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

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

Celebrate Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

Lily Eskelsen Garcia Blasts DeVos and Trump at NEA convention

by dianeravitch / 0min

At the NEA representative Assembly in Boston, President Lily Eskelsen Garcia brought some 8,000 delegates to their feet as she denounced Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump for their abandonment of America’s most vulnerable children and 

The Bipartisan Establishment at Play in the Hamptons

1by dianeravitch / 29min

Who owns the world? The Establishment at play, as reported by Politico. Frenemies. “OUT AND ABOUT IN THE HAMPTONS — LALLY WEYMOUTH held her annual summer party last night at her house in Southampton. There was a 

Trump Tweet Threatens Violence to Journalists, Undermines First Amendment

3by dianeravitch / 30min

This morning, Trump tweeted an old video of himself pummeling a wrestler after the wrestler was thrown out of the ring. The wrestler taking Trump’s blows is labeled CNN. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 7/2/17, 9:21 AM 

Michael Hynes: Our Insane Obsession with Testing

by dianeravitch / 8min

Dr. Michael Hynes, superintendent of the schools in Patchogue-Medford on Long Island (New York) really knows what “whole child education” is. I wish he were advising Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, who throw the term around, as in 

The Absurdity of Applying Industrial Lingo to Schools

4by dianeravitch / 32min

I recently read a post by Larry Cuban about the difficulty of “scaling up successful reforms,” and I was reminded how much I dislike the application of industrial terminology to schooling. Larry offers some examples of successful 

Mike Klonsky: Most Schools in Chicago Violate Rights of ELL Students

1by dianeravitch / 14min

Mike Klonsky reports that most schools in Chicago are violating the right of English language learners to mandated services they need. The worst violators, naturally, were charter schools. Fifteen were run by the UNO Network of Charter 

D.C.: 100% of the Graduates of Struggling High School Accepted into College

1by dianeravitch / 47min

NPR reported that 100% of the graduates of a struggling high school are going to college. Usually, we hear this about charter schools, but they usually forget to tell you how many students dropped out before reaching 12th grade or graduation. Nor do they refer to test scores. Urban Academy in Chicago, for example, is celebrated in the media for getting 100% of its graduates into college but the s

James C. Wilson: The Intellectual Arrogance of So-Called Reformers

4by dianeravitch / 1h

James C. Wilson reflects here on the intellectual arrogance of people who know nothing about education but decide they should reinvent it. The list of the arrogant would include certain foundations and philanthropists, certain legislators and other elected officials, and a long list of sheltered think tanks. They all went to school so they think themselves qualified to redesign it. They never per

YESTERDAY

The Best Birthday Card of the Day

3by dianeravitch / 16h

I got this card from my friend Leonie Haimson. It reminded me of when I could move like the person on the card. Of course, there was also a great card from Cece Cunningham, with a picture of a gray-haired old lady with a gorgeous body, waist about 24″, in a bikini.. The card says, “Helen ran out of funds halfway through her extreme makeover.”

Why Is Trump Obsessed with Cable News?

10by dianeravitch / 19h

For the last few days, Trump has been obsessed with cable news stations, especially Morning Joe and CNN. This morning, he unleashed a tweet storm of rants against news stations. I am no fan of Joe and Mika because Morning Hoe has a long history of featuring critics of public schools and never inviting anyone who disagreed with them (like me). Whether it was Rhee or Klein or any other mouthpiece f

Good News! Our Friend Linda Weber Qualified to Run for Congress in New Jersey!

2by dianeravitch / 20h

Last night, I issued a last-minute appeal to help Linda Weber raise the last bit as f money she needed to qualify by midnight, only two-and-a-half-hours to go. She needed $1,100 to reach $120,000. She did it! You helped to put her over the top! Linda and Mark Weber thank you. I thank you. On to win the 7th Congressional District in New Jersey.

Courage or Madness: One of Most Amazing Stunts Ever

2by dianeravitch / 21h

This has nothing to do with education. It is a video of a man jumping from an airplane 25,000 feet high. He is not wearing a parachute. He has to land in a net almost five miles below the airplane. Why am I posting it? I have watched it many times. I have shown it to friends. It amazes me. I get a sense of awe. The courage. The madness. The determination. The fearlessness. Maybe it inspired me to

Robert Sternberg on the Scourge of Standardized Testing: Are We Producing a Society of “Smart Fools?”

15by dianeravitch / 22h

Robert Sternberg has studied intelligence for many years. In this interview by Scientific American, Sternberg decries the new era of standardized testing. At last weekend’s annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in Boston, Cornell University psychologist Robert Sternberg sounded an alarm about the influence of standardized tests on American society. Sternberg, who has s

I Recommend This Book: Richard Rothstein’s “The Color of Law”

10by dianeravitch / 23h

You know how sometimes you read a book and wish that everyone else would read it too? That’s the way I felt when I finished reading Richard Rothstein’s compelling new book, “The Color of Law.” I wished that every member of the Supreme Court would read it. Even Neil Gorsuch. I wished that every federal judge would read it. I hope you will read it. It is a major contribution to our understanding of

SomeDAM Poet: “The Midnight Blog of Diane Ravitch”

24by dianeravitch / 1d

Thank you, dear Poet. I blush. And I laughed out loud. “The Midnight Blog of Diane Ravitch” (apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Hear ye, my teachers, of techy wares The “teaching” inventions of billionaires Of testing and Cores Political whores And a blogger with passion who really cares She said to her friends, “If the billionaires roll By software or hard, from your towns tonight Hang a l

Good News: Chicago Public Schools Outperform Matched Schools Across Illinois!

9by dianeravitch / 1d

A new study reaches a very heartening conclusion. Despite all the brickbats hurled at the Chicago Public Schools over the past 30 years, student achievement in these schools is the best in the state, when compared to similar 

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

Happy fourth Sunday. | Fred Klonsky

Happy fourth Sunday. | Fred Klonsky:

Happy fourth Sunday.

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) has just placed a six-foot-tall sculpture outside Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago that says “REAL FAKE” in metallic gold, uppercase letters.

My drawings from this week’s blog:

Having lived and worked under a flawed system of school accountability institutionalized by the Bush administration in 2002, and wholly embraced by Rahm Emanuel when he took control of Chicago Public Schools in 2011, I find his latest backward decision regarding Chicago Police Department reform profoundly hypocritical. Mayor Emanuel’s rhetoric on school accountability is centered on one key concept: consequences.

As a teacher and principal in CPS under Rahm Emanuel, the “accountability and Happy fourth Sunday. | Fred Klonsky:

Dilemmas in Scaling Up “Successful” Reforms (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Dilemmas in Scaling Up “Successful” Reforms (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Dilemmas in Scaling Up “Successful” Reforms (Part 2)

For decades, under the influence of efficiency-minded policymakers the “wisdom” of reform has been as follows:

To solve serious school problems policymakers and philanthropists take “good” ideas, find the right people to implement them faithfully on a small scale (e.g., pilots, “demonstration” projects), and then, using positive results from independent research and evaluation, spread the results across a larger playing field to reach the most students. Rational and scientific, that is how reform should be done.

That policy “wisdom” on how best to “scale up” reforms has dominated reform for the past half-century. Often called research and development (“R & D”), the results, however, have been often  disappointing, and occasionally disastrous.  Unanticipated issues arose. Flaws in the original design went unaddressed. Faulty implementation occurred.  Teachers and principals tailored the design of the innovation to their settings. Unexpected consequences popped up. Insufficient resources were allocated. Educators lacked capabilities. The list of reasons documenting the failure of scaling up innovations from pilots to entire districts or states speak to the documented limits of R&D (see here and here).

I could easily cite instances between the 1950s through the 1980s (e.g., math and science “new” curricula, the self-esteem movement, school site decision-making, Effective Schools, outcome-based schooling) but won’t elaborate. These failures to alter districts, schools, and classrooms substantially and for extended periods of time have been well documented. This conventional wisdom of starting small and then scaling up reforms to larger populations–has anyone tried to scale up Socrates’ success with students?– continue as the dominant way of thinking about school reform in the face of disappointing evidence and outright failure.

The core dilemma that policymakers and donors face in “scaling up” is whether they are seeking faithful replication of the innovation–fidelity to the model–that Dilemmas in Scaling Up “Successful” Reforms (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: 

A Poem for Joan Kramer | Poetic Justice

A Poem for Joan Kramer | Poetic Justice:

A Poem for Joan Kramer

In memory of our friend and dearest warrior Joan Kramer – may we all fight the good fight till the very end.

Tribute to the Warriors

Dark, deceitful, dreadful
The war continues.

Hidden from the public
Children succumb to oblivion.

Masses are found naked
In the valley of corporate reform.

Masses of children
Stripped of their humanity.

Masses of teachers
Rendered voiceless and faceless.

Masses of parents
Left with no option but to escape the dark night
And cover their children with a blanket of compassion
That heals hearts, minds, and little bodies.

And in all the darkness
In the dreadful abandon of humane concern
In the deceit and lies that spew from media and our elected officials

There is a light

There is a voice

There is hope.

Only love can chase away the hate.
Only the light of truth can fight off the darkness.

That little voice is in each one of us
That little voice and that tiny ray of light
Can fight off the usurpers of our future hope.

So today – …
I encourage all of us to keep on fighting the war
To keep on telling the truth
To keep on exposing the lies that warp our understanding

Because

We will find each other one day
And we will unite together
And parents, teachers, professors, politicians, community leaders, pastors, shop owners, even the media will unite

And together we shall bring down
The evil Machiavellian Agenda
And we will win
The war against public education.

 A Poem for Joan Kramer | Poetic Justice: