LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-15-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

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A Model Letter for October 17

by dianerav

The deadline to send emails to the President to support the Campaign for Our Public Schools is October 17. Here are instructions about where to send them.
Send them either to this blog or to Anthony Cody at Anthony_Cody@hotmail.com.
Below is a model letter for teachers. It can be revised to make it appropriate for parents or anyone else.
Write your own letter, in your own words.

The Latest Charter Scam

by dianerav

An earlier post described how Chinese investors can get green cards by funding charter schools. The article linked there said that wealthy Chinese had poured $30 million into charters in Florida.
A reader comments:
A Chinese investor gets a green card for investing $1 million in a project that will “create” ten jobs. The publicly funded charter fraud industry, however, doesn’t create new jobs. It converts well paying public sector jobs, with reasonable benefits, into low paying jobs without benefits. Let’s follow the money through this profit-generating 

Who Needs Public Libraries?

by dianerav

What a quaint idea Andrew Carnegie had when he subsidized 2,500 free public libraries a century ago. He wanted knowledge to be free to the public.
Today, our reformers don’t believe in subsidizing anything other than for those at the very bottom (but not much). If you want a book, buy it. If you aren’t willing to pay for it, they assume, you don’t really need it. They have all the books they want, so why do we need public libraries?
A reader, David Eckstrom, writes about the library in his community:
I am on the board of trustees for my local public library. Our usage continues to grow every year at about 10%, but our funding (which comes from the county) has been flat for at least the 3 years I have been on the board.

Why Schools Fail

by dianerav

A retired principal, Pat Buoncristiani, writes to describe what she learned in many years of experience..
She writes:
When I was the principal of a struggling Title 1 school I grappled for the reasons behind my children’s difficulties. Others would make suggestions – it’s because their parents don’t care, it’s something about their race, it’s because they have bad role models and so on. It seemed apparent to me that the underlying cause of 

A Great Letter from a Teacher to President Obama

by dianerav

This teacher wrote a great letter. Please write your own, to help the President see what he needs to change:
Dear President Obama, I am a teacher, and I’m concerned about what’s happening in American education today. I’m not sure what I can say that will help you listen to me, but please do. Does it help that we share the same birthday? Does it help that I’m a supporter? Does it help that I qualify for Mensa? Does it help that I’ve been teaching Japanese for 21 years in public high school? Does it help that I am for the most part not directly affected by the majority of the testing craze that has engulfed us? Do you not understand that the testing madness that started with NCLB has now morphed into a full-fledged attack on public education? Now the fight 

New Jersey Civil Rights Groups Appeal to Secretary Duncan

by dianerav

Some 45 organizations in New Jersey, from parent groups to civil rights groups have appealed to Secretary Duncan to halt the damage that will be imposed on poor children and children of color as a result of the NCLB waiver to the state.
Because of the waiver, state officials will inflict even more high-stakes testing on the neediest children and their schools will be targeted not for help but for privatization.
The statement says:
To replace the NCLB framework, the State has adopted a new classification system that will reinforce racial and economic segregation and inequity in New Jersey’s public schools. The classification system uses state 

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Endorses Glenda Ritz!

by dianerav

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette published a powerful editorial endorsing educator Glenda Ritz for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Indiana.
Tony Bennett, the current superintendent, is a foe of public education. He removed the word “public” from his title. He has done whatever he could to promote privatization of the state’s public schools. He opened the state to for-profit corporations to make money while supplying mediocre education.
Bennett is a willing hand-maiden of ALEC and the far-right. He is a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change.

Daniel Willingham Explains Why Merit Pay and VAM Are Unfair

by dianerav

Daniel Willingham is a very smart and sensible psychologist at the University of Virginia. He has a talent for explaining complex issues in simple language.
In this video, he gives six reasons why value added assessment and merit pay are unfair–all in three minutes.

The Movie Nobody Wants to See

by dianerav

That anti-union, anti-public education movie is a historic flop.
Will Hollywood get the message?
Or will the billionaires keep saying that they “won’t back down” no matter how small the audience. A $19 million movie is chump change for them.

El Paso Cheating Scandal: Who Is Next?

by dianerav

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/education/el-paso-rattled-by-scandal-of-disappeared-students.html?hpw
THIS is what Bush/Spellings/Obama/Duncan/Bloomberg/Klein hath wrought. Hardly a surprise, and it’s most likely going on all over the country, including NYC. Just a question of scale and who gets caught. In El Paso’s case, the lack of action by the Texas Education Agency — which actually cleared Superintendent Garcia for lack of evidence (!!!) — was little short of child abuse.
This type of fraud and educational neglect is never going to stop until NCLB, RTTP, and their ilk are abandoned 

UPDATE: Daily Kos: my totally useless sense of what will happen in the election

Daily Kos: my totally useless sense of what will happen in the election:

my totally useless sense of what will happen in the election

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Let's start with the presidential.   I am not yet ready to lock down percentages or electoral votes, but I have not swayed from this -  Obama will win by at least 4% in the popular vote and at least 303 electoral votes.
On EV calculation -  the states he won last time now have 359 EV, from which I subtract IN and 2nd CD of NE for a starting baseline of 347.
He will at worst lose FL and NC, which is how I get to 303.
I will return below the fold to my reasoning on this and the other items.
The Dems hold the Senate.  Of the seats they currently hold they will lose NE unless Obama gets up to +9 in the popular vote which is unlikely.  They may lose MT.  They will hold all other current seats giving them 51.

Paul Krugman: Death by Ideology

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

begins like this:

Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.

Krugman's Monday column uses Romney's words against him, quoting first the statement to the Columbus Dispatch that no one dies because of being uninsured and then referring to Romney's previous statement about people being able to get their essential health care in hospital emergency rooms.  He then says bluntly

These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.

There is so much more in this column . . .

Obama running an effective ad on Medicaid

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

that's right, Medicaid, not Medicare
framed in terms of how it used by middle class families for nursing care home
hitting Romney on his record in MA and his plans were he to become President
it ran at least twice during the Redskins game here in DC
and remember these percentages of older voters according to the 2010 census:
1. Florida - 17.3%
2. West Virginia - 16.0%
3. Maine - 15.9%
4. Pennsylvania - 15.4%
5. Iowa - 14.9%
6. Montana - 14.8%
7. Vermont - 14.6%
8. North Dakota - 14.5%
Of these, while Obama will not win ND, running this ad could help Heidi in her Senate race and similarly in MT with Tester.  Obama will NOT win WV.  But this could lock down FL and IA, and would probably also help in OH as well.
Here's the ad:
Popout
One more thought -  it is not just seniors to whom this ad will play.  It is to those with elderly parents who worry about them, and it is to those who are approaching their senior years without a defined benefit pension who wonder how they will survive.

Phila Inquirer endorsement - Obama will do a better job

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

in this editorial from yesterday the paper of record for the Philadelphia area, including South Jersey and Delaware, lays out its rationale for again supporting Obama for the presidency over a Republican opponent.
Several snips from the editorial, which I urge you to read, are worth noting.
Here's the beginning:

Like a carnival barker cajoling a mark into spending the last bills in his wallet, the Republican Party is counting on Americans' not remembering that they've seen this trick before.GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney wants voters to forget their familiarity with the prize he's 

Peatsy

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Rita Hollings, commonly known as Peatsy, passed last night.  She had suffered from Alzheimer's for a number of years.  She was of course the (2nd) wife of former Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings of SC.
She was a character, as this story from The State back in 2004 reminded people:

Those who appreciate U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings' quick wit ought to meet his wife.
There was that time in 1984, for example, when the senator was running for president and Peatsy Hollings, campaigning with him in New Hampshire, was awakened in the wee hours for the umpteenth time by an overly eager aide.She picked up the phone.
"May I speak with Senator Hollings?" the aide asked.
Mrs. Hollings paused a second, looked at her husband, and decided to have a little fun.

NYC Educator: ATR-Clear and Present Danger

NYC Educator: ATR-Clear and Present Danger:

ATR-Clear and Present Danger

by NYC Educator

by special guest blogger Suddenly ATR 

It was rainy, 5:30 in the morning, cold, and I was headed for my new weekly assignment. I don't have a car so the commute to this new school is over an hour and a half and they start soon after 7 in the morning.

Two subway and bus transfers later, I finally arrived at the school. I was immediately given my coverage assignments and then sent to talk to the AP. Her first question shocked me:

"Have you ever been brought up on disciplinary 

Jersey Jazzman: It's Time To Get Real About Charter Schools

Jersey Jazzman: It's Time To Get Real About Charter Schools:

It's Time To Get Real About Charter Schools

by Duke

Paul Thomas tweeted a funny:

If u posted a blog about the need 4 more giraffes in elementary school lunch rooms, 57 charter advocates would post comments about charters

All too true: check out the discussion here, for example. Charter cheerleaders are relentless; evangelical soldiers in the reform wars, they are absolutely convinced that charters are laboratories full of innovation and creativity.

And it matters little to them that the vast majority of the evidence piled up on charters shows little to no average effect on student achievement. The beauty of charters, you see, is that the 17% of them that do better than pubic schools hold the key to saving our "failing" students. If we can look at these "successful" charters and 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Byrd-Bennett

Barbara Byrd-Bennett (for future reference)

“I’m here for the long haul. I don’t know what to do other than sign in blood. . . . I’m here. I’m not gonna say ‘I’m outta here.’ That’s not who I am.” -- Chicago's 4th CEO in last 2 years.

Michelle Gunderson ‏

It takes a Chia Pet longer to grow than the 6 weekends a person spends at the Broad Academy training to be a superintendent. -- Tweeting @MSGunderson

Dan Quinn, Texas Freedom Network

 "That's where all these culture war battles will come to a head over what students learn about evolution, about civil rights, about church and state separation. All those battles will come in 2013 and 2014, and the textbooks will be in the 

The poster child for Education Reform’s fraudulent performance evaluation movement - Wait, What?

The poster child for Education Reform’s fraudulent performance evaluation movement - Wait, What?:

The poster child for Education Reform’s fraudulent performance evaluation movement

by jonpelto

The story of how Hartford’s Superintendent of Schools Christina Kishimoto got a poor performance evaluation, yet got her raise AND still wanted her performance bonus.

Teacher Evaluations are the key to “Education Reform, at least according to Governor Malloy, Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor and the “education reformers.”

Last February, Governor Malloy defined the issue when he said that the right to teach, the right to be an educational professional, must be “earned and re-earned.”

Turning to Connecticut’s educators he said, you must “continue to prove your 

Rich siblings spend big bucks to affect California education funding:

Rich siblings spend big bucks to affect California education funding

Posted by Valerie Strauss on October 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm

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Molly Munger    ( Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

 The Munger siblings vs. California Gov. Jerry Brown: Here is this week’s case study in our continuing look at how billionaires (and millionaires) are throwing around their money to drive education reform.

Last week I wrote about a bunch of billionaires (Bill Gates, for one) using their fabulous wealth in support of an initiative in Washington state that would allow charter schools to open there for the first time. Voters in the state have turned down the idea three times, but some people can’t take no for an answer.

Now in California, the daughter and son of billionaire Charles Munger (who is the business partner of the fabulously wealthy Warren Buffet) are spending  millions of dollars to defeat    

‘Why everyone deserves a second chance at education’ — a book excerpt

by Valerie Strauss

 Mike Rose is a highly respected professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and author of several books. His latest. “Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education,” looks a new at the role of higher education in the social and political life of the country and looks at ways that could give more people a chance at a college education. Here’s an excerpt:
Read full article >>

Schools Matter: Progressive Eugenics and Liberal Institutions

Schools Matter: Progressive Eugenics and Liberal Institutions:

Progressive Eugenics and Liberal Institutions

by Storm

For a time I was a fan of Jane's Addiction (everyone was doing it), but that "Been Caught Stealin'" song was really one of their least interesting off of their break-out album Ritual de lo Habitual.  I was partial though to the prior album Nothing's Shocking and particularly amazed at the song "Pigs in Zen."

Now I won't share those lyrics here, but I will tell you that I think they're very appropriate to our national (and by that I mean everyone) somnolence.  The song has a break in the lyrics where Farrel, the vocalist, talks some "wisdom." Part of this goes,

Some people should die
That's just unconscious knowledge
Because, because the bigger you get
The wider you're spread
You gotta depend on me
Now your vision is dead
The more your dream is dead

Now, interpretations of words are multiple and infinite (random) but I had always seen this as something of the 

Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test TimeSave Our Schools

Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test TimeSave Our Schools:

Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time

by Server

El Paso Schools Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time

By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Originally Published October 12, 2012. The New York Times
EL PASO — It sounded at first like a familiar story: school administrators, seeking to meet state and federal standards, fraudulently raised students’ scores on crucial exams.
.
But in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all.
It led to a dramatic moment at the federal courthouse this month, when a former schools superintendent, Lorenzo Garcia, was sentenced to prison for his role in orchestrating the testing scandal. But for student

Support Anti-Bullying Day, Oppose Right Wing Christian Group’s Homophobia « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Support Anti-Bullying Day, Oppose Right Wing Christian Group’s Homophobia « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Support Anti-Bullying Day, Oppose Right Wing Christian Group’s Homophobia

by millerlf

Christian Group Finds Gay Agenda in an Anti-Bullying Day
By KIM SEVERSON October 14,2012 NY Times
On Mix It Up at Lunch Day, schoolchildren around the country are encouraged to hang out with someone they normally might not speak to.
The program, started 11 years ago by the Southern Poverty Law Center and now in more than 2,500 schools, was intended as a way to break up cliques and prevent bullying.
But this year, the American Family Association, a conservative evangelical group, has called the project “a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools” and is urging parents to keep their

Bice Calls Out Tommy Thompson’s Son for Racist Remark at Republican Party Event

by millerlf

Tommy Thompson’s son calls for sending Obama back ‘to Kenya’
Daniel Bice Oct. 14, 2012 Milwaukee JS
Jason Thompson, the son of former Gov. Tommy Thompson, was caught on video Sunday suggesting at a Republican event that voters this fall could send President Barack Obama back “to Kenya.”
“We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago – or Kenya,” Jason Thompson, an attorneyat Michael Best and Friedrich, said during a fall brunch hosted by the Kenosha County Republican Party.

Expeditionary Learning Charter for Toki? | AMPS

Expeditionary Learning Charter for Toki? | AMPS:

Expeditionary Learning Charter for Toki?

by Thomas J. Mertz

The Replacements – “I Don’t Know” (click to listen or download).

The biggest item on the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education committee agendas this weekis  the “Expeditionary Learning Model at Toki Middle School and Timeline” before the Planning and Development Committee (Monday, October 15, 2012, 6:30 p.m. Doyle Administration Building, Room 103, there are Public Appearances on the agenda).  The proposal is to convert Toki Middle School from a district  school to a district instrumentality charter school.
This is the start of a long process of weighing the pros and cons of the proposal, with various decision points along the way.  If the proposal gets that far, the final decision by the Board would be in early 2014 and if the vote 

Student success, Georgia economy threatened by state’s declining support | Get Schooled

Student success, Georgia economy threatened by state’s declining support | Get Schooled:

Student success, Georgia economy threatened by state’s declining support

by Maureen Downey

Taifa S. Butler is the deputy director of Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, which will release a survey today of Georgia’s 180 school districts on the impact of state funding cuts.
The 150 districts that responded too the survey educate more than 92 percent of the students in public schools. The survey found that the state’s lack of support for education diminishes learning opportunities for students by forcing school districts to shorten the school year, increase class size, reduce the number of teachers and cut teacher pay.

By Taifa S. Butler
Georgia’s future depends on its ability to attract employers, create jobs, and grow the economy, and a key ingredient to this is a highly skilled and educated workforce. Yet over the past decade, 

New CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett does well by the CEO circuit. A revolving door of payouts. « Fred Klonsky

New CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett does well by the CEO circuit. A revolving door of payouts. « Fred Klonsky:

New CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett does well by the CEO circuit. A revolving door of payouts.

by Fred Klonsky

Chicago teachers, who lost some ground on the issue of  sick and personal days in the last contract, might find an ally in the new CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
Byrd Bennett has done rather well on the CEO circuit – New York, Cleveland, Detroit. Among the rewards she was given when she left her Cleveland job was a payout of 140 sick days for the seven years she was there.
When she left Cleveland in 2006, the Pain Dealer reports,

Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s goodbye as Cleveland schools chief executive won’t be quiet or cheap.

Tonight she’ll be lavished with gifts from the school board and saluted by luminaries. Mayor Frank Jackson, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and 

A rich, white guy who works for a right-wing think tank just can’t catch a break these days.

by Fred Klonsky

Fordham’s Mike Petrilli is haunted by his decision to move to the suburbs.
Michael Petrilli is the vice president of the Fordham Foundation, a think tank on the far-right edges of school reform.
And it haunts him.
What haunts him?
No. Not being the VP at Fordham. Although that’s what would haunt me.
He is haunted by his decision to move to the suburbs of Washington DC so his kids can attend an all-white suburban school with other white rich kids.
And what does anybody do who is haunted by such a decision? Petrilli wrote a book about it so that others 

How Did the Quebec Student Movement Win? | Dissident Voice

How Did the Quebec Student Movement Win? | Dissident Voice:

How Did the Quebec Student Movement Win?

by subMedia

For over 4 months, students and their allies, took over the streets of Montreal every day, to protest a tuition hike imposed by the liberal party in Quebec.
On September 21st, the newly elected Premier of Quebec scrapped the tuition hike and repealed a controversial law, that effectively banned public demonstrations.
While this is being touted as a victory by many in the student movement, one element that made this success possible is already being overshadowed. How the the movement’s militant street politics transformed the student strike from a single issue campaign to an uncompromising social insurrection.
Pop

LAUSD: WHERE SOCIAL PROMOTION REMAINS UNADDRESSED - Perdaily.com

LAUSD: WHERE SOCIAL PROMOTION REMAINS UNADDRESSED - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD: WHERE SOCIAL PROMOTION REMAINS UNADDRESSED

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

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

Probably the greatest antidote for too much government is a well educated and self-sufficient citizenry. Clearly, the way this self-sufficiency has been achieved in the past is through excellent public education. For conservatives who now decry the intrusion of too much government, one must wonder why public education institutions like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are specifically designed not to function, while scrupulously avoiding the one change that would obviate virtually all of the draconian measures it employs that only adapt to LAUSD dysfunction, instead of