Archives for the year of: 2013
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How Useful Are the Magazine HS Rankings?

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2013 //
35

Matt Di Carlo takes a close look at the Newsweek and US News high school rankings and finds that they don’t tell you much about school quality. The information is self-reported. Only about half the high schools responded. The measures favor schools in affluent districts or schools with selective admissions.

This echoes what I heard from a reporter in Arizona. Two charter high schools are at the top end of the US News ratings. One has a tough selection process, accepting only accomplished students. The other requires that students take the AP courses so beloved by the magazine, so it has a high attrition rate.

Bottom line: a good school, as judged by US News, is a selective school that does not accept or retain average or low-performing students.

Categories Curriculum

Does Cincinnati Have the Right Formula?

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2013 //
16

People often wonder if there is any district or state that is working to support children and to strengthen public education. In the age of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, it is difficult to find districts that manage to keep their focus on students instead of carrots and sticks.

But there are success stories.

One is Cincinnati. When I visited there a couple of years ago, I met with the community leaders working together in a collaboration called Strive. They used data to mark needs and progress on key indicators, not to fire educators and close schools. I saw impressive collaboration between the teachers’ union and other community agencies.

In this article, Greg Anrig explains why Cincinnati has taken a different course from the rest of the nation.

He explains:

“What can other urban school districts do to replicate these results, and move away from the highly confrontational reliance on market-based incentives that have dominated educational policymaking in recent years? First, it is vital to build trust between school administrators and teachers unions. It is no accident that Cincinnati Superintendent Ronan and the city’s teachers share mutual respect. Ronan, 59, spent her entire career in Cincinnati, beginning as a middle school math and science teacher in 1976. Later she became an elementary school principal and climbed the administrative ladder while forming strong relationships along the way. Julie Sellers, the president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, told Education Week: “[Ronan] probably knows more teachers than any superintendent. I think it has been beneficial for her to get buy-in. Teachers feel comfortable talking to her. There’s nothing we don’t do in Cincinnati. These are the best urban, high-poverty schools in the country.”

Yes, there is hope.

Categories Ohio, Support for public schools

Will Public Education in Texas Survive the Next Two Weeks?

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2013 //
8

On May 27, the legislature ends its session. Supporters of public education are keeping fingers crossed that no damaging measures pass in the next two weeks.

The head of the Senate Committee on Education, Dan Patrick, loves vouchers and most anything except public schools. The head of the House Committee on Public Education, Jimmie Don Aycock, is a Republican who believes in public schools.

Meanwhile various lobbying groups are fending off or advancing their own views.

Raise Your Hand Texas generally supports public schools and is opposed to vouchers.

Texans for Education Reform is strong for online charters and charters in general.

Texas parents and teachers are fortunate to have a wealthy Texan who supports public schools, name of Charles Butt.

Mr. Butt made his fortune in the grocery business and he has a keen sense of civic duty.

The sides are not clear-cut. Mike Feinberg of KIPP is a member of the board of Raise Your Hand Texas, which is anti-voucher.

Texans for Education Reform mouths the usual deform platitudes about how they are “for” something (privatization) and their opponents are just against.

Meanwhile, parents are eager to see the legislature restore some of the $5.4 billion they cut from the public schools two years ago–before they discovered the state had a surplus.

 

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Texas, Vouchers

Teacher to Iowa Governor: This Is What Teachers Need

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2013 //
2

Amy Prime teaches second grade in Iowa. She writes frequently about education issues in her state. When the politicians began passing laws to “fix” teaching, Amy decided they should know what teachers want and need.

This is the article she wrote.

Amy is engaged not just in teaching second grade, but in educating the public. This is crucial, as we must build public understanding, demolish the myths about teaching, and allow the public to recognize the realities of education today.

She concludes her article with this message to Governor Branstad:

“The governor’s desire to help support teachers is noble. His administration has acknowledged many times that Iowa has great teachers. So let’s not fix a nonexistent problem and create more hoops for teachers to jump through. Instead let’s provide real assistance. Let’s make sure facilities, materials and technology are current and that support staffers are plentiful. Let’s find ways to provide more time for teachers to prepare for students and find ways to help kids be ready for school. And, most of all, let’s stop sending the message that the dedicated professionals of this state who put their hearts, minds, time and money into the kids of Iowa are somehow failing them.”

Categories Teachers and Teaching

An Appeal to UTLA: Please Help Monica Ratliff

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2013 //
9

Dear UTLA Members:

I am writing to urge you to throw your full support behind the candidacy of Monica Ratliff for the Los Angeles school board race.

Monica deserves and needs your help.

I know you endorsed both her and her opponent. I am calling on you to help your colleague.

Her opponent has collected over $2 million from the the same wealthy elites, the billionaires and millionaires who tried to unseat Steve Zimmer.

Monica has no wealthy backers. What she has to offer is her deep knowledge and understanding of the children and schools of Los Angeles. For eleven years, she has taught in a high-poverty elementary school. Before that, she worked as a public interest lawyer on behalf of people who are poor.

Steve Zimmer won because he had your support. Monica needs you now.

Monica is a teacher, a member of the UTLA, and was elected by her school colleagues to serve as their delegate to your house of representatives.

Although Monica was endorsed by all the major newspapers in Los Angeles, which recognized her superior qualifications, she needs the help of her fellow teachers to win.

And that is why I am writing this appeal to you to withdraw your endorsement of her opponent and put your full support behind her. She needs you. And the children of Los Angeles need her to speak for them.

An upset victory by Monica would send hope to teachers and parents across the nation.

Please send a message to the nation:

Public education is not for sale.

Support Monica Ratliff.

Diane Ravitch

Categories Los Angeles

Charter Fights Off Criminal, Civil Charges to Stay Open

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2013 //
9

A parent activist in Philadelphia sent me this astonishing story about how hard it is ( impossible?) to close a charter school.

In 2009, an employee filed a whistleblower complaint with the US Department of Education about financial misdeeds at Community Academy of Philadelphia, the city’s oldest charter school. When federal investigators arrived to confiscate records, they asked her to identify herself. She did and was fired the next day.

She has sued the school, but can’t get a trial because the charter school says it is the subject of a criminal investigation and has won delays. Meanwhile the School Reform Commission is determining whether to close the school because of low academic performance.

The criminal investigation drags on.

Here is the nub of the whistleblower’s complaint:

“Harper alleged that Joseph Proietta, Community’s founder and chief executive, and other officials ran Community Academy and One Bright Ray “like personal fiefdoms or family businesses rather than the publicly funded school and nonprofit entities that they are.”

“A month later, more than a dozen federal agents appeared at Community Academy and One Bright Ray and spent the day collecting boxes of documents and copying computer hard drives.

“According to Harper’s suit, when the agents arrived, an agent from the inspector general’s office approached Anna Duvivier, the school’s chief operating officer, and asked: “Where is Adorable Harper?”

“Harper raised her hand. The next day Proietta and Duvivier fired her.”

Harper is a graduate of the school.

The school has 1,235 students, K-12.

Categories Charter Schools, Philadelphia

The Obama-Duncan-Gates-Rhee Philosophy of School Reform

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2013 //
32

While cleaning out my files, I came across this amazing article written in 2009 by the editorial page editor of the Washington Post. The historian in me finds it difficult to throw anything away, so the best way to save it is to share it.

It is a succinct and worshipful description of the ideas that we now recognize as corporate reform.

What would Bill Gates do to fix the schools? Expand charter chains like KIPP and improve teacher effectiveness.

The article goes on to say:

“In both cases, institutions stand in the way. School boards resist the expansion of charter schools. Teachers unions resist measuring and rewarding effectiveness. In fact, Gates said, evidence shows no connection between teaching quality and most of the measures used in contracts to determine pay. Seniority, holding a master’s degree or teacher’s certification, and even, below 10th grade, having deep knowledge of a subject — these all are mostly irrelevant. It follows that some of the money devoted to rewarding teachers who get higher degrees and to pensions accessible only to those who stay 10 or more years should go instead to keeping the best teachers from leaving in their fourth or fifth years.”

“One purpose of measurement would be to deploy the best teachers to the neediest schools, and pay them accordingly; another, to fire the worst teachers. But the main point, Gates said, is that effective teaching can be taught: “The biggest part is taking the people who want to be good — and helping them.”

“President Obama and his education secretary, former Chicago school superintendent Arne Duncan, are on the same wavelength. During an electronic town hall forum at the White House on Thursday, Obama cited as his priorities pre-K education, charter schools and teacher effectiveness.”

This article bears re-reading. It predicts every policy disaster of the last three years.

Categories Education Reform

North Carolina: Public Schools and Students Endangered by Radical Agenda

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2013 //
36

Legislation is advancing in North Carolina that will harm the state’s underfunded public schools and strike a blow against its beleaguered teachers.

North Carolina is a right-to-work state, so there is no collective bargaining, and teachers have no voice in policy decisions about education.

Among the worst of the new bills is a proposal to fund a voucher/tax credit program, removing $90 million from public schools so that 1% of the state’s 1.5 million students may attend private and/or religious schools.

Another bill would strip away due process rights from teachers, so that teachers would have no right to a hearing if fired, no matter how many years of experience they have.

The new legislation would restrict eligibility for preschool, reducing the number of children who may enroll, and remove class size limits for some elementary grades.

Make no mistake (President Obama’s favorite expression, mine too): this legislation will save money in the short run but will cost the state far more in the long term. The Legislature is planning not only to harm public education, but to harm the children who benefit by being in preschool and in classes of reasonable size.

Former Congressman and State Superintendent Bob Etheridge said: “To the folks now running our state government in Raleigh, education reform is just another code word for cut, slash and burn.”

Governor Pat McCrory, who supports the radical anti-teacher, anti-public education agenda, has just named Eric Guckian as his Senior Education Advisor. Guckian was regional director of New Leaders in North Carolina (which recruits “transformational” leaders) and before that, was executive director of Teach for America in the state. He has been a consultant for the Gates Foundation and worked with KIPP. The following comes from the Governor’s press release:

“I am honored and humbled to serve as a member of Governor McCrory’s team,” said Guckian. “This is a critical time for education in our state, and I’m looking forward to working with committed teachers, leaders and community members to ensure that all of North Carolina’s students, regardless of circumstance, achieve an excellent education that will put them on the pathway to a better life; a life of honor, prosperity and service.”

Guckian joins John White in Louisiana and Kevin Huffman in Tennessee as TFA alumni in state-level positions serving reactionary administrations.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Class size, Corporate Reformers, North Carolina, Privatization, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Tenure, Vouchers

The Bathroom Crisis at Locke High School in L.A.

By dianeravitch
May 13, 2013 //
22

The Green Dot charter chain took over Locke High School in 2008.

It received $15 million of mostly private funding to overhaul the school and completely change its culture.

But the one challenge that Green Dot has been unable to overcome is to provide a safe, clean place for boys to go to the bathroom.

After the stalls were vandalized, the school ripped them out, leaving no privacy.

When you read the article, you will note that teachers were afraid to express their concerns. Wonder why?

Many boys go home to use the toilet.

Test scores are up, though still disappointingly low.

On state subject matter tests, more than half the Locke students tested “below basic.”

But the students don’t have the most basic of amenities, even with a grant of $15 million.

Still waiting for that Green Dot magic.

Categories Catholic Schools, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Los Angeles

Michigan Officials Abandon Students in Buena Vista

By dianeravitch
May 13, 2013 //
26

The school district of Buena Vista, Michigan, is out of money. The schools are closed for the year. The district will offer “skills camp” to students.

The state of Michigan, which has a responsibility to provide a free public education to all children, has abandoned the students and their schools. The town and the schools are predominantly poor nd black. The town once thrived but started to die when the automobile industry collapsed. Nw those left behind have been betrayed by Governor Snyder.

The Congressman who represents Buena Vista is upset:

“The students of Buena Vista have a constitutional right to an education and deserve the same educational opportunities as other Michigan children, and that means being in a classroom full-time to complete their school year,” said Rep. Dan Kildee, a Democratic congressman who represents Buena Vista, on Monday. “I do not believe that a voluntary camp amounts to a proper education for the children of Buena Vista.”

Categories Closing schools, Michigan
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