Fat (Lie) Tuesday
Yesterday, there was some exciting news out of New Orleans. I learned about it from a tweet by TFA co-CEO Elisa Villanueva-Beard. Now I’ve written before about The New Orleans ‘Miracle.’ They...
View ArticleDriven by data … right off a cliff
Yesterday the big announcement in New York was the results of the latest ‘common core aligned’ state tests. As expected, the scores plummeted. The New York Times reported that from last year to this...
View ArticleHow To Define ‘Success’?
The new and improved New York State tests have arrived and the higher standards have taken much of the air out of many charter chain’s balloons. Schools, in particular, from KIPP and Democracy Prep...
View ArticleThe Underachievement School District
If you’re a parent, a student, or a teacher, the last thing you want to hear is that the state you live in has been commended by Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, as a ‘reform’ leader. This has...
View ArticleHow I teach 2.6 months more of math in a year than the rest of you slackers
A report was recently released which according to some TFA defenders “settles the issue” about the effectiveness of Teach For America teachers. By comparing the standardized test scores of TFA...
View ArticlePolis Joke
Jared Polis is a Democratic Colorado Congressman. He recently had this interchange with Randi Weingarten on Twitter about Diane Ravitch. Though this caused a backlash, he seems to be standing by his...
View ArticleNew TFA Miracle Claims
Today TFA released their annual letter. Looking at the announcement of the letter on their website, I saw this image, which shows all the aspects of TFA’s influence, though, to me, it looks a lot like...
View ArticleOn the latest D.C. NAEP Miracle
Today the results from the 2013 NAEP came out, and ‘reformers’ everywhere are celebrating the amazing gains by states with an aggressive reform agenda. In 2011, the average national score for the four...
View ArticleWill TNTP demand accountability from itself?
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) was a spin-off of TFA and originally led by Michelle Rhee. Having worked as a trainer for both organizations, I generally liked working for TNTP more than TFA. I found...
View ArticleKane Unable
Harvard professor Thomas Kane recently testified on behalf of the ‘families’ in the Vergera vs. California case. The plaintiffs in this case seek for the teacher tenure process and the LIFO layoff...
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