2010 archive

• Waldorf Charter for OUSD?: Despite steady improvements underway at the nearby local traditional elementary schools, a group wants to start a K-8 charter school in Oakland which will be based on the controversial, and testing-detached, Waldorf model.
• OUSD Gap Info: Despite OUSD’s API growth for all groups since 2002, the achievement gap has actually increased between some subgroups.
• Grannan: Critic blasts Obama administration education policy; official spokesman agrees: The Ed Dept’s secretary of concurred with Richard Rothstein that overreliance on standardized testing is detrimental to students.
• Steve Miller: "Democracy Privatized!": Miller sounds the alarm about privatization and explains this nation’s march towards the disenfranchisement of the public in all forms and the extermination of public rights and public power.
• School closures rip New York communities apart: New Yorkers are being subjected to havoc and disruptions and are witness to the murder of their community schools
• Flores: How Do the United Nations Frame the Case for Public Education: The United Nations has at its core universal and humanitarian intentions, and progressive and inclusive solutions, but its themes for having a successful public education are not being heeded in the U.S.
• How’s that Gap Fixing project coming along? Here's the update!: Additional figures about OUSD’s persistent achievement gap.
• Killing public education from the inside: The author of The Wrecking Crew explains how government-haters obtain positions of power within the government and then starve it from the inside.
• The "Parent Trigger" and its connections to the phoney LA Parents Union, Green Dot, Steve Barr, and Eli Broad: A look at sources of funding and the extensive intertwining personal relationships of people involved with this Astroturf organization.
• A national ed policy trick?: An article in Scientific American presents outstanding information which soundly disputes the commonly heard ed reformer claims about the U.S. having a shortage of scientists.
• Poetry: A Schoolroom in Haiti: By Kenneth Koch
• Grannan: Time for Obama to meet with the Central Falls 93, and gain some compassion – and a clue: On the Central Falls High School fiasco in Rhode Island.
• Diane Ravitch: Schedule of Events, Reviews and Other Press: Ravitch’s book has been released and its sales are soaring.
• “The Broad Effect”: (Part One): A description of the methods by which Billionaire Eli Broad manipulates public policy under the guise of “philanthropy.”
• “The Broad Effect”: Part Two: As above, but focusing on a personal look at the man himself.
• Bullying or witch hunt?: On the attacks on teachers, and on Michelle Alexander’s look at America’s permanent under-caste.
• More interpersonal nastiness than usual: The human cost of school choice and competition.
• A very important collection of other-statistics: A series of international comparisons of measurements having to do with home and family life, economics, psychological well-being, education, and crime.
• On “So Much Reform, So Little Change”: Excerpts from Charles Payne’s book.
• Last night’s stunning Bill Moyers Journal: Part One featured Bill Moyers’ interview with Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander. Part Two was Moyers’ essay on the growing income inequality.
• Conspiracy, or not? You decide.: Tight, exclusive, and interlocking relationships with a small number of power-emanating nodes describe the current drive of ed reform.
• Sunday reading: Privatization in your face (Two short articles + extra credit): Schwarzenegger, who has professed his love and admiration for Milton Friedman, now wants to sell off California’s assets. It’s the typical move that was described in The Shock Doctrine.
• Grannan: Advantage-linked charter in SF + recent charter school scandals: A new SF charter school is being proposed and one of the people involved was the CEO of Advantage Schools, a nationwide for-profit charter operator that collapsed after an investigation revealed its troubles in 2001. This post also marks the genesis of the Charter Schools Scandals blog.
• Grannan: Is firing bad teachers really the solution?: A look at union presence from state to state puts to rest the myth that bad teachers with ironclad job security are the cause of the challenges facing public education.
• Message for Vander Ark & the ed deform crowd: Commentary on the Florida bill that sought to tie 50% of a teacher’s evaluation and pay to test scores, the current teacher-hating milieu, and the results of a NCES parent survey on teacher satisfaction.
• Grannan: Reauthorization of NCLB-II and George Miller, Ravitch and the Poison Pill: Diane Ravitch urged Bay Area residents to launch a protest campaign to pressure Rep. George Miller to stop defending the No Child Left Behind law.
• Contradictions & ed deform: The talk and actions of the ed reformers don’t jibe, and a look at basic poverty facts from the National Poverty Center.
• Grannan: On eliminating "bad" workers: There is plenty of dead wood in the private sector, and sometimes those bosses unwisely eliminate their best workers.
• Getting to know the Schwarzenegger-appointed, Broad-connected, pro-charter-dominated State Board of Education: Enough said.
• Put the parent voice back in public education now!: Parents Across America sent a letter about the Blueprint for ESEA’s reauthorization to President Obama and the Congress.
• An Aspire primer: A look at the close relationship between the Gates Foundation and Aspire Public Schools, a large CMO in California.
• Who’s right: Arne or Michelle [Alexander]?: Arne Duncan’s claims are trumped by the wisdom of Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
• “Listening and Learning” = feigned interest + intentional shut out: The stories are piling up against Arne Duncan, who says he will “listen” but does not.
• Grannan: Charters want accountability? That's a new concept.: Charter school industry has a history of fighting against accountability and oversight every step of the way.
• My charter school research & the Gülen Movement: A new discovery about the under-the-radar connection between a national network of charter schools and a controversial, cult-like, religious movement out of Turkey. (6/1/2010)
• Your creepy weekend reading and viewing: An assortment of links to pieces about Fethullah Gulen, the Gulen Movement, and its charter schools. (6/4/2010)
• The U.S. “Fethullahci” schools, sometimes locally known as Turkish-run charter schools: An early list of the Gulen charter schools that have been opened in the U.S.
• Grannan: A little-noticed but triumphant victory for public education: On the defeat of State Senator Gloria Romero, the billionaire ed reform movement-backed candidate for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
• Magnolia Schools charter management organization: Details about the largest of two Gulen charter school management organizations in California.
• Grannan: Once more with feeling -- Newsweek's high school rankings are still invalid and corrupt: Newsweek’s deeply flawed annual ranking of American high schools is only based on a single criterion: the number of AP tests that are are taken.
• Gulen schools here and abroad: Information about Gulen Movement global project of opening schools.
• Speaking truth to power: My personal account of speaking to Arne Duncan at a Bay Area event.
• Grannan: In The Village, no one can hear you scream: The “Village” is a concept widely referred to by bloggers and other commentators to define the members and the mindset of the Washington establishment – the insiders who listen only to themselves. It explains the ed reform disconnect.
• New study: charter schools have more chronically inexperienced teachers: The results of a study done by the National Center on School Choice examines charter school teacher turnover, etc.
• Like lambs being led to the slaughter: The AFT invited major charter school-supporter Bill Gates and his reform notions to their convention, where he was heckled by a group of teachers who are actually aware that the ultimate effect of Gates’ efforts will be to profoundly weaken their union.
• I "heart" Dave Obey: A Congressman with commonsense opposes Arne Duncan, “…I’ll be damned if I think the only road to reform lies in the head of the secretary of education.”
• Gulen schools and their booming H1B visa applications: The Gulen charter school operators apply for a spectacularly high number of H1B visas in order to fellow members of the movement to the U.S. from Turkey and Central Asia to teach at their schools.
• Learning to love Turkey: The Turkish Olympiad is the hallmark event of the Gulen charter schools around the world. This post features an assortment of American students displaying their Turkishness.
• Grannan: D'oh! College Board report shows apples inferior to oranges: Grannan takes on the misinformation being spread by the College Board.
• Grannan: With friends like President Obama, does Race to the Top need enemies? (+ extra feature): Obama defends the indefensible, plus a video of George Carlin explaining who owns us and why they don’t want us to create schools that will make us into educated, critical thinkers.
• The arrogant ed reformers reject the wisdom of spiritual leaders, too.: Excerpts from a letter submitted to President Obama and members of Congress which appeals for democratic governance of public schools, rejecting the language of business for discussing public education, and valuing public school educators.
• Turkish charter school piece in USA Today: Greg Toppo’s piece,“Objectives of charter schools with Turkish ties questioned.” Marks the first time that the Gulen Movement’s charter school network has been covered in the mainstream national press.
• Reflections on one teacher's life work: My tribute to one dedicated teacher.
• Parents Across America send letter to President Obama: A follow-up letter to the one sent in May by Parents Across America.
• Yong Zhao: On nurturing passion: Video of Professor Zhao’s wise message.
• Ed deform propaganda in full bloom: A piece looking into the usual players and tactics surrounding Education Nation, NBC’s ed deform extravaganza
• Ravitch speaking the truth: Video of Diane Ravitch speaking to teachers in L.A.
• Education Nation reflection and fallout: Accounts of how Education Nation played out.
• Finland’s approach to education & the corporate ed reformers: Perhaps the only good thing about Education Nation was hearing Pasi Sahlberg explain what Finland did to improve its schools (hint: it’s the exact opposite of what is being foisted on the U.S. schools).
• We Should Be Careful With Our Words: Teacher Steve Neat’s views about the problems with charter schools, effective teaching, and the achievement gap.
• The affiliation between the Gulen Movement and a large network of U.S. charter schools is now official: A Baker Institute event and recent video footage shows a Gulenist and two sympathizers openly talking about Gulen charter schools.
• Teacher effectiveness: the student perspective: Teacher Manny Lopez shares the answers he received when he asked his students “What makes an effective teacher?”
• The public education theater of war: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders recognizes that a war is being waged by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country against the working families of the United States of America.
• Observations on local control: A look at leadership and who is allowed to have power over their schools, and who is not.
• The “Ignorance Hypothesis”: As far as the increasing income disparity goes, it is speculated that people aren’t marching in the streets because they don’t realize things are as bad as they are.