| Nothing fabulous to write about today. Jon's got Jake Gyllenhaal, promoting his movie The Prisoners (Hugh Jackman will do the same tomorrow), and Stephen's got Arne Duncan, making a stop on his latest 'you'll love our education policy! Or else!' tour. Or maybe this time it'll be 'no really, teaching is a viable career path. Despite being treated like interchangeable test-giving cogs. And the pay thing. Not to mention having to beg via, say, DonorsChoose, when they can't afford to buy pencils for their classes.'
Yeah, not a fan. Though the "let teens sleep in longer" idea sounds like a worthwhile kind of reform.
A couple recent headlines:
What Arne Duncan’s comments on racial integration reveal
Business Organizations Out Front on Common Core This Week
Did This Little Election Strike a Big Blow to Education Reform?
A showdown on Common Core testing: Neither California nor Education Secretary Arne Duncan can claim the high ground in their clash over new standards tests.
Jason Stanford: When California and Texas Agree But Arne Duncan Says No
And this:
Amy Prime: Diane Ravitch’s new book takes education myths to task
If I were to create art to decorate the cover of Diane Ravitch’s new book Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, it would include an illustration of Diane Ravitch, sledgehammer in hand, smashing a brick wall with the words “Education Reform.” We would see bricks falling down with words on them such as Race to the Top, Arne Duncan, NCLB, vouchers, Gates Foundation and standardized assessments....
The book is written in an easily accessible style, with many chapters following a Snopes-like format, either verifying or debunking various claims that are being tossed around in the world of education. The main theme is that there are those who are intent on destroying public schools by any means necessary so that they can be replaced by privately managed corporations, whose interests lie, not in what’s best for kids or the future of our country, but for their bottom line...
(I added that link, btw. Also: Amazon, B&N.And Publisher's Weekly:)
Ravitch (The Death and Life of the Great American School System) offers a vital nonpartisan critique of the policies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the school privatization movement. Backed by abundant data, she distinguishes between these policies and their enactment, which demands that students master achievement tests, while educators face decreased funding, firings, and school closures. Meanwhile, unprecedented amounts of tax dollars flow into private charter school chains. Ravitch convincingly analyzes the rhetoric of Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, and other private/public school-choice advocates, whose campaigns and lobbying efforts for charter schools have created a network of corporations funneling millions of earmarked educational dollars into administrative salaries, rents, test-prep consultants, and textbook publishers...
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