Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-26-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch






Carol Burris: My Concerns about the Common Core

Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, New York, explains her concerns about the Common Core. She previously wrote a book about how to implement the standards and now wishes she could retract it.
She writes here:
Diane,
I am coming to the same conclusion regarding the CCSS despite the fact that I have advocated college readiness for students during my entire professional career. The CCSS, as they are being implemented, are not about college readiness for all–they are about a testing system that will sort students into different pathways. When I first saw the standards, I thought that they were full of promise. I thought that they could be used to 

An Inside-the-DOE View of the NYC CREDO Study

An insider in the New York City Department of Education was disturbed to read the New York Times’ editorial praising the CREDO study of charters in New York City. She knew that the data on the public website of the Department of Education does not support the CREDO analysis.
Here is her own analysis, based on DOE’s own data:
A New York Times editorial Saturday praised a new study claiming that through the 2010-11 school year New York City charter schools have produced better results for students than other public schools. Of course this 

How You Can Help the Garfield Teachers

The entire teaching staff at Garfield High School in Seattle voted to boycott the MAP test, on grounds that it is a waste of time and resources.
The superintendent will soon decide whether to dock their pay as a punishment. Meanwhile, the teachers have 

Why I Cannot Support the Common Core Standards

I have thought long and hard about the Common Core standards.
I have decided that I cannot support them.
In this post, I will explain why.
I have long advocated for voluntary national standards, believing that it would be helpful to states and districts to have general guidelines about what students should know and be able to do as they progress through school.
Such standards, I believe, should be voluntary, not imposed by the federal government; before implemented widely, they should be thoroughly tested to see how they work in real classrooms; and they should be free of any mandates that tell teachers how to teach because there are many ways to be a good teacher, not just one. I envision standards not as a demand for compliance by teachers, but as an aspiration defining what states and 


Diane in the Evening 2-25-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Forget the Oscars, Here Are the Bunkum Awards by dianerav Each year, the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado presents its annual Bunkum awards. These are awards that acknowledge the very *worst* think tank reports of the year. Be sure to review previous winners of this not exactly coveted dishonor. Drum roll, please! The *“Three’s a Harm”* award goes to…(open the envelope)…the Friedman Foundation! Here is a quote from the Will Teachers Take Control of Their Profession? by dianerav This... more »