Archives for category: Betsy DeVos
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Laura Chapman on the Triple Disasters of Federal Policy: NCLB, RTTT, and ESSA

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2018 //
15

Laura Chapman responded to this post about the nil effects of NCLB:

She writes:

“The biggest lie was NCLB. The second biggest lie was Race to the Top. The third biggest lie is ESSA.”

NCLB was the template for what followed. I wrote about that jargon-filled fiasco as a heads up to colleagues working in arts education who did not know what hit them.

Race to the Top was the double whammy with a propaganda mill called the “Reform Support Network” designed to intimidate teachers who failed to comply. USDE outsourced the problem of compliance to people who did not know what to do with this fact: About 69% of teachers had job assignments untethered to statewide tests. The hired hands working for the Reform Support Network offered several absurd solutions. Among these were the idea that teacher should be evaluated on school-wide scores for subjects they did not teach (e.g., math, ELA) and that a writing assignment called SLOs (student learning objectives) should function as a tool for evaluation.

The SLO writing assignment required teachers to specify and predict gains in the test scores of their students from the beginning to the end of the year. Teachers were graded on their SLOs and up to 25 criteria had to be met for writing a “proper” SLO. That absurdity has been marketed since 1999, first in a pay-for-performance scheme for Denver conjured by William Slotnick (Master’s in Education, Harvard). There is no evidence to support the use of SLOs for teacher evaluation. Even so, this exercise is still used in Ohio, among other states.

ESSA is like NCLB in that the high stakes tests are still there, but they are surrounded with legalese about state “flexibility.” Some parts of ESSA calls for de-professionalizing the work of teacher education (see Title II, Section SEC. 2002).

ESSA became the federal law before our current ten-yacht owner and avowed Christian missionary, Betsy Devos, was appointed to be in charge of the Department of Education.

Devos’ incompetence delayed and then mangled the “approval” of required ESSA “state plans“ for this school year, 2018-2019. In the meantime, groups that championed NCLB and Race to the Top publicized their own ratings of ESSA plans (e.g., Bellwether Education Partners, Achieve, and the Collaborative for Student Success). The Collaborative for Student Success is funded by the Bloomberg Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, ExxonMobil, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation–none friends of public education.

I think that compliance checks on ESSA, if any, will be outsourced and that the still pending federal budget will confirm the ten-yacht Education Secretary’s’ real priorities—choice and some of the increasingly weird things recently on her mind.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Education Reform, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Stupid, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

DeVos’ Phony School Safety Commission Report

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2018 //
13

After the massacre of 17 students at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last February, the Trump administration created a commission headed by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to come up with recommendations to make schools safe.

The report was released today and landed with a great thud.

Some of its proposals were already in place. Contrary to Trump’s demand, it did not recommend arming teachers. It did not call for age limits on access to guns. It recommended mental health measures but did not propose funding for what it thought necessary.

Politico summarized the report here.

The DeVos Commission said nothing about gun control. Its most consequential proposal was to rollback Obama discipline guidelines that instructed schools not to hand out punishments to black students that were disproportionate to those given to white students. This is a bizarre recommendation, since the shooter at Parkman had been expelled and was white. No connection between the crime and the “remedy.”

Randi Weingarten issued a comprehensive critique of this toothless report:

“The Federal Commission on School Safety took a horrendous year of school shooting tragedies and produced a report with a smorgasbord of recommendations—some of which we have championed for years—aimed at making our schools safer. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t address the root causes of the gun violence epidemic: too many guns in our communities and not enough investment in addressing the social-emotional health of our kids. And, sadly, the Trump administration has no coherent plan to address this crisis.

“While the report proposes some worthy strategies already recommended by students, teachers and school staff—including support for school counselors, cyberbullying prevention, extreme-risk protection orders, the troops-to-teachers program, and active shooter training—it does not contain a single proposal for new funding for these initiatives.

“What’s more, the commission appears to punt on the question of arming teachers, rather than taking a strong stance against it, even though parents, students and teachers agree: Putting more guns in schools only risks making schools less safe. But Betsy DeVos continually advocates for this lunacy. The report doesn’t recommend age restrictions on firearms and appears more concerned with the National Rifle Association and the school security industry than with the needs of the people in classrooms.

“But most curious and disappointing is the report’s use of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to push an anti-civil rights agenda that won’t keep schools safe. The report suggests rolling back Obama-era school discipline guidance that was intended to help prevent the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of students of color, students with disabilities and LGBTQ youth—under the guise of making schools safer. The shooter at Stoneman Douglas had in fact been expelled and reported to law enforcement; rescinding discipline guidance and kicking kids out of school doesn’t prevent school shootings.

“Today, the commission and the Trump administration missed an opportunity to bring the country together. Parents, students and educators want schools to be safe. That requires fair discipline policies, but also a real investment in meaningful mental health supports and other key recommendations in the report, plus the advancement of commonsense gun safety reforms to help curb the gun violence epidemic in our country.”

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, Funding, Guns in Schools

Secondary School Principals Blast DeVos “School Safety” Report, No Mention of Gun Control

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2018 //
18

Betsy DeVos and her commission of Cabinet members released their report on school safety, formed in the wake of the Majorie Stoneman Douglas Massacre in Florida. The students quite rightly demands strict limits on access to deadly weapons, especially military grade weapons. The commission decided to ignore this important issue, which the NAASP called “willful ignorance.” As expected, the commission recommended arming school personnel, a proposal strongly opposed by teachers, who fear collateral damage, the danger of guns left in the wrong places, and bullets flying from every direction.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals released this statement:


NASSP Statement on Final Report of Federal Commission on School Safety

Contact: Bob Farrace, NASSP, farraceb@nassp.org, 703-860-7252

Rezton, VA –NASSP Executive Director JoAnn Bartoletti issued the following statement on the final report of the Federal Commission on School Safety:

It is puzzling that the Federal Commission on School Safety would spend seven months and untold tax dollars on rediscovering well-known school safety strategies, in part a subset of the more comprehensive Framework for Safe and Successful Schools. In any case, we welcome the Commission’s voice to our common call for greater attention to the mental health both of our students and to those who might do them harm.
Yet the Commission compromises its own credibility by staying mute on the issue of firearm access and other prevention efforts that reduce the need to turn schools into fortresses. Guns in the wrong hands is a common element in school shootings. The Commission’s failure to address that element—with even the most sensible and noncontroversial recommendations–is nothing short of willful ignorance. Equally obtuse is the Commission’s guidance for arming school personnel–remarkably the only federal guidance this administration does not perceive as intrusive and burdensome, on a notion rejected by a consensus of education organizations and the educators, parents, and students they represent.

Rescinding Discipline Guidance

There is no disputing that racial disparities persist in suspensions and expulsions, and the evidence shows that schools that address the true causes of the gaps see a more positive culture and fewer violent incidents. In schools that adopt restorative practices in place of exclusionary practices, minority students see more time in school, resulting in higher achievement and fewer referrals to juvenile justice systems. The guidance encouraged many schools to find ways to help students succeed rather than react to behaviors that accelerate their failure, and therefore direct students on a path to prosperity rather than prison. There should be no argument that these effects are good things. But in strikingly convoluted and sadly predictable fashion, the Commission asserts without foundation that this non-binding guidance makes school less safe. The conclusion is offensive, it’s infuriating, it’s nonsensical, and it will assuredly lead to the result the administration wanted all along.

Secretary DeVos in particular has demonstrated time and again her dexterity in undoing efforts to enforce the rights of vulnerable student populations. Yet this discipline-disparity crisis is not one she can just kick to the states or private-school-voucher away. The secretary must now act with purpose to fulfill the Department’s expressed mission of “prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.” Otherwise she cements her status as a champion among the defenders of the status quo she so often derides. Without the force of law, the guidance could quietly persist to exercise persuasive influence and provide principals cover as they do the right thing often against strong political headwinds. By proposing to rescind the guidance, this administration only intensifies the headwind, sending a clear and dismissive message to our most vulnerable students.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Guns, Guns in Schools

Valerie Jablow: D.C., Wholly Owned by the Billionaire Boys Club

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2018 //
14

Are you surprised to learn that Muriel Bowser, Mayor of the District of Columbia, has chosen a superintendent who is a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, known for its multiple failed superintendrncies and its devotion to closing public schools and turning them over to private management?

Mayor Bowser is intent on remaining loyal to the disastrous legacy of Michelle Rhee, to high teacher-turnover, and to disruption.

The District of Columbia, which has been wholly controlled by Reforners since 2007, continues to be one of the lowest-scoring districts in the nation on NAEP. It holds the dubious distinction of having the largest achievement gaps of any city or state in the nation, about double the national average. Yet Reformers still point to it as a “success” story, despite the gaps, despite the cheating scandal, despite the graduation rate scandal, despite the absence of any indecently verified data. Oh, and yes, the Mayor wants to take control of the data to be sure it reflects well on “Reform” and her.

Valerie Jablow has the story here.

Mayor Bowser must have a close relationship with Secretary DeVos.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Disruption, District of Columbia, Education Industry, Privatization

Angie Sullivan: Corruption, Lobbyists, and Schools in Nevada

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2018 //
2

Angie Sullivan teaches in a low-income elementary school in Carson County, Nevada. She often writes every legislator to expose the persistent underfunding of the schools.


Remember when DeVos lied in front of the whole nation about the Nevada K12 Charter? Hardly anyone graduates – yet she claimed that charter had a 100% graduation rate. Here are the Nevada online charters again – grabbing cash and suing to keep their cash cow. Hard earned tax payer money going to whom for what?

Apparently they had $2 million in lobby money. Enough to grease all sorts of folks.

Nevada charter authority board says executive kept them in dark

I am sure there was more money than that spread around.

One for-profit online made $6500 x 3000 students = $19 million. 3000 enrolled but only 200 test? That is not “choice”. It appears no one is actually participating. Are we paying for education that is non-existent?

It annoys me that folks blame Patrick Gavin. Gavin is dirty. He is part of this – but only one part. No one has been accountable. No one has provided data. No one has asked hard questions.

Do you see all these names in this article?

Bipartisan dirty hands.

All these folks including Canavero need to be asked serious questions about this. And they need to reveal any money that has ended up in their personal bank accounts. Who has lobbied them?

All legislators running a for-profit charter or sitting on for-profit charter boards – we see you too. Unethically voting for yourself and your corporations.

I give credit to Guinasso for trying to clean up this $350 million mess. Everyone on all sides and every level is dirty. That job cannot be fun. So many folks involved in this garbage.

The Charter Authority needs legal teeth. It also needs a board willing to shut terrible charters down if they are floundering in bankruptcy and fraud. If unaccountable charters are not publishing data – they need to be closed. If failing charters are not graduating, they need to be closed. When for-profit charter corporations start suing the state, they need to be immediately closed.

Someone has to stand up to these billion dollar for-profit corporate bullies.

How is one person supposed to keep a billion charter corporation from scamming Nevada tax payers?

Folks screaming for “choice”.

This is Nevada “choice”?

Money changing hands and no one being educated?

That is not choice – that is a scam.

This is dirty dirty dirty. It is bipartisan dirty.

Canavero? Canavero? Canavero? This has your name all over it. Where are you? Busy arbitrarily attacking public schools to make way for . . . charters? There is something disgusting about that.

Accountability.

Folks seem to only like that word – when it is not applied to THEM.

Senator Woodhouse? Senator Denis? Senator Hammond? Where have you been?

30 years of looking the other way. Lots of folks got used to ignoring that $350 million was being severely wasted and abused. Were they paid well?

Former Majority Leader and newly elected Attorney General Aaron Ford – you advocated for this trash. Who donated to your campaigns? What are you going to do about it now?

God help us. The corruption is thick.

Nevada Charters are NOT a remedy. No one should want to turn a public school into this. No one should think this is fine.

This is garbage and a huge horrific wicked web. 🕷

Everyone needs to be accountable.

And all hypocrites – stop pointing your finger at CCSD public school teachers. We are actually the only ones getting real education work done. We get attacked and removed from students we serve and love. You threaten our communities with charter reform. Why? Which charter is an example of excellence? I see charter segregation by money, race and religion.

While these charter scammers get paid millions to educate no one?

This is bad leadership. And total mismanagement.

Yep accountability.

We need some of accountbility pointed at the right people. I see them crawling all around. 🕷🕷🕷

Maybe Patrick Gavin should tell us all about it.

The Teacher,

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Funding, Nevada, Privatization

Michigan: Lame-Duck GOP Power Grab Over Education

By dianeravitch
December 7, 2018 //
22

The Democrats won the Governorship in Michigan, so the lame-duck Legislature is hustling to assert control over the state’s education system.

GOP free-market policies have severely damaged education. The state’s NAEP standing has plummeted over the past decade. But they can’t let go. The DeVos Republicans want to stay in power after losing the election.

Republican bills would snatch power over Michigan schools from Democrats

“Republicans are working to rein in power over Michigan’s public schools from an incoming Democrat governor and before a Democrat majority is seated on the State Board of Education.

“Bills now being considered in the Michigan House of Representatives during the frantic lame-duck legislative session would create a commission largely appointed by Republicans that would have broad authority over schools. In essence, it would serve as a shadow State Board of Education that would not be accountable to the incoming governor, the elected State Board of Education or the state Department of Education.

“And, apparently, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is all in on stacking the commission with his appointees before his Democratic successor takes office.

“The bills have flown under the radar in Lansing, with much of the media attention focused on Republican bills aimed at gutting minimum wage and paid sick leave laws and diluting the authority of incoming Democrats Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State-elect Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General-elect Dana Nessel.

“If passed, the new commission would almost certainly have a huge impact on K-12 education in Michigan ‒ from which schools are closed, to which would get extra money and how much classroom instruction students receive.

“These bills basically strip the next governor of the ability to reform education,” said a person intimately involved in negotiations over the bills who asked not to be identified because he works with both parties. “That’s why we’re jumping up and down over this. It’s such a complete power steal from Whitmer that no one should be participating in this.”

“The sponsor of the bills, term-limited Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw, doesn’t shy away from the power-grabbing implications of the legislation. Michigan schools are flailing, as measured by standardized tests, and the State Board of Education and the Department of Education haven’t succeeded in turning the state’s K-12 system around.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Tennessee: New Governor Selects Voucher Advocate as Education Advisor

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2018 //
17

The newly elected Governor Of Tennessee, Bill Lee, has selected the former director of Betsy DeVos’s Tennessee Federation for Children as his education Policy Advisor.

DeVos founded the American Federation for Children, which has numerous state affiliates.

The DeVos groups advocate for public funding of religious schools, homeschooling, cyberschooling, and anything other than public schooling.

If the people of Tennessee want to keep their public schools, they will have to persuade their state legislators to oppose the new Governor’s education agenda.

The linked article in Chalkbeat says that students in voucher schools get lower test scores, which is true. It also says that kids who use vouchers have higher graduation rates, which is not true, because the dropout rate from voucher schools is very high, and the “graduation rate” does not include the large number that left and returned to public school. If it did, the voucher schools would have a far lower graduation rate than local public schools. The first such study, from Milwaukee, reported that 44% of the voucher students dropped out to return to public schools, but were not included in the denominator when the voucher schools’ graduation rate was calculated. Only the survivors were counted.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, Graduation rates, Tennessee, Vouchers

Randi Responds to Betsy’s Lies on FOX News

By dianeravitch
November 27, 2018 //
17

Oh, I can’t wait until the House of Representatives begins to question Secretary DeVos about her reversal of civil rights protections, her reversal of federal protections for students with debt incurred at fraudulent for-profit colleges, and her continued efforts to destroy the federal role in protecting students, whether in K-12 or higher education. Instead of protecting those in need, she protects predators. She is a very grizzly Secretary of Education.

She appeared on FOX News today for 10 minutes and attacked public education and teachers’ unions.

Randi Weingarten responded:

For Immediate Release
November 27, 2018

Contact:
Andrew Crook
607-280-6603
acrook@aft.org
http://www.aft.org

AFT’s Weingarten Responds to Betsy DeVos’ Lies on Fox News

WASHNGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos attacked teachers’ unions today on the Fox Business Network:

“Betsy DeVos is showing her true colors. We are fighting for the safe and welcoming public schools that kids deserve, healthcare protections so people aren’t one pre-existing condition away from bankruptcy, affordable college without life-burdening student debt, and decent wages. Since she is against all of that, Betsy is attacking the unions that create a voice for teachers to advocate on these issues. As secretary of education, it is her sworn duty to help kids and their communities reach their full potential. Comments like these do the opposite, and she knows it.”

Categories Betsy DeVos, Civil Rights, Student Financial Aid and Student Debt, U.S. Department of Education, Unions

Betsy DeVos Will Be in the Hot Seat as Five House Committees Prepare to Grill Her

By dianeravitch
November 25, 2018 //
56

We saw at her confirmation hearing two years ago how ill-prepared Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is when questioned persistently about her views and actions. We saw a repeat performance when she was questioned by Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes.” This is a person who is unaccustomed to being held accountable.

Now, at least five committees in the new Democratic-controlled House of Representatives intend to question her about her many controversial efforts to protect for-profit colleges, not students; to roll back protections for transgender students; to put the burden of proof on rape victims, not their alleged assailants; and many more of her policies intended to weaken civil rights protections and the duty of government to defend the weak and vulnerable, not the ruthless and powerful.

For two years, Democrats watched with fury as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sought to dismantle nearly every significant Obama administration education policy.

Now, they’re gearing up to fight back. Lots of them.

As many as five Democratic-led House committees next year could take on DeVos over a range of issues such as her rollback of regulations aimed at predatory for-profit colleges, the stalled processing of student loan forgiveness and a rewrite of campus sexual assault policies.

“Betsy DeVos has brought a special mix of incompetence and malevolence to Washington — and that’s rocket fuel for every committee in a new Congress that will finally provide oversight,” said Seth Frotman, who resigned as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s top student loan official earlier in protest of Trump administration policies likely to be examined by Democrats.

Even in a Republican-controlled Congress, DeVos had a strained relationship at times with some committees. Her main priorities, such as expanding school choice, were largely ignored as lawmakers hashed out government funding bills. Now she will have to answer to House Democrats wielding gavels, several of whom have long worked on education issues and have been among her most vocal critics.

She came to her job expecting Congress to allow her to shift $20 Billion from Title I to Vouchers. That never happened. Her only funding victory was an increase in funding for charter schools, which now get $450 million, which they certainly don’t need, since they are the plaything of the billionaires.

Many committees are waiting to interview her, including the House Education Committee, chaired by Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia; the Appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut; and the Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep.Maxine Waters of California.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Democrats, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Higher Education, Students

Cost to Protect Betsy DeVos: $20 Million

By dianeravitch
November 18, 2018 //
45

Why is Betsy DeVos afraid? In her first year in office, some protestors in Washington, D.C., objected to her visit at a public school.

Since then, she has had a special detachment of U.S. Marshalls giving her round-the-clock protection.

Other cabinet secretaries have encountered protestors. None of them are guarded by U.S. Marshalls.

Of course, she is very special. She is a billionaire.

She doesn’t leave her office much. She has many days off.

She seldom visits schools, and in the few instances where she does, it is either a religious school or a charter school.

Her public schedule indicates that she doesn’t have much to do, perhaps a meeting once a day, perhaps not.

Others have commented on her many “unexcused absences.” A year ago, the media realized that she was absent from her job about 1/3 of the time and that she has poor work habits. Presumably she still has round-the-clock protection even when she skips work. A teacher who skipped work 1/3 of the time would be terminated.

Does she lack grit?

Does she have a guilty conscience about removing protection from transgender students, indebted college students, and sexual assault victims?

My guess is that she has led a sheltered life and wants to avoid public contact to the greatest extent possible.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires
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