‘ROUNDING THE GLOBE’-15: Critical analysis of Boston Globe education coverage
A Tale of Two Editorials
It was the best of times for the BTU, it was the worst of times. If you don’t believe this, just check out two Globe editorials that appeared less than a week apart.
But before we turn to opinion page, let me add a postscript to yesterday’s news column attack on the AFT/BTU for its decision not to support the state’s RTTT application.
You will recall that this Page One/ 23-graph story carried almost nothing about why the union took this position. (Reporter Vaznis informed readers he could not reach the union, but incomplete though it was, the Globe published the story anyway). If you didn’t have a chance to read it, imagine the union as a giant dartboard for every elitist grouping in the state. Believe me, the darts flew.
http://www.boston.com/news/nat…
Well, the union’s response came today—sort of. You may have had a little more trouble finding it, because the story didn’t even make it to the front page of the B Section. You can find it on B5. It wasn’t a very good story, but that might have been the fault of the union leaders quoted. There were some generalities about teachers being blamed and disrespected (true enough!) and references to Central Falls and “job security.” What wasn’t effectively elicited by Vaznis or communicated by the union leaders is why the Obama turnaround model is so objectionable to teachers. I refer here to the mass “execution” of dedicated teachers, the utter randomness in choosing who is to be fired, and the use of high-stakes exams as the sole assessment of teacher and student performance. Let’s leave the matter right there, for the time being.
http://www.boston.com/news/edu…
Now back to the editorials.
Just three days ago, the BTU was enjoying the view from the penthouse. The Boston Globe had published an editorial on April 12 entitled “New Cooperation from union” in which it praised the union for its “openness to creative solutions.” Let me translate that. The BTU was getting a condescending pat on the head because it has apparently agreed to make accommodations to allow Teach for America interns to take over classes in the Boston schools, without the tiresome hurdles regular teachers normally have to clear. After all, these kids graduated from elite colleges! The reason this is a “creative solution” is that it’s an initiative the Globe advocates.
Alas, these interns are no solution to any problem in American schools, because they do not stick around. (I’ve known many of them as former students). For most, the urban teaching experience adds a certain frisson to one or two post-graduation transitional years, before they move on to where the money is. Hmmm, I wonder if a similar program involving elite college students could be used to displace well-paid veteran reporters employed by America’s failing newspapers. Anyway, please read this editorial and tell me if you find it condescending as well. If you disagree, do say so.
http://www.boston.com/bostongl…
On Monday it was the penthouse. By Thursday, the BTU was in the outhouse. Today, the Globe pilloried the BTU-apparently no longer a “creative solutions: kind of group-for refusing to sign on to the state’s application for RTTT funds. Now the headline read, “Instead of racing to the top, unions puts its own needs first.”
No point in my summarizing the most predictable editorial in the history of publishing. The Globe is just really ticked off that the union doesn’t want its membership to be fired for no cause. It attacked the union for opposing the interests of “everyone else in the state.” There’s you go again, Globe, speaking for everyone, but that’s just your way. Many teachers, parents, and students, think the conditions attached to this one-time RTTT bribe will make education worse. What is it, Larry Harmon, that you don’t understand about “worse”? And are you going to follow up with a signed op ed tomorrow in which you express the strongest possible agreement with your own editorial?
http://www.boston.com/bostongl…
The Globe even tries to reason with the union, explaining that its opposition to RTTT will only cement the impression that unions are selfish. Of course the Globe has had nothing to do with helping to create that impression! Then this failing newspaper proceeds to give advise to this threatened union about how it might best survive.
I am calling the tone of this editorial “unctuously patronizing.” (I never have that reaction to NY Times editorials I oppose). What would you call it? Characterizing tone is like tasting wine. The absolute right word must be found. Yours?
Extra credit question: Can anyone recall the last time the Globe supported any union or genuinely grassroots movement? I can certainly see why, if an elite feels it is anointed to rule, it would resent the hoi polloi and their petty, short-sighted struggles.
Scot Lehigh steps up to the plate today and continues the relentless Globe anti-teacher/union narrative in an attack on BTU president Richard Stutman, making up an acronym as a way to pin a string of insulting labels on Richard.
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p>Readers are meant to wag their fingers at the incredible selfishness of Stutman and the teachers he represents, standing in the way of us having a slender chance at RTTT $$ because of their petty, inconceivable objections to the RTTT requirements.
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p>NY Times reporters, on the other hand,seem to find it conceivable that people, not just union hacks, might have a problem with what RTTT has wrought. The Times today has a front-page, above the fold article about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s veto of a bill sent to him by the legislature in their over-the-top attempt to grab some RTTT money from the feds. Times readers learn that, yes, teachers were outraged at the bill’s efforts to make it easier to fire teachers and tie teacher evaluations to test scores, but so were tens of thousands of other people:
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p>Imagine, the Florida RTTT bill, while supported by business and former Gov. Bush, was opposed by teachers, parents, students, superintendents, school boards and legislators. (No mention of an epidemic of insanity taking hold.)
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p>Anything on this major story in today’s Globe? Didn’t see it.
Why, we’re trying to reform the processes and change how we do business, because failing to do so will kill us. The fact that unions are being so selfish and obstructive is a real difficulty in changing the bottom line of this media company…
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p>…er, not media company…education. Yeah, that’s it, education.
Well, it’s taken awhile, but it looks like the Chicago Tribune has perhaps started to get more of the picture. I liked PURE’s take on this:
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p>But I’ll let that pass and bask in the hope that this new enlightenment will take root across the page — I expect to see Tribune board editorials any day retracting their support for Sen. Meeks’ voucher bill (they loved it as recently as two weeks ago), slamming the Advance Illinois agenda for our state’s Race to the Top proposal (they just came out for more charters and test-driven teacher evaluation) and demanding more accountability from charter schools (here’s just one example le of the double of the double standard they have been using).
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p>Chapman does something even better than admitting that the Trib has been wrong — he admits that we don’t know enough about what works in education and why, and cautions that imposing one-size-fits-all solutions “such as those offered by the Obama administration” is the wrong approach.
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p>But we do know some things. There are models of success in our own back yard, such as the local school council-based reforms of the 1990’s detailed in Designs for Change’s The Big Picture, the wholistic approach described in the Consortium on Chicago School Research’s new study, Organizing Schools for Improvement, and the parent- and teacher-centered programs of Strtegic Learning Initiatives.
thing is that the interests of students and teachers often coincide. Treating teachers well isn’t always best for kids, but it is a lot better than the Globe believes. The problem with unions is that they interfere with what policy-makers think is best, not what is best for students. Ditch the education policy establishment in this state and anti-union sentiment will decrease significantly.
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p>We ought to picket the Globe offices this summer, not the union, just us teachers. That would be fun. Dare them to cover us.
I’d come, know some others who would too. How about you, Tracy?
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p>We could carry signs:
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p>Stop bashing my children’s teachers. Let them teach!
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p>or
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p>Stop scapegoating teachers. Who will be left to teach my children?
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p>The thing is, as you know, teachers are parents too and want what’s best for their children.
at the Young Dems’ gathering today, I posted this. Way too early to be hopeful, but I do wonder if the Governor is starting to feel some heat on how these education policies play out on the ground.
I hope he is feeling the heat of how his education policy is playing out on the ground.
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p>Kudos to the AFT for boycotting the RTTT, too! MTA should follow their lead.
SATs may go after teachers vote to allow test papers to gather dust
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p>THE death knell of the controversial SATs could have sounded following a vote by teachers to boycott them, according to a Derbyshire union leader.
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p>Primary pupils in the county are unlikely to sit the tests next month after teachers and head teachers voted in favour of not testing 11-year-olds in English and maths nationally.
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p>Members of the National Union of Teachers and National Association of Head Teachers have been campaigning for several years for the tests, more formally known as National Curriculum Tests, to be abolished.
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p>Bill Greenshields, assistant Derbyshire NUT spokesman and its former national president, said schools would find a much more productive use for the time they would have spent administering the tests.
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p>He said: “This will hopefully stop league tables being published and reduce unnecessary competition between schools.
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p>”This should be the death knell of the tests and allow pupils to enjoy learning instead of being taught to pass the tests and the pressure they bring.”
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p>Derby head teacher Simon Emsley has also welcomed the result of the ballot.
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p>Mr Emsley, in charge at Lakeside Community Primary, in Alvaston, said: “I have never felt the tests were helpful to anyone and everyone in my school, including the governors, are prepared to support the boycott.”
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p>The tests are due to run nationally from May 10 to 13. Executives from both unions are meeting on Tuesday to discuss how the boycott will work.
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p>Mr Emsley said: “When the tests arrive in school I will lock them up until someone asks for their return.
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p>”I am very supportive of assessing children but believe it is better done by teachers who know them rather than through a one-off test.”
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p>The tests have been criticised for more than 12 years by teachers for not being a true assessment of pupil progress.
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p>Kudos to my brothers and sisters across the pond!
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p>MTA, NEA and AFT please take note!