And the winner is....
Thanks to all who voted!!!
I'll be bringing this to DC!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
what i'd really like my sign to say.....
With all due respect,
F@#k You, Arne Duncan!
...and I don't mean in a good way!
Ok. I'll go put myself in a timeout now.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
protest signs for the sos march
Teachers Are More Than a Test Score!
Arne Duncan is Far Below Basic!
NCLB Put Us on a Trajectory to Failure.
DON'T REAUTHORIZE!
Teachers Put Kids First Every Day!
$pend $$$ on Kid$, NOT Te$t$!
Tests are Harmful for Children and Other Living Things!
Fire Arne!
Bubble Tests Create Bubbleheads!
Fire Arne, NOT Teachers!
NCLB - Don't Reauthorize! EUTHANIZE!
Arne Duncan, Proudly Pushing Ideology Over Evidence, 24/7!
Failed Policies Coming to a School Near You!
Just Say No to Arne!
Teachers Vote!
Arne, STFU... Please!
It's Poverty, Stupid!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
weighing in on the brooks/alter/ravitch debate
A 150 word version of the following was submitted to the New York Times in response to "Invitation to a Dialogue: Fixing the Schools" where Diane Ravitch responds to David Brooks's article "Smells Like School Spirit" where he lies about misrepresents her views.
Pundits such as David Brooks and Jonathan Alter are long on hyperbole and criminally short on facts (the real kind, not the pretend or purchased kind). Does Dr. Ravtich cherry pick her facts? Absolutely! She draws her facts from high quality, peer-reviewed research. It is this proclivity that caused her to reverse her initial beliefs on the school reform strategies that she helped develop as one of the architects of NCLB.
It is this relentless pursuit of the truth, and a deep commitment to public education for all of our nation’s children, that inspires such a dedicated following. As a parent, educator and researcher, I have lived under NCLB mandates from its inception and now suffer the latest not-so-great-thing, Race to the Top. I have followed the research; that research has supported my findings in the classroom. These reforms have and continue to negatively impact our students, teachers and schools.
The blatant disregard of the professional voices from the trenches has been baffling. Our concerns have been ignored. We’ve been forced to watch our children burn out at young ages from being tested to death. We have seen our curricula narrow due to high-stakes testing. We have seen our most struggling students receive inadequate support, then be labeled as failures. We have been seriously demoralized.
Billionaires have funded the assault on public education, fueling it with misinformation and lies, and have effectively co-opted the media. Teacher voices have been silenced. The lone voice speaking on our behalf, speaking truth to power, has been that of Dr. Diane Ravitch. She’s our Little Engine That Could; she’s our David to the corporate education reformers, Goliath. That this mild mannered, 73 year old grandmother and much honored education historian has been under attack, both professionally and personally, by pundits whose education qualifications are sorely lacking, is abhorrent.
That these rich, white men, decades younger than Dr. Ravitch, find her such a threat is amusing. She has been able to do things her critics will never be able to do: admit when they’re wrong. THAT is what has earned her my undying respect and support.
In the 1950s, it was Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter. In 2011, it’s Diane Ravitch, a mild mannered education historian. And she doesn’t need no stinkin’ phone booth!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
breaking up is hard to do
Barry, baby, it's just so hard.... lemme sing it for you...
Vocals: Me
Piano: Philip Epstein
Saturday, July 2, 2011
a few suggestions for the corporate ed deformers
Dear Corporate Ed Deformers:
I'm concerned that you don't know what the hell you're doing how to determine what will totally screw up is best for helping our nation's schoolchildren. I know you're really busy, so I won't take a lot of your time but I feel that the following are worth considering:
- Facts (the real kind, not the pretend or purcha$ed kind) are your friends.
- Acquaint yourselves with them.
- Embrace them.
- Let them guide you.
Sincerely,
A Teacher Anon
p.s. Poverty is NOT an excuse!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
hangin' out with arne ~ one blogger's experience
Recently, a friend from the tweetosphere posted this blog. I found it to be an interesting discourse!
When I checked into the tweetosphere this morning, I was thrilled to see my bud, Arne Duncan, tweeting his little (literally) brain out. In case you don't know, he's at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, ready to spread more of his incrediblebullshit wisdom to any sucker ivy leaguer interested parties willing to listen. Well, I was so excited to see him on twitter that I thought I'd just jump in and join him. I mean, who would I rather get into an early morning convo with than Diane Ravitch Stephen Krashen Susan Ohanian Arne Duncan? So, I started tweeting away in response to his tweets (I, like, so can't believe I was tweeting with Arne Duncan!) I'm gonna keep those tweets forever and I thought it might be nice to share them with you. BTW: You may notice that Arne's not that good about answering questions, etc., but hey, it was early in the AM.
When I checked into the tweetosphere this morning, I was thrilled to see my bud, Arne Duncan, tweeting his little (literally) brain out. In case you don't know, he's at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, ready to spread more of his incredible
High performing countries invest in education differently than we do#AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Yeah, like not investing in high-stakes testing and test prep or having a narrow curricula. And how about small class sizes?
We're not giving enough resources to the kids in the communities that need the most help #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan That's b/c U R giving all of R money away 2 consultants, test makers & textbook companies, none of which increase achievement.
Thanks to #RTTT we've seen more reform in the last two years than in the last decade.
@arneduncan Yeah but those reforms suck. Proven failures. Fire yourself Arne. You're bad for our kids.
@arneduncan Real Reform vs Faux Reform http://bit.ly/k5nPI6
We all need to take on the status quo -- mayors, governors, unions, school board members #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Arne you and your buds are the biggest defenders of the status quo.http://bit.ly/jTHtiO
BTW @arneduncan Bill Gates is a computer guy. He doesnt know sh!t about education. Seriously! Y R U letting him call the shots?
Folks who say poverty is destiny--that's one of the biggest challenges we face in education reform today #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Cut the crap, Arne. Who has said that? Srsly!
Part of why high other countries are outpacing us is because they are recruiting the top 1/3 of college graduates into teaching #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Arne, how does poverty affect student achievement? BTW: 21%+ of our kids live in poverty.
We need to pay teachers more #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan How about : "I need to respect teachers more." That "I" means you, Arne
We should pay great teachers $150,000 a year #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan How do you define 'great teacher'?
We need to have a high bar, high standards, recruit great teachers and principals, and give districts more flexibility #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Re: high bar, high standards... You need to start with the Secretary of Education position first. Major fail currently.
Anyone who thinks that great teaching doesn't matter devalues the profession #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Oh, and re: "devalues the profession". You don't wanna go there, Arne, because re: valuing the profession - U R Far Below Basic
Do unions have to change, absolutely. So do school boards, principals, and we as a department #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Does the Secretary of Ed need to change? Oh yeah!!! Got facts?
Where we have courageous unions, we need to celebrate and reward that. #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Yep because courageous unions would have stood up to u and your deformer pals instead of rolling over 4 a place at the table!
Or goal is pretty simple, we want to lead the world in college graduates by 2020 #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Why?
The countries that out-educate us today will out- compete us tomorrow #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Really? Then I am so scared of Finland. /eyeroll/
@arneduncan BTW: Education is NOT a competition!
When you see high performing schools they're not teaching to the test everyday. The test scores take care of themselves #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan That's right. Only schools w/ poor black & brown children are teaching to the test all day every day.
When students drop out of school they're condemned to poverty and social failure #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Would u stay in school when all that's valued is a test score & yours sucks? When all u do is ELA & math test prep
We're investing $350 million to come up with the next generation of assessments, we need to move beyond filling in bubbles #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Sorry Arne but that just shows what a dolt u r. We don't need more tests!!! We need equitable & full funding 4 r schools!
We want to expand access to early childhood education, but access to quality #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan Hey, there's a good idea! ...as long as you don't test them 2 death.
Reforms in IL are a model for the country #AspenIdeas
@arneduncan RUFKM?
And on that note, our tweetversation was over. /sigh/ I wonder if he'll be tweeting tomorrow morning.
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