Schools Matter:
Disaster Capitalism, Dugger, Indiana, and the Fall of Community Schools
The Dirty Water on Mike Pence's Fascist CECI
Charter $chool CEOs of New York
Schools Matter All Week
THE SCIENCE IS IN. THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR: PAUL THOMAS LISTS THE WIDE BODY OF PEER REVIEWED ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND STUDIES BY A VARIETY OF SCHOLARS AND IT IS CLEAR THAT ARNE DUNCAN HAS FAILED. HE HAS NOT RECOGNIZED THE BODY OF RESEARCH OR READ ANY OF THE STUDIES ON HOW RTTT, NCLB AND COMMON CORE ARE IMPACTING SCHOOLS ON THE GROUND.IF HIS FRIEND PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL NOT FIRE HIM AND REPLACE HIM WITH
I am working on a book that will be published in 2014 about teaching at KIPP schools, and the most significant source of my data comes from extended interviews with former KIPP teachers. The following interview represents the first complete transcription from those interview files. This interview with “Adam” was conducted the year following his experience as a KIPP teacher. While each participan
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By Doug MartinAs Naomi Klein shows in her frightening book Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, for decades the big plan of America’s millionaires and billionaires and the government officials they buy with campaign money has been to slash taxes (“austerity" is their pretty name for it) so that funding is drained from public services across the board. Not only does this save the oligarchs money they don't hide overseas, it also creates a public crisis where private companies can sneak in, take control of public services, fire workers, and make a healthy profit. For Indiana ed
by Doug MartinMore information is coming into me, as we speak, concerning the CECI detailed below. I will be following up with more writings concerning Pence's group, so please sign the petition to tell Pence to stop his educational power grab. And call Mike Pence at 1 (317) 232-4567). For an insightful take on fascism to apply to contemporary America, see political science scholar Laurence Britt's "The 14 Characteristics of Fascism" here. DM)When Glenda Ritz walked out on the recent state board of education fiasco in Indiana, the corporate Indy Star quickly branded the supt. of pub
The guy at the bottom--that's the Chancellor of 1,600 New York City Public Schools. Remember--it's all about the children. From the Daily News:
YESTERDAY
Tennessee Teacher and Parent Revolt Underway
It was a long time coming. Here is an excellent story from Knoxille's MetroPulse. Where is the corporate media? Hiding out with the corporate losers in charge.
The Predictable Failure of School Improvement Grants
In the second annual data dump on the eve of the anniversary of the assasination of President Kennedy, the Duncan administration has again announced the disappointing results of its School Improvement Grant (SIG.) Once again, the SIG's failure is being released in the "take out the trash" end-of-the-week news dump.In retrospect, I was naïve about the SIG and its roots. My experiences tea
Memphis Sales Tax Increase to Fund Corporate Pre-K Defeated
Despite the fact that the Hyde Family (Autozone) spent hundreds of thousands on a media campaign, and despite the fact that the Memphis Corporate Appeal gave unlimited free space to push this plan, the voters of Memphis voted 60-40 against. The Memphis sales-tax referendum failed Thursday by an overwhelming margin of 60 percent to 40 percent, or 17,636 votes to 11,659, in the evening’s final unoff
NOV 21
We Can Question the Word "Grit" but Embrace Research on Nurturing the Socio-Emotional
As I explained in a Huffington Post accompanying Angela Duckworth’s TED Talk Weekend, twenty-something years ago, I entered the classroom through alternative certification. Then and now, I was committed to the progressive education tradition. I soon recognized, however, why conservatives, as well as the new generation of career-changers who were then entering the teaching profession, dismissed pro
NOV 20
Tell FedEx and the World How TFA Affected Your Life
Jim Horn @MismeasureOfEd1mTFA impacted me when schools started hiring these corporate missionaries to replace teachers. http://at.fedex.com/qwi6o #CountlessPossibilities Reply Delete Favorite MoreExpand
Update on Data Quality Campaign to Judge All Knowledge on Corporate Needs
A Jane Roberts clip from the Memphis Corporate Appeal yesterday on DQC:. . . .In 2012, Tennessee scored six, including that it was among a handful of states taking steps to ensure that teachers — and students training to be teachers — know how to read data so they can better meet student needs. “We’ve seen a little gain in this area, but still Tennessee is in a small group here,” said Elizabeth Da
NOV 19
Justin Oakley’s Pro-Public Education Radio Show Starts November 20, 2013
by Doug Martin Douglas Storm’s 6pm Tuesday night Interchangeprogram on WFHB in Bloomington has been one of the very few avenues where pro-public education advocates in Indiana have been able to voice their concerns. Now Hoosiers will be happy to know that Justin Oakley’s new radio show Just Let Me Teach will appear on Indiana Talks every Wednesday night from 9-10pm, starting tomorrow, November 20t
Joe Hill Lives
From Susan O:I often start the day by posting a significant event of the day on Twitter--from Benjamin opening the first subscription library on Nov. 8, 1731 to six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrating William Frantz Public School in New Orleans in November 1960. Ruby told Robert Coles "I knew I was just Ruby, just Ruby trying to go to school...the Ruby who had to do it" Today is November 1
Joe Hill Lives
From Susan O:I often start the day by posting a significant event of the day on Twitter--from Benjamin opening the first subscription library on Nov. 8, 1731 to six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrating William Frantz Public School in New Orleans in November 1960. Ruby told Robert Coles "I knew I was just Ruby, just Ruby trying to go to school...the Ruby who had to do it" Today is November 1
Memphis Commercial Appeal Pleads for the Poorest to Pay the Most for the Worthless
The Memphis Corporate Commercial Appeal has engaged in a very public and very losing campaign to max out the state and local sales tax (on food, too) to pay for an increase of corporate ed early childhood seats in Memphis. Here is a clip from today's Editorial, with my response below:That’s why we urge Memphians to vote FOR a referendum Thursday that would increase the city’s sales tax rate by a
An Arne Duncan Reader
While Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—career-long bureaucrat who has never taught and has no formal background in education—has created a controversy over his swipe at "white suburban moms," the great irony comes from his equally vapid apology, in which he concludes: "Let’s get back to that conversation, because it’s an important one for our country."Yes, we should not be di
NOV 18
Other Sources Besides Amazon for TMoE
If you are looking for a copy of The Mismeasure of Education, try B&N or the publisher, IAP. All have the same price of $27.50. Sorry for the inconvenience.
The Grit-sters Have a New Guru without CIA Connections
With the spook-ish Dr. Seligman too scary to mention in contexts involving children, his longtime disciple, Angela Duckworth, does not even mention Seligman in her mini-TED talk that CorpEd is pumping this week on HuffPo's education page. Seligman's work with the CIA as an expert on learned helplessness, and then his work with the Pentagon on how to teach the joys of positive psychology to Iraq v
NOV 17
How's that RttT Working for You, Massachusetts?
Massachusetts has been on the corporate education bandwagon since 1993 with the coming of MCAS, and in recent years the corporate PR machines have made the world aware of how much further ahead MA is in the international testing derbies and on NAEP. Last week's appearance of new NAEP scores gave us a chance to have a fresh look at where MA stands in relation to the other states. Even though the
NOV 15
The Bill and Melinda Gates Fixers
Gates money continues to drive projects to put its peculiar definition on texts schools must teach and to diminish all subjects except Language Arts and math.by Susan OhanianWhat Good News! Bill and Melinda Gates Fixers are critical of evaluation rubrics. What Bad News! Bill and Melinda Gates Fixers are designing new teacher evaluation rubrics. They're working with grants from the Bill and Melind
Nashville Metro Puts Brakes on Charter Expansion--CorpEd Spews
A clip from the Tennessean:The Metro school board approved a plan Tuesday night effectively restricting the authorization of new charter schools next year to South Nashville or to schools tagged for three straight years of poor performance.The resolution approved by the board requires all new charter schools to be located either within areas where schools are above 120 percent of capacity or in an