Sir, Very thought provoking. Do you feel such pro-privatisation lobbies really are happening in India too? Thanks for sharing such an educative article.
With regards, Shri. RAVIKUMAR G. GANIGER. Ass. Master (PCM Kannada) Govt. High School MAIGUR(RC) Tal- Jamkhandi, Dist- Bagalkot Karnataka State, INDIA-587301. Mobile - +91 98 45 978080. On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 7:03 PM, Gurumurthy K <[email protected]> wrote: > The article is about how the public (Govt) schools in America are being > damaged by pro-privatisation lobbies. Some of this is already true in > India. Teachers, teacher educators and education administrators and policy > makers must read this article to understand the need for a public education > system and the dangers of privatisation > > regards > Guru > > Tuesday, 12 January 2016 / TRUTH-OUT.ORG > A Primer on the Damaging Movement to Privatize Public Schools > Friday, 08 January 2016 00:00 By Marion Brady, The Washington Post | Op-Ed > > When, about 30 years ago, corporate interests began their highly > organized, well-funded effort to privatize public education, you wouldn't > have read or heard about it. They didn't want to trigger the debate that > such a radical change in an important institution warranted. > > If, like most pundits and politicians, you've supported that campaign, > it's likely you've been snookered. Here's a quick overview of the > snookering process. > > The Pitch > > Talking Points: (a) Standardized testing proves America's schools are > poor. (b) Other countries are eating our lunch. (c) Teachers deserve most > of the blame. (d) The lazy ones need to be forced out by performance > evaluations. (e) The dumb ones need scripts to read or "canned standards" > telling them exactly what to teach. (f) The experienced ones are too set in > their ways to change and should be replaced by fresh Five-Week-Wonders from > Teach for America. (Bonus: Replacing experienced teachers saves a ton of > money.) (g) Public ("government") schools are a step down the slippery > slope to socialism. > > Tactics > > Education establishment resistance to privatization is inevitable, so (a) > avoid it as long as possible by blurring the lines between "public" and > "private." (b) Push school choice, vouchers, tax write-offs, tax credits, > school-business partnerships, profit-driven charter chains. (c) When > resistance comes, crank up fear with the, "They're eating our lunch!" > message. (d) Contribute generously to all potential resisters - academic > publications, professional organizations, unions, and school support groups > such as PTA. (e) Create fake "think tanks," give them impressive names, and > have them do "research" supporting privatization. (f) Encourage investment > in teacher-replacer technology - internet access, iPads, virtual schooling, > MOOCS, etc. (e) Pressure state legislators to make life easier for > profit-seeking charter chains by taking approval decisions away from local > boards and giving them to easier-to-lobby state-level bureaucrats. (g) > Elect the "right" people at all levels of government. (When they're > campaigning, have them keep their privatizing agenda quiet.) > > Weapon > > If you'll read the fine-print disclaimers on high-stakes standardized > tests, you'll see how grossly they're being misused, but they're the key to > privatization. The general public, easily impressed by numbers and > mathematical razzle-dazzle, believes competition is the key to quality, so > want quality quantified even though it can't be done. Machine-scored tests > don't measure quality. They rank. > > It's hard to rank unlike things so it's necessary to standardize. That's > what the Common Core State Standards do. To get the job done quickly, Bill > Gates picked up the tab, important politicians signed off on them, and > teachers were handed them as a done deal. > > The standards make testing and ranking a cinch. They also make making > billions a cinch. Manufacturers can use the same questions for every state > that has adopted the standards or facsimiles thereof. > > If challenged, test fans often quote the late Dr. W. Edward Deming, the > world-famous quality guru who showed Japanese companies how to build better > stuff than anybody else. In his book, "The New Economics," Deming wrote, > "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." > > Here's the whole sentence as he wrote it: "It is wrong to suppose that if > you can't measure it, you can't manage it - a costly myth." > > Operating the Weapon > > What's turned standardized testing into a privatizing juggernaut are > pass-fail "cut scores" set by politicians. Saying kids need to be > challenged, they set the cut score high enough to fail many (sometimes > most) kids. When the scores are published, they point to the high failure > rate to "prove" public schools can't do the job and should be closed or > privatized. Clever, huh? > > The privatizing machinery is in place. Left alone, it'll gradually > privatize most, but not all, public schools. Those that serve the poorest, > the sickest, the disabled, the most troubled, the most expensive to educate > - those will stay in what's left of the public schools. > > Weapon Malfunction > > Look at standardized tests from the kids' perspective. Test items (a) > measure recall of secondhand, standardized, delivered information, or (b) > require a skill to be demonstrated, or (c) reward an ability to > second-guess whoever wrote the test item. Because kids didn't ask for the > information, because the skill they're being asked to demonstrate rarely > has immediate practical use, and because they don't give a tinker's dam > what the test-item writer thinks, they have zero emotional investment in > what's being tested. > > As every real teacher knows, no emotional involvement means no real > learning. Period. What makes standardized tests look like they work is > learner emotion, but it's emotion that doesn't have anything to do with > learning. The ovals get penciled in to avoid trouble, to please somebody, > to get a grade, or to jump through a bureaucratic hoop to be eligible to > jump through another bureaucratic hoop. When the pencil is laid down, > what's tested, having no perceived value, automatically erases from memory. > > Before You Write… > > If you want to avoid cranking out the usual amateurish drivel about > standardized testing that appears in the op-eds, editorials, and syndicated > columns of the mainstream media, ask yourself a few questions about the > testing craze: (a) Should life-altering decisions hinge on the scores of > commercially produced tests not open to public inspection? (b) How wise is > it to only teach what machines can measure? (c) How fair is it to base any > part of teacher pay on scores from tests that can't evaluate complex > thought? (d) Are tests that have no "success in life" predictive power > worth the damage they're doing? > > Here's a longer list of problems you should think about before you write. > > Perspective > > America's schools have always struggled - an inevitable consequence, > first, of a decision in 1893 to narrow and standardize the high school > curriculum and emphasize college prep; second, from a powerful strain of > individualism in our national character that eats away support for public > institutions; third, from a really sorry system of institutional > organization. Politicians, not educators, make education policy, basing it > on the simplistic conventional wisdom that educating means "delivering > information." > > In fact, educating is the most complex and difficult of all professions. > Done right, teaching is an attempt to help the young align their beliefs, > values, and assumptions more closely with what's true and real, escape the > bonds of ethnocentrism, explore the wonders and potential of humanness, and > become skilled at using thought processes that make it possible to realize > those aims. > > Historically, out of the institution's dysfunctional organizational design > came schools with lots of problems, but with one redeeming virtue. They > were "loose." Teachers had enough autonomy to do their thing. So they did, > and the kids that some of them coached brought America far more than its > share of patents, scholarly papers, scientific advances, international > awards, and honors. > > Notwithstanding their serious problems, America's public schools were once > the envy of the world. Now, educators around that world shake their heads > in disbelief (or maybe cheer?) as we spend billions of dollars to > standardize what once made America great - un-standardized thought. > > A salvage operation is still (barely) possible, but not if politicians, > prodded by pundits, continue to do what they've thus far steadfastly > refused to do - listen to people who've actually worked with real students > in real classrooms, and did so long enough and thoughtfully enough to know > something about teaching. > This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may > not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source. > > Marion Brady > > Marion Brady is a longtime teacher; school administrator; nationally > distributed newspaper columnist; consultant to states, foundations and > publishers; contributor to academic journals; and author of courses of > study, textbooks and professional books. His most recent is What's Worth > Learning? published by Information Age Publishing. His website is > www.MarionBrady.com. > > > IT for Change, Bengaluru > www.ITforChange.net > > -- > 1. If a teacher wants to join STF, visit > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Become_a_STF_groups_member > 2. For STF training, visit KOER - > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php > 4. For Ubuntu 14.04 installation, visit > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Kalpavriksha > 4. For doubts on Ubuntu, public software, visit > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions > 5. Are you using pirated software? Use Sarvajanika Tantramsha, see > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Why_public_software > ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Maths & Science STF" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mathssciencestf. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- 1. If a teacher wants to join STF, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Become_a_STF_groups_member 2. For STF training, visit KOER - http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php 4. For Ubuntu 14.04 installation, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Kalpavriksha 4. For doubts on Ubuntu, public software, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions 5. Are you using pirated software? Use Sarvajanika Tantramsha, see http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Why_public_software ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maths & Science STF" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mathssciencestf. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
