Kicking Arse and taking Names @ the chalk face media site

Have you had it?  Are you tired of pulling your hair out (I’m freakin bald)?  Do you need a place of refuge?  A place safe from the insanity constantly being touted by reformers and their supporters?   A place to calm your soul?  A place to kick back and rest your weary bones?  Well this isn’t the place!

However, if you want a place that will take the reformers narrative and dissect it, analyze it, and then cook it on an open fire–welcome.  This is the new and improved @the chalk face blog.  Bloggers on this site promise to take the Gates, Broad, Walton, DeVos, and Duncan bull sh!t machine and drive a rusty wrench into its well financed gears.

We promise that all blogs, internet radio shows and commercial radio broadcasts will deliver an edgy analysis of the war on public education and occasionally we might even make you laugh. However, let it be known that any “tickle me Elmo” “let’s find common ground” pansy-ass reformer placating will never see the light of day @the chalk face.

No helmets allowed and if the ride gets too bumpy then get off.  There are other “balanced” education blog sites for the faint of heart.  @ the chalk face doesn’t sing Kumbaya.

For example: How about these two “stories” that made it to publication without any critical commentary?

Story 1

“Data show that the greatest positive outcomes for students happen when entire school systems are either redesigned or started anew.” Eli Broad

Mr. Broad. Where is this “data?”  It doesn’t exist and you know it.

How is it possible that this quote even made it into Education Week?  When I blogged for Huff Post even that blog space always insisted that I support any claim that was presented as research.  What gives?  Of course Mr. Broad made this ridiculous claim in a “commentary.”  So because it’s commentary anything goes?  Or is it because Mr. Broad is a member of the billionaire boy’s club hell bent on destroying public education and Education Week has sold out its credibility as a publication that presents factual information concerning education in America?

Story 2

Samuel Franklin, director of teacher effectiveness for the Pittsburgh schools said,

“It makes sense when you think about it. Students are in the classroom every day. They are experts on what’s happening in the classroom.”

Mr. Franklin (director of teacher effectiveness) made this comment discussing the use of children as young as four as teacher evaluators.  Add to that, these “objective” evaluations will be used along with Value Added Measurements to determine the future of Pittsburgh public school teachers.  Oh to teach in Pittsburgh.

First of all what hell is a director of teacher effectiveness?

Second, does he really mean it when he calls children classroom experts?

This is the kind of nonstop crap that continues to be pushed by reformers and is never critically analyzed by anybody in the “traditional” media.

We @the chalk face media say, “NO MORE!”