CECI Email Reveals Charter School Chains: Or What Mike Pence and the Jonas Brothers Have in Common
by Doug MartinBesides seeking to dethrone Indiana supt. of public education Glenda Ritz from the state board of education, Mike Pence and his Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI)–in the recently leaked emailfrom James Betley to Claire Fiddian-Green—reveal the government/theocratic/corporate school complex's plan to allow Carpe Diem, Rocketship, and Christel House to “pool or share fu
Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline By Making Schools More Like KIPP
Following Columbine and 9-11 came No Child Left Behind, which together created a perfect storm of oppressive school practices that would play out most harshly among the poor. With NCLB’s impossible testing targets, urban schools in particular were actually incentivized to identify and root out any testing recalcitrants, low scorers, or other threats to making the testing targets. Here is a clip f
The New Bob George Website: Schmaltz Stirred with Obfuscation
"About Us"For those who did not get enough of Bob George and Betsy Angert at those marathon online meetings during that interim when Bob George was turning a dynamic activist group (SOS) into a navel-gazing society to block resistance and civil disobedience against CorpEd, well, Bob and Angie are back with, yet, a milder and mushier version of activism on Prozac. Their new website, empat
Do we need a new test for teacher-candidates?
Sent to Education Week, Dec 4, 2013Developing and requiring a new test for teacher-candidates is based on the belief that something is wrong with teacher preparation ("Performance-Based Test for Teachers Rolls Out," Dec. 4).The evidence suggests the opposite is the case. When we control for the effects of poverty, American students rank near the top of the world on international tests. A
12-4-13 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: What Does the PISA Report Tell Us About U.S. Education?When the OECD releases the PISA report every three years, many people use the ranking to claim public education in the U.S. is failing and push their corporate education reform agenda. But looking at the data, lessons that can be learned from the highest performing countries point in a completely different direction. For more i