A Note About the Fifth Year Anniversary of This Is Not A Test | The Jose Vilson

A Note About the Fifth Year Anniversary of This Is Not A Test | The Jose Vilson

A NOTE ABOUT THE FIFTH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THIS IS NOT A TEST

I wrote this book for you.

For some of you, it means I wrote this in love. There’s always that first visit to the local bookstore when we scan the education section and don’t see a book that tangentially relates to your qualms and visions. Most of the narrative-based books are written by professors, ex-educators, celebrities, and wunderkinds with a connection to a highly visible outlet for their story. The ones written by actual classroom teachers – the very few there are – are relegated to instructional books that publishers can sell en masse to districts flinging their arms for a life raft.

At the time, there were plenty of people implicitly competing for the “best” teacher blogger, teacher writer, or education writer. Some publishers forced teachers with narratives to follow the instructional template even when the educator had an actual set of stories to tell. Other publishers just threw as many books out as possible in hopes that perhaps one would stick. Some people write books in hopes of raising their platforms, knowing they’ll have plenty of opportunities (and connections) to write more. Some even wrote books as a “teacher” even when they left the classroom and schools a long while ago. I went into this process knowing that this one book would have to both convey the urgency of now and last forever because teachers like me rarely get opportunities for more than one.

Haymarket Books offered me the opportunity to be a legit author and not just because they’re a well-respected publishing house. Julie Fain and Anthony Arnove took a huge chance on me. Liliana Segura printed out my manuscript and marked more than half of it in red at our first meeting. That, too, CONTINUE READING: A Note About the Fifth Year Anniversary of This Is Not A Test | The Jose Vilson

K-12 Public Education: Front and Center in the 2020 Election | Real Learning CT

K-12 Public Education: Front and Center in the 2020 Election | Real Learning CT

K-12 Public Education: Front and Center in the 2020 Election

At last!  At last!  At last!  A candidate for President of the United States has recognized that the bedrock institution of our democracy is in peril, that the same forces of greed and racism that are working to destroy other elements of our society are also eating away at the very foundation of our society: K-12 public education.

That presidential candidate is Bernie Sanders.

Honoring the 65th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court case, which outlawed segregation in public schools, Senator Bernie Sanders unveiled his education plan, a comprehensive 10-point agenda, called The Thurgood Marshall Plan for A Quality Education for All.

The first principle of the plan is that every child has the right to a quality education. A simple statement to be sure but a principle that is far from being practiced in this country at this time.

In his plan, Senator Sanders wholeheartedly supports The NAACP Task Force Report entitled “Quality Education For All … One School At A Time”, which calls for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools because:

1. Charter schools have failed in fulfilling their original purpose, which was to innovate and infuse new ideas into the traditional public school system. There has been no carryover from the charter schools to traditional public schools. Charter schools have not, in any way, been learning labs, free from the restrictions imposed on public schools, which try out new ideas that benefit the larger population of students in public schools.
2. The education that charter schools provide their students is questionable. The large scale study of student data from the Center for Research Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute found that 17% of charter schools produced academic gains better than traditional public schools, 37% of charter schools performed worse than their traditional public schools counterparts serving similar students, 46% of the schools showed no difference.  Reducing class size, not charter CONTINUE READING: K-12 Public Education: Front and Center in the 2020 Election | Real Learning CT

The Letter from CORE activists. – Fred Klonsky

The Letter from CORE activists. – Fred Klonsky

THE LETTER FROM CORE ACTIVISTS.

We the undersigned are union members, members of CORE, and activists in our schools. Some of us are currently serving on leadership bodies of the CTU and are running for elected positions with the CORE slate. We have decades of combined experience fighting for better schools and a stronger union, and some of us are co-founders of CORE. We are endorsing the CORE slate in the 2019 leadership election and urge all members to vote for the slate in order to register their support for organizing a strike-ready union that’s fighting for a strong contract.We think a Members’ First victory would set the union back in negotiations and represent a move away from a fighting approach. While we respect many of the individuals in MF, and intend to continue working alongside all our union brothers and sisters, we do not believe they have the vision or the commitment to stand up to the bosses and win the schools our students deserve.

However, we recognize that many members are concerned about the direction of our union under the current CORE leadership team. We share many of those concerns. We are deeply sympathetic to members who feel that their working conditions, which are our students’ learning conditions, have been getting worse for years. As active rank-and-file teachers, clinicians, PSRPs, and school workers, we have experienced the bullying, the disrespect, the micromanaging, and the intense pressures and workloads personally.

We are not content with the state of our workplaces or the past contracts won. To be frank, our union has suffered a number of defeats in the past years. We know how damaging the REACH evaluation system is. We understand how Student-Based Budgeting and the School Rating System hurts members and students alike. We have labored under the longest school day and school year. We suffered through furloughs, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and the loss of raises.

We fully recognize that the author of our worsening conditions is the 1% and the political establishment of both major parties, who have rained down attack after attack on public education and unions everywhere. We are members of CORE precisely because of the major role CORE had pushing back against this neoliberal assault. We are proud of the organizing for the 2012 strike, for the resistance to testing, school closures, punitive evaluation systems, and the call to join our union fight with the broader needs of the communities where we live and work.

However, it’s our contention the current leadership has made a series of mistakes that have deepened the defeats and taken us off the road to fighting back. One of the most concerning was the top-down decision of this leadership to call off a strike in 2016 accepting what we consider a weak contract. We also believe our union has not done a sufficient job defending members and our contract in the buildings and that leadership has become too far removed from the everyday abuses we experience. In addition, we are in deep disagreement with our leadership’s turn towards funding Democratic establishment politicians, like our endorsement of Toni Preckwinkle, with the aim of buying influence and cutting deals. We believe that we CONTINUE READING: The Letter from CORE activists. – Fred Klonsky

enrique baloyra: Bernie calls for charter school moratorium - YouTube

Bernie calls for charter school moratorium - YouTube

enrique baloyra

Yesterday Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came to with his 10-point education plan. Recalling the civil rights lawyer who successfully argued before the Supreme Court that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional under the XIV Amendment and later went on to become the first Black justice, the “Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education” aims to “combat racial discrimination and school segregation.”
Sixty-five years after the landmark Brown v. Board, our nation’s schools are more segregated than ever, and Black students are four times as likely to be suspended as whites, even for the same infraction.
Bernie’s plan calls for tripling the Title I budget, which our current education secretary wants to eliminate in favor of her school voucher scam, and funding teacher training programs at historically black colleges and universities. Studies show that students of color with at least one teacher of color are more likely to attend and graduate college. Currently seven percent of public school teachers are Black.
The plan also calls for a ban on corporate charter schools — echoing the NAACP’s three year-old moratorium — until a national audit can determine the extent of the well-documented waste, fraud, and abuse rampant in the industry.
“We do not need two school systems; we need to invest in our public schools system.”
“Thurgood Marshall said that all children have a right ‘to an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens.’
“In my view, the only way to accomplish that goal is to guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.” https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/sta...
Unlike former Vice President Joe Biden, who as a young senator was opposed to busing and desegregation, Bernie would allow local school districts to use federal money for busing and increase funding for desegregation programs.
The charter school ban is expected to cause a rift in the Democratic party, as other presidential hopefuls Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker both have extensive ties to charter school industry. Kamala Harris has also taken contributions from education profiteers.
Apparently some Democrats don’t mind corporations stealing assets from poor and minority communities, as long as there’s a buck in it for the donors.
Critics who say it’s too bold a plan should remember it’s the same thing they said about “Bernie’s Medicare for All” plan just a couple of years ago. Now six Democratic frontrunners are on board.
Bernie calls for charter school moratorium - YouTube

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION: + ICYMI: Birthday Eve Edition (5/19)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Birthday Eve Edition (5/19)

 ICYMI:  Birthday Eve Edition 

Might even eat some cake today just to warm up. You know the drill, folks. Read and share. Read and share. Only you can help amplify voices in the web-o-sphere.

A Letter To Journalists About Dark Money

A great little primer here from Massachusetts, where dark money tried to make charter schools happen.

Curriculum for Profit and Propaganda  

Alan Singer takes a look at the newfound interest in curriculum among the reformnoscenti.

Open and Accessible?

A Chalkbeat reporter tries to attend ten charter school  meetings in a month. It doesn't go well.

Gates Funded Commission To Put Value on College Education

Just in case you were worried that Bill Gates might be done messing with education.

I was a white teacher who couldn't talk about race.  

Sarah Fine with an open and honest look at her own journey. If you only read one piece this week...

About charter schools-- and Betsy DeVos

Larry Campbell will not make you guess what he really feels.

At Excel Academy, a confrontation that never should have happened 

An ugly encounter between a racist and students. For your "I can't believe this kind of crap still happens" file.

Better To Be Born Rich 

A Georgetown study tracked kindergartners from 1989. Turns out that test scores don't change your future, but the economics of your family pretty well set it.

What Do Teachers Really Want From Professional Development? Respect.

Yes, somebody gets it.

Dear STAR Test, We Need To Talk, Again  

Another crappy standardized test. This time it's reading.

Jeanne Allen 

The indispensable Mercedes Schneider digs deep for the story of the crankiest reformster of them all.

The New But Not Necessarily Improved ASD 

Tennessee's Achievement School District was a model for how the state could take over a bunch of schools and work miracles. Only it couldn't. But the ASD is still thrashing away down there.

Avenue to the Stars 

Have Your Heard looks at the intersection of school and the free market

Jeb Bush's A+ Disaster

A look at how Florida is still paying the price for Jeb! Bush and his edureformerific ideas.

Are School Playgrounds Still Empty?   

Nancy Bailey looks at the issue of littles with no chance to run and play. 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Birthday Eve Edition (5/19)

Center for Education Reform Doesn't Love Bernie

34by Peter Greene / 23h

If you have any doubts about the effect of Bernie Sander's education proposals , Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform tossed off a somewhat apoplectic newsletter after Sanders went public. Here's some sample frothing: Sanders’ comments - yelling about transparency (which of course exists) or regulation (which charters have plenty of!) and accountability (which is the very essence of ch

Bernie Sanders' Education Platform Doesn't Suck

500+by Peter Greene / 23h

The big headline on Friday was that Bernie Sanders was going to call for a ban on for-profit charters , and if the story had stopped there, I would be unimpressed. Hillary Clinton managed to condemn for-profits, and while that's a nice low-hanging fruit for politicians to grab, regular readers of this blog know that a non-profit charter is usually just a for-profit charter with a good money launde

MAY 17

Diane Ravitch's New Book: Scholarship, Activism and History

100+by Peter Greene / 1d

Diane Ravitch was the first major voice of the resistance to the modern corporate "reform" of education, in part because of her newsworthy turn from the reform ideas and peers she had previously embraced. An education historian, she has laid out the problems with the recent assaults on public education in several solid and well-built books (with another one on the way). But Ravitch is a tireless v

MAY 16

Miracle School's Secret Sauce

100+by Peter Greene / 2d

Here's news of yet another miraculous charter school. Can we look closely and see what the secret of their success might be. Southland College Prep School in Chicagoland had 100% of its mostly-Black graduating class accepted to college. It's the sixth straight year for this achievement, and it's been covered widely in the area. The school is the only charter high school in the state to earn an exe

Why The Big Standardized Test Is Useless For Teachers

47by Peter Greene / 3d

In schools throughout the country, it is testing season--time for students to take the Big Standardized Test (the PARCC, SBA, or your state's alternative). This ritual really blossomed way back in the days of No Child Left Behind, but after all these years, teachers are mostly unexcited about it. There are many problems with the testing regimen, but a big issue for classroom teachers is that the

MAY 15

OH: State Ed Board Joins Takeover Law Opposition

200+by Peter Greene / 3d

HB 70 is an Ohio law that strips a school district and its elected school board of all their power and hands it, via an academic distress board, to one person-- a super-powered CEO. The law was rammed through the legislature in less than 12 hours under the direction of then-Governor Kasich, and so far it has been used to take over Youngstown, Lorain, and East Cleveland schools (three districts tha

MAY 14

Success Academy Violates Student Privacy (Again)

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

In a way, I can almost sympathize with Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy. Schools can find themselves in a real bind at times. A student can go to the media (social or traditional) and tell a story of how he was repeatedly hauled into the principal's office and disciplined because he was fighting bullies who picked on him for being gay, and the school must hold its tongue, even if it has a folder

MAY 13

DFER Tries To Swing A Primary

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

We live in interesting times. So many folks are sure they know what "most people" think or "most people" want, but it's hard for anybody to have a clue because the great American industry is the business of trying to sell a particular opinion. Even when the Russians mess with us, their disinformation campaigns focus not on lies about policy (free college will make your hair fall out) so much as on

MAY 12

Parenting Is All About Losing

100by Peter Greene / 6d

As I've been immersed again in the world of children's music, I'm struck by how much of it is sad. Not "when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall sad," but a kind of melancholic ache behind the music itself. I think it's the losing. My wife asked me the other day, "Is it always like this?" We had turned around and had one of those moments when you realize that your baby looks like a small child,

ICYMI: Do You Feel Appreciated Now Edition (5/12)

100+by Peter Greene / 7d

So, teachers, did this week do it for you? Here are some pieces to read while you bask in the warm glow. A Bridge Too Far Wow. Florida Senator Tom Lee (R) is a long time supporter of charters, but during this last round of legislative baloney he stood up to say "enough." Accountabaloney reports some of his speech and it is rough and honest and nobody paid attention, but you should. Firing Day At A

MAY 10

PA: More Charter Shenanigans in Harrisburg

100+by Peter Greene / 9d

On May 7, a group of four bills related to charter schools suddenly popped up, referred to the House education committee in the state capitol. Surprise! Let's take a look: HB 355 : This bill is supposed to strengthen the "ethical requirements" for charter schools (including cybers). It sets requirements for annual independent financial audits and puts limits on how much money charters can hold in

MAY 09

What She Taught Me

77by Peter Greene / 10d

I've written about Miss Gause before. She was my elementary school vocal music teacher, and she had a critical effect on me in two major ways. First, she was fairly relentless in confronting the Monotone Boys I'm-Too-Cool-To-Sing Chorus in the back of the room. She harangued us into listening to pitches and more or less matching them. Now, in my school students took a listening aptitude test in fo

MAY 07

Knewton, A Big Name in Big Data, Bites The Dust

100+by Peter Greene / 11d

Adaptive learning. Computer-enhanced psychometrics. Personalized learning via computer. Knewton was going to do it all. Now it's being sold for parts. Knewton started in 2008, launched by Jose Ferreira. By 2012, Ferreira led the ed tech pack in overpromising that sounded both improbable and creepy. In a Forbes interview piece , Ferreira described Knewton as "what could become the world’s most valu

Maine Dumps Test-Centered Teacher Evaluation

1Kby Peter Greene / 12d

Maine has broken with the status quo of test-centered accountability for teachers. Beginning with No Child Left Behind, public schools have committed to test-centered accountability, using student results on a single standardized