Peter Greene says the New York Times’ Editorial praising the removal of any standards for charter teachers was written while the fact checkers were out to lunch.
“The editorial notes that charter schools “made good on their promise to outperform conventional public schools,” which is a fact-check fail two-fer. First, it slides in the assertion that charters are public schools, even though NYC’s own Ms. Moskowitz went to court to protect her charter’s right to function as a private business, freed from state oversight. If NYC charters are public schools, then McDonald’s is a public cafeteria. Second, it accepts uncritically the notion that charters have “outperformed” anybody, without asking if such superior performance is real, or simply an illusion created by creaming and skimming students so that charters only keep those students who make them look good.
“The Times thinks the warm body rule is “a reasonable attempt to let these schools avoid the weak state teacher education system that has long been criticized for churning out graduates who are unprepared to manage the classroom.” Their support for this is a decade-old “report” by Arthur Levine, and even if that report were the gospel truth, that does not shore up the logic of saying, “I’m pretty sure the surgeons at this hospital aren’t very good, so the obvious solution is for me to grab some guy off the street to take out my spleen instead.”
“The Times also commiserates with charter hiring problems.
“New York’s high-performing charter schools have long complained that rules requiring them to hire state-certified teachers make it difficult to find high-quality applicants in high-demand specialties like math, science and special education. They tell of sorting through hundreds of candidates to fill a few positions, only to find that the strongest candidates have no interest in working in the low-income communities where charters are typically located.
“Oops. There’s a typo in that last part– let me fix it for you: “only to find the strongest candidates have no interest in working for bottom-dollar wages under amateur-hour conditions that demand their obedience and donation of tens of hours of their own time each week.” There.
“But if you want absolute proof that the Times had no access to fact-checking for this piece, here comes multiple citations of the National Council on Teacher Quality.
“If there is a less serious, less believable, less intellectually rigorous in all of the education world that the NCTQ, I do not know who it is. Kate Walsh may be a lovely human being who is nice to her mother and sings in her church choir, but her organization is– well, I few things astonish me as much as the fact that NCTQ is still taken seriously by anybody at all, ever”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Where are the unions?
Hello, NEA and AFT wake up!
Why would teachers continue to pay union dues? Teacher unions and their objectives are secondary to NYT’s support of privatizing public schools.
Time for a new organization that truly wants to represent public school teachers and not just take money out of teacher’s paychecks.
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bill murphy
What do you propose the AFT do about an editorial in the NY Times.
I would propose that 45,000 NYC teachers show up to block the plant gate one day, instead of showing up for class . I would bet that less than a half dozen showed up.
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In Los Angeles the union UTLA should have stood up against charter long ago. Now the LAUSD school board is a majority for charters.
That will effect jobs. That will dramatically effect the educational standards across LAUSD. I saw a great cartoon with Eli Broad as the face of every LAUSD School Board member. That’ s the case now.
Time for every union across the Nation to stand up against charters.
In CA Gov. Jerry Brown actually vetoed the bill that passed the legislature in 2015, AB 787, that would have prohibited for profits charters.
Now we’re in charter heaven.
And heaven help us.
Because the lobbyists are very busy. And the money is flowing right their way.
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j135cooper
Unfortunately the Union is made up of members . And unfortunately few members are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to win this war. Perhaps a through reading of worker struggles is in order. These things do not necessarily end nicely nor well .
As one of NYs most powerful labor leaders said when asked near his death over 3 decades ago . “Things will change when things get bad enough “.
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so sadly true
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As usual thorough
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Did we expect anything different from the “paper of record”?
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Exactly my thought .
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Why is the NYTimes allowed to write this without fact checks? Which schools or parents would want teachers without credentials teaching their children?
I’m through with The NY Times. They are always against public schools and teachers. They are so leftist on other issues but they’ve done a good job of putting down teachers in public schools. They’d rather teachers with no accountability and schools without accountability!
Who is paying for this?
I now cannot trust the Times but this isn’t the first time with them and this issue.
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Pray tell on what issues are they leftist.
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They are leftist whenever they write about circles.
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Yep, those reporters and editors at the Times pushing false stories about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were real Leftists!
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The EVA effect? Sounds like the NyTimes editorial staff is nothing more than a PR firm for the charter industry.
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“We got this free market, and I admit, I was speaking out in Minnesota—my hometown, in fact, and guy stood up in the audience, said,
Mr. Friedman, is there any free trade agreement you’d oppose?’ I said,No, absolutely not.’ I said, `You know what, sir? I wrote a column supporting the CAFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade initiative. I didn’t even know what was in it. I just knew two words: free trade.”Thomas Friedman .
Is there much more to explain . Sirota who has written some excellent articles on Education explains the above. But the same dynamic applies to many areas of the economy and to education.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/caught-on-tape-tom-friedm_b_25789.html
Keeping it on Trade for a minute has anybody noticed that in talking about containing the Nuclear threat from North Korea the first words out of every talking heads mouth is TPP .
Did anybody think to ask what making peasants in Vietnam or India or CANADA(sarcasm ) pay more for drugs has to do with preventing NK from developing Nukes.
So the answer is the editorial page represents the interests of the Oligarchs who own the Media and their interests are more aligned
with other Plutocrats and Oligarchs on almost every issue x cooking and the sports page.
But this is what is a bit more troubling
“Kate Taylor is a reporter on the Metro desk, covering education. She has reported on controversies around discipline in charter schools, racial segregation in the New York City school system, and flaws in the city’s method of testing for lead in water in schools. Her reporting on the last led the city to retest the water in all the city’s school buildings.”
I do not have a hard copy in front of me, however I do not see where this article claims to be an editorial . Which as reporting makes it more offensive.
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The byline on the article called “The Best Charter Schools Deserve More Leeway on Hiring”, dated 11/3/17, is by “The Editorial Board”.
It is obviously an editorial as it is in the opinion section.
What does Kate Taylor have to do with it? I don’t see any reference to her writing the article.
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^^also, when I read it on-line, across the top is very clearly marked:
OPINION EDITORIAL
Perhaps you are reading on a phone that shows it differently.
I despise the NY Times editorial stance on charters, but I believe if people attack or criticize something with false information, it does more harm than good.
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NYC public school parent
Perhaps I made an error in not reading the prior Golstein Post late last night when I got home. That post which was specifically on the editorial . When I went to the link to Green’s blog . It linked to this NYT article .
“Some Charter Schools Can Certify Their Own Teachers, Board Says”
And yes Green did refer back to the editors . So even this morning I only have 1/2 the story as the in the Golstein article to the Times is not working . Of course I could go direct but I have no need to .
The byline to that link clearly is not an editorial and here is a portion .
“SUNY is one of two entities in the state that can grant charters, and the charter schools it oversees include the state’s highest-performing ones. This year, 88 percent of SUNY-authorized charter schools outperformed their districts on the state math tests, and 83 percent outperformed their districts on the state reading tests. Students at Success Academy, which is authorized by SUNY, outperformed not only students in New York City’s traditional public schools but those in every other district in the state”
Now the key may be in how one defines ‘outperform’. So this is not reporting but it is editorializing .
The editors and reporters at the Times, many of whom live in the wealthy burbs of NYC would laugh in your face. if you insisted their children go to Success Academy. Rather than their Public Schools in the burbs because Success “outperforms” . As would those readers living in those districts. The’ Angry Suburban Moms’ in those districts would chop your head off. Because on almost every metric of performance this is not the case . As attested to by the paltry number of charter students accepted to the city’s high preforming “Specialty HSs”.
And to my original point, if Tom Friedman was put in competition with some excellent writers in other lower paid countries he would start reading those Trade Agreements that he “does not have to read to like”
No source of news or editorial is unbiased. The reader has to make critical assessments all the time. And this has always been the case.
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Joel, this is the link to the Times Editorial:
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Joel,
I absolutely agree with you about the use of the word “outperform”.
It happens to be one of my pet peeves. Partly for the reasons you mention – in general terms how do we define “perform”?
But mostly because writing that a charter school that ruthlessly gets rid of every student who isn’t performing at or above grade level is “outperforming” any school, including a failing one, is the biggest lie of all.
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NYC public school parent
What is it that you think I disagree with you about Charter’s . I do not .
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Joel,
Why is it that you think that I don’t know that you agree with me about charters?
As my kid would say, “um, Captain Obvious”.
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^^In the interest of trying to watch my tone, I apologize for the snarky last sentence, Joel. But the rest of it stands.
What made you post that comment? Why do you think I am not aware of the fact that you agree with me about charters? I am politely asking you to offer more words of explanation if you are going to randomly post a question like that addressed to me.
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Laura,
It seems clear that someone in the NY Times editorial board — I am not sure who — is a complete shill for the charter industry.
I suspect it is someone with very poor reporting skills who was far too lazy to do the hard work that is involved in checking facts, reading reports, asking questions when things are off, and simply having any journalistic ability to recognize that when things don’t add up, it’s time to ask questions and not simply say “I guess they just don’t add up but since I admire the person, I’ll accept it.”
Some of their reporters on education do have basic reportorial skills. There are very clearly some people among the editors who do not. They have often made fools of themselves although I am positive that in the rich people social life they are much praised.
Or maybe that person does know how foolish he or she looks because the editorials that promote the very things that the charter billionaires want promoted and unquestionably offer over the top praise are NEVER signed.
On the subject of charter schools, the NY Times editorial board is exactly like the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. If someone at the NY Times had an ounce of integrity, they might consider how truly appalling they appear.
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dianeravitch
Thank you Diane . I did eventually read it by going directly to the Times . My point was that we need honest debate . Honest investigative journalism and all too often we are not getting that,
from our corporate media. Education ,trade , labor ,foreign affairs a whole slew of topics are and always have and will be representative of the interests of the owners of the media .
So I hate quoting this guy but “Trust but verify” is the order of the day.
Like I have said in the past. I wound up becoming interested in the education wars ,wound up reading “Reign Of Error “after seeing those sugary sweet Exxon and Chevron commercials about” our children falling behind the world ” Sometime in 2009-11 (?) . If you were spinning a conspiracy to cover up income inequality (wealth transfer upward ) you could not do a better job than they are doing.
“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!”
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Joel,
Bingo. You explain why billionaires love school choice. It is the perfect distraction from the far more important issue of income inequality. That one they want to keep buried.
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Whether teachers are traditionally certified, alternatively certified, or not certified at all has little impact on how much students learn.
Click to access KaneRockoffStaiger%20EcEdRev2008.pdf
This would not surprise people familiar with New York State’s private schools, from Dalton to special-ed providers that take on the toughest cases that district schools wash their hands of, to the Catholic schools that still educate huge numbers of working-class kids.
It’s weird that for decades no one’s worried about certification in those schools. Why it’s almost enough to make me think opposition to this must be led by education schools concerned about their bottom line and the UFT/NYSUT doing anything they can to slow down the mass defection to charters.
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Tim,
We have had this exchange before. I won’t repeat it. Teachers who teach in elite private schools or any selective schools have little or no contact with high-needs students. They will succeed no mattter who their teachers are because of the advantages of their birth and family income.
Teachers in public schools need greater training and preparation.
When you have had one day of experience teaching in a public school, let me know.
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I find it hard to believe that Tim isn’t well aware that there is a thriving business in private tutoring – which can cost upwards of $100/hour — at Dalton and other private schools.
I don’t understand people like Tim (and his bff Eva Moskowitz, and Donald Trump) who have nothing in their moral core that prevents them from blatantly using untruths to get what they want.
And Tim revealed exactly what he wanted when he used the term “mass defections”.
I’m sure that was an accident but it was very revealing.
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Charter teachers, at least at Moskowitz’s prison colonies, use scripted lessons, so there’s no need for them to have any pedagogical training at all. Most of them escape as quickly as they can, as the teacher attrition rate shows, and that’s the real reason so-called reformers are pushing for lower standards among charter school workers: it’s a way to keep filling places in the classroom, since the practice in these joints is to churn and burn through the help. A temporary work force is the policy.
That being the case Tim, why even bother with college grads at all? Why not get HS grads in there, since the placeholders in these sweatshops have no professional autonomy whatsoever, and are behavioral and curriculum delivery vehicles, not teachers.
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