Archives for the month of: January, 2016
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EXCLUSIVE: ESSA and Charter Schools: Part 7

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2016 //
9

This is the seventh in a series of exchanges about the new federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. I asked the questions, and David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander, answered them.

Does the law impose any requirements on charter schools regarding funding, selection of students, financial transparency, or accountability?

Short Answer:

Sen. Alexander has been a long-time advocate of charter schools. In his last act as Secretary of Education in 1993, he wrote a letter to all of the nation’s superintendents encouraging them to look at the idea of creating charter schools like those started in Minnesota.

The Every Student Succeeds Act makes several updates to the federal public charter school program to modernize the program and ensure public charter schools are held to the same standards as other public schools. The charter school program provides federal grants to support the creation of new charter schools, and the new law is updated to also allow such grants to support the replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools. The bill also includes important changes to eliminate barriers to enrollment for some students, increase charter school financial transparency, and include charter schools in the state accountability system in the same way that traditional schools are included.

Long Answer:

Funding: The law continues support for the competitive grant program for grants to states and other state entities for the purposes of opening new, or replicating or expanding high-quality charter schools, and to provide technical assistance to improve the quality of authorized public chartering agencies (including developing capacity for and conducting fiscal oversight and auditing of charter schools). The new law also continues support for the facilities grants programs to enhance the availability of loans or bond financing for charter schools since so many charter schools are denied access to the capital budget of state or local school construction and financing. We also focus efforts at the federal level to make competitive grants to replicate and expand high-quality charter schools to try to build on their success.

Funding in the latest appropriations bill for all of these activities was $333 million.

Selection of students: The new law requires grantees to “work with charter schools on recruitment and enrollment practices to promote inclusion of all students, including by eliminating any barriers to enrollment for educationally disadvantaged students.” This language is found in section 4303(f)(1)(A)(viii)(I) of the new education law. Section 4303(f)(2)(C) requires the state’s public chartering agencies to adequately monitor charter schools in recruiting, enrolling, retaining, and meeting the needs of all students.

Financial transparency: The law made several changes to improve financial transparency of charter schools, both to ensure that public funds are being spent well, and to learn more about the disparities in funding for public charter schools compared to other public schools.

State grantees are encouraged to adopt strong authorizer practices, including increased financial transparency for charter schools. The law includes changes to increase financial transparency, oversight, and monitoring, including through financial audits. State grantees also need to focus on promoting quality charter authorizing, including through more efforts to audit charter finances and hold charter schools accountable for academic, financial, and operational efforts.

Accountability: In the new law, charter schools are treated the same as traditional public schools in the state’s accountability system. All public schools in the state are included in the accountability system that the state develops. The law explicitly requires that the law’s accountability provisions are overseen for charter schools in accordance with state charter school law.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act

Angry Parents Confront Eva Moskowitz 

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2016 //
37

It appeared to be a routine event where Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy charter schools, could give her pitch for the fantastic test scores of her schools. But in the audience were some disgruntled parents who asked tough questions. Eva defended her policies–which she called “no nonsense nurturing–such as suspending very young children who can be surprisingly violent. 

“The charter school chain Ms. Moskowitz runs—which receives city tax dollars and often shares space with district public schools but is privately managed and does not employ unionized teachers—greatly outpaces regular district schools in terms of standardized tests. But it has also been the subject of scrutiny from those corners Ms. Moskowitz listed, with critics saying that the success is due to the schools not educating the most difficult students, weeding out struggling children, and using harsh discipline including frequent suspensions.
“It seems to have endless fascination with the media,” Ms. Moskowitz said of her school’s success. “There’s sort of a relentless gotcha effort: where’s the catch?”
“Of course, Ms. Moskowitz said there really wasn’t one. The chain’s high performance is due to engaged teachers who make children “fall in love with school,” holding adults accountable for the performance of children; rigorous academic standards—and letting students fail sometimes; and innovation.”

Categories Charter Schools, Discipline and Suspensions, Education Reform, Harlem Success Academy

Attend the United Opt Out Conference in Philadelphia in February!

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
16

United Opt Out: The Movement to End Corporate Reform will hold its annal conference on Philadelphia from February 26-28.

Sign up, attend, and join the movement

The keynoters are terrific, including Stephen Krashen and Bill Ayers.

!

Categories Opt Out

Michigan: The Pathetic Failure of the Education Achievement Authority

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
7

Chris Savage at Eclectablog has been following the fortunes and misfortunes of the Michigan Education Achievement Authority since its inception in 2011.

 

Savage was thinking of writing a summary of the serial scandals, corruption, incompetence, and educational disaster, but decided the best way to show it was to post a list of the headlines of the stories he has written about the EAA.

 

This was Governor Rick Snyder’s pet program for “saving” the poor children of Detroit from their failing public schools. Instead of helping the public schools, Snyder decided to create this special district, in which all the lowest-performing schools were clustered. There, they would be under the control of a single administrator, selected by the Governor. The first EAA leader was John Covington, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. He swiftly left his job in Kansas City (which lost its accreditation after he departed) to take the higher-paying job in Detroit. He left the EAA under a cloud.

 

This should be a documentary about the failure of corporate reform. Maybe someone who sees Chris Savage’s stories will start thinking of making that documentary. It is a very sad story, because the children of Detroit need a good education, and they are not getting it under Governor Snyder’s rule.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Corporate Reform, Detroit, Education Reform, Michigan, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Jeb Bush Praises Rick Snyder for Response to Flint Water Crisis

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
27

In a tv interview, Jeb Bush praised Michigan governor Rick Snyder for his leadership in responding to the Flint water crisis.

 

 

This morning, the New York Times criticized Snyder for his lack of leadership and said it was time to take action. The editorial says the state should replace the corroded water pipes in Flint, at a cost of $1 billion.

 

“The conditions on the ground in Flint still do not seem to have sunk in at the Michigan statehouse. Thousands of residents are still relying on trucked-in water, as if they were in a war-zone refugee camp, while worrying that their children may suffer developmental and other health problems from a water system poisoned by lead. Gov. Rick Snyder has been busy apologizing, but the tiny steps he is taking to repair the damage shrink beside the urgency of the problem.

“The challenge now is to replace the corroded pipes or perhaps the whole water system in this city of nearly 100,000 as quickly as it can be done. The cost may reach $1 billion or more, but that cannot stand in the way of moving forward to make the city fit for habitation. No Americans should have to live with poisoned water that is a direct result of the government’s decisions and neglect.

 

“Mr. Snyder and officials who work for him first wasted time trying to shift blame for the catastrophe to the city — at least until an independent task force and internal emails released last week showed that the state was responsible. Now he is wasting more time by maneuvering to get out of paying the bill for the huge repairs project.”

 

 

 

Remember that the shut-off of safe water was supposed to save millions. A very stupid, short-sighted, inhumane decision that will cost the state hundreds of millions and leave behind brain-damaged children.

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Michigan

Jonathan Lovell: How I Learned to Teach Writing Without Teaching

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
32

Jonathan Lovell is a professor of English at San Jose State University in California. In this delightful post, he portrays his development as a writing teacher and how he learned to teach without teaching. It is beautifully illustrated (using graphics to illuminate the text). And if you read it, you will see a teacher at work, learning and growing and refining his craft. 

Categories Higher Education, Teachers

Professor Mike Marder: Why Diversity is Important in My Physics Classes

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
23

Professor Mike Marder teaches physics at the University of Texas. He followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent hearings on affirmative action.

 

When Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleague Justice Scalia asked why diversity mattered in a physics class, the question struck home to Professor Marder, and he wrote this commentary.

 

He pointed out that Texas is now a majority-minority state. Whites are the minority.

 

Many of the jobs of today and the future, particularly in engineering, require strong grounding in physics. Already, companies complain that they have trouble finding suitable employees, to which one of the main responses of physics is to bring highly skilled future workers in from abroad through our PhD programs.

 

This is cost effective while it lasts, but it will not last. The rest of the world is building graduate programs to compete with ours, and as this happens we will lose the ability to recruit and retain other countries’ brightest minds. Then the complaint of companies that they cannot find employees for top-level jobs will move from a murmur to a roar, and we will sit staring at institutional practices that leave much more than half the population of the state feeling unprepared for and unwelcome in our classrooms.

 

We will be unable to prepare either the workers of tomorrow or the teachers to inspire them.

 

As the Supreme Court decides whether to issue a ruling that could derail even the gentlest attempts to increase participation of underrepresented majorities in our classrooms, they should know that these are the issues we confront, and the challenge diversity poses to the future of our state and country.

Categories Justice, Race

Gary Rubinstein on KIPP’s Mediocre Performance in NYC

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
41

Gary Rubinstein noticed the lack of media about KIPP charters in New York City. While Eva Moskowitz unleashes media blitzes about the high test scores of Success Academy charters, KIPP is silent. He wondered why.

He checked the test scores of third graders in the city’s 110 charters with a third grade (that started in kindergarten) and discovered the reason:

“In the bar graph below, the 110 schools are sorted from highest percent getting a 3 or 4 on the ELA test to the lowest. The Success Academies are almost all at the far left. The 3 KIPP schools are marked with red bars. The top performing KIPP school was 37th out of 110 with 41.9% getting a 3 or 4. The second best KIPP was 66th with 27.3% getting a 3 or a 4, and the lowest was 90th with 17.2% getting a 3 or a 4. On average, KIPP is pretty much worse than 2/3 of the charter schools in New York City.”

This is nothing to boast about.

On the other hand, I am so sick and tired of charter boasting that I am glad to see it tamped down or disappear.

Categories KIPP Charter Schools, New York City

EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Teacher Education?

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2016 //
25

This is the sixth in a series of exchanges about the new Every Student Succeeds Act. I asked the questions, and David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander, responded with answers.

How will teacher education be affected by ESSA? Does the law enable non-traditional institutions to award degrees to teachers, i.e., “graduate” schools that have no faculty with advanced degrees, like Match and Relay? Does it encourage alternative routes like Teach for America? What happened to the idea that all students should have “highly qualified teachers”?

Highly Qualified Teachers.

The new law removes the requirement that all teachers of core academic subjects be “highly qualified” as defined under No Child Left Behind. Instead, states will be responsible for ensuring that teachers meet applicable state teacher licensure and certification requirements. The requirements to be a teacher in a state will be up to that state, with no additional federal requirements.

Teacher Education

The new federal law doesn’t make changes to state laws on teacher certification or requirements for institutions of higher education. Those are decisions left up to the states.

A state can reserve up to 5 percent of the money that comes to the state under the Title II formula program for state activities related to teachers and principals.

The law does allow states to use some of the funding they receive under Title II to be used to improve teacher preparation or education within the state, but with no federal requirements or restrictions on what a state decides to do.

States are allowed use these funds in many ways. For example, they could use funds to develop teacher residency programs, where teachers simultaneously take coursework in an institution of higher education and teach alongside another teacher for at least a year. States could also use these dollars to reform teacher, principal, or other school leader certification, recertification, licensing, or tenure systems or preparation program standards and approval processes.

Additionally, a state could choose some of the funds they reserved at the state level to establish or expand teacher, principal, or other school leader preparation academies, like Relay or Match, if allowable under state law. It is a state choice, and those decisions will be made at the state level.

The bill also allows states to use federal funds to establish, improve, or expand alternative routes to certification, so programs like Teach for America can continue if they are currently allowed in a state.

But the key here is that all of these decisions are left to the state to figure out. While the new law includes lots of examples of things the state or district could do, none of them are required at the state or local level.

In Section 2101(c)(4)(B) of the new law we have a list of 20 types of things that states can do with their reservation of funds, and then a catch-all in clause (xxi) that reads:

“(xxi) Supporting other activities identified by the State that are, to the extent the State determines such evidence is reasonably available, evidence-based and that meet the purpose of this title.”

This means that the state can do pretty much whatever it wants to do with the federal funds from this program.

There is similar language in Section 2103(b)(3)(P) of the new law that allows local school districts to do whatever they want to do with their federal funds from this program.

Categories ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Teacher Education

Detroit Teacher: Why Does Governor Snyder Let Our Schools Rot?

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2016 //
37

Detroit teacher Shalon Miller wonders why separate and unequal is okay in Michigan in 2016. She describes the horrendous conditions in the schools. How can children learn in such conditions?

 

Miller writes:

 

“Since I have been at Cody, I have taught in horrible conditions. Classrooms have old, drafty windows that are poorly insulated. In some rooms, we have to wear winter coats in class until lunch time. In other rooms, it can be ridiculously hot. Both temperature conditions are extremely distracting to the educational process. It’s hard for kids to concentrate when their hands are freezing or they’re sweating profusely. When it rains, water leaks into the classrooms from the roof. We have had to place buckets under the leaks and pray for dry weather. Unfixed structural damage causes water-soaked tiles to frequently fall from the ceiling of classrooms. The carpet has an ever-present moldy smell.

 

“These conditions are a slap to each and every student, teacher and other school employee. Combined with the other dilapidated school buildings and inferior learning conditions, they are a slap to the entire city of Detroit.”

 

Last year, community partners stepped in to ameliorate the worst of the problems. Yet there is high teach her turnover as teachers leave for suburban schools with greater resources and stability.

 

 

Miller writes:

 

“Sometimes I feel hopeless. I wonder why people who have the power over our schools don’t care about my students. I wonder why my students are left in the worst conditions possible. I wonder why it’s the same problem in urban communities across America. Why is separate and unequal okay in 2016?

 

“Gov. Rick Snyder and the governor-appointed emergency manager for Detroit schools can say they understand our frustration, but simply saying they understand and then throwing their hands up in air isn’t good enough.

 

“I say, enough is enough. It’s not okay to tell 47,000 kids that they’re not important enough to warrant decent educational environments. It’s not okay to have beautiful suburban schools in the state of Michigan and let Detroit schools rot. It’s not okay to ignore the community’s plea for help. It’s not okay to disrespect teachers by refusing to give them a pay raise in over a decade. It’s not okay to take control of Detroit schools and let things go from bad to worse.”

 

Governor Snyder controls the public schools of Detroit. He likes accountability. When will he be held accountable?

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Detroit, Education Reform
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