Archives for the month of: March, 2019
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Peter Greene: Do Teachers Need a Bug in Their Ear to Coach Them?

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2019 //
47

When I read this story in Education Week, I found it incredibly condescending. The thesis was that teachers really do well by having a little microphone in their ear, in which a coach whispers advice as they are teaching. I am not a teacher, and I never tell anyone how to teach, but I couldn’t imagine that many teachers would love to have an electronic coach in one of their ears. The only time I previously heard about this was when I was writing about the Bridge International Academy private for-profit schools in Africa, where the teachers were given a script and a tablet and a bug in their ear.

I thought I would wait to hear from someone else who read the story, someone with classroom experience.

Thankfully, Peter Greene came through.

He explains where the idea came from.

Do you want a bug in your ear when you teach with an expert coach in the back of the room whispering tips to you?

Categories Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

California: Charter Advocates Rally to Fight Accountability and Regulation

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
34

 

While the State Board of Education was deliberating the fate of the low-performing Thrive Charter Schools, which they voted to close down,  the charter lobby rallied thousands of allies in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento to fight any new laws. 

One of the speakers was Margaret Fortune, who is president of the powerful California Charter Schools Association and also a member of the state’s task force that is supposed to decide whether to reform the state’s weak charter law and whether charter schools have a negative fiscal impact on public schools.

The charter industry sees any effort to restrict its actions or regulate its policies as a mortal threat to its existence.

“Dubbed the “Stand for All Students Rally,” it was hosted by the California Charter Schools Association and was a highlight of the organization’s annual four-day conference that ends in Sacramento on Thursday. Speakers included Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education during the Obama administration.

“At the rally were charter school administrators, teachers, parents and students, many of whom came by bus from schools across the state. They held signs that said “#kidsnotpolitics” and “Defend Great Schools” and were led in chants by adults on a stage flanked by giant screens projecting their images across the park.”

Since charters enroll about 10% of the students in the state, they should have had a slogan “Stand for 10% of Students,” since they have no concern for non-charter students, who are the vast majority of students in the state.

In addition to Arne Duncan, the CCSA had Steve Perry as a keynote speaker. Perry, who has one or two charter schools, is noted for his vehement hatred of teachers’ unions, whom he has likened to cockroaches.

The rally was a response to four proposed bills that would establish regulations for charters.

“The introduction last week of four new pieces of charter school legislation has aroused passions among charter school advocates. It has raised fears among advocates that California’s charter school sector will face the greatest restrictions on its growth since the state’s first charter law was enacted a quarter century ago.

“If approved, the bills would eliminate the right to appeal to the county or the state if a district denies a charter application; place an unspecified cap on charter schools; allow charter applications to be rejected based on their financial impact on a district; and prevent charter schools approved in one district from setting up in another.”

Charter advocates claim that these reasonable restrictions would “eliminate” charter schools.

Why should a district in the mountains have the power to open a charter in another district hundreds of miles away?

Why shouldn’t the fiscal impact on public schools limit where charters are allowed to open?

Last week, they said that a law banning nepotism and conflicts of interest was a “scorched earth” policy.

How many public school districts are they allowed to destroy before they are reined in?

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Privatization

California: State Board of Education Rejects Thrive Charter Schools Appeal for Renewal

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
3

 

Is it a new day in California?

Too soon to know but there was one good sign today.

The State Board of Education, which in the past had approved charters that had been rejected by districts and then by counties, rejected the appeal by Thrive charter schools of San Diego for renewal. Superintendent Cindy Marten came with staff and data to show that Thrive was not doing well by children. In the past, the facts were not enough. Today, they were.

Today was Linda Darling-Hammond’s first meeting as chair of the state education board. She cares about facts, data, and students. Thrive lost.

This is what Tom Ultican wrote about Thrive last fall. 

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, San Diego

Connecticut: High Court Rules That Sandy Hook Families May Sue Gunmaker

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
37

It seems that the courts will act when legislators, influenced by NRA lobbying, refuse to do so.

Connecticut’s highest state court overturned a lower court decision and concluded that the families of those murdered in the Sandy Hook massacre of 2012 may sue the manufacturer of the gun used in the killings. 

“Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle can be sued and potentially held liable in connection with the 2012 mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“The groundbreaking decision overturned a lower-court ruling barring the lawsuit, which was brought by the estates of nine victims killed by Adam Lanza, who was armed with the high-powered rifle during his assault on the school. Bushmaster is owned by Remington.

“The families argued, among other things, that the rifle’s manufacturer and distributor negligently allowed and encouraged civilians to use a weapon suitable only for military and law enforcement use.

“The firearms company had convinced a lower court that a federal law enacted in 2005 limited the liability of firearms manufacturers and dealers, essentially preempting wrongful death suits in state and federal courts.

“The Connecticut high court disagreed. It also said the suit, which seeks unspecified damages for each death, could go forward under that state’s Unfair Trade Practices Law.

“Twenty first-grade children and 6 adults were killed and two others wounded in the attack on Dec. 14, 2012. The Bushmaster that Lanza used had been sold to his mother, according to court documents.

“The number of lives lost in those 264 seconds was made possible by the shooter’s weapon of choice,” the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit. “Plaintiffs seek nothing more and nothing less than accountability” for Bushmaster’s choice to “continue profiting” from selling and marketing the weapon for civilian use, the suit said.”

Categories Connecticut, Education Reform, Guns

Kentucky: Vouchers are Dead This Year, Killed by Pastors, Parents, and Teachers

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
23

The Kentucky Legislature will not enact a voucher bill this session!

Here is one reason why: Pastors for Kentucky Children stood strongly against the bill and in favor of public schools. Reverend Sharon Felton led the way in Kentucky. Please read her wonderful letter in support of public schools and the principle of separation of church and state.

She writes:

Pastors for Kentucky Children is a grassroots movement of pastors and lay people who want to support, encourage and advocate for our local public schools. Our teachers, administrators and staff are on the front lines when it comes to caring for our children and we are praying that you and your colleagues will give them all the resources they need to fulfill this calling. We implore state legislators to vote down scholarship tax credits, or any legislation that funnels money away from public schools. Public schools are our future, our public trust. Public schools educate and serve all students. Imagine what they could do if they were fully funded! If they had enough counselors, librarians, teachers, technology, and on and on! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could stop collecting box tops to provide for our schools?

Our children deserve the highest-quality, free public education. They deserve to have the best faculty, facilities and future our state has to offer.

We are opposed to scholarship tax credits because they violate the separation of church and state. As clergy, we do not want government money or interference in our religious schools. There is not a church, temple, synagogue or mosque that wants government to fund our educational programs. Taxpayers, in turn, do not want their money going to pay for these religious education alternatives. Public money must stay with public schools. Private schools have flourished for decades without public money, they will continue to do so.

The group that started the Pastors for Children movement on behalf of public schools is Pastors for Texas Children, led by Charles Foster Johnson, which stopped vouchers in Texas one legislative session after another, and inspired similar groups in other states, where pastors don’t want to be dependent on government funding, knowing that where money flows, control eventually follows.

Here is another reason for the defeat of vouchers: Teachers walked out of their schools, rallied at the state capitol, and stopped the momentum towards vouchers.

Parents in SOS Kentucky and “Dear JCPS” spoke out against vouchers.

No vouchers in Kentucky this session. As public awareness builds in support of public schools that 90% of children attend, vouchers will stay dead.

 

 

 

Categories Kentucky, Parents, Resistance, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

California: Who Chose the Members of the Charter Task Force?

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
40

The task force appointed to reform California’s weak charter school law has 11 members; six of them have ties to the charter industry. Two of the 11 are part of the California Charter School Association, the official lobbying group, which spends $20 million a year to prevent any accountability for charters. How likely is this task force to propose meaningful reforms to stop charter schools from draining resources from the public schools that enroll most of the state’s children? How likely is it to propose meaningful reforms that take away endless appeals by failing charters? How likely is it to prevent small school districts from opening charter schools in districts that do not want them or need them? How likely is it to propose reforms that prevent entrepreneurs and grifters from opening their own charter schools? How likely is it to oust charter chains (the Walmarts of education), storefront charters where teachers meet students only once every three weeks, or charters operated by foreign entities?

Well, we won’t know until we see the final report, will we?

I promised Tony Thurmond that I would suspend judgment until I see the final report, and I will.

Nonetheless it is worrisome to see that somehow the charter industry managed to gain six of the 11 seats on a task force that will make recommendations to reform the industry.

I assumed that Thurmond was responsible for the composition of the task force

I may have been wrong, but honestly I don’t know who made those decisions.

I received an email from a reader in California whose credentials are impeccable, who has a direct tie inside the Governor’s office. This person told me that the committee was selected by Governor Gavin Newsom, not by Tony Thurmond. This made sense because Thurmond was smeared by the charter lobby during the campaign in 2016, which spent nearly $40 million trying to beat him. He has no reason to stack the panel in their favor. But the bottom line is that I don’t know for sure. All I know is what I see. And the optics are not good.

Who wants to stay on the good side of Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, Bill Bloomfield, Arthur Rock, the Fisher Family, and the many other charter-loving billionaires in California?

I wish him well in producing a report that actually reforms the charter industry in California and limits the damage it is now doing to the public schools that enroll nearly 90% of the children in the state. Given the composition of the task force, it won’t be easy.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Colorado: Why Did DFER Conceal Its Name in Texting Campaign to Undercut Teachers’ Strike

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
13

 

Chalkbeat reports that the hedge funders’ Democrats for Education Reform sent out text messages during the Denver teachers’ strike using the name of a non-existent organization (“Support Students, Support Teachers.”)

Why?

Obviously, DFER wanted to undercut the strike (“for the kids,” of course). Teachers have power when they strike. They lose that power when they go back to work without concrete gains.

Also, DFER does not have a good reputation in Colorado. The state Democratic Convention asked it to stop masquerading as Democrats.

But DFER has a close relationship with Governor Jared Polis, who shares DFER’s passion for charter schools, having started two of them himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Colorado, Democrats for Education Reform, Fraud

Charter Profiteer in Arizona Plans to Open Charter Chain in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
10

Last year, the Arizona Republic wrote an expose of the millions made by Glenn Way, founder of a charter chain in Arizona, primarily by real estate deals and construction of the schools by “related” companies. He previously ran charters in Utah.

Now Way plans to launch a charter chain in North Carolina, which welcomes for-profit charters.

Way’s chain in Arizona has a red-white-and-blue patriotic theme.

A charter school operator who made millions of dollars building, selling and leasing properties to the schools he runs moved a step closer Monday toward setting up shop in North Carolina.

The N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board voted Monday to recommend giving a full interview to Wake Preparatory Academy, a proposed K-12 charter school that wants to open in 2020 in northern Wake County. Wake Prep would be managed by a company whose owner also owns the company that would build and lease back the facility to the charter school.

Wake Prep is proposing to contract with Arizona-based Charter One to manage the school. Charter One manages American Leadership Academy, a network of Arizona charter schools. Former Utah state legislator Glenn Way founded ALA and owns Charter One and Schoolhouse Development.

The Arizona Republic reported last year how Way had made as much as $37 million by setting up no-bid deals in which he built school campuses and then sold the properties at a profit to the ALA charter schools. The newspaper’s five-part investigation into charter schools earned it the prestigious George Polk Award for Education Reporting.

Under Wake Prep’s proposed agreement, the school would contract with Schoolhouse Development to build the facility and lease it back to the school. The lease would start with the school paying $2.2 million the first year, $2.6 million the second year and $3 million in each of the next three years.

Bruce Friend, a CSAB member, said the board needs to get questions answered before recommending that the State Board of Education approve the school. Aside from questions about the lease, concerns were also raised that Wake Prep plans to pay Charter One up to 15 percent of its revenues annually…

Some charter schools are managed by for-profit companies. Last month, the advisory board recommended that the state approve three new charter schools in Wake County that would have contracts with for-profit companies.

This is the second time that Wake Prep has tried to open in North Carolina. The school applied last year to be managed by a different company before withdrawing its application.

Hilda Parler, a former CSAB member and president of Wake Prep’s board, said Monday that there’s high demand for high school charter seats among families in northern Wake.

“The population in the Wake Forest, Rolesville area is growing leaps and bounds,” Parler said. “New construction is everywhere.”

Parler was asked why she didn’t apply to just open a charter high school. She answered that a K-12 charter school would be more “lucrative” and “economically feasible” than only offering high school.

Read more here: https://www.heraldsun.com/news/politics-government/article227417039.html#storylink=cpy
Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Privatization

North Carolina: “White Flight Academy” Turns into a Charter School to Get Public Funding

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2019 //
11

In this post on Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet, North Carolina educators Justin Parmenter and Rodney D. Pierce report that a “white flight academy” is turning itself into a charter school so it can collect public funding. More than two-thirds of the state’s charter schools are more than 80% black or white.

Hobgood Academy opened in 1970 as an escape route for white children whose parents wanted to avoid sending them to integrated schools. Now Hobgood wants to convert to charter status so its parents don’t have to pay tuition. The North Carolina State Board of Education has approved the conversion, so the funding for the segregationist academy will come in large part from the funding now provided to the highly segregated public schools.

Please read the full article to understand the history of segregation and racism in Halifax County. If it is behind a paywall, let me know and I will post it in full.

 

Last month, the North Carolina State Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the conversion of Halifax County’s private Hobgood Academy to a public charter school. Halifax County ranks 90th out of 100 North Carolina counties in terms of per capita income, and more than 28 percent of its residents live below the poverty line — nearly double the national average. Hobgood’s student population is 87 percent white, while only 4 percent of those attending Halifax County Schools are white.If you read the charter application that Hobgood submitted to state officials, you might be inclined to think that the very purpose for the school’s existence is to lift children out of poverty by offering them a better education.

The application notes the “low performing” status of the public schools in the area and the “vicious cycle of poverty” that contributes to that low performance. It lays out the applicants’ supposed view that “the potential exists to turn the tide of poverty in this community through excellence in education” and refers to Hobgood as “the perfect place to impact the most vulnerable of our children.”

The real reason Hobgood is converting to a charter school is something entirely different. In the application’s section about enrollment trends, applicants admit to a “significant decline in enrollment,” acknowledging that the private school’s $5,000 annual tuition could be a barrier for some families.

A Google Site called “Let’s Charter Hobgood,” set up to organize Hobgood parents to push for the charter conversion, shows the motivation has nothing to do with extending opportunity to people who don’t currently have it.

Rather, it is for parents of students who already attend the school to be able to keep going there without paying tuition. In addition, responses to recent questions that are posted on the parent site include the statement: “No current law forces any diversity whether it be by age, sex, race, creed.” The question isn’t posted, so you’ll have to infer what it was.

Hobgood’s conversion to a charter school means the school could see a windfall of more than $2 million from the state. Of course, that money is coming out of someone else’s pocket. Remember those impoverished students Hobgood’s charter application claimed to be so concerned about? They’ll be paying much of that tab via pass-through transfer funding from Halifax County Schools.

Halifax County’s entire education budget, including community college, is $11.2 million. In the Department of Public Instruction’s most recent facility needs survey, the district reported $13.3 million in capital needs, including more than $8 million in needed renovations to existing school buildings. Financially, Halifax County school district is most definitely not in a position to be bailing out private schools.

The history of racial segregation in Halifax County is crucial to understanding what is currently playing out….

Hobgood currently receives $69,300 a year from the state’s voucher program. Once it turns into a charter, it will receive an additional $2 million a year. The population in Halifax County is almost evenly divided between whites and blacks. Hobgood Academy is 88 percent white.  The public schools are more than 90% black. The families who send their children to Hobgood will no longer have to pay tuition. The children in the Halifax County public schools will have less money for their education.
We are reminded that school choice was first advocated in response to the Brown decision of 1954 by segregationist governors and senators. Sixty-five years later, their vision is being realized.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, North Carolina, Privatization, Racism, School Choice, Segregation

Texas: Mayor Bans STAAR Test from His Town

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2019 //
10

 

The mayor of Devers, Texas, happens to be a fifth-grade teacher. Steve Horelica knows how phony the state test (STAAR) is. He has proclaimed that it won’t be allowed in his town. Very likely, the Texas Education Agency won’t let him get away with it. But what can they do? Send in the Texas Rangers and force kids to takethe Tests?

Imagine: what If he announced that no student in Devers would take the test? What if he declared that Devers was opting out?

He would be on my list of heroes if he did.

As a teacher, he knows that the test reveals nothing that teachers don’t know already. It distorts education.

Kudos to Mayor Horelica!

“Steve Horelica is not only the mayor, he teaches 5th grade at Devers ISD, where he says he has witnessed first-hand how ineffective the STAAR test is in educating his students.

“At the end of the year, the only thing that schools and TEA looks at is ‘What was your STAAR score?'” Horelica said. “They don’t look at how much children have grown, they don’t look at ‘Okay, this kid has a learning disability, so he is at a disadvantage.’ They don’t care. They just look at one thing. Did they pass or did they fail?”

“Horelica said because the STAAR test has done very little to actually educate his students, he decided it was time to do something.

“And I just threw it out there as a joke and said, ‘Boy, I wish I could make the STAAR test go away as mayor,'” Horelica said. “And some folks chimed in and said, ‘Why don’t you do it?'”

Hint: Tests don’t educate students. Making tests harder doesn’t make students smarter.

Categories Testing
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