Archives for category: Education Industry
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Anthony Cody: The Nine Most Terrifying Words in the English Language

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
58

Anthony Cody explains that the nine most terrifying words in the English language to an educator are, “I’m from Big Business, and I’m here to help.”

Business ideas about competition and incentives, he says, don’t work in schools.

Profit-driven reforms don’t work either.

Businesses and schools have different bottom lines.

As he concludes:

“The market system demands winners and losers, and the biggest losers of all are the students who find themselves left behind in schools that are unprofitable, or because they are more difficult to educate, and thus are liabilities to whatever schools they enroll in….

“I wrote a week ago that our schools are like a living organism under attack by those who wish to divert resources into profitable ventures. Those of us resisting this are perhaps becoming more activated, like white blood cells are activated when the body’s immune system detects an invasion. We need to understand the reasons business interests are realigning our schools, and work to preserve the core mission of our public education system. Our schools do not exist to prepare students to be compliant workers in an ever more efficient economic system. We are in the business of creating thinkers, not workers, creators, not drones.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit

In Search of a Metaphor for “Reform”

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
17

Over recent years, I have heard many metaphors used to explain what is happening–what is being done to–the nation’s public schools. In New York City, parents often use the phrase “the emperor has no clothes.” Others may have different metaphors to suggest. In this post, reader Joanna Best thinks that the story of Hansel and Gretel best explains what is happening across the nation:

 

So, as I have worked to compartmentalize all the aspects to Ed Reform (to get a clear understanding of everything), I keep coming back to this being like the opera Hansel and Gretel. Humperdink’s sister adapted the libretto from the Grimms’ tale: the parents have fallen on hard times (like our current generation of working-age Americans)—they are broom makers and they go into the surrounding villages to try and sell brooms (like efforts are being made to get our economy back to a pleasant level); in doing so they leave Hansel and Gretel (the children) doing measurable tasks (a la testing) so that they will be contributing to the welfare in general (working on a broom and fixing a sock); a neighbor gives them some milk which leads Hansel and Gretel to abandon their measurable tasks and frolick as they dream about the milk. When mother discovers they are not working (like those who think the schools must measure and measure), in the shuffle of disgruntlement the milk is spilled (NCLB). So the children are sent into the enchanted forest to find berries (RttT). There are some good breaks for them (the sandman lures them to sleep–they have each other—and they pray quite a bit). Meanwhile mother also prays (those of us in teaching realizing that we have in fact sent our children into the enchanted forest), and realizes she has over-reacted. Father, who has had a good day in the villages, brings home lots of food (those of us finally getting a break in the economy, or finding excitement in how can we better the children’s lives), but it is too late. The children are already out there.


Meanwhile a tasty candy and gingerbread house pops up (a solution to the children’s fear and hunger!!! charters, vouchers, TFA). The children nibble and are then set under the spell of the witch (those who do not have children’s best interest in mind, but just want to plump them up to devour them or line them up in the fence of gingerbread children already captured)!!
For a while, the children are at her mercy. But clever Gretel outsmarts the witch and the children then set all the other captured gingerbread children free—and they become real boys and girls again. The spell is broken. And mother and father appear, after having searched the enchanted forest throughout the night to find them. There is prayer and celebrating and the family is reunited, the witch ousted.
I am sure the analogy doesn’t fit directly, but it is where my musical brain has taken me this week when reading this blog. Here’s hoping all witches with candy houses can be outsmarted by the Gretels of the world—and Hansel can be freed. And the family can get about their business of enjoying what father and mother are able to provide from their business and the children can frolick and be children, as they learn.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

They Closed My School, But It Will Always Be in My Heart: CORRECTION!

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
15

In my original post, I miscredited the author of this piece. It is Carina Hilbert. I attributed the piece to someone who retweeted it. My apologies to Carina Hilbert.

Here is the link to her blog.

Teacher Carina Hilbert is heart-broken. She was proud to work at Albion High School. She loved the kids. The kids were the best. So was the staff.

But they closed the school.

It hurts her to think about it, to talk about it, to write it.

“I may be gone from AHS, but a piece of my heart will always be there, hidden away in room 121, where magic happened, students learned and grew, and lives were changed. We are all Wildcats.”

Who are “they”? Who are these cold, callous people who blithely shut down a beloved school and disrupt communities? How dare they? And they piously claim they are doing it “for the children.” Did they ask the children? Did they ask their parents?

Of course not.

Categories Closing schools, Education Industry, Michigan, Teachers and Teaching

Idaho Has a Problem

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
33

Idaho has a problem, and it may not be unique to Idaho.

One of the most powerful families in the state is the Albertson family, which runs the Albertson Foundation.

It seems that one of the family heirs has made millions of dollars by investing in the online charter company K12, and now the Albertson Foundation thinks the whole state should get behind the for-profit corporation and put their kids online. Follow the money.

The foundation has been running “public service ads” with the slogan “Don’t Fail, Idaho,” insisting that the kids in Idaho are doing horribly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal tests. What’s the cure? One guess.

The ads claim that 60% of children in Idaho are “not proficient” on the NAEP tests, but they don’t explain that “proficient” on NAEP is a very high level of performance, what I consider a very strong A or B. The NAEP state coordinator from 2002-2012 tried to explain what the NAEP labels mean, but he probably did not persuade the Albertson Foundation.

Here are the facts:

In fourth grade reading: 31% of children in Idaho are below basic, just below the national average of 34%.

In eigth grade reading, 19% are below basic, well below the national average of 25%.

In fourth grade math, 17% are below basic, about the same as the national average.

In eighth grade math, 23% of the kids are below basic, well below the national average of 28%.

Idaho is not failing.

What would really fail Idaho would be to put large numbers of students into K12 virtual academies, which have high attrition rates, low test scores, and low graduation rates.

Idaho, don’t fall for a bill of goods.

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, Idaho, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

Reader: New CREDO Study Celebrates “Survivorship Bias”

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
15

A reader, Enrique Diaz-Alvarez, offered the following critique of the new national study of charter schools by CREDO. The “improvement” seems to be a result of closing low-performing charter schools. Is this like kicking out the low-performing students and declaring that your test scores are great?

He writes:

Diane, you *must* read the scenario analysis that starts in page 89.

They actually think the survivorship bias is a *feature*, not a bug! They run a bunch of scenarios detailing the dramatic improvement that you get in results if you eliminate from the study different kinds of underperforming charters (in addition to the ones that were closed down, of course), and theyconclude:

“The purpose of these simulations is not to advocate for any particular approach. Rather, the different scenarios make obvious the fact that the impact on quality that accompanies closure is more dramatic and enduring than efforts to improve the current stock of schools. The glimpse of what the future holds provided by these scenarios should quicken the collective resolve to use closure policies where charter schools are clearly underperforming. If the commitment to quality is to be fully realized, everyone
needs to put the interest of students first and use all the resources at their disposal to ensure the best possible student outcomes.”

Hey! Why not close *every* charter school except the top 10%? Why stop there? Shut down every high school in the country except Stuyvesant and Bronx Science! Everyone will be doing calculus in polar coordinates by the time they turn 16 then!

This is demented. What’s going on? What am I missing?

He adds in another comment:

Further on survivorship bias. From the study:

Results for charter students in new schools mirror the 2009 findings: students
at new schools have significantly lower learning gains in reading than their TPS peers.
[…]
The new charter school results in math follow the
pattern seen for reading – the performance of the newcharter schools mirrors the 2009 results.
[…]

*New* charter schools continue to perform worse than public schools!! It seems clear that all of the improvement is the result of pure and simple survivor bias. You start a lot of charters. Some do worse, some do better, but overall they do somewhat worse than public schools. You shut down the bad ones (and kick the poor kids back to the public schools -lest we forget). You repeat the analysis with the non-terrible ones. Voila! You have improved!

And he adds in a third comment:

From the press release: “charters in the original 16 states have made modest progress in raising student performance in both reading and mathematics, caused in part by the closure of 8 percent of the charters in those states in the intervening years since the 2009 report”

So charter measurements the 8% of schools that had presumably worst outcomes??? Did the study do anything to compensate for this massive survivorship bias?

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Why Is Wisconsin Destroying Its Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
15

A comment from a reader:

 

Dear Readers,

I have been in public education for more than 30 years. I am a recognized leader and have received many awards for excellence and advocacy for children. Wisconsin right now is the “wild west” of educational practice.

I am deeply committed to excellence in practice. I will advocate for strong models for quality improvement and student learning. As a district Carnegie Foundation is completing a case study on our work with a focus on our quality improvement model. I am working with among the best educators I have had the great privilege to work. The early results are remarkable, and I am confident we will be a national model of excellence.

Our Governor and our legislators are walking away from the needs of our schools and our community. Each of our schools is exceeding state expectations. We are in the top 10% performing school districts in the state.

We have lost 41% of our state aid, our local property taxes have gone up by 19%, and our local legislators have each voted to expand private vouchers across the state of Wisconsin, and an income tax credit for parents sending their children to private schools. Our community will off set the costs of this for the entire state of Wisconsin because we are considered a property rich districts. Our community is middle income, but we are the 3rd largest manufacturing community in the state. Therefore, our property values hold at a greater rate than the values around us.

The politics nationally, and within are state, are losing site of community values, the best interest of local economies, and the future for our state.

As a state we indicate we are committed to quality performance, and preparing students for strong post-secondary transitions.

Locally, we will continue to cut 2 million dollars of programming each year under the revenue limits as our legislators advance a dual system for education.

They know and have acknowledged that they will not be able to sustain adequate funding for public schools.

We have among the strongest schools in the nation. We continue to advance policy that will unravel what our local communities value for their children.

The local legislators have stopped advancing policy to reflect local values. They are passing budgets at 2 in the morning with less than an hour of debate. There is no public input and no evidence to support the voucher expansion.

Wisconsin policy makers are walking away from the strength of their schools.

Sincerely,

Pat Greco
Superintendent
School District of Menomonee Falls

Categories Education Industry, Privatization, Wisconsin

Why Education “Reform” Is Bad Business

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
7

In this guest post on EduShyster’s blog, Susan Altman asks whether education reform is based on antiquated, obsolete ideas about business.

Altman is pursuing a master’s degree in International and Comparative Education and Business Management at Oxford University.

Yes, indeed, she says, the reformers look on schooling as a product, not a service. As a product, they seek to standardize it.

She writes:

“Think manufacturing, think Henry Ford and Model Ts on a conveyor belt. Think Taylorism. Now substitute fourth graders and math class for steering wheels and fenders and you have a disturbingly accurate picture of the business principles that inform much of contemporary education reform. According to this factory vision, students are all identical widgets while teachers are nothing more than mindless factory workers.”

This is not a 21st century paradigm, she says. The Ed reformers are stuck in an early 20th century way of thinking.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry

North Carolina Legislature Puts a Few Limits on Charters

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
28

North Carolina’s SB 337 has been revised to add just a few limits to charter autonomy. There will not be a separate charter-friendly board to authorize charters; that responsibility will remain with the state board, which will likely be tilted towards charters anyway.

The original bill would have allowed all charter teachers to be uncertified. Currently, 75% of charter teachers in K-5 must be certified. The new bill drops that to 50%, instead of zero.

Charter teachers will be subject to criminal background checks. That’s a relief. And charters will be expected to reflect the racial diversity of their area.

Educators were less than thrilled with the low standards for charter teachers. One said, “Standards only seem to matter if you teach in a traditional public school system.” Another said, “A license is an assurance to the public, just like when I go to the doctor and look for his license to practice medicine…Do we want electricians and pharmacists to not have licenses? Do we want to create a professional system in which professionals are unlicensed?”

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/06/25/mixed-signals-on-charter-schools/#sthash.vsshLO2t.dpuf

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching

Colorado Virtual Academy Severs Association with K12 Inc.

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
2

The Colorado Virtual Academy, one of K12 Inc.’s biggest schools, has severed its association with the publicly traded corporation. They may continue to use its curriculum but not its management services, starting in 2014.

“The Colorado school has been criticized for its low graduation rates (22 percent in 2011-12, according to state education statistics) and a discovery by state auditors that the school had overcharged $800,000 for 120 students who never attended, weren’t Colorado residents or whose enrollments couldn’t be verified, according to an in-depth 2011 New York Times article.”

But K12 isn’t finished in Colorado. Another online school won approval, and it will engage the corporation.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform

Anthony Cody: Bill Gates and the Invasion of the Profiteers

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
11

Anthony Cody draws a contrast between Lakeside Academy, where Bill Gates and his children were (and are) students, and the current model of education “reform,” which is driven by entrepreneurs and profit-seekers.

Lakeside Academy values the relationships between teachers and children. Greatschools like Lakeside, Cody writes, “emphasize experiential learning, empathy, and above all, relationships between teachers and students. And of course, class sizes are kept below twenty to make all this possible.”

Cody writes:

“The model offered by Lakeside is decidedly not efficient — at least when efficiency is defined as spending the least amount of money spent for a minimally satisfactory result. It requires experienced, expert teachers, small class sizes and excellent facilities. We could simply devote our efforts to making sure all schools got the funding they need to pay for these three basic things, and loosely monitor progress as such schools do, through occasional tests. But where would the profit be to “drive innovation”? So the drive for profits has led to a system redesign, with the introduction of new elements, required not for educational purposes but for the needs of the profit makers. Our education system is being remade to emulate a consumer-driven marketplace. What are the key components we must have?

1. A standardized testing accountability machine. In order for schools and various educational delivery systems to be compared, we must have a common set of standards and an efficient means of comparing the student learning that they produce.

2. A system by which schools that do not yield desired results are quickly dispatched, so as to create opportunities for innovators.

3. Standardized tests, test-aligned curriculum, and software designed to prepare students for tests.
Computer labs, laptops or tablets to allow for “personalized” instruction, delivery of computer-based instruction and assessment, and significantly larger class sizes.

4. Funding systems that allows money to “follow the child” to whatever form of schooling the parent might choose; including private, parochial, virtual, or home.”

Why don’t we do what the best schools do, instead of aligning our system for the benefit of what Cody calls “parasitic profiteers”?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates
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