Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: NC: New Depths of Shame + Do Poor Students Get the Worst Teachers?

CURMUDGUCATION:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: NC: New Depths of Shame +  Do Poor Students Get the Worst Teachers?

NC: New Depths of Shame

18by Peter Greene / 1h

Once upon a time, North Carolina was a forward-thinking state that took good care of its citizens. But they have spent the last few years hell-bent on turning it into a backward bottom-feeder. Now, in an attempt to win the prize for Worst Legislature in America (sorry Florida and Ohio), the North Carolina has decided to go full-on racist banana republic. We'll get to this latest round of idiocy in

YESTERDAY

Do Poor Students Get the Worst Teachers?

73by Peter Greene / 19h

This has been open to debate forever, but the debate has gotten more spirited ever since the Obama administration made it a matter of policy that poverty just doesn't matter if you have an awesome teacher in the room. There are three real answers to this question. Let's consider each one. No, They Don't A recently-released report from the Institute of Education Sciences (part of the USED) has been

DEC 15

School Choice Won't Save Education

30by Peter Greene / 1d

This piece popped up on my twitter feed this week. It's a hard-core pro-choice argument from David S. D'amato , an attorney as well as a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute who also does some work at Cato now and then-- so seriously Libertarian. Is it extra-ironic that few useful Libertarian images, including the Heartland logo, are public domain? Here's a puppy instead His piece is pretty

David Coleman Messes Up Again

100+by Peter Greene / 1d

I have spent entirely much time over the past few years reading about David Coleman, the magical and super-powered wizard who manufactured the Common Core and convinced Bill Gates to become the Core's greatest patron. Coleman needed to set the Core up with a foster parent because as soon as the little tyke's wings had begun to spread, Coleman was out the door to his next gig-- a well-paying gig ru

OH: Turn Schools Over To Businessmen

71by Peter Greene / 2d

Back in September, Ohio's Governor (and lonely failed Presidential candidate) John Kasich decided to unravel a puzzle-- the mismatch between Ohio's open jobs and unemployed workers. One might think that a possible answer might be that the hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers whose jobs have been outsourced or robo-sourced do not match up with the new jobs available in the state. But Kasich

DEC 14

John King and the Devils

10by Peter Greene / 2d

King was at the Center for American Progress today (a place that has to be a little grey these days, given their history of providing interim employment for all those folks who were supposed to be going to work in the Clinton administration) to issue a clarion call for a better educational future (For The Chidren, of course). But as always, the devil is in details, and there is a mighty swarm of d

Checker Finn Admits Defeat

57by Peter Greene / 2d

Has a prominent reformster given up. Not quite-- but the PISA and TIMSS results have given Chester Finn pause as well as a moment of perhaps inadvertent admission that twenty-five years of reforminess have been a failure. I can never quite get myself into the whole podcast thing, but a friend recommended I check out a recent episode of the Fordham Foundation's Gadfly podcast and it was... illumina

DEC 13

Love and Kindness

44by Peter Greene / 3d

This past weekend, my son got married. I took a personal day Friday to help decorate for the reception and the rehearsal dinner. Our wild and crazy bachelor party involved bowling (which we did not very well). Then on Saturday, my son and daughter-in-law were married on the stage of the same community theater in which they met almost a decade ago. Family members who couldn't be there because of he

DEC 12

An A-Plus Method of Liberating Money

10by Peter Greene / 4d

The Very Conservative Heritage Foundation has posted on Facebook a video with their six suggestions for the first 100 days of Betsy DeVos's attempt to drive the Department of Education into the privatization ditch (they might have phrased it a little differently). Support states as they work to exit Common Core. Call on Congress to pass the A-Plus Act returning power to the states. Reauthorize the

DEC 11

DeVos Speaks (Sort of)

34by Peter Greene / 5d

Poor Betsy DeVos. She has recently spent time on the Donald Trump "Thank You These rallies Are The Only Part I Liked About Running for President" Tour, complaining tha t the media is spreading "false news" about her. I suppose that she could address that by actually, you know, speaking to the press directly, but apparently she is spending time prepping for her confirmation hearing. Her appearance

Why Honor Diane Ravitch?

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

Tonight the Network for Public Education is throwing a shindig in New York to honor Diane Ravitch. In truth, it is also to help raise money for NPE, an organization for which Ravitch is a co-founder. If you are at all concerned about public education, you are familiar with Ravitch's name, and the general arc of her story that has provided a sort of third-act apostasy-fueled career for her as a pub

ICYMI: Baby, It's Cold Outside (12/11)

5by Peter Greene / 6d

Some readings from the week. Remember to share, pass on, and generally amplify what you read that you believe hits the spot. Is Ed-Tech Research Nearing Its Big Tobacco Moment From Gotesborg Universitet of all places, a 

CURMUDGUCATION:

Marie Corfield: School 'Choice' in Trumplandia

Marie Corfield: School 'Choice' in Trumplandia:

School 'Choice' in Trumplandia

via GIPHY

Like so many other 'reformers', DeVos will dangle the carrots of 'choice' and vouchers in front of urban parents, and public education as we know it will end—at least in the inner cities where parents have little say. She's already wreaked havoc in Detroit, a city that doesn't need one more ounce of despair. Valerie Strauss writes,

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.
... 

This deeply dysfunctional educational landscape — where failure is rewarded with opportunities for expansion and “choice” means the opposite for tens of thousands of children — is no accident. It was created by an ideological lobby that has zealously championed free-market education reform for decades, with little regard for the outcome.  

And at the center of that lobby is Betsy DeVos, the west Michigan advocate whose family has contributed millions of dollars to the cause of school choice and unregulated charter expansion throughout Michigan.

'Choice' connotes available options, but for many trapped in 'reform land', there really are none.

When state governments deliberately underfundMarie Corfield: School 'Choice' in Trumplandia:

The Unbearable Lightness of Lying: Renaming What We Value, Fear | the becoming radical

The Unbearable Lightness of Lying: Renaming What We Value, Fear | the becoming radical:

The Unbearable Lightness of Lying: Renaming What We Value, Fear

“Who is more to be pitied,” muses artist and main character Rabo Karabekian in Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard, “a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?”

As in most of Vonnegut’s fiction, there is a tension of tone between the narration and the weight of the circumstances—a tug-of-war between light and dark, or better phrased Light and Dark.

Karabekian’s failed autobiography is an adventure in What is art? with the specters of Nazi Germany, fascism, and World War II as well as the rise and fall of the U.S.S.R. (the novel was published in 1987) lurking forever in the background.

“The history of writers working under tyranny or in exile is long, and each example involves its own particular cruelties,” writes Nathan Scott McNamara, adding:

From 1968 until 1989, Czech writers like Milan Kundera and Bohumil Hrabal were put in a particularly impossible position. They spoke and wrote in Czech, a language limited to a very small part of Central Europe—and a language that had fallen under the control of a sensitive and authoritarian government….

One of the major successes of the Soviet regime’s control of Czechoslovakia was the creation of a generalized fear, making the Czech people suspicious of each other. Kundera has been largely disavowed by his native land, and in 2008, he was dubiously accused of once working with the Communist Police. Toward the end of his life, Hrabal came to see himself as a coward. At the age of 82, he jumped from the fifth story window of a hospital and died.

In the very real world, Kundera and Hrabal represent what Vonnegut fictionalizes, but struggled against in some ways himself as a writer.

Also as McNamara recognizes, the terrors found in Vonnegut’s novel as well as Kundera and Hrabal’s lives and careers are not something of history:

The survival of the writer under an unpredictable government is no less a serious concern today….

Warning flares are going up in the United States, too, where our President-elect threatens his competitors, intimidates private citizens, and warns that he’ll alter libel laws so journalists can be “sued like they’ve never been sued before.” This past week brought us another painful parallel between the 2016 US Presidential Election and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia: the role of Russia. We don’t have tanks rolling through our streets, but a digital hack and a manipulated election nonetheless feel like a kind of 21st-century echo. It’s almost Hrabalesque in its absurdity. It’s almost darkly comic.

Yes, in some ways, Trumplandia feels too much like a black comedy penned by Vonnegut, even more absurd than the political theater and political-religious propaganda in Cat’s Cradle.

2016 in the U.S. has become not just reality TV as politics but a thin and distracting public debate about fake news and post-truth America—as Sarah Kendzior explains:

“Fake news” is a term that entered the vernacular following the election of Donald Trump. Allegedly coined to bemoan the terrible reporting that helped facilitate Mr. Trump’s rise, it actually serves to stabilize his rule. “Fake news” poses a false binary, blurring the distinction between political propaganda, intentional disinformation, attention-seeking click-bait, conspiracy theories, and sloppy reporting.

When the United States elects a man who peddles falsehoods, obfuscates critical information about The Unbearable Lightness of Lying: Renaming What We Value, Fear | the becoming radical:

A teacher makes eight education predictions for 2017 — some of them dire - The Washington Post

A teacher makes eight education predictions for 2017 — some of them dire - The Washington Post:

A teacher makes eight education predictions for 2017 — some of them dire

Ever year veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo makes an annual list of education predictions — and here are eight for 2017. Ferlazzo teaches English and Social Studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California.  He has written eight books on education, writes a teacher advice blog for Education Week Teacher and has his own popular resource-sharing blog.

Read the 2016 predictions and you can see what he got right and what he got wrong. Wrong, for example, was his prediction that Hillary Clinton would win the presidential election, though he was hardly the only way to do so. He also predicted that unions would be dodge a bullet in the form of a Supreme Court case that was attempting to eviscerate them — and that’s what happened.

By Larry Ferlazzo

I have usually approached each new year, and each annual list of education predictions, with an over-riding sense of optimism and hope. Not this year.

Though I strive, and am usually successful, in bringing a positive and upbeat attitude to the classroom each day (it’s really not very hard to do with the students I get to teach), I don’t think I can bring the same mood to many of my education policy predictions for 2017 (though they do contain some bright spots!).

Let me know if you think I’m being overly pessimistic!

* Donald Trump and his new secretary of education, Betsy DeVos,  will attempt to replicate her disastrous efforts in Detroit throughout the United States.  They will ram through a $20 billion voucher program through Congress that will allow states to apply for funds to let parents use them for private or religious schools, and promote charter schools with no attention to their quality, as DeVos did in Michigan. Much of that money will be taken from the Title 1 program, designated to support low-income students and their schools.  Some states, like California, will refuse to seek the voucher funds, but others — such as Nevada and Indiana — will pursue it and, and as a result, further weaken their public schools that will–already be devastated by the A teacher makes eight education predictions for 2017 — some of them dire - The Washington Post:

FL Speaker’s rant against voucher lawsuit linked to national”Reform” endgame: Get parents to opt out of Public Ed, take a low-$ tax-funded debit card & pay the difference | The Edvocate Blog

FL Speaker’s rant against voucher lawsuit linked to national”Reform” endgame: Get parents to opt out of Public Ed, take a low-$ tax-funded debit card &; pay the difference | The Edvocate Blog:

FL Speaker’s rant against voucher lawsuit linked to national”Reform” endgame: Get parents to opt out of Public Ed, take a low-$ tax-funded debit card & pay the difference

By now, many know that Florida Speaker Richard Corcoran bitterly lectured newly installed house members regarding his contempt for the teachers union, calling it “downright evil.” Corcoran spent inordinate time focused on a lawsuit filed by the Florida Educators Association challenging the state’s private school voucher program. It was a miserable spectacle watching Corcoran call public school teachers “crazy,” “disgusting” and “repugnant,” just because he dislikes a two year old suit.

Why is Speaker Corcoran so angry about this lawsuit?

For starters, if the court rules in FEA’s favor, striking down Florida’s voucher program, it will be very difficult for reformers in this state to convert the current corporate tax credit scheme to the much broader next generation Choice 2.0 Education Savings Accounts (ESA). The problem is that BOTH programs rely on diverting potential tax revenues to a third party, allowing reformers to claim that the money never “technically” belonged to the state.

Currently, Florida’s voucher program allows corporations to divert their taxes to Step Up for Students, the state’s largest designated Scholarship Funding Organization (SFO). The resulting vouchers are then used primarily for private religious schools that do not have to meet any of the standards imposed by the state on public schools. Since its inception in 2001, lawmakers have expanded Florida’s voucher program so that $2.7 billion dollars once destined for state general revenue that should have funded a wide range of needs has been diverted to private schools. Keep in mind that Step Up for Students has been paid at least 3% of the gross or $81 million dollars over the years as a “fee.”

Education “reform” is all about chaos and disruption. Because it’s hard to tear down a cornerstone asset like public education, reformers rely on issuing a series of unfounded “studies” in the hopes that the press and politicians will quote their theoretical “findings” as fact. That strategy, called “moving the Overton window,” manipulates public perception with the goal of normalizing radical policy ideas like annually transferring $800 billion public tax dollars into privatizing public schools.

One such study by Matthew Ladner, is entitled The Way of the Future: Education Savings Accounts for Every American Family. Ladner works for Jeb’s FL Speaker’s rant against voucher lawsuit linked to national”Reform” endgame: Get parents to opt out of Public Ed, take a low-$ tax-funded debit card & pay the difference | The Edvocate Blog:

North Carolina’s assault on public education just got worse - The Washington Post

North Carolina’s assault on public education just got worse - The Washington Post:

North Carolina’s assault on public education just got worse

“I am no fan of hyperbole, but I mean it when I say this: North Carolina is waging war against public education.”

That was written in August 2015 by James Hogan, a former teacher who is now a writer and a fundraiser at Davidson College and a board member of the public education advocacy group Our Schools First. He was referring to more than five years of policies set by conservative Republican lawmakers who, among other things, slashed education spending, promoted charter schools and school vouchers without ensuring sufficient accountability and oversight, and eliminated due-process rights for many teachers.

And now, what public education advocates see as a broad assault on public schools just got blatantly worse.

Republican legislators in North Carolina, who apparently couldn’t accept the GOP defeat in November’s gubernatorial election, just passed a series of bills to weaken the incoming Democratic governor’s power — and one of them affects public education. GOP lawmakers said the moves were simply a needed realignment of power. Opponents equated it to a legislative coup.

[Amid outcry, N.C. GOP passes law to curb Democratic governor’s power]

One of the bills transfers a great deal of power from the State Board of Education — whose members are mostly selected by the governor — to the state superintendent of public instruction, an elected official. The new state superintendent will be Republican Mark Johnson, who defeated the Democratic incumbent, June Atkinson, in November.

The legislation has been sent to outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory — who narrowly lost reelection to Democrat Roy Cooper — and he has already signed one of the newly passed bills that would effectively give Republicans control of the state Board of Elections during election years.

A report issued a year ago by  N.C. Policy Watch, a division of the progressive North Carolina Justice Center, explains the effects of conservative policies that began to be implemented by North Carolina’s assault on public education just got worse - The Washington Post:

The NPE Toolkit: Stop Betsy DeVos - Network For Public Education

The NPE Toolkit: Stop Betsy DeVos - Network For Public Education:

The NPE Toolkit: Stop Betsy DeVos

The more we learn, the more we are certain that Betsy DeVos is bad for public schools and for kids.

When De Vos has to choose between quality schools and “the free market,” she chooses “the free market” of privatized choice every time. The best interests of children take a back seat.

And we know the DeVos endgame–shut down our neighborhood public schools, and replace them with a patchwork of charters, private schools and online learning.

We can’t let that happen and we need your help. Present and future generations of children are depending on us to act now.  We now know that some Senators have grave doubts. It is our job to make those doubts grow into active resistance to DeVos. Our senators are in district offices from 12/17 – 1/2.

Here are our three toolkits to help you do your part.

Toolkit 1. Call your senators’ offices. The toolkit with numbers and a phone script can be found here. It includes a link to phone numbers.

Toolkit 2. Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. You can find a model here.

Toolkit 3. Visit your senators’ offices. If you cannot get an appointment, hand deliver a letter. Our toolkit, which you can find here has a model to use, and directions to find local offices. If you cannot hand deliver it, send your letter in the mail.

When you go into the toolkits and commit to an action, we have a simple form that let’s us know what you did. As a thank you, you will receive a special badge for your Facebook page or Twitter account each time you complete an action, and you will be entered into our drawing for a copy of Reign of Error signed by Diane Ravitch.

The drawing will be held on January 5th, so please begin your actions today. Share this link on your Facebook page and Twitter account, or email it to a friend.

We thank you for all that you do. Sadly, our nation’s children need you to do more.The NPE Toolkit: Stop Betsy DeVos - Network For Public Education:

The NPE Toolkit: Stop Betsy DeVos

The more we learn, the more we are certain that Betsy DeVos is bad for public schools and for kids. Join Phase 1 of our campaign to say “no” for DeVos.

Call your senator: Vote “no” for DeVos

Call your senator and enter our drawing to win a signed copy of Reign of Error. We supply a the call scripts to make it easy.

Send a letter to the editor: Vote “no” for DeVos

Send a letter to the editor of your local paper and enter our drawing to win a signed copy of Reign of Error. We supply a model letter to make it easy.

Visit your senator: Vote “no” for DeVos

Schedule a visit, or, drop by and hand deliver a letter. We supply a model letter to make it easy.

SBE Agenda for January 2017 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

SBE Agenda for January 2017 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

SBE Agenda for January 2017

Agenda for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting on January 11-12, 2017.

Big Education Ape: Federal Denial of Science Testing Waiver Request - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/12/federal-denial-of-science-testing.html

State Board Members

• Michael W. Kirst, President
• Ilene W. Straus, Vice President
• Sue Burr
• Bruce Holaday
• Feliza I. Ortiz-Licon
• Patricia A. Rucker
• Niki Sandoval
• Ting L. Sun
• Trish Williams
• Olivia Sison, Student Member
• Vacancy

Secretary & Executive Officer

• Hon. Tom Torlakson

Executive Director

• Karen Stapf Walters

Schedule of Meeting	Location
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time ± STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION  The Closed Session will take place at approximately 8:30 a.m. (The Public may not attend.)	California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101  Sacramento, California 95814  916-319-0827

Please see the detailed agenda for more information about the items to be considered and acted upon. The public is welcome.

Schedule of Meeting	Location
Thursday, January 12, 2017  8:30 a.m. Pacific Time ± STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION  Public Session.Public Session, adjourn to Closed Session – IF NECESSARY.	California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101  Sacramento, California 95814  916-319-0827

The Closed Session (1) may commence earlier than 8:30 a.m.; (2) may begin at 8:30 a.m., be recessed, and then be reconvened later in the day; or (3) may commence later than 8:30 a.m.

CLOSED SESSION AGENDA

Conference with Legal Counsel – Existing Litigation: Under Government Code sections 11126(e)(1) and (e)(2)(A), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that some or all of the pending litigation follows will be considered and acted upon in closed session:

• California School Boards Association, et al. v. California State Board of Education and Aspire Public Schools, Inc., Alameda County Superior Court, Case No. 07353566, CA Ct. of Appeal, 1st Dist., Case No. A122485, CA Supreme Court, Case No. S186129
• Cruz et al. v. State of California, State Board of Education, State Department of Education, Tom Torlakson et al., Alameda County Superior Court, Case No. RG14727139
• D.J. et al. v. State of California, California Department of Education, Tom Torlakson, the State Board of Education, Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. BS142775,CA Ct. of Appeal, 2nd Dist., Case No. B260075 and related complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice
• Emma C., et al. v. Delaine Eastin, et al., USDC (No.Dist.CA), Case No. C-96-4179
• Options for Youth, Burbank, Inc., San Gabriel, Inc. Upland, Inc. and Victor Valley, Notice of Appeal Before the Education Audit Appeals Panel, EAAP Case Nos. 06-18, 06-19- 07-07, 07-08 OAH Nos. L2006100966, L2006110025, L20070706022, L2007060728, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC 347454
• Peoples v. State of California, State Board of Education, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC618619
• Reed v. State of California, Los Angeles Unified School District, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, California Department of Education, and State Board of Education, et al., Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC432420, CA Ct. of Appeal, 2nd Dist., Case No. B230817, CA Supreme Ct., Case No. 5191256
• Torrey-Love v. State of California, the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, Department of Public Health, Dr. Karen Smith, Director of the Department of Public Health, Governor Edmund G. Brown, United States District Court, Central District of California, Eastern Division, Case No. 5:16-cv-02410-DMG-DTB
• Vergara et al. v. State of California, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Tom Torlakson, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC484642, CA Ct. of Appeal 2nd Dist., Case No. B253282, B253310

ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND ARE PROVIDED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLY

ALL ITEMS MAY BE HEARD IN A DIFFERENT ORDER THAN HOW THEY ARE LISTED ON THE AGENDA ON ANY DAY OF THE NOTICED MEETING

THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE

Time is set aside for individuals desiring to speak on any topic not otherwise on the agenda. Please see the detailed agenda for the Public Session. In all cases, the presiding officer reserves the right to impose time limits on presentations as may be necessary to ensure that the agenda is completed.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability or any other individual who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the California State Board of Education (SBE), may request assistance by contacting the SBE office at 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA 95814; by telephone at 916-319-0827; or by facsimile at 916-319-0175.

CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

FULL BOARD AGENDA 
Public Session, Day 1

Wednesday, January 11, 20178:30 a.m. Pacific Time ±

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814

• Call to Order
• Salute to the Flag
• Communications
• Announcements
• Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Special Presentations
  Public notice is hereby given that special presentations for informational purposes may take place during this session.
• Agenda Items
• Adjournment

AGENDA ITEMS DAY 1SBE Agenda for January 2017 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):