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Monday, May 6, 2013

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-6-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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Teachers College to Honor Doyenne of High-Stakes Testing

Teachers College, Columbia University, will honor Merryl Tisch at its 2013 Convocation.
As Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents, Tisch has launched the state’s most demanding regime of high-stakes testing in history. Teachers College specifically congratulates Tisch’s leadership not only in tying test scores to teacher evaluations but in tying test scores to the school of education that prepared the teachers.
The press release notes these accomplishments:
“TC alumna Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents. Tisch will speak at the first master’s degree ceremony on May 21st, which starts at 9:30 a.m. As Chancellor, Tisch, a former first-grade teacher, has championed public education as “the greatest civic and civil liberties issue of our time.” She 


York, PA, Will Not Privatize

A proposal to turn the public schools of York, Pennsylvania, into an all charter district was overwhelmingly rejected.
Do you think someone told them that the Néw Orleans Recovery School District is the lowest rated district in Louisiana?


Scofflaws in Louisiana

Louisiana is expanding the number of students attending voucher schools to 8,000, despite a court ruling that it is unconstitutional to take money from the dedicated public school fund for non-public schools.
Bobby Jindal thinks either that the law doesn’t mean him or that he knows more than the courts and can ignore their rulings. (L ‘etat c’est moi.)
Which schools get vouchers?
New Living Word got the most. It won an additional 117 vouchers, bringing its total to 214.
A Reuters article described the top voucher school as follows:
“The school willing to accept the most voucher students — 314 — is New Living Word in Ruston, which has

How the “Rich Boyz” of School Reform Struck Out in Boston

EduShyster here tells the heartwarming story of how DFER tried to elect one of their own in Boston (white, privileged, no experience or knowledge of public schools necessary) and lost.
If you recall, the California Democratic Party called out DFER as a front for Republican and corporate interests.
Here are the key paragraphs of the resolution:
“Whereas, the political action committee, entitled Democrats for Education Reform is funded by corporations, 

Will Michael Fullan Stop NCLB and RTTT?

Officials in California have been meeting with Michael Fullan of Ontario to learn about the impressive improvements there.
Fullan wants to turn the state of California away from the carrots-and-sticks of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
The story linked her says:
“I want California to become an alternative model to No Child Left Behind; that would be a great thing to aspire to,” Fullan said last month during an interview in Sacramento. Instead of improvement through the “negative 

Diane in the Evening 5-5-13 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: Why Business Models Fail in Education by dianerav A comment on the post about “Zombie Education Policies”: Having spent years in business, I cringe at blindly applying business models to education. 360 evaluation is a business fad that will join MBOs and matrix management. I tried student evaluations. Students are usually upset over not getting a certain grade on the most recent test, angry over a detention, or at the other extreme, like the teacher and don’t want to say anything negative. I eavesdropped on two ... more »