Parent Engagement Charter School Style We will also not comment” – Marilyn Koziatek, School Board Candidate According to Nick Melvoin’s Speak Up , School Board Candidate Marilyn Koziatek “ leads the community engagement department at Granada Hills Charter, which includes parent engagement ”. As part of this role, Koziatek was asked by the California Charter School Association (CCSA) to comment o
Sacramento district, union at odds after auditor suggests cutting teachers' wages to avoid state takeover The district and the teachers union have submitted proposals to prevent a state takeover, but none are sufficient enough to avoid insolvency, the auditor said. SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California state auditor is suggesting the Sacramento City Unified School District make some drastic cuts t
Michael Kohlhass: How “Nonprofit” Charter Schools Make a Profit There are many ways in which nonprofit charters make a profit. Most involve complex real estate transactions and such things as “triple net leases” which are hard for the public to understand. Such deals often involve a charter operator owning or leasing the real estate and renting it to the charter school at exorbitant rates, with
Who is in control at Sacramento school district? Damning state audit raises questions A recently released state audit of Sacramento City Unified School District poses some extremely troubling questions. The district “has not proactively addressed its financial problems,” says California State Auditor Elaine M. Howle in a letter prefacing the audit. Who at the district and within the teachers uni
Hope for Public Education- Right Here in the Bronx Today, I was the guest on a great public radio show "The New Orleans Imperative" hosted by Ray Sanders. We were talking about the future of public education, and I told him that if you want to see what is possible to accomplish in public education in high needs communities, you need to head to the Bronx and visit PS 55, led by Principal Luis E T
Charter Supporters Protest Us in Pittsburgh I'm at the Westin, in Pittsburgh. To the left you can see a huge sinkhole that's right in front of the hotel. Up close, it looks as though the Avengers were here battling some comic-book monster set on ravaging the city. That's a pretty apt image for what's happening here. I just walked out in the rain and saw them, in a circle, chanting about choice.
KIPP Co-Founder Michael Feinberg Used School Computer to Access Porn Michael Feinberg is the co-founder of the “no excuses” Knoweldge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter school chain. He and co-founder Dave Levin trace their ed-reformer-entrepreneureal roots to Teach for America (TFA). As of 2019, the KIPP chain consists of 242 schools. Levin and Feinberg co-founded KIPP in 1994; 24 years later, on
Who turns down federal money? Legislators in New Hampshire halt a $46 million charter school grant from DeVos’s Education Department Turning down millions of dollars in federal money is not a usual occurrence, but that is what Democratic members on a key legislative committee in New Hampshire just did. They voted to block the first installment of a $46 million grant that the Education Department
Why the DOE's analysis of the second year of the literacy coach program provokes more questions than answers Yesterday, the DOE released an evaluation of the second year of its literacy coach program , created under Chancellor Farina in 2016-2017, and budgeted at $85.7 million this year. Each coach has a salary of $90,000 to $150,000, and there are approximately 515 of them working with K-2 teac
When Betsy DeVos Tells You Who She Is, Listen esterday, Erica Green did a masterful job of covering Betsy DeVos's appearance before the House Education Committee to defend her continued efforts to resist any sort of debt relief for students bilked by for-profit schools. The New York Times article isn't accessible to everybody, and that's too bad, because the hearings are a perfect little picture
Watch Live: MSNBC's Public Education Forum 2020 with Democratic hopefuls Education unions, students, parents and civil rights groups are expected to grill Democratic hopefuls on public education issues at MSNBC's "Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Opportunity for All" in Pittsburgh. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news and in-depth analysi
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report 34 of Nation’s Largest Cities Now Have Pre-K Program by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 19h A new national report shows which large U.S. cities are leading on policies that address health and well-being, including high-quality, accessible pre-K. Seven new cities were awarded gold medals for their high-quality preschool programs: Albuquerque, Atl
This Week With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2019 by Larry Ferlazzo / 5min Each year I invite readers to share their favorite education-related book of the year. Feel free to add yours in the comments section! You can see previous lists here: The Best Education-Related B
KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools CLICK HERE TO Pre-order NOW Arthur Goldstein in Pittsburgh Watching Charter Protest by dianeravitch / 28min Arthur Goldstein, veteran NYC teacher, traveled to Pittsburgh for the Public Education Forum, wh
What We’re Waiting to Hear: The Education Fight No Candidate Mentions (Thus Far) What We’re Waiting to Hear: The Education Fight No Candidate Mentions (Thus Far) All the democratic presidential candidates have plans how to run the country and positively affect the world. Some have good ideas about how to improve public schools and support teachers. But none has yet to speak about America’s educat
MAYOR AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PETE BUTTIGIEG IS LYING ON BLACK FAMILIES WHO WANT A BETTER EDUCATION Mayor Buttigieg, a presidential candidate who was gaining in some polls and in Iowa, wows some folks with his talk about equity, also, like most politicians (and educators for that matter) appears to operate with a deficit mindset about Black and Brown students. A video of an interview the pres
New Mexico Lawsuit: Final Update In December 2015 in New Mexico, via a preliminary injunction set forth by state District Judge David K. Thomson, all consequences attached to teacher-level value-added model (VAM) scores (e.g., flagging the files of teachers with low VAM scores) were suspended throughout the state until the state (and/or others external to the state) could prove to the state cour
Democrats, DeVos clash in fiery hearing that turned personal House Democrats clashed with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in a Thursday hearing that nearly spun out of control when one lawmaker called DeVos “the most unpopular person in our government” and said she’s “out to destroy public education.” DeVos was facing the House’s education committee to explain her overhaul of a federal program t
What To Watch For At The Democratic Education Town Hall In Pittsburgh This Saturday, a consortium of education groups is teaming up with MSNBC to host a forum for Democratic Presidential candidates, centered around education issues. The event kicks off at 9:45 and will run most of the day; it will all be livestreamed . The crowd of about 1,000 invitation-only attendees (I’ll be one of them) incl
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Google’s New “Interpreter Mode” Makes It Easier For Teachers & Parents To Talk If They Don’t Speak Each Other’s Languages by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h Google has just added what they call “Interpreter Mode” to the mobile Google Assistant app. Download the free app, say something like “Be my Spanish translat
Predictions for the Pittsburgh Public Education Forum 2020 Given that education consistently ranks among the top issues for voters in most public opinion polls, with the vast majority (82%) of parents of school-aged children reporting that they are either “somewhat” or “completely satisfied” with their child’s education, one could be forgiven for being flummoxed by the near-absence of questions
Wendy Lecker: Stop Blaming Schools for Chronic Absenteeism In the era of Bush-Obama education policy, it became conventional wisdom to blame schools for the effects of poverty. Civil rights lawyer Wendy Lecker explains that the test-and-punish regime continues by blaming schools and punishing them for chronic absenteeism. She writes: NCLB measured school quality based on standardized test scores
Charter Schools’ Billion-Dollar Fraud Stinks Worse Than We Thought | OurFuture.org by People's Action Charter Schools’ Billion-Dollar Fraud Stinks Worse Than We Thought Earlier this year, when members of Congress repeatedly confronted U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about a study finding the federal government’s charter school grant program had wasted an estimated $1 billion on schools th
At Forum Tomorrow, 8 Dem Candidates Will Address Public Education, Including New Report on Waste and Fraud in Federal Charter Schools Program On Monday, the Network for Public Education published a new, in depth report on the scandalous waste of federal funds disseminated since 1995 through the federal Charter Schools Program. The report, Still Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter School
College Board Sued for Soliciting and Selling Students’ Personal Information On December 10, 2019, an Illinois parent identified as “Mark S.” filed a class action lawsuit against College Board for soliciting and selling personal information from minor students taking College Board’s standardized tests. The 38-page complaint , filed in US District Court, District of Northern Illinois, Eastern Div
Governor _______’s Inaugural Address Good afternoon. I am thrilled, delighted, and deeply honored to be speaking here today to our state legislature in person and, on radio and television, to citizens of the great state of _______. As your duly elected governor, I want to promise that my team and I will spend every waking hour working on your behalf. On the mirror in our bathroom is a small piec
Charter Industry Announces Its Plans to Disrupt Pittsburgh Forum on Public Education on Saturday Prominent groups that support public schools–not charter schools or religious schools–are meeting on Saturday in Pittsburgh to discuss the future of public education with Democratic presidential candidates. The billionaire-funded charter industry is angry that they can’t control the event and they ha
Still Asleep at the Wheel - Network For Public Education CALIFORNIA STILL ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL Read the Report Read the Executive Summary See the Map By-the-Numbers Still Asleep at the Wheel continues our investigation of the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) that began with our March 2019 report, which you can find here. The Charter Schools Program has spent more than $
Watch the Public Education Forum 2020 and See Where the Candidates Stand https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/watch-live-msnbc-s-public-education-forum-2020-with-democratic-hopefuls-74793029546 Click the image above to watch the the forum beginning at 9:45 am on Saturday December 14. We are excited to announce that NPE Action is one of ten public education groups hosting top Democratic presidential
Why the federal government’s billion-dollar charter school program is a complete disaster | Salon.com Why the federal government’s billion-dollar charter school program is a complete disaster A new report reveals waste and corruption Earlier this year when members of Congress repeatedly confronted U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about a study finding the federal government’s charter schoo
Principal Who Allegedly Banned Black History Month Accuses Black Teachers of Reverse Racism. Teachers Accuse Her of Original Recipe Racism A principal who was demoted amid accusations that she prohibited students from celebrating Black History Month has filed a lawsuit against a group of teachers at a Bronx school for discriminating against her because she is white. Meanwhile, the teachers filed
A teacher makes 10 predictions for education in 2020 — some of them rather hopeful Every year, veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo makes two lists for this blog: one on what he sees as the best and worst education news of the past year; the second on education predictions for the next year. I published his 2019 list , and here are his 2020 predictions. Ferlazzo teaches English and social studies at L
Michael Kohlhaas: Charter Leader in Los Angeles Harasses Teacher Protesting Co-Location and Unqualified Staff at Charter Michael Kohlhaas, blogger in Los Angeles, writes here about a charter leader who harassed a teacher who protested his staff’s lack of qualifications. Excelencia Charter Academy is yet another creepy little charter school run by yet another shockingly unqualified creepy little
Hard to understand CTU's vitriol on these charter closings. I'm having a difficult time making sense out of CTU policy statements lately. Yesterday, the union leadership came out with a blistering, overheated attack on CPS leaders. Why? Because CPS recommended the closing of two privately-run charter schools for poor academic performance and financial mismanagement. The two schools are Chicago V
Interview with Diane Ravitch and Talk out of School is now a podcast! Today on WBAI, I interviewed Diane Ravitch on Talk out of School . We discussed her new book, Battling Goliath , to be released in January, about the resistance to privatization, about Mayoral control, and what to pay attention to during Saturday’s education forum of the Presidential candidates on MSNBC . You can hear our conv
Fordham: Teachers Are Downloading Junk Fordham Institute, the right-tilted thinky tank and tireless ed reform advocacy group, just released a new study that actually raises some interesting questions. " The Supplemental Curriculum Bazaar " takes a look at the materials teachers are downloading, and it finds them, well, not delightful. While I'm only going to argue with their findings a little, t
“None of the Children at the School Are Safe” One school. 21 abuse investigations. And the struggle to stop relying on seclusion and restraint. This story is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune . The knock came on Beth Sandy’s door late one Friday afternoon at the end of May. Standing outside was an investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family
Curtis Cardine on the Fiscal Crisis in Arizona’s Charter School Industry Curtis Cardine, former superintendent of both public and charter schools, is the preeminent expert on charter schools in Arizona. He created the Grand Canyon Institute to study education issues, and it keeps a close eye on charter malfeasance. Cardine has written two books that are well worth reading to learn about the fail
Missing Friday's show with Erika & Jen from The Girl Talk Show I can't believe I'm missing tomorrow's show featuring two of my favorite people. Jen Sabella and Erika Wozniak will be Fred's in-studio guests. For those who don't know them (you must not live in Chicago), Jen and Erika co-host The Girl Talk Show on the 4th Tuesday of every month, over at the Hideout. Jen, who describes herself as a
Michelle Obama delivers $100,000 from Ellen DeGeneres to a D.C. public school. What’s wrong with this picture? Former first lady Michelle Obama recently walked into an elementary school in the nation’s capital and delivered a box with a stunning gift: $100,000 in cash, courtesy of entertainer Ellen DeGeneres. Children and adults screamed and jumped for joy when they saw the money in a genuinely
Public School Teacher Questions for 2020 Dem Presidential Candidates What happens when you give a microphone to a public school teacher ? That’s not a rhetorical question. I really want to know, because we so rarely let educators speak in any context other than the classroom. Maybe that’s why it’s so refreshing that MSNBC is hosting “Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Justice for All” on Sa
Teachers “Grow” Their Students’ Heights As Much As Their Achievement The title of this post captures the key findings of a study that has come across my desk now over 25 times during the past two weeks; hence, I decided to summarize and share out, also as significant to our collective understandings about value-added models (VAMs). The study — “ Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height:
Privatization Is Their North Star Remember when ed reform was complicated, when it felt as if the whole business was a perfect storm of hydra heads, and it was all a public school supporter could do to try to track all the heads, let alone the body of the beast to which they were all attached? Things have changed. And the change tells us a lot about the body of the beast, as the many heads of th
Let’s invest in black kids who pursue STEM the way we do black kids on the football field Our students must develop tech skills or risk unemployment at the hands of AI In a crowded hotel lobby in New Orleans the day after Thanksgiving, primary and secondary students and playful adults threw paper planes towards a target for a prize of $50. The game at the carnival-style booth was meant to teach
The Science of Writing: A 36-Year Journey and Counting Science is not a hammer . Science is an old-growth forest , each tree an organic thing. Think of a tree as a theory. At any moment that tree (theory) is fully a tree but not the tree it will be. As a tree grows, it becomes more robust, a stronger trunk, deeper roots. If we inspect that trunk, we find rings detailing the history of how that t
Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation? Smartphones and other devices have long been maligned as distractions in university classrooms. But when employed strategically, many educators find them useful. This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series , which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve. Karen Huxtable-Jester, who t
Go behind the scenes at NEA’s presidential candidate interviews Educators are keeping public education a central focus of the 2020 presidential election following wins for students and schools across the country during 2019 races. Parents, students, teachers, and support staff have carried the Red For Ed spirit into rallies and electoral work, calling for greater investment in public schools and
Participate in the 2020 Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action Webinar Recording We hope you will consider organizing a Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action from February 3-7, 2020. Please watch our webinar and learn more about how various cities organized their 2019 week of action. Once the 2020 curriculum is finalized by our national curriculum committee we will post it here. Join
SCUSD Budget Crisis- State Audit December 10, 2019====See also Community Forum post below. 2019-108 The Governor of California President pro Tempore of the Senate Speaker of the Assembly State Capitol Sacramento, California 95814 Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders: As directed by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, my office conducted an audit of the Sacramento City Unified School District
Pennsylvania: Republican Legislators Target State’s Neediest Districts for Failed Takeover Strategy The York Dispatch, a newspaper in a district that has been targeted for state intervention, blasted the state with a scathing editorial. I hope the editorial board will forgive me for reprinting it in full. “Financial recovery” has not helped any district; it is a disaster for the students, teache
KENTUCKY’S GOVERNOR BESHEAR DUMPS STATE SCHOOL BOARD. KENTUCKY TEACHER RANDY WIECK COMMENTS When Democrat Andy Beshear defeated Kentucky Republican Governor Matt Bevin last November it was seen as a defeat for Donald Trump in a sold red state. Although that is a fair interpretation, there were local issues that played a role in Bevin’s defeat, education and public pensions among them. On Tuesday
Vice: Pete Buttigieg’s Financial Relationships with Charter Advocates Rachel Cohen writes here about the charter supporters backing Pete Buttigieg. Billionaire Reed Hastings held a fundraiser for Mayor Pete. Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has given millions to the California Charter Schools Association. He has said he looks forward to the day when there are no elected school boards. He likes schools
Ohio Burdens Public School Districts with Huge Unfunded Voucher Mandate at the Expense of Public School Students The Plain Dealer ‘s education reporter, Patrick O’Donnell recently published an important article piecing together a mass of the complicated reasons for this school year’s explosive growth in the number of Ohio students qualifying for private school tuition vouchers at public expense.
FEDERAL CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FILED VS COLLEGE BOARD’S PREDATORY PRACTICES UPDATE: Another lawsuit was filed today vs the Univ. of CA system for requiring College Board/ACT exams for admission; the lawsuit claims these exams are unconstitutional since they are racially biased and provide no meaningful info about a student’s ability to succeed. Today a federal class action lawsuit was filed agains
News literacy lessons: Manipulating social media and letters to soldiers Here is the fourth installment of a new weekly feature on this blog — lessons from the nonprofit News Literacy Project . Each installment offers new material for teachers, students and everybody else who wants a dose of reality. You can learn about the News Literacy Project and all of the educational resources it provides i
New Report: Charter Fraud And Waste Worse Than We Thought New Report: Charter Fraud And Waste Worse Than We Thought Last March, the Network for Public Education released a report showing that the federal government has lost a billion dollars to charter school waste and fraud . But the organization had not stopped sifting through the data. Their follow-up report , “ Still Asleep At The Wheel: How
Failed charter schools cost federal government almost $505M in nine years: report Charter schools that never opened or that have opened then closed between 2006 and 2014 have cost the federal government almost $505 million, according to a recent report . The Network for Public Education, an advocacy group, released a report Friday that found more than 35 percent of charter schools never opened o
Schools Spy on Kids to Prevent Shootings, But There's No Evidence It Works Spyware like GoGuardian, Bark, and Gaggle are monitoring students’ internet habits, both on and off school grounds. It was another sleepy board of education meeting in Woodbridge, N.J. The board gave out student commendations and presented budget requests. Parents complained about mold in classrooms. Then, a pair of high
AFT’s Weingarten urges members: Push lawmakers to impeach Trump WASHINGTON—With the House Judiciary Committee scheduled to vote on impeachment articles against GOP President Donald Trump the week of Dec. 9, Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is urging her members to strongly lobby their lawmakers now to vote to impeach Trump for bribery and obstruction of justice. At this point, with repo
The Lure of Bad News I have this Facebook friend—a woman I haven’t seen in decades but who was my actual pal and work partner in high school. As it happens, with relationships like this—threadbare, based on outgrown commonalities—we have taken two very diverging roads in the yellow wood of life. And not just politically and socially. She is that person who continually reposts urgent TV reports o
Can Rich Content Improve Education? Modern high-stakes testing really kicked into gear with No Child Left Behind, and then got another huge boost with the advent of Common Core. All through that era, teachers pushed back against the fracturing of reading instruction , the idea that reading is a suite of discrete skills that can be taught independent of any particular content . The pendulum has b
Steeling Myself Forget it, nothing I change changes anything “Walk It Back,” The National Just come outside and leave with me “The Day I Die,” The National Yesterday I met with my four classes for the last time this semester. The classes include about 75% first-year students, something I very much enjoy about teaching at the college level. As I have started doing more purposefully, I ended these
Report: Federal government wasted millions of dollars on charter schools that never opened More than 35 percent of charter schools funded by the federal Charter School Program (CSP) between 2006 and 2014 either never opened or were shut down, costing taxpayers more than half a billion dollars, according to a new report from an advocacy group that reviewed records of nearly 5,000 schools. The sta
The Thing Nothing strikes fear into a teacher's heart quite like the prospect of another day of PD on the New Thing. There are all these programs, based on the presumption that you're doing everything wrong, and trying to get you to correct yourself and do everything right. Right there you've already lost. It's like you're five years old and someone is telling you to drink castor oil for your ow
NYC Public School Parents: Achieve Inc. seriously misleads the Board of Regents on graduation exit exams Thanks for Stan Karp of the Education Law Center for much of the data here . Achieve Inc. has been commissioned by the Board of Regents to research what other states are doing with their graduation exit exams, and review the current New York high school graduation requirements which mandate t
Ed Tech about Profits NOT Education By Thomas Ultican 12/10/2019 Anthony Kim founded Education Elements in 2010. He sold Provost Systems – which built virtual schools – to Edison Schools in 2008 and was ready for a new project. His new company sells personalized learning systems and consulting services to several school districts. Education Elements is one of more than a hundred ed tech companie
The Face of CTC & The Lack of Transparency By Those in Power #SaveFairfax I have been asked by people for an update about Fairfax High and I am sorry to say it continues to be a mess. Last month I wrote about plans for a new middle school which will serve a primarily white high socio economic group of families in West Hollywood. This school will push out a program of mostly black and brown Speci
Network for Public Education Releases Explosive New Report on Federal Charter Schools Program Last spring, the Network for Public Education published a report on waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal Charter Schools Program. The report, called Asleep At the Wheel , documented the Department of Education’s failure to monitor the veracity or feasibility of applications for the program or to follo
Charter Schools Exploit Children of Color Go to most impoverished black neighborhood s and you’re bound to find three things in abundance. Liquor stores, payday lenders and charter schools. It is no accident. In the inner city , the underemployed compete for a shortage of minimum wage jobs, healthcare is minimal, public transportation inadequate and the schools are underfunded and short staffed.
2019 Medley #23 Let the Children Play, Reading: Too much too soon, The Common Good, Is the Teacher Pay-gap Gender-related? Vouchers hurt students in Ohio HEALTHIER KIDS NEED PLAY, PLAY, AND MORE PLAY FreshEd with Will Brehm: Let the Children Play (Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle) Earlier this year I reviewed a book by Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle titled Let the Children Play . On December 2,
Rochester teachers rally against ‘Christmas massacre’ layoff plan CREDIT GINO FANELLI / CITY NEWSPAPER The chants of “Let teachers teach” and “Education is a right, that’s why we have to fight,” echoed clearly down West Broad Street early Thursday evening. They came from a rally organized by the Rochester Teachers Association and were meant to send a message: Stop the proposed layoffs of Rochest
Unexpected side effect of Texas school finance overhaul has Dallas schools nixing controversial charter partnership Fort Worth ISD, however, plans to continue its charter partnership One of the most politically heated battles the Dallas school board has undertaken in recent years was the decision to transform some classrooms into charters. Parents and teachers crowded meetings for months urging
NEW LEGISLATION AIMS TO END THE “SCHOOL TO CONFINEMENT PATHWAY” REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY of Massachusetts introduced new legislation Thursday aimed at ending the “school to confinement pathway.” The bill targets discriminatory and punitive school discipline policies that push black and brown students out of schools at disproportionately high rates, often directly into the criminal justice system. Th
McKinsey’s Biggest Mistake When I worked in the first Bush Administration In 1991-92, McKinsey consultants were everywhere. Gaggles of very young, well-dressed people marched in and out of the White House with briefcases and plans. McKinsey has advised school districts, given them business plans to fix their problems. Does anyone ever check up on how their proposals turned out? Do they ever admi
Eli Broad’s Superintendent Academy Goes Ivy League The billionaire’s controversial training program has found a new home at Yale University. Say goodbye to the Broad Academy . The Eli Broad -founded and funded superintendent’s program that since 2002 has trained “aspiring urban school system leaders” in the blunt art of disrupting communities, undermining school boards and alienating teachers th
LEGISLATORS UNDER FUND THE PENSION SYSTEMS AGAIN PLUS THEY THOUGHT WE WOULD BE DEAD BY NOW The pension programs for Illinois employees, state university workers, judges, legislators and educators outside Chicago fell $3.8 billion further in debt. According to a report from the state legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability: The unfunded liability grew to $137.3 billi
Should we worry that American children are becoming less creative? In 2012, early child education expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige wrote the following on this blog : We have many decades of theory and research in child development that tell us so much about how young children learn. We know that, like children all over the world and throughout time, children need to play. We know that learning in the
Next Saturday: Dem Education Forum in Pittsburgh (Yes, I'll Be There) Next Saturday, December 14, some assortment of Democratic Presidential hopefuls will offer their two cents about education . The crowd will be an invitation-only group of about a thousand public education stakeholders, including yours truly. The Network for Public Education kindly gave me the chance to attend this event, and I
Thomas Armstrong: What If Einstein Ran Our Schools? Thomas Armstrong recently wrote a provocative book with the same title as this essay. I invited him to write a post for this blog, and he did. His point of view stands in sharp contrast to the current policy environment of testing, data, competition, and punishment for teachers, principals, students, and schools that don’t hit test score benchm
What Would You Ask the Presidential Candidates? A week or two ago, I got an email from AFT. They were seeking people to go to Pittsburgh this coming weekend to see and hopefully participate in the presidential education forum. It asked me," IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO TELL THE NEXT PRESIDENT ONE THING ABOUT WHY YOU’RE PUBLIC SCHOOL PROUD OR WHAT YOU SEE IN YOUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY THAT NEEDS IMPRO
The Common Core Standards Died a Natural Death. Why Is Dana Goldstein Trying to Dig Them Up? In a superficial article last Friday, NY Times education reporter Dana Goldstein exhumed an education reform that has, mercifully, already been buried: the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core has pretty much faded out of the public consciousness, but now that Goldstein has chosen to examine the
Kristen Bell, Celebrity Charity, Flaming Possums Sigh. I was already thinking about this, about how Dana Goldstein's Common Core retrospective for the New York Times collapsed a lot of history, but still had room for that time that pre-disgraced Louis CK made a crack about Common Core math. A great reminder of how a gazillion teachers and parents can comment on the quality of the Core, but a cel
Whatever Happened to “No Excuses” Schools? Nothing. They are still around in big cities. What has changed is the rhetoric of reform. Where once the phrase “No Excuses” was plastered on car bumpers. It was a popular label that one wing of urban school reformers used with pride, but now it has fallen out of favor. Although the sticker has been stripped from the bumper, “No Excuses” schools remain.
ACT’s Push for Use of a “Superscore” Composite– Which Still Underestimates College Freshman GPA ACT is promoting “superscoring,” which involves creating a composite score based upon the highest scores of individual subtests across multiple testing sessions. On August 15, 2019, ACT released a statement about superscoring and how, beginning September 2020, ACT will include a superscore on ACT scor
DeVos seeks to block student loan forgiveness Everybody’s favorite education secretary, Betsy DeVos, tweeted out this week how she thinks her department shouldn’t be in the student loan business. Only she and her loan shark friends should be allowed to rip off desperate students who don’t have mummy and daddy to pay their outrageously expensive college tuition. DeVos proposes creating a “standal
Eli Broad Buys Home For His Training School At Yale Billionaire Eli Broad has long worked to impose business solutions on US education, believing that education has a management problem, not an education problem. As one Broad fan is quoted in the Washingtoin Post , “You think a superintendent is like the lead principal or lead teacher for a school district, but you have to think more like a CEO
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: New Car Edition (12/8) ICYMI: New Car Edition (12/8) So yesterday we replaced my wife's car, which has lost an argument with an errant deer. Used car shopping is a pain, but if you want to talk about something that has truly and completely been disrupted by technology. Little browsing, because everyone does that on line. Little haggling compared to the old says because ever
Still Asleep at the Wheel Read the Report Read the Executive Summary See the Map By-the-Numbers Big Education Ape: Carol Burris Responds to Charter Industry Critique of NPE’s “Asleep At the Wheel” | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/07/carol-burris-responds-to-charter.html Still Asleep at the Wheel continues our investigation of the U.S. Department of Education’s C
EdAction in Congress December 8, 2019 Tell Congress to increase Title I and IDEA in final funding bill House and Senate negotiators continue to seek agreement on a final funding bill for fiscal 2020 by Dec. 20, when the latest stopgap measure expires. NEA is pushing for significant increases like those in H.R. 2740, the education appropriations bill passed by the House earlier this year. The Hou
Idea for presidential candidates' forum in Pittsburgh started in nation's capital The conversation that spawned the idea to hold a forum on education for Democratic presidential candidates in Pittsburgh took place months ago at the American Federation of Teachers building in Washington, D.C. But grassroots organizations, teachers unions and public school advocacy groups in Pennsylvania and aroun
How Media Turn Support for Public Schools Into Opposition to Children of Color Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic presidential candidates are rejecting the Obama administration’s embrace of charter schools, and media observers aren’t taking kindly to it. “Minority Voters Chafe as Democratic Candidates Abandon Charter Schools,” blared a recent New York Times headline ( 11/26/19
Pittsburgh: A Forum for Democratic Candidates on Public Education on December 14! Tune in! PUBLIC EDUCATION GROUPS WILL HOST TOP DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES AT 2020 PUBLIC EDUCATION FORUM MSNBC Will MODERATE AND LIVESTREAM PITTSBURGH FORUM ON DEC. 14 PITTSBURGH— The Network for Public Education Action will join with other public education groups, unions, civil rights organizations and com
On Ignoring Special Needs In an ICT class, you can have only 12 students with IEPs. That's the rule. However, in a non -ICT class, perhaps yours or mine, you can have 34. It's an odd phenomenon. You see, there are rules regarding special education classes, and there are rules regarding special education students. Many are driven by student Individual Education Programs, or IEPs. But there are so
AOC documentary director blasts GO Public Schools for Oakland event On Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019, GO Public Schools, an astroturf organization driving charter school expansion in Oakland, hosted a watch party for the documentary “Knock Down the House” for its members at the New Parkway Theater. The film follows the grassroots campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula J
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 12/7/19 The real story of New Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post Bill Gates spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve teaching. New report says it was a
