What Do Arne Duncan & Paul Bremer Have in Common?

For decades, Substance, has reported on public education in Chicago. They have made enemies in the teacher's union, school board and central administration. It's editor was terminated by the Chicago Public Schools during the Duncan/Vallas regime for whistle-blowing on standardized testing. The legal case waged in the courts for 6+ years until the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.

The following is a portion of the editorial written by the Substance team about President-Elect Obama's Secretary of Education nominee and basketball buddy, Arne Duncan:

For the past six years, we’ve watched while Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan lied repeatedly to the public about how and why he was closing dozens of public schools. Duncan was not trying to improve public schools in Chicago for all children, but was in command of a ruthless privatization plan that is designed to undermine traditional notions of public education for urban children and replace them with a crackpot version of “market choice” that exists only for the wealthy and the powerful.

The key to Duncan’s ability to get away with the Big Lie, however, is not Duncan’s own eloquence, but the face that he has the backing of Chicago’s ruling class. From the CEOs of the city’s largest corporations (organized into the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club) to the editorial boards of the two power daily newspapers, Duncan’s lies are amplified every day, and except for the pages of this newspaper and a few other places, unchallenged in the public arena where democratic debate is supposed to take place.

After we reviewed the school closings in Chicago since 2001, when Mayor Daley appointed Duncan the second “Chief Executive Officer” in CPS history, the shocking details began to become clear. Not only were poor black children being forced out of their homes (public housing reform, it was called), but they were also being deprived over and over of access to public schools.

Take some time to read Substance online and consider subscribing to the most independent journalism in public education.

Obama Education Pick BFF with NCLB

But wait, there's more! All of the test-crazy, data-obsessed, name-calling, teacher-shaming, kid-harming, fact-manufacturing, union-busting, privatization schemes of the Bush Administration are on track for another four years under the leadership of President-Elect Barack Obama and his unqualified basketball buddy nominee for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

Make no mistake. The education policies of Arne Duncan and No Child Left Behind are indistinguishable. In fact, President Bush's trainwreck of an Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, practically nominated Duncan to be her successor four days ago.

Joking that she doesn't want to "hurt his chances," Spellings nevertheless put in a plug for Duncan during a trip to Chicago to help Mayor Daley dole out $350,000 in merit pay to outstanding teachers and school employees.

"He's a terrific school leader. I consider him a fellow reformer and someone who cares deeply about students. He'd be a great choice," Spellings said in a news conference at Westcott Elementary School, 409 W. 80th St.

Pressed on what makes Duncan special, Spellings said, "You all know. I mean--you live here with the guy, for goodness sake. He's a visionary leader. He's a guy who looks at results. He cares a lot about kids. He's focused and on point. He has a lot of support from this community."

Merit pay? Now that's change you can believe in!

Care to Really Understand Federal Education Policy?

In my humble opinion, Jo Boaler's, recent Education Week column, Where Has All the Knowledge Gone?
The Movement to Keep Americans at the Bottom of the Class in Math, is one of the most important pieces of education journalism in some time.

Is this just a coincidence? Can President Bush really have been so badly advised as to ignore almost all of the research that could have informed the report, or was there something more deliberate at work? How acceptable is it for a government to control the forms of knowledge that are released to the public?

Dr. Boaler is a former Stanford University Mathematics Professor who clearly and succinctly documents how "science" and "research" are used as a blunt weapon by the United States Department of Education. Boaler describes how the President's National Mathematics Advisory Panel was constrained from publishing the best advice for improving mathematics education. Such ideological interference in mathematics education is consistent with the Reading First mess at the center of No Child Left Behind.

My New Favorist Essayist Speaks the Truth About School

Over the past six months I've discovered the BBC television phenomena, Top Gear. I first heard about it when Jay Leno publicly criticized NBC's desire to produce an American version. Top Gear is hosted by three blokes who love cars, build insane contraptions, challenge one another to drive across the English Channel and tease one another mercilessly.

Top Gear is an enormous international hit with its own magazine, children's books, DVDs and international editions, such as Top Gear Australia.

I've watched a couple of dozen episodes of Top Gear and have my DVR programmed to record new ones, not because I love cars or am even interested in them. I hate cars and would be pleased to never drive again. I watch the show for the hijinks, witty repartee between the hosts and because it is fantastic observing expertise.

The primary host of Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, is also a columnist for England's The Sunday Times and The Sun. Clarkson's co-hosts, Richard Hammon and James May also write entertaining columns for British newspapers.

During a recent trip to Australia, I thumbed through Clarkson's most recent anthology of columns and found a stunning piece of writing about education, Schools are Trying to Break Children.

All of us wrap up our children when it’s cold. We put them on booster seats in the car and make them wear helmets when they’re on a bicycle. We strive constantly to keep them out of harm’s way, and then we send them off to school so they can be tortured and killed.

Apparently, schools the world over are a lot more similar than the international comparison wielding politicians would like us to believe.

---

Read Jay Leno's review of and affection for Top Gear.

If you Enjoy NCLB, You'll Love what McCain/Palin have Planned for Schools

Mission Accomplished!
Although much of what recently elected and newly minted Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin says in her education plan for Alaska reads like an undergraduate homework assignment, she does express support for something called ABC Schools.

While parents are an integral part of the student experience, students bear the lion’s share of the effort. ABC students have nightly homework, back to basics curriculum, patriotism, ethics and citizenship training. Each of these is a key ingredient to providing a child a consistent education that meets the values of their parents while keeping them challenged in class.

Parent reviews of one of the ABC Schools reveals much of what I suspected and feared:

Birchwood ABC is a wonderful magnet type school. This school teaches Kindergarten students phonograms and how to read in the first half of the year and spelling rules and how to write during the second half. My child has already read 40 16-page phonis readers. They are using the Riggs-Spalding methods for reading and Scott Foresman for math. The students will be doing timed addition and subtraction test by the end of the year. I cannot say enough about this school. The teachers are really great and the parents are very involved. The students have gym class and music class twice a week, art class and library time once a week, and recess every day. The school also stresses academics, citizenship, patriotism, responsibility, respect, and courtesy.

Another parent gushes...

I have been involved in this school for 7 years and every moment of it has been pure blyss! The staff members are a joy and the children are wonderful also! The school offers amazing physical and mental chalenges. It hosts a class for gifted children and for even more gifted children. Over all the school deserves 20/10 stars!

I left the spelling errors in to demonstrate just how well their commitment to phonics is paying off!

The good news is that the school has a segregated class for gifted children and even more gifted children!

Here is a review of another Alaska ABC School by another satisfied phonics customer, a student:

this school is so focused on how u behave and the teachers really want to motvate u to get a good grade in every class. ive been at northern lights abc since a 2nd grade and they have really helped me in a lot of things, evn when im struggling really bad in grades.

Also from Palin's education plan:

The private sector will be integrated into the education system. I am looking for a dramatic change in this area in particular. Employers know what is needed for the workplace. They can provide curriculum and expectations for students to ensure they have all the skills that will invest them in success later in life.

---

Due to Sarah Palin's incredibly short time in office, I have been unable to find much more information regarding ABC Schools or her relationship with teachers or her education policies as Governor. Please share any info you have with me via this blog.

This just in... (added 4PM PST 8/29/08)
According to The Boston Globe

The Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin said the following about creationism at a debate:

"Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information....Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides."

The Funniest Education Article in Ages

This recent newspaper article, Top students show little gain from 'No Child' efforts, is among the funniest education coverage I've read in a long time. It also points out the absolute insanity of standardized testing and the higher tougher meaner standards crowd.

Students who scored in the 90th percentile and above are making the least progress on national standardized tests.

I Hit the Big Time!

Big news!

I could not be more thrilled to have been invited to be a contributor to The Huffington Post. I have read The Huffington Post since the day it launched and am extremely honored to be associated with this ground-breaking publication.

My first article just went live on the Politics page of The Huffington Post. The article is called, "The Surge Against First Graders."

If the article is pushed off the main (politics) page, it may be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/the-surge-against-first-g_b_100456.html

My page for future articles is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/ This is in addition to my own blog at http://www.stager.org/blog and http://www.districtadministration.com

While checking out my article, feel free to share the love and leave a comment or Buzz-Me-Up! Education needs more critical analysis and reportage. I am humbled that the Huffington Post has given me this opportunity to reach such a large audience.

Gary

Check out Constructing Modern Knowledge
July 28-31, 2008 - Manchester, NH
www.constructingmodernknowledge.com

I Told You So!

In 2004, I wrote an article about President Bush's half-baked ideas regarding reading instruction. Gary Stager on Direct Instruction exposed the Bush Administration's cozy relationship with publishers destined to profit from Reading First. To say that my publisher and owner of District Administration hated the article would be an understatement. He took the unprecedented step of apologizing for the article in the very next issue, before any reader would have had time to object. In fact, the mail received was incredibly supportive of my opinion and the facts were checked prior to publication.

In 2006 I wrote an article, Shocked! Shocked! Reading First Plagued by Corporate Welfare, Cronyism and Demonization, as a response to the revelations that Reading First was indeed a patronage program that had a lot more to do with ideology than helping children learn to read.

A couple of days ago, the Bush Department of Education released the results of a research study (you know how they LOVE research) on the efficacy of Reading First, a cornerstone of No Child Left Behind.

“Reading First did not improve students’ reading comprehension,” concluded the report, which was mandated by Congress and carried out by the Department of Education’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences. “The program did not increase the percentages of students in grades one, two or three whose reading comprehension scores were at or above grade level.”

Can you imagine how bad the results truly were if the spinmeisters in D.C. released conclusions this devastating to their phonics fixation?

Secretary Spelling's spokesperson said that the Secretary "planned to look at the study 'to inform our efforts,' and would 'look forward to reviewing the final report.'"

Spellings should resign and the President of the United States should apologize to every teacher and student for the bogus war of terror they reigned on America's public schools.

It's 3 AM and the White House Wants to Change Your Math Curriculum!

President Bush's National Math Advisory Panel has released its final report and several Pulse Contributing Editors discuss the merits of the effort while none if surprised by the panel's focus on "core math skills."

• Roger Schank, Ph.D. challenges many of the assumptions underlying the report.

• David Thornburg, Ph.D. takes issue with the panel chair's comments about constructivism.

• Marvin Minsky, Ph.D. (via an external blog) explores why math is hard to learn.

• Gary Stager, Ph.D. discusses the likely harm caused by the report's inauthentic recommendations.

• Math teacher, Michael Paul Goldenberg, wonders if anything is new.

Please share these articles with your friends and colleagues!

Herb Kohl - Landscape of a Lifetime

The publication of his outstanding new book, Painting Chinese: A Lifelong Teacher Gains the Wisdom of Youth, provided me with a rare opportunity to spend time with legendary educator and author Herb Kohl. Kohl has published more than 40 books about education since the 1960s and has made enormous contributions to progressive education and social justice.

My interview with Kohl is finally in-print in a District Administration Magazine cover story, Landscape of a Lifetime: Herb Kohl Reflects on Education Today. While the hard copy looks gorgeous, you can also read the article online here.

I am most grateful to Herb Kohl for decades worth of inspiration and for the generosity and patience he contributed to this editorial project.

President Announces "Childrens Do Learn"

Just when you thought Presidential expectations could not be lower, Mr. Bush announced "Childrens Do Learn."

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said.

Bill Gates and Eli Broad Go Gangsta

Bill Gates and Eli Broad can’t revolutionize public education alone. They need a posse. Realizing that they needed to appeal to more than billionaires and ex-Governors Ed in ’08 teamed up with another education policy expert, rapper Kanye West.

Read Bill Gates and Eli Broad Go Gangsta

Jonathan Kozol Fasts Against NCLB

Legendary author and child advocate, Jonathan Kozol, explains to The Huffington Post why he is fasting over No Child Left Behind.

This morning, I am entering the 67th day of a partial fast that I began early in the summer as my personal act of protest at the vicious damage being done to inner-city children by the federal education law No Child Left Behind, a racially punitive piece of legislation that Congress will either renew, abolish, or, as thousands of teachers pray, radically revise in the weeks immediately ahead...

...The only member of the Democratic leadership I have been unable to get through to is the influential chairman of the education panel, Senator Ted Kennedy, who, one of his colleagues told me flatly, will ultimately "call the shots" on this decision. I've asked the senator three times if he'll talk with me. Each time, I have run into a cold stone wall. This has disappointed me, and startled me, because the senator has been a friend to me in years gone by and has asked for my ideas on education on a number of occasions in the decades since I was a youthful teacher and he was a youthful politician.

Read Kozol's open letter: Why I am Fasting: An Explanation to My Friends

You may also read my two interviews with Mr. Kozol at:

Jonathan Kozol Takes on the World (January 2006)
Jonathan Kozol Speaks Out (September 2000)

Isn't it time that we all spoke out?

Oh, looky here!

Apparently, a school district may skirt the law requiring the employment of "highly qualified" teachers by waving a magic wand and wishing.

Federal Loophole Lets Interns Be Called Highly Qualified Teachers


This reminds me of one of my favorite articles, When I Run the Navy (Call me Admiral Stager)

My August District Administration Magazine Column

Here is my August 2007 column from District Administration Magazine...

My Plan to Fix NCLB
Save a seat on the bus for me!

---

Photo by Andrew Vdill
http://flickr.com/photos/andrewdill/222033303/