Standards: NCLB Author Slams Ravitch, LDH

Here's a pretty heated email Sandy Kress sent out this morning about the East Palo Alto charter school whose charter school was denied an extension, and standards recanter Diane Ravitch:

"Linda Darling Hammond and Diane Ravitch have built their careers recently beating up on standards based reform, Teach for America, charter schools, choice, and NCLB, among other initiatives that reformers have put in place over the last 15 years. They've distorted data to attempt to show that these reforms do not work, even when objective data show otherwise.
 
"Now the results are in on THEIR approach. I won't attempt to explain or manipulate the data. Look for yourself. Linda Darling Hammond had all the money in the world and the Stanford faculty, all the advantages and more than the typical charter school would have. Look at the chart of student results from her school and similarly situated schools in California, and judge for yourself."

I get his point, though I'm not sure I think of LDH as such a standards opponent as Ravitch has become, or that one school's fate makes or breaks an entire educational approach.  Kress is not quite done, though:  "Here are the questions students in Linda's school couldn't answer. I guess they'll do better on more "authentic" questions." (PDF here)

Comments

[Claus]

Since when is Ravitch an opponent of standards? She's had a change of heart on a lot of things, but standards?

[john]

In a recent blog about what she hasn't recanted, Ravitch wrote "I have not changed my fundamental belief that all children should have a great education that includes not just basic skills, but history, literature, geography, civics, the arts, science, foreign languages, and physical education."

[erstwhilesteve]

The language skills required to pass the California 3rd grade test are more sophisticated than the math skills required.

[Sharon]

In discussions about the Stanford charter school, comparisons are frequently made to an Aspire charter school which is nearby, East Palo Alto Academy Elementary. A friend of mine in an administrative credentialing program in the Bay Area has visited a variety of schools as an assignment. She recently visited an Aspire middle school (almost all low-income Latino) and reported to me that things there seemed calm and very under control.

The kids were compliantly filling out lots of worksheets, the teachers were primarily young and white, and, from classroom to classroom, lessons were being conducted in exactly the same manner.

However, she also commented that the tone at the school was sort of creepy and seemed like “The Stepford Wives.”

So the primary pro of the Aspire model seems to be the regimentation. Being educated and middle-class, she and her classmates agreed that they would NEVER be willing to send their kids to a school with such a dull and ultra-controlled environment.

Dutifully filling out worksheets seems to be a model of education that has emerged for low-income kids and perhaps it is working for some of them. This would explain why Aspire gets decent standardized test scores.

But I’m not convinced that the narrow set of most-compliant kids who attend those schools are getting any type of well rounded, and challenging education that will let them effectively compete with middle-class kids when they get older and out in the real world.

It remains to be seen if test scores will be everything.

[eugene]

Sandy Kress: Lobbyist
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/04/sandy-kress-lobbyist.html

Here's a list of companies that pay NCLB architect Sandy Kress to push their interests.

From the Texas Ethics Commission:
Citizen Schools Inc.
$10,000 - $24,999
Client Start Date: 03/10/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010

Edvance Research Inc.
Less Than $10,000
Client Start Date: 1/22/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010

National Council on Teacher Quality
Less Than $10,000
Client Start Date: 1/22/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010

Pearson Education
$10,000 - $24,999
Client Start Date: 1/22/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010

Teach For America
Less Than $10,000
Client Start Date: 1/22/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010

Texas Charter Schools Association
Less Than $10,000
Client Start Date: 1/22/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010

Wireless Generation Inc
$25,000 - $49,999
Client Start Date: 1/22/2010
Client Term Date: 12/31/2010