The NY Times Magazine’s Puff Piece about Eva Moskowitz
The New York Times Magazine has a long article about Eva Moskowitz and her chain of charter schools in New York City. The charter chain was originally called Harlem Success Academy, but Moskowitz dropped the word “Harlem” when she decided to opened new schools in gentrifying neighborhoods and wanted to attract white and middle-class families. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the author, Da
Connecticut: Governor Malloy’s Election Year Epiphany
Whoever thought it was a good idea to turn education into a political issue should hang his or her head in shame. In the midst of a heated gubernatorial race, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, heretofore an admirer of testing and the Common Core ad more testing, has written a letter to the U.S. Department of Education saying that students are tested to much, especially in the 11th grade. “Gov.
New York Privatization of Preschool Special Education Leads to Massive Frauds
NEWS From the Office of the New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli Contact: Mark Johnson, 518-474-4015 For release: Immediately, Sept. 4, 2014 DiNAPOLI: SPECIAL EDUCATION CONTRACTOR CONVICTED FOR $2 MILLION FRAUD The former owner of a Queens-based special education provider, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges earlier this year following a joint investigation by New York State Comptroller
Texas: Where Schools Are Run by Numbers, Not Brains
A teacher in Texas wrote this comment, which depicts (to me) a system where data matters more than teachers or learning or children, either the system is on autopilot or is run by people who confuse numbers with learning. “They recruited from NC and from Spain (for bilingual teachers) this year because they did expect vacancies. I think it’s important to mention that all are not based on EVAAS be
Why New York Parents Are Baffled and Angry
You can’t blame New York parents for feeling baffled and angry at state education officials. From 2006-2010, the state told them that their children were making incredible gains on the state tests. Many people thought that the gains were so high that it couldn’t be true. So state education officials brought in Professor Daniel Koretz of Harvard and Professor Jennifer Jennings of New York Univers
Did You Know that Bill Gates is Funding His Own History Curriculum?
Bill Gates was on the treadmill one day, watched a video about history that he liked, and invited the professor to meet with him. its teacher in to talk about growing his approach into something that everyone could see. Now as this story in the New York Times explains, Bill Gates’ favorite way of teaching world history has been turned into a course that is being marketed to high schools across the
David Greene Has the Turn of the Century Blues
Feeling down about corporate ownership of almost everything? So is David Greene. Gates, Walton, Bloomberg, Bezos, Murdoch, Koch. What don’t they own? Our votes. David thinks back a century. Other oligarchs owned almost everything then. Of course, it didn’t occur to them to monetize the schools. But we beat them back. We elected people to regulate the oligarchs. We can do it again.
Paul Tractenberg: Ideology Trumps Evidence in Press for All-Charter Districts
Paul Tractenberg, a distinguished law professor at Rutgers University, challenges the idea that all-charter districts based on the New Orleans model are a magic bullet for Newark, Camden, and other low-performing districts in New Jersey. He notes that for the past four years, we have been bombarded with propaganda films like “Waiting for Superman” and “Won’t Back Down,” intended to convince us of
G.F. Brandenburg:What Michelle Rhee Promised the Billionaires
G.F. Brandenburg writes here about what then-D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee in exchange for $64.5 million. She would have the power to fire any teacher anytime, and she would get great results. Brandenburg says Rhee and Henderson didn’t meet the goals he checked. Will they give the money back? Brandenburg is researching all the promises. Here are some more of his findings. See here and here and her
YESTERDAY
The Blog’s Poet on the Sailing of the Good Ship Common Core
In response to a post about the Common Core, contemplating whether the ship had already sailed, our resident poet “SomeDAM Poet (Devalue Added Model) wrote these lines: from the old folk song Oh, they built the Common Core, to sail the ocean blue. For they thought it was a standard that Gates could ram right through. It was on its maiden trip, that a teacherberg hit the ship. It was sad when the
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 9-6-14 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGOhio: Letter from a Teacher in a For-Profit SchoolThis came in my email from a teacher who gave me her/his name, email, school name, and phone number. I asked for permission to post the letter and received it. Do you have any suggestions for this teacher? Ms. Ravitch, I am writing to you because you are the first person I