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Another Bad Report Card for Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2016 //
55

Back in 2009, when Arne Duncan announced the Race to the Top competition, he said we as a nation would literally be “racing to the top” of international competition by adopting his favored ideas: expanding charter schools, evaluating teachers to a significant degree by the test scores of their students, “turning around” low-scoring schools by radical measures such as closing them, creating state and national data storehouses to track students, and adopting “college and career-ready standards” (aka, the Common Core). Almost every state fell in line, because they had to do what Arne wanted in order to be eligible for a share of $4.35 billion.

 

But the report cards have not been kind to these “reforms.” When the National Assessment of Education Progress issued its regular report in 2015, test scores were flat or declining in most states.

 

Now the latest international test scores are out, and the U.S. has made no gains. We are not racing to the top. We are standing still. Why? Because Race to the Top did not address the root causes of academic failure: poverty and racial segregation. Charter schools have produced marginal gains at best, with some far worse than public schools. Evaluating teachers by test scores has been an abject failure, criticized by the nation’s leading scholarly organizations, including the American Statistical Association, which is not an arm of reformer-dreaded teachers’ unions or the “status quo.”

 

Here is today’s report from politico.com:

 

PISA RESULTS: BAD NEWS IN MATH: American 15-year-olds are getting worse at applying their math skills in the real world, when compared to their international peers. The 2015 Program for International Student Assessment results are out and they show a drop in “mathematics literacy” scores for U.S. students since 2012 and 2009. “Of particular concern is that we also have a higher percentage of students who score in the lowest performance levels … and a lower percentage of top math performers” compared to the international average, said Peggy Carr, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which released the results. The disappointing numbers come after results on another international study – the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – recently showed gains made by U.S. fourth and eighth graders in math since 1995.

 

– U.S. science and reading literacy scores weren’t much different from previous years. Boys outperformed girls in science and math, while girls outperformed boys in reading. Scores for Massachusetts, North Carolina and Puerto Rico were broken out for international benchmarking purposes, and revealed that Massachusetts students, on average, are outperforming students in the U.S. and worldwide in all three subjects. North Carolina students were comparable with U.S. average scores and Puerto Rican students fared worse. PISA measures the performance of 15-year-olds every three years in three subjects across dozens of education systems worldwide. Check out the results here .

 

– Education Secretary John B. King Jr. is in Massachusetts today to hail the state’s success with PISA – while noting that the nation as a whole is “losing ground.” According to prepared remarks, King will say that it’s “a troubling prospect when, in today’s knowledge-based economy, the best jobs can go anywhere in the world. Students in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Minnesota aren’t just vying for great jobs along with their neighbors or across state lines, they must be competitive with peers in Finland, Germany, and Japan.” King will say that Massachusetts embodies the importance of perseverance. “The PISA results announced today for Massachusetts didn’t happen instantly or by accident,” he’ll say. “It has taken years of people showing courage – principals, teachers, parents, students, and state and district leaders. It has taken years of overcoming challenges. It has taken years to make real and meaningful change happen. And it will take time to see the work we are continuing to do today truly pay off for students.” More on King’s visit.

 

– Other noteworthy highlights: U.S. students value a career in science and have high expectations of having a science career, but they’re falling short when it comes to skills. Countries like Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Japan are also seeing better student outcomes than the U.S., while investing fewer hours in actual teaching – giving teachers more time for professional development and advancing their careers.

 

As I have often written before, the international test scores do not predict the future of our economy or anything else. Scores on standardized tests measure family income and income inequality. If you want to know more, read my chapter in “Reign of Error” on international tests and what they mean and do not mea.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Failure, International, Race to the Top

Angie Sullivan: Nevada’s Failing Charters, a Disgrace

By dianeravitch
November 30, 2016 //
20

Angie Sullivan, second grade teacher in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada, sent our her bulletin to legislators and journalists:

As far as I discern from the data available on the Nevada Report Card:

Nevada has 22 charter providing services to High School Seniors.

Five charters did not report data in 2015-2016:

Founders Academy (State Charter)
American Prep Academy (State Charter)
Global Community (CCSD)
Leadership Academy of Nevada (State Charter)
SSCS – Silver State High School (State Charter)

Leaving 17 Nevada charters which reported graduation data.

This is how many seniors failed to graduate in these charters:

Innovations Charter (WCSD) – 1554 Seniors; 1262 failed to graduate.

Nevada Connections (State Charter) – 1923 Seniors; 1238 failed to graduate

Delta Charter (CCSD) – 826 Seniors; 684 failed to graduate

Nevada Virtual Academy (State Charter) – 1127 Seniors; 411 failed to graduate

I Can Do Anything High School (WCSD) – 560 Seniors; 400 failed to graduate

Beacon Academy of Nevada (State Charter) – 803 Seniors; 380 failed to graduate

Odyssey Charter ( CCSD) – 792 Seniors; 376 failed to graduate

Rainshadow HS (WCSD) – 188 Seniors; 141 failed to graduate

Quest Academy (State Charter) – 42 Seniors; 8 failed to graduate

Coral Academy Reno (State Charter) – 34 Seniors; 8 failed to graduate

Andre Agassi (CCSD) – 34 Seniors; 7 failed to graduate

Explore Knowledge (CCSD) – 29 Seniors; 7 failed to graduate

Academy for Career Education (WCSD) – 59 Seniors; 2 failed to graduate

Coral Academy Vegas (State Charter) – 42 Seniors; 2 failed to graduate

Nevada State High School (State Charter) – 181 Seniors; 2 failed to graduate.

Alpine Academy (State Charter) – 21 Seniors; all graduated.

Overall Nevada Charters provided services for 9015 Seniors and 4928 failed to graduate. Perhaps more – since 5 charters did not provide data.

Tell me now why we are in a rush to turn our public schools into charters?

Aren’t charters supposed to be the experiment and competition for public schools? You would expect the graduation rate to be at least as high as a neighborhood public schools correct.

What is being done about these failing charters?

If CCSD and WCSD took out their failing charter data – their graduation rates would greatly improve.

Charters are worse than the regular neighborhood public schools. Legislation needs to get this mess under control. Failing charters have to be closed. This is ridiculous.

This is expensive and a scam.

Categories Failure, Graduation rates, Nevada

Wisconsin: Scott Walker’s Plan to Destroy Public Education Rolls Forward

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2016 //
15

This year, there are 28,000 students enrolled in voucher schools in Milwaukee, and 75,000 in the public schools.

Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature increased the number of students eligible to receive vouchers, expanding the voucher program to Racine and elsewhere in the state. This year, the voucher program will cost the state $245 million. The Milwaukee program alone will cost the state over $200 million.

Study after study has demonstrated that voucher schools do not outperform public schools, and in many cases, are far inferior to public schools.

The expansion of the voucher program proves nothing other than the failure of vouchers.

Even the 2016 state scores showed negligible differences among students in vouchers schools, charter schools, and public schools, often a percentage point. These results were hailed as a great victory for the choice schools, but the percentages of students passing state tests were low in all three sectors. And, the scores don’t take into account the very large number of students in the Milwaukee students with special needs who are not wanted by the vouchers or the charters. Twenty percent of the children in the Milwaukee Public Schools have disabilities, compared to less than 6% in voucher schools, and about 12% in charters. MPS, of course, has the children with the most severe disabilities. That has an effect on aggregate test scores.

Categories Accountability, Failure, Vouchers, Walker, Scott

New Study: Chicago Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2016 //
20

A new study demonstrates that charter schools in Chicago get worse results than Chicago’s much-maligned public schools. Here is the abstract of the study by Myron Orfield and Thomas Luce:

“Charter schools have become the cornerstone of school reform in Chicago and in many other large cities. Enrollments in Chicago charters increased by more than ten times between 2000 and 2014 and, with strong support from the current mayor and his administration, the system continues to grow. Indeed, although state law limits charter schools in Chicago to 75 schools, proponents have used a loophole that allows multiple campuses for some charters to bypass the limit and there are now more than 140 individual charter campuses in Chicago. This study uses comprehensive data for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to show that, after controlling for the mix of students and challenges faced by individual schools, Chicago’s charter schools underperform their traditional counterparts in most measurable ways. Reading and math pass rates, reading and math growth rates, graduation rates, and average ACT scores (in one of the two years) are lower in charters all else equal, than in traditional neighborhood schools. The results for the two years also imply that the gap between charters and traditionals widened in the second year for most of the measures. The findings are strengthened by the fact that self-selection by parents and students into the charter system biases the results in favor of charter schools.”

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Corporate Reform, Failure

Julian Vasquez Heilig Reviews WikiLeaks for Education Emails

By dianeravitch
October 27, 2016 //
11

Julian Vasquez Heilig combed through the Podesta emails released by WikiLeaks in search of education-related comments. He found quite a few.

Reach your own conclusions.

I don’t think he included this one, where the Clinton campaign reacts to a question from the AFT about whether Joel Klein is involved in the campaign.

Education Week reported the story here.

Klein’s company Amplify lost about $500 million, when it was owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Murdoch dumped it, and Laurene Powell Jobs picked it up for the Emerson Collective, probably for a song.

But Klein is still in the money. Despite the epic failure of Amplify, Rupert Murdoch is paying him $4.6M per year to sit on the News Corp board. (And don’t forget that he filed for a pension from New York City for the eight years he spent as Chancellor, closing schools and opening charter schools.)

Klein is now working as “chief strategy” officer for the failing Oscar health insurance company, which is also losing millions fast. Klein has not had much luck in the business world. This company was co-founded by Josh Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Clinton, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Failure, Klein, Joel, New York City, Privatization

Carol Burris: Why the Shine is Fading from the Charter School Movement, Part 4

By dianeravitch
October 26, 2016 //
18

Carol Burris concludes here her fourth installment of the sad story of the charter school movement in California. What once was a movement intended to help and collaborate with public schools has been taken over by the power-hungry and the greedy, intent on displacing and destroying public education.

California is now the “wild west of charter schools” because of the state’s refusal to oversee the operations of these schools. Public money is handed out to almost anyone who wants it, and supervision is almost non-existent.

Burris writes:

The shine is off the charter school movement. Freedom from regulation, the sine qua non of the charter world, has resulted too often in troubled schools, taxpayer fleecing and outright fraud. Charters have become material for late-night comedians. That is never a good sign; just ask the proponents of the Common Core.

The greatest blow to charter momentum, however, was delivered by the NAACP. When delegates’ voted for a moratorium on new charters, it unleashed the fury of the charterphiles. A piece on the pro-reform website Education Post was titled, “The NAACP Was Founded by White People and It Still Isn’t Looking Out for Black Families,” accusing the premier civil rights organization of being “morally anemic.” And yet, despite the vitriol and critique, the NAACP board of directors stood fast, supported its delegates, and issued a strong statement calling for charter reform.

The passage of Question 2 on the November ballot in Massachusetts, which would lift the cap on charter schools, once seemed a sure thing. Now support has plummeted. The ballot measure is down by 11 points, having lost support among Democrats, especially from the progressive wing.

The problems with loosely regulated charters can no longer be brushed aside.

In the past three posts of my series on California charters (here, here and here), I highlighted some of the serious problems that exist in a state with weak governing laws, a powerful lobby propped up by billionaires, and a governor who consistently vetoes bills aimed at charter reform. California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who is usually progressive, has a blind spot when it comes to charters. The governor’s enthusiastic fundraising efforts on behalf of the two charters he started in Oakland came under scrutiny in the Los Angeles Times.

As a result, the problems with charters in the state bear an eerie resemblance to the those found in far more conservative states. As I spoke with Californians, I often felt quite depressed. The story line became clear—a state that generally holds progressive values financially abandoned its public schools with the passage of Proposition 13, thus crippling school funding. That was followed by a scramble to a charter solution to compensate for years of underfunding and neglect. That, in turn, opened the door to profit making schemes, corporate reformers hell-bent on destroying unions, and frankly, a lot of irresponsible educational models, such as storefront charters, boutique schools and “academies” linked to for-profits like K12.

There is hope, however, that California can alter its course. Despite all of the obstacles that stand in the way, there are Californians who want charter reform. They are exposing corruption, illegality, profit-making schemes and schools that are clearly not in the best interest of children. In this final piece, I will highlight some of their work.

Open the piece to see the links and to learn more about Burris’s reasons for optimism.

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

California: Court Decision Stuns Charter Industry and Threatens Stealth Charters

By dianeravitch
October 24, 2016 //
10

I recently posted Carol Burris’s analysis of a court decision in California that blocked the sneaky expansion of charters into districts outside the one where they were authorized; the new charters called themselves “resource centers” and were infiltrating districts that did not want them.

Here is a report by the San Diego Union-Tribune on the same decision.


California’s booming satellite charter school industry that has persevered through lawsuits, scandals and turf wars suffered a blow this past week when a state appellate court ruled hundreds of the campuses are illegally operating outside their districts.

At issue now is how 150,000 California students — including 25,000 in San Diego County — will continue their education. The court decision also puts at stake millions of dollars in revenue generated by the charters for privately run organizations.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned a lower court decision in a lawsuit filed by the Anderson Union High School District near Redding claiming the Shasta Secondary Home School (now Shasta Charter Academy) illegally opened satellite charter campus, which are officially called resource centers, in its jurisdiction.

Filed Monday and set to go into effect Nov. 16, the appellate decision reverses the lower court ruling, which sided with the charter that was authorized by the nearby Shasta Union High School District. The lower court said it was legal to operate a resource center, as such schools are officially called, in the neighboring Anderson district to give its independent-study students who live there a chance to use computers, receive tutoring and work on assignments in a classroom setting.

Of the state’s 1,200 charter schools, 275 are “resource centers,” many of them storefronts where students show up from time to time. That means that unless this decision is overturned by the state’s Supreme Court, more than 20% of California’s charter schools will cease to operate or seek some other option to survive.

San Diego public schools will welcome the return of the students in these “non-classroom-based” charters:

Andra Donovan, general counsel for the San Diego Unified School District, offers another option: Returning to district and its expanded catalog of independent-study programs.

San Diego Unified “is fully prepared and has sufficient capacity to absorb those students currently attending these charter schools, with fully robust, higher quality independent study and online learning programs as well as traditional and blended programs,” Donovan said. “Our graduation rate far exceeds that of many of these them and our district provides integrated support not available from these charters.”

These “resource centers” are locations intended to coordinate online instruction, which has repeatedly been shown to be a farce, educationally, an easy way to collect credits without getting an education.

Some districts opened resource centers because it was easy money.

Online instruction offers flexibility to students who want an alternative to traditional schools, and big revenue to charter organizations and authorizers. Districts that approve the charters receive up to 3 percent of their revenue for oversight and other services.

The Julian Union district opened its first charter in 1999, and now enrolls some 4,000 students in its charter resource centers across the region. Fewer then 400 local students attend Julian’s district schools.

The tiny rural two-campus district earned nearly $800,000 in revenue from its Julian and Diego Valley charters in the 2014-15 year, when its total revenue was $6.2 million.

Former Julian Superintendent Kevin Ogden helped establish the district’s first charter school, which took in $18 million in revenue last year, and operates 14 programs in eleven facilities.

Ogden helped usher in Diego Valley and Harbor Springs charters, both of which operate resource centers in other districts through independent study programs that offer as much as four days a week of classroom instruction or as little as a few teacher meetings. The Grossmont lawsuit targets Diego Valley.

Ogden retired about two years ago to take a top job at the Lancaster-based Learn4Life, an organization that includes Diego Valley, its Diego Plus Education Corporation and other charters throughout the state.

Following Julian’s lead, dozens of far-flung charters and resource centers have been authorized by other small East County districts, including some that acknowledged the arrangements were forged mostly for the money.

Does anyone seriously believe that the students who receive diplomas from these sham institutions are getting a high-quality education? Is this the way the U.S. will compete in the global economy? Hey, reformers, this is a farce.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Funding, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider: The New York Times Rebukes the NAACP for Demanding Charter Accountability

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2016 //
23

Mercedes Schneider dissects the decision by the national board of the NAACP to call for a moratorium on new charter schools until charter schools agree to transparency and accountability. As she points out, the New York Times education editorial writer chastised the NAACP in advance for expecting charter schools to be accountable.

The Times acknowledges that some charters are disasters, and that more than half the students in Detroit are in charters, with no discernible benefit.

It is worth noting that the same person has been writing the Times editorials on education for the past 20 years. He loved No Child Left Behind, he loved Race to the Top, he loves charters. He loves tests and the Common Core. Once when he was on vacation, the Times ran a reasonable education editorial.

Who is out of touch?

Mercedes writes:

“It is not good enough to note that when charters excel, they’re great, or tossing off the charters “are far from universally perfect” line (which the NYT does in its op-ed) and that failing charter schools “should be shut down”–another pro-charter, clichéd non-solution that only leads to unnecessary community disruption– disruption that could be curbed if there were stronger controls in place to begin with.

“As is proven by its “misguided” editorial, the NYT editorial board is ‘reinforcing an out of touch impression,’ not the NAACP.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Discipline and Suspensions, Education Industry, Equity, Failure, Media, Privatization

Our Lost Poet on the “Charge of the Gates Brigade”

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2016 //
22

This is one of the very best poems from Some DamPoet. He/she wrote it after the Gates Foundation admitted that its plans were not working out as well as they hoped, but that they intended to double down on their foundering efforts. The Los Angeles Times reprimanded the Gates Foundation for its hubris. So does Our Poet.

“The Charge of the Gates Brigade” (based on “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Half a wit, half a wit,
Half a wit onward,
All in the Valley of Dumb
Bill and Mel foundered
“Forward, the Gates Brigade!
Charge for the schools!” he said.
Into the Valley of Dumb
Bill and Mel foundered

II

“Forward, the Gates Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the Coleman knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and lie.
Into the Valley of Dumb
Bill and Mel foundered

III

Teachers to right of them,
Teachers to left of them,
Teachers in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with fact and stat,
Boldly they tuned out that,
Into the Ravitch jaws,
Into the mouth of cat
Bill and Mel foundered

IV

Flashed all their BS bare,
Dashed was their savoir faire
VAMming the teachers there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in with mir’s-n-smoke
Valiantly went for broke;
Cluelessly rushin’
Reeled from reality’s stroke
Shattered and sundered.
VAMming attack, for naught,
Bill and Mel foundered

V

Teachers to right of them,
Teachers to left of them,
Teachers behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with fact and stat,
While Bill and Mel chewed fat
They that had fought the BAT
Came through the Ravitch jaws,
Back from the mouth of cat,
All that was left in end:
Bill and Mel foundered

VI

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Gates Brigade,
Bill and Mel foundered

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Common Core, Education Reform, Failure, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

Trump Taj Mahal Closes After Years of Losses: Another Trump Failure

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2016 //
29

This story was published in USA Today:

October 10, 2016 3:11 pm
The Trump Taj Mahal, an iconic casino hotel on the Atlantic City boardwalk, ceased operations Monday after hemorrhaging money for years and negotiations with an employees’ union broke down, according to its owner, billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
The shutdown, which leaves 3,000 employees out of work, was widely expected after management announced the planned closure in August. Beset by labor strife and the decline of Atlantic City as a resort and gaming destination, the hotel lost “almost $350 million over just a few short years,” Icahn said in a statement Monday.
About 1,000 employees, including cooks, bartenders, housekeepers and cocktail servers, went on strike July 1, seeking health care and pension benefits. Icahn said his last offer, which included medical benefits, was rejected and keeping the Taj open would have required additional investments and result in losses in “excess of $100 million over the next year.”
The union, Unite Here Local 54, says many workers at the hotel “have seen only 80 cents per hour in total raises over the last 12 years” while the cost of living in Atlantic City has risen more than 25% during the period.
“Workers are trying to reenter the middle-class after Icahn used the bankruptcy court to strip them of pay and benefits worth more than one-third of their total compensation,” the union said in a statement released last month. “Housekeepers, servers and other casino workers at the Taj Mahal earn on average less than $12 and hour.”
Icahn’s clash with the union employees cost the Taj Mahal an estimated $150 million, the union said.
Meanwhile, Tony Rodio, CEO of Tropicana Entertainment Inc., which manages the hotel for Icahn Enterprises, said in August Icahn has lost about $100 million in trying to run the Taj Mahal after he acquired it from bankruptcy proceedings in February. Tropicana Entertainment is controlled by Icahn Enterprises.
The Trump Taj Mahal opened in 1990 after heavy debt financing and years of legal and financial maneuvers by its then-owner Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. When it opened, it was one of the largest casinos in the world, with more than 100,000 square feet of gaming space, and it billed itself as “the eighth wonder of the world.”
But the fancy billing belied numerous financial woes it faced over the years, including multiple bankruptcy filings by its owners. In 2009, Trump Entertainment Resorts underwent a round of bankruptcy restructuring, in which Donald Trump lost control and the hotel operator company was sold to investment firm Avenue Capital.
In 2014, Trump Entertainment Resorts, whose assets by now mostly consisted of the Taj Mahal, again filed for bankruptcy protection. When it emerged from the legal proceedings in February, Icahn had grabbed control and the hotel become a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises. ​
According to its website, Trump Taj Mahal customers had until 8 a.m. Monday to redeem gaming chips and vouchers at the hotel. After 8 a.m., they can be redeemed at Tropicana Atlantic City’s Casino Cage.
Room bookings on and after Oct. 9 have been cancelled. Room deposits will be refunded, it said.

Categories Failure, Trump
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