Exam 3

Question 1

What is NOT part of corporate school reform?

Answer 1

• Promoting stronger state regulation and management of traditional public, and charter schools
• Advocating for traditional teacher certification requirements and stronger teacher unions

Question 2

What are the aims of advocates of corporate school reform, according to Saltman?

Answer 2

It is to transform public schooling into an industry nationally by replacing public schools with privately managed charter schools, voucher schemes, and tax credit scholarships for private schooling.

Question 3

Which major political party/parties have aggressively embraced corporate school reform or neoliberal education restructuring?

Answer 3

Democratic and Republican Party

Question 4

What is driving privatization of public education, according to Saltman?

Answer 4

The quest for profit by private corporations, educational management organizations (EMOs) and investors, and advancing neoliberal ideology

Question 5

Are there indicators of the charter school movement fostering privatization?

Answer 5

YES, Fourteen educational management organizations (EMOs)control 70% of schools being managed for profits. EMOs manage schools mostly through contracts with charter school operators 94%. rather than through school districts with school board members elected by citizens

Question 6

What is the relationship between the for-profit education sector and the public education sector in the US?

Answer 6

• The private sector is only involved in selling text books, standardized tests, and technology to public schools.
• The corporate sector has positioned public education, a roughly $600 billion per year industry, as a ripe for takeover.

Question 7

How do EMOs generate profits from schools they manage?

Answer 7

They cut teacher pay and educational resources.

Question 8

How does neoliberal ideology view education?

Answer 8

It views education as a private good that’s primarily useful for preparing worker and consumers for the economy

Question 9

What is Creative Destruction?

Answer 9

It is a strategy promoters of corporate education use to replace public education use to replace public education with privatized national system of schools competing for scarce public dollars where schools are declared a failure go out of business and profit seekers, EMOs , try their hand at running schools for profit … ALL THE ABOVE

Question 10

What was the city of Chicago’s “Renaissance 2010” school reform?

Answer 10

It was a plan adopted in 2004 to raise $70 million in private donations from businesses, create 100 new “high performing” mostly charter schools, and close “failing” schools. It was promoted and implemented by Arne Duncan, who would go on to serve as President Obama’a Secretary of Education from 2009-2015

Question 11

According to this influential business owner and philanthropist , “Out high schools are obsolete… what I man is that .. even when they work exactly as designed, our high schools cannot teach our kids what they need to know .. this is an economic disaster.”

Answer 11

Bill Gates

Question 12

At what public schools are neoliberal declarations of a “failed system” of education deployed?

Answer 12

It is leveled against the working class and the poor, predominately nonwhite urban communities and schools. As such it mis-attributes educational inequalities and short comings to the public sector rather than the private sector and the ways in which the public system has a long history of business led engineered failure, and unequal resource distribution tie to property wealth.

Question 13

According to Saltman what are the consequences of subjugating the public purposes of public schooling to neoliberal activists’ mission of restructuring schooling to make workers for the global economy?

Answer 13

• It presumes the public interest is principally served by engaging in the global race top the bottom where the U.S. students compete for scarce jobs against workers in poorer nations
• The values of worker discipline, docility, and submission to the authority are injected into the corporate school vision as they represent the ideal of the disciplined, docile, and submissive bottom tier of the workforce.

Question 14

What affects do neoliberal corporate school reform have on the intellectual rigor of schools?

Answer 14

• Value added assessment of students based on test scores, the assault on teacher education, union busting, and privatization are essentially prohibitions on thinking.
• It is antithetical to teachers acting as intellectuals or performing the public role of fostering dialogue, debate, and critical thought that is the lifeblood of public democratic life outside of schools.

Question 15

What person “gave the shape and direction to the curriculum field” in the early 1900s?

Answer 15

John Franklin Bobbitt

Question 16

What were core assumptions of Frederick Taylor’s theory of scientific management?

Answer 16

Efficient production relied on managers’ ability to gather all information about the work they oversaw, systematically analyze it according to scientific methods, figure out the most efficient ways for workers to complete individual tasks and then tell each worker exactly how to produce their product.

Question 17

According to John Franklin Bobbitt, what drives what students learning, the methods and materials used by teachers, how schools are organized, and what standards will be employed to measure results of the educational process?

Answer 17

Objectives

Question 18

In Bobbitt’s educational vision who is responsible for determining “of proper [and] primary duty” to direct and guide the educational process?

Answer 18

School Administrators

Question 19

According to Bobbitt’s vision of scientifically manages education, what is the role of the teachers in determining the best methods for classroom teaching?

Answer 19

• Responsibility for “finding the best methods is too large and too complicated to be laid on the shoulders of the teacher”
• The ultimate worker, the teacher… must be a specialist in the performance of the labor that produce the product.”

Question 20

How was the logic of “means-ends rationality” applied to education?

Answer 20

It is a technical matter to decide such issues as instructional method and content, a matter best reserved for people with technical expertise about the methods and content optimally suited for particular objectives.

Question 21

What impact did scientific management have on the U.S. public schools by the 1920’s?

Answer 21

It was enormous

Question 22

When did high-stakes testing become dominant common practice in the U.S?

Answer 22

It came about after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Question 23

How is high-stakes testing affecting U.S. classrooms?

Answer 23

Teachers are undergoing pressure because of the tests. Teachers teach to the tests with increasing regularity, consistency, and intensity. They also narrow their instructional curriculum and shape content norms of their curriculum to match that of the tests.

Question 24

In one nationwide survey, 71% of school districts reported cutting at least one subject to increase time spent on reading and math. Another study of 349 school districts nationwide reported that 62% of districts reported increased instructional time devoted to the tested subjects of math, English, and language arts. What do these data indicate?

Answer 24

They show the net effect of high- stakes testing is the standardization of the content of the curriculum in teachers’ classroom practices.

Question 25

Zero-sum curriculum is where tested subjects dominate school curriculum and non-tested subjects are edged out or are entirely pushed out of the curriculum altogether ?

Answer 25

True

Question 26

Zero-sum curriculum have no effect on the knowledge taught in classrooms.

Answer 26

False

Question 27

What affects do high-stakes testing on the knowledge taught in classrooms?

Answer 27

• As the content of the curriculum moves to match what the tests require, the structure of curricular content knowledge similarly shifts towards the fragmentation demanded by the test.
• Knowledge learned for high-stakes tests is a collection of disconnected facts, operations, procedures, or data mainly needed for rote memorization needed for the tests.
• Students are increasingly learning knowledge associated with lower level thinking.

Question 28

Are high-stakes testing having any effects on the pedagogy, the art, science or profession of teaching?

Answer 28

• Yes, teachers are not only teaching to the tests and adapting curriculum to the tests, they are also adopting pedagogical strategies that more closely align to the forms of knowledge and content contained in high-stakes testing.
• Yes. Increasingly, teachers devote more time doing test drills and practicing for the types of information, questions, and test taking skills that the tests require.

Question 29

What is scripted curriculum?

Answer 29

They are pre-packaged , step-by-step commercial curricular that provide teachers with scripts to follow for each day’s lessons and class activities. These scripts require no creative input or decision-making by teachers.

Question 30

How do high-stakes teaching and scripted curriculum affect the power of teachers to use their training, experience,and expertise to help students learn?

Answer 30

• They epitomize the basic logic’s of Taylor-ism and scientific management in term of technical control exercised by school administrators and outside educational experts.
• They result in de-skilling of teaching where skills teachers use to need, such as curriculum planning and designing teaching strategies are no longer necessary .

Question 31

What are charter schools?

Answer 31

They are tuition-free, taxpayer-supported, independent public schools that operate under a contract, called a charter with locality, county, or state.

Question 32

Are charter schools better at education schools?

Answer 32

• A 2013 study by Stanford University’s center for research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found more than half of charter schools showed the same level of improvement in reading as TPs, nearly half had the same improvement in math.
• The 2013 CREDO study also found that 25% of charters did better on reading and 29% did better in math compared to traditional public schools and 19% of charters did worst on reading and 31% did worst in math compared to TPs
• A 2015 CREDO study concluded that charter schools in 41 urban school districts out performed traditional public schools in those communities.

Question 33

What arguments do advocates of charter schools make in their effort to get more states to authorize these types of schools?

Answer 33

Traditional public schools are failing to educate students. Creating charter schools solves this problem by providing parents with an alternative they can choose. Charter schools’ teachers can use innovative educational approaches to help students succeed.

Question 34

Compared to traditional public schools how are charter schools governed?

Answer 34

• Charters are governed by appointed boards; traditional public schools are governed by elected board members
• Charters are generally not required to follow open-meetings and public schools are required to follow open-meetings and public-records laws

Question 35

Does student performance data from 1995-2015 support claims that traditional public schools are failing?

Answer 35

No. Whereas U.S. eighth graders scored below the international average in reading in 1995, in 2015 they were well above average, outscored by only 6 of 33 countries. In addition, high school graduation rates in the U.S. reach a historical high in 2014 when 82% of seniors graduate on time.

Question 36

Have there been concerns expressed about criticisms or charter schools?

Answer 36

• Yes. The 2013 CREDO noted that straight comparisons of charters and traditional public schools are difficult because even among academically successful charters student body composition with fewer disabled and special need students and other factors can explain higher scores.
• Yes. The 2013 CREDO study noted that many characters lack the accountability and transparency of traditional schools that make it difficult for taxpayers to determine if tax dollars are used wisely.
• Yes. Some charters, such as the Success Academy in New York City, have been reported to push out students who cannot keep up academically.

Question 37

Critics have pointed out that charter schools, such as Success Academy in NYC and KIPPP network schools, have high rates of suspensions. Even U.S. Secretary of Education John King in June 2016 suggested that these schools needed to rethink discipline policies.

Answer 37

True

Question 38

Whereas traditional public schools are required to educate students who are physically disabled and have special needs, charter schools are not required to admit such students and have lower numbers of such students.

Answer 38

True

Question 39

Who originally came up with the concept of charter schools?

Answer 39

Ray Budde

Question 40

What did the original concept of charter schools involve?

Answer 40

Teachers within schools would enter into a contractual relationship through “charter” agreement with the school board that would give teachers direct responsibility for developing and using effective teaching strategies.

Question 41

In his expansion the original concept of charter schools , what did Albert Shanker purpose?

Answer 41

Creating separate schools within existing schools to serve as laboratories of innovation. Teachers would have greater autonomy to try different education approaches, such as team teaching or tailoring programs to the different way children learn.

Question 42

What president was the first to provide federal grant funds to state and local education agencies to support the planning, development, and start-up of new charter schools?

Answer 42

Bill Clinton

Question 43

What percent of charter school teachers and traditional public school teachers belong to a union?

Answer 43

11% - Charter School Teachers

68% - Public School teachers

Question 44

Is there a difference in salaries paid to teachers who work in charter and traditional public schools?

Answer 44

Yes. A U.S. Department of education survey for the 2011-2012 school year found that charter school teachers salaries averaged 17% less than those of teachers in traditional public schools.

Question 45

What is the current state of politics surrounding charter schools?

Answer 45

• The movement faces a backlash. Voters in MA. and GA. defeated a ballot measures that would have expanded charter schools.
• As a candidate for president, Donald Trump, promised to spend $20 billion of federal education funds to promote school choice including charters and vouchers.
• Proponents of charters continue to push for expansion of charters in states including KY, MO, ND, NE

Question 46

In 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for a moratorium on charter expansion. Why did the organization do so?

Answer 46

The NAACP is concerned about charters that open and close in a fraction of the school year and leave families stranded, a lack of accountability, a focus on high performing students who are the least expensive to educate, and overly punitive disciplinary practices of charter schools.