Archives for the month of: January, 2013
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An Answer to the Question Asked by a Teacher

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
45

I earlier posted a letter from a teacher who said that charters give ambitious students a chance to escape their low-performing and disruptive peers. The teacher noted that charters recruit the best students in the poorest neighborhoods. How could anyone blame parents who want their children to be surrounded by others who are equally ambitious?

I invited readers to respond. Here is a thoughtful comment.

This reader comments as follows:

That’s interesting, because I thought one of the major apologies for charters was that they would help close the “achievement gap” by taking our neediest students and making them “competitive” with the most well-performing students.

The apologia in this post basically states as a matter of fact a criticism that charter school advocates have long-denied. At first it was “We don’t get to cherry pick. We’re subject to the same rules as public schools.” Now it is “Yeah, we cherry pick but someone has to serve the gifted students in poor communities.”

It is moving back of the goal post if you ask me. I went to Bronx Science and then to Brooklyn Tech, two of the “best” public high schools in NYC. The public schools and many others like it do a fine job of educating our brightest students.

An argument against what the teacher in this article posits is to expand the opportunities for our brightest students to go to those “specialized” public high schools. As of now, one test determines whether or not a students makes it in. The application process should be diversified with exams only being part of the measuring stick. GPA, recommendations, interviews and essays should also be part of the process, sort of like college.

We have the tools to educate the type of students described in this article. We just lack the will to make better use of them.

Categories Charter Schools

Bobby Jindal’s Campaign to Smash Public Education in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
33

This day, set aside to honor the egalitarian message and life of Dr. Martin Luther asking Jr., is an appropriate time to consider the efforts by Governor Bobby Jindal to dismantle public education in Louisiana and replace it with a free market of choices, one with for-profit schools and no unions.

This plan will benefit the haves while harming the have-nots. It is an affront to the legacy of Dr. King. It will be implemented by people elected with the support of economic royalists. It is the work of elitists who shamelessly call themselves reformers as they grind the faces of the neediest into the dirt.

The Jindal plan includes vouchers, charters, for-profit online schools, and for-profit vendors, as well as a teacher evaluation that assures that few teachers will get or keep tenure. They will never have the protection of academic freedom, a concept unknown to corporate reformers.

Jindal’s state commissioner John White, who taught for two years as part of Teach for America and has never evaluated a teacher, says that the his standards will make it very difficult for teachers in Louisiana to win tenure.

In response to the new evaluation system, there is massive demoralization; the rate of teacher retirements has spiked by 25%. Superintendents say they are having a tough time replacing veteran teachers who are bailing out of White’s dystopian state.

Surely, teachers with years of experience in Louisiana public schools must think they are living in a madhouse, when the state superintendent has so little experience, and White has put the evaluation system in the hands of a 20-something with two years of teaching experience and an expired teaching license.

Meanwhile, John White has recommended a change in state board policy so that schools no longer will be “required” to have a librarian, a library or counselors. He wants the language to be changed to “recommended,” so that principals have the autonomy to decide if they want to spend their diminishing funds on a librarian or something else. Will this improve education?

Was it as a member of Teach for America or a member of the unaccredited Broad Academy that Commissioner White developed such contempt for public school teachers and American public education?

Here are the proposed changes:

Teachers, parents, and students need to know the proposed changes Superintendent John White is asking the BESE board to approve next Tuesday.

Two large changes will result in the possible removal of all counselors, librarians, and libraries.

Comprehensive Counseling (1125) no longer requires secondary schools to have counselors, only that “It shall be recommended that …” they have them. Libraries and Librarians (1705) have been reworded similarly: “It is recommended that each secondary school have [them]…” (All italics are mine.) This will allow school systems to eliminate these highly valuable and necessary individuals.

“Carnegie Unit and Credit Flexibility” (2314) allows students to earn credit in two ways. The traditional path involves passing a course with a 67 or greater. The new path is for students to demonstrate proficiency in one of three ways. 1) They can pass a nationally-recognized test, though no definition of such a test follows. 2) They can pass a locally developed test of proficiency, with, again, no definition following. 3) Lastly they can submit portfolios that meet a list of requirements to demonstrate proficiency. Students can now attend any amount of time they wish, because should they demonstrate proficiency, they can still earn the Carnegie credit.

This is only a sample of other changes.

  • · No school system is required to participate in a School Accreditation program (311) every five years and receive a classification.
  • · The school will no longer be sited for having staff not holding a valid Louisiana teaching certificate or for having physical facilities that “do not conform to the current federal, state, and local building fire, safety, and health codes.”
  • · One section (1103) states a high school student shall be in attendance a minimum of 167 days out of 182, but later Section 2314 says the minimum number of minutes required is 7,965, whic! h can be achieved in 159.3 days in a 7-period day, and in 133 days in a 6-period day.
  • · Section 2313 for Elementary Program of Studies (covering K-8) has been stripped of its suggested outline of content areas. Any school can design any curricula it deems appropriate.
  • · The section on Summer Schools (2501 and 2503) have been gutted of most of their requirements, including minimum instructional hours and class size limits.
  • · One person without a valid teaching certificate could teach hundreds of students in one class taught for one week if the school superintendent approves it.
  • · Section 1703 also allows local educational agencies to use state money to purchase textbooks that BESE has not approved.

Please contact the BESE board and strongly voice your objections to these proposed changes by Superintendent White and Governor Jindal.

No one could seriously believe those changes will improve education in Louisiana.

Vincent P. Barras, educator

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Louisiana, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Jersey Jazzman Answers Another Teacher’s Question

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
6

This day on which we mark the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., is an appropriate time to think about our nation’s determination to revive a dual school system in urban districts: one for the “strivers” (the charters, as Mike Petrilli explained it in a post), and another for the kids unwilling or unable to enroll in a charter school (that is, those who are in public schools).

Yesterday, a teacher asked why parents would keep their children in public schools when charter schools are able to exclude the disruptive kids and provide homogeneous groups of well-behaved students.

Here, Jersey Jazzman adds his thoughts to the exchange on the blog:

An excellent discussion here. I wrote about this last week:

http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/01/segregation-by-behavior-chartery-secret.html

The sad fact is that we already do segregate the students in our public schools: we segregate them by the ability and willingness of their families to pay high prices for housing. If you can afford to pay in the high six-digits for a house in the leafy ‘burbs, then you can send your kid to a fabulous school that will not segregate her from high-achieving children, even if she’s struggling academically or behaviorally. That school will be well-resourced and have a broad and rich curriculum; you’ll also have much more influence on its administration through democratically elected school boards that will be far more responsive to your concerns than autocratic urban school leaders.

These are rights and privileges that come from wealth. They are not available to parents living in urban areas where school resources are being drained by both regressive tax structures and the proliferation of charters, and where citizens are increasingly disenfranchised from having a say in how their schools are run. We currently have a two-tiered system of eduction in this country, and it has nothing to do with how “gifted” the students are in each tier.

Again, I give Petrilli credit for finally addressing all of this. But let’s take it to its logical conclusion:

If we are really saying the issue in urban education is that the “disruptors” need to be separated out, then charters are a terrible way to do so. Folks like Petrilli who want to segregate the children this way have an obligation to propose a fair, transparent, and broad-based system of evaluation at the developmentally appropriate time to track children not just by ability, but by classroom behavior. That system needs to be free of racial, ethnic, gender, and socio-economic bias.

But, perhaps most importantly, it needs to be applied uniformly across our society. There should be no more recourse for wealthy parents to buy their way into a public school district that mainstreams their disruptive, underachieving child with the high-flyers, while poor children in cities are separated into castes.

Good luck trying to sell that one to the PTO, Mike.

Until Petrilli is ready to roll out his system, let’s at least all agree on his premise: the secret to “successful” charters is that they serve different students than neighboring public schools. That’s a big step forward in the debate, and one I’d be happy to see many others take.

Categories Charter Schools, Poverty, Special Education, U.S. education

Why You Should Send Your Child to the Local Public School

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
19

A reader thought about privatization and offered these thoughts:

“Pride in our School.” The idea behind this comes from the community spirit/commitment necessary to sustain public schools. Call it the social contract. In my small, rural northern California community, two threats to the success (dare I say existence) of traditional public education are: No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) and charter schools/school choice. Fortunately, NCLB is not long for this world.

My message: send your kids to your local/closest public school, not a charter; second, if you think a charter school or out-of-district school is a good idea, at least try your local public school first. Investigate your local school by meeting with administration, staff, teachers, and elected school board trustees. Please carefully consider the benefits of sharing your little blessing(s) (your child/children), along your your own hopes, dreams, and invaluable energy with your community (school). It’s a win-win!

Sending kids to the local public school allows parents and their children to learn about their very own community in the deepest and most intimate ways possible. It’s similar to attending church, except 5 days a week instead of one day a week — for those who even attend church. Our children are our ambassadors. They pull us from our other duties and onto the schools grounds, playgrounds, and the playing fields of our towns. This is how my family has come to know so many others in our community. This daily contact in the midst of the push-me-pull-you, hustle-bustle world we live in is a blessing we share, and one that is being threatened by school choice, among other things.

Categories Supporting public schools

In Honor of the Birthday Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
18

To commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, I am going to quote from one of his famous speeches. The full text of the speech may be found in an anthology titled A Testament of Hope, edited by James M. Washington. I will quote a speech that he delivered to the AFL-CIO on December 11, 1961 called “If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins.”

 

In this speech, Dr. King shows how closely allied are the labor movement and the movement for civil rights. He shows how the hopes and dreams of working people who have organized into unions for their collective benefit are the same as the hopes and dreams of black people. He called on the labor movement to rid itself of the last vestiges of discrimination within its own ranks and to become partners in fighting for the American dream on behalf of all Americans.

 

The words of Dr. King are astonishingly relevant today. I urge you to read the entire text, which you may find online at various archives. You will be impressed not only by Dr. King’s moral intensity and eloquence, but by the range of his philosophical and historical references. In retrospect, it is startling that some people at the time denounced him as a militant and did their best to ignore him and marginalize him. His critics have long been forgotten. He will be remembered forever as a true American prophet.

 

 

Dr. King said:

 

Less than a century ago the laborer had no rights, little or no respect, and led a life which was socially submerged and barren.

 

He was hired and fired by economic despots whose power over him decreed his life or death. The children of workers had no childhood and no future. They, too, worked for pennies an hour and by the time they reached their teens they were wornout old men, devoid of spirit, devoid of hope and devoid of self-respect….

 

American industry organized work into sweatshops and proclaimed the right of capital to act without restraints and without conscience.

 

Victor Hugo, literary genius of that day, commented bitterly that there was always more misery in the lower classes than there was humanity in the upper classes. The inspiring answer to this intolerable and dehumanizing existence was economic organization through trade unions. The worker became determined not to wait for charitable impulses to grow in his employer. He constructed the means by which a fairer sharing of the fruits of his toil had to be given to him or the wheels of industry, which he alone turned, would halt and wealth for no one would be available.

 

This revolution within industry was fought mercilessly by those who blindly believed their right to uncontrolled profits was a law of the universe, and that without the maintenance of the old order catastrophe faced the nation.

 

History is a great teacher. Now, everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them…

Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor’s demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and the labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth….

And as we struggle to make racial and economic justice a reality, let us maintain faith in the future. We will confront difficulties and frustrating moments in the struggle to make justice a reality, but we must believe somehow that these problems can be solved….

I am convinced that we shall overcome because the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right when he says, “No lie can live forever.” We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right when he says, “Truth crushed to earth will rise again”…

 

And so if we will go out with this faith and with this determination to solve these problems, we will bring into being that new day and that new America….Yes, this will be the day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands all over this nation and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty, We Are Free At Last.”

 

Categories Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

What is Behind the Cost of School Busing in NYC?

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
23

Juan Gonzalez says that Mayor Bloomberg wants to drive down the cost of bus drivers’ salaries, but they are not the reason that the city spends more than $1 billion on school buses. Bus drivers are paid about $40,000 a year.

Read his analysis here.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Education Reform, New York City, Unions

How Do You Answer This Teacher’s Question?

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
146

I am a strong supporter of the public schools and opposed to the “reform” movement attempting to privatize education. I didn’t find your article divisive. But, I do have a question that keeps coming up for me about some of the reasons why charters gain traction.

Charters benefit from the real and perceived impact of heterogeneous grouping upon the achievement of more prepared students. Similarly, they score points because public schools are less able to address and remove disruptive children. For these reasons, a diverse district with students from all socio-economic backgrounds is at risk for charter take over.

We complain that charters are skimming the top, we have to take all comers and we can’t cherrypick; we can’t dump the least school ready students. We wear it as a badge of honor; we’re a force for egalitarian education for all. We’re a place where all children come together to learn. Well, that’s great.

BUT… a parent who wants to limit negative influences or increase challenge of instruction may not care about the general mission if the impact of that mission upon their child is negative. I’m not sure we can stem the tide of charters when we use middle class children as social equalizers and consider the annual limitation upon their achievement and growth as an acceptable loss. That’s an insufficient mission. This makes public school less desirable for parents who have prepared, able children.

I understand why these parents want to flee classrooms when the books are two or three levels below grade and their children are rarely challenged in the school day. And, I understand why they get tired of being told that every need is met with skilled teachers who can differentiate. It’s not true. Differentiation is frequently insufficient in classrooms where the range of student skill base goes from 2nd grade to post high school.

If we are going to meet the challenges posed by privatizers, we need to look at what we’re doing with a clear eye. Research shows that the positive impact of heterogeneous grouping is on the social development for lower income students. It is a benefit.

In my experience, most students in a well constructed, heterogeneous classroom, headed by a teacher who is skilled share a common positive culture that makes it possible for students who might otherwise have few positive role models to grow. It has been my experience that a middle of the pack student will make academic gains if they are in a class that is challenging, but not too challenging.

However, it is also my experience that the lowest skill level student makes no progress in a heterogeneous setting and would benefit more from a homogeneous, small class with more focused and direct instruction. It is my experience that the middle top and top does not receive academic benefit from heterogeneous instruction. I don’t know of any study of heterogeneous grouping that shows a positive academic impact on above average students.

But, I do know that a homogeneous class of top of the middle and top students will make significant progress each year. We need to look at how to really challenge all of our students if we are going to compete with charters and private schools. We need to be willing to consider the cost of chronically disruptive students upon the efficacy of the regular classroom and the lack of alternatives for students to run their own race in our schools.

I don’t know what the answer is, but 25+ kids each period wait upon our ability to figure out what to do. If we don’t come up with solutions in the traditional public school setting, parents are going to opt out.

Categories Charter Schools, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching

Is This the Broad Academy Playlist?

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
13

A reader offered this comment in response to the post about school closings in Sacramento:

A “Broad” superintendent who follows its “play-list” to “capture” the school board and privatize the district as much as possible:

– Convinced the board of education to turn all the power over to the superintendent.

– Keeps secret all the contracts and consultants hired by the superintendent. In fact, it’s been said that the latest consultant working with the superintendent was the principal of Kevin Johnson’s St. Hope H.S. None of this information can be found on the district’s web site. Even the organization chart with unfilled positions is dated July 2012.

– Consistently and knowingly breaches the contract to keep the union busy with grievances and court procedures.

– Whittles away at teacher tenure by creating a class of teachers in the district’s “priority schools” whose jobs are protected from last hired, first fired. (Yes, the union is
grieving this.)

– Increases class size to 30+ in all grades except those in “priority” schools.

– In “failing” schools the district insists on split grades rather than keeping class sizes
low.

– Forces remedial programs (more test prep on top of test prep) onto “failing” schools
without any input from the teachers and wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars on
consultants and test prep companies.

– Closes the neighborhood schools under the pretext that there are too few students in
the school. But in fact, it’s because they are “failing” (read: poverty and neglect.)

– “Allows” a private charter school to locate in the former “neighborhood ” school.

– Parents who want and need a neighborhood school drop out of the public school and send their kids to the charter.

– Pink slips for union teachers.

Categories Broad Foundation, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Poverty, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

File Under “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up”

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
20

A security guard at a charter school in Michigan left his gun in a student bathroom.

He forgot it.

Fortunately, the weapon was unloaded.

What kind of security does he provide with an unloaded weapon?

What would he do if an intruder had an assault weapon?

A new thought experiment among teachers and principals: Which staff member do you NOT want to see armed?

Categories Guns in Schools

Illinois: Time to Rethink Common Core and Slow Down

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
20

A reader writes in response to debate about Common Core in Indiana:

Common Core and the PARCC Assessment can only be described with one word in Illinois: daunting.

Illinois school districts are losing resources yearly, state aid being among them. Last year the state prorated its aid to schools at 94%. This year it is expected to be at 89%, and next year it could be as low as 80%. All this as expectations go up.

The little glimpses we’ve received in our numerous staff meetings of the possible PARCC assessment have left us feeling overwhelmed to say the least. Next week the Illinois State Board of Education will vote on whether to increase cut scores on the ISAT test to better align with the rigorous Common Core Standards. This will result in a significant decrease in the number of students meeting or exceeding state standards.

I teach in an Illinois Spotlight School (defined as high poverty schools where high academic performance is closing the “achievement gap”). We have faced many challenges with the lack of funding coming into our school. We used to be on the cutting edge of new technology but now we are faced with an outdated computer lab where large groups of students will gather to take the future PARCC assessments. This will present a huge challenge not only with our infrastructure but with many of our students as well. Many students will not have the skills to take on-line assessments as they have been working in small RtI groups during computer classes (a sad reality). Many students still don’t have computers at home.

I believe strongly that students need good, solid foundation skills and a wide range of experiences before they can think critically. The lack of funding has caused our school to limit field trips to one per year. I predict that number to go down to zero in the near future.

I hope Illinois follows Indiana’s lead in having a serious discussion about the Common Core and especially the timing. Our teachers have been scrambling to find resources that align to the Common Core. And now our students will be tested before full implementation?

I have no objection to high expectations for students and accountability for students and teachers. But we must be given time, resources, and a seat at the policy table. I

feel like I’m on a sinking ship. A moratorium on any new assessments until we have implemented, developed resources, and made reasonable changes to the CC sounds like a good life raft to me right now.

Categories Common Core, Illinois
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