Build and Support Issues

Stephanie Hirsh from the Learning Institute on the importance of professional learning and team building to be centered on curriculum and instruction. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/2018/04/leverage_research_on_curriculum_and_professional_learning_to_fulfill_the_vision_of_plcs.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=learningforwardspdwatch

The value of multiple math pathways for students. https://justequations.org/resource/multiple-paths-forward-diversifying-math-pathways-as-a-strategy-for-student-success/  and Pam Burdman et al. http://theopportunityinstitute.org/blog/2018/5/10/the-promise-of-new-math-gateways

Can schools successfully encourage civic engagement? Democracy Prep charters say “You bet”. Robert Pondiscio reports on how Democracy Prep is emphasizing civic engagement. https://edexcellence.net/articles/how-one-charter-network-is-helping-attach-students-to-civil-society?utm_source=National+Education+Gadfly+Weekly&utm_campaign=c2c1f5d851-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ef00e8f50e-c2c1f5d851-71635837&mc_cid=c2c1f5d851&mc_eid=ebbe04a807 and see http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2018/05/education_civics_democracy_prep_research.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=curriculummatters Some stats from the reports: Their civic education program led to a statistically significant 24 percentage point raw increase in voter turnout in 2016.These results are even more astonishing considering that their alumni are predominantly young (18-22), first-generation college students from low-income families of color–historically some of the least likely voters of any demographic group. 

For a more skeptical view see Larry Cuban’s take. While impressed by these voting stats he raises questions about Democracy Preps “no excuses” philosophy failing to teach democratic discourse. https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2018/05/20/democracy-prep-no-excuses-schools-that-build-citizens/

A school in Arkansas is combining civics and history for eighth graders. http://www.hotsr.com/news/2018/may/01/eighth-graders-celebrate-americans-stor/

Marc Tucker reports on the status of the publishing industry. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/top_performers/2018/05/the_creative_destruction_of_the_american_school_publishing_industry.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=top_performers and the value of a process reform approach over individual programmatic solutions. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/top_performers/2018/05/two_theories_of_school_improvement_which_works_better.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=top_performers

Are educational videos helping poor students? http://hechingerreport.org/educational-videos-leaving-low-income-behind/?utm_source=The+Hechinger+Report&utm_campaign=cd9605a9c2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d3ee4c3e04-cd9605a9c2-322591845

A balanced look at privacy issues with technology in schools. http://hechingerreport.org/opinion-whats-the-high-tech-tradeoff-for-students-and-teachers/

 

 

Trials and Tribulations of Charters, Vouchers, Virtual Schools, and the “Reform” Agenda

Jeff Bryant provides chapter and verse on how large-scale charter expansion decimates traditional public school funding even after taking into account money saved by educating less students. http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/charter-schools-are-an-existential-threat-to-public-education/?link_id=1&can_id=cea050dcef20333abf235c3ba9bc6d51&source=email-charter-schools-are-an-existential-threat-to-public-education&email_referrer=email_351160&email_subject=charter-schools-are-an-existential-threat-to-public-education

In the same vein a new Brookings report finds that charter school growth puts fiscal pressure on traditional public schools.https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2018/05/01/charter-school-growth-puts-fiscal-pressure-on-traditional-public-schools/

Similarly, a report from In the Public Interest documents how charter schools drain enormous funds from local schools districts. https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/?everything=everything Here is a summary of the report on how charter schools ruin local school district budgets. https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2018/05/08/16168/; Another comment on that and similar reports by Derek Black. Charter Schools Remove Tens of Millions in Funding from Three California Districts, While Severely Under-enrolling Students with Disabilities http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/education_law/2018/05/charter-schools-remove-tens-of-millions-in-funding-from-three-california-districts-while-severely-un.html A quote from Black:

Yesterday, I posted on Helen Ladd’s path-breaking study of the cost of charter schools to local school districts in North Carolina.  She found an “average fiscal cost of more than $3,500 for each student enrolled in charter schools.”   Today brings more troubling factual findings out of California. In the Public Interest finds that “Oakland Unified loses $5,643 a year per charter school student while San Diego Unified loses $4,913 a year and East Side Unified loses $6,000 a year.”

Diane Ravitch reports on how the “privatization” mind-set, top down dictates, and Trump administration back-room deals on top of neglect have devastated Puerto Rico’s public schools. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/05/05/puerto-rico-privatizing-public-schools-in-puerto-rico/

John Thompson explains how “reformers” attempt to excuse the failure of educational reform.https://dianeravitch.net/2018/05/09/john-thompson-how-reformers-expain-the-failure-of-reform/

Diane Ravitch quotes Robert Shireman of the Century Foundation on how conversions of for-profit schools to non-profit status are a sham. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/05/17/why-for-profit-higher-education-is-a-rip-off-and-a-sham/

Derek Johnson on how aggressive expansion of charter schools is harming traditional public education. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/states-are-favoring-school-choice-at-a-steep-cost-to_us_5ae7457de4b08248abaa6ea9

The National Educational Policy Center issues its sixth report on virtual schools/blended learning finding major deficiencies in performance and accountability. http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/publications/RB%20Miron%20Virtual%20Schools%202018.pdf

Three articles on major problems with the highly touted Basis charter school chain in Arizona. Carol Burris finds few black and brown students and large scale dropouts from grades 7-12 inflating scores and graduation rates. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/03/30/what-the-public-doesnt-know-about-high-performing-charter-schools-in-arizona/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ef0a8e3317d6 Craig Harris finds inordinate profits and high living expenditures by the couple who own it. https://amp.azcentral.com/amp/473963002 and Mercedes Schneider asks whether Basis charter schools are a pyramid scheme as they keep taking on new debt to fund their life-style.  https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2018/05/13/basis-charter-debt-pyrmid-like-dependence-on-opening-new-schools/

Another example of massive attrition rates before graduation resulting in a reduced, rarified group—this time at Yes Prep. The kicker with this charter is that they require college acceptance to graduate and then tout a 100% college attendance of the few who are left.  https://garyrubinstein.wordpress.com/2018/05/13/the-truth-about-yes-preps-100-college-acceptance-rate/

Similarly, Diane Ravitch has a devastating article about the spurious claims of the darling of the media—Success Academy. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/04/29/reader-the-non-miracle-of-success-academys-graduating-class-of-17-students/ and the media’s neglect and false narrative about the actual high performance of poor students at many public schools. According to Gary Rubinstein, the senior class at Success Academy’s Liberal Arts High School has 17 members. When they started in kindergarten, there were 73 students. By the end of eighth grade, there were 32 students. Four years later, there were 17, all of whom were admitted to college.Gary wrote recently that we can’t be sure of the real attrition rate, it might even be worse than stated above, because some of the original 73 might have been excluded and replaced; unlike real public schools, Success Academy does not admit new students after third grade.

Tom Ultican warns of the cabal trying to privatize and destroy public education in Oakland. https://tultican.com/2018/05/10/newest-existential-threat-to-oaklands-public-schools-2/

Peter Greene writes on how Spellings and Duncan Get It Wrong. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/05/spellings-and-duncan-get-it-wrong.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FORjvzd+%28CURMUDGUCATION%29

Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago which educates one out of 10 high-school students in the district has come under withering criticism for harsh discipline practices including refusing menstruating girls permission to leave the class for the bathroom in emergency situations. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/05/03/chicago-charter-chain-does-not-permit-girls-to-go-to-bathroom-for-menstrual-emergency/

 

 

Privatization and the Results of Defunding Public Education.

United States teachers are among the worst paid in the developed world. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/us-public-school-teachers-are-among-the-worst-paid-in-the-developed-world/

Study shows teachers on average spend about $500 of their personal money for classroom supplies. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-shelling-out-nearly-500-a-year-on-school-supplies-report-finds/2018/05/14/af2affae-57b8-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html?utm_term=.5c9e8ee2998e

Linda Darling-Hammond on what the teacher strikes are about. https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/27/opinions/teacher-strikes-more-than-pay-darling-hammond-opinion/index.html

A guide to the corporations and groups lobbying to defund our schools who are hostile to striking teachers. https://news.littlesis.org/2018/05/14/a-guide-to-the-corporations-that-are-de-funding-public-education-opposing-striking-teachers/

ALEC and its corporate sponsors plan to privatize and defund public education. https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/the-corporate-plan-to-groom-u-s-kids-for-servitude-by-wiping-out-public-schools