Crazy Crawfish has a regular blog where he skewers the mighty, the powerful, the phonies, and the masters of data manipulation.
Like EduShyster, CC knows data, and he has humor. And he seems to know more about state school data–and the games people play–than most people.
Read this brilliantly witty report of John White’s statistical legerdemain.
So what if Education Week gave Louisiana an F for academic performance? Michelle Rhee placed it at the top.
Horace Mann wrote in one of his annual reports that it was dangerous to allow partisan politicians to get their hands on the schools. John White and Bobby Jindal remind us on a daily basis of Mann’s wisdom.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why is Cruella de Rhee still relevant?
Time to take a close look at the Nevada superintendent of public instruction, James W. Guthrie, who is a man dedicated to destroying public education.
The contempt he has for the teaching profession is unreal.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20130116/NEWS02/301160044/State-superintendent-Teacher-evaluations-tougher-standards-part-education-reform-Nevada
It’s more of the same garbage that has infected other states in the country. Teachers there have “unions,” but those unions are ineffective thanks to outlawing strikes, right-to-work, etc.
Guthrie seems to think teachers are there “for life.” What a load of garbage.
Q: Will there be way to remove teachers who aren’t effective?
A: First this system will show their deficiencies, and we will give them a chance to remediate those problems. We can only be patient for so long while a person is trying to become a better teacher.
Teachers are there for life, but we will start evaluating them fairly, and we will change the system.
_____
This is the kind of mentality we are dealing with.
“Horace Mann wrote in one of his annual reports that it was dangerous to allow partisan politicians to get their hands on the schools”
Whoa, are you saying that the government should no longer fund schools? I definitely can’t go along with that.
I’d say there’s a big difference between “finding schools for the common good” and partisan politicians deciding every last iota of school policy irrespective of any actual experience or insight into the workings of schools or classrooms. The funding is obligatory. The political a**hattery, if you’ll pardon the term, is not.
Read Horace Mann.
He didn’t say that government should not fund schools but that politicians should keep their hands off the schools and leave decisions about education to educators.
I would like to know who the statistician is in Arizona. I don’t see comparisons between charters and public schools. The governor’s state of the state address did say she thinks our education system is working with a combination of public and charters. I don’t think it is working. The Title I schools do not have enough money to help the students who truly need it–the ones the charters don’t have to take!
Thanks for posting, Dianne. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I also replied to John White on twitter yesterday and sent him a goodluck copy before his actual review, to allay the fears he was expressing, but for some reason he hasn’t gotten back to me on what he thought. If any of you happen to see him around, ask him what he thought. 🙂
Crazycrawfish…if we saw him around, that would mean he was hanging out with teachers. I don’t think he does that – ever!