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Indiana: Tony Bennett’s Favorite Charter Falls from A to F

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2013 //
10

Remember that Tony Bennett, after being beaten by Glenda Ritz in an election last fall, was hired to be Commissioner of Education in Florida? Remember that he resigned his position in Florida after the Associated Press released emails showing that Bennett had changed the grading system to lift the grade of a charter school founded by a big campaign contributor (both to his campaign and to the state GOP).

Indiana grades just came out. Christel House Academy, Bennett’s favorite charter, dropped from the A that he manufactured, to an F.

Lots of excuses from the charter school.

The dog ate its homework.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Indiana, Privatization

Update from Indiana: Negotiations Underway

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2013 //
22

I posted a comment earlier from a reader in Indiana who said that the State Board of Education was set to strip State Commissioner of Education Glenda Ritz of the authority and powers of her office. Other readers from Indiana have contacted me to say that negotiations are underway between the board and State Commissioner Ritz to reach a reasonable settlement that does not destroy the powers of her office and that respects the will of the voters.

Let’s see how this turns out.

In the meanwhile, feel free to contact members of the Indiana state board and urge them to work collegially with the woman who won election fair and square.

Tony Walker – tony@walkerlawgroup.biz
Dr. David Freitas – drdavidfreitas@comcast.net
Cari Whicker – cwhicker@hccsc.k12.in.us
Sarah O’Brien – sobrien4cd@yahoo.com
Andrea Neal – aneal@inpolicy.org
Dr. Brad Oliver – brad4education@gmail.com
Daniel Elsener – delsener@marian.edu
B.J. Watts – bj.watts@evsc.k12.in.us
Troy Albert – talbert@wclark.k12.in.us
Gordon Hendry – education@gordonhendry.com

Categories Indiana

Indiana: Democracy on Trial This Week

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2013 //
3

Governor Mike Pence moves to strip the State Commissioner of Education Glenda Ritz of the powers of her office.

She won more votes last year than Pence.

From a reader:

OUTRAGEOUS!!!! From the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education FB post:

It looks as though the State Board is going to do the unthinkable this Friday.

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT WE ALL WRITE LETTERS TO THEM NOW!

The Indiana State Board of Education is scheduled to meet this Friday, December 20 at 9:00 a.m. Months of conflict caused by Governor Pence and his appointed board members is expected to come to a head at the meeting. It is widely expected that when the board votes on new board procedures they will remove roles that State Superintendents have possessed as Chair of the board for years — that is until 1.3 million voters elected Glenda Ritz.

We are asking ISTA members and friends who care about public schools to contact the State Board of Education members immediately. Tell them that you support Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz. Let them know that you voted for Glenda Ritz because you expected her to be the Chair and lead education policy maker in Indiana.

If you are a public school educator or support professionalism, please email the board members from home and on your own personal time.

The board members and their email addresses as provided by the SBOE website are:

Tony Walker – tony@walkerlawgroup.biz
Dr. David Freitas – drdavidfreitas@comcast.net
Cari Whicker – cwhicker@hccsc.k12.in.us
Sarah O’Brien – sobrien4cd@yahoo.com
Andrea Neal – aneal@inpolicy.org
Dr. Brad Oliver – brad4education@gmail.com
Daniel Elsener – delsener@marian.edu
B.J. Watts – bj.watts@evsc.k12.in.us
Troy Albert – talbert@wclark.k12.in.us
Gordon Hendry – education@gordonhendry.com

https://ista-in.org/action-alert-board-expected-to-strip-ritzs-authority-as-board-chair-on-friday

Categories Indiana

What Happens When Educators Make Their Own Documentary?

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2013 //
36

In 2011, Rocky Killion, the superintendent of schools in West Lafayette, Indiana, had an idea: What if we made our own documentary about the schools? What if we became our own production crew? What if we traveled the country and interviewed experts with our questions?

They did it, and the film premiered in Lafayette to an enthusiastic audience of 1,000 people.

The tile of the film is “Rise Above the Mark.” It was directed by Purdue University student Jack Klink, with author Angie Klink, Jack Klink’s mother was scriptwriter. Political analyst Steve Klink, Angie Klink’s husband, was an executive producer. Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Coyote narrates.

The article says:

“The film was funded completely by donations made to the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation; no tax dollars were used.

“That’s what the film is about: Let’s have a conversation,” Killion said. “Are we on the right track? If we want to become world class and have the world’s best competitive system, why wouldn’t we look at the best education systems and learn from them?”

“The film opens on an emotional Diana Rathert, a fifth-grade teacher who retired early from WLCSC after 38 years. As Rathert speaks about why she retired, she breaks down into tears.

“I still love what I do and I loved it up until the end,” she said. “But I feel like the legislators have beaten us down, and I hope some way we find a way to fight our way back up to the top.”

“It’s a scene that sets the tone for the 65-minute film, which aspires to shift the national discussion surrounding the education reform movement and speaks out against “corporate reform,” including the increase in public charter schools and an increasing reliance on standardized testing.

“Through stories of those like Rathert’s, the film’s creative team hopes to put a face to those teachers directly affected by reform movements that champion private school vouchers, charter schools and other measures that they say put more restrictions on teachers.”

I was interviewed and I can’t wait to see “Rise Above the Mark.”

Categories Indiana, Supporting public schools, Testing

Indiana: Public Schools Show Stronger Performance than Charter Schools or Voucher Schools

By dianeravitch
December 14, 2013 //
23

At some point the PR bubble will burst, and the public will realize that school choice solves no problems and that charters and vouchers perform no better and often worse than regular public schools.

Blogger Steve Hinnefeld analyzed Indiana’s growth scores and found that public schools usually showed greater gains than charters or religious schools.

Hinnefeld writes:

“You can download 2012-13 growth scores for all the schools in the state from the Indiana Department of Education website. Sort and rank them, and what do they show?

For Indiana’s 1,400-plus public schools, the median score – the value at which half the scores are higher and half are lower – was at the 51st percentile in math and the 50th in English. That’s about what you’d expect: Most Indiana schools are public schools, so naturally the median score will be in the middle.

For private schools reporting growth scores, median scores were at the 46th percentile in English and only the 40th percentile in math.

For charter schools, median scores were at the 46thpercentile in English and only at the 36th percentile in math.”

This is the great secret of our time: Our public schools are doing a better job than the competition.

Categories Charter Schools, Indiana, Vouchers

Pence Intensifies Effort to Marginalize Ritz

By dianeravitch
December 9, 2013 //
23

In a shocking affront to the democratic process and to conservative principles, Governor Mike Pence stepped up his efforts to strip away the authority of Glenda Ritz, the elected state superintendent of education.

Her predecessor Tony Bennett was treated as a hero. Ritz is treated as an illegitimate outcast because she disagrees with the Governor’s radical plans to privatize public education and reduce all education to Big Data.

The Governor created a shadow agency, to which he is transferring decision making. The staff of the shadow agency writes proposals for the state board appointed by Pence and his predecessor Mitch Daniels.

The board’s decisions are made by email, and it does not bother to include Ritz, the chair of the board, on its email chain. Ritz and members of the public have lodged complaints about violations of the state’s open meetiings law, this far without success.

Now a group of citizens has filed a lawsuit to stop this travesty and violation of democratic process and state law.

The greatest insult is not to Glenda Ritz but to the voters of Indiana and the rule of law.

Categories Accountability, Indiana

Indiana: Why the Battle between Glenda Ritz and Governor Pence Matters

By dianeravitch
December 7, 2013 //
18

Journalist Todd Smekens in Indiana blogged about the struggle by Glenda Ritz to stop Governor Mike Pence from destroying her position, to which she was elected by the people of Indiana. This is a battle for democracy, not for an individual.

Smekens sees the struggle as part of a national attack on public education. He tied it to Sue Peters’ upset victory in Seattle, where the zillionaires put together what they thought was a big enough campaign fund to crush her.

Smekens recognizes that Pence is trying not only to usurp democracy but to make Indiana a friendly home for “free market capitalists.” Pence wants to protect Indiana as a zone where entrepreneurs can make a profit by feeding off the public schools with false promises.

He writes:

The free market capitalists are bankrolling school board seats to expand charter programs or advancing the privatization of our school system.

The same billionaire free marketers who are driving to eliminate unions, cut government regulation, strip workers of their rights, etc. are also behind Common Core standardized testing. You saw how important it was to Tony Bennett – he had to increase grades from a C to an A so they could keep pushing their privatization agenda – it cost him his job in Florida.

However what most journalists in Indiana are missing is the underlying fact that charters do not outperform public schools. Even with all the hype, new equipment, the opportunity to screen students, etc., they still don’t outperform public schools. The hundreds of millions of dollars thrown at “fixing the education system” by corporations, foundations, and non-educator politicians, the bottom line is they make decisions based on profit schemes versus the needs of teachers-students-parents.

So, if you think Gov. Mike Pence is simply playing politics with the formation of the CECI to usurp State Education Superintendent, Glenda Ritz, you’re only scratching the surface. Gov. Pence hired all the education reform players who worked with the former superintendent Tony Bennett. Who also worked with Mitch Daniels, the Gates Foundation, and reformers like Jeb Bush to privatize Indiana’s schools. They have a financial stake in Indiana, so they will not give up until Glenda Ritz is removed from the equation.

These billionaire free market capitalists could care less about our democratic process in this country – they’ve now shown their hands from the billion dollar Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement being negotiated behind closed doors, the dysfunction in shutting down our government in Washington, the dysfunction in our statehouses and gerrymandering districts to prevent competition, and all the way down to simple school board seats in our community.

If you think these free market libertarian billionaires and their Tea Party cowboys are about “freedom of choice”, you’ve been badly misguided by corporate media spin owned by the same people.

 

Categories Indiana

Indiana Governor Pence’s War Against Democracy

By dianeravitch
November 25, 2013 //
8

Governor Mike Pence just can’t get over the fact that challenger Glenda Ritz beat State Superintendent Tony Bennett, even though Bennett had a 10-1 spending advantage. Pence may be miffed because Ritz got more votes than he did. But her worst crime is that she does not share the governor’s nihilistic ideology of destroying public education. And for those reasons, the governor is determined to strip her office of its powers and thwart the will of the voters. Pence is at war not just with Glenda Ritz, but with democracy.

The following essay appeared in an Indiana newspaper. In a just world, Governor Pence’s undemocratic assault on Superintendent Ritz would be stopped by the courts.

“Indiana Gov. Mike Pence seems to have thrown transparency and conservatism out the window just 10 months into office.

But I guess you have to do that when it comes to stripping Glenda Ritz of the powers entrusted to her by Hoosier voters.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Pence has been sniping at Ritz since the day she took office as the state superintendent of public instruction in January.

You see, Ritz, a Democrat, did the unthinkable by beating Republican schools boss Tony Bennett. He had attacked teacher unions and funneled education money into charter schools that essentially are owned and run by Republicans.

Since he didn’t want to look like the bad guy, Pence needed a vehicle to go after Ritz.

So, under the cover of darkness one muggy night in August, Pence created the Center for Education and Career Innovation.

He just did it. Poof. One day it was suddenly there. While most state agencies are created by the Legislature, this one was all Pence. Kind of like the magician who pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

The CECI provides support staff to the State Board of Education, which is appointed by the governor.

CECI’s prime mission in life appears to be to make Ritz wish she never had run for state superintendent.

And if you have doubts about what Pence wants to do to Ritz, consider what House Speaker Brian Bosma said last week.

Bosma suggested a long-standing law designating the superintendent as chairman of the State Board of Education may be headed for extinction by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“We don’t want to take any actions that appear to be unfair to anyone, but we have to have a system that works as well,” Bosma said. “We’re doing what we can behind the scenes to try to calm everything down and bring people together, and if we have to be out in front, we’ll do that, too.”

The system worked well for decades. Now it doesn’t? Things were fine when Republican Sue Ellen Reed was superintendent and Democrats were in control.

Worse than the covert operation is what some of the 15 CECI staffers are being paid to help make life miserable for Ritz.

Claire Fiddian-Green, who heads the CECI, is being paid $120,000 a year.

That’s not exactly chump change. You could hire a few teachers with that kind of money.

If you are a bit bothered by what Fiddian-Green is being paid, consider that six of the 15 CECI staffers are being paid more than $100,000 annually.

It’s obvious that taking control of education in Indiana is pretty important to Pence and his Republican brethren. The cost – politically or financially – apparently doesn’t matter.”

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/rich-james/rich-james-pence-is-paying-a-lot-to-undermine-ritz/article_e22581e4-af74-50cf-9a5f-ccbada2eb3fe.html

Categories Indiana

Glenda Ritz Comments on Governor’s Efforts to Dissolve Her Office

By dianeravitch
November 13, 2013 //
7

Glenda Ritz was elected State Superintendent in Indiana last fall. She won more votes than Governor Mike Pence.

She was elected by a bipartisan group of citizens who rejected the policies of Tony Bennett, who outspent her 10-1.

Since her election, Governor Pence and the state board appointed by him and his predecessor have whittled away the powers of the State Education Department.

They created a parallel agency and shifted some of the Department’s powers to it.

The state board voted to strip itself (and its chairperson, Glenda Ritz) of the power to revise the failed A-F grading system.

In short, the governor and his allies are trying their best to reverse the will of the voters, so clearly expressed last November.

They are trying to win by stealth what they lost at the ballot box.

They are attacking not just Glenda Ritz but democracy itself.

Ironically, the local media said that Ritz and the board and governor should stop squabbling.

Ritz felt compelled to reply. Here is what she wrote.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Indiana

Indiana Researcher on NAEP: Results No Different from Past

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2013 //
4

While Arne Duncan and ex-Superintendent Tony Bennett were celebrating Indiana’s gains on the 2013 NAEP, researchers at Indiana University said the gains were no different from the state’s performance in past years on NAEP.

“Relative to the 1-point gains in mathematics and reading for the nation as a whole, the 5- and 4-point gains for Indiana fourth-graders appear impressive,” said Peter Kloosterman, the Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Chair for Teacher Education and a professor of mathematics education. “However, state samples are relatively small, and thus scores tend to fluctuate more than national scores. In 2000, Indiana was 9 points above the national average in math, but that dropped to 4 points above in 2007 and 2009 before going back to 9. In reading, Indiana has fluctuated from 2 to 5 points above the national average since 2000.”

In addition:

“Regarding the latest Grade 8 results, Kloosterman said gains for Indiana students are comparable to recent years.

“Indiana is now 4 points above the national average in mathematics as compared to 2 points in 2011,” he said. “Since 2000, however, Indiana has been as high as 9 points above and as low as 2 points above. In reading, Indiana eighth-graders are now 1 point above the national average, the same as 2011 and within the window of 1 to 4 points above the national average for Indiana since 2000.”

Although Indiana remains above the national average, it is not in the top tier of U.S. students. “In brief, we see substantial gains in mathematics across the nation with fourth- and eighth-graders in 2013 achieving about two grade levels above their counterparts in 1990,” Kloosterman said. “There have been gains in reading at both levels, but they are much less than a grade level. Indiana is consistently above the national average, but not at the level of the highest-performing states. These trends have held throughout all the state and national education policy changes over this period.”

Kloosterman is available to respond to questions about how to interpret the latest NAEP results. He can be reached at 812-855-9715 or klooster@indiana.edu.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Indiana, NAEP
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