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By Anthony Cody. Public schools are in the midst of a war of attrition over their control – and even the very institution of public education is in danger. There is a sort of pincer assault under way, with billionaires on the far right pushing for complete de-regulation, and others, like the Gates Foundation, …

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By Anthony Cody. This coming week I will be back in Seattle, a few months shy of the third anniversary of my first visit to the Gates Foundation. I will give a talk at the University of Washington, introduced by Jesse Hagopian and several Teachers of Conscience from the area, who have refused to give high stakes …

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By Anthony Cody.  One of Hillary Clinton’s first campaign appearances was this week at Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa. There was a roundtable of hand picked questioners, one of whom lobbed this softball: (minute 50 on this C-SPAN video). Diane: I think we are very blessed to live where we do. …

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“It always seems impossible until it is done.” ~Nelson Mandela By Deb Escobar, Lorri Gumanow, Lisa Kollmer, and Lily Alayne Owen. Refuse the Test Robocall Committee: Katherine Brezler, Deb Escobar, Lorri Gumanow, Lisa Kollmer, and Lily Alayne Owen, along with several other education activists, parents, and …

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By Anthony Cody. Education blogger Alexander Russo has offered an analysis of recent education journalism in a piece entitled “Common problems with Common Core reporting.” Russo hosts a blog called This Week in Education, sponsored by Scholastic corporation. Russo reached out to me for input as he was …

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By Anthony Cody.  We all remember the game of musical chairs. At a children’s party, the adults count the number of children, and put chairs in a circle, with one fewer chair than children. The children circle the chairs as the music plays, and when the music stops, everyone tries to get a seat. In each round, …

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By Michelle Strater Gunderson. I recently had an epiphany while listening to Melissa Katz, a wonderful student activist from New Jersey, talk about corporate education reform on the radio. When speaking about the swift and drastic changes in education based on implementation of Common Core and aligned tests she …

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By Michelle Strater Gunderson. “What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Anything less is unlovely, and left unchecked, destroys our democracy.”      John Dewey Last week the Local School Council at Nettelhorst Elementary School in Chicago …

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By David Spring. The corporate press likes to say that Common Core and the Common Core-aligned Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test were adopted in Washington state in 2010 or 2011. This might cause one to believe that Common Core and SBAC were adopted a long time ago. In fact, the Common Core was …

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In 2013, I shared a post written by a New York City elementary teacher, entitled “Data Shows Not Enough Teaching.” She is back today with an update, and although there has been a change in administration in New York City, testing at her school is excessive as ever. By Katie Lapham. While the public in New York …