Archives for the year of: 2015
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Fred Klonsky: ESEA Bill Includes Rewards to Bondholders for Limiting Special Education

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
38

Fred Klonsky hosts special education expert Bev Johns, who explains that social impact bonds (SIB) encourage investors to take over government responsibilities and make a profit.

Special education advocate Bev Johns has written here warning about the impact of Social Impact Bonds on special education services.

What are Social Impact Bonds (SIBs)?

They have become a favorite privatization tool of corporate Democrats and others.

Wall Street loves them.

Also known as Pay for Success programs in which Wall Street investors, often using funding from private philanthropies, invest in social programs which once were funded directly by the government. The aim is to reduce government costs by offering profits to Wall Street.

The profit increases for investors when schools reduce the number of students who receive special education services:

When it comes to special education programs and SIBs, success is quantified by counting how many special needs students are moved out of the programs and how many have services removed or denied.

It is just the opposite of what we have fought in favor of for decades. For those of us who have taught Special Needs students, either as general education teachers, special subject teachers or special education teachers, we look at success as meaning accurately identifying the needs of individual students, providing evidence for those needs, and getting service and support to those students. We never considered that if we determined there was a continuing need to provide services to a student it meant we failed.

We don’t look at special education students in the aggregate. That is the opposite of the essence of the IEP, the Individualized Educational Program.

To make matters worse, SIBS have been included in the reauthorization of ESEA/NCLB.

The Senate reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (ESEA) includes an amendment by Senator Orrin Hatch that rewards investors in bonds if schools reduce special education enrollments.

We need to let every national organization that we belong to know that we oppose the concept of paying Goldman Sachs and other investors for every child that avoids special education (what Sen. Hatch calls Pay-for-Success).

Categories Special Education

Corporate Reform Summit in Denver: Critics Are Not Welcome

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
22

The Foundation for Excellence in Education, the privatization/testing advocacy group founded by Jeb Bush, will hold its national summit in Denver on October 22-23.

Since Jeb stepped down to run for President, Condi Rice is the new leader. You may recall that she became an education expert in 2012 when she led a task force with Joel Klein that declared that American public schools are so dreadful that they are a threat to national security. The cure, they said, was charters, vouchers, and the Common Core.

Please note that if you are a blogger, you must submit samples of your work to prove you love corporate reform: charters, vouchers, school closings, high-stakes testing, merit pay, etc., or you will not be admitted.

The most newsworthy portion of the summit will be the session on “proven strategies” to improve student achievement. Since none of the corporate reform strategies have any evidence to support them, this will be a challenge for those hoping for proof, not ideological blather.

The latest press release:

From: “Foundation for Excellence in Education”

To: gorlewsj@newpaltz.edu
Sent: Thursday, October 8, 2015 10:21:15 AM
Subject: MEDIA ADVISORY: 2015 National Summit on Education Reform hosted by Dr. Condoleezza Rice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 8, 2015 Contact: Press Office
850-391-4090
PressShop@excelined.org

MEDIA ADVISORY: 2015 National Summit on Education Reform hosted by Dr. Condoleezza Rice

On October 22-23, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. Secretary of State and board chair of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) will host the organization’s eighth annual National Summit on Education Reform. Media registration is now open for media wishing to cover the two-day event. Credentials must be requested in advance of the start of the summit.

The nation’s premier annual education forum immerses policymakers in two days of in-depth discussions on proven and innovative strategies to improve student achievement.

The following event is OPEN PRESS:

2015 National Summit on Education Reform

Presented by the Foundation for Excellence in Education
October 22-23, 2015
Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center
650 15th Street
Denver, CO 80202

Credentialing:

All members of the media, including bloggers, who plan to cover the Summit must be credentialed by the Foundation for Excellence in Education. All media must apply for advance credentials online via the Media Registration Form by Monday October 19 COB. Advance registration is strongly encouraged as space is limited and onsite registration may be subject to delays.

To apply for media credentials, please complete the Media Registration Form.

As the Foundation is sensitive to the need to make travel plans, notification of credential approval will be made via email within one week of receiving the requested information.

Specific credentialing requirements exist for freelance writers and bloggers. In addition to completing the online form, as soon as possible please email the following information to

PressShop@ExcelinEd.org:

Freelance Writers: Freelance writers wishing to cover the Summit must submit a letter of assignment or letter of intent from the media outlet being represented.

Bloggers: Bloggers wishing to receive credentials must have regular posts about education and policy issues, and other related news, and have a significant following. Proof of coverage may be provided in the following form: a URL to your site’s main page as well as a link to a bylined article posted within the last few months.

Check-In:

For planning purposes, media check-in will open on Thursday, October 22 and Friday, October 23 at 7:00 a.m. and continue throughout the day, both days of the conference.

Upon check-in at the event, approved media will be asked to present a current year news media credential in conjunction with a government-issued photo ID, such as a valid state driver’s license or passport. If a current year news media credential is not available, a valid business card in conjunction with a government-issued photo ID, such as a valid state driver’s license or passport, may be accepted.

Previous accreditation to Foundation for Excellence in Education events does not guarantee the issuance of media or blogger credentials for the 2015 National Summit on Education Reform.

The Foundation for Excellence in Education, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to withhold press credentials from members of the news media, limit the number of credentials assigned to any news organization and revoke credentials from members of the news media before or during the event for any reason. Acceptance of press credentials constitutes agreement by the bearer and his/her organization to abide by any terms set forth by the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

Access:

As in years past, media credentials must be worn at all times in order to gain access to designated press areas to cover the conference sessions.

The Media Filing center will be available to all credentialed media on a first come, first serve basis, during operating hours for the entirety of the two-day Summit. Other designated press areas will be accessible based on Summit agenda.

Coverage:

Members of the media are welcome to cover the conference, including keynote, general and strategy sessions from designated press areas. Participation in Q&A segments is reserved for registered attendees of the event.

A live feed of the general and keynote sessions will be available in the Media Filing Center. Additionally, there will be closed-circuit televisions and mult boxes for access to clean audio feeds of the general and keynote sessions.

Technical Details:

Complimentary internet access will be provided in the Media Filing Center and ballroom. Please note that this network will be available to all members of the media, which may cause a high volume of traffic at times.

A live webcast of the general and keynote sessions will also be available. Details are forthcoming. News organizations may live stream the Summit in its entirety, upload video content to websites and/or archive footage.

Agenda & Speakers:

The week of the Summit, a full itinerary of the conference events, as well as technical and logistical specifications for media, will be distributed to registered and confirmed media outlets and bloggers.

In the meantime, a complete list of speakers featured during the 2015 summit and a full agenda for the two-day event may be found at ExcelinEd.org/National-Summit/2015-Agenda.

Confirmed media will receive access to the official #EIE15 app accessible via smartphone or tablet, offering real-time updates on speakers, the agenda and strategy sessions.

Join the Conversation:

Follow #EIE15 and @ExcelinEd on Twitter for the latest news and updates regarding the 2015 Summit.

Special Requests:

Once approved, credentialed media may alert us of any special coverage needs or requests, including but not limited to the following topics, and we will do our best to accommodate:

If you would like to pre-arrange an interview with one of the speakers in advance of or during the Summit;
If you need to request private interview space for a specific and consolidated time period;

If you are interested in covering the event live, plan to park a satellite truck onsite and/or have questions regarding cable runs; and

If you are a network or cable and wish to attend the technical walk-through;
In some cases, specific deadlines apply. Space is limited.

Thank you for your interest in covering the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s eighth annual National Summit on Education Reform. We hope to see you in Denver.

###

For more information visit http://www.ExcelinEd.org.

The Foundation for Excellence in Education is transforming education for the 21st century economy by working with lawmakers, policymakers, educators and parents to advance education reform across America. ExcelinEd is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. In 2014, ExcelinEd received more than 85 percent of its operating revenue from private family foundations. Learn more at ExcelinEd.org.

CONTACT US
P.O. Box 10691
Tallahassee, Florida
32302-2691
850-391-4090
info@excelined.org

Categories Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reform, Denver, Education Industry, For-Profit, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

A Tough Day for the Walton Heirs

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
17

How would you feel if you lost $11 billion in one day? I would feel awful. 

Think how the Waltons must feel. They lost that much when their stock in Walmart tanked. Since January 1, they have lost $41 billion. 

It tanked because of competiton with Internet vendors and because they have to pay more to their workers. Imagine their nerve expecting to claim minimum wage! 

I think the Waltons will get through it. They still have $120 billion. 

Categories Education Reform

Los Angeles Times on Rafe Esquith 

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
22

There is much we don’t know about this case. But when the courts get around to Rafe’s $1 billion class action lawsuit, we will lots more than we do now.
Here is the story in the Los Angeles Times.

Categories Education Reform

Lawyers for Rafe Esquith File $1 Billion Class Action Suit Against LAUSD

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
14

Lawyers for famed teacher Rafe Esquith filed a class action suit against the Los Angeles school district soon after the school board decided to begin termination proceedings against him. Esquith is suing on behalf of himself and 2,000 other teachers who claim that they were wrongfully accused and removed from their classrooms.

“Esquith’s suit accuses administrators of abusing disciplinary measures to push out older teachers so the district doesn’t have to pay them retirement benefits, including pensions and health care.

It alleges Esquith’s treatment fits a pattern: that teachers nearing retirement age are abruptly removed from their classrooms and placed in what teachers and their union refer to as “teacher jail” — essentially spending time in an office or at home awaiting the outcome of investigations that often lead to firings….

Geragos [his lawyer] told reporters at a news conference that more than 1,000 teachers have sent emails saying they, too, had been subjected to teacher jail. And, he said, Esquith’s former students have complained about how they’ve been questioned by the district’s investigators.

Geragos said the district employs “an investigative hit squad that goes out and intimidates and tried to extract statements from students that they then can use for kangaroo court-type proceedings.”

“I’m calling for the complete shutdown of LAUSD,” Geragos said. He described the district as “a corrupt organization” that has smeared Esquith’s reputation through “scurrilous and scandalous leaks.”

Thursday’s suit seeks to grant Esquith legal status as a “whistleblower” and follows months of failed negotiations and heated rhetoric over his case.

Categories Education Reform

Jay Mathews: The Case Against Rafe Esquith is a “Classic Witch Hunt”

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
6

Jay Matthews of the Washington Post says that Rafe Esquith may be the best teacher in America. He is outraged that the LA school board voted to fire him. 
He writes:

Obviously I’m biased. I don’t think Esquith could ever be guilty of any of the fuzzy accusations in an August statement from the district, including inappropriate touching of minors, inappropriate photos and videos on his computer, ethical and policy violations in the nonprofit group that funds his fifth-grade The dishonest nature of the Esquith investigation is clear from the fact it did not begin until a state commission ruled against the district on a silly complaint that he had somehow offended students and others with a mild joke involving a reference to nudity. I think the district investigators decided they were not going to let this celebrity teacher — countless awards, four intriguing books and movie star supporters — show them up….

I have been in Esquith’s classroom many times, seen his joyful multi-media plays, interviewed him for hours and talked to his wife, many of his students and educators he has mentored. I have never detected a trace of improper behavior. The district’s one concrete fact is an allegation that he abused a nine-year-old boy at a summer camp when he was 19, but neither the school board nor the L.A. police did anything with that when the accuser informed them in 2006.

Categories Education Reform

Daniel Katz: Eva Moskowitz Is Out of Control

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2015 //
41

Daniel Katz, professor at Seton Hall University and extraordinary blogger, writes here about the charter lobbyists’ unethical use of students, parents, and teachers to advance its political agenda of more funding for privately managed charters. No charter operator in the nation has been more audacious in deploying this tactic than Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy.

On the heels of her big political rally last week, Eva now plans to close all her schools for half a day for yet another one.

Katz believes this is an outrage, and I agree. The rally, like the millions of dollars spent on TV commercials in support of more funding for privatization, is supported by “Families” for Excellent Schools, a front group for hedge fund managers and other billionaires for privatization.

Katz rightly asks, what would happen if Chancellor Farina were to close the public schools for half a day so that one million children and hundreds of thousands–or millions of parents and teachers–could rally to demand that the state fully fund the public schools. One benchmark would be the billions owed to the city schools by the state, in accordance with a court victory (never complied with) called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. A different benchmark would be a demand to have facilities and resources equal to those in Eva’s schools.

Something other than money is at issue. The question is the legality and ethics of using children and teachers as foot-soldiers in Eva’s political campaign for more money, more schools, more power. When is enough enough?

Katz writes:

Fresh off their rally with charter school parents and students on October 7th, “Families” For Excellent Schools has announced that they will hold another rally on Wednesday the 21st of October. This rally, which will be held in Manhattan’s Foley Square, will reportedly feature nearly 1,000 charter school teachers predominantly from Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy network. While some teachers from Achievement First, Uncommon Schools, and KIPP are expected to be present, Ms. Moskowitz’s workforce will be the primary participants, and the network just so happens to have a scheduled half school day so that teachers can show up to the rally for the purpose of pressuring law makers into allowing more charter schools in the city. Chew on that for a moment: a scheduled half day of school. A political rally. The teachers in attendance.

I don’t know about you, but when my children’s unionized public school teachers take a half day, it is because they are in professional development workshops and related activities. They certainly are not being taken from their schools to a rally organized by a lobbying group funded specifically to increase their influence with lawmakers in City Hall and in Albany….

It would be one thing for “Families” For Excellent Schools to organize political rallies for parents and supporters of charter schools to attend and to use that platform to advocate for more such schools. That is indisputably their right. It becomes much more questionable when those rallies are organized in such a way that Eva Moskowitz closes her schools during multiple rallies, leaving parents with no place to send their children and essentially forcing them to take a day from work to attend so that they and their children add to event’s optics. That is within their rights, but frankly, it is cheap and coercive….

And it is monstrously unethical: our fully public schools would spark legitimate outrage if they organized a school day around sending their employees to a political rally organized by a lobbyist organization. How can it be tolerable for Eva Moskowitz to use her employees, and students, and parents as window dressing for campaigns to funnel more and more public school funding and public school facilities into her organization that she has repeatedly refused to allow “outsiders” to hold her accountable? What Superintendent of schools has such authority?….

Is Eva Moskowitz running a chain of schools or is she running the lobbying arm for her billionaire backers who see the expansion of the charter school sector as a means for profit and as a means to break public sector unions? Public school advocates certainly hold rallies to support public education, but we have to do so on weekends and after school hours for reasons that should similarly prohibit Success Academy and other charter schools from providing school hour props for “Families” For Excellent Schools. Our appallingly lax rules for tax exempt organizations may allow for this, but there is no reason why our charter school authorizing bodies and the legislators who write school law should tolerate this. We need our representatives in Albany to change charter school rules so that orchestrating the participation of students and teachers in obviously political events during what should be school hours is expressly prohibited.

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, Harlem Success Academy, Politics

California Cancels Exit Exams, Offers Diplomas to Students Who Failed to Pass Tests Since 2006

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2015 //
47

California decided to cancel its high school exit exam. Now the state is trying to locate 32,000 students who were denied diplomas since 2006 because they did not pass the exam, but met all the other requirements for graduation.

Sifting through old high school transcripts and searching for names on Facebook, school officials across California are scrambling to hand out thousands of diplomas to former students, many of whom gave up on graduating and don’t realize they’re now eligible.

The young men and women, some in their late 20s, became sudden qualifiers for a diploma after Gov. Jerry Brown last week retroactively revoked the requirement that all students pass the controversial California High School Exit Exam. With the stroke of a pen, the governor brought relief to up to 32,000 students since the class of 2006 who only needed to pass the test to graduate.

Some districts are using Facebook and other social media to search for former students.

“Sifting through old high school transcripts and searching for names on Facebook, school officials across California are scrambling to hand out thousands of diplomas to former students, many of whom gave up on graduating and don’t realize they’re now eligible.

The young men and women, some in their late 20s, became sudden qualifiers for a diploma after Gov. Jerry Brown last week retroactively revoked the requirement that all students pass the controversial California High School Exit Exam. With the stroke of a pen, the governor brought relief to up to 32,000 students since the class of 2006 who only needed to pass the test to graduate.

The about-face on the Exit Exam began earlier this year when the state Department of Education stopped administering the test while the Legislature considered suspending the graduation requirement.

As The Chronicle reported in August, that left thousands of members of the class of 2015 in limbo, required to pass a test the state no longer offered. An emergency state law waived the Exit Exam requirement for the class of 2015, but did not address what would happen to former students still trying to pass the test and get a diploma years after they left high school.

The new law, signed by the governor Wednesday, not only revoked the Exit Exam graduation requirement going back to the class of 2006, but also suspended it through 2017. State officials now must decide whether to create a new test aligned with the new Common Core standards or come up with another way to verify a level of academic proficiency needed to get a diploma.

As is often the case, California is forging a different path from the rest of the nation.

Categories California, Education Reform, High School Graduation, Testing

Jeanne Kaplan: Charter Schools Are Not Public Schools

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2015 //
30

As you may or may not recall, I posted Jeannie Kaplan’s assertion that reform in Denver is failing, has failed, and is unwilling to change its course.

In response to her post, Mike Petrilli wrote an email to challenge Jeannie’s claims. I included Jeannie in my response, and the ensuing conversation was interesting enough, I thought, to share with all of you. Of course, I asked for and received the permission of both Mike and Jeannie.

Jeannie here reports what she learned at a meeting of the League of Women Voters, which reinforced her views.

“Reformers” are hypocrites because they have developed an educational system most would never subject their own children to;

“Charter schools (and there is little difference between for profit charters and charters run by private charter management organizations which include most of Denver’s charters) are not public schools and “reformers” who keep saying that are naive or misinformed or worse.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Denver, Equity

A Debate About Whether the Walton Foundation and Markets Promote Equity for Students

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2015 //
22

Rick Cohen of the Nonprofit Quarterly has a must-read report on a recent debate about the Walton Family Foundation. The report and the debate about it were sponsored by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

This debate and the report on which it is based represent a sad turnaround in philosophy for the NCRP. In two previous reports, noted below, the organization warned about the dangers of privatization and specifically singled out the Walton Family Foundation for using its wealth to undermine the public sector. This new report tilts towards the beneficence of the Walton privatization agenda. Has NCRP lost its independence? Or its voice?

In this instance, the roots of the debate were in an NCRP report published in May 2015, part of NCRP’s “Philamplify” series, on the Walton Family Foundation, subtitled, “How Can This Market-Oriented Grantmaker Advance Community-Led Solutions for Greater Equity?” Compared to earlier NCRP reports on the Walton Family Foundation, notably NCRP’s 2005 report, “The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy,” and its 2007 follow-up, “Strategic Grantmaking: Foundations and the School Privatization Movement, it was distinctly less critical of the ideology and agenda of the Arkansas philanthropic behemoth. Both earlier reports indicated that the foundation’s promotion of school choice, charter schools, and school vouchers in education reform had led to a pernicious, self-interested crusade to undermine public schools.

When it comes to market approaches, as Sherece West-Scantlebury, the president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and chair of the NCRP board, noted at the beginning of the debate, NCRP is “agnostic.” In fact, for the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation itself, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, West-Scantlebury described the Walton Family Foundation, headquartered in Bentonville 200 miles away, as a “great partner” for her foundation’s programs. Walton has a major programmatic emphasis in its “home region,” with grantmaking focused on Northwest Arkansas and Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi totaling more than $40 million in 2014, while Winthrop Rockefeller is totally dedicated to Arkansas’s advancement, both with overlapping commitments to education programs in Arkansas, including the two foundations’ joint sponsorship in 2014 of the “ForwARd Partnership for Arkansas Education” initiative.

Cohen admits at the end of the piece that he is not a disinterested observer, because he wrote the earlier reports that were highly critical of the Walton Family Foundation’s support for school privatization. Given that the far-right Walton family (and its Walmart corporation) is opposed to unions, it is not surprising that it would support non-union charter schools and religious schools. It is hard to swallow the claim that support for privatization and union-busting is an agenda for equity, but the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation is able to do so.

You will find the account of the debate interesting. What galled me was that the lead advocate for school choice, Robert Pondiscio of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, invoked the late AFT leader Albert Shanker’s name as a proponent of charter schools. I don’t blame Pondiscio for saying this, as the myth of Shanker’s charter advocacy is widely cited in rightwing circles. But I frequently point out that while Shanker was among the very first to advocate for charter schools in 1988, he renounced his support for charter schools in 1993 in his weekly New York Times paid column. He said that charter schools were an instrument for privatization, no different from vouchers. He became soured on private management because of an experiment in Baltimore that involved a private group called Education Alternatives Inc. It fired unionized paraprofessionals who earned $10 an hour and replaced them with college graduates who worked for $7 an hour. Ironically, one of those college-graduates in the experiment was Michelle Rhee. In 1994, Shanker became more outspoke in his opposition to charters when he discovered that the first charter school in Michigan in 1994 was the Noah Webster Academy, enrolling some 700 students, mostly Christian home-schoolers who were taught a creationist curriculum on computers. The “school,” the computers and the curriculum were publicly funded. I would be very happy if charter cheerleaders stopped invoking Shanker’s name as one of their founding fathers.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Privatization, Unions, Walton Foundation
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