Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, October 18, 2012

DIANE in the Afternoon 10-18-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:


TONIGHT ON PBS

When I visited Austin recently, I taped an interview with Evan Smith for his PBS program “Overheard.” It will air tonight on PBS stations in Texas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Tampa, New Orleans, and other places.
If you miss it, this is the link that will go live after the show airs.
There was a live and very enthusiastic audience, which made it a lively setting. Just what you would expect in Texas.

PBS Is Now Online

My interview ith Evan Smith will air tonight in Texas and other locales but it is now online here.




Some Reasons to Vote for Glenda Ritz

http://www.ritz4ed.com/
http://ahuntingtonteacher.blogspot.com/2012/10/tony-bennett-selling-big-lie-about.html
Tony Bennett Selling the Big Lie about Need for Hoosier Teacher Accountability
In 2010,
Tony Bennett and the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) introduced relaxed teacher qualifications known as REPA. A slideshow presented by Bennett stated the need for REPA was a grade of “D” for “policies affecting teaching quality”. This grade was given by the National Council for Teaching Quality (NCTQ).
The grade of “D” was endorsed by NCTQ’s technical panel. Tony Bennett sits on the technical panel of NCTQ.






Pennsylvania Slows ALEC Juggernaut

The drive to diminish local control in Pennsylvania was halted when Republicans backed away from Governor Corbett’s charter “reform” legislation. The bill would have allowed the Governor and the State Education Department to override local school boards and open charters where the local board rejected them. This is a priority for Governor Tom Corbett and for ALEC, which values privatization over local control. Apparently, some Republicans had trouble following the attack on public schools and local school boards, which are important and traditional institutions in the communities they represent. The bill would have also allowed charter operators to escape accountability and transparency in their expenditure of public funds.
I received this note from an ally in Pennsylvania, with links:
Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania had a major setback in his attempt to follow an ALEC goal of taking management of charter schools out of local control and put it in the hands of the Pennsylvania Education 



This Week’s Journey Ends, But Not Our Struggle

As faithful readers of this blog know, this week has been a busy one for me.
It started last Sunday night when I arrived in Chicago after a six-hour flight delay caused by possible tornados near Chicago.
On Monday, I began the day speaking at the Chicago City Club, where I was introduced by Governor Pat Quinn. I then went to the headquarters of the Chicago Teachers Union, where I had a long talk with the amazing and dynamic Karen Lewis. The most memorable line of our talk was this one. I told her that national commentators scoffed at CTU’s insistence that schools need air-conditioning. Karen said she heard that, and she proposed that the air-conditioning at the Board’s headquarters be shut down to demonstrate that it doesn’t matter. And the Mayor’s offices too! Vintage Karen!
I flew to Columbus that afternoon, where I was met by the tireless Bill Phillis. Bill formerly served as a deputy in 


Did We Lose the Middle Class? Where Did the Left Go?

A reader offers his observations of where we are today:
Others and I have posted quite a bit about this issue in other threads of the blog. In fact, I wrote at some length of the convergence of the Democrats and Republicans (or as a friend calls the two parties, the “Republocrats”; I like “Demonicans” myself). Rather than copy that post, I’ll lay out my view briefly:
1. The baby boomer Democrats became country club Republicans in all but name. (Remember when Jerry Rubin became an investment banker?) I find a lot of truth in E.J. Dionne’s discussion of this shift in his book “Why Americans Hate Politics”: He points out that the the internal dynamics of the Democratic party changed greatly when the baby boomers won major primary reforms in the early ’70s during the McGovern campaign. The rule changes greatly favored the power of the middle- and upper middle-class, college educated voters and began to dilute the more traditional blue collar powers. Thus, the Democrats started moving away for the left on economic