A surprising candidate for Florida education chief - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

A surprising candidate for Florida education chief - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

A surprising candidate for Florida education chief

By Valerie Strauss

Last December I published a post about a school board member in Florida who decided to take one of the standardized tests that students
(bigstock)are forced to take. He wasn’t allowed to take the exact test so a similar one was created for him. He took math and reading tests with questions for 10th graders — and flunked.

That man is Rick Roach, who is in his fourth four-year term representing District 3 on the Board of Education in Orange County, Fla., a public school system with 180,000 students.

Since his testing experiment, Roach has been vocal about the many problems with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and is a member of the Central Florida School Board Coalition, which released a white paper a few months ago that concluded that the FCAT is being 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-1-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Edushyster Does Charter Math

by dianerav

Edushyster noticed a strange phenomenon.
A charter school received a $1.5 million grant to close the achievement gap.
Edushyster noticed that its first class had 47 students. But 17 eventually graduated.
Then it was explained.
This is called success by attrition. It is usually associated with miracle schools, where 100% of the students graduate (of those that make it to senior year). For more on miracle schools, check Gary Rubinstein’s blog.

A Remarkable Investigative Reporter

by dianerav

Stephanie Simon of Reuters has written one blockbuster story after another. She has done the digging and investigation that make her stories genuinely valuable. In education, as more newspapers cut back their in-depth education reporting, this kind of investigative journalism is becoming increasingly rare.
She wrote stunning articles about the privatization 

My Recent Articles about Corporate Reform

by dianerav

Recently, a newly elected member of a school board asked me to suggest background reading. So I put together a list of the reviews I have written for the New York Review of Books in the past two years. When I get some time, I will suggest a reading list of books.
I think you will enjoy them.
**********************************
This is a review of Steven Brill’s book “Class Warfare” and Janet Mayer’s “As Bad As They Say.”
**********************************
This is a review of

A Teacher Writes to President Oama

by dianerav

Dear Mr. President,
I have received your daily emails and phone calls – please take me off your lists.
I gave you some money in May, even though I didn’t want to – your phone volunteers are very persuasive!
I voted for you in 2008, and I will again in November.
What choice do I have? The alternative isn’t better, and probably worse overall. Though, I will vote for you 

Principals Give Flunking Grade to NY Teacher Evaluation Scheme

by dianerav

New York had the bad luck to win $700 million in Race to the Top funding.
The politicians thought it would help balance the budget, not realizing that the grant would not be available to plug budget holes.
Now we know that principals think the costly, time-wasting evaluation system is useless. Eighty percent find it 

How About a Letter to the President?

by dianerav

Linda in Connecticut is one of the regular commenters on the blog and also one of the wittiest. She often makes me laugh out loud.
But her last comment was serious, and other readers responded positively. She said we should write a letter to the President. And she wrote a draft indicating what she thought it should contain.
Here’s the thing. President Obama is preferable to Mitt Romney, who would dismantle public education without a 

A Charter Teacher Tells What Happened

by dianerav

In response to an earlier post about the lack of accountability for charters, a teacher wrote to describe her experience in a charter school in Pennsylvania. Most important in her story is the last line:
From 2009-2011 I worked for a Philadelphia charter school that exemplifies the problems Bill White is talking about, a problem leaders like Ackerman were enforcing before Corbett assumed his role. When I entered the Philadelphia school system in 2009, the district’s messaging under Arlene Ackerman seemed to be: if public schools are the problem, charter schools are the answer.

Governor signs off on bill ensuring free public education | EdSource Today

Governor signs off on bill ensuring free public education | EdSource Today:

Governor signs off on bill ensuring free public education

October 1st, 2012 | Add a Comment | 
By Kathryn Baron

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Gov. Jerry Brown has approved legislation that settles a lawsuit over public schools illegally charging students for educational activities and materials such as textbooks, exams, and field trips.

Assemblymember Ricardo Lara (D-South Gate)

AB 1575, introduced by Assemblymember Ricardo Lara (D-South Gate), resolves Jane Doe and Jason Roe v. The State of California. The class action lawsuit, filed by the ACLU in Sept. 2010, accused state education officials of operating by “winks and nods” as “public school districts blatantly violated the free school guarantee” in the State Constitution.

That refers to Article IX, Sec. 5 of California’s Constitution, which states: “The Legislature shall provide for a system of common schools by which a free school shall be kept up and supported in each district at least six months in every year, after the first year in which a school has been established.”

In the legal depositions, students described being singled out and 

School Tech Connect: Life in Rogers Park

School Tech Connect: Life in Rogers Park:

Life in Rogers Park

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

For the second time in a calendar year, I've had to faceplant myself onto the floor to avoid gunfire. Last night, it was right outside the house--- the shells were literally scattered across my front yard. I usually count the shots, but last night after about ten, I realized this wasn't a little pistol fight; it sounded more like a combat zone.

I live on the first floor, so the chances of stray gunfire making its way into my apartment are pretty significant. It now seems like a terrible tradeoff for the luxury of not climbing stairs. 

The whole thing came as such a disappointment, given that the mayor of Chicago has flat-out told the gang 

solidaridad: Daily Kos: American Center for School Choice Versus The John Birch Society

solidaridad: Daily Kos: American Center for School Choice Versus The John Birch Society:

Daily Kos: American Center for School Choice Versus The John Birch Society

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

The so-called "Parent Trigger" is an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) template law written primarily by right-wingers Bill Lucia of EdVoice and Ben Austin of Green Dot School Corporation. DFER Corporate school privatizer Gloria Romero, who signed her name on that bill that was snuck through the California legislature in a desperate attempt to win Race to the Trough bribe dollars, recently took offense to the fact that many people are starting to learn the reactionary origins of charter trigger laws. Romero recently penned a ridiculous attack on the distinguished Professor Diane Ravitch. Since Romero is a pariah even in her own 

Two Thumbs Up for Won’t Back Down | Re:education in Baltimore

Two Thumbs Up for Won’t Back Down | Re:education in Baltimore:

Two Thumbs Up for Won’t Back Down

by Edit Barry

The latest film from Walden Media and 20th Century Fox shows American audiences how to stage a parent revolution.

Won’t Back Down is a new feature film starring Oscar-nominated actresses Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as two moms, Jaime and Nona, who take over their F-grade public elementary school. The school has a mathematical problem: Eighty percent of graduates can’t read. It’s personal for Jaime, whose 8-year-old daughter, Malia, is a walking statistic. The film opens with Malia’s anguished attempt to sound out a command: “Put the story in order.”
Okay.

1. Choose an American city with a troubled public school system. Make it Pittsburgh

NYC Educator: Filling That Last Few Minutes

NYC Educator: Filling That Last Few Minutes:

Filling That Last Few Minutes

by NYC Educator

My wife steadfastly refuses to drive on parkways. I'm trying to persuade her otherwise, and I was driving her around giving her instructions. "You know, you turn here, wait for the car, and, umm.... then you get on."

My daughter, in the back seat, said, "You know what you sound like? You sound like a teacher who finished the class early and is trying to fill up the last few minutes."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're improvising," she said. "You have no idea what you're talking about and you're just making it up as you go along."

I was shocked. She was right, of course. I really had 

Fine Print: State Control of Newark Schools in Court - NJ Spotlight

Fine Print: State Control of Newark Schools in Court - NJ Spotlight:

Fine Print: State Control of Newark Schools in Court

Advocates of home rule for Newark schools take their case to Appellate Court

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By John Mooney, October 1, 2012 in Education |Post a Comment

What it is: The first legal briefs have been filed in the appeal of the Christie administration’s recent decision to retain control of New Jersey’s largest school district. Appellants contend that the administration manipulated the process that would have started shifting the schools back to local oversight. The state has moved to dismiss the appeal outright, at this point on mostly technical grounds.

Related Links

Newark Appellant Brief

State Argument for Dismissal

Coalition for Effective Newark Public Schools (CENPS)

What it means: The challenge before the state appellate court sets the stage for the legal system to weigh in on an explosive situation that the political system has failed to resolve for the past decade. The court battle comes at a time when the district is in the national spotlight for its school reform efforts being guided by the state, as well as the $100 million gift from Facebook founder mark Zuckerberg.

The appellants’ argument: The brief filed this week by the Education Law Center, the 

The Educated Reporter: 'Deferred Action' Program For Immigrant Students Slows Amid Concerns

The Educated Reporter: 'Deferred Action' Program For Immigrant Students Slows Amid Concerns:

'Deferred Action' Program For Immigrant Students Slows Amid Concerns

by Emily Richmond

The Wall St. Journal's Miriam Jordan had an interesting story about a slowdown in applications for President Obama's controversial "deferred action" program for immigrant students. Apparently uncertainty about how much information applicants must share with immigration authorities, as well as concerns about the outcome of the presidential election, is making some people reluctant to apply.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program offers a means of obtaining a legal two-year permit to work or attend school, and is not a pathway to citizenship. To qualify, individuals must be 30 years old or younger, and have lived continuously in the U.S. since June 15, 2007. They must also have stayed out of trouble with no record of serious crimes. 

CAN WE THRIVE AS A SOCIETY? WHERE DOES LAUSD FIT IN? - Perdaily.com

CAN WE THRIVE AS A SOCIETY? WHERE DOES LAUSD FIT IN? - Perdaily.com:

CAN WE THRIVE AS A SOCIETY? WHERE DOES LAUSD FIT IN?

by Leonard Isenberg

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)


Writing a blog on the purposeful failing of public education at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and elsewhere in this country tends to make one myopic to what is going on elsewhere in our society and around the world. To remedy this occupational hazard, I suggest you take a 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

On Sunday afternoon, nearly 1,000 people, practically all of them African American, answered Ed Gardner’s call to rally at 95th and Western to protest the continued lack of black workers on construction sites in Chicago.|

Mary Mitchell

They were young and old, teachers and parents, churchgoers and hell-raisers, politicians and their bashers marching alongside the well-to-do and those not doing so well. Protesters converged from both directions on Western — at times spilling out into the street and stopping traffic between 95th and 91st and Western, chanting: “If we don’t work. No one works.”  -- Sun-Times  

Daily Kos: Paul Krugman asks if the election will be honored

Daily Kos: Paul Krugman asks if the election will be honored:

Paul Krugman asks if the election will be honored

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

and no, in The Real Referendum, his Monday column for The New York Times, the Nobel Laureate is not raising a question of the election being stolen.  He operates from an assumption that the election is not, as the Republicans had expected, a referendum on the President where he would be found wanting.  Instead he sees it like this:

Voters are, in effect, being asked to deliver a verdict on the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society, on Social Security, Medicare and, yes, Obamacare, which represents an extension of that legacy.

 Krugman, assuming the President would win such a referendum against Romney/Ryan, then offers this:  

Jersey Jazzman: Jonny Alter's Head Pops Off

Jersey Jazzman: Jonny Alter's Head Pops Off:

Jonny Alter's Head Pops Off

I missed this clip at last weekends's Education Nation from MSNBC. It's well worth watching, if only for the entertainment value of seeing pundit Jonathan Alter lose his cool when someone who knows what the hell their talking about calls him out:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The best part is when Alter says, "No offense." Yeah, sure: why would Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig take offense at having his peer-reviewed study be called "cherry-picking" and "bogus" on national TV?

Alter is part of the great mass of pundits who continue to write about education without 

SI&A Cabinet Report – Court restricts services for disabled students to federal requirements

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Print this article

Court restricts services for disabled students to federal requirements
By Lee Funk
Monday, October 01, 2012

Applying a 30-year-old Supreme Court ruling to a California case, a federal district court found that schools do not have to meet the top level when providing services for students with disabilities  – only a “basic floor of opportunity.”

The decision has far reaching implications for officials throughout this state because so many requirements of California’s education code can easily be interpreted as exceeding those outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,  often forcing districts to offer programs for students in special education that go far beyond the scope of those provided for their peers in general education.

At issue was the type of services offered by Poway Unified for a deaf and hard of hearing girl who was transitioning from middle school to high school. The family had requested a “word-for-word” transcription service called Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) while the district was willing to provide TypeWell, which 

Teach For America Burned Me Out | The Billfold

Teach For America Burned Me Out | The Billfold:

Teach For America Burned Me Out

by Adi ElbazSeptember 26th, 2012

It’s back-to-school season, and for the first time, I am not a part of the melee. At 24 years old, I have no classes to prepare for, no lead pencils to buy. My masters degree is completed, a useless (and enormous) piece of cardstock in a very expensive frame. College is a distant utopian dream. My two years as an inner-city middle-school teacher have been distilled to a line on a resume, a punch line to the black joke that was my early twenties. That thing I did, that one time.

I applied to Teach for America for the same reasons as anyone else. Fear was primary among 

Corvallis charter schools are window into Oregon system of the independent public schools:

Corvallis charter schools are window into Oregon system of the independent public schools

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS   September 30, 2012 - 7:56 pm EDT CORVALLIS, Ore. — A dispute between an Oregon charter school and the local school district offers some insights into the complex and sometimes tense relationship between charter schools and their sponsoring districts. After the Philomath School Board voted to close Kings Valley School in early 2001 due to budgetary reasons, community members rallied to save the small, rural school. In September 2001, Kings Valley Charter School opened its doors. With the support of the Philomath School District, it has thrived. The district provided more funding than required by state law and added high school grades. The school's enrollment grew and it has received high marks from the state. A decade later, that relationship has grown strained. This past summer, Kings Valley sued the district, arguing it had withheld some of the money it was owed because of its status as a rural school. The district accused the school of violating its charter and issued a notice to terminate the charter. For three months, they have met to try to resolve their issues, but they are far from an agreement. Scio School District Superintendent Gary Tempel tells The Corvallis

Up w/ Chris Hayes: Conservative media moguls fund film pushing parent trigger laws

Up w/ Chris Hayes: Conservative media moguls fund film pushing parent trigger laws:

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SignOn.org - I'm a lifelong Democrat, and Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee doesn't speak for me!

SignOn.org - I'm a lifelong Democrat, and Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee doesn't speak for me!:

I'm a lifelong Democrat, and Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee doesn't speak for me!

By Matt Farmer (Contact)

To be delivered to: Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee, your recent op-ed in The Washington Post shows that you are tremendously out of step with Democrats who believe in equity and justice. Please stop trying to speak for us.

Chicago's teachers, like teachers across this country, work hard to promote equal opportunity for all children, regardless of their background. Yet for too long, the schools that serve our city's neediest children have been forced to deal with conditions that wealthy people like Mayor Emanuel would never tolerate for their own kids. Chicago's teachers believe that all students deserve a full curriculum, including art, music and science. All students deserve fully-stocked, fully-staffed libraries, where they can develop a love of reading. All students deserve to be safe at school and to have nurses and social workers assist them with their day-to-day struggles. Students deserve to be taught in buildings that are properly heated, cooled and ventilated, so kids can focus on learning instead of fending off illness.

These are basic things that students and teachers in many Chicago communities have been denied for too long, and which powerful local officials refused to address seriously until teachers went on strike in September. And that's why the Chicago community stood 2-1 with the teachers over the politicians, despite the hardship the strike caused. No one in Chicago wanted a strike, but teachers could no longer afford to tolerate these injustices to their students.

Yet, shockingly, Michelle Rhee claims that by taking a stand for equity, members of the Chicago Teachers Union -- and, presumably, the parents and students who supported them -- are alienating themselves from the Democratic Party. Either Rhee doesn't know what this strike was about, or she has a vastly different idea than the rest of us about what it means to be a Democrat.

Equity and justice are core Democratic values. Indeed, they are core American values. If Michelle Rhee claims the party is moving away from these values, then she is out of touch with Democrats like us. 

Sign this petition

 
IT IS A RULE: YOU CAN'T BE AGAINST PEOPLE AND FOR CORPORATIONS AND CALL YOURSELF A DEMOCRAT...EVER!