Carol Burris, the executive director of the Network for Public Education, is traveling the nation to learn how charter schools are working.
She wrote a four-part series on charters in California. She recently visited in Pennsylvania and met with many people.
She is now planning a trip to Arizona, where she hopes to meet parents, teachers, superintendents, and others who are familiar with the charter school scene.
Please send your suggestions to her about people she should interview.
cburris@networkforpubliceducation.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I sent an email twice to Carol and it came back. Is the email correct?
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cburris@networkforpubliceducation.org
If that doesn’t work, let me know and I will give you her personal email
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Suggestion:
Our side can’t get so focused on charters that we forget that the real thrust of privatization is via the “technology in schools” mythology that is pervasive, relatively un-opposed, and national in its scope.
Charters are the big shiny thing that is easy to get fixated upon. The technology thing is corporate colonization run rampant. Charters currently are prototypes…..the technology in classroom push is doing the real work of privatizing, turning public schools into corporate zombies. Once charters figure out the best “models,” the work will have been done and simply changing the letterhead of public schools to charter will be all that’s left to do.
We must absolutely resist charters in every way, but we also have to sharpen up. The real virus here however, the actual thing, is already fully underway.
As fighter pilots know: you die fast when you get “target fixation.”
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Dr. Dennis Runyan, Superintendent and Dr Matt Bentz Asst. Superintendent, Agua Fria Union High School District. The District has two Title 1 high schools and two non Title 1 high schools. The district secured public funding to build a new STEM high school. The district is surrounded with Charter high schools yet it secures new funding and the Title 1 schools are A rated schools.
Any or all board members of Phoenix Union School District. They serve the center of Phoenix. Their board is progressive and community action orientated. For the population they serve, they do wonderful things made possible by their board leadership and central office staff. It will be time well spent.
Mary Kay Utecht Former principal in a Washington State now living in Arizona. I am on the governing board for Agua Fria. Washington State has fought public funds for charter schools so Arizona’s charter schools is an eye opener.
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I sent my suggestions to the email given.
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Ms. Ravitch, my name is Erik M. Francis, and I am the author of Now That’s a Good Question! How to Promote Cognitive Rigor Through Classroom Questioning published by ASCD. I am also the owner of Maverik Education LLC, which provides professional development and educational consultation to K-12 schools I primarily work with charter schools out here in Arizona and have strong familiarity with the charter school system here in AZ both with my own company and also from my time working as the education program specialist with the Arizona Department of Education. I would welcome the opportunity to talk to Carol Burris or you about the charter school system here in AZ. I can also help direct you to the people whom you should speak and meet. Please e-mail me at erik@maverikeducation.com. Happy holidays!
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Erik,
Please explain/define “cognitive rigor”. TIA, Duane
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Duane – Cognitive rigor involves challenging students to demonstrate higher order thinking as categorized by Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and communicate depth of knowledge as designated by Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Model. It’s an instructional process developed by Dr. Karin Hess as a means to have students to transfer and use what they have learned in different academic and real world contexts. My book Now That’s a Good Question! extends the work of Dr. Hess by showing how to develop good questions that will challenge students to think deeply and express and share the depth and extent of their learning insightfully and in their own unique way.
You can read more about cognitive rigor in this paper by Dr. Karin Hess:
Click to access HessArticle.pdf
Here is my blog that explains what is cognitive rigor:
http://edge.ascd.org/blogpost/what-is-cognitive-rigor
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