Monday, August 5, 2013

Diane in the Evening 8-5-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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




Two Peas in a Pod: Tony Bennett and John White
John White of Louisiana and Tony Bennett of Indiana and (briefly) of Florida have much in common, writes Mercedes Schneider. Both are (or were) part of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change. Both use data to create narratives. Bennett is gone. White is not.

Intended or Unintended Consequence of “Reform”?
A reader sees how “reforms” make public schools undesirable. Is this their purpose? He writes: “When you go to a kindergarten meeting (in the wealthy suburbs), and the teachers are telling all the parents, “common core this and common core that/test and test”, I can’t really blame parents for opting out of the entire public school system. That is the danger I see. The wealthier suburban parents wi

What is the Goal of Common Core Testing?
For months, school officials in many states have warned parents to expect proficiency rates on Common Core-aligned tests to plummet. They have warned that the proportion of students rated proficient was likely to drop by as much as 30%. When this happens, it will make public education in America look just as bad as the corporate reformers have been claiming. When New York administered the first Co
Utah Legislator: End Compulsory Education
State Senator Aaron Osmond of Utah has called for an end to compulsory education. Osmond says that parents are expecting too much of the schools. He believes that education should be a choice, not a mandate. This is evidence that education “reform” is hurtling backwards in time, taking us to an era when there was no compulsory education, when kids could be kicked out of school for low test scores

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-5-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all #Cheats4Change
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Cheats for Change Makes Its Debut #Cheats4ChangeA new website called Cheats for Change has been created in the wake of the Tony Bennett scandal. Please take a look. It is very funny. For those of you who do not follow education politics closely, Cheats for Change is a parody of Jeb Bush’s group called Chiefs for Change. Bush and hi