Imagine a firm created to teach charter schools how to get better results. Imagine that the head of the firm is buddies with the head of the D.C Charter School Board. Imagine that this firm is raking in millions for its amazing advice and plans. Imagine that some people say the firm is amazing, while others say it is gifted at backscratching and connections.
What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Secretary DeVos testified before congress a couple of days ago. see
https://www.c-span.org/video/?445809-1/education-secretary-devos-testifies-agency-priorities
Why haven’t you discussed her testimony?
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She is an idiot. She has no thoughts, no ideas, no clue. What’s to discuss?
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Regardless of your opinion on her intellect (or lack thereof), she is still the Secretary of Education.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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She bought her position. I do not respect her. I think she is a self centered Dotard who is turning the ED into a criminal enterprise. Now what did she say that was worthy of discussion?
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I have not yet seen/heard the discussion on the CSPAN link. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the positions and policies of the Dept of Education, regardless of how you personally feel about the Secretary.
A couple of weeks ago, there were teachers who were receiving awards, who were unaware that the secretary was in favor of school choice. I postulated, that they had been sleeping during the confirmation hearings.
If you are unaware of the policies/positions of the senior leadership of the Dept of Education, how can you possibly come up with alternatives?
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I think the DC Charter School Board and their leader are directing public money to friends and limiting oversight.
The most incriminating part of the story is that the leader of the PCSB quashed the rules for more transparency for his friend’s organization.
The way you know that someone is trying to cover up instead of properly oversee is when they fight transparency. There is absolutely no reason not to know exactly how public tax dollars are spent and if you want a public contract and people in public offices are fighting transparency to benefit you, then something is very very wrong.
I smell a lot of corruption in the DC Charter Board. There is no excuse for fighting transparency, period. I hope the Washington Post jumps on this story too and maybe the PSCB will have to do more than pretend that having transparency for organizations gertting rich from the funding he directs to his friends there is perfectly fine and he will make sure there is limited transparency.
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How does graduating from law school qualify anyone to operate a charter education improvement consulting company? TenSquare is a form of corporate welfare designed by connected individuals to gain access to Washington, D.C’s public money.
I was part of an elementary task force whose goal was to make delivery of compensatory services less disruptive and improve outcomes for students. All teachers got from participating was comp. time to visit other programs (for which we had to write plans for substitutes), and time to visit Bank Street College of Education which acted as a consultant. The whole purpose of what we did was to look at what we do, learn about other options and develop a cohesive plan with Bank Street’s assistance. Our process involved a lot of self reflection, and we formulated the plans which, by the way, worked well. Other than Bank Street’s involvement, the district paid very little to make a significant change. The teachers took ownership of the process. It was not an authoritarian outsider dictating the design for change. The design came from those that actually understood the issues and the needs, and the staff were willing to compromise and collaborate. No blame was laid at anyone’s feet. This is how meaningful, systemic change occurs.
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This is how meaningful, systemic change occurs.
YES. context-specific
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Tensquare responded to the journalist.
They blame their bad reputation on “disgruntled” charter employees who lost their jobs during the turnarounds.
How common are NDA’s in charterworld, by the way? Are they really having employees sign an NDA before they can get severance?
Why do they need a gag rule in publicly-funded schools? Are they afraid the former employees are going to reveal something about how these places are run?
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How many of us that spent years teaching would have the audacity to set up a company to evaluate law firms or lawyers? Not too many. These carpetbaggers are simply following the money. They are in the education “business” because the fools in charge of the D.C. schools are handing out free money. By the way if charters had the secret sauce they keep claiming they have, why would they need an outside consultancy firm to improve them?
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“How common are NDA’s in charterworld, by the way? Are they really having employees sign an NDA before they can get severance?”
They are quite common in my experience. Since charters are not in fact public schools they can force employees to sign theses ageeements.
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Hell, as a teacher I always felt as if I signed an NDA. All the adminimals had to do was make up some bogus bullshit, put you on an “improvement plan” and if you said anything against it or didn’t cooperate and be a good little sheep teacher they’d write you up as insubordinate. If you didn’t follow the adminimal’s pseudo-thinking and voiced disagreement you’d be written up again and again and again.
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Why do charters get support while public schools get the shaft? If this firm’s mission is to help public schools, why isn’t it helping public schools instead of private charters? Why is it charging so much money if altruism instead of greed is part of its motive? (How much are you charging to run this blog saving public education, Diane? It’s kinda the opposite of a lot, huh!) That money should have been spent on lifetime professional teachers and on classrooms. The charters are squabbling over whether the firm’s purported “gains” were short or long term (suggesting the only way charters perform well is under intense pressure) when we all know what it takes to make real gains in public education: invest in small class sizes, invest in supportive administrators, invest in facilities, invest in richly diverse curricular and extracurricular programs like art and music and athletics, and invest in teachers. This firm is a sham even overlooking the backscratching and the cronyism. And then there’s the backscratching and the cronyism.
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