Month: May 2014

• Is Teachers’ Union Right on H.R. 10 Charter Bill? #edreform

  4–6 minutes

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  May 8, 2014

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  Charter Schools

  The U.S. House is currently debating H.R.10,  a potentially important Charter school bill. Previously I wrote: I am not of the ilk that charters are all bad news (See all of Cloaking Inequity’s post on charter schools here). As I have mentioned previously, I am a charter school parent, currently serve on a charter school board, and was an…

  

• Uncovering Lies and Damn Lies in @ArneDuncan Graduation Rates

  10–16 minutes

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  May 7, 2014

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  Wisdom

  Has your state experienced a meteoric rise in its graduation rate since Arne Duncan’s new graduation standards went into effect? Do you think it too good to be true? Nobody likes to be lied to. The latest Arne Duncan sleight of hand is the reporting and trumpeting of graduation rates. The Washington Post related: Calling it…

  

• Local Accountability and Astroturf: Local Control without the Local Control

  9–13 minutes

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  May 5, 2014

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  Community-Based Accountability

  How can we banish No Child Left Behind’s top-down and narrow paradigm? Local control has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its inception. NCLB sent us in the opposite direction of this traditional notion. A return to a traditional locally based educational policy can be again realized via a multiple measures approach…