Gerald W. Bracey is an independent researcher and writer living in Alexandria, VA, author of a numerous of articles and books, including Reading Educational Research: How to Avoid Getting Statistically Snookered (which will appear from Heinemann next month), and he runs the website of the Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency.
As Bracey explains, “The Rotten Apple Awards used to be part of the annual “Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education” (so named by the editors of Phi Delta Kappan where it has appeared each October since 1991). They were the counterweight to the Golden Apple Awards which remain part of the report.
In 2000, the Board of Directors of Phi Delta Kappa decided that the ridicule dispensed in the Rotten Apples was not appropriate to their house organ. That they decided this shortly after one recipient (Willard Daggett) threatened to sue is no doubt coincidental. Just as well. The Rotten Apples havegrown and, alas, this year are the same length as the Bracey Report itself. Make of that what you will.”
And the Rotten Apple winners are:
The “Jimmy Carter Amphibious Killer Rabbit” Award: Margaret Spellings.
The “This Turntable for Hire” Award: Armstrong Williams and the U. S. Department of Education.
The “Co-Mingling of Science With Comparative Religion” Award: The Dover (PA) School Board and the Kansas State School Board.
The “Yes, You Really Can Gather Empirical Evidence to Support or Refute Intelligent Design” Award: Pat Robertson.
The “Chutzpah Only a New Yorker Could Love” Award: Joan Mahon-Powell.
The “Game the System? Moi?” Award: Jeb Bush.
The “Notes From a Distant Planet” Award: Human Events.
The “Big Brother Wants to Watch You Even More” Award: Walter Jones, Dennis Baxley.
The “I’m Not a Researcher” Award: Diane Ravitch.
The “The Enemy of My Enemy Might Still Not Be My Buddy” Award: United Federation of Teachers.
The “Delusions Die Hard” Award: Amy Wilkins.
The “Mike Cohen and Matt Gandal Memorial Confusion of Rates with Scores Award:” The Achievement Alliance.
The “George W. Bush-Style Accountability” Award: Chester E. “Checker” Finn, Jr.
The “Literacy is Vastly Overrated” Award: The State of California.
The “Arbeit Macht Frei” Award: Dan Doerhoff.
The “This is What’s the Matter With Kansas” Award, or, “Prima Emienda Derecho? En Kansas, No” Award, Jennifer Watts.
The “Our Lousy Public Schools Really Do Turn Out People So Dumb We Can Skunk the Pubic With Any Story We Want” Award: The Bush Administration.
Get the full report on The Rotten Apples in Education Awards for 2005 website of the Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency
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