Archives for the month of: June, 2015
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Rick Hess Loves Nevada’s Néw Choice Program

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
10

Rick Hess of the conservative American Enterprise Institute explains why Nevada’s recently passed vouchers-for-all is a terrific step forward. He calls it a “landmark” in the struggle for school choice. There are few limits on who can get a voucher worth about $5,000. This is a boon for religious schools and home schoolers.

He writes:

“Nevada’s ESA is a landmark bill due to two striking features: it’s universal and it one-ups school vouchers by offering ESAs (more on why that matters below). Nevada’s ESA is available to all families as an alternative to attending a Nevada public school, so long as the student in question has attended a Nevada public school for at least 100 days. The ESA can be used to fund tuition at approved private schools, textbooks, tutoring services, tuition for distance learning programs, the costs of special instruction for students with special needs, and so on. Students with special needs or whose families earn less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level ($44,863 for a family of four) will receive between $5,500 and $6,000—the full amount of statewide base per-pupil support. Students whose families earn over 185 percent of the poverty level will receive about 90 percent of base support.”

He is puzzled by the lack of enthusiasm from public school teachers.

I am puzzled by his enthusiasm. Surely he doesn’t believe that Nevada will emerge at the top of NAEP in five years, ten years, or ever because of all this sudsidization of nonpublic schools.

What is the point?

Categories Nevada, Vouchers

Ari Hart: The School Board of East Ramapo Betrays Jewish Values

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
19

Ari Hart is an Orthodox Jew who disapproves of the actions taken by the Jewish-dominated school board in East Ramapo, Néw York.

In that district, the majority of the populace is Orthodox Jews, whose children attend yeshivas. Most students in the public schools are black and Hispanic. The school board takes good care of the yeshivas but it shortchanges the public schools.

Today, the state assembly passed a bill to install a state financial monitor for the district, to protect children in public schools.

Ari Hart chastises his co-religionists.

He writes:

“The board has drastically increased the funding going to yeshivas, but it has cut public school classes and extracurricular activities, attempting to sell public school assets at below market prices to private yeshivas, and more. These ethically and at times legally dubious actions have been documented by everyone from newspapers like this one to the New York City Bar Association to the New York State Supreme Court.”

Hart writes
:

“As an Orthodox Jew, when I first learned about what was happening in East Ramapo and about the attitudes of the board, I was shocked and disgusted. The Talmud teaches, “The world endures only for the sake of the breath of school children.” The public actions of this school board over the years have been in flagrant violation of that and so many other Jewish values and teachings. The Torah we share demands over and over again we never trample the stranger, the immigrant and the poor — apt descriptions of many in the public school district. They have also caused a massive Chillul Hashem — desecration of God’s name. The leadership of the school board to date has grossly violated both American and Jewish values. This is not the way to use Jewish power in America.
Instead, we need to find a way to both advance our interests and needs while taking the needs of our fellow citizens into account; rather than just grabbing more and more slices of the pie and leaving those around us hungry, we work together to grow the pie so there is enough for all. This would be a moral use of Jewish power, using it to call out those who are acting unjustly, even when they are from our own community. That is why thousands and thousands of Jewish New Yorkers are lobbying their legislators to pass these bills, which will provide needed oversight. Ultimately, this is about those school children in East Ramapo, and it’s about the very legacy that Jewish New Yorkers will leave on this great state.”

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/national/309145/in-east-ramapo-an-immoral-use-of-jewish-power/#ixzz3comkGOxQ

Categories New York, Religion, Separation of church and state

Jean Marzollo: If Only Our Leaders Would Read This Book

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
12

This review was written by Jean Marzollo, one of the nation’s leading writers of children’s books. My children, and now my grandchildren, grew up reading and loving her “I Spy” books, and many others.

 

 

 

 

A wonderful educator friend of mine, Ellen Booth Church (http://www.ellenboothchurch.com) sent me a copy of her new book, Getting to the HEART of Learning, published by Gryphon House, 2015. I wish every candidate running for president would read her first two paragraphs and quote from them on the podium:

 

 

“All learning is social-emotional learning. Children do not learn skills in isolation but through social connection and interconnection to the real world—their world. It is their curiosity about the world that stimulates their desire to learn and to share what they have learned. We all learn best when we care about what we are learning and whom we are learning it with. Children live their lives with their hearts and minds open and connected. From that union of heart and mind, they develop into people who are balanced, happy, and successful.

 

 

“Take a quick look at what is being presented in the news, and you will see the need in our culture for social-emotional development. Preschool and kindergarten teachers recognize both the need to address social development in their students and with their students’ families and the need to teach the basic skills that are essential to learning. These two things do not need to be separate; in fact, they truly are inseparable.”

 

 

In Chapter 3, Getting to the Heart of Science, Church says, “Children are natural scientists. They wonder, predict, and experiment with everything! Scientists work best in a lab team, and these activities are designed just for team explorations. The children will explore science themes as well as processes together as they build the social skills of cooperation, helping, and working with others. Many of these activities work best with a partner. The children will have to wait to use materials, control impulses to take over, and communicate ideas together. In the process, children also will be building problem-solving skills that will last a lifetime.”

 

 

Church says that in order to get to the heart of learning, we need to help preschool and kindergarten teachers teach basic skills and social skills while studying the exciting topics of sound, magnets, camouflage, sunlight, melting, weather, clouds, mirrors, sand, seeds and plants. She spells out, in enjoyable detail, lesson plans for these topics in her book.

 

 

Imagine a presidential candidate quoting Aristotle (as Church often does in her presentations): “Educating the mind without the heart is no education at all.”

 

 

 

Categories Childhood

Why Does Governor Christie Tell Lies About Teachers?

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
39

Governor Christie has strong opinions. He doesn’t like public schools (even though Néw Jersey public schools regularly place 2nd or 3rd in the nation on NAEP, behind Massachusetts and neck-and-neck with Connecticut.) yet he feels the need to bad-mouth New Jersey’s public schools whenever he has the chance. Christie doesn’t like teachers (he claims they have a four or five month vacation and receive a full-time salary for a part-time job). And he absolutely loathes teacher unions (they insist that their lazy members get paid for working longer school days).

To see Governor Christie at his best, watch the video clip on this post

Instead of telling the world about his state’s excellent public schools, he rants about their terrible teachers and retrograde union.

This man will never be President. Not just because his state’s economy is in trouble, not because of Bridgegate, but because he is a bully and a blowhard.

Categories New Jersey, Teachers, Unions

Arthur Camins on Choice: a Letter to the Editor

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
6

Arthur Camins, Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at the Stevens Institute of Technology, has a terrific letter to the editor in today’s Néw York Times.

He points out the paradox of choice.

“A look at the ways in which the idea of individual choice is applied by politicians to different issues is revealing. Some politicians want the public to pay for their private choices when it comes to vouchers for religious education, but are against choice when it comes to a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have a baby.

“In both cases they are prepared to violate the basic constitutional principle of separation of church and state. In one case they want the public to pay for their religious choices. In the other they want to impose their religious views on everyone else.”

Categories Religion, School Choice, Separation of church and state

Mercedes Schneider and Peter Greene Do Not Wish Common Core a Happy Birthday

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
7

Two teacher bloggers note the fifth birthday of the Common Core standards.

Mercedes Schneider takes the occasion to rip apart the celebratory claims for Common Core in a recent post on Huffington Post. She points out that it was adopted by almost every state a full year before the standards were written and disseminated. How convenient. She challenges the claim that it promotes critical thinking:

Next comes the Common Core as “emphasiz[ing] critical thinking over rote memorization.” As a critical thinker, I would like to read the empirical studies produced prior to Common Core adoption and that support exactly what the Common Core yields, not what those advertising it have told me it “emphasizes.”

No such empirical evidence exists. What does exist is the immediately-published, July 2010, Fordham Institute declaration of Common Core as The Answer despite the fact that even Fordham Institute did not grade Common Core as superior to all existing state standards. That did not stop Fordham Institute current president Michael Petrilli from trying to sell Common Core to states with standards that his organization rated as better than Common Core.

Why do so many mistrust the Common Core standards? In part, they don’t buy the hype and spin. But also they mistrust the fact that Bill Gates almost singlehandedly funded the development and advocacy for CCSS.

Peter Greene has doleful birthday greetings for Common Core. He says, suppose it was your birthday, and no one cared?

He writes:

Man, there’s nothing quite as sad as having a birthday that everybody ignores. Nobody throws you a party, nobody sings you a song, nobody even plunks a candy in a store-bought cupcake.

You may have missed it, but June 2 was technically the Common Core State Standards fifth birthday.

And he adds:

First of all, in order to have that kind of celebration, you need to be able to point to your big successes. And as we survey the five-plus years of Common Core, we can see… well, nothing. The CCSS advocates can’t point to a single damn accomplishment. Nothing.

Yes, we get the periodic pieces from classroom teachers lauding the standards. These pieces follow a simple outline:

1) It used to be that I didn’t know what the heck I was doing in the classroom, but then
2) I discovered Common Core and so I
3) Began doing [insert teaching techniques that any competent teacher already knew about long before the Core ever happened]

These aren’t convincing a soul, and other than these various testimonials, we have been treated to exactly zero evidence that US education has been improved in any way by the Core.

Second, it’s hard to throw a party for someone who has no friends. The game has tilted against the Core, and the same “friends” who embraced it when such embraces served a political purpose have now dis-embraced it for the same reason.

Even the reformsters have bailed out, and CCSS has only one true friend: Jeb Bush.

Birthday greetings, poor old friendless Common Core:

So happy fifth birthday and/or wake, Common Core. I could say we never knew you, but the truth is, the better we got to know you, the less we liked you (and we didn’t like you very much to begin with). There will be a variety of educational initiatives floating around that take your name in vain, but as a national policy uniting the country behind a single set of clear standards, you are dead as a month-old smear of roadkill.

Categories Common Core

Laura Chapman: The Billionaires and Education “Reform”

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
22

Our frequent commentator Laura H. Chapman, whose wise analyses so frequently inform all of us, has done some research on the billionaire class. I would add that her second category of schools, public in name only (PINO), includes for-profit charters.

 

 

Many of the billionaires in Forbes 2015 list claim to be self-made and to come from a low to moderate income family. Those are self-reports with no backup data worthy of mention by Forbes.

 

 

According to the Forbes 2015 list of the wealthiest people in the world, The United States has 536 billionaires worth $2.6 trillion.

 

 

In 2014 Warren Buffet made $14.5 billion.

 

 

Among the wealthiest in the US, 23 % of the billionaires claim to have been raised in a household that was “poor,” 17% in a “working class” family. Here are some of the top billionaires and major source of wealth.

 

 

Bill Gates, Microsoft, $ 79.2 billion…
Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway, $72.7 billion…
Larry Ellis, Oracle, 54.3 billion…
Charles Koch, Diversified, $42.9 billion…G. Davis Koch, Diversified, $42.9 billion… Christy Walton, Walmart $41.7 billion…Jim Walton, Walmart $40.6 billion…Alice Walton, Walmart $39.4 billion… S. Robert Walton, Walmart $39.1 billion…
Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg, $35.5 billion…Jeff Bezos, Amazon, $34.8 billion…Mark Zuckenberg, Facebook, $33.4 million….Sheldon Adelson, Casinos, $31.4 billion…Larry Page, Google, $29.7 billion…Sergey Brin, Google, $29.2 billion…
Forrest Mars, Jr., Candy, $26.6 billion….Jacquelin Mars Candy, $26.6 billion….John Mars, Candy, $26.6 billion….
George Soros, Hedge funds, $24.2 billion…Carl Icahn, Investments, $23.5 billion…Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, $21.5 billion… Phil Knight, Nike, $21.5 billion… Len Blavatnik, Diversified, $20.2 billion…Charles Ergen, Dish Network, $20.1 billion…Lauren Powell Jobs, Apple & Disney, $19.5 billion…Michael Dell, Dell, $19.2 billion…

 

 

So far as I know, only a few analytical studies have been done on the interconnections among grants flowing into K-12 education and the major foundations, many set up by billionaires. Here are some recent findings.

 

 

In 2010, the top 15 grant makers for K-12 education (based on IRS filings) were: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Robertson Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Broad Foundation, GE Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Communities Foundation of Texas, and Ford Foundation.

 

 

In 2010, the top “convergent grantees”–beneficiaries of multiple funders were:

 
Charter School Growth Fund $46 million, 6 funders;
Teach for America, $44.5 million, 13 funders;
KIPP, $24 million, 9 funders;
D.C. Public Education Fund, $22 million, 5 funders (set up for merit pay) ;
New Schools Venture Fund, $18 million, 10 funders.

 

 

The researchers noted a dramatic increase in convergent grant making between the first year they studied, 2000, and the last, 2010. The increase was not only in dollars but also in the proportion groups that received funds from two or more foundations. As one example, funding for traditional public schools dropped from 16% of grant dollars in 2000 to 8% in 2010 while charter school funding rose from about 3% in 2000 to 16% in 2010.

 

 

Source: Reckhow, S & Snyder, J. W. (2014, May). The expanding role of philanthropy in education politics. Education researcher, 43, 4, pp.186-195. Or see Sarah Reckhow, (2013). Follow the money, How foundations dollars change public school politics. NNY: Harvard Education Press.

 

 

Plenty of money is around, and it is increasingly used to create a tripartate system of education.

 
One is truly public, tax-supported with governance by democratically elected school boards.

 
One is public in name only, tax subsidized, but with governance that is not fully public or democratically determined.

 
The third is private education, including for-profit-by-design education.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization

21 Million Page Views!

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
44

I am in Chicago for a family wedding this weekend. Tonight I had dinner with my dear friend Karen Lewis and her husband John. We had a lovely get-together.

When I came home, I discovered that the blog had passed the 21 million number. I am not a data-driven person, but I enjoyed knowing that I was able to share my platform with so many of you. you. Together, I think we are turning the tide against bad ideas. We will not stop until we have ended the menace of privately managed schools and high stakes testing. We want our children to love learning.

Categories Personal

BREAKING NEWS: Oregon Passes Strong Opt Out Bill

By dianeravitch
June 11, 2015 //
33

Despite the pressure exerted by the U.S. Department of Education and threats to cut off federal funding, the Oregon legislature passed a strong opt out bill, protecting parental rights.

From: Oregon Education Association

Oregon Senate passes HB2655–first step on path to a better way

Senate Passes “Student Assessment Bill of Rights”

Today the Oregon Senate overwhelmingly passed HB 2655 (24-6) — one of the strongest bills in the nation to support all students and parents on statewide standardized assessments. The bill establishes the Student Assessment Bill of Rights which requires assessment transparency by giving students:

the right to know the purpose of statewide assessments and how the results will be used

when exactly the assessments will be administered

the amount of class time required for the assessment

the learning targets that make up the assessment

how students can self-assess and track their own progress

when the results will be made available
and who will have access to the student’s testing data and how the data will be used

HB 2655 also establishes one of the most parent friendly opt-out provisions in the nation by ensuring that every parent has easy access to information about statewide assessments and how to exercise their right to determine if sitting for the statewide standardized assessment is in the best interest of their child.

More importantly, the legislation brings us one step closer to our ultimate goal–a system where parents, students and teachers are “all-in” instead of wanting to “opt-out.” We have already been working with educators and education leaders across the state to begin to map out a better path for student assessments that focuses on inspiring a love of learning. To learn more about how you can get involved, click here.

This is a huge victory for students and parents, and we’re proud of all the work you did to pass HB 2655 –this bill would not have become law without your commitment to improving public education in Oregon.

Categories Opt Out, Oregon, Resistance, Standardized Testing

Why EduShyster Interviews Reformsters

By dianeravitch
June 11, 2015 //
16

A reader asked in the comments: Why does EduShyster (Jennifer Berkshire) interview reformsters, the people who want to dismantle public education and replace it with a private choice system? I asked her. The question was, “Why does Edushyster interview these folks? What am I missing?”

This is her answer:

“Hi – I’m happy to answer that. Can I share my answer with you? I’m out and about having a ladies day and can’t remember my password to log into WordPress (which is somehow different from my blog password – this is what happens when one gets older!)

The easy answer is that I love interviewing people and always have. Way back in the day (OK–many days), I had an, ahem, underappreciated radio show where I would do live interviews. And when I edited a newspaper for AFT, I made my q and a’s (including one with Diane), a staple.

In my latest incarnation, I’ve taken these up again, and I’m still amazed by the fact that virtually every single person I’ve approached has agreed to to talk to me. Well, there was one person who turned me down but I am too discrete to say who. (Email me!) So in the last few months I’ve been making a regular feature of these conversations with people across what I think of as the education reform divide. Here’s why I do them:

1) I think we’re in a war over really big, important questions–not just about education but about democracy, inequality, race, and who gets to decide what kind of country we’re going to have. And yet the education reform debate has started to feel really small to me. I think talking to people about what they believe is a way to get at the big issues that are at stake.

2) The education reform movement isn’t nearly as monolithic as it can seem from a distance. There are key differences between the different constituencies, and doing these interviews helps me gain a better sense of where the divisions are.

3) I’m fascinated by how it is that two people can look at the same set of circumstances and see the world completely differently. Interviewing people like Andy Smarick forces me to try to see the world through his eyes AND makes me think about how I see the world.

In the fall I’m going to be launching a podcast series so that you can hear what these conversations actually sound like. And you don’t have to listen if you don’t want to!

Jennifer

Categories Corporate Reformers
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