Archives for the month of: March, 2013
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New Mexico Scraps Skandera’s Grading System

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
15

In the midst of debate about whether to confirm Hanna Skandera as State Secretary of Education, the New Mexico State Senate voted to eliminate the school grading system that Skandera had created.

No one understood it.

She said it was designed by “experts,” but even one of her spokesmen admitted that very few people understood how it worked.

Its key feature was that test scores determine a school’s grade.

Here is an idea: everyone at the upper levels of the New Mexico Public Education Department should take the high school test in math and publish their scores.

And so should every state senator who voted to support the school grading system.

Categories Accountability, Testing

Privatization Accelerates in UK

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
11

Want to see the hand-writing on the wall?

Look at what is happening in the U.K.

The minister of education, Michael Gove, is moving rapidly to increase privatization of state schools.

There is lots of talk about choice, competition, testing, accountability.

Consider this account:

“This is a story about England’s schools, but it could just as well describe the razing of state provision throughout the world. In the name of freedom, public assets are being forcibly removed from popular control and handed to unelected oligarchs.

“All over England, schools are being obliged to become academies: supposedly autonomous bodies which are often “sponsored” (the government’s euphemism for controlled) by foundations established by exceedingly rich people. The break-up of the education system in this country, like the dismantling of the NHS, reflects no widespread public demand. It is imposed, through threats, bribes and fake consultations, from on high.”

And here is news of a secret memo about turning the free schools and academies (equivalent to our charters) into profit-making schools.

Categories Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), International, Privatization

Idaho Will Use Khan Academy Videos

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
87

Idaho will introduce Khan Academy videos to 10,000 students in 47 schools, a mix of public, private, and charter.

The videos will teach math, science, history, and art. The project is underwritten by a local Idaho foundation.

I would like to hear from teachers who have reviewed the Khan Academy videos. What do you think of them?

Categories Education Industry, Idaho, On-Line Education

NBCT Teacher Beats Rhee Candidate in West Sacramento

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
5

National Board Certified Teacher Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez won a hard-fought election to the school board in West Sacramento, beating a man who works for Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst. She got more than 50% of the vote, he got about 25%.

As we saw in Los Angeles and earlier in Louisiana, the corporate reformers have decided that they can use their huge funds to buy state and local school boards.

It worked in Louisiana, where their conquest of the state school board cleared the way for vouchers and charters and efforts to destroy the teaching profession (so far, the courts have ruled that the funding for vouchers is unconstitutional and struck down the law dismantling the teaching profession on procedural grounds).

But the billionaires failed miserably in Los Angeles, where their primary target was Steve Zimmer. Despite the millions of dollars of out of state money used to distribute scurrilous attacks on Steve, he won by a 52-48 margin.

Now, the Wall Street hedge fund managers (DFER) are crowing that they “won,” because the board president Monica Garcia (with $1 million) beat four unfunded candidates. Robert Skeels, who came in second, raised $20,000.

Goliath looks foolish.

Beaten by an NBCT.

Beaten by boots on the ground.

Give up, Goliath. Your day on the hill is coming to an end.

Categories California, Corporate Reformers, StudentsFirst

Texas Officials: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
36

Jason Stanford writes a great blog about Texas politics. He has developed a special interest in education. After all, Texas was once home to the “Texas miracle,” and gave the nation No Child Left Behind.

In this column, he reports on what happened when a friendly legislator tried some questions on the fifth grade math test and found the wording to be confusing. He gave the same question to some of his colleagues, and the language puzzled them too. People with law degrees couldn’t understand the question. What should have been a straightforward math question turned into a verbal tangle because of the way the question was posed.

Pearson has a nearly $500 million contract with the state of Texas. Parents are furious. Legislators are thinking of canceling the contract.

This question does Pearson no good.

Categories Testing, Texas

Anthony Cody Announces Network for Public Education

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
16

Anthony Cody writes a great blog. He is very likely the nation’s most eloquent spokesman for the teaching profession. He is a National Board Certified Teacher who taught middle-school science for many years in Oakland.

Today, he joined me in releasing the news of the Network for Public Education.

Let me be the first to say that Anthony is doing the heavy lifting. I write and speak. Anthony organizes and makes things happen. He is a teacher.

If you are in an organization that is supporting your local public schools, please contact Anthony and join our network. If you are an individual who wants to know “how can I help?” Contact Anthony.

He is at anthony_cody@hotmail.com

The Network has been created by the willing hands of volunteers. Every member of the board has worked hard to get us started. An artist volunteered artwork. A web designer volunteered his efforts. After the announcement, I received an offer this morning to translate everything into Spanish.

We will build a powerful network of grassroots organizations and individuals, using social media to counter the money power of a handful of billionaires who want to control our public schools.

Categories Support for public schools

Breaking News: New Group to Oppose Corporate Reforms

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
38

Dear Friends,

It is time to organize to support our children, our schools, and our educators against the well-funded attacks on them.

Please join me and a group of education leaders from across the country in building a movement for improving and strengthening our schools with research-based reforms, not fads and sanctions.

Today we announce the creation of the Network for Public Education. We invite you to join as an individual. We invite you to join as an organization. We will create a huge social network of parents, students, teachers, administrators, school board members, and all others who believe in public education and sane educational policy that focuses on a full and rich education for all children.

Diane

Here is the press release:

For Immediate Release
March 7, 2013

Contacts:
Anthony Cody, 707-459-2147, 510-917-9231 (cell) Anthony_cody@hotmail.com
Leonie Haimson, 917-435-9329, leonie@classsizematters.org

Today marks the public launch of a new network devoted to the defense and improvement of public education in the US. Led by renowned education historian, Diane Ravitch, the Network for Public Education will bring together grassroots activists and organizations from around the country, and endorse candidates for office, with the common goal of protecting and strengthening our public schools.

Diane Ravitch said, “The Network for Public Education will give voice to the millions of parents, educators, and other citizens who are fed up with corporate-style reform. We believe in community-based reform, strengthening our schools instead of closing them, respecting our teachers and principals instead of berating them, educating our children instead of constantly testing them. Our public schools are an essential democratic institution. We look forward to working with friends and allies in every state and school district who want to preserve and improve public education for future generations.”

Our nation’s schools are at a crossroads. Wealthy individuals are pouring unprecedented amounts of money into state and local school board races, often into places where they do not reside, to elect candidates intent on undermining and privatizing our public schools. The Network for Public Education will collaborate with other groups and organizations to strengthen our public schools in states and districts throughout the nation, share information and research about what works and what doesn’t work, and endorse and grade candidates based on our shared commitment to the well-being of our children, our society, and our public schools. We will help candidates who work for evidence-based reforms and who oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, the privatization of our public schools and the outsourcing of core academic functions to for-profit corporations.

Renee Moore, former Mississippi Teacher of the Year, said, “One of the greatest gifts the U.S. has given to the world is the promise of quality public education. It is also an unfulfilled promise. Public education is a critical part of America’s legacy, and the key to our future. We must defend and constantly improve it.”

According to Anthony Cody, retired California teacher and columnist for Education Week: “As a teacher in Oakland I saw the effects of our obsession with tests first hand. Our students are learning less, and losing the chance to think for themselves as we put more and more pressure on them to perform well on tests. It is time for the millions of us who know better to challenge those who have put our schools on this path. This Network will allow us to learn from and support one another as we push for real school change.”

Leonie Haimson, NYC parent advocate and head of Class Size Matters, said: “With all the billionaire cash trying to buy elections, we need to amass people power to ensure that individuals who care about preserving and strengthening our public schools are elected to positions of power. As the recent Los Angeles school board election shows, when we are organized we can overcome the forces of the privateers and the profiteers, intent on pillaging and dismantling our public schools.”

According to Arizona parent activist and director of Voices for Education, Robin Hiller: “No school was ever improved by closing it. Every community should have good public schools, and we believe that public officials have a solemn responsibility to improve public schools, not close or privatize them.”

Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas stated “This new network will seek to empower communities nationwide to unite to be more influential than the powerful. The network will also be an important vehicle for the latest data and research on the strengths and weaknesses of reform fads espoused by a multitude of talking heads.”

Phyllis Bush, a retired teacher from Indiana, said “Public schools are under assault in this country. Now more than ever it is imperative that concerned citizens unite to save the public school system. Our group, Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, and other grassroots groups helped to elect Glenda Ritz to become our Superintendent of Public Instruction, a huge victory against rampant and destructive education policies. With the creation of the Network for Public Education, we will reach out to others across the nation to fulfill the promise of public education.”

Added board member and Alabama education activist Larry Lee, “From my view, a lot more “ed reform” is because of the love of money, not the love of children. The result is that kids have become a very poor rope in a political tug of war. The only way to turn this tide is with the collective voices of the American public saying, ‘Enough is enough.’”

The Network invites individuals to join as members and welcomes other organizations to become our allies, to fight with us to preserve and strengthen our public schools.

The group’s website is http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org
and the Twitter feed is at https://twitter.com/NetworkPublicEd

###

Categories Closing schools, Parents, Privatization, Support for public schools, Teachers

Did Skandera’s All-Expense Paid Travel Break New Mexico Law?

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
11

According to a report in the Santa Fe Reporter, Hanna Skandera has taken numerous trips to conferences and meetings, with travel expenses paid by organizations that do business with the state.

The story says, “… over the past two years, various PED [Public Education Department] contractors have paid for Skandera’s flights and hotel rooms. For instance, in 2011, PED paid the Minnesota-based Summit Education Associates, LLC, more than $96,000 for “professional services,” according to the state’s Sunshine Portal.

“The company lists as its manager FEE [Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Educational Excellence] Senior Policy Fellow Christy Hovanetz, who helped advise Skandera on legislation [news, Feb. 19: “Business School”]. Then, in June 2012, FEE paid nearly $3,000 to fly Skandera—who is a member of Chiefs for Change, a FEE-operated group of public officials who support the nonprofit’s reform agenda—to a Chiefs meeting in Washington, DC, followed by FEE’s “Festival of Education” in London.

Skandera also serves on the board of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a consortium of 22 states “working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math”—online evaluations Skandera plans to implement in New Mexico in 2015. Travel vouchers show PARCC paid a total of more than $2,000 for Skandera to attend board meetings in Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Va.

PARCC, too, has ties to state money: It’s run by Washington, DC-based nonprofit Achieve, Inc., which last year landed a $39,660 contract with PED, according to the Sunshine Portal.”

A spokesman for the PEDRO said, “Over two days of the hearing, supporters for Secretary Skandera and reform for our students outnumbered those who stand for the status quo. As far as responding to the presentation, it is beyond disappointing that a political operative funded by special interests is given more time before this committee than the citizens of New Mexico who traveled hundreds of miles to testify.”

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change

Newtown Students Will Not Take State Tests

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
25

In January, the Newtown Board of Education asked the state education department of Connecticut to exempt students in the district from the state tests, due to the trauma of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.

The state education department agreed, but needed to get permission from the U.S. Department of Education.

The U.S. Department of Education agreed, and now the Connecticut General Asembly must give its consent.

So much for local control.

Categories Connecticut

Nashville: Charter School Sticker Shock

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
11

The Metro Nashville school board was surprised to learn that new charter schools will absorb millions of dollars from the district’s budget, with more on the way.

The state legislature is about to approve legislation to override the veto of local school boards, so Nashville is sure to get more charters than it wants or needs.

But most of the money for the charters’ budgets will come from the city’s coffers, not the state’s.

Sort of like the state inviting someone to dine at your table, at your cost.

Thanks a lot.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Privatization
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