Chicago schools report contradicts Obama and Duncan

We've been telling people this for months, but many were skeptical. Now the truth is beginning to surface. Mayoral control, EMOs, CMOs, school competition, and all the other so called "education innovations" are gimmickry and distractions. You can't blame our communities and teachers for systemic problems. Privatization is segregation! Let's keep our schools public, and let's desegregate them now!

USA TODAY Chicago schools report contradicts Obama and Duncan

SF Education Examiner Mainstream media discovers: Arne Duncan's boasts of Chicago success are bogus

Some older articles, but pertinent nonetheless.

Arne Duncan and the Chicago Success Story: Myth or Reality?
Why Obama is wrong about our schools
Duncan's school "reform" sham
Who will school Arne Duncan?
Teachers for CEO merit pay

Here's an excellent quote from Jesse Hagopian in from last article

"Performance pay structures in education, however, require teachers to compete for a limited pool of money. Instead of collaborating to provide the best possible education, merit pay creates disincentives for teachers to share information and teaching techniques. Thus, the main way teachers learn their craft--studying from their colleagues--is rendered useless. If you think we have high rates of teacher turnover now, wait until new teachers are seen as the competition by their more experienced co-workers, and have no one to turn to.

Bill Gates and Eli Broad are managing to thwart this basic logic by investing obscene amounts of money in the "Strong American Schools" crusade that has called for teacher pay to be tied to the culturally biased/curriculum narrowing high-stakes tests mandated by the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act. With their disciple now in Washington, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, they are attempting to remake our schools in the image of a production line, where simple input-values are used to measure the efficiency of any worker."

The disturbing thing is the millions upon millions Gates and Broad have dumped into Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin's CMO machine right here in Los Angeles. The other frightening thought is the number of private meetings that have occurred between Steve Barr and Arne Duncan.