Did you catch the segment on last night’s PBS Newshour featuring an interview with Diane Ravitch, who was a deputy secretary of education during the administration of George H.W. Bush (“Are Teachers Too Easily Caught in Crossfire Over Student Achievement?“). Surprisingly, she is an articulate critic of “No Child Left Behind” and the whole emphasis on teacher “accountability.” It is a fabulous interview.
Here’s a sample:
First of all, should teachers be evaluated? Yes. Should they be evaluated by the test scores of their students, as Race to the Top, the Obama program, requires? Absolutely not. That is an unproven and actually a very harmful way to evaluate teachers.
Should teachers be paid more if the test scores go up? No, they should not be, because that puts too much emphasis on very poor tests. It causes teachers to teach to the test, which everybody agrees is a terrible thing to do. It also leads to narrowing of the curriculum, so that schools will drop the arts. They will drop history. They will drop civics, foreign languages. And they will focus only on what’s tested.
So, it actually is very educationally harmful to pay teachers to get higher test scores in reading and math or in any subject, because it’s just not a good method. And, by the way, I might add that this whole idea of merit pay has been tried again and again since the 1920s. It has never, ever produced results.
Ravitch rejects the notion that teachers unions are somehow the problem, noting that the highest performing schools systems are in states where teachers enjoy union protections, and the lowest performing are states without collective bargaining.
Then she hits on the issue no one wants to talk about–poverty.
In every district where there is very low academic achievement, there is poverty and racial isolation. And yet we are now trapped in this national conversation where there’s almost an agreement we will not talk about poverty. We will not talk about racial isolation. We will just talk about teachers. We are talking about the wrong problem.
And this from a former Republican appointee?
In any case, you can choose between watching the video or reading through a transcript.
And now for something completely different, Bob Jones shares an interesting consumer interaction with Sears.
I wanted to make a reservation at Sears Auto Center Ala Moana for a wheel alignment. I went to the Sears website. Sure enough, under various things offered was Wheel Alignment. I asked for an appointment at the Ala Moana store. That was okayed and I paid $79 on my credit card. I was suspicious because the confirmation said “you can pick up your order any time between 11 and 3.” When I went to Ala Moana Sears, they had nothing in their computer so I paid again and prepared to do battle with Sears national customer service. Today I got an e-mail from Sears national that “the item you requested is not available in a Hawaii store. Sorry, and you will not be charged.”
Of course, wheel alignments ARE available there and I had one! Maybe they think because we’re a Pacific island we only need boat motor repairs, not wheel alignments?
A Wall Street Journal article caught my eye yesterday, “Next Frontier: Mining the Ocean Floor.” It reports that several companies are at the point of trying to commercialize deep sea mining of manganese and other metals in the Pacific.
This was an area in which Hawaii was an early leader, but that was back at least two decades. Here’s a summary from a 1981 program description.
The State of Hawaii Department of Planning and Economic Development (DPED) and the University of Hawaii have been interested in manganese nodules for the past ten years. One example of early intergovernmental cooperation was the convocation of a workshop on Manganese Nodule Deposits in the Pacific ,ll held in Honolulu in October 1972.1 This workshop was sponsored by the DPED, the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, the State Marine Affairs Coordinator, and the Office of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration.The potential of a manganese nodule industry was pointed out in Hawaii and the Sea-1974, published by the DPED.2 In that report, the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Science and Technology recommended that the DPED write a report which would look at the total mining industry system, investigate and evaluate alternative processes and sites which might be used by onshore manganese nodule processing plants, and discuss plans and processes with the major mining companies.
In 1975 the Legislature provided funding to begin ‘a manganese nodule program designed to assess the potential of a nodule processing industry in Hawaii. A study group of consultants from the University of Hawaii was hired and research began in March, 1977. In September, 1977, while research was in progress, a representative of Kennecott Copper Corporation visited Hawaii and at a press conference rated the Island of Hawaii as a prime contender for a processing site.3 The study group report, The Feasibility and Potential Impact of Manganese Nodule Processing in Hawaii,4 was published in February, 1978.
So we were way ahead of the game, but now that technology has caught up with concept, it looks like the investments are going somewhere else. Or does Hawaii still have a foothold in this potential industry?
I’ll wrap up with a moment of silence in honor of Ray Bradbury, who died yesterday. He was an important part of my early life, and I can still conjure up the feelings of wonder, and terror, that his writings created. I read through many of his early books before I reached high school, those that could convey the vastness of the Milky Way in a dark, mid-western sky, the wonders of space, the fears hidden deep in everyday characters and spaces. I gobbled up his early stories and novels, The Illustrated Man, Golden Apples of the Sun, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes. I returned years later, reading some classics, but never got into his later writing, which couldn’t compete with my recollections of those early collisions between Bradbury fantasy, his magic prose, and my appetite for reading. Thank you, Ray Bradbury.
“Ravitch rejects the notion that teachers unions are somehow the problem, noting that the highest performing schools systems are in states where teachers enjoy union protections, and the lowest performing are states without collective bargaining.”
So where does Hawaii fit in this no-holds-barred kind of explanation?
Our teachers certainly have union protection. And that’s putting it lightly, considering their level of job protection.
So our public schools are the “highest performing”?
Wow, no need for Kam, Punahou, St Louis, HPA or Iolani.
Tim, she didn’t say that ALL of the states with unionized teachers have the highest performance; she said that the states with the highest performance have unionized teachers.
Big difference.
[comment slightly edited]
very good, anon. This was the comment I had a problem with: “Ravitch rejects the notion that teachers unions are somehow the problem.” You helped answer part of my question, but I’m guessing Ian had to edit your misinterpretation of my point.
My point:
The teachers union can be — and is — part of the reason for Hawaii’s well-known, long-term educational problems.
So please answer my original question:
So where does Hawaii fit in this no-holds-barred kind of explanation?
Our teachers certainly have union protection. And that’s putting it lightly, considering their level of job protection.
So our public schools are the “highest performing”?
And my follow-up question: Does Hawaii’s ridiculous level of teacher union job protection need a reality check?
Yes. Will it get one? Hard to imagine, with the union pretending that they put the kids first, then actually reject Abercrombie’s original contract!! (if they had trouble reading it, they absolutely should not be teaching.)
Either we will wisely revamp Hawaii’s unique statewide education system, or seriously pay for it later.
How will you improve the levels of job pay in a pricey state where people DO NOT have the skills to earn reasonable pay, nor the time to go to community college when they have kids. We could all try to become teachers, but even Inouye would have trouble finding a big-enough pork-barrel.
I saw Diane Ravitch on the Charlie Rose show maybe about two weeks ago. I felt she was right on the money in everything she said. She was so inspiring that I purchased her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. I have had a strong interest in this area for a very long time, as well as experience. I agreed with everything she said, based on my own experiences. I had taught (1970) in those “racially isolated”, “poverty-stricken” neighborhoods–in my case, the Chicago “inner city”. (In those days, where I taught, you could actually get a draft deferment as a teacher–they were hard to find–and some teachers did get deferments, though that was not my intention, and I never applied for one.) There was also an armed policeman in the school all the time, and this was an intermediate school, though maybe about half of the kids should have been in high school.) Kids came to school in the dead of a Chicago winter with holes in their shoes, and things that hardly passed for coats. The apartments they lived in often had broken windows with huge holes in the dead of the famed Chicago winter. I wondered how anyone could learn under those conditions. I was glad to see students got a good free or inexpensive lunch. I also taught as a Teaching Assistant at UH-Manoa’s English department while earning an MA in English Literature there, and then taught full time there for a year there after getting my master’s degree. I taught in-coming freshmen and sophomores English composition and literature, and was able to see their level of preparedness when they arrived. I then taught English for almost 4 years at a university in Tokyo. There is nothing that Ravitch said that I did not agree with, based on my own experiences and views and experience in the U.S. and abroad. It seems we are getting nowhere fast, though: Around 1965, an educator came out with a popular book about undergraduates entitled, Why Johnny Can’t Read. I am sure some of your readers will recall those days. The system was broken then, and apparently not much has changed for the better. I hope Ravitch’s work will greatly improve the system. As she noted, teachers in other countries, like Japan, are treated with incredible respect, as is the profession. After my teaching days, I went to law school, where at the time most of the students had just graduated from undergraduate school, and I got another chance to see the level of writing of those students, who maybe had one semester in English composition as an undergraduate.
Remember the Glomar Explorer? The CIA’s cover story was that it was going to be used for mining manganese nodules on the bottom of the sea, not the raising of Russian ICBMs from sunken Soviet submarines that it was designed for.
I read all of Ray Bradbury’s scifi while in grade school and have always considered him one of the masters. I was ashamed that I didn’t realize he was still alive. RIP, Mr. Bradbury.
I second the tribute to Ray Bradbury, one of my two favorite authors while growing up as a sci-fi freak.
His “R is for rocket” short-story collection is a classic of the genre.
Who was the other favorite?
I would wager the other would have to be Asimov. Dave?
WoWoo’s got it. Isaac Asimov’s “I Robot” story collection (and other works) had me spellbound as a youngster.
I’ve seen several attempts at bringing that to the big screen but IMO they’ve failed rather miserably. Hard to compete with a young fertile imagination, I guess.
Very thoughtful comments by Diane Ravitch.
I did a brief paper long ago for a science class on the potential for the mining of manganese nodules in Hawaii, and I probably had read the paper that you cited.
The prospects for such an industry are disappointing. It’s not a renewable industry. It’s a boom and bust industry, like the famous gold rush in California. All the workers would be from out of state. Their presence and that of their equipment would stress the State’s infrastructure, and then when they finally leave that would lead to a second disruption in the economy.
Perhaps the technology has changed to where it would require fewer workers, and some of them would be local workers, but that seems doubtful; if the industry has become much more high tech, then the workers would need to be even more specialized than before.
Also, there are environmental issues. From the wiki:
It was a disappointing little paper to write.
This reminds me of a recent Honolulu Weekly article, “Fortress Oahu”.
http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2012/05/fortress-o%E2%80%98ahu/
The article does a brief cost-benefits analysis of the US military presence in Hawaii. The article concludes that financially, the US military contributes more to the local economy than it costs the local economy.
But there are costs, and the main point is that few people, especially politicians, think twice about this. The commitment to a military presence in Hawaii by the local elite is primarily financial in motive, not for defensive purposes, but very little thought or reflection has gone into the economics of this presence. In fact, not a single politician was interviewed for this story, not because the reporter was negligent, it seems, but because the politicians just don’t have the statistics. In fact, no bank or private economist was interviewed. The primary source for the article was an economics professor at Hawaii Pacific University, a teaching college; even the local research university, UHM, was not a resource.
I am neither for nor against the US military presence in Hawaii. That’s not my point.
My point is that the elite in Hawaii seem to have been on autopilot for the past 60 years.
For instance, I read this morning that development of Koa Ridge has been approved by the LUC.
Speaking of Ray Bradbury, here is a NYT article on the man himself, entitled “A Literary Legend Fights for a Local Library”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/us/20ventura.html?_r=2
Bradbury was a library believer.
Bradbury did not think much of the Internet.
However, the Internet is a library — the world’s biggest library, open 24/7/365 — when it is used as such. But it isn’t used as such by most people. The Golden Age of the Internet was in the 1990s, when it was largely restricted to scientists. As the Internet grew (metastatized?) and democratized, it transformed into a medium for entertainment and public relations (propaganda). Advancing technology (e.g., increasing broadband width), only makes this worse. The trick is to provide the more rudimentary technology, like basic email, to the broadest base of people; and perhaps this is also true for e-Readers like the Kindle.
That’s what sad about the situation of so many kids in Hawaii, they have no Internet access at all. Maybe they don’t need 1 gps fiber-optic access, just dial up access to get information and not get distracted by entertainment. And teaching them how to avoid distraction and how to do research might become the task and challenge of libraries in the future.
Manoa just re-opened their refurbished and expanded library. But so many of the people in Manoa are already professors and their kids, and they are already living in the Information Age. How does society get everyone else to use a library? (Free beer? I’d go….)
Another plus for public libraries is that they encourage walkability. Can Manoa transform itself into a more walkable community and less of a commuter suburb? There was a discussion on walkability on Hawaii Public Radio years ago, and the two places that were mentioned as the most serious candidates for retrofitting for walkability were Kailua and Manoa. But on that program it was noted that there was no real interest in walkability even in those two relatively well-educated suburbs. Perhaps Hawaii is so culturally conservative, with people desiring an idyllic domestic life with their families in some pristine suburb far from any urbane stimulation, that walkability is perceived as evil at some unconscious level.
Here’s a brief article about a cartographer and his family who wanted to ditch the commuter life in the suburbs for a walkable life closer to town. But this was around 2008-2009, when people were ditching their cars, but governments were simultaneously cutting back on mass transit and funding for public libraries. Interestingly, what seemed like a good idea to politicians gazing at a map was a horrible idea in reality. (That reminds me of the closing of excellent small public schools in Hawaii for the sake of “efficiency”.)
http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/2009/01/22/walkable-libraries-biggest-losers
Recent US census data on household Internet access:
Hawaii: 79% of population
Nationwide: 80% of population
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/information_communications/internet_publishing_and_broadcasting_and_internet_usage.html
The core problem in Hawaii is NOT Internet access; the problem is using the resource for intelligent purposes. The problem is the statewide public education system and parents who do not take this problem mega-seriously. We can put wi-fi access in every single freakin’ home in the state — but that ain’t gonna solve the poor education problem by itself. At best, it will just mean lots more time on Facebook.
I wonder how much our slightly low %age is due to the age of our population. My parents, for example, could easily add internet access to their telephone or cable packages, but simply haven’t chosen to do so.
I once read a book by Diane Ravitch on the history of educational movements in the US. She wrote that America is the land of Enlightenment, that there is this faith in reason, science and education. But it is also the land of instant gratification. So there is this rush in the US to the latest educational reform, the latest gimmick that will be the silver bullet or cure-all. After a brief trial period, the public loses interest or gets disillusioned that Moses (Michelle Rhee?) did not lead them to the promised land after all. The American public give up and move on to the latest reform gimmick.
I remember once reading that she was on the board of the New America Foundation, which touts itself as a bipartisan think tank. The current chair is Eric Schmit from Google, who followed the journalist James Fallows. But there are a number of prominent Republicans.
http://newamerica.net/about/board
Ravitch has her own blog. Here she has written pessimistically about the ideological direction of education-related think tanks in Washington, DC.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/05/31/musical-chairs-at-dc-think-tanks/
Politicians generally don’t know that much about policy, so they rely heavily on think tanks.
That’s a troubling thought, but it does make sense of the economic policies of the last twelve years (Presidents who don’t know much except for how to get elected, who are listening to “experts” who really don’t know what they are talking about).