Archives for the month of: July, 2013
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What About Those Lazy Teachers?

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2013 //
35

A reader wrote to complain that many teachers have an easy job, don’t work hard, and are paid too much for the little they do.

This teacher responds:

“I am one of those assistants in that classroom, a special education classroom. I would like to see you do it. I want you to change a teenager’s diaper while keeping them from tearing up the changing area and watch two other children and keep them safe from each other. I love these kids but they have no sense of danger. They think something a do it…please Dan…do something before you knock it. Do you know how hard it is to be a special ed teacher…well look up the job postings for a special ed teacher…yea there are jobs for them everywhere…they are always in demand cause its the hardest job in the school. These teachers make lesson plans that don’t reach all of their children cause they don’t have the resources to reach all of them and they constantly have interruptions. I worked in a classroom that had slightly behind students and completely not there students. There was also one who like to scream at the top of their lungs constantly. I love my job but I know I won’t have it forever cause I don’t think my nerves could take it for 30 years.”

Categories Special Education, Teachers and Teaching

A Florida Parent Listens to Ben Austin About Parent Revolution

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2013 //
27

This is a hilarious description of a conference call in which Ben Austin of Parent Revolution joined with Congressman George Miller of California to discuss the value of parents seizing control of their schools.

Rita Solnet, the Florida parent activist who joined the conference call, quickly learned that parents were not allowed to ask questions, only journalists.

She heard Ben Austin claim that his organization, funded by the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and the Broad Foundation, is not only “grassroots,” but that it was vastly outspent by its opponents. Austin said they (the Parent Associations of Florida) have $8 billion (!) to spend, but he didn’t say where that $8 billion came from.

She heard him say that the Florida parent groups had more lobbyists than his allies in the charter industry. She counted 122 paid lobbyists working for the charter industry.

She heard George Miller decry the terrible status quo, but recalled that he has been writing the nation’s education policy for years. George Miller IS the status quo. In fact, George Miller was one of the architects of No Child Left Behind, and still defends it. Miller is a hero to Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ organization. DFER raises money for politicians who agree to support charters, and DFER has raised large sums for Miller.

This is a conversation you should read about.

Categories Charter Schools, Florida, Parent trigger

When Is a Conflict of Interest NOT a Conflict of Interest?

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2013 //
6

The title of this post is not a trick question.

When the state of Louisiana is involved, and when the conflict of interest concerns Teach for America, there is NO conflict of interest.

Kira Orange-Jones, the executive director of TFA in New Orleans, was elected to the state board of education with the help of contributions from wealthy donors across the nation.

Questions were raised by critics about whether she had a conflict of interest because the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has contracts with TFA in the millions of dollars. The matter was referred to the state Board of Ethics:

“At the August 17, 2012 meeting of the Board of Ethics, it considered a request for an advisory opinion as to whether BESE member Kira Orange Jones could continue to work as New Orleans executive director of Teach for America while she served as a member of the BESE. TFA holds a lucrative contract with the Louisiana Department of Education. BESE must approve all contracts and expenditures of the Department of Education, putting Orange Jones in the position of voting on a contract that benefited her employer.

“The experienced staff attorneys for the ethics board informed the board of directors that the state “Code of Governmental Ethics would prohibit Kira Orange Jones, while she serves as a member, from providing compensated services to Teach For America at a time when TFA has or is seeking a contractual, business or financial relationship with either the Louisiana Department of Education or the Recovery School District.”

The vice-chair of the Board of Ethics, Scott Schneider, strongly disagreed with the staff recommendation and he persuaded his colleagues on the board to reject its finding of a conflict of interest. As reported in The New Orleans Tribune:

“In spite of the staff’s recommendation, Schneider argued against the staff recommendation and he failed to disclose the partnership between his employer, Tulane University and Teach for America. Tulane University’s Cowen Institute lists Teach for America as a partner on its website and the two organizations have worked closely together on education reform initiatives in recent years. After nearly twenty minutes of Schneider’ strong advocacy on behalf of Kira Orange Jones against the staff attorneys’ recommendation, he convinced his fellow board members to reject the staff recommendation and ignore Kira Orange Jones’ clear conflict of interest in violation of the Code of Ethics. Schneider essentially argued that because Orange Jones was only head of the New Orleans office and not the entire organization no conflict existed.”

On July 3, Schneider resigned from the state Board of Ethics. The New Orleans Tribune believes his resignation was prompted by its reporting about his own conflicts of interest.

Categories Education Reform

Principal: “Who Is Going to Help the Children of Florida?”

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
21

A principal writes about the sharp drop in school grades, caused by a change (again) in the grading system by the state:

“As a principal of a school in Florida who ‘fell’ from a B to a C, despite all the news press of the lack of reliability in the change in grades, our parents will still think our school is ‘getting worse’. In reality, our scores are the same or better than last year. Trying to explain this to parents and ensure their confidence in our school and teachers isn’t shaken is a difficult task.

“Jeb! and his cronies have done an outstanding job of convincing Florida parents that Florida’s public schools are bad and constantly getting worse, even while he tours the country bragging about how he improved the schools in Florida. The damage that has been done by another change in the formula resulting in lower grades will impact educators and students both. Imagine how children feel when they learn their school did worse? These test scores belong to children, children who are being told loud and clear that they are failures as well as their school. I would love for Jeb! to explain his grading formula to a third grade child who now has to repeat third grade because Jeb! and his foundation decided it was time to ‘raise the standards’ once again. How can the FCAT be called a criterion based test when the criteria constantly change for no other reason than we have too many A schools? Can’t have folks believing public schools might actually be doing a good job, you know.

“Frankly, I am very grateful I am close to retirement because the sadness I feel about our Florida public school system is becoming too great to bear. Of course retiring will help me, but who is going to help the children of Florida?”

Categories Bush, Jeb, Florida

How Arizona Discriminates Against Public Schools

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
5

A comment from a reader in Arizona:

“I live in Arizona, am freshly retired from the US military, and have no children. Even from this vantage point, it doesn’t take much effort to see that Arizona’s under paid, hard working (at multiple jobs), parents are too busy trying to survive to notice that their legislators are feeding their tax dollars to private school corporations, by the buckets! We can write-off on our state taxes more than twice the level of donations to privates chools than public schools. We have until tax day the next year to do it for private schools, and only until Dec 31st of the tax year for public schools. And, we can only designate “extra curricular” activities for public schools, but can give it to the O&M, general educational fund for private schools. This state needs a giant court audit to declare its whole education funding system unconstitutional!”

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, Support for public schools

Jersey Jazzman: Reform Comes to Montclair

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
5

Jersey Jazzman does his customary digging to show what is happening in Montclair, New Jersey, long considered one of the state’s best districts.

Reform means more testing.

Reform means excluding the views of patents, students, and the community.

Reform means that the town has a superintendent trained by the unaccredited Broad Academy and determined to raise test scores.

Categories Broad Foundation, New Jersey, Testing

NC: Schools Lose, Corporation$ Win

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
5

A reader explains the logic behind North Carolina’s budget cuts and other school “reforms”:

“They cut millions in education in NC to give corporations $365 Million in tax cuts.

“So with Citizens United, they have financed their own re-election campaigns for next year by giving the corporations the money to donate.
See how Teabagastan Politics work?”

Categories Budget Cuts, North Carolina

End of Jeb Bush Miracle? Florida Grades Collapse

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
14

Jeb Bush has toured the country boasting of the Florida miracle. Central to the miracle is the letter grades for schools. But the state just reported that the proportion of A-rated schools fell from 48% to 29%.

Is the Jeb miracle over?

The schools didn’t suddenly get worse. The grading system is arbitrary, capricious, and meaningless.

As Fairtest points out, the state has changed the formula at least 30 times.

Here is the Fairtest view:

FairTest
National Center for Fair & Open Testing
for further information:
Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773
cell (239) 699-0468
for immediate release, Friday, July 26, 2013
FLORIDA SCHOOL GRADES ARE “WORSE THAN USELESS;”
ASSESSMENT EXPERT CALLS THEM “EXTREMELY MISLEADING,”
“PHONY LABELS FROM BY A POLITICALLY MANIPULATED BLACK BOX,”
AND “A CLASSIC CASE OF GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT”

Florida school grades released today are “worse than useless measures of educational quality,” according to a local expert on assessment. Bob Schaeffer, Pubic Education Director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), explained, “Based largely on scores from the low quality FCAT exam, state officials change the grading formula each year to serve their political agendas.”

The result, Schaeffer said is that “Florida’s school grades are extremely misleading. Phony labels from a politically manipulated black box do nothing to improve educational quality. It’s time for Florida to end this cynical, failed experiment in bogus accountability.”

Schaeffer noted that the state admits to having made more than 30 changes to its school rating system since 2011. “This is a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. The standards for letter grades are not even consistent from one year to the next.”

Founded in 1985 by leaders of major education, civil rights and student groups, FairTest is based in Boston, Massachusetts. Schaeffer has lived in southwest Florida for 14 years while continuing to work for the organization.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Florida, Testing

Anthony Weiner and the Politics of Shamelessness

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
29

The most amazing thing about Anthony Weiner is that he is still running for mayor of New York City despite the revelations about his tawdry behavior. Maybe he will drop out because his poll numbers have plummeted in the last few days. Maybe he already has, and I haven’t heard the news.

It is upsetting to hear the “man on the street” say that he doesn’t care about Weiner’s behavior because it is personal and has no bearing on his fitness to serve.

If a teacher or a principal did what Weiner did, they would be fired.

Imagine if he were mayor. Would he continue sending lewd photos of himself to women he never met? He would be in full charge of the schools and 1.1 million children. Would he set a high moral standard for those who work in the schools?

Weiner continues to campaign because he has no shame. He believes that a majority of voters are also shameless and will forgive him his every trespass of what we once thought was a moral code. The moral code is not law. It is a basic sense of decency.

Shame is important in a civilized society. Shame is the recognition that certain behaviors are wrong even if they are not illegal.

As for Elliott Spitzer, who resigned the governorship in disgrace after being caught patronizing prostitutes, don’t get me started! He is running for City Comptroller, a position that requires a leader of unimpeachable integrity.

New York City politics feels like a Gong Show right now.

Categories New York City

Mark Naison: How TFA Is Destructive

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2013 //
15

Mark Naison sent the following thoughts about Teach for America:

Why Teach for America is Seductive to Mayors and Legislators and Destructive to Everyone Else

Teach for America offers states and municipalities the opportunity to subcontract their teaching to non-union workers, saving large expenses in pensions and health care. Such a policy saves money, as subcontracting usually does; but it destroys a section of the local middle class, drives down compensation for all workers, and has several extremely destructive consequences for the quality of schools:

1. It destroys the mentoring and relationship building that lifetime teachers provide.

2. It creates a revolving door teaching force that undermines the
role of schools as community institutions.

3. It reduces instruction to test prep since the 5 week training TFAers get makes raising test scores the highest priority and includes cookie cutter, “teacher proof” advice on class management that leaves little room for the creativity that great teachers employ.

No matter what TFA leaders say, its methods lead to the destruction of public education as we have known it in the United States, and the emergence of an alternative model which makes the union teacher and the lifetime educator an endangered species. Its implementation will also sharply widen gaps between those in private schools and public schools, and between high income and moderate/ low income communities, in terms of creative thinking and exposure to the arts, reinforcing and intensifying the nation’s status as one of the most economically stratified societies in the world.

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University

“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/

Categories Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching
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