School Change Topic of New Haven Independent Forum

It was a refreshing difference to see the mayor of a Connecticut city, onstage with the Superintendent of Schools from that same city, talking about the pact they have made to improve schools in the city together.  New Haven has used an innovative mix of independent charter schools, in-district charter schools, turnaround schools and regular public schools to help narrow the achievement gap, keep kids in school and improve outcomes.

It's a noble experiment, that seems to be working for New Haven.  And it was the main topic of a forum hosted by online news outlet, The New Haven Independent, at the Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School in New Haven.

Moderated by Independent founder and editor, Paul Bass and Chris Velardi of WTNH, the evening, billed as a multi-media online conversation included a panel headed by controversial education author Diane Ravitch, who wrote, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," and several New Haven community members including teachers, school administrators, principals, students and parents.  A separate panel, which included Mayor John DeStefano, and WNPR's John Dankosky, State Represenative Gary Holder-Winfield, the Hartford Courant's Rick Green, the Independent's Melissa Bailey and the New Haven Register's Angi Carter, all of whom were live-blogging the event.

Ravitch, who began her educational career as a supporter of No Child Left Behind has become one of its chief critics after she discovered that the data does not bear out the promise of the act.

"Schools are not baseball teams," Ravitch said.  "Accountability has turned us all into consumers and not into good citizens.  You can't do everything by numbers."

Ravitch said that No Child Left Behind, coupled with the Obama administration's Race to the Top, have perverted the system causing testing fraud, lack of true instruction and demotivation of teachers and students.

"Children need a reason to come to school," Ravitch said.  "They don't come to school to be tested."

Ravitch found much support on the panel.

"Everything in the school cannot be measured," said Hamden High School principal Gary Highsmith.  "And everything that can be measured is not important.  "Anyone who believes you can measure an eight year old child with a test is out of their mind."

But education consultant Henry Fernandez countered that No Child Left Behind allowed discussions to take place which had not taken place before.

"It made us stop talking about how black and Latino children are the problem," Fernandez said.  "Testing informed us on how schools, and districts and the state are wrong.  It did refocus us."

Ravitch denounced the current attitude of teacher-bashing, indicating that a national school program should be created to reward and not punish teacher, and that federal programs themselves are doomed to bureaucratic failure.

"The elephant in the room is poverty," Ravitch said.  "The U.S. has a child poverty rate of 20%.  Finland's child poverty rate is under 5%.  This is a scandal in a country like ours.  Poverty is at the root of low academic achievement.  This is not an exuse.  This is a fact.  And there's nobody I know who is going after poverty."

After the panel was dismissed, Ravitch stayed to take questions (or listen to the speeches) of audience members, many of whom were disenchanted parents and teachers.  In her answers, Ravitch returned again and again to the failure of a system which uses testing to evaluate education.

"Testing should not be used to hand out money," Ravitch said.  "And results should not be used as punishment."