LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-1-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Mercedes Schneider: Programs Driven by Ideology and Profits, Not Evidence

Mercedes Schneider argues that corporate reform is driven by ideology and greed, not evidence or the pursuit of better education. She looks at the recent NCTQ report, which had no evidence for its large claims, and at vouchers and course choice in Louisiana. Vouchers have failed, but their champions won’t admit it. Course choice is ll about dollars, nothing more. Without big money on offer, she w

by dianerav / 9min 

The Insanity of Florida’s School Grades

A reader posted this comment: “In Gainesville a school called Einstein Montessori received an “F.” It is a charter school specifically created for children with reading disabilities. They gave the children with reading disabilities and their teachers an F because they didn’t do well enough on a reading test!!! It is insanity and dispicable! Parents must be the ones to make this stop!!!”

by dianerav / 8min 

Tony Bennett Resigns

Despite the excuses for his actions, despite the efforts by his friends to defend him, despite the fact that the Fordham Institute named him “the reformiest reformer” in 2011 for his full-throated support of testing and privatization, Tony Bennett resigned today as Florida superintendent of education. He resigned because of the email trail showing he manipulated Indiana’s opaque A-F grading syste

by dianerav / 3min 

Stotsky: Why I Oppose Common Core

Sandra Stotsky was in charge of developing the outstanding academic curriculum frameworks in Massachusetts in the 1990s. She served on one of the committees that participated in the shaping of he Common Core. She certainly believes in standards and testing. She is now one of the most outspoken critics of Common Core. In this article, she explains why. She believes that the insistence on one-size-f

by dianerav / 37min 

InBloom Loses Another Site

Politico’ Morning Education Blog reports a setback for inBloom. Notice the come-on: free now, not later: INBLOOM OFF THE ROSE? — Another state has pulled out of using the Gates Foundation’s $100 million technology service project, inBloom. The withdrawal further shrinks the project after other states pulled out in part because of concern about protecting students’ privacy. Guilford County, N.C. to

by dianerav / 37min 

Jan Resseger: The Debate About NCLB

Jan Resseger, one of our most articulate and passionate advocates for public education, has started her own blog. She lives in Ohio, which is one of the states where the privatization movement is moving fast to take money from public schools and transfer it into private hands. Please consider following her blog. Here are her reflections on the the Republican proposal to reauthorize No Child Left B

by dianerav / 7min 

Tennessee Parents Create Facebook Page “Remove Kevin Huffman”

A group of Tennessee moms created a brilliant Facebook page calling for the removal of Kevin Huffman, the state education commissioner. The site is vivid, graphic, and highly charged with the fury of really angry moms. One entry points out that Huffman likes to say that Kentucky does better than Tennessee, even though both have the same level of poverty. So the moms produced a comparison graph sho

by dianerav / 1h mark as read  //  save

My Friend, Karen Lewis

I never heard of Karen Lewis until she was elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union as an upstart in September 2010, overturning the established leadership. I was intrigued and decided that I wanted to meet this woman. As it happened, I had a speaking engagement in Detroit in late September and was supposed to fly from Detroit to Los Angeles. When i visited Chicago in the spring of 2010 to

by dianerav / 1h  

Diane in the Evening 7-31-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Walton Foundation Gives $20 Million to TFAThe most reactionary and anti-union of the major foundations–the billionaire Walton Family Foundation–has awarded $20 million to Teach for America to send bright, ill-prepared new college graduates into the nation’s classrooms. The largest contingent –700–will go to Los Angeles. That city h

by mike simpson / 9h

UPDATE: Ohio Looking To Repeal Common Core Perdido Street School: What The Common Core/Danielson Rubric Has Been Devised To Produce

Perdido Street School: What The Common Core/Danielson Rubric Has Been Devised To Produce:

Ohio Looking To Repeal Common Core

And so the repeal CCFS movement rolls on:Just weeks before Ohio children return to school, conservative lawmakers introduced a last-minute bill yesterday to block new and more-rigorous curriculum guidelines championed by governors and education leaders. Opponents of the Common Core standards hope to throw the brakes on what they fear is a federal takeover of education. Rep. Andrew Thompson, R-Mari

by reality-based edu... / 59min 

What The Common Core/Danielson Rubric Has Been Devised To Produce

“The most deadly criticism one could make of modern civilization is that apart from its man-made crises and catastrophes, is not humanly interesting. . . . In the end, such a civilization can produce only a mass man: incapable of spontaneous, self-directed activities: at best patient, docile, disciplined to monotonous work to an almost pathetic degree. . . . Ultimately such a society produces only two groups of men: the conditioners and the conditioned, the active and passive barbarians.” —Lewis Mumford, 1951

This statement is taken from a larger piece on mental illness and the dehumanization of American society in Salon.

I couldn't help but think of the Common Core/Danielson juggernaut as I read this piece:

Underlying many of psychiatry’s nearly 400 diagnoses is the experience of helplessness, hopelessness, passivity, boredom, fear, isolation, and dehumanization—culminating in a loss of autonomy and community-connectedness. Do 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core: The Ultimate "Nudging" in Education. This "Nudging" Extends to other Federal Agencies.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core: The Ultimate "Nudging" in Education. This "Nudging" Extends to other Federal Agencies.:

Common Core: The Ultimate "Nudging" in Education. This "Nudging" Extends to other Federal Agencies.

 

Do you want to take this Common Core trip?  Unfortunately, this isn't a comedy that you can walk away from.

The Missouri Commissioner of Education in her Race to the Top 2009 application was either

• a visionary
• a follower of a governmental blueprint
• a travel agent booking an exotic trip 

Why am I so concerned about Common Core standards and want others to know what is in store for their children and local school districts?  I read Missouri's first Race to the Top proposal in which our commissioner praised Cass Sunstein's book "Nudge".  She highlighted its importance in her educational vision for Missouri schools.  Her vision created fear and dread that has stayed with me the last 3 1/2 years.  From Remember Missouri's Education Commissioner's Love for Cass Sunstein?: 

Who could forget Commissioner Chris Nicastro's admiration of Cass Sunstein as noted in Missouri's first Race to the Top application?  From ed.gov and the Missouri application(pg 9):

Core Student Learning and Outcomes Goals

The Race to the Top has provided an unprecedented opportunity for Missouri to bring its citizens together, to identify common goals and to develop a plan for a decade of educational reform designed 

Chinese Third Graders Fall Behind U.S. Students (The Onion)* | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Chinese Third Graders Fall Behind U.S. Students (The Onion)* | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Chinese Third Graders Fall Behind U.S. Students (The Onion)*

CHESTNUT HILL, MA—According to an alarming new report published Wednesday by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, third-graders in China are beginning to lag behind U.S. high school students in math and science.

The study, based on exam scores from thousands of students in 63 participating countries, confirmed that in mathematical and scientific literacy, American students from the ages of 14 to 18 have now actually pulled slightly ahead of their 8-year-old Chinese counterparts.

“This is certainly a wake-up call for China,” said Dr. Michael Fornasier, an IEA senior fellow and coauthor of the report. “The test results unfortunately indicate that education standards in China have slipped to the extent that pre-teens are struggling to rank among even the average American high school student.”

“Simply put, how can these third-graders be expected to eventually compete in the global marketplace if they’re only receiving the equivalent of a U.S. high 

Common Core Confusion – ASCD Edition | InterACT

Common Core Confusion – ASCD Edition | InterACT:

Common Core Confusion – ASCD Edition

MARCH 26, 2011

tags: ASCD, ccss, common core, Hales, jago, RttT

by David B. Cohen

At the ASCD Convention this afternoon, Brenda Hales of the Utah Department of Education gave a presentation titled, “Rolling Out the Common Core Standards.”  It’s a topic that I’ve been wrestling with recently, and about which I wrote a recent blog post.  I’m not convinced that the common core standards are necessary, and not convinced that they will lead to good outcomes.

But then, even setting aside concerns about the necessity or effectiveness of these standards, I’m deeply, deeply skeptical that, with politicians in charge, we have much chance of avoiding the worst possible abuses of the standards.  The potential for narrowed curriculum and punitive ratings and rankings is all too real, and the huge amounts of money that will flow away from classrooms and schools should concern any school stakeholder, or tax payer.

Brenda Hales said all the right things for someone in her position.  The Common Core Standards isnot a national requirement.  It’s not a national curriculum.  It will help ensure that students in all (participating) states meet the same high standards for college and career readiness, which will… help us win the future!  (No – she didn’t really say that; her exact words were “America’s future and the economy depend on it”).

From my vantage point, Hales is offering a distinction without a difference, for most of us in schools.  Nearly every state has signed on to the Common Core Standards, the textbook 

UPDATE: Villanueva-Beard Strikes Back + Fat (Lie) Tuesday | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Fat (Lie) Tuesday | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Villanueva-Beard Strikes Back

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called ‘TFA co-CEOs vs. The Boogeyman’ in which I challenged Elisa Villanueva-Beard’s frequent use of the term ‘status quo’ to define people who are opposed to unproven theories of the corporate reformers, many of them TFA alumni.  I wrote that this was an unfair, and untrue, phrase since there really isn’t anyone who doesn’t want anything in education to change.  If

by Gary Rubinstein / 29min

Fat (Lie) Tuesday

by Gary Rubinstein

Yesterday, there was some exciting news out of New Orleans.  I learned about it from a tweet by TFA co-CEO Elisa Villanueva-Beard.

Now I’ve written before about The New Orleans ‘Miracle.’  They generally have a way of twisting whatever numbers they get into something that they can celebrate.  In this case, I read the article from the Times-Picayune with the impressive headline ‘Louisiana students earn most Advanced Placement credits in state’s history’  This was also reported on New Orleans channel 8 website KNOE.

In that KNOE report it begins:

Governor Bobby Jindal and State Superintendent John White announced that the number of college credits earned on Advanced Placement (AP) exams has increased by more than 1,000 credits or 25 percent over the past year—the greatest individual increase in state history. Louisiana high school students scored high enough to earn college credit on 5,144 AP exams in 2013.

The credits earned by students who scored a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP exams are transferable to nearly any college in the nation, and Louisiana leads the country in growth of number of exams taken. 10,529 students took the AP exam in 2013, which is 4,000 more students than last year.

Oh boy.  Instantly I was able

California committed to move forward with Common Core tests as planned | EdSource Today

California committed to move forward with Common Core tests as planned | EdSource Today:

California committed to move forward with Common Core tests as planned

August 1st, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By John Fensterwald

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California appears poised to move ahead with plans to roll out computerized testing aligned to Common Core standards in 2015. Image from Flickr

Georgia last week became the fifth state to pull out of the nationwide efforts to create the same tests for the new Common Core standards. Indiana is in the process of withdrawing, Florida lawmakers have serious misgivings, notwithstanding full support of former Gov. Jeb Bush, and other states are indicating they may go their own way over concerns of cost and curricular independence.

California is not one of the doubters. The Legislature appears poised to pass legislation this month reaffirming the start of student testing aligned to the Common Core standards in spring 2015. The inclusion of $1.25 billion in the state budget for districts to prepare for the new standards has added momentum for moving ahead.

California is the largest and most critical state in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, one of two state collaboratives preparing assessments in Common Core standards in math and English language arts under a $360 million federal grant. So far, with the exception of Utah, which pulled out earlier this year, Smarter Balanced has remained intact with 22 governing states, although there are rumblings in Michigan, the consortium’s second largest state. Its legislature has voted to ban spending money on the tests, although it may reconsider that decision this fall. Otherwise, the withdrawals have been from the other consortium, PARCC, the Partnership for 

8-1-13 Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics

Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics:

You call it laws, we call it technicalities or guideline or rules or whatever…

Categories: Corporate Welfare Economic Development Freedom of Information MalloyTags: Corporate WelfareEconomic DevelopmentFreedom of InformationMalloyIn the never-ending saga know as, “laws are for normal people” or “those laws are just technicalities” comes news that, “A state economic development agency that approved nearly $37 million in total aid to businesses in 2011 and 2012 failed to give

by jonpelto / 11min 

Connecticut’s Governor and elected officials play: “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”

Categories: Connecticut General Assembly CT Voices for Children Malloy State Budget State Debt State DeficitTags: Connecticut General AssemblyCT Voice for ChildrenMalloyState BudgetState DebtState DeficitDuring the last gubernatorial campaign, each side claimed that they had a deeper commitment to fiscal responsibility and government transparency.  Now more than two and a half years later we are

by jonpelto / 11min 

The attack on Bridgeport BOE member Bobby Simmons’ integrity says more about his attackers…

Categories: Bobby Simmons Bridgeport Kenneth Moales Mayor Bill Finch Paul VallasTags: Bobby SimmonsBridgeportKenneth MoalesKenneth Moales Jr.Mayor Bill FinchPaul VallasYesterday, Bridgeport Board of Education Bobby Simmons had an incredibly powerful commentary piece published in the Connecticut Post.  I re-posted it here at Wait, What under the title “Here is what a real Democrat says in the face

by jonpelto / 6h

Malloy Administration commits $22 million plus for Bass Pro

Categories: BassPro Bridgeport Corporate Welfare Economic Development Malloy Mayor Bill FinchTags: BridgeportCorporate WelfareEconomic DevelopmentMalloyMayor Bill FinchAccording to the Connecticut Post’s Brian Lockhart, “The state will spend at least $22 million to build Bass Pro Shops a mega-store on the [Bridgeport] city’s waterfront.” As Wait, What? readers will recall from previous blog posts

by jonpelto / 6h 

Who does Tony Bennett think he’s kidding?:

Who does Tony Bennett think he’s kidding?

By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 1 at 5:00 amE-mail the writer

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Tony Bennett

I wasn’t ready to return to work after foot surgery until I read the news about Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, who, according to this AP story, pushed for a change in Indiana’s school grading system (when he ran the schools there)  to ensure that a favored Indianapolis charter school got an “A.”

The amazing story is told in a series of e-mails obtained by the Associated Press, which show how Bennett pushed staff members to make sure that the charter school headed by Christel DeHaan, an influential Republican donor, did not get a “C.” Anything other than an A was not acceptable, he made clear. After all, he had  been going around the state talking about how his standardized test-based school reform program had been working wonders. A “C” for this school would, apparently, hurt his accountability reputation.

The school grading system that Bennett adopted in Indiana was, ironically, pioneered in Florida when Jeb Bush was governor, from 1999-2007. After Indiana voters pushed out Bennett late last year, Florida’s Board of Education wasted no time in bringing Bennett 

 

The problem with ‘the problem with teachers’

We hear plenty about the problem with teachers. Here’s a piece on the problem with that problem, written by Marcus D. Pohlmann, professor of political science at Rhodes College in Memphis. He has written extensively on race, poverty and education. … Continue reading →    

by Valerie Strauss / 3h 

Rally and Presser On August 1 For Removal of Jennifer Rogers, Principal at PS 29 in Queens southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Rally and Presser On August 1 For Removal of Jennifer Rogers, Principal at PS 29 in Queens

For those that do not know, there will be a rally tomorrow morning, August 1, at 11 AM in front of PS 29 in College Point, Queens to demand the ouster of incompetent, mean, arrogant, principal Jennifer Rogers.

Jennifer Rogers, probably one of the least qualified people ever to hold the job of principal, is totally

in over her head and unqualified. Her job, which in all probability got do to her connections of her mother, Carolyn Jones (and the Leadership Academy) former principal at PS 23 in District 10 in the Bronx.

But as with being a principal in NYC, one can do anything short of murder and still retain their position. Or just read the comments here. 

The students are afraid of her, the parents are afraid of her, the community is afraid of her, and so are the teachers (except the sycophants). But not anymore after tomorrow.

Remember, press conference at 11 AM, followed by rally. And, all it takes is a politician, teachers, and a few parents for the presser and the rally. Hey, that gives me an idea.........

The charges against Rogers; 

Principal has violated UFT contract over and over

UPDATE: REPORT: Bennett to Step Down Today + Bennett’s Break to Charter Schools Could Have Saved Two Public Schools From Takeover | Scathing Purple Musings

Bennett’s Break to Charter Schools Could Have Saved Two Public Schools From Takeover | Scathing Purple Musings:

Meanwhile, Bennett’s – and Florida’s – Charter Schools USA Problem Explodes

While Tony Bennett was resigning today from his post as Florida’s education commissioner, Indianapolis Star reporter Matt Tully dropped this bomb: In June of 2011, Tony Bennett, then Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction, picked a for-profit education company in Florida to run a group of Indianapolis public schools. The company, Charter Schools USA, set up operations in Indianapolis soon

by Bob Sikes / 6min 

In Resigning Bennett Calls Email Story “Unfounded, Malicious and Politically Motivated”

A bitter, emotional and defiant Tony Bennett took to the podium at the Florida Department of Education today and resigned as Education Commissioner of Florida saying that “when education becomes about the adults, it’s time for the adult to get out.” Fair enough. Too bad more ed reformers, like say, Michelle Rhee, don’t leave when they become the story. Bennett insisted that the decision to leave w

by Bob Sikes / 44min 

REPORT: Bennett to Step Down Today

From Peter Schorsch in his Saint Petersblog: Embattled education commissioner Tony Bennett has notified Governor Rick Scott he intends to resign today, according to a source close to the state board of education (the Tampa Bay Times‘ Steve Bousquet is now also reporting that Bennett will resign). Just yesterday, Scott told Channel 5 in West Palm Beach that Bennett is “doing a great job.” Bennett h

by Bob Sikes / 13min 

Bennett’s Break to Charter Schools Could Have Saved Two Public Schools From Takeover

Posted on August 1, 2013by Bob Sikes

From IndianaStar.com reporter Scott Elliott:

Two Indianapolis Public Schools might never have been taken over by the state if then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett had offered the district the same flexibility he granted a year later to the Christel House Academy charter school.

The issue was similar in both cases. Christel House had recently added ninth and 10th grades, and IPS’ Howe and Arlington had added middle school grades.  The students who filled those  seats posted poor enough scores to drag down the schools’ overall ratings.

In the case of Christel House, emails unearthed by The Associated Press show Bennett’s staff sprung into action in 2012 when it appeared scores from the recently added grades could sink the highly regarded school’s rating from an A to a C. Ultimately, the high school scores were excluded and the school’s grade remained an A.

But in 2011, after IPS’ then-Superintendent Eugene White demanded Bennett consider the test scores of high school students separately from those of middle school students so the high schools could avoid state