The Smear Campaign Against Mayor Bill de Blasio
I cross-posted this article on Huffington Post, to reach a wider audience beyond the blog. The moral of the story is that it is very risky to tangle with the charter school lobby. They are very rich, they are very powerful, and they are accustomed to opening their boutique charters in public space without paying rent. They are also accustomed to pushing aside the children already enrolled in the p
This is the Man Behind the Curtain Who Loves Standardized Testing
A reader (identified by her Twitter handle as mimi@zombienation15) responds to an earlier post called “Who Loves Standardized Testing?,” where I described a panel in Austin at SXSW where both Randi Weingarten and Peter Cunningham, Arne Duncan’s former Assistant Secretary of Education for communications, agreed that it was time for a Congressional investigation of the abuses, misuses, and cost of s
Michelle Gundersen: Why Is CPS Harassing Parents and Children Who Opt Out of Testing?
Michelle Gundersen, a veteran teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, here describes how the school system is harassing parents and children who try to opt out of unnecessary state testing. Her own son, without her prompting, said he wanted to opt out of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), a test that will soon be phased out and replaced by a Common Core test. But it was not so easy for
Jere Hochman: What the Federal Government MUST Do
Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District in Westchester County, New York, points out the single biggest failure of the federal government: Congress mandated special-education services but has never paid the costs of its mandate. Consequently, it is the children who are neediest who are most often neglected and left behind. He writes: “The word “education” does not app
Breaking News: Randi Says AFT Will No Longer Accept Funding from Gates Foundation for Innovation Fund
This exclusive news appeared this morning on politico.com’s education site. When Randi spoke at the Network for Public Education conference in Austin, she told the audience for the Common Core panel that she would ask the AFT executive board for permission to do exactly what is described here. She understands that many members of the AFT do not trust the Gates Foundation, do not like Bill Gates’ p
Slate: Parent Creates Mild Hysteria in Colorado by Opting Her Daughter Out of State Tests
Lisa T. McElroy, a law professor, decided that her children would not take the state tests during the year the family spent in Colorado. She checked and found it was legal. That is when the trouble began, and McElroy found out how much this idea frightened the school staff. After many phone calls, emails, and meetings with desperate administrators, she had to decide. “Do I stand on my principles,
Will California Elect an Educator or an Investment Banker as State Superintendent of Education?
California is in the midst of a crucial election for State Superintendent. This article by Gary Cohn describes the players and the context. On one side is experienced educator Tom Torlakson, who is running for re-election. On the other side is Marshall Tuck, graduate of Harvard Business School, investment banker, former leader of Green Dot charter schools. He is a strong supporter of privatizati
Sirota: How the 1% Finds Liberals to Create the Illusion of Bipartisanship
David Sirota has aptly nailed a phenomenon of our times: liberal-washing. In this article in Salon, he explains how conservatives and corporations find a friendly liberal organization or liberal politician to give it a patina of bipartisanship or to mask its goals. Sirota writes: The most reliable way to liberal-wash something is to get a famous Democrat to support it. This is because even though
New Study Finds That Colleges Don’t Need the SAT or the ACT
A major new study by the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) looked at the college performance of eight cohorts of students from 33 colleges and universities. These 33 institutions do not require students to submit standardized test scores for admission. Like many previous studies, this one found that high school grades are better predictors of college success than scores
YESTERDAY
NYC: A Rally to Support Students With Disabilities and Mayor de Blasio
One of the charter schools turned down by Mayor de Blasio was an effort by Eva Moskowitz to expand her Succes Academy elementary school into a middle school in Harlem. This would have displaced students with disabilities, on the theory that students with high scores should get preference over students with disabilities. Here is a press release about a rally on Monday at 4 pm. Which kids are really
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-9-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Myra Blackmon on the Corporate Takeover of American EducationMyra Blackmon, who writes regularly for the Athens Banner-Herald in Georgia, returned from the Network for Public Education conference in Austin ready to write about what she learned and how it applied to Georgia. She realized that the Common Core is just a symptom of a l