Seattle Schools Community Forum

The video of the day getting a great amount of attention (and it's great that it is) is John Oliver on Last Week Tonight.   He takes on charter schools in his imitable fashion. The main thing he does is take on both sides. Kinda.  He says he doesn't want to examine the "principle" of having charters but their "outcomes."  What he does say is that charters are in 42 states and D.C. so obviously they are here.  This is at three minutes into the program and the segment is 18 minutes long but luckily, there are many abysmal charter stories from all around the nation. Amazing how the NAACP and Black Lives Matters have both recently come out against corporate charter schools (which are most of them) and now this from John Oliver.  The stars seem to be aligning but to see the scrambling of charter supporters to try to figure out how to say the NAACP is wrong without saying, well, they're wrong, is fun to watch. But it's fun for about those 18 minutes...

It's a thing of beauty.   Truly.  (Please note - some crude language used.) In 18 minutes, he covers a lot of ground. Dopey testing songs? Check. Nathan Hale High School opt-out (complete with map)?  Check. What to do if students vomit on test booklet?  Check. Obama, when he was running for president the first time, saying there is too much standardized testing?  Check (and then, AFTER he's president saying we need accountability).  Hilarious joke about the Common Core logo?  Check. Sad video of an crying AP student who may not get to stay in AP courses because of a low state test score?  Check. Taking on Pearson?  Double check.  (Plus the added fun of the infamous "Pineapple" question which one student astutely labels "stupid and absurd.") Test scorers being told they need to up the number of lower scores?  Check.  Imaginary sneering response of a chain-smoking French student to the U.S.' PISA scores? ...