Speak Out for Public Education

        Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a demonstration in conjunction with Harvard’s Commencement Ceremonies designed to get Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s attention.  A Harvard graduate, Duncan was honored as Chief Marshall of the Commencement proceedings for his 25^th reunion.  A group of educators and advocates from Cambridge and beyond, including Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn, took this opportunity to gather in Harvard Square and speak out.  I was honored to be among the speakers at the event, and delivered a brief speech to share my story as a current teacher and give some insight into how Duncan’s top-down policies are negatively impacting classroom communities.

            It was heartening to meet this dedicated group of current or retired public school teachers, researchers, and advocates all devoted to bringing about positive change for our students.  I was excited to see passers-by and graduates stop to read our signs, gather more information, and thank us for speaking out.  We were a small group, but our message was clear:  teachers, parents, and students know what’s best for schools and we will make ourselves heard.  Next stop: Washington, DC for the Save Our Schools March!

Author’s Note:  To find coverage of the event visit wmbr.org, and click on the program “What’s Left” for Friday, May 26 from 6 to 7pm.  You will find the piece about the demonstration at about the 36-minute mark.


**Author's UPDATE:  To see video of the rally, go to http://www.filmourwayfilms.com/film/teachfilm.cfm and select the "Rally Against Duncan's 'Reforms' for Public Schools of May 26" link.  I come on around the 30 minute mark!

Link of the Week: U.S. Reforms Out of Sync with Top Nations, Report Finds

"The United States’ education system is neither coherent nor likely to see great improvements based on its current attempts at reform, a report released this week by the National Center on Education and the Economy concludes."  Check out the article in EdWeek here.


Shocking, I know.  

Congratulations 2011 Graduates!

          It’s graduation season and I have had the enormous privilege of attending two university commencement ceremonies in the past few weeks.  The first was in Greeneville, North Carolina, where my brilliant and spirited sister-in-law earned her M.D. from the Brody School of Medicine.  The second was in Medford, Massachusetts where my dear, patient husband earned his Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.  After many months despairing over the frustrating state of affairs in public education, these two ceremonies inspired me to have faith in a brighter future for schools and communities around the world.

            The Brody School of Medicine is part of the public East Carolina University system and falls in the top ten among U.S. medical schools in percentage of students that go on to practice primary care and rural medicine.  Brody ranks in the 90 percentile for medical schools in the percentage of African American and Native American graduates, and boasts the one of the lowest debt burdens for graduating doctors.  In a time when inequity feels like the status quo, it is uplifting to see public schools crafting opportunities for scholars of all backgrounds to afford a quality education and go on to serve communities in need.  I am so proud of the newly graduated Dr. Elliot and the diverse Brody class of 2011!

            The Fletcher School, part of the private Tufts University, has a mission to prepare “the world's leaders to become innovative problem-solvers in government, business and non-governmental organizations”.  Fletcher's students come from all over the world, and have done everything from earning Olympic medals to establishing non-profits prior to enrollment.  The speakers at Fletcher’s commencement ceremonies, which included Senator John Kerry, all acknowledged the increasing severity and complexity of the problems these graduates would face upon re-entering the global work force.  What made the commencement so uplifting, however, was the faith and conviction expressed by each of the speakers that the graduates were prepared to face these challenges and pave the way to a more harmonious tomorrow.  They didn’t say the process would be easy- - simply that it would be possible.  Having spent time with many of the Fletcher graduates during my husband’s two years of study there, I have no doubt this is true.

            The problems generated by scarcity of resources, inequity, and philosophical and cultural clashes are certainly not unique to education, nor are they going away any time soon.  There are already wonderful efforts in place, such as those at both Brody and Fletcher, to provide opportunities for higher education to a diverse range of scholars and encourage the graduates to tackle the complex problems facing communities locally and globally.  Congratulations to all 2011 graduates- from high school grads to Ph.D.'s!  I can't wait to see what you all make possible!

Link of the Week: Budget Mix-Up

         Here's to The Onion for bringing some much needed levity to the school reform debate.  Their recent article Budget Mix-Up Provides Nation's Schools with Enough Money to Properly Educate Students is a hilarious account of a congressional blunder resulting in the accidental misappropriation of $80 billion earmarked for national defense.  A true disaster!  The Onion quotes House Speaker John Boehner: "Once these kids learn to read and think critically, you can never undo that," Boehner said . . . "It could take a whole generation to cancel out the effects of this. . . What will our nation do if the next generation knows that all we care about is our own selfish interests and pandering to the wealthy elite? Is that the future you want? Not me."  Sounds like a great future to me.

Here's to the Students!

Link of the week: A Letter to Arne Duncan

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  On Monday, education blogger Sabrina Stevens Shupe crafted an eloquent and powerful response to Arne Duncan’s open letter to teachers, in which he praises our work and promises, “I hear you, I value you, and I respect you.”  Unfortunately, the Secretary’s actions do not match his words.

. . . Change the Rules!

As promised in my post "If at first you don't succeed. . .", I return to the topic of the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind.  After combing through the full text of the document, I am disappointed to find the changes to Bush’s original legislation to be either minimal or flat-out harmful.

We’ll start with the minimal.  Fortunately, instead of holding fast to the ridiculous deadline that mandates all students be 100% proficient in all subjects by 2014, the bill allows for the Secretary of Education to adjust the requirements every three years.  This creates a kind of escape hatch for the government to get out of following through with the punitive measures of the current law.  These measures would have required closing the thousands of schools that are nowhere near meeting the rapidly approaching deadline.

Another change includes rewording the definition of a “highly qualified teacher” to include first year TFA teachers and others who have undergone minimal training but are pursuing certification while teaching full-time.  The bill reads, “the teacher should be considered highly qualified for purposes of this part based on a showing that the teacher is making progress toward becoming highly qualified.” Do we consider a teenager on the day they pass their written permit exam to be Highly Qualified Drivers, based on a showing that they are making progress toward earning their license?  Do we consider pre-med undergraduates to be Highly Qualified Doctors based on a showing that they are making progress toward becoming doctors?  In what other profession do the words highly qualified refer to someone who is in the early stages of their training?  Instead of tackling the greater problem of improving teacher training programs and providing funds for bright young professionals to enroll and complete these programs, like countries with successful public education systems, the new bill is simply lowering the bar.  The idea that the U.S. Government is even bothering to confer the distinction of “Highly Qualified” upon any teacher with this revised definition is laughable.

Finally, one of the changes I consider to be most harmful involves increasing the budgetary allocations for developing newer and more frequent standardized tests.  In a time of budgetary crisis, why are we allocating more money to hand over to companies like Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing, or ETS K-12, which we know produce flawed and inadequate products?  As is, many states are already spending an exorbitant amount of money on standardized testing without any tangible improvements.  This simply does not make any sense.

Needless to say, my initial cautious optimism about the reauthorization of NCLB has been replaced with a grim frustration.  If teachers want to do what is best for our students, it will continue to be in spite of, rather than because of, current national policy.