John King: The Object of Righteous Anger
A parent in Poughkeepsie writes about the infamous meeting where John King lectured for 1 hour and 40 minutes and was then hooted by parents and teachers: On October 10, 2013, SED Commissioner John King spoke at the Spackenkill School District in Poughkeepsie, NY. This was the first of several forums on the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) that NYS adopted on July 19, 2010. It has been wi
Newsflash: 800 EdReformers Meet in Boston Today
This news item appeared in Politico.com: ED REFORMERS MEET IN BOSTON – More than 800 state legislators, school chiefs and policy wonks of every description will convene today in Boston for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s annual National Summit on Education Reform. The two-day conference will feature several big-name speakers, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a mystery guest
Naison: Do Not Watch This Video!
Mark NAISON, professor of African-American studies at Fordham University, co-founded the BATs. BATs are everywhere. They think high-stakes testing is child abuse. They think that evaluating teachers in relation to student test scores is nonsense. Mark Naison here posts a hilarious parody of New York’s educator evaluation system, untested, being built in mid-air, that old airplane cliche. If you
Letter from a Disillusioned Charter Teacher
This came to my personal email. The writer requested anonymity: “Hello, Ms. Ravitch, “My name is —- ——-, and I am a big fan of your scholarship, specifically that around charter school efficacy. “I spent my first 2 years in education as an ELA teacher at a KIPP school in New Orleans while also taking classes as part of a post-bac teacher certification program at one of the best universities in the
Who Owns Public Education in Los Angeles?
Recently I posted David Sirota’s article about the super-wealthy who are taking children as “hostages” in their big to take over public education itself. Sirota looked at events in Denver, Los Angeles, and New York City. That article prompted this response from Los Angeles: David Sirota’s article couldn’t be more apt for what has happened in LA. We were blitzkrieged by this outside financing t
This is the Parent Who Broke Up John King’s Meeting
Dear Diane, I’m the parent in the video who raised the point about Montessori school…http://youtu.be/P_Eiz406VAs (Spackenkill High School. PTA Sponsored Meeting about the Common Core). I hope to set the record straight on my comments. Sincerely, Mikey Jackson As I Was Saying… Last Thursday evening, I travelled up to Spackenkill High School in Poughkeepsie to attend the PTA-sponsored Common Core t
A Teacher in Hawaii Reviews “Reign of Error”
Diane Aoki felt that something was wrong, terribly wrong, as No Child Left Behind changed the schools. It felt even worse when Race to the Top came in. Everyone told her, “don’t worry, this too will pass,” but it only got worse every year. When she read “Reign of Error,” it all made sense to her. She understood that “reform” was not about reform at all. Things are bad, she knew, but “Reign of Erro
A Mother Writes to the New York Board of Regents
This comment was posted and signed by a mother of a ten-year-old child who doesn’t want to go to school. Ever. This is the message I recently sent to the Board of Regents and my state representatives: I have been very vocal about my concerns regarding the implementation of the Common Core Standards, testing, and curriculum in NYS. I have written letters and emails to my NYS representatives and m
Sirota and Taibbi: Is the Pension Crisis Real?
Two of the nation’s toughest investigative journalists–David Sirota and Matt Taibbi–join forces to examine the widespread effort to pin the nation’s economic word on public workers’ pensions. If the critics have their way, who wins? One guess.
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-16-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Politico: Vouchers Are $1 Billion Waste of Taxpayer DollarsStephanie Simon, one of the nation’s best investigative education journalists, reports that vouchers are a costly failure. In every case where they were adopted, voucher advocates claimed they would “save poor kids from failing public schools,” but nowhere has the promise b