Obama vs. Romney 101: Education - K-12 spending - CSMonitor.com

Obama vs. Romney 101: Education - K-12 spending - CSMonitor.com:

Obama vs. Romney 101: 5 differences on education

President Obama has used back-to-school season to make the case that his education funding and policy initiatives are saving teachers’ jobs, turning around failing public schools, and helping cash-strapped college students. Mitt Romney counters that Mr. Obama has spent too much, and he advocates more school choice and private-sector involvement.

Here is a look at how the two differ on the issue of education.

- Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Staff writer

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President Obama speaks with teachers during a campaign event at Canyon Springs High School in Las Vegas on Aug. 22. (Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS)

1. K-12 spending

Obama’s stimulus package included $100 billion for education, which he claims saved about 300,000 jobs. It also funded his Race to the Top grants for states, which have received praise even from some Republicans for promoting school turnarounds, better teacher evaluations, and charter schools.

Education is also a central theme in Obama’s 2013 budget proposal, which requested $69.8 billion in discretionary spending for the US Department of Education, a 2.5 percent 

Morning UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-27-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Do We Really Want “the Best and the Brightest”?

by dianerav

A reader remembers that when David Halberstam used the phrase “the best and the brightest,” it was not praise. It was an ironic reference to the seemingly brilliant Harvard graduates at the State Department, the National Security Council, and the think tanks who got us into the war in Vietnam.
You often hear education reformers, including President Obama, talk about how we must have the “Best and Brightest” from the most elite schools enter the teaching workforce to improve education.
I always want to say to say to them, the phrase “Best and Brightest” doesn’t actually mean what you think it 

Who Might Be Romney’s Education Secretary?

by dianerav

Education Week has an article by the always well-informed Alyson Klein that speculates about Romney’s possible choice for Secretary of Education.
The possibilities include:
Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, who shaped the Romney agenda for privatization of the nation’s schools;
Tom Luna, the state superintendent in Idaho who is known for his allegiance to online corporations and his efforts to increase class size;
Joel Klein, the former chancellor of NYC, now selling technology for Rupert Murdoch, another supporter of 

Will Bridgeport Elect a Voucher Advocate?

by dianerav

Residents of Bridgeport, CT, will soon vote in an election for members of their school board.
For reasons to complicated to get into here, the previous unelected school board was declared illegal by the state’s highest court, which ordered a new election.
If you read Jonathan Pelto’s blog, you will get the full story of how an illegal board was put in charge of the district, hired Paul Vallas to be a superintendent for $229k a year at the same time that he runs a consulting 

Vouchers in Florida: No Difference

by dianerav

The latest evaluation of the Florida voucher program showed that students in voucher schools made academic gains similar to their peers in public schools.
I am old enough to remember the old rhetoric:
Vouchers were going to “save” poor children from “failing” public schools.
Vouchers were going to “close the achievement gap.”
Vouchers were a panacea, all by themselves, for producing high academic achievement.

The Good, Bad and Ugly in the Cleveland Plan

by dianerav

Stephen Dyer has prepared this analysis of the Cleveland Plan for the blog at my invitation. The plan has been endorsed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Dyer is in a good position to review the proposal because he is the Education Policy Fellow at Innovation Ohio, progressive think-tank, and was previously chairman of the committee in the Ohio House of Representatives that oversaw the redesign of the state’s education funding formula. Before that, he was a journalist, which makes him ideally suited to explain what is happening in the city of Cleveland.
As a former legislator, I tend to roll my eyes whenever someone declares they are doing something “bold”. I’ve heard it used for so many different policies that the word has lost nearly all its meaning for me.
So when I heard that a “bold” plan had been devised for public education in the City of Cleveland, I have to admit 

Charters Hope to Open in Florida’s Top County

by dianerav

Three charter schools want to open in St. John’s County in Florida, which is the state’s highest ranking county.
Some of the state legislators, including one of the state senate’s most avid supporters of charters, are surprised. They thought that charters were supposed to rescue students in failing schools, but St. John’s County is known for its excellent public schools.
If approved, the charters will siphon almost $13 million out of the public school budget, requiring at least 200

A Sad Report from Detroit

by dianerav

I asked for news about Detroit.
Detroit is one of the trying grounds for corporate reform.
It is a petri dish for reformers to try out their theories.
The district has an intense concentration of racial segregation and poverty and low test scores.
For reformers, this toxic combination suggests that what is needed is school reform, meaning, charter schools run by private management. No part of the reform plan addresses racial segregation and poverty.

Who Are the “No-Excuses” Teachers?

by dianerav

This study of the “scalability” of no-excuses charter schools was written by Steven Wilson, who is a supporter of this approach.
The no-excuses teachers agree that test scores are the most important outcome of schooling and the best preparation for college readiness.
He examined the education backgrounds of the teachers in several very successful charter schools in Boston.
83% were graduates of very selective colleges.
These teachers typically work 9-10 hours daily and are on call at any time

Was Jersey Jazzman Pulling a Fast One re KIPP?

by dianerav

Recently I issued the KIPP Challenge.
I proposed that KIPP put an end to suspicion that they were skimming students and excluding low-performing students by taking over an entire district. A district with ELLs, special ed, the whole gamut of students. If they did that, they could show their stuff to the world and silence the skeptics.
Then Jersey Jazzman offered Camden, NJ (though he is in no position to offer it). It is distressed. It is not very 

Florida Teacher Offers Good Advice

by dianerav

This teacher has advice for Governor Rick Scott about the importance of quality time with his family:
 I am a 27 year veteran teacher from Miami Dade County, Florida, and I can finally say that Florida has done something right by invalidating a ridiculously arbitrary evaluation system that came without a valid rationale or explanation. I was also very pleased that our commissioner of education decided to resign to spend more time 

What Is Happening in Detroit?

by dianerav

I received the following comment with links from a reader. Does anyone reading this blog have knowledge of what is happening in Detroit and what is happening now that the “emergency manager” law is under court review?
The following two links show what is happening in Detroit right now. I find it interesting that the first link (which is 

Could This Happen in the U.S. Today?

by dianerav

This post shows that our society is placing an unfair buden on children and their teachers. When was the last time you heard of a kindergarten with 43 students? Could this be the United States in 2012?
A teacher comments:
I had a class of 43 kindergarten students last week. What do you really think I can do with that many little ones? I often go into a class expecting a certain number only to have 8 to 12 more students. How can I be prepared to 

This Made My Day!

by dianerav

A reader commented:
There have been many times in history when the evidence and discoveries by researchers and scientists (such as Galileo and Darwin) was suppressed by those in power. This is one of those times.  

The peer-reviewed unbiased research in biology, neuroscience, education, and social science corroborates a humanistic, child-centered, constructive approach to how we raise and educate our children.  It’s amazing how the biological research into the workings of the brain supports 

News Flash: Is Team Vallas Imploding? Is Sandra Kase, his #2, Leaving? - Wait, What?

News Flash: Is Team Vallas Imploding? Is Sandra Kase, his #2, Leaving? - Wait, What?:

News Flash: Is Team Vallas Imploding? Is Sandra Kase, his #2, Leaving?

by jonpelto

Rumors of a shake-up and changes at the top are swirling, as Bridgeport’s illegal Board of Education prepares to meet tonight, for the last time.

A democratically elected board of education will finally be chosen on September 4^th

Leading the list of rumors is the question whether Sandra Kase, Vallas’ number two, is leaving her position as Bridgeport’s Chief Administrative Officer.  Kase, who bills at $900 a day or more than $220,000 a year has been Bridgeport’s primary, day-to-day, administrator.  She has also been filling in for Vallas when he is away with his own consulting business in Haiti, Illinois, Indiana and Dallas.

Kase, who also has a consulting company, has been on the job in Bridgeport since January 1, 2012.  Less than a month ago, Bridgeport’s illegal board extended Kase’s 

Daily Kos: Bill Moyers: "Invisible Americans Get the Silent Treatment"

Daily Kos: Bill Moyers: "Invisible Americans Get the Silent Treatment":

Bill Moyers: "Invisible Americans Get the Silent Treatment"

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

It's just astonishing to us how long this campaign has gone on with no discussion of what's happening to poor people. Official Washington continues to see poverty with tunnel vision - "out of sight, out of mind."

So begins this post by Bill Moyers, whose title is included in the title of this post.Too often poor people are forgotten in our politics.
It is appropriate to read the words of Moyers on this topic on this day, which would be the 104th birthday of his mentor, Prsident Lyndon Baines Johnson, vastly underrated as a President, whose Great Society programs did as much to alleviate poverty and discrimination in this country as did any other President, being matched only by the New Deal of FDR (which unfortunately did not address discrimination).
Moyers makes clear this is not just an issue for Mitt Romney and the Republicans - he reminds us of a President who said in his first book about why he went to Harvard Law after serving as a community organizer in Chicago

"I would learn power's currency in all its intricacy and detail" and "bring it back like Promethean 

No, algebra isn’t necessary — and yes, STEM is overrated - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

No, algebra isn’t necessary — and yes, STEM is overrated - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

No, algebra isn’t necessary — and yes, STEM is overrated

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Roger C. Schank, a cognitive scientist, artificial intelligence theorist, and education reformer. He has taught at Stanford and Yale universities and is the John Evans Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Psychology, and Education at Northwestern University. The former head of the Institute for the Learning Sciences, he is the author of “Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools.”

Schank wrote this in response to a recent post I published by University of Virginia cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham entitled, “Yes, algebra is necessary.” Willingham was himself writing in response to a New York Times op-ed, “Is Algebra Necessary?” by Andrew Hacker. Willingham’s 

Radical Scholarship: The New Politics of the Textbook: Critical Analysis in the Core Content Areas

Radical Scholarship: The New Politics of the Textbook: Critical Analysis in the Core Content Areas:

The New Politics of the Textbook: Critical Analysis in the Core Content Areas

by P. L. Thomas

The New Politics of the Textbook: Critical Analysis in the Core Content Areas

Sense Publishers

Heather Hickman and Brad J. Porfilio (Eds.)

In an era when corporate and political leaders are using their power to control every aspect of the schooling process in North America, there has been surprisingly little research on the impact of textbook content on students. The contributors of this volume and its partner (The New Politics of the Textbook: Problematizing the Portrayal of Marginalized Groups in Textbooks) guide educators, school administrators, academics, and other concerned citizens to unpack the political, social, and cultural influences inherent in the textbooks of core content areas such as math, science, English, and social science. They urge readers to reconsider the role textbooks play in the creation of students’ political, social, and moral development and in perpetuating asymmetrical social and economic relationships, where social actors are bestowed unearned privileges and entitlements based upon their race, gender, sexuality, class, religion and linguistic background. Finally, they suggest ways to resist the hegemony of those texts through critical analyses, critical questioning, and critical pedagogies.

Constructing Knowledge: Curriculum Studies in Action Volume 2

ISBN 978-94-6091-929-9 hardback USD99/EUR90

ISBN 978-94-6091-928-2 paperback USD49/EUR45

July 2012, 368 pages

Free Preview
Buy this book at Amazon: paperback | hardback
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Buy this book at Barnes & Noble: paperback | hardback

NYC Educator: Our System at Work

NYC Educator: Our System at Work:

Our System at Work

by NYC Educator

I really try to keep a good outlook. While I complain endlessly about all the nonsense that perpetually swirls around our profession, you will not see complaints here about the actual job of teaching, which I love. I find kids inspiring, endlessly surprising, a very bright spot in my life. Yet at the same time, I see colleagues receiving inadequate support on a regular and predictable basis.

Long ago, I determined not to depend on admin for anything. I mean, if they want to help, fine. I'm grateful. In fact I've had very good administrators who were extremely helpful, who've gone the extra mile for me. You'd better believe I'd do the same for them in a heartbeat. Some people inspire loyalty. Sadly, others don't. Here's a comment from a recent blog:

I just left teaching after 20 years.  Got tired of being demonized and looked upon as unconcerned 

The West Ed Chicago Hustle and other privatization schemes | Dailycensored.com

The West Ed Chicago Hustle and other privatization schemes | Dailycensored.com:

The West Ed Chicago Hustle and other privatization schemes

by Danny Weil

West Ed is one of the leading front groups and think tanks for privatization of education.  It is one of many faux groups that publish questionable data to be used to decimate public education by arguing it is a failure.

West Ed is funded the Bill and Melinda Gates crime family (http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/gates.profiles.pdf) as well The Lumina Foundation, our good friends who are in the process of dismantling community colleges in California and elsewhere (http://www.luminafoundation.org/dewayne_matthews/).

There are many more of these ‘public looking’ organizations but when googling them always add the words 

Who Could Be Romney's Education Secretary? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Who Could Be Romney's Education Secretary? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Who Could Be Romney's Education Secretary?

by Alyson Klein

With the Republican National Convention about to kick off, it's officially time to start speculating about who could be presumptive GOP Mitt Romney's education secretary if he wins the presidential election.
After all, way back in 2008 (Aug. 8, to be exact), Politics K-12 guessed that then-Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan could be then-Democratic contender Barack Obama's pick on Aug. 8. So we're actually late to the dance this year.
This time, there's not a lot of agreement among the Republicans that I polled. This is going to be a tight election and folks are focused on that. Still, Romney, like other presumptive nominees in both parties in past years, has started some preliminary transition planning. When it comes to the U.S. Department of Education, it's still the very early stage, where lots of people are floating lots of names, folks said.
The number one guess among Republicans that I talked to? Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who wrote the 

Zoning exemption for Rocketship charter riles local districts | EdSource Today

Zoning exemption for Rocketship charter riles local districts | EdSource Today:

Zoning exemption for Rocketship charter riles local districts

August 27th, 2012 | Add a Comment | 
By John Fensterwald

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Superintendents and school board members were angry last year when the Santa Clara County Board of Education approved plans for 20 Rocketship Education elementary charter schools over the next six years, in addition to the five county-approved Rocketship schools in the works or already open. Now, many are furious that the county board may assert its power to exempt a Rocketship school from San Jose zoning ordinances.

This wouldn’t be the first time a charter authorizer used its status as a school district  to grant an exception to a zoning ordinance, although it is rare. Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified each asserted its right to approve a site for a charter school. However, this apparently would mark the first time that a county office of education would use the same authority. Some local districts claim county offices lack the right to tread on their turf, even though land use is a municipal, not a school district, responsibility.

Los Altos School District trustees Mark Goines and Tamara Logan warned of a “dangerous 

Shalom, Shalom, Because It Means Peace [A Thought for Ms. Waldman] | The Jose Vilson

Shalom, Shalom, Because It Means Peace [A Thought for Ms. Waldman] | The Jose Vilson:

Shalom, Shalom, Because It Means Peace [A Thought for Ms. Waldman]

by Jose

A former student asked via text, “Hey v, its me … I just wanted to confirm ms waldman?”
She was the third student who had asked me about the recent passing.
“Yes, it’s true.”
Ms. Waldman and I shared the last class she ever taught before she had to go away for a while. We had an auspicious beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, me with the cart I called a portable classroom and her with the booming voice that shook our shared room. She already had a reputation in the school for gravitating towards the tough kids, and I already had a reputation of patience and care for students, a ying and yang for this class. We would sync up our EnGrade accounts so our students wouldn’t have an excuse for not logging in to check 

An Urban Teacher's Education: Renton School District Reconsiders Teach for America

An Urban Teacher's Education: Renton School District Reconsiders Teach for America:

Renton School District Reconsiders Teach for America

by James Boutin

Wednesday, August 22nd, Superintendent Mary Alice Heuschel and the Renton School Board heard comments from twelve members of the public regarding their consideration of a TFA candidate for a language arts/social studies teaching position at Dimmitt Middle School.

As a former Renton High School teacher and Renton resident, I took the opportunity to speak first. My main point was that if we want to say teaching is a profession, then we need to treat it like one. Professionals don't receive five weeks of training before beginning their career. I finished by noting that there are dozens of teachers 

How One School District is Coping With the Convention - Politics K-12 - Education Week

How One School District is Coping With the Convention - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

How One School District is Coping With the Convention

by Nirvi Shah

With the Gulf of Mexico's waters churning, myriad street closures in Tampa, Fla., because the Republican National Convention's in town, and nearly 200,000 students in the early days of the 2012-13 school year, what's a school district to do?
Plan to close a school or two, put police officers on some school buses, relocate school district staff—and prepare for the worst. Already, convention events for Monday have been canceled. The district, and at least a half-dozen others across the state, decided Sunday to close all of its schools in case the wind and wetness from 

The in box. “I spent my summer traveling the US from east coast to west coast spreading the message.” « Fred Klonsky

The in box. “I spent my summer traveling the US from east coast to west coast spreading the message.” « Fred Klonsky:

The in box. “I spent my summer traveling the US from east coast to west coast spreading the message.”

by Fred Klonsky

You may remember that I did a post about Adam after the NEA RA last July. We worked together on getting the NEA to pass NBI 13, which called on the NEA to support the CTU in their negotiations with Chicago’s Mayor and his hand-picked school board.

Friends and Family across the United States-

 As most of you know Chicago Teachers Union has been in a fight to win a contract that requests not only fair compensation, but also great teaching and learning conditions in the face of mass privatization and charterization.  Our mayor has promised 250 more charter schools in place of traditional public schools.  Our mayor has promised more testing for our kids, and rating teachers 

Interim Ed Commish Brushes Aside Judge’s Invalidation of SB 736 Rules | Scathing Purple Musings

Interim Ed Commish Brushes Aside Judge’s Invalidation of SB 736 Rules | Scathing Purple Musings:

Interim Ed Commish Brushes Aside Judge’s Invalidation of SB 736 Rules

by Bob Sikes

interim Florida education commissioner, Pam Stewart
No Big Deal

One had to assume that interim Florida education commissioner, Pam Stewart, had to pass a litmus test before getting the job. She had to be totally on board with the flawed Florida way that Rick Scott, Jeb Bush and republican legislators have been imposing. On Friday, Stewart earned her keep my poo-pooing an administrative judge’s smackdown of the manner the DOE and state board was implementing SB 736. From Gradebook’s Jeff Solochek:

The Florida Department of Education is downplaying an administrative law judge’s recent invalidation of the state’s rules on teacher evaluations, saying the decision spoke to form and not