From EdWeek, a “mistake” that only confirms the worst biases against Texas, known by many for their highly politicized State Board of Education’s battles over textbook content. The 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform, adopted June 9 at the state convention in Forth Worth, seems to take a stand against, well, the teaching of critical thinking [...]
This is a must-read EdWeek article by Diane Ravitch with regard to the trickery behind the “parent trigger” law, and the recent decision by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to endorse a boilerplate bill pushed in four states by a hard-line right-wing group (ALEC). She notes that not one of the charter laws in CA, [...]
I think this Atlantic magazine piece, “The Education System That Pulled China Up May Now Be Holding It Back,” has many key aspects all wrong. It’s not enough to recite “culturalist” interpretations of flaws like the emphasis on “rote learning” and “innately imitative” Chinese culture, which are a crutch for frustrated Chinese youth and defensive [...]
Disclosure: I was sought out by and interviewed with Change.org back when they were seeking an education organizer; I like and respect many talented organizers there, and from speaking with him, I believe that Ben Rattray is a reasonable, thoughtful, person committed to social change. I’ve also written for Care2.com and similarly like and respect [...]
Via the Washington Post: as of June 11, 2012, ninety percent of the 26,000-plus teachers in the city of Chicago voted to strike if contract negotiations with the city fall apart. At issue are longer school days minus any corresponding increases in pay, and other disputes over class size, restoration of school libraries, art and [...]
Regarding presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s gaffe: of course state and local governments pay for teachers. No one disputes that. But the federal government does also pay for teachers, whether it’s the local or state education agency that makes that decision, or if it’s indirectly through federally-funded state training and credentialing programs. The Washington Post’s Josh [...]
I just spoke with two impassioned and well-informed high school student leaders and a community coordinator at Californians for Justice about an emergency action to support public schools that they’re conducting in the next 18 hours, ending Friday, June 15, 2012. You can listen to the podcast here: Listen to internet radio with MOMocrats on [...]
Mitt Romney’s latest statements about his vision for America’s public schools can be summed up by his declaration that it’d be best to let families “vote with their feet” and have federal dollars follow children to private/religious, public, charter, or online schools. Reckless, foolish, clueless, or all of the above? Perhaps if someone actually knowledgeable [...]
One of the first things Michelle Rhee’s group, StudentsFirstNY, did upon launching in that state was approach Democratic Congressional candidate Hakeem Jeffries (NY-CD8) and offer him a six-figure, unregulated, third party donation to his campaign. They probably thought Jeffries was an easy mark, given the positions he’s taken in the past urging that New York [...]
“Equipercentile equating” is fancy-talk for “don’t like the percentages of failing students? Lower the passing score.” The New York Times recently covered the flap, in which a proficiency grade of 4 on written tests yielded “too many” failures but a grade of 3 magically gave the same results as last year: 81% of students passed. [...]