LISTEN TO DIANE TODAY - Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

LISTEN TO DIANE TODAY

BASIS Private Schools Sold to Chinese Investors, Parents Object

by dianeravitch / 7min

BASIS is a corporate charter chain with about 20 charters, mostly in Arizona. The chain is known for high test scores, high attrition, and high returns to its owners and operators, Michael and Olga Block. It also owns private schools, and these have run into problems. BASIS has private schools in the US, Silicon Valley, NYC and Virginia, all of which are owned by the REIT, Entertainment Propertie

T Bone Burnett: To Stay Human and Survive, We Must Wrest Power Away from the Tech Oligarchs

by dianeravitch / 1h

T Bone Burnett is a famous musician who was invited to give a keynote at the SXSW conference, and he delivered this brilliant meditation on the threat presented today by the ruthless, soulless tech corporations that invade every nook and cranny of our lives. It is long, so get a cup of coffee or tea and sit down. You should not only read it but reflect on it. This is the one sentence summary: To

New York: Senator Robert Jackson Introduces Bill to Protect Students and Parents Who Opt Out

by dianeravitch / 2h

In recent years, the New York State Education Department and many school districts have threatened and tried to intimidate parents and students who wanted to opt out of state testing. The historic U.S. Supreme Court decision Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) protects the right of parents to make decisions about their own children. This decision is apt in the current environment, where the state

Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week by Watching and Sharing This Great Video by Stevie Van Zandt

40by dianeravitch / 2h

Teacher Appreciation Week begins on May 6! I was in Los Angeles for the historic teachers’ strike of 2019. I marched with Stevie Van Zandt, who is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His stage name is Little Steven; he played in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band and has received many honors. As a musician and artist, he took the lead in creating Artists United Against Apartheid. He made t

YESTERDAY

New York City: Betsy DeVos Praises Charters, Condemns Spending More on Public Schools

200+by dianeravitch / 13h

Betsy DeVos was honored by the rightwing Manhattan Institute. In her by now well-rehearsed speech, she ridiculed the idea of spending more money on public schools, and extolled school choice. She singled out Mayor deBlasio’s Renewal program for criticism. Matt Barnum has a good summary in Chalkbeat of her boilerplate remarks and appropriately notes how she cherrypicked data and ignored recent stu

Ohio: A Conversation Between Bill Phillis and Diane Ravitch

44by dianeravitch / 20h

Sign up now for this event. Bill Phillis and I will talk about education in Ohio and the nation. Join public education advocates from around the state for the first MOVING PUBLIC EDUCATION FORWARD celebration! The event will take place Thursday, May 16, 2019 from 4:30 to 8:00pm at the Sheraton Columbus Capitol Square , 75 E. State St, Columbus, OH 43215. Experience a conversation between two GIAN

Breaking News: California Charter School Will Close Its Doors Tomorrow, Not Waiting for End of School Year

400+by dianeravitch / 21h

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, wrote the following note: The Summit Preparatory Academy Charter School will be shutting down tomorrow. Like so many charter schools, financial mismanagement is the reason for the closure. The school raised funding with a “Go Fund Me” drive, but they are not waiting till the end of the year to shut their doors. California teach

Jan Resseger: How the Federal Charter School Program Defunds Public Schools and Cheats Taxpayers

79by dianeravitch / 22h

Jan Resseger has another brilliant article about the charter school strategy of privatization paid for by federal funding. Betsy DeVos wants to cut most of the programs in the Department of Education but has asked for an increase of charter school funding, from $440 million to $500 million a year. This year she used that funding to give $82 million to KIPP and $116 million to the IDEA charter cha

North Carolina: Former Governor Jim Hunt Speaks in Praise of Public Schools

25by dianeravitch / 23h

Former Governor Jim Hunt will speak “In Praise of Public Education” in Raleigh on May 22 from 6-8 pm. His talk is sponsored by PublicSchoolsFirstNC. Tickets are limited so sign up soon! https://www.eventbrite.com/o/infopublicschoolsfirstnc-6199572339 Governor Hunt was a champion for public schools when he was in office. The Tea Party has done everything possible to destroy his great legacy. “Gove

Peter Greene: Florida is the Worst State in the Nation for Public Schools and Teachers

22by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Greene knows there are many states where public schools are under attack: Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, and more. But one state stands out as the absolute worst: Florida. If you hate public schools, Florida is for you. If you hate teachers, go to Florida. To get the full flavor of why Florida is an abomination, open the link and read the post. It begins: There are plenty of states in th

D.C.: Charter Schools Ignore Suicide Prevention Training, and a Charter Student Hangs Herself

26by dianeravitch / 1d

This post about D.C. charter schools asks why these schools are free to choose which laws to obey and which to ignore. One that they chose to ignore is suicide prevention training for their staff. The leaders of the charter sector complained about the rules and regulations that the city wanted to impose on them. The author, Jonetta Rose Barras, writes: “When I read the email exchange between Mich

Was the Common Core Successful?

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

It is probably far too soon to know whether the Common Core succeeded or failed, but the studies are beginning to appear. The adoption of the Common Core standards was a central requirement of the Obama-Duncan Race to the Top program. States had to agree to adopt the Common Core if they wanted to be eligible to compete for $5 billion in federal funds. The Gates Foundation paid for the Common Core

Arizona: Legislators Are Trying to Sneak a Voucher Bill Through. Stop Them!

52by dianeravitch / 1d

Last fall, the voters of Arizona rejected vouchers by an overwhelming vote. But the Koch brothers and devious Doug Ducey are not giving up. They slipped through an innocuous bill to thwart the will of the people. Stop them! From: “Save Our Schools Arizona” info@sosarizona.org > Date: May 1, 2019 at 8:16:11 PM MST To: “Barbara Veltri” barbvbtv@aol.com > Subject: Red Alert: Stealth bill SB 1349 nee

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  Garn Press Publishes a Collection of My Most Important Essays | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jeb Bush Finally Gets His Pet Voucher Program Passed (Again) in Florida | janresseger

Jeb Bush Finally Gets His Pet Voucher Program Passed (Again) in Florida | janresseger

Jeb Bush Finally Gets His Pet Voucher Program Passed (Again) in Florida

Jeb Bush has fallen out of the national headlines, but Florida continues to be dominated by his policies and those of the advocacy organization and so-called think tank he founded, ExcelinEd, formerly known as the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

On Tuesday, Florida’s House passed a new school voucher bill, the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, which had already passed the Senate. Florida’s newly elected Governor Ron DeSantis, a strong advocate for privatization of public education, is expected to sign the bill.

Bush’s fingerprints are all over this bill which expands Florida’s vouchers. The Miami Herald‘s Emily Mahoney reports: “Bush, 66, was on the floor of the House when the bill came to a final vote, along with commissioner of education and former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, plus Senate leaders, all of whom stood up and applauded when the bill passed 76-39… Bush posted a photo to Twitter that showed him with the Legislature’s leadership as well as  CONTINUE READING: Jeb Bush Finally Gets His Pet Voucher Program Passed (Again) in Florida | janresseger

Challenging the “Grammar of Instruction” (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Challenging the “Grammar of Instruction” (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Challenging the “Grammar of Instruction” (Part 1)

The old classroom model simply doesn’t fit our changing needs….It’s a fundamentally passive way of learning, while the world requires more and more active processing of information.Salman Khan, The One World Classroom (2012)

From Francis Parker to John Dewey to Ella Flagg Young, to Vito Perrone to Deborah Meier to Theodore Sizer, complaints about the “old classroom model” have echoed through university lecture halls, academic monographs, oodles of conferences and, now, in education blogs. Criticism of existing public schools has spawned generation after generation of reformers looking for ways to alter the dominant “factory model,” “assembly line,” or “batch processing” way of schooling over the past 150 years.

Their target has been the historic structure of the age-graded public school with its  buildings divided into hallways lined with box-like classrooms where teachers distribute slices of curriculum grade-by-grade using whole and small-group instruction, homework, and tests. The regime of standardization ends in June with either students being promoted to the next grade or being retained in the grade for another year.

Imported from Prussia in the late 1840s, that generation of reformers touted it as an innovation that was superior to the one-room schoolhouse. And it was. Between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, the age-graded public school took in millions of immigrants from western, eastern, and southern Europe. These immigrants became Americanized through schooling and the workplace.

But there were critics of the age-graded school then and now. In 1902, John Dewey warned educators that “the manner in which the machinery of instruction CONTINUE READING: Challenging the “Grammar of Instruction” (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Three Chicago Charter Schools on Strike. Three. | deutsch29

Three Chicago Charter Schools on Strike. Three. | deutsch29

Three Chicago Charter Schools on Strike. Three.

Market-based ed reform is likely in shock today.

Teachers at three Chicago-based charter schools went on strike. Not one school (which is bad enough for corporate ed reform True Believers). Three. I could have been five charter schools, but teachers at two schools struck deals prior to striking.

According to idealized market-based ed reform, the CEO is supposed to be the one with the power, and collective bargaining should not exist. The charter school CEO calls the shots, and if the teachers don’t like it, they can either suck it up or leave.

Ahh, but that dastardly unionizing– it threatens the concetration of power with a CEO. If those teachers each take their bits of power and combine those bits, then the poor CEOs will have to do what market-based ed reform promises powerful CEOs what they should never have to do:

Negotiate.

From the May 02, 2019, Chicago Tribune:

Unionized educators halted classes and hit picket lines at three Chicago schools Thursday morning, as part of a coordinated strike that marks the latest phase in a citywide wave of labor unrest at taxpayer-funded campuses.

Workers affiliated with the Chicago Teachers Union called a strike as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, though one negotiating team huddled early into CONTINUE READING: Three Chicago Charter Schools on Strike. Three. | deutsch29

The Best School Innovation Would Be More People | gadflyonthewallblog

The Best School Innovation Would Be More People | gadflyonthewallblog

The Best School Innovation Would Be More People

Public schools thrive on innovation.

In nearly every classroom around the country you’ll find teachers discovering new ways to reach students and foster skills, understanding and creativity.

But if you pan out to the macro level, the overwhelming majority of innovations aren’t organic. They’re imposed on us by bureaucrats and functionaries from outside the classroom:

Education Technologies.

School privatization.

Standardized tests and Common Core.

For the last two decades, these are the kinds of innovations that have been forced on public schools at gun point.

And each and every one of them is pure bullshit.

They are corporate schemes written by the wealthy to cash in on education dollars for themselves. Big business hands them out to their paid political lapdogs to push through our state and federal legislatures to become laws and policies the rest of us have to obey.

They have nothing to do with helping students learn. Their purpose is to boost profits.

Just look at the difference between the ways the word innovation is defined.

Merriam Webster says the word signifies “the introduction of CONTINUE READING: The Best School Innovation Would Be More People | gadflyonthewallblog

Rainier Beach High School’s dramatic gains for students to be featured on HBO’s “Problem Areas”–even as the school is struggling to stop disruptive educator displacements – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Rainier Beach High School’s dramatic gains for students to be featured on HBO’s “Problem Areas”–even as the school is struggling to stop disruptive educator displacements – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Rainier Beach High School’s dramatic gains for students to be featured on HBO’s “Problem Areas”–even as the school is struggling to stop disruptive educator displacements

If you haven’t heard, there’s a new season of Wyatt Cenac’s “Problem Areas” show on HBO and it’s fire.

The show is in the middle of its second season all about education, and its the best exploration of education I’ve seen on national TV. This week’s episode, Friday, May 3 at 9:00 pm Pacific, centers on Seattle’s Rainer Beach High School (RBHS).

I’m so thrilled Rainer Beach is finally getting recognized for its amazing students and educators.  RBHS is the school in Seattle with the highest percentage of Black students, students of color, and low income students–and for years the school district tried to close the school.  I was part of an effort back in 2009 to help save the school from closure.  Because of the courageous efforts of Rainer Beach families and educator the school was saved from a Broad Foundation superintendent.  And because of the same grassroots organizing from students, parents and educators, the school has taken dramatic steps forward.

RBHS rejected the corporate playbook for reform and instead implemented a robust restorative justice program, enrolling the majority of students in advanced classes, implementing social justice curriculum, and partnering with the Freedom Schoolsprogram to foster civic engagement and social activism. Rainer Beach has since seen a substantial drop in suspension of students and a 25-point increase in graduation rates, surpassing the district average.

In addition to these important academic gains, Rainer Beach has also become a school that has produced some of most effective student leaders in the city. Take the example CONTINUE READING: Rainier Beach High School’s dramatic gains for students to be featured on HBO’s “Problem Areas”–even as the school is struggling to stop disruptive educator displacements – I AM AN EDUCATOR