Reflections on Brown
I am writing this from my hospital bed. I am at a rehab center after getting a total knee replacement. I keep thinking how dumb I was. I didn’t hold the railing as I went downstairs and landed full-force on my knee, tearing out every major ligament. Now there is some titanium thing in there, a long row of metal staples, and standing on that leg is painful, almost as painful as bending it. All day
Rally to Save Public Education, Saturday, March 17, 2 pm, New York City
Taking Back OUR Schools Rally & March – NYC Metro May 17 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm “Declaration, Protest, Successes, and Call to Action” Calling all NYC Metro Area community activists, the “voices of resistance”, families, students, civil rights advocates, voters, immigrant families, policymakers and legislators, union members, teachers, faith leaders, and all communities that believe in a good publ
Your Chance to See “Rise Above the Mark” in Chicago!
The marvelous film, created by educators, “Rise Above the Mark,” will be shown at Mary Gage Peterson Elementary School, 5510 N. Christiana Ave, Chicago on Thursday May 29th at 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm. Following each viewing there will be a panel discussion about the challenges raised and any action steps we can take. Please help us spread the word. Thank you! “Rise Above the Mark” was made by public
Arizona State Superintendent: More Money for Vouchers and Charters than for Public School Kids
Arizona’s public schools are among the most severely underfunded schools in the nation. Arizona has the misfortune of having a state superintendent who doesn’t like public education. If it was up to John Huppenthal, he would give everyone a voucher and shut down public education. As it happens, students who go to charter schools get more funding than those in public s hools. Vouchers were supp
Pearson: We Need Better PR
Pearson, the multi-billion British publisher, plans to launch a new PR offensive to push back against the anti-testing and anti-Common Core groundswell. Pearson has been steadily buying up every aspect of Americamn education: it recently won the contract to Axminster the Commin Core test called PARCC, which is worth at least $1 billion; states using Pearson tests buy Pearson textbooks; Pearson bou
GOOD NEWS: NC Court Overturns State Law Ending Tenure
North Carolina Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood ruled that the state’s effort to eliminate teacher tenure was unconstitutional. “Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood ruled this morning that the state’s repeal of teacher tenure, also known as “career status,” and the 25 percent contract system that would award temporary employment contracts to those who relinquish their tenure, are both un
Laura Chapman: Gates and Arne Love Big Data
Reader Laura Chapmam reminds us that the corporate-government combine wants Big Data. The demise of inBloom is only one stop in a long journey that invokes hundreds of millions of dollars and a foundational belief that what can be measure matters most: Chapman writes: The bare bones infrastructure for data-mongering was expanding in 1990, jump-started by a concerted effort to standardize vocabul
Anthony Cody: How Will Big Data Transform Education?
Anthony Cody recently read Simon Head’s Mindless: Why Smarter Machines Are Making Dumber Humans. This book, Cody says, shows how society is organized to benefit corporations, not people. He then includes a video clip from the CEO of Knewton, who claims that education is ripe for data mining. He says: “Education happens to be the world’s most data minable industry by far. And its not even close….
Parents and Educators to Protest Cuomo-Anti-Public Education Agenda
Say NO to Cuomo’s Anti-Public Education Agenda. Cuomo’s heart belongs to the hedge fund managers. He does not care about public school kids. He is the lobbyist for the charter industry. PROTEST CUOMO’S FAILING EDUCATION AGENDA AT DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION! Come protest at the Dem state convention where Cuomo will be re-nominated for Governor a week from Thursday! PROTEST GOVERNOR CUOMO’S FAILING EDUCA
New York Daily News: Telling the Truth about Charters
While the New York Times and the New York Post continue to recycle the press releases about the awesomeness of charter schools. One newspaper’s reporters tell the unvarnished story. While the editorial board of the New York Daily News, owned by billionaire Mort Zuckerman, continues to dispense charter Kool-aid, the reporters at the News distinguish themselves by writing story after story about out
The Great Colorado Promise, Not Yet Delivered
Four years ago, I was in Colorado to discuss education policy. This was in the heady early days of Race to the Top (which Colorado did not win, despite its whole-hearted embrace of everything Arne Duncan wanted). On one occasion, I was scheduled to debate State Senator Michael Johnston, the darling of the “reform” crowd. Johnston had written a bill that was coming to a vote that very day. His bill
Sydney Miller: Why I Quit TFA in New Orleans
Just as there have been many public resignations by teachers in public schools who feel beaten down by mandates and by the high-stakes testing regime, there is now an emerging genre of TFA resignation letters. This one, by Sydney Miller, is poignant and beautifully written. The question that all these statements pose is larger than the situation of the individual. We should all wonder, as we read
Gerri K. Songer Compares ACT and PARCC and Finds They Both Are Rotten
Gerri Songer compares ACT and PARCC and finds them both wanting , both developmentally inappropriate. She begins that she used to think that ACT “is a dreadful attempt to assess student learning. Now that PARCC has hit the scene, ACT is beginning to look significantly better!” Songer shows that both tests are beyond the cognitive levels of most high school students. She then argues: “Albert Eins
5-15-14 LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH Diane Ravitch's blog #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: NYC: A Teacher Explains the Utter Uselessness of High-Stakes TestingAt a rally against high-stakes testing in New York City, high school teacher Rosie Frascella explains the uselessness of high-stakes tests. The students get no feedback about what they did well and where they need to improve. As their teacher, she learns nothing ab