Peg Robertson: How Reformers Gaslight Teachers in “Turnaround” Schools

Delaware Priority, Focus, and Focus Plus teachers: This is a MUST-READ!!!

Diane Ravitch's blog

Peg Robertson is a teacher in Colorado and a national leader of the Opt Out movement (she co-founded United Opt Out). In this post, she describes what happens to teachers in schools that are supposedly “turnaround schools.” They are “gaslighted.” Anyone who has seen the famous Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name knows what it means to be “gaslighted.” Ingrid Bergman’s husband wants to kill her, and he tries to convince her that she is going mad. In Peg’s school, teachers are told that they caused low test scores, and officialdom works hard to persuade them that they cause failure.

She writes:

Gaslighting is such an insane reality to live in that it becomes incredibly difficult to focus on anything else except the ability to get through the day- it is designed intentionally so.

So let’s try to take a look at what’s really happening.

The first stage…

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Delaware Met & DOE Holding Information Session For Parents Tonight

The Delaware Met and the Delaware Department of Education are having an information session for parents of Del Met students.  The purpose of this meeting is to give parents options after the charter school closes on January 22nd.  On December 17th, the State Board of Education revoked the charter of Delaware Met.  This was an unprecedented decision in Delaware to close a school down in the middle of the school year.  This is a very good idea, and I am glad to see the DOE and the school working together to make the best transitions possible for the students of Delaware Met.

DSEA Supports Opt-Out! All DSEA Members Need To Support The Override Of Markell’s Veto!

I strongly implore DSEA to issue a press release giving their full support for the override of Governor Markell’s veto of House Bill 50.

Last April, the Delaware State Education Association issued a press release with their very strong stance against the way Delaware was using standardized testing.  They also gave their full support for a parent’s right to opt their child out of standardized testing.

 

PRESS RELEASE
for immediate release	Contact person:  David Wright Company:  Delaware State Education Association Phone:  (302) 734-5834 Fax:  (302) 674-9499 Email:  david.wright@dsea.org Website:  www.dsea.org
Standardized testing plays over-sized role in the Delaware public education system   Dover, Del. April 1st — The Delaware State Education Association (DSEA) is concerned about the growing amounts of time, money and energy spent on high-stakes and standardized testing, as well as the use of student performance on these tests to make major decisions affecting individual students, educators, and schools. The overreliance on high-stakes and standardized testing in state and federal accountability systems continues to undermine educational quality and equity in U.S. public schools.  It hampers educators’ efforts to focus on the skills and knowledge that will allow students to thrive in a democracy and an increasingly global society and economy. DSEA believes that standardized testing is an inadequate and often unreliable measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness. The over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral damage in too many schools.  It is narrowing curriculums, fostering a ‘teach to the test’ approach, reducing love of learning,  driving excellent teachers out of the profession, and undermining school climate. For these reasons, DSEA supports a parent’s right to opt their child out of standardized testing. DSEA also supports locally developed, authentic assessments as drivers of instruction and increasing the time allotted for educators to teach and students to learn. We call on the Governor, General Assembly, state Board of Education, local education boards, and administrators to reexamine the public school accountability systems currently used in Delaware. We urge these decision-making bodies to develop a system that is based on multiple forms of evidence, does not require extensive standardized testing, accurately reflects the broad range of student learning, and can be used to support students and improve schools. ###

DSEA also backed Senate Joint Resolution #2, the assessment inventory.  But not as an opposition to parental rights.  They believe local assessments serve a legitimate purpose in our schools.  DSEA was very opposed to the harsh opt-out penalties in the school report card.  DSEA President had many concerns when she spoke at the September State Board of Education meeting.  Her comments were not heeded as the State Board approved factors in the Delaware School Success Framework that give accountability ratings for Delaware schools with most of the weights coming from results from the Smarter Balanced Assessment.