NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:
NPE News Briefs
from The Network for Public Education
Why Is Arne Duncan Still Pushing the Dangerous Myth of Low Expectations? | Alternet
July 8, 2014 | Sometimes when politicians fail on social media, the result is mostly humorous fodder for critics, such as when South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley posted this Tweet: Click to enlarge. But other social media snafus represent much more than that. For example, a recent tone-deaf moment on Twitter, detailed by Michael Stratford: ...read more
Largest U.S. teachers union calls for Education Secretary Duncan to resign – The Washington Post
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s relations with teachers unions just got more difficult. Delegates of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, voted at their annual convention to call on Duncan to resign after similar efforts had failed in previous years. And the NEA is about to get a new president, Lily Eskelsen García, ...read more
Anthony Cody: Can We Motivate Students When They Face Bleak Futures? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Anthony Cody is confused by the contradictions of the corporate reform movement. “On the one hand, we have a seemingly utopian project with bold pronouncements about the boundless capacity of all students – even those with serious learning disabilities – to succeed on ever more difficult tests. On the other hand, we have tests that ...read more
The Reformy Heavyweights Behind New York’s Tenure Lawsuit | Mother Crusader
Yesterday a Facebook friend wondered aloud about the parents behind New York’s Vergara-like case. The article he posted featured quotes from “Staten Islander Sam Pirozzolo, who is both a parent plaintiff and vice president of the NYC Parents Union”. “Someone with skills needs to find the funding behind the ‘New York Parents Union,’” my friend ...read more
JUL 07
Bill Gates needs to drop his Common Core obsession | Salon.com
The billionaire’s latest little fixation is catching hell on all sides. Here’s why he’s better off simply moving on MICHAEL P. MAZENKO It’s hard to envision Bill Gates not getting exactly what he wants, or backing down from anything. However, that was before he became the sugar daddy and primary backer of the Common Core ...read more
Will Obama Ban TFA? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Joy Resmovits reports that the Onama administration plans to enforce a provision of NCLB that requires states to put experienced and highly qualified teachers in schools serving high numbers of poor and minority students. Will this create a crisis for Teach for America, whose corps members have no experience? Since this administration believes that teachers ...read more
At National Charter Conference, the Numbers Add Up | EduShyster
Except for the ones that don’t… *The numbers add up.* That was the theme of this year’s National Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference in Las Vegas, an event that drew me like a moth to a high-performing flame. The numbers that are adding up, of course, refer to the growing number of charter schools, ...read more
Linda Darling-Hammond: How to Close the Achievement Gap | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University offers common-sense ideas about closing the achievement gap. She says that testing is less important than teaching. No surprise there. She reviews an OECD study about teachers. What it shows is that teachers in the U.S. work longer hours under more difficult conditions than teachers in many other nations. “Now ...read more
A watershed moment for technology in education | The Washington Post
BY VALERIE STRAUSS It is more than likely that many of you don’t know much, if anything, about the “E-Rate,” which is formally the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund administered under the auspices of the Federal Communications Commission. The E-Rate offers discounts for schools and libraries to get Internet access and telecommunications. ...read more
Arne Duncan Unveils 50-State Teacher-Equity Strategy | Education Week
By Alyson Klein on July 7, 2014 6:00 AM The U.S. Department of Education Monday detailed its long-awaited “50-state” strategy for putting some teeth into a requirement of the 12-year-old No Child Left Behind Act that has gone largely unenforced up until now: ensuring that poor and minority students get access to as many great ...read more
Kaiser Fung: Bill Gates Needs to Hire a Statistical Advisor | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Thanks to Paul Thomas for the link to this impressive post by Kaiser Fung, a professional statistician. Fung saw an article By Gates claiming that spending on education was rising but student achievement was flat. Fung demolished this claim and said that Gates was promoting innumeracy. The scales of his graph were wrong, the analysis ...read more
The Same Old Miracle School in Chicago, with a High Attrition Rate | Diane Ravitch’s blog
A few years ago,I wrote an article in The New YorkTimes about “miracle schools” that weren’t. I called out Mayor Bloomberg, as well as Arne Duncan and President Obama for making grandiose claims about schools that allegedly graduated 100% of their students or saw dramatic test score gains. On closer inspection, none of the miracles ...read more
JUL 06
California Court: Corruption Is Not Sufficient Reason to Close a High-Scoring Charter School | Diane Ravitch’s blog
For a few years, the American Indian Model Charter Schools in Oakland, California, were the most celebrated charter schools in the nation, beloved especially by the conservative and rightwing media, not only for their high test scores but for their founder’s scathing comments about liberals, unions, and “multiculturalists.” Despite the name of the charter, it ...read more
Arthur Camins: “Reform” Policies Are Unsubstantiated | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Arthur Camins, Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ., points put that drug makers are not allowed to make unsubstantiated claims. They are required to gather evidence and to disclose possible negative side effects. They can make boasts, offer up dubious facts, ...read more
JUL 05
Serial School Privatizer ‘Chainsaw Paul’ Vallas Eyes Illinois Lt. Governor Gig | Alternet
There are many things upon which elite corporate Democrats are in complete agreement with elite corporate Republicans. Often enough they are far more important to the way we live our lives than the cultural rhetoric and stylistic fluff that separates the two parties. Both Republicans and Democrats agree on empire and the wars needed to preserve ...read more
Why many Democrats have turned against teachers unions | The Washington Post
BY VALERIE STRAUSS For years now it’s been clear that Democrats have splintered over the issue of corporate school reform. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have been leaders of the movement to transform public schools through standardized-test-based “accountability” and the expansion of charter schools, with other Democrats arguing that these reform measures are ...read more
Duncan Slapped by NEA Rank and File | CURMUDGUCATION
The NEA resolution calling for the departure of Arne Duncan will be picked apart at great length this weekend. I’m pretty sure that Arne is not looking at his paper this morning thinking, “Well, damn. I guess I’d better resign then.” Nor do I think his resignation would accomplish much in practical terms. But it ...read more
Is the Charter Movement Imploding? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
In state after state, charter schools are proving that it is downright risky to turn public money over to deregulated corporations and unqualified individuals to run schools. The Detroit Free Press series on the scams, frauds, and corruption in many Michigan charters was an eye-opener for all those who are not part of the charter ...read more
Breaking News: NEA delegates Pass Resolution Calling for Arne Duncan’s Resignation | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Delegates to the national convention of the National Education Association passed a resolution calling for the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Similar resolutions did not pass in 2011 ad 2012. The resolution was proposed by the California Teachers Association. Teachers are angry at Duncan because of his support for the controversial Vergara decision, ...read more