http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/12/30/2970212/tacoma-charter-school-group-to.html
The Washington State Charter School Commission will host nine public forums across the state in January, including four in Tacoma. The purpose is to hear directly from 19 applicants that want to open charter schools in Washington and to hear from members of the communities in which the charter schools would be located. Forums will include 10-minute presentations from the applicants, then 30 minutes of public comment, with each speaker limited to two minutes. Speakers will be randomly selected in a lottery prior to the meeting.Four applications to open charter schools in the Tacoma area have been received by the commission. Those applications will be discussed in the following meetings:
Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch (book review)
http://www.thepierceprogressive.org/bookreviewreignoferror?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thepierceprogressive%2FaZqY+%28The+Pierce+Progressive%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail
Ravitch is resigned to the fact that charter schools are part of the educational landscape. But she is not resigned to the uses of testing to close schools and fire teachers.
She agrees our educational system needs to improve, but it is not broken. It will not be improved by teaching to the test. Other countries, including some that emphasize testing and are tops in test scores, are studying our educational system to figure out why our engineers and scientists are the most innovative in the world.
Summarizing some of Ravitch's points doesn't do justice to the book. It is important to read her book to experience the persuasiveness of her arguments. She shows no mercy in her dismantling of the arguments of the privatization movement. It is a must read!
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