Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center:

The Mess That Is Obama’s Education Policy

Best of the Ed Blogs

Diane Ravitch

May 3, 2013

Best of the Ed Blogs

Best of the Ed Blogs features a frequently updated selection of interesting and insightful blog posts on education policy. The views expressed by the bloggers on our blog roll are thoughtful, original, and entirely their own. We hope you make Best of the Ed Blogs your first stop for concise takes on today's most important education topics.

The Mess That Is Obama’s Education Policy

Best of the Ed Blogs

Diane Ravitch

May 3, 2013

Are Grades Utterly Useless?

Best of the Ed Blogs

Bill Ferriter

May 3, 2013

“How Can We Develop Creative Thinking & Address Common Core Standards?”

Best of the Ed Blogs

Larry Ferlazzo

May 3, 2013

Are There Lessons from the History of School Reform?

Best of the Ed Blogs

Larry Cuban

May 3, 2013

Defunding the Common Core: Back to the Future

Best of the Ed Blogs

Jack Hassard

May 2, 2013

No One Defends the Status Quo

Best of the Ed Blogs

David B. Cohen

May 2, 2013

What the “Best and Wisest" Parents Want for Their Own Kids...

Best of the Ed Blogs

Mike Klonsky

May 2, 2013

Extreme Common Core Rhetoric Clouds Serious Debate

Best of the Ed Blogs

Susan Ohanian

May 2, 2013

Consumed by Advocacy in the Marketplace of Mendacity

Best of the Ed Blogs

P.L. Thomas

May 2, 2013

Your Daily Debunk

Best of the Ed Blogs

Jersey Jazzman

May 1, 2013

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Education “writers” are kind of annoying, or no? – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

Education “writers” are kind of annoying, or no? – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

Education “writers” are kind of annoying, or no?

by Chalk Face, PhD

I read a fluff piece on the Common Core at Inside Higher Ed. Pretty basic, hits most key players.  I checked the author, just a 2009 journalism graduate. She quotes significantly folks from PARCC, SBAC, and other supporters. Mentions a lot about teacher preparation, but no one actually FROM teacher preparation.

This has been an issue I’ve had for a while with so-called “Education Writers.”There’s actually a group of them, but they have no educators or no one with classroom experience in their midst, on their board or what have you. Unless I missed something.

This goes to a second concern that those in education don’t necessarily have talents in writing, or focus too much on inaccessible academic writing without 

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-3-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Spread the Word

by dianerav

The public has been sold a bill of goods about what is needed to improve our schools.
We see misinformation on television. We hear it from our leaders in both parties.
It is hard to explain the real issues in our schools when the media bombards the public with the corporate reform narrative.
Once in a while, some insightful journalist breaks through the media blanket.
Here is some good news: I just came across an article posted a while ago by someone who totally gets what is going on.
The author refers to Race to the Top as a “marketing” ploy for failed ideas.
He calls it a “race to the bottom,” tied firmly to Bush’s bad ideas.
It was posted on the popular blog site of Jonathan Turley.
Keep singing.
So will I.

Hey, Kids! Let’s Open a Charter School

by dianerav

What do you do if you head the Connecticut chapter of Teach for America and you long for bigger worlds to conquer?
Simple.
You open a charter school!
The state commissioner is a charter school guy, so he is no problem.
You open in Bridgeport, where the superintendents doe his name by privatizing public schools in New Orleans,
All the right connections and the public’s money. No brainer.

Jersey Jazzman: State Brings in Corporate Chain to Run NJ Charters

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman has a sharp article about Commissioner Cerf’s decision to turn a local charter school over to a national chain. The chain is expanding thanks to a $9 million federal grant and extra help from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The chain has fewer students who are special education or English language learners, as compared to the local district. It spends more than district schools.
Is this a sustainable model?
Jersey Jazzman concludes:
“To recap: Democracy Prep’s practices includes more spending per pupil, a rigid “no-excuses” culture, high rates of attrition, and segregation by poverty, special need, and English proficiency.
“This is your future, Camden – imposed on you by state-officials and outside CMOs. Don’t even think about fighting back.”

BREAKING NEWS: US to Milwaukee Voucher Schools: Stop Excluding Students with Disabilities

by dianerav

Responding to a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice warned voucher schools in Milwaukee to stop excluding, counseling out, or otherwise discriminating against students with disabilities.
“The state cannot, by delegating the education function to private voucher schools, place students beyond the reach of the federal laws that require Wisconsin to eliminate disability discrimination in its administration of public programs,” DOJ officials wrote in the letter to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Superintendent 

Robert Shepherd: When Will We Ever Learn?

by dianerav

Robert Shepherd has long experience writing and editing textbooks and assessments. I appreciate his kind comments about my book, written in the 1990s, but also his recognition that “reforms” come and go with regularity. My comment: The current wave of phony reforms is the most destructive in the history of American education.
He writes:
“One of the reasons why I love Diane Ravitch’s brilliant Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms is that it 

NY Daily News Reveals Top-Secret State Test

by dianerav

Yesterday I received an email from a reporter from the New York Daily News asking for my reaction to a bootleg copy of the Pearson-made fifth-grade exam for English Language Arts. This is part of the first tests of the Common Core in the state, administered in recent weeks to students in 3rd through 8th grades. Students spent about 90 minutes per day for three days on the ELA tests and repeated the process the next week in math.
I read the passages and the questions based on them. My reaction was that the difficulty level of the passages and the questions was not age-appropriate. Based on test questions I had reviewed for seven years when I was a member of the NAEP board, it seemed to me that the test was pitched at an eighth grade level. The passages 

A Scary Future? The Teaching Machine and Big Data: LINK FIXED

by dianerav

This is a fascinating and rather frightening essay about the quest for a teaching machine.
Philip McRae, the author, looks at the historical search for a machine that would standardize teaching, making it cost-efficient and providing a common curriculum. Then he describes the present-day efforts to aggregate Big Data, discover patterns, and create a platform through which content might be delivered to 100 or 200 students in 

Wayne Gersen: What Obama Could Learn from Vermont

by dianerav

Wayne Gersen has been working in several districts in Vermont. He is impressed by Vermont’s determination not to allow testing to be the be-all and end-all of education. The state is determined not to let NCLB wreck its schools and not to ask for a waiver that would allow Duncan to impose high-stakes testing. If only Obama did what Vermont does!

Good Advice for Bill Gates about Curiosity

by dianerav

This post by Ysette Guevara offers good advice to Bill Gates about curiosity–how it begins, how it grows, how it can be stifled, and why it matters.
Bill recently said in an interview that few children are curious and self-motivated. This blogger was taken aback by Bill’s meager understanding of children and education. Given his background in technology, it is easy to see 

The Witch Doctor Curriculum in Louisiana

by dianerav

Crazy Crawfish explains why the Louisiana legislature decided not to repeal its “Science Education Act,” which permits the teaching of New Earth Creationism in public school science classes. It seems that a member of the legislature was healed by a witch doctor so he blocked efforts to repeal the law.
As Crazy Crawfish points out, it’s not all bad:
“Well, on the plus side, at least now Louisiana can start teaching kids how to be certified witch doctors early on in their public school careers. Since none of ouy kids will understand real biology that might be the best we can 

Sharp Decline in Number Entering Teaching in California

by dianerav

The corporate reform movement has been bashing teachers and public education without let-up for the past several years. The bashing became super-charged after the introduction of Race to the Top in 2009, because it explicitly blames teachers for low test scores despite evidence to the contrary.
The “reformers” claim they want “great teachers” in every classroom, and the way to do it is to fire teachers whose students get low scores, to close schools with low scores, and to deny teachers the right to due process. This is their formula, and they are sticking to it even though no other nation in the world has launched a vendetta 

Diane in the Evening 5-2-13 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: The Mess That Is Obama’s Education Policy by dianerav Valerie Strauss does an excellent job of deconstructing the disaster of Obama’s education policy. Remember when candidate Obama in 2008 spoke of hope and change. That kicked many educators to believe that NonChild Left Behind would be ended, tossed into the dustbin of history, where it belongs. Sadly, President Obama built his Race to the Tip right on the flawed foundation of NCLB, and made teaching to the test a necessity. As the for-profit charters prolife... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: School closings: What's $122 million among friends?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: School closings: What's $122 million among friends?:

School closings: What's $122 million among friends?

by Mike Klonsky

Wait! I thought closing 54 schools, mainly in Chicago black community was supposed to save CPS $560 million in "avoided costs" over 10 years (the figure they gave ABC News was $600 million).Of course, I never believed any of that. But that's because I never believe anything coming from Rahm's liar-in-chief, Becky Carroll or school-closing 'crat Todd Babbitz. They were born to lie. 

But now, WBEZ has given me one more reason to disbelieve. When they and Chicago Magazine  began questioning CPS about the numbers, the numbers suddenly changed. CPS now claims the number is $438 million.

Where did the other $122 million go? Rahm's people say they made an “honest mistake” when adding numbers. 

Bill aims to help expelled and truant students get back on track | EdSource Today

Bill aims to help expelled and truant students get back on track | EdSource Today:

Bill aims to help expelled and truant students get back on track - by Susan Frey

by Susan Frey

The purpose of a complicated bill aimed at preventing students from languishing in alternative schools became much clearer after the testimony of a former student who got stuck in one.

Jessie Camargo, now 18, was transferred to a community school two weeks before his eighth grade graduation. That summer he completed all the requirements set by his district, which included drug and alcohol counseling classes, 140 hours of community service, and an anger management class, but was not allowed to return to his regular high school. Instead, he spent 2 ½ years in the community school, he testified Wednesday at a Senate Education Committee hearing on Senate Bill 744.

“The school operated on a complex track system,” he said. “Anything could hold you back, knock you down a track, and prevent you from exiting, even something as simple as not having a collared shirt. A lot of students couldn’t afford collared shirts so they received daily detention and were never eligible to exit.”

After his family found an attorney, the district agreed to allow him to return to his regular high school, but by then he was so far behind he could not graduate with his class, even though he attended after-school and evening classes. Camargo is now trying to get his high school diploma at 

“We’re Number Umpteenth!”: The myth of lagging U.S. schools:

“We’re Number Umpteenth!”: The myth of lagging U.S. schools

Posted by Valerie Strauss on May 3, 2013 at 6:00 am

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How many times have you heard about how lousy American students perform on international assessments in comparison to their counterparts in other countries? Here to talk about why the comparisons are nonsense is Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including “The Schools Our Children Deserve,” “The Homework Myth,” and “Feel-Bad Education… And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling.” He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.

By Alfie Kohn

Beliefs that are debatable or even patently false may be repeated so often that at some point they come to be accepted as fact.  We seem to have crossed that threshold with the claim that U.S. schools are significantly worse than those in most other countries.  Sometimes the person who parrots this line will even insert a number — “We’re only ____th in the world,  you know!” — although, not surprisingly, the number changes with each retelling.

The assertion that our students compare unfavorably to those in other countries has long been heard from politicians and corporate executives whose goal is to justify various “get tough” reforms:  high-stakes testing, a nationalized curriculum (see under: Common Core “State” Standards), more homework, a longer school day or year, and so on.

But by now the premise is so widely accepted that it’s casually repeated by just about 

Beyond the education wars: A case study in collaboration

by Valerie Strauss

Here’s an excerpt from a new e-book titled “Beyond the Education Wars: Evidence That Collaboration Builds Effective Schools,” which looks at how struggling schools make improvements by collaboration between labor and management. It was written by Greg Anrig, vice president … Continue reading →

Are There Lessons from the History of School Reform? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Are There Lessons from the History of School Reform? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Are There Lessons from the History of School Reform?

by larrycuban

For some people, history lessons are clear.

For some, history lessons are ambiguous.

For some, history lessons are depressing.

These cartoons capture differences among historians and teachers over whether or not there are lessons for decision-makers seeking solutions to pressing problems.
No clear lessons, however, can be drawn from the past because then and now are different in significant ways. Take the second cartoon where the man in the center assumes that the other two are agreeing with him when they have completely opposite analogies in mind. The notion of obvious lessons derived from the past assumes that, for example, France and Britain caving into Hitler’s demands over Czechoslovakia in the 1938 Munich Pact

UPDATE: The in box + Three Day March for Education Justice in Chicago + A word Rep Kelly Cassidy + Hall of fame and shame. | Fred Klonsky

Hall of fame and shame. | Fred Klonsky:

Breaking: Lincoln Park High School students walk out in support of fired teacher.

by Fred Klonsky

Student walkout this morning. Photo: Elly Greenspahn.
Ben Joravsky’s column in this week’s Chicago Reader.

The in box. “Mr. Ritter. I’ve have not been dining on paint chips. Have you?”

by Fred Klonsky

This comment is in reply to a column by Scott Reeder on May 1 of the Joliet Herald News on pension obligations. 
Around 1939, pension plans were started for state workers, public school teachers, police, fire fighters and county workers as an equal or better benefit for those workers not covered by the newly created Social Security system. Much like SS, it was funded by a worker contribution and an employer contribution.
Mr. Reeder, calling employee and employer contributions “taxpayer’s money” is a major dishonest distortion of the situation. Money held in the 30 retirement systems no more belong to the taxpayer than the money from a bond sale to build bridges can be used to give tax refunds to Sears or CME group. The money is collected and held for a specific purpose in both pensions and bond sales. While you may think there is no obligations that comes from payments into a pension system, it certainly would be immoral, if not illegal, to spend pension funds for anything than their 

Three Day March for Education Justice in Chicago

by Fred Klonsky

From the CTU: 

Let’s take it to the streets!
Join parents, teachers, faith and community leaders, and students in freedom marches across the city.
March with us from the west side or the south side.
We’re fighting to save our schools and our communities.
We will take our voices for justice in Chicago’s City Hall!

Please RSVP and choose to start either on the south side or the west side. To RSVP click on CTU link at the top of the page.
Route is being finalized. Check back soon for maps.
This event is sponsored by Chicago Teachers Union, Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), and Chicago PEACE (Parents, Educators, and Clergy for Education).

Event Location

TBA – One march from the south side, another from the west sideChicago, IL 

A word about Representative Kelly Cassidy.

by Fred Klonsky

Mike James and Kelly Hogan do a great radio show on Saturday mornings.
Live from the Heartland. 88.7FM.
Earlier this year they had Illinois House Representative Kelly Cassidy on talking about pensions.
Cassidy was an early sponsor of a pension cutting bill written by the Pension Bomber Representative Elaine Nekritz.
A version of the Nekritz bill was included in Madigan’s amendment to SB1 that passed the House yesterday.
Without Cassidy’s vote.
Cassidy is a genuine progressive Democrat from the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago.
When I saw Mike James a few days after Cassidy’s appearance on his and Hogan’s show, I asked for equal

Hall of fame and shame.

by Fred Klonsky

Evie Raffanti : 

Representative Berrios voted yes also. My representative. Amazing. She, raised in a family of educators. Amazing.

retiredbutmissthekids:

Fred. Rep. Drury also voted yes. That was quite a shock. Guess Biss & Nekritz got to him. Not Laura Fine, though–she voted no, & good for her! The lone, thinking, listening (to her constituents and, perhaps, to Ralph Martire) Democrat.

John Dillon :

Hey, Fred. It was a day full of disillusion. My Representative Monique Davis had promised me in a message that she would not fall into line and vote against the workers on the public sector. Monique was a legislator I counted on, and mistakenly believed at her word. I remember once another Representative mockingly calling her “unique” Monique, as she stood alone to say “no” to SB7. Concerned about her original votes on Nekritz’s plan, I asked

Ten minute drawing. Pension guaranteed.

MAY 3, 2013

Click on drawing to enlarge.