Paul Tractenberg, a distinguished law professor at Rutgers University, challenges the idea that all-charter districts based on the New Orleans model are a magic bullet for Newark, Camden, and other low-performing districts in New Jersey. He notes that for the past four years, we have been bombarded with propaganda films like “Waiting for Superman” and “Won’t Back Down,” intended to convince us of the superiority of privatized charter schools over traditional public schools.
But, Tractenberg notes, the evidence is missing. Contrary to media hype, the Recovery School District in New Orleans is one of the lowest-performing districts in the state. No miracle there.
He asks questions that the propagandists for an all-charter district can’t answer:
“Do we really believe that the education of our most vulnerable students will be enhanced by constant churning of their schools and teachers? Do we really believe that we will improve education by replacing experienced and credentialed teachers with bright young college graduates — B.A. generalists as we used to call them in the early days of the Peace Corps — who are trained for six weeks before they are placed in the nation’s most difficult classrooms for their two-year commitments? Do we really believe that, despite growing evidence to the contrary, charter schools will begin to fully serve the needs of special education and LEP students? Do we really believe that balkanizing our already undersized New Jersey school districts to the charter-school level, where each charter school is technically an independent school district, will satisfy our state constitutional mandate of an “efficient system of free public schools”?
I have just finished reading Kristen Buras’ book about New Orleans. I will review it soon on the blog. It is the counter narrative to the reformer boosterism about New Orleans, “Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space.” It tells the story of the past decade from the perspective of black students, parents, teachers, and communities. It is a story of dispossession, of white supremacy, of community destruction. The publisher put a crazy price on the book, but I hear there will soon be a reasonably priced softcover. Buras shows that the destruction of public education in New Orleans is no model for other cities.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good to see a lawyer debunking the PR.
Yeah, I took a look at buying it, but even the Kindle price is almost $50.
I’m grateful for the national all-charter promotion. It’s more honest than selling this as “improving public schools”. If the plan is to replace public schools rather than “improving” them, voters should at the very least be told that. That way we can have a real debate and then a referendum on politicians who are selling this. Obviously, too, if one supports an existing public school one would probably not hire a leader who had a goal of replacing that public school. Public schools probably aren’t going to fare very well if one hires a public school leader who doesn’t see any value in their continued existence. A manager would have to value something going in to “improve” it. That’s a precondition.
One can’t make a good hiring decision unless one knows the candidate’s objectives. Consent is only “consent” when it’s informed.
If New Orleans is the national model of ed reform, and it certainly seems to be given the near-blanket media coverage, voters should know that going in.
I’m fascinated by the public school story in Chicago, because it raises a question for me.
So assuming that the two studies are correct, and the public schools in Chicago outscored the charter schools (I don’t know if it’s true, but say it is) wouldn’t ed reformers in Chicago want to trumpet that? It’s a success, if your measure is test scores, and their measure is test scores.
If they’re truly “agnostics” why wouldn’t they promote THIS success the same way they promote charter school successes? They say they’re working for “great” schools, so it shouldn’t matter a bit if those better-scoring schools are publicly-owned and run or privately-owned and run, right? The mayor should be holding press conferences surrounded by Chicago teachers union teachers and public school principals.! There should be a cover story in the NYTimes magazine! 🙂
Omissions in coverage and promotion can be as revealing as affirmative statements, I think.
http://www.suntimes.com/29536936-761/cps-outpaces-charter-schools-in-improvements-especially-in-reading.html#.VAxmQGRdVH1
On omissions, here’s one. New Orleans isn’t the only all-charter district or city. Muskegon Heights, Michigan went all charter when their public schools were defunded and then dissolved and bid out to Mosaica, which is a national management company.
That story is a little different.
http://michiganradio.org/term/muskegon-heights-school-district
Don’t forget that the Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the New Orleans system on behalf of special education students. This is what happens when you get rid of a way for employees to speak against power. They don’t advocate for the most marginalized students. I’m not happy with everything teachers unions do, but here’s an example of why it is important to have teachers be able to speak up. Take away their voice, then you take away their advocacy. Links below.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/students-with-disabilities-encounter-discrimination-in-new-orleans-schools
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-complaint-children-with-disabilities-face-discrimination-in-new-orleans-scho-5
Quote from the article:
“Public education in post-Katrina New Orleans held the promise of providing superior educational opportunities to New Orleans’ children. Unfortunately, that promise is not equally available to all students. Despite the fact that federal law requires publicly funded schools to educate students who may have special needs, many New Orleans schools are closing their doors to these students. The results are perverse: Students with the greatest needs are denied the rich educational opportunities that school reform was intended to provide.”
It would seem that this book was priced not to sell. If the Kindle e-book is selling for almost $50, how much can we expect they will ask for the paperback when the hardcover is going for $125.
I imagine we will probably see a bargain price of $75 for the paperback.
I think this is the time when we might want to hint to a book pirate to borrow this book and spread it far and wide. I understand that what the pirates do is get hold of a copy of the hardcover or paperback, cut the spine off and then run the pages through a scanner to create a pdf, and then they publish on the Internet for anyone who wants to download and read it for free.
I wonder if there are any dedicated pirates reading this comment. Maybe the author or publisher will read this comment and get the hint to lower the price so it is competitive.
I know this happens, because it happened to my first novel that was the number one most pirated book back in 2008. I didn’t know this had happened until the day I was shopping at Fry’s and the clerk I asked for help recognized my name and told me that my book was being downloaded from a pirating site in the tens of thousands of copies and had hit the #1 pirated best non-seller list for the year.
I’m a big fan of Tractenberg’s past pieces for NJ Spotlight, where he recognized the role of residential and school hypersegregation in NJ, conditions that long predate “reform” and charter schools, and called for reforming the state’s home rule laws and consolidating its 603 school districts into larger bodies. But he realistically acknowledged that these would be enormously unpopular changes that aren’t likely to happen in the foreseeable future. In this particular piece I think he has overlooked how bad things have gotten in the state’s hypersegregated districts, and how difficult it is to make the argument that they have been starved of financial resources.
Take Camden, e.g., the most recent district to be taken over by the state. For years it has spent much more per student than the already sky-high NJ state average. Before the takeover, teacher absentee rates were as high as 40% on some days. The district’s superintendents and leadership were inept, corrupt, and frequently absent. In 2012, only 3 out of 882 graduating seniors–graduating, mind you–scored a 1550/2400 or above on the SAT, the benchmark for college readiness and a 65% chance of obtaining a bachelor’s within 6 years. I think it is reasonable to question wonder whether the only thing lacking for the district model that produced these results is simply more money.
Teaching in schools with disproportionate numbers of at-risk kids is incredibly complex, challenging, and energy-sapping work. Insisting that the only people who ought to do this work are those willing to do it for more than 25 or 30 years might be part of the problem, not the solution. Yet again I’ll point out that the elite private schools are more than happy to demand a heavy workload from and offer very low pay to young teachers who have only a BA, no formal training in education, and no interest in making teaching their lifelong career.
Funny thing about Camden: a couple of years ago, its legendarily ineffective city police force was disbanded and replaced by a non-unionized county force (which has since unionized). The city force had an *average* absentee rate of 30%; at the same time the city had one of the highest crime rates in the US, the head of the police union was calling for the department to shift patrolmen, who were given a healthy 4-10% pay bump, to administrative duty to prevent layoffs. There were lawsuits and the usual cries about union busting. Two years later, there is finally some good news coming out of Camden: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/nyregion/camden-turns-around-with-new-police-force.html.
A little non-conventional wisdom, in the Washington Post, no less!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/08/08/how-will-charter-schools-deal-with-their-corruption-scandals/
Hi. It’s Kristen Buras, the author of Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space, the book mentioned by Diane that chronicles the past decade of education reform in New Orleans. Please know that I am equally distressed over the book’s price and in the process of speaking with the publisher about quickly releasing an affordable softcover version. I will ask Diane to post notice when the softcover comes out. It is essential to get the word out that what has transpired in New Orleans is criminal.
Hi. It’s Kristen Buras, author of Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space, the book mentioned by Diane that chronicles the past decade of education reform in New Orleans. Please know that I am equally distressed over the book’s price and in the process of speaking with the publisher about quickly releasing an affordable softcover version. I will ask Diane to post notice when the softcover comes out. It is essential to get word out that what has transpired in New Orleans is criminal.
Thank you! I am definitely wanting to read it, but the price is a bit steep, and the topic is not something the Seattle Public Library is likely to purchase. I’ll keep watching for the paperback version!