Archives for the month of: September, 2012
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Understanding the Online Scandal in Maine

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
12

If you read this article about how online companies bought American education, you would not be at all shocked or surprised by the scandal in Maine. There, the state commissioner of education is following the instructions of Jeb Bush’s education advisor and implementing the ALEC model legislation to change the laws to bring in for-profit online corporations.

Corporations will make millions. Many children in Maine will get a lousy education, and the taxpayers in Maine will be ripped off.

That’s known these days as reform.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Education Reform, For-Profit, On-Line Education

For-Profit Online Charter Scandal

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
18

Maine’s State Commissioner of Education Stephen Bowen went to San Francisco to hear Jeb Bush tout the glories of for-profit online charter schools. Jeb Bush’s foundation paid for the trip. The commissioner met with Jeb’s chief education aide, Patricia Levesque, whose company lobbies for the online corporations. She promised help.

This is what the Maine Sunday Telegram found after getting access to public records of the correspondence:

Bowen was preparing an aggressive reform drive on initiatives intended to dramatically expand and deregulate online education in Maine, but he felt overwhelmed.

“I have no ‘political’ staff who I can work with to move this stuff through the process,” he emailed her from his office.

Levesque replied not to worry; her staff in Florida would be happy to suggest policies, write laws and gubernatorial decrees, and develop strategies to ensure they were implemented.

“When you suggested there might be a way for us to get some policy help, it was all I could do not to jump for joy,” Bowen wrote Levesque from his office.

“Let us help,” she responded.

So was a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.

In the months that followed, according to more than 1,000 pages of emails obtained by a public records request, the commissioner would rely on the foundation to provide him with key portions of his education agenda. These included draft laws, the content of the administration’s digital education strategy and the text ofGov. Paul LePage’s Feb. 1 executive order on digital education.

A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.

K12 Inc. of Herndon, Va., and Connections Education, the Baltimore-based subsidiary of education publishing giant Pearson, are both seeking to expand online offerings and to open full-time virtual charter schools in Maine, with taxpayers paying the tuition for the students who use the services.

Categories ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

The Reason for Public Education

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
15

A reader explains why we maintain public schools. It is not about being college and career ready; it is not about global competition. It is this:

The reason for universal, free, and compulsory education is is simply this: the job requirements of a citizen in a democratic society are far and away more demanding than the job qualifications of a serf in a feudal society.

The age of emancipation from compulsory education may vary with circumstances, but the reason for establishing a norm of education in a democratic society remains the same.  It is one of those measures that democratic societies enact in the effort to maintain themselves as democratic societies.  Failing that, a government of, by, and for the people is far more likely to perish from the earth.

And nobody wants that, now do they?

Categories US Education

Is Poverty Destiny? Paul Thomas Asks.

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
33

Paul Thomas reflects on his father’s life and his own, as he thinks about a commenter who accused him of “hostile” rhetoric.

He quotes a billionaire in Australia who suggests that anyone could be a millionaire if they tried hard enough.

Does he try hard enough? Did his father? Do teachers?

Paul has written in a less than respectful way about reformers who say “poverty is not destiny” as they create “no-excuses” schools to show that they can remold these children and raise them out of poverty.

Paul answers the question: Poverty IS destiny unless we change the facts of poverty.

Categories Poverty

Florida Gets Tough on 5-Year-Olds

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
23

In Florida, as we learn from the comment below, it is never too soon to get tough. It’s never too soon to give tests and hand out grades. Even five-year-olds need to know that someone (the State Education Department? the Legislature? Jeb Bush? ) has high expectations for them! It’s never too soon for them to learn the Great Lesson: Perform on our tests or you are marked a failure. The treadmill starts here.

Must be part of that big Pearson contract with the state.

A reader reacts to an earlier post about whether it is right to give 2-3 assessments to kindergarten children:

In Clay County FL, we give NINE assessments to the kindergarteners. The math assessment will have 25 questions on it and be given one-on-one. The assessments include reading (FAIR), Performance Matters Math and Science. Our kinders are now being given grades weekly E, V, S, N, U.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Education Industry, Florida, Pre-K

A Principal Supports Due Process

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
17

In a response appropriate for Labor Day weekend, a principal comments on a post about “the biggest lie about unions“:

As a principal who has removed several poor performing teachers in the past few years, I agree with this statement. I also agree that behind every poor teacher is a poor administrator.

I support due process, believing that it is not only a right for employees, but that it also provides me with a structure that holds me accountable as I take action. I view this as a form of protection for myself as a professional.

As accomplished as I’ve become as a principal, I am not immune from mistakes and misjudgments. With someone’s career on the line, I appreciate having a process and a partnership with our union that ensures that we do what’s right not only for children, but employees as well.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Principals, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching, Unions

Wisconsin Districts Drop For-Profit eVendors

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
5

This is good news. 

Some of the school districts in Wisconsin are canceling their contracts with for-profit vendors of online schooling.

Last year, four out of the state’s five biggest online schools were run by for-profit corporations.

This year, the number is down to two, because school officials concluded the vendors had a conflict of interest: Their first obligation is to their shareholders, not the students.

The districts will run the virtual schools without the for-profit corporations.

Categories For-Profit, On-Line Education, Wisconsin

A Superintendent in Pennsylvania Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
1

To the honor roll of superintendents who stand up for public education and their students and communities, I add the name of Joe Bruni, superintendent of the William Penn School District in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.

He was nominated by Charlotte Hummel, who was president of the local school board.

I know Charlotte from our email contacts. She wrote a terrific piece for Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet about her district’s efforts to shield the schools and children from unwise “reforms.”

Charlotte writes:

Your next super hero superintendent should be Joe Bruni of the William Penn School District in Lansdowne, Delaware County, PA. He attended the SOS rally, walked the walk and stood in the blistering sun. He tells our faculty each year about the DeVoss and Koch connections and implores people to return any school related or other purchases back to Walmart and to NEVER try to sell him any Amway! You should interview him. By the way, most of the kids in our school district (98% minority; 85% poverty) know this superintendent on sight and by name. He is the kids’ hero.

If you want to nominate a superintendent or principal or school board member, send in supporting evidence, preferably something that has been printed and has a link.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Honor Roll

Another Brave Louisiana State School Board Member

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
4

After I wrote a post praising Lotte Beebe, an elected member of the state school board, I received an email from an experienced educator in Louisiana. She nominated another state school board member who has stood up to the Jindal bulldozer: Carolyn Hill. Please take the time to encourage these two fearless women with your thanks.

Lottie Beebe has been a Godsend to those of us fighting for the survival of public education in Louisiana.  I have to bring your attention also to a more recent heroine – CAROLYN HILL.
Carolyn ran for her seat on BESE last year with the financial and political support of reformers.  She drank the Kool-aid and for her first few months on the board supported the 10 reformers on the 11 member board.   Evidently her exposure to the realities of reform transformed her thinking when she attended the National School Boards Association conference with Lottie.  For the last few months she has been fearless, untimidated, well spoken, and fully armed with research supporter of our public schools.   She is a beacon of hope for those of us who are trying to educate the masses about the devastation brought by reform.  She and Lottie make a powerful team. 
I hope Carolyn and Lottie will receive an outpouring of support from your readers nationally that will empower them to continue in spite of the intimidation and attacks they are receiving.  Carolyn can be reached at carolyn.hill2@la.gov and Lottie can be reached at lottie.beebe@la.gov.  
Thanks –  Lee Barrios
Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll, Louisiana

Wisconsin Parent Needs Your Help

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
56

A parent in Wisconsin wrote to say that the new “reform” law in his state requires that kindergarten children be assessed 2-3 times a year. He wants to opt out his child. He contacted the Wisconsin Reading Coalition to ask for their advice, and this was the response he received. He wants to know what others, perhaps some who are experts in early childhood education, think about this issue:

Wisconsin Reading Coalition

The kindergarten screening is like a well-baby check: looking for pre-reading predictors of eventual reading failure like poor phonemic awareness. It gives schools an opportunity to intervene early and prevent the academic, personal, and social fallout from poor reading. Poor reading, of course, affects the individual child, but also holds back the entire class. The assessment that was chosen by DPI (we would have preferred Predictive Assessment of Reading, as it also checks for rapid naming and vocabulary) is PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), developed in Virginia. PALS is very short and low-key, delivered by the classroom teacher, and similar to many kindergarten classroom activities. You can see a video of the assessment being given at https://pals.virginia.edu/tools-k.html
Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Education Reform, Testing, Wisconsin
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