Connnecticut public schools woefully underfunded by state - Courant.com

Connnecticut public schools woefully underfunded by state - Courant.com: "In Connecticut and nationally, courts have consistently ruled that underfunded schools amount to constitutional violations of children's right to an education.

In New York, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Washington and many other states, courts determined that there is a causal connection between students' poor performance and inadequate school funding.

Unlike the modern corporate education reformers, who vilify teachers and educational experts, courts value their firsthand knowledge of school conditions and the resources needed to give all students an equal opportunity to learn.

When shown evidence of conditions in schools, courts consistently find what CCM contends — without adequate funding, schools cannot provide an adequate education."

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U.S. officials tell state to use same standards to grade charter schools - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

U.S. officials tell state to use same standards to grade charter schools - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Under Pennsylvania law, every charter school is considered its own district. So by using the grade span methodology, about 59 percent of charters made AYP -- a figure that supporters touted, comparing it with the 50 percent of traditional schools that hit the target.

Yet only 37 percent of charters would have made AYP under the individual school method. Delisle ordered Pennsylvania to re-evaluate charter schools' AYP status using that standard by the end of the fall semester.

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El Paso Rattled by Scandal of ‘Disappeared’ Students - NYTimes.com

El Paso Rattled by Scandal of ‘Disappeared’ Students - NYTimes.com: "EL PASO — It sounded at first like a familiar story: school administrators, seeking to meet state and federal standards, fraudulently raised students’ scores on crucial exams.

But in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all."

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Want to Ruin Teaching? Give Ratings - NYTimes.com

Want to Ruin Teaching? Give Ratings - NYTimes.com: "But the solution being considered by many states — having the government evaluate individual teachers — is a terrible idea that undermines principals and is demeaning to teachers. If our schools had been required to use a state-run teacher evaluation system, the teacher we let go would have been rated at the top of the scale.

Education and political leaders across the country are currently trying to decide how to evaluate teachers. Some states are pushing for legislation to sort teachers into categories using unreliable mathematical calculations based on student test scores. Others have hired external evaluators who pop into classrooms with checklists to monitor and rate teachers. In all these scenarios, principals have only partial authority, with their judgments factored into a formula."

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The High Inequality of U.S. Metro Areas Compared to Countries - Jobs & Economy - The Atlantic Cities

The High Inequality of U.S. Metro Areas Compared to Countries - Jobs & Economy - The Atlantic Cities: "The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk (.537) metro — which includes not just the gritty factory town that gives it its name, but stately Westport and über-affluent Greenwich — shares a Gini ranking with Thailand (.536). “The richest Thais earn 14.7 times more than the poorest,” said Gwi-Yeop Son, an United Nations Development Programme representative, a few years ago. “The bottom 60 percent of the population's share of the income is only 25 percent.”"

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Hugh Bailey: Mistrust of reformers is well-earned - Connecticut Post
the online magazine Salon about the school-reform movie "Won't Back Down," screened last week at a Bridgeport theater, and it's one of the kinder reviews out there.
Quality aside, the movie is a clear attempt by the right-wing billionaire who funded it to turn public opinion even further against teacher unions. The message is that organized labor, not poverty, is what's holding back our schools.
Local advocates chose this story, one that turns school reform into a morality play with unions as the villain, as something to emulate.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Hugh-Bailey-Mistrust-of-reformers-is-well-earned-3903354.php#ixzz297qdW2B3

Bridgeport Charter Vote Their Fight is Our Fight!

Bridgeport Charter Vote Their Fight is Our Fight!: "As we start the school year, our colleagues in Bridgeport are fighting against a charter revision vote which is at the core of the privatization reform agenda."

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