Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
Pearson's $300 Toll Road to Teaching
If you need some extra holiday cash, you might consider working part-time from home to help Pearson decide who will become teachers and who won't. It's easy--just complete a few online tutorials, and Pearson will send you a bunch of student teaching portfolios, complete with video clips of student teachers and classes with students whose parents have no idea that Pearson now has in their permanent
YESTERDAY
2014 Is Going to Be a Great Year for Education
THERE IS NO PLACE LEFT FOR THE WIZARD BEHIND THE CURTAIN TO HIDEDING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!FRIDAY, DEC 20, 2013 12:45 PM UTCFrom Salon.comExposing the education “reformers’” big lie: Here’s how progressives — and our kids — beat the corporate establishmentA populist uprising is coming in defense of public schools. Are Democrats on the side of Wall Street or the people?JEFF BRYANT
Happy Holidays, Wendy--Now, Goodbye!
Wonder if this will earn the Pittsburgh School Board some threatening letters from Exxon-Mobil for its non-CorpEd stance:Here’s some education news that you don’t hear every day: The Pittsburgh school board is rescinding a $750,000 contract with Teach For America, and keeping open an elementary school slated to be shuttered.The board’s four new members, taking a new reform tact, drove the decision
Doug Martin's Podcast with Justin Oakley Now Posted
by Doug MartinIf you missed my talk with Justin Oakley on his Just Let Me Teach show on Indiana Talks radio and several great call-in guests (Rick Muir, Cindi Pastore, Melanie Wright, Clyde Gaw, and Crystal Bramel), you can now listen to the podcast. Thanks for tuning in!!!!! And thanks to Donna Yates Mace for her support, too!!!! We discuss current school privatization efforts in Indiana and beyo
Who Controls the Table Wins
NOTE: The current education reform agenda focusing primarily on Common Core remains to be a failure of leadership. Public school teachers, public schools, and public school students are little more than collateral damage in the battle to see who can out-standard and out-test and out-rigor whom. Professional organizations, unions, and political leadership are fighting for a place at the table—not s
DEC 19
Advanced math: Offer, don't require
Sent to the Denver Post, Dec. 19, 2013Sandra Stotsky thinks that the "Common Core fails to prepare students for STEM") Dec. 17), and that all students should be required to go way beyond Algebra II to be ready for the brave new world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Even if the STEM crisis were real, this is not a good idea. Of course, advanced math classes should be offere
Report Testing Child Abuse in New York Kindergartens
If you suspect child abuse, you are required by law to report it Child Protective Services. Call toll free in New York 800-342-3720.From NY Daily News:Goodbye Play-Doh, hello No. 2 pencils.Because of a tough new curriculum and teacher evaluations, 4- and 5-year-olds are learning how to fill in bubbles on standardized math tests to show how much they know about numbers, shapes and order.Teachers s
Show us the evidence
Posted on State Impact: Ohio - Eye on Education - http://tinyurl.com/ltoc4xqIn the class described in "How the Common Core is Changing How Kids Learn in English Class," (Dec 16), the teacher urges students to "cite evidence" for their statements, part of the push for increased nonfiction in the schools. Ironically, there is no scientific evidence that anyone can cite that suppo
Do other countries teach better?
Sent to the New York Times, Dec. 19, 2013The Times asks "Why Other Countries Teach Better?" (Dec. 18). But there is no clear evidence that they do. The most powerful factor in developing well-educated citizens, not mentioned by the Times, is poverty: When researchers control for the effects of poverty, our students score near the top on international tests. A survey from the Organization
Weingarten Joins Union Enemy John Engler to Plead with Governors to Keep Common Core
On December 10 Randi Weingarten flew into Newark with her gold-plated bullhorn to protest the entirely predicted outcome to a teacher contract that she helped negotiate just over a year ago. At the time, the Newark agreement gave bragging rights to Republican governor Chris Christie for making New Jersey the first state in the Union to base teacher pay on student test scores and on a teacher eval
The Biggest Lies of "We Won't Back Down"
The movie "We Won't Back Down" was on television this week. It is a product of the corporate-sponsored Parent Revolution. With the help of financing by Walden Media and other business conservatives, the movie tells the fictionalized story of the California "Parent Trigger" law allowing the takeover of a failing school when 51% of parents file a petition. In their telling, howev
Excuses, Excuses...
In response to test scores for New York City:New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's reign as head of the nation's largest school system resulted in greatly improved graduation rates, but test scores that lagged behind the pace of other large American cities. New York City students' scores on national math and reading tests released Wednesday didn't show significant change in 2013 from 2011, ticki
Doomed!
A clip from the Salon article:. . . . Few would dispute that we should hold our educators and the children they are entrusted with to a high bar of excellence, but evaluating performance on test scores has never been a viable strategy. As Common Core test results have started trickling in, the results aren’t pretty. In New York, they show a widening of the achievement gap between black and white s
DEC 18
David Coleman's Common Core Shows How Less Can Be More, Boring
Somehow I missed this in October from Perdido Street, but it is priceless:NYSED ELA Lesson Module - 17 Days On One Short StoryAs I posted earlier this week, the teachers who have had the misfortune to have to use the Common Core lesson modules provided by NYSED at a website they call Engage NY have found that the material is so full of mind-numbing, soul-sucking drudgery that they had lost the int
Teaching in Finland, Denigration in the U. S.
We know what to expect when the NYTimes moneymen call on their token minority, Brent Staples, to craft an Editorial of the Absurd on CorpEd's antiquated reforms that have effectively blown up public education along with the teaching profession. Staples' most recent effort does not disappoint, as he uses the most recent PISA release to apply his pretzel logic and funhouse lenses to make sense of t
The Fight Against School Reform Is a Fight for Children
Why did commenters say that Diane Ravitch's, "What Happens to Kids Who Don't Graduate?" is her best post ever? Ravitch reviews the dramatic drop in Kentucky and New York pass rates after instituting Common Core assessments: In New York, the “passing” rate on the Common Core tests was 30% statewide. Only 3% of English learners passed, and only 5% of students with disabilities. The pass ra
Pittsburgh School Board Reconsiders TFA Deal As Real Teachers File for Unemployment
From the Post-Gazette:The board of Pittsburgh Public Schools heard from a dozen people Monday -- most of them teachers -- who oppose the district's plan to bring in Teach for America teachers to take hard-to-fill jobs at its most challenging schools.The outgoing school board voted 6-3 in November to approve a contract with Teach for America, despite a petition that asked them to defer the decision
Accountability without Autonomy Is Tyranny
At The Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss confronts What’s wrong with this headline?:What’s wrong with this headline speaks to what’s wrong with a lot of the debate about school reform today. The problem is the indiscriminate and inaccurate use of the word “accountability.”While politicians and the media continue to pound at one nail—teacher quality—almost no one confronts the nearly universal lack of
DEC 17
One Third of NJ Urban Students in Unfit, Dilapidated Buildings
As Chris Christie's hopes for a presidential run diminish day by day, his record on education in New Jersey is enough to disqualify him as presidential material and should actually get him impeached. Another four years of gridlock on the George Washington Bridge, no infrastructure improvements on the rails to NYC or the tunnels but lots of empty photo ops isn't going to cut it. His education polic
Western Governors University's Path to Becoming a Teacher in NJ
The Christmas gift that keeps on giving. Teaching jobs abound in New Jersey.Western Governors University is recruiting heavily for part time adjuncts in New Jersey to stay in their pajamas and conduct on line courses for NCATE approved "evaluations." If you are looking for a job as a data evaluator, with no benefits, no job security and no office, then this is for you.Now that they are d
Doug Martin on Justin Oakley's Radio Show Wednesday, December 18
By Doug MartinI will be joining Justin Oakley on his Just Let Me Teach radio show on Wednesday, December 18 from around 9:15 to 10:00 pm. I will be launching the pre-order phrase of my book, Hoosier School Heist, which is scheduled to be released in February and details the Walton Family, Jeb Bush, New York hedge fund managers, the DeVos family of Amway fame, plagiarists, and Republican campaign
The Total Compliance Charter Model Has Come to Your Neighborhood
From Alternet:KIPP Forces 5th Graders to 'Earn' Desks By Sitting On the Floor For a WeekJames HornOne hundred 10-year-olds spent the first week of school sitting on the floor. What was it they were supposed to have learned?December 17, 2013 | The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is the largest corporate charter school chain in the U. S, with 141 schools and 50,000 students in 20 states. KIPP w
High Stakes Standardized Tests Help Fuel Drug Company Profits
Don't you just love how the entire education industrial complex is intertwined with corporations like pharmaceutical companies? Just think of all the stress, physical ailments and behavioral problems that will result from the continuous test and punish, value added, and merit pay for high test scores education deform can yield. Even the rich kids of the 1% find drugs can help them compete and pe
MIT Researchers: Higher Test Scores Do Not Translate into Higher Levels of Thinking
MIT Researchers: Higher Test Scores Do Not Translate into Higher Levels of Thinking http://t.co/edCbAClW1g— Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) December 17, 2013 MIT Researchers: Higher Test Scores Do Not Translate into Higher Levels of Thinking via Professor Diane Ravitch
DEC 16
Black Men in Newark Get Drama Class in Prison
Black men in Newark are getting literature and drama classes in prison. What are black boys in Newark getting in school?Let's ask our new Senator and our Governor who thinks he is presidential material if they know.Here is some educational information for New Jersey's elected representatives and their corporate privatizers and scam artists in New Jersey. Since they are in the process of ruining an
Rocketship Education, or Dud Missile?
From Alternet under the title Charters Get Kids Cubicle Ready:Rocketship charter schools are backed by some of the biggest names in the tech world and claim high test scores. But the schools look a lot like miniature call centers.December 16, 2013 | From Silicon Valley, the Rocketship chain of charter schools is hoping to expand across the country. It’s backed by some of the biggest names in th
DEC 15
One Hundred KIPP 5th Graders in a Single Classroom on the Floor for a Week Until They "Earned" Their Desks
Last updated 12/15/13:The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is the largest corporate charter school chain in the U. S, with 141 schools and 50,000 students in 20 states. KIPP was launched in 1994 by David Levin and Michael Feinberg, two former Ivy-Leaguers and Teach for America (TFA) corps members assigned to teach in Houston, where the first KIPP school was created. Since 2000 when KIPP student
DEC 14
Common Core Math and Teaching to the PISA Test
Student Achievement Partners is the outfit headed by David Coleman that Achieve, Inc. and Bill Gates hired to write the Common Core corporate standards. Along with his two partners, Susan Pimentel and Jason Zimba, SAP raked in $3,942,566 in tax exempt money during 2011, alone (see 990 here). Coleman has had a number of other pursuits, including helping to found Michelle Rhee's Students First, and
Mike Pence, His Artist Wife, and the Death of Art in Indiana Schools
By Doug MartinIn an earlier version of this piece, I mistakenly implied that the Indy Star's Scott Elliott was involved in the discussion with Glenda Ritz, Kloth, and Matt Tully. Here is what Scott has said about his role in the event: "I attended and watched part of the conversation with Ritz, Tully, Kloth and others referenced here but was not in any way a participant. This seems to sugges
Pearson Agrees to Pay $7.7 Million for Using Foundation to Advance Corporate Profits
This past week the Pearson Foundation agreed to pay $7.7 million to settle a charge that the Foundation had used charitable and tax-exempt assets to further Pearson profits. The amount of the settlement represents .0077% of Pearson profits for 2012. Following the widespread adoption of Common Core corporate standards that resulted from race to the top incentives, Pearson saw its profits soar in 2
TURN Chapters of AFT Take Lead in "Share My Lessons" Common Core Marathon
In the December 13 issue of Inside AFT (yes, I am an AFT member), I found this, which got me wondering: Share My Lesson has been on the move recently. This weekend will mark the third of three Share My Lesson marathon weekends the AFT has hosted over the last month. The sessions are nonstop events where teachers from all over the country come together to brainstorm, share lessons, learn how to