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Noelle Roni, who was principal of the Peak to Peak Charter School, says she was fired for trying to stop a practice that humiliated children. “Noelle Roni was the principal of Peak to Peak Elementary School for more than eight years before being abruptly fired last November. Roni says that higher-ups at the school became angry with her when she demanded that cafeteria workers stop stamping the ha
The Tweed insider who sends occasional reports to this blog is still anonymous. Still too dangerous to step Putin the open. Wouldn’t it be swell if the Department of Education actually had a research department, instead of a hyper-active public relations department? Insider here reviews the report on charter schools by the NYC Independent Budget Office. The report covered only the early grades, n
Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, Parents Organize to Support Public Schools
Bobby Jindal thought he could launch the nation’s most sweeping privatization program in Louisiana but he has run into unexpected obstacles. First, the Louisiana courts struck down the funding for Jindal’s voucher plan, then they struck down Jindal’s multi-faceted plan to destroy the teaching profession. Then, The results from the voucher schools were disappointing–their scores were worse than the
Randi Weingarten: Decouple the Common Core from the Testing
Randi Weingarten believes in the promise of the Common Core standards, and she has strongly defended them. But she recognizes that the rushed implantation, notably in New York, jeopardized the standards. In this post, Randi says that the standards must be separated from the testing. They must not be used to rank and rate teachers or to apply value-added measurement, where teachers are judged by
John Kuhn: The Tyranny of Big Data
This is one of the best posts I have read in a long while. I have been thinking quite a lot about Big Data and trying to understand why so many Big Thinkers are in love with Big Data. This post by John Kuhn helps me figure out how this happened and what it is wrong. He refers to Campbell’s Law when he describes the principle that the more a measure counts, the more it distorts the very process it
Who Will Control Metro Nashville Schools in the Future?
Nashville is in the cross hairs of the “reform” (AKA privatization) movement. Here is a good overview of the situation. With a respected superintendent nearing the end of his contract, with a mayoral election in the offing, with the school board majority up for grabs in the next election, Nashville is looking like a tasty prize for the privatizers. And there are so many of them! Start with State C
YESTERDAY
Evidence? Who Needs Evidence When You Have PR?
This was reported by politic.com: “ROCKETSHIP SPUTTERS: Rocketship Education has been one of the hottest charter networks for some time, hailed for a blended learning model that puts its K-5 students to work on computers for part of the day. But it’s recently hit a rough patch. This fall, the network failed to meet enrollment targets for its first school outside California, signing up 307 student
NC: Third-Graders Will Take 36 New Tests to Prepare for Fourth Grade
Last year, Louisiana led the nation in passing absurd laws about education. This year, that dubious distinction goes to North Carolina. Hardly a day goes by without more evidence of misinformed, specious, nonsensical meddling by the Legislature. The latest: the Legislature insists that all third graders learn to read, so they mandated 36 new mini-tests for the children. Could someone explain to
John Flavin: How to Improve Education
John Flavin teaches language arts in a rural high school in Oregon. He wrote this article for Oregonlive.com explaining what really matters in school reform. Time and resources for teachers to prepare for the flood of federal mandates. Class sizes of 22 or less. In his school, some classes have more than 40 students. A restoration of options and electives. He wrote: “All across America student
“Chicago Magazine” on the Rise and Fall of Juan Rangel
This remarkable article by Cassie Walker Burke with assistance from the Better Government Association details the story of Juan Rangel and the UNO charter school network, the biggest charter chain in Chicago. It is a gripping tale about the consequences of deregulation and privatization, of creating schools that are not subject to the same laws as public schools, and of the problematic nexus betwe
Bruce Baker’s Pet Peeve
A while back, we saluted Bruce Baker of Rutgers University as an extraordinary truth teller and demolisher of tall tales disguised as “research” In this post, he reveals his pet peeve: “Perhaps more than anything else, I hate it when pundits – who often have little clue what they are talking about to begin with, toss around big numbers with lots of zeros… or “illions” attached in order to make th
Putting Students Last: How Charter Leaders Stole (Allegedly) from Disabled Children
G.f. Brandenburg read the court documents in the case against officials at Options Charter School in D.C. The school was created to serve students with disabilities. Brandenburg points out that the charter was very profitable for its leaders. The court documents how charter officials–deregulated and lightly supervised by their collaborators in the D.C. charter School Board–allegedly transferred la
Teachers in Lee, MA, Return Merit Pay
The teachers in Lee, Massachusetts, received merit pay for higher scores, funded by the Gates Foundation. In a letter to the Berkshire Eagle, they explained why they rejected the money. http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_24675094/letter-no-merit-pay-lee-p-teachers Letter: No merit pay for Lee A.P. teachers To the editor of THE EAGLE: While we appreciate the article “Investing in students’ fut
NC: Baker Mitchell Charter School Under Federal Investigation
Yesterday the North Carolina State Board of Education voted to grant additional charters to Baker Mitchell, who has collected over $16 million in last five years to run three charters. Today, Lindsay Wagner of NC Policy Watch reports that Mitchell’s schools are under federal investigation. Mitchell is on the board of the John Locke Foundation, a libertarian foundation that advocates for charters
Max Brantley: Charters and the Erosion of Brown v. Board
Max Brantley is a fearless columnist in Arkansas who dares to disagree with the Waltons in their home state. Yes, there are such reporters who are unafraid to speak truth to the monied power that owns their state. In this column, Brantley describes the latest ploy by the charter industry: They are opening charters that implicitly will serve as havens for white families that do not want their child
Peter Greene: The Worst Part of “Reform” Is….?
Peter Greene is a veteran teacher in Pennsylvania. He has a blog called “Curmudgucation.” In this post, he explains that the worst part of the faux reform movement is standardization. Conformity. And what makes teachers vulnerable to it is that they are groomed to conform and to teach conformity. He writes: If I had to put my finger on the one most troubling aspect of the wave of reformy stuff tha
JAN 09
NC Approves 26 New Charters, $$$$$ Boon for Founders
Lindsay Wagner of NC Policy Watch reports that the State Board of Education in North Carolina approved 26 new charter schools today, with little discussion. The most controversial decision was this one: Among those approved today is South Brunswick Charter School, a fourth charter school to be run by Baker A. Mitchell, Jr. Over the past several months, Brunswick County school district officials ha
John Thompson: Is Market-Based Reform “Working”?
In mid-December, Matt di Carlo of the Shanker Institute reviewed the year’s production of research about charters, teacher incentives, and other aspects of the market-based approach to schooling, that is, the use of incentives and sanctions to produce higher test scores. Schools Matter has published critiques by John Thompson of di Carlo’s review. Di Carlo is known for his scrupulous nonpartisansh
What Makes a Classic Joyful?
Here is a personal note. I went to a Broadway play Wednesday at matinee. While driving in the car a few weeks ago, I heard someone on the radio raving about Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and she couldn’t contain her enthusiasm. I impetuously ordered tickets. When the bill came, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Why was I seeing this play? I had seen it before at least twice. Why see it again? The
Cuomo Supports Failed Ideas of Corporate Reformers
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York put himself squarely in the camp of corporate reform with a proposal for merit pay based on value-added metrics. He proposes to pay a bonus of $20,000 to teachers who are rated “highly effective” on the state’s controversial and unproven value-added evaluation program. The fact that merit pay failed in New York City, where schools were offered a bonus for raising
How Embarrassing for the Friedman Foundation
The Friedman Foundation, named for free-market economist Milton Friedman and his wife Rose, is the nation’s most fervent advocate of vouchers. It commissioned a national poll to ascertain the depth of support for vouchers, and much to its surprise (and, no doubt, embarrassment), the public prefers smaller class sizes far more than vouchers. Furthermore, the least favored option among those present
Reactionary Legislature in NC Set for Big Charter Expansion
The governor and legislature in North Carolina are determined to privatize as many public dollars as possible. They have approved vouchers for religious schools, private schools, and even home schools. But their main privatization strategy is charter schools. They are set to expand the number in the state, thus creating a consumer mentality and simultaneously draining funds from the public schools
Gary Rubinstein: An Open Letter to the New Leaders of TFA
Gary Rubinstein was one of the original members of Teach for America. He has been involved in TFA from the outset. However, he became a critical friend of TFA when he attended the corporate-funded 20th anniversary celebration, bringing together the leaders of the “reform movement” who were attacking the nation’s public schools and their teachers, closing public schools, and promoting charters. He
A Brilliant Idea for Raising and Improving Standards: Open Source Them
A comment arrived on the blog with a link to a great idea for standards: Open source them. Right now, the Common Core standards are mired in controversy, and the controversy seems likely to grow worse as more states begin to test the standards and most parents discover that their children have failed. The criticisms come from right and left and middle, from parents and educators of all stripes. Th
JAN 08
Rocketship Charter Chain Withdraws Proposal in Morgan Hill, California
Earlier today, the Rocketship charter chain, known for saving money by putting kids in front of computers and using Teach for America, has withdrawn its proposal to open two charter schools in Morgan Hill, a town of 40,000. Credit goes to local activists, who organized to support their local public schools. Meanwhile, Rocketship has targeted Memphis, Milwaukee, and other cities with their specia
Tom Loveless Answers Critics about Shanghai and PISA
Tom Loveless wrote an article criticizing OECD for allowing Shanghai to exclude the children of migrants from PISA testing, thus artificially boosting their scores. His article hit a hornet’s nest. Loveless writes: Andreas Schleicher of OECD-PISA wrote a response to my essays, as did Dr. Zhang Minxuan, President of Shanghai Normal University. Marc Tucker, President and CEO of the National Center
Rocketship Charter Chain: Preparing the Telemarketers of the Future?
This article suggests that Rocketship charter schools is preparing a new generation that has mastered the art of learning online and interacting with computers. Students spend two hours daily at the computer, supervised by aides, not teachers. This saves money. These instructors monitor up to 130 kids at a time in cubicles in the schools’ computer labs. Rocketeers, as students are called, sit look
Schneider Responds to Honig on California and the Common Core
Mercedes Schneider has been an outspoken critic of the Common Core standards. After she read Bill Honig’s explanation about why California educators support the standards without the testing or market reforms, she wrote the following: Should California Embrace Common Core? My Response to Bill Honig deutsch29.wordpress.com Yesterday, California Instructional Quality Chair Bill Honig published a let
Richard Rothstein: Time for the Truth About Racial Segregation
In this article, Richard Rothstein is critical of high school textbooks–and of our media in general–for failing to identify the true causes of de facto segregation. Either they barely mention the role of government in segregating neighborhoods by race or they imply that it happened naturally (de facto), without any government intervention. He writes: One of the worst examples of our historical bli
Montclair Public Schools: Under Siege
Montclair, New Jersey, has long been proud of its fine public schools. But these days, not even good schools and good districts are exempt from the corporate reform steamroller. At present, a substantial part of the community is at war with the school board and the Broad-trained superintendent. A group of dissident parents, who happen to be among leading scholars of education —–including Ira Shor,
Joanne Barkan: How Rich Folks Will Overcome (Public Education)
Joanne Barkan has written a series of brilliant articles about the corporate reform movement and its wealthy supporters for “Dissent” magazine. She wrote this article for this blog. In it, she reflects on the venture capitalists’ belief that they are leaders of a new civil rights movement. Joanne Barkan writes: They Shall Overcome Rooted in the gospel tradition, the song “We Shall Overcome” beca
JAN 07
To Be a Hero
Our dear friend and frequent commentator KrazyTA writes: What times we live in when— “One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.” [May Sarton]
San Diego’s Cindy Marten is No Hero Superintendent
On the very day that I posted my view that San Diego is the best urban district in the nation, Mario Koran wrote in Voices of San Diego that Cindy Marten does not believe in hero superintendents. He writes: Spoiler alert, San Diegans: Cindy Marten isn’t a hero who has swooped in to save your children. If that sounds a little bristly, consider this: She doesn’t think students need saving. “The idea
Anthony Cody: Who Are the Critics of Common Core?
The news earlier today that the Koch brothers are joining the fight against Common Core complicates the political calculus surrounding the controversial standards. The Politico article gives the impression that the rightwingers are the main critics of Common Core by failing to mention that the most zealous advocates for Common Core are Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, the Business Roundtable,
Arthur Camins on Bill Honig’s Post: Is This the Way Forward?
Arthur Camins is director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. After reading Bill Honig’s post about Common Core in California, he wrote the following comment: Bill Honig makes an argument to consider: Maybe there is a potential alternative to having to choose between accepting tight linkage between the
Burris: We Must Protect Our Students’ Personal Data, Not Store It on a Cloud
Carol Burris, the articulate and prolific principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island, New York, here responds to state officials about the importance of student privacy. New York is one of the few–perhaps the only–state that has stubbornly insisted that all student data will be uploaded to the inBloom website funded by the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, en
Why San Diego Is the Best Urban District in the Nation
Something magical is happening in San Diego. It is a good school district. Teachers and administrators and the school board are working towards common goals. San Diego, in my view, is the best urban district in the nation. I say this not based on test scores but on the climate for teaching and learning that I have observed in San Diego. It’s not the weather, which of course is usually magnificent.
Will Fight Against Common Core Encourage Charters, Vouchers?
As readers of the blog know, critics of the Common Core span the political and ideological spectrum. So do supporters. Many who consider themselves liberals oppose the imposition of grade-by-grade standards that are inflexible and take away teachers’ ability to tailor instruction to the needs of their students. Early childhood advocates are critical of CC’s demand to force academic instruction in
North Carolina: The Puzzling Silence of Governor Jim Hunt
When Governor Jim Hunt was in office, he was a national leader on behalf of improving education. He advocated for higher teacher salaries, he advocated for early childhood education, and he took pride in the steady improvement in North Carolina during his tenure. Now he runs the Hunt Institute, which has been active in teaching governors across the nation about education issues. I was a member of
Anthony Cody: Confessions of a Teacher in “Virtual Charter School Hell”
Darcy Bedortha is a guest writer for Anthony Cody’s blog. She tells her story as a Lead Teacher for a K12 virtual charter school. She confirms all the worst fears of critics of virtual charters. They make a lot of money. They are passionate about profits, not students. Students need one-to-one contact with a human being. They don’t get it. In a long and heartbreaking post, she writes: I was an Eng
Stop Reckless Charter Expansion in This Small Town in California
On January 15, there will be a crucial vote to allow the expansion of charter schools in Morgan Hill, California. As the post below points out, Morgan Hill is a small town of 40,000 with only 8 elementary schools. Rocketship wants to open 2 new charters in this small community, which will effectively destroy public education. Please read this post and send an email to the Santa Clara Office of Edu
Bill Honig: Why California Likes the Common Core Standards
Many people who post on this blog–including me–have expressed grave doubts about the Common Core standards–about how they were created, funded, evaluated, and promoted, as well as their connection to high-stakes testing and evaluation of teachers by test scores. Others, including me, worry about the Common Core testing and the fact that the two federally-funded testing consortia decided to align t
JAN 06
Two Teachers, Father and Son, Chastise Arne Duncan for His Constant Sniping at Public Education
The Weintraubs, Robert and David, call out Arne Duncan in this article in Education Week. They sharply chastise him for his constant refrain that American schools are failing, stagnating, falling behind. He is like an abusive basketball coach who kicks his players and shrieks at them: LOSERS! You are LOSERS! You should ALL be FIRED! He lacks the leadership skills–or for that matter, the knowledge
Nashville School Board Member Blocks Pearson “Nonsense Word” Test
Jill Speering, a retired teacher and reading specialist, is a member of the Metro Nashville school board and its most outspoken critic of high-stakes testing. She led a successful effort to block a Pearson contract to test reading by use of nonsense words. The test was intended to test decoding skills without the need for understanding. Speering pointed out that the committee that approved the con
Red Queen in L.A.: Where Is the Outrage?
Blogger redqueeninla takes a hard look at what is happening to the schools and the children and asks the inevitable question: “Where’s the outrage?” Why do parents tolerate classes with 50 students? Teachers can’t teach such large classes. Does anyone care? Why does the media report calmly about self-enriching deals for corporate interests without treating it as a scandal? Why do we ignore segr
What Educators in North Carolina Say About Recent Legislative Changes
This last year, the legislature and governor in North Carolina enacted legislation affecting the teaching profession in North Carolina. Scott Imig and Robert Smith at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington decided that it was important to hear how the legislation affected those in the state’s schools: They wrote: In the summer of 2013, the North Carolina legislature passed broad educationa
Breaking News: Weingarten Rejects VAM!
Randi Weingarten has come out in opposition to value-added modeling (VAM), the statistical measure that judges teacher quality based on the test scores of their students. This is great news! As I have often written here, VAM is Junk Science. It also is the centerpiece of Race to the Top, which makes the absurd assumption that good teachers produce higher test scores. Researchers have shown again a
Jersey Jazzman: Why Urban Districts in New Jersey Can’t Be Trusted to Run Their Own Schools
In an astonishing piece of journalism, Jersey Jazzman nails the Star-Ledger of New Jersey for its arrogant editorial putdown of local residents and elected officials in Newark who dare to disagree with Cami Anderson, their Broad-trained and unelected education leader. Why, they are being “shrill and unreasonable” for resisting corporate-style reforms. The subtext: the locals are black, and the ide
Why Common Core Tests Cause Scores to Collapse
Just as the holidays began, Education Week published a very important article explaining why Common Core testing causes a collapse of test scores. Since most people were preoccupied with preparations for the holidays, it probably didn’t get much attention. But it should have because it unlocks the mystery if why state after state is experiencing a 30 point drop in passing rates on Common Core tes
JAN 05
Explosive Reaction to Schneider Post on Data-Mining and Student Privacy
Mercedes Schneider posted a critique of a webinar hosted by the Education Writers Association on the subject of data-mining and student privacy. She was upset that the panel of three included two cheerleaders for data mining and the third produced research funded by Microsoft. The post was strong, but the letters that followed are amazing. She got responses from the CEO of inBloom, defending it,
English Teacher: Why I Had to Leave a Profession I Loved
In this post, a veteran teacher with 30 years of experience explains why she had to retire. She didn’t want to. But the obsession with data-based decision-making finally broke her spirit. She recounts incidents where she was able to help students, where students gave her their trust, where classes learned to love literature as she did. She remembers staff meetings devoted to lessons and students,
Paul Thomas: An Educators’ Agenda for 2014
Paul Thomas proposes that educators must set goals for other crucial sectors of our society. After all, there is such low confidence in other institutions, and it is our joint responsibility to do what we can to restore confidence for the good of society. If we do not solve the crisis of our times, we will lose the global competition to other nations that are not only catching up with us but surpa
Why G.F. Brandenburg Objects to Common Core
Blogger and former teacher G.F. Brandenburg has written an important and thoughtful post explaining his objections to Common Core or any other national standards that are overly prescriptive. He writes: “…. It’s utterly false to say that SOMEBODY knows all the answers to the questions about how to educate our youth, our younger generation. Whenever I have a serious or even frivolous conversation
Ohio’s Richest Charter Operator, with Very Low-Performing School
Plunderbund writes here about the largest charter school in Ohio. Its revenues are staggering, its test scores and graduation rates are low, its political contributions to its allies top $1 million. “The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is the largest charter school in the state of Ohio. The online school is easily the largest charter school in Ohio, is larger than the vast majority of Ohi
JAN 04
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: About 1,000,000 people visit the Seattle Space Needle every year. This blog was viewed about 6,500,000 times in 2013. If it were the Space Needle, it would take about 7 years for that many people to see it. Click here to see the complete report.
Teacher: Why Abolishing Tenure in Missouri Is Wrong
In response to an earlier post about the $750,000 gift by financial Rex Sinquefield to a campaign to abolish teacher tenure in Missouri, a reader wrote this: Tenure makes it possible for teachers to be fair. I have known parents to go directly to an administrator who is a close friend of theirs and demand a certain grade or special favor. I have known teachers to be threatened to give favors to
New York Superintendent: Regents “Reform” Agenda Is Wrong
Superintendent Steve Cohen of the Shoreham-Wading River School district on Long Island in New York is an outspoken and clear-thinking critic of the state’s “reform” policies, all of which are derived from Race to the Top. Since the state won $700 million, the Regents have wreaked havoc in every district with their data-based and destructive policies. This article appeared in the Riverhead News-Re
Charter $$ Scandal Widens in D.C.
New court documents surfaced in the investigation of financial fraud at a D.C. Charter school, suggesting widespread corruption. Emma Brown of the Washington Post writes: “A senior official at the D.C. Public Charter School Board allegedly received $150,000 to help the former managers of Options Public Charter School evade oversight and take millions of taxpayer dollars for themselves, according
Why Aren’t Prep Schools Following Corporate Reforms?
This is a terrific article about the elite prep schools and the fact that they do not follow the “reforms” that are now pushed by the U.S. Department of Education, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and other corporate reformers. Here are some quotes from the article: Go ahead and do an online search of the country’s top prep schools, or check out this list from Forbes. Peruse some of the
Julian Vasquez Heilig: A TFA Alumna Tells All to Julian
Julian Vasquez Heilig recounts the story of a graduate of his university who reported plans to enter Teach for America. The University of Texas, he says, sends more students to TFA than any other university. This young person was filled with idealism and hope about making a difference. Two years later, Julian received a letter, which he reprints in this post. She said she felt unprepared; she did
North Carolina: The Politics of Intimidation
Rob Schofield of NC PolicyWatch wrote this alarming editorial about a disgraceful effort to silence a critic of Governor McCrory. North Carolina was once the most progressive state in the South, but in the short time that Governor McCrory has been in office, abetted by a reactionary legislature, North Carolina has adopted some of the most anti-education, anti-social, regressive policies in the nat
Missouri: Billionaire Donates $750,000 to End Teacher Tenure
Conservative billionaire Rex Sinquefield does not believe that teaching should be a career. He doesn’t think that teachers should have any job security. He thinks that teachers should have short-term contracts and that their jobs should depend on the test scores of their students. He has contributed $750,000 to launch a campaign for a constitutional amendment in Missouri to achieve his aims. The
Helen Gym, Philadelphia’s Parent Hero
Helen Gym is a model parent for all those who hate the status quo. Please read this article about her. I hope you will be inspired by her example. She lives in a city (Philadelphia) and a state (Pennsylvania) where the politicians have written off the children. They don’t matter to Mayor Nutter and Governor Corbett. They have written off the schools and children of Philadelphia. But these children