NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:
NPE News Briefs
from The Network for Public Education
Protest at Harvard over commencement speaker at education school | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Colorado state Sen. Michael Johnston (www.leg.state.co.us/) Dozens of student and alumni at the Harvard Graduate School of Education issued a statement (see below) protesting the selection of Colorado state Sen. Michael Johnston (D) as the school’s 2014 commencement speaker because, they say, he “embraces a vision of education reform that relies heavily ...read more
How to help students of color, 60 years after historic Brown v. Board ruling | The Answer Sheet
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws establishing separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional in the historic case Brown vs. Board of Education. I’ve published a few pieces on the legacy of the decision, here and here. Following is a new piece on where the United States ...read more
60 Years After Brown v. Board, Will Congress Revive a Dual School System? | Diane Ravitch
Congress is considering new charter legislation, awarding more money to the charter sector, which will operate with minimal accountability or transparency. The bill has already passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan majority and now moves to the Senate. Make no mistake: on the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision, Congress is ...read more
Hedge Fund Titans Hum a Happy Tune as They Target Public Schools | BillMoyers.com
This post originally appeared at Too Much. Pharrell Williams has reason to be happy. The singer and music producer has had the world’s hottest pop single over the past six months. His “Happy” has been topping the charts everywhere, from the United States to Lebanon and Bulgaria. If this bouncy ditty keeps selling, Williams might even end up 2014 ...read more
Arizona State Superintendent: More Money for Vouchers and Charters than for Public School Kids | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read more
What Motivates Teachers? Education Reformers Have No Idea | Russ on Reading
You gotta’ admire those education reformers. Despite their almost total lack of experience in education and despite all the research and evidence that flies in the face of their bankrupt ideas, they cling to their ideology like a sloth to a low hanging vine. One area where I think they can come in for particular ...read more
Urban parents NOT waiting for ‘Superman,’ it turns out | philly.com
The mythology about urban charter schools — that the vast majority of city parents would do anything to pull their kid out of public schools and enroll them in a charter — is the central conceit of the controversial documentary “Waiting For Superman.” In recent days, though, parents are showing the “Superman” mythology is just ...read more
Would Linda Brown’s Parents Have Wanted a “Choice” District? | Jersey Jazzman
This weekend is this 60th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education, the landmark case that ended separate but equal public schools. The case was originally brought against the Topeka, Kansas school board by Oliver Brown, the father of Linda, a third grader. Oliver had tried to enroll Linda at their neighborhood school a few ...read more
Where Gates money is going in education world this year | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS May 16 at 4:00 am (Andrew Harrer/BLOOMBERG) Where in the education world has Bill Gates been putting his foundation’s money this year? A look at some of the biggest grants awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — by far the largest philanthropy in the world — shows millions of dollars ...read more
Sydney Miller: Why I Quit TFA in New Orleans | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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 ...read more
Stunning Report Rejects School Closures, Charters, and Paternalism of School Reformers | Jonathan Pelto – Wait What?
Where is Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy, Commissioner Stefan Pryor and their corporate education reform allies taking Connecticut? The following article pulls the curtain aside so we can see. Fellow pro-public education blogger Jan Resseger highlights the findings of a new report released by Journey for Justice, a national coalition dedicated to pushing back the corporate ...read more
Racial segregation returns to US schools, 60 years after the Supreme Court banned it | Paul Thomas – The Conversation
As the United States approaches the 60th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Brown vs the Board of Education Supreme Court judgement that helped outlaw racial segregation in American schools, the mainstream media has begun to confront the fact that segregated schools are not just remnants of history. In 1957, when the governor of Arkansas refused ...read more
The Great Colorado Promise, Not Yet Delivered | Diane Ravitch’s blog
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. ...read more
How Charter Schools and Testing Regimes Have Helped Re-Segregate Our Schools | The Daily Beast
Sure, it’s mostly the courts, but charter schools and testing regimes have reinforced the segregation that’s returned to U.S. school systems. Sixty years ago tomorrow in Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public education is unconstitutional, writing that “in the field of public education, the doctrine ...read more
MAY 15
Leonie Haimson: Six Charter School Myths | Diane Ravitch’s blog
In her testimony to the New York City Council Education Committee, education activist Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters exploded several common myths about charter schools. First is the myth that they are public schools. They are not. They are private corporations with contracts to run schools, exempt from most state laws and from most ...read more
Charter schools ‘must’ comply with U.S. civil rights laws, Education Dept. says (finally) | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS May 15 at 9:58 am Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama (Yuri Gripas/ Reuters) The Obama administration has just released through the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights what it says is “new guidance confirming that the same federal civil rights laws that apply to other public schools apply equally to ...read more
Congratulations Mayor Baraka and Newark! | @ THE CHALK FACE
Congratulations Mayor Ras Baraka! Thank you Newark! Congratulations to all of you who help assume mayoral responsibilities! Ras Baraka and the students, teachers, and families of Newark have risen up and handed a pivotal defeat to corporate reformers. Your grassroots efforts repelled the last minute infusion of cash from the Billionaires’ Boys Club. You took ...read more
Will Bunch: They Will Never Catch the Real Culprits in Philadelphia | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Authorities are closing in on educators who cheated on tests in Philadelphia. But columnists Will Bunch predicts they will never touch the real culprits, the people who designed the system of high-stakes testing. He favors punishing those who cheated, and he agrees tat cheating should never be tolerated. But the true malefactors of test cheating ...read more
US DOE Ambassadors! | CURMUDGUCATION
US Department of Edumacation press release There has been much discussion lately of our Principal Ambassador program, a program in which US DOE-indoctrinated principals are inserted into school settings where they can sort of work for the school district while spreading the good word of Common Core Etc. This was spun off of our successful ...read more
NCLB Was A Failure: PBS Reporter John Merrow Condemns Myopic Fixation on Testing | janresseger
This week John Merrow, the PBS education reporter and columnist, insists that we tell ourselves the truth, even though some of our leaders want to keep pretending that test-based school reform is our path to universal academic prowess. You’ll remember of course, that 2014 is the year the No Child Left Behind Act projected all ...read more
Arne Duncan’s “Principal Ambassadors”: Federally Monitored “Local Control”?? | deutsch29
A notable corporate reform ploy is to starve school districts of funding and then turn around and offer some “assistance”– which amounts to little more than a district’s selling its autonomy to the corporate reform machine. Corporate reform is flush with cash, and it wants to leverage its cash in order to trap school systems ...read more
Pushback on standardized testing around the country getting stronger | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS May 15 at 4:00 am To get an idea of what is going on around the country in regards to the growing anti-standardized testing movement, look at the following collection of stories that have come out in the last week or about the growing resistance around the country to high-stakes standardized testing. ...read more
Senate votes to delay implementation of NECAP in R.I. for 3 years | The Providence Journal
BY LINDA BORG PROVIDENCE, R.I . — The Rhode Island Senate on Wednesday evening approved a bill that would delay implementation of the NECAP test until the Class of 2017. Sen. Adam J. Satchell sponsored the bill in order to give school districts more time to introduce the new Common Core curriculum. In addition, he ...read more
MAY 14
In Harlem, a Demographic Divide: The Neediest Kids Go to Public Schools, Not Charters | Alternet
The real world impact of charter schools on neighboring public options. Last month I published an OpEd in The New York Times, “ Charter School Refugees,” which asked: “Is there a point at which fostering charter schools undermines traditional public schools and the children they serve?” The OpEd looked at Harlem, where nearly a quarter ...read more
The irony in new study that bashes popular teacher evaluation method | The Answer Sheet
They just keep on coming. Last month, a report was released by the American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, that smacked the “value-added method” (VAM) of evaluating teachers that has been embraced by school “reformers” in most states. And now, there’s new research that does the ...read more
Teacher Email To Legislators Draws Harsh Reply | WUNC
By DAVE DEWITT Last week, Sarah Wiles, a science teacher in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools with a master’s degree and six years’ experience, sent an email to every member of the North Carolina General Assembly with the subject line: “I am embarrassed to confess: I am a teacher.” That email is below. Monday morning, Sen. David ...read more
Ras Baraka wins | Bob Braun’s Ledger
Ras Baraka, a high school principal and the son of a poet, yesterday easily defeated a Wall Street-backed promoter of school privatization to become the next mayor of Newark. Baraka’s victory repudiated the policies not just of his rival, Shavar Jeffries, but those of Gov. Chris Christie, former Mayor Cory Booker, and state-appointed superintendent Cami ...read more
Pelto Could Upend Gubernatorial Race As 3rd-Party Candidate | Wait What?
In a major front page story, the Hartford Courant reports on my potential run for governor. The story, written by Jon Lender and Daniela Altimari, opens with; Former Rep. Jonathan Pelto, once a Democratic insider but now a vocal critic of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said Tuesday he plans to form an exploratory campaign committee ...read more
Independent movement carries Ras Baraka to victory in Newark | Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog
Speaking to the crowd, Baraka wished his mother a happy Mother’s Day and said he knew his father, who died in January, was “in the room tonight.” He urged the crowd to “be the mayor” and work for positive change, a reference to one of his campaign slogans, “When I become mayor, we become mayor.” ...read more
Is This the Real Reason that Cuomo Wants a $2 Billion Technology Bond? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
A reader posed this question about Governor Cuomo’s reason for promoting a $2 billion bond for new technology. He wrote this after seeing that Pearson and AIR are dueling over control of PARCC assessments, which will ultimately provide several BILLIONS in revenue to the testing corporation with the contract. Pearson recently won the PARCC contract, ...read more
Our Brilliant Students: Stop Bashing Our Kids | Diane Ravitch’s blog
I used to be one of those people who complained that the younger generation was not as smart as my generation. I met adolescents who had never heard of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” or some other piece of literature that I thought was central to our literary tradition. Or, I noticed that all ...read more
Ras Baraka Wins in Newark: Victory for Baraka, Democracy, and Public Education | janresseger
What happened in Newark, NJ yesterday should matter to you no matter where you live in America. It is the story of the triumph of participatory democracy over a system flooded with money. And if you care about the future of public education, you will be especially interested, because the fate of Newark’s public schools ...read more
Holder, Duncan asked to investigate ‘racially discriminatory’ school closings in New Orleans
This week marks the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that was intended to strike down the “separate but equal” doctrine that codified racism in America’s public schools. You can read a report here about what it has and has not accomplished. Following is an open letter (see ...read more
Salon Notices Charter School $100 Million Scam | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Did you think that the mainstream media would completely ignore major report on $100 million in charter school fraud, corruption, and abuse? I did not see coverage in the Néw York Times or any other print publication. I did not see coverage on the networks or cable news stations. But Salon picked it up. Salon ...read more
The 8 Most Ridiculous Attacks On Public Education In Glenn Beck’s New Book | Alternet
Glenn Beck released a new book last week on everything that is supposedly wrong with education in America. The title, Conform: Exposing the Truth about Common Core and Public Education, gives most of it away. Most people know Glenn Beck from his previous stint on Fox News or from the various media outlets associated with his network, The Blaze. His co-author Kyle ...read more
Is Common Core facing death by a thousand cuts? | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS Criticism of the Common Core State Standards and the implementation of the initiative in most states around the country (which are two different issues, actually) just keeps on coming. Though far-right critics get a great deal of the attention, people on all ends of the political spectrum are thinking through the Core. ...read more
Spring Cleaning | EduShyster
A social justice movement is bringing sweeping change to teachers unions When we last paid a call upon those nemeses of all things excellent, the teachers unions, we found them in a sad and sorry state. Exuding an odeur of mildew and mothballs,even their ability to stifle innovation and lower expectations seemed in doubt. But ...read more
Where Are the Teacher Leaders? | CURMUDGUCATION
Over at EdWeek, Nancy Flanagan is asking “Is genuine teacher leadership dead in the water?” It’s one more way of asking the time-honored question, where the heck are all the teacher leaders? Flanagan has paid her dues on this subject. A Michigan teacher of the year, National Board certified, member of the Teacher Leaders Network ...read more
MAY 13
Report Finds Weak Link Between Value-Added Measures and Teacher Instruction | US News
By Allie Bidwell May 13, 2014 Leave a Comment SHARE A spreading method of teacher performance that places significant importance on student growth measures has a weak to nonexistent link with teacher performance, according to new research published Tuesday. Morgan Polikoff and Andrew Porter, two education experts, analyzed the relationships between “value-added model” (VAM) measures ...read more
The CPS principals revolt: A single spark can start a prairie fire | Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog
She [Byrd-Bennett] can’t “get to the bottom” of it when the culprit is at the top. — Principal Troy LaRaviere A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere for standing up and speaking truth to power. His May 9th letter in the Sun-Times, “Under Emanuel, principals have no voice”, has sparked a firestorm ...read more
A Look Inside What $2M DFER Dollars Is Buying In Newark | Mother Crusader
As I detailed last week, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) spawn Education Reform Now (ERN) dumped over 2 million dollars into the Super PAC called Newark First to defeat unabashed public education supporter, Ras Baraka. I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of bang ERN is getting for their $2 million bucks, so ...read more
TFA: The Kids Are Not Alright | Diane Ravitch’s blog
When asked about Teach for America, I always answer that the recruits are terrific, very smart, very idealistic, but the organization is greedy, self-serving, and power-hungry. This commenter disagrees. He/she thinks that the recruits should know better. She/he thinks that if they are smart, they should know they are being used by an organization that ...read more
Academics call for pause in PISA tests | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS May 13 at 10:27 am Here’s an open letter written by academics and school activists from around the world to Andreas Schleicher, director of the Program of International Student Assessment, known as PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in dozens of countries and individual education systems in math, reading and science every three years. The ...read more
InBloom Is Dead but the Battle for Student Privacy Will Continue | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Benjamin Herold of Education Week describes the short life of inBloom, the audacious venture funded by the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation to the tune of $100 million. The venture collapsed because of parent opposition to sharing their children’s confidential data to a firm that would provide access to vendors of products and services ...read more
MAY 12
Students Push for Greater Voice Under California’s New Funding Formula | Alternet
About 50 student leaders from around California gathered for a hearing at the State Board of Education Thursday to press for greater participation in the state’s new school funding law, known as the Local Control Funding Formula. The event also marked the launch of a statewide campaign aimed at ensuring students have a seat at ...read more
Christine Langhoff: Massachusetts’ “Churnaround” Plan is Not Working | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Reader Christine Langhoff sent the following information about some “turnaround” schools in Massachusetts. Having won “Race to the Top” funding, the state has taken Arne Duncan’s advice to fire everybody and start over, which seems to be his deep thinking on how to improve schools, not through collaboration and steady work, but through fear tactics. ...read more
How Organized Citizens Helped de Blasio Sieze Equity-Driven Public Education as Core Issue | janresseger
by janresseger In the spring 2014 issue of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform’s VUE (Voices in Urban Education Reform), Oona Chaterjee, associate director for New York City organizing at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, introduces a set of articles about how it came to be that mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, ...read more
Under Emanuel, principals have no voice – Chicago Sun-Times
I am the son of a black father from the South Side and a white mother from the North Side. I grew up in Bronzeville and now live in Beverly. I attended five Chicago Public Schools and I’ve taught in every corner of Chicago, in schools that were predominately African-American, Latino-American and European-American. I have ...read more
On Voucher Expansion, “Floridians Will Pay For the Legislature’s Sins For Years” | Scathing Purple Musings
While the propaganda campaign is already underway by Step Up for Students to advance that narrative that more people are for voucher expansion than there really are, the editors of the Tampa Bay Times Extending private school tuition vouchers to the middle class should require a clear vote and thorough debate by the Florida Legislature. ...read more
America’s dangerous education myth: Why it isn’t the best anti-poverty program – Salon.com
Here’s what’s behind the claim that education is the panacea to inequality — and why it has the answer all wrong MATT BRUENIG If you’ve followed the education reform debate in this country, the Finland story should be familiar by now. Almost as if engaged in an elaborate troll, Finland has apparently organized its educational system ...read more
Why the Common Core Standards for Grades K-3 Are Wrong | Diane Ravitch’s blog
A group of early childhood educators explain here why the Common Core is inappropriate for children in grades K-3. This statement is an excerpt from their joint publication “Defending the Early Years.” The first mistake of the Common Core is that it “maps backwards” from what is needed for high school graduation and ignores ...read more
There’s no such thing as the ‘best’ teacher | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS May 12 at 12:00 pm (By Charles Rex Arbogast/ AP) How often do you hear people talk about wanting or having the “best” this or the “best” that and you have to try to stop yourself from rolling your eyes? Here’s a look at why the notion of “best” doesn’t make sense ...read more
Chutzpah in Louisiana: Crazy Crawfish Will Run for State Board Seat | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Jason France, better known in the blogosphere as Crazy Crawfish, plans to run for the seat on the state board of education now held by Chas Roemer, son of a former governor, and brother of the head of the Louisiana charter school association. Jason is one brave man. He is a Crazy Crawfish, and all ...read more
MAY 11
Why Congress Can’t or Won’t Abandon the Failed NCLB | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Thanks to Mercedes Schneider for bringing this article to my attention. If you have ever wondered why Congress refuses to abandon or revise or do anything to the failed No Child Left Behind, this article explains why. NCLB declared that all schools would have 100% proficiency by 2014. Even in 2002, after the ...read more
Who or What is the “American Federation for Children”? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This is news you need to know. The American Federation of Children is a rightwing organization that spends heavily to promote vouchers and to support candidates in state and local races who support vouchers. When Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was under siege for attacking public sector workers, he was honored (along with Michelle Rhee) ...read more
They’re lying about Louis C.K.: He’s right about Common Core — and not a Tea Partyer – Salon.com
Sometimes it takes a comedian to make a serious point. When Louis C.K. went on a Twitter rant about the standardized tests and Common Core State Standards being rolled out in his own children’s public schools, he brought to mind other instances where comedians have broken through the fog of typical policy debate to reflect ...read more
Ras Baraka & Newark’s Last Grasp at Democracy | Jersey Jazzman
If you believe that America is a democracy, you must also believe, a priori, that Newark, NJ, is not part of America. For the last couple of weeks, it has become painfully, disturbingly clear that Newark — like many other communities populated by working-poor and working-class people of color — operates under a set of ...read more
A Valuable Research Tool: The “Way Back Machine” | deutsch29
In exposing corporate reformers at their game, I have found that information sometimes “conveniently” disappears from websites once such information is publicized in a less-than-complimentary blog post. There is a way to view web pages that have been removed or otherwise altered: The “Way Back Machine”: https://archive.org/web/web.php The “Way Back Machine” is a search engine ...read more
MAY 10
Baraka for Newark mayor | Bob Braun’s Ledger
If a city can be a victim, Newark is one. For decades, it has been the victim of an unfair tax system, cynical politicians, suburban dominance of the state Legislature, racism, greed, and a sense that it should be grateful for the pitifully small handouts it gets from the rest of New Jersey. Most other ...read more
America’s Highest Paid Government Worker: Scandalous! | Diane Ravitch’s blog
You have heard about the scandalous salaries and pensions paid to government workers. Here is the top-paid government worker in the nation: Ron Packard, CEO of online virtual charter corporation K12, founded by junk bond king Michael Milken and his brother. Packard was paid $19 million between 2009-13. Packard recently stepped down as CEO to ...read more
Anthony Cody: Why Computers Can’t Grade Student Essays | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The new frontier of education consists of figuring out a way to cut costs. Or, failing that, figuring out a way to make money for investors while laying off teachers. That brings us to the subject of computer-graded essays. Think of the savings if a computer can grade essays so teachers can do something else ...read more
America’s Highest Paid Government Worker: Scandalous! | Diane Ravitch’s blog
You have heard about the scandalous salaries and pensions paid to government workers. Here is the top-paid government worker in the nation: Ron Packard, CEO of online virtual charter corporation K12, founded by junk bond king Michael Milken and his brother. Packard was paid $19 million between 2009-13. Packard recently stepped down as CEO to ...read more
Is TFA Recruiting in the Bathrooms at the University of Michigan? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
A blogger named Democracy Tree reports that TFA is putting up recruitment posters in the toilets at the University of Michigan. Probably it is to recruit teachers for the financially strapped Educational Achievement Authority, where 27% of the teachers are TFA. The blogger reports: “Yep, that’s Teach For America (TFA) hustling young adults while they ...read more
Common Core a Jeb Bush Federal Power Grab? Of Course It Is | Scathing Purple Musings
The Northwest Florida Daily News which serves a three-county republican stronghold takes a sober look at Common Core Standards and the role that former Florida governor Jeb Bush has played. After dryly pointing out “Common Core isn’t really going away in Florida, just the name, ” the editors offer this: …the real question is not whether ...read more