Bill Gates: Why the United States Really Needs Common Core Standards
The Gates Foundation spent nearly $200 million to pay for the writing, review, evaluation, dissemination, and promotion of the Common Core standards. It is difficult to find a D.C.-based education organization that has not received millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation to promote the standards. Bill Gates believes in the Common Core standards. That is why he wrote this article to explain t
Ed Berger: One of Our Champions is “Going Dark”
Ed Berger, one of social media’s eloquent voices and a champion of free public education, has decided to sign off…at least for now. As he explains in this post, he is “going dark.” He and his wife are going to Mexico for a few weeks, and he is at least temporarily dropping out of the blogosphere, perhaps to write a book of historical fiction. This is what Ed Berger believes: I believe in free educ
The Disastrous Failure of “Turnarounds” and “State Takeovers” in Boston
One of those brilliant PR spinmeisters invented the term “turnaround” to disguise the brutality and ugliness of firing the entire staff of a school with low scores and pretending that mass firing is a method of “reform.” “Turnaround” sounds like a game or a dance, something delightful. The reality is that everyone who works in the school is fired–or in lesser forms of the punishment, the princ
How Ohio Wastes Billions on Charters
Bill Phillis, leader of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition, is a dedicated advocate for equitable funding of public schools. He reports here that charter schools–many of which are very low-performing–receive nearly $1 billion a year. He writes: Total payment to charter schools is $903,344,671.24 as of the January 2014 report. This is a one-year figure. You may wish to examine the State Repo
KIDS! What’s the Matter with Kids Today?
Late last night, I posted a commentary that connected two seemingly unrelated communications. One was an article in Slate by psychologist Lauence Steinberg, saying that our high schools are not rigorous enough, our seniors are not learning enough, and bemoaning both kids and schools. It happened to arrive about the same time as a letter in my inbox from a teacher in upstate Néw York. I pointed ou
Who Are the Education Entrepreneurs?
Well, of course, there re scores of education entrepreneurs, the men and women who dream up lever was to make profits from the field of public education. They have start-ups, they have real-estate investment trusts, they create companies to build data systems, they operate for-profit charter chains, on and on. Some get very rich. They certainly make more money than teachers, who spend their days w
Ex-KIPP Teacher: Why I Could Not Teach Like a Champion
In this post, Rebecca Radding explains why she was asked to leave at the end of her third year as a Teach for America teacher in a KIPP school in Néw Orleans. She could not teach like a champion. She writes: “I was never much of a champion, to be honest. KIPP defines a successful teacher as someone who keeps children quiet, teaches children how to answer each question on a test composed of arbi
Teacher in L.A. Reviews “Close Reading” in Common Core
This article was written by a teacher in Los Angeles. She describes the implantation of the Common Core standards. She is especially perplexed by the practice of “close reading,” which means that students are expected to comprehend text without any context or background knowledge. She and her colleagues were disappointed by the “professional development,” which was not at all professional. She w
A Declaration of Independence from Corporatist/Behaviorist Education
From a reader: please sign! A Declaration of Independence from Corporatist/Behaviorist Education Posted on February 7, 2014 When, in the course of a teaching career, it becomes essential to break from excessively rational beliefs and schemes and to begin thinking openly and freely, disregarding the dictatorial influences of political hacks, the insidious prodding of education gurus and the bleatin
YESTERDAY
Gary Rubinstein: Juking the Stats in the Vergara Case
The well-publicized Vergara trial in Los Angeles has put a spotlight on teacher tenure and seniority. The plaintiffs’s lawyers say that the “best” teachers are unfairly assigned to teach white students. Gary Rubinstein looks at the claims and finds them statistically dubious. For one thing, they are based on value-added measures, which are themselves of dubious scientific validity. For another, th
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-12-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Carol Burris: How the NY Regents Fooled the Public on Common CoreCarol Burris explains here how the New York Board of Regents hoaxed the public into thinking they had agreed to major changes when they actually changed nothing. She writes: “The press was led to believe the Regents pulled back the passing scores on the Common Core En