Archives for the month of: January, 2019
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Oklahoma: Tulsa Charter School, Mired in Chaos and Scandal, Will Close in June

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2019 //
5

The Langston Hughes Academy for Art and Technology, a Tulsa charter school, will close by the end of June.

The school has been caught up in a series of scandals. Grade tampering. Sexual misconduct. Declining enrollments. Chaos. Mismanagement. A deputy reported: “a general lack of structure and order at the school, unfilled teacher vacancies and even faculty meetings held during the day left students unsupervised to the point that there were physical assaults, drug usage, medications kept in the school’s main office being dispensed and consumed without adult supervision, and students freely leaving campus.”

The school wants more time, but is not likely to get it.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/new-issues-keep-popping-up-langston-hughes-academy-ordered-to/article_fe7f1cea-da34-52fb-9b96-c41f9c200a93.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share via @tulsaworld

 

The recommendation to yank the school’s state accreditation came after state accreditation officers reportedly raised new questions about the truthfulness of the school’s student counts, its compliance with federal laws that dictate how special education students must be served and corroboration of some of the Tulsa deputy’s claims about the school not completing required criminal background checks on employees.

“If we do not see the kind of improvement and corrective action plans that have not been met after being agreed to, we as a state are going to have to answer to the Office of Inspector General and U.S. Department of Education for what we allowed to happen,” Hofmeister said. “This is not about intention. It is about capacity and what this charter school board stood before us and told us they would do — and did not do.”

School leaders, their attorney, and even state Sen. Kevin Matthews, who represents the part of Tulsa where Langston Hughes Academy is located, pleaded for more time.

Libby Adjei, who was hired as Langston Hughes’ new superintendent in early September, told the board that she had secured assistance and training for the school’s employees from wherever she could find it, including the charter’s authorizer, Langston University, and the state Department of Education.

And Langston Hughes Board President Carmen Pettie questioned why the sheriff’s office had not shared the school resource officer’s concerns with school leaders — or even made arrests based on some of the described activities.

But state board members said the documented issues were too numerous and too serious.

“What is distressing is the students have spoken with their feet,” said board member Bill Price, pointing to declining enrollment figures at the school, which has added one grade each year since it opened in 2015-16 for only freshmen. “And I know so much of the blame is deserved by the previous administration and they managed to hide it very effectively and I know it seems unfair now that this has been brought to light and it is so difficult to turn around. But I just basically don’t have confidence that the whole team is going to be able to run a school effectively.”

Board member Lee Baxter said, “Every board meeting has given Langston Hughes exactly what they wanted — more time. More time, more time, more time.”

Reports of turmoil at the four-year-old school began in April, when Rodney Clark, the founder and then-superintendent and three other staff members were suspended by the school’s governing board amid allegations of grade tampering.

The school made headlines again in October when a bus driver and football coach at the academy was charged in Tulsa County District Court with second-degree rape and making a lewd or indecent proposal to students at the school.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Oklahoma, Privatization, Scandals

Oregon: Parents and Teachers Support “Too Young to Test” Bill

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2019 //
6

In Oregon, parents and teachers are supporting legislation to stop standardized testing before grade 3. Even better would be a ban on all such testing. Parents, say no.

Can Children Be ‘Too Young to Test’?


For the first decade after the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001 — putting into high gear the testing-based model of education — almost all standardized testing took place in grades 3-8 and 11. Little children were the only ones spared being subjected to the data-driven “business model” approach to learning, with its fixed testing targets and its multitude of accompanying charts and graphs.

No more. Little children have now caught up with their older siblings in the testing derby, on track to join them in taking more than 110 standardized tests by the end of high school. Yes, 110.

Teachers in pre-kindergarten through grade 2 have now joined their teaching colleagues in the older grades in the pressure cooker to produce “accountability” data to match predetermined benchmarks.

Little children are now joining their older siblings in experiencing the sidelining of art, music, creative play and other non-tested curriculum. They, too, are now spending more and more of their day in “seat time,” focused on tested subjects. They, too, are now being repeatedly “tested, sorted and tracked.”

Their teachers know this is developmentally inappropriate. They know it is clearly wrong. But they are not allowed to tell you that. They are not allowed to tell you that most high-performing countries in the world test once in elementary, once in middle school and once in high school. They are not allowed to tell you that teachers already know full well how to identify kids who are struggling with reading, writing and math.

Over the ages, teachers did not need multi-billion dollar testing corporations to tell them how to do their jobs…

One way to change things is for all of us to tell our legislators to support the “Too Young to Test” bill (HB 2318) that has been introduced by Rep. John Lively (D- Springfield). It would prohibit the state government and local districts from standardized testing children from pre-kindergarten through grade 2.

It is modeled on legislation in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. It would allow teachers to make their own professional decisions about which assessments to administer.

The second way is for parents to “Just Say No” to every form of standardized testing that they can.

This is where the ultimate power is: If parents say “no more” — by opting their children out — the testing juggernaut will begin to collapse. We could then join much of the rest of the world in giving a few well-constructed, classroom-based assessments, and save our kids from harm, save our teachers and principals from dispirited burnout and save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.

Categories Accountability, Childhood, Pre-K, K, Early Childhood Education, Education Industry, Testing

Los Angeles: Please Help Jackie Goldberg Win Election to LAUSD Board

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2019 //
6

This post is an unabashed appeal for your contribution to a vital political race in Los Angeles. The billionaires (Broad, Walton, Hastings, etc.) have poured millions into buying control of the LAUSD board. That board hired a clueless hedge fund manager, Austin Beutner, who is bringing in every Reform retread to help him figure out how to do maximum disruption to the district.

I am asking you here and now to send Jackie Goldberg whatever you can afford.

The race for the empty seat on the LAUSD board is important for Los Angeles, but it is also important for California and for the nation. If Jackie wins this seat, her voice and her experience and knowledge will command a Quisling board.

Jackie Goldberg is a dynamo. She taught for many years, then won a seat on the Los Angeles school board. She then ran for the State Assembly and eventually became chair of the Education Committee. She retired from public service, but she was called back to active duty by her many admirers because of the crisis in Los Angeles.

The LAUSD board has seven seats. The billionaires bought four of them, the last time with the most expensive school board race in American history, when they spent upwards of $15 million to oust Steve Zimmer, the board president, and replace him with a TFA person. For a brief while, the Reformer Billionaires held five seats, but one of their board members was indicted and convicted of money laundering. Now that empty seat, representing District 5, will be decided in a special election on March 5. Jackie Goldberg used to represent District 5, and she is well known as a progressive firebrand in her district.

I attended a fundraiser for Jackie in her district, where she was surrounded by teachers and community members who love her. I spoke briefly and said that Jackie and I were sisters “with different mothers.” Which is to say, we had an hour-long conversation when I was in L.A. in December, and I found we saw eye-to-eye on the issues.

There are 10 candidates in the race. If Jackie wins 51% of the vote, there will be no runoff. The billionaires are waiting to see if there is a runoff, and if one is needed, and they will throw their millions against Jackie.

Jackie frightens them. She knows the legislature. She knows the district. She is knowledgable and articulate. She could stop their nefarious effort to destroy public education in Los Angeles. Even though she would be part of a three-vote minority (Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna, both experienced educators), their experience and expertise would shame the billionaire’s threadbare and vacuous four votes.

Jackie needs and deserves our help. Send $5, $10, $25, $100, whatever you can.

Categories California, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Resistance

Philadelphia DISGRACE: 7 School Librarians in Entire District!

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2019 //
10

The people of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania should be ashamed: the entire school district has seven school librarians, maybe fewer. The charter lobby, like vultures, has stripped the district bare of all but the buildings (and itcesnts them too).

Recently a community raised $90,000 to reopen its library. O

http://www.philly.com/education/philly-school-library-bache-martin-friends-20190111.html

The Philadelphia Inquirer called it “a miracle” when the library reopened at an elementary school. But it was no miracle. It was the schools’ parents, who raised $90,000.

Then the Superintendent, Mayor, Congressman, et al had the nerve to show up at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. No shame! They gave not one red cent, not one bit of support.

The School District of Philadelphia has fewer than 7 school librarians.

Retired teacher Lisa Haven and retired school librarian Deb Grill wrote about why Philadelphia needs school libraries:

https://thenotebook.org/articles/2019/01/15/opinion-all-schools-and-all-students-need-libraries/

Categories Education Reform, Librarians, Libraries, Philadelphia

Trump Club Fires Undocumented Workers

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2019 //
40

This is the story of a mean man, a hypocrite, a liar.

 

From the Washington Post:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trumps-demand-for-a-border-wall-shut-down-the-government-at-the-same-time-his-company-was-firing-undocumented-workers/2019/01/26/8cf75d66-20c5-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html

 

OSSINING, N.Y — They had spent years on the staff of Donald Trump’s golf club, winning employee-of-the-month awards and receiving glowing letters of recommendation.

Some were trusted enough to hold the keys to Eric Trump’s weekend home. They were experienced enough to know that when Donald Trump ordered chicken wings they were to serve him two orders on one plate.

But on Jan. 18, about a dozen employees at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., were summoned, one by one, to talk with a human resources executive from Trump headquarters.

During the meetings, they were fired because they are undocumented immigrants, according to interviews with the workers and their attorney. The fired workers are from Latin America.

The sudden firings — which were previously unreported — follow last year’s revelations of undocumented labor at a Trump club in New Jersey, where employees were subsequently dismissed. The firings show Trump’s business was relying on undocumented workers even as the president demanded a border wall to keep out such immigrants.

Trump’s demand for border wall funding led to the government shutdown that ended Friday after nearly 35 days.

In Westchester County, workers were told Trump’s company had just audited their immigration documents — the same ones they had submitted years earlier — and found them to be fake.

“Unfortunately, this means the club must end its employment relationship with you today,” the Trump executive said, according to a recording that one worker made of her firing.

“I started to cry,” said Gabriel Sedano, a former maintenance worker from Mexico who was among those fired. He had worked at the club since 2005. “I told them they needed to consider us. I had worked almost 15 years for them in this club, and I’d given the best of myself to this job.”

“I’d never done anything wrong, only work and work,” he added. “They said they didn’t have any comments to make.”


“I started to cry,” said Gabriel Sedano, an immigrant from Mexico who was among those fired. He had worked at the club since 2005. “I told them they needed to consider us,” he said. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington 

The mass firings at the New York golf club — which workers said eliminated about half of the club’s wintertime staff — follow a story in the New York Times last year that featured an undocumented worker at another Trump club in Bedminster, N.J. After that story, Trump’s company fired undocumented workers at the Bedminster club, according to former workers there.

In an emailed statement, Eric Trump said, “We are making a broad effort to identify any employee who has given false and fraudulent documents to unlawfully gain employment. Where identified, any individual will be terminated immediately.”

He added that it is one of the reasons “my father is fighting so hard for immigration reform. The system is broken.”

Eric Trump did not respond to specific questions about how many undocumented workers had been fired at other Trump properties and whether the company had, in the past, made similar audits of its employees’ immigration paperwork. He also did not answer whether executives had previously been aware that they employed undocumented workers.

Categories Education Reform

Mercedes Schneider: Denver Orders Central Office Staff to Prepare to Be Scabs

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2019 //
11

 

 

Denver teachers voted to strike, but it is not clear when or if it might begin.

The leadership is preparing for a strike, Mercedes Schneider points out, by informing central office staff that they are expected to act as scabs in the event of a strike.

Categories Accountability, Denver, Education Reform

Jeremy Mohler: The Failure of Privatization, a Disaster for Democracy

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2019 //
19

Jeremy Mohler of “In the Public Interest” has written a brilliant analysis of the disaster of privatization: bad for people, bad for the economy, bad for democracy.

He begins:

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion to raise the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent has reignited a long overdue debate about taxation. The idea that lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy is key to a healthy economy—known as “trickle-down economics”—has been the mainstream political consensus since the 1980s.

By explaining that massively increasing taxes on the super-rich can help fund social programs like Medicare for All, tuition-free college, a jobs guarantee and a Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez has rightly disrupted the politics of austerity that has dominated both major political parties for decades.

Now is the time to burst a similar—and deeply related—bubble: The myth that the privatization of public goods and services “saves taxpayer money.” Much like trickle-down economics, privatization is a choice—meaning, it’s ideologically and politically motivated. And it’s pushed by the same corporate interests that profit from its implementation.

Like austerity, privatization has boomed at all levels of government since the 1980s. There were more government employees when Ronald Reagan won reelection in 1984 than when Barack Obama won reelection in 2012. It’s estimated that three-quarters of workers that serve the American public actually work for private contractors. The Pentagon alone obligates more than $300 billion to contractors each year.

This shift has been backed by the claim that the “free market” is more efficient and innovative than government. Privatizers argue that outsourcing school cafeteria workers, bus drivers or nurses at Veterans Affairs hospitals cuts costs for taxpayers. Yet they don’t mention that such cuts often come out of workers’ paychecks—if those workers are even lucky enough to keep their jobs. When privatization policies are carried out, “innovation” often simply means layoffs and decreased wages and benefits.

And when it comes to saving money, the evidence is mixed at best. In many cases, privatization turns out to be far more costly. A 2007 survey found that over half of the local governments that placed services back under public control did so because privatization didn’t cut costs. After Iowa hired insurance corporations to manage its Medicaid program in 2017, the average cost of insuring people climbed nearly three times as fast as when it was under public control. An Indiana toll-road built using private financing—known as a “public-private partnership”—launched in 2014 by then-Gov. Mike Pence turned out to be $137.3 million more expensive than if the state had used traditional public financing. Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, are costing San Diego’s school district $65.9 million a year. And then there’s healthcare, an area where the United States spends twice as much as other countries thanks to a “free market” of private doctors, nurses, hospitals and drugs.

Politically, privatization kills two birds with one stone for fiscal conservatives. It reinforces the idea that public budgets are inevitably “tight,” rather than because taxes have been cut to the bone, particularly for the wealthy. But more directly, it weakens labor unions representing teachers, sanitation workers and other public sector employees.

Categories Education Reform, Privatization

Student Privacy: How Well Does YOUR State Protect It?

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2019 //
2

This report is a 50-state analysis of privacy laws, compiled by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. Its leaders are Rachael Strickland of Colorado and Leonie Haimson of New York.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/the-state-student-privacy-report-card/

Categories Education Reform, Privacy and Privacy Rights, Students

Davos Billionaires Terrified by AOC!

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2019 //
33

The billionaires assembled at Davos are frightened by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez!

She proposed raising taxes to 70% for those who have over $10 million a year in income. The tax kicks in over $10 million.

Poor dears!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/23/davos-attendees-are-worried-about-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-shes-least-their-problems/

Attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, are worried about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). So says CNBC, which reports that the multimillionaires and billionaires at the annual elite gathering are all but quaking in their expensive winter boots at the thought of her proposed 70 percent marginal income tax rate. “It’s scary,” claimed Scott Minerd, a high-ranking executive at investment firm Guggenheim Partners. Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio predicted the call for a 70 percent top tax rate would pick up steam ahead of the 2020 election. Michael Dell, the head of Dell Technologies, with an estimated net worth of slightly more than $31 billion, proclaimed that it wasn’t necessary. “I do not think it will help the growth of the U.S. economy.”

But no one could top Ken Moelis, the head of the Moelis & Co investment bank, who claimed the freshman congresswoman’s proposal would “be disastrous for the economy,” because it would take away the incentive to work. He also asked:” “What’s going to happen to the two-workforce family? You forget where 70 percent starts to kick in.”

For the record, Ocasio-Cortez would like to see that top marginal rate kick in at $10 million. I don’t know too many families earning that sort of money even if they send all their children and assorted pets to work, and I doubt you do either, unless you live next door to the owner of a hedge fund.

If their taxes above $10 million are raised, they will have NO incentive to work!

They will be the idle rich! A hamburger at Davos costs $56!

How can a person scrape by on only $10 million plus 30% of added income?

This is what they should worry about. OXFAM just reported that 26 people have more wealth than 3.8 Billion people.

https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2019-01-22/report-26-richest-people-have-wealth-of-poorest-38-billion

“THE COMBINED WEALTH OF the 26 richest people in the world is the same as the combined wealth of the world’s poorest 3.8 billion people.

“According to Oxfam’s Public Good or Private Wealth report, the number of billionaires has doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, and their wealth has grown by 12 percent. Over the same period, the wealth of the world’s 3.8 billion poorest people declined by 11 percent.

“Released a day before the world’s richest and most powerful gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam’s report shows that the “growing gap between the rich and poor is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging our economies and fueling public anger across the globe.”

“While the richest people have seen an increase in their fortunes of $900 billion, or $2.5 billion a day, over the last year, the poorest 3.8 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, are living on less than $5.50 a day, the report found.

“Despite the growth of their fortunes, these people, as well corporations, are paying lower tax rates than they have in decades, according to Oxfam, which cites President Donald Trump’s tax plan as an example.

“The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens,” said Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and campaigns.“

Categories Billionaires, Education Reform

Nancy Bailey: Beware the SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) Hoax

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2019 //
30

Nancy Bailey sees another Reformer trick rapidly overtaking teachers and schools: Social emotional learning, like this is a new idea or something that never occurred to teachers.

She writes:

Social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools makes many parents and teachers nervous. We worry there’s an ulterior motive to collect behavioral data on how children think and act, and that the ultimate goal is to privatize public schools and track students.

Talk about transforming our public schools away from cognitive learning to SEL is everywhere!

Those promoting this kind of push for self-regulation of students and massive character data collection claim that teachers have methodically taught students without caring about their feelings.

This is an insult, especially since the test-and-punish era that hurt students, came from the same outside corporate reformers who mean to privatize public schools and who are now promoting social-emotional learning!

It’s the roadblocks that have been put in a teacher’s way by corporate outsiders that have made teaching regimented and cold. High-stakes testing, and increasingly difficult standards, rigor, even for kindergarteners, were created to shut down public schools. This never came from teachers!

The last straw occurred when she saw that David Brooks was writing about “social-emotional learning,” and she knew that SEL has become an empty phrase.

Bailey says that if you want to see true teacher love for students, think about the thousands of teachers in Los Angeles, picketing in the rain so their students would have better education.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Hoax
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