Archives for the month of: March, 2016
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Red Queen in L.A.: What’s Wrong with Charter Schools?

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
8

Blogger Red Queen in L.A. has observed the rapid expansion of charter schools in Los Angeles. She knows that billionaire Eli Broad wants to put fully half the public school children in the city into privately managed charters.

 

 

In this post, she answers the question “What’s Wrong with Charter Schools?”

 

She begins:

 

“They foster segregation.

 
“Charter schools are in fact the new face of segregation, the enabling excuse for exclusivity and alienation. The Charter School movement glorifies the illusion of “choice” even while entitling homogeneity.

 
“This is borne out in the numbers and confessed every day via parent-to-parent euphemisms: “this school is a better ‘fit’”, “‘safety’ is my top priority”, “my child only responds to a ‘nurturing environment’”, “smaller class sizes are necessary for my child”, “I want my child immersed in a specialized program”.

 
“So much sorting and selecting sets up a double whammy for segregation. On one level families self-select according to like-mindedness and socioeconomic comfort level. At the same time the very process of school selection siphons highly involved families away from public district schools.”

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Los Angeles, Segregation

What Texas Should Know About Charters, from a Floridian

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
5

A civic leader in Texas asked on the blog whether there was any impartial information about charters and their effects. I forwarded her request to Sue Legg of the League of Women Voters in Florida.

 

Sue wrote the following response:

 

 

We have been studying charter and other choice systems for several years. See: http://lwveducation.com​
In Florida, we have non-profit and for profit management companies. The biggest concern with for-profits are their associated real estate firms that build/purchase facilities and then charge the school excessive amounts for leases. Since the charter schools are privately owned and managed, the facilities are paid for by public tax dollars but revert to private owners if closed. We have relatively few charters located in publically owned buildings.

 

There are issues with charter boards. Most are not independent from the management company. Thus, the business model often depends on high staff turnover and low salaries. There are many regulation problems including conflict of interest and nepotism. Big charter firms create umbrella non profits that receive the charter. Their boards often have overlapping board members. Academica, for example, the largest Florida charter chain created Mater charters, Somerset charters, Doral, and Ben Gamla charters among others.

 

Many small independent charters have inexperienced or profit seeking people who start and then close charters, thus keeping substantial start up money awarded by the state. Some legislation has tried to curb this.

 

Charters in Florida tend to duplicate public school programs. Some do focus on children who need a different approach and many of these are successful. The school grade policies complicate their existence, however. For example, schools that focus on children with dyslexia are chronically called ‘F’ schools because those children struggle to learn even though they do make significant progress. ​

 

Florida has 650+ charters. The evidence of resegregation is clear. The high closure rate has received legislative attention. The practice of selective admission/retention is evident even though the admission process is supposed to be random. Achievement based on test scores does not differentiate charter and traditional public schools if well matched samples are used.

 

We have annual audits of each charter. There are also data on racial and economic demographic characteristics as well as school grades.

 

This legislative session has centered on charter authorization systems that would take even more control away from local school boards. Thus far, these proposals look like they will fail.

 

A Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit over the failure of the state to support public education begins on March 14th.

 

Let me know if I can help.

 

Sue M. Legg Ph.D.
President, Alachua County LWV
Chair, School Choice Project Florida LWV

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, Texas

Alabama Should Look Again Before Passing Teacher Evaluation Law

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
3

Larry Lee reports on pending legislation intended to create a state framework for evaluating teachers.

 

He cites an analysis of Alabama’s proposed legislation by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley. She says that it is apparent that Alabama’s lawmakers did not inform themselves about research on teacher evaluation measures.

 

Amrein-Beardsley writes:

 

Nothing is written about the ongoing research and evaluation of the state system, that is absolutely necessary in order to ensure the system is working as intended, especially before any types of consequential decisions are to be made (e.g., school bonuses, teachers’ denial of tenure, teacher termination, teacher termination due to a reduction in force).

To measure growth the state is set to use student performance data on state tests, as well as data derived via the ACT Aspire examination, American College Test (ACT), and “any number of measures from the department developed list of preapproved options for governing boards to utilize to measure student achievement growth.” As mentioned in my prior post about Alabama, this is precisely what has gotten the whole state of New Mexico wrapped up in, and quasi-losing their ongoing lawsuit. While providing districts with menus of off-the-shelf and other assessment options might make sense to policymakers, any self respecting researcher should know why this is entirely inappropriate.

Clearly the state does not understand the current issues with value-added/growth levels of reliability, or consistency, or lack thereof, that are altogether preventing such consistent classifications of teachers over time. Inversely, what is consistently evident across all growth models is that estimates are very inconsistent from year to year, which will likely thwart what the bill has written into it here, as such a theoretically simple proposition.

Unless the state plans on “artificially conflating” scores, by manufacturing and forcing the oft-unreliable growth data to fit or correlate with teachers’ observational data (two observations per year are to be required), and/or survey data (student surveys are to be used for teachers of students in grades three and above), such consistency is thus far impossible unless deliberately manipulated.

 

In short, Alabama legislators are considering a measure that is very likely invalid and unreliable. They really should do some more homework and go back to the drawing board.

Categories Alabama, Education Reform, Teacher Evaluations

Mercedes Schneider: My Three Big Concerns about ESSA

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
7

Mercedes Schneider has read the new Every Student Succeeds Act, every word of it.

 

She has three major concerns:

 

First, the bill requires 95% participation in state tests. It is vague about parents’ rights to opt their children out of the test. States can ask for waivers, but this puts them, as she puts it, “at the mercy of” the Secretary of Education.

 

Second, she is worried about the security of data that the U.S. Department of Education collects. It has confidential data on every student and teacher. In a recent hearing, Congressmen mentioned that the Department’s data system had been hacked in the past. Why trust them now?

 

Third, ESSA is as charter-friendly as NCLB. Certainly, the Department is eager to shovel millions, hundreds of millions to charters. Mercedes cites the recent decision of ED to give $71 million to Ohio charters, even as the state’s charter industry was experienced a series of charter scandals. Clearly, the Department is good at talking standards, but its own standards are mighty low.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Data and Data Mining, Delaware, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Privatization, Testing, U.S. Department of Education

Mike Klonsky: What Donald Trump Thinks About Education

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
16

Mike Klonsky says that most people have no idea what Trump’s ideas are about education. He keeps saying he wants to get rid of Common Core. “It’s a disaster,” he says, but somehow I would guess that he has never seen the CCSS standards and has no idea why they are “a disaster.” Maybe because the people he is courting don’t like them.

 

But Mike pulls together a number of statements that Trump has made about education. While they don’t add up to a coherent perspective or ideology, there is more to his approach than abolishing Common Core.

Categories Albuquerque, Common Core, Education Reform, Politics

John Kasich Claims He Saved the Cleveland Schools

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2016 //
43

I am having a bad week. I watched the Democratic debate last night and the Republican debate tonight. My brain hurts. Who thought it was a good idea to put the candidates and the public through a marathon of endurance?

 

Tonight the Republicans all praised charter schools. Donald Trump loves charters. So do all the other Republicans. They all dismiss public schools. They agree that this is a great nation, the greatest nation in the world, but they don’t give the teachers and educators of our public schools any credit.

 

Most surprising, however, was John Kasich’s boast that he worked in a bipartisan way to reform the schools of Cleveland. Does anyone fact check? The federal government reports that 100% of the students in Cleveland are poor. On NAEP, Cleveland is one of the lowest performing urban districts in the nation. It has made meager gains during Kasich’s time in office.

 

I wish some journalist would ask the Kasich campaign for evidence of the reform in Cleveland’s schools for which he claims credit.

 

I have no particular animus towards Kasich. All of the candidates tonight showed no insight into any aspect of American education.

Categories Education Reform, Ohio, Politics

Cokie Roberts to Donald Trump: “What About the Children, Mr. Trump?”

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2016 //
22

This is a must-see video. Cokie Roberts asks Donald Trump about the effect of his rhetoric on children, who use his language to bully other children.

Categories Education Reform

Washington State: Charter Advocates Push Legislation to Save Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2016 //
19

Politico Education reports that legislation is moving in Washington State to fund the state’s charter schools. A few months ago, the high court of the state ruled that charter schools are NOT public schools, are not accountable to an elected school board, are under private management, and therefore not eligible for public funding. Since then, the charter industry has tried various stratagems to try to get public funding and to reverse the court’s decision by political muscle and money. Since Washington State is home to Bill Gates, and since Bill Gates poured millions into passing a referendum on charters, the pressure to divert public funds to these nonpublic schools have been intense. As usual, charter advocates are fighting for the 1,000 or fewer children in charter schools, but not for the nearly 1 million children in public schools. They never take “no” for an answer when they lose the chance to drain resources from the schools that serve the vast majority of children.

 

 

WASHINGTON STATE CLOSES IN ON CHARTER SAVE: Charter advocates nationwide applauded Washington state House lawmakers on Wednesday night after they passed a measure to keep the state’s charter schools open. The save, which would use lottery money to pay for the schools, comes at the last minute – the legislature is slated to adjourn today. The schools and more than 1,000 students have been in limbo since the state Supreme Court ruled the state’s charter school law unconstitutional late last year. After heated debate the bill passed on a 58-39 vote. “We celebrate the parents who led this charge, and the school and movement leaders who refused to take no for an answer,” said National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nina Rees. “Their amazing efforts on behalf of Washington’s students has led to one of the most remarkable victories in the history of this movement.” The legislation heads back to the state Senate, which has already approved a similar proposal. The Associated Press has more: http://bit.ly/1TNcIjK.

 

Nina Rees, quoted here, formerly was education advisor to Vice President Richard Cheney and then worked for Michael Milken in his education business.

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Don’t Forget to Join Our NPE Action Fund Webinar Tonight!

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2016 //
4

Please register for NPE Action for Our Schools: Diane Ravitch and Robin Hiller on Mar 10, 2016, 8 pm EDT at:

 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4590219526430945283

 

Join education historian, author and blogger extraordinaire Diane Ravitch and Robin Hiller, Executive Director of the Network for Public Education Action for an online Town Hall discussion of the challenges we face in the fight for public education.

 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Categories NPE Action Fund

Help Us Help Our Allies

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2016 //
3

The Network for Public Education is now legally constituted as two organizations.
The Network is a c(3), which means it is a charitable organization. Any donations are tax-deductible. Carol Burris is the executive director. It published the 50-state report judging states by their support for children, teachers, and public schools.

 

C3 Donation link:
http://networkforpubliceducation.org/about-npe/donate/

 

Or:
The Network for Public Education

PO BOX 150266

Kew Gardens, NY 11415-0266

 
The other organization is the NPE Action Fund. It is political. It endorses candidates and lobbies for legislative changes. Donations are not tax-deductible. It is recognized by the IRS as a c(4). Robin Hiller is the executive director.

 
Here is the snail mail address for the c(4):

 
NPE Action

P.O. Box 44200

Tucson, AZ 85733

 
Here is the donation page link:
http://npeaction.org/2016/02/19/donate/

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Network for Public Education, NPE Action Fund
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