Archives for category: Education Reform
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Rhode Island Allows Charter School to Award Master’s Degrees

By dianeravitch
March 25, 2019 //
50

The Providence Journal asked me to remove this story because it is copyrighted. I was asked to replace it with a summary.

Summary:

A charter school called The Learning Community is creating a phony graduate school of education, where students will pay $35,000 to get a phony master’s degree. Philanthropists have agreed to underwrite scholarships.

First the charters undermine public schools by competing instead of collaborating. Then they and their billionaire backers open a phony graduate school called Relay where genuine charter teachers, with a few years of experience, award graduate degrees to would-be charter teachers.

Now Rhode Island is giving a charter school the authority to award masters degrees. Every step degrades the profession. Amateurs training amateurs.

Summary: A charter school called The Learning Community is creating a pretend graduate school of education, a move approved by the Council of Post-Secondary Education. The Rhode Island Foundation and United Way gave the charter school $500,00 for five years to establish a make-believe “graduate school of education.”

Teachers who enroll in this ersatz program will take classes at night and during the summer.

The focus is urban classrooms, where students are seldom given access to well-prepared teachers and will get these semi-qualified “teachers” with a make-believe master’s degree. The charter school, which does not have any scholars, researchers, or highly experienced teachers will send their teachers to schools in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket.

The program will have 8 students its first year.

Eight students! What an exciting graduate school of education! How many faculty? Two?

In five years, maybe it will “train” 40 or 50 new charter teachers.

What a waste of $500,000.

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190322/ri-charter-school-gets-go-ahead-for-masters-program

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Rhode Island, Teachers

California: An Alert for Supporters of Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2019 //
5

 

A reader in California asks for help to fix one of the charter reform bill that has a big loophole.

He writes:

“Thank you for all you do for public education. In California right now are 4 assembly Bills – AB-1505 – AB-1508.

“AB-1508 in particular is intended to enable local school districts to consider the financial, program and facilities impacts when approving/denying new charter petitions. This leaves a huge gap for districts to have a say in renewing charters that were imposed on the districts by the California State Board of Education despite denial at the local and county levels.

“Would you be able to alert your readers in California to contact the bill’s authors before it goes to the floor for a vote to add language to AB-1508 to apply to charter renewals as well as new petitions?

“If enough Californians can respond, we may be able to make this proposed law even stronger to bring back local control over the 1323 charter schools in operation in the state.

“AB-1508 sponsors are CA Assembly Members Kalra (author), Bonta, McCarty, O’Donnell, Smith and CA Senators Beall and Skinner.”

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Privatization

SomeDAM Poet on the Rallying Cry of the California Charter Schools Association

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2019 //
27

 

The California Charter School Association recently held a rally in front of the State Capitol and declared that its motto was “Stand for All Children.” Only 10% of children in California are enrolled in charter schools.

Our blog poet, SomeDAM Poet, wrote a poem to go with the CCSA slogan:

 

“Stand for All (10% of) Students” (SAP)

Stand for ten percent
Stand for self-dealt rent
Stand for charter scam
Stand for Gulen man

Stand for puffing cheeks
Stand for quiet halls
Stand for hedge fund checks
Stand for Wall Street calls

Stand for standard test
Stand for testing prep
Stand for testing best
Stand for booting rest

Stand for cherry pick
Stand for hyped up claims
Stand for grad rate trick
Stand for PR games

Stand for wild west
Stand for lack of laws
Stand for what is Best
Stand for charter cause

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Testing

Arizona Republic Wins Prestigious George Polk Award for Education Reporting for Expose of Charter School Corruption

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2019 //
4

A crack investigative team at the Arizona Republic won the prestigious George Polk Award for their fearless expose of charter school corruption in the state.

Now we might wonder where are the think tanks like the Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution, which never utter a critical word about charter school corruption and malfeasance. CAP and Brookings are supposedly “liberal” think tanks, but for some reason they are unwilling and unable to say anything about the scams in charter world. My guess is that they are still protecting Obama’s education legacy, unwilling to admit that they are also protecting George W. Bush’s education legacy, which was identical.

Through their investigative work, reporters Craig Harris, Anne Ryman, Alden Woods and Justin Price revealed how Arizona’s school funding system and permissive legal structure allow charter-school operators to make huge profits off public education dollars. The team, led by investigative editor Michael Squires, published the five-part series “The Charter Gamble,” which examined how Arizona committed 25 years ago to the then-untested concept of charter schools and what the program has meant for the state.

The George Polk Awards in Journalism were established in 1949 by Long Island University to commemorate CBS correspondent George Polk, who was murdered while covering the Greek civil war, and are presented annually to honor special achievement in journalism, especially investigative and enterprising reporting that gains attention and achieves results. The Republic’s team was recognized at the 70th annual Polk Awards announcement ceremony for “initially disclosing insider deals, no-bid contracts and political chicanery that provided windfall profits for investors in a number of prominent Arizona charter schools, often at the expense of underfunded public schools.” 

Greg Burton, executive editor of The Republic and azcentral.com, said the reporting team “unspooled miles of red tape to reveal what had been hidden during a decades-long push to funnel public money to privately run public charter schools — oftentimes with noble intent. But, where regulators and politicians fail as watchdogs, local reporters are vital. In this case, politicians and businessmen who could have pushed for reform made millions by ignoring warning signs. This is where Republic reporters worked to protect the public’s trust.”

In response to the reporting by the Arizona Republic, the legislature is considering charter reforms but none of those reforms will affect the worst abusers, some of whom are members of the legislature.

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Corruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud

Steven Singer: Accountability Begins at the Top, not in the Classroom

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2019 //
25

 

Steven Singer has a straightforward and sensible proposition: accountability should begin with the people who make the rules and allocate resources.

Instead they have created a blame game for those who try to play by the rules they created, not matter how wrong those rules are.

Read the following and read his post to learn the Code of Conduct he has devised for those who make the rules.

He writes:

 

School Accountability Begins With the People Who Make the Rules: A Code of Conduct for Politicians and Test Makers

thumbnail_Screen Shot 2019-03-18 at 1.17.54 PM

Standardized testing is all about accountability.
 

We’ve got to keep schools accountable for teaching.
 

We’ve got to keep students accountable for learning.

 
It’s kind of a crazy idea when you stop to think about it – as if teachers wouldn’t teach and students wouldn’t learn unless someone was standing over them with a big stick. As if adults got into teaching because they didn’t want to educate kids or children went to school because they had no natural curiosity at all.
 

So we’ve got to threaten them into getting in line – students, teachers: march!

 
But that’s not even the strangest part. It’s this idea that that is where accountability stops.

 
No one has to keep the state or federal government accountable for providing the proper resources.

 
No one has to keep the testing companies accountable for creating fair and accurate assessments.

 
It’s just teachers and students.
 

So I thought I’d fix that with a “Code of Conduct for Politicians and Test Makers.”

 
After all, that’s what we do when we want to ensure someone is being responsible – we remind them of their responsibilities.
 

You see, the state and federal government are very concerned about cheating.

 
Not the kind of cheating where the super rich pay off lawmakers to rig an accountability system against the poor and minorities. No. Just the kind of cheating where teachers or students try to untie their hands from behind their backs.

 
They’re very concern about THAT.

 
When you threaten to take away a school’s funding and fire teachers based on test scores, you tend to create an environment that encourages rampant fraud and abuse.

 
So the government requires its public servants to take on-line courses in the ethics of giving standardized tests. We have to sit through canned demonstrations of what we’re allowed to do and what we aren’t allowed to do. And when it’s all over, we have to take a test certifying that we understand.
 

Then after we proctor an exam, we have to sign a statement swearing that we’re abiding by these rules to ensure “test security.”
 

This year, for the first time, I’m supposed to put my initials on the answer sheets of all of my students’ Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests to prove….  I don’t know. That I was there and if anything went wrong, it’s my fault. Burn the witch. That sort of thing.

Even our students have to demonstrate that they’re abiding by the rules. Children as young as five have to mark a bubble on their test signifying that they’ve read and understood the Code of Conduct for Test Takers.
 

I still don’t understand how that’s Constitutional.

 
Forcing children to sign a legal document without representation or even without their parents or guardians present – it sure looks like a violation of their civil rights.
 

But that’s what accountability looks like when you only require certain people to be accountable.

 
So back to my crazy idea.
 

Perhaps the corporate flunkies actually designing and profiting off these tests should be held accountable, too. So should lawmakers requiring all this junk.
 

Maybe they should have to sign a “Code of Conduct for Politicians and Test Makers” modeled after the one the rest of us peons have to use to sign our lives away.

 

Read Steven’s “Code of Conduct for Politicians and Test Makers.”
 

 

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Testing

Karen Francisco: Portait of a Lifelong Teacher

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2019 //
4

 

Karen Francisco, editorial page editor of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, wrote a moving tribute to our dear friend Phyllis Bush. She called Phyllis “a lifelong teacher.” She taught for 32 years. When she retired, however, she never stopped teaching.

Francisco quotes some of Phyllis’s former students, who describe how Phyllis Bush changed their lives.

The editorial includes a photograph that catches the only moment when Phyllis was ever speechless. That moment occurred at the last annual conference of the Network for Public Education, held in Indianapolis, when the winner of the first annual Phyllis Bush Award for Grassroots Activism was announced. As one, the audience jumped to its feet and gave Phyllis a standing ovation.

That was a precious moment, filled with love, respect, and admiration for a woman who never stopped teaching and never lost her sparkling sense of humor.

Categories Courage, Education Reform, Humor, Indianapolis, Love

Arizona: Acclaimed BASIS Charter Schools Are $44 Million in Red, Audit Shows

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2019 //
8

 

US News & World Report and Newsweek ranked BASIS charter schools in Arizona as the best high schools in the nation, without noting their dramatic attrition rates and demographics that heavily favor whites and Asians.

But a new audit shows that BASIS is in deep financial trouble.

“The globally renowned BASIS charter school system is nearly $44 million in the red, according to a recent report from a Phoenix-based watchdog group.

“The international charter chain, whose first campus opened in Tucson in 1998, lost nearly $12 million in net assets last fiscal year alone, according to an analysis from Arizonans for Charter School Accountability. BASIS rejects the report’s findings.

“Jim Hall, the accountability organization’s founder, generated the report based on audit documents available on the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools’ website. The Arizona Daily Star confirmed the deficit claims independently with the charter board audit.

“Despite its multimillion-dollar deficit, BASIS Charter Schools, Inc., did retain about $17.2 million in cash flow by the end of the last fiscal year, according to the audit. Hall argues this was possible because BASIS refinanced many of the loans it has taken out over the years to keep its 22 Arizona campuses up and running.”
The charter chain denies that it’s in financial distress, but about 60% of its expenses are payments to the for-profit corporation that operate the chain and nearly 11% is spent for administration.

 

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider On Campbell Brown’s Short But Rewarding Life as an Education Reformer

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2019 //
18

 

Ah, Campbell Brown, we hardly knew ye!

Brown blazed across the Deform firmament like a shooting star, fighting sexual predators in the classroom, unions, tenure, and all other things that crossed her fevered brow.

She raised millions, and now she’s off to a new life at Facebook.

Gone and forgotten.

Mercedes Schneider tells the story here. 

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Teacher Tenure, Teachers, Unions

Right-Wing Blogs Spread Lies about AOC Appearance in Jackson Heights Public Education Forum

By dianeravitch
March 21, 2019 //
82

I wrote a post about my very pleasant experience meeting the wonderful, charming, brilliant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Jackson Heights, and I described her as “warm, comfortable in her skin, somewhat taken aback by her sudden fame, and unpretentious.” I said that she paid attention, and that she came to listen and learn. Everyone at the meeting was thrilled to meet her, and she took the time to shake hands, take selfies, and give generously of herself to all of the people who crowded in to meet her. She is a superstar, deservedly.

I noted that “It was a bit jarring to hear AOC say that she was treated in the Yorktown schools as in need of remedial education because she was Hispanic, not mainstream, but, she said, “a-high-stakes standardized Test” revealed she was in the 99th percentile. No one stopped to point out that she could not be referring to any high-stakes test used for accountability purposes because they don’t rank by percentile. They classify students as 1, 2, 3, or 4. Her teacher must have given her a no-stakes individual test that produces a percentile ranking for diagnostic purposes. Well, she can’t know everything about everything. None of us do.” I was not criticizing her but pointing out that she probably took an Iowa test or some other kind of test that gives percentile rankings, which NCLB tests do not. When you are a student, when you are in elementary school, you are not likely to know what kind of test you are taking, whether it is an Iowa test or a Pearson test or some other kind of test.

Imagine how surprised I was to see that a number of right-wing blogs claimed that I accused AOC of “lying.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

This one is titled “Ocasio-Cortez Lied About Her Test Scores to a Public Education Group.”

This was picked up by another blog.

And yet another blog, which attacked me too, for my writings about Afrocentrism from nearly 30 years ago.

And yet another blog, called “Liberty Redux.”

This one was titled “Did Ocasio-Cortez Lie about Her Test Scores at Anti-Charter School Rally?” 

This was repeated by another blog.

Probably it is continuing to spread through the fevered nether regions of the blogosphere, where mud-slinging is commonplace.

All of them made the false claim that I accused AOC of lying, which I did not. I said that she may have confused one kind of test for another, which is a mistake that any elementary school child might make. That is not a lie. NCLB state tests are not reported in percentiles, but as 1, 2, 3, 4, or below basic, basic, proficient, advanced.

All of these blogs somehow managed to find unflattering pictures of AOC, which is not easy because she is a very beautiful young woman.

Let me say this as clearly as possible so there is no misunderstanding.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez DID NOT LIE ABOUT HER TEST SCORES. AOC said that some of her teachers believed she was in need of remedial education until she took a standardized test in which she scored in the 99th percentile. I believe her. She is a brilliant young woman.

Her honesty, her integrity, her sincerity, and her genuine concern for other people shines through her.

I am old enough to be AOC’s grandmother, and I am proud to have met her. She is a shining example of the best in America.

The people who write these mendacious, lying blogs do not have the credibility to shine AOC’s shoes.

They are liars.

They are sycophants of the far-right.

They can do me a favor and not read my blog in the future.

They are spam and they will stay spam.

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Lies

Rhode Island: New Commissioner Pledges Dramatic Improvements

By dianeravitch
March 21, 2019 //
8

 

 

Governor Gina Raimondo selected the deputy commissioner from New York to lead Rhode Island.  She is a Reformer, already chosen by Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change as a future member of their group.

 

“PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When Gov. Gina M. Raimondo began her search for the state’s next Education Commissioner, her conversations with experts, teachers, and other leaders in the field of education kept coming back to one name: Angelica Infante-Green.

“With a “25-year track record of success” as a “fierce fighter for children,” Infante-Green was nominated as Rhode Island’s next Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education because she’s dedicated her entire career to “ensuring that all students have an opportunity to succeed. And her results in New York City and in New York state speak for themselves,” Raimondo said on Tuesday morning.

“Infante-Green serves as the Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Instructional Support for pre-school through grade 12.

“During her tenure in New York, the state’s graduation rate increased and students made gains on both math and English assessments, while achievement gaps narrowed for black and Latino students. English language arts proficiency for grades 3 through 8 increased by 16 percentage points for black students and 15 percentage points for Latino students between 2015 and 2018. In that same period, math proficiency increased by eight percentage points for black students and seven percentage points for Latino students.

“Infante-Green’s time in New York showcased “consistent improvements in educational outcomes of all students, urban and suburban, rich and poor, inner city, every zip code, every race, every gender, every special need,” the governor said…

”Infante-Green has worked as an adjunct professor, serves on Stanford University’s Understanding Language Committee, and is a member of the first cohort of the Chiefs for Change Future Chiefs program. Her nomination is expected to be considered by the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education and the Board of Education on March 26. If confirmed by the Board, she will be Rhode Island’s first Latina Commissioner of Education, and the state’s first Commissioner of color.”

Her predecessor Ken Wagner held the same position in New York. New York’s NAEP scores have been flat for 20 years. It is typical of Reformers to make grandiose promises but not wise. Think Mike Miles in Dallas, who arrived in Dallas with amazing targets and was booted out three years later, having met none of them and driven out many teachers.

Categories Education Reform
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