Catch Diane Ravitch's blog If You Can | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Catch Diane Ravitch's blog If You Can  

A site to discuss better education for all

Watch Rev. William Barber, Our Most Eloquent Spokesman for Civil Rights, Speak at the Schott Foundation Dinner

2by dianeravitch / 11min

Reverend William Barber II is our most eloquent spokesman for civil rights today. Some believe he is the next Martin Luther King Jr. He just stepped down as head of the North Carolina NAACP, where he saw daily assaults on voting 

Brave New World: What Links Trump, Brexit, Robert Mercer, Rupert Murdoch, and Steve Bannon?

3by dianeravitch / 27min

This is an article in The Guardian that I will not attempt to summarize. What I will Di is urge you to read it. It is about money, power, and a coordinated attack on democracy. It is about data mining psychological warfare financed by a 

Thomas Ultican: Shakespeare and the “Ocean God”

2by dianeravitch / 25min

Thomas Ultican teaches physics and mathematics to high school students in San Diego. In this post, he describes a wonderful day at the home of one of the nation’s greatest oceanographers, where middle school students performed scenes from Shakespeare. The event was sponsored by the San Diego Shakespeare Society to raise funds for middle and high schools. You will enjoy his account of a very wonde

Los Angeles: The Scurrilous Smear Campaign Against Steve Zimmer

4by dianeravitch / 1h

The run-off campaign in District 4 in Los Angeles for School Board has turned into a national issue. The race between Steve Zimmer, president of the Los Angeles school board, and his challenger, Nick Melvoin, has become an epic struggle between supporters of public schools and supporters of privatization. Zimmer entered teaching through Teach for America but, unlike the typical TFA, he stayed in

Center for Popular Democracy: Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

4by dianeravitch / 2h

Is it reasonable to give taxpayer dollars to entities that are deregulated and unsupervised? That are unaccountable and non transparent? What do you think will happen when government funds are turned over to organizations that are basically on their own and who make campaign contributions to legislator who prevent accountability for their donors? The Center for Popular Democracy explains what you

“Change Is Never Easy,” Say Reformers

5by dianeravitch / 3h

Ed Johnson is a relentless watchdog over public education in Atlanta. He happens to be a devotee of the thought of W. Edwards Deming, and he opposes the current corporate reform philosophy of disruption, top-down orders, ranking, rating, punishment, and rewards. Johnson understands that accountability begins at the top, and that the role of leadership is to support those who work in the organizat

An Urgent Message to the Citizens of North Carolina

9by dianeravitch / 4h

Public education is in jeopardy in North Carolina. Please take action now! The North Carolina Senate introduced SB 603, a bill creating a new voucher program that would give $9,000 a year to students with disabilities going to non-public schools. Send an email to tell your house member to vote NO for SB 603. SB 603 is a bill that: Expands opportunities for fraud Costs more to administer than trad

YESTERDAY

Great News! Missouri Does Not Pass Voucher Plan

23by dianeravitch / 12h

The Missouri legislature ended their legislative session without passing legislation that would authorize “education savings accounts,” a form of voucher that parents could use to spend anywhere for anything. It is a path to allowing parents to spend public money on anything regardless of quality. Where ESAs exist, many children are getting a subpar education or none at all. Other countries must

Jeff Murray of Fordham Institute: Do English Teachers Have a Responsibility for Students’ Vocational Training?

2by dianeravitch / 20h

Jeff Murray is the Ohio operations manager of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s offices in Columbus. He read an essay by a high school English teacher who was offended by Governor John Kasich’s proposal that teachers should be required to shadow business people if they wanted to be rectified. Murray was disturbed when a high school English teacher objected. The teacher wrote: “I believe, as a pro

Andy Borowitz: An Impeachment Shocker (SATIRE)

2by dianeravitch / 21h

Andy Borowitz has the latest news about the prospects for Trump’s impeachment.

L.A. Times Endorses Trump-DeVos Ticket for School Board

200+by dianeravitch / 22h

I was curious to see whether the L.A. Times editorial board would stand up for public education or would join the chorus of privatization and greed. Would the editorial board be offended that billionaires are swamping the district with millions to promote the privatization candidates? Would they recall all the stories about charter scandals and corruption that the newspaper has reported? Would th

Los Angeles: Outside Money Continues to Pour in to Buy Control of LA School Board for Charter Industry

21by dianeravitch / 1d

If you live in Los Angeles in one of the districts where there is a run-off, please vote for Steve Zimmer or Imelda Padilla. Don’t let the billionaires buy control of the public schools. They don’t want to improve them. They want to turn them over to the unregulated, scandal-ridden charter industry. Don’t be fooled: c harters and choice and privatization are the Trump-DeVos agenda! Howard Blume r

Gary Rubinstein: Rick Hess is the Reformer Who Thinks

4by dianeravitch / 1d

Gary Rubinstein read Rick Hess’s latest book, “Letters to a Young Education Reformer” and found much to admire, even though Gary is one of the most perceptive critics of what is now called “reform.” He writes: “I was eager to receive Rick Hess’s latest book ‘letters to a young education reformer.’ Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conse

Sue M. Legg: Charters Bomb in Florida

9by dianeravitch / 1d

The Florida Department of Education, firmly in the hands of the Jeb Bush team, tried to spin the “success” of the charter industry, but Sue M. Legg of the League of Women Voters in Florida says, “Not so fast.” In this post, she explains that charter schools enroll a lower percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, of English language learners, and of students with disabilities

Andrea Gabor: Why Are the Few Veteran Teachers of New Orleans Demoralized?

8by dianeravitch / 1d

Andrea Gabor reviews research produced by the Education Research Alliance of New Orleans about veteran teachers, those who taught before Hurricane Katrina and returned. “ERA’s analysis provides an important before-and-after-the-storm 

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

Anthony Cody: Education Activists Craft Viral Videos - Living in Dialogue

Education Activists Craft Viral Videos - Living in Dialogue:

Education Activists Craft Viral Videos

By Anthony Cody.

Short, punchy films with a message have become one of the most powerful ways the movement to resist high stakes tests has spread the word. You might have seen parents from New York speaking from the heart about their experience, about what has driven them to resist and opt out of these tests. Some of them have been shared and viewed thousands of times.

It is not easy to create a video that spreads like wildfire across social media. The message must be clear, the voice authentic, the speaker eloquent. Viewers have to not only watch it, but be motivated to share. For these reasons, creating a successful video of this sort is like catching lightning in a jar.  The Network for Public Education has a project underway that hopes to do just that.

Two weeks ago, several hundred people spent part of their Sunday in a warehouse in the Gowanus district of Brooklyn, participating in the first phase of an experiment in social media. The guiding director of the project was Michael Elliot, who has a track record of success in creating such videos. This time, the stakes were raised, the goal set a bit higher. Elliot is working to create a whole series of videos, to be released in the coming year, featuring some of the movement’s most powerful voices. Kemala Karmen, who also has a background in documentary film, worked alongside Elliot to organize the project, prepare the speakers, and recruit the audience. Elliot and Karmen are both parents of public school students. Volunteers from the New York City Opt Out movement helped with critical tasks on the day of the shoot.

On a somewhat grimy Brooklyn street, a warehouse door opened onto a space where folding tables were set up with snacks and photo release forms. The volunteer audience filed in and was seated in a makeshift theater, with a curtained set, and carefully lit stage. Three shifts would come and go, listening to short talks delivered by people like community organizer Jitu Brown. Brotha Jitu talked about the successful fight to keep Chicago’s Dyett High school open, and challenged the audience to recognize the unequal education offered to students of color. Living legend Diane Ravitch described the many ways privatizers, led by Betsy DeVos, are working to turn education into a marketplace with winners and losers. Seattle’s Jesse Hagopian spoke of the urgent need to reach students with meaningful lessons – project-based learning and Ethnic Studies.  Texan John Kuhn spoke about the injustice of holding teachers alone accountable for student outcomes.

We also heard from a student, Kymberly Walcott, who spoke about the closing of her high school, Jamaica High, and how it felt to have the school she loved labeled a failure. Parent Johanna Garcia spoke in English and Spanish about the ways schools serving poor students are underfunded and set up to fail, and how tests work to intensify rather than correct inequities. Linda Lyon, the president-ELECT of the school board association in Arizona talked about the mirage of privatization. And Jeannette Deuterman spoke of Education Activists Craft Viral Videos - Living in Dialogue:

Who Are the Out-of-Town Billionaires Trying to Defeat Steve Zimmer? - LA Progressive

Who Are the Out-of-Town Billionaires Trying to Defeat Steve Zimmer? - LA Progressive:

Who Are the Out-of-Town Billionaires Trying to Defeat Steve Zimmer?

Some of America’s most powerful corporate plutocrats want to take over the Los Angeles school system but Steve Zimmer, a former teacher and feisty school board member, is in their way. So they’ve hired Nick Melvoin to get rid of him. No, he’s not a hired assassin like the kind on “The Sopranos.” He’s a lawyer who the billionaires picked to defeat Zimmer.

The so-called “Independent” campaign for Melvoin — funded by big oil, big tobacco, Walmart, Enron, and other out-of-town corporations and billionaires — has included astonishingly ugly, deceptive, and false attack ads against Zimmer.

The so-called “Independent” campaign for Melvoin — funded by big oil, big tobacco, Walmart, Enron, and other out-of-town corporations and billionaires — has included astonishingly ugly, deceptive, and false attack ads against Zimmer.

This morning (Friday) the Los Angeles Times reported that “Outside spending for Melvoin (and against Zimmer) has surpassed $4.65 million.” Why? Because he doesn’t agree with the corporatization of our public schools. Some of their donations have gone directly to Melvoin’s campaign, but much of it has been funneled through a corporate front group called the California Charter School Association.

To try to hoodwink voters, the billionaires invented another front group with the same initials as the well-respected Parent Teacher Association, but they are very different organizations. They called it the “Parent Teacher Alliance.” Pretty clever, huh? But this is not the real PTA, which does not get involved with elections. In fact, the real PTA has demanded that this special interest PAC change their name and called the billionaires’ campaign Zimmer “misleading,” “deceptive practices,” and “false advertising.”

These out-of-town billionaire-funded groups can pay for everything from phone-banks, to mailers, to television ads. Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez described the billionaires’ campaign to defeat Zimmer, which includes sending mails filled with outrageous lies about Zimmer, as “gutter politics.”

As a result, the race for the District 4 seat — which stretches from the Westside to the West San Fernando Valley — is ground zero in the battle over the corporate take-over of public education. The outcome of next Tuesday’s (May 16) election has national implications in terms of the billionaires’ battle to reconstruct public education in the corporate mold.

The contest between Melvoin and Zimmer is simple. Who should run our schools? Who knows what’s best for students? Out-of-town billionaires or parents, teachers, and community residents?

Before examining just who these corporate carpetbaggers are, let’s look at who Steve Zimmer is, what he’s accomplished, and what he stands for.

Zimmer grew up in a working class community and attended public schools. His father was aWho Are the Out-of-Town Billionaires Trying to Defeat Steve Zimmer? - LA Progressive: 

 

The L.A. school board race: Brutal, expensive and important - LA Times

The L.A. school board race: Brutal, expensive and important - LA Times:

The L.A. school board race: Brutal, expensive and important

he four people vying for two pivotal seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education agree on at least two things: The campaign has been brutal, and there’s a lot at stake.

The nastiness leading up to the May 16 runoff election has been generated by independent campaigns set up on behalf of the candidates because of the election’s importance.

Charter school partisans and unions had spent about $13 million combined through Friday. The candidates themselves had spent another $1.5 million.

If the charter-backed candidates prevail, charter advocates will win their first governing majority on the seven-member body. If the election goes entirely the other way, unions will strengthen their influence on a board that leans pro-labor. In that scenario, the board would be more likely to limit the growth of charters in the nation’s second-largest school system, which has more charters and more charter students than any other school district.

“Think of this as the great Charter War of 2017,” said Dan Schnur, former director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. “The stakes are unusually high, substantively but even more symbolically. The outcome of these races will determine control of the largest school district in the western United States.”

Union-backed school board President Steve Zimmer and charter supporter Nick Melvoin are vying for the seat in District 4, which stretches from the Westside to the west San Fernando Valley. Kelly Gonez, with charter support, and Imelda Padilla, with union backing, are competing in District 6, in the East Valley.

Zimmer, the lone incumbent, has borne the brunt of the pummeling. And although holding him responsible for the state of the school system is fair game after eight years in office, most of the attacks in a flood of mailers are exaggerated or false.

So too with Zimmer’s opponent, Melvoin. Though negative mailers have correctly noted that both Melvoin and the Trump administration support the rapid expansion of charter schools, Melvoin is neither a Republican nor a Trump supporter.

Charters are privately operated public schools that are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. Most are nonunion, and all are competing with district-operated schools for students and the education funding that comes with them.

The most powerful charter groups have opposed any board member who supports limiting the growth of charters. Zimmer finished a strong first in the March primary, but he would be in trouble if supporters of his two other primary challengers consolidated behind Melvoin.

Zimmer has voted to approve or renew most charter petitions, but he also has spoken forcefully about putting the brakes on charter growth. Otherwise, he has said, the Los Angeles Unified School District faces catastrophic financial losses that would cripple its ability to serve students not enrolled in charters.

“Outside of a charter school that is offering real innovation, I cannot see why we would agree to authorize more and more charter schools,” Zimmer said in an interview. “Instead, we need to make sure that all our charters — and all our other schools — in Los Angeles are serving students at the same level as some of our highest performers.”

Limiting charter growth is not something that Melvoin is willing to entertain “until every school in L.A. is a school we would send our own kids to,” as he put it during a recent forum.

Melvoin, 31, grew up in Brentwood, the son of a prosperous Hollywood producer. He went to Harvard University after attending Harvard-Westlake, a prestigious local private school. Then he taught for two years at Markham Middle School in Watts.

Because of funding cuts during the recession and “last-in, first-out” seniority rules, Melvoin was laid off and had to return as a long-term substitute teacher before he was officially rehired.

While still a teacher, he took part in a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the seniority system but led to changes that protect faculty at schools staffed primarily by young teachers. Later, he took part in a lawsuit seeking to end traditional teacher job protections — tenure as well as seniority. That effort prevailed at trial court but failed on appeal.

More recently, Melvoin worked for school-reform groups that promoted charter schools and favored limiting union influence. He signed up to be an L.A. Unified substitute teacher The L.A. school board race: Brutal, expensive and important - LA Times:

Big Education Ape: Wizard of Oz Lollipop Guild Gets Update for Trumplandia http://bit.ly/2pvRTAO