California education’s painful decline - Salon.com

California education’s painful decline - Salon.com:

California education’s painful decline

The state starved its schools of cash. Now its once vaunted public education system is dying a slow death

BY ANDY KROLL, TOMDISPATCH.COM

A coed dorm at UCLA. (Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong))

This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.

It was the greatest education system the world had ever seen. They built it into the eucalyptus-dotted Berkeley hills and under the bright lights of Los Angeles, down in the valley in Fresno and in the shadows of the San Bernardino Mountains. Hundreds of college campuses, large and small, two-year and four-year, stretching from California’s emerald forests in the north to the heat-scorched Inland Empire in the south. Each had its own DNA, but common to all was this: they promised a “public” education, accessible and affordable, to those with means and those without, a door with a welcome mat into the ivory tower, an invitation to a better life.

Then California bled that system dry. Over three decades, voters 

Morning UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-8-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

A Draft of a Parent’s Letter to President Obama

by dianerav

A parent in California drafted a letter to President Obama. This could serve as a template for other parents.
Some parents worry about the negative effects of high-stakes testing on their children. Others are upset that their community is being torn apart by battles with charter operators. Others are upset by class size or budget cuts.
Please send us your email by October 17.
Here are the instructions.
Write your views and join our campaign to collect the maximum number of emails and letters in the next 10 days. Anthony Cody will collect them, will combine them with emails to my blog, and submit them to the White House on October 18.

Pennsylvania Official Altered Test Rules to Inflate Charter Scores

by dianerav

The Pennsylvania Secretary of Education changed the state testing rules, without federal approval, to boost the scores of charters. The change involved treating charter schools as if they are districts, not schools. This reduced the number of charters that failed to make adequate yearly progress.
The chief legal counsel for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association said “the change might give the Legislature the false impression that charter schools outperform traditional public schools as they consider bills 

Marie Corfield Needs Your Help!

by dianerav

This morning, I made a contribution to Marie Corfield’s campaign. She is a teacher running for the New Jersey legislature. She will be a thorn in Governor Chris Christie’s side as he slams teachers and their union and tries to cut their pensions and destroy public education.
Jersey Jazzman reminds us here that you can help without sending any money. You can help by asking the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee to help her. Just click on the link. I did that too.
Folks, Marie needs help NOW – it won’t cost you a cent and it will take literally one minute! Read about it here:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/10/marie-corfield-for-nj-assembly.html
Just tell the DLCC to support Marie’s race – that’s it! Again, it will take one minute, it won’t cost you a thing, and it will annoy the heck outta Chris Christie!
All my fellow teachers, I’m asking you to step up on this one. We need to let this great teacher and great candidate know that we take care of our own. Please do this by Tuesday, when the DLCC nominations end.
Thanks!

Wish I Had a Newspaper Like This in My Hometown

by dianerav

The Mercury of Pottsdown, Pennsylvania, has an editorial describing the devastating effects of budget cuts and tax caps on Pennsylvania’s public schools.
The cuts threaten the future, says the editorial. Class sizes are growing. Thousands of teachers have bee laid off. On the chopping block and already cut are music and art, sports, kindergarten, early childhood education, after-school activities.
State budget cuts, combined with the transfer of public funds to charter schools and voucher schools, are eroding public education for the vast majority of the state’s children. The great many are suffering because of privatization.
What is at risk?
“Public education is the foundation of our democracy,” said William LaCoff, Owen J. Roberts School Board 

Game On in Oklahoma

by dianerav

The reform/privatization strategy is now in full operation is states across the nation.
This is the way it works:
First, set an impossible goal, say, 100% proficiency for all students.
Second, say that there can be “no excuses,” no reference to social conditions in which children live.
Third, insist on accountability for schools, teachers, and principals. If they can’t meet the impossible goals, fire 

Creativity Declines as Testing Increases

by dianerav

An article in Psychology Today says that studies of creativity show it is on the decline.
The decline of creativity is concurrent with the rise of testing and accountability in American schools.
This is particularly disturbing because America’s trump card has always been creativity, ingenuity, wit, and innovation.
In our reckless pursuit to “race to the top” of test scores, we are sacrificing what matters most to our nation’s future economic success.

Education Nation Ignored Students

by dianerav

Nikhil Goyal was invited to participate in Education Nation.
He is a high school senior in New York who recently published a book (!) about education reform.
But read what he writes about how Education Nation treated students.

Daily Kos: Does our presidential campaign lack a moral core?

Daily Kos: Does our presidential campaign lack a moral core?:

Does our presidential campaign lack a moral core?

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

That is the first sentence of a thought-provoking op-ed in today's Washington Post titled E.J. Dionne Jr.: The campaign’s moral hole.  Dionne is a Catholic and a liberal, which places him not on the side of the nationa's Catholic bishops. some of whom he note

often give the impression that they constitute the Republican Party at prayer

.  Instead he prefers

One of my favorite pressure groups, Nuns on the Bus, will be launching a five-day tour on Wednesday through the red, blue and purple parts of Ohio.

Let me follow that link for the Nuns, where the first text on the web page is about the tour, and says

UPDATE: Still obtuse about standardized testing

Still obtuse about standardized testing:

Still obtuse about standardized testing

Posted by Valerie Strauss on October 8, 2012 at 6:00 am

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For all that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan talk about wanting to move beyond “bubble tests,” the high-stakes role ofstandardized testing in public education as a result of their policies can hardly be overstated.  Here’s a new look at testing by Walt Gardner, who writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week. Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the UCLA Graduate School of Education. He uses his background to put educational issues in context for readers.

 By Walt Gardner

When I was at UCLA working on my California teaching credential in the mid-1960s, I 

Blaming stressed-out moms for school failure

by Valerie Strauss

I said I wouldn’t publish anything more about “Won’t Back Down,” the pro-parent trigger movie, but …. Here’s a post, written by Vicki Abeles and Wendy Grolnick, about the film but also about other movies and books that subtly — and not so subtly — blame some parents, especially mothers, when schools fail and kids fall behind.
Read full article >>

Pennsylvania eases NCLB rules to help charter schools

by Valerie Strauss

How is this for fair? Charter schools in Pennsylvania are now being assessed by easier rules than are traditional public schools when it comes to determining whether No Child Left Behind mandates have been met.
Read full article >>

Radical Scholarship: Writers Reflect on Chicago Strike (EdWeek)

Radical Scholarship: Writers Reflect on Chicago Strike (EdWeek):

Writers Reflect on Chicago Strike (EdWeek)

by P. L. Thomas

Writers Reflect on Chicago Strike

Education Week

Missing the Forest for the Trees (Expanded below)

The Chicago teachers’ strike has sparked even more debate over the role of unions and the importance of teacher quality in public education. Yet, arguments and policy associated with teachers’ unions and teacher quality share one serious problem—missing the forest for the trees.

Carefully examining the debates themselves, in other words, pulling back from the trees to consider the forest, offers an opportunity for the public, educators, and policy stakeholders to reframe those debates and thus improve the likelihood education reform can achieve what it has failed to accomplish over the past thirty years.

NYC Educator: The Littlest Soldier

NYC Educator: The Littlest Soldier:

The Littlest Soldier

by NYC Educator

My daughter is the most patriotic American I've ever seen. First thing, when she got into high school, she joined the JROTC, and she's been gung-ho over it ever since. She's on the drill team, the rifle team, in leadership, and she's got a chest full of medals. She'll go in at six AM to do I have no idea what, and stay until 8 PM to continue doing it. She'll go away weekends with them to practice it even more.

One weekend I got a call from her CO. Someone had fallen on her while they were doing some sort of exercise, and she'd hurt her wrist. Could I please drive out and pick her up? I said OK. I got out of what I was doing and started driving. Halfway there, my car broke down. There were all sorts of lights flashing on the dashboard, but I managed to drive it to a friend's house. He was kind enough to drive me to the airport, the only 

LAUSD: THERE SHOULD BE NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY IN SCHOOL - Perdaily.com

LAUSD: THERE SHOULD BE NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY IN SCHOOL - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD: THERE SHOULD BE NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY IN SCHOOL

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

Students and teachers should have no expectation of privacy in school. As a matter of fact, it is the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) assertion of unchallenged false notions of privacy on behalf of its administrators, teachers, and students that has created the present dishonest, chaotic, and dangerous school environment that is the antithesis of what needs to exist in our schools, if we truly want no child to be left behind.

Teachers can only be targeted for unjust removal from teaching at LAUSD and 

Constitutional amendment 49 is 700 dirty little words. You only need to know one: No. « Fred Klonsky

Constitutional amendment 49 is 700 dirty little words. You only need to know one: No. « Fred Klonsky:

Constitutional amendment 49 is 700 dirty little words. You only need to know one: No.

by Fred Klonsky

Constitutional Amendment 49 follows the logic of the Big Bird Rule.
Seven hundred words.
That’s about how long Constitutional Amendment 49 is that will be on the ballot November 6th.
But if passed, those words may supersede the words in  Article XIII, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution which contains the clause prohibiting state pension benefits from being diminished or impaired.
If passed, a local  body could reduce or eliminate what had formerly been a constitutionally protected benefit with

Ten minute drawing. Columbus Day.

by Fred Klonsky

Click on drawing to enlarge.

Education law expert: Language of charter schools amendment lesson in subversion | Get Schooled

Education law expert: Language of charter schools amendment lesson in subversion | Get Schooled:

Education law expert: Language of charter schools amendment lesson in subversion

by Maureen Downey

Attorney Thomas Cox represented Atlanta and DeKalb schools in the lawsuit that led to the abolition of the state-run charter schools commission.  That 2011 legal victory by school systems prompted the current campaign to change the Georgia Constitution so the state can recreate the commission and go back to approving charters over the objections of local boards of education.
A public school parent, Cox is a Harvard Law School grad who specializes in education law and policy. He is a co-founder of the Atlanta “Faithful Lawyers,” an inter-faith group that has co-sponsored continuing legal education seminars at Emory Law School, addressing issues of faith and the practice of law.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

“I honestly think everybody won. No one wanted the strike, teachers didn’t want that, the administration didn’t want that,” said Duncan. But wait.  Rahm said ithis was a "strike of choice." Who's writing the script?

Arne Duncan

"Everybody won in Chicago teachers strike." -- Daily Caller

Paul Ryan

"Let's make this country a tax shelter..." Mother Jones

The Notebook

The term “portfolio management” is borrowed from Wall Street, where the idea is to buy winning 

SI&A Cabinet Report – Lift begins on new math frameworks, fret remains over money to use them

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Print this article

Lift begins on new math frameworks, fret remains over money to use them
By Kimberly Beltran
Monday, October 08, 2012

Educators charged with creating the blueprint for how California schools will teach new math standards tied to the common core jumped late last week into the bulk of that work – an exercise that while widely anticipated remains frustrated by the lack of funding for districts to ultimately take advantage of their efforts.

The new math frameworks will be used by publishers to update instructional materials and also to inform training and professional development teachers will need in the common core.

But the 19-member Math Curriculum Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee has also been asked to weigh in on the politically-charged question around eighth grade algebra.

With adoption last month of legislation needed to direct the activity, the frameworks panel 

Meaning and Purpose | Connected Principals

Meaning and Purpose | Connected Principals:

Meaning and Purpose

by dkerr

So recently I had the wonderful opportunity to re-read one of of my favorite books, as well as the chance to have my eyes and heart opened by some unexpected people, in some unexpected places. Collectively, these experiences got me thinking a lot about the importance of meaning and purpose in our lives, and the responsibility we have as educators to instill this life focus in our students and children. Hopefully as teachers, we have eagerly and specifically chosen this profession because of the unmatched and unlimited purpose and meaning that comes with the territory. In my opinion, educating children and young adults is not only fulfilling, rewarding, and extraordinarily meaningful but hugely daunting as well. It’s not enough to simply teach our students the course content, or all we know about reading, writing, and arithmetic…….we NEED to teach them about courage, love, service, empathy, and all that goes into leading a life of meaning. We have a deep and urgent responsibility to prepare our kids for life outside of the school walls, and we need to be held 

The Educated Reporter: Columbus Day: Different Viewpoints on `Discovering' America

The Educated Reporter: Columbus Day: Different Viewpoints on `Discovering' America:

Columbus Day: Different Viewpoints on `Discovering' America

by Emily Richmond

Growing up, my early education about Christopher Columbus didn’t drill much deeper than a sanitized version of the journeys of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. That perspective changed when a member of a New England American Indian tribe visited my eighth-grade history class. He described the devastating impact on his ancestors and subsequent generations following being “discovered” by European explorers. As philosopher George Santayana wrote, Columbus "gave the world another world." And that world was far more complex than had been hinted at in my middle school textbooks.

Bill Bigelow, co-director of the Zinn Education Project and co-editor of the Rethinking Columbus, writes that over the course of his 30 years of teaching history, he’s regularly asked students who was already “here” when the explorers' ships arrived. Not once has a student answered “the Tainos” – the name of the indigenous people who 

Suneal and Kara (Oakland, CA) #UseYourTeacherVoice

Suneal and Kara (Oakland, CA) #UseYourTeacherVoice

All California students should have access to college. To learn more about Suneal and Kara's students' ballot initiative, visit www.collegeforcalifornia.org

UPDATE: We are now live! Petitions are up!

Help us reach our goal of 807,615 signatures.

Click here to download the petition
Click here to find out if you are eligible to collect signatures and who can sign the petition.

The College for California ballot initiative would eliminate tuition and fees for all California residents who are full time students at the University of California and the California State Universities. Students would be eligible for tuition-free education for four years if during each academic year they maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or perform 70 hours of community service. This initiative would be funded by increasing the state income tax rate from 9.3% to 10% for individuals making over $250,000 and to 11% for individuals making greater than $500,000. College for California is the result of months of hard work, research, and collaboration by students from two Oakland High Schools, Life Academy of Health and Bioscience and Oakland Unity High School.

You can make this happen! Here’s what you can do:

1. At the very least, print the petition, sign it yourself and get a few others to do the same, then send it to us at:
College For California PO Box 4418 Davis, CA 95617-4418
2. Go a little further, contact everyone in your network of friends and relatives and encourage them to print and sign the initiative as well as spread the word.
3. Or take it to another level, and carry copies of the initiative wherever you go, get as many signatures from eligible voters as you can, set up a table on campus or a farmer’s market or outside a stadium, contact the media, write editorials, call into radio shows, or help in any way which you feel comfortable.

Short Notes: Romney Flips The Big Bird | The Jose Vilson

Short Notes: Romney Flips The Big Bird | The Jose Vilson:

Short Notes: Romney Flips The Big Bird

by Jose

Mitt Romney Flips The Big Bird

A few notes:

• Here are a few reasons why we should save PBS. Like you need any more. [Explore]
• Do we still expect our favorite writers to be nice people? Or as complex as their writing? Case in point:David Foster Wallace. [New York Times]
• Harlem schools are seeing a high turnover rate. Beth Fertig explores. [Schoolbook]
• Christina Lewis Halpern notices the shift

Kimble's Corner: The Speaker and The Ford House Five

Kimble's Corner: The Speaker and The Ford House Five:

The Speaker and The Ford House Five

by Representative Kimble

[The following is an excerpt from my ebook Profiles in Courageousness: The Jack Kimble Story, which will be out for most electronic formats in the next few weeks.]

The Speaker and The Ford House Five - An Excerpt from Profiles in Courageousness: The Jack Kimble Story

Together the four of us made Ford House something special and even though Danny and Carlton have moved on and Tex, Bill, and I have grown older and a bit more mature, the days of the Ford House Five will always remain 

Jersey Jazzman: Marie Corfield For NJ Assembly

Jersey Jazzman: Marie Corfield For NJ Assembly:

Marie Corfield For NJ Assembly

by Duke

I spend so much time on this blog cataloging the various sins of the corporate reformy crew that I often don't give enough space to what we parents and teachers can do to stop this assault on public education, especially in Jersey.

Well, I know just the thing. This is Marie Corfield, she's running for NJ Assembly, and she needs the help of every parent and teacher reading this blog.

The quick rundown on Marie is this: she is a terrific art teacher, she has two great kids, and she is a tireless crusader for public education and the middle class. Her opponent is a hardcore, right-wing Tea Bagger who is completely out of touch with the values of her district. This is probably the closest race in Jersey this election cycle: Marie Corfield can win this if she gets the support of everyone in Jersey and elsewhere who believes in public education.

Marie may be best known for being one of the very first teachers to stand up to the bullying of Governor Chris Christie. Her showdown with him made her a national celebrity; his blustering, obnoxious, overbearing response to her was the first indication many of us had that the man can't win a fair fight. I relish the thought of Christie having to deal with Marie on a regular basis in Trenton.

Marie needs all of the things any candidate does: contributions and volunteers. You can click on her picture in the left sidebar to donate, but I have cheap and fast way you can help her right now:

The national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee targets a select few state-level races every cycle for special support. They need to know that a winnable race, featuring a working teacher, is exactly the sort of campaign they should support.

So go to this link:

http://dlcc.org/2012races

Put in your name, Marie's name, tell them that you think we need teachers in state legislatures to support public education, and tell them Marie can win this race.

It will take you less than one minute, and it's important.

This post will live at the top of the blog until November 6. That night, with your help, we will be announcing some very bad news for Chris Christie and the reformy-types, and some very good news for parents and teachers. Thanks.