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Indianapolis: The New Feeding Ground for Corporate Education Reformers

Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the Hoosiers, is getting ready for the fight of a lifetime. The Crossroads of America will need us to rally and support them as a corporate education takeover makes its way into their public schools.

Mind Trust is preparing to overhaul the Indianapolis Public Schools using strategies similar to those used in New Orleans and New York.  Mind Trust proudly states, "We have invested over $5 million to bring Teach For America, College Summit, The New Teacher Project, Stand for Children, and Diploma Plus to Indianapolis."

Mind Trust CEO states in the Indy Star, “"If we're going to be serious about doing something transformational, we need an aggressive plan…"

The plan is to create a total choice system in which schools “compete for students and make their own decisions about how to allocate resources formerly managed by IPS.”

The red flags are numerous.  The word CHOICE really implies choice for some, not for all.  The word COMPETE means some children will be left behind, as not everyone can win a competition.  As schools compete, students who don't make the grade will be sent packing. Students with special needs  may be turned away at the door.  Schools will be shut down and communities will be destroyed.

Minority students account for 76% of the IPS student population;  will they have a voice in the decisions being made about their neighborhoods and their schools as the restructure of IPS takes place?

When we can allocate resources independent of the school district one can guarantee that resources will not be allocated equally and profit will take precedence.  We need only look to New York, Detroit and New Orleans to see how such a system is playing out.

A new office will be created to recruit teachers, administrators and charter school operators.  We know that the CEO of The New Teacher Project is on the board of directors for Mind Trust.  Teacher recruiting will focus largely on the enlistment of non-educators into the school system - teachers with minimal training who will work as cheap labor and be easily silenced should it be necessary.  Administrators will be recruited through groups such as the Broad Foundation where teaching or education experience is not required.

The school board will be replaced by a board that is handpicked by the mayor and the City-County Council, and it appears that the superintendent will be removed. So, now we have potential mayoral control and the picture is complete.

Harris, Mind Trust CEO, expresses the importance of getting elected officials in the community to support this plan.

And of course, they play their final card.  The student data just doesn’t cut it.  Harris shares how the district ISTEP scores fell short of their five-year goals.  They don’t mention that Indianapolis Public Schools currently have 83% of their students on free or reduced lunch, therefore, ignoring the concept of protecting children from poverty as the first step in improving student learning.  And as Diane Ravitch tells us, after nine years of market-based reform in New York, "the achievement gap between black and white students is unchanged."

In the four key points of the Mind Trust plan they fail to mention wrap around services to shelter children from the effects of poverty.  Where is the health care?  Nutrition?  Books?  I wonder if anyone at Mind Trust is hungry, cold, tired or sick for extended periods of time with no resources to alleviate the pain? I wonder if anyone working at Mind Trust lives in fear of their community being ripped out from under them?  I have a feeling that the 160 page reform proposal they wrote was created under roofs with healthy living conditions, unlike the living conditions of many Indianapolis students, who must go to school, take high stakes tests, and somehow pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

There is a glimmer of hope in Indianapolis and it is growing stronger daily.  There are parents who recognize that the ISTEP is destructive to their children’s education.  They recognize that the curriculum is being altered due to state testing and they see that the test is taking away from real learning.  They want to protect their children from the abusive effects of high stakes testing. They are opting out of the ISTEP.  They have created a Facebook site for Indiana community members who are interested in opting out of corporate education reform.  They refuse to give the privatizers their children’s test data. 

The parents have been told that they cannot opt out.  They have been lied to and they know it.  A child cannot be forced to take a state test.  While the Department of Education in Indiana chooses to protect their data, the parents choose to protect their children.  Without this data the corporate reformers will have great difficulty punishing students, teachers and communities through methodical privatization tactics that support the profits of the 1%. The executive summary of the Mind Trust proposal makes it very clear what they intend to do.  They state, "Excellent existing schools would become Opportunity Schools immediately following a planning year. Poor performing schools would be given support to improve and seek Opportunity status. And new leadership and new school models would replace persistently failing programs." It is clear who will fail. It is clear who will succeed.  Standardized test data tells us one thing - it tells us which students are living in poverty.  These are the students who will fail and lose their Opportunity to a whole and equitable education.

However, without the data, corporate education reform fails, and school communities - not corporations - can begin to focus on providing learners what they deserve - shelter from poverty and the same education the 1% receives.

Mind Trust beware.  The parents are coming.

A New Year's Resolution. Opt Out of State Testing. January 7th.

United Opt Out National has declared January 7^th to be National Opt Out Day.  It is our goal that students, teachers and community members will express their dislike for corporate education reform and will use various means to demonstrate how they plan to OPT OUT.

There are many ways to opt out.  You can explore these ideas at our website.  Today I'm going to talk about the most powerful way to opt out: refuse to take the state test.  Educators across the country are supporting this concept.  You must peruse the Call for Action and see who has signed it.

It is time to raise our voices and be heard loudly. Corporate education reformers are attempting to work with educators and parents and create the appearance of respecting the opinions of the 99%.  Do not be fooled. We continue to compromise and they continue to chip away at our public schools.  I must ask, is there truly any room left for compromise?  What else are we willing to sacrifice?  As we compromise we are harming our children and we are losing our democracy. It is time for action.  I believe that civil disobedience is not only necessary, but vital if we intend to reclaim public schools for all of America's children - specifically the 99% who are suffering silently, while the children of the 1% live abundantly and thrive in private schools - where state tests don't exist. 

As an educator, parent and a community member, I have a moral responsibility to stand up for children who cannot speak for themselves.   

There are currently children attending schools where they receive nothing but test prep.  There are children with low test scores who are required to stay in for recess, miss PE/music/art in order to prepare for the state test.  Most children no longer have any access to fine arts, libraries or play.  Some children attend schools in which they are asked to come in on Saturdays to prep for a test. Some children are squeezed into basements in order to share a building with a new charter school. Kindergarten is all work and no play. Learners are not finding their passions; they are losing their childhood in the name of standardized testing. Learners are finding out how to fill in a bubble sheet. Children in low socioeconomic areas are not being sheltered from the effects of poverty.  The love for learning is disappearing, and with it goes the potential of an entire generation.

As corporate education reform continues, all students – rural, suburbs, urban – will receive a poor, or mediocre education due to the emphasis on a one size fits all set of national standards, scripted curriculum and high stakes tests.  Because everything is attached to the standardized test, learning will be shallow.  One simply cannot create a high level learning situation around a multiple-choice test with four right answers and formulaic responses for short answers. We will raise a generation of test-takers who have minimal skills to function in a world in which multiple-choice tests have no real life application.  We will no longer be the innovators of the world, leading with the most innovative patents.  We will become the puppets of America as the 1% continues to use us to create more profit.

Many of us are not awake yet and believe we are immune to all that has been listed above.  No one is immune. They have infiltrated all aspects of education – early childhood programs, elementary, middle, high school and higher ed.  Everyone is being asked to drink the Corp. Ed. Kool-Aid.  Those who chug it down need our support to see and understand what is truly happening.

ALEC continues to write legislation that takes away our rights to a free and equal education for all. They have taken two professions – that of student – that of teacher – and have completely reconfigured what these professions look like and have influenced what our society believes about our country’s education system.  Teachers are not bad.  Students are not robots who should sit straight in their chair at all times, hands folded, eyes tracking the speaker, and regurgitating information on tests.

It is a grim prediction for our future.  2012 will be here soon and with it comes the spring state testing window. We must shut that window.

On January 7^th, OPT OUT of corporate education reform.  The slam dunk is opting out of the state test.  Without the test data, they cannot punish our students, educators and communities.  A mass opt out would create an education revolution.  6% opting out would be enough to make the test results null/void.  They would be required to listen to the 99%.  What if our society's New Year's Resolution was to reclaim public education for all children?

We are warriors who can think for ourselves.  We are much more than the results of a standardized test.  We are a think tank of multiple right answers that cannot be expressed by shading in a bubble.  

Begin by sending a letter or postcard to your school district on January 7^th and tell them your plans to opt out.  Flood their mailboxes.  Drown out their test prep rally calls, their extrinsic rewards, their punishments, all based on a bubble sheet.  We are much more. Tell them. Create your own rally call and march to save public schools in your community. 

A mass opt out will shut them down.  A mass opt out will send a message and they will be required to listen.

National Opt Out Day.  January 7^th.  OPT IN to real learning and real teaching.  Make a New Year's Resolution and commit to reclaiming public schools for all children.

Teach at Your Occupy Movement Today. End Wall Street Occupation of Public Schools.

I have never been so excited to teach a class in my life.  I head down to Occupy Denver tomorrow  - class starting at 1:30 p.m. – to begin to share information on how to end Wall Street Occupation of our public schools.

I don’t have to use a scripted text.

I don’t have to watch and see if someone walking by is monitoring me – you know – to see if I’m focusing on the test prep skills. 

And guess what??? I don’t have to feed the learners a test!!!  No bubble sheets!!!!! How lucky am I?

Better yet – members of Occupy Denver have been provided food, shelter and resources to allow them to thrive, grow and learn – unlike the children in our country – 23% living in poverty – who have only been fed tests.

And you ask…how will I know if they learned anything?  

I think what I’ll do is let everyone talk, ask questions and discuss.  I'm going to listen carefully and determine how to best support them in moving forward with their newly acquired learning.  I will also know what they learned based on the actions they take – you heard me right corporate ed. reformers – ACTIONS.  Occupy Denver knows how to organize, collaborate and act.  They are amazing people.  I found that out last Saturday when I had the honor to participate in the march and rally. They have a goal.  End corporate greed and reclaim democracy.  And they are motivated, smart, and crazy innovative.  I’m in awe of them.

As I teach every Wednesday, I will continually add to and revise my curriculum (that I pulled together myself – sorry Pearson - you aren’t needed) based on the needs of my learners.  I know they are interested in learning how to end corporate greed within the public school system in order to provide an equal educational opportunity for ALL children. I am pulling together my resources from parents and educators who have diligently gathered research over the years – information that has been IGNORED – and I will share it all.  I am grinning from ear to ear.  I love Occupy Denver.  And I am so happy to teach freely – with innovation – with passion – and with love for my fellow Americans – once again.  Power to the students. Power to the teachers.  Teach at your Occupy Movement today. Free yourself from the chains of corporate education reform.

I Support Occupy Denver

This weekend I went to Occupy Denver and spoke at the rally and shared the truth about corporate education reform.  I was thanked by complete strangers and was asked by one of the organizers of Occupy Denver to please come back every Saturday and speak again.

A CBS reporter asked me why I was there.  I said I was there to demand an end to corporate education reform in our public schools.  She said somewhat condescendingly – But this is about Wall Street. What does that have to do with Occupy Wall Street?  I said, somewhat frustrated, EVERYTHING.  It’s the same thing, I said, as I explained the corporate ed. reform occurring in Denver.  Occupy Wall Street is indeed representative of the corporate takeover of our public schools.  Of course my clip was cut from the news broadcast.

I am tired of hearing people say, those at the Occupy movements need to get a cohesive message – they HAVE one.  End corporate greed and reclaim our right to a democracy through various means.  I am tired of hearing people complain about their demands – why complain?  Why not offer support in writing them?

Why not offer support in writing those demands before some corporate education reformer tries to add demands that are disguised as supporting public schools? You know what I mean – demands that talk about parent choice or parental rights – but really mean – support charter schools – support vouchers – THOSE demands.

We need to offer our support to the occupy movements.  Offer to teach a class on ending the privatization of our public schools – that’s what I’m doing for Occupy Denver.  Speak at the weekend rallies – share the best kept secret – opting out of the state test will put a screeching halt to corporate education reform - and then we can preserve and improve our public schools. Pass out flyers, brochures, post on Occupy Facebook pages and let it be known that WE have the power to make these changes. 

If an entire district, entire state opted out of the state test – we’d move mountains.  This is the message I shared at Occupy Denver, where I met the most amazing people who all stood together to reclaim Democracy.

And now I’m going to share more through the classes I teach.  I’m going to share everything – absolutely everything I know about how to end corporate education reform and preserve and improve our public schools. I will talk incessantly.  I will pass out flyers.  I will twitter. I will speak at rallies.  I will support Occupy Denver.

Corporate ed. reformers are scared.  They should be.

Because I am the crazy chick out there posting on Facebook, twittering, talking, writing, making signs and flyers……. like a mad woman….as I spread the word about how to end the privatization of our public schools.  There are many more like me. I have an agenda.  And I know what the corporate reform agenda is and I’m not going to let it happen. And damn it, I will see this through to the end.  Join me.  Support your Occupy movement today. Save public schools for our children.

Occupy Denver

America's Got Talent? Not Under the Corporate Education Reform Model

This past week I watched Education Nation.  I continued to support action through our work at United Opt Out National.  I read articles about the supposed benefits of NCLB waivers.  I received notices about legislation being written which dictates what public universities do and forces schools of education to drink the corp. ed. Kool-Aid.  In the midst of all of this I read about an increase in the number of homeless children in New York.  And then there was Occupy Wall Street – underreported – but representative of an America - composed of independent thinkers - waking up.  As people begin to speak up, those with power tremble ever so slightly.

I tremble a bit as well…with an inner rage that I try to keep calm by swimming laps several mornings a week while thinking about how we might change the current narrative regarding this fabricated educational crisis that has allowed corporations to swoop in and profit at our children’s expense.  I watched a clip of MorningJoe on MSNBC in which they talked about how the arts have disappeared from the public schools.  They talked about China and how China is moving away from excessive testing in the hopes of allowing creative minds to develop, while our country adds tests, narrows the curriculum and shuts down any opportunity for innovative thinking.  A death sentence for our country; yet, it appears that many of us are the walking dead already.  We are allowing it to happen. 

Is it just me or is there something creepy about the pictures of children in charter schools in New York where they all sit straight in their chairs with hands folded on the desks?  What the hell is that?  My classroom was always an interesting mix of couches, desks, tables and groups gathered in the midst of projects, conversation and INNOVATION.   The children were everywhere – true movers and shakers!  I never gave a rat’s ass about the test scores (this was before the smack down started and forced teachers to teach to the test), which are currently upheld as the indicator of a school’s success.  I cared about their day-to-day learning, their ideas, goals, opinions and their confidence to move forward when they left my class and headed out into the world.  I hoped that the skills I taught them and the opportunity to imagine and create in my classroom would allow them to become inventive, passionate Americans who would help make our country and our world a better place.

Yet, under Race to the Top and the pathetic NCLB waivers now being offered, we are simply creating test takers who perform robotic actions that leave our children with no opportunity to even imagine what could be.  Their SAT scores have declined  - an indicator that years of having a test shoved down your throat does little to improve student achievement and actually harms and hampers our students' opportunities.

While China and other countries are attempting to end a test-oriented education and create a talent-oriented education (read Yong Zhao’s Catching Up or Leading the Way for more on this topic – all future references to Zhao are taken from his book), we are destroying a country that was at the top of innovative thinking.  Zhao talks about how China was looking to us as they searched for a model of innovative education.  He states, “As a country with the most Nobel laureates, most original patents, most scientific discoveries in the 20^th century, and largest economy in the world, the United States of America seems a reasonable candidate (Zhao 2009).”

Why are we getting rid of what other countries want?

Zhao also states – and this is important so please listen up - “But most vexing is why Americans, who hold individual rights and liberty in the highest regard, would allow the government to dictate what their children should learn, when they should learn it, and how they are evaluated?”

When did we become doormats? We are all guilty of non-action. The infiltration of corporate control over our schools is beyond scope – beyond reason - in a country, which calls itself a democracy. 

Zhao shares a beautiful story about attending a talent show at his child’s school in his book Catching Up or Leading the Way.  He discusses how talent is encouraged, honored and praised in our country.  He talks about the guts and gumption it takes for a child to get up and perform – even when a talent may be lacking or imperfect.  It is this exact quality – valuing individuality - that allows our children to develop confidence, take risks and grow as individuals who can say – YES.  I am capable. I am confident. I am ready to interact in a world full of confusion, possibility and change.  I can make a positive difference and think, listen, share and improve my community.

I don’t see any standardized test helping to create a child like that.  I am heartbroken for the children who are abused by corporate education reform movements in a country that is not waking up fast enough to stop the madness.

Zhao states, “As a result of adopting national standards, schools will produce a homogenous group of individuals with the same abilities, skills, and knowledge.  Such a result will be disastrous to America and Americans because as globalization and technology continue to change the world, America needs a citizenry of creative individuals with a wide range of talents to sustain its tradition of innovation.”

On Education Nation this past week they talked about being fearful of China.  We don’t need to fear China.  We need to fear ourselves.  We are becoming what China is desperate to rid itself of – a test-oriented culture which is producing citizens that score well on tests, yet are not able to innovate and function in positions that require out-of-the-box thinking.

I cringe when schools share their successes with the community by referencing and applauding their test scores.  I cringe because I know that high test scores, in a culture of excessive testing and punitive consequences for low test scores, typically mean that schools are narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, taking away subjects which allow a child to find their inner spirit, innovative thoughts and talents.  I know that test scores are high at the expense of good teaching, fine arts, play, nap, recess – all important in allowing a child to develop and grow into a confident and independent thinker.

I cringe because as China knows, a high test score tells us nothing except that the child scored well on a few subjects and scored well using a form of testing that does not display any useful information regarding a child’s actual achievement as an individual learner.

The achievement gap in our test scores is a result of poverty.  Zhao calls it the resource gap.  The resources missing are clean, well-maintained facilities stocked with qualified teachers, nurses, librarians, books and more.

As the richest country in the world with the highest percentage of children living in poverty in an industrialized nation – one must look at what is going on in our current education system and wonder why the focus on the test?  Isn’t it fascinating that the current reform movement doesn’t focus on sheltering children from the effects of poverty, but rather focuses on pouring money into tests to determine if these children who lack food, shelter, sleep, clothing, health care and access to books can get a good score on a test?

We are spending billions on the test and denying America’s children the right to think creatively through various subjects – whether it is art, music, PE, history, science, imaginative play and more.  Our children will become adults who haven’t had the experiences necessary to interact successfully in our world.  And like China, they will not be able to keep a job if creative and independent thinking is necessary.  We could lose our status as the country with the most innovative ideas.

I appeal to Americans everywhere – in rural areas – in the suburbs – in the cities.  I appeal to your hopes for America’s children.  Please recognize that a good test score does not equal a good education.  It does not equal a healthy, well fed child.  A good education can be found in a rich and diverse curriculum taught by educators with teaching degrees where student work  - written, verbal, or through performance, projects, portfolios and interactions with others – is used to assess, evaluate and plan for quality instruction – and where children are SHELTERED from the effects of poverty so that they can reach their greatest potential.

Please recognize that these tests, which are costing our country billions of dollars and result in punitive consequences for schools, will be the death of our democracy and our current status as a leader of innovation.  We will become what China is attempting to end – a culture permeated by the “high score low ability” syndrome (see Zhao for more information) – a culture filled with good test scores but the inability to develop skills that are needed in an innovative and global economy. China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan are all attempting to create an education system in which creative thinking is emphasized and standardized testing is de-emphasized.  They move forward, using our education model; we move backwards, using their model.

While corporate reformers and politicians would like us to believe that good test scores are allowing our country to race to the top, we should be fearful that good test scores combined with excessive testing and punitive consequences for low scores, will leave our children and therefore our country behind.  A country which prizes the individual – prizes innovative thinking – should be very leery of testing tied to top down standards and curriculum - which prizes nothing but a score and results in unequal educational opportunities for children and corporate profit for a few. 

Does America have talent?  Not for long.  I can no longer even see the child in our public school system.  Civil disobedience is needed to bring our children back to the forefront. The vision of the eager child who smiles on the first day of school is buried under mandated tests, curriculum, standards and corporations who are tearing down our democracy and destroying our children’s opportunity to determine and explore their purpose, their talents and their chance to be productive individuals in our communities.  And sadly, our children are increasingly taught by educators who are poorly trained, hired as cheap labor and who believe the test is the indicator of success. Superintendents and administrators without any teaching credentials increasingly lead the way.

Who do I fear?  Not China.  I fear us.