My website is dianeravitch.com. I write about two interconnected topics: education and democracy. I am a historian of education.
Diane Ravitch’s Blog by Diane Ravitch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at dianeravitch.net.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane,
You might find this interesting as curriculum wars spill over into Canada.
http://www.thelittleeducationreport.ca
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Diane,
I hope your recovery continues to progress. I thought you might consider this piece for posting on your blog. I’m a long time educator, now retired, I have taught at many grade levels in many parts of the country, including Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Mississippi,Houston and Chicago. I have been a school director and the co-founder of the Urban Teacher Education Program at the University of Chicago.
Biden’s Education Department
There were many things I liked about President Obama. However, my big disappointments with him came on my home court, education. First, there was the appointment of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. My more prescient friends were more troubled by the choice than I. I pleaded to give him a chance to prove himself. He seemed like a good guy. He played basketball with the kids in the ‘hood whom he knew because of the tutoring program his mother ran. He had done some good things as CEO of CPS, particularly during a period when he seemed to be putting issues of instruction and learning front and center. Strange to say, that’s not always CEOs’ first priority.
But I was wrong. Unfortunately, his time in office lasted through the entire eight years of Obama’s tenure in office. As many other critics have commented, those eight years were largely an elaboration and extension of the department’s work during the previous administration. Bush’s secretary Margaret Spellings’ priorities were two – testing and privatization. Arne ran his train on those same tracks and left the nation’s school systems worse off than when he started. Read the book he produced once he returned to civilian life and you’ll get a sense of how tone deaf he was – and remains – to the damage his tenure inflicted.
So why rehash all this almost five years after the fact? Here’s why: With the most welcome victory of Joe Biden in 2020, we’re seeing an encore performance of Barack Obama’s administration in many areas. For the most part, it signals a much-needed return to the competency and calm after the years of a government run by self-serving, unqualified grifters. At the Department of Education Trump’s appointee Betsy Devos was too rich to be classified as a grifter but she definitely wore the badge of incompetence proudly. Her sole mission, it seemed, was the dismantling of public education and the transfer of as much as possible of that system’s considerable treasure chest of riches into private, preferably religious hands.
Almost every Biden cabinet department is populated by repeat performers from the Obama years, returning to complete the work they had begun and to restore the achievements Trump had sought to erase. For me, that’s good news in areas like the resuscitation of the Iran Nuclear Deal and the restoration of environmental policies that have a shot at saving the planet. But once again, things don’t look so rosy on the education turf that I know best. Although Miguel Cardona as Secretary of Education is a new face, the people nominated to the positions just below him are returnees from the Obama years. They are the same people who were responsible for some of the most misguided of Arne Duncan’s policies, like Race to the Top which pitted school districts against one another based on who could clear the path for the approval of more charter schools and who could commit to the core curriculum and testing most fully. Given Cardona’s inexperience, it’s these returning veterans who are going to steer the Department of Education in the new administration.
That means that an end to the dominance of testing, the most consequential change of direction that could have emerged from the pandemic year, is not likely to happen. President Biden himself has been insistent that this year’s testing needs to move forward without any waivers in order to assess where students are in their learning trajectories. The general consensus is that the numbers that emerge from these tests will be meaningless because of the conditions under which learning has – or hasn’t — taken place during this most disrupted year. There’s more hope for permanent change among the colleges and universities where the abandonment of the SAT and the ACT as part of the admissions process has a greater chance of sticking than suspensions in testing in K-12 schools. We don’t know much about Cardona’s plans, except that he too has strongly endorsed plans to move ahead with testing this year. This is a huge lost opportunity for ridding our public schools of a twenty+ year blight which has distorted the meaning of education in ways that have become so normalized that they have been rendered invisible to practitioners and the general public alike.
Seeing how the return of Obama era policies is playing out in education leads me to wonder whether I should be concerned about the downside of the return of the “old” guard in areas about which I’m less well-versed. Take foreign policy and defense, for example. Like so many others on my side of the political spectrum, I’ve been delighted by the bold proposals of Biden’s first Hundred Days which include the support for early childhood education that Obama campaigned on but never really delivered. But carryovers from Barack’s administration in areas like China policy may be less desirable. We’ve already witnessed a near misstep in immigration with the announcement of the continuation of a distressingly low cap on the number of immigrants permitted to enter. I’m not sure whose advice Biden was following here. Obama’s immigration policies left much to be desired, and it’s entirely possible that this was the work of returners from his administration. Fortunately, the outcry from many Democrats who expected better of the new administration led to a quick reversal.
The Progressives’ honeymoon with Biden will not last. Dissatisfactions are sure to emerge in other policy areas outside my education bailiwick. There’s lots to take encouragement from in the President’s early moves, but we have to be ready to raise our voices in protest when we see that oft-quoted arc bending in the wrong direction.
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Please consider my petition. https://www.change.org/p/new-york-city-public-schools-high-school-students-who-receive-nx-in-core-classes-for-2020-21-should-repeat-the-grade/u/29065146
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Diane,
Did you happen to see Ian Rowe’s appearance on Washington Journal on Sunday, May 23, 2021? Mr. Rowe is typical of charter school proponents whose sole talking points are the success of the “school choice” scam. Are there any studies of Mr. Rowe’s personal project – the New York Public Prep Network? He was especially obnoxious with his chest beating over Public Prep’s success. As a general interest viewer, it is galling to be unarmed in the presence of so much disinformation.
Thank you,
Sheldon Teicher
sheldont2@nyc.rr.com
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Florida Class Size Research Suppression–
Class size:
While pursuing my Ph.D. in reading education, I attempted to use the topic: Class size. Unfortunately, I could not get the district nor the state to cooperate with my chosen research study.
Suppression:
The available research is mixed, but is it really. As a classroom teacher with 26 years of experience, my classroom data is not mixed. Class size matters most in core content area classes, i.e., teaching, classroom management, infrastructure, supplies, etc.
I was met with so much resistance that the university hinted that I would not receive cooperation and to be ready to introduce an alternative topic of study.
The university knew what I did not, but they could not vocalize what they knew–out right.
There is most definitely a suppression of class size research. Why? The answer is obvious–$$$$. Although smaller class size mean better student outcomes, it also means spending.
Teaching:
For example, I taught under the following conditions during each school year:
37 students per period for 6 periods
6th, 7th, & 8th grade (multiple grade levels)
6th & 7th (mixed grade-level classes for two periods)
intensive reading & developmental language arts through ESOL (multiple content areas)
first year ESOL students
ESOL class mixed with ESE students (1/2 ESOL & 1/2 ESE)
No curriculum materials ordered for ESOL students
inadequate portable classroom (too small for class size)
ESOL students do not count so they don’t need resources
Schools Rationales:
Overload teachers by mixing grade levels
Overload teachers by having them teach multiple content preps
Overload teachers by disrespecting the class size amendment in place (22 core classes)
Overload teachers by assigning co-teachers, in name only, to validate class size
Abusing teacher certifications by assigning them as co-teachers with long-term subs or uncredentialed teachers–in name only
Schools can hire one teacher to do the job of 3 teachers
Districts don’t have to hire 2 extra teachers to meet the class size amendment because the fines are so low
It is cheaper to violate the class size amendment than to pay 2 additional teachers (i.e., salary, benefits, classroom space, resources)
If a teacher has multiple certifications use the certifications to pad the roster
If the teacher has multiple certifications, especially in ESE, put ESE kids in all their classes (coding)
If the teacher has multiple certifications, use those to pad the roster for unqualified teachers–co-teacher in name only
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the unwillingness of our country to pay and pay for teaching will be our Deomcracies demise.
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Here’s a young woman with more guts than many of our elected officials. Paxton Smith used her platform as valedictorian of her high school to advocate for a woman’s right to bodily autonomy – in Texas.
The young people are the best people.
Her speech begins at 4:30:
https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2021/06/lake-highlands-high-valedictorian-pulls-switcheroo-on-commencement-speech/
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http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2021/06/bryant-high-school-chapter-leader.html
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Happy Birthday, Diane!
Hope you have many more to come!!
Wishing you the best today and always!!!
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Thank you!
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/06/michigan-republican-truth-election-fraud/619326/
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Great article!
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From the artist, Al Abbazia:
http://martiniavenue.com/photos-11/files/page10-1000-full.html
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Diane, this afternoon Boston’s acting mayor Kim Janey (former mayor Marty Walsh is now Biden’s Sec of Labor – good riddance to bad trash as far as his treatment of our public schools) filled two vacancies on the appointed school committee. One, Lorena Lopera, is the Executive Director of the New England region for Latinos for Education. It’s a Walton-funded astroturf organization, whose CEO Amanda Fernández is a member of the MA BESE. According to Mo Cunningham, Latinos for Ed received $601,458 in 2019 from the Waltons.
Interesting times.
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Sad. Lots of money buys a seat on the board.
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I know there are a lot of librarians out there. Hope you find this as hilarious as I do, especially the very end:
https://abovethelaw.com/2021/07/man-calling-libraries-and-masturbating-to-a-supreme-court-opinion/
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All are welcome to start a charter school at LAUSD! https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/due-diligence-b1c16681e948 Here’s a youtube interview with the founder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSdiRiUtIhY The school’s website: https://crenshawentrepreneurial.education/ Tia Lopez has got Grit!
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Diane, here’s a link to a letter to Superintendent Brenda Cassellius from a parent of two students enrolled in the Boston Public Schools. I’ve known Susan and her husband, who continues to teach high school, since they were student teachers more than twenty years ago. Like many teachers in BPS, they chose our public schools for their own kids. Now heading into year three of this pandemic, Boston has still failed to address the facilities issues in many, perhaps most, of our school buildings. When people purport to not understand why teachers and parents mistrust administrators to keep them safe, they ought to read the words of the folks right in the thick of it.
This has been a very difficult two years. And as we all enter our third school year under the heavy weight of Covid, it is important for me to start off this response with how scared I am for my two children, under the age of 12, who have not been back in the school building since March of 2020.
My fear, like most parents, is for our children.
And I am struck so much with anger. Anger at a system that has not put its best foot forward, a system that survives and thrives on the backs of their teachers, and a system that has been starved.
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that our buildings were not able to handle what Covid would dish out to us – the need to circulate and purify the air, the ability to give space, and to have a well thought out, well communicated back-up plan. I am sure you have seen Michael Maguire’s post with photos from a few days ago. This is what our children are currently experiencing in their classrooms…
I will fight for this system, because I believe so deeply in public education. But I will also fight this system if they continue to play word games with my children’s health and safety.
Leadership at the City and State level has failed us. There has to be a strong and firm voice that talks about the plans, the timing and what comes next. Will you be that voice?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SAgJ2WJYTPiBG2naF4QQXgjxXbTuLAZqjyNBN7yrOFQ/edit
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Worth sharing. A parent in Tennessee succinctly explains faux controversies of CRT and vaccines:
https://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2021/08/tenn-dads-defense-mask-mandates-goes
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Good thread here on how big box stores, including of course, Walmart, deprive local communities of tax payments. No lack of parallels to how the Waltons have attacked public funding for schools.
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Nine years ago I discovered this blog as a perplexed parent and teacher. . . “what the heck is going on with public school?” was I think exactly what I typed into google and it led me to this blog. I was a regular for a long time. I got involved with organizing and helped flip two seats in the NC legislature to try to keep public schools the main avenue for publicly funded education. But we were too far behind the market seduction, and the acceptance of Race to the Top funding added to the issue.
Once I realized there was very little more I could do, I set my focus to being a good parent and a good teacher at the local level. But I watched. And sadly, I waited.
And it’s here.
A first week of school (caveat: I do realize a lot of what I’m describing is the result of Covid, but it is also the result of market forces taking over the mindset of publicly funded schooling) where the following has happened and is happening: many vacant openings; one teacher did not show up the first day, having been lured by a charter; several have jumped ship during the first week, having been lured by a charter; enrollment down; short-staffed; MAYBE there will be a state budget passed this year (there was not for two straight years); enrollments and withdrawals fluctuating daily; no digital lead teacher (retired over summer); an interim assistant principal (after one was moved last year, filled then by a rotation of assistant principals serving a certain day of the week from other schools), two assistant superintendents resigning over the last six months (one announced on the first day of school).
And yet I see what I’ve always seen in public school, even having taught in the abandoned and eventually largely charterized Kansas City Missouri school district: I see teachers working hard for children. I see them striving to be professional. I see them hoping for supports from above to serve our children well. I see energy spent on the school, above and beyond the call of duty.
And so now I watch and wait for things to swing back to a realization that strong schools that are not intentionally splintered in every direction MIGHT bring better results, ultimately, than the pin-ball norms that seem to be having hold now.
It’s an experiment, as every era is. But approaching my 30 year reunion I can’t help but wonder: what was so wrong with our schools in the 1980s that we had to do this? I can’t think of a single thing.
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Dear Involved Mom,
Thank you for reading the blog. I urge you to read my last three books—The Death andLife of the GreatAmerican School System, Reign of Error, Slaying Goliath.
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Diane Congratulations! By the way I love read , I read the book of Mr. Gladwell .
I would like you to read what I think it’s a deserve review for the book , David & Goliath .
Hotch-potch of bits showing how misfits and underdogs can overcome. As a journalist, he writes well, and has access to interesting stories. But there is no serious continuity here. And he tries to stitch together to make a smoother narrative, but it just jumps about. He notes that the successful have often come from harsh backgrounds, but he fails to note that millions from harsh backgrounds fail to make a success later. Edits history – David did not play by the rules. Mass bombing DID cause panic initially (Guernica 1937, Southampton 1940, London 1917).
I’m going to your book I’m pretty sure I’m going to review 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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I began teaching in 1982, right before the Reagan Admin. release of the report “A Nation at Risk”. I, like most public school educators, was appalled by the brazen attempt to brand American Public Schools a failure based on no evidence. The one thing that got me optimistic was the seeming progressive response to the report when we began to look at site based management of local schools through teacher empowerment throughout that decade. My district had a Teaching Learning Center that was classroom centered. However, by the time the first Bush Administration began developing its own education policy it became clear that the “One Size Fits All” mantra of our education management culture was coming back with a vengeance and our teaching center was defunded. Once the Clinton Administration began talking about the Standards Movement and states, like my own North Carolina, began implementing high stakes tests the dye was unfortunately cast. No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, with help from the Great Recession, represented more excuses to further defund public schools. In the end it has not mattered what is going on in individual schools. Data from schools in underprivileged communities has been weaponized to push illiberalism begun by Milton Friedman, an economist not an educator, that focused on privatization over student well being. Schools prior to the 1990s certainly had their faults, but the misguided priority on standards over school resources was not about the ongoing urge to improve, but the newfound initiative to enrich. Yes, there are teachers who continue to do heroic work, but the teacher shortage and low enrollment in Colleges of Education are indicators that the effort to defame teaching is having a terrible effect on schooling. We cannot continue to treat teaching as mission work if we want the best to apply. My daughter just left a successful five year stint at a Title 1 school to teach at an independent school not because she didn’t love the kids she taught, but because the high stakes environment has taken her ability to respond to student need. When she started at her new school she called me excited because the school trusts her to make decisions for the benefit of her students and will pay her for extra duties. Management is no longer looking for excuses to stand over her shoulder as her school district continued to do even though she continuously demonstrated success with her students in her public school. It broke my heart when she told me she was going to a private school and although I hope she finds a way back to public schools I understand why she left. If our politicians and policy makers do not change their rhetoric about teachers and public schools and our governments fail to finance education, then poorly funded and under staffed public schools will simply become warehouses for the under served.
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If a house made of wood is invaded by termites and no one gets rid of the termites, eventually the house will collapse.
The termites eating our public schools are mostly libertarians linked to the Kochtopus, and they have been at it from at least the 1970s if not earlier. Today, there is a battle going on between Traitor Trump and the Koch libertarians to see who is going to be the tail that wags the Republican Party. It took decades for the libertarians to infiltrate the GOP to this point and Charles Koch is not happy with Traitor Trump threatening those gains. It doesn’t matter to Charles Koch that Trump is a traitor threatening the existence of the United States and even the survival of our species. Koch is angry that Traitor Trump is getting in the way of his goals to end the power of state and federal governments.
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Whoa. DeSantis’ regime in Florida is even more cruel than one would believe. An immunocompromised child and his autistic brother:
Once Gambrel knew her grandsons would be virtual again, she recognized they would need more support than what they had received in virtual instruction last year, so a week before school began, she reached out to the district to discuss her options. No one responded, so she called the state education department, which told her, she said, that when she signed a home-schooling form to opt in to the virtual program last year, she had effectively withdrawn her grandsons from the public school. And that meant they were no longer entitled to the disability accommodations and services that were part of their IEPs. The Florida Department of Education did not respond to specific questions about services for students with disabilities in virtual schools.
Gambrel was baffled. She recalled signing a form indicating that she was selecting home school, but she didn’t realize that by selecting the virtual program the district was pushing, she was taking her grandkids out of the local school system.
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-boy-with-an-autoimmune-disease-was-ready-to-learn-in-person-then-his-state-banned-mask-mandates?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter#1114866
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Diane, if you’re in NYC, I hope you are safe in the flooding.
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Autumn is approaching. There is still time to enjoy hot days and tired summer moods. Now is the time to wait for a pleasant winter … This is not the time to wear a fashion coat. This makes cold temperatures inevitable.
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Malcolm, so right you are. If you wear a coat, winter will surely follow. Also if you don’t wear a coat, winter will follow.
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Also, if it is winter and it is very cold out and you go outside and are not wearing a coat, you are going to be very cold, too.
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As autumn approaches, there is still time to enjoy the hot summer and the tiring summer. It’s time to give up that job. It’s not time for the leather celebrity to wear leather jackets. It needs a cooler temperature.
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Joseph Fu, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Georgia, shows how to demonstrate moral courage in his role as an educator. Seems like an appropriate candidate for the blog’s Honor Roll.
Certain spiritual principles that I hold dear tell me that if I suffer for taking responsible actions, I can only benefit in the long term, even if in ways I cannot now see. By the same token, I feel confident also that those who would choose to punish these actions will ultimately undermine themselves.
https://www.redandblack.com/opinion/guest-column-uga-professor-speaks-out-against-dean-usg-mask-policy-in-open-letter/article_dca865ae-0b5e-11ec-a825-eb30892856d4.html
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9/11/2021
Dear Diane Ravitch,
Thank you for your account today I was awakened by news from a telephone call by Mark Obenhaus who was walking from his apartment on Murray St. to the subway to meet Peter Jennings at the office. As he spoke with Jennings on his cel phone, about the plan for the day, he looked up, and described the first plane passing over his head about a block from the towers. The phone call continued and was broadcast by ABC as he described the scene. I was working with Peter Jennings and Craig Leake on the “America” series, on assignment in Boulder, but our crew was disbursed for the day. I was deputed to assemble a local film crew, and rushed to the High School, and directed them as we followed the student cast of “Hair”, the senior musical that year, as they were sent home from school, which was closing first thing in the morning. They gathered at the home of one of the student cast members, and we stayed with the cast, filming their emotional experience of the inconceivable events of the day. About four weeks later, Jennings traveled to Boulder for “Hair’s” opening night at Boulder High School. The depth of meaning for the dramatic performance was deeply experienced by all in the light of the 9/11 events.
I remember about 9 (?) years ago being warmly welcomed into your Brooklyn home for one of the most memorable interviews I have recorded in 50 years of documentary work. You remembered my father, Phil, from T.C. without me even being aware at the time that you had known him way back when. Larry Cremin was his closest friend, who taught my brother boogie woogie and came to our house to introduce our family to his fiance Charlotte, when we were in grade school.
Next week, I am to meet with a scholar who is in search of primary materials, planning a book (?) about our beloved father’s work as theologian, philosopher, teacher, and writer. I have all Phil left us with, and seek your counsel, as perhaps the only TC person who could talk about him at this point in time.
Best wishes, Roger
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Perhaps the most entertaining and informative deconstruction of standardized tests, with a focus on the SAT, ever:
https://twitter.com/ambermruffin/status/1439032542452088834?s=20
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Interesting Boston Globe article on the MCAS: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/20/metro/education-advocates-rail-against-mcas-call-changes/?et_rid=251652714&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
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Diane, Did you see this shocker” “At Mackinac, Betsy DeVos offers veiled criticism of GOP’s ongoing passion for Trump” https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/25/mackinac-betsy-devos-criticizes-gop-capture-by-donald-trump/5864049001/
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Betsy the Beast DeVos’s criticism of the GOP’s ongoing obsession for Traitor Trump has nothing to do with the rest of us. As the traitor’s terminal brain cancer spreads through the Republican Party, billionaires like Betsy the Beast are losing influence and she sees that as a threat to whatever power she had over election Republicans.
Traitor Trump sees himself as the center of everything. No one else counts. No one. The traitor has not given up on his attempt to pull off a coup and take over the US. If that happens, no one will be safe from the traitor. The traitor has no loyalty to anyone but expects total loyalty from everyone and those that won’t give that total loyalty are his enemies and they must be defeated.
Besty the Beast woke to the traitor’s threat to even her class.
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If you want to test your ability to control your gag reflex and also see one more of the many examples of what we’re up against when comes to saving public education, take a gander at page B9 of today’s NYT (Oct. 6).
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I’m looking for the subject “contingent faculty” on your blog topic list and am kind of surprised not to see anything that refers to the 75% of the higher ed workforce that works as contingents: here’s a review of our new book that I would like to see come under discussion by you and your followers: https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/summer-2021/contingent-faculty-organize-for-educational-fairness-and-social-change/
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Valerie Strauss has posted this devastating look at Providence, RI’s public schools. With privatizers like Gina Raimondo and TFAérs like Infante-Green running things, it’s just the costs of privatization that the kids pay. Singled out for their heroism, though, are the frontline educators.
The Hopkins team noted one success: “the presence of many devoted teachers, principals, and some district leaders who go above and beyond to support student success.” It said “this core group of leaders and teachers” should provide the foundation for improvements.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/06/26/blistering-report-details-abject-dysfunction-dangerous-schools-providence-ri/
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Can you please remove me from your distribution list since the link below does not work. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
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This column appeared in the 11/6/2021 issue of my local newspaper, The Keene Sentinel. The voucher scam continues.
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Looks like the right wing is setting up a new Trump University.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/we-cant-wait-for-universities-to
On Twitter, Leah McElrath points to Palantir as the guiding force of this project.
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Here’s a disturbing, but predictable, study from Steinhardt about Kindergartens and unequal resources and curricula.
https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/structural-racism-begins-kindergarten
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please remove me from your email distribution
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“To leave a group and stop getting email from it, you can send an email to group name+unsubscribe@group domain.
“For example, to leave the group mygroup@googlegroups.com, you would send a message to mygroup+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.”
https://support.google.com/groups/answer/46608?hl=en#:~:text=To%20leave%20a%20group%20and,%2Bunsubscribe%40googlegroups.com.
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I do not have the power to remove anyone. You have to do it yourself.
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Diane, I left a comment for her with the info that explained how to do it with the link.
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It may be just me, but I think removing yourself from an email list requires a little personal responsibility.
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Words fail me on this one: https://fox2now.com/news/missouri-school-district-hiring-its-own-students-to-combat-labor-shortage/
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After you learn that Missouri has had this requirement to become a substitute teacher for decades maybe words won’t fail you anymore.
“Copy of high school diploma, general education diploma (GED), or high school equivalency test (HiSET) must be mailed to: Educator Certification, PO Box 480, …”
https://dese.mo.gov/educator-quality/certification/checklist-substitute-teachers
But Missouri does pay more than California does per hour for its substitutes.
Hourly Substitute wage in Missouri is $13.05 an hour
California’s average is $12.95 an hour, but California has higher requirements for its substitute teachers.
https://dese.mo.gov/educator-quality/certification/checklist-substitute-teachers
Becoming a Substitute Teacher in California
https://scoot.education/substitute-teachers/how-to-become-a-substitute-teacher-in-california/
On that note, why become a substitute teacher in any state when Amazon DSP pays this for Amazon Prime delivery drivers.
Amazon DSPs are hiring – $3000 sign-on bonus available
Ad·https://logistics.amazon.com/
Part-time and full-time jobs available. Delivery drivers earn at least $20/hr at select stations. Bonuses vary. Terms apply. Highlights: App Available, Help Center Available.
Average Amazon.com Delivery Driver hourly pay in California is approximately $17.57, which is 8% above the national average.
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I’d be happy to discuss education issues. It’s just better to have a chance to do so in a way that brings change.
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Agreed. Is there any way to invite the Secretary of Education to join the blog and hear from such passionate educators?
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Hi Diane-
I am an 8th grade teacher at High Tech Middle. I am also a Master’s student at High Tech High’s Graduate School of Education (I also do not know how a high school can run a grad school.) I was wondering about how I could make sense of HTH’s pay to its officers, lack of staffing resulting in teachers going days without prep periods and responsible for break supervision and covering for after care services, failure to bargain with its (only recently recognized) union in a timely manner, practice of having one employee responsible for 3+ full time positions yet signed on as “part-time”, and bring (a larger audience’s) attention to the discrepancies. Our teachers (myself included) are struggling: i.e. they say no one is applying to our academic coach (in class tutor) positions that pay $15/hr and they can’t increase pay when our CEO makes over $300k+ a year (salary info retrieved from ProPublica). Reading through your blog, I feel you can bring a critical eye to the system I was educated by, work for, but still have no idea what it all means. Since Monday, 4 loyal and beloved employees (2 teachers, 1 director, and 1 one on one) have resigned and will not be returning in January. Starting Monday 12/6, two of our students will be without their legally appointed one on ones. Any advice would help. Thank you, vie
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Victoria, send me an email address and I will reply offline.
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victoria.acosta12@gmail.com
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Diane informed me of the War on teachers in 2000, when they came after me, and I was the Educator oF Excellence in NYC, a cohort selected by Harvard and Pew to be in the study of the Principles of Learning.. They couldn’t do to me, what they candy to the. young teachers, so they tried to find me guilty of all matter o f things… including saying , I had “threatened to kill the principal? ” Seriously… Randi finally rescued me, but Diane made it clear to me, that the war on teachers had already emptied the schools of millions of experienced ,talented professional educators — aka teachers… the lowest rung on the ladder.
Now, in 2021, the teacher’s voice has been replaced by vigilantes, and corrupt school board grifters who want to burn books.
See the end game, dear. The voices of the fascists and autocrats who want to create an ignorant public, who is stressed and powerless… and gettin gall their information from the internet and the television stations owned by the plutocrats who support this civil war on Americans… for WAR IT IS!
I write about this moment in time at OpEd news, https://www.opednews.com/author/quicklinks/author40790.html
in my series https://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html
and the war on teachers
https://www.opednews.com/Series/War-on-teachers-and-the-pr-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-827.html
where I link to Diane Ravitch — the voice of the teacher that tells it as it is!!
my whole series is here. https://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html
This is NOT new, Victoria… this is the RESULT of 30 years of defunding education, even as the media they owns spots the FREEDOM of charters and vouchers.
Grifters run education in 15,880 school systems in %50 states — because they can there is not a shred f accountability, because NO BODY REALIZES HOW THEY ARE ERODING OUR DEMOCRACY by ending PUBLIS EDUCATION.
Diane knows. She was asst. Secretary of Education to Bush when she found me.
That was 21 years ago, and she has been trying to “Slay Goliath” eve since.
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Good grief, that is terrible, Victoria!
Here in Boston, we also have a middle / high school which runs a “graduate school of education”; it’s MATCH charter. They call the school the Sposato school. Not sure if it’s still true, but at one point they housed tutors in dorm rooms above the school’s facilities.
https://www.sposatogse.org
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Amazing site, Distinguished input that I can handle. I’m pushing ahead and may apply to my present place of employment as a pet sitter, which is entirely agreeable, however, I want to extra grow. Respects. Finished Plaster New Bedford
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Grateful for proposing to us. Leaking Pipe Repair Services Aurora
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I can’t envision centering adequately long to investigate; significantly less make this sort out of the article. You’ve achieved something striking for yourself with this material. This is a striking substance. Automotive Key Replacement Mesquite
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Diane, see some of comments above. You have spamming marketers infiltrating.
On another note, thanks to you and others, I understand better than most how billionaires shape our society and get away with just about everything. Recently watched this and and it was interesting to learn about the tax avoidance schemes the people who care about Billionaire’s Row in Manhattan. Fits right in with everything else most everyone here understands.
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Interesting video, thanks for sharing it!
Just wish they had described how places like that are used for money laundering, as reports have suggested that some Trump properties have been used that way, both abroad and here, such as at Trump Tower in NYC https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate and in FL: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-sold-40-million-estate-russian-oligarch-100-million-and-democratic-802613
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“How Trump’s Real Estate Holdings Attract Kleptocrats:Thousands of sales in his properties—worth hundreds of millions of dollars—fit standard profiles for money laundering. ”
https://www.thebulwark.com/how-trumps-real-estate-holdings-attract-kleptocrats/
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More scary stuff: https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-2656086140/
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OMG, there’s a hell of a lot of bad news when your country is being taken over by a fascist nut-case & his cult of crazies: “How a Wisconsin tribe helped launch a Trump-approved ‘Make America Great Again’ charter school” https://www.rawstory.com/charter-schools/
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With the absolute worst role model a political party could possibly have, many crazies on power trips have been unleashed in the GOP and things just keep getting worse for everyone else: “Undermining a basic right: Republican politicians espouse a truly radical stance on public education”
https://ncpolicywatch.com/2021/12/07/undermining-a-basic-right-republican-politicians-espouse-a-truly-radical-stance-on-public-education/
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Hi Diane, please if you have time can you write 150 words to the NY Times letter to the editor regarding the bias by Dana Goldstein pushing to never close schools and and Jess Grose who is pushing for mask off ramps.
That’s the most recent fantasy from Dana, and I wrote a long lit rreview
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16AMVmGh1yaf5Jxm4EZD6lKfUaMCFyhwBPs2p-QWFMMI/edit?usp=drivesdk
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THis woman, who appeared alongside Rudy Giuliani, seemingly drunk, is the sole candidate for this office in Oakland. Surely someone who reads this blog might care to run against her?
Carone announced in February that she is running as a Republican for the 46th House District in Oakland County. Rep. John Reilly (R-Oakland Township) currently represents the district but cannot run again due to term limits. No other candidates have filed to run for the district.
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/gop-state-house-candidate-spreads-white-supremacist-comments-in-facebook-video/Content?oid=28799254
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Have you ever looked into Charleston-based billionaire Ben Navarro who likes to meddle in the affairs of the local school district? What’s happening in Charleston, SC is made for a TV movie. The Coalition for Kids is spending millions on board seats to elect members that want to fast track privatization. The Superintendent was just forced out because she suggested pumping the breaks. She didn’t say no—just that it should be a joint decision with community input. Well, she’s out. It’s really incredible. This dude builds his own mediocre schools. It’s all crazy suspicious. Perfectly legal. But robs tax payers of a quality public education. It’s done under the guise of providing a better education for underserved students but it’s really just a land grab.
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Thanks for the tip. I will check this out.
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Diane,
I was curious if your opinion of Hamish Brewer the Virginia Principal who took over underperforming schools in Virginia and turned them into “ successful “ schools when he was done. He seems to have this skateboard, mobile office, and tattoos that get him some attention but he is viewed as a red herring for what’s needed in many school districts across the nation who are underperforming. When I watch his videos, the goal seems to be raising test scores which he touts to the students. I just don’t see how his “ waiting for Superman “ theme is what school leaders should aspire to be? It seems as he has had funding to take tons of field trips for students etc. I am just curious to know your thoughts on him as many school leaders I have spoken to bail him as a hero. If you would like to email me your thoughts directly to my email at riazmoinuddin@yahoo.com that is fine as well. Thanks
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I’ll see what I can learn about him
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Thanks Diane. I am very curious to know your thoughts!
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Riaz,
I have a expert working on the question you asked. When I hear from him, I’ll get back to you.
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If Hamish Brewer is a firm believer in test scores leading to success in school and life, he’s an idiot.
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I know you’re interested in the history of Anne Frank, this fits: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cold-case-anne-frank-betrayal_n_61e5a190e4b0d8b6656ed1b4
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New Mexico makes history with National Guard working as substitute teachers while on paid leave. This seems to me to be historic.
https://www.governor.state.nm.us/2022/01/19/governor-lujan-grisham-announces-supporting-teachers-and-families-initiative/
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Historically stupid! With an emphasis on STUPID.
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Apologies if this is a duplicate of what you have already seen:
https://48hills.org/2022/01/what-the-big-money-behind-the-school-board-recall-mean
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This: https://www.newsweek.com/we-must-support-our-teachers-opinion-1671299 from https://networkforpubliceducation.org/blog-content/florina-rodov-we-must-support-our-teachers/. This.
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I am getting back in touch after a long time when I was shut out of my email account. Please be informed that the list of topics runs only through F for Florida.
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An interesting perspective on Covid, especially since the risks to young people are being downplayed so much:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/96887
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Thanks for sharing that piece. Here’s the first sentence from its conclusion.
“Let’s be smarter than the virus. Let’s protect ourselves and our communities by using a tool we know limits severe illness.”
Then enters the QAnon cult of zombie-brain, MAGA anti-vaccine anti-maskers. As long as tens of millions of them are out there spreading and incubating new strains of COVID and threatening people that take the pandemic seriously, there will be no end of people coming down will severe complications and death.
Because of the QAnon zombie death cult, this virus might mutate into much worse horrifying strain with a much higher death count and worse complications.
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Just watched the webinar on the road to privatization. Thank you! Thought my recent blog on the California voucher initiative would be of interest: Should taxes pay for private schools?. https://ed100.org/blog/taxes-for-private-schools. You are free to use it.
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NYT’s Nicholas Kristoff is making a bid for governor of Oregon. Among his donors are Bill and Melinda.
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/nick-kristof-donations-oregon-bill-melinda-gates
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This man really hates public education. Diane, I think you know him:
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/did-public-education-have-it-coming
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Yes, we used to be close friends and co-authors. He went to elite prep school, as did his children. He has no personal experience with public schools. His think tank became super rightwing after I left the board. Sad.
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Deplorable.
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This post contrasts coverage in The Atlantic of school re-opening and no mask mandates with the sunseting of Biden’s child credit. It’s handy to remember that the owner of the magazine is Laurene Powell Jobs. Funding for covid reporting comes from Chan-Zuckerberg and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/the-atlantic-published-10x-more-articles?utm_source=url
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Shocking.
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Terrific video from John Oliver on the nexus between “CRT” and school choice:
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This is going to make Waiting for Superman look like the 3rd grade class play:
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Terrible news. Waiting for Superman seemed as bad as it could get.
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Your readers might be interested in my recent publication in the Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal, “NLRB Jurisdiction Over Charter Schools” — its available at:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4023534
David Schwartz
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This article on Maria Montessori might be a parable on how noble ideas and approaches to teaching, particularly teaching of the underprivileged, are easily undermined by commercial concerns:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-miseducation-of-maria-montessori
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Diane, I remember someone from years ago who invaded this forum with unmatched vitriol for public school teachers and unwavering deification of evaluating teachers by test scores. My memory of the username was something like VirginiaGSP. This individual could also be found regularly combating Valerie Strauss “Answer Sheet” articles in the Washington Post with comments. I suspect this book, coming out tomorrow, is connected to that individual. I’m concerned that this book will be dangerously one-sided and heavily slanted in its rhetoric. I’m hoping it won’t have legs, but I do think it’s important for our community here to be aware of it: https://nypost.com/2022/03/06/how-a-dad-became-teachers-enemy-1-to-teachers-in-loudoun-county/
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Ohio Algebra Teacher,
Bingo! VirginiaSDP OR GSP was a daily nuisance. He insisted that VAM scores were accurate measures of teacher quality. He was relentless. I’m not surprised that he never gave up. He was obsessed with “proving” that we knew who should be fired. I tried to persuade him that the measures were not accurate but he never listened. Time has passed him by, but he doesn’t know it.
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That’s him, Diane! You were enormously patient with him, but his obstinance was matched by his questionable manners. Relentless is the perfect adjective for his approach, and I so hope this new book doesn’t acquire acolytes. Of course, I found out about it from the Ed Reform launching pad, Real Clear Education. Thanks for jogging my memory.
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Thank you for remembering. I believe I ultimately gave up and did not want to answer the same questions and assertions again and again. I put him in moderation, so his comments would not appear without my approval. Eventually he disappeared.
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The book is getting a lot of questionable (i.e. first-time anonymous reviewers) 5-star ratings. I’m not sure the ethics of countering these, and there is no way I’m going to actually read this book, but I’m tempted to leave a 1-star review…if the our community deems this acceptable.
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Buy the cheapest copy offered from Amazon (the e-book probably if they are offering one), do not read it if you do not want to. Then wait two to five days before posting your 1-star review. That way the review shows up as a verified purchase and there’s a good chance Amazon will never remove it because it’s a verified purchase.
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Thank you, Lloyd.
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Personally, I don’t agree with reviewing a book you have not read.
Thanks.
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Depends on the book. I have no problem with someone reviewing lying, trash propaganda pretending to be a book, that they did not read.
Personally, I have only reviewed one book like that without reading it. Why waste time reading crap propaganda from the Destroy Public Education Crime Syndicate. If someone I respect read it and says it’s crap propaganda, that’s all I need to hear.
The one I reviewed was years ago. I’ve published hundreds of reviews on Amazon, and I am also a Vine Reviewer on Amazon. The book review I wrote and published for the crap propaganda I didn’t read happened before Amazon invited me to become a Vine Reviewer.
I have no problem with a review that points out the fact that a fake book is crap propaganda published by frauds and liars profiting off our children while destroying the teaching profession.
Amazon has some rules and if you violate the rules, your review can be pulled so before you write a review, know the rules — even if the book is a verified purchase. Amazon doesn’t have a rule that says you have to read the book.
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That’s valuable feedback, too, Rick. I think I’ll combine advice from the two of you and read as cheap a copy as I can find. It’s not like I haven’t read tons of this stuff in the past. Might as well see the worst available.
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Well, Cardona did something big that’s right on target: “Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warns Florida on ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passage: ‘All schools must follow federal civil rights law” https://www.rawstory.com/us-education-secretary-warns-florida-on-dont-say-gay-bill-passage-all-schools-must-follow-federal-civil-rights-law/
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File under you can only fool some of the people some of the time.
CONCORD, NH – In race after race across New Hampshire on Town Meeting Day, concerned parents and community members in communities large and small successfully organized to elect pro-public education candidates and reject those seeking to dismantle public education and censor history.
https://granitestateprogress.org/2022/03/09/pro-public-education-school-board-candidates-win-all-across-new-hampshire-in-record-shattering-turnout/
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Fantastic news! Thank you.
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🥳
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And NH does the right thing again!
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-house-secede-united-states/39400488
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Diane, Vermont has followed in NH’s, footsteps:
https://mountaintimes.info/school-board-candidates-against-critical-race-theory-flounder-at-the-polls/
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What can you tell me about the Marzano Resources/High Reliability Schools models? I know they’re part of some sort of ed reform program, but not sure what? Thank you!
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Christine, thank you for your words of wisdom and the most inspiring story that exemplifies your message!
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They’re not my words, Mary, but I very much agree with you!
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Randy Rainbow takes on Marjorie Three Names and Lauren Boebert:
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If you haven’t yet read this by Juill Lepore, you ought to. A historian, she ably demonstrates that the school wars are nothing new.
While all this has been happening, I’ve been working on a U.S.-history textbook, so it’s been weird to watch lawmakers try their hands at writing American history, and horrible to see what the ferment is doing to public-school teachers. In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin set up an e-mail tip line “for parents to send us any instances where they feel that their fundamental rights are being violated . . . or where there are inherently divisive practices in their schools.” There and elsewhere, parents are harassing school boards and reporting on teachers, at a time when teachers, who earn too little and are asked to do too much, are already exhausted by battles over remote instruction and mask and vaccine mandates and, not least, by witnessing, without being able to repair, the damage the pandemic has inflicted on their students. Kids carry the burdens of loss, uncertainty, and shaken faith on their narrow shoulders, tucked inside their backpacks. Now, with schools open and masks coming off, teachers are left trying to figure out not only how to care for them but also what to teach, and how to teach it, without losing their jobs owing to complaints filed by parents.
There’s a rock, and a hard place, and then there’s a classroom. Consider the dilemma of teachers in New Mexico. In January, the month before the state’s Public Education Department finalized a new social-studies curriculum that includes a unit on inequality and justice in which students are asked to “explore inequity throughout the history of the United States and its connection to conflict that arises today,” Republican lawmakers proposed a ban on teaching “the idea that social problems are created by racist or patriarchal societal structures and systems.” The law, if passed, would make the state’s own curriculum a crime.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/21/why-the-school-wars-still-rage?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_Daily_031422&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5f50e236f5262f562ecc0372&cndid=61999264&hasha=0a3bb29e6b50c236e0bda136e11b2a01&hashb=844d7fa9b0a853569574939bf866d3e074449a39&hashc=18356580d69d230b9ecd56abdca344e74cb112cde59b5715ad0d1a02b76189db&esrc=Auto_Subs&utm_term=TNY_Daily
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Texas is at it again:
In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart.
“I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81 percent of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.”
He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, “You better hide it,” adding, “Here in this community, we’re going to be conservative.”
That’s why, he said, he needed to talk to them about some of the books available in the school district’s libraries.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-superintendent-librarians-books-sexuality-transgender-rcna20992
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Disgusting!
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Just awful.
Sorry about the double post, Diane. WordPress is giving me a hard time.
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Texas is at it again:
In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart.*
“I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81 percent of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.”
He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, “You better hide it,” adding, “Here in this community, we’re going to be conservative.”
That’s why, he said, he needed to talk to them about some of the books available in the school district’s libraries.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-superintendent-librarians-books-sexuality-transgender-rcna20992
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Re: Emily Oster and covid:
Oster’s influence on the discourse around COVID in schools is difficult to overstate. She has been quoted in hundreds of articles about school pandemic precautions and interviewed as a guest on dozens of news shows. Officials from both parties have used her work as justification for lifting public health measures. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cited her study while announcing an executive order banning school mask mandates, while CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy referenced Oster’s research in anticipation of relaxing classroom social distancing guidelines. Oster also co-authored an influential school reopening guidance document that was released in early 2021.
But despite its prominence, Oster’s work on COVID in schools has attracted little scrutiny—even though it has been funded since last summer by organizations that, without exception, have explicit commitments to opposing teacher’s unions, supporting charter schools, and expanding corporate freedom. In addition to grants from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Walton Family Foundation, and Arnold Ventures, Oster has received funding from far-right billionaire Peter Thiel. The Thiel grant awarded to Oster was administered by the Mercatus Center, the think tank founded and financed by the Koch family.
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As President PROPEL Pequannock (NJ) I’ve been active defending my local BOE from those who conflate CRT with SEL having no understanding of either. I’m deeply concerned with the many conservative-funded sites out there with tool-kits to disrupt public education by attacking superintendents and board members. We need a liberal organization to help with well-sourced information to counter their efforts.
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Liberals are not as violently militant as MAGA Republicans who attacked OUR capital on January 6 in a violent attempt to overthrow our government and install a dictator for life, Traitor Trump?
It wasn’t liberals even though the traitor’s MAGA supporting propaganda machine tried to blame it on liberals and Antifa.
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One of the Jan 6 insurrectionists just fled to Belarus and got asylum.
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I suspect Traitor Trump is planning to do the same thing if he thinks he’s going to end up in prison. And the traitor will be gone so fast, his kids won’t even know he left.
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This would be absurd, but it makes me question what people actually think goes on in our public schools.
In January, the co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party shared a Facebook post about a mother’s claim that at least one school put a litter box in a unisex bathroom for students who identify as cats. A Michigan superintendent responded to the post, emphatically debunking the claims. Similar rumors spread in Iowa last month on social media, forcing a superintendent in a small school district to send a letter to parents dispelling the gossip.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/29/furries-litter-box-nebraska-bostelman/
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Proud to say this editorial was written by a college classmate of mine who is now a principal at a Chicago Public School. Strongly recommended: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-lakeview-high-school-choice-selective-enrollment-20220316-5hsoajdvqnb5xflwzwxg54rdka-story.html
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The media, be it local for national, has a deplorable record when reporting on schools. Their methodology is more dependent on conventional wisdom than fact. They tend to report what people with agendas think rather than acknowledging the complexity that exists within school communities. Perhaps the greatest struggle for public school advocates is countering the false perceptions perpetuated by media outlets. We remain the largest, strongest, and most resilient economy in the world where 90% of our population attends public schools. Significant evidence that those in public education are doing something right.
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Critics of schools don’t recognize that when they lambaste them, they are lambasting the American people.
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I’m afraid too many of these critics want to make the American people irrelevant.
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I agree that the autocratic, Putin-Trump loving, greedy, lying, critics of OUR public schools don’t think the rest of us count. Those kleptocrats despises everyone that doesn’t do as they want.
To them, anyone that gets in their way should be eliminated just as Putin is doing in Russia and Ukraine with anyone that does not do as he wants. And Trump is the same as Putin.
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When you allege that the media does a terrible job reporting on schools, are you talking about legitimate public schools or child abusing charter schools, news reporting, or opinions?
Most of the crap I’ve read in the traditional media that allegedly supports the Destroy Public Education Crime Syndicate seems to be on OpEd pages and not in news reporting where I’ve read the facts about fraud in the child abusing charter schools.
There is a difference between editorials and opinions found on OpEd pages and news reporting. News tends to stick to the facts and avoid opinions and opinions tend to take sides and even cherry pick facts that support the opinion while ignoring facts that do not support an opinion that alleges charter schools are better than public schools.
For evidence to support my opinion, I just Googled “News Reports about Fraud in Charter Schools” and about 24.5 million hits came back in less than half a second.
Here’s the first three hits from that Google search:
California Man Gets Prison for Massive Charter School Scam
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-09-10/california-man-gets-prison-for-massive-charter-school-scam
Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
https://www.populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/charter-school-vulnerabilities-waste-fraud-and-abuse
The 5 most serious charter school scandals in 2019 — and why they matter (I think this one is actually an opinion piece) so I added a fourth one:
New Report: Charter Fraud And Waste Worse Than We Thought
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/01/27/5-most-serious-charter-school-scandals-2019-why-they-matter/
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When you pull Maurice Sendak’s In The Night Kitchen because the main character, a little boy, is shown naked in a drawing, you’ve lost the thread. Texas becomes more alarming each day.
Leila Green Little, a parent and board member of the Llano County Library System Foundation, said her anti-censorship group obtained dozens of emails from country officials that reveal the outsize influence a small but vocal group of conservative Christian and tea party activists wielded over the county commissioners to reshape the library system to their own ideals.
In one of the emails, which were obtained through a public records request and shared with The Washington Post, Cunningham seemed to question whether public libraries were even necessary.
“The board also needs to recognize that the county is not mandated by law to provide a public library,” Cunningham wrote to Wallace in January.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/17/public-libraries-books-censorship/
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Good grief!
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Diane, I thought you might be interested in this piece about Freedom of Expression in the Library Thing newsletter that landed in my e-mail this morning. So, I copied it and pasted it here. I tried to find a direct link to the newsletter and searched all over the Library Thing website but couldn’t find one. I also couldn’t find the newsletter on the Library Thing Facebook page. It seems to be only an e-mail newsletter.
https://www.librarything.com/home
Book World News: Freedom of Expression
The annual PEN Freedom to Write Index, which tracks the imprisonment of writers globally, has been released, with China (85), Saudi Arabia (29) and Myanmar (26) jailing the most authors and intellectuals, worldwide. Globally, 277 writers in 36 countries were imprisoned in 2021 as a result of their writing or other free expression.
The battle in the United States over school libraries and curricula continues to heat up, with Congress holding a hearing on April 7th to investigate the issue. The ALA (American Library Association) has released the results of a poll they commissioned, indicating that the majority of the American public opposes book banning efforts. Despite this, challenges to books are on the rise, with the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracking 729 challenges to library, school and university titles—a huge increase from 2020’s 273 book challenges. The ALA’s list of Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2021, including such titles as Gender Queer: A Memoir and The Hate U Give, can now also be found in this LibraryThing list.
In tandem with this rising rate of book challenges, School Library Journal has reported that school visits have dried up for authors now deemed “controversial.” Children’s author Brandy Colbert shared that a recent invitation to speak in Texas, although not rescinded, came with a request that she not to discuss her book Black Birds in the Sky, on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Writing on the blog of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, Colbert asked “What, exactly, is controversial about a factually accurate book that details Black American history, which is also American history?”
After a public outcry, school-library catalog maker Follett School Solutions backtracked on several proposed new features, including ways of either informing parents of the books their children read, with content warnings, or allowing parents to automatically block their children from taking out specific books. As reported by the Forsyth County News, Follett proposed that “a parent could request that a student not be able to check out a book tagged as LGBTQ in Destiny.” Librarians on social media pushed back strongly against this idea, and against the company’s initial efforts to diffuse the controversy, and the company reversed course.
LibraryThing was involved in this story. Although LibraryThing’s TinyCat is for “tiny” schools, and Follett for everyone else, we both develop school-library catalogs. Tim, the President of LibraryThing, was active in opposing the technology, calling it “appalling library tech.” He wrote “We haven’t been asked, but we will NEVER code such a feature, which flies in the face of fundamental library ethics, breaking the sacred trust between kids and their school library and librarian.” For this newsletter Tim added “LibraryThing tags have never appeared in any Follett products, and LibraryThing will never allow member tags to be used in such a way.”
The fallout from the recent American Booksellers Association decision to remove references to the First Amendment from its Ends Policies in favor of language that supports diversity, equity and inclusion—something covered in the March issue of SOTT—continues, with criticism expressed by a one-time active board member of the trade association, who has since left the organization in protest.
In the UK, celebrated children’s author Philip Pullman has announced his resignation as president of the Society of Authors, stating that he would not be free to express his opinions, in his current role. The decision came in the wake of the controversy that surrounded his initially supportive comments about Kate Clanchy’s memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, which has been accused of promoting racial and ableist stereotypes..
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Thanks, Lloyd, for the PEN news. We always had battles over free speech vs censorship, but they have reached a boil lately.
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I think we are dealing with more than a “boil” lately.
For more than two decades Putin has apparently had one major goal, destroy democracies and push the US off of its super power pedestal and replace the US with Putin’s Russia. Putin has taken advantage of the internet as a weapon and fringe cults in the US to ferment violence and move the GOP so far right they have fallen off the “flat” Earth into a void crowded with monsters. Putin is responsible for the UK leaving the EU. Putin is responsible for autocrats like Trump being elected to lead democracies that threaten the existence of those countries remaining free.
Putin’s allies in Traitor Trump’s Repulibican Party, at Fox News and other misinformation alternative news (lying through their teeth if they have teeth – I’m talking about Murdock) sites are making the situation worse.
The 2022 and 2024 elections along with the outcome of the war in the Ukraine will determine the future of this planet.
If the Democrats hold on to the presidency and both Houses of Congress + Putin losses the war decisively in Ukraine causing him to fall from power, then maybe the world will become a safer, saner place with the possibility of dealing with climate change or at least slowing down the damage being caused by global warming to give humanity time to adapt.
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Putin had a huge opportunity to join the family of nations. The west established economic, cultural and social ties that made Russia a partner. Russia was poised to be integrated into the world. Putin’s aggression and outright fascist lust for power has caused all those hopes to be dashed. Russia is now a pariah nation.
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This blog is truly a hilarious echo chamber. I’ve devoted 15 minutes of amusement that helps reaffirm to me (the comments of Lloyd and Christine especially) that, yes, we do need to put the nail in the coffin of public schools. They were nice while they lasted, but they are extinct. Many private schools are also in danger, but at least they are directly accountable to the parents.
You’re going to have to start organizing to build support for making homeschooling illegal because that’s really the only way you’ll get to turn kids into the model little apparatchiks you so crave. To imagine that people like Lloyd or Christine could even possibly impart education on to young minds without integrating their intense slobbering partisanship is truly a marvel.
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Bertie, you do not know who I am. If you get what you want, I sincerely hope we meet on the battlefield. Fascists that sound/think like you won’t even know I’m there. The Marines trained me to be a brutal an efficient killer, and I learned that lesson well in Vietnam.
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Bertie is no doubt a big mouth guy who owns a gun but never wore his country’s uniform, as you did, Lloyd. He’s a fake fighter, a coward who won’t use his own name, who will turn tail and run when the first bullet is fired. I think he has a cap pistol.
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I think Bertie and others that think like him/her has the same sociopathic mindset that the child-killer in Texas had recently before he died in a hale of bullets after he’d slaughtered all those helpless, unarmed children and two unarmed teachers trying to protect those children.
But I also think Bertie might be in Putin’s pay to lurk throughout social media in the US
and spread hate, one un-woke zombie comment after another.
I would have added Traitor Trump’s name following Putin’s but the traitor doesn’t pay his bills and cheats everyone he can so zombies like Bertie might go to work for the traitor to help spread hate and the big lie, but how long would that job last when pay checks never showed up, ever.
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Bertie,
Seems like the blog is giving you agita.
Some advice? Don’t read it.
Go for a walk. Weed a garden. Pat a dog. Laugh at a joke.
You’ll live longer.
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Bertie seems to be gone. Makes sense. It’s dark in Russia and he probably left work and went home to have a few shots of vodka.
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He’s gone alright. I disinvited him. He is rude, he is a bully, he is a bigot. Not fit to participate in a conversation in my living room.
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I agree. I wonder where he sleeps at night. I think a deep red state or Russia.
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Here’s one for the category of “OMG, some of the most extremist crazies are teachers, too:” “WATCH: ‘Elemenary’ school teacher says she should be allowed to teach kids about Jesus to ‘even out the playing ground’ ” (You’d think she would have already learned how to spell “elementary”)
https://www.rawstory.com/watch-elementary-school-teacher-says-she-should-be-allowed-to-teach-kids-about-jesus-to-even-out-the-playing-ground/
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Jeb Bush is back: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article260458197.html
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For Diane –
Quote of great interest:
“LET ME CONTROL THE TEXTBOOKS,
AND I WILL CONTROL THE STATE.”
– Adolf Hitler
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A very appropriate comment for the advocates on this site.
Hitler supported massive centralization of government, mobilization around a collectivistic ethos that pinned all blame on people from a certain ethnicity, while using institutional control to support a collaboration between the public sector and corporations so that both would partner to stifle dissent.
He knew that Soviet style Marxist reform wouldn’t work in a country as affluent as Germany, where most people were fully literate and there wasn’t anything akin to the peasant/nobility dichotomy of 19th century Russia. But he needed a scapegoat. We know who he chose.
It’s almost like Hitler was in most respects a leftist!
The “far right” aspects of fascism (the belief in an ubermensch and the use of a quasi-free private sector) are merely the tip of a spear, wielded by a fully left-wing arm controlled by a left-wing brain.
MAGA is dominated by working-class small-business-minded hayseeds. The Nazi party was chock full of academics and high-powered elite in Hitler’s inner circle. He evoked Kant and Hegel and Nietzsche to make the ideas more high-minded, just as the wokies today deploy Marcuse and Foucault, while turning sociological generalizations into fact.
You are your own monsters. So glad public education is getting dismantled. You brought it on yourselves.
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Ha, Bertie, you have nothing to worry about.
You are not among the woke.
Your mind is apparently a closed bear trap. Being woke means people are open minded and mostly educated and well read. Closed minded [pe[;e like the un-woke or walking dead (zombies), means being dumber than dumb.
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Perfect.
And, that is what Mao did before he launched the Cultural Revolution that left millions dead, many by suicide.
Mao replaced all the textbooks with his “Little Red Book” of quotations. After all of the children in China’s schools had been programed by those quotations, then Mao unleashed the children to go after their parents, teachers, neighbors, anyone that was seen as a threat to the state, to Mao. Mao became a god.
Denounce them. Take away everything they had even their dignity.
Eventually, the schools were closed and millions of children flooded the streets, gangs going after anyone. It didn’t matter if they were seen as a threat to the state.
That’s when Mao stopped the “Little Red Guard” before they destroyed everything, and ordered them to labor camps.
Anyone interested in reading about the madness that happens when the textbooks children learn from are controlled and written by one strong man, Mao, read Red Azalea, by Anchee Min. Her memoir of growing up in Mao’s China during the Cultural Resolution was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1994. Anchee was one of the adolescents in “The Little Red Guard”. She was one of those teens. She denounced one of her teachers. And Anchee was sent to one of the labor camps after Mao decided enough.
Mao’s Cultural Revulsion was madness, insanity, a three ring horror show.
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I felt compelled to speak out in response to the latest bandwagon chant “Just Teach” that’s coming from people who don’t understand what teaching actually is and looks like. The “Just Teach” crowd reminds me of the 2003 backlash against the wildly successful country music band, Dixie Chicks. After speaking out about Pres. Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq, fans and radio stations turned on the band yelling “shut up and sing.”
Here’s my take on teachers and “just teaching”:
View at Medium.com
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Thank you Ms. Jacobs for your expose of the role of a teacher. Yes, teaching encompasses many aspects of life which can not be accomplished via the testing mode: read and answer questions. Interaction is a must for real learning to take place.
Building on prior knowledge makes learning fun. Creativity is important in order to turn every disruption into a learning experience. Sensitivity is critical ; every student has their own unique needs; e.g.,being sensitive to the non English speaking student that has entered the class. Patients blossoms forth when the non English student utters his/her first word! He understands! Oh the excitement in knowing that you are helping a student!!! Then the excitement of when a student’s imagination flourishes!
According John Dewey, the most important higher order thinking skill is the imagination.
Goodlad, e.g., states that the primary goal is successful problem solving; sensitive human relations; self-understanding; and the integration of one’s total life experience.
Take literature for example. Students should apply the lessons to themselves, to those around them, and to their environment. Examples of a good literature lesson for the very young: take the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. It should include a discussion that goes beyond the mere facts of the story. The concept of forgiveness can be developed; e.g., “Would you allow the grasshopper in or let him die in the cold?” Why/why not? With the story of The Little Red Hen one can develop the concept of community. In Miss Nelson Is Missing children will understand the concept of beneficence- caring, and justice- the need for rules based on fairness. With every story read there is a message which is more important than the facts. It takes a very perceptive, insightful teacher to discern a humanistic value and apply it to the students’ lives to help them live a better life.
With every story read there is a message which is more important than the facts e.g. the concept of beneficence- caring, and justice- the need for rules based on fairness.
Goodlad argues that we should teach just a few basic concepts but through every possible means. Not just by reading and writing, but by dancing, drawing, constructing, touching, thinking, talking, shaping, and planning.
“Just Teach !” The general public haven’t a clue what is involved with good teaching.
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On that same note, too many parents have no idea how to be parents. Some of them don’t even try.
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Check out what is going on in San Francisco Unified: https://sfstandard.com/education/were-teachers-not-accountants-sf-school-district-teachers-frustrated-as-payroll-issues-persist/. Teachers took a personal day during, ironically, Teacher Appreciation Week, to protest errors in their paychecks and benefits.
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You’re a woke dipshit. Leslie Fenwick is a racist.
MAGA you Leftist whore.
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You seem nice.
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Christine: Thanks for the laugh about that nice guy, Buck Fiden . . . or is it . . . . naawwww. CBK
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Forgot to take his meds. Or just another day in the life of a Trumper
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Sounds similar to the anonymous snail-mail letter that arrived last Saturday in an envelope without a return address but with a postal stamp that showed it was mailed from Miami, but shorter. The snail mail troll used more words of a similar nature.
I’m thinking my troll was Eric Trump.
“Buck Fiden” is probably this racist troll’s sock-puppet name.
So, I Googled it and it is a sock puppet name used by the traitor’s MAGA mob.
What follows is from the Urban Dictionary, and something calling itself SadWhiteSavage posted it there on December 17, 2020.
Buck Fiden
Something conservatives say instead of Fuck Biden, because they know that Zuckerberg and Dorsey will ban them for speaking about their favorite candidate in this way.
Conservative: Man Buck Fiden! he is such a commie!
Trumper: Darn tootin! I heard his son got paid $1 billion dollars from CHINA!
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Buck%20Fiden
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Diane –
It seems that MA DESE is poised to place Boston’s public schools under receivership, perhaps by a vote as soon as May 24. Doing so would fulfill the Waltons’ wet dream which has been frustrated since the defeat of ballot Question 2 in 2016, which would have eliminated the charter cap.
The board is appointed by Governor Charlie Baker, whose donors are, of course, the Waltons and the Kochs. Four members of the board have day jobs tied to the Waltons: Amanda Fernández, Latinos for Education; Matrin West, Education Next; Paymon Rouhanifard, Propel America; and Jim Peyser, New Schools Venture Fund and the Pioneer Institute. Baker is a lame duck, which may explain the haste to pull this off.
No state takeover has yet been successful, and once a system enters receivership, there is no exit. BESE has pointed to low MCAS scores to say our schools are failures, but Boston’s scores, invalid as they may be during the covid pandemic, are higher that in the three districts the state runs: Lawrence, Holyoke and Southbridge.
The Boston Teachers Union has an action letter if anyone is so inclined to support public education in the city where it originated:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/our-city-our-schools-boston-public-schools-need-resources-not-receivership/?fbclid=IwAR3FA5vSKSZp5PEGedXad-hHlr58RzLy-yNqmmftQO9zS_UBiuMkxAzatHI
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An outpouring of opposition to a proposed takeover of Boston’s public schools has slowed momentum for the present. Good coverage here:
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/riley-looking-for-pact-with-boston-not-receivership/
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Terrific reporting here from Oklahoma on the Waltons and Kochs interfering in public education:
(Trigger warning: there’s a large photo of Jeb!)
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Christine This is an incredible story that encapsulates in one article the whole attack on all-things-public that is going on presently in the United States.
Just one thing: The cycle of tax monies that is supposed to flow to public developments and, in education, to all children’s education (including history and the so-called “woke” ideas (what a scam idea that is) being subverted for the political and religious interests (ironically) of those in the culture who have the most money in the first place. Here, as we are seeing in other influences, those interests are not really for “ALL KIDS.”
The way they work control everything from the legislative level, it won’t be long before all those checks and balances, for instance, about (what amounts to) bribery of government officials, built into the laws, will be gone too. It’s like watching a game ball roll down a hill and you cannot catch up with it to play the game again.
Thank you for posting this. CBK
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Now this is funny and true!
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You know how, sometimes, one eloquent idea can explain multiple phenomena? Here’s one:
America’s collapsing at light speed. The pace has accelerated so far out of control it’s hard to even keep up anymore. The last month in American collapse alone? The repeal of Roe vs Wade. A society of citizen-vigilantes deputized against…women. High school students who — literally — can’t say the word “gay” during their graduation speeches. Then a massacre, at the hands of a fascist. Then another massacre, this time, of little children.
Who can keep up with this horror? This insanity? And so Americans have gone blank. They bear all the hallmark signs of trauma. Dead eyes, blank faces, “blunted affect.” Their society is crashing down around them. And those of us who warned? Well, we were called everything from “alarmists” to “charlatans.” We were the best minds America had. And it betrayed us, I suppose, in the way it often does — from people like James Baldwin to Sarah Kendzior to little old me.
There’s a thing Americans still don’t really get about American collapse. It’s the heart of the matter, unfortunately. It goes like this. Nobody’s safe in America — and that’s the point.
https://eand.co/americas-collapsing-at-light-speed-and-it-gets-worse-every-day-9928b3e1165f
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The US Supreme Court hasn’t overturned Roe vs Wade yet. I suspect the conservatives on the court were waiting until after the 2022 election to do that.
Now, since the leak and the uproar, they might hold off until after the 2024 election … or not.
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You spend an inordinate amount of time sniffing your own flatulence, Christine.
We clearly need a Civil War but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Given that the leftist echo chamber dwellers at dianeravitch.net exist in all First World Countries and are behaving the exact same way. Time for World War III. It won’t be pretty. But at least I’m on the side where the people know how to use their guns.
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It is apparent to me that Bertie is a lunatic TROLL and/or a dumber-than-dumb MAGA zombie to even think that WWIII is necessary to get rid of everyone that doesn’t agree with a fascist like Bertie.
First, the US is having a civil war right now. Those slaughtered children in Texas were casualties of that civil war started by the extreme fascist right.
Those extreme right fascists are already fighting a violent civil war against everyone else, not just the liberals/or leftists that make up a minority in the Democratic Party. The leaders of today’s Democratic Party are moderates and they are the same as Republicans were back when Eisenhower and even Nixon were president.
There is no leftist echo chamber in the United States, but there is an extreme right MAGA zombie echo chamber and that is where Bertie lives, deaf and blind to the reality outside of that cave or underground bunker where Bertie’s mind is growing mold.
Second, if this fascist civil war in the US spreads and ignites WWIII, that means nuclear weapons will probably end up being used eventually, and all the dangerously dumber-than-dumb extreme right MAGA zombies that sound like this Bertie the MAGA Troll, will be exterminated along with most of the population in the Northern Hemisphere. Nuclear weapons do not know the difference. Even though most if not all of the cities will end up being replaced with mile deep craters, the fallout will reach all of the rural areas where many of these MAGA lunatics live and kill them, too, but slower so they’ll suffer horribly before they take their last breath.
If there are any survivors on the planet after WWIII, they live in the Southern Hemisphere, and most of them have darker skin and do not speak English, but then they’ll have to survive the nuclear winter.
Maybe, if some of those brown and darker skinned humans livening in the Southern Hemisphere survive WWIII, the human race will be better off without the lighter skinned humans that mostly live in the Northern areas.
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Bertie,
If there is a civil war, the U.S. government and military will defend democracy from fascists like you.
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The civil war that the MAGA fascists in the US are currently waging will be continued suicide or hit and run attacks against unarmed children and adults.
If they decide to take the fight to heavily armed and trained US troops, they won’t survive to learn from that mistake.
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Bertie,
It seems the blog gives you agita.
Here’s some unsolicited advice: don’t read it.
Go for a walk. Weed a garden. Read a book. Pat a dog. Laugh at a joke.
You’ll live longer.
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John Oliver on School Resource Officers, aka school police:
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I’m getting a reCAPTCHA instead of your video… and yesterday, the copied URL wouldn’t play on the yt platform, nor on genmirror.com/ytp.
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Sorry, I can’t help. Try googling it on youtube?
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Diane, I just finished reading a great piece pointing out that human brains are not computers. I’ve known this for some time, but this piece explains it.
Without meaning to, that explanation also reveals that standardized tests were designed for computers not human brains. Tests designed for computers do not work for human brains.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-empty-brain?utm_source=pocket-newtab
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Lloyd Lofthouse Good insight: “Without meaning to, that explanation also reveals that standardized tests were designed for computers not human brains. Tests designed for computers do not work for human brains.” And thanks for posting that article.
Three succinct issues about the article itself, and why it veers away from what they, themselves, are after, are that: (1) we don’t SEE pattern. Rather, we UNDERSTAND pattern. (2) we have brains, but we also have minds which is what we think with and that, indeed, process all those details of human living and unique individual histories; (3) we understand with our minds.
On a deeper level, the problem is rooted in learned but conflicting philosophical errors (like a flawed understanding of the difference between seeing and understanding), rather than in neurological or even psychological oversights and conflicts.
As an aside for education, a recent similar set of insights led me to realize that the very need that has inspired the SEL (social and emotional learning) movement was (purportedly) “needed” because of an absence of contexts of learning in their common educational environments of family and K-12 (tech?) that would already harbor the source of such learning.
Children learn socially and emotionally first and more from experiences and stories, which are a recounting of experiences, that are already richly embedded with the potential for such learning to occur, . . .than from systematized teaching, and especially where they are learning to disrespect adults. CBK
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Children also have different learning modalities. They all do not learn the same way.
“Everyone learns differently. No two brains are alike. The brain is made up of many different networks that help learning. Some people learn better by seeing, others learn better by hearing and still others need to do something in order to really learn new information.”
I learned [ ha! ] this decades ago while still teaching, and I applied what I learned to the lessons I planned making sure to include elements in every lesson that focused on seeing, hearing, and doing something (what I thought of as the “tough” element) in order to learn.
Near the end of my thirty years (mostly teaching reading and writing through literature with a strong focus on writing), I found out how powerful that had been. In an English department staff meeting, a VP threw up an overhead chart showing the improvement students had at each grade level in reading and writing. The chart focused on and included all three of the districts high schools. It was a bar chart and every English teacher had their own bar but no teacher was identified by name or school.
One bar column for one teacher stood out because it soared above all the others. I mean it looked like a 100 story building with everyone else below 10 stories. The VP identified that one teacher and it was me. She said the district had kept track of these scores like this for years and the bar column that represented me was the same year after year.
Yet, no administrator ever asked me what I did, how I did it. Not once.
That district’s focus was always on getting test scores up, but I never taught to the test. NEVER! Because teaching to the tests does not address the three major learning modalities: seeing, hearing, and doing something. When the district started forcing prepackaged lessons that focused on teaching to the test, I threw them in the trash and kept doing what I had done for decades. When edicts came down to stop doing this and do this, I ignored them.
And the administration left me alone to do my own thing but still never asked what I did or how I did it. I heard that admin had recruited students to spy on teachers to make sure they were teaching the way top down wanted it. I wasn’t doing what they wanted, but I don’t think they every put student spies in my classroom because I was never called on the carpet for how I taught. But I was called on the carpet for holding student accountable for doing the work. Too many poor grades being earned in my class, I was told. Another VP called me aside one day and said, “Lloyd, find a way to raises the grades your giving out. You’re giving students D’s and F’s that are still posting gains on the standardized tests. Find a way to reward them because of those test scores by giving them higher grades.”
My reply, “I don’t give my students grades. They earn them, and I’m not going to change the way I teach and the way my students earn their grades. To earn a grade in my class, the students had to do the work that focused on hearing, seeing, and doing. Those grades had nothing to do with standardized test scores.
Everything 99% of the administrators in that district did was top down.
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Hello Lloyd Yes, we all differ in our “learning modalities;” however, those modalities all hinge on the spontaneity of our inborn awareness and wonder (as the writer of the article suggests by going back to infants paying attention to their mother’s face); and then on our more articulate questioning as we learn language.
But this is not the place for a discussion of cognitional theory. I do appreciate your posting that article. I subscribe to AEON but am several issues behind in my reading. My guess is that it’s in that folder somewhere. CBK
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Well, this is alarming. National Parents Union is included in a federal “National Parents and Families Engagement Council.” NPU is a fake Walton-funded group, yet Michael Cardona has included them with true parent advocacy groups. They should be removed from this committee.
https://t.co/yLQ6jGlQHl
Professor Maurice Cunningham has repeatedly warned about this group and its shifting origin story:
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Sorry, here’s a more specific link for the DOE:
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-creates-national-parents-and-families-engagement-council-help-ensure-recovery-efforts-meet-students’-needs
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Christine, this is shocking that the US ED would recognize a fake Walton-funded group as a voice for parents. The National Parents Union is a voice for the Walton Family Foundation.
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Who is advising Cardona? Where are the NEA and AFT?
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Hello Diane This is a related aside to your exchange with Christine. It’s like a cancer.
It’s about the intrusion of neo-liberal and capitalist-only ideas into education. In the below case, I think the forever chemical situation (see article and new EPA findings below) is the chemical industry’s equivalent to intrusions into education and to how the NRA controls the U.S. Congress or at least the Senate; only in this case, we are talking about Koch and related industries. New legislation is apparently presently “stalled in the Senate.” Note the ‘fox in the chicken house’ diversionary narrative coming from the industry:
Not ALL foxes kill and eat chickens in the same way.
And before Linda gets on her “Kock is Catholic” bandwagon, insofar as these industries are, in fact, ruining the health of the planet and every living thing on it, and insofar as they are greedy and do everything they can to diverge completely from regulatory oversight that would keep them from poisoning us all, they are also divergent from anything Christian or Catholic . . . perversion flying under the label of Catholic is not only about pedophilia. See article link and snips below: CBK
ALL QUOTED Below:
“WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is warning that two nonstick and stain-resistant compounds found in drinking water pose health risks even at levels so low they cannot currently be detected.
The two compounds, known as PFOA and PFOS, have been voluntarily phased out by U.S. manufacturers, but there are a limited number of ongoing uses and the chemicals remain in the environment because they do not degrade over time. The compounds are part of a larger cluster of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS that have been used in consumer products and industry since the 1940s.” . . . .
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE IN LINK BELOW/LAST PART OF THE ARTICLE:
“The American Chemistry Council, which represents major chemical companies, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. The group has said it supports “strong, science-based regulation of chemicals, including PFAS substances.″ In a statement last year, the group said that ‘All PFAS are not the same, and they should not all be regulated the same way. We hope and expect any federal actions will be consistent with sound science.’
Legislation passed by the House would set a national drinking water standard for PFAS and direct the EPA to develop discharge limits for a range of industries suspected of releasing PFAS into the water. The bill has stalled in the Senate.“
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Guns for teachers! Ohio lawmaker has a business for that!
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/06/20/ohio-lawmaker-who-wrote-bill-requiring-gun-training-for-teachers-owns-gun-training-business/
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I hope you would consider doing a post on this story. Dhakabrakha is a Ukrainian musical phenomenon whose mission has just been elevated from saving their culture to saving their nation. Please go see them if they are in your area.
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In red states, there are lots of GOP contenders in the contest for most despicable excuse for a human being in the USA, like TX Senator: John Cornyn who, in response to Obama’s tweet regarding SCOTUS overturning Roe v Wade yesterday, tweeted: “Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education”
https://www.rawstory.com/john-cornyn-says-now-do-plessy-vs-ferguson-brown-vs-board-of-education/
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Give the extremist nature of this court, don’t be shocked when they reopen Brown
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I have been concerned about this since Trump got his court. What we have now is no less than a panel of Grand Inquisitors dominating our Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas has openly advocated this radical take over we are witnessing win real time. I keep hoping a communique between Thomas and his wife reveal his true actions and intentions.
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It might be a challenge for Thomas to get around any case that could come up concerning Loving v Virginia, which outlawed the ban on interracial marriage, especially since that argument formed the basis for Obergefell v. Hodges and he recently signaled the intention to undermine that same-sex marriage ruling.
I’ll never understand how Republicans can live with themselves being hypocritical on so many matters of personal importance to people.
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Bill McKibben has a proposal that is better than hand wringing or anything else. Given that the next SCOTUS ruling will likely eviscerate the power to delegate authority to agencies like the EPA, it’s essential.
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/joe-biden-could-save-america-by-going?r=1cllq&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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So how do we get Joe to buy in? I completely agree that Biden needs to get out of Washington and go to the heartland. I know this scares the Secret Service, but it has to happen.
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Diane One of the arguments that I haven’t seen on the side of abortion rights is that, along with The Decision being rightly made by the woman, informed by her doctor, and if possible, in communication with others who support her, is that, in the special case of abortion:
The Decision is also between the woman and her GOD. CBK
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Happy Birthday, Diane!
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Thank you, homeless. I wish you had a home.
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Good report here on the so-called “Moms” for Liberty summit, held this weekend in Tampa:
Describing themselves as “war moms,” and “joyful warriors” tasked with fighting for the soul of America, several hundred members of Moms For Liberty convened in Tampa over the weekend for the group’s first annual summit, highlighted by Republican speakers like Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Rick Scott and Betsy DeVos, and punctuated with a series of conservative-led strategy sessions on how to win political office and navigate school bureaucracies.
Known largely for speaking out against mask mandates in the pandemic, demanding access to school curricula, rooting out offensive or explicit content in literature and voicing their suspicions about the pervasiveness of “woke ideology” at school board meetings across the country, members of Moms For Liberty said they now hope to expand their political influence and the scope of parental rights laws, which exist in about one third of states.
With an unholy trinity like DeSantis, Scott, and DeVos, must have been terrific!
https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2022-07-18/moms-for-liberty-aims-to-expand-political-influence-bolstered-by-trainings-endorsements
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And as we have experienced over the past few decades, there is no hopeful progressive counter strike…
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War moms huh? LOL! LMAO!
Theofascist war moms would be more like it, that is if any of them are actually mothers.
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Anyone that attacks what’s known as “woke ideology” is supporting zombie thinking and belongs to a fascist cult of ignorance.
Wokeness means someone that is highly literate, well educated, well read, is a life long learner, questions claims and uses critical thinking, problem solving and rational logic to find out if there is any truth to what these fascist zombies are shouting.
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Well said, Bob. Your definition of woke.
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When Pol Pot went to war against “woke ideology” in Cambodia (even though they didn’t use that term then), he had millions of Cambodians slaughtered in what’s known as the killing fields, if there was any evidence that they were educated. One of the methods used was to set up check points and look at their hands. If your hands looked soft as if you had never worked a manual job in your life, you were murdered.
“The Khmer Rouge (under Pol Pot’s leadership) destroyed education in Cambodia – now the country is fighting back”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/khmer-rouge-education-cambodia-ngo-pol-pot-a9233851.html
These American fascist “war moms” are no different than the Khmer Rouge.
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Here’s a nice counterpoint, from real mothers, Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC:
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This is a wonderful campaign video. Don’t mess with Texas women!
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In the article it says that Mom’s for liberty are fighting against (among other things) lax punishment for bad behavior in the schools. Yet it is exactly this lax punishment that is regulated by the state. And yet they cheer on Desantis all the while his policies are hurting the education in Florida. I don’t think enough of them have spent much time in schools,
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Dr. Ravitch,
Can you point me towards some scholarly articles on the history of establishing National Boards? Surely this began the trend towards corporate stamps on our state’s schools? I find it lacking from the narrative and my hunch is that it is significant.
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Involved Mom, I want to suggest you also focus at think tanks that publish negative reports about public education that are funded by extreme right fascist billionaires (most of them are members of ALEC).
ALEC also has ties to the State Policy Network (SPN), a national association of conservative and libertarian think-tanks. SPN is a member of ALEC, and ALEC is an associate member of the SPN. SPN encourages its members to join ALEC, and many members of SPN are also members of ALEC.
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Do they have information about National Boards? That’s what I’m interested in researching.
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How about these links?
https://www.nbpts.org/
https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/professional-learning/teacher-licensure/national-board-certification
https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ps/nbpts.asp
For the next link, I’d verify that are mentioned/ recommended by the first link.
https://www.fwps.org/domain/791
And, from my Google search, it seems most if not all states have their own site related to National Boards.
If there’s money to be made, there will also be private-sector sites that may not be related to the process but offer invalidated support, no matter what claims they make, that paying them for their service will help you be successful. After all, this is the US where the foundation of its economy is based on ruthless cutthroat capitalism, meaning make money and get rich anyway you can, even if its illegal and you destroy a lot of people’s lives in the process.
Isn’t that what The College Board does under David Coleman’s leadership, the same guy that said no one cares what you think?
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If you’re looking for National Board Certification for Teachers, this website may be of help:
https://www.nbpts.org/about/mission-history/
For what it’s worth, this effort predates efforts to privatize and coporatize our public schools. It was seen as a way to raise the stature of teachers.
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Scholarly articles is my quest.
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Involved Mom, you may find your answers through one or more of these academic search engines like Google Scholar. To be clear, until I read your most recent reply, I had no idea there were specializes search engines like these, so, curious, I asked Google, “best search engine for scholarly articles”.
“Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It’s the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let’s you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.”
Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
Related articles: ✔
References: ✔
Cited by: ✔
Links to full text: ✔
Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX
https://paperpile.com/g/academic-search-engines/
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Hope everyone takes a look at this. He makes exactly the argument I’ve been making for years here (this is the first public example of this factual interpretation) about the second amendment, that it is about the obligation of citizens to defend the State, not an unencumbered, widespread right of individuals to own guns without regulation. Let’s see if others that the spine to make this argument consistently.
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Diane, I stumbled on your blog while trying to figure out what to do about our governor’s education policies (Glenn Youngkin). We need help down here!!
J. W. Henry (retired HS teacher)
Loudoun County, VA
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J. W. Henry,
There are grassroots groups spread across the country. The next link will take you to that list with links.
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/grassroots-education-network/
And near the bottom of that long list after scrolling for awhile, you’ll found a direct link to grassroots groups located in Virginia fighting to save our public schools from the greedy, power hungry, toxic fascists scum.
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/grassroots-education-network/
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Thank you, Lloyd, for directing Mr. Henry to NPE. There are great grassroots groups in VA
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You’re welcome. My pleasure. The NPE website is a great resource to find th elinks to grassroots groups spread across the country, fighting to safe public education.
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J.W. Henry,
You gotta elect Democrats to the legislature to minimize the harm Youngkin will do to Virginia’s public schools. VOTE in ‘22!
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That stumbling worked!
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Please read and share widely:
If you’re over 60 and interested in volunteering to work on climate change issues and preserving democracy, please check out Th!rd Act, a newish group organized by Bill McKibben, focused on engaging concerned citizens over 60 to improve the world for future generations.
There is also now a Th!rd Act Educators Working Group, working to address the issues of climate and democracy, specifically through an educator’s lens. Two goals of this group are to assist with high school voter registration and also to support divestment from fossil fuels of college and university endowments across the nation and teachers’ pensions in California and New York. Volunteers may be interested in joining Th!rd Act and/or Th!rd Act Educators Working Group.
You can learn more here:
https://thirdact.org/
https://thirdact.org/working-groups/educators/
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If you want to know what it feels like to have instant rage, read this:
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/08/ohios-teachers-pension-lost-an-estimated-3-billion-in-the-last-year-on-thursday-its-employees-are-expected-to-get-nearly-10m-in-bonuses.html
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Hello Diane,
I just became aware of this Texas law: H. Rept. 112-47 – REAFFIRMING “IN GOD WE TRUST” AS THE OFFICIAL MOTTO OF THE UNITED STATES AND SUPPORTING AND ENCOURAGING THE PUBLIC DISPLAY OF THE NATIONAL MOTTO IN ALL PUBLIC BUILDINGS, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AND OTHER GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS
My commentary on the law:
Well, I don’t like this, ’cause it’s partisan and therefore NOT inclusive.
It’s just one poster per school “in a conspicuous place, framed or on durable poster board” My first thought is that one could frame a dollar bill “In God We Trust” side up, and hang it in the front office. But “The poster must include an American flag.” So maybe include one or two of those stick flags as well?
Then I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A36Iq5qNukQ
An educational organization could design a poster about the history of the phrase “In God We Trust” in the United States ending with the Texas law.
Bi-partisan, inclusive AND educational!
The law requires schools to display a poster if and when one is donated to the school.
Perhaps you know of an organization that would want to design an educational “In God We Trust” poster so that schools could accept donations of these posters to comply with the law.
Ruth Wunderlich
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How about this poster?
Then you have “In god we trust.” printed across his chest below the flag pin, in huge white letters.
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Mother Jones goes to the Moms (sic) for Liberty (sic) conference in Tampa:
Justice expressed deep skepticism about the role of the US Department of Education in schools. “It really seems like the work that the federal government is doing is very concerning, and really far away from what the parents and students and communities want,” she said. She told me that she and Descovich still believe in public education, but “if a parent feels that they need to pull their child out of the public education system, we completely support that.”
At the conference, excitement about alternatives to public school was palpable. In the exhibition hall, one booth advertised Optima Classical Academy, a brand new Florida-based virtual-reality charter school, where children use Oculus headsets from the comfort of the couch. The curriculum is “classical,” meaning a heavy emphasis on the Western canon. In order to learn about, say, the promise of individualism and the powers of big government, the students could travel to ancient Rome, a spokesperson explained. (Optima, I later learned, was a sponsor of the conference.)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/the-most-powerful-moms-in-america-are-the-new-face-of-the-republican-party/
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Just learned Mikhail Gorbachev passed away less than two hours ago. Anyone who still thinks Reagan had anything at all do with the fall of the Iron Curtain obviously knows nothing about Gorbachev. One of the great men in modern history.
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Gorbachev must have viewed Putin with contempt.
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“Character Attacks: How to Properly Apply the Ad Hominem
A new theory parses fair from unfair uses of personal criticism in rhetoric”
“Regarding the ad hominem, Walton contends that although such attacks are usually fallacious, they can be legitimate when a character critique is directly or indirectly related to the point being articulated.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/character-attack/
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This video is more than a bit unsettling.
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Well, the NYT has finally gotten around to covering this outrage:
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Drew Gilpin Faust on the loss of the ability to read cursive among our young people:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/gen-z-handwriting-teaching-cursive-history/671246/
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Civilization is always fragile but now its worse than ever with too many businesses and people relying on the internet, desktops laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, et al.
All it will take to take it all down is a huge solar storm that will destroy the fragile wireless, internet foundation that’s replaced what worked for millennia.
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I love Jamie Raskin. This is a reason why. Raskin/Porter 2024.
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This is just another heartbreaking example of how our country does not care for our nation’s children. Helping kids whose families are experiencing homelessness is difficult in an urban setting, but it is dire in rural ares.
For a while, the arrangement worked better than expected. The kids enrolled in new schools, with Blake and Lee Jr. landing at River Valley High. They got good grades, and Blake wowed everyone with his beautiful tenor voice in show choir. In the spring, he started dating a girl he met in rehearsals for a school production of “Bye Bye Birdie.” Over time, LeAnn said, they “got back into who they used to be.”
But the situation with Lee’s father became volatile. The night Blake texted Cooper, his grandfather had thrown the family out. They had nowhere to go. Cooper wanted to help but didn’t know where to start. He asked the principal what to do, and he said: Ask Sandy. She’ll know.
Sandra Plantz, an administrator at Gallia County Local Schools for more than 20 years, oversees areas as diverse as Title I reading remediation and federal grants for all seven of the district’s schools, including River Valley High. In recent years, though, she has leaned in hard on a role that is overlooked in many districts: homeless liaison. Her district serves just under 3,000 students but covers some 450 square miles of an area that doesn’t offer much in the way of a safety net beyond the local churches. The county has no family homeless shelters, and those with no place to go sometimes end up sleeping in the parking lot of the Walmart or at the hospital emergency room. As homelessness increased in the county in recent years, Sandra and her husband, Kevin, a juvenile probation officer, found themselves at the center of an informal advocacy team.
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Historical and to this day, a significant number of this country’s political and private sector leaders have never cared much about children that live in poverty.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the first name that pops into my head of a powerful individual who cared was Eleanor Roosevelt when she toured the country as FDR’s eyes and ears and discovered how horrid and widespread poverty was in the United States. If FDR hadn’t had polio, she may have never seen and learned what she did.
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/eleanor-roosevelt/
What Eleanor learned and shared what she saw with the country, that eventually led to LBJ’s war on poverty and Civil Rights legislation that’s been under assault by conservative and MAGA RINO Republicans for decades, that have done and continue to do all they can to sabotage both programs.
What’s frightening is that Republicans want to weaken the labor laws that restrict hiring children.
“Republicans want to solve the labor shortage problem by putting children to work
“Finding the legal means to put children to work is another attempt to compensate for the ‘great resignation,’ with four million American adults declining to return to their low-paid jobs after the pandemic lockdown ended.”
https://conversationalist.org/2022/02/09/republicans-want-to-solve-the-labor-shortage-problem-by-putting-children-to-work/
It’s is tragically easy to predict what will happen if children are allowed to get jobs and work at earlier ages – poor families will pull their children out of K-12 schools as soon as its legal and put them to work to add more income to the family, a common practice all over the world including China where most rural children drop out of school around 6th grade so they can work and contribute to the family’s income. In China, mandatory education only goes to 6th grade, and if children drop out earlier to go to work, the local authorities often ignore it. Most of that child labor in China is in the fields on small family farms because older members of the family are working in factories in the cities and sending money home so their is a labor shortage back home that must be filled.
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I agree, Lloyd, and in the current lack of sense of social responsibility for others, children are on the bottom tier.
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Nice bit today by the History Guy on Captain Kangaroo:
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Thanks for this, Greg! I was most definitely an afficionado of The Captain.
As an aside, my dad’s brother’s given name was Raleigh Roy, but he was forever called Doodie, due to his uncanny resemblance to Howdy.
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I realize in my old age that Captain Kangaroo was likely very important in helping me to learn English when I came here as a 5-6 year old. While I don’t remember the shows, I do remember that Captain Kangaroo was an incredibly important influence on the course of my life. And so many others.
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Anchee Min arrived in the US in the 1980s without speaking English. She’d lied on her application for a student visa and claimed she was fluent in English. She wasn’t. Didn’t understand anything anyone said to her in English.
After US customs discovered that lie, she was given six months to learn English are be sent back to China.
She writes about this in her two memoirs, Red Azalea (about growing up in Mao’s China during the Cultural Revolution) and The Cooked Seed (in the US as an immigrant and eventually an internationally acclaimed author and US citizen).
Watching Mr. Rogers and other TV shows like Captain Kangaroo was one of the ways she learned English.
Since Anchee and I were married in 1999 until 2015, I know her well, and we are still friends.
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Lloyd, please pass on my admiration of Anchee’s wonderful Red Azalea when you have the opportunity!
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Christine, I forwarded your comment to Anchee.
Thank you.
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So Greg, I watched Captain Kangaroo and Dolly Parton. Why did you post it?
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Just found this and thought I’d add a little to discussion above. Plus Dolly! What’s not to love? Could have done without the Cosby thing at end, but we didn’t know then.
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Captain Kangaroo looks like a dirty old man. As compared to, for example, Mr. Rogers.
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I think that’s the first comment you have ever made that needs to go into moderation! Lay off the Captain!
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Jeffrey Yass of Pennsylvania is one of the wealthiest American most people have never heard of. ProPublica offers a profile of him, identifying his support of charter schools and tax credit vouchers.
In Pennsylvania, where Yass is the richest person in the state and a kingmaker in local politics, his favored candidates have shaped tax policy. He is a longtime financial patron of a Democratic state senator, Anthony Williams, one of the creators of a pair of tax credits that allow companies to slash their state tax bills if they give money to private and charter schools. Susquehanna is, in turn, a major user of the tax credits. (Williams did not respond to requests for comment.)
The programs limited the state tax credits a single company could receive, but Yass and the others found a way to sidestep the limits. Yass, Dantchik and Greenberg simply applied for the tax credits through individual companies each had formed, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2015. In all, the credits have saved Yass and the others at least $53 million in state taxes, records show…
He used the rest of his remarks at the event, part of a local TED Talk-style series, to promote his passion for charter and private schools and attack Philadelphia teachers. “All we ever hear about is how underpaid they are and how abused they are,” Yass said. “Well, the shocking fact is that the average school teacher in Philadelphia with benefits makes $117,000 a year.” Yass acknowledged that a large chunk of that figure was from pension and health care costs. (That year, Yass made $1.26 billion, before benefits.)…
Yass is looking to harness discontent with public schools during the pandemic to push privatization of the system. He has given $15 million as the sole funder of a political action committee, the School Freedom Fund, that says “school closures, mask mandates, critical race theory, and more” have created “a unique opportunity to promote School Choice as the structural solution to dramatically improve education in America.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/jeff-yass-susquehanna-tiktok-tax-avoidance
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Not sure where Grant Middle School is, but these parents need to get a grip; I’m certain there are real issues that need addressing.
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I just got this bulk email from Sal Khan (founder of Khan Academy). He doesn’t mind fanning the NAEP flames:
“I recorded this video in the wake of reading the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, also known as the nation’s report card. The results were not good. They were already bad pre-pandemic and they just got worse.
I wanted to share my thoughts with you as a member of the Khan Academy community.
We think there are concrete and actionable solutions.
In August we released a very rigorous, peer-reviewed study that showed that in a pandemic school year kids using Khan Academy for 30-60 minutes a week beat pre-pandemic growth norms—in some grades more than 40%. (Read the release.)
At Khan Academy, we’ve been working tirelessly to create accessible, engaging, and effective learning resources for you and everyone else around the world.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your continued support. Your gift will make a huge impact, empowering tens of millions of learners for generations to come.
Give today!
This is our moment. Let’s work together to build a brighter future.
Onward!
Sal Khan
P.S. – Didn’t see the results? Read an article from The 74, a reputable education outlet, covering the NAEP results.”
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Why let a chance to make more money go to waste? Sal Khan has already gotten millions from Gates. Why shake the tin can?
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Exactly. And, btw, Sal Khan reportedly has a net worth of $800 million (https://thefactscity.com/sal-khan-net-worth/).
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