Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Next for Seattle Schools?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Next for Seattle Schools?:

What's Next for Seattle Schools?

I'll ask that question because apparently, the district isn't going to ask you.

I bring this up after reading thru the presentation for last week's Work Session with one section about SMART goals and the other about the budget.  Here's the title for the SMART goals:

Selection of the 2017-18 Board Governance Priorities & Superintendent SMART Goals ... for next year.

Our goals help the Board and staff: 

a) Focus on: a few, high-priority and high-impact goals. Note: Over the last few years we have gone from 12 > 9 > 7 > 5 goals 

b) Aligned to the Board-adopted 2013-18 Strategic Plan. Note: Our goals are now fully aligned to our strategic plan.

First, that's great that the Board and senior staff finally realized that having too many goals dilutes the focus and the work. Also great is that their goals are aligned to the strategic plan.

However, despite the rubric that staff uses to judge the implementation and output of these goals, I'm not quite sure I have ever seen how/when they know they have achieved them.  Is complete implementation the goal or outcomes (to some degree) or both? 

So their three big goals over the last three years were:

• MTSS
• EOG - Eliminate the Opportunity Gap
• Community Engagement

As a result: we are a high performing district outperforming our peers and each year we increase the number of positive outlier schools – leading the way state-wide in eliminating opportunity gaps.

This is also good news but I note that Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Next for Seattle Schools?:

Endrew F. and Charter Schools: What’s the Connection?

Endrew F. and Charter Schools: What’s the Connection?:

Endrew F. and Charter Schools: What’s the Connection?

It requires an educational program reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

In light of the current administration’s push for school choice in the form of vouchers and charter schools, and the selection of Betsy DeVos to be education secretary, there is concern about the future of public schools and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). How will students who require different learning approaches fit in a world of school privatization?

The Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District ruling gives us hope that students with disabilities must be challenged in their educational program, but it also left many unanswered questions. One I will focus on today.

Why did the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) and the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS) file an amicus brief for Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District? Such legal documents are filed by non-litigants with compelling interest in the case. The briefs advise the court. They Endrew F. and Charter Schools: What’s the Connection?:

An Opt Out Lament – and a Deeper Lesson | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

An Opt Out Lament – and a Deeper Lesson | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

An Opt Out Lament – and a Deeper Lesson 

 It is nearing the end of March, which means that my social media feeds and the blogs that I read are full of materials pertaining to the Opt Out movement.  Contrary to years of efforts by testing advocates to portray Opt Out as wholly of phenomenon of privileged parents, I know that the efforts I witness represent the work of parents facing bullying and misinformation from administrators trying to keep their test participation levels above 95%.  It is also represents the work of brave teachers risking sanction and professional consequences for speaking out against damaging policies that distort curricula and classroom choices.  Further, it represents the work of urban education activists who have seen over and over again how annual test data is abused by politicians and policymakers and is used to rank teachers on flawed measures of their performance and to close schools instead of to help and nurture them.

The reasons to support opting out are legion.  Peter Greene provides an excellent breakdown of eight compelling reasons in this post.  Katie Lapham clearly articulates how test refusal is a form of people power that says “no” to a variety of practices that actively harm schools and children.  Last year, Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman made an impassioned case for why he supports parents’ rights to refuse the state exams, asking why if the city’s most elite private schools refuse to give exams like these why do we just accept them as necessary for schools full of children in poverty?  New York State Allies for Public Education published this informative response to general misinformation and obfuscation on testing policy put into the state “information toolkit” for administrators.  I urge you to read these pieces carefully and thoughtfully and to seek out others on the subject if you are not already deeply informed on the issues regarding testing.

From where I sit, there are two fundamental reasons why parents should consider opting their children out of the annual examinations.  First, they are a failed policy.  Annual, high stakes, standardized examinations were ushered in as part of the No Child Left Behind legislation under President Bush with a promise that with an ongoing set of achievement data that could be compared against An Opt Out Lament – and a Deeper Lesson | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

Trump blames everyone but himself for failure of GOP healthcare legislation | US news | The Guardian

Trump blames everyone but himself for failure of GOP healthcare legislation | US news | The Guardian:

Trump blames everyone but himself for failure of GOP healthcare legislation
President’s targets include conservatives, Democrats and a possible veiled jab at Paul Ryan as Republican hand-wringing over repeal-and-replace failure continues

Donald Trump sought on Sunday to spread blame for the failure of his first attempt at passing major legislation, the replacement of Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

As internecine squabbling continued in the Republican party, the president’s targets included conservatives in Congress, Democrats and, possibly, House speaker Paul Ryan.

On Twitter on Sunday morning, Trump wrote: “Democrats are smiling in DC that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club for Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & O[bama]care.”

He was referring to the advocacy group Club for Growth, as well as the Heritage Foundation thinktank and likely its advocacy offshoot Heritage Action for America, all conservative groups with influence on the members of the Freedom Caucus.

That hard-right House group’s withdrawal of support along with some Republican moderates caused Ryan and Trump to pull the health bill before a vote on Friday.

Provocatively, Trump lumped such groups together with congressional Democrats and mentioned Planned Parenthood, a federally funded provider of women’s healthcare services that is a lightning rod for anti-abortion groups.

Debate also continued about whether Trump or members of his administration had orchestrated an unusual attack on Ryan on Saturday, despite professions of unity from both the White House and the House speaker’s camp. Trump and Ryan spoke by phone for an hour on Saturday.

In the morning, the president used Twitter to tell the public to watch a show on Fox News at 9pm, Judge Jeanine.

The former judge, prosecutor, district attorney and Republican political candidate from New York Jeanine Ferris Pirro then opened her show by saying: “Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the House … He failed to deliver the votes.”

Trump’s senior adviser, Steve Bannon, is a former publisher of the hard-right website Breitbart, which has been harshly critical of Ryan.

Mick Mulvaney, formerly a member of the Freedom Caucus and now Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, denied any move against the speaker.

“Never once have I seen him blame Paul Ryan,” Mulvaney said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “The people who are to blame are the people who would not vote yes.”

Mulvaney was one of the leading officials lobbying House Republicans to pass the bill, which was pulled less than an hour before lawmakers were due to vote.

“We haven’t been able to change Washington in the first 65 days,” Mulvaney said. “I know the Freedom Caucus. I helped found it. I never thought it would come to Trump blames everyone but himself for failure of GOP healthcare legislation | US news | The Guardian:

Teachers, Teachers Unions, and the Charter School War Part 2

Teachers, Teachers Unions, and the Charter School War Part 2:

Teachers, Teachers Unions, and the Charter School War Part 2

Please join Internet radio host Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. for the second part of the War Report's examination of our teachers, our teacher unions, and the charter school war. Dr. Miller will present the War Report perspective on the never good, always bad and ugly unions and charter schools getting in bed with each other . Dr. Miller will start the show by summing up just why charters and unions don't mix .

Dr. Miller will argue why charters and unions don't mix well. He will remind everyone of the origins of charters in the resistance to school integration, the legacy of segregation, and racism and segregation today. He will expertly construct an analysis of segregation yesterday,tomorrow, and segregation forever.

Thie first show was birthed from commentary on the following question:

What is the difference between unions promoting new charter schools and unions unionizing existing charter schools?

Here is the podcast from part 1 - https://bbsradio.com/podcast/war-report-public-education-march-19-2017

Please think about your own ideas on this issue and call in Sunday and help us explore and reveal this issue . We encourage your participation in this critical discussion.

Knowledge is power !

RESISTANCE MATTERS
RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE
RESISTANCE IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF EXPRESSION OF DEMOCRACY
RESISTANCE IS SURVIVAL
Please click on the website below to listen live:
http://bbsradio.com/thewarreport
2:00 PM PDT
4:00 PM CDT
5:00 PM EDT
or
A direct listen-in line only
Station 1 - 716-748-0150
To call-in and interact live
Station 1 888-627-6008 toll free

Teachers, Teachers Unions, and the Charter School War Part 2:

Kalief Browder and the School-To-Prison Pipeline | The Jose Vilson

Kalief Browder and the School-To-Prison Pipeline | The Jose Vilson:

Kalief Browder and the School-To-Prison Pipeline

A few weeks ago, I was supposed to attend the premiere of Time: The Kalief Browder Story, the documentary about a young man wrongly arrested and held captive for years in Rikers Island. The story uncovers the excesses and atrocities of the prison industrial complex in the world’s empire city all through a young man whose post-traumatic stress disorder ended with him taking his life. The Jay-Z / Weinstein Company-produced documentary would have been a delight to watch.

Then school happened.

As a teacher and parent, I get to see first hand the effects that schooling has on our youth. The constrictions and mandates placed on our children and the ideals we give up in the name of security all form the alloy that keeps the school-to-prison pipeline intact. We keep losing our most vulnerable youth when we’re not responsive to their needs and concerns. Surely, institutional racism and oppression are hard to bear for one adult at a time. But now, more than ever, is the time to have the conversation about our agency as adults in this school-to-prison pipeline, and how we re-enact jail to and for our kids.

So I had a bad day at school and didn’t attend the premiere.

Luckily, the good folks at Spike arranged for me to speak with the filmmakers about this harrowing film. When I interviewed the director of Time, Jenner Furst, I needed to know about Browder’s path, his school, and what we could do better as adults. This is intertwined with preferred methods of schooling because, in many instances, we’re driving schools to be institutions that slide kids right into prison. Curricula, pedagogy, and wayward research are some of the drivers for this momentum.

I’d say more, but please do read this interview with Jenner Furst. Thank you and let’s continue the conversation.Kalief Browder and the School-To-Prison Pipeline | The Jose Vilson:

 

Education Matters: Detroit and Jacksonville by the numbers

Education Matters: Detroit and Jacksonville by the numbers:

Detroit and Jacksonville by the numbers
Get the Scoop on Vitti at Education Matters - http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/

Education Matters: Detroit and Jacksonville by the numbers:

The convenient pattern of Education Secretary DeVos’s school visits - The Washington Post

The convenient pattern of Education Secretary DeVos’s school visits - The Washington Post:

The convenient pattern of Education Secretary DeVos’s school visits

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has toured four schools since she joined President Trump’s Cabinet in early February, and there’s a curious pattern to the visits.

These are the schools she visited:

Feb. 10 — Jefferson Middle School Academy, a traditional public school in Washington

March 3 — St. Andrew Catholic School, a parochial school in Orlando, where she toured with Trump

March 23 — Carderock Springs Elementary School, a traditional public school in Bethesda

March 24 — Valencia College, a community college in Kissimmee, Fla.

[DeVos confirmation as education secretary is a big victory for … Jeb!]

That’s two visits in the D.C. area — where she was met with protests — and two in Florida. Is that random?

The Education Department did not respond to a query about why these schools were selected.

But consider this:

Her office at the Education Department is in Washington.

In central Florida, the site of the other two schools she visited, the Michigan billionaire and her husband, Dick DeVos, own at least one home at Windsor, a private sporting club community on what the development’s website says is “a lush barrier island between the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean.” This is where the extended DeVos family holds meetings of what it calls the The convenient pattern of Education Secretary DeVos’s school visits - The Washington Post:

Urgent. Senator Manar has filed his bill eliminating designated sped funding. Manar thinks there are too many special education students. Act now. | Fred Klonsky

Urgent. Senator Manar has filed his bill eliminating designated sped funding. Manar thinks there are too many special education students. Act now. | Fred Klonsky:

Urgent. Senator Manar has filed his bill eliminating designated sped funding. Manar thinks there are too many special education students. Act now.

Illinois State Senator Andy Manar thinks there are too many special education students.

Fred,

Sen. Manar has finally filed the Amendment to Senate Bill 1, AND House Bill 2808 may be voted on in Committee on Tuesday. Could you post at least the beginning parts of the following so people CAN ACT (file Witness Slip on HB 2808 per the following directions) on what we have been telling them for months?

Thanks, Bev Johns

———————–

Amendment 1 to Senate Bill1 has now been introduced by State Senator Andy Manar. (Without any evidence whatsoever, Sen. Manar told all the Members of the Rauner Commission that there was “drastic over-identification” for special education in Illinois.)

On pages 239 to 242 the Amendment contains the exact same language as House Bill 2808 TO ELIMINATE DIRECT AND DEDICATED FUNDING FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS (to eliminate Special Education Personnel Reimbursement).

If because of what it does to special education, or  because it is extreme local control of K-12 education, or because it would provide NO new funding for special education co-ops, you oppose the bill, you can fill out a Witness Slip on-line (see below).

If you are in Springfield, you can attend the hearing:

Appropriations-Elementary & Secondary Education Committee Hearing Mar 28, 2017, 2:00PM Capitol Building Room 114, Springfield, IL 

To do a Witness Slip opposed to HB 2808:

1. Click on http://my.ilga.gov/WitnessSlip/Create/104197?committeeHearingId=14549&LegislationId=104197&HCommittees3%2F31%2F2017-page=1&committeeid=0&chamber=H&nodays=7&_=1490376189630

2. Under Section I: Identification, fill out all information. Under Firm/Business or Urgent. Senator Manar has filed his bill eliminating designated sped funding. Manar thinks there are too many special education students. Act now. | Fred Klonsky:

The American Charter School Nightmare Continues: Gülen Scandal Update- CSMonitor.com

Could the Trump administration send Fethullah Gülen back to Turkey? - CSMonitor.com:

Could the Trump administration send Fethullah Gülen back to Turkey?

Turkey accuses the cleric of being the author of last summer’s failed coup. Whether or not the Trump administration sides with Turkey or European skeptics could shape the course of the war against ISIS.

MARCH 25, 2017 —Fethullah Gülen leads a reclusive existence in his Pennsylvania compound. Much may hinge on whether or not he remains there.

An extradition request for the cleric, filed by Turkey’s government in September, remains under review, as Turkish impatience grows over the fate of a man that some call a Turkish Osama bin Laden — but whom skeptics describe as little more than a scapegoat for Turkey's power-hungry president.

This weekend, Mr. Gülen is emerging at the center of US controversy, after ex-CIA director James Woolsey told the Wall Street Journal he had been present at a September meeting between top Turkish officials and President Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, in which the two sides discussed ways to deliver Gülen into Turkish custody.

"You might call it brainstorming. But it was brainstorming about a very serious matter that would pretty clearly be a violation of law,” Mr. Woolsey told the newspaper, while cautioning that “a specific plan to undertake a felonious act” was never formulated in his presence.

“It was suspicious, it was concerning, and I felt I needed to say something to somebody, but was it a clear plot that they were going to seize him? No,” he later told CNN.

 Think you know Turkey? Take our country quiz.

A spokesman for Flynn, who was paid over $500,000 to lobby for Turkish interests during his time as an advisor to President Trump, has denied the claim. 

"The claim made by Mr. Woolsey that General Flynn, or anyone else in attendance, discussed physical removal of Mr. Gulen from the United States during a meeting with Turkish officials in New York is false,” said Flynn's spokesman, Price Floyd, in a statement.

Woolsey’s accusation underscores the remarkable importance of Gülen, who rejects any allegations of involvement with the July coup attempt. And it animates questions about how US-Turkey relations might shift under the Trump administration, at a time when Turkey’s war against Syrian Kurds is complicating the United States’ own proxy-led campaign against ISIS.

Many US military leaders see the Kurdish peshmerga fighters as the best suited to defeat ISIS, perhaps in part because the peshmerga hope to establish a Kurdish homeland that could encompass territory currently controlled by ISIS. But that territory in northern Syria also adjoins Turkey, which opposes the idea and considers the YPG, the main group of Kurdish fighters, just another wing of a separatist terrorist group operating within Turkey.

Trump has praised the peshmerga. But as the US-led coalition sets its sights on the ISIS capital of Raqqa, the administration is reviewing whether to approve a detailed Obama-era blueprint for backing the Syrian Kurds in that fight, as Foreign Policy reported on March 3. 

Little has emerged about the new administration’s approach in the three weeks since. As the clock ticks, Turkey has sent forces to fight ISIS in towns west of Raqqa, in an apparent bid to wage its own campaign to capture the city. And it has Could the Trump administration send Fethullah Gülen back to Turkey? - CSMonitor.com:

 

BustED Pencils Trending News: Where Have All the Teachers Gone? | BustED Pencils

BustED Pencils Trending News: Where Have All the Teachers Gone? | BustED Pencils:

BustED Pencils Trending News: Where Have All the Teachers Gone?

It’s not a shortage! It’s not a human capital issue! It’s a mass EXODUS!

Change the narrative. 30 years of war against teachers and the casualties are now insurmountable.

THAT IS NOT A SHORTAGE! It’s a warning that public schools are close to being privatized and our most vulnerable children will be thrown to a market that doesn’t give a $#@! about them.

GET REAL! It’s a WAR and we’re losing.

Florida. 

California.

Iowa.

 BustED Pencils Trending News: Where Have All the Teachers Gone? | BustED Pencils:

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

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

Weekend Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

The Fight to Block the Keystone Pipeliine is not Over

by dianeravitch / 34min

This article reviews the many legal and political challenges that still face the Keystone Pipeline. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/legal-challenges-await-keystone-xl-pipeline-after-trump-grants-permit He said it 

Poll: Betsy DeVos is the Most Unpopular Member of Trump’s Unpopular Cabinet

by dianeravitch / 4min

Usually a new presidency has a honeymoon period, a time of good feeling and high poll numbers. As they battle for their policies and legislation, their poll numbers change, for better or worse. Newsweek reports that Trump and his 

Peter Greene: Food Is Overrated

5by dianeravitch / 42min

As the previous post noted, the Trump administration wants to eliminate the after school program, because it doesn’t raise test scores. Budget director Mick Mulvaney said the same thing about feeding children: it doesn’t raise their test 

The Daily Signal Salutes Defunding of After-School Programs

by dianeravitch / 31min

The Daily Signal is published by the uber-conservative Heritage Foundation. I am on their mailing list. In yesterday’s report, it congratulated Trump for proposing to eliminate federal funding for after-school programs because they harm children. They hailed the defunding of 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Based on a study published 10 years ago that found that participants in the progra

Jeff Bryant: The Big Lie Behind Trump’s Budget Proposals for Education

17by dianeravitch / 1h

Jeff Bryant spells out the Big Lie embedded in Trump’s budget proposal for education. He plans to cut programs that directly aid poor kids while bolstering charters and vouchers, pretending they are equivalent. They are not. Yet much of the mainstream media has fallen for the Trump-DeVos bait-and-switch. “Public school supporters are angry at President Trump’s budget proposal, which plans to cut

New York Opt Out Leaders Prepare for Renewal of Common Core Test Boycotts

19by dianeravitch / 2h

The epicenter of New York’s historic test refusal movement is gearing up for a repeat performance when testing begins on Monday. The state is hoping that the introduction of computer-based testing will mollify parents but it shouldn’t. Numerous studies have shown that students get lower scores on computer-based tests than on tests that require pencils. Some children–especially in younger grades–a

YESTERDAY

God Bless Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe!

54by dianeravitch / 21h

As reported earlier today, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed legislation that would have allowed privately managed charters to be authorized without the approval of the local school board. This legislation would have invited into Virginia all the scandals, frauds, scams, and profiteering that have marred the charter industry in other states. The state’s major newspaper, the Richmond Times-

Todd Gitlin on Trump’s Rhetoric: Has He Been Reading Avant-Garde Poetry?

7by dianeravitch / 22h

Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University. In this post, which appear s on Bill Moyers’ website, Gitlin analyzes Donald Trump’s unusual use of grammar, syntax, and logic, as illustrated in the recent interview in TIME magazine. Gitlin’s lucid inquiry leads him to ask: “Is Donald Trump the heir of generations of avant-garde poetry?” One can only imagine the diss

Allen Weeks: Our Texas Schools Are Broken, It’s Time for a Change

18by dianeravitch / 23h

Allen Weeks writes in the Austin American-Statesman tha t Texas schools are broken. Th ey are desperately underfunded by a legislature that cut $5.4 billion from the state school budget in 2011. When the economy improved, instead of restoring the money they took from the schools, they cut business taxes. Now, the leadership thinks they can substitute vouchers and choice for the damage done by bud

Steven Singer on the Joy of Opting Out of Standardized Testing

23by dianeravitch / 1d

Steven Singer notes that standardized testing season is upon us. While he is at school administering useless standardized tests, his daughter will be home, inventing, playing, using her imagination. “In school I have to proctor the federally mandated standardized tests. But I’ve opted my own daughter out. She doesn’t take them. “So at home, I get to see all the imaginative projects she’s created

Tennessee Court Case: Does a Student Have the Right to a Teacher, or Will a Computer Suffice?

45by dianeravitch / 1d

Nashville student, Toni Jones, is suing the state of Tennessee, because she thinks she should be taught by a human teacher, not a computer. The state says those decisions are not left to students. “Do the rights of Tennessee students to a public education extend into the right to have a teacher, and if so, does a computer program count? “Those questions were posed to a state appeals court Tuesday

Virginia: Governor McAuliffe Vetoes Legislation to Expand Charters and Gut Local Control

33by dianeravitch / 1d

Congratulations, Governor McAuliffe of Virginia for protecting the children and public schools of Virginia from predatory privatizers. For standing up to Trump, DeVos, and the corporate reform movement inside the Democratic Party, I add you to the honor roll of this blog. Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed legislation intended to remove the authorization of charter schools from local school boards.

MAR 24

My Conversation with Mike Klonsky on DeVos the Reformer

15by dianeravitch / 1d

This was a fun conversation with my friend Mike Klonsky on the challenges of righting back in this new era of privatization as the goal of federal policy. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2017/03/diane-ravitch-and-kevin-coval-are-our.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+mikeklonsky+(SmallTalk)&m=1

A Year of Tillerson Emails Lost! Sad! So sad!

29by dianeravitch / 1d

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used a secondary email with an alias “Wayne Tracker.” He used it to communicate with Exxon board meters about sensitive matters like climate change. A year of emails has disappeared! “Exxon Mobil Corp. may have lost as much as a year’s worth of emails that former Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson used to discuss climate change risks and other sensitive issues

Mercedes Schneider on Hanna Skandera, Felled by the Common Core

10by dianeravitch / 1d

Mercedes Schneider comments here o n the Senate GOP decision not to move forward with Hanna Skandera as Assistant Secretary of Education for Elementary and Secondary Education because of her Common Core love. Skandera is a protege of Jeb Bush. She was deputy commissioner of education in Florida. Since she took the job in New Mexico, despite lacking the statutory requirement of real education expe

GOP Nixes Hanna Skandera for Top Job Because of Her Fervent Support for Common Core

7by dianeravitch / 1d

Politico reported this morning that Hanna Skandera, the Commissioner of Education in New Mexico, cannot be confirmed because of her advocacy for Common Core. Skandera is a protege of Jeb Bush. Although she has never been a teacher or a principal, she does have some practical experience in education, unlike DeVos. Skandera is also a proponent of high-stakes testing and VAM. Best not to give her th

Peter Greene: Florida, the Land of Stupid

11by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Greene reports here on a sad tale of education policy in Florida, where stupidity grows faster than citrus fruit. As you may recall, Florida is one of the states with a third grader retention law, declaring that third graders cannot move on unless they pass the Big Standardized Test for reading. This is a dumb law, without a lick of evidence to support it, and several licks to suggest that

Wisconsin Community Schools Threatened by Voucher Expansion

33by dianeravitch / 1d

Governor Scott Walker has been a champion of vouchers and charters. He has pushed hard to expand vouchers for religious schools. Some districts will not even lose students but will have to raise taxes to pay for voucher students. http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2017/03/21/tensions-rise-vouchers-pick-up-traction-across-wisconsin/98177206/ “When Superintendent Sue Kaphingst moved to Ch

Nicholas Tampio: State Testing Starts March 28, Don’t Let Them Bully You: Opt Out

40by dianeravitch / 2d

Nicholas Tampio is a professor of political science in New York, and a parent of children in public schools. He warns that the State Education Department has a campaign to stop opt out from testing, based on bullying and intimidation. He writes: “All across New York, superintendents and principals have sent versions of the following statements to parents whose children are in grades 3-8 and are s

DeVos Wants More Vouchers in DC, Despite Lack of Results

18by dianeravitch / 2d

The Republicans are set to expand the D.C. Voucher program, even though no evaluation has shown better test scores for D.C. voucher students and a high attrition rate. Students who get a voucher will check their constitutional rights at the door. The voucher schools may exclude students with disabilities and LGBT students. DeVos doesn’t care. Republicans have already started moving HR 1387, the S

John Merrow: Who Is Running the Show at the U.S. Department of Education?

60by dianeravitch / 2d

John Merrow hears that the Department of Education in a state of confusion . “From one perspective, these are the worst of times for American public education. In his inaugural address, President Trump told the nation that we 

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