Student Loan Interest Rates Double | The Real News
by Jessica Desvarieux, TRNN Producer Senators left for their 4 July recess without solving one of the biggest impeding debt debacles we’ve seen in a while. On July 1, rates of federally subsidized Stafford student loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Now joining us to discuss all this is Stephen Lendman. Stephen is a ...read moreThe post Student Loan Interest Rates Double | The
PARCC, Pearson, Tony Bennett and Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change | Scathing Purple Musings
by Bob Sikes – In Melissa Ross’s interview with Florida board of education chairman Gary Chartrand on WJTC radio this morning, Floridians were reminded of education commissioner’s Tony Bennett’s many conflicts of interests. Explaining the difference between the two assessment consortiums which will create standardized tests for Common Core – SMARTER Balanced and PARCC – ...read moreThe post PARCC,
Why Gary Chartrand and Tony Bennett’s School Grade Task Force May Be a Sham | Scathing Purple Musings
by Bob Sikes – Two top-flight reporters were obviously told two different things by Bennett or someone speaking for him. Postal’s timeline – a much more practical one – involves speaking with Chartrand. O’Connor’s just Bennett. Has O’Connor unmasked Chartrand and Bennett’s task force to be a sham? If Bennett will be making his recommendations to ...read moreThe post Why Gary Chartrand and Tony Be
Pitbull and Walmart: Selling Charters & Caffeine Shots! | Jersey Jazzman
by Jersey Jazzman – I swear, I couldn’t make this stuff up: Today, the misogynist rapper Pitbull gave the opening speech at the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference. Pitbull is “founding” a charter in Miami that will be managed by the for-profit company Academica, which has already made gobs of cash by building school facilities ...read moreThe post Pitbull and Walmart: Selling Charters &
Hedge Ur Bets | EduShyster
by Mazinger Z – Charter school proponents were all atwitter last week when CREDO released an update to its landmark 2009 study comparing performance to their public schools “competition.” The press release trumpeted that in 2013, charter school students were a whole “8 days of learning in reading beyond their local peers in public schools,” ...read moreThe post Hedge Ur Bets | EduShyster appeared
State pulling out of the standardized testing through consortium | Susan Ohanian Speaks Out
Posted by Susan Ohanian – Ohanian Comment: Conservative Oklahoma school superintendent Janet Barresi has pulled the state out of PARCC. Are progressives allowed to cheer? Although I admit to being delighted when anybody pulls out of PARCC or Smarter Balanced, Not being knowledgeable Oklahoma’s “situation,” I can’t speak to the issue except to say that ...read moreThe post State pulling out of the
Charter Operator Stunned at 2013 National Charter Schools Conference | Cloaking Inequity
by an anonymous charter Superintendent; posted by Julian Vasquez Heilig – As I am sitting here at the National Charter Schools Conference in DC, I am stunned at the lack of experience on many of the “expert” panels. As a charter school leader, I am starting my 15th year working with a charter that was started ...read moreThe post Charter Operator Stunned at 2013 National Charter Schools Conference
Why I am sending my daughter to P.S. 163 | Teach for Us
by Gary Rubinstein’s Blog – Over the past year there have been several articles analyzing which schools people on both side of the ‘reform’ debate send their children to go to school. For example, Obama’s kids go to Sidwell Friends. Duncan sent his kids to the progressive Chicago Lab School. This information is interesting since ...read moreThe post Why I am sending my daughter to P.S. 163 | Tea
Enduring Cartoon Versions Driving Education Reform | @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter
by PLThomasEDD – I read this paragraph just an hour before heading to my graduate literacy course in which we are discussing deficit views of race, class, and literacy, focusing specifically on the corrosive work of Ruby Payne. Despite Payne’s books and workshops having no basis in the rich and diverse scholarship on race, class, ...read moreThe post Enduring Cartoon Versions Driving Education Ref
Teacher as Journalist – Faces of the Layoffs | @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter
News updates from Philadelphia Ken have been a breath of fresh air while the biggest news story of the century is being played out in public schools all across the country, you would never know it if you get your news from the boob tube. With the latest 24 hour cycle, 7 days a week ...read moreThe post Teacher as Journalist – Faces of the Layoffs | @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter appeared fi
AFT’s New Action Strategy: Write a Letter Begging Arne to Help Stop What His Policies Have Created | @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter
by Jim Horn – This morning my email box had a copy of a letter from AFT employee, Sabrina Stevens, on behalf of her boss, President Randi Weingarten: Hey, there! I hope this message finds you well. I think we’ve only met briefly (at the first SOS March), but I’m getting in touch to make ...read moreThe post AFT’s New Action Strategy: Write a Letter Begging Arne to Help Stop What His Policies Have
The revolution will not be standardized in the struggle for education | Waging NonViolence
The ground under education reform is beginning to shift. Families, chafing under years of state and mayoral control, are demanding a return to democratic processes. There’s the feeling of something lurching under the public education system, and with it our understanding of how resistance should look in the years to come. As high school students ...read moreThe post The revolution will not be stan
War on Teachers and Women is a War on Children | @ The Chalk Face knows Schools Matter
by FreeToTeach – The war on teachers, women and children is in full force — with sequestration in effect as Republicans keep busy finding ways to curtail women’s rights, cuts to the most vulnerable children are looming because apparently there’s just not enough money to go around. Conveniently, there’s plenty of money for more high ...read moreThe post War on Teachers and Women is a War on Childr
Teachers Want Accountability From the Top | Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher
by Anthony Cody – Over the past decade teachers have grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of “accountability.” Our unions have been castigated by corporate leaders and philanthropists for “protecting bad teachers.” Bill Gates has pumped billions of dollars into an effort to create airtight accountability systems that use test scores to measure ...read moreThe post Teachers Want Accountab
Bloomberg DOE Hurries to Privatize As Many Schools As Possible Before He Leaves Office | Diane Ravitch’s blog
by Diane Ravitch – This is an alarming account of the frenzied efforts by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Department of Education to cement his “legacy” of opening privately managed charter schools while abandoning the public schools for which he is responsible. The high school named for the famed Socialist Norman Thomas will be closed and set ...read moreThe post Bloomberg DOE Hurries to Privatize As M
Why the Debate Over Standards Flounders | Diane Ravitch’s blog
by Arthur Camins; posted by Diane Ravitch – “Ironically, the critique of standards as unwarranted, creativity-stifling impositionsis grounded in many of the same autonomy assumptions about the power of unencumbered individuals to drive innovation and improvement. For example, many supporters and critics appear to share the idea that regulation stifles creativity. What separates the two ...read mor
Letter from a Pennsylvania Student: Stop the Keystones! | Diane Ravitch’s blog
by Jordynn Schwartz; posted by Diane Ravitch – A reader sent this letter written by her 14-year-old daughter. She should become active in the opt-out movement. She should contact Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson “At the Chalkface.” Mother and daughter: resist. Join with others. Don’t let them destroy your education in the name of “accountability.” ...read moreThe post Letter from a Pennsylvania Studen
Susan Ohanian Joins the Honor Roll | Diane Ravitch’s blog
by Diane Ravitch – Susan Ohanian has been speaking, blogging, and agitating against bad education ideas for many years. Her writing is informed by a finely tuned sense of humanism–that is, she cares about people, especially children, more than big ideas and grand policies that treat people like widgets. She speaks with honesty, candor, courage, ...read moreThe post Susan Ohanian Joins the Honor Ro
‘Life is not a multiple-choice test’ | The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post
by Ron Maggiano; posted by Valerie Strauss – I recently posted the resignation letter of Ron Maggiano, an award-winning social studies teacher at West Springfield High School in Fairfax County, after a 33-year teaching career — four years shy of full retirement. In the following post, Maggiano recalls his first day of teaching — and ...read moreThe post ‘Life is not a multiple-choice test’ | The A
A BAT teacher’s dream… | GoPublicSchool
by Amanda Shaw – As America’s public schools are attacked by those seeking profit, …as politicians grease the wheels of the corporate takeover, …as the general public, without the help of true journalism, is fooled by the lies… a new group of teachers is rising to fill the void and become the true advocate of ...read moreThe post A BAT teacher’s dream… | GoPublicSchool appeared first on NPE News