Breaking News: Florida League of Women Voters Releases Bombshell Charter Study
The Florida League of Women Voters just released a bombshell study of charters across the state. The study shows that charter schools do not perform better than public schools; that charters are more segregated than public schools; that many charters funnel money to religious organizations; that a significant number of charters operate for profit; and that the charter industry has captured control
Cleveland Elementary School: Why Close an Excellent School?
Cleveland Elementary School in upstate Cleveland, New York, was once designated a “failing school.” But with a united community and hard work, the school improved and was named a Blue Ribbon school of excellence in 2010. It was recognized again in 2013. It continues to enjoy strong community support, but the Central Square Board of Education decided to close the school because of declining enrollm
Beardsley Reviews Huffman’s Claims About Tennessee
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, one of our nation’s pre-eminent experts on value-added assessment, here reviews a TED-X talk by Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman, boasting of the tremendous growth in test scores as a result of his policies. Beardsley points out the curious fact that Tennessee started using VAM in the 1990s with little to show for it. But, there were those Tennessee NAEP s
Heilig: A Tribute to Maya Angelou
Julian Vasquez Heilig here recalls some of the words of Maya Angelou, one of our nation’s greatest writers. She was born in 1928 in St. Louis, raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I met this great woman once, when she spoke at the 100th anniversary dinner of the New York Public Library. She said that the beauty of the public library was that its great
A Hero in Los Angeles: Stuart Magruder
When I first learned that Superintendent John Deasy planned to spend as much as $1billion to equip everyone in theLos Angeles school district with iPads for Common Core testing, I was amazed that the district could afford such a large expenditure. Then I learned from reading Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times that TE district would pay for the iPads from a 25-year construction bond fund approve
Help Sponsor Researchers to Study Failure of Vouchers in Chile
Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas is trying to raise funding to take a research team to Chile to study the failure of the voucher progr. He needs your help. Tickets cost either $1,000 round trip or 30,000-60,000 frequent flyer miles. Please consider sponsoring a member of his research team. We can learn from what happened in Chile. With so many states adopting voucher plan
Thankful for John Ewing
John Ewing wrote a brilliant article called “Mathematical Intimidation.” If you haven’t read it, please do. It demolishes VAM. He calls on mathematicians to speak out. And at Brown, we read here, he spoke out: “John Ewing, Executive Director of the American Mathematical Society and President of Math for America, was the speaker at a Brown commencement forum today. He spoke to a packed audience on
Jon Pelto Exploratory Committee for Governor of Connecticut Is Open
Jon Pelto has taken the first steps towards running for Governor of Connecticut. He has formed an exploratory committee to determine strategy and a course of action. If you want to help Jon, the information is available in this post. In a democracy, anyone should be able to run for office, but the process is so cumbersome and expensive that it discourages those like Jon who don’t have access to v
Peter Greene: Don’t Blame Obama for Failure of CCSS
Conservatives who support the Common Core like to blame Obama for making it radioactive. They say that if he and Arne had stayed out, CC would have been non-controversial. Their involvement awakened the Tea Party and others who reflexively dismiss whatever Obama is for. Peter Greene says balderdash. “It’s Obama’s fault. “The state-led initiative was chugging right along, moving forward without a
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-27-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: New Mexico: Another VAM DisasterThus far, the concept of VAM–or value-added measurement–has an unbroken record of failure. Wherever it has been tried, it has proven to be inaccurate and unstable. Teacher and student records are erroneous. Teachers are judged based on students they never taught. VAM demoralizes teachers, who underst