KEEP UP/ CATCH UP 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

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

Bill Phillis: Will the Supreme Court Wipe Out the Ban on Public Funding of Religious Schools?

by dianeravitch / 31min

Bill Phillis of the Adequacy and Equity Coalition of Ohio fears that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, to which Trump added two religious zealots, is on the verge of eliminating the separation of church and state. This would be a huge victory for Betsy DeVos, ALEC, and the anti-government crusaders of the Right. Some states—such as Ohio, Indiana, and Florida— have already decided to igno

YESTERDAY

N.Y. Attorney General: Sackler Family Wired $1 Billion Out of U.S.

74by dianeravitch / 10h

New York State Attorney General Leticia James stated that the Sackler Family was wiring money out of the country to protect their assets from litigation related to the opioid crisis. New York Uncovers $1 Billion in Sackler Family Wire Transfers In a court filing, the state attorney general’s office says that it has found new account transfers by members of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, the

Laura Chapman: The New Line on Private Charters as Spelled Out by the D.C. Establishment

by dianeravitch / 17h

Laura Chapman, our loyal reader and diligent researcher, writes: If you want to get past the Dintersmith rhetoric, carefully contrived to make an appealing plausible story (with some help from Frameworks Institute.org), you need to look at the website Education 2020 (ED 2020) to see the underling incoherence (hot air) in Dintersmith’s project, and who is supporting it. About Education 2020: “We (

Peter Greene: Does Social and Emotional Learning Belong in the Classroom?

by dianeravitch / 20h

Education is always ablaze with the latest fad (think “grit,” “think “self-esteem,” think “character education,” think “growth mindset,” think a hundred other hot topics). Now it is “social and emotional learning.” You might think that SEL is simply built into the classroom experience. But no, there is now a demand from some quarters to teach it as a separate activity or even subject. Peter Green

ProPublica Exposes the Man and the Myths Behind the Trump Campaign

by dianeravitch / 21h

This is a fascinating investigation by ProPublica of the life and exaggerations of the webmaster behind the Trump campaign. Brad Parsquale is a Trumpian figure who is running Trump’s re-election campaign and is paid big bucks to market his life story of rags to riches. But it ain’t necessarily so.

Los Altos, California, Fights Elite Charter School

by dianeravitch / 22h

Los Altos has a problem. Wealthy residents opened a charter school for their children, drawing money from the public schools to support their charter. The Bullis School is a private school that calls itself a “public” school and is funded by public dollars. Vladimir Ivanovic wrote the following update on the community’s efforts to compel the Bullis School to act like a public school, not a privat

Nancy Bailey on The War Against Little Children

100+by dianeravitch / 23h

Nancy Bailey describes here the determined effort by policymakers to stamp out play and childhood, all in the name of teaching reading long before children are ready to learn to read. Because kindergarten has become more advanced, preschool is seen as the time children must have prereading skills for kindergarten. If they don’t, it’s seen as a red flag. This makes teachers and parents push childr

Ted Dintersmith: Why We Must Invest in a New Vision for Education

43by dianeravitch / 1d

Ted Dintersmith was honored by the NEA for his advocacy on behalf of public education. In this article, which appeared in Forbes, he urges support for a national commitment to investing in education and the future of our society. He writes: Education is the single most important issue determining our democracy’s future. If we continue to get it wrong, we’re headed for collapse. But if we bring th

SEP 12

How the GOP in North Carolina Pulled Off Its Sneak Attack on Medicaid Expansion for 634,000 People

75by dianeravitch / 1d

Think dirty politics, think North Carolina. Yesterday, while some Democratic legislators and Governor Roy Cooper attended a 9/11 memorial service, the Republican legislators called a snap vote to override the governor’s veto of the state budget. They had repeatedly assured the Democrats that no votes would be recorded that morning, but they lied. If the full body of representatives had been prese

Los Angeles: Parent Calls on LAUSD Board to Investigate Nick Melvoin

38by dianeravitch / 1d

Tracy Abbott Cook, a parent in District 4 represented by Nick Melvoin, testified to the LAUSD board and asked it to investigate him based on the emails leaked to Michael Kohlhaas. The emails showed that Melvoin had collaborated with opposing counsel from the California Charter School Association. Ms. Cook believes this is a violation of Melvoin’s obligation to the voters who elected him and to hi

Curriculum Company Sues Parent for Criticizing Its Program

40by dianeravitch / 1d

Sarah Sparks writes in Edweek about a curriculum company that is suing a parent in Wake County, North Carolina, for criticizing its math program. The company says the parent is defaming its product. The parent’s lawyer says the company is attacking the parent’s First Amendment rights. As the story notes, this is a SLAPP suit, a suit meant to silence public criticism. The last time I encountered t

Julian Vasquez Heilig on Our Segregated Charter Schools

by dianeravitch / 1d

This is an interview with Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig, the scholar who was recently named dean of the University of Kentucky School of Education. JVH’s scholarship focuses on equity. He has written about charter schools and Teach for America. https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/segregation-worse-charter-schools-vasquez-heilig-miller-190909/ From the Progressive: Vasquez-Heilig and his c

Jack Hassard: Trump’s Outrageous War on Science

26by dianeravitch / 1d

Jack Hassard Taught science education for many years. He used to write a blog called “The Art of Teaching Science,” but became so upset about current events that he renamed his blog “Jack Hassard’s Blog.” In this post, he excoriates Trump’s war on science. He begins: Science was under assault last week by an un-educated President and his staff who believe that they can supercede the findings of s

Kentucky PTA Lawyer: The Other Side of the Story

by dianeravitch / 1d

I posted Gay Adelmann’s account of her efforts to see the financial records of the Kentucky PTA. Both sides ended up in court. https://dianeravitch.net/2019/09/09/kentucky-what-is-the-state-pta-hiding/ I heard from S. Coy Travis, whose law firm represents the Kentucky PTA. He wanted readers to know both sides. I invited him to write a commentary, and he did. He wrote: Isn’t Kentucky PTA subject t

Steven Singer: Time to Close Every Single Charter School, Every One

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Steven Singer, a teacher in Pennsylvania, has concluded that there are no good charter schools. The problem, he says, is not implementation but the concept , which, he insists, is wrong. He writes: The problem with charter schools isn’t that they have been implemented badly. Nor is it that some are for-profit and others are not. The problem is the concept, itself. Put simply: charter schools are

Mineola, N.Y.: A Third-Grade Classroom Where Students Spend 75% of The Day on Their iPads

by dianeravitch / 2d

Four years ago, the Hechinger Report described a third-grade class in an affluent suburb of New York City where children spend 75% of the day on their iPads. Is this the future? It is not a cost-saver, since there is still one teacher and a class of 20+ students. In most tech-infused projections, this is called “personalized learning,” and it is pitched as a way to cut costs by increasing class s

SEP 11

North Carolina: Republican Legislators Trash Democracy

34by dianeravitch / 2d

Republican legislators in North Carolina pulled a fast one on the Democrats. After assuring them that no votes were scheduled, the Republicans took advantage of the Democrats’ absence to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the Republican budget. https://apple.news/ARwmvDp7KQ1O0PQfx-alHAA NBC reported: “North Carolina House Democrats are calling foul on their Republican colleagues for voting to

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family Reach a Deal That Leaves the Family Billionaires

by dianeravitch / 2d

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family have reached a settlement that will leave the family with many billions of dollars. The company is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy imminently. The settlement, which was described by two people involved in the negotiations, involves the dissolution of Purdue Pharma as it now exists, the formation of a new company that will continue to sell its signat

Ann Cronin: Healing from Our Current Wreckage

by dianeravitch / 2d

Ann Cronin posted about the efforts of some Americans to heal divisions instead of widening them. She writes here about one of those Americans who sought to bridge differences. Grief doesn’t ever go away, but Manal Ezzat, a Muslim woman and engineer with the U.S. Army who was present at the attack on the Pentagon, took her grief and used it to connect with others in need. She was the project mana

Robert Kuttner: The Case for Patriotism

32by dianeravitch / 2d

Robert Kuttner writes and edits “The American Prospect.” He reminds me of myself. I am a patriot but since the 2016 election, I have not felt patriotic. I have been ashamed of my president and my nation. Hateful, crazy people had taken control of our government. It seemed like every ounce of compassion and respect for the rule of law had been stamped out. Kuttner explains why we must recapture ou

Providence: Acting Superintendent Wastes $187,000 on “Inspirational” Books

28by dianeravitch / 2d

The public schools of Providence have been taken over by the state because of very low test scores. The interim superintendent Frances Gallo is the same person who threatened to fire the entire staff of Central Falls High School in 2010 because of its very low scores. Central Falls was taken over by the state. It still has the lowest scores in the state. From the Boston Globe, which is behind a p

NY State Teachers Retirement Invests In K12 Inc.

55by dianeravitch / 2d

Why do teachers’ pension funds invest in stocks of corporations that are actively undermining public schools and their teachers? K12 Inc. manages a chain of online charter schools that are noted for low performance, high attrition rates, and low graduation rates. Their teachers never meet students. They have large classes, no union. New York State Teachers Retirement System Makes New $100,000 Inv

Donald and the Black Sharpie

35by dianeravitch / 2d

I have read “Harold and the Purple Crayon” for many decades. First to my children, then to my grandchildren. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post re-imagines the iconic children’s book brilliantly. The best commentary I have read in a long time on our national nightmare. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-and-the-black-sharpie/2019/09/06/44202240-d0b9-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html

The Untold Story of the Greatest Boatlift in History

by dianeravitch / 2d

This is a powerful documentary about the Great Boatlift on 9/11/01. Boats of every type and size converged on Lower Manhattan to rescue half a million people who were trapped after the Twin Towers fell. It reminds us of the power of good that brings people together in common purpose.

A First-Person Account of 9/11

35by dianeravitch / 3d

My friend Bernadette Hoban was attending a business meeting at 120 Broadway, near the World Trade Center, when the first plane hit the first building. She worked for a large insurance company. She never told the full story of what happened that day. Until yesterday when she posted this account on her Facebook page. The sky was blue, the air was crisp, by all accounts it was a beautiful day. I par

SEP 10

Leonie Haimson: New York Must Protect Student Privacy from Predators

by dianeravitch / 3d

Leonie Haimson warns that New York State is considering changes that would make students’ personal data available to vendors without the knowledge or consent of their parents. https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2019/09/make-your-voices-heard-urge-nysed-not.html She writes: “The New York Board of Regents is currently considering whether to approve a radical weakening of the state student

Robin Lithgow: What You Need to Know about Rhetoric

by dianeravitch / 3d

Robin Lithgow spent many years in charge of arts education for the Los Angeles public schools. Having retired, she is now writing a book and blogging about the arts, especially theater and drama and their relation to cognition. I think you will enjoy this delightful meditation about rhetoric, what it meant in Shakespeare’s day, and what it means today. What’s with all the rhetoric? She begins: Th

Peter Greene: Privatization and the Weather Service

64by dianeravitch / 3d

Did you ever stop to wonder why you get weather forecasts for free? The National Weather Service is a federal agency that provides this information to the public, and we pay for it with our taxes. Bad news, Peter Greene reports. A commercial weather service called Accuweather, which sells advertising, thinks it is unfair that the National Weather Service gives the weather forecasts for free. Dona

Arthur Camins: Fight for First Principles

24by dianeravitch / 3d

Arthur Camins insists that voters should stand by their principles in the 2020 elections. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2019/9/6/1883805/-Fight-for-First-Principles In 2020, let’s elect people who don’t temper and undermine first principles like high-quality universal education and health care, with a soul- and hope-crushing, “But let’s be realistic about what’s achievable.” Don’t start with the

Texas: Commissioner Threatens to Dismiss Elected Board Because One High School Has Low Scores

49by dianeravitch / 4d

Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath has threatened to take over the state’s largest school district —Houston Independent School District—because one high school has persistently received low test scores. That school—Wheatley High School—enrolls high proportions of students who are low-income (88%) and in need of special education (19%), but Morath doesn’t care. Morath sent similar letters

SEP 09

Ed Johnson on the Non-Renewal of the Atlanta Superintendent’s Contract

30by dianeravitch / 4d

The Atlanta Board of Education announced earlier today that it was not extending the contract of its superintendent. Ed Johnson has been an outspoken critic in Atlanta of the drive for privatization and the behaviorist methods that have been in favor in Atlanta since the arrival of the late Superintendent Be early Hall, who literally drove teachers, principals, and students to produce higher test

Breaking News! Atlanta Will Not Renew Superintendent’s Contract

32by dianeravitch / 4d

In a surprise announcement, the Atlanta School Board decided not to renew the contract of it controversial Superintendent Méria Carstarphen. https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/divided-atlanta-school-board-meets-today-discuss-superintendent-future/udqiT86GLYtGnEpXUCQPJL/ She supports the transformation of the city’s schools into a portfolio district with many charters. It appeared that she h

NYSAPE: Opt Out Movement Denounces State Tests, Again

33by dianeravitch / 4d

https://www.nysape.org/nysape-pr-opt-remains-strong.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 9, 2019 More information contact: Jeanette Deutermann (516) 902-9228; nys.allies@gmail.com Kemala Karmen (917) 807-9969; nys.allies@gmail.com New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) Opt-Out Remains Strong Despite the former Commissioner’s Scare Tactics; Room Continues to be Made for Whole-Child I

Kentucky: What is the State PTA Hiding?

23by dianeravitch / 4d

Gay Adelmann, founder of the parent activist group called Dear JCPS, recently requested the financial records of the Kentucky PTA . The PTA refused to turn them over, although they are supposed to be a matter of public record. (Jefferson County is synonymous with Louisville.) Dear JCPS co-founder, Gay Adelmann recently made a routine records request of the largest school district in Kentucky (27t

Tulsa: How Data and Gates Consultant Persuaded Public to Close Public Schools and Cut Their Budget

25by dianeravitch / 4d

This is a curious article about the makeover of Tulsa Public Schools, where the superintendent is Broadie and former Rhode Island Superintendent Deborah Gist. https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/columnists/ginnie-graham-tulsa-public-schools-has-gone-through-major-reforms/article_4bc36885-c247-5858-99f1-7387c48b4fab.html Under the previous superintendent, a plan called “Project Schoolhouse” resulte

Tom Ultican: D.C.’s Very Expensive, Ineffective Charter Sector

21by dianeravitch / 4d

Tom Ultican, retired teacher of advanced mathematics and physics, has written a series of posts about the Destroy Public Education Movement. In this comprehensive post, he reviews the unimpressive but very expensive charter sector in the District of Columbia. Many charter operators have made big salaries and the British testing corporation Pearson has been enriched, but charter performance has la

Sarah Lahm: Why Democrats Should Speak Out Against Nonprofit Charter Schools

by dianeravitch / 5d

Sarah Lahm writes about education in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis. In this post , she says that Democratic candidates should speak out against nonprofit charters. Charter schools, once the darling of politicians on the right and left, have become a hot potato in the Democratic Party 2020 presidential primary with nearly every candidate voicing some level of disapproval of the industry. A common

SEP 08

Shani Robinson Speaks About Her Trial in Atlanta

by dianeravitch / 5d

Shani Robinson is one of the teachers who was convicted of cheating in the infamous Atlanta case. In her absorbing book None the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators , Robinson makes a convincing case that she was railroaded by an over-zealous, unscrupulous and racist prosecution. In this brief video , she ex

District of Columbia: Rachel Cohen Explains How Taxpayers Fund an Army of Charter School Lobbyists

24by dianeravitch / 5d

In an insightful article in the Washington City Paper, Rachel Cohen describes how the charter industry in the District of Columbia has organized campaigns to prevent any accountability , and has arranged that taxpayers fund their lobbying efforts, with the help of a few billionaires. It takes money to persuade politicians to vote your way, and the charter industry has figured out how to get the p

Wall Street Journal: Schools Invest Zillions in Technology, Parents Push Back

74by dianeravitch / 5d

Technology in the classroom has become so ubiquitous that the use of papers and pencils or pens seems innovative. The Wall Street Journal published a front-page story about the high-powered push to buy technology and the growing disillusionment of some parents and teachers. When Baltimore County, Md., public schools began going digital five years ago, textbooks disappeared from classrooms and pap

New Yorker: Did Jeffrey Epstein, Sexual Predator, Persuade Bill Gates to Donate $2 Million to MIT Media Lab?

by dianeravitch / 6d

The New Yorker magazine published an expose of Jeffrey Epstein’s connection to the MIT Media Lab and its efforts to conceal the connection. After the story appeared, the director of the Lab resigned. The article: The M.I.T. Media Lab, which has been embroiled in a scandal over accepting donations from the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, had a deeper fund-raising relationship

SEP 07

John Thompson: The Corporate Makeover of Tulsa University

100+by dianeravitch / 6d

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, writes here about the philanthrocaptalist makeover of Tulsa University. A tale of our times. Surely we can agree with The Tulsa World’s Randy Krehbiel, who says that the faculty and administration “disagree bitterly … about whether that transformation will be good or bad for the university. ” Krehbiel provides plenty of space for the case

Betsy DeVos Floods New Hampshire with $46 Million for Charters

2Kby dianeravitch / 6d

Perhaps Betsy DeVos knows that the Trump administration’s days in power are winding down. She is throwing $46 million in federal money at New Hampshire in an effort to destroy the state’s public schools. This grant will double the number of charter schools in the state. Most of the state is rural or small towns. The largest city in the state is Manchester, with a population of about 100,000, with

Betsy DeVos: The Musical!

39by dianeravitch / 6d

Quinn Strassel, a drama teacher at Ann Arbor Community High School has written a music about Betsy DeVos, the arch-for of America’s public schools. The Michigan media took note. Strassel recruited Diane Hill, his former Ypsilanti High School drama teacher, to take on the role of Betsy DeVos, while he played husband Dick DeVos and brother Erik Prince. The cast also included some of Strassel’s form

“Think Progress,” The News Site of the Center for American Progress, Is Folding

40by dianeravitch / 7d

The Center for American Progress has been the think tank of centrist Democrats and a refuge for veterans of the Obama administration and the would-have-been Clinton Administration. The media calls it “progressive,” but 

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

AI Pokes Another Hole In Standardized Testing

AI Pokes Another Hole In Standardized Testing

AI Pokes Another Hole In Standardized Testing

The stories were supposed to capture a new step forward in artificial intelligence. A “Breakthrough for A.I. Technology: Passing an 8th-Grade Science Test,” said the New York Times. “AI Aristo takes science test, emerges multiple-choice superstar,” said TechXPlore. Both stories were talking about Aristo (indicating a child version of Aristotle), a project of Paul Allen’s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, where the headline read, “How to tutor AI from an ‘F’ to an ‘A.’”

The occasion for all this excitement is Aristo’s conquest of a big standardized test, answering a convincing 80% of questions correctly on the 12th grade science test and 90% on the 8th grade test. Four years ago, none of the programs that attempted this feat were successful at all.

We see these occasional steps forward greeted with a certain amount of hyperbole (last year the New York Post announced that computers were “beating humans” at reading comprehension), or the time the BBC announced that an AI “had the IQ of a four-year-old child,” but the field still has a very long way to go. And as it tries to get there, it CONTINUE READING: AI Pokes Another Hole In Standardized Testing

How the Democratic candidates talked about charter schools and school segregation in Thursday night’s debate

How the Democratic candidates talked about charter schools and school segregation in Thursday night’s debate

How the Democratic candidates talked about charter schools and school segregation in Thursday night’s debate

The leading Democratic candidates for president took on some hot-button issues in education during Thursday night’s debate, and illustrated the divide in how they think and talk about charter schools.

Held at Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston, the debate featured 10 candidates: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang.

Here are a few of their most notable comments on education and racial equity. We’ve got a full guide to the Democratic candidates’ positions and promises on education here.

On charter schools and school choice

Castro: “It is a myth that charter schools are better than public schools,” the former housing secretary said. “They’re not.” Castro was one of the few candidates who directly spoke to the question about charters, an issue where he has a limited track record. In general, research supports his comment — most studies show charter and district schools perform comparably, though charter schools in many cities perform better. “I’m not categorically against charter schools,” Castro went on to say. “I would require more transparency and accountability from them than is required right now.”

Booker: “We closed poor-performing charter schools, but dagnabbit, we expanded high-performing charter schools,” the former Newark mayor said. “We were a city that said we need to find local solutions that work for our community. The results speak for themselves. We’re now the No. 1 city in America for beat-the-odds schools, from high-poverty to high-performance.”

Booker’s record on schools in that city has been much debated and deeply controversial. The rapid expansion of charters and closure of district schools drew fierce community resistance; the latest teachers’ contract scrapped a much-touted teacher performance pay plan. Research found that in the initial years after Mark Zuckerberg’s 2010, $100 million grant to Newark schools, student growth on state tests CONTINUE READING: How the Democratic candidates talked about charter schools and school segregation in Thursday night’s debate

Los Altos, California, Fights Elite Charter School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Altos, California, Fights Elite Charter School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Altos, California, Fights Elite Charter School

Los Altos has a problem. Wealthy residents opened a charter school for their children, drawing money from the public schools to support their charter. The Bullis School is a private school that calls itself a “public” school and is funded by public dollars.

Vladimir Ivanovic wrote the following update on the community’s efforts to compel the Bullis School to act like a public school, not a private academy. Vladimir is a member of the elected Los Altos school board. He is also earning his doctorate in education policy at San Jose State University and has been a member of the Network for Public Education since 2013.

He writes:

This week, the Los Altos School District (LASD) in Santa Clara County’s Silicon Valley formally asked its County Board and Office of Education to take action against the discriminatory enrollment practices at Bullis Charter School (BCS).  The charter school began its enrollment marketing for the 2020-21 school year by announcing the reinstatement of a geographic enrollment preference for children who live in one of the most expensive zip codes in the nation, the exact opposite of the stated purpose of charter school law. This is an example of how charter law can be used to exacerbate inequities in education.  (BCS was in the news before for its exclusive enrollment practices: “Taxpayers Get Billed for Kids of Millionaires at Charter School.”)

BCS was authorized by the county 15 years ago over the objections of LASD, and so the District must appeal to CONTINUE READING: Los Altos, California, Fights Elite Charter School | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Democratic Debate: Where Was Education? - The Atlantic

The Democratic Debate: Where Was Education? - The Atlantic

The Missing Education Questions in the Democratic Debate
Democrats were given little time to discuss their proposals to transform college at the third presidential debate.

All of the ingredients seemed right. The Democratic 2020 hopefuls were lined up on the stage in the gymnasium at Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston, Texas, for the third debate. Several of the candidates had announced plans to pump billions of dollars into HBCUs—institutions founded primarily after the Civil War to educate black people who were shut out of the rest of higher education. One of the candidates, Senator Kamala Harris, is herself an HBCU alum—of Howard University, one of the country’s most illustrious black colleges. And the debate was being held in Texas, one of six states—along with Oklahoma, Maryland, Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania—that still needs to prove to the Education Department that it has desegregated its higher education system, due in large part to how it has treated its black colleges.

But the ingredients spoiled on the shelf. During Thursday night’s debate, mention of historically black colleges was little more than a guaranteed applause line. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said that HBCUs are still training and educating the next generation. Senator Kamala Harris pressed the importance of the colleges in training black teachers. Senator Bernie Sanders said he would make the colleges debt-free. But the candidates—despite having, in some cases, robust plans to boost HBCUs—were given few opportunities to discuss them.

HBCUs were not the only education issue that received short-shrift during last night’s debate. Generally, substantive conversation about the fundamental reform of education in America took a back seat to health care, foreign policy and climate. The candidates on stage were only given a brief spell to discuss their plans to revamp the nation’s education system. In the hurried few CONTINUE READING: The Democratic Debate: Where Was Education? - The Atlantic

Read: Why America needs its HBCUs.

Read: America’s teachers are furious.

Infographic: LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Infographic: LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Infographic: LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up

A new infographic released today highlights the challenges facing LGBTQ students and analyzes trends, gaps, and opportunities in funding for LGBTQ education issues.

Produced in partnership between Funders for LGBTQ Issues and Schott, we hope this infographic will help both those in philanthropy and LGBTQ advocates to chart a better course toward a future where all LGBTQ youth attend well-resourced, supportive and safe public schools. Schott is proud to be a longtime supporter of grassroots LGBTQ youth organizing as a crucial component of the education justice movement.

Key Findings:

• For every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations to education, only 15 cents were devoted to funding for LGBTQ education and safe schools.
• More than 6 in 10 LGBTQ students experience discriminatory policies or practices at school.
• While LGBTQ youth make up 7-9 percent of youth nationwide, they account for 20 percent of all youth in juvenile justice facilities (and 85 percent of them are youth of color).
• Funding for LGTBQ education and safe schools has fluctuated over the past five years, but has never exceeded $9 million in a given year.
• The top ten funders of LGBTQ education and safe schools issues account for nearly three-quarters of the funding.

Clearly there is much work for us to do. The infographic identifies four key opportunities:

FUND ACROSS SILOS FOR INCREASED IMPACT

Racial justice funders and those supporting boys and girls of color, criminal justice funders concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline, and health funders seeking to address the social determinants of health disparities have reason to be concerned with school climate for LGBTQ students. There is potential for mutual learning across silos as well as for the pooling and leveraging of resources across unlikely but natural partners.

STRENGTHEN GSAs AND OTHER VEHICLES FOR YOUTH-LED ORGANIZING

GSAs [Gay Straight Alliances] are documented to have a positive effect on student outcomes and also play a key role in the pipeline of leadership development in LGBTQ communities. Other LGBTQ grassroots organizations driven and led by youth and young adults play similar essential roles in empowering young leaders and building movements.

SUPPORT FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL ADVOCACY

At the federal, state, and local levels, LGBTQ and allied organizations need resources to respond to anti-LGBTQ policies and to advance progressive policies that foster a more supportive school climate for LGBTQ youth. Funders should also be mindful of the need for Both rapid response funding and general for general support and capacity-building to develop strong organizations at all levels.

SUPPORT STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TO RAISE AWARENESS AROUND LGBTQ STUDENTS

Funders have an opportunity to foster a more positive narrative around LGBTQ students. These efforts may include collecting and sharing stories of LGBTQ students, especially trans students and LGBTQ students of color; building the communications capacity of LGBTQ education and youth organizations; and supporting research, messaging, and media campaigns to respond effectively to attacks on transgender students, students of color, and immigrant students.

Download the full PDF of the infographic here, and share with your colleagues! >

Join the Conversation at GFE

At the 2019 Grantmakers for Education conference in New Orleans, October 22-24, Schott and Funders for LGBTQ Issues will be presenting on this topic in a session titled "Increasing Philanthropic Support for LGBTQ Students." Learn more here and register today.

Infographic: LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Ed Notes Online: Leonie Haimson and Carol Burris TALK OUT OF SCHOOL

Ed Notes Online: Leonie Haimson and Carol Burris TALK OUT OF SCHOOL

Leonie Haimson and Carol Burris TALK OUT OF SCHOOL

Leonie and Carol on the radio every week. Here's their first show: Listen here: https://www.wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=5601

Topics:

• Student privacy and school diversity proposals. -

Synopsis: Co-hosts Leonie Haimson and Carol Burris discussed the latest education news of the day, including the proposed student privacy regulations that would allow school vendors like the College Board to sell personal student data and use it for commercial purposes. More on this below, including how to submit your comments to the State Education Department.
Then they interviewed NYC parent Shino Tanikawa of the School Diversity Advisory Group and high school students Tiffany Torres and Alex Rodriguez of Teens Take Charge about the proposals to increase integration in NYC public schools by eliminating gifted programs in elementary schools and to stop screening middle schools by means of academic factors.

Also below is a link to the latest proposals of the School Diversity Advisory Group.

Guests:

• NYC parent Shino Tanikawa of the School Diversity Advisory Group and high school students Tiffany Torres and Alex Rodriguez of Teens Take Charge. -

Playlist:

• Stay in School by Chuck Berry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHG5 - GxI_Es

Info / Links:

• More on the proposal of NY State education department to allow for the selling of student data and its use for marketing purposes here.  Here's a sample message if you'd like to provide a comment to the State about this proposal, with a deadline for comment of Sept. 16.
• 
  
• Here's the copy of the report of the School Diversity Advisory Committee.

TALK OUT OF SCHOOL

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Air Date & Time: Wed, Sep 18, 2019 10:00 AM

Hosted by: Leonie Haimson + Carol Burris


BIO's

Leonie Haimson is the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, which the NY Times has called the“city’s leading proponent of smaller classes.” The organization is dedicated to providing information on the significant and wide-ranging benefits of smaller classes, particularly for at-risk children, to boost student learning, engagement, and graduation rates, and lower disciplinary referrals.
Leonie was a public school parent for 15 years. She received the John Dewey award from the United Federation of Teachers in 2007, was named one of NYC’s “family heroes” by NYC Family Magazine in 2009, and was honored as an “Extraordinary Advocate for our Children” by Advocates for Justice in 2012.
In 2014, she received the “Parent Voice” award from Parents Across America for her work on protecting student privacy and leading the success battle against inBloom, the Gates-funded student data collection company. In 2015, she was named one of the ten most influential people in education technology by Tech and Learning Magazine.
She co-founded and co-chairs the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy [PCSP], which has released two toolkits, one for parents and one for educators , on how to better protect student privacy. The Coalition has also been invited to testify before Congress twice in recent years on how federal student privacy law should be strengthened. Leonie also sits on the board of the Network for Public Education.
She has appeared onCNN,Fox News,MSNBC,Good Day NY,WNBC News,National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now,NY1,Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed.TV and numerous other television and radio shows. She has written for theNY Times,the Nation,Education Week,Washington Post,the Indypendent,SchoolBook,Huffington Post,Chalkbeat,In These Times,Gotham Gazette,City and State, and other publications. She blogs at the NYC Public School Parents ..

Carol Burris is the Executive Director of the Network for Public Education, a national organization dedicated support and improve public education. Carol served as principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre NY from 2000 to 2015.
Prior to joining Rockville Centre, she was a teacher of Spanish at the middle and high school levels in Lawrence, New York. She received her doctorate from Teachers College in 2003. Her dissertation won the NASSP dissertation of the year award. In 2010, she was recognized by New York School Administrators Association as their Outstanding Educator of the Year, and in 2013 she was again recognized by NASSP as the New York State High School Principal of the Year. In 2018, she was honored as the Outstanding Friend of Public Education by the Horace Mann League.
Carol has co-authored two books on educational equity, and her third book, On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the 21 st Century Struggle against Re-Segregation, is available from Beacon Press. She is the author or co-author of numerous journal articles on educational equity, and she has served as an expert witness of school desegregation for the U.S. Department of Justice. Carol is a frequent guest blogger for the Answersheet of the Washington Post.

Ed Notes Online: Leonie Haimson and Carol Burris TALK OUT OF SCHOOL

Democratic debate: Teachers got their big moment during the ABC debate - Vox

Democratic debate: Teachers got their big moment during the ABC debate - Vox

Teachers got their big moment during the third Democratic debate
Democratic candidates scrambled to talk about raising teachers salaries during the debate.

Teachers got their moment at the third Democratic debate when Democratic candidates rushed to defend public education and proposed raising teachers salaries.

Education and raising teachers’ salaries are issues that are often decided at the state and local level. But even so, there was a robust education discussion during the ABC News/Univision debate — and candidates often returned to the idea of paying teachers more, even when pressed on more controversial education topics such as the role of charter schools.

“Some of it is simple, we just have to pay teachers more,” South Bend Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg said. “And we have to lift up the teaching profession.”

Candidates didn’t shy away from embracing teachers unions. At one point, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked point blank by a moderator whether she was “just jumping into bed with teachers unions.” It was a question easily deflected by Warren, a former public school teacher herself.

“We will have a secretary of education who has been a public school teacher,” Warren said, repeating a line taking direct aim at current Trump administration Secretary of State Betsy DeVos, a conservative billionaire who is a proponent of school vouchers and charter schools. “Let’s be clear in all the ways we talk about this, money for public schools should stay in public CONTINUE READING: Democratic debate: Teachers got their big moment during the ABC debate - Vox

Video: “Democratic candidates debate: Education” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Video: “Democratic candidates debate: Education” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Video: “Democratic candidates debate: Education”

The Democratic candidates for President talked a fair amount about education issues at tonight’s event.

You can watch that portion in this embedded video.

I’m adding it to THE BEST COLLECTIONS OF DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES’ POLICY POSITIONS:

SHARE THIS:

Video: “Democratic candidates debate: Education” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Embracing Public Schools as the Very Definition of the Common Good | janresseger

Embracing Public Schools as the Very Definition of the Common Good | janresseger

Embracing Public Schools as the Very Definition of the Common Good

The 2019-2020 school year is now underway, and in an ironic twist, in a business journal, the academic dean of the college of education at the for-profit University of Phoenix has penned a beautiful reflection on the meaning of public education. Dean Pam Roggeman understands the meaning for families and for communities of their public schools.

Roggeman writes: “This early fall, I’d like to honor the millions of parents who…  send their kids to school for the first time. Critics, possibly a bit removed from their neighborhood public schools, at times try to paint public education as a nameless, faceless bureaucratic institution that is riddled with faults. And like many other institutions, our public schools do have flaws. However, those of us rooted in our communities, with or without school-age kids, do not see our schools as faceless institutions. Rather, we associate our schools with our child’s talented teacher, or the principal greeting kids at the door, or the coach waiting for kids to be picked up after practice, or the mom who became this fall’s crossing guard, or the front office staff who commiserate with us as we deliver the forgotten lunch, and… also with the friendly bus-driver who will not move that bus until every child is safely seated. We rely on and embrace our neighborhood public schools as a community enterprise on which we deeply depend.”

Roggeman defines the reason public schools are one of our society’s best opportunities for establishing systemic justice for children: public schools are required by law to serve the needs and protect the rights of all children: “(T)here is one thing that our American public schools do better than any other schools in the country or even in the world: our public schools commit to addressing the needs of every single child. Our public schools are open to ALL children, without prejudice or pause. Our schools attempt to educate EVERYBODY. American students are students who are gifted, students with disabilities, students who need advanced placement, students who have experienced trauma, students who are learning CONTINUE READING: Embracing Public Schools as the Very Definition of the Common Good | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: Does Social And Emotional Learning Belong In The Classroom?

CURMUDGUCATION: Does Social And Emotional Learning Belong In The Classroom?

Does Social And Emotional Learning Belong In The Classroom?

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has been gathering traction as a new education trend over the past few years. Back at the start of 2018, EdWeek was noting "Experts Agree Social-Emotional Learning Matters, and Are Plotting Roadmap of How To Do It." But as we head into the new year, many folks still haven't gotten far beyond the "it matters" stage in their plotting.

I'm here to teach you how to be human.

That's the easy part. We can mostly agree that SEL matters; in fact, we ought to agree that it already happens in classrooms. It's impossible to avoid; where children are around adults, SEL is going on. Asking if SEL should occur in a classroom is like asking if breathing should happen in the room. The real question is whether or not it should occur in a formal, structured, instructed and assessed manner. That is the question that starts all the arguments. We can break down the arguments by asking the same questions we ask about any content we want to bring into the classroom.

Why do we want to teach this?

Some SEL proponents have developed a utilitarian focus. Summarizing the work of the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development, EdWeek said "social-emotional learning strategies center on research that has linked the development of skills like building healthy peer relationships and responsible decision making to success inside and outside the classroom." But what happens if we approach what used to be called character education with the idea that it's useful for getting ahead? Doesn't SEL need to be about more than learning to act like a good person in order to get a grade, a job, and a fatter paycheck? Are you even developing good character if your purpose for developing that character is to grab some benefits for yourself?

We can reject that kind of selfish focus for SEL and instead focus on the "whole child," and treat CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Does Social And Emotional Learning Belong In The Classroom?

NEW REPORT FINDS THAT EDUCATION FUNDING IN MOST STATES FALLS WELL BELOW ADEQUATE LEVELS | School Finance Indicators Database

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems | School Finance Indicators Database

NEW REPORT FINDS THAT EDUCATION FUNDING IN MOST STATES FALLS WELL BELOW ADEQUATE LEVELS
The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems

First Edition (April 2019)

Download the report

When it comes to American education, few policy areas are as misunderstood — or as crucial — as school finance.

Over the past several years, a political and empirical consensus has emerged about the importance of equitable and adequate school funding for high quality K-12 education. Certainly, there are plenty of contentious debates about how education funds should be spent. But regardless of one’s opinions on specific education policies, virtually all of the options for improving America’s schools require investment, particularly for disadvantaged students.

We introduce in this report an updated, public database of state school finance measures, and present results for three key measures in this system: effort, adequacy, and progressivity. Our results indicate, as would be expected, that states vary widely on all three measures. There are several states in which educational resources are comparatively adequate and distributed equitably.

In general, however, resources in most states tend to be allocated non-progressively or even regressively, That is, higher poverty districts do not receive more funds — and in some cases receive sustantially less — than do lower poverty districts, even controlling for factors that affect costs, such as regional wage variation, district size, and population density. Moreover, using models that estimate spending levels required to achieve common outcome goals, we find that the vast majority of states spend well under the levels that would be necessary for their higher-poverty districts to achieve national average test scores.

We do not provide state rankings or grades in this report, as the interplay between effort, adequacy and progressivity is complex. We do, however, include recommendations as to how researchers, policymakers, and the public can use our findings, as well as our database, to evaluate state systems and inform debates about improving school finance in the U.S.

Authors: Bruce D. Baker, Matthew Di Carlo, and Mark Weber

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Download the full report

Download the press release

Download the full dataset or use data visualizations

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems | School Finance Indicators Database

An LAUSD Parent Calls For an Investigation of Nick Melvoin - YouTube

 An LAUSD Parent Calls For an Investigation of Nick Melvoin - YouTube

An LAUSD Parent Calls For an Investigation of Nick Melvoin

Carl Petersen

It appears that there was a mole in the boardroom as the LAUSD defended itself against a lawsuit from the charter school industry.

A School Board Member Betrays the Public Trust - Age of Awareness - Medium - https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/a-school-board-member-betrays-the-public-trust-99ae37d139d4 by @ChangeTheLAUSD 

Change The LAUSD - http://www.changethelausd.com/

 An LAUSD Parent Calls For an Investigation of Nick Melvoin - YouTube