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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Diane in the Afternoon 8-22-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:




American College Grads Face Weak Job Market

Many young college graduates in the U.S. are either unemployed or underemployed, working at jobs that don’t call upon the skills or knowledge they acquired while getting a bachelor’s degree. And many are burdened with student loans they can’t repay.
President Obama has set a goal to raise our college graduation rates to become first in the world by 2020, but 


Why Are So Many College Grads in China Underemployed?

A reader sent this article. It made me wonder how many college graduates in the U.S. are unemployed or underemployed. I have met recent college graduates who work in fast-food restaurants or who are waiting on tables or in other jobs that don’t require a college degree. How unusual is that? Anyone have anything other than anecdotes about friends and family?
  • Updated August 22, 2012, 10:59 a.m. ET

China’s Graduates Face Glut

Mismatch Between Their Skills, Job Market’s Needs Results in 


Where Are the Unions?

This teacher (from the west) agrees with a previous post that the real goal of the reform movement is to do away with unions. That would leave them clear sailing to cut budgets even more, lay off teachers, increase class size, encourage for-profit ventures, and privatize at will, with no one powerful enough to stop them. What is sometimes called the “neoliberal” agenda is actually the old rightwing agenda, and it starts with union-busting and concludes with privatization.


Here is My Interview on CNN

Many readers have contacted me to ask why CNN has not posted Randi Kaye’s interview with me, rebutting Michelle Rhee’s assertions.
This reader, Michael Brocoum, made a copy of the interview and posted it on Youtube. Here it is.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the interview began with a question about the National Assessment of Educational Progress (you will note that it is misspelled by CNN as the National Assessment of Educational


Is This the True Goal of “Reform” Today?

I have often been struck by the uneven playing field that policymakers and legislators establish for charter schools and public schools. The public schools are increasingly strangled by regulations and by high-stakes testing and punitive evaluations, at the same time that the charter schools are exempt from most of the strangulation. I have heard many times from principals who say that they want to turn their public school into a charter so they can escape the tentacles of regulation that are wrapped tight around their school. And I have wondered whether the purpose of “reform” was to make public schools fail while the deregulated charter schools


Can You Answer Her Question re CCSS?

Kipp Dawson invites others to answer her question:
A question for each of you, and anyone else. In its Winter 2011 issue, the American Federation of Teachers magazine, “American Educator” carried several articles and an editorial touting the benefits of Common Core. One argument in particular grabbed my attention and made sense, at least on the surface. The point was, if we are concerned about children in underfunded schools and in isolated (rural) settings, should we not embrace Common Core national standards and curriculum (by whatever name) to ensure that these children’s education