Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Dr. Ravitch devotes the seven or so pages of her opening salvo to the rhetorical establishment of an "us vs. the rest of the world" public education conflict between education reformers ("the rest") and those who believe public education is not broken ("us" led by Dr. Ravitch).

Chapter 1 leads with the following statement:

"In the early years of the twenty-first century, a bipartisan consensus arose about educational policy in the United States. Right and left, Democrats and Republicans, the leading members of our political class and our media elite seemed to agree: Public education is broken. Our students are not learning enough. Public schools are bad and getting worse. We are being beaten by other nations with higher test scores."

OUR READ

So far, so good. Few who are active participants in the debate around America's public schools and finding practical, sustainable solutions would disagree with this positioning. The interested reader could believe from the statement they are in for a healthy discussion

The Common Core money war - Stephanie Simon and Nirvi Shah - POLITICO.com

The Common Core money war - Stephanie Simon and Nirvi Shah - POLITICO.com:

The Common Core money war

Students are pictured in a classroom. | Reuters

Common Core backers acknowledge that they didn’t do things right the first time around. | Reuters

By STEPHANIE SIMON and NIRVI SHAH | 9/18/13 10:31 AM EDT Updated: 9/18/13 10:48 AM EDT

One of the most expensive political fights in America this year isn’t over a Senate seat or a governor’s mansion. It’s about what your kids learn in school.

Tens of millions of dollars are pouring into the battle over the Common Core academic standards, which aim to set a course for students’ progression in math and language arts from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Jindal: Education the next civil rights battle

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The proponents would appear to have all the advantages. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation already has pumped more than $160 million into developing and promoting the Common Core, including $10 million just in the past few months, and it’s getting set to announce up to $4 million in new grants to keep the advocacy cranking. Corporate sponsors are pitching in, too. Dozens of the nation’s top CEOs will meet today to set the plans for a national advertising blitz that may include TV, radio and print.

Opponents, meanwhile, project an image of scrappy grassroots gumption: One rancher in Alabama said he would sell off a cow to cover the costs of an anti-Common Core town hall. But they’re backed by an array of organizations with multimillion dollar budgets of their own and much experience in mobilizing crowds and lobbying

Diane Ravitch: Testing and vouchers hurt our schools. Here’s what works - Salon.com

Diane Ravitch: Testing and vouchers hurt our schools. Here’s what works - Salon.com:

Diane Ravitch: Testing and vouchers hurt our schools. Here’s what works

Education reformers have it all wrong, Diane Ravitch tells Salon, and keep pushing policies that make schools worse

BY SARA SCRIBNER

Diane Ravitch (Credit: Paul Wolfe)

Diane Ravitch has become one of the fiercest — and most lucid — critics of many commonly accepted ideas about education in America. Once a supporter of charter schools and the standardized testing movement that inspired George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind, she now lambastes the tests as ineffective and even harmful to schools and children. With her new book,“Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools,” the educational historian writes that the reform movement – pro-charter schools, anti-teacher unions, dedicated to teacher evaluations built on test scores — threatens to undermine democracy.

Ravitch has been derided by critics as a tool of the unions, an apologist for failing educators, and as a reductive thinker who doesn’t capture the complexity of the charter-school movement. But she is a hero to many teachers, who have not fared well in the fiery debates about the future of education.

Here, she describes her change of heart on testing and charter schools and takes on reform queen Michelle Rhee, Teach for America and the upcoming Common Core standards. She also offers up a very different vision for closing the ever-broadening achievement gap that threatens to derail our public education system and, quite possibly, our society.

She spoke to Salon from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y., while dealing with a bad back.

Let me throw out what we hear on the radio on our drive home from work: Billions and billions of dollars spent without evidence of improvement; many teachers are just plain bad and it’s almost impossible to get rid of them because they’re so protected. Test

The Quick and the Ed » Higher Ed Data Central: Federal Financial Aid Recipients by Income

The Quick and the Ed » Higher Ed Data Central: Federal Financial Aid Recipients by Income:

Higher Ed Data Central: Federal Financial Aid Recipients by Income

HigherEdDataCentral:FederalHigher Ed Data Central: Federal Financial Aid Recipients by IncomeFinancialAidRecipientsbyIncome

18 Sep 2013

by Andrew Gillen

Categories: College Costs and Student Debt, For-Profit Higher Education, Higher Education

The new data on federal financial aid recipients that we explored last week continues to yield new insight. Recall that the data is not perfect, as incomes are counted only for “full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates paying the in-state or in-district tuition rate who received Title IV federal student aid,” so many students are not included. Nevertheless, the data covers roughly 1.86 million students in 2010–11, and we can learn quite a bit by examining where these students attend college.

The first chart shows how many of these students received Title IV federal financial aid—Pell grants, federal student loans, etc.—by income range. Over half of the recipients have an income below $30,000. The rest are almost evenly split among the other income ranges.

The next four charts repeat this graphic for different types of colleges, though we have rescaled the y-axis for each.

Teacher Tom: No Matter What Happened Tuesday

Teacher Tom: No Matter What Happened Tuesday:

No Matter What Happened Tuesday

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He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened on Tuesday. ~Stephen Colbert

Yesterday, I wrote about Diane Ravitch's important new book,Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. Today I'm doing so again, as I will likely do tomorrow.

As I read Ravitch's surgeon-like dissection of the arguments made by those hell-bent upon privatizing our nation's public schools, I began to keep track of all the instances in which, when faced with stark evidence of failure, they have doubled down on their bad ideas, by writing the word, "Again!" in the margin. Flipping through the pages of my copy of the book it appears I've written it on almost every page.

Let's take, as our for instance, the concept of merit pay for teachers, the idea of providing financial incentives to teachers in exchange for motivating their students to achieve higher

With A Brooklyn Accent: The "School Choice" Reformers Never Promote

With A Brooklyn Accent: The "School Choice" Reformers Never Promote:

The "School Choice" Reformers Never Promote

In the third chapter of Diane Ravitch's new book "Reign of Error" she points out that what Reformers call "Choice" is really privatization. The measures they promote- vouchers and charters schools, all work toward undermining public schools systems. They NEVER promote measures that enhance parent choice WITHIN public school systems. There are two such options which I think BATS should embrace:

1. Radically expanding the number of public "portfolio schools" which are exempt from state and national tests and which rate students on the basis of assessments of their classwork developed by teachers. There are several such schools in New York City which are highly successful, but their number has been capped by the city and state departments of education. Why not give teachers and administrators a chance to create many more such schools all over the country, as an alternative to the test centered schools following a one size fits all curriculum. That would give parents a real choice while allowing teachers to maintain the union protections they have in public schools that are lacking in most charter schools

2. Create, or recreate the vocational and technical high schools that were once a fixture in every American city, and give them full or partial exemptions from state tests. Let these schools to be targeted to growth areas in the American economy as well as sectors where high wage

What Can We Do? Bias, Bullying, and Bystanders | Welcoming Schools

What Can We Do? Bias, Bullying, and Bystanders | Welcoming Schools:

What Can We Do? Bias, Bullying, and Bystanders

New Professional Development Film Premiering in Washington D.C. Sept. 25th!

**Join Us for the Premiere of What Can We Do? in Washington D.C.**

Wednesday, September 25th at 4:00pm at Cleveland Elementary School

Featuring:

David Esquith, U.S. Dept. of Education, Director of the Office of Safe and Healthy Students
Kathryn Otoshi, Author of the children's books "One" and "Zero"
Ellen Brodsky, Award-winning Filmmaker
A special performance by the Cleveland School Chorus

Click Here to RSVP

"You’re Gay." "Your skin is too brown." "Fatty." "Your religion is fake." "Estúpido."

These are the actual words of students in the film.
These are the kinds of hurtful words and statements that elementary school students really experience.
Students want adults in the school community to help them out.
Educators want to know what they can do.

What Can We Do? Bias, Bullying, and Bystanders spotlights teachers in the classroom generating open conversations with students about the impact of bullying and the power of students standing up for each other.

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