Archives for category: Class size
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Los Angeles: UTLA Makes It’s “Last, Best, and Final Offer”

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2018 //
18

Negotiations in Los Angeles between LAUSD and its teachers union UTLA are at a critical point. UTLA issued this statement:


We demand a 48-hour response from LAUSD

When UTLA declared impasse earlier this month, LAUSD officials said they would bring significant proposals to today’s bargaining. Instead, they brought a previously proposed 2% ongoing salary increase, an additional one-time 2% bonus and a $500 stipend for materials and supplies. The UTLA bargaining team deemed this insulting, quickly reaffirmed negotiations are at a deadlock and gave the district 48 hours to respond to UTLA’s package proposal in a last, best and final offer.

“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. We must continue to fight for a sustainable future, yet we don’t have a partner in the very school district we are trying to save,” said Arlene Inouye, Chair of UTLA’s Bargaining Team. “We have been pushing for real change, they are keeping the status quo.”

Some outstanding key issues:

Class Size Matters. LAUSD gave no proposals to reduce class size. LAUSD has some of the highest class sizes in the nation, yet refuses to eliminate section 1.5 of the contract, which allows the district to ignore class size caps.

Fund Our Schools. LAUSD gave no proposals to address funding issues. California is the richest state in the nation, yet ranks 43 out of 50 in per-pupil funding.

Support Community Schools. LAUSD gave no proposals to fund Community Schools. Community schools meet the needs in the surrounding community, including wrap-around services, broadened curriculum and parent engagement.
Less Testing & More Teaching. LAUSD gave no proposals to address overtesting. Our kids are being overtested. Their teachers should have more discretion over what and when standardized assessments are given.

End the Privatization Drain. LAUSD gave no proposals for reasonable charter accountability and co-location measures. LAUSD refuses to address the $590 million lost to the unchecked expansion of charter schools each year.

Despite the need to look at factors that impact student health, safety and well-being, LAUSD has refused to address our common good proposals. In recognition of legal constraints tied to the “scope of bargaining,” UTLA has withdrawn proposals that are not mandatory subjects of bargaining. Nonetheless, we will continue to work diligently with parents and students for these improvements we think are vital to overall student success.

Last Thursday, July 19, LAUSD Supt. Austin Beutner told a room of business leaders at a Valley Industry and Commerce Association forum at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City that if things don’t change, ‘by 2021 we will be no more.’ Read the entire LA Daily News story here.

Beutner also said the loss of $590 million to charter school expansion is a “distracting shiny ball” and not a real concern. That amounts to $4,950 per student per year.

“That is much, much more than a ‘distracting shiny ball,’” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. “It amounts to robbing our students of educational resources and programs. That funding could mean more nurses, more librarians, more counselors, more arts, sports and music programs.”

“The real ‘distraction’ is that anti-union, pro-privatization ideologues are currently running the school district, and they are setting us up for failure, not success,” Caputo-Pearl said. “Regardless, UTLA remains steadfast in our fight for a better future for all students. We continue to fight for the heart and soul of public education in LA.”

Click here for more info on bargaining proposals. https://www.utla.net/members/bargaining

UTLA, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union local, represents more than 35,000 teachers and health & human services professionals in district and charter schools in LAUSD.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Class size, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Teachers, Union

Leonie Haimson: Shedding Light on the Debate about NYC’s Selective High Schools

By dianeravitch
June 22, 2018 //
16

Leonie Haimson lays out the case for reforming the admission practices of New York City’s elite admission-by-exam high schools. Changes are long overdue, she says.

The problem is that so few black and Hispanic students gain admission to the city’s eight specialized high schools.

As a Leonie points out, “Only 10 percent of students admitted to these selective high schools are black and Hispanic, while these students make up 67 percent of the overall public school population. This year, only 10 black students were offered admission to the city’s most selective of these high schools, Stuyvesant, out of 902 students admitted.”

However, only three high schools are shielded by state law from changes initiated by the city’s Board of Education. The Mayor could direct his board to make changes at five of the selective schools now.

New York city’s selective schools are the only ones in the nation that base admission solely on a single test.

The problems are not limited to three or eight high schools.

“The competitive nature of this process worsened under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein. The number of high schools that admitted students through academic screening increased from 29 in 1997 to 112 in 2017, while the proportion of “ed-opt” high schools, designed to accept students at all different levels of achievement, dropped sharply. Even so-called unscreened programs actually do screen students, in covert ways. Moreover, the Gates-funded small schools that proliferated after 2002 initially barred students with disabilities or English language learners from their schools, prompting a civil rights complaint in 2006.“

A major fix would require reducing class sizes in the elementary and middle schools to improve the education of all children.

Categories Class size, Competition, New York City, Testing

Last Chance to Get a Ticket to the Annual Class Size Matters Dinner–Tomorrow Night!

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2018 //
0

This is a wonderful dinner that honors outstanding defenders of public education and benefits Class Size Matters, which fights for reduced class sizes, student privacy, parent voice, and adequate funding for public schools.

The event is tomorrow night in New York City.

Here is the invitation.

Meet Leonie Haimson (and me).

Categories Class size, Class Size Matters Org, Privacy

Leonie Haimson: What Matters Most in Really Reforming Our Schools: Must Watch!

By dianeravitch
June 8, 2018 //
12

Leonie Haimson is a true school reformer, unlike the hedge funders, tycoons, and entrepreneurs who have falsely claimed that title. She is a dedicated education activist who has led the fight over many years for fully funded public schools and student privacy.

In this video, she talks with veteran journalist Bob Herbert about the mistakes of those in power who rely on standardized testing as the sole definition of success, about segregation, about the damage wrought by charter schools, and about the changes that will benefit all students.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Class size, Class Size Matters Org, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, New York City, Privatization, Testing

Join Me at the Class Size Matters Dinner in NYC June 19

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2018 //
1

Leonie Haimson is executive director and founder of Class Size Matters. In addition to advocating for reduced class size, Leonie is a nationally recognized defender of student privacy and has won notable battles against data mining. She is also the most effective education activist in the city of New York. I am a member of her board.

I hope you will join us on June 19 for the annual dinner to benefit Class Size Matters.

Please reserve your seat now for our Annual Skinny Award dinner on Tuesday June 19. We will be honoring four tremendous individuals who have given us the “real skinny” on NYC public schools:

Council Member Danny Dromm, Chair of the Finance Committee & former Education Chair

Norm Scott, retired teacher and
blogger/videographer extraordinaire

Fred Smith, testing expert and critic

And a surprise honoree who will be announced at the event!

Join us on June 19, 2018 at 6 PM at Casa La Femme, 140 Charles St. in Greenwich Village, for a delicious three course meal with a glass of wine and great company!

This is always one of the most joyous events of the year, where we celebrate our victories and gain strength for the challenges to come. Buy your tickets today.

Even if you can’t make it, please consider making a contribution at the above link in honor of these terrific awardees, and to support our work going forward.

Hope to see you at the Skinnies, and thanks! Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-529-3539

Make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters now!

Categories Class size, Class Size Matters Org, Education Reform, Privacy and Privacy Rights

Nancy Bailey: Smaller Class Size Will Make Schools Safer

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2018 //
30

Nancy Bailey writes about the one proven reform that will schools safer: smaller class size

Smaller classes is REAL personalized learning, and it guarantees that no student will be anonymous.

Smaller Class Sizes and REAL Personalized Learning are Needed for Safer Schools

“High school teachers in this country face class rosters of 30-40 students per class. This means that within the course of a day teachers face approximately 200 students! With so many students it’s difficult to get to know everyone.

“Teachers who strike for better wages and working conditions always ask for a reduction in class size.

“Education reformers have rejected class size reduction. Jeb Bush spoke against it when Florida voted for lowering class size when he was governor, although he is a huge proponent of online “personalized” learning.

“Bill Gates has also been against lowering class size.

“Teachers cannot control what happens in a student’s home, but they can work with students to make school a warm environment, where students learn that they have someone they can always turn to who will help them. This is best done with smaller class sizes of 20 or less.

“Even if all classes are not reduced, students should have access to at least one period a day where teachers and students can get to know one another.”

Categories Class size, Education Reform, Safety

Julian Vasquez Heilig Critiques a Study of Charters’ Productivity and Return on Investment

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2018 //
19

That choking sound you hear is me writing the headline for this post.

Just when you thought the charter advocates could not sink any lower in seeking rationalizations for privatization, they go lower yet again.

Writing for the National Education Policy Center, Julian Vasquez Heilig critiqued a University of Arkansas study that purports to show that charter schools are more productive and profoppduce a higher return on investment than public schools. The study under review is called “Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks.”

What would you care about when comparing two sectors, one of which is staffed by professional educators, the other staffed mainly by TFA temps? Would you care about test scores? Parent satisfaction? Teacher turnover? Student projects? Graduation rates? College acceptance rates? Would you consider how the creation of a second sector affects the health and vitality of the first sector? Would you Permit the Second sector to cripple the first sector?

How about return on investment?

This is a mode of thinking with which I am not compatible. I’m reminded of reading I did in the 1990s, when I learned about efficiency experts who studied the curriculum. I was writing a book called “Left Back,” published in 2000. These scientific curriculum experts worked out a way to compare the cost and value of different subjects. They concluded that Latin was not worth teaching because the unit cost was too high. They would understand this new Arkansas study.

Heilig writes the abstract of his critique:

“A report released by the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform contends that charter schools produce more achievement per dollar invested, as compared to public schools. This newest report is focused on city-level analyses in eight US cities (Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, New York City, San Antonio, and Washington D.C.) and uses cost effectiveness and Return on Investment (ROI) ratios. It concludes that charter schools deliver a weighted average of an additional 4.34 NAEP reading points and 4.73 NAEP math points per $1000 invested. The report also argues that that charter schools offer an advantage of $1.77 in lifetime earnings for each dollar invested, representing a ROI benefit of 38%. However, there are a variety of methodological choices made by the authors that threaten the validity of the results. For example, the report uses revenues rather than actual expenditures – despite well-established critiques of this approach. The report also fails to account for the non-comparability of the student populations in charter and comparison public schools. Three other problems also undercut the report’s claims. First, even though the think tank’s earlier productivity report included a caveat saying that causal claims would not be appropriate, the new report omits that caution. Second, the report’s lack of specificity plagues the accuracy and validity of its calculations; e.g., using state-level data in city-level analyses and completely excluding race and gender. Finally, the authors again fail to reconcile their report with the extensive literature of contrary findings.“

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Class size, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, National Education Policy Center, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider: Bill Gates, Hypocrite

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2018 //
41

 

Mercedes Schneider takes apart Bill Gates and his monumental hypocrisy and arrogance. 

She documents his predilection for experimenting on other people’s  children, as he did with the Commin Core, and his penchant for carelessly destroying other people’s  lives, as he did with the ineffective teacher evaluations.

She notes that he recently announced an initiative to fix poverty, but is not investing much money, as compared to the billions he wasted on education forays.

Bill Gates has funded studies to belittle class size reduction, though in his own schooling and in that of his children, small classes were crucial.

He has given advice lately, sharing advice about how to raise children. He says you should love them unconditionally and pay no mind to their grades or test scores. Nice for his children, whose elite schools would never follow Gates’ education ideas. But what about the teachers who got fired because their students didn’t try or their parents didn’t care?

And last, to really see how out of touch he is, read about the “modest” bequests he plans to leave them.

 

Categories Class size, Common Core, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations

This is What an Activist Does: Leonie Haimson Fights for Reduced Class Size

By dianeravitch
April 16, 2018 //
24

 

Leonie Haimson is a model of an activist who drives city and officials crazy, as well as the billionaires who think they can drive policy with their money. She has two passions: reducing class size and student privacy. She created two groups to fight for her causes: class Size Matters and Student Privacy Matters. Leonie and her allies (the Parent Coalition for Studebt Privacy)  killed inBloom, the data mining program of students that Gates and Carnegie funded with $100 Million. (Full disclosure: I am a member of her board [Class Size Matters] and she is a member of the board of the Network for Public Education.) With meager resources, Leonie writes, testifies, organizes, blogs, and is a force to be reckoned with.

This week, she and a coalition of parents filed a lawsuit against the state and the city to demand class size reduction. 

See the lawsuit here. 

“Advocates and city parents have filed a lawsuit calling on state Education Department officials and city schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to reduce class sizes in the public schools.

“The suit filed in Albany State Supreme Court Thursday was brought by advocates with Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education and nine parents from all five New York City boroughs.

“It claims the state and city Education officials have ignored a 2007 law called the Contract for Excellence that required the city to lower class sizes.

“Class Size Matters founder Leonie Haimson said the city has instead increased class sizes, with nearly one-third of all students in classes of 30 or more children.

“It is unconscionable that the state and the city have flouted the law and are subjecting over 290,000 students to overcrowded classes of 30 students or more,” said Haimson, citing a Class Size Matters analysis of city Education Department data.”

Categories Class size, New York, New York City, Privacy and Privacy Rights

Duane Swacker on Teaching and Learning

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2018 //
57

 

Duane Swacker is a retired teacher in Missouri. He shares his wisdom here.

 

“Anyone who has taught for a decent length of time, oh minimum 5-10 years understands this process and more likely than not has done something very similar. And it does mean taking the time to listen to the student on a one on one basis (somehow making time to do so without it being so intrusive as to turn off said student).

“One student, whom I still see in the local small town bar every couple of months, a certified heavy equipment operator, struggled with my class-Spanish as a freshman. His mom and I did all kinds of things to try to get him interested. I know, because he told me, that the reason he did any work at all was because I took the time to talk with him about. . . outdoors, fishing, hunting. See he was and still is a country boy through and through and I (who has a lot of country boy in me) enjoyed talking to him about his adventures out in the woods and on the farm.

“Every year I had the students prepare authentic type dishes from different Spanish speaking countries (no, not tacos, burritos and that stuff, food really good recipes). I let the students pick the recipes, with my approval. This student picked out a recipe for a braised saffron rabbit dish from Spain. I asked if he had the half dozen rabbits in the freezer and he said, “nah, I’ll go out and get em this weekend.” And he did and with his mom’s help (I supplied the saffron as it is more expensive than gold) they prepared the dish. And it was exquisite.

“He came back for level 2 after having gone from a low D in first semester and did a lot better in attempting to learn that second year.

“No doubt that the very basic human connection is one of the most important in the teaching and learning process and why smaller class sizes are the real, and perhaps only, reform that we really need.”

Categories Class size, Teachers and Teaching
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