crossposted at The G Bitch Spot

See Parts 1, 1A, 2 and 3. Read. Link. Research. Comment at Education Talk NOLA and Charter School Scandals and the Nation and the New York Times Book Review and everywhere else. Go to BESE and OPSB and charter school board meetings. Check out The Lens and follow whatever Jessica Williams does. Keep an eye on Colton. Tell the Times-Pic reporters what you think of their “reporting.” When this appears in the New York Times

I know how in New Orleans, after the hurricane, they rebuilt the school system in many ways,” Ms. Tulin said. “I kind of think the same thing can happen with Atlanta. So many people left. The district is so desperate to do good things, and it leaves room for innovation.”

correct every assumption, received ignorance and factual error. Just like New Orleanians need to repeat that it was LEVEES, not Katrina, that devastated New Orleans, we need to keep repeating that the public school system was shattered, not “rebuilt”; that a past corrupt OPSB does not justify a slash-and-burn “reform”; that a privatized system stratifies winners and losers and neglects the neediest of our children just like the old two-tiered system did; that it can be a logistical nightmare for parents; and that, with what’s being revealed in Atlanta, DC, and Pennsylvania, we cannot know if all reported gains are real, but we do know that privatized schools get to do some amount of cherry-picking and that alone could count for some reported gains in test scores. Repeat, stir, discuss, repeat, discuss, stir, serve piping hot 24/7.

I’m not a researcher or analyst, K-12 teacher, consultant, statistician, or even an academic or scholar. I said I was no expert and to follow others who knew what they were doing, not me. I’ve tripped through education long enough. What I bitched about is now being discussed, analyzed, and proclaimed by folks smarter and better at it than I. And the last thing the education reform movement trying to build itself needs is someone with a name that makes folks squeamish. So…

Take what I’ve given you and move it forward. I’m not leaving the public schools/school privatization building but I am taking my name off the mailbox.

 

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G Bitch

a mad black woman in New Orleans

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