When readers learned that Oprah’s OWN network was filming in New Orleans, they feared that she would repeat the inflated and fraudulent claims about charter schools that are so often repeated on television. So did I.
But according to this Louisian teacher, all of us were wrong. We owe Oprah an apology. The charter schools face the same problems as public schools.
Here is what the Louisiana teacher reported:
“By the way, if you haven’t seen Oprah channel – OWN – new series “Blackboard Wars” an unreality series filmed at a New Orleans charter, you must. After much fear and trepidation at the idea of its filming it is turning out to be an exposé of the disaster that many of these charters have brought to N.O. Several of the teachers featured are TFA, although they don’t make that clear to an unknowing public audience. The filming of these students’ lives is a travesty, even filming the actual delivery room scene of one young student. The first episode featured a “teacher(?)” yelling at her students in barely recognizable dialect, with her boobs hanging out all over the place. I am SURE the filmmakers caught on and did not attempt to cover over the truth of what is taking place there. Steve Barr and his principal are acting their parts for their own personal aggrandizement! It will ultimately result in a black eye and I hope a lawsuit for the RSD to allow this.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can I wait until she retracts her Rheefest before I apologize?
what does RSD stand for in the last sentence? It says this: I hope a lawsuit for the RSD to allow this.”
Something school department? what is the R?
Sorry, RSD stands for Louisiana’s Recovery School District
The Recovery School District was started after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans because they had no schools for a while. Recovery District schools have spread to low performing schools in other parts of the state, especially Baton Rouge, and are especially prone to hiring TFAs instead of teachers.
Actually, despite the name making people think of a natural disaster, the Recovery School District was started before Katrina. But after Katrina the state gave it much enlarged powers and had it take over most schools in the system.
Is it clear to the average viewer that the schools are charter? If not, there is still the danger that most viewers will ascribe anything negative that they see to public schools, since the view of charters is often pretty rosy.
There was a scene about community members planning to protest the charter takeover. There is an clear indication that this school was taken over by a charter operator.
For the truth about McDonogh and the history of New Orleans schools, check out http://theneworleansimperative.org/. Written by our own Dr. Raynard Sanders (Save Our Schools Steering Committee) who was once principal at McDonogh. Dr. Sanders also has a radio show every Monday morning on WBOK (am). I have attended several of the alumni and community organizations who opposed this tkeover and I am incredibly impressed with their determination to save this school for their children and their community. It has to be painful to watch this show. When I became a teacher in 1992 I visited several New Orleans schools to observe their journalism classes as I was certified to teach that subject. McDonogh was one of only a few schools in Louisiana with a certified journalism instructor and they also hada school newspaper. I can tell you that the image of this school then was not one of violence as portrayed in the prologue to this series. It was however a school in disrepair and neglected and underfunded.
I looked at the website and there is some mention of it being a charter in the 5 minute teaser video of the first episode. Also, there are biographies of a few teachers which, oddly, do not give the academic credentials, although those are given for the principal…sorry Chief Academic Officer. I am outraged that these students are given such underprepared teachers! It is a crime!
You can go to this website to check any teacher in Louisiana’s credentials. Future Is Now (FIN) charter organization employed a non-credentialed principal at Cohen (their other school). PL refers to practitioners’ license (either they’re TFA or TeachNOLA).
https://www.teachlouisiana.net/teachers.aspx?PageID=416
Almost all the New Orleans schools are charter now.
Good point. Is it clear that Ms. Cobb was trained by TFA?
If you go to this LinkedIn profile page for Ms, Wilcox, which says she’s TFA, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/emily-wilcox/50/244/688 do a People search of Baye Cobb and you will see that her LinkedIn profile page also says she’s TFA.
Still deceptive by withholding information – she still cheerleads for TFA, privatization, and continues the mantra of the bad teacher as the cause of everything wrong with this country. Until she does a full turnaround and apologizes to teachers across America and fights for us, she can go to hell. Too little, too late.
^^^ This.
Oprah probably means well, but like the President, she is not a teacher and does not know what it takes to be one.
Ignorance does not give her a free pass at shoddy unbiased journalism. She has too much experience to not “check the sources”, not t o mention I am certain there [still] are teachers who watch her show/channel.
As such, I can only presume she has an agenda and it’s not teacher friendly. She’ll get no apology from me. At this point I’d even go as far as to agree with the previous comment about where she and her show can go.
I stopped watching her show once it became a forum for the travesties of “reformers” like Michelle Rhee and her henchmen. She owes an apology to professional educators. I do not follow her OWN channel at all. She did enough damage.
I think I’ll wait and see . . .
I, too, no longer watch Oprah or her OWN network. I actually stopped viewing a couple of years before she went off traditional airwaves. I am not sure but I think that what has initially aired is to be used as a contrast. I have read that the initial programs are some of the first footage taken at the beginning of the takeover by the charter school and that the footage to come is supposed to show the gradual improvement of the school. Again, I do not agree with Oprah championing the privatization of public schools via charters whcih are really private schools funded by public dollars. I do believe that the program shows only one specific situation and is not necessarily transferrable to all other communities or all other children. This “reality” program is like all other television. It is edited and will only give the side of the issue that the director wishes to portray. BEWARE!!! It is probably another media exaggeration funded by millionaire and billionaire “deformers” who want to paint a picture of “look what can be done if we just turn everything over to private, for-profit charter entities. What they don’t show is that none of the money paid to these entities stays in the communities and does nothing to truly help students and their families. These companies are “phishing” for our dollars and taking them out of circulation in our state. Louisiana has become an employment company for anyone who has dollar signs in their eyes. And Bobby Jindal is more than willing to let them plunder our state. He owes his rich backers many favors and has nothing to lose since his political aspirations in this state are pretty much over. He has done it all and my guess will leave this state in his dust one way or another.
I believe the series will backfire on the school, Steve Barr and the charter movement in New Orleans. It is another opportunity for us to have a voice because the media is trying to capitalize on the story. Without this series the takeover of McDonogh would have simply quietly done its damage, its failure would have gone under the radar and the public would never have seen the travesty of this takeover. I wish citizens would take the time to visit these schools, talk to the teachers and principals and see for themselves.
The Blackboard Wars page on the OWN website lists bios for only three faculty, two of whom are first year teachers. Both just graduated last spring and it doesn’t say if they studied education or if they are from TFA, but one indicated that it was her interest in “education policy” that led her to the job in New Orleans: http://www.oprah.com/own-blackboard-wars/blackboard-wars-bios.html
After googling a bit. It would appear that Baye Cobbs is TFA. I was unable to find that information on Oprah’s Website. If you do an advanced search in linkedin, with the “term teacher for america baye” she shows up. Remove “teach for america” and you get many more results.
Well if her interest is “education policy” then she is almost certainly a TFA. How many real teachers, especially in their first few years, consider themselves policy makers? For most TFAs the classroom is nothing but a stepping stone into administration or policy making.
i wish i had your confidence. too many parents who were burned by the deplorable pre-katrina conditions of the new orleans school system have now bought into the charter/voucher propaganda wholesale.
the way this oprah farce has been staged pretty much still favors the charters even though too those who can see beyond the slick production garbage understand what’s really going on here.
unfortunately, however, i fear most will be caught up in the staged drama as though it makes new orleans appear ‘worthy’ of staging such common but popular tripe like the jersey shore crap. it might as well have been produced by jerry springer. and even then, it would probably get ‘props’ as a legit production. shame. shame on oprah.
sorry, only the word ‘really’ was supposed to be bolded. i know i closed that tag!
Mac, Not sure who you were responding to, but I don’t have confidence in Oprah or what’s been going on in New Orleans, and it doesn’t look like others in this part of the thread have either,
my bad; i thought i was responding to geauxteacher, because i don’t think this show is being perceived as an exposé, but rather as ‘representin’ new orleans to the nation, in a pop sense- entertainment for the brain dead. so i don’t think it will impact the charter industry very negatively. it’s slickness and the mere fact that it features a new orleans school glosses over the tragedy of miseducation in this charter school. i hope i’m wrong…
According to linkedin, Emily Wilcox is also TFA. It says so on her bio: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/emily-wilcox/50/244/688
I was also unable to find this information on Oprah’s website.
If Oprah believes so strongly in TFA, then why did OWN not reveal these teachers’ affiliation with TFA on their website?
I looked at the videos on the website and I empathize with the challenges that they are facing as first year teachers. However, I think someone at TFA needs to tell their teachers that it’s not a good idea for them to be crying in front of students.
Yes, where are their mentors? They are supposed to have someone from TFA they can call on if they are having problems.
And any teacher knows you don’t wear sexy clothes around students, especially if they are over 8. It is unprofessional and gets the boys all mixed up starting at about 4th grade. You also avoid crying unless you have a very well established relationship with your students and your crying is because your mama just died, not because the kids have gotten under your skin. OOOh Bad! Both of those things just demonstrate the problem with TFA. They don’t know any better.
Exposing a lousy school that happens to be a charter is okay, highlighting the profiteering of crushing public schools and their teachers with “reform” and smear campaigns in order to create those charters would be better. Highlighting the undeniable link between poverty and opportunity/success even better, the fact that a tiny, incredibly wealthy minority drive policy and escape the “no excuses” and “shared sacrifice” requirements…priceless.
“Highlighting the undeniable link between poverty and opportunity/success even better…” Exactly. But that would require looking at the evidence; Oprah’s never been one for analyzing evidence. Why promote scientific research when you can make hundreds of millions of dollars selling pop psychology, racial amnesia, and consumer goods to suburban housewives?
Good points, rynsa. I can hardly think of the old Oprah show without thinking of (and, yes, laughing, once again) Maya Rudolph’s portrayal of Oprah in “The Women of SNL” special. Maya/Oprah is hosting one of her “favorite things” shows, and the women in the audience, while being gifted, are acting like wild animals–you know–Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, the usual suspects screaming, shoving,hugging,jumping up & down and knocking each other off chairs–even flinging them about–and pitching each other to the ground. Rachel Dratch even gets so excited her head explodes!
Ah, white guys talking about racial consciousness. Who can ever get enough of that. I bet Oprah enjoys it even more than I do.
You’re absolutely right, flerper. White guys should never under any circumstance (ever, ever!) participate in the discussion on race in the United States. It’s not like white folk are embedded in the system that keeps them in privilege, right? It’s not like they make up the majority of Oprah’s audience, to boot. Ah, fiddle sticks! I wash my hands of it. Just too messy. Now I can get back to perpetuating class/race/gender crimes against the marginalized and not thinking about it one iota. So freeing!
[Sarcasm begets more sarcasm. How far do you wanna take this?]
P.S.
With all her grotesque monetary gains over the years, by the way, I figure Oprah can handle a few “conscious” white guys critiquing her from the underbrush. She promotes a so-called “post-racial” world; I do not. It’s well within my rights (obligation?) to call her on it.
Was it made clear on the video presentation that, beyond not letting the viewer know that the teacher(s) were TFA recruits, that it was happening inside a charter school classroom? Either way, do some, many, or most viewers understand the circumstance? Or would they make assumptions that teachers in all schools can be this bad? Is a message regarding the fail of this charter getting through, or will this just add fuel to the fire that ALL our educational problems are the result of “bad” teachers and “bad” administrators?
Don’t trust Oprah as far as I can throw her! She always has a self serving secret agenda for anything she does.
The most I watch Oprah is never.
I am sorry for laughing (yes, I am!), but I mentioned that teacher wearing a most inappropriate red dress (yes, w/you-know-what hanging out) in that first episode. That would be clothing that we would NEVER even be allowed into the building wearing in a public school. It appeared that the students were, however, paying attention to her.
Can’t imagine why.
I hope that Oprah will continue to explore how privatization of education is affecting the low income students in Louisiana, and Alabama in the future.
Despite all the other problems, I wish your reporter had described the “barely recognizable dialect” of the teacher on the program. Was she from another country? A northerner? That in itself can be a problem in New Orleans because it is pretty cloistered and inner city kids often have trouble understanding people from other parts of the US and also New Orleans has a dialect of its own. If she was speaking Southern American they should have been able to understand her however. There were some teachers from the Phillipines working in Baton Rouge for a while and I heard some of the kids had a problem with their dialect.
Interesting comments, twink. There has been quite a bit of hiring of teachers from the Phillipines in some Illinois school districts and, in fact, some teachers have been replaced by them. New TFA?
(And less expensive–no TFA fee!)
Don’t let Oprah fool you. Consider everything she’s “done” in the past for education. Once burned, twice shy.
Reality shows are edited in a very calculated manner and the term ‘reality’ is often a very loose description of the show that is aired.
Let’s wait until this series runs its course to decide if she is “for us or ‘agin’ us.”
Kindergeek, I have a post today containing Gary Rubinstein’s warning, saying the same about Oprah. Trust no change of heart until series ends.
Won’t trust Oprah, Diane, until she has you on for a one-hour, no-ambush interview–with NO positive mention or footage of Michelle Rhee!
This could be very good news, and well worth emulating in districts that are under siege by pro-privatization mayors. Please share.
The Knight Foundation has given a grant to a local New Orleans news site which will train college students to cover charter school board meetings.
http://www.knightfoundation.org/grants/20112564/
“To provide greater transparency and accountability in charter schools by using college journalism students to tweet from and write on board meetings of over 40 independently run charter schools
“To provide greater transparency and accountability in charter schools, the local news site, The Lens, will train college journalism students to tweet from and write about local charter school meetings.
“New Orleans has the highest percentage of students attending charter schools in the country, yet there is little coverage of the boards that govern them.
“Each student journalist will cover a different school and report the events and details of important board meetings and gatherings. All relevant content will be archived, in order to ensure greater accountability in how the schools are run.”
The John McDonogh Advisory Committee recently wrote a letter to Oprah & the charter operators concerning this issue. Please read their concerns:
http://thelensnola.org/2013/03/01/john-mac-group-circulates-open-letter-decrying-blackboard-wars-tuesday-meetings-planned/
Elizabeth Jeffers
The show has revealed how unprepared the TFA teachers are but never mentions that they are TFA. But we can see the insidious narrative unfolding that typically is found in this kind of “stand-and-deliver ” genre: kids hate the new teachers; teachers can’t manage classrooms; then the top-down turn-around miracle workers transform the teachers and school. In the end, the teachers are in control of the students and the students have responded to the tough-love. Note that Steve Barr is already saying that they will hire three “hall captains” to back-up teachers who don’t have a clue.