In Praise of Leonie Haimson
One of the people I have come to admire most in the past few years is Leonie Haimson. You may not know Leonie, but you should. Leonie lives in New York City. Her children attend public schools. She is New York City’s leading parent activist. She created an organization called “Class Size Matters.” She was [...]
Psychologizing Female Critics
I received an email the other day from one of my email friends—that is, someone I have never met but have become very friendly with—and he made an interesting observation. He said he was reading Gail Collins’ book When Everything Changed, about the amazing changes in women’s lives since the mid-1960s, and he realized something [...]
Who is David Coleman?
A few years ago, I met David Coleman for lunch and we talked about education. At the time, I didn’t know much about him, but I knew that he was deeply involved in the writing of the Common Core standards, which were then in the formative stage. We had a wonderful conversation about books and [...]
Thank You, Ms. Katie
Earlier this year I saw an article that was so good that I saved it, thinking that some day I would have a chance to write about it. It was a blog by a teacher named Katie Osgood, who teaches students with disabilities in a psychiatric hospital. Her insights were so keen, her description of [...]
The Very Rewarding Job of Saving Schools
Those pesky public schools! They get reformed, and they don’t stay reformed! They get saved, and they don’t stay saved! What gives? Take Chicago: First, Chicago was saved by Paul Vallas in the 1990s; President Clinton congratulated Vallas for raising test scores and all sorts of innovative reforms. Then came Arne Duncan to lead the [...]
Chicago Supt Brizard Admits Failure
Chicago Superintendent of Schools J.C. Brizard has admitted that he does not know how to improve Chicago’s public schools. He did so by asking the Gates Foundation to supply millions of dollars to open another 100 charter schools. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-cps-charter-growth-20120517,0,7306759.story Handing public schools over to private management is a frank admission of failure on the part of [...]
Democrats tell DFER to Stop Using Party Name
Two Democratic party groups in California have publicly protested the use of the word “Democrats” by the hedge-fund managers’ charter advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform. The Los Angeles Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley have complained that the Wall Street group–whose education policies are indistinguishable from those of the GOP–should [...]
Two Democratic …
Two Democratic party groups in California have publicly protested the use of the word “Democrats” by the hedge-fund managers’ charter advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform. The Los Angeles Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley have complained that the Wall Street group–whose education policies are indistinguishable from those of the GOP–should [...]
Tenure Issue Doesn’t Belong in Courts
The usual group of corporate reformers, bankrolled by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and the Broad Foundation, filed a lawsuit to invalidate teacher tenure and seniority in California. They claim that such protections impair the provision of quality education. Their claim is laughable on its face, since high-performing districts as well as low-performing districts have the [...]
Indianapolis Charters Dumping Students
Sharon Higgins, a parent activist in Oakland, manages an important blog called “charter school scandals.” she collects articles from around the nation about the misdeeds of charter operators. That’s how I learned about the story below. I have heard from many public school principals about the practice of dumping low-performing students and keeping the tuition [...]
GERM in Brazil
In his recent book Finnish Lessons, Pasi Sahlberg talks about the spread of GERM (the Global Education Reform Movement), the devout belief in testing, accountability, competition, choice, and privatization. One reason for the contagious nature of GERM is that it is boosted by an unparalleled public relations campaign. This campaign makes dramatic claims about successes, [...]
Alvarez & Marsal to the Rescue
I learned yesterday that the Colorado Department of Education has hired the ubiquitous firm Alvarez & Marsal to investigate a cheating scandal in Denver (http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2012/05/15/38261-state-investigating-two-denver-schools). Alvarez & Marsal has no experience in investigating cheating scandals. The firm is a business consulting firm in New York City. It was hired a few weeks ago to investigate [...]
Who Is Reading My New Blog?
For the past couple of years I thought about having my own blog, but I didn’t know how to do it. Then I read someone’s blog on WordPress.com, and there was a button saying something like “press here and start your own blog.” And I did it a few weeks ago, and thousands of people [...]
To My Critics
I enjoy give and take with people who disagree. I have always believed in freedom to speak, freedom to disagree, freedom to teach and freedom to learn. I block three kinds of things on Twitter: 1) porn 2) ads 3) insults I believe it is possible to have a discussion without insulting the other person. [...]
How Does Rhee Sleep at Night?
The latest report on Michelle Rhee shows her collecting millions of dollars from Wall Street financiers, assorted billionaires, and mega-foundations, all to redesign American education as she sees fit. www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-education-rheebre84e1oa-20120515,0,7834441.story She has become a convenient vessel for the most rightwing governors who want to dismantle public education and reduce the teaching profession to at-will employees. How [...]
Is Memphis Next to Go?
I just got a great comment on an earlier post this morning. It is a great comment because it proves to me that the corporate reform movement is on the move and must be stopped before it wipes out public education. Here we see the nefarious hand of Boston Consulting, already at work dismantling public [...]
The Worst 8th Grade Math Teacher in NYC?
Aaron Pallas is one of the most insightful commentators on education in the nation. He teaches at Teachers College and if I were a student there, I would want to study with him. Not only is he smart, he is fearless. His regular columns in the Hechinger Report are “must” reading. His latest is about [...]
Charters Stopped Here
This year, a strong push for charter legislation was turned back in Alabama, Mississippi, Washington, and Kentucky. It was interesting to read the bold claims made by charter advocates, promising that charters would solve the education problems of the state. No doubt the proponents will be back next time, especially in states with conservative Republican [...]
Anti-Testing Movement Gains Momentum
The movement to slow down or stop or reverse high-stakes testing is moving forward at a rapid pace. This past week, the Houston Independent School Board endorsed a resolution opposing the overuse and misuse of standardized tests (http://blog.chron.com/k12zone/2012/05/hisd-joins-anti-testing-movement/). The resolution has now been endorsed by about 450 school boards in Texas, representing nearly half the [...]
The Most Idiotic Reform of the Week
Can you believe this? A story in the Washington Post reports that kindergarten students in Georgia will be asked to evaluate their teacher’s performance. The five-year-olds’ judgments will help to determine whether their teachers get a bonus or get fired http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/student-surveys-may-help-rate-teachers/2012/05/11/gIQAN78uMU_story.html. Have we lost our minds in this country? At long last, are we totally [...]
How to Get Rich Quick in Education
Most people who go into education don’t expect to make a lot of money. If they had that expectation, they would be demented, since teaching is not known as a profession that is high-paying. But yes, there is a way to get rich in education, and it is not by becoming a teacher. Become a [...]
The Failure of Corporate Reform (2)
It turns about that Houston has been awarding test-based bonuses for years. It turns about that tying test scores to scores has not been good for teachers or students. It turns out that the ratings jump around from year to year. They are inaccurate, unreliable, and unstable. Value-added assessment, as everyone recognizes, creates massive pressure [...]
The Failure of Corporate Reform (continued)
The current era of school reform has nothing to do with improving education or helping kids and everything to do with imposing business values on schools, specifically, (1) subjecting schools to measurements that distort their goals and (2) privatizing public schools so as to disable the public responsibility for public education. This project has many [...]
Will Public Education in Philadelphia Die?
I hope you read my Education Week blog “Bridging Differences” today. It’s here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2012/05/privatizing_public_education_i.html. The Philadelphia plan is the lastest manifestation of the idea that the best way to educate kids is to hand them over to private entrepreneurs. It is au courant and wrong. The drive for privatization is driven by multiple ideologies. One is [...]
Scarsdale Superintendent Blasts Cuomo Plan
Governor Andrew Cuomo once boasted that he was the lobbyist for the children of New York state. One of his signal claims is the new evaluation system for educators. Many educators think it is a very bad system because it relies heavily on standardized test scores. More than 1/3 of the principals of New York [...]
Release the Tests
A parent recently wrote an article in the New York Times explaining why he planned to file a Freedom of Information Act suit to demand the release of all test questions. He is right. Now that the tests have assumed so much importance, the public has a right to know what they were asked. Now [...]
Bad News for TFA
Federal Court reaffirms ruling that alternate route teachers are not “highly qualified” and that it is wrong to concentrate them in districts with high-needs students. Diane Home › News & Comment › News › Press Releases & Kits NINTH CIRCUIT REAFFIRMS RULING THAT TRAINEE TEACHERS NOT INTENDED AS “HIGHLY QUALIFIED” UNDER NCLB Project: Renee v. [...]
Charter School Rent Gouging in NYC
Yoav Gonen of the New York Post discovered a stunning allocation of public funds in Brooklyn. Gonen reported recently that for-profit National Heritage Academies was leasing buildings and then subletting them at a mark-up of 1,000%, charged to the taxpayers. NHA is leasing a school from the Brooklyn Diocese for $246,000, but charges the city [...]
Charter School Boasting in Florida
Frank Biden, who just so happens to be Vice-President Joe Biden’s brother (he told me twice when I met him briefly at Lynn University in Palm Beach County almost two years ago), is selling charter schools. He represents a for-profit chain called Mavericks. The chain makes some big claims. The results are not so impressive. [...]
60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters
I was curious to see how Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes would deal with the Gulen Charter schools in their program last night. The Gulen charters are the largest charter chain in the United States, with something like 135-140 charters. Few people realize that the Gulen charter chain is far larger than the KIPP chain. [...]
What Do NAEP Scores Mean?
Every once in a while, a new set of test scores is released by the National Assessment Governing Board, the federal agency that supervises the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Just a few days ago, the NAEP scores for science were released for 4th and 8th grades, and once again there was woe and [...]
A Test Question Stupider Than Pineapplegate
This has to be the stupidest question of the 2012 testing season. Third grade students in New Jersey were asked to reveal a secret. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57432728/nj-school-exams-secret-question-angers-parents/ What exactly is the point of this question? It does not ask the students to explain what he or she has learned. It is not related to what they were taught [...]
One View of the Reformers’ End Game
No sooner did I blog to question the reformers’ end game than NYC teacher Marc Epstein, who has a doctorate in history, wrote to remind me that he had already asked and answered that question a year ago on Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-epstein/the-education-reformers-e_b_840831.html Marc has lived through the closure of Jamaica High School, the school where [...]
The Reformers’ End Game?
Does anyone know what the reformers’ end game is? What do they think will happen to students and schools and the quality of education if they achieve their goals? How will education get better if teachers live in fear of termination without cause? How will education get better if standardized tests are the sole measure [...]
The Reformers’ Narrative Is Wrong
In a commencement speech, Richard Rothstein challenged the reform narrative. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-fantasies-driving-school-reform-a-primer-for-education-graduates/2012/05/13/gIQA5vwzLU_blog.html First, he demonstrated that the central thesis of “reform” is wrong: American public education is not failing. Second, he demonstrated the dramatic progress made in recent years especially by African American students. Third, he challenged the “reform” claim that scores are influenced solely by teachers. [...]