Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/10151
5 LEFT: Stephanie Gallardo and Cecilia Ureno carrying out an experiment at Anaheim High School. ‘I don’t care’ is a defense mechanism, and nobody is really happy when they don’t do well on something.” Thanks to funds from the Quality Ed- environment where they weren’t judged for having trouble. It helped my teaching tremendously, and I stopped beating my- self up.” Student mot ivation in- creased, too, with Wager lead- ing assemblies designed to in- still students with taking per- sonal pride in their schoolwork and test scores. “I tell students that every- thing with their name attached to it is important, and that whether they like it or not it be- comes a part of us,” explains Wager. “I tell them that saying Dean Elder ucation Investment Act (QEIA), class size reduction occurred in some areas last year. By next year, all core classes should have a ratio of 25 stu- dents per teacher. QEIA funds will allow additional counsel- ors to be hired. Last year the school received a bronze med- al from U.S. News and World Repor t , which evaluated 22,000 schools nationwide and awarded 1,300 medals for im- provement. Anaheim High School is a Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association good school, but it needs to get better, says math teacher Jessi- “A good school has really good teachers who want to help kids learn. They talk to students and ask them lots of questions, so they can learn to think critically.” Margo La Clair, seventh-grader, Jacoby Creek Charter School ca Torres. “I think we need to step it up a little bit. We need to improve, not just in terms of getting low-end kids where they need to be, but also help higher-end kids prepare more for college.” English teacher Sharon King believes that is entirely possible. “It gets harder every year, but teachers still have the power to make changes.” that will ultimately decrease equity among students. When adequate funding is lacking in states across the country, the fi rst priority should be to provide adequate funding for every student and every school, rather than creating more winners and losers. Education scholar Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University and author or editor of 20 books on education, no longer believes that competition helps schools and that schools should be run as a business, she told attendees at the CTA Urban Issues Conference in February. With the Obama administration pushing an aggressive program of school reform that relies on the power of incentives and competition, it could make schools worse, not better, she says, with public schools becoming the schools of last resort for those who don’t get into charter schools. Larry Cuban, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, takes issue with the philosophy that schools should be more businesslike and the notion that a business model, based on competition, can be successfully applied to education. Cuban, the author of Why Schools Can’t Be Businesses, describes an incident in his book where Jamie Vollmer, CEO of an ice cream company whose blueberry ice cream was voted “Best in America,” addresses a gathering of teachers. He tells teachers that if he ran his business the way schools were run, he’d be out of business. A teacher then asks what he would do if he received a shipment of blueberries not up to snuff. He replies that he’d send them back. “We can never send back our blueberries,” the teacher replies. “We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confi dent, homeless, rude and brilliant. We take them with attention defi cit disorder, junior rheumatoid arthritis and English as a second language. We take them all! Every one! And that is why it’s not a business — it’s a school.” Desperate for money, schools could have to start competing against one another for funds if the Obama administration has its way. For example: > Before even being allowed to compete for Race to the Top (RTTT) funds, schools nationwide were asked to pay and evaluate teachers based on test scores so they could, in effect, compete against one another. > There was hope that Obama’s reauthorization of NCLB would provide stable funding for schools to meet high expectations. Instead, the administration’s “blueprint” for reauthorization relies on standarized tests to identify “winners” and “losers.” > According to Education Week, the Obama administration’s proposal would essentially “fl at-fund Title I grants, transform several other formula streams into competitive programs, cut the Title II teacher quality state grants by $500 million, and consolidate 38 smaller programs into a number of new competitive programs.” > Education Secretary Arne Duncan maintains that the number of charters should be increased so they can compete with other schools for student enrollment. APRIL 2010 | www.cta.org 19