Andre Agassi is one of our nation’s greatest tennis stars. In his heyday, he was one of the most exciting people in the game.
Because he was a child prodigy, he dropped out of high school in ninth grade to concentrate on his game. It was a good decision for him.
But now in his retirement, he has decided that he should open a chain of for-profit charter schools, despite his lack of education or experience in education.
He raised $750 million from a group of investors in Los Angeles called Canyon Capital to open his own brand of schools.
He is not only opening new charters in Las Vegas but is expanding into Milwaukee, Memphis, and elsewhere. He hopes eventually to have his chain run “100s” of charter schools.
Meanwhile his own model school has experienced a series of embarrassing scandals.
Agassi, who knows nothing about schooling, proudly proclaims that “the private sector is best for schooling,” because that is what he is selling. Agassi frankly admits that his schools are private sector schools, not public schools.
His model in Las Vegas receives about $6,400 per student from the state, like public schools, but then supplements it with another $6,000 per student from private sources. Having double the budget of public schools does give the “model” an advantage. Although the article says that “all” 34 seniors graduated, it is not clear how many students left the class before senior year.
One local newspaper shined a harsh light on the charter, not because it spends double the amount available to local public schools, but because of high teacher turnover (the school considers high teacher turnover a plus) and discipline problems.
Step back for a moment and ask yourself: Is America building a stronger and better education system by turning its kids over to celebrities and athletes who are not themselves educated?
Looking at the Common Core math lessons, they are tailored to meet the technology of the Smartboard which reduces the ideas of math to number “lines”; unit displays of ones, tens, and hundreds; as well as the naming of geometric shapes. It is all direct instruction around singular problems.
This reduces the ability of children to do multiple math problems at the same time in a collaborative way.
With a blackboard teachers were able to place numerous problems on display and children could go to the board to resolve them in a social construct. Now the teacher uses only direct instruction and linear thinking to solve isolated problems, while children’s ability to perceive the math ideas in numerous ways is precluded. The imagination is no longer able to embrace the problem on its own terms.
Such education molds the thinking patterns of children whose minds are malleable. This may be well and good for children who are being trained to be engineers, but parents should have the option of making that decision.
There is a deadening of the brain formation with this kind of direct instruction and the brightest will have much trouble sitting through it. The opportunity of children to see the problem holistically is reduced.
Children are being educated on Smartboards without having a relationship with the teacher, who is memorized in the technology, but a machine. The teacher must follow the script his/her mind is unable to respond to the moment, in the classroom, where alternative ideas of learning may be possible.
There is no space for student interaction with each other during such an event, when the lights are dimmed and all seating is focused on the lesson. Classroom seating is now being arranged to view the Smartboard and group seating with cooperative learning possibilities are eliminated. Shades are drawn in all of the classrooms and natural light is no longer available. Studies show that children respond best in natural light and are hyperactive in artificial light.
I retired last year after teaching for 41 years and never expected to read an explanation as to why I liked the chemistry classroom I taught in for over half my career and why it worked so well.
The previous chemistry teacher had designed it, supported by the architect, builder and administration with chalk boards – real honest-to-goodness black chalk boards on all four walls so that each of the 24 students in the class could be up working simultaneously on whatever it was we were doing. They could work separately or together and could use whatever colors fit their mood of the day. I loved it and my students loved it, and it was a sad day indeed when we moved to a redesigned ( I would suggest undesigned) classroom with a small white board and a space later filled with the omniscient smartboard that had neither the utility nor appeal of the black chalk boards.
Two final thoughts. The first, the wisdom in the title of Larry Cuban’s “The Blackboard and the Bottom Line – Why Schools Can’t Be Businesses”.
The second is that my students invented “Magic Chalk” courtesy of their access to all those blackboards. They discovered (accidentally of course) that if the chalk were soaked in water, a remarkable thing happened when you wrote on the blackboard with it. The wet pigment spread out but was nearly invisible. As the water was both absorbed by the board and evaporated, the pigment would appear silently and in slow motion about 10 seconds after it had actually been written.
It was fascinating to watch and the students never tired of it. I went through a lot of chalk, but its “magic” and appeal could not be duplicated on either the whiteboard or smartboard. Most importantly though, nor could the level of student engagement.
Thanks for reminding me that not all change is progress!!
I hear what you’re saying Joseph, but not all of what you say is my experience.
I used a SmartBoard for a year, and after that, have used Promethean Boards for six years of math teaching. Yes, I usually had a “script” that I created beforehand for the lesson that day. However, both technologies allow for creating new pages to divert onto side questions or going over the previous topic again, or whatever.
Almost always I had a chalk/white board elsewhere in the room. I used them for group work on a math problem, or to have students show how they solved their homework problems, or to have How-To’s up while the kids worked on problems, etc.
Yes, my desks were seated so that everyone could see the Promethean, but for two years I had my desks in pairs so all math work during class could be done with a partner. When I was moved to an English classroom, I then switched to groups of four or five desks together, and I utilized that for group work a lot.
Also, I always kept the window blinds open because I personally like to be able to see outside. The light from outside never interfered with the kids being to see the Promethean.
In my experience, Prometheans and SmartBoards don’t mean the end of group work and collaboration. I just had to change how I did things.
Oh, and I am definitely not a machine. 🙂
Jack
Thank you, these are all thoughtful observations.. I used to be able to put 10 problems on a board in about 5 minutes, and once the first one is up children are on task. Brian had a good comment about the research. It may be “interactive” to the outside observer, but is it effective? I once visited a K class and the teacher had a multimedia presentation going with beautiful pictures in foreign countries, music with a beat, and interactive activities with children going up and touching and moving the days and months of the year to create the days date. It seemed very exciting. Later that day I asked the child what month and day it was? She had no idea what I was talking about!. Children begin to process time and space at age 7. That is why they play. Does a Smartboard know that? Smartboards are an idea in time, an open classroom is so much more. I feel sorry for the new teachers scrambling with the Common Core nonsense, never to have a chance to sort things out in reaction to their students. I do not see the joy in their eyes and their creativity that is being snuffed out before it is born. A senior teacher once said to me, “Young teachers just don’t know, that they don’t know”. Smartboards should be a tool for teachers, but I feel that the teachers are becoming a tool for the Smartboards. Who controls that medium, controls children’s (and teachers’) minds.
Joseph Mugivan I am so grateful to hear from all of these concerned teachers. We must recognize that over thousands of years, we are entering a time when teachers no longer control the medium. The pencil was created in the 1500’s in England, which may have produced Shakespeare. Teachers have always been able to produce their ideas in writing; whether on boards or in sand.
It’s kind of a modern gold rush, isn’t it?
Hey! Let’s head west and pan for gold.
Hey! Let’s open some charter schools.
Indeed. They see 77 million “customers, (K – college) with a guaranteed turnover. An endless business opportunity.
Withe all due respect, Agassi is a brilliant athlete.
He knows how to hit a ball, move on the court, and project and predict spatial relationships like no one. He can maniuplate and react to the forces of physics with mastery. I am in awe of his prowess on the court.
But he knows nothing about the cognitive sciences.
He knows about as much of them as Pitbull does.
What next?
A Diana Ross law school? A Mike Tyson school of medicine? A Kim Kardashian university of bio-technology and astro-physical sciences?
I am not witch hunting here, but for someone who is deeply connected to children, it is uncomfortable to deal with Mr. Agassi’s past, because you still never are guaranteed how it affects his capacity to judge and lead:
http://msn.foxsports.com/tennis/story/andre-agassi-drug-use-wada-lance-armstrong-grand-slams-open-book-tour-012512
So now our elected officials are allowing rap stars with pornographic lyrics, rockstar athletes with crytal meth issues to permeate the lives of children?
I am thinking of that scene from the movie “Cabaret” in which the camera hones in on near-headshots of the theater performers working with Sally Bowles: overly made up, hideous, seductive, scantily clad, garish, excessive, all to make merry and all working to slander and eventually kill a certain segment of the population.
I think how decadence then had become normalized.
And now I think about Pitbull, Agassi, and others like them.
Make Florida another state I will NEVER visit, although I have changed my mind about North Carolina, not that it makes a large difference to the public.
Nothing against Nevadans, most of whom are very decent, honest people.
But in the land of legalized prostitution, where many young women are damaged and seek an abusive career, it does not surprise me that the culture of the state government there (I am saying here, “The culture of the STATE GOVERNMENT . . . . ” NOT the culture or value system of the average state resident in Nevada) would permit someone like Agassi to go in and sell snake oil to the parents.
I hope Nevadans and Floridians will wake up and get informed.
A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves . . . . . . .
From the CNBC article:
“Agassi says the fund allows investors to reap returns as well as enact social change.”
“If you want to treat a problem, philanthropy is a great way to treat problems.”
Philanthropy: the practice of performing charitable or benevolent actions.
Putting all of this together, I would surmise that philanthropy does not equal investors repeaing returns. Perhaps Agassi should have finished school instead of dropping out.
Greed!
Doesn’t he also have a fund that helps other charter chains buy buildings?
Ms Ravitch wrote…
“But now in his retirement, he has decided that he should open a chain of for-profit charter schools, despite his lack of education or experience in education.”
So how is thirteen years of running schools equal a “lack of experience in education”?
This is an extremely disingenuous thing to write as is pointing to an incident of inappropriate behavior by a staff member. Isolated incidents of inappropriate behavior by district staff members happens all the time, yet no one ever condemns those schools because of it.
Go ahead and argue that his schools underperform, but your ad hominine attacks are juvenile.
Cynthia,
Public schools and teachers where improprieties are committed are scrutinized and condemned all the time, and if guilty, should be under the microscope.
The notion that public schools and their employees are not scrutinized is a myth.
There will always be outliers where investigations and pursuits are not made due to apathy.
But as civil servants and as educators, we are more under the public eye than virtually any other public or private sector employee.
Andre Agassi is unfit to direct education, but if you are so gung ho on sending your kids (assuming you have any and that they are of school age) then please go register them in one of Agassi’s schools. . . .
Education is a public right, not the result of some privateer’s or profiteer’s charity . . . .
“Andre Agassi is unfit to direct education”
Why? Because he did not finish high school and because a staff member acted inappropriate like Ms Ravitch wrote. Is that the best argument for claiming he is unfit?
Robert Rendo: I know you have graphic skills.
I think even you would be pushed to your limits to graphically illustrate the smug arrogance, sneering contempt and dismissive jeering that charterites and privatizers—and their enablers and underlings—exhibit.
Or perhaps you might take this as a challenge?
In any case, game, set, match. Robert Rendo.
😎
Cynthia: To turn your question around, since you seem to believe Andre Agassi is fit to direct education, why is he? What qualifications does he have that makes him fit?
Sports academy and public education are not the same. If he wants to build his schools and puts “education certificate” label on his camps, he needs to hire highly experienced teachers and school masters, and follow exactly the same mandate and scrutiny public schools need to take for schooling. If he doesn’t, forget it. He should scrap and replace them to his tennis school academy. There is no way to call ‘education,’ unless he is able to meet standards
“Andre Agassi is unfit to direct education”
This one sentence says it all.
Its like me saying “Diana Ravitch” has no business talking about Agassi”
Just because you are ‘educated’ and have a college degree doesn’t mean you have the ‘knowledge’ about everything and everyone else in the world.
And just because you are a college drop out doesn’t mean you know nothing about education. It is such a pity if someone who is ‘educated’ is propagating such a view.
Forgot to mention:
Circumstances might prevent you from having formal education but kids, dream on and dream big. Just don’t stop dreaming because you are uneducated and someone like Diana Ravitch believes you are unfit to dream big as you did not have formal education.
For profit or not, Agassi has a dream and he is working towards his dream.
For people who think that all Charter schools are into education just because of ‘money’ and Andre Agassi is into education because of money, there is only one think I can say, ‘keep on dreaming as you have the right to do so even if you are do not have any ‘knowledge’ about his intentions”. I am not Diana Ravitch and so would not say that you are unfit to direct what Andre Agassi does for the rest of his life.
Nancy, if you want a tennis star who is a high school dropout to educate your child, dream on.
Nancy and Cynthia,
In case you ever need open heart surgery one day, and I hope you don’t, please make sure you attend a hospital where the teaching staff and the educational curriculum there are directed by Andre Agassi.
Sorry, but I’ll leave education to the professionals.
Agassi should direct his money toward resources, not towards policies, as should all philanthropists. Policy is for we the people and the elected officials we put into office and who represent the vast majority voice . . . .
Yes, Andre Agassi is UNFIT to direct education and education policy, UNFIT with a goiter sized “U” . . . . . .
Diane, what do you mean by ‘education”?
My dad is a high school drop out but he ‘taught’ me well.
I am more worried about my kids being taught ‘intolerance’ from so called educational enthusiasts.’
The biggest lessons you learn are taught by life and people around you and your experiences are the biggest educators.
If a high school drop out tennis star has something to offer to my kids, on education, I would do so and not just say, he is a high school drop out, what does he have to offer???
Nancy, your dad educating you as a parent is not the same thing as a sytematized, formal education . . . . Unless, of course, he home-schooled you from pre-K to 12th grade . . . .?
And this one is to Rendo,
If one of kids from Agassi schools becomes a heart surgeon, it would my ignorance not to seek medical advice from him/her just because he/she were educated under the curriculum directed by a high school drop out.
“Policy is for we the people and the elected officials we put into office and who represent the vast majority voice . . . . ” If that were the case, we would not be where we are today.
A minority opinion can turn into a majority any day…..
Robert,
I am asking you the same question that I asked Diane:
What do you mean by ‘education’?
I’m sorry Diane, but this is just ridiculous. Agassi isn’t educating children. He’s raising money and acting as an executive of an educational organization, but he’s not a day-to-day educator. His successes in running his own career and building a large fortune show that he has real abilities as a manager, and that is his role.
All over the country, people with no more education than Agassi serve effectively in similar roles on school boards and other organizations. There are different paths for building the intellectual capital one needs to participate in the education system as an adult, and for some that path doesn’t have to include formal education beyond age 16.
You should be able to better than this.
John A, you don’t get it. It does not improve education to have schools opened and created by celebrities with a constantly changing cast of teachers and principals. All for-profit. This is wrong. It is a ruse. It is very sad. What other nation is doing anything so stupid?
Agassi was helped along by Canyon Capital, which was headed by a former PUBLIC school classmate of mine, Bobby Turner. In googling Bobby, I discovered this article. Seems Canyon Capital once involved the NYS pension fund,, and currently has the Univ. of Michigan endowment as a client — apparently investing in charter schools. Ah, the tangled web gets tangledier (if there isn’t such a word, there should be). http://www.pionline.com/article/20131209/PRINT/312099956/canyon-capital-departures-get-mixed-reaction-from-investors
I do get it Diane. I am not saying Agassi is good at running schools or that his celebrity qualifies him to run a school. I’m saying that you’re making an ad hominem argument and not actually offering much substance about his performance as an an ed executive. I’m also saying that you appear to be asserting as an axiom that only people with a particular formal educational background can be involved in running schools. I agree that teachers need formal post-secondary education, but he’s not a teacher, and I don’t see at all that his role requires him to have a particular level of education. And Sampras was a way better player.
If he wants to provide education to future sports athletes, just like him in his teen, sure he can. But you cannot set that same expectation to all students who are receiving education as formal schooling. Does he want to make money? Fine. Do that in HIS SPORTS ACADEMY only. Don’t disturb students& teachers at public schools like “choice” programs or online predatory charters, period.
Robert Rendo: I just had a “game-winning shot” of an idea in this topsy-turvy discussion.
If Andre Agassi is supposedly fit to eventually run 100s of schools, then by the same token—
Shouldn’t he be consulting you about how to run tennis camps? And I bet he is seriously handicapping his game because given his qualifications in teaching and administering schools, by the same token you should be able to teach him things about drop shots and return of serve and slices and the like that he could only dream about knowing!
And I bet I could be an NBA superstar and win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the same time. Grit! Determination!
The possibilities are staggering when one is under the influence of a Rheeality Distortion Field on RheeWorld…
On Planet Reality, not so much…
😎
Like the idea Krazy.
You know who taught Agassi his tennis skills, his father and he was not a tennis player. He was a boxer but taught himself about tennis and learnt about minute nuances of the game and ‘dreamed’ so big that he almost lost his kids to the game.
Robert and Diane would have stopped Mike Agassi as they would say how dare he teach tennis when he does not have professional training!!
His father coached him when he was a child. Once Agassi decided to pursue tennis as a profession, he hired coaches, such as Brad Gilbert, who had been top players themselves.
Wrong. Agassi’s father was best known as a boxer, but he was also a very good tennis player, and worked as a teaching pro. He trained many kids, including Agassi’s older siblings, who never got anywhere near as far as Andre, but were accomplished junior/amateur players.
Are there actually people on here arguing that persons with no education qualifications what so ever, and very little formal education themselves are good choices to run schools?
Wow.
I am going to have to rethink my argument that american education is not failing.
😉
The man spent many years studying, learning and practicing tennis.
He was very successful at it.
I would expect that anyone wishing to educate others should put in at least a bit of time studying, learning and practicing education. It helps one be successful at it.
However, it is obvious why his schools will attract students. Parents and students will hope for some sort of “leg up” afforded by “knowing” a very successful, wealthy, celebrity. They may be surprised to find it does not work out that way.
Meanwhile Mr Tennis star will rake in big $.
HE HAS BEEN RUNNING SCHOOL(S) FOR THE PAST 13 YEARS!!!!!!
Cynthia, please read “Reign ofError” for a discussion of the unfortunate Agassi Charter school in Las Vegas.
Diane, I was hoping a better argument from you rather than vilify someone just because he is a high school drop out.
If you thing AA charter school is a failure, then come out with concrete evidence about the same and I will be the first one to admit on that I was wrong. Not some scandalous news paper article as your back up.
You are actually doing more disservice to public education by coming up with articles like above.
Sensationalism has become the talk of the day.
Nancy, Andre Agassi is not an educator. He is not educated. Send your child to his for-profit charter if you wish. I would send mine to his tennis camp.
Thanks Diane for the advice but hope its your child who is interested in his tennis camp (if he ever decides to run and based on his own childhood experiences, unlikely) and not you.
If my child (and not me) is interested in a particular school, be it Agassi’s or anyone else, would be more than happy to do so.
“I would expect that anyone wishing to educate others should put in at least a bit of time studying, learning and practicing education. It helps one be successful at it”
No argument about that.
I just argue with the thought that learning and studying has to be formal in a classroom setting.
Actually funny that now I recall, I am into public education and actively involved for recruiting students for higher education and one of the questions asked during the interview process is “Did the applicant ever try to pursue education outside the traditional classroom structure?” and that question was nor formulated by me but education experts like the people on this blog.
And before all of you jump on me since I used the word ‘recruiting’, I am not a recruiter, just a teacher like you all who interviews students on a regular basis.
And as much as I believe in public schools, I want the charter schools to succeed as well as it is ultimately kids who suffer if schools, public or charter for that matter fail and as a teacher, hate to see any kid fail.
Click on the last link in Diane’s post, and you will see, Nancy, why she is right to criticize this charter school. I am here in Nevada, and this school has not lived up to expectations, often doing worse than public schools running on half the money. Perhaps he means well, but he is practising on kids who deserve professionals.
Seems as if Andre Agassi has turned into quite the businessman.
Why open up tennis schools, if charter schools give him the opportunity to make more money for himself?
Wouldn’t be surprised if the public beats down his doors to get their children into his schools.
Regardless of what people publically say, it appears that most people are enamored and dazzled by wealth and financial success, regardless of how an individual achieved it. And, though they may be loathe to admit it, REALLY want that kind of success for themselves and their children.
The interest in education expressed by Agassi, Pitbull, and other celebrities has less to do with philanthropy than it does with . . . well, interest . . . of the kind charged by hedge funds and venture capitalists for financing the construction and operation of charter schools. And it has everything to do with New Market Tax Credits, a Clinton-era federal program that enables people like Agassi to double their money in just over seven years.
From the July 2011 issue of “Journal of Tax Credits”: “Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and Andre Agassi Ventures partnered on a new real estate fund to facilitate the development of more than 75 urban school sites for charter school operators. The Canyon-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund will acquire underutilized properties and transform them into school sites through renovation, retrofits or new construction. The charter schools will use the facilities at an affordable lease rate, and after the schools reach full occupancy, the operators will have the opportunity to purchase the buildings. The fund plans to help the charter school operators obtain permanent financing through the NMTC, tax-exempt bond offerings or other Community Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund programs. Anchor investors include Citigroup, Intel Capital and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The fund’s first campus, located in Philadelphia, Pa.’s Allegheny West community, is slated to open in August.”
For details about how Agassi and others (including Imagine Schools, Green Dot, Brighter Choice, and KIPP) are reaping windfall profits through the New Markets Tax Credit program, see “Albany charter cash cow: Big banks making a bundle on new construction as schools bear the cost” (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/albany-charter-cash-big-banks-making-bundle-new-construction-schools-bear-cost-article-1.448008#ixzz2HhYWOJfv) and “Cashing in on charters” (http://socialistworker.org/2011/07/06/cashing-in-on-charters).
“There’s a sucker born every minute”. David Hannum, speaking about tactics used by P.T. Barnum to entice people to attend his circus.
Sorry to say, it now seems as if EDUCATION in the U.S. has become a three ring circus as well……..
Oh, I just remembered that Ai Sugiyama, a female Japanese tennis player, was selected as a member of MEXT’s advisory panel for English language curriculum reform for Japanese public schools years ago. Yep, an athelete who doesn’t really know anything about language teaching practice(Does she speak English???) can serve as an advisory board member for substantially low level of English language education in Japan. Just like that. Oh, dear.
Oh, I just remembered that Ai Sugiyama, a former Japanese tennis player, was selected as a member of MEXT’s advisory panel for English language curriculum reform for Japanese public schools years ago. Yep, an athelete who knows nothing about language teaching practice(Wait. Does she speak English???) can serve as an advisory board member for substantially low level of English language education in Japan. Just like that. Oh, dear.
Let me see if I can make this simple and understandable. If people want to donate money to the education of our children…that is fine. Children can go on more trips and get other items to enhance their educational experience. But as for public schools and public charter schools that require the money of the taxpayers there should not be any residual profits for anyone. No profits whatsoever. If there is an excess of funds for whatever reason then those monies should be returned to the taxpayer. Returned to the taxpayer. If that was the case you’d see how fast these so called philantropists and other charitable organizations move out of the charter school arena.
The tax credits and windfall profits that were created (like Mr. Wilson mentioned above) just ensure that those with money can exploit the average American (people without millions) at will. This system has truly become one where the top 10 percent gets to rape and pillage this society with the aid and blessing of our government, because at some point they get cut in on the deal.
Americans must start to realize that they have divided us into so many factions and are attacking us from so many angles that it won’t be long until they have truly conquered and trampled over all of our basic ideals that we once held dearly in this country. Freedom truly has been abolished and democracy as it is practiced now is just a farce.
The big picture (more sooner than later) will resemble a system were the average American is just reduced to a slave. We may not be called a slave, but as Shakespeare wrote “a rose by any other name..”. And so it is with a overtaxed overly indebted average American… by any other name is yet a slave.