Is This a Conflict of Interest?
Last spring, Louisiana held a crucial election that determined who would control the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Governor Bobby Jindal–the uber-conservative education reformer with a plan to replace public education with vouchers and charters–wanted to take control.
He rallied his friends and allies to win the decisive seat on the board, which was held by a local attorney, Louella Givens. Jindal’s candidate was Kira Orange Jones, the director of TFA in New Orleans.
Governor Bobby Jindal–the uber-conservative education reformer with a plan to replace public education with vouchers and charters–wanted to take control.
He rallied his friends and allies to win the decisive seat on the board, which was held by a local attorney, Louella Givens. Jindal’s candidate was Kira Orange Jones, the director of TFA in New Orleans.
Four-Step Demolition Polka in North Carolina
An article describing the situation in North Carolina defines the four steps needed to attack and dismantle public education. It is a scenario based on ALEC model legislation, which is now being faithfully implemented in many states.
Step one is to cut the budget of the public schools.
Step two is to divert public school money to privately-managed charter schools.
Step one is to cut the budget of the public schools.
Step two is to divert public school money to privately-managed charter schools.
This Teacher Says No Thanks to the Galvanic Skin Response Bracelet
Readers of this blog are aware of the controversy surrounding the Gates-funded research into the uses of a device to monitor students’ and possibly teachers’ physiological reactions in the classroom. The device is called a “galvanic skin response” monitor. It would be a bracelet with wireless sensor that students would wear to measure how engaged or disengaged they are while in class. The Gates Foundation has spent $1.4 million to sponsor research on this project at Clemson, the National Commission on Time & Learning, and some other unnamed facility. The Clemson grant was described on the Gates website as part of the MET project, implying that it would be used to evaluate teachers, but the foundation said that was not correct and changed the description on the website.
There has been quite a lively discussion of this research on my blog, with a few people saying they welcomed
There has been quite a lively discussion of this research on my blog, with a few people saying they welcomed
Is Pennsylvania the Worst State?
When I asked readers to tell me about the reforms in their own state, I received dozens of replies.
It is hard to say which state has the most destructive reforms. By destructive, I refer to legislation that is anti-teacher, anti-public education, anti-education, and anti-child. This means legislation that strips teachers of any job protections and that prohibits them from bargaining collectively, as well as legislation that bases teacher evacuation on student test scores and that hands public school dollars over to private interests, whether for profit or for private management.
This writer describes what is happening in Pennsylvania, under Tea-Party governor Tom Corbett, who seems determined to rid the state of public education:
It is hard to say which state has the most destructive reforms. By destructive, I refer to legislation that is anti-teacher, anti-public education, anti-education, and anti-child. This means legislation that strips teachers of any job protections and that prohibits them from bargaining collectively, as well as legislation that bases teacher evacuation on student test scores and that hands public school dollars over to private interests, whether for profit or for private management.
This writer describes what is happening in Pennsylvania, under Tea-Party governor Tom Corbett, who seems determined to rid the state of public education:
In Pennsylvania Governor Corbett has been following the ALEC script to the letter. This year he cut educationHow Should Art Be Assessed?In a piece in Education Week, Sara Mead maintains that art can be assessed through multiple-choice standardized tests. In defense of multiple-choice testing of the arts, she writes: The point of arts education shouldn’t be to teach children to simply “enjoy art”–we are, after all free to choose which art we enjoy, or whether we enjoy it at all. Rather, it should be to give children the skills and background knowledge to experience art or music in an informed and more than superficial sense–much of which is about understanding and identifying concepts, vocabulary, and techniques in ways that can be assessed through multiple choice assessments. A major reason that high-quality education needs to include the arts is certain arts-related information–such as names and work of key artists and composers, specific musical or artistic vocabulary and meanings, and artistic movements over time and their relationship to broader historical and |