Breaking News: For-Profit Charter Corporation Out in Muskegon Heights, Michigan
It seems like only yesterday that Governor RickSnyder appointed an emergency manager for the public schools of Muskegon Heights, which were running a deficit. The emergency manager turned the district over to Mosaica, a for-profit charter chain. But Mosaica didn’t make a profit, instead they ran a deficit, and their contract has been canceled“. “Muskegon Heights Public Schools Emergency Manager
Michael Fiorillo: Reformers’ Game Plan
Reader Michael Fiorillo deciphers the corporate reformers’ game plan: The Final Solution to the Teacher Question: - Proclaim austerity for the public schools, while continuing to expand charters. - Create incentives for non-educators to be in positions of power, from Assistant Principal on up. - Maintain a climate of scapegoating and witch hunting for “bad teachers,” who are posited as the cause o
NY Times: Walton Family Foundation Funds Charter Movement
Readers if this blog have long known that the Billionaires Boys Club has pledged its allegiance to the privatization of American public education. Among the Billionaires Boys Club, we include the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foubdation, the Walton Family Foundatioon, and hedge fund managers. They are allied with ALEC and other rightwing “think” tanks, all of which are in live with charters and vouc
Another Charter School Failure in Philadelphia
Philadelphia has experienced a long string of charter school failures. Here is another one, in trouble both financially and academically. Yet The business and civic leadership, egged on by the Boston Consulting Group, wants to close more public schools and open more charter schools. Haven’t they figured out that deregulation and lack of supervision are not strategies for education reform, but o
Does Anyone Still Believe in VAM? The “Center for American Progress” Does.
Despite the fact that major scholarly organizations have debunked value-added measurement as a way of identifying and quantifying teacher quality, there are still a few lonely defenders of VAM. There is the U.S. Department of Education, which bet nearly $5 billion on VAM. There is the Gates Foundation, which has bet hundreds of millions on VAM. There are stragglers here and there. And then there i
Robert Shepherd on Apathy about the Death of Competition for Education Materials
It is curious that duo many supporters of the Common Core standards want choice among schools but celebrate the standardization and lack of choice among suppliers of education materials. They want to multiply choices of schools while standardizing learning and standing back while only two, perhaps three at most, mega-publishers create nearly identical products for the nation’s students and schools
Product Placement on Pearson Exams: Coincidental?
Lace to the Top, an activist group of educators and parents in New York opposed to high-stakes testing, became curious about the appearance of certain commercial products on the state’s mandated exams. Edith Balthazar, a New York City public school parent and freelance editor, thought the product placements were too blatant to be an accident. The exams were created by Pearson, the giant British
Bill Phillis: Past Time to Investigate the Ohio Virtual Academy
The NCAA recently announced that it would not recognize credits from 24 virtual charters, all run by K12. One of them is the Ohio Virtual Academy. Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coslition writes: National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA): Will not accept credits from Ohio Virtual Academy after 2013-2014 school year The credits from Ohio Virtual Academy, (OVA) operated by Michae
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 4-26-14 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGSchneider Corrects Ezra Klein about PARCCEzra Klein has set up a new website, vox.com, wherein he praises the federally-funded test Common Core test called PARCC—which is now being field-tested–and declares that it is “working.” Mercedes Schneider begs to differ. She says the main way it is working is to make millions for