Green Dot Public Schools, Teacher Retention, and the Failure of Past Models
By Brett Wyatt
This is a story of a charter school in the Green Dot Public School system which, after four years of operation, is coming to an inglorious end. It is not an end to the system, or even to school itself, but an end in name and in so many exhausted careers used by Green Dot to experiment with failed policies in Watts, California.
The original Locke High School, like so many schools centered in poverty and neglect, had many systemic problems. Green Dot, a charter school system headed by Marco Petruzzi, requested to administer the school in 2008. The school was divided into 4 cluster schools, those being Animo Locke I, Animo Locke II, Locke ACE Academy (Architecture, Construction, Engineering), Animo Locke Tech, Animo Locke III and Animo Watts . According to founding teacher Ryan Ballard, “Our first school year was 2009-10. We were a CTE, career-technical education school with a philosophy of preparing kids for college along with providing for them the notion that they will have a marketable skill/trade that, if college was not their choice, they could make a good living working in a field that would be needed well into the future. In 2011, Locke Ace was closed and re-organized into Locke II.” No reason was given for the closure. As a new hire to Locke II, I was told that the merger was part of the long-term plan to make all Green Dot schools college preparatory. According to Ballard, the principal of Locke Ace was let go. Of the 16 teachers assigned to Locke Ace, 9 teachers moved into Locke II, one teacher was a long term substitute, and the rest left for personal reason.
Only two years later, Locke II is being closed and re-opened as Locke B Academy, part of Animo Locke A, the only one of the Locke cluster schools to pass (conditionally) WASC ( Western Association of Schools and College) s accreditation. In fact, Animo Locke II, Animo Locke III, and Animo Locke Tech all failed the 2012 WASC accreditation. forcing Green Dot to merge all of the campuses, operationally, into the one school to receive accreditation. Animo Watts will continue to operate independent of the schools located at the main Locke campus.
My concern in this report is the fate of the teachers and administrators who chose to work for Green Dot Public Schools with the allure of excelling in an entirely new, authentically based program of teaching based on the College Ready Promise and the chance of receiving high salaries based on excellent performance. I began to question the effectiveness of the Green Dot model after the first year, when over 30% of the teachers resigned. By my second year of teaching for Green Dot, both of the administrators whom hired me had to resign, as had the dean of the school. At the end of the first semester of my second year, another 30% of the teachers had left. Now, at the end of my second year, the school is being re-organized, only a small fraction of the remaining staff will transfer with it, and I have been re-assigned to a different and currently re-organized academy.
First, I want to explore the numbers. Only two of the sixteen teachers from the original Locke Ace, who transferred to Locke II, will be moving on to Locke B academy. The new cluster re-organization will disaggregate the ninth grade into a separate academy to be housed in the main Locke HS building with the two of the grade10-12 academies. Locke A academy will move to the bungalow area in the back of the school. The list below does not include the names of the teachers for legal reasons. Instead, I have given their department and employment status.
ANIMO LOCKE II ADMINISTRATION
NOTICE OF TRANSFER Locke Cluster Coordinator Chad Soleo – Moved to a national outreach position of VP of Advancement due to his excellent service as Locke Cluster Coordinator.
FORCED RESIGNATION (2008-2012) Principal – Discrepancies in practice, test scores did not improve
FORCED RESIGNED (2008 -2012) Assistant Principal – There was a discrepancy during state testing, he left three days later.
RESIGNED (2008 – 2012) DEAN – Multiple incidences of being beaten by students
TRANSFER (2012-2013) Assistant Principal– Transferred from Locke Tech where he was reportedly attacked by students to Locke II, and now transferred to be the principal at an Animo middle school.
(2012 – Present) INTERIM PRINCIPAL – Position to be made permanent 2013-2014
(2012 – Present) DEAN , being promoted to Administrator in Residence.
COUNSELORS
(2011-Present) Three full time counselors have been at the school since 2011, no reports on their placements for 2013-2014
FULL TIME TEACHERS
Note: Teach for America (TFA)
Full Time Educator (FTE)
Provisional – Teacher does without a clear credential
SPECIAL EDUCATION
RESIGNED (2008-2013) TFA – Moving out of state
RESIGNED (2009-2013) FTE – Hired into another district
RESIGNED (2011-2012) TFA – Left mid-year for personal reasons
RESIGNED (2010-2012) Provisional – Left mid-year for personal reasons
(2010 – Present) FTE
(2010 – Present) Provisional
MATH
RESIGNED (2011-2013) TFA – Leaving for personal reason, possibly leaving profession
TRANSFER (2010-Present) FTE – Transfer to Animo Pat Brown
TRANSFER (2010-Present) TFA – Transfer to 9th Grade Academy
TRANSFER (2010-Present) TFA – Transfer to 9th Grade Academy
(2012-Present) TFA
(2012-Present) TFA
(2011-Present) TFA
SCIENCE
RESIGNED (2002 – 2012) FTE – Moved out of state
RESIGNED (2009-2012) TFA – Left teaching profession
RESIGNED (2011-2012) Provisional – Left teaching profession
MEDICAL LEAVE (2010 – 2013) FTE – Return is uncertain
(2011-Present) FTE
(2011-Present) TFA
(2012-Present) TFA and Provisional
HISTORY
RESIGNED (2011-2013) TFA – Hired into another district as administrator
(2008 – Present) FTE
(2010 – Present) TFA
(2010 – Present) TFA
(2011 – Present) FTE
ENGLISH
RESIGNED (2008 – 2012) TFA – Left teaching profession
RESIGNED (2009-2012) TFA –Hired into another district
RESIGNED (2010-2012) FTE – Left teaching profession, resigned mid-year
RESIGNED (2011-2012) TFA and Provisional – Left teaching profession
RESIGNED (2012) TFA – Injured by student, Left mid-year for personal reasons
RESIGNED (2012) TFA – Left mid-year for personal reasons
RESIGNED (2012) TFA – Left mid-year for personal reasons
(2010-Present) TFA
RESIGNED (2011-Present) TFA – Hired into another district.
TRANSFER (2011 – Present) TFA – Transfer to 9th grade academy
RESIGNED (2011) FTE – Left without a new assignment,
(2011-Present) TFA
(2012-Present) TFA
(2013 – Present) TFA
SPANISH
TRANSFER (2010 – 2013) TFA – Taking new position at Animo Pat Brown
(2011-Present) TFA
(2012-Present) TFA
(2012 – Present) TFA
PHYSICS
MEDICAL LEAVE (2011-2013) FTE – Injured after battery by student, left in January 2013
PE
(2006-Present) FTE
(2011 – Present) TFA
TECHNOLOGY
RESIGNED (2011-2012) FTE – Left mid-year for personal reasons
(After a series of long term subs, a new full time teacher has been hirde in April)
DRAMA
RESIGNED (2009-2013) FTE – Moving out of state
ART
(2011 – Present) FTE
ENGINEERING
RESIGNED (2011- 2012) TFA – Left for personal reasons
LONG TERM SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS – Used to fill in for resignations and account for about 15% of the teachers at Locke II.
LONG TERM SUB (2011-2012) CLEAR CREDENTIAL- Left to be full time PE teacher and athletic director in another district.
LONG TERM SUB (2011-2012) PROVISIONAL– Hired into Locke Tech
LONG TERM SUB (2012 – 2013) PROVISIONAL – Birth of child
LONG TERM SUB (2011-Present) PROVISIONAL
LONG TERM SUB (2013 – Present) PROVISIONAL
LONG TERM SUB (2013 – Present) PROVISIONAL
LONG TERM SUB (2013 – Present) CLEAR CREDENTIAL
I have had the chance to interview many of these teachers and their stories point to two main reasons for leaving: unsafe working conditions and limited future advancement. I know the issue of school safety first-hand. In 2011 I was struck by a student so had that I left to be treated in an emergency room. The student received a one day suspension and was to return to my class. I filed a police report and the student was arrested and later released. As the only teacher of my subject at the school. I had to get a restraining order to keep the student from being re-assigned back to my classroom. That same year two teachers were struck from behind with bottles. Other teachers have been spat on, had coins thrown into their faces, and verbally threatened. There was an inconsistency of disciplinary actions by site administration such that students expressing violence or extreme acts of obscenity toward teachers received detentions or minimum suspensions while students who were tardy or out of uniform also received suspensions or one or multiple days. The suspension policy was challenged by parents who won a court decision ordering Green Dot to lower the suspension rate at Locke II, which averaged over 2 suspensions per student. The first semester of 2012 felt out-of-control once students learned of the reduced suspension policy. One science teacher was attacked and thrown to the floor. An English teacher had a party-popper exploded in her face. An English teacher had a student use profane language at her and then spat at her feet. A science teacher had a student punch the wall next to her face. All four of these teachers confided in me that the administration investigated their claims and then put the burden back on the teacher by asking, “What did you do to cause the student to act so violently? All four of these teachers have left the school
Student profanity towards teachers was ignored. All teachers became subjected to constant profanity. This situation escalated to the point where I called on the union for intervention. The union pointed out to the administration that the contract stipulates that a teacher- administrator or counselor-student mediation must be set up before a student can re-enter the classroom after acts of extreme profanity. Teachers were also advised by the union that they may assign an in-school suspension. According to my local union representative, the district tis responding to the situation by requesting that teachers be allowed to vote on removing Green Dot from the California Education Code. A poll by the union has shown strong support for the Green Dot’s request by teachers at the Founding Five schools and by new teachers, as the district claims that the education code severely limits its ability to meet the needs of students.
Another problem faced by Locke Cluster schools is the political voice of the “Founding Five” schools in Green Dot’s charter, these being:
Animo Leadership Charter High School
Animo Inglewood Charter High School
Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School
Ánimo South Los Angeles Charter High School
Animo Venice Charter High School
These are not neighborhood schools, but are schools were students must apply and be accepted through a set of criteria. This is not the case for the Locke Cluster schools. Teachers at these schools are rated much more highly in the Green Dot evaluation system and as a result have higher job security and will mostly receive salary increases when the school district begins basing salary increases only on job performance.
Incentives, such as salary increases based on job performance, have been another reason for teachers to leave Animo Locke II. The incentive program rates a teacher on a set of evaluations formerly known as The College Ready Promise (TCRP) and now known as Teacher Effectiveness (TE). (Understanding Green Dot’s constantly changing acronyms is essential to keeping track of Green Dot’s every changing policies.) Teachers are evaluated on an extensive list of criteria, being scored from a level 1, a teacher with absolutely no idea what is happening in the classroom, to a 2, a teacher who understands what is needed but is ineffective in its implementation, to a 3, a teacher who satisfactorily implements the Green Dot objectives, to a 4, a teacher who, WITH THE ASSISTANCE of the students in creating a collegiate academic environment, is exemplary. The evaluations, conducted by the principal, are subjective to the interpretation of the principal and highly dependent on the skill and cooperation of the students. To this evaluation are also added the overall performance of the students on their tests, or, in the case of non-tested teacher like myself, to the scores of the entire school, the scores given by students to their teachers, peer scores, and community ratings. The result of this scoring system places the average teacher at Locke II at about 2.6, translating as ineffective but mostly improving.
Even more than the violence, it is the constant assailment of the administration upon teachers of being less than adequate, in need of improvement, or being placed on development plans, a system whereby a low performing teacher scrutinized each week until proven capable or terminated., which has caused so many of the teachers to leave the school. There is little to no encouragement, nothing done to help a teacher’s self-esteem, only the constant chorus of “you can improve.” Sadly, so may new teachers leave the profession because they believe this system is the norm in public education. Their years of education, both in their specific field and in teacher training, usually through the University of California, Los Angeles, is all left behind them. It’s both troubling and distressing to see so many aspiring, young teachers cast away their hopes of making a difference by being evaluated as ineffective, or even as clueless, and then led on the path of termination. To me, this is the most significant failure of the Green Dot model, its inability to retain and train teachers to become effective in the classroom.
This is not to say that green dot did not try. In 2012 Green Dot received a second award from the Teacher Incentive program of $11.7 Million. From this fund, teachers were offered salary bonuses ranging from $500, $1000, and $1500 if, after two years, the teacher was rated as effective, highly effective, or very highly effective. These incentives were not taken seriously by teachers at Locke II. First of all, the average teacher rating is not even close to receiving an award. Second, many teacher do not last for two years. In fact, it only added to the despair because teachers at the school do not understand how they can take students performing so far below the national average, with reading, writing, and mathematical skills far below grade level, and transform them into students who can perform at the national average at a school beleaguered by violence, profanity at school, as well as disparaging conditions at home. As one teacher expressed it to a district vice-president, “You are worried about why my student’s head is down in class while I am worried about what happened to the student to cause the student to be inattentive. Do you know the lives of the students at home? DO you know what it takes for a student to come to school without being jumped? The alcoholism or drug use in the community? Is the student pregnant or did the student get beaten or verbally abused by the parent? There is so much more going on in that student’s life than my assignment and I cannot deliver the curriculum until that student can feel like the world cares.”
However, the incentives of the Teacher Incentive Program were very good news to Green Dot teachers at non-neighborhood schools. Nothing is known by teachers about the dispersal of funds not used in the teacher incentive program.
Next year, the remains of two former Locke Cluster schools will re-open with a new name and almost entirely new staffs. The past will be forgotten and the future will be made to look bright and hopeful. What becomes of this next experiment on the part of Green Dot with the careers and lives of many new hopeful teachers, and the students who will hope for a safe and successful school environment, will largely depend on the Green Dot’s administration to reflect on the mistakes of the past and move forward into developing a school with a strong foundation and a long-term commitment to the community it serves. Since the Green Dot Board itself is not subject to the same scrutiny of its principals and teachers, it will be up to outside agency to oversee their decisions and track their success and failures with our children, their teachers, and the public funds used for their education.
One final thought, on May 30th I was notified that another Locke High School Cluster principal, Blain Watson of Animo Locke Tech, had resigned to move on to a new high school outside of Green Dot. Mr. Watson was the last of the African American principals working at the Locke Cluster. Many teachers have been concerned about the fact that there is no longer any African-American administrators assigned to Locke Cluster High Schools for 2013-2014; and though I would be loath to suggest any malfeasance on the part of Green Dot, My conversations with activist Hispanic and African American teachers include words describing the new Hispanic principals as “privileged persons disconnected with the local community” and “This represents hubris on the part of Green Dot”, the latter statement coming from social science teachers familiar with Herodotus and his admonitions on those exercising power in excess.
Animo Locke II College Preparatory Academy
Green Dot Schools
325 E 111th St, Los Angeles, CA 90061
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Gee, I wonder if Alexander Russo might want to update his book on Locke to make it a more accurate reflection of what is REALLY going on? Betcha he doesn’t.
Russo tell the truth about something?
“By their fruits, ye shall know them”
Matthew 7:20 — King James Version (KJV)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
I can’t make the following up… lately, all roads seem to lead to Ben Austin—including this article on Locke High School.
From Ben Austin’s Bio on the Parent Revolution website:
http://www.parentrevolution.org/our-staff#ben-austin
– – – – – – – – – – – –
BEN AUSTIN, Executive Director
“… Prior to joining the Parents Union and launching the Parent Revolution campaign, he directed the successful campaign to transform Locke High School from the worst high school in Los Angeles into a college preparatory model of reform. ”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Let’s see… What are Ben Austin’s markers of a “college preparatory model of reform” ?
— where “all (schools) failed the 2012 WASC accreditation. forcing Green Dot to merge all of the campuses, operationally, into the one school to receive accreditation.”
— where “after the first year, when over 30% of the teachers resigned.”
— where a teacher writes about how scores of teachers resign because of “unsafe working conditions and limited future advancement. I know the issue of school safety first-hand. In 2011 I was struck by a student so had that I left to be treated in an emergency room. The student received a one day suspension and was to return to my class. I filed a police report and the student was arrested and later released. As the only teacher of my subject at the school. I had to get a restraining order to keep the student from being re-assigned back to my classroom. ”
— where “one science teacher was attacked and thrown to the floor. An English teacher had a party-popper exploded in her face. An English teacher had a student use profane language at her and then spat at her feet. A science teacher had a student punch the wall next to her face. All four of these teachers confided in me that the administration investigated their claims and then put the burden back on the teacher by asking, ‘What did you do to cause the student to act so violently?’ All four of these teachers have left the school.”
— where “constant assailment of the administration upon teachers of being less than adequate, in need of improvement, or being placed on development plans, a system whereby a low performing teacher scrutinized each week until proven capable or terminated., which has caused so many of the teachers to leave the school.”
— where “there is little to no encouragement, nothing done to help a teacher’s self-esteem, only the constant chorus of ‘you can improve.’ Sadly, so may new teachers leave the profession because they believe this system is the norm in public education. Their years of education, both in their specific field and in teacher training, usually through the University of California, Los Angeles, is all left behind them.”
— where “(business model) incentives were not taken seriously by teachers at Locke II. First of all, the average teacher rating is not even close to receiving an award. Second, many teacher do not last for two years. In fact, it only added to the despair because teachers at the school do not understand how they can take students performing so far below the national average, with reading, writing, and mathematical skills far below grade level, and transform them into students who can perform at the national average at a school beleaguered by violence, profanity at school, as well as disparaging conditions at home.”
— where “only 2% of their students entering college tested proficient and not needing remedial classes.” (from Robert Skeels… SEE BELOW post)
and on and on…
yeah yeah and on and on. The SF Examiner I think had a story a couple months back about how by their own metrics and standards all but one I think Green Dot schools is failing? Forget the specifics … and the LATimes had a truly gruesome story recently about a bathroom in Locke, stripped of all doors and locks and down to one functional one I think? Honestly, it makes one think that the point of this school-prison purported pipeline is to make prison look so incredibly good.
The really awful thing about that statement is: I believe it.
I was just explaining to someone tonight about this article and how its reality made a camp movie like “escape From NY” seem so tame. Those kids are living a reality worse than anything depicted by Hollywood. Maybe that’s because the movies have by-and-large left LA?
If anyone needs the article references I can find them.
Teacher churn and burn: mission accomplished!
UTLA helps with burning teachers elsewhere in the district. Soon Walmart will be supplying teachers.
Russo did include in his book the information that a significant number of the students onstage at the first graduation hadn’t actually met the graduation requirements. There’s a standard formula for “reform” advocates’ books on the miracle schools they’re puffing — include the actual disclosure but bury it and breeze right past it without elaboration. I suppose the formula could be characterized with the popular ironic exclamation “Wait, what?”
(And, of course, give enough gritty detail to not make the book shriek “puff piece.” The most amazing example I’ve seen was Jonathan Schorr’s book on a charter school in Oakland that was a disaster and a failure in every possible way — as portrayed relatively honestly in the book — but that still managed to come across as a promotion of the school. It was like a restaurant reviewer describing a horrible, disastrous meal and then giving it four stars.)
Locke’s CSU remediation rates are jaw dropping. In 2010 only 2% of their students entering college tested proficient and not needing remedial classes.
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2011/06/millionaires-mendaciousness-and.html
Remember Petruzzi, in all his corporate arrogance, said “give us three years and we’ll give you a great school.”?
I remember.
Sounds like initially the school had a proper vision – vocational education – but lacked strong leadership (perhaps there hands were tied?). Who knows. To me, educational reform is such an easy fix!!!!
All charter schools need to become military academies. Modify the curriculum (remedial content) with a hybrid of the JROTC program (discipline, respect) and AVID program (organization, self-determination), Staff the schools with Teach for America folks, hire veteran teachers to serve as department chairs, put in resource officers to help control the population, have small class sizes, etc… and voila – real reform.
I challenge anyone to come up with a better plan than mine.
Glad you got those veteran teachers in there though very few of the young teachers think the veterans know anything..does not take them long to become somewhat humble…and figure the veteran teachers know so much more.
Sound like a good plan you’ve got there.
You left out the connection to a for-profit prison. Those who “succeed” in your school could work for the non-union, privatized prison if they don’t qualify for front-line military fodder. Those who do not can be immediately incarcerated by the resource officers.
I challenge anyone to come up with a better plan to increase reformers’ profits even more and maintain racist and classist policies unchallenged.
You might have to add a provision in there about making the school just intolerable in order to force them through and out the other end into either prison or the military. Else, maybe they’ll just stick around too long in HS?
Chris, I don’t think you understand, so allow me to elaborate a bit. I don’t have much time, so it won’t be well-structured, but here goes…What do wealthy parents, in say, Connecticut do with their “unruly” 14-year old? They send them to a boarding school. Boarding schools typically subscribe to a military model, based on discipline and respect. Right now, we have so many kids who fall through the cracks and end up in our prison systems. My military academy solution is a way to help prevent this.
In most organizations, there is the 80/20 rule, and in schools this typically means 80 percent of your student body will do the right thing, while 20 percent are your typical repeat offenders. Just the threat and presence of a military academy will turn that into a 90/10 equation.
How does one get into the military academy? Based on teacher input from the public school. Perhaps there is a committee who decides what’s best for the student. Student has to stay at the academy for a minimum one semester, and can return to their public school if their commanding officers see fit.
There needs to be 3 choices in America’s school systems: public/private schools for the college-bound, vocational schools for the trade-bound, and military academies.
Right now charter schools are being set up as for-profit institutions. This is wrong. They don’t have to be set up this way. The military academy is just an alternative school with an alternative curriculum.
I’ve included the hybrid curriculum in my original post.
You see, I’ve worked in rough, high-poverty schools where a kid would get in trouble, he’d be sent to the “alternative school” for like a month, and he’d be sent back to your class. He got an “A” in the alternative school for showing up and putting his name on a peice of paper. Now he’s back in your classroom, a month behind in your curriculum, and his behavior has not changed a lick. Nothing has been solved. My solution solves problems.
Troubled students who never earn their way out of the academies can still earn a high school dipoloma. Perhaps they’ve matured enough and decide to join the military? Is that such a bad thing?
You propose that there would be a link between these academies and for-profit jails. I don’t follow your logic. You’ll have to explain that one to me.
What happens in the current system, and the future pro-charter school movement, is these kids still fall through the cracks. They go to a charter school, get kicked out, then go to an under-resourced public school where the odds of them dropping out of school only increase. That’s how jails get filled up. That’s what happens with the current plan, not my plan. Let me be perfectly clear about this. The for-profit charter school movement will mearly SHIFT our problems into a for-profit business model. Nothing gets SOLVED, simply SHIFTED, and a few will make a mint off of it. My proposal SOLVES problems. Does yours?
Oh, sorry Chris. I notice you didn’t offer a solution of your own. So please, provide me with a better solution to FIX public education. I will anxiously be awaiting your proposal.
sorry, but most elite prep schools are NOT based on a military school model, whether they are boarding schools or day schools. They in theory are able to expel students for rule violations much more easily than can public schools, but that is not always the case when the student is the child of a board member or influential donor.
And I totally reject the idea that military discipline is the way to go. I speak as one who is a veteran, who has been through about as strict a discipline set-up imaginable – Marine Corps Boot Camp at Parris Island in the mid 1960s.
While that model MAY be appropriate for SOME students, it is absolutely totally inappropriate for others, and is sometimes counterproductive, as I saw with some of those with whom I went through Parris Island. It is a simplistic approach that ignores differences of culture, experience and tons of other things.
We have already seen militarization of our local police forces.
We have seen placing police in schools turning regular misbehavior into criminal records – usually disproportionally with minority kids.
This is entirely the wrong way to go.
Ken, I’m not proposing a “boot camp-style” military academy. I agree that that would be the wrong way to go. In a few of the high schools I’ve taught at, they had the JROTC program offered, where retired military personnel would run the programs. In one school, a principal would put some of the worst students in the building into that program in an effort to help instill dicipline. I’ve see in work several times. My idea simply expands this vision. If a student doesn’t want to be sent there, all they have to do is behave and put forth an effort in their pubic school. Sorry Ken, I don’t see a down side to my proposal. I suggest you research the structure and curriculum of the JROTC programs, as well as AVID, and then get back to me.
In the mean time, please tell us your idea on how to fix public education.
I don’t need to research. I taught for 13 years in a school with a junior ROTC program. I was very close to the retired AF personnel who ran it, and will tell you they absolutely reject the idea of assigning misbehaving students to ROTC. If participation is not voluntary it completely disrupts the program.
I have seen far better results with troubled kids in programs like Outward Bound, which require cooperation but do not impose by the force of external discipline.
oh, and one more thing – you can drop your annoying habit of challenging everyone who disagrees with you to offer their own proposals – some of us have been doing for more than a decade in more than a few venues, and find that kind of tactic at best juvenile.
Here, Ken. Read the first 4 paragraphs.
http://www.americanboardingschools.org/military-boarding-schools/
Now, tell me again why this is a bad idea?
keep at it – you don’t listen.
I don’t, Ken. I don’t listen. I don’t listen to bad ideas. Education is too important. I don’t mean to be kurt or rude, but I’m growing tired of the beaurocracy and failed proposals. All I see and have seen are bad idea after bad idea in an effort to “fix” public education, and it is progressively getting worse. And now, the “fix” is to privatize everything. This will not work. Again, problems get “shifted” and nothing gets “fixed.” Actually, privatization will make matters worse, but that’s for a different thread.
Why doesn’t anybody want to talk about solutions? Why won’t you tell me your solution? Do you have one? It’s easy to sit and say, “well, that won’t work” and not offer up a solution of your own. You are a verteran educator. Do you agree with the current reform movement?
I am not going to recapitulate all i have written over more than a decade online about education. All you need to know for now is this
– Diane and I have been professional colleagues since a first phone conversation more than a decade ago
– I organized a number of panels on education at the annual bloggers conferences that included the likes of Diane, John Jackson of the Schott Foundation, then NE Commissioner of Education Doug Christensen, then Gov of Iowa Tom Vilsack, Prof Sherman Dorn, and others
– I was one of the organizers of the 2011 Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action
– I have been an active participant in Fair Test for well over a decade
– I am ABD in educational administration and policy studies, although I decided to do National Board instead of finishing my diss because I was staying in the classroom
– i am a highly sought-after reviewer of books on education
I have no need when I tell you why you are wrong to have to offer alternatives. I already have. Many times.
You simply don’t listen when people disagree with you.
Which is why this will be the last time on this thread I will respond to you
I lost all credibility when you wrote ‘what do wealthy parents do?’ as if it’s simply their amazing parenting skills that keep their children at the top of performance and not their money that allows them to supplement any lapses in their child’s education. What about the vast amount of unreported sexual assaults that take place at military academies (a glimpse of what to expect when they finally enter the armed forces)? But I guess keeping your mouth shut about your sexual assault does take a lot of discipline.
Okay, so I spent the last week reading many of your blog posts, Ken. I gotta tell ya, you’re fighting the good fight. Thank you for doing what you are doing. I also had time to reflect on our conversation, and after much thought, some things occurred to me.
For starters, you dismiss my proposal because your perception of what I am proposing is inaccurate. I know the schools you are talking about, with a “boot-camp-for-kids” theme, or the “outdoor” team-building schools. These are not what I’m talking about. In fact, to my knowldge, there IS NO SUCH SCHOOL as the one in which I am proposing. Perhaps I should take the word “military” out of the title because many are getting the wrong idea. My proposal isn’t a military school, it’s an alternative school with a hybrid military model.
As soon as we as a society can come to agreement that we do not have a “teacher” problem or an “educational” problem in the United States, but a “parent” problem, we can begin to move forward. Yes, you read that right. We have a parent problem. Whether it be the “helicoptor” parents who advocate so hard for their kids they actually do a disservice to them by giving them a “crutch,” to the parent who never shows up at a scheduled conference, open house, respond to emails, etc… There are many reasons for our parental failures in education (single parent, bad school experience, little content knowledge to help tutor, etc…). The list of excuses are endless, but they are very real in the impact they have on their child’s education.
Ken, you have your finger on the pulse of education. Fantasize, for a minute, that everything you are fighting for works in your favor. That is, NCLB goes away, greater teacher/school/state autonomy, more resources, smaller classes, all the above. Even with the perfect climate for education, you are still going to have a segment of the population that choses to sit in school, do nothing, and cause disruptions. NCLB is a big reason for the “entitlement” mentality that the younger generation now subscribes to. School districts were forced into a “game” where statistics determine federal funding. To keep the feds happy, school districts fudge their graduation numbers by pushing kids through the system regardless of performance. The kids keep having birthdays, and get pushed through the system while reading on a fourth-grade level. This happens so frequently it is mind boggling. Look at Chicago and/or Detroit. Do you think they have a teacher problem there? Half don’t graduate. That’s not a teacher problem. That’s a parent problem.
So why are China and India allowed to test only select members of their society, and we can’t? In my education reform proposal, we take the bad, unmotivated, disruptive kids out of the public schools, put them into this “alternative model” where their scores don’t matter. Curriculum is modified, we teach life skills, remedial work in math and reading, AVID (self-determination, organization) and ROTC (discipline, self-respect). In the public schools I come from, you are required 4 years of English. Well, in this alternative school, you are required to take an ROTC class. Our goal with these kids is to make them productive members of our society. It costs, on average, 10k to educate a child per year. Four years, that’s a 40k societal investment per child. The cost to incarcerate a felon is, what, 30k a year? Multiply that by a life sentence. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Listen, I don’t articulate well on paper. A friend of mine (history teacher) and I had this very discussion Saturday night. I wish I could have recorded it and set up a podcast for you to hear.
You had me doubting my plan for bit, until I thought about more. You and others have been thrown off by the “military” component. I use that term to stress the aspect of an alternative school that uses structure and discipline, has a system of built-in rewards, etc… Again, let me repeat…to my knowlege, a school like this doesn’t exist. It needs to. I am right about this.
if it is going to last, structure and discipline are not IMPOSED, but rather presented and the students are invited.
In fact, since in theory we are preparing students to be participatory members of a democracy, what we should be doing is giving them the opportunity for MEANINGFUL input into both the structure and the discipline.
No, I am not going all new-agey in saying that.
I also note that after almost 2 decades of public school teaching I have found that most discipline problems disappear when students are provided an opportunity to truly connect with what they are learning.
What we are doing in educational policy simply creates more problems and lessens real learning.
I will also not agree with you with the focus on parents the way you present it. Sure, there are some problem parents, but what we are dealing with will not be solved by pointing fingers at this segment or that segment.
After reading Mr. Wyatt’s description of the situation at Locke, it occurred to me that it presents the perfect chance for Parent Revolution to strut its stuff. After all, it was Steve Barr and Green Dot who hired Ben Austin to head up the LA Parent Union that morphed into PR. Who better to jump into the fray and fix things?
Forgive me, however, if I doubt that Austin & Co. would seize this opportunity. Here’s why:
1. To date, PR has only targeted elementary schools; fewer signatures are needed to reach the 51% mark.
2. To date, PR has targeted schools with large numbers of non-English speaking parents; they’re at a disadvantage in understanding the complexities of the Parent Empowerment Act and, in some cases, vulnerable to threats of deportation.
3. While parents and teachers at Compton McKinley, Adelanto Desert Trails, LAUSD 24th Street and Weigand have provided sufficient anecdotal evidence of PR harrassment in their signature gathering, PR would no doubt find itself on the RECEIVING end of harrassment techniques if it set up camp inside the Locke boundary.
Go ahead, Mr. Austin. Send in your troops.
Zorro,
You’re unaware that the current state at Locke is
all Ben Austin’s credit / fault, as he proudly claims
that the current state at Locke is due to him.
Ben Austin was the man in charge of Locke:
“By their fruits, ye shall know them”
Matthew 7:20 — King James Version (KJV)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
From Ben Austin’s Bio on the Parent Revolution website:
http://www.parentrevolution.org/our-staff#ben-austin
– – – – – – – – – – – –
BEN AUSTIN, Executive Director
“… Prior to joining the Parents Union and launching the Parent Revolution campaign, he directed the successful campaign to transform Locke High School from the worst high school in Los Angeles into a college preparatory model of reform. ”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
So if does what you suggest, he would be protesting
himself, and attacking his own job performance.
BEN AUSTIN: (parody, of course) “These kids at Locke can’t wait… so I need to be held accountable for what I did while in charge of Locke. I really sucked at running this school… so we really need to protest me and the fiasco I created there… and start a petition against me for all the damage I’ve done… failed defenders of the status quo like myself are standing in the way of children getting a quality education… the parents need to step up and put a stop to me… “
This is also a good example of how the push to reduce suspension rates can lead us to disaster. Students need caring adults who are trained in how to defuse volatile situations, sure, but students who are violent and disruptive need to be removed from the school. Imagine being a student in a classroom who actually wants to learn but is stuck in an environment like that! The guy next to you is setting off fireworks? People like Jonathan Kozol wring their hands over students getting expelled and ending up in jail, but what about the kids who don’t get in trouble, do what they’re supposed to do but don’t learn?
All this crummy dereform to improve instruction when discipline and leadership is the glaring problem in so many schools. Sometimes I think that charter schools’ unfair advantage in their ability to expell students should be something we implement in public schools rather than take away from them…
A lot of teachers I think have this fantasy of being the one teacher who is able to get through to the students who are out of control, and sometimes I have been that one who can teach out of control kids. But we shouldn’t read into stories like these the idea that it’s a lack of care or talent on the teachers’ part that leads to these outbursts. Schools must be empowered to remove kids from the mainstream classroom. We can do this by expanding our alternative education programs. And in extreme cases we should be able to simply say “Leave.”
Great comment, Livingteacher. We have to get over the taboo on stern discipline in education. Society’s thinking on this subject is clouded. Disciplining kids is not child abuse. On the contrary, NOT disciplining kids IS child neglect and educational malpractice, because it’s a refusal to use the strongest and most effective medicine we have to correct their dysfunctional behavior. Unfortunately, many educators (like a former VP of mine) have been brainwashed by Alfie Kohn/Jonathan Kozol-types to believe that “discipline doesn’t work” (her words). If that’s so, all societies should cease issuing fines and jail time for law-breakers, right?
OMG…This story is so unbelievable and so believable if you have ever been on the grounds of such a school.
The statement below…riles me to no end..
“What did you do to cause the student to act so violently?
It is the statement used by a VERY WEAK AND INCOMPETENT ADMINISTRATORS to pass the buck..
It is a statement used by a LAZY, and what I have found to be NOT THE BRIGHTEST LIGHT BULB IN THE BUNCH of administrators…
neanderthal100: I noticed the same indicator of weak and incompetent leadership.
I also worry about what many of the students learn from all this, e.g., not only enduring abuse themselves from their classmates but seeing the caring adults around them abused too and nothing being done about it in order for top management to save face.
Remember, this is twenty first century innovative EduExcellence in action.
Not only did Maro Petruzzi claim that if you gave Green Dot three years they would produce a great school but Green Dot co-founder Steve Barr boasted that “We can turn around Locke High School in a year.”
Link for quote and links for other relevant info: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/09/perfidious-petruzzi-calls-for-accurate.html
I will temporarily don my TA cap again and offer up the English-to-English translation: “The beatings [of school staff and students] will continue until morale improves.”
Few if any readers of this site will be surprised to learn that prior to becoming head of Green Dot, Petruzzi was a partner at Bain Capital.
It’s fitting, since private equity firms, among which Bain is one of the most prominent, are all about extracting wealth from the institutions they take over.
I’m curious why teachers who are injured in unsafe situations such as those described here do not sue the district. Teachers are employees of the district. Isn’t the district required to provide reasonably safe working conditions. If students are allowed to persist in dangerous behavior due to inappropriate disciplinary methods, why isn’t the district liable for the consequences?
Green Dot is a private entity, they are not part of the District, nor are their teachers District employees. AMU, their yellow union, has never successfully defended a teacher in their 13 some-odd-years of existence. That’s the point of privatized charter schools anyway, neither students nor educators have any protections whatsoever.
If they aren’t employees of the district, they are still employees of someone. Isn’t their employer still required by labor law to have reasonably safe working conditions? I worked at a private school – it had to follow labor laws.
And if the union is unable or unwilling to protect its members, couldn’t a private labor attorney take the case. (For that matter, if a union doesn’t protect its own members, isn’t that actionable?) I don’t say this lightly as I think many people see lawsuits as a way into someone else’s deep pockets. However, I think these dangerous conditions result from inappropriately applied discipline policy and should be actionable. It is unreasonable – and isn’t that the basis of labor law.
In response to kj: Yes, that would be sue Green Dot, no? And what of the fact that they are renters from LAUSD? Is not the property owner liable in certain circumstances?
Course suing LAUSD would suit GreenDot just fine, They seem to be angling toward an end game of bankrupting LAUSD anyway.
Krazy TA, they didn’t define “turn around,” they will take the money and “turn around” when they abandon the community and the kids. They have had a great income from the school, so it is a “great” school. You just have to understand what they mean when they speak.
Old Teacher: welcome to our small but growing band of “English-to-English” translators of eduspeak. It’s no longer a thankless job, courtesy of the owner of this blog and some others who appreciate the herculean efforts we sometimes make to wring droplets of meaning out of stoney edunonsense.
You are quite right. When the edubullies say “great school” they mean “great school [for edufrauds like us].” They just, er, forget to add the last four words.
Just like when they say “it’s all for the kids.” They are referring, of course, to THEIR OWN CHILDREN, in eduspeak, “our most precious assets,” who attend genuine centers of educational excellence like U of Chicago Lab Schools or Cranbrook or Harpeth Hall or Lakeside School or Sidwell Friends and the like. The hefty fees involved are—did you know this?—covered in part by the $tudent $ucce$$ sucked out of OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN, a fortunate few of whom attend select Compliance Centres [not a typo] of Charter EduExcellence.
Happy hunting for meaning—I’ll see your 13th percentile and raise you a 90th.
🙂
Old teacher you are literally “On the Money.” It is called the “Pump and Dump.” Charter schools are built on this “Business Model.” Do not forget that Steve Barr, formally head of Green Dot, got caught taking $60,000 on their tax returns. They are sociopaths.
I get the faint feeling that this was not a very successful school.
What can be done to change this? Where does “the buck stop?”
I know Dr. Wyatt – he is the recipient of many teaching awards, and has demonstrated that he is capable of inspiring students. Green Dot was lucky to get him…… they have wasted a golden opportunity.
I teach in Cleveland, under an administrator who was the principal of ACE prior to coming here. I see a lot of the same “tolerance” of student violence and disrespect. He has told the staff here that he has a proven record of turning around troubled students. This article makes me question his credibility. If you worked at ACE, you may be familiar with this administrator. Any comments from teachers who worked for him?
IS this the Green Dot Charter that Michael Tuck, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, is holding up as his crowning achievement?