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

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

Twisted Thursday Diane Ravitch's blog 

A site to discuss better education for all

Parents File Complaint to New York State, Demanding Reduced Class Sizes

4by dianeravitch / 1h

The press release is self-explanatory: Contact: Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, 917-435-9329; leoniehaimson@gmail.com Wendy Lecker, Education Law Center, 203-536-7567, wlecker@edlawcenter.org NYC PARENTS FILE 

Ed Johnson: Neo-Colonialism in Africa–and Atlanta

by dianeravitch / 5min

Ed Johnson is a passionate advocate for quality education for all. He lives in Atlanta. Ed is a follower of the philosophy of W. Edwards Deming, who taught that you don’t blame frontline workers for the failure of the system and its poor leadership. He frequently writes letters to the members of the Atlanta Board of Education, hoping to enlighten them. Here is the latest: New-age colonialism in A

Graduation Speech: “You Said We Couldn’t Succeed, But You Were Wrong”

13by dianeravitch / 1h

Jo Lieb, who blogs as “Poetic Justice,” posted the powerful graduation speech written and delivered by Coral Ortiz, with Coral’s permission. Coral just graduated from a public high school in New Haven, Connecticut. When we were young, we were taught that we were “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Our country taught us that no matter our income or race, we would

A Guide to Voucher Jargon and Doublespeak

5by dianeravitch / 2h

The NEA posted a handy explanation of the differences among current voucher programs. Learn to understand Betsy DeVos’s euphemisms. School vouchers are actually unpopular, which is why their advocates call them by another term. “Voucher devotees like DeVos know this, which is why the term “school voucher” has been ditched in favor of more appealing terms. “Take for example this line from DeVos’ s

Have You Heard? “Personalized Learning” and the Disruption of Education

25by dianeravitch / 3h

Now that we live in the new gig economy, where kids in their 20s become instant multimillionaires by disrupting every industry, here come the hawkers of (de)personalized learning to replace teachers with smart (but not cheap) machines. These machines never need pensions or health care. They don’t care about tenure or due process. Jennifer Berkshire (once known as EduShyster) and historian of educ

Peter Greene: “Personalized Learning” and the Great Bait-and-Switch

4by dianeravitch / 4h

Peter Greene explains the hoax at the heart of “personalized learning.” The appeal is that it is customized just for you. The reality is that it is a standardized algorithm that adjusts to your responses but doesn’t you from Adam or Eve. The Brand X that we’re supposed to be escaping, the view of education that Personalized Learning is supposed to alter, the toxin for which Personalized Learning

YESTERDAY

The NEA Demands Accountability and Transparency from Charter Schools

32by dianeravitch / 23h

The National Education Association passed a resolution on charter schools on July 4, 2017, which is appropriate because public schools are the foundation of democracy. Add this to the resolution passed last year by the NAACP. And the statement by Black Lives Matter in opposition to privatization of public schools. And the statement endorsed by the Network for Public Education , saying that charte

The Heroes of This Blog! Add Your Name!

13by dianeravitch / 1d

We have quite an amazing collection of readers on this blog. I often post your comments, because they are well-written, succinct, informative, and besides which, most of you know know more about teaching and the everyday life of the classroom than I do. If your name was inadvertently omitted, let me know and I will add it. A reader who goes by the name “Homeless Educator” sent this comment. “Dian

Is Texas the Future of America? Let’s Hope Not!

11by dianeravitch / 1d

This is a fascinating and funny and scary article about politics in Texas, written by Lawrence Wright, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker. The title of the article is “America’s Future is Texas,” and we better hope it is wrong. When I was growing up in Houston, the state was reliably Democratic, although the Democrats were conservative. Now the state is a red stat

Maine: Governor LePage Reluctantly Increases School Funding, Vows to Get Even Next Year

7by dianeravitch / 1d

Governor Paul LePage of Maine is one of the worst governors in the nation. Twice he was elected by a plurality in a three-way race. He hates public schools. A citizens’ initiative forced him to raise state spending on them. He vowed to get even next yea r. LePage started his time in office by doing whatever Jeb Bush wanted, such as agreeing to sign on to Jeb’s Digital Learning business to benefit

Wendy Lecker: How Chicago Targeted Black and Latino Schools and Communities for Destruction

16by dianeravitch / 1d

This article is an excellent analysis by civil rights lawyer Wendy Lecker of the deliberate destruction of public education in black and Latino neighborhoods in Chicago. Chicago has purposely sacrificed the needs of black and Latino students while protecting and enhancing the needs of white students. We have to bear in mind what Rahm Emanuel told CTU leader Karen Lewis when he was first elected:

Peg Tyre: Can a High-Tech Start-Up in Africa Educate Hundreds of Millions of Children and Make a Profit?

7by dianeravitch / 1d

Peg Tyre, veteran journalist, published a balanced and well-written article about Bridge International Academies in the New York Times Magazine. BIA operates numerous low-fee, for-profit schools in Africa and its investors hope to spread 

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