"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Saturday, March 07, 2015

The Weekend to Make Charters Good

After Weingarten and Ravitch came out for the mindless charter improvement plan as a way to clear the path for Hillary's (DFER) education policy announcements, then came EduShyster with a sweet interview with Philly's KIPP CEO, followed shortly thereafter with a vexing post by Peter Greene about what KIPP schools just might believe?!  Stay tuned, Peter--my book will let former teachers tell what KIPP believes.

Then tonight was this Ravitch ad without comment on the upcoming meeting on charter school investing (all "non-profit") with some of the whales of CorpEd philanthropy.  

The only thing I can figure is that one of Hillary's private emails must have included invitations to a top tier inauguration party in early 2017.

If you are in Midtown on the 10th, maybe you can drop in and throw a rotten egg for me.

Otherwise, bring me a signed napkin by Whitney Tilson, and I don't care if it has lipstick on it.  The agenda below (click to enlarge):





4 comments:

  1. Peter,

    What's taking you so long with that KIPP book?

    You've been talking about it for years.

    It's like the new STAR WARS sequel is going to
    come out before this book does (but I hope
    your KIPP book comes out first.)

    Jack

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    Replies
    1. In editing process now. Planning to send off on the Ides of March. Beware the Ides of March! Thanks for asking.

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  2. Sorry I called you "Peter"... I confused you with CURMUDGUCATION's Peter Greene.

    On the topic of Edushyster's KIPP puffery piece, I just posted my disappointment in the COMMENTS section:

    http://edushyster.com/?p=6542
    -----------------------------------------------

    Sorry, but I’m with Jim Horn on this one.

    I remember folks who had a problem with “SCHINDLER’S LIST”, as it focused on the one “good German”, pouring one’s emotional and intellectual focus there, instead of on the 99.9999% “bad Germans” and all that they perpetrated on their victims.

    While I understood their point, I think those critics ignored Ralph Fiennes’ brilliant portrayal of the evil Aemmon Goeth, Auschwitz’ commandant, whose screen time equaled that of the “good German” Schindler.

    (I remember Fiennes saying he had a minor nervous breakdown after shooting the movie, as it took him months to get “Goeth” out of his head.)

    That said, I feel like you could call this above article…

    “SPEICHER’S LIST”…

    as it focuses on the one “good KIPP honcho”—and those kids (allegedly) saved by Speicher from the abusive excesses and cultural sterilization inflicted on the rest of KIPP-sters nationwide, and not on the rest who were not/are not ( KIPP Fresno, anyone?)

    Indeed, there’s no mention of the overall unsound cult of KIPP and all it represents and perpetrates, from which Speicher radically deviates (a model, it must be noted, which KIPP’s founders Dave & Mike would never allow to spread beyond Speicher’s isolated enclave).

    Furthermore, unlike SCHINDLER’S LIST, the article includes no Aammon Goeth to balance the atypical “good KIPP honcho”/”good German” Speicher/Schindler.

    (Thankfully, this alternate narrative will soon be provided in Jim Horn’s long-awaited book expose on KIPP… with over a hundred teacher and student refugees / apostates telling their own horror stories about life at KIPP. Please do an Edushyster article on that once it comes out.)

    Therefore, while I hitherto have found 100% of the things written on this site to be amusing and charming in its evisceration of “corporate ed reform”, I find the playful, flirtacious, and ultimately propagandistic banter with Speicher to be anything but.

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  3. LISC is the vehicle for financiers to play liars poker and keep the money within their circle. DoEd is the house rigging the game.

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