Peter Greene on the Rocketship to Nowhere

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1. Chiara says:

   October 31, 2016 at 1:25 pm

   I just hope public schools, which have taken so many funding hits over the years of ed reform, don’t spend a bundle on technology based on marketing efforts coming out of ed reform.

   If I told a superintendent I had the endorsement of a “movement” that was funded by the biggest names in processed foods so we should spend a bundle on processed foods in school lunches, the superintendent should question me on whether I’m credible!

   This is just common sense. It’s not a moral indictment of tech companies. You don’t just swallow what salespeople say especially if they use this ridiculous language- there’s no such thing as a “digital native”. 8 year olds are people. Period. They’re not a new species. They DON’T actually have to learn to code to work in the 21st century anymore than they have to learn to take apart a transmission to drive a car. Coding is just a language. They could also learn carpentry or how to wire a circuit or how to knit or how to read Spanish. Any one of them might be just as valuable as coding.

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2. Chiara says:

   October 31, 2016 at 1:33 pm

   It also really worries me that edtech is being used to claim they can get higher test scores with less investment.

   I read a gushing review of Summit Public Schools (the charter chain that is all the rage in the Obama Administration) where they claim they are getting high test scores on 7k a student.

   If this is a cost-cutting measure then tell the truth about that. If this is “high scores on the cheap for low and middle income children” then people deserve to know that’s what’s driving it. Let’s all go in with ALL the motives clearly laid out.

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   • realchicagomama says:

     November 1, 2016 at 11:23 pm

     My kids’ school is on the PLP and all comms were positive spin without substance: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/facebook-backed-school-software-shows-promise–and-raises-privacy-concerns/2016/10/11/2580f9fe-80c6-11e6-b002-307601806392_story.html

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3. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

   October 31, 2016 at 1:34 pm

   cross posted at Opedhttp://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/CURMUDGUCATION-More-Bogus-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Bogus-Claim_Charter-Schools_Corporate-Fraud_Education-161031-712.html#comment626087

   …with this comment.

   If you have never visited Peter green’s blog, then GO, and learn about the fraud of the ‘reform’ movement.

   I use the Daine Ravitch blog tolerant about the war on Public education, and it is she who sent me to Peter, and others.

   Before it is too late, you should know this:

   This power elite, these oligarchs (or as Diane Ravitch calls them ‘the billionaires boy’s club,’) are less than 100 people, who OWN more wealth than what was once reserved for nation-states.”THEY’ KNOW THE STARTING POINT IS THE CHiLDREN. Under our very noses, they are putting before the people, LEGISLATIVE BILLS that will END public education and allow charters to replace them” schools that have no transparency, are riddled by fraud, and use tax-payer money, although for the most part fail to educate most of the children, and do no better or worse than public schools.

   When they take over our schools, they can tell our people what and whom to believe!

   Here is a link to Diane’s posts on the legislative shenanigans https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Legislature

   We, at the bottom –with the kids– the parents and teachers (who know what learning looks like, must not let this PLOY to hand the schools over to state legislatures.

   They have ”bambooled the people, http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html and sold them charter schools “a magic elixir,” because it is soooo easy to sell magic elixirs ‘education’ to people” no evidence required. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.htm

   The power elite, end out a steady stream of lies and noise — so much static, so many talking heads, and pundits, the average ‘Joe’ is confounded as he goes to vote for bills with Orwellian names ‘to benefit the children.’

   DON’T MISS my comment at the end of THIS LINK which is at the end of a must read article on HOW this ‘elite; have entered the VOTING BOOTH in Pennsylvania, with a bill to END THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
   http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/20-reasons-to-vote-no-on-P-in-General_News-Accountability_Charter-School-Failure_Charter-Schools_Funding-161026-841.html#comment625012

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4. Laura H. Chapman says:

   October 31, 2016 at 2:47 pm

   Peter does a wonderful job of discrediting another of an endless flow of studies intended to shore up the performance and justify the values forwarded in charter schools. I have commented elsewhere about the “days of learning” fiction, conjured from standard deviations in year to year gains in test scores, and put into play as if valid by economists who would surely benefit from some “days of learning” in real classrooms. The usual scholars who are relied upon for the days of learning metric are Stanford Economist Eric Hanushek (promoter of VAM since 1971), Harvard political scientist Paul E. Peterson (promoter of vouchers), and University of Munich economist Ludger Woessmann, a serial collaborator with Eric Hanushek.

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5. D L Paulson says:

   November 1, 2016 at 10:40 am

   How do studies go bad? A clue is in the link below. It describes a study of Common Core based in on implementation in a few states, where the implementation and the study are both unwritten by—surprise!—the Gates Foundation.

   The most curious thing about this self-serving study is a statement at the end:

   “The foundations have not yet committed to funding the second phase of the study, and will base further funding on the progress that is made in the first phase.”

   What???!!! Is the study going to be completed only if the underwriters like the conclusions that are being reached?

   It’s so sad that (formerly) prestigious universities and researchers have allowed themselves to be compromised by philanthro-dollars.

   https://ed.stanford.edu/news/researchers-receive-49-million-examine-common-core

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