Archives for category: Closing schools
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New D.C. Chancellor Antwan Wilson is Out

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2018 //
2

 

Another Reformer is out. Antwan Wilson, former superintendent in Oakland, graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy (which teaches school closings, metrics, and charters), has resigned only months after taking over.

G.F. Brandenburg has some questions for his interim successor:

”The interim successor to Antwan Wilson needs to be asked when, exactly, did she realize that:

1. Her boss, Michelle Rhee’s claimed miraculous teaching accomplishments were fraudulent;

2. Her boss, Michelle Rhee was asking principals to cheat;

3. Noyes principal Wayne Ryan was committing massive fraud by “fixing” student answer sheets;

4. Ryan had no business being promoted to supervising other principals…”

and more.

 

 

Categories Broad Foundation, Closing schools, District of Columbia, Rhee, Michelle

Detroit: Families, Students, and Teachers Speak Out Against “Choice”

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2018 //
8

 

At a town hall meeting in Detroit, students, families, and teachers spoke out against the damage caused to them by the false promise of “school choice.” Allie Gross covered the meeting for the Detroit Free Press.

One parent described the wonderful school attended by his child with cerebral palsy; it was to save money.

“In 2008, Alfred Wright enrolled his son, Timothy, in kindergarten at Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic, a small school on the Detroit’s northwest side that specialized in teaching students with special needs.

“Timothy had recently been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and the school — which came with spacious hallways, discreet changing rooms, small class sizes, and an on-site nurse — seemed like the perfect match.

“And, according to Wright, it was. For five years, he watched his son thrive in the close-knit and accepting community. Oakman not only was prepared to accommodate Timothy’s needs but it helped Wright, as a parent, better understand his child.

“But then the seemingly unexpected happened. In spring 2013, Roy Roberts, Detroit Public Schools’ second emergency manager, announced that Oakman would be one of six schools to close the following school year. It would add to the list of nearly 100 district schools that had shuttered since 2009, when the state took over DPS due to finance.

LWright and the rest of the parents were given two traditional public school options: one that was 1.2 miles away and the other that was 2.4 miles. Both choices fell within the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state for academic performance. More notably, neither were handicap accessible.

“All of the things we feared happened,” Wright said, explaining how issues at Henderson Academy, where Timothy ultimately ended up, ranged from bullying and isolation to a lack of knowledge and preparedness when it came to educating students with special needs.

”This reality — instability, uncertainty and inefficient resources — is why on Tuesday night, Wright and Timothy made their way to Wayne State University’s Law School to participate in an Education Town Hall hosted by the #WeChoose Campaign. A movement made up of 25 organizations from across that country — including the NAACP, Advancement Project, Dignity in Schools and Journey for Justice Alliance — the group is working to support racial justice and end educational inequality via, among many things, town hall gatherings that bring attention to what the group sees as “the illusion of school choice.”

“Parents, students, and educators do not choose the sabotage of their neighborhood schools, school closings, zero tolerance policies that target black and brown students, punitive standardized testing school deserts,” the group’s mission statement explains. “We choose equity, not the scam called school choice.”

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Failure, Parents, Privatization, Students, Teachers

Peter Greene: Center for American Progress Calls for Doubling Down on Failed Reforms

By dianeravitch
February 12, 2018 //
44

 

During the Obama years, the Center for American Progress reliably cheered on the administration’s education policies. As one after another failed, CAP never backed down. Charter schools good. Closing schools good. Common Core great. Despite the convergence of evidence that these policies did not work, that they destabilized fragile urban neighborhoods, that they demoralized teachers and created shortages, CAP never wavered.

As Peter Greene shows in this post, the CAP has learned nothing from the past 15 years of failed reforms. They are still pushing policy ideas cribbed from the GOP.

They still are pushing state takeovers and turnarounds.

He writes:

”And what example do folks who support takeovers and turnarounds like to cite? Of course, it’s New Orleans. Do we really have to get into all the ways that the privatization of the New Orleans school system is less than a resounding success? Or let’s discus the Tennessee experiment in a recovery school district, in which the state promised to turn the bottom five percent into the top schools in the state, and they utterly failed. As in, the guy charged with making it happened gave up and admitted that it was way harder than he thought it would be, failed.

“The whole premise of a state takeover is that somebody in the state capital somehow knows more about how to make a school work than the people who work there (or, in most cases, can hire some guy who knows because he graduated from an ivy league school and spent two years in a classroom once). The takeover model still holds onto a premise that many reformsters, to their credit, have moved past: that trained professional educators who have devoted their adult lives to working in schools– those people are the whole problem. It’s insulting, it’s stupid, and it’s a great way to let some folks off the hook, like, say, the policy makers who consistently underfund some schools.

“Most importantly, at this point, there isn’t a lick of evidence that it works.

“We have the results of the School Improvement Grants used by the Obama administration to “fix” schools, and the results were that SIG didn’t accomplish anything (other than, I suppose, keeping a bunch of consultants well-paid). SIG also did damage because it allowed the current administration and their ilk to say, “See? Throwing money at schools doesn’t help.” But the real lesson of SIG, which came with very specific Fix Your School instructions attached, was that when the state or federal government try to tell a local school district exactly how things should be fixed, instead of listening to the people who live and work there, nothing gets better. That same fundamental flaw is part of the DNA of the takeover/turnaround approach.

“But CAP is excited about ESSA because some states have included this model in their plan. So, yay.”

Worst of all, CAP ends it’s paean to ESSA by linking to a paper produced by a Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change.

If proof is needed of a mind meld between “centrist” Democrats and free-market, DeVos-style Republicans, This is it.

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Common Core, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization, Stupid, Turnaround

Julie Vassilatos: It’s an Act of Prejudice to Close This School

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2018 //
7

 

Julie Vassilatos writes about the latest School closing by Chicago Public Schools. It is a heart-breaking story.

The school closing is a real estate deal, she believes. It’s about gentrification, not education.

“Presto change-o, remove the public housing and the mostly-black grade school from the neighborhood, bring in a not-mostly-black high school, and watch the property values go up, up, up.

“These kinds of moves are the reason behind the twitter hashtags #RahmHatesUs and #RahmDoesntCareAboutBlackPeople. Outrageous claims, I bet you’re thinking. But the folks tweeting these hashtags know that actions speak louder than words. And Rahm’s actions via CPS in this new round of school closures tell of a man who will push his agenda no matter how many people it harms, no matter how obviously racist it looks.

“CEO Janice Jackson was not in attendance at last week’s NTA closure hearing. Neither was anyone at all from the board. The mayor wasn’t there. There was a man with a presentation, however, one man, Chip Johnson from the FACE office. He chided the crowd to be respectful this evening, and not carry on in a rowdy fashion like last time. He listened impassively to the 50+ speakers given two minutes each, never taking a note, never answering a question, positioning himself as a neutral party but very much committed to the CPS plan. This entire proceeding transported me back instantaneously to the fall and winter of 2012/13’s terrible school closing hearings, and I was glad I went up to the balcony to watch because I knew that I would probably get emotional or inappropriate or both.

“Because these events are an exercise in awfulness. Listening to one little child after another beg–someone (which public official listens to these things, again?)–to keep open the school they love, occasionally through tears, is something only a masochist can willingly do over and over. Which is maybe why no one from CPS leadership ever shows up.

“Seven children spoke, some as young as first grade. I can’t even imagine the poise of a six-year-old who takes the mic in a cavernous church sanctuary in front of a few hundred people, but I think it has much to do with the bravery that comes from despair. These little ones all love their school and wanted to tell Chip Johnson so. They spoke of their love for teachers and school family, the building, the staff, their classes. One child knew that the reason they were taking his school was that it was a good building with good things. One child knew that the reason they were taking her school was that they could. And one middle-school aged fellow who spoke of NTA’s caring staff had to pause 3 times in order not to cry. That was my cue to start weeping openly up in the balcony.”

It is no longer novel. No one listens to the parents or the children. They are the ones being removed.

 

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Closing schools, Disruption, Racism

Chicago: High School Students and Parents Demonstrate Against School Closings at Private High School Attended by Rahm’s Children

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2018 //
18

 

A large group of students, parents, and activists demonstrated against the closing of their schools at the elite University of Chicago Lab School Where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s are students. 

“On Wednesday, high school students, parents and education activists gathered near the University of Chicago Laboratory School, 5835 S. Kimbark Ave., to speak out against the proposed closings of their neighborhood elementary and high schools. The group staged a “tent city” outside of the Lab School, which is where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s children attend school.

“We have stood up and demanded that the school’s in Englewood be fully funded just as schools in other neighborhoods,” said Erica Nanton, a community organizer, and Illinois co-chair for the Poor People’s Campaign. “We have been ignored, pushed aside and students have been silenced. “We come today on the grounds [in a] place where Mayor Rahm Emanuel does care.”

“The group consisted of parents and students and education advocates from the Grassroots Education Movement, Harper High School, Paul Robeson High School, Hope High School, National Teacher’s Academy, Hirsch High School Students, Hyde Park High School and the Journey for Justice Alliance.

“The group presented demands that they are asking the city and Chicago Board of Education to consider before shuttering their neighborhood elementary and high schools for good.

“What if we were your children [Mayor], Rahm Emanuel,” asked Mackenzie Turner, a freshman at Paul Robeson High School in Englewood. “None of our schools are just schools we are a family. We came together and bonded and built that school.”

“Jakil Benson, who is also a student at Robeson High School, echoed Turner’s thoughts.

“We don’t have art classes or music classes or things to help us find our gifts. We want to be doctors, lawyers, and musicians. We are being sabotaged by you, Rahm Emanuel,” Benson said. “We have low enrollment because you took our funds away these decisions affect our future. We still deserve a better education.”

“During the press conference, Lab students inside of the school cheered in support of the group.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm, Resistance

Tom Ultican: Blame the Democrats for the Mind Trust Model of Privatization

By dianeravitch
January 12, 2018 //
17

 

Tom Ultican blames Democrats for the destruction of public schools in Indianapolis, led by the well-funded Mind Trust. 

What he describes is the Democratic party’s betrayal of public education and democracy. It is a shameful legacy, and it is not about the past. It is happening right now.

He writes:

”The Mind Trust is the proto-type urban school privatizing design. Working locally, it uses a combination of national money and local money to control teacher professional development, create political hegemony and accelerate charter school growth. The destroy public education (DPE) movement has identified The Mind Trust as a model for the nation.

“A Little History

“In 1999, Bart Peterson became the first Democrat to win the Indianapolis mayor’s race since 1967. Peterson campaigned on the promise to bring charter schools to Indianapolis. He claimed, “We are simply in an age where cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all, 1950s style education just doesn’t work for a lot of kids. The evidence is the dropout rate. The evidence is the number of at-risk kids who are failing at school.”

“The new mayor joined with Republican state senator Teresa Lubbers to finally achieve her almost decade long effort of passing a charter school law in Indiana. In the new charter school law, Lubbers provided for the mayor of Indianapolis to be a charter school authorizer. Then Democratic governor, Frank O’Bannon, signed the legislation into law.

“During his first run for office, Peterson invited David Harris a 27-year old lawyer with no education background to be his education guy. Harris became the director of the mayor’s new charter school office. By the 2006-2007, the Peterson administration had authorized 16 charter schools.”

He then goes on to quote conservatives who are thrilled to see that Democrats have embraced their privatization agenda.

Tultican lists the board of directors of the Mind Trust. Notably, none are educators.

“It is noteworthy that no school teachers or parent organization leaders are on this board which is dominated by corporate leaders and politicians. It is possible that one of the four school organization chief administrators taught at one time during their career but no one with recent classroom experience is represented.”

Mind Trust leader David Harris became a rising star in the privatization movement. Tultican helpfully lists his peers, all prominent in the “Destroy Public Education Movement.”

And then there are the funders! Gates, Walton, the usual suspects, the crowd that is contemptuous of public schools.

“December 2016 the not so Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) published a lengthy piece lauding privatization and choice in public schools. They held Indianapolis up as being a leader in developing 21st century schools and The Mind Trust as the catalyst. The paper stated:

A key reason is The Mind Trust, founded in 2006 by Mayor Peterson and David Harris as a kind of venture capital outfit for the charter sector, to raise money and recruit talent. The Mind Trust convinced Teach For America (TFA), The New Teacher Project (now TNTP), and Stand for Children to come to Indianapolis, in part by raising money for them. Since then TFA has brought in more than 500 teachers and 39 school leaders (the latter through its Indianapolis Principal Fellowship); TNTP’s Indianapolis Teaching Fellows Program has trained 498 teachers; and Stand for Children has worked to engage the community, to educate parents about school reform, and to spearhead fundraising for school board candidates. The Mind Trust has also raised millions of dollars and offered start-up space, grants, and other help to eight nonprofit organizations and 17 new schools, with more to come.

“The PPI claims that bringing in 500 teachers who commit for just two years and have only five weeks of teacher training improves education. This is supposedly better than bringing in experienced teachers or newly minted teachers who are committed to a career in education and have between one and two years of teacher training at a university.

“They are also saying that having Stand for Children invade Indianapolis with their dark money and undermining local democratic processes is desirable.

“Instead of raising millions of dollars to improve public schools, The Mind Trust is using that money in a way that undermines the education of two-thirds of the students in Indianapolis who attend those public schools.”

This is as good an analysis of the privatization movement as you will read. And an ansolutely devastating critique of the role of the Democratic Party in promoting this anti-democratic attack on public education.

The Mind Trust has taken the lead role in destroying public education in Indianapolis. It is a shameful legacy.

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Democrats, Education Industry, Indianapolis, Privatization, Shame

Chicago: Fight Back Against Rahm’s School Closings

By dianeravitch
January 4, 2018 //
16

Please tweet:

 

“2 Hours of Power”

Social Media Action Thursday, Jan. 4th

10am-12pm

#WeChoose
#RahmHatesUs

Overview; Rahm Emanuel seeks to close ALL of the high schools in the Englewood community. and a high performing neighborhood school in the south loop. ALL BLACK SCHOOLS. We have united our efforts and launching campaign targeting Rahm TOMORROW. WE NEED YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT as we will start w/ direct action @ 10am CST tomorrow.

Target tweets at:
@cnnbrk
@cnn
@msnbc
@maddow
@Suntimes
@chicagotribune
@ChicagosMayor
@mharrisperry

WE NEED EMERGENCY MEMES!

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm

CTU Leads the Fight Against CPS School Closings

By dianeravitch
January 3, 2018 //
4

Mayor Rahm Emanuel likes to close schools in African American communities. He claims underenrillment but then opens new charter schools to replace the public schools he closed. Is there a master plan? Is this strategy about real estate and gentrification? Large numbers of black families have left Chicago. The Chicago Teachers Union has valiantly resisted School closings, but Mayor Emanuel will not be deterred. Some community activists charge that the school-closing strategy has contributed to the city’s high levels of youth violence. Stable communities support stable schools. School closings disrupt communities and studebts’ lives.

Screen Shot 2018-01-02 at 6.01.21 PM

Stop Destructive School Actions

Closingsviolence_660x440

PLEDGE TO ATTEND

CPS’ dishonest “choice model” — which sets up a limited number of well-resourced magnet schools, a large number of charter schools and defunds other schools using “Student Based Budgeting” — has destabilized Black & Latino neighborhoods, driven families from Chicago, and left many neighborhood schools struggling to offer students a quality curriculum, starved of even the most basic resources.

CPS proposes to close all four neighborhood high schools in Englewood: Hope High School, Robeson High School, Harper High School, and TEAM Englewood Community Academy High School. To the Mayor, their students just don’t matter enough to have the same rights, access or education as his children or neighbors.

CPS proposes to phase out National Teachers Elementary Academy because they want to give their building to another community.

The unelected School Board voted to co-locate a clout-heavy charter school whose charter operator is linked to scandal-ridden SUPES into Hirsch Metropolitan High School, a move that would destroy Hirsch to start a new privatized school.

As CTU members, there are ways to fight back. We urge all CTU members to support the educators and families at these schools as they defend their schools and communities. Here are some of the ways you can help:

  • Attend closings hearings starting on January 9th. Plan to testify to talk about how student based budgeting and privatization are affecting your school and community.

  • Attend actions being planned by the students, parents and educators at these schools. They need our support at these protests to keep the public informed and keep the pressure on Rahm.

  • Plan to attend the next Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, January 24.

Click here for more information.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Education Reform

Chicago: Dramatic Decline in African-American Population As Black Families Depart for Other Segregated Districts

By dianeravitch
January 2, 2018 //
8

 

One thing that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s massive school closings did: They hastened the exodus of African American families from Chicago.

“Chicago was once a major destination for African-Americans during the Great Migration, but experts say today the city is pushing out poor black families. In less than two decades, Chicago lost one-quarter of its black population, or more than 250,000 people.

“In the past decade, Chicago’s public schools lost more than 52,000 black students. Now, the school district, which was majority black for half a century, is on pace to become majority Latino. Black neighborhoods like Austin have experienced some of the steepest student declines and most of the school closures and budget cuts.

“A common refrain is that Chicago’s black families are “reverse migrating” to Southern cities with greater opportunities, like Atlanta and Dallas. But many of the families fleeing the poorest pockets of Chicago venture no farther than the south suburbs or northwest Indiana. And their children end up in cash-strapped segregated schools like the ones they left behind, a Chicago Reporter investigation found.”

 

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm

Leonie Haimson: Why New York City’s Renewal Schools Are Not Working

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2017 //
7

Leonie Haimson has long insisted that the single most effective intervention for children who are struggling in school is reduced class size. She has assembled an impressive body of research showing that class size gives teachers the time that they need for each child.

She has long been a critic of Mayor de Blasio’s Renewal Schools. The Mayor wanted to show that he could create a model of school improvement that differed sharply from the Bloomberg administration’s policy of closing schools in large numbers without any effort to help them.

Following the announcement that the city is closing or merging 15 of the Renewal schools, in addition to the 18 already closed, Haimson has written a scorching critique of the city’s refusal to reduce class size.

“Chancellor Fariña announced yesterday that the closure or merger of 15 more Renewal schools, to add to the 18 that were previously closed or merged.

“This means 33 Renewal schools of the original 94 have failed to improve sufficiently since the program began in 2014. Forty six of the Renewal schools will remain in the program for another year. The list of schools, including an additional five to be closed that were never in the Renewal program, is here.

“This record of failure is no surprise to many of us who have criticized the DOE’s plans for the Renewal schools since the program began in 2014. Despite the city’s promise to the state to focus their efforts on reducing class size in these struggling schools, only three of the Renewal schools capped class sizes last year at the appropriate levels designated in the city’s original Contract for Excellence plan — no more than 20 students per class in grades K-3, 23 in grades 4-8 and 25 in high school.

“Moreover, 70 percent of the Renewal schools continued to have maximum class sizes of 30 or more, and about half did not reduce class size by even one student per class. The DOE’s failure to take any demonstrable steps to reduce class sizes in the Renewal schools was cited in our class size complaint filed in July with the State Education Department, demanding that the CFE law be enforced…

“Instead of capping class sizes in these schools, the DOE spent about $40 million per year on consultants and bureaucrats to oversee the Renewal program, many of them with records marked by scandal and incompetence, as well as millions more on wrap-around services to create “community schools.” Though perhaps of value in themselves, these services do little to improve students’ opportunity to learn or teachers ability to teach…

“The contrast with an earlier NYC school reform effort is stark. When Rudy Crew headed DOE, he created a special program called the Chancellor’s district for the city’s lowest-performing schools. He consulted the research and used common sense by capping class sizes in these schools at no more than 20 students per class in K-3 and 25 in the higher grades, as well as taking other measures. The program was widely hailed as a success, but when Joel Klein took over as Chancellor, he disbanded the district. Lessons learned? Apparently none to this day– to the tragic detriment of NYC children.”

Categories Class size, Closing schools, New York City
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