Duncan, Daniels, Engler: Is the Reform Movement in Crisis?
David Leonhardt of the Néw York Times interviews Arne Duncan, Mitch Daniels, and John Engler on the state of the “reform” movement. How fitting that Duncan would be paired with two of the very conservative Repounlican ex-governors, and the three sound alike. What is interesting to me is that I hear a subtle shift in tone. They are admitting that scores are up and graduation rates are up, but tha
Jersey Jazzman: Capitulate or Resist?
Jersey Jazzman reports on the annual meeting between State Commissioner Chris Cerf and the New Jersey superintendents. Unlike previous meetings, there were few questions, few signs of life. Have they given up, JJ wondered. He unites a news story, which says: “Compared with previous convocations at which tensions were high and questions were plentiful, the more than 300 school leaders gathered ye
She Quit TFA
This is an interesting first-person account by a young person who felt lucky to be accepted into the super-elite Teach for America and reports on her year in the Atlanta Public Schools. Two observations. The five week training program drilled into her that children fell behind because of their bad teachers. She was constantly reminded that she would close the achievement gap because she was better
Reformers Target Affluent Douglas County, Colorado, for All-Choice Plan
Douglas County, Colorado, has a school board that is enthralled with choice and apparently disdains public education. Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett spoke in Douglas County on September 25. According to the local media, he was well compensated. Rick Hess has also been busy consulting and promoting the school board’s plan to bust free of the cage of government schools. Unless the publ
Andrew Delbanco Reviews Rhee and Ravitch
Andrew Delbanco of Columbia University contrasts the recent books by Michelle Rhee and me in the New York Review of Books. Read it and let me know what you think.
Peter DeWitt Reviews “Reign of Error”
Reporting because I forgot the link! Peter DeWitt is an outstanding elementary school principal in upstate New York. He has established a reputation as a dedicated and kind person who cares about the social and emotional health of his students, as much as (perhaps even more than) their test scores. He also happens to be a man of great integrity and courage. In this post, he reviews Reign of Error.
Peter DeWitt Reviews “Reign of Error”
Peter DeWitt is an outstanding elementary school principal in upstate New York. He has established a reputation as a dedicated and kind person who cares about the social and emotional health of his students, as much as (perhaps even more than) their test scores. He also happens to be a man of great integrity and courage. In this post, he reviews Reign of Error. He writes: In Reign of Error, Diane
Mercedes Schneider: The Shell Game in New Orleans
Mercedes Schneider, that brilliant teacher in Louisiana with a Ph.D. in research methods, takes a skeptical look at the way the state is playing statistical tricks in New Orleans and the Recovery School District. After you read her post, you will never believe anything that you read or hear from Louisiana officials or the media about the “miracle” of the Recovery School District. One thing we shou
The Best Article Ever About New Orleans’ Charter Schools
We all have heard or read or seen the stories in the mass media about the “miracle” in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina, which Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the best thing that ever happened to education in that city, wiped out public education and the teachers’ union. Now New Orleans is the only city where more than 75 % of students are in charter schools with minimal government regulat
How Standardized Tests Harm Students and How to Stop This Harm
Heather Vogell, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has spent a year studying the testing industry. The series she is writing about testing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution should receive a Pulitzer Prize. See here and here. What she has uncovered is that the tests are flawed, that errors are common, and that students are denied a high school diploma because of errors made by the
Read the Comments in Response to John Merrow’s Blog
As readers know, John Merrow decided yesterday to post a blog in which he gratuitously insulted me by comparing me to a politician on the far right and implied we represented extremes and neither of us was a hero. This came out of the blue. I used to think of John as a friend, but friends don’t insult friends. He also insulted readers of my blog, suggesting that like Senator Ted Cruz’s followers,
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-25-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Gary Rubinstein Deconstructs the Latest TFA StudyWow! Just think, if you have a TFA teacher, you gain 2.6 extra months in a year of instruction in math! Or so concluded a recent study by Mathematica Policy Research. But what does this mean? Gary Rubinstein, himself an alumus of Teach for America, now a math teacher at Stuyvesant Hi