As Carol Burris and I were on the train to Washington, DC, to release the NPE report card, we had a phone conversation with Kristina Rizga of Mother Jones. Here is the article that resulted.
Rizga is no ordinary journalist. She recently published an excellent book called “Mission High,” about the four years she spent embedded at a so-called “failing school” in California, where extraordinary teachers and an excellent principal were performing daily miracles for kids from many countries. She knows schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Mother Jones: a SUPERB magazine. I have taken it for a number of years and have sent them extra money for researching. It was worth it to me for the expose they did on Mitt Romney.
Yes, they are highly intellectual and have GREAT articles.
The above is only one of them.
YES!!!!! (There was also an excellent on the horrible effects of lead poisoning.. Very relevant now!)
Next we need a rating system for members of Congress, governors and mayors in which their commitment to public education is issued a letter grade. While it may be somewhat simplistic, it may catch the attention of the media or voters before they vote enemies back into office.
Retired. The list you suggest is on the side of angels.
In contrast, DFER’ s candidates from school board to governor, are posted on a web page, with the tab, “MAX OUT”, for contributions. The richest 0.2% can influence elections across the country, with a simple transaction.
The comments at Mother Jones show that the report on the NEP report card provided an occasion for posting some boiler plate comments from some people who just have an axe to grind–about the culture, about parenting, about dumb curricula, about teacher unions and so on.
Here is another report card, designed to by the pro-charter Brookings Institution, titled the “Education Choice and Competition Index” conjured by Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst who is a fan of ranking systems.
This report has a map and a database that allows selective searches for information about charter policies and practices, based on 13 criteria presented as questions (below). You can sort the database by size of district, and number of students.
When I looked at the criteria I thought many could be also be viewed as indicators of a lack of support for public schools or clear policy preference for charter schools (which are privately managed and not truly public).
Unlike the NEP Report Card based on informationavailable from every state, this one is based on district information and it is intended to show where there are “markets” for charter schools. Here are the criteria that go into the ratings of charter-friendly policies.
1. Are there alternatives to traditional public schools and, if so, are many students enrolled in them?
2. Can students enroll in free online courses that count towards graduation requirements?
3. Do district funds follow students to schools and differ based on student needs (i.e., special education, ELL, etc.)? If so, what percentage of district funds is allocated through this formula?
4. Does the district close schools that are unpopular as evidenced by declining student enrollment?
5. Can parents choose schools, and if so are parental preferences maximized or is there a fair lottery for choice schools (vs. first come first serve)?
6. Is there a streamlined application process with one common application for enrollment in all schools?
7. In the case of private schools supported with public funding (through vouchers or tax credit scholarships), is performance data publicly reported and comparable to public school data?
8. Does the district report student achievement gains vs. only reporting student achievement status at the end of a given year?
9. Can parents easily understand the school choice process and options available through the district website?
10. Does the district website provide data that allows a parent compare schools (i.e. school popularity, parent survey results, absentee rates for teachers, past performance of principals, course offerings, etc.)?
11. Is the performance data outlined in category 10 presented in an easy to understand format and can schools be compared side by side?
12. Does the district provide students with free transportation to public schools of choice?
13. How well do schools in the district perform on state assessments?
http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2016/ecci_2015
Another report with rankings of specific attributes of charter schools, with a lot data presented via infographics, is available in a September 2015 report from Bellwether Partners “The State of the Charter School Movement.” Like the Brookings report this one is intended to suggest strategies for marketing and scaling up. There are a number of timeline charts with indicators of the expansion of charters. Data sources are in whisper type, and they are varied. It is worth a look, especially page 92, indicating reasons parents in low-income neighborhoods may choose charter schools. http://bellwethereducation.org/sites/default/files/Charter%20Research%200908%20FINAL.pdf
Laura,
The Brookings rating report on choice was created by Grover Whitehurst, who was appointed to head the US Ed Dept’s research division by George W. Bush. He was an advisor to the Mitt Romney campaign. The Bellwether report comes from Andrew Rotherham, who advises many reform organizations, eg Campbell Brown’s 74 and the Broad Foundation.
P. 92 “Low income parents are even less likely to prioritize a school based on academic factors”.
IMO, the charter industry preys on communities where people don’t have easy access to transportation, where the promotional messages of the charter industry overwhelm objective information, where the people are continually uprooted by corporate real estate decisions and, where, the likelihood of a way out is demonstrated to be nil, except for the one in a million, chance at sports.
I don’t know how the privatizers live with themselves.
This article and interview [with Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris] in MOTHER JONES is a reminder of what a real conversation about education would look like if more journalists were as informed and savvy as Kristina Rizga.
Highly recommend to viewers of this blog.
😎
Nice article. It’s well deserved. Nice job, NPE.