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Monday, October 1, 2012

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-1-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

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Edushyster Does Charter Math

Edushyster noticed a strange phenomenon.
A charter school received a $1.5 million grant to close the achievement gap.
Edushyster noticed that its first class had 47 students. But 17 eventually graduated.
Then it was explained.
This is called success by attrition. It is usually associated with miracle schools, where 100% of the students graduate (of those that make it to senior year). For more on miracle schools, check Gary Rubinstein’s blog.



A Remarkable Investigative Reporter

Stephanie Simon of Reuters has written one blockbuster story after another. She has done the digging and investigation that make her stories genuinely valuable. In education, as more newspapers cut back their in-depth education reporting, this kind of investigative journalism is becoming increasingly rare.
She wrote stunning articles about the privatization 



My Recent Articles about Corporate Reform

Recently, a newly elected member of a school board asked me to suggest background reading. So I put together a list of the reviews I have written for the New York Review of Books in the past two years. When I get some time, I will suggest a reading list of books.
I think you will enjoy them.
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This is a review of Steven Brill’s book “Class Warfare” and Janet Mayer’s “As Bad As They Say.”
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This is a review of


A Teacher Writes to President Oama

Dear Mr. President,
I have received your daily emails and phone calls – please take me off your lists.
I gave you some money in May, even though I didn’t want to – your phone volunteers are very persuasive!
I voted for you in 2008, and I will again in November.
What choice do I have? The alternative isn’t better, and probably worse overall. Though, I will vote for you 



Principals Give Flunking Grade to NY Teacher Evaluation Scheme

New York had the bad luck to win $700 million in Race to the Top funding.
The politicians thought it would help balance the budget, not realizing that the grant would not be available to plug budget holes.
Now we know that principals think the costly, time-wasting evaluation system is useless. Eighty percent find it 


How About a Letter to the President?

Linda in Connecticut is one of the regular commenters on the blog and also one of the wittiest. She often makes me laugh out loud.
But her last comment was serious, and other readers responded positively. She said we should write a letter to the President. And she wrote a draft indicating what she thought it should contain.
Here’s the thing. President Obama is preferable to Mitt Romney, who would dismantle public education without a 



A Charter Teacher Tells What Happened

In response to an earlier post about the lack of accountability for charters, a teacher wrote to describe her experience in a charter school in Pennsylvania. Most important in her story is the last line:
From 2009-2011 I worked for a Philadelphia charter school that exemplifies the problems Bill White is talking about, a problem leaders like Ackerman were enforcing before Corbett assumed his role. When I entered the Philadelphia school system in 2009, the district’s messaging under Arlene Ackerman seemed to be: if public schools are the problem, charter schools are the answer.