BREAKING NEWS: The Myth of the New Orleans “Miracle” Exposed!

22 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

1. JohnOgozalek says:

   November 22, 2017 at 5:18 pm

   Wow!

   Reply
   • KrazyTA says:

     November 22, 2017 at 6:37 pm

     I second that!

     😎

     Reply
     • InService says:

       November 22, 2017 at 6:52 pm

       Third!

2. Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene says:

   November 22, 2017 at 5:23 pm

   Right-of-center, neoliberal, corporate education reformer Peter C. Cook played a big role in the disaster that is New Orleans. Word is that he was paid well for his role.

   Reply
3. Laura H. Chapman says:

   November 22, 2017 at 6:58 pm

   Do not say wow. The editorial staff has not seen much beyond the 12 year history of charter schools.

   They have not raised any red flags about a “US Department of Education $13 million grant to a group of New Orleans universities and non-profits to recruit, prepare, and develop nearly 900 highly-effective, culturally competent teachers from diverse backgrounds by 2020. The editorial is dated November 13, 2017.

   Begin quote:
   The project establishes a unique and innovative partnership of teacher training programs, including two local universities – Xavier University of Louisiana and Loyola University New Orleans – and four New Orleans education non-profits – Teach For America Greater New Orleans, teachNOLA, and Relay Graduate School of Education, and New Schools for New Orleans.
   …….
   The partners will work together to address teacher pipeline challenges across the city, implementing their unique teacher preparation models to meet the needs of schools with high concentrations of High-Need Students while collaborating on best practices and problem-solving. End Quote

   There is more, but the editors of the paper are being all too UNCRITICAL of what this grant means. In means that extensions of the charter industry will be placed on equal footing with two university programs in training teachers.

   It means that the TFA —the teacher temp agency— and the phony graduate school of education “Relay” will be shoving Doug Lemov tricks of the trade and discipline into schools. The grant will reward four programs known more for their marketing skill than for understanding the one thing that New Orleans seems to need most–and lost to the charter industry. Teachers whose first choice is to teach, who want to have profession status, will stay in New Orleans, and not depend on TFA and kissing kin for their preparation. The charter industry is sustained by the people who are now lauded as if they offer a solution to problems created by the charter industry.

   Not so. The grant will merely give credibility to failed staffing patterns in many schools.The grant will make Betsy DeVos feel great for keeping the well-heeled charter enthusiasts in New Orleans and using taxpayer money to let TFA be at the center of teacher training for schools with “high concentrations of High-Need Students.”

   The editorial staff seems to have been seduced by a press release and money. At minimum they have not connected the dots between the USDE grant and their detailed reporting on the failures of “reform” in New Orleans.

   http://www.theneworleanstribune.com/main/news/new-orleans-education-organizations-awarded-nearly-13-million-to-recruit-train-teachers/

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     November 22, 2017 at 7:06 pm

     How many other millions were given by US ED to New Orleans for charters and TFA?

     Not what DeVos did. What a Duncan and Bush 2 gave.

     Reply
4. Therlo says:

   November 22, 2017 at 8:53 pm

   That’s the reform way – younger, cheaper, whiter, short-term. Promote them up to Principal and Vice Principal at 25. Open up a charter and create some admin jobs; pay them well. Buy real estate and rent it back to yourself, at the taxpayer expense. Who cares if the kids don’t learn? Make them OBEDIENT and compliant. Get them ready to assume the position….when they go to jail, where the privatizers can keep the grift rolling.

   By the way, upcoming duet – Jeb and Betsy in Nashville. Ugh.

   Reply
   • ciedie aech says:

     November 23, 2017 at 1:16 pm

     VERY well explained: thank you.

     Reply
5. Chiara says:

   November 22, 2017 at 11:04 pm

   It’s difficult to wade thru all the cheerleading and find the actual results of ed reforms.

   They’re pushing portfolio systems all over the country based on this:

   “Students had significant improvements in reading and math proficiency in 5 of 14 cities.”

   5 out of 14 cities? So charters and vouchers raised scores in fewer than half of the cities that were inundated with them? Why would they expand this all over the country with with such a low success rate?

   That doesn’t count the cost/benefit either- this was a HUGE investment. They may have been able to get a improve scores in less than half of schools doing something other than privatizing them.

   http://www.excelined.org/edfly-blog/public-school-choice-works-creates-opportunity/

   Reply
6. Chiara says:

   November 22, 2017 at 11:08 pm

   5 out of 14 cities raised scores with charters and vouchers and this is the conclusion of ed reformers:

   “Public school choice is working for families across the country. While choice programs certainly face unique challenges in cities across the U.S., a recent study by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) finds that public school choice is “working well and resulting in new opportunities for families.”

   This isn’t research. It’s marketing. They announce it’s “working well” and that’s the end of any discussion or debate. Onward with more privatization!

   Reply
7. Chiara says:

   November 22, 2017 at 11:20 pm

   If one switched that Center for Reinventing Education report around and wrote it differently using the same statistics, it could read like this:

   “In 9 of 14 cities that privatized heavily, math and reading scores did not improve”

   No longer looks real successful, right? You’d wonder why they all keep promoting privatization if it were written like that.

   Reply
8. wgersen says:

   November 23, 2017 at 5:53 am

   Let’s see…In New Orleans, the privatization of all public schools has not worked… and as you’ve noted in earlier blog posts the takeover of “failing schools” by states has proven to be a failure…. and 35 states have lawsuits pending on the issue of inequitable funding. Is possible that providing more funds for the schools serving children in poverty might be the best solution to this problem? Maybe we should try “throwing money at the problem”… it might be the solution.

   Reply
9. SomeDAM Poet says:

   November 23, 2017 at 6:56 am

   “Charter Miracles”

   Walk on water
   Birth to virgin
   Charter fodder
   That’s for certain

   Reply
10. SomeDAM Poet says:

    November 23, 2017 at 7:05 am

    “The City of New Orleans” (Apologies to Steve Goodman, RIP)

    Charter in the City Of New Orleans
    Recovery District, charter Holy Grail
    Fifty-eight schools and 33 thousand students
    Superintendent; Fifty-eight principals
    All along the dollar-bound odyssey – the charter pulls out a city key
    And rolls along o’er teachers, staff, and parents
    Closing schools where public rules, and PTA’s for neighborhoods
    And the school yards of the rusted teacher mobile

    Good morning, America, how are you?
    Say, don’t you know me? I’m your charter son
    I’m the charter called the City Of New Orleans
    I’ll be gone with five-hundred thou, when the year is done

    Playing test games with the CEO’s in the charters
    Opening tests – ain’t no one watching store
    Pass the paper bag with school-assignments
    Seal the deals in backrooms ‘hind the door
    And the grads of online programs, and the grads of TFA
    Start their magic miracle charters for a steal
    Hedge-funds with their pockets deep, flocking to the charter beat
    And the rhythm of the jails they’ll never feel

    Good morning, America, how are you?
    Say, don’t you know me? I’m your charter son
    I’m the charter called the City Of New Orleans
    I’ll be gone with five-hundred thou, when the year is done

    Charter-time in the City Of New Orleans
    Closing schools is easy as can be
    Halfway done – we’ll be there by morning
    Through Louisiana darkness, rolling down to the sea
    And all the towns and people seem to fade into a charter dream
    And the students still ain’t heard the news
    The CEO sings his songs again – the local folks will please refrain
    This place got the disappearing public-school blues

    Good night, America, how are ya?
    Said, don’t you know me? I’m your charter son
    I’m the charter called the City Of New Orleans
    I’ll be gone with five-hundred thou, when the year is done

    Reply
    • Duane E Swacker says:

      November 23, 2017 at 9:03 am

      Another singer/songwriter who died to soon (of leukemia).

      “His wife Nancy, writing in the liner notes to the posthumous collection No Big Surprise, characterized him this way:

      Basically, Steve was exactly who he appeared to be: an ambitious, well-adjusted man from a loving, middle-class Jewish home in the Chicago suburbs, whose life and talent were directed by the physical pain and time constraints of a fatal disease which he kept at bay, at times, seemingly by willpower alone . . . Steve wanted to live as normal a life as possible, only he had to live it as fast as he could . . . He extracted meaning from the mundane.” (from wiki)

      One of my favorites, even if he was a Cubbies fan:

      Reply
11. AlwaysLearning says:

    November 23, 2017 at 8:05 am

    Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale sums up the pitfalls of the charter law,”the law fails to give districts the power to ensure that only high-performing charters that serve equitable populations of children are opening. And he lamented that districts waste too much time and too many resources fighting to close underperformers.”
    https://whyy.org/articles/pa-charter-school-law-worst-in-us-state-auditor-general-says/
    That IMO is the major crux of the problems with charter school laws and charter schools in most states.

    Reply
12. cary444 (@cary444) says:

    November 23, 2017 at 8:13 am

    Diane, have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING …
    and take a break, because you deserve it. You do an awesome job every day.
    I’m sure thankful for all the work you do on behalf of our great public schools!!!

    Reply
13. retired teacher says:

    November 23, 2017 at 9:12 am

    I doubt the new female African American mayor will be of much help or use to those that support public education. She ran a failing charter school. One observer noted:

    “LaToya Cantrell ran a charter school into the ground,” he said. “The real victims of her educational malpractice were the children suffering from low-quality education.”

    Reply
14. caligirl says:

    November 24, 2017 at 10:47 pm

    It was so unfair how the teachers of New Orleans could not return to their jobs because of the takeover…a natural disaster was not their fault.

    Reply
15. caligirl says:

    November 24, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    ” It is time for folk to stop acting brand new. ” – best quote ! in other words…stop the bs and lies about charters and reform.

    Reply
16. carolmalaysia says:

    November 24, 2017 at 11:20 pm

    I just saw this article. Good grief. For-profit kindergarten in China is ripping off parents for their money and abusing kids.
    ………

    A high-end Chinese kindergarten is accused of child abuse after needle marks were found on students

    Beijing authorities are investigating child-abuse allegations at a kindergarten run by a US-listed preschool education group, which operates up to 1,800 kindergartens and day-care centers across 300 cities in China (link in Chinese). It’s the second high-profile case of alleged child abuse at a Chinese school this month.

    Some parents of children who attend the Red Yellow Blue kindergarten operated by RYB Education, in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, said that they found needle marks on their children, according to state newspaper People’s Daily (link in Chinese) yesterday (Nov. 23). A total of eight children were reported to have needle marks, according tofinancial news outlet Caixin (link in Chinese). Some parents also told the publication that their children had been given unidentified pills, brown syrup, and were sometimes forced to stand still or locked inside a dark room as punishment….

    The abuse allegations concern an international class, which provides an “immersive” environment for kids to learn English, according to RYB’s website. Caixin reported that the class costs around 5,000 yuan ($758) a month—about half of the city’s average monthly salary. A public kindergarten in Beijing charges around 550 yuan ($83) per month…

    https://qz.com/1137526/a-high-end-chinese-kindergarten-nyse-ryb-is-accused-of-child-abuse-after-needle-marks-were-found-on-students/

    Reply
17. Gayle says:

    November 26, 2017 at 11:58 pm

    “Lying is easy for the diabolical.” Wow. Wow!

    Reply