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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Diane in the Evening 2-20-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:







Breaking News: Rhee’s StudentsFirst Dumps $250,000 into Los Angeles School Board Race

Three candidates who support Superintendent John Deasy received a gift of $250,000 from M. Rhee today.
This is added to the $1 million supplied by Mayor Bloomberg, and the $1.5 million raised by Eli Broad and his friends (including Joel Klein).
Clearly there is an all-out effort to make sure that corporate reform policies favored by the Gates Foundation win 



Good News: Indiana Senate Panel Scraps School Grading System

The Republican controlled Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to abandon Tony Bennett’s prized A-F grading system for schools.
Researchers have found that such grading systems are unreliable and unfair.
Undoubtedly Republican legislators heard from

The Corporate Takeover of Indianapolis Public Schools

A reader sent the following information about the planned destruction of public education in Indianapolis:
Unfortunately the Neighborhoods of Educational Opportunity/Indianapolis Mayor’s Office plan (NEO) presentation which has been made public is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a well documented, more detailed plan that select groups (The Mind Trust, Stand for Children, Teach for America, The New Teacher Project) are meeting about in private and making plans while they await the possible receipt of a Bloomberg grant of $5 mil to get this 


Breakthrough! Teacher Develops Metric for Love

Steve Strieker is a teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin, who knows how important data are.
So he developed a survey metric that accurately and succinctly records the amount of love his family members have for one another.
Some showed improvement.
Others didn’t.
We can learn from his important research.
Surely there must be a foundation that will give him a few million to extend his studies of socio-emotional attachments and metric calibrations.



A Debate About Little Children and the Common Core

A few days ago, my six-year-old grandson, who attends first grade in a public school in New York City, called to ask a question.
He said, “Ama, I am doing a data analysis. I need to ask you a question.”
I said, “You are doing a WHAT?” He repeated, “I am doing a data analysis.”
Then he asked whether I would rather be a porcupine or a hedgehog.
I thought a minute and said I would rather be a hedgehog.
He was very surprised. I knew he was doing something related to the Common Core, but I still thought he was a 


How Charters Went from Portfolios to Parasites

If I had to choose one post each day that was a must-read, this would be it.
Bruce Baker of Rutgers has followed the evolution of the charter movement.
He initially thought they might be a source of innovation, as their 

Can’t Keep Any Secrets

I revealed the title of my new book yesterday and said the subtitle was a secret.
Then a reader commented that he found the book on a website, so my secret is out.
The full title of the book is
Reign of Error:
The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger for America’s Public Schools

What Will Happen to Eastside Memorial High School?

When I was in Austin last September to speak to the Texas Association of School Administrators and the Texas School Boards Association, I scheduled a visit to Eastside Memorial High School.
There I spoke to a rally of hundreds of parents, students, and teachers who were determined to save their school, which had recently been handed over to a charter chain.
After I left, there was an election, and the new school board decided to sever the


LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-20-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Jeb Bush Hits a New Low by dianerav I read on Twitter just now that I compared “school choice” to a Nazi invasion. “*Excellence in Ed* ‏@*ExcelinEd* . @*DianeRavitch* likens school choice to Nazi invasion. Yes. You read that correctly. http://bit.ly/Y7svLC“ To say the least, I was taken aback because I had never written or implied any such thing. But consider the source. It comes from Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education (“excellence” in this case meaning the Jay Mathews: Why Did Two Inspe... more »