NEWS ON CHICAGO STRIKE, COMMON CORE & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES GETTING POOR GRADES ON K-12 EDUCATION

Tomorrow, April 1 is the one day Chicago Teacher Strike/Day of Action for the public schools.  Even though the corporate media is encouraging teachers to scab, my bet is on the Chicago Teachers Union to pull off a successful job action and shut the system down.

Here in New York, the controversy over Common Core continues. The empire state's preferred protest action is for parents to opt their kids out of taking the very flawed grade 3-8 exams. Juan Gonzales finds some hope for public education in the opt out movement. 

For in depth analysis read the Bianca Tanis-Mike Lillis, Michael O'Donnell piece at Bianca's blog showing how the Common Core college ready standards are fatally flawed.

A score of 1630 on the SAT is in the 66th percentile, which means that only 34% of test takers attain this score or higher. The College Board uses a score of 1550 for its own benchmark, a score in the 57th percentile.

This process should have raised concerns, as it reduces something as complex as whether or not a student is ready for college down to a single test score.  Were it this easy, no school would have an admissions office - a computer could make admissions decisions.

They then systematically destroy the testing system point-by-point.

Back to the national scene, Alternet's Steven Rosenfeld gives the presidential candidates failing grades on the issue of K-12 public education. He says the three Republicans want to privatize education while both Democrats send out mixed messages. He quotes Diane Ravitch throughout his piece.

I would argue that the term mixed messages is too kind. Bernie and Hillary have been talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to public schools, charter schools and testing.