Diane Ravitch's blog
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG
DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG
Colorado State Board Race: Will Big Money Win Again?
Colorado and Denver are very friendly territory for corporate reformers. They have poured big money into state and local school board races. It has one of the nation’s most extreme teacher-evaluation laws, with 50% of teachers’ rating based on test scores. The law was written by State Senator Michael Johnston (ex-TFA). U.S. Senator Michael Bennett is a stalwart of corporate reform. In recent elect
Connecticut: Charter School CEO Resigns
Michael Sharpe resigned as CEO of The Jumoke Academy, which runs charter schools in Connecticut and plans to expand to Baton Rouge, after revelations that he had been convicted of felonies many years ago and that he did not have a doctorate degree, as he had claimed. One of the schools managed by Jumoke, the Milner elementary school, will be returned to the Hartford public schools. “On Saturday,
Samuel Abrams, a researcher at Teachers College, Columbia University, was named a knight by the Finnish government. “The honor was bestowed before family, friends, and colleagues in recognition of Abrams’s advancement of the understanding of Finnish education in the United States. Abrams has conducted a vast amount of research on Nordic as well as American education systems. Much of this research
Robert Reich: The Three Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Poverty
A coalition of billionaires, millionaires, corporations, and hedge fund managers have decided that the best way to cure poverty is to fire teachers whose students don’t get higher test scores. This coalition–whose leaders include Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, ALEC, and others associated with corporate reform, know that it is lots cheaper to blame teachers than to do anything that will really reduce
Peter Greene: If Competition Is So Great, Then Why….?
I am tempted to apologize for posting Peter Greene so often, but I won’t. He is consistently on the mark. In this post he wonders about a glaring inconsistency in the corporate reform project. The reformers love competition. They want students to compete. They want teachers to compete. They want schools to compete. But when it come to the Common Core, they want all states to have the same standa
Why Kentucky Dropped the PARCC Test
When Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced he was withdrawing the state from the PARCC tests, he expressed concern about competitive bidding, among other things. He was not the only one to have this issue. At the beginning of 2014, Kentucky decided to withdraw from the PARCC testing consortium. PARCC is one of two federally funded testing groups aligned to the Common Core. Kentucky’s main de
YESTERDAY
Breaking News: R.I. House of Representatives Passes 3-Year Ban on High-Stakes Graduation Test
In a big victory for the Providence Student Union, the Rhode Island House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a three-year moratorium on the use of a high-stakes graduation test. The vote was 63-3. A similar bill was passed earlier by the State Senate. The legislation now goes to Governor Lincoln Chafee. The PSU engaged in numerous acts of political theater to demonstrate their opposition to
Connecticut: Charter School CEO Does Not Have Doctorate, As Claimed
Yesterday, it was revealed by the media that the CEO of one of Connecticut’s charter chains, Michael Sharpe, has a criminal background. Today the story emerged that he does not have a doctorate, although the chain’s website refers to him as “Dr. Sharpe.” Perhaps of greater significance is that his charter school in Hartford did not enroll a single bilingual student in six years. Sharpe says he nev
D.C. Suspends Use of Test Scores in Teacher Evaluations
The District of Columbia has suspended the use of test scores as part of teacher evaluations, a practice which was the hallmark of Michelle Rhee’s tenure as chancellor of that district and which led to the firing of hundreds of teachers. Chancellor Kaya Henderson said the district needs time to phase in new Common Core tests. “Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the decision, saying officials ar
Poll: Nearly Half of Public Never Heard of CCSS
You know those national standards that were “developed by the governors” and “state-led”? A new poll shows that nearly half the public never heard of them. When asked whether they like the idea of standards that are globally competitive and the same everywhere, 27% said they “strongly support” the idea. Problems arise with implementation and testing. Also with early childhood education. And fla
Breaking News: Florida Governor Scott Signs Voucher Expansion Bill
Governor Rick Scott signed legislation to expand the state’s voucher program, despite the opposition of the state’s PTA associations, the NAACP, the teachers’ unions, and the League of United Latin American Citizens. Critics said the vouchers would drain resources from public schools. The voucher expansion was a high priority for former Governor Jeb Bush, who is a power in the state. Rita Solnet,
What Is a College Degree?
Eduardo Porter, a business columnist for the New York Times, writes enthusiastically about a new and inexpensive way to “skip college.” He writes: “This week, AT&T and Udacity, the online education company founded by the Stanford professor and former Google engineering whiz Sebastian Thrun, announced something meant to be very small: the “NanoDegree.” “At first blush, it doesn’t appear like
Pedro Noguera Defends Teacher Tenure in Wall Street Journal
Pedro Noguera went to the lions’ den, the Wall Street Journal, to explain why the corporate reformers’ crusade to eliminate teacher tenure is wrong-headed (the article is unfortunately behind a paywall). The WSJ, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is a bastion of anti-teacher, anti-public education thinking, whose writers consistently support vouchers, Teach for America, and anything else that disrupts publ
David Sirota: The Big Money and Profits Behind the Charter Movement
Investigative journalist David Sirota asks why so many of the super-rich love charter schools. The answer, with exceptions: profits and money and union-busting, all rolled in one. Take Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark. At least $20 million went to consultants. Consultants! Sirota writes: “But, of course, a lot of corporate execs working for the firms who got Zuckerberg’s money did
Alan Singer Responds to Supporters of edTPA
Alan Singer of Hostra University in New York wrote a critique of edTPA, a new assessment of student teachers, which was posted here. He called it “The Big Lie Behind High Stakes Testing of Student Teachers.” A group of faculty at the City University of New York wrote to explain why they support edTPA, and it was posted here. In a new article, Alan Singer writes that “edTPA is currently being imp
President Obama: We Must Strengthen Unions
This is one of the strangest stories of the week or month or year. President Obama spoke in Pittsburgh about the importance of strengthening unions. Unions are under siege and have been for several years, but I can’t remember when the President stepped up to defend them.
JUN 19
New York: Parents Outraged by Cuomo’s Deal on Tests: What About the Children?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 19, 2014 More information contact: Eric Mihelbergel (716) 553-1123; nys.allies@gmail.com Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com NYS Allies for Public Education http://www.nysape.org Parents Outraged by APPR Albany Deal that Ignores the Children The deal reached today by Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature regarding minimizing the impact of Common
Louisiana: Who Is in Charge? The Saga Continues.
Governor Bobby Jindal says he will not ask for John White’s resignation. They disagree. Jindal says the state is dropping Common Core and pulling out of the PARCC test. White says the governor is wrong. White says the state is staying in Common Core and PARCC. The governor has canceled funding for PARCC and called for an audit of the state department of education. Stay tuned.
Cuomo Shapes Compromise to Shield Low-Rated Teachers from Common Core Evaluations
Governor Cuomo reached a compromise with teachers’ unions and legislators to protect teachers who received the lowest ratings on the Common Core tests. Such teachers will not be evaluated by the tests. Only 1% of the state’s teachers were rated ineffective. What this deal really means is that a meaningless and deeply flawed teacher evaluation system, cobbled together to get Race to the Top funding
Federal Prosecutors Investigate Governor Scott Walker
According to newly released documents, “prosecutors believe Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 Republican candidate for president, was at the center of a nationwide “criminal scheme” to illegally coordinate fundraising with outside conservative groups, according to previously secret court documents released Thursday.”
Ohio: Another Charter School Closing
From Bill Phillis of the Ohio Adequacy and Equity Coalition: Another charter school will close down: corruption, ethics, nepotism and poor performance, at issue. The superintendent of the VLT Academy, a charter school of 600 some students, was making $140,000 per year; her daughter was making $92,000 per year for data entry; and her husband was making $62,000 in addition to running his company th
Shaun Johnson: What’s Behind the Attack on Tenure?
Shaun Johnson, an elementary school teacher, explains the attack on tenure and details what reformers would do of they really cared about teachers or children or the quality of education. He writes: “Obsessions with teacher tenure, or tenure in any academic profession, is all about union busting, and flipping the teaching profession into an unprofessional, short-term, part-time, scab workforce.
Why Privatization of Public Services Harms Society
You will find this publication of great interest at this time. It is titled “Race to the Bottom: How Outsourcing Public Services Rewards Corporations and Punishes the Middle Class.” It was written by a group called “In the Public Interest.” The full PDF file is available for free. Here is the executive summary: “As state and local governments outsource important public functions to for-profit a
New Orleans: The Other Side of the Story
Here is the latest from New Orleans, as locals try to tell “the other side of the story” from what you see in the national media. Dr. Raynard Sanders is an educator who is affiliated with Research on Reforms. Phoebe Ferguson is a co-founder of the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation for Education, Preservation, and Outreach. “Dear Friends and Colleagues, “For the past two years Phoebe Ferguson and I
TFA Members Want to Open a “Model” Rural Charter School in Tennessee
Tracy O’Neill is a mom and education activist in rural Cheatham County, Tennessee. This pleasant community is now riven by a controversy, as TFA corps members seek approval to open a charter school to compete with the public schools. Aside from the financial cost to the community, the charter school will divide community support for the local schools. Tracy is running for a seat on the local schoo
Horton: Not a Conspiracy Theory: The Gates Foundation Bought Control of U.S. Education
A year ago, Paul Horton wrote a letter to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, asking him to conduct hearings on the Common Core and Race to the Top, and specifically to inquire about the role of the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation in shaping federal education policy. Nothing happened. Now that the world knows that the Gates Foundation, working in alliance with the U.S. Department of Education, unde
JUN 18
Louisiana: Jindal vs. White on Common Core
Louisiana is the site for education dramas. Today began a new one. Governor Bobby Jindal announced that the state was pulling out of Common Core and the PARCC assessment consortia. PARCC is one of two federally funded testing consortia aligned to the CCSS. No sooner did Governor Jindal make his announcement than State Commissioner John White issued a press release affirming that the state was con
Questions Raised About Criminal Background of Connecticut Charter Leader
The leader of a charter chain in Connecticut has a criminal record, but no one ever asked him about his background, he says. The Hartford Courant reported: “Criminal convictions and past imprisonment of Michael M. Sharpe, the CEO of a charter school organization that receives millions in taxpayer funds, are worrying Hartford and state officials – who said Wednesday they hadn’t known of his record
Karin Klein: Clarifying the L.A. Times’ Editorial Positions
This comment was posted by Karin Klein, who writes editorials for the Los Angeles Times: “As a member of the Times editorial board, I continue to try to correct the inaccurate information that is continually put out in public about the Times’ position on education issues. The editorial board is generally a supporter of keeping Deasy, that is true. But it does not stand behind him “no matter what.”
John White: Ignore Governor Jindal!
State Commissioner John White says Louisiana will NOT drop Common Core or the PARCC tests. John Whiite issued this statement: Jun 18, 2014 BATON ROUGE, La. – The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Louisiana Department of Education today reaffirmed that the state will implement the Common Core State Standards, as well as grade 3-8 test forms and questions developed b
Louisiana: Governor Jindal Drops Common Core and PARCC
Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal held a press conference today to announce that the state is dropping its participation in PARCC and Common Core. He directed the state board to develop its own standards and assessments.
Ed Fuller: The Failure of the NCTQ Rankings
Ed Fuller, a professor of education policy at Pennsylvania State University, analyzes the many flaws of the NCTQ rankings of teacher education programs. His is the most thorough and devastating critique of these ratings. He strips them of any legitimacy. Read his blog here. Read his full critique in the Journal of Teacher Education here. What’s wrong with the NCTQ report: says Fuller, almost ev
Massachusetts: Don’t Lift the Charter Cap
From: Citizens for Public Schools in Massachusetts: Update: Senators to Vote Tomorrow on Charter Cap Bill! We’ve learned that House Bill 4108, which would, among other things, lift the cap on charter schools in so-called “underperforming districts” is scheduled to come up at a caucus of Democratic senators Thursday (that’s tomorrow) at noon. Votes can still change after that, but if you have a
Peter Greene: How to Always Have Ineffective Teachers
Peter Greene says that corporate reformers have discovered the secret to generating an endless supply of “ineffective” teachers: just keep proclaiming that teachers are ineffective if their students get low scores. “In the wake of Vergara, we’ve repeatedly heard an old piece of reformster wisdom: Poor students are nearly twice as likely as their wealthier peers to have ineffective, or low-perform
Good News: West Babylon School Budget Passes In Landslide!
Last week, I posted Dave Cunningham’s excellent response to an editorial writer at Newsday who voted against an increase in the budget of the West Babylon public schools in Long Island, where his own daughters got a great education and went on to outstanding colleges. The budget went down to defeat, and a new vote was scheduled for June 17. Because of Governor Cuomo’s tax cap of 2%, school distri
Special Education Funding for Charters in Pennsylvania is a Rip-Off
This is a report on charter school funding in Pennsylvania, especially the effect of excess special education funding for charter schools. It was distributed by the Keystone State Education Coalition. The KSEC writes: “Each time charter schools skim marginal need special ed students out of public school districts, they artificially cause the average special ed cost to spiral higher for the next
Eva’s First Graduating Class: Not One Passed Entrance Exam for Selective High Schools
Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News reports that Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter school celebrated its first graduation from middle school, with disappointing results. Although Moskowitz has boasted for years that her schools had overcome the achievement gap and that all her students are high performers, Gonzalez pointed out two inconvenient facts: 1. The graduating class started wit
Shocker: Obama Administration Proposes “Race to Top” Model for Indian Tribal Schools
In a bold effort to reorganize the tribal schools run by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Obama administration proposes a competition for funding based on Race to the Top. “A revamped BIE, as envisioned in the proposal, would eventually give up direct operations of schools and push for a menu of education reforms that is strikingly similar to some championed in initiatives such as Race t
The Day Michigan Killed Public Schools and Started Over
This is a fascinating bit of history. This short article tells the story of one day in 1993 when Michigan eliminated all funding for public schools and started the system that exists today. The new system was the work of Governor John Engler, a staunch advocate of school choice. Looking back 21 years, it is hard to conclude that Michigan’s choice system has improved education. Districts continue
Professor: How NCTQ Restricts My Reading List
Katherine Crawford-Garrett, a professor of literacy at the University of New Mexico, found out recently just how powerful the National Council on Teacher Quality is. As a professor in a university, she thought she was free to assign the books of her own choosing. that’s academic freedom, right? As she describes below, she was recently summoned to the dean’s office to hear a critique about her read
Beardsley: Vergara Machine Planning to Sue in Other States to Break Tenure
On her blog VAMboozled, Audrey Beardsley reports that the Vergara machine–lawyers, PR firm, and big-time cash–is going on tour, planning to file lawsuits in several states, including New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, and Kansas. You really have to wonder why billionaires and millionaires take pride in attacking the job rights of teachers.
JUN 17
Breaking News: LAUSD Board Reappoints Critic of iPad Fiasco
Tonight the Los Angeles school board voted 4-2 to reappoint architect Stuart Magruder to the Bond Oversight Committee. He had previously been kicked off the committee by the board because he was too critical of Superintendent Deasy’s decision to borrow nearly $1 billion for iPads from a bond fund dedicated to construction and repairs. The iPads were to be used for Common Core testing. Magruder tho
Fairtest: The Fight Against Test Madness Continues
Fairtest reports on the trench warfare against the measure-and-punish mentality inspired by NCLB and Race to the Top. Test lovers are offering the olive branch of a moratorium on the punishment phase, but the warriors for better education are not appeased. Bob Shaeffer reports: There’s no “summer break” for testing resistance campaigns as pressure builds on policy-makers across the nation to end s
When Arne Duncan Brought His Snake Oil to Charleston
When Arne Duncan went to South Carolina, he probably expected to meet the usual compliant, uninformed business crowd. But Patrick Hayes of EdFirstSC was waiting to meet him, hear him, and ask questions. And Hayes is neither compliant nor uninformed. Hayes writes: Ever seen a weasel tap dance? Would you like to? Well, here it is: me vs. Arne Duncan. My first thought when I left was that I should’v
EduShyster on “Knowledge Ventriloquism”
EduShyster here interviews Ken Zeichner of the University of Washington about teacher education. They talk about the NCTQ report, whose findings were predetermined by its political agenda (I.e., university-based teacher preparation bad, alternative preparation good). Zeichner says that no other country–certainly no high-performing country–has gone full-throttle for alternative teacher preparatio
What is NCTQ?
With the release of the NCTQ ratings of teacher preparation programs, this is a propitious time to review its origins. It was created by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute. It floundered, then was rescued by a grant of $5 million from Secretary of Education Rod Paige in the early days of the Bush administration. It is not a research organization. It is an advocacy organization. Its jud
Writing Expert: Computer Scoring by PARCC-Pearson Tests Is Fundamentally Flawed
Les Perelman, who was in charge of MIT’sWriting Across the Curriculum program, wrote this opinion piece for the Boston Globe. Perelman said that student essays written for the PARCC test, created by Pearson, would be scored by computers. Unfortunately, the computer scorers are unable to detect the meaning of language. Instead, they rely on length, grammar, and other measurable elements. So, he s
Mother Crusader Follows the Money in Vergara
Mother Crusader, written by New Jersey parent Darcie Cimarusti, determined to find out who was putting up the millions to beat teacher tenure and seniority in California. She examined the 990 tax forms for “Students Matter, the organization that led the battle against the California Teachers Union. Students Matter spent more than $3 million from 2010-2012; the amount spent in 2013-14 has not yet
Louisiana: Civil Rights Activists Call for John White’s Resignation
Civil rights activists lodged a federal complaint about abuses of the rights of African-American children in the Recovery School District. State Commissioner of Education John White referred to their complaint as a “farce” and a “joke.” The complaint, written by Karran Harper Royal of the Coalition for Community Schools and Frank Buckley of Conscious Concerned Citizens Controlling Community Cha
David Sudmeier: USA Today Permits Hate Speech
David Sudmeier accurately portrays the vile advertisement in USA Today as hate speech directed against teachers. He posted this commentary on the blog. The Crucible Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible survives to this day as a metaphor for accusations without merit that damage reputations and lives. The advertisement that appeared in USA Today after the Vergara decision contained such an accusation,
Mercedes Schneider: Get Ready for the NCTQ Ratings of Ed Schools
Mercedes Schneider wants to give you a heads-up about the NCTQ scorecard, and she does it here. Learn about the organization and its board in this post. As she concludes: “NCTQ remains a well-funded, well-advertised, corporate-reform-promoting facade. Its bogus teacher training program ratings will appear in Mortimer Zuckerman’s US News and World Report, complete with search engine headed with
JUN 16
Mark Weber: Don’t Mess with Teacher Tenure in New Jersey
Mark Weber, also known as blogger Jersey Jazzman, advises New Jersey legislators not to mess with teacher tenure. New Jersey has tenure laws that work, he says. For one thing, they keep political patronage–for which the state is infamous–out of the schools. He writes: “Over the years, while so many of New Jersey’s public institutions have fallen victim to cronyism, teaching staffs have remaine
Dave Cunningham to Editorial Writer: You Were Wrong to Vote Against School Budget
Michael Dobie, an editorial writer at Long Island’s Newsday, wrote an opinion piece in which he explained with a certain amount of embarrassment why he voted against the school budget for the West Babylon public schools, where his daughters attended, graduated, and went on to outstanding colleges. West Babylon asked voters to approve its budget because Governor Cuomo put a tax cap on every distr
Jesse Hagopian: Dr. Frankenstein Meets His Monster
Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, here describes the decision by the Gates Foundation to delay the high-stakes consequences of the tests promoted by—-the Gates Foundation. Hagopian writes: “How do you know the United States is currently experiencing the largest revolt against high-stakes standardized testing in history? “Because even the alchemists responsible for con
Why the Los Angeles School Board Ousted Stuart Magruder
Columnist Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times explains why the school board did not reappoint Stuart Magruder to the “independent” Bond Oversight Committee: He asked too many questions about why Superintendent Deasy was tapping the school bond fund to buy iPads instead of spending the money as voters intended, for construction and repairs. Magruder “just had to speak up. The arrogance, the temer
Peter Greene: North Carolina Has the Worst Legislature in the Nation
Peter Greene has scoured the nation to determine which state legislature is most hostile to teachers. Here he explains why North Carolina wins that dubious title. He begins: “There are several state legislatures that are working hard to earn the “Worst Legislature in America” medal. Florida, where it’s cool to use terminally ill children as political tools and their families as punching bags, ha
Philadelphia: Much Reform, Little Change
In this article, veteran journalist Dale Mezzacappa reviews the tumult in Philadelphia and interviews people who have known the issues for 20 years or more. Given the high poverty in the district and the state’s neglect, not much has changed for the better. Mezzacappa says there are more choices than ever. But the district is in terrible trouble: “The state took over the District’s governance. C
Anthony Cody Refutes John Merrow on Vergara
Anthony Cody calls out John Merrow for inconsistency on the Vergara decision. Merrow, Cody notes, has become increasingly outspoken as a critic of high-stakes testing, et fails to appreciate that his support for the Vergara decision is support for bubble testing as the ultimate judge of teacher quality. Cody writes: “The Vergara decision follows the poorly founded logic of the Chetty study, whic
JUN 15
Leonie Haimson: Come to NYC Hearings to Fight for Class Size Reduction
Leonie Haimson of ClassSizeMatters calls on NYC parents and concerned citizens to attend public hearings about allocation of money. Starting Tuesday of this week, the NYC Department of Education will hold mandated hearings in each borough on the use of more than $500 million in state Contracts for Excellence funds – which, according to state law, is supposed to include a plan to reduce class size
Gary Rubinstein: Did Kane’s Testimony in Vergara Make Sense?
Gary Rubinstein notes that the two expert witnesses for the plaintiffs were Raj Chetty, the nation’s leading advocate for VAM (basing teacher evaluation on student test scores) and Thomas Kane, who led the Gates’ Measures of Effective Teaching study. Chetty throws in his speculation about how much money an entire class loses by having even one “ineffective” teacher, and Kane speculates that stude
Corporate Reformers Hope to Bring Vergara-Style Litigation to Connecticut
Spokespersons for the corporate reform movement hope to launch legal attacks on tenure and seniority in Connecticut, following the example of the Vergara case in California. Even though the laws in the two states are quite different, the corporate reformers object to any job security at all for teachers, and they assume that low scores anywhere must be caused by teachers who should be fired. Her
Florida: Parent and Educator Groups Urge Governor Scott to Veto Voucher Expansion
Parents and educators are urging Governor Rick Scott to veto the expansion of vouchers, which drains money from public schools. Scott is up for re-election. “Members of the Florida PTA, grass roots parent groups, the Florida Conference of NAACP, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the statewide teachers union have launched a campaign against the bill, which they say will drain taxpa
David Sirota: When Philanthropy Replaces and Controls the Public Sector
David Sirota explains in the journal “In These Times” that there is a conflict between big-time philanthropy and democracy. He describes recent conference where the tech industry wrung its collective hands about inequality without acknowledging that it is a source of frowing inequality. “Indeed, there seems to be a trend of billionaires and tech firms making private donations to public institutio
Peter Greene: A Catalogue of Anti-Teacher Trolls on the Internet
Peter Greene observes that the Vergara decision has brought out a deluge of comments by anti-teacher trolls. Read any article on the Internet about the decision, and it will be followed by an outpouring of vitriol towards teachers. It is useful to read Greene’s classification of the teacher-haters. You will encounter them almost everywhere. What accounts for teacher hatred? Maybe these are t
Andrea Gabor: An Inspection of New York State’s Secret ELA Tests
Somehow, Andrea Gabor got a copy of most of the New York State English Language Arts Common Core-Aligned State tests. She describes them here. She writes: Once again I am in possession of a bit of educational contraband. For the second year in a row, I have received a copy of the New York State English Language Arts tests for grades 6 to 8, which were administered in April. (Though, this yea
EduShyster Names the Big Winners in the Vergara Trial
EduShyster has figured out who were the real winners in the Vergara trial. First, of course is the public relations firm behind Students Matter, which is now the go-to group for civil rights issues, just as if the Brown decision had a PR firm and was bankrolled by one wealthy guy. Then there are the lawyers, who will clean up as litigation to replicate Vergara moves from state to state. Also the
Florida: Special Education Students Get Vouchers for Schools with No Special Education Staff
Florida has a voucher for program for students with disabilities, called McKay scholarships. A story in Florida’s “Sun-Sentinel” revealed that a sizable number of these students with vouchers attend schools that do not have any full-time teachers with special education training or certification. Dan Sweeney of the “Sun-Sentinel” writes: “Learning disabled students can get up to $19,829 of taxpay
Peter Dreier: Brat is the Worst Kind of Libertarian
Peter Dreier of Occidental College writes that David Brat, who beat Eric Cantor, is the worst kind of libertarian. He is so far to the right that he doesn’t believe in any minimum wage. He is a follower of Ayn Rand. Imagine electing a man to Congress who doesn’t believe in government. Dreier predicts Brat will be a reliable ally of crony capitalism and big banks, all celebrating selfishness. He ma
JUN 14
Breaking News: EAA Head Covington To Resign for Another Job
According to Eclectablog, John Covington will leave Governor Rick Snyder’s controversial Educational Achievement Authority for another job. The story was reported by the Detroit News. Covington, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, previously led the Kansas City district, which lost accreditation after his abrupt departure.
Jesse Rothstein: Eliminating Tenure Won’t Improve Schools
Jesse Rothstein, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, tested for the defense in the Vergara trial. In this article in the New York Times, Rothstein contends that the elimination of tenure–the goal of the multi-millionaire (or billionaire) behind the lawsuit–might make it more difficult to recruit teachers for schools that enroll poor and minority children. Judge Rof Treu com
Walt Gardner: Vergara Sets a Dangerous Precedent
Walt Gardner questions the validity of the Vergara decision. Like others, he notes the weak evidence on which the decision rests. A witness for the defense guessed that 1-3% of the state’s teachers were ineffective, and the judge cherry picked that offhand assertion as a fact. Gardner believes the decision is a giant step toward busting unions and privatizing schools. Of course, this is exactly w
Michael Hiltzik: Why the Vergara Decision Won’t Help Children
Michael Hiltzik is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who sees through the spin and illusion surrounding the Vergara decision. The ruling will not change the material condition of any student. It will not reduce class size or produce more funding for the state’s ill-funded schools. He writes: “Critics of teacher unions maintain that they’re entrenched interests that block needed reforms. But
Superintendent Mark Henry Slams High-Stakes Testing
Mark Henry, superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks district in Texas, stood up and spoke out for common sense and education ethics. In this article, he explains why his district–the third largest in Texas–will not participate in a pilot test to evaluate teachers by student test scores. He writes: “This latest movement to “teacher-proof” education places additional fear, anxiety and pressure on
Robert Balfanz: How to Cut Dropout Rates
Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University, in an article in the New York Times, offers some sensible and proven ideas about how to cut dropouts among the most vulnerable students. The likely dropouts can be identified as early as sixth grade, he writes, by attendance, behavior, and course performance. Half of all African-American male dropouts are concentrated in 660 high schools. “These 660
Superintendents: Slow Down CCSS Implementation
American Association of School Administrators say the Common Core must be slowed down. “Dear Colleagues: As we move forward in advocating on behalf of school superintendents, one of the hottest topics right now is the Common Core State Standards. I am pleased to share with you that AASA, The School Superintendents Association, released today a report on the implementation of Common Core and other
Heilig: BASIS Horror Stories, As Told by Parents
Wealthy Texans have raised millions of dollars to attract charter schools and enroll a large segment of San Antonio’s children in charter schools. One of the corporate chains that opened in San Antonio is called BASIS, started in Arizona as a school with high demands and a rigorous curriculum. Julian Vasquez Heilig has been following the progress of this chain. He here posts horror stories of abu
Public School Spending Fell in 2012, for First Time Since 1977
Teachers and administrators continue to feel the pain of budget cuts, long after the end of the recession of 2008. While politicians complain about the cost of schooling, those who work in schools are aware of an era of austerity and disinvestment in education. This article explains what happened. Federal stimulus dollars helped the schools weather the worst of the recession, but when federal sti