NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:
NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education
De Blasio says he won’t allow co-locations for charter schools | New York Post
Just days after Mayor de Blasio’s Department of Education proposed slashing $210 million from a charter-school construction fund, he said he also won’t allow charters to share space in public-school buildings going forward. The two moves amount to a squeeze play on charter schools — yanking away funds that would have allowed them to build their ...read more
School board member vows to keep fighting for the late Ethan Rediske | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Rick Roach, a member of the Orange County School Board in Florida, sent the following e-mail about the death on Friday of 11-year-old Ethan Rediske, who became known in Florida after his mother, Andrea, fought a state requirement that her blind son, who had brain damage as well as cerebral palsy, take ...read more
Here is the Help You Need to Start an Ed-Lingo Bingo Game | Diane Ravitch’s blog
A reader from North Carolina sent this wonderful post, filled with words that can be used to play “Ed-Lingo Bingo” during professional development time. When I was conducting research in San Diego about 2006, teachers there shared a list of Bingo words that they had compiled from many P.D. days. They called it “B.S. Bingo,” ...read more
Let Me Repeat That: It’s The Poverty, Stupid! | Teacher Tom
This is something I’ll bet you didn’t know: if we only count the US schools with a student poverty rate of less than 10 percent, our students outperform the kids in China, Singapore, and yes, even Finland on the Programme for International Achievement tests in reading, the very benchmark tests that have caused corporate education reformers to shriek, ...read more
Portland, Oregon, teachers vote to authorize strike | Reuters
BY TERESA CARSON (Reuters) – Teachers in Portland, Oregon’s largest school district, voted Wednesday night to authorize a strike, setting the stage for a walkout that could disrupt classes for nearly 48,000 students, union officials said. Portland’s 2,828 teachers have been engaged for months in contentious off-and-on negotiations with the district on a new three-year ...read more
Researchers Reveal Funding Network for Wash. Charter Law | Diane Ravitch’s blog
University of Washington scholars Wayne Au and Joseph J. Ferrare have written an excellent analysis of the big money that flooded the state of Washington to pass charter legislation in 2012. Although defeated three times before by voters, this time the proposal passed by a tiny margin. Its major funders were Bill Gates, who has ...read more
NYC Public School Parents: Please reverse the damaging co-locations! Sign our petition to the Chancellor now!
Over 30 school co-locations proposals were pushed through during the last few months of the Bloomberg administration that will cause even more overcrowding and take away the critical space that children need for a quality education. Please sign our petition and let the new Chancellor and the new members of the Panel for Education Policy ...read more
When Did Gibberish Replace Conventional English? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Colin McEnroe of NPR in Connecticut has discovered the root problem of corporate reformers: They have lost touch with common sense and the meaning of learning. To cover up their ignorance, they have invented rhetoric that sounds impressive but is no more than unintelligible verbiage. He starts here, and gets better: “I don’t know about ...read more
Wife of teacher to Obama: ‘please stop this runaway reform now’ | The Answer Sheet
Here’s an open letter that the wife of a public school teacher in Georgia wrote to President Obama about the reality in her husband’s school. She sent a more detailed version of this letter to the president. The author is Dana Bultman, an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Georgia. Dear President and ...read more
Friday Finance 101: NY State’s Formula for Failure | School Finance 101
Below is an excerpt from a recent series of policy briefs on NY State school funding Statewide Policy Brief with NYC Supplement: BBaker.NYPolicyBrief_NYC 50 Biggest Funding Gaps Supplement: 50 Biggest Aid Gaps 2013-14_15_FINAL Note: The above briefs received financial support from the New York State Association for Small City School Districts. All opinions are my ...read more
A Bill Gates Reader: Where Are We Going, Where Have We Been – @ THE CHALK FACE
Teflon reformers Bill Gates and Arne Duncan are hard to separate, but Duncan sure is trying. In a videoed talk with teachers, Duncan claims: Lisa Clarke: One of the particular questions we’ve heard teachers ask is if corporate-based philanthropists are playing too heavy a role in public education, and if there’s a corporate agenda at ...read more
Graduation Exit Tests Continue to Stunt Opportunity | janresseger
There was lots of news about high stakes, high school graduation exams seven or eight years ago when many states were instituting such graduation requirements, but while you hear less about these tests today, according to Education Week, 24 states continue to require them. These are the tests that students must pass to earn a ...read more
The Creepy, Incestuous, Conflicts of Interests Involved in Florida’s School Grade System | Scathing Purple Musings
The editors of the Lakeland Ledger have complete grasp of the timeline of events concerning Florida’s school grade system. They aren’t impressed: After all the changes made to Florida’s school grading system, it’s hard to have a good sense of what grades should be given to schools. The grade that should be given to lawmakers ...read more
NY PTA: Parents Outraged by CCSS, But… | Diane Ravitch’s blog
A reader directed our attention to this curious phenomenon. The Néw York PTA conducted a survey showing that parents in the state are outraged by the botched implementation of the Common Core, yet the NYPTA remains strongly committed to CCSS. The militant dedication of CCSS enthusiasts says something interesting: in the absence of any concrete ...read more
FEB 06
Inquiring Reporter Wants to Know: Who Is Sponsoring Minneapolis Education Summit? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce announced an “education summit” on February 8, featuring the ever-controversial Michelle Rhee (who canceled out of our debate at Lehigh University on February 6). The original sponsors, in addition to the Chamber, included Target, General Mills, and Thomson Reuters. But then something strange happened, as investigative journalist Sarah Lahm discovered. ...read m
Civil Rights Hero James Meredith Issues the American Child’s Education Bill of Rights | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody A while back I shared a review of James Meredith’s memoir, A Mission From God: A Memoir And A Challenge For America. For those too young to remember, in 1962 Meredith became the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi. In 1966 he was shot while leading the March Against Fear, an effort to ...read more
Newark parent leader arrested, jailed, after criticizing state plan to close schools. | Bob Braun’s Ledger
A parent leader who criticized the “One Newark” plan pushed by state school superintendent Cami Anderson was arrested yesterday on charges he assaulted a central office administrator. Daryn Martin, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at the Ivy Hill School, was charged with ”aggravated assault” but released on his own recognizance. If convicted, he faces three to ...read more
Justice Denied… | John Merrow – Taking Note
Does the truth come to light eventually? Are perpetrators eventually exposed and punished, or at least publicly humiliated? When the alleged offenses involve government agencies and officials, the law is on the American people’s side. The federal Freedom of Information Acts of 1966 and 1967 (and subsequent legislation in 1974) make most federal government documents ...read more
The Problem with School ‘Choice’ | Alternet
We Americans love choice. Just look at the cereal aisle in Giant Eagle. You could choose a different box every day of the month and still have more varieties left to try. But public schools are not corn flakes. Here’s the problem with “choice” when we’re talking about public education. When we’re in the cereal ...read more
Refuse the Test! | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Hi Diane, there is a new website in New York (www.refuseny.org) that I wanted to share with you. Below is the description from the “About page” of the refuseNY blog. If you like it, I hope you’ll consider sharing it. My wife and I created the site and launched it this past week. ABOUT RefuseNY ...read more
Florida’s Race-Based Goals and Test Reliance Slammed in Senate Chamber | Scathing Purple Musings
A remarkable press conference was called by an influential Florida state senator yesterday to highlight contradictions in its accountability system. Bill Cotterell writes in the Florida Current: A state senator, a civil rights attorney and the mother of a young student said Wednesday the Florida Department of Education is sending a bad message to public ...read more
Republicans Champion the Charter School Movement | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Rick Cohen of the Nonprofit Quarterly traces a clear pattern: The Republican party has embraced charter schools as their cause. Republicans have always favored school choice, assuming that competition makes all schools better. But they have never been able to persuade any electorate to endorse vouchers for private and religious schools. So, charters are now ...read more
Bill Gates masters D.C. — and the world | Stephanie Simon and Erin Mershon – POLITICO.com
By STEPHANIE SIMON and ERIN MERSHON Bill Gates did not make a good impression the first time he testified on Capitol Hill. It was 1998 and the Senate Judiciary Committee was looking into antitrust allegations against Microsoft. Gates evaded the questions. He rambled. He made sure everyone knew he was not interested in playing the ...read more
A really scary headline about kindergarteners | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Rob Saxton is Oregon’s deputy superintendent of public instruction. Jada Rupley is the early learning system director within the state Department of Education. Together they wrote an op-ed in The Oregonian that was published online with this headline: Kindergarten test results a ‘sobering snapshot’ What could possibly be sobering about test results ...read more
Jonathan Pelto: Connecticut Commissioner Stefan Pryor Must Go! | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Jonathan Pelto, a close observer of politics and education in Connecticut, says that State Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor must go. He is the leader of the privatization movement in the state, more devoted to charters than to public schools, which most children attend. Pryor’s management of the Connecticut Department of Education has become the ...read more
FEB 05
Learning is about discovery, not quality assurance: Take a stand against school testing | Bangor Daily News
By Lisa Cooley The financial problems of local school districts are usually so dire and immediate that we don’t consider them in terms of the bigger picture of public education. As school districts across Maine struggle to make ends meet, there is bitterness and blame; yet the crisis in public education is national. We pay ...read more
The Moratorium Miracle: Delaying PARCC Can Actually Help Save It | deutsch29
February 4, 2014 Today I read two articles regarding testing and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). After reading both, I am left with the same thought: The events detailed in both articles promote CCSS survival– and by extension– PARCC survival. The first is this press release regarding the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness of College ...read more
Obama smacks Bill O’Reilly on school vouchers | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS President Obama often says things about school reform that suggest he hasn’t read up on the effects of his policies, but he knew his stuff on vouchers cold during an interview with Bill O’Reilly, effectively smacking down the conservative commentator’s wishful thinking with the facts. The Obama administration has steadfastly opposed vouchers, ...read more
Will Costs Crush Common Core? | Scathing Purple Musings
erry Chiamamonte of FOX News reports that “states are learning the cost of Common Core is uncommonly high.” States will spend up to an estimated $10 billion up front, then as much as $800 million per year for the first seven years that the controversial program is up and running. Much of the cost is ...read more
NC Law Professor: Impossible to Improve Education While Ignoring Poverty | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Gene Nichol, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, patiently explains that none of the “reforms” endorsed by the legislature, like charters and vouchers, will make a difference. The major obstacle causing low educational performance is poverty, not bad teachers or bad schools He writes: “The troubling correlation between education and poverty places ...read more
If Your School Fails, Open Another One, Preferably in Florida | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Florida loves charter schools. It is not surprising since the charter industry has friends at the top of every key committee in the legislature. In Florida, charters open and close like the flow of waves on the lovely beaches that surround the state. Some make a huge profit, others disappear. There are now almost 600 ...read more
Charter Expansion in Durham, NC Separates Children into Winners and Losers | janresseger
From Durham, North Carolina comes the story of the destabilization of an urban public school system by rapid expansion of charter schools. Ned Barnett, the editorial page editor of the Durham News & Observer, and author of this guest post reprinted in Valerie Strauss’s Washington Post column, declares that Durham’s charter school “experiment is spinning ...read more
A Connecticut Superintendent Speaks Out Against Failed “Reforms” | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Tom Scarice, superintendent of schools in Madison, Connecticut, has already been named to the honor roll for his leadership and vision in bringing together his community to plan for the future of Madison public schools. Now, he steps up and speaks out again to take issue with those, like Governor Dannell Malloy, who call for ...read more
Grading As an Opportunity to Encourage Students | Teacher in a Strange Land
By Nancy Flanagan on February 5, 2014 8:51 AM Early in my teaching career, I had a conversation with a veteran math teacher, about grading. I greatly admired this teacher, a “mom”-type educator who spent hours and hours in voluntary after-school assistance for her ninth graders, patiently trying to find just the right way to ...read more
Teachscape: Oh, The Humanity! | Curmudgucation
Poking around on line during another snow delay led me to the wonderland that is Teachscape. Teachscape (for those who aren’t already familiar) is one of those special places where the manufactured crisis in education meets the opportunity to make money from it. It is one of the limbs of the Gates-funded teacher-evaluation push, a ...read more
The Student-Led Backlash Against New Orleans’s Charter Schools | The Atlantic
Late last year, students at several of the city’s high-performing charters staged large-scale protests. A local teacher explores why this happened. MEREDITH SIMONS Collegiate Academies is seen by many as the crown jewel of the New Orleans charter school system, which is itself believed to be a national model for urban education. The charter operator’s ...read more
Text of report detailing $100 million-plus needed for Common Core tests in Maryland | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS I recently wrote about a Maryland Education Department report that said the vast majority of schools in many of the state’s counties are not technologically prepared to give new online Common Core-aligned standardized tests, and at least $100 million will have to be spent by 2015 to get ready. The report, done for ...read more
KIPP Pulls Out of Two Campuses in Galveston | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Schools in Texas have been forced to absorb huge budget cuts in recent years. One casualty was the two KIPP schools in Galveston, Texas, which could not afford to continue. They will close. “Galveston ISD paid KIPP $5.5 million this year – about $1.5 million more than it would have spent on those students in ...read more
The Gates Foundation’s Imaginary World of School Reform Collides with Reality | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on February 5, 2014 12:19 PM Guest post by John Thompson. The Gates Foundation’s Director of Education, College Ready, Vicki Phillips, describes what she admits is the ideal implementation of Common Core and test-driven evaluations. In the “vast majority of cases,” these changes would be implemented carefully. The key principle would be ...read more
The Common Core: Is “College and Career Ready” the Right Target? | Russ on Reading
Why “college and career ready?” Could it be because this fits the corporate reform agenda? The designers of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) determined that the purpose of a K-12 education was to insure that children were “college and career ready” by the time they completed high school. Having determined that our students were ...read more
Local Control: In New Jersey, It’s Not For “Them” | Jersey Jazzman
Bob Braun breaks an amazing story, once again showing Newark’s public schools administration is out of control: A parent leader who criticized the “One Newark” plan pushed by state school superintendent Cami Anderson was arrested yesterday on charges he assaulted a central office administrator. Daryn Martin, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at the Ivy Hill ...read more
Preschool: The Issue of the Day | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Preschool education is one of the few issues on which there appears to be genuine bipartisan support, the Néw York Times reports. It was the centerpiece of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s landslide campaign, and red states like Grorgia and Oklahoma boast of their pre-K programs as models. The article cites the solid research as well ...read more
Ravitch: The ‘White House’s obsession with data is sick’ | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Education historian and activist Diane Ravitch has been blasting the Obama administration for a long time for education policies that have expanded the importance of standardized tests and promoted the privatization of public education. She was just in Washington to talk with U.S. legislators about the dangers of corporate-influenced school reform and she made ...read more
FEB 04
Panel strips funds for governor’s reforms from education bill | The Santa Fe New Mexican
By Milan Simonich Democratic legislators on a budget committee closed ranks Monday, denying most of the $55 million increase that Republican Gov. Susana Martinez wanted for the Public Education Department. In a 10-8 vote that went straight down party lines, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee also decided not to fund the system of merit ...read more
Were kids actually smarter decades ago?: Student achievement data trends (NAEP, etc.) | Cloaking Inequity
To understand the success and failures of public education in United States and Texas (as measured by achievement tests), I ask the following research questions in this post: How do the nation’s public schools perform on the NAEP over the past several decades? Were kids actually smarter 30 years ago in the U.S? Also, how ...read more
Yet Another Child Has Lunch Tossed Out Over an Unpaid Balance | Alternet
The New Jersey outrage is making headlines days after dozens of students in Utah had their lunches thrown out over not having enough money on their accounts. A mother from New Jersey is outraged after the school her son attends threw out his school lunch over an unpaid balance, just days after a similar case ...read more
Parent of dying boy has to prove her son can’t take standardized test | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Andrea Rediske’s 11-year-old son Ethan, is dying. Last year, Ethan, who was born with brain damage, has cerebral palsy and is blind, was forced to take a version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test over the space of two weeks because the state of Florida required that every student take one. Ethan ...read more
At many schools, it’s tests, tests and more tests | catalyst-chicago.org
By: Rebecca Harris A simmering battle over standardized tests heated up last week as CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett sent a letter to parents warning that they shouldn’t opt their children out of state tests and local exams required by the district. Though CPS has touted its cutbacks on testing, the classroom time spent on exams has recently ...read more
“Students” Suing the State of California over Teacher Tenure | VAMboozled
As per a recent article in the New York Times, “nine public school students [emphasis added as I use students loosely] are challenging California’s ironclad tenure system, arguing that their right to a good education is violated by job protections that make it too difficult to fire bad instructors. But behind the students stand a ...read more
NYC Mayor Strikes a Major Blow to Charter Schools, Cuts $210 Million from Their Budgets | Alternet
The image is surreal. Newly elected New York mayor Bill de Blasio, wearing a broad and slightly goofy smile, dwarfs the infinitely vilified outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg, who seems somewhat bemused himself. For 12 years it was Mayor Bloomberg, standing at the forefront of a national education reform movement, who overshadowed Bill de Blasio and ...read more
A teacher exposes ‘value-added’ idiocy | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS VAMboozled is a blog about teacher evaluation, accountability and value-added models written by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, associate professor at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The following post was on her blog, from a teacher in Arizona who is not identified. The teacher reveals the idiocy of the “value-added” method of evaluation teachers, ...read
One thing Bill Gates could do that would actually help kids in school | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Bill Gates has spent billions of dollars on education reform efforts, such as evaluating teachers with student standardized test scores and the Common Core State Standards, with not much to show for it. Here’s an idea for how he could spend money in a way that would actually help kids do better ...read more
Is Chris Christie’s Newark Superintendent Shaping the Mayoral Race? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Cami Anderson, appointed by the Chris Christie administration, has lit a fire in Newark. Newark public schools have been under state control since 1995. The outrage that Anderson ignited is now influencing the mayoral race. This article describes the dynamics. Newark residents are angry about Anderson’s plan (ironically called “One Newark”) to privatize or close ...read more
New York Teachers’ Union Condemns “Sit and Stare” Policy for Students | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The New York State United Teachers issued a statement condemning any policies that punish children whose parents have told them not to take the spring tests. Next test for NYSUT: when will they call on parents and students to boycott the tests that will be used to rate and (de)grade teachers, based on junk science? ...read more
Proposed State Legislation Looks To Abolish Illinois Charter School Commission | Progress Illinois
State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) wants to take away the Illinois State Charter School Commission’s power to overrule local school boards if they reject proposals from charter firms trying to set up new schools in their districts. On November 7, Chapa LaVia introduced a bill in the state House, HB 3754, that would essentially do ...read more
Michigan: EAA Investigates Itself and Clears Itself | Diane Ravitch’s blog
What an exhaustive investigation! After Eclectablog published reports of abuse of students, poorly trained TFA teachers, bulging classes, and other problems in the state’s Educational Achievement Authority, the EAA investigated itself and declared that all was well. Well, that is reassuring! The EAA was created by Governor Snyder to take over low performing schools and ...read more
Another Former Capital Prep teacher speaks out… | Wait What?
The Hartford Board of Education will meet behind closed doors during tonight’s meeting to discuss Capital Prep Principal Steve Perry. Rather than attend to his duties as a Hartford public school principal, Perry has missed 20 percent of the school days this year as he gallivants around the country giving speeches for hire. If he ...read more
Gates Scholar, Tom Kane, Wants Schools to Replicate His MET Experiment | @ THE CHALK FACE
BY JOHN THOMPSON I would have nothing but praise for the Gates Foundation Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project if it only claimed to be doing theoretical research. Neither would I have a real complaint with the work of the MET’s director, Tom Kane, if he saw it as basic research, not policy research. Kane ...read more
There Is No One Right Way |Deborah Meier – Bridging Differences
By Deborah Meier Today, Deborah Meier writes again to Robert Pondiscio of CitizenshipFirst. Dear Robert, Grin away. I like making people smile. But long, long before E.D. Hirsch came along people thought the best way to educate involved thinking, exploring, inquiring about something of interest. I even went to a Progressive, pro-Dewey school in New ...read more
Peter Greene: Common Core and Planned Obsolescence! | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Peter Greene, a teacher in Pennsylvania, sees the incredible marketing opportunities associated with Common Core. And he worries that the marketing department has missed some even more spectacular opportunities to sell CC-aligned products: True– “CCSS” has been stamped every printed object that a school might potentially buy. Every book and worksheet now touts its CCSS-ness. ...read more
Charter experiment ‘spinning out of control’ in Durham County | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS What is happening in Durham County, N.C., is exactly what charter school critics have long feared: the destabilization of the traditional district system. Ned Barnett, the editorial page editor of the News & Observer wrote in this piece that the spread of charter schools in the county since the state legislature lifted ...read more
Media Alert: On ASCD Media Alert | @ THE CHALK FACE
BY PLTHOMASEDD This is not satire, and if I had made this up, no one would have thought it was funny because, well, you just can’t make this stuff up. I got a MEDIA ALERT email from ASCD announcing “Common Core Experts Available for Interviews.” This seems pretty important because ASCD uses all caps, bold, ...read more
The All-New Online Common Core PARCC Tests: Not So New After All | Diane Ravitch’s blog
An early version of the PARCC common Core tests have been released, and bloggers are underwhelmed. Chris Cerone thinks they look more or less like the same old standardized tests, but way more expensive. Blogger Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters wrote: “They just released computer based sample PARCC items. http://www.parcconline.org/computer-based-samples Go directly to the ...read more
FEB 03
Common Core, By Any Other Name: Can Rebranding Standards End Opposition? | StateImpact Indiana
BY ELLE MOXLEY If legislation voiding the state’s current academic standards passes, Indiana will be the first state to exit the Common Core initiative and write its own expectations for what students should know and learn at each grade level. As U.S. News & World Report notes, lawmakers in South Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Kentucky are considering ...read more
State looking into PACE’s involvement with basketball program | ChapelHillNews.com
BY JONATHAN M. ALEXANDER CARRBORO — The N.C. Office of Charter Schools is looking into a struggling charter school’s involvement with a for-profit club basketball team whose coach says is just trying to help student-athletes “get to the next level.” Director of the Office of Charter Schools Joel Medley sent a letter to PACE Academy’s ...read more
Criticizing KIPP Critics | the becoming radical
An early and consistent proponent of Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools, Jay Mathews has joined a rising group of KIPP advocates directly criticizing KIPP critics, offering two arguments: KIPP charter schools are not abusive or excessively authoritarian, and KIPP critics are prone to misleading hyperbole because they fail to visit the KIPP schools ...read more
New Mexico Law Would Halt Common Core, Require Public Hearings and Investigation into Costs | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on February 3, 2014 11:11 AM It looks like Mercedes Schneider will have to add New Mexico to her list of 22 where there is unrest regarding Common Core standards. And this time, the source is not from any conservative wing of the Republican party; it is a Democratic legislator, State Senator ...read more
NCLB crashed and burned. When will we ever learn? | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS It’s the year that all U.S. public schools were supposed to reach 100% student proficiency. It didn’t happen, of course. The law under which that was mandated, No Child Left Behind, has crashed and burned, but, unfortunately, its worst ideas haven’t. Writing about this is Lisa Guisbond of The National Center for ...read more
I Am Bummed Out: Rhee Will Speak in Minneapolis Instead of Debating Me | Diane Ravitch’s blog
s readers of this blog know, Michelle Rhee promised to debate me at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania last spring. The date was set, at her request, on February 6. Then she demanded a second, and I agreed. (Her second was going to be Rod Paige.) Then she demanded a third, and I agreed. Then she ...read more
New Virginia Governor Wants to Eliminate A-F Report Cards for Schools | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Maybe the tide really is turning! Terry McAuliffe, the newly elected Democratic governor of Virginia, said on a radio program that he wants to end the practice of giving letter grades to schools, a practice pioneered in Florida by Jeb Bush. McAuliffe recognized that the letter grades (which, by the way, are highly misleading, inaccurate, ...read more
Top 10 Reasons to Join Teach For America | EduShyster
Did you miss the last application deadline for Teach for America? Fret not, young reader—you still have three more weeks before the next and final deadline to join the 2014 corps. By Jay Saper, TFA reject TFA reject Jay Saper with AFT president Randi Weingarten. 1. Teach for America saves taxpayers a fortune. Let’s face it: ...read more
The Average of Noise is not Signal, It’s Junk! More on NJ SGPs | School Finance 101
I explained in my previous post that New Jersey’s school aggregate growth percentile measures are as correlated with things they shouldn’t be (average performance level and low income concentrations) as they are with themselves over time. That is, while they seem relatively stable – correlation around .60 – it would appear that much of that ...read more
The Badass Teachers Association “Evaluate That” Campaign Goes Viral | With A Brooklyn Accent
The Badass Teachers Association exploded last night on Facebook and Twitter with their #evaluatethat campaign. The idea came to the Facebook page via Georgia BAT Stephanie Lavender Weber who was staying the night with her students in school due to the snow storms that hit Atlanta last week. Stephanie proudly posted about staying with the ...read more
Bob Braun on Newark and the Pink Hula Hoop | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Bob Braun has a fascinating blog where he writes about New Jersey politics and education, based on his 50 years of covering both as a reporter and columnist. Here he tells the story of the current administration’s determination to sell off public buildings to KIPP and perhaps other charter operators. Newark is under state control ...read more
State Education Chiefs Can’t Withdraw From Data Sharing – Even If They Wanted | Scathing Purple Musings
Writes Dr. Karen Effrem, President of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition in Truth in American Education: On January 23rd, 2014, thirty-four chief state school officers sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan trying to reassure the public that individual student test data will not be ...read more
TN state board reconsiders role of learning gains in teacher licenses | The Tennessean
Tennessee’s education leaders have been collecting national accolades since August, after the state board of education adopted a rare policy that ties teacher licensing to learning gains. Just last week, the National Council on Teacher Quality granted Tennessee a B on its annual report card — only Florida ranked higher — in large part over ...read more
Superintendent on school reform: ‘It is not working’ | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS February 3 at 5:00 am Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File) Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has just asked for a “pause” in implementation of a controversial new teacher evaluation system that uses student standardized test scores to assess teachers ...read more
John Thompson: The California Tenure Case is a Sham | Diane Ravitch’s blog
John Thompson, teacher and historian, didn’t use the word “sham,” but that was exactly his meaning in this good analysis of the case where the claim has been made that due process for teachers denies the civil rights of students. The reality, as Thompson notes, is that the lawyers for the plaintiffs aren’t even trying ...read more
David Wildstein: Before Bridgegate, Christie’s Best Teacher Basher | Jersey Jazzman
It looks like a large portion of the pre-Super Bowl commentary this weekend has been reserved for political pundits proclaiming the death of Chris Christie’s 2016 presidential campaign. Poor fellow: here he is, governor of the state hosting the biggest sports spectacle of the year, but forced to keep a low profile because of Friday ...read more
FEB 02
Charter schools by another name? Birmingham BOE says waiver will allow flexibility, innovation; opposers worry they’re charters | AL.com
By Marie Leech BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The Birmingham Board of Education will submit a waiver request to the state that would allow five Woodlawn-area schools to operate more like charters than traditional public schools. The Board of Education tonight unanimously approved — on its consent agenda — a resolution in support of the waiver application ...read more
Data Mania: What Gets Measured? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The Education Commission of the States has compiled a graph showing what states are measuring in the way of student data. One interesting note is that the idea of A-F letter grades for schools started in Florida, the brain-child of Governor Jeb Bush. There are now 14 states that use letter grades. In my view, ...read more
SC’s Low Self-Esteem, Florida Addiction, and Education Policy | @ THE CHALK FACE
BY PLTHOMASEDD 1 COMMENT In the 1980s and 1990s, the decades of my career as a public high school English teacher, South Carolina was early and all-in as an accountability/standards/testing education reform state. One interesting aspect of that commitment is that SC has had at least 4 generations of standards and tests (including the current ...read more
On their own, drivers and teachers turned hero | www.myajc.com
Lin-Sheng Lee still had seven teenagers on his bus when he got stranded. Little heat on the bus. Eighteen degrees outside. Stuck in the dark on the on-ramp from Ashford-Dunwoody to I-285: no cops, no rescue, no options. What the superintendents said about staying open Fulton chief issues apology to parents for snowjam Three hours ...read more
How we teach kids to cheat on tests | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss Here is a piece about a cheating scandal in Wisconsin that speaks to a much larger problem about how and why kids cheat on tests. It was written by Vicki Abeles, a filmmaker, attorney and advocate for students and education. She is the co-director and producer of the education documentary “Race to Nowhere” ...read more
George Miller Still Doesn’t Get It | Curmudgucation
Rep. George Miller is a forty-year veteran of Congress, has been ranking Democrat on the education committee, and was tagged by the National Journal as one of the seven most liberal members of the House of Rep. He was even on the ground floor of NCLB. He was elected in 1974, one of the “Watergate ...read more
New York: Help The State Assembly Choose New Regents Who Oppose High-Stakes Testing | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The New York State legislature will shortly decide which candidates, among more than twenty applicants, will be appointed to four Regents positions. There are four candidates who have made a firm commitment to oppose high stakes testing and would bring excellent experience. You can read about these candidates here: http://www.nysape.org/nysape-endorses-full-slate-of-candidates-for-the-board-of-re
Tennessee’s TVAAS Not to Be Tied to Teacher Licensure | VAMboozled
Victory in the state of Tennessee. The state board of education “stepped away” from its policy requiring that learning gains (i.e., value-added as determined by its TVAAS system) serve as the overriding factor in whether teachers can work (i.e., can be licensed) in the state of Tennessee. To read the article in The Tennessean click here, and ...read more
Corporate Education Reform Continues to Lose Conservative Intellectuals | Scathing Purple Musings
Many conservative republicans are considering the once unthinkable: The Bush’s were wrong about education. President George W. Bush with No Child Let Behind and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush with his corporate financed foundations are more responsible that anyone for imposing today’s education reforms that are anchored in test data. The two enjoyed total buy-in ...read more
Should A Quasi-Private-Elite Hebrew Charter Be Allowed To “Recruit Diversity” In An Apartheid District? | Mother Crusader
February is here, and that means by the end of the month Commissioner Christopher Cerf will decide whether to allow the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School to add a Middle School to their current K-5 charter, and add an additional class of 25 students per grade. The expansion would allow Hatikvah to double their enrollment. ...read more
Ohio Cheats 92% of Kids to Offer Choice | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This year, Ohio will spend $1 billion on charters and vouchers. These schools enroll 8% of students in the state. Their funding is taken from public schools, most of which are far superior to the choice schools. Stephen Dyer writes: I get and am sympathetic to the argument that kids need opportunities to escape struggling ...read more
Report: Majority of U.S. kids under age 2 are now children of color | The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss For the first time, a majority of American children under age 2 are now children of color — and 1 in 3 of them is poor, according to a disturbing new report. “The State of America’s Children 2014.” that cites the neglect of children as the top national security threat. The report, ...read more
Narrative vs. Counter-narrative: Teach For America in their own words | Cloaking Inequity
What do Teach For America corps members say in private conversation? How can you not love Teach For America after having a conversation with one of their gregarious and articulate supporters? Their rhetoric is convincing— typically tugging on the heartstrings. Have you also noticed that they are also masters of citing data that they have ...read more
Bob Braun Reports: Newark School Closings May Be Illegal | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Veteran journalist Bob Braun cites a report by New Jersey’s Education Law Center that the planned school closings in Newark may well be illegal. Superintendent Cami Anderson, appointed by the Chris Christie Administration, plans to close as many as half the city’s public schools and turn the students over to charter corporations. The Education Law ...read more
How Did This Happen? The History of Oregon’s Corporate-Driven Education Policy Model | Oregon Save Our Schools
In January, Tom Olson, of Oregon Save Our Schools, put his research together to explain and summarize how Oregon’s corporate education reform model came into being. The education reform plan was created swiftly with hand-picked voices and strategists, and the public’s concerns and input were ignored. Hopefully, from reading this, Oregonians will realize that we ...read more
Michigan’s “Educational Achievement Authority”: A Dismal, Frightening Failure | Diane Ravitch’s blog
It is hard to choose which state has done the most to undermine public education: Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin come to mind, but Michigan is right up there as a state whose Governor Rick Snyder is working hard to crush public education. There is the fact that some 80% of the charters ...read more
What Teach for America Says When It Talks to Itself | deutsch29
As I was researching my “Bill Pays to Help Arne” post, I came across a discussion site, Wall Street Oasis, where those hoping to Make It Big on The Street are able to connect in order to solve issues related to their career ambitions. The site has a link for Teach for America (TFA). The ...read more
FEB 01
Indianapolis: Plan to Hand Over Public Schools to Private Managers Advances | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The Indiana State Teachers Association reports on a bill to privatize more public schools in Indianapolis. Privatization is not new. It is the theme song of the Obama administration in collaboration with libertarian think tanks and far-right governors. What is new here is that the legislature is passing this plan with no evidence that it ...read more
Refuse the Tests in 2014 – The Tipping Point | Peg with Pen
In my district, our students come from over 130 countries and speak more than 120 languages. I am proud to be a part of this district. I am so proud of these students – these students who can tell me more about the world than I could possibly ever know. 70% of the students in ...read more
Dueling Facts about K–12 Funding | Education Matters
This is an election year, so we will continue to hear conflicting stories about how public schools in Michigan are funded. On both sides, the facts are largely correct, yet the conclusions — spending has gone up or has gone down — are opposite. How can this be? Whom are we to believe? The kind ...read more
Guest Blog: Camden Activist Mo’Neke Ragsdale – A New World Order Of Discrimination | Mother Crusader
Predatory education reform has reached a crescendo in New Jersey’s largest cities. Newark public schools are being closed, sold and privatized. “In late December, 2013, just days before the start of winter vacation, the Christie administration informed Newark families that it was closing many of our public schools and turning others over to private management. ...read more
Gates Is Funding USDOE Conferences and “Innovations” | Mercedes Schneider
What corporate reformers manage to devise continues to amaze me. I know. It shouldn’t. But it does. During my perusal of the latest Gates grants, I stumbled across a find that makes me tilt my head slightly to the right in contemplation of its creepy import: The US Department of Education is taking Gates money. ...read more
The trouble with calls for universal ‘high-quality’ pre-K | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Whenever policymakers talk about universal preschool — and that is happening more frequently these days — they always say that it must be “high quality,” but they never explain what that actually means. Here author Alfie Kohn explains why the absence of definition may be troubling. Kohn is the author of 12 ...read more
School grading system might need a time out | Tampa Bay Times
Jeffrey S. Solochek BRENDAN FITTERER | TimesState House Speaker Will Weatherford greets Dayspring Academy student Justin Scherer during a tour of the campus Friday with state Sen. John Legg, who is also the school’s co-founder. Weatherford toured the school’s iMac lab and saw firsthand examples of how each student on campus has an iPad that ...read more
Mavericks Charter School President Frank Biden Says “We’re Going to Take You Down” | Scathing Purple Musings
Scathing Purple Musings was pretty hard on redifinED editor Ron Matus this week for his charter school cheerleading, but he played it straight in reporting on a National School Choice event held on Coral Springs Thursday. The part of this event that will be noteworthy to readers of this blog were the comments from Frank ...read more
Governor Haslam of Tennessee: Bad Collision with Facts | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This blogger has gathered the latest wave of bad news from Tennessee, showing the emptiness of the Republican Governor Bill Haslam’s efforts to outsource everything public to whoever wants to make money. Even though President Obama praised red-state Tennessee as a prime example of the success of Race to the Top, conveniently ignoring the other ...read more
A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives | the becoming radical
Harry Webb has launched A War of Words: “The war is between traditionalists and progressives and it is an old war.” Yes, this is an old war, and what is most frustrating about this battle for me is that, once again, critical perspectives are left out entirely. So let me offer here a brief critical ...read more
JAN 31
Kentucky Withdraws From PARCC Testing Consortium | Curriculum Matters – Education Week
By Catherine Gewertz on January 31, 2014 7:38 AM More news this morning on the assessment-consortium front: Kentucky has pulled out of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, better known as PARCC. Gov. Steven L. Beshear, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and State Board President Roger L. Marcum sent a letter by email ...read more
The curious case of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s upcoming Education Summit | Twin Cities Daily Planet
By Sarah Lahm Who is sponsoring the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s upcoming Education Summit, and why are their names no longer listed on the official promotional piece for the event? The original announcement for the Summit included Target, General Mills, and Thompson Reuters among the handful of groups and businesses sponsoring the Education Summit. However, ...read more
Senate Committee passes bill giving schools boards a say in school closings | NJ.com
Parents and community activists from Newark, Montclair and Camden testified before a state senate committee this morning in favor of a bill that requires local school boards to approve the closing of schools. Sponsored by Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), the bill was prompted by Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson’s school reorganization plan, which will move, consolidate ...read more
Providence superintendent concerned about grad requirement | WPRI 12
By Dan McGowan, WPRI.com ReporterPublished: Friday, January 31, 2014, 5:36 pm PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The superintendent of Rhode Island’s largest school district said Friday she will advise school officials to automatically begin a high school graduation waiver process for students who have failed to show partial proficiency on the state’s standardized test. Providence Schools ...read more
Di Blasio Administration Shifts Funding from Charter Schools to Pre-School Plan | Diane Ravitch’s blog
During his campaign, Mayor Bill Di Blasio pledged to provide universal pre-kindergarten for all children whose families can’t afford it. He said he would pay for UPK (universal pre-kindergarten) by imposing a modest tax increase on those with incomes over $500,000 a year. But he needs the support of Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature ...read more
Connecticut Teacher: Why I Want to Quit Teaching: UPDATE | Diane Ravitch’s blog
[Note to readers: I abridged this article to comply with copyright limits. Please open the link and read the article in full at the Hartford Courant, which had the good sense to publish it.] Thanks to the punitive actions and policies of the U.S. Department of Education and the states, there is a new genre ...read more
Happy Birthday, Mercedes | EduShyster
In which I sit down with wonder-blogger Mercedes Schneider to talk about her life, her blog and a whole lot more… On a recent trip to Louisiana I got to spend some time with wonder-blogger Mercedes Schneider, whose blog on education reform turned one year old this week. (If you don’t know it, you should). In ...read more
For school choice-loving Democrats to consider | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS January 31 at 12:22 pm This has been National School Choice Week, complete with thousands of events around the country to promote school choice. It was quite an organizational feat: The Education Department released new guidance on charter school lotteries, legislation was introduced in Congress to expand choice, papers were released, rallies ...read more
College Ready | Curmudgucation
One of the linchpins of proof among CCSS supporters is that Kids These Days are not ready for college. This is generally expressed in scholarly tones as “X% of college freshmen were in need of remediation” (and in more rhetorical tones as “OMGZZ!! The college freshmens are soooooo dumb that they need undumbification classes to ...read more
Some states rebrand controversial Common Core education standards | The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) used an executive order to strip the name “Common Core” from the state’s new math and reading standards for public schools. In the Hawkeye State, the same standards are now called “The Iowa Core.” And in Florida, lawmakers want to delete “Common Core” from official documents and ...read more
As the School Turns – The reviews are in: education reform in Massachusetts has jumped the shark | EduShyster
The reviews are in: education reform in Massachusetts has jumped the shark It’s time for yet another episode in our long-running—and fast moving—reality series: As the School Turns. In today’s episode we visit two Boston schools that have been turning, returning and turning again. And we meet the guest stars who will at last usher ...read more
NCLB co-author says he never anticipated federal law would force testing obsession | EdSource Today
By Kathryn Baron Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, visited with EdSource Today staff shortly after announcing his retirement after 40 years in Congress. Credit: Lillian Mongeau, EdSource Rep. George Miller, a leading architect of the No Child Left Behind legislation, says he never anticipated that the landmark education law would ignite the testing obsession that engulfed the ...read more
An Update on New Jersey’s SGPs: Year 2 – Still not valid! | School Finance 101
I have spent much time criticizing New Jersey’s Student Growth Percentile measures over the past few years, both conceptually and statistically. So why stop now. We have been told over and over again by the Commissioner and his minions that New Jersey’s SGPs take fully into account student backgrounds by accounting for each student’s initial ...read more
Text of Maryland superintendents’ document on school reform | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS January 30 at 11:00 pm Here is the text of a document approved by 22 of Maryland’s 24 local schools superintendents expressing concern about how federal and state officials are forcing school districts to implement specific school reforms. You can read more about the document and why the superintendents, through the Public ...read more
“School Choice” Is Not only About Charters and Vouchers | With A Brooklyn Accent
Where are all the advocates of “school choice” when inner city parents and students organize in defense of their neighborhood schools threatened with closing, as they have done in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and now Newark? Somehow, they only mobilize when inner parents want charters or vouchers. They have no problem with Mayors and Governors ...read more
“Businessmen, Bean-Counters, Buffoons, and Bible-Thumpers” Are “Taking Over Florida Public Education” | Scathing Purple Musings
Author, columnist radio and TV talk show host Stephen L. Goldstein lives in Fort Lauderdale. He has penned a blistering opinion piece for the Sun-Sentinel about those who have seized power over Florida’s education policy: Businessmen, bean-counters, buffoons, and Bible-thumpers have been taking over Florida public education; an ever-increasing gaggle of bozos is exerting more ...read more
NPE News Briefs Podcast: Jennifer Berkshire Interviews Mercedes Schneider
On her recent trip to New Orleans, Jennifer Berkshire met with Mercedes Schneider, who just celebrated the one year anniversary of her blog. Mercedes tells us a little bit about her life and how she is able to produce such a voluminous collection of in-depth analyses of education reform topics. Both Mercedes and Jennifer will be part ...read more
Gates Foundation Cheers the Growing “Momentum” of Common Core | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The Gates Foundation has spent $200 million or so to pay for the Common Core standards. Gates paid for everything because the U.S. Department of Education is prohibited by law from doing anything that might control, direct,or supervise curriculum or instruction. Of course, this did not stop Arne Duncan from shelling out $350 million to ...read more
New York Plans Cradle-to-Grave Data Tracking of Students | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Here is another reason to opt your children out of state testing. The state plans to collect data on every student throughout their lives, on the nutty belief that someone somewhere will figure out from this Big Data “what works.” This massive collection of data reflects the NSA’s conviction that the best way to stop ...read more
Gates Foundation Invests $13 Million in Washington State Charter Schools | PND
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $13 million to help establish public charter schools in Washington State. Recipients of the grants include the Washington State Charter Schools Association, which was awarded $4.2 million to expand its support for educators looking to open charter schools and outreach efforts in local ...read more