Poverty, Shmoverty - Part III
Gonna get wonky here...
I have to admit it: Amanda Ripley really got under my skin. Twice. So much so that I went back to her blog to look at her two recent posts - here and here - about how much American schools suck and how people who tell you that poverty is the overriding cause are selling you magic beans.
Lucky for you, Ripley has "...been to Finland, Korea and Poland working on this book, and I have the luxury of spending hours reading PISA results." Apparently that gives her license to mock Diane Ravitch, David Sirota, and liberals in general. It also seems to give her license to make the following mistakes:
- Failing to understand that Ravitch's comparison of low-poverty US school districts to low-poverty countries allows for poor kids to be included in both sets.
I have to admit it: Amanda Ripley really got under my skin. Twice. So much so that I went back to her blog to look at her two recent posts - here and here - about how much American schools suck and how people who tell you that poverty is the overriding cause are selling you magic beans.
Lucky for you, Ripley has "...been to Finland, Korea and Poland working on this book, and I have the luxury of spending hours reading PISA results." Apparently that gives her license to mock Diane Ravitch, David Sirota, and liberals in general. It also seems to give her license to make the following mistakes:
- Failing to understand that Ravitch's comparison of low-poverty US school districts to low-poverty countries allows for poor kids to be included in both sets.
Jersey City's Tangled Reformy Web
So Acting NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf is sticking his fingers into the Jersey City schools pie:
Outgoing Jersey City Board of Education member Sean Connors continues to raise questions about an e-mail sent earlier this month to Board President Sterling Waterman by the state's Acting Commissioner of Education, Chris Cerf.
In an e-mail dated Dec. 2, Cerf wrote: "It is now abundantly clear to me that this board is not interested in pursuing an agenda of transformational change for the children of Jersey City. You are presented with a unique moment in time in which courageous leadership would make an extraordinary difference. Parochial concerns, interest group influence, and personal political ambitions need to give way to boldness and willingness to accept the inevitably challenging