Archives for the month of: February, 2014
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Silicon Valley Zillionaire Funds Attack on Due Process for Teachers

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
73

It is amazing how many of the 1% are willing to spend millions to remove due process from teachers, most of whom work harder and earn less than said zillionaire’s secretary or chauffeur.

According to this article by Jennifer Medina in the “New York Times,” David F. Welch is a telecommunications executive who has spent millions to create a group called Students Matter to launch a lawsuit in California intended to strip teachers of due process rights.

John Deasy, the Los Angeles superintendent, testified that the union contract prevents him from firing as many teachers as he would like. Presumably, he would fire thousands of teachers if he could.

Will anyone introduce testimony to demonstrate the allegedly superior education available in states where teachers can be fired at will, as Deasy would prefer?

In many communities, the word “evolution” will not be mentioned in science classes. Books that challenge the mores of anyone in the community will not be taught. If due process ends, so will academic freedom.

Shame on the craven Mr. Welch and his all-star team of lawyers, gunning for teachers.

Categories California, Teacher Tenure, Unions

New Jersey: Bill to Stop Forced Public School Closings Passed by Senate Committee!

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
20

From a New Jersey public school activist:

“I am very happy to report that the Stop Forced Public School Closures legislation sailed through the Senate Ed Committee with 4 yes votes and 1 abstention. This is no small feat. But we had a lot of grass-roots support and it worked!

Here’s a bit of the coverage.”

Categories Closing schools, New Jersey

Jersey Jazzman: Why High School Sports Should Not Go Professional

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
9

Jersey Jazzman recounts stories of high school sports teams recruiting players from other districts to help them in the competitive world of athletic competition. He explains why this has happened. It goes hand-in-hand with our current misguided belief that education as it was once understood–that is, the development of each child in mind, body, and character– has been replaced by purely utilitarian goals: education for college and career.

He writes:

“Our obsession with creating an education system whose primary function is to feed the job market is inevitably going to lead to behaviors like this. We are teaching the kids that their number one goal is to get what they can, whatever the cost. Civic pride, like playing for your home town, is a quaint notion; loyalty and teamwork are valuable only in what they can do for you as an individual. Of course, this is a natural response to being used: if big universities and TV networks and apparel brands are going to make a ton of dough off of student athletes, those players will naturally want their cut. That is the beauty of the unrestrained free market.”

– See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/01/professionalizing-high-school-sports.html#sthash.cDKkB2Ml.dpuf

Categories Students

Two Former NYC Principals Offer Advice to Mayor de Blasio

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
12

Robert Lubetsky and William Stroud published an article in the online Teachers College Record, offering advice for Mayor de Blasio. This is a shortened version of what appears on the TCR website. It was shortened by the authors.

Schooling in New York City – From Accountability to Revitalization
Robert Lubetsky​​
City College of New York
William Stroud​​​
Consortium for Policy Research in Education, Teachers College

 

Schooling in New York City – From Accountability to Revitalization

New York City Mayor, Bill De Blasio, in his inaugural speech stated simply: “When I said we would take dead aim at the Tale of Two Cities, I meant it.” In this, he recalled the openings lines of Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, which is worth quoting in full:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only (Dickens, 1858/2012, 1).

As a nation we have created at least two worlds of widely disparate educational quality. In order to redress these conditions, De Blasio has indicated an intention to rethink fundamental policies and initiatives of the Bloomberg years. These include an emphasis on standardized assessments, use of test scores to judge teachers, co-location of charter schools in existing public schools, annual school report cards, and the closing or reconstituting of schools that are not meeting expectations. On a constructive note, he has proposed an all day early childhood program and after school programs for middle school students. (Layton & Chandler, 2013). While these are positive steps toward improving educational experiences and outcomes for New York City public school students, we believe five crucial issues have received insufficient attention and should be addressed by the new administration. Each one has a profound impact on education in New York City. If addressed in a serious manner, we believe the effects could transform our city and its schools. Sustained efforts to grapple with these issues in New York would also inform the work of urban school districts across the country and lead to a renaissance in our schools. What are these critical issues?

  1. 1. Desegregate the schools:

New York City’s schools are among the most segregated in the United States. Half of the more than 1600 schools in New York City are over 90 percent black and Hispanic. Schools are more segregated than the neighborhoods where they are located (Fessenden, 2012). The Civil Rights Project at UCLA has documented how decisions for more than 100 years have led to more segregated schools and what negative impact this has on schooling and society (Orfield, et al. 1996). Sixty years after Brown versus the Board of Education, this is not just an embarrassment, it is shameful…

  1. 2. Professionalize teaching

There is a body of high quality research literature about what works to improve teaching and learning, under what conditions, and with what supports. We need to bridge the gap between the research and academic communities, and practitioners. Educators and policy makers can make better use of resources such as the Review of Educational Research, Best Evidence Encyclopedia, Best Evidence Synthesis, and the What Works Clearinghouse…

 

  1. 3. Involve our Communities

After 12 years of paternalistic rule, much of the public either feels disregarded (as others act on their behalf) or actively disrespected. Without reviewing the reasons for this, it is essential that the new Mayor and next Chancellor create specific structures and opportunities for community involvement in schools…

 

  1. 4. Support educational innovation.

Both of the present authors were principals of schools and have seen these schools turn from effective, cutting edge innovation to the pursuit of safer, less complex outcomes based on standardized assessment and accountability systems. To encourage and protect future centers of experimentation and innovation, structures must be created to allow schools to be freed from bureaucratic requirements to design and test new approaches to teaching and learning…

 

  1. 5. Link schools to the struggle to create a more just and ethical society.

All of these efforts will require recognizing that education can’t solve all of the problems created by poverty. While we believe that education is one component in a quest for a more just society, we also believe that the sloganeering that has occurred, “education is today’s civil rights issue,” obfuscates the regressive impact current economic policies have had on housing, wages, employment, poverty, and the quality of life in our city and in our nation. In 2011, 21 percent of children nationally were in poverty; an increase from 17% in 1990 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). In New York City nearly 46% of families are poor or near poor! (NYC Center for Economic Opportunity, April, 2013)

 

This is a time in our city when our public institutions are tilting towards the advantaged, and the evidence is overwhelming…

These goals are not utopian. But they require a bold vision, perseverance, strategic flexibility, and input from all of our communities; including the city’s university and research communities which are currently underutilized. What Mayoral control of education has made possible is a comprehensive, coordinated multi-dimensional attack on all of the issues that demand solution. Our way out of the current predicament will require inter-agency coordination, targeted efforts, and a revitalized citizenry – all of us working together on issues of neighborhood cooperation, school desegregation, educational innovation, professionalization of practice, and ultimately, the rebirth of schools as centers of democratic engagement.

http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17374

Robert Lubetsky

City College of New York

William Stroud

Consortium for Policy Research in Education, Teachers College

Categories Bill de Blasio, New York City, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

Indianapolis: Plan to Hand Over Public Schools to Private Managers Advances

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
24

The Indiana State Teachers Association reports on a bill to privatize more public schools in Indianapolis. Privatization is not new. It is the theme song of the Obama administration in collaboration with libertarian think tanks and far-right governors.

What is new here is that the legislature is passing this plan with no evidence that it will benefit children or improve education. No, wait, there IS. Evidence. The evidence shows that all such turnovers have failed. This is faith-based policy.

The House Education Committee passed HB 1321 (Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis) 9-4 along party lines.

The bill gives the IPS School Board power to enter into contracts with “special management teams” (i.e. outside vendors) to create “innovation schools,” formerly called under the bill “portfolio schools.” These terms are simply euphemisms for takeover schools.

HB 1321 is being pushed and supported by the IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee and IPS school board, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, Stand for Children, and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.

It is being promoted as an opportunity for collaboration between the school board and charter schools in exchange for “flexibility” with IPS schools earning a grade of D or F. However, the chief bit of flexibility the bill focuses in on is the elimination of teacher rights and input. The superintendent talked about best practices and teacher buy-in, yet his bill models neither.

The main talking points against this bill are:

The IPS School Board was elected and the IPS Superintendent was hired to operate the schools in their school district—not pay middlemen to do their work.

The performance record of these outside private companies taking over schools in this state has been a failure—all 5 schools that have been taken over (now in their 3rd year of operation) remain “F” schools (4 in IPS, 1 in Gary). Taxpayers have paid millions of dollars so far to these companies with no discernible return.

Blaming teachers and their unions is a cop-out and indefensible: in 2011, the General Assembly narrowed bargaining and discussion topics and timelines and created new teacher evaluation and due process laws heavily favoring school employers. It is clear that the intent is to make these teachers “at will” employees.

HB 1321 is an insult to teachers working in some of the most challenging schools in the state and “giving away” students and teachers in these schools is shameful.

Categories Closing schools, Indiana

What Do Tennessee Teachers Really Think? Help This Video Go Viral!

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
29

The night before I addressed the Kentucky School Boards Association, I had dinner with a group of teachers and parents from Tennessee. The group included Mama Bears, BATS, and TREES.

One of the BATS was Lauren Hopson from Knox County, who teaches third grade children. She is smart, strong, experienced, and wise. She is also outspoken, as I learned by watching this video, in which she let the board know what teachers really think: They are tired of being pushed around. They are tired of an evaluation system tied to test scores. They are tired of pointless training. They are tired of foisting test after test on little children. They are tired of getting training from consultants with less experience than they have. They are tired of the charade foisted upon them by the state of Tennessee. They want to teach. What an idea!

When Lauren gave her talk, she had no idea it would be posted on YouTube. In a week, it had tens of thousands of views. Now it is over 100,000.

Help this video reach every parent and teacher. We can be the change. Social media can counter the billionaires who are trying to destroy our public schools and demoralize our teachers.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Teacher Evaluations, Tennessee

Reader: Wendy Kopp on the Origins of TFA

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
62

The reader called “Democracy” posted this comment and a link to a YouTube video from 2012. I was unable to open the video, perhaps you can, but the comments on the video were still live.

The comment reads:

“Wendy Kopp: “there was a front page article in Fortune Magazine saying that corporate America was going to take on education reform. So, there were so many elements that made the timing for this perfect. The other things is, I say this all the time, my greatest asset was my inexperience, my complete naïveté. I was convinced that this both had to happen and could happen, that it had to start on a significant scale right from the start and really, no one was going to talk me out of this, like people would tell me how crazy this was and I would just not really hear it, and I think that was truly one of my biggest assets. The other thing is that I think this particular idea was one that just very quickly magnetized just thousands of people, really, who really identified with the values on which it was built and just thought it made sense, you know, from college students who did in fact, you know, 2500 recent college graduates, you know, in four months responded to a grassroots recruitment campaign which at the time was flyers under doors, you know? The folks in corporate America who were quoted in that article actually came through with seed grants and ultimately with significant support, so, you know, in the first year alone, corporations and foundations donated $2.5 million to make it possible, and there was tremendous support in the education community as well…”

“Uh-huh.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLWb_gDIFNk”

Categories Teach for America

Governor Haslam of Tennessee: Bad Collision with Facts

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2014 //
5

This blogger has gathered the latest wave of bad news from Tennessee, showing the emptiness of the Republican Governor Bill Haslam’s efforts to outsource everything public to whoever wants to make money.

Even though President Obama praised red-state Tennessee as a prime example of the success of Race to the Top, conveniently ignoring the other Race to the Top winners where NAEP scores stagnated, things are not going well for corporate-style reform in the Volunteer State.

Haslam and his TFA Commissioner Kevin Huffman (ex-husband of Michelle Rhee) have the support of a far-right legislature, but their plans are still in disarray.

Nearly half the superintendents bravely signed a letter protesting Huffman’s heavy-handed mandates (seems to be the custom with corporate reform superintendents, brooking no dissent from the peons). Now parents have formed a new organization to fight Haslam and Huffman’s plans to outsource as many public schools to private corporations as possible. And, of course, Chris Barbic, imported from Houston to perform a miracle, promised to gather up all the state’s lowest-performing schools and move them to the top of the state’s rankings within five years (the clock is ticking–better to make your utopian promises fuzzy, not so concrete).

Now comes Tennesseans Reclaiming Education Excellence, organized by parents across the state, and they injected an unknown quantity into educational debates in Tennessee: Facts. Facts!

….on Monday, the top-down, one-size-fits-all education policies Haslam has been pushing through the legislature met a formidable roadblock — a TREE.

As has been custom the past few years, corporate education organizations have trotted out their privatization policies at the beginning of each legislative session. Their glossy, well-funded presentations always grab headlines and typically re-affirm Republican efforts that privatize public schools, divert money from our students’ classrooms and devalue educators.

This year, however, a new group, Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence, kicked off the week with some analysis that threw cold hard facts into the discussion of reforms trumpeted by Haslam’s administration.

Several points of interest:

Elaine Weiss of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, was TREE’s featured presenter. From TNEdReport.com:

“Weiss discussed recent Tennessee education policy in the context of the drivers of educational inequality. She pointed to research suggesting that poverty is a significant contributor to student outcomes and noted other research that suggests as much as 2/3 of student outcomes are predicted by factors outside of school.”

The beauty of TREE’s press conference was two fold — one; they took some media coverage away from corporate education groups, and, two; they empowered our reporters with facts that have largely been missing from the education debate in Tennessee. Hopefully this presser will pay dividends for the weeks to come.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Resistance, Tennessee
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