Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog:
Jonathan Lovell has been leading writing workshops for many years. In this delightful post, he describes his struggle to finish his own dissertation, and the flights of fancy that kept blocking his path. He uses graphics creatively to reflect his state of mind. You watch his thinking evolve. Watch a writer at work and lament with him that the Obama administration eliminated the…
The small but heavy cardboard box had been opened, closed, and put aside–part of a larger project to plow through the accumulated debris of twenty-eight years of marriage. Its moving label read “Home Office. Books. His.” My daughter Stephanie called me to ask if I might pick it up as part of my upcoming trip to Berkeley. Why not? Steph’s husband Mike, mindful of my weak lower back, hefted the […]
Today’s Huffington Post article by Arthur H. Camins, Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology, places our nation’s track record following Brown vs Board of Education in a useful and sobering perspective. His primary message? We can do better–a whole LOT better! The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision provided a catalyst to advance but not fully achieve racial and […]
This is one of the best and most concise arguments I’ve read on how charter schools misrepresent themselves as the “answer” to our growing achievement gap, not to mention proponents’ advocacy of charter schools as the “civil rights issue of our day.” What an example of shameful political posturing! Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Six Charter School Myths My testimony before the City Council hearings today; a pdf of this testimony is […]
The inspiration of a “SuperPac to end all Superpacs” is an idea that only Lawrence Lessig of Harvard’s Law School could dream up. It’s the most hopeful push-back I’ve learned about in the 35 years since the federal tax policies of Jimmy Carter (sad to say, but true) started us on our seemingly inexorable slide into a political and social oligarchy. I urge you to make a contribution. It looks […]
This is a funny and sobering posting by my friend Peter Greene on this important topic. You can read it in its original format here (note that you have to open posts to activate links). I’d also recommend Peter’s relatively new blog for those who find “the current world of school reform and education debate” leaves them “feeling like they just walked in on the last ten minutes of a three hour […]
Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog:
A new report reveals massive waste, fraud, and corruption in the charter industry, where private corporations control public funds with minimal oversight or accountability. “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2014 CONTACT: Kyle Serrette: KSerrette@populardemocracy.org, 202-304-8027 Sabrina Stevens: media@integrityineducation.org, 720-295-0238 A new report released today reveals that fraudulent charter operators in 15 states are responsible for losing, misusing or wasting over $100 million in…
There is every reason to keep reminding everyone you can reach, over and over again, of this fundamental truth: there is NOTHING that the introduction and implementation of the Common Core State Standards will do to reduce the achievement gap. If anything, the wholesale testing that will overwhelm us all in the spring of 2015 will serve to dramatize and illustrate our increasing “achievement gap.” See my one blog entry […]
Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog:
Our economy is changing in ways that are alarming. Income inequality and wealth inequality are at their highest point in many decades; some say we are back to the age of the robber barons. Most of the gains in the economy since the great recession of 2008 have benefitted the 1%, or even the 1% of the 1%. The middle class is shrinking,…
