Archives for the month of: April, 2014
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

New Study Finds That Early Childhood Care and Education Has Lasting Effects

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2014 //
14

This article reports on a long-term study of the lasting effects of early childhood education.

 

The article is misleadingly titled “Project to Improve Poor Children’s Intellect Led to Better Health, Data Shows.”

 

But the study involved far more than improving young children’s intellect.

 

“In 1972, researchers in North Carolina started following two groups of babies from poor families. In the first group, the children were given full-time day care up to age 5 that included most of their daily meals, talking, games and other stimulating activities. The other group, aside from baby formula, got nothing. The scientists were testing whether the special treatment would lead to better cognitive abilities in the long run.

Forty-two years later, the researchers found something that they had not expected to see: The group that got care was far healthier, with sharply lower rates of high blood pressure and obesity, and higher levels of so-called good cholesterol.

The study, which was published in the journal Science on Thursday, is part of a growing body of scientific evidence that hardship in early childhood has lifelong health implications. But it goes further than outlining the problem, offering evidence that a particular policy might prevent it.

“This tells us that adversity matters and it does affect adult health,” said James Heckman, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago who led the data analysis. “But it also shows us that we can do something about it, that poverty is not just a hopeless condition.”

 

Professor James Heckman, a Nobel-prize winning economist from the University of Chicago, sees the study as evidence that early childhood education does not mean a year of preschool but early nurturing from infancy that enable children to develop as healthy and happy human beings, attending to their skills, capabilities, curiosity, and engagement with others.

 

 

Categories Education Reform

A Note About My Schedule

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
192

In an earlier post, I shared with you the fact that I took a bad fall, landed on my knee, and tore the ACL ligament. The MRI showed the damage was even more extensive than it first seemed. I not only tore my ACL, I managed to take out several other ligaments as well that provide stability. So much for enthusiasm and striving boldly into the challenges of life.

As a result, this is the new schedule: I am going to Louisville this week to accept the Grawemeyer award. I wouldn’t miss it, even if I have to use a walker and a wheelchair.

I am canceling all other speaking engagements for the balance of April and May. No Milwaukee. No Madison. No Towson University. No Honorary degree at Columbia College in Chicago.

I may be facing knee replacement surgery.

This much I promise you. I won’t stop blogging and tweeting unless I’m under anesthesia. I will not stop advocating for commonsense reforms, for respectful treatment of educators, for loving treatment of children, and the joy of learning until they pry my cold, dead fingers from my electronic devices.

Categories Personal

Please Help Send EduShyster to Camp Philos!

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
21

EduShyster needs our help to go to Camp Philos to hear the great thoughts of such brilliant educational philosophers as Governor Andrew Cuomo, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (Michelle Rhee’s husband), Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Whatz-is-name the mayor of Denver.

She has raised $600. She needs $400 more. I made a contribution. Will you?

EduShyster promises to share with us all she learns from the deepest educational thinkers of our time.

Please go to the link in this post and make a donation. What’s it worth to you to know what our philosophers are thinking?

EduShyster

Categories Corporate Reformers

Sara Stevenson: Watch Out, Texas: VAM Is a Sham

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
4

Sara Stevenson, librarian at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, published an article in the Austin American-Statesman, written as a warning to Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams. The article appeared on April 11, amd it is behind a paywall is I have no link.

Stevenson did an excellent job of reviewing the research literature on value-added measurement and warned Commissioner Williams that VAM is neither accurate nor stable. Further it is very demoralizing to teachers to be publicly shamed by these ratings. She mentions the suicide of Roberto Riguelas, a teacher in Los Angeles who committed suicide only days after his rating was published by the Los Angeles Times.

She writes:

“Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams is tasked with crafting a plan to tie teacher evaluations to STAAR test scores. The Obama administration requires states receiving waivers from this year’s impossible 100 percent passing rate on Bush’s No Child Left Behind law to incorporate student test scores as part of the state teacher evaluation formula. Williams should just say no.

“First of all, value-added measurement, or VAM, is junk science. It has been debunked in multiple studies. Researchers with the RAND Corp. concluded that there were so many cases of error and bias in the formulations that they reject using VAM for high-stakes decisions. Stanford professor Edward Haertel also warns against using these unstable measures for high-stakes purposes. Furthermore, a Vanderbilt study concludes that tying teacher evaluations to VAM undermined professionalism and demoralized teachers.”

And she concludes:

“Student success in school is multi-determined. For instance, the most important factor is socioeconomic status. This is not to say poor kids can’t learn. It’s just something researchers have proven over and over again. Therefore, you could, theoretically, take the worst teacher at Hill Country Middle School in the Eanes school district, where 2 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and her students would score higher than students of the most dedicated, selfless teacher at Pearce Middle School in East Austin, a school made up of more than 95 percent of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch.

“Considering both research and common sense, it would be harmful for Texas to tie teacher evaluation to student test scores. Imposing these criteria on Texas teachers will force the best to flee and find other means of employment. Who will risk his career to teach our neediest students? This trend will not bode well for our youngest citizens, who will determine our future.

“Texas legislators need to say no to the VAM bandwagon.”

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Texas

Paul Thomas: Cynicism or Skepticism about the Obama Education Agenda?

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
7

Paul Thomas has been a consistent critic of the Obama education policies of standards, testing, accountability, choice, competition.

 

Rightly so, since those policies are no different from those of the Bush era, only worse.

 

He now wonders if the administration’s criticism of zero tolerance might be a hopeful turn.

 

But he does not note that the administration does not associate “zero tolerance” with “no-excuses” charter schools promoted by the administration.

 

The most important book on “no-excuses” charters was written by David Whitman, Arne Duncan’s speechwriter.

 

Duncan continues to praise “no-excuses” charters which practice zero tolerance.

 

The question Paul should be investigating is how often the President or the Secretary has condemned practice that their policies mandate, like teaching to the test.

Categories Education Reform

Vivian Connell Asks for Your Support

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
3

A while back, I posted a moving statement by Vivian Connell about her discovery that she has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and a limited life-span. I called it “Vivian Connell: The Face of a Hero,” recognizing the grace and dignity with which she was facing a dread diagnosis.

She wrote about her plans to do good works in whatever time was left to her, and one of her goals was to take a group of students from North Carolina to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C.

Here is the post in which she explains how everyone can contribute to the fund needed to transport the students on this important adventure.

I made my donation. I hope you will too.

 

Vivian writes:

 

The North Carolina Foundation for Public School Children is acting as the fiscal agent for the project entitled Writing Wrongs: Student Voices for Justice. You can read all about the project and donate here. And I’ll be deeply grateful. Moreover, I can honestly say that as I face the daily, increasing difficulty with walking, I am comforted and meaningfully encouraged when I look forward to this trip and this project with these kids. Thank you.

Categories Personal

Peter Greene on Arne’s Néw Message

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
32

Peter Greene has a large appetite for listening to our educational leaders. In this post, he describes speeches given by Arne Duncan and John King, defending the status quo. They want all children tested, they all teachers evaluated by test scores. They want everyone to stop making so much noise. They want everyone to listen to them. Now.

As Greene puts it, Arne’s new message is: “Shut up.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, New York, Testing

Billionaires Rule! How Governor Cuomo and Hedge Fund Managers Protected Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
50

I am late posting this article because it appeared about the time I started dealing with health issues (a bad fall that took out the ACL in my left knee).

It deserves wide reading because it is an accurate portrait of the money and power behind the charter school movement. I commend the writers, Javier C. Hernandez and Susanne Craig for getting the story that took place behind closed doors in Albany and executive suites in Manhattan. It is the best investigative report that I have seen in the “New York Times” on the money fueling the charter movement.

it answers a few basic questions? Why did Governor Cuomo take the lead in fighting to “save” charter schools after Mayor Bill de Blasio approved 14 out of 17 new charters? How did it happen that Eva Moskowitz bused thousands of students and parents to Albany on the very same day that Mayor de Blasio had scheduled a rally to support pre-kindergarten funding? Which billionaires and millionaires put up more than $5 million to create and air attack ads on television against de Blasio? Who masterminded the deal that gave charter schools preferred status over public schools in New York City? Who arranged that they could not be charged rent, that they could expand and push public school kids out of their buildings, and that the city had to pay their rent if they opened in private space?

Spoiler alert:

The deal in the legislature “gave New York City charter schools some of the most sweeping protections in the nation, including a right to space inside public buildings. And interviews with state and city officials as well as education leaders make it clear that far from being a mere cheerleader, the governor was a potent force at every turn, seizing on missteps by the mayor, a fellow Democrat, and driving legislation from start to finish.”

Money was always a potent factor in the backroom dealings:

“A lot was riding on the debate for Mr. Cuomo. A number of his largest financial backers, some of the biggest names on Wall Street, also happened to be staunch supporters of charter schools. According to campaign finance records, Mr. Cuomo’s re-election campaign has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from charter school supporters, including William A. Ackman, Carl C. Icahn, Bruce Kovner and Daniel Nir.

Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of Home Depot who sits on a prominent charter school board, gave $50,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign last year. He said that when the governor asked him to lead a group of Republicans supporting his re-election, he agreed because of Mr. Cuomo’s support for charter schools.

“Every time I am with the governor, I talk to him about charter schools,” Mr. Langone said in an interview. “He gets it.”

And more is on the way, not only for Cuomo, who not only delivered for the billionaires who love charters, but for Eva Moskowitz, who will not only get a 8 new charters–not just the 5 that de Blasio originally approved–but lots of extra money, which will not be used to pay rent:

“Daniel S. Loeb, the founder of the hedge fund Third Point and the chairman of Success Academy’s board, began leaning on Wall Street executives for donations. Later this month, he will host a fund-raiser for Success Academy at Cipriani in Midtown Manhattan; tickets run as high as $100,000 a table.”

Moskowitz claims that her schools don’t spend any more than real public schools, so it remains to be seen how she pans to spend the millions that Dan Loeb will raise for her schools in a single night.

And the sweetest part of the deal for Moskowitz’s Success Academy 4 in Harlem is that her elementary school can now expand to a middle school and take more space away from PS 149, which was once considered the host school. First, she can evict the kids with severe disabilities (her own charter has none), then, thanks to Governor Cuomo, she can evict all the other students and take the entire school away, if she wishes. Sort of like a parasite that grows and grows.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Cuomo, Andrew, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Privatization

Ohio: Extremists in Legislature Seek to Change Constitution

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
22

Just when you think the attacks on public education can’t get worse, some rightwing legislature has a new bad idea. It is probably intended to pave the way for more money for charters, vouchers, and the online industry, which make generous campaign contributions to the GOP. Did this come from ALEC?

The following report comes from Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition, which fights for fair and equitable funding for public schools.

Bill Phillis writes:

“Thorough and Efficient”–the time-honored constitutional standard for public education is threatened by a proposed change in the Ohio Constitution

When one thinks it can’t get worse for the public common school system, it does. Just this week, the chair of the Education, Public Institutions, & Miscellaneous and Local Government Committee of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission introduced a proposal that would eliminate the “thorough and efficient system of common schools” language from the Ohio Constitution. The proposal would merely require the General Assembly to provide for a public school system.

The “thorough and efficient” standard has held the legislature’s feet to the fire for 160 years. Without a standard, public education could be diminished markedly and citizens would have no viable recourse via the courts.

The delegates to the 1850 and 1851 Constitutional Convention struggled successfully to reach consensus on the education clause and finally agreed on “thorough and efficient”, a wise decision.

When the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the system unconstitutional in 1997, some legislators proposed to remove the thorough and efficient clause from the Constitution so as to shut the Court out of any involvement in school funding matters.

This constitutional proposal is another serious attack on the public common school. Public school advocates and all other civic-minded citizens must rise up to stop this egregious attack on public education.

William Phillis
Ohio E & A

Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215

Categories Ohio

Leo Casey: Is New York the Mississippi of Our Time?

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2014 //
51

Leo Casey, director of the Albert Shanker Institute, writes here about the recent report of the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That report found that Néw York has the most racially segregated schools in the nation.

Casey writes:

“Last month saw the publication of a new report, New York State’s Extreme School Segregation, produced by UCLA’s highly regarded Civil Rights Project. It confirmed what New York educators have suspected for some time: our schools are now the most racially segregated schools in the United States. New York’s African-American and Latino students experience “the highest concentration in intensely-segregated public schools (less than 10% white enrollment), the lowest exposure to white students, and the most uneven distribution with white students across schools.”

Driving the statewide numbers were schools in New York City, particularly charter schools. Inside New York City, “the vast majority of the charter schools were intensely segregated,” the report concluded, significantly worse in this regard “than the record for public schools.”

And he adds:

“Interestingly, while New York City charter schools are more segregated by race than the district schools, they are less segregated by class; this pattern reflects a recruitment of students from inner city communities whose families possess more economic resources. Such recruitment also has the effect of intensifying the economic class segregation in the city’s high-poverty community schools.

“New York City schools that are doubly segregated by race and class end up with extraordinary concentrations of social and economic need – with high numbers of students who are homeless, who suffer from untreated health conditions, who have special needs, and who are English language learners. In a very real way, these schools are actually more segregated than were southern schools during the Jim Crow era, when racially segregated African-American schools still contained the full spectrum of economic classes and educational need found in the community.”

In a few weeks, our nation will mark the 60th anniversary of the Brown Vs. Board of Education decision. Separate but equal can never be equal. It is a sad commentary on our society that the very people who claim to be leading “the civil rights movement of our time” are creating the most racially segregated schools of our time.

The segregationists of the 1950s made “school choice” their battle cry. Now it is treated as “reform.” What a hoax.

Imagine if Arne Duncan had used the $5 billion in discretionary funds that Congress gave him in 2009 to reward states and districts that devised feasible plans to reduce racial segregation. Five years later, that money would have made a huge difference. Instead, we have closed schools, battles over Common Core, high-stakes testing, demoralized teachers, more states adopting vouchers that will produce more segregation. A truly wasted opportunity.

Categories New York, New York City, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »