Cloaking Inequity

An “oldie, but a goodie” article from the New York Times about charter schools and at-risk students. An excerpt: … Julian Vasquez Heilig, a professor at the University of Texas College of Education who studies how incentive systems affect student achievement, said his research had found a higher dropout rate for all charters — not just those that […]

A short trailer for an upcoming blog post series here on Cloaking Inequity.

If we are to believe Jonathan Alter and others, hedge funds like loaning to charters because it is just the right thing to do and they have big hearts. I took issue with this off-stage at MSNBC’s Education Nation and Alter was dumfounded that hedge fund managers might actually be investing in charters because they […]

As previously discussed on this blog, Great Hearts Academies has targeted San Antonio. This is the same Great Hearts that attempted to enter Nashville and was rebuffed by the community. Kevin Huffman, Tennessee’s Education Commissioner, then retaliated against Nashville by withholding $3.4 million in state funding. What ever happened to those who espoused local control? It’s a bad idea […]

Last week I conducted a quick analysis of Majority Latina/o High Schools in Texas to understand what high schools in the state had a majority (more than 50%) of their Latina/o students college-ready (defined as scoring a 2200 on both Math and Reading) according to high-stakes Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exit testing. I concluded […]

NEPC recently released a report entitled  Democracy Left Behind: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education.  The press release states: “Local control” has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its earliest days, but a new report concludes the concept “has all but disappeared” in discussions of education policy. […]

The official press release is now available for the Texas vs. California vs. New York vs. Nation educational outcomes policy report. You the readers of Cloaking Inequity saw it here first. Note to editors and news producers: University Communications at The University of Texas at Austin is providing the following news release in the form of text […]

Currently, Fisher v. Texas is being decided at the US Supreme Court. As I was thinking about the case today, I recalled an issue that we had with the Journal of Equity and Excellence in Education (E&EE) regarding a manuscript about the Top 10% plan and the historical access of Latina/os to UT-Austin. We sought out […]

Considering my prior discussion about the Texas State Board of Education and TEKS standards revision process in “Texas: Butt of many jokes” and “Illusion of Inclusion”. Looking forward to seeing the The Revisionaries when it comes back to Austin in a few weeks. Note: Also see the NAACP’s request for a compliance review of Texas standards and educational […]

A Reuters article The new U.S. visa rush: Build a charter school, get a green card describes a new “loophole” for foreigners to buy their way into the US by sending charter schools money. Thanks to Karen from Houston for bringing this article to my attention. Here are some excerpts: Volatility has made it tough for startup […]

Students of color are again under attack in the Fisher v. Texas case currently being decided in the US Supreme Court. For past attacks see Bakke, Hopwood, Grutter and Gratz. Considering that Grutter upheld race as one of many factors under a decade ago, conservatives on the court appear to be determined to strike down race/ethnicity […]

I am still jetlagged from the INVALSI Accountability conference in Rome. My body is telling me it is noon right now. However, it is only 6 a.m. That explains the early morning post about standards. From the very start Texas declined to participate in the Common Core Standards— clearly national standards are a threat to […]

Today I conducted a quick analysis of Majority Latina/o High Schools in Texas. I was wondering, of those high schools that are Majority Latina/o, comparing charters and non-charters, what high schools in the state had a majority (more than 50%) of their Latina/o students college-ready (defined as scoring a 2200 on both Math and Reading) […]

In my Foundations of Education course at UT-Austin, I challenged my students last week to address legislators and stakeholders that are calling for an expansion of “Career and Technology” education. They were especially vociferous at a forum sponsored by the UT-Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs entitled Measuring Up: A Statewide Conversation on High Stakes […]

I was on vacation when the New York Times published my Teach For America (TFA) Op-Ed entitled “A Glorified Temp Agency” in their opinion pages online. Thus I never had an opportunity to discuss it here. Let me tell you, I had an avalanche of email in my inbox from incensed TFAers. I was also quite surprised […]

It will take 80 more years for No Child Left Behind to close the achievement gap.

Sean Reardon, Stanford University Professor of Education, comment (October 4, 2012 INVALSI Accountability Conference in Rome, Italy) based on his latest research on achievement gaps in the United States. 

I am very fortunate to be at a AERA Division L meeting with many esteemed education policy faculty, including Tina Trujillo, professor at UC-Berkeley. At dinner yesterday, she gave me the heads-up on a new policy and legislative brief that she authored for NEPC examining school turnaround. The brief is entitled Democratic School Turnarounds: Pursuing Equity […]