G.F. Brandenburg Transcribes Gary’s Wit

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
3

I am still waiting for Gary Rubinstein to post his brilliant and funny speech last night at the Skinny awards in Néw York City. These awards are conferred by Class Size Matters, the city’s leading voice for public education.

Fortunately, that great blogger G. F. Brandenburg transcribed Gary’s remarks here.

It is, as you will see, a hilarious riff on corporate reform rhetoric. The audience loved it. He hit the target.

Blogger Alexander Russo interpreted Gary’s remarks to mean that bloggers are the charter schools of the media. So he tweeted. But there is a big difference. The mainstream media, which Gary satirizes, are not publicly owned. They are private, for-profit enterprises. Dissenting from them is the vital role of bloggers, who create room for dissent and freedom of thought, who are free of corporate control and free to criticize the grand poohbahs and titans of the media.

Bloggers are indeed, as Gary said, incubators of innovation. They seek not to quash public institutions but to allow room for dissident voices to be heard in a world where profit and power dominate the media.

Categories Charter Schools, Humor

An Amazing Website: Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
9

This is an astonishingly moving and candid website where teachers write a personal letter to Bill Gates, explaining how his ideas and policies have influenced their lives and classrooms.

Add your own experience if Bill Gates has changed your life too.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Publisher Is Not a Funder of Pro-Voucher PennCAN

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
3

Here is a correction I just received.

Please read the article, especially the correction at the end, which says:

Correction: We initially reported that Robert J. Hall, publisher at Interstate General Media, parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com, was a PennCAN funder. The PennCAN funder appears to be a different Robert. J. Hall. We apologize for the error.

Categories Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Privatization, Vouchers

Breaking News: Secret Penn. Poll funded by Pro-Voucher Group PennCAN

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
7

An earlier post described a secret GOP poll that acknowledges Governor Corbett’s weakness and recommends that he could gain popularity by attacking the Philadelphia teachers’ union. The strategy is that he can portray himself as a “leader” and “reformer” trying to solve the Philadelphia fiscal disaster by blaming the union.

New documents reveal that the poll was paid for by a pro-voucher group called PennCAN, which is affiliated with the pro-privatization 50CAN and the original group ConnCAN.

The story says:

“PennCAN funders include: the William Penn Foundation, which was heavily criticized for its support of “school choice” during the brief tenure of Jeremy Nowak; Robert J. Hall, publisher at Interstate General Media, parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com; and Michael O’Neill, who contributed $100,000 to pay for Boston Consulting Group’s controversial “Blueprint” for transforming Philly schools.

“PennCAN has also received funding from Janine and Jeff Yass, the latter being one of three partners at the Bala Cynwyd-based hedge fund Susquehanna International Group and major givers to causes supporting school vouchers and similar free-market inspired reforms. In 2010, they donated an astronomical $5 million to support the quixotic gubernatorial bid of state Sen. Anthony Williams, a high-profile supporter of school vouchers.”

Categories Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Privatization, Vouchers

Secret Poll Urges Pa. Governor to Attack Philly Union to Improve His Image

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
13

A secret poll conducted on behalf of the Pennsylvania Republican Party found that Governor Tom Corbett is highly unpopular and likely to lose to his Democratic challenger.

Corbett’s biggest vulnerability is on education issues, which voters of both parties consider important. The poll recommends that the governor can improve his image on education issues by attacking the teachers’ unions.

Sixty-three percent of voters across the state disapprove of Corbett’s handling of education issues.

Most voters recognize that the problems of Philadelphia’s schools cannot be solved by Philadelphia alone.

91% believe that the Philadelphia public schools face an extremely serious funding problem.

62% of voters say that the state should provide greater funding to Philadelphia, as compared to 24% who say the district should declare bankruptcy, or 7% who say it should sell bonds.

The pollsters say that the governor should insist on such reforms as 1) allowing public schools to assign and transfer employees based on performance, not seniority; 2) allowing principals more say in hiring teachers for their schools; 3) no more automatic pay raises for years of service or degrees or certification. These are very popular with voters, who also believe that new funding should be tied to adopting these changes. Teacher union supporters agree with the first two, but not the third.

Most voters believe (despite the absence of any evidence) that these three reforms will improve education in the Philadelphia public schools while getting costs under control.

Some voters told the pollsters that these reforms would help “get bad teachers out of the classroom.”

Perhaps influenced by Rhee-style propaganda in recent years, voters think that the intense concentration of poverty and segregation in Philadelphia’s schools, as well as years of harsh budget cuts, can be cured by eliminating seniority and curbing the influence of the teachers’ union.

The pollsters conclude that Corbett can substantially improve his image as an “education reformer” and as someone who leads the battle for “change” by fighting the union.

The pollsters say that education is the wedge issue that Corbett can use to reverse his sagging approval ratings.

Categories Budget Cuts, Philadelphia, Teacher Tenure, Teachers, Unions

Latest News from the National Alliance for Charter Schools

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
6

I thought readers might be interested in reading the latest update from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. As you will see, they are about to have a big national conference. The newsletter comes from Nina Rees. Nina has a long history as a reformer: she worked as a domestic policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney where she was involved in crafting No Child Left Behind and worked in the U.S. Department of Education during George W. Bush’s administration.

Dear Friends,

With June marking the kickoff for this year’s National Charter Schools Conference, we are excited to see many of you in person in our nation’s capital very soon! The largest gathering of the year for the public charter school movement, this year’s conference runs from June 30-July 3 and will feature more than 4,000 attendees as well as fantastic speakers, panels and sessions.

To stay updated on all of our activities and happenings in the public charter school sector, follow me on Twitter along with @charteralliance and #NCSC13 for conference tweets, subscribe to The Charter Blog, and make sure to sign up for our mailings—including news clips, press releases and other important announcements.

Best regards,

Nina Rees
President and CEO
@Ninacharters

Conference Update—Welcoming Pitbull
As a sign of the broad reach and resonance of the public charter school movement, worldwide music superstar Mr. Armando “Pitbull” Pérez will kick off this year’s National Charter Schools Hall of Fame induction ceremony. A globally successful musician, performer, business entrepreneur, fashion icon and actor whose career sales exceed five million albums and 40 million singles worldwide, Mr. Pérez will join us to talk about his decision to open a charter school this fall in Miami called SLAM (Sports Leadership and Management) Charter School.

SLAM’s mission is to innovatively and deeply prepare students for secondary studies and beyond. Through an emphasis on preparation for sports-related careers, SLAM’s teaching philosophy centers on the “3 Rs”: rigor, relevance and relationships. Operating a middle and high school, the school’s first cohort of students will begin classes in the fall of 2014.

Mr. Pérez is one of the most powerful voices speaking out today on behalf of young Americans and communities. The National Alliance applauds his leadership in drawing attention onto the need to give all young people access to good public schools. You can read more about Mr. Pérez and our other keynote speakers on our website.

ESEA—Reauthorization Sooner is Better than Later
As many of you know, the potentially long process of reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—the federal statute that governs the majority of federal investments in K-12 education—has begun. I recently put forward a few reasons why Congress and the Administration should focus on reauthorization sooner, rather than later.

First, many of the Administration’s most effective programs—such as Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation Funds (i3) and the Charter School Replication and Expansion Grants—are not etched into law yet. If ESEA is not reauthorized, these programs may fall by the wayside, which would mean that countless future charter schools may never come to pass.

Second, we have seen overwhelming bipartisan agreement on a host of ESEA reforms,such as strengthening the Charter Schools Program, which passed the House with strong majority. Despite disagreement over some other key aspects of reauthorization, because the House and Senate have already been through this reauthorization exercise twice, putting together a strategy that would get a bill to the finish line would be challenging, but would be well within reach.

Finally, if media attention around the Common Core is any indication, America may be ready to have a more substantive discussion about education policy. You can read more here.

To learn more about ESEA reauthorization, read the National Alliance white paper: Free to Succeed: Public Charter Schools & the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

ESEA—Tests taken, lessons learned through NCLB Sanctions
This past month, the National Alliance participated in a forum held by the American Enterprise Institute which explored a new analysis from Duke University that indicates certain NCLB sanctions have proven more effective than others. Specifically, this analysis found that the threat of significant school restructuring raised student achievement in underperforming schools. You can watch the forum in its entirety here.

ESEA Legislation
The Senate HELP Committee approved the Strengthening America’s Schools Act; and on June 19, the House Education and Workforce Committee started its consideration of H.R. 5, The Student Success Act. Both bills would make changes to the federal Charter Schools Program. In particular, both would increase the number of entities eligible to apply for grants from the Department of Education. We are analyzing the bills very closely on a number of important issues related to charter school quality, growth and innovation. We are working with Congressional staff in the Senate and House, and we’ll continue to keep you apprised of what’s going on in Washington, D.C. as these bills advance.

Click here to view a chart that compares select provisions from the ESEA bills introduced by Senator Harkin, Senator Alexander and Chairman Kline against current law and ESEA Waivers.

STEM
According to the responses to our recent national survey, over 20 percent of public charter schools indicated a STEM or math/science instructional focus. Given the prominence of a STEM-focus in public charter schools, the National Alliance was recently invited to join two important dialogues on STEM Education – POLITICO’s Pro Technology team discussion on the current state of STEM education and U.S. News’ STEM Solutions conference.

At the POLITICO forum, I had the pleasure of joining Tom Kalil, White House deputy director for technology and innovation, Becky Pringle, NEA secretary-treasurer, and Eric Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Citizen Schools, for a conversation focused on the implications of STEM on the American workforce as well as what to expect for STEM policy in the year to come.

POLITICO’s Jessica Meyers (left) and Tony Romm (right) are joined by Eric Schwarz (second from left), Nina Rees (third from left), Becky Pringle (third from right) and Tom Kalil (second from right).

I also joined a fantastic team at the STEM Solutions conference, which included Maria Klawe, Harvey Mudd College president, Arthur Levine, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation president, Camsie A. McAdams, U.S. Department of Education Senior Advisor on STEM Education, Leland Melvin, NASA Associate Administrator for Education, and Richard Middleton, regional vice president of the southwestern region at the College Board, to address the question: ‘Are we moving too slowly?’

About the National Alliance
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector.

© Copyright 2006 – 2013, The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
1101 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 1010. Washington, DC 20005. (202) 289-2700

Categories Charter Schools

This Is a Great Organization, Good Video (Link Fixed, I Hope!)

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
8

The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign is funded largely by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

Schott is one of the few national organizations that supports public education, not privatization.

This is a good video that it funded. Takes only a minute to watch.

Categories Support for public schools

NSBA: Dems Support Federal Control of Education

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
32

On a party-line vote, Democrats on the Senate committee reported out a bill that expands the role of the federal government in education and makes the Secretary of Education the national superintendent of schools. The National School Boards Association describes the legislation here, which NSBA opposes.

Summary of Senate HELP Mark-up of the Strengthening America’s Schools Act, S. 1094

The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. The Strengthening America’s Schools Act, S. 1094 was passed after two days of sometimes heated deliberation on a 12 Democrat – 10 Republican party line vote. Whether and when the bill will be considered by the full Senate is uncertain, but Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) expressed his intention to get it to the floor by the end of the year.

The issues voiced by NSBA in its letter to the Committee were raised frequently during the two days of discussion and voting. In fact, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) read from and held up NSBA’s letter during his opening statement as evidence of the strong objections to federal overreach and the overwhelming increase in reporting requirements in S. 1094 as introduced.

Without doubt the fulcrum of debate at the mark-up was the proper role of the federal government in education. Unfortunately, the partisan gap continues on what that role should be. Chairman Harkin characterized the bill as “a new partnership of shared responsibility,” and passed an amendment clarifying that states and districts could refuse Title I, Part A funds, and thereby be free of federal requirements. Meanwhile, Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) repeatedly asserted that S. 1094 creates “a national school board.”

The partisan gap prevailed in the Committee’s efforts to address all major issues. Of the 23 amendments offered, all but one Republican amendment was rejected, whereas all but 1 of the Democratic amendments were accepted to the base bill. This was despite recognition – acknowledged by Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) himself – that the Department of Education has exceeded its authority on ESEA waivers, and Congress has exacerbated the problem by failing to reauthorize ESEA. For example:

Role of the Secretary: The role of the Secretary of Education appears to have increased substantially in S. 1094. Throughout the bill, the Secretary is authorized to determine the overall quality and effectiveness of greatly expanded state plan requirements that will, in turn, impact the local level. The Secretary would appear to be involved in the design of programs, directing the specifics, for example, in addressing parent/community engagement and extensive data collection. In the case of data, the bill calls for multiple cross tabulations of a wide range of academic and non-academic student data that we believe will be overwhelming for many school systems to produce. The same can be said of new local plan requirements. Amendments described by their sponsors as attempts to eliminate new or onerous reporting and federal oversight requirements were rejected by the Committee. In fact, amendments were approved to create additional reporting requirements on military children, interscholastic sports, and career and technical education.

Turnaround models: Local educational agencies, including those receiving NCLB waivers from the Secretary, continue to be concerned with the limited flexibility in designing and implementing turnaround models for low performing schools. Several amendments intended to increase flexibility on how States and LEAs identify and improve low-performing schools were not approved.

Comparability: NSBA supports the concept of comparability and believes it is important to ensure that Title I schools receive comparable educational support. The proposed comparability provision in S. 1094 would change the method for how LEAs determine whether comparable services are being provided from local resources to Title I schools compared to other schools in the district. It would require local educational agencies to show that they spend no less at each Title I school – as determined by the combined state and local per-pupil expenditures for personnel and non-personnel – than they do at the average non-Title I schools in the district. Local school officials have determined that the provision is burdensome and not geared to achieving the desired educational outcomes. Efforts to address comparability were rejected by the Committee, so the unworkable language in the base bill stands.

Public Charter Schools Expansion: Local educational agencies continue to be concerned with the increased congressional support for public charter schools in the legislation and the apparent willingness of Congress to not hold public charter schools to the same accountability requirements as traditional public schools. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered, but then withdrew an amendment to hold charter schools to the same accountability requirements as other public schools. Chairman Harkin pledged to work on an amendment for the floor, however.

Other amendments on ESEA flexibility waivers, vouchers, Race to the Top, college access, special education, and teacher and principal effectiveness sparked spirited discussion and even a little table-pounding before S. 1094 was reported out favorably by the Committee on a 12 – 10 party line vote.

NSBA is not able to support S. 1094 in its current form, and will continue to urge Congress to reauthorize an ESEA bill that supports local school district governance. In preparing for the full Senate floor vote, NSBA will prepare amendments and work with the engagement of the state associations to secure support from targeted Senators.

House Action – Committee Mark Up Tomorrow – June 19

The Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives has released its version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Reauthorization, entitled The Student Success Act, H.R. 5 and it is scheduled for mark up this Wednesday, June 19, 2013. NSBA sent this letter Committee members.

Reminder: The Committee on Education and the Workforce determines the provisions in the law that best help local school boards to improve academic achievement for our students. Please contact your member of Congress if he/she sits on the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives through the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202-224-3121) as soon as possible.

Your Message to Your Member of Congress

As a local school board member, I urge you to:

1) Support the House Committee bill, The Student Success Act, H.R. 5 because the bill eliminates unnecessary and overwhelming administrative requirements and restores flexibility and governance to local school boards who are in the best position to address the needs of students in our local communities; but

2) Re-instate the maintenance of effort provisions for education to ensure that states provide at least the same level of funding for K-12 education from one year to the next.

Thank you for responding to our call to action. Please provide any feedback to kbranch@nsba.org.

Sincerely, Kathleen Branch & NSBA’s Advocacy Team

——————————————-
Kathleen Branch
Director, National Advocacy Services Programs
National School Boards Association
Alexandria, VA
——————————————-

Categories Duncan, Arne, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

Massachusetts: Will Common Core Dumb Down Our Students?

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
9

Tom Birmingham was president of the State Senate in 1993 when the state passed its landmark education reforms. From those reforms came a historic new investment in public education and new standards and assessments. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation on NAEP at both grades four and eight in reading and math.

However, the state abandoned its successful standards and assessments to qualify for Race to the Top funding. In doing so, it adopted Common Core.

Birmingham worries about whether the state gave up its successful program for a one-size-fits-all approach in which the children of Massachusetts will meet the same standards as children in Mississippi and Alabama.

He writes, ” In implementing the Common Core, there will be natural pressure to set the national standards at levels that are realistically achievable by students in all states. This marks a retreat from Massachusetts’ current high standards. This may be the rare instance where what is good for the nation as a whole is bad for Massachusetts.”

Categories Common Core, Massachusetts

“A Danger to National Security: Mainstream Education Reporting”

By dianerav
June 19, 2013 //
3

Last night, I attended the 5th annual Skinny awards, hosted by Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters. A large and enthusiastic crowd cheered this year’s winners: teacher bloggers Gary Rubinstein and Arthur Goldstein.

Gary Rubinstein teaches at Stuyvesant High School. He was honored as a great blogger, with special mention of his deconstruction and demolition of NYC’s “teacher data reports.” Gary showed that they were random and worthless.

Here is his latest post: http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/06/17/wisdom-from-a-2012-cm-it-doesnt-matter-what-their-scores-are/

Arthur Goldstein teaches at Frances Lewis High School. He blogs at http://nyceducator.com/.
Arthur writes with the most amazingly sardonic wit. He has roasted the Powers-that-be to well-done in a thousand different ways. I used to think I was first to say that VAM was “junk science,” but Leonie said that a careful review demonstrated that Arthur beat me to it. (Apparently Michael Simpson of the Office of General Counsel at the NEA was truly first in the world to label VAM junk science, in an article titled “L.A. Story: How the Los Angeles Times used junk science to malign an entire city of teachers).

I would have an impossible time picking out his best blogs. Here are a few recent ones. Here you will read about the most perfect mayor ever of all time and any place, whose reforms have transformed NYC into utopia. Here is his latest on our state commissioner John King, who is referred to sometimes as Reformy John, as here, but sometimes as King John. And here he shows the genius of both. And those are only the latest. He has been skewering the mighty for years and has been an inspiration to people like me.

Surprisingly, when these two accepted their awards, they switched roles. Arthur, the wit, spoke briefly and modestly. Gary, the serious mathematician and data cruncher, delivered a hilarious spoof. He used reformer language to describe the terrible crisis stalking the land: mediocre education journalism. He explained that bloggers emerged to save readers trapped into failing mainstream media. He said that scientific evidence conclusively demonstrated….something about three times in a row or three times as much.

Watch the video (luckily, Norm Scott was there to tape the event). I hope Gary prints his speech on his blog. If you have trouble hearing him, it is because the audience was laughing so much.

Categories Class Size Matters Org, Humor
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