What if the media treated teachers like football players?

It's not hard these days to wake up and wonder if I'm living in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Whether it's women's health or voting rights or climate change deniers or Donald Trump or those pesky education 'reformers', life these days feels a lot like that episode, Stopover in a Quiet Town, where the couple is stranded in a strange town only to find out that they are really only dolls in a child's model train set.

Today's surreal moment comes once again courtesy of The Star Ledger. Jersey Jazzman, Ani McHugh (aka TeacherBiz) and I have taken NJ's largest newspaper to task over their shoddy and inept coverage of all things public education more times than I can count. For a definitive accounting of how the Ledger has cow-towed to the education 'reform' movement, check out this piece co-authored by the three of us. If you want more info, just Google any of our names with the Star Ledger and/or Tom Moran and you'll find all our postings.

They are but a sample of the larger, complicit silence of mainstream media on all things education 'reform'. If it weren't for the plethora of education bloggers led by Diane Ravitch, the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss and others, and the parent/educator-led grass roots movements that have sprung up as a result of their publishing the facts, American public education would have been dead and buried long ago.

"So Marie, what is it this time?", you ask. 

Well... As anyone who even tangentially follows politics knows, on August 2nd, Gov. Christie announced on CNN that he wanted to punch teachers in the face because, to him, we are the Devil incarnate. I wrote about it here including a link to the video.

One would think that a sitting governor with a penchant for crude and debasing remarks about women—especially teachers—saying he wants to punch three minority women in the face (NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Latina, and Vice President Becky Pringle and Secretary Treasurer Princess Moss, African Americans) and calling the nation's largest teachers union "the single most destructive force in public education in America" would garner some attention from the largest newspaper in said governor's state the next day. But no. This is what we got:

It wasn't until August 4th, two days later, that the Ledger ran a piece buried on page 4: 

Sorry about the poor quality, but trust me, the story on the right is about the video.

FYI... this was the front page that day:

Not even an editorial.

Then, whilst enjoying my cup of coffee (decaf, thank you very much) yesterday morning, I removed my Star Ledger from its protective yellow bag, (yes, I still subscribe if only as an investigative reporter and to see what Charlie Brown is up to) I opened it up, and was greeted with this:

And this:

And this...

Oh, and this, too...

Four pages devoted to some knuckleheaded player who sucker punched the Jets starting quarterback and broke his jaw. Four pages devoted to a game that has absolutely no bearing on the future of this state or this nation. Four pages of coverage of something that will not affect the rights of any child in this nation to receive a thorough and efficient education. Four pages of coverage—including fan tweets—of an incident that will not affect the future of the citizens of this state (except those in a fantasy football league). Four pages of coverage of the male equivalent of some "Real Housewives of (fill in the blank)" episode.

Where were the four pages of coverage of Gov. Christie's personal war on women? Where were the four pages of reporting on the responses from the teachers unions? Where was the reporting on all the tweets that education professionals across the nation posted about it? 

This is all we got—until that article on page 4 two days after the incident.

And to make matters worse, the press is all a-gog because New England Patriots QB Tom Brady is getting a slap on the wrist for cheating in the Super Bowl. Thank goodness, America is saved! Tom Brady will play again! But where was the thoughtful analysis and reflection when eleven Atlanta teachers involved in a test cheating scandal were tried and convicted on racketeering charges with many serving jail time? To be clear: what those teachers did was flat-out wrong. They cheated and must suffer the consequences. But, so did Tom Brady. But while many of those teachers will serve jail time, lose their careers and their reputations, Brady gets to keep his Super Bowl ring, not wash his uniform for a couple of weeks, and still collect a gazillion dollar paycheck (minus a few bucks for his suspension). And if he wins another Super Bowl this year, he can clean up his tarnished reputation with little more than a lint roller.

 

Some cheaters are less guilty than others.

Again, I'm not saying that the Atlanta teachers deserve to be let off the hook. I'm saying that by giving the antics of wealthy football players behaving badly pages and pages of coverage and hours and hours of air time, while virtually ignoring all of the facts surrounding education 'reform', mainstream media is complicit in the brainwashing of much of America into believing that middle class teachers and public education are the root of all evil in this country. 

I mean, c'mon, The New York Times ran an article about the sketch artist—the sketch artist!—issuing an online apology over his sketchy (sorry) depiction of Tom Brady in the courtroom! A sitting governor wants to put out a contract on teachers, and football players doing dumb stuff gets more press coverage? Really?!

I've often said that we are turning into this:

From the movie, "Wall-e"

Can anyone or anything save us? The press can play a huge role in turning the tide of public opinion about public education and educators—if they make a conscious decision to report fairly and accurately. But I'm not holding my breath. 

Thank God for bloggers.

The Star Ledger's Tom Moran is absolutely right!

Last week broke some kind of record. The Star Ledger started the week with a front page expose on the cost of the PARCC exam (no one really knows), and then, not one, not two, but three pieces of 'reformy' education propaganda appeared on its op-ed page. 

Education blogger Stephen Danley made mincemeat of the third one even before it hit the presses. More Camden schools are being closed and turned over to charters, and the good people of that city have no say because the Camden Advisory Board of Education is "accountable to one group, and one group only: our children." Lucky for them because if they were accountable to the taxpayers, things would be very different. Please read and share Stephen's excellent piece. We must continue to expose the denial of democracy in that city.

But back to the first two...

Jersey Jazzman, Ani McHugh and I have called out Tom Moran on his blind faith in education 'reform' numerous times, but for whatever reason, he refuses to take off his rose-colored glasses. So, I am throwing in the towel. I surrender! Tom Moran is absolutely right. "This hysteria about the PARCC exam needs to stop." This test will save humanity! Corporations, hedge fund managers and billionaires really are altruistically trying to save America's public schools (the ones their kids don't attend). There is no profit-making going on. It's all a conspiracy theory. We're all 'tin foil hat' crazies. Dear God, how could I not have known? 

WAKE UP, PEOPLE! THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY!

Friends, we need to stop running around like Chicken Little ranting that the sky is falling in on public education. It is vitally important that we stop the hysterics and focus on this test because...

[T]here is a broader public purpose here, one much more important than taking pot shots at the PARCC. One of the main reasons we need this standardized test is for parents in struggling districts like Camden or Newark, who would otherwise have no way of knowing whether their kids are in a failing school. The whining of parents in districts that don't have to worry about that sort of thing shouldn't take precedence. (emphasis mine)

Wow, I had no idea the PARCC opt-out movement was just a bunch of 'white suburban moms' being too overprotective. I thought parents in Newark and Camden were just as ticked off about it as the rest of us. But I guess Tom is right. It doesn't matter that far too many urban public schools are underfunded, falling apart, and have high concentrations of high poverty students. Parents in low income urban areas need this test to tell them how bad their public schools are because they are too ignorant to know any better, so suburban parents should just suck it up and force their kids to take this test for their sake. 

It doesn't matter that the test is flawed. It doesn't matter that the test is developmentally inappropriate, especially for special needs students. It doesn't matter that the test is not diagnostic. It doesn't matter that teachers, parents and students won't be able to see the answers. It doesn't matter that the prep and administration of this test has taken countless instructional hours out of the school day. It doesn't matter that school districts are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on tech upgrades for this unfunded mandate. It doesn't matter that many students have purposely thrown their test answers because they know it doesn't count for them this year. It doesn't matter that many teachers' jobs will be on the line because of those thrown tests. It doesn't matter that this test was never properly vetted nor piloted. 

But what do I know? I'm just a teacher. What do education researchers like Jersey Jazzman, Dr. Bruce Baker, Dr. Chris Tienken, Dr. Julia Sass Rubin, Dr. Diane Ravitch or any of the other researchers and bloggers who've been exposing the for-profit motives and flawed methods behind education 'reform' know for that matter? What do the parents who've taken the sample PARCC tests—and failed miserably—know? 

None of that matters because according to Moran, this test is the 'Great White Hope', that will finally defeat poverty in our mostly minority, urban areas. But that big, bad teachers union is messing things up:

"With the added variable of a multi-million dollar campaign against the test by the teacher's union, which doesn't want the PARCC to factor into teacher evaluations, the collective freak-out has reached a crescendo."

What a load of malarky! 

Yes, parents in poor urban areas need the test scores from kids in rich white districts to tell them their schools are 'failing'. And the teachers union is just messing everything up because, you know, The Gates Foundation, The Broad Foundation, Students First, The Koch Brothers, The Walton Foundation, they are the only ones spending millions of dollars on campaigns that push their education message.

I wonder how he'd feel if cardiologists were held accountable for their patients' health after McDonalds managed to convince America that Big Macs would cure heart disease? 

I am stopping short of calling Moran a liar because when one lies, they deliberately mean to deceive. I don't think Moran means to deceive. I think he is in denial like birthers, climate deniers and vaccine opponents who blindly cling to faith-based beliefs in the face of overwhelming research and evidence.

And he calls us conspiracy theorists...

My blog reaches a milestone

Dear Readers,

Thank you. At some point between yesterday and today, my blog passed the 100,000-views mark. I launched it on March 1, 2014 hoping it would add to the conversation about education 'reform' both in NJ and around the country. My primary goals have always been to educate the general public, and parents in particular, about the privatization of public education, and to give a voice to educators because the mainstream media has, for whatever reason, chosen not to. 

While 100,000 is nowhere near the same universe as Diane Ravitch, Anthony Cody or I'm sure my good buddies Jersey Jazzman and TeacherBiz, I had no expectations going in, so to reach this number in a little less than a year is humbling and gratifying.

So, thank you for all the shares, likes, re-tweets and whatever else you do on social media to spread the word. I truly appreciate all your support! 

This week in NJ ed 'reform': The truth is out there

This was quite a week in the battle over public education in the Garden State: Gov. Christie's testing study commission heard mountains of testimony from concerned parents and citizens in three different venues; educators continued to host parent Take the PARCC nights; NJEA released a bombshell new poll showing massive numbers of NJ parents oppose the test; and NJ101.5 capped several days of PARCC discussion with a debate over the test. 

Here are my thoughts:

A more perfect-er life for only $19.95

My daughter and I have a running joke: All the world's problems can be solved for only 3 easy payments of $19.95. If we just went out and purchased every single as-seen-on-TV product, our lives would be perfect.

That's what ed 'reformers' want us to believe about the PARCC test. Just like the PedEgg, the Bacon Bowl and the Uro Club, PARCC promises to magically transform your child's entire life from dull to dazzling—with just 10 easy hours of testing! No more struggles with 'bad' teachers who lazily sit around waiting to collect their pensions. PARCC will send them packing. White suburban moms will magically accept that their kids really aren't brilliant when they see those crappy test scores. But wait! Call now, and Pearson will upgrade your flunkie kid's educational experience with all sorts of Common Core/PARCC aligned learning materials guaranteed to make them College and Career Ready! (Just pay the cost of cuts to arts and foreign language programs.)

When TV pitch-men run the country

The reality is that the road to miraculous cures and a better, shinier, awesomer life is paved with money back guarantees that somehow never seem to materialize. Whether it's the infomercial host or the President of the United States, carnival barkers have been selling the American public an endless stream of bad ideas, sketchy products and outright colossal failures since 1893 when Clark Stanley sold his first bottle of snake oil. Here are some of my favorites from big business/pharma/government:

• Cigarettes
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• The Pinto
• Lead Paint
• Accutane
• Asbestos
• NAFTA
• GMOs
• Phen-phen
• DDT

Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section.

Number 1 on my list is DES. 77 years ago, American doctors wanted pregnant women to have 'trust and confidence' (more on this phrase below) in a little life-changing drug called Diethylstilbestrol. Here's what the CDC says about it:

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is an estrogen that was first manufactured in a laboratory in 1938, so it is called a "synthetic estrogen." During 1938-1971, U.S. physicians prescribed DES to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages and avoid other pregnancy problems. As a result, an estimated 5-10 million pregnant women and the children born of these pregnancies were exposed to DES. Physicians prescribed DES to pregnant women on the theory that miscarriages and premature births occurred because some pregnant women did not produce enough estrogen naturally. At the time, physicians thought DES was safe and would prevent miscarriages and pre-term (early) births. 

In 1953, published research showed that DES did not prevent miscarriages or premature births. However, DES continued to be prescribed until 1971. In that year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Drug Bulletin advising physicians to stop prescribing DES to pregnant women. The FDA warning was based on a study published in 1971 that identified DES as a cause of a rare vaginal cancer in girls and young women who had been exposed to DES before birth (in the womb). (emphasis mine)

Doctors continued to prescribe DES to pregnant women 18 years after it was proven not to work. We now know that exposure to large doses of estrogen is linked to breast cancer. That's why commonly-prescribed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was yanked from prescription pads years ago. But my mother wasn't spared. She took DES when she was pregnant with me, and died of breast cancer at age 37. And as a 'DES Daughter' I have suffered a host of medical issues because I was exposed to it in utero. Suffice to say that both my children are true miracles. 

I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm writing this because I am living proof of what happens when the government or big business or some other faceless entity tells us that what they're doing is wonderful, transformative and fantastic for everyone, and we should just accept it lock, stock and barrel. Which is exactly what Dr. Sandra Alberti asked of NJ parents this week when she and NJEA President Wendall Steinhauer engaged in a friendly PARCC debate on NJ101.5. 

Dr. Alberti works at Student Achievement Partners. Founded by David Coleman, Susan Pimentel and Jason Zimba, lead writers of the Common Core State Standards, SAP is "a non-profit [alarm bells!] organization with one purpose: to help all students and teachers see their hard work lead to greater student achievement."

(Note to self: Find out how that 'all' includes art teachers.)

Like other PARCC cheerleaders, Alberti was practically breathless with excitement about how these tests were going to be the best think since... well... Jeaneez! 

Her voice got louder, her pitch got higher as she implored the listening audience "to have trust and confidence" in the PARCC.

Trust no one

Call me Fox Mulder, but I've gone through enough ccrap (pun intended) living with the effects of another miracle cure that when 'reformers' try to sell me a load of hokum about the miracle of PARCC, I start looking for Cigarette Man hiding in the shadows.

Just like DES, there is no proof, no evidence, no long-term study proving the miracle of PARCC. But unlike DES, we don't have to wait 15 years to figure this out. As the tag line of The X-Files says, "The truth is out there" right now (here, here, here, here, here). 

Dr. Alberti finished her comments by saying, "Imagine if all that energy was going into working with kids to help them succeed...we would have such amazing schools in New Jersey." 

The fact is we do have amazing schools in New Jersey—many of the best in the nation. And we have amazing education professionals who have dedicated their entire careers to working in the classroom, not at some non-profit or think-tank, to help kids succeed. We also have high concentrations of impoverished Black and Brown students attending public schools in our inner cities, and a governor who thinks the best way to fix this is by cutting almost $6 billion in public education funding. 

Imagine if all the money that is being wasted on band width and Chromebooks and test prep and data collection and advertising and charter schools and Teach for America and buying candidates and think tanks and non-profits and partnerships and summits and conferences and Regional Achievement Centers and the endless, endless layers of new administration in state-controlled districts was actually "going into working with [impoverished] kids [and their families] to help them succeed...we would have such amazing [children and families] in [all of] New Jersey."

Final thoughts

In the past 3 months the amount of parental push-back against the PARCC in NJ has grown exponentially. Polling numbers against the test are through the roof. School districts are scrambling to figure out how to respond to the growing number of test refusal letters. The State Board of Education and Hespe's testing commission look like deer in the headlights having been hit with a tidal wave of criticism at board meetings and public hearings around the state. The sleeping giant has awoken. The parents will win, because the truth is out there.

Hespe opens the floodgates.

(UPDATE: I've added a link to Peter Greene's blog post on this issue. Will add more as they come in. Also, please read all the way to the end for the link to the petition that was just started. Sign and share!)

Reaction to his directive on PARCC testing is swift and fierce.

Courtesy of fmtc.com

Here it is, folks! Your one-stop shopping center for reaction to NJ Acting Education Commissioner David Hespe's latest missive about the PARCC! 

In an attempt to thwart the mounting 'opt-out' movement that is quickly spreading across the state, Hespe released this directive last week to superintendents and school district administrators which basically tells them to tell parents that opting out isn't an option. Predictably, the backlash from parents and other concerned individuals and groups has been loud, swift and full of real logic and reasoning.

Former teacher, parent, attorney and blogger, Sarah Blaine's post was picked up by the Washington Post. In her piece titled, 'This Means War', Blaine says:

It doesn’t take a Ph.D to realize that it is fundamentally wrong to base education policy on essays our fourth graders are required to type — when they’ve never taken typing classes.   

... 

It appears to me that you’re [Hespe] taking a page from your boss’s playbook by telling those of us who disagree with you to “sit down and shut up.” It appears to me, Acting Commissioner Hespe, that you’re trying to bully those of us who do not see the value in your precious PARCC tests by punishing our children....That’s low, Acting Commissioner. Really low. And do you know what? You don’t intimidate me. All you’ve done is piss me off. And Acting Commissioner, I’ll tell you this: pissing off parents — and voters — like me is probably not the way to ensure the long-term success of your policies. You were just a faceless bureaucrat. Now I want to get you fired. You deserve no less for attempting to bully parents by punishing our children. 

She goes on to say that her 4th grade child's PARCC testing is longer that the NJ State Bar Exam. Yea, you read that right.

Teacher, mom and blogger, Ani McHugh (aka. TeacherBiz) points out the fuzzy logic behind Hespe's assertion that the PARCC is the be-all and end-all of standardized testing. 

Hespe writes:

McHugh responds:

This statement essentially suggests that the assessments New Jersey students have been taking for years (NJASK/HSPA) were worthless. If that’s true, why were students who scored partially proficient on the HSPA denied diplomas because of their scores? Why were they forced to participate in the AHSA process–which, in many districts, was offered in lieu of academic or elective courses and which sometimes lasted beyond a student’s senior year of high school–until they passed the HSPA? Why did many districts use NJASK and HSPA scores as justification for remedial course placements? Why did we devote so many instructional hours to inferior testing? Why did the NJDOE promote and tie high stakes to such inadequate tests for so long? What evidence does the NJDOE have that PARCC assessments are valid measures of student learning and/or achievement? What can one test “diagnose” that classroom teachers cannot? And, ultimately, why should parents trust the DOE’s evaluation of anyassessment–especially an unproven and controversial one like PARCC–if it was so wrong about the NJASK and HSPA?

TCNJ education major and perennial thorn in the side of the NJ State BOE, Melissa Katz, writes about her experiences as the first generation to go completely through K-12 in the NCLB years. Her absolute love of learning came to a screeching halt in high school when she suffered from debilitating school anxiety. Hespe's directive struck a nerve:

...our students deserve better: they deserve respect and to be treated as humans, not testing machines used to further the state's unproven and untested "reforms."

As a current student and future teacher, I will not stop fighting until I know my students one day will be treated as humans, as learners, and as explorers. I will not stop fighting until there is equitable education for all - for students who can't test well, but are brilliant artists. For students who can't test well, but make the most beautiful music to ever grace our ears. For the students who can't test well, but are math geniuses. For the students who can't test well but are our future teachers, scientists, dreamers, inventors, dancers, artists, musicians, historians, or whatever their passion is....
We must move away from the test-and-punish regime in education before we destroy the love of learning for students, no matter what they love or how they learn. We owe this to them and the future of education in this country. 

If these tests are so vitally important to our children's futures, so vitally important for educators' prescriptive plans to magically make every single child in this state 'college and career ready' (whatever that means), why the heck does it take 6 months to get the results? That teacher can't use that data to help that child. 

Blogger/educator, Peter Green, who blogs under the moniker Curmudgucation, offers up a healthy list of 'rigorous' questions for Mr. Hespe should you decide to opt your children out of the PARCC:

• Exactly what is the correspondence between PARCC results and college readiness. Given the precise data, can you tell me what score my eight year old needs to get on the test to be guaranteed at least a 3.75 GPA at college?
• Does it matter which college he attends, or will test results guarantee he is ready for all colleges?
• Can you show me the research and data that led you to conclude that Test Result A = College Result X? How exactly do you know that meeting the state's politically chosen cut score means that my child is prepared to be a college success?
• Since the PARCC tests math and language, will it still tell me if my child is ready to be a history or music major? How about geology or women's studies?
• My daughter plans to be a stay-at-home mom. Can she skip the test? Since that's her chosen career, is there a portion of the PARCC that tests her lady parts and their ability to make babies?
• Which section of the PARCC tests a student's readiness to start a career as a welder? Is it the same part that tests readiness to become a ski instructor, pro football player, or dental assistant?
• I see that the PARCC will be used to "customize instruction." Does that mean you're giving the test tomorrow (because it'a almost November already)? How soon will the teacher get the detailed customizing information-- one week? Ten days? How will the PARCC results help my child's choir director and phys ed teacher customize instruction?
• Is it possible that the PARCC will soon be able to tell me if my eight year old is on track for a happy marriage and nice hair? 
• Why do you suppose you keep using the word "utilize" when "using" is a perfectly good plain English substitute? 
• To quote the immortal Will Smith in Independence Day, "You really think you can do all that bullshit you just said?"

But perhaps the piece de resistance came from Jacklyn Brown, a member of the Facebook group, Opt Out of State Standardized Tests — New Jersey who posted the following letter. This is a closed group, so I can't share the link. But it hits the nail on the head: 

(NOTE: I apologize for the format of this letter, but technical difficulties prevented me from copying and pasting, linking or otherwise uploading, so I did it as a series of screen shots. Greater minds than mine, I'm sure, could have figured out a work-around.)

This about sums it up. Yea, it's really weird that Princess Leia suddenly starts speaking in a British accent, but this is what's happening. The more the 'reformers' try to tighten their grip around our children's education, the more parents and children will slip through their fingers. 

Good news travels fast! Within minutes of posting this, Jacklyn Brown's letter has been made into a PETITION. Please sign and share!

The gentrification of Camden's schools Part II: Love is all you need

gentrification—noun 1. the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.

In Part I of my interview with Camden educator, Keith Benson we talked about his views on the state takeover, what his students face on a daily basis, and whether he thinks the charters coming into the city can truly address the needs of children living in chronically high poverty. Part II is at the end of this post.

Camden has been in the news a lot lately. Earlier this week on her show, Radio Times, Marty Moss-Coane of Philadelphia's public broadcasting station, WHYY, interviewed David Sciarra, Executive Director of NJ's Education Law Center, Stephen Danley, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers University, who also writes the Local Knowledge blog, and Carmen Crespo, parent activist and member of the grassroots pro-public education group Save Our Schools NJ about the separate and unequal state takeover of Camden's public schools. Last month she interviewed Camden Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard, the TFA alum and former Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of Newark Public Schools. 

The public outcry against the decimation of public education in the poorest, most dangerous city in the country has been well documented here, here, here, here and here. There is much more, and I encourage readers to search for themselves.

Notice that all but the WHYY link are to blogs, and there are more blog links below. Apartheid is alive and well in NJ and around the country as scores of black and brown children living in high poverty are being discriminated against, their schools closed, their neighborhoods up-ended, and their voices silenced. And yet the mainstream media is perfectly content to ignore it while rolling out the red carpet for Campbell Brown. And if you're reading this and still have no idea who she is and what she's up to, start here.

But I digress. When last we left Keith, we were just starting to talk about Bing Howell and his 'portfolio management' plan for Camden's schools, which Keith calls "racist, insulting and exploitative".

Who is Bing Howell?

Yea, because shaking up is just what kids in high poverty districts need.

Kevin Shelly of the Courier-Post describes* the former Broadie, former NJDOE 'reformer', and architect of the Camden School District's 'Renaissance' thusly:

Howell serves as a liaison to Camden for the creation of four Urban Hope Act charter schools. He reports directly to the deputy commissioner of education, Andy Smerick. Howell’s proposal suggests that he oversee the intervention through portfolio management — providing a range of school options with the state, not the district, overseeing the options. He would be assisted by Rochelle Sinclair, another DOE employee. Both Howell and Sinclair are fellows of the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation.** (emphasis mine)

Please take a moment to peruse the intervention proposal, aka: 'portfolio management' plan. Nowhere does it say anything about how to address individual students' needs. Nowhere does it say anything about addressing poverty, post traumatic stress disorder, hunger, homelessness, lead poisoning, fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, dyslexia, language barriers, physical and mental abuse, and all the other issues children living in chronically high poverty endure. Nowhere does it address the crumbling infrastructure in some of Camden's schools. But it does say plenty about decreasing the number of 'seats' in traditional public schools and increasing the number of 'seats' in charters and nonpublic schools: 

Numbers don't lie. They don't want to improve public education; they want to improve 'choice', aka 'options'. But as we've seen time and again in one high poverty city after another, in one charter school after another, 'choice' ≠ 'access'. Oh there can be choices, and parents can have access to those choices as in, they can mark an 'X' on an application to several schools and hope they get in to one, or hope they hold the winning lottery ticket to the shiny new charter school (can I buy one at the corner store?), but the chances their child will actually gain access to that charter, will actually step foot inside and remain there until graduation are dependent on a whole host of criteria way down in the fine print that's printed with invisible ink.

And here's what Keith has to say about it all:

The new state-appointed superintendent, Paymon Rouhanifard, has just completed his first full school year at the helm. What changes did you notice under his leadership?

I know the superintendent pretty well. He's a very smart and likable man. Having said that, I don't know whether he has direct control over the direction the Renaissance Schools and that process are heading. I don't know if it's a reflection of what he, specifically, would like to have done. That was put into motion well before he got here with the Urban Hope Act and the portfolio management plan that was laid out in 2011 by Bing Howell, who is now in Tennessee.

The plan is insulting, racist, exploitative and marginalizing. The community has been shut out, and it's not going to benefit students one bit. When you look at some of the curriculum and pedagogy that they've put online, some of it is absolutely dreadful. And I would never have my child in a school that does any of those things. They're not creative, they're rote, they're 'no excuses', there are no opportunities for students to develop their own individual self interests. And you combine that with the fact that the 3 charter operators can open up to 5 schools each, that affects a lot of students. 

I find it insulting that, out of all the excellent graduate schools of education in the state, they're handing over our professional development to Relay, which was started by the founders of KIPP and Uncommon, and which has absolutely no experience in dealing with our population of students. The fact that they can give professional development to public school educators shows just how much of a foothold these private, charter operators have gained in our district—a district where the public has been silenced and pushed aside for years. The citizens have no way to address their grievances concerning this. 

For more on the new professional development plan, see this post by blogger Ani McHugh (aka. TeacherBiz).

Does the board still hold public meetings? Are parents and community member still going to meetings and speaking out? 

Yes. It's been increasingly contentious. It's unfortunate, but that's what happens when you have a board of education that is completely beholden to the mayor's and superintendent's agenda. There are no checks and balances which exist in other school districts with elected boards. And that's what I find particularly disturbing. In mostly wealthy, mostly white, suburban districts the community has a lot of input into how their schools are run, but because we are poor and minority, we aren't afforded that same right. That screams racism. And some folks find that practice acceptable.  

Now that these charters are scheduled to open in the fall, what cuts have you seen in the public schools?

Our budget has been cut by $72 million and coincidentally $72 million has been allocated to the charter schools. So, our district's budget has been decimated and educators laid off, and at the same time, the charter budget has exploded. It's not hard to connect the dots.

How is your association working with all of these changes? Is the central office staff listening to the concerns of the educators?

I can't speak to how much or if the superintendent's office is listening, I can just comment that, based on our board of ed meetings, when members of the superintendent's staff are there, they are 'hearing' us, but it doesn't appear they are really 'listening'. We take the time to make meaningful comments and we just get these blank stares back. I'm really not sure what happens when our association leaders speak with them in private, but that's what happens in public. I know our association president is trying to work with Rouhanifard, and at the same time also trying to save jobs. It's a delicate dance and I don't think our association—and the NJEA for that matter—are doing enough to address this emergency. Public education in Camden is dying, and the hands of the Camden Education Association are kind of tied because the NJEA endorsed the Urban Hope Act. Unfortunately that leaves our educators and our schools on an island where no one is really in a position to defend us, so we kind of have to do whatever we think we can to save our students.

Note: While the NJEA originally supported the Urban Hope Act because it was going to be a pilot program with one experimental school that would be part of Cooper Medical Center, the program exploded, and it soon became clear that the charter schools were discriminating against students who are the most challenging, and therefore most expensive, to educate. In response to recent proposed changes to the act, which greatly expand the scale and scope of the charter schools, President Wendall Steinhauer issued a strongly worded statement including this:

“The original legislation enacted in 2012 was never intended to give private operators a blank check to take over buildings, skim off higher-achieving students and drain the resources of the Camden schools in the process,” he said. “Passage of this legislation expands the existing law, enabling the massive corporate takeover of the Camden Public Schools.”

NJEA opposed the latest legislation, which passed both houses of the Legislature in late June, because it would greatly expand the scope of the 2012 law.  It would open the door to Mastery and Uncommon, which, in other cities, have siphoned off scarce resources from the public schools. The governor’s conditional veto would eliminate an early retirement incentive in the bill, which would have mitigated the impact of school closures on Camden school employees and their families. Hundreds of teachers and staff have already been laid off as the district expands the number of charter schools. 

Play armchair superintendent: If you were running the school district, what would you do to help the students in Camden get the best educational experience they possibly can? 

A pedagogy of care and love is of utmost import. I would stress the need for our educators to have a very close and loving relationship with their students, to go out of their way to show students they care because until a student believes you care about them, your message isn't going to get through to them. The substantive learning can take place after that. 

I would also put additional money into the supplemental wrap-around services that we discussed earlier. Making sure students are getting the counseling, the food, the extra support to help alleviate the blocks that make attending school difficult. More social services—a lot more social services, things that focus on the whole child—not just the student. 

And then there would be a lot less testing, because we test kids here like you wouldn't believe. We have end-of-unit testing every quarter. We have MAP testing twice a year. In addition to juniors and seniors taking the HSPA. And now there will be more with the PARCC testing starting this school year. There is so much testing that the classes get fragmented because you get into a groove in teaching and learning then suddenly you have to stop for testing. Things happen in fits and starts, and that's not the way classrooms are supposed to operate. It's disruptive to the learning process. 

I would also encourage, and beg and implore the community to be authentically involved in the direction of the district. The kids represent the city. They are part of the city. They live here, so without parental and community input, you're not engaging the constituency you're here to serve.  

Love, care, community involvement and supplemental services: if you take care of those things, it's a lot easier to educate. We have to treat students as people first. 

Exactly. You have to build up the infrastructure first. When the US goes into poor or war-ravaged countries and helps to rebuild them, we don't start at the top and work our way down; we start with the foundations, the infrastructure, the roots, and build people and communities up. When we build schools in those countries, we don't implement relentless testing, and exclude students. It continually amazes me that 'reformers' refuse to see that high poverty students need so much more than a test or sitting in a straight row or keeping their shirt tucked in to help them succeed.

Absolutely, because if we're being really honest, this education 'reform' movement is not about helping students succeed, it's about helping private corporations get access to public dollars. And this has been an effort that has been underway since the 1980's. And they've finally figured out a way to get it done. This is not about improving education.

We have buildings like Trenton High School that are literally falling down around students, that are unsafe and impede their ability to learn, and we have no money to fix them, yet we can pull funding from these school districts to give to charter schools. What's the infrastructure like in Camden's school buildings? 

I don't know... sometimes I think I've become immune to all the problems. I just don't see them anymore. Many of our buildings, like Woodrow Wilson and Camden High, were built in the early 1900's so you expect certain things need fixing. There are certainly some issues here, and I believe there are plans to address them in the future. It remains to be seen what will happen.

Any parting thoughts?

I really think it's telling that if improving education is the goal, why aren't education practitioners involved? How come we aren't consulted as to what schools and students need? Even education researchers are not consulted. Business people are. And these people along with those who run the charters make a whole lot of money.  

If you wanted to improve the educational outcomes of students in this area, how would it make sense to bring in the most inexperienced people to teach our students? In no other profession or industry would that exist. If I have a medical issue, I wouldn't want the most inexperienced doctor to work on me. I don't think anyone would. We want the most experienced doctors. Why isn't it the same when we talk about educating our children?   

The answer is very simple, folks. In a town that has seen so much hate, educators know that this is what students need to truly be able to learn, and it doesn't cost a penny...






Many thanks to all the incredible bloggers and activists who continue to shine a light on the racist and discriminatory practices of ed 'reform'. Those whose work I linked into this post include (in no particular order): Ani McHugh (aka TeacherBiz), Jersey Jazzman, Diane Ravitch, Stephen Danley, Education Law Center, Julia Sass-Rubin, Save Our Schools, EduShyster, Anthony Cody and Blue Jersey. Links to all their blogs, and many other excellent ones, are on the right. Please check them out and keep spreading the word.


* Note: The original link to Shelly's Courier-Post piece is down. The link above is to a post from Jersey Jazzman who quotes extensively from it. 
** Howell left that post at NJDOE to work for 5 months as HR director of the Camden-based Regional Achievement Center (RAC). He then left for a position in the Tennessee DOE's Office of School Improvement.