Diane Ravitch's blog:
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Diane Ravitch's blog
A Teacher Talks About Reality
In response to my blog about the latest Voucher Follies, this teacher wrote as follows: There’s this little thing about miracles. They are miraculous. Now, don’t tell me. I know. That’s saying the same thing. The thing is, miracles are not normal. They are the stuff that converts normal humans into saints. Saints are rare, [...]
Teachers in Australia Stand Up to Bullies
Gary Stager, an expert in technology and constructivist pedagogy, sent a bulletin from Australia about the latest events there. He notes that American teachers have been subject to a campaign of bullying, vilification and shaming, that goes beyond name-calling to pink slips, cuts in their compensation and benefits, and removal of what were once standard [...]
Voucher Follies in Louisiana (continued)
When Louisiana’s voucher plan begins in September, the Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans plans to enroll an additional 214 voucher students. The addition of these students will add $1.8 million in taxpayer dollars to the school’s coffers. Upperroom Bible Church Academy is already a voucher-receiving school. New Orleans has had a small voucher [...]
Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Crazier…
I opened the following email and at first I thought it was a prank or, as another reader put it, an article taken from The Onion. See what you think: —–Original Message—– From: Leonie Haimson To: nyceducationnews ; paa news Sent: Fri, Jun 8, 2012 10:08 am Subject: [nyceducationnews] Gates Foundation: one more step into [...]
The Case of Melinda Gates’ Statement, Solved
I asked my readers if Melinda Gates was right when she said that an effective teacher would get three times the “gains” of an ineffective reader and if you knew the source of this statistic or claim. I had many thoughtful replies. Many people had heard the claim, which was made not only by Melinda [...]
Is Melinda Gates Right?
When Melinda Gates was interviewed on the PBS Newshour on June 4, she said something that surprised me. I will give you the full quote, which I copied from the Newshour website. I was surprised because I never heard that claim, I don’t know whose research she was citing or if it even exists. I [...]
Is the Jindal Voucher Program a Boondoggle?
I don’t mean to pick on Governor Bobby Jindal but it is fascinating to watch the evolution (or should I say “the creation”) of his voucher program. First came the news that many of the schools that are taking voucher students had no facilities or teachers. Then we learned that many of the little schools [...]
Outrage in Oklahoma
Officials in the Oklahoma Department of Education posted on its website the personal information of students who received an exemption from state testing. The names, date of birth, test scores and disabilities of these students were made public. To get an exemption from the state test, the students waived their rights under federal privacy law, [...]
When Parents Awaken: Game Over
Gotta love these parents. Here is a brilliant comment to an earlier blog about parent power. What will Gates and Broad and the U.S. Department of Education and the governors and state legislatures do when parents get engaged and angry? What will they do when parents rise up and say, “Enough is enough,” as parents [...]
Parent to Pearson: Let My Child Learn
I received the following comment from a parent. There are all too few opportunities for parent voices to be heard. One such space is the website www.parentvoicesny.org I am glad to provide the opportunity for this parent to express frustration at the way that standardized testing and data-driven instruction have overtaken teaching and learning. “As [...]
Is Jindal’s Voucher Program a Boondoggle?
I don’t mean to pick on Governor Bobby Jindal but it is fascinating to watch the evolution (or should I say “the creation”) of his voucher program. First came the news that many of the schools that are taking voucher students had no facilities or teachers. Then we learned that many of the little schools [...]
Who Will Take the Blame?
I wrote earlier today about clueless policymakers who think they are helping struggling students by raising standards. They believe fervently that the students will try harder and get higher test scores if the passing mark is raised. A reader responded: A similar policy is being rolled out in LAUSD. The total number of credits [...]
Gulen (Or Not) Charter Schools in the News
Three charter schools in Georgia affiliated with followers of Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen defaulted on bonds and were subject to public audit. The audit revealed, according to the New York Times, that “the schools improperly granted hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to businesses and groups, many of them with ties to the Gulen [...]
When Policymakers Are Clueless
Over the past decade of mayor control in New York City, the newly established Department of Education has had a free hand to do whatever it wanted with the city’s 1.1 million students, free of any concern about the reaction of parents, teachers, principals, or the public. One reform after another has rolled out of [...]
The High Cost of Privatizing Special Education
As the movement to privatize public schools grows stronger, we should pay attention to the costs of privatization. Those who push for privatization also claim that private business operates more efficiently than government and will thus save taxpayers’ dollars. If only it were true. The latest example in the privatization sage was a story in [...]
Pearsonizing Our Children
On Tuesday, I posted a blog at Bridging Differences (Education Week) called “The Pearsonizing of the American Mind.” The title was a reference to Allan Bloom’s bestselling book of the 1980s, The Closing of the American Mind. His book referred to the insidious ways that popular culture interferes with the goals of liberal education. My [...]
Parents Vs. Goliath
This morning, parent groups in New York City are leading a protest against high-stakes testing at the headquarters of Pearson. They call their action “a field trip against field tests.” It happens to be a professional development day, so many parents plan to bring their children. Half a dozen different parent groups are coordinating their [...]
The Obama Campaign Wants to Know
A reader told me that she received an email from the Obama campaign asking her how the administration’s education policies have affected her. I received the same email, as have, I assume, thousands or millions of others. So, yes, please tell the campaign how Race to the Top has affected you. Let them know how [...]
After Wisconsin
The question before the June 5 recall election in Wisconsin was whether big money would be enough to carry Governor Scott Walker to victory. Now we know. Money was more than enough. When I heard the results last night, I was disappointed but not surprised. The polls were discouraging, and they were right. People power [...]
Will Technology Cut the Budget?
The answer to this question, says this reader, is no. Libertarians and folks on the right believe that technology will make it possible to replace teachers with machines. Machines don’t need health care or pensions. And their salaries don’t go up in a step schedule. When the machines get obsolete, you junk them. With teachers, [...]
What Are Our Priorities?
A reader on my Education Week blog Bridging Differences sent the following comment: Examining the PA governor’s budget for 2012-2013, testing monies have increased from $32 million to $52 million, while dual enrollment payments have gone from $7 million to 0 (funds that enable talented high school students to take community college courses). Elementary science [...]
A Tireless Advocate for Public Education and Equity
One of the wonderful rewards of my travels is that I have met people in every community who are staunch defenders of public education. Most want to help but they don’t know how. In part, this is because there is no national organization leading the charge to stop privatization. But nonetheless, there are many people [...]
Don’t Trust the Lists of “Best” Anything
I enjoy reading Michael Winerip in the New York Times every Monday. He always finds a way of writing about education issues that avoids jargon and goes to the heart of the matter. He demonstrates every week that a probing intellect is of greater value than any sort of metrics one can devise when judging [...]
Is Blended Learning a Silver Bullet?
I just read that Indianapolis has okayed the opening of 19 new charter schools based on the concept of “blended learning.” The schools will lean heavily on technology to reduce the teaching staff and save money while promising higher test scores. Embedded in this approach is the belief that computers do a better job of [...]
Should Duncan Apologize?
Secretary Arne Duncan has been on the road selling his idea of “RESPECT” for teachers, but teachers don’t feel any respect from the U.S. Department of Education. Teacher John Thompson has called on Secretary Duncan to apologize for the ways he has encouraged and promoted the currently hostile environment surrounding teachers. The Metlife Survey of [...]
Was I Mean to Eli Broad?
This morning my former colleague Mike Petrilli at the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute wrote a paean of praise in honor of billionaire Eli Broad. He began it by saying: It wouldn’t be super-hard to poke fun at Eli Broad. (Diane Ravitch did a mean-spirited version of that when she called him and his peers [...]
Vouchers and the Future of Public Education
I debated whether to give this blog the title you see or to call it “State Commissioner of Education John White Acknowledges That He Doesn’t Know How to Improve Schools.” I felt a sense of outrage as I read the latest account of the Louisiana voucher program. Since Bobby Jindal is already doing what Mitt [...]
Why the Federal Tutoring Program Is Failing
An expose in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune uncovered fraud, waste, and incompetence in the federal program for tutoring called Supplementary Educational Services. This program is part of No Child Left Behind, and it created the equivalent of a voucher program for after-school tutoring. Instead of encouraging schools to provide trained and certified teachers for the extra [...]
What Alabama Really Needs
Alabama is one of our poorest states. It has a large number of children living in poverty in urban areas but also in rural areas. This past spring, there was a heavy-duty political effort to pass charter school legislation in Alabama. The effort failed, but is likely to be revived in the next session. Charter [...]
A Courageous Teacher
Idaho is ga-ga for computers and online learning. State Superintendent Tom Luna has made online learning the centerpiece of his “reform” agenda. Tom Luna has close ties to the for-profit online industry. Teachers welcome computers and technology in the classroom, but Luna takes it to an extreme. He views technology as a cost-saving device, so [...]
Why Do We Treat the Tests As Scientific Instruments?
I posted a blog called “A Reader Wants to Know,” in which a teacher asked how he could be evaluated on test scores when the students were in the middle of the second semester. How were the scores affected by the teacher of the previous years? Other teachers have asked how they can be evaluated [...]
For Shame, Penny Pritzker
One of the most powerful videos I have yet seen is making its rounds of the Internet. I urge you to watch it. Matt Farmer, a parent of children in the Chicago public schools, addresses a rally of the Chicago Teachers Union, where he “cross-examines” Penny Pritzker, the billionaire member of the Chicago Board of [...]
Drum Roll: The Bunkum Awards
Just days ago, the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado announced the winners of its annual Bunkum Awards. These are awards given to the worst educational research of the previous year. Being mundane or trivial is not enough to win these awards. They go only to “prime exemplars of incompetent science.” The [...]
Newsflash: Bloomberg Backs Down on Social Promotion
The Bloomberg administration in New York City made national headlines in March 2004 when the Mayor unilaterally decided to end social promotion. He told the city’s “Panel on Educational Policy” (the successor to the once-powerful Board of Education which Bloomberg turned into a toothless group) that students should not be promoted if they scored at [...]
Applause for Teachers
On Saturday afternoon, I went to a matinee of the Broadway show “Godspell” with family. It is a very engaging show with a wonderful young cast. I enjoyed their boundless energy. Most of them seemed to be just a few years out of high school or college, and so very talented and attractive. If any [...]
Should Community Schools Survive?
Reporter Jaisal Noor has created a gripping radio documentary about the fight to save neighborhood schools. He lets the “reformers” have their say. They want to close down the so-called failing schools and replace them with new schools that won’t be failing schools, at least not for a few years. Then they too can be [...]
Calling Jeb Bush! Calling Arne Duncan! Talk to this teacher! Revised!
Here is a comment from a first-year teacher who knows more than the “reformers” who wrote the laws in Florida. I can go one better — in my district here in southwestern Florida 50% of my final evaluation for the year will be based upon the test scores of children in grades 4 and 5. [...]