Build and Support Discussion

Schools have a nobler purpose than just career prep. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/07/25/enough-with-top-down-education-reform-its-time.html?cmp=eml-enl-cco-news2&M=58585811&U=56558

The value of play in promoting democratic ideals. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/opinion/sunday/democracy-play-mccain.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/sunday

Little known BARR program raises performance for 9^th graders across the board. https://hechingerreport.org/a-little-known-program-has-lifted-9th-grade-performance-in-virtually-every-type-of-school/?utm_source=The+Hechinger+Report&utm_campaign=da831b9c41-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_04_05_32&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d3ee4c3e04-da831b9c41-322591845

Report on the advantage of early education and care around the world. http://ncee.org/earlyadvantage/

NY Times magazine report on how teachers improve student performance in Atlanta. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/06/magazine/student-performance-atlanta-teaching.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Feducation

What does science say about sex-ed? https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-does-science-tell-us-about-sex-ed/

Teacher pay gap widening in the US. https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-gap-2018/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=2f87f6f1cc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_06_03_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-2f87f6f1cc-55876685&mc_cid=2f87f6f1cc&mc_eid=c2e5bac0f3

American Progress report on the use of quality instructional materials. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/08/29/454705/curriculum-reform-nations-largest-school-districts/

Amazing results from an after-school program. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/08/13/how-this-chicago-after-school-program-helped-shift-the-arc-of-kids-lives-for-the-long-term/?utm_term=.779d3f69ca20

Aligned math curriculum successful. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2018/08/aligned_math_curriculum_boosts_practices.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=curriculummatters

Increased spending raises math performance. https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/08/29/new-york-state-school-spending-highest-in-nation/

Building a solid foundation to support quality teaching. http://www.totransformteaching.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/From-Quicksand-to-Solid-Ground-Building-a-Foundation-to-Support-Quality-Teaching.pdf

The state of Common Core reading in five charts. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2018/07/the_state_of_common-core_reading_5_charts.html

Critique of STEM education neglecting the humanities. https://gadflyonthewallblog.com/2018/08/14/stem-education-severs-the-arts-from-the-sciences/

Almost final version of fraction progressions by Bill McCallum http://mathematicalmusings.org/2018/08/22/almost-final-version-of-fractions-progression/

How teachers should use decodable texts in developing foundational reading skills. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2018/09/what_are_decodable_texts.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=curriculummatters

Personalized learning’s weakest link. https://www.crpe.org/thelens/personalized-learning-weakest-link?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Personalized%20Learning’s%20Weakest%20Link%3F&utm_campaign=August%202018%20CRPE%20newsletter

Is the decline in the humanities overstated? http://www.ppic.org/blog/is-the-decline-in-the-humanities-overstated/?utm_source=ppic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blog_subscriber

Huge word gap based on socio-economics may not exist after all. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/word-gap-low-income-children-psychology-reproducibility?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=latest-newsletter-v2

 

Reform Foibles

Report in Teachers College Record on Oklahoma A-F school rating system finds it is useless but invidious to schools. http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=20925

Grading schools tends to reflect socio-economics not performance and some excellent schools receive low grades https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/04/texas-houston-parent-says-her-childs-school-is-exceptional-but-state-calls-it-failing/

Jan Resseger reviews Daniel Koretz’s The Testing Charade on how high stakes testing is ruining public education. https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2018/08/07/16973/

Andy Hargreaves: It’s time to scrap mandatory testing. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/04/andy-hargreaves-its-time-to-scrap-mandatory-testing/

Everything important can’t be measured. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/21/william-mathis-everything-important-cannot-be-measured/

Pressuring schools to raise test scores has diminishing returns (and causes considerable collateral damage) https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/08/13/pressuring-schools-to-raise-test-scores-got-diminishing-returns-new-study-of-no-child-left-behind-finds/

The racism behind state takeovers. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/26/domingo-morel-the-racism-behind-state-takeovers/

New Jersey trashes VAM. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/01/good-news-new-jersey-trashes-vam/

 

Charter/Voucher Issues

California bans for-profit charter schools. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/09/07/california-bans-for-profit-charter-schools/

Study finds no test score gains for charters in Texas and negative impact on earnings. https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/charter-schools-and-labor-market-outcomes

This abstract summarizes their findings: “We estimate the impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas. We find that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically insignificant impact on earnings, while other types of charter schools decrease test scores, four-year college enrollment, and earnings. Moving to school-level estimates, we find that charter schools that decrease test scores
also tend to decrease earnings, while charter schools that increase test scores have no discernible impact on earnings. In contrast, high school graduation effects are predictive of earnings effects throughout the distribution of school quality. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of what might explain our set of facts.”

The mendacity at the heart of charter advocates touting charter “miracles”.  http://www.stonepooch.com/ablog/mission-accomplished/

Charter school marketing guide shows how to hype charter schools. https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/stand-out-a-guide-to-charter-school-marketing/

How Chris Christie allowed charter entrepreneurs to rip off the state. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/31/new-jersey-how-chris-christie-allowed-charter-entrepreneurs-to-rip-off-taxpayers/

How an Arizona legislator/charter school operator sold his chain for millions or how to get very rich in the ed biz. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/11/arizona-legislator-charter-operator-sells-his-chain-for-millions-or-how-to-get-very-rich-in-the-ed-biz/

CEO of failing online charter school gets an $8.8 million dollar bonus. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/23/arizona-ceo-of-failing-online-charter-school-gets-a-bonus-of-8-8-million/

Stephen Dyer: Ohio Charters Present a Picture of Incompetence, Ineffectiveness, and Malfeasance https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/01/stephen-dyer-ohio-charters-present-a-picture-of-incompetence-ineffectiveness-and-malfeasance/

Former educational official finds corruption in Ohio for-profit charter and on-line schools. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/23/bill-phillis-those-poor-poor-and-very-few-bad-for-profit-charters-in-ohio/

Charter scam in Ohio and Florida. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/03/ohio-florida-charter-scam-rips-off-taxpayers-in-both-states/

No accountability for failing charters in Nevada. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/10/nevada-no-accountability-for-failing-charters/

What are the real lessons of New Orleans after the storm? https://networkforpubliceducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/BBaker.NPE_.NOLA_.pdf ; https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/09/04/real-story-new-orleans-its-charter-schools/?utm_term=.c2926e94cab1

Arizona pays 75% more for subsidizing private school students. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/09/arizona-state-pays-75-more-to-subsidize-students-in-private-schools/

Oakland parent on how charters are harming traditional public schools. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/27/oakland-parent-to-ewa-charters-are-killing-our-public-schools/

NY Times opinion piece—Choice is the enemy of justice. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/opinion/charter-schools-desegregation-los-angeles.html

Democracy Prep closes its charter school in DC. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/democracy-prep-charter-says-it-will-close-southeast-dc-campus-next-year/2018/08/10/785da585-788a-43e5-a276-c9ac8ec04923_story.html?utm_term=.cf549d005128

Chaotic first year at Success Academy high-school in NYC. https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/08/20/success-academy-eva-moskowitz-high-school-chaos/

Zombie charter school in Philadelphia. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/22/greg-windle-reports-on-a-zombie-charter-in-philadelphia/

 

Privatization Efforts

Tom Ultican writes a guide on the movement to destroy public schools. https://tultican.com/2018/09/09/a-laymans-guide-to-the-destroy-public-education-movement/

“Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools” http://npeaction.org/hijackedbybillionaires/

Jeff Bryant writes on the attempted take-over of Louisville’s public schools by dark money. https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/is-louisville-ground-zero-for-democratic-control-public-schools-180815/ and how Betsy DeVos is protecting sleazy for-profit colleges. http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/betsy-devos-fills-the-swamp-for-for-profit-colleges/?link_id=1&can_id=cea050dcef20333abf235c3ba9bc6d51&source=email-betsy-devos-fills-the-swamp-for-for-profit-colleges&email_referrer=email_405528&email_subject=betsy-devos-fills-the-swamp-for-for-profit-colleges

How Arizona is cannibalizing its public schools. https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2018/09/11/17354/

Little Rock: Please don’t steal our public schools and our democracy. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/29/little-rock-please-do-not-steal-our-public-schools-and-our-democracy/

Specious arguments against the legitimacy of public schools. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/09/challenging-legitimacy-of-public.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FORjvzd+%28CURMUDGUCATION%29

Expose of the privatization movement. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/31/laura-chapman-in-search-of-the-tentacles-of-the-privatization-movement/