Well said, Sue!

From John Curry, March 30, 2011

"Want more irony? Rhee used those dubious scores to fire hundreds of veteran teachers. Now, she’s using her dubious record to launch a national campaign against teachers. Worse still, Kasich and other governors have even sought her advice on how to reform schools."

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2011/03/30/film-offers-false-hope-that-charter-schools-will-fix-education.html?sid=101

Film offers false hope that charter schools will fix education

Columbus Dispatch, March 30, 2011

By Sue Taylor

Waiting for Superman is making the rounds again. The film — a moving documentary about five families trying to get their kids into charter schools — was released to great fanfare and criticism last year. It’s getting a special showing tonight in Columbus, with Gov. John Kasich playing host to state lawmakers. I can’t help but be struck by a few ironies about the timing.

The first is that the governor and legislative leaders are in the midst of pushing a budget proposal that would cripple teaching and learning in this state. Far from preparing our children for a 21st-century education, the Kasich plan reads more like a plan for undermining the future of our kids and our nation.

It would cut school funding by $1.3 billion over the next two years. It would expand a costly and scandal-ridden charter-school program. It would gut Ohio’s 27-year-old collective-bargaining law, silencing the voices of those who work most closely with children. It’s a proposal that’s bad for kids and bad for Ohio.

Joseph Regano, a superintendent from Solon, a suburb of Cleveland, put it best. “I'm angry,” Regano told The Plain Dealer last week. “We're one of Ohio's top-performing districts. We've played by the rules from each governor and department of education. And now they're going to decimate this district.”

The second irony is that Waiting for Superman stars former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. Just this week, Rhee’s record came under scrutiny. On Monday, USA Today reported that D.C. student test-score gains during her tenure, which she promotes, were probably tainted by widespread cheating. In fact, the newspaper’s analysis found suspicious patterns of erasures on standardized tests at half of the city’s schools.

Want more irony? Rhee used those dubious scores to fire hundreds of veteran teachers. Now, she’s using her dubious record to launch a national campaign against teachers. Worse still, Kasich and other governors have even sought her advice on how to reform schools.

The teacher part of me hopes we learn that the path to education reform is built on trust, respect and collaboration. It is a path where we use research-tested ideas rather than fads and quick fixes. It is a path where we use test scores as a tool rather than a weapon. It is a path where we do things with teachers, rather than to teachers. And it’s path where teachers are valued rather than demonized.

Unfortunately, Waiting for Superman, like Kasich’s budget and Rhee’s record, offers a false promise. It offers charter schools as the only ticket to a good education for disadvantaged kids. We in Ohio know better. While a few charter schools serving a handful of students succeed, the vast majority of charters perform about as well as, or even worse than, comparable regular public schools. As our public schools struggle to make ends meet, Ohio’s charter-school law funnels millions of dollars into the bank accounts of private operators.

Most shamefully, the film casts public-school teachers as villains. Kasich and Rhee also don’t miss an opportunity to demonize teachers. In doing so, they ignore that in thousands of successful public schools, great teachers are making a difference every day in the lives of kids. But you wouldn’t know that by this deceptive, one-sided film, which purposely left out any portrayal of a high-performing public school.

They ignore districts like Georgetown, where our local affiliate is leading the way with other rural schools districts to provide high-quality professional development and support for innovation. They ignore districts like Toledo, where the Peer Assistance and Review program is a national model for labor-management innovation and collaboration. And they ignore districts like Cincinnati, where a long history of collaboration with teachers has resulted in the district becoming the first urban school system in Ohio to achieve “effective” status on state report cards.

Like Waiting for Superman, Kasich and Rhee have one story to tell. Unfortunately, it’s inconsistent, inaccurate and incomplete, and it leaves out the story about what public-school teachers and schools are doing — in collaboration with willing school administrators — to improve teaching and learning.

Sue Taylor is president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.