Archives for the month of: January, 2013
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Indiana Legislators Hope to Silence Ritz

By dianeravitch
January 16, 2013 //
8

Karen Francisco, the fearless education writer at the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, describes here how Republican legislators are planning to hack away at the powers of the state superintendent.

They are trying to reverse the defeat of Tony Bennett and negate the will of the voters, who overwhelmingly voted to Glenda Ritz as state superintendent.

With Republican supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, they have the votes to silence Ritz and the people who elected her.

This is shameful. The legislature of the great state of Indiana is openly flouting the will of the electorate.

The people who elected Glenda Ritz should vote these scoundrels out of office next time.

Categories Indiana

Maine Charter School Commission: “Backbones of Titanium”

By dianeravitch
January 16, 2013 //
10

Maine Governor Paul LePage had a tantrum (or hissy fit) when the state’s Charter School Commission rejected four out of five applicants. He was especially annoyed because two of the four rejected were for-profit online corporations. As we learned from an exposé last fall in the Maine press, the state commissioner of education got help from Jeb Bush’s friends in writing a “digital learning” law for Maine. Governor LePage must have longed to win more praise from Jeb and the technology industry, which really really really wants to break into the Maine market.

The Maine Charter School Commission did due diligence, followed the law, and rejected unqualified applicants, despite political pressure from the governor.

To learn why the commission rejected four of the five applicants, read this great column.

Here is a sample:

“LePage caught many in the State House off guard Wednesday when he called a rare news conference to complain that Maine schools are “failing” and that our educators “abuse our children in the classroom by lying to them.”

His primary target: the all-volunteer Charter School Commission, which earlier this week denied four of five pending applications for new charter schools — including two “virtual” online schools pitched by out-of-state, for-profit companies that have spent much of the past year or two cozying up to the LePage administration.

“I’m asking (members of the commission) for the good of the kids of the state of Maine, please go away,” snarled LePage. “We don’t need you. We need some people with backbones.”

Two things worth noting here:

First, as he hits the halfway point of his seemingly endless four-year term, Maine’s chief executive has been reduced to telling those who tick him off (an ever-growing segment of Maine’s population, mind you) to simply “go away.”

Second, if their actions this week are any indication, the seven members of the Charter School Commission have backbones of pure titanium.”

Categories Charter Schools

Why Students Need Financial Literacy

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
33

This post was written by Ohio teacher Brian Page @FinEdChat

 

The curriculum ladder

 

As teachers, we are all feeling the squeeze of tough economic times. States have cut education funding for a number of reasons. We are taking the cuts personally because we live a profession that strikes at the core of our values. Every child deserves a fair shot, regardless of the zip code where they were born. Our system should serve as the ladder to provide every child in the country a tool to climb to whatever heights they aspire to reach. Yet we continue to cut away one step after another.

 

Developing across the country are programs and legislation that prioritize cost-cutting measures rather than put kids first. The world’s most respected educational minds stress the importance of art, music, foreign languages, and gifted instruction opportunities, especially in the elementary grades. Yet these subjects are experiencing deep cuts in all grades, and in some cases disappearing all together. So while we are fighting just to keep every step in the ladder, we are losing sight of the additional steps we need to add to keep pace with the adult demands of modern society. Mastering financial literacy is a necessary step out of poverty for some and into adulthood for everyone.

 

Did you know…

 

• We are asking our children to make one of the biggest debt choices of their lives while still in high school, student debt. Student debt has now surpassed credit card debt – – it is $1 trillion. Yet in 46 states kids are unlikely to be introduced to resources like this one and this one to help them make an informed college choice.

 

• Lots of high school students have jobs and pay taxes, but they don’t know how to fill out basic tax forms or file for themselves. It is time we begin integrating resources like this one so they understand their taxes.

 

• According to this research, the biggest mistake low-moderate income (LMI) Americans make is they do not have any emergency savings. They do not use any basic banking services such as a direct deposit or a saving account. It baffles me that we do not teach our kids the importance of savings, or the power of compound interest using resources like this one.

 

• Many high school students are purchasing cars on their own, without any direction or understanding of the total financial obligation. We owe it to them to provide resources like this so they can make informed choices.

 

• Of those who carry a balance on their credit card from one billing cycle to the next, the average credit debt is $15,418. When our high school students turn 18, they are eligible for a credit card (with a co-signer), and if used wisely, it can be a great tool for them to build their credit score. If used inappropriately, it can ruin their lives. It is time we start to teach kids to understand credit card solicitations and their credit bills using resources like this one.

 

• A lot of our high school students have trouble figuring out what career field would be a good fit for them. Resources like this one are very helpful, and we owe it to them to expose them to this information.

 

Each resource makes up the framework for an important step in the education ladder missing in 46 states. Yet the research is clear that there is a direct link between inequality and financial literacy. Equally as clear is a message from our parents. A resounding 93% of parents wish to see financial literacy courses taught in high school.

 

I want our children first introduced to complicated financial concepts and contracts by teachers who love them and who are trying to help them, not by someone trying to trick them. Relying on the school of hard knocks should not be an option anymore. It is time a step is added in the ladder to empower future generations to make wise and informed financial choices. Personal Finance should be integrated into every child’s K-12 educational experience, and a course in Personal Finance should be a semester-long high school graduation requirement.

Categories Curriculum

Matt Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige to Garfield Teachers!

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
17

This is a personal message from actor Matt Damon and early childhood educator Nancy Carlsson-Paige, addressed to the teachers of Garfield High:

We are writing to support all of the teachers at Garfield High School.  We admire your strong and unified stand against the district mandated standardized test. Teachers, students, and parents do not have to accept practices that are harmful to them and to the whole meaning and purpose of education. We know it takes courage to risk your jobs in order to stand for what you know is right.  But your example holds the promise of inspiring teachers in school districts all over the country to take similar action.  Thank you for your strength and courage.  We admire you and are behind you all the way.

Hey, Garfield teachers, Matt and Nancy think you are great!

 

Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Matt Damon

Categories Support for public schools, Testing, Washington State

Philly Youth Do Zombie Flash Dance to Protest Closings

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
3

Members of the Philadelphia Student Union performed a Zombie flash dance in front of school district headquarters to protest school closings. The district leadership insists it needs to save money by closing schools. The students don’t believe it.

The students are right.

The district will open privately managed charters to replace the closed public schools.

Categories Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Philadelphia, Privatization

DC Cheating Scandal: The Plot Thickens

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
34

John Merrow is still trying to get to the bottom of the DC cheating scandal.

During his investigation, he discovered that Michelle Rhee hired a data coach who lives in California to advise her at $85 an hour or $1500 a day when he visited DC. This data expert reported to Rhee’s assessment director.

Merrow heard from confidential sources that the data expert had written a four-page memo expressing his concerns about possible cheating. Merrow spent months trying to track down the memo. He knows that it exists but no one will let him see it. Rhee’s former assessment director won’t answer Merrow’s many calls.

What is in the memo? No one will say and Merrow can’t get his hands on it. But he makes the reasonable assumption that if the memo said “don’t worry, all is well,” the memo would be promptly released. It seems reasonable that someone has something to hide.

Note that Rhee is represented in this matter by a prominent criminal attorney in Washington, D.C.

Why?

Categories Michelle Rhee

Charters for Mississippi?

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
5

Here is the latest from Mississippi, which is considering charter legislation.

Running through the comments of advocates for charters is the claim that charters will improve achievement for the lowest performing students.

They need to know three things:

1. There is no evidence that charter schools know how to improve student achievement.

2. If the governor and the legislature truly believe that deregulation improves achievement, why not deregulate all the schools?

3. When they create a charter system to compete with public schools, they risk creating a dual school system. Researchers consistently find that charters are more segregated than district schools. Is Mississippi okay with restoring another dual school system?

Categories Charter Schools, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Blasts Rhee Report Card

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
14

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch tore apart Rhee’s shoddy report card, recognizing tat it is nothing more than an effort to foist her personal political preferences on the nation’s schools.

Unfortunately the newspaper admires some of her bad ideas–like evaluating teachers by test scores–and is unaware that her IMPACT program in DC hasn’t made a difference. And it accepts her mistaken notion that teachers are the problem, not poverty, not inequitable resource, not overcrowded classes, not bad policies like the ones she is pushing.

The good news is that her act is wearing thin, even with a paper that is inclined to agree with her.

They write: “…issuing arbitrary report cards followed by back-slapping news releases from politicians who have — or will shortly — receive campaign donations is a cynical way to go about standing up for children.”

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure

Rhee: “Dozens and Dozens” of Schools Made Gains…Or Did They?

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
19

In the Frontline documentary, John Merrow confronted Michelle Rhee with statistics from certain schools showing dramatic increases in test scores followed by equally dramatic declines. And they had this exchange:

JOHN MERROW: What’s your reaction to those numbers? That the gains are phony.

MICHELLE RHEE

Yeah. I mean, I—again, I—I feel like when you look at a situation like that does it call things into question? Absolutely. And should those things be investigated? A hundred percent. No—there’s no doubt about it. // But I can point to, you know, dozens and dozens of schools where, you know, they saw very steady gains over the course of the—the years that we were there, or even saw some dramatic gains that were maintained. So I think, in isolated places—could something have happened? Maybe.

Retired D.C. teacher and blogger extraordinaire G.F. Brandenburg has started an investigation of the “dozens and dozens of schools” that allegedly saw “steady” or “even some dramatic gains” when Rhee was chancellor.

He will continue his search for the “dozens and dozens” of schools in future posts.

See how great it is to be a math teacher?

Here on this blog we have math teacher Gary Rubinstein correcting the mistakes of the Gates Foundation’s $50 million MET project and now math teacher Brandenburg fact-checking the most divisive figure in American education today.

Categories Accountability, Michelle Rhee, Testing

Oprah: Don’t Participate in This Fraud!

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
42

A teacher in New Orleans sent this letter to me. My promise to him or her: we will all use whatever tools are at our command to stop the destruction of public education and the exploitation of students to benefit corporate interests. We will not give up.

I wanted to bring to your attention the trailer for the upcoming Oprah network series about John McDonogh high school here in New Orleans.

http://www.oprah.com/common/omplayer_embed.html?article_id=41375.

It is a vicious misrepresentation of what is going on at the school- merely propaganda for the brand new charter management organization that makes our students out to be thug primitives who need taming by clean cut out of towners.

Last night, a meeting was held by a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations to discuss the stripping away of the public from our public schools and some important action steps to re-frame the narrative of New Orleans schools. Parents mentioned this very video and will be protesting a screening at the school tonight.

Meanwhile, this series plans to do exactly what the corporate reformers here have been doing all along and what those folks last night are contending with- an extreme narrative that is completely out of touch with the truth, and has troubling privatization and profit motives.

In the wake of these reforms, our schools have shut out holistic learning, critical pedagogies, whole child concerns, etc. and have become militaristic nightmares- the opposite of the safe spaces schools should provide, especially for students in the impoverished situations many of the students depicted in this program come from.

Our students feel the walls closing in on them as young white teachers (I am one of them) stand in front of their classroom telling them all they need to do to get to college is work harder so the students can be successful just like them! To put them on camera in that experience is the grossest form of exploitation I can think of.

The propaganda this show is prepared to deliver across the country is both predictable and terrifying. Narratives are powerful and the allies of privatization are winning.

We need to start an information campaign to discredit this work, as happened with “Won’t Back Down.” Your voice in that movement is of course key, and I look forward to your input and feedback.

Sincerely,

A concerned young educator in New Orleans

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Louisiana, New Orleans, Students
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