Treating Kids Like Guinea Pigs: Should Strict, Transparent Protocols Be Mandated by Legislation Before the Department Can Experiment on School Children?

Experimentation is the key to progress. Physical and social scientists propose a hypothesis, design an experiment, the experimental design is carefully reviewed, data is collected and the results are peer reviewed and published.

If the subjects of the experiments are people, human beings, scientists have to consider the impact  of the experiment on the participants of the experiment. Informed consent on the part of the subjects and full disclosure of the possible negative consequences of the experiment are required.

Drug testing  is carefully monitored by governmental agencies. Even after the final approval and the drug appears on the market the possible “side effects” must be fully disclosed – even if in that tiny print. (“may cause drowsiness, blurry vision, impotence and sudden death”). The Department of Education does have research guidelines, however, are these guidelines adequate?

Should the Department of Education have to follow stricter guidelines when they allow, or sponsor, experiments on children?

This year the Department announced two initiatives, basically, experiments that will have significant impact on children.

Weighted Student Funding, the Department uses the term Fair Student Funding, would change the funding formula. The hypothesis: high poverty, low achieving schools are staffed by new teachers while high achieving schools are staffed by more experienced teachers. Establishing a system whereby dollars follow students and the cost to the school is based upon the actual salary of each teacher: high achieving schools will receive less funding and low achieving schools greater dollars. The anticipated impact: high achieving schools will be unable to afford experienced, and “higher cost” teachers while low achieving school, with greater funding will attract more experienced higher salary teachers.

Starve the “rich” and feed the “poor” resulting in a voluntary movement of teachers from “richer” to “poorer” schools. 

The Department did not plan a trial – they planned to skip the experimental phase and simply implement citywide. Although strongly supported by conservative think tanks  the opposition of a wide cross section of the community put the plan on hold for at least two years.

Another experiment is to pay students: for attending school on a regular basis, taking exams, marks on exams, etc. The Department announced the experiment with great fanfare. The plan drew the ire of a range of critics, however, Klein clearly intends to proceed.

Clinical drug trials are experiments, weighted student funding and paying students are also experiments. We all agree that before anyone participates in a clinical drug trial a wide range of protocols must be in place. Why not when the subjects are children in schools?

Why should the Department be allowed to experiment on children without the same strict protocols?

* A fully transparent experimental design

* An opportunity for public comment, including experts in the field

* Full informed consent on the part of parents of the children who are the subjects of the experiments

* Clearly annunciated possible negative “side effects.”

Just because the subjects of the experiments are poor children of color it does not mean that Klein and company can treat them like laboratory guinea pigs.

Maybe some work for the City Council and the State Legislature?

Dear Andres and Michelle: Joel’s Advice to his “Homies” on the Branding of American Education

Dear Andres and Michelle:

I am overjoyed at your selection as school district leaders in Baltimore and Washington, DC. We can now move forward with “our brand” in three of the most important districts in the nation.

You have heard me say this over and over, but it bears repeating:

Be bold! Rip out the past by the roots!

 The staff that you have inherited is part of the problem not part of the solution!  They know nothing and they do nothing! Teachers are interchangeable parts! Don’t fear driving out senior teachers, new teachers will pour their hearts and souls into the children, many will burn out, simply select new, dedicated young teachers. Over time you will build a staff loyal to your vision.

While a Mayor selected you and your success will reflect on the Mayor don’t become the hand maiden of the Mayor. The Mayor must support you, don’t fear the reaction of the Mayor and don’t allow fear of the Mayor to determine your policies.

The most dangerous enemy is the teacher’s union. They will try to undermine and degrade your work every step of the way. Don’t compromise, don’t allow them to erode your vision. They will never be your friend or ally … confront them, challenge them, paint them as standing in the face of progress, marginalize them, and, weaken them.

Don’t allow the union to “steal” the community … a mistake that I regret. Parents are naive and easily manipulated … “talk the talk,” don’t worry about “walking the walk.”

Our vision is a privatized public school system. A combination of charter schools and EMOs with the accountability at the school level. If a school is failing it will be the fault of the principal and the teachers at the school site – not the fault of the model.

Competition! Competition! Competition! Bonuses for principals and merit pay for teachers, for profit charter school providers fighting to run schools and earn money. Monetary rewards for students! Experiment! Seize new ideas! Always be on the cutting edge, follow the wave of innovation, it will attract the bold thinkers.

We are creating a system of that will separate the winners and the losers, among principals, teachers and students. Yes, we will be creating schools that we know are doomed to fail … the blame for the failure will be on the shoulders of the charter school providers, the EMO, principals and teachers: we can simply select new ones … eventually a school system designed to meet the needs of the “talented tenth,” and a school system much cheaper to operate.

Andres and Michelle: the reality is that society needs low salaried nonunion employees to drive our economy at the highest profit level … we don’t really want our children, your children and my children, to have to compete with these hordes of children of color.

Our vision will become the new America.

Fondly

Joel Klein

Klein Crows, “Department Will Seek New and Innovative Approaches to Increase Pupil Achievement, We Will Go To any Ends To Achieve Our Goals.”

Chancellor Joel Klein announced the completion of the student pay for performance incentive program. Klein lauded the program, “Although scores did not rise as much as we anticipated we are proud of the contribution that we have made to increase the self esteem of our children”

Some have challenged the premise  that children will not learn or succeed in school without monetary awards, others argue that “bribing is as American as Apple pie.” 

“We will go to any lengths to improve pupil achievement, “said Klein. His staffers indicated that the Department was in early stages of a program planning to imbed electrodes in the pleasure centers of student brains that would be stimulated if they received good grades. “Our desire to increase pupil achievement is boundless … we are very impressed with Professor Skinner’s ideas … and we are seeking funding from the Pangloss  Foundation.”

Sources tell us that the Department is considering moving in a different direction … in addition to rewarding students through either cash incentives or direct pleasurable stimulation they are considering negative consequences for teachers.

Department employees have been meeting with Professor Tomas Torquemada, a renowned researcher whose family has had generations of experience in this field. In a phone interview the Professor Torquemada explained that his procedure, called the Auto de Fe had been extremely successful in changing behavior.

A teacher union representative said, “We have it on good authority that the next consultant the Department is looking to hire is Rod Serling.“

Joel versus Randi May Be More Interesting Than Barack versus Hillary in the Struggle for the Soul of American Urban Education.

Will education replace Iraq at the top of the 2008 Presidential campaign agenda? Yes, if philanthropists Bill Gates and Eli Broad have anything to say about it … they intend to pump $60 million into a nationwide effort to place education at the top of the list.

• Inside the beltway the “players” joust as the reauthorization of No Child left Behind (NCLB) slowly wends its way through the legislative process.
• In LA Steve Barr, the Green Dot unionized charter school operator fences with AJ Dufy the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) prez.
• Newly elected Washington DC Mayor Fenty chooses Michelle Rhee, leader of the New Teacher Project as superintendent, in spite of her total lack of managerial or school supervisory experience.

The defining struggle, however, is the battle going on in the Apple.

 Last Friday at the Edustat Summit at Columbia University Joel Klein   and Randi Weingarten  the NYC Teacher Union leader each sketched out their vision of urban education. 

Joel likes to link his educational vision as a continuation of Brown v Board of Education: sweeping school reform as a civil rights issue. The first iteration of school reform was an attempt to broaden the Chancellor’s District Model – a heavily scripted, micromanaged effort in the fifty-five lowest achieving schools in the city, implemented in a loose partnership with the teacher union. In Joel’s version the union had no role, he ignored the union and rammed his “reform” down the throats of teachers.

Two years later Joel found his Mohammed, he glimpsed the burning bush and became a disciple of Sir Michael Barber . From his bully pulpit Joel sees himself as the reincarnation of 60’s civil rights icons, on the ground he is attempting to:

• Disempower the unions.
• To the extent possible “privatize” schools in the public sector (Charter Schools, Empowerment Schools/Networks, Educational Management Organizations, and Partnership Support Organizations etc.)
• Create a totally data-driven, highly transparent school, principal and teacher evaluation system
• Reward and punish with pay for performance and weakening/abolishing tenure.
• Create a “Robin Hood” school funding system – driving funds, and experienced teachers from “rich” to “poor” schools.
• Create a laser-like focus on test scores
• An Open Market hiring/transfer system that encourages principals to recruit teachers from outside and within the system without limitations.

His deputy, Andres Alonzo has just been appointed as the Chief School Officer in Baltimore  and Michelle Rhee, the leader of the New Teacher Project, and Klein ally, has been nominated as school leader  in Washington DC.

Klein has flitted from city to city, from foundation to foundation  espousing his vision of urban education.

Is the NYC teacher union on the brink of being overwhelmed by Joel?

 

Not only is it not on the brink the union is thriving, with their own vision of public education. While Joel has sought foundation acolytes Randi has courted elected officials and organized with parents and school advocacy groups. In the almost fifty year history of the union their relationship with elected officials, on the local, state and national level has never been stronger. While Joel flew from foundation to foundation Randi

• Negotiated an early contract with the Mayor, without any givebacks, that raises teacher salaries to six figures.
• Negotiated an agreement with the Mayor that thwarts Joel’s attempts to erode tenure and create a “robin hood” school funding formula.
• At the State level drove unparalleled funding through the implementation of the Committee for Fiscal Equity (CFE) lawsuit to schools, targeting ELL, Special Education and low achieving youngsters.
• Created a citywide coalition of parent, community and advocacy organizations.
• Lead the largest organizing drive in the city in decades that will add tens of thousands of low income workers to the ranks of trade unionism.

Although Mayoral control is all the rage, spreading from city to city the NYC law sunsets on June 30, 2009.

 

How much political capital will the Mayor exhaust to defend Mayoral control?

 

 Elected officials on the local and State level despise Klein … will a Mayoral school system without Klein have a better chance of surviving? Will the Mayor’s interest in Presidential politics and his recent push in environmental areas supplant his interest in schools? Will Joel jump to some foundation and espouse his agenda from other lofty heights?

 

Joel versus Randi may be more interesting than Barack versus Hillary.

KLEIN’S LATEST: Pay for Performance – For Kids! Is the “Love of Learning” the “Old” Paradigm? Is “Bribing” Kids “the Answer” for Low Income Children?

Should students be paid for taking tests? Should students be paid for higher test scores?

Sound like some lame-brained scheme?

City Hall, reports today’s NY Daily News , “… is getting ready to unveil a cash ‘incentive’ plan for thousands of low-income students who will take new assessment tests…”

During the 07-08 school year all students in grades 3-8 will take five assessment exams, created by McGraw-Hill and rolled out by the Department with great fanfare. The tests are referred to as “no stakes” tests and will be used solely as a guide for teachers. To enable teachers to tailor student work to meet the precise needs of each kid.

What the Department failed to announce was that in the 400 plus Empowerment Schools, according to the Daily News, “Fourth graders would get $25 and seventh graders $50 for nailing a perfect score …. all participating students will receive smaller amounts of money … Every kid gets an incentive just for taking each assessment; $5 for fourth graders and $10 for seventh graders …. for each correct answer student’s earn an additional reward … all students will earn something, those that perform better will earn more.”

The creator of this plan is Roland Freyer, the wunderkind featured in the magazine section of the NY Times.

The Department has strict requirements when it comes to research projects. One wonders whether the researcher obtained parental consent?

The 29 year old Freyer leads the American Inequality Laboratory at Harvard University and has produced an amazing array of research papers.

This isn’t Freyer’s first experiment in our schools. The NYTimes describes an experiment in PS 70X whereby students were offered a “small prize” for improving by a certain percentage on a reading test. This was followed by an experiment with fifteen schools in Harlem. The principals, at a meeting with Freyer asked, “What happens next year when they aren’t being paid? Won’t students in other grades be resentful? What will parents think when kids start receiving cash in the mail every few weeks?” The answers are not reported.

Similar experiments were conducted with KIPP Charter Schools and are currently being conducted in the Dallas School System.

In an Esquire  article Freyer derides the range of programs designed to close the Black-White achievement gap, that in his view have failed to close the gap. So, Freyer asks a number of questions,

First, do monetary incentives improve academic performance?

Second, do monetary incentives for academic performance curb other risky behavior or increase motivation?

Third, do group reward systems improve performance more than individual reward systems?

Fourth, what student demographics gain most from individual and group incentives programs?

Fifth, what are the long-term effects of incentive programs?

Freyer proffers that paying students will be a ”powerful incentive for third graders.”

Ultimately Freyer seems to want to create an environment “… were achievement is celebrated and provides the correct incentives for students to tutor one another.”

Freyer ignores the impact of his experiment on the lives of his experimental subjects. 

What is disturbing is the nonchalance of Klein.

Should “experiments” be conducted on our children without the informed consent of every parent? Shouldn’t principals and teachers have to agree to participate in an experiment? What will be the impact of the experiment on the kids? Will this experiment create kids who want to learn for the love of learning, or for the love of cash, who are curious learners or pecuniary learners?

Once again Klein and his ilk ignore that child are living and breathing sentient human beings – not guinea pigs in cages.

Roland Freyer may be a renown Afro-American social scientist – his casual attitude, ignoring parents, teachers and the impact on students, unfortunately, smacks of the Tuskeegee experiments.

Chancellor Klein’s School(System) Progress Report: Part 2 Student Progress FAILED! CHEATING!

The good news: Lindsay Lohan did not graduate from a NYC high school.

The bad news: Klein and the folks at Tweed dissemble … prevaricate … let’s be honest: they lie!!!

Schools and school systems are measured by a range of metrics: the major indicators are State Education Department (SED) English and Mathematics test scores in grades 3-8. High schools are measured by graduation rates  and the SED defines the formula that determines rates.

The SED English (ELA) test scores have just been released and the Department lauds itself on dramatic growth …

SED High School graduations rates were also released and the Department proudly announced a 60%  graduation rate. But, wait a minute, didn’t the SED press release announce NYC High School graduation rate as 50%?

The current inhabitants of the Tweed Courthouse seems to have been infected with the same illness of their namesake. They lie, cheat and steal. They cheat and steal from the children in the New York City school system.

There are several general approaches to improving pupil achievement: you can introduce programs that are nationally recognized as being “successful” programs, work closely with stakeholders, namely teachers and parents, and create a transparent system driven by the needs of kids, or, you can cheat.

If you don’t like certain bits of data, don’t use the data … measure what you want to measure that produces the results you want to reach.

The NYSun, the teacher union blog and Diane Ravitch have all sharply questioned the methodology of the Department.

English Language Learners (ELL) will lower scores: don’t count them.

Special Education kids have very low graduation rates: don’t count them.

Bush spins out rosy press releases about “progress” in Iraq, Pete Rose bets on baseball, heroes become steroid junkies, and Klein and company jump on the bandwagon: “rosy” Iraq-like press releases, drug hazed views of “success,” and the kids … just widgets.

The just released National Center for Educational Statistics report should be a model for assessing NYC schools.

* How many kids are in Advanced Placement courses? How many take the AP Exam? How many received grades of 3 or higher?

* How many kids take and pass the Chemistry Regents? What are the range of grades?

* How many kids take the Physics Regents? What are the range of grades?

* How many kids take and pass advanced Math courses?

Let’s take the above data and disaggregate by NCLB categories, large school/small school, and while we’re at it Empowerment versus all others.

I hope our schools are doing better … but … until we know how do we know were to drive dollars? What are some school doing that achieves success? There are high achieving and low achieving Title 1 schools, there are high achieving and low achieving high salary schools? Do specific programs work better than  others?

ARIS  is collecting data – creating a user friendly treasure trove of student data. Do we trust the Department to analyze the data?  Clearly: the answer is no!

Increasingly commenters on NYC schools are asking for some reputable outside organization to analyze New York City student achievement data.

Unfortunately I fear we’ll have to wait until Tweed is fumigated.