Teachers Union President Joins Anti-Union Operative to Praise Charter Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Teachers Union President Joins Anti-Union Operative to Praise Charter Schools | gadflyonthewallblog:

Teachers Union President Joins Anti-Union Operative to Praise Charter Schools

Randi Weingarten must be out of her damn mind!

The president of the second largest teachers union in the country, The American Federation of Teachers, is now writing op-eds with anti-union activists!?

Just this week she authored an article in the Los Angeles Times along with Jonah Edleman.

Perhaps you remember him. He’s the corporate shill who infamously bragged on YouTube about tricking teachers unions into supporting an Illinois law that would have stripped educators of their right to strike while eliminating seniority and due process.

Yes, THAT Jonah Edleman!

And why is she joining forces with a man who has dedicated his life to destroying the lives of the more than 1.5 million people she is supposed to represent!?

To fight school vouchers while pretending charter schools are a much better alternative.

No, I’m not kidding.

In the midst of an article that correctly outlines Teachers Union President Joins Anti-Union Operative to Praise Charter Schools | gadflyonthewallblog:

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #18. | Fred Klonsky

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #18. | Fred Klonsky:

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #18.

The Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers Episode #18 is up and downloadable.

We met up with singer Sima Cunningham over at Bridgeport Coffee at 31st and Morgan.

She came strolling down 31st street with a guitar on her back. She had enough time to grab a coffee (maybe it was a cappuccino) and a bagel with too little cream cheese. But, look. It’s Bridgeport. The coffee is good even if the bagels are needy.

Over at the Lumpen Radio station producer Jamie Trecker was waiting.

So was Rabbi Brandt Rosen of the Tzedek congregation and regional director of the American Friends Service Committee.

And then in came Pastor Tom Gaulke (rhymes with sea gull kee). His religious home is Bridgeport at the First Lutheran Church of the Trinity.

I guess you could call him our neighborhood pastor since it is right around the corner from the Lumpenradio station.

We were fortunate enough to get Sima Cunningham toHitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #18. | Fred Klonsky:

A Learning Expert Tries Betsy DeVos' Neuron-Stimulating Headset—and Is Far From Impressed | Alternet

A Learning Expert Tries Betsy DeVos' Neuron-Stimulating Headset—and Is Far From Impressed | Alternet:

A Learning Expert Tries Betsy DeVos' Neuron-Stimulating Headset—and Is Far From Impressed
DeVos has invested millions in the brain-training company NeuroCore.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has invested millions in a brain-training company called NeuroCore, which claims its neuro-feedback treatments can help relieve serious illnesses such as ADHD, anxiety, autism, depression, memory loss, migraines, sleeplessness and stress. Ulrich Boser, an education policy expert, writer on learning processes and a fellow at the Center for American Progress, visited a NeuroCore office as a prospective patient and wrote a long piece for the Washington Post. AlterNet’s Steven Rosenfeld asked him what he found.

Steven Rosenfeld: Tell us what led you to visit this business where Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a multimillion-dollar investor.

Ulrich Boser: I just wrote a book on the science of learning and one thing that I thought had not really been looked at enough is this idea—and it’s really in some ways almost even ancient—is that if you study one thing it will have spillover effects. For a long time people argued that if you learned Latin, for instance, you could be better at law, or if you studied chess, you’d be a better strategic thinker. All of this is a type of argument for brain training. The fundamental idea is the A Learning Expert Tries Betsy DeVos' Neuron-Stimulating Headset—and Is Far From Impressed | Alternet:

Voucher Program Helps Well-Off Vermonters Pay for Prep School at Public Expense - ProPublica

Voucher Program Helps Well-Off Vermonters Pay for Prep School at Public Expense - ProPublica:

Voucher Program Helps Well-Off Vermonters Pay for Prep School at Public Expense

Regardless of their income, residents of small Vermont towns can use state vouchers to send their children to boarding schools and ski academies. Some school-choice advocates want to replicate the program nationwide.

A self-made Vermonter, Glenn Bowman has sent both his children to out-of-state prep schools. His son plays lacrosse and football at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and his daughter studied advanced dance at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.

As the owner of a successful soapstone company that's been featured on Martha Stewartand mentioned in The New York Times, Bowman could pay the $50,000-plus annual tuitions at each school out of his own pocket, he said.

But he doesn’t have to.

Because Londonderry, the small town where the Bowmans live, has no high school, they qualify for Vermont’s voucher program, the nation’s oldest. It contributes about $15,000 a year toward each tuition, ultimately saving Bowman more than $100,000 overall on his children’s high school educations.

Bowman chose not to enroll his children in a public school in a nearby town, which the voucher could also have paid for. “Unfortunately, public schools are left dealing with the lowest common denominator and that leaves high-performing kids like mine in a tough place,” he told ProPublica. “You do the best you can for your kids. I can do this and so I do.”

Vermont’s voucher program is a microcosm of what could happen across the country if school-choice advocates such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos achieve their vision. By subsidizing part of the cost of private schools in or out of state, it broadens options for some Vermonters while diverting students from public education and disproportionately benefiting wealthier families like the Bowmans.

Vermont vouchers have been used to send students to ski academies, out-of-state art schools and even foreign boarding schools, such as the Sigtunaskolan School in Sweden, whose alumni include Sweden’s current king and former prime minister. Vermont paid more than $40 million in vouchers to more than 60 private schools last year, including more than $1.3 million to out-of-state schools, according to data received from the state’s education agency through a public-records request.

Of the almost 2,800 Vermonters who use publicly funded vouchers to go to private schools in state, 22.5 percent qualify for free or reduced price lunch, according to state education data. (The data excludes out-of-state private schools.) By contrast, 38.3 percent of public school students in Vermont have family incomes low enough to qualify them for the lunch discount.

“Families with higher socioeconomic status are opting into the private schools,” Nicole Mace, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said in an interview. “If those dollars are going to subsidize a family who could otherwise afford a private Voucher Program Helps Well-Off Vermonters Pay for Prep School at Public Expense - ProPublica:

Studies that Honor Preschool “Rigor” Are NOT to Be Trusted

Studies that Honor Preschool “Rigor” Are NOT to Be Trusted:

Studies that Honor Preschool “Rigor” Are NOT to Be Trusted

Prerequisite to Kindergarten: Instead of demanding four-year-olds talk of geometric “attributes,” how about getting them to show up the first day of kindergarten with great big smiles on their faces?

The New York Times is praising a new study in a report titled “Free Play or Flashcards? New Study Nods to More Rigorous Preschools.” The study itself is titled “Do academic preschools yield stronger benefits? Cognitive emphasis, dosage, and early learning?” The authors are researchers from the Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley and the Food and Drug Administration. But I am not going to spend much time reading this study.

The first mistake these researchers make, is that many Americans want to see the word “rigor” buried. It’s mean-spirited, and we recognize that people who use rigor and preschool, in the same breath, know little about children, or, worse, they don’t like them. So “rigorous” in the title, especially when it is getting a nod, is troubling.

It’s a study done on low and middle class children. I think many are also tired of pushing this group of children to learn. We  understand that poor and middle class students do well with all the stuff wealthy students have in school. Why didn’t this Studies that Honor Preschool “Rigor” Are NOT to Be Trusted:

DeVos praises Paris withdrawal, won’t comment on human role in climate change: ‘Certainly, the climate changes’ - The Washington Post

DeVos praises Paris withdrawal, won’t comment on human role in climate change: ‘Certainly, the climate changes’ - The Washington Post:

DeVos praises Paris withdrawal, won’t comment on human role in climate change: ‘Certainly, the climate changes’

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who on Thursday praised President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord, declined to comment Friday on the extent to which human activity has driven climate change over the last half-century.

She instead reiterated her praise for Trump’s decision during a visit to a D.C. charter school, saying that he had “made good on a promise to ensure that the American people are not subject to overreach” and “fulfilled a commitment to keep America first and to focus on American jobs.”

Pressed by reporters for her personal views on climate change, DeVos said: “Certainly, the climate changes. Yes.”

DeVos said she didn’t have an answer to a question about what the United States should do to confront the challenges of climate change. “I’m here to talk about students and schools today, and I would hope that we could focus on the opportunity that these kids have in this unique environment and this unique school with amazing teachers and administrators,” she said.

Eagle Academy Public Charter School enrolls about 700 students in preschool through third grade, about 20 percent of whom have identified disabilities.

DeVos — who this week unveiled a revamped website on special-education law — toured a special education classroom and a sensory room where students receive occupational therapy, and she read Dr. Seuss’s classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” to a group of students in the library. She also toured the school’s science fair.DeVos praises Paris withdrawal, won’t comment on human role in climate change: ‘Certainly, the climate changes’ - The Washington Post:

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

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

Rock Solid Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

The New York Times Discovers the “Bright Side” of Betsy DeVos

4by dianeravitch / 25min

Up until now, you probably thought of Betsy DeVos as an entitled billionaire who cares about nothing but charters and choice. You may have even concluded that she was indifferent to civil rights, since she has refused to say whether she 

Carol Burris: The Big Lie Behind Vouchers

3by dianeravitch / 1h

Carol Burris analyzes Betsy DeVos’ narrative about vouchers in this post. What she describes goes far beyond the whims of a billionaire zealot. She describes the step-by-step plans of rightwingers who have long planned to undermine the very idea of public education as a civic responsibility. DeVos said when she spoke at Brookings a few weeks ago that she in “not a numbers person.” She is also “no

Texas PTA Blasts Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and State Senate for Failure to Fix School Finance

5by dianeravitch / 2h

The Texas PTA is furious at Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and His allies to the State Senate. Just when it seemed that the legislature was going to increase funding for the stat’s woefully underfunded public schools, the Senate insisted on attaching voucher legislation. The House had already defeated vouchers, but the Senate came back a second time and was defeated again. The Senate Gelb the budget ho

D.C. Schools: A Miracle or a Tragedy?

1by dianeravitch / 3h

This is a case of cognitive dissonance. Or, when presented with two sharply contrasting narratives, whom do you believe? Tom Toch started a think tank in D.C., FutureEd, which is funded by foundations such as Walton, Bezos, and Raikes (Jeff Raikes previously led the Gates Foundation). In its latest bulletin, the lead article by Tom Toch says that the policies put in place by Michelle Rhee and her

YESTERDAY

Senator Warren Launching Project to Hold DeVos Accountable for Policies on Student Debt

20by dianeravitch / 23h

Senator Elizabeth Warrren has created an online program called “DeVos Watch” to hold Betsy DeVos accountable for her oversight of student debt. The online platform will be hosted on Senator Warren’s website. She wrote this opinion article for CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/opinions/devos-watch-opinion-warren The Trump administration is pondering whether to turn over responsibility for student

Dallas: Early Voting is Underway: Vote for Lori Kirkpatrick

5by dianeravitch / 1d

Dallas is holding a crucial school board election. Early voting started on May 30. The election is June 10. The balance of power hangs on this run-off election. Lori Kilpatrick is a teacher and a mother of a child in the Dallas public schools. Lori is in a run-off with businessman Dustin Marshall. Marshall supports all the failed corporate reform ideas, like Jeb Bush’s A-F school grading system ,

Mike Klonsky: Was There a D.C. Miracle?

7by dianeravitch / 1d

Mile Klonsky reviews Tom Toch’s paean to the “Revolutionary changes” launched by Michelle Rhee. He is impressed by Toch’s data. But…. “Okay, now that I’m done FBing about #convfefe, I can get down to more serious business — revolution. It seems a revolution has taken place in D.C. and I somehow missed it. “But Tom Toch didn’t. Toch, a leading pro-reform, education policy expert and a highly regar

Trump Plans to Gut Civil Rights Agencies in Every Cabinet Department

16by dianeravitch / 1d

How many times have you heard Trump or DeVos claiming that their privatization plan for public schools is “the civil rights issue of our time”? They heard the same line from Obama and Duncan and even Mitt Romney, so we can’t credit them with originality. Where they differ from Obama and Duncan is that they have made it clear that they intend to eviscerate the government agencies that enforce civi

Michigan: Charter School Closes Three Weeks Before School Year Ends

31by dianeravitch / 1d

Charter schools are not public schools. They are private schools that contract with the state. This week, a charter school in Southfield, Michigan, announced it was closing three weeks before the end of the school year. Staff and students were stunned. http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/258195926-story Taylor International Academy closed abruptly on Wednesday. No doubt, Betsy DeVos would

The Network for Public Education: Our View on Charter Schools

28by dianeravitch / 1d

NPE Statement on Charter Schools https://wp.me/p3bR9v-2st The Network for Public Education believes that public education is the pillar of our democracy. We believe in the common school envisioned by Horace Mann. A common 

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

Teachers are using facial recognition to see if students are paying attention

Teachers are using facial recognition to see if students are paying attention:

Teachers are using facial recognition to see if students are paying attention

Remember those days of being in school struggling to concentrate in class? Well, a school in France is hoping to tackle those wandering minds by using technology.

ESG Business School in Paris is starting an artificial intelligence program which will identify whether students are paying attention in class. 

From September, software called Nestor (like the butler in The Adventures of Tintin comic book) will use students' webcams to examine eye movements and facial expressions to establish whether they're actually attentive to a video lecture. 

"In the past decades, everybody thought taxi cabs would live forever. Uber destroyed the system to rebuild it. I wanted to do something similar in education, specifically for poor students and e-learning," Marcel Saucet, founder of LCA Learning, the company which created Nestor, told Mashable

Using 20 key landmarks on the face of the user — eyes, brows, lips, jaw — Nestor can understand how the user behaves in front of a 5-minute video lesson.

"We are using machine learning algorithms to improve performances of the tool. Besides, we are working with psychoanalysts, like Dr. Saverio Tomasella, to keep a human understandingTeachers are using facial recognition to see if students are paying attention: