Archives for category: Charter Schools
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Arthur Goldstein: New York Times Endorses Low Standards for Charter Teachers

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2017 //
47

In a spectacularly stupid editorial, the New York Times endorsed the idea that charter teachers don’t need to take courses about education or pass certification tests, because a few charters get high test scores.

The Editorial: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/opinion/charter-schools-hiring.html?_r=1

The Editorial justified this position because the State Board of Regents recently reduced the required number of tests that prospective teachers must take from four to three. Therefore, it is okay if charter teachers take no certification exams at all.

There is some special magic that enables a few charters to produce high test scores even though the climate in these schools is so toxic that teachers don’t stay for long, and they can’t recruit enough new teachers without dropping certification requirements.

Arthur Goldstein writes about the arrogance of the Times’ editorial Board here.

He writes:

“Their piece today is utter nonsense of the same variety put forth by Nicholas Kristof, who bemoaned the fact that Merryl Streep and Colin Powell were unqualified to teach in public schools. The fact that they had never expressed to remotest desire to do that, let alone take the spectacular pay cut that would accompany that decision, never entered his mind. If it did, it certainly never entered his column.

“The Times criticizes teacher training programs. I will admit that I took some crappy and useless courses when getting my Master’s. But I also took great courses in my subject area, courses that gave me a very good understanding of language acquisition, bilingualism, and the structure of the English language. We all kind of implicity understand its structure but never really have to think about it.

“The Times thinks I don’t need that sort of training even though I use it absolutely every day in my work.”

The assumption of the Times’ Editorial writer is that teaching is not a profession and no professional education is needed.

The same individual has been writing the Times’ education editorials for 25 years. It is time for fresh and informed thinking.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools

Michigan: Legislators Blame Plummeting Test Scores on State Board, Not Failed DeVos Choice Policies

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2017 //
8

This is actually a very funny article in The 74, the unofficial voice of the privatization, union-busting movement.

The Republicans in the state legislature want to abolish the State Board of Education (which they don’t control) because of the state’s plummeting test scores.

The legislators do not consider that the state’s total embrace of choice without accountability (the DeVos plan) might be responsible for the state’s decline.

That would require some thought and reflection, which is in short supply in Lansing.

In a move to radically upend Michigan’s governance over schools, Republican lawmakers are seeking to eliminate the elected state board of education. While many believe it’s unlikely the legislation will pass, both its authors and detractors agree that some action is necessary to arrest an alarming decline in local academic performance.

The proposal is spearheaded by state Rep. Tim Kelly, chairman of the House Education Reform Committee and a longtime critic of the state board. He led a similar effort last year in response to its guidance on the needs of transgender students, accusing members of “practicing social engineering with every progressive agenda that comes down the pike.”

That push attracted dozens of cosponsors but ultimately fell short. Abolishing the board would require a constitutional amendment passed by two-thirds of both the state House and Senate, followed by public approval of a ballot measure in the next election. Kelly, recently nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as assistant education secretary under fellow Michigander Betsy DeVos, has assailed the board as a superfluous institution muddling the question of exactly who has jurisdiction over Michigan schools.”

The elimination of districts and the promotion of choice and charters has coincided with a dramatic drop in the state’s performance on the federally-funded National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In 2015, Michigan ranked 41st and 42nd in the country, respectively, for fourth-grade reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — down from 28th and 27th in 2003. It experienced more modest drops in both eighth-grade reading and math as well, fanning worries of a comprehensive downturn in school quality throughout the state.

Michigan is witnessing systemic decline across the K-12 spectrum,” read a 2016 report from The Education Trust-Midwest. “White, black, brown, higher-income, low-income — it doesn’t matter who they are or where they live, Michigan students’ achievement levels in early reading and middle school math are not keeping up with the rest of the U.S., much less our international competitors.”

Some local observers have laid blame for the poor results at the feet of school choice advocates, most notably U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. After the widespread expansion of charter schools and open enrollment across school districts, the quality of Michigan schools is no better than it was two decades ago, and arguably a good deal worse. Analysis from Phil Power’s Center for Michigan has found that close to one-third of Michigan charters occupy the state’s bottom quarter of academic performance. About one-quarter of traditional district schools were grouped in that category.

I wonder what Betsy would say? My guess is that she would respond that Michigan needs vouchers, which voters overwhelmingly rejected in a state referendum in 2000. Betsy and her husband Dick DeVos sponsored the referendum. Then Michigan could have three low-performing sectors, not just two.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Failure, Michigan, School Choice, Vouchers

Rochester, New York: L.A.-Based Charter School in Financial Trouble

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2017 //
4

Ref Rodriguez founded a charter chain. Most of the charters are in Los Angeles. One is in Rochester, New York.

Ref is in trouble with the law. Until recently, he was president of the LAUSD school board. Faced with felony indictments, he stepped down as chair, but remained on the board. More indictments came, but he refuses to leave the board. The salary for board members was recently raised and is substantial.

Joy Resmovits of the L.A. Times reports that the charter school in Rochester that is part of Ref’s former chain is in trouble.

Unlike Arizona, New York state officials don’t like conflicts of interest.

When the New York state comptroller’s office recently audited a charter school in Rochester, N.Y., investigators found a number of troubling financial practices, including inadequate oversight.

One issue auditors noted was that the local school contracted out its financial management to the national charter network it was part of — and membership on the Rochester school’s board and the school network’s board overlapped.

Rochester’s PUC Achieve is the only school outside California in the 18-school Partnership to Uplift Communities charter school network co-founded by L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez. Rodriguez and his PUC Schools co-founder Jacqueline Elliot were flagged for being on both of the boards.

“While not prohibited by law, these situations create a conflict of interest,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli wrote when the audit was released in May.

Rodriguez has more pressing concerns in Los Angeles, where he faces three felony and 25 misdemeanor charges for alleged campaign money laundering.

But problems in Rochester broadly echo some questions recently raised in L.A. about Rodriguez’s conduct and PUC’s management practices.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Los Angeles, New York, Privatization

North Carolina: When Did Conservatives Become Opponents of Local Control?

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2017 //
11

North Carolina is undeterred by the abject failure of Tennessee’s “Achievement School District,” which turned control of low-performing schools to charter operators. North Carolina will try exactly the same strategy but will call it the “Opportunity School District.”

School board members are miffed that it is taking so long to select five schools for their experiment. Many likely takeover schools have fought back and resisted, with community support.

The state board is adopting a strategy that has no evidence that it works. It removes local control and gives public money to charter operators. Board member Olivia Holmes Oxendine is certain that what failed in Tennessee will succeed in North Carolina, even though Tennessee had many additional millions in Race to the Top funding.

Since when did conservatives become enemies of local control?

Can’t they come up with a better idea than to copy the plan that failed in Tennessee?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, North Carolina, Privatization, Tennessee

Los Angeles: Will Pro-Charter School Board Dare to Hold Charters Accountable?

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2017 //
5

When charter schools were first launched in the late 1980s-early 1990s, it was taken as a given that charters would gain autonomy in exchange for accountability. The promise at the time was that they would save public dollars by having no bureaucracy. So they would cost less, get better results, and be held to high standards of fiscal and academic accountability. As the charters have grown into a politically powerful industry supported by deep-pocketed entrepreneurs, they have increasingly demanded more autonomy, more public money, and less accountability.

The Showdown will come at the next meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board. Billionaires and Dark money have spent many millions to elect a pro-charter majority. That majority hangs by a slender thread since one of its members, Ref Rodriguez, clings to his seat despite being under indictment on multiple charges of campaign finance violations.

At its next meeting, the board will decide what to do about a recommendation by district officials to close 10 charters.

“Charter school leaders, who say they are standing up against regulations they find onerous, won’t back down and will leave it to board members to decide their schools’ fates Tuesday.

“They may get a sympathetic ear because the board majority is the first to be elected with major financial support from charter backers.

The futures of six other charter schools also are at risk over the same issues. All told, there have never been as many L.A. charter schools facing potential closure at one time — certainly never over conflicts they instigated.

If the charters don’t prevail, they still could appeal any denials to the county or state education boards.

Both the district and charter operators say they are looking out for students.

A key point of dispute is the authority of the district’s inspector general to conduct long-running investigations of charter schools. Charter operators want to narrow this power and say state law supports such limits…

The district’s charter division recommended denying renewed authorization to eight Alliance College-Ready Public Schools campuses and two Magnolia Public Schools campuses. Six KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools may be reauthorized on the condition that they demonstrate compliance with district rules in the near future. KIPP administrators have not agreed to that condition.

Three proposed charters, which hope to open in the future, also are at risk in this dispute: one each from KIPP, Equitas Academy Charter Schools and STEM Preparatory Schools.”

The public will soon learn whether the school boards works for the public or for the billionaires who funded their campaigns.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization

Jeff Bryant: Democrats Will Continue to Lose if They Continue to Trash Public Schools

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2017 //
75

Over the past decade, the Democratic party has lost over 1,000 state elections–for governor and legislature. Why? This period of decline coincides with Democrats’ embrace of the Republican philosophy of school choice, closing public schools, bashing teachers, and embracing test-based accountability. If Democrats act like Republicans, why vote for them? If Arne Duncan looks and sounds like Betsy DeVos (with the sole exception of vouchers), why vote Democratic?

Jeff Bryant makes the case here the Democrats are doomed if they can’t support public schools, which are a bedrock democratic institution.

Jeff reviews a “Third Way” document that sounds very much like the Duncan-DeVos agenda for education.

“Here we go again,” was what many left-leaning folks likely felt after seeing a recent announcement about a new effort by wealthy donors to rescue the Democratic Party from its electoral doldrums. Backed by $20 million, the “New Blue” campaign, coming from politically centrist think tank Third Way, promises to lead the party out of the “wilderness” of its minority status to a pathway to “achieving progressive majorities up and down the ballot.”

But Third Way’s offer sounds more like a continuation of the old losing ways. This is especially true on the issue of education where Third Way continues to bang the drum for a failed agenda that voters mostly reject.

The Third Way is Duncan-DeVos all the way:

In its education manifesto “The New Normal in K-12 Education,” Third Way declares that the contentious arguments over important education matters — such as charter schools, standardized testing, and how to recruit and retain teachers – are essentially over and that those who are “fighting in the trenches” just need to get with the program.

The “program,” Third Way advances sounds very much like what’s been in place for the past 15 years, especially during the Obama administration under the leadership of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The title of Third Way’s document is borrowed from Duncan’s own words to describe the need for schools to go along to get along with the “new normal” of Republican fiscal austerity coupled with ever harsher accountability mandates and more competition from charter schools.

Duncan’s calls for higher class sizes and leaner compensation for teachers didn’t sit well with parents then, and Third Way’s support for charter schools, more standardized testing, and cuts for experienced teachers is not popular now.

Support for charter schools has dropped by double digit percentages among Democrats and Republicans, according to a recent poll. Another recent survey found the public is also generally opposed to using voucher money to send students to private schools, an idea pushed by current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos that Third Way completely ignores (maybe because it’s too divisive). That survey also found most of voters don’t find test scores to be the best indicators of school quality. Lack of funding continues to be the issue most often cited by voters as the biggest problem schools face. But Third Way says nothing about that either.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Privatization, Testing

Take This Survey to Help Document the Path of the Privatization Movement

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2017 //
4

Dr. Jim Scheurich of Indiana University and his colleagues have spoken out against the ongoing effort to privatize the Indianapolis public schools. He has developed a brief survey and invites readers to fill it out.

I encourage you to help him. Please revolt the survey if you have your own blog.

HELP US STOP THE DESTRUCTION

OF DEMOCRATICALLY CONTROLLED PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A national effort by wealthy, conservative and rightwing, individuals and organizations to privatize schools, particularly those in urban centers, and turn them into sources of profit is well underway.

Some of us fighting this effort in Indianapolis have identified ten elements or characteristics of what we are calling a national model to destroy democratically controlled public schooling.

The elements or characteristics we have identified come from our experience in Indianapolis, public information about other urban centers, and those fighting the same national effort in other cities

However, we are now trying to more systematically collect national information on this destructive model.

Please help us by completing the survey below along with minimal information about you.

If you have questions, please contact Dr. Jim Scheurich, Professor, School of Education, Indiana University – Indianapolis (IUPUI) at jscheuri@iupui.edu.

Click here for the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/cC8Lrn7a5OPNVpsc2

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Indianapolis, Privatization, School Choice

Los Angeles and Elsewhere: Your Chance to See Backpack Full of Cash

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2017 //
3

Here is the current schedule for screenings of Backpack Full of Cash.

It is showing in Los Angeles next week.

This is your chance to see the controversial film about the rightwing corporate attack on our public schools.

Don’t miss it!

Screen Shot 2017-10-18 at 2.54.40 PM

Please save the date to join LAANE on Wednesday 11/8 at Occidental College for a free documentary film screening of Backpack Full of Cash, a film that explores the growing privatization of public schools and the resulting impact on America’s most vulnerable children.

As you may know, LAANE has been working with the Reclaim Our Schools LA coalition over the past two years to advocate for funding, accountability, and resources for every public school student in Los Angeles. We are excited to partner with Active Voice Lab to bring this film to Los Angeles and continue this crucial conversation. Following the film, we will host a Q&A session to answer questions and discuss opportunities to further raise awareness about issues facing our public schools in Los Angeles.

Narrated by Matt Damon, this feature-length documentary showcases Philadelphia, New Orleans, Nashville and other cities, taking viewers through the tumultuous 2013-14 school year and exposing the world of corporate-driven education “reform” where public education — starved of resources — hangs in the balance.

I hope you will join us for this event. Seating is limited so RSVP today.

Click here for more information about the film and to watch the trailer.
RSVP Here
In Solidarity,

Roxana Tynan
LAANE Executive Director
LAANE is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and the organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities, and a healthy environment.
Donate to support LAANE’s work!
Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Philadelphia, Privatization

Michigan: Leaders of Failing Charter Sector Will Meet to Celebrate Themselves as “Innovators”

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2017 //
7

The charter industry in Michigan might be the worst in the nation, although it has stiff competition from the charter industry in Nevada, Ohio, and California. About 80% of charters in Michigan operate for-profit, and their academic results are unimpressive. The few high-performing charters use the usual tricks of excluding the kids they don’t want. A few years ago, the Detroit Free Press conducted a year-long investigation into the state’s charter sector and described it as a $1 Billion (Billion with a B) a year industry that is unaccountable and produces results no better than, and often worse than, public schools.

In early December, the failing but profitable charter industry is holding its annual conference. Will it discuss its problems? Will it honestly assess its failings?

Of course not! It will celebrate its role as “Innovators.” If anyone knows of any innovation that the Michigan charter industry has produced, please write in here and let us know. Its biggest innovation seems to be stuffing its pockets with taxpayers’ money that was supposed to support public schools, not enriching greedy entrepreneurs.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Innovation, Michigan, Privatization

Nevada: The Copy-Cat “Achievement School District” Is Failing

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2017 //
8

Angie Sullivan teaches young children in the public schools of Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada. Her school is a Title I School. She often excoriates the legislature for ignoring the needs of the state’s neediest children. In this post, which she sent to legislators and journalists, she reminds them that Nevada’s charter schools are among the lowest performing schools in the state, and that their so-called Achievement School District, modeled on the ASD that failed in Tennessee, is also a massive failure.

The Nevada ASD

The Achievement School District is the biggest reform failure in the state of Nevada.

Built on the flawed premise that charters are a remedy for failing public schools, the ASD forces 6 failing public schools into charters. Unfortunately, the worst academic performers in Nevada are charters. Charters are not a remedy. There are zero excellent charters in Nevada. And certainly zero excellent charters in places needing remedy in Nevada.

This is a description of Nevada ASD.

http://www.doe.nv.gov/News__Media/Press_Releases/2016a/Nevada_Achievement_School_District_Eligibility_List_Submitted_to_State_Board_of_Education/

When implemented, no one wanted the ASD job. Certainly no one in the Nevada community wanted the task.

Eventually a young woman Jana Wilcox Lavin with a background in public relations and marketing was imported from the failed Tennessee ASD model to form the new Nevada ASD.

Jana immediately announced she did not want to “takeover” an older school facility. Her primary concern was plumbing. Seems that her “takeover” in Tennessee had issues with pipes she did not want to deal with again. Also charter vendors are not attracted to rural communities. And charter takeover of a failing charter was not an option. Proving ASD charters were not a remedy for student achievement but a business function since they do not go where a remedy for student achievement is needed the most.

Jana has moved on and is now at Opportunity 180. That organization had $10 million (including funds from Eli Broad) under former Nevada State School Board Member Allison Serafin to bring non-profit charters to Nevada. Opportunity 180 also failed.

Due to low per pupil funding, ASD and Opportunity 180 did not attract any quality charter vendors. It certainly did not attract quality vendors with education experience dealing with high poverty and high language learning populations.

Some scary vendors were chosen – later to be excluded.

As mentioned before, the selection process for the ASD was unfair with schools being “chosen” in urban Vegas because the facilities were new. I believe the ASD thought minority parents would be easily swayed to become a charter. They were wrong.

The underperforming list was very telling. Half the list were rural schools and charters. Many listed were immediately disqualified because they were already charters. Outside charter vendors had zero appetite for rural school takeover. No one had an appetite for rural school takeover. Again proving the ASD is not a function of doing what is best for all Nevada students.

The ASD moved to force the six charter vendors on minority communities in Vegas.

Low Performing Vegas schools were the victims. While a very small handful of parents welcomed becoming a charter, overwhelmingly the community came out by the thousands rejecting “takeover”. The community is tired of failed experimentation on communities of color by outsiders. Decades of invasion has taught our parents to be highly skeptical and critical of crazy ideas imposed by top-down policy makers who do not know or care about our kids.

The ASD ended up taking in the Agassi Charters and a very tiny four teacher Futuro started by Allison Serafin’s TFA friends. Some schools ended up with a “compact” since there was no one willing to take them over.

During the last legislative session, correction of this failed reform was attempted. Unfortunately the revised legislation may have been worse than the current version with teacher voice squelched and parent trigger like language. The correction was about forcing charters with even stronger language. Hard to explain the poison pills the NVDOE wanted to place in the revision but they were nasty. While some pieces of the new legislation were better; other pieces were worse. Unfortunate maneuvering by the NVDOE and the ASD. Taught me a lot about the individuals at the NVDOE and how little they know about my community.

We needed to change the ASD legislation but the poison was too hard to swallow.

We are stuck with a system which parents already rejected.

This years underperforming list looks to be similar to last years list. The lowest of the low performers are obviously charter schools and rural schools once again.

https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/362048046/Nevada-s-2017-Rising-Stars-Schools?skip_app_promo=true

Elementary Schools

CCSD Bottom 5% – 12 Schools (5%)
CCSD Low Performing – 14 Schools (6%)
CCSD has 216 elementary schools. (11%)

Washoe Bottom 5% – 3 Schools (5%)
Washoe Low Performing – 5 Schools (8%)
WCSD has 60 elementary schools (13%)

Rural Bottom 5% – 3 Schools
Rural Low Performing- 8 Schools
** 100% of schools in most places are failing – since often only a singular choice is offered**

Charter Bottom 5% – 1 Schools (4%)
Charter Low Performing – 4 Schools (17%)
24 charters – (21%)

Middle Schools

CCSD Bottom 5% – 2 schools (3%)
CCSD Low Performing – 6 schools (10%)
CCSD has 59 middle schools. (13%)

Washoe Low Performing – 2 schools (13%)
WCSD has 15 middle schools (13%)

Rural Bottom 5% – 5 schools
Rural Low Performing – 4 schools
** 100% of schools in most places are failing – since often only a singular choice is offered**

High Schools

CCSD – 4 schools
CCSD has 49 high schools. (8%)

Rural – 5 schools
** 100% of schools in most places are failing – since often only a singular choice is offered**

Charters – 8 schools (67%)
24 charters – 12 having high schools

Nevada has 24 charters. 11 are on the list. 46% of charters are performing lowest of the low. Mater (Academica) , NV Connections, Nevada Virtual, Quest, Delta Academy, Innovations, Odyssey, Beacon, Encompass, Silver State, and I Can Do Anything.

Elko County has nine schools. 7 are on the list. 78% of its schools.

Places like McDermitt which serves primarily Native Americans – 100% of its schools are on the list for elementary and high school.

Unfortunately the list still includes schools which are obviously credit retrieval and alternative programs. This should be fixed instead of continuing to list obvious programs already identified as specialized.

Alternative Schools
CCSD Burk
CCSD Desert Rose
Nye Pathways

In summary:

If ASD is really about improving student achievement and not a Vegas school grab – it will look at the data.

Reform rural schools first since there is zero other school choice in those locations. Some places have the most obvious and overwhelming need. Start in Elko and McDermitt. ASD should focus on places with 100% of schools failing – which are most of the rural schools listed and a third of the list.

In addition, all schools listed should be allowed to make a compact instead of charter takeover if targeted. This was allowed last year and set a precedent.

If CCSD schools are the only schools targeted again for takeover – it will be obvious to everyone this is unfair according to the data. Also, Vegas offers choice by magnet, zone variance, and location. Parents can move students because we have 351 schools not a singular choice.

Charters under scrutiny by the State Public Charter Authority, in receivership, or under investigation should not be allowed to “escape” by opting in to the ASD. That would include all of them on the low performing lists. Nevada Charters have avoided accountability for too long. They need to be closed if they are failing.

Personal note: Also listed are many schools with ZOOM, Victory, SB178 money. This shows that money is obviously required and the Vegas schools labeled Low Performing are filled with students experiencing high poverty and language learners. Since this funding was recently legislated, especially the weighted funding, those places should be left alone to see if those funds can work.

I will be watching ASD closely to make sure it makes it choices based on student achievement . . . and not nice real estate or extra money.

Forcing a charter on minority communities is not school choice.

And that is why Nevada ASD is a huge policy failure.

Angie.

Categories Charter Schools, Failure, Fraud, Nevada, Tennessee
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