Laura Chapman, retired educator and crack researcher, comments on the strange case of the millions (billions?) of dollars awarded to charter schools that have never been evaluated as to their use, misuse, or effectiveness:
I doubt if you will ever find an evaluation report for our charter school investments, from USDE or IES.
USDE shoved money out the door for anything charter–startup, replication (franchising), and facilities and facilities financing.
Negative reviews of the grant applications were ignored. I read some of these reviews. Even the questions for the reviewers were rigged to minimize “accountability.”
We paid federal dollars for absurdities, including advertising for charter students; cross-country junkets to recruit teachers and leaders; uniforms for the students including backpacks with logos, various goodies for “awards.”
I have yet to find any reports from states back to USDE on what happened to the money channeled to states. No federal reports on schools opened, closed, etc. No credible peer-reviewed independent studies on student outcomes.
USDE let the charter authorizers and franchisers call the shots. Some of the grant applications had redacted information–unreadable chunks of text blacked out because this information was “proprietary” and might “leak,” offering a competitive advantage to other charters. USDE rolled over on that request from the grant applicants. What was redacted? Test scores and enrollments were redacted.
I just checked the 2016 active contracts of USDE bearing on charters. Only two are there, and both have been granted extensions from the original contracts.
WESTAT, INC. The purpose of this procurement is to obtain technical services for the U.S. Department of Education Charter Schools Program to support the Credit Enhancement Program with grantee monitoring. Monitoring grant projects means examining policies, systems, and procedures to ensure compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, Guidance, grant applications, and performance agreements.
Dates: 9/25/15 to 9/24/17 extended to 9/24/19
Amount: $514,554. This is a very small contract for WESTAT: It is a major subcontractor for many federal agencies.
SAFAL PARTNERS, INC. The purpose of this contract is 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.
Dates: from 9/27/13 to 9/26/17 extended to 9/26/18-
Amount: $12,872,533.
SAFAL Partners leads the National Charter School Resource Center, which hosts other USDE subcontractors. SAFAL Partners appears to be the go-to outfit for charter-friendly research. Clients include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Education Pioneers, George W. Bush Institute, Teach for America Houston among others.
A 2016 report from SAFAL Partners titled “Student Achievement in Charter Schools: What the Research Shows” is a very limited and dubious “comparison” of five studies, with caveats dismissed (e.g., fewer ELL and special education students in charter schools, only math and reading scores, test scores not from the same tests, and more). This report is more PR more than credible research.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Flush with Cash
Cash was definitely flushed, alright!
From now on, I’m going to lie my ass off and when caught, dismiss it as #alternativefact.
The reformers have been getting away with it for years. Let’s see who can come up with the biggest whoppers! I’ll start.
Charter schools get better results while costing less #alternativefacts
There was and continues to be a total lack of transparency and accountability for charters and vouchers. Dark money, redacted facts… and then we gave the earth to Fetullah G. And now we will give the heavens to Betsy D.
Since both of these companies have an affiliation with Bill and Melinda Gates, I doubt any findings that would caste aspersions on the charter industry would ever be released to the tax paying public. SAFAL Partners seems to be more of rubber stamp for the charter industry with all the partners having a business and technology background. Neither of these companies has the type of training needed to legitimately evaluate education. While they may have training and skills in technology, business and engineering, that does not qualify them as “experts” in educational research. This is typical of “reform,” a movement that is wholly corporate driven and whose goals are to replace traditional public schools with corporate schools. That is why corporations want to establish fake public schools run by business people that have earned fake educational expertise and credentials. It is all part of the hostile takeover of democratic public schools. However, these corporate shills are untrained in educational theory and practice, and they are doing a lousy job. Yet, the corporate welfare keeps on flowing. The “reform” movement is all about redistributing public tax dollars to private corporations; it’s not about the kids!
USDE outsourced many functions to companies. For example, most of the arm-twisting for Race to the Top was outsourced to contractors hired to serve in the “Reform Support Network.” Among other dumb ideas, some of these contractors foisted SLOs on teachers and came up with the idea of a “distributed” score for teachers of “untested subjects.” They could be assigned an evaluation based on a school-wide score in reading and/or math.
Among the “technical experts” who served as consultants for RSN, few represented school districts. Most were from foundations, think tanks, testing companies and contractors for research, including some of USDE’s regional laboratories. Of course, some participants were legacies from Michelle Rhee (e.g., consultants from New Leaders for New Schools).
Generic business and tech experts are not qualified to evaluate educational programs. If they want a legitimate evaluation, they should be contracting with an institution of higher education that has competent educational researchers on staff. Any trained educators would never have presented SLOs or VAM as an accurate measurement tool. Maybe teachers that lost their jobs from these inadequate systems should sue companies that produced them. Authentic educators would also understand that scores alone are an inadequate way to measure the effectiveness of a school or teacher.
I am shocked at the way our country has jumped on the “reform” bandwagon. I am shocked at the way they have ignored all the waste, fraud and harm to young people and communities. I am disheartened by the way our policymakers can be bought to endorse charters despite the fact there is not a shed of evidence to support the investment we are being forced to make. I say “forced to make” because rarely are citizens ever being asked to weigh in on these decisions. Corporations and billionaires are hijacking our democracy.
Correction: shred
This paragraph from the posting leapt out at me:
[start] USDE let the charter authorizers and franchisers call the shots. Some of the grant applications had redacted information–unreadable chunks of text blacked out because this information was “proprietary” and might “leak,” offering a competitive advantage to other charters. USDE rolled over on that request from the grant applicants. What was redacted? Test scores and enrollments were redacted. [end]
First, that bit about “competitive advantage.” Remember that the heavyweights and thought leaders of corporate education reform vociferously deny that public monies are going to (openly or disguised) private profit-making entities that produce winners and losers. Cover blown.
Second, zealots of charters and vouchers and privatization won’t walk their own talk by applying their own sacred metrics to themselves. Although it is perfectly understandable when you consider that even partial transparency and a bit of actual data haven’t been kind to the Texas Miracle and New Orleans Miracle and TENN Miracle and DC Miracle and Michigan Miracle and all the other rheephorm marvels of educational excellence. Cover blown.
But of course those in ferocious pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$ portray themselves as the leaders of the “new civil rights movement of our time,” asserting that they alone occupy the moral high ground.
So whether it’s Rheephorm 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0, I suggest people always remember this bit of wisdom from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
😎
Crossposted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Mysterious-Non-Evaluat-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Corporate-Fraud_Diane-Ravitch_Fraud_Fraud-170122-501.html#comment641078
with comments, which have LINKs at that address.
There are 15,880 school systems to loot. http://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
Just look at NYC and see the money pouring in as OUR SCHOOLS become the EDUCATION MARKETPLACE.
New York Hedge Funds Pour Millions of Dollars into Cuomo-Led Bid to Expand Charter Schools | Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2015/3/11/new_york_hedge_funds_pour_millions
Diane Ravitch , who YOU SHOULD FOLLOW IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING OT OUR SCHOOLS. — REPORTS that Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham University law professor who ran against Governor Andrew Cuomo in the recent gubernatorial election, released a powerful and shocking–but well documented–report on the powerful hedge funds that seek to gain control of education in New York state. They are very, very rich. They have no particular expertise in education, nor are they accountable to anyone. Yet they are attempting to privatize one of the most important public institutions of our society.
https://dianeravitch.net/2014/12/03/zephyr-teachout-hedge-funders-and-their-corrupt-effort-to-take-over-public-education-in-new-york/
learn about CHARTER SCHOOL FRAUD! https://dianeravitch.net/?s=charter+school++fraud
KNOW THE TRUTH about the end of public education; DIANE RAVITCH, former Asst Secretary of State, and author of How Not to Fix Our Public Schools and Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools has published an article for the Chronicle of Philanthropy about how the big foundations paved the way for Betsy DeVos’ nihilistic campaign to privatize public education.
go to my series page here at Oped, Series: Susan Lee Schwartz:Oped News to learn about the War on YOUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
http://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html
Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" and commented:
Laura Chapman on the Mysterious Non-Evaluation of ED Department Charter Funding
by dianeravitch
Laura Chapman, retired educator and crack researcher, comments on the strange case of the millions (billions?) of dollars awarded to charter schools that have never been evaluated as to their use, misuse, or effectiveness:
READ MORE OF THIS BLOG POST HERE:
https://dianeravitch.net/2017/01/22/laura-chapman-on-the-mysterious-non-evaluation-of-ed-department-charter-funding/
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.