Archives for category: Failure
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Arizona May Revise Phony School Letter Grades, and They Will Still Be Phony

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2017 //
7

Giving letter grades to schools is a fraud.

In New York City, the Department of Health gives letter grades to restaurants, and almost every restaurant gets an A unless there are unhealthy, unsanitary conditions discovered by inspectors, like mouse droppings in the kitchen.

School letter grades attempt to grade schools largely by test scores, whether performance or growth. The scores largely reflect the affluence or poverty of the students. If you want to understand how stupid it is to judge schools by test scores, read Daniel Koretz’s new book, “The Testing Charade: Pretending to Improve Education.” Give a copy to your superintendent and the school board.

A school is a complex institution with a complex mission, far more complex than a restaurant.

Arizona has decided to recalculate it’s fraudulent school grades.

Could it be because the charter school in Snowflake, Arizona, got an F? That is the Charter beloved by Sylvia Allen, chair of the State Senate Education Committee?

However they are recalculated, they will still be fraudulent.

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Education Reform, Failure, Fraud, Testing

Denis Smith: Charter Abuses in Ohio Are Proliferating

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2017 //
5

Denis Smith worked in the charter office of the Ohio Department of Education until he retired in 2011. He continues to be amazed by the growth and scale of charter fraud, waste, and abuse, which the legislature ignores. Of course, the charter industry has been shielded because charter lobbyists wrote the law!

In this post, he describes some of the most flagrant abuses, several of which involve real estate and exorbitant rentals and leases that allow the charter company to pocket taxpayers’ dollars.

Here is one of the most flagrant abuses:

“The Columbus Primary Academy, part of the Imagine Schools charter chain, is saddled with a lease that requires exorbitant rent to Imagine’s for-profit real estate subsidiary. In two other states, federal courts deemed the leases “self-dealing’’ and ordered Imagine to pay $1 million fines. The latest state audit shows the academy’s current lease extends to 2033, while the latest state report cards shows the school continues to fail our kids.”

An inflated lease that runs through 2033 for a failing Charter School!

Why do Ohioans tolerate this misuse of taxpayer dollars?

How many more scandals will be exposed before the legislature stops waste, fraud, and abuse in the charter industry?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Ohio, Privatization

Nancy Bailey: Why Do We Inflict FORCE AND FLUNK on Young Children?

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2017 //
24

Nancy Bailey describes one of the worst ideas that is current in the world of corporate-style reform: Forcing little children to read at a very young age, as early as kindergarten or first grade, which turns reading into a chore, not a joy.

Then, if they have not met arbitrary standards in third grade, shaming them by holding them back.

This is a child-hostile idea that got started in Florida, where so many bad ideas have begun. It did wonders for fourth grade reading scores, because the kids with the lowest scores flunked.

But it is a truly dumb idea because it forces reading on children before they are ready and it does not make children better readers. Whether children begin to read at age 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 doesn’t matter. What matters is that they learn that reading is a wonderful skill to master and that it opens worlds of enchantment and knowledge. By the time they are 10 or 11, no one remembers when they first began to read. Little children are not global competitors. They are children.

Categories Childhood, Failure, Florida

Arizona: Charter School Graded F in Home District of Charter Booster

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2017 //
10

The most important thing you should know about school grades is that they are a failed and absurd policy cooked up by Jeb Bush to stigmatize schools and set them up for privatization. Usually, they reflect the demographics of the school community. Often, they are totally meaningless. The school in my neighborhood went from an A to an F in one year, even though nothing had changed. School grades are stupid, and I’m happy to say that Mayor de Blasio abandoned them in New York City.

However, they were just initiated in Arizona, and there was a big surprise in store for State Senator Sylvia Allen. She is chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. The charter that she helped to bring to her district rated an F. She was dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe it.

“Josselyn Berry, co-director at ProgressNow Arizona, said in a press release this week that Allen “for years preached the benefits of charter schools and vouchers for students and parents, but ironically the school she co-founded has gotten the lowest rating a school can get.”

Senator Allen couldn’t accept that her favorite charter school got an F.

“Allen also shifted blame to the new grading system, which the State Board of Education spent more than a year creating because state law requires schools be graded.

“I have grandchildren who go to this school and I have personally seen the help it has given to children. It is not an F school,” Allen said of George Washington Academy. Allen said she only works part-time for Edkey, George Washington Academy’s charter holder, leading a character program at the school.

“I have visited many schools in my district and if you had asked me to give them a grade I would have said they are all A’s but when I looked at what this new system gave them it was not a true reflection of what they do and how successful they are.”

Maybe Senator Allen will take the lead in abolishing the school grading system. Even though ALEC thinks it is a good idea, she can see with her own eyes that it doesn’t work. Besides, the school is already a charter. You can’t privatize a school that is already private.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Arizona, Education Industry, Failure

Why the D.C. Voucher Program Is Failing

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2017 //
10

Thomas Toch and Phyllis W. Jordan write here about the failure of the D.C. voucher program, which has been hailed by the Trump administration as a great success. As they explain, it is not.

Mike Pence called it “a case study in school choice success.”

Far from it.

As the authors point out, significant numbers of families have turned down vouchers or abandoned their voucher school. Many students struggle academically.

“The theory behind the initiative is to give D.C.’s low-income families more and better educational opportunities by supplying them with tax dollars to send their children to private schools. Fine. But voucher enrollment in the nation’s capital dropped for four straight years, from 1,638 in the 2013-2014 school year to 1,154 in the 2016-2017 year. More striking, greater than half the new students offered vouchers last year didn’t use them…

“Low-income parents unfamiliar with the private school landscape must navigate each school’s admissions system separately. Students are awarded vouchers after many private schools have finished their admissions processes. And voucher winners must meet the admissions standards of the schools to which they apply. In this sense, the 47 schools participating in the program are choosing students, rather than the other way around…

“While federal law lacks accountability for schools, it calls for independent assessments of student progress. Between 2012 and 2014, federal researchers tested three sample cohorts of D.C. students in the year after receiving vouchers. Those who won vouchers did worse in math in their first year than students who competed in the voucher lottery but did not receive them.

“Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that nearly half the students in the program attend private schools that sprung up to serve voucher students, sometimes in storefronts, according to a 2013 report by the federal government. About 3 percent were enrolled in independent schools such as Sidwell Friends and Georgetown Day. Most of the rest attended Catholic schools, though few went to the most competitive Catholic schools, such as St. Anselm’s Abbey School.”

Toch and Jordan support charter schools, so believe that the voucher program pales in comparison to the charter and public sectors.

Some of us don’t believe that school choice is the solution to the problems of urban districts. It may in reality be a false solution, since both charters and vouchers choose their students and operate under laxer supervision than the public schools.

Nonetheless it is good to be reminded that the Trump administration’s education agenda of choice-choice-choice is a shell game.

Categories Corporate Reform, District of Columbia, Failure, Mike Pence, School Choice, Vouchers

Tennessee: Thousands of Test Scores Are Inaccurate

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2017 //
9

Tennessee has had years of problems with test vendors. This year, then state thought all the glitches were fixed. Wrong. Thousands of scores were wrong.

About 9,400 students across the state received incorrect scores after the testing vendor, Questar, used a scanning program that included an error.

Our friend and reader Duane Swacker would say that all the scores are meaningless and measure nothing. I just finished reading Daniel Koretz’s new book, “The Testing Charade: Pretending to Improve Education,” and he might agree with Duane. The chances are that the scores have been corrupted by test prep and score inflation. Throw them all out.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Tennessee, Testing

California Releases Audit of Online Charter Giant, Imposes Less Than $2 Million Fine

By dianeravitch
October 11, 2017 //
9

Earlier today, I posted the question: Whatever happened to the audit of the California Virtual Academies, which was supposed to be released in March 2017?

The California Department of Education contacted me to say that the audit was released two days ago, and CDE ordered the Virtual Academies to repay nearly $2 Million in misspent funds.

Let me be clear: I don’t think that for-profit Virtual Charters should be allowed to exist. If districts want to offer online instruction, not for profit, that is their prerogative.

But the for-profits, especially K12 Inc. (founded by Michael Milken and known for paying its executives multimillion dollar salaries) recruit students constantly, have high attrition, and get poor results.

In light of Jesse Calefati’s stunning expose of K12 Inc. in the San Jose Mercury-News, I am surprised that these scam online academies got by with a tap on the hand. According to Calefati, the Virtual Academies have collected hundreds of millions from California taxpayers to run low-performing, ineffectual “schools.” ECOT in Ohio was audited and required to pay more than $60 Million. Excuse me, but a fine of less than $2 Million is trivial for these corporations. Chicken feed.

I hope that the fine of “less than $2 Million” is the beginning and not the end of the Audits. The for-profits are notorious for inflating enrollments and collecting money for phantom students.

Here is the audit.

Here are the articles that CDE sent.

CDE: Online Charter Schools Must Repay Misused State Dollars

By Richard Bammer

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Monday said a pair of online charter schools must pay back nearly $2 million of improperly used Common Core education funds.

In a press release, he cited California Virtual Academies and three Insight Schools (together forming CAVA) must remit the dollars to the California Department of Education.

This latest among several other actions stems directly from an audit by the State Controller’s Office and commissioned by the CDE.

The Vacaville Reporter
http://www.thereporter.com/article/NG/20171010/NEWS/171019986

Former Lodi Virtual Academy Fined $2M

By Jennifer Bonnett

A virtual academy that once had a key role in the Lodi Unified School District has been fined close to $2 million by the state for falsifying enrollment figures.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has announced that the California Virtual Academies and three Insight Schools (together CAVA) must remit nearly $2 million to the California Department of Education in improperly used Common Core education funds.

Lodi News-Sentinel
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_a8ab29bc-ae42-11e7-8ded-03b98ff003ed.html

Virtual Charter Academies In California Must Refund Nearly $2 Million To State

By Louis Freedberg

As a result of a just released state audit, the California Department of Education says a network of virtual charter schools must refund nearly $2 million in improperly used state funds that were intended for implementation of the Common Core standards in English and math.

In addition, the department will require the schools to conduct a new audit of its average daily attendance records and a number of other actions.

“The California Department of Education is committed to ensuring public schools follow the laws and regulations that safeguard taxpayer funds,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. “It’s critical that our students receive the resources they need to succeed.”

EdSource

Virtual charter academies in California must refund nearly $2 million to state

California Fines Charter School Chain $2 Million

By Sharon Noguchi

In long-awaited results of a 1½-year investigation, California’s finance and education chiefs on Monday issued a critical audit of the online charter-school chain California Virtual Academies, finding several contractual violations and irregularities and imposing a nearly $2 million fine.

The report ordered the charter firm to provide documentation around student progress, student-teacher ratios and excess oversight fees, among other things. It also demanded California Virtual Academies produce an audited opinion on the accuracy of its average daily attendance — on which California bases its payments to public schools, including charters — and to pay the California Department of Education $1,995,148 for improperly handled funds.

Mercury News

California fines charter school chain $2 million

Categories California, Failure, K12 Inc., Virtual Charter Schools

Whatever Happened to the Public Audit of K-12 Inc. in California?

By dianeravitch
October 11, 2017 //
16

In June 2016, California State Superintendent Tom Torlakson called for an official audit of the for-profit K-12 Inc. virtual charter school after an expose of its shoddy results in the San Jose Mercury News by investigative reporter Jessica Calefati. See here for all her reports on K-12.

Where is that audit?

Did it happen? Does it exist?

The audit was supposed to be completed by March 2017.

“State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Thursday that the California Department of Education has contracted with the State Controller’s Office to conduct an audit of California Virtual Academies (CAVA) and related charter schools because of serious questions raised about a number of their practices.

“The goal of the audit is to make sure these schools are spending public education funds properly and serving their students well,” said Torlakson.

“In 2015, CAVA’s corporate parent K12 paid its CEO Nathaniel Davis $5.3 million and CFO James Rhyu was making $3.6 million. Their base salaries were $700,000 and $478,500, respectively, which were dwarfed by additional pay and stock for their “performance.”

“In all, K12’s five highest paid executives received a total of more than $12 million in compensation last year. That’s one of the reasons Center for Media and Democracy has called K12 Inc.’s former CEO, Ron Packard, the highest paid elementary and secondary school educator in the nation.

“Nearly 90% of K12’s revenues–and thus its huge pay for executives–comes from Americans’ state or federal tax dollars.”

Should California taxpayers shell out $12 Million for executive compensation in a low-performing charter school?

If anyone knows the whereabouts of the missing audit, please let me know.

There were also supposed to be two separate investigations of CAVA (K-12 Inc), one by the State Attorney General, the other by the Legislature. What happened to them?

Categories Accountability, California, Education Industry, Failure, For-Profit, K12 Inc., Virtual Charter Schools

Mercedes Schneider: The “Parent Trigger”Flops in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2017 //
5

Remember when privatizers came up with the “parent trigger?” It was 2010, right after the release of the charter propaganda film “Waiting for Superman,” and the “reformers” assumed that parents everywhere were longing to seize control of their public school and give it to a charter chain. They thought it was a brilliant idea to turn public schools over to the charter industry and use parents to do the deed. All that was needed was a petition that was sign ed by 50% of parents plus one, and the school could by law be privatized.

The first such bill was passed in late 2010 by the California Legislature. A charter enthusiast named Ben Austin created an organization called Parent Revolution, funded with millions from Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, the Waltons, and other billionaires. Parent Revolution sent organizers to poor communities to foment parent anger and collect signatures.

The producer of “Waiting for Superman” signed up star talent for another movie to promote the idea of the Parent Trigger. The movie was called “Won’t Back Down.” It failed at the box office and was the lowest grossing movie of the year.

Other states passed Parent Trigger legislation, on the assumption that parents were yearning to turn their public schools over to charter operators.

One of those states was Louisiana, which passed a Parent Trigger in 2012.

Mercedes Schneider reports here that the law is On the books, but no parent group has ever applied to turn its public school into a charter.

The only option for those who pull “the trigger” is to join the celebrated Recovery School District. Schneider lists the names of the Failing schools in the RSD.

Guess it is not that easy to fool parents into privatizing their schools.

Seven years after passage of the Parent Trigger law in California, either one or two schools have converted to charter status, and only after a bitter fight among parents about the validity of petitions. Its main effect is to divide communities.

How many millions were spent to convert one or two schools to charters? Billionaires probably for a tax write off. They don’t care.

Categories Failure, Fraud, Louisiana, Parent trigger

ProPublica: The Fraud of For-Profit Charter Schools in Ohio That Run Dropout Recovery Centers

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
10

ProPublica and USA Today teamed up to conduct an investigation of charter fraud in Ohio (although there is so much charter fraud in Ohio that this piece investigates only one aspect of it).

This story is about dropout recovery centers that collect large sums of money even if the students don’t show up.

It focuses on a “school” run by EdisonLearning, the latest version of the Edison Schools that were launched in the early 1990s with the goal of creating a network of 200 privately run schools.

It begins like this:

Last school year, Ohio’s cash-strapped education department paid Capital High $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars to teach students on the verge of dropping out. But on a Thursday in May, students’ workstations in the storefront charter school run by for-profit EdisonLearning resembled place settings for a dinner party where most guests never arrived.

In one room, empty chairs faced 25 blank computer monitors. Just three students sat in a science lab down the hall, and nine more in an unlit classroom, including one youth who sprawled out, head down, sleeping.

Only three of the more than 170 students on Capital’s rolls attended class the required five hours that day, records obtained by ProPublica show. Almost two-thirds of the school’s students never showed up; others left early. Nearly a third of the roster failed to attend class all week.

Some stay away even longer. ProPublica reviewed 38 days of Capital High’s records from late March to late May and found six students skipped 22 or more days straight with no excused absences. Two were gone the entire 38-day period. Under state rules, Capital should have unenrolled them after 21 consecutive unexcused absences.

Though the school is largely funded on a per-student basis, the no-shows didn’t hurt the school’s revenue stream. Capital billed and received payment from the state for teaching the equivalent of 171 students full time in May.

It is yet another charter fraud.

Another reform scam. It is not about “the kids.” It is about the money.

Do legislators care?

Question: How many charter scandals and frauds does it take to get the attention of the Ohio legislature?

Speaking of scandals, ECOT (the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow) has threatened to close its virtual doors if the state doesn’t leave them alone and stop pestering them to provide a real education to real students. No doubt the owner William Lager is bluffing. But if he does close down ECOT, he will do everyone a favor by shutting down the nation’s biggest dropout factory. He has collected more than a billion dollars since he opened ECOT and given only a few millions to Republican (and a few Democratic) politicians (in Ohio, they sell their votes cheaply). How likely is he to walk away from his fabulous money stream?

I dare you! I double-dare you! Close your doors, ECOT! You won’t be missed.

Although the legislators and other elected officials will miss your campaign contributions.

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