Gov. Jerry Brown appealed a court ruling that struck down tenure and other job protections for California's teachers, setting himself apart from leaders in some other states who have fought to end such protections or at least raise the standards for obtaining them.   The move came a day after Superior Court Judge Rulf Treu finalized his June ruling that found five laws violated the California Constitution by depriving some of the state's 6.2 million students of a quality education. He'd earlier said the system "shocks the conscience."

National and local reporters who cover the Education beat already know the full story behind Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's retreat from his demands that states comply fully and immediately to everything on his corporate reform wish list. Most have displayed balance and excellence in reporting on the second tier issue that is public education. The press has ably documented the ways that testing has sucked the oxygen out of too many schools.  And now Duncan stepped up the coercion, revoking Oklahoma's NCLB Waiver because the state's repeal of Common Core. This means it will be even more difficult for reformers to deny that Common Core is a corporate and federal overreach.

Students Should Be Creative Innovators, Not Force-Fed Consumers of Status-Quo Knowledge   By Mark Naison on the Truthout Blog

School Reform in the US is policy made by elites for "other people's children." Not only are there no charter schools in wealthy communities, but there are no common core aligned tests in the expensive private schools that most politicians and business leaders send their children to.  The most powerful people in the country blame teachers for problems not of their making and impose "bitter medicine" in poor communities that they would never inflict on their own children.  It is rank hypocrisy.

The Frameworks Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the images of other nonprofits with the goal of hooking the public regarding the target nonprofit's agenda.   Frameworks is California-developed (a partnership with UCLA) and Washington, DC-based. In March 2013, a number of "influential philanthropists" enlisted Frameworks to develop- here it comes- "a new Core Story of Education."

Chicago's public neighborhood elementary schools improved greatly in reading and slightly in math, outpacing average charter school growth last year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of recently released testing data.    Though neighborhood schools scored just a hair higher than charters in 2014 scores - landing in the 49th percentile nationally for reading and math compared with the 48th for charters - Chicago Public Schools' open-enrollment schools made much better progress than charters in reading over 2013, according to the analysis of the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress test data.

When citizens or companies disregard court orders or decorum, judges aren't shy about sanctioning them.

But the Washington Supreme Court could make history if it finds the entire state Legislature in contempt for not making enough progress toward fully funding public education.  The court will hold a special hearing Wednesday to hear arguments about whether it should do so.  In 2012, the justices found Washington's education system was not properly funded, ruling that lawmakers were violating the constitutional rights of the state's one million school children. They gave lawmakers until 2018 to come up with billions of dollars of additional money.

Findings from the study revealed significant effects in relation to race, academic preparation, attitudes and dispositions toward math and science, college choice considerations, and postsecondary experiences. Although no institutional effects were uncovered at the high school level, both postsecondary sector and selectivity significantly influenced propensities toward majoring in a STEM discipline. The study concludes with several policy recommendations related to K-16 collaborations, dual-enrollment programs, and developmental considerations for teachers and counselors working with high school students. 

 Flash! Palm Beach County, Florida, Considers Opting Out of State Testing  by Diane Ravitch on the Ravitch Blog 

Does Palm Beach County, Florida, have the nerve to follow the example set by Lee County, Florida, which voted last week to opt the entire district out of state testing?   The Palm Beach County school board is weighing that decision, according to the Sun-Sentinel.  "Palm Beach County School Board members want to opt out of state-required testing, a controversial move that could jeopardize funding, athletics and students' ability to graduate.

Today, we're seeing version 4.0 of the rise of the technocrats. Leading the charge is Bill Gates - a billionaire education reformer who believes that a more rigid, "free-market," and technocratic curriculum should replace what's currently being taught in public schools. Certainly, the public school system has many technocratic processes in place like the testing, tracking, and segregation of students. However, it's not that the quantitative metrics generated by something like standardized testing is inherently bad, the issue is that the preeminence of such - easily manipulated - metrics marginalizes critical and creative thought in the school system.

If reformers were sincere about confronting inequities, that is where the work would begin. But the bottom line is we do not need a new system of accountability for schools, because our problem has never been a lack of accountability within our schools. We need some accountability for children's lives, for their bellies being full, for safe homes and neighborhoods, and for their futures when they graduate. Once there is a healthy ecosystem for them to grow in, and graduate into, the inequities we see in education will shrink dramatically.