Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/2/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post

Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post: Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrongA high school in an impoverished community is ordered closed. It is doing an awful job with its students, the school board says, and the dwindling number of kids who attend deserve a better education somewhere else. But that “somewhere else” 

by mike simpson / 53min 

CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!

CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!: CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!Competency-Based Education (CBE) is being promoted as the way to “personalize” education, but it is a cold impersonal method of teaching on the computer. It fails to teach to the whole child and merely provides fragmented drill. It will be coordinated with Common Core, and th

by mike simpson / 3h 

It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson

It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson: It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School ReformThe title of Jeff Bryant's Education Opportunity Network piece says it best: Education Reform's Very Bad, God-Awful Week. Bryant reviews the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Presid

by mike simpson / 4h 

A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte

A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte: A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School ReformIn the last installment of our Education Week blog conversation on democracy and schools, Deborah Meier gave a remarkable account of school change efforts in the last two decades, "Democratic Experiments." She is worth quoting at length:"In the early

by mike simpson / 4h 

If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her Up

Eva Moskowitz defends Success Academy principal responsible for 'got to go' list.: If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her UpAt a press conference Friday afternoon, Eva Moskowitz, former New York City Council member and the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, announced that she would not fire the principal responsible for the now-notorious

by mike simpson / 5h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.Rahm and GriffinHILLARY'S IN TOWN TODAY raising lots of campaign dough. I would have attended this morning's brunch at the Gold Coast home of Tanya and Michael Polsky, the CEO o

by mike simpson / 5h 

Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post

Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post: Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what?The Walton Foundation is one of the biggest players in the education philanthropy world, having poured some $1.3 billion in K-12 education over the last two decades largely to support charter schools and fuel the “school choice” movement.

by mike simpson / 6h 

CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University

CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University:NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over UniversityNorth Carolina's conservative GOP leadership has been working hard to show the nation how aneducation system can be trashed quickly and thoroughly, and while we have focused lots of attention on how they are trying to gut their K-12 system, what dismantling of public education would be complete without g

by mike simpson / 7h 

Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster

Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster: Most Likely 2 SucceedVenture capitalist-turned-documentary-producer Ted Dintersmith is a fierce critic of test and measure, and no excuses charter schools. And he offers a compelling vision of what schools could look like….EduShyster: Your new film, Most Likely to Succeed, makes a convincing case that the obsession with standardized testing is leading us over a

by mike simpson / 7h 

Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?

Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?: Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th gradersAs the 2015 Session of the Connecticut General Assembly came careening to a close last spring, legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill that replaced the mandate that 11thgraders take the unfair, inappro

by mike simpson / 7h 

Moskowitz and Petrilli Push Education Model Designed to Serve Strivers and Shed the Rest | janresseger

Moskowitz and Petrilli Push Education Model Designed to Serve Strivers and Shed the Rest | janresseger: Moskowitz and Petrilli Push Education Model Designed to Serve Strivers and Shed the RestIt is amazing to watch Eva Moskowitz, New York City’s charter school diva, take on her arch political rival, Mayor Bill de Blasio in a charter school war she wages through histrionics and melodrama.  The two

by mike simpson / 7h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?"Sociopath" Rauner sends Chicago a dead fish.CTU Pres. Karen Lewis"I do want to say something about that sociopath governor," Lewis said during her talk Friday before launching into a long story about an encou

by mike simpson / 7h 

Hailed as a ‘bold vision,’ an innovative school plan hits roadblocks - The Hechinger Report

Hailed as a ‘bold vision,’ an innovative school plan hits roadblocks - The Hechinger Report: Hailed as a ‘bold vision,’ an innovative school plan hits roadblocksControversy over a California community center that would unite a school district and a city shows how popular ideas can lose favor once they are executedEMERYVILLE, Calif. — The Emeryville Center of Community Life was supposed to be a sli

by mike simpson / 7h 

.@NAACP Now: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? | Cloaking Inequity

.@NAACP Now: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? | Cloaking Inequity: @NAACP Now: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates?I recently wrote an article for the NAACP national office about the 2016 presidential race, high-stakes testing, Common Core and civil rights. I wrote the piece for NAACP Now, a forum that includes “voices of members, activ

by mike simpson / 7h 

From 'Book Strap' To 'Burrito': A History Of The School Backpack : NPR Ed : NPR

From 'Book Strap' To 'Burrito': A History Of The School Backpack : NPR Ed : NPR: From 'Book Strap' To 'Burrito': A History Of The School BackpackOur Tools of the Trade series is exploring some of the icons of schools and education.My editor, Steve Drummond, isn't that old of a guy. He's from Michigan — Wayne Memorial High School, class of '79.But when he starts talking about backpacks, he dips int

by mike simpson / 7h 

In Elizabeth, Christie and the NJEA, perfect together | Bob Braun's Ledger

In Elizabeth, Christie and the NJEA, perfect together | Bob Braun's Ledger: In Elizabeth, Christie and the NJEA, perfect togetherChristie and the teachers’ union–happy together in ElizabethThe lawns in my neighborhood are predictably dotted with political signs promoting the two slates for three school board seats. One slate is backed by Elizabeth’s Democratic mayor, Chris Bollwage, and state Sen.

by mike simpson / 7h 

Deterioration of public school arts programs has been particularly jarring in L.A. - LA Times

Deterioration of public school arts programs has been particularly jarring in L.A. - LA Times: Deterioration of public school arts programs has been particularly jarring in L.A.rmandie Avenue Elementary Principal Gustavo Ortiz worries that he can't provide arts classes for most of the 900 students at his South Los Angeles school.Not a single art or music class was offered until this year at Curtis

by mike simpson / 7h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Enemies Eva Moskowitz Has Made

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Enemies Eva Moskowitz Has Made: The Enemies Eva Moskowitz Has MadeEva Moskowitz may be popular with Hedge Fund Managers, famous singers some politicians, and to be fair, many parents in her schools, but she is a lot less popular with1. Parents, Teachers and Students in schools who are Co-Loated with Success Academy schools who have been insulted, ostracized deprived of

by mike simpson / 8h 

Gentrification in U.S. cities masks big declines in math.- US News

How Can Cities' NAEP Report Cards Be OK When Students Are Doing Worse? - US News: How Can Cities' NAEP Report Cards Be OK When Students Are Doing Worse?Gentrification in U.S. cities masks big declines in math.Here's a riddle. In New York City, the largest school district in the nation, eighth-grade math scores were virtually unchanged between 2013 and 2015, according to national test results relea

by mike simpson / 8h 

Campus Equity Week - Lily's Blackboard

Campus Equity Week - Lily's Blackboard: Campus Equity WeekIt’s fitting that we celebrate Campus Equity Week during the last full week of October, right before Halloween. While students are out trying to scare each other on this day every year, contingent faculty face scary circumstances that last year-round.This includes carrying overwhelming student debt, no offices on their campuses to meet with

by mike simpson / 8h 

DENVER: Colorado recall targets conservative school board members | Nation | CentreDaily.com

DENVER: Colorado recall targets conservative school board members | Nation | CentreDaily.com: Colorado recall targets conservative school board membersDENVER — Angry parents and educators in a Colorado battleground county are trying to recall three conservative school board members Tuesday, citing several complaints, including a change in how teachers get pay raises and talk of reviewing the histo

by mike simpson / 8h 

Lily Eskelsen García: Test results don't cure inequity: Opposing view

Test results don't cure inequity: Opposing view: Test results don't cure inequity: Opposing viewWe need to understand what really works to close opportunity gapsIf taking a patient’s temperature cured disease, the world would be much healthier.  will tell you that knowing there’s a fever begs the question: Why? A thorough examination follows, ultimately leading to a diagnosis — which in and of its

by mike simpson / 9h 

Let's talk about that market-based school reform, shall we?

Let's talk about that market-based school reform, shall we?: Let's talk about that market-based school reform, shall we?How about every day this month?In the past few weeks I've read over and over about "successful market-based reforms" and school districts "borrowing ideas from the world of business" as if this is some trendy, superexciting new model. As if it is not the shopw

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Costs of English-Only Education: A Growing Movement to Teach ELL Students in Their Native Languages - The Atlantic

The Costs of English-Only Education: A Growing Movement to Teach ELL Students in Their Native Languages - The Atlantic: The Costs of English-Only EducationEfforts to teach ELL students in their native languages are gaining traction—and they’re benefitting native English speakers, too.In 1998, Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire and former gubernatorial candidate, set out to abolish bilingual edu

by mike simpson / 9h 

How daylight saving time explains standardized test scores - The Washington Post

How daylight saving time explains standardized test scores - The Washington Post: How daylight saving time explains standardized test scores“Cut scores,” according to the Educational Testing Service, are “selected points on the score scale of a test,” points that “are used to determine whether a particular test score is sufficient for some purpose.” In education today, of course, the purpose for w

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education

2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education: 2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting RevolutionUnited Opt Out National ConferenceFriday, February 26, 2016Sunday, February 28, 2016Philadelphia, PA Transcending Resistance, Igniting RevolutionIt is time for revolution.  It is time for non-negotiable demands.It is time to r

by mike simpson / 21h 

In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post

In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post: In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’Americans for Prosperity, the national organization founded by the Koch brothersWhen voters cast ballots Tuesday in a school board race in suburban Denver, it will mark the climax of a two-year battle over public education that has

by mike simpson / 21h hide  //  save

Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate: Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT?A new large-scale, longitudinal study should make Connecticut policy makers think twice before continuing with their ill-advised policy imposing the SAT as the new “mastery test” for 11thgraders.Last spring, after opt-outs and outcry from parents and students, Connecticut lawmakers decided to quickly abandon the unval

by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/1/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM\A Note on Arne Duncan's LegacyA Note on Arne Duncan's Legacy: Like Water Off A Duck’s Back [A Note on Duncan’s Legacy]Six years ago, I remember sitting in an afternoon meeting with my principal and about 25 other administrators and educators, waiting patiently for a central official to come down and give us some awful news of some consequence for us and all of our work. The sch

by mike simpson / 23h 

Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post

Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post:

Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong

A high school in an impoverished community is ordered closed. It is doing an awful job with its students, the school board says, and the dwindling number of kids who attend deserve a better education somewhere else. But that “somewhere else”  becomes problematic. Two nearby school districts pass on the chance to take in the students. A third district finally agrees, but only in one of its poorest neighborhoods, in one of its worst-performing schools, which happens to have students who have long feuded with kids in the closed schools. Hardly a recipe for success.

When and where did this happen? This important story by my colleague Emma Brown tells the tale: Wilkinsburg High School in a poor suburb of Pittsburgh is being closed at the end of the school year, and the kids will move to the Pittsburgh School District. The story says:

“If you were to ask everyone honestly if this is the best academic solution for kids, they would tell you no,” said state Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny), whose district includes much of Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, this could be taking place in any number of places around the country, as school reformers continue to use school closures as a reform “tool” — even though there is no real evidence that most of the students who are forced to move into other schools wind up doing much if any better academically.

For example, a Chicago study in 2009, which was followed up in 2012, found that of all the students in city public schools that were closed for academic failure from 2001 to 2006, only 6 percent were sent to schools with better test scores than the one they had previously attended. A 2014 Michigan State University study of more than 200 closings of low-performing schools  in Michigan found that while the closings of “may generate some achievement gains for displaced students, part of these gains will likely be offset by spillover effects onto receiving schools.”

In her story, Brown quotes students who say they are desperate to learn. But Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post:

CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!

CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!:

CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!

Competency-Based Education (CBE) is being promoted as the way to “personalize” education, but it is a cold impersonal method of teaching on the computer. It fails to teach to the whole child and merely provides fragmented drill. It will be coordinated with Common Core, and there are concerns about student private information being compromised.

Competency-Based Education (CBE) itself has been around for years. Teachers pretest, or figure out what a child doesn’t know or understand. They provide instruction that addresses what the student lacks. Then the teacher reassesses to see if their instruction made a difference. If the instruction works, the teacher moves on. If it doesn’t work, they rethink their teaching strategy and do something different.

Teachers might not think about CBE much because it is usually automatic. Special education teachers used to hear about CBE quite often because it is used with IEPs.

There is nothing wrong with CBE per se, but let’s be clear. Today’s online CBE is all CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!:

It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson

It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson:

It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform

The title of Jeff Bryant's Education Opportunity Network piece says it best: Education Reform's Very Bad, God-Awful Week. Bryant reviews the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, President Obama's apology for contributing to over-testing, and the stagnation and even the decline of the reliable NAEP scores after decades of growth.

Bryant also surveys the national news on charters. A series of new stories in several states document how the lack of oversight opened the doors for financial irregularities by charter school operators, and the number of other reports documenting underperformance by charters continues to grow. Of course, the documentation of how Success Academy pushes out more-difficult-to-educate kids and Eva Moskowitz's arrogant response was a huge blow to reformers.

Bryant concludes his impressive catalogue of recent reform failures with the words of teacher/activist Jesse Hagopian:

It should be clear that this national uprising, this Education Spring, has forced the testocracy to retreat and is the reason that the Obama administration has come to its current understanding on testing in schools. However, the testocracy, having amassed so much power and wealth, won't just slink quietly into the night.

The first decade of school reform was an outgrowth of Reaganism. As Karl Rove explained, conservatives sought to destroy public sector unions in order to cut off funding for the Democratic Party. He endorsed NCLB in order to split Democratic constituencies in an effort not to defeat, but to outright destroy, the party.

Test-driven, market-driven reform became exceptionally destructive when conservatives were joined by liberals and neo-liberals. As contemporary reform movement morphed in corporate school reform, the big donors' public relations gurus spun it into a supposed "civil rights" issue. That unholy alliance is now unraveling, It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson:

A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte

A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte:

A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform

In the last installment of our Education Week blog conversation on democracy and schools, Deborah Meier gave a remarkable account of school change efforts in the last two decades, "Democratic Experiments." She is worth quoting at length:

"In the early 1990s...some 100 plus K-12 schools in NYC proposed a large-scale experiment, serving about 50,000 students and representative of the city as a whole. Our aim: to demonstrate the value of greater school/community-based autonomy including show-casing alternative systems of accountability. Annenberg offered us 50 million dollars to try it out. The mayor, NYC chancellor, NYC board of education, the state superintendent of schools, and the American Federation of Teachers local chapter signed on. Two local universities agreed to study our work over five years both statistically and ethnographically. If we hadn't been stopped by a new chancellor and a new state superintendent we'd have learned a lot."

Meier also describes smaller but still significant efforts like "Boston's Pilot" schools and the "Consortium" of schools in New York City, both of which have used alternative assessments, have generally proven successful, and have been largely ignored by policy makers.

The question is how to respond.

It seems to me that the fact the chancellor and state superintendent could end of the "large scale experiment" in the early 1990s despite the broad coalition involved in planning it, shows why we need to rethink politics on a large scale.

Politics has become narrowly professionalized, detached from "civic roots" in the life of local communities. It now almost entirely revolves around politicians (and other public figures), their antics, promises, and positions. Like many other experts, they are detached, especially at state and national levels and in federal agencies. Citizens are reduced to consumer choices. This makes for dysfunctional politics and powerless and irresponsible citizens.

I had a different experience as a young man in the civil rights movement. Black beauty parlors and barber shops were places where people learned "everyday politics." As Sara Evans and I describe in our book, Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America, I saw how this learning could be deepened. Highlander Folk School worked with beauticians across the south to teach organizing skills.

One story with parallels from our years at the Humphrey Institute is about the late A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte:

If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her Up

Eva Moskowitz defends Success Academy principal responsible for 'got to go' list.:

If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her Up

At a press conference Friday afternoon, Eva Moskowitz, former New York City Council member and the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, announced that she would not fire the principal responsible for the now-notorious “got to go” list that the New York Times reported on the previous day. The Times story detailed one Success Academy’s efforts to push out 16 particularly challenging kids: “I felt I couldn’t turn the school around if these students remained,” the principal, Candido Brown, said in an email.

Without defending the actions of the principal, the ever-classy Moskowitz distributed emails she’d sent after discovering the “got to go” list and reprimanding Brown, who she called “stubborn and somewhat dense” in one missive.

“At Success, we simply don't believe in throwing people on the trash heap for the sake of public relations," Moskowitz said of her refusal to fire Brown. (Note: This is exactlywhat she is accused of doing to students who don’t meet Success’ rigorous disciplinary and academic expectations.) The short-lived list, in Moskowitz’s telling, was an outlier—the error of a single “dense” principal, not a systemic problem with how her schools are run.

Brown, the principal, also spoke, through tears: “As an educator I fell short of my commitment to all children and families at my school and for that I am deeply sorry.” He said he was “doing what I thought I needed to do to fix a school where I would not send my own child.”

Success is New York City’s largest charter network, with 11,000 students. The most that Moskowitz would acknowledge was that “Success may not be the absolute best setting for every child,” particularly children with special needs. This is not a new admission, or a new controversy—though the storm clouds seem to be thickening above Success’ CEO of late.

To think that just a month ago Moskowitz was considered a likely challenger—and aEva Moskowitz defends Success Academy principal responsible for 'got to go' list.:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.:

The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.

Rahm and Griffin

HILLARY'S IN TOWN TODAY raising lots of campaign dough. I would have attended this morning's brunch at the Gold Coast home of Tanya and Michael Polsky, the CEO of Invenergy, But my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

I also missed the Rahm-hosted lunch event at noon. I couldn't come up with the $2,700-per-person tab (not including tip for the parking guy) let alone the $27,000, it would have taken to have my picture taken with Hil.

Interesting side-note here. Wing-nut Chicago billionaires Ken Griffin andTodd Ricketts are among the funders of the new super anti-Hillary PAC, Future45. Each gave $250,000 to help launch the super PAC.

Lynn Sweet writes that Griffin is the billionaire founder and CEO of the Chicago hedge fund Citadel and a jumbo donor to Republican candidates and causes. Ricketts, a Cubs board member who is the CEO of the conservative Ending Spending super PAC, was the co-national finance chair for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s short-lived presidential primary campaign.

Why these guys don't have Noble Charter Schools named after them is Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.:

Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post

Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post:

Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what?

The Walton Foundation is one of the biggest players in the education philanthropy world, having poured some $1.3 billion in K-12 education over the last two decades largely to support charter schools and fuel the “school choice” movement. But foundation honchos aren’t exactly satisfied with the results of their work and now they are using a new investment strategy to make a broader impact. For people who like the foundation’s philosophy, that’s good news. For those who think the foundation works against public education, it’s scary.

[Why are out-of-state billionaires putting big money into Louisiana’s board of education elections?]

A paper recently released (see below) titled “Investing in Change: The Walton Family Foundation Charts a New Course” looks at what the foundation has — and hasn’t — accomplished in its effort to fulfill what foundation K-12 Program Director Marc Sternberg calls its “moral obligation” to provide families with high-quality school choices. It quotes Walton Family Foundation Executive Director Buddy Philpot, who wrote in the foundation’s 2014 annual report released this year:

We know that empowering parents and students with options works, but now we want to do more. We have learned that while choice is vital, it is not enough.

Choice isn’t enough? So what is? Apparently dismantling traditional public school systems and creating collections of charter schools across cities.  The report, written by Michelle Wisdom and published by Grantmakers for Education (a national network of hundreds of education philanthropies) says:

There are a lot of similarities between the Walton Family Foundation’s approach and what has come to be called a “Portfolio Strategy”—a concept researched and supported by the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). Portfolio Strategy identifies the entire city as the unit of change with respect to school reform, and tasks education and civic leaders with developing a citywide system of high-quality, diverse, autonomous public schools. These systems prioritize school autonomy, parental empowerment, and system leader oversight and responsibility for accountability.

Wisdom’s report points to Walton’s involvement in cities with big charter presences, including New Orleans, where nearly all of the schools are charters, and Washington D.C., where nearly half of students attend charters. These are hailed as successes in school reform. In the section about Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post:

CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University

CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University:

NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University

North Carolina's conservative GOP leadership has been working hard to show the nation how aneducation system can be trashed quickly and thoroughly, and while we have focused lots of attention on how they are trying to gut their K-12 system, what dismantling of public education would be complete without going after the state's flagship university?

The writing (in big blocky letters carved out in crayon) has been on the wall for a while. Governor Patrick McCrory proposed a new funding formula for the university system just as soon as he took office in January of 2013.

It's not based on butts in seats but on how many of those butts can get jobs.

Stupid liberal arts. What universities need to be doing is providing high-level vocational training.

But the big shocker came when the state systems board of governors, led by Charlotte lawyer John Fennebresque, canned the well-respected university president Tom Ross. The firing was not well-received, and was even less well-received because Fennebresque and the board would not explain their action. Not political, they said. Doing a great job, they said. But still out of a job. The board is hand picked by the legislature, but Fennebresque swears "on a stack of Bibles" that nobody at the CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University:

Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster

Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster:

Most Likely 2 Succeed

Venture capitalist-turned-documentary-producer Ted Dintersmith is a fierce critic of test and measure, and no excuses charter schools. And he offers a compelling vision of what schools could look like….

EduShyster: Your new film, Most Likely to Succeed, makes a convincing case that the obsession with standardized testing is leading us over a cliff—and not into a sea of innovation. Why? And keep in mind that there is only one correct answer and that I’m timing you.

Ted Dintersmith: Well, it all depends on how you see the goal of education. If the goal is to teach kids year after year to shut down their creative thinking and stop asking questions, we’re doing a great job. Is school about learning vocabulary and math through repetition and drilling  under time pressure? Or is it about doing complicated challenging things that you care about and learning to persevere and be creative and resourceful?

EduShyster: Full disclosure—I initially approached your film with a heavy heart (not to mention a full glass) as it belongs to a category I’ll just call *Our Schools Suck.* But it’s a surprisingly hopeful film, largely because you offer such a compelling vision of what schools could look like.

Dintersmith: When people say *is there any hope?* I say walk with me through kindergartens all over your state. Look at the the characteristics of every five year old. If we just didn’t screw that up there is every reason to be optimistic. If we could take those characteristics and develop them and make them more powerful through education, there’d be all sorts of reasons for optimism. What kids tell me in state after state—and I’ve now been in 25 out of 50 states with this film—is that when they have the chance to experience project-based learning, they thrive and blossom and develop confidence.

EduShyster: You’re also critical of the *no excuses* charter schools that are rapidly becoming the norm in cities across the country. We’ve reached the essay portion of the test, so I’ll give you a full paragraph on this one.

Dintersmith: I was at a school in Minneapolis recently that had a bunch of former Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster:

Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?

Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?:

Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders

As the 2015 Session of the Connecticut General Assembly came careening to a close last spring, legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill that replaced the mandate that 11^thgraders take the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Test (SBAC) with a new requirement that all high school juniors take the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory College Board SAT test.

Without remotely understanding the ramifications of their action, legislators and Governor Dannel Malloy congratulated themselves for a job well done.

The Connecticut Education Association heaped praise on the very elected officials who had undermined public education in Connecticut, taking credit for the move to the SAT and Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?:

Will City of Hartford take a stand on Bronins' ethics problem? - Wait What? http://bit.ly/1iygbS0