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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Diane in the Evening 12-1-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:





Cheating Students in D.C. with Phony Credentials

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324352004578131361948093492.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
  • The Wall Street Journal

How Washington, D.C., Schools Cheat Their Students Twice

Kids who fail their courses go to phony Credit Recovery classes. No wonder so many high-school graduates are at or near a fifth-grade level.



Nikhil Goyal Flunks Obama’s Education Policies

Nikhil Goyal is a high school student who has sharply defined views about how to reform education.
He is a child of No Child Left Behind and the Race to the Top.
He thinks it is time for a change, but he sees four more years of the same-old same-old ahead.
He thinks American kids deserve better.

Who Are the Bullies?

Katie Osgood asks, who are the bullies?
We have mayors and governors who think they should look tough.
So they bully people.
They pick on people who look weak instead of helping them.
We have faux education leaders who show how tough they are by beating up on teachers, cutting their pension and their healthcare, making sure they can’t organize to fight back.
They are bullies.
So many bullies.
Look around you.


TIME Columnist Mocks Common Core Standards

Uh-Oh. The decision by the authors of the Common Core standards to insist on an equal split between nonfiction and literature opens them up to ridicule. Why are they telling English teachers what to teach?
Bad move.
Educated people love literature.
Who are these guys who don’t?
Here is a 


The Odd and Shifting Logic of School Choice

In the just concluded trial about vouchers in Louisiana, a state education department official said that a student with a voucher is a public school student, no matter what school she attends. The judge could not follow the logic. He ruled that the state could not take funds away from public schools to pay for vouchers.
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters in New York City noticed that charter advocates pull the same trick, with the same logic. They change their rationale to fit the need of the moment.
At first, the charters were to save minority kids from failing schools. But now they are moving into relatively 


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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 32 minutes ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] If Arne Becomes Secretary of State, Then… by dianerav Thomas Friedman of the New York Times thinks that Arne Duncan should be the next Secretary of State. He would like to see Race to the Top applied to our international relations. Readers have reacted. Leonie Haimson in New York City suggested that Arne could close embassies that can’t end wars and conflicts. Here is another good idea: *He could start an innovative new trend of “Charter Embassies.” They would be U.S. embassies that are publicly funded, but ... more »