Diane Ravitch blogs Joshua Starr

Here's what Diane Ravitch blogged:

Joshua Starr is the superintendent of Montgomery County’s public school system, the 17th largest district in the nation. He says that the “country needs a three-year moratorium on standardized testing and needs to ‘stop the insanity’ of evaluating teachers according to student test scores because it is based on ‘bad science.’He also said that the best education reform the country has had is actually health-care reform.”
He said that evaluating teachers by test scores is a very bad idea.
Starr said that “a good way to create assessments for Common Core-aligned curriculum would be to crowd-source the development and let teachers design them rather than have corporations do it. He criticized policies that help make public education ‘a private commodity.’”...

 http://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/11/joshua-starr-stop-the-insanity/#comment-69516


Here is my response which was posted in the comments on Ms. Ravitch's blog:

Starr said that “a good way to create assessments for Common Core-aligned curriculum would be to crowd-source the development and let teachers design them rather than have corporations do it. He criticized policies that help make public education ‘a private commodity.’”
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Ms. Ravitch: Seriously? You are well aware that Mr. Starr’s school system SOLD their curriculum to PEARSON. The MCPS curriculum is now under contract with PEARSON and PEARSON is writing all of the assessments and teacher training that will be used in MCPS.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2010/06/weasts-tuesday-surprise-mcps-sold-to.htmlThe curriculum is being sold by Pearson as PEARSON FORWARD.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/05/mcps-curriculum-20-to-be-sold-as.htmlFurther, the contract that MCPS signed with PEARSON was severely criticized by the Maryland State Board of Education.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2010/09/state-board-of-ed-on-pearsonmcps.htmlJoshua Starr has not mentioned that contract once since he became Superintendent. Not a word. And, now you are quoting him as criticizing “policies that help make public education a private commodity” without referencing the PEARSON contract with his school district.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/02/pearson-mcps-final-product-development.htmlhttp://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/01/exclusive-weast-cut-325-million-from.htmlPlease stop the cover up Ms. Ravitch. Let’s have some facts to go with the spin. MCPS parents are protesting the Pearson Curriculum and Mr. Joshua Starr is silent on the existence of this contractual relationship in his own school system.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/12/parents-protest-pearson-mcps-curriculum.htmlThis is one of the biggest problems with public education in America. Superintendents who are become convention circuit speakers while ignoring what is going on in their own school districts.
It’s time to put an end to the public school funded convention circuit. Public school dollars need to stay in the classroom, and not be spent on hotels, airfare, restaurants and pricey convention registrations. ~ Janis Sartucci