Episode 2 for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Punk Rawk
February 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This funny image I found today made me think about a few years back, very early in graduate school, I worked on a project for a class trying to establish connections between curriculum and punk rock, which I still listen to and will always hold a special, albeit loud, place in my heart. I read […]
Update
February 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Virginia’s McDonnell Ready to Use State Power to Infuse Segregated Charter Schools
February 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
With only three charters opened in the last 12 years, the citizens of Virginia have demonstrated that they do not want charter schools. Governor McDonnell (R), however, sees things differently, and he is apparently willing to shelve his campaign lies about local control long enough to push his segregated corporate charter agenda down the throats […]
White Hat Not Renewed in Florida
February 27, 2010 By 3 Comments
David Brennan and his White Hat charter management company recently had a charter oversight board decide not to renew one of their schools in Florida, and the shenanigans of the Life Skills Center East are truly shocking. You can check off a laundry list of violations the school has racked up, including, but not limited […]
We’re # 1
February 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
// From the NYTimes: WASHINGTON — President Obama kicked off a drive Monday to upgrade American education, unveiling a plan requiring states to adopt new reading and mathematics standards and committing his administration to “breaking down some of the barriers to reform.” Meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House, Mr. Obama stressed the […]
Rhee Uses DCPS Employees to Recruit Friendly Testimony
February 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
When you are as popular as the Wicked Witch of the West, it makes a village, or at least a central office, to lasso any support among teachers, staff, or the general public. Now Rhee is using public dollars in an effort to garner enough support to save her own wickedness. From Bill Turque: School […]
Moskowitz & Klein; Millot’s Final
February 25, 2010 By 1 Comment
Be sure to check out Juan Gonzalez’s piece in today’s New York Daily News, which details the relationship between the charter mega-b**ch and Chancellor Klein. Also, don’t miss the 77 pages of e-mails between the two, which includes a nice “thank you” note from Eva to Klein for helping her line up a $1 million […]
Driving Schools into the Ground, One Charter at a Time
February 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Despite all the talk about accountability and the relentless assault of the public school system by charter advocates and their wealthy funders, real oversight of charter schools is 1) severely lacking and 2) doesn’t have any real power to regulate these private versions of public schools. Let me introduce you to Chase Academy for Communication […]
Duncan Advocates Segregated Total Compliance While Giving Lip Service to Control "Restraint and Seclusion"
February 25, 2010 By 2 Comments
The hundreds of millions of vulture capital dollars that have gone into the development of the KIPP empire have yielded a much more substantial result than just the few dozen total compliance cults spread across the wide span of U.S. media markets. These segregated cadillacs of child penal pedagogy have inspired a near universal acceptance […]
The Central Falls, RI Turnaround: Fire All the Teachers
February 24, 2010 By 4 Comments
The most constant and reliable predictor of standardized test scores is the income level of student families. Central Falls, RI has lots of families in poverty, almost 3 times the state average (30.1% compared to 12%). The percentage of families with income below 50% of poverty is more than twice the state average (12.5 to […]
Lighting Their Fires: a Book Review
Below is my short review of Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Kids in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World, by LAUSD teacher Rafe Esquith. Rafe is a well-known teacher, but I was not drawn to his book based on his accolades. I was drawn to his work because other people in the education world have claimed […]