The Hatchet Job On Linda Darling-Hammond

When Senator Clinton was still a candidate for president, both she and Senator Obama sought counsel from an educator friend of mine. He told them both not to say anything about education. No matter what you say, he told me that he told them, you're going to make a lot of people mad (he made his point in more colorful language). Oh, man, how right can you be?

In the run-up to Obama's picking a secretary, two sides formed in a debate over the desiderata for a secretary and might have duked it out, but only one side was permitted to throw punches in public. It wasn't Dems vs. the GOP. Indeed, that huge sucking sound you hear is Republicans trying to control their laughter. The two groups are largely within the Democratic Party. They might duke it out still because some see secretary of education-designate, Arne Duncan, as the right man in the right place and others see him as evil incarnate (though not quite so incarnate as Joel Klein or Michelle Rhee). If not evil incarnate, a man to further the corporatization of education and the commodification of childhood.

The winners in the fight-that-wasn't were the people who managed to get themselves anointed by the mainstream media--or "corporate media" as some call them--as reformers. They thereby once again illustrated George Lakoff's powerful concept of "frame." This gang consisted of Mike Bloomberg, Joel Klein, Paul Vallas, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan and, weirdly enough, Al Sharpton. Really. It is useful to remember that "reform" means only to reshape, not necessarily improve.

The losers were actual educators in schools and universities who were mostly not permitted in the ring. The "reformers'" advocates managed to label their opposition candidate, Stanford's Linda Darling-Hammond, as an instrument of the "status quo" and as a teachers union tool. Ludicrous? Yes, but it happened.

In Newsweek, Jonathan Alter wrote that Obama knew "that if he chooses a union-backed candidate such as Linda Darling-Hammond...he'll have a revolt on his hands from the swelling ranks of reformers." Swelling ranks? Says who? Edward Sarby in the New Republic asked "How dangerous is Linda Darling-Hammond, Obama's old-school, pro-union education guru?" "Worst case scenario," answered Mike Petrilli of the Right-wing Fordham Institute. The Washington Post said the secretariat was "A Job for a Reformer." It described the choice as between "warring camps within the Democratic party, those pushing for radical restructuring and those more wedded to the status quo." After Obama selected Duncan, the Post ran a puff piece on his sterling qualities.

The "reformers" panicked at one point because Darling-Hammond, who had served as Obama's proxy in several education policy debates, was named to head the education sector of his transition team. They worried this signaled future elevation to secretary. David Brooks in the New York Times said, "I got a flurry of phone calls from reform leaders nervous that Obama was about to side against them...The stakes are huge. For the first time in decades there is real momentum for reform." Brooks apparently has been holed up in the same cave as bin Laden, only longer, say, 50 years.

Aside from a few letters to editors and blogs, about the only published support for Darling-Hammond came from John Affeldt in the Huffington Post, Alfie Kohn in The Nation, and the San Francisco Chronicle in an editorial. Fred Klonsky's blog called the one-sided and often loaded language used by the pro "reformers" bunch as "The hatchet job on Darling-Hammond." Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) emphatically agreed and headlined its take on the sad affair, "The media's failing grade on education 'debate.'"

FAIR observed, "One prominent exception to the corporate media's one-sided presentation of the education nominee was Sam Dillon's news article in the New York Times. Not only did it avoid caricaturing Darling-Hammond by citing views of both her critics and supporters, the article included some accurate media criticism:

"'Editorials and opinion articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have described the debate as pitting education reformers against those representing the educational establishment or the status quo. But who the reformers are depends on who is talking.'"

"Unfortunately," continued FAIR, "in most establishment media accounts, only one side has been allowed to do the talking."

Amen, FAIR and Sam.

Fred Klonsky's brother, Mike, suggests that Duncan, once out from under the thumb of Chicago Mayor Daley might be "neither as bad as some on the Left have predicted or as 'good' as some on the Right are hoping for." We can only hope Mike's called this one right. In the meantime, we wuz framed.

Comments

[gonepackin]

It is not just at the national political level...here is an example at the state level:
Its not just Republicans....

Oregon State Supt. Castillo puts out a newsletter for school personnel. If you need to laugh (or cry) check out the section 'Diploma Talk'...

Shocking mindset indicative of state Education chiefs sleeping with Achieve and BRT.

http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=684
January Pipeline 2009

JN

[jmholland]

The history of the Ed Sec position has seen only two ED Secs with actual experience in education. Only one, Terrel Bell, was a K-12 teacher. What did Terrel Bell do? He changed the future of education in America through bringing together countless stakeholders to create the National Commission on Excellence in Education, and publish a Nation at Risk. And he accomplished this while Ronald Reagan was trying to dissolve the USED and cut funding for all of its programs.

We could only have been so lucky as to have a "non-reformer" like LDH in the position. Teachers don't mess around with reform because it is a code word for privatizing education these days. Why hire somebody to fix education when everyone you need to do it is in a classroom. Hire a teacher for the job and then you have buy-in from the most important group, the people actually doing the teaching. Bracey did an excellent job explaining what happened this fall. The real reformers (people who care about kids) got beat by the fake reformers (arm chair quarterbacks) with no experience actually playing the game on the field. Who do you want to coach your team, someone who has played the game or someone who has watched it from the stands.

[SethBLiNK]

I read this as somebody who knows nothing about the players in this game and the article taught me nothing. The author uses the adjective "corporate" about a half dozen times but does nothing to articulate the differences between his candidate and the one who got the job. He acts as if the fix was in, but meanwhile his candidate had a prominant role in the campaign and the transition. You should spend more time talking about the ideological differences between your candidate and the one chosen and less on the conspiracy theory you are trying to sell.

[disgustedwithall]

Most parents to include the Grandparents, Uncle's, Aunt's etc, have for past 30 years or more "outed on education". We have increasingly measured our school by what their "team finished series etc" and when fully one third drop out of HS and most college students now taking the less demanding technical and science related courses, in favor of business, econ, media, and such, the USA is doomed to become second rate. We no longer "fail" students, we instead assure all students seem to get awards for something as to not offend students, but more importantly parents. I would guess that until the courses, more complete education at both HS and College, to include, lots of math, history, language, government, finance, even "home econ" as well as REAL grade obtains same parity in eyes of public as does football and other sports, the future of USA is not promising. Today;s "major, education-GPA" is not world competitive. Parents/citizens can make change, must know names of teachers/class's, visit school, status-demand competitive level at world scale. Sadly most know more of sports/celeb stats=data, We are in very deep trouble, doubt it, dare ask a simple compound interest problem, basic money 101. Citizens, NOT government sets real standards or lack of> We spend for sports arena's-"stars" while cutting education and wonder why USA is failing?

[BabsfromKansas]

Tuesday, January 13, Confirmation hearing for US Secretary of Education- designate Arne Duncan. It will be held at 10 AM in 430 Dirksen.

[texanna]

The most striking common characteristic of all of the "reformers" is that none of them are actually teachers. Instead they are either financial or public policy gurus. Children are not products and schools are not factories and having a better educational system is not going to be achieved simply by applying business models or macro public policy models to it. It would be nice if Mr. Obama's legions of supporters would take off their rose-colored glasses, revive themselves from their euphoric swoon and get down to the work of holding his feet to that fire of Change that he lit.

[Oldchef]

Thank you, excellent comment!

[dpowell302]

While, as far as I know, Duncan has never been a teacher, generalizing this assumption to "all of the reformers" is grossly inaccurate. For example, Michelle Rhee is a former classroom teacher as are 1,000s of others involved in education reform at district, state and national levels. The problem is that folks like texanna assume that if the person is not a current classroom teacher, their opinions are valueless. Rather, many (if not most) education reformers are former teachers, who saw the problems with education first hand as public school teachers (often in the worst districts) and have devoted since devoted thier lives to changing school systems to better serve students.
The irony of texanna's position is that Linda -Darling Hammond supports an education model whose staffing structure and human resource policies, emboldened by unions, resemble a factory model.

[texanna]

First of all, I didn't anywhere champion Ms. Darling-Hammond, who I also think does not have all the answers. Second, Ms. Rhee is a public policy guru by education. Her classroom experience was through the Teach for America program, which is a two year stint, not a career. What I do believe is that our education system is a shambles and that it cannot be fixed by businessmen who think children and widgets are interchangeable in a successful business model. Nor can it be fixed by public policy wonks who craft policies that sound great on paper, but aren't always successful when actual people get involved. The day we pay excellent teachers the same salary as we pay excellent business people will be the day we are serious about giving our children the best education, because that is the day that excellent people will become teachers. It will also be the day that we know that all parents are serious about their children getting the best possible education. Until then, there will be a lot of kids left behind.

[Camel54]

It's very important to worry about all the people who aren't teachers engaging in a revolt. After all, all the non-teachers in the education field make up a good, what, 15% of the field? Never mind that Darling-Hammond is an actual educator where as Duncan is a former pro basketball player who was handed a non-profit before being handed the Chicago school district. And never mind that his district AYP scores are failing according the NCLB standards the "reformers" like to judge by. They like to disregard issues of health and poverty and the drug addiction of parents as distractions because teaching 4500 skills in 180 days so you can get a high number on a test is so much more important.

And for the record, the lie about tenure needs to end. Tenure does not prevent teachers from being fired. It just makes it harder to fire them so the year to year changing priorities of education blabbermouths don't cause teachers to lose their jobs when they find themselves on the outside of the latest solution. Tenure is there to guarantee principals do their jobs to help teachers teach and to guarantee they perform due diligence if a teacher needs to be removed.

Duncan deserves a chance, like any appointee, but this was strictly a political appointment like all others, and that has been very disappointing.

[TopProf]

ALL true. But, if most scholars were censored, as you say, they censored themselves. My impression is that scholars speak primarily to each other, in the rhetoric they share and on the time lines they typically follow to write books and publish articles. They therefore get lost in the dust of rapid political changes. As in, wow, where did that bus come from?
I like what Ayers said in Huffpost recently: stop whining. Get busy.
Parents and children and teachers can effectively organize and fight on the local level. Perhaps we could even get our own hands a little dirty from something other than ink stains.
cheers

[bascombe]

you are exactly right. people need to activate and mobilize. Living has become a spectator sport. Those involved are the ones who get results.

[Venerable]

Duncan has marketed himself as a "progressive" and "reformer". He has not earned either title. What we need is someone who KNOWS how to transform needy schools into to high performance centers of learning. That person needs to know what it takes and how to get it done. Someone who has seen it happen. There are successful models and processes on how to go about that. Duncan has only followed the advice of non-teachers , as in the Chicago Commerce Club. They are looking at the bottom line in terms of economics. Close neighborhood schools, in favor of opening "cheaper" charter schools. This is all done under the guise of "reform". If Arne Duncan had been a true reformer, he would have unshackled the neighborhood schools by letting local school communities self organize in order to transform themselves into high performing schools. That entails the courage to let the professionals in the classrooms become high performance teams with the support of extended instructional days, provided real extended time for staff to GTD in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation during the school day and the resources to facilitate that. There probably wouldn't be the need for charter or contract schools if true reform was implemented. Sorry if I don't feel clowned by Obama in his selection of a person who does not know how to transform schools into high performance centers of learning, which entails really knowing how to communicate with the professionals in the classrooms.