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REFORMERS, NOT REFORMERS
Education Rebranders
From Gary Rubinstein
The ‘reformers’ had a pretty good run. From about 2008 until just recently ‘reformers’ had their way. With Race To The Top they got states to invent complicated, though supposedly objective, ways to measure teacher quality by analyzing standardized test scores. Bill Gates funded many studies to show that this was working. But after ten years, it became clear that the ‘reformers’ didn’t really know much about improving education and maybe they didn’t deserve to have the steering wheel anymore.
FEREBEE HELPS CREATE CHAOS, NOW WANTS TO WALK AWAY
Indianapolis’s Lewis Ferebee a finalist for D.C. schools chief job, sources say
Ferebee wants to walk away from the mess he helped create in Indianapolis.
From Chalkbeat
His candidacy is the latest signal that Ferebee, who has become a fixture of certain national education-policy discussions over his five years in Indianapolis, is preparing to leave the city for a larger district. He was in the running for the top post in Los Angeles earlier this year, though he eventually withdrew.
Ferebee’s job in Indianapolis may be about to get more difficult: Two critics of the district’s current direction were recently elected to the school board. And while tax measures to give the school system more money passed, the cash-strapped district is expected to make substantial cuts to its budget in the coming years.
MIRACLE
Louisiana: The “Miracle School” That Was a Fraud
School "choice" means the school gets to choose.
From Diane Ravitch
About five weeks ago, I read a story online about a small private school in Louisiana whose students had a 100% college entry rate and were admitted to America’s most selective colleges and universities. It was truly a miraculous school, said the story, because its students were poor black children from adverse circumstances who were all too often struggling in public schools...
But now we know that none of its claims were true.
SPEAK UP!
Hoosier Superintendents tell it like it is
We're glad that superintendents are speaking out. Hopefully they'll get a bit louder!
From Live Long and Prosper
"...I think we should go back to letting teachers teach. Let them be the professionals they were hired to be."
“We are teachers because we care about our students, but many of the laws being made are not done by those who have been educators themselves. An idea can look good in theory, but not fit in the classroom as you may think. Educating our children is our future..."
CHARTERS LACK STABILITY
‘If we don’t learn from this one, shame on us’: Lessons from a Detroit charter school that was set up to fail
Perhaps the lesson to be learned here is that charters that can close and walk-away are NOT a good idea in any state.
From Chalkbeat
Two days before the homecoming game, the board voted to shut the school down — effective immediately.
When the meeting was over, dazed students spilled onto the sidewalk by the front door, many of them with tears still visible on their cheeks. A couple of students kicked down one of dozens of yard signs stuck in the grass by the sidewalk:
“Detroit Delta Preparatory Academy,” they read. “Now Enrolling 9th-12th grades.”
CHARTERS NOT THE ANSWER
Students first: Another local charter proves ineffective
The General Assembly and State Board of Education jumped into "education reform." There has never been enough time for them to analyze what they have done to see if it works. This implies that the purpose of their moves towards privatization has never been about students and their achievement. It's all about the money.
From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Indiana is closing in on two decades of so-called school reform, with proponents continuing to claim more is needed. But the changes they've championed, beginning with the 2001 charter school law, now have a track record. A measure of the effectiveness of Indiana charter schools should include those opened in Fort Wayne, where another could soon be shut down. Of six charters opened here, only two would remain.
Thurgood Marshall Leadership Academy welcomed its first students in 2012 under the sponsorship of the Fort Wayne Urban League. It was among the first charters authorized by the Indiana Charter School Board, created by the Indiana General Assembly “to grow the supply of high-performing public charter schools throughout the state.”
From the start, Thurgood Marshall has been anything but high performing. Its first letter grade was an F, rising to a C for several years before dropping to a failing mark again in 2015-16. It received F's in both the state and federal grades issued most recently...
REJECT CHARTERS
Colorado Springs School Board Rejects Mike Miles’ Charter School Proposal
From Diane Ravitch
Mike Miles, former superintendent of Dallas public schools and former superintendent of a Colorado district, was turned down by the Colorado Springs school board when he applied to open a charter school in a former Macy’s department store in a large shopping mall.
Miles led the Dallas district for three tumultuous years, during which time there was a sizable teacher exodus and stagnant test scores, which he had pledged to raise. Miles is a military man who attended the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy.
IPADS FOR ALL = CORPORATE PROFITS
Students at Wilder High School in Idaho: Learning on iPads is a Hoax!
From Diane Ravitch
Ivanka Trump and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, visited Wilder Elementary School to learn about the future of workforce preparation, which of course involves selling iPads to children in a K-6 school!
However, they did not speak to high school students in Wilder, Idaho, who are thoroughly disgusted with (de)personalized learning. Several protested the fraud that Wilder officials were selling to Ivanka and said they were not allowed to speak up.
SCHOOL GRADES INADEQUATE
Touting school grades bolsters dubious policy
From School Matters
Those of us who advocate for public schools tend to blame outside forces when we lament the move to grading schools on an A-to-F scale. In Indiana, we may blame former Gov. Mitch Daniels, former state Superintendent Tony Bennett, state legislators, business groups and others.
MCCSC bannerBut public schools and school districts have helped validate this questionable policy. When they brag about their own grades, they’re endorsing the system as a measure of school quality.
Some of what they’re doing is old-fashioned public relations. At a time when public education is under attack, schools and districts can point to high grades to defend their reputation. “See?” they’re saying. “Our schools aren’t ‘failing’ like some of those public schools you hear about.”
And as public schools compete for students with charter schools and private schools, they are likely trumpet any endorsement they get. After all, charter schools are doing it – for example, here and here and here.
But Indiana school grades are based mostly on test scores, and research suggests test scores tell us more about students’ socioeconomic status than about the effectiveness of their schools. At best, grading schools from A to F is simplistic. At worst, it does real harm by labeling schools and students.
DEVOS PROTECTS PREDATORS
Randi Responds to Betsy’s Lies on FOX News
From Diane Ravitch
I can’t wait until the House of Representatives begins to question Secretary DeVos about her reversal of civil rights protections, her reversal of federal protections for students with debt incurred at fraudulent for-profit colleges, and her continued efforts to destroy the federal role in protecting students, whether in K-12 or higher education. Instead of protecting those in need, she protects predators.
THE REASON FOR THE TEACHER SHORTAGE
‘Indiana’s war on teachers is winning’: Here’s what superintendents say is causing teacher shortages
“It is clear that the efforts of Indiana’s General Assembly to devalue education as a profession has had a significant impact upon the teacher shortage.”
From Chalkbeat
“I believe the teacher shortage is due to the climate of education and the lack of government support as well as district support for teachers. Teachers have not been listened to or given the respect necessary to want to pursue careers. In our particular district, the constant negativity has caused a rift between campuses, and the negativity has created a hostile climate in which to work.”
TEACHERS LAID OFF AFTER BEING SUCCESSFUL
25 laid off from Gary Roosevelt 2 days after school's first A grade announced
From NWI.com The Times
Twenty-five teachers and support staff at Roosevelt College and Career Academy were laid off Nov. 16, just two days after learning their school was given an A in the State Board of Education's annual assessment.
EdisonLearning, a private organization contracted six years ago by the state to operate the school, said the layoffs came as a result of low enrollment numbers and an effort to improve overall school operations.
OK GOP, "PUBLIC ED TOO EXPENSIVE."
Republican Party in an Oklahoma county makes clear its opposition to public education
Why is it the GOP so lacks commitment to the common good?
From The Answer Sheet
The Republican Party in Canadian County in Oklahoma has expressed its desire for an end to public funding of education.
The party in Canadian — the fourth-largest county in the state — is sending a letter to the Oklahoma legislature calling for swift cuts in education funding. It says, “If public education shall continue as a state institution, we should move towards reducing its dependence on the tax structure by funding it through such means as sponsorships, advertising, endowments, tuition fees, etc.”
An earlier version of the letter, according to KFOR News 4, was more explicit: “A better pathway would be to abolish public education, which is not a proper role of government, and allow the free market to determine pay and funding, eliminating the annual heartache we experience over this subject.”
...While many Americans see the public education system as the nation’s most important civic institution, there are others, such as the GOP in Canadian County, who don’t believe funding education is a government function. They are at one end of the national debate on America’s schools and how they should be funded, which has taken on new urgency in recent years with growing attacks on public education and the rise of Betsy DeVos as U.S. education secretary under President Trump...
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