Former Louisiana schools chief Paul Pastorek gets Puerto Rico contract: report | nola.com

Former Louisiana schools chief Paul Pastorek gets Puerto Rico contract: report | nola.com

Former Louisiana schools chief Paul Pastorek gets Puerto Rico contract: report

Louisiana’s former education superintendent has accepted a six-figure contract to revitalize the school system in Puerto Rico, Education Week reports. The website’s story comes from The Metro newspaper in Puerto Rico.

The report, which cites a report from Metro in Puerto Rico, says Paul Pastorek, a New Orleans native, agreed to a contract with Puerto Rico’s Department of Education to help with various tasks, including assisting the island’s school system in getting hurricane recovery funds to implement a plan under the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act. The contract reportedly runs until June 2019 and is worth up to $155,000, at $250 an hour, Education Week reports.

Puerto Rico was devastated in September 2017 when Hurricane Maria hit the island, leaving nearly 3,000 dead and severely damaging the island’s power grid.

Betsy DeVos praises 'creative' school reforms on New Orleans visit

DeVos called New Orleans 'a really great and important example' to the nation in how to lead change.

Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher told Education Week that Pastorek is “particularly helpful” given his post-Hurricane Katrina experience.

Not everyone approves of the decision. The report says American Federation of Teachers' President Randi Weingarten said Pastorek only seeks to further the goals of U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which include “closing schools, privatization and disinvestment from public schools."

Pastorek was a partner at Adams and Reese in New Orleans for 27 years and served on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education before he was named state superintendent of schools in 2007. He is known for leading the state’s education efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and credited with helping design Louisiana’s school accountability measures and stabilizing the Recovery School District. Many of the education reforms he supported allowed New Orleans to become the majority charter school district it is today.

Pastorek resigned as Louisiana schools chief in 2011 to serve as an executive for Airbus Group Inc., a defense contractor based in CONTINUE READING: Former Louisiana schools chief Paul Pastorek gets Puerto Rico contract: report | nola.com

What’s Behind the Chan Zuckerberg (CZI) Push for “Brain Science?”

What’s Behind the Chan Zuckerberg (CZI) Push for “Brain Science?”

What’s Behind the Chan Zuckerberg (CZI) Push for “Brain Science?”

It doesn’t matter how much trouble Mark Zuckerberg might appear to be in with Facebook, he and his wife still find time to mess with education and give elitist advice to teachers.

Their latest initiative is to claim teachers need to learn brain science. They’re donating $1 million to Neuroteach Global, an online PD platform created by the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, calling themselves a mind, brain, and education research center.

Some teachers will get financial support to learn about brain science, while others will pay for it on their own, or likely through their school districts.

It’s also about transforming education to technology.

The group is based out of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland. The sponsors of the program include Teach for America. They’re hoping to sell this program to schools and universities across the country. How ironic that a group like TFA with minimal instruction and understanding about teaching, is a part of promoting brain science to teachers.

Real teachers from reputable university education programs have always taken child Continue reading: What’s Behind the Chan Zuckerberg (CZI) Push for “Brain Science?”

Teacher-Led Schools: The Mouse and Hippo | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher-Led Schools: The Mouse and Hippo | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher-Led Schools: The Mouse and Hippo

Groups of teachers founding charters, taking over failing schools, or simply creating different ones is a smart idea. It is worthwhile and needs much support to spread since teachers can design, implement, and administer such schools as well as if not better than policymakers hiring  principals and high-paid consultants. After all, one doesn’t have to know too much history of U.S. public schools to remember that teachers ran their own schools when rural one-room schoolhouses prevailed a century and a half ago and before principals (remember the first ones were called principal-teachers). Nonetheless, there are some facts that cannot be ignored.

First, some teacher-run schools will fly and some will crash.

Second, as these teacher-run schools get established, they will be a small (but nonetheless, important )contribution to the necessary mix of schools needed to improve urban districts. Even though :Os Angeles, Detroit, and other districts have authorized teacher-run schools there are still less than 100 across the nation (of about 100,000 public schools). This is where the mouse and hippo enters the picture.

New schools including charters come from policymakers who decide that such schools can alter what usually occurs in traditional schools. Politicians and policymakers create most schools. The hippo. And teacher-run schools, the mouse, will always be small in comparison but, as in the Mike Twohy story, can be both a friend and a guide to “good” schooling.

Such teacher-led schools will mobilize many teachers (Teach for America graduates, deeply committed novices and a chunk of mid-career professionals) and parents to form democratic cooperatives (mostly charters) and run schools Continue reading: Teacher-Led Schools: The Mouse and Hippo | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teach for America Is Looking for a Lobbyist. Interested? | deutsch29

Teach for America Is Looking for a Lobbyist. Interested? | deutsch29

Teach for America Is Looking for a Lobbyist. Interested?

On November 15, 2018, Teach for America (TFA) posted this Linkedin job listingfor a government affairs manager (in other words, a lobbyist).

Though TFA is fine with putting inexperienced college grads in classrooms as temp teachers following a five-week sneeze of *training*, if one wants this critical TFA lobbying job, one “must have” (TFA’s words) “two years of public policy and/or federal legislative experience.”

Why, TFA is even willing to help the would-be-yet-inexperienced TFA lobbyist get a foot in the Congressional door via its one-year Capitol Hill Fellows Program.

And, as one might expect, the successful TFA lobbyist applicant must have “a deep belief in Teach for America’s vision, mission, and theory of change.”

Token teaching for two years and then landing an ed policy position promoting TFA in the ears of legislators is part of that TFA theory of change. Such is the career path taken by current TFA director of government affairs (i.e., head lobbyist) Kelly Brougham. After a two-year TFA stint in Houston (make that one year, ten months), Brougham became an ed policy advisor in the US House of Representatives for four years (more than twice as long as she lasted in a Houston classroom) before becoming a TFA government affairs manager (same job as that of the job listing featured in this post) on her way to becoming a TFA head lobbyist.

It does help for one on the road to TFA lobbying to have a bachelor’s degree in political science, which Broughan does. However, if one holds a bachelors in Continue reading: Teach for America Is Looking for a Lobbyist. Interested? | deutsch29

Brooklyn students fight against the Summit online platform and the Zuckerberg-Gates corporate machine | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Brooklyn students fight against the Summit online platform and the Zuckerberg-Gates corporate machine | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

BROOKLYN STUDENTS FIGHT AGAINST THE SUMMIT ONLINE PLATFORM AND THE ZUCKERBERG-GATES CORPORATE MACHINE

Update: this David vs. Goliath story with national implications was reported also on Fast Company, Business Insider,  EdSurge, and NY Magazine. The Washington Post also published the letter the students subsequently sent to Mark Zuckerberg.

On November 5, about 100 students at the Secondary School of Journalism in Brooklyn walked out of their schools to protest the Summit online program.  This digital instruction program, funded by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Bill Gates, forces students to spend hours staring at computers, left at sea with little human interaction or help from their teachers, all in the name of “personalized learning.”

As one of the students, Mitchel Storman, said to Sue Edelman who reported on the protest in the NY Post, “I have seen lots of students playing games instead of working….Students can easily cheat on quizzes since they can just copy and paste the question into Google.”

Senior Akila Robinson said she couldn’t even log onto Summit for nearly two months, while other classmates can’t or won’t use it. “The whole day, all we do is sit there.”  A teacher said, “It’s a lot of reading on the computer, and that’s not good for the eyes. Kids complain. Some kids refuse to do it.”

The online program, which originated in the Summit chain of charter schools in California, and was further developed and expanded with millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation, Facebook and now the Chan Zuckerberg LLC, has now been inserted in more than Continue reading: Brooklyn students fight against the Summit online platform and the Zuckerberg-Gates corporate machine | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Group tied to charter school backers spent thousands in Va. school board election - Network For Public Education

Group tied to charter school backers spent thousands in Va. school board election - Network For Public Education

Group tied to charter school backers spent thousands in Va. school board election

By Debbie Truong

November 25 at 3:00 PM

“By stacking the board . . . they can get charter schools in,” said Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy group that opposes privately managed schools.

It’s part of a pattern, Burris said, of wealthy donors who support charter schools infusing campaign cash into school board races.

The Network for Public Education examined the phenomenon by zeroing in on nine elections. Its findings were detailed in a report titled “Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools.” It highlighted more than 15 billionaires and their families who contributed to at least three races or donated more than $1 million.

To read the entire piece, click here.

Group tied to charter school backers spent thousands in Va. school board election - Network For Public Education

Big Education Ape: Help save public education by giving to NPE - Network For Public Education - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/11/help-save-public-education-by-giving-to.html

Education Week Grading System Gets a Failing Grade – School Finance 101

Education Week Grading System Gets a Failing Grade – School Finance 101

Education Week Grading System Gets a Failing Grade

It’s that time of year again. Time for Education Week Quality Counts to grade the states on a number of education policy issues – ranging from accountability systems to school finance systems. But, once again, Education Week’s Quality Counts ratings of state school finance policies simply lack understanding of the goals of today’s state school finance policies and methods for better understanding and evaluating state school finance policies. We have been working diligently to develop an alternative set of indicators to be released sometime in the near future. I will attempt to provide my critique of the Ed Week indicators herein without divulging to much detail about our alternatives – yet.

Here is a blurb I wrote a short while ago in which I lay  out the initial critique of two popular state school finance rating systems:

====

Two existing reports are disseminated annually and highly publicized. The first is the Education Trust Funding Gap Report which has as its focus, characterizing the differences in average per pupil state and local revenues between high and low minority concentration districts and between high and low poverty concentration school districts within states. The report appears to have significant traction in policy circles but is methodologically problematic and deceptive in a number of ways. First, the report calculates its funding gaps with respect to “need adjusted” estimates of state and local revenues per pupil. In order to generate these need adjusted estimates, the authors must adopt a set of weights that prescribe how much more a child from impoverished background is expected to need and how much more a child with disabilities is expected to need. That is, the method requires an a priori assumption of the magnitude of differential need for certain populations.

Second, the Funding Gap report overlooks entirely other major factors that affect the costs of Continue reading: Education Week Grading System Gets a Failing Grade – School Finance 101

Educational Inequality and School Finance: Why Money Matters for America's Students: Bruce D. Baker: 9781682532423: Amazon.com: Books - https://www.amazon.com/Educational-Inequality-School-Finance-Americas/dp/1682532429

This week in charter school scandals - YouTube

This week in charter school scandals - YouTube

This week in charter school scandals 

I could easily devote every episode to covering charter schools. A simple search will turn up half a dozen scandals on any given week.
Like the story this week out of Arizona, where the multimillionaire CEO of an online charter school gave himself a $1.3 million raise, while giving teachers 1%. Keep in mind that online charters have very little overhead.
Thrive Charter Schools in San Diego are outperformed by every school in the district; has been slated for closure by the board. Yet the founders gave themselves another huge bonus this year.
A charter school operator in Pensacola, Florida, was just sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud. And a Dorchester, Massachusetts, charter executive is under investigation for questionable spending.
That’s all this week alone.
And then the story that caught my eye. The Miami New Times is reporting that a teacher at Mater Academy, a charter school in Hialeah Gardens, hung a Confederate flag with the motto “Keep It Flying” in his classroom.
The same teacher previously told students that the South was fighting for “states rights” and that the Union “should have lost.” And he’s called students “snowflakes” for expressing their own views.
Any public school teacher would have been disciplined, but Mater Academy principal Jose Nuñez told the Times that it was just part of a history lesson.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/co...
“A school with 98% minority enrollment according to US News, allowed a conservative history teacher to hang this up. Despite the fact that the Confederacy was the enemy of the US, it's yet ANOTHER example of Mater Academy promoting the right wing political ideology @OfficialJoelF” https://twitter.com/SocaFernando/stat...
Mater is part of Academica, the largest charter school operator in Florida. For over a decade Academica has written big paychecks to several Florida politicians, including the CEO’s brother-in-law, Erik Fresen, who was convicted of tax evasion after chairing the Florida House subcommittee that oversees education.
Because these are the kind of people who run charter schools. Racists, con artists, and crooked politicians. They line their own pockets with money and resources that should be going to the most struggling schools, then claim those schools are failing.
They skim the highest performing children off the top, send the ones who don’t work out back to their homeschools, and still can’t outperform traditional public schools.
They claim that per pupil allocation belongs to students and should follow them wherever they go, like a backpack full of cash.
But schools don’t belong to students or their parents. They belong to the communities that fund them.

Everybody else is just passing through.

This week in charter school scandals - YouTube

Badass Teachers Association: Just say #NoTFA!!

Badass Teachers Association: Just say #NoTFA!!
Just say #NoTFA!!

Dear Representative-Elect, 

Congratulations on your successful election to become a representative of your state in the House of Representatives or U.S.Senate! As educators, many of us became very involved in your election, whether it was to volunteer for your campaign, fight for your endorsement within our union, share your information on social media, or just watch the election events unfold, holding our collective breath until the official results were released. Some of you even have a background in education, and for that, we are thankful. You face a lot of decisions right now. Perhaps one of the most important is to prepare yourself with a team that will assist and guide you in future decision-making. We know that all Representatives cannot become overnight experts on all of the issues that are debated in Congress and must rely upon the research and opinions of their aides to guide them in decision-making that translates into real-time votes on the floor that shapes future laws, policies, and procedures. 

We are coming to you with a concern about the past practice of hiring recruits that have gone through the Capitol Hill Fellows program, run by Teach for America (TFA). It is disturbing to us that these voices are given weight in decisions made about public education when they include many TFA “alum” that have only spent a few years in the classroom, and not necessarily in a  Continue reading:

Badass Teachers Association: Just say #NoTFA!!

CURMUDGUCATION: The Factory, The Computer, and the Marketing Problem

CURMUDGUCATION: The Factory, The Computer, and the Marketing Problem
The Factory, The Computer, and the Marketing Problem

Nancy Flanagan notes her frustration this week with the continued complaints about public schools, about how they are an outmoded factory model producing students on an assembly line. And she correctly notes where that comes from, and where it's headed.

Public school has been under the most modern wave of attack since 1983's A Nation at Risk, with each new wave of reformsterism accompanied by renewed attacks on one of America's oldest institutions. And the criticism has always served a purpose for Reformsters. So when we hear a new shift in that same-old song, we need to pay attention-- something is coming.

"Teachers are the most important factor is student learning" and "Many teachers are terrible" paved the way for test-centered accountability that was supposed to let us root out all the Terrible Teachers and fire the lot of them.

"Fifty states are higgledy piggledy in what and when they teach" and "We need to be able to compare students from Idaho and Florida" paved the path for Common Core State [sic] Standards.

"Students are trapped in failing zip codes" and "rich people get to choose schools" and even "Freeeeeedom!" were to pave the way for unfettered charter schools and vouchers.

It's basic marketing. You need your product to fill a need, and if the need is slight, you expand it. If there is no need obviously begging to be filled, you create it. And whatever the need is, you frame it in a way that suggests your solution is the best one for the job.

So what's the current pitch? Well, we've been subjected to the observation that schools haven't changed in 100, 125, or 200 years (including pronouncements from the Department of Education). We see the traditional model referred to as a factory or assembly line. We even see criticism of the previously-beloved Big Standardized Test. For the last two decades, we've heard about how the BS Tests were our defense against everything bad in education, but now, within the last year, we see Continue reading: CURMUDGUCATION: The Factory, The Computer, and the Marketing Problem

NON-ELECTED WEALTH-DRIVEN FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS OWN OUR GOVERNMENT | Dr. Edward F. Berger

NON-ELECTED WEALTH-DRIVEN FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS OWN OUR GOVERNMENT | Dr. Edward F. Berger

NON-ELECTED WEALTH-DRIVEN FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS OWN OUR GOVERNMENT

Hey, I’m blogging again. My last blog was in June. I am completing research and writing a new book exploring the challenges presented by AI and machine intelligence and the evolution of our education system so that we prepare humans to use and control artificial intelligence.

Since 2016, Dan Kenley and I have recorded over thirty hours of podcast interviews on our Insights Into Education site. (insightsintoeducation.libsyn.com) We have amazing guests and many thousands of listeners.  And of course, the mid-term elections created a lot of stress and ate a lot of energy.

Arizona is rated as one of the most corrupt states. A one-party ideology has dominated Arizona economics and the limitation of social systems. This small group who hide under the moniker ‘Libertarian’ has created gerrymandered districts and financial bribery systems that let them control the state. Oligarchs and billionaires buy politicians with dirty-dark money and skew elections. The Koch Brothers, Mercers, the DeVos minions, and organizations like the Goldwater Institute are the owners of our state government. Arizona GOP/Libertarians believed they had created an impenetrable fortress for their special interests and anti-American ideologies. Now that fortress is crumbling.

Thanks to teachers and citizens who support public education, the deep corruption in the Legislature is being exposed. Millions of dollars have been ‘legally’ stolen from the taxpayers as the Legislature has crafted permission-to-steal laws that allow their own elected representatives to hijack money taxpayers believe is going to children and education. There are many serious problems, but the starvation and attempt to destroy public education is the turning point.

What has happened is that new heroes emerged, many women, and many Continue reading: NON-ELECTED WEALTH-DRIVEN FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS OWN OUR GOVERNMENT | Dr. Edward F. Berger

Toxic Philanthropy Part 2: Hewlett Packard Re-Engineers the Social Sector – Wrench in the Gears

Toxic Philanthropy Part 2: Hewlett Packard Re-Engineers the Social Sector – Wrench in the Gears

Toxic Philanthropy Part 2: Hewlett Packard Re-Engineers the Social Sector

Hewlett Packard: The Tech Titan Few Education Activists Talk About

Increasingly people are casting a wary eye in the direction of Silicon Valley, concerned about the power its billionaires wield over public education and society generally. While Gates, Zuckerberg, Hastings and Bezos have grabbed much of the spotlight, there is another tech influencer with a long reach that less well known. In this post I will examine the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s grants in the area of “effective philanthropy” as they relate to the creation of an economic and policy infrastructure intended to advance social impact investment interests in the United States.

Established in 1966, the foundation is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA. Funds originated from Hewlett Packard co-founder Bill Hewlett. The foundation is one of the largest philanthropies in the United States, dispersing over $400 million in grants per year. Giving areas include: education, environment, cyber, performing arts, global development, strengthening democracy and effective philanthropy. They also manage special projects and donate to initiatives in the Bay Area. The firm, which went public in 1957, is a symbol of the region. HP has long been a leader in hardware and software sales. In 2015 their printer and personal computing business split off from their enterprise business creating two separate firms, Hewlett Packard (HP) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

Why did they need to re-engineer philanthropy?

Before diving into the particulars, it’s important to understand the economic driver behind these so-called philanthropic gifts. Huge markets are anticipated to open up in data-driven government contracting around both social service delivery and climate change management tied to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. But before that can happen, governments need to be convinced, non-profits have to be trained, and the infrastructure to gather and assess “impact” has to be put into place. High-level executives and policy makers have been working on this for over fifteen years through New Profit’s “A Gathering of Leaders” and “America Forward” and Results for America. Both New Profit and Results for America have received HP support.

An emphasis on data-driven philanthropy serves HP’s corporate interests Continue reading: Toxic Philanthropy Part 2: Hewlett Packard Re-Engineers the Social Sector – Wrench in the Gears

Big Education Ape: Toxic Philanthropy Part 1: Surveillance – Wrench in the Gears - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/11/toxic-philanthropy-part-1-surveillance.html

A Washington Post Discussion about Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Washington Post Discussion about Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Washington Post Discussion about Education

Education in America - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/postlive/education-in-america/2018/11/28/b782df54-000a-4dcc-beba-23a0f50bf6b3_live.html?utm_term=.a4468ba4aea9

I will be in Washington, D.C., on Thursday for a “discussion” about education. I put the scare quotes around discussion because the schedule is jam-packed, and there won’t be enough time for any in-depth discussion of anything. But hope springs eternal.

A few things on the program of interest.

What will Rahm Emanuel say about Chicago? Will he boast about the historic day in 2013 when he closed 50 public schools in a single day, displacing thousands of African-American children?

What will Arne Duncan tell us about how federal policy can reform the schools, after seven years of trying?

I understand this two-hour event will be live-streamed and available online.

WASHINGTON POST LIVE
Education in America
November 29, 2018
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Washington Post Live Center

4:00 p.m.
Opening Remarks

Kris Coratti,
Vice President
of Communications and Events, The Washington Post

4:05 p.m.
Educating in America’s Urban Cores: A View from Chicago
A case-study of the opportunities and challenges facing the city of Chicago’s public school system — from funding to demographics to violence in schools.

Rahm Emanuel,
Mayor, Chicago
@ChicagosMayor

Janice K. Jackson, EdD,
CEO, Chicago Public Schools @janicejackson

Moderated by
Jonathan Capehart,
Opinion Writer,
The Washington Post @CapehartJ

4:30 p.m.
The View from the
Ground: Tackling the Challenges of K-12 Schools
Educators and prominent
activists on the front lines of America’s K-12 classrooms offer perspectives on the social, academic, safety and resource challenges facing students and teachers, including the aftermath of this year’s nationwide teacher strikes. Speakers will also discuss
how access to technology affects student learning.

Lori Alhadeff,
Member, School
Board of Broward County, Florida @lorialhadeff

Geoffrey Canada,
President, Harlem
Children’s Zone

Mandy Manning,
2018 National Teacher of the Year, Joel E. Ferris High School, Spokane, Washington @MandyRheaWrites

Randi Weingarten,
President, American
Federation of Teachers @rweingarten

Moderated by
Nick Anderson,
National Education
Policy Reporter, The Washington Post @wpnick

4:55 p.m.
The Case for Social and Emotional Learning
The majority of students and young adults report that their schools are not excelling at developing their social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. This session will highlight the importance of SEL, direct from the viewpoints of today’s youth.

John Bridgeland,
Founder and CEO, Civic Enterprises

Interviewed
by Victoria Dinges,
Senior Vice President, Allstate Insurance Company

Content
by Allstate Insurance Company

5:10 p.m.
Education 360:
Defining the Debates
National education leaders debate the most pressing issues facing the U.S. education system, including school choice, standardized testing and federal, state and local funding for public schools. These experts will also discuss how well K-12 institutions are preparing students for higher
education and the jobs of the future.

Bridget Terry Long,
PhD, Dean, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University @bterrylong

Robert Pondiscio,
Senior Fellow and
Vice President for External Affairs, Thomas B. Fordham Institute @rpondiscio

Diane Ravitch, PhD,
Professor, New
York University and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education (1991-1993) @DianeRavitch

Moderated by
Valerie Strauss,
Education Reporter,
The Washington Post
@valeriestrauss

5:35 p.m.
The National Landscape:
Evaluating Federal and State Education Reform Efforts
Where do Washington and
the states go from here on education reform? Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and former Michigan Gov. John Engler discuss the role of the federal and state governments in crafting education policy and look ahead to what’s next on the agenda
for the nation.

Arne Duncan,
Managing Partner, Emerson Collective and Former U.S. Secretary of Education (2009-2015) @arneduncan

John Engler,
President,
Michigan State
University and Former Republican Governor of Michigan (1991-2003) @MSUPresEngler

Moderated by
Christine Emba,
Opinion Columnist
and Editor, The Washington Post @ChristineEmba

A Washington Post Discussion about Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Greene to Mike Petrilli: A Not So Fond Farewell to “Reform” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Greene to Mike Petrilli: A Not So Fond Farewell to “Reform” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Greene to Mike Petrilli: A Not So Fond Farewell to “Reform”

Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham think tank in D.C., penned a piece suggesting that Ed Reform was over, that it had reached a stalemate with its enemies, but that whatever it had done was here to stay. He called it “The End of Education Policy,” a very cheering thought. Now it’s time to zero in on practice, he wrote. I was happy to see an admission that Ed Reform had run out of gas, but I had no idea how he imagined that he or any of the other reformers would have a role in improving “practice,” unless he meant doubling down on the Common Core.

Peter Greene made sense of all this, as he always does.

He begins:

From time to time Mike Petrilli (Fordham Institute) grabs himself a big declaration and goes to town. Last week, the declaration was “We have reached the end of education policy.”

He frames this up with references to Francis Fukuyama’s book about the end of history, and I don’t know that he really ever sticks the landing on creating parallels between Fukuyama’s idea (which he acknowledges turned out to be wrong) and his thoughts about ed policy, but it establishes an idea about the scale he’s shooting for– something more sweeping and grandiose than if he’d compared ed policy to video game arcades or no-strings-attached sex.

His thesis?

We are now at the End of Education Policy, in the same way that we were at the End of History back in 1989. Our own Cold War pitted reformers against traditional education groups; we have fought each other to a draw, Continue reading: Peter Greene to Mike Petrilli: A Not So Fond Farewell to “Reform” | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Teacher Life: Grading Papers Over Holiday Break | deutsch29

The Teacher Life: Grading Papers Over Holiday Break | deutsch29

The Teacher Life: Grading Papers Over Holiday Break

Like many teachers across these United States, I am finishing a holiday week, which means I was off from school– technically.

It is true that I did not need to report to school this week. However, a notable part of Teacher Life is that school clings to the teacher whether said teacher is on school grounds or no.

On November 5th, I collected from my senior English students 107 formal essays on one of three fiction works of their choice (Silas Marner, Pygmalion, or Till We Have Faces).

I began grading them that very day, just a few as my school day allowed.

The entire lot followed me home. On Election Day (November 6th), a holiday from school, I graded roughly another 18 or so as I marathon-watched election results roll in.

The next day, Wednesday, I graded a few papers during the day– about six. Same for Thursday during the day, but Thursday night, I graded about ten more.

Of course, the weekend was my major opportunity to hit is hard, which I did Saturday and Sunday to the tune of perhaps another 25 papers.

All of this effort meant that I began the week prior to Thanksgiving break with about 38 papers to go. I knew realistically that I would not finish grading all before Thanksgiving, and I told my students so because they were asking about the grades (with the first one to ask the day after I collected the 107 papers), and Continue reading: The Teacher Life: Grading Papers Over Holiday Break | deutsch29