Twelve Things I Learned from Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch was introduced to us at the AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) Conference as a “champion of education.” Anyone who has read her articles, her books, or her blog knows that this is an understatement; Diane Ravitch is, in my opinion, one of the greatest champions of education because of her experience, her passion, and her brilliance. She is a fervent advocate and prolific writer. She is an engaging speaker and has a ravishing way of using data to prove the good, the bad, and the ugly of education. Although I have heard her speak on video, hearing her in real-life was more inspiring that I could have imagined. The theme of the conference was “Taking Charge of Change,” and here are twelve things I learned from her about how we can take charge and help make a change.
Diane Ravitch was introduced to us at the AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) Conference as a “champion of education.” Anyone who has read her articles, her books, or her blog knows that this is an understatement; Diane Ravitch is, in my opinion, one of the greatest champions of education because of her experience, her passion, and her brilliance. She is a fervent advocate and prolific writer. She is an engaging speaker and has a ravishing way of using data to prove the good, the bad, and the ugly of education. Although I have heard her speak on video, hearing her in real-life was more inspiring that I could have imagined. The theme of the conference was “Taking Charge of Change,” and here are twelve things I learned from her about how we can take charge and help make a change.
- People want American schools to be like international schools. After all, American schools are falling farther and farther behind on international tests, right? No. First, Americans have never scored particularly well on international tests. This is because 25% of our children are living in poverty, and when students don’t have food to eat, clean clothes to wear, or transportation to school, they are not going to learn as well and as a result, not perform as well on a test. However, when low-poverty American schools were compared to nations like high-scoring Finland, Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, American schools scored significantly higher.
- People who are still not convinced that American students are as well prepared as international students should know that international schools don’t have charters or vouchers. They do not have amateurs in positions of power (administrators, superintendents.) International schools value and respect the education profession.
- Bush’s No Child Left Behind is a hoax. (A hoax as Ravitch defines it is “a legislative mandate that has no evidence.”) Obama’s Race to the Top is perhaps a bigger hoax. No Child Left Behind evaluates, and thereby praises and punishes, schools based on test scores. NCLB declared that by 2014 100% of American children would be on grade level. That obviously didn’t work. Why? Because if a high jumper can’t clear the four foot bar, raising it to six feet isn’t going to make him learn how to do it. Likewise, raising the standard to 100% is not going to automatically make kids do better on a test. It’s as if they are keeping their best test-taking strategies in their pocket until 2014. It’s ludicrous. RTTT is equally maddening. Important requirements of RTTT are: closing schools that are failing, transferring public money to private industries, and test-based evaluations. Again, it’s like teachers are holding onto their best teaching strategies and will only use them when they are offered more money…or that principals are keeping their best practices to themselves until someone threatens to close their school down. This type of threatening and bribing and punishing is a hoax.
- The narrative of education “reformers” is that public schools are broken, failing, and losing dominance. These people who call themselves reformers think that the private sector does everything better. The consequence of this narrative is a crisis mentality that schools should be taken over by businesses and other private organizations. This does not improve public schools; it undermines the public’s confidence in them.
- Test-based evaluations have been disproven again and again. They have been tried for years, and they have never worked. Tests are unreliable, and you cannot count on students to indicate how effective a teacher is or how much a child learned. Remember that part about hungry students not learning as well?
- North Carolina has eliminated salary increases for master’s degrees. They eliminated Teaching Fellows and allotted 6 million dollars for Teach for America instead. They are trying to offer teachers 4 year contracts in exchange for tenure and for a raise of 500 dollars. North Carolina is 46th in the nation in pay. The pay is so low, it takes 15 years to make $40,000. The governor just proposed a pay raise, but only for teachers in their first 5 years of teaching. (We already know all these things, but it is critical to know that, at a national conference, Diane Ravitch singled out our state saying our politicians are “literally punishing teachers and replacing them with Teach for America.”)
- Teach for America places teachers with 5 weeks of “training” into high-poverty, low-performing schools to help turn them around. This sends the message that teaching isn’t a profession. It sends the message that no training, no understanding, no research is necessary to be a teacher. But teaching is quite the opposite. Teaching requires an understanding of children and content which cannot be learned in 5 weeks. Teachers get better with experience, and TFA teachers are only required to teach for 2 years. Why are we replacing experienced teachers with teachers with no training, no understanding, and no research who are merely fulfilling a requirement?
- The biggest attack on public education is coming from the US Department of Education with their heavy focus on the value-added model. VAM is too unstable, too inaccurate, and fundamentally flawed. VAM is a requirement of RTTT, and in order for states to get a waiver from NCLB, they must adopt VAM. VAM uses tests to grade teachers, not students. It makes tests too important, encourages teaching to the test, and results in narrowing of the curriculum.
- The biggest hoax is that school choice is the civil rights issue of our time. The goal of the reformers’ narrative is to think as consumers, not citizens. We have a duty as citizens to look out for the good of the public, and this includes public schools. As citizens, we do what’s best for public and private organizations; we don’t abandon one. Public schools are a civic responsibility, not a consumer good.
- Children are not global competitors. Why are we “racing to the top?” Our children need to be taught creativity, the arts, how to work with others, how to be respectful. Children do not care about being global competitors. The purpose of education is not to rank kids but to allow each one to develop and use their gifts. It is NOT their job to live out the fantasies of politicians.
- The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America’s public schools is not a partisan issue. Republicans have messed up, and Democrats have messed up. Laws have been passed that are ruining public education. It is time for the people in charge to be educators, not business people, so that decisions can be made that benefit public schools. When public schools are strengthened, the whole community benefits.
- What can we do? Straight from my conference notes: “Be fearless. Speak out that federal policy is wrong. Don’t accept the narrative. Help people understand that children are doing incredible things with the abuse we are piling on them. Tell everyone that teaching is hard work and requires more than test scores. Join the fight to protect public education. Challenge the myth of bad teachers. Challenge politicians. Challenge the belief that test scores are so important. Be active. Join alliances with teachers and parents. Join the Network for Public Education. Don’t be defensive. Celebrate education. Write letters. Speak out. Blog. Invite politicians to school. Invite politicians to take the 8th grade math test. Insist that schools have a rich curriculum that includes the arts. Remind people that the reality of leveling the playing field is our obligation and does not happen by segregation.”