Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/9051
Education scholar Diane Ravitch speaks at Urban Issues W hat teachers and their unions have been say- ing for years about the pitfalls of high-stakes testing and the dangers of privatizing publ ic schools, educat ion scholar Diane Ravitch con- f irms. “Congress does not know how to reform schools,” Ravitch told the appreciative audience of educators at the CTA Urban Issues Conference in San Jose in a keynote speech in February. “Neither does the U.S. Department of Educa- tion.” CTA members might also add the California Legislature and the governor. Ravitch, a research profes- sor of education at New York University and author or edi- What members had to say Robert Rodriguez San Bernardino Teachers Association Resource specialist “I attended the workshop on professional compensation and teacher incentive funding. I learned different ways we can attract and retain employees at high-priority schools. Incentive grants are not to be confused with merit pay. High-priority schools have hard- to-staff positions. What this workshop talked about was how to retain veteran teachers in our schools of greatest need. This is something locals can bargain for with their local school district.” Cindy Crawford San Lorenzo Education Association Fifth-grade teacher “I took the workshop here on issues and organizing. We learned how to determine the issue, and then from there go forward to develop your goals, objectives and tactics. The letters G.O.S.T. are the key to organizing. They stand for goals, objectives, strategy and tactics. A lot of people go immediately to their tactics. You need to work back and determine what the issue is and then develop your goals and objectives.” Catherine Proctor United Teachers Los Angeles Third-grade teacher “I went to the conversation with author Diane Ravitch. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified is going through the process of opening itself up to privatization. Everything that she’s talking about and concerned about is part of our current reality. Frankly, it’s frightening. Being with her was empowering. She gave us some ideas of how to protect our schools. It gave me tools to bring back to my local.” tor of 20 books, said testing, choice, and privatizing of pub- lic education are threats to the nation. “There is something awful going on today in Amer- ica. It has to do with scape- goating teachers, demonizing unions and undermining edu- cation.” She should know. She was once a strong advocate of char- ter schools, testing and teacher accountability and served as assistant secretary of education and counselor to Sec- retary of Educa- tion Lamar Alex- ander in the ad- ministrat ion of President George H.W. Bush. Presi- dent Clinton ap- pointed her to the National Assess- ment Governing Board, which oversees federal NAEP testing, which she trusts. She hailed the signing into law in 2002 of President George W. Bush’s flawed No Child Left Behind Act. In recent years, she has had a change of heart. In her insightful speech, she touched on many of the points in her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Under- mining Education. Ravitch now believes that public schools cannot be run like a business, and one chapter in her book shows why. She doc- uments the failure of Alan Bersin to impose top-down re- forms when he was superin- tendent of the San Diego Uni- fied School District — reforms that alienated teachers and the 30 California Educator | MARCH 2010 San Diego Education Associa- tion. Bersin had the backing of the business community and entrepreneurs, which do not understand education or why the public school system should not be viewed as a mar- ketplace where schools are closed like a bad franchise in a retail chain, Ravitch said. “Managing schools is not like managing a stock portfo- lio, where the ob- ject is to pick win- ners and get rid of your losers,” said Ravitch. “Rather, it’s like managing a family. When a family member is struggl ing with poor health, fi- nancial woes or bad decisions, the family leader does whatever is possible to help him or her re- cover, get on his feet and re- turn to a sound footing. The family leader does not kill off the weak siblings. Educational euthanasia is not a good idea.” Transforming struggling schools into charters does lit- tle, she said. “There is no evi- dence that charter schools or privately managed schools are a cure for low-performing schools.” Ravitch considers charters and test-based teacher ac- countability reforms ominous. She opposes test score-based merit pay for educators and believes teachers must be fair- ly paid and more involved in local education decisions. She questioned how the federal government, which she noted only provides about 8 CTA photos by Mike Myslinski