Archives for category: Connecticut
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Standards for 0-5?

By dianeravitch
November 16, 2012 //
10

A reader wonders, when do we start assessing parents and caregivers?

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/CCSS/PreK_ELA_Crosswalk.pdf

Click to access PreK_ELA_Crosswalk.pdf

Let’s not laugh too hard. I posted the links above in response to Dr. Ravitch’s post called “What are we doing to the little ones?” The links take you to draft Connecticut documents relating to CCSS for preschoolers. The introduction states that the adoption of CCSS for K-12 “has naturally led to questions regarding standards for preschool and/or prekindergarten students.” The next section talks about a work group that has been charged with the task of creating comprehensive learning standards for birth to age 5.

I personally am interested in the learning standards for infants. What do you think? Should the first assessments be at 6 weeks or 3 months? We probably need both formative and summative assessments in math and language arts. Since Connecticut is launching new teacher evaluations, we should probably apply the same standards to parents and caregivers. A full 45 percent of a parent’s score should be based on the results of these assessments. If the baby naps during an assessment, we probably should wake him/her up. I’m not quite sure how to deal with the diapering issue though. Maybe Michelle Rhee or Jeb Bush have some thoughts on this.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core, Connecticut, Education Reform, Parents

Who Tried to Buy School Elections?

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
6

Robert Valiant has launched a website to gather information about who funded campaigns for charters and vouchers and against teachers, unions and public education.

If you have links to newspaper articles or other reliable sources, please post them to this website.

I hope that a law firm or investigative journalist will find out where Rhee collected money and which races she supported. She certainly influenced the legislature in Tennessee, where she helped Republucans gain a super-majority, enabling her ex-husband TFA State Commissioner Kevin Huffman to impose the full rightwing reform agenda.

http://dumpduncan.org/forum/discussion/42/registry-of-attempts-to-buy-education-elections-by-prizatizers.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Broad Foundation, Bush, Jeb, California, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Indiana, Klein, Joel, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Luna, Tom, Merit pay, Privatization, US Education, Walton Foundation

Great News from Bridgeport

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2012 //
11

Despite heavy spending to persuade voters in Bridgeport to give up their right to elect their school board, the big money lost!!

The people of Bridgeport rejected appeals by Michelle Rhee’s husband and the mayor, voters said no.

No dice to mayoral control.

Yes to democracy!

Categories Connecticut

Public Funds Used in Bridgeport to Push Mayor’s Campaign to Abolish Voting Rights

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
2

Jonathan Pelto has the story and the numbers.

Hospitals, public utilities and other public entities have given large sums to the mayor’s campaign to persuade voters to give up their right to elect their school board.

Unbelievable.

 

Categories Connecticut

Big $$$ to Convince Bridgeport Voters to Abandon Democracy

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2012 //
13

Connecticut blogger and political insider Jonathan Pelto broke the story:

Corporate reformers and privatizers have poured record amounts of campaign cash into Bridgeport, Connecticut, to persuade voters to turn control over their schools to the mayor.

One of the big givers was NYC Mayor Bloomberg, who gave $20,000 to help Mayor Finch gain control over the people’s schools.

Mayoral control in New York City did not narrow the city’s achievement gaps.

Mayoral control has not improved the schools in Cleveland, Chicago, or Detroit (Detroit tried it, abandoned, and one of its recent mayors went to jail for various reasons).

The mayoral-controlled public schools of Washington, DC, have the biggest achievement gaps in the nation, double the gaps in other big cities.

Will the voters of Bridgeport vote to relinquish their right to elect their school board?

Can the public be persuaded by big money to abandon democracy?

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle

From One Pro Basketball Player to Another: LINK FIXED!

By dianeravitch
October 27, 2012 //
14

Kevin Johnson, who was a basketball star but is now the Mayor of Sacramento (and the husband of Michelle Rhee), recently visited Bridgeport, Connecticut, to urge its citizens to support a mayoral takeover of the public schools. He asked them to end the practice of electing their local school board. This is a big goal of privatizers, as it will remove an obstacle to closing more public schools and turning them over to charter operators.

John Bagley wrote an opinion piece answering Kevin Johnson. Bagley is not only a member of the elected board in Bridgeport, but a former NBA basketball player, like Kevin Johnson.

Bagley points out that New Haven, with its appointed board, has more “failing schools” than Bridgeport. And Sacramento has an elected board.

His advice to Mayor Johnson: “Don’t come into my house and mess with my right to vote.”

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers

Connecticut Business Leaders to Bridgeport Voters: Give Up Your Democratic Rights

By dianeravitch
October 24, 2012 //
5

The Connecticut Council for Education Reform (that phrase “for Education Reform” always means “for privatization of your public schools”) urges voters in Bridgeport to pass a resolution that would eliminate their right to elect a school board.

The CCER thinks that the mayor knows best.

The mayor will know how best to close public schools and replace them with privately controlled schools that can kick low-performing students out.

The mayor knows best how to educate the city’s children.

Please, voters, abandon your rights.

The mayor knows best.

Who are these people who don’t believe in democracy?

Read Jonathan Pelto’s latest post to learn their names.

They believe in electing the school board where they live.

They don’t think that poor people and people of color can be trusted to choose those who represent them.

As Jonathan incisively asks,

Imagine if corporate executives told the American people that because Congress is, as we all know, dysfunctional, that members of Congress should be appointed by the President rather than elected by the people.

Yet that is exactly what these business people are saying.

 

 

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers

The Referendum in Bridgeport, Connecticut

By dianeravitch
October 22, 2012 //
12

Bridgeport will be voting on whether the mayor should control the schools.

Mayoral control is high on the agenda of the privatization movement, because it allows one official to close public schools and hand them over to private corporations without paying attention to public opinion. Often there are hearings, but members of the public are limited to two minutes, and no one listens to them anyway. The mayor’s appointed board does whatever he wants them to do.

It is not as if mayoral control has a great record. Chicago has had mayoral control since 1995, and the district is among the lowest-performing in the nation on NAEP tests. Cleveland has had mayoral control for fifteen years, and its academic record is worse than Chicago’s. Washington, D.C., has had mayoral control since 2007, and it has the biggest achievement gaps in the nation. New York City has had mayoral control since 2002, and aside from doubling the budget and constant turmoil, and hundreds of school closings and openings, it is hard to see the benefit in terms of better education. The highest-performing districts in the nation on NAEP–Austin and Charlotte–do not have mayoral control.

Yesterday, the mayor of Sacramento, California, visited Bridgeport to urge voters to support mayoral control and relinquish their right to elect the Board of Education. This mayor is not just any old mayor. He is Michelle Rhee’s husband, Kevin Johnson.

The question is whether Bridgeport voters want to vote themselves out of the democratic process and allow their mayor to close public schools and privatize them.  There seems to be a consensus among the privatizers that urban districts, whose residents are mostly poor and non-white, lack the wisdom to govern themselves. Mr. and Mrs. Rhee are in the forefront of that movement.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Rhee, Michelle

A Hero of Public Education in Connecticut

By dianeravitch
October 19, 2012 //
9

Carmen L. Lopez is a hero of public education.

She has stood up against the most powerful people in her state to defend the public schools and the basic principles of democracy.

She served as a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court from 1996 until her retirement in 2008. At that time, she was elected to the Bridgeport Board of Education.

She played a pivotal role in the legal strategy and lawsuit that stopped the State of Connecticut’s effort to take over the Bridgeport School System. Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that the state had failed to follow its laws and ordered that the democratically elected board of education be reconstituted and given back the authority to run the City’s schools. An election was held earlier this month and an elected board again controls the schools.

Judge Lopez is now opposing the Mayor’s effort to change the city charter and take control of the school system. The proposed change would eliminate a democratically elected board of education and replace it with one appointed by the Mayor and City Council.

Judge Lopez is an advocate for students in need of special education services. She has represented many students at due process hearings on a pro bono basis.

For her strong leadership on behalf of democratic control of public education, Judge Carmen Lopez joins the honor roll as a hero of public education.

Categories Connecticut, Honor Roll

Helping Kids or Helping Charters?

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2012 //
12

Wendy Lecker, advocate for public education in Connecticut, raises important questions.

Why was Hartford’s low-performing Milner School handed over to charter operator Jumoke Academy? Why did Hartford officials do nothing to help Milner until the charter school took over? Why did Jumoke get $2 million to fix Milner but no help was available to Milner before the takeover?

Lecker asks: is the responsibility of the state to help the kids or to help grow the charter sector?

Since State Commissiomer of Education Stefan Pryor comes from the charter sector, she suspects it is the latter.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Education Reform
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