Just in case you have been wondering what is the best way to shut down your local public schools, the Broad Foundation has thoughtfully provided a guide to help you.
It has assembled all sorts of useful information about how to deal with community opposition, how to engage stakeholders, how to make your case, how to get the right leadership, and how to pack up and move out.
Some well-known school districts–perhaps yours?–contributed to the writing of the guide.
Presumably some of the many superintendents who were trained in the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy have this guide in their desk.
Read it and be forewarned. Your own public school may be next.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am pondering whether a copy of that document made its way to New Zealand, too…
See this link for photos/posters from UOODC13….beware and be aware of these so called “philanthropists” who are destroying schools, communities and and our profession.
Eli Broad is featured in the bottom left hand corner of the poster titled: Students: The New Cash Crop of Corporations.
Thank you to Peggy, Morna, Tim, Shaun and Laurie for organizing. I hope I didn’t miss someone.
What does it mean that I can identify the other three crooks on the mock dollars as well (Murdoch, Gates, and Klein)?
It means you are an informed, passionate, caring human and we are on to them….we will not give up.
Check out the other posters, especially the Murdoch/Klein one, which reads:
Who needs teachers….We’ll WATCH your children.
And the Gates bill…United Gates of America…in Gates we DON’T trust.
“Students: The New Cash Crop of Corporations”
That’s a good one.
I always say “trust fund babies and hedge fund managers want to sell our children’s futures like so many pork bellies.”
See more here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coolrevolution/sets/72157633182141526/with/8626148070/
For more information about The Broad Foundation see:
“Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
The school closing guide is such an evil prescription to public deception. Everyone should read it to understand the mind of the “reformers”. Their goal is to be 10 steps ahead of the general public when closing a school. To expose them we must be 20 steps ahead of them at all times.
Have they no shame? They even provide “Warning: True Story Pitfalls”, including :
“What to do when parents become angry at meetings”, or
“When the principal is one of the last ones to know!!!”
So is your view, Diane and others, that a public school, district or charter, should never be closed? I understand that many parents are upset when the local neighborhood school is closed. Same is true when some charters are closed.
I’ve read the research you and others have provided from Chicago, questioning the value of mass school closings.
But I want to make sure I understand your view. Is it that no matter
a. how low the performance of students in a school over a period,
b. no matter that educators have been given 5 years to improve operations,
c. no matter how much enrollment has declined
d. no matter how dangerous a school has become
e. No matter how dysfunctional the relationship between the faculty and principal
a school should never be closed?
Briefly, I think those factors should be taken into account. I’m glad the NYC board of education closed Julia Richman and gave district educators like Ann Cook the opportunity to create new small schools in a large building. I’m glad the St Paul Pubilc Schools closed a school several years ago and brought in new leadership and (some) new teachers. The Cincinnati Public Schools were wise to phase out a school that for years had had low achievement and give teachers, parents and principals the opportunity to create new smaller schools in the same building. With student from the same neighborhood (and no admissions tests), achievement improved.
It would be useful to know if you think there are any circumstances in which a school should be closed.
Thanks
Joe
Do you think that school closings are done with the students’ best interest in mind? Why do you defend the indefensible?
This is why:
Funding for center for school change:
Funding for the Center has come from Cargill, Gates, Annenberg, Blandin, General Mills, St. Paul, St. Paul Companies, Peters, Minneapolis, TCF, Joyce, Bradley and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, Best Buy, Pohlad, and Wallin Foundation.
Yes, I think some of the school closings are done with student in mind.
Here are recent columns that a group of Mn news run each week. Several people have commented this week. Of course you are welcome to share your thoughts.
http://hometownsource.com/tag/joe-nathan/?category=columns-opinion
Is this the only reason you are here Joe? To defend the purpose of your organization and the corporate sponsors. To promote an never ending cycle of opening and closing schools under the guise of “school choice”.
Paraphrasing Karen Lewis: “There are no failing schools, only ABANDONDED schools”.
Do you only measure failing by test scores, Joe?
Start your own blog Joe….titled Defender of the Corporate Takeover of our PUBLIC schools. I hear word press is easy to manage.
For those who don’t know:
Funding for center for school change:
Funding for the Center has come from Cargill, Gates, Annenberg, Blandin, General Mills, St. Paul, St. Paul Companies, Peters, Minneapolis, TCF, Joyce, Bradley and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, Best Buy, Pohlad, and Wallin Foundation.
“Start your own blog Joe”
Seconded. That way, the rest of us won’t constantly be subjected to your astounding ability to (intentionally) miss the point.
Funding also has come from the Minneapolis and St. Paul Public Schools.
PUBLIC schools should NEVER be closed. They are vital assets to to communities and ensure the future of a democratic society. Neighborhood schools should be strengthened, they should receive adequate funding and be given the proper supports to succeed. School closures segregate students by race, income level, and academic achievement. The new schools that replace them often fail to educate the most vulnerable students.
You are talking about something else than what is outlined in the Broad School Closings Handbook. The mass abandonment of public schools in low income areas is not being done for the reasons you raise. Do you know of the mass abandonment of schools and the transfer of their students to charters in any suburban school district? When the problems that you enumerate arise there should be intervention removing incompetent people and putting resources into the school to fix it.
Corporate education reform is the exactly the opposite of this using the methods of disaster capitalism (Arne Duncan said Hurricane Katrina was the “best thing that ever happened to New Orleans” because it gave corporate reformers the chance to privatize New Orleans public schools) to exploit the problems of public schools in low income urban school districts and abandon them to make them into a means of getting tax dollars as another source of corporate profit.
This is horrifying.
Horrifying.
I came across this document on the Hoover Institution site, American Education 2030. If the above is a blueprint for closing schools than this document is the future of our school districts. http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/ReinventedSchoolDistricts_Hill.pdf
And see this in the closing:
Paul T. Hill, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, is the John and Marguerite Corbally Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Washington-Bothell and director of the Center of Reinventing Public Education. The center develops and helps communities adopt alternative governance systems for public K-12 education. His most recent books are Learning as We Go: Why School Choice is Worth the Wait (Hoover Institution Press, 2010), and Charter Schools Against the Odds. He also contributed a chapter to Private Vouchers, a groundbreaking study edited by Terry Moe.
Copyright © 2010 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
tintinyw@stanford.edu). The preferred citation for this publication is
This publication is for educational and private, non-commercial use only. No part of thismpublication may be reprinted, reproduced, or transmitted in electronic, digital, mechanical, photostatic, recording, or other means without the written permission of the copyright holder. For permission to reprint, reproduce, or transmit, contact Ms. Tin
Tin Wisniewski (Paul T. Hill http://www.americaneducation2030.com
, “Reinventing School Districts,” in American Education in 2030 (2010), edited by Chester E. Finn Jr.,
And see this in the closing:
Paul T. Hill, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, is the John and Marguerite Corbally Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Washington-Bothell and director of the Center of Reinventing Public Education. The center develops and helps communities adopt alternative governance systems for public K-12 education. His most recent books are Learning as We Go: Why School Choice is Worth the Wait (Hoover Institution Press, 2010), and Charter Schools Against the Odds. He also contributed a chapter to Private Vouchers, a groundbreaking study edited by Terry Moe.
Copyright © 2010 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
This publication is for educational and private, non-commercial use only. No part of thismpublication may be reprinted, reproduced, or transmitted in electronic, digital, mechanical, photostatic, recording, or other means without the written permission of the copyright holder. For permission to reprint, reproduce, or transmit, contact Ms. Tin
Tin Wisniewski (Paul T. Hill http://www.americaneducation2030.com
, “Reinventing School Districts,” in American Education in 2030 (2010), edited by Chester E. Finn Jr.,
I think is the Broad memorandum is instructive as to the different perspectives on public education. One side looks at educating kids and the other side looks at the bottom line. Both sides are not inherently foolish or evil. However, when it comes to the minds and development of our collective progeny and our collective future, then one perspective is clearly the priority. Or am I nuts?
Actually, looking at children as assets to be monetized is foolish and evil.
And the first schools to be looekd upon in almost all instances are those with low income populations.
I will ask those with intimate details about the Hartford Public Schools to weigh in on this little nugget from the Hoover Instiitute: An Assessment by Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education:
In the first districts to adopt portfolio-style management of public education (New York, Hartford, New Orleans, Chicago, and Denver), performance increased incrementally at first because new schools were concentrated in neighborhoods with terrible schools. Over time, however, student test scores and other outcomes (e.g., high school graduation, readiness for college) have increased districtwide, as competition and imitation of best practices lead to continuous improvement.
Although growth in government spending has been slow, increased private investment in new technologies and school provider organizations has led to steady growth in overall spending on K-12.
In 2030 there are still achievement gaps between high- and low-income students, though these are less than half the size evident in 2010. Moreover, the numbers of students with extremely low levels of proficiency have been greatly reduced. As a result, high school graduation rates approach 90 percent, and the proportion of students needing remediation on entry to college has dropped to half that of the 2010 level.
Although there is continued agitation to return to the good old days of input control and job security, governors and public officials are determined to sustain the continuous improvement processes at the core of the new school district model.
I have been teaching in Hartford for the past ten years and I have noticed the opposite of what is being reported here. We are faced with vastly increasing numbers of high school freshmen who cannot read past the third grade level or even compute simple arithmetic problems, let alone write even a standard middle school level essay of even five paragraphs. This is proven by the results we have seen in MAP testing, where we are now being tasked to organize our high school classrooms much like the old elementary school model of grouping students by ability levels and teaching them elementary school level skills in high school! Gone are the days when we can begin preparing our students for their post-secondary school lives; we must now prepare them for elementary school!
I attribute this dreadful trend to the reforms of Dr. Stephen Adamowski, who eliminated the alternative schools for behavioral problems, eliminated class levelling, introduced full inclusion of special needs students into every classroom, implemented widespread social promotion of elementary and middle school students who had passed no classes, falsified student transcripts to reflect passing grades when no passing grades had been earned, artificially raised graduation rates by making it impossible to fail students (even those students who had never attended any classes!), and falsified standardized test scores. These are not simply false accusations; my group has the documentary evidence and has provided this evidence to several reporters here in CT, but the reporters and editors have not printed the stories.
I am most disappointed in a reporter with the New London Day, Ms. Julieanne Hanckel, with whom several of us met and provided documentary evidence of the widespread fraud of Dr. Adamowski while serving as Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools. She never published this important story of the fraudulent practices of the reformers, perhaps due to a lack of interest of her editors. The fact that the press shows no interest in this brand of corruption is most disappointing!
The reason why this document is bogus is it does not present a realistic picture of school closure. It trys to say that stakeholders and teachers are involved when in mostly all cases they are not. I don’t know of any agreement among stakeholders to close their community schools. Ask the community in Chicago did they participate in this process. This is bullcrap. It sounds good on paper but the reality is that school closures are from the top down, it does not save money, its costly to the district but more so to the community, I wish Eli Broad would take this brochure and put it where the sun don’t shine.
“Districts do not provide professional development, warehousing, or other
services to schools. Schools buy such needed services from independent vendors
or join mutual support networks or education management organizations that
provide services for schools with similar instructional approaches.”
I would imagine we will soon be hearing of “Education Management Organizations”
Profit making of course with an abundance of “personalized learning” opportunities and managed by Gates, Broad, Murdoch, Klein and the rest of the usual eduvultures.
This is a big reason why we have trouble in districts with a less advantaged population.
A majority of the funds flow to district administration who then allocates funds to independent vendors and/or education management organizations.
Which begs the question, what are we paying district administrators for?
In my opinion, I would rather have copy machines that work with paper then ever attend another professional development meeting with people who have not been in the classroom for a decade.
And, I would probably “sell my soul” for a building where the administrators actually could create and maintain a proper school-wide learning environment. Oh, and should we talk about cell phones?
I see a lot about Eli Broad and Chicago in these posts. No one mentions the king of reform and school closures, Paul Vallas. I wonder why?
Here in CT we are well aware. Search this blog under Vallas…oodles and oodles pop up. His recent contract extension was challenged legally:
http://jonathanpelto.com/
And see here..Diane also posted recently about this issue:
One year after the state Supreme Court ruled that the state illegally appointed members to Bridgeport’s Board of Education, the same lawyer who won that case is asking the courts to expel the district’s superintendent.
On behalf of two Bridgeport residents, Norm Pattis has filed a lawsuit in Superior Court alleging that Superintendent Paul Vallas’s contract, approved last month in a split vote, is illegal.
Bridgeport Superintendent Paul Vallas
“The man is unfit for office under state statute and should be removed immediately,” Pattis said during an interview.
State law requires all superintendents in Connecticut to be certified by the State Department of Education, which requires a candidate have a master’s degree plus 30 credits in courses relating to becoming a superintendent and eight years of teaching or administrative experience. These requirements can be waived for up to one year by the state’s education commissioner while the candidate completes an “educational leadership program” approved by the 11-person State Board of Education.
Now in his 15th month of leading the state’s largest public school system, Vallas is not fully certified.
The lawsuit alleges that the time provided by law to get properly certified has expired, and the three-year contract the local school board approved to pay him $234,000 a year is illegal.
“Bridgeport shows a curious inability to read the law,” Pattis said.
http://ctmirror.org/story/19600/round-two-bridgeport-education-heading-back-court
It’s hard to believe that it has taken 15 months to challenge the legality of Vallas’s appointment. But, then again, we are the state of John Rowland, Joe Ganim, what’s-his-name Giordano,etc.
Thanks for putting this online for us. I have just read it, saved it and am sending it out. The “Broadfather” is a heartless and cold enslaver of youth and the public. We are here in L.A. his base and know his tricks in schools, art and business. He is not for us. He does nothing but lie to get his way. This is how they operate. Read the posted report and make your own conclusions. LAUSD has over 260 charter schools now. None are held accountable. Read the DOE OIG report on the total lack of accountability of charter schools. It is not that hard to put their message together. It is rather simplistic.
Only a district that has a loser board would ever hire another loser Vallas. He ruined Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans. How is that a proper calling card? What is so hard to figure out?
This is why billionaires need to be taxed to the hilt. They have way too much money and too much free time, and they are creating havoc on this country.
Broad has his filthy tentacles all over the United States and the ear of a “Democratic” president.
But isn’t it POSSIBLE that Broad really does what he does because he’s a great guy who really wants to help kids? I mean, what PROOF do we have that he isn’t in this for his stated reasons? Shouldn’t we just take him for his word until it’s proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he has ulterior motives?
If you can’t trust the billionaire entrepreneurs of this country — who CAN you trust?
Thanks Diane. Gave you a h/t when I used the link you provide and wound up posting Perhaps this will help you understand school closings at Daily Kos
When it comes to closing schools, the US DOE has made it easier for charters to crowd out public schools. Perhaps it would be interesting to see someone’s perspective of the news from the Office of Innovation & Improvement of the US DOE…. see “When charter schools and no-charter schools work together grant encourage collaboration” it can be found at the link:
http://www.ed.gov/oii/when-charter-schools-and- non-charter-schools-work-together-grant-encourage-collaboration.
I have been teaching in Hartford for the past ten years and I have noticed the opposite of what is being reported here. We are faced with vastly increasing numbers of high school freshmen who cannot read past the third grade level or even compute simple arithmetic problems, let alone write even a standard middle school level essay of even five paragraphs. This is proven by the results we have seen in MAP testing, where we are now being tasked to organize our high school classrooms much like the old elementary school model of grouping students by ability levels and teaching them elementary school level skills in high school! Gone are the days when we can begin preparing our students for their post-secondary school lives; we must now prepare them for elementary school!
I attribute this dreadful trend to the reforms of Dr. Stephen Adamowski, who eliminated the alternative schools for behavioral problems, eliminated class levelling, introduced full inclusion of special needs students into every classroom, implemented widespread social promotion of elementary and middle school students who had passed no classes, falsified student transcripts to reflect passing grades when no passing grades had been earned, artificially raised graduation rates by making it impossible to fail students (even those students who had never attended any classes!), and falsified standardized test scores. These are not simply false accusations; my group has the documentary evidence and has provided this evidence to several reporters here in CT, but the reporters and editors have not printed the stories.
I am most disappointed in a reporter with the New London Day, Ms. Julieanne Hanckel, with whom several of us met and provided documentary evidence of the widespread fraud of Dr. Adamowski while serving as Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools. She never published this important story of the fraudulent practices of the reformers, perhaps due to a lack of interest of her editors. The fact that the press shows no interest in this brand of corruption is most disappointing!
One Ct writer/reporter has coined the phrase, “Corrupticut.” Gotta love good ol creativity.
I LOVE it!
Diane, I am confused. I think it is wonderful there is a guide to help the process. How do you feel about these disadvantaged children being given the opportunity to attend prep schools? Or better public schools in another district?
Angela,
There are not enough seats in those other districts to take care of every disadvantaged student. Perhaps 1% of them, maybe less. Do you think our best schools are half-empty? Even with vouchers, the best schools don’t accept the low-performing students or have no seats. We destroy communities by closing schools and sending children in search of a school that will take them. And they end up in a school no better than the neighborhood school that was closed.
Diane, I see your point. Given your expertise in this area, what
new, effective and feasible solutions would you offer those children who don’t stand a chance without an Education? Should they remain in poor performing schools? Whose is responsible? Where is the accountability?
I share a story about my son who did not want to be in a Chemistry honors class (I was a Chem major in college). He is a jock and this was not public school. He complained incessantly about Chemistry because it requires paying attention to details, the conditions under which certain laws can be applied. Overlooking those conditions leads to confusion.
He was averaging a “C” when a unilateral decision was made to transfer him from Honors to College-level Chemistry. (I love the nomenclature). I was understandably not pleased that this decision was made without my input.
During my meeting with the Head of the Science Dept and his Chemistry Honors’ Teacher, I was told my son did not have the aptitude because of his maturity. My response, ” His problem is not aptitude; it is attitude!” I offered a compromise: Let me tutor him, if his next test was below a B-B+, I would sign-off on the transfer.
I have to say both the Head of the Dept and his Science teacher were outstanding in their response to my concerns. I was impressed! Between the science teacher and my tutoring, he received a B+ and remained in the class.
I realized the problem stemmed from immaturity in attitude along with poor study skills—such as studying for a test the night before, or thinking 20 minutes of school work at home is hardcore studying.
Far too often the bar is lowered for children on the mistaken believe that they do not have the aptitude when it is how the material is presented. Many teachers are not versatile in their teaching styles accounting for students doing poorly.
Of course this is an over-simplification of the problem but it is an important part of it. Teachers/ Educators should accept some responsibility, when they don’t they are teaching to only a small group of students consisting mostly of girls.
Didn’t mean to be this lengthy.
Angela,
The answer to your question would be too lengthy to put into a reply on the blog. I just finished a book to answer your question. As a society, we need to make a commitment to improve every school, to make sure that students have access to a broad curriculum, to limit class sizes, to provide adequate resources to schools, and to require that teachers and principals are well-educated and well-prepared professionals. Check out the agenda of the Network for Public Education. The current movement to privatize public education will exacerbate inequality and segregation.
Diane
Diane,
This may sound naive but I trust President Obama’s intelligence and intentions. It is not to create more social injustice and racial inequality.
There are many sides to this problem.
Best,
Angela
Agreed. There are not just two sides. There are many. Ms. Grant, I agree with you about the President.
Angela & Joe,
Do you think Malia and Sasha’s “data” will be released to inbloom/Amazon/Wireless Generation/Amplify so edupreneurs can track their progress?
If these policies do not affect his children, is it okay to experiment on other people’s children?
Joe,
Thank you. I wish more people were as objective as you.
Angela
Objective? That ‘s very funny. 🙂
Trust all you want, not don’t stop wondering why he outsourced education to billionaires and Wall Street hedge fund managers.