The Providence Journal asked me to remove this story because it is copyrighted. I was asked to replace it with a summary.
Summary:
A charter school called The Learning Community is creating a phony graduate school of education, where students will pay $35,000 to get a phony master’s degree. Philanthropists have agreed to underwrite scholarships.
First the charters undermine public schools by competing instead of collaborating. Then they and their billionaire backers open a phony graduate school called Relay where genuine charter teachers, with a few years of experience, award graduate degrees to would-be charter teachers.
Now Rhode Island is giving a charter school the authority to award masters degrees. Every step degrades the profession. Amateurs training amateurs.
Summary: A charter school called The Learning Community is creating a pretend graduate school of education, a move approved by the Council of Post-Secondary Education. The Rhode Island Foundation and United Way gave the charter school $500,00 for five years to establish a make-believe “graduate school of education.”
Teachers who enroll in this ersatz program will take classes at night and during the summer.
The focus is urban classrooms, where students are seldom given access to well-prepared teachers and will get these semi-qualified “teachers” with a make-believe master’s degree. The charter school, which does not have any scholars, researchers, or highly experienced teachers will send their teachers to schools in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket.
The program will have 8 students its first year.
Eight students! What an exciting graduate school of education! How many faculty? Two?
In five years, maybe it will “train” 40 or 50 new charter teachers.
What a waste of $500,000.
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190322/ri-charter-school-gets-go-ahead-for-masters-program
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Do these people ever tell the truth? Have they an allergy to truth?
I didn’t student teach for a couple of weeks; I spent a full semester student teaching under a great mentor. Then, I spent time (can’t remember the # of hours) in different classes (special ed, advanced, etc.) to give me a feel for those groups.
It makes me sick when I see what is being done to our students and the lies being told to them and us.
LikeLike
Instead of the traditional master’s or Bachelors in teaching, where you student teach for a full semester, students here will spend 30 hours a week for a couple weeks in the classroom with a mentor teacher,” said project manager Melanie Griffith.
Fixed.
LikeLike
You beat me to this comment. Project manager Melanie Griffith should stick to making movies.
LikeLike
yep. At Penn State. student teachers observe the classroom the semester before the actual student teaching. They are slowly and increasingly integrated into the classroom during that time so they are prepared to be the main teacher when their actual student teachig semester begins.
LikeLike
The chancellor of Pennsylvania universities who was appointed this summer was formerly in management at the Gates Foundation.
Gates’ plans for higher ed are acceleration of digital learning and investment opportunities for the foundation e.g. PRI’s.
Gates’ Frontier Set program gives grants to universities in return for collaboration on curriculum and delivery. Two state higher ed systems have signed on.
PPIC, a billionaire funded think tank proposes decision making about tuition, state funding and financial aid be taken from universities and given to an outside council. The billionaires also propose accreditation decisions be taken from higher ed institutions.
LikeLike
OMG, IT’S ALIVE:
“. . . In fact, the charter school already has agreements with Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket to give priority to hiring these teachers.” BUT THEN: . . . “The program will not compete with the established schools of education in Rhode Island.” HUH? AND THEN: “It will start small, with only eight applicants during its first year, doubling to 16 in four years, Wiltshire Alves said.” . . . “Although the tuition costs $35,000, Griffith said the school is committed to covering the amount by raising money through philanthropy and nonprofit organizations.” <–Don’t we all feel better now.
Whatever happened to Rhode Island? CBK
LikeLike
Rhode Island has a governor, Gina Raimondo, who was a hedge fund manager. Her husband roomed with Cory Booker in law school. She is a bonafide partisan of disruption.
LikeLike
Raimondo is also head of the Democratic Governors Association. She never met a hedge fund she didn’t like. Matt Taibbi wrote about Raimondo and John Arnold in “Looting the Pensions”, at Rolling Stone.
LikeLike
dianeravitch The obvious conflicts in their letter/notice are indicative of nothing less than delusional thinking. CBK
LikeLike
Gina’s husband is also a McKinsey guy.
LikeLike
OMG & Holy COW. Well their degrees won’t matter. It will be just a piece of paper with no substance.
More of the same……TAWDRY GAME.
LikeLike
Sadly, Yvonne, those degrees WILL have substance. They will have the substance necessary to cheapen other degrees with the same ‘title’. Just as the title ‘university’ was cheapened by outfits like ‘Argosy’, so will the latest scam make a ‘Masters’ worthless.
LikeLike
This latest move is another attempt to legitimize fraudulent credentials from the charter industry. I find this proposal insulting to those of us that actually put in the time and hard work to earn a master’s degree.
This is my story. I taught in a junior high during the day, and took night classes and summer classes for four and half years. I schlepped my exhausted self to class for two nights a week and spent most of the weekend grading papers, planning and doing work for my college classes. The schedule was brutal, but I am sure that many other legitimate professionals have done this and more.
LikeLike
Actually, yeah, RT: been there and done that. Thanks for your post.
LikeLike
AWrenchintheGears.com exposes United Way’s part in the bigger well-funded education agenda (the recent P&G article).
LikeLike
The district in which I teach has a big “giving” push to the United Way every year. This is why I won’t contribute.
LikeLike
The United Way
United we stand
Against our own
The helping hand
Is tearing down
LikeLike
Good poem, Poet.
TOW,
Why aren’t teachers spreading AWrenchintheGears’s investigative work about United Way among themselves and publishing a statement? The author is not the first to find the chain between Goldman Sach’s SIB’s and United Way. It’s been in msm.
LikeLike
“We are trying to improve our public schools the way charter schools are meant to.”
Yes, because only charter schools can “improve” public schools. They are, after all, the Best and Brightest! It’s always a boss/subordinate relationship.
Go read any of the ed reform articles about “partnerships”- the public schools take direction from charter schools. Summit charter schools calls them “partners” but the public schools must be silent partners since the only person permitted to speak is the CEO of Summit.
“Partnerships” are supposed to work both ways, and benefit both sets of students. Why does that never happen in ed reform?
LikeLike
Once again a process and system designed by charter schools will be imposed on public schools, but don’t worry- they’re very kind and caring supervisors.
Just accept your role as the unfashionable subordinate system who needs ed reformers to rescue your child and your school.
LikeLike
Expected- Dann-Messier
career readiness, Obama’s Dept. of Ed., CCSSO
LikeLike
Central Falls High School is where all the teachers were fired, which was then applauded by ObamaThanks
LikeLike
This story is the work of The Providence Journal, and we have not authorized it to be posted here, Ms. Ravitch, nor have you asked for permission. You are violating copyright law by having it on your blog. Please remove it, and replace it with a sentence summarizing it and a link to it.
LikeLike
Dear Mr. Rosenberg,
Sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner. I was at a doctor’s this afternoon. I summarized the story and reposted it. I removed any copyrighted material from the article. I just reposted it. I hope you like the summary.
LikeLike
It’s not really a summary — more of a commentary, giving your views about the news story. I do appreciate your reponsiveness and removing the story.
LikeLike
Mr. Rosenberg is a graduate of Northwestern, a respected journalism school.
If the Journal decided to write about Brown University, readers could learn about the dramatic changes in the schools of education. For background, a Journal reporter could read, “Don’t Surrender the Academy” (Philanthropy Roundtable), co-written by AEI’s Frederick Hess and an employee of a Gates-funded organization. Hess reported that ed reformers wanted to “blow up the ed schools”.
The reporter could get quotes that distinguish between a “think tank with students” and, a university striving to meet high ideals. The journalist could report on the sources of Brown professor and university-affiliated education center funding.
Brown Prof. John Friedman could be asked why the promos for the Gates sponsored education Summit at OSU in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by mayors, last year, didn’t identify Friedman as a Gates Impatient Optimist. He could be asked why his Stanford colleague, the other speaker at the event, Prof. Hanushek, posted at his university site a 37 page c.v. without grants listed.
For further background, the reporter could read about the investigative work being done at UnKochMycampus.org.
LikeLike
TO Alan Rosenberg: Maybe you could give permission to Dr. Ravitch and, as an aside, give your paper a boost in regard and readership? OR,. . .
. . . and in other words, are you a newspaper with real news reporters? OR are you a business with corporate-interest backers controlling your content and, thereby, turning it into propaganda du jour? CBK
LikeLike
There’s no boost to our readership when one of our stories is posted elsewhere in full, leaving no reason for that site’s visitors to come to ours and read it. And yes, we are a newspaper with real news reporters — including the 35-year veteran who wrote the story at the link above — and a 189-year history. You can learn a little of that history here: https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180714/alan-rosenberg-portrait-lost-then-found
LikeLike
Thank you. I often write about education in Rhode Island. I want to keep journalism alive and will not quote Projo in full again. I apologize.
LikeLike
Thanks. I appreciate that.
LikeLike
I hope you will return the favor by writing about NPE’s important report on the failure of the federal Charter School Program, which was released today.
LikeLike
Writing stories as favors isn’t what we do. If you have sent us the report, though, we’ll take a look at it and see if there’s a story there for us.
LikeLike
Alan Rosenberg Thank you for responding to my note. Three things, however:
First, my reference to a boost to your readership was not about that particular article, but about increased awareness of it. It cannot have escaped your attention that your posted link is now a part of that boost. Being a supporter of the first amendment and a free press, I’m glad to read it and to post that link again:
“. . . including the 35-year veteran who wrote the story at the link above — and a 189-year history. You can learn a little of that history here:” https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180714/alan-rosenberg-portrait-lost-then-found
Secondly, my guess is that you are aware of readers’ present struggle to isolate authentic and fake news, and between (a) Koch-type ideology, “certain” omissions, and outright propaganda and (b) responsible journalism <–by that I mean: a press’ not being content-controlled by “dark money,” billionaires, and corporate funders. If I am right in this, then you probably understand why it’s becoming a national pass-time to question the funding background of any journalism that comes our way.
Thirdly, my RED FLAG in this case was not necessarily your reference to copyright infringement, but rather that your reference was not coupled with permission to quote the article.
So again, thank you for your response and for the link to your paper’s history. However, we still don’t know in this case (a) why not just give permission; and (b) whether or not your complaint was politically motivated (yours or your funders’)–because the content was criticized here. CBK
LikeLike
I didn’t give permission because we never give permission for people to quote more than a “fair use” amount — typically, 30 words or less. We pay reporters to write these stories, Ms. King, and we don’t let people just grab them and use them. Let them pay a reporter to have their own story written, or do some reporting themselves.
Regarding criticism: Ms. Ravitch’s post didn’t criticize our story, but the event our story reported on. So I was not trying to stifle any criticism of us. As for the underlying practice she’s critiquing, The Providence Journal doesn’t own any charter schools. As far as I know, our corporate parents don’t either, but if they did, it wouldn’t matter; they don’t tell us what to cover, or how to cover it.
And to clear up a comment Ms. Ravitch made earlier: Not posting our stories in full isn’t a “favor.” It’s a matter of copyright law.
LikeLike
Alan Rosenberg writes: “Regarding criticism: Ms. Ravitch’s post didn’t criticize our story, but the event our story reported on.” <– that is exactly my point: this raised red flags so that I questioned the political motivations, as well as the calling-up of copyright law (as a handy diversion).
Also, I don’t claim to know that your part in the exchange was politically motivated or that you used diversionary tactics to cover that motivation. I’m just raising some questions about the exchange that, in our time, have become obvious–like journalists do. CBK
LikeLike
Addendum question RE: RI newspaper article: From my own experience, the article’s portrayal of past and present teacher programs was way off base, as some others here have said, judging from their own experience of teacher training.
Could it be that the article writer pulled that “bad teacher programming” idea out of some other place, that is, besides solid research?
Such claims are reminiscent of the “public schools are failing!” mantra of “reformers”–who draw from that same orifice to set up the conditions for a false conflict, so that NOW, they can “show” how much better THEIR programs are. (My Aunt used to call that “BS,”but I guess we cannot say that here.)
But am not a trained journalist; and so I don’t know how much a paper is responsible for printing such misnomers (and I don’t know what section of the paper THIS article was in), except perhaps, if their own red flags are working, they could put such pieces in the clearly-marked opinion or advertising sections of their papers, rather than in the “news.”
As it stands, it seems to me more like a press release (not noted for their journalistic objectivity) or “product placement,” than real news. CBK
LikeLike
CBK, unfortunately the privatizers have money for a strong PR machine and many media rely on press releases for their stories
LikeLike
My opinion- the Providence Journal’s buy in to the billionaire’s scheme for education, without speculating about the reason, is greater than press release reproduction.
A lot of people are furthering the interests of American oligarchy.
LikeLike
Linda Yes . . . it’s difficult to believe, given the entire thrust towards charter schools in Rhode Island, including the governorship, that the press are unaware-of unaffected-by those behind that thrust. CBK
LikeLike
“New research out of Los Angeles finds that teachers in their first few years end up in classrooms with more struggling students and in schools with fewer experienced colleagues, making their introduction to teaching all the more challenging.
The differences between the environments of new teachers and their more experienced teachers are generally small, but they appear to matter for both students and teachers. The tougher assignments hurt new teachers’ performance and their career trajectories — and mean that students who are the furthest behind are being taught by the least experienced educators.”
No one did more to promote this than ed reform. It’s the business model of Teach For America. They said experience didn’t matter AT ALL, which is insane and is predicated on the idea that no one learns anything at their job, ever.
They spent 20 years hammering home the idea that experience did not matter. That a 6 week teacher was exactly the same (or better!) than a veteran.
I don’t know- are any of these people EVER held accountable for these insane notions they glom onto? Shouldn’t they have to apologize? Say “yes, upon reflection we realize that saying no one learns anything at all at work, over decades, was just nutty and wrong”?
LikeLike
“The new master’s program will specifically train teachers for urban settings.”
Trained teachers, huh. In urban settings, no less. Well, so-called urban Atlanta has a “trained” superintendent. Trained by Harvard Graduate School of Education “to do this school turnaround work,” she’s proclaimed. So I simply take her at her word. Thus far, she’s been right. That she’s been trained, shows.
Last school year the school board decided to let the trained superintendent let Relay Graduate School of Education infest a public middle school. I said, “Oookay. How ’bout I sit a spell in different classrooms to observe?” Superintendent said, You can’t do that. No policy allows it.” School board member who is the policy review committee chair said, “You can’t do that. We can’t have just anybody in the schools. It’s a safety issue.”
Yup, trained. Once trained, learning becomes less essential. Once trained to use it, a hammer becomes a tool to nail a screw, even if a screwdriver is right at hand but hammer-training prohibits screwdriver-learning.
LikeLike
The good citizens and friends of public education in the state legislature of Rhode Island need to do some educating of and put pressure on the board of trustees and administrative leadership of the University of Rhode Island. If the friends in the legislature don’t, they should pay a price.
LikeLike
This is truly outrageous. It diminishes the meaning and value of a graduate degree when a charter school—not even a real school—can hand out master’s degrees.
LikeLike
What a terrible idea. Amateurs teaching amateurs is right! The charter amateurs probably wrongfully call themselves “master scholars” though. Charter drains: fixing problems by renaming them. Brilliant.
I was distracted and a little amused by another lie in Rhode Island program director Christine Wiltshire Alves’ above propaganda, that they’re training teachers for urban settings. Being from Los Angeles, it’s a little difficult to see Pawtucket, Rhode Island as an urban setting. Not a big deal; just good for a little chuckle at her quaint ignorance. …Actually, not so funny when one looks at her overall ignorance.
LikeLike
What’s in these people’s head? I cannot imagine, they seriously think “We are doing good!”
LikeLike
I expected Relay to crumble, but instead, now there are these new graduate schools popping up.
LikeLike
OMG- I had to read this several times to make sure I understood what is going on. WTH??? Why does Rhode Island think this is a good idea? This thread just gave me a massive headache……….
LikeLike
Once upon a time, there was a ‘community of (European) scholars’ that ‘certified’ their own members.
Sadly, in the United States, educators (unlike doctors and lawyers) have never had the authority to supervise the induction of individuals into their fold. I (a male) think this has much to do with the fact that the term ‘teacher’ in our society often indicated ‘female’, and thus a group not ‘responsible enough’ to make that decision. So, now, we have politicians and self-serving ‘businessmen’ who know almost nothing about the profession telling us what to do.
But, who is going to pick up the gauntlet? The NEA is weak pablum, unwilling to even call itself a ‘union’, much less a guild. The AFT is busy trying to supplant the NEA and simply get better pay in the tradition of the waning American Labor movement.
If teaching is a profession (and it is), it needs to assert control over ‘schools of education’ as well as certification.
LikeLike
BATS should certify as a union.
You ask important questions, Daedalus.
I’ll add a couple. Why is CAEP’s chair of the board a Pahara Fellow?
NEA and AFT executives are members of the Board that elected her. Pahara is Gates funded. The founder of Pahara also founded TFA, New Schools Venture Fund and Bellwether.
Secondly, why was AFT the 2nd largest contributor to a DFER candidate’s campaign (Susan Davis)?
LikeLike
A third question- Why was AFT’s president so anxious to help the Gates-funded Center for American Progress against Bernie? After the CAP team lost Hillary’s contest for president, CAP continued promoting charter schools.
LikeLike