Sleep In Saturday Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Sleep In Saturday Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

Senator Lamar Alexander: Did Anyone at Department of Education Read ESSA?

8by dianeravitch / 1h

Senator Lamar Alexander took great pride in the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed at the end of 2015 to replace the failed and rancid No Child Left Behind law of 2002. ESSA explicitly prohibits the Secretary of Education from telling 

Who Is Natalia Vesilnitskaya? Follow the Money, Part 2

5by dianeravitch / 48min

Martin Longman, web editor for The Washington Monthly, gives a valuable explanation of the Russian lawyer Natalia Vesilnitskaya and why she wanted to meet with the highest levels of the Trump campaign. We were told that she was lobbying to remove the American sanctions that provoked Putin to suspend the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans. What a touching story. It was all about the children

“The Settlement:” Follow the Money

14by dianeravitch / 1h

Remember Preet Bahara? He was the fiercely independent U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was fired by Trump. Remember the Russian lawyer who met with Don Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort (and 

John Merrow Punches a Gaping Hole in the Great Big Hot Air Balloon of Corporate Reform in D.C.

by dianeravitch / 12min

In his retirement, John Merrow has turned into a tiger, pulling apart the frauds that are regularly reported by the mainstream media. In this marvelous post , he punctures the great hot air balloon of “reform” in the District of Columbia under 

“Democracy”: The New, For-Profit High School Rankings

5by dianeravitch / 47min

A regular reader uses the pseudonym. He/she posted this comment about high school rankings: “It isn’t just the US News & World Report school rankings that are dubious. It’s also Jay Mathews Challenge Index rankings at The Washington Post, which have been discussed on this blog. “But there’s another set of rankings that are equally suspect. And no one is saying anything much about them. These are

Why Oklahoma’s Teacher of the Year Left for Texas, “Kicking and Screaming”

3by dianeravitch / 1h

Jennifer Berkshire released this podcast about the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year who left his job to teach in Texas. It is part of the Have You Heard series. Here is an excerpt: When Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Shawn Sheehan decided to leave his job as high school math teacher for a better paying position in Texas, he didn’t go quietly. Sheehan left “kicking and screaming,” warning Oklahomans tha

YESTERDAY

There Is Hope for the World in This Wonderful Story

6by dianeravitch / 20h

Read this story and share the joy! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/11/a-riptide-swept-away-a-florida-family-then-beachgoers-formed-a-human-chain/?utm_term=.d9e60b8ab518&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1 People can rise to the occasion to save others. What a great story and photo.

Karen Wolfe: Why Students at Venice High School in L.A. Staged a Walkout

3by dianeravitch / 21h

Karen Wolfe writes here about the decision of students at Venice High School in Los Angeles staged a walkout. They were protesting the removal of an African-American guidance counselor. The problem was the principal, who wanted to squelch free expression: Complaints against Principal Oryla Wiedoeft had been brewing since she arrived a year and a half ago. Some students complained about a repressi

Dora Taylor: Four Things Betsy DeVos Does Not Want You to Know about Tax Credits

20by dianeravitch / 22h

Dora Taylor writes in “The Progressive” about the disadvantages of tax credit, aka vouchers. 1. Education tax credits deplete state budgets, diverting money from public schools to private and religious schools. 2. Education tax credit programs benefit the rich. 3. Education tax credit programs are risky for students because the private and religious schools are not covered by federal civil rights

New York: Who Is Behind the Effort to Allow Charter Schools to Hire Uncertified Teachers?

31by dianeravitch / 23h

In this article , Alan Singer of Hofstra University connects the dots behind the effort to allow charter schools to hire uncertified teachers. He follows the money, and it leads to one man: Governor Andrew Cuomo. Charters need to hire uncertified teachers because they churn through teachers and need newcomers who can devote long hours to the job without the diversion of a family. “The finger poin

The Book That Betsy DeVos Should Read about Fraternity Life and Sexual Assault on Campus Today

6by dianeravitch / 1d

We have had a vigorous discussion on the blog about Betsy DeVos’s decision to reorient the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights towards protecting the rights of those accused of rape rather than those who alleged that they were victims of rape. Candace Jackson, DeVos’s controversial choice to lead OCR, made these startling remarks to the New York Times, which caused such an uproar

Tim Slekar: Next Step in Wisconsin’s War on Teachers

35by dianeravitch / 1d

Having treated teachers shabbily, Wisconsin now finds it needs to take desperate measures to hire teachers: lower standards. Tim Slekar of Edgewood College in Milwaukee says this is madness . He writes: “There is NO NEED for an 

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