Archives for the month of: July, 2012
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How to Marginalize Dissent While Pretending to Listen

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
21

A reader sent in this recommended website, which explains the Delphi Technique, how it works, and how it silences dissent while pretending to elicit opinions.

Diana Senechal reminds me that in Left Back, I described how social psychologists figured out how to manufacture consensus and how to exclude dissenting voices back in the 1950s. That is when they mastered the techniques of group dynamics, put a facilitator with a predetermined agenda in charge, and directed the discussion to whatever their goal was. Read pp. 336-338 to learn how “backsliders and dissidents” were silenced and corralled into supporting the group consensus.

Categories Education Reform

This Is Unbelievable

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
60

Pennsylvania just approved the operation of four new cyber-charter schools, bringing the number of online charter schools in the state to 17.

This is literally unbelievable.

We constantly hear lectures from “reformers” about data-driven decision-making and focusing only on results.

They like to say “it’s for the children.” “Children first.” “Students first.”

The existing cyber-charters in Pennsylvania have been evaluated and found to have disastrous results. The data say they are failures.

Of 105,000 charter students in the state, 32,000 are in cyber-charters. Here is the State Education Department release about its decision.

Citing the Stanford CREDO study of cyber-charters in Pennsylvania, the Keystone State Education Coalition writes:

“In an April 2011 study (PDF), the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University reviewed the academic performance in Pennsylvania’s charter schools.  Virtual-school operators have been aggressively expanding in the state for more than a decade, making it a good place for a study; around 18,700 of the state’s 61,770 charter school students were enrolled in online schools. The results weren’t promising.

The virtual-school students started out with higher test scores than their counterparts in regular charters. But according to the study, they ended up with learning gains that were “significantly worse” than kids in traditional charters and public schools. Says CREDO research manager Devora Davis, “What we can say right now is that whatever they’re doing in Pennsylvania is definitely not working and should not be replicated.”

Further, of 12 cyber-charters, only 2 made AYP. Eight were in “corrective action status.”

Would “reformers” please spare us the empty rhetoric about “it’s for the children”?

And would they stop prattling about “data-driven decision making?”

When we see what is happening in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and other “reform” states, anyone can see that “the children” will certainly not be the beneficiaries of these decisions. The data are clear. It’s all about the profits.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, On-Line Education, Pennsylvania

Emergency Manager in Muskegon Heights Picks Charter Corporation

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
8

The emergency manager in Muskegon Heights school district in Michigan has decided to turn the public schools over to for-profit charter operator Mosaica Learning of Atlanta.

Mosaica schools in Michigan do better than the schools of Muskegon Heights, but have low performance in comparison to schools in the rest of the county. Test scores in Muskegon Heights were so low that almost anyone would have better scores.

The emergency manager said, in announcing his decision: “Mosaica will be a strong partner within the Muskegon Heights community. They have a proven business plan, an innovative curriculum that includes online learning and foreign language beginning in kindergarten, and a concrete plan for student safety that includes cameras in every classroom and hallway.”

Not everyone has such a high opinion of Mosaica. See here and here.

It’s hard to understand how a corporate charter chain expects to make a profit in a district whose schools ran a deficit.

Muskegon Heights is a small district, and now Mosaica will have a chance to show what it can do.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Michigan, Privatization

Now It Can Be Told! The Secrets to Success and Riches

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
42

Bruce Baker has distilled the qualities of successful charter schools. In this post, Baker looks at the reasons that some NYC charter schools succeed.

The reason for creating charters in the late 1980s was that they would have the freedom to try new ideas and thereby to help public schools improve.

As the charters tried new things, public schools would learn from their experience and would improve.

The charters were supposed to gain freedom from most state regulation in exchange for their willingness to be held accountable.

After twenty years of charter school experimentation, we now have a pretty solid idea of “what works.”

The same things that “work” in charter schools should also work in public schools.

We should not waste time. Let’s learn from the charters so all schools can be successful schools.

First, the best charters spend considerably more money so that they can provide additional services and tutoring. Some spend thousands more per student.

That is an important lesson. Every public school that wants to see dramatic improvement should get extra funding.

Second, the charters are free of burdensome regulation by the states and districts.

That’s an important finding. The states and districts should immediately give public schools the same regulatory relief now available to charters.

Third, the charters do not accept the same proportion of students with special needs or students who are English language learners.

Uh-oh. That’s a hard one. Public schools are required by state and federal laws to have their doors open to all students. I don’t think that public schools can follow the charter model here. If public schools didn’t take these students, where would they go?

Fourth, the charters have even more money to spend because of the small proportion of children with disabilities and English language learners; this is a budget plus. But again, I don’t think public schools can maximize their dollars by excluding the most expensive-to-educate kids. So that’s another no-go.

Fifth, the charters make their own disciplinary rules and can toss out kids who misbehave by their rules, like bringing chips to school or not looking in the eyes of the teacher, or speaking up when they are supposed to walk in silence.  But if public schools kicked out kids for minor infractions, where would they go? To another public school.

Sixth, the charters have longer school days, longer school weeks, and a longer school year. More time to teach, more time to get ready for state tests. Public schools can do that too, unless those pesky unions insist on being paid more for working longer hours.

Seventh, charters keep their costs low by  encouraging or tolerating or not minding constant turnover among the teachers. That way, the bulk of teachers are in year one or two, at the bottom of the salary scale, and they are more malleable. Senior teachers cost more, and have ideas of their own.  But public schools will have a hard time learning this lesson because senior teachers have job rights. Of course, with the current move on to eliminate seniority and tenure, even public schools will soon be dealing mainly with inexperienced and malleable teachers in their first year. Who will train the new teachers if the senior teachers have left? Well, that’a a problem we will deal with some other time. No one has time to think about that now.

But one thing seems clear: If public schools get more money; if they can be freed of regulations, if they can exclude the most challenging students, if they have longer hours, if they have constant teacher turnover to save money, if they can keep out or push out the students who don’t obey or who can’t pass the tests, then they too will get fabulous results.

Now that we have the secrets of charter success, what should we do? And what arrangements should be made for the children who are unwanted by the new schools of success? The children who don’t speak English, the children with disabilities, the children who don’t obey the rules, the children who get low scores. What should we do with them?

The charters show us how to Race to the Top. What they don’t show us how to achieve equality of educational opportunity.

Categories Alternate Route To Certification, Charter Schools, Education Reform, NYC

Common Core Standards: A Boon for Edu-Biz

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
15

Whether the Common Core standards are good or bad, one thing that is clear is that they have opened up multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs.

The textbook industry is retooling, at least adding stickers that say their products are aligned with the Common Core.

Pearson is developing a complete curriculum package in mathematics and reading, for almost every grade, assisted by the Gates Foundation. Children in some district will be able to take their lessons from Pearson products from the isearliest years right through to high school graduation.

Consultants are standing by, ready to sell products and services to school districts.

Here is one interesting list of what is available. There are many more.

What is happening now was not unexpected. Indeed, it is the intended result, it was planned for, hoped for, envisioned.

Joanne Weiss, who helped design Race to the Top and is now chief of staff to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, described the plan:

The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in curriculum development, professional development, and formative assessments. Previously, these markets operated on a state-by-state basis, and often on a district-by-district basis. But the adoption of common standards and shared assessments means that education entrepreneurs will enjoy national markets where the best products can be taken to scale.

Weiss spent many years as an edu-entrpreneur, engaged in the design, development and marketing of products for the education industry.

We don’t know yet whether Common Core standards will improve the education of America’s children. But of this we can be sure: They will be good for the education industry.

Diane

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Obama, Pearson, Race to the Top, U.S. Department of Education

LAUSD Balks at Giving Public School Space to Charters

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
2

We have reached such a low point that it is a news story if a school district resists turning its space over to charter operators.

In the past, one might have expected district leaders to fight for the students in their care, not to support privatized entities that want public space at no charge.

Surprise of surprises, the pushback now comes from Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasey and the board of LAUSD. They are opposing:

” a judge’s order to comply with a state law that requires districts to share space equally among public school students, including those in charters, saying that it would bring “catastrophic” results, lopsided class sizes, and may force busing of students.”

“But calling the order impossible, district officials have promised to fight the ruling, saying that it would require L.A. Unified to displace students from their neighborhood schools, forcing them to be bused elsewhere, and would dramatically skew class-size ratios in favor of charter students.

“Under the order, the ratio of elementary school students to class size would be 24 to 1 on the district side of the school but 15 to 1 on the charter school side, said LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. Facilities such as computer labs, parent centers and specially designated classrooms would have to be removed to create space for charter students, Deasy said.

“I want to be very, very clear, this is not possible to carry out,” Deasy told the L.A. Unified school board at its meeting last Thursday.”

The law is the law. The judge is unlikely to back down, no matter what the harm to the hundreds of thousands of LAUSD students.

Still, one is surprised to see the charter-friendly LAUSD supporting its own students.

Categories California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Los Angeles

Can TFA Save Itself from the Impending Disaster?

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
24

Gary Rubinstein told me a year or so ago that the corporate reform movement was living on borrowed time.

He believes that its ideas are so destructive and ill-conceived that it is certain to implode as failure after failure drags it down and as the public realizes that its public schools are being ruined.

In this post, he tries to figure out how Teach for America might salvage its reputation as the ship goes down. He explores his own hope that the original idea of TFA—recruiting top college graduates to teach–might survive.

He suggests that there are two different TFA legacies: One is the privatization/testing group (Rhee, John White, etc.), and the other consists of realists who have joined the education profession or found other ways to be constructive. He looks to the latter group as a saving remnant when the great ship Corporate Reform founders, as it inevitably must.

I find it hard to share Gary’s sunny optimism. I agree with him that corporate reform is a disaster and that it will collapse and die, weighted down by its failures and its inability to achieve its goals. But TFA has benefited so handsomely from the “reforms” and has produced so many of the leaders, that it is hard to see how the one good idea that launched TFA gets disassociated.

But I would like to believe. Is Gary right? Will he be the one who helped save TFA?

Categories Broad Foundation, Corporate Reformers, Teach for America TFA

More on Meaningless Meetings

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
10

In response to my post on meaningless meetings, where people break into small groups, speak up, but no one ever hears what they said or recommended, I received two similar comments.

Both said that the ultimate method of listening without hearing is the Delphi Technique. As one commenter put it:

This group manipulation is often  called “the Delphi Technique.”  Look for buzzwords like “vision,” anything with the number “2020” in the title, “stakeholders,” “consensus,” and when education is involved, a mantra such as “it’s for the children.”

My hunch is that there are many other techniques used to pretend to hear and to give “stakeholders” a chance to vent, and to provide the facade of democracy while ignoring its meaning.

The management consultant groups now designing plans to re-engineer school systems know all about these techniques. They are very smart. They went to the best universities. They make a lot of money. Why should they care what teachers think?

Categories Education Reform

Ten Years of “Reform” and Still So Much Failure

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
6

The New York Daily News has an editorial this morning complaining about an arbitrator’s decision to stop Mayor Michael Bloomberg from closing 24 schools.

As usual, the editorial lambastes the teachers’ union, which is supposedly the font of all evil in education. The editorial writer forgets that the city Department of Education agreed to enter into binding arbitration. Having lost the decision, the city and the newspaper forget the plain meaning of the word “binding.”

The crucial issue: No question is raised about why so many schools continue to “fail” after a full decade of “reform” in New York City.

How many years must it take before the failure stops? Twenty? Thirty? Forty?

The Daily News editorial writers will never hold the mayor accountable for improving the schools, over which he has had total control for ten years. He has a puppet board, which routinely approves whatever the mayor wants. Never in ten years has the board said no to any decision of his. He negotiates with no one.

They will never call him out for the charade of closing schools and opening new schools that exclude the students with the lowest scores. Those children will be shunted to other schools that will eventually be closed. And the new schools will also be in line to be closed too.

This is not reform. It is a shell game. Guess who is under the shell? Children with disabilities. Children who can’t read or speak English. Children who are homeless. Children who are failing.

Should I mention that Mort Zuckerman, the owner of the Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, served on the Broad Foundation Center for the Management of School Systems? I will mention that the Daily News has some of the best, most independent reporters and columnists of any newspaper in the city.

For some reason, the newspaper editorialists like to talk accountability but never mention that accountability starts at the top.

Categories Accountability, Bloomberg, Michael, Education Reform, NYC

Remember “Separation of Church and State”?

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
6

A blogger in Louisiana calls out State Rep. Valerie Hodges for expressing shock about the possibility that voucher funds might go to Islamic schools.

I have already done that in an earlier post and won’t do it again here.

I repost this commentary because it lists many of the Christian academies that will be getting vouchers from the state of Louisiana in September. It is a reminder that the state is sending children from schools with a low grade (a grade established by the state of Louisiana) to religious schools that have NO grade. Are they better schools than the schools the children are leaving? These are schools that teach a specific religious doctrine; many will not teach modern science or history.

These schools are free to teach whatever they want, but let’s be clear. The state of Louisiana is sending students to religious schools of unknown quality and taking the funding out of the minimum foundation budget for public schools. The state constitution says that public funds must be used to support public education. Education in religious schools is not public education.

Lest we forget, Governor Jindal’s regressive legislation was hailed by the conservative group called Chiefs for Change, which includes the state education commissioners of Rhode Island and Indiana.

We will learn in the months to come whether Louisiana has an independent judiciary.

Whenever vouchers have been put to a state referendum, they have lost. The American public does not want to cross the line that separates church and state. They want to protect both public schools and religious freedom.

Governor Jindal doesn’t understand that basic tenet of American education. He may end up destroying both in Louisiana.

Categories Accountability, Chiefs for Change, Education Reform, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers
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