Archives for the year of: 2014

Stephen Dyer has some amazing news in his excellent blog. I recently reposted his analysis of charter school performance in Ohio, which is mostly dismal. Nearly half the charters in the state earned a grade of F on their state report card.

Now he reports the following:

“StudentsFirst Ohio’s Executive Director Greg Harris has made some pretty important statements. Last year, he said in the Akron Beacon Journal that “a lot of times it has to do not with how well your school is performing, but how well your lobbyist is paid.”

“To hear a pro-charter organization say we need to get politics out of the argument and implore the legislature to stop pouring more money into bad charters was unheard of before last year.

“Harris was at it again this morning in the Columbus Dispatch. Here’s what he said:

“But the group will also warn parents against the slick advertising campaigns of bad charter operators.

“We think a lot of them (charters) need to be closed, because they’re not doing a good job,” Harris said. “We think charters have a role in the education base, but we also think most of the charters in Ohio stink…..”

“To hear that Ohio’s charters have serious quality issues is unheard of from Ohio’s charter school advocacy community, until now.

“I know Harris a bit, having worked with him while he was at Knowledge Works and since. He’s a good, sincere person who really does not like bad charters because he really believes in good ones. And while we differ on some major topics, on this we agree: Ohio’s Charters mostly stink, and the bad ones need to be shut down.”

This is good news. Will the Legislature and Governor Kasich listen?

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio, StudentsFirst

Poll: Americans Want Better Trained, Certified Teachers

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

105

The following was reported at politico.com:

“AMERICANS CALL FOR STEPPING UP THE TEACHING PROFESSION: Americans want better prepared teachers in the classroom – and a vast majority think educators should be required to pass board certification and submit to licensure standards like doctors and lawyers. Those views come from a PDK/Gallup poll, released today. Seventy percent of respondents said new teachers should spend at least a year teaching under the guidance of a certified colleague. And 60 percent said the entrance requirements for teacher training programs need to be more rigorous. The results come as the Obama administration plans to resurrect an effort to regulate teacher prep programs. They also reflect public attitudes about whether the standardized testing regime ushered in by No Child Left Behind has improved education, said William Bushaw, who until recently served as executive director of PDK. Segun Eubanks, director of teacher quality at the National Education Association, says it’s clear all that testing hasn’t boosted student learning. So naturally, the focus is now swinging to improving the teaching profession. I have the story: http://politico.pro/1uEZjLi

– In another intriguing finding, 61 percent percent of the 1,001 adults surveyed opposed using student test scores in teacher evaluations. On a related note, researchers at The Brookings Institution are out with a study today that argues improving teacher observations is the key to upgrading evaluations. Observations are often biased by student ability and background, the authors say; they urge districts to adjust their observation scores accordingly. The study, published in Education Next: http://bit.ly/1wxBpUV

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Kristen Buras: Message to York City, Beware of For-Profit Charter Chains!

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

When Kristen Buras read that the leaders of York City, Pennsylvania, were considering turning their schools into an all-charter district, she didn’t think it was a good idea. When she read that all the students in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, had been turned over to for-profit charter operator Mosaica, she thought it was necessary to issue a warning.

This is the comment she left on the blog:

Hmm . . . Mosaica? I’ve been studying the corporate takeover of New Orleans public schools for the past decade. Let me share a story that community members in York City will find relevant to their battle. It comes from the Times-Picayune newspaper and reveals how the board of Lafayette Academy charter school in New Orleans terminated its contract with Mosaica, which was paid $773,000 for the first year of its five-year agreement. Nonetheless, Mosaica failed to arrange appropriate transportation for students; did not organize a repeatedly requested after-school program for students below grade level; and kept the school filthy. The school also lacked copy machines and insurance when the school year began. Through a legal arbitration process, a judgment of $350,000 was issued against Mosaica. Find the story here:

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/09/charter_school_wins_lawsuit_ag.html

For more on what York City can expect if for-profit operators take over the schools, check out my book Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where the Market Meets Grassroots Resistance, which chronicles the past ten years of “reform” in New Orleans.

I hope this helps.

Categories Education Reform

Anthony Cody Explains and Supports Peer Assistance and Review

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

Anthony Cody notes a rift among allies. Mark NAISON wrote critically about PAR–Peer Assistance and Review.

Writing from his experience, Cody explains how PAR works.

The bottom line is this: If choosing how to be evaluated as a teacher, would you rather be evaluated by the rise or fall of test scores (VAM); by the principal, acting alone; or by a committee of peers and administrators whose first obligation is to help you?

Categories Teacher Evaluations

Ohio: Most Summit County Charters Rated F

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

The letter grades for Ohio schools were posted recently, and most charter schools in Summit County were rated F.

Across Ohio, 47% of 251 charters saw a drop in scores. In Summit County, with 9 charters, only two improved. The only charter to receive an A grade is run by the county, not entrepreneurs.

The other 7 charters in Summit County were rated F.

“Charter schools managed by for-profit companies reported the lowest test results.

“The lowest performers included: Imagine Leadership Akron on Romig Road, managed by Virginia-based Imagine Schools; STEAM Academy Akron, run by Mosaica Education, an international company; Main Street Preparatory Academy, managed by Florida-based Cambridge Education Group, which also runs [high-performiing] Colonial Preparatory Academy; and University Academy and the defunct Brown Street Academy, each managed by Akron-based White Hat Management.

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio

Ohio: More Charters Failing than Public Schools

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

Stephen Dyer, education policy fellow at Innovation Ohio, has analyzed the latest state report cards. The state’s Governor, John Kasich, is pro-charter, pro-voucher, and pro-market forces. He is no friend to public education. The legislature is the same. They want more schools that are privately managed. As we saw in a post yesterday, Ohio has a parent trigger law, and (as I posted yesterday) the State Education Department has hired StudentsFirst (founded by Michelle Rhee) to inform parents in Columbus about their right to convert their low-performing public school to a charter or hand it over to a charter management organization. Given the statistics in this post, the odds are that the parents will turn their low-performing public school into an even lower-performing charter school, with no hope of escape.

Yet when the state report cards came out, public schools overwhelmingly received higher grades than charter schools. Dyer explains in this post that “The Ohio Report Cards are now all out, and the news is worse for Ohio’s embattled Charter Schools than it was last year. Charter Schools received more Fs than As, Bs and Cs combined. Their percentage of Fs went up from about 41% last year to nearly 44% this year.” Think of it, nearly half the charters in the state earned an F grade, yet the state wants MORE of them.

Dyer also found that the public schools in the Big 8–Ohio’s urban districts–face more challenges than charters, yet still outperform the urban charters. He writes:

In further analyzing the Ohio Report Card data released today, schools in Ohio’s Big 8 urban centers (Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown) scored higher on their performance index score (the closest thing Ohio has to an overall performance assessment at this point) than Charter Schools, despite having substantially higher percentages of children who were economically disadvantaged. A staggering 51% of Big 8 urban buildings have more than 95% of their students designated as economically disadvantaged (the Ohio Department of Education only says buildings have “>95.0” if their economic disadvantaged number is higher than 95%).

So, despite having more than half their buildings with, for all intents and purposes, all their kids economically disadvantaged, Ohio’s Big 8 urban buildings actually perform better, on average, than Ohio’s Charter Schools, which were originally intended to “save” children from “failing” urban buildings.

Dyer also notes that “Of the top 200 PI [Performance Index] scores, 10 are Charters, 190 are districts. Of the bottom 200 PI scores, 21 are districts and 179 are Charters.”

When Dyer looked at Value-Added Measures for districts, the public school districts still outperformed charters, showing more test score growth than charters.

The puzzle in these results is why Ohio policymakers–the Governor and the Legislature–want more charters. The answer, as we have observed again and again, is that sponsors and advocates for charters make large political contributions to elected officials. They have become a potent special interest group. This is a case where results don’t matter.

The question is, who will save poor children from failing charter schools? Or will Ohio recklessly continue to authorize more charter schools without regard to the performance of the charter sector?

I should point out here, as I have in the past, that I think school report cards with a single letter grade, is one of the stupidest public policy ideas in the “reform” bag of tricks. There is no way that a letter grade can accurately reflect the work of a complex institution or the many people in it. Think of a single child coming home from school with a report card that contained only one letter, and it gives some notion of what a simplistic idea it is to grade an entire school in this way. Nonetheless, this is the system now in use in many states (pioneered by the master of ersatz reform, Jeb Bush), so I report what the state reports.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Ohio, Privatization

Amy Prime Moore: Is There Evidence that Too Much Testing Hurts Children?

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

Amy Prime Moore taught second grade in Iowa. Now she teaches fifth grade. She believes too much testing hurts her students. Then a friend asked, How do you know? And she wrote this article for the Des Moines Register.

She writes:

“But then I began to get resentful of the idea that I should even need to offer this proof. Why should I have to do this? Why is it that we can’t take the word of our educators as expert? Why can’t we listen to parents who advocate for their children? Since when do we allow our federal government to dictate what should be local district decisions? We know that the policymakers have their own children in private schools that would never dream of using the harsh testing policies that they force on the children of the public schools.

“Imagine a teacher standing in front of her room full of students shouting at them. “You are stupid! You’re too slow! I don’t care if you haven’t learned this yet, you should just KNOW it by now! I don’t even care what you’re interested in learning. You’ll learn what I say you will learn! Why can’t you figure it out? All of the other kids in your grade are figuring it out! You’ll never be ready for college. You’ll never even move on to the next grade! Who cares if you told me the right answer when you didn’t get to it the way I wanted you to? I don’t care if you’re tired, just sit still and be quiet! I don’t care if you won’t need to know this later in life, just do it! The questions aren’t confusing, you are just dumb! You’re letting your whole school down! No one will help you here so just do it yourself! You are a failure!”

“Would we ask for proof that those emotionally abusive comments would be harmful to a child? It’s doubtful we would, and, hopefully, that teacher would be out of a job. But if we could hear inside the heads of our children, those are exactly the damaging words that those tests are whispering to them every time they are forced to take one.

“So the proof is in the tears of frustration falling from the eyes of kids with heads down on desks. The proof is in the Facebook posts from parents saying that their children hate school when it’s a testing day. The proof is with the kids who ask to get up and go to the restroom just to get away from the relentless questions for even a minute. The proof is with the students who no longer think creatively but simply look for the one “right” answer. The proof is in the need for local and national organizations that support parents who want to find a way to get their children out of assessments.”

She asked her friend: where is the evidence that all this testing doesn’t harm children? She’s waiting.

Categories Childhood, Testing

Business Leaders Grade Louisiana: Great on Choice, Poor Academics

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

A new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gives Louisiana high marks on providing choice but low marks for academics. It should be noted that Louisiana has higher levels of child poverty than other states, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce does not go into that.

“A new U.S. Chamber of Commerce report gives Louisiana’s public education system very low marks on academic achievement, international competitiveness, workforce preparation and bang for the buck. It flunked Louisiana in five of 11 categories, with a D+ in the sixth.

“The state’s low academic standing has been widely documented. However, the chamber says its report has a particular focus on the 21st century workforce.

“Louisiana did see some gains. Scores went up on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2013, especially for low-income and minority students. But compared to other states, Louisiana was still at the bottom. The state’s 2013 Advanced Placement pass rate was worse than any state except Mississippi.

“Pass rates were even lower in subjects that the chamber considers important for the 21st century economy: only 30 in 10,000 students passed a foreign language AP test, and 4 in 10,000 passed the AP computer science test.

“When measured against an international exam, the Programme for International Student Assessment, fewer than 20 percent of Louisiana students met the global standard in reading and mathematics.

“The chamber gave Louisiana a failing grade on “return on investment.” After controlling for the cost of living, the chamber’s report says, “student achievement in Louisiana is very low relative to state spending,” which is about at the national median.

“The chamber released the report card Thursday. The research was conducted by the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“Given Louisiana’s poor national and international standing, the chamber found the state’s internal testing results dubious and lacking in credibility. In 2011, pass rates for Louisiana’s LEAP and iLEAP tests were much higher than the national rates. That gave an inaccurately rosy picture of student performance, said the chamber, which awarded a D-plus for “truth in advertising.”

The state got an A for parental choice. As we have seen in numerous earlier reports, many children use state vouchers to attend schools with no curriculum and uncertified teachers. Maybe all that choice is dragging down academic outcomes. But “even some of the better grades were lower than in the chamber’s previous report. In 2007, chamber researchers gave Louisiana an A for teaching, a C for the credibility of its own test pass rates and an A for data collection. It gave the state a B for the rigor of its academic standards, praising its English benchmarks and graduation exit exam.” Under John White, the state is losing ground.

Hmm, I seem to recall that Louisiana was the state that was #1 on StudentsFirst report card, probably because of vouchers and charters.

State superintendent John White thinks that Common Core and its hard tests is the cure-all for low performance. Rigor. Harder tests. That’ll raise performance. Kind of like an athlete who can’t jump a 4-ft bar. Raise it to 6 feet. That’ll do it.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Louisiana

Bob Braun: Newark’s Barringer High School in Chaos

By dianeravitch

September 16, 2014 //

Bob Braun, veteran education reporter, says that Barringer High School is in chaos, due to poor planning by the district leadership, i.e., Cami Anderson.

The school, intended to hold 600 students, has been divided into two schools, each with 700 students.

The principal of one school was fired by Anderson, and the principal of the other quit before school started.

He writes:

“Barringer High School in Newark was in chaos today after scores of students and parents marched out of the North Ward school–the oldest high school in Newark–to protest teacherless classrooms, foodless lunch hours, and class sizes reaching into the sixties….Wilhelmina Holder, a parent leader who is head of the Secondary School Coalition, said Barringer has been in a state of “chaos” since school opened Sept. 4. Many students sent there under Anderson’s “One Newark” plan either have no schedules at all or temporary schedules that are changed every few days.”

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New Jersey