As you may recall, there is a bitter battle under way in Adelanto, California.
Parent Revolution, an organization funded by Gates, Walton, and Broad, has been in search of a school that could be used to fire the “parent trigger.” The parent trigger law was passed in January 2010, and in the past 2 and 1/2 years, no school has been converted to a charter.
Parent Revolution was behind the petition drive at the Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California, where they helped to organize a parent union.
The school board has resisted Parent Revolution’s demand to turn the school into a charter school.
This letter was written to the blog by the president of the Adelanto School Board:
| Carlos Mendoza commented on Parent Trigger District Heading Back to Court: UPDATEParent Revolution and Desert Trails Parent Union had parents sign two different petitions. They claimed that they wanted reforms – not a charter. The 2nd petition calling for a charter was just for strategy to force the district to negotiate. They, however, submitted the charter petition. Many parents felt misled or confused by this process and asked that their names to be removed from the petition. There were almost 100 requests. It dropped the number of signatures below the required amount to make the petition valid. Judge Malone’s ruling states that the District is prohibited from allowing parents to revoke their signatures. EVERY parent who spoke to the Board from either side of the issue stated they did not want a charter. So much for parent empowerment.
I would like to issue a challenge. If the issue is about Parent Empowerment, then I challenge Parent Revolution and the Desert Trails Parent Union to put it up to the parents in a secret ballot vote. Why waste district funds on a lawsuit? I contend that the district has complied with the reforms asked for by parents. I accuse Parent Revolution of making this about what that organization wants and not what the majority of parents want. Let the parents of Desert Trails Elementary School vote up or down in a secret ballot monitored by neutral parties the issue of a charter school. I’m not afraid of the results – no matter what it may be. Can Parent Revolution and the Desert Trails Parent Union say the same? Or are they too invested in a win that true Parent Empowerment has been dropped from their vocabulary?
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bravo, Mr. Mendoza, sir!
Thank you from all the way out here on the east coast. We are in a time where districts, their admins and communities need to unite against intrusions of the ill-conceived reform industry.
Thank you Carlos Mendoza for calling out the astroturf Parent Revolution on their empty empowerment rhetoric. Those of us who have followed them since their inception know that they have never, ever, been about parent empowerment. Instead they are about increasing market share and revenue streams for the lucrative charter school sector.
I’d say that Parent Revolution’s true mission is convincing their funders that they’re doing something for as long as possible before the funders get that they’re being duped and walk away. The minority of parents at Desert Trails Elementary who support Parent Revolution are unwitting extras in that play-acting.
I really do not understand how 51% of the parents of a ‘current’ population of a school can take control of it and hand it to a corporate charter, thus eliminating the choices of future generations of parents. If a public school is funded by the entire population of the municipality, if the entire population pays for it, how can 51% of parents, a small portion of the total tax payers, justifiy that possession? They don’t own the building…they pay for how it is used..(municipalities gov’t’s buy and sell buildings all the time).for the common good If 51% of the municipality tax payers took possession, that I could understand. …But only 51% of the current parents?…no. It actually should be a decision determined by a community vote. The building is a public trust for the future of the community. They are taking it upon themselves to make a major decision that will limit the choice of future generations of parents yet to come. 51 % of such a small group should not be able to decide how other people’s tax monies are spent. That should not be legal. It offends my sense of justice. Wild West vigilanties. Mob rule. Gang robbery. This ranks right up there with “Stand your ground” corporate legislation..They are such trouble makers. And they dare critique Teacher Unions s being bullies….All they do is create division and upheaval in the acommunity…empower people to rise up and rebel about local control. They are their own best example of why there have to be greater regulations and limitations on corporate power. Maybe a bunch of unemployed (teacher) depositors at a bank should go take possession of a local branch because they don’t like the interest rates, since higher numbers rule in the business world!. Some higher court has got to rule against this. It has serious far reaching implications. How come 51% of the teaching staff can’t take control??? What if 51% of the parents wanted to rid their school of special ed kids or a racial minority, could they take control knowing
I can’t wait until the economy crashes and corporate wealth all comes tumbling down. My money says they get bored and leave education. These trigger laws are just another way the 1% demonstrate their disregard for the rights of the 99%. I guess to them “greater wealth = permission to consume all lesser wealth” It just makes me heartsick.
The parents of Desert Trails are being represented pro bono when they return to court. The Adelanto School District is not, and using tax payer money to appeal. This school has been in Program Improvement for six years, a total school life of many of those kids. It’s time for the Adelanto School District to stop hanging on to the status quo. Consider the children and let the parents find people to help them who know what they are doing.
It’s not the “parents of Desert Trails” who are being represented pro bono; it’s billionaire-funded Parent Revolution. (It’s inexplicable that a big-ticket law firm is providing services free to a very wealthy operation, but it’s their money.) Parent Revolution continues to file legal actions, forcing the Adelanto School District to drain its coffers with legal costs.
Wow, you’re really anti-Parent Revolution. Are you as familiar or have a history with the Adelanto School District?
I’ve been following the “parent trigger” closely from the beginning, even before the so-called Parent Empowerment Act was passed, as Parent Revolution initially threatened to assault one or more schools in my city, San Francisco. So yes, I’m very familiar with Parent Revolution, and I’m in communication with Desert Trails Elementary parents.
Yes, I am very anti-Parent Revolution. The more I learn and the more I observe, the more I see what a fraud this conniving operation is, ripping school communities apart and attacking teachers. Its sole true purpose is keeping its grant funding flowing in by convincing its funders that it has a prayer of achieving something someday.
I guess the ultimate question is whether you would purposely place your own child in a school that has been failing for six years, and on the bottom ranking in the state. I would not. Adelanto has had six long years to be proactive. Now they are being re-active and it will be so costly it could bankrupt the district.
@Mary, where do your children attend school?
L.A. Unified.
So, Ms. Thompson, when are you going to take over your kids’ school? Oh, and what makes it a “failing” school?
No. The ultimate question is whether the way to repair a struggling school is to attack its teachers and attempt to turn it over to corporate privatizers. (I don’t use the term “failing school,” which heartlessly brands the students and the rest of the school community as failing.) The concept is that we must destroy the school in order to save it.
In fact, as anyone informed knows, the Adelanto school district had just put a new principal in place at Desert Trails, and parents have been pleased with him.
Charter schools overall have a worse record than comparable public schools, and “takeover” charters, in which an operator steps into an existing struggling school, have an exceptionally dismal record. There have been no successful parent triggers anywhere. Why would someone want to inflict a “solution” that has no track record of success on an already challenged school community?
For those who are sincere about believing this is a good idea (I don’t harbor any illusion that anyone within Parent Revolution is sincere about that; they are simply trying to keep the funding coming in), the concept behind that is that the school is such a disaster that something, anything, must be done, no matter what. Would you apply that thinking to a medical crisis — randomly start removing organs, even with a record of failure in past organ removals?
Many parents at Desert Trails are pleased with and hopeful about their school, though the press is so bought into the parent trigger that only the small number of Parent Revolution loyalists get attention.
Parent Revolution’s hostility to teachers also demonstrates how doomed their approach is, should anyone be gullible enough to believe their efforts are sincere. Waging war on teachers is not the way to repair a broken school; teachers must be partners. “You can’t win a war by firing on your own troops,” as Diane Ravitch has said.
Here’s a great article on the heart and soul of a school that would appear to be “failing” based strictly on flinty-eyed data:
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/08/mission-high-false-low-performing-school
And here’s what education scholar Richard Rothstein has said about the concept that we must destroy America’s schools in order to save them:
“A belief in decline has led to irresponsibility in school reform. Policymakers who believed they could do no harm because American schools were already in a state of collapse have imposed radical reforms without careful consideration of possible unintended adverse consequences. …
“I do not suggest that American schools are adequate, that American students’ level of achievement in math and reading is where it should be, that American schools have been improving as rapidly as they should, or that the achievement gap is narrowing to the extent needed to give us any satisfaction. I only suggest that we should approach fixing a system differently if we believe its outcomes are slowly improving than if we believe it is collapsing.”
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/07/richard-rothstein/a-nation-at-risk-twenty-five-years-later/
I’m reposting a previous post that’s being held for moderation presumably because it included links, just in case our moderator isn’t immediately able to OK it.
No. The ultimate question is whether the way to repair a struggling school is to attack its teachers and attempt to turn it over to corporate privatizers. (I don’t use the term “failing school,” which heartlessly brands the students and the rest of the school community as failing.) The concept is that we must destroy the school in order to save it.
In fact, as anyone informed knows, the Adelanto school district had just put a new principal in place at Desert Trails, and parents have been pleased with him.
Charter schools overall have a worse record than comparable public schools, and “takeover” charters, in which an operator steps into an existing struggling school, have an exceptionally dismal record. There have been no successful parent triggers anywhere. Why would someone want to inflict a “solution” that has no track record of success on an already challenged school community?
For those who are sincere about believing this is a good idea (I don’t harbor any illusion that anyone within Parent Revolution is sincere about that; they are simply trying to keep the funding coming in), the concept behind that is that the school is such a disaster that something, anything, must be done, no matter what. Would you apply that thinking to a medical crisis — randomly start removing organs, even with a record of failure in past organ removals?
Many parents at Desert Trails are pleased with and hopeful about their school, though the press is so bought into the parent trigger that only the small number of Parent Revolution loyalists get attention.
Parent Revolution’s hostility to teachers also demonstrates how doomed their approach is, should anyone be gullible enough to believe their efforts are sincere. Waging war on teachers is not the way to repair a broken school; teachers must be partners. “You can’t win a war by firing on your own troops,” as Diane Ravitch has said.
I posted a link to a great article on the heart and soul of a school that would appear to be “failing” based strictly on flinty-eyed data. Without the link, search for Kristina Rizga’s feature in Mother Jones on San Francisco’s Mission High School.
And here’s what education scholar Richard Rothstein has said about the concept that we must destroy America’s schools in order to save them:
“A belief in decline has led to irresponsibility in school reform. Policymakers who believed they could do no harm because American schools were already in a state of collapse have imposed radical reforms without careful consideration of possible unintended adverse consequences. …
“I do not suggest that American schools are adequate, that American students’ level of achievement in math and reading is where it should be, that American schools have been improving as rapidly as they should, or that the achievement gap is narrowing to the extent needed to give us any satisfaction. I only suggest that we should approach fixing a system differently if we believe its outcomes are slowly improving than if we believe it is collapsing.”
One of the proposals received by the parents was from The Lewis Center, which is a wonderful school here in the high desert of California. Many educators here in the high desert, myself included, believe that would be a terrific option for the children and teachers of Desert Trails. The parents have been given the right by the court to consider that option, and I believe the school board should allow that. The ultimate question and test for me is still where I would put my own child, and Desert Trails right now is not such a place. Adelanto District had its chance. They’re only interested in the ADA for that school.
I researched the Lewis Center in the California Department of Education database when EdSource Today posted about it. Here’s what I found.
The Lewis Center runs two schools. The Academy for Academic Excellence has a high API, over 800, but does not serve a population representative of its school district. It enrolls significantly fewer (than district percentages) of the subgroups that are (overall on average) statistically likely to be low-performing: Latino students, African-American students, limited-English speakers and students qualified for free/reduced price lunch.
The Norton Space and Aeronautics Academy in San Bernardino enrolls a population representative of its school district, but has an API significantly lower than the API of the parent trigger school, Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto.
2011 API for Norton Space and Aeronautics Academy: 650
2011 API for Desert Trails Elementary: 711
I’ve already hear the charter-sector’s excuse: But Norton is a language immersion. Sorry. You all hold public schools responsible for their APIs with a “no excuses” mantra, and based on your own standards, no excuses and no weaseling.
The track record of these schools does not demonstrate that the Lewis Center can take over a high-need school, continue to enroll its full population, and improve their achievement. Why would the Desert Trails community want to bring in a charter operator that runs a school that is significantly lower-performing than Desert Trails is?
The Lewis Center might be advised to work to improve its existing two schools rather than trying to force itself on an unwilling school community — in one case, to work to enroll the full range of students in the community it serves rather than serving an elite segment; in the other, to work to improve its abysmal achievement ranking.
The point is it would be a choice for the parents, rather than imposing the same old thing and treating the parents in a condescending manner. Neither the parents or the children are stupid, but the Adelanto district believes they know best, despite all their failures.
How would it give them a choice? It would hand their school over to a private entity — one that has an unsuccessful track record of running schools. It’s not like they’d have of their old school or the lousy new one — they would just have one school to go to, run by a private operator with a poor track record.
How is that a choice? Shame on everyone who promotes such a scam.
And how do you think your poor-quality school management outfit is going to maintain decent relations with the district when you talk about your potential supposed partner with such contempt?
This is a such a loser and a sham.
By this time, the parents know what they do not want. That’s a start.