Friday, August 17, 2012

Jersey Jazzman: StudentsFirst & B4K: What's The Connection?

Jersey Jazzman: StudentsFirst & B4K: What's The Connection?:


StudentsFirst & B4K: What's The Connection?

Yesterday, I wrote about how New Yorkers for Great Public Schools is trying to tar StudentsFirst with its connections to Mitt Romney (or is it the other way around?). SF is Michelle Rhee's anti-union, anti-tenure, reformy group which gets lots of support from Rupert Murdoch, Eli Broad, and other wealthy conservative funders.

Today, I read the Rhee/Romney report, put out by a group under the name "Alliance for Quality Education." As a Jersey boy, I was especially intrigued by this (p.11):
StudentsFirst’s involvement with the 501(c)3 Better Education for New Jersey Kids (B4BJKids) is not entirely clear. While the nonprofit is not disclosed as a related entity, StudentsFirst shares two directors with the B4NJKids leadership—Michelle Rhee and StudentsFirst COO Dmitri Mehlhorn. Additionally, Executive Director Derrell Bradford, who has never been publicly identified as a StudentsFirst employee, 


Telegenic Cable News Idiots

I know; I shouldn't write about this until I see it. But if what Diane Ravitch is saying here is true...
This was one of the most biased interviews I have ever done, and I have done many. 
Randi Kaye asked me about NAEP scale scores, which was technically a very dumb question, and I was stunned. 
She thinks that a scale score of 250 on a 500 point scale is a failing grade, but a scale score is not a grade at all. 
It’s a trend line.
She asserted that the scale scores are a failing grade for the nation.
That is like saying that someone who scores a 600 on the SAT is a C student, because it is only