Myth #10 Teachers in the United States are well-paid.   

Some critics of teachers' salaries cite hight that average pay for teachers in the United States compared with their counterparts in some other industrialized nations who have similar years of experience and who teach at similar grade levels.  But that is not true.  In reality, American teachers are paid less than teachers in many other countries (1) relative to other workers with similar levels of education; (20 based on the amount of time spent teaching each day; (3) in terms of the salary differentials between starting and experienced teachers; and (4) in relation to salary trends over the past decade.

12 Problems with Charter Schools  by Jessie B. Ramey  on the Yinzercation Blog

Are there good charter schools? You might be surprised to hear my short answer to this question, which is "yes." Many people I talk to these days assume that I am entirely anti-charter. That's not true. However, I do have some concerns about the way that charters currently operate in Pennsylvania and their outcomes for students. Twelve concerns, to be precise, which we'll get to in a moment. 

Louis C.K. Has Done Us a Favor by Taking Aim at Common Core   By Diane Ravitch on the AlterNet Blog

There is a battle royal being waged across the nation about a set of national academic standards called the Common Core.

On one side, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has warned that the future of the nation depends on these standards. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for writing them, evaluating them, and promoting them, and even handed out millions more to education organizations (including the teachers' unions) to advocate for them.  On the other side are grassroots groups of parents, teachers, and principals who say the standards were written in stealth, imposed by the lure of federal billions, and implemented too rapidly.

Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced his plan to judge teacher education programs by their "results," including the test scores of the students taught by their graduates. If the Ed Schools can't produce teachers who can raise test scores, Duncan said, they should go out of business. Spoken like a true businessman.

Mike Rose, celebrated author and professor emeritus at UCLA, has six questions for Arne.  He writes:

Six Questions for Secretary Duncan . . . 

The Common Core May Actually Fail  by Josh Eidelson  on the Salon.com Blog  

When executives at Pearson, the world's largest for-profit education company, held their London shareholder meeting Friday, they were greeted by activists from the American Federation of Teachers, urging them to oppose so-called "gag orders" restricting teachers from revealing information about Pearson's Common Core tests.

"The mask of test secrecy that is being used as an excuse for the lack of transparency has created growing distress and a huge backlash among parents, students and educators," AFT president Randi Weingarten told Salon.

No More Pencils, No More Books: A District Digital Conversion  by Frank Florence & Marianne L. Hamilton  on the EdSurge blog 

Pathways and results from Mooresville Graded School District's six-year plan

After spending a day documenting classes at Mooresville Graded School District (MGSD) in North Carolina, the crew from France's Canal+ TV admitted that they were puzzled. Granted, they had witnessed an extraordinary amount of student engagement, and innovative, project-based learning. And yes, French viewers were sure to find what they were seeing highly intriguing.  But where, the crew members inquired, were all of the children's pencils?

View States Data on Charter Funding Disparity

States are colored by their Letter Grade for Charter Funding Disparity. Hover or click a state to show information. More information is available in the detail section for the states listed.

 Show Me the Money: Meet the Multimillionaire Squeezing Missouri's Schools    by Brendan Fischer and Lisa Graves, on The Progressive Blog

You've probably heard of the billionaire Koch Brothers by now, and their sinister push to distort our democracy. But you may not have heard of Rex Sinquefield.

Unlike the Koch Brothers, who made their money the old-fashioned way, by inheriting it, Sinquefield is a self-made man, who earned a fortune in the stock market by investing in index funds.  He's a major funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and he has also bankrolled the Club for Growth.  His anti-tax, anti-labor, and anti- public-education views are common fare on the right. But what sets Sinquefield apart is the systematic way he has used his millions to try to push his private agenda down the throats of the citizens of Missouri.