Saturday, January 26, 2013

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-26-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

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Why Will Massachusetts Lift the Cap?

State Senator Barry Finegold has thrown in his lot with the powerful charter school industry.
Some charters get high test scores; some get low test scores.
Some skim off the best students in the poorest communities. Some have few or no disabled students, and few or no ELLs.
What is Senator Finegold doing to support public education, where 90% of the children are enrolled? Does he 


What Was Better About Schools in the Past?

Anyone who attended public schools knows there was plenty that was wrong with them.
I grew up in Texas and attended segregated schools. That was wrong then, and it is wrong now, even though it is no longer mandated by law.
I had some great teachers and 

Teachers, Please Read This and React

An article in Education Week reports on studies by economists claiming hat when teachers take early retirement, student test scores go up. Behind this is the assumption that new teachers are more successful than experienced teachers.
This sounds counter-intuitive to me, but I would like to know what teachers think.
A quote: “Boosting early retirement in cash-strapped districts doesn’t hurt students’ math and reading scores, according to new studies released at the American Economic Association meeting here, but pension-incentive programs may cost schools some of their most effective teachers.
Separate studies of teachers in California, Illinois, and North Carolina paint a complex picture of the choice increasingly faced by education leaders: Keep your most experienced—and expensive—teachers, or encourage them to retire to ease budget woes.”

Inside Story of the NYC Teaching Fellows Program

Social media is opening up a whole new world for those who lack access to the mass media.
In the mass media, we hear of great miracles.
Via social media, we learn the inside scoop.
This blog has a stunning story to tell about the experience of those who enter the New York City Teaching Fellows program.
It tells of idealistic and hopeful recruits who feel they are being used as cannon fodder: poorly trained and sent into some of the city’s toughest schools.
This is how the program begins: “We spent the

Why Vermont Is the Best of All States for Education

The U.S. Department of Education recently released data on the high school graduation rate.
The most conservative way to estimate the rate is to count only those students who get a diploma in four years, and to exclude those who graduate in August or take a fifth year or get a GED.
By the most conservative estimate (called the Average Freshman Graduation Rate), the graduation rate is up to 78.2 percent, a jump of nearly 5 percentage points in only four years. (If you were to add in those who get a 

Diane in the Evening 1-25-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: Support Thomas Mertz for Madison, WI, School Board by dianerav Thomas Mertz trained as a historian of education. We have that in common. Though I have never met Thomas, I endorse his principles and I am happy to see that he is running for election to the school board in Madison, Wisconsin. The need has never been greater to elect allies and strong supporters of public education. Please help him in any way you can. *Prepared, Progressive, Passionate* *I am excited to announce my candidacy for the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education, Seat... more »