NPE's Top Ten "Why We Will Win" Stories of
2014
2014
was a year filled with substantial stories, with more than a
few seismic shifts in the public education landscape.
At the 1st annual conference of the
Network for Public Education in Austin, Texas in March, NPE
President Diane Ravitch delivered a speech titled "Why We Will Win." She told the
crowd of over 400 public education activists from around the
country that everything the "faux reformers" are doing is
failing or has already failed, and that "students, teachers,
parents, and communities" are organizing to fight back.
In that
spirit, here are the Top Ten stories of 2014 (in no particular
order) that highlight the pushback to the failed policies of the
faux reformers, and the crumbling foundation of the reform
movement.
These
stories can carry us into the New Year with a sense of hope and
purpose that together we
will save our schools.
Top Ten "Why We Will Win" Stories of 2014
Click
on the link above for an informative map of where each state
currently stands on Common Core, and whether they are in or out of
the PARCC and Smarter Balanced consortiums. The interactive map
also includes an analysis of which states are contemplating
measures against the standards and the standardized tests that
accompany them. The smart money says 2015 will see more states dump
either or both.
Race to
the Top has been the signature education reform program of the
Obama administration and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. RTTT
began in 2010 with $4.35 billion dollars to distribute to state
that were still crippled by the recession. States were forced to
compete for federal education funds, with winners coerced into
adopting the reforms favored by the administration, such as the
Common Core standards and aligned PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests.
The complete defunding of the grant program is quite a blow to the
Obama education agenda.
In a
true win for grassroots advocacy and student privacy rights, data
management behemoth inBloom was toppled in 2014. Fortified with 100
million dollars from Bill Gates, and toppled by parent activists in
New York City and beyond, the demise of inBloom is a righteous
example of parent power.
2014
marked the first annual Network for Public Education Conference in
Austin, Texas. The powerful event brought together education
activists from around the nation to talk about the issues of the
day, with livestreamed panel discussions and keynote addresses from
education luminaries Karen Lewis, John Kuhn and NPE President Diane
Ravitch. You don't want to miss the 2015 conference in Chicago,
April 25-26!
Education
issues were the central focus of numerous high profile, big money
races around the country in 2014. The election of New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Newark, NJ Mayor Ras Baraka focused not
only on the pro-public education views of the candidates, but on
the failed policies of their corporate reform predecessors Michael
Bloomberg and Cory Booker. Also critical was the California State Superintendent race,
where incumbent educator and legislator Tom Torlakson kept his seat
despite an onslaught of corporate reform money backing his
challenger, Marshall Tuck. Tuck, a Broad Residency graduate and
former Wall Street and charter school executive, was eager to
uphold the Vergara decision, which declared tenure unconstitutional
in California. Visit our website to learn more
about other successful pro public education candidates endorsed by
NPE.
When
Michelle Rhee founded StudentsFirst in 2010 she boasted that she
would raise $1 billion to create a public school system that
conformed to the policies she favored. Not only did Rhee never
accomplish her fundraising goals, she fell far short on her policy
goals as well. StudentsFirst's National Report Card
became somewhat of a joke too. The Report Card gave high performing
states like Massachusetts and New Jersey D grades, and low
performing states like Florida and Louisiana B grades (the highest
score any state achieved on the report card) for their willingness
(or unwillingness) to submit to the StudentsFirst policy agenda.
Lois
CK, a New York City public school parent, took to twitter to
express his frustration with Common Core and how the increased
focus on standardized testing is impacting students and teachers
alike. His tweets led to articles about his criticism of Common
Core and standardized testing in Salon, Politico, and the Huffington
Post, and was even part of his appearance on the Late Show with David
Letterman.
Make
sure to peruse the list of books written by pro public education
bloggers, teachers, administrators, professors, activists and NPE
Board Members. The list includes the book Diane Ravitch named "the most important book of the year," Bob
Herbert's Losing
Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America.
And
don't miss the book by NPE 2015 conference keynote speaker Yong
Zhao,
Who's Afraid of the Big
Bad Dragon? Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in
the World. In her review for the New York Review of Books,
Diane wrote that "Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, members of
Congress, and the nation's governors and legislators" need to
read Zhao's book.
Facing
declining recruitment in New York City, TFA will close the city's
only training site. The Executive Director of TFA in NYC attributed
the low recruitment numbers to "a contentious national dialogue around education and
teaching in general, and TFA in particular." TFA has been called out, both by critics and alumni,
for placing recruits with only 5 weeks of training into some of the
most challenging schools in the country, with a commitment of only
2 years, adding to high turnover and instability in the communities
that need the most support.
First
grade teachers Karen Hendren and Nikki
Jones wrote a poignant letter to the parents of their students
explaining why they would refuse to administer a mandated
standardized test know as the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress).
In their letter they point out that the increased focused on
testing has "gradually squelched the creativity and learning
from our classrooms."
Education
Week reported that a draft bill reauthorizing the No Child Left
Behind Act would drop the federal requirement for annual
standardized testing. This would leave the decision to the states
to either continue with annual standardized testing or to return to
grade span testing, which would require testing once in elementary,
once in middle and once in high school.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
I have a few simple comment rules:
(a) No
1. rudeness
2. falsehood
3. deception
4. unfair tactics
5. comment spam
6. shilling or trolling
(b) stay on topic; and
(c) anonymous comments are okay, but sign with a handle so we'll know which "Anonymous" you are.
Thanks for commenting.
Ray