Bruce Baker, Mark Weber, and Joseph Oluwole completed another study of Cami Anderson’s “One Newark,” which will hand over about one-third of Newark’s public schools to private charter operators. This will result in the layoff of hundreds of teachers. Because the lowest performing schools are largely racially segregated, and because most of their teachers are black, the authors predict that “One Newark” will lead to a disparate impact on black teachers. The outcome: a significant whitening of the teacher force in Newark.
They write:
“This brief adds a new consideration to the shift from traditional public schools to charters: if the CMOs maintain their current teaching corps’ profile in an expansion, Newark’s teachers are likely to become more white and less experienced overall. Given the importance of teacher experience, particular in the first few years of work, Newark’s students would likely face a decline in teacher quality as more students enroll in charters.
“The potential change in the racial composition of the Newark teaching corps under One Newark – to a staff that has a smaller proportion of teachers of color – would occur within a historical context of established patterns of discrimination against black teachers. “Choice” plans in education have previously been found to disproportionately impact the employment of black teachers; One Newark continues in this tradition. NPS may be vulnerable to a disparate impact legal challenge on the grounds that black teachers will disproportionately face employment consequences under a plan that arbitrarily targets their schools.”
So, “the civil rights movement of our time” apparently requires the purging of black educators.
What was that again about TFA – Alma Mater of serial school killer Cami Anderson and notorious scab employment agency – selling itself to “idealistic” young people as a force for “social justice?”
How much longer can young people on college campuses maintain the fiction that this organization is anything other than an engine for whitening/gentrifyingthe teaching force and the communities where they are place, privatizing the schools and turning teaching into temp work?
Everyone associated with this pernicious organization should have their noses rubbed in its venality and dishonesty.
Michael Fiorillo: it is no surprise that the ‘rainbow-coalition’ of charterites/privatizers would have a disproportionately negative impact on the number of black teachers.
For example, here’s Dr. Steve “Strap Up There Will Be Head Injuries” Perry on the preferred racial/ethnic composition of his own charter: “We need to make it snow around here.”
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/08/teacher-what-i-learned-when-i-taught-at-steve-perrys-no-excuses-school-in-hartford/
Again, a posting on this blog by Linda about a teacher who worked for Perry:
[start quote]
I attended a defending public education forum today at CCSU in CT. In a small group session a former Capital Prep teacher spoke about her experiences working for Perry. She said that he stressed getting buy in from his staff. He constantly spoke about “adding value” and how they were going to franchise the school and spread out nationwide.
They never discussed the kids when teachers met in groups. They looked at data. They were told to placate the parents, so they could attract more more middle class students. He would say at many meetings and this is a quote: “We want it to snow in here.” She took this to mean we need more white people and middle class students.
[end quote]
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/04/27/minneapolis-steve-perry-ridicules-teachers/
So with all apologies to a delightful Xmas song made popular by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, a paraphrase of the last verse:
Public ed is slowly dying
But $tudent $ucce$$ is slowly a pilin’
But as long as Arne wants it so
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
Oh my…
😎
I believe Mark Zuckerberg gave a bunch of money to Newark schools. Does anyone know what they are doing with his donation?
These are the emails the ACLU sued to get on the planning for the donation.
I think everyone should read them. You get a feel for how closely elected leaders work with the billionaire funders. At one point there’s discussion on how they have to make this look “local”, it can’t appear national, although of course privatized “portfolio” districts are absolutely a national plan.
The most embarrassing part of the episode, to me, is this:
“The city had sought to withhold numerous emails sent between mid-September 2010 and late June 2011, claiming they were exempt from open-records laws. But in her ruling issued Thursday, state Superior Court Judge Rachel Davidson wrote: “It is not clear that the executive privilege applies to mayors at all, but even assuming that it does, it does not apply here.”
Executive privilege for a mayor? It was controversial in Ohio when a governor claimed that exception to sunshine laws. Now mayors?
I think they didn’t want to release the emails because the correspondence gives the reader a real sense of how this was a national ed reform marketing campaign and how there was a huge effort to portray it as local.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/12/25/booker-releases-emails-related-to-100-million-grant-for-newark-schools-from-facebooks-zuckerberg/
How could they even try to pretend it is local? This is the same old playbook played out in city after city. It is so cliché now. Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, etc .
I don’t believe their was any money going to the students, it was wonderful photo opportunity for the governor, mayor and the money went to the people from NYC who were given consultant contracts. Follow the money and it goes to wall street but never to public school education. Eric Holder needs to get involved this is criminal what is happening
Zuckerberg’s entire fortune is based on monetizing people’s personal information; it’s to be expected that his “philanthropy” would enable and accelerate the same among schoolchildren.
I totally agree with Michael Fiorillio!!! It started In DCPS under the Fenty/Rheeform cheating test scandal 2007 and continues today under the Gray/Kaya corrupted mayor campaign 2010.
Shame on Fenty/Rheeform/Duncan/Gray/Kaya Agenda.
A bunch of liars and crooks.
If this doesn’t lead to a discrimination lawsuit supported by the NAACP and the ACLU, I’ll be shocked. And if it doesn’t reach the Supreme Court, I’ll be shocked again.
The court cases are going to be a Tsunami that will sweep across the nation.
Blacks must take the lead. White liberals are great, but it is the black middle class that is being attacked in this instance and they are the ones who can speak to the “civil rights issues.” If I was in NJ, I would march with them but in the back.
This is all about money. The people putting this in place do not care who they put out of work. Wait and see if Obama comes to save these middle class jobs with decent pay and benefits. Don’t hold your breath.
We have seen this in the new evaluation instrument used in Massachusetts. In Boston, there has been a clear pattern of racial bias in teacher evaluations.
http://www.btu.org/news/black-and-hispanic-teachers-bear-disproportionate-impact-new-objective-evaluation-system
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/23/boston-union-officials-black-and-hispanic-teachers-disproportionately-targeted-under-new-evaluation-system/LCghntHAh8zM2R8qPmYrzM/story.html
What you seem to be saying is that the schools that are failing are full of black teachers who are failing the kids and the schools that are successful have white teachers who are not failing their students. Since the goal is for all students to be successful, choosing a charter school where teachers are expected to perform well will give black students a better academic experience. I have no interest in saving the jobs of subpar black, Hispanic, or white teachers. Don’t the kids deserve better?