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Friday, October 12, 2012

Diane in the Evening 10-12-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:


This Principal Is a Hero of Public Education

No one has been more active in opposing untested evaluation methods than high school principal Carol Burris.
Burris was a key figure in organizing New York principals to oppose the state’s test-based evaluation system, which has never been validated or worked anywhere.
Burris has written articles frequently. She is tireless.
I visited her school, South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island. It is an excellent and beloved community school that serves all the children of the community. it has no tracking. It has a strong IB program.



Please Help a Deserving Candidate

A reader asked the other day if there was anything he could do for me.
The answer is yes.
Please send a contribution to Karran Harper Royal of New Orleans, a parent leader who is running for school board. I met Karran in New York City a year ago, and she explained what a farce “choice” is in Nola. “There’s one choice they deny every parent,” she said, “and that’s the choice to send your child to a neighborhood public school.”
Karran is running against a heavily funded “reformer,” Sarah Usdin and incumbent Brett Bonin.
Joel Klein, Reed Hastings (of Netflix) & W.Isaacson of Aspen Institute have donated big money to corpreform 




Edushyster Unmasks the Miracle Rephormers

You need to sit down before you read this. It is so hilarious it may cause you to fall down laughing.
This is a wonderful spoof about Miracle Teachers, Mracle Schools, and Amazing stories of overnight transformation that occur only when the teachers are inexperienced and the journalists don’t dig too deep.


How to Widen the Achievement Gaps

A teacher knows how the achievement gap grows:
My wife and I are both elementary teachers in the same district but at completely different schools. She teaches at a school with over 80% free and reduced lunch whereas my school has 7%. When I ask her about the policies in her school versus the policies we have in my school IN THE SAME SCHOOL DISTRICT, it led me to this conclusion: rich kids get taught, poor kids get tested.





“We Don’t Have Time”

How many times have you heard a leader of the reform privatization movement say,
“We don’t have time.”
“The kids can’t wait.”
This reader from Montgomery County, Maryland, which has the nation’s best teacher evaluation system (it does not rely on test scores but on professional judgment) writes:

We in MoCo don’t hire inexperienced people. The people that are hired in Montgomery County are well vetted professionals with earned degrees and experience. They are also well compensated and most who opt to come 




Why the Free Market Cannot Reform Public Schools

We previously read an article claiming that for-profit entrepreneurs are necessary to reform American schools. The article began, in its original version, with a vulgar and gratuitous insult directed at Anthony Cody.
Here are two great responses. The first is by Anthony Cody.
The other is by Audrey Watters.


Which Schools Ignore the Tests?

I asked earlier if there were districts that still manage to offer a full curriculum despite the federal mandates. Where are the good things happening. There were many good responses. These are some of the most provocative:
Response #1:
In California, there are over 1,000 separate school districts. Each reflects a different community. Districts that have access to wealthy constituents have been successful at raising new money to hire staff and maintain


LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-12-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 minutes ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] HOW TO JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS by dianerav As a result of many comments on this blog, and in response to a great yearning to raise our voices, many teachers, parents, students, administrators and concerned citizens plan to join together in a mass letter-writing campaign to the President. We want all letters submitted here to this blog or to Anthony Cody no later than October 17. You may write to the White House directly, and the mail address is in the instructions link. But if you do, yo... more »