A reader sends the following sad story of a phony “turnaround”:
“In Boston, the Gavin Middle School was “transformed” into the in-district charter school Unlocking Potential (UP Academy) beginning SY 2011-2012. It was part of a package deal in which several schools were closed and morphed into something else. The school department’s first presentation on the takeover included these statements:
•. All students guaranteed a seat at UP; they may also choose from available seats at other schools
• All Gavin students in special education and SEI (Sheltered English Immersion) programs will receive high-quality, appropriate services at UP Academy
• [UP will] Offer individualized consultation for families of students with disabilities
The Gavin had for many years been home to a program for multi-handicapped students, some of our most medically fragile and compromised kids. They were not going to ace state MCAS tests or any other standardized exams.
When the deal had been made and UP’s CEO came to visit, it turned out that any enrolled student who wanted to remain at their school would have to fill out an application, which is not a normal procedure in BPS. Next, it turned out that UP had made recruitment phone calls to select students across the city who were already enrolled in Gifted and Talented classes. The only entity that had access to that contact information would have been the School Department. And finally, UP balked at accepting the multi-handicapped kids.
Our inimitable EduShyster tells the tale:
Now a former employee of UP Academy has contacted EduShyster to express concern about the number of students that the school lost during the past year. The writer estimates that 25% of the students who began the year at UP Academy, which took over the former Gavin Middle School, were gone by the end of the year.
“If almost a quarter of your students are leaving within the year, I think that’s a pretty serious problem. It certainly doesn’t bode well for long-term student retention. FYI: The administration claims that the vast majority of students who left at the beginning of the school year left because of “transportation issues.” If the school really did lose that many students–and the “worst” ones at that–then any plan to open a second school in Boston should include a section on how the administration plans to stop that from happening the second time around.”
And there’s more (you can’t make this stuff up, folks!):
http://edushyster.com/?p=1159
http://edushyster.com/?p=1727
And the MH program? Well, the kids got to physically stay at the Gavin building, but they are not considered UP students – their scores are attached to another, traditional, BPS school.
How has UP been judged? They’ve just been given another elementary school, the Holland, to “turnaround”.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Transportation issues!!!!! Is that the new rheeformy reason for the forcing out of students who will lower our test scores? I guess since people were onto the “counseling out” scam so the name had to change. This is one of the saddest stories I have heard.
Political rhetoric, public myth and corporate greed are dismantling dedicated public education in Boston.
If this information is accurate, another terribly harmful “education reform” scheme that is doing great harm to the many for the benefit of a very few.
Note just one telling absurdity: “And the MH program? Well, the kids got to physically stay at the Gavin building, but they are not considered UP students – their scores are attached to another, traditional, BPS school.”
Kind of like VAM. The majority of educators, i.e., those that teach non-tested subjects, are judged [literally, with their futures on the line] on the basis of what someone else supposedly did or didn’t do. In this case, think of the gratuitous black eye to the BPS school that has the “gift” of the very low test scores shoved down their throats.
A travesty.
😎
And we have people who post here that honestly do not see that the charter schools discussed are not Montessori or Waldorf schools. They are all bent out if shape that it has been unclear …for two years!!!!
There are countless posts about startup charter schools, about money siphoned from public schools, and they don’t differentiate!
I don’t know if all M or W schools are wonderfully run or anything o the sort, but they aren’t the new startups that have been pushed by Rhee and friends.
What I want to know is how does this qualify as a “turnaround”? They haven’t changed the school performance, they have changed the students. They have a 20% student turnover rate. They recruited good test takers – Boston students are admitted to gifted and talented programs based on a standardized test score. They dropped the SPED kids who wouldn’t test well. They counsel out kids who have “discipline” issues with a suspension rate of 38% of students for at least one day. A staff member actually drove a student – still in the school uniform – and deposited her at a nearby REGULAR, PUBLIC school!
Because this is called a “turnaround”, a minimum of 50% of teachers had to go. Union members were allowed to apply, but few chose to do so, as they would forfeit many job protections, including number of hours worked.
But the now-retired mayor of Boston’s former chief of staff sits on UP Academy’s board and UP gets a 15% commission as an EMO for this school and the other two it’s been selected – without a bid – to run, er, that is, to “turnaround”.
Wow, I thought the Guilded Age had ended. It appears to be alive and well in Boston. The mayor and his right hand man are crooks and should go to jail.
Second verse, same as the first. Same old, same old. When will the media ever learn?