Mike Klonsky has some thoughts about why Antwan Wilson, superintendent of schools in Oakland, left his $400,000 a year job to take Kaya Henderson’s job in the District of Columbia.
It can’t be for the money. He will probably earn about the same, maybe more.
Could be because he is a Broadie, and Broadie don’t set down roots in any community.
Must be for the visibility.
The people in D.C. credited him with raising test scores in Oakland, but he was only in Oakland for two years.
He will bring some Broadie ideas with him that folks in D.C. were not expecting, like trying “to dismantle special education.” Although, having weathered nine years of Rhee-Henderson policies of high-stakes testing and privatization, they must have some idea of what they will be getting. More of the same.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
http://www.pionline.com/article/20161128/ONLINE/161129907/kentucky-teachers-plan-to-file-class-action-suit-over-underfunding
Kentucky teachers plan to file class-action suit over underfunding http://www.pionline.com Active and retired Kentucky public school teachers plan to file a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and the Kentucky Legislature for allegedly underfunding the $17.5 billion Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System.
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Have two children in Oakland public schools. Have volunteered in the district for 13 years. Why is Antwan Wilson leaving Oakland? Because he thought he could just march into Oakland after leaving the wreckage in Denver and implement the exact same charter-friendly reforms here via CRPE and others. He couldn’t push through common enrollment, and I think that’s when he saw the writing on the wall. Proliferation of charters under his watch? Check. Top down policy disguised as community engagement? Check. Bloated, overpaid, and redundant administrators brought in from Denver? Check. Dismantling and disruption of Special Ed? Check. Firing of popular principals that got in the way of his reforms? Check. Support for backroom real estate deals? Check. Rolling over whenever CCSA threatened to sue over Prop. 39 co-location? Check. Support of charter friendly super PAC GO Public Schools (Broad, Gates, Walton) which spent up to $500,000 on our recent elections to keep charter-friendly board members? Check.
He has no business taking credit for any increases in test scores, real or perceived. That’s reformism at its worst: how to manipulate data for a predetermined outcome. The cohort attrition rate for some charters here is so bad that up to 2/3 of students leave between grades 9 and 12. Obviously, this attrition skews any stats on testing/graduation rates towards favoring charters and makes this data absolutely meaningless.
Oakland parents/students/teachers are active and organized, and will push back hard when they see some outsider dismantle what they have worked so hard to achieve. Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done, but maybe now we can make a fresh start and have someone lead who comes from the community and who won’t use Oakland as a springboard for the next best job that comes their way. One can always hope…
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“The cohort attrition rate for some charters here is so bad that up to 2/3 of students leave between grades 9 and 12. ”
As discussed in the series of postings below, including the comments attached to the last of those, “cohort attrition” is not a measure of how many students “leave”.
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/09/massachusetts-charter-schools-and-their.html
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/10/charter-school-attrition-in-ma-reader.html
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/10/more-about-attrition-rates-in-boston.html
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as a Denver teacher who suffered under Wilson’s reformer status, I am happy for Oakland, but oh, my, what he will do to poor, long-abused Wash. D.C….
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Thank you for posting about schools, Diane. You are my goto person on schools and education. (I have many other resources for keeping track of the election and it’s aftermath.)
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Mike Klonsky writes truth very well AND, in the process, explain the entire School Reform Opportunist’s Game in these two brief sentences: “Make a quick hit, chop heads, and get out before the shit hits the fan. Collect golden parachutes along the way.” He thus explains Wilson’s personal MO exactly.
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thank you for the educational article
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