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Rob Levine

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
5 years 26 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 10/04/12 at 01:39 pm in response to From debate, voters got little beyond Big Bird on education

There's a big difference between political success (i.e. getting states to bend to RTTT will) and policy success, i.e. are children learning more, are gaps being reduced? And tests don't tell the whole tale. Obama can argue that he successfully leveraged minimal federal dollars to get states on board with education deform, but he has no right to (and didn't) argue that his policies have made a tangible difference in the stated *educational* goals.

Posted on 10/01/12 at 12:14 pm in response to If you’re sick of gridlock, blame the Constitution

The book Winner Take All Politics cites all the "choke points" where legislation can be strangled as they key to our gridlock and the extreme disparities in wealth we are now experiencing. That and the way Senators can now just threaten a filibuster without ever having to carry one out. I'd much prefer a parliamentary system. George W. Bush would never have become Prime Minister in such a system.

Posted on 09/29/12 at 10:59 am in response to PIE conference bubbles with ideas to improve schools

For someone who has been covering education deform for a long time, I'm surprised that Beth doesn't know that the Center for American Progress is NOT liberal; they are a leading light in the corporate deform movement.

Posted on 09/27/12 at 11:00 am in response to 'unSpinning' Mark Ritchie’s Voter ID claims

Center of the American Experiment arguing for non-nonsensical policies created in Republican dream sessions? Imagine that! But they're NOT a tax-exempt arm of the Republican Party.

Posted on 09/17/12 at 09:41 am in response to Patty Wycoff: From parent and activist to MFT endorsee for school board

" the powerful teacher’s union." That's common trope for you Beth. Where's the proof?

Posted on 09/17/12 at 09:48 am in response to Patty Wycoff: From parent and activist to MFT endorsee for school board

Has the teachers' union been able to stop the harmful policies of NCLB? RTTT? Has the "powerful teachers' union" stopped the killing of public schools, say, in North Minneapolis? Been able to stop the "drill and kill" schools of Eric Mahmoud? Been able to stop TFA enabling legislation that allows untrained elite students into schools? Been able to stop being rated by student test scores (to comprise 35 percent! of their ratings soon). Been able to stop a narrative, often perpetrated by you...

Posted on 09/14/12 at 09:48 am in response to Minnesota hopes to avoid Chicago's pitfalls with teacher evaluations

This is all complete baloney. The student tests were not designed to rate teachers - see the research. The test makers should be up in arms about this, but they're not, because it means big bucks to them. Second, the so called Value-Added models are completely useless. They have stated margins of error of 35 points, so a teacher could have a 15 rating one year and 85 the next.

These ratings of teachers based on student test scores are even more useless without multiple years of...

Posted on 09/14/12 at 10:55 am in response to Minnesota hopes to avoid Chicago's pitfalls with teacher evaluations

The "incentives" go just the opposite way - why should teachers go into high-poverty schools when it is highly likely that no matter what they do their students won't pass the tests? Why not move to middle or upper class schools where the students will do well? And ask yourself this: Just WHERE did the 35% number come from? Certainly not from educational research. It is a politically derived number pulled from education deformers' rear ends.

Posted on 09/02/12 at 06:26 pm in response to HealthPartners and Park Nicollet to merge

Maybe it's because those public schools actually teach more than just reading and math.

Tell me Mr Swift - you're comfortable with ZERO PERCENT proficiency in science by fifth graders at both of Eric Mahmoud's schools?

Posted on 08/24/12 at 07:34 am in response to Minnesota to ask feds for $42.5 million more for health exchange

What a waste of money:

Insurance Exchanges Are Useless at Controlling Costs
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2012/08/23/insurance-exchange-are-usele...

Money quotes:

The problem is that this idea has never worked in reality. It didn’t work for Medicare...