5 Facts to Set the Dangerously Deluded Education Reformers Straight
1. Privatized Education Steals from the Poor, Gives to the Rich
Eva Moskowitz makes $72 per student [3] as CEO of the private Success Academy in New York City.
Carmen Farina makes 19 cents per student [3] as Chancellor of New York City Public Schools.
2. Testing Doesn't Work
In 2013 the Silicon Valley Business Journal [12] reported that "K-12 schools across the United States will begin implementing Common Core State Standards, an education initiative that will drive schools to adopt technology in the classroom as never before...Apple, Google, Cisco and a swarm of startups are elbowing in to secure market share." The state of Texas cut [13] over $5 billion from the public school fund while awarding testing giant Pearson a contract for almost $500 million. Los Angeles spent [13] $1 billion for iPads to facilitate testing, using money from a 25-year bond for school construction.
But testing doesn't work. The National Research Council [14] concluded that "The tests that are typically used to measure performance in education fall short of providing a complete measure of desired educational outcomes in many ways." The test-based Common Core standards, as noted by Diane Ravitch [15], were developed by a Gates-funded organization with almost no public input. With regard to teacher evaluation, the American Statistical Association [16] reported that Value-Added Assessment Models "are generally based on standardized test scores, and do not directly measure potential teacher contributions toward other student outcomes."
THE REST:
http://www.alternet.org/print/education/5-facts-set-dangerously-deluded-education-reformers-straight