“New Hustler Voucher Academy” in Milwaukee Closes
Thanks to blogger TeacherKen for drawing my attention to this startling story about a failed voucher school in Milwaukee. A small religious school called LifeSkills Academy closed “in the dead of night” in December, after collecting $200,000 in taxpayer funds for the year. It became a voucher school in 2008 and had collected some 2 million dollars since then. By the time it closed, its enrollment
NY Times Debate: Should de Blasio Unravel Bloomberg “Reforms”?
This debate between Bruce Fuller of the University of California and me was just posted online by the New York Times. Bruce takes the position that de Blasio and Farina should maintain some or many of the changes that Bloomberg made. I argue that de Blasio has a mandate to stop closing schools, to get rid of the A-F grading system, to drop the failed Leadership Academy, and to drop the former admi
Does the ISTEP Measure School Quality and Teacher Effectiveness?
This post was written by Charles J. Morris, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Denison University, who lives in Indianapolis. Does the ISTEP Measure School Quality and Teacher Effectiveness? Charles J. Morris1 While there appears to be general agreement that teachers can make a big difference in the lives of students, there is little evidence that performance on standardized tests provides a vali
Incredible: Louisiana Renews Gulen Charter Despite Ongoing FBI Investigation
Governor Bobby Jindal and John White are determined to keep protecting and expanding charter schools, as they press for the transfer of public funds to private entities.. That may explain why the state board of education renewed the charter of a Gulen-associated school that was under FBI investigation. “The state Department of Education showed little interest in an ongoing federal probe into a Ba
Paul Horton: The Cure for the Common Core
Paul Horton is a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School. He writes: The Cure for the Common Core The Common Core is like that insidious commercial that creeps into the darker recesses of our short-term memories: the jingle that we wake up hearing; the embarrassingly male enhancement ad that we wince at; or the little message that penetrates the space between the paragraphs
Bruce Springsteen on Chris Christie’s Traffic Jam
New Jersey’s embattled Governor Chris Christie has always made a deal of his love for Bruce Springsteen, hero troubadour of regular folk and the Garden State. But apparently it is not a mutual admiration society. Here is Bruce Springsteen singing about “Governor Christie’s Traffic Jam.” This may become the most infamous traffic jam in American history, the one that derailed the Presidential amb
Marc Epstein: The Disaster of Bloomberg’s Control of the Schools
Marc Epstein, a teacher for many years at Jamaica High School (targeted for closure) here describes the Bloomberg years in anew York City public schools and how difficult it will be to unravel the changes he imposed: Bloomberg’s School Disaster When Mayor-elect de Blasio announced Carmen Farina as his choice for schools chancellor and pointedly added that she was an educator, a metaphorical puff
Bruce Baker: Kansas City Is About to Be Ripped-Off
Bruce Baker of Rutgers University is well known for his candor and scholarly acumen. Here he dissects the new plan to destroy public education in Kansas City and shows what an outright farce it is. He writes: This past week, the good citizens of Kansas City and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education were graced with one of the most vacuous manifestos on education reform I’ve rea
EduShyster: Will 2014 Be the Year of the EduEntrepreneur?
EduShyster surveys the emerging controversies across the land and makes some bold and somewhat nutty predictions for 2014.
Tah-Dah: The Bunkum Awards for 2013 Are Revealed!
The National Education Policy Center has released the names of the winners of its annual Bunkum awards, which recognizes the most glaring exemplars of Bunkum, hokum, spin, and hype in the world of education research. Included in the link is a YouTube video in which the distinguished researcher David Berliner announces the winners. Be it noted that the Brookings Institution, once esteemed for the q
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-14-14 Diane Ravitch's blog A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Why Philadelphia Can’t Afford to Pay for Public EducationDid you hear about the budget crisis that stripped Philadelphia’s public schools of teachers, nurses, librarians, supplies, and many other things? Did you read that the school district has a budget deficit of $300 million and that Governor Corbett wants teachers to take salar