Florida Education Reform: “It’s a Trap” | radical eyes for equity

Florida Education Reform: “It’s a Trap” | radical eyes for equity:

Florida Education Reform: “It’s a Trap”

In his stand-up comedy days, Steve Martin had a routine about a TV evangelist. This character had, he believed, stumbled across the perfect TV evangelist sale: He announced that he had spoken to God and God had assured him he was the only person God was speaking to—so viewers should not listen to any other TV evangelist who claimed to know the word of God.

Yes, this was a stinging satire of religion, but at its core, Martin is unmasking the scam grounded in claims too good to be true—the “miracle” claim.

Writing in support of South Carolina’s Read to Succeed legislation, Oran P. Smith makes this claim:

Read to Succeed was indeed a success in Florida. Since the year before the retention policy came into effect, the percentage of Florida students scoring low enough to qualify for retention has fallen by 40 percent. More Florida children are learning how to read during the developmentally critical period. The students at the bottom proved the biggest winners from Florida’s no-nonsense reforms.

Setting aside that the Florida policy is actually Just Read, Florida! (Read to Succeed is SC’s version), reading policies based on standards, high-stakes testing, and grade retention (very much a Florida model) are a subset of the Florida “miracle” scam driven by Jeb Bush—a set of policies grounded in rhetoric and ideology but regularly refuted by careful analysis.

Between leaving office as governor of Florida and running for president, in Florida Education Reform: “It’s a Trap” | radical eyes for equity:

Something Is Rotten In The State Of Connecticut by Ann Cronin - Wait What?

Something Is Rotten In The State Of Connecticut by Ann Cronin - Wait What?:

Something Is Rotten In The State Of Connecticut by Ann Cronin

In her latest blog post, educator and education advocate Ann Cronin reports on Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy and his administration’s loyalty to the charter school industry and their latest attack on public education.

Cronin writes;

On July 19, 2017, the unelected, governor-appointed Connecticut State Board of Education approved 504 additional seats in state charter schools for next year, with 154 of those seats going to Capital Preparatory Harbor School in Bridgeport.

GO FIGURE:

Connecticut is in a budget crisis with every expense being monitored, yet new charter school seats, which cost the state $11,000 each, are being initiated. The cost will be more than $5.5 million.

PLUS

The new seats will cost the beleaguered and impoverished Bridgeport Public Schools money it cannot afford and will strip them of much needed resources. The Bridgeport Board of Education unanimously voted against the expansion plan because the cost of adding grades to Capital Prep Harbor School requires the Bridgeport Public Schools to pay additional costs for transportation and other services at an additional location.

PLUS

The expansion plan for Capital Prep Harbor School, approved by the State Something Is Rotten In The State Of Connecticut by Ann Cronin - Wait What?:

Eli Broad tapped Senior L.A. Unified official to lead Inglewood schools - LA Times

Senior L.A. Unified official tapped to lead Inglewood schools - LA Times:

Senior L.A. Unified official tapped to lead Inglewood schools

The state has picked a senior Los Angeles schools administrator, Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, to lead the troubled Inglewood Unified School District.

The Inglewood school system, which is located just east of Los Angeles International Airport, has long struggled with low academic achievement and declining enrollment, including the last five years under state control.

Meléndez was named Thursday by state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who also asserted that Inglewood has been making progress recently.

“Thelma Meléndez has a strong combination of leadership skills and experience managing school districts,” Torlakson said in a statement. “She will continue the district’s positive momentum.”

Meléndez, 59, has been serving as head of the Office of Educational Services in the L.A. Unified School District. She was also superintendent of Pomona Unified and Santa Ana Unified, and she served as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Department of Education under President Obama.

Before joining L.A. Unified, she worked as the top education advisor to Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“The Inglewood school community has the ingredients for greatness, and it will be an honor to lead the district into the next phase of progress for all students,” Meléndez said. “I am eager and ready to roll up my sleeves to get to work.”

Meléndez will have plenty to take on.

According to state test results, 29% of Inglewood students are proficient or better in English, up from 26% the prior year. Only 16% are proficient in math, although that is up from 14% the prior year.

The district of 12,570 students is 58% Latino and 39% black. About 3 in 10 students are learning English and nearly 8 in 10 are part of low-income households.

The state took over Inglewood Unified in 2012, as a condition of an emergency loan Senior L.A. Unified official tapped to lead Inglewood schools - LA Times:

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

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

The Future Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

Would the Cross-Dressing Royal Drug Runner from Burma be Barred from a Texas Bathroom?

1by dianeravitch / 25min

Please indulge me. I usually read the New York Times every day, and yesterday I could not resist juxtaposing two interesting and weird stories. This one is a Ripley “Believe It or Not” story about a woman born to a royal family in Burma 

The Kids from Burundi Are O.K.

1by dianeravitch / 16min

Six teens from Burundi competed recently in the international robotics contest in Washington, D.C. None had ever built a robot before but they learned to do it online and Skyping. They did well, coming in 73rd of 160 teams. When the three-day tournament was over, the entire team disappeared. Two are safel

Phyllis Bush Teaches Us What It Means to Face Life with Humor and Courage

1by dianeravitch / 50min

Here is the latest bulletin from Phyllis Bush on her battle against what she calls “cancer schmanzer.”

New York City: Parents Threaten to Sue City Over Failure to Reduce Class Size

2by dianeravitch / 17min

Watch this 2-minute clip, in which New York City parents and activists explain why class size in the public schools is far too large and how this hurts children and reduces educational opportunity. After a legal challenge, a judge ten years 

A MUST READ! Think National, Fight Local: The Story of Indianapolis and the DPE (Destroy Public Education) Movement

by dianeravitch / 1min

This very important post was written for this blog by Jim Scheurich on behalf of himself, Gayle Cosby, and Nathanial Williams, who are identified in the text. They are experienced in the school politics of Indianapolis, a city whose school 

Jeff Bryant: How Are Public School Parents Like Criminals?

by dianeravitch / 6min

Jeff Bryant is doing an article about the St. Louis public schools. As he has delved into the issues, he learned how the state of Missouri has underfunded the schools for years. And he learned something more. The city is gentrifying. It wants young childless couples. Parents of school age children are a burden to the budget. “As a local St. Louis reporter tells it, during a public meeting about a

Florida: The Corruption and Conflicts of Interest Behind the Charter Industry

4by dianeravitch / 1h

In some states, like Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, charter operators get what they want by making campaign contributions to state legislators and the governor. Florida is different. The charter operators and members of their families are members of the legislature. They shamelessly engage in self-dealing. You may well wonder: How can this be legal? I don’t know. This article in the Miami Hera

Education in Florida–Betsy DeVos’s Model for the Nation–is in Chaos

21by dianeravitch / 2h

Valerie Strauss summarizes here the mess created in Florida by former Governor Jeb Bush’s harsh accountability policies and the legislation passed recently to enrich the charter industry at the expense of public schools across the state. She begins: “The K-12 education system in Florida — the one that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos likes to praise as a model for the nation — is in chaos. “Tradit

YESTERDAY

Mike Klonsky: AFT Twitter War with DeVos

13by dianeravitch / 12h

Mike Klonsky writes tonight about the Twitter war between AFT and Betsy DeVos. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2017/07/devos-in-twitter-war-with-aft.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+mikeklonsky+(SmallTalk)&m=1 Betsy has the nutty idea that a public education system somehow is bad for individual children. She favors individual children. Right, so do we all. But for

Why Is DeVos Hiding from the Press?

7by dianeravitch / 21h

James Warren wonders why Betsy DeVos is steering clear of the media . Typically, the Secretary of Education speaks to the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association. But she declined. She had something better to do, something more important than meeting with education writers. “Instead, she surfaced at a session of National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. “A long way from ho

Utah: Should Charters Be Allowed to Seize Private Property by Eminent Domain

16by dianeravitch / 23h

We have seen how privately managed charter schools are exempt from transparency and accountability, thanks to the big bucks that pave their way. But Utah is considering a new low for preferential treatment of charters. Utah legislators are discussing whether charters should have the power of eminent domain, to seize private properties for their own use. Two conservative principles are at odds on

Arizona: The State Where Anything Goes for Charter Schools

9by dianeravitch / 23h

The Phoenix New Times has an long, in-depth article about one of the state’s nearly 600 charter schools. It is possibly the weirdest and proud of it. Nepotism abounds because it is not against the law for charters (only for public schools). The founder of the school has a free hand to do whatever he wants. State laws don’t matter much at Metro Arts Institute. It begins: “The photograph is hard to

Trump’s Tweets This Morning: His Hillary Obsession

4by dianeravitch / 23h

Politico posted Trump’s tweets. Here you see what he is fixated on. The big obsession is Hillary. I think she keeps a very low profile because at any moment, he could direct the Justice Department to open an investigation of her emails (again) and “lock her up.” The only way to stand up to this guy is if you have nothing to lose. “WHAT’S ON THE PRESIDENT’S MIND — at 6:33 a.m.: “A new INTELLIGENCE

New Orleans: Students Punished for Being Poor

17by dianeravitch / 1d

Astana Bigard, parent activist in New Orleans, reports that poor children are regularly suspended and expelled from charter schools because they can’t afford to pay for a uniform. “When a New Orleans charter school made headlines 

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