Georgia Has a Group Supporting Public Education
After I wrote about a new parent group in Tennessee, I received a comment about a similar group in Georgia, protesting budget cuts and legislation hostile to public schools.
Be sure to checkout their website, which has excellent resources for parents, educators and other concerned citizens: http://empoweredga.org/
“Here’s a similar group in Georgia, where we need it more than ever as we brace for the usual fun and games of
Be sure to checkout their website, which has excellent resources for parents, educators and other concerned citizens: http://empoweredga.org/
“Here’s a similar group in Georgia, where we need it more than ever as we brace for the usual fun and games of
Philadelphia Parents Say No to School Closings
More than 1,000 parents and students turned out to protest noisily against the closing of 12 neighborhood schools.
The new superintendent Willam Hite says the closings are necessary to save money and to adjust to declining enrollments. But nowhere does he address the cause of declining enrollments: the proliferation of charter schools.
Take this example:
“Others focused on the district’s proposal to close Strawberry Mansion High.
Frank Thorne, an alumnus of the school, angrily questioned Hite on why Mansion is being closed, rather than
The new superintendent Willam Hite says the closings are necessary to save money and to adjust to declining enrollments. But nowhere does he address the cause of declining enrollments: the proliferation of charter schools.
Take this example:
“Others focused on the district’s proposal to close Strawberry Mansion High.
Frank Thorne, an alumnus of the school, angrily questioned Hite on why Mansion is being closed, rather than
Leave a Comment on PBS Frontline Page
If you watched the PBS documentary on “The Education of Michelle Rhee,” you should let PBS know what you thought of the program. You can leave a comment here or elsewhere on the website.
The (D)Evolution of Denver’s Pay-for-Performance Model
Jeannie Kaplan is an elected member of the Denver school board. Denver is one of the major sites for corporate reform. Several commenters have asked about Denver’s pay-for-performance plan. I invited Kaplan to explain how it works and with what results, which she does here:
The (D)Evolution of Denver’s Pay-for-Performance Model
This is a story about what happens when a successful “pay for performance” (PFP) education model collides with Broad trained, Gates and Walton funded businessmen in an urban city school landscape. The place is Denver, Colorado. The PFP is called Professional Compensation, ProComp for short. The year of the collision is
The (D)Evolution of Denver’s Pay-for-Performance Model
This is a story about what happens when a successful “pay for performance” (PFP) education model collides with Broad trained, Gates and Walton funded businessmen in an urban city school landscape. The place is Denver, Colorado. The PFP is called Professional Compensation, ProComp for short. The year of the collision is
The Paragraph that PBS Dropped From My Commentary
Last night, I posted the commentary that I wrote after seeing a preview of the PBS Frontline show on Michelle Rhee.
This morning, I realized that my favorite paragraph was deleted, presumably to save space. It was this:
” She leads by threats and coercion, never by inspiration or example. She personifies the Ice Queen, a woman who is charming but cold, cruel, and heartless, even proud that she lacks even an ounce of compassion for those whose careers she is terminating. She is doing it all ‘for the children.’”
I am sorry this was cut. I think this is important because it goes to the heart of Rhee’s education policies. She
This morning, I realized that my favorite paragraph was deleted, presumably to save space. It was this:
” She leads by threats and coercion, never by inspiration or example. She personifies the Ice Queen, a woman who is charming but cold, cruel, and heartless, even proud that she lacks even an ounce of compassion for those whose careers she is terminating. She is doing it all ‘for the children.’”
I am sorry this was cut. I think this is important because it goes to the heart of Rhee’s education policies. She
Rocketship Heads for Milwaukee
Rocketship will open eight charters in Milwaukee. Local leaders have raised $3.5 million to persuade the charter chain to come to Milwaukee. The city already has a large charter sector and a large voucher sector. The three sectors–Charter, voucher, and public–get about the same results on state tests. As the private sector grows, the public sector shrinks and has a growing and disproportionate number of students with disabilities. But the city’s leaders continue to believe that private management will create great schools. Read this article and, as usual, follow the money.
Gary Rubinstein: Gates’ MET Study Is Wrong
Gary Rubinstein took a close look at the new Gates’ study of teacher evaluation and says it is wrong. The media takeaway is tat in evaluating teachers, test scores are more reliable than observations. But Gary, who teaches mathematics at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, says it isn’t so.
Bill Gates has put $50 million into finding the ideal way to evaluate teachers.
Gary concludes: “It seems like the point of this ‘research’ is to simply ‘prove’ that Gates was right about what he expected to be true. He hired some pretty famous economists, people who certainly know enough about math to know that their conclusions are invalid.”
Bill Gates has put $50 million into finding the ideal way to evaluate teachers.
Gary concludes: “It seems like the point of this ‘research’ is to simply ‘prove’ that Gates was right about what he expected to be true. He hired some pretty famous economists, people who certainly know enough about math to know that their conclusions are invalid.”
G.F. Brandenburg Was “Rather Disappointed” in PBS Show on Rhee
G.F. Brandenburg was disappointed by John Merrow’s profile of Michelle Rhee. Like many others, he had expected that it old be an exposé of the cheating scandal in DC during her tenure. Merrow tried, but no one other than the principal who took over the school at the center of the scandal would agree to be interviewed. She knew bad things had happened, although neither the DC Inspector General nor the US DOE wanted to know. One is left with a sense that the whitewash has succeeded.
My Commentary on the PBS Rhee Special
I was invited by Frontline to offer reactions to the documentary about Michelle Rhee. I was disappointed that the documentary did not mention that Rhee is now working on behalf of a far-right agenda of privatization; that Washington Teachers Union President George Parker now works for StudentsFirst; that Rhee’s “miraculous gains” as a teacher in Baltimore have been discredited. But I had space limitations. So this was my commentary:
I watched John Merrow’s documentary on “The Education of Michelle Rhee” with high anticipation. I wanted to see what she had learned from her experience, and what lessons there might be for the nation.
The documentary emphasizes her steely determination to do whatever she thought necessary to turn around the
I watched John Merrow’s documentary on “The Education of Michelle Rhee” with high anticipation. I wanted to see what she had learned from her experience, and what lessons there might be for the nation.
The documentary emphasizes her steely determination to do whatever she thought necessary to turn around the
Diane in the Evening 1-8-13 Diane Ravitch's blog
Diane Ravitch's blog: Petrilli: What’s Wrong With Skimming the Best Students? by dianerav Mike Petrilli at the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute has an interesting post about the high expulsion rate in DC charters (72 students are expelled from DC charters for every one expelled from the public schools). Be sure to read the story in the Washington Post that he refers to as well as the short video, in which Mike Petrilli appears). Usually, corporate reformers insist that charter schools enroll exactly the same kids as the public schools. They even insist that attrition rat... more »