Reform: It's Not Dead Yet -- Far From It

School reform isn't dead, according to The Washington Monthly's The Next Big Test.  It's just revving up for a whole new push: 

The Next Wave of School Reform By Paul Glastris

Transcontinental Education By Robert Rothman

A Test Worth Teaching To By Susan Headden

Grand Test Auto By Bill Tucker

Funded by Hewletter with reporting by my Columbia classmate Laura Colarusso.

 

Comments

[CarolineSF]

This package in the Washington Monthly is written by voices from Education Sector and the Gates Foundation. It's advocacy, not journalism. Your promo needs as disclaimer, Alexander. Dishonesty (including sins of omission) increases the taint of the education "reform" sector.

[Alexander Russo]

read the article, agree or disagree with its substance, but please stop making broad accusations about motive and integrity that can't really be backed up and are offensive and discrediting to you and your positions.

either that, are you can start posting your tax returns and political donations and cholesterol count and we'll all point fingers at each other.

the washington monthly is reputable and left leaning, rothman was at annenberg for years.

[CarolineSF]

It's simply a basic principle of journalistic ethics not to present material from a partisan advocacy source as though it were actual journalism. I didn't invent that principle; it's pretty universal.

[Alexander Russo]

next time you care to comment on disclosure and or motives, please feel free to attach your 1040.

well, no actually, i'm being sarcastic. you can post about motives and disclosure if you want, but unless you've got something specific and credible to say i'm probably going to consider it trolling and unpublish it.

/ar

[Sarah]

I wasn’t aware that school reform as a trend was even dying out in government. If anything, it’s been shoving itself closer to the front lines every day, in the name of re-election season and the need to appeal to some sort of youth vote (the one time of year anyone in Congress or the White House really listens to us, I might add).

[Mary]

My salary is published every year in the local journal, in the community where I've taught for the past 16 years. If CarolineSF is a public school teacher, the source of her income is public, also.

Do you seriously compare the many topical links and detailed, topic-centered comments posted here by Caroline, by me, and by other supporters of public education to be trolling? Here's what I thought:

I thought you were an intellectually honest commentator, who had aligned himself as an advocate of the corporate-backed reform movement in a perfectly ordinary employment situation. I do really believe, though, from my personal experience and serious investigation, that those economic interests are using "accountability" cynically and dishonestly, as a battering ram to gain control of public education budgets. I see their effects, and they're catastrophic for the vulnerable children I teach.

The only reason I started commenting on your blog was that you once posted a question to yourself, wondering if the thing you were doing could actually be worse than the current system. It was you who ascribed motivation to yourself, and it was an honorable one. You started trying to make constructive criticisms of reform's icons. I believed in your sincerity at that point (and I still do).

We're discussing education, which I hold in such high importance that I've dedicated my life to it. That's the only moral high ground, and you're welcome to take it, too, even if you disagree with me. If you do, then any principled thing we say to each other is more of an honor than an insult.

You say, of Arne Duncan, "he's our guy". Then, you declare it off limits for readers to ask, whose guy do you mean by that? Arne has been to my district, where I really do teach every day with such dedication (and effectiveness) that my community treasures me, based on the testimony of its own children. Arne ought to be my guy, but he's not. Your accountability movement has dominated the district for a decade. Excuse me, but your heel is already on my throat, every day.

The power of a byline isn't much, compared to the political clout and cold manipulation we teachers stand up to. So, go ahead; delete our comments.