Friday Open Thread
As I wrote elsewhere, Muir Elementary is closed for a second day. The district says the school has been scrubbed of the norovirus but that many students and staff are still ill.
First it was Trump's love affair with Twitter and now it appears Bill Gates thinks it destroyed Common Core.
First it was Trump's love affair with Twitter and now it appears Bill Gates thinks it destroyed Common Core.
This, presumably, is why his foundation paid for this recent study (on top of the $2.3 billion he has already invested into Common Core) analyzing the amount of artificial activity on Twitter opposing Common Core. The study claims the activity managed to “skew” the debate.Speaking of Common Core, let's bribe those kids to take the test.
Yes, tweets — tweets! — are what brought down Common Core. $2.3 billion down the drain because of 140 characters. Damn you, Twitter!
Jewell’s particular incentives: a raffle and a party in which kids can participate only if they have shown up to school on all PARCC testing days and “who have tried their hardest.And, the school asks parents to donate items for raffle baskets.
Hundreds of thousands of parents have opted their children out of these tests, and in 2015, an Indiana superintendent of the year, Rocky Killion, actually suggested to parents that they home-school their children during testing week because he was so opposed to the exams. In Colorado, PARCC tests are used in part to decide whether struggling schools should face state intervention.What's on your mind?
Comments
Perhaps Tweets were centered on actual facts rather than pushing Gates' propaganda.
Those damn Tweets are attempting to turn an oligarchy into a democracy. No wonder Bill Gates is not happy.
-- Dan Dempsey
LisaG
https://youtu.be/opqIa5Jiwuw
-ScienceParent
Got it.
--- Confirmation Bias
Related, there were people who were gathering PTA budget data to see where parents were spending money on their schools. Was a summary of this data ever made public? Would love to know how much we're all ponying up for things most people assume should be the responsibility of the District (esp. staff positions).
Steve
Also tweets did not win the levy cliff; the volume of feedback from constituents, including tweets, probably did.
Steve, I think Soup for Teachers were gathering that and I'll let readers know when/if it comes out.
I, too, think that SPS should follow Bellevue and other districts and not allow PTAs to fund staff.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/03/10/education-sale
…DeVos’s only stated commitment is to expand “choice” nationally through charter schools and private-school vouchers, as she worked to do in her home state of Michigan.
There, DeVos was a key player in expanding a free-market system that features the largest number and percentage of for-profit charter schools in the nation: 79 percent of Michigan’s charters are for-profit. This is highly unusual, as more than 80 percent of charters nationwide are nonprofit. DeVos has also owned shares in K12 Inc., the nation’s largest operator of for-profit charter schools. In 2000, she helped fund an unsuccessful effort to change the state constitution in order to permit private-school vouchers. (more)
-McClureWatcher
You didn't put pressure on the Republicans at all. You played right into their hands.
--- Confirmation Bias
Those "restrictive uses" were already coming via McCleary anyway - we had heard over and over from the GOP that levy dollars could not be used for basic education.
And still I smile.
Enormous pressure was placed on Republicans and funds will get shifted.
The Supreme court asserts the state should pay for basic education. The Supreme Court did NOT state that levy funds can not be used for teaching. This fight will go on, I imagine.
I'm not happy that SPI will be involved with our levy process. IMO, Too much state involvement - for something that is done at a local level.
Gates's feelings are perhaps doubly wounded because Seattle Progressives don't feel sorry for him.
Insider
flummoxed
But for all Gates' billions and machinations, it certainly hasn't turned out the way he thought.
In fact, there was a June 2016 article on the Gates Foundation that said this:
“We’re facing the fact that it is a real struggle to make systemwide change,” wrote the foundation’s CEO, Sue Desmond-Hellman. And a few lines later: “It is really tough to create more great public schools.”
The too-quick introduction of Common Core, and attempts in many states to hold schools and teachers immediately accountable for a very different form of teaching, led to a public backlash.
“Unfortunately, our foundation underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the standards,” Desmond-Hellmann wrote. “We missed an early opportunity to sufficiently engage educators — particularly teachers — but also parents and communities, so that the benefits of the standards could take flight from the beginning.
“This has been a challenging lesson for us to absorb, but we take it to heart. The mission of improving education in America is both vast and complicated, and the Gates Foundation doesn’t have all the answers.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-gates-education-20160601-snap-story.html
Yeah, so.
The Gates Foundation is the equivalent of the US military during the Vietnam War - totally oblivious to how their aggressive tactics that totally discount what people actually want undermine their own cause and spur a successful guerrilla war.
Well, not quite successful yet. Common Core still hasn't been repealed in many states. But there's still time.
Admiral Halsey
flummoxed
How did this Gates Funded Study determine which Twitter activity was artificial?
I am puzzled.
-- Dan Dempsey