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

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

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Carol Burris: Federal Analysis Finds No Difference in Performance Between Charter Schools and Public Schools

by dianeravitch / 14min

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, reports on a new federal analysis comparing charter schools and public schools. She writes: A recent report on school choice commissioned by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) documented what we already know– the performance of students who attend charter schools is no better than t

YESTERDAY

Milwaukee School Board Votes to Restore Music Education in Every Public School!

100+by dianeravitch / 17h

A great victory for real education in Milwaukee, where the business community and politicians have been obsessed with “choice” for 30 years. From the FB page of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association. This is a victory for students! This is a victory for real education! A Big Victory for Music in MPS! 70 photos · 5 hours ago Last night the School Board decided to take the first step in movi

Personnel Is Policy

by dianeravitch / 17h

Trump selected inexperienced, hard-right Congressman John Ratcliffe’s to be the Director of National Intelligence, but the Republicans in the Senate sent word that they would not confirm Trumps’ unqualified lapdog. This story from today’s Washington Post by James Hohmann shows what a difference this made. Had Ratcliffe been confirmed, the whistleblower complaint would never have seen the light of

Boston: New Superintendent Reduces Testing Overload!

56by dianeravitch / 21h

Now here is good news! The new superintendent of the Boston Public Schools Brenda Casellius announced a reduction of district tests. This does not affect the state-mandated tests, but it is a welcome acknowledgement that students need more instruction, not more testing. School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has announced a moratorium on district-mandated standardized tests, according to a Sept.

Nashville School Board Rejects Rocketship Charter

by dianeravitch / 22h

The Metro Nashville School Board took the bold, brave step of rejecting a proposed Rocketship charter school. The Nashville school board denied charter school network Rocketship Education a new school — despite receiving its first recommendation to approve an application in years. The Metro Nashville Public Schools board bucked the district’s charter school review recommendation for the resubmitt

Confessions of a Reluctant Radical

45by dianeravitch / 23h

Cheryl Gibbs was not an activist. She just wanted to teach her children in a Virginia public school and ignore politics. But step by step, she realized that there was a coordinated attack on public schools. One thing led to another. She joined the union. She became a union rep. She became a BAT. And when she retired, she became a full-fledged member of the Resistance. The Resistance fights privat

Steve Miller: Texas Charter Schools Are Transparent Except When They Are Not

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Steve Miller writes in the Texas Monitor about the special protections provided by the law for charter schools. They claim to be public, they claim to be accountable, they claim to be transparent, but only when it suits their convenience. Take the powerful IDEA chain , which has recently received over $200 million from Betsy DeVos’ personal slush fund called the federal “Charter Schools Program,”

SEP 26

Chicago: CTU Votes Overwhelmingly to Strike

33by dianeravitch / 1d

NEWS RELEASE: For Immediate Release | ctulocal1.org CONTACT: Ronnie Reese 312-329-6235 , RonnieReese@ctulocal1.org Ninety-four percent of CTU members vote to authorize strike for schools Chicago’s students deserve Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates governing body will set strike date at Wednesday, Oct. 2 , meeting. CHICAGO, September 26, 2019 —The Chicago Teachers Union this evening releas

Peter Goodman: Is New York City About to Double Down on High-Stakes Testing?

by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Goodman writes about education policy in New York City and New York State. I n this post , he tries to figure out whether NYC is about to double down on a “test and punish” regime or to seek collaboration. He covers the bizarre City Council hearing about over-testing, where a top official of the NYC Department of Education announced the city’s decision to add four new off-the-shelf standard

Peter Greene: What Betsy DeVos Got Wrong in Milwaukee

by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Greene fact-checked Betsy DeVos’s “back to school” speech at a religious school in Milwaukee and discovered that all of her facts were wrong. But facts, in DeVos’s worldview, are tiresome and unnecessary. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/09/17/betsy-devos-polly-williams-vouchers-and-selective-facts/ Perhaps most egregious was her paean of praise to Polly Williams, an African Am

Valerie Strauss: Betsy DeVos Expresses Her Contempt for Public Schools

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Valerie Strauss is not surprised yet disappointed that Betsy DeVos kicked off her “back to school tour” at a religious school in Milwaukee, flaunting her contempt for the vast majority of students who attend public schools. By doing so, she showed her agenda: privatization of public schools and transfer of public money to religious schools. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/16/wher

Cory Booker’s Long and Profitable Friendship with Betsy DeVos, and Why It Ended

300+by dianeravitch / 1d

Cory Booker was recently interviewed by the Washington Post, and he was asked about his past support for vouchers and his friendship with Betsy DeVos. He insisted that he turned against vouchers in 2006, and he barely remembered any connection to DeVos. When someone asked if he had flown to Michigan in 2000 at the request of Dick and Betsy DeVos to support their voucher referendum, he at first de

Jan Resseger: School Grades Accurately Measure Poverty, Not School Quality

500+by dianeravitch / 2d

During the Clinton presidential campaign, Bill Clinton’s staff used this phrase: “It’s the economy, stupid.” In current discussions about education, the phrase should be, “It’s poverty, stupid.” Jan Resseger demonstrates how precisely Ohio’s school grades measure poverty, not school quality. She begins: On Tuesday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published a stunning analysis , by the newspaper’s data

SEP 25

Eric Blanc: Why Doesn’t Elizabeth Warren Have a K-12 Plan?

300+by dianeravitch / 2d

Eric Blanc asks in Jacobin why Elizabeth Warren does not have a plan for K-12 schooling. She has expressed various positions on education but her overall policy about testing, charter schools, and accountability are murky at best. He questions how different they are from the Bush-Obama strategies. Blanc recently wrote a comprehensive book about the wave of teachers’ strikes of 2018-19 called Red

George Conway III and Neal Catyal: Ukraine Seals the Case for Impeachment

by dianeravitch / 2d

George Conway III and Neal Catyal are lawyers. Conway is married to Kellyanne Conway; Catyal is a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States. This article appeared in the Washington Post. Among the most delicate choices the framers made in drafting the Constitution was how to deal with a president who puts himself above the law. To address that problem, they chose the mechanism of impea

New York Plans to Increase Number of Tests So Students Are Ready for State Tests

62by dianeravitch / 2d

The New York City Council Committee on Education held a hearing to discuss overtesting in the schools, and the Department of Education’s chief academic officer announced a plan to increase testing to be sure students are ready for the state test. The Department will add four off-the-shelf standardized tests to replace the school-selected interim assessments. New testing requirements are in the of

North Carolina: School Grades Measure Income, Not School Quality

62by dianeravitch / 2d

Public Schools First in North Carolina posted an analysis of the grades given to schools by the state, based mostly on test scores. Not surprisingly, the school grades measured income, not school quality, since standardized tests measure income. School Performance Grades School Performance Grades Source: N&O analysis of Public Instruction data School performance grades started in 2013-14 modeled

FAIRTEST: Four Dozen More Colleges Drop SAT-ACT Requirement

100+by dianeravitch / 2d

FairTest National Center for Fair & Open Testing for further information, contact: Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 mobile (239) 699-0468 for immediate release Wednesday, September 18, 2019 BEST YEAR EVER FOR TEST-OPTIONAL HIGHER ED. ADMISSIONS AS 47 ADDITIONAL INSTITUTIONS DROP ACT/SAT SCORE REQUIREMENTS; MORE THAN HALF OF “TOP 100” LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES ARE AMONG 1,050 SCHOOLS NO LONGER REQUIRING S

SAT Scores Fall, Achievement Gaps Grow Larger

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

Remember when David Coleman, architect of Common Core and then president of the College Board, claimed that the adoption of the Common Core would increase equity and raise test scores for all, especially those farthest behind? Remember, after he took control of the College Board, when he redesigned the SAT and said the New SAT would promote equity? None of that happened. More students are taking

SEP 24

Bernie: There Should Be No Billionaires!

34by dianeravitch / 3d

I have not endorsed any candidate. I like Senator Bernie Sanders’ education plan better than any other I have seen but I have not endorsed Bernie nor anyone else. I will support the nominee of the Democratic Party. If any candidate says anything that I think is important to bring to your attention, I will share it, regardless which candidate proposes it. This is what Bernie sent out today, and I

Ohio: Take Action Now Against Poisonous HB 154

28by dianeravitch / 3d

Parents, grandparents, and educators in Ohio. Contact the governor and legislators and urge them to stop HB 154. Now. State takeover has already failed in Ohio, yet the Senate Education Committee slipped it back into a bill intended to support struggling districts instead of taking away their democracy. Bill Phillis and Jeanne Melvin of Public Education Partners send this urgent message. Jeanne M

Terri Michal: The Charter Land Grab in Birmingham

400+by dianeravitch / 3d

Terri Michal is an elected school board member in Birmingham. Betsy DeVos recently gave $25 million to Alabama from the federal Charter Schools Program, which she uses as her personal slush fund. Federal Grants and Surplus Property: DeVos’s Solution to Help the Students of Birmingham, AL. By Terri Michal In Alabama we have a Legislature that appears to be perfectly fine creating legislation that

Nick Hanauer Speaks Out Against Income Inequality in a Pair of TED Talks

by dianeravitch / 3d

Nick Hanauer, who may or may not be a billionaire, made a splash when he conspicuously dropped out of the Destroy Public Education Movement and the Billionaire Boys Club , which he had supported with donations of millions of dollars. He loudly declared that his fellow plutocrats were wrong to blame the schools for the dysfunctions of our society, which he pinned on income inequality. He has given

Wrench in the Gears on the Corporate Takeover of Sesame Street

28by dianeravitch / 3d

The blogger Wrench in the Gears worries here (in a 2018 post) about the MacArthur Foundation’s Grant of $100 Million to Sesame Street, intended to help the children of Syrian refugees. The “help” these children get will be delivered by technology, she says, not by humans. As it happens, I was one of a large number of judges in this competition, though I did not review the Sesame Street proposal.

Nancy Bailey: Betsy DeVos is a Hypocrite

44by dianeravitch / 4d

Nancy Bailey calls out Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for talking about “education freedom” at the same time that she is doing everything within her power to snuff it out. Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom: It’s Anything But

SEP 23

What Greta Thunberg Told the UN Today

2Kby dianeravitch / 4d

Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke at the UN Climate Conference today. Trump skipped the meeting to attend a discussion of religious freedom. Last Friday, Thunberg inspired millions of students around the world to demonstrate on behalf of action to address the climate crisis. She said today: “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be standing here. I should be back in school on the ot

Betsy DeVos: U.S. is on “Verge of Making Education Great Again”

200+by dianeravitch / 4d

All it took to make American education “great again” was two-and-a-half years of Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos. So saith Betsy DeVos to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan. DeVos vigorously defended charter schools, especially in Detroit, even though most Detroit charters underperform Detroit public schools and are run as profit-making businesses. DeVos opened Saturday’s prog

The New Republic: The Management Culture at Boeing Caused the Crash of Its Max 737s

50by dianeravitch / 4d

This article is a reason to subscribe to The New Republic. If you have been sick of watching the takeover of American education by entrepreneurs, professional managers, management consultants, and Wall Street, you will see parallels between the managerial culture at Boeing and the management culture that has permeated large sectors of American educators. At Boeing, crucial decisions were made by

Gary Rubinstein: How the Other 1/300th Learn

by dianeravitch / 4d

Gary Rubenstein enjoyed reading Robert Pondiscio’s book about Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy. He recommends it. What Pondiscio reveals is that SA does not cherrypick students, as critics charge: It cherrypicks parents. One premise of the book is that the fundamental secret to Success Academy’s amazing standardized test scores, mentioned throughout the work is the filtering of the right families.

Texas: Special Rules, Special Treatment for Charter Honchos

34by dianeravitch / 4d

Steven Miller of the Texas Monitor reports on the perks for charter executives in Texas. Charter schools fly below the radar on spending and transparency rules If you are a charter bigwig or spouse, you can fly first class, a privilege not available to public school employees. Charter executives are exempt from the rules that apply to public schools. Yet they deign to call themselves “public scho

Commonweal: What the Mega-Rich Owe to the Poor

51by dianeravitch / 5d

As I have mentioned here, I am Jewish. Be that as it may, I regularly read the publication “Commonweal,” which is edited by lay Catholics (not Jesuits, as I originally sad) and often vigorously agree with its writers. Read this one by John Chryssavgis. https://www.commonweal-magazine.org/prosperity-philanthropy At the latest G7 summit in Biarritz, U.S. President Donald Trump reassured the world t

SEP 22

Pennsylvania: Speaker of the House Berates Public Schools and Their Teachers, Praises Charters

500+by dianeravitch / 5d

Once again, we are reminded that charter schools are a Republican cause, and their champion is Betsy DeVos. Mike Turzai, Republican Speaker of the House in Pennsylvania, was on his way to a meeting with Betsy DeVos when he encountered some public school teachers, who were picketing with signs saying they loved their public schools. Turzai found this deeply offensive, and he proceeded to lambaste

Bill Phillis: Ohio Punishes Districts for Enrolling Too Many Poor Children

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy points out the obvious: State-issued school grades punish schools and districts for enrolling too many poor kids. Ohio’s school report card grades predict median household income, child poverty rate, level of education attainment of adults An “F” rating on Ohio’s school report card is guaranteed in districts with lowest median household i

Bill & Melinda Gates on the State of Inequality in the World

by dianeravitch / 5d

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued an annual report called the “ Goalskeepers Report 2019, ” signed by Bill & Melinda Gates. The theme is “Examining Inequality.” It is a useful compilation of data about inequality from around the world, focused mainly on Africa. There are two things that really bother me, however. First of all, Bill Gates has never admitted or apologized for the damage he

Jennifer Berkshire: Do You Want to Hear the Music in “Betsy DeVos: The Musical?” Listen Here.

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

Jennifer Berkshire presents here a podcast in which she interviews Quinn Strassel, the Ann Arbor high school teacher who wrote the musical “Betsy DeVos: The Musical.” The podcast includes both an interview and some of the songs. The DeVos-funded Mackinac Center, funded by DeVos, did not like the musical! Suffice it to say that DeVos has been a one-woman wrecking crew in Michigan who is now doing

Rev/Dr. Anika Whitfield Writes a Letter to the Governor of Arkansas: Return Our Public Schools to Us!

33by dianeravitch / 6d

Rev/Dr. Anika Whitfield wrote the following letter to newly re-elected Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas about the failed state takeover of the Little Rock School District, whose only purpose was to take away any democratic control of the district’s public schools by its residents. Dr. Whitfield is both a podiatrist and a minister, so she is Rev/Dr. Rev/Dr. Whitfield is included in my new book

SEP 21

Steven Singer: Charter Schools Have Two Dads!

35by dianeravitch / 6d

Steven Singer has written recently about the origins of charter schools. He insists that Albert Shanker, president of the AFT, was not their father. The real fathers of this first big step towards privatization , he writes, were Ted Kolderie and Joe Nathan of Minnesota, who wrote the nation’s first charter school law and opened the door wide for entrepreneurs, grifters, and attacks on unions. Sin

Texas: The Hoax and Lies Perpetrated by the Charter Industry

23by dianeravitch / 6d

William J. Gumbert has posted a series of analyses of charter school performance and demographics in Texas, based on public data compiled by the state. This is a summary of earlier posts. You may recall from an earlier post about Houston that the state commissioner of education is threatening to take control of the Houston Independent School District because of the persistently low rest scores of

How a Minnesota Foundation Wasted $45 Million on a Failed Plan to Reform Teacher Education

60by dianeravitch / 6d

Rob Levine, a Resistance-to-Privatization blogger in Minneapolis, reports here on the failure of the Bush Foundation’s bold “teacher effectiveness” initiative, which cost $45 million. All wasted. The foundation set bold goals. It did not meet any of them. Levine writes: Ten years ago the St Paul-based Bush Foundation embarked on what was at the time its most expensive and ambitious project ever:

Senate Republicans Want to Increase Funding for Charters, House Democrats Want to Cut it

200+by dianeravitch / 7d

The federal Charter Schools Program handed out $440 Million this year. Betsy DeVos uses this money as her personal slush fund to reward corporate charter chains like KIPP ($89 million), IDEA (over $200 million in two years), and 

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

AFT and Medicare for All - Randi Weingarten - Medium

AFT and Medicare for All - Randi Weingarten - Medium

AFT and Medicare for All

This was submitted as a letter to the editor of Jacobin magazine.

In his Sept. 26 Jacobin article — “Why Is Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten Attacking Medicare for All?” — AFT member Ben Curttright says he was upset and disappointed by my advocacy for universal healthcare coverage as well as my effort to lift up all of the 2020 Democratic candidates’ proposals to expand coverage. He wants me simply and exclusively to champion “Medicare for All.”

It’s Ben’s right to champion Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal, and I am supportive of AFT members fighting for diverse viewpoints and positions. We agree that we must make healthcare a basic, universal human right — a right that too many people are still living without — which is what I argued for in my op-ed with which he takes issue. But where Ben and I differ is that I don’t believe there is just one way to get there. The conversation about how to provide that access to healthcare is an important one, but asserting that every progressive in America wants an immediate and permanent transition to one public system is inaccurate.

I argued for Medicare for all as a floor, not a ceiling, with a role if people want for private insurance. This exists right now for people like my father CONTINUE READING: AFT and Medicare for All - Randi Weingarten - Medium

CURMUDGUCATION: Stanford: Opportunity And Testing Baloney

CURMUDGUCATION: Stanford: Opportunity And Testing Baloney

Stanford: Opportunity And Testing Baloney

Look, it's not that I want everyone to stop any discussion of Big Standardized Test scores at all forever (okay, I might, but I recognize that I'm a radical in this issue and I also recognize that reasonable people may disagree with me). But what I really want everyone to stop pretending that the BS Test scores are an acceptable proxy for other factors.

But here comes a new "data tool" from Stanford, and watch how EdWeek opens its piece about the new tool:

An interactive data tool from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University creates the first database that attempts to measure the performance of every elementary and middle school in the country.

The data set not only provides academic achievement for schools, districts, and states around the country, but it also allows those entities to be compared to one another, even though they don't all use the same state tests.

No.

No no no no no NO no no no hell no. The tool does not measure the performance of every school in the country, and it does not provide academic achievement either. It allows folks to compare the math and reading scores on the BS Tests across state lines. That's it. That's all. It's a clever method of comparing apples to oranges, but that's all. Academic achievement? It covers two academic areas, and not very well at that.

(And while I'm ranting, let me also point out that schools do not perform. Students, teachers, staff, other human beings-- they perform. Schools sit there. If we start talking about performing schools, before you know it we start spouting dumb things like "low-achieving schools have a large number of low-scoring students" as if that's an analysis and not a definition.)

But maybe this is a press and reporting CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Stanford: Opportunity And Testing Baloney

Shawgi Tell: No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools

One of the main claims to fame of privately-operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools is that they will deliver bigger and better results than public schools in exchange for greater flexibility and autonomy to operate than public schools.

Two recent reports, however, build on extensive previous research which shows that academic performance in privately operated charter schools, which have been around nearly 30 years, is weak or no better than academic performance in public schools.

Charter schools, which annually siphon billions of dollars from public schools and are often rife with corruption, have not delivered on the big promises they have made for decades.

First Report

New Mexico passed legislation enabling the creation of privately-operated charter schools more than 20 years ago. Currently, the state has about 25,000 students enrolled in approximately 100 charter schools.

In September 2019, the neoliberal pro-charter school Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University published a detailed report showing that academic performance in privately-operated charter CONTINUE READING: No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Sacramento, Calif., Cops Who Shot and Killed an Unarmed #StephonClark Are Headed Back to the Streets

Sacramento, Calif., Cops Who Shot and Killed an Unarmed #StephonClark Are Headed Back to the Streets

Sacramento, Calif., Cops Who Shot and Killed an Unarmed #StephonClark Are Headed Back to the Streets

The two Sacramento, Calif., cops who shot and killed an unarmed Stephon Clark as he stood in his grandparents’ backyard last year not only will face no charges—but they have been cleared to return to duty.

Minutes after the Justice Department decided not to pursue civil rights charges against Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet in the March 2018 shooting death of Clark, Sacramento police on Thursday announced they had cleared them as well, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Echoing the Justice Department’s finding of no culpability on Mercadal’s and Robinet’s parts, Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said, “The use of deadly force in this case was lawful. Our internal investigation concluded that there were no violations of department policy or training.”

But while that finding came as no surprise, no matter how unwelcome for Clark’s family, Hahn’s next statement was jarring:

“The officers involved in this case will return to full, active duty.”

Clark’s brother, Stevante Clark, in a Facebook message he posted Thursday as he and other family members met with DOJ and Sacramento police officials, expressed bitterness about the outcome.

“These people have failed when it comes to #Accountability,” he wrote, the Sacramento Bee reports, later telling the paper: “I’m not surprised or shocked, we’ve been denied justice for generations. The only thing that caught me off CONTINUE READING: Sacramento, Calif., Cops Who Shot and Killed an Unarmed #StephonClark Are Headed Back to the Streets

TODAY'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

Education Research Report

TODAY'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

TODAY

Do Kids Fall Behind in Math Because There Isn’t Enough Grade-Level Material, or Because There’s Too Much? It’s Both

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

Complete report New Classrooms Innovation Partners W alk into almost any classroom in America, and you’ll find at least some students who’ve fallen behind the academic standards for their grade — meaning they’re at risk of not learning everything they’ll need to be ready for college and the lives they want to lead. Helping these students get back on the path to grade-level proficiency is one of t

Automatic Enrollment Increases Contributions to Supplement Retirement Programs by K-12 and University Employees

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

This study examines the impact of the adoption of automatic enrollment provisions by schools and universities in the state of South Dakota for its supplemental retirement saving plan (SRP). In South Dakota, educational personnel are also covered by a defined benefit pension plan and by Social Security. Thus, career public employees in South Dakota can expect a life time annuity from these two pro

The School to Prison Pipeline: Long-Run Impacts of School Suspensions on Adult Crime

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

. Schools face important policy tradeoffs in monitoring and managing student behavior. Strict discipline policies may stigmatize suspended students and expose them to the criminal justice system at a young age. On the other hand, strict discipline acts as a deterrent and limits harmful spillovers of misbehavior onto other students. This paper estimates the net impact of school discipline on stude

Breaking Down Barriers: Understanding Hispanic High School Students’ Perceptions on the Transition to College

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

. Hispanic students make up roughly 18 percent of all college students and are one of the largest minority groups on U.S. campuses. However, Hispanic students tend to meet ACT College Readiness Benchmarks at lower rates, on average, than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. In addition, Hispanic students may face added barriers in navigating the landscape of the college application process, le

SEPTEMBER 2019 Using Chronic Absence Data to Improve Conditions for Learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2h

Reducing chronic absence goes hand in hand with cultivating positive conditions for learning. When schools provide engaging, supportive, welcoming and culturally responsive environments, families are inclined to help their children get to school, and students are motivated to attend, even when there are hurdles to getting there. Likewise, when students attend class consistently, positive conditio

Mathematics Anxiety in the Transition From Elementary School to Junior High

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3h

Mathematics anxiety negatively impacts cognitive processing, performance, expectations, motivation, and future choices. However, research has not examined patterns in students’ mathematics anxiety levels over time. The current study addresses this gap by exploring group-based trajectories in mathematics anxiety during the transition to junior high school. Five trajectories are described: consiste

YESTERDAY

Kids in poor, urban schools learn just as much as others

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 18h

Schools serving disadvantaged and minority children teach as much to their students as those serving more advantaged kids, according to a new nationwide study. The results may seem surprising, given that student test 

Education Research Report

Confessions of a Reluctant Radical | Diane Ravitch's blog

Confessions of a Reluctant Radical | Diane Ravitch's blog

Confessions of a Reluctant Radical

Cheryl Gibbs was not an activist. She just wanted to teach her children in a Virginia public school and ignore politics. But step by step, she realized that there was a coordinated attack on public schools. One thing led to another. She joined the union. She became a union rep. She became a BAT.

And when she retired, she became a full-fledged member of the Resistance. The Resistance fights privatization. It fights the replacement of experienced teachers by TFA and artificial intelligence. It fights for real education, real teachers, real public schools.

She begins:

When I began teaching twenty years ago, my activism was caring about children; loving them, helping them discover their most complete, healthy, and most fulfilled selves as they grew. I  read the mainstream news and voted. That was about the extent of it. 

I joined the union, like many teachers, to have the liability insurance that I knew a teacher might need when classes included at-risk and emotionally disordered students. When I was asked to be a union co-rep for my building, the promise was, “You only have to attend one meeting a month and fill-in when the “real rep” isn’t available.” I reluctantly agreed to serve.

Yet here I am. 

Voluntarily retired two years earlier CONTINUE READING: Confessions of a Reluctant Radical | Diane Ravitch's blog

Stigma Buster: Schools Look at Mental Health Days for Students

Stigma Buster: Schools Look at Mental Health Days for Students

Stigma Buster: Schools Look at Mental Health Days for Students

As more school districts across the country implement programs to address student mental health, cutting through the stigma that surrounds this issue is a formidable challenge. Too often a discussion about mental health is constrained by uncomfortable silences, suggestions that teenagers are maybe just lazy or incapable of handling any sort of pressure, or just outright denial.

This past summer, a group of students in Oregon did their part to help open up the conversation. They successfully lobbied the state legislature to pass a law that added mental health to the list of excusable absences. When the bill was signed into law in June, Oregon joined Utah as the one of the only states in the country to establish mental health days for students.

To skeptics, the law seemed unnecessary (many schools already permit these absences) and liable to spark a surge in absentee students.

Supporters say these concerns miss the point. The law is important because it opens up lines of communication, says Debbie Plotnick of Mental Health America. She hopes the change will help kids feel more comfortable talking with their parents and teachers.

“Acknowledging that students may be experiencing a mental health issue and allowing them to be excused to tend to their mental health encourages CONTINUE READING: Stigma Buster: Schools Look at Mental Health Days for Students

The AFT’s Randi Weingarten attacks Medicare for All. – Fred Klonsky

The AFT’s Randi Weingarten attacks Medicare for All. – Fred Klonsky

THE AFT’S RANDI WEINGARTEN ATTACKS MEDICARE FOR ALL

The president of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten has decided to go against her own union’s official position and join her centrist Democratic allies in opposing national health care, also known as Medicare for All.

In 2018, the AFT approved a resolution in support of defending and expanding the Affordable Care Act, then under attack by the Republicans.

In addition, the AFT called for moving towards a single payer, national health care system modeled after Medicare.

RESOLVED, that the AFT reaffirms that the most sensible and cost-effective solution for health coverage is a single-payer system modeled after the federal Medicare system, such as that proposed by S.B. 1804 and H.R. 676; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will educate and mobilize its members and our broader community to support universal healthcare coverage.

On Monday, Weingarten wrote a commentary for Politico defending work-based health insurance and  therefore opposing Medicare for All, calling them “false choices.”

Like many other labor leaders, I have sat across a bargaining CONTINUE READING: The AFT’s Randi Weingarten attacks Medicare for All. – Fred Klonsky

Lavish Lobbying Ensures that Washington, D.C. Charter Schools Remain Unregulated | janresseger

Lavish Lobbying Ensures that Washington, D.C. Charter Schools Remain Unregulated | janresseger

Lavish Lobbying Ensures that Washington, D.C. Charter Schools Remain Unregulated

Rachel M. Cohen is a fine investigative reporter, whose stories have appeared in The American Prospect, The Intercept, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Slate, The Nation, and a number of other publications. Her most recent investigation explores a topic that is much in the news: the seeming impossibility of regulating charter schools more than two decades after enabling legislation across state legislatures—and Congressional legislation for Washington, D.C.—created them as an experiment in innovation.

Government oversight of charter schools makes sense to many of us.  Charter schools are a form of government contracting.  They are publicly funded and privately operated.  As publicly funded institutions, they ought to be responsible for adhering to the laws that protect their students’ rights.  And surely, charter schools ought to be regulated to protect the investment of tax dollars. But in Washington, D.C., as in many other places, charter school operators and advocates continue to push hard against even modest public oversight.

For the Washington City Paper, Cohen investigates the all the forces that have prevented public oversight of charter schools in the nation’s capital—a city where Congress is directly involved in local school district affairs: “When (Bill) Clinton signed the School Reform Act into law in the spring of 1996, it was over the strong objection of D.C.’s non-voting Congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who protested Congress’ interference in the city’s local affairs.” “In 2001, D.C.’s inspector general and its chief financial officer, Charles Maddox and Natwar Gandhi, respectively, testified before Congress asking for greater authority to oversee local charter school finances. The following year Gandhi turned to the (D.C.) Council to ask for legislative authority over the schools, saying that all charters should be assessed by a single auditing firm, selected by the D.C. government.”

Local leaders demanded additional oversight of charter schools in the District of Columbia for CONTINUE READING: Lavish Lobbying Ensures that Washington, D.C. Charter Schools Remain Unregulated | janresseger