Archives for category: Technology, Computers
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Does the Public Have a Right to Know about Broad Academy?

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2012 //
29

We have visited the travails of the Huntsville, Alabama, schools before.

This is where a Broad-trained superintendent decided that recalcitrant kids should be sent off to live in a teepee until they learned to behave.

Then we learned that he bought 22,000 laptops for the district.

And this district laid off 150 experienced teachers to save money, but has given a contract to Teach for America to bring in rookie teachers.

Now we hear from a parent about life for his child in the Huntsville schools, where change is a fact of life. .

A Broad-trained superintendent in North Carolina left Michelle Rhee’s team and was hired by a Tea Party majority of the local school board in Wake County, North Carolina that wanted to eliminate the district’s successful desegregation policy, even if it meant resegregation of the schools. That board  was ousted last fall. The superintendent has stayed on, and the choice plan now in effect seems likely to undo years of work to avoid resegregation. The schools of Wake County were lauded (before the Tea Party takeover) as a model of desegregation by Gerald Grant in his excellent book, Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh.

Chris Cerf in New Jersey was trained by Broad. So was Deborah Gist in Rhode Island, John White in Louisiana, J.C. Brizard in Chicago, and John Covington in Michigan. when Philadelphia picked a new superintendent recently, the two finalists were both Broadies. And there are many more. Read about them here.

Now that the Broad Foundation “trains” so many new superintendents, doesn’t the public have  a right to know what the Broad Academy is teaching its students?

The Broad Superintendents Academy is not certified, has no state approvals, is not subject to any outside monitoring, yet it “trains” people who then take leadership roles in urban districts and in state education departments. Many were never educators.

What were they taught? What principles and values were inculcated? On what research are their lessons based? How valid is the research to which they are exposed?

Inquiring minds want to know.

If the public has a right to information about teacher performance, doesn’t the public have a right to know who is training public school superintendents and what they are taught and how valid is the information and research they are given and whether they were exposed to different points of view?

By the way, the Broad Foundation just added new members to its board of directors. Here is the new lineup:

Officers:

The Honorable Joel I. Klein, Chair
CEO, Educational Division and Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman, News Corporation
Former Chancellor, New York City Department of Education

Barry Munitz, Vice Chair
Trustee Professor, California State University, Los Angeles

Dan Katzir, Secretary/Treasurer
Senior Advisor, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation

Members:

Richard Barth
Chief Executive Officer, KIPP Foundation

Becca Bracy Knight
Executive Director, The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems

Jean-Claude Brizard
Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Public Schools

Harold Ford Jr.
Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Former U.S. Congressman, Tennessee

Louis Gerstner, Jr.
Retired Chairman and CEO, IBM Corporation

Wendy Kopp
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Teach For America

Paul Pastorek
Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Counsel and Corporate Secretary, EADS North America
Former Superintendent of Education, State of Louisiana

Michelle Rhee
Founder and CEO, StudentsFirst
Former Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools

Margaret Spellings
President and Chief Executive Officer, Margaret Spellings and Company
Former U.S. Secretary of Education

Andrew L. Stern
Former President, Service Employees International Union
Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow, Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy, Columbia University

Lawrence H. Summers
Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University
President Emeritus, Harvard University

Kenneth Zeff
Chief Operating Officer, Green Dot Public Schools

Mortimer Zuckerman
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, U.S. News & World Report
Publisher, New York Daily News

Categories Broad Foundation, Education Reform, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Teach for America TFA, Technology, Computers

Please Explain—UPDATE

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2012 //
18

No, I am not a Luddite. No one can use technology as intensively as I do and be fairly accused of being anti-technology.

I am just naturally skeptical of the claims made for all miracle cures, whether it is snake oil, video game-playing, or the Land of Oz.

I promise you, when I see a guy with a crown who is buck naked, I’ll be the first to say so even if he is an emperor.

So I want to know: Can you really learn to be a carpenter at an online college? Can you learn HVAC online? Can you become a master electrician online?

My rant was brought on by an article in the Wall street Jpurnal. Someone said you can’t read it without a subscription. The quote follows this post.

Maybe it’s possible. I am not passing judgment. I’d like to know.

I’m not saying it can’t be done.

But I just finished a basement renovation, and I am afraid that the guys I hired learned their trades online.

Just wondering.

·

The Regulatory Power to Destroy

The Department of Education and the unjustified ruin of a for-profit col

Dark Knight Rises” hits theaters this week, and no surprise some liberals are comparing the villain Bane to . . . care to take a guess? In this comic conception of the world, corporations always play the Bane to government’s Batman. Regulators may have expansive powers, but they’re rarely so heroic. In fact, they’re often the real bane.

Take the case of for-profit Decker College, which a federal bankruptcy judge has concluded was driven into bankruptcy seven years ago by its accreditor’s falsehoods that followed unusual regulatory intervention. A fact-finding report by Judge Thomas Fulton of the Western District of Kentucky last week vindicates the college, but it comes too late to save the company and many of its creditors, who include students and workers.

***

Decker spiraled into insolvency in the fall of 2005 after the Council on Occupational Education unfairly withdrew accreditation of its online programs in carpentry, electrical science and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning). That made Decker ineligible for federal student aid, its largest revenue source.

CEO William Weld, the former Massachusetts Governor, had no choice but to close up shop and hand control to bankruptcy trustee Robert Keats to settle $57 million in claims. Some 500 employees lost their jobs, and stories about Decker undermined Mr. Weld’s attempt to run for Governor in New York in 2006.

Mr. Keats has sought to recoup some federal student aid by challenging the Council’s statements to the Department of Education that it had never accredited Decker’s online programs. As a parenthetical, it may seem odd to teach construction over the Internet, but about 100 proprietary schools now do….

Categories On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

Are We Addicted to Our Blinking Screens?

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2012 //
15

Guess who is warning that we have become too addicted to computers, cell phones, and all those other devices?

Read here.

I may be addicted but I don’t think it is the usual kind of screen-addiction.

I love to communicate and exchange ideas.

Before I started this blog, I would tweet about 50-80 times daily.

It wasn’t for the joy of tweeting. I never tweeted to say “I am now at the corner of Broadway and 30th street,” or “I am sitting down to dinner.”

I communicated stories I had read that I wanted to share.

Other people share with me, and that’s how I am able to write about what is happening in other cities and states and occasionally other nations.

I read Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows. He worries that computer addiction is ruining the brains and sensibilities of all of us, especially the young.

He described a period of time–maybe it was a week–when he shut down everything and lived without the Web. It sounded idyllic.

But I noticed that he soon was right back, doing all the same things.

Where do you think this is heading? How is it affecting younger people? What does it mean for our future?

Categories Technology, Computers

About the “School of One”

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2012 //
3

One of the much-hyped new ideas of our time is the “School of One.” This is a new use of technology in the classroom.

It was declared a success in 2009 by Time magazine before it was ever implemented anywhere.

It was created by TFA alum, Broad-trained, ex-Edison, ex-NYC DOE executive Joel Rose and implemented on a pilot basis in the New York City public schools.

There are two different stories embedded in The School of One.

There is the story of the business of education, and School of One is a cutting-edge venture in edu-business.

The other is whether it is pedagogically sound. On this count, Gary Rubinstein has posted an informative review.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, NYC, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

Microsoft Paperclip Goes to College

By dianeravitch
July 22, 2012 //
16

A reader sent me the following press release. It describes how college freshmen who get a scholarship will have an electronic monitoring system, where they are expected to check in and report. It appears that the system relies on the student to check in regularly and interact with his or her electronic tracking system. Maybe this will be helpful. Or maybe it will be like that annoying Microsoft Paperclip that used to pop up uninvited and offer to help you whether you wanted help or not. What happens when the students don’t respond? What is the follow through if they respond and say they don’t understand what is happening in their Algebra class? Will someone send help? Will it be like the thingies that senior citizens wear around their necks to call for help when they fall down? Will anyone answer? Or will they get an electronic response that asks them to log in and press 1 if they speak English, and press 2 if they want to complain, and press 3 if they need help with their student loan, and press 1 if their roommate is annoying them, and so on.

College Success Foundation – DC Using New Technology

to Mentor and Monitor College Freshmen

Initiative to Assist D.C. Students in Adjusting to Campus Life and Studies

 

Washington, D.C. – The College Success Foundation – District of Columbia (CSF – DC)

announced today the launch of a pilot program to help college-bound D.C. students successfully

complete their first year of college. The program monitors students’ adjustment to college life

via interactive, multimedia modules that students access online or via smart phone apps. The

pilot will be conducted in partnership with csMentor, Inc. and funded through a grant from the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

“Making the leap from high school to a successful first year of college is a particular challenge

for the underserved students we work with,” said CSF – DC Executive Director Herbert R.

Tillery. “We are excited to test a new technology-based tool that allows us to consistently

monitor our students’ academic and social adjustment to campus. That data will help us

pinpoint students who may be struggling and allow us to intervene at an early stage.”

 

Students participating in the pilot will receive and respond to Mentoring Interactive Programs or

“MIPs” via the web and mobile device. Each on-demand MIP includes a short video message

from a mentor and is combined with a “Check In” – a brief set of questions. The video message

anticipates challenges freshmen face as they prepare for and then move through their first

college term. Responses to the weekly “Check In” paint a cumulative picture of the student’s

academic and social adjustment. The technology analyzes that data to create regular Progress

Updates shared with the student and with CSF – DC.

 

“We are pleased to be partnering with the College Success Foundation – DC to help District

students make it through their first year of college,” said csMentor Advisory Board Chair Dr.

Steven Gladis. Dr. Gladis is author of the widely read book Surviving the First Year of College:

Myth vs. Reality. “Higher education nationally has been in a dropout crisis for decades. For

every two college freshmen who complete their first year, one will drop out. And those numbers

haven’t improved over time.”

 

The pilot will involve approximately 250 college-bound District of Columbia students.

 

# # #

 

College Success Foundation — District of Columbia

For more than 5 years, CSF – DC has inspired students in 6 high schools in Ward 7 and 8 to

pursue their dream of attending college by providing a unique integrated system of support and

scholarships they need to graduate college and succeed in life. The College Success

Foundation – DC is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Higher Education, Technology, Computers

The Appropriate Role for Computers

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2012 //
6

I agree completely with this reader’s comment, in response to the post about Waldorf schools. The computer has a very important role in our lives. We will call upon it daily, and in many cases, hourly, and by the minute. Many of us will spend our waking hours in front of a computer. But a computer should not be at the center of education. It is a tool and should be used as a tool. Above all, children need healthy cognitive, emotional, social and psychological development. To the extent the computer aids in that process of development, good. To the extent that it is extraneous, so be it. The computer is a tool (I repeat) and should not be our master. We should use it wisely and not allow it to use us.

As one who concentrates his study on the intersection of technology and culture, I see schools like Waldorf as an extremely positive development. We who have not grown up with computers fear that our children will not know how to use them if we don’t teach them… which is, if you look at computers today and at children today, a completely unfounded fear.Yes, there are those who see computers as the tool of the future for education but, here too, a quick look will show that computers will never succeed as the center of education. They never have… and computer-assisted learning has been around for fifty years (the programmed instruction and teaching machine people may not have had the sophisticated hardware of today, but many of the concepts were the same).Just because computers are part of our lives we don’t have to make them the center of our education, or even part of it. Personally, I do see a role for computers in schools, but I would rather get rid of them completely than make them the driving force.
Categories Education Reform, Technology, Computers

What, No Computers?

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2012 //
15

Thanks  to reader Linda for reminding me of this article in the New York Times about the school that Silicon Valley high-tech entrepreneurs choose for their own children. It is a Waldorf school. It has no computers.

The school has 196 students. Three-quarters of them are from high-tech families, deeply involved in the creation and design of computer technology.

But this school doesn’t believe that computers have a place in the classroom and it discourages their use at home:

This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.

I don’t want my readers who specialize in teaching technology to freak out. Just think about it.

 

Categories Education Reform, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

New Investments Needed in Technology for Common Core

By dianeravitch
July 14, 2012 //
13

A survey in Louisiana finds that most schools do not have the technology to support the Common Core online testing that will begin in 2014-2015. This will require a major investment in hardware and infrastructure.

Here is part of the article:

BATON ROUGE — A survey of Louisiana schools shows most lack the technology and facilities needed to conduct online testing that’s to be part of a new Common Core Curriculum to be implemented in the 2014-15 school year.

The Department of Education asked school systems around the state to report the numbers of computers available to students, their operating speed, the type of Internet connections and bandwidth available and where to computers were located, such as in classrooms or computer laboratories.

The “Technology Footprint” shows a shortfall in computers, high-speed Internet connections and facilities in which testing can be conducted.

“We must believe our students and teachers can achieve great things, but they need access to the right technology to do so,” Superintendent of Education John White said in a news release. “We are not there yet. Too few schools are ready for the digital age. If we plan now, and invest our funds wisely, we can change this.”

Only five school systems — Ascension, City of Bogalusa, Red River, St. James and FirstLine Schools of New Orleans — meet the minimum device readiness requirements and only two school systems — Ascension and St. James — meet both device and network readiness guidelines for online testing, it said.

In Caddo Parish, the report said, “currently 3 out of 46 schools have an adequate number of computers that meet current minimum computer hardware specifications for online testing in 2014-15. In order to bring all schools in Caddo Parish up to the minimum testing readiness level of a 7-to-1 student to computer ratio, the district will need to either purchase an additional 2,814 devices and/or upgrade some of the 2,952 computers that potentially could meet the new minimum computer hardware specifications.”

In DeSoto Parish, it read, “currently 1 out of 9 schools has an adequate number of computers that meet current minimum computer hardware specifications for online testing in 2014-15. In order to bring all schools in DeSoto Parish up to the minimum testing readiness level of a 7-to-1 student to computer ratio, the district will need to either purchase an additional 175 devices and/or upgrade some of the 117 computers that potentially could meet the new minimum computer hardware specifications.”

Categories Common Core, Education Reform, Louisiana, Technology, Computers

Will North Carolina Say No to K12?

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2012 //
9

A majority of school boards in North Carolina are opposing the opening of a K12 online charter school. They understand that the North Carolina Virtual Academy will drain millions of dollars from the budgets of the state’s public schools. K12, the nation’s largest for-profit online charter corporation, persuaded one school board to sponsor its operation by promising them a 4% commission. As students sign up for K12, the home districts lose funding.

An administrative law judge granted the charter, but opposition is building among school boards across the state, including the host district.

It’s about time that school boards figured out that the online charter corporations drain revenues from the public schools, while providing an inferior quality of education. A study last year of charter schools in Pennsylvania found that cybercharters got worse results than either traditional public schools or brick-and-mortar charter schools.

It’s past time to stop wasting taxpayer dollars, wasting children’s time, and harming public schools while enriching investors. The point of education is not to make money for a few people but to educate the next generation.

Say no, North Carolina.

Diane

Categories Education Reform, Technology, Computers

Are You For Sale?

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2012 //
5

The New York Times had an informative but frankly alarming article about the research that maps out every fact about each of us. The article is called “You For Sale: A Data Giant is mapping, and sharing, the consumer genome.”

The article describes the vast “data-mining” business that collects, stores, and sells about 1,500 data points for every one of us. Corporations are buying financial and health information, as well as the consumer preferences of almost every one of us. Says the article, “It’s as if the ore of our data-driven lives were being mined, refined and sold to the highest bidder, usually without our knowledge–by companies that most people rarely even know exist.”

Data-driven, data-mining. The wave of the future. Hundreds of millions of federal education dollars spent to build data storehouses in every state for every child, tracking his or her test scores, courses, teachers, health, behavior, choices, extracurricular activities, postsecondary education, career, everything. Cradle to grave.

Please, will someone explain to me what is good about this? Why does the government need to do all these things about us? Why do corporations need to snoop into every corner of our lives?

Diane

Categories Education Reform, Technology, Computers
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