Archives for category: For-Profit
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

President Obama, Please Read This

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2013 //
33

This teacher in Pennsylvania wonders why President Obama is turning his back on the calamity facing students in Philadelphia.

Please send his comment to the White House. After years of budget cuts and layoffs, isn’t it time for action? The Obama girls attend a wonderful school with small classes, experienced teachers, arts, physical education, science labs, a library: shouldn’t everyone?

The teacher writes:

“I teach in suburban Philadelphia in a district which is managing to survive with cutbacks in programming and hiring under Governor Corbett, but my wife teaches in Philadelphia and is experiencing firsthand the devastating impact of the state and city leaders seriously shortchanging public education. In September she currently expects to return to a school with no assistant principal, no counsellor, no nurse, no aids, no librarian, and fewer teachers.

“While I expect the kind of indifference exhibited by our tea party Governor and legislature to public education, I am struck by the almost total dropping of the ball by our President and the Democrats on the issue of saving our schools, especially on behalf of the constituency which worked and voted for their reelection. Is this because the President and those around him making education policy have been bought off by the same education “reformers” who own Governor Corbett?

“I got my answer when I watched the “cutting edge classrooms” town hall for students which was sponsored by the Obama administration on June 6 after the President announced his plan to put more technology in our nations classrooms. Here is the link: whitehouse.gov/show-and-tell. This was billed as the National Show and Tell on connected classrooms. The host was a spokesperson for something called EdSurge and at approximately the 24 minute spot of the presentation she tells the assembled students that she wants them to believe she has a magic wand which could solve any problem in their schools and she invites responses. It is then that a student from Philadelphia explains that her district has a 300 million dollar deficit, that teachers and counselors are being laid off and that she wishes the magic wand would be used by the Obama administration to fix this crisis caused by, what the student refers to as the “Doomsday budget.”

“Incredibly the total response from the spokesperson is to say: okay, Philadelphia wants more funding for its doomsday “project”. That’s it. That’s all she wrote.

“As you said in your letter to the Education Secretary it is a national disgrace to allow the public schools to die, but as long as leaders are more beholden to the technology companies than the students, technology, not learning is what we will get.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Industry, For-Profit, Obama, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Privatization

Anthony Cody: The Nine Most Terrifying Words in the English Language

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
58

Anthony Cody explains that the nine most terrifying words in the English language to an educator are, “I’m from Big Business, and I’m here to help.”

Business ideas about competition and incentives, he says, don’t work in schools.

Profit-driven reforms don’t work either.

Businesses and schools have different bottom lines.

As he concludes:

“The market system demands winners and losers, and the biggest losers of all are the students who find themselves left behind in schools that are unprofitable, or because they are more difficult to educate, and thus are liabilities to whatever schools they enroll in….

“I wrote a week ago that our schools are like a living organism under attack by those who wish to divert resources into profitable ventures. Those of us resisting this are perhaps becoming more activated, like white blood cells are activated when the body’s immune system detects an invasion. We need to understand the reasons business interests are realigning our schools, and work to preserve the core mission of our public education system. Our schools do not exist to prepare students to be compliant workers in an ever more efficient economic system. We are in the business of creating thinkers, not workers, creators, not drones.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit

The Onion: A Bold and Innovative Charter School

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
16

Please read this. THE ONION GETS IT!

When you become a joke in THE ONION, the end of school deform is in sight.

The article begins:

“ATLANTA—One year into its founding as the purported “bold next step in education reform,” administrators on Monday sang the praises of Forest Gates Academy, a progressive new charter school that practices an innovative philosophy of not admitting any students. “We’ve done something here at Forest Gates that is truly special, combining modern, cutting-edge pedagogical methods with a refreshingly non-pupil-centric approach,” said academy president Diane Blanchard, who claimed that the experimental school boasts state-of-the-art facilities, a diverse and challenging syllabus, absolutely zero students, a world-class library, and the highest faculty-student ratio in the nation. “Thanks to our groundbreaking methods, we’ve established a structured yet free-thinking environment where the student is taken out of the equation entirely, and in fact is not allowed on school property. And the results, we think, speak for themselves.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Humor

Idaho Has a Problem

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
33

Idaho has a problem, and it may not be unique to Idaho.

One of the most powerful families in the state is the Albertson family, which runs the Albertson Foundation.

It seems that one of the family heirs has made millions of dollars by investing in the online charter company K12, and now the Albertson Foundation thinks the whole state should get behind the for-profit corporation and put their kids online. Follow the money.

The foundation has been running “public service ads” with the slogan “Don’t Fail, Idaho,” insisting that the kids in Idaho are doing horribly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal tests. What’s the cure? One guess.

The ads claim that 60% of children in Idaho are “not proficient” on the NAEP tests, but they don’t explain that “proficient” on NAEP is a very high level of performance, what I consider a very strong A or B. The NAEP state coordinator from 2002-2012 tried to explain what the NAEP labels mean, but he probably did not persuade the Albertson Foundation.

Here are the facts:

In fourth grade reading: 31% of children in Idaho are below basic, just below the national average of 34%.

In eigth grade reading, 19% are below basic, well below the national average of 25%.

In fourth grade math, 17% are below basic, about the same as the national average.

In eighth grade math, 23% of the kids are below basic, well below the national average of 28%.

Idaho is not failing.

What would really fail Idaho would be to put large numbers of students into K12 virtual academies, which have high attrition rates, low test scores, and low graduation rates.

Idaho, don’t fall for a bill of goods.

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, Idaho, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

$$$$$$$: the Outrageous Story of Pitbull’s Charters

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
17

Hold on to your hat, sit down, then open this link, a bombshell post by Jersey Jazzman.

You will learn why Pitbull is a keynote speaker at the National Charter Schools Conference. It is not because he is a rapper who insults women.

You will learn that he and his family have perfected the art of using charters to become very rich.

You will learn about the sleazy deals that he and his family made with local politicians. You will learn that his family has built a multi-million dollar real estate empire with public money.

You will learn about Pitbull’s connection to Academica, South Florida’s largest and richest for-profit charter chain.

You will see how politicians profit, entrepreneurs profit, all on the public dime. Did I say “dime”? Sorry. Much more at stake here.

Should this man be honored or investigated? Jersey Jazzman reports, you decide.

Categories Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit

North Carolina Legislature Puts a Few Limits on Charters

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
28

North Carolina’s SB 337 has been revised to add just a few limits to charter autonomy. There will not be a separate charter-friendly board to authorize charters; that responsibility will remain with the state board, which will likely be tilted towards charters anyway.

The original bill would have allowed all charter teachers to be uncertified. Currently, 75% of charter teachers in K-5 must be certified. The new bill drops that to 50%, instead of zero.

Charter teachers will be subject to criminal background checks. That’s a relief. And charters will be expected to reflect the racial diversity of their area.

Educators were less than thrilled with the low standards for charter teachers. One said, “Standards only seem to matter if you teach in a traditional public school system.” Another said, “A license is an assurance to the public, just like when I go to the doctor and look for his license to practice medicine…Do we want electricians and pharmacists to not have licenses? Do we want to create a professional system in which professionals are unlicensed?”

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/06/25/mixed-signals-on-charter-schools/#sthash.vsshLO2t.dpuf

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching

Anthony Cody: Bill Gates and the Invasion of the Profiteers

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
11

Anthony Cody draws a contrast between Lakeside Academy, where Bill Gates and his children were (and are) students, and the current model of education “reform,” which is driven by entrepreneurs and profit-seekers.

Lakeside Academy values the relationships between teachers and children. Greatschools like Lakeside, Cody writes, “emphasize experiential learning, empathy, and above all, relationships between teachers and students. And of course, class sizes are kept below twenty to make all this possible.”

Cody writes:

“The model offered by Lakeside is decidedly not efficient — at least when efficiency is defined as spending the least amount of money spent for a minimally satisfactory result. It requires experienced, expert teachers, small class sizes and excellent facilities. We could simply devote our efforts to making sure all schools got the funding they need to pay for these three basic things, and loosely monitor progress as such schools do, through occasional tests. But where would the profit be to “drive innovation”? So the drive for profits has led to a system redesign, with the introduction of new elements, required not for educational purposes but for the needs of the profit makers. Our education system is being remade to emulate a consumer-driven marketplace. What are the key components we must have?

1. A standardized testing accountability machine. In order for schools and various educational delivery systems to be compared, we must have a common set of standards and an efficient means of comparing the student learning that they produce.

2. A system by which schools that do not yield desired results are quickly dispatched, so as to create opportunities for innovators.

3. Standardized tests, test-aligned curriculum, and software designed to prepare students for tests.
Computer labs, laptops or tablets to allow for “personalized” instruction, delivery of computer-based instruction and assessment, and significantly larger class sizes.

4. Funding systems that allows money to “follow the child” to whatever form of schooling the parent might choose; including private, parochial, virtual, or home.”

Why don’t we do what the best schools do, instead of aligning our system for the benefit of what Cody calls “parasitic profiteers”?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

Republicans in NC Step Up Their War Against Public Education

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2013 //
29

Far-right Governor Pat McCrory has brought in an aggressive leader for his strategy to privatize public education and dismantle the teaching profession. That is Eric Guckian, the governor’s tip advisor on demolishing–re, transforming –North Carolina’s education system.

Guckian is a TFA alum with long experience in the corporate reform movement. He wants “an aggressive K-12charter school environment in the state.”

At a meeting of the governor’s task force on education (which has no teachers on it), “Guckian presented five pathways for education in North Carolina that included a call to dismantle walls and textbooks for “digital online solutions;” having the business community play a larger role in developing educational pathways; job-embedded professional training for teachers; and basing teachers’ salaries on their “outputs in the field.” You can see where this is heading: profits for corporations, a welcome mat for for-profit virtual providers, and no professional preparation for teachers.

A proposal–Senate Bill 337–is already in the works in the ALEC-dominated Legislature to set up a charter commission that takes supervision and authorization of charters away from the State Board of Education and gives it to a new charter-friendly board. This charter board will be able to authorize charters over the opposition of local school boards. Senate Bill 337 is extreme in its commitment to deregulation. Charters would be able to take any unused public space for only $1. They would not be subject to conflict of interest laws. Their employees would not be required to pass criminal background checks. Their teachers would not require certification of any kind. High school teachers need not be college graduates. They would be relieved of diversity requirements.

See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/06/19/mccrory-education-advisor-eric-guckian-calls-for-aggressive-charter-school-environment-in-north-carolina/#sthash.QuvJ7V2e.dpuf

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, On-Line Education

What Is the Role of Profit in School Reform?

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2013 //
10

Ken Previti, a retired teacher, has been watching the evolution of school “reform,” and he wonders when the public will catch on to the schemes and fear-mongering. What is it all about? Sell-sell-sell.

Just doing what business does. Monetizing the children.

Categories ALEC, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Reader: How to Describe Corporate Reform in Plain English

By dianeravitch
June 17, 2013 //
31

A reader commented on an earlier discussion with these thoughts:
***************************************************************************

“”Does anyone else feel like we are basically being ignored?” – 2old2tch

While I applaud the sentiment and aspirations of this letter I am saddened with the weak tea rhetoric and carefully qualified points in academic insider language. This is how academics exchange views at conferences. Arne Duncan is not an academic and he has yet to show any respect for or interest in anything academics have to say.

Offering a long list of research citations is great if your are publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. Otherwise they indicate a false belief in the authority of the research, which the reform movement has largely ignored and dismissed all along. This high flown rhetoric doesn’t stand up well to Duncan’s canned talking points outside of academia.

A non-academic reading this might well ask: So what exactly are they saying? What exactly are they asking for? Where’s the beef?

Can we get a plain-spoken English translation, something like: You are destroying public schools and the teaching profession. Standardized testing is out of control, cruel, and useless in determining success of students and teachers. Your “Race to the Top” creates losers as well as winners. These programs have been tried over and over and always fail — why are you still promoting them?

If the purpose was to convince other academics then it serves that purpose well, a preaching to the choir moment. If the purpose is to impact and change wrong-headed policies then the audience should be much broader and the language much less academic and their tone much more forceful. That’s how the game is played today.

“Does anyone else feel like we are basically being ignored?” – 2old2tch

“Yes.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Vouchers
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »