More Weekend Reading from Allan

Weekend Readings

By Allan Alach

Another week, nothing much has changed. The attack on kids continues unabated. As I read somewhere, ‘Why do adults hate kids?’

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Common Sense Vs. Common Core: How to Minimize the Damages of the Common Core

Here is another article by Yong Zhao. While this is written about the common core standards in USA, spot the similarities with national standards in New Zealand. Will a similar beast appear in Australia at some stage?

http://zhaolearning.com/2012/06/17/common-sense-vs-common-core-how-to-minimize-the-damages-of-the-common-core/

Are Compliant Teachers Exhibiting Stockholm Syndrome?

In the next article, Horace Mann suggests that both male and female teachers are subject to a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, eager to please their bosses and maintain personal safety.  Does he have a plausible argument? Or maybe they just ‘follow orders.’ Heard that before? Maybe the Milgram Experiment is the explanation?

What do you think?

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2012/06/are_compliant_teachers_exhibiting_stockholm_syndrome.html

The Technocratization of Public Education: Subverting educational practices

This reading follows up on the Bill & Melinda Gates idea of fitting children with “galvanic skin response bracelets”  by examining the development of public education in the USA (with obvious links to similar education programmes in other countries). Of particular interest, note this quote by Frederick Taylor Gates (no relation to Bill Gates):

“We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. The task we set before ourselves is very simple, as well as a very beautiful one, to train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are. So we will organize our children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way, in the homes, in the shops and on the farm.”

One could suggest that nothing has changed nearly a century later.

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31422

Disaster Capitalism, K-12 Education, and Corporate Takeovers of Progressive Organizations

The USA is much further down the road to destroy public education for the sake of corporate profit, however our ‘leaders’ in Australia and New Zealand are hot on the trail. This article provides a review of the template that is being following - how many ‘coincidences’ can you find?

http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2012/06/18/disaster-capitalism-k-12-education-and-corporate-takeovers-of-progressive-organizations/

In 2002, Business Week Revealed Why Common Core Disdains Fiction

 We know that the Common Core Standards in the USA have a fair bit in common with New Zealand’s national standards. While NZ’s version of reading standards is not (yet) as restrictive as those in USA, we can’t take this for granted, nor can Australians relax thinking that this isn’t their problem. The USA reading standard is heavily slanted towards non-fiction, as ‘non-fiction is where students get information about the world and that’s why schools must stop teaching so much fiction.’ 

This article discusses the given rationale for this, which will not come as a surprise to you!

http://tinyurl.com/c39rc96

The best book on creativity 'In The Early World' by Elwyn Richardson (reprinted 2012 )

Feeling poisoned by the relentless attack on child centred education? Here’s an antidote for you - the reprint of a seminal book on a New Zealand school in the 1950s. This has been called the best book about education ever written, and in the light of my limited readings, I would have to agree. The book is available here:

http://nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/early-world-0

Readers will have seen the posting that Bruce wrote about this book earlier this week. Kelvin Smythe has also written at length about Richardson, starting here:

http://www.networkonnet.co.nz/index.php?section=schools&id=6

To add to this, here’s a documentary that was made about Elwyn’s school, where you can see his work in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYMdmvinFIM&list=PL0C6B7E89C0D792B4&index=11&feature=plpp_video



Creativity not standardisation. The best book on creativity 'In The Early World' by Elwyn Richardson (reprinted 2012 )shows the way

Last Friday I travelled to Auckland to the opening of a new edition of Elwyn Richardson's inspirational book 'In the Early World'. The book, as the new preface says, 'is a celebration of the creative power of children and celebrates the artistry of a sensitive teacher as he crafted a ' new' approach to teaching and learning'. The book 'offers at least a partial answer to the question now being asked again: How can we put the lives of children and our trust in their creative power back into classroom practice?'

Book available from the NZCER - order your copy now!

New Zealand teachers - share this posting with creative teachers you know as an antidote to National Standards and League Tables.

Earlier postings have featured the work of Elwyn Richardson so this blog is drawn from a new hard hitting forward written by educationalist.  Gwenneth Phillips  The original forward is also included and is worth read as well.

Elwyn's book comes at an opportune time as the current government is finally showing its true 'market forces' neo liberal competitive  ideology with its intention to introduce 'League Tables' based on National Standards data to encourage competition through students and school comparison.

Schools now have a moral dilemma - to comply to such impositions that, where introduced, have narrowed the curriculum, with teachers teaching to the tests ( national testing will be inevitable ) and the sidelining of untested areas of the curriculum such as the creative arts, or be creative. Ironically countries that have imposed such approaches are well behind New Zealand in international testing!

The choice is simple. Standardisation ( the 'McDonaldisation' of learning) or personalization that celebrates every students' unique gift and talents.

New Zealand  has had a long history of creative teaching and Gwenneth writes  that these 'teacher-pioneers became driven by the belief in the creative power of children.....laying the foundations for a child-centred approach, unique to New Zealand... Elwyn's creative approach is an exemplar of this work.' Through such an approach New Zealand schools have achieved highly on international testing.

'But....times have changed... educational decision making has shifted from such innovative educators to non teaching politicians and policy makers; and in the classroom from practicing teachers to academics.'

This new guard of decision makers' Gwenneth writes,  'juggle political, fiscal and/or research agendas' . 'Teachers' , she writes, 'have long struggled with the conflicting demands.....in particular the demands for accountability- based on the precise articulation of outcomes as well as their measurement. As a result, the basic tenants of of our unique child-centred approach...have been compromised.....the child's creative power has been strangled and the child marginalised'.

One might add so has the creative power of teachers and creative schools.

'An old challenge has re-emerged. How can we put the lives of children and our trust in their creative power back into classroom practice?' And  how can we develop trust in teachers to be creative in our present risk averse surveillance culture!

Gwenneth believes this new edition of Elwyn's book is both timely and important, for this challenge is at the heart of present debate. It presents a backdrop to current issues in education and to teachers' concerns - the narrowing of the curriculum, the setting of externally prescribed adult motivated progressions and outputs that neglect the developmental nature of learning'.

The book has two stories - the story of Elwyn an innovative teacher breaking away from a teacher dominated approach and learning to trust the creative power of children.

 Elwyn 'dsicarded the official syllabus and turned to the children's lives and immediate environment for the basis of his curriculum. Using the children's natural curiosity and interest, Richardson taught them how to observe closely the world around them and to record their new discoveries and their own responses to these. From here, he developed a school programme that was anchored in the children's surroundings and real lives'.

'Through environmental study the children learned the basis of scientific method, and brought these  skills to bear on studies that spanned all subjects. His method was a revolt against the treatment of science as a separate subject in favour of an integrated programme of arts ands science.'

'The second story is told through the voices and imagery of the children's own work. This  story captures the universal experience of children " learning to be"- to be members of a caring and respectful community of artists, craftspeople, scientists, historians, inventors, reserachers'.

'Success in these stories were sustained by the knowledge and professional artistry of a caring teachers who esteemed the voice and thinking of the children.' As Elwyn himself writes, ' they were my teachers as I was theirs, and the basis was sincerity, without which, I am convinced, there can be no creative education.'

This second story is exemplified today in the all but sidelined 2007 New Zealand Curriculum  which asks teachers to see their students as active 'seekers, users and creators of their own knowledge'.

The way of working captured in Elwyn's book are 'in stark contrast to that have emerged in the last decades. Current ways are based clearly articulated and predetermined pathways.The children are forced to state goals and are evaluated through criteria and standards that conform not to their own understandings of themselves in the world, but by expectations dissected from the forms and structures of adult thinking.' These approaches Gwenneth writes, 'are the antithesis  of child centred approaches.They marginalise children and show little respect for their creative power to develop their own life-learning pathways'

Unfortunately many school are well down this imposed formulaic 'best practices' approaches . Gwenneth writes  , 'for many teachers, especially primary teachers, the knowledge and professional artistry of their child-centred practice has been usurped; the courage and tenacity of the pioneering spirit stifled; and the recognition and trust of the child's creative power has been undermined.'

The aesthetic quality of children's art work, the accuracy of their scientific observations and the quality of language in Elwyn's book 'should inspire and convince teachers'.

'In The Early World, together with the stories of other early pioneers, tempered with new insights...has the power to inspire a '"new" guard of educational pioneers'. It is a book that 'celebrates the pioneering spirit of New Zealand tecahers'.

Please share this blog with creative teachers - before it is too late.

Lets value individual creative teachers.

This is my rather battered copy of Elwyn Richardson's inspirational book 'In The Early World'. Tomorrow, after a long drive to Auckland, I am attending an opening of a new edition of the book originally published in the early 60s

If you are  a creative New Zealand teacher please share this posting with other like minded teachers - it is time creative teachers start to fight to have their voices heard. Education is too important to be left to politicians or even conformist principals

If you are interested in the ideas expressed see links in previous blog

The sixties were exciting times.  Creativity and liberation were in the air. The fifties, following the devastation of World War Two,  were marked by both rebuilding and a need for security but there were also  feelings that there must be better ways of doing things in all areas of life.

We are at a similar position today!

It was during fifties in a small isolated rural school in the far north that teacher Elwyn Richardson, began his journey into creativity . Originally Elwyn had intentions of continuing his own science study of molluscs but somewhere along the way became focused on helping his students explore their environment and then to express what they saw and felt through a variety  of creative media.   The insights he gained through his experiences  are expressed poetically in the pages of his book.

About the same time of Elwyn's books publication I began my own teaching career as a school adviser. As part of my role I visited every school and classroom in South Taranaki and I soon became aware that certain teachers stood out. Such teachers were to be found teaching in small rural schools  and in my area about six or seven attracted my attention. It was through such teachers I became aware of Elwyn's book. The ideas he had developed  were well known to these teachers and their classrooms reflected similar student creativity. I also became aware of the work of the Art Advisers in the dissemination and support of this creative approach to teaching and learning.

Unfortunately the appreciation of the insights of creative classroom teachers ( today such individuals are called 'postive deviants') has been neglected  at first by the introduction of new curriculums ( most of which, due to lack of support failed to 'stick'). After the introduction of such curriculums came an emphasis on the importance of leadership and whole school development.  Now It is all about accountability.  'Experts' now abound delivering research based ( whatever that means)  'best practices'. As a result the 'voices' of teachers have all but disappeared.

Now, fifty or so years later, I still firmly believe that it is only by the sharing of the innovative ideas of individual teachers that real educational progress is realised. School based reforms  may have proved greater consistency, even quality, but  at the cost of creativity. 'Positive deviants' find it hard to survive in such a monitoring, and increasingly, surveillance culture. Conformity and standardisation are now features of our schools. and small rural schools are no longer centres of innovation. Top down compliance has created  risk averse school environments

It is time again to value those who dare to see things differently.

Creative leadership is required to create the conditions to encourages teacher creativity.

Developing creative school cultures the real challenge if we are to take advantage of the creativity of those teachers who want to try new things with their students.Leadership is required to support and protect such teachers. We need leaders with the confidence to let such teachers learn through their mistake so as to develop ideas that  can then be shared with others. Not many principals have the insight or courage to do this.

Real improvement in any area of life occurs when people feel free to share ideas and where the culture encourages open interaction between all involved. By such talk teachers build up a shared language and means to assess which ideas are worth pursuing. Good ideas are self selecting.

This approach, based on valuing the artistry of the teachers, reaches back to the ideas of such pioneers as Elwyn Richardson. Just as he needed people around him to support him in his endeavours so do teachers today. And when ideas are shared with other creative teachers by school leaders then real change will  spread like benign virus and be established in sympathetic schools.

It is this 'bottom up' innovation, supported by school leaders, and those outside of the school, that is now needed. Real growth in nay area of human endeavour  arise first by outliers, by those working at the edge by those willing to the risks,  but to be shared such ideas needs the support creative cultures and insightful leaders.

A creative classroom  can be seen as a 'fractal' of a  creative school and in turn a creative community. Creative classrooms,  creative schools and  creative communities  do not emerge by chance - they are supported, often intuitively, by having the right conditions and leadership.

Hopefully the republication of Elwyn's book  might be the spark that sets off of new creative era. As someone has said, we need to do the sixties again but this time properly.

The power of 'postive deviants'.- Michael Fullan recants

This Friday I am attending the book launching of a new updated edition of Elwyn Richardson's book 'In the Early World'. This is , my opinion, the best book ever about creative education. Elwyn has long since retired but his ideas about education are more relevant than ever in this deadening era of standardized teaching. Picture with Elwyn is Margaret McDonald who has completed a thesis on Elwyn's work. Elwyn was a pioneer of creative teaching whose views stood out in contrast to the traditional approaches of the time. His work certainly influenced the teachers I worked with as an adviser. I only hope there still are inspirational teachers today like  Elwyn because it is through the  identifying and sharing  of work of such teachers real progress is made.

If any creative New Zealand teachers read this posting please forward it other like minded teachers - and if you receive this posting add your e-mail to get regular postings

The power of positive deviants.

Today we urgently need creativity not compliance to re-imagine our schools.  The question is how do schoolscultivate this imagination?

Michael Fullan recants

Surprisingly the Canadian ‘wizard’ of educational reform international educationalist Michael Fullan provides some answers.  Fullan, who has a history of assisting governments impose ‘top down’ initiatives focussed on literacy and numeracy, seems to have changed his mind.  Recently he has changed from assisting governments imposing accountability reforms on schools to a focus on building school ‘capacity’.

In his latest book, ‘The Change Leader,’ Fullan moves away from implementing reforms to the revolutionary belief schools ought to learn from their own experience. He now believes that practice, classroom experimentation, is now the most powerful tool for change. In this Fullan aligns himself behind the actions of scientists like Darwin by saying the theory will evolve through practice and reflection. His new thinking is also in line with the writing of educationalist Alison Gopnik who writes that children develop their theories through their explorations. .

Fullan’s advice for school leaders is to manage people by ‘impressive empathy’ To ‘manage others by creating environments that help them learn and grow’ and that this ‘includes understanding others who disagree with us’. Good advice for politicians. He writes that we all have a need to connect with others and that our brains are shaped by new thoughts and actions.

First practice then theory

Fullan now believes ‘most good ideas come first by examining the practice of others’ and then to ‘try out the ideas yourself’ and, finally , ‘ drawing conclusions from what you have learnt and then expanding on those conclusions’.  This is about valuing school creativity not compliance to imposed requirements.

In the past imposed reforms and strategies have dominated practice. The least we can do, Fullan suggests, is to ‘slow the adoption of bad practices’ including some of his previous advice!  ‘A large percentage of expert advice is flawed’, he comments. This he, he writes, also applies to advice on performance pay which he says ‘constantly fails to improve student performance’. ‘It is better’, he writes, ‘for change leaders to learn to rely on themselves, questioning themselves as they learn'. ’Leaders ‘don’t start by imaging the future’ they ’walk into the future by examining their own and others’ best practice, looking for insights they had hitherto not noticed’.’ This is the essence of the scientific method – once again creativity not compliance.

This paradigm for discovery is the opposite to of what is normally assumed. The sequence from practice to theory is exactly the opposite of how progress is thought to happen. Theories arise through action. Discovery is now to be seen as expert practitioners sharing ideas and influencing each other. The key for leaders is to find the ‘bright spots’, what some call ‘positive deviants’, and to for others to put into practice their ideas adding their own ideas in the process. This is learning by doing, being active, connected ‘seekers, users and creators of their own knowledge’ as the 2007 NewZealand Curriculum suggests.

This, Fullan writes, is about ‘acting your way into new ways of thinking, than to think your way into new ways of acting…. It is about finding and learning from practice what works to solve extremely difficult problems ‘.Trying things and keeping what works. Compliance is putting into action predetermined solutions while creativity requires experimenting, new discoveries, and continual adjustments.

New paradigm for educational change.

Fullan’s latest book contributes to ideas that are gaining ascendancy – the importance of creative hands on practice over abstract theorizing and compliance to requirements by those distant from the action. As a result, writes Fullan, ‘over the past fifty years in my own field in education….we have lost the capacity to build effective practice through the teaching profession and its leaders. Instead we have politicians running around introducing ad hoc policies far removed from practice that have no chance of improving practice on the ground.’

From ‘delivery’ to empowerment.

Tapping and sharing the expertise of creative teachers requires a new mind-set and a new set of skills from school leaders. It requires leaders to be comfortable about being uncomfortable because it is impossible to pre-determine in what direction some changes will result. Teachers need to see genuine reactions from their leaders to their discoveries so they will see them as part of their learning process. Creating new idea can be messy and dangerous but there is no other way to gain authentically owned progress.

Educations goal needs to shift from ‘delivering’ of something to empowering teachers and students to amplify their innate and natural curiosity to learn whatever and whenever they need to.   School leaders need to do all they can about eliminating obstacles to achieving this goal. Fullan’s advice to principals is to be a critical consumer of imposed requirements and to ‘examine received wisdom in light of your own practice and that of your peers, and only after thorough consideration of that practice. If practice is going to drive improvement, the leader’s job is to liberate practice’.

Heading in the wrong direction.

The current government seems determined to introduce standardized approaches with their genesis from  a past mass production age rather than implementing personalised approaches for an unpredictable, evolutionary, fast changing world. Rather than the current obsession with the ‘Three Rs’ (literacy and numeracy standards - as important as they are) schools need to focus on the’ Four Cs’: creativity, complexity, choice, curiosity, and collaboration. These attributes align well with the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum’s key competencies.  Countries, organisations, and individuals will be ill equipped if they don’t have what it takes to be creative.

A ‘bottom up’ world.

Today the dominant ‘voices are those those distant from the reality of schools. The challenge for school leaders is to break from old quantitative models and develop open environments that ‘breed ideas’ and work with others to share the creative ideas of their teachers. This was once the way ideas were shared before Tomorrow’s Schools. Thankfully inter school visiting is on the rise again and, thanks to modern information technology, it has never been easier to share ideas.

Future orientated schools need to create the conditions to encourage their ‘positive deviants’ and then let their ideas mate mutate and continually challenge their thinking. The future requires teachers who, in the words of the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, who are busy ‘seeking, using and creating their own knowledge’ so as to break through the inertia of past practices.

 Creativity that enlarges experience needs to be the new norm.

Weekend reading from Allan

Weekend Readings

By Allan Alach

Another week, more educational madness in New Zealand, as the current government races down the ‘us too’ track being followed by other equally ignorant governments. This time the government has decided that the best way to ‘raise achievement’ and to ‘improve delivery of the curriculum’ is to increase class sizes and to spend the money saved on improving ‘teacher effectiveness’ whatever that means. However, since the government didn’t do their homework, this decision has rebounded on them, and succeeded in bringing parents alongside teachers in the fight to overturn this. As a result the government has had to backdown and cancel the increase to class sizes. This is a major victory, the first against the neo-liberal education agenda. One battle doesn’t mean the war is won, far from it, as the agenda is still there, and I expect a retaliatory attack on principals and teachers fairly soon, in an attempt to split them off from the parent support.

 I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Is Real Educational Reform Possible? If So, How?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201108/is-real-educational-reform-possible-if-so-how

Why Daydreaming Isn’t a Waste of Time.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/06/why-daydreaming-isnt-a-waste-of-time/

Research paper from England that shows that class sizes do make a difference.

http://www.classsizeresearch.org.uk/aera%2008%20paper.pdf

Did A Big-Bucks British Testing Company Hijack America’s Public Schools?
http://dailycloudt.com/voice-single?id=166

Read and despair.... people like this are the influences behind the National Party's education agenda in New Zealand and Naplan regime in Australia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/education/15face.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Is American education backing the wrong horse?  Is Australian education backing the wrong horse? Is New Zealand education backing the wrong horse?  What’s the connection between these countries? Why do schools get blamed for the ills caused by poverty?

http://www.susanohanian.org///core.php?id=275

The corporate takeover of society and education.

Special request for New Zealand readers - please pass this, and any other relevant blogs, to other teachers who may be interested. If you receive this blog please consider entering your e-mail address to receive regular postings.

This blog has been based on an interview on National Radio with Richard Hil author of ‘Whakademia- an insider’s view of the troubled university.’Hil’s particular area of concern is the corporatisation of the university system.

Since the early 90s society has been reshaped by a neo liberal corporate ideology. An emphasis on private enterprise and self-centred individualism has replaced an earlier concern for collective good of all members of society.   As a result of this ideological shift a wider gap has been created between the rich and poor causing a number of social concerns. Schools as part of this shift have been transformed from a community orientation to being part of a competitive cut throat ideology.

Students at the tertiary level (and parents with regard to selecting schools) can be seen as consumers or ‘shoppers’, selecting from an educational market. All that is missing is some form of comparative ‘league tables’ to provide data for parent choice – this is sure to come.

New bureaucratic practices are now well in place in all public organisation and increasingly in education. Corporate jargon is now common in this new educational environment  – inputs, outputs, targets, key performance indicators, performance management, efficiency, accountability, benchmarking and quality assurance, all based around maintaining top down corporate discipline, brand distinctiveness and market share.

Corporate domination, to be put in place,  needs an acquiescent and  disciplined workforce – in schools the principals and teachers. Through compliance requirements a workforce supportive of the corporate approach is developed.

The corporate model is pushed on schools by policy makers imposing a policy framework model on schools – policy makers who have little or no experience of the reality of the classroom and deliberately the ‘voice’ of educationalist are ignored.

To achieve such a compliant workforce constant monitoring and surveillance, through regulatory mechanisms of review, assessment and evaluation, all under the guise of transparency and accountability and quality assurance, have been put in place. All sorts of byzantine assessment process are now to be found in schools producing lots of data but little enlightenment. Students are assessed against narrow arbitrary standards resulting in a narrowing of the curriculum and, in turn, a lack of provision for students to express their diverse talents and gifts – ‘one size now fits all’. This demeans the intelligence of both teachers and students. There is no time to do fewer things well to develop important attitudes and dispositions educationalists believe are necessary for students to thrive in an uncertain future. Such aspects are far too hard to measure.

The net result of such monitoring has been the lowering of the professional status of the teaching force. Teachers have developed a sense of being constantly surveyed and swamped by red tape, a loss of creative license, intellectual freedom and job satisfaction.  Many teachers increasingly feel stressed and many are considering leaving the profession. As a result teachers are feeling there is a lack of time for the important consideration of teaching and learning and grappling with growing numbers of needy students.

As a result of disgruntled and unhappy teachers there is a growing educational malaise.  There is also a growing disenchantment in schools about the mutations caused by the corporate ideology in education.

As part of the corporate strategy was the demeaning the teaching profession through finger pointing and blaming them for student failure while at the same time ignoring the effects of poverty on student achievement. The market forces  corporate ideology places value on hardnosed economic growth and demonizes teachers and schools as failing students and being stuck in the past. To reform this seemingly failing situation a standardised model has been implemented which has resulted in a one dimensional approach to education with success being determined and measured by narrow literacy and numeracy levels in primary school and NZCEA levels in secondary.

Through this corporatism education has been reshaped to suit economic and vocational ends – only measuring what can be simply measured and all this in a world where we need more rounded, globally aware, citizen minded citizens who subscribe to the common good and not self-centred greed.

What is now needed is to turn the growing dissatisfaction with the corporate model to ‘our’ advantage by reframing the current reality with a vision of what might be, rather than complying meekly with what is being imposed.  New Zealand needs to formulate a vision that faces up to the ‘big picture’ facing us all – with a focus on developing the diverse gifts and talents of all students if we are to solve issues of poverty, climate change and sustainability.

Educators, along with other citizens, need to be liberated from the petty tyrannical managerial control and excessive administrative compliance demands they now suffer under.

In our school system there are many who have succumbed to the imposed excessive measure for a variety of reasons, more often simply to ensure their and their schools success in a competitive market. Some have come to believe that there is no other alternative (TINA).

Out of dissatisfaction there are alternatives waiting to be articulated, including picking up on democratic and humanist ideals from the past. There is a need to reframe the current reality with a vision of what might be. To make a change will require courage, leadership and working collaboratively with others who share similar concerns.

This how the corporate model itself was imposed but it has had its time centre stage – time for a new narrative to replace its narrow pragmatic ideals.  Corporatisation, based on economic growth for its own sake, is unsustainable - fighting battles of a past world.

What is needed is a fundamental change from the individualistic and materialistic values of corporatisation. A new narrative for society, and in turn, education is required to replace the destructive winners and losers corporate model.

 What is required is to establish the conditions, at every level of society and in every school, to develop the creativity, initiative and innovation that the heavy hand of the corporate model is stifling.

A look into the Corporate approach to education

Did A Big-Bucks British Testing Company Hijack America’s Public Schools?Read and work out where  John  Key, Hekia Parata and Bill English are getting their ideas from!!!!!

by Morna McDermott

Since when does one singular textbook company makes all the educational decisions that highly trained and experienced teachers with PhD’s who earned their degree used to make? Teacher education has been regulated for decades in America by such institutions as State Departments of Education. But a state-by-state wave of round of educational redesign and legislation represents a corporate takeover of public schools and colleges for private profit.

This “education reform” tsunami is sweeping over American Kindergarten through 12the Grade education – in order to turn schools, and children, into profit centers for hedge-fund managers, educational entrepreneurs, and textbook companies – especially the textbook giant Pearson.

The center of the profit center? The “Teacher Professional Assessment “ (TPA). This assessment was developed by The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Stanford University. This new form of teacher preparation assessment – skills assessment -- is going national- fast.

 The economic machine behind it all? Recently, TPA forged an exclusive deal with Pearson.
According to Pearson’s own website:

Pearson will provide Stanford University with the assessment services to deliver the TPA nationally, …. Pearson will also provide services such as the recruitment, training and certification of all scorers, scoring for all submitted TPA responses, and the generation of all official score reports to candidates and institutions of record (i.e., standard boards, state agencies, Institutions of Higher Education, including alternative preparation pathways).

Pearson has made 45 billion already testing kindergarten through 12th grade in state tests to which many parents object. This new venture will swell Pearson’s stock portfolios even further – with our schools’ state revenues and assessment fees.

Accompanying this push to assess teachers – for money for Pearson – is a drive to create alternative routes from the traditional colleges of education, to teacher licensing. These alternative routes including the right-wing reformers’ darling, Teach for America (TFA). These new alternative routes are being boosted by corporate ‘education reformers’ gunning to eliminate the power of educational colleges.

This new state--by-state legislation forcing schools to adopt the corporate-funding curriculum called “Common Core” corporate required testing measures, and corporate new teacher evaluations, eliminates parents’ and students’ consumer choice. The TPA is aligned with “Common Core State Standards.” The economics of the “Common Core” curriculum are also profit-driven:substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3004, susanohanian.org, educationalchemy.org,atthechalkface.com and schoolsmatter.org. These bills funnel state taxpayer dollars for education over to Pearson as the sole provider of nearly all educational resources available to all the schools.

Is that a free market?

Barabra Madeloni is a lecturer at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst who objected to using Pearson’s TPA:“The attempt to impose a corporate sponsored standard assessment on … teachers is one more example of the corporatization of public education and the surveillance, silencing and demands for obedience that accompany it.”

She refused to use Pearson’s TPA this past spring. One result? The University of Massachussetts is not renewing her teaching contract for fall 2013.

But there are many more of us teachers out there, who support Madeloni’s position.

According to the anti-corporatizing of public education group United Opt Out (unitedoptout.com) “Just as new legislation is passed, as new educational mandates are set, Pearson is suddenly able to provide the legions of educators and school systems clamoring for some kind of answer with just the right product. How can this be? In recent years, this once relatively small publishing house turned itself into a massive provider of a range of educational products, from traditional print materials for the K-12 sector, higher education resources and technology solutions for public school systems. It is one thing to have various products to sell and to allow the marketplace to judge their success or failure. It is another matter to reorganize the rules so that Pearson products are all one needs to buy to satisfy a range of emerging Federal and State education mandates.”

Sir Michael Barber is the current Chief Education Advisor for Pearson. Barber is a powerful advocate for the free-market approach to education – which includes union-busting, and turning public schools into privately-run, profit-generating charters. Barber writes:

(In Britain) we've had 18 years of reform with a series of consistent threads: devolution of resources, strong accountability, setting standards, national tests and introduction of school inspection …; designing all the materials at the national level and training everybody in a cascade out; using the accountability system to publish results and school inspection to check that people were adopting better practices. Essentially it's about creating different forms of a quasi-market in public services, exploiting the power of choice, competition, transparency and incentives,….”

And Pearson and Barber are getting their way – now throughout America: in Chicago, in California, and throughout the nation. Through the tracking of value added data of students taught by these teacher candidates during and after they graduate can be directly traced back not only to the university but to individual professors.

This new legislation states “that prospective teachers couldn't graduate from these programs unless they demonstrated that they could actually boost student achievement” and that furthermore, “States that choose to participate in the program would have to designate state ‘authorizers,’ who would approve and oversee the academies.”

Transparency is demanded of teachers – but not of the education policy makers, with their incestuous ties to educational corporations. These influencers weave together a nearly impenetrable web of legislation and educational requirements, pumping profits by mandating more regulation for everyone else – and a monopoly of profit for themselves.

But there is hope. There is resistance afoot. For more information on how corporations are destroying public education and privatizing it, and how to fight the corporate takeover. Visit United Opt Out National at unitedoptout.com. Join the fight. We have called for a Boycott of Pearson products and services. We are organizing university faculty in solidarity with Barabara Madeloni, who are willing to resist selling out their profession through forced fealty to Pearson.

One rule for the rich it seems!

Private schools - their claim to success ( other than having wealthy clients) is small class sizes. Check out the schools the elite of the National Party go to. Lets the rest eat cake - or be crowded in classrooms.

I loved this letter in our local paper - The Daily News. ( Friday 1st June)

Sarah Foy's letter:

Dear Mr John Key, Ms Parata and Mr Jonathon Young.


I think you you are all parents, so you will be aware of the fundamentals.

Kids are full on, regardless of their background, social standing, academic abilities, personalities or any other factors.

I have three sons of my own and I coach 11 girls for a netball team.

My netballers fizz with enthusiasm, but they also talk - often several of them at once - ask questions, don't listen, fidget and fuss.

I only deal with 11 once a week. I can't imagine how more demanding a class of 25 to 30 would be, six hours a day , five days a week.

Even if I buzzed with whizzy ideas, I might want to throttle a few. I know that because my own kids test my patience. In public they're model offspring. At home they bicker, argue, demand, sulk and exhaust.

It's funny, though, but when there's only one in the house or eve two, the dynamics change and they're easier to deal with.

They get much more time. You reckon, however, that putting more of them in a class won't affect teacher quality.It's  an odd proposition. You say there's evidence to back up the assertion but I'm cynical.

Even with the "best " teacher in the world, it's inconceivable that more kids. more noise, more demands., won't affect the quality of their tuition.

Then there is the associated bombshell - a change in staff ratios that will force intermediate schools to cut cooking, ICT, workshop technology and arts teachers.

Maybe, it won't be so dramatic.Now there's Governmental talk of schools losing a maximum of two teachers.Still, I'm baffled by the numbers and not the least reassured, because that's just an interim measure.In three years the fulls cuts will take effect.

I have an eleven year old at intermediate.He hasn't done tie cooking classes, but I'm waiting for the sparks to be kindled because he a little hopeless in the kitchen.. So far he's had a whirl at visual art and now is on to ICT.

Intermediate schools vow they will retain specialist technology teaching, although to do that class sizes will swell.

It wouldn't be overstating it to say I have grave fears for my two children yet to arrive. at intermediate school: the nine year old loves cooking and the five year old, a ferocious drawer. They'll arrive when classes are bulging.

Sure we could cook at home and we could draw, but really we are only one family.

What about the parents and caregivers loaded with financial worry, work stress, family issues and housing difficulties?

It's hard to clear head space for lighthearted kids time when you're plagued by problems.

So an immeasurable number of kids could miss out - either because their class is bursting or there are few specialist tech classes to break up the grind of the core subjects.

The other reality in this educational calamity is National Standards.

They were introduced, you said, to sweep up our purported tail of underachievement. There had to be a way of of measuring standards and pinpointing problems.

Why cut the hands- on subjects that might rouse those same underachievers?

When you are a parent, it's good to admit your mistakes.We grown ups get it wrong.Saying sorry can garner the kid's respect.

Mr Key, Mr Young and Ms Parata, you could do that. Say something like " We were desperately trying to save money, so we got the our officials to dream up something.Unfortunately, those officials last entered classrooms when inkwells sat on desks.Their ideas are stupid. We should not have listened.We're going to stick with an educational model that has worked for decades and save money instead by cutting ministerial perks.

" Sorry for our botch-up and lack of honesty".

And while you are at it , raise rather than punish teachers.

When I want my kids to really do something I ooze positivity.

The results are astounding.

Try it.

.

Weekend Reading from Allan

Principals need to be on the same page!

Weekend Readings

By Allan Alach

Another week, more educational madness in New Zealand, as the current government races down the ‘us too’ track being followed by other equally ignorant governments. This time the government has decided that the best way to ‘raise achievement’ and to ‘improve delivery of the curriculum’ is to increase class sizes and to spend the money saved on improving ‘teacher effectiveness’ whatever that means. However, since the government didn’t do their homework, this decision has rebounded on them, and succeeded in bringing parents alongside teachers in the fight to overturn this. This is a very significant development in the battle against the education agenda.

I hope you find some articles of interest here. As the main thrust of the education agenda emanates in the USA, this means the majority of articles will also come from the USA. However experience has shown that issues raised in the USA turn up elsewhere before too long.

I welcome suggested articles for this, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Here’s a blog article that summarises (to the best of the author’s recollection) all the anti-education decisions made by the current New Zealand government, since they took office in late 2008. Spot the similarities with overseas? Alternately, spot things that have not yet happened in other countries, and wait for them to be implemented.

http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/national-kneecaps-quality-public.html

Yong Zhao is currently Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, College of Education at the University of Oregon. He is an articulate and active campaigner against the education agenda in the United States, and has much to offer to educators in other countries as well. He is well worth following on Twitter and FaceBook. In this article he discusses his forthcoming book.

http://zhaolearning.com/2012/05/25/my-new-book-world-class-learners-educating-creative-and-entrepreneurial-students/

Very active US anti-test campaigner Diane Ravitch on Campbell's Law - very relevant to the anti-national standards debate, as it explains why high standards tests, etc etc won’t work. Diane has special credibility as she has had a change of heart from a couple of decades ago when she assisted with the implementation of testing programmes in the USA.

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/05/25/what-is-campbells-law/

A very disturbing development in USA (and which will probably arrive in Australia and New Zealand in due course, as these things do) is the development of standards for early childhood. No exaggeration - that is happening in some states. Here’s an article outlining how this is hurting early childhood education, and therefore hurting children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-ed-policy-is-hurting-early-childhood-education/2012/05/24/gJQAm0jZoU_blog.html?wprss=rss_answer-sheet

A New Zealand teacher rants about class size, following the decision to increase these to improve teacher effectiveness and so raise achievement. Yes, that’s the justification.

http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/a-teacher-rants-about-class-sizes/

Here’s an article contributed by Ken Woolford and Suesette Adams in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

“Hi -got your link from Treehorn - was sent this article by one of the homeschoolers we (my wife and I - registered teachers in Qld) work with. The 20+ families we work with walked away from Naplan long ago - despite statements from the Home Education Unit in Qld that Naplan is mandatory! They just ignored the authorities” 

Why an innovative educator cares about homeschooling/ unschooling and why you might to.

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/why-innovative-educator-cares-about.html