States across the nation are talking about, planning, or implementing Tennessee’s Achievement School District. The director of the ASD, Chris Barbic, pledged to take the state’s lowest-performing schools (inthe bottom 5%) and move them into the top 25% of schools in five years. All the schools in ASD are charter schools. The spin and hype about the ASD have been so intense that few people asked for evidence that it was working. The promise was enough evidence.
But this tweet appeared tonight:
Commercial Appeal (@memphisnews)
6/4/15, 8:02 PM
Memphis Achievement School District superintendent says he’s not sure 5-year turnaround goal is possible. memne.ws/1GacI5o
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Lip service and false hope are the ultimate trick from all con and scam artists for their own profit gain.
People are easily fall into con artist’s trap because they are lazy, ambitious, but talent-less and GREEDY.
It is frustrated to see good heart and intention from conscientious educators and researchers who are gullible with blinded compassion, and always fall into “”HOLLOW and EMPTY”” promises, fake hope, unrealistic time frame without a CONCRETE strategy from GREEDY con artists. Back2basic
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Agree!
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Where is it written that all ships must put in to port at the same time with the same cargo?
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Historically, all business corporations = “”ships”” MUST gear to public education or standardized testing policy = “”port”” in all States in America = “”at the same time”” with the same PROFIT FOCUSING =””cargo””? back2basic
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Once they succeed in moving the bottom 5% into the top 25% there will be a fresh “bottom 5%” to deal with. Job for life here !
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That is the inevitable result of stack ratings based on test scores, and of course the schemes for rating proliferate aided by big bucks from Gates working in tandem with USDE and ALEC. All are for rating schemes and report cards.
That game is not played on the other side, failures and frauds of charter schools reported by worst authorizers, worst operators, worst school-level offenders, and by state. Ah, to have unlimited access to research assistants, and funds to churn out such reports, and buy full page ads in wide-circulation media. And then come street theater to shame the supporters of the frauds. My morning fantasy.
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“That game is not played on the other side, failures and frauds of charter schools reported by worst authorizers, worst operators, worst school-level offenders, and by state.”
It would be impossible to find out in Ohio. “The authorizers” are a black box.
Have you ever seen or heard from one, an individual, not a paid spokesperson or lobbyist for charters? They perform a government function and no one has any idea who they are, whether they’re qualified, nothing. I don’t know how they spend the cut they take. I don’t even know if it goes to school-related business.
I have three names listed on my public school website- treasurer, assistant and clerk. I could ask any one of those people any question at any time regarding finances for the school. The treasurer attends school board meetings quarterly.
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I’m with you on this! Next, we need to move beyond fantasy and get our message into the mainstream media. How to do this?
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Does it matter if they achieve the “benchmark”? There’s two possible choices when they take over a whole category of schools (5%)- 1. a set of public schools or 2. a set of charter schools.
If they don’t achieve the benchmark it’s not like they go back to public schools. Those are gone. That decision was made. The only remaining possibility is one or another mix of charter schools.
There’s very little risk in ed reform leaders making these bold claims at the outset to sell the idea of taking over the schools because there is no going back once the schools are privatized. He could have said “top 10% in 4 years” or “top 5% in 3 years” – once the “public option” is gone, it’s gone.
They’re putting these in all over the country. Will “not meeting the benchmark” change that? Of course not. They sold them prior to meeting this benchmark anyway.
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In Memphis we are very stubborn and we won’t take “can’t return the schools” for an answer.
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NV will now also have an “Achievement School District”. Charters will be taking over low-performing schools – which will be many of those in Las Vegas.
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Haven’t these idiots realized yet that the there will always be a bottom 5% and that the bottom 5% turnaround/renew is political rhetoric to get rid of public schools and turn them into charters and fire teachers and hire a goodly amount by backdoor legislated poorly trained clerks from teach for awhile/America? In a charter district, what is the point of spouting the bottom 5% nonsense–the fate of the district has been sealed by deals made with the devil. When they have totally ruined education, they MUST move on with that plan to another district or another State, because that is the only way the “miracle” works. You know what the “miracle” is? It is sort of like a magic trick – here: Watch the public school district disappear. Presto. Voila. Charters~!
We are still, as a voting public, as parents of students, as taxpayers, WAKING UP to the lingo and the nonsense and the backwards speak. It was NEVER about achievement, or “for the kids” – it was always about, and still is about, busting unions, firing teachers, and privatizing education for profit. There is “gold in them thar hills….of education” and the thieves have been mining for 20 years.
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And, how many teachers, many now retired or shoved out, or disheartened, or labeled ineffective could have predicted this from the first day? The reformers don’t understand kids. Kids are not “products”.
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Looks like Kasich is pulling out all the stops to go with his school funding plan- it cuts public school funding to 50% of districts and raises school funding for 100% of charters.
The Agnostics probably should have resisted. They’re about to get rolled. Again.
Can we hire a private advocate? Take some portion of funding and pay someone to advocate for our schools? The Agnostics lose every single time when up against the anti-public school caucus in government and media.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2015/06/05/1-school-funding-should-go-where-its-needed.html
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“Lies circulate the globe while truth puts on its running shoes.
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When will people realize there is no easy solution to complex issues?
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Strangely, the title of this article in the Commercial Appeal was changed before publication from “Achievement Schools Superintendent Not Sure 5-year Turnaround Goal Possible” to “Scores This Year Could Affect ASD Partners”. Also, 3 paragraphs were cut from the original article, including this one:
““We could say tomorrow we are changing the goal,” Barbic said. “The only blowback we would probably get is from you guys (media). “But there is nothing stopping us. I could wake up tomorrow and decide I want to do something different.”
The Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper editor is pro-reform and pro-charter, so it is not surprising to see this “editing”.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/schools/achievement-schools-superintendent-not-sure-5year-turnaround-goal-possible_29419340
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Tennessee Momma Bear,
I saw the original link on Twitter saying that Barbic doubted he could meet his goal in five years. I googled before posting and was surprised to see the article title had changed and key quotes were edited
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You’re always on the ball, Diane. And thank you for informing Diane, Momma Bear!
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I forgot to mention that Chalkbeat (an online news source funded by Bill Gates) has an arrangement to publish its education articles in the Commercial Appeal. Some wonder if this arrangement is a threat to the current education reporters at the Commercial Appeal.
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Ugh … Gates. He’s just a marketer who promotes his awful stuff … plus, TAX BREAKS!
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