War on Public Education
THE ROAD TO LITERACY IS PAVED WITH WORDS, NOT TESTS A STANDARDIZED TEST SCHOOL 'REFORM' IS ABOUT CLASS, NOT CLASSROOMS
BACK TO TOP Media Groups TESTING Infographic on the for-profit education scam 
BACK TO TOP Barack Obama and Arne Duncan are to public education as the right is to climate. The right thinks the climate is all about last week's snow storm; Obama and Duncan think public education is all about last week's test. To suggest that sports, drama, art, politics or community service are external to the curriculum of an educated person borders on yahooism. Absent these elements, education becomes a brutish parody of what it says it is, a motley collection of facts without context, without integration either with one's own body and soul or with any human community.
BACK TO TOP To judge schools by how demanding they are is rather like judging an opera on the basis of how many notes it contains that are hard for singers to hit. In other words, it leaves out most of what matters." - John Dewey Everytime you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. - Mark Twain Mandatory testing is just one part of a more vexing problem facing parents: At an alarming rate, people who never have laid eyes on our kids are deciding what's best for them. And all too often, they're getting it wrong. - Bruce Kluger I've found that a very inflexible, rule-oriented, quasi-conservative philosophy, which is not conservative at all but basically laziness and reliance on rules, may be easier, but it doesn't do any good. It doesn't ultimately prove that you're really a teacher at all, but just somebody trying to make it easy. - Peter Sturdevant, former head of Maret School, Washington DC For some reason, first the Bush people and now the Obama people believe they know exactly how to fix American education. (Chicago, their model, is one of the lowest-performing cities in the nation on national tests, and Texas was never a national model for academic excellence.) Their answer starts with testing and ends with data and more testing. If children were widgets, they might be right; but children are not widgets, they are individuals. If reading and math were all that mattered in school, they might be right, but basic skills are not the be-all and end-all of being educated. -Diane Ravitch, Huffington Post, 6/13/09
BACK TO TOP Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry. An insider's look at his nearly fifteen years of test scoring. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch Race to Nowhere: The true effects of the NCLB war on public education 
BACK TO TOP New films take on the myths of "Waiting for Superman" The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman
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Obama doesn't seem to understand his own education program Jerry Brown stands up against the test tyrants Florida parents stand up against another Jeb Bush education rip off Teacher kicked out for distributing leaflet at Duncan-Rhee appearance Matt Damon and mother turn down award from union tied to Teach for America Parents, teachers organizing against corporatized testing Reading one book improves test scores more than extending school day A Finnish educator explains how his country does it Turning public education into a corporate facility Successful adult tests school tests. . .and flops Principals revolt against war on education Michael Bloomberg would cut city's teaching staff by half
Why teachers oppose test tyranny Marion Brady, Washington Post - Teachers (at least the ones the public should hope their taxes are supporting) oppose the tests because they focus so narrowly on reading and math that the young are learning to hate reading, math, and school; because they measure only "low level" thinking processes; because they put the wrong people -- test manufacturers -- in charge of American education; because they allow pass-fail rates to be manipulated by officials for political purposes; because test items simplify and trivialize learning. Teachers oppose the tests because they provide minimal to no useful feedback; are keyed to a deeply flawed curriculum adopted in 1893; lead to neglect of physical conditioning, music, art, and other, non-verbal ways of learning; unfairly advantage those who can afford test prep; hide problems created by margin-of-error computations in scoring; penalize test-takers who think in non-standard ways. Teachers oppose the tests because they radically limit their ability to adapt to learner differences; encourage use of threats, bribes, and other extrinsic motivators; wrongly assume that what the young will need to know in the future is already known; emphasize minimum achievement to the neglect of maximum performance; create unreasonable pressures to cheat. Teachers oppose the tests because they reduce teacher creativity and the appeal of teaching as a profession; are culturally biased; have no "success in life" predictive power; lead to the neglect of the best and worst students as resources are channeled to lift marginal kids above pass-fail “cut lines;” are open to massive scoring errors with life-changing consequences. Teachers oppose the tests because they're at odds with deep-seated American values about individual differences and worth; undermine a fundamental democratic principle that those closest to and therefore most knowledgeable about problems are best positioned to deal with them; dump major public money into corporate coffers instead of classrooms. The war on education (and reading): David Coleman's common core of nonsense The war on public education fraud by the numbers Time to leave No Child Behind far behind Rupert Murdoch and Jeb Bush ready to take over your school What Finland could teach us about teaching The abuse of testing in Chicago schools  Tacoma teachers win battle against school deformers War on public education leaving students less smart How private corporations are ripping off public education Child abuse: Chicago public school handcuffs first grader Three teachers take on test tyrants 40% of DC teachers offered bonuses turn them down Telling third graders about school budget cuts 2010 The chair of the NYC city council ed committee doesn't want Bloomberg's choice as school chancellor: "Cathie Black meets none of the professional experience requirements, apparently satisfying only the undergraduate graduation standard,” The District of Columbia's most affluent ward has more than four times as many "highly effective" public schoolteachers as its poorest SCHOOL 'REFORM' IS ABOUT CLASS, NOT CLASSROOMS HOW OTHER COUNTRIES GET GOOD SCHOOLS WITHOUT DUNCAN OR RHEE THE HUGE FACTOR IN EDUCATION BEING IGNORED ANOTHER SCHOOL DEFORM MYTH BUSTED: TEACHER BONUSES DON'T HELP SAT SCORES HIGHLIGHT SCHOOL REFORM FRAUD WHAT THE MEDIA DOESN'T TELL YOU ABOUT OBAMA'S SCHOOL 'REFORM' WHAT THE MEDIA DOESN'T TELL YOU ABOUT OBAMA'S SCHOOL 'REFORM' CIVIL RIGHTS, EDUCATION GROUPS HIT OBAMA'S SCHOOL POLICY HOW ERICA GOLDSON SURVIVED THE SCHOOL DEFORM MOVEMENT 22 REASONS EDUCATION 'REFORM' IS A THREAT CHICAGO TEACHERS ELECT A LEADER WILLING TO TAKE ON THE DUNCANISTS A TEACHER WRITES TO THE GOVERNOR TEN REASONS RACE TO THE TOP IS ANTI-EDUCATION FED'S OWN STATS PROVE EDUCATION POLICY A FLOP THE MESS OBAMA'S WAR ON EDUCATION CAUSED IN VERMONT "I'M A TEACHER IN FLORIDA . . . WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE" UPATE: THE WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION FLOTSAM & JETSAM: PLC? WDYMBT? SOME GOVERNORS UNHAPPY WITH 'RACE TO THE TOP' FEDERAL EDUCATION TAKEOVER FLUNKS ITS OWN TEST SO WHAT NOW? A STANDARDIZED JUNGLE GYM TEST? TEACHERS DON'T AGREE WITH OBAMA ON EDUCATION OBAMA OPENS NEW FRONT IN WAR ON EDUCATION OBAMA INTERFERES WITH LOCAL PUBLIC EDUCATION AGAIN 4OO HOUSTON TEACHERS THREATENED BY TEST TYRANTS SURVEY: TEACHERS DON'T LIKE 'NO CHILD' LAW TEST TYRANTS DOING AWAY WITH RECESS LOCAL HEROES: SCHOOL DISTRICT REJECTS 'RACE TO THE TOP' NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND FLUNKS AGAIN 2009 SCHOOL DEFORMERS SUCK 3-4 YEARS INTO TEST OBSESSION; EDUCATORS FIGHT BACK ARNE DUNCAN WOULD FLUNK WINSTON CHURCHILL EIGHT REASONS DUNCAN'S TEACH FOR DOLLARS PLAN WON'T WORK OBAMA'S EDUCATION PLAN DEPENDS ON TEST SCORING BY ILL TRAINED TEMPS THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DEFORMERS AND THE CHICAGO GANG DEATH OBAMA'S WAR AGAINST KIDS' VACATIONS SCHOOL DEFORMERS' LATEST NONSENSE OCTOBER 2009 HOW TEST OBSESSION IS HURTING LEARNING OBAMA WOULD HAVE STUDENTS STAY IN SCHOOL LONGER SEPTEMBER 2009 BLOWING THE MYTH OF ARNE DUNCAN ONLINE LEARNING HELPS STUDENTS AUGUST 2009 NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND . . .UNTIL THEY TAKE THE SAT NEA RIPS INTO OBAMA'S SCHOOL POLICIES STUDY FINDS GIULIANI-BLOOMBERG COPS IN SCHOOLS APPROACH DOESN'T WORK OBAMA BULLYING SCHOOL SYSTEMS TO GIVE UP LOCAL CONTROL HOW PUBLIC SCHOOL TEST TYRANTS CHEAT THEIR STUDENTS JULY 2009 PLAYING GAMES WITH SCHOOL TESTING WHY WE'RE NOT CHANGING EDUCATION JUNE 2009 HOW THE STANDARDISTOS ARE DAMAGING EDUCATION BRITISH REPORT BLASTS CORPORATIZED EDUCATION DUNCAN OUT TO KILL LOCAL PUBLIC EDUCATION THE SAME SORT OF PEOPLE WHO CRASHED THE ECONOMY NOW RUN OUR SCHOOLS LG OFFERS TESTING TRANSLATION TOOL FOR PARENTS DUNCAN THREATENS STATES WITH LOSS
OF FUNDS WHAT ASSESSMENT ADDICTS, CORPORATE
HUSTLERS, MAY 2009 SCHOOL REFORM? UNTRAINED TEACHERS FOR THE POOR THE UNDERSIDE OF TEACH FOR AMERICA COMING SOON TO A SCHOOL NEAR YOU: A NATIONAL CURRICULUM? HEY, IT WORKED FOR HITLER
DIDN'T IT?  APRIL 2009 WHAT DUNCAN REALLY DID TO CHICAGO SCHOOLS COMING SOON TO A SCHOOL NEAR YOU: A NATIONAL CURRICULUM? DUNCAN BULLYING SCHOOL SYSTEMS INTO EXCESSIVE PAPERWORK NYC CHANCELLOR USED TAXPAYER'S TIME TO RAISE MONEY FOR CONSERVATIVE EDUCATION LOBBY DUMP DUNCAN, RHEE & KLEIN AND LET THE FINNS TEACH US HOW TO RUN OUR SCHOOLS HOW SCHOOL AUTOCRATS ARE HURTING PUBLIC EDUCATION PAYOFF CONTINUES TO AL SHARPTON FOR JOINING WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION BRITISH SCHOOL SCANDAL RAISES CONCERN OVER AMERICA'S TESTING OBSESSION MARCH 2009 UNDERPERFORMING DC SCHOOL SUPER PLAYS FAST AND LOOSE WITH TEACHERS' FUTURES WHERE BAD PUBLIC EDUCATION REALLY COMES FROM OBAMA TAKES RIGHTWING LINE ON PUBLIC EDUCATION FEBRUARY 2009 THE MEDIA MUDDLED STORY OF TEACH FOR AMERICA THE DANGERS OF SCHOOL TESTING ADDICTION THE PRICE OF BRIBING STUDENTS INTO BETTER GRADES LOCAL HEROES: SEATTLE TEACHER SUSPENDED FOR REFUSING TO GIVE STANDARDIZED TEST JANUARY 2009
FLUNKIN' DUNCAN: THE TEST RESULTS FOXES IN THE CHICKEN COOP: ARNE DUNCAN OBAMA SIDES WITH WAR ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS WHY ARNE DUNCAN IS A TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR EDUCATION SECRETAR DECEMBER 2008 MAJOR CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDAL IN DC STUDY SUGGESTS NO CHILD LAW MAY BE DUMBING DOWN STUDENTS NO CHILD LAW EVEN MAKING LIBERALS DUMBER SEPTEMBER 2008 EVEN THE RIGHT IS FINDING CHARTERS & VOUCHERS TO BE SUBPRIME Frederick M Hess, American Enterprise Institute - Milwaukee's voucher program initially allowed a few hundred students to attend local private schools with public scholarships. When it was launched, advocates voiced expansive claims on behalf of "choice." In 1990, scholars John Chubb and Terry Moe argued in their seminal volume Politics, Markets, and America's Schools, "Without being too literal about it, we think reformers would do well to entertain the notion that choice is a panacea. . . . It has the capacity all by itself to bring about the kind of transformation that, for years, reformers have been seeking to engineer in myriad other ways." The record of markets in advancing prosperity, opportunity, and innovation is compelling. It seemed almost axiomatic that market reforms would deliver similar results in schooling, spurring the emergence of good schools and pushing traditional districts to improve. Yet things have not worked out as intended. Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a champion of choice-based reform since the 1980s, has voiced "growing sympathy" with choice skeptics and warned against "too much trust in market forces. . . Even staunch proponents of school choice are conceding disappointment. Earlier this year, Weekly Standard contributor Daniel Casse reported, "The two most recent studies show that, since the implementation of the voucher program, reading scores across all Milwaukee schools are falling." Howard Fuller, patron saint of the voucher program, has wryly acknowledged, "I think that any honest assessment would have to say that there hasn't been the deep, wholesale improvement in MPS [Milwaukee Public Schools] that we would have thought." Manhattan Institute scholar Sol Stern, one-time choice enthusiast and author of Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice, brought the concerns to a boiling point earlier this year when he declared, "Fifteen years into the most expansive school choice program tried in any urban school district [there is] . . . no 'Milwaukee miracle,' no transformation of the public schools has taken place.". . . Today, the Milwaukee voucher program enrolls nearly twenty thousand students in more than one hundred schools, yet this growing marketplace has yielded little innovation or excellence. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently described 10 percent of voucher schools as having "alarming deficiencies." These include Alex's Academics of Excellence, which was launched by a convicted rapist, and the Mandella School of Science and Math, whose director overreported its voucher enrollment and used the funds to purchase two Mercedes-Benzes. Veteran Journal Sentinel writer Alan Borsuk has opined, "[The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program] has preserved the status quo in terms of schooling options in the city more than it has offered a range of new, innovative, or distinctive schools." Wisconsin headline writers have had a field day, with the Capital Times and Milwaukee Magazine featuring the likes of "The Failure of School Choice," and "Whoops, We Goofed: School Choice Doesn't Work Like Its Supporters Promised. Gulp. Now What?" . . . While research suggests that some participating students benefit from private school vouchers, these results may largely reflect the ability of students in places like New York City or Washington, D.C., to find empty seats in established parochial schools. There is little evidence that voucher or choice programs have succeeded in fostering the emergence or expansion of high-quality options. Similar concerns plague the charter movement nationally, even as the number of charter schools has surged above four thousand and charter enrollment has passed the one million mark. The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics has compared the performance of students in district and charter schools, reporting, "After adjusting for student characteristics, charter school mean scores in reading and mathematics were lower, on average, than those for public noncharter schools." . . . Stig Leschly, executive director of the Newark Charter School Fund, has observed that only about two hundred of the thousands of existing charter schools "really close the achievement gap." . . . Among the eight cities where charter schools enroll 20 percent or more of students are Detroit, Michigan; Youngstown, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. In 2007, Education Week reported that, despite a substantial charter presence, Detroit had the highest dropout rate among the nation's large school systems. A 2007 analysis found that just 57 percent of Youngstown's charter schools, and just 38 percent of its district schools, met Ohio's growth targets for student improvement in reading and math. In a study of Washington,
D.C., which has one of the nation's highest rates of charter
school enrollment, researchers Margaret Sullivan, Dean Campbell,
and Brian Kisida found no evidence of improvement in D.C. public
schools even as they lost nearly a third of their students to
charter school competition. They traced inaction to a district
"hampered by political dynamics and burdensome regulations."
. . . YOU GOT ME. . . WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED? Progressive Review - We've noticed a growing new elite that even makes the fiscal crisis spawning boomers seem self-effacing. At the core of its style is the assumption that certainty is an adequate substitute for competence. We're not sure what created them - perhaps they believed all the TV shows they watched growing up or perhaps their boomer parents told them too many times how great they were, but we've seldom seen such rampant unsubstantiated self satisfaction. Some sociologist needs to find a name for them before they all get fired for screwing up. In the meantime we might name them Generation Rhee after that media-coddled prototype, DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee, who has gotten unending plaudits for yet to be seen results. And just when we thought we'd heard he best Rhee could tell us about herself, now comes this from the Washington Post: "D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who didn't fuss when a PBS interviewer asked if she was a 'benevolent dictator,' made clear again that she was more than comfortable with the her-way-or the-Beltway approach. 'I think if there is one thing I have learned over the last 15 months it's that cooperation, collaboration and consensus-building are way overrated,' she told the Aspen Institute's education summit at the Mayflower JULY 2008 LOCAL HEROES: SOME WHO HAVE STOOD UP AGAINST SCHOOL TEST MANIA Fair Test Examiner Individual teachers, parents and students sometimes respond to high-stakes testing by putting themselves on the line: - Carl Chew, a 60-year-old sixth grade science teacher from Seattle, wrestled annually with his conscience about administering the Washington Assessment of Student Learning tests to his students. "Each year I would give the WASL, and I would promise myself I would never do it again," he said. "I decided, 'I'm not going to wimp out this time.'" His refusal resulted in a nine-day unpaid suspension along with accolades from parents and teachers around the nation. Chew explained his reasons in a Seattle Post Intelligencer commentary: "I performed this single act of civil disobedience based on personal moral and ethical grounds, as well as professional duty. I believe that the WASL is destructive to our children, teachers, schools, and parents. . . . " - North Carolina special education teacher Doug Ward could no longer bring himself to give the state's alternative assessments to his students with severe disabilities. He was fired for his act of civil disobedience this spring. Ward, who had been teaching special needs students for three years, said he did not want to give a test to his students that was invalid and that they could not pass. "Someone needs to use a little common sense and say, 'I am just not going to do it,'" Ward said. Like Chew, Ward has received support from parents, colleagues and the community. Bob Williams, whose son Kyle was taught by Ward, said he admires his son's teacher for what he did, and that the test doesn't measure what Kyle has learned. "If you ask me as a parent is (Kyle) succeeding, you are darn right he is succeeding," Williams said. "When he started third grade, he couldn't walk down the hall. When he started school as a kindergartner, he was in a wheelchair. Now he can walk down the hall on his own. The test doesn't test that." - Parent Craig Haller of Brookline, Mass., whose daughter Hannah is a high school freshman with severe disabilities, has launched an exhaustive effort to exempt his daughter from the state test and alternative assessment. State authorities failed to respond to his many requests that 15-year-old Hannah not be tested because she is unable to communicate and her individualized education plan does not align with the state curriculum frameworks. Haller contacted every local and state official he could find and alerted the news media. . . In a letter to state Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester, Haller wrote, "She will experience heightened stress and anxiety at the time of the exam by not being physically able to respond to any part of the exam. She will experience loss of self esteem and self image by completely and totally failing an exam that is not designed to test or assess her knowledge but the mastery of the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks." - Virtually the entire 8th grade of a South Bronx, New York City, middle school boycotted a practice version of the state exam. Their teacher was disciplined for supposedly fomenting the rebellion. The 160 students from six classes at Intermediate School 318 handed in blank answer sheets rather than take a three-hour practice round of the state social studies exam. "We've had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year," said 13-year-old Tatiana Nelson. "They don't even count toward our grades. The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams." The students also submitted a petition to school authorities saying they were tired of the "constant, excessive and stressful testing" that takes time from instruction. The students insisted the boycott was their idea, but administrators blamed Douglas Avella, the students' probationary social studies teacher, and reassigned him to New York's notorious "rubber room" for teachers accused of various kinds of misconduct. "Now they've taken away the teacher we love only a few weeks before our real state exam for social studies," Nelson said. "How does that help us?" - St. Lucie County, Florida high school Assistant Principal Teri Pinney resigned from her position in June rather than comply with her principal's request that she suspend students for sleeping or "Christmas Treeing" (filling in bubbles to make a pattern) during state testing and other requests she believes were unethical. Neither Pinney nor another assistant principal complied, but the principal suspended the students. Pinney said, "Two of the kids he suspended were good students, never got in trouble, and had excellent attendance. They were children of migrant Mexican workers. The parents pleaded with me and I gave in and lifted the suspensions. Of course, that opposition with my boss got me in trouble." In a newspaper commentary, Pinney expressed her dismay at the role played by testing in schools today: "I believe that misuse or overuse of standardized testing is creating a maddening race for everybody to that elusive finishing line." TEACHERS UNION CALLS FOR END OF NO CHILD LAW George N Schmidt, Substance - In a major address to the 3,000 delegates to the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers, outgoing president Ed McElroy announced that the union was no longer in favor of tinkering with the federal "No Child Left Behind" law and called for the abolition of NCLB. According to the press release summarizing McElroy's remarks: "McElroy pledged that the AFT would work with the next president to move beyond the No Child Left Behind Act (which he called 'an idea whose time has gone') to 'create a new education law that respects the knowledge of classroom professionals and helps teachers and paraprofessionals provide our students with the high-quality education they deserve." To the loudest cheers of his valedictory speech, McElroy repeated that No Child Left Behind cannot be repaired, and had to be replaced. . . When No Child Left Behind was originally proposed by the administration of President George W. Bush in 2002, it received widespread bipartisan support, including the support of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D, MA) and U.S. Representative George Miller (D, CA), who at the time were the ranking minority leaders in the Senate and House on matters of education. Senator Kennedy stood beside President Bush at the signing of NCLB. AFT long maintained in public that NCLB was basically an "unfunded" mandate, and publicly clamored for more funding for NCLB. Kennedy and Miller followed their lead. When NCLB came up for reauthorization in 2007, however, widespread national opposition to the law was even heard inside the Beltway in Washington, D.C., and at the offices of the two national teacher unions . . . By mid-2007, it was clear that NCLB was in trouble, and even its staunchest supporters inside the Democratic Party were being forced to retreat. Rep. Miller returned to his home district in California to find himself followed by teachers and others who were actively opposing NCLB. . . By the summer of 2007, two of the contenders for the nomination (U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Governor Richardson of New Mexico) told people across the county that there were opposed to NCLB, and that the law should be eliminated. The two leading contenders for the Democratic Party nomination -- New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama -- were less emphatic in their opposition to the renewal of NCLB. Both continued throughout the 2008 primary season to discuss NCLB as if it might be improved, and not simply eliminated. . . Although U.S. Senator Barack Obama appeared before a high-priced fundraiser at one of the two main convention hotels on the night of July 11, his campaign has continued to announce that his address to the AFT will be by satellite, as he addressed the NEA two weeks earlier. Many at the AFT convention consider Obama's refusal to appear in person before the convention a personal snub. Chicago's teachers were among the first supporters Obama had when he was gathering support for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2003 and early 2004. In fact, without the support of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Obama would not have received the backing of the Cook County Democratic Party and the junior senator from Illinois today would be Dan Hynes, a member of a prominent Democratic Party family in Chicago who was the early favorite in 2003 for the nomination. By July 11, there was some speculation that Obama was reconsidering his decision to snub the AFT as he had snubbed the NEA by refusing to appear in person. JUNE 2008 TEACHERS RUNNING SCHOOLS IN MILWAUKEE MAY 2008 BUSY BEES NYC - Growing up in New York City can been tremendously exciting. And, even more so if you are organized and take advantage of everything the city has to offer. But, it can take time to navigate New York's child care and activity labyrinth - which really is a world in itself. busybeesNYC can help you ensure that your little one is getting the most out of the very Big Apple. Given our hectic lives, particularly as New York parents, we often invite people into our world to help enhance our quality of life - the cleaning lady, the wedding planner, the life coach. Each, in their own way, makes our life simpler and allows us to focus on what is really important. busybeesNYC has that same goal in mind and we know that every minute you spend with your child really does count. So, to help every other alpha-parent out there that doesn't have a ton of time to organize their child's calendar but cares immensely that their child is appropriately stimulated and engaged, busybeesNYC is here to help. . . For a limited time only $399. SEATTLE TEACHER SUSPENDED FOR REFUSING TO GIVE STANDARDIZED TEST THE ISSUES THAT MAKE NO CHILD LAW SO CONTROVERSIAL THE WAR AGAINST PUBLIC SCHOOLS: CORPORATIONS DESIGNING CURRICULA TO HELP RECRUIT WORKERS PERCENTAGE OF MALE TEACHERS HITS 40-YEAR LOW LOCAL HEROES: SCHOOL DISTRICT REBELS AGAINST NO CHILD LEFT LAW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN KIDS STOP PLAYING OUTSIDE ANOTHER REASON YOU MAY NOT WANT TO WRECK THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM MAINE'S SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION MESS ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS GETTING A NEW LIFE NEIL BUSH ZAPPED ON NO CHILD HUSTLE NO CHILD LEFT SCHEME HAS BROUGHT FIVE TESTING FIRMS $2 BILLION WHY IQ SCORES RISE WHILE READING AND MATH SCORES DON'T BRITISH STUDY FINDS 7-11 YEAR OLDS STRESSED OUT BY NATIONAL TESTS, NEWS JONATHAN KOZOL BLOWS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND OUT OF THE WATER BRINGING BACK THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL . APRIL 2008 THE ISSUES THAT MAKE NO CHILD LAW SO CONTROVERSIAL Indeed, one thing we know from all the testing that is required is that the nation's students aren't making much progress under NCLB. Math scores, for instance, have risen under NCLB, but at a slower rate than they did before the law took effect. Reading scores have barely budged. There's been book-cooking, too: Afraid of having their schools tagged as failures, which could mean large-scale staff replacement, or being forced to cede a school to private management, many states have assured themselves of improved results by dumbing down their assessment tests or lowering the definition of a passing grade. Technically, that's allowed, since NCLB requires students to be "proficient" but doesn't say what that means. . . While many of NCLB's original backers have distanced themselves from the bill, even its chief architects, Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy and California Democrat Rep. George Miller, are starting to criticize it. "Up until at least spring of last year, they were very resistant to legislative changes to the law and generally defenders of the law. They were critical of funding and critical of how the Bush administration was implementing the law, but they were not calling for a change to the statute itself," says the NEA's Packer. "This year they have significantly changed their tune and their tone." Last summer, Miller declared the law "not fair," "not flexible," and "not funded." Last month, in a Washington Post op-ed on the eve of NCLB's sixth anniversary, Senator Kennedy ticked off some of its accomplishments, but then proceeded to roundly criticize it, writing that "its one-size-fits-all approach encourages 'teaching to the test' and discourages innovation in the classroom." The National Conference of State Legislatures, which has long criticized NCLB, believes the law is hopelessly convoluted. Representative Miller's draft revision numbered 600 pages, compared to approximately 1,100 for the original. Says David Shreve, the NCSL's federal affairs counsel: "It's a terrible irony that you take 600 pages of amendments to fix 1,100 pages of messed up public policy, as if that's going to simplify and clarify it." MARCH 2008 WHAT'S HAPPENING TO SCHOOLS [This is the best piece we've seen on what NCLB, charter schools, reorganizations and other false school reforms are really about] STEVEN MILLER AND JACK GERSON, EDUCATOR ROUNDTABLE - The "Tough Choices or Tough Times" report of the National Commission on Skills in the Workplace, funded in large part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and signed by a bipartisan collection of prominent politicians, businesspeople, and urban school superintendents, called for a series of measures including: (a) replacing public schools with what the report called "contract schools", which would be charter schools writ large; (b) eliminating nearly all the powers of local school boards - their role would be to write and sign the authorizing agreements for the "contract schools; (c) eliminating teacher pensions and slashing health benefits; and (d) forcing all 10th graders to take a high school exit examination based on 12th grade skills, and terminating the education of those who failed (i.e., throwing millions of students out into the streets as they turn 16). These measures, taken together, would effectively cripple public control of public education. They would dangerously weaken the power of teacher unions, thus facilitating still further attacks on the public sector. They would leave education policy in the hands of a network of entrepreneurial think tanks, corporate entrepreneurs, and armies of lobbyists whose priorities are profiting from the already huge education market while cutting back on public funding for schools and students. Indeed, their measures would mean privatization of education, effectively terminating the right to a public education, as we have known it. Many of the most powerful forces in the country want the US, the first country to guarantee public education, to be the first country to end it. For the last fifty years, public education was one of only two public mandates guaranteed by the government that was accessible to every person, regardless of income. Social Security is the other. Now both systems are threatened with privatization schemes. The government today openly defines its mission as protecting the rights of corporations above everything. Thus public education is a rare public space that is under attack. The same scenario is being implemented with most of the services that governments used to provide for free or at little cost: electricity, national parks, health care and water. In every case, the methodology is the same: underfund public services, create an uproar and declare a crisis, claim that privatization can do the job better, deregulate or break public control, divert public money to corporations and then raise prices. In the past year, it's become evident that the corporate surge against public schools is only part of a much broader assault against the public sector, against unions, and indeed against the public's rights and public control of public institutions. This has been evident for some time now in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina's devastation is used as an excuse for permanently privatizing the infrastructure of a major American city: razing public housing and turning land over to developers; replacing the city's public school system with a combination of charter schools and state-run schools; letting the notorious Blackwater private army loose on the civilian population; and, in the end, forcing tens of thousands of families out of the city permanently. The citizens of New Orleans have had their civil rights forcibly expropriated. Just as the shock of the hurricane was the excuse for the shock therapy applied to New Orleans, so the economic downturn triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis is now the excuse for a national assault on the public sector and the public's rights. . . In public education, the corporate surge has grown both qualitatively and quantitatively. Where two years ago the corporate education change agents were mainly operating in a relatively small number of large urban areas, they have now surfaced everywhere. The corporatization of public education is the leading edge of privatization. This has the effect of silencing the public voice on every aspect of the situation. Across the US, public schools are not yet privatized, though private services are increasingly benefiting from this market. However, increasing corporate control of programs - a different mix in every locale - is having a chilling influence on the very things that people (though not corporations) want from teachers: the ability to relate to and teach each child, a nurturing approach that nudges every child to move ahead, human assessments that put people before performance on standardized tests. Perhaps the single most dramatic development of the corporate approach was the launching of the $60 million Strong American Schools - Ed in '08 initiative, funded by billionaires Bill Gates and Eli Broad. This is a naked effort to purchase the nation's education policy, no matter who is elected President, by buying their way into every electoral forum. Ed in '08 has a three-point program: merit pay (basing teachers' compensation on students' scores on high stakes test); national education standards (enforcing conformity and rote learning); and longer school day and school year (still more time for rote learning, less time for kids to be kids. . . Where two years ago charter schools were still viewed as experiments affecting a relatively small number of students, in 2007 the corporate privatizers - led by Broad and Gates - grossly expanded their funding to the point where they now loom as a major presence. In March, the Gates Foundation announced a $100 million donation to KIPP charter schools, which would enable them to expand their Houston operation to 42 schools (from eight) - effectively, KIPP will be a full-fledged alternative school system in Houston. Also in the past year, Eli Broad and Gates have given in the neighborhood of $50 million to KIPP and Green Dot charter schools in Los Angeles, with the aim of doubling the percentage of LA students enrolled in charter schools. Oakland, another Broad/Gates targets, now has more than 30 charter schools out of 92. And, as we shall see below, the same trend holds across the country. NCLB in 2008 is still a major issue. It continues to have a corrosive effect on public schools. It is designed an unfunded mandate, which means that schools must meet ever rigid standards every year, though no more money is appropriated to support this effort. This means that schools must take ever-more money out of the class room to meet federal requirements when schools with low test scores are in "Program Improvement". Once schools are in PI for 5 years they can be forced into privatization. NCLB is a driving force that decimates the "publicness" in public schools. In California, more than 2000 schools are now in "Program-Improvement". This means that they have to meet certain specific, and mostly impossible standards, or they must divert increasingly greater amounts of money out of the classroom and into private programs. For example, schools in 3rd year PI must take money out of programs that helped schools with a high proportion of low achieving schools and make it available to private tutors. . . Privatizing public schools inevitable leads to massive increase in social inequality. Private corporations have never been required to recognize civil rights, because, by definition, these are public rights. If the corporate privatizers succeed in taking over our schools, there will be neither quality education nor civil rights. The system of public education in the United States is deeply flawed. While suburban schools are among the best in the world, public education in cities has been deliberately underfunded and is in a shambles. The solution is not to fight backwards to maintain the old system. Rather it is to fight forward to a new system that will truly guarantee quality education as a civil right for everyone. Central to this is to challenge the idea that everything in human society should be run by corporations, that only corporations and their political hacks have the right or the power to discuss what public policy should be. . . The real direction is to increase the role and power of the public in every way, not eliminate it. . . FOR FULL REPORT, EMAIL STEVE MILLER CORPORATIONS DESIGNING CURRICULA TO HELP RECRUIT WORKERS ANNE MARIE CHAKER, WALL STREET JOURNAL
- In a recent class at Abraham Clark High School in Roselle,
N.J., business teacher Barbara Govahn distributed glossy classroom
materials that invited students to think about what they want
to be when they grow up. Eighteen career paths were profiled,
including a writer, a magician, a town mayor -- and five employees
from accounting giant Deloitte LLP. . . Deloitte and other corporations are reaching out to classrooms -- drafting curricula while also conveying the benefits of working for the sponsor companies. Hoping to create a pipeline of workers far into the future, these corporations furnish free lesson plans and may also underwrite classroom materials, computers or training seminars for teachers. The programs represent a new dimension of the business world's influence in public schools. Companies such as McDonald's Corp. and Yum Brands Inc.'s Pizza Hut have long attempted to use school promotions to turn students into customers. The latest initiatives would turn them into employees. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120476410964115117.html FEBRUARY 2008 FINLAND: WHERE THEY REALLY LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND ELLEN GAMERMAN, WALL STREET JOURNAL - Finnish teenagers are among the smartest in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old students who were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the world's C students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and rules. Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by ninth grade they're way ahead in math, science and reading -- on track to keeping Finns among the world's most productive workers. Finland's students are the brightest in the world, according to an international test. Teachers say extra playtime is one reason for the students' success. WSJ's Ellen Gamerman reports.. . . . The academic prowess of Finland's students has lured educators from more than 50 countries in recent years to learn the country's secret, including an official from the U.S. Department of Education. What they find is simple but not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on, kids do a lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their students. "We don't have oil or other riches. Knowledge is the thing Finnish people have," says Hannele Frantsi, a school principal. . . Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards. "In most countries, education feels like a car factory. In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs," says Mr. Schleicher, of the Paris-based OECD, which began the international student test in 2000.
Would you want Michelle Rhee teaching your child? 80 teachers illegally fired by Michelle Rhee get reinstated Michelle Rhee runs from media as her myth disintegrates Why U.S. schools aren't as bad as Duncan & Rhee want you to believe WHY RHEE, GATES & GUGGENHEIM ARE FULL OF IT In the annual Quality Counts rankings of Ed Week. DC came in second from the bottom compared to the fifty states. THE REAL STORY ABOUT MICHELLE RHEE 2009 HOW RHEE GETS IT WRONG Dean Shareski, Ideas & Thoughts - [Jay Matthews] article features Washington's chancellor of education, Michelle Rhee and her relentless efforts to improve schools. I admire her passion. I'm not all that impressed with her perspectives. "'The thing that kills me about education is that it's so touchy-feely,' she tells me one afternoon in her office. . . People say, 'Well, you know, test scores don't take into account creativity and the love of learning,' she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. 'I'm like, 'You know what? I don't give a crap.' Don't get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job.'". . . I've been in a number of schools of late and seen students whose reading scores are the least of their problems. If you've been in schools lately you know what I mean. 15 year olds, living on their own, coming to school high, 1st graders so full of anger they threaten classmates lives and the list goes on. These students do not need to see their reading scores meet or exceed grade level by the end of the year, they need "touch-feely" teachers. By "touchy-feely", I mean teachers that have time, expertise and passion to help them function as human beings, never mind reading. Reading is priority number 236 in their list of needs. I spent a few hours watching these at risk students building a canoe from scratch. Students who, for a change, were attending school, interacting politely with adults, finding a purpose. No standardized test in the world could measure this. But the gains made by these students because of "touch-feely" teachers is unquestionable. These teachers deserve a raise. I've also been in schools with students who are so far above reading level and ability that the curriculum and classroom activities are laughable. They sit in their desks and hate it when teachers ask them to consider how they learn or what they want to learn; they just want to be told what to do because they're good at it and have had years of success playing that game and are upset when a teacher wants to change the rules. They need opportunity to show their creative side. They need to be teaching others. They might ace a standardized test and the teacher might be seen as successful. I'm not sure the teachers or students have done anything worthwhile. These two diverse groups of students are the reason standardized tests and Rhee-like one-size-fits-all education isn't valuable. . . Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one, doesn't matter where you go, you'd think it would be otherwise but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on earth. 2008 BRITISH STUDY SUGGESTS FENTY & RHEE MAY BE DUMBING DOWN STUDENTS Laura Clark, Daily Mail UK - Bright teenagers are a disappearing breed, an alarming new study has revealed. The intellectual ability of the country's cleverest youngsters has declined radically, almost certainly due to the rise of TV and computer games and over-testing in schools. The 'high-level thinking' skills of 14-year-olds are now on a par with those of 12-year-olds in 1976. The findings contradict national results which have shown a growth in top grades in SATs at 14, GCSEs and A-levels. The intelligence of Britain's youth is being dumbed down, which experts say is down to television and video games. Posed by model. But Michael Shayer, the professor of applied psychology who led the study, believes that is the result of exam standards 'edging down'. His team of researchers at London's King's College tested 800 13 and 14-year-olds and compared the results with a similar exercise in 1976. The tests were intended to measure understanding of abstract scientific concepts such as volume, density, quantity and weight, which set pupils up for success not only in maths and science but also in English and history. One test asked pupils to study a pendulum swinging on a string and investigate the factors that cause it to change speed. A second involved weights on a beam. In the pendulum test, average achievement was much the same as in 1976. But the proportion of teenagers reaching top grades, demanding a 'higher level of thinking', slumped dramatically. Just over one in ten were at that level, down from one in four in 1976. In the second test, assessing mathematical thinking skills, just one in 20 pupils were achieving the high grades - down from one in five in 1976. Professor Shayer said: 'The pendulum test does not require any knowledge of science at all. 'It looks at how people can deal with complex information and sort it out for themselves.' He believes most of the downturn has occurred over the last ten to 15 years. It may have been hastened by the introduction of national curriculum testing and accompanying targets, which have cut the time available for teaching which develops more advanced skills. Critics say schools concentrate instead on drilling children for the tests. 'The moment you introduce targets, people will find the most economical strategies to achieve them,' said Professor Shayer. A study found the high-level thinking skills of 14-year-olds are now on par with a 12-year-old in 1976. . . Professor Shayer believes the decline in brainpower is also linked to changes in children's leisure activities. The advent of multi-channel TV has encouraged passive viewing while computer games, particularly for boys, are feared to have supplanted time spent playing with tools, gadgets and other mechanisms. . . Previous research by Professor Shayer has shown that 11-year-olds' grasp of concepts such as volume, density, quantity and weight appears to have declined over the last 30 years. Their mental abilities were up to three years behind youngsters tested in in 1975. His latest findings, due to appear in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, come in the wake of a report by Dr Aric Sigman which linked the decline in intellectual ability to a shift away from art and craft skills in both schools and the home. Dr Sigman said practical activities such
as building models and sandcastles, making dens, using tools,
playing with building blocks, knitting, sewing and woodwork were
being neglected. Last month an Ofsted report said millions of teenagers were finishing compulsory education with a weak grasp of maths because half of the country's schools fail to teach the subject as well as they could. Inspectors said teachers were increasingly drilling pupils to pass exams instead of encouraging them to understand crucial concepts. RHEE THINKS REPUBLICANS ARE BETTER THAN DEMOCRATS DC Wire, Washington Post - She's said it before, but Michelle Rhee keeps hammering
away at the Democratic Party for being weak on education accountability
and reform. Last night, Rhee appeared before the Ward 4 Democrats
at Emery Recreation Center and explained that she appeared on
an education panel discussion in Denver during the Democratic
National Convention to "make a statement to the Democratic
Party" about why it needs to get tougher on unions and other
"political interests." Rhee stressed that she has been
a lifelong Democrat, but then she lit into the Party. "Republicans
are much better at education policy than Democrats," she
said. "Democrats are soft on accountability and they're
anti-NCLB [No Child Left Behind], they don't want to test anyone.
This attitude in my mind does nothing for the neediest students
who need help the most." To Rhee, Democratic leaders pander
to unions and other interest groups who are "driving the
agenda on school reform. Everyone thinks Republicans are for
the rich, white oil guys to whom they give tax breaks and Democrats
are for kids and the underclass. I don't think the Democratic
Party operates that way. So we were there [in Denver] speaking
out and pushing the Party to move in a different direction." TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO BE DYSFUNCTIONAL WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL Rhee wants nonprofits to take over a dozen of the city's most failing high schools. A new tax-exempt group, formed by former Fenty bullpen official Sarah Lasner, will receive donations from businesses eager to contribute to school reform. And Rhee wants businesses to pony up their human capital by adopting schools and helping students on Saturdays and in summer school with legions of off-hours tutors and mentors. Many in the business community wonder why it has taken her so long to ask for their help. Foundations and corporations have complained for months that they can't get meetings with Rhee. In a meeting with members of The Philanthropy Roundtable on April 1, she repeated Fenty's blunt request that they contribute $75 million every year for the next five years - while adding that most of the money would probably go toward teachers' salary incentives. Some business leaders at the meeting bristled: Why should they be asked to pitch in for overhead when the system was wasting so much money? Shouldn't they be contributing like businesses usually do: building playgrounds, buying computers and painting hallways on the weekends?. . . Rhee explains her approach to business and nonprofit involvement in D.C. schools. Her bottom line: If you're a business and you want to contribute, you will do what the school system needs, not necessarily what you want to do. And however you contribute, your business's role will be evaluated by a single criteria: Did it lead to an improvement in students' standardized test scores CITY DESK - Rhee's approach to education is deeply anti-educational. To use standardized tests as the sole criteria of someone's achievement ignores matters such as wisdom, judgment, social factors and morality. If you educate kids in such a manner you basically end up with adults - not unlike Rhee and Fenty - able to absorb a large amount of data but often incapable of using it sensibly in a social situation. There is a name for this; it's called Asperger's Syndrome. The last thing we want to do is to train our children to be as socially dysfunctional as some of our leaders. Let's say we have a standardized test on the city budget. Rhee and Fenty would probably pass it with flying colors. Now let's ask a different sort of question: given the data, what is the best amount of money we should spend on education as opposed to locking up minor drug offenders a thousand miles from home? There's no way you can standardize the answer because it is ultimately a matter of wisdom and morality. Now let's ask another question. If we are spending too much on prisons, how do we convince people to do otherwise? Again, there is no way to standardize the answers. Yet the success of our society is based on education young people to be able to answer such questions and thousands of others that won't fit in the blank on the test sheet. There is nothing wrong with tests when they are used with the sort of wisdom, judgment and conscience that standardized tests can't teach you. If we want our children to have the latter traits, then we must educate them and not reduce learning to the primitive logic of slot machine. RHEE-ALITY CHECK CANDI PETERSON On Saturday, May 3, Mr. Jesus Aguirre from the Office of the Chancellor told some local DC public school restructuring teams in a citywide meeting that DCPS elementary school counselor positions will not be funded in DCPS elementary schools that do not have a minimum of six hundred students. . . As if this weren't enough, DCPS literacy and math coach teachers were advised last Friday that they too will have to reapply for their newly reclassified jobs under new position titles, Literacy Professional Developer and Mathematics Professional Developer, at the DCPS teacher transfer fair next Saturday. . . Like their mentor, Chancellor Joel Klein of New York public schools, it appears that Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee believe that the way to reform public education is by firing the bottom half of public school employees. As Randi Weingarten, President of United Federation of Teachers, reported about Chancellor Joel Klein's similar tactics, "And if you can't fire them, make their lives miserable." Instead of proposing creative solutions that would reform our public schools, Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty continue down their path of destruction of our educational landscape which is counterproductive, destroys employee morale, wastes valuable talent, tarnishes future teacher recruitment efforts, and lacks a long-term educational strategic plan. After all, what competent, certified and experienced employees will be attracted to work in a system that regularly devalues and disrespects teachers, and fails to retain their existing pool of talented and certified educators? RHEE BACKS RIGHTWING ATTACK ON PUBLIC EDUCATION LOOSE LIPS, CITY PAPER Mayor Adrian M. Fenty might be a Barack Obama supporter, but his hand-picked education czar is opting for a different approach, at least when it comes to improving schools. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, in comments at a gathering of the Korean-American Coalition's D.C. chapter, endorsed the education plan of Arizona Republican John McCain "far and away" over those of either Obama or Hillary Clinton. Rhee, in a speech at Tony Cheng's Restaurant in Chinatown, referred to herself as a "card-carrying Democrat" (LL forgot to ask to see the card), yet endorsed McCain's approach based on his willingness to reauthorize the controversial "No Child Left Behind" legislation. Both Clinton and Obama have been highly critical of the law and its effects. "I think they're pandering, quite frankly, to the teachers' unions and other folks," she said. In comments after the speech, Rhee . . . called herself as a "huge proponent" of the federal law and said she was "incredibly disappointed" with the lack of Democratic support . . . though she did say she had a "laundry list" of things she would change with the statute.
Harry Jaffe in the DC Examiner reports this exchange between David Catania and Michelle Rhee during a recent city council hearing: Catania, one of Rhee's best buddies on the legislature, suggested the Council put a cap on charter schools, the better to stem the tide of these fast-multiplying schools that are independent of the school bureaucracy yet rely on public funds. Catania was expecting Rhee to take the path of least resistance and thank him for saving her public schools from competition. But Rhee doesn't walk in the same worn-out shoes of her predecessors. No thanks, Rhee responded. This is about educating children rather than dividing up turf. "The problem is not capping charter schools," she told me, "it's about asking how do we make sure we get as many kids into great charter schools as possible. "I would fight to the death for a real good charter school," she says. Have no doubt about it. Fenty and Rhee are out to kill public education and replace it with charter schools run by educational mercenaries. There is no proof that this is educationally preferable and there is clear evidence that the public will lose control over education at every level. The school board has already been emasculated and every public school replaced by a charter is one more central piece of a functioning community destroyed.
A Texas school superintendent takes on Arne Duncan & Obama Let me ask you a simple question: Where is adequate yearly progress for the politician? Will we have 100 percent employment by 2014? Will all the children have decent health care and roofs over their heads by their deadline? But wait. They don't have a deadline. They aren't racing anywhere, are they? Congressmen, politicians, if you want children that are lush, stop firing the gardeners and start paying the water bill. Politicians, your fingerprints are on these children. What have you done to help them pass their tests? Arne Duncan bullies Washington's mayor on school chancellor appointment Why Arne Duncan, Michell Rhee and the other test tryants flunk in math How Duncan & NCLB are breaking teachers ARNE DUNCAN'S WAR AGAINST PARENTS COURT BACKS TEACHERS AGAINST ARNE DUNCAN'S MASS FIRING DUNCAN'S WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION HITS RHODE ISLAND ARNE DUNCAN'S PHONY REFORM STRIKES AGAIN: 200 FIRED AT GEORGIA SCHOOL
Education professor challenges Teach for America's claims Reality Check: Teach for America NEA HEAD CALLS TEACH FOR AMERICA EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICE
BACK TO TOP Bill Gates's cover blown; his foundation gives big grant to right wing foe of public education Get Bill Gates out of the classroom WHY RHEE, GATES & GUGGENHEIM ARE FULL OF IT How three foundations are damaging public education How did Bill Gates get to decide what's good for our children The Gates Foundation – the Koch brothers of schools – to spend millions to rig education system GATES FOUNDATION BEHIND ABUSE OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS BY SCHOOL SYSTEMS IS THE GATES FOUNDATION ENGAGED IN BRIBERY? 2009 BILL GATES WANTS BIG BROTHER IN THE CLASSROOM
BACK TO TOP One school voucher group admits its goal is to end public education A third of charter schools run by management corporations Maine falling for charter school myth Charter school results fudged by attrition rate, hidden government money 2010 Catalyst Magazine - Chicago] charter schools expelled 146 students in 2009, or 5 of every 1,000—a higher rate of expulsion than traditional schools, which posted an expulsion rate of 1.5 for every 1,000 students. (See chart.) In 85 percent of charter school cases, students were expelled for less serious offenses that are not eligible for expulsion under CPS rules. Once expelled, charter students are sent back to their neighborhood school by the district’s Office of Adjudication. GOLDMAN SACHS SEES GOLD IN CHARTER SCHOOLS LIB DEMS CHALLENGE BRITISH VERSION OF CHARTER SCHOOLS CHARTER SCHOOLS PAYING STUDENTS TO FIND NEW CLASSMATES MAJOR FINANCING SCAM BEHIND CHARTER SCHOOLS UNCOVERED PHILADELPHIA WATCHDOG FINDS CHARTER
SCHOOLS
BACK TO TOP Survey: Pressure for Michigan teachers to cheat is rampant Questions the test tyrants won't answer Some real standardized test data Arne Duncan doesn't reveal Investigation raises questions about DC school test scores The lie about test scores and 'economic competitiveness' Test scores show common sense left behind in school reform NJ school reform: no experience needed 2010 80% OF AMERICANS DON'T LIKE TEST SCORE MANIA WHY VALUE ADDED TEACHER TESTING IS A BUST SCHOOL SYSTEMS RESORTING TO FRAUD TO IMPROVE SCORES HOW TO IMPROVE TEST SCORE: CHEAT
 DUMB STANDARDS DON'T PRODUCE SMART STUDENTS CONFLICTING NEW YORK RESULTS FLUNK TEST OBSESSION
BACK TO TOP Child abuse in Texas. . .funded by your tax dollars Massachusetts ups war on teachers Detroit plans big increase in class size NYC plans to fire 4100 teachers but spend $1 billion on education consultants How three foundations are damaging public education Cathie Black and the collapse of public education 2010 WHY IS WAL-MART MONEY TELLING DC HOW TO RUN ITS SCHOOLS? PUBLIC EDUCATION: ROTTEN TO THE COMMON CORE OBAMA'S EDUCATION STANDARDS ROTTEN TO A COMMON CORE DESIGNED BY CORPORATE CONTRACTOR ANDREW CUOMO JOINS THE ANTI-PUBLIC SCHOOL GANG
BACK TO TOP No Child Left Behind is criminalizing children |
