Diane Ravitch on Disruption’s Educational Carnage | Capital & Main

Diane Ravitch on Disruption’s Educational Carnage | Capital & Main

Diane Ravitch on Disruption’s Educational Carnage
No Child Left Behind was a disaster and school choice has failed. A new book points the way forward from the wreckage.

It’s been 10 years since education historian and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch became the school choice movement’s most vocal apostate by detailing its fallacies in her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

Her tale of how a onetime charter school true believer from within the corporate-reform think-tank establishment could no longer ignore the contrary evidence of her own eyes came as a wake-up call. It gave authoritative voice to the anger and frustration of the over 3 million public school classroom teachers whose hands had been tied by the country’s destructive disinvestment in its children. And it contained Ravitch’s own vow to devote the rest of her life to trying to make up for her error.

That mea culpa thrust the New York University research professor into the center of the national public education debate and elevated her to a role as a revered leader of the groundswell of political resistance that followed. With 2013’s Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, she further documented the failure of charters and the carnage wreaked by high-stakes testing, while inventorying evidence-supported and cost-effective reforms that had been sidetracked by the school-privatization movement.

Now, Ravitch completes the arc with Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools, which was published last week.

The completed trilogy bears all the Ravitch signatures: her mastery of the rapier epithet and CONTINUE READING: Diane Ravitch on Disruption’s Educational Carnage | Capital & Main

La. BESE’s Process for Selecting Next Superintendent | deutsch29

La. BESE’s Process for Selecting Next Superintendent | deutsch29

La. BESE’s Process for Selecting Next Superintendent

Below are excerpts from a January 30, 2020, Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) press release related to the process of selection Louisiana’s next state superintendent:

BESE adopts administrative process for selection of new State Superintendent

Jan 29, 2020, 14:55 PM by BESE Admin

At its meetings this week the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) received the initial report of its Superintendent Selection Work Group and adopted the group’s recommended administrative

process regarding the appointment of a new State Superintendent of Education.

Over the next several weeks, the work group plans to partner with a search firm to develop criteria to screen candidates and initiate an open application process. The work group will also directly contact potential candidates submitted by individual BESE members for screening and review initial applications. By early spring the work group anticipates selecting semi-finalists for interviews and recommending one to three finalists to the Board for consideration. BESE has granted the work group the authority to amend the process as necessary, subject to general Board notification. …

A general, tentative timeline for completing the process was detailed by the work group. Candidate applications and Board member nominations will be received during February, with work beginning in March to review and screen candidates. The work group will conduct interviews and facilitate the interview process with individual BESE members in accordance with the state’s Open Meetings Law. Finalists could be CONTINUE READING: La. BESE’s Process for Selecting Next Superintendent | deutsch29

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Another Voucher Problem (And Not The One You Think)

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Another Voucher Problem (And Not The One You Think)

FL: Another Voucher Problem (And Not The One You Think)

When the Orlando Sentinel revealed that many Florida schools-- 156 of them!-- were both receiving taxpayer dollars and openly discriminating against LGBTQ students, it was not exactly news. Rebecca Klein had the same story on a national level at Huffington Post back in 2017. Voucher money goes to religious schools, and some religious schools discriminate against LGBTQ students (and teachers).

But sometimes a particular story hits at just the right moment and suddenly draws a huge reaction. That's apparently what happened this time, because the backlash against Florida's tax credit scholarship program has begun (tax credit scholarship programs, you may recall, are the programs that let wealthy donors fund their favorite private school in place of paying their taxes).

Two huge banks-- Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bank-- have indicated that they would no longer contribute to the Florida program (Step Up for Children) funding the vouchers.

We have reviewed this matter carefully and have decided to no longer support Step Up for Students. All of us at Wells Fargo highly value diversity and inclusion, and we oppose discrimination of any kind.

We have communicated with program officials that we will not be contributing again until more CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Another Voucher Problem (And Not The One You Think)

Slaying Goliath | Deborah Meier on Education

Slaying Goliath | Deborah Meier on Education

Slaying Goliath 

Slaying Goliath
The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools
By Diane Ravitch
Penguin Books

Dear friends and colleagues,
Three cheers for Slaying Goliath.
Diane Ravitch and I have been agonizing together over the fate of public education (and the fate of teacher unions) for a long time. As usual we have different takes on it from time to time. This time our differences about this or that person or situation are definitely minor.

I am a supporter of the singleton self-governing charters started by teachers like myself who did not have the good luck I did. I essentially was given the chance—along with many, many friends, starting in the mid-1970s, to create several charter-like schools in East Harlem within the regular New York City system and again in the 1990s in the Boston school system. These exciting opportunities led to many dozens, maybe hundreds, of mostly small successful innovative schools throughout the country. Most resembled what Al Shanker had hoped for, which Ravitch reminds us of favorably (and that I had forgotten).

But this enthusiasm for teacher-led innovations—never the dominant trend amongst reformers—has gradually disappeared. It is this that makes me ambivalent about attacking charters “in general” when there are hundreds that resemble the work we did CONTINUE READING: Slaying Goliath | Deborah Meier on Education

Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN? | My Island View

Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN? | My Island View

Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN?

The discussion around technology in education often revolves around what technology can or can’t do in regard to affecting kids’ learning. The fact of the matter is that technology in education only works for kids, if it works for their teacher.The best technology in the world will not be effective if the teacher is not a committed advocate for it. That commitment requires an understanding of how the tech fits into what it is the teacher is trying to accomplish. The marriage of those two requires an understanding of not just subject content, but an understanding of the technology and the students as well. It is far more complicated than throwing the tech at the kids and sitting back to record the miraculous results in a grade book.

Technology’s effect on education is difficult to assess, because it is not just the technology that affects the learning. If there are three teachers teaching the same subjects in a school and are given equal access to technology, how can the technology impact on learning be fairly assessed? If one teacher welcomes the CONTINUE READING: Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN? | My Island View

LAUSD Candidate Elizabeth Badger Responds

LAUSD Candidate Elizabeth Badger Responds

LAUSD Candidate Elizabeth Badger Responds

Don’t shoot the messenger,

You might miss the message.”

After reading my candidate profile of Elizabeth Badger, she called to express her displeasure and to demand a retraction. While she demanded a retraction of the article, I stand by what was written. I will, however, present her arguments along with the responses that were given to the candidate. 

Badger’s first complaint was that I had “lied about her record.” When pressed she stated that the article said that she had not been active in her community since losing the school board election in 2015. She then went on to say that she founded a non-profit, serves on the board of the Regional Center and has been elected as a member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party’s Central Committee.

As explained to the candidate, the specific wording of the article stated that “she has not been a regular face around the district since her last run and her lack of knowledge about the issues is readily apparent in the Speak Up article”. In fact, her work with the Regional Center and the Democratic Party was actually specifically mentioned.  However, none of this work has given her any insight into how the CONTINUE READING: LAUSD Candidate Elizabeth Badger Responds

Are the NEA and AFT leaders gun shy on a presidential endorsement this time? – Fred Klonsky

Are the NEA and AFT leaders gun shy on a presidential endorsement this time? – Fred Klonsky

ARE THE NEA AND AFT LEADERS GUN SHY ON A PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT THIS TIME?

When Clare Kelly and Trisha Connolly,  Evanston teachers and delegates to last summer’s National Education Association’s Representative Assembly, offered their new business item which directed NEA “to make endorsements for political candidates at the national level through direct membership vote only,”  it was pretty much doomed.

Union democracy has its limits when it comes to political endorsements.

So, rather than allowing a vote, Clare and Trisha’s NBI was referred the executive committee, consisting of NEA’s nine highest-ranking officers.

“Referring to committee” is where rank and file members’ ideas go to die if the leadership isn’t happy with them.

But Clare and Trisha’s NBI was prompted by the wide-spread criticism from members – mainly Bernie supporters – of the bullshit tactics and manipulated process that NEA leaders used to ensure its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

Clare told me recently, “If elected (as a delegate) to the NEA RA, we will definitely present it again.”

On the AFT side, President Randi Weingarten has been silent this time on who the AFT will endorse, but she has not been quiet about her dislike for the progressive CONTINUE READING: Are the NEA and AFT leaders gun shy on a presidential endorsement this time? – Fred Klonsky

NANCY BAILEY: Common Core, Camouflaged in Testing and Technology

Common Core, Camouflaged in Testing and Technology

Common Core, Camouflaged in Testing and Technology

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) might seem to have diminished, but the standards are still embedded in testing and technology and still hurting students.

When the standards were first imposed on students, parents and teachers complained. Sandra Stotsky, now Professor Emeritus, was an outspoken critic of CCSSs. She had previously helped develop the Massachusetts standards, once considered the best in the nation. As a member of the Common Core Validation Committee, she refused to sign off on the CCSS.

Diane Ravitch, in her book Slaying Goliath, notes that CCSSs were supported by the national teachers’ unions, conservative and liberal think tanks, the National PTA, United Way, and the Chamber of Commerce (p. 230-231). Bill Gates gave education organizations and civil rights groups millions to promote CCSSs. Ravitch states, Gates may have spent as much as $2 billion to develop, implement, and promote the Common Core (231). 

In the last Presidential election, Common Core was said to be the Democrats “third rail.” Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos promised to get rid of Common Core, and CONTINUE READING: Common Core, Camouflaged in Testing and Technology

Did Rosa Parks Really Support Charter Schools? | gadflyonthewallblog

Did Rosa Parks Really Support Charter Schools? | gadflyonthewallblog

Did Rosa Parks Really Support Charter Schools?

They say history is written by the victors.

But fortunes change, and sometimes you can even reclaim a figure from the past who the last round of winners had cast in an unlikely role.

Take Rosa Parks.

She is universally hailed as a hero of the civil rights movement because of her part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Everyone knows the story. Parks, a black seamstress in Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus and was arrested. Then working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many other activists, she helped encourage black people throughout the city to stop riding the buses until they were eventually desegregated.

But did you know that 40 years later after she had moved to Detroit, Parks tried to open a charter school?

It’s true – from a certain point of view.

And school privatization cheerleaders are quick to reference her advocacy.

President Bill Clinton used the anecdote to sell the charter school concept in a speech to the NAACP in Pittsburgh in 1997.

Joe Nathan, one of the authors of the first charter school law, still likes to troll CONTINUE READING: Did Rosa Parks Really Support Charter Schools? | gadflyonthewallblog

Andre Perry: Advocates for school choice must stop whitewashing ‘choice’

Advocates for school choice must stop whitewashing ‘choice’

Reformers must stop whitewashing ‘choice’
Freedom to choose in privatized school system is illusion where it fails to address inequality born of slavery and ultimate lack of ‘choice’

"It’s ironic when abortion rights supporters don’t back school choice,” said U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. But her attempt to point out some kind of moral absurdity during her remarks to Colorado Christian College students at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., last week only pointed out her own.

According to the Colorado Times Recorder, Devos also invoked slavery to underline her point. President Abraham Lincoln had to deal with the ‘pro-choice’ arguments of his time, she continued. “They suggested that a state’s ‘choice’ to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it. Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that [there] is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil.’”

Aside from the obvious differences in choice between the expansion of education service providers and a woman’s right to control her reproductive choices and her body, DeVos clearly needs to learn that the Republican understanding of words like choice, freedom, liberty differs significantly for black people with our history of slavery. And this is not the first time DeVos has publicly misinterpreted history. Remember when our education secretary called HBCUs “pioneers of ‘school choice,’” completely missing the fact that black postsecondary institutions were born of government-backed segregation?

When Republicans, who are often the biggest proponents of school choice, use the term and other words like “freedom” and “liberty,” they usually mean it in the sense of freedom from government. “I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism,” said Ronald Reagan in a 1975 interview in Reason magazine. “The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom.” It is assumed that freedom (from government) makes us free to choose. However, the basic liberties black people have gained throughout our time in the U.S. required federal intervention. Thus, the government protection from racism that black CONTINUE READING: Advocates for school choice must stop whitewashing ‘choice’

2020 School Climate Survey for Families - Sacramento City Unified School District

2020 School Climate Survey for Families - Sacramento City Unified School District

2020 School Climate Survey for Families

We want to hear from you!

Please take the SCUSD School Climate survey to inform how our district and our schools are meeting the needs of our families and students. The survey will be open from February 3 to March 6, 2020.

The district surveys families every year for their opinion on issues such as safety and feelings of connectedness to school. We hope you will share your opinion every year, and complete one survey for every school that your students attend. 

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Links to the family survey, in 6 different languages, can be found below. If you prefer, printable versions appear in the yellow box at the right.

Links to Online Family Surveys:

• ENGLISH
• CHINESE
• HMONG
• RUSSIAN
• SPANISH
• VIETNAMESE

printable versions

• English_Family Survey_Printable
• Chinese_Family Survey_Printable
• Hmong_Family Survey_Printable
• Russian_Family Survey_Printable
• Spanish_Family Survey_Printable
• Vietnamese_Family Survey_Printable

2020 School Climate Survey for Families - Sacramento City Unified School District

Ohio GOP Grovels at Feet of Fordham and ALEC | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio GOP Grovels at Feet of Fordham and ALEC | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio GOP Grovels at Feet of Fordham and ALEC

Bill Phillis writes about the GOP’s pusillanimous capitulation to its masters and is prepared to sacrifice its public schools to satisfy DC-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute and ALEC, funded by Charles Koch, the Waltons, and DeVos.

He writes:

School choice zealots seem to be driving the state education policy train

In spite of the harm being heaped on school districts due to corruption in the charter industry and the wild expansion of vouchers, the school choice zealots are in control. State officials seem powerless to establish rational Ohio education policy.

According to current media reports, the voucher “fix” being considered in the Ohio Senate, would lessen the harm to some school districts in the near term but would set the stage for a universal voucher system in the future. The local choice zealots and their big boy moneyed allies, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Fordham Foundation, are driving policy that undercuts the very foundation of the public common school. State officials seem to cower when confronted by the choice crowd.

Time to march on Columbus.

Before I saw Bill Phillis’ post, I tweeted an article about a temporary “fix” proposed by the GOP.

Jan Resseger wrote to me that the “fix” is a fraud and her own integrated, mixed-income district will be devastated.

She wrote:

I noticed you forwarded the Dispatch piece as though it will help anybody.  The Ohio Senate “solution” will simply leave in place all the damage from current year.  In CH-UH we have 478 percent growth in vouchers this year.  These kids will carry those vouchers CONTINUE READING: Ohio GOP Grovels at Feet of Fordham and ALEC | Diane Ravitch's blog

Alfie Kohn: Autism and Behaviorism New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA | National Education Policy Center

Alfie Kohn: Autism and Behaviorism New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA | National Education Policy Center

Alfie Kohn: Autism and Behaviorism New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA

When a common practice isn’t necessary or useful even under presumably optimal conditions, it’s time to question whether that practice makes sense at all. For example, if teachers don’t need to give grades even in high school (and if eliminating grades clearly benefits their students), how can we justify grading younger children? If research shows there’s little or no benefit to assigning homework even in math, which is the discipline that proponents assume makes the clearest case for its value, why would we keep assigning it in other subjects?

And if it turns out that, contrary to widespread assumptions, behavior modification techniques aren’t supported by solid data even when used with autistic kids, why would we persist in manipulating anyone with positive reinforcement? A rigorous new meta-analysis utterly debunks the claim that applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy is the only intervention for children with autism that’s “evidence-based.” In fact, it raises serious questions about whether ABA merits that description at all.

Before exploring the new report, let’s take a minute to consider what we know about rewards and positive reinforcement more generally. In 2018, I reviewed two decades of recent research for the 25th-anniversary edition of my book Punished by Rewards. These studies strongly confirm the original findings: Carrots, like sticks, are not merely ineffective over the long haul but often actively counterproductive — at work, at school, and at home — and these negative effects are found across ages, genders, and cultural settings. As a rule, the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. And they often end up being less successful at a task they’re completing than are people who weren’t offered any reward for doing it. (Even more damaging, according to the research, is an arrangement where people are offered a reward for doing something well.)

In the face of such evidence, which has been accumulating for about half a century, the last refuge of CONTINUE READING: Alfie Kohn: Autism and Behaviorism New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA | National Education Policy Center

Major resource infusion is in the works for 20 struggling L.A. schools - Los Angeles Times

Major resource infusion is in the works for 20 struggling L.A. schools - Los Angeles Times

Major resource infusion is in the works for 20 struggling L.A. schools

Twenty struggling Los Angeles schools will get a mega-infusion of resources in an aggressive, experimental effort to show that L.A. Unified — if properly funded — can boost student achievement, L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner announced on Tuesday.

The effort, tentatively called Project 2020, seeks to raise standardized test scores in reading and math by 20 percentage points at each of 20 elementary schools within two years, a challenging statistical jump, based on typical school performance.

During a talk at UCLA, Beutner also presented other elements of his core long-term plans for improving the nation’s second-largest school system, where achievement trails state averages and large gaps separate the performance of white and Asian students from black and Latino students. A large gap also separates students from low-income families and those better off. Overall, about 44% of district students test as proficient in English and about 34% in math.

The superintendent highlighted his ongoing project to decentralize — which aims to organize groups of schools within geographic communities, such as Boyle Heights. He also said the district should focus more intensely on early education, increase professional development opportunities aimed at retaining teachers, and expand programs that develop fully bilingual students.

Beutner also intends to revamp the training of aspiring principals. At present, he said, their preparation concentrates too much on how to comply with district procedures. He wants fledgling principals to spend an entire semester shadowing a highly regarded principal. And he wants their training to include community organizing.

But nothing would showcase his efforts more than Project 2020, which envisions placing an extra teacher in every early-grade class to focus on reading and on installing a more engaging math program that is based on recommendations from district teachers.

Although Beutner hasn’t yet selected the schools or set a funding level, he sees the CONTINUE READING: Major resource infusion is in the works for 20 struggling L.A. schools - Los Angeles Times

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

Looking Back On A 'Decade Of Fire'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h

'In the 1970s, a string of devastating fires would help make the South Bronx a symbol of urban decay. In her documentary Decade of Fire , co-director Vivian Vázquez Irizarry , who grew up in the South Bronx, tries to dissect and counter that negative image through a personal lens. The documentary analyzes how the city, state, and federal governments abandoned the Bronx in the 1970s, and how despi

On The Frontlines Of Autism Research: North Carolina Professors Study Early Detection, Treatment

by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h

'Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say they can detect autism spectrum disorder before it manifests in some young children, and they’re even developing treatments for some of the conditions that go hand-in-hand with autism. Professors Mark Zylka and Joe Piven work among more than two dozen scientists at UNC focused on autism spectrum disorder, and the National Institu

'Franchise' Tracks The Rise And Role Of Fast Food In Black America

by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h

'History professor Marcia Chatelain 's new book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, tracks what she calls the hidden history of the relationships between the struggle for civil rights and the expansion of the fast food industry.' -- All Things Considered

Finding Strength In Fragility: Meet Maya Freelon

by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h

'Durham artist Maya Freelon ’s large tissue paper installations have hung in the halls of the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building and the North Carolina Museum of Art. She has received commissions from Google and Cadillac and was recently named one of five young artists to watch during Miami Art Week 2019. Her techniques transform tissue paper from schoolhouse craft to fine art and create co

The Barriers to Finding Mental Healthcare While Black

by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h

'There are many barriers to mental health care in the United States, including insurance, cost, and availability of therapists or psychiatrists. For people of color, these barriers can be much higher. Only around 4% of therapists are Black, and Black Americans are less likely to seek out mental health care. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is the host of the podcast Therapy for Black Girls , and she recen

Carrie Mae Weems: 'How Do You Measure a Life'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 17h

'Artist and MacArthur fellow Carrie Mae Weems recites a piece called, “How Do You Measure a Life.” An excerpt from the MLK celebration hosted by Jami Floyd, Alison Stewart and WQXR’s Terrance McKnight at the Apollo. This year’s theme was “The Strategic King: MLK's Visionary Leadership' -- All Of It

How a Lost Recording Became a Philadelphia Soul Classic

by Mark Anthony Neal / 17h

'Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios recorded more than 200 gold and platinum records before closing its doors in 2003, eventually donating 7,000 tapes to Drexel University, including recordings by Stevie Wonder , David Bowie , Gladys Knight and hundreds of other unknown artists. Christoper Booker reports on the search for hidden gems in one of the city's most comprehensive musical archives.' -- P

Imran Mohammad on Genocide, Detention, and Refugeehood

by Mark Anthony Neal / 17h

'Taking advantage of his visit in Chicago, Léopold Lambert talked with our past contributor Imran Mohammad . In November 2017, he wrote a text for us about the Rohingya genocide that he fled while he was living his fourth year of detention in an Australian camp detaining hundreds of exiled people on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. A few weeks later and while many detainees organized forms of revo

NewBlackMan (in Exile)