Mathematica: KIPP Produces Big Gains
Mathematica Policy Research has good news for KIPP. Their students make significant gains. The press release follows with a link to the report and summary of the findings.
A few questions occur to me about the replicability of the KIPP model.
First, KIPP has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from philanthropists and the U.S. Department of Education. Does that extra money translate into smaller classes and other perks? If not, what is it used for?
Second, to what extent do KIPP students benefit from peer effects, in that the comparison group is attending
A few questions occur to me about the replicability of the KIPP model.
First, KIPP has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from philanthropists and the U.S. Department of Education. Does that extra money translate into smaller classes and other perks? If not, what is it used for?
Second, to what extent do KIPP students benefit from peer effects, in that the comparison group is attending
Paul Thomas: How to Solve the “Top Student Crisis”
Some of the leading thinkers of our day decided that our really big crisis is not the low test scores of the bottom 10%, but the desultory gains of our top 10%. This is known as the “top student crisis.”
Where would American education be, after all, if a day went by without another crisis?
Some might say that top students are bored by our national testing regime. Or maybe they suffer because of the
Where would American education be, after all, if a day went by without another crisis?
Some might say that top students are bored by our national testing regime. Or maybe they suffer because of the
How Do You Fight Back Without Getting Fired?
This reader asks the question of the day, which is the title of this post. If you are doing a job you want to do but are required to do what you know is wrong, what do you do?
One answer: join with others who agree with you. Find others teachers who feel the same. Join with parents. Alone you are powerless and vulnerable. Learn about any organized opposition to educational malpractice in your community, region, or state.
The reader writes:
I am new to your blog and am finding it very informative and enlighening! I am a middle school math teacher and am in a district that is ALL about test scores. Our students are tested MANY times during the year, and EVERYTHING revolves around the numerous data sets associated with those tests. Online benchmarks for state
One answer: join with others who agree with you. Find others teachers who feel the same. Join with parents. Alone you are powerless and vulnerable. Learn about any organized opposition to educational malpractice in your community, region, or state.
The reader writes:
I am new to your blog and am finding it very informative and enlighening! I am a middle school math teacher and am in a district that is ALL about test scores. Our students are tested MANY times during the year, and EVERYTHING revolves around the numerous data sets associated with those tests. Online benchmarks for state
New Jersey: Save Money By Cutting Staff for Special Education
Just when you think the corporate reformers have run out of ways to hurt children and kneecap educators, they pull another trick out of their bag.
In New Jersey, the state board of education proposes to cut staff trained to identify and manage the cases of special education students and turn the job over to classroom teachers.
Jersey Jazzman delineates what is happening:
“The New Jersey state Board of Education wants to give districts the option to fire Child Study Team members and have teachers take over the management of special education cases.
“I understand that we are all looking for ways to save money, but this is perhaps the most egregious cost-cutting
In New Jersey, the state board of education proposes to cut staff trained to identify and manage the cases of special education students and turn the job over to classroom teachers.
Jersey Jazzman delineates what is happening:
“The New Jersey state Board of Education wants to give districts the option to fire Child Study Team members and have teachers take over the management of special education cases.
“I understand that we are all looking for ways to save money, but this is perhaps the most egregious cost-cutting
David Coleman Will Change the SAT to Align with Common Core
David Coleman, widely acknowledged as the “architect” of the Common Core standards, was selected last year as CEO of the College Board. He announced recently that the SAT will be redesigned to reflect the Common Core.
Get to know David Coleman.
He is now the de facto controller of American education. He decided what your child in kindergarten should know and do. He decided what children in every grade should know and do. He has decided how they should be tested. Now he will decide what students need to know if they want to go to college. He had some help. But make no mistake: he is the driving force that is changing what and how your children and your students learn.
Coleman, whose mother is president of Bennington College, graduated from Yale and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He then worked for McKinsey.
He created the Grow Network, an assessment program that he sold to McGraw-Hill in 2005, reportedly for $14
Get to know David Coleman.
He is now the de facto controller of American education. He decided what your child in kindergarten should know and do. He decided what children in every grade should know and do. He has decided how they should be tested. Now he will decide what students need to know if they want to go to college. He had some help. But make no mistake: he is the driving force that is changing what and how your children and your students learn.
Coleman, whose mother is president of Bennington College, graduated from Yale and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He then worked for McKinsey.
He created the Grow Network, an assessment program that he sold to McGraw-Hill in 2005, reportedly for $14
Philly Columnist: Time for Teachers to Strike
Philadelphia columnist Will Bunch couldn’t believe the onerous, mean-spirited proposal made by school officials to the city’s teachers. They are asked to accept a cut in pay and benefits, larger classes, a longer work day, and, adding insult to injury, no copying machines or supplies, no water fountains or parking facilities, not even desks.
Students will be in larger classes, in schools with no libraries, no librarians, no guidance counselors, and a corps of beaten-down teachers.
Way to go, School Reform Commission! I am reminded that the best corporations in the United States pamper their employees and make sure they have excellent working conditions. They want their employees to have high morale. In Philadelphia, they want to crush their teachers’ morale. The school officials are not employing a
Students will be in larger classes, in schools with no libraries, no librarians, no guidance counselors, and a corps of beaten-down teachers.
Way to go, School Reform Commission! I am reminded that the best corporations in the United States pamper their employees and make sure they have excellent working conditions. They want their employees to have high morale. In Philadelphia, they want to crush their teachers’ morale. The school officials are not employing a
Philadelphia Insults Its Teachers and Other Employees
Philadelphia’s Broad-trained Superintendent William Hite offered the district’s employees an insulting contract: pay cuts up to 13%, benefit cuts, longer school days, and no pay increases until 2017. After 2017, any increases would be “performance-based,” dependent on the principal’s recommendation. Seniority would be abolished, as well as any payment for advanced degrees. See here and here
In addition, schools with more than 1,000 students would not be required to have libraries or librarians. No more counselors. No limits on class size. The district would no longer be required to provide teachers lounges, water
In addition, schools with more than 1,000 students would not be required to have libraries or librarians. No more counselors. No limits on class size. The district would no longer be required to provide teachers lounges, water
High-Stakes Testing in the UK: An Assessment
Robin Alexander writes here about the collateral damage inflicted by the testing-and-accountability regime in the U.K.
His analysis will be familiar to American readers. As we all seek to be “world class” and to compete with one another, our governments are imposing a dreary conformity on every school and draining them of the spontaneity and joy that is the life blood of teaching and learning.
His analysis will be familiar to American readers. As we all seek to be “world class” and to compete with one another, our governments are imposing a dreary conformity on every school and draining them of the spontaneity and joy that is the life blood of teaching and learning.
Why Leon Wieseltier Loves Teachers
This essay by Leon Wieseltier appeared in a recent issue of “The New Republic”:
WHEN I LOOK BACK at my education, I am struck not by how much I learned but by how much I was taught. I am the progeny of teachers; I swoon over teachers. Even what I learned on my own I owed to them, because they guided me in my sense of what is significant. The only form of knowledge that can be adequately acquired without the help of a teacher, and without the humility of a student, is information, which is the lowest form of knowledge. (And in these nightmarishly data-glutted days, the winnowing of information may also require the
WHEN I LOOK BACK at my education, I am struck not by how much I learned but by how much I was taught. I am the progeny of teachers; I swoon over teachers. Even what I learned on my own I owed to them, because they guided me in my sense of what is significant. The only form of knowledge that can be adequately acquired without the help of a teacher, and without the humility of a student, is information, which is the lowest form of knowledge. (And in these nightmarishly data-glutted days, the winnowing of information may also require the
Diane in the Evening 2-27-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Corporate Bloc Collects $3 Million to Buy L.A. School Board by dianerav Corporate reformers are taking no chances. They have raised more than $3 million to make sure that they control the Los Angeles school board. The school board president Monica Garcia will have $1 million, more or less, to fight off education activist Robert Skeels, who has raised $20,000, more or less. Inexperienced Kate Anderson, the corporate favorite, will have $1 million, more or less, to battle incumbent Steve Words of Wisdom about Com... more »