UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-7-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Debating Testing

by dianerav

The New York Times recently ran a feature debating testing today.

There were my favorites in the debate.

This by Leonie Haimson.

This by Pedro Noguera.

Both make excellent points. Tests are overused and misused, as Leonie says; and accountability should be for those at the top, not just those in the classroom as Pedro says.

Standardized testing as mis-used today has become an obstacle to good education. Judging teacher quality by these flawed measures is ruining education.

Do First-Year Teachers Become Ineffective?

by dianerav

In response to the post about the “irreplaceables,” in which the New Teacher Project claims that an average first-year teacher is more effective than 40 percent of teachers with seven or more years of experience, teachers are asking the inevitable questions.
Why is education the only field in which experience is undesirable? In what other line of work would a first-year practitioner be considered better than those with years of experience? When you go to a hospital, do you want to see a doctor or a first-year intern or, for that matter, a new college graduate with no medical training at all?

The Future of National Board Certification of Teachers

by dianerav

Nancy Flanagan is a nationally known teacher and teacher-advocate. I am honored to post her comment here because she has deep authority. And what she has to say is alarming. Pearson has taken over the National Board Certification process! Will they align it with their tests and the Common Core, where they are funded by Gates to develop online resources?

I am a National Board Certified Teacher. I also worked for the National Board as a certificate developer, assessor, and in their teacher leadership and policy outreach divisions, then returned to the classroom. I have How Charters Prosper by dianerav This is a good one. Florida charter chain Charter USA is expanding into Indiana, where it will run three charter schools. It is a for-profit operator. The states where it operates don’t require it to spend any minimum on educating kids. So it has enough money left over in its profits to make Who Is Really an Irreplaceable Teacher? by dianerav We have lately heard that certain teachers are “irreplaceable.” So was the conclusion of a report by The New Teacher Project, an organization founded by Michelle Rhee to place new teachers in the classroom. TNTP always thinks big ideas that will push out experienced teachers and make room for the new teachers they recruit. TNPT is enamored with test scores as the bottom-line measure of good teaching because they are

When Merit Pay Went Wrong

by dianerav

A thought-provoking comment by Jere Hochman, the remarkable superintendent of the Bedford, New York, school district:
Merit pay existed well before the corporate interest in the ’80s / ’90s, the Governors’ attention in the ’90s, the Federal Intrusion in ’01, and the recent corporate takeover of politicians and state education. (Hopefully an unintended consequence of RTTT).
Several school districts had “merit” pay plans in place in the ’70s and ’80s with at least two presumptions: 1) 

What Charters Do to Public Schools

by dianerav

There is a growing danger in the expansion of charter schools. Propelled by the Obama administration’s Race to the Top, charters are increasing wherever they are legal (they are not authorized in nine states). They are supposed to be fonts of innovation, but most are just focused on test scores, to prove they are better than public schools.
But the danger is that when students leave for charter schools, those left behind are disproportionately ELL, special ed, and struggling students. This threatens the future of public education, which enrolls most students in America.
Competition was supposed to make schools better, but it doesn’t work that way. The charters are siphoning off

But He Didn’t Mention His Test Scores

by dianerav

An amazing exchange took place on this blog.
I posted a comment by a reader who gratefully remembered four teachers in the Chicago public schools who literally changed his life.
One of the four teachers responded.
And the original writer wrote back:

Wow! Thank you, Miss Schwartz!Of the teachers that I mentioned, you actually impacted my life the most. At the time, I was primarily into writing, but I learned from you that, in order to Why Governor Christie Can’t Wait by dianerav As this article shows, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has decided that the state needs charter schools so badly that he can’t wait for the Legislature to act. He plans to do by regulation what the Legislature has thus far failed to do: To allow more charter schools and possibly an online charter school as well. What’s the hurry? The evidence is clear that charters don’t get different results from public schools when they enroll the same Teachers, Join with Parents by dianerav A reader writes–and I agree with him. A good place to start is to go to the website of Parents Across America. This is a national organization of activist parents who understand what is happening. They oppose high-stakes testing and privatization and they support teachers and professionalism. They are smart and they are fearless. Learn about PAA and reach out to the parents you know. You have interests in common: You both care about Note to New York Times: What Motivates Teachers by dianerav In response to our discussion about merit pay, this teacher writes: We become teachers for the rewarding feeling we get from touching childrens lives, not for the money. If that feeling is stripped from us, what or who will be left? The Ten Elements of Digital Learning by dianerav Doing some research on for-profit virtual schools, I come across study after study about their poor performance, high attrition rates, and low graduation rates. But then I discovered a document produced by Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellent Education and Bob Wise’s Alliance for Excellent Education. It is called “the Ten Elements of Digital Learning” and it is a rallying cry for deregulation and Why She Left Teaching by dianerav I don’t think teachers who are passionate about teaching should quit, no matter how awful the circumstances. I know it’s easy for me to say, because I am not there. But it is important to keep experience and wisdom in the profession. A Florida Teacher Describes A Plan That Worked by dianerav In response to another reader, this Florida teacher describes a plan for teacher professionalism that worked very well but was de-funded by the Legislature. In Florida, we used to have a system in place for such merit: It was pay for National Board Certification. Teachers went through a very rigorous process of evaluations, lesson planning, test-taking, etc. over a year and submitted their work to a national organization to be evaluated. It was a tough process, and not every teacher  A Nomination for Florida’s Commissioner by dianerav A reader has a suggestion for the next Comissioner of Education in Florida. I am mentioning this because he made me laugh out loud. More than once. I actually think that Bill Gates might like this job. He could try his bracelets on the kids, and use Florida as a kind of laboratory for reform. Florida always scores near the bottom with testing anyway, so what the hell. It is all the fault of the unions…oh I forgot, they don’t have unions, sorry. It may be something to do with the heat and  This School Took NY Times’ Advice: Carrots & Sticks for All by dianerav The New York Times was late in recommending carrots and sticks for teachers. Here is a school that is doing it already (satire alert!): http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/08/grin-and-bear-it-teachers-paddled-in.html