Gary Rubinstein Deconstructs the Latest “Miracle” in Louisiana
Gary Rubinstein was intrigued to read a tweet by John White of Louisiana boasting about the dramatic improvements in education. Gary decided to look more closely at the data. Not surprisingly, he found that White was playing games with numbers, which seems to be a habit in Brooklyn schools. Gary discovered this significant fact; “In the Times-Picayune article they indicated “the percentage of st
EduShyster: Training Minority Students for the McJobs of the Future
EduShyster is excited to see that Morgan Spurlock has discovered charter schools, which are training minority students to be busy every minute every day. Spurlock has a CNN program called “The Inside Man” where he sees how things really work. When Spurlock decided to find out why our schools are “failing,” This is what he did: “The Inside Man was off on a mission. First stop: Finland, where Spurl
Breaking News: Philly May Sue Banks for Fraud Losses
Investigative journalist Daniel Denvir reports that the Philadelphia school district may sue banks and Wall Street firms that sold defective financial instruments to the school district, causing massive losses. Denvir writes: “Philadelphia and other cities have filed similar lawsuits, contending that such “interest-rate swaps” — billed as a protection against rising borrowing costs — were tilted
Lance Hill: Louisiana’s ‘Separate and Unequal’ Evaluation Plan
Lance Hill points out that his state has a double standard when it evaluates teachers by test scores. Some who teach high-scoring students were rated “ineffective” because their students showed no growth. Their ratings were set aside for review. They were treated differently from those who teach high-needs students. The Louisiana formula: Excuses for the teachers of the high-performing. No excuse
Virginia Public Schools Need Your Help
Blogger and educator and parent Rachel Levy sends out an SOS: Virginia public education could really use your help today on twitter (& elsewhere if you can). Today is Governor McDonnell’s k12 education reform summit. he has included some good people and some stakeholders but more telling is what’s on the agenda, who isn’t there on panels, and who is there on panels. I’ve written a blog post
Cheats for Change Makes Its Debut #Cheats4Change
A new website called Cheats for Change has been created in the wake of the Tony Bennett scandal. Please take a look. It is very funny. For those of you who do not follow education politics closely, Cheats for Change is a parody of Jeb Bush’s group called Chiefs for Change. Bush and his Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE) created Chiefs for Change to advance the Jeb Bush agenda of charter s
Meet Betsy DeVos, a Leader of the Reform Movement
The bipartisan coalition determined to privatize American public education has a large tent indeed. It includes ALEC, President Obama, Secretary Duncan, Governor Bobby Jindal, former Governor Jeb Bush, Governor Scott Walker, and many more. Not to be missed is Betsy DeVos, who founded the American Federation for Children and advocates tirelessly for vouchers. In 2012, AFS honored Scott Walker and M
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Have We Lost Our Sense of Shame?In reflecting on the sordid Anthony Weiner story, I wrote that civilization depends to some extent on the survival of a sense of shame. Shame makes people regretful of bad behavior and minimizes such behavior. Too much shame might be a bad thing, but none at all leaves us at the mercy of the whims an