Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, August 9, 2014

8-9-14 NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education


NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:


NPE News Briefs

from The Network for Public Education


K12 Defies… Well, Everything | CURMUDGUCATION
K12 remains the top dog in the junkyard of cyberschooling. It provides an instructive lesson in how a good pile of cash and friends in the right places can keep a business afloat even after people have poked holes in the hull. There was never anything about the organization that didn’t look like a red ...read more
Nicholas Meier: What Is Wrong with Vouchers? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
After many years of being rebuffed at the polls, the pro-voucher forces seemed to have given up. Voucher supporters turned to charter schools as their best hope for wresting public dollars out of public schools and putting them into private hands. But in recent years, vouchers have made a comeback. The Wisconsin legislature approved vouchers ...read more
Transcript of Campbell Brown’s Interview with Stephen Colbert | deutsch29
On August 1, 2014, blogger Jersey Jazzman published an insightful post regarding former CNN news anchor Campbell Brown’s appearance on the Colbert Report on July 31, 2014, as she discussed her intention to abolish teacher job protections “for the children” first in new York and then in other states nationwide. I know, I know. On August 2, ...read more
Six Years Under the Masthead: Farewell to Ed Week – Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher
By Anthony Cody on August 3, 2014 1:33 PM This post marks my last appearance at Education Week, after six eventful years. The summer of 2008 was the beginning of Living in Dialogue, launched with the help of John Norton. In that first year, I wrote about the presidential candidates, including Barack Obama, and once ...read more
Civil Rights or Civil Wrongs: A Closer Look at the Common Core | Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody and Alan Aja. From the very beginnings of No Child Left Behind, the strongest argument for attaching stakes to tests has been Civil Rights. This phrase is shorthand for equity in education, an end to the systemic neglect of children of color. And proponents of corporate reform have become adept at wrapping ...read more

AUG 01

The Failure of Test and Test and Test Some More | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This teacher expresses frustration with the policymakers’ obsession with testing, thinking of it as a form of instruction and a measure of instruction, and as a measure of teacher quality and school quality. In New York, for example, State Commissiomer Zjohn King recently a bounced that he would release more questions and more results earlier. ...read more
Tennessee’s Fool of Merit | EduShyster
Accountability for thee but not for me… By Joe Nashville During EduShyster’s last visit  to the Volunteer State, we were left to wonder if the sword of punitive accountability cuts both ways.  Fortunately, if you’re a Tennessean who puts students first, the answer is still no.  In fact, Kevin Huffman, aka the TNeduCommish or K-Huff, seems ...read more
New problems for “Dr.” Carter in New London. His tenure at CPS and AUSL? Anyone? Anyone? | Fred Klonsky
The troubles for “Dr.” Terrence P. Carter keeping mounting up. He was a slam-dunk choice for New London, Connecticut’s superintendent of schools until his resume turned out to be phonier than a World Wrestling Federation match. The board put the hiring on hold until they could investigate whether he really got a Ph.D. from Stanford. ...read more
Stephen Colbert to Campbell Brown: ‘Why are we blaming the teachers? Maybe it’s the dumb kids.’ | The Washington Post
Stephen Colbert welcomed Campbell Brown to “The Colbert Report” (see video below) on Thursday night to talk about her support for a lawsuit just filed in New York that seeks to eliminate tenure and other job protections for teachers. The Comedy Central host didn’t give the former CNN anchor turned anti-union activist a free pass, asking ...read more
A teacher asks Arne Duncan a gutsy question. Here’s the answer. – The Washington Post
What question would you ask to Education Secretary Arne Duncan if you had the chance? Patrick Hayes, a fifth-grade teacher in Charleston, S.C., and director of EdFirstSC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group working to empower people who care about public schools, got that opportunity recently when Duncan had a video chat with hundreds of Charleston ...read more