Jeannie Kaplan, a former member of the Denver Board of Education, has warned for years that corporate reform was not working. But reformers pour big bucks into every school board race, and they totally dominate the board.
The central promise of the reformers was that they would reduce the achievement gap among different groups. As Kaplan shows, despite their control of the schools for ten years, the achievement gaps have increased. In fact, a new study by the reformy University of Washington’s Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) finds that Denver has the largest gaps of any urban district!
CRPE’s study “cites Denver as the district with the largest achievement gap in reading and math based on socioeconomics out of ALL OF THE 50 URBAN DISTRICTS STUDIED for the past three years. That’s right. Denver Public Schools is dead last in closing the gap between children living in poverty and those not. Even the “reform” funded, “reform” supporting online newspaper, Chalkbeat Colorado, had a difficult time putting a positive spin on these findings….”
“The CRPE report provides information that is extremely important for public education nationally. It is even more important to Denver voters at this time because there is a school board election rapidly approaching (All mail in ballot election. You must vote by 7 p.m., November 3, 2015. Ballots go out mid-October), and three candidates are strongly supporting continuing the direction this District is going. The current Board president and at-large candidate Allegra “Happy” Haynes, touted her work for the past four years, and cited the DPS strategic plan, Denver Plan 2020, with its focus on reducing the gap, as a reason to re-elect her. In a debate October 5, 2015 she said, “I believe this is the progress we’ve made under my leadership and that of my colleagues.” This gap has increased in all three academic areas for the past ten years of “reform” and this progress has landed this District at the very bottom of the heap regarding one of the five tenets of the Denver Plan 2020 – the newly named Opportunity Gap. Call it what you will – opportunity or achievement – the reality is the gap has increased between economic (Free and Reduced Lunch and paying students) and ethnic groups (white students and students of color). After ten years of focusing on reducing this, the exact opposite has occurred. Isn’t it time for a change? Robert Speth, parent not politician is challenging Ms. Haynes for this at-large position….
“Now, we pretty much know the past ten years have been a failure in almost all aspects of educating our children and respecting out communities’ wishes. At the same time we pretty much know individualized attention, smaller classes, an enriched curriculum, more professional educators, attention to the non-educational needs of our children, particularly those who live in poverty and those who speak English as a second language, can produce well educated students. Just ask the guys in charge why their parents sent them to private school.”
So pay attention to the school board election in Denver. Is it time for more failure or time for a change?
Hmm, the more you increase competition, the more the gap widens. Better resourced kids can compete better, who would have guessed.
TC, you’re right. I’d be rich if I had nickel for every time someone pronounced, with great authority and conviction, “competition makes everything better”. People have piled billions of dollars on this false foundation.
Yet again. Don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is already made up.
[No matter the consequences. My philosophy is the only thing that matters. The rest of you are know nothings.]
Pay attention to who is funding the candidates in the election. The Broads and Waltons have poured big bucks into the Louisiana elections for school boards. See https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/broad-and-walton-contribute-a-combined-650000-to-upcoming-louisiana-bese-election/
Isn’t CRPE pronounced “crapy”?
Crap and Creep. As in creepy.
CRPE produces only CRAP
Unfortunately our legislature and the ed deform community here relies on them for all their talking points.
Failure is the new success
It certainly was for John King.
I’m surprised by that because I listened to part of the US Senate debate on public schools and Denver was presented as a huge success.
DPS Superintendent Boasberg further demonstrated Colorado’s leadership and commitment to progressive education when he was invited to testify, commenting, “One key to our progress is our refusal to be imprisoned by the ideologically polarizing debates and false conflicts that we often see around us. We focus on what works for kids.”
So is it true or not true that Denver is a huge ed reform success that the rest of the country should be following?
http://dfer.org/dfer-co-statement-on-todays-u-s-senate-hearing-on-reforming-esea/
No, it is not a huge success. DPS misrepresents what is going on in the district to make it sound like a success. DPS has a very high rate of turnover because of the so-called reforms, and a very high rate of turn over of principals. The reforms instituted by Michael Bennet and continued by Tom Boasberg have widened the achievement gaps, turned more and more schools into charters , and narrowed the curriculum. Nobody with children in DPS would call it a success.
No, Chiara…it’s all about image.
US Senator Bennet and Tom Boasberg went to school together as youngins out east… Bennet put a lot of reforms in place, and Boasberg has kept them going since the change in DPS Superintendent. It’s no coincidence Boasberg makes it to Washington to visit.
Hurray! Someone finally did something to protect students from predatory for-profits:
“The Department of Defense on Thursday placed the University of Phoenix system on probation, barring the for-profit school giant from recruiting on military bases and preventing troops from using federal money for classes.”
Arne Duncan was promoting the University of Phoenix less than 6 months ago.
Why doesn’t the US Department of Education fulfill their regulatory duties? Is that an optional part of their job, or what?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/university-of-phoenix-barred-from-military-bases-1444369975
CRPE is funded by Gates Fndtn, Carnegie Corp, Arnold Fndtn, Dell Fndtn, Walton Fndtn and the USDOE.
Robin Lake is CRPE’s Director and writes the Foreword to the Urban Districts Report October 2015.
“She is internationally recognized for her research and analysis of U.S. public school system reforms, including charter schools and charter management organizations; innovation and scale; portfolio school districts; school turnaround efforts; and performance-based accountability systems.
She is the editor of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs (CRPE, 2010) and editor of the annual report, Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She co-authored, with Paul Hill (who was 17 years with the Rand Corporation), Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education (Brookings 2002).
She has advised on charter school implementation in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Lake serves as a board member or advisor to various organizations, including the Journal of School Choice, the National Center on Special Education in Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the National Charter School Resource Center.”
Which is why this report is so damning. Funded by, written by, researched by the reform world. Again, this Center ranked DPS third on the nation for adopting the portfolio model. And for it to tell the truth about reform is quite amazing to me.
Plus, I thought Gates spent some money in Denver to promote some ideas. Looks like they are putting distance between themselves and those ideas. Somewhat similar to their departure from Hillsborough County Florida.
This isn’t working, we’re outta here.
Good for the “I told you so” crowd.
http://eagnews.org/teach-for-america-hires-illegal-immigrant-teachers/
and
http://www.teaparty.org/teach-america-hires-illegal-alien-teachers-92959/
and
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/04/14/3425830/denver-school-district-daca-teachers/
Nothing against immigrants, illegal, legal, or otherwise, but….if Wendy could dig up cadavers to teach, and pay them zero, she’d do that too.
Cross-posted at ,wit links to Alan singer’s piece on Charter schools.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Denver-Reformers-Fail-But-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Betrayal_Corporate_Education_FAILURE-151010-305.html#comment566621
My comment begins If you follow my commentary and links about REFORM, and about charter schools, you are discovering the enormous BETRAYAL that is the experience of the American public, which TRUSTS, those who run the show to do it well.
We often hear the words corruption and fraud, but the essence of these concepts is BETRAYAL OF TRUST.
This story is just one of the many BETRAYALS of the public trust, which I report here. Below are some more links to posts that show the devastation caused when our trust is betrayed.
Alan Singer reviews some of the many charter school scandals.. See the betrayal for yourself!