Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/7/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools – Missouri Education Watchdog

Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools – Missouri Education Watchdog: Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools(The sorting people like shoes thing, yep, that’s part of a quote.  Scroll down to see the whole thing.)Workforce pathways and digital workforce credentials are all the rag

by mike simpson / 2h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to School

Seattle Schools Community Forum: South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to School: South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to SchoolFrom SPS:National African-American Parent Involvement DayFebruary 8, 20167 a.m. – 2 p.m.South Shore PK-8In a dynamic family engagement event, South Shore Pre-K – 8 School will be host to over 100 men of African descent, welcoming every child with enthusiastic “high fives” to sch

by mike simpson / 3h 

An Urban Teacher's Education: Preparing Innovative Change Agents for Justice

An Urban Teacher's Education: Preparing Innovative Change Agents for Justice: Preparing Innovative Change Agents for JusticeAfter spending my day yesterday in a district discussion about how to remake and rebrand our high school, I got to thinking a lot about what we should be preparing students for after high school.Before I go further, I want to emphasize that I believe that school is not just a

by mike simpson / 4h 

Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members | Jamaal A. Bowman

Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members | Jamaal A. Bowman: Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members JAMAAL A. BOWMANDear TFA 2016 Corps Members,Thank you for choosing to enter the teaching profession. Please stay longer than two years. Give the classroom at least five. If you’re placed in a “no excuses” school, just know that that is not the way things ought to be for children and it “doesn’t feel right” because it

by mike simpson / 4h 

Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader? | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader? | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn: Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader? "If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and

by mike simpson / 5h 

Save Our Schools March – SOS Position Papers

Save Our Schools March – SOS Position Papers: SOS Position PapersBetter AssessmentFor a printable (PDF) version of this document, click here,“Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, they just recently took a standardized test. But it wasn’t a high-stakes test. It wasn’t a test where they had to panic. I mean, they didn’t even really know that they were going to take it ahead of time. They didn’t study

by mike simpson / 5h 

You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate! | VAMboozled!

You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate! | VAMboozled!: You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate!As the scholarly debate about the extent and purpose of educational testing rages on, theAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) wants to hear from you.  During a key session at its Centennial Conference this spring in Washington DC, titled How Much Tes

by mike simpson / 5h 

Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional | Seattle Education

Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional | Seattle Education: Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional Is The Gates Foundation an invisible fourth branch of Washington’s state government?In a previous post

by mike simpson / 6h 

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Teachers, and Business Models

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Teachers, and Business Models: ESSA, Teachers, and Business ModelsThomas Arnett is an Education Research Fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, and he's written some classics in the reformster press (like this piece about why teachers shouldn't grade their own students). He has worked for Achievement First Charter and started his educationist c

by mike simpson / 6h 

Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schools - Wait What?

Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schools - Wait What?:Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schoolsCall it the new American Way.  The billionaires, millionaires and corporate elite who fund charter schools give generously to Democratic and Republican politicians and the politicians return

by mike simpson / 6h 

My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged Kids vs. Can We Please, Just Once, Have A Real Teacher

My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged Kids vs. Can We Please, Just Once, Have A Real Teacher: My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged Kids vs. Can We Please, Just Once, Have A Real TeacherMy Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged KidsMegan RichmondVolunteer Teacher

by mike simpson / 7h 

Peltier: ‘My Forty Years In Prison’ | PopularResistance.Org

Peltier: ‘My Forty Years In Prison’ | PopularResistance.Org: Peltier: ‘My Forty Years In Prison’Coleman, FL – What can I say that I have not said before? I guess I can start by saying see you later to all of those who have passed in the last year. We Natives don’t like to mention their names. We believe that if we speak their names it disrupts their journey. They may lose their way and their spiri

by mike simpson / 7h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Of Legislative Matters

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Of Legislative Matters: Of Legislative MattersFeb. 5th was one of the key dates in the 60-day legislative session.  It was the policy cut-off in the House of Origin.Here are the next key dates:Feb. 9th: Fiscal Cut-off in the House of OriginFeb. 17: House of Origin Cut-offFeb. 26th: Policy Cut-off in the Opposite HouseFeb. 29th: Fiscal Cut-off in the Opposite HouseM

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teachers For Social Justice: Get on the BUS! Thurs Feb 18 TSJ ERSB Field Trip to Springfield!

Teachers For Social Justice: Get on the BUS! Thurs Feb 18 TSJ ERSB Field Trip to Springfield!: Get on the BUS! Thurs Feb 18 TSJ ERSB Field Trip to Springfield!Springfield Rally and Lobby Day for Elected Representative School BoardThursday, February 18th6:00 AM till 6:00 PMThe TSJ Bus will be at 1100 S. Hamilton.Parking is available, $2-3 for the dayWe're taking our fight for an Elected Representat

by mike simpson / 8h 

Schools Matter: Big Data Needs Your Personalized Data Points

Schools Matter: Big Data Needs Your Personalized Data Points: Schools Matter: Big Data Needs Your Personalized Data PointsAs you take a few moments to listen to this super snail oil salesman, think about the implications of this technology in the hands of Zuckerberg and the Wall Street crime bosses who want to control the worldwide education industry. The battle to preserve student autonomy and an

by mike simpson / 9h 

An astonishing admission from a controversial school reformer - The Washington Post

An astonishing admission from a controversial school reformer - The Washington Post: An astonishing admission from a controversial school reformerCami Anderson is the former schools superintendent in Newark who was relentless in pushing highly controversial education reforms from 2011 through 2015 and became one of the faces of the corporate school reform movement. She abruptly left the job last s

by mike simpson / 9h 

“COMMON” Goal: Corporate Ownership of Public Education and Our Childrens’ Futures | educationalchemy

“COMMON” Goal: Corporate Ownership of Public Education and Our Childrens’ Futures | educationalchemy: “COMMON” Goal: Corporate Ownership of Public Education and Our Childrens’ FuturesCommon Goal. Part I.Lamar Alexander and Patti Murray didn’t (really) write the new Every Child Succeeds Act (ESSA). The Business Roundtable (BRT) did. Let me break this down for you:By now, those of us who are fightin

by mike simpson / 9h 

CURMUDGUCATION: NCTQ: Terrible Teacher Prep and Headline Research

CURMUDGUCATION: NCTQ: Terrible Teacher Prep and Headline Research: NCTQ: Terrible Teacher Prep and Headline ResearchThe National Council on Teacher Quality is one of the great mysteries of the education biz. They have no particular credentials and are truly the laziest "researchers" on the planet, but I think I may have cracked the code. Let me show you their latest piece of "resear

by mike simpson / 9h 

Education Research Report: Has implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) affected NAEP performance?

Education Research Report: Has implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) affected NAEP performance?: Has implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) affected NAEP performance? The 2015 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for grades 4 and 8 were greeted with both disappointment and frustration. Despite years of reform strategies and millions

by mike simpson / 9h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement- A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez

With A Brooklyn Accent: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement- A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez The small schools movement in NYCDOE high schools has got to go. It has run its course and enough students have been experimented on, enough veteran teachers have been pushed out via institutional ageis

by mike simpson / 10h 

Louisiana Educator: Push Poll Used to Try to Sabotage Governor's Budget Proposals

Louisiana Educator: Push Poll Used to Try to Sabotage Governor's Budget Proposals: Push Poll Used to Try to Sabotage Governor's Budget ProposalsI was one of the targets of a very aggressive telephone "push poll" Saturday afternoon. A push poll is really a fake public opinion poll where a political group hires a fake polling company to influence voters to support their point of view on on

by mike simpson / 10h 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Your Sunday Halftime Reading

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Your Sunday Halftime Reading: ICYMI: Your Sunday Halftime Readingust kidding. At my house, the game will not even be on, and I'm pretty sure life will go on. But here are a few pieces to read today.The Real Issue with Teacher PayThe North Carolina 2015 Teacher of the Year has a few things to say about respect for the profession (and if you've been paying attention to North C

by mike simpson / 10h 

Special education class sizes are the target (again). | Fred Klonsky

Special education class sizes are the target (again). | Fred Klonsky: Special education class sizes are the target (again).By Bev Johns“The most burdensome aspects of special education mandates identified in the survey were underfunding from state government and class sizes, especially concerning the required ratio of students with special needs to those without.” [the regulation that students wit

by mike simpson / 10h 

A Community of Writing Teachers – the becoming radical

A Community of Writing Teachers – the becoming radical: A Community of Writing TeachersThe purposeful teaching of writing that led to and then sprang from the formation of theNational Writing Project (NWP) and its affiliated sites has always emphasized the importance of a community of writers.And while the summer institutes offered through NWP sites—where I was saved as a writing teacher and then

by mike simpson / 10h 

Why the Supreme Court Should Leave Well Enough Alone and Let Workers Build Unions | Alternet

Why the Supreme Court Should Leave Well Enough Alone and Let Workers Build Unions | Alternet: Why the Supreme Court Should Leave Well Enough Alone and Let Workers Build UnionsA decision against the California Teachers Association is a decision in favor of greed.Current discussions regarding theFriedrichs v. California Teachers Association case now before the U.S. Supreme Court are missing the crit

by mike simpson / 10h 

Chicago Teachers Union & Supporters March and Occupy Bank of America for Fair Contract | The Chicago Monitor

Chicago Teachers Union & Supporters March and Occupy Bank of America for Fair Contract | The Chicago Monitor: Chicago Teachers Union & Supporters March and Occupy Bank of America for Fair Contract More than three thousand teachers, staff, parents, students, and their supporters marched in Chicago yesterday for a fair contract for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The protest was in respons

by mike simpson / 11h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

The speech that could help Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders seal the deal - The Washington Post

The speech that could help Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders seal the deal - The Washington Post: The speech that could help Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders seal the dealDemocratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders shakes hands as they greet the audience before Thursday’s Democratic presidential primary debate in Durham, N.H. (David Goldman/AP) As former secretary of sta

by mike simpson / 18h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/6/16

CORPORATE ED REFORMLouisiana Educator: White Washing Louisiana Education StatisticsLouisiana Educator: White Washing Louisiana Education Statistics: White Washing Louisiana Education StatisticsThis is a funny spoof on what I call predatory charter schools. When you consider just the most recent open meeting violations,cheating incidents, and bullying of young teachers in Louisiana charter schools

by mike simpson / 19h 

Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools – Missouri Education Watchdog

Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools

(The sorting people like shoes thing, yep, that’s part of a quote.  Scroll down to see the whole thing.)

Workforce pathways and digital workforce credentials are all the rage. If you haven’t heard, the state of Colorado is the first in the nation to launch an initiative (don’t worry your state will be working on something similar) to connect state employers and educators with individuals looking for job opportunities through a new online platform called Rework America Connected. You can read the June 2015 Press Releasehere and an excerpt from The Denver Business Journal article that lists some mega partners and some interesting quotes here:

“Rework America Connected, is a joint effort between Markle Foundation and the state, will use technology created by LinkedIn, Arizona State University and edX to offer tools and resources to individuals at all skill levels in an effort to develop a more qualified workforce.

The announcement was made by Gov. John Hickenlooper, Markle president and CEO Zoë Baird, Lt. Gov Joe Garcia (Now of WICHE, mentioned here), LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue, edX president and COO Wendy Cebula, Intertech Plastics CEO Noel Ginsburg and Senior VP and COO of Kaiser Permanente, Nancy Wollen.”

“Colorado has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, but we know there is still work to do,” Hickenlooper said. “Innovative approaches like Rework will help end the skills mismatch and create a transparent job market.”Sorting Coloradoans like shoes: “by size, shape, and color.” Pilot starts in Denver Public Schools – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to School

Seattle Schools Community Forum: South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to School:

South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to School

From SPS:

National African-American Parent Involvement Day
February 8, 2016
7 a.m. – 2 p.m.
South Shore PK-8

In a dynamic family engagement event, South Shore Pre-K – 8 School will be host to over 100 men of African descent, welcoming every child with enthusiastic “high fives” to school on Monday, February 8th in honor of the school’s 8th annual celebration of National African-American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID).

Thereafter, families, district leaders, community members and friends of South Shore will participate in a day-long program of activities that will engage students and attendees to strengthen school-family-community partnerships to advance student success.

From NW Facts:

The goals of the event include:

1. Reframe the social and racial narrative concerning Black men by displaying and exposing students to the diversity of Black male excellence;
2. Affirming the importance of educational equity by celebrating children and families of African descent; and
3. Catalyzing regional adoption of NAAPID at other schools, school districts and communities throughout the region.

 Seattle Schools Community Forum: South Shore Invites 100 Black Men to School:

An Urban Teacher's Education: Preparing Innovative Change Agents for Justice

An Urban Teacher's Education: Preparing Innovative Change Agents for Justice:

Preparing Innovative Change Agents for Justice

After spending my day yesterday in a district discussion about how to remake and rebrand our high school, I got to thinking a lot about what we should be preparing students for after high school.

Before I go further, I want to emphasize that I believe that school is not just about preparing students for the future. It's about helping them manage their now. I think we often get so caught up in a focus on the future that we do damage to the now, but that's for another blog post.

When we do think about the future of students, which is often, we talk in terms of creating equal educational outcomes that will prepare them for participation in the economy.

"How can we ensure they'll be able to compete in the real world?"

"What skills and knowledge do they need to have options when they go looking for jobs?"

Now, I acknowledge there is a shred of legitimacy to these discussions. But I find them to be extraordinarily problematic, mostly because the presume the purpose of an education for an individual is, ultimately, to make money. And that notion is based on the even more problematic notion that the larger purpose for education systems is primarily to create a highly-competitive economy.

But even if we do accept participation in the economy as the highest aim of public education, what's so clear is that the way we talk about preparing students for their futures is wrapped in language An Urban Teacher's Education: Preparing Innovative Change Agents for Justice:

Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members | Jamaal A. Bowman

Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members | Jamaal A. Bowman:

Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members 

JAMAAL A. BOWMAN

Dear TFA 2016 Corps Members,

Thank you for choosing to enter the teaching profession. Please stay longer than two years. Give the classroom at least five. If you’re placed in a “no excuses” school, just know that that is not the way things ought to be for children and it “doesn’t feel right” because it is not right. It is inhumane. Ask yourself what might be the unconscious impulses driving these policies and why many of the schools you went to did not treat you in this way. Your deductive reasoning will lead you to racism, and maybe a form of xenophobia. Children should be allowed to converse during breakfast and lunch and middle school kids especially should be allowed to transition from one class to another on their own while having casual conversation.

Further, your job is not to get higher test scores. Your job is to develop human beings who love life, learning, and the world. Test scores do not lead to college success. This is easily verifiable. A love of learning is sustainable, and happens through emotional intelligence and passion. Make these two things a pillar in your classroom.

Empower your students to lead, create, design, and build, not to simply work for a master. Empower parents with their right to refuse the state exams and to have a larger voice in their child’s education. Doing this empowers entire Welcome TFA 2016 Corps Members | Jamaal A. Bowman:

Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader? | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader? | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader?

 "If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."  ~ Atticus Finch

Many education reformers are determined to test, rate, and sort children to identify and reward those students who lead the pack rather than nurture, respect, and support all learners to cultivate future pack leaders.

This misguided obsession on continually evaluating and comparing student performance using a narrow set of numeracy and literacy skills will leave our children unprepared for the social and emotional challenges and “tests” of adulthood and employment. 

"Imagine two wolf packs, or two human tribes,” Mr. McIntyre said. “Which is more likely to survive and reproduce? The one whose members are more cooperative, more sharing, less violent with one another; or the group whose members are beating each other up and competing with one another?”…

This does not mean that alpha males are not tough when they need to be. One Should schools prepare students to lead the pack or be a pack leader? | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Save Our Schools March – SOS Position Papers

Save Our Schools March – SOS Position Papers:

SOS Position Papers

Better Assessment

For a printable (PDF) version of this document, click here,

“Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, they just recently took a standardized test. But it wasn’t a high-stakes test. It wasn’t a test where they had to panic. I mean, they didn’t even really know that they were going to take it ahead of time. They didn’t study for it, they just went ahead and took it. And it was a tool to diagnose where they were strong, where they were weak, and what the teachers needed to emphasize.

“Too often what we’ve been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools. And so what we’ve said is let’s find a test that everybody agrees makes sense; let’s apply it in a less pressured-packed atmosphere; let’s figure out whether we have to do it every year or whether we can do it maybe every several years; and let’s make sure that that’s not the only way we’re judging whether a school is doing well.

“Because there are other criteria: What’s the attendance rate? How are young people performing in terms of basic competency on projects? There are other ways of us measuring whether students are doing well or not.” ~President Barack Obama

It’s clear there are many problems with our current assessment-for-accountability regime. Even our president– whose administration’s policies have encouraged a huge increase in the amount of testing students experience– has said that we need to rethink how we approach assessment and accountability.

Read More ...

Curriculum

For a printable (PDF) version of this statement, click here: Curriculum

One question, THE question, which has yet to be asked by Congress, is this: What are the goals of education in America? In other words, what do we wish to accomplish? That question should have been asked before Congress reauthorized ESEA as No Child Left Behind in 2001. Until Congress asks that question — and answers it – NCLB should not be reauthorized. President Bush and Congress did not ask THE question in 2001, and that is why NCLB has turned out to be such poor legislation.

Curriculum is the road map we use after we have answered the question: What are our goals? Curriculum tells us what our children should learn in order to achieve our goals. What should they know and be able to do by the time they graduate?

Read More ...

Equitable Funding

For a printable version of this statement, click here: Equitable Funding

With the creation of No Child Left Behind in 2003, the United States Department of Education has inserted itself into across-the-board education policy creation and even into individual classrooms. The role of the federal government in education should be limited to two things: economies of scale, and assuring equity for all American children.

Our schools are the stages where the real values and goals of America are played out every day. True democracy and equality under the law are meaningless unless we provide our children with the tools to participate fully in American life and citizenship.

Read More ...

 

Family Involvement

For a printable version of this statement, click on the title: Family Involvement

When parents, teachers, students, and others view one another as knowledgeable partners in education, a caring community forms around students. ~Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

We’ve all heard it before — “parents are important,” “parents make a difference.” Parental involvement or engagement, pick your terms, it doesn’t matter. For too many of us, these are just words strung together making empty statements. And lawmakers set the phrases down in law, as if that will reform dysfunctional districts.

Read More ...

You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate! | VAMboozled!

You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate! | VAMboozled!:

You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate!

As the scholarly debate about the extent and purpose of educational testing rages on, theAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) wants to hear from you.  During a key session at its Centennial Conference this spring in Washington DC, titled How Much Testing and for What Purpose? Public Scholarship in the Debate about Educational Assessment and Accountability, prominent educational researchers will respond to questions and concerns raised by YOU, parents, students, teachers, community members, and public at large.

Hence, any and all of you with an interest in testing, value-added modeling, educational assessment, educational accountability policies, and the like are invited to post your questions, concerns, and comments using the hashtag #HowMuchTesting on Twitter,Facebook, Instagram, Google+, or the social media platform of your choice, as these are the posts to which AERA’s panelists will respond.

Organizers are interested in all #HowMuchTesting posts, but they are particularly interested in video-recorded questions and comments of 30 – 45 seconds in duration so that you can ask your own questions, rather than having it read by a moderator. In addition, in order to provide ample time for the panel of experts to prepare for the discussion, comments and questions posted by March 17 have the best chances for inclusion in the debate.

Thank you all in advance for your contributions!!

To read more about this session, from the session’s organizer, click here.

 You Are Invited to Participate in the #HowMuchTesting Debate! | VAMboozled!:

Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional | Seattle Education

Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional | Seattle Education:

Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional

 Is The Gates Foundation an invisible fourth branch of Washington’s state government?

In a previous post titled The charter school shell game in Washington State: Money laundering at its best (or worst?) by way of OSPI, I described how first private and now public money is being laundered through the Mary Walker School District and to charter schools. The first charter school to enjoy this set up is Rainier Prep which is located in the Highline School District

In this post I will provide the specifics of where this scheme originated, how it evolved and the players involved. This is an explicit example of how Bill Gates, through his foundation, is able to manipulate people and policies to fit his agenda, using millions of dollars to grease the wheels. This is also an example of Gates making an end run around the Democratic and legal processes.

Within days of the Supreme Court determining that charter schools are unconstitutional in Washington State, the Gates Foundation got busy working with the Washington State Charter School Association (WA charters).  WA charters contacted Superintendent Kevin Jacka with the Mary Walker School District (MWSD) as well as the State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to get the ball rolling on keeping charter schools open.

This is how it went. The Gates Foundation, contacted the Washington Charter Association and had them contact the Mary Walker School District to discuss with the Superintendent, Kevin Jacka, the idea of taking on the charter schools that had opened in Emails reveal the “Gates Machine” in action after the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional | Seattle Education:

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Teachers, and Business Models

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Teachers, and Business Models:

ESSA, Teachers, and Business Models

Thomas Arnett is an Education Research Fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, and he's written some classics in the reformster press (like this piece about why teachers shouldn't grade their own students). He has worked for Achievement First Charter and started his educationist career with TFA. So it would make sense to find some of his work on the website of the Brookings Institute, an organization that does an outstanding job of regularly publicizing how little economists understand about education.

"ESSA Unlocks Teacher Prep Innovation" wears its lack of educational understanding on its sleeve. ESSA presents an opportunity, but it's not an opportunity to improve anything about education-- instead, Arnett's understanding of the issues facing education is in this sentence:

But unfortunately, despite the fair amount of consensus regarding needed reforms, schools of education seem to have done little over the last 30 years to fundamentally change their business models to align with suggested reforms.

Yup. What teacher programs need is a new business model.

Arnett's theory is that university education programs are resistant to change because their business models discourage it. And I get that to a point-- as universities and colleges have changed to business models that are based on them acting like businesses instead of institutions of higher learning, getting warm, check-writing bodies in seats has become more of a priority. On the other hand, anyone who thinks that schools of education haven't changed anything in the last several CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Teachers, and Business Models:

Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schools - Wait What?

Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schools - Wait What?:
Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schools

Call it the new American Way.  The billionaires, millionaires and corporate elite who fund charter schools give generously to Democratic and Republican politicians and the politicians return the favor by shifting public funds into the coffers of the privately owned, but publicly funded charter schools.

Here is in Connecticut the system was clearly on display last week when Governor Dannel Malloy and his sidekick, Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman, rolled out their new “austerity budget” for 2016-2017.

In classic fashion their plan slashes the full array of vital services while giving the wealthy yet another tax break.  Their plan makes absolutely no effort, what-so-ever, to require Connecticut’s richest resident to pay their fair share in taxes.

But their budget certainly targets the middle class and all of Connecticut’s working families, along with those who rely on state services to lead more fulfilling lives.

Failing to even identify where 40 percent of the budget cuts would even come from, Malloy proposed a spending plan that would provide $720 million less than what would be necessary simply to maintain the current level of state services.

Malloy targeted some of his deepest cuts for programs that help children in crisis, the developmental disabled, those with mental illness, Connecticut’s public schools, the state’s Cha-Ching! Wealthy Charter School backers give big to Malloy – Malloy gives big to charter schools - Wait What?: