What Happens to Kids Who Don’t Graduate?
In Kentucky and New York, the Common Core tests caused test scores to tumble by 30 points or more. State officials assume–with no evidence–that the scores will go up every year. What if they don’t? What if they go up only by a small increment? What if 50-60% of students don’t pass? In New York, the “passing” rate on the Common Core tests was 30% statewide. Only 3% of English learners passed, and
Guess Who Worked at McDonald’s?
Remember the D.C. Whistleblower? Adell Cothorne was the new principal at a highly-touted elementary school where test scores had gone up and off, off the charts. She said she walked in on a grade-erasure session, where staff members were changing student answers from wrong to right. When she blew the whistle on what she learned, she became a pariah and nearly lost her career. For a time, she ran a
What Happens When Educators Make Their Own Documentary?
In 2011, Rocky Killion, the superintendent of schools in West Lafayette, Indiana, had an idea: What if we made our own documentary about the schools? What if we became our own production crew? What if we traveled the country and interviewed experts with our questions? They did it, and the film premiered in West Lafayette to an enthusiastic audience of 1,000 people. The tile of the film is “Rise
A Reader: Our Plight and the Fight Ahead
Reader Sharon Sanders posted this comment: The intentional destruction of our economy and educational system has been perpetrated by libertarians, right-wing and religious extremists, as well as corporatists, who want every last penny for themselves and their doctrines through private prisons, charter schools, private armies, a biased corporate media– everything, while they ship our factories an
I Love This Review of “Reign of Error”!
Patrick Walsh teaches in a public school in Harlem. He reviewed “Reign of Error” here. I love this review! He writes: “As I write, historian Diane Ravitch is simultaneously the most feared and revered figure in American education. To the corporate education reformers, a group Ravitch has come to identify as privatizers of our public schools, she is a colossal and authoritative thorn in the side.
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 12-14-13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG mark as readCody: Is the Common Core the Rosetta Stone of Corporate Reform?Anthony Cody, in a brilliant column, asks whether Common Core will be the Rosetta Stone of Corporate reform. The Rosetta Stone, he explains, made it possible to decipher ancient languages: ” In the year 1799, a French soldier discovered an ancient