Cloaking Inequity

Diane Ravitch just posted this. A source on one of the House staffs just sent me his assessment anonymously. He also weighs in on the relationship between vouchers and current Texas school finance case: Vouchers just basically died in the House…. The amendment basically prohibits public dollars for public education going to private schools.  So […]

Our work group has had many questions on how a Community-Based Accountability process would occur on the local level (For CI’s full thread on Community-Based Accountability go here). I noted in a prior post that California had recently developed a Local Control and Accountability plan as part of their school finance reforms. I also noted […]

The fact that Texas got caught with their pants down and has “enrontized” their federal graduation rates (see ACGR) should not be a surprise. Dr. Walt Haney, an emeritus Boston College Professor well-known for statistically debunking the Texas and Florida educational miracles, emailed me a response to yesterday’s analysis of the Texas graduation data. Here is what he said: Julian:   You have […]

I know. I know. I promised finito yesterday on vouchers. For the past week on CI, I have sought to thoughtfully ponder the impact of vouchers on various issues such as achievement, school finance, education equity and rural areas. In prior posts on the the universal implementation of vouchers I have also pondered segregation and […]

Happy New Year 2013! I have often posted on school vouchers over the past few months. Why? There are factions in Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere that still argue they are efficacious educational policy and are pressing them into law. They are not. See CI’s thread on vouchers here. IUPRA will soon release a brief entitled […]

I have had several emails from the readers of Cloaking Inequity asking about the Pre-K SA initiative recently passed in San Antonio. The official website states: Pre-K 4 SA is an investment in the children — and the future — of San Antonio. Children who attend high quality Pre-K programs do better in school from […]

Written in collaboration with Dr. Jaime Portales Voucher supporters in the United States and elsewhere claim (including Sen. Dan Patrick) that vouchers will improve the educational opportunities of disadvantaged students (Sugarman, 1999), and contribute to the social integration of middle- and upper-class students. Voucher supporters argue that, since school choice is already available to upper-class […]

Written in collaboration with the students in my UT-Austin course School Law and Policy 11/7/2012 Guiding question for today’s post on the universal implementation of vouchers: Do they create challenges to the separation between church and state? Questions of the separation of church and state often swirl around conversations about school vouchers. What does the […]

Written in collaboration with Dr. Jaime Portales Guiding question for today’s post on the universal implementation of vouchers: Do they buttress or deconstruct the public school system? In the universal implementation of vouchers Chile, evidence shows that the competition for student enrollment throughout the country has been dominated by private-voucher schools at the expense of […]

Written in collaboration with Dr. Jaime Portales Guiding question for today’s post on the universal implementation of vouchers: Do they improve achievement? In the largest implementation of vouchers in the world, contrasting results appear to have been found on the impact of the Chilean voucher system on student achievement among public and private schools. According […]

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 […]

In April of 2012, KIPP responded to a press release for Is choice a panacea? An analysis of black secondary student attrition from KIPP, other private charters and urban districts, a peer-reviewed paper published in the Berkeley Review of Education (BRE) about African American secondary student attrition from charter schools across the state of Texas. KIPP began their response by […]

Vasquez Heilig, J., Cole, H. & Aguilar, A. (2010). From Dewey to No Child Left Behind: The evolution and devolution of public arts education. Arts Education Policy Review, 111(4), 136-145. This historical narrative tracks the evolution and devolution of visual arts education from Dewey’s progressive era pedagogy and the theory of the arts as experience through the modern accountability […]