DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? | A site to discuss better education for all

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

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? 

A site to discuss better education for all

Gary Rubinstein: More Reform-Funded Nonsense About KIPP Graduation Rates

by dianeravitch / now

Gary Rubinstein is the Myth-Buster of the Resistance. He has achieved this eminent position because of his intolerance for hype, propaganda, and lies. In this post, he bust the myth that low-income charter school graduates have a dramatically higher college graduation rate than low-income public school graduates. In fact, he shows, charter school graduates have the same college graduation rate as

Steve Hinnefeld: Indiana’s School Rating System Is Worthless

by dianeravitch / 1h

Steve Hinnefeld is a veteran reporter on Indiana education. In this post, he describes the shift from a simplistic A-F rating system (the one devised by Jeb Bush) to the federal rating system, which includes more factors. The problem with both ratings systems is that they accurately measure student income. The highest rated schools have students with the highest income. The lowest rated schools h

Arizona: Goldwater Institute Sues to Invalidate Regulation of Voucher Money

by dianeravitch / 2h

The far-right Goldwater Institute has filed a lawsuit claiming that the state has no right to regulate how parents spend their voucher money, the money that is paid by taxpayers. Goldwater says that if the parents misspent the money, it should be refunded to parents so they can try again. The Goldwater Institute, along with the DeVos family and Charles Koch, have sponsored efforts to expand the v

Jersey Jazzman: The Hoax of “Choice”

by dianeravitch / 3h

Jersey Jazzman, aka New Jersey teacher Mark Weber, analyzes the false promises of choice advocates . He demonstrates their repeated claims that charters and vouchers will give poor kids “the same choices” as rich kids. This is nonsense. Wealthy Right-wingers have been trying to destroy public education for decades. This is their latest hoax. The private schools where rich families send their chil

YESTERDAY

New York: Will Democrats in State Senate Sell Out to Hedge Fund Billionaires?

94by dianeravitch / 15h

The New York Daily News reports that lobbyists for billionaires who support charter schools had a cozy meeting with Democrats in the State Senate. Even though pro-public education progressives swept control of the State Senate away from the charter-crazy Republicans in the State Senate, the lobbyists know that money is still green, no matter who is in power. Jeffrey Cook-McCormac, a lobbyist work

Sign Up Now for the Network for Public Education Action Conference in Philadelphia, March 28-29!

by dianeravitch / 22h

Join your friends, allies, and other members of the Resistance in Philadelphia, March 28-29. Now is the time to register!

Sanders Speaks Out for Public Schools and Their Teachers in Florida

88by dianeravitch / 22h

Thousands of teachers in Florida are rallying at the state capitol today to demand higher wages and better working conditions. The Republican-dominated legislature has been handing out public monies to charter schools and for voucher programs, but ignoring the public schools that enroll 85% of the state’s students. Several of the key legislators are related to charter operators. Conflicts of inte

Hooray! The Astrology Book Club Recommends SLAYING GOLIATH!

by dianeravitch / 23h

SLAYING GOLIATH will be published one week from tomorrow! I can’t wait for you to read it and send your comments. Meanwhile, the latest kudo came from an unexpected source: LITHUB. Its Astrology Book Club selected SLAYING GOLIATH as one of its annual recommendations . CAPRICORN Diane Ravitch, Slaying Goliath (Knopf, January 21) If you really need something to get done, call a Capricorn. These tou

Arthur Goldstein: Albany Hands Down the New 10 Commandments to English Teachers

by dianeravitch / 1d

Arthur Goldstein, veteran teacher of many decades, thinks he knows a thing or two about teaching English. The State Education Department doesn’t trust him or other English teachers. So they have distributed new mandates about how to teach “advanced literacy” to make sure that he does what he is told. And he doesn’t like it. Frankly, it sounds like Common Core in a new dress. Goldstein writes: For

Larry Lee: The Colossal Charter Mess in Alabama

by dianeravitch / 1d

Larry Lee, native Alabaman, follows the charter confusion in his home state, where the law describes precisely how charter schools should be authorized. But, as Lee notes, the actual process of creating new charters has proceeded with complete disregard for the law, and no one seems to care. Public schools in Montgomery will be replaced by charter schools, but the local board did not agree (the l

Domingo Morel: The State Takeover of Houston Schools Is about Race and Power, Not School Improvement

57by dianeravitch / 1d

Domingo Morel is a professor of political science at Rutgers University who has studied school takeovers across the nation. He is the author of Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. In this post, he describes the proposed state takeover of the Houston Independent School District as a hoax. It is a manufactured crisis. It is a theft of political power, and it is based on race. If the

DeVos Ignores Judge’s Order: Will She Be Punished?

44by dianeravitch / 1d

During the Obama administration, Congress passed legislation to protect students who had been defrauded by for-profit colleges. In most cases, the “colleges” made claims about their success in placing their graduates in jobs. 

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

Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory?

Hell yes!

Well, let me qualify that. It’s really, really important to have everybody vaccinated against a whole host of diseases — like

• the ones that killed nearly all of my uncles and aunts years before I was born; or

• The Smallpox that killed hundreds of millions over the past century or two before it was eradicated; or

• the polio that put my dad in an iron lung; or

• the mumps, chickenpox, measles, rubella, and hepatitis that I suffered through as a kid; or

the shingles that I got a year or so ago because I had chickenpox as a kid*; or

• So many others, including diphtheria, pertussis, and all the rest.

I can think of some exceptions Let me list them.

If you never ride public transportation (including taxis and rental cares); AND

You never shop in a store, attend a school, or go to a museum, CONTINUE READING: Should Childhood Vaccines Be Mandatory? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community | National Education Policy Center

10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community | National Education Policy Center

10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community

One of the remnants of House Bill 1 -- the landmark school funding and policy legislation during which I served as Chairman of the Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee -- was a provision that required all EdChoice voucher students to be tested the same as public school students.

This provision has allowed for there to be several years of testing data for some EdChoice students. The results are only posted if a certain number of students at a private school take vouchers. And only the EdChoice students at the private schools take the tests.

However, it is useful, I feel, to compare how students taking vouchers do vs. those who do not. The results are interesting. But there are several caveats:

1. The test results for voucher students only calculate the proficiency rate. Nothing on student growth. And nothing about how much over proficiency the students score. For example, public school students can rate Proficient, Accelerated or Advanced. But all voucher students get is whether they are proficient.
2. There are no test results for students in private schools who do NOT take a voucher. So the results I'm about to discuss do NOT necessarily indicate how the privates are doing overall. It is simply measuring how voucher recipients do and how proficient they are on state tests.

So here's how I did this comparison using 2017-2018 school year data (the latest available), given the caveats:

1. I looked at all private schools eligible to take EdChoice vouchers and sorted them by mailing address, then averaged their performance by that community. So, for example, I looked at the average CONTINUE READING: 10th Period: State Data: 8 in 10 Public Districts Outperform Private, Voucher Schools in the Same Community | National Education Policy Center

John Thompson: 'My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy'

'My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy'

‘My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy’

Americans are bracing for a fight — against ourselves.

Regardless of how the upcoming #Election2020 political battles are fought, our democracy is in danger. American democracy needs conversations about how we can reunite and rebuild. As is so often true, we should embrace the wisdom, eloquence, and grace in Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics and characters.

Springsteen’s Western Stars album was released in 2019 along with a film of his performances. It isn’t partisan. The name of President Donald Trump is never used. Instead, the album is about more than the Trump era and its anxiety. Springsteen portrays the fears of our post-frontier nation. He puts a face on individuals from the environments where Trumpism flourishes. Springsteen makes us come to grips with the humanity of people struggling with modern culture.

‘Hello sunshine, won’t you stay?’

As today’s conflict escalates, Western Stars pulls us into the souls of even our most combative neighbors, while exploring other, long-standing American themes. Without mentioning politics, Springsteen implicitly reteaches the principle: My opponent is my opponent, not my enemy.

Hello Sunshine is likely influenced by Springsteen’s own battle with depression. He sings:

I had a little sweet spot for the rainFor the rain and skies of greyHello sunshine, won’t you stay?

Springsteen recalls the mixed legacy of  CONTINUE READING: 

LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

I am well known as an employee that ‘rocks the boat’ in giving my well-researched opinions and urgent advocacy in service of kids and upholding the law.”

– Dr. Silke Bradford

Dr. Silke Bradford is an education professional who states that she has spent the last 20 years in the field of education at every level (teacher, assistant principal, principal, and senior director) in school districts and the county office of education. As the Los Angeles Times notes, she “has worked mostly in traditional school systems, including overseeing charters, but [she] also has experience with a charter organization.” Depending on how she positions her campaign, she could use this broad experience to her advantage by presenting herself as the candidate not beholden to either UTLA or the charter industry. Or she could draw so much fire from both sides that her chances will be doomed. CONTINUE READING: LAUSD Candidate Profile: Dr. Silke Bradford

DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC? | educationdc

DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC? | educationdc

DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC?

[Ed. Note: DC’s office of planning has promulgated revisions to the city’s comprehensive plan. The deadline for public comment was last week–but ANCs have additional time to review and comment on the draft document, which is here in a redlined version.

The changes made to this planning document not only are long on celebration and short on historical detail, but the emphasis throughout appears to be on public private partnership agreements for everything public, whether using public facilities, modernizing them, or locating in them. (Really: check out what it says about public private partnerships to construct new police stations (section 1113.4) and to remodel and construct correctional facilities (section 1114.13).) If the mayor’s planners succeed in pushing this privatized utopia through, it will likely lead to a landscape for public education in which privatizers are further encouraged to get their piece of public action, a la what DPR seems to be currently doing with Jelleff and nearby Ellington field.

(NB: If you don’t have time to wade through the >1500 redlined pages of the draft comprehensive plan to get a flavor for this, you can get the shorthand version (including a 999-year lease!) on this current list of DPR public private partnership agreements for DC’s publicly owned recreational facilities. That list was provided to the council after the public hearing on Jelleff.)

Anyhoo, below are my comments on this draft document, with an emphasis on CONTINUE READING: DC’s Comprehensive Plan–Or, The End Of The Road For Education Rights In DC? | educationdc

CURMUDGUCATION: More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

CURMUDGUCATION: More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat

Chad Aldeman (Bellwether Education Partners) wants us to take heart. He's over at The 74 (Campbell Brown's House of Reform Advocacy) arguing that although reformsters are writing off the last ten years as a "lost decade" there was actually some good news-- while "educational achievement" (by which Aldeman actually means "standardized test scores") remained stagnant, college attainment has been on the rise.

Well, that's a puzzler. Adelman suggests that you might explain the incongruity by claiming that colleges and high schools just lowered their standards. But he thinks the attainment rates deserve attention.

One reason is that it’s much easier to gauge attainment than achievement. Measuring attainment is as simple as asking adults what their highest level of education is, whereas measuring achievement involves a complex process of defining what people at various ages should know and be able to do, developing a tool to measure those skills, sampling the given population and then translating the sample results into larger estimates.

Well, yes. That second thing, the measuring achievement is hard, so hard I would argue (as I have for forever) that we can't actually do it, but in the education disruptor's desire to have such a tool, we've just rushed a couple of bad proxies to market and continued to pretend that they measure what they don't.

We already know that the NAEP is not actually a "gold standard" for measuring educational achievement. And the PARCC, SBA, and all their sad CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: More Proof The Big Standardized Tests Mean Diddly-Squat