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Schools Matter All Week
Steve Hinnefeld Reviews Hoosier School Heist: Unions Unite NOW
by Doug MartinSteve Hinnefeld has posted a review of my book Hoosier School Heist on his blog, School Matters. Please read his review and check out his other pieces, too. Here is an excerpt from Steven's review: "Martin has a Ph.D. in literature, has taught in universities and published a book of Walt Whitman criticism. He can turn a phrase, and he can bring out the drama in a right-vs.-wr
YESTERDAY
As Pearson Tag Teams with Microsoft for Common Core Curriculum in Urban America, Weingarten Attacks Conservatives for Attacking the Common Core
Randi Weingarten has arrived at the most delusional and convoluted logic yet to deflect from her continuing support of CorpEd's centerpiece strategy for more lucrative testing, corporate professional development, and corporate canned curriculum. Weingarten has this quote in the New York Times today in a puff piece on Common Core resistance: “The Tea Party is using the frustration with the impl
Doug Martin's Letter to the Anderson Herald Bulletin
222 WordsI find it highly depressing and even insulting that your newspaper did not cover May 28’s Rise Above the Mark movie event at Anderson High School in support of public education. After the screening, I was a member of the panel which consisted of Dr. Rocky Killion, the supt. of West Lafayette Community Schools, state representative Terri Austin, Daleville teacher Melanie Wright, and educ
MAY 29
KIPP Offers Fast Track: Apply Before Midnight, or Whenever
An "invitational" is defined as a competition open only to those invited. In this odd case below, KIPP, Inc. is exclusively inviting any warm body to apply at their Bay Area franchise, where 40-60 percent of students never make it from 5th to 8th grade and where the average teacher lasts 1-2 years. If you are looking for a teaching job next year, you may see this on the Web or ads like
Legislators File Open Records Request for Huffman Decision Trail to Delay State Test Results
On the day that TCAP scores were to be released in Tennessee, Kevin Huffman's team of TFA lawyers in Nashville called a quick "put down your pencils" timeout just before reporters were ready to write about this year's state test results. In a scurry to make sure that "post-test equating" had been done "properly," local systems were left holding the bag, since TCAP is
MAY 28
Nevada Dad Asked to Pay $10,194 to See Common Core Data on His Children
Bill Gates is a master at using his calculated generosity to make the world dependent upon the technologies that his drones are engineering and his worker bees are mass producing. Common Core’s move to online testing and the federal extortion efforts to require massive data collection systems on students and teachers are but two small examples. If the oligarchs get their way, by the time your ki
MAY 27
Central Office Administrator Admits: "it is almost impossible to get a charter school like KIPP closed"
Posted at Memphis Schools Matter:Since I was recently denied visitation to any of the KIPP schools in Memphis, I have considered a number of strategies that may help get me access. Today I talked with a very nice individual at Central Offices of Shelby County Schools (SCS). I explained that I had been denied the opportunity to visit any of the KIPP campuses for observation purposes and that no r
Weingarten and Van Roekel Represent the Antithesis of Social Justice Unionism
Bob Peterson has in interesting piece at Common Dreams on the need to move teachers' unions toward social justice principles and practices. I could not agree more.However, near the bottom of the piece, Peterson offers this fabrication, or thought disorder, claiming that Weingarten and Van Roekel represent and promote social justice:Support for these types of move towards social justice unionism a
MAY 26
KIPP: ". . .it's almost like a cult"
Bill was an experienced urban teacher when he came to Memphis to teach at KIPP. Like other teachers I have interviewed, he found himself so compromised and burned out that he did not last very long. When he unexpectedly was offered an opportunity in another state, he bailed. Here are a few excerpts from our conversation: INTERVIEWER: How do you think KIPP achieves its purpose and its aims?BI
KIPP Gets $20 Million in Tax Dollars As Nashville Continues to Delay Action on Public Housing Rebuild
Mayor Karl Dean started the money ball rolling toward KIPP, Inc. in 2010, even as Metro public schools were using garbage cans to catch rain water from leaky roofs and children were forced to have lunch in hallways. Dean committed 10 percent of Metro's 4 year capital improvement funds for schools to this one project.Four years later, the new KIPP Academy is about to open after the City used over
Opposition the Common Core is More than Opposition to Testing
"Promoters of Common Core say that it is designed to make America’s children 'college and career ready.' We instead judge Common Core to be a recipe for standardized workforce preparation." --132 Catholic ProfessorsWith the Chicago Teachers Union now officially in opposition to Common Core, Randi Weingarten is in a big PR push to do what she can to save the CC for her plutocratic po
MAY 25
SKrashen: The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty.
SKrashen: The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty: Comment on " Education Needs to Change as Fast as Technology," by Zack Sims. Posted at http://www.forbes.c...
Jim Crow Rides Again
From Aljazeera America:by Daniel Denvir @danieldenvirThe Supreme Court ruled 60 years ago this May 17 in Brown v. Board of Education that “segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation,” is unconstitutional.The ruling abolished the explicitly mandated segregation made infamous in
To Forbes: The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty.
Comment on "Education Needs to Change as Fast as Technology," by Zack Sims. Posted athttp://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2014/05/23/education-needs-to-change-as-fast-as-technology/Mr. Sims hasn't done his homework. He points out that the "US is ranked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. is 31st in math achievement, 24th in science, and 21st in
MAY 24
Keeping Your Children's Data Out of the Corporate Government Cloud
As the death worshippers of Washington and Wall Street move us closer to the end of civilization in order to grow profits for the oligarchs, resistance will be organized at every level to disrupt and shut down the institutional data systems that will be used to rationalize which of the spreading pockets of individual and collective deprivation and genocide will be allowed. Test scores and "c
