Anyway Up or Down Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Anyway Up or Down Diane Ravitch's blog 

A site to discuss better education for all

Betsy DeVos’s Speech to the Far-Right ALEC Organization

by dianeravitch / 6min

Delve into the mind of Betsy DeVos. She is the first Secretary of Education ever to address the American Legislative Exchange Council, the secretive far-right organization funded by the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, and major corporations, with the intent of getting rid of unions, standards for teachers, environmental regulations, and anything that gets in the way of corporations. Here is the

Jeannie Kaplan: Denver Activists Mobilized to Say a Loud NO to DeVos, Corporate Greed, and Privatization

2by dianeravitch / 49min

Jeannie Kaplan, who served on the Denver school board for two terms, has been a sharp critic of the district’s devotion to charters and high-stakes testing. She has documented time and again that ten years of “reform” has produced nothing 

Denver: Protestors Slam DeVos Before Her ALEC Speech

6by dianeravitch / 33min

NPR wrote about the protest awaiting Betsy DeVos in Denver. Apparently she is speaking today, although that fact is on neither the ALEC agenda nor the Department of Education website. She is the first Secretary of Education to 

Bill Moyers’ Website on Trump’s Nutty Interview

1by dianeravitch / 22min

Other news outlets focused on Trump’s regret about appointing Jeff Sessions. Or his slap at Rod Rosenstein, Comey and others. But this is what Moyers’ website loved: “If you’ve been away from the news for the past 18 hours or so, the New York Times interview in which Trump rages against Jeff Sessions, Jim Comey, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and maybe the White House

Arthur Goldstein Refutes Attack on Teachers by Campbell Brown and WSJ

1by dianeravitch / 1h

Arthur Goldstein teaches English language learners at Frabis Lewis High School in New York City. In this post, he refutes attacks on teachers by Campbell Brown and the Wall Street Journal. New York City has something called the Absent 

Kansas: Court Hammers State Lawyers Over Latest School Funding Plan

1by dianeravitch / 25min

The great puzzle in Kansas is how the State got such a thoughtful Supreme Court, one that actually cares about education. Kansas is in a deep budget hole because Governor Sam Brownback cut taxes repeatedly, in the belief that low 

Indiana Legislators Don’t Care About Negative Results of Vouchers

2by dianeravitch / 15min

Indiana finally got a research study of its voucher program, and the results were lackluster at best. The study showed that students who used vouchers saw their scores go down; after a few years, those who persisted caught up with their 

Florida: Palm Beach Post Urges School Board to Join the Lawsuit Against Horrendous HB 7069

1by dianeravitch / 32min

Florida parents and educators opposed HB 7069, a bill which hurts public schools and enriches charter schools (private contractor schools), but the legislature didn’t listen. (Key legislators have financial ties to the charter industry.) They urged Governor Rick Scott to veto it but he didn’t listen. Now school boards, led by the one in Broward County, are suing to block the law and have it decla

Afghan Girls at Robotics Competition: “This Is the Way the World Should Be”

4by dianeravitch / 1h

The Afghan girls’ robotics team had difficulties entering the United State (ya know, they might be terrorists) but when they finally arrived at the international competition in Washington , they stole the show. Their robot was named “Better Idea of Afghan Girls.” ““I am so happy and so tired,” Alireza Mehraban, an Afghan software engineer who is the team’s mentor, said after the competition concl

Gary Sasso: Why Don’t the Billionaires Help the Schools That Most Children Attend?

18by dianeravitch / 2h

Gary Sasso, dean of education at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, asks a simple question : if billionaires like Bill Gates and Eli Broad care about our nation’s future, why don’t they help the public schools, which enroll 85% of America’s children? Sasso wrote in Salon: “Obscured by the rancor of the school reform debate is this fact: Socio-economic status is the most relevant determinant of st

A Wonderful Story to Add to Our Knowledge of African-American History

3by dianeravitch / 3h

S. Allen Counter led an eventful life. He was a pathbreaking neurologist at Harvard Medical School. His life’s passion, however, was to bring deserved recognition to the life and achievements of Matthew Henson, the explorer who traveled with Admiral Robert Peary to the North Pole. “S. Allen Counter, a Harvard neurobiologist and explorer who reclaimed the reputation of Matthew A. Henson, a black e

YESTERDAY

NYC Public School Parent Translates Nicholas Kristof on Bridge International Academies

15by dianeravitch / 22h

Nicholas Kristof wrote an article defending Bridge International Academies’ for-profit schools in Africa. I disagreed with him here. He responded on Twitter by saying, if you want to judge, go visit a government school. His article asserted that when government doesn’t do its job, private enterprise should step in. A reader calling him/herself “NYC Public School Parent” distilled Kristof’s argume

Steven Singer: Learn about Education by Reading Teacher-Written Blogs, Not Corporate Media

30by dianeravitch / 23h

Steven Singer says that anyone in search of understanding education today should turn to teacher-written blogs, not the corporate media. The teachers know what they are talking about. The corporate media, with a few exceptions, recycles the talking points of their corporate owners. He begins by explaining that everyone has a perspective, even though they seem to be objective: “Let’s get one thing

A Letter to Secretary DeVos from a Special Normal Public School Student

35by dianeravitch / 1d

Stuart Egan teaches high school in North Carolina. His son Malcolm was born with Down Syndrome. He is in third grade in public school and is thriving. Stuart helped Malcolm compose this letter to Secretary Betsy DeVos. Malcolm wonders if she cares about kids like him. The letter starts like this: “Dear Secretary DeVos, “My name is Malcolm and I just finished third-grade in the Winston-Salem/Forsy

Charter Allies Pouring Money into Cuomo Re-Election Campaign

18by dianeravitch / 1d

It’s no secret that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo would like to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president. But first he must be re-elected in New York in 2018. He has already stockpiled more than $25 million, which will intimidate potential challengers. The 1% are on board with Cuomo. Read about his fundraising cocktail party in the Hamptons at a home that cost $147 million. Among his biggest

Jim Hightower: The Plutocrats’ Scheme to Eliminate Public Education

31by dianeravitch / 1d

Jim Hightower pulls no punches as he eviscerates the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos, and other plutocrats who want to privatize public education. He writes in Salon: “While the Koch brothers have stayed out of the national limelight since the White House was acquired by Trump and Company, that doesn’t mean the two right-wing billionaire brats are any less active in trying to supplant American democra

Betsy DeVos and ALEC: Perfect Together

13by dianeravitch / 1d

Education Week reports that Betsy DeVos and ALEC are natural partners. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos—an ardent school choice supporter who has turned out to be among the Trump administration’s most polarizing cabinet picks—will deliver a speech this week to members of a controversial organization that some argue is her best shot at advancing an aggressive school choice agenda. The Ameri

How to Help Arizona Ward Off Voucher Expansion

11by dianeravitch / 1d

Go to SOS Arizona to learn how to volunteer to gather signatures to stop vouchers. http://sosarizona.org/volunteer Join the campaign here: http://sosarizona.org/pages/110 SOS Arizona has a Facebook page: 

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

Sacramento News & Review - Dale Allender, co-editor of the high school ethnic studies textbook Our Stories in Our Voices

Sacramento News & Review - Dale Allender, co-editor of the high school ethnic studies textbook Our Stories in Our Voices - 15 Minutes - Opinions - July 20, 2017:

Dale Allender, co-editor of the high school ethnic studies textbook Our Stories in Our Voices

The Sacramento State University assistant professor discusses the important of letting diverse groups speak for themselves

Dale Allender’s home was built by a Japanese internment survivor. It hosted the Black Lives Matter Sacramento Freedom School reception. It’s also where Sacramento State professors, high school teachers, legislative aides and activists crafted the state’s—likely the country’s—first high school ethnic studies textbook. That process began after a Sacramento City Unified School District survey found students were concerned about interethnic student violence and an education that lacked cultural relevance. Allender, a Sac State assistant professor, co-edited the textbook with the university’s Asian American studies program director, Gregory E. Mark. Our Stories in Our Voices weaves together rich local histories from perspectives of people of color. In the wake of police shootings, a divisive election and ongoing racist violence, Allender hopes more schools join in: “If it can happen here, maybe it can happen elsewhere,” he said.

When did you first learn about ethnic studies?

In elementary school. A nonprofit gave me a child’s dictionary of mythology. I went to 12 different schools and would always go into the libraries and look for more mythology. I began to see Greek mythology, and if I was lucky, Native American, but I kept wondering where mine were. I didn’t find it until I took black lit classes in college.

Why is ethnic studies important?

The brain works by going from the familiar to the unfamiliar. … Hearing stories of what people have done—for survival, for thriving, for cultural sustenance—it should inspire folks to understand that they don’t have to live in a colonial structure, whatever their background. They can form coalitions. … Let’s give folks the narratives, information and activities to deconstruct and reconstruct their world. That’s really what we’re doing.

Does ethnic studies change with privilege?

We’re talking about empathy. There’s a biological basis for that. Another neuroscience principle is Neural Darwinism. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Unless you really work with those neurons and that mindset, you have limited capacity. One goal of ethnic studies is a sense of indigeneity. That everyone has a sense that, “I come from somewhere.” You should also have a sense of understanding hegemony: That what we experience isn’t the natural order of things; it’s human-constructed with power and purpose toward an Sacramento News & Review - Dale Allender, co-editor of the high school ethnic studies textbook Our Stories in Our Voices - 15 Minutes - Opinions - July 20, 2017:

 

Betsy DeVos' Latest Speech Draws Protests, Even Before She Speaks : NPR Ed : NPR

Betsy DeVos' Latest Speech Draws Protests, Even Before She Speaks : NPR Ed : NPR:

Betsy DeVos' Latest Speech Draws Protests, Even Before She Speaks

Hundreds of protesters hold signs and chant at a rally in front of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is scheduled to deliver a speech to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which backs school choice policies coast to coast.

Ann Marie Awad/CPR

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is speaking to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, on Thursday in Denver, but protests from left-wing activists and teacher groups started Wednesday.

Hundreds marched from the state Capitol in Denver to the Hyatt Regency, the site of the speech, with signs reading: "Dump Betsy DeVos," "Take Devouchers Elsewhere" and "Stop School Privatization!"

DeVos' speeches have drawn notable protests before, as when she gave the commencement address at a historically black college. This time, her entire policy agenda is at issue. Ties between the DeVos family and ALEC go back decades. And there is barely any daylight between ALEC's education policies and the ones DeVos has advanced in her role as secretary.

Inez Feltscher, director of ALEC's education policy work, tells NPR Ed that DeVos "has been a wonderful champion for school choice both before and after becoming secretary of education, and advancing educational choice is one of the key issues we work on here at ALEC."

Every year ALEC brings together state legislators, free-market conservative lobbyist groups and corporate sponsors. Currently listed on the "leadership" page of its website are executives from the insurance, pharmaceutical, energy and telecom industries, as well as Don Lee, a former Republican legislator from Colorado turned head lobbyist for the for-profit online education company K12 Inc.

Together, these groups collaborate on model legislation. ALEC has a track record of getting the laws that it writes on the books in dozens of states with few changes.

"We see the same pieces of legislation being proposed in state, after state, after state," says Julie Underwood, an endowed chair in education policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has been investigating ALEC's actions in education for the past five years. She has tracked versions of ALEC bills through public records in state libraries.

In education, says Underwood, ALEC backs "vouchers, vouchers, vouchers," with variants such as education tax credits and tax-credit scholarships. They have written policies that make it easier to open charter schools, and to run for-profit and virtual Betsy DeVos' Latest Speech Draws Protests, Even Before She Speaks : NPR Ed : NPR:

Oklahoma teacher reduced to panhandling for supplies as GOP cuts ravage school budget

Oklahoma teacher reduced to panhandling for supplies as GOP cuts ravage school budget:

Oklahoma teacher reduced to panhandling for supplies as GOP cuts ravage school budget

Tulsa, OK third grade teacher has taken to begging for money on the side of the road to buy her students the school supplies they need thanks to cuts to the state education budget.

Tulsa’s Fox News 23 said that Teresa Danks has spent years paying for school supplies out of her own paycheck. Now she is asking the public for help and calling attention to the struggle facing the state’s teachers, who have watched their annual budgets get smaller and smaller.

Danks says each year she typically spends $2,000 to $3,000 of her $35,000 salary on materials for the classroom. Oklahoma ranks near the bottom, nationally, on teacher salaries.

“It all adds up week after week and month after month,” Danks said. “So, it’s a huge need.”

She told Fox 23 that she hopes other teachers will join her in the effort to bring awareness to the fact that state legislators are slowly starving the education system to death with relentless cutbacks.

She also urged people nationwide to donate to their local schools, saying that many teachers like herself are in similar situations.Oklahoma teacher reduced to panhandling for supplies as GOP cuts ravage school budget:

Watch video about this story, embedded below:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Owes ALEC for Promoting Her Anti-Public Education Agenda | janresseger

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Owes ALEC for Promoting Her Anti-Public Education Agenda | janresseger:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Owes ALEC for Promoting Her Anti-Public Education Agenda

Today in Denver, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will deliver the lunchtime keynote address at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Last year, right after the Republican Convention in Cleveland, Mikc Pence, then-Governor of Indiana and then-nominee for Vice President, went home to Indianapolis to deliver a keynote address at last year’s annual meeting of ALEC. What this means is that key people serving in the Trump administration are political extremists. We know that, of course, but it isn’t bad to stop and really take in the meaning of who’s in charge.

Esteemed education policy writers David Berliner and Gene Glass trace the history of ALEC: “In 1971 one Lewis F. Powell, Jr., a lawyer and member of 11 corporate boards, sent to the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce what has come to be known as the Powell Manifesto. (Powell was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court within a year of his having transmitted his manifesto.) In brief, Powell urged conservatives to adopt an aggressive stance toward the federal government, to seek to influence legislation in the interest of corporations, and to enlist like-minded scholars in an attack on liberal social critics… (T)he Powell Manifesto influenced the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute… and other powerful organizations… The Powell Manifesto spawned the powerful American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Formed in 1973, just 2 years after the Powell declaration, ALEC has been without question the most powerful influence on education policy in the United States during the past 3 decades.” (50 Myths and Lies that Threaten America’s Public Schools, pp. 7-8)

It is primarily state policy and funding under the fifty state constitutions, not federal policy, that shapes public schools. ALEC is the far-right’s tool for influencing state government.  For forty years, ALEC has been the operation turning the agenda of corporations and far-right think tanks into the bills that are introduced in state legislatures across the country. It is a Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Owes ALEC for Promoting Her Anti-Public Education Agenda | janresseger:

With A Brooklyn Accent: A Crime Against History: A Crime Against The Bronx: The Demolition of St Augustine RC Church

With A Brooklyn Accent: A Crime Against History: A Crime Against The Bronx: The Demolition of St Augustine RC Church:

A Crime Against History: A Crime Against The Bronx: The Demolition of St Augustine RC Church

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

Joni Mitchell

Today, as i was taking Fordham College Dean Maura Mast on a tour of the Morrisania neighborhood, one of the sites I had planned to show her was St. Augustine RC Church, once site of a vibrant predominantly Black parish in that community, and a place where I had once celebrated mass with people from its sister church in New Orleans shortly following Hurricana Katrina. I knew the parish had been closed, but wanted to show Dean Mast the building and explain some of the parish's noble history of serving African Americans in the Bronx largest Black community. But when I drove by the site of the church on Franklin Avenue and 167th Street, what I saw filled me with anguish and rage.

THERE WAS NO CHURCH THERE!

The church had been knocked down and an apartment building- and an ugly one at that- was being erected in its place.

How did that happen? Why did it happen? Why did people allow a beautiful building, first erected in 1853 through pennies saved by German immigrants and which, in another era,became a cultural as well as spiritual home for the Bronx's Black Catholics, get With A Brooklyn Accent: A Crime Against History: A Crime Against The Bronx: The Demolition of St Augustine RC Church:

NYC Educator: Wolf in Bernie Sanders' Clothing

NYC Educator: Wolf in Bernie Sanders' Clothing:

NYC Educator: Wolf in Bernie Sanders' Clothing

The Post pointed out that our good buddy Andrew Cuomo is taking a ton of cash from charters, and that's public record. Of course that's not the image Cuomo has been pushing lately. He's our good buddy, I hear at the DA. He's making nice.

Now it would be nice if we could take credit for that and say that Public School Proud caused a complete turnaround. I have to say, though, that opt-out, which we've failed to support, is a big factor. Parent activists kept their kids home from Cuomo's stupid tests in droves. They forced him to put off counting the tests for their kids. In fact, some of them didn't even count against teachers in Cuomo's junk-science based evaluation system. But not all of them, as all high school teachers know. 

Not only that, but he just came up with a program under which NY residents can go to college tuition-free, under certain circumstances. You have to live here for a while, and you have to make it through on time, and a whole lot of people don't do that, but there you are. It's a whole lot better than nothing, which was the previous plan.

He's also standing up on health care. He's very much against the GOP plan to dump Obamacare, give a tax break to the uber-rich, and screw tens of millions of Americans, New Yorkers included. Oddly, like UFT leadership, he doesn't mention Trump by name. This is in stark contrast to Bill de Blasio, who seems to be running a winning campaign against Donald Trump. No one even seems to know who his opponents are.

After Hillary managed to lose the Presidential election to the least popular politician in human history, Governor Andy had to rethink his image. After all, he started out by saying he would go after unions. Now, as we face Janus and some serious survival issues, he's moving to make union dues completely tax-deductible.

Governor Andy has presided over two education laws that affect us all. Every teacher in New York City is dancing around the Danielson Rubric and NYC Educator: Wolf in Bernie Sanders' Clothing:

ECOT Kicks Off Latest Enrollment Marketing Campaign

ECOT Kicks Off Latest Enrollment Marketing Campaign:

ECOT Kicks Off Latest Enrollment Marketing Campaign

Ohio’s kids will head back to school in about a month.  Stores have already swapped the sunscreen and pool floaties out of their seasonal sections.  Now it’s all backpacks and school supplies.

Families are enjoying their last few weeks at the pool, finishing up summer sports seasons, and not-so-secretly looking forward to using “sorry, it’s a school night” as an excuse to send their kids to bed early.

It’s also time for another back-to-school season tradition.

This week The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), Ohio’s behemoth online charter school, started its yearly push to poach students from traditional public schools through a slick, emotional marketing campaign.

Like previous ads, this latest one features actual ECOT students to make the pitch that kids should ditch their existing public school in favor of ECOT.  Because, you know, regular schools have all those stupid rules and requirements… like showing up for class for more than an hour a day.

ECOT Ad Screenshot

Also… free computer!

The ad kicks off with multiple students reading from a well-crafted script: “We are the rebels, the outsiders… those who dare to be different.”

The new ad then goes into full-on political defense mode: “so we know what it’s like when someone tries to stop you from ECOT Kicks Off Latest Enrollment Marketing Campaign:

I'M SHOCKED BROADIE tapped to lead troubled Inglewood schools | 89.3 KPCC

Audio: LA Unified administrator tapped to lead troubled Inglewood schools | 89.3 KPCC:

LA Unified administrator tapped to lead troubled Inglewood schools

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced on Wednesday that he’s picked long-time local educator Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana as the new trustee for the troubled Inglewood Unified School District.

Melendez de Santa Ana currently leads the Los Angeles Unified School District's Office of Educational Services. She previously has advised Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on education issues and served as superintendent of the school districts in Pomona and Santa Ana.

That experience brings “great leadership experience [and] great experience managing challenging districts and being creative,” Torlakson said.

Inglewood Unified’s school board and superintendent were stripped of their decision-making authority in 2012 when they requested a $55 million loan from the state to avoid bankruptcy. The district’s financial troubles were brought on by a combination of mismanagement and a state fiscal crisis.

Since then, the state-run district has also been plagued by leadership turnover: Melendez de Santa Ana will be the district’s fifth trustee in five years. 

Previous trustees, Torlakson said, have moved Inglewood's budget out of a deep red zone – though the district continues to face financial challenges caused as families have fled the district. Now, Melendez de Santa Ana's charge is to boost the district's dwindling enrollment numbers and lagging academic performance. 

“She’s well aware of all of the challenges, including our goals to improve academic outcomes and to give parents choices so they want to stay in the Inglewood school district,” Torlakson said.

The most recent state trustee, Vince Matthews, left in March – a year and a half after his appointment – to accept the position of superintendent of San Francisco schools. He was unable to stem the student enrollment drop that’s been plaguing the school district for years. According to the California Department of Education, student enrollment at Inglewood schools has dropped 12 percent in the last five years, that’s three times the percentage of L.A. County’s drop in the same time period.

Student enrollment dropped nearly 600 students in the most recent year. That represents about $6 million in lost state funding. 

In her new job, Melendez de Santa Ana may also oversee layoffs. A June, 2017 letter Audio: LA Unified administrator tapped to lead troubled Inglewood schools | 89.3 KPCC:

Badass Teachers Association: Test-Based Accountability – Smokescreen for Cowardly Politicians and Unscrupulous Corporations by Steven Singer

Badass Teachers Association: Test-Based Accountability – Smokescreen for Cowardly Politicians and Unscrupulous Corporations by Steven Singer:

Test-Based Accountability – Smokescreen for Cowardly Politicians and Unscrupulous Corporations 

by Steven Singer

Originally posted at: https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/test-based-accountability-smokescreen-for-cowardly-politicians-and-unscrupulous-corporations/

There is no single education policy more harmful than test-based accountability.

The idea goes like this: We need to make sure public schools actually teach children, and the best way to do that is with high stakes standardized testing.

It starts from the assumption that the problems with our school system are all service-based. Individual schools or districts are not providing quality services. Teachers and administrators are either screwing up or don’t care enough to do the job.

But this is untrue. In reality, most of our problems are resource-based. From the get-go, schools and districts get inequitable resources with which to work.

This is not a guess. This is not a theory. It is demonstrable. It has been demonstrated. It is a fact.

No one even disputes it.

What is in question is its importance.

However, any lack of intention or ability on the part of schools to Badass Teachers Association: Test-Based Accountability – Smokescreen for Cowardly Politicians and Unscrupulous Corporations by Steven Singer: