Raising class sizes, Ruining the schools

There are dangerous education deform templates in America that run the risk of establishing a horrific precedent for others all over the world.

The latest comes from Kansas City, Missouri's Public School District superintendent John Covington. The Parents Across America Blog explains:

Last week at a school board meeting, Kansas City, MO School District superintendent John Covington told the school board that there is no research that supports reduced class size linked to increased student achievement. During the meeting, Covington cited the views of Bill Gates, who has minimized the importance of class size and suggested that teachers be paid more for teaching larger classes.

Covington went on to say that his staff had identified the “best” teachers in the district and would be giving them additional students. This was less than a week before school was scheduled to begin. The day after this announcement, teachers in the early grades received their class lists. Some first grade teachers were assigned 37 students per class, and some kindergarten teachers had 25-30 – compared to other teachers in the same schools, who had twenty students per class. Interestingly, some of these larger classes were staffed with brand new Teach for America recruits.

Then on August 19, Covington hosted a breakfast for eight elementary classroom teachers from about six schools out of 23, in grades 3-5th, whom he identified as “the best in the district.” He did not explain how he determined that they were the best. He told them that if they were willing to take 6 to 8 additional students, he would give each of them them $10,000. This would mean they would have class sizes in the mid to upper thirties.

For the first year ever, principals were not allowed to assign teachers or kids to classes within their own buildings. Covington’s staff did all of that. They decided who would teach what grade level and which kids would be assigned to each teacher. Before, this has ALWAYS been handled by each principal for his/her school.

This is yet another example of how the suits have hijacked our education system to enact their own reforms that meet their needs. In this case the argument goes something like this:

• Explicitly talk about student achievement while meaning nothing more than high scores on standardized tests.
• Down play outside of the classroom factors (poverty and family) as mere excuses and over-emphasize the importance of inside of the classroom factors (teacher quality)
• Show the public that student achievement (test scores) does not rise with lower class sizes nor fall with high class sizes
• Define good teaching as producing high test scores.
• Bribe teachers with merit pay and bonuses to increase test scores and willingly take on more students.

The result is that opportunistic superintendents like John Covington can save money and garnish large financial bonuses while padding their resumes in an intensive campaign wrought with shameless self-promotion -- all on the backs of our children.

Rod Paige orchestrated the Texas Miracle which was later reported to be nothing more than a mirage, but not before George W. Bush named him Secretary of Education.

Arne Duncan's record in Chicago has also proven to be at best troublesome, but that didn't stop him from being awarded the opportunity to do what didn't work in Chicago to the entire nation.

Beverly Hall won national praise and lavish bonuses during her 11 year tenure as Atlanta's Public School superintendent only to resign in 2010 because of a city-wide cheating scandal.

If John Covington in Kansas City, MO plays his cards right, he can cram real children into less classrooms while fabricating progress in the name of furthering his career.

When we go to Wall Street economists for our educational advice, we get what we pay for. When we allow Bill Gates to influence experiments on our children, we allow our children to be subjected to misguided theories that have already been proven wrong. Be wary of anyone who professes that class size doesn't matter. The research is clear: as long as you define student achievement as more than just high test scores then class size matters.

Until teachers, parents and students refuse our cooperation with these test and punish, control from afar corporate deformers, our children's education will continue to service the best interests of others.