Reformers are desperate for good news. Everything they have tried hasflopped. Their exemplary district, New Orleans, is highly stratified. Forty percent of its charter schools are rated Dor Fby the state, and they are overwhelmingly segregated black. The New Orleans scores on state test are below the state average. This, in a state whose NAEP scores are rock-bottom. On NAEP, the only jurisdiction that Louisiana is better than is Puerto Rico.
But Reformer Propaganda neverrests. Their latest miracle district is Denver. Retired physics/AP Math Teacher Tom Ultican took a look at Denver’s celebrated portfolio model, and concludes that it is a hoax, a failure.
He begins:
Here is a predictable outcome from the portfolio district. On Jan. 18, 2019, a press release from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) says,
“After ten hours of negotiations today, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools were unable to reach an agreement on a fair compensation system for 5,700 teachers and special service providers. DCTA members will vote Saturday and Tuesday on whether or not to strike.”
The portfolio model which promotes disruption as a virtue is anti-union. It is not conducive to stable harmonious relations with either labor or communities and it is anti-democratic. Denver is held up as an exemplar of school reform; however the outcomes look more like a warning. Increasing achievement gaps; a bloating administration; significantly increasing segregation; ending stable community schools; and stripping citizens of their democratic rights are among the many jarring results.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Denver has been in whiplash from reformers since at least 1999. That is when William Slotnick came to town to sell merit-based pay with “student learning objectives” SLOs. SLOs are a writing and predictive exercise for the majority of teachers who were not captives of merit pay based on state test scores.
I don’t think the “results” of the portfolio model matter at all.
They’re all lockstep promoting it. There’s no questions or debate of any kind on the ed reform side- they are cheerleading this all over the country.
They took the same privatization game plan they’ve been using for 20 years and slapped a new label on it.
We have seen the same strategies play out in many cities prior to the “portfolio model.” Privatizers have been infiltrating the leadership of schools in many cities for years. I cannot understand how a privatization candidate can get so much campaign from the teachers’ union. It makes no sense.
An essential question which has truly flummoxed thinking people for years: ” I cannot understand how a privatization candidate can get so much campaign from the teachers’ union. It makes no sense.” I would even write those last four words in capital letters: IT MAKES NO SENSE.
CBE, Porfolios, high stakes testing, the common gore, and the rest of the “so-called” reforms are NOT reforms at all.
Teachers know so much more about the students they teach every school day.
It saddens and sickens me that schools have become places where our young are just fodder for the already rich.
Child Trafficking is going on right before our eyes and this is approved by our government.
BTW, there are many forms of Child and Human Trafficking.
https://sf-hrc.org/what-human-trafficking
Denver is another city that was invaded by the billionaire oligarchs and their paid for and programmed ditto heads.
Denver first implemented the Model Portfolio District school reform ahead of Oakland and Thomas Tultican views Denver’s implementation of Model School District as a failure. Will Oakland’s and other school district’s implementation of the Model Portfolio District reform like Denver’s implementation also be a failure?
Chiara posted that the Portfolio reform doesn’t matter. But, like NCLB, mass failure of the privatizers’ education reform initiatives are seldom held accountable. Although there are some signs that times are changing with the anti-privatization efforts of folks like Diane Ravitch, the harm of privatizers’ initiatives continues with wealthy backers and 5th columns of supporters planted in school districts, elective office and even in union leadership.
There is a choice. Defend public education against privatization or not.
The evidence suggests that “ending stable community schools; and stripping citizens of their democratic rights” are their goal, not closing achievement gaps and that bloated administration is OK with them as long as it is in the private sector. For some charter school advocates segregation is also an OK price to pay or an actual goal.