UPDATE: Feminism, Child Development, and the Legacy of Shulamith Firestone - Dana Goldstein

Feminism, Child Development, and the Legacy of Shulamith Firestone - Dana Goldstein:

Does It Matter When Education Reformers and Activists Send Their Own Kids to Private School?

by Dana Goldstein

The scandal-prone Michelle Rhee does it. So does Leonie Haimson, the combative leader of the advocacy groups Class Size Matters, Parents Across America, and NYC Kids PAC, which oppose almost all the ideas Rhee supports, like increased standardized testing, teacher pay tied to test scores, and larger class sizes for effective teachers. Many left education writers have criticized Rhee for enrolling one of her daughters in the exclusive Harpeth Hall girls' school in Nashville, which boasts of tiny class sizes and a focus on critical thinking and the arts. But Haimson says her own decision to send her youngest child to a private high school is different, because unlike Rhee, she believes all children, especially the poor, should benefit from the small classes and progressive pedagogy many private schools provide. Indeed, Haimson has devoted her life to this cause, and isn't planning on stopping her activism simply because her own child is now enrolled in private schoool.
I am a product of socioeconomically diverse public schools and have written about why opting-out of 

Feminism, Child Development, and the Legacy of Shulamith Firestone

by Dana Goldstein

Like a lot of other people, I was riveted bySusan Faludi'sNew Yorkerreporton the work, life, and death of Shulamith Firestone, a Second Wave feminist theoretician and organizer whose name I knew, but whose legacy I was barely cognisant of. Faludi deals beautifully with Firestone's repressive Orthodox Jewish upbringing, her struggle with schizophrenia and social isolation, and the unfinished business of her particular brand of radical feminism, which declared that "pregnancy is barbaric" and childbirth is like "shitting a pumpkin."Those notions are shocking and perhaps ridiculous, but I nevertheless found insight in Firestone's observation -- decades before Judith Warner'sPerfect Madnessand Elisabeth Badinter'sThe Conflict-- that the increasing fetishization of childhood in the developed world has brought with it an unrealistic set of burdens on mothers, just as women finally earned the right to full lives beyond the domestic sphere. Describing Firestone's classic,The Dialectic of Sex, Faludi writes:

The book’s longest chapter, “Down with Childhood,” chronicled the ways that children’s lives had become constrained and regulated in modern society. “With the increase and 

SES IS A MESS: State investigators: 3 Dallas-area tutoring companies fraudulently billed Garland and San Antonio ISDs | Education Blog

State investigators: 3 Dallas-area tutoring companies fraudulently billed Garland and San Antonio ISDs | Education Blog:

State investigators: 3 Dallas-area tutoring companies fraudulently billed Garland and San Antonio ISDs

by Holly K. Hacker

Three local tutoring companies submitted fraudulent bills to the Garland and San Antonio school districts, according to state investigations.

Diverse Learning, Avenue Academy and Boost Academy sent invoices to both districts so they could get paid for tutoring low-income students, as allowed under the federal No Child Left Behind law. But the tutoring never took place, investigations by the Texas Education Agency found. A lawyer for Diverse Learning said the company is contesting TEA’s decision. Messages left Academy and Boost have not been returned.

TEA had already removed Avenue Academy and Boost Academy (which have the same Hurst address) from the state’s approved list of tutoring companies for other violations. A related company called Diverse Learning (also known as Diverse Links) was removed April 4. In addition, a Coppell firm called 1 to 1 Computer Tutoring was removed April 2.

But those tutoring firms are free to reapply to get back on the state list this fall. And some school district leaders say that’s not cool.

“What we want is the ability to permanently remove companies from the list that have a history of fraud,” said Leslie Price, a spokeswoman for San Antonio ISD. She said SAISD spends a lot of time and money documenting problems with tutoring companies, only to have them potentially remain in 

Did Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee ignore her own cheating scandal? A new memo suggests clear evidence was discounted. | Get Schooled

Did Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee ignore her own cheating scandal? A new memo suggests clear evidence was discounted. | Get Schooled:

Did Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee ignore her own cheating scandal? A new memo suggests clear evidence was discounted.

by Maureen Downey

Michelle Rhee speaking to Georgia lawmakers last year. (AJC Photo)

PBS education reporter John Merrow writes about the erasure analyses, clear evidence of cheating and concealment of that evidence.
No, he is not writing about Atlanta Public Schools and former Superintendent Beverly Hall. He is writing about Washington, D.C., and former Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
Merrow questions why the strong evidence of cheating in the District of Columbia Public Schools — revealed now in a confidential memo — was not followed up as it was in Atlanta, and puts the blame on Rhee.
He says an inexperienced and ambitious Rhee arrived in Washington and imposed a  “Produce or Else” reform model. He notes that Rhee met one-on-one with each principal and demanded a signed guarantee of exactly how many points their test scores would increase.
Rhee has become a national leader in education and holds great sway with state Legislatures, including here in Georgia. She is winning converts to the …

Schools Matter: The New Republic Provides Wedding Details for Randi Weingarten and Bill Gates

Schools Matter: The New Republic Provides Wedding Details for Randi Weingarten and Bill Gates:

The New Republic Provides Wedding Details for Randi Weingarten and Bill Gates

by Jim Horn

To the 800,000 K12 teachers who are paying dues for AFT union support:

Your union dues are not going protect you and your students from the corporate onslaught by efficiency zealots, privateers, and proto-fascist ideologues.  In fact, your president, Randi Weingarten, has joined forces with the oligarchs to begin the Accountability Testing 3.0 regime that has failed so miserably in the two previous versions.  

Below is a full page informercial in the March 25 issue of that neoliberal rag, The New Republic.  

(A reception will follow the ceremony).

Six Steps to Effective Teacher Development and EvaluationBY VICKI PHILLIPS AND RANDI WEINGARTENSponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and American Federation of Teachers

Sponsored content by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and American Federation of Teachers.

Some see us as education’s odd couple—one, the president of a democratic teachers’ union; the other, a director at the world’s largest philanthropy. While we don’t agree on everything, we firmly believe that students have a right to effective instruction and that teachers want to do their very best. We believe that one of the most 

Friday AM Graphs: Just how biased are NJ’s Growth Percentile Measures (school level)? | School Finance 101

Friday AM Graphs: Just how biased are NJ’s Growth Percentile Measures (school level)? | School Finance 101:

Friday AM Graphs: Just how biased are NJ’s Growth Percentile Measures (school level)?

by schoolfinance101

New Jersey finally released the data set of its school level growth percentile metrics. I’ve been harping on a few points on this blog this week.
SGP data here: http://education.state.nj.us/pr/database.html
Enrollment data here: http://www.nj.gov/education/data/enr/enr12/stat_doc.htm
First, that the commissioner’s characterization that the growth percentiles necessarily fully take into account student background is a completely bogus and unfounded assertion.
Second, that it is entirely irresponsible and outright reckless that they’ve chosen not even to produce technical reports evaluating this assertion.
Third, that growth percentiles are merely individual student level descriptive metrics that simply have no place in the evaluation of teachers, since they are not designed (by their creator’s acknowledgement) for attribution of responsibility for that student growth.
Fourth, that the Gates MET studies provide absolutely no validation of New Jersey’s choice to use SGP data in the way proposed regulations mandate.
So, this morning I put together four quick graphs of the relationship between school level percent free lunch and median SGPs in language arts and math and school level 7th grade proficiency rates and median SGPs in 

Which Came First, the Practice or the Policy? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Which Came First, the Practice or the Policy? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Which Came First, the Practice or the Policy?

by Nancy Flanagan

Gary Rubinstein wrote a rather extraordinary piece this week where he describes, in some detail, teaching practice in the lone KIPP high school in New York City. There are lots and lots of blogs on What Teachers Do--but what makes Rubinstein's piece so compelling is his deceptively casual but spot-on analysis of the teaching he observes.
A few examples: A teacher who can't get a video clip to run as his pupils lose focus; a teacher who seems to be relying on charm and having students verbally repeat a little joke rather dig deeply into social studies content; a teacher who offers kids candy to complete their homework--and that was in a class that was supposed to be teaching "grit." Yikes.
A particularly interesting example comes from a math class where the teacher asks a good, concept-driven question, then is unsure how long to let kids flounder--or how to move them from going nowhere to going in the 

Voodoo Education Reform – @ the chalk face

Voodoo Education Reform – @ the chalk face:

Voodoo Education Reform

APRIL 12, 2013 BY PLTHOMASEDD LEAVE A COMMENT

Some things are funny and not funny at all, simultaneously.

Some things are so rich with commentary, however, they deserve careful attention. Consider the voodoo economics/Laffer curve scene (1’13″) fromFerris Bueller’s Day Off:

(

—–

While satire and somewhat exaggerated, this moment in the classroom highlights the supreme failure of the teacher- and content-driven classroom—the teacher as mechanistic dispenser of a state-endorsed core 

Do as I say, not as I do: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the public education paradox | Money | guardian.co.uk

Do as I say, not as I do: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the public education paradox | Money | guardian.co.uk:

Do as I say, not as I do: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the public education paradox

Education activist argues for radical change in public schools but sends her children to private school, like many other officials

Michelle Rhee's daughter attends a $22,000-per child private school in Nashville. Photograph: Iris Harris/US Department of Commerce

Our personal finances play an all-but-unspoken role in how our children are educated. In the United States, we fund public education via local property taxes. This means the more expensive the neighborhood real estate, the more likely that the children living there will attend a school with decent teacher-student ratios and more in the way of "extras" like art and music classes than their peers with less financially flush moms and dads.

Others will go to private schools. The benefits of such a decision are obvious. You don't like the increased state and federally mandated testing in even the best public schools? You don't have to tolerate them at private schools. There is all but certain to be an institution for you and yours – if, that is, you can afford a hefty tuition bill, one that runs in excess of $40,000. The parent who pays the piper gets to call the educational tune for their children.

All this background is a way of introducing my readers to one Michelle Rhee. If you have children and live in the United States, you almost 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-12-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Tennessee: Starvation Bill Deferred for Now

by dianerav

Good news from Tennessee: The Legislature will not consider a bill to cut the welfare benefits of families whose children do poorly in school. At least not this year.
Senator Stacey Campfield took note of the fact that several prominent Republican senators planned to oppose the bill, as did the governor.
And Senator Campfield said “we all have true passion to get parents involved.”
So, now we understand his motive. He actually believes that starving the family would encourage parental 

Who Is Funding Privatization in Texas?

by dianerav

It won’t surprise you to know hat here is a lot of money behind the conservative agenda in Texas. But you might be interested to see the connections between the privatization advocates in Texas and national organizations like ALEC.
Julian Heilig Vasquez traces the connections in his series on the Teat, in which he reflects on what is known as neoliberalism.

Florida: Don’t Let a Charter Corporation Steal Your Neighborhood School

by dianerav

Bill Sublette is a former Florida state representative who is now chairman of the Orange County school board. He is a Republican.
In this excellent article, he explains how the parent trigger bill, which just passed in the Florida House, will allow charter corporations to grab neighborhood schools, public property paid for by local citizens. And once the corporation takes control, neighborhood children will have to enter a lottery to attend what was once their neighborhood school.
He asks the reader:
“Imagine you live in a neighborhood with a school your community has called its own for years. A school you and

Who Holds State Officials Accountable When They Are WRONG?

by dianerav

In a brilliant post, Bruce Baker of Rutgers demonstrates that states are imposing teacher evaluation systems that are flawed.
This is what Arne Duncan and Bill Gates demanded, and this is what states are doing. And it is wrong, it is factually wrong.
Who will hold Duncan, Gates, and all those state officials accountable?
Chris Cerf in New Jersey and John King and Merryl Tisch in New York assure the public that the evaluation systems will work because they take many factors into account. But Baker demonstrates that they are wrong.

LA Times: Bill Gates Hath Spoken

by dianerav

The Los Angeles Times became notorious in 2010 when it commissioned its own ratings of thousands of teachers in the LAUSD and published them. The newspaper was condemned widely by educators and researchers. Even some who supported such ratings said it was wrong to publish them. The LA Times strongly defended its decision to create the ratings and to make them public.
Now the LA Times is expressing doubts about the overuse of test scores to evaluate teachers. It even scoffs at 

Schneider: Arizona, the Land of Conflicts of Interest

by dianerav

Mercedes Schneider takes a close look at Arizona, known as the Wild West of charters.
What she finds is a state where the ethics laws are even laxer than those of her home state of Louisiana.
The charter sector in Arizona is unregulated, unsupervised, and has a firm lock on the taxpayers’ dollars.
Money rules.

Diane in the Evening 4-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Florida: The “Parent Trigger” Scam by dianerav In this article columnist Daniel Shoer Roth explains how parents at the Desert Trails school in Adelanto, California, were hoodwinked into turning their public school over to a charter operator. Under the Florida proposal, charters can set their own rules for eligibility, and many students will be excluded from the school that once was their neighborhood school. Roth writes: “Some local students will not meet the new strict admission rules. This includes students wi... more »

Conversation with Karen. | Fred Klonsky

Conversation with Karen. | Fred Klonsky:

Conversation with Karen.

by Fred Klonsky

Last night Logan Square supporters of the Chicago Teachers Union leadership hosted a fundraiser at Weegee’s Lounge.
President Karen Lewis, VP Jesse Sharkey and Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle were there to share drinks, food and conversation with neighborhood folks.
Weegee’s, a popular Logan Square cocktail joint, is named for the famous black and white photojournalist.

The IL Supremes will decide if health care is a pension benefit.

by Fred Klonsky

A little known Sangamon County Judge named Stephen Nardulli recently ruled that health care was not a pension benefit and so was not covered by the pension protection clause of the Illinois constitution.
The pension protection clause states that those state employees enrolled in pensions plans like the Teacher Retirement System cannot have their benefits diminished or impaired.
The ruling by Judge Nardulli, who is a family court judge and who normally handles issues like child custody and divorce issues, came at an important moment – just a few days before the Senate approved Senate President John Cullerton’s SB1 last month. That bill, if passed by the House and signed by the Governor, would require retirees to choose between a cost of living increase to their pension or access to the state health care system.

NY’s 2013 ‘High School Principal of Year’ is fighting state over reform:

NY’s 2013 ‘High School Principal of Year’ is fighting state over reform

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 12, 2013 at 6:00 am

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New York State’s new High School Principal of the Year is Carol Burris, a school leader in Long Island who has been a leader in a fight with state officials over reforms, including standardized test-based educator evaluations.

Burris, a frequent guest blogger on The Answer Sheet, was given the award jointly by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Burris has been principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre Union Free School District for 13 years. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.

What is especially interesting about this new award is that Burris is a leader in the fight against test-based accountability in New York State. She is one of the co-authors of a principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by student test scores, which has been signed by  more than 1,500 New York principals. She has written powerfully (see below) about the damage standardized tests are doing to students, and about the evaluation system that New York officials are imposing on educators that is heavily based on student standardized test scores and that is being implemented before it is fully designed.

The release announcing her newest award says in part:

Burris is most widely lauded for her ardent efforts to eliminate tracking at the high school – offering paths of more rigorous study and increased opportunity for each and every  student. By raising expectations, opening doors, and using high quality 

‘Learning disabilities’ movement turns 50

by Valerie Strauss

It was 50 years ago this month that the movement to help students with learning disabilities began. Here’s what happened. This post was written by Jim Baucom, associate professor of education, has been teaching for more than a quarter of a … Continue reading →

A Warning to Young People: Don’t Become a Teacher | toteachornototeach

A Warning to Young People: Don’t Become a Teacher | toteachornototeach:

A Warning to Young People: Don’t Become a Teacher

by aristotlethewise

A Warning to Young People:
Don’t Become a Teacher 

by Randy Turner
Nothing I have ever done has brought me as much joy as I have received from teaching children how to write the past 14 years. Helping young writers grow and mature has been richly rewarding and I would not trade my experiences for anything.
That being said, if I were 18 years old and deciding how I want to spend my adult years, the last thing I would want to become is a classroom teacher.
Classroom teachers, especially those who are just out of college and entering the profession, are more stressed and less valued than at any previous time in our history.
They have to listen to a long list of politicians who belittle their ability, blame them for every student whose grades do not reach arbitrary standards, and want to take away every fringe benefit they have — everything from 

Connecting with Anti-Common Core State Groups on Facebook | Truth in American Education

Connecting with Anti-Common Core State Groups on Facebook | Truth in American Education:

Connecting with Anti-Common Core State Groups on Facebook

by Shane Vander Hart

Thanks to Laura Rambeau Lee at Right Reason for compiling a list of anti-Common Core Facebook pages and groups by state.  We have many of these Facebook pages, as well as, organization websites here (we typically only list the Facebook page if they don’t have a website).

She has 55 groups so far.  While it is ok to have more than one Facebook page and group per state for maximum effectiveness I’d encourage groups to work together.  Before you start a new page see if there’s already an effort going on in your state and join it.  We accomplish more when we work together.

Of course don’t forget to like us on Facebook (follow us on Twitter too).

The post Connecting with Anti-Common Core State Groups on Facebook appeared first on Truth in American Education.

Update: Tony Smith and AIMS - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Update: Tony Smith and AIMS - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Update: Tony Smith and AIMS

By awoodall

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013 at 4:39 pm in charter schools, lawsuits, OUSD central office, superintendent search, Tony Smith, Uncategorized.

At 6 p.m. tonight, the OUSD board is expected to speak publicly for the first time about the resignation of schools superintendent Tony Smith last week. There is nothing on the agenda but the board will say a few words and maybe we should expect some public comment.

In the meantime, at 5 p.m., AIPCS teachers will be “laying all details on the table” about efforts to oust AIMS board members Jean Martinez and Nedir Bey.  The teachers have invited parents and the public tonight (at the AIPCS II campus, 171 12th St.) to hear why the two should leave the board — as of tomorrow, Thursday. I can’t get to the rally tonight because of a breaking story and the OUSD board meeting at 6 p.m.

“Our goal is to inform the public, and put pressure on Dr. Jean Martinez and Nedir Bey to resign,” an AIMS teacher wrote in an email about their efforts.

Bey and Martinez are allies of former AIMS Director Ben Chavis, accused of fraud by state auditors. The OUSD board yanked the schools’ charter on March 20.

As long as Martinez and Bey are on the board, the thinking goes, Chavis is not far