Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
Colonial Philadelphia, or Colonized?
from Ken Derstine:Is the School District of Philadelphia a colony of the state of Pennsylvania?by Ken DerstineFebruary 20, 2014Parents of Philadelphia students and prospective students should know their right to choose a school for their children is under attack. Several weeks ago the SRC held round table discussions about Universal Enrollment. Participants were asked their opinion about a system
YESTERDAY
Tony Bennett's Chewytrain Lands in Camden
by Doug MartinOne of the most embarrassing moments of Tony Bennett’s rein as Indiana’s corporate school chief (and there were many) was when his partner Dale Chu (better known as @chewytrain), happy as a teenage girl at a Jonas Brothers' concert (one of the Jonas Brothers, by the way, loves to perform at for-profit school Rocketship events), tweeted his admiration of the filthy rich out to privati
Our focus should be on protecting children from the impact of poverty.
Published in the Wall Street Journal, February 21.Response to: "A progressive education" (Editorial, Feb. 14)Your editorial sends the message that our public schools are failing. They aren't. When researchers control for the effects of poverty, American schools rank near the top of the world. Our overall scores are unspectacular because the child poverty rate in the U.S. is very high, 23
Parthenon Group Advises Schools, Education Industry, and Investors: How Could They Ever Lose?
The billions of ready cash from No Child Left Behind provided a dollar-powered incubator for the birth of the modern day education industry. State and local education agencies in search of quick solutions to meet NCLB’s impossible demands desperately turned to business solutions, ranging from direct instruction products to more expansive plans for corporatization of schools and school governance.
FEB 20
No unnecessary testing
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Feb 21To the editor: Letters published on Feb 20 arguing that "Testing can be good; It's a part of the real world,"' assume that those of us critical of the common core are anti-testing. Not true. All educators understand the necessity of responsible assessment.We are opposed to unnecessary testing. The common core is requiring more standardized tests t
NO Vote on Common Core: Bradley County Commission Backs School Board
From Tennessee Parents:. . . . This Resolution comes from the elected County Commission of Bradley County, who wanted to support their School Board, but also send a Resolution "with more teeth" to Nashville. Rumor has it that the Bills to repeal Common Core (HB2332/SB2405) are being blocked by the chairs of the House & Senate Education committees (Rep. Harry Brooks & Sen. Delores
FEB 19
Meaningful work or coercion?
Sent to the Oregonian, Feb. 19Joanne Yatvin's description of how "Meaningful work keeps students in school," (Feb. 18) includes small class sizes, sports teams that allowed all comers to join and play, teacher collaboration with time to meet during the school day, plays and musical events that included all interested students, emphasis on building classroom community, and school wide pro
Common Core Voted Down Unanimously in Bradley County, TN
by Denise Wilburn and Jim HornBradley County Schools was the first school district to formally stand against linking teacher license renewal to Tennessee’s value-added assessment system, an outlandish idea that passed on October 17, 2013. Pressure across the state built, and late last month the State Board of Education announced plans to shelve those plans. Such leadership at the local level in B
FEB 18
Arizona State Superintendent Campaigns for Private Schools
In 2011, SM posted on Arizona's John Huppenthal, who has come a long way since then.
The White History We Ignore
From Alternet:February 14, 2014 | Schools across the country are adorned with posters of the 44 U.S. presidents and the years they served in office. U.S. history textbooks describe the accomplishments and challenges of the major presidential administrations—George Washington had the Revolutionary War, Abraham Lincoln the Civil War, Teddy Roosevelt the Spanish-American War, and so on. Children’s
Obama's Continuing War on Public Education
A must read byMichael Brenner Become a fan Senior Fellow, the Center for Transatlantic Relations; Professor of International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
Magnet Schools as a Tool to End Socioeconomic Segregation
The NYTimes has a piece on the modest resurgence of magnet schools, which are public schools of choice that highlight a portion of the curriculum that is attractive to certain children and parents. They are great alternatives to the corporate charter chains staffed with non-teachers and managed by non-educators. Unless a conscious effort to reduce segregation is included in their magnet planning,
FEB 17
United Opt Out, March 28-30 in Denver
Join United Opt Out, March 28th – 30th, 2014 in Denver, CO.“Why Denver?” Good question. We are coming to Denver because we have many friends that need our help. We are devoting the entire event to action on three themes: union organizing, corporate education reform basics, and next steps. When we leave, Denver will have a plan of action stating exactly what parents will do, what students will do,
Will Bill Gates Take the Podium at AERA?
It’s a tough time in higher education, with a growing army of exploited, part-time academic sharecroppers now driving from school to school to fill teaching slots that were once reserved for tenure track professors. See chart below from AAUP:As full-time faculty numbers dwindle, so does the core university value of shared governance, which has been a defining aspect of universities for hundre
FEB 16
Propaganda, Plagiarism, and Public Misleading on CREDO (Reprise)
The corporate charter industry is working every angle to put the best makeup on the CREDO charter study of 2013. And "news coverage" in Tennessee shows their efforts paying off.Two examples of Tennessee media “coverage” of the 2013 CREDO charter school study are provided below, and as you can see, they are both lifted from the Tennessee Charter Schools Association blog post. Who said
Charters: Another point of view
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 16, 2014Mathew Kaminski's enthusiasm for Success Academy and for charters in general, ("Teachers Union Enemy No. 1", February 15) presents only part of the story. The high test scores achieved by Success Charter Schools in New York has been thoroughly discussed in a series of blogs by Diane Ravitch (http://dianeravitch.net/category/harlem-success-aca
Part 5: Classroom Video Camera Project . . . Who Benefits? Who Loses?
Part 5: Classroom Video Camera Project . . . Who Benefits? Who Loses?Jim Horn and Denise WilburnPart 4 and links to previous postsDoes anyone think that children’s educational data stored in third party corporate “cloud” computers are secure? No one in his right mind would answer yes to that one, and yet the U. S. Department of Education forced through changes to FERPA regulations in 2011 to allo
Florida "Justice" Redux
A couple of questions to consider in the Jordan Davis murder by Michael Dunn:How does a jury convict of attempted murder charges (which it did) and fail to convict on murder charges (which it did not), when there is a dead body of the atttemptee in the room bleeding on the floor?If a black man in Florida, or anywhere else, shot with deadly force into a car filled of unarmed white boys, how many mi
FEB 15
KIPPCare Includes Child Doping Benefit
Since corporate school leader, Mike Feinberg, left his KIPP superintendent's duties in Houston for the full-time pursuit of national brand saturation, KIPP teachers report chaos at a number of the KIPP schools around Houston, with mass retentions, administrative meltdowns, faltering test scores, and en masse teacher resignations. What will it take to restore order? How about some meds?The KIPP m
The Charter School Takeover Cycle in Memphis Schools
The Gates business plan for Memphis schools requires public school closures and corporate charter start-ups to replace them. A dozen schools are on the hit list for the coming year, and the charter operators are lined up waiting for the buildings to become empty. Parents, however, are not nearly as uninformed as county officials who are doing the Gates dirty work believe. See video below:How the
No Excuses?: Giving Power a Pass
No Excuses?: Giving Power a Pass*"After several decades of rigorous effort, it is fair to say that the majority of our attention in political science has been given to interstate war and civil war," explains Christian Davenport, adding:I would say that it would be interesting to count the number of articles over the last five years on terrorism and compare it to the number of articles on