Archives for category: Education Reform
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Robert Rendo Calls On NY Regents to Oust Elia

By dianeravitch
December 26, 2018 //
19

Robert Rendo, educator and citizen, sent the following email to the New York Board of Regents:

Dear Honorable Regents,

As a private citizen and taxpayer, I urgently call upon you to reconsider Mary Ellen Elia’s position and to demand her resignation with a replacement that will truly advocate for children, families, taxpayers, and do what is right empirically and non-politicized for public education; that includes promulgating strict laws to prevent data mining and to protect student privacy, as well as increased funding to reduce class sizes and supplement far more greatly populations at risk.

As it stands to date, Commissioner Elia:

1. Has ignored parents: Even though more than 1 in 5 NYS parents have refused the state’s tests, the tests and the standards on which they are based remain largely unchanged.

2. Has deceived parents: Under her guidance, the state education department has misrepresented minor changes in the standards and tests as more significant than they really are.

3. Has formulated and implemented polices that are damaging to children and teachers: Rather than championing developmentally-appropriate practices based in research, Elia’s State Education Department has pushed policies like untimed testing (which may actually be illegal as well as abusive) and canned curriculum (which stifles creativity and engagement for students and teachers alike).

4. Has misplaced priorities: The state should be focused on insuring equity of resources, not on punishing schools.

5. Has not shown the will to forcefully protect all children–whether from racist school board members, data-mining corporations, or indefensible assignments (like the one where students were asked to make arguments in defense of the Holocaust).

I, along with dramatically and rapidly growing numbers other state residents and taxpayers, vehemently call for Ms. Elia’s immediate removal and replacement, and I hold you, along with our state legislators, accountable and will continue to watch hawkishly your governance as you continue in your noble and critical path for public education and our precious children and families of NY State.

Thank you for taking this under your careful review.

Sincerely,
Robert Rendo
Ossining, NY

cc: NYS Allies for Public Education Steering Committee
Jamaal Bowman
Deborah Abramson-Brooks
Chris Cerrone
Jeanette Deutermann
Amy Gropp Forbes
Johanna Garcia
Kevin Glynn
Eileen Graham
Leonie Haimson
Michael Hynes, Ed.D
Jake Jacobs
Kemala Karmen
Marla Kilfoyle
Jessica McNair
Lisa Rudley
Janine Sopp
Bianca Tanis
Katie Zahedi, Ph.D

cc:
Diane Ravitch
Carol Burris
Susan Lee Schwartz
Leonie Haimson
Assembly Woman Sandra Galef
State Senator David Carlucci

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Failure, New York

A Beautiful Christmas Story: The Nathan Yip Foundation Is Wiser and More Generous than Walton or Gates

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2018 //
6

Can you imagine a small foundation that is more generous than the Gates Foundation or the Walton Family Foundation, although it does not have billions of dolllars like them.

This is the difference between philanthropy and villainthropy.

The Nathan Yip Foundation makes grants to underfunded rural schools in Colorado. It responds to requests and gives money for things that schools need.

“They deserve a chance”: Family gifts thousands to rural Colorado schools in son’s name

It doesn’t tell schools what they should do to get the money. It doesn’t tell them how to evaluate teachers. It doesn’t demand that they fire anyone.

The Yip family created the foundation in honor of their only child, who died in a car crash.

“A Colorado couple has quietly given more than $260,000 over the last two years to tiny, cash-starved schools hunched on the state’s wind-blown eastern plains, in the lush San Luis Valley and near the dusty Four Corners.

“Jimmy and Linda Yip admit the money they’ve donated through their foundation is not on the scale of, say, Bill Gates. The Nathan Yip Foundation’s operating budget is only about $350,000. One of its larger purchases was for a fume hood and improved ventilation so students at Eads High School, 173 miles southeast of Denver, could complete simple chemical experiments without inhaling toxic fumes.

“We are a small foundation, we don’t have millions to give,” said Linda Yip, who, along with her husband Jimmy, decided to help out small, almost forgotten educational outposts — first around the world, then closer to home — at the urging of their son Nathan, who was killed in a car crash in 2001.

“But the foundation’s funding is highly targeted to meet specific needs in schools where budgets strain to keep ancient science labs running and basic equipment in the hands of students and teachers.

The Yips gave $14,000 to Peyton High School near Colorado Springs to upgrade its automotive program and $1,100 for math books and other tools for primary grades at Byers Elementary. They also handed $22,500 to Cortez Middle School for 72 Chromebook computers and school science materials, including microscopes, digital scales, sensors, monitors and molecule modeling sets.

The Yips have provided more than 40 laptops to students and families on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation through Tech For All, which gives away recycled computers to schools. And at Center Consolidated Schools in the San Luis Valley, the Yips gave more than $16,000 for high school math textbooks and $27,000 to pay for stipends for teachers to conduct home visits to students enrolled in Center schools

Center High School Principal Kevin Jones said some teachers collect $100 per visit and, thanks to the grant, now make at least five home visits per semester. Once in the homes, teachers learn more about their students in an effort to keep them in class in an area dogged by poverty and homelessness. It’s also rewarding teachers who otherwise would leave the valley for better paying jobs elsewhere, Jones said.

“The home visits that I have conducted have really impacted my job as principal and our students’ ability to get a quality education,” Jones said. “If I could, I would do a home visit a day.”

Joe Wagner loads a new 3D printer in his science classroom on Dec. 13, 2018, in Eads. The Nathan Yip Foundation recently donated money that allowed to Eads to buy the printer.
Leveling the playing field for rural schools

The projects the Yips fund are not grandiose, but they are creating some hope for many teachers, students and district administrators in rural Colorado, who feel ignored and grossly underfunded, Linda Yip said.

“We think kids in rural schools should have the same opportunities as kids in bigger schools,” she said.

School leaders also like that all it takes is a letter to ask for funding. There are no long forms to fill out or worries about putting up matching funds, which is often required for state or federal grants.

Meanwhile, the turnaround for a grant from the Yips is about two to three months. That’s largely because the foundation relies on a 10-member Rural Colorado Education Advisory Committee that includes experts in education, technology and business. They meet regularly to process all of the requests, visit each school, and work to identify the projects that will make the biggest impact, said Mike Kalush, president of the Yip Foundation’s board.

“We know that these teachers can apply for large grants, but the grant process can be overwhelming,” Kalush said. “We make our process simple by asking for a letter first and then if it is something we believe we can fund, we ask for more information.”

Schools often are visited by the Yips, who play off each other well. Linda is lively and outgoing while Jimmy is quiet and low-key. But they are curious about classrooms and their goals are the same.

“We want to level the playing field for these kids in these rural schools,” Linda Yip said. “They deserve a chance.”

“It’s something our son would have wanted,” added Jimmy Yip.

“Concentrating on our own backyard”

The Yips, who live in Aurora, are now retired, but had been real-estate entrepreneurs. They also ran Peliton, which offers companies human resources services, before it was sold two years ago.

Though they grew up in Taiwan and Hong Kong respectively, Linda and Jimmy Yip met in Colorado 40 years ago. They fell in love and were married, and found themselves drawn to help those not as fortunate.

Their foundation is largely made up of volunteers and holds three fundraisers a year, including one in February to coincide with the Chinese New Year. The foundation is named after Nathan, who traveled the world with his parents and particularly was struck by the poverty and lack of opportunity in rural China.

After that trip, Jimmy and Nathan talked about forming an educational foundation to help forgotten kids, the Yips said. They created the foundation soon after 19-year-old Nathan, a freshman at the University of Denver, was killed as a passenger in a car crash in December 2001.

Nathan was their only child, but Linda said she and her husband now have “thousands of children all over the world.” She was referring to students being educated at schools the Yips went on to build through their foundation in China, Mexico and Rwanda.

But the course of the foundation changed when Eads High School science teacher Joe Wagner wrote the Yips in 2016, asking for the fume hood. Wagner also wrote about the needs of students in some of Colorado’s most under-served communities, almost all dotting the vast stretches of land outside of the Front Range.

He told the foundation “due to the district being rural and low-income, this would provide much-needed improvements for our classroom and students.”

The letter was simple, heartfelt and pointed out a problem the organization could easily fix, said Kalush.

“I think about that time we decided we could do a lot of good concentrating on our own backyard,” he said.

Filling critical funding gaps

After visiting Eads, the foundation gave more than $30,000 to completely renovate the science classroom. Besides fixing the ventilation and fume hood, the grant also paid for the classroom’s first SMART board — an interactive display — as well as iPad accessories, a 3D printer and virtual reality goggles. The change sparked wide enthusiasm in Wagner’s classroom.

“It’s the type of hands-on learning that kids really respond to,” said Wagner, a quiet guy who lights up when talking about science. “And the fume hood and ventilation will actually allow us to do experiments safely.”

Senior Blake Stoker said the upgrades were “pretty nice.”

“It’s great for me, since I’m not the type to sit down and read and study a book,” Stoker added. “It gives a good hands-on feel to the classroom.”

From son’s loss, a world of children

Kiowa County School District Superintendent Glenn Smith said the help provided by the Yips is invaluable. Like many rural districts, its enrollment has steadily declined over the past 20 years, and so has the state funding tied to each student. The district’s enrollment dropped from 320 students in 1996 to 170 this year, Smith said.

“And with that we’ve also had increased costs for health insurance, salaries and just a decline in the number of people living here,” said Smith, a no-nonsense administrator who also doubles as the K-8 principal. Unlike other small districts, there are enough teachers for each subject, but not much else.

“We really can’t offer art because we don’t have a teacher for that,” Smith said.

Still, the Yips are filling a critical funding gap.

“They came along and really helped us,” he said. “They are helping a lot of schools.”

Categories Education Reform

Wisconsin: Will The Liberal Arts Survive in a Tech-Hungry Society?

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2018 //
18

Scott Walker tried to turn the University of Wisconsin into a career-preparation institution. No more of this “search forvtruth” stuff.

Happily, Walker was defeated by Tony Evers, thevstate’s Superintendent of Instruction.

But this article suggests that Walker’s ideas will prevail anyway.

The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point just went through a process of planning for the future. In the early form of the plan, the following majors would be cut: geography, geology, French, German, two- and three-dimensional art, and history.

At a time of budget cuts, administrators decided to cut the majors where demand was lowest. Students increasingly want education that prepares them to get a job.

In the spring of 2018, administrators offered a plan “to add majors in chemical engineering, computer-information systems, conservation-law enforcement, finance, fire science, graphic design, management, and marketing….

“Fierce backlash to the proposal from students, faculty, and alumni pushed the administration to reconsider its original plan. By the time the final proposal was released in mid-November 2018, it was less expansive, though still forceful. Six programs would be cut, including the history major. The university seemed to be eyeing degree programs with low numbers of graduates, and nationally, the number of graduates from bachelor’s programs in history has had the steepest decline of any major in recent years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”

Dis Scott Walker win the ideological war? Will the University of Wisconsin produce graduates who can get a job but know nothing about fascism?

Categories Education Reform, Higher Education

Rhode Island: The “New Age Charter Model” and Governor Raimondo

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2018 //
9

Recently, while looking for the links between Governor Gina Raimondo, Corey Booker, and Charter Schools, I discovered this interesting critique of charter schools.

That article cited one by Pete Adamy, a professor at the University of Rhode Island, who pointed out that the original purpose of charters was to give teachers the freedom to innovate within their own schools.

Professor Adamy wrote:

“While there are certainly pockets of innovation in Rhode Island’s charter schools, as there are in most public schools in the state, our charters are not “laboratories of innovation,” as some have called them. Rhode Island’s charters have simply been better able to implement reforms that researchers have been pushing for decades: smaller class size, more teacher and administrative autonomy, curriculum that is linked across grade levels, increased parental involvement, community outreach, a coherent and consistent mission, etc.”

He wondered why the state did not take these successful strategies and apply them in public schools. Why benefit a few while ignoring the needs of the many?

The essay that led me to Professor Adamy was written by Robert Yarnall in “Progressive Charlestown,” and he cut right to the heart of the problem with charter schools, the distance the concept has traveled from the original idea of a school-within-a-School run by teachers.

Yarnall writes:

“Virtually every charter school in the state functions as a taxpayer-funded private school, with near-private school levels of control over admissions, student behavior, and parental involvement that are not available to traditional public schools.

“Teachers working in traditional public schools know it, teachers working in next-generation charter schools know it, and the bevy of charter school advocates- the politicians, the privateers, the parent groups- know it.

“This little chunk of inconvenient reality is the tenuous bedrock that the architects of new age charter schools hope to continue to exploit.

“New Age charter school networks react defensively to criticisms that they do not deal with the same sets of challenges as public schools. They routinely publish rebuttal dialogues using the popular “myth v. fact” format in professional marketing campaigns meticulously crafted by the research divisions of prestigious conservative think tanks.

“Their end game, beginning innocently enough with ventures like Rhode Island’s “mayoral academies,” is a gradual for-profit privatization of public education via a post-industrial Ponzi scheme masterminded by a consortium of ideologically conservative legislators, investment firms, and grassroots political action committees intent on exploiting the inherent weaknesses of a public education system struggling to cope with growing pains unleashed by the imperatives stipulated by The Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975.”

Yarnall briefly reviews the federal legislation that protects children with disabilities and the bullying that these children sometimes encounter in school because of their differences.

He sees how charter schools fit into the picture:

“A child’s physical and emotional welfare in school is the self-evident primary concern of parents. Academic achievement is important as well, but it necessarily takes second place in any conversation about school choice.

“Columbine and Sandy Hook changed American education forever. Those images lurk in the back of every American parent’s mind. Every time a son or daughter comes home from school with a story about a confrontational incident in school, a parent shudders.

“Some parents believe that New Age charter schools can make those bad thoughts go away by leaving the disruptive children behind in the real public schools. They believe that New Age charter schools, freed from the burden of managing behaviorally disabled children and instructing children with moderate to severe special needs, will produce superior academic gains for their children.

“So unless a child is one of the lucky 5% to pull a winning ticket stub, he or she will not be climbing aboard the charter express. Instead, they will join the other 95% on the regular bus. As Harry Chapin often said, “There’s always room in the cheap seats.”

“The school privatization investment crowd, fronted locally by Governor and former Wall Street hedge fund manager Gina Raimondo, First Gentleman and Director of Industry Learning for McKinsey & Company Andrew Moffitt, and Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor, founder of charter school chain Achievement First, Inc.

“They are further advised by Lieutenant Governor of Charter Schools Dennis McKee, former mayor of Cumberland who was instrumental in crafting legislation allowing charter schools to ignore a range of regulatory policies and practices applicable to traditional public schools, some of which are in violation of procedural rights accorded to special needs students by virtue of federal legislation such as PL94-142 and get the attention of advocacy groups because of this.

“The Raimondo Administration is well aware that Rhode Island public school teachers are catching up with their pernicious Wall Street pranks. Once the general public, especially parents of children who choose to remain in traditional public schools, become aware of the real tune that Gina & the Gypsters are having them dance to, the only things being left behind will be derailed political ambitions and a pathetic legacy of financial malfeasance perpetrated by a scurrilous band of Wall Street pirates.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Rhode Island, Special Education

Laura Chapman Researches a Lobby Shop Called “EducationCounsel”

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2018 //
18

Thank goodness for Laura Chapman. She has the patience to dig deep and find out who is behind the curtain.

She writes:

I looked at EducationCounsel. It is part of a very large corporation with legal and policy expertise, especially for federal and state policies in the South and among states on the East coast. The larger company is Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP– Attorneys and Counselors at Law. (see whisper type at the Education Counsel website)

A brief look at staff at EducationCounsel shows that some have advanced degrees from the Relay Graduate (sic) School of Education. Some began with TFA. Some have worked for the National Council on Teacher Quality (phony ratings of teacher education programs, promoter of NCLB). Some have experience with Jeb Bush’s corporate friendly Foundation for Excellent Education (FEE) see https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Foundation_for_Excellence_in_Education

My impression is this: EducationCouncil is lobby shop. It has no principled approach to education other than serving clients who want policies shaped by the expertise of the staff.

Almost all of the senior people are former staffers and lawyers with experience in Congress or the Executive branch including the Obama and Trump administrations. The “current partners” (clients) dedicated to “closing the opportunity and achievement gap” include many who are not supporters of public schools but gifted at putting together punitive policies. Here are few.

America Achieves- orginal promoter of the Common Core now self described as an “accelerator that brings together exceptional educators and other leaders with game changing ideas, results-oriented funding, and strategic and operational support to drive success for students at scale.”https://achievethecore.org/author/23/america-achieves

Council of Chief State School Officers also big into promoting the Common Core and ESSA tests with several offspringalso clients of EducationCouncil: a) the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, a program of the Council of Chief State School Officers, and b) Partners for Each and Every Child –lobbyists for the Council of Chief State School Officers in seven states and funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, The National Education Association, The American Federation of Teachers, The Stuart Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

These are are also clients of EducationCouncil: Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and others who are major supporters of charter schools and tech in schools including Turnaround for Children –lobbyists serving the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Add Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education really hostile to public schools.
Center for American Progress, The College Board, Institute for Higher Education Policy (B&M Gates funded), Lumina Foundation, and more.

In any case this not the only LLC set up to provide ready to use legislation, policy ideas, and advocacy packages for anyone who can pay the fees.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

California: How Will Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom Reshape the State Board of Education?

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2018 //
32

Capital and Main offers some interesting speculation about what Gavin Newsom might do to change the state board of education.

Governor Jerry Brown was totally on board with unlimited charter expansion. His board rubber-stamped almost every appeal from a charter school that had been denied by school districts.

What will Governor Newsom do?

Bill Raden writes:

This week, the nonprofit education news site EdSource pointed out that, although it will take years to fully reshape the Jerry Brown-appointed, 11-member board, Newsom’s first opportunity will come on his January 7 inauguration day. That’s when current president Michael Kirst, who was instrumental in California’s adoption of dubious Common Core State Standards, retires. Departing a week later will be Trish Boyd Williams, whose pro-charter charter enthusiasm and career ties to corporate-reform cash have been the bane of local school boards. Also leaving in 2019 will be Bruce Holaday. The term of Karen Valdes, who was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2017, ends in January.

The EdSource article that Raden links here explains that Newsom will have a state board in which every member was appointed by Brown.

Currently seven of the 11 members of the board are slated to stay on. If they do, it could take several years before Newsom can put his stamp on the board — and assure continuity from the Brown era that spawned a plethora of landmark reforms over the past eight years.

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

John Thompson: Reformers Are Shifting Tactics, Not Goals

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2018 //
28

John Thompson, retired teacher in Oklahoma, reads the Reformer press closely. He notices a change in tactics, a stubborn refusal to acknowledge failure, and a determination to adhere to privatization of public schools by any means necessary. He appreciates the journalism of Matt Barnum of Chalkbeat for reporting what the Reformers say to one another. They have not backed away one iota from their rock-solid belief that private management is the sure cure for low test scores, despite the failure of the Tennessee Achievement School District and the Michigan Education Achievement Authority and every similar program that claimed to bring in “high-performing seats” (one of my favorite Reformer phrases, as though the seats themselves are magical).

Stop the presses!

Jeb Bush’s ExcelinEd has listened and it is rethinking its entire campaign to privatize public schools! The corporate reform group that helped give us Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education is acknowledging the harm done by test-driven, competition-driven reform. ExcelinEd is rethinking standardized testing, rapid transformative change and even the Billionaires Boys Club’s new panacea – “personalized learning!” Maybe the next step will be apologies for pushing the mass firing of teachers and Common Core!

Oops! ExcelinEd isn’t facing up to the failure of its education agenda. It is merely shifting its public relations spin!

Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum is illuminating efforts by ExcelinEd, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and other corporate reformers’ new campaign to “drum up support.” He explains how a new “messaging document” offers “a revealing look at how some backers are trying to sell their approach.”

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/04/13/dont-just-talk-about-tech-how-personalized-learning-advocates-are-honing-their-messaging/

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/12/19/common-core-personalized-learning-backlash/
Although ExcelinEd and others refuse to listen to educators and researchers on why their education experiments failed, the authors of their new document, Karla Phillips and Amy Jenkins, “have read the angry op-eds and watched tension-filled board meetings.” So they are rebranding personalized learning and other reforms as things that patrons don’t need to fear.

For instance, Barnum explains, “the report suggests telling parents that ‘personalized learning provides opportunities for increased interaction with teachers and peers and encourages higher levels of student engagement.’” He then fact checks that new talking point:

If anything, though, existing research suggests that certain personalized learning programs reduce student engagement. In a 2015 study by RAND, commissioned by the Gates Foundation, students in schools that have embraced technology-based personalized learning were somewhat less likely to say they felt engaged in and enjoyed school work. A 2017 RAND study found that students were 9 percentage points less likely to say there was an adult at school who knew them well.

Follow the link to the messaging document and it is clear that these ideology-driven corporate reformers are not stepping back from bubble-in accountability and other top-down mandates. They warn their troops, however, that the mere mention of testing drives down interest in personalized learning.

Click to access Communicating-Personalized-Learning-to-Families-and-Stakeholders.pdf

Real world, personalized learning is producing questionable results. It is clear that personalized learning can benefit some students, as it harms others. Underfunded schools and overworked teachers can’t magically implement the rushed plans for online learning and offer real, meaningful, individualized lessons. Often digital instruction devolves into dummied-down efforts to “pass kids on.” The dangers of too much screen time and the gathering of individual data by corporations are well documented.

So, the spin consultants urge caution when “answering these questions without fueling opposition.” Corporate reformers are not necessarily backing off from their gamble in hurriedly imposing radical transformations. Instead, they realize that, “In attempting to generate excitement, we inadvertently scared the public,” So, reformers must “steer clear” of “talking up the potential for dramatic changes to the way school looks and feels.” They are also offering “preferred messaging” to district leaders for their staff and principals.

If anyone believes that the Billionaires Boys Club’s new messaging means they have really listened, they merely need to click on ExcelinEd’s web site. For instance, they haven’t even rejected the failed turnaround strategies that they and the federal government imposed on high-poverty schools. They still promote agendas like the mass replacement of staff in district schools. Then their new report, School Interventions Under ESSA: Harnessing High-Performing Charter Operators, emphasizes:

In districts where schools fail to turn around – or have already been failing for multiple years – states should consider the one option that can give students languishing in low-performing schools a higher quality option: bringing in high-performing charter schools.

https://www.excelined.org/edfly-blog/askexcelined-how-can-states-address-the-challenges-of-school-turnaround/

It must be emphasized that this new advice on a more personal message for personalized learning and the kinder and gentler presentation of reward and punish policies does not mean that corporate reformers have checked their hubris.

They still plan to “go big, be bold, and be impatient.”

http://pie-network.org/article/go-big-be-bold-be-impatient-reflections-from-2018-excelined-summit/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=GameChangers12.14.18

Barnum has been good at shining a light on the ways that reformers are reworking their message, but these social engineers are trying to improve their PR, and hiding their antagonism towards educators. The Fordham Institute has been especially open about their movement’s “internecine feud,” that some call “the end of education policy,” while not hiding their anger towards practitioners. For instance, Dale Chu wrote:

If 2018 marks the end of education policy, whatever comes next has gotten off to an inauspicious start for reformers and stand-patters alike.

Follow his second link to read Robin Lake’s full twitter statement which concludes:

There are certainly “stand-patters”: people who don’t believe any structural/policy changes are needed in public ed. I have little to discuss w them.

https://edexcellence.net/articles/an-internecine-feud-in-the-schoolyard

And please don’t forget the ways that Chu characterizes those of us who oppose their theories based on research and our classroom experiences. He labels us as “forces of resistance,” “their ilk,” those whose actions are inimical to improvement, and “hyperbolic at best.” He praises Howard Fuller’s “prescient warning” that “too many reformers had mistaken what was a street fight for a college debate.”

As the corporate reformers air their dirty laundry, the observations of conservative Little “r” reformer Rick Hess are especially illustrative. Hess spoofs the Big “R” Reformers’ new message, “we’re ready to listen.” He explains why this new tactic “feels like performance art.”

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2018/12/why_education_policys_big_listening_moment_doesnt_involve_much_listening.html

Hess explains, “If one is emotionally invested in a bold sweeping agenda to ‘fix’ American education, it’s tough to regard disagreement, dissent or skepticism as anything other than a moral failure.” He concludes, “for those invested in Big ‘R’ Reform, listening is mostly a stratagem.” It is a self-reinforcing insular dogma.” Changing their mindset is “quite a challenge when the mantra is ‘go big, be bold, and be impatient.’”

In Oklahoma, this pattern is being displayed by Epic Charter, as well as ExcelinEd, but the same story is being told across the nation.

Student needs matter more than school delivery model.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Privatization

Los Angeles: UTLA Calls for Halt to Charter Expansion

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2018 //
2

Just released by the United Teachers of Los Angeles:

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Anna Bakalis
213-305-9654

UTLA calls for immediate cap on charter school growth in Los Angeles and to invest in existing schools

UTLA is calling on civic leaders to place an immediate cap on charter school growth within the Los Angeles Unified School District to address the unregulated expansion of charter operators and its impact on the sustainability of existing district and charter schools.

“The need for our students to have a stable public education system in Los Angeles must be a priority over the aggressive expansion of charter school growth, and that means an immediate halt to opening new charter schools,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said.

Los Angeles is home to 224 charter schools – schools that are funded by public dollars but privately managed — more than any other city in the country. Charter schools in LAUSD have grown more than 250% over the past 10 years and siphon more than $600 million from our existing public schools. That explosive growth has happened without oversight or analysis of the educational and economic impact on the community. Schools are being built without simple questions being answered: Does this neighborhood need another school? Can the land be used for something more impactful for the community, such as housing or green space? In addition, Opening new schools has duplicative administrative costs, facility costs, and so on, further reducing money available for students’ needs.

UTLA represents educators who work in district and in charter schools, and the call for a cap was developed in consultation with the UTLA Charter Educator Standing Committee.

“The lack of oversight means an oversaturation of new schools opening in certain areas, and existing schools suffer underenrollment as a result,” said Carlos Monroy Jr., a Resources Specialist Program teacher at El Camino Real Charter High School in the San Fernando Valley. “We simply cannot continue to have the unregulated growth of new charter schools at the expense of our current students. It is not sustainable for existing district schools or charter schools alike. We need to prioritize investing in the schools we have now.”

Declining student enrollment impacts district and charter schools

The unregulated growth of charters has occurred while shifting demographics and the high cost of housing has meant that overall student enrollment in LAUSD is declining, leaving schools to fight for resources and students. In 2002-2003, the total student enrollment in both district and charter schools in the LAUSD geographic area was 746,831. In 2018-2019, estimated total enrollment has dropped to 609,756—despite the fact there are 200 more charter schools now than in 2002-2003.

This summer, a PUC charter school in Eagle Rock closed its doors because of underenrollment on the fourth day of school, without any notice to students and parents. When a charter school closes during the academic year—due to financial insolvency, misconduct, or low enrollment—students’ academics and families’ lives are severely disrupted.

Unchecked charter school growth hits low-income communities facing gentrification especially hard.

“My school is located in Lincoln Heights, and some of our students’ families are struggling with the harsh realities of housing costs rising substantially,” says Sylvia Cabrera, a charter school teacher at Alliance College-Ready Middle Academy #5. “It seems like every week we get an email notifying us of another student unenrolling because their family is being displaced. Between more charter schools being authorized and the impact of gentrification, we are finding it more and more difficult to meet our enrollment capacity with each passing year as the student population in the community declines.”

Expansion pulls resources from public school system

University of Oregon Professor Gordon Lafer, author of “Breaking Point: The High Cost of Charter Schools for Public School Districts,” confirms that the expansion of charter schools pulls significant resources from the public school system. District and charter school funding is largely determined by the number of students enrolled at a school, and that per-pupil funding covers much more than the direct costs of educating a particular student. For every student who leaves a public school, there is revenue lost that is greater than the cost of that student. That translates into cuts in schools to libraries, special education, art and music classes, and other essential student programs

Charter schools drift from original mission of innovation

The mission of many charter schools has drifted from teacher-driven laboratories meant to inform and improve public school education to the establishment of a competing system of corporate-managed schools that too often deprive parents and educators of any real input. These forces, combined with the challenge of inadequate funding, are undermining the educational opportunities of our LA student community and the long-term sustainability of the public school district as an essential civic institution.

Charter industry prioritizes expansion over student needs

The proliferation of charter schools is driven by the California Charter Schools Association; its wealthy benefactors, such as Eli Broad; and the LAUSD School Board members it elects through massive political donations. CCSA’s political support has secured the group and like-minded organizations exclusive access to elected board members. Through a public records request, the news organization ChalkBeat obtained a lengthy digest of emails between former CCSA CEO Myrna Castrejón, her staff, and school board members Monica Garcia and Nick Melvoin.

LAUSD Supt. Austin Beutner, a former Wall Street banker with no educational experience, is developing a plan to break LAUSD into 32 networks and build a so-called portfolio district—a Wall Street model that has closed neighborhood schools, turned over more schools to unaccountable private operators, increased segregation, and undermined learning conditions in other cities.

“LAUSD has been a target of unregulated charter expansion by groups like CCSA and wealthy privatizers Eli Broad, who see public education as an industry to be broken up rather than reinvested in and supported,” Caputo-Pearl said. “We call on our civic leaders to finally address the rampant expansion of charter operators at the expense of our current schools.”

Watch the press conference live here.

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

—
Anna Bakalis
UTLA Communications Director
(213) 305-9654 (c)
(213) 368-6247 (o)
Abakalis@UTLA.net
http://www.UTLA.net
http://www.WeArePublicSchools.org
_________________________________________

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Los Angeles, Privatization

Eric Blanc: The Blue State Teachers’ Revolt Is On! L.A. Teachers Plan to Strike on January 10!

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2018 //
9

Eric Blanc has covered the teacher revolts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and every other state where teachers said “Enough is enough.”

He writes for Jacobin.

Now, he says, the Blue State Teachers’ Revolt is on!

It’s official: Los Angeles teachers just announced they are going to strike on January 10. They’re challenging not just public education privatizers, but the Democratic Party establishment.

After months of contract negotiations, Los Angeles teachers have announced that, unless the LA school district leadership gives a dramatic set of last-minute concessions, they will begin a strike on January 10. The stakes of the struggle could hardly be higher. In the second-largest school district in the country, educators have thrown down the gauntlet against the forces of big business, gentrification, and privatization — including those within the Democratic Party.

The teachers’ revolt sparked by West Virginia has now spread to the “bluest” state of them all, California. LA’s schools show why the crisis of public education can’t be blamed only on Republicans. Huge class sizes, low per-pupil funding, rampant charter schools, over-testing, a lack of counselors, nurses, and librarians — these are the fruit of years of Democratic rule in the city and the state capitol.

“Corporate Democrats are getting money from the same billionaires and corporations as the Republicans,” explains United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) Secretary Arlene Inouye, “so essentially all public educators in this country are targets.” In Los Angeles, deep-pocketed pro-charter ideologues recently installed Austin Beutner — a billionaire investment banker with zero educational experience — as superintendent. Their plan is straightforward: drastically downsize the school district to push students into privately run charter schools.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Privatization, Teachers, Testing, Unions

Laura Chapman on the Triple Disasters of Federal Policy: NCLB, RTTT, and ESSA

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2018 //
15

Laura Chapman responded to this post about the nil effects of NCLB:

She writes:

“The biggest lie was NCLB. The second biggest lie was Race to the Top. The third biggest lie is ESSA.”

NCLB was the template for what followed. I wrote about that jargon-filled fiasco as a heads up to colleagues working in arts education who did not know what hit them.

Race to the Top was the double whammy with a propaganda mill called the “Reform Support Network” designed to intimidate teachers who failed to comply. USDE outsourced the problem of compliance to people who did not know what to do with this fact: About 69% of teachers had job assignments untethered to statewide tests. The hired hands working for the Reform Support Network offered several absurd solutions. Among these were the idea that teacher should be evaluated on school-wide scores for subjects they did not teach (e.g., math, ELA) and that a writing assignment called SLOs (student learning objectives) should function as a tool for evaluation.

The SLO writing assignment required teachers to specify and predict gains in the test scores of their students from the beginning to the end of the year. Teachers were graded on their SLOs and up to 25 criteria had to be met for writing a “proper” SLO. That absurdity has been marketed since 1999, first in a pay-for-performance scheme for Denver conjured by William Slotnick (Master’s in Education, Harvard). There is no evidence to support the use of SLOs for teacher evaluation. Even so, this exercise is still used in Ohio, among other states.

ESSA is like NCLB in that the high stakes tests are still there, but they are surrounded with legalese about state “flexibility.” Some parts of ESSA calls for de-professionalizing the work of teacher education (see Title II, Section SEC. 2002).

ESSA became the federal law before our current ten-yacht owner and avowed Christian missionary, Betsy Devos, was appointed to be in charge of the Department of Education.

Devos’ incompetence delayed and then mangled the “approval” of required ESSA “state plans“ for this school year, 2018-2019. In the meantime, groups that championed NCLB and Race to the Top publicized their own ratings of ESSA plans (e.g., Bellwether Education Partners, Achieve, and the Collaborative for Student Success). The Collaborative for Student Success is funded by the Bloomberg Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, ExxonMobil, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation–none friends of public education.

I think that compliance checks on ESSA, if any, will be outsourced and that the still pending federal budget will confirm the ten-yacht Education Secretary’s’ real priorities—choice and some of the increasingly weird things recently on her mind.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Education Reform, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Stupid, Teacher Evaluations, Testing
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »