Start the Week with Diane
Monday, March 13, 2017
Start the Week with Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:
John Kasich's unreal world of education | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Len Boselovic’s Heard off the Street: John Kasich's unreal world of education | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
John Kasich's unreal world of education
John Kasich's unreal world of education
A lot of people have eagerly embraced the notion that if only government, or schools, or whatever else ails us were run more like a business, things would be a whole lot better.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the McKees Rocks native offered to American voters last year as the more reasoned Republican alternative to Donald Trump, is the latest.
Despite overseeing a state that has some of the nation’s worst charter schools run by private businesses — a 2015 Akron Beacon Journal study found that Ohio charter schools misspent taxpayer money almost four times more often than any other taxpayer-funded agency — Mr. Kasich recently proposed requiring K-12 teachers to do internships with local businesses or chambers of commerce in order to be recertified.
The commission — a governor’s executive workforce board made up of leaders in higher education, business and trade positions — that recommended the internships did not include anyone from the K-12 world.
Ostensibly, the real-world postings would enable teachers to inform their students about what kinds of job opportunities are out there and what skills they require. It’s important that kindergarten students know that up front.
Of course, that’s nonsense. Or, as former Ohio public school teacher Scott Ervin described it in a Feb. 22 Facebook post, “completely ludicrous insanity.”
An educational consultant based in Dayton, Mr. Ervin resigned two years ago after 15 years of teaching hard-to-handle students. In a widely read Washington Post op-ed, he wrote that continuing budget cuts and the increasing number of standardized tests and other pointless tasks that Mr. Kasich and other elected officials who fashion themselves as education policy experts make teachers perform caused him to step away from teaching.
In his Feb. 22 post, Mr. Ervin wrote that Mr. Kasich apparently has such low regard for teachers that he is proposing the internships as a way of letting teachers find out what the real world is like.
“There is no way that a person smart enough to become a governor could be stupid enough to think that this requirement could actually help teachers and students, so I can only assume that it is meant to hurt us,” Mr. Ervin wrote.
While Mr. Kasich and others have little respect or empathy for teachers, they are often quick to heap praise on private enterprise. But should they? Is it possible teachers could learn the wrong things in the “real” world?
Would interning at Wells Fargo teach them how to forge customers’ signatures and give them credit cards they didn’t apply for?
Would Volkswagen interns become skilled at manipulating software to make it look like cars are spewing fewer emissions than they are?
If they worked for drug makers or Trump University, would they learn the kinds of behaviors that get you dragged into court for price-fixing and fraud?
Would they learn fraudulent accounting at Enron or one of the other companies that relies on this Len Boselovic’s Heard off the Street: John Kasich's unreal world of education | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
OPINION: Protecting our public schools in Wake County | Columns | technicianonline.com
OPINION: Protecting our public schools in Wake County | Columns | technicianonline.com:
OPINION: Protecting our public schools in Wake County
OPINION: Protecting our public schools in Wake County
If you’ve been following politics recently, I’m sure the controversy surrounding our new U.S. secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, isn’t at all new. As I’ve thought about DeVos’ record as a Michigan lobbyist for charter schools and our own public school issues here in Wake County, I’ve reached one conclusion: We cannot turn our back on Wake County’s Public School System, no matter how much work it needs. Now I know that during this time of political turmoil and divisiveness, it can be easy for liberals like myself to assume the worst before anything has even happened. At times, the fear and derision can seem premeditated and hyperbolic. This is not one of those times. Right now, more than ever, NC State students and North Carolinians, should be thinking about how to preserve our public schools, because one look at DeVos’ record makes it clear that she won’t.
According to an article published in The Detroit Free Press, DeVos and her husband have contributed millions of dollars to propping up the charter school industry in Michigan and insulating it from oversight, even as charter schools in the state fail to yield successful results. Charter schools can create their own rules and educational guidelines. This can mean success or failure for students. In Michigan, charter schools can legally operate as for-profit businesses, giving those who run it all the incentive they need to stay open, despite poor test scores and results. This lack of oversight, paired with the funneling of funds meant for public schools, into charter schools, has led to abysmal results.
Politico reports that Michigan’s lack of charter school regulation has, “… led to marginal and, in some cases, terrible schools in the state’s poorest communities.” So much of the funding that was meant for cities like Detroit’s already struggling public schools, with the help of DeVos, has been funneled into failed charter schools. These schools do not have appropriate educational standards, which has led to low test scores and low achievement. The charter schools in the state are ill-advised and ill-maintained. Their goal of giving parents “school choice” has led to the stifling of funding for public schools and an even poorer status quo for the state’s low-income and minority students. Test scores and achievement fall at the bottom of national averages.
This is DeVos’ legacy. She will now try to implement this on schools nationwide with school vouchers that will funnel public school money into charter schools, North Carolina included.
This is a sobering look at what our reality could soon be. North Carolina’s public schools, specifically Wake County Public Schools, could be drained adequate of funding and left to fail. Charter schools can be great, but they cannot and will not guarantee success for every student. It is worth noting that Wake County Public School System, or WCPSS, is far from perfect.
From 2000 until 2010, students enrolled in WCPSS were sent to schools based on an effort to integrate low-income and minority students into schools with middle-income students and high test scores. The theory was that if there were a mix of low-income students in a school with middle-income students, that test scores would increase and schools would diversify. Students from low-income neighborhoods were bussed to more affluent schools and vice-versa. For years, the process received mixed reactions, some parents were thrilled and others were angry. Regardless, the theory seemed to work as test scores did increase at low-income schools.
This all changed in 2010 when the newly elected conservative school board voted to overturn the 2000 measure and reinstated neighborhood schools. Since then, students have gone to schools closer to the neighborhood in which they live. This has led to OPINION: Protecting our public schools in Wake County | Columns | technicianonline.com:
Parent Summit 2017 | Parents United for Public Education
Parent Summit 2017 | Parents United for Public Education:
Parent Summit 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017 – 9a – 3pmSaint Joseph’s University5600 City Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131
Parents from around the city are joining together for our 2nd Annual Parent Summit, a day of UNITY and Education. This summit is designed to empower family leadership in schools, unite families around the city and educate families on key education issues in Philadelphia and around the country. Don’t miss out!
“A united voice has much more volume. It is going to take a city of united parents to tear down a broken establishment and rebuild for the sake of our kids. Simply put, we must get informed, get involved, get together and fight for our rights.” Tonayia Coffer
“Parents raising their collective voice show that we are active and engaged in the high quality education we demand for our children. Strong, educated, parent voice forces open secret deals and lights the dark intentions of corporate education reforms. We are here, we are fighting, we are not giving up on the excellent public education Philadelphia’s students deserve.” Robin Roberts
“Philadelphia children deserve a fully funded and fair education. Parents will not stop fighting until we have one!” Shakeda Gaines
“The voices of parents have always been important. But many times the powers that be try and silence parents into complicity with fear mongering and intimidation. When a collective voice is shouting with support from other parents, that is a powerful force against harmful reforms, tactics, and attacks.” Tamara Anderson
Parent Summit 2017 | Parents United for Public Education:
Shared Anxieties Of Parenting And Screen Time And Screen Time : NPR Ed : NPR
Shared Anxieties Of Parenting And Screen Time And Screen Time : NPR Ed : NPR:
Parent Anxiety, Screen Time And Learning In The Digital Age
Shared Anxieties Of Parenting And Screen Time And Screen Time : NPR Ed : NPR:
Parent Anxiety, Screen Time And Learning In The Digital Age
"If I can get them out the door with pants on, I feel like we've won the day."
A lot of parents can probably relate to those words from a stressed out dad, who's trying to deal with big issues of parenting amid the normal chaos of just getting them to school.
He was one of more than a dozen parents who joined us one night to talk about parenting in the digital age. We wanted to know: How do you make sense of all the latest research on a topic like screen time and somehow fit it into daily family life?
Considering how tough it can be to just get through Monday, that's a tall order.
Who better to help us frame the question than actual parents? So we reached out to Generation Listen, the NPR project that brings listeners together, to start the conversation. On couches and chairs at the headquarters of the Manhattan nonprofit, Data & Society, we talked about screen time limits, privacy and the role of devices and screens in the classroom. And then we brought some experts into the conversation.
Take a listen.
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:
WEEKEND QUOTABLES
Aspira charter teacher Marines Martinez
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL)Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:
WEEKEND QUOTABLES
| Aspire Early College Prep English teacher Eleshia Smith leads a chant during a rally outside of Aspira Business and Finance High School |
“Aspira just finally agreed to our terms. It’s just a tentative agreement, but we did note that Aspira is finally listening to us." -- TribuneValerie Strauss
But words have meaning — even if they are only symbolic and not legally enforceable — especially at a time when public schools are more segregated than at any time since the 1960s and school choice policies favored by President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have been found to increase school segregation. -- Alabama’s constitution still calls for ‘separate schools for white and colored children’
Philly Councilwoman Helen Gym
Faced with continued austerity, we marched, took over school-board meetings and lobbied City Council offices. And we started to win more victories...If the Philadelphia experience is any measure, this uprising won’t just be limited to our schools. It will form the basis of a movement which will not only withstand an authoritarian federal agenda but will also grow more unified in spite of it. -- Bill Moyers & Co.
Men paying for prenatal care coverage like buying a cabin 'you're never going to use'. -- The SouthernE.J. Dionne Jr.
What some feared might be a Trump Juggernaut is instead the Trump Jalopy, a wheezing, unsightly contraption with grinding gears and missing parts. -- Washington PostSpeaker Paul Ryan
...said he didn’t know how many people would lose their insurance under his Obamacare replacement plan. In a revealing exchange with CBS News, he suggested that it was “up to people” how far the uninsured rate would climb. -- Think Progress
The History of the Office for Civil Rights' Power - The Atlantic
The History of the Office for Civil Rights' Power - The Atlantic:
The Office for Civil Rights's Volatile Power
The influence of the office has waxed and waned with each administration. How will it fare under Betsy DeVos?
The Office for Civil Rights's Volatile Power
The influence of the office has waxed and waned with each administration. How will it fare under Betsy DeVos?
Here is a question nobody asked Betsy DeVos at her confirmation hearing to become the eleventh secretary of education: Is the U.S. Department of Education a civil-rights agency?
The last secretary, John King, thinks so. Over 600 education scholars who protested the nomination of DeVos think so, too. In a letter to the Senate, they recalled that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which created the federal role in American schools, is “at its heart a civil-rights law.”
While much of the controversy over the new secretary has focused on school choice and the privatization of public education, the reality is that DeVos will have little power to enact major changes on those fronts because control lies with the state. When it comes to civil rights, however, DeVos and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) still possess immense power and responsibility. During her hearing, DeVos was evasive about how she would wield both, promising only to review OCR’s policies should she be confirmed. In a recent interview, she acknowledged that “anti-discrimination issues” require “a federal role,” but, she went on, “I also think there is an opportunity to streamline and simplify a lot of the engagement and involvement the department has had around some of these issues.”
In another interview, DeVos talked about “when we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren't allowed to have the same kind of sports teams—I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved.” There is strong evidence that school segregation is worse now than it has been for more than 30 years. The Obama administration tackled desegregation; campus sexual violence; harassment against transgender students; and disparities in discipline that made African American students and students with disabilities much more likely to be restrained, secluded, arrested, suspended, or expelled. There was a sense of urgency in the OCR during the Obama years. DeVos sees things differently. Asked if there any remaining issues where the federal government should intervene, DeVos said “I can't think of any now.”
Given this milquetoast response, it was surprising to learn that DeVos raised anThe History of the Office for Civil Rights' Power - The Atlantic:
For-Profit Schools: Trump Delays Enforcing New Rules, Lifting Shares - WSJ
For-Profit Schools: Trump Delays Enforcing New Rules, Lifting Shares - WSJ:
For-Profit Schools: Trump Delays Enforcing New Rules, Lifting Shares
Education Department delays ‘gainful employment’ rule to resolve industry concerns
For-Profit Schools: Trump Delays Enforcing New Rules, Lifting Shares
Education Department delays ‘gainful employment’ rule to resolve industry concerns
It isn’t exactly 2006 again, but for-profit colleges are riding high on Wall Street.
Stocks in the industry, some left for dead five months ago, have climbed rapidly since November as investors cheer President Donald Trump’s talk of easing regulations. Last week, for-profit schools got an inkling he might deliver on the promise when the Education Department announced it would delay enforcing rules drafted under the Obama administration.
Those rules, known as “gainful employment,” threatened to shut down hundreds of for-profit campuses in the next two years due to high debt levels among former students.
Investors have taken note. Grand Canyon Education Inc. gained 2.7% last week and has rallied 38% since November. George Soros’ fund added DeVry Education Group Inc. during the fourth quarter, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. The stock has risen 41% since the election.
“These stocks have been on fire,” said Jeff Silber, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.
The Education Department said the delay would allow it to resolve industry concerns about the integrity of graduate-earnings data underpinning the regulations. But many investors interpreted it as a broader shift from former President Barack Obama’s aggressive oversight.
Mr. Trump once owned a for-profit school, the now-defunct Trump University, while Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has championed private-sector options and said she wants to promote skills training in higher education.For-Profit Schools: Trump Delays Enforcing New Rules, Lifting Shares - WSJ:
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