Archives for the month of: November, 2012
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A Chinese Educator Shares His Wisdom about the Goals of Education

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
3

Yong Zhao is an amazing educator who knows why our current obsession with testing is bad for American society. He spoke recently in Michigan, where he explained why we should focus on creativity and innovation, not test scores. He also explained why we should not be awed by Shanghai’s high test scores, because the Chinese educators are not.

This article in the New York Times may be related: well-educated professionals are fleeing China to live where there is greater freedom, greater opportunity, and a more stable future.

Aiming for higher and higher test scores is a narrow and stupid goal. What we should concern ourselves with is sustaining and building a better society, where innovation is nurtured and where young people see hope for a better future.

Categories Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), International, Testing

Indiana’s New School Report Cards Get an F

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
14

Two recent analyses show how convoluted and confusing Indiana’s school report cards are.

Matthew DiCarlo has been reviewing state grading systems and concludes that the one concocted in Indiana is the “probably the most rudimentary scoring system” he has seen. Like other school report cards, the Indiana marking system gives low grades to high-poverty schools and high-grades to low-poverty schools.

DiCarlo doesn’t say this but I will. Report cards weighted heavily by test scores, like this one, set up schools to fail if they enroll poor kids and make them prime candidates for closure and privatization.

If you want to see the full measure State Superintendent Tony Bennett’s wacky and punitive scheme, read this letter by Chris Himsel, superintendent of the Northwest Allen County Schools in Indiana. Himsel tries his best to explain why the A-F grades are confusing and incoherent. He ends up admitting that no one can really understand them. They make no sense.

The A-F report cards only make sense if you recognize that they are intended to demoralize educators and set the table for the privatizers that Tony Bennett represents.

Categories Accountability, Indiana

In New Orleans, Students Lead the Way

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
15

Several student groups convened an open forum for candidates running for the local school board.
This gave students an opportunity to question candidates about where they stand on issues that affect students.

Only one candidate did not appear: Sarah Usdin, who confirmed that she would show but did not. Usdin is the ex-TFA executive director of New Schools for New Orleans. She has received more than $110,000 from generous out-of-state donors like Joel Klein, who sells technology for Rupert Murdoch, and assorted Wall Street hedge fund managers who are devoted to charters.

Key points that emerged from the forum:

-Unanimous opposition expressed by candidates regarding the RSD’s method for closing and chartering schools

-All candidates said they believe the fast-track teacher certification programs are insufficient.

-Unanimous opposition from candidates to New Orleans becoming the first all-charter city.

-Unanimous support for comprehensive sex education

-Unanimous support to extracurricular busses so students can participate in after school programs

This is the students’ account of the meeting they organized:

Press Release
For Release on November 1st, 2012
Contact: Jacob Cohen (jacobcohen@vayla-no.org)

Students Grill Orleans Parish School Board Candidates in
First-Ever Student-led Forum

Candidates express strong support for slate of student issues and opposition to fully chartering New Orleans public schools

At 5:30 pm on October 30th, eleven Orleans Parish School Board candidates put themselves in the hot seat Tuesday evening, sitting before a panel of students. Ten students from schools around the city questioned the candidates on issues ranging from bus transportation to school closings. In “lightning rounds,” the youth asked yes or no questions and had the candidates raise a card indicating their response. Several surprise answers came from this format, including broad condemnation of the proposition that New Orleans should become the first city in the United States in which all schools are chartered.

The forum appears to have been the best attended candidate event in this election cycle, with roughly 150 people packing the main hall at the Ashe’ Cultural Arts Center.

One high school student on the panel described his role as the designated interpreter for family members, revealing a serious lack of services for Limited English Proficient households.

Other issues that students and audience members raised include the need for comprehensive sex education; a higher ratio of guidance counselors to students, and the need for certified teachers and ongoing professional development services.

One sore point that students raised also concerned the way that schools have been closed. Bryan Kelso, a sophomore at Reed High School, told the candidates, “it’s a struggle going to a school that may not be there next year or even next semester,” explaining that his school had been labeled a “failure.” In the lightening round that followed, all of the candidates unanimously said they did not support the RSD or BESE’s method for addressing struggling schools through closure and takeover.

Notwithstanding the support expressed by the candidates on nearly all of the issues they raised, students attending the forum questioned the role the Orleans Parish School Board will play in the future. On a handful of the issues, candidates admitted that the board’s power will be limited until Act 35 is overturned. Students also questioned the power that this future board will have in a city dominated by private charter organizations.

Forum organizers also recognize some of the contradictions between the answers candidates gave at the youth-led event and those given at other, adult forums.

Here is the list of questions for the lightening rounds:

TEACHERS: Do you believe that fast track teacher certification programs are providing schools with enough experienced teachers?

[Every candidate said no.]

TRANSPORTATION I: Are you willing to help the school system provide busses for extracurricular activities?

[Every candidate said yes.]

TRANSPORTATION II: Do you believe that every child should have safe, reliable, free transportation options to and from school?

[Every candidate said yes]

DISCIPLINE: Will you support alternatives to zero tolerance school discipline policies and out-of-school suspensions?

[Every candidate said yes but one, who abstained]

SCHOOL CLOSURES: In general, do you support the Recovery School District and BESE’s process for dealing with schools, including closing schools?

[Every candidate said no.]

COUNSELORS: Do you believe, per the American College Counselor Association’s guidelines, that all Orleans Parish schools should have at least one college or guidance counselor for ever 250 students?

[Every candidate said yes.]

SHAMING STUDENTS: Will you support the posting of individual students’ standardized test scores in school hallways and classrooms?

[Every candidate said no.]

LANGUAGE ACCESS: Will you ensure that families have interpretation and translation services at all direct-run and charter schools?

[every candidate said yes or abstained.]

CHARTERS: Should New Orleans become the first district in the country to have 100% of their schools be charter schools.

[Note: no candidate said yes.]

SEX ED: If in compliance with state and BESE board laws, do you support comprehensive sex education in New Orleans public schools?

[Every candidate voted yes, except for two marked “not present”]

A video highlight reel can be accessed at: http://youtu.be/MUSabzsg5ls

Photographs from the event can be accessed at: http://my.slideroll.com/galleries/members/jacobcohen/gallery/my-gallery/?g=by4jfwgw

Photo reel can be embedded on your site by copying:

A transcription of the event and uncut video can be made available upon request

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, New Orleans, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

Big Money Floods School Board Races in California

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
6

This is becoming an increasingly familiar–and alarming –story. Charter advocates are pouring large amounts of money–more than $200,000–into local school board races, in districts where few are residents. They are targeting candidates who dare to question the expansion of charters.

In Santa Clara County, incumbent Anna Song is under attack by the charter lobby, which is throwing large sums into a campaign to defeat her.

The article in the Mercury News says:

The most aggressive campaign appears to be aimed at Anna Song, who is running for her fourth term on the county Board of Education.
The Santa Clara County Schools Political Action Committee has raised nearly $200,000 from Jan. 1 through Oct. 20, and financed auto-dial calls plus four mailers slamming Song and three supporting her challenger, trustee David Neighbors.
“It’s an outrageous amount of money to take out one school board member,” said Song, who’s running for a seat that represents areas served by the Santa Clara, Milpitas and the Berryessa school districts.
Neighbors, who has benefited from $76,000 worth of PAC mailers and auto-calls for his candidacy and against Song, said about the PAC, “I don’t know much about it.”
Created at the suggestion of the California Charter Schools Association, the PAC is run by Santa Clara County political consultants Jay Rosenthal and Jude Barry.
Through Oct. 20, Neighbors raised $23,539.

The articles goes on to note that this PAC spending dwarfs the usual spending on local school board races:

The PAC is also sending mailers to re-elect Grace Mah, who’s running for the county school board to represent areas within the Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos and Sunnyvale school districts. Her opponent, Dave Cortright, is an outspoken opponent of Bullis Charter School in Los Altos.
The PAC dwarfs spending in county school board elections, where serious candidates typically have spent closer to $30,000. “What they’re doing could be very significant,” said Terry Christensen, professor emeritus at San Jose State and a specialist in state and local politics. Because so little is typically spent in a county school board race he said, “it wouldn’t take much to have an influence.”
Among the big donations to the PACs are $75,000 from the California Charter Schools Association Advocates; $50,000 from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings; $50,000 from Gap heir John J. Fisher; $40,000 from Emerson Collective, the nonprofit run by Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs; and $10,000 from Rocketship charter schools board member Timothy Ranzetta.

Song had the audacity to vote against opening 20 Rocketship charters in her district, which would drain students and funding from the public schools. This is Rocketship’s answer: go along or get out of the way.

Cortright, who has raised $1,000, dared to oppose the Bullis charter school in Los Altos, which is known as the publicly funded private school for the children of the super-rich.

Categories California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Privatization

The Strange Disappearance of “Won’t Back Down”

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
28

I decided that I had to see “Won’t Back Down.”

I had read so many reviews that I felt I knew every line.

But I still wanted to see it.

Morbid curiosity.

But it is not showing anywhere in the New York City metropolitan area.

The producer of the movies owns a 12-plex only a few blocks from my home, and it is not showing there.

It was released only a month ago (September 28), and it has disappeared.

Where did it go?

I checked the website that tracks box-office receipts. It is being shown nationwide in only 65 theaters.

It took in a little more than $14,212 nationwide last weekend, an average of $219 per theater.

I guess I will have to wait and see the DVD when it comes out.

The lesson here is that parent activists got out early, created the narrative, and let the world know that it was a propaganda film for the charter industry, sponsored by a rightwing billionaire movie mogul who wants to push privatization.

The unions didn’t give this film a bad name.

Parents did.

Specifically, credit goes to Parents Across America, whose members in California put out a fact sheet and whose members in North Carolina demonstrated at the door when it was shown at the Democratic National Convention.

Despite the heavy promotion of the film by CBS and NBC, by Michelle Rhee and Education Nation and Murdoch publications, parents got out the word about its rightwing political message.

You see, our voices and our actions do make a difference.

Never give up hope. Speak up. Don’t back down.

Categories Parent trigger

America’s Largest Charter Chain Is…?

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
25

No, it is not KIPP. It is the Gulen charters, a group of nearly 150 charters located in many states and loosely affiliated or “inspired by” a reclusive Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Mr. Gulen lives in seclusion in the Poconos but leads a major political movement in Turkey.

The Gulen charters often specialize in math and science. They have a board of directors composed of Turkish men. Some though not all of their teachers are Turkish. They have names like Harmony, Magnolia, Horizon, and Sonoran. Check here for a full list.

To find out more about the Gulen schools, check this website.

To learn about the Gulen movement, read this.

To read about Gulen schools in Texas and lucrative deals for Turkish construction firms, read here

To read about Gulen schools that were audited in Georgia, read here

To read about a Gulen school and its treatment of autistic students in Minneapolis, read here..

Categories Charter Schools, Georgia, Minnesota, Privatization, Special Education, Testing

Ohio Legislature Finds New Way to Meddle in Education

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
16

Just when you think that state legislatures have run out of bad ideas, some state takes teacher abuse to the next level.

The Ohio Legislature wants to make sure that every third grade student is a proficient reader. They think they know how to do that: They passed a new law.

It’s called the “Third Grade Reading Guarantee.”

That should do the trick. Just like No Child Left Behind left no child behind.

More testing. And better yet, the law requires every teacher of students in the early grades to take additional courses that might cost as much as $17,000 over seven courses.

Expect every student in Ohio to be a proficient reader as soon as all those tests are given and the teachers have taken all those courses.

That is, if you believe in the Tooth Fairy, who lives on the same planet as the Testing Fairy.

Categories Ohio, Teachers and Teaching

The Future of Teaching?

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
33

TeachPlus is one of those Gates-funded teacher organizations that is supposed to provide a different perspective on teaching than the teachers’ unions. It can be counted on to advocate for the interests of new teachers who allegedly want merit pay, don’t care about job protections, and want to be judged by the test scores of their students. The teachers for whom it seems to speak are part of the New American Economy, where jobs are short-term, not seen as part of a career.

TeachPlus has just conducted a survey of teachers. Its first startling discovery is that “For the first time in almost a half-century, teachers with ten or fewer years experience comprise over 50% of the teaching force. We refer to these teachers as the New Majority.” This “new generation” of teachers–unlike, we may suppose, the older generation of veterans–have “high expectations for their students and a strong desire to build a profession based on high standards.”

The “new generation” wants student growth to be part of teacher evaluations (the veterans do not); the new generation wants students growth to count for at least 20 percent of their evaluation (the veterans do not); the new generation wants to change compensation and tenure so younger teachers (themselves) can get higher salaries (the veterans do  not). The veterans want licensure tests to cover the skills needed in the classroom (the new generation does not).

Both generations agree they need more time to collaborate with their peers. Both agree on the importance of clear and measurable standards.

And here is the interesting part:

Both agree that current evaluations are not helpful in improving practice (what are current evaluation? Using test scores to measure teacher quality.)

Both agree that a longer school day would not be helpful “to support students more effectively.”

Both agree that increasing class size to pay some teachers more would be a mistake.

The takeaway: Teachers, young and old, agree and disagree on various “reform” proposals.

On two issues they are united: They do not see the value of a longer school day, and they do not want larger class sizes in exchange for higher pay.

But a matter that should concern us all: Current “reform” policies are driving experienced teachers out of the nation’s classrooms. This cannot be good for anyone. It is certainly not good for the young teachers, who need senior teachers to help them improve.

How can a profession become “great” by demoralizing and ousting those who know the most?

Who would go to a hospital in an emergency and insist on being treated by an intern, not a senior physician?

Who would want their legal affairs to be handled by a lawyer who just graduated law school if they could get a senior partner instead?

When will President Obama, Secretary Duncan, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and all the other people driving current policy realize that they are inflicting harm on the nation’s education system?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, U.S. Department of Education

Why Teachers Are Angry and Confused

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
23

An article in the Connecticut Post says that “Teachers Are Confused for Good Reason.”

The bottom line:

“If Democrats continue with their right-wing conservative educational policies, they will alienate the teachers and teacher unions that have traditionally been the party’s staunchest supporters. More importantly, these misguided policies and initiatives will deal a severe blow to public education and to the quality of the teaching profession as well as to the morale of our teachers. You cannot on one hand preach about the importance of teachers while implementing educational policies that are destroying public education in this country.”

It is indeed confusing and demoralizing to realize that Democrats have adopted Republican education policies of testing, accountability, privatization, and competition. No one expected that Barack Obama would abandon the party’s historic support of public education and equity. He has.

The Democrats–at least those in control of the party in Washington–have turned their backs on the unions, and most especially the teachers’ unions, which represent more than three million teachers. Since teachers have families, that represents many millions of votes.

President Obama is fortunate to be running against an extremist candidate, because had the Republicans put forward a moderate person (are there any left in today’s Republican party), teachers would be voting for him or her.

As I earlier stated unequivocally, I will vote for Obama, but it won’t be because of his disastrous rightwing education policies. Race to the Top is worse than No Child Left Behind. It takes the assumptions of NCLB (testing will fix everything) and applies them to teachers. Teachers will be fired, schools will be closed, and no problem will be solved.

I will vote for Obama because I fear the far-rightwing of the GOP. They will attempt to destroy public education, without delay or apology. And they will do the same to other social programs as well.

With Obama, there is some hope that he might change his mind once re-elected. There is some hope that he will no longer need the Wall Street hedge fund managers whose funds helped elect him and who demand testing and charters (but not for their children!). There is some hope that he will change course. There is some hope that other Democrats will hear the voices of parents and teachers and recognize that Democrats need their own education policies, not those of George W. Bush and Bill Gates.

With Romney, there is none. As his wife proudly boasted, it’s time to “throw out” the public education system.

No, it’s not.

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Obama, Romney, Mitt

Me Vs. Goliath

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2012 //
3

I sent a check for $100 to Karran Royal Harper, the parent activist who is running for a seat on the New Orleans school board.

Her opponent has raised more than $110,000 from out-of-state funders.

Karran, who is a champion for children, has raised about $5,500. In other words, she is being outspent about 20-1.

My contribution was so huge that it was enough to produce a story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit right now that I also sent an equally whopping contribution of $100 to “No on 1240,” the Washington State charter referendum.

That should strike fear into the hearts of the billionaires on the other side of the issue.

It’s not too late to help Karran in her race against the big boys.

Here is her website, where you can learn more about her. She takes credit cards.

She is strong and fearless.

New Orleans should have a home-grown parent on its school board.

Categories New Orleans, Washington State
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