Texas Tribune Explains Judge Dietz’s Ruling on Funding Equity
This is the best story yet on the Texas story today, in which Judge John Dietz said that the current funding system was inequitable. Of course, his decision will be appealed as some folks would rather not pay more money to educate the children of Texas. The story appears in the Texas Tribune. Here is a great quote from the decision and the article: “As he presented his ruling, Dietz discussed wha
Texas: Commissioner of Ed Says Wait and See
State Commissioner of Education Michael Williams issued a statement I response to court ruling that held state funding inadequate and unconstitutional. Be it noted that Commissioner Williams is not an educator. He is an ally of the Bush family, a real good tie in Texas. In his last post he regulated the oil and gas industry. TEA News Releases Online Aug. 28, 2014 Statement of Commissioner Michael
More on Blockbuster Ruling in Texas About School Funding
Here is a good article explaining Judge John Dietz’s decision that school funding in Texas violates the state constitution. “State District Judge John Dietz decided in favor of the more than 600 school districts who sued the state. They argued the Legislature has consistently underfunded schools while imposing new and expensive academic requirements for students. “In his ruling, the judge also po
Breaking News: Texas Judge Rules That School Funding Violates State Constitution
Judge John Dietz ruled that the state of Texas is failing to provide adequate funding to its public schools and is violating the state constitution. He also ruled that school choice and vouchers are not a substitute for needed funding. The Legislature cut school spending by $5.3 Billion in 2011 and never restored the cuts after the economy recovered.
Jason Stanford: Testing is a Lousy Way to Hold Schools Accountable
Jason Stanford is a journalist in Austin, Texas, who follows the testing wars with keen interest, probably because he has children in school. Having followed the blowback in Texas, where parents and educators together convinced the legislature that their zeal for testing was unreasonable, Stanford decided that standardized testing is not a good way to hold schools accountable. Actually, he says i
Denver: School Officials and “Reformers” Spin Poor Results
Jeannie Kaplan, a former member of the Denver Board of Education, has written about the poor results of a decade of corporate reform. Here she explains the word “chutzpah” to define the desperate efforts of school officials and “reformers” to convert poor results into good news. She writes: “At noon Thursday, August 14, 2014 the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) released Colorado’s 2014 sta
NOLA Ill-Prepared for Influx of Immigrant Students
Daniele Dreilinger of the Times-Picayune reports that charter schools in Néw Orleans are ill-prepared by large numbers of new students from Central America, and the students and their families are confused by the city’s choice system. One school saw its Spanish-speaking enrollment jump from 10 to 53 in one year, 20% of its students. “That’s a gargantuan challenge for a small school that six weeks
Who Wrote the Letter First?
Earlier today I posted about a letter that went viral. Its authorship was attributed to two different people. A reader, Mary Ginley, says she wrote the letter in 1999: “I wrote the original letter in 1999 and it was published in the East Longmedow Town Reminder in Maasachusetts. I was active in the anti-MCAS movement at the time.”
Dallas: Will Public Schools Survive the Latest Charter Push?
In an in-depth article that appears in the journal “In These Times,” journalist George Joseph describes a campaign by business leaders to take advantage of an obscure provision in state law and use it to turn Dallas into a “home rule” district. This would be a prelude to turning Dallas into an all-charter district. The business community already controls the school board. The campaign for “home r
FAIRTEST: The Resistance to Test Mania Grows Stronger
If the issues were not so serious, watching test-and-punish advocates backpedal in the face of the rapidly growing testing resistance movement would be great entertainment. From U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan crying crocodile tears about the impacts of the very policies he advocated, to Rhode Island Commissioner Deborah Grist’s sudden embrace of an even longer suspension of the graduation te
“The People Who Write These Tests Don’t Know You…”
I received news from England that a letter written by Rachel Tomlinson, the head of Barrowford, a primary school in Lancashire, went viral. The letter was a clone of one written by American teacher Kimberly Hurd Horst on her blog. No claims of plagiarism here. Maybe every principal and teacher should send the same letter home when students get their Common Core test scores, saying they failed. R
Beware the Charter Attrition Game
The media loves the story of miracle schools. Imagine that! A school where 90% or more pass the state tests! Where 100% graduate. Where 100% are accepted into four-year colleges. Michael Klonsky once said to me, miracles happen only in the Bible. When the subject is schools, miracle claims should be carefully investigated. With that caution and skepticism in mind, we turn again to a post by a res
Valerie Strauss: Lee County, Florida, Decision to Opt Out Is an Act of Civil Disobedience
Valerie Strauss describes what happened in Lee County last night when the school board voted 3-2 to opt out of state testing, and she reviews what the state might do in response. She writes: “The pushback from Lee County — the ninth-largest district in the state and the 37th largest in the country, with more than 85,000 students – is striking in a state that has been at the forefront of standard
Peter Greene: What Is the Connection Between Zip Codes and Schools?
Peter Greene has often heard reformers say that children’s destiny should not be defined by their zip code. He read an article by one of the bigwigs in the New Orleans experiment, who argued against neighborhood schools and in favor of the greatest possible choice so that children’s schooling would not be tied to their zip code. Greene responds that neighborhood schools build community cohesion.
Los Angeles: At Least $2 Million in Computers Went Missing
Howard Blume reports in the LA Times that at least $2 million in computers cannot be accounted for. “More than $2 million worth of Los Angeles Unified computers, mostly iPads, could not be accounted for during a recent audit by the school system’s inspector general. “The review also found that the school district lacked an effective tracking system — and that losses could be higher as a result. “
YESTERDAY
Annie Gilbertson: Emails Prompt Inspector General to Reopen Investigation
Annie Gilbertson of public radio station KPCC in Los Angeles somehow managed to get the emails that broke open the Los Angeles iPad fiasco. Once her story broke, Superintendent John Deasy canceled the contract with Apple and Pearson. Gilbertson reported: “The emails show the officials detailed aspects of a one-to-one student technology program, down to the specifics of tech support and teacher t
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-27-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Ohio Teacher Says “No Thanks” to StudentsFirst and $5,000Chris Roberts, a new teacher in Ohio, was attracted to the message of StudentsFirst. He was impressed by what he read and by “Waiting for Superman.” He joined and was invited to apply for their Teachers for Transformation Academy. He was offered a stipend of $5,000 to be Stud