The Truth about Teachers

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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No Excuses

No excuses.

It doesn't matter what situation you live in, there are no excuses...not poverty...not homelessness, nothing.

Read about poverty in Poverty and Potential, in which David Berliner gives a scholarly review of how six out of school factors which are common among students who live in poverty, affect the students' health and their ability to learn. According to "corporate reformers," though, poverty is no excuse.

And what about homelessness? Children who are uprooted from their homes and moved to less than ideal surroundings as their parents try to cope with the recession...moving from school to school while parents try to find work. If they're lucky they'll get to a place like the school in this article, where they are not alone and are helped to cope with the stresses of being homeless. But that doesn't matter...their test scores are still the main focus. No excuses.

Now...we read this...

Study links lead exposure, low student test scores

Children who ingested even small amounts of lead performed poorly later on school tests compared to students who were never exposed to the substance, according to a new study of Connecticut students.

The Duke University study also found that black children were much more likely to have experienced lead poisoning from paint residue, dust or other sources by age 7 than the state's white children. Educators worry that factor might be among many contributing to Connecticut's status as the state with the largest achievement gap between the races.

Will this be brushed aside, too? Will we hear the "reformers" shouting "No Excuses?" instead of working to do something about the high levels of poverty in the US?

Several other government and university research studies nationwide over the years have found links between lead poisoning and delays in academic and cognitive growth, although the Duke study is Connecticut's first research linking individual students to their test results.

Does Scott Walker (R-WI) think that removing teachers rights to collective bargaining will help? Does Mitch Daniels (R-IN) believe that paying teachers based on the test scores of their students will help? Will Arne Duncan (D-DOE) still cheer when states close schools...will these students somehow magically improve their ability to learn if they are in a different school?

One wonders where the teachers are going to come from to work with children who live in poverty if their livelihood is based on test scores.

It's time to put the focus where it needs to be...on the failure of our leaders to solve society's poverty problem.

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And another thing...Teachers as Criminals?

Criminalizing Teachers.

The disgraceful interrogation of L.A. school librarians.

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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A Lifetime of Elementary Schools -- Part 1

Earlier this May I went to Chicago. While I was there I took a side trip to visit my old neighborhood...I took some pictures.

Here's a picture of the first elementary school I worked in...this one as a student. I attended Philip Rogers School (1953-1962) from Kindergarten through Eighth grade (the first few years, K through 2, I think, were in portables since there were too many of us for the "main building").

What do I remember about this school? I remember...

• ...Dr. Benjamin Elkin, the principal, who moonlighted as a children's author. He would read his new books to us. Years later while teaching, I found two of his books. I hadn't remembered them from when I was in school, but I eagerly shared them with my students. They were The 6 Foolish Fishermen and Lucky and the Giant. His 1957 book, Gillespie and the Guards was a Caldecott Honor Book.
• ...going to the office to talk to Dr. Elkin for a variety of misbehaviors...one particular time the visit included my mother. It was not fun.
• ...accidentally walking into the male teacher's rest room. I had not been in the building long (it was the beginning of the year that we moved from the portables to the main building). One of the teachers was walking out as I was walking in...and reprimanded me. To his credit, he did ask me how long I had been at this school...and didn't cause any permanent damage.
• ...being in Art class when we heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot. I was impressed with our teacher's response. How do you tell a group of 8th graders that the president was dead? He stood in front of the class, trying to control his emotions and told us. He was patient as we responded with silence. I don't remember the rest of that day...maybe we went home.
• ...listening to our music teacher spout political rhetoric. I also remember thinking he was a bit off-kilter. 
• ...being academically lost most of the time...first because I needed glasses...and second (which I didn't realize for another 35 years) because ADD kept me from focusing. Back then it was called "Minimal Brain Dysfunction." I don't remember being treated for it in any way, other than being told 1) try harder and 2) you can do so much better. Years later, when I was learning about ADHD as a teacher I talked to my mother about my problems in school. She told me about the diagnosis of Minimal Brain Dysfunction and everything fell into place.
• ...dragging a tenor sax the four blocks to school every day and wondering why I chose such a heavy instrument to learn in band. Then I remember switching to clarinet.
• ...Mrs. Gilbert reading aloud to us every day. When people ask me the most important thing I remember about my elementary school...this is it. I especially remember the day she finished Charlotte's Web. 

I don't remember...

• ...taking standardized tests.

If you ask most people what they remember about their elementary school years I would guess that they would answer with stories about teachers, friends, activities. Those are the important things.

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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Hypocrisy in the Wisconsin Governors Office

Corporate reformers would have you believe that test scores separate the good from the bad -- the good schools from the bad, the good teachers from the bad, even the good countries from the bad. They maintain that test scores mean everything and that in order to improve the test scores all we need to do is get rid of bad teachers and the even badder teachers unions. Politicians, too, have chosen to follow this plan.

It's especially interesting then, that Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin), while demanding that public schools score higher and higher on tests has led the state to slash funding for public schools. In addition, he now wants to expand vouchers. But if test scores are so important, why would he expand vouchers? Right Wing Watch writes,

...Numerous studies have shown that vouchers failed to make any difference in student performance. Just like in Washington, DC and Cleveland, private school vouchers in Milwaukee failed to produce the gains their supporters promised...with students in the Milwaukee voucher program actually performing worse than comparable public school students.

...now Republican Gov. Scott Walker wants to expand the ineffective voucher program while cutting funds to public schools. And so much for the emphasis on testing -- voucher students will now be exempted from the tests that revealed the program’s failure.

...That’s right, even though voucher students are “lagging behind their peers in public schools,” voucher programs are being rewarded with expansion while public schools are punished with cuts. With little care for accountability and testing, this move by Walker and the Wisconsin GOP demonstrates how the push for private school vouchers is really about the Right’s ideological war against public education.

We know it's not about the money. When the teachers in Wisconsin offered to give in to the Legislature's and Governor's fiscal demands to save collective bargaining, the legislature took all the fiscal measures out of the bill and cut collective bargaining anyway.

Now we see that it's not even about test scores. It didn't matter that the voucher students did no better than public school students. They aren't even going to have to take the tests in the future...

This is just another step toward the total privatization of public education. It's as simple as that.

More from Ruth Conniff in the Progressive:

What's the real goal of Walker's stripped-down education "reforms"?

"The real agenda is to dismantle public education through privatization schemes..."

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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