To some colleagues, I basically said “dont like the whole MCAS/NCLB complex? Stop whining at faculty meetings, get off yer keister and help Deval, who will install a sane regime of measurement as governor.” This model can be employed to most situations — Dont like the fact that the town cant repair that pothole? Stop whining at the road department, get off yer keister and help Deval, who will install a sane regime of local aid as governor. Unhappy about the nursing home care for your elders? Stop whining at the activities director, get off yer keister and help Deval, who will install a sane regime of regulation and oversight for elder care as governor.
Many of us are used to getting pushed around by the “powers that be” and settling for whining as a reaction. For about six weeks, our reaction can be a lot more powerful. People can embrace and share the idea that we can stop whining about the system, and work to change it. If disengaged people can see that they can do more than whine but work to make things better, they can help Deval bring the change that we need. I mean this particularly in relation to folks who care about their community, but don’t connect that helping a campaign is a great way to help their community.
Today I chased two people at least into giving some time and/or money to Deval by telling em to get off their keister and make the change happen that they want. I have more in my sights. My simple advice: keep an eye out for “get off yer keister” moments Deval has empowered a lot of voters, and we can empower still more.
You’re a paragon of unity. Thanks for this post. Keep up the good work!
It’s really typical of conservatives to want to punish schools into becoming better. A fondness for punishment, as Lakoff points out in Moral Politics, is one thing that distinguishes their conservative values from our liberal values. I was thinking this during Healey’s acceptance harrangue.
All sorts of bad images of Kerry and Sean flashing through my head right now…. Ugh!
will include shoveling the snow from Kerry Healey’s driveway and wiping the drool from Reed Hillman’s chin.
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aren’t you doing exactly what you claim to oppose – “whining about the system?”
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2. which group of kids is struggling in your suburban school? black kids? special ed kids?
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isn’t a better approach for you, as their teacher, to help those kids after school every day until they master math?
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3. the bush approach – that suburban schools CANNOT simply say “our minorities and special needs kids are incapable of hitting a fairly low mark in math and english, that’s just the way things are going to be” – also happens to be the ted kennedy/john edwards/john kerry approach.
much you have written, but no one has covered themselves with glory. You have succinctly addressed some of the issues regarding standards. You have failed to address the Republican approach which has been to impose mandates on public schools while failing to fund the mandates. It is similar to how Bush increased spending while cutting taxes. It is great the NCLB established standards for and imposed responsibility on public school systems; however a little federal financial help would be appreciated. Maybe the feds could just match the money they are spending on schools in Iraq. I would settle for that.
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Special Ed is a budget buster and needs to be completely overhauled. If the system cannot meet the “needs” of one child that can cost the school system over one hundred grand as that child will be placed in a private facility that can meet his or her needs. Special Ed is the ugly thing no one, Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Green will tackle.
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The black and Hispanic urban poor education situation is more cultural and societal and has much less to do with the capabilities of the teachers. Much like special ed, no one has the stones to speak truthfully about the racial performance gap.
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2. Bush did increase spending while cutting taxes. What a fraud.
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But 2001 NCLB had almost zero effect on MA, which already had a testing regime in place via 1993 Ed Reform Act. And THAT was the product of a Dem State House, a Dem State Senate, and Bill Weld.
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That was a combo deal of huge new state spending (well over a billion per year, of which maybe a few percent actually goes towards tests, mostly towards higher teacher salaries [good], lower class size [pretty good], more SPED [as per above] in exchange for MCAS and limited public school choice.
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So MCAS in MA is a generously funded mandate. Districts spend zero on the tests themselves and many have DOUBLED their per-student spending since 1993.
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3. There are 2 Achievement Gap questions. One is the debate on why it exists. The other is what to do about it.
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We don’t know the answer to the first; many hypotheses.
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We do know the answer to the second – kids who “burn the midnight oil” as MLK put it. Teachers do have a big effect on whether kids study hard or not (both during class and at home).
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Statistically, there is huge variation in the achievement gains of black and Hispanic students — i.e., the exact same kids, same parents, same neighborhoods — from one year to the next based on teacher quality.
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We don’t know what causes seizure disorders either; many hypotheses. But we have drugs to treat it.
Wow, you really are a junior Christopher Hitchens.
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If you think working to fund mandates is diluting the system, that’s your business.
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If you think setting standards means that people will magically reach them, that is your business.
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If you think expecting a boy who thinks on a second-grade level, is legally blind, has no use of his hands, and has lived in four homes this year can pass a 9th grade MCAS this year (which he must), that’s your business.
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If you are so disconnected that you think it doesn’t bother teachers that kids fail in their class, that’s your business.
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If you think we can “better approach” special ed kids when the community, state, and feds don’t fund staff levels adequate to meet the law, that’s your businsess.
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If you think every teacher who questions this regime teaches in suburban schools — if you’ve never spoken to a teacher in Springfield or Boston — that’s your business.
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If you think Kennedy hasn’t spoken about his realizations about the mistakes inherent in this regime, that’s your business.
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If you’re going to keep commenting about a subject that is clearly so unfamiliar to you…that is your business.
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2. i kinda think you misstated my positions just….a tad.
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a. i work in a school where the student body is 90% black and hispanic and most are low-income. so i’m not totally “unfamiliar” with the issue.
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b. show me where kennedy says he wants to do what i think you propose, which is unwind the public reporting of each racial and other subgroup within each school.
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i’ve read some of his remarks, and kennedy’s anger seems to be that he thought he had a deal to raise federal K-12 spending much more than the 51% that bush did over the clinton federal K-12 budget.
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3. i probably asked my question in a more provocative way than intended. sorry about that.
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you said you were angry because when a subgroup in your school did poorly on MCAS for the second straight year, teachers were blamed. and that ticked you off. yes?
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and that your response was the a Patrick administration would change things around so that….that subgroups (black kids, hispanic kids, sped kids, or nonnative english speakers, i’m not sure which one in your school) would still do poorly, but nobody would know about it.
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that still sounds provocative. i’m not sure how else to phrase it. help me out here.