Jonathan Pelto has unearthed a shocking story of a school district in Connecticut that is being pulled apart, privatized, and spit out by pseudo-saviors.
Windham, Connecticut, was in academic trouble so the state board of education appointed a “special master” to oversee school reform and the legislature appropriated $1 million per year extra. The district of 3,500 students has many who are impoverished and/or non-English-speaking.
Of the $2 million allocated in the first two years, some $750,000 went for the salary and benefits of the “special master” and his personal staff. More money went for consultants. Charters will open , one run by a group with the amazingly candid name “Our Piece of the Pie.” Among their sterling credentials: they run a charter school with six (6) students.
It is not clear that any of the new money will directly benefit students, such as, hiring another social worker or providing after-school programs.
Is anyone in Connecticut paying attention? Does anyone care?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How can you have a school with only 6 students anymore and have it work out? We have some very small school districts in California in very rural areas and their revenue/student is very high out of necessity. This is in a situation of real need. A 6 student school in an urban area is insane and the best way to waste money there is not to mention student achievement.
We don’t have any laws, any leaders, that can stop this? How can it be we have come to this?
The teachers who are most affected by these actions are under the gun and are at a point where they are in some combination of making preparations to leave or simply being too scared (some would say wise) to speak out, due to fear of reprisals.
Some parents who live in these districts are beginning to speak out, but many are sold on the salesmanship of the ed reformers and the collusion of local print media, which has been ignoring the hard data and anecdotes given them by people who are aware of what is going on.
Local papers don’t want to anger mayors and governors– that’s where they get their interviews, so they play softball with elected officials in order to keep their job. No reporter wants to be the guy the Mayor won’t talk to….
“Special master”??? Holy crap. Why not just an “overseer”?
He has a really large saber sword. I always wondered what they would call the female version…special mistress?
I think I could get into a “special mistress” if you know what I mean!!
No sword…sorry!
Another one of the Special Master’s schemes in this district was to make the high school 100% free and reduced lunch. Although superficially benevolent, the purpose is to create the illusion of a test score increase amongst the impoverished.
My dear Alan,
Let me refresh your memory. There was all kids of chicanery. Saved from the Pelto blog from a few months ago.
These are the things that I have seen or heard of in Hartford:
1. When the CMT was administered in Oct in grades 4, 6 & 8, students were put back into grades 3, 5 & 7 until after the test. There was a mini investigation conducted by an assistant supt and the director of assessment.
2. I heard from a former staff member at Simpson-Waverly that the principal there who is now a supt in a nearby system did the same thing.
2. At Bulkeley Lower School students were told to leave answers blank if they were unsure. I heard that there was a team of staff members who filled in the bubbles. I heard there was one girl who sat and did nothing during the test, leaving all answers blank and she scored at goal. The principal sent out an email telling staff not to take attendance on the computer during one week of CAPT. The math scores soared from 40% at/above goal in 2008 to 75% at/above goal in 2010 and the reading scores went from 50% at/above goal in 2009 to 70% at/above goal in 2010. Adamowski had a huge party for them. No one bothered to question anything. The same principal for years has had students re-take classes over and over again for credit.
3. I have heard that an elementary school principal instructed her staff to walk around the room during testing and check that students were answering correctly and to let them know when the answers were wrong.
There have not been any miracle jumps in test scores at any school in Hartford without cheating or an influx of suburban students. The Hartford Courant doesn’t care to report the truth or investigate any suspicions. It’s all available at ctreports.com.
http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/10/15/different-test-or-make-them-disappear-same-result-but-different-consequences/
It is difficult to keep track, isn’t it?
Again, our choice is sticking with a union run system that has promised reform for decades with no results. Now we have a chance to do the same thing for much less money. Why not??
What ARE you smoking?
Charters-the best con game in America today. It’s all about the money. There are no reforms.
You have bought into the hype. The unions are in bed with the education managers and politicians. Teachers have given their collective bargaining power to union executives who have allowed administrators to scapegoat them. You need to improve your critical reading and thinking skills.
Your little buddies down at the studentfirst office running a little scared is that why you keep showing up? Were not stupid.
When he/she is not busy writing SF “parent letters”… Melanie Davis from DC?
exactly what I was thinking
Linda,
Maybe you should stop blogging during school hours as I noticed you are blogging during teaching time. You are suppose to be teaching. Do parents know what you are doing during work time. Kids deserve better even if they live in the slums, but hey who really knows where you teach. Just a downright mean person. Its all good though. God remembers everything, even stuff people dont know, YET!
We still get lunch sweetie…even in the morning sometimes and then straight through the day…..parents are very happy…kids, too. Thanks for your genuine concern Mr. Slummy. 🙂
Slummy, do charter school teachers in your district work at 5:00 pm and on Sundays? Maybe you are in a different time zone?
It’s always nice to see genuine concern for teachers, not to mention our souls.
Thanks for spreading the word of god and of reformers. I hear they are one and the same.
Lyrics of We Want Our Piece of the Pie – Jimmy Cliff
We want our share, we have no fear
So you better beware
‘Cause a hungry mouth is a angry mouth
Worse without a job, hey
Leaders talk of fair share, the means justifies the end, regardless of who gets hurt.
Linda,
Lunch? I dont think so. Good one. Your use of time is questionable at the least, coast girl! Genuine concern? Trust me, I am not the one who should be genuinely concerned as I am not the one who makes comments that are slanderous. Nice try. Based on your the amount of time you have written on several blogs I have estimated your time to several several hours. Thats a lot of lunch. How do you plan on compensating the lost instructional time of the children you say you love so much? And let’s not forget the money tax payers have paid you for writing on blogs when you should be working. Very concerned? You should be sweetie. And just in case you forgot Websters definition of slum, here it is: a densely populated ursually urban area marked by corwding, dirty run down housing, poverty and social disorganization. Remember this is what you described the school that poor kids live in during one of your recent rants. Keep ranting girl. Your really doing the community school agenda a disservice as people get tired of your false information and defaming character assassination. Recently you ranted about charters and then continued to give false information about magnet schools in CT. People actually were getting advice from you when it was clear you know nothing about CT law as it relates to magnet enrollment. Furthermore you talked months ago how CT individuals who volunteer need required fingerprinting. Not true Linda. In fact the list goes on and on. And no this is not LIma Laura, the person you torture.
Oh but they do need fingerprinting. I know for a fact. You are so wrong…OP, is it you?
Most time on line is very early morning and late afternoon…you seem overly concerned.
Paranoid?
Do you “facilitate” testing in your district?
You seem to appear and re-appear when the HPS teacher comment is reposted…very interesting indeed?
Seems to be better written than a desperate administrator who is doctoring test scores.
More like someone married to a charter school “founder” and rescuer of children with bad culture.
But I could be wrong. You are collecting enemies, Linda, faster than a public school teacher. Oh, wait, you are a public school teacher. We all know you’re the bad guys.
There are actually different types of magnet schools in CT with different regulations governing enrollment. It can be hard to keep track of it all. One thing is certain, in Connecticut education is getting more and more segregated and poorer children are getting less and less of it.
PS note the dictionary quoted…
And VP of a local bank….closely associated with a charter CEO…disappeared after closing bank account…. OP = JK….lots of time in bank corner blogging but worried about us on a rare occasion…track back all the times and you haven’t a case Mr. K.
The plot thickens!
Oh read the latest in the HC…state budget cuts have left charter operators less certain:
Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn said that although the legislature reduced the increase for charter schools in December, the schools are still receiving a 10 percent increase while average traditional public schools have been flat-funded for years.
“I’m concerned that they have become politicized,” Williams said about charter schools. “I think there are some national movements and organizations that like to use certain charter schools — I’m not talking about all the charter schools in Connecticut — as a means of trying to discredit public education, when really we ought to be pulling in the same direction. The intent of charter schools was simply to help us improve our public schools.”
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-charter-schools-20130114,0,2367533
Linda, who was the bank VP who disappeared, the one whose wife is a charter CEO? Rings a bell.
Can I tell you off line? Email is here.
I saved the letter when I closed my account after twenty years (several insults to public educators on Pelto blog) and I have their response.
Try this link….
Budget Cuts Forcing Charter Schools To Take Hard Look At Their Future
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-charter-schools-20130114,0,2367533,full.story
To Guest….just got that….Webster’s dictionary!
The term is slumming and it was in reference to doing your time for two years as a temp. teacher and then moving on to Goldman Sachs and your real career..go back and track the thread. Sorry this doesn’t fit your understanding…..branch out and learn something new OP:
To hang out with someone of much different socialeconomic status usually for the reason of wanting to look cool or to feel more connected with another culture very different from one’s upbringing.
Your word for the day!
to “Slummy:”
I invite you to try me on for rhetorical size.
Check out my posts.
I look forward to pulling your covers.
And I approve of this message.
Linda
Ct law does not require fingerprinting of volunteers in public schools. Some districts require it to volunteer. Others do not. After sandy hook many districts are looking into it!
Sorry!
Many districts require it…you can’t even enter a classroom…we have to get all fingerprinted just for a field trip. If not all in the state now, it soon wil be….thank you for your clarification Jess. No need to be sorry.
Linda: I love your passion. I wouldn’t always express myself the way you do but you are not out of bounds.
I still marvel at the charterite/privatizer edubullies who post here and can’t understand why the teachers who post here won’t back down. [Yeah, reference intended!] As an bilingual aide and a SpecEd TA I worked with many teachers, including subs, of many different mixes of gender, ethnicity/race, SES background, subject expertise, etc, and the one who last always have a lot of grit. Have to; can’t be a teacher without it.
So for the edubullies who patronize and insult you and others: they’re clueless. They’re gullible enough to buy into the teacher bashing stereotypes without a moment’s hesitation or reflection. And then they’re surprised—Shocked I tell you!—when you won’t back down. [See, I worked it in again!]
As some of the students I worked with would have said to them: Don’t be a hater!
Linda, keep on keepin’ on.
They lie, spin, insult and twist all the time. The truth dripping out daily is causing discomfort and a worry about long term profits….the high salary kind, multiple positions for family members and the payments to family/friends who peddle educrap. They boast about test scores because that’s all they got.
So they cling to small inaccuracies…so desperate…so pathetic. Goodnight. Thanks.
You won’t be hearing any more from Terry.
Thank you, Diane.
Linda,
I found his name.
JK.
KrazyTA,
Yes, there seems to be a steady increase of those defending charters, vouchers, “school choice”, etc . . . ,by attacking a poster’s integrity. See slummy, terry, now maybe guest. Coinkidink??? Can we get an acronym for them, EB, short for edubully and just respond to their posts with EB. Save time and effort.
Duane
Duane,
Guest is being facetious…re-read….Slummy…associated closely with a charter chain operator. Very, very few of my many posts have been between 7:30 and 2:30…grasping at straws when desperate and previously cornered and spoken to by superiors. That’s all I can say for now. He knows. I know.
Wow. Someone told me about this fascinating dialogue alluding to me. Sorry to disappoint you but I am not Slummy.
If you are spending your time worrying about my writings and opinions then it is no wonder that reformers are making huge strides across the country and in CT!
Actually, Jeff, I had forgotten your name.
When you have a national overview, as I do, what you see is that the corporate reform and privatization movement is in retreat wherever there is an informed public. Tony Bennett got walloped in Indiana. Tony Luna’s “reforms” got shellacked in Idaho. Jeb Bush’s voucher proposal took a beating in Florida.
Sorry, Jeff, time is running out.
“Huge strides”? Worried? From Webster’s dictionary..delusions of grandeur:
A delusion of grandeur is the fixed, false belief that one possesses superior qualities such as genius, fame, omnipotence, or wealth.
People with a delusion of grandeur often have the conviction of having some great but unrecognized talent or insight. They may also believe they have made some important discovery that others don’t understand or appreciate.
Less commonly, the individual may have the delusion of having a special relationship with a prominent person. Or the person may believe that actually are a very prominent and important person, in which case the actual person may be regarded as an imposter.
Any sane person just has to wonder how it has come to this… Ahhh… $$$… the public trough. Public money ends up in private hands. A charter school with six students. A special master who pays himself $750K salary. Obscene. And the arguments I’ve read here about when people may or may not be writing? What? Really? I think I already need to unsubscribe to Ms. Ravitch’s blog…. collecting more enemies than a public school teacher??? What?? Any sane person…
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.