Archives for the month of: March, 2016
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Utica: A Newspaper That Understands Education!

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
11

I have read so many misguided and ignorant newspaper editorials about education in the past few decades (including some in our leading newspapers) that I am always surprised and delighted to read an editorial that shows a deep understanding of the challenges of teaching and learning.

 

I hereby put the editorial board of the Utica, New York, Observer-Dispatch on the blog’s honor roll for sanity and clear thinking.

 

In this editorial statement, the newspaper writes that the politicians, policymakers, and pundits should stop blaming principals and teachers for low test scores. If they want to pin blame on someone or something, the editorial says, blame the state.

 

It says:

 

One can’t help wonder whether the powers that be in the state Education Department and Legislature have a firm grasp on reality. Do the bureaucrats and politicians who write the education policies and approve the laws ever step inside a classroom? Do they ever visit the troubled schools they pass judgment on?

 
They most certainly should — and not just for a photo opportunity. They should spend some serious time in the classrooms of these struggling schools and shadow the principal and other school staffers for a few days to see what issues might be contributing to the “underachievment” other than nebulous scores on half-baked standardized tests.

 
They’ll most likely see that the school’s problems aren’t due to the principal, teachers or other educators involved in the process.

 
But, hey, somebody has to be blamed, right? It certainly couldn’t be the state’s fault, could it?

The latest scarlet letter has been scribbled on the blackboard at Utica’s Kernan Elementary School, which has been downgraded to “priority” status after dropping from “good standing” to “focus,” last year. Under state law, Kernan is now required to implement a Whole School Reform model, which can be implemented several ways (options mandated by the Legislature), ranging from replacing the principal and half the staff to converting it to a charter school or closing the school entirely and sending students to higher achieving schools.

 
Really? The people who hand down these silly mandates are the same ones who won’t allow struggling schools to apply for additional aid until they become “persistently struggling.” That’s like telling a struggling student they can’t get any help until they fail the course. And they’re the same ones who hold back Foundation Aid to schools — Utica is owed $47 million, but who’s counting? — that has resulted is barebones staffing and slashed programs year after year.

 
Unbelievable. Do these people really think that changing the school staff will turn things around at this inner city school in one of Utica’s poorest neighborhoods? Or do they just not get it?
How do you spell ‘poor’?

 
News flash: Utica is a poor district. That doesn’t mean we should ignore schools that struggle to provide our children a basic, sound education. What it means is that the powers that be — starting in ivory towers in Albany — need to stop using educators as scapegoats for a failing system.

 

Read on.

 

Really, how is it to declare that you can’t get any extra support until you fail? How dumb is it to think that the way to help a struggling school is to fire people?

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll, New York

Liberia: Government Nears Agreement on Privatization of Its Schools

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
8

The Liberian government is close to signing an agreement with private, for-profit corporations to provide education.

 

The teachers’ union called on the government to consult with all concerned parties before agreeing to privatize and outsource the nation’s schools.

 

As we have seen in earlier communiques (see here and here), Western corporations are focused on Africa as fertile territory for low-cost, for-profit education, using ill-trained teachers who read from a script.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, International

Bernie Sanders and Faux “Public” Charter Schools: Contact Him for Clarification

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
50

I posted last night about a DFER statement commending Senator Sanders for endorsing “public charter schools.”

 

Contrary to some readers’ responses, I have been completely even-handed in dealing with both candidates. I applaud them when they recognize that charter schools are damaging public schools. I criticize them when they support privatization by charter.

 

I previously applauded when Hillary Clinton criticized charter schools, then was critical of Hillary when an aide “walked back” her criticism. 

 

Similarly, I applauded Senator Bernie Sanders when he said unequivocally that he opposed charter schools. And last night when I learned about Senator Sanders latest comment, I at first didn’t believe it.

 

I was stunned to listen to the radio broadcast in which Sanders was asked the question, “Do you support vouchers and charters?”

 

He answered that he does not support public funding of private schools.

 

He was then asked, “Do you support public charter schools?”

 

He answered “Yes.”

 

Readers of this blog know that Eva Moskowitz claims that her Success Academy charters are “public schools,” even though she fights public audits, refuses to sign contracts for pre-K, closes school for political demonstrations, and excludes children she doesn’t want.

 

Please, someone, contact Bernie’s office and find out if he understands that there is nothing about “public charter schools” that is public other than the money they get from government, like Lockheed Martin or Boeing or other contractors.

 

Send him tweets and emails.

 

In a hotly contested election, we need to encourage both Democratic candidates to stand up for public education with democratic governance.

Categories Charter Schools

Angie Sullivan: Retaining Students Always Fails, Yet Legislators Love It

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
46

Angie Sullivan teaches early elementary grades in Las Vegas, where most of her students are English language learners, and all qualify for free and/or reduced price lunch. She regularly writes to legislators, trying to bring them into contact with the realities of schooling as seen by a practicing teacher.

 

She writes here about retention:

 

 

This is the time of year when primary elementary teachers discuss retention.

 

 

Even though all valid education research states retention should only be used in rare and special instances, it has become an unfortunate political remedy. When kids who are not supported properly fail academically – people leap to the conclusion that repeating a grade again is the solution. Again every scrap of real research shows this is not effective and in many cases detrimental- but it is politically popular.

 

 

http://www.nasponline.org/assets/Documents/Research%20and%20Policy/Position%20Statements/WP_GradeRetentionandSocialPromotion.pdf

 

 

Nevada has read-by-three legislation that CCSD (the Clark County School District) is preparing to implement. Another punitive measure which will be detrimental and primarily affect language learners and kids in poverty – because of lack of access and lack of proper support. It will be primarily minority students who will fail en masse in some parts of town. Legislators say it is tough love. It is actually a lack of understanding of learning and a failure to fund appropriate instruction. It is an attack on kids in poverty which is the real issue. It is very likely that two-thirds of the district will be retained at grade three if implemented.

 

 

http://www.fasp.org/PDF_Files/FASP_Publications/PP3rdGrdRet.pdf

 

 

Read-by-Three will be a living nightmare in Las Vegas. At-risk schools will balloon in second and third grades. Students will be hurt.

 

 

How do I know? Already we see the effects as Nevada teachers receive students who have been victims of this type of retention legislation in other states like Florida, Ohio, Indiana.

 

 

Currently a Stanford student who was retained in first and second grades three times in Florida – is finally being assessed for a reading disability at my school. This looks like a 10 year receiving instruction with 6 year olds in a first grade classroom – awkward and weird for everyone. It is not socially appropriate and actually disguised the real problem and best remedy. It is easier to punish a voiceless child than work to effectively to determine the real source of the problem. This child in particular was finally removed from her mother in Florida and placed with a step-father in Nevada. It is highly likely, it was parental neglect that led to her current situation and multiple retentions. Nothing that was the child’s fault, she is now socially out of place and years older than her peers. She will be 14 in the fifth grade.

 

 

Other states who have put this legislation in place already regret it or have had to revisit.

 

 

http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919971&bcid=25919971&rssid=25919961&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Few%2F%3Fuuid%3D68D76FA2-DD1D-11E3-AAEC-4BCDB3743667

 

 

Besides the national failure of huge retention programs, Nevada schools also manipulate scores by retaining.

 

 

There are CCSD principals who routinely fail ten students per grade level to manipulate scores. How is this done? Identify the students who scored poorly – force disenfranchised parents to sign retention paperwork. Student scores are “hidden” because retained students “do not count” in the scores the next year. This is done at many schools that supposedly showed “growth”. Is this good for kids? No. It is a game played on communities of color to satisfy politicians and a number system the community demands for supposed accountability.

 

 

Again -retention in large numbers is inappropriate. Nevada will regret it. It will hurt at-risk kids. It is a remedy that has failed in other states. It also gets manipulated, hides real problems, and punishes kids who actually require the most help.

 

 

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/08/16-student-retention-west

 

 

Please read the actual huge body of educational research. Change for the sake of change is not good change.

 

 

Retention is not best practice.

 

 

The gauntlet is already raised against 75% of children in Vegas. Poverty is the real obstacle which is not resolved by a stigma creating law which is punitive instead of requiring and funding real help.

 

 

Meanwhile I see very effective best practice – like class size reduction– is under attack in CCSD school board discussions. The acccounting gimmicks and tricks at CCSD never cease to amaze and confuse most everyone who sees the public relations campaigns against educators and kids. Never enough money unless there is a trip to take or a limo to ride in. Teachers are watching and see it all.

 

 

This is why we do not make headway.

 

 

Egos, power plays, bad managment, people who are not educators, people who have not read real educational research, implementing expensive ineffective change that won’t help anyone in my language learning, Title I, 100% free and reduced lunch classroom.

 

 

Angie

Categories English Language Learners, Failure, Poverty, Testing

Jeff Bryant: Public Opinion Is Beginning to Shift Against Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
18

Jeff Bryant writes that charter schools have enjoyed an elevated status as a “sure cure” for low-performing students because most Americans know so little about them.

 

He cites a number of polls showing that the appeal of charter schools wears thin when people realize that they draw resources away from the local public schools. As one person quoted in the article says, charters have a “negative fiscal impact” on local public schools.

 

Furthermore, the local press in many cities–especially in Florida and Ohio–has reported frequently on charter frauds and scandals, on money flowing to politically connected charter operators, on legislators with conflicts of interest, on charters that push out unwanted children and avoid students with disabilities, and on charters whose “CEO” is paid over half a million. As more such articles appear, the public begins to see that the absence of regulation leads to systemic abuse, not just a one-time anomaly.

 

Citing John Merrow, Bryant writes:

 

The simple reality is that as charters expand into new communities, and residents see that their neighborhood school loses a percentage of students in a particular grade level or across grade levels to charters, the school can’t simply proportionally cut fixed costs for things like transportation and physical plant. It also can’t cut the costs of grade-level teaching staff proportionally. That would increase class sizes and leave the remaining students underserved. So instead, the school cuts a support service – a reading specialist, a special education teacher, a librarian, an art or music teacher – to offset the loss of funding. Say goodbye to your kids’ favorite art teacher or your school’s Mandarin program.

 

What Charters Have Become

 

“I have been observing what is called the ‘charter school movement’ from Day One,” Merrow recalls, “a historic meeting at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in 1988 that I moderated. Back then, the dream was that every district would open at least one ‘chartered school,’ where enrollment and employment would be voluntary and where new ideas could be field-tested. Successes and failures would be shared, and the entire education system would benefit.”

 

Merrow now finds those early aspirations for charter schools “naïve,” given what characterizes the charter school industry today.

 

Early charter school promoters may indeed have been naïve, but the American public is increasingly getting wise, and the “charter school brand,” as Merrow phrases it, is likely turning from Teflon to tarnished.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers

Students in Douglas County, Colorado, Protest High Teacher Turnover

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
6

Students in Douglas County, Colorado, walked out and picketed to express their outrage at the high rates of teacher turnover in their school. Teacher turnover may be caused by the demoralizing policies enacted by the state and the district. Colorado teachers have suffered since 2010 under State Senator Michael Johnston’s legislation to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores. DougCo has had a conservative school board, which destabilized the schools.

 

A boisterous crowd of 100 or so students walked out of Ponderosa High School on Wednesday morning to highlight what they say is an excessive departure rate among teachers at the school and within the Douglas County School District.

 

They waved signs on school property that read “We love teachers” and “Keep DCSD Great,” while chanting “best teachers, best students.”

 

Several passing drivers honked their horns in support.

 

“We don’t find it fair that our teachers are leaving the district, and we want to know why,” said senior Lisa Culverhouse, who was skipping math, English and Spanish to rally with classmates. “We hope the district will realize it’s a problem — students want to be heard….”

 

Courtney Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation, said teacher morale has never been lower. She counts the teacher evaluation system — which she said was mostly about “uploading evidence” rather than true assessment of teaching skills — among the chief problems.

 

Good work, Senator Johnston. When does your promise of “great schools, great principals, great teachers” come to pass? How much longer shall we wait?

 

 

Categories Colorado, Corporate Reformers, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers

Watch Out for ALEC Legislation in Your State!

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
23

“Cashing in On Kids” reports that ALEC education legislation is quietly spreading across the nation. ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a secretive far-right organization that is funded by major corporations and whose members are state legislators. Its goal is privatization and deregulation. It writes model laws, then its members introduce them into their state legislature as their own. To learn all about ALEC, go to Alec Exposed.

 

Despite widespread public opposition to the corporate-driven education privatization agenda, at least 172 measures reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bills were introduced in 42 states in 2015, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org and PRWatch.org. (A PDF version of this report may be downloaded here.)

 

One of ALEC’s biggest funders is Koch Industries and the Koch brothers’ fortune. The Kochs have had a seat at the table – where the private sector votes as equals with legislators – on ALEC’s education task force via their “grassroots” group Americans for Prosperity and their Freedom Partners group, which was described as the Kochs’ “secret bank.”

 

The Kochs also have a voice on ALEC’s Education Task Force through multiple state-based think tanks of the State Policy Network, ALEC’s sister organization, which is funded by many of the same corporations and foundations and donor entities.

 

ALEC’s Education Task Force is also funded by the billionaire DeVos family, which bankrolls a privatization operation called “American Federation of Children,” and by for-profit corporations like K12 Inc., which was founded by junk-bond king Michael Milliken.

 

ALEC’s education task force has pushed legislation for decades to privatize public schools, weaken teacher’s unions, and lower teaching standards.

 

ALEC’s agenda would transform public education from a public and accountable institution that serves the public into one that serves private, for-profit interests. ALEC model bills divert taxpayer money from public to private schools through a variety of “voucher” and “tuition tax credit” programs. They promote unaccountable charter schools and shift power away from democratically elected local school boards….

 

Although ALEC and other school privatizers today frame “vouchers” – taxpayer-funded tuition for private, and often religious, schools – in terms of “opportunity” for low-income students and giving parents the “choice” to send their children to public or private schools, the group was less judicious in its earlier years.

 

The commentary to ALEC’s original 1984 voucher bill states that its purpose is “to introduce normal market forces” into education, and to “dismantle the control and power of” teachers’ unions by directing money from public institutions to private ones that were less likely to be unionized.

 

Friedman was more explicit when addressing ALEC’s 2006 meeting. He explained that vouchers are really a step towards “abolishing the public school system.”

 

“How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?” Friedman asked the ALEC crowd.

 

“Of course, the ideal way would be to abolish the public school system and eliminate all the taxes that pay for it. Then parents would have enough money to pay for private schools, but you’re not gonna do that.”

 

Of course, in order to believe in the idea of “opportunity scholarships” to “save poor kids from failing schools,” you have to believe that the big corporations and the billionaires are civil rights crusaders for the poor and needy. My imagination is not big enough to do that.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Privatization, Vouchers

Ohio Teacher: The Tests Make Me LIVID

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
13

Dawn Neely-Randall is an activist teacher in Ohio. She speaks out against injustice and stupidity, especially when students suffer: 

Dawn writes:

“Yesterday, I used the word “livid” in a tweet to a legislator for the first time ever. I then talked to two administrators from two different districts; Patrick O’Donnell from the Plain Dealer; left voicemails for legislators; and talked to the Ohio Department of Education…twice…to confirm my findings.

“Base knowledge: A district could choose paper or online testing.

“Let me paint a picture in your head. Ten and eleven year olds. February through May, 2015. Computer Lab. High-pressure and high-stakes testing situation. English Language Arts. PARCC testing (developed by a British monopoly). Test content: Common Core. 

“Biggest problem: A time clock on the computer screen counting down the seconds and a slew of hoops of reading/writing passages for students to complete on the screen in front of them.

“Besides the third of my fifth-graders whose parents opted them out (their activist spirit is about the only reason we don’t have this same PARCC test any longer), my students sat in this tense testing situation suffering last year and I begged boards of education, legislators, and parents across the state to help. 

“In a longer amount of time than a woman could have conceived, grown, and birthed a new child, the PARCC phantom test scores FINALLY started emerging in piecemeal from the state.

“ACROSS THE BOARD, it turns out that the ONLINE scores were lower than the paper tests, which has sent the Ohio education world into a tailspin since pulling off statewide online testing was nothing short of miraculous.

“Next, the Ohio Report Cards came out slaughtering many hardworking, top performing, accomplishment-proving districts. 

“To the tune of “Old McDonald,” let’s sing what the Ohio Department of Education/State Legislature has said to many previously performing stellar districts based on bogus scores (tests never seen; graded tests never returned; scores finally received about a year later):

“….here an F, there an F, everywhere an F, F.”

“And via an onslaught of private conversations, this is what I found out which I am now shouting about to the world:

“Students taking the ONLINE tests had company “field test items” added to them (yes, so students could become guinea pigs and practice test questions for the company to later sell) which means that, within their precious clock counting down, they had to give up time from questions that counted, to then work on questions that DIDN’T count (and they had no clue which were which).

“The Paper tests? NOT AN EXTRA FIELD TEST QUESTION GIVEN. 

“AND GUESS WHAT? The Ohio Department of Education confirmed with me that they will do the EXACT same thing with the AIR tests this year. 

“Students doing online tests….take extra “company” field test item questions. Students doing paper/pencil tests…they leave them the heck alone.

“But then, of course, they’ll label the students. Compare them to death. And make districts that are jumping through the state’s hoops look like they are the ones who are ducking performance.

“Dear Legislature and Ohio Department of Education, get your freaking act together.

“Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack. 

“Steal my students time?! Stress little boys and girls out? Call them a failure after robbing them of time to perform?! Now you’re messing with me.

“I’ll be AIRing my grievances far and wide.

“In the heat of a new testing season (students will be testing for three weeks after spring break)….

“Wouldn’t you be livid, too?!”

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Reform

DFER Commends Bernie for Supporting Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2016 //
90

 

Democrats for Education Reform--the voice of hedge fund managers who meddle in education despite their lack of any knowledge or experience–issued a statement congratulating Bernie Sanders for coming out in support of “public charter schools.”

 

Senator Sanders was interviewed on a radio talk show. He was asked about whether he supported vouchers and charters. He said he supports public education and opposes funding private schools. The host asked whether he supports “public charter schools,” and he answered “yes.”

 

You have to wonder whether Bernie understands that privately managed charters, which operate with no transparency or public accountability, and without democratic governance, call themselves “public charter schools.” In some states, charter legislation calls them “public charter schools,” even if they operate for profit.

 

Even though Bernie is a member of the Senate committee that oversees education, he doesn’t seem to be well informed about what charters are. He doesn’t realize that he just signed on to the favorite “reform” of ALEC, every Republican candidate, the Walton family, and every red-state governor (plus Cuomo of New York and Malloy of Connecticut), as well as Wall Street.

 

I wonder if Bernie knows that at least 90% of “public charter schools” are non-union, which is why Republicans and oligarchs love them.

 

Strange bedfellows indeed.

 

DFER said:

 

“MARCH 1ST, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

DFER STATEMENT ON BERNIE SANDERS’ MOST RECENT STATEMENT ON CHARTER SCHOOLS
Shavar Jeffries Welcomes Senator Sanders’ Flip to “Yes” on Public Charters

 

“Yesterday, on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders flip-flopped on his prior position and clearly declared his support for public charter schools. In response, DFER President Shavar Jeffries released the following statement:

 

“We welcome Senator Sanders’ recognition that public charter schools can and do provide essential educational options for students, many of whom do not have other high-quality public options available. Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders have now both changed their rhetoric in this campaign and joined President Obama in acknowledging that allowing students and families a choice empowers them to find the best opportunity that meets their unique needs. Flatly opposing high-performing public charters would send hundreds of thousands of students back into failing schools and prevent those public charters from helping to lift neighborhood schools by offering new — and proven — ways of educating our children that put results ahead of bureaucracy.”

 

Sanders Flips on Opposition to Charters

 

Senator Sanders at Newmarket, NH Town Hall on January 3rd:

 

“I’m not in favor of privately-run charter schools. If we are going to have a strong democracy and be competitive globally, we need the best educated people in the world. And I believe in public education. I went to public schools my whole life. I think rather than give tax breaks to billionaires, I think we invest in teachers and we invest in public education.”
Sanders Flops Back in Favor of Charters

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Politics

How Trump’s Success Changed Cruz’s Campaign

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2016 //
14

I wanted to share an interesting article that appeared in Bloomberg News.

 

Cruz started his campaign as the one who wanted to blow up government.

 

But Trump was better at that extremist talk.

 

Now Cruz is projecting himself as the guy with “solutions.”

 

Categories Politics
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