Massachusetts Parent: My Children Are Opting Out
A comment by a reader: We are parents of 3 children in MA. Since March 5th when I joined 6 moms from my town to attend a Northboro forum to hear Sandra Stotsky & Jamie Gass (www. pioneerinstitute.org), we have been learning everything we can about PARCC/CCSS. On Feb 24, we learned our 3rd grader “won” the PARCC ELA lottery “mandating” 5 additional days of research of “test the test” research
Can Massachusetts Parents Opt Out?
Massachusetts officials say parents can’t opt out of state tests. Several local school districts are opting out anyway. Just do it. The children belong to their family, not the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Ask yourself: What would Henry David Thoreau do? What would Ralph Waldo Emerson do?
Florida Set to Waste Hundreds of Millions on Vouchers
Jeb Bush has his eye on the Presidency. He will boast of his education record, but it is a record of smashing public education and diverting public funding to charters, for-profit charter chains, vouchers, corporate vendors, anything but our basic public schools. His antipathy to public education will haunt him. Here is the latest scheme pushed by Jen and friends: more money for vouchers but pleas
Breaking News: Tennessee State Senate Guts Local Control
The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill based on ALEC model legislation to minimize local control. ALEC is more dedicated to privatization and to the destruction of public sector agencies than to local control. ALEC’s agenda is not conservative; it is extremist. Under this bill, those who wish to open a privately managed charter school may apply to a state authorizing board if the local board tur
David Greene: How the Common Core Standards Stifle Creativity
Just a few days ago, Bill Gates told the annual assembly of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards that the Common Core standards were “the key to creativity,” and likened their development to the standardized electrical plug. I am not sure I see the analogy, but I guess he meant that with a standardized electrical plug, we could all have electric lights and do better work in the l
Good News! TEA Sues Governor, Commissioner re Junk Science VAM
The Tennessee Education Association filed a second lawsuit against the use if value-added assessment (called TVAAS in Tennessee), this time including extremist Governor Haslam and ex-TFA state commissioner Huffman in their suit. The teachers rightly say that the evaluations are unfair, a point on which most reputable researchers are in their corner. “TEA’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of Knox Cou
Jason Stanford: “Divergent” is a Major New Film about Testing Abuse
Testing is rapidly becoming radioactive. No one lies it, yet Congress can’t bring itself to drive a stake through the withered lifeless heart of NCLB, nor call a halt to Race to the Top’s promotion of even more testing. Jason Stanford says a new film called “Divergent” shows how standardized testing is harming students, determining their future, and inspiring rebellions against it. It will debut
Florida: Parents and Teachers Stopped the Voucher Bill
Kathleen McGrory of the Miami Herald shows how parents and teachers stopped the voucher bill in Florida. ““We really saw this as an attack on public education,” said Mindy Gould legislative affairs for the PTA. “The testing issue had become a sticking point. “John Kirtley, who helped craft the original voucher legislation in 2001 and is chair of the Step Up board, said it would have been “a very
You Too Can See “Rise Above the Mark”
Rocky Killion, the superintendent of West Lafayette, Indiana, public schools and his film crew created a fabulous documentary about the greatness of teachers, of our kids and our public schools. They traveled across the nation to interview leading policy experts, and spent lots of time in classrooms interviewing teachers and principals. They produced “Rise Above the Mark,” which is inspiring. It i
A Néw Way for Néw York?
Several superintendents in Long Island, Néw York, hope to find a path out of the morass created by Néw York State’s authoritarian Board of Regents, which loves high-stakes testing. Here is a comment by one of those superintendents: Opening the Door: An Alternate Way for Public Education Our public education system is truly at a crossroads. The question is, do we just passively sit and watch big
Bad News from Michigan as Failed EAA Expands to Harm More Children
A reader reports: “Big win for Arne Duncan and Rick Snyder on Eli Broad’s EAA experiment in Detroit: “Democratic lawmakers said the bill is an attempt to prop up Snyder’s struggling EAA, which has been dogged by declining enrollment, financial problems and teacher turnover during its two years of running schools formerly operated by Detroit Public Schools. “This isn’t about helping schoolchildren
NEPC: Rural Communities Do Not Need Charters
Did it ever occur to you that what rural communities really need is a privately managed charter school to compete with the community school? Apparently the idea sounds swell to Andy Smarick, who doesn’t think that communities should have any public schools. Smarick worked as deputy commissioner of education in Chris Christie’s administration in New Jersey and before that worked in the George W. B
Study: Most Teachers Will Never Collect a Pension
Stephen Sawchuk reports in Education Week on a study finding that most teachers will not stay on the job long enough to collect a pension. He writes: “The report from Bellwether Education Partners, a Washington-based consulting group, contends that states’ current defined-benefit pension policies, which pay out according to a fixed formula, are not well aligned with a profession that has grown r
Fred Smith: Parents Should Say NO to Field Tests
Fred Smith is a testing expert in New York City who has been advising parent organizations about their rights and explaining the technicalities of the tests to laymen. He writes here: “There are many reasons to refuse to participate in the field tests. They are summarized here–concerning New York State’s stealthy field testing practices, but having wider application to field testing, in general.
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-20-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: California: The Language Police Are on the Job!A teacher in California sent me the latest state testing guidelines and was disturbed to see the large number of forbidden topics. I was not surprised because in 2003, I published a book called “The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn.” I reported that tes