Diane Ravitch's blog
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DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG
Jon Lender of the Hartford Courant describes in detail how embattled candidate for New London superintendent, Terrence Carter, was the very model of a modern school reformer. He graduated from New Leaders for New Schools, founded by Obama and Clinton advisor Jonathan Schnur. Terrence Carter had deep roots in the world of “reform.” “To fully understand the Carter episode, it helps to look at him i
Apparently Congress doesn’t care about the privacy of student data and doesn’t think that parents need to know which vendors are getting their children’s confidential records. The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy issued this statement: OUR RESPONSE TO THE MARKEY/HATCH STUDENT PRIVACY BILL INTRODUCED 7.30.2014 JULY 30, 2014 ADMIN For immediate release: July 30, 2012 Rachael Stickland, 303-204
David Greene, a veteran educator, has been to all the rallies to save public education, but it sounds as if he enjoyed this one the most. BATs from 38 states gathered to laugh together, dance together, and swap stories about life in their cities and states. One of the high points came when Dave was talking to an ELL teacher from rural Connecticut (now apparently called “New Jersey east”) and disc
Mel Brooks memorably said, “It’s good to be the King.” In these times, it is good to be rich enough to buy public policy to protect your interests and stay rich. New York has such a group. Yes, they can.
Long Island, New York, is home to the state’s biggest concentration of parents and educators who are in search of a better alternative to the state’s obsession with high-stakes testing. It is also home to a vigorous opt-out movement. This event promises to be a first-rate evening of discussion about where we go from here to improve our schools and find a better philosophy than test-and-punish. BUI
Jersey Jazzman, Stephen Colbert, and Campbell Brown
Jersey jazzman has another great piece about tenure. He writes: “I can only hope that Campbell Brown’s appearance last night on The Colbert Report is typical of what she is going to bring to the debate over school workplace protections. Because if this is the best the anti-tenure side can muster, we teachers will easily win the debate — provided we ever get a chance to participate.” – Watch the p
Julian Vasquez Heilig: Don’t Trust the Charter Hype
Julian Vasquez Heilig says that parents shopping for a charter school should not trust the salesmen, because every child they enroll is a sale. In effect, trust them as much as you would trust “a sweaty used-car salesman.” Heilig offer a Citizens Template for judging charter schools, including college admissions and persistence, teacher turnover, whether all school staff are certified, and multipl
Tennessee Virtual Academy: Bad Results, No Accountability
In their rush to privatize public education in Tennessee, the Governor and the legislature enacted legislation in 2011 authorizing the Tennesee Virtual Academy, an online charter school run by K12 Inc. K12 is a for-profit corporation started by Michael and Lloyd Milken. It is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It earns millions for its owners but has received bad reviews in the New York Times
YESTERDAY
Reader: Who Wrote the Infamous TIME Cover Story About Michelle Rhee?
A reader whoe nom de plume is Democracy posted this comment: “TIME magazine infamously posted Michelle Rhee on its cover, with a broom, with the title, “How To Fix America’s Schools.” The subtitle of that cover story stated that Rhee was engaged in a “battle against bad teachers” that could “transform public education.” The cover story was written by the oh-so-talented (wink) Amanda Ripley, who
Jeannie Kaplan: In Denver, Some Charters Are More Equal Than Others
Jeannie Kaplan, who was an elected member of the Denver school board, has done an amazing job of investigative research on the money that Denver lavishes on two charter chains: Denver School of Science and Technology and Strive. These two chains get the lion’s share of charter funding. Their charters get the best space; other charters are poor relations. These two chains together have 20 of Denve
The Failure of Test and Test and Test Some More
This teacher expresses frustration with the policymakers’ obsession with testing, thinking of it as a form of instruction and a measure of instruction, and as a measure of teacher quality and school quality. In New York, for example, State Commissiomer Zjohn King recently a bounced that he would release more questions and more results earlier. But he steadfastly refuses to tell teachers how studen
Who Is “Weeding” Thousands of Books in Racine School Libraries?
This is a very disturbing story. Approximately 8,000 books were removed from the shelves of Mitchell Middle School in Racine, Wisconsin. Initially, librarians expected that 2,000 books would be “weeded,” but the number grew to 8,000, including “books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf. In the end, over 8000 books were removed from library shelves.” The Racine Education
Peter Greene: David Coleman Is Superman!
Peter Green watched a 30-minute interview of David Coleman at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The big news from the interview is that Coleman doesn’t demonized critics of the CCSS and thinks it’s a big mistake to treat all critics as crazies and/or liars. But what fascinates Green is Coleman’s self-regard, and also his strange idea that it is up to certain special people to fix our institutions. Cole
Gary Rubinstein on Tennessee’s Pathetic Lies About Its Underachievement District
Poor Tennessee! It is locked in the embrace of fake reformers who promise miracles, and a far-right legislature that wants to believe them. Worse, having won a Race to the Top grant, it has to produce miracles, even if they are fabricated out of whole cloth. One of the alleged miracles-to-be is the Achievement School District, led by Chris Barbic of TFA and YES Prep. Barbic came to Tennessee to t
JUL 31
I Think I Love Lily Eskelsen
I read Jeff Bryant’s interview with the President-elect of NEA, Lily Eskelsen, and I think I love her. She is smart, strong, and she doesn’t mince words. She was a classroom teacher for many years, and she speaks from experience teaching many kinds of kids, including kids in special education and kids in a homeless shelter. She knows that VAM is ridiculous. She knows that tests can be valuable
Protest Outside Colbert Show
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Julian Vinocur, julian@aqeny.org, 212-328-9268 Maria Bautista, maria@aqeny.org, 347-622-9706 *** Media Advisory for July 31st, 4:15pm, Outside Colbert Report Studio Taping 513 West 54th St.*** Parents and Teachers to Protest Campbell Brown’s Appearance On Colbert Report Growing Outrage Over Brown’s Refusal to Disclose Wall Street Backers, While Proclaiming to Speak f
The Guardian: Why Payment by Results Is “Dangerous Idiocy”
The Guardian of London has an excellent article that explains why payment by results always fails. The article is based on a study that the article links to. Two examples of payment by results in the current “education reform” strategy that is promoted by the Obama administration: basing teacher evaluation on test scores and merit pay. The article calls payment by results in “dangerous idiocy” an
Pasi Sahlberg: How American Innovation Improved Finnish Education
The renowned Finnish educator, Pasi Sahlberg, explains how major American innovations improved education in Finland but are all too often forgotten here, where they originated. He begins with a new report from the OECD that measures educational innovation between 2003 and 2011. The U.S. does not get high rankings from the OECD, yet oddly enough, other nations send delegations here to learn about
Jersey Jazzman: What Does Campbell Brown Want?
Jersey Jazzman writes that we know what Campbell Brown is against: bad teachers. She says teachers should have due process protections. So does Arne Duncan. Unions would agree with them that termination hearings should not be expensive and endless. So what does she want? Jersey Jazzman writes: “Campbell, I’d be a lot less inclined to question your motivations if you would just do us all a favor
Gary Rubinstein: Race to the Top Was a Wasted Opportunity
Gary Rubinstein, former TFA but now veteran high school math teacher wrote this article in Education Week about the failure of Race to the Top. I wish I didn’t have to delete any part of it but Internet or copyright protocols require me to. Subscribe to Edweek so you can read it all. And be sure to follow Gary’s blog. “Years from now, I hope we will look back at Race To The Top as the time we allo
Tonight! Tweet to Stephen Colbert re Tenure Lawsuit
Teachers, time to make your voices heard! Parents, help your children’s teachers get fair treatment! Students, you need teachers who can speak truth without fear! Teachers should not be fired for teaching “The Invisible Man.” Teachers should not be fired for opposing war. Teachers should not be fired for allowing students to express controversial views. Teachers should have due process, the right
How Pearson’s Common Core Tests Are Designed to Fail Your Children
This is a must-read article. One of the best education writers in New York State is Gary Stern of lohud.com, which covers the Lower Hudson region. This article shows how the passing marks (“cut scores”) were set for the state’s Common Core tests. It is a story that should have appeared in the New York Times. The State Education Department likes to boast that the cut scores are set by teachers. Th
JUL 30
Fred Klonsky: The Story the Chicago Press Won’t Touch
Fred Klonsky writes that in 2007, the Chicago Tribune praised CEO Arne Duncan because he would not be content with principals drawn from the ranks. not Arne! He was looking for superstar principals. Duncan was CEO because he lacked the experience as a teacher or a principal to be a superintendent. The Tribune singled out one of Duncan’s “superstars”: Terrence P. Carter. ““Used to be, as long as
The Day: Was New London Superintendent’s Cover Letter Also Plagiarized?
The Day reports that the language in the cover letter submitted by Terrence Carter to be superintendent in New London contained language identical to a cover letter written by another job applicant in Michigan in 2011. When will this charade end? If he fabricated his résumé and plagiarized his job application and cover letter, what more evidence is needed? Here is an excerpt from The Day: “New L
Peter Greene: What He Learned from the BATs Meeting with Duncan
After reading Mark Naison’s account of the BAT’s meeting with DOE staff and the Duncan himself, Peter Green was delighted that staff at the U.S. Department of Education finally had to listen to teachers that were not hand-picked to be deferential. He noted two important points that inadvertently emerged from the talk. “First, Marla Kilfoyle expressed her concerns about the Department’s new policy
Breaking News: North Carolina Court Rules That Voucher $$ May Flow Before Ruling on its Consitutionality
Lindsay Wagner reports in NC Watch that a judge in North Carolina said it was okay to dispense $10 million for private school vouchers before the courts rule on whether vouchers are constitutional. The far-right legislative leader Thom Tilles said the budget for vouchers would grow by another $800,000. Do you think President Obama or Secretary Duncan will speak out against this diversion of publi
The Best Article About Tenure Ever, Explaining Campbell Brown’s Law
We all know, or should know, about Campbell’s Law. That is a social science axiom that says: “The more any quantitative social indicator (or even some qualitative indicator) is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.” The short translation: the more you m
Rick Hess: Why Race to the Top Failed
Among the conservatives who comment on education, Rick Hess is consistently the most thoughtful. I often disagree with him, for example, about choice and for-profit schooling. But I am often impressed by his thoughtfulness and pleasantly surprised by his willingness to question “reform” dogma. Here is a column that is a great example of Rick’s insight. In it, he essentially concludes that Race to
Eva Moskowitz Set to Dominate New York City Charter Landscape
Eva Moskowitz has applied to the State University of New York‘s Charter School Institute for permission to open another 14 charter schools in New York City by 2016, a request that seems sure to be approved. Chalkbeat reports: “If Success’ proposal to open 14 new schools by 2016 is approved by the trustees of the SUNY Charter School Institute, the network will enroll about 35,698 students and c
Jeff Bryant: Will Campbell Brown Replace Michelle Rhee as the Face of “Reform”?
Jeff Bryant wonders whether Campbell Brown will replace Michelle Rhee as the public face of “reform”? Bryant describes the movement as “Blame Teachers First.” Bryant suspects that Rhee’s star is fading fast. Bryant describes her as “education’s Ann Coulter.” The lingering doubts about the Washington, D.C. cheating scandal never dissipate, and John Merrow’s latest blog about the millions that Rhee
Rachel Aviv: How NCLB Harmed Children, Teachers, and the Meaning of Education
If you have not read Rachel Aviv’s “Wrong Answer” in The New Yorker, drop everything and read it now. Aviv tells the story of the Atlanta cheating scandal through the ideas of one man, one teacher, who cared deeply about his student. Step by step, he got sucked into the data-driven obsession with test scores, thinking that if he raised the children’s test scores, it was a victimless crime. He kne
JUL 29
Connecticut: More Trouble for New London Superintendent Candidate
The Day, a Connecticut publication, reports more problems for Terrence Carter, applicant for the superintendency at New London, who used the title “Dr.” and “Ph.D.” without having earned the title. The Day reports that sections of Carter’s job application were identical to other publications. That is known as plagiarism and is unacceptable in school or higher education. “New London – At least 10
NAISON: What the BATs Told Duncan and His Staff
Wow! This post will knock your socks off, unless you work for the U.S. Department of Education. The post was written by Mark NAISON, one of the co-founders of the BATs. (I don’t know why, but my iPad always converts Mark’s last name into all-caps.) The Badass Teachers Association held a rally outside the U.S. Department of Education on July 28, and several were invited to meet with staff at the Of
Badass Teachers Meet with Duncan and Staff
Politico.com reports that representatives of the BATs met with Secretary Duncan. “BADASS TEACHERS OUT IN FORCE: Several hundred teachers, parents and students sang, danced and demonstrated outside the Education Department on Monday, protesting federal education reform under the Obama administration. The rally was hosted by the Badass Teacher Association. On the list of grievances: The Common Core,
Pennsylvania Governor Corbett Pays Big Salary to Stay-at-Home “Advisor”
Governor Tom Corbett has made a cushy deal for his former stat education commissioner, Ron Tomalis. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that Tomalis is paid full salary, has no office, and no one is sure what work he does. He is supposed to be a higher education advisor. “When Ron Tomalis stepped aside as state education secretary 14 months ago, he landed what seemed like a full-time assignment i
David Berliner Responds to Economists Who Discount Role of Child Poverty
Erik Hanushek, Paul Peterson, and Ludger Woessmann take issue with David Berliner and Gene Glass’s view about how high levels of child poverty in the U.S. affect our students’ performance on international assessments. In the following post, David Berliner responds to their critique. Criticism via Sleight of Hand David C. Berliner Hanushek, Peterson and Woessmann (2014) (HPW) criticize Berliner, G
Carol Burris: Poor Teacher Evaluation Systems Will Not Improve Education
Carol Burris, principal of south side High School in Rockville Center, New York, writes here about the multiple flaws of test-based teacher evaluations. At an Ed Trust celebration, Duncan told the crowd, “But we can’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. We can’t let the utopian become the enemy of the excellent. And we can’t let rhetorical purity become the enemy of rigorous practice.” I
What Counts Most in Education? Intellect or Interest? Facts or Soul?
In what most surely be the most famous statement by David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, he said that “no one gives a s— what you think or feel.” In place of personal motivation, Coleman stresses cool intellectual analysis of text and problems in the Common Core. Fiction, which might dwell too much on emotion, takes a back seat to informational text. But this is wrong, says
ALEC Meets Today in Dallas to Plan for More Privatization
The Progressive.com managed to get a copy of ALEC’s agenda for its 41st annual meeting in Dallas. ALEC wants to eviscerate Medicaid, support fracking, and expand charter schools in hopes of destroying America’s great public school system. All for the corporations and the 1%, nothing for the people. They are shameless.
JUL 28
Columbia Scholar Says Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff Are Wrong About VAM
Moshe Adler, a professor at Columbia University, has emerged as one of the most incisive critics of the work of Raj Chetty, John Friedman, and Jonah Rockoff on Value-added measurement (VAM). In the recent Vergara decision about tenure for teachers in California, the study by Raj Chetty and John Friedman of Harvard and Jonah Rockoff of Columbia played a prominent role. But according to the economis
Microsoft Fires 18,000 Workers While Seeking Visas for Foreign Worksrs
Unbelievable. Microsoft lays off 18,000 workers while pressing Congress to expand the number of visas for engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and other workers. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and casino operator Sheldon Adelson wrote an article calling for Congressional action to increase H-1B visas. . Senator Jeff Sessions responded with rage, directed mainly at Gates and at the the tech industry
Chicago: School Choice and the Néw Segregation
The Chicago choice system works exactly as every choice system works: It segregates students by ability. “But a new WBEZ analysis shows an unintended consequence of the choice system: students of different achievement levels are being sorted into separate high schools. “WBEZ analyzed incoming test scores for freshmen from the fall of 2012, the most recent year data is available. That year, the di
Detroit’s Bold Experiment: 100 Children in a Kindergarten Class
When Governor Rick Snyder created the Educational Achievement Authority for the state’s lowest-performing schools, he promised bold new thinking. One of his bold plans is a kindergarten called the Brenda Scott Academy, which has a kindergarten of 100 students. It is a stretch to call it “new,” because classes of this size sometimes existed a century ago. The lead teacher, a veteran, is 30. Her he
JUL 27
Robert Berkman: The New York Times Stinks at Math
Robert Berkman, who has been teaching math for thirty years, takes issue with the article by Elizabeth Green in the New York Times magazine called Why Americans Stink at Math. While he has great admiration for Green’s writing skills, he thinks she is an American who is not good at math. He writes: “The first place where Green goes wrong is when she cites “national test results” about mathematics
Denver Teachers Suing District to Protest Forced Layoffs
In 2010, Colorado State Senator Michael Johnston took credit for a piece of legislation called Senate Bill 191, which he said would produce “Great Schools, Great Teachers, Great Principals.” Its main feature was tying teacher evaluation to their students’ scores, which counted for 50%. But it included other time bombs. One allowed districts to lay off teachers for various reasons. Now seven teache
North Carolina House Passes Bill to Shield Salaries of For-profit Charter Managers
Lindsay Wagner of the NC Policy Watch reports that the NC House passed a bill to guard the privacy of salaries paid to employees of for-profit charter management companies, even though they are paid with public funds. The bill also removes protection of LGBT students that had been in earlier versions. She writes: “While the bill, SB 793, or Charter School Modifications, clarifies that the salarie
Why the Election in Georgia Matters
Bertis Downs is a native of Georgia and a member of the board of the Network for Public Education. He writes: This is the best electoral news in a long time– Georgia Democrat Valarie Wilson won the runoff for state school superintendent, and it wasn’t even close: http://bit.ly/Us7qNi I am proud to be one of her supporters. And on the Republican side a longtime educator, Richard Woods, won in a
Lisa Graves: Will the Koch Brothers Buy American Politics?
Lisa Graves was one of the creators of the website ALECExposed. She has followed the money, and she here describes a dangerous threat to American democracy by the billionaire Koch brothers, ALEC, and others who seek control by the super-rich. They want to bust unions and privatize schools. Graves says that progressives must stand together. I agree. That’s why I grow frustrated when union members a
JUL 26
Last Thoughts of the Night
If you are on the West Coast, you still have a few hours before bedtime, but I am turning in now. Before I do, I wanted to acknowledge that I neglected to add the link to the post in which Mark NAISON explains why charter schools are like subprime mortgages. Here it is: http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2014/07/why-charter-school-scandals-resemble.html Fortunately I have readers who kindly
A Message for NYC Chancellor Carmen Farina
In Carmen Fariña’s short time on the job, she has ended promotion tied solely to test scores and eliminated school report cards based primarily on tests scores. However, there are two critical areas in which state testing continues to deform and distort our children’s education. Chancellor Fariña, we implore you to: 1. Direct all middle schools and high schools to eliminate the results of state
Mark NAISON: Are Charter Schools the Subprime Mortgages of Today?
Mark NAISON, co-founder of the BATs, explains why he thinks that charter schools are the subprime mortgages of our time. The video was made by videographer Michael Elliott.
HuffPost: How the Koch Brothers Are Bringing Their Ideas to High School Students
The fabulously wealthy Koch brothers have developed a plan to teach their libertarian ideas to high school students. It is sort of like tobacco companies teaching students that smoking is good for you. They have used their vast resources to identify like-minded teachers, to train them and to supply course materials. Their program, called Young Entrepreneurs, is growing in Kansas, Missouri, and ot
EduShyster: If You Could Ask Arne Duncan Just One Question……
EduShyster’s guest blogger Patrick Hayes, a fifth-grade teacher from Charleston, South Carolina, asks a simple question: “If you could ask Arne Duncan just one question what would it be?” Try this one: “what would you get Bill gates for Boss’s Day? The man has everything.” But he actually has a bunch more questions, which Duncan can answer with pre-packaged non-responsive answers. Like: why do
KrazyTA Deconstructs VAM and ASA
Our friend and frequent commenter KrazyTA has analyzed the response of the VAM Gang (Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff) to the American Statistical Association’s pithy demolition of their famous and much praised justification for VAM. Here is his analysis: I urge viewers of this blog to read the recent response by Raj Chetty (Harvard University), John Friedman (Harvard University) and Jonah Rockoff
