Saturday, December 10, 2011

Schools Matter: Against National Standards and National Tests

Schools Matter: Against National Standards and National Tests:

Against National Standards and National Tests

Against National Standards and National Tests
Stephen Krashen
to appear on: TOPed.org, Thoughts on Public Education in California
December, 2011

The movement for national standards and tests is based on these claims: (1) Our educational system is broken, as revealed by US students' scores on international tests; (2) We must improve education to improve the economy; (3) The way to improve education is to have national standards and national tests that enforce the standards.

Each of these claims is false.

(1) Our schools are not broken. The problem is poverty. Test scores of students from middle-class homes who

Obama and Dems Abandon the Poor to Predatory Corporate Colleges

Today's Friday afternoon news dump brought good tiding in the form of billion$ in holiday cheer, now headed to the hundreds of corporate lobbyists and obscenely-wealthy for-profit college executives who, in past months, brought millions of rea$on$ to Capitol Hill and the White House to overturn a bill to protect the poor and disenfranchised from the predator capitalists of the higher ed business.

In an unprecedented display of arm-twisting, open threats, payoffs, and propaganda campaigns, the Phoenixes and Kaplans of the world brought Team Obama and the Congress to their knees once again. If there remained any shred of belief that the Dems are any less complicit in the destruction of the Republic than the openly-fascist Republicans, read this story. And then get busy in the many efforts to bring down Rule by the 1%ers.

These fools have had so many chances and come up short. Warren in '16 on the United Party ticket.

From the NYTimes:
WASHINGTON — Last year, the Obama administration vowed to stop for-profit colleges from luring students with false promises. In an opening volley that shook the $30 billion industry, officials