Truth, Anger and the National Conversation about Ed Reform - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Truth, Anger and the National Conversation about Ed Reform - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Truth, Anger and the National Conversation about Ed Reform

By Nancy Flanagan on September 15, 2013 5:30 PM

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

(Philip K. Dick)

There's been a lotta snark goin' on in Ed Policy World lately. Most of it centered on The Book--Diane Ravitch's Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. I've read the book (making hundreds of little asterisks, corner-folds, full-paragraph highlights and margin notes) and have written a review, which I'll post on the day the book is released, Tuesday.

It must be the urge to get out there first and capture the spotlight that's caused so many reviewers to post real and imaginary appraisals already. What's interesting to me--as a lifelong, pedestrian school teacher, toiling at what Checker Finn calls the "retail level"--is how everyone is trying to position themselves as Skeptic. There are friendly skeptics, if-only-she-weren't-so-one-sided skeptics, yes-but skeptics. There's a whole spectrum, right down to those who are practically foaming at the mouth over the case that Ravitch lays out in her book: DFER's Joe Williams and The New York Post. Several of these people refer to Diane as their "friend" or "mentor," ironically.

I am guessing that on Tuesday there will be an outpouring of positive reviews (spoiler: mine), but right now, the conversation is focused on a kind of general unwillingness to say: this book calls it as Ravitch sees it, and there are a lot of practitioners who increasingly believe she sees it as it is.

If I had read Ravitch's book five years ago, I may have thought it harsh. When you're going off to school every day, critiques of education policy take a backseat to lesson plans, and what's coming downstream from administrators and the school board. But the mass of evidence 

solidaridad: Developmentally Inappropriate Common Core Standards

solidaridad: Developmentally Inappropriate Common Core Standards:

Developmentally Inappropriate Common Core Standards

Dr. Megan Koschnick discusses the inappropriateness of the Common Core Standards for K-3 at the Common Core Conference held at Notre Dame on September 9, 2013. H/T @slekar

Standardized Testing in Our Public Schools: A Discussion | Seattle Education

Standardized Testing in Our Public Schools: A Discussion | Seattle Education:

Standardized Testing in Our Public Schools: A Discussion

To Test or Not to Test:
Standardized Testing in Our Public Schools

Tuesday evening, September 17 at 7:30 PM
Town Hall in Seattle, the Great Hall
7:30 p.m.

In the wake of last spring’s successful boycott of the Measures of Academic Progress test (MAP), by Seattle public school teachers and now with school districts throughout the region continuing to insist that teacher evaluations be partially tied to student test scores, the Seattle Town Hall presents a public forum on the topic.

Join the discussion with four panelists representing a spectrum of opinions who will make arguments for or against standardized testing.

Find out the origin of standardized tests and where they might be headed. Who supports them and why. Why are parents, teachers and students opposed to these bubble tests? What do these “instruments” accurately measure? How do our children benefit from these evaluations? How do education “reformers” use standardized test results to replace public schools with charter schools? And could this happen here?

During this last school year, teachers from Seattle’s Garfield High School stood up to district managers, without a single dissent among its faculty, and refused to give their students the MAP test. Their boycott spread first to other schools in Seattle, and then quickly inspired teachers, parents and students across the country, and eventually 

"Reign of Error" Reviewed: Ravitch Rises - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

"Reign of Error" Reviewed: Ravitch Rises - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

"Reign of Error" Reviewed: Ravitch Rises

By Anthony Cody on September 15, 2013 6:18 PM

Diane Ravitch has emerged as an iconic figure on America's political landscape. WhatDaniel Ellsberg was to the Vietnam War, Ravitch has become to the battle raging over public education - a truth-teller with the knowledge that comes from decades on the inside of the education "reform" movement. Her new book, Reign of Error, The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools, goes on sale Tuesday, and reveals a great deal about the nature of the epic struggle raging over the future of public education in America - and beyond.

Ravitch's previous book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, was a breakthrough. An "establishment" figure reviewed the evidence and categorically rejected the dominant reform strategies then on the ascent. What's more, Ravitch called out what she termed the "billionaire boys club" for their heavy-handed attempts to privatize the public schools.

Reign of Error picks up where Death and Life left off. Over the past three years the patterns of corruption and influence have become clear, as has the evidence. Her prose is precise and accurate, and devastating. She does not mince words. The third chapter, "Who are the Corporate Reformers," provides a thumbnail portrait of the titans and their proxies. From 

Learning the pivotal moments in America’s civil rights struggle:

Learning the pivotal moments in America’s civil rights struggle

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 15 at 6:33 pmE-mail the writer

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Here’s a brief description of the Sept. 15, 1963, bombing by the Ku Klux Klan of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that left four girls dead. It was written by award-winning historian Taylor Branch in a book he dedicated to “students of freedom and teachers of history.”

That Sunday was the annual Youth Day at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Mamie H. Grier, superintendent of the Sunday school, stopped in at the basement ladies’ room to find four young girls who had left Bible classes early and were talking excitedly about the beginning of the school year. All four were dressed in white from head to toe, as this was their day to run the main service for the adults at eleven o’clock. Grier urged them to hurry along and then went upstairs to sit in on her own women’s Sunday-school class. They were engaged in a lively debate on the lesson topic, “The Love That Forgives,” when a loud earthquake shook the entire church and showed the classroom with plaster and debris. Grier’s first thought was that it was like a ticker-tape parade. Maxine McNair, a schoolteacher sitting next to her, reflexively went stiff and was the only one to speak. “Oh, my goodness!” she said. She escaped with Grier, but the stairs down to the basement were blocked and the large stone staircase on the outside literally had vanished. They stumbled through the church to the front door and then made their way around outside through the gathering noise of moans and sirens. A hysterical church member shouted to Grier that her husband had already gone to the hospital in the first ambulance. McNair searched desperately  

Prince George’s teacher begins 40th year in first-grade classroom at Bladensburg school

A group of retired and current teachers from Bladensburg Elementary School in Prince George’s County gets together at least twice a year to talk about families, share fond memories and discuss the latest in education. Read full article >>    

9 by Ovetta Wiggins / 43min 

Fairfax County students feast on fresh food at new George C. Marshall High School cafeteria

The menu was an appetizing smorgasbord: apple-and-cranberry Waldorf salad, greens with chopped kale, roasted red-pepper humus, falafel flat-bread sandwiches, chow mein noodles and a yogurt parfait with granola and fresh strawberries and blueberries. Read full article >>    

1 by T. Rees Shapiro / 1h 

Daring Arlington County public school requires AP or IB 

Diane Ravitch’s new book has one full chapter dealing with Michelle Rhee – for very good reason. | Reclaim Reform

Diane Ravitch’s new book has one full chapter dealing with Michelle Rhee – for very good reason. | Reclaim Reform:

Diane Ravitch’s new book has one full chapter dealing with Michelle Rhee – for very good reason.

Posted on September 15, 2013by Ken Previti

Many people now realize the extent of damage done to students and all of public education by Michelle Rhee. Where can a clear, data filled picture of this “face of corporate reform” be found in ten focused pages? In Diane Ravitch’s new book, Reign of Error. This is no attack on a person, a personality or a celebrity; this is high definition fact for readers to examine in the light of reason.

 (This is my meme, not Diane Ravitch’s and not part of the book.)

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools can be advance ordered from Amazon HERE.

It will be released on Sept. 17, 2013.

Follow Diane Ravitch’s book tour schedule HERE.

Put this on your personal required reading list.

“When you assume, you make a CCSS of you and me” | The Classroom Sooth

“When you assume, you make a CCSS of you and me” | The Classroom Sooth:

“When you assume, you make a CCSS of you and me”

Posted on September 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Common Core is laden with serious problems, and it makes me want to vomit, but not until after I school some folks, out of the loop.  I won’t even bring up the fact that it’s (as TeacherX) likes to point out) a $14 billion “Trojan horse for more testing.”

A week before school started and I had to sit through a horrible professional development that was put together by our “network literacy specialist” who, when I asked her where she got the document she responded that ” it was something I got from a friend.”  As if that’s good enough.  Thank you for your honesty in describing how you waste my time with such little forethought.  

I was so livid about the content and methods, I posted pics to these to social media with the comment.  please note the description for the “close reading” strategy:

The text below (Dees) was given to teachers as professional development on literacy strategies for CCSS. The disposition we take is that this should be text-dependent reading, un-contextualized (second pic). This document expounding the virtues of vulture capitalism and philanthropic colonialism is meant to be read w/o understanding all the grief those two practices have caused in the world and more intimately in our Chicago communities. This is why educators must fight the common core animal head on. No text is withoutCONtext.

 

In the margin, I wrote, “If background knowledge is secondary, then why pay 

9-15-13 Wait What?

Wait What?:

The Connecticut Post’s Tale of two cities

While one Connecticut Post article yesterday featured Bridgeport’s faux superintendent of schools, Paul Vallas saying “I am going to keep this job till someone says I can’t,” Hugh Bailey, an editorial writer at the paper was observing in another piece that, “At school reform’s center, a resounding ‘no’.” As Hugh Bailey so clearly noted in […]The post The Connecticut Post’s Tale of two cities appea

11 by jonpelto / 4min 

9-14-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: Bridgeport Community Bank that Bridgeport’s BOE Chair Kenneth Moales Jr won’t pay back goes underIn an article entitled, “State Has First Bank Failure In A Decade, the Hartford Courant reported last night that, “The Community’s Bank, with its headquarters and one branch in Bridgeport, came under the receivership of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. late Friday afternoon amid mounting

by mike simpson / 23h 

9-15-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

Reign of Error: the important new book by Diane Ravitch

The testing, accountability, and choice strategies offer the illusion of change while changing nothing.  They mask the inequity and injustice that are now so apparent in our social order.  They do nothing to alter the status quo.  They preserve the status quo.  They are the status quo. Those words appear on p. 225 of Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America'

4 by rss@dailykos.com ... / 1min 

9-14-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:  Saturday reflection on teaching - the year goes onYesterday ending the first complete week of teaching at my new school, the 3rd with students.  Our first week we only had freshmen on Monday, to walk their schedules, and the 2nd week was interrupted by Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah.  We see our classes on alternate days, A Day - B Day, each time for extended periods.  That

by mike simpson / 8h 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is Hairstyling a Common Core Career Ready 5th Grade Standard? Flat Irons Needed?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is Hairstyling a Common Core Career Ready 5th Grade Standard? Flat Irons Needed?:

Is Hairstyling a Common Core Career Ready 5th Grade Standard? Flat Irons Needed?

What 5th graders are learning in a Missouri classroom.

The following information is from a Missouri mom.  Is this an example of "College and CAREER ready" the Common Core proponents are talking about?  This type of education will sure make our kids globally competitive!  It just might not be in the fields you thought Common Core was pushing: 

Our kids can't read....most can't do math any more...we can't find time to teach history, but we sure can teach them how to straighten hair.  This note sent from school was shared with me by a mom in our district.  On the off days from hair class 101, her daughter is learning about choreography in 5th grade. 

Alarmed yet?  Welcome to Common Core and the 21 Century learners.  College and CAREER readiness.  Like this mom said...if they don't teach her daughter to read or do math, she will have learned necessary skills to maybe become a stripper someday all while in the 5th grade.  

Not funny, but you have to laugh.  

Hair Styling 101

Week of

Coop Goes to High School Part 2 – First Year | Lefty Parent

Coop Goes to High School Part 2 – First Year | Lefty Parent:

Coop Goes to High School Part 2 – First Year

September 15th, 2013 at 12:51

Continuing from part one, this is part two in my attempt to recollect and record in writing my high school years which were so significant to me developmentally, not so much because of what I did in class, but what I did in my life beyond the schoolroom.

Pioneer high school was a big public high school with over 2000 students, one of two at the time in Ann Arbor, located on the southwest side of town about a mile and a half from my house. It was a sprawling building on an even bigger campus of lawn and parking lots looking more like a high-tech business campus than a typical high school. When I first entered to register for classes the week before school started the main hallway was broad and institutional with what I remember to be a polished formica or marble-like floor, nothing to give the place a sense of a human scale. The school was a string of buildings connected in an L-shape, maybe at least a quarter of a mile from one end to the other.

Registration included a long row of tables on the side of the broad main hallway of the school. Hundreds of newly enrolling kids were milling about 

Plaintiff in iconic school speech case starts tour - SFGate

Plaintiff in iconic school speech case starts tour - SFGate:

Plaintiff in iconic school speech case starts tour

By JESSICA GRESKO, Associated Press

Updated 10:29 am, Sunday, September 15, 2013

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  In this photo taken Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013, Mary Beth Tinker, 61, shows one of her collection of arm bands during an interview with the Associated Press in Washington. Tinker was 13 years old in 1965 when she wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War. School officials suspended her, leading to a lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, almost 50 years later, Tinker has resigned her job as a nurse to spend six months traveling around the country to colleges and high schools to talk about free speech. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta

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 WASHINGTON (AP) — Mary Beth Tinkerwas just 13 when she spoke out against the Vietnam War by wearing a black armband to her Iowa school in 1965. When the school suspended her, she took her free speech case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. Now 61, she's quit her part-time job as a nurse and will travel the country telling her story.

Tinker will visit her first school Monday in Philadelphia. After that, she's scheduled to travel by RV to 18 states and the District of Columbia as part of what's being called the "Tinker Tour." She'll log 10,000 to 15,000 miles, the equivalent of driving across the country three to five times, before her tour ends Nov. 25 in suburban Kansas City. Along the way, she'll stop at more than three dozen locations, most of them schools, and she plans a tour of schools in western states in the spring. Her message: Students should take action on issues important to them.

"It's better for our whole society when kids have a voice," Tinker said in a recent interview 

9-15-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Compare and Contrast Reactions to Teacher Evaluation: In Mexico 10,000 Teachers Protest, In NYC Union Leaders Defend the Undermining of the Profession

The education issues in Mexico and in this country and in other parts of the world are the same. That should tell you something. That the union misleaders who are wearing buttons that say Dec. 31, 2013 to mark the end of the Bloomberg era are not telling the members the truth about the neo-liberal assault on education, teachers and their unions.Reports about how teachers have taken over Mexico Cit

2 by ed notes online / 8min mark as read  //  save

News From Susan Ohanian Plus Brief Commentary for a Sat Nite

I broke the fastBut I did not eat the humitz(to the tune of "I Shot the Sheriff).Well, I'm as full as a bull after 24 hours of fasting. We had 6 people at the break the fast and me and the guys went down to my recently refurbished room which I'm trying to brand my new "man cave." Now pre-Sandy I wouldn't be found dead down there -- though I could have been found dead down there (lik

1 by ed notes online / 8min 

9-14-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Al Qaeda Plan to Drain US Economy - Did Fall of Soviet Union Result From Similar US Policy?In an audio speech a day after the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda, called on Muslims to carry out a “a few disparate attacks” on American soil and to “bleed America economically,”.. NY Times, Attack U.S., Qaeda Chief Te

by mike simpson / 20h