Tuesday, July 10, 2012

This Is Unbelievable « Diane Ravitch's blog

This Is Unbelievable « Diane Ravitch's blog:
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This Is Unbelievable

Pennsylvania just approved the operation of four new cyber-charter schools, bringing the number of online charter schools in the state to 17.
This is literally unbelievable.
We constantly hear lectures from “reformers” about data-driven decision-making and focusing only on results.
They like to say “it’s for the children.” “Children first.” “Students first.”
The existing cyber-charters in Pennsylvania have been evaluated and found to have disastrous results. The data


This Is Unbelievable

Pennsylvania just approved the operation of four new cyber-charter schools, bringing the number of online charter schools in the state to 17.
This is literally unbelievable.
We constantly hear lectures from “reformers” about data-driven decision-making and focusing only on results.
They like to say “it’s for the children.” “Children first.” “Students first.”
The existing cyber-charters in Pennsylvania have been evaluated and found to have disastrous results. The data


Now It Can Be Told! The Secrets to Success and Riches

Bruce Baker has distilled the qualities of successful charter schools. In this post, Baker looks at the reasons that some NYC charter schools succeed.
The reason for creating charters in the late 1980s was that they would have the freedom to try new ideas and thereby to help public schools improve.
As the charters tried new things, public schools would learn from their experience and would improve.
The charters were supposed to gain freedom from most state regulation in exchange for their willingness to be


Common Core Standards: A Boon for Edu-Biz

Whether the Common Core standards are good or bad, one thing that is clear is that they have opened up multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The textbook industry is retooling, at least adding stickers that say their products are aligned with the Common Core.
Pearson is developing a complete curriculum package in mathematics and reading, for almost every grade, assisted by the Gates Foundation. Children in some district will be able to take their lessons from Pearson


Can TFA Save Itself from the Impending Disaster?

Gary Rubinstein told me a year or so ago that the corporate reform movement was living on borrowed time.
He believes that its ideas are so destructive and ill-conceived that it is certain to implode as failure after failure drags it down and as the public realizes that its public schools are being ruined.
In this post, he tries to figure out how Teach for America might salvage its reputation as the ship goes down. He


LAUSD Balks at Giving Public School Space to Charters

We have reached such a low point that it is a news story if a school district resists turning its space over to charter operators.
In the past, one might have expected district leaders to fight for the students in their care, not to support privatized entities that want public space at no charge.
Surprise of surprises, the pushback now comes from Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasey and the board of LAUSD. They are opposing:
“ a judge’s order to comply with a state law that requires districts to share space equally among public school 



More on Meaningless Meetings

In response to my post on meaningless meetings, where people break into small groups, speak up, but no one ever hears what they said or recommended, I received two similar comments.
Both said that the ultimate method of listening without hearing is the Delta Technique. As one commenter put it:
This group manipulation is often  called “the Delphi Technique.”  Look for buzzwords like “vision,” anything with the number “2020” in the title, “stakeholders,” “consensus,” and when education is involved, a mantra such as “it’s for the children.”
My hunch is that there are many other techniques used to pretend to hear and to give “stakeholders” a chance to


Ten Years of “Reform” and Still So Much Failure

The New York Daily News has an editorial this morning complaining about an arbitrator’s decision to stop Mayor Michael Bloomberg from closing 24 schools.
As usual, the editorial lambastes the teachers’ union, which is supposedly the font of all evil in education. The editorial writer forgets that the city Department of Education agreed to enter into binding arbitration. Having lost the decision, the city and the newspaper forget the plain meaning of the word “binding.”
The crucial issue: No question is raised about why so many schools continue to “fail” after a full decade of


Remember “Separation of Church and State”?

A blogger in Louisiana calls out State Rep. Valerie Hodges for expressing shock about the possibility that voucher funds might go to Islamic schools.
I have already done that in an earlier post and won’t do it again here.
I repost this commentary because it lists many of the Christian academies that will be getting vouchers from the state of Louisiana in September. It is a reminder that the state is sending children from schools with a low grade