What do the data really show? Charter schools have failed in Chicago!... Chicago's 'underperforming' charter schools
[Editor's Note: The article below picks up the essay published on line -- but NOT in print -- in the Chicago Sun-Times by Troy M. LaRaviere, principal of Blaine Elementary School in Chicago. Although the . . .
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'...why the corporate elites and rightwing think tanks love charter schools...' Charters fail at everything -- except union busting and sabotaging real public schools
[Editor's Note: The following begins with a brief introduction by Diane Ravitch which she published on May 30, 2014 at her blog. Following that is a much lengthtier analysis (the first of many parts?) by . . .
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New York City Mayor selects an educator -- Carmen Farina -- to head nation's largest school system
[Editor's Note: The following just came in from Diane Ravitch's blog and is reported here as it was reported there. Despite the fact that she attempted to get the New York City's chancellor's job, Chicago . . .
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The charter school mistake
[Editor's Note: The following article appeared first in the Los Angeles Times on October 1, 2013. Although Diane Ravitch is accurate in noting that California (as a state) has more charter schools than any other, . . .
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One teacher aide paid $94,000 because of family ties, while most are paid $30,000... New Jersey profiteering as privatization sweeps through schools for children with disabilities
[Editor's Note: The following article from Diane Ravitch's must-read blog exposes another sad example of why Chicago is such a dismal place for news. The Newark Star-Ledger has completed a major investigation showing how much . . .
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Arne Duncan gets an 'F'
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan loves evaluation. He insists that everyone should willingly submit to public grading of the work they do. The Race to the Top program he created for the Obama Administration requires . . .
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We are indeed a nation at risk... As the 'reformers' work to privatize public education in the USA
[The following came from the Ed Week blog and is reprinted here. As regular readers know, the blog is a dialogue between Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meyer. The URL is http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2012/03/the_pattern_on_the_rug.html The Pattern on the . . .
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A Dark Day for New York...'The politicians feel certain they can fire their way to the top...'
[Editor's Note: While Chicago teachers were busy getting ready for the "Dark Day for Chicago" at the February 22, 2012 Board of Education meeting, our brothers and sisters in New York were facing a different . . .
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How can the President tell teachers 'Stop teaching to the tests...' and promote Duncan's policies... Does President Obama know and understand how damaging Race To The Top is?
[Editor's note: The following just appeared on the Ed Week blog that includes Diane Ravitch and Deb Meier and is shared here for Substance readers as Leap Year Month begins. And while those of us . . .
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New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. all demonstrate the failure of market-based corporate reforms and mayoral control... Whose children have been left behind?
[Editor's note: We are borrowing shamelessly from both Valerie Strauss (the Washington Post blog Follow The Answer Sheet — http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet) and Diane Ravitch herself. The following came through the Strauss blog on January 3, 2012, . . .
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Diane Ravitch debunking claims of 'miracle' schools and challenges New York Times editorial praise for New Orleans's 'turnaround'
[Substance Editor's Note: The following was blogged to Education Week's blog on October 18, 2011 and is shared here with our readers. Long time Substance readers will not that nearly a decade ago, Substance joined . . .
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BOOK REVIEW: Steven Brill's book 'Class Warfare' expands on his teacher bashing, while 'As Bad as They Say' is a realistic look at inner city teaching by an inner city teacher
[Editor's note: The following review appears this week in The New York Review of Books. As one of our editors said, the first several paragraphs read like they could have been written by the late . . .
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'Rhee's formula will be a tragedy for our nation and for a generation of children'
[Editor's Note: The following article was posted on The Daily Beast on April 5, 2011. Diane Ravitch is the author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" and many other works . . .
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'A Moment of National Insanity'
[Editor's Note: The following came via others from the Washington Post and Education Week. Sent: 3/1/2011 10:19:38 A.M. Central Standard Time, 'A moment of national insanity' And The Attack On Education, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/diane-ravitch/ravitch-a-moment-of-national-i.html, 03/ 1/2011, Ravitch: . . .
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What I learned in New Orleans
[Editor's Note: The following was forwarded to Substance by a friend and is too good to leave out here. We will work on contacting Diane Ravitch for permission to re-publish her writings more widely here. . . .
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Duncan and Obama are wrong to praise the firing of all the teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island
[Editor's note. Many of us here at Substance are waiting to receive copies of Diane Ravitch's new book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" . . .
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