Make Profit, Not War

Diane Ravitch just won the 2011 Daniel Patrick Moynihan prize for a lifetime dedicated to improving public policy. To celebrate this, Jay Matthews compared her to a guy who's bullish on companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald's, companies that make money by exploiting working people.

Jay Matthews calls hedge fund manager/ "reformer" Whitney Tilson "erudite." Here's a quote from Tilson:

In the article in my last email about Bill Perkins, he was quoted as saying that the rise of charter schools in Harlem has created a system that is “separate and unequal.”  He’s right, but it isn’t a bad thing (and he intends it), but rather a cause for celebration.

Tilson can certainly celebrate the fact that some charter schools get attention, money, smaller class sizes, and 100-million dollar buildings. And he can ignore the fact that other schools are neglected, closed, and vilified for the failure of their teachers.  He can ignore the fact that charter bosses like Geoffrey Canada pay themselves half-a-million bucks per year to work their "miracles" while dismissing entire cohorts that don't promise to raise their stats.

Tilson can do such things because he's a propagandist. As such, he gets access to people like Joel Klein that eludes public school principals and teachers. They can have private discussions about the "oppos" who stand up to them, and about "pushback" on the infrequent occasions the New York Times sees fit to print the truth about education.

But Jay Matthews, by comparing a brilliant researcher like Diane Ravitch to a self-serving money manager like Tilson, is a disgrace. Tilson does what he can to move working people back to the more profitable 19th century, while putting on a dog and pony show to convince the shills that charters are the answer. Even the propaganda-laden Waiting for Superman admits only 1 in 5 charters outperforms public schools (actually 17%).

Matthews writes books about KIPP, and certainly profits when people take demagogues like Tilson seriously. Diane Ravitch paints what she sees. What Matthews calls a plea for peace is a thinly disguised request for the foremost voice of reason in education to sit down and shut up.

At this point, there's no reason to regard Matthews as any more "erudite" than Tilson. I'd like to see either one of them try to debate Ravitch.  I suggest you sit while waiting for Matthews or Tilson to muster the courage for such an undertaking.

I Don't Understand Education, but I Know What I Like

I don't much read the Washington Post, but every now and then someone sends me or links to another Jay Matthews story and I marvel at how someone so uninformed can make a living writing about education. This week Jay is happy that unions are slowing their opposition to charters.

Perhaps no one told Jay that the UFT runs several charters. Perhaps no one mentioned to him that the UFT was actively partnered with Green Dot Schools, bringing one of its no-tenure, no-seniority rights sweat shops to the Big Apple. In that case, it's understandable that he can make the preposterous suppostion that part-time AFT President Randi Weingarten's openness to charters is something new.

Another thing that wowed Jay was the revalation that the union would associate with Eli Broad. Perhaps he's unaware that a few years back they made a deal on merit pay (the one the UFT claimed was not merit pay). Perhaps he's unaware that Broad gave UFT charter schools a million bucks the preceding year.

Certainly Jay's readers are unaware of all these things, as they make the egregious error of depending on him for information. Jay thinks Ms. Weingarten and the "reformers" are natural enemies. Odd, then, that they've been partying together for years.

Jay is highly impressed that Ms. Weingarten would take money from corporate billionaires, and well he should be. It's not easy to be an education columnist who knows so little about teachers and education. It certainly makes it easier when there are folks who know as little as he does tossing around billions to support their caprices.

More remarkable, though, is that in these times, Americans think folks like Matthews, who doesn't care for job protection, reasonable working hours or unions, know what's good for their children. Matthews can't be bothered to do the most perfunctory research on what he writes columns about. As long as Americans follow his lead, they'll find his ramblings utterly credible.

Still, you gotta give the guy credit for riding that gravy train while fools like us actually have to go to work.

Thanks to Norm

More Expert Analysis from Jay Matthews

It's only recently that I started reading Jay Matthews, as he doesn't write for a local paper, but I must give him credit, as he actually gets paid for writing this stuff. His most recent column discusses the woes of two KIPP schools on opposite coasts.

Now out in California, a KIPP principal was accused of outrageous abuse:

.. slamming students against the wall, placing trash cans over their heads, forcing kids to crawl on their hands and knees while barking, and enforcing unreasonably strict bathroom rules, resulting in students having accidents and vomiting on themselves inside the classroom.

I can certainly understand how something like that might upset people. But the principal resigned, and KIPP moved on.

Here's where it gets interesting. What outrage, according to Jay, started the turmoil at the NY KIPP? The teachers tried to form a union. Without blinking an eye, Jay Matthews continues, effectively classifiying unionization as an outrage tantamount to child abuse.

And what is the resolution here? Well, at least one of the teachers requesting they unionize has backed off, and perhaps more will follow. So KIPP can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief.

They should be thankful they have free cheerleaders like Jay Matthews, who print such outrageous bilge. Not so fortunate are your children and mine, who may grow up in a world where such sleazy vilification of united working people is taken for granted.

Another Great Victory at KIPP

I'm always amazed at the volume of talk about charter schools. Jay Matthews, cheerleader extraordinaire, can't get through a hundred words without demanding every sentient being on God's green earth enroll in a charter school immediately. So imagine my shock when I read this article, from San Franciso Education Examiner Caroline Grannan:

It seems to be getting little public attention that the principal of the KIPP school in Fresno has resigned after a lengthy school district report accused him of:

... slamming students against the wall, placing trash cans over their heads, forcing kids to crawl on their hands and knees while barking, and enforcing unreasonably strict bathroom rules, resulting in students having accidents and vomiting on themselves inside the classroom.

Wait a minute. I thought over at KIPP, principals walked on water. Isn't that what Jay said? It sounds like this guy treads on the kids, the ones charter supporters care so much about. They must be horrified by these accusations. Here's a comment Caroline received:

Mr. Tschang resigned because the last thing he wanted to happen was the school to close. Fresno Unified School District demanded Mr. Tschang's resignation. It would not have rechartered the school, otherwise. The good news is that KIPP Academy Fresno is the product of the work of hundreds of parents, teachers, and most importantly, students who will continue to bring the school the new heights of academic and character achievement.

He sounds like an admirable human being. I can't wait to see what new things the folks who brought us this principal have in store for those lucky kids. Personally, I wouldn't send my kid to KIPP on a bet, because I don't believe she needs to spend 200 hours a week in school, even if it gets her an extra point on some standardized test.

Would you take a chance on this guy with your kid? And if you were innocent, would you step down rather than face these charges?

Student (name deleted) said that in December of 2007, Mr. Tschang told him to get on his hands and knees and bark like a dog. (Name deleted) said it was a metaphor to get him to stop joking around in class.

… It was reported by Kim Kutzner that students who were late to school would not be allowed to eat their meals provided by the state. Student (name deleted) stated that Mr. Tschang told her, “People who are late don’t get to eat.”

… Parent (name deleted) reported that Mr. Tschang took student (name deleted) glasses away from him because (name deleted) was constantly adjusting his glasses. (Name deleted) is totally dependent on his glasses and cannot see without them. Mr. Tschang admitted to taking (name deleted) glasses away.

Never mind that kids who leave KIPP are not replaced, or that their statistics depend on those who remain, or the fact that all KIPP kids have parents willing to volunteer at school and have their kids go to class 200 hours a week.

If Jay Matthews says that KIPP serves the same kids public schools do, it must be true.

More Expert Ideas from Jay Matthews

Jay Matthews, who knows everything there is to know about education, has unleashed yet more brilliance upon us. Personally, after learning the seven myths about KIPP, I thought I'd heard everything there was to know. But there's more.

Jay has seven recommendations:

1. Why can't those darn public schools do what charter schools do? Charter schools are better in every way. Kids need more charter schools. Ask those public schools why they don't do what charter schools do. Jay visited a charter school last week that does what he wants them to do, and this clearly suggests that public schools are not doing it.

2. Stop asking for high averages for kids wanting to enter advanced placement courses. So what if the kids are failing? Clearly what they need is more difficult work. Remediation is a big waste of money, and let the kids not only pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but put them in AP courses. If they fail it must be because they aren't in charter schools.

3. Now that we've dumped low-performing kids into AP classes, we should pay to have them take AP tests. If they fail, it will prove conclusively that our public high schools are failing and that all students without exception should be shipped off to KIPP schools, which Jay wrote a book about.

4. Why the hell are we sending kids to remedial classes in college? After all, we've put them in AP courses in high school whether or not they did well in regular classes. Since we ignored their performance in high school and pushed them on whether or not they were capable, why should we change horses in midstream? Now that we've exposed their unionized public school teachers as blithering incompetents, now that we've sent more kids to KIPP, our job is done. Jay has no facts whatsoever to support his suspicion that it's a good idea, but what the heck, it's never stopped him before.

5. And now that we're on the subject, let's take all the kids who failed placement tests and move them ahead anyway. Jay has a "hunch" that "some professors" might help the kids pass. And what the hell, everyone knows that no one gets frustrated by being in classes for which they're utterly unprepared, and that no one ever drops out and loses a college education for that reason.

6 and 7. Cut off federal funding for colleges that don't follow Jay's suggestions. Some have no research to support their policies. Making policy without facts to back it up is utterly unacceptable. Unless you're Jay Matthews (See step 4).

Personally, I'm thankful we have experts like Bill Gates and Jay Matthews to let us know what's good for us. Every day, when I view the garbage bins from the trailer behind my 250% capacity building, I thank goodness for all the "reforms" these great thinkers have brought to me and my lucky students. In fact, maybe I should stop teaching them English as a second language and just move them into Shakespeare classes. This ESL stuff is probably just some cash cow for people like me, and everyone probably knows English already anyway.

Mr. Gates Unleashes the Parasites

Over at Change.org's blog, they posted a speech by gazillionaire education reformer Bill Gates. Mr. Gates, as you may know, runs around giving seed money to his pet projects, which are then dumped on taxpayers in perpetuity. One of Gates' signature issues was small schools, which he later decided was not such a good idea after all. Oops. Too bad we closed and renamed every high school in the Bronx.

It was rough sitting through twenty minutes of Gates. For the first ten, he discussed the progress we've made against disease, and released a bunch of mosquitos into the crowd to demonstrate just how many of them wouldn't get malaria nowadays. After the talk of mosquitos, Gates discussed the other problem that, in his view, was ruining the world--teachers.

Gates clearly knows very little idea about what he's discussing. The situations regular public school teachers deal with are various, and the notion that experience plays no part in dealing with what comes up is preposterous. Nonetheless, he's firmly convinced by something he read somewhere that teachers do not improve after three years. Personally, I've got 24, and the way I handle a possible incident in my classroom is much different than the way I would've handled it twenty years ago. In fact, I don't remember the last noteworthy incident in my classroom. As a newer teacher, they occurred on a fairly regular basis.

Of course, unscripted incidents don't occur in Mr. Gates' world. When Gates speaks of improvement, he means only rising test scores. I think my experience helps with that too, but Gates says it doesn't, and he has more money than I do, so I must be wrong. Nonetheless, the notion that test scores are all we deal with is idiotic, as is the notion that just anyone can control 34 city kids at a time. Gates then derides Master's degrees, as they also fail to increase test scores. Perhaps he's right, but less educated teachers, frankly, are not what I want for my kid. Of course, they're not what Gates wants for his kids either, who wouldn't attend public schools on a bet.

What is Gates' answer to the daunting problem of test scores? Well, we need merit pay, of course, and KIPP schools Why? Well, when he visited a KIPP school, the teacher ran around the class, made sure everyone was participating. It was amazing! He'd never seen anything like it! Clearly the answer is to increase the school week by 50% and eliminate unions. Also, no more raises for teachers after three years. We could just replace them and make the used ones work at Walmart. Jobs like that will ensure a bright future for all the kids he cares so much about.

The notion that public school teachers do not run around and engage kids is about as preposterous as any Gates set forth, as is the notion that such behavior is extraordinary. I do it every day. Still, since I can't be fired at will by Michelle Rhee, I'm part of the problem. After all, if I could be fired for writing this, there'd be fewer voices against Gates, and that's what democracy is all about, isn't it?

It's telling that Gates speaks of public school teacher retention, but neglects utterly to examine KIPP in that respect. It's interesting that the KIPP population, consisting 100% of kids with proactive parents, is compared directly to public school, which takes absolutely everyone. Even more interesting, Gates failed to note the dropout rate at KIPP, or the fact that those who leave are not replaced.

Sorry, but it's a hell of a lot easier to control and maintain a class under a private school or KIPP environment, and I don't think for a minute Mr. Gates, self-styled expert, could handle my kids or my job. For one thing, he just stood there lecturing, and failed to differentiate instruction for the folks who each paid 6000 bucks to listen to him.

It's nice to have billionaires, whose kids wouldn't attend public schools on a bet, running around stating what they think should be done about public education. Gates, of course, has no idea why the Nassau schools five minutes away from NYC do as well as KIPP without union-busting, or kids and teachers working preposterously long weeks. I could tell him, if he weren't already so in love with Jay Matthews. In fact, he thrilled the audience by giving them free copies of Matthews' book about KIPP.

Personally, I heard nothing new or surprising from Gates. His description of the KIPP classrom sounded like no big deal at all. I've watched his "reforms" in action, and aside from much-enhanced PR and larger-scale rigging of stats, there's just not a whole lot to jump up and down about. We can do better for our kids, and it's unfortunate that their futures are, to whatever extent, in the hands of trigger-happy galoots like Bill Gates.

Jay Matthews Improves Education for Free!

Jay Matthews, who knows everything about education, has offered seven brilliant ideas on how we can improve it without spending money. After all, with the state of big-screen TVs and affordable home theater, why should we fritter away our hard-earned cash on educating our children?

1. Stop spending money on textbooks or giving young kids homework. Just ask them to do a little reading with their parents. It's well-known that all parents, without exception, will participate if asked. To make sure this is done, the teachers can ask a few questions about what they read. It's obvious to experts like Mr. Matthews that kids never lie to their teachers or invent stories about having done things they haven't actually done.

2. We need more cut-rate charter schools. They're cheaper. Of course, they aren't cheaper in Mr. Matthews' district, or in NYC, but somewhere, they're cheaper. And because they're not unionized, you don't need to pay teachers as much. You can say you're paying them more, and ignore the fact they work twice as many hours. One good thing is these teachers don't last very long, so you never need to worry about them reaching higher pay steps. And if they get anywhere close, you can always fire them, since they don't have any job protection whatsoever. Plus you don't have to offer them the same health benefits those expensive unionized teachers are always carrying on about. Of course, this suggestion has nothing whatsoever to do with the book Matthews just wrote about KIPP.

3. Have teachers call parents and tell them their kids are doing well. It's well-known that teachers never call parents. We're technologically backward and afraid of damaging our fingers. It's never occurred to me to call a parent. In fact, I wasn't even sure what a telephone was until I looked it up on Wikipedia. And though cellphones are prohibited in NYC classrooms, like most classrooms, you should never hesitate, as a role model, to take yours out and use it in front of your students.

4. Have parents call or email to praise teachers. Since teachers are taken for granted, this will be a fine thing. Who needs salary increases? It's well known that teachers don't have bills, mortgages, expenses, or children of their own. A little pat on the back ought to be good enough for any self-respecting educator.

5. Make kids read one nonfiction book before graduation. It's common knowledge that kids don't read anything unless they're forced to do so. So why not vary their misery by forcing them to read something that isn't fiction? It's unheard of for anyone to make a kid read a biography or memoir, the stacks of them in every bookroom I've ever seen notwithstanding. It's well-known they're placed there only to class up the joint.

6. Teachers should call on all their students. Most teachers make it a habit to ignore their students, speaking with them only to demand money for writing recommendation letters. But apparently, students benefit when you talk to them. Apparently, letting the kids sit like 34 bags of potatoes is not optimal. Who woulda thunk it? Where would we be without such expert advice?

7. Give teachers time off without pay. It appears that, when you don't pay teachers, you save money. And Jay Matthews is willing to walk the walk by allowing his wife to take one week off. This places his family in the position of having to get by on a mere Washington Post columnist income, plus 51 weeks worth of whatever his wife earns. So why can't you teachers make do with a little less? Matthews, who makes many times your salary, is willing to put off the 68-inch plasma for a few weeks, so why should you be squawking just because they're repossessing your Hyundai? It's bad for the environment anyway.

Thanks, Mr. Matthews, for your great ideas. And anytime you need more, just come visit NYC, where we save by having the highest class sizes in the state. We overload schools well beyond double capacity, and don't bother to clean or repair them. If there's any vacant space, we dump charter schools in rather than relieve our public schools. And we dump kids anywhere, closets, hallways, bathrooms, and what-have-you. We use mayoral control to exclude absolutely every expensive voice from the decision-making process.

You could learn a lot from us.

See also: Curmudgeon

Seven Myths About Jay Matthews and KIPP

I was fascinated by the Gotham Schools piece encapsulating Jay Matthews latest song of praise to KIPP, which this time fills an entire book. Matthews has been raving about KIPP for years. Apparently, when you make kids work 200 hours a week, they tend to work 200 hours a week! So don't tell me that Jay Matthews doesn't know what he's talking about. That's a myth.

1. In fact, KIPP is frequently victimized. Matthews needs to dispel the myths because no one speaks for KIPP. Except, of course, Matthews himself, a lowly education reporter for the inconsequential Washington Post. The only allies Matthews has in his quest are the op-ed boards of newspapers everywhere, the mainstream media, billionaires like Gates and Broad, Wal-Mart heirs and hedge-fund managers who send their kids to private schools but inexplicably know everything about public education. I mean, they're all alone against those awful bloggers.

2. And then there's the outrageous accusation that KIPP is militaristic. Just because they wear uniforms, get demerits, chant whatever they are told, and follow strict rules ignorant bloggers jump to conclusions. But it turns out that their teachers are nice sometimes, so the accusation can't possibly be true.

3. It's also not true that KIPP families are more proactive than public school families, according to Matthews. The fact that parents of KIPP children actively selected the school means nothing. The fact that they filled out applications means nothing either. The fact that they showed up for interviews and tests is also completely meaningless. There's no difference at all between parents who go through all those steps and ones who take no interest whatsoever in the education of their children. That KIPP absolutely never gets the children of disinterested parents is completely irrelevant.

4. Also, KIPP does not kick out misbehaving or low-performing students. It's the parents who take them out, apparently, as they want their kids to go elsewhere so that they can enjoy the freedom to misbehave and perform poorly. Doesn't it stand to reason that this is what parents who fill out the applications and go for all those interviews want? The fact that these students are not replaced, and that KIPP is therefore left with only well-behaved or high-performing students is also completely irrelevant, and not worth mentioning.

And anyway, rather than kick kids out, KIPP can always just skip town.

5. KIPP doesn't care how much outside analysis there is. KIPP has no problem whatsoever with Matthews writing how wonderful it is. It doesn't mind at all when MSM editorial boards talk about how great it is. It doesn't mind being held up as a shining example of what is possible when you make kids study 200 hours a week. It's been proven beyond doubt that students studying 200 hours a week have more study time than those studying 199 hours a week, and KIPP has no problem with that conclusion, controversial though it may be.

6. KIPP doesn't brag about how they are saving the inner city. That's an outright falsehood. They don't need to. They have Jay Matthews for that.

7. The biggest myth, of course, is this--anyone who disagrees with Jay Matthews is propagating a myth.