TODAY
My statement against the Gates-Mckinsey and Co. consulting resolution August 2013 | Mary Adams
POSTED BY MARY ADAMS ON AUG 9TH, 2013 IN BIG PICTURE: PLANNING BETTER SCHOOLS | 5 COMMENTS I oppose Resolution 32 because the funneling of a combination of Gates Foundation money and tax payer dollars into a large for-profit business advising firm located outside of our community epitomizes the surrender of local school districts to ...read moreThe post My statement against the Gates-Mckinsey and
Michigan Republicans: Let’s Privatize Public School Teaching | Mother Jones
A state senator breaks new ground in the right-wing plan to gut public education. —By Andy Kroll | Thu Sep. 1, 2011 3:00 AM PDT In Michigan, a state perennially crippled by budget deficits, public school districts across the state have already outsourced their bus drivers, cafeteria workers, sports coaches, and janitors to try and ...read moreThe post Michigan Republicans: Let’s Privatize Public S
Bennett: I never believed I would love Gov. Scott the way I love Gov. Bush | Tampa Bay Times
Friday, August 9, 2013 4:40pm Before tendering his resignation to Gov. Rick Scott last week, former state Education Commissioner Tony Bennett sent a two-page email to a pair of former governors. “First, words can never express how much I respect, care for and love all of you and everything you stand for,” Bennett wrote to former Florida Gov. Jeb ...read moreThe post Bennett: I never believed I wou
Under New State Ratings, Most Schools Met Standards | The Texas Tribune
by Morgan Smith August 8, 2013 The vast majority of the state’s public schools met the standards set by new state accountability ratings debuted by the Texas Education Agency on Thursday. Under the new system, districts and campuses are placed in two categories, “met standard” or “needs improvement.” They are judged on how well they do ...read moreThe post Under New State Ratings, Most Schools Met
Charter school backers worry Bennett scandal threatens to slow a growing movement
By TODD RICHMOND and PHILIP ELLIOTT Associated Press August 09, 2013 – 6:34 pm EDT MADISON, Wisconsin — For charter school supporters, there were few better champions than Tony Bennett. As Indiana’s schools chief, he installed a school grading system that shortened the time it took to sweep aside a failing public school in favor of ...read moreThe post Charter school backers worry Bennett scandal
Florida Virtual School lays off hundreds of teachers | The Tampa Tribune
The Associated Press Published: August 8, 2013 MIAMI — The Florida Virtual School has laid off several hundred teachers in response to a decline in enrollment and change in funding. The online school cut 177 full-time positions and 625 part-time instructors over July and August. The layoffs come in light of a significant decline in ...read moreThe post Florida Virtual School lays off hundreds of t
The Readers’ Forum: Saturday letters | Winston-Salem Journal: Letters To The Editor
‘Vital reform’ As a rising senior in the public-school system I feel fortunate to have had the opportunities I have over the past 12 years. This school year, however, I’m worried about the “vital reform” Gov. Pat McCrory and the other N.C. legislators have made to education with the new budget. By revising the student ...read moreThe post The Readers’ Forum: Saturday letters | Winston-Salem Journa
NYC Educator: Where’s the Teacher Who Supports Common Core?
Friday, August 09, 2013 Where’s the Teacher Who Supports Common Core? Norm Scott often says, “Watch what they do, not what they say.” But I think it’s important to watch everything. For example, in an email from UFT President Michael Mulgrew, he said, “Our students need to develop the higher-level cognitive skills and deeper learning ...read moreThe post NYC Educator: Where’s the Teacher Who Suppo
State test score drop could strengthen parents’ opt-out efforts | Newsday
Originally published: August 8, 2013 8:18 PM Updated: August 8, 2013 9:40 PM By JOIE TYRRELL AND COLLEEN JASKOT joie.tyrrell@newsday.com,colleen.jaskot@newsday.com The dramatic drop in student scores on state English and math exams could strengthen the movement by parents to have their children opt out of taking the high-stakes tests. Less than 1 percent of students ...read moreThe post State tes
Peter DeWitt Is Outraged by New York State Tests | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Peter DeWitt is a wonderful elementary school principal in upstate New York. He is sensitive, caring, kind, and devoted to his students. He is outraged by what the State Education Department has done to his students and their teachers. You can feel his barely contained rage in these words: I don’t want to sound arrogant ...read moreThe post Peter DeWitt Is Outraged by New York State Tests | Diane
Bennett’s Troubling Email to Bush, Daniels on Eve of Resignation | Scathing Purple Musings
Posted on August 10, 2013 by Bob Sikes From an AP story found at Indystar.com TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — The day before he abruptly resigned from his job, Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett wrote an impassioned email to two former governors he called “part of my family.” Bennett reached out to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ...read moreThe post Bennett’s Troubling Email to Bush, Daniels on Eve of
YESTERDAY
Anthony Cody: Accountability Is Designed to Set Schools Up to Fail | Diane Ravitch’s blog
In a hard-hitting essay, Anthony Cody describes how accountability has been turned into a weapon to create demoralization, failure, and privatization of public schools. He reviews the recent fiascos involving Tony Bennett and New York’s Common Core testing. He notes that both the AFT and the NEA are trying hard to meet the demands of ...read moreThe post Anthony Cody: Accountability Is Designed to
From School Grades to Common Core: Debunking the Accountability Scam | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on August 9, 2013 4:59 PM We now know that Tony Bennett’s reputation as “Mr. Accountability” was as phony as the scores his Indiana administration assigned to supposedly failing schools. But this scandal is just the tip of a much bigger iceberg that has been ripping a hole in the side of ...read moreThe post From School Grades to Common Core: Debunking the Accountability Scam | Ant
Who Set the NY Cut Scores—and What We Still Need to Know | Diane Ravitch’s blog
In this post, teacher Maria Baldassarre-Hopkins describes the process in which she and other educators participated, setting cut scores for the new Common Core tests in New York. She signed a confidentiality agreement, so she is discreet on many questions and issues. At the end of the day, Commissioner King could say that educators informed the ...read moreThe post Who Set the NY Cut Scores—and Wh
Jeb Bush Defends Common Core At ALEC Meeting | Huffington Post
Updated: 08/09/2013 4:37 pm EDT FOLLOW: Video, Common Core, Common Core Standards, Education Politics, Politics News, Alec, Alec 2013, American Legislative Exchange Council, Education News, Florida News, Jeb Bush, Jeb Bush Common Core, Politics News Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush once again defended the Common Core education standards in front the American Legislative Exchange Council’s ...read more
Indiana’s performance-based pay system for teachers needs review | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
Aug. 8, 2013 The demands on teachers today have never been greater as they strive to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, including English Language Learners, students with disabilities and a growing number of students disadvantaged by poverty. Budget cuts and teacher layoffs have forced teachers to do more with less. In ...read moreThe post Indiana’s performance-based pay
St. Paul teachers union wants district to drop mandated tests | Minnesota Public Radio News
by Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio August 9, 2013 ST. PAUL, Minn. — When the St. Paul teachers union continues contract talks later this month, the usual items are expected to be on the negotiating table: salary, benefits and class sizes. But the union is adding something new, something no other teachers group in the ...read moreThe post St. Paul teachers union wants district to drop mandated tes
What If the Common Core Standards Are a Huge Mistake? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The law specifically prohibits the U.S. Department of Education from interfering or directing curriculum or instruction.* There must be a hole in that law big enough to drive a truck through, and drive the Obama administration did. As we all know, the Obama administration used the $5 billion in Race to the Top funding, and ...read moreThe post What If the Common Core Standards Are a Huge Mistake?
CPS Students Launch ‘Union’, Demand Voice In District’s Decision-Making Process (VIDEO) | Progress Illinois
hursday August 8th, 2013, 10:57am CPS Students Launch ‘Union’, Demand Voice In District’s Decision-Making Process (VIDEO) A group of students enrolled in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district are demanding a seat at the table when school officials make decisions that impact their educational environment. At a kick-off meeting Wednesday night, a small group of ...read moreThe post CPS Students
Jersey Jazzman: “College AND Career Ready”: A Useless, Phony Phrase
Friday, August 9, 2013 “College AND Career Ready”: A Useless, Phony Phrase According to the 2011 American Community Survey from the Census Bureau, 32.9 percent of New Yorkers (state, not city) 25 or older had at least a bachelor’s degree. On the new,”more realistic” test scores released for New York State this week, 31 percent ...read moreThe post Jersey Jazzman: “College AND Career Ready”: A Usel
Is There Any Way to Understand the Funding Crisis in the School District of Philadelphia? | janresseger
Yesterday, Philadelphia School Superintendent William Hite wrote to the entire staff of the School District of Philadelphia to announce that the district’s financial crisis would delay the opening of school, due to take place in just four weeks, unless additional funds of $50 million can be found by Friday, August 16th. After what was called ...read moreThe post Is There Any Way to Understand the
AFT Wants More Emails From Former Indiana Chief Tony Bennett – Politics K-12 – Education Week
By Michele McNeil on August 8, 2013 3:55 PM Looks like we’ll be reading even more of Tony Bennett’s emails from when he served as Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction. The American Federation of Teachers—and its Indiana affiliate—have filed public records requests in the Hoosier State for emails between Bennett and former Florida Gov. Jeb ...read moreThe post AFT Wants More Emails From F
Jeb Bush touts his education reforms at Chicago conference – OrlandoSentinel.com
Leslie Postal 10:49 a.m. EDT, August 9, 2013 The resignation of Tony Bennett in Florida — and the controversy over school grading in his home state of Indiana — has led to plenty of calls for an end to the Sunshine State’s model of school reform. But former Gov. Jeb Bush, who ushered in that plan, ...read moreThe post Jeb Bush touts his education reforms at Chicago conference – OrlandoSentinel.com
BEWARE! Those Common Core Tests are coming to Connecticut… | Wait, What?
August 09, 2013 Connecticut need only look across the border to New York to see the on-coming, out-of-control freight train that is barreling toward our public schools and our children. Connecticut’s Mastery Test System is on its way out; soon to be replaced by the far more grandiose and far more expensive Common Core Testing ...read moreThe post BEWARE! Those Common Core Tests are coming to Conne
School District Backs Down on Its Plan to Chip Student IDs | Alternet
The huge Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas has announced it was scrapping its program of micro-chipping student IDs with RFID technology. August 9, 2013 | The huge Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, Texas announced July 16 it was scrapping its widely distrusted program of micro-chipping student IDs with RFID ...read moreThe post School District
Howey Politics | Hoosier Comet The rise and fall of Tony Bennett
Thursday, August 08, 2013 10:11 AM By BRIAN A. HOWEY and MAUREEN HAYDEN INDIANAPOLIS – There’s a poster from a March 1997 edition of the Evansville Courier in my office in Nashville featuring a Hale-Bopp era photo by Bob Gwaltney titled “A Comet Visits Indiana.” Staring at this poster in the wake of the Tony Bennett ...read moreThe post Howey Politics | Hoosier Comet The rise and fall of Tony Benn
Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog: Trib reports there’s still no ‘Safe Passage’ in place for CPS kids
Thursday, August 8, 2013 Trib reports there’s still no ‘Safe Passage’ in place for CPS kids This morning’s Tribune reports that security plans on new school routes are still in flux, with just weeks to go before schools open. The chaos within the CPS bureaucracy is threatening the lives and safety of thousands of children ...read moreThe post Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog: Trib reports there’s sti
the daily howler | SOURCES OF PARALYSIS: The New York Times fails the latest tests!
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2013 Interlude—Death in life: Intellectual paralysis grips the heart of our nation’s upper-end “press corps.” You might think of this state as “death-in-life.” The New York Times announces this paralytic condition with the headline which banners page A19 in today’s hard-copy Washington Edition: “Scores on Math and English Tests Plummet After State ...read moreThe post the daily
The Void in Charter Schools | American Libraries Magazine
By Maria R. Traska Linda Eschen began her first day as a library volunteer at Livermore Valley (Calif.) Charter School when the school itself opened in 2004, unpacking boxes and cataloging books. The newly formed school already had a library collection of sorts, says Eschen—an assortment of donated books in a teacher’s garage. Since then, she’s become the ...read moreThe post The Void in Charter S
New York State Cut Scores: From the Inside | The Line
August 8, 2013 by Dina Below, I present, quite unintentionally with great serendipity, the first-hand account of New York State cut score-setting from my gracious guest blogger Dr. Maria Baldassarre-Hopkins, Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy and Technology at my alma mater, Nazareth College in Rochester New York. If you have ever wondered… ~ Where the hell do those ...read moreThe post New
My First Days With Full-blown Common Core | deutsch29
August 8, 2013 In this post I write about my experience as a traditional public school teacher facing Common Core (CCSS). Before I do so, there are a few statements I must offer. First, let me be clear that I am writing about my own experiences on my own blog using my own computer and ...read moreThe post My First Days With Full-blown Common Core | deutsch29 appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
Why Should Parents Raise Money to Pay for Common Core Testing? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This comes from Jennifer Croslin Smith, a Tennessee parent and a founder of http://stoptntesting.com/. No more bake sales or raising money for school uniforms. Nope: “We were just told tonight at our Back to School night that our PTO is foregoing raising money for iPads this year so we can instead purchase computers for Common ...read moreThe post Why Should Parents Raise Money to Pay for Common C
In Mayoral Race, Looking for Substance in Schools Conversation | NYTimes.com
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ Published: August 8, 2013 The release of state test scores on Wednesday, the first exams to be aligned with tougher academic standards, brought talk of achievement gaps and teacher training into vogue on the campaign trail. With the results showing that less than a third of students in grades three through ...read moreThe post In Mayoral Race, Looking for Substance in School
Driven by data … right off a cliff | Gary Rubinstein’s Blog
by Gary Rubinstein Yesterday the big announcement in New York was the results of the latest ‘common core aligned’ state tests. As expected, the scores plummeted. The New York Times reported that from last year to this one, the percent of students scoring ‘proficient’ on English dropped from 47% to 26% while the percent scoring ...read moreThe post Driven by data … right off a cliff | Gary Rubins
The Answer Sheet | Jeb Bush’s witless attack on Matt Damon
By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 9 at 4:00 am Put this in the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category: Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national school reform leader, used Twitter to attack Matt Damon, the actor, for doing something that Bush himself had done. Both Bush and Damon have been in the news, but (until this) for ...read moreThe post The Answer Sheet | Jeb Bush’s witless atta
With A Brooklyn Accent | Badass Teachers Association Press Statement on New York Test Scores
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2013 Badass Teachers Association Press Statement on New York Test Scores The Badass Teachers Association, a Facebook group which was started June 14th and which now has 24,000 teachers nationwide, would like to make a public statement about the NYS test scores that came out yesterday. BATs refuse to accept assessments created ...read moreThe post With A Brooklyn Accent | Badass T
The Error That Caused the New York Test Scores to Collapse | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Here is the reason for the collapse of test scores in New York City and New York State. State officials decided that New York test scores should be aligned with the achievement levels of the federally-administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This is an excerpt from a press release prepared by Mayor Bloomberg’s office: ...read moreThe post The Error That Caused the New York
Six Questions About California’s CORE District Waiver – Politics K-12 – Education Week
By Michele McNeil on August 9, 2013 7:26 AM U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan provoked a lot of strong opinions when he granted a precedent-setting waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act to eight California districts last week. These “CORE” (for California Office to Reform Education) districts now have sweeping flexibility to implement ...read moreThe post Six Questions About California’s
