Category Archives: Uncategorized

The state-appointed superintendent of the Camden, Néw Jersey, public schools announced that five public schools would be handed over to private charter chains. These schools will receive “significant” renovations to prepare them for the takeover by private managers. Three private organizations–KIPP, Mastery, and Uncommon Schools–have been designated to take over the schools and students.

“”This marks a new beginning for five of Camden’s most-struggling schools,” predicted Paymon Rouhanifard, the district’s state-appointed superintendent. “We hope this will be remembered as the moment we turned the corner.”

“A different view came from Save Our Schools New Jersey, an education-advocacy group. It asserted the schools were being “given” to private operators “to ensure a forced supply of students.”

“The people of Camden had no say in this decision,” said the group, which noted the city district is under state control and does not have an elected school board.

“Current staffers at the five…

Peter Greene watched “Defies Measurement,” and he urges you to see it too. It was made by a teacher, Shannon Puckett. You can see it free here.

Greene writes:

Let me cut to the chase– I cannot recommend enough that you watch Defies Measurement, a new film by Shannon Puckett.

The film is a clear-eyed, well-sourced look at the business of test-driven corporate-managed profiteer-promoted education reform, and it has several strengths that make it excellent viewing both for those of us who have been staring at these issues for a while and for teachers and civilians who are just now starting to understand that something is going wrong.

The film is anchored by the story of Chipman Middle School in Alemeda, a school that up until ten years ago was an educational pioneer, using the solid research about brains and learning (and where Shannon Puckett once taught). They…

Audrey Beardsley, one of the narion’s leading experts on teacher evaluation, recently visited Néw Mexicoe and there found an unhappy, test-obsessed school system.

She says Néw Mexico has gone “high stakes silly.” She attributes this to state commissioner Hanna Skandera, who was deputy commissioner in Dlorida when Jeb Bush was governor. Hanna never taught. She believes in the Bush gospel of testing.

What’s more, teachers in NM must sign a contract promising never to disparage the tests in school or in public. Beardsley tried to make sense of the state’s VAM program but couldn’t. Then she learned that a group of rocket scientists at Los Alamos tried to understand it, and they couldn’t either.

The BadAss Teachers Association wants the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Pearson.

“This week’s scandal about Pearson spying on children and their social media activity to determine if testing security was breached shows us that Pearson has no qualms in stealing the sanctity of childhood. Gone are the days in which a child’s life can be that of a private citizen. The idea that Pearson feels it must corral and control what our children put on social media is a corruption, greed, and injustice sandwich. Sorry Pearson we are not eating it.

“Here is a strong and direct warning from the teachers and parents of the Badass Teachers Association – You messed up and you messed up BIG. Due to your attempt to continue to buy up and control American education you have committed perhaps the most disgusting act any one could commit – you have used our…

Rick Bobrick, who comments on the blog as NY Teacher, is a conscientious objector to high-stakes testing. He has done the research on teachers’ free speech rights and offers it here to other readers.

Free Speech Rights of Teachers?
The following are a series of excerpts from various articles concerning the free speech rights of teachers as public employees. This information is intended to shed some light on the general sense of fear that many teachers are feeling in regards to speaking out against the federal test-and-punish reform movement. I am a teacher, not a lawyer, but perhaps this information will help some teachers of conscience make a more informed decision about voicing their concerns about what many of us perceive as the harmful effects of the federally coerced Common Core standards and the required companion assessments, as well as linking said scores to teacher evaluations. In the opinion of…

Nancie Atwell, a teacher of literacy in Maine, won the Varkey Foundation’s $1 million prize as the Global Teacher of the Year. This is like the Nobel prize of teaching. She was interviewed on CNN about teaching, and she talked about encouraging children to read and write, following their interests and passions. She is donating the $1 million to her school, which needs a new furnace and other improvements. When one of the interviewers asked her what she would tell a young person interested in teaching, she said she would tell them to go into the private sector, not into public school teaching. The interviewers were taken aback. Atwell explained that the Common Core and the testing that goes with it had turned teachers into “technicians,” making it hard for them to teach the best they knew how. She would urge them to find an independent school where there is…

On March 4, 2015, I wrote a post about a Louisiana teacher promoting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the op/eds and who happens to be under contract with the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) as a paid “common core expert.”

The teacher did not disclose that she is being financially compensated specifically for promoting CCSS.

I took issue with both the compensation and the failure to disclose.

On March 6, 2015, I had a comment connected to the above post awaiting approval. It was written under the name, SickOfYourNonsense.

Here is what Sick had to say:

I think it’s time for full disclosure from you.

Who has been paying you under the table to keep our children tied to low standards and the worst curriculum in the nation,

Who has been paying you at all?

Setting aside the spitting-lizard tone of the above comment, allow me to…

A few weeks ago, I heard from Alex Suarez, a medical student at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He has a B.S. in Bioengineering from Rice University. Alex read my book “Reign of Error” and asked if he could propose an new approach to accountability. He put his ideas on paper, and I am glad to share them with you. What do you think of Alex’s ideas?

Alex writes:

Anyone who has watched “Waiting for Superman” or listened to the endless educational debates will be quick to hear how our public school system is failing. Who’s the culprit in their opinion? The teachers. Contrast that with my own experience of seeing countless dreamers poised with incredible capabilities to inspire and teach, get put into incredibly challenging situations.

Teachers can start in a classroom of 22 students; they don’t fare too well. With the current system…

After Bob Braun published a post breaking the news that Pearson was spying on students’ social media during PARCC testing, his blog was shut down. If you read his note below, it will not be clear to you, as it is not clear to me, whether his site was shut down by the attack or by him, “to stop the attack.” Frankly, I would have no idea how to shut down my site. If you clicked on the link, you got a screen that says, “This Account Has Been Suspended.”

Bob Braun posted this note on his Facebook page:

TO MY BLOG AND FACEBOOK FRIENDS: My site has been attacked and has been shut down to stop the attack. You might want to contact Pearson and let them know you don’t appreciate suppression of legitimate news.

https://www.facebook.com/bobbraunsledger/posts/643285842467702?fref=nf

Here is the text of the original post and here is the original

A group of school superintendents in New York banded together in late February to form The Alliance to Save Public Education.  They currently number 30 superintendents from Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester County, and Monroe County. They invite other superintendents from across the state to join them in signing their Declaration below. They welcome the signatures of school board presidents and leaders of parent associations as well.

Please contact your Superintendent, Board President, or PTA President to sign:

Print it, then sign the printout with a dark flair-type pen in a blank spot 

You can download the letter to print here.

Here is the text of the letter:

March X, 2015

Dear Lawmaker:

Every day, nearly three million children and adolescents attend New York State’s public schools:  upstate and downstate, rural, urban and suburban, small, medium and large. …