To understand the tentacles of corporate reform, you must read this post
Here Mercedes Schneider continues her review of the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality. As her research deepens, she uncovers the links among the big-money investors and their plans to privatize education, turn teachers and children into assets, and monetize public education.
On Wednesday, a large group of high school students staged a zombie protest in front of he Rhode Island Department of Education. They said that the state’s high-stakes testing would turn them into the undead.
New York has zombies too. They are running the State Education Department and they fervently believe that testing is the very essence of education. They think that testing will help poor kids. The zombies think that testing will close the achievement gap. No one ever explained to them that standardized tests are based on a bell curve and the achievement gap is designed into the curve: IT NEVER CLOSES.
There are some brave humans on the New York Board of Regents who are among the living. They are Dr. Kathleen Cashin, an experienced educator who represents Brooklyn; Dr. Betty Rosa, an experienced educator who represents the Bronx; Roger Tilles, a lawyer and businessman who represents Long Island; and Harry Phillips, a business executive who represents The suburban counties north of New York City.
Phillips belatedly realized that New York State made a terrible mistake in accepting Race to the Top funding and accepting its mandate to tie teacher evaluation to test scores. It’s hard to admit that you made an error. He had the courage and wisdom to do so.
Now that there is a solid bloc of four Regents who understand the damage that Race to the Top is inflicting on the schools of the state, perhaps other Regents will shed their zombie status and return to the land of the living, where people and children matter more than data and formulae.
Here is a chance to make your voice heard.
Crain’s New York is running an opinion poll, asking which of Bloomberg’s policies the next mayor should get rid of. Bloomberg has promoted high-stakes testing, charter schools, school closings, co-locations of charters, and evaluation of teachers by test scores. Class sizes are at their highest in fourteen years.
After I posted about the NYC DOE decision to place a new charter school into space that Central Park East wanted for expansion, many comments were received. Some accused the school of being exclusive or selective or no different from a charter. This parent at the school responded in hopes of clarifying what the school is and does.
There is an alarming amount of misinformation in the posts above.
There is no admissions test at CPE, and the school’s population is heterogeneous in every respect; the admissions process is designed to create a balance of students, not to select the most “gifted.” The most important criterion for admission is that the parents desire a progressive education for their children.
The curriculum that my son is experiencing at CPE is radically different from the traditional model that his brother got at a regular public school (also in East Harlem). There is more play, art, music, and movement incorporated into the school day, and my third-grader has yet to bring home a practice test for homework (his brother at this point in his 3rd grade year at his traditional school was doing nothing but filling in bubbles).
Not all parents would choose this non-traditional approach, but those who do feel passionately that it is right for their child and their own educational values. No one at CPE feels that there is an either/or between the progressive middle school that we have been applying to start for five years and the East Harlem Scholars’ Academy, which is desired by other parents.
THERE IS ROOM FOR BOTH, and BOTH are desired by parents in the community. Isn’t this what the much touted “school choice” is all about? But the DOE is acting with gross favoritism when it allows a brand new charter school to expand while the CPE’s application is rejected for lack of space.
Robert Skeels is a pro-public school candidate in Los Angeles. He has raised $15,000. He will not get anything from Eli Broad or Michael Bloomberg.
He comments:
The LA Times asked me for a quote on Bloomberg’s $1 Million CSR donation. Here’s my response: “As a community candidate who has raised over $15,000 through myriad small contributions from local parents, community members, and classroom teachers, I find it dismaying that a single out-of-state billionaire has a greater voice in our school board election than all the working families of District 2. Where were these millions of dollars when the incumbent callously cut early childhood education, adult education, and K-12 arts last year?”
Just an hour ago, I posted the story about how officials at the Tennessee Virtual Academy had instructed teachers to delete failing grades, allegedly to show “progress.”
The virtual school, run by the for-profit K12 corporation, is among the lowest-performing schools in the state.
This afternoon a state legislative committee blocked any discussion of the school altering grades and prevented efforts to limit enrollment in the school. Although the legislators refused to hear any reference to the school’s practice of deleting failing grades, they did hear a teacher who claimed that home instruction on a computer was a very positive experience for children with autism.
The legislators gave the virtual school an additional two years with no accountability, despite its poor academic performance.
The school gets about $5,000 per pupil and enrolls more than 3,000 students. It is known for its astute lobbying and well-targeted campaign contributions.
Another step backward for American education.
Administrators at the for-profit K12 online charter called Tennessee Virtual Academy instructed teachers to delete failing grades from the fall semester.
School officials defended the practice:
Tennessee Virtual Academy Principal Josh Williams insisted that the school had taken the steps to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.”
“By going back into our school’s electronic grading system and recording students’ most recent progress score (instead of taking the average throughout the semester) we could more accurately recognize students’ current progress in their individualized learning program,” he told the station in an email.
This must be the lamest excuse ever invented, since it achieves the opposite of what is intended. If you want to show “progress,” you keep the failing grades. That way, you can see gains from September forward.
The school is one of the lowest performing in the state. Despite its poor performance, the school is making money for K12 and hopes to grow enrollment.
We will soon find out whether the legislators care more about the quality of education offered to Tennessee students or pleasing the lobbyists for K12.
Despite the fact that a Louisiana judge struck down the funding for the state’s voucher program, State Superintendent John White expressed confidence that the state would find a way to pay for it and that the numbers who leave public schools for religious schools with public funding will increase.
Although nearly half a million students were eligible this current year, only about 5,000 currently are using a voucher to attend a nonpublic school.
White did not address whether the state will continue to fund schools that do not teach accurate or modern science, mathematics or history.
Nor did he mention whether teachers in voucher schools will need to be certified, as they are not now.
John White is one of the national leaders that Teach for America produced.
He is determined to leave a legacy in Louisiana of vouchers, charters, and an impoverished public school system.
Some legacy.
Maybe his next job might be at ALEC or the Walton Foundation.
Despite protests from parents and teachers, the Indiana Legislature agreed to continue rolling out the Common Core standards, which have already been rolled out for kindergarten and first grade, and will soon be released for second grades (these are the grades in which early childhood experts say the Common Core standards are developmentally inappropriate).
The state board of education, which is staunchly Republican, is firmly and unanimously committed to the Common Core.
Newly elected State Superintendent Glenda Ritz said she would review the CC standards to see whether there was a way to combine them with Indiana’s previous standards, which were widely recognized as among the best in the nation.
Here is a good overview of the political situation in Los Angeles by Howard Blume of the LA Times. Two billionaires have assembled a campaign chest of $2.5 million to make sure that Superintendent John Deasey has a board that supports his agenda.
Los Angeles has more charter schools than any city in America, and more are on the way.
Mayor Bloomberg’s contribution of $1 million to the pro-Deasey forces is called “a game-changer.”
Steve Zimmer, the prime target of the corporatists, says that he hopes to have a chance to sit down and talk with Mayor Bloomberg.
He thinks the mayor might change his mind.
New Yorkers would advise him not to hold his breath while waiting for that meeting.
Lest we forget, there is a larger question that deserves attention: Is it appropriate for someone who has been fortunate enough to amass $20 billion to use that money to overwhelm the democratic process?
