Big Education Ape: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG ...

How a Cynical Narrative Can Advance Privatization

Dennis Sparks has written a powerful post about the narrative of failure and decline that is now being cynically employed to privatize public education. Many of those now telling this story stand to benefit by taking over schools, firing teachers, and replacing them with computers, or selling the computers and software that replace the teachers. [...]

A Message for Reformers

This is a message for corporate reformers from Katie Osgood. I hope it will be read carefully by the folks at Democrats for Education Reform, Stand for Children, ALEC, Teach for America, Education Reform Now, StudentsFirst, the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Dell Foundation, Bellweather Partners, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, [...]

Newtown Changed Everything

David Kirp is one of our most perceptive thinkers and writers about education. You will enjoy his new book about a wonderful public school in New Jersey. It is called ?Improbable Scholars.? In this article, he says that the massacre of little children in Newtown represents a frightening turning point in our society. What happened [...]

Why the Double Standards?

Arthur Goldstein, who teaches ESL and English in a Queens, New York, high school, writes a consistently excellent blog (nyceducator.com). In this post, he raises an intriguing question: Why is that reformers can criticize teachers nonstop and say ridiculous things about them but get twisted into paroxysms of outrage if anyone dares to defend teachers [...]

Time to Crack Down on Cheating

Matthew Di Carlo at the Shanker Institute has a good post about the importance of test security in an era of high-stakes testing. As long as we have high-stakes testing?which I oppose?we need to guard against cheating. He points out that the scandal in Atlanta was thoroughly reviewed by independent and well-trained investigators. They got [...]

Inside Story on Louisiana Spin and Failures

If you are a fan of mystery writing and novels, this will interest you. If you love non-fiction, it will also interest you. This is a true-life drama from Baton Rouge about a school that was taken over by the state in 2008 and has seen no improvement. The story involves money, politics, power, hidden [...]

Value-Added Ratings for Our Secretaries of Education

A little known group called Educators for Shared Accountability designed a rubric for evaluating Secretaries of Education. It incorporates multiple measures. By its metric, Richard Riley was our best national leader. Check out Secretary Duncan?s value added rating.

Another Way to Crush Teacher Morale

The Louisiana Department of Education is bringing to fruition the acme of corporate reform salary schedules for teachers. It may have been jointly designed by ALEC and TFA. Neither experience nor degrees count. The only thing that matters is value-added test scores. The LDOE recommends big bonuses?merit pay?of $10,000 or more for the teachers whose [...]

I Need Your Help

I am in search of information and I can?t find it by googling. So I am turning to you to help me answer these questions. 1. In your state, are special education students required to take the same grade-level tests as regular students? Are there exceptions based on IEPs? 2. Are charters in your state [...]

The Ultimate Reform School!

Drop whatever you are doing, and read this. EduShyster serves up a delightful portrait of an award-winning school in Minneapolis that embodies every new reform strategy. And here is the best part: It hasn?t opened yet! It won?t open until next September and it is already a great success!

What Is the Point of Reading?

A post about the Common Core standards ?No One Opposes Reading Non-Fiction?) was followed by a lively discussion among readers. Among many excellent comments, this one stood out. Written by Robert D. Shepherd, it raises important issues about how publishers will interpret the standards. And even more important, why do we want to read? Back [...]

On the Transiency of Big Ideas in Education

Diana Senechal has written a thoughtful reflection on the tendency of policymakers to foist big ideas on education. Fads come and go. The ones we live with today, say I, seem especially pernicious because they are backed by the power of the state in alliance with the profit motive. Yet I remain confident that truly [...]

The Happiest Teachers in America?

A few weeks ago, I spoke at the annual conference of the New York State School Music Association in Rochester. As I was going through the lobby of the conference center, I saw many teenagers carrying their musical instruments, preparing to practice and play together. There was a spirit of happy anticipation in the air?at [...]

Chicago Teachers Union Sues District, Claims Racial Discrimination

This should be of interest to readers. The Chicago Teachers Union has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Public Schools, claiming that African American teachers have been disproportionately harmed by school closings. Over the past decade, their numbers have dropped dramatically in the school system. Chicago Teachers File Federal Lawsuit Charging CPS with Racial [...]

Where Are the Closing Schools?

Jersey Jazzman connects the dots about school closings. Do they close in white neighborhoods? No. Do they close in affluent neighborhoods? No. Guess where they close? In high-poverty neighborhoods. My guess: the white and affluent neighborhoods are next.

An Armed Guard for Every School?

Eclectablog is one of my favorites. I don?t know the writer, but he or she is super smart and witty, which is a great combination. Here is a post explaining that an armed guard in every school (132,000 schools of all kinds) would cost something north of $10 billion. That?s lot of moola-boola on new [...]

No One Opposes Reading Non-Fiction

A reader posted a comment yesterday wondering why so many who read this blog are opposed to reading non-fiction, or in the jargon of the day, ?informational text.? This is a reference to the debate about the Common Core standards, which mandate a 50-50 split between literary/informational text in lower grades, and a 70-30 split [...]

Please Arm These Teachers!

This elementary school teacher wants to be armed with smaller classes. She also wants to be armed with after school clubs and resources for her special education students. Read more about how she wants to be armed. This education dean also wants to arm teachers. He wants to arm them with passion, purpose, knowledge, understanding, [...]

An Interview with Todd Farley

This was sent by a reader of the blog. Todd Farley wrote a terrific book about the testing industry called ?Making the Grades,? based on his many years on the inside of that industry. He knows the tricks of the trade. If you haven?t read his book, you should. Interview with Todd Farley by Rebecca [...]

Teacher: Common Core Harms My Title I Students

One of the unsettled questions about the Common Core standards is whether they will widen or narrow the achievement gaps between children of different races and different income levels. In their first trial in Kentucky, the gap grew larger, and scores fell across the board. Some see this effect as a temporary adjustment to higher [...]

The Belly of the Beast

This article, published in The Times Educational Supplement (London), is an in-depth explanation of how the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) took shape and became powerful. Here you will meet Sir Michael Barber, who coined the idea of ?deliverology,? and learn about his rapid ascent from trade union activist to Tony Blair advisor to McKinsey [...]

Teacher: How Toxic Testing Drove Me Out of the Classroom

Carole Marshall, a former journalist, published the following in the Providence (R.I.) Journal on December 14, 2012: TESTING MANIA LEAVES URBAN STUDENTS BEHIND As a person who left a teaching position at Hope High School, in Providence, last June after almost two decades, I?d like to add my perspective to the discussion of high-stakes testing. [...]

A Literacy Expert Opposes the Common Core Standards

Stephen Krashen is a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, where he taught linguistics. He comments here in response to an earlier post about the Common Core standards: What this excessive detail also does is (1) dictate the order of presentation of aspects of literacy (2) encourage a direct teaching, skill-building approach to [...]

How Standardized Testing Reinforces Inequity

Paul Thomas of Furman University in South Carolina says it is time for Southerners to recognize that testing is a way of reinforcing inequity. Tests reflect socioeconomic conditions. The haves dominate the top half of the bell curve, the have-nots dominate the bottom half. And the tests legitimate their status. Tests measure inequality of opportunity. [...]

Teacher: I Support the Common Core Standards

A teacher wrote this comment in response to the ongoing debate about the value of the Common Core standards: ?I was one of those who was very leary of the push for non-fiction in high school, but through nearly three years of working with the Common Core in St. Paul, Minnesota, I have come to [...]

Why Does TFA Need Nearly $1 Billion?

To be exact, why does TFA need $907 million? That is the amount that TFA raised from 2006-2010. EduShyster has done the numbers and explains it all here. During that time, TFA groomed some 28,000 teachers. But more important, it groomed leaders like Kevin Huffman, state commissioner of education in Tennessee, now planning for vouchers; [...]

TFA and Other People?s Children

Mark Naison, professor of African-American Studies at Fordham University, asks whether Teach for America leaders are the Robert McNamaras of this generation?

Parents: How to Support Your Public Schools

The best group now organizing and mobilizing to strengthen public education is Parents Across America. You don?t have to be a public school parent to join. PAA welcomes educators and everyone who supports public schools. If you care about improving your public schools and fighting off corporate control and privatization, join Parents Across America. PAA [...]

Reform Churn Hurts Students Most

In response to an earlier post about the escalating cost of teacher evaluation programs, a reader submitted this comment. I wish that our elected officials in Washington and in the state legislatures and departments of education would read it. This voyage is beginning in Connecticut. Every hour that teachers and administrators focus on the new [...]

Good News from North Carolina!

Wonderful news from Charlotte-Mecklenbug, North Carolina! The superintendent of schools has spoken out forcefully against the flood of testing. Because of this great news, I happily add Heath Morrison to the honor roll as a champion of American public education. Morrison is superintendent of schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. He is also highly respected among [...]

Greetings to the ?Beloved Community? of Education Activists

Mark Naison, professor of African-American Studies at Fordham University, sends holiday greetings to education activists across the nation. Activism today on behalf of public education, he finds, is akin to the activism for civil rights in the 1960s. It requires courage and dedication. You do it because you have to or you won?t be able [...]

A Teacher?s Christmas Story

When I visited Los Angeles in 2010, a group of young teachers surrounded me at UCLA and implored me to intervene with the schools? chancellor and get him to reverse his decision about the closing of Fremont High School. I tried but I was not successful. The teachers scattered, some stayed in teaching, some did [...]

Reading a Christmas Carol for Our Own Times

Ken Previti has written a meditation on Dickens? Christmas Carol and how it was bowdlerized to remove its true meaning. It is time to reclaim the true meaning of Dickens for our own time.

?Twas the Night Before Testing

Fred Smith worked for many years for the New York City Board of Education as a testing expert. Now he is a watchdog to guard against the misuse of tests. He writes opinion pieces and advises parent groups about the excesses of the testing industry. For non-New York City folk, Tisch is Merryl Tisch, the [...]

The True Goals of Education?

A reader suggests that we change our views of the proper goals of education: ?As important as core curriculum standards are they should not be the primary mission of public education. We would do well to adopt the four ancient civic virtues of Wisdom, Courage, Justice and Temperance as guidelines for student learning, K-12. Elegant [...]

A Gift for You: Why Education Matters

This article is a Christmas gift from me to you. Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic has written one of the most eloquent explanations of why we need teachers, schools, and universities. At a time when we hear hosannas to online learning, home-schooling, inexperienced teachers, the business model of schooling, for-profit schools, and the commodification [...]

Merry Christmas from EduShyster

This is a wonderful gift catalogue that will give you laughs and solace on this special day. EduShyster has created some priceless selections for the discerning shopper of edu-shlock.

My Holiday Wishes for You

Dear Readers, I can?t bring myself to say ?Merry Christmas,? because this Christmas season has been blighted by the tragedy in Newtown. We are still in mourning for the twenty babies who were lost there, the precious children who were so cruelly taken from their families. We are still in mourning for our brave colleagues, [...]

This Is What Courage Means

Earlier today I posted about four teachers in Louisiana who started a recall campaign against Governor Bobby Jindal and the Speaker of the Louisiana House. The odds against them were overwhelming. They had no organization, no money, and no political experience. They didn?t collect enough signatures to get on the ballot. They confronted a powerful [...]

Kudos for Superintendent Joshua Starr

Joshua Starr is superintendent of the Montgomery County public schools. He has stepped forward as an outspoken critic of standardized testing. He is emerging as a national voice against the national obsession with testing, ranking and rating students, teachers and schools. He has a different agenda: education. He recently was criticized for failing to follow [...]

Andere: Who Wins Nobel Prizes?

Eduardo Andere is one of Mexico?s leading education researchers. Here, he comments on a post by Stephen Krashen about the PISA results. Well, maybe Mr. Krashen is right! The analysis below may help to buttress many people?s view why American education isn?t so bad after all: The education of Nobel Prize winners By Eduardo Andere [...]

Lessons from Finland

If you want to know why Finnish schools are so admired, consider the following: Finnish schools do not have standardized testing until college entry. Admission to teacher education is highly selective. Teaching is a prestigious career. Child poverty is very low. Finnish schools emphasize the arts, physical activity, and a broad curriculum. If you can?t [...]

Four Courageous Teachers in Louisiana

Last spring, four teachers in Calcasieu Parish in Louisiana decided ?enough is enough? when Governor Bobby Jindal rushed through his legislation targeting teachers and attacking public education. They decided they would launch a campaign to recall Jindal and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley. None had ever been politically active before. You have to understand that Bobby [...]

How Test Errors Prevented Students from Graduating

A post on the NYC Parents Blog tells the sad story of a middle-school student who was not allowed to graduate with her class because she had supposedly failed the ELA exam. She was an honor student, and it made no sense, but the NYC Department of Education was adamant. The tests don?t lie, do [...]

In Defense of Tracking

When Marc Epstein, who was a history teacher at Jamaica High School in New York City (now closed to make way for small schools), read Carol Burris?s post opposing differentiated diplomas and tracking, he wrote to express his disagreement. I invited him to write a post, and he said he had already written it. It [...]

The Mayan Calendar and You

A reader who is a veteran teacher suggests incorporating the Mayan calendar into VAM evaluations. It could be one of the multiple measures that everyone talks about and would very likely improve the overall accuracy of the VAM ratings.

Ms. Katie Has the Last Word on the Meaning of the Twitter Kerfuffle

Katie Osgood teaches children in a psychiatric hospital in Chicago. She is one of our most eloquent bloggers, whose understanding of the damage done to children in today?s society is unparalleled. This post of hers sums up the meaning of what I called the Twitter kerfuffle. Last week, I wrote a post about ?The Hero [...]

Edweek Questions Finnish Success

Education Week reports that there was no significant difference between the performance of eighth grade students in Finland and the US in mathematics on the TIMSS. Four American states had higher scores in eighth grade mathematics on TIMSS than Finland: Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Indiana. This is not what you hear in the media, [...]

A Substitute Teacher Dies as a Hero

A teacher sent me this link and urged me to post it. This is a story about Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher who lost her life during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on one of the days that she was hired to teach. Teaching was what she most wanted to do, but Newtown [...]

Burris: NY Regents Plan Promotes Tracking

Carol Burris is the principal of an outstanding high school on Long Island in New York. She is a leader of the principals? group opposing the new state evaluation system. This post includes her recent letter to the Regents in opposition to a new diploma program that she fears will encourage tracking. Her own high [...]

Do Conservatives Care about the Constitution?

A stunning editorial in the Statesman, a Louisiana publication, raises an important question about Governor Jindal?s voucher program: Why do conservatives remind everyone about the importance of adhering faithfully to the literal meaning of the state constitution except when they choose not to? The Jindal voucher plan is funded by the Minimum Foundation Funding dedicated [...]

Is This the NRA Plan for School Security?

A reader comments on the National Rifle Association?s ideas for school security: ?Let?s pretend. 100,000 schools would need 100,000 guards, preferably active police officers, who would by a conservative estimate cost at least $100,000 per year apiece in salary and benefits. That?s $10,000,000,000 to start, plus who knows how much more for the added costs [...]

The Language of ?Reform?

Ron Isaac is a retired teacher of English in New York City. He writes: What a shame that language is such a pliable substance! It?s putty in the hands of folks who control public policy debates, especially about education. And it can be deadly to progress when it?s off the tongues of people who exercise authority unjustly, either [...]

Uses and Abuses of Online Learning

The school district in Manchester, New Hampshire, is considering online classes?not blended learning?as Acosta-saving device. The idea is to put kids online and lay off teachers. Anyone who deals with children and adolescents knows that face-to-face contact, human-to-human relationships are very important. Something?s, like reading a book our practicing an instrument, may best be done [...]

Why Armed Guards Change Nothing

A reader explains why armed guards will not end the violence: As my own experience with troubled children, and as pointed out in the PBS ?After Newtown? program of 12/21/2012 pointed out: (1) the shooters tend to be young males who largely fantasize about the shooting long before they act, (2) they strongly tend to [...]

Outrageous Treatment of Children with Special Needs

In Louisiana, this mother reports, her 17-year-old autistic son will be required to take the ACT and EOC (end-of-course exams). As she writes, ?These children are also being forced to take the EOC. or ?end of course? tests for high school courses that they have never taken. Allow me to reiterate. They are forced to [...]

On TIMSS: Black Students in Mass. Do as Well as Finland!

The Daily Howler is all over the media for its sour reporting about the latest international test (TIMSS). He finds that they reverted to their ?doom and gloom? scenario without bothering to dig into the data. He dug into the data and found lots to cheer about. In this post, Bob Somerby parses the data [...]

No Guns in Schools!

The National Rifle Association wants an armed guard at every one of the nation?s 100,000 schools. Some legislators want teachers and principals to carry weapons. Why should policy be reactive? Better to limit all weaponry to officers of the law, except for single-shot rifles for hunters. Guns should be available only to those authorized to [...]

Privatization or Public Education?

Helen Ladd and her husband Edward Fiske are distinguished observers of American Education. Ladd is a Professor of Economics at Duke University. Fiske was education editor of the anew York Times. Together they describe a fork in the road for our nation?s public school system. Will we continue towards free-market privatization or will we revitalize [...]

What the Media Didn?t Tell You About Latest International Tests

Bob Somerby, taught for many years in the Baltimore public schools. His blog The Daily Howler offers a fearless critique of media coverage of critical events. His post on the latest international assessments (TIMSS) and the media?s decision tiresome putdown of American students is a classic. He points out that on the math portions of [...]

School Closings Planned in Philadelphia

Privatization is in high gear in many cities?Chicago, DC, Memphis, Detroit, and elsewhere. The corporate reformers say they want to save money but the closings don?t save money. They say they want to improve education, but that hasn?t happened either. Here is Helen Gym?s account of the Philadelphia story.

A Terrific New Teacher Blogger

Here is someone you should follow. In a recent post, this teacher writes: In order to forestall state-takeover, our district is scrambling to find ways to make ?substantial improvement.? By improvement, of course we mean in our MCAS scores. One way we are responding is to get a private company called ?Achievement Net? or ?A-Net? [...]

Joshua Starr Belongs on Honor Roll: Proof

I previously named Joshua Starr, superintendent of Montgomery County public schools in Maryland, to the honor roll for his courage and wisdom. He rejected Race to the Top Funding because his schools have a nationally acclaimed peer review evaluation system. He called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing. For daring to be different, he [...]

Secret Document Leaked: Chicago Plans to Close Nearly 100 Schools

The Chicago Tribune obtained a copy of a secret document describing the plan of Chicago Public Schools to close 95 schools, mostly in minority neighborhoods. The plan was dated September 10. This represents a dramatic elimination of public schools in Chicago. The city says it will slow down charter growth, at least this year, but [...]

The Baltimore Sun Joins the Honor Roll

So many news media have thoughtlessly or knowingly jumped on the bandwagon of corporate reform that it comes as a shock to encounter one saying simple truths. Te Baltimore Sun wrote, in response to the massacre of innocent children and educators in Newtown, that it?s time to stop the vilification of our nation?s teachers and [...]

Kaya Henderson Abandons 20 More Schools

Kaya Henderson, chancellor of the DC public schools, intends to close another 20 public schools. DC is now the second largest urban district with the greatest proportion of its students in privately managed charter, after New Orleans. Unlike New Orleans, DC did not suffer a natural disaster. Instead, its leaders don?t know how to improve [...]

Katie Osgood Defends Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis spoke up on my behalf when a TFA officer denounced my post ?The Hero Teachers of Newtown?) as ?reprehensible. Lewis then became the object of attacks from outraged bloggers and tweeters saying that she literally accused TFA of murder. Lewis said no such thing. This was a fine example of the dark art [...]

A Charter Teacher Explains What Happens with Longer School Day

Corporate-style reformers believe that children will learn more and get higher test scores if they spend hours more in school preparing for the tests. They probably think that retail clerks will sell more if they have a 9-hour shift. But a newcomer to EduShyster?s burgeoning staff explains what happens when the extra time is added. [...]

How State Aid Is Rigged Against the Poorest Districts

Bruce Baker has written an illuminating and disturbing post about how New York is underfunding its highest-need schools. Governor Cuomo likes to complain that the state spends far too much on education but sees little improvement. Baker demonstrates that the formula hurts the neediest students. The governor goes on to say that he will take [...]

Beware of Foundations Bearing ?Gifts?

Sarah Darer Littman has a good idea. She thinks that journalists in Connecticut should do investigative journalism and not just write what they find in the press release. Case in point: the recent gift of $5 million from the Gates foundation to Hartford schools. Littman calls the grant a Trojan horse because it commits the [...]

Source: http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2012/12/listen-to-diane-ravitch-all-week-long_29.html

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