Archives for the month of: February, 2016

A group called the “Concerned Parents Association” won the right to obtain millions of personally identifiable student records. The group says it wants to verify that students with special needs are getting the services to which they are entitled. Corporations have been eager to get access to those records for commercial purposes.

Parents have the right to opt out but no one is informing them.

“The nonprofit said it needs the information to see if California schools are violating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other related laws. The database it will have access to includes all information on children, kindergarten through high school, who are attending or have attended a California school at any time since Jan. 1, 2008.

“The database contain students’ names, social security numbers, home addresses, course information, behavior and discipline information, progress reports, mental health and medical information, along with suspensions, expulsions and more.”

Privacy groups worry about hackers and identity theft. And well they should.

If you live in California, alert PTAs and parent groups about this. And contact privacy organizations to learn how to opt out.

Categories California, Privacy, Students

Peter Cunningham Says that the Public is Rejecting Public Schools

By dianeravitch

February 17, 2016 //

Peter Cunningham was Arne Duncan’s spokesperson in the first Obama term. He was assistant secretary in charge of communications. I once heard him described as “Arne’s brain.” He now runs a billionaire-funded website called “Education Post,” which advances the “reform” agenda. .

Here is an interview with Peter, in which he expresses his view that public schools are on the way out and the public is turning its back on them, preferring charter schools, home schooling, and vouchers. His answer: more accountability. I guess that means more testing. But when everyone takes the same tests, the public schools usually outperform the students in charter schools and voucher schools.

Since public education is an integral part of a democratic society, I am not sure what he is suggesting or why he thinks it is a good thing for people to turn towards privatization. Privatization produces inequality; it produces segregation; it produces some excellence and some squalor and plenty of mediocrity. The real problem is that we have an inward turning society of deepening inequality where it is every man, woman, and child for him/herself. We lack visionary leadership. We lack the kind of leaders who would call upon the better angels of our nature and inspire us to pursue the common good instead of our own self-interest.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Testing

BREAKING NEWS: Lawsuit Filed Against Magnolia Charter Chain in California

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

A lawsuit has been filed against the Gulen-affiliated Magnolia charter chain in California.
The plaintiffs accuse the chain of significant financial improprieties.
“The complaint calls for a comprehensive investigation by the State Department of Education. It cites findings made last year by the state in an audit of Magnolia including that 69% of Magnolia’s financial transactions were unaccounted for; that Magnolia routinely awards large contracts to vendors that have overlapping connections with their own employees and board of directors; and that Magnolia has illegally used hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to pay for visas for Turkish nationals.
“The complaint states that all three of these activities are hallmarks of Gülen charters. Magnolia has denied ties to Gülen, an organization under investigation by the Turkish and United States governments.
“Magnolia is headed by Caprice Young, former president of the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and founder of the powerful lobby, the California Charter Schools Association. Under Young’s leadership, Magnolia runs 11 schools, including eight in LAUSD, and recently submitted petitions for eight more schools in Anaheim, LAUSD, Garden Grove, Fremont, and Oceanside. The complaint states that if all eight charter schools were to be approved, the cost to the state of California would be in the billions of dollars.”

Categories California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Funding, Gulen Charter Schools, Hoax

Suspense Builds Over Eva’s Contract to Provide Pre-K

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

Eva Moskowitz is in a fight with the City of New York over the pre-K program that her charters offer to 72 children. She says the city owes her $720,000 but she refuses to sign a contract with the city. She says she is supervised only by her charter authorizer, not the city. Thirteen other charters have signed the contract that Eva rejects.

Moskowitz says m she will terminate the program if she is forced to signed a contract. Imagine giving the city the power to inspect her schools! No way!

In light of the infamous video, should Success be allowed to offer pre-K? Does SA know what developmentally appropriate practice is? Will they teach toddlers to walk in straight lines, track the speaker, sit quietly, hands folded, never speak out of turn?

If she doesn’t want the accountability, she shouldn’t take the money. She should get it from her authorizer, the State University of New York.

Categories Charter Schools, Childhood, Pre-K, K, Education Reform, Harlem Success Academy

A Roundup of Commentary on the Eva Video: It Has Gone Viral

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

The video taken in the classroom of Success Academy in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, has gone viral. There are more comments on the Internet than I can gather in one post.

Here is one from Senegal.

Here is a story in the Daily Mail, UK.

Here is a story from India.

Russ Walsh, literacy expert, saw the Eva video and reacted with indignation.

He was even more surprised to read comments by parents who defended the harsh actions and comments of the teacher, tearing up a child’s paper and sending her to the corner with a reprimand.

Walsh cites professional sources that refute fear as a motivational tool for learning.

He concludes:

I believe that it is safe to say that many of the children who attend Success Academy schools come from neighborhood environments where fear and chronic anxiety are the norm. The Success Academy school, rather than providing a safe haven for these fragile young learners, doubles down on fear and anxiety and introduces it into the learning environment as well.

There is no excuse for using fear to intimidate or motivate children. It is simply unacceptable and abusive and ultimately counterproductive to learning. Success Academy can boast of its high test scores, but any serious educator must ask the question, “At what price this very narrow success?”

I cannot help but notice in the video that this white teacher is belittling a young African American child. I am put in mind of the plantation of the Antebellum south, where instead of ripping up a child’s paper, the master meted out forty lashes with the whip.

In Slate, Michelle Goldberg says that these tactics are financed by wealthy elites, but not for their own children. It is what they think is needed for children of color. Goldberg lives in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, where the Success Academy charter in the video is located. She writes: The schools in my neighborhood teach some children to challenge authority, and others to submit to it.

Categories Discipline, Harlem Success Academy

Eva’s Video: It’s the Talk of the Nation

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

The Erik Wemple blog in the Washington Post wrote about the infamous Success Academy video, which has gone viral. Wemple interviewed the Metro Editor of the New York Times, Wendell Jamieson. Jamieson rejected Eva’s claims of media bias.

Wendell Jamieson, the New York Times’s Metro editor, isn’t in a ground-yielding mood. “I reject Eva Moskowitz’s criticism of our coverage,” he says in a chat with the Erik Wemple Blog. In October, Taylor stung Success with a story about a “Got to Go” list of students one of the schools. According to the story, “school leaders and network staff members explicitly talked about suspending students or calling parents into frequent meetings as ways to force parents to fall in line or prompt them to withdraw their children.”

Nor does the school’s talk of anomalies and bad days impress Jamieson. “It seems impossible to me that the one time she did it there was a video camera there,” he says. Speaking of the students assembled in the classroom, Jamieson continued, “You can see a sort of in their body language an accepting that this is the way they are treated.” Even if it is an exception: “These are first graders. You can’t have a bad day like that with a 1st grader — I don’t care,” says the Metro editor. As the father of an elementary school girl, the Erik Wemple Blog endorses the no-abusive-eruptions-ever school of pedagogy.

Wemple writes about the power of a 1:16 minute video:

Video rules accountability journalism in a way that all the interviews in the world with “current and former staffers” will never manage to. Success Academy defenders may take issue with the emphases of the New York Times story, its presentation, its thrust, its language, whatever — but they cannot refute that videotape. Nor did they try: Moskowitz made clear at the press conference that neither she nor Dial condoned the teacher’s classroom behavior. Though thus busted, she and other Success proponents found plenty of reasons to bash the outlet. Asked about the academy’s record of media refutation, Jamieson responds, “They make it a bigger story every time they do it.”

We read recently that Success Academy is represented by the super-duper PR firm, Mercury LLP. It is hard to believe that Mercury advised her to escalate her battle with the nation’s most powerful newspaper. As the old axiom goes, when you are in a hole, stop digging.

Categories Discipline, Harlem Success Academy, Media

What Does Illinois Governor Rauner Have in Common with Martin Shkreli?

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

Did you know that Governor Bruce Rauner has something in common with that guy who bought the rights to rare drugs and raised the prices sky-high?

I learned about it from blogger Glenn Brown.

“…Rauner is never going to brag about his spoils derived from Ovation because in 2008 the Federal Trade Commission took the company to federal court, accusing it of price gouging and violating antitrust laws. According to the FTC, Ovation acquired control of the only two drugs used to treat heart defects in premature babies. The company then raised the cost of treatment nearly 1,300 percent. (The Star Tribune reported in 2008 that Ovation also bought three other children’s drugs and raised their prices by 864 to 3,437 percent.)

“Ovation acquired the rights to a drug developed by Merck & Co. called Indocin I.V. Ovation then acquired the drug NeoProfen from Abbott Laboratories about a year later in 2006. The FTC asserted the NeoProfen acquisition was unlawful because Ovation knew it was getting the only competitor to its Indocin I.V. drug.

“The FTC detailed how Ovation quickly raised the price of Indocin from $36 to nearly $500 a vial. The price of NeoProfen was similarly inflated by Ovation. The FTC brought its complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in 2008. The Minnesota Attorney General joined the FTC as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Acting FTC Bureau of Competition Director David P. Wales issued this statement upon announcement of the legal action:

“‘While Ovation is profiting from its illegal acquisition, hospitals and ultimately consumers and American taxpayers are forced to pay millions of dollars a year more for these life-saving medications. The action taken today is intended to restore the lost competition and require Ovation to give up its unlawful profits.’

“The FTC went on to say: ‘Indocin and NeoProfen are the only two pharmaceutical treatments sold in the U.S. for a condition known as patent ductus arteriosus, a disorder that primarily affects very low birth- weight premature infants. In babies with this condition, the blood vessel connecting two major arteries of the heart fails to close on its own soon after birth. Patent ductus arteriosus can be fatal if not treated. The only treatment other than drug therapy is surgery, which carries the risk of serious complications and costs far more than treatment with either Indocin or NeoProfen.’

“The FTC’s Commissioners approved filing of the federal complaint by a vote of 4-0. Most devastating of all is this statement from Commissioner Jon Leibowitz (appointed by George W. Bush) who wrote separately: ‘Ovation’s profiteering on the backs of critically ill premature babies is not only immoral, it is illegal. Ovation’s behavior is a stark reminder of why America desperately needs health care reform and why vigorous antitrust enforcement is as relevant today as it was when the agency was created almost one hundred years ago in 1914.’ And U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) said: ‘A company like Ovation knows that when it comes to saving a baby’s life, price is no object. They banked on that, literally…’” (Rauner company raised cost of life-saving drug for babies 1,300% by Doug Ibendahl,Oct. 21, 2014).

“…As we’ve said repeatedly here at Republican News Watch, it doesn’t matter how much money Bruce Rauner has made. But it does matter what he was willing to do for it, and it does matter who he expected to subsidize his lifestyle. Rauner and his partners made the decision that it was okay to squeeze parents desperate to save the life of their newborn child. What else is it going to take for those still supporting Bruce Rauner?” (Rauner’s former company settled federal lawsuit over infant heart drug by Doug Ibendahl, Oct. 23,2014).
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.

Categories For-Profit, Illinois

Texas Superintendent of the Year Tells State Board: “I Have Given Up the Testing and Accountability Game”

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

Mary Ann Whiteker, superintendent of the Hudson Independent School District and Texas Superintendent of the Year, told the State Board of Education that she has given up on the “testing and accountability game.” A veteran administrator, she is now trying to shape the curriculum to meet the needs of the students. This is a video that is well worth watching.

Texas has the good fortune to have a significant group of superintendents who realize that the longstanding regime of testing and accountability has not helped their students. In 2006, thirty-five of these creative superintendents got together and started meeting regularly to plan a new “vision statement” to describe what they wanted to do. They produced their document, meant to lead the way to a new approach to children across the state, and you will see Mary Ann Whiteker holding it up as she speaks. If you go to this link, you can learn about the process of writing the document. It is supported by the Texas Association of School Administrators. Open this link to find the document that changed her views of what children need.

The Vision statement has a number of important principled statements. Here is one:

We envision schools where all children succeed, feel safe and their curiosity is cultivated. We see schools that foster a sense of belonging and community and that inspire collaboration. We see learning standards that challenge, and intentionally designed experiences that delight students, develop their con dence and competence, and cause every child to value tasks that result in learning. Ultimately, we see schools and related venues that prepare all children for many choices anWed that give them the tools and attitudes to contribute to our democratic way of life and live successfully in a rapidly changing world.

Here is another:

The schools we need are community-owned institutions. They are designed and established as learning organizations, treating employees as knowledge workers and students as the primary customers of knowledge work. They are free of bureaucratic structures that inhibit multiple paths to reaching goals. Reliance on compliance is minimized, and generating engagement through commitment is the primary means to achieving excellence. Leadership at all levels is honored and developed. All operating systems have well-defined processes that are constantly being improved. Attention of leaders is focused on the dominant social systems that govern behavior, beginning with those that clarify beliefs and direction, develop and transmit knowledge, and that provide for recruitment and induction of all employees and students into the values and vision. The evaluation, boundary, and authority systems are submissive to the directional system, allowing for major innovations to ourish, new capacities to emerge, missions to be accomplished, and the vision to be realized in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Whether you agree with every statement in the document, you must give credit to these visionary superintendents for taking the steps to steer Texas away from its expensive and useless obsession with standards and accountability.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Texas

MIT Study: The Big Fail of Vouchers in Louisiana

By dianeravitch

February 16, 2016 //

I posted this study a month or so ago. But I continue to get inquiries from school board members in states that are considering the adoption of vouchers. I heard today that this study may have killed vouchers in Tennessee, at least for now (true believers never give up). Make sure that every member of your state school board and every member of your state legislature gets a copy of this study. The study was completed by researchers at MIT.

The study is titled “School Vouchers and Student Achievement: First-Year Evidence from the Louisiana Scholarship Program.” Granted, this is only the first year, but the findings are strong and devastating to the belief that vouchers (most of which go to religious schools) will “save poor kids from failing public schools.” The study compared the test scores of lottery winners and lottery losers, which is supposedly the gold standard for voucher research.

In brief, the students who attended voucher schools lost ground academically. Attendance at a voucher private school lowered math scores by 0.4 standard deviation and increased the likelihood of a failing score by 50 percent. Voucher effects for reading, science, and social studies were also “negative and large.” The negative impacts of vouchers were consistent across all income groups. Apparently the voucher schools were the weakest private schools and were not as good as the so-called “failing public schools.”

A summary of the study appeared in The Economist magazine in the issue of February 6, 2016. If your legislator won’t read the study from MIT, maybe they will read the one-page summary in the libertarian magazine.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Louisiana, Privatization, Vouchers