We recently had a heated debate on the blog about math instruction. There were more “sides” than I can count: pro-Common Core, anti-Common Core, pro-constructivism, anti-constructivism, pro-memorization, anti-memorization. I may have missed a few camps.
Here at last are some straightforward answers about how to improve mathematics education. Why wonder, why wander, why flail around when the answers are right here in this post.
Leo Casey, director of the Albert Shanker Institute in Washington, D.C., has pulled together New York state data on the Success Academy charter chain in New York City.
When the New York Times revealed the existence of a “Got to Go” list of students, Moskowitz replied that this was an “anomaly.”
When the New York Times published a video of a teacher chastising and humbling a first-grader for not answering a question correctly, Moskowitz said this was an “anomaly.”
Critics have often said that Moskowitz gets good test results by pushing out students who might pull down scores and by not replacing them with new students (“backfilling”). Casey reviews the data. Tables are in the link.
Casey writes:
The general pattern is unmistakable. In the early grades, student enrollment in Success Academy Charter Schools increases: Whatever losses the schools may suffer through student attrition are more than compensated for by the enrollment of new students. After Grade 2, however, the enrollment numbers begin to decline and do so continuously through the later grades. There are only small variations in this essential pattern among the different Success Academy Charter Schools.
In New York State, high stakes standardized exams begin at the end of Grade 3.
Success Academy Charter Schools has made a conscious decision to not fill seats opened up by student attrition in the upper grades of its schools. And this is a deliberate, network-wide practice, as evidenced by Success Academy’s own website. When one compares the grades in each Success Academy Charter School, as listed on its website, with the grades in each school, as listed on the website of the New York City Charter School Center, one finds that the Charter School Center lists all the grades currently being provided under the school’s charter, while Success Academy lists many fewer grades – only those in which it is willing to enroll students.
In effect, the Success Academy website has the equivalent of a “do not apply” sign posted for each unlisted grade.
Moskowitz has forcefully defended the policy of not accepting new students beyond grade 3, saying it would disrupt the culture SA created.
Moskowitz also insists that her schools should not have to accept students from district schools who have received what she considers to be an inadequate education. Even if one accepted her questionable characterization of education in district schools, it is worth noting that she is insisting on a “one way” street: district schools should have to enroll the students who leave Success Academy Charter Schools, but Success Academy schools should not have to enroll students who leave district schools.
Casey notes that while few other charter operators are willing to criticize SA, the leader of Democracy Prep has called her out for refusing to fill empty seats in the upper grades as students are winnowed out.
Recent developments may well put Moskowitz’s defense of Success Academy’s discipline and enrollment policies to the test. The authorizer of the Success Academy charter schools, the SUNY Charter School Institute, has announced that it is launching an investigation into the disciplinary practices at Success Academy. And the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, responding to a complaint by the New York City Public Advocate, the Legal Aid Society, and a group of former and current Success Academy parents, will investigate claims that Success Academy schools illegally discriminate against students with special needs. The reaction to last week’s video publication by the New York Times can only increase the scrutiny of Success Academy Charter Schools.
Most national studies find that charters do not outperform public schools, yet their foundational claim is based on the assertion that they get higher scores. If the veil is ripped away from practices that produce higher scores–by selective winnowing of students–this would be a major blow to the charters’ drive to expand. Casey predicts that a major political battle over the future of public schools and charter schools is in the making.
Well, this is a hopeful sign. A Republican the state senate in Florida has proposed to change the charter law so that it focuses on the neediest children, the ones for whom charters were first created. With the house leadership firmly controlled by Rep. Eric Fresen, whose brother-in-law owns one of the largest and most profitable charter chains in the state, the two houses of the legislature may be on a collision course. Rep. Fresen always takes care of the charter industry.
Sue Legg, who has studied Florida charter schools on behalf of the state League of Women Voters, wrote with the following information:
A recent Senate President, Don Gaetz, proposed a bill this week to curb ‘private enrichment’ facilities schemes by charter school management firms and their real estate arms. He acknowledged that the legislature has gotten away from the original intent for charters schools. His bill would prioritize charters serving impoverished students and/or those with disabilities.
Florida has over 650 charter schools, over a third are run by for-profit firms. The legislature, the Governor, the Department of Education and the State Board of Education are all strong charter supporters.
This is the first time that a staunch Republican legislator has publically acknowledged the rampant charter exploitation and abuse and taken meaningful steps to curb it. It even addresses public ownership of facilities. The bill is not perfect; it may not pass. However, Senator Gaetz calls for “Charters with a Conscience”. Sometimes you just have to share the good news.
Senator Gaetz is thinking about what is right. He and Rep. Fresen (HB 873) are squaring off over charter school funding for facilities. Both bills would reduce the amount of capital outlay dollars public schools can assess through local property taxes. According to the Miami Herald, Senator Gaetz’s bill would also crack down on ‘private enrichment’ schemes that charter management firms use to build and lease facilities for which they charge exorbitant rates.
Charter board members would have to swear that capital outlay funds would only be used for facilities. Funds would be awarded only to public entities, a 501(c)(3) specifying in its articles of incorporation that all property will return to specified public entities upon dissolution, or is owned by or leased to a person or entity who is not an affiliated party to the charter school.
The Senate proposal has some other very good features. It would reconfigure the funding formula to prioritize those charters that offer quality alternative schools for impoverished students or those with disabilities. Certain charters would receive a base capital outlay allocation from state funds, but those that serve at least 75% of children qualifying for free or reduced lunch or 25% of children with ESE, would receive an additional twenty five percent or fifty percent if both criteria are met. The Miami Herald quotes Senator Gaetz who suggested that ‘…we want to weight it for those charters that have a social conscience’.
The bill does not take capital outlay money away from traditional public schools for charter schools. It does, however, change the formula for how the money is allocated.
There are some ‘gotchas’ in the Senate bill. The legislature still needs to work with districts to create viable policy. Nevertheless, Senator Gaetz appears to recognize that unregulated school choice benefits some companies more than children.
Steven Singer asks the question that is the title of this post. It is not a simple matter. Many people fear that teachers with strong opinions will try to indoctrinate students with their views. Some think that teachers should have no opinions. After all, any strongly held views will annoy someone. One of the strongest argument for tenure (i.e., due process) is that teachers cannot teach if they may be fired capriciously because a parent or another teacher or the principal disagrees with their views.
The bottom line question is: should teachers have freedom of speech? Are there limits to that freedom? Singer argues yes, that teachers should have strong opinions, but yes, there are limits to that freedom. Students do not come to class to learn the teacher’s views, but to learn how to challenge the teacher’s views and to question the conventional wisdom. They are learning how to think for themselves, not to mouth whatever they are told.
Read on and see how Singer wrestles with these issues:
I am an opinionated person. I am also a public school teacher.
Those two things should not be mutually exclusive.
You should not have to give up the one to be able to do the other.
Teachers should not have to relinquish their judgment in order to run an effective classroom. In fact, you might expect good judgment to be a prerequisite to doing the job well.
Yet it seems many people disagree. They like their teachers tame, docile and opinion-free.
That’s just not me.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying teachers should instruct their students to think just like them. I’m not saying they should indoctrinate or unduly influence the young people in their care.
Just the opposite. They should spur their students to think for themselves. They should teach the young how to entertain an idea without immediately accepting it.
But they have no business telling students, “This is what I believe.” They have no business misusing their authority to make their views seem normative.
So I agree that teachers should be careful about expressing their opinions in the classroom. The problem comes after the school day is through.
When a teacher goes home, all bets are off. When a teacher is not in front of a class of impressionable children, he or she should be afforded the same rights and privileges of any other citizen – and that includes the right to form an opinion and express it publicly.
I am an educator. Hear me roar.
And yet, as a blogger, Steven receives responses from people who ask why he, a teacher, has such strong views! They imply, how dare you!
This poem was written by H. Brooks, an 11-year-old student on Long Island, whose mother is active in the Opt Out movement.
How The Grinches Made Common Core
A poem by H. Brooks, Inspired by Dr. Seuss
In Honor of the Common Core push-back, and my mommy
There once lived some people,
on top of Mount Gov.
Their name was the Government,
and they sure did love
to make education
so wrong for the kids,
those kids down in Yorkville,
in the state of New Ziz.
The Yorks, however, felt something was strange,
so they traveled up
the whole mountain range,
just to get to the top, to go try and stop,
those nasty old grinches
at the top of Mount Gov.
But the grinches said NO! We’ll fight till you obey.
We won’t let up on Core and testing! We MUST get our way!
So the Yorks went down, feeling somewhat defeated.
And the very next weekend, the York council meeted.
They talked about art, about social studies, and trees,
They talked about awful buzz-stinging bees.
But most of all, they talked about testing and Core,
The Yorks wanted less; the Gov wanted more.
The Yorks asked the little Yorks what they thought of school.
The little Yorks said, “It used to be fun, but now it’s not cool.”
So the Yorks went to Albany, to see those old meanies,
But compared to the Government, the York protest seemed teeny!
The grinches said, “We won’t change a bit!
It simply won’t help, it will just cause more fits!”
The Yorks tried very hard to set the Gov straight,
But the Gov said, “Go home! It’s getting quite late.”
The Yorks fought for months and months and weeks and weeks and weeks,
and what do you think happened next at that peak,
the peak of Mt. Gov, where the Government sat?
Finally, the King was sent out. At last!
With less grinches left, maybe it would be easier,
to convince the grinches not to be so sleezy-er.
But then – oh no! – the head Grinch was re-elected,
four more long years – and he’s clearly ineffective!
But wait – what is this? What’s happening in York?
Forums and meetings and opt outs galore!
And all this because of some hopeful dads and moms
Who came together on Facebook to keep their kids calm.
Oh me, oh my, lots of depressing things went by,
for those hopeful parents who really did try.
For out of the blue, from behind closed doors,
a Gov to replace King – who also loves testing and Core.
Now this new Gov was infamous around town,
And she made sure that all of her thoughts got around.
She made speeches and interviews and told people things
that were about as true as monkeys with wings.
Then suddenly, all at once, Yorks started to see,
The Head Gov’s making speeches, about failing CC.
And all of a sudden, they say there’s a right to Opt Out,
Have these parents done their work right? We have no doubt!
Now parents from everywhere (except the South Pole)
are fighting back, with heart, and with soul.
Kids and teens, and in betweens,
are Opting Out by the thousands. Oops! REFUSING, I mean.
And maybe – just maybe, if the Gov took these tests,
They’d opt their kids out too, I bet.
But they’re too arrogant, too greedy, too yuck!
Maybe they’ll slightly agree, if the Yorks have some luck.
Could they come down to our schools? Could they see kids read and write?
Could they finally understand why the Yorks put up such a fight?
Could they put in some more science? Could ELA non-fiction be mashed?
Could they do good for our students? Or will they just waste our cash?
This story’s not finished, there’s more yet to come.
There’s still too much testing, and Core’s on the run.
So remember, dear people, as you read this story,
Have hope for the Yorks, that they’ll soon get their glory.
.
Deborah Abramson Brooks, Esq.
Co-founder, Port Washington Advocates for Public Education; https://www.facebook.com/groups/1596839960529301/
Member, New York State Allies for Public Education; http://www.nysape.org/
Member, National Parent Coalition for Student Privacy; http://www.studentprivacymatters.org/
http://www.longislandweekly.com/student-privacy-doesnt-make-the-grade/
http://portwashington-news.com/moms-for-privacy-rights-fight-on/
The best and only way to restore democracy in Chicago is to vote for people who believe in democracy. Vote!
Here is a candidate who rejects the billionaires’ agenda: Jay Travis. She is running for State Representative in the 26th District against an ally of Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner.
The race is a rematch; Travis lost to Christian Mitchell two years ago by a few hundred votes. The biggest issue in the contest is education.
Travis’s main thrust is to paint Mitchell as a “Rauner Democrat,” based on large donations he’s received from wealthy allies of Gov. Bruce Rauner and from groups backing charter schools and pension cuts. Indeed, Mitchell has been one of the top recipients of funds both statewide and nationally from Stand For Children, a group brought to Illinois by Rauner in an effort to undercut union influence and bargaining rights; it’s backed by a bevy of billionaires including Republican Ken Griffin.
The NPE Action Fund endorsed Jay Travis.
Our board member Jitu Brown (who led the Dyett hunger strike last fall) wrote:
There is a groundswell of support in this nation for candidates who reject the politics of moneyed power and put the needs of ordinary people at the heart of their work. In Chicago, we have a real opportunity to elect just such a candidate — with support from people like you.
The race for 26th District state representatives pits an incumbent corporate Democrat against grassroots community organizer Jay Travis. Jay has a lifelong record of commitment to the needs of ordinary people, from rank and file teachers to young students in some of our most disenfranchised communities. As the leader of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization for twelve years, she led the battle to save our neighborhood public schools, push back against neighborhood displacement, and bring resources and equity to communities ignored by mainstream politicians and their corporate backers.
She’s running against corporate Democrat Christian Mitchell, a darling of the school privatization movement closely allied with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who gave Mitchell more than $28,000 last April alone in two donations that bookended Mitchell’s endorsement of Emanuel.
Mitchell has voted dead wrong on issues of critical concern to educators and our residents. He voted for the state charter school commission’s power to overrule democratically elected school boards who reject charter school applications. He voted against parents who wanted the right to opt their kids out of controversial and deeply flawed high-stakes tests. He opposed a bill for an elected Chicago school board — and only changed his tune during this election season. For the last six months, he’s been promoting a pension cost-shift scheme that does nothing to address the structural deficits in Illinois’ schools, and would only create new losers among already cash-strapped school districts outside of Chicago.
None of this is surprising given the amount of money Mitchell’s received in the last for years from school privatizers — including more than $150,000 alone from Stand For Children, over four times greater than the amount they’ve donated to Senate GOP leader Christine Radogno.
Most recently, Mitchell stood with CPS CEO Forest Claypool and supposed “leaders”, including the minister who paid destitute Black people $25 each to advocate for the closing of Dyett High School, in betraying the brave Dyett hunger strikers. With accountable political representation in the 26th District, we would not have had to starve our bodies for 34 days.
We need state representatives in Springfield who aren’t beholden to opportunistic corporate elites and their raids on critically needed programs for our seniors, students and working families. We need a work ethic — and a representative — who tells the truth and puts the needs of ordinary people first.
You can help. Jay Travis came very close to beating Mitchell two years ago, even though he’s raised ten times as much in campaign contributions. Her volunteer field crew is large, committed, effective — and growing. But it takes money to print literature, pay for office supplies and mailers and run a competitive campaign. I’ve had the privilege of working with Jay for years — and she’s always been unflinchingly honest and supremely committed to putting our young people and their families first. Your help can put a real advocate for public education and a progressive voice for ordinary people in Springfield. Click here to learn more about supporting her campaign.
In solidarity,
Jitu Brown
NPE Action Board Member and Journey for Justice Alliance National Director
The BATS endorsed Jay Travis:
We need true progressive candidates in office! In Chicago we have a chance to begin to make the change for equity and equality. Jay Travis is running against Christian Mitchell, darling of the school privatization movement, who is funded by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, astro-turf groups Stand for Children and Democrats for Education Reform as well as receiving a $10,000 check from hedge funder Eli Broad himself! While he has money, Jay has the solid track record and the people. Victory is there for the taking, but Jay needs your help. The election of Jay will have NATIONAL ramifications! Please join Jay on February 24th @ 8:30 PM Eastern as she talks about what real progressive movements are about. Register for the Virtual House Party here https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2713524701147779596
Get involved. Vote. Send a contribution to Jay Travis to help her win.
If you don’t read this post, you will have made a great mistake. I have posted whatever Vivian Connell writes (for a couple of examples, see here, and here). Vivian is a beautiful, vivacious woman who taught high school English in North Carolina for twenty years, went to law school, became a lawyer, then learned that she has ALS. She began blogging about her life and how she was coping with ALS, which is a fatal degenerative disease. In her writings and in her life, she exemplifies dignity, courage, and grace. You will learn, if you read this post, that she is also a gifted writer who confronts life without complaint or fear as it slips away and as she loses her ability to walk, move, speak.
I met Vivian two years ago at a forum in North Carolina. She was on a panel of teachers who had left teaching or left the state to teach elsewhere; all explained why they left. The common thread was the very low salaries paid to teachers. Vivian is a passionate supporter of public education, and I was thrilled when she came to the Network for Public Education’s first conference in Austin. I was surprised when I learned from a fellow member of the board of NPE, Bertis Downs, that she is a close friend of his; it turns out that Vivian and Bertis’s wife waited tables together long ago in Athens, Georgia. Bertis told me that Vivian hopes to visit the NPE annual conference in April, when we meet in Raleigh. This is fantastic news!
In this post, Vivian describes the remarkable events that have occurred since she received her diagnosis of ALS. She can no longer write or type, so a friend transcribed this post.
She traveled extensively in the first year, knowing that she had to use every minute. She took a group of school children to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She was invited to tell a story–her story–at a famous story-telling convening (the video is in the post). Friends held a benefit to raise money for Public Justice, where she was honored. Our mutual friend Bertis Downs organized the benefit. She has met many new friends. She has experienced the goodness of friends and strangers.
She writes:
Who would have thought that a baby born to high school graduates, raised in tiny racist towns in Georgia and southern Mississippi, would end up in a progressive college community that revolutionized and expanded her thinking, generations beyond her upbringing?
Who would have thought she could spend three years living abroad, exposed to people from many countries, learning new perspectives on what it means to live on this planet, and certainly what it means to live outside her own country?
Who would have imagined the language ability she gained through this experience would lead her to a master’s degree and a 20-year career of teaching high school students?
And finally, who would have imagined that this first-generation college graduate would have been inspired by her students and teaching to leave her education career and become an attorney so that she would have the opportunity to have a voice in the public policy matters about which she was passionate?
I could not have imagined it, and I certainly could not have engineered it.
Again, I say my life has been much more blessed than cursed…..
How could I have imagined, when waiting tables in Athens, Georgia, with Katherine Downs, that I would go to law school, reconnect with Bertis, and have him connect me to Lauren, who staged the benefit gifted by Bertis that marks the culmination of fabulous events at the end of my life?
As I face my mortality.
Hell, every time I’m told about how rare my disease is, I want to laugh out loud because the events that have followed my diagnosis—the amazing connections and meetings—put the rarity of ALS to shame.
These unlikely events that have formed this magical web in my post-diagnosis life have in common a focus on justice, a belief in love, and a hunger for ideals and goodness.
These cannot cure my ALS, but they can certainly comfort and inspire.
And I would not trade them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And these are likewise the lessons of literature—the novels we teachers choose to teach:
The Scarlet Letter, which reminds us not to judge and points to the strength of women, the importance of the heart;
The Great Gatsby, which depicts the perils of acquisitiveness and of chasing worldly success; and
Of Mice and Men, perhaps the most important in my life now, which reminds us that we can never plan for an ideal future because…things happen—ALS happens—disappointment happens, and we must learn to cope.
And of course, Plato, who writes of Socrates (as I state at the end of my Monti story), who told the Athenian senate that anyone can escape death if they are willing to say or do anything but that the real challenge in life is not to escape death but to escape unrighteousness, for unrighteousness runs faster than death.
All the people who have lifted me up, supported me, and been a part of the amazing highlights of my life since my diagnosis…well, they are my running partners. We all seek not to escape death, but to escape unrighteousness. And our hearts are indescribably full.
I hope that my message—my insistence that fighting for our highest ideals of justice and for a life of service to others—will outlive me. I speak from firsthand knowledge when I proclaim these pursuits to be the greatest comfort—and perhaps the only comfort one has—when one faces death.
And I hope that this will be part of my personal narrative, the story that I tried to write through my life…
…that these truths will be the takeaway for anyone who reads my story.
Vivian has a beautiful soul. I don’t know if she realizes it, but she is loved and admired by many who never met her. She will live forever.
A few months ago, John Merrow met with the National Superintendents Roundtable (a non-reformster group) and talked about the best and the worst of what he had observed in 41 years covering education.
His biggest regret? He didn’t find the key document about cheating in DC until after his Michelle Rhee documentary had aired.
His major prediction: a major charter scandal will soon erupt.
Shavar Jeffries ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Newark; he was beaten by Ras Baraka. He is now executive director of the Democrats for Education Reform, the organization founded by hedge fund managers to promote the privatization of public education.
Jeffries published an article in the New York Daily News attacking Bernie Sanders for his opposition to charter schools, although he supported them in the past. He makes false claims about the “success” of charter schools, never mentioning that they impose militaristic discipline on black children and that national studies have repeatedly shown that they are no more “successful” than public schools unless they cherrypick their students and kick out the hardest to educate.
Jeffries throws a compliment to Hillary for backing off her accurate statement that charter schools don’t enroll the most challenging students.
And, biggest insult of all, he implies that Martin Luther King Jr. has something in common with the Wall Street predators that are promoting charter schools. Of course, we know they work in Wall Street because they wake up every morning wondering what they can do to help the poor children of America. And their conclusion: destroy public education. That’ll do it.
Readers of this blog have been informed of the misuse of taxpayer monies to pay off campaign contributors in Ohio, if they were canny enough to invest in charter schools. The general public is not. They keep hearing from the mainstream media that Kasich is the moderate in the race. The MSM forgets that Kasich tried to eliminate collective bargaining, but the voters of Ohio overturned the law Kasich pushed through. The MSM is completely clueless about the ongoing charter scandals in Ohio, where for-profit charter owners give big bucks to the Republican party or individual legislators and get preferential treatment.
Here is one effort to tell the charter scandal story.
Here is another. This is a big story, the story of ECOT, the state’s most profitable online charter, whose owner donates about a quarter million to politicians every year while he cleans up.
Here is an excerpt from the story linked above in “Plunderbund” about ECOT (the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow) and the plundering of taxpayers and children:
Question: Would the Columbus Dispatch cover a story in which the Superintendent of the Columbus City Schools hired his own two privately-held companies to provide services for the school district at a cost of over $22,000,000 per year without having to disclose how that money was being spent?
And then what if that same Columbus City Schools superintendent bought two $300,000 homes, paid them off, gave one to his daughter (who he hired to help run one of his companies), then proceeded to purchase a million-dollar estate?
And what if he did so while still managing to donate well over $200,000 per year to political campaigns?
And what if this all occurred while the district was putting up performance numbers that are lower than the district’s results that the Dispatch loves to criticize on such a regular basis?
Would that superintendent have lasted the sixteen years that Lager has been in power while receiving significant raises every year?
Ask yourself a question, what would your annual income have to be to so readily give away $246,000 per year to people who “supposedly” aren’t giving you anything in return? If Lager worships at the Republican altar, then his “tithe of 10%” would put his annual income in the neighborhood of $2,460,000!
Would the Columbus Dispatch ignore this story if the Columbus City Schools superintendent was making over $2 million per year?
Now to be fair and bring this to an apples-to-apples comparison, since Columbus has 3.5 times as many students as ECOT, the Columbus City Schools superintendent’s annual salary would have to be at least $8,610,000 to be comparable to equivalent to Lager’s annual take. Would the Columbus Dispatch write about that? Would they create a cheap graphic to post in the left margin every time they wrote about this scandal?
Diane Ravitch's blog 