Archives for the year of: 2013
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Teacher in Sumter: How We Saved Our Schools

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
8

Last Monday, more than 800 people turned out for a school district meeting in Sumter, South Carolina, to oppose their Broad-trained superintendent. Parents, teachers, and the community came together to protect their schools against privatization.

This teacher writes:

“Hello from Sumter, South Carolina. I am a veteran teacher here. Dr. Ravitch’s books and blog have been important sources of information as the Sumter parents, teachers, and students educated themselves, each other, and the larger community. We were able to quickly articulate the threat Bynum posed to our community. We kept speaking and writing, often in the face of blatant intimidation and slanderous accusations. The community was abetted by the actions of Mr. Bynum himself, who revealed his intentions more every day as he became increasingly emboldened. As major business seemed ready to leave the town and the schools imploded, the local paper joined the fray. It has been a long battle, and the war remains to be fought. However, the community has become aware of the “reform” agenda and has organized to resist it.”

Categories Broad Foundation, Corporate Reformers

A Broadie Superintendent Resigns

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
47

After a divisive two years as superintendent of schools in Sumter, South Carolina, Randolph Bynum resigned.

The community expressed relief. At a meeting Monday night, more than 800 people showed up to express opposition to Bynum.

More than 150 teachers left the district during his brief tenure.

What do they teach at the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy? How to run a top-down organization that alienates teachers and parents? Apparently teamwork and collaboration are not part of the curriculum.

The story says:

“Luther Barnett, president of the Sumter Schools Education Association and a former English teacher at Sumter High School, said he’s relieved Bynum turned in his resignation letter.

“No, I’ve never seen anything like this in 17 years,” Barnett said. “I’ve been in Sumter for 17 years.”

He’s said it has been difficult to watch many teachers walk out the door.

“It’s been heartbreaking,” Barnett said.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Broad Foundation

Breaking News: Dallas Supt Under Investigation

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
27

Mike Miles, the Broad-trained superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District,  is under investigation by the Board of Education’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

According to investigative journalists, OPR is inquiring into charges that Miles interfered with an official inquiry and manipulated the bidding process for contracts.

An internal report to the board was published on the Internet by a board member.

The board’s top investigator accused Miles of trying to interfere with his investigation. Miles denied any wrongdoing.

At least six of Miles’ top staff have left in the year since he started work in Dallas, and groups have led protests against him.

He came to education from a military background.

Just today, the district’s trustees voted to hire an independent investigator of the charges against Miles.

Categories Accountability

Pennsylvania Releases Some Findings on Cheating

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
20

Apparently in response to Daniel Denvir’s article accusing the state of Pennsylvania of dragging its feet on an investigation of cheating on state tests, the state released some information.

Just remember whenever you hear a governor or other politician boasting about test scores that they have no idea (and neither will you) whether the gains were produced by mindless test prep (where students learn how to guess the right answer), by teaching to the test (where teachers abandon their professional ethics), or by cheating (by teachers or principals or students or superintendents or the state education department).

In a high-stakes environment, the pressure to raise scores renders them meaningless. See “Campbell’s Law.”

Categories Campbell's Law, Pennsylvania, Testing, U.S. Department of Education

Before Detroit’s Fire Sale Begins, Call the Experts

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
6

With bankruptcy looming, buzzards are flying by to pick meat off the Motor City’s bones. Before they do, someone should talk to experts on the dangers of privatization:

Contact: Richard Allen Smith

July 23, 2013 rasmith@inthepublicinterest.org

**** MEDIA AVAILABILITY****

As Detroit Contemplates a “Fire Sale” of its Assets, Privatization Experts are Available to Discuss the Dangers of Selling Public Assets and Services

Washington, DC – As the City of Detroit faces an $18 billion Chapter 9 bankruptcy, there has been much discussion of a “fire sale” of public assets and services to private interests as a way to inject quick cash into the city’s budget. Across the country, for-profit corporations seek to capitalize on the misfortune of cash-strapped cities like Detroit, but in nearly all cases, the outsourcing of public services has resulted in a loss of public control over quality of life issues, reduced jobs and benefits for public employees, greater cost to taxpayers and a lower quality rendered service.

As Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr and various judges weigh in on what comes next, experts on privatization and responsible contracting are available to discuss the consequences of outsourcing, and what may be next for the City of Detroit.

Donald Cohen is the founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting. Donald is a founding board member of the Partnership for Working Families, a national federation of metropolitan-based research, policy and action centers. He is on the board of Green For All, the Ballot Initiatives Strategy Center, and the Center for Effective Government. Donald has recently published opinion pieces about privatization issues in Reuters and Huffington Post.

Shar Habibi is the Research and Policy Director of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting. She previously worked on issues related to state government contracting at a policy and research organization in Texas, where she focused on the privatization of social services. Before that, she worked for a government procurement consulting firm. She received a Masters in Public Affairs and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

To schedule interviews with them, please contact Richard Allen Smith at rasmith@inthepublicinterest.org or (202) 327-8435.

###

Categories Detroit, Privatization

How Enron $till Put$ Student$ Fir$t

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
10

Enron may have gone bankrupt, and its employees may have lost their life savings, but it left some people very rich.

Here EduShyster tells the story of Texas billionaire John Arnold. He is one of the lucky few who managed to walk away from the Enron debacle with more than $3 billion. Some former Enron execs are doing time. Not Arnold. You know he must be smart because he got out before the roof fell in, and the bottom fell out.

And how does he spend his vast wealth?

He does what canny investors do: he pours millions into the struggle to privatize American public education. He has given millions to KIPP, StudentsFirst, and TFA. And he has a special interest in making sure that teachers don’t have pensions.

Billionaires have a hard time understanding why anyone needs a pension. They don’t need pensions. Why should teachers get them?

Categories Charter Schools, KIPP Charter Schools, Luna, Tom, Pensions, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching

NYC Educator: Making Big $$ in Bloomberg’s NYC

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
30

Arthur Goldstein, who teaches English language learners in a high school in Néw York City, realized he is missing out on the way to get very rich in Mayor Bloomberg’s education system.

Certainly not by teaching because the mayor doesn’t care for teachers.

It is not by teaching in a charter but by operating a charter like Eva and Geoffrey. The teachers turn over rapidly but the CEOs do very well indeed.

They have figured out that the secret to success is not accepting many ELLs or kids with disabilities.

Works like a charm.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Charter Schools, New York City, Teacher Evaluations

Kevin Huffman and the Mind of a Reformer

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
69

Kevin Huffman, Tennessee state education commissioner, has decided that children with disabilities need to take the same standardized state tests as other children.

For many years, children with severe disabilities took an alternative test, but Huffman wants to put an end to that.

He says it is time to stop lying to these children.

“For years, the state has been hiding children with disabilities by giving them them the alternative test instead of the TCAP, Huffman said.

“They didn’t perform well on their first TCAP test, but “it’s important that we’re stopping the lying,” he said.

Please, dear readers, help me understand the mind of someone who thinks he is helping children with severe disabilities by requiring them to take a standardized test that many cannot read.

Is he launching a research project?

He certainly does not display any knowledge of the reasons for IEPs, so perhaps he acts from ignorance.

He must know that many severely disabled children will fail and feel deep anguish. So is he acting maliciously? Or, knowing the distress he will cause so many severely disabled children, is it sadism?

Whatever it is, it is not equity, it is not in the best interest of these children, and it is not reform.

Why not give them the same care provided by Harpeth Hall, a private school in Nashville where one of Huffman’s daughters is a student? Harpeth Hall does not give standardized tests. If Huffman is right, the school is hiding something and “lying” to their students by not testing them.

Categories Special Education, Tennessee, Testing

Bruce Baker: One of the Dumbest Ways to Evaluate Teachers

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
5

Bruce Baker here examines a “graduate school” created by charter schools where their inexperienced teachers train new teachers how to produce high test scores.

The model is a charter in New Jersey called North Star that gets great “growth scores” but has remarkably high attrition rates, especially among black boys.

Baker writes:

“But is a school really successful if 50 enter 5th grade, 1/3 are gone by 8th grade and only a handful ever graduate?

“Is this any indication of the quality of teaching, or pedagogy involved? I won’t go so far as to suggest that what I personally might perceive as offensive, demeaning pedagogy is driving these attrition rates (okay… maybe I just did).

“But, at the very least, I might argue that a school that loses over half its kids from grade 5 to 12 is a failing school, not an outstanding one. Whether that has any implications for labeling their teachers as “failing” and their preparation programs as “failing” is another question entirely.

“It is quite simply completely and utterly ridiculous to suggest that Relay GSE is an outstanding graduate school of education as a function of measured test score gains of the few students who might stick around to take the tests in subsequent years.

“No secret sauce here… just a boatload of bogus policy assumptions creating perverse incentives and taking our education system even further in the wrong direction.”

Categories Charter Schools, Teacher Evaluations

How Many Times Can Charter Operators Fail and Still Survive?

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
6

Darcie Cimarusti—aka Mother Crusader—has done some heavy duty investigation and research. She was trying to figure out who were the movers and shakers behind the Jersey City Global Charter School. She knew that New Jersey Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf boasted about the care with which he selected new charter schools and their operators. But she was not convinced.

It didn’t take much digging for her to discoverthat the operator of this charter was a central figure in one of the nation’s biggest charter school scandals.

If Mother Crusader could get to the bottom of this quagmire, why couldn’t Chris Cerf or his crack staff at the New Jersey Department of Education?

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey
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