Classroom Furniture and How Teachers Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Classroom Furniture and How Teachers Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Classroom Furniture and How Teachers Teach

Do photos of classrooms and the arrangement of furniture give observers a glimpse of how teachers teach?

Yes, they do but only a hint. Here is my reasoning.

Furniture arrangement is seldom mandated by a school board, superintendent, or principal. The teacher decides how to use classroom space. Furniture placement, consciously or not, expresses the teacher’s views of how best to teach, maintain order, and how students learn. Thus, an observer gets a clue to whether teacher-centered and student-centered instruction (including mixes of both)* will prevail.

1. When all students face the teacher’s desk or teacher at the blackboard (now whiteboard or “smart board”) where directions, daily homework, textbook readings and quizzes are registered, whole group instruction is encouraged including class discussions (recitation was the word used in the early 20th century). Teacher-talk  gains higher priority and legitimacy than exchanges between and among students.
2. Surveillance is easier for a teacher when rows or tables are in rows. Threats to classroom order can be seen quickly and dealt with expeditiously.
3. Such a configuration of classroom space limits students’ movement within a classroom to that which the teacher permits.
4. If desks are arranged into a hollow square, horseshoe, or tables are scattered around the room permitting students to face one another and talk, student-centered instruction where children and youth can work in small groups or individually, student decision-making becomes a much stronger possibility.

Note, however, that furniture arrangements do not determine how teachers Classroom Furniture and How Teachers Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Education Reform: Why America Needs a David Cameron - The Daily Beast

Education Reform: Why America Needs a David Cameron - The Daily Beast:

Education Reform: Why America Needs a David Cameron

The British PM is fixing his country’s schools, tackling an issue all of America’s presidential candidates are afraid to touch.

The vision and courage needed to take on the crisis of failing schools has surfaced during our presidential campaign—just not in this country.

Last week, addressing his party for the first time since re-election in May, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron called for an end to the country’s traditional public school system, endorsing instead a nationwide conversion to academies, which are essentially the British equivalent of charter schools—publicly funded, but with greater freedom over what they teach and how they are run.

He also urged current and would-be educators across the U.K.—parents, community groups, social service organizations—to create small new academies known as free schools.

“So my next ambition is this,” Cameron told a nationally televised audience, “five hundred new free schools. Every school an academy…and yes—local authorities running schools a thing of the past.”

It may be difficult for Americans to appreciate Cameron’s radical, uneuphemistic boldness. He hopes to replace a state bureaucracy that is even more entrenched, more sclerotic, than its American cousin.

The second-term Conservative sees defenders of the educational status quo—members of Parliament, teachers unions, and the local authorities that run British schools—as apologists for a class system that has denied opportunity to generations of British children.

“Here,” Cameron observed, “the salary you earn is more linked to what your father got paid than in any other major country.” Cameron believes the U.K. will not continue to thrive unless it draws from a far wider stream of talent and experience than ever before.

In a rational world, hosannas might greet a head of state who used his power to reduce inequality. Instead, Cameron’s intensifying efforts over the five years preceding his speech have elicited fierce resistance and criticism.

When Parliament passed his 2010 legislation giving any school the option of Education Reform: Why America Needs a David Cameron - The Daily Beast:

CURMUDGUCATION: Gates & Feedback

CURMUDGUCATION: Gates & Feedback:

Gates & Feedback

When Bill Gates says, "Give Teachers What They Deserve," I think many of us can be forgiven for flinching. But over at his blog, His Royal Gateness has done just that. It might seem redundant for me to respond, because the piece is a bit of a teaser for Gates' Big Talk about education, which I've already responded to. But I find this sort of piece instructive, because when somebody has to edit down his own work, he tells you what he thinks the crucial, important parts were.

The crucial important part here is that after all this time monkeying around with education, Gates still doesn't know what he's taking about.

He opens with a wide-eyed tale of how a teacher he talked to begins the year by drawing a line on a piece of paper that aims up and to the right. The bottom-most point is labeled "birth" and then  "Fourth Grade" further up the line and still further up the line the teacher puts himself. This is called the learning line, and I can see its value as a construct for fourth graders. But Gates-- a grown man-- apparently found this image inspirational when working on his big education speech, and not for the first time I'm wondering how much real thought Gates has actually put into this education stuff. If I walked into a corporate board meeting and unveiled my chart with a line spearing up from the bottom left corner, and I marked the origin point "birth" and a little way up put "guy working at McDonalds" and a little further up put "Microsoft" and announced proudly that this I called this the Revenue Line, would board members be thinking about that for months? Or CURMUDGUCATION: Gates & Feedback:

Teachers, beware of the “specialists.” | @ THE CHALKFACE

Teachers, beware of the “specialists.” | @ THE CHALKFACE:

Teachers, beware of the “specialists.”

No, I’m not talking about the art, music, and PE teachers, who are, in my experience, typically referred to as teaching the “specials.” I’m not even talking about the special education teams.

I’m referring to the other “specialists,” your behavior specialists, reading specialists, intervention specialists, and even your “deans.” Staff members not attached to classrooms and the frequent instruction of students can disrupt and undermine the work of classroom teachers.

Let me reiterate: they can, not that they inevitably will.

Regular classroom teachers are caught in a bind. They do the most important work in any school. For all intents and purposes, they should be in charge and the highest paid. Without teachers, a principal is nothing, and a principal is only as good as the autonomy they offer their teachers. Caught working with students, and pretty much anchored to a classroom for the entire school day, teachers have less time, or no time at all, to participate in school-level decisions. Many decisions are made without input from teachers because of how quickly they need to be made, and how unavailable teachers are to make them.

Enter your “specialists.” Unlike classroom teachers, their job duties are more vague, ill-defined. Their time is not micro-managed. In that role, I’ve seen them become experts at looking busy, but accomplishing very little. What is crucial to their work, however, is the proximity in which they are able to work with the principal, thereby participating in decision-making that should be better left to classroom teachers. Contrary to classroom teachers, their jobs don’t require as much accountability, yet the decisions they Teachers, beware of the “specialists.” | @ THE CHALKFACE:

I Get a Response From NEA | Live Long and Prosper

I Get a Response From NEA | Live Long and Prosper:

I Get a Response From NEA

CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS

Earlier this month I posted about the NEA’s Primary Election endorsement of Hillary Clinton for U.S. President. I included a comment I had written in response to a special ed teacher’s guest blog on Lily Eskelsen-Garcia’s blog.

You can read the guest blog, Proud to Be an Educator for Hillary. Scroll down and you can see a comment. As of this writing, my comment has not been included, however the one comment that is there expresses similar objections to the endorsement. Perhaps mine wasn’t written well enough…or I was too emotional…or confrontational…or impolite. It doesn’t matter. I only mention this to indicate that, apparently, the NEA is willing to read opposing views: something positive.

You can read my comment in my post, Finally, I Rant About NEA’s Endorsement of Hillary.

I submitted an abridged version of my comment a second time. I thought perhaps that it hadn’t been published because it was too long. After that submission, I received a response from NEA which you can read in its entirety at the end of this post.

My point in arguing against the endorsement of Secretary Clinton is not because I disagree with many of her positions on public education, it’s because I don’t know many of her positions on public education. I would argue against the endorsement of any of the three candidates who responded to the NEA’s I Get a Response From NEA | Live Long and Prosper:

HEMLOCK ON THE ROCKS: ELI BROAD WANTS LA SCHOOLS TO Say "UNCLE"

HEMLOCK ON THE ROCKS: ELI BROAD WANTS LA SCHOOLS TO Say "UNCLE":
ELI BROAD WANTS LA SCHOOLS TO Say "UNCLE"

GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS DEBATE-In my last post I promised to take a look at The Great Public Schools Now Initiative, and report on the results. 

Not being rich or politically useful to Eli Broad, I do not know him personally, and am unlikely to.  Growing up in Orange County in the 50’s and 60’s, however, I am familiar with KB Home, and its alter ego, SunAmerica.  Back in the day, KB Home was famous for building cheap housing for the influx of folks moving into California, and also running an insurance company that handled the mortgages. 

As the orange groves came down and the homes went up, Orange County became my parents’ generation’s version of affordable housing. KB homes also had a reputation for being of ‘interesting’ construction quality. Of course I could just be bitter (as a third generation Californian) about the loss of the orange groves. 

Anyhow, Broad also branched out into the big-time insurance business, again targeting the generation that was buying their homes, and offering wonderful retirement instruments called Variable Annuities. And boy were they variable, as it turned out. By the late 90’s, Broad sold SunAmerica to AIG (yes, that AIG) -- leaving behind a legacy of financial scandals at both KB Home and SunAmerica. By then, of course, Mr. Broad had completed the morphing of himself into kindly old “Uncle Eli”, the philanthropist. 

So here’s “Uncle Eli” … who now wants to do to public education in Los Angeles what he did to the housing and insurance markets. Do not be deceived -- if you read the 44 pages of The Great Public Schools Now Initiative, that’s what it boils down to -- the “financialization” and privatization of our public school system. In that context, I would argue that the millions spent in the recent LAUSD election for Charter candidates was just “seed money” for the private sector takeover of the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

Broad’s Great Public Schools Now document is tailored to the foundation world of big bucks -- “seats” instead of students, and “50% market share” as the eight year goal.  Individual Charter experiments are a thing of the past because “our city’s highest performing charter school operators are prepared to serve many more...” Emphasis on the word operator. 

This goal is coupled with the up-front declaration that “A dedicated pool of philanthropic capital will enable charter schools, their partner organizations, and advocates to work together to transform education in Los Angeles.” When I hear the words philanthropic and capital together, it’s time to gargle and check underneath the platitudes. 

In this case, the details emerge in the Appendices to the document. There are almost 50 listed “operators,” together with the promise that if more companies get with the program, they too could be added to the gravy train list of running small Charter School Districts. 

That is what this stuff is really about -- a network of private school districts, not individual schools, designed to supplant the LAUSD using the LAUSD’s taxpayer money -- and without the administrative overhead and inconvenient rules the LAUSD has to follow in spending taxpayer money. These “new” school districts would have the freedom to pretty much spend the money as they wish. This would likely guarantee the breakup of the LAUSD. 

Paying for the eight year goals and producing the deliverables are to be accomplished through two lists of donors in Appendix B -- a list of some 21 non-profit foundations grouped by annual giving, and a list of “prominent” Los Angeles billionaires that Broad thinks he can get to step up to the plate. 

Heck, if you want to see a list of LA billionaires, you might just want to check out the Appendix just for the fun of it. 

Let’s look at the prize. The LAUSD’s annual budget is around $7 billion this year. The Great Public Schools Now initiative envisions investing $490 million dollars over eight years to take over about 50% of the LAUSD budget. Even assuming that the LAUSD budget remained static, that’s some $56 billion over eight years. So the seed money of less than $61 million a year is designed to take over at least 1/2 of $56 billion. Pretty good leverage and that’s what it is:  a highly leveraged non-taxable investment by the few to HEMLOCK ON THE ROCKS: ELI BROAD WANTS LA SCHOOLS TO Say "UNCLE":

Schools Matter: Child Labor to Build Charter Real Estate Empires

Schools Matter: Child Labor to Build Charter Real Estate Empires:

Child Labor to Build Charter Real Estate Empires

The real estate part of charter scam has always been the germinating monstrosity underneath the self-serving do-gooderism of the billionaire tax-sheltering paternalists whose aim has been and remains to convert the children of the poor into productive robots in the multi-billion dollar testing sweat shops that have replaced schools across urban America.

It is a movement that occupies the moral bottom of a cavernous culture of greed and cynicism that would make the most jaded and inhumane 19th Century baron blush, and the movement is manned by privileged fascist camp guards who falsely claim to be educators.  No educator would quietly submit to the degradation and inhumanity that is at the heart of the "no excuses" charter movement that routinely dehumanizes children for the sake of creating brand names based on test score production and robotic behavior.

There a special circle of hell reserved for these monstrous capitalists, pious pretenders, charlatans, and crass abusers of the public trust, who are intent upon building profitable empires with public dollars on the backs of the most vulnerable children of America.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Real-estate investors are showing an increasing interest in charter school development as the demand grows for classroom seats and some state and local governments become more willing to help finance charter-school projects.

Almost all charter schools are operated by nonprofit organizations. But these groups often rent and buy their buildings from private real-estate developers, and that is creating a new niche asset for some investors.

One of the latest entrants to the charter real-estate business is Northstar Commercial Partners, a Denver-based Schools Matter: Child Labor to Build Charter Real Estate Empires:

Letter From John Kline To Arne Duncan Surfaces, Raises Serious Questions About National Student Database | Exceptional Delaware

Letter From John Kline To Arne Duncan Surfaces, Raises Serious Questions About National Student Database | Exceptional Delaware:

Letter From John Kline To Arne Duncan Surfaces, Raises Serious Questions About National Student Database

The Department’s effort to shepherd states toward the creation of a de facto national student database raises serious legal and prudential questions.  Congress has never authorized the Department of Education to facilitate the creation of a national student database.  To the contrary, Congress explicitly prohibited the “development of a nationwide database of personally identifiable information under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 7911)

Back in 2010, as Race To The Top was introduced, part of the initiative included the creation of a Statewide Longitudinal Data System, or SLDS for short.  The idea, according to the below letter, was for states to share data with each other.  US Representative John Kline, of Minnesota, opposed this idea.  The letter stated the inherent dangers in birthing a database of this type.

Does anyone know if Arne actually responded to Kline’s letter?  I would love to see that response!Letter From John Kline To Arne Duncan Surfaces, Raises Serious Questions About National Student Database | Exceptional Delaware:

For You Michigan!—You Are WRONG about Retention!

For You Michigan!—You Are WRONG about Retention!:

For You Michigan!—You Are WRONG about Retention!

There are some issues, like the loss of recess and retention of third graders, that make no sense at all. I can sometimes understand mistakes, attribute them to people being clueless, but when it comes to retention the research is there. Anyone who knows how to read and puts some time into it will learn there is no point in using retention. It’s harmful to children.

Following Michigan, the education news the last few days has been like riding a roller coaster.

The good news:

Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley is leading a special education task force and the wonderful Marcie Lipsitt who has been a tireless advocate for the rights of students with disabilities was one of the people selected to serve. That’s wonderful news!

But it doesn’t make sense that Michigan legislators turn around and pass a bill to retain their third graders who have difficulty reading.  The bill also calls for literacy coaches to assist students when they have difficulties, but is there any reason For You Michigan!—You Are WRONG about Retention!:

Tracking the money funding conservative school boards’ anti-union lawsuits | The Colorado Independent

Tracking the money funding conservative school boards’ anti-union lawsuits | The Colorado Independent:

Tracking the money funding conservative school boards’ anti-union lawsuits

Not all money funding the push to privatize public education and bust teachers unions is coming from the Koch brothers. Some of the money is from established and respected foundations.

It’s not just Koch brother money funding the anti-union, pro-privatization takeover of school boards. In Colorado, mainstream community foundations are in on the game too.

Take the Daniels Fund, a Denver foundation known for giving grants to support ethics education, scholarships, alcoholism treatment and palliative care. Those community oriented, non-partisan projects sharply contrast the political nature of the foundation’s recent funding initiatives: paying the legal fees for two conservative-majority school boards that are being sued for using taxpayer money for private school vouchers, and busting teachers’ unions.

The two school boards, Douglas County and the Loveland-based Thompson School District, both got their outside attorneys’ fees paid for, not by the taxpayers, but from the Daniels Fund. Two other well-known foundations, the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs, and the Walton Family Foundation (think Wal-Mart), also have kicked in big bucks to the Douglas County school district to help cover legal expenses.

According to documents obtained by The Colorado Independent, Douglas County received $870,000 over the last four years from the Daniels Fund to pay legal expenses for a lawsuit challenging its voucher program, known as the Choice Scholarship Pilot Program. The El Pomar Foundation kicked in $25,000 in 2011, and the Walton Family Foundation put in $300,000 in 2012.

The Douglas County Board of Education started its Choice Scholarship Pilot Program in 2011. The purpose was to provide taxpayer-funded vouchers to K-12 students who could then take those vouchers and pay for education at any private institution, including religious schools.

Taxpayers for Public Education sued the district, claiming the vouchers were unconstitutional, and in June, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed.

In early September, the district appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court; two weeks later, the Daniels Fund kicked in another $500,000 for legal expenses,

The Daniels Fund gives grants to organizations working on “K-12 education reform,” including “school choice,” a euphemism for funneling public dollars into private-school vouchers and privately-run charter schools.

It’s not quite as easy to see where helping the Thompson school board get rid of its teachers’ union fits into the Daniels mission. But it’s a perfect fit for the mission of those gunning to privatize public education.

The Thompson Board of Education got a $150,000 grant from the Daniels Fund in August, a grant solicited by Brad Miller, the board’s lawyer, who is also a private attorney working for the embattled Jefferson County school board.

Miller obtained the grant without first seeking board authority, but the board majority approved the grant when he informed them of it.

The Thompson board is being sued by its teachers’ union, the Thompson Education Association, over its refusal to negotiate in good faith a contract for 2015-16. According to an independent arbitrator who came in after negotiations failed, the conservative majority board never intended to agree to a new contract, preferring instead to take away the union’s ability to negotiate on behalf of Thompson district teachers.

According to a statement from Daniels President and CEO Linda Childears, the grant is tied to the Daniels mission because, “We believe that in order to increase the likelihood of academic success for all children, it is necessary to continuously improve the K-12 system. The Fund believes in a School Board’s right to make autonomous decisions for their school district.”

Childears said the union “is seeking to bind the district to a contract that the Thompson School Board does not agree to.” The Fund paid for the legal fees to “defend the right of the board to enter into or not enter into contracts of their choosing.” She added that the Fund does not weigh in on the content or scope of the contract, “only on the right of locally elected School Boards to make decisions they were elected to make.”

Childears is a former board member of the Alliance for Choice in Education, a private foundation started by oilman Alex Cranberg to fund scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools. The Daniels Fund also gives money to the Alliance according to the Fund’s website.

The Alliance has ties to other conservative donors who want to help privatize public education, like Ed McVaney, retired CEO of JD Edwards; and Ralph Nagel, who owns a chain of assisted-living centers in Colorado. Both are trustees for the Alliance. Both kicked in tens of thousands of dollars in 2013 to help elect the conservative majority for the Thompson Board of Education and to keep the conservative majority at the Douglas County Board of Education.

Kristen Todd, senior vice-president for grants at Daniels, came to the Fund from the El Pomar Foundation, where she was associate vice president for grantmaking and communication. She also is a former trustee for the Foundation, which also provides grants to the Alliance for Choice in Education.

The Daniels Fund was started by the late cable magnate Bill Daniels in 1997. When Daniels passed away in 2000, the fund was led by former Daniels and Associate Executive Vice President Bill Hogue.

The Fund was initially viewed as somewhat liberal, funding research into homelessness, and denying grants to organizations such as the Boy Scouts because of their then-anti-gay stance, according to a 2013 report by the right-wing newsletter Foundation Watch.

In 2003, former CU President and U.S. Senator Hank Brown, R-Colo., took the helm. Shortly thereafter the foundation laid off its “liberal program officers” and according to the Foundation Watch article, returned to its “true donor intent.”

Today, part of the nine-member board reads like a “Who’s Who” of Republican politicians; in addition to Brown and Childears, the board includes Colorado Springs Mayor and former Attorney General John Suthers; Jim Nicholson, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs under Tracking the money funding conservative school boards’ anti-union lawsuits | The Colorado Independent:

Welcome Back! Week in the Classroom the First Month 2015 » Reflections on Teaching

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Welcome Back! Week in the Classroom the First Month 2015:

Welcome Back! Week in the Classroom the First Month 2015

My family life is still…complicated, but I am still working and I feel the need to try to write about what I’m doing in the classroom. I hope that it will prove interesting and intriguing to you too.

I have moved to fifth grade (from sixth). The change is slight in some ways, but big in others. Because this class is generally at a pretty good level academically, the difference there is not big. Emotionally they are, on the whole, less “mature” than the sixth graders. I’ve brought a lot of what I’ve done with sixth graders down to fifth grade, but not everything, and not all at once. As an example I’m having them write notes on the history and science lessons, but I’ve held off have them do the full end of chapter packets with independent work activities (of their choice). I also haven’t had them do end of unit “projects” of their choice (plays, comics, etc.) I will eventually get to that, but I’m taking it slow for all of our sakes. Here’s what we’re doing:

History

We’re studying American History, and it starts with the folks who were already here. A colleague talked about skipping this part, but if I had to, I’d prefer skipping the part I’m in now, which is the causes leading to the Age of Exploration. Why? When you don’t study the Native American part, then they will not get the point that folks were already here when explorers from Europe “found” the new world. If you skim over it, they won’t know how developed those civilizations are. I do try to teach my kids many of the more current issues about what happened before and as this clash of cultures took place. Even teaching them about the take over of Constantinople by the Ottomans, etc. is pretty complex to convey to the kiddos (they get the disease and displacement aiding European colonization Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Welcome Back! Week in the Classroom the First Month 2015:

Large share of grads from some high schools require remediation at Sacramento State | The Sacramento Bee

Large share of grads from some high schools require remediation at Sacramento State | The Sacramento Bee:
Large share of grads from some high schools require remediation at Sacramento State

Diana Lambert: 916-321-1090, @dianalambert

On his first day this summer as Sacramento State president, Robert Nelsen singled out an unnamed local high school for its abysmally high share of graduates who need to take remedial courses upon arriving on campus. It was a sign, he said, that the university needs to help certain high schools prepare their students.

New Sacramento State data obtained by The Sacramento Bee suggests where university officials may start.

Among campuses in the Sacramento region, 89 percent of graduates from Burbank High School entering Sacramento State as freshmen this fall required remediation. More than 80 percent of graduates from three other local high schools found themselves in the same situation – Woodland, Grant Union and Pioneer.

The worst-performing class of graduates came from Angelo Rodriguez High School in Fairfield, where 90 percent of incoming Sacramento State students were directed to basic math or English classes.

Each of those high schools graduated students with qualifications on paper sufficient to meet California State University admissions standards – a 3.0 grade-point average on college prep courses or a combination of lower grades and high-enough standardized test scores. But the high remediation rates call into question just how well some schools are preparing their best students for college.

Experts say the primary factors are a lack of collaboration between universities and high schools, inadequate information about the expectations of college and an increase in the emphasis on attending college for students who previously would have pursued another track.

“Until recently, there was no effort to try to align the (university and high school) systems,” said Michal Kurlaender, a professor at UC Davis who is leading a team researching college readiness. “No one felt it was necessarily important. We focused on minimum competency like the high school exit exam.”

Among all freshmen entering California State University, Sacramento, this fall, 53 percent have to take remedial courses because they couldn’t pass placement tests for college-level math, English or both.

Students who fail the math test are required to enroll in a remedial class, while those who fail the English exam are given the choice of a remedial or standard course, said university officials. All are required to take a state-mandated college preparation course over the summer. Students who do not pass their remedial class within a year are sent to community college.

Nelsen sees the high remediation rates as a hurdle to students graduating in four years, a major goal of his presidency. The high number of students playing catch-up has been a perennial problem for California State University campuses. Students who take remedial courses don’t earn college credit and take longer to graduate, resulting in higher costs forLarge share of grads from some high schools require remediation at Sacramento State | The Sacramento Bee:

Fogelson Honors Forum speaker warns of dangers facing education system | TCU 360

Fogelson Honors Forum speaker warns of dangers facing education system | TCU 360:

Fogelson Honors Forum speaker warns of dangers facing education system

Diane Ravitch with audience members at the Fogelson Honors Forum at TCU on Thursday Oct. 15, 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Nick Pauszek/TCU360)

The John V. Roach Honors College welcomed Diane Ravitch as the guest speaker of the Fogelson Honors Forum to talk about the state of public education in America Thursday night.

Ravitch, the former assistant secretary of education, addressed the crowd in the Brown Lupton Ballroom. She spoke about the danger that public education is under and how standardized testing and charter schools pose as threats to the education system.

Ravitch said that state policies focus only on standardized tests, and that the government cares more about students doing well on tests than the students themselves.

“What matters most cannot be measured, especially not by a standardized test,” Ravitch said.

She said charter schools are detrimental because they only teach to the standardized test and judge students based off the national standard. There is no evidence that shows having a national standard leads to better test scores, Ravitch said.

Ravitch said the Race to the Top grant, created by the United States Education Department, is a hoax. The grant was used as a way to create more of the charter schools that Ravitch warns against.

Education is not a consumer good, she said, and people without a background in education shouldn’t be in charge of it.

“Race to the Top spent $5 billion to open more charter schools, to funnel more public money to entrepreneurs, to close thousands of public schools in mostly minority communities, to promote more teaching to the test and to force teachers to be judged by the test scores of their students,” Ravitch said.

Ravitch also went on to say that charter schools do the most harm in poor and racially segregated communities.

“They only encourage the rich to think there is a cheap solution that doesn’t involve higher taxes on the rich,” she said.

The last part of the forum was a question and answer segment where Ravitch answered questions from the crowd.

In one of her responses to she labeled for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix and DeVry University as threats.

“They prey on anyone they can prey on and offer them a quick and easy degree,” she said. “A lot of places won’t even recognize the degrees because they know it’s not a real college.”

Mary Ann Knight, a high school teacher who attended the forum, says she was excited about the message of the forum.

“Families, parents and students are becoming more and more aware of the standardized test culture,” Knight said. “Our kids are worth more than a score.”

Ravitch received a standing ovation from audience members as she walked off the stage.Fogelson Honors Forum speaker warns of dangers facing education system | TCU 360:

Protesters at SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes

Protesters at SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes:

Protesters at SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes

Kenya Nation, who has two children in Wister Elementary, speaks abut her frustration with the school system in front of the Philadelphia School District headquarters on Broad Street. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer

For more than four restless hours Thursday, anger at Philadelphia School District leaders simmered, at times boiling over.

At a School Reform Commission meeting and at a union rally held before the meeting, teachers, parents, and community members expressed anger at the district's planned conversion of three schools into charters, at its handing over substitute-teaching services to a company that has underperformed, at its nurse staffing levels, and at its overcrowding in some schools.

"Are you deliberately trying to destroy public education in Philadelphia, or are you just grossly incompetent?" retired teacher and librarian Deborah Grill asked leaders.

"You continue to mismanage our district with dishonesty and incompetence," Peg Devine, the nurse at Lincoln High, charged.

"This is personal for me," said an emotional Renita Brown, parent of a child at Cooke Elementary, one of the schools slated to be converted into a charter. "Our children are not cattle."

At one point, an amplifier blew and the microphones in the SRC auditorium went out. The restless audience filled the silence with a chant.

"Hite must go! Hite must go!" they shouted, referring to Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.

Much of the anger came over a plan Hite announced earlier this month that would, he said, move 15,000 students into better schools. The plan calls for three charter conversions, two school closures, grade changes in other buildings, and opening two new schools.

There was no mention of the new schools, but widespread



Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20151016_Protesters_at_SRC_meeting_angrily_call_for_dramatic_changes.html#xhch4MrgYyGMZ6Lj.99

MORE COVERAGE

Parents, teachers voice opposition to charter conversions

Recap: Live coverage of SRC meeting

"Donald're a pend * ^%" say the streets of New York - Univision

"Donald're a pend * ^%" say the streets of New York - Univision:

"Donald're a pend * ^%" say the streets of New York

"Donald eres un pend*^%", dicen las calles de Nueva York

La marca de licor mexicana “Ilegal Mezcal” lanzó una campaña contra el candidato presidencial que más ha dado de qué hablar este año: Donald Trump.

“Ilegal Mezcal” dejó sellos por las calles de Nueva York que rezan: "Donald eres un pend*^%", refiriéndose al magnate republicano.

Univision.com  October 16, 2015  4:22 PM

Mexican liquor brand "Illegal Mezcal" launched a campaign against the presidential candidate that has been the talk this year: Donald Trump.

"Illegal Mezcal" seals left in the streets of New York who pray: "Donald're a pend * ^%" referring to Republican magnate.

pancartas en las calles

Todos los carteles están en español, de forma que sólo inmigrantes hispanos o aquellos que hayan estudiado la lengua podrán entender.

La polémica campaña también invita a que sus clientes suban una fotografía con un trago de su mezcal con el hashtag #ShotAtDonald para recibir premios.

banners in the streets

All signs are in Spanish, so that only Hispanic immigrants or those who have studied the language can understand.

The controversial campaign also invites customers to upload a photo with a swig of his mezcal with the hashtag #ShotAtDonald for awards.

Campaña contra Trump

Además, en su sitio web se pueden conseguir camisas con el mismo logo contra Trump, informó http://www.infobae.com/.

Trump Campaign

Furthermore, in its site web can be achieved with the same logo shirts against Trump, he reported  http://www.infobae.com/ .

Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT

Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform:

Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions

By Morna McDermott

(A special thanks to Allison McDowell for provoking me to this research and to an amazing blog by Emily Talmage  that had mad amounts of information on this subject)

This has been over a decade in the making. In 2000 Business Week  listed the companies benefiting from the new boon in online education stating, “Dozens of new companies are springing up to serve the emerging K-12 market for digital learning. Investors have poured nearly $1 billion into these companies since the beginning of 1999, estimates Merrill Lynch.”

Begin with ALEC Model Legislation  called Resolution Adopting the 10 Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning for K-12

One element which states, “Advancement: Students progress based on demonstrated competency.”

This resolution was adopted in 2011 following a proposal crafted by Bob Wise and Jeb Bush. Tom Vander Ark, also proclaims himself an “architect of Digital Learning Now’s 10 Elements of Digital Learning”

Tom Vander Ark was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent and was the first executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Vander Ark is chairman of theBoard of Directors for iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. You can see his blog.

Bob Wise and Jeb Bush along with Bill Gates were central to the development of the Common Core State Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform: