LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-26-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Randi to Christie: Give the People of Newark Their Schools

Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark public schools, has grown increasingly high-handed in recent weeks. In driving through her so-called “One Newark” plan, she suspended principals who dissented, she stormed out of a meeting of the elected advisory board, and now she has announced she will no longer meet with the board. Read Politico’s account here. Randi Weingarten sent t

by dianeravitch / 1min 

YES! Reaching the Public with “The Myth of Our Failing Schools”

YES! Magazine devotes a special issue to public education and its findings  will not surprise readers of this blog. The lead article by executive editor Dean Paton is “The Myth Behind Public School Failure,” demonstrating that our public schools are NOT failing. Here is the line that follows the title: “In the rush to privatize the country’s schools, corporations and politicians have decimated sch

by dianeravitch / 1min 

Will 2014 Be “The Year of Action”?

Jeff Bryant here describes the unprecedented wave of activism that is ready to launch in spring 2014. This is the year that parents, teachers, students, and concerned citizens mobilize to stop the juggernaut of high-stakes testing and privatization. This is the year we demand that Race to the Top go away, to be replaced by genuine concern for education, children, and equity for purr neediest chil

1 by dianeravitch / 7min 

Act Now! Michigan Proposes to Gut Special-Education Regulations

With the peculiar disregard for children that characterizes the current state government of Michigan, the state hopes to reduce legal protections for children with disabilities. According to Marcie Lipsett, the time to speak up and organize is NOW. She writes: “The Michigan Department of Education is proposing catastrophic changes to the rules that govern how students with disabilities and “Ind

3 by dianeravitch / 13min 

Who Is the Man Funding the Vergara Trial?

David Welch is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is spending millions of dollars in legal fees to try to strip teachers of any due process rights or job security. Who is he and who are his allies? This investigative report provides some answers, though no one can truly explain the animus towards teachers that blames them for poverty, inequitable funding, large classes, poor leadership, racism, i

1 by dianeravitch / 34min 

Breaking News: New Data Show High Expulsion Rates from Charter Schools in Chicago

Mayor Rahm Emanuel once praised the Noble network of charter schools in Chicago as having a “secret sauce” for success. Part of its “secret sauce” was fining students $5 for every disciplinary infraction. Some families owed the school hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That was one way of pushing out difficult students. It works. But that’s not all. A new report from Chicago Public Schools sho

5 by dianeravitch / 1h hide  //  save

What Candidates SHOULD Say About Education

Our good friends in Pennsylvania writing at the Yinzercation blog have developed an excellent checklist by which to judge gubernatorial candidates. Their own Governor Tom Corbett has been a determined foe of public education, and his approval rating hovers around 20%. Many candidates are challenging him. Read this post to learn what friends of public education should demand from those who seek

3 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Rahm, You Forgot About Arts Education!

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is known for his love of the arts. But not for children in Chicago Public Schools. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Wendy Katten, 773-704-0336 Raise Your Hand Survey Reveals Arts Instruction Sorely Lacking in CPS 65% of reporting schools do not offer two hours of weekly arts instruction, as stated by Mayor Emanuel CHICAGO, February 20, 2014 — In a recent survey regarding arts ins

15 by dianeravitch / 2h 

Jonathan Pelto: Steve Perry’s School Performs Below Hartford Public Schools

It is a strange world we live in, when schools are compelled to compete for “customers” and when some chain schools hold themselves up as owners of a “secret sauce” to produce high test scores, and some individuals market themselves as savants. We have a plethora of savants, individuals who claim that they alone have cured vexing educational problems. They boast, and their boasting naturally draws

11 by dianeravitch / 3h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-25-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: The Vergara Case and Other People’s Children: A Teacher’s ViewThe Vergara trial in Los Angeles prompted this National Board Certified Teacher to reflect on the power dynamics in LAUSD. And how it affects the students. The trial is funded by a very wealthy tech entrepreneur whose legal team claims that due process rights for teacher

by mike simpson / 8h 

Big Easy, Little Choice | EduShyster

Big Easy, Little Choice | EduShyster:

Big Easy, Little Choice

 Is New Orleans-style school choice a model or a cautionary tale?

New Orleans parent advocate Ashana Bigard.

By Ashana Bigard
When I talk about *choice* in New Orleans I use quotations with both fingers and I wink too. Supposedly we have what’s called a *choice model for excellent education* but the reality is that the overwhelming majority of schools in New Orleans now operate the exact same way. They have rigiddisciplinary codes that punish poor kids forbeing poor and are neither nurturing nor developmentally appropriate.

I’m an advocate for parents in New Orleans, which means that I work with them and represent them when their kids are suspended or expelled from school. Last year we had 54 school districts in New Orleans and all of those different districts make their own rules. For six years after the storm, the schools all set their own expulsion policies. As of last year we have a uniform expulsion policy but individual schools still make their own suspension rules.

Punished for being poor
Most of the cases I see involve kids who are being discriminated against and criminalized for being poor. Think about it. If I’m setting up a school where I know that the majority of 

2-26-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Thanks to @MelissaGuion and @AOBFound for their visit.

If you’re in the DC area and you care at all about books, especially children’s books, I’m sure you’ve been to Politics and Prose. Right? One of the last, great independent bookstores. I’ve been going there for years. When I walk into the children’s section, they always seem to be reading my mind and I […]

1 by Shaun Johnson / 51min 

New Orleans Recovery School District *Choice*

The state-run Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans is about appearance, not truth. It is about control, not choice. I have written extensively on the “RSD success” illusion. It is an illusion that has come to the New Orleans community at great cost. Below is a firsthand account of life in the RSD written by […]

1 by deutsch29 / 2h

The Middle School Mess and How Reform Made It Worse

The Washington Post’s Emma Brown recently explained something that has been lost on reformers in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. Teaching in high-poverty middle schools has always been challenging. But, the extreme proliferation of choice has created intense concentrations of children from generational poverty who have endured extreme trauma. Now that less than a quarter of […]

by John Thompson / 17min

Crisis In Education!

I hate to be the voice of bad news, but the U.S. must face a CRISIS IN EDUCATION! When students in the U.S. are compared to students in other countries, they simply do not measure up. U.S. teachers are central to student achievement, but “a discouraging number of them are incompetents.” The top students in […]

2 by plthomasedd / 12min 

“Hunting Scapegoats”: WWII Literacy Crisis and Current Education Reform

“Hunting Scapegoats”: WWII Literacy Crisis and Current Education Reform. via “Hunting Scapegoats”: WWII Literacy Crisis and Current Education Reform.

1 by plthomasedd / 16min  

2-25-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: A Liberal and a Conservative Reach Remarkable Agreement on Edu-PhilanthropyRichard Kahlenberg moderated a discussion between Joanne Barkan and Rick Hess at the Shanker Institute.  As it turned out, no moderator was needed. By the end of the conversation, there was a remarkable consensus about the overreach of foundations.    Barkan kicked the discussion off with a historical anal

by mike simpson / 7h 

2-26-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

The Content of a Free Reading Program (1937)

The Content of a Free Reading Program (1937).

1 by plthomasedd / 1h 

Crisis In Education!

CRISIS IN EDUCATION!.

by plthomasedd / 10min 

“Hunting Scapegoats”: WWII Literacy Crisis and Current Education Reform

“Historians often mention World War II as a time when expectations for schooling and literacy really took off,” explains Deborah Brandt, “when what was considered an adequate level of education moved from fourth grade to twelfth grade in a matter of a few years” (p. 485). National concerns about literacy can be traced to literacy tests for soldiers in WWI, when 25% of recruits were deemed illitera

1 by plthomasedd / 15min 

2-25-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): What Shall We Do About Reading Today? (1942)What Shall We Do About Reading Today? (1942).1 by plthomasedd / 9min hide  //  saveRalph Ellison, a Century: From Unseen to MisseenWith his Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison’s narrator announced on the first page: “I am invisible, u

by mike simpson / 8h 

2-26-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Capital Prep Steve Perry’s Lies Get National Coverage – Again!

In a blog entitled, “Steve Perry’s School Scores Below Hartford Public Schools,” Diane Ravitch, country’s leading national public education advocate provided her tens of thousands of readers with even more news about Capital Prep Principal Steve Perry’s antics. Diane Ravitch writes: It is a strange world we live in, when schools are compelled to compete […]The post Capital Prep Steve Perry’s Lies

4 by jonpelto / 1h 

Connecticut parents – Don’t let them lie to you on opting your children out of the Standardized Testing frenzy

Last December, Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor sent Connecticut’s public school superintendents a memo on how to mislead and lie to parents in a coordinated effort to persuade parents that they do not have the right to opt their children out of Connecticut’s standardized tests including the new Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment […]The post Connecticut parents – Don’t

by jonpelto / 16min hide  //  save

The sickness that has crept into Connecticut politics and government (Part II)

Last week, there was a Wait, What? blog post was entitled, “The sickness that has crept into Connecticut politics and government.” The blog post was an effort to highlight another “MUST READ” commentary piece that fellow public education advocate and blogger, Sarah Darer Littman wrote for the opinion section of CT Newsjunkie.  Her piece was […]The post The sickness that has crept into Connecticut

5 by jonpelto / 46min 

2-25-14 Wait What?

Wait What?: Mayor Segarra and Matt Poland lead 6-2 vote to give TFA $650,000There will be 210 fewer job openings in the Hartford School System for Connecticut residents thanks to Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra, Matt Poland and their allies on the Hartford Board of Education. While hundreds of qualified, certified Connecticut teachers are unemployed and hundreds of additional Connecticut residents wi

by mike simpson / 8h 

2-26-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet:

Chicago charter schools expel many more kids than district schools — new data

New data released by the Chicago Public School system reveals that the city’s public charter schools — whose expansion has been pushed by  Mayor Rahm Emanuel for several years — expelled about 12 times the number of students last year than did traditional public schools. The Chicago Tribune reported that in 2013,  charter schools with a total […]    

1 by Valerie Strauss / 1h 

Education reform and the corrosion of community responsibility

The law of unintended consequences essentially states that individual and government actions always have some unintended consequences. In the following post, Arthur H. Camins writes about the unintended consequences of many education reform policies. Camins is the director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. […] 

18 by Valerie Strauss / 3h hide  //  save

They were once teachers

View Photo Gallery —The “Duck Dynasty’’ patriarch, Britain’s Princess Diana and Jon Hamm of “Mad Men” fame: These notables and others spent time leading a classroom.    

2 by Valerie Strauss / 5h 

2-25-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet: The forgotten factor in student achievement: the studentWill Fitzhugh is the founder and editor of The Concord Review, believed to be the world’s only English-language quarterly review for history academic papers by high school students. The Review, founded in Massachusetts in March 1978, comes out four times a year and has  published more than 1,000 history research papers — wit

by mike simpson / 8h 

UPDATE: solidaridad: The Impact of Proposition 209 and Our Duty to Our Students

solidaridad: The Impact of Proposition 209 and Our Duty to Our Students:

Attrition is yet another way privately managed charter schools game the system

by Robert D. Skeels ... / 5min hide  //  save

So Steve Barr's proxy Bill Gaffney now claiming Barr had no role in Parent Trigger and Parent Revolution?

So @SteveBarrLA's proxy Bill Gaffney now claiming Barr had no role in #parenttrigger @parentrev? #LAUSD http://t.co/4D0jePDNDt— PESJA Los Angeles (@PESJA_LA) February 26, 2014 He is either completely misinformed about his new masters, or lying. Don't just take my word for it, the Los Angeles Times has also documented what Barr did.

by Robert D. Skeels ... / 12min 

NAME Position Statement on Arizona's Anti-Gay Bill

February 25, 2014 -- The Board of Directors of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) has just released the following position statement opposing the passage of Arizona's Anti-Gay Bill, and we encourage NAME members and other advocates for equity and civil rights to read, discuss, share, and act: NAME Position Statement on Arizona's Anti-Gay BillThe National Association for Mu

by Robert D. Skeels ... / 7min 

The Impact of Proposition 209 and Our Duty to Our Students

I'm so glad my university is finally taking a stand on the racist Proposition 209, and is thinking of ways to encourage diversity!

---

Office of the Chancellor

To the Campus Community:

Nearly two decades have passed since Californians voted to end affirmative action in admission to public colleges and universities. Today it is clear that we have suffered for it.

With each passing year, campuses all across our state — and, increasingly, as copycat laws are passed, the nation — fail to accurately reflect the growing diversity in our communities. Too often, many of our students of color feel isolated, as strangers in their own house. Others feel targeted, mocked or marginalized, rather than recognized and valued.

At UCLA, our students are bold, confident and among the sharpest anywhere. We are proud when they convey their thoughts, experiences and feelings — as they have done recently in several now-viral videos and by organizing town halls and rallies.

Anyone still unconvinced by the true impact of Proposition 209 need only listen to our students’ powerful first-hand accounts. Their words, of course, are much bigger than UCLA — and it’s not 

Noriko's Random Bits: The Schools Our Communities Deserve

Noriko's Random Bits: The Schools Our Communities Deserve: After a long day at school, I make my way to a local middle school where our district superintendent approved a co-location (more than one s...

by Robert D. Skeels ... / 6h

Elect Lisa Karahalios AFT Vice President UTLA

Elect Lisa Karahalios AFT Vice President UTLA by Robert D. Skeels

by Robert D. Skeels ... / 7h