In New Orleans, the Algiers Charter School Association hired a management consultant from New York City to address their problems. Some of their schools have very high scores, and some have very low scores (critics say they are dumping grounds to help the other schools).
The management consultant fired central staff, reassigned principals and embarked on his own plan to shake things up.
This is what happened, as reported in “The Lens”:
More than 300 members of the Algiers community gathered at the McDonogh 32 Literacy Charter School to speak out against recent firings and the transfer of successful principals to failing schools within the charter organization.
A call and response chant of “Raza must go” and “erase the board” came following the end of an unofficial public comment section and disrupted the regularly scheduled Algiers Charter School Association board meeting Thursday, June 28.
“Raza must go” is a reference to Amir Raza, a controversial leader who worked as a consultant to the Algiers Charter School Association, and who was recently hired as interim Chief Academic Officer.
The board made it clear that the public comment session, held before the meeting was called to order, would not be part of the public record. According to board members, the period for public comments was unofficial because it did not relate to any action items on the meeting agenda.
Attendees’ shouts overpowered efforts to call roll, read minutes, and review financial statements. After a few minutes of trying to begin the regular meeting, board retreated into executive session to discuss personnel issues while community members chanted: “Shame on you.”
“I need people on the board to call an actual meeting to address our actual questions. Can you or can you not call a special meeting?” asked community member Mitchell Thomas. The crowd waited in silence for the remainder of his allotted two-minute speaking time.
“You knew Mr. Raza was an issue here for us. I think you deliberately left this off the agenda,” Edna Karr teacher Sandradee Gray said. Gray’s comment appeared to echo a general frustration within the crowd.
Val Exnicios of the Algiers Neighborhood Presidents’ Council also had concerns.
“It is the opinion of all sixteen presidents that Mr. Raza exhibited the utmost lack of respect, extreme arrogance, and an uncompromising demeanor,” Exnicios said. “We could not, under any circumstances, work with Mr. Raza for the benefit of the ACSA [Algiers Charter School Association].”
Teachers and community members also spoke out against the rash of recent firings related to Raza’s effort to reform the schools.
“You say there’s a shortage of math and science teachers. There was no shortage until you fired all our current teachers. Tell me, are you filling these positions with certified teachers or Teach for America? I do not want my students to be guinea pigs for TFA [Teach for America],” Gray said.
Many spoke on behalf of O. Perry Walker Principal Mary Laurie, whose transfer to Algiers Technology Academy drew ire from the crowd.
Martin Berhman Charter Academy Principal Rene Lewis-Carter faced transfer to failing McDonogh 32.
After an hour-long executive session, the board reconvened and reversed its staffing decisions.
An announcement provided by the board said, “At the ACSA board meeting last night, the board decided to further consider parent concerns and will meet with management and leadership to discuss the reported personnel changes that were supposed to take effect June 29. To that end, NO principal and central office personnel changes will take effect today. The board will present its decisions at a special meeting Tuesday, July 3.”
Willie Zanders, a lawyer for the parents’ group opposing Raza’s reforms, announced an additional meeting July 5 at 5:30 p.m. in the Casimier Love Outreach Christian Center on Opelousas St. in Algiers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow! Weneed more protests like this. I wish I had been there. Did anyone videotape this?
Diane, wasn’t it posted somewhere that Mr. Raza was sent from Bloomberg?
Is this another NYCDOE plant? Don’t tell me it is another TFA “leader”.
I just wish we’d see this much frustration among parents of public school students in LA. The reforms are devastating.
see…run a school like a business and it FAILS…
this is what we have to keep hammering home…
Administrator jobs were preserved; what about teachers who already lost THEIR jobs there? Wonderful action by parents, though!!!!
Wonder if any of our regulars who are all about charters and choice are going to weigh in on this post. It doesn’t quite fit their narrative, does it?
I mean, shouldn’t the parents be off choosing another school instead of demonstrating? The last time a manufacturer stopped making a product I liked, I just switched brands to something else. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work, education as consumer good, because everything in the whole world is, in the end, a consumer good?
P.S. There’s a typo in the second sentence, “schools” should be “scores.”
Responding to both Diane and Barbara,
I’m about choice so I’ll weigh in on this post.
First, I believe that charter schools should be held to a HIGHER level of accountability than non-charter schools. The bargain with charter schools is that they receive the freedom to make decisions – especially personnel decisions – in exchange for increased accountability and results.
If we’re going to go through the trouble of having charter schools, they must perform better than what we already have.
Second, it’s great to see parents so involved with their school. This high level of involvement may have been driven by the poor performance of the school, but it’s good to see the school’s customers showing up and demanding better results from this school.
To Barbara’s “shouldn’t the parents be off choosing another school instead of demonstrating”, I believe that should also be a parent’s choice. I care about my community’s schools and children so I show up when a school is doing something I believe is undeniably stupid. I also respect the right of any parent who wishes to give up and send their child to a different school.
But also understand that if the New Orleans school we are discussing were a non-charter school and if the consultant were a prominent educator instead of a management consultant and the net result was a poorly performing school, I would also applaud the parents doing the yelling, screaming and chanting. I would also want the prominent educator fired.
It cuts both ways.
Okay. Can you tell me exactly to whom a charter school is accountable and how that accountability is exercised? There isn’t anyone in a position of authority to vote for or against (or run against); there aren’t open meetings of the governing board at which members of the public can learn more about the school’s operations and also speak directly to the board members; and there aren’t any open records, either.
Or does “accountability” only mean test results? If so, then we speak different languages.
Hi Barbara, charter schools must be accountable to parents, children, and the community in which they operate. What happened in New Orleans with parents staging a rebellion based on their view of how charter was performing is one of many ways to hold charter schools accountable.
If you feel The Feds are responsible for poorly performing charter schools, when you vote for President and for your members of Congress, you have an opportunity to back candidates based on their views on charter schools. If you feel your state is responsible, you can vote for a governor and state legislators who support your view on charters. Same at the local level.
I do believe that standardized test scores are one of a number of factors that should be used to measure charter school performance. Separate from performance measures, Diane is right to push charter schools regarding admission rates of specials needs and non-English proficient students.
In the end, as New Orleans shows, however the customers of charter schools think performance should be measured, they are unhappy with their charter and they are doing something about it. As I’ve said elsewhere, whether it is charter or non-charters, when a school’s customers do not feel heard, they need to get involved and push for change.
The problem is that charters and choice are illogical from the outset. If “reformers” truly believe that the answer to whatever question they come up is to relieve a school from the onerous limits and restrictions placed upon it then why don’t they work to eliminate those limits and restrictions for all schools? The spin is very seductive, talking about “choice” and “freedom to innovate”; why can’t existing public schools be allowed choices and the ability to innovate?
Charters were conceived as a way around existing restraints that cripple schools’ abilities to do what’s best for children, from laws that force principals and teachers to keep extremely disruptive students in classrooms instead of providing them needed counseling and supports to restrictions on teaching methods and approved materials.
I would give much more credence to those who claim to support “choice” if they were demanding that the same choices be given to all schools instead of pretending that public schools must remain under the iron thumb of state departments of education and federal mandates that are always woefully underfunded while charter schools are free to do whatever they can come up with. It’s all about competition, winning, and proving ideological philosophy and not about fixing anything or focusing on our children and their needs.
Agreed.
I support choice and I have posted elsewhere (and often) sentiments that are virtually the same – keep money in public education, allow public schools more freedom to innovate, give parents choice within the public system, hold charter schools to a higher level of accountability (since they are “free of onerous restrictions.”
I know many in the reform movement and many who disagree with the reform movement. Almost all believe they are helping children and trying to fix something that is very complicated.
If you’ve seen my posts, I often disagree with Diane, but I know she is fighting for what she believes is best for children.
All this non-sense has caused a major disruption in instructional planning and an unneccesary distraction (taking attention away from our children and THEIR needs). The steps that the ACSA Board and Raza have taken so far have been haphazard and strictly vindictive. This was never a plan for school improvement. The rich history of New Orleans and the hopeful story of the improved New Orleans Pubic Schools has been scarred by this upheaval. Please remember: New Orleanians were once homeless, jobless, and broke, but we kept going. We kept working hard, fighting to reclaim our homes and take care of our families. This is how we feel about our schools: We will not lose them again! They are a safe haven for our children. A place of stability and familiar faces. Our schools are families. Our children need stability in school administration and faculty. This is what helps to make any school truly successful! The shady actions of this ill-informed temporary group (Raza and Board) will not defeat the people of New Orleans!