Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Fraud Continues « Diane Ravitch's blog

The Fraud Continues « Diane Ravitch's blog:


The Fraud Continues

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan likes to boast of the success of the turnaround model, in which the principal is fired along with at least half the staff or the school is closed. “We can’t wait,” say the reformers. Here is a report from a turnaround school.
This email came today from a high school math teacher in a “turnaround” school:
       Pushing teachers to pass everyone is a widespread practice now.   Anyone who has more than a 15% failure rate in a class, not hard to do in math, is called downstairs and asked to explain what the problem is.  At this time of decision about who will be back next year, many see fit to pass almost everyone to stay