RHEE-form, Kaya-Form, BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:58: who says I'm a woman? That assumption aside, my point that our culture is failing may have been too broad a stretch. You are of course right that many countries suffer far worse than our own. But you give it away when you say just pull your children out of DCPS for a "real education" -our local culture IS failing if we don't want to take the momentum and money involved to date in this national so-called reform and align it in a healthy way toward what our society needs. We need less attention and dollars spent on rote training and fatter bureacracies (how many DCPS principals are now assistant superintendents??) and more funding on high standards after-school. This is a miserable failure year after year after year, and the rhee/kaya/fenty/gray teams know this is the big obstacle. So who IS sucking out the brains of Fenty and Gray? Why DON'T we do what makes good common sense? BTW, my kids don't attend DCPS any longer and I'm pissed off that we have to pay high taxes while the city ignores the needs of my kids' former classmates and the divide grows and grows. On purpose.

12:58 here. Touche. Now, this is a post I can agree with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Public School kids will never have a chance if the real issue is not addressed: before 8:45 when school begins and after 3:15 when school ends. All of this continued bitching about teachers (by DCPS, the mayor, etc) and the need for yet more "professional development" is disgusting -- it's excuses to continue blaming teachers for families' failures because our culture doesn't want to address the real problems. Take the money out of Rhee/Bloomberg/Rapist Kevin Johnston et al's backers and apply it to the "wrap around services" Rhee touted she'd address back in 2007-8 andPUT IT THERE. Test scores will never go up across the board until we keep focusing on making our testing companies rich. What a miserable failure our culture is as a whole.

Get a grip, woman! You want to see miserable failure? Have a look at the immigrant slums which surround the major European cities (Paris is the worst, but Frankfurt is pretty bad). Have a look at anything outside the 1st world. Our culture is not a miserable failure. DCPS is.

Here's just one example: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/world/europe/11iht-paris.html?pagewanted=all

Instead of bitching about DCPS, pull your child out and get him a real education. The fact that you haven't is more of a personal failure than a reasonable indictment of American culture.

I'm interested in what you think a real educational is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i work in public health and face similar issues. it's crystal clear to me that most public health programs are really solving problems of poverty, at base, and not health. the same is true for education and schools. for a long time, i thought like the OP. i became very disillusioned with public health because i felt like our programs were not as effective as they could be, mostly due to the underlying poverty issue. as the years have gone by, i've just readjusted my thinking about disciplines like education and public health. i now think of them as part of an anti-poverty movement. the gates foundation is a great example--billions of dollars directed nominally toward education and health. the reality is that those monies are really supporting anti-poverty campaigns under the banner of "education" and "public health."

i do wish our culture could just find its way toward dealing with poverty head on. the programs would therefore be more effective and, ideally, the effects would set in before you need major public health interventions like the ones i work on. but we can't. we haven't. what we DO have are funding streams in education and health and some other places. while it isn't the field i thought i was getting into, i am proud and professionally content trying to solve the problems of poverty.

Specifically, which Gates Foundation programs in education are dealing with poverty?

[Anonymous]

I wish the Gates Foundation would give donations, training and tech support for SmartBoards etc. and stay out of policy, period. !!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish the Gates Foundation would give donations, training and tech support for SmartBoards etc. and stay out of policy, period. !!!!!!

Amen to that

[Anonymous]

PP it is not going to happen. People with money today don't just give it away and wait for the ribbon cutting. The real question is how you engage that money...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plus they lack evidence that their reforms are working by their own measure -- data.

ITA, it *has* been four years. How come they haven't fixed all of the effects of 60 years of rot, yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've spoken with numerous teachers over the last few years and the ones that dare speak the truth say the "professional development" is terrible, terrible!! But again, it's all part of a large financial web and special interests that really don't want to see poor inner city kids of color compete on a level playing field as them. For example, how did the once scrappy and bright Fenty allow Rhee to ruin his political career. He may have been an ass but he wasn't that stupid. If anyone else on his staff continued to embarrass him publicly and not do their job well they would have been fired. why the constant cover for Rhee? ...someone else was pulling the strings, likely related to his admiration of all things Bloomberg, this style of education reaches into California and New Orleans and many other cities. And it's this movement calling itself "reform" that is screwing up DCPS.

I would agree that this new "reform" is a problem--however, the schools were not doing so well before hand here and across the US. Bottom line, as a nation, we need to deal with poverty first and develop a culture that respects educators and education for schools to significantly improve.

"Do nothing until we eliminate poverty in the US" == "do nothing"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

"Do nothing until we eliminate poverty in the US" == "do nothing"

"Think in extremes so you won't have to consider the wisdom of sensible arguments"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plus they lack evidence that their reforms are working by their own measure -- data.

ITA, it *has* been four years. How come they haven't fixed all of the effects of 60 years of rot, yet?

Extremes again! It hasn't been 60 years and it not "all the effects."

They haven't accomplished what they set out to do in a 4 year time frame. Their reforms are not working - no surprise when the tactics are firing and hiring personnel and cheating.

[Anonymous]

Principals got one year to "fix" scores and they were out. Teachers under IMPACT get 2 years and they are out.

Why should Michelle and Kaya get different treatment.

Live by the data, die by the data ladies!

[Anonymous]

Now that makes sense, PP. They should be fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

"Do nothing until we eliminate poverty in the US" == "do nothing"

"Think in extremes so you won't have to consider the wisdom of sensible arguments"

Yes, you're right. Obviously the side of the debate using terms like RHEE-form, etc are the clear-headed thinkers in this conversation. Meanwhile, we see any attempt at teacher accountability met with screeds about how poverty is the real culprit, and that accountability should be jettisoned in favor of better teacher training. How about doing both, if we're going to talk about "extremes"?

Hell, if you want to talk about extremes, let's just fire every DCPS teacher, then make them go through the same hiring process as everyone else. Give teachers with experience preference, but no more preference than anyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

"Do nothing until we eliminate poverty in the US" == "do nothing"

"Think in extremes so you won't have to consider the wisdom of sensible arguments"

Yes, you're right. Obviously the side of the debate using terms like RHEE-form, etc are the clear-headed thinkers in this conversation. Meanwhile, we see any attempt at teacher accountability met with screeds about how poverty is the real culprit, and that accountability should be jettisoned in favor of better teacher training. How about doing both, if we're going to talk about "extremes"?

Hell, if you want to talk about extremes, let's just fire every DCPS teacher, then make them go through the same hiring process as everyone else. Give teachers with experience preference, but no more preference than anyone else.

Great idea! Let's have every government agency and every company fire everyone and have them reapply for their jobs. Let's start with you. You're fired. Now you can reapply.

[Anonymous]

16:47: We are many people but speaking for myself, I'm a parent. I've been involved in PTAs and LSRTs making positive change before the much-wanted Mayoral takeover happened (I wanted it too). Most of us are not cloudy-minded who passionately argue against the reform agenda of Fenty/Rhee/etc... Now I'm a parent out a lotta $$ because at the end of the day you have to send your kid where you're able to get the best education. If we didn't have the $$ the next option would be to move to a neighborhood with a good track record. The people who run DCPS now threw out the good with the bad, the good will and energy of communities that helped numerous schools be successful (the ones that were still are and always will be), and a few teachers who relied on WTU protection when they should have retired. Overall, more talented, educated and experienced educators have been fired, left on their own because of the nasty climate, or turned to new careers to avoid the insane no-accountability of the accounters that run our rodeo these days. Now that the "data" shows how much these RHEEFORMERS were full of it, it's too bad we can't just call so much talent back to the front line.