Breaking News! Dare County, NC, Votes NO to North Carolina Anti-Teacher Law
The Board of Education in Dare County, North Carolina, voted unanimously to oppose the law recently passed by the extremist legislature that would end career status for teachers, require the board to give a $500 bonus to the top 25% of teachers in exchange for their giving up their career status. “The Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution calling for the state to roll back the new
Eagle Academies: Not Miracle Schools
We live in a very strange age, where pundits and policymakers are in search of miracle schools, not willing to accept how incremental progress is and how difficult it is to measure progress.. Last Sunday, the “New York Times” held up the Eagle Academy schools in New York City as very successful hybrid schools that provide the equivalent of a private school education.. After all, 82% are bound for
Susan Ohanian: Bill Gates Is Running Scared
Think of it: the richest man in the world poured over $2 billion into the creation of national standards, and he is out on the media-power trail, fighting for their survival. Gates is worried about the pushback against the standards and the testing in a score of states. In some states, the very term “Common Core” has become so toxic that they are called something else, rebranded. And don’t forget
How Chris Christie Is Promoting Segregation and White Flight in Hoboken
By now, there is a sizable literature about the connection between “choice” and segregation. We should never forget that choice was the favorite school policy of George Wallace and other segregationists. Hoboken, New Jersey, is Governor Chris Christie’s little Petri dish for segregated schools. The best way to keep gentrification going is to kep expanding charter schools, so that young white fami
Help NPE Stop Testing Abuse! Join Us! Change the World with Us!
The Network for Public Education needs your help tomorrow!!! As you know, The Network for Public Education’s first Conference culminated with a major announcement by the NPE Board about the board’s press release to call for formal Congressional hearings “to investigate the over-emphasis, misapplication, costs, and poor implementation of high-stakes standardized testing in the nation’s K-12 public
The Vergara Trial: Read All About It
The Vergara trial in California is a calculated effort to remove due process protections from teachers. The plaintiffs claim that the superintendent must be able to dismiss teachers at will, without the bother of a hearing. The billionaires sponsoring this attack on teachers’ job protection insist that any protections for teachers in the workplace violates the civil rights of students. They gather
A Very Different Cuomo, Once Upon a Time
Thirty years ago, the governor of New York addressed the Democratic National Convention, held in New York City. His name was Mario Cuomo. His theme was “A Tale of Two Cities,” ironically, the same campaign theme as Bill de Blasio in 2013. He denounced tax breaks for the rich. He spoke of caring for the family of America. This is not the same Cuomo who is now governor of New York, who wants to be k
Tucson: The Radical Message of the NPE Conference
David Safier writes a terrific blog about education and politics in Arizona. He made the trip to Austin to the first annual conference of the Network for Public Education and found he was in an alternate universe, where people care passionately about the preservation of public education. He attended along with several other Tucson residents, including Robin Hiller, not only executive director of
Meet New York State’s Newest Member of the Board of Regents
This spring, the five-year terms of four members of the New York Board of Regents expired. Many parent groups mounted a campaign to persuade the State Assembly to replace all four of them, since they refused to listen to parent complaints about the Common Core and the fiasco associated with the Common Core implementation and testing. The Assembly responded by selecting someone with no experience i
Study: Newark Plan Will Have Disparate Impact on Black Teachers
Bruce Baker, Mark Weber, and Joseph Oluwole completed another study of Cami Anderson’s “One Newark,” which will hand over about one-third of Newark’s public schools to private charter operators. This will result in the layoff of hundreds of teachers. Because the lowest performing schools are largely racially segregated, and because most of their teachers are black, the authors predict that “One Ne
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-17-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Jack Hassard: Why Bill Gates Defends the Common CoreWe have long known on this site that Bill Gates’ foundation underwrote every aspect of the Common Core standards. Mercedes Schneider has documented nearly $200 million in grants specifically for the writing, evaluation, review, implementation, and advocacy for the Common Core sta