"This is the best thing my union has ever done for me" - Lily's Blackboard : "This is the best thing my union has ever done for me" One of our core values is ensuring that every student has a caring, committed, qualified teacher. That means educators must have the resources and support to be the very best they can be. National Board Certification , a voluntary, advanced teaching credential, is an
BREAKING NEWS - Having lied about her education background – Linda McMahon is now a Trump appointee - Wait What? : BREAKING NEWS – Having lied about her education background – Linda McMahon is now a Trump appointee President-Elect Donald Trump has announced that World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon will head the Small Business Administration. McMahon is well known in Connecticut,
Charters, Blackwater, justifying cruelty to children: Future schools in Trumpland | : Charters, Blackwater, justifying cruelty to children: Future schools in Trumpland How can you be in charge of a Newark charter school and mess up a venerable name like Paul Robeson? Was “Miss” Gray’s shadow-self acting out and halfway, in her mind, to Robberson? Now that’s a Freudian name-drop. I found this lett
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dems leave teacher unions hanging on DeVos : Dems leave teacher unions hanging on DeVos IEA graphic. Hillary has her picture on milk cartons since she went missing after election day. SNL even picked up on it. Seems like the entire old-guard leadership must be out in the Chappaqua woods with her, especially when it comes to resisting the Trump juggernaut. Most notab
Tackling the challenge of precarious labor | American Federation of Teachers : Tackling the challenge of precarious labor Precarious labor is shifting the landscape of the working world, with an increasing number of unstable (often part-time) jobs, low pay and exploitative working conditions. At a daylong Washington, D.C., conference on Dec. 5, labor leaders, policy experts and academics—includin
Charter school advocate will head Ohio's charter school office | cleveland.com : Charter school advocate will head Ohio's charter school office COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Department of Education has hired charter school advocate RaShaun Holliman, the head of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools , to lead its charter school office. He started Monday in the position once held by Joni Hoffman
Badass Teachers Association : Shawna Mott-Wright: The precarious finances of an Oklahoma classroom teacher By: Shawna Mott-Wright Originally published here http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/opinionfeatured/shawna-mott-wright-the-precarious-finances-of-an-oklahoma-classroom/article_993c04a4-b158-57bd-81e9-ca086191ab98.html The holiday season traditionally marks the start of a time to celebrate the
CURMUDGUCATION: What Do The Tests Measure? : What Do The Tests Measure? Christopher Tienken (Seton Hall) has solved a mystery. Along with Anthony Colella (Seton Hall), Christian Angelillo (Boonton Township SD), Meredith Fox (Nanuet Union SD), Kevin McCahill (George W. Miller Elementary) and Adam Wolfe (Peoria Unified SD), Tienken has once again answered the question -- what do the Big Standardize
Take the TWO TOUR Pledge! – Cloaking Inequity : Take the TWO TOUR Pledge! I received this interesting letter about the Two Tour pledge from a Cloaking Inequity reader. The Two Tour Pledge Now that the presidential election is over and a new secretary of education has been named, it appears that school segregation will only continue down its ugly path – unless… Unless we CHOOSE otherwise. Unless w
Privatize, Monetize, Weaponize: How the DeVos family devoured Michigan’s schools | Eclectablog : Privatize, Monetize, Weaponize: How the DeVos family devoured Michigan’s schools NOTE: This post is a companion piece to this week’s episode of The Sit and Spin Room podcast . Click HERE or scroll to the bottom of the post to listen to the podcast or find it wherever you get your podcasts by searching
Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Did the Shift from Paper to Computer Bring Down East Asia’s (China’s) PISA Performance? : Did the Shift from Paper to Computer Bring Down East Asia’s (China’s) PISA Performance? I was surprised by China’s 2015 PISA performance, particularly in reading. I was confident that even the expansion beyond Shanghai would not cause a significant decli
The big burden of charter school oversight | EdSource : The big burden of charter school oversight With the California Charter Schools Association’s goal of serving a million students – a nearly 75 percent increase – within six years, charter school growth is raising the stakes for effective monitoring. But there’s a sharp contrast in charter oversight capacity between California’s largest distri
Betsy DeVos and the twilight of public education : Betsy DeVos and the twilight of public education In Detroit, parents of school-age children have plenty of choices, thanks to the nation's largest urban network of charter schools. What remains in short supply is quality. In Brightmoor, the only high school left is Detroit Community Schools, a charter boasting more than a decade of abysmal test s
National universities plead to Trump on behalf of DACA, but… | Fred Klonsky : National universities plead to Trump on behalf of DACA, but… Luis Gomez, a 21-year-old senior at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Following up on the previous post. While the University of Illinois has turned a deaf ear to faculty, student and alumni calls for undocumented student sanctuary, Muriel A. Howard, the p
For students worried about Trump, Los Angeles school district opens hotline, support sites - The Washington Post : For students worried about Trump, Los Angeles school district opens hotline, support sites The Los Angeles Unified School District — the nation’s second largest public school system — is about 75 percent Latino. That helps explain why a month after Donald Trump won the presidential e
Schools Matter: Sister Betsy Will Be Puppet of Walton Clan : Sister Betsy Will Be Puppet of Walton Clan The Detroit Free Press has a scathing assessment of Sister Betsy Devos's involvement in education matters (see below). What is missing in this and other discussions of Sister Betsy's ranking of ideological devotion over educational quality is the DeVos link to the Walton clan . If Sister Betsy
Bruce Baker: How Do Charter Schools Affect Public Schools in Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog : Bruce Baker: How Do Charter Schools Affect Public Schools in Urban Districts Bruce Baker is a professor of education at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers ; his area of specialization is school finance and the economics of education. This new paper is a major analysis of the effects of c
Education Law Prof Blog : What Betsy DeVos Does Not Know About Public Schools and Probably Assumes About Private Ones Yesterday, Alyson Klein, pointed out that Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education, would be the first person to head the department in its more than 35-year history who hasn't either attended public schools or sent her own children to them. . . . And DeVos, a school ch
CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA Won't Spur "Best Practices" : ESSA Won't Spur "Best Practices" Eric Kalenze, Director of Education Solutions at the Search Institute , is guest-blogging at Rick Hess's EdWeek spot this week. His interest leans towards questions of research and best practices and how any of those things ever hope to line up with actual classrooms. Today he's asking one particularly interesting
Michigan Commentators Fill in the Gaps about Michigan’s Betsy DeVos | janresseger : Michigan Commentators Fill in the Gaps about Michigan’s Betsy DeVos When someone like Betsy DeVos, who has been active for years in Michigan state politics emerges on the national stage, it is worth paying careful attention to what Michigan insiders have to say. DeVos is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State Charter School Updates : Washington State Charter School Updates With the Growth Boundaries, 20-Minutes added to the school day, changes to the Student Assignment Plan, Cedar Park, etc, I have found nary the time to write about charter schools in Washington State. But finally, here it is. Washington State Charter School Commission Today, the Commi
'We need to get moving': LAUSD's King urges school board to approve retooled 3-year plan | 89.3 KPCC : 'We need to get moving': LAUSD's King urges school board to approve retooled 3-year plan After months of back-and-forth, Los Angeles Unified school board members finally appear poised to sign off on superintendent Michelle King's strategic plan, a crucial visioning document school district leade
Interview with Betsy DeVos, the Reformer | Excellence in Philanthropy | The Philanthropy Roundtable : Interview with Betsy DeVos, the Reformer For years now, she has been at the forefront of the educational-reform movement . Interview from Spring 2013 issue of Philanthropy magazine Betsy DeVos is a reformer. At Calvin College, the young Elisabeth Prince undertook her vocation, becoming involved w
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/6/16 Featured Post Another Education Blog Sells Out - Big Education Ape for Sale! It’s time to restructure the US Department of Education | Seattle Education by mike simpson / 5min It’s
"This is the best thing my union has ever done for me"
One of our core values is ensuring that every student has a caring, committed, qualified teacher. That means educators must have the resources and support to be the very best they can be.
National Board Certification, a voluntary, advanced teaching credential, is an important path to the high-quality experience that students deserve and the professional development teachers need.
In 1987, NEA was one of the founding organizations of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). We continue to be a strong supporter of certification for several reasons, not least of which is the growing body of research linking National Board Certification with improved student achievement.
The certification process is rigorous, but teachers who take on the challenge say it is a powerful experience that energizes them and makes them better at what they do.
NEA affiliates across the country are actively promoting National Board Certification. Many have pushed for and won legislation to pay fees and provide salary stipends to board-certified teachers, while others have bargained contract provisions for release time, fee payment, mentoring/assistance and salary recognition for candidates.
Our affiliates also are providing workshops for candidates, such as the “Jump Start” program, designed to demystify the certification process, delve into the standards and help our members understand the requirements for certification.
Jump Start originated in the state of Washington and it continues to be an important Association-led support for teachers pursuing National Board Certification. To learn more about it, take a look at this guest blog post from Tom White, a National Board Certified teacher:
“This is the best thing my union has ever done for me!”
Hearing that, you might guess a teacher just received a 10% raise, or perhaps a second planning period. What you’d never guess is that this teacher just finished a grueling four-day training, during the summer, in a high school classroom with no air conditioning.
BREAKING NEWS – Having lied about her education background – Linda McMahon is now a Trump appointee
President-Elect Donald Trump has announced that World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon will head the Small Business Administration. McMahon is well known in Connecticut, including her record of lying about her educational background.
Recalling the “English, ah… no French, yeah… French” Episode.
As a strong supporter of public education, and having served on the General Assembly’s Education Committee, I found it particularly offensive when Governor Jodi Rell announced that she was appointing Linda McMahon to the Connecticut State Board of Education in January 2009.
After conducting some research, I wrote a memo to the Democratic members of the Legislature’s Nominations Committee outlining a number of factors that I believed made the case for rejecting her nomination and keeping McMahon off the State Board.
As a later Freedom of Information request by the Stamford Advocate’s Brian Lockhart revealed, when a member of the committee told Rell’s office that she had heard from a constituent who was “concerned about whether Mrs. McMahon would be an appropriate role model,” Rell’s staff, McMahon’s lobbyists and the WWE’s vice president of global public affairs kicked into high gear. In one memo they
Charters, Blackwater, justifying cruelty to children: Future schools in Trumpland
How can you be in charge of a Newark charter school and mess up a venerable name like Paul Robeson? Was “Miss” Gray’s shadow-self acting out and halfway, in her mind, to Robberson? Now that’s a Freudian name-drop.
I found this letter’s closing to be particularly twisted. Like this:
From the charter school handbook?
The “beatings” usually occur on many different levels – in public life – and begin with a simple loss of face, before escalating from there. Same with the coopting (or destruction) of basic family relationships and responsibilities.
What you encounter depends on where you go to look. Serious, serious, stuff.
But wait – why are some readers so quick to provide cover for the reputation of ALL charter schools? (See comments from Jody Pittman and Eric Dawson).
Just like … what’s-her-name? Eva. Eva “Success Academy” Moskowitz (founder of a charter school chain in New York) – gotta love the name, Eva – reminds me of another Braun (hope you don’t mind, Bob), a star-struck young woman who, upon suddenly finding favor within THE leader-cult of her day, was soon vexed – in the extreme – by what later became a troubled and fatally conflicted relationship. (Moskowitz, touted early as education secretary under Donald Trump, lost out to Charters, Blackwater, justifying cruelty to children: Future schools in Trumpland |:
Hillary has her picture on milk cartons since she went missing after election day. SNL even picked up on it. Seems like the entire old-guard leadership must be out in the Chappaqua woods with her, especially when it comes to resisting the Trump juggernaut.
Most notably, at least from this educator's perspective, is their deafening silence around Trump's nomination of Betsy ("Make America Christian Again") DeVos for Ed Secretary. While NEA and AFT leaders, Eskelsen-Garcia and Weingarten, have been outspoken in the opposition to DeVos, they have been left dangling in the wind by the very Clinton wing of the party they risked their reputations for with their premature endorsements of Hillary.
As you might expect, this rift is reflective of much broader post-election inner-party conflicts over who will lead the Dems forward towards the mid-term congressional elections. Of note is Weingarten's defense ofKeith Ellison who represents the Sanders/Warren progressives against the Podesta old-guard faction, for party chairman. That seems like a big shift to me. But time will tell.
Precarious labor is shifting the landscape of the working world, with an increasing number of unstable (often part-time) jobs, low pay and exploitative working conditions. At a daylong Washington, D.C., conference on Dec. 5, labor leaders, policy experts and academics—including contingent academics—examined who makes up the contingent labor force, and how advocates can think beyond the standard employment paradigm to help those who stand outside of it, ensuring that all workers have fair working conditions. The conference was organized by the Albert Shanker Institute and co-sponsored by the AFT.
In her keynote remarks, AFT President Randi Weingarten addressed the post-election landscape. She urged the progressive audience not to despair but instead to engage people, build trust and send a message of hope and aspiration. Economic anxiety, widely considered to be a driving force for Trump voters, is important to address, she said, but so is putting a stop to the racial bigotry, misogyny and other biases that rose during the campaign. "This is not an either-or situation," said Weingarten. "It's a both-and."
Regarding precarious labor and the election, she said: "The issue of precarious labor cuts right through the Rust Belt," referring to a swath of disenfranchised America that voted for Trump.
Adjunct faculty in the University Council-AFT, University of California-Santa Barbara demonstrate against the precarious nature of their work during National Adjunct Action Week in 2015.
Historically, that area was thick with well-paying industrial jobs and unionized workers, but since industry has declined, the paradigm has changed. So, too, has academic labor: 40 years ago, 70 percent of academic employees were tenured or on the tenure track, Weingarten said. Today that figure is flipped: 70 percent are nontenure track, and many are in more tenuous positions with low salaries and no employer benefits. Of the AFT's 230,000 higher ed members, 80,000 are contingent and 25,000 are graduate employees—whom, Weingarten noted, the AFT will continue to organize despite anticipated changes in the National Labor Relations Board and a possible shift in policy regarding graduate workers' union rights.
Contingent faculty numbers have risen in part because, as states disinvest in higher education, universities find the paths of least resistance to make up the difference. Cutting costs by hiring cheap, temporary labor is one way they do that. But the "human cost" is high, said Weingarten, who described the economic anxiety of cobbling together five or six different teaching assignments to make ends meet; the demeaning of a professor who has no office and must meet students in coffee shops; the havoc unpredictable schedules can wreak on family life; the stress of being "one illness away from bankruptcy because you have no health insurance"; and the fear of "being fired for any reason, or no reason at all," because there are no contracts or guarantees that come with contingent labor.
They're the highest-educated low-wage workers in America, said Hamilton Nolan, who wrote a series on adjunct faculty for gawker.com. Low pay—between $1,500 and $3,000 per class—is the biggest problem, he said. Adjuncts frequently work second and third jobs babysitting, bartending or performing other low-wage work. One said he made better money when he was 14 years old and worked at Quiznos. They get little recognition—another said he felt like a ghost with a plastic mailbox in the department's main office. And they have no benefits, which means one woman was teaching just a week after her baby was born.
Add to these poor working conditions an unsupportive political environment and the picture is grim. The challenge is to come up with labor advocacy that addresses the problem and is also effective in a new work world. Weingarten admitted that some of the union's organizing structures, conceived decades ago, don't work well for precarious labor. "We need to try and find a different way," she said.
"The question becomes what do you organize around? What is the glue that binds people?" asked Weingarten. Organizing contingent faculty across institutions is one possible solution; the United Academics of Philadelphia, which represents faculty from several institutions in Philly, is leading the way in that regard. The Freelancers Union, which the AFT supports, is another example that is not centralized around a particular employer. The Fight for 15 campaign has been innovative in organizing low-wage workers across job categories.
For contingent faculty, organizing with students is crucial. "We have seen a tremendous alliance between students and labor," said Angus Johnston, an adjunct professor at Hostos Community College, City University of New York, a student activism scholar and a member of the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY's AFT affiliate. Students' support helped win better pay and working conditions for dining hall workers at Harvard, for example; they were allies in the lockout at Long Island University and with CUNY faculty. Full-time, tenure-track faculty are also crucial allies for their contingent colleagues. "It's critical that teachers who do have leverage help those who do not," said Nolan.
Engaging workers who have irregular schedules and low incomes brings unique challenges, but creativity helps: Elly Kugler, director of policy, National Domestic Workers Alliance, said her organizers reach nannies in the parks of wealthy neighborhoods, and other workers at check-cashing outlets or on Facebook. NDWA keeps them involved with "whole person politics," embedding issues important to their members, such as immigration status and racial justice, into campaigns. Kugler was just one of several representatives from other cohorts, including construction workers, immigrant workers and fast food workers, who shared new approaches and ideas for organizing workers.
If unions are going to remain relevant, said Guy Standing, a professorial research associate at SOAS University of London, they'll have to be just as innovative. Young, educated members of the "proletariat" are casting about for a champion, and they are not finding it in political parties or in the unions, said Standing, who wrote The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class and several other books on new labor arrangements. "The unions must be transformed if we are to have a new form of progressive politics."
He started Monday in the position once held by Joni Hoffman, a longtime employee of the department who was part of last year's data-rigging controversy involving online schools.
Hoffman and Frank Stoy, another key official in the charter school office, are retiring.
Whether Holliman will just promote charter schools, as he has in previous jobs, or will force Ohio charters to have better quality is unclear. He did not return a call to the OAPCS office and biographical information provided by the state and by that organization does not show any previous enforcement work.
But that non-profit organization that was once the leading voice for charter schools in the state has lost members and officially announced this week that it will shut down at the end of the year.
"You don't hire an industry insider to be a tough new sheriff for the industry they were just advocating for," said former state representative Steve Dyer, a frequent critic of charter schools. "It's certainly an image problem."
Chad Aldis of the Fordham Institute, an organization that promotes charter schools but also quality standards for them, understood that concern, but was less worried. Hirings of officials from traditional public schools happen all the time, he noted, without raising alarms of favoritism for those schools.
"At the end of the day, the department will be judged on how they oversee the charter sector, regardless of who's in that seat," Aldis said.
The holiday season traditionally marks the start of a time to celebrate the family and friends who make our lives so rich. For many, it means it’s time to start hanging holiday decorations, write lists for Christmas shopping, and make plans to visit with loved ones both near and far. For our teachers, it means that their already very limited funds have to stretch even further to make the season bright for their children and families.
Imagine that you are a parent of two and you’ve just received your monthly paycheck. After you pay your bills to keep your family housed and fed, you have $268.78 left, or just under $3 per person per day until your next paycheck. What will you do if you get a flat tire? What if you have to cover the co-pay on an emergency room visit? While you’re figuring that out, do you know which bills you can pay late without interruption of service or penalty fees? How much credit is available on your MasterCard?
Oklahoma teachers navigate difficult questions like these every day. And while they’re worrying about making ends meet, your child’s teachers are also creating lesson plans, grading essays, scoring tests, reviewing performance data, tutoring students after school, and meeting with parents to discuss questions or concerns. They’re spending their own money on classroom supplies to enrich your child’s learning. It’s also likely that they have to get it all done with enough time left to get over to job No. 2 by the start of shift. I know teachers who keep grueling schedules like these — and have done so for years with no end in sight.
Nobody enters the teaching profession because they want to get rich. They do it for love of the work: for that “lightbulb” moment when a child just gets it, for the boundless opportunities Badass Teachers Association:
Christopher Tienken (Seton Hall) has solved a mystery.
Along with Anthony Colella (Seton Hall), Christian Angelillo (Boonton Township SD), Meredith Fox (Nanuet Union SD), Kevin McCahill (George W. Miller Elementary) and Adam Wolfe (Peoria Unified SD), Tienken has once again answered the question-- what do the Big Standardized Tests actually measure?
Put another way, Tienken et. al. have demonstrated that we do not need to actually give the Big Standardized Test in order to generate the "student achievement" data, because we can generate the same data by looking at demographic information all by itself.
Tienken and his team used just three pieces of demographic data--
1) percentage of families in the community with income over $200K 2) percentage of people in the community in poverty 3) percentage of people in community with bachelor's degrees
Using that data alone, Tienken was able to predict school district test results accurately in most cases. In New Jersey 300 or so middle schools, the team could predict middle school math and language arts test scores for well over two thirds of the schools.
I suppose some folks could see this as good news ("Cancel the PARCC test and don't pay them a cent! We can just fudge our test results by plugging in demographic data!") but I'd characterize it more as frightening, given that ESSA continues to demand that teachers and administrators and schools be CURMUDGUCATION: What Do The Tests Measure?:
I received this interesting letter about the Two Tour pledge from a Cloaking Inequity reader.
The Two Tour Pledge
Now that the presidential election is over and a new secretary of education has been named, it appears that school segregation will only continue down its ugly path – unless…
Unless we CHOOSE otherwise. Unless we parents make a different kind of commitment for our children. Unless we come to grips with the reality that the schools we choose for our children actually build the world they will live in as adults.
And since many of us are in the midst of deciding where our kids will attend school next Autumn, here is one tiny thing we can do.
Take the TWO TOUR Pledge!
The pledge reads:
As a Parent-with-Choice in support of the fundamental premise that all children have the right to a quality education, and with the belief that in choosing a school for my child I am also building the world they will live in as an adult,
I pledge to tour 2 schools that serve a majority of students from different racial/socioeconomic backgrounds than my family. I will tour these two schools regardless of their test scores, reputation or any “bad/scary” stories I have heard about them. I will tour these two schools with an open mind and heart.
I will find at least 2 positive things to say about each.
I will tell 2 parent-friends about those tours & the nice things I found.
I will encourage 2 parent-friends to also take this pledge.
Furthermore, I pledge to ask 2 questions (or more!) about socioeconomic, racial/ethnic and linguistic diversity at all the schools I tour/consider for my child (and register your pledge at IntegratedSchools).
That’s it. The pledge isn’t asking you to enroll your children at either of these schools, or zealously recruit your friends to enroll their kids there. It’s simply inviting you to check out two schools that you weren’t considering – schools that might have a reputation that caused you to dismiss them as not the “right fit” for your family – and ask yourself if you could envision your child there. Ask yourself if maybe this school could be good.
As for that last item… when you are touring the schools that were already on the top of your list, the schools with the robotics labs and the PTA sponsored Musical Theatre club, and all the fancy programs that affluent-segregated schools provide… ask them two questions about the socioeconomic AND racial-ethnic diversity at that school. (Here is a sample of some questions to ask and here is a resource if the school doesn’t give tours)
How does this help build a more unified future for our country?
Our public schools are more segregated than ever before and unless we make conscious and deliberate decisions, our children will most likely attend school with kids just like them. While that might feel “safe” and comfortable now, the world that prepares them for is a continuation of the polarization that our country is currently experiencing.
There are piles of research showing that middle class kids are not academically harmed by attending a high-free/reduced-lunch school, and the benefits for kids of all backgrounds being educated together are transformational for kid and country, now and in the future. All children win when all children are together.
Read the research, hear the stories (we have compiled some resources here). Integration doesn’t have to be sacrifice.
Because YOU – not any school – are the most influential thing in your child’s life, because you are not only choosing the school that will help your kid become a successful, empathetic and well-adjusted adult, you are building the world they will live in.
Privatize, Monetize, Weaponize: How the DeVos family devoured Michigan’s schools
NOTE: This post is a companion piece to this week’s episode of The Sit and Spin Room podcast. Click HERE or scroll to the bottom of the post to listen to the podcast or find it wherever you get your podcasts by searching for “Sit and Spin Room” on iTunes, Stitcher, etc.
The news that President-elect Donald Trump had nominated Michigan billionaire and school choice advocate Betsy DeVos as our next Secretary of Education seemed to take the educational establishment by surprise. But public school teachers and supporters in Michigan weren’t surprised at all. They saw Ms. DeVos’ ascendancy to this lofty position as the final piece in an elaborately constructed jig saw puzzle that the DeVos family has been patiently working on, at their opulent vacation homes and on their luxury yacht, for the last couple of decades. And now that the final piece has been added, we will all soon see the “big picture” of the DeVos’ vision for the future of American education: Privatize, Monetize, Weaponize.
As Michiganders know, Betsy and Dick DeVos are religious and school privatization/choice/voucher zealots. They were humiliated by the twin failures of voucher legislation in 2000 and Dick’s loss in the Michigan governor’s race to Jennifer Granholm in 2006, and these dual humiliations resulted in the development of the DeVos’ “long-game” strategy to achieve their goals of privatizing public education:
destroy the Democrats biggest single source of financial support by gutting teacher unions via Right to Work legislation
capitalize on the elimination of the charter school “cap” to explode the number of non-regulated and for-profit charter schools in the state
use charter schools as the mechanism to “blur the lines” between public and private/religious schools
use this “blurring” of boundaries between church and state to build public support for the redistribution of public funds to religious and private schools
Based on what we know about her beliefs regarding education, Ms. DeVos’ ultimate goal, as I wrote about in a recent Eclectablog post, appears to be:
a two-tiered educational system:
One, a system of elite private and religious schools for well-to-do, mostly White parents with the means to afford expensive tuition payments, staffed by qualified, certified teachers, with a rich curriculum based on face-to-face instruction in clean, safe, well-maintained schools…
The other, a parallel system of “fly by night” virtual and online “schools” that open and close seemingly at random, and for-profit charters operated by scam artists like Northern Michigan’s Dr. Steve Ingersoll, with little to no state or federal regulation or oversight, and a bare bones, “back to the basics” curriculum delivered by unqualified and uncertified “teachers”.
Did the Shift from Paper to Computer Bring Down East Asia’s (China’s) PISA Performance?
I was surprised by China’s 2015 PISA performance, particularly in reading. I was confident that even the expansion beyond Shanghai would not cause a significant decline based on my understanding of the Chinese education system. And Beijing, Jiangsu, and Guangdong are traditionally strong performers in China, and among the most developed provinces, although behind Shanghai.
While I don’t believe PISA scores mean anything beyond the ability to perform on PISA tests, I wanted to see if I needed to change my thinking. Perhaps Chinese students are not as good at taking tests as I had thought? Perhaps students in Shanghai are drastically different from the rest of China? Perhaps China’s education system is changing very fast that they have truly moved away from test preparation? I am willing to consider any possibilities in the face of evidence.
I found a news article from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), whose reading performance has declined significantly as well, although not as much as China (Shanghai to BSJG). Chinese Taipei’s reading ranking dropped from #8 in 2012 to #23 in 2015. According to the report from Chinese Taipei’s Central News Agency, a high-level official of its Ministry of Education attributed the decline to students’ unfamiliarity with reading on a computer. Because PISA changed from paper-based to computer-based tests. Although students in Taiwan may use smart devices for other purposes, they are not used to reading large amount of text, diagrams, and graphics on a computer screen. The official said in addition to improve reading in general, Taiwan would increase computers to support reading and adding computer-based tests to important exams in the future.
Seems a reasonable hypothesis. PISA shifted from paper-based tests to computer-based tests from 2012 to 2015 for most participants.
So I dug a little bit deeper. First I verified that indeed all students in China (BSJG) took the PISA on computers (looks like Windows-based laptops), which are very different from what most young students are using today (hand held devices), if they had access to digital devices. Second, I confirmed that the percentages of students categorized as rural are much higher in Beijing, Jiangsu, and Guangdong than Shanghai. That rural students have less access to technology is a safe assumption. So these students would be less familiar with computers. Finally, it is also common in China that many parents and teachers do not Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Did the Shift from Paper to Computer Bring Down East Asia’s (China’s) PISA Performance?:
Adjunct faculty in the University Council-AFT, University of California-Santa Barbara demonstrate against the precarious nature of their work during National Adjunct Action Week in 2015.
