Monday, October 18, 2010

The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books

The Myth of Charter Schools

Diane Ravitch

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Waiting for “Superman”
a film directed by Davis Guggenheim

Paramount Pictures

Anthony, a fifth-grade student hoping to win a spot at the SEED charter boarding school in Washington, D.C.; from Davis Guggenheim’s documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’

Ordinarily, documentaries about education attract little attention, and seldom, if ever, reach neighborhood movie theaters. Davis Guggenheim’sWaiting for “Superman” is different. It arrived in late September with the biggest publicity splash I have ever seen for a documentary. Not only was it the subject of major stories in Time andNew York, but it was featured twice onThe Oprah Winfrey Show and was the centerpiece of several days of programming by NBC, including an interview with President Obama.

Two other films expounding the same arguments—The Lottery and The Cartel—were released in the late spring, but they received far less attention than Guggenheim’s film. His reputation as the director of the Academy Award–winningAn Inconvenient Truth, about global warming, contributed to the anticipation surrounding Waiting for “Superman,” but the media frenzy suggested something more. Guggenheim presents the popularized version of an account of American

School Tech Connect: The Long and Winding Post

The Long and Winding Post

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

In the year before I left the classroom, I was in of all places, a shopping mall. Fashion Square, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Two friends and I were making a morning of it; it's what you do when it's 120 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

We were in one of the big department stores, futzing around in a little section of the store that sold fancy skin-care products. The "overpriced glop department," is how I believe I referred to it at the time. The clerk was a young lady who was doing what she could to move product, and she discovered that we were three English teachers enjoying a Saturday morning away from grading.

She announced that she was starting a nonprofit. Young people-- they have foundations and nonprofits now. We

NYC Public School Parents: No Busing for Overflow Kindergarteners in Queens

No Busing for Overflow Kindergarteners in Queens

by Leonie Haimson

See email exchange between Marge Kolb, head of the Presidents council in D24 in Queens, and Kathleen Grimm of DOE below.

To this day, DOE has refused to put the placement of G and T classes through any public process for community input, leading to flawed decision-making and the awful outcome described below, with parents having to spend hours transporting their Kindergarten children to schools miles away from their zoned schools – with no busing provided.

As Marge says, "DOE cannot pretend to be 'well-managed' and continue to perpetrate these kind of harms upon parents and children."

___

From: MKolbcorr@aol.com [mailto:MKolbcorr@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 10:48 AM
To: Klein Joel I.

Senate panel chairman pushes education tax hikes - BusinessWeek

Senate panel chairman pushes education tax hikes

STORY TOOLS

BATON ROUGE, LA.

The head of the Louisiana Senate's education committee said Monday he supports temporary tax increases or delays in tax breaks to stop budget cuts to public colleges and other educational programs.

Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, said he favors a reversal of tax breaks for middle- and upper-income taxpayers that were instituted before the national recession.

The tax breaks reversed the so-called "Stelly Plan" that had raised state income taxes for certain filers in exchange for getting rid of state sales tax on food and utilities. Lawmakers in

Oakland Arts Space Fights For Life - The Bay Citizen

Oakland Arts Space Fights For Life

Performance space pioneer 21 Grand has no cabaret permit, but can't raise funds to qualify for one

By SHIRLEY LAU, OAKLAND NORTH on October 18, 2010 - 3:59 p.m. PDT

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Courtesy Oakland North

21 Grand received a "cease and desist cabaret activity" letter from the City of Oakland

The signature teal color of an old-school iMac stood out among a hodgepodge of items. There was a Sierra Nevada box filled with torn packaging envelopes, complete with stamps and postmarked dates. The one-man crew of 21 Grand—a downtown Oakland gallery and performance space—was purging everything that had accumulated in storage for the last decade, but the venue’s “emergency rummage sale” a couple of weeks ago wasn’t just an effort to collect a few bucks. It was to make the month’s rent.

How Important Is Economic Diversity In Schools? : NPR

How Important Is Economic Diversity In Schools?

A new study shows that low-income students perform better in schools with economic diversity. Host Michel Martin discusses the study with Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation behind the study, and Jerry Weast, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools.

Teach is a film that features conversations about the art of teaching and learning by teachers themselves Film Our Way Films ->Home

Film Our Way Films ->Home

Film Our Way Films

We are a documentary film company that is dedicated to presenting alternative voices and viewpoints that aren't usually heard or allowed to be seen.

is a film that features conversations about the art of teaching and learning by teachers themselves.

See the Trailer-Preview

Share the spirit of great learning experiences. Please let us know if you wish to tell your stories and participate in a group discussion with other educators.
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Teach Film Collage

FILM OUR WAY FILMS RECOMMENDS ALSO SEEING

Children Left Behind
Children Left Behind Link
A Documentary about High Stakes Testing
by Louis J. Kruger, Psy.D., N.C.S.P.

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Another response to the Klein-Rhee “How-to-Fix-Our-Schools Manifesto”: WHY TEACHER QUALITY CAN’T BE THE ONLY CENTERPIECE OF REFORM

Another response to the Klein-Rhee “How-to-Fix-Our-Schools Manifesto”: WHY TEACHER QUALITY CAN’T BE THE ONLY CENTERPIECE OF REFORM

BY RICHARD ROTHSTEIN - RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AT THE ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE | WWW.EPI.ORG

FIRST PUBLISHED AS ISSUE BRIEF # 286 ON THE ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE WEBSITE ON OCT 14, 2O10 | HTTP://BIT.LY/AKU6EM
SUBSEQUENTLY PUBLISHED AS A GUEST BLOG/OP-ED IN THE WASHINGTON POST ON OCT 17, 2010 | HTTP://WAPO.ST/BWGURG

14 Oct 2010 - Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City public school system, and Michelle Rhee, who resigned October 13 as Washington, D.C. chancellor, published a “manifesto” in The Washington Post claiming that the difficulty of removing incompetent teachers “has left our school districts impotent and, worse, has robbed millions of children of a real future.” The solution, they say, is to end the “glacial process for removing an incompetent teacher” and give superintendents like themselves the authority to pay higher salaries to teachers whose students do well academically. Otherwise, children will remain “stuck in failing schools” across the country.

Klein, Rhee, and the 14 other school superintendents who co-signed their statement base this call on a claim that, “as President Obama

One principal’s “war board” strategy to get to graduation | GothamSchools

One principal’s “war board” strategy to get to graduation

by Maura Walz

For the principal of Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School, getting his seniors to graduation may require keeping track of them all, one by one.

As part of The Big Fix — the year-long series we’re doing in partnership with WNYC — WNYC’s education reporter Beth Fertig is following Chelsea High School as its teachers and staff try to boost their students’ performance. During a recent visit to the school, Fertig saw how Chelsea’s principal, Brian Rosenbloom, is charting his students’ paths to graduation:

The “war board” is a giant dry erase board where Rosenbloom tracks the progress of his juniors

Democurmudgeon: When your schools go...away. Charter and Private Schools Don't Guarantee Anything, Even that they'll be there Tomorrow.

When your schools go...away. Charter and Private Schools Don't Guarantee Anything, Even that they'll be there Tomorrow.

by Democurmudgeon

Charter Schools just what the market needed?

Imagine driving up to your nearest private charter school and finding out it closed down. Imagine that happening at a public school. That's the difference that should scare the daylights out of parents. From Ed Week's blog, there's even more to think about.

At first glance, the dramatic increase in the number of charter schools across the country seems to assure their place as the No. 1 player in the parental choice movement. ButOn Oct. 7, the New York Times focused on the LEARN School Network in Chicago ("Charter Education Expanding in Chicago"). Greg White, the chief

Resisting Reading First: Another Title I Teacher’s Story � Failing Schools

Resisting Reading First: Another Title I Teacher’s Story

OCTOBER 18, 2010

by Sabrina

Sarah Wagner is a reading instructor who worked as a Title I teacher and Reading Firstcoordinator in her district. My deepest thanks to her for sharing her story, and for standing up for the best interests of children.
–

My mother was a teacher, her mother was a teacher, and my father served on the local school board for 28 years. So growing up, a typical discussion at our dinner table was teacher salary schedule increments. I don’t remember ever wanting to be anything besides a teacher. I graduated from college and got my first job in 1972. I have worked in every grade K-12, and I have served on the local school board. I stayed home with my four daughters for a few years, and I was very involved in their education. I have a Master’s degree in Elementary Education and a reading teacher license in my state.

In 2004, I took a job as a Title I teacher in a district that was implementing Reading First. I was not part of writing the grant, so I came in with no preconceived ideas. However, I was in on the ground floor of implementation. I spent two years at this building and then went to another

LSU student president begs La. gov to stay home - Boston.com

LSU student president begs La. gov to stay home

By Melinda Deslatte

Associated Press Writer / October 18, 2010

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BATON ROUGE, La.—Complaining that Gov. Bobby Jindal spends more time out of state than in Louisiana, LSU's student body president sent a personal plea to Jindal in a New Hampshire newspaper, asking the governor to come home and work on the state's budget problems.

"Gov. Bobby Jindal is spending more time in your state than the one he was elected to represent. I read almost daily about his trips to other states, which makes me believe that he is more interested in running for president than running the state of Louisiana," J Hudson wrote this weekend in his letter to The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire.

Jindal was in New Hampshire last week to attend a campaign event and

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