Race To The Top the new religion of fear, punishment, and false hope.

Albert Einstein said: “A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.”

Reflecting on an article by Gary Scharrer in Chron.com on the Education Accountability Project’s critical report on public education’s financial accountability
He writes, “Mark Hurley the person who organized the project states, “that minimally, school district financial reports should show:

• What people are paid to do
• What classes are being taught by grade and how many students are completing them
• What contractors are providing what services and whether they are bid competitively
• What districts are spending on non teaching activities

He goes on to say: Texas courts have spent the better part of 30 years refereeing school funding squabbles. Another lawsuit will be tried later this year. Richard Gray III is a lawyer representing 407 Texas public school districts in one of four lawsuits against the state. The education community believes "the system is woefully underfunded, Gray said. "We're back to a situation that's as bad as it's ever been, if not worse," he said. The poorest 15 percent of school districts now get at least $2,000 less per student than the wealthiest 15 percent  - despite lower tax rates in those property-rich districts.”

Readers ~ Texas does not stand alone in this lack of financial accountability. There are 49 other clueless states! No one in any State DOE, or in the U. S. Department of Education wants to tackle the issue of inequity in our schools. Certainly not a U.S. Department of Education that promises equity in the form of lotteries and schools competing against each other. Their solution instead is to immerse our children in a Darwinian Survival of the Fittest.
They've never provided the figures on how much is actually spent in classrooms - next to children.

And yet the biggest oversight on the part of the DOE by far, is how they continue to accept spending less money on children of color, and the poor.
The mantras that we continue to hear from the Reformer's are:
Poverty does not matter. 
Race does not matter.
Special needs do not matter.
Their mantra could instead be "we refuse to do the right thing for children of color, the poor, and children with special needs"

Keep your eye on the prize America.

Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities still rules the land.
"No Child Left Behind" and “Race To The Top” have  done nothing to change things for children of color, or the poor.

The NAACP has since 1909 reminded America of its failure to bring equity to our schools.
Let’s call it what it really is.

America’s moral sin is our refusal to do the right thing for all children.

Every single court in America has been skirting around this issue since Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
58 years of skirting around our nation's moral responsibility...

58 years of pretending...
58 years of inequity in our schools...

58 years of waiting on something better for our children than a race to nowhere...

Silence and apathy are not acceptable!

This is why  I called No Child Left Behind "a scam" ~ from day one.

This is why I have held town hall meetings calling for a balanced assessment framework since 2003,

This is why I held a Children Are More Than Test Scores conference in 2004,

This is why I created Children Are More Than Test Scores, and

Why I started blogging in 2009,

This is why I walked 400 miles to DC in 40 days in 2010,

This is why I marched with Save Our Schools in 2011,

This is why I ran for the Save Our Schools March, and Call to Action Steering Committee in 2011,

This is why I collaborate with others to pass resolutions against high stakes testing in my professional organizations over the years.

This is why I cannot stop speaking up, 

This is why I went to the Selma Alabama Jubilee Education Summit in 2012,

This is why I testified against NCLB waivers in March 2012,

This is why I will occupy the U.S. Department of Education on March 30, 31, April 1 & 2,

This is why I am going with SOS to Washington DC for the People's Education Convention in August,

Silence and apathy are not acceptable.

My feet are tired, my voice is hoarse, but the spirit is ready and able to follow this quest for justice, this quest for equity, and this is my climb to Martin’s Dream.
Ready to occupy,

Jesse
If you want to know what the Walking Man was listening to on my walk on this cold spring day it's Patty Griffin’s Up The Mountain (MLK Tribute Song). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA6Q5-Ap3o8

Gary Scharrer‘s Chron.com article> http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Report-critical-of-public-education-s-financial-3439428.php

Race To The Top is another name for "Pink Slime" brain food given to America's children

Schools Drop ‘Pink Slime’ Beef Filler Like a Hot Potato www.nytimes.com News of the ammonia-treated additive, formally called lean finely textured beef, set off a reaction by schools and an announcement by the Agriculture Department.

NCLB/RTTT's high stakes testing is Pink Slime being fed to the minds of our children.

People can change things. On March 9th I blogged "Can we trust a U.S. DOE that approves of feeding our children Pink Slime?” all over the country others blogged, talked and complained that the United States Department of Agriculture purchased 7 tons of this "Pink Slime" to use for school lunches. The Pink Slime was soon removed from major supermarket chains, simply because shoppers/consumers and bloggers began to question "I wonder does my supermarket sell this Pink Slime?"  When an informed public speaks up and questions leadership decisions ~ wheels start turning, and pink slime disappears from supermarket shelves!  
We are about to turn the corner on NCLB/RTTT reforms. The tide is shifting. I am joining parents, teachers, educators, and students in DC next Saturday.  We will "Occupy" the United States Department of Education. 
No matter where you are next week-end, talk about us Occupiers. Blog about us; write letters to news editors; and talk us up on the social media networks. In DC I'll be conducting my teach-ins, protesting, singing, and occupying the U.S. DOE.  Oh yea, we will also be asking Secretary Arne Duncan to resign! 
Their NCLB/RTTT house of cards is about to fall. 
America's children are more than test scores Secretary Duncan ~ see you in DC.
Calling all concerned souls in the DC area next week to stand tall with us against the Pink Slime Testing Reforms of NCLB/RTTT.
Details for the week-end in DC can be found:
 http://unitedoptout.com/
Join the Revolution, check out our new Save Our Schools website: http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org/

Ready to occupy

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Reading between the lines of education reform

Having read Valerie Strauss's blog about Donna McKenna the ESL teacher who dared the DOE to measure her value, 

I began to read between the lines of Race To The Top Reformers. You'll find NCLB/RTTT reformers love to pit parents against teachers, and teachers against parents. They love using the words "accountability for children", "parents, teachers, and schools", but yet they never hold themselves accountable.

In 2001 we passed NCLB and we allocated $1.2 trillion federal dollars to fund this educational reform.   

$1.2 trillion only accounts for about 10% of what we actually are spending, since local and state funding picks up the difference (an additional $9 trilion)
.  These reformers have had their way for more than ten years.
 They have spent most of that money. All this money with little to show for their reforms.  
They will point their finger in blame at others; never at themselves. 


But, last time I checked they were the ones in charge.
 

They claimed that their new testing and standards would save our children in 2002. 

They got their new standards.

They allocated where the money went.
 

They claimed in '02 that Reading First Schools would make every child a reader by grade 3. 

They picked the scientifically based reading curriculums and assessments. 

They supported those schools with extra resources, extra money, extra professional development,.
 They celebrated Reading First Schools everywhere in the media. They held these schools up a model for the teaching of reading. 

But then after 6 years, independent research indicated that the 3rd grade students in Reading First Schools comprehended even less than the control group in the non-Reading First Schools, (2008/9 U.S. First Grade Impact Studies).


In 2004 the U.S. DOE's Golden Child of NCLB/RTTT Reform, New York City's very own Commissioner of Education Mr. Joe Klein said "Children have to be held accountable".  He ended social promotion for third graders. Mayor Bloomberg has since extended this to fourth and fifth graders. To this day researchers advise against what New York is doing.  New York City children and parents are still being left behind. 

In 2008 reformers promised that Race To The Top would have schools compete against each other, and this competition would save our schools. In Summer 2011 Arnie Duncan made a statement that claimed "without NCLB waivers 85% of our public schools will not make Adequate Yearly Progress, (AYP)."

Again, who is still in charge?
   The reformers now find themselves banging their accountability drum for "Teachers all over our nation", and once again the U.S. DOE is promising that new assessments and new standards will save our schools.

While they cannot measure one ESL teacher named Donna McKenna;  we certainly can measure their failure at education reform. 

It's worth reading Valerie Strauss's blog about Donna:

Teacher: I dare you to measure my ‘value’

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teacher-i-dare-you-to-measure-my-value/2012/03/19/gIQAGGNGNS_blog.html

An ESL teacher tells about the reality of her classroom and issues a dare to school officials who insist on evaluating teachers by value-added methods that rely on standardized test scores.

If you are wondering what the walking man is listening to after his walk it's Peter, Paul and Mary's singing If I had a hammer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UKvpONl3No