My Health: Good News!
As readers know, I suddenly developed blood clots in my legs a week ago and was hospitalized. This was not the first time this happened; that was in 1998, when I not only had blood clots (deep vein thrombosis (DVT), but pulmonary embolism (PE), which is potentially fatal, as it means the clots detach and flood your lungs). This time, thank goodness, I recognized the DVT before it turned into a PE
Teachers: Please Submit Your Ideas for the Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Earlier today, I wrote a sincere apology to John Arnold for having overstated the amount of money he was paid when he left Enron (before its collapse). He left with $4 million, then created a hedge fund and accumulated a fortune in excess of $3 billion. As EduShyster pointed out, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation has supported charter schools, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, and Teach for Americ
Reader: Colorado Dumps inBloom
A reader sent this message: “I was fortunate to be with a large group of parents united against inBloom and Common Core yesterday, when the CDE announced to us that they have severed ties with inBloom statewide! Please spread the word that Colorado will “Bloom no more”! Cheri Kiesecker CoreConcerns.weebly.com”
An Apology to John Arnold
On October 10, I posted a column about John Arnold, a billionaire who supports charter schools, TFA, and similar projects. I noted that he was giving $10 million to keep Headstart centers open during the government shutdown. In that column, I quoted investigative journalist David Sirota, who said that Arnold was trying to buy good will to divert attention from his efforts to cut the pensions of re
A Wonderful Review of “Reign of Error”
This is one of the best reviews of “Reign of Error” that I have read. Because it was written as an editorial, it didn’t go into close detail, as others have, but it went right to the point: What she claims is that many tried-and-true practices work; many new-fangled innovations now favored by politicians and powerful interest groups do not. Small class sizes demonstrably improve achievement, for
John Thompson: In Education, You Get What You Pay For
Historian-teacher John Thompson, one of our wisest education writers, http://paulgoodenough.com/principal/?p=1331 on the blog of Rob Miller, the hero principal of Jenks Middle School. He disaggregates the international test scores that politicians and pundits use to excoriate American education. On the whole, our scores are very impressive, he says, except for the states that do not fund education
Fred Smith: The Errors of State Testing in New York
Fred Smith is an experienced testing expert who now advises a group called “Change the Stakes,” in opposing high-stakes testing. He was invited to testify before a committee of the New York State Senate about the woeful recent history of state testing. The scores went up, up, up until 2010, when the state admitted that the previous dramatic gains were illusory, a consequence of artful adjustments
Principal Explains to CEO of Xerox Why Common Core Is Not What She Thinks
Dan Drmacich was principal of Rochester’s School Without Walls. He is now head of that city’s Coalition for Justice in Education. He read an opinion piece in the local paper by Xerox CEO Ursula Burns touting the virtues of the Common Core and decided he needed to respond. He concluded she had no idea what she was talking about. He argued that her essay demonstrated why corporate executives like B
NYC Parents Sue to Block Data-Sharing Plan
A dozen parents in New York City have sued to stop the State Education Department from releasing confidential information about their children to data storage companies, such as the Gates-Murdoch group called inBloom. One of the parents explained: Karen Sprowal, a petitioner whose son is in fifth grade in a New York City public school, said in a statement that she’s been “unable to rest easy” s
Teacher Meg Norris to Her Students: “I Love You and Believe in You”
Meg Norris was a seventh-grade teacher in Georgia who left teaching because she no longer believed in what she was mandated to do. She saw her students struggling with the Common Core standards. She believed that they were written in ways that were far beyond the students’ understanding. This is the letter that Meg Norris wrote to her students and which she posted online for all to read and share:
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 11-13-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Glenda Ritz Comments on Governor’s Efforts to Dissolve Her OfficeGlenda Ritz was elected State Superintendent in Indiana last fall. She won more votes than Governor Mike Pence. She was elected by a bipartisan group of citizens who rejected the policies of Tony Bennett, who outspent her 10-1. Since her election, Governor Pence and t