Weekly Update

The Weekly Update: Seattle teachers stand firm, testing push back around the country, a parent offers ideas for those opt-out days and Yong Zhao on testing and standardization

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Dora Taylor

The Weekly Update for the news and views you might have missed. It’s been quite a week in our fair city. Many of us here in Seattle have watched the destruction of the teaching profession, schools and communities around the country based on the use of standardized test scores to further an agenda of corporate reform and privatization using the scorched earth approach to education and we do not want to see that happen in Seattle or anywhere else for … →

The Weekly Update: What can I say…Seattle teachers rock!!!!

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Dora Taylor

As you might know by now, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle held a press conference on Friday and announced that they were not going to give the Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) test to their students for a number of reasons. For the details, see the letter that was issued by the teachers of Garfield High School. Within hours, teachers at Ballard High School followed suit. The Garfield High School PTSA issued the following statement today in support … →

The Weekly Update: Charter schools: Public or private? Brian Jones in Portland, teachers rally in Illinois and a petition to Obama: Stop privatizing our schools!

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Dora Taylor

The Weekly Update: For the news and views you might have missed First up, more Facebook pages are popping up on the subject of education: Our Village Our Schools Public Education Crusaders Long Island Chapter Save Our Schools March 350 This one is related to the climate crisis and I post it on this blog because it does affect our children. Next up, a petition to be sent to President Obama. Maybe one of these days he’ll start to listen … →

The Weekly Update: Teachers Speak Up

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Dora Taylor

The Weekly Update for the news and views you might have missed. This week has been a slower news week than usual for obvious reasons but the internet is burning up with announcements of new Facebook pages sprouting up started by an array of parents and teachers from around the country standing with their teachers and students and against the privatization of their schools. Just this morning I was invited to like four Facebook pages related to education. They are: … →

Over $1B and counting for TFA, Inc., de facto discrimination in charter schools, the failed Microsoft model hoisted onto our educational system and Maryland superintendent says “Stop the insanity”

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Dora Taylor

The Weekly Update for the news and views you might have missed. “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” Frederick Douglass I keep wondering when folks in this country are going to say enough is enough. Until then the Wendy Kopp’s, Michelle Rhee’s, the Waltons and the Gates will continue to plow on and plow  us under. Today, we’ll begin … →

Weekly Update: K12, Inc. tanks with parents and Wall Street, how “non-profit” charter school$ fleece taxpayers, a school to prison pipeline, literally, and much, much more.

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Dora Taylor

  The Weekly Update for the news and views you might have missed Helen Barkin writes a thorough review of what happened state by state on November 6, 2012 in this article. What Happened to Public Education on Election Night? An excerpt: Barack Obama’s K-12 “reform” policies have brought misery to public schools across the country: more standardized testing, faulty evaluations for teachers based on student test scores, more public schools shut down rather than improved, more privately managed and … →