Steve Barr, who founded Green Dot charter schools but then left under a cloud, has returned to Los Angeles to partner with the school district.
This time, however, he is not targeting schools with low-income students, but middle-class schools, including one that he wants his children to attend.
It is puzzling why the district is ceding control of these schools to Mr. Barr, as they appear to be stable, high-performing schools.
To my knowledge, he is not an educator.
If I showed up in Los Angeles and offered to take control of some of its best schools, would LAUSD give them to me?
It is not clear if he gets a management fee, but I assume he will.
I don’t get it.
I have never entirely gotten over Steve Barr’s sneaky takeover of Locke High School. He persuaded half the staff to vote for him gaining control of the school, then fired most of them. That strikes me as a betrayal. But that’s just me.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You raised some interesting points….needless to say he is in New Orleans (the Charter School Capital of America). Mr. Barr was recently awarded John McDonogh High School by former RSD John White despite opposition by the community, of course that par for the course in New Orleans.
Schools are chartered by RSD without any or fake community input, and the operators are selected by officials from RSD (complete community disfranchisement). Over the past two years the remaining high schools have been chartered by RSD claiming their failure, but three years ago former RSD Superintendent made claims that the RSD high schools had increased their graduation rates had doubled and in some cases tripled since the schools have been under the control of RSD.
John McDonogh which was recently awarded to Steve Barr had a graduation rate of 90% according to Vallas in 2009. It’s amazing how a school with that kind of graduation rate can be classified as a failure in three years by RSD, makes you wonder.
The realities are that RSD and state officials have one mission; Charter its public schools at any Cost!
Wow…before when their reforms turned out to be failures, there was a revolving door of reformers reforming each others’ reforms.
Now they are reforming a proclaimed “success”. So if they can take over each others’ “failures” and “successes” what will be left?
Did you follow that? Unfr___believable!
turnaround wizards
turnaround turnarounds
turning out endless wealth
(apologies to the haiku)
That’s what I call job security
Steve Barr started out as a champion of the underserved. He certainly has done an about face. Like Eva Moskovitz in N.Y., he most likely has learned that there is more money to be made at schools that spend less on Special Ed and English Language Learners. The school Barr mentions in the article to “seed some of its success” is not presently a charter, but is extremely high performing due to the demographics of the neighborhood. Whites and Asians make up about 75% of the student population, and ELLs, Special Ed and socio-disadvantaged students are a very small percentage. If this is what Barr is intending to recreate, it will lead to further segregation and adding more higher needs students that cost more, thus impacting the LAUSD budget even further.
As a proud Union member and 15 year veteran teacher of LAUSD, I feel I must ask you to get your facts checked before you submit opinions on your blog. The teacher-led schools that Future Is Now will help develop are going to be district-run and operated under the UTLA contract. Funds go directly to the schools and there is no “management fee” involved. So no need to be puzzled, as no schools are being given away!
Steve Barr is doing this as a public service? for free? That’s very nice. Why doesn’t LA have competent administrators who can run these schools?
Diane, read below…it isn’t called a management fee anymore….It is now a “grant”…you know the kind that used to pay for materials, training, paraprofessionals, etc…we don’t need that anymore due to the “expert” advice we will be getting for FREE!
To James:
The head of the administrators’ union, Judith Perez, said her organization hadn’t been “included in any discussions,” although administrators would be vital to the success of the enterprise.
Do you know why they did not include administrators in the discussions, since as you state, they will be district run and district operated?
Wouldn’t they have to speak with each other to do this?
James, please tell us more about Future is Now schools, since you seem to know about them. For example, just how much influence does the huge grant that FIN received from the Gates foundation factor in how FIN schools are run? Are FIN schools obsessed with value added measurement, larger class sizes, and TFA like Bill Gates is?
Thanks in advance for your response.
Martha Infante
NBC Teacher
Los Angeles
Oh James, now I remember you. You mailed some propaganda to me from Educators 4 Excellence encouraging me to vote on a referendum that would include test scores as part of our teacher evaluation. You are a member of a faction in the union that wants to reform it from within. Are you a member of FIN as well?
James, what do you mean by “teacher-led?” Will the teachers vote for a head teacher? Will they select faculty and vote on tenure? Will they make major decisions about how the school is run? Thank you.
In New Orleans John McDonogh the school that Barr was awarded will operate as a charter school that receives all the state and local funding as required by law per student. There is a management fee however they lighten the blow by stating that they (FINS) will get paid through a grant. Of course with the lack of transparency and accountability we really don’t know how much these charter operators make in that they operate like a private business. Some charter schools are charging as much as 18%-20% management fee, that is over a million dollars to manage a school population of less than 300 students.
In the real world of privatization the contractor (charter school) would have a cap on administrative costs and requirements to hire license professionals. While charter operators charge those ridicules management fees they don’t fund libraries. Some charter schools even pass on the cost of transportation to the parents even though they are required by law to provide transportation.
It’s a money grab in New Orleans.
What is FINS?
Looks like Future is Now (S?)…..I can’t keep track anymore.
It would be refreshing if they called themselves what they are.
Vultures profiteering off children…VPOC. This is never ending.
Or philothranpic vultures?
Here is more about James…
We’re teachers who believe that teacher evaluation, including the use of reliable test data, can be good for students and for teachers. Yes, yes, we know we’re not supposed to exist. But we do, and there are a lot more of us.
In February the membership of United Teachers Los Angeles will vote on a teacher-led initiative urging union leaders to negotiate a new teacher evaluation system for L.A. Unified. The vote will allow teachers’ voices to be heard above the din of warring political figures.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/29/opinion/la-oe-0129-stryker-evaluations-20120129-19
And here…due to the GENEROUS support of Bill Gates:
In collaboration with the Aspen Institute, and with the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Smith launched this pilot fellowship program in order to foster greater leadership capacity among a diverse group of leaders working to enhance the teaching profession itself, and to strengthen student achievement at the same time. As such, the first cohort (see full list below) includes leaders from across the country with backgrounds and skills from both urban and rural communities and from teachers unions, traditional district schools, charter schools, and other organizations focused on teachers and the teaching profession. These 21 accomplished leaders – chosen from more than 160 nominations – bring a diverse and rich mix of experiences to the program, from union leadership to active classroom teaching to human capital strategy and teacher advocacy in policy realms. All have demonstrated significant leadership capacity and are ready to embrace this next professional challenge.
http://bellwethereducation.org/aspen-teacher-leader-fellows-2012/
The 2012 Aspen Teacher Leader Fellows are:
Carrie Bakken, Program Coordinator and Teacher, Avalon School
Jean Clements, President, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association
Celine Coggins, Founder and CEO, Teach Plus
Kerrie Dallman, President, Jefferson County Education Association
Christopher Eide, Founder and Executive Director, Teachers United
James Encinas, Teacher, Westminster Avenue Elementary School
Nina Esposito-Visgitis, President, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers
Ira Fishman, Managing Director and COO, NFL Players Association
Emily Ayscue Hassel, Co-Director, Public Impact
Heather Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Education, Aspire Public Schools
Tony Klemmer, Founder and President, The Center for Better Schools & the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education
David Low, Vice President for High Schools & School Reform, New Haven Federation of Teachers, and Teacher, Sound School
Christopher Poulos, Teacher, Joel Barlow High School
Lewis Robinson, Executive Director, Prince George’s County Educators’ Association
Cynthia Robinson-Rivers, Manager of Teacher Effectiveness Strategy, DC Public Schools
Mark Sass, Teacher, Legacy High School
Audrey Soglin, Executive Director, Illinois Education Association
Michael Stryer, Director of New Unionism, Future is Now Schools
Paul Toner, President, Massachusetts Teachers Association
Andrew Vanden Heuvel, Teacher, Michigan Virtual School
Robert Williams, Teacher, Colony High School
This is very sad. Teachers influence about 10-15% of the variation in student test scores. The family: 60%.
And you want to be held accountable by invalid measures?
Please read my post earlier today called “VAM is Junk Science.”
The fact that Gates is funding this does not surprise me.
The fact that you want to put yourself in this position does.
Are you writing to James?
Linda & Martha, you are not really expecting an answer from James, are you?
Not really, but he left out some important information, no?
I do expect a response from a fellow educator. We do not throw rocks and run, do we?
Who’s paying him for what?
It’s time for a national teachers strike. Stop corporate influence. Stop the pedagogy of standardized tests. Stop the non-educators who are forming educational policy. Stop the unions and teachers and administrators who have drunk the “educational reform” kool aid.
Give the classrooms back to the students and teachers.
Thoroughly agree.