It’s My Birthday So I Write What I Choose | Diane Ravitch's blog

It’s My Birthday So I Write What I Choose | Diane Ravitch's blog

It’s My Birthday So I Write What I Choose

That’s a joke headline. True that it’s my birthday but I write what I choose every day. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong, but I write what I choose. This is a freedom I gained when I realized that I’m free from ambition. At my exalted age (82), there is nothing to tempt me. I don’t yearn for a job or an appointment to anything. I don’t seek money. I have enough.

So I will share some hard-earned lessons.

Do what’s right and let the chips fall where they may.

Don’t worry if you have enemies. If you stand on principle, it will confuse some people and anger others. Don’t let the naysayers turn you round or intimidate you. In my case, they are paid to try. No one pays me, so that’s a source of freedom too.

Don’t be too certain. Listen and learn. Weigh the evidence. You might be wrong.

If you realize you are wrong, apologize and make it right. When you have made a mistake, don’t dig in. Admit it. Apologize.

It’s okay to change your mind when you learn new things. Emerson said that “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…”

Stand up for people who don’t have a voice. If you have a megaphone, as I do, share it. Use it to protect the weak and vulnerable.

Don’t be afraid. Illegitimi non Carborundum. It’s a fake Latin phrase but it makes sense.

During a global pandemic, wear a face mask. Only fools refuse to wear a mask to protect themselves and others. The Lone Ranger and Batman wore masks. Wonder Woman didn’t but she would have if it were necessary to save lives.

Read myths to your children and grandchildren. I read D’Aulaires’ myths to my children and grandchildren. Read the myths of many cultures to broaden your children’s understanding and appreciation of others and to see the oneness of humanity.

Read poetry. I have a long, long list of my favorite poets. I read poetry for solace and inspiration.

If life gives you lemons, you know what to do with them.

If you want to help me celebrate this milestone, make a donation to the Network for Public Education. That’s where it will do the most good. I don’t want for anything. I would like to get rid of every worldly possession except the clothes on my back, a change of clothes for the sake of hygiene, my cellphone, a few books, soap, and a toothbrush. After months without a haircut, I am tempted to shave my head. But I don’t have enough courage to be that bold. Maybe next year.

Woman, Know Your Place. I Don’t.

by dianeravitch / 47min

I saw this a long while ago and thought it was wonderful social satire. It reminded me just a little of myself after my college graduation in 1960, when women’s voices were devalued. That was before the feminist movement. I married right after I graduated college and aspired to be the perfect wife. I wasn’t very good at it but it took a long time to figure that out. I identified with the woman in

My Knee, and Why I Can Walk Again

by dianeravitch / 1h

Six years ago, I fell and broke my knee. That event changed my life in unexpected ways. For the first time in my life, I felt physically unsteady and vulnerable. My sense of invincibility disappeared. After a lifetime of bounding up and down stairs, I learned to hold onto a railing and watch my step. In April 2014, I was running to the postoffice on a Saturday, hoping to get there before it close

Maria Popova on Keith Haring, Art, Love and Courage

by dianeravitch / 2h

I chose to include this link on my birthday because it gave me an hour of aesthetic joy, following its links. Maria Popova is a Bulgarian-born polymath who lives in Brooklyn and reads voraciously with deep understanding and love of knowledge. On June 26, she wrote about the artist Keith Haring and his love of life and art, and how his art inspired her and others, and how his life demonstrated “th

It’s My Birthday So I Write What I Choose

by dianeravitch / 3h

That’s a joke headline. True that it’s my birthday but I write what I choose every day. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong, but I write what I choose. This is a freedom I gained when I realized that I’m free from ambition. At my exalted age (82), there is nothing to tempt me. I don’t yearn for a job or an appointment to anything. I don’t seek money. I have enough. So I will share some hard-

Dana Milbank: America Slides Back to the Medieval Era

47by dianeravitch / 16h

My favorite Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank summarizes where our “leaders” are in responding to the global pandemic. No wonder the EU won’t allow Americans to enter its borders. Sen. Rand Paul doesn’t much care what Anthony Fauci has to say. The Kentucky Republican gets his public health advice from Friedrich Hayek. Hayek, the Austrian-born economist and libertarian hero, died in 1992. But

Pastors for Texas Children Speaks Out Against the Espinoza Decision

35by dianeravitch / 17h

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states with private school scholarships must provide similar funding to religious schools. This was bizarre because the Montana Supreme Court had already banished the state’s private school scholarship program, which offered $150 to families that chose private schools and sought a state scholarship. So the state of Montana will not owe $150 to the Espinoza family.

Laura Chapman: The Espinoza Decision Was a Farce, Because It Was Moot!

72by dianeravitch / 21h

Our reader Laura Chapman read the Supreme Court decision in the Espinoza case, both the majority decision and the dissents . The majority decision said that if a state offers a scholarship program for private schools, it must include religious schools. The dissenters, Chapman noted, pointed out that the Montana Supreme Court had already invalidated the private scholarship program. So the case was

Randi’s Take on the Supreme Court Decision in Espinoza Case

63by dianeravitch / 21h

Randi Weingarten is not only president of the AFT, she is a lawyer. Below is her reaction to the Supreme Court ruling. She calls it a “seismic shock.” She sees the decision as one more step in the relentless rightwing effort to defund and privatize public schools. She thinks the decision set the stage for an even more radical decision, one that requires states to fund religious school tuition as

Biden Calls for Massive Federal Response to Pandemic

by dianeravitch / 22h

Joe Biden seems to be waging a vigorous front-porch campaign. The Washington Post reports : WILMINGTON, Del. – Joe Biden doesn’t just want to ensure that every person in this country gets free testing for the novel coronavirus. He wants their treatment covered, too, no matter whether or how they are insured. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also calls for adding $200 per month to t

California Charter Schools Collect Millions Intended for Small Businesses

26by dianeravitch / 1d

The Network for Public Education has been tracking the charter schools that collected from the federal Paycheck Protectiin Program intended to help small businesses struggling to survive. The charter schools have not had any budget cuts, have lost no money, have not been struggling to pay employees, but their lobbyists get them included as eligible for the PPP funding, although public schools are

Denver: Charter Schools Collected $16 Million in Federal Aid for Small Businesses

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Chalkbeat reports that charter schools in Denver collected $16 million from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, intended to help small businesses. Across the country, charters are collecting federal money intended to save small businesses faced with economic collapse. Public schools are not eligible to get money from this program. Charter schools also receive state and local funding earmarke

BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court Rules Against Montana Ban on Funding Religious Schools

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

The Supreme Court just released a 5-4 decision in the case of Espinoza V. Montana that struck down a provision in the state constitution banning public funds to religious schools. The decision seems to be narrowly tailored to say that if a state provides aid to private schools, it can’t bar aid to religious schools. I will post expert opinions on this as soon as they are available. The many right

Why Does the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Repeatedly Lie about Vouchers in Florida?

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

The Wall Street Journal editorial board has three core beliefs about education. 1. Public schools are horrible. 2. Teachers’ unions are evil. 3. Non-unionized charters and vouchers are the remedy to all that ails American education. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The three highest performing states in the nation—Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey—have strong teachers’ unions. None of the non-union

D.C.: Beloved Principal Fired Because She Resisted “No Excuses” Discipline

by dianeravitch / 1d

The Relay “Graduate School of Education” was created by charter schools to train charter school teachers on test-score-raising and no-excuses discipline, while using Doug Lemov’s Bible “Teach Like a Champion.” It’s teachers 

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Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns | janresseger

Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns | janresseger

Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns

Here we are at the beginning of July, and the COVID-19 numbers are soaring across many states. The recessionary collapse of state budgets makes public school funding look shaky, and nobody can quite say how to make school safe. With the 2020-21 school year expected to start in six weeks, school leaders face overwhelming uncertainty. It is easy to imagine that a well-known, free, online learning platform and curriculum, funded entirely by tech philanthropists, might be extremely tempting.

But there are reasons for caution. Last week, the Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss published a guest column from researchers at the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a guest column describing the Summit Learning Platform, and warning about some of the reasons for school district leaders to be cautious. These researchers, Alex Molnar and Faith Boninger, have documented serious concerns about protecting the privacy of student data collected by Summit Learning and its sponsors. To underscore the seriousness of their concerns, they describe the powerful people behind Summit Learning:

“Summit Public Schools, founded in 2003, currently operates 11 schools enrolling approximately 4,675 students in California and Washington State. In 2013-2014, there was no Summit Learning Program or ‘partner’ schools. Things changed quickly after a 2014-2015 agreement between Summit and Facebook established the goals of enhancing Summit’s self-created software platform and collaborating on a marketing strategy for its nationwide adoption. Since then, Summit Public Schools has received extensive technical support from Facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and almost $200 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Iniative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.”

Molnar and Boninger review Summit’s marketing claims: “Summit Public Schools claims that its educational program does an exceptional job of preparing students for college and that its graduates succeed in college. Its specific claims are that its students are ‘100 percent Eligible CONTINUE READING: Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns | janresseger

NYC Educator: Schools Don't Need No Stinking Air Flitration

NYC Educator: Schools Don't Need No Stinking Air Flitration

Schools Don't Need No Stinking Air Filtration

But malls do, according to Governor Cuomo. You see, shoppers need fine air. They can't go around breathing deadly toxins. After all, how is that going to positively influence the economy? No, the sick and the dead are simply not adequate consumers.

What do they buy? No, they are just a suck on the economy, lying around in hospital beds and using expensive ventilators. Next, they'll be asking Jared to use his private stock of American ventilators that aren't for state use. Perhaps Cuomo sees students and teachers the same way as sick and dead consumers--a drag on the economy.

HEPA filters aren't just things from expensive vacuum cleaners. They actually reduce the presence of Covid 19 in the air. So you just know that these consumers will be returning to JC Penney to buy yet another 39-dollar polyester Cricketeer suit when the next wedding comes around in 2022 or so.

New Jersey isn't requiring this because it's, well, New Jersey. But Cuomo is really concerned about NY malls, among other things. He's also worried about the way people fail to comply with social distancing and mask wearing. That's a valid concern. Every day I walk out and see people with no masks. I see them in outdoor bars and restaurants. I see employees who can't be bothered pulling the masks over their noses.

And hey, in a country where the President of the United States doesn't wear a mask, where people will fight Walmart greeters rather than comply, a country where some people think it's their basic constitutional right to spread their germs everywhere, it's a concern. There are an awful lot of people who won't comply.

Among them are almost certainly our students. Young people are remarkably social, and with terrible adult role models everywhere I go, I don't envision them respecting social distancing, let alone masks. Of course it won't likely be them getting sick. It will more likely be the adults with whom they come into contact. That would be their parents, CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Schools Don't Need No Stinking Air Flitration

With Pass-Fail, What’s the Point of Grades? (Jack Schneider) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

With Pass-Fail, What’s the Point of Grades? (Jack Schneider) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

With Pass-Fail, What’s the Point of Grades? (Jack Schneider)

This opinion column appeared in New York Times, June 25, 2020

Jack Schneider (@Edu_Historian), an assistant professor of leadership in education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is the director of research for the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment.

In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, countless colleges and universities shifted from to A-F grades to a pass/fail system. As officials at Wellesley College explained, the general aim in doing so is to “support one another without being required to make judgments.”

Many K-12 school districts have done the same. From Palo Alto, Calif., to Wake County, N.C., local officials have concluded that now is not the time for grades. As teachers in Wisconsin’s Madison Metropolitan School District declared, “We cannot grade with equity when students’ experiences learning at home will be so varied.” And it’s not yet clear that most schools that have made this switch will fully return to letter grades in the fall.

But not everyone is happy with this outcome.

Some parents and activists are anxious that, without grades, students won’t receive adequate feedback on their work. Others worry that altering or eliminating the traditional grading scale will undermine student motivation and reward slacking off. As one Oregon parent pointedly asked in one of many online petitions pushing for the reinstatement of letter grades, “How do I explain to my child that has great grades that she should keep working hard when anything that is D- and above will still ‘pass’? This is ridiculous.” A similar but separate CONTINUE READING: With Pass-Fail, What’s the Point of Grades? (Jack Schneider) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Fraud at Sweetwater Maybe but Unlikely | tultican

Fraud at Sweetwater Maybe but Unlikely | tultican

Fraud at Sweetwater Maybe but Unlikely

By Thomas Ultican 7/1/2020

For the past week, local San Diego TV and Print media have been filled with damning headlines like the NBC affiliate’s, “Audit of Sweetwater Union High School District Finds Evidence of Fraud” or the online publication Voice of San Diego’s “Audit Finds Sweetwater Officials Deliberately Manipulated Finances.” Every local news outlet published this story with some version of these headlines.

On Monday June 23, the Fiscal Crisis Management Assist Team (FCMAT) presented the results of its long awaited audit of Sweetwater Union High School District’s (SUHSD) finances. The report authors state,

“Based on the findings in this report, there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that fraud, misappropriation of funds and/or assets, or other illegal fiscal practices may have occurred in the specific areas reviewed.”

How Did SUHSD Arrive Here?

For Sweetwater, this is really a continuation of a course set by corrupt leadership a decade earlier. It is also emblematic of the financial stress all California school district are facing. Kristen Taketa reporting for the San Diego Union noted in November 2018:

“At least 10 districts in the county are projecting that they will not be able to meet their financial commitments next school year, including Chula Vista Elementary, Jamul-Dulzura Union, Mountain Empire Unified, Oceanside Unified, San Diego Unified, San Marcos Unified, San Ysidro, Sweetwater and Vista Unified. More districts won’t be able to meet their financial commitments after next year.”

Three factors are mainly responsible for these growing financial stresses. The CONTINUE READING: Fraud at Sweetwater Maybe but Unlikely | tultican

Mr G. for District 3 ----------------- Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Let's talk about the issues, libraries.

Mr G. for District 3 ----------------- Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Let's talk abut the issues, libraries.

Let's talk about the issues, libraries.

I am going to do a series on the issues and I wanted to talk briefly about libraries.

For a district with a reading problem it did not make any sense to get rid of the libraries but we did we sure did.

This may have started under Pratt-Dannals but it really escalated under Vitti, but here is the thing, Vitti has been gone for going on 4 years now and libraries still have not made a come back.

Vitti was slick too, with a wink he said well I gave schools an option a test coordinator or a librarian but the fix was in because Vitti didn't appreciate libraries or librarians and I don't know if it was because he was dyslexic or he did some cost benefit ratio and decided schools needed another defacto administrator or something else but he decimated the librarian corp. This despite lots of evidence pointing to how valuable they are.

From Phi Delta Kappan,

Since 1992, a growing body of research known as the school library impact studies has consistently shown positive correlations between high-quality library programs and student achievement (Gretes, 2013; Scholastic, 2016). Data from more than 34 statewide studies suggest that students tend to earn better standardized test scores in schools that have strong library programs. Further, when administrators, teachers, and librarians themselves rated the importance and frequency of various library practices associated with CONTINUE READING: Mr G. for District 3 ----------------- Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Let's talk about the issues, libraries.

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Gun crazy!

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Gun crazy!

Gun crazy!

Gun sales are skyrocketing around the country including in the Chicago area. A mainly white racist fear/rage response to Trump's looming election loss, government's pandemic "mask-wearing tyranny," BLM protests, and threatened defunding or disbanding of police is driving long lines at gun shops around the country.

In Illinois, for example, from June 1 to June 17, there were more than 42,000 applications for cards to legally possess a firearm, compared with about 7,000 during the same time last year, a 501% increase, according to the Illinois State Police.

Sturm, Ruger stock shares are at their highest level since before Trump was elected; Smith & Wesson’s stock is at a 19-month high. 

Smith & Wesson Brands Inc.’s stock SWBI, 5.33% ran up 10.1%, to the highest close since September 2018. The firearm maker’s shares have hiked up 42.2% over the past 4 sessions and have powered up 61.5% year to date. -- Market Watch

White panic-buying is overwhelming local gun shop owners. Check out this post from this firearms dealer in the Chicago burbs. 

The image of this white couple "protecting" their wealthy gated community could well become  Trump's re-election poster.

This on top of gun threats and actual shootings of peaceful protesters could presage a new level of Trump-inspired, right-wing violence. In Louisville, Ky., a man opened fire from the edge of a Breonna Taylor killing protest area in a park Saturday night, and a 27-year-old photographer was killed. Some bystanders in the park fired back, injuring the shooter, according to a police  CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Gun crazy!

Grassroots Education Network- June 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- June 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- June 2020 Newsletter

The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of 150 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. 

If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Education Network please contact Marla Kilfoyle, NPE Grassroots Education Network Liaison at marlakilfoyle@networkforpubliceducation.org

Notes from Marla

In states where groups were working on or posting guidelines for reopening, I provided the link. I hope that this serves as a resource for you should you need it regarding reopening schools in your state. Also in this newsletter you will see many powerful statements on the murder of George Floyd and calls for racial justice. Finally, NPE is hard at work tracking charter schools that are taking Payroll Protection Program money from the COVID stimulus relief funds. This money is meant for small business owners to pay their staff and to help them stay afloat. Charters, like public schools, already have a stream of money, and some charters also have wealthy donors who give them money as well.  We hope that you will continue to share the NPE Alert to address this issue with Congress and articles that we share. And let me know if you find a charter school taking PPP in your area. 

National Organizing

The Network for Public Education issued a statement on the murder of George Floyd. Defending the Early Years will be holding their conference on a virtual platform this summer (July 21-24). There will be amazing ECE panelists with a Q & A after each discussion. You can register here. DEY has published a series of videos to help our youngest children, and their families, navigate the COVID crisis. DEY issued a statement this month in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the Public Interest shared a series of articles that show charter schools are taking crisis aid meant for small businesses. The Journey for Justice Alliance podcast On The Ground, hosted by Jitu Brown, airs every Monday at 6 PM CST. J4J has also postponed their annual conference. Go here for more information. Journey for Justice held a press conference this month to stand with a family in Chicago that were victims of police brutality. Finally J4J will be  releasing a draft for a Quality of Life Agenda for Black communities on July 4th. Fairtest joined parents and students in suing the College Board for failures on computerized AP exams. Head to their website for updates. Fairtest publishes a newsletter each week about the misuses and flaws of standardized testing. They are a valuable resource and clearinghouse for everything testing and test reform. Fairtest has published a list of test-optional universities and colleges. Rethinking Schools published valuable resources for police-free schools. The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy blog publishes powerful essays about student privacy.  At the end of last month, Joel Schwarz published an article about the concern that parents in Montgomery County, Maryland have about their children’s privacy on Zoom and Google. Parents for Public Schools National Executive Director Joann Mickens issued a CONTINUE READING: Grassroots Education Network- June 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

With A Brooklyn Accent: Small Town and Suburban Racism Doesn't Cut it On College Teams or in Many Portions of the Workforce

With A Brooklyn Accent: Small Town and Suburban Racism Doesn't Cut it On College Teams or in Many Portions of the Workforce

 Small Town and Suburban Racism Doesn't Cut it On College Teams or in Many Portions of the Workforce

One of the things that the Trump loving, Confederate flag waving racial epithet spouting white folks in small town America need to realize is that they are compromising the futures of their most talented young people

This fall at least five white athletes as schools ranging from Cornell to Marquette to Oregon State have been kicked off college teams when Instagram posts filled with white supremacist rhetoric that they made while still in high school were uncovered.

Openly racist language common at family dinners, house parties, and in locker rooms in all white towns and suburbs doesn't cut it when you go to college or enter the workplace, or even if you join the military. It can not only get your ass kicked if your Black teammates hear it, it can get you kicked off a team, deprived of a scholarship, or get you kicked out of school.

The proliferation of racist and white supremacist imagery and activity in the US is not only going to come back to haunt the people engaging it- getting them fired from their jobs if they unleash it in public places, it is going to compromise their children's futures.

This is a multiracial country becoming more so every day and the last gasp of militant whiteness is not going to end well for the people promoting it and spreading it READ With A Brooklyn Accent: http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/