In a post I wrote about “Vergara Going on Tour,” I wrote about how the financier of the Vergara v. California case was preparing to bring similar suits to New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, and Kansas. As well, the law firm that won the Vergara case for the plaintiffs, was also reported to have officially signed on to help defend the Houston Independent School District (HISD) on the forthcoming lawsuit during which, this time, the court will be investigating the EVAAS value-added system and its low- and high-stakes uses in HISD (this is also the source of a recent post here).
Last month, it was reported that New York was the next state on the tour, so-to-speak. To read a post from July about all of this, written by Bruce Baker at Rutgers titled “The VergarGuments are Coming to New York State!” click here.
It also seems that Campbell Brown, previous host of the Campbell Brown Show on CNN and award winning news anchor/journalist for multiple media outlets elsewhere, has joined “the cause” and even started her own foundation in support, aptly named the Partnership for Education Justice. Read more about their mission, as well as “The Challenge” and “The Solution” in America’s public schools as per America’s public school teachers as they define these here.
In New York specifically, via their first but unfortunately and likely not their last “project,” they are helping families “fight for the great teachers their children deserve by challenging factory-era laws that keep poorly-performing teachers in the classroom.” Read also about “The Problem,” the “Roadblocks,” and the like as they pertain to this specific suit in New York here. It probably won’t surprise you to see what research they are using to justify their advocacy work either – give it a quick guess and then check to verify here. Here is also a related article Brown recently wrote about how she (with all of her wisdom about America’s public school system – sorry) feels about teacher tenure.
Anyhow, last month (July 31, 2014) she was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report on the Comedy Channel. Give this a watch to see what this is all about, in her terms and as per her (wrongheaded, misinformed, etc.) perspectives. See also Colbert’s funny but also wise response(s) to her aforementioned perspectives.
Watch it here:
She stated that there was 91% of teachers who rated as effective and only 31% of students reading and writing doing math at grade level. She is clearly combining those stats to make a statement. How many students are above grade level? Some more information was left out of the equation. Why does tenure matter when it isn’t represented in the equation? Where is the proof that tenure affects the 31% of students who are at grade level? And finally, why isn’t Campbell brown concerned with how poverty fits into the equation and are the donors venture capitolists who want to profit from privatizing education? Too many unanswered questions!