Archives for category: Administrators, superintendents
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Los Angeles Teacher: Why I Am Voting for Tony Thurmond

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2018 //
4

Marcy Winograd tought in the high schools of Los Angeles for 25 years.

She explains in this article why she is voting for Tiny Thurmond for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“This November,, Californians can choose a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction with a track record of supporting our public schools – Oakland Assemblyman Tony Thurmond – or another far less qualified candidate Marshall Tuck—whose allegiance to the school privatization agenda threatens to bankrupt public school districts.

“I am a retired public high school English and special education teacher with 25 years experience in the Los Angeles Unified School District. For me, there’s only one right answer on this no-brainer.

“I’m voting for Tony Thurmond, a 20-year social worker, with 12 years experience working in schools, who served on both the Richmond City Council and the West Contra Costa School Board before his election to the State Assembly in 2014.

“Though both Thurmond and Tuck are registered Democrats, only Thurmond won the endorsement of the state Democratic Party – this with 89% of the delegate vote after Thurmond delivered an electrifying speech at the state convention in San Diego…

“While Thurmond toiled in the trenches as a social worker, running programs for foster youth and mental health afterschool programs, Tuck worked as an investment banker on Wall Street, rubbing shoulders with billionaires looking for the next hot stock. Later, Tuck—a Harvard business school graduate – became Chief Operating Officer for Los Angeles’ Green Dot charter school chain, which operates 29 charter schools throughout California.

“Green Dot schools are far from the wild success story that Tuck purports them to be. Green Dot school Animo Charter in Inglewood had the lowest test scores among all charter school chains – scoring zero percent proficient in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in student readiness in English to enter Cal State University.

“Tuck’s biggest backers – the California Charter School Association and the Waltons of Walmart fortune – are tethered to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ education privatization agenda that seeks to rob public schools of funding and funnel those dollars into charter schools that operate in the shadows.

“Out of the public eye, charter schools may hire administrators without credentials, use textbooks that lack state approval, appoint unaccountable school board members and cherry-pick their students to cast off the highest need students – special education students, English learners – to the neighborhood public school. Tuck’s list of supporters and benefactors – Walmart son Jim Walton (net worth 45 billion), real estate magnate Eli Broad (net worth 6.7 billion), venture capitalist Arthur Rock (net worth 1.1 billion) is a who’s who in the contemporary world of public education deconstruction, leaving far too many students behind and an education system ripe for Wall Street bankers ready to capitalize on a profitable burgeoning education market…

“In 2008 Tuck stepped down from Green Dot to become CEO of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS), a small group of privately managed LAUSD public schools that included elementary, middle and high schools.

“Recalled Tuck in an interview with the San Diego Union Tribune, “ …when I left Green Dot, we were opening new schools and building new cultures and then doing some you know, turnarounds, to the Partnership where we were doing you know turnarounds of existing schools.”

“This “turnaround” resulted in PLAS schools underperforming compared to LAUSD schools with similiar demographics, despite millions raised in additional private funding.

“Moreover, in nine out of ten PLAS schools, Tuck received landslide votes of “no confidence” from teachers.

“In Watts, at Ritter Elementary school, where 42% of the student body were English learners, Tuck unilaterally abolished a prized dual language immersion program, outraging parents who accused him of disregarding their civil rights and violating the State Education Code, one Tuck routinely rails against for its regulations.

“Meanwhile, students at Santee HS in downtown Los Angeles complained vociferously when Tuck slashed their popular ethnic studies classes in which they discussed racial and gender stereotypes, as well as their cultural heritage.

“What Tuck lacked in ability to improve educational outcomes he made up for with punitive policies against students of color.In the last year of Tuck’s tenure, 2012-2013, Markham Middle School and Samuel Gompers Middle Schools reported suspension rates of 14% and 17% respectively—shameful statistics in light of the overall LAUSD suspension rate of 1.7%. According to arecent report from the UCLA Civil Rights Project suspensions resulted in over 760,000 days of lost instruction in the 2016-2017 school year alone, with students of color in grades 7-8 the most impacted, a particularly distrubing finding because repeated suspensions set up students for failure, for what policy makers term “push-out”—pushing the most challenging students—the ones who need counseling and mentoring the most—onto the street to drop out of school althogether in 9th grade. This is what they call the school-to-prison pipeline…

“Ultimately, we need a state schools chief who believes in our public schools and public teachers, not one who goes to war against them.

“California voters must decide: vote for the teachers’ choice, Tony Thurmond, or the billionaires’ choice, Marshall Tuck.”

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Senator Kemala Harris Endorses Tony Thurmond for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in California

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2018 //
7

You may have noticed that I have posted several times about the importance of electing Tony Thurmond to be the next Superintendent of Public Instruction in California. I do this because California is a very large, very important, very influential state. Even though California is a blue state, the privatizers have a strong Foothold there because there is a concentration of tech billionaires, p.us Eli Broad, who believe that public schools should operate like businesses. It worked for them, so naturally they think it’s right to impose their beliefs on education. These billionaires’ influence is increased by the huge money flow into the state from out-of-State billionaires like Michael Bloomberg of New York City. Currently, the billionaires have placed their bets on Marshall Tuck, a candidate who morphed from banker to charter leader.

Tony Thurmond is a social worker and a legislator. He identifies with the kids he wants to help.

Senator Kemala Harris made a video on behalf of Tony Thurmond. By doing so, she risks alienating the billionaires who play a large role in choosing presidential candidates.

Bravo to Senator Harris!

It is not easy for a person in politics to thumb her nose at the richest people in the state.

She is a woman of principle.

Oh, and by the way, when both Thurmond and Tuck asked for the endorsement of the California Democratic Party, 95% of the delegates endorsed Tony Thurmond. Tuck has the endorsement of the California Republican Party.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

California: Desperate to Push Charter Schools, Billionaires Pour $25 Million into Tuck Campaign

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2018 //
17

Charter school supporters have dropped an unprecedented $25 million into Marshall Tuck’s campaign to become California’s next State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

His opponent Tony Thurmond is far behind in fundraising, having raised less than half that amount, “only” $10 million, mostly from educators.

“Independent committees supporting Tuck have raised $20.4 million as of Monday compared to $7 million by a committee supporting Thurmond. Likewise, Tuck is ahead in direct contributions to his campaign, having raised $4.2 million compared to Thurmond’s $2.8 million, as of the most recent campaign finance filing deadline Sept. 22.

“Thurmond is a former social worker, school board member and council member in Richmond. Tuck is the former president of Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school organization based in Los Angeles, and CEO of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a district-city initiative that runs 18 district schools. Most recently he’s worked for a nonprofit to develop effective teachers and principals.

“As early voting ballots are mailed to California voters this week, record levels of funding continue to pour into the contest primarily from advocates of charter school expansion who favor Tuck and organized labor groups backing Thurmond. Independent committees that support the candidates combined to raise almost $12 million in the last three weeks alone, with Tuck’s supporters accounting for the vast majority of that money.”

Tuck is a financier who entered education as a charter school executive. The big money behind him anticipates that he will continue the privatization of public schools and the expansion of charter chains into suburban and rural areas. Tuck is supported by Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, the Walton Family, and other prominent billionaires.

Thurmond is a social worker and legislator who has devoted his career to helping children. He has been endorsed by the California Teachers Association, the Los Angeles Times, and the California Democratic Party.

This election will test the proposition of whether billionaires can buy a statewide election for a key education leadership position.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Billionaires, California

North Carolina: State Superintendent Goes ALEC

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2018 //
6

The state superintendent of North Carolina is an alumnus of Teach for America. He defeated an experienced educator. Mark Johnson is determined to privatize and destroy public education in North Carolina. He has fought to aggrandize power over the state’s public schools and to diminish the role of the State Board of Education. He just hired a chief of staff who is a charter school leader.

Johnson recently brought the Meister of Corporate Reform, Jeb Bush, to win his approval for the strategy and pace of privatization.

Has TFA become a silent partner of ALEC?

Stuart Egan, an NBCT High School Teacher in North Carolina, describes Mark Johmson’s reign of error here.

The “Department of Private Interest” – DPI’s Transformation Under Mark Johnson

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Education Industry, North Carolina, Privatization

Los Angeles: Union and Inexperienced Superintendent at Odds

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2018 //
27

Austin Beitner, the former hedge fund manager-publisher picked by the school board as superintendent of the nation’s second-largest district despite his lack of any education experience, is at loggerheads with the UTLA.

UTLA released this statement last night (note the return of Cami Anderson):

We are responding to the letter you sent yesterday to UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. We are writing this letter jointly because Arlene Inouye is UTLA’s bargaining chair and, with the UTLA Bargaining Team, has urged the district to stop refusing to meet with a state-appointed mediator in a timely fashion as required by law.

In response to the mediator proposing multiple dates for August and in contrast to UTLA’s willingness to meet for mediation immediately, LAUSD is refusing to participate within a reasonable time frame. This is unacceptable and indefensible.

Two UTLA officers met with you yesterday with one goal: to get you to abide by the bargaining process and schedule timely mediation dates. No outline of an agreement was discussed in that meeting. Nor did you offer a path to a contract settlement, as your letter suggests. Instead, you continued your steadfast unwillingness to send the LAUSD bargaining team, now that we are at impasse, to mediation. Therefore, your availability to “meet anytime” rings hollow.

You have claimed that you cannot schedule mediation for 56 days because you don’t want to interfere with the beginning of the school year. Yet yesterday, on the second day of school, you had plenty of time to discuss ways to cut educator healthcare, pensions, and other compensation with a “realignment” plan created by high-priced consultants tied to the privatization movement. One is the firm founded by former Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson, who aggressively imposed failed charter and privatization schemes that ended in school closings and mass firings of teachers. After a community uprising against her disastrous leadership, she resigned in disgrace. Anderson now joins your new chief of staff, Rebecca Kockler, who is tightly connected to the privatization of New Orleans schools.
You continue to talk about salary as if it is the only issue we care about in bargaining. While a fair salary increase is essential for attracting educators in response to a growing shortage, our comprehensive bargaining package provides a vital pathway for drawing families into our schools and saving the civic institution of public education. This includes proposals to: eliminate the contract language (Article 18, Section 1.5) that allows the district to unilaterally increase class sizes every year; increase the number of nurses, counselors, school psychologists, and teacher librarians; expand accountability for charter schools and co-locations; reduce the drain on instructional time from overtesting; increase investments in bilingual education and ethnic studies; empower local school leadership councils to manage school budgets and create school climate and discipline plans; end the mistreatment of early education teachers, adult education teachers, and substitute teachers; and more.

Making vague comments about small salary increases and the need to cut healthcare, while showing no willingness to bargain over our package of proposals, is not a plan to respect educators but a plan to wind down the public school district, the way you wound down so many corporate entities as a private equity profiteer.

At this point in the bargaining process — when the parties are at a deadlock on roughly 23 different issues after more than 17 months and over 130 hours of bargaining — a state-appointed mediator is the best potential path toward reaching an agreement. The California Public Employment Relations Board agrees, by virtue of their certifying our impasse and appointing a mediator.

Enough is enough. You cannot put students first when you put educators last. Your letter suggests we are not looking out for the best interests of our students, which we take great exception to. Mr. Beutner, you have never taught in a classroom, but you should know that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions.

If you can’t or won’t do this, then educators, parents, and the broader community will question your ability to lead the second-largest school district in the country.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Union

New York: Long Island District Shows that Problem-Based Curriculum Produces Better Results than Test Prep

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2018 //
44

Comsewogue is a small district on Long Island in New York. Its superintendent, Joseph Rella, is an outspoken critic of standardized testing and “one-size-fits-all” education.

His district developed and applied a problem-based curriculum to prepare students in high school.

“Teaching to the test” is a concept that no longer computes in Comsewogue School District.

Administration and faculty in Comsewogue, for the last two school years, have experimented with a problem-based learning curriculum for small groups of interested ninth- and 10th-graders, an alternative to the traditional educational strategy of focusing assignments and assessments toward the goal of performing well on state-mandated standardized tests at the end of the year. Now, Superintendent Joe Rella has data to back up his notorious aversion to one-size-fits-all education and assessment.

In all subjects, Comsewogue students in PBL classes passed 2018 Regents exams, scoring 65 or better, at a higher rate than those in traditional classrooms, according to data released by the district. On chemistry, geometry, algebra II, global history and English 11 exams, PBL students achieved mastery level, scoring 85 or better, at significantly higher rates than their non-PBL classmates.

“We played in your ballpark — we scored runs,” Rella said of how he interpreted the data, meaning students taught by alternative methods still displayed an aptitude on the state’s required tests.

Though Rella and the district have taken steps to try to have PBL assessments replace Regents exams, no avenue to do so has been greenlighted by the New York State Department of Education to this point for Comsewogue. Emails requesting comment on the significance of Comsewogue’s test results sent to the education department and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) press office were not returned.

During the 2017-18 school year, about half of Comsewogue’s ninth- and 10th-graders, roughly 300 students, took part voluntarily in PBL classes, which emphasize hands-on learning and real-world application of concepts as assessments — similar to a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation — as opposed to the traditional “Regents model.” The students were still required by the state to take the Regents exams as all students are, and their performance has inspired the district in year three of the pilot to expand its PBL curriculum offerings on a voluntary basis for 2018-19 to its entire student body — kindergarten through 12th grade.

The superintendent said the impetus for the district to experiment with PBL started three years ago, when he and about 20 Comsewogue teachers spent a day at the New York Performance Standards Consortium in Manhattan. The organization was founded on the belief that there was a better way to assess student learning than dependence upon standardized testing, according to its website.

Open the article to see the stunning results of the district’s problem-based curriculum.

Rella has proven that student learning is created by asking questions that stimulate curiosity, not by checking the “right” box or responding with a canned answer on a standardized test.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Curriculum, Education Reform, New York

Denver: Superintendent Tom Boasberg Stepping Down

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
4

Superintendent Tom Boasberg is stepping down in Denver. He continued the Corporate Reform policies of his predecessor Michael Bennett, that is, a strong reliance on high-stakes testing and charter schools. Betsy DeVos praised Denver’s choice policies but criticized it for not having vouchers as a choice.

Denver has seen rising test scores and graduation rates but continues to have one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation among urban districts. Corporate Reform has yet to prove that it can accomplish miracles for the neediest children.

Denver is one of the cities where Reformers like Stand for Children and DFER have spent heavily to assure continued control of the local school board.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Denver

Greg Windle: Did Philadelphia’s Superintendent William Hite Meet His Goals?

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
5

Greg Windle wrote an exemplary report on the record of Philadelphia Superintendent William Hite, who took Office in 2012.

He makes clear that there are many metrics, not only test scores, and many actors, including the governor and the legislature.

Education writers, take note. This is a treasure trove of information that the people of the city need to know.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Budget Cuts, Funding, Philadelphia

New York Superintendent: Positive Thoughts for Dark Days

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2018 //
5

Lorna Lewis, school superintendent on Long Island, was named president of the New York State Council of Supervisors. I don’t normally note events of this sort but do so now, first because of her inspiring story as an immigrant from Jamaica who enriched our country, but mostly because of a wonderful poem that she cited.

“Being a pioneer in her career field is nothing new for Lewis, who over the past decade has emerged as the first black female educator on the Island to take charge of two predominantly white school districts. She is now completing her sixth year in the 4,790-student Plainview-Old Bethpage district, after spending five years in the 1,700-student East Williston system.

“Lewis, who came to New York from Jamaica as a teenager in the early 1970s, believes that her success in running high-achieving suburban districts conveys a message that people need to hear in a time when immigration is a political hot button…

“Lewis, who is now in her 60s, spent her childhood in Jamaica’s capital of Kingston. She was raised by an aunt who was a schoolteacher and principal, and who instilled in her a passionate belief that a solid education was the sure route to upward mobility.

“Lewis still remembers the words of a song she memorized in school, with lyrics by Desmond Dekker, a popular Jamaican singer-songwriter:

“Labor for learning before you grow old,
Because learning is better than silver and gold.
Silver and gold will vanish away,
But a good education will never decay.”

“At age 16, Lewis enrolled at Fordham University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in physics. She went on to obtain a master’s degree in the same subject from Rutgers University and a doctorate in science education from Teachers College, Columbia University.”

Friends tell me she loves testing. If she reads this, I hope she will take my advice to read “The Death and Life of the Great AMERICAN School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education” and “Reign of Error.” Good summer reading!

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New York

Boston Superintendent Tommy Chang Is Resigning

By dianeravitch
June 22, 2018 //
18

Tommy Chang is resigning as superintendent of the Boston public schools, only three years into his five year contract. The reasons are unclear, but the story suggests it may be because of failure to relate to parents or the mayor was dissatisfied or sharing of information with ICE, which led to a student being deported.

If you know more, chime in.

Chang was formerly a top deputy to John Deasy in L.A.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Boston
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »