She calls for a moratorium on standardized testing and shuttering "failing" schools, a term she hates, along with "race to the top." She also wants to stop blaming teachers for low academic performance. Poverty and racial segregation cannot be removed from the equation, she argues correctly. In her view, there isn't much that the School District and state are doing right. She said to rapturous applause, "You cannot shift the burden of society's failure onto the backs of teachers.”
Michelle Rhee, the former Washington school chancellor and self-described education "radical" - that's the title of her book - spoke Monday at a teachers' town hall at Temple. She was heckled and a couple of unclassroom-like "shut ups" were yelled.
"The civil rights issue of our time is education. We're dooming children to a lifetime of failure," said Rhee, a "reform" rock star among conservatives. "The current dynamic in this country is extraordinarily polarized." Her organization gives Pennsylvania a D+. (New Jersey gets a D.)
On the importance of education, polarization, and that most districts serving the poor are failing, Rhee and Ravitch agree.
After that, there is only fervent disagreement. The School District should have them debate and charge dearly to raise funds.
Ravitch devotes an entire chapter to Rhee, labeling her "the quintessential corporate reformer." Rhee's policies are thin, many aren't working yet remain popular with many politicians.
Rhee believes we're throwing too much money at the problem. Ravitch counters there are not nearly enough funds for the schools and too much is wasted on testing. Rhee advocates for teacher merit raises, and uniform standards for evaluating teachers. Ravitch counters that standardized testing rewards competition, not collaboration, among teachers. Instead, she favors school peer review and principals who are master teachers.
Rhee is no friend of the unions. Ravitch is beloved. Her audience was notably whiter, older, and wealthier. Ravitch may be winning the popularity contest here, and her ideas have considerable merit. But it's Rhee's flawed policies that rule Harrisburg, which has considerable control over Philadelphia's schools.
Ravitch wants for city students what affluent suburban pupils receive: small classes; teaching for knowledge, not standardized tests; counselors; a rich curriculum; robust after-school programs. I do, too. And she advocates, correctly, that we must start helping families earlier: neonatal care to reduce developmental issues, and prekindergarten classes to better prepare.
The trick, as always, is funding and political will. Ravitch offers few funding solutions (other than eliminating tests). She's right that investing in children now will surely save money later by creating productive, taxpaying citizens.
Asked how to keep politics out of the classroom, Rhee said elected officials should make the same education decisions for all students as they would for their own children. Ravitch agrees. But that hasn't happened in Harrisburg. Ravitch wants elected school boards, a potential disaster in Philadelphia. Look how well it has worked with electing judges.
Get politics out of education? Good luck with that! Rhee is the president of a nonprofit and Ravitch the head of a PAC, which both endorse candidates to advocate their radically opposed policies. There's so much politics in public education, it's a wonder anyone learns at all.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130919_Two_radically_different_schools_of_thought.html#1cemAbCfxuDsBpGX.99
If you removed the test scores of the “students” of cities like Philadelphia our national test scores would be on par with those of Europe and Asia. Likewise if you removed the murders committed in just four cities; Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC and New Orleans, then our murder rate would be on par with Europe and Asia.
Ravitch wants for city students what affluent suburban pupils receive: small classes; teaching for knowledge, not standardized tests; counselors; a rich curriculum; robust after-school programs. I do, too. And she advocates, correctly, that we must start helping families earlier: neonatal care to reduce developmental issues, and prekindergarten classes to better prepare.The trick, as always, is funding and political will. Ravitch offers few funding solutions (other than eliminating tests). She's right that investing in children now will surely save money later by creating productive, taxpaying citizens.
Asked how to keep politics out of the classroom, Rhee said elected officials should make the same education decisions for all students as they would for their own children. Ravitch agrees. But that hasn't happened in Harrisburg. Ravitch wants elected school boards, a potential disaster in Philadelphia. Look how well it has worked with electing judges.
Get politics out of education? Good luck with that! Rhee is the president of a nonprofit and Ravitch the head of a PAC, which both endorse candidates to advocate their radically opposed policies. There's so much politics in public education, it's a wonder anyone learns at all.
The planted axiom of education is parental involvement. Where that can be taken for granted, the above discussion may be relevant. Where parental support cannot be taken for granted, nothing else is ultimately likely to matter.Homeschooling is the ultimate case of parental involvement in education.Show me someone who is opposed in principle to homeschooling - or, same thing, someone who claims not to be opposed in principle but is reliably opposed in every particular case - and I will show you someone whose “concern” for education is a smoke screen for a desire for control.
Thank you for formatting. The original post was hurting my head. Glad I scrolled down.
With 88 murders in 2012, DC is not the murder capital it once was (compared to 479 in 1990).
Correction - 474 in 1990, 479 in 1991.
I like the version with punctuation better. Did that just prove a point?
Can’t decide if this is strictly an arth ping or both, so I will do both.
Home, private, or parochial school if one’s children are important.Public school if children are a drag on your social life and you wish someone else had had them.
Small classes seems to be almost a panacea. My 4-8th grade schools(several- navy kid) were all classes of 30 to 45 and we got more actual academics and better results than kids only a couple of years later were getting and far better than anything in the last few years with the legislated small classes here in Florida. That said my first years were in a tiny private Calvert system school that was for the children of diplomatic and military personnel in Istanbul. I got more history and English(actual English, parts of speech, grammar, etc), geography, civics, than I got in school after that through 9th grade.
You are right. Baltimore and St. Louis have far worse murder rates. Mordor on the Potomac is changing demographically. Its being gentrified.
Did you know that 6 of the 10 of the richest counties in the nation surround the District of Criminals? Who says crime doesn't pay?
It depends on the kids and subject. I teach in parochial school, and class sizes over 30 are common. The most I've had is 37. Fortunately, the class of 37 was composed of honors students who were delightful young people - polite and motivated. Teaching such a large group is difficult in terms of volume of grading, logistics, and projecting to the back of the room, but if the students are on task and of relatively similar ability, it works.
On the other hand, I've had groups ranging from 20 to 35 in which I had either mixed abilities or low-level students. Those were very difficult. Low-level students come with a tremendous range of reasons for their lack of academic success. Some have behavioral problems, some have ADD or dyslexia, some are lazy, and others are simply not very well endowed with overall intelligence. These are the kids who are difficult to teach in larger groups. They tend to be more disruptive and their needs are all over the map. If they're basically good kids with challenges, they can be very endearing. There are also days when they'll have you wanting to run out of the building screaming.
Class size is just one factor of many. As a teacher, I like small classes because I can give more individual attention, and of course I'd rather grade 100 labs or projects than 150. It doesn't always work out that way. Given my 'druthers, I'll pick 150 motivated polite kids over 100 disruptive rude ones any day of the week.
Thanks for the ping!
I’m perplexed!
Teachers insist on small classes, but the same kids who sat in small government school classes, 2 months later on university campuses are sitting in classes of a 100 or more!
Wow! Amazing developmental growth in those kids in a mere 12 weeks!
Some are sitting in 100+ student lecture halls. Others are sleeping off hangovers or never get to college at all. So it goes. And yes, they do mature - at least somewhat.
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