Monday, June 18, 2012

diane ravitch et al

she is keeping us aware.. even if we just listen to her reports alone. .. it's enough.
are we listening..

dec 2012 - fooled-about-schools-fools-for-finland
if it even matters... right? what is success?
who defines it?

which state:
california
philadelphia
hawaii
wisconsin
chicago
washington state
michigan
north carolina
new jersey
louisiana
oklahoma
rhode island
ohio
more philadelphia
new york
more new jersey
tennessee
more north carolina
more michigan
vermont
more tennessee 

chicago/teacher cry

charters
examining charters
more charters - nc
jill biden/obama

higher ed - davidson

stem and jobs

national ed policy

gates funding
who is funding charters

ed as 1.3 trill market
20-50 bill on testing
sell out
is algebra necessary


it's getting crazy enough.. to perhaps wake us up.. as parents.. as citizens..

as people.

no?

when you th awaken [you to whatever degree you decide]
how to do it within, without - bmif
change your block

via delight directed learning:
Success no longer means being able to do. Success comes to mean “academic success,” a matter of learning to function within the system, of learning the “correct” answer, and of doing well at multiple-choice exams. Success also means, sadly, learning not to ask difficult questions. When we ask how our children are doing in school, we usually mean, “are they measuring up to the prevailing standards?” rather than, “are they having a good time and feeling excited about learning
http://www.graspingatsporks.com/hall-of-mirrors/

In a recent post, this teacher writes:
In order to forestall state-takeover, our district is scrambling to find ways to make “substantial improvement.” By improvement, of course we mean in our MCAS scores. One way we are responding is to get a private company called “Achievement Net” or “A-Net” to help us administer standardized tests throughout the year, which are “tailored” for our curriculum. We put an entire grade into lockdown mode, administer the test, and send the bubble sheets off to be corrected. They come back with lots of statistics and forms to fill out. Every student will do this a total of 12 times this year. We spend hours poring over the results, breaking kids into daily half-hour pull-out groups, filling out A-Net forms handed to us that have questions like, “Today I will _ to make sure my students understand the material,” or “Today I will reteach _ to make sure my students understand the concept of_.”


a better way.. a way to betterness..