How billionaire-funded ‘ed reform’ groups push charters, vouchers
How powerful are organizations such as Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and other like-minded groups that support charter schools, voucher programs and the weakening of teachers unions.? The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organization that works to reveal abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust by public and private institutions, takes […]
Teachers union cites Common Core in decision to cut Gates funding
The American Federation of Teachers, which has won millions of dollars in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will no longer accept foundation money for its Innovation Fund. Union members have expressed concern about the poor implementation in many states of the Common Core State Standards, one of the initiatives in which the […]
This took Teach For America 24 years to figure out?
This took Teach For America 24 years to figure out? The nonprofit organization — which was founded in 1990 and is famous for recruiting young people, giving them five weeks of summer training and then placing them in high-needs schools in low-income communities — has decided that just maybe some of its recruits need more […]
13 ways high-stakes standardized tests hurt students
It’s time for March Madness — not the famous college basketball tournament but the start of high-stakes standardized testing season in many school districts around the country. I’ve published many posts on how standardized test scores are inappropriately used to evaluate students, educators and schools, but there are plenty of other costs to students as […]
3-10-14 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: Why the Obama administration should drop its college rating planThe Obama administration is developing a system to rate colleges and universities by 2015 that will be based on a yet-to-be-determined set of criteria that could include data points such as average tuition and how much graduates earn. Part of the system involves getting congressional approval (which isn’t likely) to