Archives for the month of: May, 2013
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Norm Scott: Obama’s Dilemma

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
11

Norm Scott, retired NYC teacher posted this on his website, Ed Notes Online:

We have Al Qaeda on the run but right now the biggest threat to our agenda is Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers Union,” said an Obama spokesperson.

“Our pal Rahm Emanuel has been forced to close 50 schools in retaliation for the strike led by Lewis and now suffers poll numbers so low they are getting close to the interest rate. He is actually being criticized for using money he saves by closing schools to put $100 million into building a new basketball arena where our president and Arne Duncan will be able to shoot hoops once their term in office is over. For that Rahm is being called the most loathsome politician in America? How dare they?”

“And some in the media have started ganging up on some of our allies like Michelle Rhee. And Arne Duncan’s poor record in running the Chicago schools for so many years has been re-examined due to the work of Karen Lewis’ union.

“And then to top it all our hand-picked crew to beat her in the election got only 20% of the vote despite being supported by our press pals at the Chicago Tribune, thus showing Chicago teachers will not go to the woodshed like the lambs being led by Randi Weingarten, our most important asset, who by the way we have supplied a military escort to protect, but let me point out that we are not using public money for Randi’s escort since Bill Gates is paying.”

“Getting Bin Laden was so much easier.”

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Duncan, Arne, Emanuel, Rahm, Obama

North Carolina Newspaper Puts Public Schools First

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
13

The Wilmington, North Carolina, Star-News published an editorial recognizing the danger of taking money away from public schools and giving it to charters, vouchers, and private vendors.

The editorial begins:

“Private schools and charter schools may satisfy individual parents, but they will not improve the public schools. They take not only money out of the system but also those students whose parents have the means, work flexibility and determination to take their children to another school, participate in classroom activities and supervise homework.

“It is clear from legislation that is making its way through the General Assembly that the Honorables are not really interested in improving the public schools. If they were, they would be trying to help schools get the resources and high-quality staff needed to help each student meet expectations. They would be increasing expectations, even in schools with children who may have to work harder to meet high standards.”

No state will improve education by funding a dual school system. That’s where North Carolina is heading, and it is not about the kids. It is not about education. It is about a radical ideology that places the values of the market over the values of community and education. The market will favor some groups–the swift and able–and turn the public schools into dumping grounds.

That would be a tragedy for North Carolina and every other state now gripped by free market radicalism.

Categories North Carolina, Privatization, Support for public schools

Chicago: Time for a Néw Mayor

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
11

George Buzzetti writes:

“Chicago, you must set the agenda not Emmanuel and his destruction crew. You must take back control of Chicago and the School Board. There is nothing like a politician who gets the public mad as hell at them for change. In L.A. Monica Ratliff was elected with only $44,000 against more than a million and she never took a day off work and she drives a long way to her teaching job. If you have a good mayoral candidate the chances are good to get Emanuel out and to elect sense again even if it has been a long time. Now is the time for Chicago to set the agenda in Chicago as you have been the shining example for the rest of the country concerning education and fighting for your children and society.”

Categories Chicago

Big Rumor in Louisiana: John White Heading to DC

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
32

The Louisiana blogs, which these days are the only place in that corrupt state to read honest and probing discourse, are buzzing with rumors that their state commissioner John White will soon leave for a job with Arne Duncan.

If true, he will not be missed. Jindal will find another reactionary ideologue to take White’s place and pursue the governor’s radical privatization agenda.

Why would Duncan want White? When Jindal chose White, Duncan called him “a visionary leader.” White would help Duncan prepare the nation for mass privatization. Sad to say, White and Duncan are on the same page. ALEC beams, as do all the other rightwing extremists to see this Democratic administration advancing its agenda–or doing nothing to impede it.

Categories ALEC, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Privatization

John White Makes Excuses for Low-Scoring Voucher Students

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
10

Vouchers were supposed to “save poor kids from failing schools,” but what happens when the voucher schools are far worse than the public schools?

John White made excuses. He blamed the schools they attended the previous year.

No excuses, John!

“LEAP scores for third- through eighth-graders show only 40 percent of voucher students scored at or above grade level this past spring. The state average for all students was 69 percent.
For accountability purposes, students attending private schools at taxpayer expense take the same standardized tests as their peers in public schools. In 2011, when the voucher program operated only in New Orleans, students averaged 33 percent proficiency.

“Now seven schools in Jefferson and Orleans parishes have results so low — less than 25 percent of voucher students proficient for three years running — that they have been barred from accepting new voucher students in the fall, as per state policy. In Orleans, the schools are Life of Christ Academy, the Upperroom Bible Church Academy, Bishop McManus, Conquering Word Christian Academy Eastbank and Holy Rosary Academy. In Jefferson, they are Faith Christian Academy and Conquering Word Christian Academy.”

When children fare poorly in a voucher school three years in a row, is it still the fault of their public school?

Categories Louisiana, Vouchers

Temps Scoring Essay Questions on State Tests

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
29

This article may explain why the big testing corporations want machines to score essays.

How do you think they score them now?

How do you think they have been scored for many years?

By temps. By people earning $10-12 an hour with no particular skills and minimal training.

Not long ago, I posted a story that said that Pearson was advertising on CraigsList in Texas for people to score essays.

Just think.

Children’s lives; teachers’ careers and reputations; and the fate of the school hinge on snap judgment made by people reading these essays, scoring as many as possible in an hour.

It is a multibillion dollar business, and the name of the game is cutting costs.

So having the essays scored by machine if your goal is to maximize profit.

Education? Don’t start talking about that. That’s an abstraction.

Categories Testing

An Account of Historic, Tragic Day in Chicago

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
8

The best reporting on the historic closure of dozens of Chicago public schools was in the Sun-Times. It provided a human face to a public tragedy.

Most moving were the scenes at schools listed for closure.

The board voted enmasse. It didn’t even take time to name the schools it killed.

The decision was rendered unless time than it takes to boil an egg.

And there was this:

“One of the speakers lugged out of board chambers by CPS security was Erica Clark, a CPS parent and member Parents 4 Teachers. She used her two minutes time to recite, alphabetically, a litany of the schools on the chopping block: “Altgeld is my school, Armstrong is my school, Attucks is my school.”

“Her microphone was cut off as she reached “Pope”. She sat on the floor and continued: “Songhai is my school”. As security guards picked her up and carried her out, protesters called out with her: “Every school is my school.”

Categories Chicago, Closing schools

How Low Can Rahm Go?

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
6

Rahm Emanuel has distinguished himself by his sycophancy towards Chicago’s power elite. Here “The Nation” dissects his tawdry record.

The Chicago Teachers Union plans a voter registration drive to sign up new voters in the communities damaged by Rahm’s school closings.

Categories Education Reform

Alabama Teacher of the Year: A Great Teacher Whose School Did Not Make AYP

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
14

Alison Grizzle was chosen as Alabama Teacher of the Year.

Read this article and watch the video and you will see why.

She teaches math at P.D. Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham.

She is a National Board Certified Teacher.

Her school did not make AYP.

The punitive, no-brain law called No Child Left Behind claims another victim.

NCLB is the Death Star of American education.

The sooner this killer law dies, the sooner our schools will be free to educate again.

And when it dies of its massive flaws, its insatiable desire to crush schools, Race to the Top should go too.

Categories Alabama, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

PT Barnum and the Louisiana Circus

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
5

Louisiana matters hugely to the fate of American public because of the myth that Néw Orleans had a miraculous transformation once Hurricane Katrina wiped out the public schools and the teachers’ union.

Julian Vasquez Heilig here explains that the myth is a lie.

The Louisiana Department of Education controls the data and they are not releasing it. When they do, it can’t be trusted. Bobby Jindal purged the Department to make sure he can keep the tale intact.

And this lie is being used to destroy public education and teacher professionalism across the country.

Read this important post!

Categories Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana
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