LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-20-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Grading Rahm Emanuel

NPR says Rahm Emanuel gets a “mixed” grade at midterm. On education, his grade is not mixed. It is a big fat F. He will remembered long after his term ends as the mayor who closed 50 public schools. He will be remembered as the mayor who showed callous indifference to the children of Chicago. He will be remembered for putting Rich Investors First. He will be remembered for his contribution to

4 by dianerav / 22min 

Time for a Laugh Out Loud Moment

Alright, boys and girls, time for a standardized test. Sharpen your #2 pencils. There is a time limit. There will be no accommodations for those with disabilities. If you do well, your teacher gets a bonus. If you fail, your teacher will be fired and your school will be closed. Here is the test. Good luck!

3 by dianerav / 28min 

NYC UrbanEd Blogger Reviews “Reign of Error”

This teacher blogger decided to review the book by selecting his or her favorite quotes. What do you think? Do you agree with the method or the choices?

1 by dianerav / 12min 

Teacher in L.A.: John Deasy is the Educational Equivalent of Dick Cheney

This teacher, who requests anonymity for obvious reasons, has noticed a peculiar tendency on the part of editorial boards and business leaders to shower praise on educational leaders who act brusquely, with a maximum show of contempt for those they lead.  He calls this the “Dick Cheney” style of leadership. Those of us in New York have recently seen this kind of leader in our State Commissioner Jo

by dianerav / 10min 

Mother Crusader: Open Schools, Close Schools, How Nutty

This is a puzzling story, reported by Mother Crusader. The Solomon Charter School was approved to open in 2012 and just announced a few weeks ago that it was closing. Just like that. It is a cyber charter. It teaches Hebrew and Chinese. Why was it approved to take taxpayer dollars? Why did it close? Follow the twists and turns of Pennsylvania’s powerful charter lobby. 41.049054 -72.494872

2 by dianerav / 14min 

Louisiana State Board Passes Buck on Common Core

When faced with public demands about how Common Core would be implemented, about professional development and student privacy, the state board of education in Louisiana passed the problems off to local district. They ducked. Fact is, they don’t have a clue what to do, but they do know that Governor Bobby Jindal wants Common Core. He wants more evidence of failure so he can justify more vouchers,

by dianerav / 9min 

Chicago’s UNO Charter Chain in Big Legal Trouble Again

There is no charter chain in Chicago with stronger political connections than UNO, whose founder Juan Rangel served as a campaign co-chair for the election of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Rangel is widely viewed as a leading figure–if not THE leading figure–in the Hispanic community, the guy whose blessing delivers votes.  Naturally, he runs one of the largest charter chains in the city, and the state and

by dianerav / 5min 

Who Is Funding the Campaign to Defeat Sue Peters for Seattle School Board?

I noticed that in the past two or three years, a number of extremely rich people are bundling funds and pouring them into local school board races. Often the people making the campaign contributions do not live in the state or local community. I wrote about this strange and new phenomenon in my book Reign of Error.  It is a deliberate and coordinated campaign to seize control of education at the l

2 by dianerav / 22min 

Robert D. Shepherd on inBloom

Robert D. Shepherd, curriculum writer and author, left the following comment following Andrea Gabor’s post about the data collecting and data mining business called inBloom. He writes: “There were 55,235,000 K-12 public school students in the US in 2010. At $5.00 apiece for inBloom, that would amount to $276,175,000 a year. And if inBloom had a large existing database, it would become a monopoly

5 by dianerav / 28min 

One of the “Best and Brightest” Has a Message for Jeb and Other Reformers

A comment on the corporate reformers who say they want to attract “the best and brightest” into teaching: “Attract the “Best and the Brightest” – please !!! I have 2 masters and have taught for 18years – in Miami – I make less than $44,000 … . Thanks Jeb – teachers are now starving and losing their homes in Miami * was told last week we may get a big $2000 – $4,000 dollar raise … Please, after FL

by dianerav / 11min

A Brilliant Post Wherein “Hamlet” Exposes the Guilty Conscience of NY’s King

We have heard numerous calls for NY’s Commissioner of Education John King to resign. He disrespects parents. He brooks no dissent. He accuses them of refusing to engage in dialogue after they sit patiently through his hour-plus monologue. And when they boo and hiss him, he storms away and cancels all future scheduled meetings with parents, fearing, no doubt, the same humiliating response. This blo

1 by dianerav / 39min 

New York Study: Teacher Evaluations Are Flawed

A study commissioned by the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents found that the state’s educator evaluation system is flawed in multiple ways and does not produce reliable ratings. The state’s formula gave less credit to teachers serving disadvantaged students, judged some teachers on the performance of too few students, failed to measure key variables such as student mobility and did no

32 by dianerav / 1h 

Bruce Baker: Teacher Evaluation Is Still Junk Science

Bruce Baker has watched the evolution of the effort to create that magical metric that will identify the best and worst teachers so they may be evaluated, rewarded, warned, and/or fired. He concludes that the great “value-added and growth score train wreck is here.” Despite the billions that Arne Duncan has thrown into them, and despite the hundreds of millions that Bill Gates has targeted on a fe

50 by dianerav / 2h 

REIGN OF ERROR By Diane Ravitch - The Washington Post

REIGN OF ERROR By Diane Ravitch - The Washington Post: ‘Reign of Error’ by Diane RavitchBy T. Rees Shapiro, Published: October 18 E-mail the writerIn December 2008, President-elect Barack Obama picked former Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan to be secretary of education and announced the decision at the Dodge Renaissance Academy in the city’s East Garfield Park neighborhood.Obama’s choice o

by mike simpson / 4h 

The Shame of Our Nation | Diane Ravitch

The Shame of Our Nation | Diane Ravitch: The Shame of Our NationPosted: 10/19/2013 1:09 pmRemember all the times that "reformers" like Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Wendy Kopp, and Joel Klein have said that the answer to poverty is to "fix" schools first? Remember their claims that school reform (more testing, more charters, more inexperienced teachers, larger classes, more technolo

by mike simpson / 4h  

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 10-19-13 -13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2

Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGWhat Public Schools Do for CommunitiesA reader explains why public schools matter to the life of communities: “Public schools are not panaceas for poverty or crime or any of the other ills of our society, but they can provide a place for a community to come together, to learn to get along with each other, to watch out for

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

10-20-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Ok, @Chalkbeat, who’s your daddy? Seriously.

Saw this today, some sort of other newish chalk-education-oriented news service. Apparently, they’re expanding a bit. This has been some time coming, as the next step in evolution for a roughly year-old partnership between EdNews Denver and GothamSchools.  According to the USA Today article, they’re mostly “foundation-funded.” There you go.  Could not find a website […]

by Shaun Johnson / 13min 

Teaching Strategies GOLD Parent Refusal Letter

Please see my first post regarding GOLD if you are unfamiliar with this assessment. Also, please see our early childhood guide if you are interested in gathering parents to help them in fighting these corporate initiatives. I promise to have this letter uploaded to our website at United Opt Out National soon. Please share this […]

by peggyrobertson / 3min mark as read  //  save

Wisconsin Professor Testifies Against Common Core

In this 20-minute youtube video, Dr. Duke Pesta of the University of Wisconsin offers some informative background on the origins of Common Core (CCSS), including CCSS funding; on the lack of teacher and professor involvement in CCSS development; on the limited input of standards experts in developing CCSS; on the federal government’s role; on CCSS curriculum, and on […]

1 by deutsch29 / 26min 

This Year, Boston is the Epicenter for Public School Destruction

Too bad.  You missed it. No, not my birthday.  You still have time to prepare for that.  (Hint: it’s the 9th day after the New Year starts.) What you missed was the Annual National Summit on Education Reform, held by Jeb Bush and his anti-public-school reform group, Foundation for Excellence in Education (up is down, […]

46 by Kris Nielsen / 7h mark as read  //  save

The DC IMPACT Study Results: Already Obsolete

In October 2013, researchers Thomas Dee of Stanford University and James Wyckoff of the University of Virginia published (or somehow made public) a working paper on limited aspects of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) teacher evaluation system, IMPACT, which was introduced in 2009– during the time that Michelle Rhee was chancellor of DC schools. The beginning of the paper includes […]

by deutsch29 / 7h 

All Week 10-19-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: All Week @ THE CHALK FACE Who Should Listen to Melinda Gates about Education?I have asked repeatedly a key question about Bill Gates and his hobby of education reform: If Bill Gates had no money, who would listen to him about education reform? No one–the same as who should listen to him now. Now we have an EdWeak interview with Melinda Gates, which forces an

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

10-20-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

The Burgeoning Counterattacks Against The NYSED/Regents Reform Agenda - When Will The Teachers Unions Get On The Right Side Of The Fight?

In the middle of this Capital NY article about the teachers unions in Rochester and Syracuse appealing the many "developing" and "ineffective" ratings handed out to teachers in those two cities is this:“The results of this process are a clear indictment of this process,” said Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association. “If the commissioner and the Regents co

by reality-based edu... / 3min 

Journal News: Commissioner King Should Listen To Parents Or Be Fired

Here in NYC, the newspaper editorial writers treat NYSED Commissioner John King with kid gloves, lovingly framing everything this edu-hack does as visionary and critical for helping students to learn.A Lohud Journal News editorial, however takes the kid gloves off and gives him a well-deserved working over:The state Education Department has announced a series of 12 new forums on Common Core standa

by reality-based edu... / 44min 

Daily News: Pearson's Common Core Curriculum Is A Mess

Yesterday I posted about complaints teachers and students have over the Engage NY Common Core ELA curriculum provided by he NY State Education Department.Today the New York Daily News reports the Common Core curriculum developed by Pearson for kindergarten is  is problematic as well:Are you smarter than a kindergartner?Adults asked by the Daily News to complete a new vocabulary exercise offered to

by reality-based edu... / 1min 

Why Won't NYSED Commissioner John King Hold A Common Core Meeting In NYC?

.@jessicabakeman pl ask Tisch or King why no forums out of 16 to take place in NYC where 1/3 of all students reside— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) October 19, 2013Surely Bloomberg and Walcott can provide the same NYPD cops they have at the PEP rubber stamp meetings to make sure NYSED Commissioner John King feels safe at a NYC town hall meeting on Common Core?And yet, no meeting here in NYC where

by reality-based edu... / 4h 

10-19-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Perdido Street SchoolRegent Harry Phillips: John King A "Good Guy," Regents Won't Fire HImAfter a week of getting beat up in the press and on the Internet with nary a prominent education reform voice coming to defend him, NYSED Commissioner John King received support from a member of the Board of Regents:A member of the state Education Department’s Board of Regents

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS:

L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS

As the district moves to enforce a policy of grouping pupils of similar English fluency ability together, those opposed protest.

BY TERESA WATANABE, LA TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/1EAU9RH

5:54 PM PDT, October 19, 2013  ::  Luis Gaytan, the 5-year-old son of Mexican immigrants who speak Spanish at home, was so terrified by kindergarten that he would barely talk — prompting classmates to tease that he didn't have a tongue.
In the last two months, at Granada Elementary Community Charter, Luis has gained a growing command of the language in a class of students with a mixed range of English ability. His father, Jorge, is convinced that his son is learning English more quickly because he hears it every day from more-advanced classmates.
But Luis — and thousands of other Los Angeles Unified students — is being moved into new classes with those at a similar language level under an order that has sparked a storm of protest. In recent weeks, a group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until next year.
"Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told they're not good enough for the mainstream," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures seeking a postponement and spoke against the 

The DC IMPACT Study Results : Already Obsolete | deutsch29

The DC IMPACT Study Results : Already Obsolete | deutsch29:

The DC IMPACT Study Results : Already Obsolete

October 20, 2013

In October 2013, researchers Thomas Dee of Stanford University and James Wyckoff of the University of Virginia published (or somehow made public) a working paper on limited aspects of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) teacher evaluation system, IMPACT, which was introduced in 2009– during the time that Michelle Rhee was chancellor of DC schools.

The beginning of the paper includes this disclaimer:

NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. [Emphasis added.]

Nevertheless, this does not stop the media from offering the public such definitive headlines as Study: Program in DC Removed Bad Teachers and Controversial Teacher Evaluation System is Working in DC, Study Says.

In this post, I would like to examine some details regarding what the Dee and Wyckoff working paper offers– and what it does not.

I located the copy of the paper used here in pro-privatizer Frederick Hess’ article on 

Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do better. 

Previous Posts

• Fulton Commissioner: District abandons South Fulton students with its move north
  October 19, 2013
• Sexist and racist texting in school. Wasn't students. It was superintendent. 
  October 19, 2013
• Druid Hills Charter Cluster: Dig deep and it's a "sieve of loopholes" that will exclude and harm some kids
  October 18, 2013

By Maureen Downey

A few days ago, I ran an essay by leaders of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank, urging Georgia to stay the course with the Common Core State Standards. Here is a counterview by Jane Robbins of theAmerican Principles Project, a conservative advocacy organization, and Tanya Ditty of the Concerned Women for America of Georgia

By Jane Robbins and Tanya Ditty

Michael Petrilli and Michael Brickman of the Fordham Institute recently bemoaned Georgia parents’ “misguided and ill-informed” critiques of the Common Core national standards. Common Core has had no more enthusiastic a defender than Fordham, perhaps as a result of the $6.7 million Fordham has accepted from Common Core’s financier, the Gates Foundation, to advance Gates’s pet project.  In any event, Fordham challenges Georgians to put forth a “better plan.” As Georgia parents, grandparents, and taxpayers, we accept the challenge.

The Fordham lobbyists state that the Common Core national standards are “comparable” to the previous Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). In fact, even Fordham’s official comparison of the two sets of standards (a study funded by Gates) had to conclude that Georgia’s previous standards were in many ways superior to 

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Rise of the Badass Teachers Association- A Brief History

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Rise of the Badass Teachers Association- A Brief History:

The Rise of the Badass Teachers Association- A Brief History

The Badass Teachers Association began as a modest attempt to capitalize on the energy of a parent led test revolt that took place in New York during the Spring of 2013 and turned, unexpectedly into a huge protest movement by teachers across the nation

In April of this year, about 10,000 families decided to opt their children out of state tests in New York. One of the strongest centers of this movement was in Long Island, where conservative and libertarian parents joined with liberal and progressive parents to protest the huge amount of testing in local schools, which they thought were making good schools worse and creating near abusive levels of stress for children and families.

As an education activist whose university affiliation appeared to give legitimacy to the protest, I was invited to speak at several rallies sponsored by one of the groups formed in this course of the New York Test Revolt- Parents and Teachers Against the Common Core- and was blown away by how those holding differing views on non-education issues were able to work together and even began liking one another. I made friends with some of the organizers of PTACC and together we formed a Facebook group called "The Badass Parents Association" to capitalize on this energy, and the new "multipartisan approach." In a month, we attracted about 300 members and were really proud of ourselves for drawing in that number of people!

Then, in mid June, one of the people I met through the Badass Parents 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BAT!

Badass Teachers Association

This is for every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality, and refuses to accept assessments, tests and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning.

Badass Teachers Association

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER@BADASSTEACHERSA

SES IS A MESS: After Misuse, a Push to Continue Tutoring Mandate | The Texas Tribune

After Misuse, a Push to Continue Tutoring Mandate | The Texas Tribune:

After Misuse, a Push to Continue Tutoring Mandate

• by Morgan Smith
• October 20, 2013
• 1 Comment

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Enlargephoto by: Douglas Young

This is the fourth story in a series on how the state spent millions tutoring its poorest students — and has little to show for it. Find the first story here, the second story here and the third story here.

A decade after it became law as a part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, a tutoring program heralded as an academic safety net for children from low-income families in struggling schools has earned few champions — and lost many supporters.

“It was an unmitigated disaster,” said Michael Petrilli, a former Bush administration official who helped develop and promote the initiative during his four years in the federal Education Department. “It was a poorly thought-through policy, and I think it has run its course and should be allowed to die.”

Under the No Child Left Behind tutoring program, underperforming schools had to set aside a portion of the federal financing they received for economically disadvantaged students to 

The PUBLIC ENEMY Rainbow Tour Rolls On with Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers | Bill Ayers

The PUBLIC ENEMY Rainbow Tour Rolls On with Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers | Bill Ayers:

THE PUBLIC ENEMY RAINBOW NATIONAL TOUR ROLLS ON!

The PUBLIC ENEMY Rainbow Tour Rolls On with Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers

Tuesday, October 22^nd
7:00pm – Common Good Books
38 S. Snelling Avenue
St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN

Wednesday, October 23^rd
7:00pm – Left Bank Books
399 N. Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, MO

Friday, October 25^th
6:00pm – Octavia Books
513 Octavia Street
New Orleans, LA

The Death of math | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

The Death of math | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

The Death of math

by Gary Rubinstein

Galileo once wrote “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.”  It is said that over the door of Plato’s Academy were the words “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter.”  Indeed, the word ‘Mathematics’ comes from Ancient Greek meaning ”that which is learnt.”

Few people love Mathematics more than I do.  What music lovers get from listening to a Mozart concerto, and what poetry lovers get from reading a Shakespeare sonnet, I get from following through the steps of an Euler proof.  In fact, the one book that I brought with me on my honeymoon six summers ago was William Dunham’s incredible, Euler:  The Master of Us All.

When I’m teaching somebody about math, I feel like I’m enlightening them to some of the hardest earned secrets of the Universe.  I take great pride in getting to be the one who shares these truths.  While some religious people bring signs to football games saying ‘John 3:16,’ I’m tempted to bring my own sign that says ‘Euclid 9:20′ in honor of the greatest proof of all time.

Education ‘reformers’ often say that the average American student is not good at Mathematics.  And, for once, I agree.  But my evidence for believing this is completely different from theirs, 

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week in Class: Week Seven 2013 from Cursive to Keyboarding

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week in Class: Week Seven 2013 from Cursive to Keyboarding:

Week in Class: Week Seven 2013 from Cursive to Keyboarding

 

This week, I’ve been thinking about writing. The process of writing that happens in the brain, how that is translated into a fine-motor activity to express those thoughts, and how to do this effectively with students.

With the switch-over to Common Core, I’m doing my assessment in English, Social Studies, and Language Arts based on writing, and eschewing most multiple choice test. We’ve had a strong writing practice at my site, so my kids can write, but few can do so in cursive. Although cursive was not eliminated until the Common Core adoption, I now have students who not only can’t write in cursive, they can’t read it. Fortunately I “print” in a modified version of D’Nealian script which is pretty easy to read.  I went into sixth grade with awful penmanship, and great academic grades, but under the guidance of my sixth grade teacher I left with mediocre academic grades, but some killer cursive writing. On the whole, I would have preferred to have learned a bit more to prepare for 

Asian American youth speak out for immigration reform

Asian American youth speak out for immigration reform:

ASIAN AMERICAN YOUTH SPEAK OUT FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Elevate the voices of Asian American youth in the immigration debate



Asian American youth! You have a stake in immigration reform. Chicago's Fighting Youth Shouting Out for Humanity (FYSH) -- a social justice-oriented youth leadership council of the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center -- collected over 1,000 signatures from young people all over the country in support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Featuring spoken word performances from local youth, this video campaignaims to elevate the voices of Asian American youth in the immigration debate:

Awesome work from these young activists. As part of the campaign, youth leaders will meet with local legislative targets to demand the House pass comprehensive immigration reform that keeps families together. For more information on how you can participate in the National AAPI Campaign for Immigration Reform, visit the Stand With Families website and the FYSH Facebook page.