Wondering Wednesday Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Wondering Wednesday Diane Ravitch's blog 

A site to discuss better education for all

NEWS: Working Families Party Sweeps Milwaukee School Board Elections!

5by dianeravitch / 37min

This is one of the very first reactions to the Trump-DeVos (and Scott Walker) agenda to destroy public education. RESISTANCE! It works, especially at the ballot box. ​ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 4, 2017 CONTACT: Marina 

Rahm Proposes New Requirements for High School Graduation

by dianeravitch / 1h

Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago has proposed that students will not be allowed to graduate from high school unless they can demonstrate their post-high school career plans, including college acceptance, a job or the military. Since he has 

Michael Petrilli: The Three “Miracles” Trump Needs to Make a Federal School Choice Program

by dianeravitch / 11min

Mike Petrilli wrote an enlightening post about the hurdles that the Trump administration faces in trying to enact a $20 billion school choice program. He says that the Trump administration will need three “miracles” to make good on 

Los Angeles Times on Trump’s Authoritarian Vision: Part 3

by dianeravitch / 3min

This editorial in the Los Angeles Times is part 3 of a four-part series about the new president. Standing before the cheering throngs at the Republican National Convention last summer, Donald Trump bemoaned how special interests had 

Georg Lind: Our Stupid Standardized Tests

by dianeravitch / 31min

Georg Lind is a retired psychologist. “As a psychologist I recommend to abandon all tests based on Classical and Modern “test theories.” But I am not sure whether my colleagues at APA and AERA will agree with me. They make a living on applying traditional tests. Even those who critically examine test usage do not question their validity and their use in principle. They have not only vested intere

D.C.: New Millions Added to Increase “High-Quality Seats” in Charters

4by dianeravitch / 1h

One of the strange ideas in the privatization movement is that only charters are able to provide “high-quality seats.” There seems to be a magical place where charter operators go to buy chairs that are unavailable to public schools. Only charter operators can buy those chairs. Those chairs are “high-quality seats.” The Citybridge Education Foundation in D.C., financed by billionaires Katherine a

Jeremiah Prophet Thanks Trump for Changing His Life, But Not in the Way You Think

5by dianeravitch / 2h

Jeremiah Prophet was born with severe cerebral palsy. He yearned to be a journalist. He struggled to make his way through high school and college. He never forgot the help that his teachers gave him in his public schools. Many people thought his dream was absurd because he can’t talk like other people, he spends most of his time in a wheelchair, and he communicates by typing on a special device,

YESTERDAY

Mike Klonsky: Betsy DeVos’s Resume

8by dianeravitch / 13h

After watching Betsy DeVos’s Senate confirmation hearings, most of us wondered about her qualifications to be Secretary of Education. She didn’t know much about federal law or policy or programs. Michael Klonsky sums up her resume here. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2017/04/devos-resume.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+mikeklonsky+(SmallTalk)&m=1 Simply put, she

John Merrow’s Post Was FAKE NEWS!

3by dianeravitch / 17h

Since I have received several offers of legal help, I want you to know that the previous post by John Merrow was FAKE NEWS! These days, it is hard to tell the difference between satire and reality. (Here is Andy Borowitz today , real or fake?) Borowitz is always humor, as is the Onion, but you would be surprised at the number of people who don’t recognize satire, parody, humor. On April Fool’s Da

BREAKING NEWS! (or Not!): John Merrow Reports that DeVos Contacts Justice Department about Suppressing Ravitch

32by dianeravitch / 18h

John Merrow posted this strange and disturbing letter today. Several friends contacted me about it to ask if it was true. It begins like this: Friends Although I have now been retired from journalism for 18 months, I haven’t lost touch completely. Happily, some of my former contacts continue to reach out. Yesterday I received this alarming memo in the mail in a plain white envelope. While I have

Pro Publica: Trump Can Draw Money from His Trust Whenever He Wants, Without Disclosing It

6by dianeravitch / 21h

Usually, when a president is elected to office, he either sells his assets or creates a “blind trust” run by independent trustees so there can be no conflicts of interest, or even the appearance of conflict. Trump has done neither. He declared that his sons would run his business, which is not a blind trust. Now Pro Publica, a nonpartisan organization, reports that Trump has an agreement with his

Research Report: New Orleans Schools Remain as Segregated as Before Hurricane Katrina

11by dianeravitch / 22h

The Education Research Alliance for New Orleans issued a report today: Study: New Orleans schools remain as segregated as before Katrina New Orleans – A new study from the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans at Tulane University examines how the post-Katrina school reforms affected segregation in New Orleans publicly funded schools. Researchers analyzed changes in segregation across a num

Missouri: League of Women Voters Opposes Charter Expansion

31by dianeravitch / 22h

The League of Women Voters in Missouri released a strong condemnation of rightwing legislators’ effort to expand charter schools. “The League of Women Voters of Missouri opposes charter school expansion because: • Charter schools are not held to the same standards as traditional public schools. They are “freed” from having to comply with most state regulations that are designed to ensure a minimu

New York: 51% of Students on Long Island Opt Out of State Tests

100+by dianeravitch / 23h

The full state count of opt outs has not been released but Newsday , the Long Island newspaper, surveyed the 124 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties and concluded that 51.2% of the eligible students did not take the state tests this past week. The story is behind a paywall. “Last week, the number of students on Long Island in grades three through eight who refused to take the state’s

Not the Onion: Campbell Brown Involved in Project to Protect Journalistic Integrity

12by dianeravitch / 1d

Campbell Brown made her reputation calling public school teachers “perverts” and attacking teachers’ unions for “protecting” any member accused of a crime (even if the accusation was false). She then went on to attack teachers’ rights to due process in the courts of two states. She is a close friend of Betsy DeVos, who funds Campbell Brown’s “The 74.” Brown is contemptuous of public schools and a

Jeannie Kaplan: The Phony Narrative about “Success” in Denver

40by dianeravitch / 1d

Jeannie Kaplan was an elected school board member in Denver for two terms. She has watched the complete takeover of the corporate reform movement with a sense of shock, dismay, alarm. Vast sums of money are expended at each local school board election to keep the privatizers in control. For the moment, Denver is the darling of the corporate reformers. It has choice. Charter schools. Teach for Ame

Nashville School Board Member Amy Frogge: Why I Love Public Schools

14by dianeravitch / 1d

Amy Frogge is an elected member of the Metro Nashville school board. She is a lawyer and a parent. In her first election, she was outspent overwhelmingly by corporate reform forces, although she was unaware of their push for privatization. In her second election, Stand for Children poured huge sums into the effort to defeat her, but once again she won handily. In this post, which appeared on her

Los Angeles Times, Part 2: Why Trump Lies

28by dianeravitch / 1d

This is the second in a series of four editorials by the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times. It was published yesterday. Donald Trump did not invent the lie and is not even its master. Lies have oozed out of the White House for more than