Write Your Letter to President Obama Today
Readers of this blog know that we are collecting letters to send to President Obama by October 17.
Please join us in opposing high-stakes testing and privatization.
We call this action the Campaign for Our Public Schools.
Instructions on where to send your email are here.
Lets begin now to make our voices heard.
Hats Off to Tacoma!
Can You Answer This Question?
EduBusiness Soars, Your Pension Not So Much
If This Newspaper Gets It, Why Can’t the NY Times?
Really. Truly. It’s Not about Profit.
Please join us in opposing high-stakes testing and privatization.
We call this action the Campaign for Our Public Schools.
Instructions on where to send your email are here.
Lets begin now to make our voices heard.
Hats Off to Tacoma!
I asked readers to tell me about good school districts that manage to offer a good education despite the testing mania. This reader in Tacoma explains what is happening there.
I am adding Tacoma, Washington, to the honor roll because it is an exemplar of good public education:
In Tacoma Public Schools, some schools do better than others, but overall I think we’ve done as best we can to follow the laws while also ensuring that the students are well-served. We are innovative. We have a high school extended day program modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone program. We have a School of the Arts, a Science and Math Academy, and two Montessori programs (1 that’s K-8 and 1 that’s K-5). We have an arts
I am adding Tacoma, Washington, to the honor roll because it is an exemplar of good public education:
In Tacoma Public Schools, some schools do better than others, but overall I think we’ve done as best we can to follow the laws while also ensuring that the students are well-served. We are innovative. We have a high school extended day program modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone program. We have a School of the Arts, a Science and Math Academy, and two Montessori programs (1 that’s K-8 and 1 that’s K-5). We have an arts
Can You Answer This Question?
I am often asked whether there are any districts that have managed to do the right thing despite all the federal mandates.
Are there any districts that have managed to minimize the harmful consequences of high-stakes testing?
Are there districts that have managed to protect the arts, physical education, recess, history, civics, foreign
Are there any districts that have managed to minimize the harmful consequences of high-stakes testing?
Are there districts that have managed to protect the arts, physical education, recess, history, civics, foreign
EduBusiness Soars, Your Pension Not So Much
Here is a site that takes a hard look at the profit-making end of education, and it is booming. Business is amazingly good, what with all the new opportunities for testing, test prepping, outsourcing, online stuff, new technologies.
Meanwhile, your public officials are trying to figure out how to cut teachers’ pensions.
Remember the old saying: “A promise made is a debt unpaid.”
The new version is: “Promises are meant to be broken.”
Meanwhile, your public officials are trying to figure out how to cut teachers’ pensions.
Remember the old saying: “A promise made is a debt unpaid.”
The new version is: “Promises are meant to be broken.”
If This Newspaper Gets It, Why Can’t the NY Times?
The Reading (Pa.) Eagle has a smart editorial questioning the state’s rating system for schools. It seems that quite a few local schools did not make “adequate yearly progress.”
The editorialist wrote:
“…we do not believe this is a sign local districts suddenly are doing a poor job. It’s a sign of an incomprehensible system that sets up schools to fail and encourages an educational structure focused on getting high test scores rather than well-rounded learning.
“Only a bureaucrat could comprehend the regulations involved. Some schools on the warning list achieved higher scores than others that were judged to have met the standard…
The editorialist wrote:
“…we do not believe this is a sign local districts suddenly are doing a poor job. It’s a sign of an incomprehensible system that sets up schools to fail and encourages an educational structure focused on getting high test scores rather than well-rounded learning.
“Only a bureaucrat could comprehend the regulations involved. Some schools on the warning list achieved higher scores than others that were judged to have met the standard…
Really. Truly. It’s Not about Profit.
Edushyster has done it again.
Here, Edushyster defends Joel Klein against the outrageous claim that Rupert Murdoch is trying to make a profit by selling lots of stuff to the schools. It’s all about collaboration. It’s all about replacing teachers with technology to help with budgetary issues. It’s all about reform.
Here, Edushyster defends Joel Klein against the outrageous claim that Rupert Murdoch is trying to make a profit by selling lots of stuff to the schools. It’s all about collaboration. It’s all about replacing teachers with technology to help with budgetary issues. It’s all about reform.
A Blow to Reform/Privatization
If you ask leading privatizers where are the examples of success for their theories, they will surely point to New York City.
Surely you heard about the “New York City miracle.” Australia is redesigning its national system because of the success of the alleged miracle.
But what about New York City? More than 100 schools closed, and hundreds of new schools opened. More than 100 new charters. School report cards. Testing and accountability. Constant evaluation and data-based-decision-
Surely you heard about the “New York City miracle.” Australia is redesigning its national system because of the success of the alleged miracle.
But what about New York City? More than 100 schools closed, and hundreds of new schools opened. More than 100 new charters. School report cards. Testing and accountability. Constant evaluation and data-based-decision-
The Next Targets of Corporate Reform
Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute summarizes “What’s Next” for reformers (some prefer to call them privatizers).
Race to the Top was a great coup for the privatizers/reformers.
Now they plan to follow up with a direct assault on schools of education, abetted by NCTQ’s forthcoming rankings, to be published by US News. NCTQ was created by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation a dozen years ago, and saved at the outset by a grant from Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In 2005, it got caught up
Race to the Top was a great coup for the privatizers/reformers.
Now they plan to follow up with a direct assault on schools of education, abetted by NCTQ’s forthcoming rankings, to be published by US News. NCTQ was created by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation a dozen years ago, and saved at the outset by a grant from Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In 2005, it got caught up