NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:
School Reform Information Controlled by Funders and Think Tanks? What about the Public’s Right to Know? | janresseger
Arne Duncan Doubles Down On “White Suburban Moms” Comment, Promotes Economic Ignorance | FDL News Desk
In Philadelphia schools, is the ‘right to know’ the new ‘pay for play’? | The Answer Sheet
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Posted on November 23, 2013 by janresseger In Philadelphia, the state-appointed School Reform Commission got the William Penn Foundation, a philanthropy, to pay the Boston Consulting Group, a contractor, to design the “portfolio school reform plan” that recommended closing public schools and opening charter schools. Twenty-four public schools were eventually closed last spring. For the ...read moreThe post School Reform Information Controlled by Funders and Think Tanks? What about the Public’s Right to Know? | janresseger appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
By: DSWright Thursday November 21, 2013 9:27 am Secretary of Education Arne Duncan doubled down on his “white suburban moms” comment concerning the Common Core Standards. Duncan at first said opposition to the Common Core State Standards was interesting because “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as ...read moreThe post Arne Duncan Doubles Down On “White Suburban Moms” Comment, Promotes Economic Ignorance | FDL News Desk appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
BY VALERIE STRAUSS November 23 at 4:00 am (By Steve Marcus/ Reuters) In this post, Helen Gym, a Philadelphia public school parent, writes about parents’ efforts to try to get the Philadelphia school district to release to the public basic information about how schools were selected for closure this year. Gym is founder of Parents United for ...read moreThe post In Philadelphia schools, is the ‘right to know’ the new ‘pay for play’? | The Answer Sheet appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
TODAY
High School Students in New Orleans Walk Out in Protest | Diane Ravitch’s blog
I received this letter from a teacher who taught in Louisiana until recently. I am posting anonymously for her sake: Dear friends, I am not writing you from New Orleans, and I do not know these students, but I taught in this area for 9 years, and after 3 schools that I worked in were ...read moreThe post High School Students in New Orleans Walk Out in Protest | Diane Ravitch’s blog appeared first
YESTERDAY
A Third Of Schools Saw Scores Fall After Getting Federal Grants | Huffington Post
After receiving turnaround grants from the Obama administration for the wholesale overhauling of schools, the nation’s lowest-performing schools have yet to show dramatic improvement, according to information released Thursday by the U.S. Education Department. And some have actually shown declines. Statistically, though, it may be too soon to draw any conclusions from the numbers. School ...read m
Why Do We Treat Schools Like Sports Teams? | Diane Ravitch
I have been wondering lately why we are so obsessed with giving every student, every teacher, and every school a ranking, rating, and/or grade. It seems to me that we are thinking about children, teachers, and schools the same way we think about sports teams. In every league, there are winners and losers. But if ...read moreThe post Why Do We Treat Schools Like Sports Teams? | Diane Ravitch appear
John Thompson: Game-Changers Go for the Grit | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on November 21, 2013 8:45 PM Guest post by John Thompson. The Hechinger Report’s Sarah Butrymowicz, in “Teachers Weigh In on How to Identify Grit,” explains that the word “Grit” has become an education buzzword. It is a term for character traits like perseverance and optimism or “zest” that is critical to ...read moreThe post John Thompson: Game-Changers Go for the Grit | Anthony
Evaluate This! | EduShyster
Happy Accountability Day, reader! But how best to celebrate when nearly every day seems to be Accountability Day these days? In Massachusetts we like to mark the passage of a consequential day with consequences by scouring newly released teacher ratings in order to finally, FINALLY, smoke out those bad teachers. So pull up a chair ...read moreThe post Evaluate This! | EduShyster appeared first on
Financial Report: Charter Schools Strangling Public Schools in Michigan | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the bond ratings of 53 school districts in Michigan. Public schools are losing enrollment to charter schools, and losing the ability to balance their budgets. More than 80% of the charter schools in Michigan are operated for-profit. According to the linked article, Justin Marlowe, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ...read moreThe post Financi
The Predictable Failure of School Improvement Grants | Schools Matter
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 ...read moreThe post The Predictable Failure of School I
NY Times: Many College Graduates in Europe Are Unemployed | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This is a sad story, and there is a warning here for us. College graduates in Europe are having a hard time finding jobs. The story in the New York Times begins like this: “Alba Méndez, a 24-year-old with a master’s degree in sociology, sprang out of bed nervously one recent morning, carefully put on ...read moreThe post NY Times: Many College Graduates in Europe Are Unemployed | Diane Ravitch’s b
Steve Perry Loses a School and His Cool | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Valerie Strauss here reports on the travails of Steve Perry in Hartford, Connecticut. Two bloggers, Jonathan Pelto of Connecticut and Jersey Jazzman of New Jersey, have investigated Perry’s boasts about the magnet school he runs and found that his school serves very small proportions of children who are poor, who have disabilities, and who are ...read moreThe post Steve Perry Loses a School and Hi
Parent group mobilizes against student data warehouse | catalyst-chicago.org
By: Matthew Blake Kurt Hilgendorf speaks about InBloom to parents at a forum on student data privacy. Parents were warned about potential privacy threats posed by a planned state student data system at a forum Thursday night organized by Parents United for a Responsible Education (PURE). Julie Woestehoff, executive director for PURE, claimed that the ...read moreThe post Parent group mobilizes aga
How Do You Spell Disaster? A Round-Up of Bloggers on Duncan’s Gaffe About the Moms | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Jonathan Pelto has collected a long list of posts by bloggers around the nation, reacting to Duncan’s amazing statement that “white suburban moms” are opposed to Common Core because they were disappointed to discover that their child is not so brilliant after all. This is one of those remarks that just does not fade away ...read moreThe post How Do You Spell Disaster? A Round-Up of Bloggers on Dun
EduShyster: Exploitation of Cheap Tutors by Charters | Diane Ravitch’s blog
EduShyster has a guest post written by a young college graduate who took a job as a teacher at a “no excuses” charter school in Boston. When you read it, you understand what it means to have no protections, no one to fight for you. The young people banded together, and the best they could ...read moreThe post EduShyster: Exploitation of Cheap Tutors by Charters | Diane Ravitch’s blog appeared firs
Another Brown employee says he forged signature | Philly.com
By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer POSTED: November 21, 2013 After one of Dorothy June Brown’s former top aides testified in federal court Wednesday about creating bogus documents to help Brown profit from the four charter schools she founded, another former key employee came forward to say he had done the same. Joan Woods Chalker, ...read moreThe post Another Brown employee says he forged s
Florida superintendents propose 3-year extension on carrying out Common Core | www.mypalmbeachpost.com
Updated: 5:57 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 | Posted: 5:29 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 BY ALLISON ROSS – PALM BEACH POST STAFF WRITER Florida school superintendents are asking the state to give them three more years to put the new Common Core State Standards and related tests in place. The Florida Association of District School Superintendents ...read moreThe post Florida superintendents propose
The Real Mission Behind Teaching For America | Business Insider
Teach For America may have a respected, ambitious mission to reform education inequality, but the program is often criticized for its training and recruitment practices. “These people could be superstars, but most leave before they master the teaching craft,” Julian Vasquez Heilig, a University of Texas professor, tells Michael Winerip at The New York Times. Case in point is former TFA ...read mor
The disrespecting (dissing) of Superintendent Glenda Ritz | Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper
By Amos Brown III | 0 comments Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I strongly believe that no matter whether I disagree with an elected official, in public, I always treat that individual with the respect and honor that their office and the people who elected them granted him/her. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case. Look ...read moreThe post The disrespecting (dissing) of Superintendent Glen
After closings, questions linger on special ed programs | catalyst-chicago.org
The difficult battle of finding a good school for children with autism or other severe cognitive disabilities is usually waged behind the scenes, by moms and dads sitting in small conference rooms with social workers and other specialists. But last fall, some parents were forced to go public after CPS announced the impending shutdown of ...read moreThe post After closings, questions linger on spec
New High School Program Latest Example of Duncan Efforts to Get Around Congress | Politics K-12 – Education Week
By Alyson Klein on November 21, 2013 5:46 PM So everyone knows that Congress has been partisan and broken for years. Lawmakers have a lot of on their plates when it comes to education policy, and very little political will to accomplish it in a bipartisan way. So the Obama administration, partly by necessity, has ...read moreThe post New High School Program Latest Example of Duncan Efforts to Get
NOV 21
Four Education Reform Talking Points that Are Flat-Out Lies | Yahoo Voices
Kris Nielsen, Yahoo Contributor Network Nov 21, 2013 If you listen to the buzz coming from the airwaves about education reform these days, you may notice that many things are starting to sound much too familiar–some even vomit-inducingly so. It’s almost as if someone gave the spokespeople from state education departments, private curriculum and testing ...read moreThe post Four Education Reform Ta
inBloom is not in the room | Capitol Confidential
Posted on November 20, 2013 at 3:11 pm by Rick Karlin Teachers, parents and legislators have been in a growing slow-boil uproar over the standardized tests that play a role in the state’s new Common Core curriculum for K-12 students, and now they have something else to get upset about — concerns about student privacy ...read moreThe post inBloom is not in the room | Capitol Confidential appeared f
Van Roekel: Education Support Professionals Keep Students Safe Every Day | NEA Today
November 21, 2013 By John Rosales Speaking to a group of educators attending the Safe School Summit in Northampton, Massachusetts, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel noted the courage and quick-thinking of school support staff professionals like Charles Poland Jr., the Alabama school bus driver who stood off a gunman refusing his demands to turn ...read moreThe post Van Roe
Education Secretary Loses Some Of His Luster | It’s All Politics : NPR
If Americans know Education Secretary Arne Duncan for anything at this point, it would be as that guy who claimed last week that opposition to the Common Core national K-12 educational standards sprang from “white suburban moms” who feared that tougher requirements would reveal their children to be as not “brilliant” as they thought. He ...read moreThe post Education Secretary Loses Some Of His Lu
What I Told Educators on Long Island About Common Core | Diane Ravitch’s blog
On Monday, my first outing since I was hospitalized, I went to a meeting of superintendents and school board members on Long Island to discuss the Common Core. I explained why I was uneasy about the hasty implementation of the Common Core in New York, especially the inappropriate rush to test the Common Core standards ...read moreThe post What I Told Educators on Long Island About Common Core | D
University president: Can anyone differ with Arne Duncan ‘without being dismissed as silly’? | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS November 21 at 2:24 pm U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been in the news lately for his fervent defense of the Common Core State Standards and simultaneous criticism of those who oppose it and some of his other education initiatives, including a proposal for the Education Department to create a collegiate ...read moreThe post University president: Can anyone differ with
Claudio Sanchez: The Crisis in Philadelphia Public Schools | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Claudio Sanchez of NPR did an excellent analysis of the tragedy unfolding in the Philadelphia public schools. The schools have been under state control for a dozen years. When Paul Vallas was in charge, he implemented a bold privatization experiment, which failed. Now the schools are vastly underfunded by the state of Pennsylvania. Governor Tom ...read moreThe post Claudio Sanchez: The Crisis in P
Hartford Board of Education Chairman Calls for Investigation of Principal Steve Perry | WNPR News
By JOHN DANKOSKY The Chairman of Hartford’s School Board, Matt Poland, has called for an investigation of Dr. Steve Perry, the outspoken principal of Capital Prep Magnet School. The questions involve Perry’s controversial statements on Twitter. Dr. Steve Perry is on television and radio a lot, including just last week on WNPR’s Where We Live, talking ...read moreThe post Hartford Board of Educatio
Why America’s Prep Schools Aren’t Following Arne Duncan’s Public School Education Reforms | Education on GOOD
Our public education system, with all of its admitted flaws, manages to nurture the vast majority of young people, many of whom go on to be hugely successful. But the prevailing education reform movement in the United States, premised upon market-based solutions, economics, disruption, and similar sounding corporate buzzwords, seeks to standardize curriculum, teaching, and ...read moreThe post Why
Gist misleads public about flaws in graduation plan | providencejournal.com
BY KEN FISH In an Oct. 15 Commentary piece (“R.I.’s diploma system brings out the best”), Deborah A. Gist, Rhode Island’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, “told the truth” about high-stakes testing in a set of questions she asked herself. Many of her answers were very misleading and a few were just opinions. Here ...read moreThe post Gist misleads public about flaws in graduatio
What Is It About Billionaires and Privatization? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This is a long article but well worth your time. It seems that EBay billionaire Pierrer Omidyar is underwriting a major new media venture. While he is widely hailed as a “civic-minded billionaire,” authors Mark Ames and Yasha Levine see him as a standard-bearer for what is called neoliberalism, in which free markets rule our ...read moreThe post What Is It About Billionaires and Privatization? | D
Assembly education chair threatens subpoena against data company | Capital New York
BY JESSICA BAKEMAN 1:18 pm Nov. 20, 20131Add a comment ALBANY—Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, the chair of the Assembly’s education committee, said Wednesday she’ll consider using the committee’s subpoena power to compel a data-integration company to testify at a public hearing on privacy. Nolan said inBloom, Inc., a not-for-profit company that has a contract with the ...read moreThe post Assembly
Plan: Gather data on pupils – Assembly panel irate after Education Department contractor fails to appear | Times Union
By Rick Karlin Albany Parents like to know where their children are, and modern technology has made the task easier. But do you know where your child’s educational data points are? On Wednesday, the ire of teachers, parents and several state legislators was directed at another aspect of the increasingly controversial federal Race to the Top ...read moreThe post Plan: Gather data on pupils – Assemb
Higher Ed, Corporate Reform Has Arrived: Featuring Maryland’s Nancy Grasmick | deutsch29
November 21, 2013 Though much of corporate reform focuses on the K-12 classroom, its well-financed, invasive influence certainly does not stop with the public high school. Imposing philanthropy and its fast friend, the business of education, also aim to control America’s college and university classrooms. Higher education faculty, you are not out of the reformer’s reach. Over the last several deca
Turning the neediest overcrowded Chicago schools into beggars | Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog
The Mayor runs the schools the way he runs the city. It’s a two-tier system with wealthiest and politically-connected getting the lion’s share of the resources while the poorest neighborhoods and schools go begging. As a result, his hand-picked, rubber-stamp school board has become the regular target of protests by parents who want equal treatment ...read moreThe post Turning the neediest overcro
The Hard Part: Defining Democracy | Bridging Differences – Education Week
By Deborah Meier on November 21, 2013 9:51 AM The conversation between Deborah Meier and Robert Pondiscio continues today. Dear Robert, Progress: We have our slogan. Education for democracy and liberty. Now comes the hard part of the challenge: defining both terms. Sometimes the best way to do this is by shifting gears entirely and ...read moreThe post The Hard Part: Defining Democracy | Bridgi
Reframing the Refrain: Choice as a Civil Rights Issue | Cloaking Inequity
Student achievement data in the U.S. show long-standing and persistent gaps in minority versus majority performance (Vasquez Heilig & Darling-Hammond, 2008). Public concern about pervasive inequalities in traditional public schools, combined with growing political, parental, and corporate support, has created the expectation that school choice is the solution for poor and minority youth (Vasqu
Paul Horton: Common Core and the Gettysburg Address Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on November 21, 2013 9:38 AM Guest post by Paul Horton. All of those concerned with the decline of history as a discipline in our schools should examine very carefully Valerie Strauss’ recent post on how the Common Core Standards teach the Gettysburg Address. No one will deny that the Gettysburg address ...read moreThe post Paul Horton: Common Core and the Gettysburg Address Anthon
Principal gets mad and tweets: ‘Strap up, there will be head injuries.’ | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS November 21 at 11:22 am That’s not a tweet that any school principal or teacher who I know could publish and keep their job, but for Steve Perry, the out-there founder and principal of the public Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., it was just another day on Twitter. Perry is ...read moreThe post Principal gets mad and tweets: ‘Strap up, there will be head inju
Brilliant Analysis of US DOE Silly Plans to Re-Engineer Higher Education | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, has written an outstanding analysis of the Obama administration’s shockingly uninformed plans to redesign higher education. McGuire notes that Arne Duncan has an annoying habit of trying to marginalize critics by calling them “silly.” If there is anything silly, it is his ill-conceived program to make college more ...read moreThe post B
Major Changes on Way for New Jersey’s High School Tests | NJ Spotlight
JOHN MOONEY | NOVEMBER 20, 2013 Details still scarce, but administration suspends graduation requirement as it begins move to Common Core, PARCC For the first time since 1989, New Jersey will next year suspend its requirement that high school graduates pass a state test in language arts and math to receive their diplomas. But that ...read moreThe post Major Changes on Way for New Jersey’s High Sch
Perry must be held accountable | Wait What?
Nov 20 There must be zero tolerance for threats of violence in schools. As reported earlier today, during school hours, Capital Prep’s principal Steve Perry tweeted: ”Dr. Steve Perry@DrStevePerry The only way to lose a fight is to stop fighting. All this did was piss me off. It’s so on. Strap up, there will be ...read moreThe post Perry must be held accountable | Wait What? appeared first on NPE
Architects of school grades concede errors as overhaul looms | GothamSchools
by Geoff Decker, at 6:59 pm Two architects of New York City’s controversial school progress reports acknowledged on Tuesday that the accountability system they developed needs to change. Law school professor James Liebman, who devised the A-F grading system “from scratch” in 2007, said the school grades were initially useful as a “powerful motivator of ...read moreThe post Architects of school gra
6 Questions for Teach for America | Alternet
November 21, 2013 | Why would the Pittsburgh school board invite an organization into our schools that could potentially harm students and the district itself? I can’t answer that question, but it appears that is what they are about to do by signing a deal with Teach for America. Teach for America (TFA) recruits bright ...read moreThe post 6 Questions for Teach for America | Alternet appeared fir
Race ‘elephant in the room’ with Lincoln overcrowding | catalyst-chicago.org
By: Sarah Karp / November 20, 2013 Parents from Lincoln Elementary reacted at Wednesday’s board meeting to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s controversial plan to build an $18 million addition to the school, with some expressing elation while others pointed out a less expensive solution: redrawing attendance boundaries so some Lincoln students would be sent to other ...read moreThe post Race ‘elephant in the r
Kids Pay The Price In Fight Over Fixing Philadelphia Schools | NPR
This is the first in a three-part report on Philadelphia schools in crisis. Sharron Snyder and Othella Stanback, both seniors at Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin High, will be the first in their families to graduate from high school. This, their final year, was supposed to be memorable. Instead, these teenagers say they feel cheated. “We’re fed ...read moreThe post Kids Pay The Price In Fight Over
N.Y. school principals write letter of concern about Common Core tests | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS November 21 at 4:00 am A group of eight prominent school superintendents from around New York State have drafted a letter to parents expressing their deep concerns about the validity of new Common Core-aligned standardized tests that state education officials are giving to students in grades three through eight — and in ...read moreThe post N.Y. school principals write letter o