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Gene Glass: This is the BASIS Sales Pitch

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2014 //
19

Gene Glass, a distinguished researcher, wrote the following about a charter chain that is regularly lauded by U.S. News & World Report:

Ever Hear a BASIS Schools Sales Pitch?

The Basis charter schools – some ten schools in Arizona and a couple more in places like San Antonio and Washington, DC – have long been a fascinating subject for this blog and others.

US News & World Report continues to rank schools like Basis Scottsdale and Basis Tucson in the top ten high schools in the nation. This happens in spite of the fact that the schools’ practices result in thinning elementary and middle school classes down from a hundred to a couple dozen by graduation from grade 12. Is this the best education in the country or the worst journalism, I ask you,US News? A high school that graduates fewer than 30 students a year hardly deserves the accolades afforded Basis Scottsdale or Basis Tucson. I can assure you that within a radius of 5 miles there are several times as many high school Seniors graduating from traditional public high schools whose test scores and college admissions statistics will outdo those of Basis students.

A little background: About five years ago, Basis decided to open a private school in Scottsdale, AZ. No one knows what their motivation was since their previous schools were all charter schools. Perhaps they saw the eye-popping tuition ($15,000 and up) that was being charged by Phoenix Country Day School or Rancho Solano and thought to themselves, Why not? Basis Scottsdale was created and advertised and by opening day in the fall, seven students had signed up! Basis Scottsdale was quickly converted into a charter school – which had to be quite an embarrassment to Michael Block, Basis founder and a former free-market economics professor at the University of Arizona. This particular little test of the free market failed miserably. Crony capitalism is safer.

Not only does Basis engage in ruthless thinning across the grades, but they also practice rigorous selection of students for high academic ability at the entry grades. David Safier has shown as much in his blog, and it hit a sensitive nerve with the Basis people who attempted to refute his charges. The Basis people insist that they do no selection of incoming students and that admission is strictly by lottery. Clearly we have some word play going on here. Stripped of casuistry, I think we can clarify by saying that Basis randomly “selects” incoming students from a very “select” group of applicants. I didn’t realize just how select that applicant pool is until my friend Mimi just happened to drop by a Basis schools sales pitch.

Mimi is curator of a large private art museum in downtown Phoenix. Basis had announced in early 2014 that they would soon open Basis Phoenix, a charter school in the center of the city in order to favor the unhappy parents of Phoenix with the Basis brand of education. Mimi was leaving work late one evening in March when she saw the placard announcing the Basis information meeting in the conference hall of her very own building. The capacity of the hall was 90 persons, but more than 200 people filled the room and spilled out into the hallway. For just a moment, Mimi considered phoning the fire marshal; but on second thought, she decided to squeeze into the hall and catch the sales pitch.

What Mimi told me about what transpired during the Basis sales pitch was filtered through her years as a curriculum supervisor and teacher in big-city schools across the country. The Basis people would surely claim that her views were thus corrupted and biased by her background. I would argue that her views are well informed by years of experience as an educator. Judge for yourself.

Mimi’s Report (with her reflections in parentheses):

I was stunned by the size of the crowd of parents who showed up at this “informational meeting,” but what was more shocking to see was that maybe 60% of the parents were either far east Asian or East Indian. That really seemed weird because I know that the Phoenix Elementary school district is 2% or less Asian. I saw very few Hispanic or African American parents in the room.

The meeting – it was really an hour long uninterrupted presentation with no questions allowed – was presided over by a pot-bellied man in a florescent orange shirt. Orange Shirt stood in the middle of the stage backed up by a half dozen young adults seated in chairs. He referred to his back-ups as “Subject Specialists”; they sat silently through the entire presentation, never said a word, and left without being asked any questions.

The presentation started with a series of video clips projected onto a large screen. The clips showed school teachers as portrayed in popular media like movies, and each one made the teachers look ridiculous. Of course, the famous Ben Stein scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was featured: “Anybody, Anybody?” The message was clear: traditional, ed school trained teachers are fools. Orange Shirt never referred to the Basis teachers as “teachers”; he made it quite clear that Basis employs Subject Specialists.

Here’s how things were going to run at Basis Phoenix, according to Orange Shirt. The school would start with grades K through 4, and each year a grade would be added until a full K-12 school was reached. In the beginning, grades K-4 would have 30 students each and each subsequent year another track of 30 would be added until each grade’s enrollment reached 100.

Two themes permeated the presentation – all of which consisted of Orange Shirt’s monologue with no questions from the floor entertained.

At all grade levels schooling would be conducted as if it were a high school. From Kindergarten up, the students would experience Basis education just like high school education: lectures, passing from room to room for each subject taught, individual lockers, etc. Children who go through a Basis school will be high school and college ready at the end.

Self-selection. Orange Shirt was emphatic. Basis does not select its students; admission is by lottery. (Of course, if Basis doesn’t “select” then it can claim to be just like a traditional public school that takes all comers – a fatuous claim, of course, since a lottery from among a pool of “self-selected” applicants is hardly comparable to taking on all comers.) Yes, there is a lot of thinning going on across the grades. (Parents have reported that the curriculum resembles a gauntlet of paper-and-pencil tests.) And yes, lots of students choose to continue their education back in the dreaded traditional public schools. But – and Orange Shirt was emphatic on this point – students “self-select” out of the school; Basis does not do any selecting.

Orange Shirt rattled off a series of features of a Basis education:
“Subject Specialists” have not been corrupted by having their brains filled with a lot of “ed school” nonsense.
Students will study Mandarin in Grades K – 3. (Presumably this will make the school more appealing to those highly motivated Asian families.)

Parents are to drive their children to the front entrance, drop them off, remain in the car, and drive away promptly; no congregating at the entrance to the school.

Parents are not used as volunteers in the classroom. (In fact, the whole idea of parent involvement in the school was strongly discouraged.)

Orange Shirt’s monologue took up 45 minutes. No time was allotted for questions from the parents. I pressed forward toward the stage at the end of the talk; Orange Shirt did not seem too receptive to questions but I managed to ask him how much his “Subject Specialists” are paid. “Each contract is individually negotiated,” he said. Sure, what better way to keep the employees in the dark and off balance in any negotiations.

All I can say is that it was a bizarre experience. Looming over the proceedings were the personalities of Michael and Olga Block, the Basis founders who were spoken of reverentially. A picture was painted of small children treated as adults. I couldn’t help thinking of my own grandchildren and how I would never want them treated like miniature college students by the Basis Subject Specialists.

Yes, Mimi. Bizarre indeed. I wonder how much the average reader of US News and World Report knows about what goes on in the Best High Schools in America.

Gene V Glass
Arizona State University
National Education Policy Center
University of Colorado Boulder

_________________________
Gene V Glass Blog: http://ed2worlds.blogspot.com
Regents’ Professor Emeritus Tweets: @GeneVGlass
Arizona State University Homepage: http://gvglass.info

Research Professor
University of Colorado Boulder

Categories Arizona, Charter Schools

My Spam Box: A Source of Endless Amusement

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2014 //
10

For some time, I have wanted to share with you some of the comments in my spam box.

 

Currently there are more than 150,000 items in my spam box.

 

Usually I take the time to empty it out, but I haven’t been attentive lately, so it just grows and grows.

 

Some of the items are hilarious, like this one that arrived today:

 

Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as
though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos
to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to read?

 

Now, given the fact that I almost never (maybe never) post videos to my blog and that I typically overwhelm people with more to read than they can handle, this one is priceless.

 

A lot of my spam is simply advertisements. Advertisements for almost any product or service you can imagine: Rolex watches, roof repairs, hot girls, how-to-do-something, urinalysis, drugs from Canada, and almost everything else you can think of.

 

Many come from corporations that want to use my site to tout their online schools or products. Some come from authors who claim to be free-lance but ask to write a guest blog about the wonders of online learning sponsored by a particular corporate entity.

 

Many spam comments begin, “My sister told me to read this site and…” or “My cousin told me to come to this site…”

 

Others start, “Howdy, dude.” Or, “Howdy, man…” and I stop there.

 

And another typical opening, “I know that this may be off-topic, but….” and what follows is not only off-topic but not germane to anything on the blog.

 

Many start by telling me I have an awesome site. They love what I write. They want to read more. They love the graphics (of which there are none). They can’t get enough. They think that if they praise me or the blog, I will post their comment, though it is obvious that they have never read anything I have actually posted.

 

And periodically, at least a few times a week, someone writes to tell me that my blog looks just like his or her blog and they ask whether I am copying their site.

 

Oh, and then there are the dozens of requests from people who ask me if I have had problems with hackers (like them?) or if I would tell them what platform I am using (WordPress, which is obvious).

 

And the spammers who ask me for advice on how to write.

 

My guess is that there is an army of spammers who would like to find a way to get their comments approved. So far, so good.

 

So far, my favorite of all is the spam that complains that I need to write more and rely less on videos and graphics.

 

 

 

Categories Personal

Jack Hassard: Protect Your Children, Opt Out of Testing

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2014 //
11

Jack Hassard, emeritus professor of science education ay Georgia State University, describes what happened when a family in Marietta decided to opt their child out of state testing. Their school used scare tactics, threatening to have them arrested. They stood their ground, and the school backed down.

Hassard contacted parents in Texas who told him of the bullying tactics in Austin schools, all intended to raise scores. The Austin superintendent has been hired by Atlanta. Hassard says the Opt Out movement is strong and growing stronger in Texas.

Georgia has just contracted with McGraw-Hill for $110 million to design new tests for Georgia. Hassard says all this testing is unnecessary. Georgia could learn all it needs to know sbout its students either from NAEP or by administering no-stakes, sampled tests like NAEP.

Hassard concludes:

“If high-stakes testing is revoked, we will make one of the most important decisions in the lives of students and their families, and the educators who practice in our public schools. Banning tests, throwing them out, eliminating them, what ever you wish to call it, will open the door to more innovative and creative teaching, and an infusion of collaborative and problem solving projects that will really prepare students for career and college.

“Making kids endure adult anger is not what public education is about. Why in the world are we so angry and willing to take it out on K-12 students? Why do we put the blame on children and youth, and if they don’t live up to a set of unsubstantiated and unscientific standards and statistics, we take it out on teachers?

“The best thing for students is throw the bums (tests) out. The next best thing will be for teachers because without standardized test scores, there will be no way to calculate VAM scores as a method to evaluate teachers.”

Categories Georgia, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Texas

New Post: Duncan Says Racial Segregation Has Worsened, But No one Is Accountable

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
157

I posted this on my trip home from the hospital earlier today. I made a mistake and hit “publish” before I wrote the post. Here is the post that was supposed to accompany the title!

In a speech to the Education Writers Association, Arne Duncan said that racial isolation has gotten worse in the past two decades, including (one assumes) during his own tenure in office.

An article in Education Daily by Frank Wolfe (sorry, don’t have the link) says:

“While the Education Department has promoted a number of programs and measures to improve the achievement of disadvantaged students, the singularly thorny problem of racially isolated schools has remained and has worsened, Education Secretary Arne Duncan acknowledged on Tuesday.
“While [Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 107 LRP 36247 (1954)] struck down de jure segregation as unconstitutional, de facto school seg- regation has worsened in many respects in the last two decades,” Duncan told the Education Writers Association national seminar in Nashville. “Since 1991, all regions of the nation have experienced an increase in the percentage of black students who attend highly segregated schools, where 90 percent or more of students are students of color. Here in the South, more than a third of black students attend such racially isolated schools. In the Northeast, more than 50 percent do.”

What? Who should be held accountable for this backsliding on our nation’s commitment to equality of educational opportunity (not separate but equal)?

The US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has powerful enforcement powers. What are they doing about this retrograde trend? Are they demanding that charter schools reach out and seek integrated enrollments? What have they done in Chicago and Néw York City, both highly segregated urban school districts. What have they done about the proliferation of all-black vouchers? Why has Duncan been so forceful in advocating on behalf of racially segregated charter schools? When will he be held accountable for his failure to do anything to promote racial integration? How has he used the considerable powers of his office to make a difference?

The Department of Education responded to questions by Education Daily, defending its record.

“Six decades after Brown, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is vigorously working to steer America away from racial isolation,” ED said in a statement in response to questions from Education Daily®. “When we find examples of race segregation and discrimination, we put a stop to it. We negotiate settlements with districts to bring them into compliance with our civil rights laws. We carry a huge hammer. Any district that refuses to work with us faces the prospect of our withholding federal funds. Once those agreements have been signed, we closely monitor their implementation — sometimes for years. We issue guidance to schools on their responsibilities to ensure racial equality. We provide grass roots technical assistance at our regional OCR offices around the country. The goal that drives our work is simple — to promote excellence in education that’s colorblind and equal for all.”

Here is an example of empty bureaucratic blather. The US Department of Education has not played a forceful or effective role. If it had, segregation would not be worsening. Why don’t they just apologize and say, “We have really fallen down on the job. Our boss wants more charter schools, even though they are more segregated than the surrounding district. He likes to go to all-black schools and celebrate their success. Actually we have been sitting on our hands where racial integration is concerned, just like the last Bush administration. Frankly, racial integration is not on our radar screen these days. We can’t afford to offend the charter lobby. Sorry, our hands are tied.”

Categories Duncan, Arne, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, U.S. Department of Education

Duncan: Racial Isolation Has Worsened

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
20
Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Duncan, Arne, New York City, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, U.S. Department of Education

Teacher in Palm Beach County: How I Am Evaluated

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
64

Thanks to Arne Duncan, almost every state now has an elaborate teacher evaluation plan. There is no evidence that the pans identify teachers correctly, but they are widespread because Duncan believes and he is Secretary of Education, with more certainty than any of his predecessors.

What hath Arne wrought? Here is an account I hope he reads. It shows what a mess he has made in thousands of schools.

I”ve been trying to find the right place to share what I’ve written about the ridiculous evaluation process that occurs in Palm Beach County, FL. Friends who have read it asked that I share it with you, Diane.

My teacher evaluation rant

I’m about to write out the long, stupidly involved story of the truth behind teacher evaluations, specifically at my school, but likely not too different than everywhere.

Five (or more) times in the school year my principal does classroom observations. There are three different kinds: 1 formal, forty minute lesson observation; 2 5-15 minute informal; 2 30 second-2 minute walkthroughs. She evaluates me using the Robert Marzano Menu of Design Questions There are about 60 specific behaviors within 4 different domains, each with 3-7 components, that she is looking for during those observations.

Each of the 60 behaviors is then graded on a scale of: not using, beginning, developing, applying, and innovating. The evaluator, after marking off the components then decides how to grade the behavior. Comments, if appropriate are also added (as in: All of the students were actively engaged in the lesson) At the end of each observation I get an email directing me to approve the observation.

At the end of the year, the grades for each behavior are calculated to determine if the teacher is: Highly Effective (3.2 – 4.0), Effective (2.1 – 3.1), Developing (1.2 – 2.0) or Unsatisfactory (1.0 – 1.1). Last year I was deemed Highly Effective based on my observations. I didn’t really look at the details because I was overly pleased with the results.

I should note that for my first two years teaching this was a new evaluation system. Our district decided that during the learning curve process ALL teachers would be given the same grade/evaluation level of Effective, so the observations were a tool for us to begin to look at where we could stand to improve and what we were already doing well. The fact that I was evaluated as Highly Effective had no bearing on anything, since ALL teachers were graded as Effective. Also, last year only 2 of the 4 domains were observed. This year only 3 were observed.

The added domain is for our own personal professional development. I mention this because we were instructed at the beginning of the year that ALL teachers had to have the same personal professional development goal: to improve student success through implementation of the Marzano Techniques of Teaching (see a trend?). I didn’t want this to be my goal, but I didn’t have a choice (don’t get me started). (Last year my personal goal was to improve my ELL students’ oral language assessments by 50% – I reached that goal and then some).

This year’s evaluation has come back and I am now graded as Effective with an overall score of 3.0. I was wondering how I dropped from Highly Effective to Effective, so I started looking more closely at the numbers. Here is what I saw:

I was marked as Innovating (4.0) for 12/31 behaviors
I was marked as Applying (3.0)for 19/31 behaviors.
I had no lower marks than that.

Now in my world of calculating scores, I would multiply 4 x 12 = 48 and 3 x19=57, then add them together 48 + 57 = 105, then divide by 31 which equals 3.39. 3.39 is Highly Effective, but I was graded as 3.0 – Effective. Hmm. I called my union rep and she was not sure how that could be. She also, for what it’s worth, had a similar score drop. She remembered that there was some ridiculous way to calculate the previous two years, and thought maybe they are doing the same thing this year. Regardless, neither of us knew how our scores were calculated, so we knew we would have to ask higher ups.

I asked my principal. She wasn’t sure how it is done, either. She suggested that we both call/email the woman at the district who is in charge. So I did. This is what I learned: If 50% or more of your marks are Highly Effective, then you are Highly Effective; if 50% or more are effective than you are effective, and so on.

Then I began to wonder, as has my union rep, how is it that I was more effective last year than I am this year? What am I NOT doing now that I did then? It turns out that I am, in fact doing the same things. I was marked as doing the same exact components of behaviors this year as I was for last year. The difference is, last year I was rated as innovating more times. So, for example let’s say Behavior A has 6 components. Last year when I was checked off as meeting all 6 I was deemed innovating. This year those 6 components checked off are only earning me applying. WHY? HOW? Fortunately, I am friends with a number of people who have some real answers.

The answer isn’t pretty, but it’s been corroborated by more than one source. Here we go…

The principals and assistant principals were told that they were *giving out too many innovatings and that they needed to mark innovating less often*. In other words, the evaluation that is supposed to determine our level of teaching, which in turn determines our merit pay (no, we don’t really get merit pay. we’re supposed to, but that’s a whole different – let’s lie to the people of Florida – nightmare) is being manipulated by the powers that be in an effort to…I don’t know…make it seem like teachers aren’t as good as we are. So they can pay us less and blame us more. The powers that be are doing to the teachers what the high stakes testers are doing to our students: creating a system that is skewed to failure (or mediocrity).

I am outraged. Mostly I am outraged that Principals and ASsistant principals, who know this is wrong and are being asked to downgrade their own teachers, are going along with it and not fighting back. The people who told me are in those leadership positions. They know it’s wrong. But they pooh-pooh saying things like, “Everyone knows those evaluations aren’t right, so what does it matter? *I* know who’s great and doing a great job, so the evaluation doesn’t really matter between you and me and the kids. ”

And I almost buy it. Except for this: my evaluation is public recod. Any parent can go to the district and access my evaluation score. Most parents won’t, it is true. Only parents who have a beef with a teacher would do that, as it so happens. But that’s when the difference between effective and highly effective DOES matter. I AM highly effective. I know it. My administrators know it. My students know it. But when a parent who is already certain I am picking on his/her kid or that I don’t know how to teach his/her kid goes to access my records, they see I am Effective, not Highly Effective. It’s fuel for their fodder, which I do not like.

And if I go to work in another district, all the hiring people will see is Effective. I don’t like it. NOt one little bit.

Categories Florida, Teacher Evaluations

Maryland: A Teacher Tells a Candidate for Governor Why She Won’t Vote for Him

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
21

Brenda Payne, who teaches in Baltimore County, wrote the following open letter to Douglas Gansler, a candidate for governor of Maryland. It was published in the Baltimore Sun. We need more teachers like Brenda Payne, fearless, articulate, activist, to set this country on the right track.

Below are a few paragraphs from Brenda Payne’s letter to the Baltimore Sun. To read the entire letter, open the link.

By Brenda Payne

“An open letter to Douglas Gansler, attorney general of Maryland and candidate for governor

“Dear Mr. Gansler:

“As another school year winds down and I complete my 21st year in the Maryland Public School System, I am pondering where I should cast my vote in the upcoming gubernatorial election. It is a difficult choice. I do not need my union to tell me for whom I should vote. I can choose on my own. After your recent ad campaign, I can tell you who will not have my vote: you.

“I watched the ad on television and laughed at it, even as I shook my head and rolled my eyes. You want to “lift up our kids.” What on earth does that really mean? You want “Skill over seniority in every classroom!” Good luck with that one, too.

“All of us who have been in the classroom, either for a year or 30, should take offense at your ad. To suggest those of us in the classroom are not skilled is a slap in the face of those of us who head into those classrooms every day to try to convince bored, disinterested students that we really do want them to learn…..

“Believe me, Mr. Gansler, not one of us is in this profession for the money. Those of us who are “career teachers” are not in the classroom because it pays the bills. We are there because we want to be. We love children. You already have “skilled” teachers. What we need is more support and understanding. I accept my responsibility as a teacher, I understand my job. I love my kids. But to hold me completely accountable for the success or failure of my students is preposterous. I have my students for about 6.5 hours a day. I do not go home with them. I can not control what they do before and after school….”

Brenda Payne

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Long Island: Housing Segregation Causes School Segregation

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
74

Sixty years after the Brown decision, and despite federal and state anti-discrimination laws, residential segregation not only persists but is growing. Long Island, Néw York, has highly segregated communities and schools.

As this article in the Long Island Press shows, this is not accidental. Nor is it a reflection of the incomes of black and white families. Even when black families can afford to live in a middle-class or affluent district, they may be steered away by landlords or real estate agents.

Even when towns build “affordable housing,” they give preference to residents, which screens out newcomers.

As Richard Rothstein has written, school segregation is rooted in residential segregation. Society can’t reduce the former without reducing the latter.

Categories New York, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

Gary Rubinstein: Who Is the Real Michael Johnston?

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
24

Gary Rubinstein writes in this post about Michael Johnston and his long association with him.

Today Johnston is known in Colorado as the state senator who wrote the most punitive, anti-teacher law in the nation. At present, Harvard students are protesting the invitation to Johnston to speak at commencement

Gary knew him from Teach for America. He describes a young man who understood and cared about his students, who saw the obstacles they confronted, and who appreciated the hard work of veteran teachers.

But something happened to Michael Johnston between 2002 and 2010. The man Gary knew turned into an accountability hawk. He became a harsh critic of teachers.

For a time he was leading the test-and-punish parade, but the parade seems to be in disarray. It is no longer the leading edge but the rearguard.

Michael Johnston was invited to be the commencement speaker at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for 2014, but some students objected and called on the school to withdraw the invitation. That’s not likely to happen, nor should it. The students and graduates should have a chance to debate the issues, to debate the value of the Rhee–Duncan-Spellings style that has long been favored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Now is a good time to review the research on value-added measurement. Now is a good opportunity to ask SenatorJohnston what happened to quash his youthful wisdom.

Categories Accountability, Colorado, Teach for America, Teacher Evaluations

Agassi Charter Firm Plans to Raise $1 Billion for New Charters

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
41

The firm created by Andre Agassi with investors plans to an additional $1 billion to build new charters in urban districts.

Investors say the offer is appealing because of the returns.

Agassi formed a new investment partnership with capital investor Bobby Turner called Turner-Agassi.

It has already built 39 charters.

“Among the Turner-Agassi fund’s investors is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which is focused on education and entrepreneurship and has about $2 billion under management. The Kansas City, Missouri-based foundation’s main reason for backing the fund was its “potential for future investment returns,” Chief Investment Officer Mary McLean said in an e-mail.”

Read the story and see if you can find a single reference to education in any context other than a chance to make money.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit
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