Archives for the month of: January, 2014
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Author of NC Proposal Responds

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2014 //
66

Lodge McKammon, author of the 60-30-10 plan for teachers in North Carolina, which would encourage larger class sizes, sent this comment:

“For the record, this article in NC Policy Watch was published before I had a chance to speak with the author. These are, in a sense, some of the ideas that I have been brainstorming over the past few years. However, this write-up (including the document) is taken way out of context. My main goal is to find a way to motivate teachers to flip their classrooms because I truly believe it can help every educator and student. In fact, I am so passionate about this idea, that I continue to offer free training for teachers. This article was published before I was asked about it and contains information that was part of a private discussion. Contrary to what the article states, to my knowledge, this is not being discussed by policymakers. These ideas are part of a brainstorming process, by a small number of people, and were not meant to be shared publicly.

Categories Education Reform

Oprah’s Star Charter School in New Orleans Is Closing Down

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2014 //
29

It seems like only yesterday that the Oprah television network featured an exciting new charter school in New Orleans that promised to turn around the John McDonogh school. The new charter group was led by Steve Barr and his Future Is Now organization.

“One year after the Oprah television network featured New Orleans’ John McDonogh High School in “Blackboard Wars,” hoping to depict a successful charter school turnaround, the Recovery School District is dissolving the school. All staff members will lose their jobs.

“A fresh start. This school needs a fresh start,” Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard said of the school run by Future Is Now.

“Struggling charter schools have three years to prove themselves, and they can lose their authorization to operate after the fourth. However, the school known as John Mac is closing after only two years. The high school had the lowest performance score in the state in 2013, after alternative schools.

“The school system is speeding up a long-demanded building renovation to this summer, instead of waiting until 2016. But instead of moving to interim space, as typically happens, all the students must find new schools.

“Future Is Now charter chief Steve Barr said it was entirely a facilities decision, not made in response to low enrollment and poor test scores: “I think it’s a little bizarre to think this is some elaborate scheme to get us out of here. We’ve only in the middle of our second year.”

“Barr said they considered multiple temporary homes for the school but could not find a good alternative. While a number of schools are in portables pending the end of a $1.8 billion facilities master plan, Barr said they were mostly startup charters and portables weren’t appropriate for a turnaround school like John McDonogh.

“Future Is Now has the option of voluntarily giving up the charter, which Barr said would require a board vote. But it doesn’t matter, because when the building reopens after two years, the charter will have expired. Dobard said the school would not be eligible for renewal or extension.

“Dobard acknowledged that John McDonogh’s poor academic performance was an issue. He wouldn’t say the state had erred in granting the charter in the first place. “Hindsight is always 20/20, but we went into it with full confidence,” he said. “Obviously we wished the school would have been performing better at this stage.”

“For Future Is Now, it’s an abrupt end to a would-be feel-good tale.”

Oprah was gung-ho at the eg inning of the story. Why did she disappear at the end?

Categories Charter Schools, New Orleans

Tennessee Parents Fight Back Against Corporate “Reform”!

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2014 //
8

Please support this wonderful new organization of parents and other citizens in Tennessee, organizing to reclaim public schools from bad policy and corporate takeovers.

Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence

MISSION:

TENNESSEANS RECLAIMING EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE (TREE) IS ROOTED IN FIGHTING FOR STRONG, EQUITABLE PUBLIC EDUCATION AND IS COMMITTED TO GROWING CHILD-CENTERED EDUCATION POLICY.

CORE VALUES:

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE CORE VALUES THAT WILL GUIDE THE ADVOCACY EFFORTS OF TENNESSEANS RECLAIMING EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE (TREE.) THESE ARE THE PRINCIPLES TO WHICH WE ADHERE, AND WHICH WE WILL SEEK TO ADVANCE IN TENNESSEE’S EDUCATIONAL POLICIES.

Quality Investment

We believe Tennessee must make high quality investments that reach all students by:

Fully funding BEP 2.0 (Basic Education Program 2.0), the funding formula set by the legislature to fund Tennessee schools.
Since the adoption of BEP 2.0 in 2007, Tennessee schools have not received the full amount of funding which the law requires.
Reducing spending on standardized tests and redirecting those funds to classrooms.
Developing compensation, evaluation, and support plans for teachers that make Tennessee a top destination for professional educators.
Providing the student services and support needed for students to achieve.
Providing all students with the arts, physical education, music, and learning opportunities that are essential to a quality educational experience.
Refusing to divert scarce taxpayer dollars away from already underfunded public schools into a bailout program for struggling private schools via vouchers.
Ensuring manageable class sizes.
Funding universal, voluntary public pre-kindergarten programs.

Transparency & Accountability

We believe Tennessee must ensure transparency and accountability by:

Requiring all taxpayer funded schools and entities, including the state Department of Education and related offices to make public all their funding sources, budgets, and expenditures, so that the taxpayers have a clear understanding of:

how public dollars are being spent,
what influence private donors/interests may have on publicly funded institutions,
the true per pupil cost of services being provided.
Examining whether Tennessee’s school accountability systems are based on appropriate and reliable data.
Providing a full accounting of the determination of achievement test proficiency cut scores and value-added scores, so that citizens and parents know how accurate those data are.
Requiring all schools to provide parents with information regarding standardized testing, including what tests are given, when the testing occurs, the purpose of such tests, and the costs associated with the tests.
Informing parents of what educational and personal data are being shared with third party corporations.

Local Control

We believe Tennessee should keep decisions regarding local public schools in the hands of local citizens by:

Allowing each community to determine whether and where to open schools funded by its local property tax money.
Keeping public schools accountable to local voters, rather than remote, unelected/unaccountable state-level bureaucrats.
Ensuring that Tennessean communities, not corporate out-of-state special interest groups, direct Tennessee children’s educations.
Limiting top-down, underfunded, and untested mandates.
Ensuring that parents and teachers have meaningful input into education decision making.

Post Office Box 218554 · Nashville, Tennessee 37221 · (615) 295-8733

©2014 Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence

Categories ALEC, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Tennessee

North Carolina: Greatest Insult to Teachers Ever Cooked Up in Backroom

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2014 //
221

I thought this must be a joke. It is not.

North Carolina legislators are considering a law that would demolish the teaching profession and encourage teacher turnover.

Call it the “here-today-gone-next-year” policy. The goal is to cut costs by increasing class sizes, pushing out senior teachers, and using technology to “flip” classrooms.

According to NC Policy Watch:

“A new plan to raise some teachers’ salaries while significantly reducing education spending is circulating among lawmakers and education professionals.

“The NC 60/30/10 Plan, which “embraces high teacher turnover,” would place teachers on one of three tracks: Apprentice, Master or Career.

“Sixty percent of all North Carolinian teachers would make $32,000/year in the Apprentice category and be allowed to teach for up to twenty years, at which time they must retire or move on to another industry.

“Thirty percent of teachers would be eligible for the Master category if they have been teaching for three years, have completed an online training program, and can demonstrate mastery of the teaching method based on “customer survey data.” Master teachers would earn $52,000/year.

“Ten percent of teachers would become Career teachers, making $72,000 if they have an advanced degree and can innovate and lead.

“All teachers would be able to serve in North Carolina for no more than 20 years. If the plan were to be adopted, all teachers in North Carolina would be required to reapply for their jobs in 2015.

“The man behind this plan is self-employed and self-described “educational pioneer” Dr. Lodge McCammon. A former Wake County teacher and Friday Institute specialist in curriculum and contemporary media, McCammon heavily promotes the use of video recording to transform teaching and learning.

“In a 2011 op-ed in the News & Observer, McCammon explains that flipped classrooms, in which students can view videotaped instructional materials at their own pace, should allow teachers to accommodate larger classroom sizes–and be paid according to how many students they can teach in one classroom.”

Is there something in the water served in the State Capitol? Do they hate teachers? Or is it that they just don’t like experienced teachers? What’s going on? Can anyone explain this blatant attempt to end teaching as a profession and a career? Will Arne Duncan denounce what this zany legislature is doing to teachers and public education? Will President Obama? He held the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina in 2012; last week, he announced a major job-creating project for the state. Can’t he just speak up?

– See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/01/21/latest-nc-teacher-compensation-plan-would-significantly-reduce-education-spending-encourage-teacher-turnover/#sthash.aoS7xNwn.dpuf

Categories North Carolina, Teachers and Teaching

Chicago: Rahm’s Demolition Derby for Public Schools

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2014 //
39

An independent investigation found that nearly half of Chicago’s charter schools are under-enrolled, but the mayor-controlled school board plans to open more. This will drain more students and resources from the public schools. Mayor Emanuel hopes to destroy public education as his legacy to the city.

The mayor’s hand-picked board will vote tomorrow on authorizing 31 new charters.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Amy Smolensky, 312-485-0053

Data Analysis Reveals Nearly 11,000 Empty Seats; 47% of Charter Schools Under-enrolled

Pending Vote for Opening 31 New Charters Likely to Have Devastating Impact on Many Chicago Public Schools

CHICAGO, January 20 2013 — In an independent investigation of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) data from the 2013-14 school year compiled by parent Jeanne Marie Olson of the Apples to Apples project, parent group Raise Your Hand has discovered that 47 percent of CPS charter and contract schools had student populations below the CPS threshold for ideal enrollment. This equates to 50 schools with nearly 11,000 seats sitting empty. The analysis also reveals a decline in overall CPS enrollment of 3,000 students this academic year. Despite this drop, the Chicago Board of Education could approve as many as 31 new charters over the next two years.

These revelations combined with tremendous CPS budget cuts, a one billion dollar deficit and the recent closing of 50 neighborhood schools, have parents and community members demanding a halt to charter expansion. Opponents to the charter expansion, which is scheduled to be voted on during Wednesday’s Board meeting, are outraged at the prospect of adding 31 new charters (10 of which have already been approved) while neighborhood schools continue to receive funding cuts that have forced elimination of critical teaching and support positions as well as fundamental education programming.

“CPS has been opening charters in the Austin neighborhood for years and cannibalizing district schools,” said RYH Board member Dwayne Truss. “It is especially offensive to me as a resident of Austin that anyone would propose a new charter in our community after the closing of four district schools last year due to a so-called underutilization crisis manufactured by the district.”

CPS has contended that they will open more charters to meet parent demand and relieve overcrowding.

Raise Your Hand member Jennie Biggs said, “CPS claims to face another near billion dollar deficit. They risk destabilizing all of our schools by this unwarranted expansion. Every type of school in CPS has wait lists and this myth that CPS must open more charters to meet parent demand is insulting as a taxpayer and a resident of a community that had schools on the closing list last year and now has a charter proposal. We must strengthen our existing schools or we face another even more students leaving the system.”

Link to Apples to Apples: http://cpsapples2apples.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/a-history-of-cps-enrollment-1999-2014-rough-draft/

About Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education: Raise Your Hand is a growing coalition of Chicago and Illinois public school parents, teachers and concerned citizens advocating for equitable and sustainable education funding, quality programs and instruction for all students and an increased parent voice in policy-making around education. http://www.ilraiseyourhand.org.

For a list of under-enrolled charters, contact:

Amy Smolensky
amysmolensky@comcast.net
312-485-0053

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm

On the Road Again….

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2014 //
49

After a long hiatus, recovering from travel-related deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the legs), I started my traveling again this week. (My trip to Chicago last week to speak to MLA didn’t count, but I can’t recall why. Arbitrary.)

I am speaking at the University of Florida in Gainesville on Wednesday at 7 pm.

The plan was to fly to Gainesville on Wednesday morning, via Atlanta.

But life does not always work according to schedule.

On Monday morning, I got a robo-call from Delta informing me that my Wednesday flight had been canceled. A major snowstorm was on its way to New York City, would arrive Tuesday morning, and would dump 8-12″ of snow.

My travel agent booked a flight out on Tuesday at 10, changing in Charlotte, NC. A quick transfer, with only 45 minutes between flights.

By the time I boarded my NYC flight, the snow was coming down fast. We were an hour late taking off, as the plane had to be de-iced. Missed the connection. Next flight out of Charlotte to Gainesville at 6 pm. Had good NC BBQ for lunch.

So here I am in the Charlotte airport. Wishing I had landed in Raleigh so I could go join Moral Monday, maybe have the honor of being arrested with good people living Martin Luther King’s dream. But then I would miss the other flight and be even later to Gainesville.

Forgive the rambling, but I felt like talking to friends and I just remembered why I avoid connecting flights and hope never to take one again.

Categories Florida, North Carolina

John Merrow Comments on a “Rigged” Match: Rhee vs. Ravitch

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2014 //
10

John Merrow, who doggedly pursued the cheating scandal in D.C. here takes issue with someone named John Buntin who wrote of a fictional match-up between Michelle Rhee and me.

Merrow chides Buntin for ignorance of the facts that Merrow covered. He sent this letter, but got no reply:

“I have a couple of observations about your Rhee/Ravitch piece that I hope you don’t mind my sharing. The first is a minor quibble about the firing scene. We filmed that as part of my NewsHour coverage–we followed the young Chancellor for her entire three years in DC (12 NewsHour reports). Only later did we include it in our film for Frontline. I allowed Oprah to use the footage, and Davis Guggenheim appropriated it without our permission for “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” although he did eventually pay us for using it.
My second objection is substantial and has to do with Rhee’s record as Chancellor. Not long after she departed, USA Today broke the story of widespread erasures on the DC-CAS, the city’s standardized test, during Rhee’s first and second years. We covered that in our Frontline film.

“However, AFTER the film I obtained a copy of a confidential memo that made it clear just how much she knew of the erasures and how she failed to act. That is summarized here: http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6232

“While “Rhee vs. Ravitch” is a compelling headline and a sexy feature, it’s a roadblock to understanding American education. Ravitch is a passionate advocate who argues from facts. In contrast, Rhee’s policies were tried, and they failed. By almost every conceivable measure, the DC schools are no better than before her tenure. In key areas of student attendance, graduation rates, and principal and teacher turnover, they are worse. Central offices in abutting districts have shrunk, but DCPS’ has grown considerably. Even DC’s most recent gains on NAEP, which began 12-15 years BEFORE Rhee’s tenure, seem to have been fueled by an influx of better-educated families (gentrification) and quality pre-school. Here’s a summary: http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6490

“I urge you to revisit this story. There is a titanic struggle going on in public education, one that is complex and deserving of coverage. Using Michelle Rhee as symbolic of ‘one side’ is misleading, unfortunately. Wendy Kopp and Teach for America might better represent one side and Ravitch another, although the issue has more than two sides.”

A good response from John Merrow. Read the whole thing as it is quite interesting.

Mr. Buntin, not known to me, should have covered–or pretended to cover–the debate I was supposed to have with Michelle Rhee on February 6 at Lehigh University. She agreed to the debate, agreed to the date but then began making demands about the format. First, she demanded that we needed seconds. She chose Rod Paige, who had been Secretary of Education in the George W. Bush administration. After a long silence and no signed contract, she required that we have two partners. My choices: Pasi Sahlberg of Finland and Helen Gym, parent leader from Philadelphia. Again a long silence. Rhee then cancelled, saying she could not find a second partner. All very puzzling.

Categories Ravitch, Diane, Rhee, Michelle

Best Friends Forever: Chris Christie & Eli Broad

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2014 //
20

The Eli Broad Foundation gave Néw Jersey $430,000 for Broad-style corporate reform. There was one strange string attached: the money would keep flowing only if Chris Christie remained governor.

This is how Rick Cohen of the Non-Profit Quarterly described this cozy deal:

“The Broad Foundation grant is in support of various educational reforms in the state, with performance benchmarks such as a 50 percent increase in the number of charter schools or the number of high quality charter schools, depending on which way one reads the grant language. It is not the first Broad grant to New Jersey, having been preceded by extensive support to the state’s Department of Education aimed at “’accelerat(ing)’ the pace of ‘disruptive’ and ‘transformational’” change. The Christie-contingent Broad Foundation grant raises so many troubling questions that one hardly knows where to start.

“To begin with, Broad included conditions in this current grant that are astonishing, requiring that all public announcements of the program by the state have to be cleared with the Broad Foundation. The grant contains a lengthy provision about making documents, files, and records associated with the grant the property of the Foundation. Are these materials, generated and used by the government as a result of the grant, not to be disclosed to the public? Is the foundation telling government—and the legislature and the voters—what they should accept as public versus private? A foundation spokesperson’s contention that this only applies to a sliver of files containing “personal information” doesn’t seem to fit with the fact that Sciarra [David Sciarra of the Education Law Center] and his Center only found out about the terms of this Broad grant at all, much like other Broad funding in the state, by pressing for disclosure through the state’s Open Public Records Act. Giving some definition to the Foundation’s narrow commitment to transparency, the grant agreement adds, “If the state is legally required to make any of these materials public — either through subpoenas or other legal process — it must give the foundation advance notice of such disclosure so that TBF may contest the disclosure and or/seek a protective order.”

Who knew that one could buy education policy in New Jersey for so little? What a bargain!

Categories Broad Foundation, New Jersey

Arizona: 25 Néw Charters to Open in Phoenix

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2014 //
13

Twenty-five new charter schools will open in Phoenix, targeting low-income Latino students. The project is funded mainly by the Walton Foundation. The schools will rely on Teach for America recruits.

The story in the NY Times notes that charter schools in Arizona get more public funding than public schools and charter schools get lower test scores.

This is privatization for the sake of privatization, taking advantage of a chance to break public education with low-wage workers and promises.

Categories Arizona, Charter Schools, Teach for America, Walton Foundation

Ohio: Former State Monitor Questions Gulen Charters

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2014 //
19

The following was sent by Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy:

Denis Smith, a retired public school teacher, administrator and former charter school consultant at the Ohio Department of Education, sent the message below to the editor of The Columbus Dispatch.

January 16, 2014

Denis Smith, a retired public school teacher, administrator and former charter school consultant at the Ohio Department of Education, sent the message below to the editor of The Columbus Dispatch. Since there has been no response from The Dispatch, with Denis’ permission, it is being forwarded. It appears that the media is as oblivious to the charter school scam as state officials in Ohio.

Mr. Marrison:

This message is sent to you and your education reporters on a background basis and with the intent that there will be no attribution to me in the event of any subsequent story development. I hope you accept this important qualification as I provide you the following.

Your coverage of the unrest in Turkey as featured in the December 26 print edition did mention that part of the protests directed at the Turkish government are generated from followers of a Turkish national named Fethullah Gulen. There was no mention that Gulen is an exile who lives in seclusion in Pennsylvania and who directs operations in a number of countries that support his business network.

Let me get right to the point. Do you intend to inform your readers that this same Gulen Movement, with deep ties in the Middle East, has established a network of charter schools around this nation and maintains about 20 affiliated charter schools here in Ohio? I believe that your readers need to know this important connection as we all cover the unfolding developments in Turkey which may end up destabilizing the current government in a volatile part of our world.

The New York Times has provided coverage of Gulen’s involvement in American public education through publicly funded charter schools in a series of articles going back to 2011, mostly written by Stephanie Saul. If you or staff are not fully informed about the Gulen Movement, I provide you this query for some of these links: http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/stephanie+saul+charter+schools

As a retired school administrator and as someone who has monitored the growth of this foreign network for the last six years, I am concerned at the lack of coverage by your newspaper of a foreign organization that has used public funds to set up a chain of 135 charter schools in 25 states, with some of those schools operating here in Ohio.http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/gulen-school-characteristics.html

Could it be that your newspaper is so obsessed with beating up the Columbus City Schools over data-rigging that you have chosen to ignore what many of my colleagues feel is an even bigger story, viz., how public funds are supporting an organization which hires Turkish and other foreign nationals over Americans to staff its system of charter schools and where taxpayer funds may be transferred to other countries?

In case you are interested in pursuing this story, here are some questions that a good investigation of these schools might raise as you might work to tell this story in the public interest.

1. As the auditor’s office or the AG might say, what is the proper public purpose in allowing a foreign-based organization to use public funds to establish a chain of charter schools in this country, knowing that they are exempt from about 200 sections of the Ohio Revised Code?

2. Is there an insufficient pool of trained and qualified American administrative and teaching staff that can justify the importation of charter school staff through one-year visas, knowing that these individuals will be paid with public funds? Obviously, this program would involve the U. S. Department of State. Previous investigative work has been done in this area, but it is dated by several years and needs to be reexamined.

3. Charter schools are supposedly public schools. If that is the case, why do the governing board members of these schools appear to be mostly male? (At least they were several years ago, when I had the opportunity to observe this state of affairs.) Do the parents of children enrolled in Gulen-affiliated schools even know the identity of these individuals or how to contact them? Are board meetings publicized and accessible to the parents of the schools? Do all-male boards containing some foreign-born individuals truly represent the public interest?

4. How are these governing board members chosen? Are they hand-picked for their allegiance to Gulen and his beliefs? With such a uniform profile, how can these board members represent the students, parents, and the larger community?

5. Is there a requirement that these board members need to be American citizens, knowing that some of the teachers in the schools are in this country on the basis of one-year visas? Has anyone, including the Ohio Department of Education and the school authorizers, examined the reason for a large number of foreign-born individuals on the boards of these schools?

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio
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