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There are a couple of good points in this column- if you're wiling to tolerate omissions, hyperbole, flawed assumptions, problematic generalizations, oversimplifications... [long thread follows]
#caedchat https://twitter.com/joemmathews/status/1381256083214200833
#caedchat https://twitter.com/joemmathews/status/1381256083214200833
lots of reference to teachers unions with out any acknowledgment that unions are completely made up of educators - which makes our understanding of education "reform" highly relevant to the topic - but we're just dismissed as obstructionist, as if "reform" is inherently good...
"our school systems [are] melting down" - yikes! What happened?! Oh... a global pandemic that exposes flaws in every public policy and system. The implication: b/c Netflix can thrive while public systems "melt" we should have let Reed Hastings have more influence in public ed...
CA politicians and unions "obsessively opposed public charter schools and specialized programs" - yeah... why is that? Just to be mean? Or are there myriad problems with charter governance and the way they destabilize public schools? https://networkforpubliceducation.org/another-day-another-charter-scandal/ ...
Matthews is partly correct re: resistance; I have met *some* public school advocates, *some* educators reflexively opposed to change/innovation, especially when proposed from outside the system. Their doubts are justified. We make progress via dialogue, objective evaluation...
Matthews: CA "junked the testing-based accountability system that gave...clear guidance on how schools were doing" - that's just wrong. The prior testing-based accountability system gave *simple* guidance. "Clear" and "simple" have crucial differences: http://dbceducation.com/accountability-california-way/
Matthews criticizes CA "dashboard" (without naming it) w/ this cynical, even dishonest description: a "confounding color-coded system of measures designed to obscure our students' academic stagnation"
- the dashboard may, at first, confound, but *adding* info is not obscuring...
- the dashboard may, at first, confound, but *adding* info is not obscuring...
Matthews: "When California schools shut down, they didn't have their own online platforms. The only things that worked were the online tech systems like the ones Hastings had funded" - first, *campuses* shut down, while most teachers, students persevered in various ways...
which many were able to do b/c they already used tech platforms, integrated into regular instructional practices. Here especially, Matthews shows over-dependence on personal experience, anecdote. Maybe transition from reporter to columnist means no need to gather more info? ...
I'm not saying it was ever easy, as good as it should have been, but I know it worked better and more often than Matthews suggests...
Then, another point of agreement: "schools and districts lost track of many of their neediest students" - but Matthews doesn't stop to ponder this before jumping to a claims re: school data, and standardized tests to measure learning loss; flawed reasoning on many levels...
I won't even get into all the problems with testing now - https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/10/covid-pandemic-standardized-testing-harmful-distraction-column/4588722001/ - but why isn't Matthews more interested in the bigger issues?...
Why are we losing track of *any* students? What's happening? Why is Matthews skipping right over the ways that the pandemic exposed and exacerbated our state/society failures in providing a basic safety net for low income families? What's behind "losing track" of students?...
They don't disappear into thin air. What are the causes? Likely to do w/ families most harmed by the pandemic, most in need of emergency cash assistance, safe affordable housing, food, health care, child care, internet (should be free for qualifying families), and devices...
But... no. Not a word about the *context* in which children and their families live, struggle, even die. This is just an education problem for Matthews. And the pandemic's only lesson, apparently, is that we should follow the tech guy's ideas: more "innovation" and more choice...
Concludes w/ generalizations about closing achievement gap (note: mainly an opportunity gap), safer schools better prepared for emergencies (well, sure!). I wonder, will Matthews go to bat for CA public schools when it comes to funding? https://edpolicyinca.org/publications/californias-education-funding-crisis-explained-12-charts#:~:text=California%20Has%20Been%20Spending%20Less,K%E2%80%9312%20Education%20for%20Decades&text=In%202018%2C%20California%20spent%20%2412%2C498,%2C%20Illinois%2C%20and%20New%20Jersey
The problem is that every blame-the-schools, blame-the-teachers, blame-the-unions op-ed like this decreases odds that #CALeg can improve education funding as much as is needed. Too many people will read the system is "melting down" as argument against increased investment...
Matthews concludes CA must "bring its most creative and ambitious people back inside the educational system" - a slap in the face to every creative ambitious person in the system- those who do amazing work despite the odds, those obstructed in so many ways Matthews ignores...
To end on a positive, here's a link to CA Institute for Teaching - @CTAIFT - #UnionStrong teacher-driven change! Read about the millions of dollars that @WeAreCTA has put back into schools, investing in strength-based innovations that work for CA kids! https://www.cta.org/for-educators/professional-development/ift-2
And if you're still here after that long thread, a little self-promo - I wrote a book celebrating fantastic teachers and schools throughout California. Often overlooked and under-appreciated, they've been thriving in various ways all along - http://capturingthespark.com/reviews
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