Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Diane in the Evening 5-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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








Fort Wayne: Besieged by Charters

A reader describes the situation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a community with good public schools:
“Further to the point about GREAT home-grown administrators, Fort Wayne Community Schools has another bit of good news today: Two genuinely abysmal local charter schools lost their certification and their appeal today!
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/education/two-fort-wayne-schools-lose-charter-contracts
(These are the folks who won’t scoop up one of our empty school buildings for $1/year, an available option that 


What Happens When Community College Students Take Online Courses?

new report reviews the advent of online courses for community college students.
It was prepared by the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Online courses are popular because they seem to be a way to take courses at home, whenever it is convenient.
This is especially valuable for community college students because they are adults with 


EduShyster Discovers an Excellent Teacher-School Matching Service

EduShyster gets great tips!
In this post, she describes a dating service that matches teachers with just the right charter school.
What will they think of next?


Columnist: Tucson’s Top Charters Are Highly Selective

This year, once again, Tucson will bask in the knowledge that two of its charter schools–Basis and University High School– are among the top schools in the nation, according to the US News and World Report survey.
But, says, Tim Steller, these schools are atypical. He says that because the schools are so highly selective, the rankings don’t mean much.
He writes:
“Both Basis and UHS are selective – UHS formally so through an entrance exam and Basis informally so through high workloads that lead to attrition – meaning they end up with the students who perform highest at academics 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] How Grassroots Groups in Texas Are Beating the Testing Lobby by dianerav In my list of categories on this blog, the words “Texas” and “testing” are side-by-side. One of the biggest stories in the nation today is how ordinary folks–moms, dads, and students–in Texas are slaying the monster that ate their education. Over the past 20-30 years, Texas became drunk on testing. The lobbyists for Pearson–headed by Sandy Kress, the architect of NCLB–made sure that Pearson... more »