Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
In a plan drawn up in the back rooms of the local political elites, Shelby County stands poised to do what most thought impossible: to make Shelby County Schools more segregated. The plan calls for the County to hold on to three schools in Germantown and one in Millington, where significant numbers of black non-municipal County children live who are now attending the four schools that are within
United Way of Central Indiana to Start the Mitch Daniels/Dennis Bakke/Bart Peterson Handouts to the Corporate School Wealthy
by Doug MartinWhile some United Way branches across the Hoosier state are investing in early learning initiatives like Success by Six, the United Way of Central Indiana, now run by former Mitch Daniels, Dennis Bakke, and Bart Peterson operative Ann Murtlow, is planning on handing out cash to charter schools in Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion ,and Morgan counties. In a press release t
OCT 24
KIPP Retooling? (Or Just a Nasty Piece at Education Next?)
As the wheels appear to be coming off the education reform bus, many reformers are scrambling to change the narratives, shift the arguments, and even retool their foundational commitments.One such retooling may be Knowledge Is Power Program charters, if this piece at Education Next authored by Alexandra Boyd, Robert Maranto and Caleb Rose is any indication: “The Softer Side of ‘No Excuses.’”I prob
School-wide Parent Boycott of Tests for K-2 Brings Down Test
This is what OPTOUT looks like. From RealNews:
OCT 23
The Mismeasure of Education Documents Tennessee as a Cautionary Tale
Jim Horn’s and Denise Wilburn’s The Mismeasure of Education chronicles the history of test-driven accountability that true believers in accountability-driven reform have ignored. Sadly, Horn and Wilburn document the timeless truth that “the past is prologue.” The history that contemporary school reformers do not know has come back, and I would not be surprised if Tennessee is their Waterloo. A fir
OCT 22
The Scum at the Top of the Private Prison Empire for the Young
An amazing piece of reporting by Chris Kirkham at HuffPo reveals a seedy empire of corporate welfare bottom feeders preying on juvenile offenders. Find Part One here with intro clip below, and at left is James Slattery, Chief Executive Scumbag of the worst offender, Correctional Services Corporation.From a glance at his background, one might assume that James F. Slattery would have a difficult ti
Does Chinese literacy need to be "revived"?
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Oct 22 As is the case in the US, China thinks that literacy is declining and that part of the solution is a TV spelling bee in Chinese ("Chinese TV's Latest Hit Features a Character-Driven Plot: Show Aimed at Reviving the Country's Written Language Explodes."October 20). There is no evidence of a decline of literacy in China and no evidence of a decline i
The Mismeasure of Education Recalls the Coleman Report in Explaining Today's Reform Errors
It has been a great year for education scholarship with masterpieces like David Kirp’s Improbable Scholars and Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error. Jal Mehta’s The Allure of Order provides a timely review of a century of failed top down reforms and, now, Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn offer an equally timely and profound history of the failure of test-driven reform. Horn’s and Wilburn’s The-Mismeasure-Edu
From Consolidation to "Decoupling" in Memphis, and the Costs of Corporate Reform
The Memphis Commercial Appeal has another no-news story today on questions remaining about how much it will cost to operate nine school systems in Shelby County, rather than one. Let's see, we have six leafy boutique municipal systems, a Shelby County non-municipal system, the Achievement School District downtown, a high-rolling hedge fund backed charter system with KIPPs and Rocketships, and a l
FedEx Offering TFA Holiday Joy
FedEx has a thing for Teach for America:20092008And now for the holidays in 2013:Starting Nov. 1, FedEx will kick off the “FedEx One Rate, Countless Possibilities Through Education” promotion, giving customers across the United States a simple way to give the gift of education. Through Dec. 23, $1 from every FedEx One Rate transaction will be donated to Teach For America, up to $200,000, helping t
OCT 21
The Ultimate Washington Kopp-Out: "Highly-Qualified" Teacher = Corporate Missionary with 15 Hours Experience
Wendy Kopp and her gang of creepy recruiters for TFA have established themselves as the main missionary source for expanding control of segregated urban schools to benefit the international corporate socialist movement of Capitalists Without Borders. With the blessing of the Obama Administration, Tom Harkin was able to slip a provision through last week that entirely nullifies the concept of &quo
The Facts about Diane Ravitch's So-called "Rain of Errors"
I rode the Reign of Error review horse as far as I intended. But, Mike Petrilli issued his “Rain of Error,” lambasting Diane Ravitch in the National Review Online. He may be the first reformer to challenge Ravitch’s evidence and logic, as opposed to complaining about her use of the words “privatize” and “corporate reform.” Petrilli supplemented the standard, conservative soundbites with some links
The Factual Basis of Diane Ravitch's Reign of Errors
I rode the Reign of Error review horse as far as I intended. But, Mike Petrilli issued his “Rain of Error,” lambasting Diane Ravitch in the National Review Online. He thus became the first reformer to challenge Ravitch’s evidence and logic, as opposed to complaining about her use of the words “privatize” and “corporate reform.” Petrilli supplemented the standard, conservative soundbites with some
The cost of the CC$$
Sent to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 20Poorer districts will be hit the hardest, but every district in the country will suffer financially from the common core standards. Not mentioned in "Poorer schools districts feel at a loss over new common core standards," (October 20) is the fact that the common core will require an astonishing amount of testing and the testing must be done
OCT 20
Comrpehensible instruction AND peer-interaction
Re: "An English-plan outcry," October 20: Sent to the LA Times, Oct 20Both sides are right in the LAUSD debate over English development: Decades of research tells us that we acquire language when we understand what we hear and read. Our goal is thus to provide both comprehensible instruction and peer interaction.A solution is to provide ESL classes for beginners, while including these s
OCT 19
An EdWeak Interview with Melinda Gates?
I have asked repeatedly a key question about Bill Gates and his hobby of education reform:If Bill Gates had no money, who would listen to him about education reform? No one–the same as who should listen to him now.Now we have an EdWeak interview with Melinda Gates, which forces an additional question:If Melinda Gates weren’t married to Bill Gates, who would listen to her about education.Again, the