Diane in the Evening 9-29-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Wendy Kopp Reviews Jonathan Kozol

by dianerav

As Edushyster calls it, Wendy is miffed that Jon didn’t mention TFA.
Another hilarious article from one of our best satirists.

Won’t Back Down: The Hilarious Sequel

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman has written a brilliant screenplay that tells what happened after the characters in the movie opened their charter school.
This is hilarious!

A Teacher Responds to “Won’t Back Down”

by dianerav

Julie Cavanaugh is a special education teacher at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
She was one of the makers of the documentary “The Inconvenient Truth Behind ‘Waiting for Superman’”
She now reviews “Won’t Back Down” and explains what is really necessary to reform schools today.

Is It Really “All About the Kids”?

by dianerav

The review in the New York Times of the anti-union film makes an important point: when people loudly insist that “it’s all about the kids,” you can be sure that it’s not.
As A.O. Scott puts it, “A movie that insists, repeatedly and at high volume, that ‘it’s all about the kids’ might just cause you to wonder what else it is about, and this one is not shy about showing its ideological hand.”
Surely, you have noticed how often the corporate reformers use terms like “children first,” “students first,” 

Dichotomy of Co-Intentional Teaching and Our Current Education System « Cooperative Catalyst

Dichotomy of Co-Intentional Teaching and Our Current Education System « Cooperative Catalyst:

Dichotomy of Co-Intentional Teaching and Our Current Education System

by SngrLittle

Last week I attended a national conference on theatre education.  It was an illuminating and frustrating experience.  And this fall, I started attending graduate school in applied theatre at CUNY in New York, where I am participating in a wonderfully illuminating course, Group Theatre.  Part of the ongoing dialogue and work in Group Theatre has centered on challenging ourselves as facilitators and educators to push the boundaries, to ask difficult questions, to encourage student-based learning, to promote critical questioning and dialogue.Sitting in a group of secondary and university theatre educators from across the country, I was struck at how strongly the field was focusing on banking education…still.  Freire identifies banking education as “the scope of action allowed to the students extending only as far as receiving, filing and storing the deposits…it is the people 

Students Last: Stripper Fired For Being A Teacher

Students Last: Stripper Fired For Being A Teacher:

Stripper Fired For Being A Teacher

by Students Last

Teachers rejected: "We have our standards"

Grand Rapids, Michigan - Stripper Bunny Halter has filed a federal employment discrimination lawsuit against her former employer strip club White Glove, claiming she was fired one year ago due to her previous employment as a teacher.

"I know I made some bad choices," Ms. Halter apologized at a press conference organized by her attorney Gloria Allred. "But I've left the education field now and I don't think I should be punished for trying to support my family. I've really turned 

Schools Matter: Kopp's shameless self-promotion in the guise of a Kozol book review

Schools Matter: Kopp's shameless self-promotion in the guise of a Kozol book review:

Kopp's shameless self-promotion in the guise of a Kozol book review

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"Ms. Kopp's husband, Richard Barth, was an Edison executive before taking over as CEO of KIPP's national foundation, where he has sought to decertify its New York City unions." — Jesse James Alred
One thing I'll concede to the corporate education reformers is their uncanny ability to use anything as a sales pitch for neoliberalism and profitability. Perhaps the most egregious example of this was Arne "Katrina Schadenfreude" Duncan's racist pro-charter school statement that the abject disaster was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New 

Schools Matter: Autism, ADHD, Adaptation and Randomization

Schools Matter: Autism, ADHD, Adaptation and Randomization:

Autism, ADHD, Adaptation and Randomization

by Storm

Some time ago I wrote a piece noting how it seems autism is becoming a useful "disorder" to have.  (I used the quotes for a reason which I hope becomes clear.)  The post, "Autism: the next 'specialty' credential," tried to create a kind of choral effect between an essay by Adam Philips on the cultural definitions (always changing) of "mental illness," and a Wired article detailing the hiring practices of an "entrepreneur" (someone with money, or access to money, who can create little bubbles of reality in which to try out new definitions), Thorkil Sonne; he finds the "autistic human capital" uniquely wired to work in the IT field.  "In Sonne's native Denmark, as 

Jersey Jazzman: More Perth Amboy

Jersey Jazzman: More Perth Amboy:

More Perth Amboy

by Duke

It never ends in Perth Amboy:

The large crowd of parents and teachers at Perth Amboy High School erupted in applause when the Perth Amboy Board of Education placed Superintendent Janine Caffrey on administrative leave last Saturday. 

After an hour-long private session, the Board passed a resolution to not only place Caffrey on leave but also name Assistant Superintendent Vivian Rodriguez as active Superintendent. The board also unanimously voted to not bring Caffrey back as Superintendent once her current deal expires 

“Many of you are aware that an administrative law judge issued a decision to uphold our vote last May to 

Jersey Jazzman: Won't Back Down II: The Sequel

Jersey Jazzman: Won't Back Down II: The Sequel:

Won't Back Down II: The Sequel

by Duke

Won't Back Down II: The Sequel

After credits roll, fade up on school office. A worker is taking down a sign that says "Adams Elementary" and putting up one that says "KKIP Super Success Academy." In walk Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Nona Alberts (Viola Davis), smiling and chatting, clearly excited by changes in the school. 

They enter the principal's office, where they are greeted by the new school leader, Geoffrey Barth-Moskowitz (Anthony Hopkins). He stands and shakes their hands.

Geoffrey: Jamie, Nona, how good of you to come. Welcome to the KKIP Super Success Academy!

Jamie: Thank you so much, Mr. Barth-Moskowitz!

Geoffrey: Oh, please, no need to be formal; call me Geoff.

Jamie: The school looks wonderful, Geoff! I can't believe

Dan Malloy just isn't that into Michelle Rhee - AMERICAblog

Dan Malloy just isn't that into Michelle Rhee - AMERICAblog:

Dan Malloy just isn’t that into Michelle Rhee

9/28/2012 4:23pm by Matt Browner Hamlin 4 Comments Print

Disgraced former DC schools chief Michelle Rhee is on a quixotic search to pretend she’s a Democrat in good standing, despite her pursuit of taking away workers’ rights and helping Republican governors bust teachers unions.

In her Washington Post op-ed on how “real Democrats” support her education prioritization strategy, which reads like a Joe Lieberman op-ed arguing that real Democrats support endless war, Rhee offers up an example of how Democratic governors have worked with her on education issues.

Increasingly, those who staunchly side with unions at any cost appear to be in the minority, while more Democrats are saying we have to look at education differently. In Connecticut, 

Prop. 30 isn't perfect, but if it fails, the results will be tragic - latimes.com

Prop. 30 isn't perfect, but if it fails, the results will be tragic - latimes.com:

Prop. 30 isn't perfect, but if it fails, the results will be tragic

If funding for public education is devastated, we will all pay the price.

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Gov. Jerry Brown at an August event supporting Proposition 30 in San Francisco. (Paul Sakuma, Associated Press)

By Sandy Banks

September 28, 2012, 7:38 p.m.

It's the kind of education news that never makes headlines: Dozens of teachers and principals from both charter and district-run schools across the Southland gathered last weekend at Loyola Marymount University to talk about what's working in their classrooms.

The ideas were eye-opening — a mix of innovation and common sense, data analysis and gut-level grit. And so was the energy.

But the celebration couldn't mask the sense of desperation in the room: California's public schools 

http://www.yesonprop30.com/

Engaged Pedagogy « Cooperative Catalyst

Engaged Pedagogy « Cooperative Catalyst:

Engaged Pedagogy

by Paul Freedman

There’s one heck of a problem in American education today.  There seems to be absolute consensus on this point.  After all, student test scores are woeful in comparison to those of other industrialized nations.  And the test scores of students of color reveal a gap that exposes a culture of privileging the already privileged, that shows little sign of change.  Hands are wringing and policy makers and administrators scramble to increase standards and heighten the stakes of measurable achievement.  We must close failing schools, rest control away from lackadaisical districts and place it firmly into the hands of the DOE.  We must weed out underperforming teachers and cajole, threaten and reward students into “success.”
The problem as I see it, however, is not low test scores.  Rather low test scores are a symptom or maybe even in some indirect ways a cause of the problem.  The problem is lack of engagement.  The problem is 

High School Stadiums, Packed With Loopholes - Businessweek

High School Stadiums, Packed With Loopholes - Businessweek:

High School Stadiums, Packed With Loopholes

By Kathy Warbelow on September 27, 2012

Texas isn’t a place you’d expect to see the words “equalized wealth,” but there they are in the state’s education code. The so-called Robin Hood provision passed in 1993 requires that school districts with taxable property values above a certain level, currently $319,500 per student, surrender some of their revenue to poorer communities. For the 2012-13 school year, a record 374 of Texas’s 1,030 districts are giving up a total of about $1 billion. (In 1993, 35 districts made the list.) Tax money used to repay bondholders is exempt from redistribution, so as the number of towns deemed property-rich has grown, many have raised millions from bond issues to build lavish football stadiums and schools. Nearly 100 high school stadiums have opened in Texas in the last five years. “If you don’t pass a bond and spend it here for your kids, the money just goes to the state,” says Dustin Burns, president of the booster club at Carthage High School, near the Louisiana border.

Voters in some districts have balked at issuing bonds to 

In California, Public School Parents Stage a Coup

SLIDESHOW

Parent Power: The School Takeover Movement

"Won't Back Down": Round-Up Of Reviews Find It Boring, Propaganda-Filled | K-12 News Network

"Won't Back Down": Round-Up Of Reviews Find It Boring, Propaganda-Filled | K-12 News Network:

Won’t Back Down”: Round-Up Of Reviews Find It Boring, Propaganda-Filled

Posted on September 29, 2012 by admin

What’s supposed to be a charming, compelling movie that tugs at heart-strings and delivers the message that teacher’s unions are bad is instead dull, heavy-handed, and uninvolving, according to critics. In this movie, parents and teachers unite, and voila! The result is always and only a charter school.

“Won’t Back Down” isn’t passing the low bar of being at least mildly entertaining, nor is it an effective propaganda piece for the “parent tricker” law that started in California. The law allows disgruntled parents to use a majority vote to hand over an “underachieving” public school to private charter school operators (never an in-district, fully public option). Once transferred out of the public trust, the school never returns to public administration despite being subsidized by taxpayers. The “trigger” law has spread to several othe

Education Radio on “Won’t Back Down” and the Parent Trigger | Seattle Education

Education Radio on “Won’t Back Down” and the Parent Trigger | Seattle Education:

Education Radio on “Won’t Back Down” and the Parent Trigger

by seattleducation2011

 

Leonie Haimson

Highly recommended.
On this program you will hear from real parents who are active in education.
“Won’t Back Down”: Corporate Education Reform and the Rhetoric of Fiction
In the past weeks, we have watched with renewed energy and hope as the teachers, parents, students and community members of Chicago have shown us the power of solidarity. Their resistance to the privatization of public education and their demand to reclaim the classroom from hedge fund managers, real estate tycoons, venture philanthropists and their political stooges, is shifting the narrative from one of blaming teachers, 

Expired food products being served by Walmart Foundation funded LAUSD Breakfast in the Classroom - Echo Park-Silver-Lake, CA Patch

Expired food products being served by Walmart Foundation funded LAUSD Breakfast in the Classroom - Echo Park-Silver-Lake, CA Patch:

Expired food products being served by Walmart Foundation funded LAUSD Breakfast in the Classroom

Posted on September 27, 2012 at 11:26 pm

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"So long as there are children who are coming to school hungry, there will be a need for school breakfast programs, and until workers are guaranteed a living wage, there will undoubtedly be hungry kids." — Dana Woldow

Ballyhooed as "historic" by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) President Mónica García, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Broad Foundation backed InnerCity Struggle, Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) is a poorly thought out program with noble intentions, but plagued from