Lamar Alexander Channeling Spellings?

Ever since the formation of the Spellings' Commission to Meddle in Higher Ed, Alexander has been a reliable lap dog, from pumping the apocalytic pulp contained in Rising Above the Gathering Storm, to even accompanying her on the recent tour of India to figure out how to manufacture our own homegrown shortage of high tech talent. And now he is out in public, praising the the nut job, David Horowitz? I think your point is clear, Maggie. This from Think Progress:

Sen. Lamar Alexander ♥ David Horowitz

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) delivered the keynote speech at the Students for Academic Freedom conference, a group started by right-wing activist David Horowitz. Alexander heaped praise upon Horowitz, calling him a “geniune, dedicated, experienced, and [un]usually successful movement leader.”

A look at some of the things this “leader” has said:

Guns don’t kill black people, other blacks do. [Salon, 8/16/99]

Black Africans and Arabs were responsible for enslaving the ancestors of African-Americans. [FrontPage, 1/3/01]

The so-called ‘peace movement’ today is led by the same hate-America radicals who supported America’s totalitarian enemies during the Cold War…They are the friends in deed of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. [FrontPage, 4/7/03

Now Horowitz is taking on professors. His new book lists 101 professors he considers “dangerous” based on false allegations, smears, and manipulations of fact. Last week he called one student who questioned his conclusions “deaf and brain-dead” and told another, “You do not have the mental capacity to understand.”

Truly a man worthy of a senator’s salute.

For more information on Horowitz and his misguided campaign, check out Campus Progress’s Horowitz Watch.

– Adam Jentlesen

Will Newark Be Next on the School Privatization List?

In early 2005 The Black Commentator ran a piece entitled "Bribes + Vouchers=Black Bush Supporters", in which the author excoriated Rev. Reginald Jackson and the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey as one of the prime targets for the unending largesse of conservative philanthropy groups aimed at minority support for conservative social agendas:

The Right’s systematic assault on the Black body politic is dramatically evident in heavily Black and Latino northern New Jersey, a focus of Wal-Mart heir John Walton’s inner city pro-voucher “philanthropy” and Karl Rove’s machinations among Black ministers. The two paths intersect at the Newark-based voucher outfit Excellent Education for Everyone, or E-3. The hyper-aggressive political front can count on about a half million dollars a year from the Walton Family Foundation ($400,000 in 2003) and also benefits from federal Education Department grants to the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO), another pro-voucher outfit. HCREO shares funding links (Bush’s Education Department and rightwing foundations) with the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), one of whose founding directors, former and future Newark mayoral candidate Cory Booker (see “Fruit of the Poisoned Tree, April 5, 2002), was also a founder of E-3. (Booker received campaign financing from the Waltons, as well.)

This isn’t conspiracy theory; rather, it’s the result of strategic planning and funding by the Bush regime, the Waltons and, especially, the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, which invented both the “Black” voucher “movement” and faith-based initiatives in the mid-Nineties.

Also on E-3’s board is Rev. Reginald Jackson, head of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey. Two weeks before the recent election, E-3 announced:

“In an effort to focus constituents on the benefits of choice, ministers and pastors in NJ began last Sunday (October 17) to deliver sermons on school choice and the need for parents to support the advocacy efforts of the [New Jersey School Choice Alliance]. ‘This is by far the most important, the most vital civil rights issue facing us, and our children,’ said Rev. Reginald Jackson, pastor of St. Matthews A.M.E. church in Orange, NJ….”

The most vital civil rights issue! Not affirmative action, not racism in the criminal justice system, not the right to adequate health care, but vouchers. What a difference rightwing money makes in the priorities of a section of the Black clergy.

The link to the April 5, 2002 article above, which includes some great reporting on the network of conservative philanthropy, has further background on Cory Booker, now in a heated mayoral race in Newark. That article could have been written yesterday:

The billionaires who fund the American Hard Right are salivating over the prospect of seizing control of City Hall in Newark,New Jersey, May 14. They have found their champion: Cory Booker, Black mayoral candidate from the city's Central Ward, a cynical pretender who attempts to position himself as the common people's defender while locked in the deep embrace of institutes and foundations that bankroll virtually every assault on social and economic justice in America. His benefactors sponsor anti-affirmative action referendums, press for near-total disinvestment in the public sector, savage what's left of the social safety net, and are attempting to turn public education over to private suppliers. Along the way, Booker's soul mates are busy ravaging the environment and trampling civil liberties everywhere they find them.

Booker now seems to have watered down his open support for vouchers, as reported by the Times. Now it seems he is in favor of the Jeb solution, i.e., giving corporate tax credits to companies willing to fund vouchers for kids to attend private schools, church-affliated or otherwise. Can anyone explain to me how tax breaks can be given for the funding of non-public ventures???

If Booker is elected, he is sure to get first-class advice on the matter from Washington.

Teacher Knows NCLB is "Severely Harming Students and Schools"

From the Vermont Society for the Study of Education (VSSE):

DANA RAPP, 413-662-5197
drapp@mcla.edu

Montpelier--William Mathis, Superintendent of Schools for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, and Dana Rapp, Associate Professor of Educational Studies at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, released the results of a first-of-its-kind survey of Vermont teachers’ opinions regarding the impact on students of the No Child Left Behind education law.

According to Rapp, who conducted the survey, “The results of this survey lead me to conclude that overwhelmingly teachers believe that Vermont is undergoing a dramatic negative shift in the direction of education and that NCLB is severely harming students and schools.”

Survey findings include:

• 80% of teachers don’t believe students’ needs are reflected in NCLB;

• 88% believe there is less local control of curriculum: 45% “significantly less”;

• 83% report that NCLB has had a negative effect on education: 44% “very negative”:

• 93% report students’ love of learning is less, 38% much less;

• 90% believe Vermont’s Commissioner of Education is “inaccurate” in believing that NCLB won’t harm schools: 48% “completely inaccurate”;

• 96% report that “enriching activities” are less possible: 50% “much less possible;

• 89% report Vermont classrooms are worse places because of numerical accountability and testing: 40% “much worse”;

• 97% believe NCLB creates more stress for students: 51% say “much more”;

• 73% believe Vermont education is headed in the wrong direction; and

• 88% report that NCLB encourages them to develop “less intellectually engaging activities”;

• 97% believe NCLB encourages them to use more worksheets;

• 92% report that NCLB encourages them to have less class discussions;

• 99% believe that NCLB encourages them to teach to the test.

Nationally, there is extensive evidence that: (1) test scores do not equal educational quality; (2) federal and state NCLB mandates are forcing schools and communities to issue and teach to high-stakes tests; and (3) opinions of researchers, educators, and citizens are not sought by many states if they contradict the ideology of NCLB. Therefore, this survey of 216 Vermont teachers was undertaken by Professor Rapp to determine how teachers view the effects of NCLB on state policy, children, classroom climate, and quality of education.

These findings are significant because they contradict the Douglas administration’s suggestion that NCLB won’t harm Vermont schools, and, more importantly, teachers believe that NCLB is making schools worse places for children to learn. According to Mathis, a “bewildering bunch of box-scores is being used to determine whether schools make ’adequate yearly progress’ by improving their state standardized test scores.” Mathis goes on to say that these “standards” are far from benign: “if schools don't make AYP, school and community reputations, property values, teachers' pride, children's motivation, and parents' school support are all affected.”

Adds Rapp, “Overall, the results from this survey illuminate the disparity between what supporters and enforcers of NCLB are saying is happening in schools and what teachers
are reporting. If anything, the Governor and the Commissioner of Education must do more than convince Vermont citizens that NCLB is a positive force, they have a responsibility to engage us in a vibrant and transparent conversation about NCLB’s legitimacy and whether it benefits Vermonters.”

Dana Rapp is a resident of Readsboro, Vermont. He has published numerous articles on high-stakes testing and NCLB in national and international academic journals. He is coauthor of “Ethics and the foundations of education” (Allyn and Bacon, 2003).
— Press Release
Vermont Society for the Study of Education
2006-04-17

Indian Children Left Behind

The unrelenting focus on individual test scores is undercutting the cultural and social solidarity among all Americans, particularly those historically-oppressed peoples whose primary defense against cultural extinction has been the power of their combined strength. Here are some clips from a story by Minnesota Public Radio:

It's been nearly five years since congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act. There's debate over whether the plan is improving education in schools. There's particular concern about how No Child Left Behind is affecting American Indian students. Some experts say the education mandate may be eroding progress made in recent years by reservation schools.

Nicole Boswell dreams of being a psychologist and working on the reservation. (MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson)

White Earth, Minn. — The Circle of Life school in the village of White Earth is old and well worn, but Paul Backman's classroom is bright and comfortable. The classes are small, often 10 or fewer students and the atmosphere is casual.

Ashley Stevens is 17 and like many of her fellow students at Circle of Life, she's changed schools often.

" I've been to Park Rapids, I've been to four schools in Fargo Moorhead, I moved to California and went to school there. I've just been to a lot of schools," says Stevens.

That's a common story in reservation schools. Lot's of students moving around, and lots of students dropping out. . . .

. . . .The focus on tests and standards is hurting American Indian students, according to Director of the Center for Indian Education at Arizona State University David Beaulieu.

Beaulieu says as schools become more focused on tests, the American Indian dropout rate is increasing. He says reservation schools need to focus on more than a student's academic performance.

"The issues that face young people outside of the school, we have to pay attention to them. I suppose that's another aspect of culturally based education, understanding what the heck is going on and engaging them beyond the school wall," says Beaulieu.

Beaulieu says reservation schools need more flexibility to create schools where kids are valued and given a reason to stay in school. He says American Indian students generally learn better with an interactive setting rather than listening to classroom lectures.

That opinion is reinforced by the Circle of Life students. When asked what they would do to make school better, they choose more group projects rather than individual study. . . .

Duct-taped Textbooks

When parents are trying to buy body armor for their kids fighting King George's War on Iraq, I guess it is a minor inconvenience to talk about parents being pressured into buying textbooks for their kids in Illinois schools. However you look at it, its another example of world-class rhetoric and half-assed response:

Across Illinois, students are resorting to duct tape and rubber bands to hold together decrepit textbooks. Other books are so woefully out-of-date they don't teach fundamentals such as the fall of Soviet communism, a three-month Tribune investigation has found.

A survey of 50 districts of varying wealth and size shows public schools are failing to provide the most basic tool of learning: a current book in good condition.

Nearly 80 percent of districts surveyed are using textbooks in a main academic area that are out-of-date--at least 8 years old. About 22 percent of districts have books at least 15 years old.

Get the rest of this major story from the Chicago Tribune.

Alan Shoenfeld vs. the Grovers of the World

The March issue of Educational Researcher has Alan Shoenfeld’s account of his disappointing and brief service to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). WWC is a federally-contracted project that is supposedly paying the company, American Institutes for Research (AIR), to cast a wide net in search of quantitative research studies on the effectiveness of various math teaching strategies. These research studies are confined, of course, to the straightjacket definition derived by Grover Whitehurst (not Norquist) and his minions at the Institute of Educational Science (IES), whose experimental, quantitative preference lends itself perfectly to the assessment medium (standardized tests) that shaped the standard to begin with. (Some would call Grover’s experimental or quasi-experimental requirement the “gold standard”—I would call it censorious epistemological thuggery.)

Comparisons of traditional and “standards-based” (read, fuzzy) mathematics teaching strategies will be reached by measuring academic gains as measured by test scores—test scores that could very well be measuring something other than what the teaching strategy in question set out to teach. Unless protocols are developed to make sure that the range of performance results fit the characteristics of math proficiency that are aimed for, the chosen studies could be yielding, in fact, false negatives or false positives on the effects of the various strategies. Too, the evaluation studies that measure the effectiveness of math strategies must take into account the fidelity-to-design issue. In short, studies that adhere strictly to the recommended implementation of a particular strategy should be given more weight than those that are haphazard in implementing a strategy. It was, specifically, these points that Schoenfeld made and that WWC and IES ignored and attempted to censor, that precipitated Schoenfeld’s resignation and subsequent public statements. Schoenfeld's account adds additional weight to the conclusion that AIR has become the Halliburton of the IES's war on any remnant of progressive educational practice: AIR's role is to serve up whatever "research" is called for by their "client," IES, and to keep their mouths shut, otherwise. (See here and here for posts on some of AIR's other work.)

If this sad state of affairs at the base camp for the National Math Panel sounds vaguely familiar, it is because the same shenanigans were developed into a systematic strategy during the sculpting of the National Reading Panel Report to reflect the ideological commitment to the chain gang schools envisioned by neurologist cum education expert, Reid Lyon, and Professor Doug Carnine, the heir apparent to the Engelmann solution. If you think that the cherry-picking of evidence to support pre-conceived conclusions is limited to the initiation of foreign military adventures, you haven’t been paying attention to the reading wars and the math wars.

The reading war, of course, has been largely won (or lost as the case may be), at least from the evidence we have of any organized resistance. The passing out of a billion dollars a year to states in the form of federal Reading First grants, with most of it going to the favored “scientifically-based” phonics approach, guarantees the phonics rebuilding effort will continue across America, even if the conquerors have not been treated as liberators by teachers and students who remember reading as a joy rather than a job. We can rest easy, however, that there are enough mercenaries, er, contractors from AIR on the ground to make sure that these federal reading dollars are spent the way that Grover Whitehurst intended and the way that Doug Carnine and his chums can get rich selling their wares along the way.

Fortunately, we have learned a few things from the manhandling the National Reading Panel Report (see review of Coles's Reading the Naked Truth . . . ). We have learned that these propagandizing bullies will stop at nothing to get their way, and that includes the censoring of knowledge that might intrude upon the preconceived conclusions demanded by their own backwards-gazing form of cultural antiquarianism. Shoenfeld, then, has provided a service to the possibility for democracy's future, because it is the bright light of exposure that will eventually force these totalitarian elements back under the rocks from whence they came.

Human Capital

Today Sec. Spellings and her entourage keep up their sunny side journeys in India, looking for that magic something they can bring back to the States and turn into our own oversupply of engineers and scientists. Gushing always, the Secretary notes:

"....As Secretary of Education I am anxious to see how you all and how others around the world develop human capital and talent. Certainly you (India) have done that and you are doing that."

We can guess that the Secretary did not visit the slums, where millions of Indians living in abject poverty. If she did, what would she call them: human waste, human discharge, or just human liabilities?

NCLB Impetus for Omaha School Segregation

It is ironic that Nebraska should take the lead in the official re-segregation of America's schools. Nebraska, after all, has been at the forefront in implementing an assessment system that eschews off-the-shelf commercial tests to evaluate the learning of Nebraska children. The only state test in Nebraska is a writing test, and it will remain that way as long as Doug Christensen is Commissioner of Education.

Christensen and his staff have also taken the lead in educating the public inside and outside Nebraska on the direct correlation between family income and academic performance. See the Commissioner's Report to the State, "A Tale of Two Nebraskas." Dr. Christensen and his dedicated people should be congratulated for making these connections in this clear, graphic presentation.

Even the Commissioner's best intentions (see this pdf on AYP in Nebraska) and the hard work by his staff and the State's teachers cannot, however, bend the will of the federal ED to ghettoize those sub-groups that are failing, even as the Feds insist that, with their "color-blind" policy, that there is no need to treat them differently. Think about that.

If you believe the achievement gap is closing in Nebraska (or in any other state, for that matter), have a look at the data charts here. There is not a more convincing argument than the facts presented in these charts that the NCLB's impossible proficiency goals, combined with its demand that every sub-group of 30 kids attain those impossible goals, will either, 1) lead the vast majority of schools to fail, or 2) lead to decisions to segregate those groups most likely to fail, thus preserving the possibility of the white majority schools to make their test targets. If your public school is going to survive, you need to be developing a strategy soon to get rid of your sub-groups, er, "clusters." This is what Nebraska has done this week, despite the best efforts of Christensen and his people. And all of this incentizing for segregation will be accomplished in the name of ending an achievement gap that remains a stubbornly defiant embarrassment to all the cynical, empty propaganda campaigns.

If the Nebraska segregation law survives the Court challenges, what will be the likely outcome for Omaha schools? Could it be that the Governor is looking to New York and LA for lead examples on how to abolish the local school boards once that failure has been assured by the creation of apartheid schools that are encouraged by NCLB? Isn't the anwer here to use tax dollars to turn these apartheid schools over, then, to the corporate-run behavioral/academic boot camps that will assure that order is preserved in communities where opportunity will continue to be conspicuously absent? And if not order, well, there is another corporate-contracted "public" institution waiting in the wings for you.

The outcome: unknown. But I would argue that the propensity toward fascism in America today is directly proportional to the perceived demise of the white protestant majority. As white protestants come to see themselves as more threatened by the browning of America, the "democracy" to be preserved will be one operated from behind the security of visible and invisible gates that no one dare crash. We might call that secure space the white zone, rather than the green zone--the only place in America where the possibility for success remains secure, success in school, or otherwise.

Omaha Makes Apartheid Schooling Official

Nebraska has made its shame official. All that was needed to convince the Nebraska State Senate that segregated schooling should be legalized was an approval by its only black State Senator, Ernie Chambers. So now Omaha has been busted up into three separate systems, one for whites, one for blacks, and one for Hispanics.

And it has been signed into law by Republican governor, Dave Heineman. From the AP:

In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts _ one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic.

Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.

Republican Gov. Dave Heineman signed the measure into law.

Omaha Sen. Pat Bourne decried the bill, saying, "We will go down in history as one of the first states in 20 years to set race relations back."

"History will not, and should not, judge us kindly," said Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha.

Attorney General Jon Bruning sent a letter to one of the measure's opponents saying that the bill could be in violation of the Constitution's equal-protection clause and that lawsuits almost certainly will be filed.

But its backers said that at the very least, its passage will force policymakers to negotiate seriously about the future of schools in the Omaha area.

The breakup would not occur until July 2008, leaving time for lawmakers to come up with another idea.

"There is no intent to create segregation," said Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, the Legislature's only black senator and a longtime critic of the school system.

He argued that the district is already segregated, because it no longer buses students for integration and instead requires them to attend their neighborhood school.

Chambers said the schools attended largely by minorities lack the resources and quality teachers provided others in the district. He said the black students he represents in north Omaha would receive a better education if they had more control over their district.

Coming from Chambers, the argument was especially persuasive to the rest of the Legislature, which voted three times this week in favor of the bill before it won final passage on the last day of the session.

Omaha Public Schools Superintendent John Mackiel said the law is unconstitutional and will not stand.

"There simply has never been an anti-city school victory anywhere in this nation," Mackiel said. "This law will be no exception."

The 45,000-student Omaha school system is 46 percent white, 31 percent black, 20 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian or American Indian.

Boundaries for the newly created districts would be drawn using current high school attendance areas. That would result in four possible scenarios; in every scenario, two districts would end up with a majority of students who are racial minorities.

Spellings' India Mission

From Rediff India Abroad:

Ramnath Shenoy in Bangalore | April 13, 2006 14:21 IST
Last Updated: April 13, 2006 14:34 IST

For decades, a significant section of Indian students' dream was to study in the United States and work there. And now, a 'reverse trend', albeit with a smaller number to begin with, may take shape with American students coming to India for learning.

An American delegation, led by Senator Michael B Enzi, and comprised of among others by US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, is on a mission to India to study the educational system in India and how the country is able to churn out a large number of highly-skilled professionals.

"....As Secretary of Education I am anxious to see how you all and how others around the world develop human capital and talent. Certainly you (India) have done that and you are doing that. That's why so many industries and American companies are coming here to grow and expand," Spellings told PTI. . . .

Ah yes, that human capital.