Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/9/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

"Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools" by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen - Garn Press

"Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools" by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen - Garn Press: “Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools” by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen“Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools” by Peggy Robertson from Peg With PenBy Peggy Robertson| Originally posted 12/28/2015 on Peg With PenI am currently working in a turnaround school.   A turnaround school is a public schoo

by mike simpson / 11min 

We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chin - Salon.com

We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chin - Salon.com: We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chinAfter years of attacks on teachers and public education, Americans are catching up to the real story in our schoolsBill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan (Credit: AP/Ted S. W

by mike simpson / 3h 

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: My Kids are Learning DESPITE Edreform

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: My Kids are Learning DESPITE Edreform: My Kids are Learning DESPITE EdreformThe thing that gets me about all the ridiculous policies coming down hard on teachers, especially teachers teaching in neighborhood schools serving low-income African American communities, is that despite everything, my kids are learning! I am SO proud of them.I teach special education for third and

by mike simpson / 3h 

In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 1 - This is Personal - Living in Dialogue

In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 1 - This is Personal - Living in Dialogue: In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 1 - This is Personal By Susan DuFresne.Last year around this time of year, I wrote Beyond the Edge: Climbing Mt. Edreform.  This time of year is always a time of reflection for me, because not only is it the end of the year, but you see,New Ye

by mike simpson / 5h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.: Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.Durbin claims Rahm has "visible support" in the black community. He knows this from having attended a recent meeting. (AP)Sen. Dick Durbin is the only Democrat in town willing to be seen within 10 yards of disgraced Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In an interview on Wednes

by mike simpson / 5h 

Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT) - The Washington Post

Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT) - The Washington Post:Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT)The College Board has just released PSAT scores — months after the tests were actually taken in high schools. Students received the scores, though many counselors who were suppo

by mike simpson / 5h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Another Bad NCLB Apologia

CURMUDGUCATION: Another Bad NCLB Apologia:Another Bad NCLB ApologiaAt FiveThirtyEight, economics writer Ben Casselman has concocted one of the saddest revisionary apologias for No Child Left Behind.Even the headline/subhead combo signal that this is going to be a tough ride. "No Child Left Behind Worked: At Least in One Important Way." And then Casselman goes on to explain how NCLB reall

by mike simpson / 5h 

Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next week - Wait What?

Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next week - Wait What?: Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next weekAs Connecticut education advocate and columnist, Wendy Lecker, reports in her latest commentary piece in the Stamford Advocate, Connecticut’s children finally get day in court.Of the many disappoints that have arisen since Governor D

by mike simpson / 5h 

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 EditionI see we're in the middle of a full-blown spasm of reformy self-congratulation, self-righteousness, and self-regard regarding matters of school "choice" and anti-unionism.Let's get a few things straight, shall we?Reformy Myth: School "choice" has led to better outcomes for all students.Facts: 

by mike simpson / 6h 

Illinois state board votes to move special ed funding to charter schools | Fred Klonsky

Illinois state board votes to move special ed funding to charter schools. | Fred Klonsky: Illinois state board votes to move special ed funding to charter schools.Rev. James Meeks. Governor Rauner’s pick as ISBE Chairman and charter school advocate.-Bev JohnsThe Illinois State Board of Education Wednesday unanimously moved to change the way the state sends special education money to school distric

by mike simpson / 6h 

Oakland's 'common enrollment' proposal fans the flames of great charter school debate - ContraCostaTimes.com

Oakland's 'common enrollment' proposal fans the flames of great charter school debate - ContraCostaTimes.com:Oakland's 'common enrollment' proposal fans the flames of great charter school debateOAKLAND -- To some, it's a streamlined system that allows families to more easily navigate a daunting array of school applications to find the best fit for their child. To others, it's another Silicon Valle

by mike simpson / 6h 

What Does it Take to Create a Successful Community School? | Schott Foundation for Public Education

What Does it Take to Create a Successful Community School? | Schott Foundation for Public Education: What Does it Take to Create a Successful Community School?Community Schools have been getting a lot of attention as more and more districts try and implement them in an effort to mitigate affects of poverty on students' opportunities to learn. In Philadelphia, the Mayor-elect Jim Kenney has called

by mike simpson / 6h 

4LAKids - CALIFORNIA STATE PTA REPONDS TO THE GOVERNOR'S 2016-2017 BUDGET PROPOSAL

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CALIFORNIA STATE PTA REPONDS TO THE GOVERNOR'S 2016-2017 BUDGET PROPOSAL: Insights on Behalf of the State’s Largest Child-Advocacy Association: CALIFORNIA STATE PTA REPONDS TO THE GOVERNOR'S 2016-2017 BUDGET PROPOSAL: Insights on Behalf of the State’s Largest Child-Advocacy Association Yesterday, Gov. Jerry Brown released his 2016 – 2017 budget proposal

by mike simpson / 7h 

I made $1,000 an hour as an SAT tutor. My students did better without me. - Vox

I made $1,000 an hour as an SAT tutor. My students did better without me. - Vox: I made $1,000 an hour as an SAT tutor. My students did better without me.Melissa is a 17-year-old high school junior. She's bright, hard-working, and ambitious. Her parents, both extremely successful entrepreneurs, have enlisted me to help Melissa raise her SAT scores. Their only goal is to get her into her dream scho

by mike simpson / 7h 

The Common Core Voter's Guide to Choosing a Presidential Candidate: Republican Edition - The K-12 Contrarian - Education Week

The Common Core Voter's Guide to Choosing a Presidential Candidate: Republican Edition - The K-12 Contrarian - Education Week: The Common Core Voter's Guide to Choosing a Presidential Candidate: Republican EditionIn my last post I tried, ever so gently, to take two prominent presidential candidates—Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton—to task for the way they're talking about education on the campaign

by mike simpson / 7h 

Why Some Teachers May Question ‘New’ Education Trends | MindShift | KQED News

Why Some Teachers May Question ‘New’ Education Trends | MindShift | KQED News: Why Some Teachers May Question ‘New’ Education TrendsOften frustration with the public education system is directed at teachers, even when they are following the standards and guidelines set out by the government. Everyone from politicians, to non-profits to parents tell teachers how to do their jobs better. So it’s no

by mike simpson / 7h 

Walton Family Foundation Aims To Bolster Charter Schools With $1 Billion In Grants - Forbes

Walton Family Foundation Aims To Bolster Charter Schools With $1 Billion In Grants - Forbes: Walton Family Foundation Aims To Bolster Charter Schools With $1 Billion In GrantsThe Walton Family Foundation announced today that it will spend $1 billion over the next five years to expand “educational opportunity” across the country through partnerships with charter school operators, researchers and ed

by mike simpson / 7h 

N.C. Sup Atkinson: “We have used the facts” about charter schools | The Progressive Pulse

Atkinson: “We have used the facts” about charter schools | The Progressive Pulse: Atkinson: “We have used the facts” about charter schoolsExpect very little to change in the state’s controversial demographic assessment of North Carolina’s burgeoning charter school population if N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson has her way.Atkinson told Policy Watch Friday that, despite Lt. G

by mike simpson / 8h 

YESTERDAY

CURMUDGUCATION: Metrics and Behaviorism

CURMUDGUCATION: Metrics and Behaviorism: Metrics and Behaviorism Mark Garrison is a helluva guy. He lists scholar, activist, evaluator and artist as his businesses, and lists two books and three albums among his achievements. He has clearly put a whole lot of thought into the current state of education policy, with a particular sharp eye for the problems of Trying To Measure Stuff. Garrison says m

by mike simpson / 20h 

The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score Delivery | deutsch29

The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score Delivery | deutsch29: The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score DeliveryOn December 15, 2015, I wrote a post about The College Board’s delayed reporting of October 2015 PSAT scores. I reposted the piece on Huffington Post on December 21, 2015.  Below is an excerpt:According to Nancy Griesemer of

by mike simpson / 20h 

Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week. | Welcome to the Testing Games

Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week. | Welcome to the Testing Games: Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week.Enough is enough, they claim. Florida’s state teacher union, FEA, is hosting a rally against high stakes testing next week in Tallahassee, Florida. I guess holding up sign

by mike simpson / 22h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/8/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMTeachers trade winter break for training in bringing the arts to class | 89.3 KPCCTeachers trade winter break for training in bringing the arts to class | 89.3 KPCC: Teachers trade winter break for training in bringing the arts to classLAUSD music adviser Chris Rodriguez leads teachers through a conducting lesson during an arts integration workshop over winter break. PRISKA NEEL

by mike simpson / 23h 

"Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools" by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen - Garn Press

"Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools" by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen - Garn Press:

“Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools” by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen

“Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools” by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen

By Peggy Robertson| Originally posted 12/28/2015 on Peg With Pen

I am currently working in a turnaround school.   A turnaround school is a public school that has been deemed “failing” by policy makers. The policy makers inflict draconian, fascist measures on such schools in an effort to turn them around – aka – increase test scores.  If they don’t increase test scores they bring the hammer down harder by firing teachers, handing the school over to a charter, or closing the school, and so on.

Turnaround schools are not failing. Rather, the truth is that the policies are the failures. The racist, classist, sexist policies are based on lies and false realities meant to create compliant worker bees who do as they are told to increase test scores, while ultimately allowing the corporate reformers to push forward other measures which increase profit, increase the privatization of our public schools, and finally, increase the power of the privileged. That’s it in a nutshell.

However, the factual process of turnaround in no way reveals to the public how this brutal takeover goes down.  How to articulate the process has been at the forefront of my mind for the last five months as I found myself thrown head first into this madness.  And indeed, it  is a madness like no other – a combination of insane asylum and prison. As I tried to articulate it to a dear friend of mine, she said, “Peggy, you are being gaslighted.”  I had never heard the term gaslighting. I immediately began to read about it. I owe much gratitude to this friend who has given me a framework I can use to explain this process.

My point in writing this blog is to expose the turnaround process for what it can be (not all turnarounds are necessarily as I describe), and allow those in the midst of this to figure out how to move forward. This is not a feel good blog with a happy ending. Ultimately, I don’t know how it will end for me, but I believe that the only way we will end the bigger picture of corporate education reform is through educating the public and educating ourselves so that together, we can form a plan of action to fight back. Gaslighting is designed to keep you in fight/flight mode – so it’s important to step back, understand it, and think it through, in order to determine your next step.

Gaslighting is such an insane reality to live in that it becomes incredibly difficult to focus on anything else except the ability to get through the day- it is designed intentionally so.

So let’s try to take a look at what’s really happening.

The first stage of Gaslighting is described as disbelief.  Strange events, behaviors, and actions by others begin to occur. Perhaps you are told something that doesn’t seem true to you or simply just sounds bizarre. Perhaps someone you "Gaslighting & Turnaround Schools" by Peggy Robertson from Peg With Pen - Garn Press:

We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chin - Salon

We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chin - Salon.com:
We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chin
After years of attacks on teachers and public education, Americans are catching up to the real story in our schools

Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan (Credit: AP/Ted S. Warren/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Andrew Harnik)

2015 will forever be remembered as the year the political establishment was shaken by the populist-driven presidential candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. But it should also be remembered as the year another established order was forever altered by change, dissent and revelations of its corruption.

For years, an out-of-touch establishment has dominated education policy too. A well-funded elite has labeled public education as generally a failed enterprise and insisted that only a regime of standardized testing and charter schools can make schools and educators more “accountable.” Politicians and pundits across the political spectrum have adopted this narrative of “reform” and now easily slip into the rhetoric that supports it without hesitation.

But in 2013 a grassroots rebellion growing out of inner city neighborhoods from Newark to Chicago and suburban boroughs from Long Island to Denver began to counter the education aristocracy and tell an alternative tale about schools.

The education counter-narrative is that public schools are not as much the perpetrators of failure as they are victims of resource deprivation, inequity in the system and undermining forces driven by corruption and greed. In other words, it wasn’t schools that needed to be made more accountable; it was the failed leadership of those in the business and government establishment that needed more accountability.

The uprising has been steadily growing into an Education Spring unifying diverse factions across the nation in efforts to reverse education policy mandates and bolster public schools instead of punishing them and closing them down.

2015 became the year the uprising reached a level where it forever transformed the hegemonic control the reformers have had on education policy.

Most prominently, No Child Left Behind, the federal law that’s been driving education policy since 2001, was replaced with a new law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, thatreverses many of the edicts of NCLB or leaves them up in the air for states and courts to decide.

Also, comments made by establishment presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will reverberate through the election in 2016. Specifically, at a town hall held in South Carolina, broadcast by C-SPAN, Clinton responded to a question about charter schools by saying, “Most charter schools, I don’t want to say every one, but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids. Or if they do, they don’t keep them.” A week or so later, Clinton transgressed the status quo again by We’re onto the phony education reformers: Charter school charlatans and faux reformers take it on the chin - Salon.com:

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: My Kids are Learning DESPITE Edreform

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: My Kids are Learning DESPITE Edreform:

My Kids are Learning DESPITE Edreform



The thing that gets me about all the ridiculous policies coming down hard on teachers, especially teachers teaching in neighborhood schools serving low-income African American communities, is that despite everything, my kids are learning! I am SO proud of them.

I teach special education for third and fourth graders in a resource room. My kids-almost all of whom were non-readers when I met them in September-are ALL reading after just a few short months. With simple exposure to almost excessive amounts of high-interest books (and never restricting them to reading books only "at their level"), beautiful culturally-relevant and diverse literature, and lots of small group/1:1 reading practice, they are getting this thing called reading. We celebrate books and our reading in the classroom, and the kids are eager to share what they are learning. Yesterday, during our Friday Peace Circle, kids were so excited to share their favorite stories, that we went well over the usual time allotment. One girl, a struggling third grader, chose to read an entire short book to the group. And we applauded and cheered her success.

This is only a fraction of the thousands of books I have collected over the years. Like so many other teachers out there, I have scoured used book stores, craigslist, ebay, library sales, amazon, befriended retiring teachers to amass a huge selection of high-interest books for my students.

 Many of my students went from difficulty sounding out CVC words, to reading whole sentences and stories. The teacher before me did a great job of reinforcing those basic letter-sound relationships, and skills like writing of the alphabet and numbers, and so when they got to my class, they were ready for the next step. Now they are reading whole pages, and some are so hungry for reading practice they ask to try the grade-level work I had Ms. Katie's Ramblings: My Kids are Learning DESPITE Edreform:

In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: - This is Personal - Living in Dialogue

In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 1 - This is Personal - Living in Dialogue:

In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 1 - This is Personal 

By Susan DuFresne.

Last year around this time of year, I wrote Beyond the Edge: Climbing Mt. Edreform.  This time of year is always a time of reflection for me, because not only is it the end of the year, but you see,

New Year’s Eve is my birthday and it always brings back memories of childhood trauma.

I have vivid bad memories of my dad driving me to the old-school dentist every year on my birthday in his highway patrol car. The drills back in those days must’ve required the dentist to use their body weight to drill through a tooth. He was huge and I can remember him pushing and drilling until I screamed in pain. What kind of parent takes their child to the dentist each year on their birthday?

As the oldest of 4 siblings, I was the built-in caregiver. On New Year’s Eve, I was asked to clean the house and care for the 3 younger siblings while my parents went out to party. Inevitably they came home drunk, fighting and yelling only to wake up my brothers and sisters. It was me who broke up my parents fights, often getting hit in the process. It was me who comforted my siblings back to sleep. There was no protection and little escape from the trauma. There were no safe adults to turn to for help back then.

Three months prior to my birth, my dad married my mom who was 6 months pregnant with another man’s child. My “dad” tried to choke my mom the night of their wedding.  Cortisone and adrenaline filled her body and mine. On New Year’s Eve I was born with atopic dermatitis – an allergic response triggered by stress hormones.  This stress response continues today along with other immune system and metabolic health issues attributed to trauma.  Some days the itching is truly unbearable. But with it comes an unrelenting lifelong itch to search for safe adults – and to be one – for the children in my integrated kindergarten classroom. There were only a few safe adults in my childhood – and like many children from families of abuse In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 1 - This is Personal - Living in Dialogue:

In Search for Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: Part 2: Why We Must Create Compassionate Schools

By Susan DuFresne.  In my first post,  I tell you why advocacy for children of trauma is personal. Here, while protecting their identities, I tell you their stories and why we must create Compassionate Schools. Childhood trauma has impacted my health across my entire lifetime. This is not uncommon according to the Adverse Childhoold Experiences study [ACES]. Daun Kauffman, a teacher in California

by Anthony Cody / 5min 

Being the Safe Adult: How Can We Create Compassionate Schools? Part 3

By Susan DuFresne. This is the third post in a series about childhood trauma. In my first post I tell readers how childhood trauma is personal. In the second post, I tell the stories of many voiceless children I have worked to support in my classroom. I question whether school reformers are “safe adults” and introduce the impacts of colonization on children of trauma. I begin to explore new resear

by Anthony Cody / 5min 

Beautiful Trouble: From Compassionate Schools to a Compassionate Society: Part 4

By Susan DuFresne. This is the 4th and final post in a series on childhood trauma. In the 1st post, I expose my personal reasons for being an example in this struggle to create Compassionate Schools. In the 2nd post, I tell the stories of how children who have walked through my classroom doors have been impacted by trauma. The 3rd post discusses new pathways to creating cultural changes within our

by Anthony Cody / 5min 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.:

Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.

Durbin claims Rahm has "visible support" in the black community. He knows this from having attended a recent meeting. (AP)

Sen. Dick Durbin is the only Democrat in town willing to be seen within 10 yards of disgraced Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In an interview on Wednesday, Durbin claimed that Rahm still maintains significant support in the city and particularly in the black community, despite his role in covering up the police killing of Laquan McDonald. How Durbin knows this or how he has the nerve to speak for the black community is beyond me. I'm guessing he read Laura Washington's defense of Rahm in the Sun-Times.

In his attempt to bail out the mayor, Durbin blames most of Rahm's troubles on his predecessor, Daley.

“I don’t question that there are things that happened under the mayor’s watch that have caused problems for him that he will still have to address,” Durbin said. “Those sorts of things are real and on his watch. But most of the things he’s facing are left over.”

That's some stretch. 

Seeing Durbin and Emanuel posing together takes me back to another Durbin Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Durbin embraces disgraced Rahm. Clinton watches.:

Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT) - The Washington Post

Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT) - The Washington Post:
Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT)

The College Board has just released PSAT scores — months after the tests were actually taken in high schools. Students received the scores, though many counselors who were supposed to get them have had trouble doing so. Problems with score delivery has also plagued the SAT this past fall, frustrating students and counselors.

(The PSAT, for those who might not know, is the Preliminary SAT, taken by a few million sophomores and juniors every year as a warm-up for the SAT, which used to be the most popular college admissions exam but is now No. 2 behind the ACT. PSAT results are used to qualify students for the National Merit Scholarship program.)

Sandra Riley, vice president for communications at the College Board, said a new online scoring system created to accommodate scoring reports for the newly designed SAT, which is launching this coming spring, is to blame. She said that initial testing did not reveal “large-scale issues” but a series of “small issues” that are being fixed as they present themselves.

But counselors expressed concerns on the discussion board of the National Association for College Admissions Counselors, including Jane S. Mathias, director of guidance at Nardin Academy in Buffalo, N.Y., and former president of the New York State Association for College Admission Counseling. She recently wrote (and gave me permission to publish):

“I do not often post here, but I am hoping that my voice might lead others to contact the College Board and let them hear more than our up until now polite responses to the inquiries we have been making all fall.

“I sent an email to the College Board last night after reading the email we received concerning the latest delay. It probably went into a giant folder of will-not-reply email, but I am wondering how many high school counselors are as angry as I am about the failure of the electronic reporting system, which continues still, and the latest delay in scores (PSAT’s were “promised” for 

Scores for new PSAT are finally out. What to know about them (and what they mean for redesigned SAT) - The Washington Post:

CURMUDGUCATION: Another Bad NCLB Apologia

CURMUDGUCATION: Another Bad NCLB Apologia:
Another Bad NCLB Apologia

At FiveThirtyEight, economics writer Ben Casselman has concocted one of the saddest revisionary apologias for No Child Left Behind.

Even the headline/subhead combo signal that this is going to be a tough ride. "No Child Left Behind Worked: At Least in One Important Way." And then Casselman goes on to explain how NCLB really didn't work.

Casselman buries the leded about four paragraphs down:

Nearly a decade and a half later, No Child Left Behind is often described as a failure, and there is no question that the law fell short of many of its most ambitious goals. Most schools didn’t come close to achieving the 100-percent-proficiency mandate, which experts never considered a realistic target. Subsequent research found that the law’s penalties did little to improve student performance, and may have done more harm than good in some schools. Large achievement gapsremain, in part because Congress didn’t provide all of the billions of dollars in additional education funding that the law’s backers envisioned.

And that's why Casselman's "at least" is also a fail. It's worth talking about, because it is the same "at least" that many folks like to tack on NCLB, as in, "Well, at least it accomplished this one great thing."

The "at least" is "at least NCLB made schools disagregate data so that they would discover the little CURMUDGUCATION: Another Bad NCLB Apologia:


Fired for Competence

You may have heard this story already. You're going to hear it again, and you should. And that's the point. Because one of the things we need to understand about the world is that it includes people who do bad things for stupid reasons.

Jeena Lee-Walker is bringing a lawsuit in federal court because, she says, she was fired from her job teaching English in an Upper West Side high school for teaching a unit that administrators feared would "rile up" students. 

Lee-Walker's unit was about the Central Park Five case,a particularly egregious miscarriage of justice. If you've forgotten the 1989 case, it began with the savage assault and rape of a 28-year-old investment banker in Central Park on a night during which widespread attacks were occurring throughout the park. The police pinned it on a group of five juveniles, whose confessions were taken under circumstances less-than-consistent with any kind of proper procedure. Their stories did not match and there was no physical evidence to tie them to the assault, but they were none of them exactly model citizens, and so they were convicted, serving from six to thirteen years for the crime. Then, in 2002, a career rapist already in prison confessed to the attack. DNA evidence, physical evidence, his account of the attack-- they all confirmed the confession. Oh, and he declared that he had acted alone. The convictions of the Central Park Five were vacated. In 2003, they sued the city for malicious prosecution, but the city under Mayor Bloomberg refused to settle, and in fact still had not settled in 2013, when Lee-Walker was teaching her unit. That settlement didn't happen until 2014, under Mayor de Blasio.

Lee-Walker says her bosses were concerned that her unit was not balanced enough. I am not sure how one works balance into an account of these events. The most common defense of the wrongful conviction is that the Five were all Bad Actors, but the "Well, I'm Sure They Were Guilty of CURMUDGUCATION http://bit.ly/1hqZ7wL


The Test-Centered School

While politicians and policy-makers have made mouth noises about the amount of time spent on the Big Standardized Test and the prep therefor, those elements only scratch the surface of how test-and-punish policy has messed with American schools.

At various times in ed history we have talked about teacher-centered schools, community-centered schools, and student-centered schools. What we have seen over the past decade is the rise of the test-centered school.

In the test-centered school, regardless of what its mission or vision statement may say, test results are the guiding force.

In the test-centered school, there are remediation courses, but these are not remedial courses in the classic sense of trying to help students who are behind in their comprehension of content. These are test prep courses, in which students' time and attention is devoted to practicing the skills of test-taking. Perhaps the school uses a program package so that students can work independently on computers, drilling multiple choice responses to test-style questions, over and over and over and over and over, day after day after day after day after mind-numbing day, until the students have been taught that English and/or Math (because these remedial courses are never required in non-tested departments) are miserable disciplines filled with nothing but drudgery and boredom.

These remediation courses will have two other side effects. First, they will fill up the student's CURMUDGUCATION http://bit.ly/1hqZ7wL

Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next week - Wait What?

Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next week - Wait What?:

Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next week

As Connecticut education advocate and columnist, Wendy Lecker, reports in her latest commentary piece in the Stamford Advocate, Connecticut’s children finally get day in court.

Of the many disappoints that have arisen since Governor Dannel Malloy and Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman were sworn in to office in January 2011, few, if any, is greater than their immoral efforts to dismiss, derail and delay what may be the most important Connecticut court case in our lifetime – the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (“CCJEF”) v. Rell School Funding Lawsuit.

The truth is that Connecticut’s school funding formula is not only illegal, it is unconstitutional. 

Inadequate funding is robbing Connecticut’s public schoolchildren of their constitutional right to a quality education, while placing an unfair burden on Connecticut’s local property taxpayers.

A new funding formula is needed.  But Connecticut politicians lack the will to adopt one, so the responsibility to act has fallen on the courts.

Despite having been supports of the lawsuits prior to taking office, Malloy, Wyman and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen have wasted five years and massive amounts of taxpayer funds trying to stop Connecticut’s judicial branch from even hearing the critically important court case.

As mayor of Stamford, Dan Malloy was actually one of the original sponsors and plaintiffs Connecticut’s historic school funding formula trial finally begins next week - Wait What?:

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition:

Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition

I see we're in the middle of a full-blown spasm of reformy self-congratulation, self-righteousness, and self-regard regarding matters of school "choice" and anti-unionism.

Let's get a few things straight, shall we?

Reformy Myth: School "choice" has led to better outcomes for all students.

Facts: There is no evidence charter schools or voucher schools get, in the aggregate, substantially better performance than public district schools. Yes, some charter schools do better than prediction when using regression-based techniques to measure their outcomes; however, those charters almost always have features such as a longer school day (generally useless but helpful when disadvantaged students don't have other good options), more financial resources, different student populations which likely produce peer effects, or high rates of attrition that almost certainly account for much of the realized gains.

In other words: There is no evidence charter schools' "charteriness" makes them any better than public district schools.


Reformy Myth: Charter schools are closing the "achievement gap."

Facts: No charter school study that I am aware of has ever shown the effect sizes of charter schools to be anywhere close to the gap in test scores that can be explained by socio-economic differences.
- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/01/reformy-myth-busting-2016-edition.html#sthash.lfEQIdXJ.dpuf