Archives for category: Education Reform
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Today is My Birthday! Guess What I Want?

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2016 //
110

Dear Friends,

Today is my birthday. I am 78 years old. I was born at 12:05 a.m. in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Houston, Texas, to Walter and Ann Silvers. I was their third child. Five more would follow. Eventually we were five boys and three girls. My dad was born in Savannah and dropped out of high school. My mother was born in Bessarabia, came to the U.S. at age 9, and graduated from the Houston public schools, one of the proudest achievements of her life. She prided herself on her perfect English. She was an American and a Texan.

I went to the Houston public schools from kindergarten to high school graduation. None of the schools I attended still exists, at least not in the same form. I went to Montrose Elementary School (now the Houston High School of the Performing Arts), then my family moved to another part of Houston and I enrolled in fifth grade in Sutton Elementary School (not sure if it still exists). I went to the neighborhood junior high school, Albert Sidney Johnston Jr. High, named for a Confederate hero. Then to San Jacinto High School (now Houston Community College). I may have had a few great teachers. Mostly I had pretty good teachers or good teachers, who worked very hard to do their best. I don’t remember any “bad” teachers. The Houston public schools were segregated during my time there (I graduated in 1956). I thought that was wrong, I read about the Brown decision, and I spoke to our high school principal, Mr. Brandenburg about it. I asked him why we didn’t obey the court. He sympathized but said that if the schools desegregated, a lot of good black principals and teachers would lose their jobs. There was also the matter of the school board, which changed every two years; every other election produced a board dominated by Minute Women and John Birchers who thought the UN was a Communist organization and such groups as the NAACP and Urban League were pinkos. They totally opposed any desegregation.

My Houston public education was good enough to get me admitted to a wonderful Ivy League college: Wellesley. I was friends with Nora Ephron, later a celebrated screenwriter, and Madeline Korbel (later Albright); we worked on the college newspaper together. Class of 1960, nine years before Hillary graduated.

Many decades have passed. Now the body is giving out; the knees don’t work well. One was totally replaced, the other probably should have been. But mentally, I feel like 35 or 40.

For my daily efforts, blogging and writing, at no pay, I am regularly called a “shill” for the unions, they say I sold my soul for “union gold.” Ha! It happened this week on Twitter. This is nonsense. I am 78 years old, and I do and say what I believe. My views are the product of a lifetime of experience and study. No one can buy me. I don’t want a job, a grant, or money. The only good thing about growing old is that your ambitions are put into check. There is nothing that I want of a material nature. I have noticed that the folks in the corporate reform movement seem to think that everyone has a price, everyone is motivated by greed. I am not. I am financially independent. I am free to say what I want. And I do.

I won’t ramble on, but I want to ask you a favor. Since 2010, I have devoted my waking hours to fighting privatization and defending public schools, their students, and their teachers.

If you want to do something for me other than say “happy birthday” (which is also nice), please join and/or make a gift of any size to the Network for Public Education or the NPE Action Fund, which engages in political action. I co-founded these groups with Anthony Cody, and we hope NPE will be the meeting place for all those who are sick of attacks on public schools and teachers, for all those who want to sing the praises of a great democratic public education system that is required by law to provide equal opportunity for all students. We want a transformation, not the status quo. We want great schools for every child, not just for the few. And we won’t tolerate the naysayers who pick on the people, institutions, and values we hold dear.

And if you have the time and resources to join me, come to Washington on Friday, July 8, for the Save Our Schools March. Walk arm in arm with your friends and allies.

Together we will prevail. I will use my energy to make that happen, to win over public opinion. I can’t do it without you. That’s my goal for my next birthday.

Diane

Categories Education Reform, Personal

Valerie Strauss: Kaya Henderson is Stepping Down: What Difference Did She Make? What Difference Did Total Reformer Control Make over 10 Years?

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2016 //
8

Washington, D.C., has been under the total control of corporate reformers since 2007, when Michelle Rhee was named chancellor by then-Mayor Adrien Fenty. When Fenty lost his bid for re-election, in large part because of Rhee, Rhee stepped down to found StudentsFirst, which then led a campaign for privatization of public schools through charters and vouchers and for judging teachers by test scores (since discredited).

Kaya Henderson, Rhee’s deputy, stepped in to take her place. She was kinder and gentler. She has announced that she will step down in October 2017.

Valerie Strauss reviews the pluses and minuses of her tenure here.

Strauss writes:

What is that legacy? She certainly made some progress in improving the system, but was it enough for the time and money spent? What was her impact on academic improvement, student and educator assessment, teacher and principal recruitment and retention, and the overall teaching and learning culture? What does the system that she leaves look like — and is that what the city’s residents want?….

It’s true that student test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — sometimes called “the nation’s report card” — are higher than when she became chancellor and made the biggest jump of any participating urban school district. Scores published in 2015 found that fourth-grade scores had moved from the bottom of large urban districts in 2007 to the middle (though eighth-grade scores were still near the bottom.)

High school graduation rates moved up during her tenure, from 53 percent in 2001 to 64 percent in 2015, with significant gains for African American males. And student enrollment increased over four consecutive years after decades of decline — from 45,191 in 2011 to 48,439 in 2015.

Special-education services have improved somewhat, as has the identification of students who need them, in large part under pressure from the courts. And Henderson implemented the Common Core State Standards — for better or worse, depending on your view — without the contentious battle that occurred in other parts of the country.

Yet there’s another side to those metrics.

It is also true that in May 2015, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that the school system was still providing inadequate services to young children with special needs and that the “District’s lack of effective Child Find and transition poli­cies is particularly troubling in light of the intense scrutiny and seemingly constant admonishment it has received over the last decade.”

A 2015 report by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academies of Scienced, Engineering and Medicine, painted a troubling picture of the school system. It said that the District’s poor and minority students are still far less likely than their peers to have a quality teacher in their classrooms, perform at grade level and graduate from high school in four years. The achievement gaps between black students and white students as well as between children from low-income families and ones from middle- and higher-income families are huge — and years of corporate reform didn’t stop them from widening.

As Strauss shows, there has also been high teacher turnover, which is not good for students.

D.C. has the biggest achievement gaps of any urban district tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

That may be because the whites who attend D.C. schools come from professional families. But whatever the reason, D.C. has not brought black and poor children to parity with white and middle class children.

Is it time to admit–ten years after the corporate reformers took complete control of the D.C. schools—that their claims are up in smoke? They have achieved incremental progress, which is well and good, but the seismic, revolutionary changes that were promised have not materialized.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, District of Columbia, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

North Carolina: Governor’s Appointee to State Board of Education Has Conflict of Interest

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2016 //
2

I posted last night that Governor Pat McCrory plans to appoint a man to the state board of education who has little experience in public education, but is known for his strong support for removing a book taught in a high school English honors class.

North Carolina teacher Stuart Egan points out that the nominee has a conflict of interest. His wife ran/runs a school that receives state-funded vouchers.

Categories Education Reform, North Carolina, Vouchers

Hillary Will Speak to NEA Representative Assembly

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2016 //
68

Will the NEA get a pledge from Hillary not to support non-union charters? Will Hillary agree to cut off federal funding of predatory for-profit charters? Will Lily get Hillary to speak out against misuse of testing? Will Hillary lay out a new vision for the federal role in education?


Hillary Clinton to Address NEA Representative Assembly

Presumptive Democratic Nominee will deliver remarks to annual gathering of 7,500 educators

WASHINGTON― Secretary Hillary Clinton, presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee, will address more than 7,500 delegates at the National Education Association’s 95th Representative Assembly (RA) in Washington, DC on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. In October, NEA educators recommended Secretary Clinton in the Democratic Primary.

The RA is the top decision-making body for the nearly 3 million-member NEA, and sets Association policy for the coming year. Delegates adopt the strategic plan and budget, resolutions, the legislative program, and other policies of the Association. Delegates also vote on proposed amendments to the NEA’s Constitution and Bylaws. NEA’s RA is the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.

NEA is the nation’s largest labor union, with its members representing one in every 58 general election voters. NEA households represent one in every 32 voters nationwide. NEA member households will be a robust and significant voting bloc during this fall’s election.

WHO:
Hillary Clinton, Presumptive Democratic Nominee
Lily Eskelsen García, NEA President

WHAT:
Will address delegates to the NEA’s 95th Representative Assembly

WHERE:
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
801 Mt. Vernon Place NW
Washington, DC 20001

WHEN:
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Preset: AM, time TBD
Remarks: AM, time TBD.

Categories Education Reform

Janice & Geoffrey Strauss: How to End the Teacher Shortage

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2016 //
100

This is one of the best articles ever on how to end the teacher shortage.

Janice and Geoffrey Strauss write:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s irrational vendetta against teachers and public education, aided and abetted by the state legislature and former Commissioner John King’s inept handling of Common Core, charter schools and the public education system have all led to such a toxic atmosphere in education that few candidates want to even get near public school teaching…..

We must make public school teaching attractive again, and here is a short list of what should be done:

1. Eliminate the EdTPA. This system, promoted as increasing standards for teachers, is in reality so onerous and poorly thought out that it is discouraging qualified applicants to the profession. It costs both teacher candidates and the state millions, and has resulted in teacher candidates being less prepared for teaching rather than more so.

2. Eliminate standardized testing in the public schools and for teacher candidate preparation. Research shows the best indicator of a student’s success is their GPA, not standardized test scores. Standardized testing merely adds to the coffers of the private testing industry. Reinstitute teacher-created Regent’s exams. Teacher created exams are age appropriate, more accurately test the learning of students and cost much less than corporate prepared tests.

3. Let teachers mark their own students’ tests. It’s cheaper and better.

4. Eliminate corporate “canned” teaching modules created to meet Common Core Standards, and allow teachers to create their lesson plans. Teachers are the experts; release their creativity so that they can teach students properly.

5. Make the teaching profession attractive financially. Eliminate Tiers V and VI in the teacher retirement system. One of the tradeoffs teachers had accepted for the relatively low pay for the amount of education required was a decent pension. Tiers V and VI were created to punish teachers, not reward them for their service.

6. Create a “Teacher Bar Association” to establish educational requirements for teachers for public and charter schools, thus officially recognizing that teaching is a profession. Lawyers, doctors and CPAs are experts in their fields, as are teachers in theirs.

7. Establish a program to help raise the status of teaching in the public’s consciousness. Few want to enter a profession which is constantly derided by politicians and the press.

8. Common Core has been a disaster; eliminate it. While the intent was perhaps a good one, it was created by non-educators more for political and profit motives than educational ones.

If we want more teachers, we must make the profession attractive financially and creatively. Let teachers do what they do best — teach!

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Reform, Teacher Education, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teachers and Teaching

Why Class Size Matters: A Research Brief

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2016 //
17

William J. Mathis has drawn together the research on class size to explain why it matters.

It is costly to reduce class size, but it is very likely the most effective intervention to help students who are struggling.

It also happens to be the single reform that parents want most. When class size was put on the ballot in Florida, it was overwhelmingly approved. Despite numerous attempts by Jeb Bush and his allies to get rid of it, the caps on class size have remained intact.

Reformers disregard the research on class size because they don’t want to spend more money to do what works. They prefer changes in governance, like charter schools, vouchers, mayoral control, state takeovers–anything but reducing class size. They claim that reducing class size benefits unions because it requires more teachers. But the biggest benefit of reducing class size is to the children, who get the attention and time they need to learn.

Categories Class size, Education Reform, Research

Please Help Send a Friend of Public Schools to the Democratic Platform Committee

By dianeravitch
June 28, 2016 //
26

Chuck Pascal was elected as a delegate on Bernie Sanders’ slate in Pennsylvania.

He is a member of the Platform Committee and will attend its meetings in Orlando, where he plans to represent the views of parents and educators who share our values about strengthening public schools and repelling privatization.

He needs our help to defray the costs.

He has launched a Go Fund Me campaign and welcomes contributions of any size: $10, $20, whatever you can afford.

Yes, we can crowd source his trip! We need a voice in the deliberations of the Democratic Platform Committee.

Categories Education Reform

As Detroit’s Schools Collapse, Walton Billionaires Put Another $250 Million into Charter Expansion

By dianeravitch
June 28, 2016 //
27

Irony: on the same day that the New York Times reports that charters and competition have caused an unprecedented collapse of education in Detroit, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart) will pump another $250 million this year alone into starting more new charters.

The Waltons–who are all billionaires–are doubling down on failure. They are doing to public schools what Walmart does to communities: destroying the competition, disrupting the community, and targeting public education for privatization.

I vow never to set foot in a Walmart. I know that is difficult for people because in many communities, all the mom-and-pop stores folded after Walmart arrived. Now mom and pop are low-wage greeters for Walmart.

Walmart relies heavily on foreign imports for its products, thus contributing to the outsourcing of manufacturing in this country. It has undermined American workers and home-grown businesses. Now it wants to drive public schools out of business with the same predatory techniques. The Waltons are not good neighbors.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Walton Foundation

Please Join the Save Our Schools March on Washington on July 8

By dianeravitch
June 28, 2016 //
8

Please join me and many others in Washington, D.C., on July 8 to express our support for our nation’s public schools and educators.

If you are fed up with the privatization of public schools and the high-stakes testing that has harmed real education, please join us.

You will meet old friends and make new friends. There are many wonderful activities planned before and after the March.

Join us and raise your voices for better public schools, a respected teaching profession, and a new direction for American education.

I hope you stop and say hello!

Coalition Letterhead

Please Join

Save Our Schools Coalition for Action

People’s March For Public Education & Social Justice

On July 8 a coalition of grassroots groups, union organizations, and activists will rally at the Lincoln Memorial and march in support of education and social justice. We are marching for community-based, equitably-funded schools that are the heart of neighborhoods.

We stand and march for:

 

·         Full, equitable funding for all public schools

·         Safe, racially just schools and communities

·         Community leadership in public school policies

·         Professional, diverse educators for all students

·         Child-centered, culturally appropriate curriculum for all

·         No high-stakes standardized testing

Join us in Washington D.C. on July 8-10th to celebrate democracy by living it.

·         July 8th: Rally & March – Lincoln Memorial

Speakers include:  Diane Ravitch, Rev. William Barber, Jamaal Bowman,  Jonathon Kozol,  Jesse Hagopian, Morna McDermott, the Youth Dreamers, Gus Morales, Detroit Teachers Union members, Denisha Jones, Sam Anderson, Tanaisa Brown, Julian Vasquez Heilig, Barbara Madeloni, Brett Bigham, Ruth Rodriguez, Bishop John Selders, United Opt Out, Yohuru Williams, Lisa Rudley, the Dyett Hunger Strikers and Jitu Brown, Mike Klonsky, Michelle Gunderson.

·         July 9th: Activists Conference: – Howard University

                New & Experienced Organizers Working for Public Education & Communities

            Workshops for individuals and groups so we can return to our communities as leaders, organizers,             participants, artists, and/or performers.   Sessions for families, children & youth.

 

            Keynotes: Jitu Brown and Bishop John L.Selders Jr.

·         July 10th: Coalition Summit Work Session –activists & organizers meet to plan

An action this big requires much collaboration and support, and the Coalition has many involvement opportunities for individuals and organizations alike. Consider helping in the following ways:

1.       Endorse the principles and the 2016 event

2.      Provide active publicity about the 2016 event to your organizations and listserves

3.      Organize in your area and assist people in attending the event

4.      Provide financial support for the 2016 event and/or scholarships to deserving attendees

Free bus July 8  leaves 335 Adams St., Brooklyn at 6:00AM & returns after rally. To sign up email ysiwinski@uft.org; give your name & e-mail.   Only 60 seats

http://saveourschoolsmarch.org/2016/03/sos-coalition-event-lincoln-memorial/.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Resistance, Testing

Are the Reformers Cracking Up?

By dianeravitch
June 28, 2016 //
58

Jeanne Allen’s Center for Education Reform is one of the long-time reformer groups in D.C. Allen was beating the drums for school choice long before it was cool or bipartisan. Before she launched CER in 1993, she was an education analyst at the rightwing Heritage Foundation.

At the time CER was founded, it was a lonely voice on the right, touting the virtues of charter schools, choice, freedom, and innovation. But now she is soul-mates with the reformers in the Obama administration, who are as enthusiastic about charters and choice as Jeanne Allen.

This ought to be a triumphant moment. But no. Allen and CER recently released a manifesto warning that their movement was at risk. Reformers have fallen into complacency, and all the gains of the past quarter century might easily slip away.

Despite domestic and international turmoil, the report says, “the movement to ensure educational attainment for all is at a crossroads. We are losing ground in part because we are losing the argument. And our hopes of systemic change — our progress — will be lost, and we will be a nation at even greater risk, if we do not refocus our collective energies and message to connect with the broad universe of education consumers and citizens everywhere.”

Losing ground and losing the argument. Yep! Reformers must reach out to those “education consumers” and shake them up. Without a renewed sense of crisis, all the “reform” progress might be lost.

It is a strange report, to be sure. It tries to revive the evangelistic fervor of “A Nation at Risk,” the celebrated document of 1983, which warned that our nation was at risk if we didn’t reverse the “rising tide of mediocrity” in the nation’s schools that threatened our very survival.

Well, here we are, 33 years later, with the world’s most powerful economy and military.

Despite the dire predictions, we survived. The nation’s gravest problem is income inequality and the shrinking middle class, but for reformers, it is always about the schools.

The new reformer manifesto, unlike A Nation at Risk,” was ignored by the media. Peter Gteene and I may be the only people who read it, other than those who were paid to read it.

Damn that complacency! CER wants to rile everyone up again. We are still at risk! Really! We need more choice! More charters! Disrupt those failing schools! Privatize for innovation!

Why has the movement lost its zest and gusto? How do we awaken those 50-somethings to storm the barricades? That’s the problem. When people become too fat and happy, it is difficult to stir those old passions to break the unions and destroy the public schools.

Maybe I’m wrong, but the manifesto reads like the last gasp of a moribund movement.

Peter Greene reviewed the manifesto. He slogged through its turgid prose so you don’t have to. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.

Categories Education Reform
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »