Demand Congress Give Parents a Seat at the Ed Table
Parents Across America are disappointed they haven't been able to obtain an invitation to testify or have a seat at a seat at the table as our elected representatives in Washington debate and discuss "state efforts to expand parental engagement" - code for how to get parents to work for trigger laws that will put a bullet right through the heart of their public school system.
This PAA press release is a shot across the bow from a group of passionate parents who still believe they can make a difference and get lawmakers to see the truth or stop the attack on public education and teachers. However, make no mistake, anyone who challenges the new corporate education deform model
'The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman' now available online
*Waiting for "Superman" would have audiences believe that free-market competition, standardized tests, destroying teacher unions, and the proliferation of charter schools are just what this country needs to create great public schools. — Grassroots Education Movement* Today Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) announced their landmark picture released last year, "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman," was now available online. Don't forget to visit the website for a wealth of resources to accompany the film, like a brochure for showings. This is such an important film... more »
The Cubberley Tradition Continues at Stanford and Pearson
One of the classics in the history of American education is Raymond Callahan's 1962 EDUCATION AND THE CULT OF EFFICIENCY. In the free Chapter 5 available here, you can read about the various strategies and tactics that were devised a hundred years by the social control and social efficiency zealots who were attempting to take over American schools and run them like Henry Ford's assembly lines. That's right--they largely succeeded. If you have not read the history of American education, anyone could end up believing there is something new or reformy in the endless stream of corpo... more »
Yogi Berra reveals a problem with standards
Submitted to Florida Today, May 18, 2012 US Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged Florida to adopt new textbooks, because “content is changing not annually but weekly if not daily.” (“Florida's education secretary questions state's textbook plans,” May 18). In other words, Secretary Duncan agrees with Yogi Berra: "It's hard to predict, especially about the future." If this is true, why is the Secretary insisting on common standards that lock a curriculum in place for years? Stephen Krashen original article: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120518/NEWS13/305180023/Florida-s... more »
Krash Course #9: Accountability: A Quiz
Comments posted on my recent piece at The Answer Sheet, "What teachers don’t need (but are getting anyway)," include a typical refrain best * challenged* by this posting from jdman2: "Doesn't it seem strange that the issue always degenerates into the question of 'accountability' when those that do the questioning will never be held accountable if their --opinion-- is proved wrong?" In fact, another posting, from WashingtonDame, directly accused me of calling for no teacher accountability: "In other words, 'I don't need to be accountable to anybody, including the parents of my childr... more »
The testing industry: self-appointed non-elected national school board?
The hiring of David Coleman as its next president is consistent with the College Board's aggressive push into the K-12 assessment arena. Unlike the university admissions testing market where the Board has little or no growth potential due to the end of the baby boom echo and competition from ACT, K-12 has been flush with money and demand for more exams as a result of programs such as "Race to the Top" and NCLB Waivers. Under Gaston Caperton, who was hired with the goal of "growing the bottom line" for the company, the Board aggressively expanded its Advanced Placement program of h... more »
Not quite what I was trying to say: Comments about the Common Core Standards and Tests
Not quite what I was trying to say: Comments about the Common Core Standards and Tests Stephen Krashen I was quoted in an article in the NY Times about David Coleman’s appointment as head of the College Board. I had sent the reporter written statements and a few of my short articles before the interview, but like most reporters, she preferred the oral interview. Coleman is “an architect of the common core curriculum standards,” so I was asked what I thought of the standards. (I was not informed about the purpose of the article. I did not know Coleman was appointed head of the Colle...more »
McIntyre Uses Fear Card Against Knoxville Teachers in Hopes of Building Support for Merit Pay Scheme
Despite well-funded astroturf groups, the support of the Chamber of Commerce and the State Business Roundtable, and the unceasing positive spin by local corporate media, Eli Broad's Jim McIntyre's budget plan in Knoxville is in trouble. Today teachers will be held after school to hear new scare tactics and threats about what will happen if McIntyre does not get his $35 million for a merit pay [sic] plan that has a proven record of failure. Sent to me by a Knoxville teacher, this is McIntyre's recent letter to teachers, his "colleagues." Bolds are those of the teacher who sent t... more »
Opt-Out Parent in NJ: . . . the "nice" strategy got me nowhere
Posted at Opt Out of the State Test: Jean Schutt McTavishWe are in week 2 of the opt out for my 4th grader in NJ. We met with the Superintendent and the Board of Education last night. The Superintendent seemed embarrassed that he had threatened me with a report of truancy to the child welfare agency in NJ. He avoided me like the plague. My sister tag teamed with me, so she talked to him for a good hour. Everyone seemed to agree with our position. They were just afraid of the strategy and the effect it could have on our town's accountability status. 97% of the kids in our town gradu... more »
National Association of Charter School Authorizers Outed as ALEC Funder
NACSA is the most visible and well-heeled of the corporate charter front groups posing as a professional organization dedicated to quality and oversight of charter schools. What they were, and are, is the corporate cadillac of lobbying and pressure charter privateers laser-focused on removing any barrier at the national, state, or local level to expanding school privatization via charter school. NACSA also gets millions from cash-starved states, who hand over part of their federal grant money to fund NACSA, where big chunks of the cash have been funneled to ALEC to buy legislatio... more »
The NAEP Science Results: Inconsistent with American success in science: Are the Achievement Levels too high? And why ELLs scores are low.
The NAEP Science Results: Inconsistent with American success in science: Are the Achievement Levels too high? And why ELLs scores are low. Stephen Krashen The NAEP Science grade 8 results have been announced, and, as usual, it has stimulated reports about how poorly our students have done, accompanied by pious pronouncements about the need to improve science education. The problem, we are told, is that only 32% of the students scored at or above the “proficient” level and only 65% performed at or above the “basic” level. This sounds terrible. It has been argued, however, that the N...more »
Rhee-jected!
*From Daily Kos:* There's good news for public education in Alabama and Connecticut, as the Michelle Rhee breed of privatizers and corporate reformers were thwarted in both states, at least partially and at least for now. InAlabama, "a radical, far-reaching charter bill that would have allowed wholesale privatization of public education in the state" was declared dead in the state House for the session just ending. And in Connecticut, legislators fought Gov. Dannel Malloy's initial, teacher-scapegoating plan and gave teachers unions a voice in arriving at acompromise. Michelle Rhee a... more »
Corporate Education Reform: the Status Quo That "never works and never dies"
ht to Stan Karp. From NewJerseynewsroom.com: BY PAT SUMMERSNEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM If the growing groundswell against the country’s so-called “education reformers” has a philosophical leader, it is Dr. Diane Ravitch, a gray-haired, soft-spoken and mightily armed education historian and author. Earlier this week in New Brunswick, Ravitch — now research professor of education at NYU and author most recently of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" — brought her audience to its feet more than once as she quietly, but with deadly force, demolished the cause and case of ... more »
Freedom of Information Request for Pearson Tests
When the pink slime was discovered in the meat by large corporate processing plants and we realized what was actually in our food, there was outrage and it was banned, 1,2,3. Well, it's time the public demands to know what is being fed to children in those standardized tests. But before we let anyone see the holy, secret documents, we should demand that each and every politician be required to take the high school exit exam in his or her state -- or perhaps the 8th grade test. The scores should be made public and those who fail should be labeled failures, in need of improvement a... more »
550 Parents Opt Out in Snohomish, Washington
We all know that teachers can advocate for children, organize opposition, and try to make the abusive testing environments as humane as possible. But we know, too, that parents hold the key to bringing down the high-stakes testing madness that has corrupted our schools and damaged learning for a whole generation of kids. Is it worth it? Parents say no, in ever-increasing numbers. When we get enough to make these tests as psychometrically pointless as they are pedagogically meaningless now, then things will change overnight. Sign up at United Opt Out National for all the latest.... more »