Archives for category: Education Industry
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How Testing Has Corrupted Education

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2013 //
6

EduShyster has written one of the most disturbing posts ever.

It is about the business of raising “achievement.”

It is about how “achievement” refers not to accomplishment or courage or integrity or grace under pressure, but….test scores.

It is about how the business of raising test scores is very lucrative for a few corporations.

It is about how our federal government is using our tax dollars to create a racket, er, industry for those who know how to raise test scores by putting kids into “lockdown” while they practice the tests again and again until their scores go up.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit

Good News: Maine Democrats Slow Down GOP Push for Cyber Charter

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
4

Maine Democrats insist on a more careful review of the evidence about the track record of cyber charters before allowing K12 to open one in their state.

Governor Paul LePage is furious! He wants a K12 cyber charter to draw students and funding away from public schools and he sees no point in reviewing the evidence.

Meanwhile, Maine legislators are aware that K12 has gotten dismal results in other states. And they probably remember the exposé of Jeb Bush’s role in pushing for digital schooling in Maine. They may even have in mind the campaign contributions and lobbying that got the issue on the governor’s agenda.

When legislators start asking for evidence instead of blindly swallowing promises and campaign contributions, the days are numbered for the hucksters.

Keep your eye on this reporter, Colin Woodard, he is one sharp fellow. He may singlehandedly save the state of Maine hundreds of millions of dollars.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education

Everything You Wanted to Know about VAM But Were Afraid to Ask

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
3

The Education Policy Analysis Archives is releasing a series of articles about VAM that you should read.

Here are links to the first three. Forgive the formatting. I am copying the email I received. There are more on the way, including a dissection of the much over-hyped Raj Chetty, et al, analysis that made the front-page of the New York Times and was cited by President Obama in his State of the Union address last year.

Education Policy Analysis Archives has just published the introduction and two articles of EPAA/AAPE¹s Special Issue on Value-Added:What America’s Policymakers Need to Know and Understand, Guest Edited by Dr. Audrey Amrein-Beardsley and Assistant Editors Dr. Clarin Collins, Dr. Sarah Polasky, and Ed Sloat 

>>http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1311
>>
>>Baker, B.D., Oluwole, J., Green, P.C. III (2013) The legal consequences
>>of
>>mandating high stakes decisions based on low quality information: Teacher
>>evaluation in the race-to-the-top era. Education Policy Analysis
>>Archives,
>>21(5). Retrieved [date], from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1298
>>
>>Pullin, D. (2013). Legal issues in the use of student test scores and
>>value-added models (VAM) to determine educational quality. Education
>>Policy
>>Analysis Archives, 21(6). Retrieved [date], from
>>http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1160.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

What Happens When the Bills Come Due?

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
5

We have had at least ten years–in the case of Milwaukee, 22 years– of listening to boasting about how choice and competition will change everything. Charters and vouchers will close the achievement gap. They will prepare students who are college-ready. The bottom five percent of schools will be in the top twenty percent of schools. The graduation rate will rise to 90 percent in X years. On and on.

All too often, gullible policymakers choose hope over experience.

At some point, the bills come due.

EduShyster asks a simple question: how are the graduates of “no excuses” schools doing in college? Did those years of filling in the blanks and obeying without question prepare them well?

This is an amazing article. EduShyster has great sources and gets surprising information. Consider this nugget:

“In each of the four school years for which SAT and AP data are available on the [state’s] website (school years 2006-2007 through 2009-2010, City on a Hill’s SAT scores were lower in every single subject than those of both Boston Public Schools and New Bedford Public Schools…When one looks at City on a Hill’s AP scores, its ability to prepare students for the rigors of college appears even more dubious.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

More on Oregon Charter Scandal

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2013 //
16

An earlier post reported that officials in Oregon are trying to recover $20 million from two Oregon charter founders. A reader in Oregon added the following information:

In 2010, AllPrep academies, Oregon’s home-grown charter founded by educational entrepreneur Tim King (a former North Clackamas School District teacher) began having financial problems. A decade previously, King founded three charter schools in that district: New Urban High, Clackamas Middle College and Clackamas Web Academy. In 2008, he left to start the AllPrep and other charter schools in a half-dozen small districts across the state, from Sheridan to Estacada to Sisters to Burns.http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2010/05/allprep_charter_school_network.html

In 2009, Whitney Grubbs (then dissemination grant coordinator for Clackamas Web Academy) wrote this opinion piece in the Portland Tribune.
http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=51075
“As controversy surrounding the proper role of on-line education in Oregon’s K-12 system began to mount, Clackamas Web Academy principal Brad Linn knew what he had to do. ‘I was very confident that we had a great program that was serving the needs of a diverse group of kids in our community, ‘ said Linn, a first-year principal. ‘But I knew if we really wanted people to stand up and take notice of our small charter school, we had to improve our test scores.’ ”

King’s legacy still exists with Clackamas Web Academy. The Oregonian puts their test scores in the bottom tier.
http://www.edline.net/pages/Clackamas_Web_Academy
http://schools.oregonlive.com/district/North-Clackamas/
http://schools.oregonlive.com/school/North-Clackamas/Clackamas-Web-Academy/

Director of Head Start in Portland since 1975, Ron Herndon wrote one year ago, “follow the money.” As the governor’s ill-advised proposal became law, we must “keep tabs on how many ’30 pieces of silver’ and well-connected committee members are rewarded from state coffers.”http://portlandobserver.com/2012/01/proven-educators-not-called-upon/

Whitney Grubbs, a former Stand for Children team leader and an attorney, had already advanced up the ranks. She is Governor Kitzhaber’s P-20 policy advisor under Dr. Rudy Crew, Kitzhaber’s appointed Chief Education Officer, who heads the Oregon Education Investment Project and replaced our elected State Superintendent of Education.
http://dasapp.oregon.gov/statephonebook/display.asp?agency=12100&division=12105

For more:http://www.facebook.com/OregonSaveOurSchools/posts/462571257118317

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Louisiana’s Unbelievable State Board of Education

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2013 //
43

The state board of education in Louisiana, the Board f Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is beyond parody.

Just when you think they have hit bottom, they come up with another outrageous idea.

BESE Is now talking about abolishing certification for teachers. They want to go back to the good old days when anyone could teach without any professional preparation.

A local school board president, Clarence (Sonny) Savoie said that BESE has no respect for teachers and no understanding of their work. He could not understand why other professions would need a certification process, but not teachers.

“I guess it never ceases to amaze me what comes out of BESE. We can certify doctors and public accountants and a lot of other professions, but we can’t certify public educators,” Savoie said. “I’m just wondering if anyone on BESE needs a brain surgeon because I’ve got an uncertified doctor I can send them to.”

Lest we forget: a lot of out-of-state millionaires and billionaires put up the money to elect these people to the state board. Is this what they wanted? Can a state with low achievement improve achievement by eliminating standards for teachers?

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Louisiana, Teachers and Teaching

Did Jeb Bush Use His Foundation for Financial Gain?

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2013 //
39

Lee Fang has published a blockbuster investigation of Jeb Bush’s foundation. Fang is an investigative writer for the Nation Institute.

Last year he published a stunning exposé about the online industry in which Bush and his chief lobbyist were central players. That article followed the money.

In this new article, he digs into the financial entanglements of Bush, based on emails that were obtained by a public interest group.

To understand the great push for online learning, charters, vouchers, and union-busting, read this.

Follow the money. Here is an astounding article about the thousands of emails that were released and what they contained about Bush’s activities through his “Foundation for Educational Excellence.” Read this article from Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Jeb Bush Foundation Under Fire for Conflicts

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2013 //
8

Coach Bob Sikes reports here that Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Educational Excellence is under fire by groups who claim that it is promoting the for-profit interests of its corporate sponsors.

The Bush foundation, which presumably has a tax exemption, claims that 90% of its funding comes from philanthropic donors, not corporations.

This investigation in Maine shows the relationship between the Bush foundation, its chief strategist, and the corporations that stood to benefit financially from the activities of the Bush team.

And any investigation into the connection between the Foundation for Education Excellence and its sponsors should definitely look at the Ten Elements of Digital Learning. (Notice the long list of corporate sponsors, all in the business of selling digital products.)

Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Testing

Amazing Release of Bush Foundation Emails

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2013 //
3

This is the release of emails in response to FOIL of “In the Public Interest.”

Read to see interchange between Bush foundation and corporate interests.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Join Me at Huge Rally in Austin on February 23

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2013 //
8

I will speak at the Save Texas Schools rally on February 23 in Austin.

Help stop budget cuts and vouchers.

Join me in Austin.

Fight for the future of public education in Texas!

SAVE TEXAS SCHOOLS RALLY

February 23, 2013

Dear Save Texas Schools Supporter,

As you know, our public schools are under attack now more than ever. With continuing brutal budget cuts to education, a broken testing system, and proposed private school vouchers that would further drain resources from public schools, it’s time to STAND UP for Texas kids and schools.

Here’s how to make your voice heard during the 2013 legislative session.

1. Be part of our “Fight for the Future” campaign, launching in early January. Every Texas legislator needs to hear repeatedly from you about key issues affecting our schoolchildren. We’ll tell you how with a different idea each week.

2. Join thousands of fellow Texans on Saturday, February 23, 2013 at the Texas Capitol.
RALLY UPDATE

11 am march on Congress Ave., noon to 1:30 pm rally at the Capitol.
Expected Attendance: HUGE! Let’s top 2011’s record of 13,000.
Confirmed Speakers: Supt. John Kuhn, Diane Ravitch. More soon!
Transportation: We can help you with buses from your area this year. Visit savetxschools.org for information.

Become a Local Rally Organizer! See our website to sign-up!

What’s Wrong With Vouchers?

We need to let Sen. Patrick (Senate Education Chair) and other legislators know that vouchers are a BAD idea, because:

1. Vouchers would drain another $2 billion from public education on top of other cuts.

2. Taxpayer money should not be used to fund private and religious schools.

3. Vouchers have been tried in other states and abandoned after failing to improve educational outcomes.

Learn more .
. .
Texas is at a crossroads. The decisions made in the next six months will determine our children’s educational opportunities and our state’s economic prospects for decades to come. The fight for our future is now- please join us in standing up for Texas kids!

Sincerely,

Save Texas Schools

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Texas, Vouchers
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