The Truth Behind The Project School Closing: The Indiana Corporate School Complex:

The Truth Behind The Project School Closing: The Indiana Corporate School Complex

Our Daily Expedience

Our Daily Expedience

(Below is Doug Martin’s in-depth look into the corporate forces in Indianapolis working to keep true community-led charter schools from operating.  Please sign the petition to “Save The Project School.”)

On July 17, Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard announced he was closing The Project School, one of the few community-led charter schools in Indiana and the 2012 winner of NUVO’s Cultural Vision Award*.  Blaming low test scores and financial problems, the mayor gave TPS officials only 15 days to respond and held no public meeting, besides a press conference, where the “official” narrative presented was quickly aped by local media.

All of this appeared out of the blue.  TPS’ leader, Tarrey Banks, in an email to the school’s community, says that last week Beth Bray, Ballard’s director of charter schools, emailed him and said not to “worry about” the school’s upcoming year plan, since in early fall the mayor’s office would meet with TPS’ board to discuss the school’s fourth year review. After a parent notified Banks that someone had heard the closing announced at a meeting, he called the mayor’s office, but was ignored. Bray finally emailed TPS about revoking its charter at 4:45 that day, while Jason Kloth, deputy mayor, was holding the press conference.

The mayor’s accusations concern the school supposedly using funds from a federal start-up grant to pay teachers. Tarrey Banks responded by saying that “We have been fully transparent about all grant 

UPDATE: Student ‘zombies’ protest standardized tests + The problem with our ‘first in the world’ education obsession

The problem with our ‘first in the world’ education obsession:

Student ‘zombies’ protest standardized tests

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 17, 2013 at 11:27 am

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The year-long revolt against high-stakes standardized testing by teachers, parents, principals and superintendents and others is being increasingly fueled by students.

In Providence, R.I., dozens of students decked out to look like zombies staged a rally recently at the State House to protest a requirement, which takes effect with the class of 2014, that students must attain a certain score on the New England Common Assessment Program test to graduate from high school, according to the Providence Journal.

The problem with our ‘first in the world’ education obsession

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 17, 2013 at 11:00 am

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Though it is well known that the social, emotional and academic health of children are linked, education policy gives short shrift to the first two. Here’s a look at this issue from   Arthur H. Camins, director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at theStevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

By Arthur H. Camins

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama framed a challenge for educational improvement:

These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs.  But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens with the skills and training to fill those jobs ….. Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job.

With the economy still struggling to get out of recession, the career readiness functions of

Which presidents are on your money?

by Valerie Strauss

Read full article >>

Rick Meyer: Why I am Coming to Occupy DOE 2.0 – The Battle for Public Schools | United Opt Out National

Rick Meyer: Why I am Coming to Occupy DOE 2.0 – The Battle for Public Schools | United Opt Out National:

Rick Meyer: Why I am Coming to Occupy DOE 2.0 – The Battle for Public Schools

by admin

Imagine this! Thousands of teachers, children, and other supporters of public education are at the plaza in front of the Department of Education in Washington DC. In the center of the crowd is a table. It is our table. It is the table around which we sit in order to make policy decisions about the futures of our teachers, students, schools, and communities. Silence spreads throughout the larger crowd so that all may hear what is discussed at the table; those seated at the table are teachers, students, community members, and more.

“This is our table,” says a ten year old who has traveled to Washington DC for the first time in her life. “This is the table where I am heard, my friends are heard, and the voices of my community are heard.” The crowd surrounding the table erupts into applause, whistling, and shouts of support. “In my school,” she continues, “the teachers listen to us and develop curriculum that reflects who I am, where I come from, and what I want to know. In my school, families are welcome, my family’s language is welcome, and our beliefs are honored.” Once again the crowd rejoices in a voice from the table that tells the truth. Other voices are heard, too. Passionate, caring, and informed voices of parents, teachers, teacher educators, and the many diverse communities that constitute the richness and uniqueness of every classroom and school.

Now imagine a member of the crowd, who happened to turn towards the building 

A City Education: Telling the Truth About Modern School Segregation | Education on GOOD

A City Education: Telling the Truth About Modern School Segregation | Education on GOOD:

A City Education: Telling the Truth About Modern School Segregation

In our A City Education series, City Year corps members share their experiences working as tutors and mentors in schools in hopes of closing the achievement gap and ending the dropout crisis.
By all accounts, the walk down Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta is very different today than it was 50 years ago. What was once a truly vibrant black community is now divided by Interstate 75 and Interstate 85. Those overpasses don’t just serve as highways. Underneath one in particular is a paradox that embodies the community today. One side of the street is a large sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr.—a reminder that this is the place that produced our nation’s greatest civil rights leader. On the other side, the highway serves as a roof for the city’s most unfortunate and forgotten citizens.
The homelessness and poverty just a few blocks from Ebenezer Baptist Church and the resting place of Dr. King changed my perspective of equality and race to such a degree that I knew after I graduated from college I wanted 

NYC Educator: Hopeless Addictions

NYC Educator: Hopeless Addictions:

Hopeless Addictions

by NYC Educator

A few weeks ago I got a pretty substantial check from FEMA paying off my flood insurance. I decided, as a loyal American, that I needed to do my bit to support the economy. Therefore, I ran out and bought an iPhone. This is a really cool little thing. You can talk to it. You just say, "Call Recovering ATR," or anyone, and there, on the other side of the phone, is the voice you seek.

It also plays well with my school's wifi. This is good because T-Mobile, if you ask, will not charge minutes for wifi calls. And yet, most of my life I'm surrounded by teenagers. My daughter, for example, informed me that the first thing I needed to do was play a game called Temple Run. You run around this maze chasing coins, pretending to be Indiana Jones, while pursued by a band 

Schools Matter: A Cereal Box Prize of Hatred

Schools Matter: A Cereal Box Prize of Hatred:

A Cereal Box Prize of Hatred

by Storm

I wonder at the necessity of asserting that reading and writing foster reading and writing.

But beyond that there is the familiar disconnect, in the "What's the Matter with Kansas" sort of way, where the idea of testing and drill and vocabulary lists or word recognition lists being used ad nauseum in the lower grades--exactly the time when doing this induces and abject hatred for and distrust of WORDS as they are offered in the context of judgement--that this method of "education" is extraordinarily invasively "regulatory."

That is to say, the very people who produce an endless stream of invective about government regulations and intervention seek to inundate our schools with a steady diet of content/context regulation.  The very people who expound against "eggheads" and academic experts and elites resort time and again to "experts" of their own who offer any number of (specious, or at least contentious) studies saying that the "method" of learning words 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is Lack of Universal Preschool the Reason For Poverty?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is Lack of Universal Preschool the Reason For Poverty?:

Is Lack of Universal Preschool the Reason For Poverty?

by stlgretchen

Or is it that children need fathers?

The call for universal preschool programming has created an avalanche of comments from academics, politicians and the citizens paying for these programs.

Gail Collins in the NY Times supports increased spending.  From The State of the 4-Year-Olds:

One of the big moments of the State of the Union address was President Obama’s call for “high-quality preschool” for 4-year-olds.

Nobody was happier at the idea than Walter Mondale, the former vice president. “This is going to be wonderful,” he said in a phone conversation. His delight was sort of inspiring.

In 1971, when he was a senator, Mondale led the Congressional drive to make 

Walk In Our Shoes « City School Stories

Walk In Our Shoes « City School Stories:

Walk In Our Shoes

by fmurphy

Evaluating the success of America’s public schools has become a national focus. Elected officials, business leaders, wealthy philanthropists, and a host of educational entrepreneurs are typically the individuals who have been most active in characterizing the performance of public schools for the American media. These non-educators generally do not speak well of the effectiveness of our public schools and systems.

The purpose of City School Stories.com is to tell the story of urban public education in America from the perspectives of the principals and teachers who daily work and live in city school communities. These are the people who best know what is taking place in any particular school. Yet they are seldom offered the opportunity to describe or explain their work to the general public.

During the 2010 school year, Confessions of an Urban Principal, the story of one urban principal, will be posted on this site. It will appear in two weekly installments, on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the school year. The post will describe the daily events of an urban elementary school as seen from the perspective of the school’s principal. The story told in Confessions of an Urban Principal highlights the 2004-2005 school year at Meade Elementary School in Philadelphia.

On other days during the week, various topical commentary posts will be published under the Categories tab in the menu. These are listed below.

Notes from the Field addresses current education news and events.

Reflections: Then and Now looks at events and circumstances described during the time period in the book and contrasts these with current times.

Reflections of an Author provides short commentaries that expand on an idea or event related within a particular book installment.

Readers are invited to share their stories concerning their own classrooms and schools. This can be accomplished either by making comments on posts or by submitting a post for consideration to f@cityschoolstories.com

We daily accomplish our mission of educating the youth of our society and we need to let the world know of our successes. Your comments and personal stories will help to tell the general public of our challenges and rewards as urban educators. Most importantly, by creating a forum to collectively tell our own stories we say that we will not continue to be passive victims of ill-conceived school reform strategies. We instead insist on being recognized and treated as the knowledgeable professional educators that we are.

Louisiana Educator: 10 Education Forum Questions for Legislators

Louisiana Educator: 10 Education Forum Questions for Legislators:

10 Education Forum Questions for Legislators

by Michael Deshotels

The 10 questions below reveal serious problems with our education system that should be discussed at the upcoming education forums. These problems are the responsibility of our state legislators to correct. If they are not corrected, thousands of children will continue to receive a substandard education at the hands of incompetent amateur educators at our State Department of Education and in the Recovery School District. Also, if they fail to correct the  problems created by the new unreliable and erratic teacher evaluation system, they will be responsible for the continued loss of many of our excellent teachers to early retirement or to other states.

10 Education Forum Questions for Legislators

1. The State Dept. of Education has been allowed to take over low performing schools from local school boards for more than 6 years. Out of 73 schools now run by the DOE, 45 or 62% are rated as “F” and another 18 or 25% are rated as “D”. All of the State run schools in the Baton Rouge area, Pointe Coupee, St Helena and Caddo are rated as “F”. All of the charter schools authorized by the State in these areas are complete failures. Why does 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-17-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Support Glenda Ritz

by dianerav

Glenda Ritz walloped uber-reformer Tony Bennett in the race for State Superintendent of Indiana schools.
Now the Indiana state board of education is trying to strip her of all powers, thus nullifying her election and the will of the voters. The board wants to protect Bennett’s efforts to privatize public education and to lower standards for teachers and principals.
Please sign this petition to support Glenda. Always be careful on change.org website. Do not sign other petitions 

Former Texas State Commissioner Blasts Pressure to Adopt Common Core

by dianerav

Robert Scott, who recently stepped down as State Commissioner of Education in Texas, told Georgia legislators that he was pressured to adopt the Common Core standards before they were written.
He said, in the video that appears in the linked article:
“My experience with the Common Core actually started when I was asked to sign on to them before they were written. … I was told I needed to sign a letter agreeing to the Common Core, and I asked if I 

Mercedes Schneider: More on the NCTQ board

by dianerav

The National Council on Teacher Quality holds an important position in the public arena, passing judgment on the quality of teacher education programs across the nation.
Mercedes Schneider, who holds a Ph.D. In statistics and research methods, is reviewing the board of NCTQ to determine its qualification to do its job. Among its members are Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp, Joel Klein, and quite a few more. How many have classroom experience? How many understand how teachers are or should be prepared?

A Request for Help: Can You Design a Website?

by dianerav

Do you want to help support those who are supporting public education against the corporate onslaught?
A new group is forming to lead the resistance and is looking for a website designer.
Needless to say, it has no money.
If you have the skills, here is a chance to volunteer.
Please contact Anthony Cody at anthony_cody@hotmail.com

How to Stop Destructive Legislation

by dianerav

A reader in Florida gives the answer to this important question: how do we stop the tidal wave of bad legislation?
The problem is with who we send to represent us in Tallahassee!
There is no longer a Teapublican supermajority to bulldoze terrible legislation through the Florida House and Senate.
The FEA, wuth the help of other Labor and Parent groups blocked bad leguslation last year, and will have to do 

Return of The Zombie Film “Won’t Back Down”

by dianerav

The anti-teacher, anti-public school movie “Won’t Back Down” was released into 2,500 movie theaters (owned by its producer Walden Media) and died a quick and ignominious death. Despite massive advance publicity at NBC’s “Education Nation” and a CBS promotion, despite Michelle Rhee hosting screenings at both national political conventions, despite attention on the “Ellen” show, the film had one of the worst opening weekends in recent history. The critics ridiculed it, and within four weeks, the film had disappeared.
It became a dead film, but it lives on as a zombie film. Its producers Philip Anschutz and Rupert Murdoch never expected to make money. They are billionaires, and they didn’t care about the box office receipts. They wanted 

Incoherent L.A. Times Editorial Okays Sale of School Board

by dianerav

If you can make sense of this editorial in the Los Angeles Times, you are a whole lot smarter than me. It speaks disparagingly of the board president, then endorses her.
It chastises the school board for failing to exercise oversight of the city’s booming charter sector, but then rejects Steve Zimmer, the only school board member who had the courage to propose responsible supervision of the charter sector. The Times is flabbergasted that Zimmer called for a moratorium on new charters until the board developed a policy for determining whether they were meeting their obligations to students and the public. L.A. already has more charters than any other city in the nation, so it would hardly have been a burden to delay 

If You Watch Oprah’s Show About New Orleans…..

by dianerav

A teacher in New Orleans writes:
Oprah’s documentary series about John McDonogh High School in New Orleans was moved to tonight @ 8p Central Time, in order to follow Beyonce’s show.
Please comment on Oprah’s page, if you find that her show does not accurately tell the whole story, and if your perspective on the history of the school is different. I personally find the preview to be highly stereotypical about New Orleans, it’s mostly black unionized teachers (pre-charter), black students, the need for white savior charter operators and TFA teachers. In my 3+ years as a teacher at this school and English Department Chair, I never 

Diane in the Evening 2-16-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: Mother Crusader Finds Another Smelly Charter Deal in New Jersey by dianerav Mother Crusader has done another smashing job of research, showing how one smart person can accomplish the job of an investigative reporter. Charter advocates like to say they are responding to popular demand for choice, but in Paterson, New Jersey, ther was no popular demand. A charter with no roots in the community and no input community was Ed down by Chris Cerf. A pattern, she says, is emerging. Governor Christie drops in charters where he gets no votes but leaves his solid Rep... more »

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Global Education Leadership: A Graduate Program for Educators and Education Leaders in the Age of Globalization

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Global Education Leadership: A Graduate Program for Educators and Education Leaders in the Age of Globalization:

Global Education Leadership: A Graduate Program for Educators and Education Leaders in the Age of Globalization

by YongZhao

In my latest book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, I list a globalized campus as the context for cultivating globally competent creator and entrepreneurs. The idea is to use technology to bring global education resources to schools to personalize education, to engage students on a daily basis in collaborative learning with global partners, and to enable teachers and students to create authentic works for others around the global. A globalized campus requires globally competent and connected education leaders and teachers and a global network of educational institutions. In order to help prepare such leaders and educators, I have been working with colleagues at the University of Oregon on developing a graduate program and courses, as well as a technology platform that enables global educational exchanges. The platform is called OBA. I will describe it in another post but you can find more 

Daily Kos: Thinking about schools - something to share

Daily Kos: Thinking about schools - something to share:

Thinking about schools - something to share

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

that I encountered because Diane Ravitch wrote about it. Jere Hochman is the Superintendent of Schools for the Bedford Central School District in Westchester County, just north of New York City.  He has recent piece on his personal blog, Thinking About Schools, titled 10 Executive Actions "To our posterity" that is in the form of a letter to President Obama about things he can do to make a difference, a real difference, in the lives of our young people.
Hochman's post very much caught my attention, so I asked him for permission to cross-posted it here an perhaps add some commentary of my own.  In giving me permission, he told me he often reads my posts here or sees them on Twitter, where he writes as @jhstl -  and I would suggest that if you, like me, care about good thinking on public education, you might want to follow him, as I now do.
I suggest you continue below the cheese-doodle to see what he posted, which by itself is worth your time.  I will offer a few thoughts of my own as well.

Schools Matter: Nineteen NY Legislators Protest Unproven and Damaging Teacher Evaluation Scheme

Schools Matter: Nineteen NY Legislators Protest Unproven and Damaging Teacher Evaluation Scheme:

Nineteen NY Legislators Protest Unproven and Damaging Teacher Evaluation Scheme

by Jim Horn

A clip from a post at Ed in the Apple:

. . . The testing system is deeply flawed.

“Testing and education experts have expressed serious concerns about the validity of the model, pointing to the inability of this methodology to identify the most effective teachers. As an Economic Policy Institute briefing paper mentions, one study found that across five large urban districts, among teachers rated in the top 20% of effectiveness in the first year, less than a third were in the highest rated group the following year, and another third moved all the way down to the bottom 40%.”

Nineteen legislators signed a letter to Governor Cuomo asking that he support legislation to turn the Principal/Teacher Evaluation law into a 3-year pilot program:

The unintended consequences of this model extend beyond the teaching profession. This model creates