The Irish contribution to civilization is huge and their history in America is instructive, but don't get me started on the wearing of the green. At any rate, I have your weekly reading list handy. Remember to share!
Southwest Key Schools, Charters and Immigrants
How to make money from the misery of children, and how charters tie to the detention of immigrants. A charter operation makes millions, but students eat in the gym.
Portfolio Model Explainer
Matt Barnum puts together a pretty decent explainer of the whole portfolio system. I'd correct a few points, but if you're trying yo figure out what it's all about, this is a good primer.
Education Reformers Keep Pushing the Same Stuff
Nancy Flanagan pulls apart a Mike Petrilli piece and finds the same old same old hiding inside.
The Chicago Charter CEO Gets A Raise-- But Not A Big One
One more example of charters operating like a business-- a bad one. This charter is just struggling to meet minimum standards. Must be time to give the CEO a raise.
Remember All Those Anti-Tenure Lawsuits? One Just Died In Minnesota
Sarah Lahm follows another of those Campbell Brown-spawned lawsuits designed to strip teachers of job security. It hasn't gone well for reformsters.
State Leaders Rip Takeover Law
Ohio legislators are waking up to how big a mess their state takeover law (proposed and passed in just one day) is making, just as it is poised to gut some of the state's major districts.
Who Pays for the Education Writers Association
Laura Chapman takes a look at who exactly foots the bill for the EWA. It's not a list to inspire confidence (and I'm not just bitter because bloggers can't join).
The Cost of Ignoring Developmentally Appropriate Practice
It can't be said too much-- pushing the littles in the hopes that they can somehow be made smarter faster sooner is not just dumb, but is actually destructive.
And for a non-education policy moment of beauty, check out the=is Van Gogh painting rendered into a 1.2 acre field of plants and landscaping.
Interesting articles this week!
ReplyDeleteI was very surprised at the meaning of the term "portfolio model" in this article. I assumed that it must have to do with using various ways to evaluate schools, since I was thinking it would be like using a "portfolio" of student work to judge their effort and see in their work how much they've learned and improved. Kind of like an artist's portfolio, maybe. So somehow using a lot of different factors to decide if a school is doing well. But no, it's more somehow related to a financial "portfolio" because with an investment portfolio you can "diversify" the investments you choose, so this model simply means you have both charter and public schools to choose from. So I guess it means a "diversity" of schools for the community, but it's not like an investment portfolio for the student, because you don't choose just one investment in an investment portfolio, but you can only go to one school at a time, so I don't see it's a good analogy for anything educational at all in this sense, unless you're talking about many pathways and classes to choose from within the same school. But no, it's evidently another justification for charter schools. So it's weird the idea has been around since 1993 but I've never heard of it. The only thing good about it that I can see is that both charters and regular public schools are managed by the same board of education, so at least that would make it more democratic.