National Movement Hits a Nerve in the Reformer Camp

Certainly a sign that media mogul, owner of the NY Post, and education reform entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch and cronies are noticing the national movement by parents, community members and taxpayers against excessive, experimental, and expensive standardized testing. Groups all over the nation are organized, state legislatures are revisiting decisions on standards, testing, and database development. Washington State teachers are refusing to implement the tests.

What is the sign? Yellow journalism or presenting manufactured sensationalized new reporting and a personal attacks - classic and consistent with the NY Post reputation. Why else would yellow journalists Susan Edelman and Candice Giove fail to report on standardized testing itself and the national opposition rather than choose to launch a personal attack on Lisa Nielsen,  ONE long time critic of excessive national testing. The national opposition is large, but then real journalists with integrity would know that.

So what does the NY Post care about standardized testing? Its owner cares.

In June 2011 Forbes reported that Murdoch's News Corp hired New York State Chancellor Joel Klein to develop an education division. Kristen Kane, former chief operating officer of the New York City Department of Education, was tagged to become COO of this News Corp unit. Two weeks later, Murdoch purchased Wireless Generation, a company that develops software and data systems to track student progress. The company is a contractor for the New York city school system. But Wireless Generation was awarded a $27 million no-bid contract, it got attention - too much attention, and the deal was investigated and the contract was "quietly rejected" by New York State Controller Thomas DiNapoli.

Regarding the $360 million dollar purchase price for Wireless Generation, Murdoch had this to say:

"Education in the U.S. is a $500 billion sector “waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching,” said Murdoch in a statement, and Wireless Generation is at the “forefront” of individualized, tech-based learning."

No testing, no data. No data, no need for million dollar contracts in each state and school district in the U.S. No contracts, no return on big investments.

Who pays? Who benefits???  The critics will not be so easily silenced. There are far too many now and far too smart to be fooled.

Related articles:
http://q13fox.com/2013/01/15/more-teachers-refuse-to-give-map-standardized-test/#axzz2IXkUwqMY

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/06/09/new-york-state-dept-of-education-awards-27m-no-bid-contract-to-news-corp-company/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/27/new-york-scraps-21-millio_n_938929.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ed_big_is_class_clown_AypysRk8BeNdNb4XON70sO?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Local

Image: http://greenwichroundup.blogspot.com/2010/08/081210-sneaky-hearst-newspaper-editor.html

20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know About Education

NBC sponsored Education Nation is billed as a national summit on education. Panel after panel discussed and debated a wide variety of topics. Perhaps I am one more in the pool of parents, community members, or taxpayers who never heard of it. Could it be this important pool remains at the fringes of the national discussion?

Thanks to Lisa of the Innovative Educator blog, I learned that there was at least a student panel. This insightful blog is reposted below.

20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know About Education

It's rare for education reformers, policymakers, and funders to listen to those at the heart of education reform work: The students. In fact Ann Curry who hosted Education Nation's first student panel admitted folks at NBC were a little nervous about putting kids on stage. In their "Voices of a Nation" discussion, young people provided insight into their own experiences with education and what they think needs to be done to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. After the discussion Curry knew these students didn't disappoint. She told viewers, "Students wanted to say something that made a difference to you (adults) and they did. Now adults need to listen."

Below are the sentiments shared by these current and former students during the segment.

1. I have to critically think in college, but your tests don't teach me that.
   
2. We learn in different ways at different rates.
   
3. I can't learn from you if you are not willing to connect with me.
   
4. Teaching by the book is not teaching. It's just talking.
   
5. Caring about each student is more important than teaching the class.
   
6. Every young person has a dream. Your job is to help bring us closer to our dreams.
   
7. We need more than teachers. We need life coaches.
   
8. The community should become more involved in schools.
   
9. Even if you don't want to be a teacher, you can offer a student an apprenticeship.
   
10. Us youth love all the new technologies that come out. When you acknowledge this and use technology in your teaching it makes learning much more interesting.
    
11. You should be trained not just in teaching but also in counseling.
    
12. Tell me something good that I'm doing so that I can keep growing in that.
    
13. When you can feel like a family member it helps so much.
    
14. We appreciate when you connect with us in our worlds such as the teacher who provided us with extra help using Xbox and Skype
    
15. Our teachers have too many students to enable them to connect with us in they way we need them to.
    
16. Bring the electives that we are actually interested in back to school. Things like drama, art, cooking, music.
    
17. Education leaders, teachers, funders, and policy makers need to start listening to student voice in all areas including teacher evaluations.
    
18. You need to use tools in the classroom that we use in the real world like Facebook, email, and other tools we use to connect and communicate.
    
19. You need to love a student before you can teach a student.
    
20. We do tests to make teachers look good and the school look good, but we know they don't help us to learn what's important to us.

The students are ready to talk to us. How are we going to make time to listen and incorporate their voices into the policies and decisions that affect them?

*Panelists:
Nnamdi Asomugha, Cornerback - Philadelphia Eagles
Shadrack Boayke - Brentwook, NY
Colton Bradford - Mobile, AL
Ron Daldine - Auburn Hills, MI
Rayla Gaddy - Detroit, MI
Katie Oliveria - Las Vegas, NV