The Education Wars

For his last column before he died, education critic Gerald Bracey wrote about a possible skeleton in Arne's closet:

Halloween season is an appropriate time to talk about rattling skeletons in the closet. US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appears to have a noisy one dating from his years running the Chicago Public Schools. Her name is Carol J. Spizzirri. A little background. [http://illinois corruption.net/ documents/shop lifting.pdf].


Spizzirri is a convicted shoplifter. According to a sworn affidavit by her ex-husband, a court ordered psychological evaluation diagnosed her as a paranoid schizophrenic and pathological liar. [http://illinoiscorruption.net/documents/emotionalletter.pdf]


Spizzirri claimed to be a registered nurse and a renal specialist. Her alma mater, now defunct, denied giving her an RN and reportedly she has never been a registered nurse in either Wisconsin or Illinois, as she had claimed. [http://abclocal.go.com /wls/story section=news& id=4770490] One of her daughters filed a protective order against her because of alleged abuse. [http://www. scribd. com/doc/21508542 /5-4-92-Protective-Order- filed-by-my- daughter-Christina- Pratt- against-her-mother- Carol-J-Spizzirri]

Obituaries

Author and advocate for public schools Gerald Bracey, 69, died suddenly.

This is a huge loss to those of us concerned with the wrongheaded trends going on in public education.
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Comedian Soupy Sales, born Milton Supman, 83, has died after suffering many health problems in recent years:

His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" — an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.

Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.

The Education Wars

The Washington Post shills for charter schools, which aren't any better than public schools, but at least somebody rebuts the paper's editorial.

The Education Wars

Gerald Bracey has come up with nine of the most common myths about public education.

I'd add a tenth one and the most pernicious one of all: It is almost impossible to fire a teacher because of "tenure." If anything, "tenured" teachers have no due process rights but only the "right" to go through a kangaroo hearing which school districts almost NEVER lose.

The Education Wars

Gerald Bracey takes on Barack and Arne's harebrained attempt to pervert the use of test scores in order to "evaluate" teachers. It's utterly stupid to pin education problems on the people least guilty of it.

Meanwhile, principals and other administrators can do whatever the fuck they want. There's NOBODY around to hold them accountable. School boards don't count, either.

States are rolling over and playing dead on this issue because a) they are desperate for money and b) it is unlikely that people like Bloomberg or the Governator--or Duncan-- have a clue about the abuse they are permitting.

Duncan's enthusiastic championing of a "reform" that has been shown not to work very well--charter schools--can only be taken as an instrument for union busting. If the NEA and AFT won't stand up to this abuse of testing, they deserve to be busted.

As I found in my own experience, unions are basically worthless in defending individual teachers. They are nothing but subsidiaries of the districts.
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The New York City public school district is arguably the worst and most corrupt in the United States. Apparently there were scads of so-called "U-ratings" of teachers, which translated means "unsatisfactory" and threatens teachers with termination if not stripping them of their licenses. This is a notoriously abusive system of an institution which already has numerous abusive public school districts, thanks in large part to "reforms" of the past thirty years forcing privatization models and schooling inept administrators in the worst aspects of businesses. I like this response from a dissent teacher explaining all of those "U-ratings":

On 7/25/09, And how many are bogus? wrote:
> My guess is about 80%.
>
> What's the definition of an "unsatisfactory" teacher?
>
> Anyone know?

Re: 1,554 U-Ratings Given Out in the NYC Schools for 2008-2009

Unsatisfactory Teacher TO THE *AGW'S :
*(Administrators-Gone-Wild)

One who questions.
One who asks too many questions.
One who points out wrongdoings.
One who reports wrongdoings.
One who campaigns for a better way of doing things.
One who doesn't work after work or on Saturdays as much as
they'd like.
One who reports violence or crimes, rather than covering them
up.
One who is out when they are ill, rather than allowing viruses
to spread.
One who tells the truth about the performance of the child or
the school.
One who asserts their rights.
One who defends the union contract.
One who defends the public trust.
One who is opposed to abuse of other teachers, students,
parents, community.
One who files a grievance. One who tries to organize staff.
One who distributes information to help the staff.
One who the principal conswiders a threat because they don't
appear at their parties.
One who is tenured, experienced and/or over 40 years of age.
One who appears eccentric or of with an accent, or with a
cultural or religious difference that the AGW's find
unacceptable.
One who is not content with Everyday Math or The Workshop
Model.
One who's had the misfortune of a combination of illness,
death in the family, religious observances, someone to care
for, etc., which caused latenesses or absences, which
inconvenienced the principal (supposedly inconveniencing the
school).
One who has an either too fast or too slow but deliberate
delivery of a lesson.
One whom the principal wants out so they can stick a friend in
to replace.
One whom a parent or child or other staff member complains
about for standing their ground.
One whom the principal dislikes for any reason whatsoever and
would seek to "gun for", harass, humiliate, belittle, villify,
retaliate against arbitrarily, capriciously and/or
maliciously.
And then there are cases of real incompetence in perhaps 5%.
Polo Colon

The Education Wars

As if we didn't know this would be one of the results of No Child Left Behind.
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Some sage advice from a Nevada educator talking about the absolutely shitty school system there. It isn't just confined to Clark County or even to Nevada: bad administrators and ineffective unions are rampant throughout the United States.

It is indeed a crapshoot whether a teacher survives in public schools. One rotten, sociopathic principal, and it's all over, not just in Nevada but in every school district in the entire United States. You are blackballed and prevented from ever teaching again.

A snip:

First, the average annual teacher salary, roughly $46,000, is about half what police officers and firefighters make. In the first three years of this decade, as prices were tripling here, teachers received 0 percent (zero) in cost-of-living increases. In fact, teachers' cost-of-living raises for the entire decade have totaled only 16 percent, while police and firefighters have gotten between 35 and 45 percent.

In this derelict academic climate, psychopathic principals have frequently run rampant to create "lasting wounds and damaged schools," to quote Jo and Joseph Blase, co-authors of the book Breaking the Silence. According to one study cited by the Blases, 40 percent of principals nationally are knuckle-dragging troglodytes. In Vegas, this figure is probably closer to 60 percent. Hence, getting in a school here with a good principal is a crapshoot. The odds are stacked against you.

In a revealing speech to our school board recently, Ruben Murillo, president of the local teachers union, said, "We ask teachers to speak up [about working conditions], and they can't because they're afraid of retaliation." Sadly, Murillo's statement was a tacit admission the union has consistently failed its job of protecting teachers from unethical administrators.

One must understand, however, these "unions" aren't real unions at all and are nothing more than subsidiaries of school districts. And the problems with teachers' unions are the same all over the United States.

The Education Wars

Gerald Bracey, who writes a lot about education issues but not teacher abuse, rips apart Arne.

What do you expect from a bureaucrat who has never been a teacher? From Wikipedia:

Duncan has extensive experience in educational policy and management, but has not been a teacher. In 1992, Duncan became director of the Ariel Education Initiative, a program to enhance educational opportunities for children on Chicago's South Side that was started by John W. Rogers, Jr., and in 1998 he joined the Chicago Public Schools. He became Deputy Chief of Staff for former Schools CEO Paul Vallas in 1999. In 1996, along with Rogers, he was part of a network that funded and supported Ariel Community Academy.

Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Duncan to serve as CEO of Chicago Public Schools on June 26, 2001.

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Speaking of the unspeakable Arne, he is gallivanting around the country pushing for national standardized tests, an idea that create even MORE corruption in public education than there already is.
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This editorial says to give Heath a chance as the new WCSD superintendent.

Ten cents he will be a toady like all of the rest of them, and then move on to bigger and better districts like Philadelphia or NYC.
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The Education Wars

As usual Gerald Bracey cuts through the bullshit, and in this case, that peddled by President Obama.

The nonsense of "fastest-growing" jobs is exposed for what it is:

According to the President, "Of the 30 fastest growing occupations in America, half require a bachelor's degree or more." First off, that means that half do not require even a bachelor's. More important, the fastest growing occupations never account for many jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the occupations accounting for most jobs are low-paying service sector jobs. Retail sales alone accounts for more jobs than the top ten fastest growing jobs combined. For every systems analyst Microsoft lusts after, Wal-Mart and other retailers put about 15 sales associates on the floor.

Here are the occupations the Bureau projected as those with the most jobs from 2006 to 2016: retail sales, cashiers, office clerks, registered nurses, janitors and cleaners, bookkeeping clerks, waiters and waitresses, food preparers and servers, customer service representatives, and truck and tractor drivers. Shouldn't we focus at least in part on providing these tens of millions with living wages and health benefits?

As noted on this blog many times, "fastest-growing" doesn't mean squat. Jobs with the most projected openings do.

Still More Education Wars

Gerald Bracey should know better than to give President Obama even further grief when it comes to education issues:

In a speech to the American Educational Research Association in San Diego last month on “countering the fearmongers about American public schools,” Bracey added to his list of non-truthtellers President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “Obama and Duncan seem to be following the long-established line that you can get away with saying just about anything you choose about public schools and no one will call you on it,” Bracey said. “People will believe anything you say about public education as long as it’s bad.”

Yep, and usually the bad stuff is leveled at teachers, as a recent series from the L.A. Times demonstrates. It attacked the whole "tenure" system and getting rid of "bad" teachers, when in fact it isn't the egregiously bad teachers who are thrown out. It's those who are too old or too outspoken who are tossed out. They are too expensive.

Those who are almost impossible to get rid of are administrators. They have almost total control over teachers and are not held accountable.

Like Yours Truly, Gerald Bracey

believes Barack Obama has blown it again on education with his neoliberal nonsense about charters and merit pay, among other things.

Bracey eviscerates Obama on those so-called "fastest-growing" jobs, which doesn't mean crap because those "fastest-growing jobs" account for very few positions:

Similar to his inaugural address he said, "Of the 30 fastest growing occupations in America, half require a bachelor's degree or more." But, as in his inaugural, he neglected to say these occupations account for few jobs. Wal-Mart, McDonald's, etc., are the great job machines in this country. Today he added, "By 2016, four out of every 10 new jobs will require at least some advanced education or training." There's that weasel phrase again, "advanced education or training." It's meaningless except as propaganda.

The fact is only about a quarter of jobs created require a bachelor's degree, while the overwhelming majority of jobs don't require any education at all beyond high school and training can be done on the job.

I Agree

with Gerald Bracey who wrote on a education board about what Obama said regarding education:

I have not the expertise to address the merits of President Obama’s speech to Congress on the issues of the economy. I do claim some expertise on education. He blew it.

He accepted the same garbage that the propagandists, fear mongers such as Lou Gerstner, Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob Wise, Craig Barrett and many others—God help us, Arne Duncan?--have been spewing for years.

Obama said, “”Right now, three quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma, and yet just over half of our citizens have that level of education. Scary, huh? Not really. This statistic was a favorite of ex secretary of education of education Margaret Spellings, about whom we can all express a sigh of relief that the operative word is, “ex.”

If you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics stats on job projections, it is almost true (but not really) that what Obama said is right. But there are two hugely compromising factors that make this statistic much less fearsome that it first appears:

1. The definition of “more than a high school diploma” is a weasel phrase, an incredibly slippery statistic. It does not mean a B. A., an Associates Degree, nor even a year of on-the-job training. The BLS projects that the overwhelming majority of jobs to be created between now and 2016 will require “short term on the job training.” That’s one week to three months.

2. The “fastest-growing occupations” account for very few jobs. For every systems engineer, we need about 15 sales people on the floor at Wal-Mart (and we have three newly minted scientists and engineers for every new job in those fields). The huge job numbers in this country are accounted for by retail sales, janitors, maids, food workers, waiters, truck drivers, home care assistants (low paid folk who come to take care those of us who are getting up in years), and similar low-trained, low-paid occupations. Note that I did not say these people are “low-skilled.” As Barbara Ehrenreich showed after she spent two years working in “low-skilled” jobs, there really is no such thing (see her Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America).

“We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation, and half of our students who begin college never finish.”

Because test scores no longer work to prove American school failure, the statistic of choice to prove what a lousy job we’re doing is the graduation rate. How dare those European and Asian nations have the audacity to recover from World War II! The dropout rates across nations are, so far as I can tell, incomparable, since secondary school programs in other nations range from two to five years. In other nations, once students finish the equivalent of 8th grade, they are tracked into vocational, technical or precollege programs whereas American students go to comprehensive high schools (although, as we all know, there is plenty of informal tracking within those).

Many people do not complete college for many reasons. One of my major regrets as a researcher is a failure to follow up, in the late 60’s, on groups of black students who failed to complete their education at Temple University, a center city school in Philadelphia vs. those who finished on time—at the time restrictions to access to personal data were much freer. The standout statistic in the data I looked at was that the SAT scores of those who finished in four years was only infinitesimally higher than those who had dropped out or been dismissed for academic reasons.

I also don’t know much about college completion rates in Europe, but do know that you can hang around as a student at the Sorbonne in Paris forever. Incidentally, you want a riot in Europe? Try imposing college tuition.

The World Economic Forum, and the Institute for Management Development, two Swiss think tanks, rate the U. S. as the most globally competitive nation in the world, IMD using 50+ nations, WEF, 135. What things will look like when their new rankings emerge from the current catastrophe this fall is hard to say. But looking at tests, high-scoring Iceland is an economic basket case. High-scoring France is on strike. And even higher-scoring Japan, the idol that “A Nation At Risk” prostrated itself to in 1983 because its test scores surely ensured economic prosperity, endured a “lost decade” of recession starting around 1990 and, in 2007 was in recession once again. Japan’s students still ace tests.

When will we ever learn?

That part of his speech is where I shut down the volume because he was spewing the same ignorant claptrap I have heard from politicians for years. Retrain, retrain, retrain for those jobs requiring a college degree, although more than 2/3 of ALL jobs require nothing more than a high school diploma, and only one in four requires a four-year degree. As Bracey says, "fastest-growing" is basically a meaningless term. If the overall numbers aren't there, then it doesn't mean shit. There will ALWAYS be more demand for janitors, food servers, sales clerks, and clerical workers than those in highly technical fields or in the professions. And that's where the jobs are, like it or not.

The only people benefiting from "retraining" are those who are in the business of retraining workers.

I just don't think people should be taking on even more debt for jobs that don't exist. What we need are policies which return manufacturing back to this country and more encouraging of unions, encouraging wasting money.

Gerald Bracey

exposes more lies peddled by those malevolent "reformers.".