Diane Ravitch's blog
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DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG
Ohio Charter Schools: Are They Accountable?
The invaluable blogger Plunderbund in Ohio posted a description of the 150 state education laws from which charter schools are exempt. Are charter schools more accountable than public schools? Well, that depends on how you defend “accountable,” and how you define “public.” The question remains for Ohio’s leaders: Is exemption from state law is such a good thing, why don’t they get rid of unnecessa
Anthony Cody: 10 Reasons to Worry About the Common Core Standards
Anthony Cody summarizes here the ten major reasons to be concerned about the Common Core standards. Cody describes the closed-door process for writing the standards and the extremely limited review of them, which he rightly calls undemocratic. He notes the exclusion of early childhood education experts (and might have also added the exclusion of language acquisition experts, disability experts, a
Schneider on the Federal Demand for Student Data
Mercedes Schneider here examines the Data Quality Campaign. Why is there so much demand for student data? Why now? As she explains, Corporate education reform is designed to turn profits for privatizers. That said, in corporate reform, there are two huge money makers that will ”outprofit” all other profiteering: standardized testing, and data sales and storage. The two are inextricable. Consider t
Retired Principal: Deconstructing School Reform in New York City
William Stroud was the founding Principal of the Baccalaureate School for Global Education and is now Assistant Director for the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at Teachers College–Columbia University. He sent me this explanation of what he saw during this time as principal of a small school in New York City. Given the results of the recent mayoral election, and the arrival of a
mark as read
New York’s Teacher of the Year testified to the State Senate Education Committee that the education evaluation system made it impossible for her to be rated “highly effective” because of the “dysfunctional implementation” of the Common Core standards. Kathleen Ferguson, the New York State Teacher of the year, was also the teacher of the year in her school district, and has won several awards for excellence in teaching. Yet, she told a Senate Education Committee hearing on the state’s new Common Core standards, under the new rules, even she could not score a rating of highly effective in the
I previously praised Rob Miller for standing up to Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Education Janet Barresi, who was once a speech pathologist but more recently a dentist. The parents in Miller’s school decided to boycott the state field tests, and apparently Miller did not do enough to discourage them. The state launched a massive investigation to collect every possible piece of evidence to find him guilty, but they came up empty. It turns out that the parents in Jenks Middle School can think for themselves! Rob clearly can think for himself too. Here he reviews Reign of Error, and shows that Dr.
When I worked in the U.S. Department of Education in the early 1990s, I was frequently reminded by colleagues and counsel that the Department was forbidden by law from interfering into what was taught in the schools. When the Department made grants to professional groups of teachers and scholars to create “voluntary national standards,” I made a point of never interfering in their work. I extolled the value of having standards that states, districts, and schools might find useful but made clear that the decision to use or not to use the standards was strictly voluntary. There was no thought th
YESTERDAY
Tweed Insider Defends de Blasio Plan to Help Struggling Schools, Not Close Them
An insider at the NYC Department of Education defends Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio’s plan to support schools instead of closing them. For nearly the past dozen years, Mayor Bloomberg has followed an agenda of closing schools and opening schools. This insider, anonymous for obvious reasons, says de Blasio is right: “The New York Post has already begun its propaganda campaign against Mayor-elect de
GAO Report: DC Voucher Program Riddled with Problems, Needs Oversight
The Federal GAO released a report sharply criticizing the D.C. voucher program. According to Stephanie Simon in Politico.com: “The voucher program in Washington D.C. is riddled with failings and does not maintain adequate controls to ensure that participating private schools are physically safe or academically accredited, according to an investigation by the U.S. General Accounting Office.” The G
John King Opposes K/2 Testing
Amid massive parent protests against Common Core testing in grades 3-8, NY Commissioner John King announced the state’s opposition to K-2 testing, which was never mandated. He said, “”We support the drive to prohibit standardized testing of pre K through 2nd grade students.” That’s a step forward. Now let’s hope that he takes the next logical step and eliminates the dysfunctional educator evaluat
Surgeons United Who Care for America?
Charles Parrish of Wayne State University submitted the following proposal: Surgeons United who Care for America (SUCA*) This is to announce the establishment of a new approach to surgery in the United States: Surgeons for America (SUCA). Following in the high-heeled footprints of Michelle Rhee and Wendy Kopp, we will employ the model of Teach for America (TFA). That model involves the recru
Please Buy This Book and Understand the Tragedy of “Reform”
When I returned from the hospital, I had a large stack of mail. Among my mail was a tiny illustrated book, the kind you usually buy for 8-year-olds, called “From Once There Was a School to A School Was Once There.” It was written by Michael Mugits and illustrated by Anna Liu-Gorman. The book tells what happens to a beloved neighborhood school after cuts in the budget, increased enrollment in chart
After Two Disastrous Meetings on Long Island, State Officials Have One More
Things have gone badly for New York state officials at each of their community forums. Parents and educators have turned out in large numbers, and have overwhelmingly opposed the state’s mandates about Common Core and testing. Frustrated locals have booed and jeered in anger and gotten nothing but bland assurances that the state is listening. The next meeting on Long Island will be held on Novembe
More NY School Districts Withdraw from Race to Top
The number of suburban districts in New York State dropping out of the state’s Race to the Top program continues to grow, largely because of parent concern about the data-mining of their children’s private records. These districts received relatively small amounts of money in exchange for accepting many mandates. This article sums up the current situation: Twenty-eight school districts in the Lowe
Marc Epstein: The Task Before Mayor de Blasio, part 2
Marc Epstein, a career educator in the New York City school system, wrote an earlier post on Mayor de Blasio’s task of “cleaning the stables.” He refers to the Herculean task of cleaning the Augean stables. This was a dirty job, thought to be impossible, but Hercules succeeded. We hope that Mayor de Blasio will as well. Marc Epstein writes: Cleaning The Stables – Part II Now you tell us? After 12
A Teacher Discouraged by Large Class Size
Received as a comment: As a 1st grade teacher with 28 students, I can empathize with the parents concerns; however, we have been forced to become managers rather than teachers. The class is too large, there is little room to move around, the students must be kept working at all times in order to maintain control, and most of the work is repetitive and boring for them. We do our best with what we
NOV 14
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 detached and flood your lungs). This time, thank goodness, I recognized the DVT before it turned into a P
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
UPDATE: Colorado Dumps inBloom
Colorado has severed its ties with inBloom, the data storage project financed by the Gates and Carnegie Corporation, which intended to aggregate 400 data points on every student, including confidential information, and store it on a “cloud” managed by amazon.com. Parents are fearful that the data cloud may be hacked and that the ultimate purpose of the data warehouse is to use their children’s inf
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:
NOV 13
Microsoft Abolishes Stack Ranking, Schools Required to Use It
In a stunning reversal of policy, Microsoft announced that it was abandoning the practice of “stack ranking,” in which every employee is ranked and rated, and those with the lowest ratings are fired. Lisa Brummel, head of human resources, said in a statement: No more curve. We will continue to invest in a generous rewards budget, but there will no longer be a pre-determined targeted distribution.
LINK FIXED: Beardsley’s Review of Mathematica Study of VAM
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley has started a valuable new blog where she reports the latest news on VAM and interprets the latest research. She is one of our best researchers on the topic and, time and again, she has put a pin in the inflated hope that teachers can be measured like potatoes or corn. n this post, she dissects Mathematica’s recent research on the value of moving highly experienced NBCT tea
Beardsley: The Problem with Mathematica’s Study of VAM
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley has started a valuable new blog where she reports the latest news on VAM and interprets the latest research. She is one of our best researchers on the topic and, time and again, she has put a pin in the inflated hope that teachers can be measured like potatoes or corn. n this post, she dissects Mathematica’s recent research on the value of moving highly experienced NBCT tea
What the Tests Don’t Measure
Just received from a friend, Joan Baratz Snowden: My daughter’s new elementary school principal sent this to all the students as they received their state standardized testing scores this week: “We are concerned that these tests do not always assess all of what it is that make each of you special and unique. The people who create these tests and score them do not know each of you– the way your te
Tisch and King Explain Collapse of Scores Across the State
This is a brief, succinct presentation by Regents Chair Merryl Tisch and State Commissioner John King in which they explain why scores plummeted across the state. The state tests were aligned with the Common Core standards, for which teachers and students had little preparation or resources. Nor had the standards previously been field-tested anywhere to see if they were age-appropriate. It seems s
Is This How a Revolution Begins?
In this short video taken last night at the public forum on Long Island, a “highly effective” teacher demands that Commissioner John King be rated “ineffective” and fired based on the failure rate across the state on the tests he authorized. The crowd went wild. She said what the state is doing to children today is “child abuse.” Folks, this is the local community in East Setauket, Long Island, Ne
Pittsburgh Will Hire TFA, After Furloughing Experienced Teachers
The Pittsburgh Board of Education is about to hire its first Teach for America recruits, young college graduates with only five weeks of training. It appears to be ready to start with a small number, but the number is likely to grow as the districts realizes savings by letting senior teachers go and replacing them with entry-level teachers who are unlikely to stay longer than two years. In the pas
Glenda Ritz Comments on Governor’s Efforts to Dissolve Her Office
Glenda 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 the state board appointed by him and his predecessor have whittled away the powers of the State Education Department. They created a
Why A New Teacher in Missouri Wants Out
A reader sent this comment: My daughter just started teaching in a Missouri School District known for being a very good school district. She is 2 months in and wants out. Paperwork, test goals IEPs, etc have made her an emotional wreck. If she quits in this state, her license is revoked. It makes me sick. She was so excited to begin teaching, but now she just wants out. And I have to say I can’t
“Institutional Investor” Recognizes Randi W. as #1 Leader Fighting to Protect Teachers’ Pensions
Institutional Investors is a business magazine that reports on issues for the investment and banking industry. In its current issue, it identified the top 40 people fighting either to defend defined benefit pension plans or to abolish them. It selected Randi Weingarten as the #1 figure who is fighting to protect teachers’ defined benefit pensions. That means, to teachers, that they will have a pen
David Sirota: How the Oligarchs Bought Education
David Sirota explains how a small number of very rich men bought control of American education. “But, then, as shocking as this let-them-eat-cake attitude may seem when it is evinced so brazenly by a national politician, it is the same oligarchic attitude that now dominates local education politics all over the country. Perhaps most illustrative of the trend is my home state of Colorado. This sta
NOV 12
NY: Forum for Common Core and Testing Brings Out Angry Parents and Educators
Commissioner of Education John King is conducting a series of hearings around the state on the subject of the Common Core and the testing. Each meeting has been a disaster. This evening, a large number of parents and teachers crowded into a high school auditorium on Long Island to speak out against the state’s heavy-handed imposition of the new tests and standards. The chancellor of the State Boar
Texas: Is the Age of the Hero Superintendent Coming to an End?
This superb article in the Texas Observer by Patrick Michels is one of the most astute and hopeful I have read in months. It chronicles the idea of the school superintendent as super-hero: the man or woman who can reshape the schools and achieve astonishing goals solely by force of will and personality. The story is about Mike Miles, the superintendent of Dallas, but it is really about the nationa
Science Standards Under Fire
The Next Generation Science Standards are under attack for a variety of reasons. Even defenders of the Common Core are dissatisfied. Read here to learn why.
Jack Schneider: Arne Duncan’s Obsession with Data
Jack Schneider here describes the frustrating and ultimate fruitless pursuit to create the perfect data system to measure the quality of schools and teachers. The waivers from NCLB were supposed to provide greater flexibility but they provided no relief from the standardized testing mania.
Chicago Parents to CPS: We Prefer Teacher Grades to Standardized Tests
The Chicago parent organization PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) called on Chicago school officials to de-emphasize standardized testing and pay greater attention to teachers’ judgment. PURE issued this press release today: Parents give district a “D” for its test-focused policy Chicago, IL: Today, tens of thousands of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) parents will flock to their childre
A First-Grade Math Test in the Common Core
Children in some countries don’t start school until age 7. Yet here we are suddenly pressured to believe that children in first-grade, usually age 6, must be able to solve math problems or our nation will fall behind the global competition. Carol Burris, the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center on Long Island, New York, obtained a copy of the first grade math test. Some of the q
Los Angeles Times: Putting Bureaucrats First
The Los Angeles Times has a strange editorial today, first excoriating the new board majority for pushing Superintendent Deasy too hard and acting as though they were in charge, not he. This is weird, because the board is elected and Deasy is their employee, not their boss. Then they blamed the board (the “reform” board that they admired, which was aligned with Deasy’s agenda) for not vetting the
Wendy Lecker: Common Core Violates Connecticut’s Constitution
Wendy Lecker is a civil rights attorney and an education activist. In this column in the Stamford Advocate, she argues that the Common Core standards violate the Constitution of the State of Connecticut. The state constitution clearly states (as most people once understood) that the purpose of public education is to equip young people for citizenship. Yet the Common Core standards ignored this fun
David Greene: Why “Reign of Error” is NOT a Page-Turner
David Greene, master mentor of teachers in Néw York City, reviews “Reign of Error” here. THROW THE JACOBINS OUT. After quite a while I just finished reading Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error. When most people compliment a book, they tend to call it a page-turner. I can’t say that about Diane’s book. For the first 20 chapters, that was impossible. I had to stop, dog-ear, or bookmark page after page o
Anthony Cody Interviews Florida Teacher Who Was Member of Common Core Review Team
Mike Archer, a Florida teacher of English language arts, was one of the few teachers invited to participate in the initial review of the Common Core standards. Mike shared his story with Anthony Cody, who posted an interview with him here. Archer says he had some input, managed to get a few things tweaked, but ultimately concluded that the Common Core would stifle creativity and teacher profession
NOV 11
Guest Blog: From Spellings to Duncan: Using NAEP as Policy Propaganda by Paul Thomas
Editor’s note: While Diane is on a somewhat reduced blogging schedule, she has invited members of the Education Bloggers Network, a consortium of people who blog about education issues on the national, state or local level to contribute to her blog. If you are a blogger who supports public education and would like to join the Education Bloggers Network, contact Jonathan Pelto at jonpelto@gmail.c
Correction: Full Testimony on Test-Related Stress in New York
Yesterday I posted an excerpt from testimony to a state senate hearing in New York. I had seen it on another blog. I had the wrong name of the person testifying. Here is her name and her full testimony. Mary Calamia Statement for New York State Assembly Education Forum October 7, 2013 at 10:14pm Statement for New York State Assembly Education Forum Brentwood, New York October 10, 2013 I am a licen
Los Angeles: Why the Title I Funding Formula is Unfair
The blogger known as “Red Queen in LA” responds to a petition she posted here, asking the Los Angeles school board not to remove those schools in which 40-49% of students are poor from their source of Federal funding, called Title I. She also notes that charter schools receive Title I funding even if they have a tiny proportion of students below the poverty line. She writes: Mike, did you read
NYC Parent Blog Reviews Record of Andres Alonso
The most popular guessing game in New York City these days is Who Will The New Mayor Choose as Chancellor? Many names have been floated, including some who currently work in the Bloomberg DOE. Seems unlikely. Some have suggested J.C. Brizard, who was disliked by teachers in Rochester and booted out by Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. Unlikely. Another name floated is former Baltimore superintendent Andres
Who Will Fight for Public Education in 2016? Hillary or Elizabeth Warren?
In case you have any doubt, I have given up on both political parties when it comes to the present corporate assault on public education. Arne Duncan could be Secretary of Education for either Obama or Romney. He cheerleads for rightwing governors like Bobby Jindal and hails privatizers like Jeb Bush. On education, the two parties are interchangeable. Frankly, the public education system was bett
Bruce Baker: What Those NAEP Scores Really Mean
The indefatigable Bruce Baker is at his best in this post, where he puts the NAEP scores into perspective. As he notes, it is not useful to look at a two-year test score change as a reliable indicator. It is far wiser to look at scores in a longitudinal fashion and, when possible, look at other factors that may affect test scores. Then, too, he notes that the NAEP results do not align well with Mi
Parent: How Can I Save My Child from Common Core Testing?
A letter from a parent in New York City. Any advice for her? I just learned about Common Core Standards this afternoon at a school orientation in Queens, New York. I have a 1st grader and a child in kindergarten. I am told my child will have a test tomorrow and he is expected to know how to read. He is in Kindergarten! He only recognizes every letter in the alphabet but I never took on teachin
This Tennessee Student Makes More Sense Than Our Educational Leaders
Please take five minutes and watch this wonderful student in Tennessee give an o Impassioned speech about how current “reform” policies are ruining education. He blasts the Common Core because of its emphasis on standardization. He expresses his respect for teachers. He says “Standards-based education IsRuining the way we teach and learn.” He says bluntly “Why don’t we just manufacture robots ins
Catholic Scholars Blast Common Core
In an unusual statement, 132 Catholic scholars wrote a statement highly critical of the Common Core, which they sent to every bishop in the nation. They urged the bishops not to adopt Common Core in Catholic schools and to withdraw it where it had been adopted. They conclude that the Common Core standards are designed as standardized workforce training, doing nothing to shape and inspire the heart
NOV 10
Test-related Stress on the Rise in New York: CORRECTION!
Yesterday I posted an excerpt from testimony to a state senate hearing in New York. I had seen it on another blog. I had the wrong name of the person testifying. Here is her name and her full testimony. Mary Calamia Statement for New York State Assembly Education Forum October 7, 2013 at 10:14pm Statement for New York State Assembly Education Forum Brentwood, New York October 10, 2013 I am a licen
Your Sunday Gift: TIme to Laugh Out Loud
Just watch this. If you have a cat and a dog, you will love this.
Update on My Health
Thanks to all who sent expressions of support and concern. I read every one and appreciated them. You gave me the strength to get through the first days, which are the hardest. I even heard from people with whom I have had disagreements. I was humbled by the goodness that people expressed. We–including me–should all work harder to find the good and praise it rather than submit to the fault-finding
North Carolina Scores Tumble with Common Core Tests
As expected, test scores in North Carolina fell dramatically after release of Common Core data for the state. “Only 32 percent of students in grades 3-8 were proficient in reading and mathematics in 2012-13 — that’s almost a 27 percent drop from 2011-12, when 58.9 percent of students were proficient. The overall composite proficiency score for all state tests is 44.7 percent, down from 77.9 perce
More Districts in New York Drop Out of Race to the Top
More than 20 school districts in the Lower Hudson Valley region have announced that they are dropping out of New York state’s Race to the Top, due to concerns about student privacy. “Officials say there is no way to know how the data, which identifies students and includes disciplinary and health records, will be used in the future. They say they are concerned about colleges and employers seeking
A Teacher in New Jersey Reacts to Maya Angelou’s Criticism of Race to Top
This anonymous teacher liked Maya Angelou’s criticism of Race to the Top. She wrote: “She states, “Race To The Top feels to be more like a contest… not what did you learn, but how much can you memorize.” “Writers are really interested in forming young men and women,” she said. “… ‘This is your world.’ ‘ This is your country.’ ‘ This is your time.’ And so I don’t think you can get that by racing to
New Mexico: Where Data Count More Than Children
This is a comment by an educator in New Mexico: My name is Tine Hayes. I have been teaching high school in Gallup NM for 14 years. I am dual certified in Fine Arts and Social Studies, and I am level three and National Board certified. This year more than ever in the past I am disheartened and distressed by the actions of the PED [state education department] and the attitude toward students and t
Sahlberg Explains Why Finnish Schools Succeed
You will enjoy this amazing slide show created by the great Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg. It explains why Finnish schools succeed: Not because they want to be first in the world, but because they want “a great school for each and every child.” Their goal is equity, not excellence. While striving for equity, excellence is the by-product. His comparison of the stale paradigm of the Global Educati
A call to action for supporters of public education in LA
A coalition of Los Angeles parents, teachers and public school advocates are reaching out to others in LA. They report that; The LAUSD school board will consider a resolution for “Educational Equity and Achievement for all Title I Students” next Tuesday, November 12 at 4pm. This resolution seeks to restore Title I funding to children attending schools at the former 40% poverty threshold. Fully fu
Indiana Researcher on NAEP: Results No Different from Past
While Arne Duncan and ex-Superintendent Tony Bennett were celebrating Indiana’s gains on the 2013 NAEP, researchers at Indiana University said the gains were no different from the state’s performance in past years on NAEP. “Relative to the 1-point gains in mathematics and reading for the nation as a whole, the 5- and 4-point gains for Indiana fourth-graders appear impressive,” said Peter Klooster
Maya Angelou to Obama: Stop the Standardized Testing
Maya Angelou, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author, was one of 120 writers and illustrators who called on President Obama to cut back on the deluge of standardized testing promoted by his administration. The 120 authors and illustrators issued the following statement to the President: We the undersigned children’s book authors and illustrators write to express our concern for our readers, their paren
NOV 09
Sirota: Make War on Poverty, Not Teachers
David Sirota points put the facts that most educators acknowledge: poverty is a far more potent threat to academic success than “bad” teachers or unions. The bugaboos of the loon right have become the basis for federal policy, and it is taking its toll on teacher morale.
Steve Koss: More Suggestions for Mayor de Blasio
Steve Koss is a New Yorker, a math teacher, and an active contributor to the groups battling corporate reform for the past decade. He has some ideas to add to those I suggested to the Mayor-elect: Diane, Agree with your first five recommendations/mandates. Here’s five more of mine. Sixth, Mayor-elect deBlasio must oversee radical revision if not elimination of the school-grading system which ha
Why Are We Obsessed with Test Scores?
A regular reader who calls him- or herself “Democracy” wrote the following in response to my post about the hype and spin surrounding NAEP scores: “Diane Ravitch writes this: “Anyone who takes them [NAEP scores} seriously is either a sports writer covering education or someone who thinks that education can be reduced to the scores on standardized tests.” I don’t disagree. But there are, obviously
Nevada Teacher: No One Asked Me about Common Core
From Angie Sullivan, a teacher in Nevada: I’m a union girl. But I know that my union is huge and has become part of the privatizing problem – looking for money from big business and supporting politicians who take it too. So I lobby them too. Common Core is not supported by this member. With everything going on in my state of Nevada – NEA spends money and gives us a grant to impleme
Marc Epstein: The Task Before Mayor de Blasio
Marc Epstein is a veteran New York City teacher who holds a Ph.D. in Japanese naval history. He was dean of students at Jamaica High School, now closed and replaced by multiple small schools. Epstein has written extensively for Huffington Post and other outlets. Here he shares his reflections on the past dozen years of changes under Mayor Bloomberg and the changes that face the new Mayor Bill de B
How Many Children Will We Sacrifice Before We Wake Up?
The following comment came in response to a post about what is happening to early childhood education, about the federal government’s demand that children in kindergarten be tested to see if they are on track to be college-and-career ready in compliance with the Common Core: Dear All, I just read this op ed and ALL the comments! With all we know (research-based, data rich science) about child de
The. Most. Brilliant. Review. of. “Reign. of. Error.” Ever.
I just finished reading the review of Reign of Error in Commonweal, a magazine edited by independent lay Catholics, and I am speechless (almost). Written by Jackson Lears, a cultural historian at Rutgers University, the review brilliantly explains the underlying effort to transform public education through “creative disruption” and turn it into a commodity. Why have our society’s leaders fallen in