Diane Ravitch's blog
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DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG
Hart Research Responds to Schneider Critique: correction
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 9 hours ago
In copying the response of Hart Research, I inadvertently copied only part of Guy Moyneaux’s comments. Here is his full response: TO:American Federation of Teachers FROM:Guy Molyneux, Hart Research Associates DATE:May 10, 2013 RE:Methodology for Common Core Survey Following are some facts about the methodology for AFT’s recent survey of AFT K-12 teachers on Common […]
Hart Research Associates Explains the Methodology of AFT Common Core Polling
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 13 hours ago
A few days go, Professor Ira Shor posted a comment and asked if Mercedes Schneider would analyze the poll showing that 75% of AFT teachers support the Common Core standards. Mercedes Schneider saw his request in the comments section and posted her analysis. Schneider is a high school teacher in Louisiana with a doctorate in […]
Randi Weingarten: Why I Support the Common Core Standards
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 14 hours ago
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, explains here why she supports the Common Core Standards and why she believes there should be a moratorium obpn te high stakes attached to the testing until teachers have had enough time to master them and students have had the opportunity to learn them. Randi writes: […]
More Evidence the Corporate Reformers Are Cracking Up
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 15 hours ago
At a panel discussion in New York City, Bridgeport Superintendent Paul Vallas made a startling admission. He said that the efforts to develop a teacher evaluation metric was a huge mess and that no one understands it. He said: “The Bridgeport, Conn. superintendent — who has served stints in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans and […]
Michigan Formula: Defund the Schools, Then Tie Teacher Pay to Scores
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 19 hours ago
Here is the absurd consequence of the terrible ideas that have dominated education policy in the US. for the past 20 or so years. The governor and legislators in Michigan have stripped more than a billion dollars from the public schools even as they better test scores. Now, as they plan to cut public school […]
Parent in Philly to Governor Corbett, No More Cuts
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 20 hours ago
Rebecca Poyourow, parent activist, wrote a terrific op-ed calling on Governor Corbett to stop the cuts that are devastating the schools. In 2011-12, the governor cut $1 billion from the schools, and the cuts hurry Philadelphia the most. Class sizes soared, parents chipped in to replace staff, after-school programs were eliminated, even basic supplies had […]
David Kirp Explains Why High-Stakes Testing Gets an F
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 20 hours ago
David Kirp, professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of “Improbable Scholars,” describes here the ruinous consequences of high-stakes testing. Everything associated with the corporate reform movement is failing. How much longer will the hedge fund managers and the federal government continue to fund failing strategies? He begins: “It’s a terrible time […]
Crazy Crawfish Explains It All for You
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 21 hours ago
When the Louisiana Supreme Court handed down a crushing 6-1 defeat for Bobby Jindal’s voucher plan, State Superintendent John White immediately declared victory. The court said it was not ruling on the merits of the case but on its funding: the state may not spend money dedicated to public schools to pay for vouchers and […]
Governor Cuomo, Please Read This
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 22 hours ago
Governor Andrew Cuomo likes to say that the problems in New York are not about money, because the state spends enough already. Governor, please read this analysis by Bruce Baker. Despite years of promises, New York State has one of the most inequitable school finance systems in the nation. We may be spending enough, but […]
Bill Gates Says He Knows How to Solve the Teacher Evaluation Problem
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Bill Gates gave a TED talk. I confess I didn’t watch. Happily, others did and produced a transcript. Jersey Jazzman called Bill’s central assertion (that 98% of teachers get a one-word evaluation, “satisfactory”) ridiculous. If you link to JJ’s blog, you cn watch Bill explain how to fix the evaluation problem. The one time I […]
NEPC Grades ALEC Score Card for State Policy
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
The National Education Policy Center is an invaluable resource. It keeps tabs on the half-baked research that pours forth from advocacy groups pretending to be think tanks. Its latest report reviews ALEC’s “report card” on the states. You will not be surprised to learn that he states with the highest scores are those with vouchers, […]
The Great Accountability Scam
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Crazy Crawfish here writes a brilliant post about The Great Accountability Scam. He is writing about Louisiana and the Recovery School District, but what he describes applies with equal force to every “reform” scheme in every state and even to Race to the Top. What he explains is the destructive and failed theory of action […]
Will There Be a Graduation at Buena Vista?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Buena Vista schools in Michigan shut down abruptly in the face of a fiscal crisis, even though the teachers in the district offered to work for free. There is no indication that Governor Rick Snyder will do anything to help the district. In most states, the state government is responsible to be sure that all […]
Achieve Official Refutes Statements About PARCC
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
In an earlier post, a teacher in Tennessee wrote critically about the PARCC assessments of the Common Core. The teacher said that the assessments did not permit accommodations for students with disabilities. Chad Colby of Achieve, one of the organizations responsible for developing the Common Core, says that these claims are wrong. He writes: “The […]
Jeanne Allen Responds to Bruce Baker
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
After the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the funding for vouchers was unconstitutional, Jeanne Allen urged Governor Jindal to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bruce Baker chastised Allen and said she needed a civics lesson about how federalism works. Jeanne Allen responded here. In her response, she says that there were […]
Chicago: Three day March Planned to Protest School Closings
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
This just in from the Chicago Teachers Union, which is fighting to preserve public education in that city. The mass closure of 54 public schools is unprecedented in American history. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin May 9, 2013 312/329-6250 StephanieGadlin@ctulocal1.com Thousands prepare for a three-day march against school closings as Chicago’s mayor continues his […]
Mercedes Schneider: Do Most Teachers Support Common Core?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
Ira Shor, a professor at the City University of New York, left a comment recently, wondering if “the great Mercedes Schneider” would take a look at the AFT survey showing that 75% of AFT members support the Common Core. As it happens, Dr. Schneider saw the comment and did exactly that. Dr. Schneider is a […]
Tennessee Teacher on PARCC Testing
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
A reader comments: Wow, for those opposed to T-cap, wait until you get a good look at common core and the PARCC assessment. The nightmare is about to get worse. As a teacher, I have been working with the debut of common core in Tennessee this year. I don’t even know where to begin to […]
In Los Angeles, Both Mayoral Candidates Want to Publish Teacher Ratings
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
In 2010, the Los Angeles commissioned a rating system based on test scores and published the individual names of teachers and their ratings. New York City did the same last year. To say this was controversial is putting it mildly. Many researchers opposed it, as did Wendy Kopp and Bill Gates. If the purpose of […]
Why Rhee’s Test-Driven Incentives Always Fail
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 day ago
In this thoughtful article, Charles Taylor Kerchner of Claremont Graduate University explains that Michelle Rhee’s belief in using test scores to reward and punish teachers is guaranteed to produce adverse consequences like cheating. Her reliance on test scores plus her “fear-based management style” is the Achilles’ heel of reform policy, he says. “This is the […]
Iowa Teacher: Save This Noble Profession Before It Is Too Late
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Amy Prime, who teaches second grade in Newton, Iowa, noticed that many of the teachers she knows and admires are counting the days until they retire or quit. She writes: “If you teach, you don’t need to get online to read these thoughts. You hear them every day as you pass your colleagues in the […]
Is There Any Organization That Is Not Funded by Gates?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Obscene amounts of money translate into power. Obscene amounts of money–billions–often translate into the ability to buy elections. But not always, as we saw in the recent school board election in Los Angeles, when the candidate of the Billionaire Boys Club was beaten by Steve Zimmer. Billionaires don’t just try to buy elections. They try […]
Will Rhode Island Continue to Defend the Misuse of NECAP for Graduation?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Tom Sgouros has written repeatedly about the inappropriateness of using NECAP as a graduation requirement for students in Rhode Island. This is the same issue that produced the activism of the Providence Student Union. Commissioner Deborah Gist insists that the critics don’t know what they are talking about. In this post, Sgouros points out that […]
Kevin Welner: How Charter Schools Game Their Enrollments
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
As we have seen again and again in recent years, charter schools have mastered the secret of school success. The most predictable way of getting those highly prized test scores is to have the “right” student body. Want to learn the tricks? Kevin Welner of the University of Colorado and the National Education Policy Center […]
Network for Public Education Endorses Monica Ratliff
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
This is the first endorsement by the Network for Public Education. After a careful review by the board, we endorse Monica Ratliff for school board in Los Angeles. We promised we would support candidates who support public education. We don’t have the money to compete with the billionaires. But we hope our support will persuade […]
Will the Children of Buena Vista Go Without an Education?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
The public schools of Buena Vista are closed. The teachers offered to work for free, but they were rebuffed. Some have filed for unemployment. The children are out of school, and no one knows when school will open again. Or if it will. Joy Resnovits is following this story on Huffington Post. Buena Vista is […]
Michigan in a Nutshell
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A comment on the blog about the state of public education in Michigan: I am a retired high school English teacher in Michigan. After I retired I served 8 years on our board of education. I retired in 2000 and have a son, daughter and daughter-in-law in the teaching profession. What has happened in Michigan […]
Selling Out Black Children in Michigan
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
In the previous post, I noted that the emergency manager in Detroit was instructed to “blow up” the district. In the other districts controlled by emergency managers–Muskegon Heights and Highland Park–the emergency managers closed down public education and handed the buildings and students over to for-profit operators. This article in Education Week brings out important […]
Detroit: The Most Sickening Story of the Day
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Detroit’s Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced he was stepping down. But then he said something utterly astonishing. He said that when he took the job, his instructions were to “blow up” the district. He didn’t say who told him to destroy the district. Interesting that all of the districts in Michigan that have emergency managers […]
A Teacher Responds to Obama Proclamation On National Charter School Week
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Earlier I posted President Obama’s proclamation on National Charter School Week, which happens to coincide with Teacher Appreciation Week. A charter school teacher responded with this comment: “I’ve been an educator in Columbus, Ohio since university. In my 8th year, I currently earn 34,000 before taxes at a 9-12 charter school. I can be fired […]
8th Grade Student: Why So Much Advertising on Pearson Tests?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
A student in a gifted program wrote this piercing analysis of the state tests he and his classmates just endured. The tests he took had many brand names and registered trademarks. He realized this is product placement. He wrote: “Non-fictional passages in the test I took included an article about robots, where the brands IBM™, [...]
MI District Broke, Teachers Offer to Work for Free, But Then…
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
In little Buena Vista, Michigan, the schools have been decimated by budget cuts and declining enrollments. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, the teachers offered to work for free. The district laid them all off and is closing the schools. Who says that Americans don’t care about education? Maybe Governor Snyder will send in an [...]
Brian Ford: Why Pressure and Greed Are Not Good
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Brian Ford, teacher and author, writes in a comment, responding to John Merrow’s investigative reporting: It was John Merrow’s interview with Michelle Rhee, when she was still in charge of DCPS, that first raised my hackles. She said, “Pressure is good.” It was a bit like two decades ago, when Gordon Gekko declared, ‘Greed is [...]
Chicago Will Close Down Some of Arne’s “Turnaround” Schools as Failures
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
This is an astonishing story. In 2002, Arne Duncan began his infamous policy of shutting down schools in Chicago with low test scores. Among the schools he closed was Dodge. Dodge parents were outraged that their school was handed over to a private turnaround operator, but Duncan assured them it was for the best. Fast [...]
How Is Enron Like Atlanta?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Jason Stanford writes a smart blog about education in Texas. In this one, he explains that when the stakes get too high, bad things happen, whether in business or any other activity. Most businesses are honest, most educators are honest. But it is wrong to tie a child or an adult’s future to standardized tests. [...]
Voucher Decision a Blow to Jindal 2016 Campaign
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Good article in the Washington Post about the major decision by Louisiana’s top court to strike down funding of vouchers with public school dollars. More than 700,000 students in the state, only 8,000 have vouchers. Many vouchers used in schools that resolutely refuse to teach modern science, math, or history. Funny place for Jindal to [...]
Charter Appreciation Week and Teacher Appreciation Week
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
By some strange coincidence, Teacher Appreciation Week coincides with National Charter School Week. Bear in mind that almost 90% of charters are non-union, that charters may fire teachers at will, that charter teachers do not have tenure, that many charters are known for high teacher turnover due to the stress of longer school days, and [...]
Paul Thomas: Now Is the Time for Non-Cooperation
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 days ago
Paul Thomas reacts here to Randi Weingarten’s call for a one-year moratorium on high-stakes testing associated with the Common Core and to Jennifer Jennings’ apology to Secretary Duncan for being booed at AERA. He warns that moderation and civility are not appropriate responses to extreme conditions.
Texas: The Surefire Plan to Destroy Public Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
You think it can’t happen here? You think your state is immune? Read about the war on public education in Texas and think again. Some part of this radical agenda is being promoted in almost every state. Yours too. This comment was written by Bonnie Lesley of “Texas Kids Can’t Wait”: “I worry a lot [...]
John Merrow’s Investigation of Michelle Rhee
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
John Merrow deserves enormous praise for his dogged investigative journalism in pursuing the allegations of widespread cheating in the DC public schools during the tenure of Michelle Rhee. Perhaps even more impressive is that he recognized his own error in his past coverage, which had presented Rhee in a heroic light. Merrow, by his account, [...]
Anthony Cody: Will a Moratorium Save Common Core?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
In one of his characteristically thoughtful and provocative essays, Anthony Cody ponders Randi Weingarten’s call for a one-year moratorium on the high stakes associated with Common Core testing. Randi praised the Common Core standards lavishly but warned that they would fail if high stakes are attached to them before teachers and students are prepared to [...]
Bruce Baker Teaches Civics to Jeanne Allen
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Bruce Baker of Rutgers is one of my favorite education analysts. He is adept at sorting through claims and demanding evidence. In this post, he gives Jeanne Allen a civics lesson. Jeanne Allen founded the Center for Education Reform twenty years ago to advocate for charters and vouchers, anything but public schools. She was formerly [...]
Teachers: You Must Not Internalize the Blame
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
This teacher realized that she could not be free to think for herself until she stopped internalizing and accepting the reproaches of the corporate reformers. She was free when she realized that her training and experience as an educator mattered. She was free when she realized that when she did not attain perfection every day, [...]
Battling Press Releases on Louisiana Voucher Decision
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
After the Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled that the public school fund could not be used to pay for vouchers for religious and private schools, both sides–the winners and the loser–called the decision a victory. The court ruled 6-1 against the funding of the vouchers and “course choice,” which would use public funds to pay [...]
Yes, the Girl Scouts Do Have Common Core Badges
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
An earlier post on the blog reported that Girl Scouts was now offering a badge or badges for meeting Common Core objectives. Some readers insisted that was not true. According to this reader, who provides a link, it is true. The question for me is why Girl Scouts is tying its merit badges to school [...]
Researcher Says Louisiana DOE Hid Data
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Louisiana deserves our attention because it is an extreme example of the corporate reform agenda at work. As Reuters put it, the “reform” agenda targets the very existence of public education. The radical goal of Governor Bobby Jindal is privatization. Wiping out the teaching profession is a strategy to turn teachers into a compliant workforce, [...]
CORRECTION: Louisiana Court 6-1 Against Vouchers
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Sorry, I erroneously posted that the Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled the funding of vouchers unconstitutional by 2-1. The vote was 6-1.
Breaking News: Louisiana Court Rules Funding Vouchers Unconstitutional
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
The Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to fund vouchers using money dedicated to public schools. The court split 6-1. The decision removes funding not only for vouchers but for “course choice,” which was supposed to fund courses offered by entrepreneurs–many of them online– outside the public schools.
Why Did Educators Boo Duncan? Jennings Apologizes
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
I did not go to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, so was not aware of what is described in this post. Jennifer Jennings says that Arne Duncan was booed when he spoke, and she apologized to Secretary Duncan for the behavior of her fellow researchers. Why was Secretary [...]
Will Public Education Survive in Arizona?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Edward F. Berger is a strong voice for sanity in the desert of Arizona education politics. He attended a community meeting with a gubernatorial candidate. The condition of public education after 20 years of failed policies is frightening. “The politician, who has been involved in the demise of public education for well over a decade, [...]
Petrilli: Closing the Vocabulary Gap Will Close the Opportunity Gap
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 days ago
Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute just posted his first blog exchange with Deborah Meier. Mike argues that the key to closing the opportunity gap between rich and poor children is to close the vocabulary gap. He cites the work of E.D. Hirsch to support his contention. In his article, he refers [...]
Ripping Off Taxpayers in Pennsylvania
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
A new report from the state auditor general shows how charters and cyber charters are overpaid, while the public system–which most children attend–get the short end of the stick. “PA cybercharters avg cost of $10,145 was $3,500 more than national average of $6,500. “PA charters spent avg $13,411 per student, about $3K more than national [...]
Why VAM Doesn’t Work: A Short Tutorial
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
In this video of 23 minutes, you will get a synopsis of why value-added modeling doesn’t work. The video is a preview of a collection of research papers that will be available online in a few months, and published in 2014 by Teachers College Press in 2014. The more we learn about the real consequences [...]
Is VAM Junk Science? Matt Di Carlo and I Disagree
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
I usually agree with Matt Di Carlo. He is one smart guy. But not always. That’s okay. Friends can disagree and still be friends (I proved that by blogging with Deborah Meier for five years). I think that value-added methods of using test scores to rate teacher quality are “junk science.” Matt disagrees Now, granted, [...]
Egg on Faces of Bobby Jindal and John White
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
My, how things change in only one year. Last year, Governor Jindal rushed through his legislation to strip teachers of tenure, base 40% of their evaluation on test scores, make all teachers at-will employees, subject to dismissal with one bad rating, and everything else that Jindal and White could dream up to make it hard [...]
Why Carol Burris Is Disappointed by TC
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Carol Corbett Burris has been one of the leaders of the battle against the Néw York State educator evaluation system, which was developed after the state won a Race to the Top grant of $700 million. Burris helped created the principals’ rebellion against test-based evaluations of teachers and principals. She also was recently selected by [...]
Will My School Die?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
The teacher who wrote this post reequired anonymity, for obvious reasons: I am writing to tell you about a situation at my school — Shea High in Pawtucket, RI. At the start of last year, both Shea and Tolman High (the only two non-charter public high schools in Pawtucket) were told that they had failed [...]
Teachers College to Honor Doyenne of High-Stakes Testing
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Teachers College, Columbia University, will honor Merryl Tisch at its 2013 Convocation. As Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents, Tisch has launched the state’s most demanding regime of high-stakes testing in history. Teachers College specifically congratulates Tisch’s leadership not only in tying test scores to teacher evaluations but in tying test scores to [...]
York, PA, Will Not Privatize
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
A proposal to turn the public schools of York, Pennsylvania, into an all charter district was overwhelmingly rejected. Do you think someone told them that the Néw Orleans Recovery School District is the lowest rated district in Louisiana?
Scofflaws in Louisiana
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 4 days ago
Louisiana is expanding the number of students attending voucher schools to 8,000, despite a court ruling that it is unconstitutional to take money from the dedicated public school fund for non-public schools. Bobby Jindal thinks either that the law doesn’t mean him or that he knows more than the courts and can ignore their rulings. [...]
How the “Rich Boyz” of School Reform Struck Out in Boston
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
EduShyster here tells the heartwarming story of how DFER tried to elect one of their own in Boston (white, privileged, no experience or knowledge of public schools necessary) and lost. If you recall, the California Democratic Party called out DFER as a front for Republican and corporate interests. Here are the key paragraphs of the [...]
Will Michael Fullan Stop NCLB and RTTT?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Officials in California have been meeting with Michael Fullan of Ontario to learn about the impressive improvements there. Fullan wants to turn the state of California away from the carrots-and-sticks of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. The story linked her says: “I want California to become an alternative model to No [...]
How Education Generates Profits for the Canny
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A reader sends this comment: While Business fails in Education, Education is certainly good for Business: 1) Quick Turnaround Teachers are funded by Walton, Dell, Gates….http://www.teachforamerica.org/support-us/donors 2) Corporate-funded CCSS http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/idUS157777+01-Feb-2012+BW20120201 3) Backed by corporate-advertising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM_G4Y7SX3g 4) Opening new corporate marketing channels http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/56868-scholastic-new-technology-programs-aimed-at-the-common-... more »
Why Business Models Fail in Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
A comment on the post about “Zombie Education Policies”: Having spent years in business, I cringe at blindly applying business models to education. 360 evaluation is a business fad that will join MBOs and matrix management. I tried student evaluations. Students are usually upset over not getting a certain grade on the most recent test, [...]
What Makes a Great Teacher?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
You won’t find the answer to that question in this exchange but you will see some sharply worded responses to David Greene, who has mentored many TFA recruits. Greene has the somewhat antiquated (but true) belief that we need teachers who see teaching as a career. As he writes, “Teaching must be a lifelong career [...]
New Housing for TFA, Subsidized by Your Tax Dollars
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
The New York Times reports today about construction of new apartments in Philadelphia, meant specifically for teachers. The development is made possible by state and federal tax credits. But not for any teacher. Not for the teachers who live in the community. Not for veteran teachers who have put their hearts into the community schools [...]
Open Letter to Secretary Duncan About Early Childhood Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
This was written by a teacher in Chicago: An open letter to Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan Dear Secretary Duncan: Children gleefully line blocks end to end on a rug measuring its area, two girls huddle over a water table experimenting with liquid capacity, and several students use clay making sculptures as well as refining [...]
Zombie Federal Policies
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Bill Gates is wrong. American education is not “broken.” Federal education policy is broken. Testing children until they cry is a bad idea. It is educational malpractice. Basing teachers’ evaluation, their salary, and their tenure on student test scores is a bad idea. It doesn’t work. It is professional malpractice. The Gates Foundation has invested [...]
Hake’s Reading List on the Root Causes of Poor Academic Performance
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Richard R. Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Indiana University, compiled the following reading list to help others understand the root causes of low academic performance: Professor Hake writes: “Penny” commented: ”We know that poorer (lower socioeconomic) students tend to do poorer in school. How about looking at the true root cause.” For the “true [...]
Who Needs Kant?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 5 days ago
Diana Senechal has written a parody of higher education today. This is a college philosophy class in which the reading of Kant has been replaced with clickers for answering multiple-choice questions. I have to give satire alerts because education policy has become so wacky that almost anything may seem real. When the ideas from our [...]
Deconstructing The Legend of BASIS Charter Schools
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
David Safier is a great blogger in Arizona who has his hands full trying to keep up with the myth-making of the charter industry in his state. In this column, he dissects the legend of the BASIS charters. Their backers spin the story that high standards produces miraculous results that every school could match if [...]
High-Stakes Testing of Students in Special Education
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Louise Marr sent this from her book: **********£******* “Every spring, the Philadelphia public school students take the standardized tests, or PSSAs. (Starting in 2013, the district has switched to a different test called the Keystone Exams.) These tests are a huge part of how schools are evaluated and rated. It is from these scores that [...]
Yes, Too Good to Be True
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Earlier I posted a story about an elementary school in Massachusetts where the principal fired the security guards and expanded the arts program….and, voila! The school miraculously improved. The title was, “Could This Be True?” Sadly, it was not true. According to our friends in Massachusetts, the principal fired most of the teachers and the [...]
Why We Need School Libraries
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
This was written by a parent in Los Angeles, who blogs as the Red Queen in LA: Disarticulating Public Schools It was a bad day 30 years ago when some business management-type decided to restructure academic departments to be fiscally self-sustaining, economically independent. In this scenario university libraries, a service-providing unit with no inherent money-generating [...]
Teacher: No One Escapes High-Stakes Testing, Not Even My Child
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
This teacher was accustomed to teaching poor minority kids how to pass the tests. She was really good at it. But she was shocked to discover that her own children’s school–in an affluent neighborhood in Brooklyn–had succumbed to the same pressures. Testing, as she realized, had found her and her children. There was no escape. [...]
Teaching or Testing?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
Michael Weston shares the news from his school, where testing takes precedence over teaching. He writes: May 3, 2013. It actually happened at Freedom High School today. The Unthinkable. Beyond the Pale. This afternoon, 7th period, we had an AP Testing pep rally. Yes, a testing pep rally. I had heard rumors of such things, [...]
Online Testing Broke Down in Several States
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 6 days ago
State testing was disrupted by major computer breakdowns in Indiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Minnesota. All 46 states and D.C. are supposed to administer Common Core assessments online by 2014-15. Maybe the corporations will solve the technological problems by then. Maybe states will come up with the money to pay for enough computers by then. Maybe [...]
Could This Be True?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 week ago
Beware, this might be a hoax. I hope it is true. If it is true, please share at once with your legislators. Send it to Arne Duncan. Share it with corporate leaders. A principal of an elementary school in Massachusetts fired the security guards and expanded the school’s arts programs. Everyone and everything got better. [...]
Mentor: How to Fix Teach for America
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 week ago
David Greene mentored many Teach for America teachers. He knows how poorly prepared most of them were for the job of teaching in New York City’s toughest schools. He tried to help them cope. Here he offers good advice to TFA.
Will Common Core Make Kids Smarter?
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 week ago
Arthur Goldstein teaches high school in Queens, New York. Many of his students are English language learners. He blogs at NYC Educator. His blog is one of the best in the nation. He wrote the following for readers of this blog: How Smart Will Common Core Make Our Kids? Judging from the editorials in the [...]
Rahm and the Madness of Mayoral Control
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 week ago
Suppose you were mayor of Chicago and had complete control of the public schools. Suppose one of your high schools had an outstanding record by any measure. Suppose it had an excellent IB program. Would it occur to you to make the entire school an IB school? Would it occur to you to get rid [...]
“Education Drained of Its Humanity”
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 week ago
This thoughtful and provocative essay by Shawn Gude situates present-day corporate reform in its historical context. Gude shows the connections between early 20th century social efficiency and the present-day demand for testing, standardizing, and data-based decision-making. Here is an excerpt: “There’s a special resemblance between the struggles against scientific management, or Taylorism, and today’s teacher [...]
Good Riddance! Cyber School in Virginia May Close
dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 week ago
The K12 cyber charter in Virginia may close. The school enrolled 350 students. The county “hosting” the school decided it was too much of a bother, and only five students from the host county were enrolled. There have been persistent questions about the quality of virtual charter schools, but their profitability has never been in [...]