A primer on the damaging movement to privatize public schools

Marion Brady is a veteran educator who has long argued that public education needs a paradigm shift. Brady says schools need a complete transformation in what and how students learn — not the Common Core State Standards, standardized tests and other elements of corporate-influenced school reform. Here’s his latest piece, on efforts by some reformers…

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Can Schools Be Fixed?

Experts on K-12 education offer their reasons for optimism and pessimism going forward. It’s been a tumultuous year for America’s schools—one marked by an expanding minority-student population, an increasingly discontent teaching force, a backlash against standardized testing, and shifting understanding of education reform. It’s seen greater attention on areas traditionally dismissed as nonessential: things like…

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Florida Education Board settles on scores, school grades after year of testing troubles

The state Board of Education, which for years has pushed to toughen standards for Florida students, voted Wednesday to compromise on test scores and school grades while the state continues to wrestle with its newly revised accountability system. The board adopted Education Commissioner Pam Stewart’s recommendations for scores that would see more than half of…

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State education leaders to decide on this year’s school grades

TAMPA — With students already preparing for the first round of standardized tests for 2016, state officials are set to finally decide what to do with 2015’s test scores. Despite calls from the state’s superintendents to do without schools grades for 2015, the Florida Board of Education is poised to vote Wednesday in Tallahassee on…

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Florida lawmakers seek to allow private investor funding of public social issues, including education

Two Florida lawmakers are looking to open Florida to a private funding model for social services that Utah has used to expand its prekindergarten programs. Rep. Chris Sprowls and Sen. Aaron Bean have filed legislation (HB 1049/SB 1200) to create the “pay for success” system that led to major investment banks putting millions toward Utah’s…

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