Archives for the month of: April, 2017
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GOP Senate Leader from Suburbs Wants More Charters for New York City

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
6

State Senate Leader John Flanagan wants to lift the charter cap for New York City as part of a budget deal. Flanagan lives on Long Island, where his constituents don’t want charters. Apparently, he thinks charters are for children of color. He should take a look at how charters have hollowed out major cities, stripping resources from the public schools, cherry-picking the best students, and harming the schools that most students attend.

“There are currently 216 charter schools in the city serving 106,600 students, or 10 percent of the public-school population.”

Flanagan’s spokesman said it was time to take “a global look” at the NYC school system. Good idea. If they did, they would realize that adding charters cripples the system as a whole.

Categories Charter Schools, New York City

Mark Miller: How Pennsylvania Charters Cash in

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
10

The Auditor General of the state of Pennsylvania once declared that Pennsylvania has”the worst charter school law in the nation.”

Mark Miller shows how hard it is to fix that law. Operators of charter schools and cyber charters are reaping huge profits. One cyber charter founder was found guilty of tax evasion on his huge profits. A charter owner built a massive mansion in Palm Beach.

Yet the legislature can’t rein them in. Every dollar they collect means a dollar less for public schools.

http://www.markbmiller.com/2017/04/20/charter-deform-made-its-way-to-pa-house-floor-today/

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Pennsylvania, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools

Reader Reports on State Grades for Ohio District Visited by Betsy and Randi

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
10

A reader sent this comment about the Van Wert, Ohio, public schools, and how the state grades them. It shows how wacky Ohio’s school grading is.

“Van Wert is a rural community where half the district’s 2,000 students come from low-income families yet 96% graduate from high school—on time. With top-line results like that, you’d expect the district would be getting top grades in Ohio’s standardized school assessment system, but you’d be only half-right: A’s for graduation rate and progress in math and reading, but F’s for achievement gaps and K-3 literacy.

“So where did DeVos focus her post-visit remarks? On school choice, of course. Faced with the dearth of charter schools and private schools and vouchers in rural Ohio, she seized on the fact that the parents of nearly 20% of the students in Van Wert city schools choose to send their children to public schools in other districts.

“She also promised to lift the burden of government-mandated paperwork that takes time away from teaching. When asked for examples of that burdensome paperwork, however, she couldn’t cite any. Suggesting that she’s been getting alternative-fact lessons in Washington.”

Categories Betsy DeVos, Ohio, School Choice

Manufactured Chaos in North Carolina as Legislature Mandates Class Size Reduction with No Funding

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
9

North Carolina public schools, once considered the best in the South, are under constant attack by the rightwing legislature. The latest salvo is an unfunded mandate to reduce class sizes in the early grades. It is a wonderful idea to reduce class size, but it is costly. Imposing the mandate without funding is a recipe for disruption and chaos.

The Republicans who control the legislature are crazy for privatization, for charters and vouchers and cybercharters. Are the Republicans trying to drive children and families away from public schools by inflicting chaos and stripping away activities that students love?

Despite warnings by district superintendents about massive layoffs of teachers of arts and physical education, the state senate has refused to back down.

“North Carolina’s largest public school system may be warning of “enormous disruptions” without speedy action from state lawmakers on a looming class size funding crisis, but key education leaders in Raleigh tell Policy Watch there’s little sign Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly will act soon.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s any movement planned,” says Sen. Floyd McKissick, a Durham Democrat who sits on the state Senate’s Rules and Operations Committee, a panel that includes some of the chamber’s most powerful lawmakers and sets the agenda for future committee talks.

“McKissick said he met late last week with Sen. Bill Rabon, the eastern North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, but GOP leaders remain reticent to make any commitments regarding a legislative fix to the funding controversy, despite stiff warnings from district chiefs that thousands of teachers’ jobs are in jeopardy.”

Here is a report from Wake County, once considered one of the best school districts in the nation. Syracuse scholar Gerald Grant wrote a book called “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Public Schools in Wake County.”

That was then. This is now:

“The state legislature’s plan to cut elementary school class sizes could lead to larger class sizes in all Wake County schools, including 40 or more students in some elementary classrooms.

“State lawmakers lowered maximum class sizes in kindergarten through third grade from 24 students this school year to between 19 and 21 students starting in July. Wake County Superintendent Jim Merrill warned Tuesday that unless the state provides relief, the district will have to consider options such as increasing class sizes for older students, cutting art and music classes, laying off teachers and reassigning students on short notice.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article145287929.html

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2017/04/20/local-school-districts-prepare-enormous-disruptions-senate-refuses-ease-class-size-requirements/

Categories Class size, North Carolina

Why Students Should Opt Out of State Testing

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
34

I am very glad that I attended public school during a time when we seldom, if ever, took a standardized test. On the rare occasion when we did, there were no consequences attached to our test scores. Our teachers saw our scores, but we did not. She or he learned something about how we were progressing or not. There was no time devoted to test prep, because the tests didn’t matter. Practicing for a test would have been like “practicing” for a visit with the doctor. It makes no sense.

Today, standardized testing has become so ubiquitous that students in public schools are tested every year from grades 3 through 8, a reminder of the No Child Left Behind law, which left many children behind. For some reason, the policymakers in D.C. thought they knew more than professional educators about how to improve education. Test every child every year. Threaten teachers and principals with stiff penalties, including being fired or having their school closed. If scores went up, and sometimes they did, it didn’t mean that children were better educated. It may have meant that they were worse educated because their school sacrificed the arts, history, civics, and other activities for the sake of prepping for the all-important tests.

Nevertheless, state leaders became persuaded that tests were good; the more tests the better. Most states are now giving tests that their own legislators would not be able to pass. There ought to be a law that no legislator may impose any test that he or she can’t pass. If they took the tests and released their own scores, the testing mania would disappear.

Since that won’t happen, the next best thing is civil disobedience. Opt out. Don’t let your child take the tests. This a legitimate way of expressing your voice, which is otherwise ignored.

The single most important thing you need to know about the state tests is that they are utterly useless and without any value. The results come back in the summer or fall, when the student has a different teacher. Neither students nor teachers are allowed to discuss the questions on the test, so no one learns anything from them. Teachers are not given a diagnostic report for each student, just rankings. Why do you need to know that your child is a 38 or 48 or 68? How does that help her? What information can you glean from a ranking? None.

Testing today is like visiting the doctor for a regular check-up and learning that your results will be ready in four months, not next week. When the results come in, you are told you are a 12 on a scale of 15. You anxiously ask the doctor, what does that mean? He says, “I am not allowed to tell you.” He gives you a few other numbers to show how you rate as compared to others of your height and weight, but he prescribes nothing because he is not able to learn anything from the scores and ratings.

A genuinely diagnostic test would be one where students and teachers could discuss the questions and answers. They would learn what the student got right and wrong. They would discuss whether the “right answer” was reasonable. If the student could make a better case for his answer, then his score could be changed. The teacher would learn where the students needed extra help. The teacher would learn which topics she had not given enough attention to.

But that is not the way standardized testing works today. Their contents are copyrighted. The testing corporations fiercely protect the secrecy of their questions and answers.

Their defenders think that the tests produce something that teachers need to know. They are not. They are producing numerical ratings and rankings that have no value. They are generating profits for the testing companies.

They are useless.

The best way to get this point across to the policymakers in your state and in Washington, D.C., is to refuse the tests. Do not take them. Send a message. This is the only way you can liberate your children from tests that have no value and that steal time from instruction and play. Defend your child. Defend the joy of learning.

Opt out.

Categories Opt Out, Standardized Testing

Marion Brady: 34 Reasons Why Standardized Tests Are Useless

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
20

Marion Brady, veteran educator, writes a list of reasons why standardized testing is a waste of precious time and money.

It is a comprehensive list. I recommend that you read it.

Categories Education Reform

Florida: Conspiracy Spotted! Privateers Hope to Get $200 Million to Open More Charters

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
10

Regular readers of this blog might find this article amusing. Public school activists in Florida are angry! The charter fans in the legislature want to allocate $200 million to encourage charters to locate in close proximity to schools with low grades. The extra $200 million will allow the charters to offer extra services that the public schools can’t afford. Meanwhile, the state plans to raise the passing scores on state tests, meaning that tens of thousands of students will be labeled “failing,” setting up more schools for takeover by charters.

The article calls this analysis–that the purpose of the $200 million “Schools of Hope” package is a giveaway to the privatization industry–a “conspiracy theory.”

Like if you see a bandit holding up a bank and call the police, you are really just indulging in a conspiracy theory.

Who are you going to believe: the people writing this dreadful legislation or your own eyes?

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

You Are Invited to a Filming in NYC on April 30: DEFENDING PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF PRIVATIZATION

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
4

The Network for Public Education invites you to watch a special filming in Brooklyn on April 30. There will be a wonderful group of speakers from across the nation.

The details are here.

Categories Education Reform

Massachusetts: Commissioner Seeks Power to Remove Teachers Unilaterally

By dianeravitch
April 23, 2017 //
29

This letter came by email from a teacher in Massachusetts. Evidently, the Commissioner of Education believes there are some bad, bad teachers in his state, and he wants the power to remove them quickly. Bear in mind that by every current metric, Massachusetts is the highest performing state in the nation. It must have many excellent teachers. Why does Commissioner Mitchell Chester need a whip in his hand. This kind of power play is threatening and demoraling, as well as unprofessional.

For trying to intimidate teachers, for failing to congratulate them for their dedication, by demonizing them with actions such as those described here, Mitchell Chester now joins this blog’s Wall of Shame.

“Mitchell Chester is the MA Dept of Ed Commissioner who also had the serious conflict of interest as Chair of the PARCC Governing Board. He pushed for MCAS 2.0, which is 90% PARCC. He still has a job.

“MESSAGE SENT TO MA TEACHERS [apparently by the Massachusetts Teachers Association]:

“Below you will find some very disturbing information about DESE’s intentions around licensure changes that I have recently been made aware of.

“Back on March 10, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education released some proposed changes to the regulations around educator licensure…

“The concerning regulation changes are about how DESE can suspend, limit or revoke an educator’s license. In the current regulations, the Commissioner of Education can suspend or revoke a license if it is found that the “holder of the license is unfit to perform the duties for which the license was granted.” As you may have experienced, there are times when a member may have been investigated for some reason and DESE will also investigate to determine if the license should be suspended. In my experience, this happens in only the worst case scenarios.

“The proposed changes to the regulation give the Commissioner of Education, currently Mitchell Chester, much more flexibility in determining if an educator’s license should be suspended or revoked. The new regulations contain the following language changes: “The holder of the license is unfit to perform the duties for which the license was granted, or engaged in misconduct that, in the opinion of the Commissioner, discredits the profession, brings the license into disrepute, compromises student safety or the integrity of the student-educator relationship;” (the new language is in bold).

“As you can see, the new pieces of language have far-reaching implications and since it is determined based upon the “opinion of the Commissioner” our ability to contest these claims would be severely hindered.

“Some of the questions that come out of this are the effects on one’s First Amendment Rights by the broad nature of the statements: “discredits the profession” and “integrity of the student-educator relationship”. Do these statements mean:

*If you promote opt-out information, you could be subject to an investigation.

*If you state displeasure with any policies coming down from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education or the Federal government, you could be investigated

*If you participate in a work action as part of a contract campaign, you could be subject to an investigation

“These are questions that have yet to be answered, but the MTA legal division has expressed to me and all the other field reps in the state that we should be concerned about this.

“Here is a general timeline that I know of at this point:

“The public comment continues until Monday May 1. In the coming days, I will have more information on MTA sponsored feedback on these regulations. If you are interested in giving feedback sooner, the website is:http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=24232.

“On May 20th, the MTA is co-sponsoring a rally at the Boston Common. Initially, this rally was to bring attention to the general concerns around education in the state, but I believe this proposal will become a focal point of this event. I have fliers that will be distributed early next week for this.

“On June 27, the BESE is expected to vote on these proposed regulatory changes. While no firm plans have been made for a presence at the meeting, I am almost certain that, if the Board moves forward with the changes, we will be asking if people would like to attend the BESE Meeting.”

Any questions please let me know. Also, if you want to forward this email to members, please feel free. Please read the attachment for further information.

Categories Accountability, Massachusetts, Shame, Teachers and Teaching, Unions, Wall of Shame

California: The Fight for Charter Accountability Is Not Over!

By dianeravitch
April 23, 2017 //
7

Broad Coalition of Lawmakers, Parents, Educators to Speak Out Monday in Capitol
About 3 Bills Needed to Halt Waste, Fraud and Secrecy in Charter Schools

Media Teleconference on SB 808, AB 1478, AB 1360
Set for Same Time as News Conference: 10 a.m. Monday

SACRAMENTO – In a news conference Monday at the Capitol to demand more public control of taxpayer-funded California charter schools, a broad coalition of state lawmakers, parents, educators and community supporters will speak out about three pending bills that seek to ensure charter school accountability, transparency, and accessibility to all.

Media representatives who can’t attend the 10:00 a.m. news conference in the Capitol can listen to it in a media teleconference, then ask questions on the phone afterwards.

News conference speakers will include state Senator Tony Mendoza, author of SB 808, ensuring that charters could only be authorized by the school district in which they would be located; Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, author of AB 1478, requiring charters to comply with the same transparency and accountability laws as traditional public schools; and Assembly Member Rob Bonta, whose AB 1360 would prohibit discriminatory admissions practices and ensure due process in pupil discipline at charter schools.

The three bills are co-sponsored by the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers and other groups, including, for AB 1360, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), California School Employees Association (CSEA), Public Advocates and Public Counsel, while CSEA is also backing AB 1478.

Other speakers include CTA Board member Terri Jackson, a teacher in the East Bay; Gemma Abels, a CFT Vice President; Oakland parent Kim Davis, who helped found Parents United for Public Schools; Liz Guillen with Public Advocates group; and Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, who will address how the lack of charter regulations is hurting students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where the school board has endorsed the three bills.

WHAT: News conference and media teleconference with a broad coalition supporting three pending bills to ensure California charter school accountability, transparency, and accessibility for all students.

WHEN and WHERE: News conference is 10:00 a.m. Monday, April 24, in Room 1190 at the Capitol.

***MEDIA TELECONFERENCE LOGISTICS***

TIME: 10:00 a.m. Monday, April 24

CALL-IN NUMBER: 1-888-299-7212

PASSWORD: 4228984

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization
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