What I Learned in New Orleans--Diane Ravitch

[Starry Messenger]

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2010/11/what_i_learned_in_new_orleans.html

As you know, I have been traveling constantly this fall, speaking to teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and researchers. Wherever I go, I try to learn something new and not just hear myself talk.

In New Orleans, I spoke at Dillard University, an HBCU (or historically black college or university). There, I heard from angry African-American parents and educators who felt disenfranchised by the charterizing of their public schools. The mainstream media may think that the chartering of New Orleans was a wonderful thing, but the audience that night did not. When a young woman (who was white) from the Cowen Institute at Tulane University defended the success of the charters in getting more students to pass AP exams, several people in the audience demanded to know why their non-charter schools were no longer allowed to offer AP courses. The young woman had no answer. Several people that night said: "They stole our public schools, and they stole our democracy while we were out of town."

"The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina."--Arne Duncan
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thing-for-new-orleans-schools.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. so many things that happened in NO were criminal. The complete destruction of their public

schools was one of them. Shock Doctrine for real.

[midnight]

2. Charter schools sold as good because they help "more" students pass AP exams...

However, it seems non charter schools not allowed to offer AP courses.... Crazy!

[billlll]

3. AP? nt

Nt

[Starry Messenger]

4. Advanced Placement

You take a class that trains you to take a test that can apply towards college credit, depending on how you score. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement

[Sherman A1]

5. K&R

[n2doc]

6. k n r n/t

[xchrom]

7. recommend

[Reader Rabbit]

8. I wish we could get *this* information into the mainstream media.

But they're too busy fellating Duncan, Rhee, Gates, and the rest of the billionaires who are stealing public education from the citizenry, a school or a district at a time.

[Starry Messenger]

10. +1000

[erodriguez]

9. K&R