Bennett’s A-F Grading System Essential to Privatization Movement
Columnist Dan Carpenter of the Indianapolis Star understands what Tony Bennett was doing with the A-F grading system imported from Jeb Bush in Florida. It was never about improving but about labeling so that here would always be a fresh crop set up for closure and privatization. He writes: “Educators, from those with traditional public schools to those operating charters to those teaching teacher
Arthur Camins: Question TFA Ideas, Not the Kids
Arthur Camins explains what is wrong with the TFA approach but cautions that the recruits should not be blamed or criticized. I agree. The recruits are idealistic and well-intentioned. They are akin to Peace Corps volunteers. No one suggests that Peace Corps volunteers are qualified to be Foreign Service officers or diplomats or ambassadors. Blame the organization for its hubris, not the kids. It
If CPS Has a Billion Dollar Deficit, Why Is It Funding These Programs?
Chicago school officials and the mayor have a mantra: CPS is broke. CPS has a deficit of $1 billion dollars. With that rationale, CPS lays off thousands of teachers and closes dozens of schools. But at the same time that officials plead poverty, they still find the money to do what they want to do. Here is this Chicago blogger’s top ten. It includes the bizarre expenditure of $1.6 million for Teac
Maddow Show on Tony Bennett Scandal
Melissa Harris-Perry did this review of the Tony Bennett grade-fixing scandal in Indiana. This is the kind of mainstream media attention that is helping to unravel the corporate reform narrative.
Arne Gets Angry at Georgia
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/jul/30/state-school-chief-responds-us-doe-plans-withhold-/ A few days ago, Georgia announced that it was dropping out of PARCC, the Common Core testing consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Education. State officials said the state could not afford the technology or the cost. The U.S. Department of Education was swift to respond. It wrote Georgia
Bruce Baker: Why He Won’t Use the Term “Corporate Reform”
Bruce Baker brilliantly explains here why he won’t use the term “corporate reform.” The strategies now being imposed on the schools have failed when applied in corporate settings, he writes. He looks at the use of two now-popular “reform” ideas in education: the portfolio model and evaluation by results. The portfolio model is based on the belief that schools should compete, and that those in char
How Is This Charter School Like Franco’s Spain?
EduShyster has found a dissident hedge fund manager who writes pseudonymous posts for her blog. He or she writes here about the eerie similarity between schooling in Franco’s Spain and a high-scoring charter school chain called Democracy Prep. What do they have in common? Read the link.
Tony Bennett’s Grade-Rigging Lifted All Charter Schools
The emails unearthed by Tom LoBianco of the Associated Press show that Tony Bennett was desperately trying to rig the system to raise the grade of one charter school from a C to an A. That charter happened to be the charter held by a major donor to GOP campaigns, including Bennett’s, which received $130,000 from her. As a side benefit of the new formula, the grades of all charters were raised. As
Poverty in America: Why It Matters
For the past decade, corporate reformers have repeatedly said that poverty is an excuse used by and for bad teachers. If all teachers were “great” teachers, all children would have high test scores, there would be no achievement gap, and our problems would be solved. Forgive me if the logic doesn’t work, but I don’t entirely understand the train of thought. The bottom line is the reformy belief th
Is Tony Bennett in Trouble in Florida?
After the release of emails showing that Indiana State Superintendent Tony Bennett manipulated the grading system to favor a charter school belonging to a big GOP donor, a furor erupted about his ethics. He is now State Superintendent in Florida following his election loss in Indiana last fall, a transition arranged by Bennett’s mentor Jeb Bush. Bennett was head of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change. Fl
Diane in the Evening 7-30-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: NC Teacher: These “Reforms” Are InsaneA reader from North Carolina explains how the legislatures so-called reforms will affect her: “I have been teaching in NC for 13 years now. To be honest, having to sign a new contract each year or not getting a raise yet again doesn’t concern me as much as having 25+ 7 year olds with no assista