LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-12-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

HOW TO JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

 

by dianerav

As a result of many comments on this blog, and in response to a great yearning to raise our voices, many teachers, parents, students, administrators and concerned citizens plan to join together in a mass letter-writing campaign to the President.
We want all letters submitted here to this blog or to Anthony Cody no later than October 17.
You may write to the White House directly, and the mail address is in the instructions link. But if you do, you will be required to disclose your identity in full. Knowing that many educators are fearful these days, you may send Anthony and me your letter without disclosing your name.
Please add as much detail as possible about your concerns. Be clear. Be specific.

“We Don’t Have Time”

by dianerav

How many times have you heard a leader of the reform privatization movement say,

“We don’t have time.”

“The kids can’t wait.”

This reader from Montgomery County, Maryland, which has the nation’s best teacher evaluation system (it does not rely on test scores but on professional judgment) writes:

Why the Free Market Cannot Reform Public Schools

by dianerav

We previously read an article claiming that for-profit entrepreneurs are necessary to reform American schools. The article began, in its original version, with a vulgar and gratuitous insult directed at Anthony Cody.
Here are two great responses. The first is by Anthony Cody.
The other is by Audrey Watters.

Which Schools Ignore the Tests?

by dianerav

I asked earlier if there were districts that still manage to offer a full curriculum despite the federal mandates. Where are the good things happening. There were many good responses. These are some of the most provocative:
Response #1:
In California, there are over 1,000 separate school districts. Each reflects a different community. Districts that have access to wealthy constituents have been successful at raising new money to hire staff and maintain 

Ms. Katie Writes President Obama

by dianerav

Katie Osgood, who teaches children in a psychiatric hospital in Illinois, has some good suggestions for President Obama.
You should read her letter to President Obama.

Reform=Disrespect? Reform=Privatization?

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman has developed an equation: reform=disrespect.
Another way to put it: these so-called revormers don’t like democracy.
He detects a growing opposition to the top-down methods of the privatizers.
Something is happening in Jersey, and the rest of the country: slowly, a groundswell of opposition is building against the corporate reform agenda. People are starting to resent the idea that a California billionaire like Eli 

Join the Campaign for Our Public Schools

by dianerav

Please write a letter or email to President Obama and share your concerns about the future of our schools. be sure to send it to Anthony Cody or me so we can add your voice to the whole.
The instructions on where to send your letter or email are here. Be sure oe of us gets a copy.

How to Become a Successful Charter

by dianerav

Here is an interesting and curious coincidence.
Edushyster reported the list of schools in Massachusetts with the highest suspension rate.
Most of them were charter schools.
The school with the highest suspension rate in the state of Massachusetts is Roxbury Prep. This charter school 

Joel Klein’s False History, by Richard Rothstein

by dianerav

In a stunning article, Richard Rothstein has dissected Joel Klein’s claim to have grown up in poverty, living in a public housing project, saved by a “great” teacher.
This story is used cynically by Klein and other advocates of privatization to attack public education, teachers and unions. (Wasn’t that great teacher a member of the union in NYC?).
Rothstein says that Klein was not poor, that he actually lived in a public housing project built for white middle-

I Will Be in Chicago on Monday

by dianerav

I speak at City Club breakfast on Monday at 7:30 at Maggiano’s.
At 11:30 at Create assessment and accountability conference at University of Illinois at 11:30 am. Will post location.
At 4, speaking to CTU teachers at 4 pm at Lane Technical High School.

BREAKING NEWS: J.C. Brizard Is Out in Chicago

by dianerav

Just reported.
Chicago schools chief J.C. Brizard resigns.
He will be replaced by deputy Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who previously served as superintendent in Cleveland and as deputy to Robert Bobb in Detroit.

Come to Chicago City Club Monday at 7:30 AM

by dianerav

I’ll be speaking at the Chicago City Club this Monday at 7:30 am.
I hope you can be there.
Comment Tickets are available here https://www.cityclub-chicago.org/events/event_registration/event_info.asp?event_id=805

Teacher: Am I Playing in the Band on the Titanic?

by dianerav

This teacher wrote a great letter to President Obama. I hope you will write one also, and send it to my colleague anthony_cody@hotmail.com
October 6, 2012
Dear President Obama: I Feel As Though I’m Playing In The Band On The Titanic
My part in the presidential letter writing campaign this October.
The Titanic was a behemoth that was too large for its time. It could not change course to avoid obstacles due to its massive size, yet this juggernaut was capable of 24 knots (about 28 mph to us land-bound souls). Despite 

The voters don’t like Quinn and Madigan or Emanuel. All approaching Blago approval levels. « Fred Klonsky

The voters don’t like Quinn and Madigan or Emanuel. All approaching Blago approval levels. « Fred Klonsky:

The voters don’t like Quinn and Madigan or Emanuel. All approaching Blago approval levels.

by Fred Klonsky

Democratic Party Chairman and House Speaker Michael Madigan prefers to keep a low public profile.
But to know him is not to love him, according to the latest Chicago Tribune polls.
He has a 16% approval rating state-wide.
That’s about the level of support when Governor Blagojevich was indicted and impeached.
Governor Pat Quinn is doing only somewhat better, although he is more widely known. The public’s alienation of affection with the Governor can be more closely tied to the fact that he has proven to be the most anti-labor

Ten minute drawing. JC Brizard.

by Fred Klonsky

 

Daily Kos: Lance Armstrong: All-American Bull$#!@

Daily Kos: Lance Armstrong: All-American Bull$#!@:

Lance Armstrong: All-American Bull$#!@

by rss@dailykos.com (plthomasEdD)

DISCLAIMER AND SPOILER: If you are a Lance Armstrong advocate, please relax and read on. This isn't really about Lance, but it is about you, and you, and you, and the good ol' U.S. of A.
In August, The Onion ran a brilliant faux-news story on the increasingly discredited Tour de France champion:"Lance Armstrong Lets Down Single Person Who Still Believed Him."
On October 10, 2012, the USADA released a staggering report on not just Armstrong, but essentially every recognizable American cyclist during Armstrong's reign as the king of the Tour de France. Throughout the decades of charges of doping against Armstrong, the humor in The Onion article has been factually discredited since Armstrong supporters have remained undeterred by evidence of any kind regarding his use of PEDs. With the USADA release, the same pattern has occurred on Facebook and other social media with droves of people 

School Tech Connect: Bye Bye, Now

School Tech Connect: Bye Bye, Now:

Bye Bye, Now

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

I never met Mr. Brizard, and it looks like I may never get the chance. However, the revolving door to his office is a symptom of the basic lack of democratic legitimacy in the governance of our public schools.

The thing needs to be run by an executive who reports to a fully elected, representative school board. The individuals on that board should be accountable to voters, not to one man who isn't honest about his agenda.

All The Young Experts

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

It's the busy season, so I got nuthin' tonight.

Except possibly, the saddest Twitter stream ever. These young guys who haven't actually had jobs where they had to, you know, do something--- they wind up in these right wing cells when they should be out getting experience at a job. Instead they become these total experts in everything.

Reminds me of a guy in Michigan. Except this guy comes right out and calls himself a liberty warrior.

A quick scan of his Linked In indicates a conspicuous absence of any activity related to being an actual warrior.

Modern School: Parents Want Kids That Are Clean, Not Smart

Modern School: Parents Want Kids That Are Clean, Not Smart:

Parents Want Kids That Are Clean, Not Smart

by Michael Dunn

A recent survey conducted through the Intel Corporation found that parents are more comfortable talking with their kids about drugs than about science and math.

Of course this may be due more to their own ignorance or fear of science and math than to a desire to keep their kids ignorant. Indeed, the data suggest this is part of the problem. According to the survey, 53% of parents admit that they have trouble helping their children with math and science homework. 23% said their lack of knowledge of these subjects was a barrier to helping their children and 26% said they would be more involved if there was a clearing house or similar resource for refreshing their memory on the subjects.

Yet parents are often ignorant and scared of drugs and that does not keep them from talking to their kids about this subject, sometimes with disastrous results. According to Wired Magazine, which covered the story, parents find it easier to talk about drugs because it is “vague” and you 

Fisher v Texas Update « Student Activism

Fisher v Texas Update « Student Activism:

Fisher v Texas Update

by Angus Johnston

The transcript of Wednesday’s oral argument was released that afternoon, and it’s fascinating reading. So fascinating, in fact, that I think I’m going to make a project of writing about it next week — a series of posts excerpting and discussing the most interesting exchanges.
In the meantime, I wanted to just highlight a couple of things.
First, the justices were clearly paying attention to the “standing” issue — the question of whether Abigail Fisher has a case she’s properly situated to bring before the Court. You can’t just decide to sue the government because you don’t like something they did. (If you could, everybody would be suing all the time, and the court system would collapse.) You have to show that you’ve been harmed in a way that the courts can fix, and the standards for what kinds of harm count in which circumstances are narrow and complicated.
I’ll go into this in a little more detail next week, but given the way I broke down the case’s possible outcomes in my last post, it’s worth underscoring that the Supremes may just rule that Fisher wasn’t harmed, or can’t be 

Step Right Up: Build or buy a charter school, get a Green Card… - Wait, What?

Step Right Up: Build or buy a charter school, get a Green Card… - Wait, What?:

Step Right Up: Build or buy a charter school, get a Green Card…

by jonpelto

Stephanie Simon, of Reuters News, has written extensively about the “education reform” movement, including articles about Connecticut’s new “reform” law.

Today, the news is that wealthy individuals from China and other countries are, “spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools.”

Simon provides a number of examples, including a new charter school in Buffalo, New York, a sixth campus for an Arizona charter school chain and a foreign investment program in Florida charter schools that is attracting up to $90 million dollars a year.

For half a million dollars, foreign investors can buy themselves and their families a set of 

Last bipartisan legislative call for a resignation – was about John Rowland.

by jonpelto

Categories: Board of Regents, Human Services, Public Employees, SEBAC Tags: Board of Regents, Higher Education, Malloy, Mike Meotti The latest development in the “Regent-gate” situation was the press conference yesterday afternoon in which the Democratic and Republican leaders of the General Assembly’s Higher Education Committee demanded the resignation of Robert Kennedy, the President of the Board of Regents for Higher Education. Meanwhile Kennedy continued to apologize and claim that he had mistakenly authorized [...]

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Brizard was never more than Rahm's front man

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Brizard was never more than Rahm's front man:

Brizard was never more than Rahm's front man

by Mike Klonsky

What we all knew months ago is now official. Jean-Claude ("Don't call me a puppet") Brizard is out. Barbara Byrd-Bennett is in. 

It was all so predictable. J.C. Brizard was never anything more than Rahm's front man. Just another of those itinerant, what-do-you-want-me-to-do-boss, bureaucrats who moves from job to job every couple of years collecting a fat pay check and a golden parachute. If he's Arne-Duncan lucky, he may even be primed for a political career and go to Washington to play in the big leagues at the DOE.

But unlike his non-educator predecessors, Duncan and Huberman (who was brought over from the police department and then the CTA to City Hall's education department for two years)  Brizard was what my 

Overusing test for special ed students inflates API scores | EdSource Today

Overusing test for special ed students inflates API scores | EdSource Today:

Overusing test for special ed students inflates API scores

October 11th, 2012 | Add a Comment | 
By Doug McRae

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Doug McRae

California’s 2012 Academic Performance Index (API) results, released Thursday, in general show small but steady gains similar to the last four years. But a deeper look at the results shows not only inflation contributing to the gains but also a substantial policy shift toward lower expectations for special education students in California.

The API trend data inflation is due to the introduction of a new test for special education students over the past five years: the California Modified Assessments, or CMAs. These tests were introduced to give selected students greater “access” to the statewide testing system, by making tests easier than the regular California Standards Tests (CSTs) given to all other students. When the CMAs were approved in 2007, the plan was that roughly 2 percent of total enrollment (or about 20 percent of special education enrollment) would qualify to take CMAs instead of CSTs. A major criterion for taking a CMA rather than a CST was that a special education student had to score Far Below Basic or 

California test results on the up and up – partly - by Kathy Baron and John Fensterwald

by Kathy Baron and John Fensterwald

California’s public schools continued to show gains on the Academic Performance Index (API), a measure of how well students do on the California Standards Tests and, in high school, on the exit exam. For the first time since the testing program began in 1999, a majority of schools reached or exceeded the state’s target of 800 on the index. Results of the spring 2012 exams, released yesterday by...

History Literacy Failing Among American Students | toteachornototeach

History Literacy Failing Among American Students | toteachornototeach:

History Literacy Failing Among American Students

by aristotlethewise

History Literacy Failing Among American Students, 
Study Faults Colleges Lack Of Core Subject Requirements 

A recent study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni titled “What Will They Learn?” graded 1,070 colleges and universities on the strength of their general education curriculum — as determined by the number of core subjects outside a major they require students to take in order to graduate. Those seven core subjects include composition, U.S. government or history, economics, literature, college-level math, science and intermediate-level foreign language.
According to the Patriot-News, schools that required students to take at least six of the seven core courses received an “A” grade, four or five of the subjects earned a “B,” three a “C,” two a “D” and one subject, an “F.” For purposes of the study, core subjects listed as electives but not required did not count.
The paper reports that based on the trustees and alumni council’s grading system, only 21 colleges and universities nationwide earned an “A.” Additionally, the two core subjects most often required are composition 

Ed Notes Online: Brizard Out: Substance Has the Scoop a Month Ago

Ed Notes Online: Brizard Out: Substance Has the Scoop a Month Ago:

Brizard Out: Substance Has the Scoop a Month Ago

by ed notes online

Another Broad Superintendent

John Lawhead is kind enough to remind us:

Substance reported that Barbara Byrd Bennett would replace JC Brizard over a month ago in George Schmidt's amusing 'race to the elevator' piece.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3573

Eat your heart out Russo, who complained at the time that George had an advantage because he was in the building and able to get the Byrd Bennett photo. Russo of course reports on Chicago from Brooklyn - but claims 

Join MORE in its Quest

by ed notes online

I hope you read the post by NYCEducator on Unity Caucus along with the comments. Read the Unity C defender and the responses (including mine). And add yours.Really, right now is there an alternative to MORE which is in the early stages of building positive alternative leadership (PAL) to Unity? Unless you support Unity policies (contrast to Chicago) how can you stay away?

I've had little internet access except through my phone. I'm in the Lisbon airport waiting for a flight to Madrid where we catch the plane home. If we make the tight connection after a 2-week trip to Portugal I will be home in time to attend the Oct MORE meeting tomorroe where I hope to see a rousing endorsement of the top 5 candidates on the MORE slate running against Unity and who knows whatever else pops up in the election?
I'm excited at the progress MORE, which didn't have a name until this past May, has been making with very few

Sleight of Hand: Joel Klein’s Misleading Autobiography that Corrupts our Education Policy

by ed notes online

“Sleight of Hand” describes Joel Klein’s father, a federal postal employee who passed a civil service exam and later retired with a secure federal pension; and his mother, a bookkeeper. The Klein family income was about at the national median income, perhaps much higher. The public housing project in which young Joel lived was almost all white and attractively landscaped.---Richard Rothstein

When I and Joel had our hug when he announced he was leaving the DOE it was based on a blog post I wrote that we both came from similar backgrounds and had some similar history -- before he went bad. Basically, as 

VP Debate: Education Insiders Wait To Hear Whether Paul Ryan Sides With His Own Budget

VP Debate: Education Insiders Wait To Hear Whether Paul Ryan Sides With His Own Budget:

VP Debate: Education Insiders Wait To Hear Whether Paul Ryan Sides With His Own Budget

by Joy Resmovits

Mitt Romney shocked education insiders during the presidential debate last week when he promised not to cut education spending. Now, they're wondering if education will come up at Thursday night's vice presidential debate, and if so, whether GOP nominee Paul Ryan will reaffirm that promise -- at the risk of contradicting his own budget proposal.

Last week, after President Barack Obama pressed Romney on education spending -- and after countless advertisements attacking Romney on education cuts -- Romney made his pledge, marking his first specific remark on education spending: "I'm not going to cut education funding," he said. "I don't have any plan to cut education funding and grants that go to people going to college."

But the budget proposal produced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that has since been passed by the House of 

Chicago Teachers Strike Contract Leaves Education Issues Unresolved

by Joy Resmovits

CHICAGO -- Every Sunday, CEO of Chicago Public Schools Jean-Claude Brizard takes his 2-year-old son to breakfast. It's a "sacred" ritual, Brizard emphasizes, because "he doesn't get much daddy time." But one Sunday in the beginning of September, he felt too sick to his stomach to take his son out.

A few months earlier, members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) had voted to give union leadership the authority to call a strike. Under Brizard and Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), teachers said they felt alienated, a circumstance triggered by Emanuel yanking their scheduled raise and aggravated by his ballbusting rhetoric -- once remarking, for example, that teachers' raises meant students "got the shaft." That Sunday, Sept. 9, marked the final deadline CTU had set for announcing a potential walkout. So instead of going out, Brizard 

Emanuel: Brizard stepping down, Byrd-Bennett next CEO | catalyst-chicago.org

Emanuel: Brizard stepping down, Byrd-Bennett next CEO | catalyst-chicago.org:

Emanuel: Brizard stepping down, Byrd-Bennett next CEO

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By: The Staff of Catalyst / October 11, 2012

Tags: CPS administration

going, going, gone

Just after midnight, Jean-Claude Brizard sent out a statement, confirming that he will leave the helm of Chicago Public Schools. He said he does so with "great sadness."

Brizard's departure was the subject of much speculation for several months. That speculation reached a fever pitch in late August when The Chicago Tribune reported that Emanuel was preparing to usher Brizard out. Emanuel denied the report and pledged his support of Brizard.

During the teacher's strike that followed, Brizard was absent from negotiations. And one bizarre day, his resignation was announced at a rally, spurring Brizard to send out an e-mail, declaring that he was still on the job. 

Problems inside Brizard's administration were evident as several high-level hires left during his short tenure. However, some wonder how Emanuel, who seemed to be sending marching orders to Brizard, could blame him for the district's failings. 

Brizard reportedly will be replaced by Barbara Byrd-Bennett, former schools leader 

Engaging Parents In School… » Sacramento Bee Calls On CA PTA To Contain Molly Munger

Engaging Parents In School… » Sacramento Bee Calls On CA PTA To Contain Molly Munger:

Sacramento Bee Calls On CA PTA To Contain Molly Munger

by Larry Ferlazzo

The campaign to fund or, in Molly Munger’s case, de-fund public education in California continues.
Here are some excerpts from today’s Sacramento Bee’s editorial:
The California PTA and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson are the most prominent supporters of Munger’s Proposition 38. On Wednesday, Torlakson called on Munger to cease the attack. The PTA ought to do the same. If she continues, they ought to consider dropping their support for Proposition 38…
This murder-suicide will help no one, least of all the kids both sides claim to want to help.
What was Munger’s response this afternoon?
Tax proponent Molly Munger said Thursday she plans to fund her Proposition 38 efforts up to Election Day and