Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, August 21, 2014

8-21-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:







See KIPP Co-Founder, Dave Levin, Model Total Control & Total Compliance at Million Dollar Summit
Keep it Up - A Balloon Metaphor at KIPP School Summit 2014 from KIPP Foundation on Vimeo.
MA Taxpayers Fed Up With Up Expansion of Segregated Corporate Charters
This is the beginning of the end for another failed experiment by profiteers and businessmen to feed on public education.  From the Boston Globe: Voter support for more charter schools in Massachusetts appears to be weak, according to a new Boston Globe poll, highlighting a politically risky situation for charter school supporters if they pursue a ballot question. The poll found that 47 percent of

Money For Tanks And Tear Gas, But None For Education
From The Real News Network:Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou is a Freeman Fellow with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. A St Louis, MO, native, the Rev attended high school there and has strong family ties to the area. He is the Pastor for Formation and Justice at the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, MA, and is spending the summer as a Scholar in Residence at the Martin Luther King Education and Res

Read Ken Derstine to Understand CorpEd in Philadelphia
Here is the intro:IntroductionPrior to becoming Secretary of Education in the Obama administration, Arne Duncan was the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools for seven years. Until he became Secretary of Education, Duncan was on the board of the Broad Foundation. The Broad Foundation is one of the leading “philanthropies” promoting privatization through its Broad Superintendents Ac


Tennessee's No-Growth Model for Minorities: 4% of Black Students Meet All ACT Benchmarks in 2014
 As shown above, 8 percent of black students met 3 or more benchmarks in 2013.  Below is the chart showing the percentages of students meeting all four benchmarks in 2014 (click to enlarge):

New PDK/Gallup Poll Shows 60 Percent of Public Opposed to Common Core
We'll be posting from the new 2014 PDK/Gallup poll of public attitudes toward the public schools.  Here's the one that caught my eye first:
New York's High Stakes Test Data of "Diminished Usefulness" Due to Opt Out Numbers
New York parents and students who opted out of the last round of testing should be proud and energized, even though the state's chief miseducator remains unbowed so far by the opt out numbers that are finally coming to light. This school year should be one of organizing resistance in every town and village to choose education and reject the unending corporate testing agenda that is destroying what
8-20-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Poem by Doug StormTreeThe girth and grip of the tulip trunk thrustWrist deep into the soil of the school playgroundFronts an edifice risen only to crumble.Unfallen and aged, escaping the steel chain,Your crown unbestowed, no body bendssupplicant to you, though all are at base abject.You seek no fealty but stand resoundingagainst the proclamations of pretenders.When your reign ends