Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, December 21, 2012

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-21-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch





Kaya Henderson Abandons 20 More Schools

Kaya Henderson, chancellor of the DC public schools, intends to close another 20 public schools.
DC is now the second largest urban district with the greatest proportion of its students in privately managed charter, after New Orleans.
Unlike New Orleans, DC did not suffer a natural dupes aster. Instead, its leaders don’t know how to improve its



Katie Osgood Defends Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis spoke up on my behalf when a TFA officer denounced my post “The Hero Teachers of Newtown”) as “reprehensible. Lewis then became the object of attacks from outraged bloggers and tweeters saying that she literally accused TFA of murder. Lewis said no such thing. This was a fine example of the dark art of twisting words. Katie Osgood, who teaches children in a psychiatric hospital in Chicago and has her own blog, here defends Lewis:
“Lewis was not speaking about TFA specifically, but about the Corporate Ed Reform movement as a whole with which TFA is closely aligned. And yes, the corporate education reforms plaguing Chicago for the past 10+ years have cost precious children their lives. The chaos caused by callous school closings, leading to sending children across the city to “choice” schools crossing gang boundaries has indeed led to increases in youth violence and


A Charter Teacher Explains What Happens with Longer School Day

Corporate-style reformers believe that children will learn more and get higher test scores if they spend hours more in school preparing for the tests. They probably think that retail clerks will sell more if they have a 9-hour shift.
But a newcomer to EduShyster’s burgeoning staff explains what happens when the extra time is added.
It is not what the Boston Globe thinks.



Beware of Foundations Bearing “Gifts”

Sarah Darer Littman has a good idea. She thinks that journalists in Connecticut should do investigative journalism and not just write what they find in the press release.
Case in point: the recent gift of $5 million from the Gates foundation to Hartford schools.
Littman calls the grant a Trojan horse because it commits the district to adopt practices that the foundation favors. These will be costly, such as a specific, expensive assessment system.
There was a time when foundations actually made gifts. They gave the recipient X dollars to do what the recipient 



How State Aid Is Rigged Against the Poorest Districts

Bruce Baker has written an illuminating and disturbing post about how New York is underfunding its highest-need schools.
Governor Cuomo likes to complain that the state spends far too much on education but sees little improvement. Baker demonstrates that the formula hurts the neediest students. The governor goes on to say that he will take money away from those districts if their teacher evaluations are poor. In effect, he is punishing them for enrolling students with high needs and threatening to make things worse.
Here is a small part of this very disturbing analysis of how New York State cheats and punishes the poorest 



Diane in the Evening 12-20-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: Anthony Cody on the Lessons of Newtown by dianerav Anthony Cody, an experienced middle-school teacher in California, regularly blogs at *Education Week*. He has won national attention because he writes eloquently, seeks dialogue with those who disagree with him, displays the compassion and sensitivity of an educator, and writes from many years of experience. Please read his reflections on the heroism of the Newtown educators and what we can learn from them. *MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-20-12 Diane Ravitch's blog* coopmike48 at Big Educa... more »