My email to NY Post Writer, Kriss

     A New York Post article about Educators for Excellence, Independent teachers group demands Albany eval plan (Erik Kriss) dropped the journalism ball, in my opinion, when it comes to the education reform/teacher evaluation issue. 

     The title, to begin with, made it seem as if teachers ("independent" because they aren't mindless followers of most?) are eager to agree to job security based on an ever-changing, questionable quality/validity, and profit-driven agenda. Giving into policy-maker blackmail (giving up rights and giving in to bad policy) to get funding scraps-much of which could be diverted into the reform machine, anyway, is portrayed as a sensible move being resisted by stubborn unionized educators.

     Are the "independent teachers" "independent" because they are not full-time, public school teachers dedicated to a career of enabling children-but instead well funded political activist/lobbyist/reform strategist types? This one goes barely examined, with a passing suggestion regarding Bill Gates funding, but for more info on Educators for Excellence, go here.

     The information on E4E at that link is two tears old, and readily available. I don't think where NY Post stands in the education reform debate is a mystery, though. And if you are even bothering to read this, you understand what I'm saying. Still, I thought I should send an email to this writer, and I'll share it with you.


ekriss@nypost.com

That is the address, if you care to send a message.


     While E4E is described in your article as some independent group of teachers anxious for a corporate driven measure of teacher worth in the public school teaching profession, I'm not sure a nod towards some Gates funding passes as due diligence. E4E "independent teachers" will likely not be subject to, or impacted by these attacks cloaked in the "reform" label. Do you need more information on E4E, or on what real teachers in real public schools (unable to filter away more needy learners with less involved parents) have to do? I can either give you, or direct you towards people with no access to millions in PR funds but plenty of everyday experience.

Separating Power from Privilege: Making Education Count (Part 1)

     We are living in an unusual time, where failure that makes powerful people more wealthy is presented as success, protected, even promoted at the expense of everyone else. This system is shrouded in a complicated web of policy accessible only to the inner circle of powerful people enjoying the greatest benefits of the system. Even our supposed regulatory agencies have executed their duties in a weak, toothless manner.

     A NY Times article from 2010 describes the unapologetic attitude of the investment pros that sank our economy and had the gall to shrug it of with something like "Hey...ya' pays yer money and ya' takes yer chances!" Especially aggravating was Lloyd C. Blankfein, unmoved by the knowledge that investment employees of Goldman Sachs knew the investments they actively sold were lousy, that there were G.S. employee  emails on record where they used expletives to describe how bad these investments were, and at the same time the firm made lots of money selling them. Mr. Blankfein made G.S. sound like a model of customer service: providing the opportunity for big risk/big reward (while not owning up to pushing big loss for their own big gain)





    It's understandable that the overall grease on the wheels of our economy is provided in part by the willingness of investors to support great ideas, great businesses, growing industries. Their activity can grow the economy, communities, and realize a return on their investment.                                                                             
                            

                                              

Now we have a lot of work to do explaining to people what it is that we do." 

(Blankfein, With Charlie Rose, 2010)

     Sadly, in the recent downturn, the values and rewards were overly speculative and appear to have been ginned up by firms like Goldman Sachs, with the rewards (the money collected-in some cases from pension funds of regular Janes and Joes) going to the firm itself. While most of the country had been knee-capped by the games of the well to do, and while even in good times a 4% raise in wages was pretty decent for your average middle class salaried worker,

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein received total compensation of $16.1 million in 2011, a 14 percent increase from the year before.

      To be fair, his SALARY was really only $2 million, with a $3 million bonus, and the rest in stock ($10+ mil) and various necessities (a car AND driver, incidentally at more than I make after 13+ years in public school teaching) including personal security. 

      Most interesting is the fact that Mr. B.'s security costs doubled from the previous year.  Something to be nervous about in that industry? Besides the money situation, anyway. THAT seems to be working out pretty well for them. 

      So why have public employees, public pensions, public schools...basically the public become the target of reform in recent policy? My guess is that the powers driving policy (investors/lobbyists) have more or less bled us. Their willingness to return to the country and society that made THEM wealthy has waned as they seek other opportunities to satisfy their insatiable greed, and they will happily sacrifice us all. To them the WORLD is their oyster and we are all just chowder.

Veteran Teacher Resistance (A Letter to The Advocate)

     In "Generational Shifts..." by Will Sentell, the difference in veteran teacher to newer teacher attitudes towards recent "reforms" gets only superficial examination. It is wrapped in a tidy package by a quote from the beginning,

"What the evaluations are looking for is what I was taught to do,” (Sandra Ardoin, who is a first-year teacher)

and a quote from the end:

“This model is either going to make them (more veteran teachers) change or make them leave,” she (Julie Stephenson) said.

     The problems with this is that it is willfully ignorant of the societal decay that public schools are being forced to support, and the burdens schools must deal with get a dismissive (if not disingenuous) acknowledgement with the claim that

"State officials have said the job reviews make allowances for a wide range of nonacademic issues, including household poverty."

     Newer teachers are coming up through a society and a system where increasing wealth at the top, and increasing poverty, under-employment and joblessness at the bottom are accepted as the norm. Those benefiting in this system are among those looking to reform schools into a "data" driven system that falls into line with this approach to our country and its economy: keeping the infrastructure working in a way that preserves inequity. Narrow measures and complicated (and sometimes dishonest) formulas are being used to disrupt communities to suit the formula-makers (reformer-lobbies, charter school companies, testing/curriculum/data industry...).

     Revealing to schools and students the coercive data path to a poorly or ill-defined goal ("college and career ready") is much different than supporting the creation of critical thinkers capable of making this world a better place.

    That might be the source of some of the resistance from more veteran teachers.

Let the Test-Prep Begin

     The teacher instinct/desire is to teach the younger data-mine fodder to be up, moving around and exploring to learn. For several years the pressures on primary grades to measure and rank has gradually removed much of the social/physical development focus for younger kids- meaning elementary level kids with increasing academic struggles d/t weak foundations. Teachers are seeing more and more kids who are less comfortable with those around them, unsure of where they/how they fit in and kids who have less control over their bodies and how to move around the school or the classroom filled with other bodies and things...not to mention the decreasing "skill-building" time at home, replaced with video games and other hypnotic media.

     Unfortunately the direction of public education for the masses is one of denial-rolling forward with education reform bandages and pretending that simply teaching better or harder is the fix, and that the failure of teachers to do that to begin with is the cause of problems we're seeing. It's the triage, not the bullets, I guess. Now, teachers are faced with job-security largely based on the students' ability to sit still, be silent, and carefully fill in bubbles and write responses for extended (developmentally inappropriate) amounts of time. It's not normal or natural, but we're forced into cooperating with the propaganda that it's the most important measure. Let the test prep begin.