Eduwonk’s Blinders

There are a lot of different academic terms for the conceptual frameworks that shape our perceptions of the world in fundamental ways, but in the case of Eduwonk’s Andy Rotherham and teacher unions, “blinders” fits best.

Take the latest sally from Rotherham, in which he announces that the UFT is “moving the goal posts” we set for our charter schools — that is, showing what can be done within the terms of the existing collective bargaining agreement with the NYC DoE — by having an “extended time” day at our elementary charter school.

The only problem here is that both our elementary and secondary charter schools have had an extended day since the first day they were opened, and in both cases, this additional time was done within the terms of the contract. The elementary school has had a community based organization run their after school program — all that is new is that it is now applying for new funding which has become available for that purpose. The secondary school has its teachers on two different schedules — one early and one late — to cover the longer day.

We have been anything but shy in publicizing this point. In the past, we blogged on this very question when Rotherham’s friend Eva Moskowitz made the very same unfounded claim. But we could blog on this question again and again, and we would still see the same error: the real problem here is the impoverished educational imagination that can’t conceive of a way to give students more instructional time without placing more burdens on teachers already giving their all. It doesn’t really matter what our charter schools actually demonstrate, because some sets of blinders have decided, a priori, that it can’t happen.

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