Mike Klonsky, veteran activist in Chicago, was surprised to read in the New York Times that the public schools of Chicago were the fastest improving urban schools in the nation and that their improvement was due to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wisdom in choosing principals. This ran counter to everything he knew.
He writes:
I’m not sure who in Rahm Emanuel’s oversized City Hall PR Dept. planted this story in the New York Times, but kudos to them for getting this piece of fluff past the fact checkers and custodians of common sense. Peter Cunningham swears it wasn’t him, but I congratulated him anyway.
The Op-ed by David Leonhardt, “Want to Fix Schools, Go to the Principal’s Office” focuses on Chicago and gives all the credit to the mayor and CPS super-principals for the district’s supposed “fastest in the nation” gains in student achievement, rising graduation rates and lower dropout rates.
Using cherry-picked data, he makes a case that Chicago is on or near the top of the nation’s public schools, even while 85% of its students continue to live in poverty and the entire district teeters on the brink of financial collapse.
In other words, Leonhardt is whistling past the graveyard. He’s over his head when it comes to writing about education in Chicago.
All this reminds me of the Arne Duncan, Chicago Miracle in 2008, when no success claim about turnaround schools was ludicrous enough to be challenged by a compliant media.
As for fewer dropouts and spiraling graduation rates, I’d love to believe the reports but don’t know how anybody can, given CPS’s history of deception in reporting such data.
Klonsky notes that these are difficult days for Chicago principals because of decisions made by the mayor, like privatizing custodial services:
Ironically, Leonhardt’s pat on the principal’s head comes at a time when Chicago principals are threatened with 30% budget cuts and are being hard hit by the board’s privatization scheme’s which have left their buildings in shambles, massive staff cuts and exploding class size. Not to mention the fact that CPS principals are rarely in a school long enough to lead any substantial school improvement effort.
Lest we forget, Mayor Rahm made history by closing 50 public schools in one day, a feat for which he will live in infamy. And activists led by Jitu Brown had to conduct a 34-day hunger strike to persuade the mayor to keep a community high school open.
In assessing the article’s claims, Klonsky interviews Troy LaRiverere, one of the city’s star principals, who was fired by Emanuel after LaRiviere criticized him. Troy is now president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. LaRivere said:
Chicago principals are working in a district that continues to make it far more difficult for them to do their jobs. They pull one resource after another. For example, if you’re a CPS principal now, you can’t have an assistant principal. If you really value the position as the article claims, then you invest in the position. The words don’t line up with deeds.
Finally, we’re all not making the gains we could be making if they invested in us and in the schools. The principals that are making gains are making them, not because of the system, but in spite of CPS.
Klonsky says that Chicago principals have learned how to do “more with less.” Meanwhile Mayor Rahm is looking for newbies to replace the veterans. And says Klonsky:
But to single them out over classroom and special-ed teachers, who have been steadfast, even while baring the brunt of cuts, losing their planning time while class sizes explode, is divisive and misleading at best.
Thank God Leonhardt’s is only an opinion piece. Like the saying goes “you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts”. The problem is the same repetitive group think invades newsrooms and news-desks as well,on a whole host of issues.. Leaving us with a far bigger national problem than just education. A dynamic the orange haired buffoon, is playing against the press
How do you tell what’s opinion and what is not?
It turned out that most of the supposedly investigative reporting the NY Times did on Iraqi WMD was opinion, coming from people like Judith Miller who were not supposed to be opinion writers.
That was one huuuuge deal that makes everything else pale in comparison.
Miller was eventually fired but has the Times really changed since then?
Maybe, but then again, maybe not. Systemic problems don’t simply disappear when one person is fired.
To change Ronald Reagan’s saying to comport with the times (and The Times): don’t trust but verify.
I certainly agree.
This is why I don’t read commentaries on education in the NYT (unless Diane gives the all-clear!). Kristof, Bruni, even Krugman have written clueless pieces. Bruni defended Arne Duncan when he attacked parents who opted-out their kids.
Appsphilly,
I think it was Tom Friedman at the Times who thought Arne was so great that he should be Secretary of State. David Brooks wrote an article hailing a charter school as a miracle school that closed all gaps (but was not and had not). Brooks also lambasted me for suggesting that poverty might be a factor in student performance. So, yes, read the Times with care. For that matter, be wary of most education reporting because with few exceptions, the reporters either rewrite press releases or look for miracles, messiahs, and The One True Answer.
Such a painful truth; so may with the power to fight with gusto and logic (and huge audiences) AGAINST the abuses of school privatization simply choose seats way up high on the “reform” bandwagon.
“I’m not sure who in Rahm Emanuel’s oversized City Hall PR Dept. planted this story in the New York Times, but kudos to them for getting this piece of fluff past the fact checkers and custodians of common sense. Peter Cunningham swears it wasn’t him, but I congratulated him anyway.’
I felt like the piece was pure politics,too. Must be time for Rahm Emanuel to launch his next political campaign.
He was so lauded by ed reformers for closing all those public schools then he completely disappeared from view. It’s like the only thing they cared about was closing public schools. ‘Yay! 50 public schools closed!” High fives all around then no one mentions Chicago public schools for 5 years.
Not a lot of follow-thru in ed reform. They really enjoy breaking things, but rebuilding things? Not so much.
The Democratic Party is doomed if people like Rahm Emanuel continue to lead it. That makes me sad not just because I’m a Democrat but because the old Democratic Party really did a lot of good and were a very able and worthy opponent to Republicans.
It’s such a sad shell of its former self. All the life and joy and fight is gone.
No one rushes out to vote for a “public-private partnership” run by elites to benefit mostly elites. There’s just no compelling reason to vote for these people. Emanuel isn’t even a good manager and “good manager” is the only thing he offers.
The selection of Tom Perez, while not a bad guy, is in the same tradition as Hillary. I don’t think the Democrats have learned their lesson.
No they have not , If you caught Sanders last night . He showed how you win in Trump country . I am afraid the Democrats have not learned their lesson and we the people will pay for their failure .
Joel,
Bernie ran in the Dem primaries. Maybe he should have run as a third party. He still has not joined the Dem party.
dianeravitch
Bernie was up against structural dynamics in the Democratic party that made it virtually impossible for him to win . The Black vote especially in the South much like organized labor in its hey day, votes in blocks following the Black leadership . The black “establishment ” leadership was thoroughly tied to the Clinton machine. Yes Bernie was the outsider who caucused with the democrats FOREVER and while Clinton wrapped herself in Obama . Sanders was running because of Obama failures.as much as against Clinton. So if I got that, so did the Black community .The support that Bernie had from intellectuals like Cornell West (clearly at war with Obama) , Michelle Alexander and Ta-Nehisi Coates were no match for Clinton’s surrogates in the political class, like John Lewis ,Jim Clyburn… ..
Add to that a healthy doses of antisemitism and hostility between the Black and Jewish communities and Bernie was through when he hit the South. Was it worse for him that he was a Jew or perceived as an atheist. Non of the standard explanations can explain close to 90% Clinton wins throughout the South. She wasn’t running against George Wallace.
But in the General he would have been running against Trump or any of the Republicans.. He would have had the support of the captive constituencies . Just like Clinton had the progressives with no place to go . From my working class perspective, he would have cut Trump to pieces with that small percentage of working class voters who felt screwed by the system and voted to burn it down with Trump. the youth vote would have turned out in droves for Sanders..
But Sanders or not the American people have to be given a choice between two visions for America not 11/2 owned by the same oligarchs and plutocrats .
John Lewis endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2007 and later switched his support to Obama when he ran. He said when he switched his vote for Obama that he believed Hillary understood. And their relationship remained strong despite his switch. And Lewis could have done the same if he believed Bernie — coming out of nowhere — was the better candidate.
Bernie had good ideas. So did Hillary Clinton and John Lewis trusted her. It’s a shame that so many lesser voters dismissed his endorsement as just politics. He recognized the better candidate.
I really do not understand the naive people who believe Bernie Sanders who would have been slimed by the same slime machine that got Clinton. Is anyone watching their efforts (which haven’t even begun to ramp up) against Elizabeth Warren? If you went on blogs where the alt right trolls post, you’d see the constant drumbeat about what a liar Sen. Warren is and how she got ahead by lying about having Native American ancestry. Once the alt right got done with Bernie, he would have been unelectable. They haven’t turned on him yet because his nice speeches haven’t changed a thing yet. Warren obviously scares them more right now. And maybe Bernie will eventually and he’ll be the socialist liar.
Bernie hasn’t showed us anything about how to win yet. All I see is the same Republican politicians giving lip service to nothing and having the far right agenda completely enacted. If the ACA is not repealed, it won’t be because of Bernie. I do hope he starts to lead a movement, but the movement is coming from the people, not him. Bernie couldn’t convince enough people not to vote for the most dishonest lying politician who ever ran for President. Because they didn’t believe him when he told them Hillary was better. Why would they believe him when they are just as deluded by the anti-Bernie propaganda next time?
No one is going to tell you that the old Democratic, machine bosses in Chicago were model citizens. They were much better at having a worker base that looked out for their own; let’s just say the beneficiaries in the power structure were from a wider base. Emmanuel is slowly turning the city over to real estate developers who aren’t exactly interested in building low income housing. I would not be at all surprised to find that the most under resourced public schools are in communities drained not only by CPS but by charter schools as well. I have no doubt that Rogers Park on the north side will eventually be completely gentrified. It is far too a$$ractive to let the hoi polloi continue to live there. Left to his own devices Emmanuel could turn the entire city into a city sized Pleasantville. It’s more colorful ethnic past will only be brought out as entertainment for the well heeled.
Fake News from the NYT.
Thanks!!!!!
Sent from my iPhone
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CROSS PSOTED AT OPED NEWS: https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Earth-to-New-York-Times-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Activist_Budget_Diane-Ravitch_Education-170314-121.html
THIS COMMENT HAS MANY LINKS AT THE SITE!
I put ‘CHICAGO’ IN THE SEARCH FIELD AT THE RAVITCH SITE (the place that YOU can get the REAL FACTS about the schools.) https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Chicago+schools
Compare what you learn here, to the fake news in the NY Times story!
For example, Here is a link to the closing of Chicago schools:
” The Chicago Board of Education and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who controls the board, have a plan. They want to close down many public schools and open many charter schools. As many as 193 elementary schools may close. One advantage of the plan from the mayor’s perspective, is that the closing schools are unionized but the charters are not. One of the schools on the potential closing list is the elementary school attended by Michelle Obama.”
See my series on LEGISLATIVE TAKEOVERS https://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html?f=legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
using information that Diane Ravitch provides about the state legislatures which are taking over the local schools, with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight! OR her piece on the A Slick Campaign for Privatization https://dianeravitch.net/?s=PRIVITIZATION
Here is a link to Diane’s posts on charter school corruption .
corruption . https://dianeravitch.net/?s=corruption
Rahm fixed Chicago public schools the way that people “fix” their dogs and cats.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
A perfect example of how to manipulate and mislead the media to help manipulate and mislead the people.
This piece was an Op-Ed. That means, in today’s media market, no rules. Anyone who controls the pen can write anything they want in an Op-Ed. The problem with that is too many people can’t tell the difference between an opinion and fact, and these opinions have now become alternative news based on alternate facts that are often lies and misleading.
It is that alternative media that the Malignant Narcissist in the White House feeds on, Tweets about, and bases his decisions as president that moves an entire nation with the largest economy on the planet and the 3rd largest population and largest prison population.
Lloyd,
David Leonhardt is a writer for the New York Times. This article was not op-ed, which would come from an independent writer who submits it and is paid on acceptance.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is EXTREMELY pro-charter and never questions any of the research that is published by pro-charter folks. He is far too lazy to read the critiques of the research he quotes — in fact, I would not be surprised if he is too lazy to understand the research itself and just reads the PR packet that comes out with it.
He wrote another piece 2 days before the Nov. election in order to convince voters to expand charters in Massachusetts. He cited the same kind of shoddy research that pretended to have conclusions it didn’t have. Did you know you could include the test scores of the huge cohort of students who LEFT “high performing” charters? Because David Leonhardt told us that is why he “trusts” the research — because the researchers told him they included that. Of course, he could not explain how that works since if a child is in a charter for one month and drummed out, how is his test score a year later counted as part of the charter? Leonhardt is too much of a lightweight to even think he has to do more than repeat that they “included the kids who left” to assure us all is well.
“They also counted as charter students all those who enrolled, including any who later left.” That’s it. To Leonhardt, this completely absurd statement is likely transcribed right from the press release talking points and he is far too shoddy of a reporter to ask follow up questions like how that could be possible and exactly how it was done. Because then he might have to address high attrition rates and why he believes parents who jump through hoops to seek out a great charter would then jump through hoops in an extraordinarily high percentage to pull their child from this supposedly superb charter. But that involves real reporting and not regurgitating press releases.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think Mike Klonsky says it was an Op-Ed in his post. That’s why I said it was.
“The Op-ed by David Leonhardt, ‘Want to Fix Schools, Go to the Principal’s Office’ focuses on Chicago and gives all the credit to the mayor and CPS super-principals for the district’s supposed “fastest in the nation” gains in student achievement, rising graduation rates and lower dropout rates.”
I told Mike he was wrong. He didn’t listen.
Thank you for pointing that out. If it wasn’t an Op-Ed, that makes it worse, because then he is misleading people by calling what he wrote news, but that isn’t new for the Alt-Right and the Malignant Narcissist in the White House that all want to live in an alternative universe where they control all thought.
.
I apologize for the link — I thought I was just posting the URL of Leonhardt’s pre-election “charters are great so let’s vote for more in Massachusetts” article and somehow that box appeared.
Sorry I didn’t post sooner, because I want to comment on Chiara’s 3/14, 9:35 AM comment, “Must be time for Rahm Emanuel to launch his next political campaign.” TAGO, Chiara–actually, he’s never stopped.The Sunday edition of The Chicago Sun-Times, with this 2-page story headlined on the front page, “Postcards from the Mayor: in Wake of Trump’s Election, Rahm has Been Hitting the Road in a Return to His Role as a National Political Power Player.” “In a return to his long-cultivated role as a national political operator, Emanuel filled his schedule w/trips around the country & overseas, attending conferences, making deals, raising campaign money & dispensing advice.”
The article goes on to describe his trips–“the flurry of travel–paid for through a ‘mixture’ of taxpayers’ money, campaign cash & private funding, according to City Hall–coincided with a stepped-up campaign fund-raising effort. His political committees took in $1.4 million during the second half of 2016–nearly three times the $500,000 raised in the period a year earlier, campaign-finance records show.” He’s been to Miami, Austin, Detroit, New York, Washington, D.C., Mexico City & Rome/Vatican City.
He can go as far away as he wants, but Chicago will NEVER forget Laquan McDonald.