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Charter Leader Resigns in Chicago
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 hours ago
The UNO charter schools are well connected. Juan Rangel, the head of the Chicago charter corporation, was a co-chair of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign. He is a major figure in The city’s Hispanic community.The legislature gave UNO $98 million to build three charter schools. Unfortunately, charter schools are so deregulated that problems arise, like lack [...]
Florida Pays Crooks and Liars to Tutor Kids
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 12 hours ago
Florida hands out millions of dollars to ex-convicts, profiteers, and crooks to tutor poor kids. People who would never be hired to teach in a public school because of their criminal history are paid as much as $60 an hour to tutor needy students. The program has no accountability or quality. The next time you [...]
Zombie Ideas in Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 16 hours ago
I have written on many occasions that merit pay is an idea that never works and never dies. It has been tried for over a century, and failed again and again. Yet it comes back. I didn’t realize it, but merit pay is a zombie idea. There are many more zombie ideas, like the well-known [...]
Goldenberg: Why You Should Oppose the Common Core
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 16 hours ago
As readers know, I am agnostic about the Common Core standards. I want to see how they work in reality before supporting or opposing them. I know the case for both views. However, I am troubled by the rush to force compliance without trial. I am concerned about shoddy implementation without preparation or resources. I [...]
Should a Child with Autism Be Compelled to Take the Tests?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 19 hours ago
A reader wrote to ask for advice. The situation she describes is outrageous. Does anyone know of a group that can help her fight this and protect her child? I am a special education teacher and mother of a 3rd grader with Autism. I am trying to excercise my parental right to opt my son [...]
When Big Money Started in L.A. School Board Races
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 20 hours ago
This interesting article traces the rise of big spending in Los Angeles school board races. In 1978, a candidate was elected after spending only $56,000. This year’s election will break all records. The big spending began with Mayor Richard Riordan, who decided he needed to shake things up. He and his fellow zillionaire Eli Broad [...]
Ten Excellent Ideas for President Obama
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 21 hours ago
Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District in New York, has some excellent ideas for President Obama. Ten of them, to be exact. He believes in putting first things first, in thinking clearly about what the federal role is and doing that role well. He believes in career professionals. He believes that the [...]
Tim Slekar: Rhee’s Biggest Lie
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 21 hours ago
Tim Slekar is a tireless advocate for public education and teachers. He was upset that Michelle Rhee got a chance to sell her book on the Jon Stewart show, because Jon is one of the best friends of public schools and teachers on national television. Tim knew that Rhee would use the opportunity to say [...]
Paul Thomas: Do Not Become a Zombie
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 23 hours ago
Paul Thomas, our collective voice of conscience, explains the way that zombies take control. When your leaders are zombies, do not follow them. They will make you a zombie too. How can you recognize a zombie? They talk about data, not individuals. They always say they put “kids first” or “children first,” but they don’t [...]
The Corporate Reform Cult of Rhetoric and Riches
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
To understand the tentacles of corporate reform, you must read this post Here Mercedes Schneider continues her review of the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality. As her research deepens, she uncovers the links among the big-money investors and their plans to privatize education, turn teachers and children into assets, and monetize public [...]
Who Are the Zombies?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
On Wednesday, a large group of high school students staged a zombie protest in front of he Rhode Island Department of Education. They said that the state’s high-stakes testing would turn them into the undead. New York has zombies too. They are running the State Education Department and they fervently believe that testing is the [...]
Do You Like Bloomberg’s Education Policies?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Here is a chance to make your voice heard. Crain’s New York is running an opinion poll, asking which of Bloomberg’s policies the next mayor should get rid of. Bloomberg has promoted high-stakes testing, charter schools, school closings, co-locations of charters, and evaluation of teachers by test scores. Class sizes are at their highest in [...]
Setting the Record Straight About Central Park East
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
After I posted about the NYC DOE decision to place a new charter school into space that Central Park East wanted for expansion, many comments were received. Some accused the school of being exclusive or selective or no different from a charter. This parent at the school responded in hopes of clarifying what the school [...]
L.A. School Board Candidate Speaks Out
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Robert Skeels is a pro-public school candidate in Los Angeles. He has raised $15,000. He will not get anything from Eli Broad or Michael Bloomberg. He comments: The LA Times asked me for a quote on Bloomberg’s $1 Million CSR donation. Here’s my response: “As a community candidate who has raised over $15,000 through myriad [...]
Tennessee Legislature Protects Failing Virtual Charter School
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Just an hour ago, I posted the story about how officials at the Tennessee Virtual Academy had instructed teachers to delete failing grades, allegedly to show “progress.” The virtual school, run by the for-profit K12 corporation, is among the lowest-performing schools in the state. This afternoon a state legislative committee blocked any discussion of the [...]
Tennessee Virtual Academy Caught Altering Grades
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Administrators at the for-profit K12 online charter called Tennessee Virtual Academy instructed teachers to delete failing grades from the fall semester. School officials defended the practice: Tennessee Virtual Academy Principal Josh Williams insisted that the school had taken the steps to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.” “By going back into our school’s electronic grading [...]
John White Is Confident That Voucher Program Will Grow
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Despite the fact that a Louisiana judge struck down the funding for the state’s voucher program, State Superintendent John White expressed confidence that the state would find a way to pay for it and that the numbers who leave public schools for religious schools with public funding will increase. Although nearly half a million students [...]
Indiana Will Not Drop Out of Common Core
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Despite protests from parents and teachers, the Indiana Legislature agreed to continue rolling out the Common Core standards, which have already been rolled out for kindergarten and first grade, and will soon be released for second grades (these are the grades in which early childhood experts say the Common Core standards are developmentally inappropriate). The [...]
School Board Races in Los Angeles Heat Up with Big Bucks
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Here is a good overview of the political situation in Los Angeles by Howard Blume of the LA Times. Two billionaires have assembled a campaign chest of $2.5 million to make sure that Superintendent John Deasey has a board that supports his agenda. Los Angeles has more charter schools than any city in America, and [...]
Gary Rubinstein on the Union City Story
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
This is one of the most interesting education stories on the web this week. David Kirp wrote a very good article in the New York Times about how the Union City public schools have improved over the years without charter schools or TFA. The Times gave it the headline “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools.” [...]
What Was Wrong with Obama’s State of the Union Address
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
In this article, which appeared on Huffington Post, Alan Singer of Hofstra University in New York, nails the empty promises and misleading claims in President Obama’s State of the Union address. He calls it “Obama’s Mis-Education Agenda.” Alan Singer writes: I am a lifetime teacher, first in public schools and then in [...]
Did EdWeek Sell Its Soul?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Timothy Slekar here writes a scathing condemnation of Education Week, our K-12 journal of record, for acting as an uncritical mouthpiece for the Common Core State Standards. Slekar says: “Other than some of the blogs, EdWeek’s so called “news” is nothing more than propaganda for the corporate reformers. I pointed it out before, EdWeek and its [...]
Schneider Finds Three Educators on NCTQ Board: Part 12
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Mercedes Schneider continues her patient and painstaking dissection of the National Council on Teacher Quality board. In earlier posts, she reviewed the qualifications of Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein and others. In this post, she discovers some real educators on the board of this organization. NCTQ is especially important because it is rating the [...]
Preparing Walmart’s Workforce of Tomorrow
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
EduShyster has a hilarious post about how to prepare Walmart workers of the future. You know, the ones who conform and obey without question. These are the children who work to meet the demands of a stopwatch, getting ready to punch a time clock. Better yet, they are learning in an environment where there are [...]
Send a Valentine Now to Your Favorite Teacher!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Happy Valentine’s Day! When I was a child in public school in Houston, we had an annual ritual of sending handmade valentines to everyone else in the class, so that no one was left out. It was a day to express not only love but friendship and kindness. These days, teachers don’t get the love, [...]
What’s Happening in Hawaii
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A reader just informed me about her blog, which describes the changes in Hawaii. Justice Louis Brandeis long ago referred to states as “laboratories of democracy,” where new ideas could be tried out, to succeed or fail. Each state could try out social or economic experiments without peril to other states. Now, a stifling blanket [...]
Big Business and the Common Core: What They Forgot to Mention
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A reader points out that few if any children of the business leaders who signed the ad for the Common Core will be affected by what they support. He suspects that most are sending their children to tony private schools, which do not give standardized tests and will likely ignore the Common Core, even though [...]
NYC DOE Co-Locates Charter in Deborah Meier’s School
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Deborah Meier founded the very popular Central Park East schools in East Harlem. Deborah, with whom I used to blog weekly, is a pioneer of the small schools movement, a strong believer in public school choice, and an eloquent advocate of democratic education. The CPE schools (I and II) have repeatedly asked the NYC Department [...]
Big Business Supports the Common Core
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Yesterday, 72 business corporations published a full-page advertisement in the New York Times supporting the Common Core State Standards. The ad asserts that the CCSS will prepare all children “to be successful in a competitive global economy.” How do they know that since the standards are only now being implemented and have never been demonstrated [...]
The State of the Union Address
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Every year since the introduction of Race to the Top, I wait in high anticipation to see whether President Obama will recognize how demoralizing this program has been to the nation’s educators. I keep hoping he will acknowledge that it has intensified the punitive effects of No Child Left Behind, that its demand to evaluate [...]
G.F. Brandenburg: What’s Wrong with Corporate Reform
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
G.F. Brandenburg writes one of the best education blogs on the planet. Follow him. He has a deep intolerance for fraud, cheating, and misrepresentation. Here he explains in a few hundred words what is wrong with corporate reform.
L.A. Parent Explains Why She Will Vote for Steve Zimmer
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
As readers of this blog know, the corporate titans in Los Angeles have raised a huge fund to beat Steve Zimmer in his race for re-election to the LA school board. Eli Broad and his allies have raised over $1.5 million. NYC Mayor Bloomberg has tossed in $1 million to support the pro-privatization candidates. Zimmer [...]
The For-Profit Tutoring Experience—Ugh!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A reader recently wrote what it is like to work for a for-profit tutoring company: I am a teacher in a Catholic school and I work for one of these for profit tutoring companies in Chicago. I provide small group instruction to children in math and reading. Although I feel that I am conscientious and [...]
More on Charter Legislation in Tennessee
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
The Tennessee Legislature is rushing to pass legislation that would allow charters to apply to the state to get authorization, instead of the local school board. As noted in an earlier post, the legislation would apply only to Nashville and Memphis. Note the rationale for targeting these two districts: they already have the most charter [...]
Michael Johnston, Colorado Boy Wonder of Corporate Reform
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Who is the miracle reformer of Colorado? Who wrote its law to evaluate teachers by their test scores? Who claimed that his high school graduated 100% of its seniors and sent them to college? Who so lauded by President Obama and DFER? Whose legislation became a model for ALEC? Why, Michael Johnston, of course. Mercedes [...]
Tennessee Republicans Seek to Gut Local Control
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
The Republican super-majority in the Tennessee legislature introduced legislation to strip away the the power of the school boards in Memphis (Shelby County) and Nashville to authorize charter schools. The power would be moved to a state authority. This move is retaliation against the Metro Nashville school board, which rejected an application from the Great [...]
Please Give Your Advice to This Reader
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
I received the following sincere request for advice. I replied that I would ask readers to share their views. My own view is that RTTT is promoting privatization and standardization and offers little that will enrich education or improve the teaching profession. But I think the reader should hear from you. She writes: Diane. I [...]
What Is “Cage Busting”? EduShyster Explains It All to You
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
EduShyster wants to help promote Rick Hess’ new book, Cage Busters….or does she? It is a ritual. Every author of a public policy book must launch it with a panel discussion at a think tank in DC. It’s a way of showcasing the book and branding it Hess runs the education program at the American [...]
Breaking News: Mayor Bloomberg Gives $1 Million to L.A. School Board Candidates
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
This is an astonishing development. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, a multibillionaire, is giving $1 million to support three candidates in the Los Angeles school board election. The candidates he is backing are in favor of privately managed charter schools and are generally anti-union. The people of Los Angeles will decide in next [...]
Kevin Drum: Another Bogus Ed Reform
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Kevin Drum is a respected writer and blogger. He doesn’t usually write about education. However, he has heard the claim that the best way to improve academic performance is to make school harder: higher standards, harder tests. The San Jose school district tried this approach. It said that every student must take college prep classes. [...]
In Praise of Senator Lamar Alexander
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Some 20 years ago, I worked as Assistant Secretary of Education in the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush. I was in charge of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement and also Counselor to the Secretary of Education, who was Lamar Alexander. Secretary Alexander took a big risk with me because I was [...]
Superintendent: Race to the Top Costs His District
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Superintendent Ken Mitchell took a close look at what his district is getting to comply with Race to the Top mandates and what it will cost his district to comply. It is not a pretty picture.
Jeb Bush: Change the Rules of the Game and Win
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Matt Di Carlo of the Shanker Institute here dissects the claims of Jeb Bush about the success of the state letter grade system. As he shows, the number of A-rated schools went up because the state changed the rules of the game. You can always get more points on the basketball court if you drop [...]
Why Is Education Talk So Vacuous?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Jersey Jazzman deconstructs Michelle Rhee’s appearance on Jon Stewart’s show and wonders why interviewers allow her to avoid any real analysis of her policy recommendations. Instead of asking what is the evidence for her views, she is allowed to get away with glittering generalities about how much she loves teachers. Jon Stewart is one of [...]
Joel Klein, the Quintessential Corporate Reformer
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Mercedes Schneider continues her review of the board of the National Council of Teacher Quality. Earlier entries reviewed the bios of Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee, and other prominent figures whose lives intersect again and again on the boards of the groups seeking control of American education, with the full-throated support of Secretary Arne Duncan. Here [...]
Is There a Method Behind the Madness of “Calibrating” Principals?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Jersey Jazzman read Carol Burris’s account of her “training” sessions where she was being “calibrated” by people who know how to calibrate principals. He saw behind the smokescreen. The goal is to create a system so “objective” that principals have no room for judgment and teachers may be fired by those allegedly objective criteria. We [...]
Vote for This Man for School Board!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
I don’t know Michael Weston, but I love his comment below. He is a teacher in Hillsborough County, Florida, which received many millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation to pilot a new teacher evaluation program. Bill and Melinda visited the district and expressed great pleasure at the compliments directed their way. They don’t seem [...]
The Onion Finds a New Reason to Worry about US Students
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Watch this, get a good laugh, and go to sleep! We see similar nonsense in the mainstream media every day, but this one is funny.
Have You Been Calibrated Yet?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, New York, describes how New York is preparing principals and teachers for the new world order decreed by Arne Duncan and his Race to the Top. She went to a training to learn how to evaluate teachers, something she had been doing successfully in [...]
Gerald Coles Replies to Critics: Obama’s Second Term
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
I posted Gerald Coles’ predictions about President Obama’s second term. Many commenters responded. This is Coles’ response to those who raised questions: With respect to the suggestion that the “federal govt. should get out of the classroom entirely,” I think that’s a complicated issue, given, for example, the federal government’s role in ending LEGAL segregation [...]
A Reader Asks: Are There Any States That Are NOT Infested with Corporate Reform?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
I am reposting this because the first version had a typo in the title. I wrote NOW instead of NOT, changing the meaning. So here is the correct version! A reader wrote to ask a question. Are there any states that have resisted the tidal wave of bad ideas? It is impossible to avoid [...]
A Reader Asks: Are There Any States That Are NOT Infested with Corporate Reform?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
A reader wrote to ask a question. Are there any states that have resisted the tidal wave of bad ideas? It is impossible to avoid high-stakes testing because it was imposed first by No Child Left Behind and then reinforced by Race to the Top. Are there ANY states now that are not voucherizing and [...]
Fun and Games in Reporting about the New Orleans Non-Miracle
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Our frequent contributor Mercedes Schneider sent the following news in response to a post about Bobby Jindal selling the New Orleans miracle in Virginia: From Mary K. Bellisario, VP of St. Tammany Parish School Board (Louisiana) : The Associated Press at least printed some of the truth about the RSD: “However, New Orleans [...]
1% Elite Vs. Steve Zimmer in L.A.
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
The 1% really really really wants to beat Steve Zimmer. Zimmer is a member of the Los Angeles school board who is up for re-election. He is a former teacher (and TFA) in Los Angeles. He is the target of a heavily funded campaign to oust him. The LA Fund for Public Education (controlled by Superintendent [...]
Providence, RI, Students Plan “Zombie” Protest Against High-StakesTesting
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Students in Providence, Rhode Island, will hold a Zombie protest against high-stakes testing outside the Rhode Island Department of Education headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. State Commissioner Deborah Gist may not be there, as she is participating in a conference at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute in DC on Tuesday with Michelle Rhee about “cage-busting [...]
The Fleecing of Public Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
This is a guest post by Peter DeWitt on a topic that should concern us all. We lack the infrastructure to be testing factories, and that shouldn’t be our job in the first place. If the nightly news really wanted to look into the Fleecing of America, they need not look further than the serious [...]
New Orleans Reform Group: Choice Falls Short
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
As we all know, New Orleans has been presented as a national model of school reform: eliminate public schools, open lots of charters staffed by inexperienced young teachers, watch for miraculous results. But now a major promoter of the all-charter model–the Cowen Institute at Tulane University– has released a brutally frank report saying that things [...]
How Florida Politicians Are Wrecking the Schools
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
You may be lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to hear Jeb Bush boasting about the “Florida miracle.” A useful contrast to his spiel is the story of this teacher in Florida, who is leaving a job she loved. She didn’t want to leave, but it became clear to her and some of her colleagues that [...]
Must-Read: The Inside Story of the Texas Testing Debacle
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Tom Pauken has written a fascinating and informative article about how Texas became the leader of the testing movement and how testing became an instrument to destroy local control. Pauken is a prominent Republican. He just concluded a term on the Texas Workforce Commission. He became an outspoken opponent of the testing regime, as he [...]
Warning to College Profs: Here Comes the NCLB Generation!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Kenneth Bernstein recently retired as a high school teacher of government. He regularly blogs as Teacherken at the Daily Kos, which is how I met him. He is–and I hesitate to write this–an almost saintly man, deeply devoted to students, teaching, education, and the betterment of humanity. In this article, written in the journal of [...]
Everything You Wanted to Know About Michelle Rhee
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Here is Michelle Rhee, as reviewed by Mercedes Schneider in part viii of her study of the board of the National Council of Teacher Quality. Mercedes Schneider is a teacher in Louisiana who holds a Ph.D. In statistics and research methods. Here she is at her best, doing a close examination of the life and [...]
My Vacation in Cuba
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
I just returned from an amazing week in Cuba. I went there legally, from Miami to Havana. I wanted to go someplace warm in mid-winter but I didn’t want to sit on a beach in the sun. I wanted to learn. It took quite a lot of digging to discover that the U.S. government has [...]
Exclude Students with Disabilities to Raise Test Scores
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
This is not a new trick. It is proven to work. Remove students with disabilities from the mandated tests and the scores go up. You won’t be surprised where this is happening. Read about it here. After all, what matters most? Kids or test scores? In another era, we might have said without thinking twice [...]
Georgia: “The Chaos Theory of Running Our Schools”
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Myra Blackmon, a columnist for the Athens, Georgia, Banner-Herald, explains how the state legislature is determined to destabilize and disrupt public education with a wacky “parent trigger” bill. Read her terrific analysis here. It won’t do anything to improve education nor will it “empower” parents, but it will make ALEC and others advocates of privatization [...]
Amazing Reporting on New Orleans Charters
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Bobby Jindal went to Virginia to boast of the miraculous transformation of education in Louisiana, all attributable to the magic of replacing public schools with privately managed, deregulated charters. This is an oft-told tale, repeated again and again by advocates of privatization in both political parties and endlessly regurgitated by an uncurious and credulous media. [...]
Bad News from Sacramento
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A reader from Sacramento warns that privatization is moving rapidly in his city: Here in Sacramento we are facing an all out assault by the privatisation armies. Sacramento City Unified School District has slated eleven elementary schools for closure under their “Children First” and “Right Sizing” plan. Instead of following the six month plan our [...]
This Boy Is Not a Striver
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A few weeks ago, I posted a column by Mike Petrilli defending the idea that charters skim the best, most ambitious kids from public schools. The column was refreshing in that Mike abandoned the usual reformer pretense that charters enroll “exactly” the same children as public schools and get amazing results. Mike said that charters [...]
Cody to Gates; What Should We Measure?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Anthony Cody advises Bill gates that test scores are not the best measure of effectiveness. Here he tells Gates what really matters.
Bridget, Don’t Give Up!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
An administrator in Louisiana writes about how the Jindal administration tries to strike fear in the hearts of all educators while boasting of their great success. Dear Bridget, here is my advice: “Illegitimi non carborundum.” Be there when their pathetic regime is toppled by the good and great citizens of Louisiana. Bridget writes: It definitely [...]
Could Mark Zuckerberg Please Fix This Newark Problem?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Mark Zuckerberg paid out $100 million to fix Newark’s schools. Millions have been spent on consultants. Probably lots more charters too, free to push out kids they don’t want. But couldn’t some of Mark’s millions be spent to clean this high school and bring in an exterminator to get rid of vermin? Remember that a [...]
Great News: How to Succeed without Corporate Reforms
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
In this superb article in the New York Times, David Kirp shows how the public schools of Union City, New Jersey,succeeded despite all the obstacles of poverty. The article summarizes his fine book “Improbable Scholars.” Union City created excellent schools without charters and without Teach for America. And without Cory Booker or Mark Zuckerberg. Let’s [...]
More About Vouchers in Wisconsin
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A reader who is a parent in Wisconsin notes that the far-right group American Federation for Children is reaching out to disability groups to get their support for vouchers. AFS is committed to privatization, and they know full well that vouchers for special education students is a first step. It is also high on ALEC’s [...]
Holding Education Hostage
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
A few days ago, I published a post on the blog of the New York Review of Books about the battle over teacher evaluation by test scores. Unlike this blog, whose readers are mostly educators, the NYRB blog goes to hundreds of thousands of highly literate non-educators. So my challenge was to briefly explain Race [...]
Can You Believe This?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
In Florida, a criminal record is no barrier to collecting public dollars, if you are not in a public school. Ain’t deregulation wonderful?
How Teachers Can Stop the Organized Attack on Teaching
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Teachers often feel powerless in the face of the assaults against their profession. Often they are directed to do things that they know are educational malpractice, and they have no choice but to comply. The best way to resist is through collective action, like the testing boycott of the Seattle teachers. One person standing alone [...]
My Advice for Obama’s State of Union Speech
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
I was invited by the Bill Moyers’ show to write the section on education for President Obama’s State of the Union address. Not to write what I think ke WILL say, but what I think he SHOULD say. Read it here and please add your comment.
Good Things Happening in Green Bay!
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Amanda Brooker writes about the good work in her school and district. It is important that everyone recognize that the effort to make public schools intolerable and to privatize public education is national. Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Tony Bennett, and Michelle Rhee are among its leaders. Dr. Ravitch, My superintendent Michelle Langenfeld and I feel [...]
The Waivers Are Worthless and Destructive
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
The waivers offered to states by Arne Duncan removed the NCLB deadline of 2014, in exchange for states agreeing to accept punitive mandates and loss of state and local control. The waivers took the heat off Congress to repeal NCLB. NCLB is a train-wreck. By removing the deadline, Congress can now tinker around the edges. [...]
Charter Schools Unionize
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
About 90% of the nation’s charter schools are non-union. The charter owners want it that way. It enables them to hire and fire at will and to make unreasonable demands on teachers, like a 9-hour or more work day. Some charters routinely expect teachers to work 50 or 60 hours a week. Unions get in [...]
Do NCLB Waivers Offer Hope?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
NCLB is a disaster. The absurd idea that 100% of all students would be proficient simply by testing them every year and firing their teachers and principals and closing their schools is now exposed as a great fantasy. Do waivers help? Or are they just another way to fasten the federal noose and pave the [...]
