Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
GERM Does Not Work, and NCLB's Effects Are Clear
A slide on effects of Global Education Reform Movement from Pasi Sahlberg's presentation at UOO, going on now in Denver:
Know any social justice oriented UCLA students? Get them to #resistTFA
I wrote the Op-Ed following this introduction for the Daily Bruin when I first returned to UCLA as an undergraduate last September. It was patently ignored by the editorial staff, as were my requests for modification guidelines to get it published. While I have a haunting suspicion that some of the editorial staff may have been protecting Teach for America (TFA), I got so busy with my course-load
MAR 27
NYTimes Editorial Board Goes Soft on 4 Year Olds
Maybe Brent Staples is getting sentimental in his middle age, but the Editorial Board is suddenly all misty-eyed about pre-K and kindergarten urban children being kicked out of school for any breach of the total compliance system perfected in the KIPP reform schools.I, too, worry about these children, but I worry, too, about the ones who are left there, whose little human spirits that are not stro
MAR 26
The Best Reason Yet to Boycott Amazon
Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Kipp Foundation whenever you shop on AmazonSmile.AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service.Support your charitable organization by starting your shopping atsmile.amazon.com.
David Coleman and Jeb Bush Don't "Give a Shit" about Your Child's Feelings, Thoughts, or Self-Esteem
In 2011, the über-prissy Architekt of the Common Core Standards, David Coleman, had this to say at a State gathering in New York, where Coleman explained why teenagers' written reactions to Cather in the Rye were about to be discontinued in favor of explicating Samsung installation manuals (my bolds):Do people know the two most popular forms of writing in the American high school today? Texting,
A Breath of Fresh Air from Denver
Denver will be hosting this year's United Opt Out event in a few weeks. This event was held on the front steps of the Department of Education building in Washington, DC for the past two years.I am an employed social studies and history teacher now for 6th grade and a lot has changed in two years. Finding a public school that is not suffering under the current policies is extremely difficult. Howev
Doug Martin on Justin Oakley's Show Tonight and Amazon
I will be joining Justin Oakley on his Just Let Me Teach radio show on Wednesday, March 26 from around 9:15 to 10:00 pm. I will be discussing my book, Hoosier School Heist, which is now available at Amazon and details the Walton Family, Jeb Bush, New York hedge fund managers, the DeVos family of Amway fame, plagiarists, and Republican campaign donors who run charter schools in Indiana, just to na
MAR 25
In Denouncing Common Core, Ravitch Promotes National Standards
Even back to the days when Diane Ravitch was a trusted employee of the Bush I Administration, she was an advocate for voluntary national curriculum standards. She has continued to hold this position, even as her previous pro-corporate vices became untenable for anyone with intellectual aspirations or even a lick of integrity. She said in a New York Times op-ed in 2005 that "unfortunately, th
Debate on Bilingual Education Needs to Include All the Facts
Published in Education Week, March 25, 2014 The campaign to full restore bilingual education in California needs to include the research. Despite efforts by academics, this research was not brought to the attention of the voters. Not mentioned in the Education Week article is the fact that studies done before and after Proposition 227 passed consistently showed that students in bilingual programs
Grindstones Make Grit
With Seligman disciple, Angela Duckworth, teaming up with KIPP co-father, Dave Levin, the industrial child psychologists have an able researcher and an experimental site to figure out how to roughen up the grindstone to reduce more urban children to piles of grit. At this point, we don't know what the how much grit will be ground out by subjecting children to years of screaming, labeling, threaten
The Moral Imperative to Opt Out Until the System is Changed
Editorial from Philadelphia Inquirer (ht to Ken Derstine)POSTED: Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 1:08 AmParents are right to protest the oversize emphasis placed on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams when so many schools are poorly funded.Robin Roberts says her three children won't be taking the PSSAs with the rest of the students at Philadelphia's C.W. Henry Elementary School. "If i
21st Century Skills?
Stephen KrashenYogi Berra: "It's hard to predict, especially about the future.""I contend that, instead of insisting on more and more standardization, we should be increasing variety, flexibility, and choice in what we offer in our schools (Noddings, 2009, p.243)." ... useful knowledge changes as societies change" (Zhao, 2009, p. 135).It is often stated that new standards
MAR 24
Mayor de Blasio Won't Back Down from Support for Public Schools
Despite a multi-million ad campaign by corporate welfare queen, Eva Moskowitz, and tough rhetoric from the Wall Street's charter empire stooge, Governor Cuomo, the Mayor will not back down. From the Wall Street Journal:In a speech at Riverside Church in Harlem, the mayor said he failed to clearly lay out his decision in February to approve more than a dozen charter schools but roll back the expan
Doug Martin's Book Due at Amazon Next Week: Get the Best Deal Before Then
Today Doug Martin is busy signing pre-ordered copies of his compelling new book, Hoosier School Heist. You can still get the book for $12.99 with no tax and no shipping charge by ordering here. He will sign it, too!
Indiana is Officially Opting OUT of Common Core: Only 44 States to Go
ht to TN Education Reports. From Indianapolis Star:Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation today requiring Indiana to adopt its own academic standards and opt out of Common Core — making Indiana the first state to opt out of the controversial national standards.The law basically solidifies action already in the works to redesign Indiana’s academic standards by the Department of Education and the Cente
AERA Folks and Philadelphia Citizens--Please Attend This Important Meeting
Pennsylvania Education Crisis Highlights - March 24, 2014You Are Invited to APhiladelphia Education Town HallThursday April 3, 5:30 to 8:30 PMArch Street United Methodist ChurchBroad and Arch StreetsCalled by delegates to theAmerican Educational Research Association Convention& the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools Click here for details.
Maryland Has Some of the Best Public School Protection Laws in the Nation
AP has a piece in WaPo that pretend that two most voracious advocacy groups for corporate welfare charters represent research groups: Center for Education Reform and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. In pointing out that CER's charter welfare queen, Jeanne Allen, has labeled Maryland among the worst states, then you can be sure that Maryland is one of the best in advancing public
MAR 23
TFA Truth Tour Starts Tomorrow
Teach for America regularly spends more on recruiting than it does on educating the young neophytes who are dumped into the most challenging classrooms after 5 weeks of basic indoctrination. USAS begins a 15 campus tour tomorrow to get the truth and stop TFA's corporate predators on campus.By Robert Ascherman and Karen LiStarting tomorrow, USAS is launching the next stage in our campaignto fight
All Your Life You Have Lived by Their Rules, and You Don't Have to Anymore--OPT OUT!
Be Divergent!Register for UOO’s annual spring event in Denver, CO, March 28th to 30th
Common Core Will Take 24 Years to Show Improvement That Will Fall Way Short of NAEP Results from 1992 to Now
In a research report issued last week by Brookings, researchers found that states with CCSS-like standards have not scored as well as other states on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). Brookings found “states with standards most different from the CCSS . . . gained the most on NAEP (p. 29). Offering this dismal assessment of prospects for states adopting Common Core, the Br
Be in Worcester, MA Wednesday Morning to Greet Duncan
From MassLive:WORCESTER — Hoping to bring more attention to the federal changes in academic standards, protesters will greet U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan with picket signs along Skyline Drive and Belmont Street Wednesday morning.Duncan is scheduled to visit Worcester Technical High School on Wednesdayat 9 a.m. as part of a two-day tour of Massachusetts schools.The secretary is expected
MAR 22
Break
Holding OutIf for longthe light isdimmer ordisappeared,don’t despair—there are moonson some seaaimed at youas you lookthat way, dear—eyes knowinghow darknesswas illusionfor what lostlove concealed.
How One School System Helped Stop Third Party Collection of Student Data
Are you listening, Tennessee teachers, principals, school boards, superintendents?From the Great Neck Record:The Great Neck School District is not about to release any information on any Great Neck students to InBloom nor to any other such third party provider. The Board of Education’s decision against releasing any such information came at the recommendation of Dr. Thomas Dolan, superintendent of
Ravitch Freaks Out
The other day Diane Ravitch had more "breaking" Randi news about how Weingarten is once again standing tall for teachers against the corporate forces. Perhaps it was this bit of spinning that prompted the storm of responses (84 at last count) that almost all disagree with Ravitch's lame take: Randi Weingarten was unusually outspoken in criticizing the rush to impose the Common Core,