Archives for category: Supporting public schools
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How to Get an Autographed Copy of “Reign of Error”

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2013 //
32

If you would like to get an autographed copy of “Reign of Error,” you can order it through the Network for Public Education.

If you want it to be personalized, with a greeting to you, you can order that too.

All proceeds benefit the Network for Public Education. I am contributing the books, so will make no profit fom this offer. The goal is to support NPE.

See the offer here:

Make a contribution to NPE and receive a personalized copy of Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch

Pre-order Reign of Error by September 15th. There is a limited number of special signed copies!

The Network for Public Education is pleased to offer our friends an opportunity to pre-order a copy of Diane Ravitch’s new book Reign of Error signed by the author for a contribution of $100 to NPE. For a $200 contribution, Diane will inscribe her latest release with a personal message.

Here is an excerpt from an early review:

“When it comes to education, notoriously plagued by fads, it’s always difficult to determine truth. Ravitch, however, earns the benefit of the doubt by the supporting facts, figures, and graphs she brings to her argument, a lifetime of scholarship, and experience in and out of government”

Reign of Error is shaping up to be the biggest education release of the year. It looks to change the dialogue about education reform in the same way that Diane’s 2010 publication, The Death and Life of the Great American School System brought new attention to the plight of our public schools.

Make a donation to NPE and we will ship your personalized copy of Reign of Error via USPS by September 18.

It is easy to make a donation with PayPal. Choose an option below.

Make a $100 contribution and receive a signed copy of Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch.

Make a $200 contribution and receive a copy of Reign of Error signed with a personal dedication of your choice by Diane.

Categories Network for Public Education, Supporting public schools

Are You a Hero Superintendent?

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2013 //
29

Over the past several months, I have honored several superintendents who have stood up for their students, their staff, and their community schools.

I have identified hero superintendents in Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Illinois, and elsewhere. We need to find them and thank them.

These are men and women who have upheld their ethical responsibility to their profession and to children.

They have spoken out boldly and fearlessly against the misuse of standardized tests to judge teacher quality and to label schools as “failing.” They have spoken in support of professional standards for teachers and for teacher and principal evaluation. They have withstood the bullying of uninformed politicians and arrogant policymakers. They have refused to bow to misguided conventional wisdom. They have been a source of wisdom and inspiration for their staff and their community.

When the superintendent is a hero, he or she enables the staff to act with dignity and professionalism.

Do you have a hero superintendent in your community?

If so, send me public statements they have made so I may highlight their courage and integrity.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Honor Roll, Students, Supporting public schools, Testing

BAT Founder: Education “Reform” Is a Coup D’Etat

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2013 //
36

Mark Naison is one of the founders of BAT, the Badass Teachers Association. He says that what is happening to public education today is nothing less than a coup d’état, a stealthy takeover of public education by elites who know little or nothing about education. Some do it for the power; some for greed; some for ideology. Whatever their reason, it is time to resist.

Naison writes:

“There Has Been an Education Coup D’Etat In the US- Time to Organize Resistance”

“When a country has suffered a Coup D’Etat, as Chile did in the 1970’s, or a foreign invasion, as France did during the start of World War II, it takes a while for the population to figure out how to resist. Some collaborate, some passively conform, some pretend compliance and grimly go about their business, some move into active resistance, even at the risk of their lives

“While it would be foolish to pretend that what has happened to education in the US in the last ten years has had the same life threatening consequences, it does have many of the elements of a Coup D’Etat. A well financed and highly motivated elite with little or no background in teaching or school administration has seized control of Education Policy in the US, excluding teachers and parents voices, and has imposed a grim test regimen on the nation’s public schools that has driven joy and creativity out of our classrooms and made teachers hate their jobs. The Common Core Standards, imposed with lightning speed across the country through bribery and intimidation is but the latest example of how School Reformers borrow the ethos and strategy of dictators to impose their policies. Teachers, parents, and students who have had no chance to discuss the standards, much less see them in operation before deciding whether to support them, are presented with a fate d’accompli and told they are undermining national progress if they dare to ask questions, and if they are teachers or principals, told that opposition can cost them their jobs

“Well, despite the intimidation, a resistance has emerged, composed of parent opt out groups, anti- testing and anti-Common Core Coalitions, and this group, the Badass Teachers Association. With Common Core now part of professional development for teachers in most school districts, it is time to help the resistance spread. Just letting teachers know there is a group like BATS which thinks current policies are crazy is an important step. We now have a one page document in the files that you can print out and distribute to colleagues.

“Please discretely hand this out to your colleagues and friends. Most will probably not want to join, but knowing there is a resistance of this size and militancy will give them courage and make them feel empowered to resist covertly, in their own classrooms. And who knows, over time, they may join us

“But the important thing is to spread the word. Let people know that 26,000 teachers across the country have said “enough is enough” to top down Education Reform and are determined to fight back.

“It’s not only our jobs that are at stake, it is our students and our children’s education, and the future of democracy in this country that are on the line.”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BadAssTeachers/

Categories Corporate Reformers, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Testing

Why I Endorse Bill de Blasio for Mayor of New York City

By dianeravitch
August 27, 2013 //
54

After much deliberation, I have decided to support Bill de Blasio for mayor of New York City.

I thought long and hard, because I know and respect some of the other candidates.

I issued the following statement to the de Blasio campaign.

“I am proud to support Bill de Blasio for mayor of New York City. I support him because I believe he will be a great mayor with a fresh vision for the city, its families, and its children. It’s time for a change. Bill de Blasio knows that he must rebuild the city’s school system so that there is a good public school in every neighborhood. I endorse his plan to ask the wealthy to pay a little more in taxes so the city can provide universal pre-kindergarten for all four-year-olds and more after-school programs for middle-school students who need them. I am proud to stand with Bill de Blasio for a better New York City.”
Bill de Blasio understands that the mayor must stand up for all 1.1 million students in the New York City school system and make the system function well for all of them.
He knows that public education will suffer if the city continues on its present course of privatization, high-stakes testing, and closing of neighborhood schools. He understands that churn and disruption are bad for children, bad for families, bad for schools, and bad for communities.
Bill de Blasio recognizes that this is a time to build anew. It is time for fresh ideas, new thinking, a recognition that the life of every child is precious and that public education is a cornerstone of our democracy.
If he is elected mayor, I believe Bill de Blasio will use his position to strengthen public education, to listen to parents, and to give educators the respect they deserve for the work they do daily.
He realizes that schools can’t do the  job alone, which is why he has pledged to increase spending for early childhood education and after-school programs and to reduce class sizes.
These are research-based programs that the children of New York City need.
Is he an idealist, as some charge? Yes. Does he offer hope for a better future? Yes.
Bill de Blasio will work to provide equal opportunity for all of New York City’s children.
This is his goal, and it is mine too.
And that is why I endorse him for mayor.
Categories Education Reform, New York City, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Testing

Larry Lee Writes to Checker Finn and Mike Petrilli about Alabama Accountability Act

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2013 //
9
Larry Lee is a native of Alabama who has taken a great interest in community schools. A few years ago, he was the lead author of a report about ten outstanding rural schools in Alabama. If you read it, you may find yourself crying when you learn how hard parents, teachers, principals, and communities are struggling to educate the children of poor rural communities. He wrote about the importance of creating a culture of expectations and building trust among parents and the community.  He wrote about schools that “build a sense of family.” Larry, who is a member of the board of the Network for Public Education, was not a supporter of the Alabama Accountability Act. He didn’t see how it would help build the trust and community support that he knew was crucial to these rural schools that were struggling to do their best against the odds. When he read an article in the Alabama press written by Beltway insiders Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Michael Petrilli, he was not at all pleased. He wrote a letter.
Dear Mr. Finn,
You and Michael Petrilli recently had an op-ed piece on al.com that stated in the lead paragraph….
Cotton State conservatives are rightfully proud of the brand-new Alabama Accountability Act, which will allow thousands of students to escape failing public schools starting this fall, and take publicly-funded scholarships to the private schools of their choice. Experience from other states indicates that these scholarships will provide a lifeline to the children in the 79 failing schools recently identified by state superintendent Tommy Bice.
Since I live in Montgomery, Alabama, and spend a great deal of time staying abreast of education issues in this state, I would like to comment on your op-ed.
Obviously you have little knowledge of the Alabama Accountability Act, and even less knowledge of Alabama and the “failing” schools identified.  (which are 78, not 79 as stated in your article.)
School began here on aug. 19, the day your article appeared, so those students from “failing” schools who are availing themselves of the opportunity to transfer have largely done so by now.
and you might be interested in knowing that rather than the “thousands of students” you predict will escape, the number as of thursday afternoon was 6.  as in SIX.  that’s right, out of nearly 30,000 kids who attend these 78 schools, only six (as of the afternoon of aug. 22) were transferring.
After all the chest pounding and grand standing by those legislators who passed this law and boasted that they made sure no one in education knew what they were doing, after all the work done by the state department of education and the revenue department to come up with data, to reprogram computers, to come up with new rules, to set up new units to deal with this law, after more than $50 million was set aside from this coming fiscal year’s education trust fund budget to offset the impact of this law—it is a HUGE FAIL.
It is the Hindenburg of Alabama legislation.  and I’ve been watching for a long time since I am older than you are.
The numbers never worked.  It was no more than a fairy tale.  It defied logic.  It ignored reality.
Rather than asking two very important questions 1) why are these schools failing and 2) what can we do to help them, it instead twisted the old adage “if you are in a hole you need to stop digging,” into “if you are in a hole, you need a bigger shovel.”
My hope and prayer is that if we learned just one thing from this very expensive and pointless exercise, it is that anytime this state sets out to develop education policy, professional educators should be at the table.
Larry Lee
334-787-0410Education precedes Prosperity
Categories Accountability, Alabama, Students, Supporting public schools

Civil Rights Groups Call for Duncan’s Ouster

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2013 //
53

A large national alliance of civil rights organizations has joined under the umbrella heading of “Journey for Justice.”

This coalition has called for the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

To understand why, read the flyer it distributed.

Anyone who thinks that closing public schools and replacing them with privately managed charters and with vouchers is somehow part of the civil rights movement has no understanding of the purposes of the civil rights movement.

It was not to destroy the public sector but to assure access to good education, decent housing, and jobs without any racial discrimination.

It struggled for equality of educational opportunity, not privatization or a “race to the top.”.

It did not claim that poverty could be cured by “fixing” schools or privatizing them.

It demanded an end to poverty by creating jobs and justice.

It fought segregation in schools and housing.

That vision is not the vision of the corporate reform movement in education today.

It fights not for equality of opportunity but for a market-based system of winners and losers.

It accepts segregation as tolerable.

It is not a civil rights movement.

The Journey for Justice calls out these contradictions and speaks truth to power.

“A National Grassroots Education Alliance”
COORDINATING COMMITTEE:National

Alliance for Education Justice

Washington, DC

Empower DC

Chicago, IL

Kenwood Oakland Community Organization

Baltimore, MD

Baltimore Algebra Project

Detroit, MI

Keep the Vote, No Takeover

Black Parents for Quality Education

Newark, NJ

Parents United for Local School Education

New York, NY

Alliance for Quality Education

Urban Youth Collaborative

Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia Student Union

MEMBERS:

National

Leadership Center for the Common Good

Oakland, CA

Oakland Public Education Network

Los Angeles, CA

Labor Community Strategy Center

Hartford, CT

Parent Power

Atlanta, GA

Project South

Miami, FL

Power U

Chicago, IL

Action Now

Wichita, KS

Kansas Justice Advocates

New Orleans, LA

Concerned Conscious Citizens Controlling Community Changes

Coalition for Community Schools

Boston, MA

Boston Youth Organizing Project

Boston Parent Organizing Network

Detroit, MI

Detroit LIFE Coalition

Minneapolis, MN

Neighborhoods Organizing for Change

Eupora, MS

Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change

Camden, NJ

Camden Education Association

Englewood, NJ

Citizens for Public Education

Jersey City, NJ

Parent Advocates for Children’s Education

Concerned Citizens Coalition

Paterson, NJ

Paterson Education Organizing Committee

Philadelphia, PA

Action United

Youth United for Change

ALLIED MEMBERS

National

Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Chicago, IL

Teachers for Social Justice

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Laurie R. Glenn

Phone: 773.704.7246

E-mail:lrglenn@thinkincstrategy.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2013

MEDIA ALERT 

25 CITIES KICK OFF NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CALLING FOR RESIGNATION OF U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION DUNCAN
Journey for Justice Demonstrations Spearhead Campaign To Restore United Nations’ Proclaimed Human Right To Education 

WHAT:   In light of a rash of school closings targeting low income communities of color in cities throughout the country, a national 25-city coalition is calling for U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s resignation. In the midst of the 50th anniversary for the March On Washington, which sought to end segregation and job discrimination, members of the Journey for Justice Alliance have banded together to fight the continued privatization of public schools under Secretary Duncan’s leadership.

Students, parents and advocacy representatives all over the country will come together in local actions to demand a stop to the destabilization of low-income communities of color and restore the human and civil right to a quality and safe education for all children.

National Journey for Justice Alliance demands include:

  • ·         Moratorium on school closings, turnarounds, phase-outs, and charter expansions.
  • ·         It’s proposal for sustainable school transformation to replace failed, market-driven interventions as support for struggling schools.
  • ·         Resignation of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

WHO/WHERE:   Journey for Justice members and groups will hold local actions in 25 cities across the country including: Oakland, Calif.; San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Hartford, Conn.; District of Columbia; Atlanta; Miami; Chicago; Wichita, Kan.; New Orleans; Baltimore; Minneapolis; Camden, N.J.; Englewood, N.J.; Paterson, N.J.; Jersey City, N.J.; Newark; New York; North Carolina, Boston; Detroit; Eupora, Miss.; Jackson, Miss.; Philadelphia; South Carolina.

WHEN:   Events will be held Monday, August 27th – Thursday, August 29th, 2013

WHY:  A clear pattern of racial and economic discrimination documented by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform has demonstrated that while there have been advances in the nation, as shown by the election of the nation’s first black president, the federal administration’s policies have embodied education strategies that continue to perpetuate racial and class bias and support inequality in education.

Despite research showing that closing public schools does not improve test scores or graduation rates, the federal agenda has incentivized the privatization of schools with primary fall out on low-income communities of color. Explosive school closings resulting from this agenda violates the United Nations proclamation of 1948, Article 26 (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml) establishing the inalienable human right of every child – regardless of race, income or community — to receive a quality education in a safe environment.

JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE ALLIANCE
Journey for Justice is a national grassroots alliance whose goal is to bring the voice of those directly impacted by discriminatory school actions into the debate about the direction for public education in the 21st century and to promote equality in education for all students and sustainable, community-driven school reform for all school districts across the country.

####
Categories Closing schools, Poverty, Privatization, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Supporting public schools

Virginia School Boards Fight State Takeovers

By dianeravitch
August 24, 2013 //
11

It is a curious fact that there has never been a
successful,state takeover of a local school district. Correct me if
I am wrong. Maybe there is one somewhere but I don’t know of any.
Pennsylvania took control of Philadelphia in 2001, and Philadelphia
is near bankruptcy. New York took control of the Roosevelt school
district and increased its debt. New Jersey controls several of the
state’s lowest performing districts, some for decades, which have
remained troubled. State takeover, it may be said, has no track
record of success. That’s why I applaud the Virginia School Boards Association and
the Norfolk schools for suing the state to block
legislation intended to void local control. When schools are
floundering, they need help, and the state should provide it
without delay. But academic trouble should not be a rationale for
short-circuiting democracy. Message to states: Work with the people
in the community, not against them.

Categories Supporting public schools

How CTU Confronted Antagonists in the Democratic Party

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2013 //
16

This is a stunning analysis of the relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party.

It is a must-read.

Many in education have been baffled by the bipartisan consensus around Republican ideology. Micah Uetricht is not baffled. He says without hedging that “Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project.”

Teachers unions, he writes, have been unable to articulate a coherent response to their abandonment.

That is, until last September, when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. He writes:

“The union has been unafraid to identify the education reform agenda pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his party nationally as an attempt to exacerbate inequalities within the education system, strip teachers of power and erode their standards of living, and chip away at public education as an institution, and to call such Democrats enemies. Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the party.”

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.

Categories Chicago, Democrats, Emanuel, Rahm, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Unions

Good Things Happening in Green Bay!

By dianeravitch
February 9, 2013 //
1

Amanda Brooker writes about the good work in her school and district. It is important that everyone recognize that the effort to make public schools intolerable and to privatize public education is national. Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Tony Bennett, and Michelle Rhee are among its leaders.

Dr. Ravitch,
My superintendent Michelle Langenfeld and I feel like we know you on a first name basis, as we are avid readers of your blog. I am proud to say that I am working in a school district that is reforming on our own (and not RheePhorming) under the leadership of Dr. Langenfeld. The Green Bay Area Public School District has almost 60% students on free or reduced lunch, the highest ELL population in the state (20%), and 45% minority . Our student growth has been rising over the years, considering that we have hundreds of kids entering kindergarten only recognizing 0-3 letters or numbers, and unable to hold a pencil. And if our high school students stay in our schools for their four years, we show more than a 90% graduation rate. http://www.gbaps.org/Hot-Topics/Documents/Reform/Growth%20Handout.pdf

This is in spite of being weighed down with mandates and high stakes testing; our staff is working hard.

We want to share with you what is going on in Green Bay, Wisconsin:
http://www.wbay.com/story/20608613/expanded-school-vouchers-expected-to-be-part-of-budget-plan
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/green_bay/governor-stirs-student-voucher-debate
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/viewart/20130117/GPG0101/301170390/Wisconsin-Republican-Ellis-to-push-for-voucher-vote

Needless to say, working in public education in Wisconsin has been a very exciting place to be the past two years. We’ve seen nothing like it. But your blog also lets us know that we are not alone in the insanity. Thank you for standing up for what is right in public education.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Supporting public schools, Teachers and Teaching, Wisconsin

If Kaya, Dennis, and Rahm Played Basketball

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2013 //
5

A loyal reader thought about the way that school leaders like Kaya Henderson, Dennis Walcott, and Rahm Emanuel cheer for the side they are NOT in charge of. And he tried to imagine school reform as a basketball game.

Here goes:

The charterites/privatizers love sports analogies. Here’s one for you: you are the owner of a professional sports team, let’s say, basketball. Your main historic rival is in the same state, not far away. You hire a coach who wears that team’s jersey to televised games, refuses to dispute bad calls by the referees that favor your chief rival, and not only keeps urging you to trade away your best players so you can’t compete talentwise, he even publicly berates the outstanding players that insist on remaining [even with pay cuts] which further undermines team cohesion and effectiveness. But you ignore the many fans who can’t understand why you won’t put in a coach who will do a better job against the other team. *What the dummies who pay for season tickets can’t seem to understand is that you would hate to undermine your spouse and the other members of your family who are majority owners of that other team. Yay us!*

Substitute “mayor” for “owner” [same mentalities, though] and “superintendent” for “coach” and you begin to appreciate the dire straits of places like NYC and DC. The people calling the shots and leading the ‘public school’ team are rooting and essentially working for the other team. They aren’t interested in anything resembling a fair competition: it’s not just a hidden thumb on the scale or a little-known law that favors one side over the other, it’s doing so openly without a tinge of embarrassment or a feeling of shame. Just consider this: how can CA have a law on the books that allows astroturf organizations to organize small minorities of parents to turn public schools over to charter operators but not allow even huge majorities of parents to convert a charter into a public school?

I won’t argue that this is a perfect analogy but I would argue that it understates what public school advocates are up against.

Categories Charter Schools, Supporting public schools
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