MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-24-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Bridgeport Parents Call for Vallas’s Ouster

by dianerav

A report from Bridgeport, Connecticut:
Connecticut Working Families Party
30 Arbor Street, Suite 210, Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 523-1699 http://www.connecticutworkingfamilies.org
For an event occurring on
February 25th, 2013, 4 pm
Advisory – Parents Call on Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew Paul Vallas’ Contract as Superintendent
For more information contact Taylor Leake at (860) 670-1408 or tleake@workingfamilies.org.
Parents of students at schools run by corporate reformer Paul Vallas – including Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he is the current Interim Superintendent, and Chicago, where he was CEO of Public Schools from 1995 to 2001 

Great News! Investigative Reporting Is Still Alive!

by dianerav

Reporter Colin Woodard’s brilliant exposé of the profitable ties between Jeb Bush, Maine’s Governor Paul LePage, and the online industry won the prestigious George Polk award for reporting in 2012.
If you have not read it, do so now. You will be an informed citizen.
More about this great journalist:
Colin Woodard, an award-winning author
and journalist who writes for Washington
Monthly, The Christian Science Monitor,
and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
He is currently State and National Affairs
Writer for the Portland Press Herald /

How Pearson’s Connections Academy Cheated a Blind Student

by dianerav

Online charter schools are, with few exceptions a sham. They waste taxpayer dollars and, worse, they waste students’ lives.
Here is an especially egregious example. Pearson’s Connections Academy graduated a blind student who could 

Are Your Students Tested to Despair?

by dianerav

If you answered yes, click on this website that is fighting the testing madness in the schools.
Share your stories, and you can even order a bumper sticker.
Encourage other teachers and parents to let the world know they their children are tested to despair.

Are Your Students Tested to Despair?

by dianerav

If you answered yes, click on this website that is fighting the testing madness in the schools.
Share your stories, and you can even order a bumper sticker.
Encourage other teachers and parents to let the world know they their children are tested to despair.

Proof: Kindergarten Teachers Know How to Fix the Schools

by dianerav

This is a letter from a kindergarten teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, to her state legislators. Nevada has the lowest graduation rate in the nation, lower even than the District of Columbia. As she explains in her post, the schools of Las Vegas are underfunded, and the needs of the children are huge. Please read and remember: Everything you need about school reform may be learned from a kindergarten teacher.
The session has begun and I’m worried. What worries me?
FUNDING
Money. People say money should not matter in education but it does. Money buys stuff and staff. Bottom line: 

Diane in the Evening 2-23-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Parent: Public Schools Worked for My Children by dianerav A reader posted this comment: *My children did go to the local public school. The percentage of Title I students has grown at the neighborhood school. We are still living in the same house since 1977. My neighborhood was once considered middle class. Not now. So, no I did not send my kids to charters or private schools. My oldest son and middle daughter did great in public school. The youngest struggled with focusing due to ADHD. He did okay until high... more »