Testing is Politics and Profiteering, not Pedagogy.

Testing is Politics and Profiteering, not Pedagogy.

Updated: For a glimpse of the future, look no further than the new super's profile today's (2.15) Los Angeles Times. If you can get past the word spray, you'll find that the core of Carvalho's "school choice" proposals is what it always is for Privatizers: a religious devotion to "data" by which they mean test scores. To diminish one element of a system in order to elevate a different element, you need metrics--a metric, really--and for school choicers that metric is invariably the scores on state-sponsored standardized assessments. The road to public school privatization is paved with test scores.

As reported by Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times online Feb. 10, "Incoming Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho said Thursday that he would expand high-quality school choices so that every family would have access to the program they want without having to put their child on a bus to get there."

Sounds good, right? Everyone favors "high-quality" schools. And if a school has access to UCLA's professors or has an advanced theater program or a great marching band, and that's important to a particular student and their parents, then why shouldn't that kid have a chance to participate in that "program"? Right? Carvalho goes on to talk programs and promises to bring in partnerships with colleges and universities so students can begin earning credits while in high school, so there's that. 

But NEWSFLASH!--community schools are doing that right now. My former school had partnerships first with Santa Monica Community College and then Los Angeles Community College. These programs allowed students to begin taking free college classes after school on our campus, and potentially to graduate from high school with an AA degree and credits for transfer to a four-year university.

Ah, but the outfit Carvalho likes is the National Education Equity Lab, which receives funding from the Gates Foundation and boasts Arne "never met a charter he didn't like" Duncan on its Advisory Board.  These people are not supporters of public education. If you are a teacher working and believing in public schools, they are not your friends. No, these organizations and their fans are dedicated to slicing off a piece of the public pie for themselves. 

So let's talk about programs. Putting aside for a moment that implicit in Carvalho's framing is the fantasy that "programs" exist separate from the people--the teachers--who conceive and nurture them, who develop and promote and fight for them, the fact of the matter is it can't work. Even Carvalho, with his faith in technological answers to human questions, must know that it's impossible for every school in every community to satisfy every student's and parent's preference for every possible specialized passion. 

But Carvalho is a gifted politician and when he talks, he uses the word "program" quite intentionally. He doesn't mean marching bands and he doesn't just mean the project of some not-for-profit looking to be in the school business. In his Thursday remarks, the new boss was careful to say that he's committed to "Creating high-quality new schools and programs 'particularly in ZIP Codes where right now they do not exist.'” (emphasis mine) 

In fact, Carvalho doesn't necessarily mean what you think he means at all. The new LAUSD superintendent clearly wants to make sure that every neighborhood, every community has "access," but to... what exactly? 

As I wrote late last year, soon after Carvalho was hired: 

In a 2018 article, the corporate school-reform website The74 reported that then-Miami schools chief had a "sweeping vision for dramatically expanding educational choice," and went on to say this about Carvalho:

"Understand this fact: In Carvalho’s district, the fourth-largest in the country, more than 70 percent of the roughly 400,000 students do not attend their zoned public school. That’s not a typo. These students attend charter schools, take classes over the internet and at local colleges, and even attend private, faith-based schools — all with taxpayer funds or under tax credit scholarship programs." (emphasis mine)

That from an organization that thinks this is a good thing. 

No, the Privatizers and Profiteers are playing the long game and it depends on destabilizing existing public schools. They have a comprehensive, methodical plan for the destruction of a public institution and the transfer of its assets to private, commercial entities. 

According to The Times, Carvalho is planning a "multiyear project" predicated on the creation of competing schools and an escalation of school choice. "I don’t think it’s fair or equitable for students to have to get on a bus for hours on end to get to that one school or be shut out of that opportunity," says the new boss.

So, what kinds of "new schools and programs" will be planted in these allegedly  neglected zip codes? What will these new "high-quality" schools look like, and what impact will they have on existing schools and programs? 

And finally, how will parents and students decide among the "choices"? If not every school will have every program, what will signify that every student can get some "high-quality" schoolin' without having to get on a bus?

For Carvalho and the legion of Privatizers and Profiteers, it comes down to the same thing it always comes down to: test scores. 

The road to public school privatization is paved with test scores. Which are bullshit.