This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch on her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," an important critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement.

 

Dear Deborah,

 

Last week, the New York City Department of Education received permission from the city's Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, to close an additional two dozen public schools because their scores are too low. The city has now closed more than 100 schools and opened hundreds of new ones. The consent of the PEP was never in doubt.

 

New York City has a governance system for its public schools in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unlimited power over every decision. He not only appoints the chancellor of schools, but appoints eight of the 13 members of the PEP, who serve at his pleasure. The mayor has made clear that he will fire any member of the PEP who defies his orders. Thus, when the department of education, which the mayor controls, makes a recommendation to the PEP, which the mayor controls, the outcome is predetermined.

 

Our mayor is now in his ninth year, in his third term, and his education policies are grounded completely in the idea of numbers, data, and accountability. Every school gets a letter grade, and schools that get a D or F more than once are on track to be closed. The letter grades themselves are based mainly on state test scores, which are unreliable. Only last June, the state education department acknowledged that its tests were too easy, and it deflated scores across the state, wiping out almost all of New York City's allegedly historic gains. Even though it is obvious that the state scores have no scientific validity, they determine which schools will live and which will die.

 

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The problem(s) with Obama's 2012 education budget

What Ravitch told KIPP and Teach for America

  

  

 

Want to make six figures? Want to be a teacher? Those two seemingly opposing desires are poised to come together in Baltimore, Maryland - if the city's educators decide to vote in a new contract that ties raises to student achievement instead of seniority. If the new contract passes, Baltimore will become one of the few school districts nationwide to jump on the merit pay bandwagon.

 

Under the terms of the contract, first year teachers in Baltimore will take home the highest starting salary in Maryland, $46,744, and the top base pay for veteran teachers will jump from $80,596 to $100,806. Bucking the trend of district vs. union battles, the Baltimore City Public Schools and the Baltimore Teachers Union jointly developed the contract over a span of eight months.

In a letter to teachers union members, President Marietta English praised the contract saying teachers will now, "be paid for professional development based on research, practice, and common sense. And you will be paid for successful evaluations that are fair and accurate. All the things we used to volunteer for, we will now be paid for!"

 

The Obama Adminstration advocates linking pay and performance, and heavily promoted the merit-pay idea through its education reform competiton, Race to the Top. In addition, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said in a statement that the contract is "the type of reform we are encouraging." Grasmick went on to clarify that, "Baltimore City teachers will be paid more but only if their performance in the classroom is worthy of the extra compensation."

 

Clouding the pending vote is just-released data from a study run by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University. The POINT study followed 300 Tennessee middle school math teachers for three years and found that even with bonuses of up to $15,000, merit-pay has little impact on teacher performance.

Despite the research, Baltimore still hopes the salary bump will help attract and retain the highest performing teachers, and lead to a boost in student performance. Contract ratification takes place on October 14th. 

BALTIMORE (WJZ) - The Baltimore school system is trying to get its most experienced teachers to retire-now.

 

Kai Jackson explains why and how this could impact your child's education.

The city school system seems to be making teachers an offer that's hard to refuse, but some believe in the end, it will be students who pay the price.

 

Hundreds of Baltimore's most seasoned teachers are expected to quit at the end of the year.  Between 350 and 750 teachers with more than 10 years' experience are being offered a lucrative buyout: 75 percent of their salary for five years.

 

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by Dr. Maya Rockeymoore

 

There was a tale of two school districts on display at Baltimore's Walter's Art Museum on Saturday morning. The occasion was Congressman Elijah Cummings's annual arts competition--an event in which students from high schools across his Congressional district submit their best work in the hopes of winning the honor of having their art hang in the bowels of the U.S. Capitol for one year.

 

 

After the competition was over, a young woman who teaches art in a Baltimore middle school remarked that it was amazing that any of the city's students were competitive given the circumstances. She said at her school, "there were no art supplies except some old spoiled tempera paint and paper when I arrived." When I asked her how she secured the supplies necessary to conduct class, she admitted that she "paid out-of-pocket for some supplies and scavenged for the rest."

 

She went on to say she had only been teaching for two years and the school district was "zero-basing" her school for the second year in a row. Zero-basing is a practice in which the school district terminates all of the teachers and administrators in a school that is labeled failing and requires them to reapply for their positions for the next academic year. "They are herding teachers and students around like we are cattle...in the hopes that things will eventually get better [on the academic front]," she said.

 

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Where:  Albin O. Kuhn Library, 7th floor , University of Maryland, Baltimore County

 

Howell Baum, Professor, School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, University of Maryland, College Park

  

  

Below is an excerpt from an article in the Baltimore Jewish Times. Follow by an excerpt from Decolonizingthe African Mind by Uhuru Hotep

Diane Ravitch on Merit Pay, Waiting for Superman and Race for the Top

 ... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)

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