Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools wrote an article in US News &Workd Report explains how privately managed charter schools could bring up the test scores of poor and disadvantaged kids.
She begins her article by referring to her own child, who is neither poor nor disadvantaged. She then notes that one-third of the top high schools on the US News list of the nation’s best high schools are charter schools. Nowhere does she mention attrition or selectivity or suspensions. Instead she suggests that chRter schools are indeed the magic answer that the nation is waiting for.
Bottom line: If you want your child to get an awesome education, insist that your local school be rubbed by a corporate charter chain. Then all schools will be on the US News list!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
oops. Your link is to the Washington Post and Valerie on Common Core.
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LINK FIXED!
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You linked to Post article on MI adopting the MA English standards which were the standards that DC used before writing their own and then switching to Common Core. They were FREE and student and teacher friendly. What is so exasperating when reading this is to realize that our elected officials and public servants felt the need to buy a boatload of; to paraphrase the odious and slimy Michelle Rhee: crappy standards and product. Heads need to roll. Figuratively of course.
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But the problem here that we need to confront is that this stuff is in US NEWS and is setting the agenda across a wide swath of the country. Its a dominant narrative that is chronically being reinforced. That our side is right and can counter all of this nonsense with philosophically, pedagogically, and logically constructed arguments is HARDLY THE POINT.
Being right is great but not required for victory. World history is thoroughly populated with righteous losers.
We are losing and this crap being in USNEWS is proof.
We need to make in-roads on the narrative front. As yet, we haven’t.
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Yes every school should be like BASIS Charter School. If only we demanded that failing schools require every at-risk student to successfully complete 3 or 4 AP courses by 7th grade, every school could be like BASIS which manages to educate every single child who enters their school at that high level.***
***According to the pro-charter folks, it is “possible” that not every student that enters BASIS is able to perform at that level and of course, that would mean that they have to leave the school, but whether or not there are any kids who enter and leave is a completely irrelevant fact. That is why it must remain HIDDEN — because it is so utterly unimportant that allowing anyone to know if there are students who leave the school and how many of them DO leave the school is so completely irrelevant that it must remain top secret!
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Once we have eliminated the “failing” public schools completely, we can then reach the libertarian dream espoused by Mitt Romney. Children will get the education their parents can afford, I am sure the market will have a tier level for everyone. Then the Ayn Rand disciples can eliminate tax payer support for education and the magical market will take over. Testing will soon fall away because only awesome schools with awesome results will be allowed. Some kids will suffer, but the worthy will strive on. I am sure the private prison sector is ready as well. In case people haven’t figured it out, this is what business calls a leveraged takeover.
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Yes, then people can choose which schools to support! That nice charter school where at-risk kids get drummed out the door unless they achieve at a high level? We’ll support that one. And the one over there that tries to educate the at-risk kids in low-income neighborhoods? Sorry, but that will have to depend on the generosity of their low-income parents. And obviously if those parents aren’t good enough to have high paying jobs to pay for their kids education, their kids really don’t deserve one anyway. Except for the ones who are top students who can attend that other charter school that will allow them to stay.
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Yes. From what I’ve seen, I’m pretty sure we’ve hit the “tiered” philosophy of education already.
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” Then the Ayn Rand disciples can eliminate tax payer support for education and the magical market will take over. ”
I think tax payer support is essential for the scheme, and so is people remaining in “education”. It will be inclass, online, standards-based indoctrination with most “education” dollars going to software and hardware companies.
But yes, it will be similar to prisons, since teachers won’t be needed, only guards to make sure, kids sit quietly in front of the computers 12 hours a day.
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It isn’t an outlier. This goes on all year on ed reform sites. It’s all charter cheerleading all the time, with occasional detours into stern lectures on how public school students have to take standardized tests.
If you lived in another country and read US ed reformers you would think public schools only existed as annual testing centers. The absence of ANY positive discussion or plans for existing public schools is really striking if you’re outside the “movement” echo chamber.
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We always get the message the billionaires want us to get when they own the media. Mortimer Zuckerman, who owns US News, is also behind the Mind Brain Institute. This research is supposed to change the brain patterns of children of poverty and make them embrace “success.” These notions form the theoretical base of a lot of the “no excuses” type charters. He also supports charter expansion because he is also a real estate mogul. Anyone familiar with the story of urban charters knows that selective charters are a gentrification tool of developers used to chase out locals and blow up a neighborhood for profit. His motives are largely economic, but he wants to be considered a philanthropist like so many of his ilk.
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It’s sad that philanthropists somehow believe that they can rationalize the things they do that greatly harms many children by saying that as long as a few students are helped, the ones who are harmed by those actions don’t matter.
It’s pretty stunning to hear someone calling themselves a philanthropist actually arguing that the only way to help some people is at the expense of others. Especially when the people you are talking about are children. Funny, there was a point when philanthropists tried to support programs whose benefits didn’t come at the expense of others. But since those philanthropists happen to be taxpayers whose goal is also low taxes, their own bottom line is far more important than what happens to some unworthy children. They are always expendable, and that was never what a real philanthropist would have promoted in the past.
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High Tech colonialism is certainly in vogue these days….Gives Eugenics a nice acceptable cover. It meets the primary criterion of reform, it is profitable for the oligarchs and keeps the peons in their place.
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“While most public high schools run along a pretty standard curriculum, charter schools give students access to a wider variety of school models. The top-ranking BASIS charter schools in Arizona focus heavily on preparing students to meet global standards of educational excellence.”
I love the cursory dismissal of every public high school in the United States.
I’m old enough to remember when they sold this as “improving public schools”. Now all public schools are dispensed with in a single sentence as inferior:)
This whole thing was an absolute fraud on the public. They never had any interest in “improving” public schools. Apart from selling tests and ed tech product they never mention public schools at all
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That phrase, “global standards of educational excellence” sounds totally awesome!!! I wonder what it means.
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The transfers from operator to operator are really bewildering. No one has any idea who actually runs these schools:
“At an emergency meeting, Scholar Academies informed parents Wednesday afternoon that it is planning to cease control of operations at Kenderton elementary at the end of the school year due to fiscal constraints.
The charter management organization had taken over the North Philadelphia school in 2013 through the Renaissance process, signing a contract that lasts through 2018.
During a 90 minute meeting with CEO Lars Beck, parents were livid.
“We are so upset. We are angry that our kids are being taken through this process again,” said parent Shereda Cromwell. “Scholar Academies made a promise to us and now is letting us down.”
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/93427-parents-livid-about-charter-company-pulliung-out-of-north-philly-school-unexpectedly?linktype=hp_impact
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The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ work is made possible through the generous support of the following organizations:
Laura and John Arnold Foundation,
Doris and Donald Fisher Fund,
The Kern Family Foundation,
Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation,
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
William E. Simon Foundation
And ….drumroll…
The National Charter School Resource Center sponsored by the US Department of Education (USDE), complete with logo. Take a look at the website that serves as a publicity machine for the charter industry, paid for with your tax dollars and mine. https://www.charterschoolcenter.org
The publicity for USDE’s charter school promotions is managed by Safel Partners.
Safel Partners. Is “a management consulting firm enabling education reform nationally and locally.”
USDE is a “client” of Safel Partners. Among Safel clients are these:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Safel Partners analyzed the national financial-aid landscape to inform the foundation’s portfolio strategy.
Laura and John Arnold Foundation: Safel Partners analyzed teacher-effectiveness investments in four urban districts.
Education Pioneers: Safel Partners helped the organization scale by redesigning operational processes.
George W. Bush Institute: Safel Partners created a strategic principal-training plan.
Teach for America Houston: Safel Partners developed regional a strategic plan for the organization. http://safalpartners.com/clients
USDE has employed many PR and “consulting” firms to market policies. I do not know when that practice began but WE have paid Safal Partners, Inc. $9,644,514.78
“to obtain technical assistance for the U.S. Department of Education Charter Schools Program for a range of activities, including online assistance, meetings, reports, studies, and assistance in a variety of focus areas, that could include human capital resources, facilities, authorizing, accountability, students with disabilities, English learners, military-connected children, and others.”
Notice that this contract seems to allow Safel Partners to subcontract in order to obtain technical assistance…meaning that is probably does not have in-house talent for the job.
If you are interested in tracking other USDE programs and their costs, you can download this spreadsheet, and do key word searches. Many of these contracts extend beyond the end of the Obama administration. https://www2.ed.gov/…/contracts/…
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Ms Ravitch wrote…
“Nowhere does she mention attrition or selectivity or suspensions.”
Ms Ravitch,
Do the public magnet schools at the top of the list talk about their selective admission applications, lack of backfilling, and cherry picking of the best students?
They do not, or at least the top school in the country does not…
http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2016/04/disds-talented-and-gifted-magnet-named-nations-top-hs-for-fifth-straight-year.html/
“There is not just one thing that makes our school great,” TAG principal Benjamin Mackey said in a district press release. “The hard work and dedication that our students and teachers put in every day — combined with the strong support of our parents, greater community, and district leadership — all help make our school successful.”
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Are you actually now admitting that charters are successful because they only educate the kids who will make them successful? We agree!
A magnet school is part of the larger school system, not separate. Their admissions criteria are stated up front. And, despite your innuendoes, the top magnet schools (or TAG) can’t simply suspend the students who will bring down their test scores because it saves them money.
I realize that rabid charter supporters on here believe that charter schools should be for the gifted and talented kids because they acknowledge that if charters had to educate all kids, they would be complete failures. And I appreciate your honesty in acknowledging that charter schools have failed miserably with the same kids who struggle in public schools. That makes you slightly better than the dishonest people who pretend otherwise.
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Cynthia Weiss,
In NYC, where we both live (I assume), the schools with selective admissions do not pretend to accept all students. Their selectivity is widely known. No one pretends that Bronx Science or Stuyvesant High School or other selective schools take all comers. No one pretends that they are a model for all schools. They accept only top-performing students who pass a rigorous exam and they make no bones about it. Nor do they boast about their high test scores. Charter schools that exclude the kids they don’t want could take a lesson from their example of boldly presenting their selection process and not boasting or pretending.
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Ms Ravitch,
Your complaint was that Ms Rees excluded likely (in your opinion) reasons for the academic success of these highly ranked charters. I pointed out the highly ranked magnet schools do the same thing, they ignore selectivity when discussing their outstanding performance, just like the quote above from the TAG principal shows.
Maybe you could point me to some quotes from Bronx Science or Stuyvesant High School leaders who praise their application screening process as a reason for their success.
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“your complaint was that Ms Rees excluded likely (in your opinion) reasons for the academic success of these highly ranked charters. ”
There are two basic problems with the academic success of these schools in the US News report.
One, success is measured in educationally meaningless numbers such as test scores and graduation rates. Two, whatever these schools do is done at the expense of public schools.
Whenever parasites are praised for their excellence and efficiency, the host providing the basic life support of the parasite needs to be praised too. The US News article is trying to fool the public by being silent on the host charter schools pray upon.
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dianeravitch: this brings up an interesting twist on the corporate education reform mantra that “charter schools are the rising tide that lifts all boats” because of all their cage busting achievement gap crushing disruptive innovations.
Apparently those public schools that are open and transparent about “selective admissions” and “do not pretend to accept all students” and whose “selectivity is widely known” are engaged in something antithetical to the secret sauce of rheephorm management and pedagogical practices that powers that rising tide. Openness, transparency, honesty—throw that old fashioned “stuff” [thank you, Bill Gates!] out the window.
Get Rheeal! How are you going to sell your eduproducts at the highest possible ROI and rake in $tudent $ucce$$ if you abandon your fundamental Marxist principles?
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Groucho. Forever in the hearts of rheephormistas near and far.
😎
P.S. Lest someone accuse me of claiming rheephorm inconsistency, refer back to their playbook:
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others. ”
Groucho. Again.
Really!
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Every charter shill’s favorite rhetorical crutch “but, but, but selective admission schools”. Is anyone unaware that selective admission schools are selective? Do the schools attempt to hide their admission polices? No, they don’t. Are charter schools equally transparent about their enrollment practices? No, they are not. Do they lie, dissemble and otherwise obfuscate about how they manage enrollment? Why yes, yes they do.
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Good point.
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Cynthia Weiss, what you are describing is patently illegal for charter schools to do – at least in NY State. If you are wondering why charters are being called out on those practices and deny them, it’s because if they admitted it their charter would be revoked. Unless they buy themselves more politicians to change the law, of course.
In fact, the state specifically authorized magnet schools to use a selective admissions test. And they specifically authorized charter schools to serve AT-RISK kids. Not the g&t kids who were doing quite well in public schools that served them. But again, I appreciate your honest admitting of the fact that there are many kids that the charters just don’t want to serve. Which might be fine if they weren’t so focused on taking funds directly from the schools who do serve those schools by lobbying for more money based on their “superior results” they get by making sure expensive kids are shown the door.
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Love this line: “It can be a big shock to go from a structured and supportive high school environment to a big, chaotic college campus.” That’s right: learning in a rigid, robotic, “no excuses” environment does NOT prepare one for the freedom and open inquiry of a college education.
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Nor of the business world but serves well for the military. Gotta keep the grunts a comin!!
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Would she recommend this charter?
http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2016/05/05/grand-jury-indicts-newpoint-and-vendors/83984310/
Newpoint also abandoned another school and claims the school owes them $1.3M from a loan with no paperwork.
http://wfla.com/2016/04/06/pinellas-charter-schools-call-for-audit-to-explain-1-3-million-loan-by-private-managers/
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True parasites like the mistletoe don’t need boring stuff their host provides for them like roots or strong trunk, hence they can focus on beautifying themselves and they may end up being prettier than their hard working host.
But nobody would compare the mistletoe to its host tree and conclude that it’s “better” in any way.
Charter schools are like the mistletoe: they think their main job is to provide pretty statistics while public schools take on the real work: educate all the kids, smart or not smart.
If we let charter schools flourish, they will kill public education, as the mistletoe can kill a forest if it’s not controlled.
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Unfortunately charters are more like kudzu. (not that kudzu is inherently bad as it is just filling its ecological niche, that is until something else evolves to chew on it.)
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Kudzu is much better than mistletoe! In fact, my hope is that charters and the reformers are not sophisticated parasites like the mistletoe, but they are like ivy or kudzu: some well chosen cuts to their life support will stop them from suffocating the host.
The number of cuts needed is probably equal to the number of billionaires, and not just the tree of public education but a whole forest could be cleared and saved.
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