LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-30-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Bruce Fuller Gives NCTQ Report on Teacher Prep an F

by dianerav

Bruce Fuller has been conducting research on education policies in Texas, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere for many years. His published work is careful and peer-reviewed.
Here he analyzes the recent report of the National Council on Teacher Quality and finds it woefully weak. To begin with, it looked only at inputs (catalogs and syllabi), not outputs like whether teachers got jobs as teachers 

Badass Teachers Website Is Activated

by dianerav

A message from Mark NAISON:
Here’s the link to our new website!
SUNDAY MASSIVE LAUNCH PARTY!!
OFFICIAL WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING!
A BADASS THANK YOU TO REBEKAH CORDOVA AND TEAM FOR ALL THEIR AMAZING WORK!!
http://www.badassteacher.org
Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/

Secretary Duncan: Skip This Conference

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman reported yesterday that the three keynote speakers at the National Charter Schools Conference are Joel Klein, rapper Pitbull, and Arne Duncan.
Blogger Mother Crusader did some research and

Your Gift for Today: A Favorite Poem

by dianerav

This poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of my all-time favorites.
I first read it in college and decided to memorize it. When I was feeling down, I would take walks around Lake Waban and recite it out loud. I don’t know if it made me feel better, but it was my ritual.
This poem is about death and life, fear and hope. Is this “informational text”?
Spring & Fall: to a young child
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

The Vallas Record in Philadelphia, Revisited

by dianerav

Although Paul Vallas is often credited by the mainstream media as having “saved” Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, these districts remain unsaved. Of the three, Philadelphia is in the worst shape today, its finances in shambles, desperately underfunded, neatly 4,000 teachers and other staff laid off, schools under threat of closure or privatization, students with little or no access to the arts and the other essentials of a basic education.
Here is a

Rachel Levy: To Opt Out or Not?

by dianerav

I am a few days late posting this good essay by Rachel Levy. Here she debates whether to opt out her children from Virginia’s state testing.
Levy has a terrific blog, and you should read it whenever possible or subscribe. She is one of our best thinkers today writing about education issues.
She knows that everyone is caught up in the same snare, and she doesn’t want to cause problems for her 

The BTA Launches New Media Today

by dianerav

Having sprouted nearly 20,000 members in barely two weeks, the distinguished Badass Teachers Association prepares for the long haul. Mark NAISON writes:
“Today, with the Official Launch Party for the group Logo, the youtube channel, and the opening of the BAT Store, members of the Badass Teachers Association will see how hard the administrators of this group have worked to create an organizational structure built for the long, hard, struggle to take back our profession and our schools from the profiteers, hustlers and opportunists who have marginalized our voices and deluged our schools 

A Teacher’s Plea to Bill and Melinda Gates

by dianerav

This teacher hopes that Bill and Melinda read this comment:
Dear Bill and Melinda,
I truly believe you started with good intentions. As mature adults who make mistakes, it is time to recant your initial perspective.
I’ve taught 4th and 5th graders in an inner city school for the past 17 years. What fun we used to have. Back 

Chicago Schools Get Good Coverage in UK, Not in Chicago

by dianerav

An article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, sympathetically explains the plight of students, parents, and communities that are adversely affected by the mass closings of dozens of elementary schools in Chicago.
One of the schools to be closed is Mahalia Jackson, which has a program for hearing-impaired children. When 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 6-29-13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2

Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGDiana Senechal Has Fun with the Danielson Rubricdianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 14 minutes agoSatire alert! Diana Senechal tries her hand at satirizing the Danielson rubric, which seems to have taken the nation’s schools by storm. Join her as she ventures into the Low Inference Room.The Academic Credentials Problem: V

by mike simpson / 8h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-29-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 minutes ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Gary Rubinstein: Another Miracle School Bites the Dust by dianerav The New York Daily News found another of those “miracle” schools that, on examination, isn’t. Gary Rubinstein is a master debunker of miracle schools, and his antennae went up when he read about a charter school in the South Bronx where almost every student graduates. The Daily News wrote: “Of the 66 12th graders at Hyde Leadership Charter School, 62 graduated — a 95% rate that crushes the citywide... more »

Diane in the Evening 6-29-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Sexist Rapper Will Speak at National Charter School Meetby dianeravIf you were a rapper who made millions by insulting women with vulgar lyrics and treating them as sex objects, what’s your next logical move?Why, open a charter school! It is easy if you live in Florida, where anyone can open a charter.And then you will be invited t

by mike simpson / 5min 

6-30-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

Apparently, ANYONE can open a charter school now #NCSC13

by Chalk Face, PhD

I’m sure you heard about the wonderful slate of speakers available at the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference, which includes hit hip hop artist Pitbull. Yeah! Well, I have a couple of alternatives.                 Or, yes, the Kimye National Achievement Academy of the Arts and Media!!

An Open Letter to New Teach for America Recruits

by Katie Osgood

Dear New TFA Recruits, It is summertime, which for those of you newly accepted into Teach for America, means you are enduring the long hard days of Institute.  I congratulate you on being accepted into this prestigious program.  You clearly have demonstrated intelligence, passion, and leadership in order to make it this far. And now […]

Get a TNTP Math Teacher and Neutralize Poverty Today!

by Jim Horn

Every time I think I’ve discovered the bottom of the corporate education (Corped) sewer, I find out that there is more down there where that came from. The New Teacher Network, which was managed for awhile by the Queen of Real Pain and Fake Gain, Michelle Rhee, keeps piling it up.  With a combination of […]

Gaiman’s Mythical Folding of Childhood into Adulthood | the becoming radical

by plthomasedd

Gaiman’s Mythical Folding of Childhood into Adulthood | the becoming radical.

Where’s @NCTQ on this one? Lazy. Pathetic. Ideology.

by Chalk Face, PhD

What the hell are you paying for then?

Common Core Seuss Standards? Perhaps. #commoncore

by Chalk Face, PhD

From an educator: We do not like the Common Core.It tells us not of what’s in storeUnless the kids don’t pass their testsOur futures will be put to rest. The kids will cry, struggle and fretAnd not learn to THINK, (the worst thing yet)The only thing that will occupy mindsIs finding the RIGHT answer every […]

United Opt Out to release a national Declaration of Independence this Thursday, VIDEO

by Chalk Face, PhD

The group United Opt Out is about to take, what I think to be, a major and much more aggressive stance towards the current regime of Arne Duncan and his sycophants. Please watch the following teaser for the release of UOO’s Declaration of Independence this coming July 4th. Also look ahead to state-by-state refusal guides. […]

All Week 6-29-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: Thought for the Dayplthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 3 hours agoOn my WeatherBug smartphone App, the pollen tab notes: This lack of change in airborne pollen will continue to affect those who suffer from allergies and those who live with allergy sufferers. How is it, then, that the “no excuses” education reform crowd is unable to admit th

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-29-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: What’s wrong with being a “badass?”by Chalk Face, PhDTomorrow at 6PM EST, we’re going to interview Mark Naison, someone who’s been with us in this fight for a long time now. He has recently gathered a group of people in an effort to organize the Bad Ass Teachers association on Facebook. In what, a week, there’s almost 20,000 members? The discussion is lively

by mike simpson / 7h 

Corporate education reform front blasts special Paul Vallas statutory provision that they helped pass - Wait, What?

Corporate education reform front blasts special Paul Vallas statutory provision that they helped pass - Wait, What?:

Corporate education reform front blasts special Paul Vallas statutory provision that they helped pass

by jonpelto

The overarching question is:  Are they that stupid or that ethically bankrupt?

The Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER), a corporate funded education reform group that was created to support Governor Malloy’s education reform initiative has done the impossible.  It has taken the debate surrounding Paul Vallas to a new level of absurdity.

And their action, today, leaves one to wonder whether these privatization advocates really think Connecticut citizens will fall for their outright lie or whether they are so incompetent that they actually don’t know that the very law that Paul Vallas and Stefan Pryor, Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, violated was part of the legislation written by the Malloy 

A truly historic victory over the education-industrial reform complex…

by jonpelto

Standing up to the forces that are working to privatize and destroy American public education:  The Case of Lopez v. Vallas (decided June 28, 2013)  For the judicial decision go to:   http://www.scribd.com/doc/150609033/Vallas-Bridgeport-Decision

Judge Barbara Bellis (Connecticut Superior Court Judge):

“The court orders Paul Vallas be removed from his office.”

Vallas and his witnesses, including Pryor, “were, at times less than candid with the court.”

“There is no doubt that Vallas received preferential treatment.”

“Ultimately, the course standards were reduced…The court accepts Vallas’ testimony that the work, although done over the course of 10 weeks while fulfilling his employment as 

Changing room. | Fred Klonsky

Changing room. | Fred Klonsky:

Changing room.

by Fred Klonsky

Mae Smith is an energetic woman who is membership chair of NEA Retired.
She’s from Illinois. Michigan before that. When we met the other day she greeted me like we knew each other for years.
“Oh, I read your columns,” she said with a smile.
She was polite enough not to say whether she agreed with them or liked them. But that’s her way. Her job is building membership among retired educators in the NEA. Not reviewing some blogger.
And she has been overwhelmingly successful.
While school closings and charters have contributed to a membership loss for the NEA nationally of over 

Busy babies at the Library of Congress:

Busy babies at the Library of Congress

By Valerie Strauss, Published: June 30, 2013 at 6:06 amE-mail the writer

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Baby hunter (by Carol M. Highsmith)

It’s summer, I’m on vacation (though still will be posting some new pieces during the week), and Washington is filled with tourists, so here’s a little offbeat piece for the city’s visitors.

Washington D.C. is not exactly known as a laugh-riot city, and  certainly not through its very serious marble sculpture. But it turns out the Library of Congress — of all places — offers something of a respite from that reputation.

On a recent trip to the library, I was amused by the sculpted baby boys — known asputti  in Italian Renaissance art, plural for putto — on the grand staircase banisters of the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Each one is in marble to represent a different adult occupation or interest in the late 1800s, when the building was designed. There’s a baby gardener and a baby entomologist and a baby hunter and a baby scholar and a baby mechanic and a baby electrician and a baby astronomer and, well, you get 

How My Thinking about School Reform Has Changed over the Decades (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

How My Thinking about School Reform Has Changed over the Decades (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

How My Thinking about School Reform Has Changed over the Decades (Part 1)

by larrycuban

A few years ago, Richard Elmore asked me to write a piece about how my ideas have changed over the years. Daily experience in schools as a teacher, administrator, and researcher (and the reflections and writing that I did about those experiences)  altered key ideas I had about the nature of reform and how reform worked its way into districts, schools, and classrooms. He included my piece in a book called I Used to Think… And Now I Think (Harvard Education Press, 2011). I have divided the piece into two parts. Part 1 follows. 
****************************************************************************
I used to think that public schools were vehicles for reforming society. And now I think that while good teachers and schools can promote positive intellectual, behavioral, and social change in individual children and youth, schools are (and have been) ineffectual in altering social inequalities.
I began teaching high school in 1955 filled with the passion to teach history to youth and help them find their 

Senate Student Loan Proposals Fail To Advance As Rate Surge Looms | toteachornototeach

Senate Student Loan Proposals Fail To Advance As Rate Surge Looms | toteachornototeach:

Senate Student Loan Proposals Fail To Advance As Rate Surge Looms

by aristotlethewise

Senate Student Loan Proposals Fail To Advance As Rate Surge Looms 

Some 7 million college students will see their borrowing costs double next week after Republicans and Democrats paid little attention to the issue for 11 months, then spent the past month vainly squabbling over a solution.
Senate Democrats on Thursday rallied against a potential bipartisan compromise ahead of Monday’s deadline. Republicans ruled out a temporary one-year delay. The White House played both sides in the hopes of avoiding 

RSD’s Watered-down Incremental Miracle and Continued Fiscal Embarrassment | deutsch29

RSD’s Watered-down Incremental Miracle and Continued Fiscal Embarrassment | deutsch29:

RSD’s Watered-down Incremental Miracle and Continued Fiscal Embarrassment

by deutsch29

It is very important to those promoting corporate reform in The Big Easy to show just how wonderful, how miraculous, how “rebirthful,” state takeover of New Orleans schools has been. Hurricane Katrina hit almost eight years ago (August 29, 2005); in the storm’s aftermath (and already itching to get their hands on New Orleans’ schools), the Louisiana legislature passed Act 35, which declared any Louisiana school having a school performance score (SPS) below the latest state average of 87.4 as now a part of the state-run Recovery School District. Most of those unfortunate takeover schools were in New Orleans.
In 2006, the state of Louisiana assumed control of 94 schools formerly belonging to the Orleans Parish School 

Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:

 Bill Introduced: S.1210 Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act

A bill to allow a State to submit a declaration of intent to the Secretary of Education to combine certain funds to improve the academic achievement of students.

16min 

Bill Introduced: H.R.2456 Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act

To allow a State to submit a declaration of intent to the Secretary of Education to combine certain funds to improve the academic achievement of students.

16min 

Bill Introduced: H.R.2378 Impact Aid Fairness and Equity Act of 2013

To reauthorize the Impact Aid Program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

16min 

Bill Introduced: H.R.2349 GRAD Act of 2013

To restore and extend the grace period of Federal Direct Stafford Loans and Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans.

16min 

Bill Introduced: H.R.2334 Support for Teachers in Education and Mentoring (STEM) Act

To assist coordination among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics efforts in the States, to strengthen the capacity of elementary schools, middle schools, and secondary schools to prepare students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and for other purposes.

16min 

Bill Introduced: S.1129 STEM Support for Teachers in Education and Mentoring (STEM) Act

A bill to assist coordination among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics efforts in the States, to strengthen the capacity of elementary schools, middle schools, and secondary schools to prepare students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and for other purposes.

16min 

Bill Introduced: S.1127 Strengthening Kids' Interest in Learning and Libraries Act

A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 regarding school libraries, and for other purposes.

16min 

Bill Introduced: S.1126 Prescribe A Book Act

A bill to aid and support pediatric involvement in reading and education.

16min 

Bill Introduced: H.R.2287 To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 regarding Native Hawaiian education.

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 regarding Native Hawaiian education.

16min