Bipartisan Bill Proposes Curbing Federal Testing Mandates
Two Congressmen–a Democrat and a Republican–proposed legislation to cut back on federally mandated testing. This is great news! The legislation was immediately endorsed by the NEA. “Today the National Education Association endorsed HR-4172, introduced last week by Reps. Chris Gibson (R-NY) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). The bill would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to chang
United Opt Out Will Meet in Denver March 28-30: Join Them!
If you want to learn about the growing movement to opt students out of mandated state and federal testing, go to this meeting in Denver. Parents, scholars, and educators will convene in one of the nation’s most test-driven, test-obsessed cities and states, where the fate of teachers, principals, and schools depends on standardized test scores, a law foolishly enacted without any evidence at all in
NC Charter with Only 33 Students Gets Waiver from Law
Baker Mitchell opened a new K-2 for-profit charter in North Carolina that projected enrollment of 225. Only 33 students are enrolled. The law requires that any school enrolling less than 65 must close. The state’s charter advisory board unanimously gave the school a waiver so it can have more time to find students. Baker Mitchell is a member of that board. He recused himself from the decision but
Philly Schools Offer Parents a Choice: Go Charter or Stay in Schools with No Resources
The Philadelphia public school district is being aggressively starved of resources by Governor Corbett and the Legislature, and its Broad-trained superintendent now proposes to shrink the district still farther to save money. He is offering parents a choice of converting to charter status or remaining in the district, where they cannot count on having a library, a school nurse, reasonable class si
Peter Greene: When Good People Love Bad Standards
Peter Greene here respectfully disagrees with an advocate for the Commin Core. He shares the same goals: to have students actively engaged, to encourage creativity and innovation, to promote “nuance, individuality and freedom,” to downplay bubble tests, etc., but Greene says that Common Core will advance none of these goals. Are standards good in and of themselves? Greene says it depends. Read
Kansas High Court Rules in Favor of Funding Public Schools
Sometimes it seems that the purpose of the false reform movement is to keep us diverted from the center ring, where America’s public schools are being starved of the resources they need while expected to do more and produce ever higher test scores. While we battle rearguard actions to stop the attack on teachers and the escalating demands for more testing, elected officials defend privatization a
Fact-Checking Eva’s Claims on National Television
This article, which I co-wrote with Avi Blaustein, an independent education researcher, was cross-posted on Huffington Post. It explains that Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charters do not serve the most disadvantaged students in New York City; that her school in Harlem (Success Academy 4) that will not expand is NOT the highest scoring school in the state; and that her schools have few, if any,
FairTest Reports Growing Movement Against Excessive Testing
Across the nation, parents and teachers are resisting the testing mania imposed by the U.S. Department of Education and Congress. It is a good time to remember that education is not mentioned in the Constitution, and that it is traditionally considered a state and local function. The federal government provides only 10% of the funding. Here is FairTest’s roundup of the latest resistance to high-s
North Carolina to Pearson: We Want Our Money Back!
North Carolina officials are trying to get a refund from Pearson because of flaws in the data system that Pearson is running for the state. Pearson is charging the state $7.1 million for its information system but it doesn’t work. Here are some of the problems with Pearson’s PowerSchool: CMS POWERSCHOOL WOES At the Observer’s request, CMS produced a summary of ongoing problems with PowerSchool.
Noah Gotbaum: Who Are the Real Victims of Eva Moskowitz’s “Success Academies”?
In an article in the New York Daily News, which has been an outspoken champion of charters schools and Eva Moskowitz’s attacks on Mayor Bill de Blasio, Noah Gotbaum explains why Eva’s schools are “successful”: they leave out the neediest students. Gotbaum is a public school parent and has children with special needs. Gotbaum writes: Eva Moskowitz is up in arms. Her schools are being “closed,” she
Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey’s Teacher Evaluation AKA “Operation Hindenburg”
Jersey Jazzman warns that New Jersey’s new teacher evaluation plan is expensive, wasteful, inaccurate, and has no basis in research whatever. Other than that….it stinks. In short, he calls it Operation Hindenburg, and if you don’t know about the Hindenburg, I suggest you google it. (Watch out, as the data miners will start offering you bargain deals on used blimps.) New Jersey’s new teacher evalua
Big Money Pushing for Vouchers in Florida
Once upon a time there was a sturdy American tradition known as separation of church and state. Most Americans thought it was a bad idea to send public dollars to religious schools, because doing so would mean the death of the common school, the public schools that have been a foundation stone of our democracy. Once we begin subsidizing schools run by religious denominations, the very idea of publ
Marc Tucker on the Failure of Test-Based Accountability
This is one of the best columns I have ever read by Marc Tucker. He writes what everyone knows other than President Obama, Secretary Duncan, Governor Cuomo, and a few dozen other governors. Tucker writes that test-based accountability is a failed policy. “In my last blog, I pointed to the data that shows that, after 10 years of federal education policies based on test-based accountability, there
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-10-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Slate: Parent Creates Mild Hysteria in Colorado by Opting Her Daughter Out of State TestsLisa 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 ide