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Oklahoma: Governor Stitt Puts Trumpism Above Reality and Common Sense

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2020 //
5

John Thompson writes about the latest madness in his home state of Oklahoma:

The shocking headline was that the price of oil dropped to below $1 a barrel. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt was on the phone with Vice President Mike Pence when he heard the news. The legislature now faces “a loss of $1.3 billion in revenue for appropriation between FY 2020 and FY 2022.”

So, why has Gov. Stitt been talking with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about Oklahoma giving some of $40 million of new federal money to private school vouchers?

Even though the Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Program, a tax credit that raises money for scholarships to private schools, was supposed to expand school choice for low-income students, it has long been known that “families who earn up to three times the income limits for free and reduced priced lunch (a family of four earning $139,000 a year) are eligible for scholarships.”

‘Tough decisions’: Stitt projects $1.3 billion drop, legislators want the math


https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-governor-stitt-what-oklahoma-education-needs

Increasing the scholarship tax credit hurts public schools and benefits affluent Oklahomans

I’ll save non-Oklahomans the details regarding the range of bipartisan efforts to persuade Stitt to embrace reality. Before the COVID-19 shutdown, it seemed like the legislature, often led by the Teacher Caucus, might be able to counter the completely inexperienced governor’s infatuations with “reforms” that are disconnected from the real world. But, every time one government institution, or grassroots initiative, has successfully pushed back, Stitt finds another, now unguarded, door to Trumpism.

On one hand, Stitt’s effort to ban abortions during the pandemic, claiming that those services are nonessential, was reversed this week by a federal judge. On the other hand, he has ignored the “thousands of Oklahomans (who) have spoken out against the Governor’s health care proposal, which could restrict health care access for up to 200,000 Oklahomans.” Moreover, Stitt has been slow in scheduling the vote on Medicaid expansion. Frustrated by the state leaving billions of dollars of federal money on the table, Oklahomans launched SQ 802 to require the state to accept the Medicaid funding. Stitt hopes that his plan, which imposes a work requirement, will undermine the citizen-led initiative.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/federal-judge-oklahoma-abortion-ban-enforced-70267625

Thousands of Oklahomans speak out against Governor’s health care proposal

And Stitt hasn’t given up on his most hopeless fight; ignoring legal advice, he’s still fighting Oklahoma tribes, denying that the compact governing casino gambling automatically renewed in January. In doing so, he placed $130 million in education funding in jeopardy.

https://www.news9.com/story/41605034/state-education-could-be-caught-in-the-middle-of-gaming-compact-dispute

So, education is just one area where the politics of destruction are being ramped up so that no disadvantaged families are being left unpunished. Students, especially poor children, have lost months of learning. Schools face new costs for devising virtual learning, not to mention the time and money redesigning schools for a safe reopening. Especially in rural areas, where hospitals have been closing, the challenge of providing basic health services – not to mention virus-related costs – is worsening.

With Possible Student Slump, State Weighs Next Steps

And, yet, the Stitt and the Trump administrations seem committed to a double-barreled blast: subsidizing the flight of families from traditional public schools while cutting their funding. Instead of timely interventions to prevent excessive deaths due to the pandemic, they are launching assaults of education, health, and social services that would hit home next year, when a resurgence of the virus is likely.

CDC Director Warns of Resurgence of Virus Next Winter


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/05/childhood-in-an-anxious-age/609079/

I said I wouldn’t bother non-Oklahomans with the details of the Stitt administration’s version of Trumpism, but the headlines keep getting crazier. Because of Oklahomans’ preexisting health problems, our state is especially at risk from the virus. And the Oklahoman reports, “Oklahoma is in the bottom four states for testing for COVID-19, according to an email sent this week by the White House coronavirus task force.” But due to bipartisan leadership of mayors in the Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Norman and other communities, and the way that the public has supported their “shelter-in-place” policies, our confirmed cases and deaths have been lower than expected.

It had been predicted that COVID-19 would peak around April 21, but recent days have seen an increase in infections. So, how did Stitt react?

The next day, Stitt announced the reopening of numerous businesses on Friday, April 24, and more openings on May 1!?!? He implied that the state might try to force cities to comply with his order!

https://oklahoman.com/article/5660710/stitt-oklahoma-businesses-can-start-reopening-starting-friday?&utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Oklahoman%20breaking-news%202020-04-2219:43:51&utm_content=GTDT_OKC&utm_term=042220

By the way, the New York Times reported that the Oklahoma rightwingers demonstrating for a reopening of business denied any connection with the Trump campaign. But to understand what Attorney General William Barr, Stephen Moore, and Tea Partiers want, the Times says we need to:

Look no further than the first protest organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund — whose chairman manages the vast financial investments of Dick and Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary — to see that the campaign to “open” America flows from the superrich and their front groups.

It’s gotten to the point where the fights picked by Stitt, a few other Republican governors. and the President are incomprehensible even in a time of Trumpism. It’s hard to understand how those policies are anything but Social Darwinism tantrums on steroids, as well as an attempt to reelect Trump, regardless of the human costs.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, Oklahoma, Privatization, Trump, Vouchers

Michael Hynes: A New Vision for Education After the Pandemic

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2020 //
58

Michael Hynes is the superintendent of schools in the Port Washington school district on Long Island in New York. He is one of the most creative, innovative, and unconventional thinkers in education today. His new book was just published, offering advice to school leaders and, frankly, to everyone, about what is most important in life.

Mike Hynes is my candidate for the next State Commissioner of Education in New York. He has fresh ideas, deep experience, and values the well-being of children more than test scores.

In this brief essay, he outlines what schools should do after the pandemic.

He writes:

Now is the time for our school leaders to generate a new compelling philosophy of education and an innovative architecture for a just and humane school system. We must refocus our energy on a foundation built on a sense of purpose, forging relationships and maximizing the potential and talents of all children. Let’s take advantage of the possibility that our nation’s attention can shift 180 degrees, from obsessing over test scores and accountability to an entirely different paradigm of physical, mental, and emotional well-being for students and staff.

It is our collective responsibility to foster engaging and meaningful environments when educating our children in the new era of a post pandemic education. As the great philosopher John Dewey stated over one hundred years ago, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” The first sentence in the 2018 World Bank Group’s Flagship Report- Learning: To Realize Education’s Promise states, “Schooling is not the same as learning.” I couldn’t agree more. The report continues to speak about that as a society, we must learn to realize education’s promise.

Now is this the time to revolutionize this antiquated system built on old structures and ideologies. I recommend we change the purpose of schooling to the following core values:

· Emphasize well-being. Make child and teacher well-being a top priority in all schools, as engines of learning and system efficiency.

· Upgrade testing and other assessments. Stop the standardized testing of children in grades 3-8, and “opt-up” to higher-quality assessments by classroom teachers. Eliminate the ranking and sorting of children based on standardized testing. Train students in self-assessment, and require only one comprehensive testing period to graduate from high school.

· Invest resources fairly. Fund schools equitably on the basis of need. Provide small class sizes.

· Boost learning through physical activity. Give children multiple outdoor free-play recess breaks throughout the school day to boost their well-being and performance. We observed schools in Finland that give children four 15-minute free-play breaks a day.

· Change the focus. Create an emotional atmosphere and physical environment of warmth, comfort and safety so that children are happy and eager to come to school. Teach not just basic skills, but also arts, crafts, music, civics, ethics, home economics and life skills.

· Make homework efficient. Reduce the homework load in elementary and middle schools to no more than 30 minutes per night, and make it responsibility-based rather than stress-based.

· Trust educators and children. Give them professional respect, creative freedom and autonomy, including the ability to experiment, take manageable risks and fail in the pursuit of success.

· Improve, expand and destigmatize vocational and technical education. Encourage more students to attend schools in which they can acquire valuable career/trade skills.

In short, if we learn anything at all from this pandemic, we should clearly recognize that we need our teachers more than ever before. It’s imperative that schools focus on a balanced approach to education, one that embraces physical, emotional, cognitive and social growth. We have an enormous amount of work to do, but our children deserve nothing less.

If you agree, please send his essay to every school board member you know and to anyone else who is interested in finding a new way to educate our children, one that develops their well-being and joy in learning, instead of subjecting them to an endless and useless series of standardized tests.

Categories Character, Citizenship, Creativity, Education Reform, Equity, Funding, Hope, Innovation, Joy, Play

A Statement by the Center for Educational Equity on the Landmark Detroit Decision

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2020 //
12

The Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, issued this statement on the landmark decision in Michigan that students in Detroit have a fundamental right to education to prepare for citizenship.


In a landmark decision issued yesterday in the Gary B. v. Whitmer case, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held there is a “fundamental right to a basic minimum education” under the U.S. Constitution. The two-to-one decision of the three-judge panel defined the right in terms of “access to literacy.”

Students in very low performing schools in Detroit brought the case. They claim that—due to the absence of qualified teachers, crumbling facilities, and insufficient materials— the conditions in their schools are so bad students leave school virtually illiterate. As the decision states, “Plaintiffs sit in classrooms where not even the pretense of education takes place, in schools that are functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy.” Because of this, these students attend “schools in name only, characterized by slum-like conditions and lacking the most basic educational opportunities that children elsewhere in Michigan and throughout the nation take for granted.”

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that had dismissed the case. The court held there is a “fundamental right to a basic minimum education” that provides access to literacy as a matter of “substantive due process” under the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a fundamental right for substantive due process must be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition. Accordingly, the Sixth Circuit discussed in detail the history of education in the United States, especially at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court also relied on the precedent of the Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that single-sex marriage was a fundamental right as a matter of substantive due process.

This is the first time a court has asserted a federal right to education. In 1973, in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that education is not “a fundamental interest” entitled to strict scrutiny analysis under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (although the Court emphasized in the same decision that “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments,” as it had previously held in Brown v. Board of Education). Even though the Texas system of educational finance provided the plaintiff students only half the per-capita funding that students in a neighboring, more affluent district received, the Supreme Court deemed this a “rational” state policy because it promoted local control of education.

In the nearly 50 years since Rodriguez, a number of cases have sought to distinguish and limit the scope of that ruling, but none has succeeded prior to this major pronouncement from the Sixth Circuit.

The Gary B. case has been remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District in Michigan for a trial and further proceedings. Governor Whitmer and the other defendants have not yet indicated whether they intend to appeal the Sixth Circuit’s ruling.

For procedural reasons, the Sixth Circuit did not decide the claims plaintiffs had raised under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That issue may be decided by the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island where a decision is currently pending in Cook v. Raimondo, another case seeking to establish a right to education under the U.S. Constitution. The main argument asserted by the Cook plaintiffs is that, in the Rodriguez decision, the Supreme Court left open the question of whether there is a right to the “quantum of education” students need to exercise “meaningfully” important constitutional rights like the right to vote, to serve on a jury, to exercise free speech, and to participate in political activities.

Michael A. Rebell, executive director of the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College and lead attorney for the plaintiffs in Cook v. Raimondo, said:

We applaud the outcome of the Gary B. case, which may bring important relief to students in Detroit. Nevertheless we are concerned about the narrow scope of the right to education as defined by the Sixth Circuit opinion. We are
hopeful that Judge Smith in Rhode Island will declare that under the equal protection clause, or other constitutional provisions, students have a fundamental right to a more robust and and meaningful education—one that provides the
knowledge, skills, experiences, values, and civic integration necessary to prepare them to function effectively as civic participants in a democratic society.

The Center for Educational Equity | centerforeducationalequity.org

Categories Accountability, Citizenship, Detroit, Education Reform, Equity, Michigan

Texas: Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2020 //
7

William Gumbert relies on data from the Texas State Education Departmentvto demonstrate they the state’s woefully underfunded public schools outperform the well-funded overhyped charter schools.

The real puzzle in Texas and elsewhere is why billionaires and financiers continue to fund failure.

See the analysis here.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Privatization, Texas

Texas: Charter Schools Grow Rapidly Despite Inferior Performance Compared to Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2020 //
8

William Gumbert prepared a graphic portrayal of the dramatic growth of privately managed charter schools in Texas.

Two facts stand out from his presentation:

1) Charter schools are diverting billions of dollars from the state’s underfunded public schools.

2) Public schools perform better than charter schools.

Public officials are turning public money over to entrepreneurs at a furious pace without regard to the results.

Charter schools this year will take more than $3 Billion away from the state’s public schools, despite the poor performance of the charter schools. Since their inception, charters have diverted more than $23 Billion from the state’s public schools.

Public schools in Texas are underfunded and have been underfunded since 2011, when the state legislature recklessly cut $5.4 Billion from the schools’ budget. That cut was never fully restored.

Diverting money to charter schools adds more damage to the public schools that continue to enroll the vast majority of students in the state.

Texas has about 5.4 million students. More than half of all its students are Hispanic. About 12-13% are African American. About 28% are white. The majority (58.7%) are identified by the state as “economically disadvantaged.”

The legislature does not look like the people of Texas, most of whom are people of color. Almost two-thirds of the state legislature are white. More than three-quarters are men. Why does the legislature substitute charter schools for adequate funding?

Read the whole report here.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Funding, Privatization, Texas

Carl Cohn: Teachers Are the Foundation for Superintendents’ Success Plus Some Memories of San Diego

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2020 //
4

Carl Cohn is a veteran educator who served as superintendent in Long Beach and in San Diego. He has received many awards for his service.

The selection of a new superintendent in Long Beach prompted him to write his thoughts about previous crises faced by the district and about the importance of teachers today. No superintendent can succeed without building relationships of mutual respect and collaboration with trusted teachers.

I first met Carl Cohn when he was selected to clean up the damage done by the first effort to disrupt a school district. That was San Diego. At the turn of the century, San Diego was one of the most successful urban districts in the nation—perhaps the most successful—but the school board decided it needed a massive overhaul. They hired lawyer Alan Bersin to disrupt the district. I described what happened there—including demoralization of teachers, and a philosophy of changing everything all at once because (as the saying then went) “you can’t jump over a canyon in two leaps.” The philosophy of the leadership was that change had to be abrupt, immediate, and “pedal to the metal.” Billionaires sent money. Books were written about the “bold” reforms. The infighting and controversy became so inflamed that the public eventually threw out the “reform” school board. San Diego, however, was the model for Joel Klein’s disruptions in New York City, which were the model for the same in D.C., and on and on.

I spent a week in the district interviewing teachers and principals and school board members. My last interview was with Carl Cohn. I saw him as a calming figure whose job was to restore morale, order, and professionalism. He succeeded.

After the collapse of the disruption era, the San Diego school board hired an experienced educator, Cindy Marten, who had been a teacher and principal in the district. Although she has had to impose devastating budget cuts, she has been a steady hand at the tiller. I met her in 2006, when she was a principal, running a progressive child-centered school. When I visited San Diego a few years ago, she took me for a drive, and I surprised myself for taking a paragliding ride at Torrey Pines. Needless to say, I am delighted that San Diego has such trustworthy, experienced leadership again.

I began my book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education with the San Diego story. It is a cautionary tale. If you read one chapter in that book, read that one. It ends with my interview of Carl Cohn.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, California, Corporate Reform, Disruption, Education Reform, Personal, San Diego

Vicki Cobb: Why Does Science Matter?

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2020 //
87

The Trump administration is the most anti-science federal government in modern history. In every department and agency, Trump minions have pushed out scientists and replaced them with religious fanatics, Trump loyalists, or incompetents, is some combination thereof.

Vicki Cobb, author of science books for children, explains here why science matters.

She begins like this:

This quote from the Washington Post is very frightening, “In recent days, a growing contingent of Trump supporters have pushed the narrative that health experts are part of a deep-state plot to hurt Trump’s reelection efforts by damaging the economy and keeping the United States shut down as long as possible. Trump himself pushed this idea in the early days of the outbreak, calling warnings on corona virus a kind of “hoax” meant to undermine him.”

For these ignorant people let me try to explain the most important aspect of science as far as life and death is concerned. Our understanding of weather and violent storms has been growing incrementally and exponentially over the years. First, we used science to understand the properties and behavior of water and air– the physical components of weather. We had to understand the effect of temperature on the volume and pressure of gases, the effect of heat energy on the evaporation of water and wind speed. There were many variables to measure.

Categories Education Reform, Ignorance, Science, Trump

New York City: Parents and Advocates Write to Mayor and Chancellor

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2020 //
15

What happens now to students in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic?

Here is an open letter to Mayor DeBlasio and Chancellor Carranza from the city’s leading advocates for children:

April 24, 2020

Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza,

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the ugliest inequities in our society into the glaring light for all to see. We must not continue the same system that resulted in these inequities, but must instead fundamentally change the way we think about our education, our society, and the world. In addition to the enormous number of lives lost and many more having fallen ill, New York City’s most vulnerable families and communities are suffering the ripple effect of harm caused by decades of segregation and systemic disinvestment in historically marginalized communities. Schools, which have increasingly carried the burden of serving the basic needs of families, have seen perhaps the most intense upheaval in day to day practices. This upheaval has been particularly hard on our most marginalized communities: multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and those living with housing instability.

The transition to “remote learning” has exposed and exacerbated existing gaps in access and opportunity for students across New York City. The Department Of Education launched an extensive effort to get devices and wifi access to every student, yet the remaining technical disparities alone warrant complete restructuring of the way students are evaluated towards a more humane grading system. To adhere to traditional grading at this moment would only serve to perpetuate the real impacts of pandemic-related stress, racial and economic disparities, and the fact that most teachers were not and still are not adequately prepared to provide high-quality instruction remotely.

Clearly, we are at a moment of global and local transformation. We need to respond and transform as well—by embracing responsive teaching and grading that honors and embodies the principles of equity and excellence as espoused by the DOE. A system-wide policy on grading and promotion grounded in equity and humanity is critical.

To that end, we propose the following for all NYC district schools in the 2019-20 school year and students who are alternately assessed in the 2020-21 school year:

Instruction during the school shutdown should be built around social cohesion, critical consciousness, social-emotional support, belonging, inclusion, and wellness.
Schools provide a responsive curriculum with space for students to reflect on their current reality. Teachers will co-develop learning targets/goals with students and families and pathways to achieve those goals through individualized learning plans. These plans will be prioritized for vulnerable students for next school year, based on core competencies and the four principles outlined in NYSED CRSE framework. All students on alternate assessment must be re-evaluated when schools reopen next year.

2. All seniors graduate.

Provide post-graduation and college transition support and planning for graduating seniors. Provide summer instruction to seniors who need to complete work from prior terms so they can graduate in August. Allow 21-year-old students who have not met graduation requirements to return to high school for the 2020-21 school year.

3. All students are promoted to the next grade.

Teachers identify essential skills and knowledge from their 2019-20 courses to be spiraled into the next level course/grade. DOE provides resources and a platform for summer learning courses that is accessible to all students to ensure continuity of learning. Schools conduct diagnostic assessments in person and when it is safe to do so to determine students’ progress, and plan curriculum and supports accordingly. Diagnostic test results should not be used as a tracking function in which vulnerable students are subjugated and inequalities are further exacerbated. This policy will not supersede individual parent choices to hold students back.

4. All elementary school students receive narrative reports only for the marking period (no grades).

Narrative reports communicate important information to students, families and next year’s teachers while maintaining a focus on learning.

5. All middle and high school students receive full credit for the marking period.

Assessment of assignments during remote learning is based on mastery of core competencies, rather than on compliance/completion factors. Students receive intensive supports over the summer and next school year to progress academically.

We believe quickly resolving the promotion and grading policies can help educators and the DOE focus on responding to the immediate needs of students and investing in long term strategies to support students in the coming school year. Moving forward, we hope we can deepen the conversation on what the purpose of schooling and education should be, what we should value and elevate, what we can eliminate, and how to create a school system that is authentically rooted in social justice values. This pandemic is an opportunity to dismantle systems of oppression and build a society that honors our collective humanity. We look forward to creating this school system with you.

cc: L. Chen, Chief Academic Officer

J. Williams, Public Advocate

C. Johnson, Speaker, City Council

Signed by: (organizational affiliation for identification purposes only):

Mark Treyger, Chair, City Council Education Committee

Advocates for Children New York City

Alliance for Quality Education (AQE)

Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)

Class Size Matters

Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)

D30 Equity Now

El Puente

Good Shepherd Services

Immigrant Social Services (ISS)

INCLUDEnyc

IntegrateNYC

Literacy Trust

Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJ-ROC) at NYU Metro Center

Masa

Mekong NYC

MinKwon Center for Community Action

New Settlement Parent Action Committee (PAC)

New York Immigration Coalition

NYC Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ)

Parents Supporting Parents

Peer Health Exchange New York City

Read Alliance

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA)

The Child Center of NY

YVote/Next Generation Politics

Shannon R. Waite, PEP Mayoral Appointee

Shino Tanikawa, CEC 2

Ushma Neill, CEC 2

Robin Broshi, CEC 2

Emily Hellstrom, CEC 2, Chair Students with Disabilities Committee

Kaliris Y. Salas-Ramirez, CEC 4

Pamela Stewart, President CEC 5

Ayishah Irvin, CEC 5

Tanesha Grant, CEC 5

Aide Zainos, President, CEC 9

Thomas Sheppard, CEC 11

Ayanna Behin, President CEC 13

Tajh Sutton, President CEC 14

Yuli Hsu CEC 14 Vice President

Camille Casaretti, President CEC 15

Antonia Ferraro Co-Vice President CEC15

Nequan McLean, President, CEC 16

Erika Nicole Kendall, President CEC 17

Jessica Byrne, President CEC 22

Tazin Azad, CEC 22, Diversity and Cultural Inclusion Committee Co-Chair

Jonathan Greenberg, CEC 30

Martha Bayona, CEC 32

Amy Ming Tsai, CCD75

Grisel Cardona, CCD75

Sonal Patel, D2 parent, SLT member at PS 11

Mar Fitzgerald, D2 Parent Leader

Patricia Laraia, D2 Parent Leader

Nina Miller, D2 Parent Leader

Akeela Azcuy, D2 Parent Leader

Nina Miller, D2 Parent Leader

Cheryl Wu, D2 Parent Leader

Jeannine Kiely, D2 Parent Leader

Atina Bazin, D28 Parent Leader

Rashida Harris, D4 Parent Leader

Amy Hsin, Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College, CUNY

_._,_._,_

Categories Education Reform, New York City

Help Amy McGrath Defeat Mitch McConnell! Save America from the Grim Reaper!

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2020 //
6

Mitch McConnell is a national menace. He wants states to declare bankruptcy and break all their pension contracts. He brags about being “the Grim Reaper,” the man who kills any legislation that might help regular people.

If states are forced to go bankrupt, it will destroy the retirement security of teachers, police, firefighters, and all public sector workers.

He takes care of his fat cat donors and Wall Street and hurts the men and women that protect us and teach our children. They give their lives for us, and we must stop McConnell from hurting them.

He has stacked the federal courts with unqualified judges who are incompetents and bigots.

Amy McGrath is running against him in Kentucky in November.

She needs our help.

Mitch’s donors are giving him millions to keep their tax cuts coming.

Amy needs millions of donors to combat the influence Of the 1%.

Won’t you send her whatever you can afford?

Kentucky elected a Democratic Governor in 2018.

Now Kentucky needs to get rid of Mitch McConnell.

This is not just a Kentucky issue. Defeating McConnell is a national issue.

Please help Amy McGrath.

Categories Education Reform, Kentucky, Pensions, Resistance

Hail and Farewell! Achieve Is Finished!

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2020 //
6

Unless you are a policy wonk or live inside the Beltway, you probably never heard of Achieve.

Achieve is an organization that was founded in 1996 by governors and business leaders to raise academic standards and to advocate for college and career readiness. Achieve is closing its doors this summer. Is the job done or did the money run out or did people just get tired of the same old same old? Years ago, when I was on the other side, believing that standards and tests would solve all our education problems (note bene: I was wrong), I went to Massachusetts on behalf of Achieve to review the Massachusetts standards and tests, then considered the gold standard. Years later, the Common Core came along, and the state ditched its gold standard in order to get some federal Race to the Top gold.

Anyway, Achieve is closing its doors and passing the baton.

You can read about it here.

Let’s hope this means that in the midst of a global pandemic, the thought has dawned that American students are not in need of more standards, testing, and accountability.

What they need is a fresh vision of what education can be and should be.

And it won’t be found by testing kids more often.

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Industry, Education Reform, Testing
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