Diane Ravitch's blog:
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Diane Ravitch's blog
Idaho Has A Great Teacher
I got a comment from an elementary school teacher in Idaho. She sounds like the kind of teacher I would want for my grandchild, who starts first grade this September. She knows what matters most. She reminds me of Mrs. Ratliff, the high school English teacher whom I wrote about in my last book. I [...]
A Parent’s Advice to the CTU
During these stressful times, teachers sometimes think they are alone in their struggle to maintain the dignity of their profession. They may get the impression by listening to politicians and the media that no one cares about them or about public education. This is wrong. The American public does not want to turn its schools [...]
What Do Graduation Rates Mean?
Everyone talks about high school graduation rates, but no one-including me–has any idea what they mean and what they really are. We operate from the assumption that 100% of students “should” graduate from high school and excoriate the schools when the numbers are anything less. The assumption–which is wrong–is that we used to have high [...]
How Idiotic Is VAM? Very.
One of my favorite bloggers is Anthony Cody. Anthony is an experienced teacher of science in California. I always learn by reading his blog “Living in Dialogue.” He recently offered his column to a teacher in Florida to explain how his or her evaluation was affected by “value-added modeling” or VAM. The idea behind VAM [...]
This Is What “Reformers” Say in Louisiana
An editorial writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote a scathing critique of Governor Bobby Jindal’s reform legislation: the haste with which it was adopted, the lack of forethought, the approval of schools to receive voucher students even though they had no facilities, the diversion of public money to private schools, the lack of accountability [...]
In Which I Answer Some Questions
A reader asks a few questions about teachers. I follow his questions with my answer: Why do some teachers argue on one hand that they are not that important (discounting studies that show the value of excellent teachers, claiming that there are no bad teachers, insisting on equal pay for all teachers regardless of performance, [...]
“Hysteria” about the Galvanic Response Skin Bracelet?
Here is an education professor in Kentucky who thinks that I reacted “hysterically” to the Gates-funded galvanic response skin bracelet. He describes me as a defender of the “status quo” because I have a distrust of people from on high telling teachers how to teach and punishing them when they can’t produce higher test scores [...]
Is Rahm in Trouble with Voters?
This reader says that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in trouble. I don’t live in Chicago so I don’t know if he is right. The one time that I met Rahm Emanuel–a meeting at the White House to talk about Race to the Top–he was arrogant and unpleasant, but that seems to be his style with [...]
One Courageous Teacher Says No to Test Madness
Yesterday I heard from a teacher in New Jersey, who read my blog about giving tests in the arts and physical education. I said in no uncertain terms that giving state tests in the arts is wrong. It diminishes teacher professionalism. It has nothing to do with improving education. It’s just the mindless need to test [...]
A Major Charter School Scandal
Over the past few years, the American Indian Charter School in Oakland, California, was celebrated again and again for its achievements. Journalists, pundits, and television commentators fawned over its founder Ben Chavis. His school (he actually has three schools, but the middle school is the one that gets the plaudits) became the poster school for [...]
Questions for the Candidates
As I watch President Obama and Mitt Romney compete, I am appalled by the absence of any substantive analysis of education issues. When Romney released his education agenda, it was reported with impartiality, as it should have been. But no one asked questions about his claims. I reviewed his proposals in the New York Review of [...]
How Reformers Dumb Down Education
It’s hard to count all the ways that reformers dumb down education, but here is a good example of catching them in the act. State Superintendent Tony Bennett is a celebrated reformer. He won the Thomas B. Fordham award as the “reformiest” reformer of them all. That means he loves vouchers and charters, he promotes [...]
Miracle Watch: Harlem Village Academy
A year ago, I wrote an article about “miracle schools” in the New York Times. My beef was with politicians who pointed to a school and said that it had achieved dramatic test score gains and amazing graduation rates despite the poverty in which the children live. The usual “remedy” was to fire the teachers, [...]
Oh, No! Yet Another Arts Assessment
Oh, no! Dana Goldstein visited Memphis, where she found that arts teachers are using portfolio assessments. I suppose that is a step up from online standardized tests and the old-fashioned machine-scored computerized tests, but it is still a very bad idea. The whole premise of testing is that teachers cannot be trusted to reach responsible [...]
Defunding Public Education in Texas
In recent years, the governor and legislature in Texas have cut billions of dollars from the budget for public education. They have shown their priorities. By keeping taxes low, they can grow new jobs, or so they say. But at the same time, they are destroying the public schools that prepare the next generation for [...]
Why Test the Arts and PE?
As I read Dana Goldstein’s article about the advance of standardized testing into subjects like the arts and physical education, I began to get a queasy feeling. “This isn’t right,” I mumbled to myself. I thought of my grandchildren taking standardized tests in music and gym, and I shook my head. This isn’t right. Race [...]
I’m Convinced
Dear Readers, Thank you for your instant feedback. Some readers say they like having my blogs early in the morning, before they leave for work. A few said they liked the spacing. Some said do what works for you. What resonated with me was my preference for plain vanilla. Post them as you write them. [...]
The Joys of Blogging
I have written a lot of articles for publication in newspapers and magazines. If I publish in the New York Times or the Washington Post or the New York Daily News, my writing will reach hundreds of thousands of readers. Of course, many of their readers will pass right over your article, will not read it. [...]
Stand for Children Does Not Stand for Public Education
Stand for Children has moved its campaign for privatization and against experienced teachers to Massachusetts. Stand’s politically savvy, well-connected, and well-funded leader Jonah Edelman threatened an anti-teacher ballot initiative unless the unions negotiated away their seniority and tenure. Governor Deval Patrick agreed with Stand for Children that teacher evaluation (based to some extent on standardized [...]
A Note to Readers of This Blog
Dear Friends, One of the readers of this blog told me that I should space the entries. Typically, my cat wakes me at 5 am and I start writing and posting, sometimes four or five blogs. The reader said that his tendency was to read the last one first, missing some of the earlier ones. [...]
Welcome to Readers Overseas
I don’t know if the term “overseas” is factually accurate, since some of the people reading this blog are part of the same continent as New York City, where I live. But I wanted to express my appreciation to readers in other countries who are logging on to read the blog: Most readers, of course, [...]
What If the Chicago Teachers Union Loses?
A reader asked an important question in response to my blog about the Chicago Teachers Union decision to authorize a strike: What if they strike and they lose? What if Mayor Emanuel fires them all and replaces them with TFA? Won’t it prove that striking is futile? Won’t unions everywhere lose heart? I responded that [...]
Brookings Responds to My Blog about Being Terminated
On Monday, I posted a blog called “The Day I Was Terminated.” In that blog, I recounted that I received an email on June 5 from Grover (Russ) Whitehurst of Brookings telling me that I was being terminated–after a 19-year association with Brookings–because I was “inactive.” That’s a pretty abrupt way to finish off a [...]
Gates Foundation Explains the Galvanic Skin Response Monitor (plus)
An enlightening article by Stephanie Simon of Reuters was just posted. Simon interviewed Gates’ officials and others, and her article fills in the Gates’ rationale that has until now been missing. The article says: The biometric bracelets, produced by a Massachusetts startup company, Affectiva Inc, send a small current across the skin and then measure [...]
“Techies Gone Wild”
I take the title of this blog from a comment just received in response to the galvanic thingie (I have trouble remembering if it is a GSR or a GRS, a galvanic skin response monitor or a galvanic response skin monitor). The title seemed appropriate for an article sent by another reader. This one describes [...]
How Rhee Cons the Innocent
A reader submitted this post: http://backburner-nkk.blogspot.com/2011/08/ive-been-conned.html It tells the now-familiar story of how an unwary person was conned by Michelle Rhee’s Students First. The reader was going through her email, and along came a “puppies-and-kittens” petition from Change.org, and “Click!” Too late: “And suddenly, there it was…the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the Trojan horse of all [...]
New Information on the Galvanic Skin Response Bracelet
The Gates Foundation now says that its grants for the galvanic skin response monitor had no connection with teacher evaluation, even though the statement on its web site says the purpose of the grant is to “determine the feasibility and utility of using such devices regularly in schools with students and teachers” and says that [...]
The Chicago Story: Karen Lewis 1, Jonah Edelman 0
A few days ago, the Chicago Teachers Union voted overwhelmingly to strike. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Just a year ago, Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children boasted at the Aspen Ideas Festival how he had outsmarted the teachers’ union. He described how he had shaped legislation not only to cut back teachers’ job protections but [...]
The Question of the Day
Responding to a third-grade teacher who despaired of complying with all the demands pressing on her, this reader asks the best question of all: why is this hard-working, dedicated, conscientious teacher compelled to satisfy Bill and Melinda Gates? Frankly, the same question occurred to me but this reader asked it better than I. How did [...]
Mr. and Mrs Gates, Please Read This
I received the following comment from a third-grade teacher. She is trying her best but federal and state officials keep interfering with her ability to teach. You will note that she writes acronym after acronym of big programs, big ideas that officials keep dumping on her. As I read her comment, my heart went out [...]
How Students First Recruits New Members
A friend told me she signed an online petition on Change.org for some cause to make the world a better place, and promptly received an email from Michelle Rhee of Students First thanking her for joining. She was astonished to discover that she was a member of Students First, because she never signed anything that [...]
Online in Idaho
A reader sent me a wonderful editorial from a newspaper in Idaho. I liked it because it called out State Superintendent Tom Luna for his self-promoting campaign to replace teachers with online instruction. Idaho is a red state where there is not a lot of diversity of opinion, but whether you are red or blue, [...]
No Miracle in New Orleans
The next time you hear an “education reformer” talk about the miracle in New Orleans, tell them about this chart. The “reformers” would like you to believe that New Orleans has solved the problem of low academic performance. All it took was a devastating hurricane to wipe out the public schools and sweep away the [...]
The Day I Was Terminated
A few years ago, when I began speaking out about the destructive policies that are now called “education reform,” I had the comfort of knowing that no one could punish me. I didn’t want a job, I didn’t want a political appointment, and I didn’t want a foundation grant. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I [...]
The Textbooks in Voucher Academies
There are now three states in which vouchers enable students to bring public funding to religious schools: Indiana, Wisconsin, and Louisiana. Some of these schools will be evangelical schools that use Christian textbooks written specifically for this market, as well as for home-schoolers. The list of schools approved to receive voucher students in Louisiana includes [...]
To Fire or Not? They Report; You Decide
A very interesting, long article in the Washington Post demonstrates how hard it is to determine whether a teacher “deserves” to be fired and raises important questions about teacher tenure. I often point out that tenure in K-12 education is different from tenure in higher education. In higher education, a tenured professor has a job [...]
Some Sure-Fire Ways to Beat the Bracelet
Here are some creative ideas about how to beat the wireless sensor that will be embedded in every child’s galvanic response skin bracelet, if Clemson’s studies come to fruition. Bear in mind that the teacher will be evaluated in relation to the children’s level of excitement, engagement, and anxiety. Are they alert? Are they aware? [...]
Why We Should Care About Galvanic Response Skin Bracelets
A few days ago, I learned from Leonie Haimson who learned from Susan Ohanian about a grant from the Gates Foundation to Clemson University to conduct research into the uses of a “galvanic skin response” bracelet. This is a wireless sensor that tracks physiological reactions. What made this grant of special interest was that it [...]
A Teacher’s Advice for Bill and Melinda Gates
Let’s assume that Bill and Melinda Gates really want to improve the teaching profession. Let’s assume that they have no idea about the negative effects of their current agenda. Let’s assume they want to do what is best for teachers and students and American education. Certainly, they are not in it for the money; they [...]
This Teacher Knows How to Game the GRS Bracelet
This teacher sent a comment; he or she has figured it out. If the galvanic response skin bracelet will give teachers a high effectiveness rating when students are excited, there is an easy way to game the system and fool the bracelet: Can this galvanic contraption distinguish between different types of excitement? Sometimes a beautiful [...]
Do Not Accept the New Normal
Since No Child Left Behind began its reign of error a decade ago, the American public has slowly but surely changed its understanding and expectations of schools. We have come to think that every school must “make” every student proficient, and if it cannot, then the school is a “failing” school. We have come to [...]
This Teacher Asks a Good Question
I received a comment from a teacher of children with high needs. The teacher writes about the challenges she or he faces every single day and the small victories achieved when a child is able to understand expectations or accomplish a limited task. Yet no matter how demanding the job, the teacher will be judged [...]
A Flaw in the Galvanic Response Skin Bracelet
A reader writes: What grabbed me was this part: “electrodermal activity that grows higher during states such as excitement, attention or anxiety and lower during states such as boredom or relaxation.” So, this means that they can’t tell the difference between excitement, attention and anxiety? So all you have to do is keep a class [...]
More about Our Brave New World
Yesterday I posted a blog about the Gates Foundation funding research at Clemson University for something called Galvanic Response Skin bracelets. The project will enable researchers at Clemson to work with researchers in the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project to measure student engagement physiologically. MET is the Gates program to identify the most [...]
