Bush's Texas buddy & NCLB hustler Kress on Duncan's Race To The Top"They're using the carrot - we used the stick," chuckled Sandy Kress, who negotiated No Child Left Behind with Congress on behalf of the Bush White House. "I'm rooting for them." (SF Gate)Me: According to the Texas Observer, "Kress has been teaching businesses to turn a profit helping schools meet the mandates of No Child Left Behind. In the process, he’s made about $4 million in lobbying contracts, in large part from companies that profit from provisions of the law he helped to design." Enough said.
L.A. has more than 160 charter schools, far more than any other U.S. city
"The union's position on charters has evolved over time," said UTLA Vice President Gregg Solkovits. "I think that the best way to describe our position now is, it's not so much a question of charter or no charter but is it the best school for all students, including special education students, including English language learners?" (L.A. Times Special Report)To charter--a verb
Ted Kolderie was one of the early charter school pioneers. But his vision of charter schools appears to be at odds with semi-religious charter advocates who swear they are a panacea.
‘To charter’ is a verb; chartering is a platform on which teachers and others create schools. A chartered school is not a kind of school; at least not in terms of its approach to learning. (Eduwonk)
Me: Charters were originally created by teachers. Pretty rare these days, Ted. How come?
Schools not only started by but actually run by teachers -- schools organized as professional partnerships -- have somehow escaped most all education research. Quite a number of such partnerships do exist, however, and do operate successfully.(They're identified, described and explained on www.educationevolving.org.)
ReplyDeleteVery serious people from the teacher unions are now visiting these schools; thinking about this model. It is possible that if teachers can control what matters for school and student success, teachers will accept responsibility for school and student success.
And, yes, I do continue to try to explain that no
intellectually-respectable discussion about student performance is possible without knowing what the school has its students reading, seeing, hearing and doing. A charter is a kind of
'license' to start a school. To say a school is 'chartered' tells us nothing about what its students read, see, hear and do.