Schools Matter:
Ex Pearson "Female" Exec Joins Twitter Board
"Standardized" Documentary: How Testing Is Ruining Public Education
Weingarten's Day of Inaction December 9
Schools Matter All Week
An investigative documentary into the Common Core State Standards Initiative
BUILDING THE MACHINE (2014) - Official Trailer [HQ] I want to use the same disclaimer here that I did the last time I posted Common Core State Standards (CSSS) related materials from sources that I disavow any connection with. The video is produced by, and also features, individuals that are from fringe-right-wing groups. The last time I published a disclaimer like this, I was subjected to a fire
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My my, you never know what you will find by reading the business news.Pearson and Twitter, imagine the possibilities. Wall Street is all aflutter with a "woman" on the board of Twitter, how progressive.By Jessica GuynnDecember 5, 2013, 9:16 a.m.SAN FRANCISCO -- Twitter has added a female media veteran to its all-male board of directors.Marjorie Scardino, 66, former chief executive of publishing company Pearson, joined the Twitter board Thursday after a deafening wave of criticism that it lacked diversity in its upper ranks.The absence of a woman on Twitter’s board was “a joke,” Salli
“Standardized: Lies, Money and Civil Rights: How Testing Is Ruining Public Education”"We think this film is going to give more parents the guts to say, 'Our kids don't have to take these tests,'"Hornberger said. "They prove nothing.To watch it, go to www.youtube.com and search on “Standardized.”By the way: After its theatrical run, Hornberger intends to post “Standardized” at www.vimeo.com, charging $5 per viewing and donating $1 from each purchase to the United Opt Out movement. The official trailer for “Standardized” has received more than 3,600 views on YouTube. To watch it,
In October AFT launched its Principles that Unite Us (PUS), a piece of foamy rhetoric that offers the impression of resistance to corporate ed reform while providing a rubber stamp to CorpEd's status quo assault on public education. PUS is full of fuzzy talk that offers plenty of corporate space to 1) continue the education genocide based on high stakes testing, 2) the implementation of the Corporate Common Core, 3) the continuing use of test scores to evaluate teachers, 4), the continuation of alt-cert schemes like TFA, 5) the continuing resegregation of schools, and 7) the continuing spread
YESTERDAY
Knoxville Teachers Call for Jim McIntyre's Ouster
Many thanks to Mike Donila from Screams from the Porch for this fact sheet on McIntyre and TN superintendents (that's McIntryre below with his gold-stamped Broad Center plaque just behind him--ah, symbolism):Superintendent Jim McIntyreFACT: McIntyre is in charge of the county’s more than $400 million educational budget, its 89 schools and a 7,500-person workforce that includes 4,800 teachers.FACT:
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
The Philadelphia Story, or The Revolution that Tom Corbett Made
Our Schools Are Not For Sale from Media Mobilizing Project TV on Vimeo.
Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel steps down from UNO! He was a darling of the AEI
Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel @JuanRangel steps down from #UNO! He was a darling of @AEIeducation http://t.co/svdm81drB5— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) December 6, 2013 Via Professor Diane Ravitch: Powerful Chicago Charter Leader Resigns in Wake of Financial Scandal My commentary: Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel was a darling of the fringe-right American Enterprise Institu
Memphis Politicians Wring Hands About Reading Scores as They Create More Corporate Charter Schools Without Libraries
Having handed over 29 public schools to charter reform schools without libraries or librarians, and with 8 more on the way by 2015, Superintendent Dorsey Hopson and the Shelby County School Board all of sudden have noticed that these children are far behind in reading. Since poor children get their books more often from libraries, and since the research has demonstrated over the past 25 years tha
Grasping at Straws and the Impending Value-Added Trainwreck
We are just beginning to implement value-added evaluations, but it is already becoming clear that a trainwreck is coming. Already, we are reading stories about good teachers being fired for failing to meet their test score growth targets. We are also reading about surrealistic cases, such as the New York Teacher of the Year who earned 60 of 60 points on the observation component of her evaluation,
DEC 05
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
DEC 04
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 information: http://go.aft.org/pisa #ReclaimIt
DEC 03
More on Broad Foundation and Education Genocide in Philadelphia
From Ken Derstine in Philadelphia:November 29, 2013By Ken DerstineNovember 29, 2013By Ken Derstine“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” – Mark Twain Further research into the Broad Foundation’s role in corporate education reform in PhiladelphiaIt is hard to believe that only a little over two years have passed since Arlene Ac
Harry and the Common Core
A couple of nights ago I was at a small gathering where Harry's mom was responding to comments about how much Harry, now "five and a half" as he is quick to tell you, has shot up in the past few months. Oh, he's doing great, says Harry's mom, except for a bit of a dexterity problem in his hands. And how do we know of this problem? It has been pointed out by Harry's kindergarten teacher
DEC 02
Reader Highlights Logick of New York Times Editorial Board
Brent Staples and the other pampered fools on the New York Times editorial board are at it again, this time advising the new mayor on how to do to teachers what they would never dream of doing to themselves. Below is an excerpt on the seniority issue, followed by one of the 175 comments that lays bare the bankruptcy of thought that characterizes every utterance on education by the billionaires'
IAP Announces New Price for TMoE
For those trying to order The Mismeasure of Education from Amazon, I apologize for their being out of stock, AGAIN. My advice: forget Amazon. Information Age now has both hardback and paperback with a new promotional price. Another best reason this season not to buy from the exploitative worker warehouse at Amazon!
Why I Won't Be Buying a New Subaru to Benefit TFA
A letter I sent to a very nice salesman at the Memphis Subaru dealership this morning:To: davidellison@jimkerassubarusoa.dealer.comDear David,I saw a friend the other night who bought a new Subaru from you earlier this Fall, and I was admiring his car. With one of my cars on the verge of needing a new timing belt, I was planning to visit your place just after the Christmas rush to take advantage,
DEC 01
Peter McLaren's Review of The Mismeasure of Education
We posted a piece of Peter's remarks in the advance reviews, but his inimitable style and rhetorical sweep here is classic McLaren. Both humbling and gratifying:It is no exaggeration to say that public education is under threat of extinction. The uneven but inexorable progress of neoliberal economic policies clearly provided the incubus for transferring the magisterium of education in its entiret
Should SC Increase Charter School Investment? No!
Charter school advocates are calling for more investment from South Carolina, according to Jamie Self at The State (Columbia, SC):South Carolina’s public charter schools struggle to find and pay for space, and often end up without access to kitchens, libraries, or places for kids to play – a problem the S.C. General Assembly needs to address, according to a new report.The challenges that the state
NOV 30
How Jeb Bush and Tony Bennett Invaded Sullivan County, Indiana
By Doug MartinSince my last article on the possibility that two schools in tiny Dugger, Indiana may be closed soon by the Northeast School Corporation of Sullivan County, I have unearthed something shocking that residents, teachers, parents, and students should know, and it points to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother and son of two past U.S. presidents. As I detail in one chapter
Capitalism's Bankrupt Plan for Rating Higher Ed
Spot on, from the Chicago Sun-Times:By Ann M. Lousin November 27, 2013 2:58PMPresident Obama has proposed tying financial aid to American colleges and universities to a “rating system” of higher education. The administration has conducted a number of public forums at college campuses over the last few weeks to purportedly collect input on the proposal. We can only hope these forums enable the pres
Nashville Limits Charters As Memphis Doubles Down
Nashville Metro has acknowledged the impending $23 million shortfall in next year's budget is due to the drain from corporate charter schools. As a result, the school board has decided to cut its losses by restricting the spread of these segregated zero-tolerance chain gangs. With the TN Department of Education staffed by TFA cultists and losers from the Gates Foundation, there is plenty of gnas