Archives for the month of: September, 2017
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Kevin Glynn: How to Kill the Love of Writing

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2017 //
54

Kevin Glynn writes here about a fad that is unusually absurd:

“Each day, my son enters school with a smile. My hope is that he returns home in the same great spirits. I am afraid with endless quest for data, this simple hope is too much to ask.

“In addition to the countless other assessments my second grade son is asked to take, the latest really has me scratching my head. Each student (K and up) is being asked to “on demand” write for 45 minutes on a genre that has not been taught. Imagine 5 , 6 and 7 year olds being asked to start every writing unit demonstrating something they have never been taught? Then, these students will spend a month or more working in that genre. They will use the writing process to develop and publish amazing pieces of writing and each unit will culminate in a Writing Celebration. The celebration ends when they are asked the very next day to write another “on-demand” piece to demonstrate their growth in this genre. I find this practice to be redundant and unnecessary. The issue is further complicated on the following day when the cycle resets and they are asked to write another “on demand” piece without receiving a single day of instruction in the next genre…

“I do not see the value in adding beginning and end of unit “on-demand” pieces when our writing workshops are already structured to show student growth. A challenging part of teaching writing is getting students to love it and I fear that adding these many on-demand writing assignments will stymie that love for my son and his second grade friends.”

Now, it is true that someday your boss may call you in and ask you to write a memo on demand. But I doubt that anyone will ever have the same request from a college professor.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Is School Choice Good for Kids? A Debate Between an Expert and an Ideologue

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2017 //
16

Samuel Abrams, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, is a hardy soul. He agreed to debate Bob Bowdon, film-maker, pundit, and hater of all things public, in a debate sponsored by the libertarian publication Reason. The debate took place in July but it remains relevant.

Sam taught for many years in the New York City public schools, then wrote his academic thesis on the Edison Project, which grew into a book about for-profit education ventures called Education and the Commercial Mindset, published by Harvard University Press. The book is thoughtful, well-documented, and scholarly.

Bob Bowdon is a film-maker who made a name for himself as someone who despises public schools, teachers, and unions. He is a libertarian, and the crowd was with him from the start. Abrams was brave to go before a pro-choice crowd, and he won some of them over to the idea that there is actually something called the common good.

Bowdon, needless to say, is unfamiliar with the research about vouchers, and is unaware of research from Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, and D.C. showing that students who take vouchers lose ground as compared to their peers who stay in public schools.

Here is a transcript of the debate.

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization, School Choice, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

The Boston Municipal Research Bureau Works for the Trump-DeVos Agenda

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2017 //
5

Jon Shore writes about the Boston Municipal Research Bureau:

“The goal of Boston Municipal Research Bureau Samuel Tyler is to dummy down the Boston Public Schools. The “bold reform” that Samuel Tyler is always talking about is closing and consolidating schools, warehousing children and hiring unqualified, uncertified TFA “corps members” and TNTP “fellows.” These people would never be hired in the tony Massachusetts suburbs of Weston, Wellesley, or Holliston, where Samuel Tyler lives, so why would he entertain hiring them here to educate vulnerable children in Boston Public Schools?

“Boston Municipal Research Bureau Sam Tyler represents the large businesses and institutions that depend on a low wage, no benefit, service sector workforce to maintain their status quo! In Boston, the accommodation and food service industry provides the largest number of jobs and pays the lowest wages.

“Someone needs to make all those beds and Latte’s down in the waterfront and the ugly truth is members of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau are targeting urban youth in Boston for those jobs. That’s their back-up plan as ICE continues to arrest and remove undocumented workers from the state. You have to consider this with ICE being able to snatch undocumented people, currently filling many of those service sector jobs, at roadblocks as they did a few weeks ago in New Hampshire! Three of those detained were Boston Public School students.”

http://nhpr.org/post/three-children-among-25-undocumented-immigrants-detained-nh-highway-checkpoint#stream/0

Categories Accountability, Boston, Charter Schools, Closing schools

Diane Ravitch Launches the NPE Video Series on the Fight for Public Education

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2017 //
9

The Network for Public Education commissioned a series of short video clips to explain the issues in education today. The filmmaker is professional filmmaker Michael Elliot, who is a parent of children in the New York City public schools.

NPE is fighting for the future and the very existence of public education. We oppose the relentless attacks on public schools, teachers, and the teaching profession by unaccountable billionaires, entrepreneurs, and public officials like Betsy DeVos. We oppose the status quo, in which privatization is offered as the remedy for inequitably funded public schools.

We believe in the importance of democratically controlled, adequately resourced public schools staffed by professional educators. Good public schools are essential to democracy. We want to improve them, strengthen then, make them better for every child.

This short clip, in which I am the speaker, is the first of a series of eight, each addressing different reasons to fight for our schools.

The audience consists of parents, educators, and other citizens. It was filmed in a warehouse in Brooklyn.

We want our message to reach the largest possible public. Please put it on Facebook, tweet it, share it with your friends and family.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Citizenship, Democracy, Network for Public Education, Supporting public schools

BREAKING NEWS: Eli Broad Lost! WOW! Double WOW!

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
34

Karen Wolfe, parent activist in Los Angeles, writes about a dramatic turn of events earlier today. Eli Broad wanted to open a STEM school in Los Angeles. Not with his money, of course, but with public money. He also wanted more autonomy for charter schools, so they have even less oversight than they now have. It is highly unusual for a billionaire to ask the Legislature to give him a school. The Los Angeles Times thought it set a bad precedent but they supported it because, well, he does give the Times $800,000 a year (their reporters are untainted by his money, fortunately, but $800,000 is real money). And if the powerful charter industry in California needs anything, it is more oversight, more accountability, more transparency, not less.

And guess what! ELI BROAD LOST!

Karen Wolfe writes:


Victory in California!

On the final day of the legislative session, a massive coalition of teachers & parents, activists & experts, unions & school boards, those Democrats and these Democrats, and Republicans beat big money!

AB 1217, a bill sponsored by Eli Broad, would have established a school in the middle of Los Angeles, and so much more. It would have created a law–and set a statewide precedent–to let charter school operators circumvent local districts, the County Office of Education, and even the State Board of Education. This has never been done in California, where “local control” is fiercely protected. Obliterating that is a top priority of the charter lobby.

But we won!

What an uprising. First, a couple of us button-holed some of our local delegates to the Democratic Party in Los Angeles. Especially on the heels of the recent school board election, they got it! And they got to work. Within two days, the matter was put on the Los Angeles Democratic Party Central Committee agenda as an emergency measure. It passed unanimously–and it put our state legislators on notice. They were not going to sneak this through.

Then we California BATs sent out an Action Alert and worked up and down the state asking public education activists to call their senators. BATS started tweeting. Diane Ravitch posted it, and our state senators were getting calls from activists across the country. They knew they were being watched.

Before one caller even started talking, a senate staffer said, I’ll put you down as opposing. She said, how do you know that? He told her, I can hear a child in the background.

Each day, it stayed off the Senate floor. Were they waiting for the right moment, or did they know support was crumbling?

Then the Network for Public Education sent an eblast to tens of thousands of Californians who care about public education. Los Angeles activist Lauren Steiner took our message to a whole new community of California activists, opposed to privatization in general.

All the while, the teachers unions were working the legislature, and getting more partners to join the fight. School boards, firefighters, the PTA, all against this bill.

Together, we spoke truth to power and MADE them listen. We will not let them sell off our schools in secret, pretending that it is putting “kids first”.

Thank you to everyone who made calls!

Diane Ravitch always says, “We will win, because they are few, and we are many.” Sometimes it is hard to remember that. Today, I believe!

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider: John White Lacks the Qualifications to be a Local Superintendent in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
8

Mercedes Schneider has doggedly sought the records for State Superintendent John White to determine if he meets the legal requirements to qualify as a local superintendent. He does not.

He does not have the teaching experience required by law.

She has had to file freedom-of-information requests for the documents.

He does have experience in Teach for America. He did attend the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. But that does not help him meet the requirements of Louisiana law.

As billionaire Leona Helmsley is reputed to have said: “Only the little people pay taxes.” That was shortly before she was convicted for not paying taxes. She was sentenced to 19 years in prison for tax evasion, but got out after 19 months.

In Louisiana, it seems, laws are for the little people.

When you wonder about the disrepute of civics, start with the examples set by our leaders: Trump, White, and others who figure out how to do a workaround.

Categories Accountability, Louisiana

Senators Lamar Alexander (Piano) and Tim Kaine (Harmonica) Demonstrate True Bipartisan Harmony

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
17

Senators Lamar Alexander and Tim Kaine demonstrate true bipartisan harmony as they practice for an appearance with the Buck Mountain Band to perform as “The Amateurs” at the 17th Annual Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, which occurred yesterday.

It is only 15 seconds.

Enjoy!

Categories Democrats, Republicans

Pennsylvania: How Charter Schools Make Handsome Profits in States Where For-Profits Are Not Allowed

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
5

Remember that scene in the Dustin Hoffman movie “The Graduate” where a sharp guy whispers to the young Hoffman that the business of the future is “plastics!”

In the charter industry, the profits are not in tuition money. They are in real estate.

Pennsylvania theoretically does not permit for-profit charters. But that doesn’t mean that charters don’t make a handsome profit. It is all about real estate, or leasing the property you own to yourself for a fine fee.

The five-story brick and concrete building overlooking Brighton Road in Perry South features a Propel schools banner over its front door, with signs for the charter network at every approach.

The 99,155-square-foot Propel Northside is owned, though, by School Facilities Development Inc., a nonprofit corporation with a very narrow role: Leasing property to Propel.

SFD’s ownership allows Propel to collect around $322,000 in annual lease reimbursements from the state — money it wouldn’t get if it owned its school buildings. It’s an arrangement that had drawn criticism from the state’s top auditor and is threatened by proposed legislation.

“You’ve created this nonprofit and sort of in a sense, you control it,” said Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, a critic of the state’s charter school law. “You’re getting a lease reimbursement for renting to yourself.”

Since 2004, SFD has spent $32.6 million buying a portfolio of seven schools, comprising most of Propel’s 11 locations. With no employees and just a few volunteers and part-time consultants, the nonprofit receives $3 million in annual lease payments from Propel schools, and after debt payments runs annual six-figure surpluses.

From 1965 to 2006, the Pittsburgh Public Schools owned the Brighton Road building, maintained it and used it as Columbus Middle School. That simple arrangement isn’t mirrored in the charter school world, where specialized nonprofits take on various roles and receive millions of dollars in public money.

“Real estate is held in a separate company,” said Propel Executive Director Jeremy Resnick, recounting the advice he’s gotten from attorneys and financiers during Propel’s 15-year history. “This is how it’s being done.”

Jeremy Resnick–founder of the Propel Charter Chain–is the son of the esteemed education researcher Dr. Lauren Resnick of the LRDC at the University of Pittsburgh.

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

Steven Singer: What Betsy DeVos Needs to Know About Rape Victims

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
19

The U.S. government spends $1 million a month to protect Betsy DeVos. Her brother has a private army. We may safely assume that she will never be threatened with bodily harm.

Steven Singer feels certain that she has never had any contact with rape victims. Maybe she met a few in an official capacity, but he meets them with frequency in his classroom. They are just kids. They are afraid.

He is furious that she wants the word of the victim to have equal weight with the word of the accused. There is a problem. Rape has no witnesses, as a rule.

DeVos thinks that accused should have to face the accuser.

She and her deputy Candace Jackson feel that men accused of rape have gotten a raw deal.

He writes:

False accusations do happen, but they are much less frequent than sexual violence. Only between two and ten percent of rape allegations are untrue, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Moreover, the same report found that 63 percent of sexual assaults are never even reported to police. Survivors of this heinous crime rarely come forward because of shame, fear and embarrassment.

That’s something I saw first-hand from my students.

They weren’t bragging about an experience they’d lived through. They wanted more than anything to forget it, to ignore what had happened, to get on with their lives. But they just couldn’t. They felt so betrayed, so vulnerable, so guilty, so frightened.

DeVos’ new policy will do nothing to change that. If anything, it will only embolden would-be attackers to attempt more assault – a crime that already affects nearly a quarter of college women.

According to a National Institute of Justice report, 20 percent of young women will become the victim of a “completed or attempted sexual assault” while in college. And more than 6 percent of men will also be assaulted.

We shouldn’t be making it harder for people who have been brutalized to seek justice. The accused should have due process, but that’s what an investigation is. In the rare instance of false allegations, those unduly impugned should be exonerated.

Despite what she says, DeVos’ recent actions have nothing to do with that. Before passing down her decision, she met with “Men’s Rights” groups like the National Coalition for Men – organizations that I can honestly say, as a red blooded American male, certainly don’t speak for me.

This is politics, not any concern for justice. It’s no accident that DeVos serves at the pleasure of a President who was caught on a hot microphone bragging about engaging in sexual assault. It’s no accident that his base includes white supremacists. It’s no accident that his party continually stomps on women’s rights.

There is a culture of binge drinking and sexual assault on many campuses. Read John Hechinger’s True Gentlemen if you doubt it. It is a factual account of fraternity life today.

Betsy DeVos should read it. So should Candace Jackson.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos

Atlanta: Charter School Founder Facing Dozens of Charges in Connection with Theft of More than $1 Million

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
5

In Atlanta, Christopher Clemons faces multiple criminal charges in relation to the alleged theft of more than $1 million from the charter school he founded.

The criminal charges against an Atlanta charter school founder have grown to 55 counts of forgery and theft of at least $1.3 million after a Fulton County grand jury indicted him on seven additional charges.

Christopher Clemons, the 38-year-old founder of Latin Academy, now faces charges linked to two other local charter schools he was associated with, according to the new indictment returned Sept. 1.

The first charges came after a reported theft of more than $800,000 from Latin Academy, which later closed.

The new case is linked to thefts of more than $500,000, including money allegedly taken from Latin Grammar School and Latin College Preparatory School.

Combined, the two cases against Clemons allege a theft of roughly $1.3 million.

Mercedes Schneider wrote about Chris Clemons, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received an MBA from MIT. She delved into his history and his self-described passion to help poor kids. Among other things, he opened a charter school in Denver and two charter schools in New Orleans.

Whether he was creating opportunities for poor kids or for himself is an open question, until the case is resolved.

Categories Accountability, Atlanta, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »