Divided, Conquered: “Everybody blogs. Nobody reads.”

academic freedom isn't free

In her 14 June 2015 email update about her blog, Susan Ohanian offered an opening statement:

When I started this website of resistance 13 years ago, I posted a lot of outrage, outrage I tried to buttress with research. Of late, I’ve cut way back because I feel there’s far too much jabber filling the air–too much rage and not enough explanation. Everybody blogs. Nobody reads. I figure whatever I might say just gets lost in the cacophony so I’ve turned my efforts elsewhere. Right now I’m working on a big project that I hope will startle you with originality. At the very least, it won’t be part of the chorus.  

I’m not abandoning the site–just cutting back on its size.

Well before the education reform debate blossomed on social media, Ohanian was dissecting and challenging the most recent cycle of high-stakes accountability—from the perspective of a classroom teacher.

I…

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U.S. Department of Education’s Own Audit Condemns Department’s Failure to Regulate Charters

#CharterChicanery

janresseger

Back in 2010, I was at a meeting where I heard U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan say, “Good charters are part of the solution. Bad charters are part of the problem.”  He did not, at that time or any other time I’ve heard, discuss what to do about regulating the bad charters he said are part of the problem.  While the federal Race to the Top competition prioritized grant proposals from the states that agreed to remove caps on the authorization of new charter schools, the federal government has left it up to the states to do something about the bad charters.  In my state anyway, as this blog pointed out yesterday, the state legislature, beholden for political contributions to the rich owners of the for-profit Charter Management Organizations, has chosen to abstain from regulating charters to prevent academic malpractice and financial malfeasance.

Last Friday in the Washington…

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West Seattle’s Middle College High School is NOT having a protest

Another unfair school closing. #EdBlogNet

Seattle Education

Please note:

Middle College High School is not, repeat, NOT, having a protest.

I have been contacted by staff at Middle College, a school with a focus on social justice, saying there will not be a protest at the graduation.

Hmmm.

What Carolyn wrote in this post about Middle College is just the tip of the iceberg. I heard many stories today about how the school is being run and it is beyond belief.

The school does not need to be closed but a particular administrator needs to find a more appropriate position…in another city and hopefully not at another school.

I believe that this school, with its dedicated teachers, plays a critical role in Seattle and closing it is an extreme disservice to the students and the community.

Dora

“Before I started Middle College I was lost, without it I would probably still be in the streets.”  Oliver Wilson,

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