UPDATE: History Repeats Itself + Texas STAAR Guarantees Failure of SpEd Students – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

Texas STAAR Guarantees Failure of Special Ed Students – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

History Repeats Itself; First as David Hornbeck, then as “Michelle Rhee”

by John Thompson

A couple of weeks ago, John Merrow revealed the “smoking gun” memo showing that Michelle Rhee was warned about the extent of possible cheating in the D.C. schools, and that made him a hero to many teachers.  Then, Merrow started a controversy by posting “Who Created ‘Michelle Rhee.’”  Merrow indicated that Rhee, some corporate reformers, [...]

The Manufactured Support of the Marginalized

by plthomasedd

A prisoner stands before a court and is told to make a decision between execution and amputation. The prison chooses amputation. Imagine using this situation to claim that amputation is the right thing to do for a generalized population because the prisoner chose it. Now, consider Michelle Alexander in her The New Jim Crow: Yet [...]

I think I figured something out. Surprised?!?

by Chalk Face, PhD

It has always been remarkable to me why we don’t see a prevalence of charter schools and other hallmarks of school choice in rural communities. There is just as much poverty, neglect, abuse, and family discord in these areas. We don’t see “no excuses” approaches or an intense push for universal college participation. I’m perfectly 

Texas STAAR Guarantees Failure of Special Ed Students

by ontogenyx

Not hyperbole, but sad and inhumane fact.  The headline from the Dallas Morning News April 22 was 

New STAAR test standards guarantee some Texas special education students will fail

The guaranteed failure of the most vulnerable students has long been a fact in Texas and elsewhere, but for the State now to admit as much introduces a new phase in school social and economic sorting by tests and the dystopian visionaries who devise them.  Clip from DMN:

In 2012, the state gave 86,474 STAAR-Alternate assessments in mathematics, English/language arts, science, and social studies. Of that group, 29,208 of the tests included only Level 1 tasks. About 8 in 10 of the students taking those Level 1 tests passed.