A Connection is Made: Pearson, RttT, Rhee?and Me ? Middle ...

One of the most important things about teaching middle school students is making sure they can use background knowledge and skills, along with the new knowledge they discover, to find patterns and make logical connections. ?The best part of teaching is watching students reach those ?A-HA? moments and create original thoughts and ideas. ?It?s a practice that everyone should practice every day, everywhere. ?Without evidence and sources, though, it?s just a conspiracy theory. ?So, I will add those in a new ?Resources? page over the next several days.

So here?s one. ?While researching the issues with which I plan to approach educational leadership in the next few weeks, I saw a connection. ?I?m sure there are people out there who research this stuff and make these connections all the time; I need to find their circles of influence and join them to learn more. ?However, in my circles, the arguments, debates, and concerns are disconnected?fiery, but disconnected. ?We know that the charter movement is coming, and we hate Michelle Rhee for making the push so blatantly and so crookedly. ?We know that educators are now being evaluated based on student test scores and we hate that too, but we don?t know who made this rule or why (and our district leadership won?t tell us). ?We know that we have to administer more and more tests to students, which we find intrusive, stressful to all, and a major waste of time and money.

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I?ve created a Venn diagram to try to make the connection I see in my head. ?The trifecta, as one colleague called it, is seemingly nothing more than a well-orchestrated and patient profit machine, with three major operators: testing companies (like Pearson), the federal and state governments, and charter management companies (and their friends, like StudentsFirst).

It?s hard to see it all in order, but I know that large companies like Pearson win contracts from state governments, who are forced by Race to the Top to take part in ?student learning measurements? (a.k.a. standardized tests), and all in the name of privatizing education. ?If Pearson publishes the texts and the tests, and the government is forced to administer them, then ALEC and the charter movement can point to the dismal results and say that teachers and their unions are failing kids.

Teachers, like me, and students pay the price with the kind of curriculum disasters, bad working conditions, and student disenfranchisement we see today. ?Districts are caught in this as well, and are fronting most of the costs.

The plan hasn?t even come full circle yet. ?Many teachers and parents are now asking, ?How much worse can it get??

Do you see that connection too? ?Or am I way off base here? Is there a way to make that Venn reflect the reality a little better?

Source: http://mgmfocus.com/2012/10/27/a-connection-is-made-pearson-rttt-rhee-and-me/

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