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School Closings in Chicago: Call in the Lawyers

By dianeravitch
March 8, 2013 //
8

Chicago’s Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett knows better, but she is following orders. Just following orders.

The “independent panel” that she convened advised her to go full steam ahead.

Who will be hurt? African-American children, African-American families and communities.

Barbara, don’t do it.

Barbara, tell Rahm no.

Barbara, you know this is wrong.

Serve the children, not the corporations, hedge fund managers, and entrepreneurs.

Barbara. Listen to the children.

Barbara, you can be a national hero.

Use your voice and your talents for good.

Get on the right side of history.

It’s not too late.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm

CPS Plans to Close Schools, Increase Class Sizes

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2013 //
27

I just received a press release from the Chicago Teachers Union, alerting the public that CPS plans to close schools and to increase class sizes. To call this “reform” is outrageous. The children in Chicago needs smaller classes, not classes of 35-40. A teacher who is a “high-quality” teacher in a class with 24 students will not be a “high-quality” teacher if placed in a class of 35-40 students. Many of the students will have disabilities, or language learning issues, or behavioral problems. Instead of instruction, the teacher will spend most of his or her time on classroom management. This is just more of the corporate reform babble; neither Bill Gates nor Michael Bloomberg ever put their own children in classrooms with 35-40 students. Why do they want to do that to other people’s children?

 

Below is the CTU press release:

 

 

 

CPS Target of 30 to 40 Students in a Classroom is a

Dangerous Benchmark for Utilization ‘Crisis’

If 80 schools are shuttered class sizes will balloon

 

CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) opposes the larger classroom sizes that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) targets as “ideal” in its threats to close 13 percent of the city’s neighborhood schools by the end of this school year. Both research and teacher experience indicate that smaller class sizes, particularly at lower grade levels, contribute to increased learning and optimal classroom activity as teachers are better able to modify instruction to meet the needs of individual children and better communicate with their parents.

 

A recent press report indicated that the so-called “utilization crisis” manufactured by CPS is based on the assumption that 30 the ideal number of students for an “average class size.” Because the typical Chicago classroom has far fewer than 30 students, raising the target figure to 30 made it easier for CPS to manufacture a utilization crisis and use that as justification for closing scores of public schools.

 

“What CPS has done is damaging on two fronts,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “First, they’re misleading the public with this space ‘crisis’ they’ve created using their own benchmark, and second, the benchmark they’ve set is much higher than the city and state average and what we know provides the best environment for our students to succeed.”

 

CPS class sizes are already among the highest in Illinois. Last year, early grade classrooms in the city were on average larger than those in 95 percent of the districts in the rest of the state. Classrooms in CPS high schools had the fifth highest class size compared to other districts in Illinois. Many high schools and elementary schools slated for turnaround actions in recent years had multiple oversized classrooms.

 

Tennessee’s Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) found that smaller class sizes had positive effects at the early childhood level (k-3),  across all school locations (rural, urban, inner city, suburban), on every achievement measure and for all subjects (reading, mathematics, science, social science, language, study skills).

 

The study also found that students assigned to small classes of 15 students in early grades graduated on schedule at a higher rate (76 percent) than students from regular classes  of 24 (64 percent). The same students also completed school with an honors diploma more often than students from regular classes and dropped out of school less often (15 percent) compared to the regular classes (24 percent).

 

“Smaller class sizes are a proven school policy that works, narrows the achievement gap and is manageable for both our teachers and students,” said CTU Research Director Dr. Carol Caref.

 

Echoing education reformers Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, CPS Communication Director Becky Carroll was quoted in the press saying that a teacher of high quality “could take 40 kids in a class and help them succeed.”

 

Lewis said, “This just evidence of what we’re dealing with at City Hall and CPS–insults and untested hypothesis.  This is the result of having decision makers who are completely out of touch—or just plain ignorant—when it comes to what’s going on in the classroom.”                                                 

 

Categories Chicago, Class size, Unions

Research on School Closings

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2013 //
3

Before the passage of No Child Left Behind, public schools were seldom closed for low test scores. School officials and the public understood that low test scores reflected the social and economic conditions in which students live. It made no sense to punish the school because its students were living in poverty. After NCLB and Race to the Top, more and more urban schools are being closed to punish them for their low test scores.

A reader suggested that we read the following research brief:

“Here is a recent Issue Brief from Research for Action that looks into school closings in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Quick but great read:

http://bit.ly/13CAUuN”

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, New York City, Philadelphia, Poverty

Another Charter School Conflict in Chicago?

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2013 //
6

Advocates of charter schools can’t understand why anyone questions the purity of their motives or the excellence of their results. When there are scandals, they brush them off as mere anecdotes. When a charter operator steals millions, that’s an anecdote too. Nothing interferes with their belief that deregulation and lack of oversight is the right formula for school success.

In Chicago, we learned recently that the second-ranking official at the UNO charter chain resigned after awarding millions of dollars in contracts to family members or politically connected individuals.

Here is another. Chicago plans to close 129 elementary schools because of “underutilization,” even as they open 60 new charter schools, some in the same neighborhoods where enrollment is allegedly low. Here is an interesting web woven around a new charter:

“Jeannie Kim is employed by the Board of Education, where she works as an instructional effectiveness specialist for the Pershing Network. Her job, like her 17 other counterparts citywide, is to work with principals to evaluate teachers from an administrative perspective, and make sure CPS’s official Teaching Framework is being enforced. In fact, according to several people from the Chicago Teachers Union we spoke to on background, people like Kim have the power to get tenured teachers terminated, or at least put on a remedial track, if not reassigned to a different school altogether.”

“Besides being a member of the Board of Education’s administration staff, Jeannie Kim is also a founding member of the design team for the proposed Be the Change Charter School. In fact, Kim’s name appears in fundraising emails obtained by Chicagoist, and on the charter school’s not for profit incorporation papers as the organization’s agent. And on the not for profit’s most recent annual report, as filed with the State of Illinois, Kim is listed as the organization’s secretary. These documents list a condo in the West Loop owned my Kim and a man named John Bang.”

To understand these relationships, it is important to ponder these words: Chicago, power, politics, money.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago

More on the UNO Scandal in Chicago

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2013 //
4

Fred Klonsky sheds new light on the UNO scandal in Chicago.

How did Juan Rangel get $98 million to build new charter schools?

If Chicago schools are overcrowded, why is CPS planning to close 129 schools?

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools

Insiders’ Report on History of Chicago Teachers Union

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2013 //
9

SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION

George Schmidt is the quintessential fiery fighter for workers and teachers rights. His analysis oh how the CTU got to where it is today and the challenges it faces in the coming months is below:

George Schmidt

by George Schmidt, Chicago Teachers Union/ Substance News http://www.substancenews.net/

One of the most important things about the past 13 years in the Chicago Teachers Union is that all of us — including those of us at Substance — have a record to stand on (or fall on our faces with). In August 2000, the Chicago Board of Education, at its monthly meeting, voted to fire me, on a motion (“Board Report”) from Paul G. Vallas. At that time, the President of the Chicago Teachers Union was Tom Reece, of the United Progressive Caucus. A year before the Board fired me, Reece had stood up at a Board meeting (February 1999) and told the Board and the world that Paul Vallas and Gery Chico were “the best Board we had ever worked with.”

In May and June 2001, Deborah Walsh (soon, Lynch) and Howard Heath and their slate of candidates defeated the UPC (and Reece) by a wide margin (57 percent of the vote) and the union’s members, after nearly ten years of relentless attacks by corporate “school reform” and mayoral control had high hopes. Sadly, in May (a four way race with no one winning the majority) and June (a two-way runoff) 2004, the union’s members voted against Debbie Lynch and PACT and returned the UPC to power.

On August 31, 2007, the UPC, under Marilyn Stewart, brought in its first post-PACT contract, proclaiming it a great one. But at the union’s August 31, 2007 House of Delegates meeting, the union’s delegates experiences the infamous “No No Vote Vote…” What happened was that Marilyn Stewart called for the “Yes” votes on the proposed contract, then refused to call the “No” votes and ran downstairs at Plumbers Hall to hold a press conference. The result was raucous. But Stewart had been re-elected that year. And the CTU had become a kleptocracy, as the record shows, where the union’s officers and staff were padding their pockets to the point where the union had to borrow $3 million when it faced problems. (The best place to see who profited from those years is to read the list of retired union officials we’ll be publishing at substancenews.net in April, along with their annual pensions, which tell the tale…).

The reign of Marilyn Stewart’s UPC by 2010 led to a union election with five caucuses (out of a promised six) running for election. In the May 2010 voting, Stewart got the largest number of votes, but not a majority, so in June 2010 it was Marilyn Stewart and the UPC in a runoff versus Karen Lewis and CORE. CORE won even more decisively in 2010 than PACT had in 2001. But the nearly ten years of contracts that were negotiated without a fight had done a great deal of damage to the union, and the failure of the leaders of the first decade of the 21st Century to fight strongly against charter school expansion and privatization had done almost fatal damage to the union.

When CORE came into office, lots had to change fast, and it did. The unconscionable pay and benefits of the union’s officers and staff ended. (Again: a check of the annual pensions of those people who have since retired will tell the tale of that era). The hiring of a scab as a very unsuccessful CTU lobbyist ended. And a lot of cleaning up had to begin — while the new officers had to rebuild the union and negotiate a contract which was set to expire in June 2012. Then came Rahm, whose job was to declare war on the union and continue the privatization attack on public institutions that his version of the Democratic Party had been doing for nearly 20 years.

The rebuilding of the Chicago Teachers Union required enormous work, both by union staff and by hundreds (ultimately thousands) of union members. But by September 2012, the union was ready to lead the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012. Despite the sabotage of the strike preparations tried by the remnants of the UPC and some remnants of PACT, the strike was as successful as it would have been, and the members of the union returned to work on September 19, 2012 with the strongest contract — at the local school level — in union history. Not everything had been won, but more had been won during the two years of CORE than during the previous 15 years of PACT and UPC.

I know. I was there for all of it, and we at Substance were reporting it monthly at first, and then daily as our staff and website matured. Now we are facing the odious attacks on the leadership that has literally saved the union (and many of the hopes of unionism) by a coalition that claims it wants to “save” the union! For what? To return union officers to salaries that leave them with pensions of $120,000 to $140,000 per year? To hire lobbyists who are known scabs? To hire research “directors” who not only don’t know how to use computers, but who refuse to learn!?

Rahm Emanuel now has his candidates for the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, and the members will be voting twice in the next 90 days. For the next month, the members will be able to decide whether to sign nominating petitions for the new “Coalition” and for CORE. There may be other caucuses, may not. We will know that when nominating petitions are turned in to the union’s financial office at the end of March.

Then, on May 17, the union’s active duty members will get to vote for the officers to serve from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2016.

CORE has stood for a kind of democracy rarely seen in any union, and I have stood with CORE since the beginning. We had confidence in the CTU members during the harrowing years that led up to the legal strike of September 2012, despite the attacks from right wing politicians, on the one hand, and union saboteurs, on the other. And the strike was successful — as successful as any contract fight could be in the USA in 2013. My brothers and sisters are going to hear a lot of pseudo-history and many faux militancy in the next couple of months, but the fun of publishing the facts and analyzing them every day makes my job one of the best in Chicago, whether I am working as editor of Substance or helping with research as a consultant for the Chicago Teachers Union.

But one thing will be very clear by the time the members of the CTU face the choice of reinstating those who held power and “disappointed” (that’s putting it mildly) them between then and now is a promised. Whether we are reporting about the end of the Reece UPC era (2000 – 2001), the machinations of the Lynch PACT era (2001 – 2004) or the the odious and corrupt kleptocracy and scab regime of Marilyn Stewart and the last gasps of the UPC (2004 – 2010) the facts will be available by the two times the members get to vote: first over the next four weeks as they decide to sign petitions, and then on May 17 when we decide who leads the most militant union in the USA for the next three years.

Categories Chicago, Unions

A “Push Poll” by University of Chicago and Tribune to Support Rahm Agenda

By dianeravitch
February 22, 2013 //
11

Have you ever gotten one of those seemingly innocuous phone calls where the caller asks if you will participate in a survey? You know, market research or social science.

Here is a fascinating account of a “push poll” that starts off innocuous and then turns into advocacy for Mayor Rahm Emanel’s agenda of privatization and teacher-bashing.

Was the caller really working for the University of Chicago? Who knows?

They called the wrong person. He knew too much.

Categories Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider: More on the NCTQ board

By dianeravitch
February 17, 2013 //
4

The National Council on Teacher Quality holds an important position in the public arena, passing judgment on the quality of teacher education programs across the nation.

Mercedes Schneider, who holds a Ph.D. In statistics and research methods, is reviewing the board of NCTQ to determine its qualification to do its job. Among its members are Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp, Joel Klein, and quite a few more. How many have classroom experience? How many understand how teachers are or should be prepared?

Categories Chicago, Indiana, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Oklahoma

Charter Leader Resigns in Chicago

By dianeravitch
February 16, 2013 //
50

The UNO charter schools are well connected. Juan Rangel, the head of the Chicago charter corporation, was a co-chair of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign. He is a major figure in The city’s Hispanic community.The legislature gave UNO $98 million to build three charter schools.

Unfortunately, charter schools are so deregulated that problems arise, like lack of accountability, lack of transparency, and nepotism.

The second-in-command at UNO, Miguel d’Escoto, had to resign when the news came out that he awarded contracts worth millions to his relatives.

Here is the key revelation: l

“D’Escoto’s brothers were paid with state funds under a $98 million grant UNO got to build new schools. The Sun-Times reported Feb. 4 that UNO’s contractors under the grant included d’Escoto Inc. — owned by former UNO board member Federico “Fred” d’Escoto — and Reflection Window Co., owned by Rodrigo d’Escoto.

“Rangel said Sunday UNO would stop doing business with d’Escoto Inc. until after the organization completes an internal review of its contracting process.

“Fred d’Escoto was the secretary of UNO’s board until stepping down at some point in 2010, according to public records. His company received its first payment of state grant money in August 2010 for work on the construction of the Soccer Academy Elementary School on South Homan Avenue.

“D’Escoto Inc. has been paid more than $1.5 million so far for working as “owner’s representative” on that project and on two other UNO schools: in the Galewood neighborhood, on the Northwest Side, and at the Soccer Academy High School that’s under construction.

“Rodrigo d’Escoto’s company was paid about $6.7 million for work on the Soccer Academy Elementary and Galewood schools, and the firm has a contract for about $3.1 million to help build the new high school.

“Rangel has said UNO hired d’Escoto Inc. without seeking other bids but solicited multiple offers for the deals awarded to Reflection. UNO did not use the sealed-bid process that’s required to select contractors for new Chicago Public Schools facilities and other public construction projects.”

But that was not all. In addition to the contracts awarded to the family of d’Escoto, UNO also awarded contracts to the sister of the organization’s lobbyist and to brothers of State Rep. Edward Acevedo, who voted to award the $98 million grant in 2009.

Is this business as usual in Chicago? As the article notes, the public schools are required to ask for competitive, sealed bids. Conflicts of interest are prohibited.

It is certainly not a wise expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars at a time when Chicago is slashing the schools’ budgets, when schools lack guidance counselors, librarians, psychologists, and teachers of the arts.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago

Walton Funds School Closing Hearing in Chicago

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2013 //
10

This is amazing. According to the Chicago education research journal Catalyst, the Chicago Public Schools received nearly half a million dollars from one of the nation’s most rightwing foundations to sponsor “community engagement” on school closings.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to close as many as 200 schools. He also wants to open more charters, which would be non-union and would mean another dramatic decline in the number of African-American teachers. Who better to facilitate the decimation of public education than the Walton Foundation, known for its love of voucher, charters, and privatization?

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Privatization, Walton Foundation
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