Friday, June 20, 2008

A Nightmare Scenario - DOE Wants To Take Over Teacher Certification


That wonderful "Education Reform Warrior", Joel Klein continues to push his anti-teacher crusade by giving a six item "wish list" in a Florida summit of politicians, hosted by Jeb Bush. Apparently, they again forgot to invite classroom teachers, I wonder if that was an oversight? In the New York Sun article, Joel Klein also wanted to make it easier to fire teachers, use test scores to evaluate teachers, and take over teacher certification from universities. Furthermore, he also wanted more accountability for schools that fail to improve college student scores. Where is his accountability? I forgot he doesn't need to be accountable, that's for the little people. The politicians that support these pseudo-reform groups were fawning all over Klein. An example was President Bush's education secretary, Margaret Spellings, who also spoke yesterday. Her remarks praised a group of people she described as "education reform warriors," including the group Mr. Klein recently launched with Reverend Al Sharpton, the Education Equality Project. She also singled out Klein as a leader in education reform. I almost choked on these statements about our Chancellor.

Bloomberg and Klein's education policies look worse and worse as they continue to blunder their way through numerous reinventions that result in low morale, uncertainty and flat NAEP and SAT scores. However, they have managed to snooker the pseudo-reform educators. The people in the trenches know better. In an Andrew Wolf article he points out how Bloomberg's education excellance rating has dropped from 19% in October 2005 to just 5% in 2008.

Kleiberg's "smoke and mirrors" no longer fool the parents and school staff of the New York City Public School system anymore but they can still fool those pseudo-reformers that want change in the education system. However, while change may be good at times, change for the sake of change is a disaster. I can't wait for January 2010. If I can survive that long.

5 comments:

NYC Educator said...

Interesting that Spellings would have the audacity to speak of the Chancellor and technology, despite his 80-million dollar failed computer system.

Me, I'm sticking to my laptop.

FidgetyTeach said...

Right now I feel like Homer Simpson. Love your article. Thank you again for shedding light on the absurd.

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg is unraveling if you look back at various interviews. Did you see the video with the Newsday Reporter?
He really thinks that he is omnipotent.

Anonymous said...

avoice:

Compared to Randi I can understand why he thinks he is.

Anonymous said...

I say, it's really discouraging to see the foul things people say about Joel and Mike on these blogamajigs. Who's standing up for the wealthy? Who's defending us against the Great Unwashed?

Next you'll be asking us to pay taxes, and that's just beyond the pale. If you don't like the way schools are run, send the children to private academies. There are some first-rate outfits right here.

Well, must see where Muffy and that poolboy have gotten off too. But really, it's great that we've finally got a mayor who knows how to treat the Great Unwashed.

Believe me, you'll appreciate them much more after you earn your first billion.