With the blessing of Bill Gates and State Commissioner, Kevin (formerly Mister Michelle Rhee) Huffman, principals across Memphis and Shelby County are illegally dumping hundreds of tenured teachers in favor of TFA, TeachPlus, and TeachMemphis corporate missionaries, who are hired to instill in Memphis’ impoverished children the corporate psychology that can be summed up as “you can […]
The Human Costs of School “Reform”
May 2, 2013 By 2 Comments
A study by Elaine Weiss and Don Long of the Bolder Broader Approach shows that the corporate school “reform” experiment has claimed to have raised student achievement but that those gains evaporate upon close examination. A previous post, “The Benefits (and Costs) of ‘Reform’ in Three Cities,” discussed their “Market-Oriented Education Reforms’ Rhetoric Trumps Reality,” […]
The New Republic Provides Wedding Details for Randi Weingarten and Bill Gates
April 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
To the 800,000 K12 teachers who are paying dues for AFT union support: Your union dues are not going to protect you and your students from the corporate onslaught by efficiency zealots, privateers, and proto-fascist ideologues. In fact, your president, Randi Weingarten, has joined forces with the oligarchs to begin the Accountability Testing 3.0 regime […]
@rweingarten is trying to drive that bus…
March 27, 2013 By 4 Comments
AFT President Randi Weingarten tried to throw us all under the bus with this abhorrent collaboration with a member of the Gates Foundation. Here’s the original piece with response from Anthony Cody and Diane Ravitch. Proximity to power and self-preservation are very persuasive. But this bus can’t run over everyone finally starting to stand up […]
Stopping MA DESE from Turning Over Student and Teacher Records to Corporations
February 8, 2013 By 2 Comments
Letter from ACLU to MA BESE: February 5, 2013 Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education75 Pleasant StreetMalden, MA 02148 Dear Board Members, It has come to our attention that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education intends to share confidential student and teacher data with the Gates Foundation, as part of its Shared Learning Collaborative, consisting […]
Evaluation of Gates Research on Teacher Effectiveness
February 1, 2013 By 1 Comment
From the NEPC Policy Center: Reference Publication: Review of Two Culminating Reports from the MET Project Gates Foundation’s MET Study Fails to Solve the Teacher Evaluation Challenge Contact:William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.netJesse Rothstein, (510) 643-8561, rothstein@berkeley.eduZJamie Horwitz, (202) 549-4921, jhdcpr@starpower.net URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/a9yrxtv BOULDER, CO (January 31, 2013) – A review by the National Education Policy […]
Gates resigns, conveniently after a highly critical report
January 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
No, not that Gates, the other one. For-profit colleges like sub-prime mortgage lenders? Ouch. I’m sensing the same could soon be said of charter chains, perhaps this quote: …which likened for-profit colleges to subprime-mortgage lenders, targeting low-income and traditionally underrepresented students. I think the shoe fits.
Continuing skirmishes with CCSS cheerleaders on Diane Ravitch’s blog
December 29, 2012 By 1 Comment
“There is no evidence that standards and tests improve school achievement. The money budgeted for standards and tests to enforce the standards should be used to protect children from the effects of poverty.” — Professor Stephen Krashen The following is my edited commentary in response to comments by a CCSS supporter on the Professor Ravitch […]
Debunking Common Core Curriculum’s so-called Four C’s
December 25, 2012 By 3 Comments
“When you go to doctors, they don’t take all your blood, they only take a sample.” — Professor Stephen Krashen Professor Diane Ravitch had a brief comment entitled The True Goals of Education? this morning where a reader suggested a sort of whole child approach based on virtues as opposed to tedious test preparation. That […]
Paul Toner: From TURNcoat to Collaborator
December 6, 2012 By 1 Comment
collaborate: To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupation force in one’s country. Since it became widely known (here, here, and here) that he was a kingpin in the Eli Broad-sponsored Teachers Union Reform Network (TURN), Paul Toner has pivoted and become the chief collaborator with the other wing of the corporate party, this one sponsored […]
Downton Billy
Since Bill Gates and other billionaire boys and girls club members are dictating education policy and coming up with new and brilliant ideas such as, “the teacher is the most important” indicator of whether students learn, perhaps he can give us some more lessons on teaching. We can start lesson one on conspicuous consumption, […]