Diane Ravitch's blog
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Diane Ravitch's blog
Charter Closes, Kids Abandoned
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 minutes ago
A charter school in Sacramento abruptly closed its doors, locked out the students, and called it quits. The charter operator said the space could only handle 75 students, but he had enrolled 400. The parents were not happy. They said the school had collected $2 million or so. They were puzzled. So am I. Hey, [...]
Kevin Huffman Knows Exactly What He’s Doing
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 24 minutes ago
Kevin Huffman, the TFA Commissioner of Education in Tennessee, demands that the Metro Nashville school board authorize a charter in an affluent section of town. The Arizona-based charter, called Great Hearts, expects parents to offer a cash gift of $1200-1500 at the beginning of the school year to defray various costs. The school board worries [...]
Reform Insanity
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results is said to be a form of insanity. Paul Thomas of Furman University in South Carolina shows how this definition of insanity applies to what is called “education reform” today. Thomas’s error in this chart is assuming that the goal of [...]
A Parent Hero of Public Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 hours ago
Sharon Higgins of Oakland, California, is a hero of public education. As a parent of children in the local public schools, Higgins was upset by the Broad Foundation’s takeover of her district. One Broad superintendent after another made decisions without consulting anyone who lived in the community. Then, with the encouragement of the Broad superintendents, [...]
NC Teacher: “I Quit”
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 hours ago
A letter from a disgusted teacher: I QUIT Kris L. Nielsen Monroe, NC 28110 Union County Public Schools Human Resources Department 400 North Church Street Monroe, NC 28112 October 25, 2012 To All it May Concern: I’m doing something I thought I would never do—something that will make me a statistic and a caricature of [...]
Two Contrasting Views of the New Orleans Story
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 hours ago
Is New Orleans a national model? Simple formula: have a major catastrophe. Wipe out public education. Get rid of the unions. Hand schools over to private operators. A miracle. A national model for school reform. Read this article by a British reporter. Or the contrary view: The New Orleans story is an example of hype [...]
Why the Business Model Is Wrong for Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 hours ago
Tim Holt wrote a terrific post a while back on why the business model is not right for education. He sent it here in a comment. Tim is a science teacher in Texas. He points out in his post that many new businesses open every year, and almost as many businesses close. It’s astonishing to [...]
Big Money to Buy School Boards
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 hours ago
It’s happening in local school board races around the nation. Out-of-state money is pouring in to capture seats on local school boards. The money comes from billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Reed Hastings, owner of Netflix, and Alice Walton of the Walmart family. They fund candidates who support privatization of public education. Their resources overwhelm [...]
Charter Plan to Privatize Public Education in San Antonio
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 12 hours ago
With a favorable rightwing privatizing climate in Texas and bipartisan support in Washington, a group of charters have proposed a bold plan to take over one fourth of all the students in San Antonio. The time is right for privatization on a grand scle.
The Business Model Does Not Work in Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 13 hours ago
Here is the great journalist Juan Gonzalez interviewing CTU President Karen Lewis and Professor Lois Wiener on Race to the Top. Arne Duncan, and privatization.
Is Douglas County, Colorado, on the Cutting Edge of Reform?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 13 hours ago
EduShyster is always on the lookout for the leading lights of “reform.” Is Douglas County, Colorado, the one? Break open a box of wine and enjoy.
A Tiny Brush with Greatness
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 19 hours ago
Jacques Barzun, one of the great thinkers of our age, died at the age of 104 in San Antonio, after a long and distinguished career as a thinker, teacher, cultural critic, and author. The obituary in the New York Times describes his amazing career. We are not likely to see his like again. Our age [...]
Calling All Pro Bono Lawyers
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 23 hours ago
A reader just raised an interesting question offline. He lives in New Jersey, where the state constitution requires that the state provide a “thorough and efficient” public education. New Jersey officials today are doing their best to dismantle and privatize the state’s public education system. Are they violating their oath of office? What does it [...]
Will Educators’ Disgust with Race to the Top Affect the Election?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Many of us have wondered whether President Obama hears the voices of teachers. Many have wondered whether he understands that educators–not only teachers, but principals and superintendents–despise Race to the Top and see it as a calculated effort to undermine professionalism and advance the privatization agenda. And many have wondered whether the President knows that [...]
Charter Fails, Principal Wins Big
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
A charter school in Orange County, Florida, closed its doors for the last time in June. The principal took home a cash payout of more than $500,000 after the school failed. The local public school board is outraged and says the taxpayers’ money should be returned to the district. The principal’s customary salary was $305,000, [...]
Farewell, Kathy 1
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
I received a tweet tonight that said that one of our faithful readers, and a frequent commenter on this site, whom I knew only as Kathy 1, had died very unexpectedly. Her name, I learned from the tweet, was Kathy DuPuis. This was the tweet: “We lost a good friend and warrior for public education [...]
Michelle Rhee Gives $500,000 to beat Unions in Michigan
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Michelle Rhee continues as the front group for corporations, right wing millionaires and billionaires who want to bust unions. She is joined in her opposition to Michigan’s Prop 2 by the deceptively named Democrats for Education Reform, the group founded by Wall Street hedge fund managers to advance privatization.
The Real Goal of Reformers: Re-Segregation?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Anthony Cody has a stunning article this week about what is happening in Louisiana. The expansion of vouchers and charters will facilitate the re-segregation of the schools, he predicts. Governor Jindal eliminated all funding for public libraries in his new budget. The TFA Commissioner has put a young and unqualified TFA alum in charge of [...]
Audit Blasts Lack of Oversight of Charter Spending
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General issued a stinging audit, showing a near absence of oversight of charter school spending in the three states studied: Florida, Arizona, and California. On the same day, the California charter schools association celebrated another big expansion of the charter sector in that state. There are [...]
Teachers Running for Office in Ohio
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
What’s the best way to stop the attack on teachers? Run for office. Many teachers in Ohio figured that out, and they are running for legislative seats. Some are taking on impossible tasks, but, hey, you never know. When the legislators refuse to listen, then run against them. Organize parents and others who care about [...]
A Student Activist and a Hero of Public Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Zack Koppelin is a hero of public education. Zack is the first student to join the honor roll. Zack is 17 years old. He opposes the use of public funds for voucher schools that teach creationism. He is outspoken. He is fearless. He is smart. He is courageous. He is a model for the adults [...]
How GERM Spreads
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
In his excellent book Finnish Lessons, Pasi Sahlberg explains the nature of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM). GERM adores testing, accountability, competition, and choice. GERM squeezes all joy out of learning. GERM treats educators as interchangeable parts with no wisdom. GERM relies on market mechanisms, which are totally inappropriate in education. This is an [...]
Indiana Superintendent Bennett Gets Support of Far Right
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Indiana Superintendent Tony Bennett is running for re-election. He has raised more than $1 million from supporters of an anti-public school agenda. He just received $25,000 from a gubernatorial candidate who wants vouchers for private and religious schools with NO accountability. Way to go in handing out public dollars with zero accountability for their use. [...]
TFA Builds a Political Empire
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Most people think of Teach for America as an organization that recruits young college graduates to teach in distressed urban and rural schools. As the organization has matured, however, it is preparing a cadre of leaders to enter political office and take the reins of power. But power for what? In this article, TFA is [...]
Obama Is Out of Touch on Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Yesterday I announced my intention to vote for President Obama, and given the choice confronting us, I will vote for President Obama. I will vote for him despite his terrible education policy known as Race to the Top. It is a disaster. It has all the faults of No Child Left Behind, and it is [...]
Vouchers for Tennessee?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
An article in a Nashville paper describes the discussions about vouchers in Tennessee and generally quotes voucher supporters. Given that the Governor is a conservative Republican, given that the Legislature is Republican, given that the Legislature often passes ALEC legislation without changing a word, and given that the state has a TFA Commissioner of Education, [...]
“Won’t Back Down” Goes Down, Down, Down
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
It was supposed to be the movie of the year. Big stars, big budget for promotion. All of Rupert Murdoch’s publications sang its glories. CBS held a greatly hyped rock concert to “honor teachers” just as the film “honored teachers” (not). NBC gave it a big sendoff as part of Education Nation. The New York [...]
Texas Democrats See the Pattern on the Rug
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
These past few years, some of us have been trying to awaken the public to the goals and strategy of the privatization movement. First, they demand high-stakes testing, and they claim they want to “reduce the achievement gap” or “it’s all for the kids.” Second, they use the scores to give grades to schools and [...]
Do the Wealthy Need Segregated Charters?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
I borrowed the provocative title from a post by Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas. Heilig wrote a post recently about Great Hearts, the charter chain that has been trying to locate in an affluent neighborhood in Nashville, thus far without success. As readers of this blog may recall, the Metro Nashville school [...]
What Happened When I Spoke in Chicago
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
An astute observer in Chicago reports on my appearance at the Chicago City Club. As usual, I did not pull punches. I don’t have time for that. The amazing thing is that even though everything I said contradicted the axioms of Chicago-style “reform,” I got a standing ovation from a warm and friendly crowd of [...]
Yong Zhao to Commissioner King in NY: There Is No Evidence to Support Common Core
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
As readers of this blog know, I am agnostic about the Common Core standards, because they have never been tried anywhere. We don’t know whether they will improve academic learning, whether they will increase the achievement gap, whether they will make any difference. Recently the renowned scholar faced off with New York Commissioner of Education [...]
What Will Happen to DFER Should Romney Win?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
EduShyster is worried that Democrats for Education Reform might lose a friend in the White House if Romney wins. After all, they are Democrats, right? But it turns out that Ann Romney has a passion for both horses and charter schools, so DFER and SFER and all the other little -FERs should be OK. At [...]
A Puzzlement
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
The Louisiana Constitution says that the state’s Minimum Foundation Budget must be used solely for public schools. Governor Bobby Jindal is diverting portions of that budget to pay for students to go to religious and other private schools. The budget for public schools has seen no increase for four years. Every student who gets a [...]
A Bad Week for John White, Jindal’s Superintendent: UPDATED LINK
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A nice summary of a bad week for John White, who was hired to implement Governor Bobby Jindal’s plan to privatize public education in Louisiana. The blogger has an apt title for the week, referring to a delightful children’s book: John White and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week Last spring, Jindal pushed through [...]
Change.Org Sells Out
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Many people with liberal causes have used change.org to launch petition drives. In its founding, change.org declared its dedication to progressive values. Many people were upset when change.org allowed Michelle Rhee to surreptitiously gather signatures on its site. You might sign a petition saying you want great teachers or you think teachers should be paid [...]
Connecticut Business Leaders to Bridgeport Voters: Give Up Your Democratic Rights
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
The Connecticut Council for Education Reform (that phrase “for Education Reform” always means “for privatization of your public schools”) urges voters in Bridgeport to pass a resolution that would eliminate their right to elect a school board. The CCER thinks that the mayor knows best. The mayor will know how best to close public schools [...]
Did NYC’s “Portfolio District” Policy Reduce Educational Disparity?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A new report from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform asks the question: Is Demography Destiny? Here is the answer: Yes. The “portfolio” approach did not change the outcomes for poor kids. Nonetheless, many districts around the nation are following NYC’s example, based on the hype and spin promoting it. Another absurd reform that doesn’t [...]
Treasure the Whistleblowers
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
I posted earlier about a charter leader who was accused of orchestrating cheating, was fired, and was given a $245,000 settlement. The whole sordid mess associated with Crescendo Charter Schools in Los Angeles might never have come to light were it not for teachers who were whistle-blowers. Robert Skeels tells the story here. Without tenure, [...]
Pennsylvania Blogger: “Charters Are Cash Cows”
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
I have had some good debates with friends and colleagues who support charter schools. I think there is a role for them in meeting needs that public schools cannot meet: charter schools for the autistic, charter schools for dropouts, charter schools are kids who utterly lack motivation. Charters should boast of how many low-performing kids [...]
A Teacher from DC Comments on Cuomo’s New Deputy Secretary of Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Erich Martel taught in the D.C. public schools for many years and won many awards as a history teacher. He is now retired. He was astonished to see that Governor Andrew Cuomo had hired De’Shawn Wright as his new Deputy Secretary of Education Erich sent the following message: Read this story on the departure of [...]
Sam Chaltain Takes Tom Friedman to the Woodshed
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Sam Chaltain has an excellent post dissecting Tom Friedman’s clueless column praising Race to the Top. Sam points out that Friedman’s book The World Is Flat made the case for collaboration, not compulsion. Sam gently explains to Friedman that Race to the Top contradicts what Friedman recommended in his best-selling book. He concludes that Race [...]
I Will Vote for Obama
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
I have decided to vote to re-elect President Barack Obama. As readers of this blog are well aware, I strongly oppose what he is doing to our nation’s education system. I dislike Race to the Top, which in many respects is far worse than the failed No Child Left Behind. I know how the Obama [...]
Charters Open Their Own Ed Schools
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
It seems that charter school teachers need a special sort of post-graduate degree. The charters respect the credential enough to want their teachers to have one, but they “can’t wait” for the time it takes to get one from a traditional school of education. Besides, the traditional programs waste time on stuff like sociology and [...]
Charter Administrator Fired in Cheating Scandal, Gets $245,000 Settlement
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
This is a strange story from Los Angeles. The leader of a charter school chain had to resign when confronted with evidence he encouraged principals and teachers to cheat on tests. Allegedly, I must add. The schools were closed down. But then he got a $245,000 going away gift.. Anyone understand this? The perils of [...]
Love Us Less. Respect Us More.
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
The blogger known as Students Last usually writes parodies. But the last Presidential debate made him turn serious. Both candidates said they “love teachers.” Yes, everyone really, really loves teachers. Students Last couldn’t stand the fake love and wrote this: We know you come to this site for a laugh but some things are just [...]
Teacher: How the DC Public Schools Ruined My Career
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
As a former DCPS teacher from 2008-2012, this system stressed me out so much so that now I’m on 6 different medications. Teaching is the least respected profession in this country, which is sad considering teachers go to college to earn a degree to teach, pay this high price tuition, get a teaching position, deal [...]
Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
While I was traveling in the Midwest, visiting states like Ohio and Michigan where public education is under attack, I read Paul Tough’s new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. I read it the way I like to read when a book is important, with frequent underlining and occasional [...]
Education in Last Night’s Debate
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
My first impulse was not to write about the debate last night. But then a reader contacted me to ask why I hadn’t written anything. I oblige. The debate was about foreign policy, supposedly, but the candidates still managed to restate their talking points about education. I was hoping they wouldn’t mention education because neither [...]
Should Vouchers Take Money Away from Desegregation?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
A federal judge in Louisiana called on TFA State Commissioner of Education John White to explain why his voucher program should be allowed to take public funds from a school district that is using its funding to comply with desegregation orders. The judge wants to know why he should not enjoin the implementation of the [...]
Parent Trigger Hoax
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Parent Revolution, the organization handsomely funded by the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Walton Foundation, has finally gotten a charter conversion in the state of California, nearly two years after the law was passed. Some victory: In a school with 600 plus students and 400 families, only 286 parents voted for the charter; [...]
Bobby Jindal’s Little White Lies
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Voters in one of Louisiana’s high-performing school districts are angry that their public schools will lose funding to pay for Governor Bobby Jindal’s harebrained voucher scheme, which sends students to backwoods fundamentalist schools that teach religious doctrine. Jindal insisted that this could not possibly be true, that the vouchers were drawing money from someplace else, [...]
Will Andy Smarick Join the KIPP Challenge?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
My friend Mike Petrilli at the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently sent me a post from the Institute’s daily blog called “Chartering the Future” by Andy Smarick. Mike sent it with a note, saying, “you won’ t like this.” He’s right, I didn’t like it at all. And yet, if you read to the [...]
Is Tom Luna the Worst State Superintendent? CORRECTION!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
If we had a race for the worst state superintendent in the nation, there would be many contenders. One thinks immediately, for example, of Tony Bennett in Indiana or John White in Louisiana. By worst, I mean someone who has done his best to destroy public education–which is a sacred trust in the hands of [...]
EduShyster Is Seriously Worried about Tom Friedman’s Value-Added Rating
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Poor Tom Friedman! Everyone who knows anything at all about education knows that Tom has egg all over his face. They are either angry at him or laughing at him. He made such a fool of himself with his over-the-top (the same one we are racing to) praise of Race to the Top. If he [...]
Why Are Billionaires Funding School Board Races in Louisiana?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
There are few investigative writers in education journalism these days. It is disturbingly rare to find writers who look behind the press releases, the hype and spin. One place that cries out for investigative journalism is Louisiana, the locus for the most extreme privatization schemes. The governor is now imposing the New Orleans model on [...]
The Referendum in Bridgeport, Connecticut
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Bridgeport will be voting on whether the mayor should control the schools. Mayoral control is high on the agenda of the privatization movement, because it allows one official to close public schools and hand them over to private corporations without paying attention to public opinion. Often there are hearings, but members of the public are [...]
Just Another Nonsensical Policy in Florida
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A reader responded to an earlier post about Florida’s decision to set different academic goals for children of different races: “As a Florida teacher since 1997, I have watched our state board enact bone-headed policies that make no sense, but of all of them, the race-based variable learning goals has to be most useless and [...]
CNN.COM Reports on the Campaign for Our Public Schools
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
CNN.COM just posted a description of the letter-writing Campaign for Our Public Schools. This is extremely helpful as it educates the public about what teachers and parents and students know and believe. In our efforts to promote a sane public policy about education and to stop the demonization of teachers and public schools, we need [...]
In Pennsylvania, A Significant Victory for Public Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Pennsylvania legislators were moving to adopt a “charter reform” bill that would have benefited charters mightily. In response to the loud outcry from supporters of public education, some Republican legislators switched sides at the last minute and the bill died. There are indeed serious injustices that need to be corrected–like the outrageous over-funding of cyber [...]
EduShyster Is Looking for Los Estudiantes
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
EduShyster should just take over my blog. I could reprint everything he/she posts. He or she is much funnier than I am. And he or she (is there another pronoun?) finds more and more ingenious ways to unravel closely held secrets. Take a look at this one. Where are los ninos y ninas?
Vermillion Parish School Board Joins the Honor Roll
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Vermillion Parish School Board in Louisiana joins the Honor Roll as a hero of public education because of its refusal to bow down to the unjust, unwise demands of the State Department of Education. The Louisiana State Department of Education is not at all “conservative.” It believes that bureaucracy should override local control and that the [...]
Some Questions for the Debate Tonight
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Jere Hochman, the superintendent in Bedford, New York, previously acknowledged as a hero of public education on this blog, offers some thoughtful questions for the Presidential debate tonight. Since the topic is foreign affairs, none of these questions is likely to be asked, but surely journalists who encounter the candidates and their surrogates in the [...]
Who Opposes Initiative 1240 in Washington State? Who Supports It?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Voters in Washington State have turned down charter proposals three times. Now the idea is up for a vote again on November 6. The advocates have raised millions of dollars from a handful of supporters, none of whom are public school parents. The opponents have raised about $200,000 from a broad array of individuals. Who [...]
EduShyster’s Sister Offers Advice to President Obama
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Little did Anthony Cody and I know that the sister of Edushyster had a letter in the collection that we forwarded to the President this week. EduShyster is the acerbic, hilarious blogger in Massachusetts who sees through all the baloney that we read day after day about “reform.” One detail emerged in this post. EduShyster [...]
Thomas Friedman Needs Your Help
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
I am assuming Thomas Friedman knows a lot about foreign affairs, which is what he mostly writes about. He certainly knows very little about America’s public schools. I wonder when was the last time he stepped into a school or talked to a real teacher. My guess: it has been many years. Maybe he went [...]
Florida’s Race-Based Academic Goals
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Florida, in its wisdom or lack thereof, has adopted different standards for different racial groups. Quite frankly, this is abhorrent. Every child is a child, period. We should look at each one as an individual, not as a racial representative. This is NCLB thinking squared, cubed, and absurdist. It is racist, it is insulting. It [...]
The Upside of the Florida VAM Disaster
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A reader called my attention to this comment by an anonymous teacher in Florida. It appears following an article in the Tampa Bay Times about the disastrous implementation of the value-added methodology in Pinellas County. I was reminded when I read this comment about a conversation with an economist in Austin, Texas, who wondered if [...]
Why Won’t the Reformers Let Us Teach?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
An English teacher in Rhode Island writes: I’m a great teacher. I’m waiting for the opportunity, at the ripe old age of 49, to switch careers. My heart is broken. I am deluged with PLC’s, SLO’s, dog and pony lesson plans that go nowhere, and impossible observations that require me to make my students lie [...]
Indiana Voters Can Defeat Privatization Movement
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
The big corporate money is flowing into Indiana to re-elect privatizer Tony Bennett as its champion. But fortunately the voters have a chance to throw him out and elect Glenda Ritz, an educator who wants to improve public education. Please read this post from a Hoosier. I commend to you the anonymous comment by a [...]
“Won’t Back Down” Continues to Plummet
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Memo to Hollywood: The American public will not pay to see a movie that demonizes teachers’ unions and public schools, while touting the glories of privatization. “Won’t Back Down” was supposed to be the movie of the year. It had nonstop promotion by NBC’s Education Nation, big-name stars, a stint on Ellen’s show, and a [...]
How to Kill a Love of Learning
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
A reader who is active in the SOS (Save Our Schools) movement wrote: Dr. Ravitch: Ever since I became involved with the planning of the first SOS March (back in May of 2010), I have treasured your historic perspective on testing and your insight on education reform. You have shown the unique ability to see [...]
Who Is Paying for Charter Referendum in Georgia? UPDATE: Link Added!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
An article in a Georgia newspaper identifies the money behind the charter referendum. Remember that Governor Nathan Deal wants the power to create a state commission to approve charters even though the local school board turns them down. This is based on ALEC model legislation. It serves corporate interests while spurning local control. The advocates [...]
Louisiana Evaluation System Flunks Top Teachers
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Teachers in some of Louisiana’s best schools are getting low ratings. Because their students already have high scores, the teachers are not getting high value-added scores, and many of he state’s best teachers will be rated ineffective. A teacher rated ineffective two years in a row may be fired. Test scores count for 50% of [...]
Short Memory Alert! About that Parent Trigger
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
With all the national publicity about the world’s first parent trigger in Adelanto, California, you would think someone might have noticed that the new charter is not the first charter in this town. Only a little more than a year ago, the Adelanto Charter Academy had to close because of multiple operational and fiscal problems. [...]
What Does Tony Bennett (Not the Singer) Call “a Beautiful Day”
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Read here to learn Indiana State Superintendent Tony Bennett’s description of “a beautiful day.” I can think of so many other ways to describe a beautiful day. I’m going out to take a walk and experience one of those beautiful days in Brooklyn. I want to forget about the people who smile when they cause other [...]
Breaking News! VAM in Florida County is a Disaster
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
The Tampa Bay Times reports that teachers are baffled, confused, and outraged by their value-added ratings, which will determine their evaluation, their longevity and their career. The story begins like this: Geoffrey Robinson is a National Board certified teacher at Osceola High School in Pinellas County who says 60 percent of his upper-level calculus students [...]
Enrollment at For-Profit Colleges Shrinks, Stock Price Drops
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Here is a bit of good news. Enrollment is declining at for-profit colleges and growing at non-profit colleges. The University of Phoenix is closing 115 of its campuses, as enrollments dropped as did its stock price. Could it be an outbreak of common sense? Time will tell.
The Campaign for Our Public Schools: What You Need to Do Now
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
The Campaign for Our Public Schools was a spontaneous effort to gather the candid views of educators, parents, students, and concerned citizens about the state of public education policy today. On October 3, everyone reading this blog was invited to write a letter to President Obama expressing their ideas. In a brief, two-week period, nearly [...]
He Can Get High Ratings from Students–or High Scores
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Arthur Goldstein teaches English in a high school in Queens, New York City. If you want to know what teachers in New York City are saying, you have to read his blog. It’s funny, sad, outrageous, and honest. Here’s Arthur: I found your piece about student ratings very interesting. I taught almost 20 years at [...]
Would You Support the Parent Trigger If….
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
This came from a retired California teacher: “Won’t Back Down” is loosely based on the Parent Trigger Law in California, which has only been tried twice. Neither attempt was successful. The law was created on a drawing board and has no basis in prior experience or knowledge. Would you support the Parent Trigger Law if: [...]
Students Say: Vote NO on Charter Amendment in Georgia: CORRECTION!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Listen to the students. On this link there is a terrific video by two Georgia students who explain why voters should turn down a constitutional amendment on charter schools. Georgia has over 130 charter schools. The charter schools do not outperform the public schools. Some local school boards have turned down new charters. So the [...]