DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? NO WORRIES CATCH UP NOW | A site to discuss better education for all

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

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? NO WORRIES CATCH UP NOW

 

Maurice Cunningham: When “Parent Groups” Are Funded by the Walton Billionaires

by dianeravitch / 7min

In my new book, Slaying Goliath, I focus on heroes of the Resistance. One of them is Professor Maurice Cunningham of the University of Massachusetts. He is a professor of politics and a blogger who believes in “follow the money.” His relentless pursuit of Dark Money in the Massachusetts charter referendum of 2016 (where voters overwhelmingly rejected charter expansion) led to the demise of the bi

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A?

by dianeravitch / 1h

Alfie Kohn has written many books critical of competition and ranking in schools. This article appeared in the New York Times. For a generation now, school reform has meant top-down mandates for what students must be taught, enforced by high-stakes standardized tests and justified by macho rhetoric — “rigor,” “raising the bar,” “tougher standards.” Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next y

Chester E. Finn, Jr.: The Persistent Failure of Big Shiny Ideas to “Reinvent” Schools

by dianeravitch / 2h

Checker Finn and I used to be best buddies back in the days when I was on the other side (the wrong side) of big education issues. We became friends in the early 1980s. We created something called the Educational Excellence Network, which circulated a monthly newsletter on events and issues back in the pre-Internet days. I was a member of the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which was c

Carol Burris: Federal Charter School Program is a Slush Fund

by dianeravitch / 2h

Back in March 2019, Carol Burris and Jeff Bryant released a study of the federal Charter Schools Program on behalf of the Network for Public Education.. That study, “Asleep at the Wheel,” found that about a third of the charters that received federal grants in the $440 million program either never opened or closed soon after opening. The amount of money wasted was about $1 billion over several ye

YESTERDAY

Ohio: State Plan to Make Consultants Great Again

by dianeravitch / 21h

‌ ‌ ‌ Jan Resseger’s digest of the Senator Lehner HB 70-on-steroids plan The Lehner Plan is really a district’s worst nightmare. It would have scores of cooks in the kitchen with no one to be held accountable. It would also be a cash cow for “consulting school improvement organizations.” William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | o hioeanda@sbcglo

Beto O’Rourke Adds High-Ranking Obama ED Official to His Campaign Staff

28by dianeravitch / 22h

Beto O’Rourke has beefed up his campaign staff with the addition of Carmel Martin , who was Assistant Secretary for Budget and Policy in the Department of Education during the Obama administration. Martin is a supporter of high-stakes testing and charter schools. When my book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, was published, she joined me on a panel at the Economic Policy In

Peg Tyre: What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in Japan

by dianeravitch / 23h

Veteran journalist Peg Tyre is on a study mission to understand education in certain Asian nations. She has written several reports, some of which were posted here. She has written to tell me that she has enjoyed the feedback from readers of this blog, so keep those emails and reactions to her coming. A teacher in a primary school giving a healthy-living lesson Japanese Teachers Put In Longer Hou

Netroots Nation: Learn How Philadelphia Activists Regained Local Control of Their Schools

24by dianeravitch / 1d

Jeff Bryant, a prolific writer about the Resistance to Faux Reform, will moderate a panel at Netroots Nation about how Philadelphia activists fought back and regained democracy. fought back and regained democracy. The session is called “What Philly Taught Us: How Philadelphia Activists Brat SchoolPrivatization to Restore Local Control.” Starts: Thursday, Jul. 11 2:30 PM Ends: Thursday, Jul. 11 3:

Peter Greene: The Writer Who Could Not Answer Standardized Test Questions About Her Poems

94by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Greene writes here about Sara Holbrook, a poet whose poems have been used on standardized tests. Back in 2017, Holbrook wrote an essay for Huffington Post entitled, “ I Can’t Answer These Texas Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems. ” The writer had discovered that two of her poems were part of the Texas STAAR state assessment tests, and she was a bit startled to discover that she

EdSource: Why California Charter Schools Have Little or No Oversight

by dianeravitch / 1d

Louis Freedberg of EdSource explains here why California charter schools are largely unsupervised, leading to a drumbeat of scandals like the recent indictment of 11 people charged with a theft of $80 million. He writes: As charter 

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

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Very Interesting Video: “Interpreter Breaks Down How Real-Time Translation Works”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min

geralt / Pixabay This new video from Wired is pretty interesting:

Just Sent-Out Free Monthly Email Newsletter

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

geralt / Pixabay I’ve just mailed out the July issue of my very simple free monthly email newsletter . It has over 3,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here . Of course, you can also join the eighteen thousand others who subscribe to this blog daily. Here Are 8 Ways You Can Subscribe For Free…

The Korean War Began On This Day In 1950 – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

JamesDeMers / Pixabay The Korean War began on this day in 1950. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About The Korean War . Today in 1950: The Korean War began when North Korea invaded the South at dawn, broadcasting a declaration of war at 11 a.m. https://t.co/huf1UJq49T pic.twitter.com/buxrlBEixa — NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) June 25, 2019

YESTERDAY

Ed Tech Digest – Special Edition Number Two!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Usually, I just publish this post once each week. However, the ISTE conference is happening, and there’s lots of ed tech news! Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You m

Video: “What Happens If You Get HIV / AIDS?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

I’m adding this new video from Life Noggin to The Best Web Resources For Learning About HIV & AIDS :

The Best Collections Of Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Policy Positions

by Larry Ferlazzo / 16h

Josethestoryteller / Pixabay The Democratic primary season is upon us, and media organizations have begun publishing impressive summaries of different policy positions candidates are taking. You might also be interested in: The Best Sites To Learn About U.S. Presidents The Best Sites To Learn About The 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections Here’s a beginning list of them: Politico’s Candidate’s View o

“Mistakes That Math Teachers Make”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 18h

Mistakes That Math Teachers Make is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. This three-part series on mistakes made in math instruction “kicks off” with responses from Bobson Wong, Elissa Scillieri, Ed.D., Beth Brady, and Beth Kobett, Ed.D. Here are some excerpts:

Ed Tech Digest – Special Edition!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

Usually, I just publish this post once each week. However, the ISTE conference is happening, and there’s lots of ed tech news! Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You m

Ways To Help Refugees At The Border

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I think many are wondering how to help the many refugees at our southern border. Here’s a list of organizations that are mobilizing to help the influx of immigrants crossing the Texas-Mexico border is a very important article from The Texas Monthly that shares names and links to credible organizations to support. 5 powerful ways we can help detained immigrant children today is from Motherly, and

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A?

Alfie Kohn has written many books critical of competition and ranking in schools. This article appeared in the New York Times.

For a generation now, school reform has meant top-down mandates for what students must be taught, enforced by high-stakes standardized tests and justified by macho rhetoric — “rigor,” “raising the bar,” “tougher standards.”

Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next year virtually every student passed the tests. What would the reaction be from politicians, businesspeople, the media? Would these people shake their heads in admiration and say, “Damn, those teachers must be good!”?

Of course not. Such remarkable success would be cited as evidence that the tests were too easy. In the real world, when scores have improved sharply, this has indeed been the reaction. For example, when results on New York’s math exam rose in 2009, the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents said, “What today’s scores tell me is not that we should be celebrating,” but instead “that New York State needs to raise its standards.”

The inescapable, and deeply disturbing, implication is that “high standards” really means “standards that all students will never be able to meet.” If everyone did meet CONTINUE READING: Alfie Kohn: Why Can’t Everyone Get An A? | Diane Ravitch's blog

A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem - The Washington Post

A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem - The Washington Post

A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem

In March, I published a post about a report detailing up to $1 billion in federal funds wasted on charter schools that never opened, or opened and then closed because of mismanagement and other reasons. The report — titled “Asleep at the Wheel” and published by the Network for Public Education, a group that advocates for public schools — also said that the U.S. Education Department does not adequately monitor how money it uses for grants in its Charter Schools Program is spent.

A few days later, the report was raised at a House subcommittee hearing by Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), who asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos about it. DeVos, a big supporter of charter schools, said that schools that don’t “make it” should be closed. The full House recently passed a spending bill that would provide more funding than ever for the Education Department, though charter school funding would be cut by nearly 10 percent.

Now, one of the authors of “Asleep at the Wheel,” Carol Burris, is back with an update. Her conclusion: The waste and fraud may be worse than the original report stated, as she explains in the following piece. Burris is executive director of the Network for Public Education and a former award-winning principal in New York.

[How does a $50 million charter scam work? Here’s what happened in California (before 11 people were indicted).]

It is worth noting that the original report said that the Education Department in Republican and Democratic administrations has “largely ignored or not sufficiently addressed” recommendations to improve the Charter Schools Programs made by the department’s own inspector general.

By Carol Burris

A few weeks ago, 11 people connected to online charter schools in California were indicted on criminal charges of grand theft, conspiracy, personal use of public money and financial conflict of interest. More than $50 million was stolen by the alleged conspirators. The nonprofit charter management company at the center of the scandal is known as Academic, Arts and Action Charter Academies, popularly known as A3 Education. CONTINUE READING: A report that detailed up to $1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem - The Washington Post

Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past | radical eyes for equity

Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past | radical eyes for equity

Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past

There is so much about the U.S. in the story of Kyle Kashuv.

Kashuv as a teenager has had thrust upon him a complex and accidental fame. First, he gained recognition by being among the high school student survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooing.

Next, Kashuv filled a partisan political niche by being the face of conservative activist students after that school shooting—an event that spawned a rise in what has been characterized in the U.S. as left-wing political activism by a number of his classmates.

And now, Kashuv is the face of consequences: He was first accepted in Harvard and then that acceptance was rescinded.

Conservatives across the country have rushed to expressed outrage, focusing on arguments that his actions (documented and repeated racist language) occurred while he was still young; these defenses of Kashuv have often been absent the fact that colleges, and Harvard, have rescinded acceptances for similar reasons in the past (with little media fanfare) and that the nature of all college admission is judging applicants for their behavior while only in their teens.

By the logic of apologists for Kashuv, Harvard—and all colleges—are irresponsible for admitting or rejecting students for the grades they earned and the accomplishments they achieved while teenagers.

But the larger problem with how conservatives have rushed to defend Kashuv is that it is grounded in a plea for license, not freedom.

Kashuv has not been denied his freedom to express racist language and bigoted ideology; Kashuv has not been denied the opportunity to rise above these deplorable displays of calloused youthful indiscretion (if that CONTINUE READING: Once Racist: More on My Redneck Past | radical eyes for equity