SINCE 1964, THE NEWS WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
War on Public Education Undernews
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Guide to what's wrong with charter schools  Action
notes Organizing against Teach for America
THE ROAD TO LITERACY IS PAVED WITH WORDS, NOT TESTS A STANDARDIZED TEST SCHOOL 'REFORM' IS ABOUT CLASS, NOT CLASSROOMS HOW TEST OBSESSION HURTS LEARNING
BACK TO TOP Media Charter
schools 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
2014 The Michelle Rhee con continues, thanks to the media 2013 Now Michele Rhee is fouling up Tennessee education
Diane Ravitch on Michelle Rhee 2012 Husband of Michelle Rhee Scrutinized for Financial Malpractice Report: Michelle Rhee a complete flop in DC Michelle Rhee's rightwing connections Arne Duncan & Michelle Rhee would fire Miss Snug 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.
2015 Arne Duncan's successor a big problem, too Arne Duncan leaves with one final foul up Parents and teachers don't see what Arne Duncan claims he does Duncan uses federal greenmail to bully Washington state's educational system Obama's war on public education Drone schooler Duncan would screw poor California kids to get his way Arnie Duncan pushes militarization of schools
Obama & Duncan reviving the pauper schools that public education got rid of Putting Duncan to the test: he flunks Duncan's chief of staff admits test tyranny is designed for testing and textbook industry Arne Duncan & Michelle Rhee would fire Miss Snug Obama doesn't seem to understand his own education program 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 WHAT DUNCAN REALLY DID TO CHICAGO SCHOOLS 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 SECRETARy
Finland uses just one major test 2012 Why America can't learn from Finnish schools 2011 A Finnish educator explains how his country does it 2009 DUMP DUNCAN, RHEE & KLEIN AND LET THE FINNS TEACH US HOW TO RUN OUR SCHOOLS 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.
2014 The backlash against Teach for America What happens when you criticize Teach for America? Education professor challenges Teach for America's claims Reality Check: Teach for America NEA head calls Teach for America educational malpractice 2011 Matt Damon and mother turn down award from union tied to Teach for America 2009 THE UNDERSIDE OF TEACH FOR AMERICA THE MEDIA MUDDLED STORY OF TEACH FOR AMERICA
BACK TO TOP 2014 Bill Gates compares America's students to electric plugs and railroad tracks If Bill Gates bought every home in Boston -- he'd still have $1 billion left. What they teach where Bill Gates and his family went and go to school If your kids follow Bill Gates too carefully, they'll learn to lie Obamadmin (with help from Gates) takes its spying into the classroom Infrequently asked questions: How come the former governor of Virginia can be indicted for taking over $100k from a campaign backer in return for favors, while Bill Gates gets away with giving city governments millions in return for the things (aka "policies") that he wants? 2013 Now Gates Foundation is out to wreck higher education Warren Buffet gives $2 billion in stock to public education killer Gates Foundation Gates Foundation making huge investment in prison industry Parents irate over Gates funded spy file on country's children An award winning principal runs into Gates Foundation child (and teacher) abuse Another anti-teacher crazy idea from Bill Gates (and it only costs $5 billion) Gates foundation behind massive invasion of student privacy Bill Gates' war on education takes a wacky turn Child abuse: Diane Ravitch dumped by Gates-backed Brookings Institution 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 2016 Fight against charter schools growing Why charter schools are a problem Are charter schools a pending fiscal crisis? 2015 New report on charter school fraud The collapse of the nation's first all charter district 2014 Charter schools' roots in segregation How charter schools rip off public funds Behind the great charter school rip-off Chicago public schools outpace city's charters Charter school fraudsters get off with a promise not to do it again What's behind the hedge fund charter school scam The role of charter schools in school resegregation Obamadmin finally tells charter schools they have obey civil rights laws "Sit and stare" child abuse by charter schools The segregated staircase to the charter school How Walmart is behind the charter school game Charter schools increase segregation The charter school con the media ignores Texas charter schools teaching creationism 2013 Charter schools were born in segregation and still create it Charter schools suceeding in hurting public education, but not much else Who's profiting from charter schools? Charter schools were a dictator's idea Charter schools: Counseling out to keep public funds coming in How charter schools rig the game Child Abuse: The charter school con hits Philadelphia Pennsylvania charters bomb compared to public schools Another way charter schools rip off the public Charter school con: dumping problem students Oregon goes after charter school scam National Labor Relations Board blows whistle on fake "public" charter school National Labor Relations Board blows whistle on fake "public" charter school 2012.. Philadelphia charter school expansion crushing public schools Detroit Charter School Could Go Union Tax supported charter school closes six weeks into year Corporatized schools vs. public education The charter school myth blown up Another blow to the charter school myth How the charter school scam works Charter schools aren't working well in South Carolina, either Chinese investors see charter schools as profit centers Investment firm plans to harvest your kids for big bucks How corporations are ripping off the public school system The failure of publicly funded private schools (aka charters) Charter schools are right up there with megaplex movie theaters as profit centers Recovered history: Albert Shanker and charter schools Charter school lobby exposed as ALEC front Washington state says no to charter schools The death of public education in Philadelphia How school vouchers are used to push rightwing evangelism Study finds charter schools waste money on administration How charter schools manipulate their problems Top ten reasons for one percenters to support charter schools Why charter schools don't work 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 NEW ORLEANS CHARTER SCHOOLS: CAPITALIZING ON DISASTER CHARTER SCHOOL CHEATING SCANDAL WHO'S BEHIND THE CHARTER SCHOOL HYPE? STUDY: CHARTERS NOT AS GOOD AS PUBLIC SCHOOLS HIDDEN TRUTHS ABOUT CHARTER SCHOOLS EVEN THE RIGHT IS FINDING CHARTERS & VOUCHERS TO BE SUBPRIME QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT CHARTER SCHOOLS HOW SOME CHARTER SCHOOLS MAKE IT TO THE TOP 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." . . . REFORMING CHARTER SCHOOLS. . . MAKING THEM WHAT THEY WERE MEAN TO BE The charter school movement was created to "reform" the public schools. So far, it hasn't proved its merit and contains some dangerous and damaging elements. Those fighting for good public schools might turn the battle around by a drive to reform charter schools, exposing their flaws and weaknesses while adopting some of their benefits, the primary one being decentralization. The following was written for our local DC news page but many of the things mentioned apply elsewhere. SAM SMITH, DC CITY DESK This sounds weird, I know, but I find myself wondering whether one way to battle Mayor Fenty's plan to close more than a score of public schools - a strange approach to improving anything, especially education - is to investigate the possibility of turning some of them into charter schools. Not any old charter schools, but ones run by the community in which they sit - with a board including teachers, parents, appointees of the ANC and so forth - rather than vague and alien gifts dropped on the neighborhood by the Fenty and business crowd. Not schools modeled on 7-11 franchises but organic institutions growing out of the community they are to serve. With new rules and new goals. And new designs, based on ways to make spare building space bring income to local education rather than be used as a mayoral giveaway to friends and contributors. There may not be time, there may not be the energy, but a campaign for real, public, neighborhood charter schools might substantially alter the debate, putting politicians and the developers on the defensive for a change. After all, if charter schools are as good as they say, why can't communities run them, too? The goal would be to create a new model that, unlike the present charter system, is not in competition with the public school system - heading it towards a revival of its early 19th century pauper school status. The goal would to combine the best of charter schools - their decentralization - with a structure that revives the democratic control that vested interests are trying so hard to eliminate. In DC they have been remarkably successful, even eviscerating the first icon of home rule - the elected school board. The big problem with charter schools right now is that if they aren't better than existing schools - and there is no convincing evidence that they are - then there is no reason for them. And if they are - or become - better than existing public schools, a two tier system will have been created no matter how much the charter crowd insists that they're just as open to everyone as the regular system. For example, I've heard charter advocates brag about how their schools are enticing public school teachers, which is great for them, but not good for the old system. Further, in order to get into one of the charter schools you have to apply. This may not seem like much, but it is precisely the sort of factor that creates a cultural gap. The determined, the knowledgeable, the brave apply. The weak, the beaten down, the confused don't. And you end up with a two tier system. In fact, there is no way current charter schools can be better than the regular system without the latter being the second best place to send your kids. It is, as it now stands, a subtle but extremely effective attack on public education. Obviously, there are some advantages to charter schools, but they may not be as mysterious or as unique as their advocates think. Some years back a Virginia school system experimented with small sub schools featuring different educational approaches. When they studied the results they found that students in each of the sub schools did better, regardless of the approach taken. The conclusion: it was the sense that they were going to a school that mattered and that cared about them that made the difference. So why not throw a Hail Mary pass before the Fenty fusillade is successful, as it presently appears it will be? Demand that some of the schools be recreated in a modified charter school model with extensive community control - a new approach that is not in opposition to the public schools, but is a prototype towards which the rest of the system might move. For example, I have long urged a group of mini systems based on each high school and its feeder schools, led by a board of teachers, parents and other citizens. What the wheeler dealers ignore in this battle is that most of what happens in school goes on in a classroom in which the bureaucracy and the system are for that hour irrelevant. The point is to find the best teachers and to give them the best support. For over two centuries, America did this well based on decentralized, community controlled education. The answer is not to turn the system over to educational hustlers - as encouraged by Fenty, the business lobby and the editorialists at the Washington-Kaplan Post - but to rediscover a system that worked. After the above appeared we got this note from the co-founder of Save our Schools, a parent of three GINA ARLOT, SAVE OUR SCHOOLS - What you describe in City Desk is very similar to what Albert Shanker, the man who first used the term "charter school", hoped would happen if a group of parents, teachers and others got together to start a charter school. It was hoped that by having a school fully invested in by the community, with some innovative idea, we would be able to determine quickly what worked and what didn't in public education and with feedback loops back into the overall system, everyone would benefit. Education Week had a fairly big commentary on the back page recently written by a man who has written a bio on Shanker. What happened is that after the neo-cons stopped criticizing the concept, they realized that it would help them achieve their dearest dream-privatizing a sacred government function, and as a bonus, the teachers and other school workers unions would be destroyed. It was a pretty interesting commentary about how the whole idea of charter schools has been taken over and totally corrupted. What follows is a collection of information that may be useful to those interested in pursuing the approach suggested above. Included are some of the things wrong with the current undemocratic charter school system. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION - Nearly 40 percent of newer charter school teachers flee for other jobs, according to a recently released study. Charter school students do no better than their public school counterparts on math and reading assessments, and in some cases score lower, according to this national study. . . In 2004, the National Assessment Governing Board released an analysis of charter school performance on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as "The Nation's Report Card." The report found that charter school students, on average, score lower than students in traditional public schools. While there was no measurable difference between charter school students and students in traditional public schools in the same racial/ethnic subgroup, charter school students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch scored lower than their peers in traditional public schools, and charter school students in central cities scored lower than their peers in math in 4th grade. Students taught by certified teachers had roughly comparable scores whether they attended charter schools or traditional public schools, but the scores of students taught by uncertified teachers in charter schools were significantly lower than those of charter school students with certified teachers. Students taught by teachers with at least five years' experience outperformed students with less experienced teachers, regardless of the type of school attended, but charter school students with inexperienced teachers did significantly worse than students in traditional public schools with less experienced teachers. In a study that followed North Carolina students for several years, professors Robert Bifulco and Helen Ladd found that students in charter schools actually made considerably smaller achievement gains in charter schools than they would have in traditional public schools. From a guide to converting public to charter schools Why should we consider converting our school to a public charter school? Converting to public charter school status permits parents, teachers, and administrators to create the kind of school they want for the children who attend. They can do this because public charter school status confers independence, control, and significantly increased funding at the school level. Each charter school is an autonomous public school organized as a non-profit corporation governed by its own board of trustees. The trustees have exclusive control over the school's budget, instructional methods, personnel, and administration. Charter schools hire whom they please, spend their funding as they see fit, and, within the bounds of their charter, control their own curriculum and instructional methods. Because charter schools are not connected to DCPS, their funding comes directly from the D.C. government. The amount of funding is prescribed by the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula. What are the risks? Unlike traditional public schools, public charter schools can be closed down if they do not perform well. Charter schools that mismanage funds or break the law can be closed down at any time. Schools whose students do not improve academically can be closed down after five years. A conversion school that is closed down for any reason is likely to revert to a school-system school. What happens to our current students if we convert? Under the School Reform Act (D.C.'s charter school law), students enrolled in a converting DCPS school receive preference in admission to the charter school, as do their siblings. All students within the neighborhood boundaries of the converting school also receive preference. Any remaining seats are filled by students from around the District. What about teachers and staff? Conversion requires the endorsement of 2/3 of the school's full-time teachers. After conversion, the board of trustees determines who works at the charter school. Former DCPS teachers who work at a charter school receive "creditable service" under the District's retirement system for the entire period of their employment at the charter school. These teachers may elect to remain in the District's system or to transfer into the charter school's retirement system once it establishes one. How do we get started? The first step is to study the petition form and become thoroughly familiar with the application process. Next, you should begin educating your teachers, parents, and the community in which your school sits about the pros and cons of conversion. Once there is general agreement about moving forward, you should pull together a steering committee or founding board to begin the process of developing a shared vision and mission for your new school and to prepare the petition. This summary points to some of the changes needed in the charter school law. SAVE OUR SCHOOLS - Charter schools were supposed to be laboratories of innovation to improve public education in DC, but instead are laboratories of privatization that are destroying public education and draining our public resources. Since being imposed by a Republican Congress in 1996, it has become obvious that charters are the false promise of reform in DC public schools. Charter schools are not performing any better than the public schools. In 2006-07, only 9 out of the 43 schools chartered by the Public Charter School Board reached testing benchmarks established by the No Child Left Behind law. Only 1 out of the 3 "highly touted" KIPP schools met AYP in 06-07 When kids fall through the cracks, the results can be tragic, but charter overseers don't care: Charters do not have to provide access to all students. Since charters don¡¦t have neighborhood boundaries, no one is entitled to go to a charter school as a right. However, by law DCPS has to educate all students. Many charter schools require parents to sign contracts that include mandatory meetings, "volunteering", and "activity fees." Students are frequently "counseled out" if they are not meeting discipline and academic expectations. This usually occurs after October when charters receive funding for students. Money does not follow the students out of the charters and into DCPS. The constant movement of students in and out of charter schools is disruptive both to the students and the receiving schools. Students can easily fall through the cracks because there is no uniform tracking system or truancy policy in charter schools. Charters are costing the city millions of dollars and spend more per capita than DCPS: Many heads of charter schools make excessive salaries. The Chairman and CEO of Friendship Public Charter School made $260,000 in 2006. Charters are using DCPS buildings and resources and not putting anything back in the system: Maya Angelou Charter School pays DCPS around $200 per student each year to rent Evans MS despite receiving around $3,000 per student each year in facilities allotment - that's $450,000. Charter Schools are not public All are owned by non-profit corporations and are only accountable to their boards of trustees. Even if a charter closes, its non-profit foundation can keep the building. Three of the 7 Charter Board members live in Maryland or Virginia. " Kaplan is the education corporation owned by the Washington Post that is helping it stay afloat. EDUCATION WORLD, 2004 Increased accountability demands on educators have led to more districts and teachers turning to outside resources for help. Among those resources is Kaplan, Inc., a company traditionally known for its test-preparation programs. Kaplan now also offers after-school education centers, as well as programs for K-12 schools, post-secondary education, and professional training. Seppy Basili As Kaplan's vice president of learning and assessment, Guiseppe (Seppy) Basili guides strategy and product development for Kaplan K12 Learning Services. He has helped Kaplan K12 Learning Services design and deliver instructional programs to more than 1,000 schools nationwide. He also oversees in-house professional development programs. . . EW: Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, in what areas are schools seeking the most assistance from Kaplan? Basili: NCLB really is creating enormous change in schools - districts are connecting data to faces in ways they haven't before. Those districts are turning to Kaplan for a range of services - from intervention services for students with the greatest need to professional development for teachers. Districts also are turning to Kaplan for solutions, such as the Achievement Planner learning platform - a comprehensive solution that includes formative assessment, state testing analysis, and targeted lesson plans. EW: How do you respond to some educators' concerns that they are being forced to "teach to the test" more than ever now, and that it is adversely impacting education? Basili: While traditional thinking is that teachers shouldn't "teach to the test," the educational landscape has changed during the past several years. Today, we live in a world of criterion-referenced tests, which establishes a proficiency baseline that every student should be able to perform at. State tests are based on state standards. There's no problem whatsoever in having tests that are standards-based and standards-driven. DC WATCH, 2004 In 2002, Michael Sherer at The Columbia Journalism Review reported that the Washington Post Company had paid lobbyists $80,000 to monitor the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2001. Sherer overlooked the fact that the Post Company has journalists at not only its namesake newspaper the Washington Post, but at Newsweek and many other media outlets who could "monitor" and report on the legislation. But Sherer was getting at a point regarding the journalistic integrity of the Post Company and its media outfit because of a certain conflict of interest. The Washington Post Company is not only a family newspaper but is a company with a very profitable non-media subsidiary called Kaplan Educational Services. Not surprisingly, DC's "failing" schools or schools with stagnant standardized test scores have been a lead story over the last week at the Washington Post. Two reports outlined the initial announcement of "failing" schools and questioned whether or not money was available to pay for the tutoring that was due to the students in those schools. For those owning stock in the Washington Post Company, this was good news both locally and nationally. But for those outside of the Post's corporate lair, doubts linger as to whether or not this will be a continuation of bad public policy. The Washington Post Company's 2003 Annual Report breaks Kaplan down into two divisions: Supplemental Education and Higher Education. The more profitable of the two is Supplemental Education, which has a long history as a test prep provider. Sherer infers that the Post lobbied Congress to get legislation into NCLB that would further the profits of Kaplan and therefore the Post Company and its shareholders. Sherer goes on to state " Overall, the newspaper's editorials have supported [NCLB's] interests, calling for higher school standards, the use of vouchers, and further exploration of online education." The Post Company's Kaplan is one of nineteen approved NCLB supplemental service providers on the District of Columbia Public Schools' list from which parents have been able to choose. By 2003, Kaplan had already received at least one $90,000 contract for services from DCPS or $10,000 more than the Post Company reportedly paid a firm to lobby Congress on NCLB in 2001 CHARTER SCHOOL FAQ Congress imposed charters on DC in 1996.When they proved unpopular, Congress created a special Public Charter School Board to encourage the creation and expansion of charter schools. Charter schools are an example of Congress's disrespect for home rule and their undemocratic meddling in local affairs. But aren't charter schools well meaning? Charters were pitched as innovative models of reform that would help DCPS improve. There are some good and well-intentioned charter schools, but as a whole charters are part of a national movement to privatize all of our public institutions and services. Aren't charter schools public? Charter schools use public money, but every charter school is owned, operated, and governed by a private corporation and Board of Trustees. Many charters receive additional funding from private foundations and wealthy individuals, further weakening public accountability. Also, charters don't have to follow the rules and regulations of DCPS for enrollment and retention of students or for the hiring and firing of teachers and other school workers. But can't anyone go to a charter school? Charters are not neighborhood schools. Prospective students must fill out applications and are selected by citywide lottery. Often parents must attend meetings and agree to volunteer time or pay "activity fees" before their children can register. By selective outreach, specialized curriculum and niche marketing, charters can target specific types of students and ignore others. Once accepted, students can be expelled or encouraged to withdraw for social, disciplinary, or academic reasons. Aren't parents just "voting with their feet" when they send their children to charters? Not necessarily. DCPS buildings have been neglected and the school system overall has lost resources, staff, and programs. Most parents would choose the neighborhood school down the street if it was clean, modern, well-staffed, and well-maintained. But aren't charter schools improving educational opportunities for students in the District? No. Even charter advocates agree that "quality" remains a problem in charter schools, and public schools continue to outperform charters. Even worse, charter schools are creating a dual and unequal education system DC-charters enjoy political support, get large amounts of money from private corporations, and can decide who they want to remain in their school and who they don't. DCPS has to accept everyone, including students put out of charters. Far from fixing decades of political neglect and underfunding of our public schools charters have only made the situation worse. Do charter schools contribute to segregation, displacement, and gentrification? Segregation: A study by the Project for Civil Rights at Harvard University shows that charter schools contribute to segregation by race and class. Charters can purposefully attract a certain type of student through targeted recruitment and niche marketing. Being a parent of a charter student generally requires far more resources (for transportation, system navigation, student fees and parent volunteering), which further discriminates against lower-income families. Also, if students do not fit in with the school's mission for disciplinary, academic, or social reasons, they can be dismissed midyear or asked not to return the next year. With this kind of subjective student selection, charter schools are clearly achieving a separate and unequal education based on race and class. Privatization: Charters are an important step towards systematic privatization in which corporations and wealthy individuals make decisions for everyone else about how students are educated, what communities need, and what happens to available space. Because charters operate outside DCPS and the city government, their ownership of a school building takes the building out of the public domain and makes it private property. Even if the Charter fails, the private owners keep the building and land, rather than returning it to public ownership. Once this transition is made, the public has no access or decision-making power. They are cut out of the picture. Gentrification: As segregators and privatizers, unaccountable to the people or the democratic process, charter schools are fundamental to the process of gentrification. How better to drive poor people of color out than to undercut access to public education, to sell off public property as "surplus" and hand it off to gentrifiers? This is not only racist and greedy, it shows an utter lack of respect for the people of Washington DC. Are all charter schools bad? Individual charter schools may provide a wonderful educational experience for students who attend them, and may perform well and have high retention rates. However, all charter schools are part of a system that threatens equality and justice in public education and the local community. Unless a charter school actively works to protect the community in which it is located and the DC public school system, it is a part of the problem RICHARD D. KAHLENBERG, EDUCATION WEEK Twenty years ago this month, in a landmark address to the National Press Club in Washington, American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker first proposed the creation of "charter schools"-publicly funded institutions that would be given greater flexibility to experiment with new ways of educating students. At the time, some conservative education reformers opposed the idea, saying we already knew what worked in education. Today, the positions are reversed: Conservatives largely embrace charters, while teachers' unions are mostly opposed. How did the notion of charter schools evolve over 20 years? And might a return to Al Shanker's original idea improve the educational and political fortunes of the charter school movement? In Shanker's vision, small groups of teachers and parents would submit research-based proposals outlining plans to educate kids in innovative ways. A panel consisting of the local school board and teachers' union officials would review proposals. Once given a "charter," a term first used by the Massachusetts educator Ray Budde, a school would be left alone for a period of five to 10 years. Schools would be freed from certain collective bargaining provisions; for example, class-size limitations might be waived to merge two classes and allow team-teaching. Shanker's core notion was to tap into teacher expertise to try new things. Building on the practices at the Saturn auto plant in Nashville, Tenn., he envisioned teams of teachers making suggestions on how best to accomplish the job at hand. Part of the appeal of charter schools to Shanker and many Democrats was that they offered a publicly run alternative to private-school-voucher proposals, which they feared would undermine teacher collective bargaining rights and Balkanize students by race, religion, and economic status. A charter school, Shanker said, "would not be a school where all the advantaged kids or all the white kids or any other group is segregated." In the early 1990s, Minnesota legislators, working with Shanker, adopted the nation's first charter school legislation. However, as the idea spread (eventually to 40 states and the District of Columbia), the father of charter schools expressed increasing alarm that his idea of teacher-led institutions had morphed into something quite different. Many conservative advocates saw charters as a way to make an end run around teachers' unions, and the vast majority of charter schools today lack collective bargaining agreements. Likewise, states disregarded Shanker's admonition that charter schools should be diverse, as individual charter schools often appealed to specialized ethnic, religious, or racial groups, raising the very concerns Shanker had about private school vouchers. Shanker argued that in charter schools, rigid collective bargaining rules could be bent, but that teachers still needed union representation. Only when teachers felt secure could they take risks, he said. "You don't see these creative things happening where teachers don't have voice or power or influence." Not surprisingly, lacking a collective voice, teachers in charter schools turn over at almost twice the rate of public school teachers. And while right-wingers assumed that eliminating union influence would make test scores skyrocket, a number of independent studies have found that charter schools do no better than unionized public schools. Moreover, as a practical political matter, as charter schools became a vehicle for anti-union activists, powerful education unions naturally opposed their expansion and effectively limited the ultimate growth of the experiment. TEXAS STATS SHOWS FAILURE OF CHARTER SCHOOLS 2008 MAJOR CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDAL IN DC THE SECRET THE HUCKSTERS DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW: PUBLIC EDUCATION WORKS ROBERT FREEMAN, DC TEACHER BLOG - Part of the problem [with our schools] is that over the last two decades an intense lobby has emerged that wants to turn public education over to private industry, make McStudents of the nation's youth. It has operated a not-so-stealth campaign to disparage public education and to try to convince Americans that it isn't working. This campaign has mounted a relentless, mantra-like vilification of public schools: schools are failing; teachers are lazy; education bureaucracies are unresponsive; students are being cheated; America is at risk. Sound familiar? Some of this lobby's motivation is ideological: they dislike anything that smacks of government control, the more so if the service is effective, for such examples repudiate the theological superiority of all things private. Some of its motivation is directed toward right-wing social engineering: they want to control the curriculum that future generations of American students must absorb. And much of it is simply economic: these "prophets of profit" want to get their hands on the $500+ billion that is spent every year in the U.S. on public K-12 education. . . How would we know if public education is working or not? Probably the most reliable, broad-based, long-term tool for measuring the quality of public education is the Scholastic Aptitude Test. . . Because of its long history, its nationwide reach, and its comprehensive nature, SAT results transcend the negative one-off anecdotes commonly bandied about to disparage public education. No other instrument even comes close to equaling these strengths as a singular measure of national educational progress. So what do the SAT's tell us about the performance of public education in America? Last year's SAT scores were the highest in 30 years. English scores were the highest in 28 years. Math scores were the highest in 36 years. The scores were at record levels for all ethic groups: whites; Asian-Americans; African-Americans; Native Americans; and Latinos. And they were achieved by the broadest test-taking pool in testing history. Forty-eight per cent of the nation's 2.9 million high school seniors took the test--a record. Thirty-six percent of the test takers were minorities, another record. Thirty years ago, only the most elite 15 percent of students took the test. And remember, elites usually test better than averages. So the fact that scores have gone up while the test-taking pool has gotten both larger and more diverse may be the most powerful performance indicator of all. . . Against this record, those who would "privatize" public education have virtually nothing to show for their decades of hucksterish claims. In trial after trial, experiments with educational vouchers (the most popular form of school privatization) have proven a bust. Voucher programs in Milwaukee, New York, Washington D.C., and in Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio have shown no long-term gains in student achievement. . . Nor do "charter schools" fare any better than voucher schools. . . In August, after the most extensive examination in the history of the country, the Department of Education published data showing charter school students lag public schools students in almost every category of performance. In math, fourth graders were a full half year behind public school students. . . http://thedcteacher.blogspot.com/
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NAACP demands charter schools have same civil rights protections as public schools Four things wrong with test-based
education More colleges viewing testing for entry as optional How federal testing obsession screwed DC high school students During period of so-called school reform, teachers got hurt in pay School reform [sic] flunks again Americans overwhelmingly want charter school reforms Redesigning low income public schools Privatizing public schools: the real drive behind so-called school reform 2015 Some good things about the new education bill LA Times education coverage subsidized by school privateers Why testing is kindergarten child abuse The creepy secret group trying to take over your public schools Pennyslvania's Orwellian classrooms The brutal treatment of Atlanta teachers who altered test scores How the test tyrants encourage cheating 1. The right to not read Movement against standardized testing grows Teacher who won a million dollars says testing has ruined teaching What's wrong with the school testing craze How to take on standardized testing Charter schools helping some a lot. . . only they're not students Anti-standardized testing movement has Chicago win A teacher responds to Andrew Cuomo Parents overwhelmingly don't like standardized tests Rebuilding America: Bringing students into learning 2014 How online courses prey on student privacy What's wrong with standardized testing? School principals reject Obama's childish approach to ranking educators Colorado students boycott standardized tests The rise of the anti-test tyranny movement Andrew Cuomo hates public education The woes of standardized teaching War on education now includes data mining children for profit Emmanuel's potential opponent diagnosed with brain tumor Test tyrants flunk their own test When you use Socrates as your classroom mentor rather than Bill Gates Atlanta just the tip of test cheating scandal Colorado school district takes on standardized testing More evidence school test tyrants are hurting our kids What the test tyrants have done to one teacher and her student New NEA head takes on the test tyrants The destructive cult of order in education The brutalization of kindergarden Child abuse: Obamadmin misranks Vermont schools School reform child abuse hurting kids physically as well The war against black teachers Race to Top fraud: In New York City funds went to bureaucrats, not schools The man who bought public education How Tennessee teachers successfully confronted the war on public education What happens to those who fail high stakes school tests? The Bush-Obama war on public education has flunked completely Education wreckers dub themselves "thought leaders" Louis C.K. - My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core! Professional statisticians come out against public school wreckers PBS joins enemies of public schools Of the 5,096 eighth graders offered a spot to one of New York City's eight exam-based specialized high schools for the current school year, only 11 percent are black or Hispanic... More than 70 percent of the city's eighth graders are black or Hispanic. Questions for school systems and Arnie Duncan to answer The back story of the corporate takeover of public education War on public education: Who's losing?  Where teachers are fighting back Behind the Portland teacher success Massachusetts teachers forced to post students' scores on "data walls" Best indicator of good school scores: family income 34 state ed heads refuse to share student data with feds Court says firing of 7.000 Louisiana teachers was wrong How British parents leave no child behind Philadelphia wrecking its public school system Students stand up for their school and its teachers 2013 Over half of Columbus OH 3rd grade children left behind  From a 2010 study of PISA scores 11 people who are ruining American education and have never taught Important school victory in Bridgeport Poverty is the education problem, not teachers Pittsburgh 4th graders have to stake 33 standardized tests a year British students figure out how to con test tyrants Brookings finds new way to teach kids to hate reading 70% oppose private school vouchers
What's behind the assault on public education? More than three in four adults "strongly agree" that K-12 schools should teach critical thinking and communication to children. And 64% of respondents strongly agree that goal setting should be taught, while 61% strongly agree schools should know how to motivate students. A majority also strongly agree that things like creativity and collaboration are also meaningful teacher targets. Word; A professional grower of things on Common Core If Obama had designed Social Security Word @thomascmurray - The best schools aren’t factories for test scores; they’re loving communities who will do anything to support student growth and well being. Despite widespread public opposition to the education privatization agenda, at least 139 bills or state budget provisions reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) education bills have been introduced in 43 states and the District of Columbia in just the first six months of 2013 What the war on education is all about How education reform has failed for 20 years A guide to the language of school wreckers Public school wreckers flunk fact test A dictionary to understand what the school wreckers are really saying Barack Obama: Our first Common Core president Seniority doesn't protect teachers Textbook for the war on education Seattle teachers, students win major battle against test tyrants
Indiana court okays school vouchers What if school reformers tried to fix cars? How Obama is wrecking the public school system Local democracy beats anti-education lobby in LA @AvalonSense - One of my brightest students tanked the district assessment due to effects of flu...Does that make me a 30% less competent teacher? @susanoha - 1814 1 year after passing medical exams, John Keats' first volume published & he devotes his life to poetry, not STEM Another way that Obama is undermining public education How the Philly school district is planning to destroy the city's schools Hiring a consultant to get your kid into the right public or charter school Questions the public school smashers can't answer A deal that enlists wealthy foreigners in the war against public education War on public education: Take from the needy, give to the greedy Jerry Brown takes on the school killers Activists take on Education Department over school closings NYC changes its mind about Bloomberg running schools Infographic on standardized tests School "reform" is a big money maker Federal complaint charges DC schools test cheating 2012.. Philadelphia charter school expansion
crushing public schools Where pre-K education is flourishing Corporate rip off of public education update No high school basketball player left behind How the school deformers are doing the opposite of what they claim How the school deformers are doing the opposite of what they claim Who knows more about teaching? Michael Bloomberg or 94% of NYC teachers? Georgia big move to corporatize education Some questions to Diane Ravitch More proof the Bush-Obama-Gates war on public education has failed DC teachers rate their principals ineffective or minimally effective Things Louisiana children will learn in school with public funding Why high stakes school testing may be badly misleading The war on education hits Vermont War on education: the parent trigger law Major use of stimulants to improve grades Why kids should read fiction even if David Coleman doesn't know how Philadelphia is killing its public schools The case for a slow school movement Texas rebelling against education disaster it helped to launch Highly rated NYC teacher strikes back at the honor Forcing students to stay in school until they're 18 doesn't work Obama slowly leaving No Child Behind behind 2011 Florida parents stand up against another Jeb Bush education rip off Turning public education into a corporate facility Principals revolt against war on education Michael Bloomberg would cut city's teaching staff by half
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 Tacoma teachers win battle against school deformers War on public education leaving students less smart How private corporations are ripping off public education 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 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 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 LOCAL HEROES: SCHOOL DISTRICT REJECTS 'RACE TO THE TOP' NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND FLUNKS AGAIN 2009 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 HOW TEST OBSESSION IS HURTING LEARNING OBAMA WOULD HAVE STUDENTS STAY IN SCHOOL LONGER BLOWING THE MYTH OF ARNE DUNCAN ONLINE LEARNING HELPS STUDENTS STUDY FINDS GIULIANI-BLOOMBERG COPS IN SCHOOLS APPROACH DOESN'T WORK OBAMA BULLYING SCHOOL SYSTEMS TO GIVE UP LOCAL CONTROL WHY WE'RE NOT CHANGING EDUCATION 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 DUNCAN THREATENS STATES WITH LOSS OF FUNDS IF THEY DON'T PRIVATIZE SCHOOLS WHAT ASSESSMENT ADDICTS, CORPORATE HUSTLERS, BUREAUCRATS & POLITICIANS ARE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN SCHOOL REFORM? UNTRAINED TEACHERS FOR THE POOR HEY, IT WORKED FOR HITLER
DIDN'T IT? 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 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 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 THE PRICE OF BRIBING STUDENTS INTO BETTER GRADES 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 ab out 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 is 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.
BACK TO TOP A NYC principal writes her parents about the latest required tests If testing is so great, why don't private schools do more? More than 6,000 Long Island students opt out of Common Core tests Resistance to standardized testing growing nationwide Long time teacher quits in protest Seattle teachers boycott standardized tests What the test tyrants leave out of education The role of standardized testing in ADHD How the test tyrants are destroying arts education Word: Jerry Brown on the test tryants Maryland rigs its school test scores 2013 Test scores now being linked to teachers' licenses School testing shows how rich you are, not how smart What's wrong with high stakes testing Testing the life out of pre-schoolers Some students spend a month and a half preparing for, and taking, tests Race to the bottom: New Orleans plans to test 3 and 4 year olds How the test tyrants damage children who are different Memo warned of mass cheating on DC school tests Oklahoma deals with federal child abuse
60% of accomplished adults bombed standardized high school exam Teaching eight year olds to write like bankers The education issue we don't talk about Test tyrants even abusing kindergarteners Chicago teachers union joins fight against high stakes testing Leading educators support Seattle teachers' test strike Seattle school test revolt grows The problem with multiple choice tests 2012 Teach to the test (and ad revenue) Some problems with high stakes testing Why high stakes school testing may be badly misleading Word: the politics of school testing Florida school districts give as many as 62 tests a year USA Today investigation raises more questions about DC test scores Full list of words and phrases NYC ed department bans from standardized tests Test tyrants try to destroy a children's reading corner Newspaper finds suspicious student test scores across the nation Only 7% of teachers see standardized tests as essential Why are third graders tested longer than law school applicants? How the test tyrants are ruining education: one teacher's analysis Colorado test tyrants go after child for opting out of exam Test tyrants try to destroy a children's reading corner Jerry Brown stands up against the test tyrants Test tyrants attack Swiss schools 2011 SAT test taker for hire says cheating was easy Parents, teachers organizing against corporatized testing Reading one book improves test scores more than extending school day Successful adult tests school tests. . .and flopsWhy teachers oppose test tyranny The abuse of testing in Chicago schoolsThree teachers take on test tyrants 40% of DC teachers offered bonuses turn them down Telling third graders about school budget cuts 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 SAT SCORES HIGHLIGHT SCHOOL REFORM FRAUD SO WHAT NOW? A STANDARDIZED JUNGLE GYM TEST? TEST TYRANTS DOING AWAY WITH RECESS 2009 NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND . . .UNTIL THEY TAKE THE SAT HOW PUBLIC SCHOOL TEST TYRANTS CHEAT THEIR STUDENTS PLAYING GAMES WITH SCHOOL TESTING LG OFFERS TESTING TRANSLATION TOOL FOR PARENTS THE DANGERS OF SCHOOL TESTING ADDICTION LOCAL HEROES: SEATTLE TEACHER SUSPENDED FOR REFUSING TO GIVE STANDARDIZED TEST Education Department blackmailing Oregon to not let parents opt out Tests designed to fail students
created opt out movement
BACK TO TOP Pearson's role in the LA Ipad scandal Pearson now can drug your kids who don't pass their tests Bezos, like Don Graham, deep into war on public education The page that explains just what Arnie Duncan, Bill Gates & Michele Rhee are really about The cons of test profiteers (including test questions that favor their books and product placement) School 'reformer' Joel Klein now advising Murdoch Foundation bribery of school systems continues 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 |
