Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ? – Florida Viewpoint

Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ? – Florida Viewpoint:

Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ?

The Assault Shows No Signs of Waning

It sounds like an impossibility: the prospect of a state’s government working doggedly to destroy one of the very institutions it is charged with protecting and advancing.

Careful and deliberate consideration of legislative and executive actions over the course of the last seventeen years, however, indicate that at least two of Florida’s governmental branches are doing just that. The legislative dismantling of public education in Florida accelerated about six years ago, when the Florida legislature started enacting statutes designed to hasten the demise of Florida’s public schools, as well as the teaching profession itself. By simply ignoring political opposition and public outcry, anti-public education lawmakers have accomplished what many would have considered impossible just a decade ago.

Jeb Bush: The Granddaddy of “Accountability”

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who most recently made headlines on March 20, 2016 when he dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential primary race after posting embarrassingly low numbers in the first three state primary contests, is the proud sire of “reform” and “accountability” in Florida. His so-called “A+ Plan for Education” set in motion a cavalcade of dubious education policy initiatives over the next 17 years that have driven public education in Florida into an abyss of neglect and deceptively brokered sabotage.

Education Corporatization and the Sacrificial Lamb

Public education has apparently become an issue where Democrats and Republicans seem to be more able than ever to agree. Many Democrats, such as presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, seemed to have tempered their opposition to corporately-driven “reform,” while artfully hedging quasi-promises to protect public education. Campaign contributions are powerful influencers. Corporate PR types have taken the science of disinformation to new heights, and have found that even a fatal disease might be peddled as a panacea.

“The Best Interests of the Children”

Grabbing the Moral High Ground as a Means to Discredit Opposition

It’s incredibly difficult to argue against a person extolling the supposed virtues of a proposal when they use catchphrases like, “It’s best for the kids,” or any number of similarly worded, deceitfully expressed rationales for policy. You hear politicians and corporate education “reformers” reciting the mantra often: “We’re only trying to do what’s right for the children,” or, “This is what’s in the best interests of students.” The use of such “reasoning” to justify any governmental action is manipulative in nature and should be immediately disregarded by voters. The well-worn tactic, known as seizing the moral high ground, and disallowed in formal debates, provides the person who uses it with what is almost universally acknowledged to be an unfair means to quiet the debate altogether. It places those with an opposing view in a logical predicament that is very difficult to climb out of. Florida politicians and corporate public treasury pillagers (they call themselves “reformers”) use such phrases all the time. Aside from the audacity displayed by their presumption that such claims are appropriate, the insult to the intellect of the average voter is overt. Voters should demand details from politicians and eschew slogans and catchphrases as the tripe they are.

The Blueprint for the Destruction of Public Education

There exists a politico-corporate blueprint for the disassembly of public education. It largely has its origins, as well as its single greatest market, in Florida. The Florida C-Suite has been at this game for almost two decades. Very few of them, if any, have kids in public schools. They do have very large bank accounts, and they want them to get larger. To their delight, they have discovered the malleable nature of the Florida Constitution, as well as the reality that most voters are easily hornswoggled. The result has been a disaster for public education in Florida.

Starve the Schools

Politicians and their corporate masters borrowed their foremost tactic from the War College. When you lay siege to your enemy, the first thing you do is deprive him of resources. A starving enemy cannot offer the kind of resistance that a vibrant, well-supplied one can. Tallahassee has starved Florida’s public schools of adequate funding for longer than anyone in the state has been alive. Politicians love to talk about “record-level” education funding. What they don’t talk about is how much of that funding goes straight into the pockets of education vendors peddling “reform” and “accountability” wares taxpayers without their knowledge. The actual schools have experienced a net loss in funding when the diversion of public money into private pockets is considered.

The state also puts crippling restrictions on the monies it sends to school districts. Categorical funds can only be used for certain purposes, and often leave districts flush with funds earmarked for purposes that they don’t need them for, while simultaneously broke of funds for the things they need.

Unions Are Evil and Unnecessary

Ever since Jeb Bush began his all-but-personal vendetta against teachers’ professional associations, an uninterrupted procession of politicians in Tallahassee has assaulted teachers’ unions as selfish accomplices to mediocrity. All unions have their problems. Teachers unions are no different. However, next to parents, no one cares more about students than their teachers. Certainly not politicians and corporate money junkies. Without a professional organization, teachers have zero defense against marauding charlatans who so often seek administrative positions and attempt to use their power to destroy the teachers they do not like. Without unions, teachers are effectively tossed out of the conversation about the enterprise that is necessarily centered around their profession. It makes zero sense to destroy teachers unions.

Tenure Makes for Mediocre Teachers

False. Since the legislature eliminated tenure for newly-hired teachers, the state of public education in Florida has only gotten worse. Teachers are fleeing the profession in droves, Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ? – Florida Viewpoint:

It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request… - Wait What?

It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request… - Wait What?:

It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request…

Wait, What? readers,

I’m writing to ask for your help and support. 

As many of you know, I am running as the Green Party candidate for Congress in Connecticut’s 2^nd Congressional District.  My goal is to use this campaign to send a clear and powerful message to elected officials that politics as usual is not acceptable.

For example, our system of public education is under assault.  The charter school industry and its corporate education reform allies are seeking to privatize public education and turn our schools into little more than Common Core testing factories and profit centers.

Our children, parents, teachers and public schools deserve far better from our elected officials.  Rather than laws like the federal Every Student Succeeds Act and other terrible education reform initiatives, public education deserves adequate resources and more support at the federal and state level.

With Election Day just seven weeks away, we’re gearing up the voter outreach efforts.  However, we still need additional funds to pay for some of the key mailings and other elements of the program. 

Please consider making a donation to Pelto 2016.

It is simple and easy, just go to:  Pelto for Congress 2016 or

https://pelto2016-ectgreens.nationbuilder.com/donate and donate what you can.

Your contributions would be extremely appreciated and very helpful.

Thank you so much,

Jonathan It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request… - Wait What?:

 

Pelto 2016- Candidate for Congress, CT's 2nd District - http://www.pelto2016.com/

Sound Familar? Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017 | News | teleSUR English

Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017 | News | teleSUR English:

Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017

Overall investment in schools will fall below 5 percent of national income.  

The administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto plans to deepen contested education reforms, by cutting spending for facilities improvements, equipment access, and teacher training, the Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported Sunday.

OPINION: 
Mexico: State Terror, Education Reform and the Stock Exchange

The Mexican government proposes federal-level cutbacks in 19 out of 23 programs for children and youths next year,

According to data from Mexico’s Center for Economic and Budget Research, also known as CIEP, spending earmarked for education in the 2017 budget is set to fall by 4.2 percent. Total educational spending represents 14 percent of the federal budget and 3.3 percent of GDP, which represents a reduction in educational investment historically. According to World Bank statistics, Mexico dedicated 5.1 percent of GDP to education in 2011, which was, at that time, more than the worldwide average of 4.53 percent of GDP.

According to numbers reported by La Jornada, some areas will be hit harder than others. Funding for the Education Reform Program is set to plunge by nearly 72 percent, while the Program for Professional Development for Teachers will take a hit of over 37 percent.

OPINION: 
Mexico's Education Reform Is Being Imposed with Bloodshed

Other programs on the chopping block include initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide, improving early childhood education, and developing infrastructure in the education system, among others, La Jornada reported.

The projected cuts to education spending come amid an ongoing conflict between dissident teachers and the Mexican government over education reforms, rolled out by government beginning in 2013. Striking teachers slam the reforms as “neoliberal” and argue that they do not account for unique needs of students and teachersin rural and Indigenous areas.

In recent weeks, some sections of the National Coordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE union, have opted to go back to classes after striking for about four months, while other sections have continued to protest the government’s refusal to overturn the disputed reforms.Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017 | News | teleSUR English:

Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies | Poetic Justice

Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies | Poetic Justice:

Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies

Let us keep in the forefront of our hearts, minds, and souls that our children have started a new school year full of testing, computer programs, shell-shocked teachers, and ravenous entrepreneurs making billions from the hostile take over of public education. They need us now more than ever. In all that we do let us not do anything that brings harm to our children. ##DoNoHarm

Many thanks to the new blog Wrench in the Gears for alerting many of us to the dangers of the online usurpation of education.

Schools in every state are buzzing this year with talk of “personalized” learning and 21st century assessments for kids as young as kindergarten. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and its innovative pilot programs are already changing the ways schools instruct and assess, in ways that are clearly harmful to our kids. Ed-tech companies, chambers of commerce, ALEC, neoliberal foundations, telecommunications companies, and the government are working diligently to turn our public schools into lean, efficient laboratories of data-driven, digital learning.

In the near future, learning eco-systems of cyber education mixed with a smattering of community-based learning opportunities (ELOs) will Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies | Poetic Justice:

“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks | Seattle Education

“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks | Seattle Education:

“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks

All of the elements are in place:

• There’s piece work employment without financial security or due process.
• The opportunity for corporations to pay employees in script instead of actual cash. 
• Smart Contracts and the possibility of a lifetime of servitude without compensation.
• Cradle to grave corporate surveillance of every citizen.

If George Orwell wrote a sequel to 1984, the idea of The Institute for the Future’s Edublocks and The Ledger would have a starring role.

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) prides itself on bringing “people together to make the future—today.”

IFTF is an outgrowth of The Rand Corporation and counts as partners corporate giants in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and advocacy.

Groups such as AARP, the American Medical Association, AT&T, GM, Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente and Shell – just to name a few of the heavy hitters who have hitched their wagons to IFTF. 

In case you’re not familiar with The Rand Corporation, it’s one of the U.S. military’s oldest think tanks, getting it’s start in 1948 as an offshoot of the Douglas Aircraft Company.

One area of interest for The Institute of the Future is education. IFTF’s blog reports on the various attempts to hack the future of education. Anya Kamenetz is considered a “Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks | Seattle Education:

Randi Weingarten: Trump Fails A Crucial Test | Huffington Post

Trump Fails A Crucial Test | Huffington Post:
Trump Fails A Crucial Test

Donald Trump doesn’t have any use for public schools — he never attended them, sent his kids to them or supported civic efforts to strengthen them.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Trump would propose a plan that would decimate public education. But 90 percent of America’s children attend public schools. Trump’s plan to expand failed voucher programs and destabilize public schools is a grave threat to them and to this essential public good.

Trump’s $20 billion proposal to “voucherize” public education would harm 10 children for every 1 child he purports to help. It appears that Trump would cut all Title I funding for low-income students and an additional $5 billion in federal education funding.

The Title I cuts alone could strip funding from up to 56,000 public schools serving more than 21 million children. His plan would rob 5 million public school students with disabilities of essential services.

An additional 5 million English language learners would be denied educational supports. Eight million students would lose the Pell grants that make it possible to attend college. Students across the country would lose tens of thousands of highly qualified teachers and classroom aides, resulting in unacceptably large class sizes and depriving students of one-on-one attention.

And for what? To expand access to charter schools, which generally perform no better than public schools, and voucher schools, which perform far worse. Not surprisingly, a version of Trump’s idea was flatly rejected by bipartisan majorities in Congress just last fall when they passed the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.

When Trump unveiled his proposal last week in Cleveland, the venue he chose made the case against his own plan. The for-profit charter school where Trump made his announcement received a D and an F on the annual Ohio Department of Education report card, and Ohio’s voucher and charter school sectors have been Trump Fails A Crucial Test | Huffington Post:

Teaching children grit: There's a dark side to convincing people to never give up — Quartz

Teaching children grit: There's a dark side to convincing people to never give up — Quartz:

Teaching children grit could risk turning them into amoral jerks

According to the grit narrative, children in the United States are lazy, entitled and unprepared to compete in the global economy. Schools have contributed to the problem by neglecting socio-emotional skills. The solution, then, is for schools to impart the dispositions that enable American children to succeed in college and careers. According to this story, politicians, policymakers, corporate executives and parents agree that kids need more grit.

The person who has arguably done more than anyone else to elevate the concept of grit in academic and popular conversations is Angela Duckworth, professor at the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In her new book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, she explains the concept of grit and how people can cultivate it in themselves and others.

According to Duckworth, grit is the ability to overcome any obstacle in pursuit of a long-term project: “To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times and rise eight.” Duckworth names musicians, athletes, coaches, academics and business people who succeed because of grit. Her book will be a boon for policymakers who want schools to inculcate and measure grit.

There is a time and place for grit. However, praising grit as such makes no sense because it can often lead to stupid or mean behavior. Duckworth’s book is filled with gritty people doing things that they, perhaps, shouldn’t.

Take Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology and Duckworth’s graduate school mentor. In a 1967 article, Seligman and his co-author describe a series of experiments on dogs. The first day, the dogs are placed in a harness and administered electrical shocks. One group can stop the shocks if they press their nose against a panel, and the other group cannot. The next day, all of the dogs are placed in a shuttle box and again administered shocks that the dogs can stop by Teaching children grit: There's a dark side to convincing people to never give up — Quartz:

What Texas did to its special-education students - The Washington Post

What Texas did to its special-education students - The Washington Post:

What Texas did to its special-education students

An investigation by the Houston Chronicle has revealed that unelected state officials in Texas “arbitrarily decided what percentage of students should get special education services” more than a decade ago and then began auditing school districts that did not comply.

Their efforts, which started in 2004 but have never been publicly announced or explained, have saved the Texas Education Agency billions of dollars but denied vital supports to children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental illnesses, speech impediments, traumatic brain injuries, even blindness and deafness, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found.

The newspaper found that state officials set a cap of 8.5 percent of students who should receive special-education services, far lower than the national average. According to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, the overall percentage of those being served in programs for students with disabilities was 12.9 percent in 2012-13, the most recent year for which statistics are available, down 13.8 percent in 2004-05. In 2015, the 8.5 percent was reached for the first time, dropping from 12 percent a dozen years ago, the newspaper reported. It said:

If Texas provided services at the same rate as the rest of the U.S., 250,000 more kids would be getting critical services such as therapy, counseling and one-on-one tutoring.

In its response to the Chronicle, the Texas Education Agency denied that it had set 8.5 percent as a mandated goal and instead described it as an “indicator.” It also said that it did not punish What Texas did to its special-education students - The Washington Post:

The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building) | The Jose Vilson

The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building) | The Jose Vilson:

The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building)

Yesterday, I had the chance to go to EdCampBrooklyn, the first EdCamp in the borough of Robinson, Wallace, and Carter (among others). When the founder, Juli-Anne Benjamin, asked me to come through, I only asked when, not if. The trek from Harlem to Brooklyn was two trains, about an hour and a half on a Saturday morning. But the conversations and the energy were more than worth it. Educators across the country, especially those of us who attend these conferences on our “free” time understand that unconferencing isn’t an exercise in gaining more followers or creating a profile for ourselves, but to create synergy around pedagogy and practice. This specific EdCamp was important for me to attend because I knew that the educators who attended this conference were focused intently on working with the most marginalized students in our system, the ones that won’t show up on the brochures and city halls. Doing this on a Saturday gives us only Sunday to re-gather ourselves and implement the energy from this event back into our classroom.

You’re right: this work is difficult.

Even though my classroom aesthetics have gotten sharper, my language sharper, and my resolve more stringent, I see the 5:30am grind kicking my butt. I wake up and go to work with the sowers and the construction workers. They’ve got thumbtacks and hard hats. I got headphones, mostly to shut my brain up and get me focused on my work.

Any number of things plot against my success. Forgetting my lesson plans. Fire drills. Announcements on top of announcements. Coverages (which I’m more than happy to do, but still) when I would like to be grading. Lost packages. Bulletin boards and mandates from on high. Babysitting issues. Achy feet, knees, hips, and sinuses. The first seven days of teaching this year.

I get up to teach, though. Daily. Because I am the change.

Because teaching is my core, I’ve learned to accept the seemingly trivial gifts that students have to offer. I accept when students who otherwise hate math love my class. I recognize that my students’ correct answers grant me opportunities to do fist pumps mid-class. Some have taken to calling me Mr. Cool, even as I beg them to keep it inside. We don’t need heroes in class, much less someone as The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building) | The Jose Vilson:

The Parents' Campaign - a brighter future for Mississippi children

The Parents' Campaign:

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Looking for legislators' contact information? Click here to find phone numbers, email addresses, and social media information for all of the legislators who represent your school district.

To see the status of our priority bills in the 2016 Legislative Session, click here.

Changes to Accountability System Adopted by State Board of Education

Posted 9/15/2016

After receiving 139 comments from parents, educators, and concerned citizens, the State Board of Education has voted to adopt several changes to the rules that govern the accountability system that determines school and district ratings. See the changes and read more.

Education Budget News, Charter School Update

Posted 9/12/2016

Governor Bryant made public schools a priority in the latest round of budget cuts by exempting the MAEP. While funding to local schools is not affected by the recent reduction, the MDE's budget will be cut by $4.8-million. Read more about budget cuts and see today's charter school update here.

The Parents' Campaign Submits Comments Regarding Accountability System Changes

Posted 9/12/2016

The Parents' Campaign submitted public comments to the MDE regarding proposed changes to the business rules of the state accountability system. These changes affect the way schools and districts are graded. See our submission here.

Click here to go to: The Parents' Campaign:

What is the Purpose of School? Who Knows? Who Cares? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

What is the Purpose of School? Who Knows? Who Cares? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

What is the Purpose of School? Who Knows? Who Cares?

I look forward to reading PDK's annual poll about public education. I think the information we get from broad surveys of people about the schools in their community, and public education in general, tells us a lot about things that matter most. Certainly more than school-to-school comparisons using the latest value-added formula, which leave us with no idea how to proceed once the "adjusted" scores are rank-ordered, beyond closing schools (which citizens in the PDK survey reject, 85 to 15%) or public shaming.

PDK also seems to have the knack of putting their finger on the right questions: More taxes to support education? (A surprising amount of support.) More career and technical education, rather than straight-academic College prep? (Why, yes. The word is evidently getting around that not everyone's going to college--or needs to.) Pay veteran teachers more, rather than hiring lots more newbies?  (Yes. Gratifying news.) And my perennial favorite: Evidence that 60% of parents like their child's traditional public school, even if they think public education in America is terrible.

Joshua Starr of PDK, who has lived and breathed education reform as Superintendent of Schools in Montgomery County, MD and Stamford, CT,  has an interesting little essay summarizing the results and probing responses to a survey question on the purpose of public education.

Today's perspectives are no different from those throughout our history; the American public does not agree on a single purpose for public education. The past 16 years have seen an over-reliance on student achievement on state standardized test scores as a measure of success. Whether Presidents Bush and Obama intended for standardized tests to be the de jure purpose of public education, they certainly have become the de facto purpose, as most school systems are organized to promote success on these measures.

Bingo.

When asked about the purpose of education, three possible responses were available:

• Prepare students academically (45%)
• Prepare students for the world of work (25%)
• Prepare students for citizenship (26%)

I know that good survey-makers can't have too much open-endedness in the questions they ask--it makes the data gathered less reliable and analysis more troublesome. Although it was good to know that a solid quarter of adults still believe in school as the place we learn to be good citizens. I see and hear a lot less of that today than when I was a K-12 student.

But I can't help wondering what would happen if the question were phrased as a constructed response. What if we asked parents, childless millennials or retirees: What's the purpose of public education? Why do we collect taxes and build buildings and elect school boards and argue about phonics vs. whole language? What's the end game?

If you had asked my parents about the purpose of school they both would have been solidly in the "to help you get a better job" camp--to advance yourself in the world. If you asked me why I sent my children to public schools, the answer would be centered on finding and enhancing their academic and personal strengths in a setting that promotes community.

I would have gone full Dewey, given the time and space. But I know I'm an anomaly--and I also believe the purpose of schooling is one of the great unexamined questions in our national conversation about public education.

It's also a question well worth exploring, again and again. If we were clear about our purpose, or purposes, for public education, it might illuminate policy-making at all levels.

Here's an example: What if we divided public school students, at age 16, into two groups--those who will follow a technical course leading to a skilled trade, and those who will pursue a professional or liberal arts degree at a four-year college or university? (The German system looks something like this, although much more complicated.)

This would certainly be efficient in preparing students for the world of work. No floundering around, trying to decide if college is "right" for Jacob or Jessica. No taking out loans that lead to nothing but a decade's worth of debt. Let's get some good data, and send students in the direction they're best suited to go--their designated career pipeline.

But this is America, where charter schools use their college admission (not completion) rates as marketing, where the purpose of K-12 education seems to be getting into a college, the more prestigious, the better. A place where parents with means will ensure their child ends up on the pathway they choose, system be damned.

I think Joshua Starr is on to something. Recently, the purpose and product of public education has been achievement data--and this change has clearly been driven by policy. Why?

Nearly 20 years ago, David Labaree, now a professor at Stanford, wrote an outstanding piece that anticipates the shift: Public Goods, Private Goods: the American Struggle over Educational Goals. Here's the abstract:

This article explores three alternative goals for American education that have been at the root of educational conflicts over the years: democratic equality (schools should focus on preparing citizens), social efficiency (they should focus on training workers), and social mobility (they should prepare individuals to compete for social positions). These goals represent, respectively, the educational perspective of the citizen, the taxpayer, and the consumer. Whereas the first two look on education as a public good, the third sees it as a private good. Historical conflict over these competing visions of education has resulted in a contradictory structure for the educational system that has sharply impaired its effectiveness. More important still has been the growing domination of the social mobility goal, which has reshaped education into a commodity for the purposes of status attainment and has elevated the pursuit of credentials over the acquisition of knowledge.

I think Labaree got this exactly right: We like to talk about citizenship and the world of work, but our real purpose is credentialing--and our current drive toward market-based, quasi-privatized educational "choice" has made public education a commodity.

It's not about the benefits of a well-informed citizenry or economic productivity. It's not even about knowledge. It's all about keeping social hierarchies in place.What is the Purpose of School? Who Knows? Who Cares? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Allies Should Work Together, But Not Everyone Agrees | Diane Ravitch's blog

Allies Should Work Together, But Not Everyone Agrees | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Allies Should Work Together, But Not Everyone Agrees

Jim Horn has a website called “Schools Matter.” He opposes corporate reform, as I do.
I have never met him. I hear he doesn’t like me. I don’t know why. I thought we were fighting for the same goals.

The first time I became aware of his hostility was when he posted a photograph of me with the caption, “Nice face job, Diane.” Very puzzling as I have never had a facelift. Sexist too. I ignored him.

When Anthony Cody and I decided to create the Network for Public Education, aiming to build alliances among the many individuals and groups fighting against corporate reform, we selected a board and announced our existence. Horn emailed to say that he was going to attack us because we included a much admired NBCT African American teacher from Mississippi. Horn discovered that she had written an article praising merit pay. Many emails went back and forth among him, Anthony, and me. He decided not to poison us at our birth.

But he has an intense and personal animus towards me. Again, I can’t explain it. I don’t know why.

I thought I would share with you his latest blast, which was (I assume) a response to my post about how progressive movements die when they turn on one another. In the post, I urged us all to work together towards our shared agenda. Apparently he is angry that I supported ESSA; I supported it because it eliminated NCLB (No Child Left Behind), AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), and VAM (value-added modeling or test-based teacher evaluations). If ESSA had not passed, NCLB would still be federal law, and John King would have the authoritarian power that Arne Duncan had over the nation’s schools. If I were writing the law, I would have eliminated all federal mandates for accountability and testing, but I was not writing the law.

Despite what he writes, we are on the same side of the issues. Like him, I oppose standardized testing, other than for sampling purposes. I oppose evaluation of teachers by test scores. I oppose segregation. I support equitable and ample funding of schools. I support teacher professionalism and collective bargaining. I support public education and oppose privatization. Yet he says I am his enemy. He wants us to fail.

This is what Jim Horn wrote yesterday:

Today’s Communique to the Ravitch Forces

After what seems to me to have been a pretty effective skirmish, the Ravitch forces have climbed out of their tent at their permanent Basecamp, stomping the ground and waving their, um, whatevers. For those Ravitch acolytes who are not too drunk on revenge to read, here’s something to ponder, as I am working on a next book today and don’t have time to attend to your whining.

In everything I have seen from D. Ravitch and the band of intellectual eunuchs who comprise the NPE echo chamber, a theme stands out, which is that we cannot afford to fight among ourselves, that allies cannot be ripped asunder, that we must stick together in the same tent, blah blah. So let me speak to Diane directly here, and I hope that all of her disciples will read this carefully.

The problem is, Diane, our goals are not the same. My goals are ending testing accountability in all forms, ending segregated classrooms in all forms, and ending corporate education reform in all forms. I can’t work toward those goals with any effect while misleaders like you and the union suits are cutting deals on ESSA to guarantee another generation of testing accountability, segregated classrooms, and corporate control. Have you read the history of NCLB?

We are on different sides of these issues, regardless of how much braying and foot stomping you are able to stir up. We are not allies. I am your enemy. Get used to it.Allies Should Work Together, But Not Everyone Agrees | Diane Ravitch's blog:

There Is No Conflict Between Opting Out of Tests and Fighting Competency-Based Education

37by dianeravitch / 1h

What is competency-based education? Twenty or thirty years ago, it referred to skill-based education, and critics complained that CBE downgraded the importance of knowledge. Today CBE has a different meaning. It refers to 

Dana Goldstein: Bill de Blasio’s Fight for Universal Pre-Kindergarten

7by dianeravitch / 2h

Dana Goldstein writes here about New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign to establish a universal program of free, public pre-kindergarten, equally available to the poor, the middle-class, and the rich. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016