Archives for the month of: August, 2013
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Jan Resseger: Is School Closure About “Underutilization” or Punishment?

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2013 //
9

Jan Resseger here examines the shifting rationales for school closures. Please be sure to read her blog.

School closures are a signature issue of the corporate reform movement.

When schools close, the students are dispersed, usually to equally low-performing schools.

When schools close, communities are shattered.

Closing schools is a classic strategy of corporate reform, because it is disruptive, innovative, and transformational, though not in good ways.

The ideology of school closings is rooted in the business model, the belief that the school board owns a “portfolio” of schools, like a stock portfolio, and that it can kill off the losers (by closing them) and end up with a better portfolio.

The portfolio strategy, also known as the diverse provider model, is inappropriate for schools, which serve communities and which should be strengthened and supported, not destroyed.

There is no evidence that school closures have any relationship to better education for students.

Jan Resseger writes:

School Closure: Is the Issue Underutilization or Punishment?

We have been watching a wave of school closures in Chicago and Philadelphia and other big cities.  Officials justify the need for school closures by pointing to “underutilized” buildings and cost savings.

Here are two pieces that question the conventional rationale for school closure. The Opportunity to Learn Campaign just released a new info-graphic Debunking the Myths of School Closures.  “You can’t improve schools by closing them,” declares this resource, as it provides data to demonstrate that: “Most students won’t go to better schools.”  “Closures won’t save the district big bucks.” “These aren’t empty schools.” “Closures do have a big impact on everyone.”

Writing for Catalyst-Chicago, Sara Karp investigates the black-box of the Chicago school district budget, where she is unable to document claims of budget savings, this time from purported cuts to central office expenditures.  Karp reports that one part of the central office budget has exploded from $5 million in 2011 to $88 million in 2013: the Office of Portfolio that authorizes and manages new schools.

Chicago is a major practitioner of the “portfolio school reform” theory being actively promoted by the Gates Foundation and its partner, the Center for Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington.  This is the idea that a district should manage its schools like a business portfolio with constant churn as high-scoring schools are rewarded and so-called “failing” schools are closed.

One must always ask whether the district prepared the school for “failure” by moving out students, teachers, and important programs to prepare for the closure.  And one must be sure to remember that school closure is one of the so-called turnaround models being prescribed by the U.S Department of Education for low-scoring schools.  Because standardized test scores are, more than anything, a wealth indicator, we see a mass of school closures these days in communities where poverty is concentrated.

Our society’s most urgent national educational priority must be to invest in improving the public schools in our urban communities rather than punishing them, punishing their teachers, closing the schools or privatizing them. 

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Philadelphia

Amy Prime: Some Good Ideas for Billionaires and Corporations

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2013 //
13

Amy Prime teaches second grade in Iowa. She has some excellent ideas for billionaires, millionaires, heads of corporations, and politicians who want to reform schools.

If you really want to help, listen to Amy

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching

My Advice to the Next Mayor of New York City

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2013 //
42

In November, New Yorkers will elect a new mayor.

It matters a lot for the future of public education in the city.

The mayor has complete control of the city school system.

The mayor appoints 8 of 13 members of the city school board, who serve at his pleasure. If one of his appointees dares to disagree with him, the mayor may fire him or her on the spot.

Mayor Bloomberg has closed more than 100 schools and opened hundreds more. He has closed some of the schools that he opened. What matters most to the mayor is test scores. He grades students, schools, teachers, and principals by test scores.

The scores went up and up until 2010, when the State Education Department admitted the tests got easier every year. Overnight the “Néw York City miracle” disappeared.

Recently, the mayor embraced the Common Core standards. When the test results came out, the scores of 2012 collapsed, the achievement gaps grew larger, and the mayor said all this was “very good news.”

The mayor is devoted to charter schools. Although he is responsible for the public schools, he prefers privately managed charters and plans to open four of his own, as soon as he leaves office. His DOE is already setting aside the free space for these schools that will be created by billionaires Bloomberg and George Soros.

The results of Bloomberg’s “reforms” are unimpressive. Despite boasts to the contrary, he did not close the achievement gaps.

A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that the three “market-reform” districts–NYC, DC, and Chicago–got worse results than other urban districts.

The public is fed up with the Bloomberg era of imperial, autocratic “reform.” The latest polls show that only 22% want the next mayor to continue Bloomberg’s school reforms.

What’s next?

I fear that most of the candidates are trapped in Bloomberg’s cramped data-driven vision of schooling.

I want the next mayor to think about how to improve education, not how to raise test scores.

I want the next mayor to stop closing public schools. I want him or her to abandon Bloomberg’s obsession with testing and measurement. I want the mayor to stop giving absurd letter grades to schools. We learned from the Tony Bennett scandal just how malleable and how meaningless the A-F letter grades are.

I want the next mayor to take responsibility for the 95% of the students in the city’s public schools, not act as a cheerleader for the charter sector that enrolls 5% and kicks out or excludes low-scoring students.

I want a mayor who has a different vision.

I want a mayor who believes that it is his or her responsibility to provide a good school in every neighborhood. I want a mayor who is devoted to strengthening the schools, not closing them or privatizing them. I want a mayor who understands that improving the lives of children, families, and communities will improve schools. I want a mayor committed to early childhood education, to class size reduction, and to the arts in every school.

I want a mayor determined to make sure that every school has a full curriculum, experienced teachers, daily physical education, foreign languages, and adequate resources to help children who are learning English and children with disabilities.

I have an even more radical idea: Here is an interview I did recently on NY1, the local news station. Watch to hear what I propose. If the mayor acted on my proposal, he or she would become a national figure and an instant hero to millions of parents, students, and teachers.

Categories New York City, Ravitch, Diane

How Albany Hurts ELLs

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
47

State Commissioner John King, Regents’ Chancellor Merryl Tisch, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Chancellor Dennis Walcott are proud of the Common Core tests that failed 70% of the children of New York State. They say it is “”very good news” that the tests got much harder. They don’t care that the achievement gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged grew larger. They bask in children’s defeats.

El Diario/La Prensa newspaper, written primarily for the Hispanic population in New York City, ran the following editorial, which reported the devastation to children who are not fluent in English, mostly Spanish-speaking. Only 11.4% of the English language learners were proficient in math. Only 3.4% were proficient in English.

Why are the state’s policymakers so pleased with these terrible results? Are they serial child abusers?

Here is the editorial:

The mayoral candidates have participated in many debates and forums and campaigned all over New York City. But to date, most of them have not discussed or offered plans to improve bilingual education.

In New York City’s public school system, there are 159,162 students who are known as English-language learners (ELL’s). Of them, 100,933 are Latinos.

Among ELL high school students the four-year graduation rate is below 50%, well below the average rate of 62% for non ELL students.

While all results were expected to be low, the outcomes of the most recent student testing under the new Common Core standards paint a bleaker picture. ELLs had proficiency rates of 11.4% and 3.4% in math and English, respectively.

These wide gaps in academic achievement need to be closed, for the sake of these students and the future of this city’s workforce. When strong leadership, teaching and adequate resources are in place, ELL’s are more successful and score higher.

The next mayor must make bilingual education a top priority. And this is a mission not only for the incoming chief executive but also for elected officials, community groups and state government. Among the critical steps needed:

The state must monitor and ensure that the city meets the requirements tied to the funds it receives. There are resources for ELL’s, but distribution is up to the city and whether they are reaching students in need is a big question.

The city’s Department of Education must properly train and qualify teachers and principals to meet the needs of ELL students.

Taking into account that 50% of ELL children in pre-K and kindergarten don’t speak English fluently, bilingual early childhood programs should be created.

The language of tests must match the educational level of the students. Currently, English-language learners must take standardized tests in English, which doesn’t allow for a real gauge of their academic progress. A transition process that is adjusted according to the student’s skills should be considered.

For too long, the challenge of delivering a quality education to ELL’s has been inadequately addressed and put on a backburner. The next mayor must ensure that New York City rises to a first-class public educational system and that begins with making sure all of our kids have access to excellent learning and support

Categories Common Core, New York, Testing

Today: More than 6 Million Page Views on This Blog!

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
103

Today the blog reached a new milestone: 6 million page views in not quite 16 months. I started the blog on April 24, 2012. Since then, I have published more than 5,000 posts and received more than 100,000 comments.

A word to readers about the rules of the blog:

Rule 1: Please do not use curse words. When you enter my blog, you enter my virtual living room. Curse somewhere else, not here. I try to read every comment–a few get by me–and when I see one with offensive and vulgar language, I delete it.

Rule 2: Please be civil in your comments with one another. I love the discussions among us, I encourage healthy debate and heated argument, but I ask you to be polite to one another. I seldom interfere to prevent anyone from saying whatever he or she wishes. I print comments that I don’t agree with. But I will step in and delete your comment if it is blatantly, egregiously offensive. It is my blog and that is my rule.

Rule 3: Do not insult your host. That’s me. It is not that I am super-sensitive, but I do not wish to be insulted in my own space. Disagree all you want. Tell me I am wrong. That is okay with me. But no insults. No digs about me or my children or my dog or my cat.

Thank you to the readers who send me links to articles, many of which become posts. Thank you to the readers who send thoughtful comments that I then turn into posts. If you sign your name, I will use it. If you do not sign your name on your comments, I will not use it.

One more thing: Thank you for your patience with my mistakes. I sometimes forget to add the link; readers tell me and I insert it as soon as I find out about it. I make spelling errors and grammatical errors–usually because of autocorrect, but also because of my haste to get the latest news out to you. I apologize for the errors and the haste, and I thank those of you who help me by pointing out my mistakes. I fix them as fast as I learn about them. I remind you that I have no staff. I write whatever appears under my name; I write my own tweets, I write my own speeches, I write my own blogs, I write my own books.

Thank you for reading the blog and helping it reach more people.

Diane

 

Categories Education Reform

A Startling Message for Reformers

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
120

How many times have we heard “reformers” like Duncan, Rhee, Klein, Gates, etc. say that the way to “fix poverty” is to fix schools. By that, they mean that “no excuses” schools and Teach for America will solve the poverty problem. That’s a lot less costly than using government programs to change the tax code or create good jobs or do anything that directly reduces poverty. Better to open charter schools, give vouchers, fire teachers who can’t raise test scores, take away tenure, destroy unions.

Yet here is a guest blogger for Rick Hess with a powerful message for reformers: poverty matters.

It matters a lot.

The US has too much poverty.

Jonathan Plucker writes:

“Why don’t we get more worked up about childhood poverty in the U.S.? When I talk with people about poverty, I ask them, when they leave the building, to look for poverty. Really LOOK for it. It’s everywhere, in every community, but we generally don’t see it. We don’t talk about poverty more in education reform – when perhaps it should be the foundational issue – because we’ve chosen not to see it.

“It’s everywhere, it’s solvable, and education reform can’t truly succeed until we start reducing it.”

Categories Poverty

When the Major Media Are in a Few Hands, Then….

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
25

This article reflects on the future of news outlets in the U.S.

There have always been a few fabulously wealthy men and families who owned large media outlets.

But there were also thousands of small-town, small-city newspapers and even local radio and TV stations.

The small papers and media have been snapped up by the big fish, and many have folded outright.

The spread of the Internet has been disastrous for print publications.

These days, the media outlets are conglomerates, and a handful of super rich men and corporations own most of them.

With the acquisition of The Washington Post by amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, another major family-owned newspaper falls into the hands of a billionaire.

Unfortunately, the typical billionaire apparently believes in privatization of public education; after all, those are the values that made them rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Will the New York Times be acquired by Michael Bloomberg?

The Times is in deep financial trouble. It bought the Boston Globe 20 years ago for $1.1 billion, and just sold it for $70 million.

The Los Angeles Times may be bought by the Koch Brothers, or Eli Broad.

What is at risk? Democracy.

Thank goodness for social media.

The Internet may have doomed many newspapers, but it has given everyone a way to communicate outside the reach and control of the major media.

We don’t have to confine ourselves to listening to, watching, and reading only what they give us.

We can write what we want, read what we want, express our views without their censorship or approval.

Through social media, we have the power to organize and to use the tools of democracy.

That is our strength, and it is our greatest weapon against the power of big money.

Categories Economy

California Teacher on Common Core Test

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
35

From a teacher in California:

“Our class had the “privilege” of taking the ELA SmarterBalance test for common core 4th grade. It was horrible. There were split screens, essays to type (our students have no keyboarding experience) and things to click and drag. So in addition to getting students ready for the CC standards, we will need time for computer and keyboard lessons AND we will need the updated technology in time to get our students familiar with it.

“Oh, and let’s not forget that in CA we are still expected to teach for the CST [California Standards Tests] next year…no transition time to Common Core. Ridiculous!”

Categories California, Common Core, Testing

Privatizers Push Kentucky for Charter Law

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
16

Kentucky is one of only eight states that have not passed a charter law. That means that the state has been unwilling to turn public money over to private entrepreneurs, who will operate schools with little or no oversight.

The privatizers can’t tolerate the possibility any state refuses their wares or their opportunity to operate in the dark with public dollars.

So now the full-court press is on. The National Alliance for Public (sic) Charter Schools reports: “A bill was introduced and passed the state Senate last session, but it died in the House. Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul will join the National Alliance, Democrats for Education Reform, and the Black Alliance for Educational Options, for the kick-off event, which will feature a roundtable discussion with education, business, and faith community leaders in Louisville. Kentucky is one of only eight remaining states without a charter school law and is our top priority state for 2014.”

McConnell and Paul are singing the praises of charters. The far-right Black Alliance for Education Options–handsomely funded by the Walton Foundation–has descended on Kentucky to claim that public education must be demolished to “save” minority children. The Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group Democrats for Education Reform is on the case, hoping to turn Kentucky away from public schools. And the National Alliance for Public (sic) Charter Schools is leading the charge against community-based public schools.

Before Kentucky buys the snake oil, its policymakers should review the state’s NAEP performance and compare it to its neighbor, charter-happy Tennessee. Kentucky educators could give lessons to Tennessee about the importance of strong community schools.

On the NAEP, Kentucky consistently outperforms Tennessee.

Stay strong, Kentucky. Snake oil cures nothing. You don’t need a dual school system of publicly-funded schools. The one you have is good and getting better.

Categories Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Support for public schools

Meet the Broad Superintendents

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
40

Several readers asked for more information about the Broad Superintendents Academy. In a sense, information is scarce, since it has no printed curriculum, nor any published description of its course of study. However, there is plentiful information about its graduates, who are found in many of the nation’s urban districts and state education departments. It is important to recognize that this “academy” has no accreditation nor standing with any state or federal or private agency. It was invented by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to train future superintendents about Eli Broad’s theories of management. The Broad Foundation, for example, has encouraged school closings, both to save money and to make way for charter schools.

The author of the following post, Sharon R. Higgins, is a parent activist in Oakland, California, who has followed the Broad Academy with great interest after the foundation essential took control of the Oakland public schools. Higgins has a blog called “The Broad Report.” Here is an update on some of the more controversial graduates of the Broad “Academy.”

 

By Sharon R. Higgins

 

The uncertified Broad Superintendents Academy (BSA) has been producing graduates since 2002. Through 2011 the Broad Center issued press releases biannually which announced the incoming participants and then graduates of each year’s cohort. Although the Broad Superintendents Academy invited individuals to apply to its program in 2012 and 2013, press releases are no longer issued and the names of recent participants are not known.

Another interesting shift to note is that the adjective “prestigious” is being used less and less by reporters when describing the Broad Superintendents Academy, and the adjective “controversial” is being used more and more.
A list of all known BSA graduates is here.
“FEATURED” GRADUATES OF THE BROAD SUPERINTENDENTS ACADEMY: PART ONE
Jean-Claude Brizard (BSA Class of 2007)
In February 2011, teachers of Rochester City School District (New York) overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard. This was the first time in the history of the district that such a vote had been conducted. Rochester’s Community Coalition for Educational Change also declared “no confidence” in the superintendent. Brizard announced his resignation two months later.
In May 2011, Brizard was hired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, but resigned just seventeen months later after the end of the city’s first teachers strike in a quarter century. Brizard currently works for The College Board.
~~~~~
Randolph Bynum (BSA Class of 2007)
In July 2013, Superintendent Randolph Bynum resigned from the Sumter School District (South Carolina) after two tumultuous years. The day before his resignation, 700 people attended a district meeting to voice their opposition against him. The complaints related to the removal of teachers at Sumter High School, community relations, numerous employee issues, morale, and more.
~~~~~
Arnold Woodrow “Woody” Carter (BSA Class of 2002)
In March 2009, the Capistrano Unified School District (California) school board unanimously voted to fire Superintendent Arnold Woodrow “Woody” Carter for “material breach of contract.” Carter then twice attempted to sue the district, but Orange County judges dismissed both cases.
Carter had been involved with other problems. In 2003, a parent sued over a secret meeting held by the Bourbon County Board of Education (Kentucky) where details of Carter’s move from superintendent to consultant were discussed. A judge stopped payment on the contract, but Carter challenged. The case eventually ended up in the Kentucky Supreme Court which ruled in 2012 that the district did not owe Carter because the financial deal had been made in an illegal closed-door meeting.
In 2006, when superintendent of the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District (California), Carter also came under fire for displaying “… to 85 district administrators an image of a ‘ladies Swiss Army knife’ containing attachments including a tampon and a phallus-like vibrator.”
~~~~~
John Covington (BSA Class of 2008)
In August 2011, and without explanation, Superintendent John Covington abruptly resigned as head of Kansas City Public Schools (Missouri). He had held the position for only two years. Shortly after his resignation, news emerged that Covington was the sole candidate for a higher-paying job as head of Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority.
One board member later claimed that Covington had manufactured a dispute with the board president so he could renege on his contract. Also, one month after Covington’s resignation, the district lost its state accreditation, in part because of unstable leadership.
~~~~~
John Deasy (BSA Class of 2006)
In May 2006, the board of Prince George’s County Public Schools (Maryland) thought it was finally going to get a long-term superintendent when they hired John Deasy, but by September 2008 he was being investigated for having improperly received his doctorate. Deasy resigned three weeks later but was immediately hired by the Gates Foundation.
In June 2010 Deasy was hired by Los Angeles Unified School District as deputy superintendent, although questions lingered about his resume. Then in January 2011, Deasy was promoted to superintendent of LAUSD, “without so much as a job interview.”
~~~~~
Maria Goodloe-Johnson (BSA Class of 2003)
In 2003, Maria Goodloe-Johnson was hired as superintendent of Charleston County School District (South Carolina) while undergoing her Broad Superintendents Academy training. In June 2007, she took the job as superintendent of Seattle Public Schools (Washington).
Deep dissatisfaction with proposed budget cuts, new tests for students, a new teacher-evaluation system, and findings in a state audit led Seattle’s public-school teachers and other district employees to vote “no-confidence” in Goodloe-Johnson in 2010. The. A few months later it was learned that Goodloe-Johnson’s director of research, Brad Bernatek (a participant in the Broad Center’s residency program) had intentionallyissued false statistics to underestimate students’ college-readiness.
In March 2011, a $1.8 million financial scandal rocked Seattle Public Schools and led to a unanimous vote by the Seattle school board to fire Goodloe-Johnson and her chief financial officer. Blog reports produced by two Seattle parents served as important source of information during Goodloe-Johnson’s controversial tenure.
After she was fired, Goodloe-Johnson was hired by John Covington (BSA Class of 2008), head of Michigan’s Education Achievement System, to be his top academic officer.
Goodloe-Johnson passed away in December 2012.
~~~~~
Pete Gorman (BSA Class of 2004)
In June 2011, after five years as superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (North Carolina), Pete Gorman resigned, having taken a job at Amplify, a newly created education division of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s media company.
During his time at CMS, Gorman was challenged by parents over a new costly and expanded testing program. He was also criticized by local civil rights activists, including the president of the local chapter of the NAACP when Gorman scheduled a snow makeup day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
~~~~~
Edmond Heatley (BSA Class of 2008)
In August 2012, Edmond Heatley unexpectedly resigned as superintendent of Clayton County Public Schools (Georgia), explaining that he had accepted an unspecified job elsewhere. During a tumultuous three years, Heatley angered parents by pushing through an early release day without a public hearing. He also allowed his wife and two children to be on the district’s payroll. Some parents had even threatened to contact the state Professional Standards Commission with a list of ethical concerns.
It turned out that at the time of his resignation, Heatley was the sole finalist for superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District (California). Berkeley teachers and parents launched heated criticism of Heatley’s Broad Superintendents Academy training, his management style, and his role in the passage of a resolution in support of Proposition 8 when he was superintendent in San Bernardino County’s Chino Valley school district. Heatley withdrew his candidacy in September 2012.
In June 2013, sources reported that outgoing Superintendent Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, who had unexpectedly announced her retirement from the Santa Ana Unified School District (California), was pushing her school board to hire the “controversial” Heatley as her replacement. He was not selected for the position.
~~~~~
LaVonne Sheffield (BSA Class of 2002)
In July 2009, LaVonne Sheffield became the superintendent of Rockford Public Schools (Illinois) after working for the Recovery School District in Baton Rouge, becoming the district’s seventh leader in 11 years. Paul Vallas, who had hired Sheffield as his chief accountability officer in Philadelphia and also worked with her in Louisiana, was involved with the school board’s superintendent search behind the scenes.
By December 2009, a group of students and parents were demanding Sheffield’s resignation and social media was being used as an organizing tool for the protests. Clashes with parents, students, employee unions and the Rockford School Board “reached a crescendo over major spending reductions, personnel changes and school closures” leading to Sheffield’s resignation in April 2011.
Sheffield has been working at Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based nonprofit, since May 2011.
~~~~~
Anthony “Tony” Tata (BSA Class of 2009)
Anthony “Tony” Tata was hired by DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to be her Chief Operating Officer as he was undergoing his Broad Superintendents Academy training in 2009. A retired Army brigadier general, Tata was also a conservative pundit who once said that former Alaska governor Sara Palin is “precisely the kind of leader America needs.” Tata unexpectedly resigned from DCPS in December 2010, two months after Rhee’s resignation.
Immediately, Tata was hired as superintendent of Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in North Carolina. The previous summer, the district’s conservative Republican-controlled school board had eliminated educational and experience requirements for superintendents. Tata introduced a choice-based student assignment plan, ending the county’s nationally recognized socio-economic diversity policy, a move protested by parents and the local chapter of the NAACP.
By September 2012, the control of the WCPSS board had shifted to Democratic, and Tata was fired after less than 20 months on the job. Some of the board members called him “a polarizing figure.” In December 2012, the board voted to drop the choice-based student assignment plan. More details about Tata’s tenure in Wake County are here.
Tata was appointed Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation in January 2013.
Categories Education Reform
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