Secret log of school requests kept by then CPS chief Arne Duncan’s administration | WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Secret log of school requests kept by then CPS chief Arne Duncan’s administration | WBEZ 91.5 Chicago:

Secret [redacted] clout list for Chicago Public Schools

Secret log kept by Arne Duncan’s administration during 2008. It shows who made requests to get kids into the city’s top schools, and where they sought admission.

April 25, 2013

By: Linda Lutton

AP/File

File: Education Secretary Arne Duncan at a news conference in Chicago, Nov. 13, 2008. Duncan was Chicago Public Schools chief then. WBEZ gained access to a 'secret log' of school requests kept by Duncan’s CPS administration via FOIA.

This is the “secret log” that Arne Duncan’s administration kept to manage requests by public officials and other connected Chicagoans seeking to get their children into the city’s elite grammar and high schools, many of which admit students only by test score or lottery. Recent figures showthat at some of the schools there are 20, 30, or even 50 times more applications than available seats.

In 2010 the Chicago Tribune first reported that Arne Duncan’s office had kept a list of  VIPs seeking favors to get kids into coveted schools, and that it included “25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley's office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree 

The Coming Revolution in Public Education - John Tierney - The Atlantic

The Coming Revolution in Public Education - John Tierney - The Atlantic:

The Coming Revolution in Public Education

Critics say the standardized test-driven reforms pushed by those like Michelle Rhee may actually be harming students.

It's always hard to tell for sure exactly when a revolution starts. Is it when a few discontented people gather in a room to discuss how the ruling regime might be opposed? Is it when first shots are fired? When a critical mass forms and the opposition acquires sufficient weight to have a chance of prevailing? I'm not an expert on revolutions, but even I can see that a new one is taking shape in American K-12 public education.

The dominant regime for the past decade or more has been what is sometimes called accountability-based reform or, by many of its critics, "corporate education reform." The reforms consist of various initiatives aimed at (among other things): improving schools and educational outcomes by using standardized tests to measure what students are learning; holding schools and teachers accountable (through school closures and teacher pay cuts) when their students are "lagging" on those standardized assessments; controlling classroom instruction and increasing the rigor of school curricula by pushing all states to adopt the same challenging standards via a "Common Core;" and using market-like competitive pressures (through the spread of charter schools and educational voucher programs) to provide public schools with incentives to improve.

Critics of the contemporary reform regime argue that these initiatives, though seemingly sensible in their original framing, are motivated by interests other than educational improvement and are causing genuine harm to American students and public schools. Here are some of the criticisms: the reforms have

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-26-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Louisiana and Reverse Parent Trigger

by dianerav

Louisiana educators have joined in unison to endorse a bill to permit parents in failing charter schools to return their school to public control.
Two-thirds or more of the Recovery School District charters are graded D or F.
This is a bold recognition that charter schools are not a silver bullet. They are most successful when they exclude the neediest children.
Hey, folks, could we agree to stop using the term “parent trigger?” After Newtown, it is an obscenity.

Why We Will Win This Battle for Our Future

by dianerav

A reader comments:

We shall win this. Of that I am certain. And we shall do so because the failures of this insanely misguided test-and-evaluate mania become clearer and clearer with each passing day. This terrible idea is self-defeating.
The question is, how long will it take? How much damage will be done before local schools and teachers will once again be given the autonomy to put learning and the particular needs and propensities of their students first?
(I cringe every time I read of the organization Students First, which has worked tirelessly to put students, with 

Breaking News! Illinois Stops $$$ to UNO Charters

by dianerav

The state of Illinois has cut off funding to the politically powerful UNO charter chain because of conflicts of interest, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The head of UNO, Juan Rangel, was co-chair of Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral campaign in 2011.
According to the story, millions of dollars of a $98 million construction grant went to contracts with two brothers of a high-ranking UNO official.

NC: Vouchers Are Opportunity for Fraud, Not Better Education

by dianerav

Legislators in North Carolina are on track to create a voucher program that would divert $90 million from the state’s underfunded public schools.
NC Policy Watch says beware. Deregulation in other voucher programs has left at trail of fraud, corruption, and abuse of taxpayer dollars, with no benefit to the students. Despite the claims of voucher cheerleaders, students in voucher schools perform worse than their peers in the public schools.
Going for vouchers means an abandonment of accountability, for students and for taxpayer dollars.
Public Schools First NC summarizes the legislation as follows:

Girl Scouts Offer Common Core Badges

by dianerav

It looks like no part of American life will be left untouched by the Common Core.
The Girl Scouts are now offering badges for Common Core.
What marketing firm dreamed this up?
Will we one day look back and ask who will be held accountable?

Billionaires Try (Again) to Buy Key L.A. School Board Race

by dianerav

The billionaires and moguls and titans are at it again.
They desperately want to buy the last seat on the Los Angeles school board, which will be decided in a run-off on May 21.
The contenders are Monica Ratliff, a teacher, and Antonio Sanchez, who used to work on the staff of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The Big Money wants Sanchez. Just as they assembled a war chest to beat Steve Zimmer, they are now piling 

We Are Winning! The Coming Revolution in American Public Education!

by dianerav

Dear Friends,
Never despair! We are winning.
John Tierney just published an article about “The Coming Revolution in Public Education.”
Tierney sees what we see. The insane obsession with bubble-guessing is out of control. The profiteers have over-reached. The Billionaire Boys Club do not own us nor can they buy our schools. They are losing. We are winning. We are winning because we are fighting for children and for better education for all. We are not fighting 

John Thompson: “The Party’s Over” for Corporate Reform

by dianerav

John Thompson confidently predicts that corporate reform has passed the high-water mark.
The collapse of the Rhee story is the tip of a melting iceberg.
The “reformers” are facing a genuine popular revolt.
Nothing they advocate works.
All their alleged reforms are a sham.

Diane in the Evening 4-25-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Randy Turner Explains His Suspension by dianerav Randy Turner was suspended not for his Huffington Post article but for his book. This is why teachers need tenure: Academic freedom. He sent this comment: “Thanks for the kind words from everyone. My suspension coming at almost exactly the same time as my Huffington Post blog was a coincidence. Basically, it happened because I wrote a novel, No Child Left Alive, criticizing many of the practices in education today, particularly those done by overambitious admini... more »

Florida Tea Party Leader Leads Opposition to Common Core | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida Tea Party Leader Leads Opposition to Common Core | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida Tea Party Leader Leads Opposition to Common Core

by Bob Sikes

Patricia Sullivan ran for  United States House of Representatives under the Tea Party banner in 2010 and has emerged as a key leader in the state’s Tea Party movement. She was in Tallahassee this week and spoke at a rally to oppose Common Core Standards. StateImpact’s Gina Jordan has more:

Patricia Sullivan home schools her kids and is concerned about the changes home school families may have to make. Students who want to go to college, she said, will have to take Common Core tests.
The two companies which produce the most commonly used college entrance exams, the SAT and ACT, have said they will tie their tests to Common Core standards.
Her work is part of a sudden turn nationally against the Common Core standards, and supporters 

UPDATE: History Repeats Itself + Texas STAAR Guarantees Failure of SpEd Students – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

Texas STAAR Guarantees Failure of Special Ed Students – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

History Repeats Itself; First as David Hornbeck, then as “Michelle Rhee”

by John Thompson

A couple of weeks ago, John Merrow revealed the “smoking gun” memo showing that Michelle Rhee was warned about the extent of possible cheating in the D.C. schools, and that made him a hero to many teachers.  Then, Merrow started a controversy by posting “Who Created ‘Michelle Rhee.’”  Merrow indicated that Rhee, some corporate reformers, [...]

The Manufactured Support of the Marginalized

by plthomasedd

A prisoner stands before a court and is told to make a decision between execution and amputation. The prison chooses amputation. Imagine using this situation to claim that amputation is the right thing to do for a generalized population because the prisoner chose it. Now, consider Michelle Alexander in her The New Jim Crow: Yet [...]

I think I figured something out. Surprised?!?

by Chalk Face, PhD

It has always been remarkable to me why we don’t see a prevalence of charter schools and other hallmarks of school choice in rural communities. There is just as much poverty, neglect, abuse, and family discord in these areas. We don’t see “no excuses” approaches or an intense push for universal college participation. I’m perfectly 

Texas STAAR Guarantees Failure of Special Ed Students

by ontogenyx

Not hyperbole, but sad and inhumane fact.  The headline from the Dallas Morning News April 22 was 

New STAAR test standards guarantee some Texas special education students will fail

The guaranteed failure of the most vulnerable students has long been a fact in Texas and elsewhere, but for the State now to admit as much introduces a new phase in school social and economic sorting by tests and the dystopian visionaries who devise them.  Clip from DMN:

In 2012, the state gave 86,474 STAAR-Alternate assessments in mathematics, English/language arts, science, and social studies. Of that group, 29,208 of the tests included only Level 1 tasks. About 8 in 10 of the students taking those Level 1 tests passed. 

Education Reform through Student Action Student Voice

Student Voice:

Education Reform through Student Action

by Editor Admin

Students: The largest unrepresented group of people in the United States

I am currently at the end of my freshman year in college at the University of Georgia, and have a serious gripe with the education system that dates back to middle school. Now you can say I am just a disgruntled student who just hates homework, but this is not the case. I, like I believe most of us do, love to learn. I love to expand my horizons and truly unlock my academic potential. Unfortunately that rarely happens in classrooms these days. School has become nothing more than a place in which kids go and hear hours and hours of information and are expected to memorize it, then regurgitate it a week later for an exam. Then, once the data is collected and all the test scores received, the top 10% get the accolades, the praise, and eventually the scholarships, while the other 90% struggle to see such positive reinforcement. This attitude and negligence of the majority has led to a major fault in our education system. Just because a student lacks the ability to memorize incalculabl

Chicago’s Three Day March for Justice. | Fred Klonsky

Chicago’s Three Day March for Justice. | Fred Klonsky:

Chicago’s Three Day March for Justice.

by Fred Klonsky

 

Democrats split on timing, specifics of Brown’s funding formula | EdSource Today

Democrats split on timing, specifics of Brown’s funding formula | EdSource Today:

Democrats split on timing, specifics of Brown’s funding formula - by John Fensterwald

by John Fensterwald

Joan Buchanan, the Democratic chair of the Assembly Education Committee, grilled administration officials at length Wednesday on Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to reform school funding. She wanted, without success, to get them to concede there are flaws and inconsistencies in the plan.

Assembly Education Chair Joan Buchanan speaks at the hearing on Wednesday (photo from Cal Channel video).

Buchanan’s intense questioning prompted a frustratedAssemblymember Das Williams, a fellow Democrat from Santa Barbara, to call for a shift in the discussion from “poking holes” in the plan to “doing what we can to make it work.”

Their exchange captured the split among Democrats and the education community between those, like Williams, who want to act now on Brown’s Local Control Funding initiative to redo a school funding system universally acknowledged to be irrational and inequitable, and those, like Buchanan, D-Alamo, who are struggling to understand the details of a complex plan hundreds of pages long.

“I feel like we have the opportunity of a lifetime here,” said Williams, a former community organizer. “I would vote for it if put to us today. Justice should not have to wait a year.”

While agreeing with Brown’s goal of directing more money to high-needs students and “the moral imperative to have these kids succeed,” Buchanan added, “We need to be clear how the plan works. We need to read the details; otherwise, there is an 

California should not adopt Next Generation Science Standards - by Paul Bruno / commentary

by Paul Bruno / commentary

With the release of the final draft of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), states must begin in earnest to consider replacing their own existing standards. California should be especially cautious in this deliberation because, by some measures, the Golden State already has some of the strongest science standards in the country. In fact, while the NGSS may have much to recommend them to...

UPDATE: The real problem in education: the ‘opportunity gap’ +Why the public should see questions on new standardized tests

Why the public should see questions on new standardized tests:

The real problem in education: the ‘opportunity gap’

by Valerie Strauss

Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was in Washington D.C. on Thursday at the National Press Club to launch a campaign grounded in a new book, ”Closing the Opportunity Gap,” that he … Continue reading →

Why the public should see questions on new standardized tests

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 26, 2013 at 6:00 am

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Sample question (www.NYSUT.org)

Here’s an argument about why it matters when state education departments refuse to release sample questions on state standardized accountability tests. This was written by Aaron Pallas, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He writes the Sociological Eye on Education blog — where this post first appeared — for The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, non-partisan education-news outlet affiliated with the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media.

By Aaron Pallas

First Rule of Fight Club: Do Not Talk about Fight Club

 Second Rule of Fight Club: DO NOT TALK about Fight Club

Has the New York State Education Department watched too many Brad Pitt movies? Okay, that’s a rhetorical question, but one that might be posed to other state education agencies also engaged in the business of high-stakes testing. This week, students in grades 3 through 8 across the state of New York are taking mathematics exams aligned with the Common 

AP program isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — study

by Valerie Strauss

A new study from Stanford University that reviews research on the Advanced Placement program of college-level high school courses concludes that the common wisdom about AP — including about how much benefit students get from it  — is not accurate. … Continue reading →

Why famous dropouts aren’t the best advocates for staying in school

by Valerie Strauss

Mark Wahlberg, the wildly successful actor and musician and producer and actor, appeared at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria to encourage kids to stay in school and get their degree. He dropped out in ninth grade, and now, at 41, … Continue reading →

Daily Kos: Eugene Robinson says "Bush’s legacy keeps getting worse"

Daily Kos: Eugene Robinson says "Bush’s legacy keeps getting worse":

Eugene Robinson says "Bush’s legacy keeps getting worse"

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

He open his Friday Washington Post column bluntly"

In retrospect, George W. Bush’s legacy doesn’t look as bad as it did when he left office. It looks worse.

He discusses several items, starting with torture, and a discussion of the Constitution Project Report and the completed but unreleased Senate Intelligence Committee report, criticizes Obama for not appointing a blue ribbon commission to examine the misdeeds of his predecessor, and concludes this section with

It may be years before all the facts are known. But the decision to commit torture looks ever more shameful with the passage of time.

He then pivots to Iraq, with several important observations, noting that the profligacy in not paying for the war 

Jersey Jazzman: In State-Run Newark, The Wheels Fall Off

Jersey Jazzman: In State-Run Newark, The Wheels Fall Off:

In State-Run Newark, The Wheels Fall Off

by Duke

How little credibility does the state-appointed administration of Newark's schools have with the school system's stakeholders?

- Newark's students staged a walk-out to protest cuts to the schools' budget.

- The teachers are calling for an external audit of the budget.

- The "advisory board" has voted unanimously to express "no confidence" in the state-appointed superintendent, Cami Anderson.

Anderson's experience prior to coming to Newark was not primarily in schools. After a short teaching stint, she