NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:
How Bill Gates Views the World (And Why It’s a Problem) | @ THE CHALK FACE
SEPTEMBER 28, 2013 BY PLTHOMASEDD Money is power. Power is money. Bill Gates has too much of both. Valerie Strauss gets it—that Bill Gates is not what education needs: “Education reform should not be driven by private philanthropists with their own agendas, however well-intentioned.” Ultimately, the problem is Gates’s view of the world. And there is ...read moreThe post How Bill Gates Views the Wo
YESTERDAY
NBC’s 2013 Education Nation: Look at Who Will Be Featured & Who Is Missing | janresseger
It is, of course, impossible to foresee exactly how a TV news program will go, but one worries when the sponsors of the supposed “news” about public education include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the for-profit University of Phoenix. NBC, which will present its fourth annual Education Nation Summit early in October, has ...read moreThe post NBC’s 2013 Education Nation: Look at Who Wil
Parents and communities begin talking about overcrowding at schools | Chicago Tribune
September 25, 2013|By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune reporter Having voted to close dozens of underused schools just four months ago, the Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday heard from parents, community members and politicians seeking relief for overcrowded schools in their neighborhoods. The requests for more space came as the board approved a 10-year ...read moreThe post Parents and
North Carolina Activists Plan Teacher Walkout Amid Pay Freezes, Frustration Across The State | Huffington Post
In July, the North Carolina legislature passed a state budget that ended teacher tenure, got rid of pay increases for teachers with master’s degrees, and froze teachers’ salaries for the fifth time in six years, even as their average pay was already $10,000 below the national average. Now, an emerging movement is encouraging teachers to ...read moreThe post North Carolina Activists Plan Teacher Wa
Students Take On Teach for America—and Its Political Allies | The Nation
3. Resisting TFA in Minnesota On September 18, the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development officially announced that it will partner with Teach for America to create an alternative pathway to licensure for corps members. This announcement came despite significant opposition from CEHD graduate students, faculty and the wider Twin Cities’ education ...read moreThe post S
How Common Core Killed the Dinosaurs | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Amy Prime, a second grade teacher in Iowa, used to teach about dinosaurs as a unit that taught science, social studies, language, literacy, math, and the arts. Now the dinosaurs are gone. Killed again. This time by Common Core. Amy writes: “So I grieve for the lost dinosaurs. I grieve for the challenge and energy ...read moreThe post How Common Core Killed the Dinosaurs | Diane Ravitch’s blog appe
Bill Gates: ‘It would be great if our education stuff worked but…’ | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 27 at 12:54 pm “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.” That’s what Bill Gates said on Sept. 21 (see video below) about the billions of dollars his foundation has plowed into education reform during a nearly hour-long interview ...read moreThe post Bill Gates: ‘It would be great if our education stuff
A Real Educator Will Run for State Superintendent in Oklahoma | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This is exciting! Folks, the tide is turning! An experienced superintendent announced that he will run for state superintendent against Janet Barresi, the current superintendent who is a member of Jeb Bush’s shrinking Chiefs for Change. Barresi worked as a speech pathologist, then became a dentist. She opened charter schools. She is part of the ...read moreThe post A Real Educator Will Run for Sta
Flawed exams support phony school accountability | ajc.com
Robert Schaeffer is public education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest). He wrote this after reading AJC reporter Heather Vogell’s series on testing flaws. The “Testing the Test” series took a year to report and concluded today. You can read it at MyAJC.com. By Robert Schaeffer With each passing year, ...read moreThe post Flawed exams support phony school accoun
City schools have thousands of overcrowded classes, students sitting on floors or standing in doorways: union officials | NY Daily News
The teachers union says more than 6,000 classes are over the limit, and that the city is dragging its feet with reducing class sizes. School officials say that the union has the ‘wrong numbers,’ while Mayor Bloomberg said the overcrowding just shows that city schools are popular. BY RACHEL MONAHAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ...read moreThe post City schools have thousands of overcrowded classes, studen
Leonie Haimson Reviews “Reign of Error” | Diane Ravitch’s blog
I have known Leonie HAimson for nearly 10 years. She is the most articulate, best informed, most relentless champion of children, families, and public schools that I know. If the Gates-Murdoch data mining operation should fail nationally, Leonie did it. She has fought unceasingly for reduced class size, parent involvement, the reduction of high-stakes testing, ...read moreThe post Leonie Haimson R
Connecticut: Poverty in the state with the highest per capita income – Wait What?
Connecticut Children living in Poverty CT 2001 10.2% live in poverty (82,000) CT 2012: 14.8% live in poverty (117,000) According to an study conducted by Connecticut Voices for Children, the independent research and advocacy organization, “At the start of the Great Recession, Connecticut experienced the largest increase in child poverty of any state in the ...read moreThe post Conn
Aaron Churchill Challenges Negative Assessment of Ohio Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Aaron Churchill of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, takes issue with Bill Phillis’s negative view of Ohio charter schools. He says that critics like Phillis compare charter schools to districts instead of to schools. Fordham is a charter authorizer in a ohio. Churchill writes: “Charter school naysayers are quick with their “what’s wrong with” quips, ...read moreThe post Aaron Churchill Challenges
Boston Narrows the Field to Two in Historic Mayoral Race | The Indignant Teacher
September 27, 2013 Voters in the City of Boston have spoken, and the news is not good for the future of the Boston Public Schools. State Rep Martin Walsh was the front runner in Tuesday’s preliminary election for Mayor, with City Councilor John Connolly trailing close behind (unofficial results had the candidates at 18% and ...read moreThe post Boston Narrows the Field to Two in Historic Mayoral R
Interview: Diane Ravitch, Author Of ‘Reign Of Error’ : NPR
Diane Ravitch, a former assistant secretary of education, spent years advocating for an overhaul of the American education system. She supported the No Child Left Behind Act, the charter school movement and standardized testing. But Ravitch recently — and very publicly — changed her mind. She looked at the data and decided that the kinds ...read moreThe post Interview: Diane Ravitch, Author Of ‘Re
Maybe My Best Interview Ever: NPR Morning Edition | Diane Ravitch’s blog
I was interviewed by Steve Inskeep of NPR Morning Edition. It airs today. It may be the best 5-minute summary of “Reign of Error.” A note to my friends who teach and use educational technology. Contrary to the introduction, I do not oppose technology. I support technology as a tool for teachers, not a replacement ...read moreThe post Maybe My Best Interview Ever: NPR Morning Edition | Diane Ravitc
Why schools ‘fail’ or what if failing schools…aren’t? – Noel Hammatt
By Noel Hammatt Many discussions of “school reform” focus either on the need to provide students with choice as a way out of failing schoolsor on how to close or restructure the schools in order to “turn them around.” Let’s examine the underlying claim that a particular child is actually in a failing school. A school in Louisiana is given the ...read moreThe post Why schools ‘fail’ or what if fail
Education Nation: Celebrities and financiers, but few educators | @mcleod
Anthony Cody says: The annual Education Nation extravaganza is just over a week away. As has been widely noted, the list of presenters includes almost nobody with any actual experience working with children. No teachers. No prominent parent advocates. What is more, there is hardly even anyone we would recognize as being expert in education. ...read moreThe post Education Nation: Celebrities and fi
Joel Klein Claims “K-12 Isn’t Working” — But the Facts Prove Him Dead Wrong | Alternet
Despite dramatic improvements in educational achievement over 30 years, reformers insist on the rhetoric of America’s “failing schools.” Here’s why they’re wrong. September 27, 2013 | I don’t mean to pick on Joel Klein, the former New York City schools chancellor, but he has made himself such a caricature of self-styled school reformers who are ...read moreThe post Joel Klein Claims “K-12 Isn’t W
Marc Tucker: No Other Country Tests Every Student Every Year | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Marc Tucker posted a fascinating dialogue with two testing experts, Howard Everson and Robert Linn. Here are some of the salient points. MT: Is this country getting ready to make a profound mistake? We use grade-by-grade testing in grades 3-8 but no other country is doing it this way for accountability; instead they test ...read moreThe post Marc Tucker: No Other Country Tests Every Student Ever
America’s toxic culture of testing – Salon.com
First No Child Left Behind and Common Core, and now this: Charter schools in our nation’s capital are going to give high-stakes tests to 3- and 4-year-olds. This “culture of testing” is deeply troubling for what it emphasizes – and what it doesn’t. After all, if testing were the best way to ensure success in today’s economy, ...read moreThe post America’s toxic culture of testing – Salon.com appea
An Evening with Diane Ravitch at Memorial Auditorium | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education
An Evening with Diane Ravitch, educational blogger and author Memorial Auditorium 1515 J Street, Sacamento, CA 95814 Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 6:30-8:30 pm. Tickets are $5. For additional information, contact Sacramento City Teachers Association – 916 452-4591. About Diane: My website is dianeravitch.com. I am a historian of education and Research Professor of Education at ...read moreThe post An Ev
Duncan, Daniels, Engler: Is the Reform Movement in Crisis? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 Republican ex-governors, and the three sound alike. What is interesting to me is that I hear a subtle shift in ...read moreThe post Duncan, Daniels, Engler: Is the Reform Movement in Crisis? | D
STOP THE CHARTER SCHOOL INVASION THREATENING DISTRICTS 21 and 20 Ed Notes Online:
Rally at Seth Low (99 Ave. P in Brooklyn) Monday, Sept. 30 at 5:30 before the 6 PM meeting. They’re coming. Charter and co-loco invasions are coming to every nook and cranny of the public school system, even those who thought they were exempt from the carnage. But people are fighting back. Many of us ...read moreThe post STOP THE CHARTER SCHOOL INVASION THREATENING DISTRICTS 21 and 20 Ed Notes Onl
You always know just what to say | Gary Rubinstein’s Blog
by Gary Rubinstein Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a change in strategy in the way many ‘reformers’ have been presenting themselves publicly. It seems that they have begun to realize, especially with the release of the new Ravitch book, that the public is wising up to their antics and starting to get very ...read moreThe post You always know just what to say | Gary Rubinstein’s Blog appeared
Education Department needs writing lessons | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 27 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer Do you ever read a report and wonder who wrote it and why they didn’t get a good editor? I bring this up in regard to the U.S. Education Department’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014-18. (By the way you have until Friday, Oct. 4, ...read moreThe post Education Department needs writing lessons | The Answer Sheet appeared fi
‘Reign of Error,’ by Diane Ravitch – NYTimes.com
‘Reign of Error,’ by Diane Ravitch By JONATHAN KOZOL Published: September 26, 2013 Over the past 20 years, a rising tide of voices in the world of public policy has been telling us that public education has fallen into an abyss of mediocrity. Our schools are “broken,” the mantra goes. Principals and teachers — their ...read moreThe post ‘Reign of Error,’ by Diane Ravitch – NYTimes.com appeared fir
SEP 26
Jersey Jazzman: Capitulate or Resist? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read moreThe post Jersey Jazzman: Capit
Education Carnage in the City of Brotherly Love | Schools Matter
Now the slow starvation has become a complete denial of life support for Philadelphia’s public schools. – Ken Derstine, Philadelphia Education Crisis Highlights at pa.ed.crisis@gmail.com Here’s a glimpse of what it looks like in cities and towns across the country as public schools starved for funds and resources are taken over and privatized by for ...read moreThe post Education Carnage in the Ci
Jersey Jazzman: Capitulate or Resist? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read moreThe post Jersey Jazzman: Capit
Advanced degrees really do matter | North Carolina News-Record.com: Columnists
By Alan Brown Recent policy decisions affecting public education have included a discussion on the impact of advanced degrees on classroom teaching. For example, in the days following the state budget being signed into law, state Rep. Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, included the following statement on his website: “The fact of the matter is that having ...read moreThe post Advanced degrees really do ma
Don’t trust Mancuso on NECAP testing | Providence Journal
RICK RICHARDS The Sept. 18 Commentary piece (“Testing helps R.I. students achieve”) by Eva-Marie Mancuso, chair of the Rhode Island Board of Education, offers a disingenuous rationale for not discussing the current New England Common Assessment Program testing requirement. Her piece attempts to build a case for the board’s exit-test policy by stringing together a ...read moreThe post Don’t trust M
How Standardized Tests Harm Students and How to Stop This Harm | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read moreThe post How Standardized Tests Harm S
Why the Vallas Case is so much more than simply a case about Paul Vallas – Wait What?
The following is a re-print of an extraordinary analysis of the Lopez v. Vallas case and the corporate education reform industry’s assault on public education in Connecticut. It is written by Attorney John M. Gesmonde, a Connecticut lawyer and expert on labor and education law who wrote the piece for this month’s Connecticut Association of ...read moreThe post Why the Vallas Case is so much more t
New Orleans Charter Experiment Leaves Behind Poorest and Disabled | janresseger
The Great Charter Tryout: Are New Orleans’s Schools a Model for the Nation—or a Cautionary Tale? asks reporter Andrea Gabor. You are likely to remember that after Hurricane Katrina deluged the city on Labor Day weekend of 2005, the schools in New Orleans underwent a city-wide charter school experiment with encouragement and funding from Margaret ...read moreThe post New Orleans Charter Experiment
Mercedes Schneider: The Shell Game in New Orleans | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read moreThe post Mercedes Schneider: The Shell Game in New Orleans
Peter DeWitt Reviews “Reign of Error” | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read moreThe post Peter DeWitt Reviews “Reign of Error” | Diane Ravitch’s blog appe
“Education Spring” is Here to Stay | Alternet
Tired of endless accountability mandates, parents and teachers are stepping up the fight to preserve public education — and using the ballot box to do it. Photo Credit: Yoki5270 via Shutterstock.com September 26, 2013 | Earlier this year, spontaneous rebellions against top-down mandates and budget cuts inflicted on public schools erupted around the nation. In ...read moreThe post “Education Sprin
Race to the Top District Winners Already Changing Their Plans | Politics K-12 – Education Week
By Michele McNeil on September 26, 2013 11:29 AM Nine months after the U.S. Department of Education named 16 winners to share $400 million in the first Race to the Top for districts, change orders already are being approved. The 16 winners have pitched ambitious plans to dramatically improve their districts, with a focus on ...read moreThe post Race to the Top District Winners Already Changing The
Why the new SAT scores are meaningless | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 26 at 12:40 pm The 2013 SAT scores are out and states around the country are either crowing or crying over the results. They shouldn’t expend the energy. Virginia, for example, is thrilled that students there got the highest scores ever on the exam, and officials are crediting the improvement ...read moreThe post Why the new SAT scores are meaningless | The
Reformers Target Affluent Douglas County, Colorado, for All-Choice Plan | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read moreThe post Reformers Target Affluent Dougl
Marginalizing the Teaching Profession: Merrow, Ravitch and Education Nation, | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on September 26, 2013 12:15 PM Yesterday, Diane Ravitch’s masterful book, Reign of Error, debuted at #10 on the New York Times best seller list. At the same time this news was coming out, John Merrow posted a blog entitled “Do We Need More Heroes?” in which he compares her to right-wing ...read moreThe post Marginalizing the Teaching Profession: Merrow, Ravitch and Education Nation
Where are Educators?: Non-Education Nation is a Phony | Cloaking Inequity
I’ll admit it, I went to New York City as a panelist for Education Nation. In the post MSNBC Education Nation 2012 Part II: Demanding accountability from charters I discussed my altercation with Jonathan Alter, a non-education expert journalist, about a peer-reviewed charter study published in the Berkeley Review of Education that he called “cherry picking data.” I ...read moreThe post Where are E
The Paul Vallas Scam (a fellow blogger’s perspective) | Wait What?
New Monastic Individuals is a blog that should definitely be in your bookmarks. He is a friend, fellow blogger and part of the team working to take back public education in Connecticut. His latest post is entitled, “The Paul Vallas Scam” As the Connecticut Supreme Court considers whether to sustain (or over-rule) a Superior Court ...read moreThe post The Paul Vallas Scam (a fellow blogger’s persp
The perils of the ‘F-word’ | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 26 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer Here’s a great piece on school reform by Los Angeles educator Brock Cohen. He is in the second year of a doctoral program at the University of Southern California and he works at the nonprofit Los Angeles Education Partnership, which helps build organizational capacity in ...read moreThe post The perils of the ‘F-word’ | The A
Read the Comments in Response to John Merrow’s Blog | Diane Ravitch’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 ...read moreThe post Read the Comments in Response to John Merrow’s Blog | Diane Ravitch’s blog appeared first on NPE
Bill and Melinda Gates Money at Work | Schools Matter
He’s back! Who knew that Jonah Edelman is alive and well–and pumping the Common Core! I stumbled on this information by way of a Tweet by Vicki Phillips, Director of Education – College Ready at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who issued two shout outs in praise of Edelman’s work–a Huffington Post piece One ...read moreThe post Bill and Melinda Gates Money at Work | Schools Matter appeare
Pew Trusts: Untrustworthy Public Pension Destroyers | Reclaim Reform
Posted on September 25, 2013 by Ken Previti When a name most people associate with trust and credibility joins with a billionaire ex-Enron trader and hedge fund manager to destroy public pensions for their own benefit, the overall sense of corruption and betrayal becomes both palpable and intense. Billionaire John Arnold uses the sterling reputation ...read moreThe post Pew Trusts: Untrustworthy P