Archives for category: Education Reform
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Teachers of the World, Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Subservience

By dianeravitch
May 3, 2017 //
27

A group of internationally renowned educators are meeting in Rotterdam starting today, and they are building an organization of educators to resist the test-driven, compliance-driven culture that has enveloped many nations. They are resisting the movement to privatize schooling and to turn children into data points.

It is an international rebellion against corporate reform.

Join.

They call themselves “We the Educators.”

You can join the conversation at wetheeducators.com

Here is the link to their Facebook page.

I will occasionally post material they produce.

You can download the report here.

Categories Academic Freedom, Education Reform, Teachers

Jimmy Kimmel: “No Child Should Ever Die Because Its Parents Can’t Afford Medical Care”

By dianeravitch
May 2, 2017 //
20

This is an incredibly moving story that Jimmy Kimmel told on his show. His newborn son was born with a heart defect and needed immediate surgery. Kimmel could afford it, but he realized that many families could not. He made an emotional statement to his audience. He said this is not a partisan issue. We are all on the same team.

He ended with a plea for both sides of the aisle in the health-care debate. “If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make. I think that’s something now, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, or something else, we all agree on that, right?” Kimmel said, as the audience applauded. “Whatever your party, whatever you believe, whoever you support, we need to make sure that people who are supposed to represent us — and people who are meeting about this right now in Washington — understand that very clearly. Let’s stop with the nonsense. This isn’t football, there are no teams. We are the team, it’s the United States. Don’t let their partisan squabbles divide us on something every decent person wants. We need to care of each other.”

Categories Education Reform

L.A.: DeVos Was in Town When She Canceled School Visit

By dianeravitch
May 2, 2017 //
17

According to her press office, Betsy DeVos was supposed to visit the CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger charter school in Woodlands Hills in Los Angeles on May 1. But she canceled unexpectedly the day before, citing a schedule conflict.

I assumed she was called to meet with Trump or had a family emergency that kept her in D.C. Those things happen.

But according to the ED website, she was in Los Angeles on May 1.

Here is her schedule:

Monday, May, 1

12:15 p.m.
Secretary DeVos participates in the Lunch with Education Leaders at the Milken Institute Global Conference
Los Angeles, CA
Closed press

2:30 p.m.
Secretary DeVos participates in a conversation moderated by Lowell Milken at the Milken Institute Global Conference
Los Angeles, CA
Please contact the Milken Institute for additional guidance and access

Obviously she preferred to attend a closed door meeting with the billionaire Milkens, who started the failing K12 Inc. cyber charter chain.

Maybe she was afraid of protests. The word about her scheduled visit was spread to Indivisible groups on social media.

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-betsy-devos-visit-los-angeles-20170428-story.html

Too bad she didn’t visit the school. Its specialty is integrating children with special needs into all classrooms. DeVos had a chance to learn. Although she probably would have taken away confirmation of her prior belief that school choice is best for everyone, and remain unaware that many charters exclude children with disabilities and voucher schools are not required to abide by federal law protecting them.

Categories Betsy DeVos, California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Special Education

A Post for Dienne

By dianeravitch
May 2, 2017 //
143

Faithful reader and commenter Dienne was offended by Stephen Colbert’s vulgar language about Trump. I was not, as–when it comes to people in office–I care more about deeds than words. (Except on this blog, where Colbert’s language would be deleted.)

But Collum Borchers in the Washington Post agrees with Dienne.

He thinks Colbert went too far. He thinks Colbert should have remembered Michelle Obama’s statement that “when they go low, we go high.”

Maybe this is a sign of the general coarsening of our culture, which is now well advanced.

What do you think?

Categories Education Reform

Buzzfeed Reports Phone Call Threatening Lawyer Who Was Suing Trump

By dianeravitch
May 2, 2017 //
14

Bill Moyers’ website had this story this morning.

“When Donald Trump was going through litigation related to a hotel bankruptcy in 2009, a lawyer representing clients who were suing Trump received an ominous phone call. If you keep bothering Trump, a caller who identified himself as Carmine told the lawyer, “we know where you live and we’re going to your house for your wife and kids.” Police traced that call to a payphone across the street from a theater where Trump was appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman. Jason Leopold reports for Buzzfeed.”

Read it yourself. The language violates the guidelines of this blog. It is about character. It will please his base.

Categories Education Reform, Trump

James Meredith to Trump: Please Don’t Claim the Mantle of Civil Rights When You Betray Its Purpose

By dianeravitch
May 2, 2017 //
14

In a recent article, civil rights icon James Meredith expressed his frustration with Trump and DeVos claiming that education is “the civil rights issue of our time” and that school choice is the remedy.

He writes:

Today, President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos are attempting to improve our schools with “school choice,” vouchers, charter schools, cyber-charters, privatization, putting uncertified “temp teachers” with six weeks training into our highest-needs schools, and shackling public schools to the mass standardized machine-testing of children.

This represents a doubling-down on a quarter-century of failed bipartisan efforts at education reform, few of which have a track record of success, even when measured by the dubious metric of standardized test scores. The achievement claims of Potemkin-style “miracle schools” rarely stand up to serious scrutiny. Education is an exquisitely difficult and complex system, and there are few magic bullets, quick-fixes or shortcuts….

The main problems in American public education are poverty, decades of neglect and segregation of our high-poverty schools, and a system that is today driven not by parents and teachers but by politicians, bureaucrats, ideologues and profiteers with little if any knowledge of how children learn.

The education system has been hijacked by money, much of which is being squandered. We are wasting tens of billions of dollars annually on failed experiments, bloated bureaucracies, unproven and unnecessary technology products, and ineffective teacher professional development. A dystopian culture of constant, pointless, mass standardized machine-testing of children is crippling the schools and students it is supposed to help. The continuation of these trends threatens to hollow out and destroy our urban schools, and pull the rest of the system down with them.

Meredith goes on to explain what children today need, and what would constitute genuine reform in education.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Civil Rights, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Christine Langhoff: The Corporate Reformers Are in Control of Massachusetts Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2017 //
11

Christine Langhoff teaches in Massachusetts and is a member of the Network for Public Education.

She writes:


Massachusetts public education is being run by a cabal of reformsters, many of them affiliated with a local thinkster tank, The Pioneer Institute. Jim Peyser, state Secretary of Education, is a former director of The NewSchools Venture Fund, having run the Pioneer Institute from 1993-2000. Gov. Weld named him as undersecretary of education in 1995, shortly after the introduction of charters to the state, for which Peyser was – and is – an advocate. In charge of higher education is perennial gadfly Chris Gabrieli, failed gubernatorial candidate, who has developed no fewer than three reformy edu-businesses. (Time on Learning – extended day and year no extra pay; TransformEd – measuring grit and feelings; and Empower Schools, which seeks to destroy union contracts and impose a “third way” in urban districts – so far 3 and counting). So, to use the local dialect, all of them are wicked reformy.

Things have not been going so well for Chester. He signed on as chairman of PARCC, but that boat sank under the weight of the Common Core. This past November, when he thought the charter cap would be lifted and privatization could proceed apace, that too went down to an ignominious 2-1 defeat, in the process awakening parents and taxpayers to the charter scam. He has lately signed on to be a Chief for Change. Reformsters, unlike teachers, don’t need tenure because they have sinecures.

I think this latest peevish salvo stems from Chester’s frustration at being unable to simply sign executive orders and command the world as he would have it. Recently, after testimony from Lisa Guisbond of Citizens for Public Schools, he was forced to revise a punitive policy for students opting out:

“On the related issue of state testing, I thought you should know that some teachers are being given these instructions for handling students whose parents have chosen to opt them out:

‘When a student opts out they will remain in the classroom, listen as the test directions are being read and given the test. If after 15 minutes the student doesn’t write anything down, then, and only then, may the teacher remove the test.’

A 4th grade teacher shared her reaction:

‘This is public shaming, will cause emotional harm, and is a travesty to the precious relationship between teachers and students. Remember we cannot say anything except the scripted words on the test document or we are threatened with job termination, legal and or criminal action.’

So we have a fourth grader embarrassed and crying and a teacher who could lose his or her job for consoling the child. The teacher must ignore this child in need and say nothing.

I trust that these instructions are in error, and that your humane instructions from last year, Commissioner Chester, that students should not be pressured or punished for opting out, remain in place. I urge you to communicate this to the field.”

Delay and Revise MA ESSA Plan to Help, Not Harm, Struggling Schools

At the April 18 board meeting, one of the topics under discussion was the use of the scores from this year’s round of testing. Chester proposed to have 2017 scores included in the average for determining school levels. That was nearly unanimously rejected by the Board due to the use of several variants of tests in the past three years. Previously, it had been agreed that schools would be “held harmless” during the transition to a new test.

A recess was called, during which time Secretary Peyser expressed his belief that if the 2017 scores were not included, teachers would deliberately have students tank the exams so that they could increase scores in future years. In other words,he believes teachers across the state would INTENTIONALLY have thousands of children do poorly on tests in order to create a low baseline. NB: At the time of the discussion, we were already halfway through the testing period.

These people have no respect for the work teachers do. They do not believe we have any integrity. They do not treat us as professionals. It is indeed shameful.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Massachusetts, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Your Comment May Have Been Trapped in the Spam Folder

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2017 //
107

After learning that several regular commenters were unable to post comments, I contacted WordPress Support and told them of the problem. The two people I identified were, he told me, in the Spam folder. That was Ellen Lipubic and Artsegal. I realized I would have to review every item in the Spam folder to see if anyone else had been stranded there.

There were about 3,000 items in the Spam folder, and that was only the last 21 days! I scanned every single one and pulled out several regular contributors. Melissa Westbrook, Gitapik, Denis Ian, Jack Covey, Katie Osgood, Carolmalaysia, and several others.

I had to wade through hundreds of ads for Timberland boots, clock parts, contractors, sex ads, and ads in unfamiliar languages. Oh, and the ones that start by saying, “Hi, there, I love your blog. I want to start one too.”

Anyway, the lesson I learned was to check my Spam file regularly. After a few weeks, they are automatically deleted.

If you are one of those who were unable to post your comment in the past, try again. I’ll be watching.

Categories Education Reform

Peter Greene: Arne Duncan’s New Job

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2017 //
26

Peter Greene reports that Arne Duncan has landed a fat cushy gig at a huge investment firm, based on his smashing accomplishments as superintendent of the Chicago public schools and as Secretary of Education, where he reformed the American school system.

Fact check: the Chicago public schools are in deep trouble; the only federal evaluation of Race to the Top said it was a flop.

Is this the way the world works?

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Education Reform, Race to the Top

Trump’s First 100 Days

By dianeravitch
April 29, 2017 //
40

The marker of the first 100 days of a presidency was set during the first administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR started office with plans, advisors, and legislation.

He called Congress into session and passed monumental legislation. Like  Trump, Roosevelt had a Congress controlled by his own party.

The circumstances that Roosevelt faced were unique. Banks were shutting down. Depositors were losing their life’s savings. Businesses were running out of enough cash to keep going. At least 25 percent of American workers were unemployed. Many Americans felt it was a national emergency.

 

“When Roosevelt took power on March 4, 1933, many influential Americans doubted the capacity of a democratic government to act decisively enough to save the country,” writes historian Anthony Badger in “FDR: The First Hundred Days.” “Machine guns guarded government buildings. The newspapers and his audience responded most enthusiastically to Roosevelt’s promises in his inaugural to assume wartime powers if necessary. That sense of emergency certainly made Congress willing to give FDR unprecedented power.” Adds political scientist William Leuchtenburg in “The FDR Years”: “Roosevelt came to office at a desperate time, in the fourth year of a worldwide depression that raised the gravest doubts about the future of Western civilization.”

 The new president immediately established a new, infectious atmosphere of optimism. Even Sen. Hiram Johnson, a Republican from California, conceded, “The admirable trait in Roosevelt is that he has the guts to try…. He does it all with the rarest good nature…. We have exchanged for a frown in the White House a smile. Where there were hesitation and vacillation, weighing always the personal political consequences, feebleness, timidity, and duplicity, there are now courage and boldness and real action.”  

Roosevelt immediately called Congress into special session and kept it there for three months. He found that the Democrats who were in control were eager to do his bidding, and even some Republicans were cooperative. Raymond Moley, a member of FDR’s inner circle, said many legislators “had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats” as they worked together to relieve the crisis.

 

FDR quickly won congressional passage for a series of social, economic, and job-creating bills that greatly increased the authority of the federal government—the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which supplied states and localities with federal money to help the jobless; the Civil Works Administration to create jobs during the first winter of his administration; and the Works Progress Administration, which replaced FERA, pumped money into circulation, and concentrated on longer-term projects. The Public Works Administration focused on creating jobs through heavy construction in such areas as water systems, power plants, and hospitals. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protected bank accounts. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for unemployed young men. The Tennessee Valley Authority boosted regional development. Also approved were the Emergency Banking Act, the Farm Credit Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act.

 

In all, Roosevelt got 15 major bills through Congress in his first 100 days. “Congress doesn’t pass legislation anymore—they just wave at the bills as they go by,” said humorist Will Rogers.

 

Trump’s party controls both houses of Congress. Not a single piece of legislation has passed. Here is an insightful summary of Trump’s first 100 days.

Categories Education Reform
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