Parent Power Vs. inBloom; Parents Win, for Now
New York State cut all ties with inBloom, the controversial data-mining project sponsored by the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. The legislature, which totally ignored parent demands for new faces on the New York Board of Regents, bowed to parent protests against the State Education Department’s determination to share confidential student data with inBloom. In this post, Leonie Haim
Chicago Plans to Fire Every Adult in Three Public Schools
Following Arne Duncn’s failed “turnaround” strategy, Chicago Public Schools plans to fire every staff member in three schools. This follows on the heels of closing 50 schools last year. When will Rahm Emanuel end his reign of destruction? Closings by Another Name CPS Wants to Fire Every Adult at McNair, Gresham and Dvorak Elementary Schools On Friday, March 21, The Chicago Board of Education ann
Walton Family Foundation Puts $164 Million into Privatization Movement
The Walton Family Foundation released its list of grantees in the education world, and once again, the foundation put its huge resources into privatizing American public education. The billions that hard-working families spend at Walmart are used to support privately managed charters and vouchers and to undermine democratic local control and traditional public schools. Some of the biggest recipi
Jason Stanford: Texas Battles the Testing Vampire
Jason Stanford is a trustworthy guide to the politics of education in Texas. He keeps close watch on who is paid to lobby for Pearson and notes how hard they work to convince the Legislature that more testing is needed. It is a neat circle. They say the schools are failing. The Legislature slashes the budget for everything but testing. The lobbyists say the test prove the schools are failing and n
Will New Jersey Pay TFA for Inexperienced, Uncertified Teachers?
A resident in Néw Jersey, one of the nation’s highest-performing states, wonders why the Legislature might pay Teach for America to lease inexperienced, uncertified young recruits who promise to stay for only two years: “Members of the NJ legislature are considering a bill that would allocate taxpayer funding for placement of Teach for America recruits into at-risk schools. TFA lobbied these legi
Parent: Why We Opted Our Child Out of State Testing
A parent in New York City explained her family decision to opt out of state testing. “This morning, our fourth grader refused the standardized tests. “After months of research, debate, personal grappling and weighty discussions with our 9-year old child, we have decided that for our family, this mindful act of civil disobedience is the right choice — right for our kid, right for our parental con
Utah: Land of Equality of Austerity
A teacher writes from Utah to explain conditions there: I teach in Utah, the lowest per pupil expenditure state. Ironically, we are also one of the most equitable in funding. We have no money, but ALL of our districts have no money. I have 256 students. That equals out to over 30 for each class but two (out of nine total). HOURS spent grading, calling parents, etc. In my district, we’ve just bee
A Response to Dr. Cashin and Cooper
Drs Cashin & Cooper, Thank you for an insightful article. I wish there was a way for the reformers to absorb this information. Because of the harsh test focused school environments of chronic stress, most children no longer have a “safe haven”. The same seems to apply to their home environment as well, since most parents have become indoctrinated to focus on their child’s “performance”, at th
Correction: United Opt Out Website Still Down, Major Hacking
I reported earlier that the United Opt Out website had been hacked, but that it was fixed and up again. I checked, and there it was. Then I was gone all day because I was lecturing at Syracuse University. When I returned to the hotel, I found this message from Peg Robertson: “Hi Diane, So, even though it looks like the website is up, it isn’t. It’s a ghost site. SuperCache was enabled on the site
Florida’s Voucher Boondoggle Flounders, But Legislators Want More
Florida legislators king to expand vouchers, even though the voters turned down an effort in 2012 to change the state constitution to permit vouchers for religious schools. The measure was defeated 58-42, despite Jeb Bush’s efforts to pass it. An earlier voucher program was struck down as unconstitutional by the state courts. The only current voucher program is for students with disabilities, call
How to Locate United Opt Out
As you may know, the website for United Opt Out was hacked yesterday, and many of its internal files were destroyed. What you will find if you go there is a “ghost site,” not the real thing. In the meanwhile, here is an alternative site to visit as efforts to reatore the original continue: “Diane – do you mind sending folks here https://www.facebook.com/groups/unitedoptout/ in case the “ghost sit
Jeanne Rotunda on the Emotional Lives of Children
Journalist Andrea Gabor graciously offered her blog to retired principal Jeanne Rotunda to reflect on her years as a school leader in New York City. Having worked in a city that became famous for its obsession with testing and data, Rotunda was an oddity. She cared about the emotional life of children. She knew that the children needed kindness and security to be able to concentrate on school. The
Colonialism in Néw Orleans: A Dean Reflects
Julian Vasquez Heilig posted a narrative by the dean of students at a Néw Orleans charter school, describing the harsh treatment meted out to students–especially black males–at the school. The author writes that the best way to understand the tightly structured culture at the charter school was through post-colonial studies. The dean writes: “Are some charters’ practices new forms of colonial h
Jonathan Katz on Some Problems of Common Core Mathematics
Jonathan Katz taught mathematics in grades 6-12 for 24 years and has coached math teachers for the past nine years. He prepared this essay for the New York Performance Standards Consortium, a group of high schools that evaluates students by exhibitions, portfolios, and other examples of student work. The Consortium takes a full array of students and has demonstrated superior results as compared t
YESTERDAY
A Discussion of PARCC Common Core Test Question: Picky and Pointless
The new website testingtalk.org, includes a fascinating discussion of a question on the test. Open the link to tread it. Here was a comment by another teacher: “Today my 24 gems sat down to take the NYS ELA test, book 1, day 1. This test consisted of 5 passages and 30 multiple choice questions. I felt the passages were okay readability, but the questions were unlike anything I’ve ever experience
Thousands of Students in Long Island Opt Out of State Tests
Newsday reports that nearly 6,000 studentsrefused to take the state ELA test on Tuesday. Think how absurd these Common Core tests are. Students in grades 3-8 sit for four hours of reading tests, then four hours of math tests. Why so long? I think the bar exam is shorter. When the scores are eventually reported, the students have a different teacher. The scores are not broken down to show what s
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-1-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Eleven Million Page Views in Less than Two Years!Dear Friends, Today this blog reached the unbelievable number of eleven million page views! I had no idea this would happen when I wrote the first post on April 26, 2012. Thank you for reading. More than that, thank you for participating. Many of you contribute regularly to what must