Remember When Teachers Crashed the Economy?
Do you remember when teachers and principals brought the economy down in the fall of 2008? Remember how they caused the stock market to collapse?
You don’t? Neither do I.
No matter. States are busily figuring out how to take away teachers’ pensions to right the economy, and reformers are blaming “bad” teachers for the outsourcing of jobs to China and India. The reformers say that the jobs are being outsourced because Americans aren’t skilled enough to do the work, but it seems more plausible to believe that they are being outsourced because educated workers are cheaper in China and India than in the U.S. Know any engineers willing to work for 1/3 (or less) their current salary? Know any workers willing to sleep
You don’t? Neither do I.
No matter. States are busily figuring out how to take away teachers’ pensions to right the economy, and reformers are blaming “bad” teachers for the outsourcing of jobs to China and India. The reformers say that the jobs are being outsourced because Americans aren’t skilled enough to do the work, but it seems more plausible to believe that they are being outsourced because educated workers are cheaper in China and India than in the U.S. Know any engineers willing to work for 1/3 (or less) their current salary? Know any workers willing to sleep
ALEC Triumphant in Louisiana
I wrote a post about radical legislation in Pennsylvania that will authorize the Governor to create a charter commission with power to overturn local decisions. This legislation was written by the corporate-funded organization ALEC.
The Louisiana legislature passed the radical ALEC agenda last spring. Teachers lost tenure; unqualified people can become teachers. Test scores determine teachers’ careers. More than half the state’s students are eligible for vouchers, with some going to fundamentalist schools. Charters will pop up everywhere. Students can take their tuition money to online schools that get poor results, or to any snake-oil salesman that hangs out a shingle
The Louisiana legislature passed the radical ALEC agenda last spring. Teachers lost tenure; unqualified people can become teachers. Test scores determine teachers’ careers. More than half the state’s students are eligible for vouchers, with some going to fundamentalist schools. Charters will pop up everywhere. Students can take their tuition money to online schools that get poor results, or to any snake-oil salesman that hangs out a shingle
How to Raise Test Scores Easily and Quickly
This comes from Students Last. Satire alert!
PSBA Joins Oct 17 Protest
I just learned that one of the exhibitors at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association/Pennsylvania Association of School Administrator’s annual conference will offer stamped envelopes to encourage attendees to write a letter or send an email to the President on October 17, calling for new policies in education. Please call for an end to high-stakes testing, to privatization, to punishing teachers, principals and schools based on test scores. Please call for positive measures to support our students, teachers, principals, and schools.
The Evil Spawn of NCLB in Ohio
The state auditor in Ohio found 10 schools in Columbus where thousands of students had mysteriously been removed from the school’s rolls to inflate the scores.
This is the predictable result of high-stakes testing, which has incentivized cheating, score inflation, and gaming the system. This is not the first instance where a district or a state has tried to puff up its results to meet its
This is the predictable result of high-stakes testing, which has incentivized cheating, score inflation, and gaming the system. This is not the first instance where a district or a state has tried to puff up its results to meet its
No Excuses? Read This.
When President Obama visited Memphis, he was introduced by a handsome, articulate teen, Chris Dean.
Read what Chris wrote about his life after the President left town. Read about the details that the “no excuses” reformers dismiss.
Read what Chris wrote about his life after the President left town. Read about the details that the “no excuses” reformers dismiss.
Chicago Public Schools Outperform Chicago Charters!
This is a smart, funny article that demolishes the claim that charters are better than public schools.
The writer, Ben Joravsky, did something almost unprecedented after he read denunciations of unionized public schools: he checked the facts. This is a little-used, old-fashioned skill that seems to have been abandoned by the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, as well as the major broadcast media.
The writer, Ben Joravsky, did something almost unprecedented after he read denunciations of unionized public schools: he checked the facts. This is a little-used, old-fashioned skill that seems to have been abandoned by the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, as well as the major broadcast media.
Ideas for an archive?
Looks like we will get a sizable number of people to write letters to President Obama on October 17.
Tim Furman suggests we set up a place to collect copies and share them.
I don’t know how to do this. Anyone have an idea?
Tim Furman suggests we set up a place to collect copies and share them.
I don’t know how to do this. Anyone have an idea?