Wait What?:
Wait What? All Week
In her latest blog post, Diane Ravitch, the nation’s leading public education advocate provides us with yet another reminder about why politicians like Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy should should be ashamed of what he has done to our public school teachers and our public schools… Florida Teacher Donates $400 Bonus to NPE to Fight VAM […] The post Politicians pushing corporate education reform shoul
Malloy brags about his support for $10.10 minimum wage, but takes campaign money from Wal-Mart
If you’ve been getting Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s recent campaign emails you know that the incumbent Governor is using his recent support for a higher minimum wage to raise money for his re-election campaign. What doesn’t show up in those emails is the fact that the Malloy campaign operation accepted a $5,000 check, last October, from […] The post Malloy brags about his support for $10.10 minimum wage,
Still more standardized testing? Listen to the youth by Jacob Werblow
Jacob Werblow, Ph.D., is a former standardized test developer and urban classroom teacher. He is an associate professor of Teacher Education at Central Connecticut State University. Jacob lives in New Britain with his wife and two girls, who will be opting out of high-stakes standardized tests. Jacob Werblow has a great commentary piece in CTMirror […] The post Still more standardized testing? Lis
YESTERDAY
Test Season Reveals America’s Biggest Failures (By Jeff Bryant)
Fellow pro-public education advocate and blogger Jeff Bryant runs the Education Opportunity Network, one of the nation’s leading advocacy groups in the battle to beat back the corporate education reform industry and take back control of our public education system. By signing up on the Education Opportunity Network’s website will not only be adding your […] The post Test Season Reveals America’s
Malloy’s double dipping campaign finance gravy train
By participating in Connecticut’s public financing system, Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy will receive $6,500,400 in public funds to pay for his 2014 re-election effort…. Yes, that number is Six Million, Five Hundred Thousand, Four Hundred Dollars. As readers know, public campaign finance systems were designed to take “big money” out of politics. By agreeing to […] The post Malloy’s double dipping
APR 10
Corporate Education Reform Industry pours money into Malloy campaign operation
Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy is the most anti-teacher, anti-public education Democratic governor in the nation…And to see how appreciative the corporate education reform industry is, one need only look at Malloy’s campaign fundraising program which has already raised more than $100,000 from the anti-public education industry. As a participant in Connecticut’s public financing system, candidate […]
“When we buy something, we should get what we pay for”
Ann Policelli Cronin is a consultant in English education for school districts and university schools of education. She has taught middle and high school English, was a district-level administrator for English, taught university courses in English education, and was assistant director of the Connecticut Writing Project. She was Connecticut Outstanding English Teacher of the Year […] The post “When
Yet another example that the Common Core isn’t all it claims to be
Teacher and CT News Junkie columnist Barth Keck has written another insightful commentary piece about the Common Core. The article is entitled, “Common Core Appears to Miss the Boat on Common Technology. “ Keck writes, …public schools are gearing up for the Common Core, national principles designed to “establish clear, consistent guidelines for what every student […] The post Yet another example
APR 09
Major new study finds Connecticut Charter Schools discriminate
Connecticut Voices for Children, the New-Haven based, nationally recognized policy research organization has issued a major new report entitled, “Choice Watch: Diversity and Access in Connecticut’s School Choice Programs.” The CT Voices report is the most extensive, independent study that has been conducted about the performance of charter schools, magnet schools and other school choices […] The p
Hartford Courant story highlights bizarre effort to privatize Clark Elementary School.
A Hartford Courant article entitled, Hartford School Board Asks Education Commissioner To ‘Impose’ Turnaround Plan reveals some of the contradictions and bizarre actions taken by the Malloy administration, Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra, senior Hartford board of education officials, and corporate education reform industry advocacy groups in Hartford. The Hartford Courant reports, “Despite objections
APR 08
Malloy administration and Hartford Mayor team up to undermine American Federation of Teachers and Clark Elementary
When Paul Hozler, the Executive Director of the corporate funded education reform group Achieve Hartford! wrote to two high-ranking Hartford Board of Education administrators that he was concerned that, “…The [Clark] parents seem to be playing into the pockets of the AFT,” Hozler revealed far more than he probably meant to about the strategy behind […] The post Malloy administration and Hartford
Trumbull postpones Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Testing for juniors
Only 26 of Trumbull High School’s 530 juniors showed up to take last Friday’s Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Test of a test. Earlier in the week, only 47 (less than 10 percent) of the town’s high school juniors participated in that day’s portion of the test. In response, Trumbull has postponed this week’s Common […] The post Trumbull postpones Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Test
APR 07
NEWS FLASH: Its official – choice means Friendship Charter School or nothing
In a brazen effort to hand over Hartford’s Clark Elementary School to Friendship Charter Schools of Washington D.C. and divert more scarce public funds to another out-of-state charter school management company, a special meeting of the Hartford Board of Education has suddenly been called for tomorrow to approve a resolution “requesting” that Stefan Pryor, Governor […] The post NEWS FLASH: Its offi
APR 06
History Repeats Itself (Guest post by Alyce Roberts, Ed.D)
One of the primary benefits of having an extraordinary group of readers is that they bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding to the debate. A growing number are stepping forward to comment on blog posts or offering up their own guest posts in the on-going effort to educate, persuade and mobilize teachers, parents, public […] The post History Repeats Itself (Guest post by Alyce Roberts, Ed.D
Clark Elementary School parents played like puppets
As Wait, What? readers will recall, first came the effort to hand Hartford’s Clark Elementary School over to Achievement First, Inc., the charter school management company formed by Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor. When parents, teachers and the Hartford Federation of Teachers fought back, the backroom deal between Pryor, his State Department of […] The post Clark Element
Susan Ohanian – “On 21st Century Drones, Destroyers and Teachers”
Teacher, author, and public school advocate Susan Ohanian is one of the nation’s leading voices in the battle to take back control of the public education system from the corporate education reform industry. She is also a winner of the NCTE George Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. You can […] The post Susan Ohanian – “On 21st Century Drones, Destroyer
APR 05
Sarah Darer Littman’s MUST READ – “A Discouraging Day for Democracy and Education.”
In her latest CT News Junkie column, Sarah Darer Littman confronts those that are celebrating their latest efforts to buy up the public policy making process at the federal and state level. In Washington it was the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the McCutcheon v. FEC case that removes the limit on the amount of […] The post Sarah Darer Littman’s MUST READ – “A Discouraging Day for Democracy and E
State Board of Education is tone-deaf to needs of the children
Wendy Lecker, fellow public school advocates and columnist has done it again! In here latest MUST READ column published in this weekend’s Stamford Advocate and other Hearst media outlets, Wendy shines the light of truth on the Malloy administration’s unrelenting effort to undermine and privatize Connecticut public education system. Day after day, week after week, […] The post State Board of Educat