"Education Inc" at Occidental College November 11, 2015

"Education Inc"  is a "documentary about how money and politics are changing our schools."  Produced, Directed, and Edited by Brian Malone. Cindy Malone is Producer and Writer.  Diana Holtzberg is Executive Producer.  Larry Lawrence and Dave Alpert of Alumni of Occidental in Education (ALOED) sponsored a showing of the film and a panel discussion with Steve Zimmer, President of Los Angeles Unified Board of Education, Karen Wolfe, parent and head of PSConnect, and Dr. Suzie Abajian, an Occidental professor as well as graduate, who was recently elected to the Board of Education of South Pasadena schools.
   Education Inc takes place in Douglas County, Colorado, a middle or upper middle class suburb.  Bloomberg, Jeb Bush, et al poured much money into an election there.  A half billion dollar budget was available to
the 1%.  Conservatives won the election because people didn't vote.
The Board picked Dr. Elizabeth Fagen from the Milton Friedman Foundation.
Dr. Diane Ravitch.  Talk about the Manufactured Crisis - David Berliner.
Chris Tienken.   1981 - A Nation At Risk - this is the context of the takeover.  The Board of Education had to market itself.  Fagen advertised the schools.  Thirty plus teachers were interviewed by Brian Malone and all but one were intimidated.  Brian White -- who even speaks up at Board meetings.   Parents are upset too.  They don't like the Voucher program or NCLB.
   A volunteer researcher found out that the Board set up a dummy charter as a way to take the tax money from the public schools, supposedly to give to parents, but went to a private school instead. Ed McVaney and Vogel funded the Ads for the Board - both had interests in vouchers and private schools -- until the court stopped them.  The Board got the Waltons, Daniels Fund, Alex Cranberg to fund their case.  Cindy Barnes was the volunteer researcher who caught the illegality and proved the case.   A student defended Cindy Barnes after she was bullied by the Board, which only allowed their supporters to speak.  None of the Board agreed to be interviewed for the film  Fagen has a BODY GUARD!  The School Board meets behind closed doors.  Reporters can't hear them - banned from meetings much of the time.  Nancy Spence was the only right-winger who would speak -- she believes in competition among schools.  "Parents Choice" as it is called.  Dr. Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore spoke up for the people.
   Jefferson County Schools had the same experience -- low turnout allowed the conservatives to win.  Pushed out the Superintendent and hired a buddy from Douglas County.  Jefferson County parents aren't afraid -- citizens shut the meeting down -- Recall Recall".    All over the country -- New York, Portland, San Diego, etc.    Out filmmaker went to Chicago where there were "bad" schools.  Phillip Cantor speaks -- tells the story of Rahm closing 50 schools and opening charters -- all for the real estate industry.
   Charters are quasi-private (quoting the film here) originally started by parents. [I think this isn't correct -- charters were started by the AFT as a way to innovate - I disagree with the film here.]  [From Wikipedia:  "The charter school idea in the United States was originated in 1974 by Ray Budde,^[10] a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers, embraced the concept in 1988, when he called for the reform of the public schools by establishing "charter schools" or "schools of choice."^[11] Gloria Ladson-Billings called him "the first person to publicly propose charter schools".^[12] At the time, a few schools already existed that were not called charter schools but embodied some of their principles, such as H-B Woodlawn."  Now charters are run by private organizations that cherry pick their students. Don't provide free or reduced lunches.  No special education.  In Illinois hedge funders run these schools.  There have been FBI raids on some of them -- example is UNO in Chicago - under Federal investigation. 
   Board of Education meetings are contentious in Chicago.  Parents are thrown out. [Rousemary Vega and family.]  
   Our filmmaker goes on to talk about NCLB since 2002 and the growth of McGraw-Hill and Pearson and their enormous profits based on Common Core.  He feels CC is good but not the way it is being implemented.  [Again I disagree with the filmmaker.]  
   Brian Malone goes to meet Duncan and asks him about for-profit companies in education. Duncan tells him this has always been so. [Really?]
   ALEC is writing the laws in this country.  Corporations co-write laws and always have. The corporation that writes the bill gets the contract!!
   Cindy Barnard is the volunteer fact finder.  Chris Holbert and Cinnamon Watson are ALEC employees.   There are places where public education is working.  Frank Gargiulo, Superintendent of Hudson County Schools, is an award-winning and innovative Super.  He is against standardization. No grades. Get students excited about a subject -- how to learn and not what to learn. Education is NOT A BUSINESS MODEL.
   Finland has the best education in the world.  Public schools here in the United States are blamed for poverty -- a distraction, Diane Ravitch says.  OPT OUT says Diane Ravitch.  In Douglas County parents take over the streets while deformers take over the airwaves.
   Parents and teachers lost the battle by very small percentage.  48 to 52% of the vote.  But they did so well given the enormous amount of money poured into the election by the deformers.
   Jefferson County is also fighting.  Students walked out.  Civil disobedience is part of our tradition.  In the end, Brian White, the only teacher who spoke in the movie, was asked to leave his job.

Larry Lawrence introduces the panel and describes a demonstration in DC in 2013 - Save Our Schools.

Panel:  Dr. Suzie Abajian:  the film captures the struggle of 20 years of defunding all of our public schools.  Corporatization of the schools.  Health care, housing, schools, living wage.  Public education is not perfect -- we marginalized people of color and poor communities.  The Deformers have used this to promote their agenda. How can we better our schools?  with all students feeling they belong? Ethnic studies is an example.  [Steve Zimmer sponsored the resolution for Ethnic Studies at LAUSD.]

Karen Wolfe:  Colorado is not very diverse [as the film shows].  They succeeded in Jefferson County in recalling their board [but not in Douglas County].  WE ARE DOCUMENTING THE END OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. These films are important to the public record.  In Venice we had a two year fight to prevent the sale of the Post Office -- we lost.  We are watching it happen everywhere.  Eli Broad is running this city - LAUSD - some are on Broad's payroll.  Transfer the public realm into private hands.  Initially Karen believed in Charters.  She would call and complain but got the same response from LAUSD - "Charters are their own district."  She had to force them to publish public records and agendas for their meetings.  Her charter complied -- but most do not.   What's wrong with a billionaire putting money into it - people ask her.  It's a work in progress.

     

Steve Zimmer:  Met the filmmaker.  We should support this.  He self-funded his own film  What happened in Colorado can happen anywhere.  Universal film can help build the counter-narrative that this is happening everywhere.  The fight in Los Angeles -- we have to be honest and have a painful conversation about our schools and the savage inequities.  Our credibility is otherwise limited.  Root of the defunding -- causes the collapse of the social infrastructure.  This [LAUSD] is now the epicenter - stakes are extraordinarily high.  We have to engage parents and community leaders about our vision in transforming education for people of color.  If we aren't honest, people won't listen -- won't care who is funding their child's school.  We haven't broken systemic racism or the motives of the privatization move -- "a some kids - not all kids motivation."  $10 million is going to defeat Zimmer in the next election.  Probably go to over $25 million.  Truth and Democracy are our argument.  Broad has no concern about schools.  We have the most democratically elected board -- Broad wants to destroy the Board and UTLA.

Larry:   Jeanette Deutermann organized in New York -- ultimately 200,000 students opted out of testing.  But not in New York City.  How to motivate the inner city to OPT OUT?

Steve:  there is agreement in this room around testing.  Talk about what these tests do to kids and teachers.  But we have to establish trust that we care about kids.  Relationships -- building trust -- take time.  Talk to families about hopes and dreams.  Families feel public schools are where their dreams die.  Every child has the right to the best of education.

Suzie:  scapegoats in history -- parents, teachers, students all have been -- deficit notion of education. We must DEAL WITH HISTORY - and RACISM -- teachers have to build relationships with communities. We are in this together.

Karen: not an education professor - but parents aren't talking about equity or racism.  Parents do feel teachers discriminate against them based on their zip code.  Parents talk to each other and reinforce each other to speak up for their students.  Schools on the Westside are diverse - in every way.  More charters there -- middle class have fled the traditional schools.  These bigger issues aren't going to do it.  Tired of having to prove that she has spoken to 15 people to represent other parents.  Our schools are emptying out.  Middle class is gone, or going.  We have to speak to all the families -- maintain our diversity -- not just talk about poor families (that makes schools scary to parents).

Steve:  December 8th tried to pass a charter accountability resolution.  It passed now - will it be enforced.  

Karen:  our independent school board is the largest in the United States.  New York, Chicago, Indianapolis are all appointed school boards.

Steve:  Periodic assessments-- benchmarks.  Testing is state mandated.  Testing budget could go to things we need!!!

Suzie:  put the money into Ethnic Studies -- arts -- libraries [Stephen Krashen].

Karen:  testing equipment was 20% of budget for testing when Deasy was there.  We should find out what happened. The FBI is still investigating -- not over yet.  New York rolled out Common Core two years before California - a huge resistance there to testing. New York has the highest per student funding in the U.S.  [$16,000 per student - Calif is about $9,000].   Common Core tests said kids were failures and parents went ballistic.  Karen's son is a junior -- she is opting him out.  Principal said just to eat it.  January 8th, 1964 - ESEA passed. The purpose was equity!  Now all we care about is outcomes.  Get over it!!!! Kids are being told their scores are too low so they have to take a remedial class.  Still tracking kids.

Steve:  Data disease -- he doesn't care about test scores.  Outcomes he means are graduation rates.  83% at El Camino Senior High.  38% at Fremont.

Larry compares Morningside High in Inglewood with La Costa Canyon in Carlsbad.

Suzie:  Kids are tracked even in South Pasadena. Latino kids tracked lower. Special education is pushed out.  Still inequity in best schools.  Putting money into communities -- housing, universal health care, etc.  is what we need.

Karen:  Compton case about kids who face trauma there and need to be served.

Karen:  TEACHER JAIL IS THE SHAME OF LAUSD.  Truth is coming out.  Teachers have saved LAUSD tons of money by leaving.  A WITCH HUNT!  Used Miramonte case to justify their teacher jail.  

See above for Karen Wolfe's group - PSConnect.

Dave Alpert's blog:  ALOED  and TigersTeach.  

CONCLUSIONS - for Los Angeles:  We must fight to keep our democratically elected school board.  We must unite to prevent Eli Broad from turning 50% of Los Angeles Unified schools into privately owned charters.  WE MUST INVEST IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS SO THAT PARENTS WILL HAVE CONFIDENCE THAT WE CAN GIVE OUR STUDENTS THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE.    [JGK]

Jesse Hagopian visits Antioch University LA

Jesse Hagopian visits Antioch University LA on November 9, 2015 

Jesse Hagopian teaches History at Garfield High School in Seattle where the entire faculty voted to refuse to administer the high-stakes MAP test.   Jesse edited the book More Than A Score about opting out and more of high-stakes tests.

   Jesse started teaching in 2001 -- at the beginning of NCLB - the  "test and punish" regime -- for his whole career.  

But all of this took on new meaning to him when his five year-old entered kindergarten at an International School teaching Spanish and Mandarin immersion.  Big ceremony held with cultural performances, talks, etc. but then the Governor's Aide says to "tell the kids they will be prepared to compete in the global economy."   Jesse didn't want this to mean that they would subjugate others in the global economy.

   Edward B. Rust Jr. - and the adoption of standards -- see the list of who attended the launch of these standards -- standards will give us the competitive edge and make business more money.  Children will fulfill the needs of business -- from low wage earners to tech to prison.

   THE AMOUNT OF TESTING IS BREATHTAKING - Jesse Hagopian.   112 tests from pre-kindergarten through grade 12.  Some take 30 tests in one year!  High stakes are attached to these for students, teachers, schools -- the 50 schools closed in Chicago are an example of what can happen.    NCLB, RTtT, and CCSS -- the testocracy is gutting schools.  BUT -- a great uprising has occurred -- so much so that Obama came out for less testing on his Facebook page.  Nothing may come of Obama's saying this because the Feds do not administer the tests and they can't repeal them.  Contracts with Pearson can't just be cancelled -- although this is happening right now in New York.  

   "Education Spring"  -- Seattle teachers went on strike for several key demands:  1.  No VAM - Value Added Measures to evaluate teachers.  2.  Race and Equity teams in every school.  No more suspensions. 3.  Recess -  schools had less than 30 minutes of recess.  Parent group demanded more time so the teachers' union adopted this demand.  
   It was an incredible battle -- the community rose up.  Soup for Teachers formed, brought pizza and solidarity to the teachers.  Even the City Council supported them.  THEY WON!  At least 30 teams were formed at schools.  Recess increased to 45 minutes.  And Test Scores REMOVED from teacher evaluation. First time this has happened in the country!  
   Education Spring -- amazing stories all over the country.  For example, the Providence Student Union - did a Zombie Demonstration against testing!  The also got 60 professionals to take the test and 60% of them failed!!! so they could no longer claim the test was key to the future of students' achievement.  There is resistance in various communities -- In New Mexico hundreds walked out saying "we're more than at score".  And more teachers are refusing to give the test.    St. Paul, Minnesota had to take an illegal action to defeat an illegal law!  It is in the state law to use test scores to evaluate teachers.  "Fight for the schools our children deserve."
   Parents really are the leaders of this --  60,000 students opted out in Washington state; 200,000 opted out in New York.  The resistance is growing.  And a spark that helped to light this resistance was the GARFIELD MAP REFUSAL. "Suspend the test, not the students."  Jesse was the union rep at Garfield when a teacher came to him and said "we could refuse to do harm to our students."  Jesse was stunned by her bravery.  He held a meeting in the library and asked the teachers if they would join.  Animosity to MAP was widespread.  ELL teachers said it was linguistically and culturally humiliating to their students.  Language Arts teachers were told there was a higher margin of error in the test.  It shuts down the libraries for weeks just to administer the test MAP -- so everyone was against it!  Jesse went through the contract -- you cannot refuse a direct order.  One teacher said -- "I am tired of seeing these kids run over by tests and I'd rather be reprimanded."  100% of the teachers voted to boycott!  The school district put them on notice -- they could face a ten day suspension.  Unanimous support by teachers, students, and thousands of signatures of solidarity from around the country -- this was a national crisis and they stood up against it!!!
   The superintendent tried to get the administrators to give the test.  He went into the "lion's den" to talk to the teachers at Garfield.  Garfield high is the center of Black Struggle in Seattle.   Jesse graduated from Garfield, his mom was PTA president, his father is a teacher.  The Superintendent listened to them.  Jesse told him -- you're new here in Seattle -- your decision will seal your fate!  If you demand this test, you are giving in to Gates, Broad, etc. etc.  If not -- you will be a real leader of our school system.   
   Parents and students brought flyers -- "know your rights" - "you can OPT OUT" for other students to know.  Parents sent in Opt Out letters.  Students staged a sit-in in their own classroom.  

Scrapthemap.wordpress.org   Go to the link to see videos, letters of solidarity, media, etc. A great resource for fighting back.    

   Jesse is very proud of Garfield.  The Superintendent actually suspended the MAP for always for Seattle secondary.  Still at the elementary level but they are working on fighting this.

   2013 inspired Portland, Chicago, teachers, Opt Out wave in New York.  Garfield shouldn't take all the credit -- elite private schools are original boycotters after all. [Gates children don't take tests.]  The Testocracy send their kids to these elite schools where they have creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, Olympic sized swimming pools, libraries, etc.  They can boycott but rote memorization is good enough for our kids!  
   Jesse and Pedro Noguera debated Cunningham -- former US assistant secretary of education under Arne Duncan. "your system holds those with the most power the least accountable"  Noguera told Cunningham.  We want wrap around services for our kids too.  
   Testing -- The Civil Rights Movement of our Time - tests are key for the achievement gap [the opportunity gap is really what it is].  [Read Xian Franzinger Barrett for a perspective on this.]   
Standardized testing entered schools in the 1900s -- Eugenics movement -- male supremacy and white supremacy ruled!    I.Q. tests were administered to the soldiers in World War II - one of the Eugenics people did this.  Then turned these into the SAT -- Study in American Intelligence - is the book by this Eugenicist.  "The United States was falling behind." Why?  "Because we have more African Americans than Europe does."  Proud of his racist and Eugenicist views.  
   W.E.B. DuBois resisted these tests.  Others fought as well.  
ALTERNATIVE:
Garfield refused and then built a partnership with New York -- 30 schools -- Consortium for Performance Based Assessment.  Defend your thesis at the end of a year before a panel of experts. Dissertations - the test is learning too -- the experts ask questions that provoke you to think.  So these schools shouldn't do well on the tests, say the Testocracy.  But they are the best schools by every measure.  More students graduate. 86% of African Americans go to college.  This goes beyond statistics -- these students know why they are in school!!
   Our society is in a deep crisis -- income inequality is worse. We

are in endless wars.  Violence against women - rape culture.  Immigration - more people deported than ever before.  
   Climate Change -- the greatest challenge.  3 degrees irreversible -- CRITICAL THINKING, COURAGE, CREATIVITY, EMPATHY, LEADERSHIP SKILLS -- these are what will save us. NOT TESTS!!   
   Amber Kudla [in More Than A Score] gave her valedictory speech about the current state of public education. The title of her speech was the phone number for the State Legislature that is pushing the tests.  She quotes John Green on the only test that matters.  She quotes Albert Einstein who said you cannot standardize learning. "Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid."
   1. Question -- information to show that the MAP is ineffective.  Go to the website - scrapthemap.wordpress.com/  MAP gives a score - but doesn't tell you what they need for ranking and sorting.
   2.  Need to go to parents. Teachers are afraid. 
Jesse said they should have gotten the PTA on their side.

   Recess time - a significant parent movement in Seattle around this.  Also because of the insistence that children read in Kindergarten!!  This needs to be stopped.   

   3.  Need programs to empower parents. 

   There is no more bussing in Seattle.  They had to pay for a school guard crossing.  Money for tests -- but not for the supplies that every classroom needs.  Make these connections with the parents.  

   Jesse sympathetic that people of color want their children to score high -- even though we need to get rid of rote learning.  Tests are being used to close down the schools of people of color and to fire African American teachers.  New Orleans is the biggest example but also New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berkeley.  

   4.  Repercussions on Opt Out for students -- MAP did not mean much for the students. It mostly affected the teachers.  [Witness the suicide of  teacher Rigoberto Ruelas in Los Angeles after he was deemed ineffective in the Los Angeles Times report of teacher scores.]  Other tests do affect students -- each one is different. 

   5. Student from New Orleans -- parents and teachers are building resistance there now.  

READ:  The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

              The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The elite use crises as moments of great opportunity for profit. 

   Arne Duncan said Hurricane Katrina was the greatest thing to happen for education in New Orleans.   New Orleans is fighting back. But, for example, Lee Barrios ran for School Board and was met with an opponent who got money from Broad, Bloomberg, et al.   The good people lost this election.
   6. The state of Washington ruled against funding charters! The state constitution provides for "common schools" so it was possible to make a legal challenge to the charters (that are not common schools). Unfortunately California doesn't have this provision.
   There are lawsuits - some - around testing.  A teacher in New York is suing -- against VAM.   The American Statistical Association says this is JUNK SCIENCE.
   We have put the Testocracy on the defensive.  We need to go on the OFFENSIVE!  This spring should be bigger OPT OUT than ever!
   The NAACP in Seattle is telling parents to OPT OUT!!! 
   Jesse says -- the best way to avoid burnout is to join the struggle.
All of this is because we have a "meritocracy" - but in fact it's to keep people in their place.  Militarizing the police forces all over the country. [Los Angeles Unified School District has a tank and automatic weapons donated by the military.]
   Jesse spoke at his child's school - did a book talk on More Than A Score - helping the parents to resist. 
   This is what it is all about -- we are here to fix our world.
   When everybody does it -- OPTS OUT -- we are powerful!!

Jesse has a blog - here he reports FairTest reporting of 2015 victories against high stakes testing.

Where Are The Children?

Where are the children who inhabit my soul?

Who dance in the garden of my mind?

Where are the children who suffer small indignities of deprivation?

wear outsized shoes and too tight shirts?

Where are the children who sit with aging grandpas watching baseball games

just to feel the closeness and attention of another body? 

the attention of an adult?

Where are the children whose books and toys are thrown away

because they are too difficult to clean around? put away? save for another day?

Where are the children who haven't had the experience of a loving grandmother?

who spoils them with her every breath?

Where are the children who aren't sure they'll get enough to eat one day

and too much to eat the next?

Where are the children?

Where are the children?

Where are the children?

only in my heart.

WAYNE AU IS A REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATOR.

On August 10, 2015 Wayne Au came to Los Angeles to speak at the Antioch University, Los Angeles' Education Department "Friends of Education Speaker Series" -- his subject: The Opt Out Movement.   Antioch is a great place -- refreshingly and progressively run by Dr. J. Cynthia McDermott, Ed Chapel,  and other progressive faculty. Dr. McDermott has taught in other countries and here in the U.S.  "Along with democratic teaching practices she has an intense interest in Children's Literature and began the Horace Mann Upstanders Children's Literature Award" where I first met her.  2015 Upstanders went to Eve Bunting and Justin Roberts, and Michelle Franke Meyering, executive director of the PEN center USA in Los Angeles.  I hope that many students can find their way to this Education program since it is one of the few in the country that reflect what is needed in public education, and actually support public education! 

From Antioch's publicity:  "Wayne Au is an Associate Professor in the Education Program at the University of Washington, Bothell, and he is an editor the social justice magazine Rethinking Schools.    His research interests include critical analyses of high-stakes testing, critical educational theory and practice, curriculum studies, and multicultural education. Most recently he co-authored the article "Rethinking schools:  Enacting a vision for social justice within US education" for Critical Studies in Education and co-edited Pencils Down:  Rethinking High-Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools. 

Although this was the same night as the Los Angeles rally for Bernie Sanders, the audience consisted of a diverse group of students in the Education School at Antioch University and some professors. A few of us activist BATs (Badass Teachers Association), Larry Lawrence and myself, and friends of Wayne Au's also attended. Larry came all the way up from Carlsbad.  Wayne has lived in Orange County and Long Beach and now lives in Seattle, Washington.  Wayne talked about why he addresses the question of Opt Out and speaks often to groups of parents.  Outrage isn't too strong a word to describe what he shared with us while explaining the machinations of the high-stakes game.  "How vacuous they are with the use of data."

 Can I do this talk justice? I ask myself. Do I really understand what he is presenting? The Basics of Assessment:  Explicit Sampling -- that's what testing is."  We assume a correlation.  Infer from a sample. But there are hidden issues -- "hidden sampling" -- EL fluency, test logics, coping with stress, conditions of assessment:

Basics:  is it cold?  is a dog barking?  Critical point:  opposed to high stakes.  But any assessment is indirect. Causal relation we don't really know.  Limited. Imprecise.  Grades and test scores are inferences.


High Stakes Standardized Testing -- consequences attached to scores. Loss of job, grade retention, media scrutiny.  Standardized Tests are supposed to be uniform.  In order to enable comparison -- PISA and NAEP.  Sorting -- create hierarchies in our current system.

Assumption:  We tend to assume a strong correlation between teaching, learning, and the assessment (sample).

Theory of Action: consequently we tend to assume that we can infer the amount of learning and the quality of teaching and curriculum from the assessment (sample). So we attach consequences to the assessment, making it "high-stakes".  This causes basic problems:  narrows teaching - no recess, art, music.  Bad pedagogy.  Lecture more -- teacher centered.  Consequences - on low income, children of color corrupts validity. Culture of FEAR AND DISTRESS (emphasis mine).  Charters are gaming the system.  Exit exams - do nothing for students but increase jail time.  Tests:  CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR THE DIVERSITY OF LEARNERS.

TESTING'S TECHNICAL PROBLEMS:  cannot say that X causes Y.  Non-school factors correlate  with test scores.  70% are non-school factors.  20% are school related factors.  Not accurate, not precise.  35%  25%  VAM year-to-year instability -- teacher at top one year, on bottom the next.  Kid dependent.  80% of gain or loss due to random events.

Others:  Killing the profession of teaching.  Mega corporations need to make $$.  That's it.

Test scoring sweatshops -- Craigslist -- 60 seconds spent by a person with no knowledge of the student.

NEOLIBERALISM

David Harvey's definition in 2007 -- de-regulation, free trade, -- divest from public sector.  Neoliberal Corporate Education Reform:  Pearson does what the state did.  Break unions. Public money moves to private business.  Business model -- with COO and CEO at the head, etc.

Narrowing the purpose of education to economics - pay attention to people's needs but now it's purely an economic reason.

Non-democratic bodies -- School Boards often appointed.  Charter Boards -- private - Corporate Education Reform.



Fabricant & Fine - 2013.  Hunter College -- "offer a compelling analysis of the promise, politics, and problems of charter schools.  $500 - $700 billion -- the New Gold Rush -- takes money out of our neighborhoods.  [Bankrupt our public school systems (mine)]

Testing and Audit Culture -  auditing of everything.  Efficiency, standards, production.

Attack on the Commons -- market system.  Neo liberalism. Helicopter parenting -- this is happening pre-nataly -- competition.  Pearson needs data crunchers.

Gates -- powerful market forces.  We only create standards in order to test!

Provides the fuel -- it all depends on test data.







RACIAL PROJECTS

Omi and Winant - p. 125 - Standardized Testing as a Racial Project.  Historically -- Binet -- but a crude misappropriation of it.  Tested adults.  Goddard, Terman, Yerkes -- all tested students and Terman followed some for many years.  Results reflected the social order -- race and class.  Used to justify EUGENICS movement -- brought these tests to the schools.  Taylorism -- Ford Motor Company. [Added by me because California was the epicenter of the Eugenics movement:  Stanford president David Starr Jordan originated the notion of "race and blood" in his 1902 racial epistle "Blood of a Nation," in which the university scholar declared that human qualities and conditions such as talent and poverty were passed through the blood.]

 

Objectivity, Meritocracy, Equity -- masks structural inequality.  Public school system is guilty of using testing as a racial project.  Testing framed as a civil rights issue.  Bush, Paige, Duncan, Obama, Rice -- all say it's a civil rights issue of our time.

High-Stakes Testing as a Racial Project:

-- greatest curriculum squeeze:  wholly different education than the affluent; loss of multicultural curriculum;  culturally relevant instruction gone.
The Culture = Discipline, punishment, surveillance, threats.

NCLB -- 13 years -- NO CLOSING OF THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP. All under the guise of equality.   Same results from 100 years ago! What are tests really measuring?

Jody Melamed -- Neoliberal Multiculturalism  -- post racist world -- testing is key!!

David Gilborn talks about England -- the same thing is happening there.

MATH CUT SCORES - SBAC - From the Northwest Lab.  Huge failure rates.  This is a planned failure rate!!  67% OF KIDS FAIL!!!

English Language Arts - SBAC -- same failure rate!! NAEP model.

Wayne tells PARENTS -- Go with the flow!!  PARENTS ARE POWERFUL!! - push the conversation forward.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! - Administrators don't know -- tell them to show you the law! Ask about research.  THERE IS NONE!!

A Masters program at the University of Washington finds admissions people don't know what is happening.

-- Support School Staff -- build relationships.

We have to push our unions.  Progressive leadership!!

 - Outright refusal!








OPT OUT NUMBERS ARE NOT FIRM -- 200,000 in New York, 60,000 in Washington state, 10,000 in New Mexico, 50-60,000 in New Jersey, 8000 in Wisconsin, 2000 in Portland, Oregon.

Arundhati Roy - DEPRIVE OUR EMPIRE OF OXYGEN!!!  Test scores are oxygen!

THE POWER OF OPTING OUT - the deformers use the data to justify everything!
OPTING OUT DEPRIVES THE SYSTEM OF ITS OXYGEN.  They can't monetize and profitize public education without data.  A paradigm shift forces the system to pivot on its axis -- they cannot handle it.

What is the aim of education?  Without data you have to look at the purpose of education differently.

PEOPLE -- OPT OUT!!!    UNITED OPT OUT  http://unitedoptout.com

FAIR TEST -- http://www.fairtest.org  

Wayne Au  wayne.wk.au@gmail.com

   


                                       

CALIFORNIA TEACHERS SUMMIT 2015 "BETTER TOGETHER"

On July 31, 2015 Bill Gates funded a "California Teachers Summit" to convene teachers at various locations around California.  Real reason:  to promote Common Core.  To quote from Scott Folsom's great blog 4LAKids August 9, 2015 "Picking up the pieces of our broken heart" - he says "A week ago the grandly titled Better Together Teacher Summit (#CATeachersSummit) was held up-and-down the state grandiloquently+hyperbolically:  The States Largest Teacher Training Ever Attempted."  Supposedly 15,000 teachers attended at 33 venues plus "unenumerated multitudes via smartphone apps and livestream media".  It was all very high tech and interactive.  There was much gushing over what it was about and what it supposedly accomplished.  But no real truth.  At one point our moderator (who has definitely drunk the KOOL-AID) stated that we were #1 trending on Twitter WORLD WIDE.  (Forgive me Twitterers, I don't Tweet)   I knew it would be much of a farce but it surprised me how far they went.
  I attended the session at the Pasadena Convention Center, which was not quite full. We were told there were 2000 people in attendance. Who were the moderators and speakers?  First of all, the Dean of Education for Loyola Marymount University (where my daughter earned her Masters and teaching credential) Shane P. Martin, PhD was the main moderator.  I looked back in my memory trying to remember how much money the Gates Foundation gave each of these universities that were in attendance (except USC, for some reason, was absent despite the fact that it was given money).  An excellent source for information about this summit is Anthony Cody's blog Living in Dialogue: Common Core Teacher Day in California, Brought to you by the Gates Foundation.  Anthony says Gates funded this Summit to the tune of $3.5 million in grants for a 'single day' of CCSS exposure.  For example, Cal State Fullerton accepted $1.26 million.  The New Teacher Center (Santa Cruz) (which Scott Folsom says is run by none other than the JAIME AQUINO of John DEASY fame -- who had quit his LAUSD lucrative position - to avoid trouble perhaps?) accepted $1.2 million.  Several other schools were helping facilitate - Antioch University, and Chapman University but they were not given any prominence (and probably didn't get any money).  However, there was a long list of "corporations" listed as RESOURCES -- including ACHIEVE THE CORE, BETTER LESSON, CENTER FOR COLLABORATIVE CLASSROOM, NEW TEACHER CENTER,  TEACHING CHANNEL and more.  Listed among those was the CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION -- is it now, seriously, A CORPORATION?
  Dean or Dr. Shane Martin was enthusiastically introducing us to the fun-filled day where teachers would be appreciated and not blamed for every problem in the universe.  Others on the state came from Pepperdine University, Cal State University Fullerton perhaps, and USC in name only, New Teacher Center, Independent California Colleges and Universities.  We were handed bags with Summit logo, and thick cardboard program, and for us in Pasadena a Free charger with AICCU and "Better Together Teachers Summit" printed on it, courtesy perhaps of Bill Gates.  My friend Larry Lawrence, an excellent teacher who is also retired,  attended the session in San Diego and received many more gifts, including a flashlight.  I am thinking that our hosts in Pasadena didn't think we needed more gifts and kept more of the money for themselves?  Or perhaps they had to sink more money into technology since we had all the LIVE SPEAKERS in Pasadena - everyone else just had a screen.

I honestly do not remember hearing the words Common Core the entire day (except when we broke into groups for a brief tete a tete).  Perhaps I wasn't listening but I doubt it.  I do believe that the Dean Shane Martin truly values teachers and really thought he was being helpful to teachers putting on this show.  Let me give you an overview of the day.  We arrived at 8:00 a.m. to register and eat what amounted to a cheap breakfast of coffee, juice, fruit, and small pastries.  We sat and talked with other teachers.  Our parking was subsidized so truly the day didn't cost us anything.  At 9 a.m. we assembled in the gorgeous auditorium of the convention center. 

Dr. Martin kept repeating how extraordinary this was - "led by teachers for teachers" and "today is ground-breaking."  New models of professional learning -- and he mentions EdCamp.  Technology is connecting us throughout the state.  "Teachers matter" he says.  Networking and collaboration - we have a "statewide network of peers."  He really reminds me of a kid -- who is very enthusiastic about something but not really at all sure.  He shows us a Rah Rah film with Meryl Streep?

  Next is the CEO of New Teacher Center (so far no teacher has spoken).  "Teachers are rock stars" she says.  Keeps saying "college ready no matter the zip code".  She introduces YVETTE NICOLE BROWN - a movie star best known for Community, and now The Odd Couple. She is charming, well spoken, and easy on the ears. She tells how teachers made such a difference in her own life, very poor but her mother told her education was the key. Yvette is on the Advisory Board of Donors Choose and has helped Stephen Colbert fund projects in South Carolina. She wanted to be a teacher but she was signed by Motown at age 19. She is a very good speaker and comedienne, but I keep asking myself, WHY IS THIS A SUMMIT AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH TEACHING?

  Our next speaker is Thema Bryant-Davis, PhD, from Pepperdine.  Extraordinary woman, she sings us songs.  She has lived in Liberia because her father is a minister.   Both her parents are writers. She is very clear about the need for ARTS in our lives and their correlation to higher academic skills and life skills.  ARTS save our lives."  She teaches us sing language for a song - "We are one family and one can separate us."  And last, she sings Tracy Chapman's TALKIN' 'BOUT A REVOLUTION."  I cannot capture the flavor of her speech or her ability to convey her loves for the arts. She is a licensed psychologist, poet, dancer, motivational speaker, minister, and life empowerment coach.  Her Pepperdine description says "I am primarily committed to uncovering and attending to the role of culture in the trauma recovery process."   

  What may not be clear (and wasn't at first to me) is that our speakers were LIVE but the rest of California was seeing them on a screen.  What a shock that was!  I am watching a film right now at home - Nightcrawler - which is really the story of sleazy capitalism, the real thing.  And it reminds me of the speakers at the Summit.  Not the movie stars or the one teacher -- but the fake promoters, the ones who aren't telling us that this really is a big promotional push for what are now being called THE CALIFORNIA STANDARDS! [the Golden State].  

  Mike Vollmert was the EdCamp specialist who laid out what we were to do in our two hour session. He had some cute quotes:  Yogi Berra said: "The future ain't what it used to be." And Jackie Robinson:  - "Life is not a spectator sport."  Just ask questions, Mike says.  Or share.  EdCamp is about conversations.  "Rule of two feet"  - get up and go to another conversation if you don't like the one you are in."  GOOGLE this [EdCamp.org] and you'll find a presentation that tells you everything.  [My Question:  A school district actually PAYS this company good money to do what they are about to do with us?  I find it disgusting.]  

   From 10 a.m. to noon we sit with two facilitators and are given two sticky post-its -- one purple and one yellow.  The purple is for a question we have. The yellow is for something we want to share.  Our facilitators are young. Not sure they are really trained.  The female tells us she "loves DISRUPTIONS" -  like Arne Duncan loves HURRICANES!  We are told this is just a conversation.  They gather up the stickies and put them up on the wall in categories.

You can do EdCamps anywhere she says, with anyone.  Do these instead of your Adminstration's Professional Development at LAUSD (mentioned specifically).  Topics that emerge from these stickies:  1.  ELL/ELD, special needs Inc.   2.  ED Tech.   3.  Art and Music - STEAM.  4. Classroom Community Building, democratic process.  5.  Project and problem-based learning. 6. Classroom management. 7. Writing - Common Core (only time I heard it mentioned) [When the convener included PRE-K WRITING, I GROANED and said loudly how inappropriate that was.] 8. New Teacher Issues. 

  Teachers were to pick a group and meet.  I left at this point, to be honest. I have been retired for six years and have nothing to contribute to current teachers.   My friend who stayed spent her time talking with Technology teachers and made good contacts, she said. She convinced them to take interest in CUE - Computer Using Educators - which they had never heard about before.  My friend is a National 

Board Certified Teacher Librarian and helps teachers frame ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS so that their students have to do original research and can't plagiarize.  She felt the EdCamp sessions were helpful.  My friend Larry Lawrence, consummate teacher of math at Morningside High School in Inglewood and at the UCLA Lab school, who attended San Diego, also felt his sessions were useful. They actually had one entitled "Politics" - unlike our more mundane topics.

  I believe the majority of teachers attending the CA Teachers Summit was young, out of a job, trying to get a job, mostly new teachers as opposed to more seasoned ones.  The majority I also think was elementary - at least at the Pasadena site.  There were about the same number of middle school as high school teachers. And a smattering of special education and higher education teachers.  More men than usual.

  After a lovely lunch which cost them very little, we reconvened in the auditorium for more speakers. 

One was a Technology teacher from Santa Ana who billed herself as a Program Specialist Learning Innovation with Technology Teacher.  Teaching was her second career.  Had a catchy talk about the "5 Be's" - including Be Intentional, Be Encouraged, Be Curious, Be Better Together.  

  Andrew Stadel, Math and Digital Learning Coach [what's wrong with just BEING A TEACHER??]

is from Tustin Unified.  He presented something he seemed to think was novel -- teaching number sense using estimation.  He showed us how badly we all estimate. And shared his website which has many examples -  www.estimation.180.com.   

  We were asked to find someone we didn't know in the audience, and talk about one thing you learned here that was impressive.  Perhaps this was time for some technological adjustments?  Not sure.    Observation:  California teachers feel they don't use CC -- they already have standards of their own - or have adapted CC.  Quite an easy sell this has been -- because most want to keep their jobs, despite the negative pressures on teachers.

  A moderator comes back at 1:30 -- one hour to go.  We are TRENDING ON TWITTER --first World Wide -- we are told.  Who would like to share a thought?  A kinder teacher from South Los Angeles says she "loves EdCamp." A high school teacher -- maybe from Roosevelt HS -- one of the reconstituted schools, says -- "Take the kids back to preschool when they didn't care, weren't so restricted in their thinking, and do creative projects with them."  A teacher from a Charter asks -- "did we get positive press today?  Did we get the message out -- Teachers Save Lives?"  Moderator says YES.  Twitter going crazy.  and  "There will be press."  A teacher who doesn't give her name says "Yvette was a great speaker - story of favorite teachers lets people know there's still value in our jobs." 

  Next - a video of Kid President -- I'm too old to appreciate this but the audience likes it. 

Kristin Soares [not sure which corporation she is from] introduces LELAND MELVIN, football player and astronaut.  Impressive person.  Talks about Nichelle Nichols  [Martin Luther King, Jr. told her to stay on Star Trek - she was THE FIRST TO INTEGRATE TV].    Melvin is full of interesting stories.  He never gave up what he wanted to do even though discouraged many times.   

He shows us a video of himself on the shuttle trying to eat M&Ms.  But the photo above says it all -- THE RIGHT STUFF,  NEVER GIVE UP STUFF.   Do I detect a lecture on the famous GRIT?  that all the CCSS pushers are so fond of repeating?  Melvin is definitely full of it.

  This Summit reminds me of the time I happened upon the TFA RALLY that my daughter was attending after her five glorious weeks of training at USC.  Clearly I wasn't meant to be there -- because it had all the shrieking rituals of a SECRET SECT!!!  TFA would surely have preferred that all their rituals be kept secret.  Which makes me want to scream:  HOW ARE TEACHERS SUPPOSED TO TEACH CHILDREN TO THINK CRITICALLY WHEN THEY ARE ASKED TO STOP THINKING THEMSELVES?   

  And what has this Summit to do with collaboration, and teacher to teacher learning and teaching, and anything else that was promised for the day?  Nothing at all apparently. This was all in all A HUGE INSULT to the participants, and we were treated as little children.  Nothing of depth or interest was imparted, no strategies or theories of teaching and learning imparted.  All gimmicks and gung-ho exercises. Before Martin ends the day two women from New Teacher Center speak to us as though we are intimate friends. One of them mentions UNION - again, only time it was mentioned the entire day. "We are better together" and "Be a curious educator" and more trite sayings we've heard from others. 

  Dr. Dean Martin ends the day. Tells us to take the SURVEY that will be online.  We are also told to fill out a postcard to ourselves which will be mailed to us later sharing What did you learn?  How do you feel? and What are you going to do?  It will be a reminder.  A reminder of WHAT?

 Seriously, there was nothing of value learned today.  What a waste of $3.5 million.  How many libraries could have been stocked with new books or paid for a professional to run them, or arts programs for all?  I should have stayed home, except I wouldn't have been able to eat a "strawberry salad" or talk with my favorite colleagues (see above photo) who I don't get to see very often now that I am retired.

[FOOTNOTE:  the SURVEY the next day reveals exactly what this Summit was about: COMMON CORE

1. To what extent do you agree that the California Teachers Summit provided you with key learning you can take away and implement?    Strongly Agree - Agree - Disagree - Strongly Disagree.                                                     2. What is one key learning you are taking away from the California Teachers Summit?                                              3. The California Teachers Summit helped to build my enthusiasm for implementing the California Standards this school year.     Strongly Agree ----- Strongly Disagree.                                                                                             4. In what ways did today help build your enthusiasm for implementing the California Standards for this school year?                                                                                                                                                                                    5. To what extent were you able tons network with other teachers at the California Teachers Summit?       A Great Deal - Quite a bit - Some - Hardly Any - Not at all.                                                                                                   6. How will you stay engaged with them?                                                                                                                 7. How confident do you feel as you move forward to implement the California Standards based on what you learned today?    Very Confident - Confident - Somewhat Confident - Not Confident.                                              8. How confident do you feel about implementing the California Standards before today?    Very Confident ------ Not Confident.                                                                                                                                                            9. What is your greatest need moving forward to support you in the implementation of the California Standards?         10. How satisfied are you with the learning experience offered to participants at the Summit?      Very Satisfied ----- Not at all Satisfied.                                                                                                                                                11. What did you like best?                                                                                                                                          12. What two Summit resources have been the most helpful to you?                                                                    13. Please confirm your email address to receive your 2015 Better Together: California Teachers Summit Certificate.”                                                                                                                                                                             [Larry Lawrence says:   That's it! I will eagerly await my certificate which I will place on the wall next to my degrees from Occidental, Columbia and UCLA! If you want an actual copy as it appear on screen, let me know how I can get my Word file to you.]

NEXT BLOG:  WAYNE AU AND TROUBLING TESTING:  HIGH-STAKES ASSESSMENT, INEQUALITY, AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CORPORATE EDUCATION REFORM.  Rethinking Schools, Antioch, August 10, 2015