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Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action The Washington Independent's Mikhail Zinshteyn gives a good account of Saturday's Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C., in Thousands come out to teacher rally in Washington, protest Obama and decade of "bad" policies. Valerie Strauss carries the full text of actor Matt Damon's speech in Matt Damon’s clear-headed speech to teachers rally. And Amanda Paulson begins her excellent article about the protest, Save Our Schools March: a teacher revolt against Obama education reform, with the question, "What if the education reformers are wrong?" Other coverage around the nation includes:
I was disappointed that our local paper, the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, had no coverage of this important event. I'm fairly certain that we had local teachers participating in the march. (Note the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette's coverage linked above.) I'd sent Trib-Star editor Max Jones and education writer Sue Loughlin a heads-up about the event. Neither responded (unusual for Max, par for the course for Sue) and our local paper missed any coverage of the event. I was appalled that the national networks, other than minor articles on CNN, chose to ignore the Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action. For NBC, with its pro-"reformer" stance with its misguided Education Nation series, I could see how they'd want to stay away from something that rips apart the flawed logic of what they're pushing. But ABC, CBS, and FOX all not covering a major march in the nation's capital? It shows how much power the billionaire boys club and other "reformers" have over our national media. Whether the march had any effect on our President and his basketball buddy Secretary of Education remains to be seen. New York University Professor Pedro Noguera noted at the rally that the traditional ally of teachers, the Democratic Party, and President Obama have turned from their base on education "reform." He warned both, "When you lose your base, you lose your vote." Potential Cheating Scandal in Pennsylvania Michael Winerip writes in Pennsylvania Joins States Facing a School Cheating Scandal that a 2009 study of schools with suspicious numbers of erasures on state tests has produced disappointing results. "A total of 89 schools - 28 in Philadelphia - had been flagged by the state for, among other things, an improbably high number of erasures, as well as questionable gains on reading and math tests." Winerip tells how The Notebook, a community newspaper and Web site that covers the Philadelphia public schools, uncovered and broke the story last month. A posting from The Notebook last Friday, Confession of a cheating teacher, sounds like a teacher who had difficulty beginning proctoring and stopping teaching when testing began. But other parts of the investigation reveal massive and suspicious gains on test scores and suspicious patterns of erasures on standardized tests. The Notebook's Ben Herold points out in Two of Pennsylvania's largest charters part of test score probe, "The statistical analysis does not prove that cheating occurred, but suggests that some results are statistically unusual and should be investigated further." Odds 'n' Ends I had to laugh at "Mrs. Lipstick's" Moment of Panic on her Organized Chaos blog. She tells of watching a five-year-old picking up a box of shoes at the shoe store that played music...lots of music at volume. She thought of what chaos loud, musical shoes might cause in the classroom, only to be relieved to find it was the box and not the shoes making the music. Her Teacher whine. Ignore me, please about cutting, laminating, and cutting again may bring a smile to the face of those who've done that routine (over and over and over and...). Send Feedback to |
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Pretty Much All Odds 'n' Ends Today With the debt ceiling crisis behind us and the Save Our Schools march over, things are pretty slow in education news right now. Reader Ed Harris sent along a link to a revealing article about the close links between former Atlanta Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall and the business community of Atlanta. Alan Judd's Major execs invested in Hall is an eye opener. Marty Weil's Listen Up on T.H.E. Journal is a good read about classroom sound amplification systems. Valerie Strauss writes about the lack of a meeting between organizers of the recent SOS march and the Obama administration in A missed opportunity for the White House. And Dr. Tony Phillips writes about the investigation of the Vesta asteroid in Dawn's Smooth Move. One Serious, One Not I just found one serious education article worth linking to today and one good spoof. Walt Gardner began How to Mold Public Opinion Against Public Schools on Wednesday, "Two of the most effective tools of propagandists are to tell a big lie so often that it is accepted as undeniable truth, and to create a scapegoat for the anger and frustration that the public feels." Walt proceeds to apply that wisdom in taking apart singer Ted Nugent's recent attack on teachers and teachers' unions, NEA - Master of Disaster. Ted should stick to music. In the frivolity arena, Andy Borowitz's Bachmann Proposes Slashing Half of Alphabet: "Vowels Are Not Free," Says Tea Party Favorite is good for a laugh. Have a great weekend!
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