Archives for the month of: September, 2015
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

New York: Regents Approve Punitive Educator Evaluation System, 10-6

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2015 //
96

As expected, the New York Board of Regents adopted the punitive system of educator evaluation, based mainly on student test scores, by a vote of 10-6. The same six Regents who opposed the system last June, opposed it again yesterday; all six of the dissenting votes come from experienced educators.

To soften the blow to teachers, the Regents added an appeals process for those who want to challenge their rating.

At this point, those seeking a return to sanity await the decision in State Supreme Court in the case of Sheri Lederman, a fourth grade teacher who sued to invalidate the system.

Has anyone in Governor Cuomo’s office figured out where they will find better teachers to replace those who are fired as a result of his eagerness to oust teachers?

Categories Education Reform

EdWeek: Think Twice Before Believing Governors’ Boasts

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
19

Education Week warns that voters should be wary of governors boasting about their success in education.

Jindal of Louisiana claims that his implementation of school choice increased graduation rates. But Alabama increased its grad rAte even more, without the same aggressive privatization. Funny that the governor of one of the nation s lowest perf morning states would offer it as a model.

Walker of Wisconsin says third grade reading scores went up because he busted the union. Not so fast, says EdWeek.

Jeb! boasts if fourth grade scores. Of course, holding back low-scoring third graders helped the fourth grade scores. But what about those eighth grade scores? Not so good. If the gains don’t persist, what good are they?

Categories Education Reform, Florida, Louisiana

Coalition Calls on Mayor Emanuel to Work with Dyett Community

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
12

Contact: Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220

Nearly 300 Call on Chicago Mayor to Implement Green Technology Proposal for Dyett High School Immediately

Educators, Academics, and More From Across the Country Issue Letter to Rahm Emanuel on 26th Day of Hunger Strike

** See the Letter Here: http://bit.ly/1KINZcx **

Amidst the hunger strike crisis in Chicago over the fate of Dyett High School, almost 300 educators, researchers, academics, and community groups nationwide have issued a letter to Rahm Emanuel urging him to invest in the Coalition’s Global Leadership and Green Technology plan for the school. The groups and individuals applaud the decision to open Dyett as an open-enrollment school, but believe more needs to be done.

See the letter here: http://bit.ly/1KINZcx

The education advocates call on Emanuel to take the following next steps:

A curricular emphasis on green technology and to include “Green Technology” in the name of the school,

The involvement of members of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School on the design team and in the selection of the principal,

An elected and fully empowered Local School Council.

“Not only is it absolutely crucial that Dyett re-open under the Coalition’s proposal, it is imperative to set a precedent for transformative community schools nationwide by ensuring that these strikers, along with students, parents, teachers and community members are engaged in an all-inclusive decision-making process,” said Keron Blair, Director of AROS.

“Though the hunger strikers have successfully fought for open-enrollment at Dyett, they are continuing to fast and stand firm in their demand for the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology plan. Had members of the community been actively included in the initial planning stages for the school, they would not have to now endure day 26 of their hunger strike.

“We have got to do what needs to be done to bring these folks home to their children and families. We won’t give up until Rahm Emanuel does what is right for the school, and does it now.”

Yesterday, the 15 hunger strikers visited the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) headquarters demanding a meeting with Forrest Claypool to begin the planning for the new Dyett High School.

###

The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) is a national community/labor table of organizations of parents, students, teachers and community members who are fighting for the public schools our children deserve.

Categories Chicago, Resistance

What Would Happen to Nashville Prep in the U.K.?

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
16

Last week, Nashville school board member Amy Frogge wrote about her misgivings about Nashville Prep, a charter school with high test scores. She criticized its harsh discipline and its use of a book that contained words and situations that most people would consider inappropriate for children in seventh grade. Her article was called: WARNING! THE CONTENT OF THIS POST IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN!

Many comments responded to her article. This one came from a teacher in England:

“If a teacher did this in the UK, they would be sacked. No Union could support the use of such a book with 12 year-old children. The planning trail for the use of this book should be scrutinised and the person, or persons responsible, must be held to account – it is a form of child abuse and would be totally unacceptable throughout the United Kingdom. As a Foster Carer, I am amazed to read this. As a teacher, I am disgusted that it is a required text in a US Charter School. As an individual, it is a sign of how awful Education is becoming in the USA, the supposed leader of the free world. The Discipline strategies described here would see you charged with assault in the United Kingdom. What I have read beggars belief.

“Something is seriously wrong.”

“Oliver Kingsley,
Vice President,
Liverpool Division of the National Union of Teachers, United Kingdom”

Categories Charter Schools, International, Tennessee

6 Minutes in Ms. McDonald’s 5th Grade Class in a “No-Excuses” Charter School in Nashville Prep

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
53

NOTE TO READER: I AM SORRY TO SAY THAT SOMEONE–LIKELY, THE SCHOOL–HAS BLOCKED ACCESS TO THIS VIDEO. I VIEWED IT A FEW DAYS AGO, AND FRANKLY, WAS TAKEN ABACK BY SEEING THE STUDENTS’ ROBOTIC RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ABOUT U.S. HISTORY. EVERYONE MOVED, TURNED, REACTED, AND ANSWERED IN UNISON.

This is a fascinating video. It is “Six Minutes in Ms. McDonald’s Fifth Grade Social Studies Class.”

Ms. McDonald is a teacher in Nashville Prep, a high-scoring charter school in Nashville, Tennessee.

You may have read about it here. The founder, Ravi Gupta, has plans to expand and create a chain. He already has a school in Mississippi.

Were you ever in a social studies class like this one?

No discussion, no debate. Singing and responding in unison.

In the early nineteenth century, children learned geography by singing the names of the continents, the oceans, the highest mountains.

Categories Charter Schools, Tennessee

Novak and Bessie: Can Teachers Afford to Live Where They Teach?

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
11

In this post on The Atlantic, Jason Novak and Adam Bessie pose a question about “teachers who moonlight.” Their post is a graphic commentary on the difficulty that teachers have either renting or buying in the community where they teach, especially if they teach in an urban district like San Francisco, San Diego, or New York City.

Categories Teachers

Some Great Things Are Happening in Pittsburgh

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
5

Pittsburgh is a textbook example of the importance of electing a school board that supports public schools, instead of one that is controlled by billionaires.

This is a story of how a community saved its school, which the old board had decided to close.

The new elected board listened to the community, which wanted to keep Woolsair Elementary open. The old one said enrollment was too low; with community activism, enrollment is up. The school adopted a STEAM focus (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics). The STEAM theme is given credit for renewed interest, but frankly, I think that is merely the cherry on top of the whipped cream. The real change agent here was the community activism.

Be it noted that the Pittsburgh school board severed ties with TFA.

This is a city energized to save and improve its public schools.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Pittsburgh

Bianca Tanis: Tisch Must Go

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
24

Bianca Tanis is a public school parent and teacher of special education in the Hudson Valley of New York. In this post, she expresses her disgust and dismay that Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch continues to promote the Cuomo plan to make test scores 50% of educator evaluation, while pretending to make meaningless amendments.

Tisch, who has been a Regent for 20 years, assumes that the Cuomo plan will weed out ineffective teachers in high-poverty schools, but fails to suggest how effective teachers will be drawn to these schools. In the past, she has proposed exempting the affluent white suburbs, where scores are highest, from the Cuomo program. She believes that poor children, minority children will benefit if their teachers and principal live in fear of low test scores, if their school eliminates the arts and physical education and social studies to concentrate in test prep.

Tisch dismisses the statement of the American Statistical Assiciation, which warns against using test scores to judge individual teachers, as if it was the opinion of a few individuals.

Over the three years of Common Cire testing, this approach to evaluation has proven to be unreliable and unstable. It is also deeply demoralizing and has contributed to the growing national teacher shortage. This is Arne Duncan’s legacy. It will also be Cuomo and Tisch’s legacy.

Categories New York, Special Education, Teacher Evaluations

New York: Regents Will Vote to Abandon Their Authority Today

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2015 //
35

Today, the New York Board of Regents will vote to approve the harsh and punitive educator evaluation plan that Governor Andrew Cuomo rammed through the Legislature last spring as part of a budget bill.

In doing so, the Regents will abandon their Constitutional authority over education policy. The New York State Constitution grants full control over education to the Board of Regents. It grants none to the Governor. The Governor does not appoint a single member of the 17-member Board of Regents. The State Legislature selects them. The Governor does not appoint the state Commissioner of Education. That is the job of the Regents.

Today the Regents will approve Cuomo’s plan to tie 50% of educator evaluations to student test scores. The Governor’s plan was shaped in his office, without benefit of hearings, public discussion, public debate, or expert testimony.

The Regents have the power to reassert their Constitutional authority. But they are weak. They will fold to the will of a Governor whose determination to rule is greater than the Regents’ commitment to the State Constitution. Or to the children, or to the educators, or to the best interests of education in New York.

Parents have been ignored throughout this charade of the Governor flexing his political muscle. They will have a chance to be heard next spring, when the tests are administered. More students will opt out, more than the 220,000 who refused the tests in 2015. Will it be 300,000? 400,000? This is parents’ only means to be heard. They will be heard.

Categories New York, Teacher Evaluations

Stephen Dyer: How Many Ohio Supreme Court Judges Received Campaign Cash from Charter Founder?

By dianeravitch
September 15, 2015 //
22

We like to think that judicial decisions are the result of a thoughtful perusal of case law and precedents.

Stephen Dyer, former legislator and current policy analyst, suggests there may be other issues involved.

Money.

“Today, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that White Hat Management — the state’s worst performing large-scale charter school operator — gets to keep all the equipment it uses public money to buy, even if the school was shut down for being one of the state’s worst performing schools.

“White Hat — run by Republican mega donor David Brennan — can sell the equipment how it sees fit, even if it was its own incompetence and failure that led to the school’s closing.

“While this opinion may seem somewhat surprising, what isn’t surprising is that the Supreme Court Justice who wrote the opinion has taken $5,000 in campaign contributions from Brennan and his family. Justice Judith Lanzinger received that money in 2004.

“Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor — whose political career started in Brennan’s Summit County backyard — received money every year she was up for the court in 2002, 2008 and 2010 when she ran for the Chief Justice seat. She has received a total of $11,900. Surprised she signed onto Lanzinger’s opinion?

“Justice Judith French received $7,200 last year when she ran for the high court — as the White Hat lawsuit was pending. Any surprise she voted to uphold White Hat’s right to profit from their failed school management?

“I credit Justice Terrence O’Donnell for recusing himself from the case. He received more money than any other sitting Justice — $15,000.

“Justice Paul Pfeiffer took money from Brennan in the early 1990s, but hasn’t recently and dissented from the Lanzinger opinion.

“The opinions on this case are complex and complicated, with many of the Justices trying to seem like they are with White Hat on some things, but not others. Don’t let them fool you with their strained efforts. On the only thing that mattered — allowing Brennan to profit from his failed operations — they were lock step behind their benefactor.”

The other big charter operator in Ohio, William Lager, received $100 million last year from the state. All of his schools received Fs and Ds. He also gave to the campaigns of Lanzinger, French, O’Connor, and O’Donnell.

Money talks in a loud voice. What about the taxpayers’ dollars? What about the children?

Forget about it. A contract is a contract.

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »