The debate of the fairness and efficacy of quota systems heated up this week after German legislators have passed a law requiring the top 100 companies to allot at least 30 percent of the seats on their boards to women within the next two years. The bill also mandated increased in women in upper level positions for some 3,500 companies. The companies could face sanctions if they cannot find enough women to fill the quota.
I have long been a critic of quota systems and this is no exception. While I certainly agree with the motivation behind the law, the emphasis of regulations should be to tear down barriers to women — not to force hiring based on gender. I am a firm believer that the market works against discriminatory values and practices. Women have made amazing strides in business and politics, as vividly shown by the leadership of Germany by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
There is clearly an underrepresentation of women on these boards. However, the way to erase that differential is to guarantee opportunities for women and to combat discriminatory practices in my view.
What do you think?
Source: NBC
Prairie Rose & happypappies,
Here’s a post that I wrote for JT’s blog back in November 2013:
Rotten to the Common Core?: On the Subject of Education Standards, Arne Duncan, “White Suburban Moms”…and Bad*ss Teachers
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/11/24/rotten-to-the-common-core-on-the-subject-of-education-standards-arne-duncan-white-suburban-momsand-badss-teachers/
Excerpt:
My attention turned toward public schools once again this week when I read reports about Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s apologizing for using “clumsy phrasing” when he made comments about some critics of the Common Core Standards—which he has championed. (Note: Common Core—a set of educational standards developed for public school students in kindergarten through twelfth grade—has been adopted by most of our states.) Duncan was speaking to a group of superintendents recently and just couldn’t help himself—it appears—when he said the following:
“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary. You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, ‘My child’s going to be prepared.’ That can be a punch in the gut.”
A punch in the gut, you say? Here’s one right back at ya, Arne. Lots of people aren’t ecstatic about the “common core” effort to standardize curricula across this country and to institutionalize a “one-size-fits-all” cookie cutter approach to educating our children. It isn’t just “white suburban moms” who aren’t happy with the Common Core standards. There are myriad others who are also concerned about the them—including other parents who don’t belong to the cohort of “white suburban moms,” school administrators, teachers, other education experts, child development experts—as well as a number of liberals AND conservatives.
As DSWright (Firedoglake) wrote, Duncan exhibited “the kind of condescending attitude one expects from education privatizers. But when confronted with such an amazingly arrogant statement Secretary Duncan only apologized for the ‘clumsy’ phrasing, not the sentiment.”
In August, Mitoko Rich wrote an article for the New York Times about the Common Core standards, which have “been ardently supported by the Obama administration”—as well as by “many business leaders and state legislatures.” Rich said that there has been “growing opposition from both the right and the left” to the standards.
Philip Elliott (Associated Press) provided some of the reasons why people have been critical of the Common Core standards:
Some opponents of the standards say they are a one-size-fits-all approach that isn’t appropriate. Other critics say the standards put too much emphasis on high-stakes testing and punish teachers for students’ stumbles. Some oppose the standards because the Obama administration used them as a requirement for states to receive money from the economic stimulus bill.
Elaine,
Diane Ravitch is awesome. She is always an interesting read.
Regarding people refusing to participate:
“I am currently thinking hard about asking my son to participate in the Bartleby Project and to write “I prefer not to take your test” across the top of his state test”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/rejecting-standardized-tests_b_822014.html
Happypappies,
“She herself has learning disabilities and the Grandson is ADHD. They are both intelligent enough just difficult for them to focus and I want to help.”
This is related to their physical health. The grandson is very likely fatty acid and micronutrient deficient. He very likely also has gut dysbiosis and food intolerances (not necessarily allergies) per an IgA and/or IgG test (gluten, dairy, soy, and corn are top offenders).
Not having sufficient nutrients that your brain needs to function optimally will result in not being able to concentrate, remember and retain information, or be still in one’s body. I know from experience. When my doctor advocated that I remove gluten, dairy, and soy from my diet and eat real food (not processed anything) and lots of good fats, I slowly got better.
Regarding education, Arne Duncan is a huge part of the problem and President Obama is doing nothing to rein him in, but he is not the whole problem. President Bush signed NCLB into law. However, even before that, with The Nation at Risk being published in the early 80s, plenty of detrimental school reform has been going on. Arne Duncan, as Elaine noted by way of article, dragged everyone into a federal reform model, which really intensifies the problems of education reform.
“No. Duncan has expanded the role of the federal government in unprecedented ways. He seems not to know that education is the responsibility of state and local governments, as defined by the Tenth amendment to our Constitution. States and local school districts now look to Washington to tell them how to reform their schools and must seek permission to deviate from the regulations written by the U.S. Department of Education. George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) created the template for this growing federal control of education, but Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top has made it possible for Washington to dictate education policy across the nation. Grade: F”
Prairie Rose,
Flunking Arne Duncan
Diane Ravitch
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/07/flunking-arne-duncan/
Excerpt:
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan loves evaluation. He insists that everyone should willingly submit to public grading of the work they do. The Race to the Top program he created for the Obama Administration requires states to evaluate all teachers based in large part on the test scores of their students. When the Los Angeles Times released public rankings that the newspaper devised for thousands of teachers, Duncan applauded and asked, “What’s there to hide?” Given Duncan’s enthusiasm for grading educators, it seems high time to evaluate his own performance as Secretary of Education.
Here are his grades:
Does Duncan respect the limited role of the federal government in education, which all previous secretaries have recognized?
No. Duncan has expanded the role of the federal government in unprecedented ways. He seems not to know that education is the responsibility of state and local governments, as defined by the Tenth amendment to our Constitution. States and local school districts now look to Washington to tell them how to reform their schools and must seek permission to deviate from the regulations written by the U.S. Department of Education. George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) created the template for this growing federal control of education, but Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top has made it possible for Washington to dictate education policy across the nation. Grade: F…
Have the policies promulgated by Duncan been good for the children of the United States?
No. Most parents and teachers and even President Obama (and sometimes Duncan himself) agree that “teaching to the test” makes school boring and robs classrooms of time for the imaginative instruction and activities that enliven learning. The standardized tests that are now ubiquitous are inherently boring. As President Obama said in his State of the Union address, teachers should teach with “creativity and passion,” but they can’t do that when tests matter so much. Spending hours preparing to take pick-the-bubble tests depresses student interest and motivation. This is not good for children. Yet Duncan’s policies—which use test scores to evaluate teachers and to decide which schools to close and which teachers to pay bonuses to—intensively promote teaching to the test. This is not good for students. Grade: F.
Elaine or PR whomever will talk to me
http://www.livingindialogue.com/triumvirate-upheaval/
The roll out of Common Core standards, aligned tests such as PARCC and Smarter Balance, and new punitive evaluations has produced what I call the Triumvirate of Upheaval. The combination of all three has disrupted almost every school in our country.
I have a friend who has a Grandson going to Gradeschool 5th grade
He tries very hard and this was why I was coming up with so many ideas.
Please, help me understand if its these three problems below. Because I have been reading and rereading your posts as my Friend just thinks its the Common Core as the problem and I can see it’s more involved here than that.
She herself has learning disabilities and the Grandson is ADHD. They are both intelligent enough just difficult for them to focus and I want to help.
I can’t help being disjointed in a conversation if I am trying to understand how and why to do something. So, this Arne Character is the seat of the problem in the white house by creating the monster which is all of these tests you are referring to? And they are saying at the end of February that they are not changing anything which I take to be good because it’s the States job to do it . Please let me know if I am getting this.
Here is one state they just got rid of the parcc
http://www.nj.com/education/2015/03/parcc_opt_out_task_force_bills_clear_assembly_pane.html
Elaine,
What do you think of this:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/the-plot-to-overhaul-no-child-left-behind-113857.html
“Republicans are hatching an ambitious plan to rewrite No Child Left Behind this year — one that could end up dramatically rolling back the federal role in education and trigger national blowouts over standardized tests and teacher training.”
“Secretary Arne Duncan has said the administration can’t support any bill that turns back annual tests”
Prairie Rose
Why the fuss?
House Republicans decided not to vote Friday on their proposed rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law, the Student Success Act, after House leadership struggled to lock down support for the bill and debate over Department of Homeland Security funding eclipsed education plans.
The House passed a nearly identical bill in 2013, but discontent with the Common Core academic standards and concerns about federal government intrusion have grown, and conservatives have said they want to get more out of an education bill in the newly Republican-controlled Congress. That left House leadership facing new criticism from the right because the GOP bill omits school vouchers, radical reductions to federal mandates and other right-wing proposals.
“My district doesn’t like it. They just feel that we’re moderating No Child Left Behind. They hate No Child Left Behind,” Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said.
It’s not clear when a vote on No Child Left Behind will take place.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/no-child-left-behind-vote-house-republicans-115594.html#ixzz3UtacJcYH
You must know how these spin doctors work. They do it on both sides. 😉
Elaine,
From the Politico story:
“It turned out to be an exceptionally savvy move. The next year, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated millions of new standardized tests for millions of kids in public schools. Pearson was in a prime position to capitalize.”
Hmmm. Methinks this was not a coincidence. Perhaps I’m cynical.
“The investigation found that public officials often commit to buying from Pearson because it’s familiar, even when there’s little proof its products and services are effective.”
LOL Sounds just like the way most people vote!
“Ever since a federal commission published “A Nation at Risk” in 1983 — warning that public education was being eroded by “a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people” — American schools have been enveloped in a sense of crisis.”
Who stands to gain from a constant sense of crisis? Who stands to lose?
On a side note, did the decline in test scores occur as the amount of sugar and processed food in the American diet increased?
““The public trust,” Senior Vice President Shilpi Niyogi said, “is vital to everything we do.”
Kaa from The Jungle Book sang the same thing while Mowgli’s eyes spun in hypnosis. He is right, it is vital. If all we do is trust, then they get to keep leading us by the nose.
“Its software grades student essays, tracks student behavior and diagnoses — and treats — attention deficit disorder. The company administers teacher licensing exams and coaches teachers once they’re in the classroom. It advises principals. It operates a network of three dozen online public schools. It co-owns the for-profit company that now administers the GED.”
Yikes. Software grading student essays?! It took me forever to grade essays, but how is it helpful for a machine to grade something. Sure, it can correct semi-colons, but how can it personally respond to a student?
Tracking behavior and diagnosing ADD? Creepy. The whole thing is creepy. Sounds like too many people are handing over their understanding of what it means to be educated and to educate to a company. Here. Do my thinking for me.
“Conspiracy theorists sometimes suggest that Pearson has a sinister hold on federal and state education policy. In peak years, it has spent about $1 million lobbying Congress and perhaps $1 million more on the state level, with a particular focus on Texas, according to state and federal records.”
But that’s not an outsize number for such a large company. By comparison, the National Education Association, the biggest teachers union in the U.S., spent $2.5 million lobbying Congress in 2013, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.”
These two paragraphs are really interesting. One, the term “conspiracy theorist” is generally used to shout down people’s ideas, even though it can have merit. And, here it is used dismissively again: juxtaposed with the following paragraph, the author seems to say that those silly conspiracy theorists are just worried for nothing. However, Texas is huge in the textbook and standardized test market (see The Language Police by Diane Ravitch), so of course Pearson would target Texas! The NEA is lobbying Congress for other reasons. How does Pearson stack up for lobbying against other textbook/test companies?
Prairie Rose
It is my Opinion that the Testing did not become a danger in any way until it became multiple choice and crib sheets could be made and the children could guess. Essay tests encouraged thinking. Home Economics no longer is encouraged so people don’t know how to cook cheap and nourishing foods and once again – with all the information on Pintirest and Facebook you can trade on Recipes for healthy foods – it can be Fun!
Personally, I refuse to get dragged down in either sides conspiracy theories because whether or not you see it that way, that is what they are.
Your life is what you make it. Cook well for your children and Grandchildren and pray there isn’t too many steroids in the meat if you eat any or the milk if you drink it (I don’t)
Times are changing out there and we are becoming antiques and I refuse to see software as a “machine” but I see it as a valuable tool.
Elaine M
I did respond to you but my response got caught and hopefully Darren can fish it out of the spam. This is one of the links that I meant when I exaggerated and called it muckraking because I get very tired of the Koch brothers being brought up like they are evil incarnate and have the agenda of Mephistopheles.
http://feaweb.org/todays-news-march-17-2015
This is not the only link I read. If Darren finds the others you will see that. My Mother used to go door to door in what was St. Jerome Parish to ask they vote for bond issues. Again, you remind me of her with your enthusiasm and that is a compliment. I would never have received the high marks or the learning abilities I acquired along the way if she had not guided me. 😉
You seem very creative and I am not surprised in the least you have written a book of children’s poems and I wish you well.
Prairie Rose,
The thought has entered my mind. Still, I think about the wonderful experiences that my daughter had in elementary school. In addition, she remains good friends with some of the girls she met in the early grades. I met most of my best friends in elementary school and high school. They are women that I have been close to for more than half a century.
Elaine,
“I hope things change before my granddaughters go to school!”
Homeschooling is always an option. 😉
Interesting looking articles, Elaine. I will read them when I have a few more minutes to devote to them. It is school-time, you know. 🙂
“Why don’t I hear the same people asking how many millions/billions of taxpayers’ dollars are spent on these types of standardized tests every year–and questioning whether it’s a good use of their money? Companies like Pearson are getting rich off these standardized tests.”
I bet they are not aware of or have not considered this aspect. More corporatism, for sure.
Regarding people opting-out, I know at least one family who will be refusing to participate in a high-stakes test. She said the principal was very upset because the tests affect funding.
Prairie Rose,
Here’s one thing that I find interesting: Many people complain about the amount of money we spend on public education in this country. Why don’t I hear the same people asking how many millions/billions of taxpayers’ dollars are spent on these types of standardized tests every year–and questioning whether it’s a good use of their money? Companies like Pearson are getting rich off these standardized tests.
Here’s another article for you:
No profit left behind
In the high-stakes world of American education, Pearson makes money even when its results don’t measure up.
By Stephanie Simon
2/10/15
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/pearson-education-115026.html
Prairie Rose,
Suburban high school students opt out of PARCC tests
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/arlington-heights/news/ct-parcc-test-walkout-rolling-meadows-hersey-tl-20150317-story.html
Excerpt:
Hundreds of students have declined to take the controversial PARCC exam at two northwest suburban high schools, multiple sources said.
At Rolling Meadows High School, less than three dozen students out of more than 400 members of the junior class sat for the test Thursday, according to several people from the school, including students and school officials.
At Arlington Heights’ John Hersey High School, also part of Township High School District 214, a significant number of students also declined to take the exam, said Dan Petro, a school board member and Hersey parent.
District spokeswoman Jennifer Delgado could not say how many students opted out of the test. But she said a “large amount” of students at Rolling Meadows High did not take the exam, the most within the district’s six high schools.
Final numbers will not be available until the district finished administering PARCC, or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, later this spring, Delgado said.
lRelated Area elementary districts report few problems with PARCC
Since testing began in many elementary and high school districts this month, many students across Chicago and the suburbs have declined to take the exam, though some school administrators have said it is considered mandatory.
Prairie Rose,
Both NCLB and the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top initiative are problems.
*****
Regarding the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the PARCC tests: Some students and some school systems are opting out of the testing. Let’s hope the anti-testing movement builds up a lot of momentum and the powers that be who don’t have a clue about the best ways to educate our children get the message that too much testing is not improving education in this country…and that is hurting our kids.
I hope things change before my granddaughters go to school!
By the way, Elaine, that was a very informative (and scary) article about testing and surveillance.
Now, how do we extricate ourselves from this mess?
Common Core was put into place, in part, because of the lowering of the bar by some schools stressed by threat of losing funding if they didn’t improve enough because of NCLB. President Obama didn’t see NCLB as a problem, and I doubt Hillary Clinton will either. No one we’ve elected on either side of the aisle can see what a problem that law is, so I doubt anyone will suggest that the law be overturned or repealed.
I’m really confused.
😳
happypappies,
FYI: I HAVE written a book. It’s due to be released in the fall of 2016. It will be published by Chronicle Books. It’s a collection of poetry for children.
happypappies said:
“I think this has been an interesting discussion and as always, the Republicans are made out to be evil and against education and wanting to game the system by a muckraking paper.”
*****
Who did that? What paper are you talking about?
Elaine M
Elaine – you have such a flair for the dramatic. I think you should write a book or start writing in the blog or your own blog again lol Now, don’t take me serious, This is like a conversation okay? This is what I am talking about
http://www.livingindialogue.com/
And I am Joking
I do this so please understand that this is how I am. I don’t need you mad at me the way Inga used to get. 😉
Darren Smith
I made a comment last night or early this morning on the thread right here where I have this comment if you could find it please.
happypappies,
I checked the spam filter and didn’t find any comments that were made by you. I didn’t find them elsewhere unfortunately.
Thank you Darren Smith
Happypappies,
“because it is a prime concern of mine and it was one of the first things I mentioned”
It seems that we are in agreement that not all children are ready for school at the same time.
“It was just a discussion!!!!!”
Why are you angry?
“I kept explaining ways I thought in the future, if the country went broke that we could teach our children.”
I do not recall reading this aspect, that some of the suggestions were intended just in case the country went broke.
“saw all of said computers with small children and the interaction the programs. It was amazing. Why can’t you believe that you guys??? Or hear it. The programs are a great investment.”
I’m glad it is apparently working for her. Maybe she needs it because she has 18 children. I would not recommend such programs to anyone, and I’m a homeschooler.
Prairie Rose
Interesting that you would not recommend such programs when others here would. I just told you that she was only one example. DBQ said she did so with her children with great results. I fail to see the problem if it works, I really do.
In fact, the more I think about the way our society has become addicted to smart phones, and the selfie generation has taken over with the children communicating in that way, the healthier I think it would be to isolate your children if you could from this influence. My friend also limited TV watching to 1 channel. My former husband had a TV and the children watched TV wth him. We played games and so forth. We did not have a TV. If it was now, we would have tablets and play games on them but I have a total disrespect for smartphones.
I think this has been an interesting discussion and as always, the Republicans are made out to be evil and against education and wanting to game the system by a muckraking paper.
Anthony Cody: High-Stakes Testing Requires High Levels of Surveillance
http://dianeravitch.net/2015/03/16/anthony-cody-high-stakes-testing-requires-high-levels-of-surveillance/
Excerpt:
Anthony Cody posted yesterday that the high-stakes of the new testing system inevitably leads to high surveillance. Add to the high stakes the fact that the two tests are national, and you have a scenario in which the testing corporations are expecting teachers and administrators to help them spy on students’ social media. Apparently Pearson (and not Pearson alone) has a means of monitoring millions of students’ postings on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere, using key words as alerts.
Cody writes:
By creating a state-sponsored “accountability” system that attaches heavy consequences to student performance on tests, the state and its corporate test-making partners have created a compelling need for extensive surveillance of everyone that accountability system touches. Teacher and administrator evaluations and thus jobs depend on these scores. Schools may be closed. Funding to schools is increased or reduced. And the tests are supposed to determine which students are ready for college.
All these consequences create reasons for people to game the system – and this has been the hallmark of NCLB from its inception. The “Texas Miracle” that inspired NCLB was based on the creative practice of holding back the 9th graders whose scores would make the schools look bad. Result? A miraculous rise in scores, a Texas governor who bragged he was an “education governor” on his way to the White House, and brought us a whole system of accountability based on test scores. And NCLB has made test-based accountability a part of the basic contract between the Federal government and the schools that receive federal funding.
Any system that imparts heavy consequences for success or failure must have intense security. How do you impose test security on a system that must test as many as fifty million school children every year, when many millions of these students have smart phones and Facebook accounts? You MUST have a surveillance apparatus. You must also have local District personnel act as your deputies in monitoring these activities, and in meting out consequences for those who violate your rules. It is all an inescapable outgrowth of creating a system that rewards and punishes people based on student test scores.