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Friday, April 19, 2013

Schools Matter: America Awakening to Refreshing New Possibility: Tell Bill Gates to Take His Money and Go to Hell

Schools Matter: America Awakening to Refreshing New Possibility: Tell Bill Gates to Take His Money and Go to Hell:


America Awakening to Refreshing New Possibility: Tell Bill Gates to Take His Money and Go to Hell

When the LA Times starts having doubts about the wisdom of His Aged Geekiness, Billy Gates, then you have to know the worm is turning quickly.  After all, it was the LA Times that published Gates-approved teacher ratings that ended in the suicide of Rigoberto Ruelas in 2010.

Perhaps Team Obama should have a second look at its decision to put corporate foundations in charge of U. S. education policy.  Just perhaps there is something to be learned from a hundred years of academic research that the corporate drones have summarily dismissed.  From the LA Times editorial page:
. . . .Prodded heavily by reform groups, many of which receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, states and school districts have in some cases taken the use of students' scores to extremes that have no grounding in research, making them count for half or more of a teacher's rating, or hastily concocting tests to measure unmeasurable subjects — and then applying the results to teachers. The most mocked example is Ohio's extensive new exam in physical education, which includes