How do we make changes in public education that will transcend the model of education that is so entrenched in many of our schools? There are no easy answers. Many people outside of the education profession believe we need to do more of the same, for more hours, using the efficiencies that technology affords that process to somehow make it better. Instruct, measure, adjust….repeat—Simple formula. The ed-reform story made popular today is centered on what is measured in American schools and how it does not equal what is measured elsewhere. Current reform-minded-thinking espouses that those who staff our institutions are the problem. Teachers cannot (or will not) instruct, students do not get what they need, measurement results are comparatively poor. As a result, pop-reformers want to take the obsolete transaction of
"CPS policies have destabilized schools in our community," said Jeanette Taylor, a parent leader with the Kenwood group whose children attend Mollison and Robinson schools, both of which have been on academic probation for several years. "We're all fighting together. They aren't closing any more schools until they do right by us." -- Chicago TribuneResistance is building to Rahm Emanuel's latest school-closing plan. The plan -- which in effect is a school privatization plan -- calls for the closing of neighborhood schools and replacing many of them with privately-managed, non-union, charter schools. Many of Chicago's community-based organizations are organizing and
November 23, 2011 - I am an admitted sympathizer with the Occupy movement. Recently individuals set up tents on the sidewalk outside the school district headquarters. I said to Peggy, my wife of 40 years, “Load up the Prius while I get the tent.” Then it occurred to me, I had already taken the most important step to “Occupy LAUSD," I was successfully elected to be an educational leader at the Los Angeles Unified School District. To the surprise of many, I defeated a better-funded opponent, giving me and others concerned with the fate of public education in our community great hope.
Everyday, I am working to support public education and the children of our community. I am a warrior against the status quo. We are in a battle against a well-funded opposition interested in privatizing education that has millions to spend promoting an Orwellian doublespeak that claims reform as their own and paints those who have actually worked in a classroom as defenders of the status quo.
Fellow activist Sue Peters of Seattle described the sorry situation we find ourselves in saying, “the status quo is currently a
Chris Ogren, 20, a junior studying acting and American sign language at New York University, stands outside a student building after a meeting with the financial aid office. (Photo by Nick Pandolfo)
Chris Ogren stands in a frustrated hunch at a window of New York University’s financial aid office, where he’s come for the fifth time in two days to sort out a problem with his $45,000 worth of student loans.
It gives him little comfort to learn that U.S. universities and colleges are handing $5.3 billion in financial aid this year to students who the government says don’t need it, according to new figures from the College Board, while
The Occupy Revolution is clearly a force to be reckoned with in our culture. Even at this early stage the battle lines are being drawn. Many cities are resisting this new people-powered movement, as it feels threatening to status quo politicians and the 1%, so influential in the current political climate. This in spite of the glaring corruption and inequality of the old system.
Disorganized and still finding our footing, we nonetheless have already proven our value. The political discourse is being framed differently, big banks and huge financial entities are beginning to understand that their power may not be limitless. Corporations are learning that their grip on global culture may not be as firm as imagined. Most importantly, we are finding our voices and our power, and connecting in new ways with each passing moment.
Here in Cincinnati, we face challenges similar to other occupations. Our
OAKLAND, California – During #OccupyOakland’s take on Thanksgiving, called Day of Gratitude, porta-potties were delivered to Oscar Grant Plaza. Police intercepted the truck carrying them in and refused the porta-potties from being unloaded. Subsequently, as occupiers confronted the police, and the police reacted by arresting a few of the occupiers.
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Clockwise from upper left: Elizabeth Warren, Wael Ghonim, Diane Ravitch and Ray Lewis
Admittedly, I spend a lot of time grousing and naysaying. Today, though, we put that negativity briefly aside, as we celebrate a day of thoughtful reflection, and a night without a GOP presidential debate. I thought it appropriate, on the occasion of Thanksgiving, to thank some of the people who’ve worked to make the country and the world a better place over the least 12 months.
Thanks to Wall Street Occupier Jesse LaGreca, who didn’t only show up the Fox reporter sent to embarrass occupiers, but also managed to get the OWS message across on a Sunday political chat show, which is essentially unheard of. So thanks to you, for bringing up economic justice to the ancient panel of crusty establishmentarians on
Here in Florida, RTTT is known as SB6/SB736 … It is an unfunded mandate:
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It requires testing four times a year at a ridiculous cost, but provides no money to local districts to develop or validate tests.
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It also promises merit pay in trade for teacher continuing contracts, but provides no funds for merit pay.
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And, worse, it requires states to remove the cap off charter schools.
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It sets up failure and privatization at the same
One distraction that Michelle Rhee could do without as she evangelizes around the country for school reform is any whiff of a cheating scandal in the public-school system she led in Washington, D.C.
But that topic is very much alive, thanks to an ongoing investigation by federal officials and the D.C. inspector general into unusual erasures on tests and student academic gains that seemed too good to be true—but that Rhee insists were real
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On the D.C. cheating suspicions, Rhee walks a tricky line: while welcoming the investigation requested by her successor, she admits to no mistake in her own failure to seek that probe when she was chancellor. Rhee departed the District a year ago.
“Were there more steps that could have been taken? Sure. But I feel very, very
One distraction that Michelle Rhee could do without as she evangelizes around the country for school reform is any whiff of a cheating scandal in the public-school system she led in Washington, D.C.
But that topic is very much alive, thanks to an ongoing investigation by federal officials and the D.C. inspector general into unusual erasures on tests and student academic gains that seemed too good to be true—but that Rhee insists were real.
Now head of her own advocacy organization, StudentsFirst, Rhee says she
