By John Thompson. Part 1 of this review. Part 2 of this review. This post completes a three part series of reviews of The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch that seeks to hold both Diane Ravitch and corporate school reformers accountable for their analyses, recommendations, and predictions about school improvement. I …
By John Thompson. Part 1: Holding Diane Ravitch and Corporate Reformers Accountable Part 3: Countering “Reform Nonsense” with Common Sense. This is a second post reviewing The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch. Part one summarized Ravitch’s essays from 2010, which was the time when corporate …
By John Thompson. As we wait for Diane Ravitch’s next, comprehensive masterpiece, Slaying Goliath, a new anthology, The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch, offers a unique opportunity to assess the quality and accuracy of both Ravitch’s and the corporate school reformers’ analyses of school improvement. Of …
By Monty Neill. I came to FairTest in October 1987 as a movement activist and an educator. Over the years I’d worked in anti-war and black liberation support campaigns, wrote for underground newspapers, engaged in community organizing, edited the newspaper of the New England Prisoners Association, and for …
By Anthony Cody. I am not sure who appointed Alexander Russo the chief scold of the education newsbeat, but he has made it his business to criticize reporting in the field from his supposedly objective perch. Somehow, he almost always seems to be playing defense for one reform project or another. In his latest …
By Anthony Cody. We think of historians as observers after the fact. They pore over the ephemeral and permanent records of past times and, from that evidence, construct stories that help us understand, and see the larger patterns at work. Diane Ravitch is a historian working in the now. She has an understanding of …
By John Thompson. As the Network for Public Education documents a billion dollars wasted on failed charter schools, the national news is full of the latest charter financial scandals stretching from New Jersey to California. We can’t forget, however, that virtual charters, like Oklahoma’s Epic for-profit …
By Anthony Cody. Follow me on Twitter at @anthonycody A video of Betsy DeVos responding to questions from Lucille Roybal-Allard of the House Appropriations Committee hearing has gone viral, and has been watched now by many thousands of people. I appear in the background, shaking my head as DeVos asserts that …
By Anthony Cody. I just received an issue survey from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. It asks which issues I want him to focus on. The twenty issues listed include a $15 minimum wage, combatting climate change, affordable housing and more. The only thing on the list related to education is Free College. …
By John Thompson. A first post described Oklahoma Christian University’s Complex Dialogues with Bryan Stevenson, and Stevenson’s passionate call for ending mass incarceration. His keynote address followed a series of panel discussionson the criminal justice system that appealed to both our emotions and …
