Diane Ravitch's blog
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Diane Ravitch's blog
Judge Invalidates Florida Evaluations
This just in. The Florida Education Association and two named teacher-plaintiffs sued to block VAM because the process is confusing and the state has provided inadequate guidance. A judge agreed with the plaintiffs. The state education department will either appeal or have to redo the rules and clarify the way VAM is supposed to work. [...]
What You Need to Know about Chester Upland
A reader comments on previous posts (see here and here) about Governor Corbett’s appointment of a voucher advocate to be the “chief recovery officer” for financially stressed Chester Upland, Pennsylvania. This is a district that allocates 1/3 of its scarce budget to a for-profit charter school that pays its owner a management fee of $16 [...]
A Teacher’s Dilemma
This letter from a veteran teacher should be read and discussed in every TFA institute, during the five weeks of training. Corps members should take a pledge never to take a job away from a well-qualified, experienced teacher who was laid off to save money and to hire TFA: All I ever wanted from teaching [...]
Letters to the Editor about Bruni Article on Parent Trigger and Unions
Teachers speak up to refute claims of reformers. The reformers assert that unions are the root problem of American education because they protect bad teachers. The answer: Get rid of unions so wise administrators or charter school operators can fire bad teachers. One letter here says it is the job of administrators to deny tenure [...]
Will Helicopters Improve Student Outcomes?
Bruce Baker offers his comments on the latest study of vouchers. As usual for him, he raises provocative questions about what the study says and doesn’t explain at all.
Why Charters and Public Schools Are “Apples and Oranges”
The Texas Business and Education Council commissioned a major review of high-performing charter schools by Dr. Ed Fuller. The question addressed by Fuller is whether the charters are enrolling the same kinds of students who enroll in nearby public schools. The final conclusions included this summary: This study is a preliminary examination of high-profile/high-performing charter [...]
Do Educators Have a Political Party?
Paul Thomas of Furman University says that educators have no political party, because no political party today supports educators. The Republican party is downright hostile to public education and to teachers. Romney’s education agenda calls for privatization. It is the most radical rightwing document of any major political party in my memory (and I have [...]
The Power of Involved Parents
This parent writes about how he and his wife decided to enroll their children in an urban public school and to remain closely involved in their schooling and their lives. As black parents, they knew all the risks, and they decided not to move to the suburbs. As college graduates, they wanted the best for [...]
Media Spin About Vouchers
The Wall Street Journal has an odd article today trumpeting “A Generation of School Voucher Success” by voucher advocate Paul Peterson of Harvard and Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institution. The article is based on a study of a privately funded voucher program in New York City and its effects on college enrollments of those who [...]
Governor Corbett’s Privatization Agenda in Pennsylvania
Thanks to a reader who forwarded this fascinating and informative article about the situation in Chester Upland, Pennsylvania. I posted previously about the Governor’s appointment of a “recovery officer” to help the district get back on its feet. The Governor appointed a prominent advocate for vouchers and charters to a position that puts him in [...]
Segregation, the Black-White Achievement Gap and the Romneys
This post was written by Richard Rothstein. Rothstein has written many important books and articles about education, including Class and Schools and Grading Education. Richard is a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, where this piece is cross-posted. We cannot remedy the large racial achievement gaps in American education if we continue to close [...]
A Modest Proposal for School Reform
Joanne Yatvin is an experienced teacher, principal, superintendent, literacy expert, author, and former president of the National Council of Teachers of English. She wrote the following post for this blog: Since we are deep into the era of school reform, I’d like to offer my own plan for reforming America’s schools. Although I am not [...]
A Brief History of Seniority, Or, “You’re Fired, Mr. Chips!”
This article was published last year. It was written by Marc Epstein, a social studies teacher and dean at Jamaica High School. Marc has a Ph.D. in Japanese naval history. Since he wrote this article, the New York City Department of Education closed Jamaica High School but a court stayed the closing. The city has [...]
Will the Real President Obama Please Stand Up? UPDATE
Josh Greenman of the New York Daily News writes today that President Obama has been terrific on education reform issues: he has challenged teachers’ unions, pushed for merit pay, encouraged the expansion of charter schools, and used billions of dollars in stimulus funds (via Race to the Top) to promote an agenda that either President [...]
Pressuring Students to Get High Scores Produces Worse Outcomes
A new study published in London concludes that students perform better in school–both academically and in their behavior–when teachers focus on learning rather than on test scores, results, and competition. Children’s attitudes and behaviour improve – along with their results — when teachers and schools are more concerned about helping them learn than pushing them [...]
Why Is There a Movement to End Tenure?
Kenneth Bernstein recently retired as a social studies teacher. He is Nationally Board Certified. He blogs at The Daily Kos and elsewhere about education and other topics. He wrote for this blog in response to the discussion about tenure: Tenure is nothing more than a guarantee of due process in disciplinary matters It seems to [...]
In Praise of Peter DeWitt
Peter DeWitt is an elementary school principal in upstate New York who blogs for Education Week. Whatever he writes is grounded in deep experience and respect for students, parents, and teachers. Peter is especially concerned with the social and emotional well-being of his students. That puts him out of the mainstream today, where the only [...]
Can You Imagine This Scenario?
Imagine a governor rushing to the aid of a financially distressed public school district by naming a voucher advocate to run it. Imagine that this new manager–with unprecedented power to determine the future of the district–has worked as a consultant to the big charter school in the district. Imagine that the district pays one-third of [...]
A Trifecta of Reform Rhetoric
Here you can see a rare event: a trifecta of school reform rhetoric. A spokesman for Jeb Bush’s organization writing an article praising the “parent trigger” in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, espousing the principles of the rightwing ALEC. This is a splendid demonstration of how the rightwing carefully uses progressive terminology to promote its [...]
How NYC Abandoned Integration
A good article in today’s New York Daily News by Michael Brick, who recalls going to an integrated public school in Austin, Texas. Brick compares his own experience in Austin with New York City’s complete abandonment of integration today. An interesting reflection on where we are heading as a society.
A Challenge to KIPP
Anyone who questions the slow–now rapid–advance of the charter school industry, anyone who wonders whether our nation is in process of developing (or re-creating) a dual school system, will sooner or later get the KIPP question: Doesn’t KIPP prove definitively that poverty doesn’t matter? Doesn’t KIPP prove that charter schools are superior to public schools? [...]
Why Unions Protect Tenure
LG responds to another reader who suggested that eliminating unions and tenure was “part of the solution” to reinventing education: “I can tell you that eliminating teacher unions is part of the solution, not THE solution. Self-interest groups have to lay down their swords. There are so many structural changes we need to make to [...]
Everyone in Jeb Bush’s Office Supports Parent Trigger
Florida blogger Coach Bob Sikes notes that a petition supporting the parent trigger law has been signed by 71 people. Most of them seem to work in and around the headquarters of Jeb Bush. His executive director signed twice. Ex-governor Bush promoted the parent trigger last spring and every Florida parent organization opposed it. He’s [...]
President of the Adelanto School Board Challenges “Parent Revolution”
As you may recall, there is a bitter battle under way in Adelanto, California. Parent Revolution, an organization funded by Gates, Walton, and Broad, has been in search of a school that could be used to fire the “parent trigger.” The parent trigger law was passed in January 2010, and in the past 2 and [...]
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 [...]
Why Are So Many College Grads in China Underemployed?
A reader sent this article from the Wall Street Journal. 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
What Happens When Performance Assessments Work Better than Tests?
A small group of public high schools in New York City managed to get exempted from the testing regime of the New York Regents many years ago. And they have proven themselves. These schools use performance assessments rather than the standardized tests of the Regents (although they do take the Regents exam in English language [...]
What We Can Learn from the New PDK/Gallup Poll
The annual Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup poll on education was released today. The sponsors characterize public opinion as split, which is true for many issues. We must see this poll in the context of an unprecedented, well-funded campaign to demonize public schools and their teachers over at least the past two years, and by some reckoning, [...]
If Test Scores Are the Measure of Education…
If test scores are the measure of education (and I don’t think they are or that they should be), then our present course of “reform” is a bust. This is what FAIRTest had to say about the ACT scores, released today: STAGNANT ACT RESULTS, GROWING RACIAL [...]
Will the Gates’ Agenda of Gathering Data about Teachers Abolish Poverty?
A previous post referred to Anthony Cody’s dialogue with the Gates Foundation about their insistence that teachers are the central problem in education today, not poverty. Anthony patiently explained why poverty matters, and the foundation’s response was noncommittal, really just a repetition of stale slogans like “poverty is not destiny.” Not surprisingly, some bearers of [...]
Does Common Core Affect Pre-K?
There has been discussion on the blog about whether the Common Core Standards include pre-K, and if not, whether they are nonetheless influencing them. A reader posed that question to me and I referred it to Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education specialist who recently retired after teaching at Lesley University for many years. Hi [...]
From Inputs to Outputs
Diana Senechal reacted to an earlier post about standardization: When I first read Robert D. Shepherd’s comment, I asked myself, “who is this wise, knowledgeable person?” I returned to his comment and reread it several times. He explains the core madness in all of this: that the starndards are not curricula but will be (and [...]
Why Standardization Fails
Robert D. Shepherd has been in the education publishing industry for many years. When I was writing The Language Police a decade ago, Shepherd was a reliable guide to the vagaries of the publishing world. I also found him to be an acute observer of language and literature. I am happy he wrote this to [...]
Great Stuff to Read
I thank the readers of this blog for your patience, your support, your engagement, and your diligence. I know that you must sometimes (often?) feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of posts that I send your way. Sometimes I wonder if I am wasting your time and mine, and then I get a comment or [...]
Is Rick Scott Too Late to the Party?
Governor Rick Scott of Florida is taking out ads saying he too is opposed to high-stakes testing. Of course, Jeb Bush travels the nation boasting of the wonders created by the same high-stakes testing regime perfected on his watch as governor. But Coach Bob Sikes, Florida blogger, says that Scott’s apology is too little, too [...]
Denial as a Reform Strategy
Reformers constantly deny any evidence that contradicts their narrative. They insist that our public schools are failing, despite the clear evidence in the national assessments that test scores have never been higher for every group tested. They insist that merit pay is necessary, even though it has never “worked,” in any sense of the word, [...]
When Charters Enroll Students with Disabilities
Bruce Baker has studied charter enrollments in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Houston, and New York City. Matthew DiCarlo observed that the GAO report actually understated the disparity in charter enrollments of students with disabilities, by comparing charters to the nation, instead of to the district where they are located. Urban districts have higher rates of students [...]
Do Charters Serve the Same Students? No.
I posted previously about Bruce Baker’s study of charter schools in New York City and Houston. It is such a clear and concise analysis of which students enroll in charters and how much charters spend, I am posting it again here. Charters in these two cities do not enroll the same proportion of students with [...]
TFA Alum Criticizes Obsession with College Readiness
A friend sent this provocative article, written by a TFA alum. He questions whether TFA’s focus on college readiness (which apparently begins in kindergarten) makes sense. I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with him. I believe that teachers must treat all students with equal respect and have high expectations for all. But I have [...]
Who Is Promoting Vouchers in Pennsylvania?
An astonishing $6 million plus has been pumped into the voucher campaign in Pennsylvania in the last year alone. As this article notes, Tea Party activists were getting cold feet about vouchers because they objected that vouchers might be too generous to poor children. Not to worry: Governor Tom Corbett and his allies in the [...]
What Will Happen to Chester Upland?
Sometimes something happens that is so astonishing, so breathtaking, and simultaneously so disturbing that I don’t know how to characterize it. The public school district of Chester-Upland, Pennsylvania, is in financial trouble. It was under state control for many years. It was at one time managed by the Edison company. After years of inept state [...]
What the Gates Foundation Said to Anthony Cody
Anthony Cody, who has been blogging regularly for Education Week, persuaded the Gates Foundation to engage in an exchange with him. Anthony has written a brilliant series of analyses and critiques, explaining patiently why the Gates Foundation misses the point by blaming teachers for the ills of U.S. education. Unquestionably his most powerful post was [...]
Most Charters Avoid Students with Special Needs
We have seen this story again and again. A lawsuit against the charters in New Orleans and the District of Columbia filed on behalf of children with disabilities. A charter school in Minneapolis that literally pushed out 40 children with special needs, part of a pattern in which the nation’s largest charter chain–the Gulen-affiliated schools–keep [...]
“A Daily Act of Love”
I came across a moving story about a music educator in Wisconsin whose death stirred his town and wrote about him last night. His influence was widely acknowledged. I asked, in light of the community’s reaction, how such an inspiring teacher should be evaluated. It was obvious that test scores was not the right answer, in [...]
The Flawed Assumptions of the Parent Trigger
A reader in California writes about the “parent trigger” law. It was enacted when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor and the state board of education had a majority that were charter school advocates. Its lead sponsor in the legislature ran for state superintendent, lost and is now employed by the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group [...]
What Happened in Adelanto?
Yesterday I wrote a brief summary of the situation in the Adelanto school district in California, the only district where the so-called “parent trigger” has made any headway. The reader is correct: no vote was ever taken. It was a bad choice of words on my part. This reader comments. Your post is inaccurate. They [...]
How Would You Evaluate This Teacher?
One man, one band teacher, united a town. He taught instrumental music and band for 31 years at McFarland High School in Wisconsin. He was admired, respected, loved. How would you evaluate this teacher? By the test scores of his students? Not likely.
Parent Trigger District Heading Back to Court: UPDATE
The only school in the nation ever to vote to invoke the state “parent trigger” law is in Adelanto, California. [CORRECTION: As a commenter noted, no vote was ever taken; there was no public discussion or public hearings.] Parent Revolution, the organization funded by Gates, Walton and Broad to promote the trigger has been funding [...]
Removing the Mask From Reform in Bridgeport, CT
Thanks to Linda from CT for this article: Removing the mask from Bridgeport education reformers Published 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 18, 2012 There is always more than meets the eye, particularly when a mask camouflages a hidden agenda. Excel Bridgeport, a new education reform group, describes itself in flattering terms on its website. It announces: “1. We [...]
The Big Business of Charter Schools
You may have been naive enough to think that charter schools are multiplying because some people want better education for American children. You may have thought they were expanding to give more choices to children trapped in bad public schools. You may have wondered why they continue to proliferate when so many studies agree that [...]
Who Will Pay for the Economic Meltdown?
I read two items within the same hour that presented a stark contrast. First was this blog post about the Michigan Legislature’s change in teachers’ pensions. Apparently there are many people who think that teachers’ benefits are way too generous and must be scaled back. Can’t afford them anymore. Tough times. Then I read in [...]
Why Incentives Fail in Education
This reader notes that people attracted to work in education are different from those who choose to work in risk-taking occupations. I would disagree only to this extent: Read Deming, Pink, Ariely, and Deci, who say that extrinsic rewards don’t work in the corporation either; that people, regardless of occupation, are motivated by idealism, a [...]
An Astonishing Article about TFA
We are accustomed to reading puff pieces about TFA, to hearing again and again how the “best and the brightest” are sacrificing two years of their lives to save the needy children of America from their wretched teachers, etc. And we see fund-raising drives for TFA everywhere, on our ATM machine in the bank, as [...]
Ms. Katie Asks: What If Charters Served the Neediest Students?
Katie Osgood has a terrific blog. She works with children with high needs. I learn a lot from Ms. Katie whenever I read her writings: Ms. Katie’s Ramblings Saturday, April 21, 2012 What If Charter Schools Did What They Were Intended to Do? As I continue to meet dozens and dozens of charter [...]
Texas Parents Plan Rally for Chicago Teachers
Just in: Here in Austin, Texas on Saturday, August 25th 7:00-9:00 pm we’ll be having a rally to support the Chicago teachers. Parents supporting teachers. Solidarity! TexasParentsOptOutStateTests@yahoo.com
Where Is the Grass Greener? Texas or NJ?
Sara Stevenson explained how NCLB is still ruining public schools in Texas. This reader in New Jersey says that getting the waiver has given unprecedented power to the state, which is now intervening in districts across the state to impose Governor Christie’s will on everyone. Bear in mind that on national tests, New Jersey is [...]
NCLB Still Ruining Schools in Texas
Texas did not apply for a waiver because it did not want to accept federal intervention into its schools. So Texas is still subject the the punitive sanctions of the idiotic law that got its start in Texas, a gift to America’s schools thanks to Sandy Kress, Margaret Spellings, Rod Paige and George W. Bush [...]
A Word to Fellow Teachers
From a teacher, who read this advice and added more: Dear teacher sister/brother, as I read and absorb your advice, and wish you well for all of it, may I respectfully add one more idea for your consideration? It’s a big part of my school year: “I will be mindful that next door, down the [...]
What Happens to Charters That Recruit Needy Children?
When the charter idea was first proposed, in 1988, the idea was that charters would enroll the students who were failing, for whatever reason, in regular public schools. The charters would enroll the dropouts, the about to dropout, the students who were unable to function in a regular environment. The charter would come up with [...]
The Future of Public Schools in Arizona?
Robin Hiller of Tucson’s Voices for Education writes that while it is true that charters in Arizona represent 25% of all schools in the state, they enroll only 9% of the state’s children. The 25% number is misleading, because we have charters that have 17 students and public high schools that have 3,000. In 2008, [...]
A Parent’s Letter to Frank Bruni of the New York Times
I just received this comment. This parent should be invited to appear on NBC’s “Education Nation,” on Morning Joe, on Rachel Maddow, on CNN’s “Newsroom,” and on any other talk show, most of which put people on camera who have never been public school parents or teachers or principals. She is more knowledgeable than Michelle [...]
The Goodness of Which We Are Capable
Thanks to my brother for calling my attention to this remarkable woman, Irene Sendler. I had not heard of her before. She rescued 2,500 children from certain death in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. It is always important to remember that there are ordinary people who rise to do extraordinary things, who show [...]
The NY Times on the Parent Trigger
I am not going to write anything substantive about the movie celebrating the so-called “parent trigger” until I have seen it. But the stories about it continue to miss the point about why parents and teachers think it is a corporate-conceived and corporate-driven idea, for the benefit of corporate charter chains. Why not mention the [...]
Good Advice for Teachers
This teacher explains how she will deal with the new school year: I have been practicing mindfulness as a way of combating much of the stress I anticipate for the coming year. I’m not going to overthink the coming year. It will unfold itself. No point in stressing what hasn’t happened yet. One doesn’t know [...]
More on Voucher Schools with No Standards
So now we know what true education reform looks like. It means sending kids to schools that are no better or worse than their local public school. It means sending kids to schools that teach them that the Bible has all you need to know about the origin of the universe. It means sending kids [...]
Before the Craziness
This teacher, now retired, reflects on the madness of giving standardized tests to students in special education. She sees hope in the determination and unity of the teachers of Chicago. She also reminds us why retired teachers must stay involved and speak up for their colleagues in the classroom, especially those whose lives are being [...]
History Repeats Itself in the Classroom
A reader comments on an earlier post written by a teacher who taught in Hartford: I have seen this teacher’s story played out in so many schools in NYC. She asks who will subject themselves to teaching in the most challenging of communities? I often had that same concern. I agree. At a point in the [...]
What Readers Said About CNN and Randi Kaye
I taped an interview with Randi Kaye of CNN Newsroom on Friday August 17. I was invited to do this interview in response to her earlier interview with Michelle Rhee. I went to CNN assuming I was invited to express my differences with Rhee, who gets far more airtime than I to present her agenda [...]
