CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION: + ICYMI: Birthday Eve Edition (5/19)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Birthday Eve Edition (5/19)

 ICYMI:  Birthday Eve Edition 

Might even eat some cake today just to warm up. You know the drill, folks. Read and share. Read and share. Only you can help amplify voices in the web-o-sphere.

A Letter To Journalists About Dark Money

A great little primer here from Massachusetts, where dark money tried to make charter schools happen.

Curriculum for Profit and Propaganda  

Alan Singer takes a look at the newfound interest in curriculum among the reformnoscenti.

Open and Accessible?

A Chalkbeat reporter tries to attend ten charter school  meetings in a month. It doesn't go well.

Gates Funded Commission To Put Value on College Education

Just in case you were worried that Bill Gates might be done messing with education.

I was a white teacher who couldn't talk about race.  

Sarah Fine with an open and honest look at her own journey. If you only read one piece this week...

About charter schools-- and Betsy DeVos

Larry Campbell will not make you guess what he really feels.

At Excel Academy, a confrontation that never should have happened 

An ugly encounter between a racist and students. For your "I can't believe this kind of crap still happens" file.

Better To Be Born Rich 

A Georgetown study tracked kindergartners from 1989. Turns out that test scores don't change your future, but the economics of your family pretty well set it.

What Do Teachers Really Want From Professional Development? Respect.

Yes, somebody gets it.

Dear STAR Test, We Need To Talk, Again  

Another crappy standardized test. This time it's reading.

Jeanne Allen 

The indispensable Mercedes Schneider digs deep for the story of the crankiest reformster of them all.

The New But Not Necessarily Improved ASD 

Tennessee's Achievement School District was a model for how the state could take over a bunch of schools and work miracles. Only it couldn't. But the ASD is still thrashing away down there.

Avenue to the Stars 

Have Your Heard looks at the intersection of school and the free market

Jeb Bush's A+ Disaster

A look at how Florida is still paying the price for Jeb! Bush and his edureformerific ideas.

Are School Playgrounds Still Empty?   

Nancy Bailey looks at the issue of littles with no chance to run and play. 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Birthday Eve Edition (5/19)

Center for Education Reform Doesn't Love Bernie

34by Peter Greene / 23h

If you have any doubts about the effect of Bernie Sander's education proposals , Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform tossed off a somewhat apoplectic newsletter after Sanders went public. Here's some sample frothing: Sanders’ comments - yelling about transparency (which of course exists) or regulation (which charters have plenty of!) and accountability (which is the very essence of ch

Bernie Sanders' Education Platform Doesn't Suck

500+by Peter Greene / 23h

The big headline on Friday was that Bernie Sanders was going to call for a ban on for-profit charters , and if the story had stopped there, I would be unimpressed. Hillary Clinton managed to condemn for-profits, and while that's a nice low-hanging fruit for politicians to grab, regular readers of this blog know that a non-profit charter is usually just a for-profit charter with a good money launde

MAY 17

Diane Ravitch's New Book: Scholarship, Activism and History

100+by Peter Greene / 1d

Diane Ravitch was the first major voice of the resistance to the modern corporate "reform" of education, in part because of her newsworthy turn from the reform ideas and peers she had previously embraced. An education historian, she has laid out the problems with the recent assaults on public education in several solid and well-built books (with another one on the way). But Ravitch is a tireless v

MAY 16

Miracle School's Secret Sauce

100+by Peter Greene / 2d

Here's news of yet another miraculous charter school. Can we look closely and see what the secret of their success might be. Southland College Prep School in Chicagoland had 100% of its mostly-Black graduating class accepted to college. It's the sixth straight year for this achievement, and it's been covered widely in the area. The school is the only charter high school in the state to earn an exe

Why The Big Standardized Test Is Useless For Teachers

47by Peter Greene / 3d

In schools throughout the country, it is testing season--time for students to take the Big Standardized Test (the PARCC, SBA, or your state's alternative). This ritual really blossomed way back in the days of No Child Left Behind, but after all these years, teachers are mostly unexcited about it. There are many problems with the testing regimen, but a big issue for classroom teachers is that the

MAY 15

OH: State Ed Board Joins Takeover Law Opposition

200+by Peter Greene / 3d

HB 70 is an Ohio law that strips a school district and its elected school board of all their power and hands it, via an academic distress board, to one person-- a super-powered CEO. The law was rammed through the legislature in less than 12 hours under the direction of then-Governor Kasich, and so far it has been used to take over Youngstown, Lorain, and East Cleveland schools (three districts tha

MAY 14

Success Academy Violates Student Privacy (Again)

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

In a way, I can almost sympathize with Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy. Schools can find themselves in a real bind at times. A student can go to the media (social or traditional) and tell a story of how he was repeatedly hauled into the principal's office and disciplined because he was fighting bullies who picked on him for being gay, and the school must hold its tongue, even if it has a folder

MAY 13

DFER Tries To Swing A Primary

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

We live in interesting times. So many folks are sure they know what "most people" think or "most people" want, but it's hard for anybody to have a clue because the great American industry is the business of trying to sell a particular opinion. Even when the Russians mess with us, their disinformation campaigns focus not on lies about policy (free college will make your hair fall out) so much as on

MAY 12

Parenting Is All About Losing

100by Peter Greene / 6d

As I've been immersed again in the world of children's music, I'm struck by how much of it is sad. Not "when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall sad," but a kind of melancholic ache behind the music itself. I think it's the losing. My wife asked me the other day, "Is it always like this?" We had turned around and had one of those moments when you realize that your baby looks like a small child,

ICYMI: Do You Feel Appreciated Now Edition (5/12)

100+by Peter Greene / 7d

So, teachers, did this week do it for you? Here are some pieces to read while you bask in the warm glow. A Bridge Too Far Wow. Florida Senator Tom Lee (R) is a long time supporter of charters, but during this last round of legislative baloney he stood up to say "enough." Accountabaloney reports some of his speech and it is rough and honest and nobody paid attention, but you should. Firing Day At A

MAY 10

PA: More Charter Shenanigans in Harrisburg

100+by Peter Greene / 9d

On May 7, a group of four bills related to charter schools suddenly popped up, referred to the House education committee in the state capitol. Surprise! Let's take a look: HB 355 : This bill is supposed to strengthen the "ethical requirements" for charter schools (including cybers). It sets requirements for annual independent financial audits and puts limits on how much money charters can hold in

MAY 09

What She Taught Me

77by Peter Greene / 10d

I've written about Miss Gause before. She was my elementary school vocal music teacher, and she had a critical effect on me in two major ways. First, she was fairly relentless in confronting the Monotone Boys I'm-Too-Cool-To-Sing Chorus in the back of the room. She harangued us into listening to pitches and more or less matching them. Now, in my school students took a listening aptitude test in fo

MAY 07

Knewton, A Big Name in Big Data, Bites The Dust

100+by Peter Greene / 11d

Adaptive learning. Computer-enhanced psychometrics. Personalized learning via computer. Knewton was going to do it all. Now it's being sold for parts. Knewton started in 2008, launched by Jose Ferreira. By 2012, Ferreira led the ed tech pack in overpromising that sounded both improbable and creepy. In a Forbes interview piece , Ferreira described Knewton as "what could become the world’s most valu

Maine Dumps Test-Centered Teacher Evaluation

1Kby Peter Greene / 12d

Maine has broken with the status quo of test-centered accountability for teachers. Beginning with No Child Left Behind, public schools have committed to test-centered accountability, using student results on a single standardized 

Jersey Jazzman: Stuff Journalists Should Know About Charter Schools

Jersey Jazzman: Stuff Journalists Should Know About Charter Schools

Stuff Journalists Should Know About Charter Schools

I can't say I'm surprised, but it looks like Bernie Sanders' latest policy speech on education – where, among other things, he calls for a ban on for-profit charter schools and other charter school reforms -- has generated a lot of fair to poor journalism that purports to explain what charters are and how they perform.

Predictably, the worst of the bunch is from Jon Chait, who cheerleads for charters often without adhering to basic standards of transparency. Chait's latest piece is so overblown that even a casual reader with no background in charter schools will recognize it for the screed that it is, so I won't waste time rebutting it.

There are, however, plenty of other pieces about Sanders' proposals that take a much more measured tone... and yet still get some charter school basics wrong. I'm going to hold off on citing specific examples and instead hope (against hope) that maybe I can get through to some of the journalists who want to get the story of charters right.

Here are some things a journalist should understand before attempting to write about charter schools:

1) The CREDO studies are severely limited, and their reporting of effect sizes in "days of learning" is not warranted.

It seems that the CREDO studies of charter school effects continue to stand as the go-to source for journalists looking to find if charters "work." It should go without saying that relying on one methodology to make sweeping statements about the efficacy of a particular policy is highly problematic -- especially when the methods used in the CREDO studies have been so poorly documented.

The 2015 urban charter study seems to be the one cited most often in the press -- and yet CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Stuff Journalists Should Know About Charter Schools

Supporting the Arts with Love and Logic - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Supporting the Arts with Love and Logic - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Supporting the Arts with Love and Logic

Okay everyone, we have a problem.

It’s been a while since I last posted. Over a year to be exact. As many of you know, I’ve been busy!

Last year, I ran a campaign for the San Francisco Unified Board of Education (and WON!) On the campaign trail, I shared my vision of bringing more transparency and accountability to our district. Now that I’m a Board of Education Commissioner, and as Chair for the Budget and Business Services Committee, I have made it my utmost responsibility to ensure our school district’s budget is clear, accurate and equitable. 

As a former classroom teacher, and as a current parent, it is crucial that every last dollar reaches our schools. As Commissioners, we are charged with ensuring the district is accountable — the public deserves to know how their taxpayer dollars are spent in service of our students.

We need to talk about the Arts budget.

In response to parent and community questions, I am creating transparency about our budget so families, teachers and community members understand how our district is funding arts programming. 

Much of this is funded by SFUSD’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) program.

Huge support for the Arts in our schools

Actually, San Francisco’s public schools are very, very lucky. Throughout the Great Recession and even now, our Public Education Enrichment Fund (PEEF)  has allowed our district to provide arts and music programming that many other California districts cannot.

PEEF is voted for and funded by the residents of San Francisco. We are so fortunate to have these extra resources!

But I have questions

As part of my work for the Budget committee,  I’ve been looking at the PEEF budget. Out of all our expenditures, Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) has one of the largest chunks of the PEEF budget — $15 million dollars.  

As I look closely at the VAPA budget, I can see discrepancies in where the money is going. I’ve been asking about these for a while now, from the folks CONTINUE READING: Supporting the Arts with Love and Logic - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

The Teacher as Assessor | Teacher in a strange land

The Teacher as Assessor | Teacher in a strange land

The Teacher as Assessor

A little handmade meme has popped up recently in my Facebook feed, shared by Alexandra Penfold, a children’s author and food writer.

Interesting, no? Being told—by scientific measurement, no less—that you were minimally proficient at the skill that was your heart’s desire and life goal. And then sailing on to the very wonderful career you planned, data be damned.

There are lots of implications here, most importantly that test scores are not even close to reality. The first question I would ask Penfold, if I could, is whether she was ever made to feel as if her skills were ‘remedial’—either by any of her teachers, or by her family. I doubt it.

But I have heard plenty of stories about kids who seemed to be fine, cooking right along, until they were derailed by surprising test results, causing a radical change in plans (different classes, different college, different career). Testing impacts lives—and Penfold probably missed the worst of the data fetishism that has become standard in American public education.

And yet, the alternative—the teacher as sole assessor–has come to feel almost random to us. Do we trust teachers—all teachers—to provide useful and accurate feedback, the kind that nurtures children’s dreams and also pushes them to excel? It’s a tall order.

Teachers develop their personal assessment skills and models over time. And building equity and encouragement into testing and grading (as opposed to using evaluation as sorting or punishing) takes a lot of trial and error. Some teachers are good at using grades and scores as investments in student growth. Others, not so much.

Universities don’t do enough to prepare teachers with a range of assessment strategies CONTINUE READING: The Teacher as Assessor | Teacher in a strange land

Flat-lining — Base Wages and the MMSD Budget | AMPS

Flat-lining — Base Wages and the MMSD Budget | AMPS

Flat-lining — Base Wages and the MMSD Budget

The Flaming Groovies — Slow Death, live (click to listen/watch)

The 2019-20 Madison Metropolitan School District budget has — to this point — been built in such a way that employee spending power (wages adjusted for inflation) will remain flat (except for those who advance via educational or credential changes).  MTI has an action alert on this, for the Monday May 20th meeting, and beyond.  At a time when the challenges are great, the morale low,the related difficulties in attracting and retaining staff well-documented, this adds injury to insults.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the budget narrative includes misdirections, in  attempts to confuse the issues.  The key passages are here (on page 16 under “Budget Goals and Guiding Principles” — Goals and Principles the Board never voted on, because the MMSD Board rarely votes on anything involving the budget until 90%+ has been decided by the administration, with easily ignored “feedback” but not decision-making from Board):

Provide total compensation (steps + base wage) to employees equal to or greater than final CPI-U/COLA @ 2.44%

And here, on page 25:

In total with what is reserved in the budget, the average employee with a 2.5% total compensation increase will receive total take home pay slightly above the CPI-u index.

A little background and explanation.  Scott Walker’s Act 10, among other things limited public sector collective bargaining agreements (CBAs or union contracts) to maximum base wage increases equal to the consumer price index changes CONTINUE READING: Flat-lining — Base Wages and the MMSD Budget | AMPS

Pearson’s Plans for 2025: Make Sure You Are Seated When You Read This | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pearson’s Plans for 2025: Make Sure You Are Seated When You Read This | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pearson’s Plans for 2025: Make Sure You Are Seated When You Read This

Pearson has plans for the future. Its plans involve students, education, and profits. Pearson, of course, is the British mega-publishing corporation that has an all-encompassing vision of monetizing every aspect of education.

Two researchers, Sam Sellar and Anna Hogan, have reviewed Pearson’s plans. It is a frightening portrait of corporate privatization of teaching and of student data, all in service of private profit.

Pearson 2025: Transforming teaching and privatising education data, by Sam Sellar and Anna Hogan, discusses the potentially damaging effects of the company’s strategy for public education globally. It raises two main issues of concern in relation to the integrity and sustainability of schooling:

1. the privatization of data infrastructure and data, which encloses innovation and new knowledge about how we learn, turning public goods into private assets; and
2. the transformation and potential reduction of the teaching profession, diminishing the broader purposes and outcomes of public schooling.

You can also find a radio program featuring one of the researchers which discusses these issues at http://www.radiolabour.net/hogan-140519.html

Pearson’s Plans for 2025: Make Sure You Are Seated When You Read This | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pseudo-Socialist Bernie Sanders Finally Opposes Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Pseudo-Socialist Bernie Sanders Finally Opposes Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Pseudo-Socialist Bernie Sanders Finally Opposes Charter Schools

After wavering and making confusing statements about charter schools three years ago when he was running for President, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for President again, finally came out and issued a broad education plan on May 18, 2019 which, among other things, opposes charter schools.

Part two of Sanders’ ten-part “Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education” is titled, “End the Unaccountable Profit-Motive of Charter Schools.’

Sanders begins this part of his education plan for the nation by repeating the incorrect and refuted narrative, stubbornly promoted by the left, democrats, and “progressives,” that charter schools had humble, positive, grass-roots origins, as opposed to being conceived, organized, and implemented by neoliberals committed to destroying the natural and social environment.

After that, Sanders properly notes that: “Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system.” He also provides data showing that charter schools are significantly more segregated than public schools.

Sanders rightly demands that: “The damage to communities caused by unregulated charter school growth must be stopped and reversed.”

Reversing charter schools should include making reparations to public schools because of the severe harm charter schools have inflicted on them for more than 25 years.

Sanders goes on to call for a ban on for-profit charter schools and a moratorium on public funds for charter school expansion. Any time the funneling of public funds to the rich is stopped, that is a good thing for the economy, society, and people.

The remaining points in Sanders’ education plan correctly call for greater accountability in the notoriously low-transparency scandal-ridden charter school sector.

All these statements and demands should be supported because they serve CONTINUE READING: Pseudo-Socialist Bernie Sanders Finally Opposes Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

CURMUDGUCATION: Center for Education Reform Doesn't Love Bernie

CURMUDGUCATION: Center for Education Reform Doesn't Love Bernie

Center for Education Reform Doesn't Love Bernie

If you have any doubts about the effect of Bernie Sander's education proposals, Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform tossed off a somewhat apoplectic newsletter after Sanders went public. Here's some sample frothing:

Sanders’ comments - yelling about transparency (which of course exists) or regulation (which charters have plenty of!) and accountability (which is the very essence of charters) - are almost as bad as when Randi Weingarten, AFT Union’s leader, called charters the polite second cousin of segregation.

But transparency doesn't exist for charters, charters have far too little regulation, and consequently, many charters are completely unaccountable. For just one mild example, look at this recent piece about trying to attend charter board meetings in Detroit.

While they have a tough job, it is a fact that traditional public schools are failing to educate more than 60% of students well in math, reading, history, civics, you name it. We also know that a charter school in any neighborhood puts pressure on the standard public schools around it to do better.

It is not a fact. That 60% uneducated figure is 100% bullshit. Nor do we know any such thing about so-called charter "pressure."

It drives unions crazy that charters do so well and are allowed to operate outside of their control, so the teachers unions have launched an all-out war on charter schools. Now they CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Center for Education Reform Doesn't Love Bernie

Jeanne Allen and Her Center for Education Reform (CER) | deutsch29

Jeanne Allen and Her Center for Education Reform (CER) | deutsch29

Jeanne Allen and Her Center for Education Reform (CER)

Jeanne Allen is founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform (CER). I have written about her on occasion, the last time (prior to this post) being in October 2017, when she was upset to discover that a quote of hers was used as the final title for the film, Backpack Full of Cash.

On May 10, 2019, I read a tweet Allen posted in which she intentionally promoted misinformation about education historian and public school advocate, Diane Ravitch, with Allen insinuating that Ravitch used money from the teachers union to pay for her home (that Ravitch purchased 40 years ago, by the way) because, in Allen’s apparently narrow experience on such a front, book sales could not possibly account for such a purchase, and (again, limited Allen) if that money wasn’t generated exclusively from book sales, the only other explanation must be a Walton– I mean, a union– purchase.

The meanness of Allen’s tweet was off-putting (I chose not to post it here), but her willingness to promote false information in a public forum irked me. Allen has the means and ability to know that what she wrote is patently false, yet she chose to promote a lie anyway.

I had not seen Allen do so before. (Not that she hasn’t; it is possible that she has and that I’ve just not seen it.)

Jeanne Allen

So, I thought it time to get to know Allen and her CER better. However, Allen’s CER bio reads more like a promotional ad than a comprehensive detailing of her  CONTINUE READING: Jeanne Allen and Her Center for Education Reform (CER) | deutsch29

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Congrats to the victorious CTU CORE Caucus

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Congrats to the victorious CTU CORE Caucus

Congrats to the victorious CTU CORE Caucus

As expected, Chicago Teachers Union Pres. Jesse Sharkey and his CORE caucus easily defeated the opposition Members First slate to retain their control of CTU leadership. Now it's on to the contract negotiations which hopefully can be resolved sooner than later.

Obviously feeling charged from his victory, Sharkey issued a threat to Chicago's mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot.

“We hope that the new mayor makes good on her promises to transform our public schools — if she does, she will find us to be a steadfast ally. If she does not, she will find us to be an implacable foe,” Sharkey said.

Remember, the CTU leadership had backed Lightfoot’s opponent, Cook County Board President and Democratic Party chief, Toni Preckwinkle, who lost to Lightfoot in a landslide. During the campaign, Sharkey claimed that the choice to endorse Preckwinkle was made at least in part because Preckwinkle “gives us better leverage in a contract fight."

Even if that were true (which I doubt), it made the early endorsement that much more problematic. If Preckwinkle would have won, I suspect Sharkey's quote would have been all over the media during the contract negotiations, putting added pressure on the mayor to be "tough" on the unions.Actually, with the exception of Preckwinkle's early support for charter schools, both candidates had pretty much the same stand on ed issues CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Congrats to the victorious CTU CORE Caucus