Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Paul Thomas responds to David Brooks' attack on Diane Ravitch

It's one thing to say there was widespread cheating on standardized tests in Atlanta public schools, as the newly released results of a state investigation showed. It's another thing to actually read the volunimous report. The details are shocking.

Fred Klonsky blog readers: After watching the fourteen minute excerpt and then viewing the whole video of the hour-long session, I want to very sincerely apologize.

America's teachers have long struggled to gain respect and satisfactory working conditions.  Toward that goal, in 1916 the New York City Teachers Union was formed.  Modest in its objectives, the organization essentially sought decent salaries and recognition for teachers as professionals. 

Charter critics often contend that many charters have high attrition, and that lower-performing students leave - whether due to "counseling out" (as may have been the case in the NYT story) or on their own volition - which artificially boosts test scores. The standard reply to this argument from charter supporters is to point to studies (such as this paper on New York City charters and this one on KIPP schools) showing that charter school attrition is similar to that of regular public schools. In addition, supporters point out that these studies that include high-performing charters, though limited in scope and number, use techniques to ensure that attrition does not directly affect their results (for example, put simply, "following" students who leave charters into their new schools).

In some districts it's called "merit" or "performance" pay. In others, it's simply called a "bonus." However they're branded, bonuses have become a center piece in corporate-reform strategies which are increasingly being used to undermine collective-bargaining agreements and pit teacher against teacher.

"Today, Fordham released our latest, "Charting a New Course to Retirement: How Charter Schools Handle Teacher Pensions." Authors Amanda Olberg and Michael Podgursky explain the report's findings here."

"While politicians and the media misrepresent the achievement gap in order to demonize schools and teachers, we have ample evidence that addressing the whole life of the child is the only avenue to closing an achievement gap."

"Many believe that current teacher evaluation systems are a formality, a bureaucratic process that tells us little about how to improve classroom instruction. In New York, for example, 40 percent of all teacher evaluations must consist of student achievement data by 2013. Additionally, some are proposing the inclusion of alternative measures, such as "independent outside observations" or "student surveys" among others. Here, I focus on the latter."

Every time I hear about a school where there are allegations or proof of cheating on standardized testing, I reflexively think about roaches, or, rather, the adage that if you see one or two of the pests running across the floor, there are probably an army of others having a party in the kitchen.

Legislation creating Maine's first charter schools is headed to Gov. Paul LePage's desk for his signature. After years of failed attempts, advocates for charter schools finally succeeded in receiving legislative support for allowing public schools that must meet state and federal academic standards but are given more flexibility in curriculum, budgeting and other areas.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and new leaders of Chicago Public Schools have been pushing for a longer school day and year to raise student performance. But last week's state test results show that charter schools-which typically have more instructional time-actually have a lower percentage of students exceeding state standards.

The age of accountability should be renamed the age of blame, when teachers wear the scarlet letter for the failings of a nation. We send teachers into pockets of poverty that our leaders can't or won't eradicate, and when those teachers fail to work miracles among devastated children, we stamp 'unacceptable' on their foreheads.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and new leaders of Chicago Public Schools have been pushing for a longer school day and school year to help raise student performance. But last week's state test results show that charter schools - which typically have more instructional time - actually have a lower percentage of students exceeding state standards.

As the controversy about the co-location of charter schools continues to rage throughout the city, another issue has been raised: Hedge funds are making tremendous profits off charter schools while public school students lose already-scarce dollars because of the presence of the schools.

David Brooks was the latest Diane Ravitch corporate savager until the New Republic's senior dolt, Jonathan Chait, strode in yesterday in the flyweight division of clueless corporate ed deformer commentators.

In an article in this week's New York Times Magazine, author Paul Tough notifies supporters of market-based reform that they cannot simply dismiss the "no excuses" maxim when it is convenient. He cites two recent examples of charter schools (the Bruce Randolph School in Denver, CO, and the Urban Prep Academy in Chicago) that were criticized for their low overall performance. Both schools have been defended publicly by "pro-reform" types (the former by Jonathan Alter; the latter by the school's founder, Tim King), arguing that comparisons of school performance must be valid - that is, the schools' test scores must be compared with those of similar neighborhood schools.