Archives for category: Louisiana
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Oprah: Don’t Participate in This Fraud!

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
42

A teacher in New Orleans sent this letter to me. My promise to him or her: we will all use whatever tools are at our command to stop the destruction of public education and the exploitation of students to benefit corporate interests. We will not give up.

I wanted to bring to your attention the trailer for the upcoming Oprah network series about John McDonogh high school here in New Orleans.

http://www.oprah.com/common/omplayer_embed.html?article_id=41375.

It is a vicious misrepresentation of what is going on at the school- merely propaganda for the brand new charter management organization that makes our students out to be thug primitives who need taming by clean cut out of towners.

Last night, a meeting was held by a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations to discuss the stripping away of the public from our public schools and some important action steps to re-frame the narrative of New Orleans schools. Parents mentioned this very video and will be protesting a screening at the school tonight.

Meanwhile, this series plans to do exactly what the corporate reformers here have been doing all along and what those folks last night are contending with- an extreme narrative that is completely out of touch with the truth, and has troubling privatization and profit motives.

In the wake of these reforms, our schools have shut out holistic learning, critical pedagogies, whole child concerns, etc. and have become militaristic nightmares- the opposite of the safe spaces schools should provide, especially for students in the impoverished situations many of the students depicted in this program come from.

Our students feel the walls closing in on them as young white teachers (I am one of them) stand in front of their classroom telling them all they need to do to get to college is work harder so the students can be successful just like them! To put them on camera in that experience is the grossest form of exploitation I can think of.

The propaganda this show is prepared to deliver across the country is both predictable and terrifying. Narratives are powerful and the allies of privatization are winning.

We need to start an information campaign to discredit this work, as happened with “Won’t Back Down.” Your voice in that movement is of course key, and I look forward to your input and feedback.

Sincerely,

A concerned young educator in New Orleans

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Louisiana, New Orleans, Students

Louisiana Educator: Don’t Believe the Hype!

By dianeravitch
January 14, 2013 //
3

Mike Deshotels is a veteran educator in Louisiana. He writes one of the best education blogs in the state.

Knowing what is happening on the ground, Mike is astounded that Michelle Rhee named Louisiana as a leader of education reform. he says it is all a great sham. He is puzzled that no one in the national press corps has investigated the facts about the state’s Recovery School District.

How could the press allow Governor Jindal to get away with his phony claims?

Writes Deshotels:

“There is only one problem with the Louisiana Recovery District model. It does not work! In fact when Louisiana tried to expand its own Recovery District beyond the New Orleans school system, the result can only be described as a clear failure.

“After 4 years, out of the twelve schools taken over by the state RSD and converted to charters outside of New Orleans, all of them are still rated “F”, and have declined in performance by an average of 10%. But not only have the schools declined academically, enrollment has dropped by an average of 39%. See the linked spreadsheet. So when Governor Jindal touts the success of parental choice, it must be recognized that many parents are “choosing” to pull their children out of the State sponsored choice charter schools!”

Categories Charter Schools, Louisiana, New Orleans, Rhee, Michelle

Michelle Rhee’s Upside Down Agenda

By dianeravitch
January 8, 2013 //
22

Michelle Rhee issued a report card yesterday that graded states by whether they satisfied her.

What she wants is privatization of public education (charters and vouchers); high-stakes testing by which to judge teacher quality; an end to teacher tenure; and the weakening if not outright elimination of teacher unions.

Here is what we can say about her agenda:

THERE IS ZERO EVIDENCE THAT HER POLICY PREFERENCES PRODUCE HIGHER TEST SCORES OR BETTER SCHOOLS.

To the contrary, the states that follow her advice tend to have the lowest test scores!

The public schools of Massachusetts are unquestionably the most successful in the United States. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, they are number one in the nation, by far. When Massachusetts students took part in the latest international assessment, they were ranked among the highest performing nations in the world in math and science. Black students in Massachusetts performed as well as Finland. Rhee graded Massachusetts D+.

Rhee gave a D to Connecticut and New Jersey, which are consistently among the top three on NAEP.

Rhee gave Louisiana one of her highest marks, even though the state is among the lowest ranking states in the nation on the NAEP. But it scores high with Rhee because Bobby Jindal is following the ALEC playbook on vouchers, charters, online learning and for-profit schools.

Rhee rated Washington, D.C., #4 among all states even though it is one of the nation’s lowest performing districts with the lowest graduation rate and the largest black-white achievement gap and Hispanic-white achievement gap of any big city. Having shifted nearly half its pupils to privately managed charters, it is a success by Rhee’s metrics, even though the students do poorly and teacher turnover is among the nation’s highest at 20% annually.

This much is clear: Rhee has no regard for evidence. As Richard Zeiger, the deputy superintendent of instruction in California told the New York Times, the state’s F rating was a “badge of honor.”

“This is an organization that frankly makes its living by asserting that schools are failing,” Mr. Zeiger said of StudentsFirst. “I would have been surprised if we had got anything else.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Here It Is: The ALEC Agenda

By dianeravitch
January 7, 2013 //
9

This is a point by point replication of the ALEC agenda to privatize public education and abolish the teaching profession.

Follow this template and your state will get the same performance as Louisiana and DC.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Louisiana, Rhee, Michelle, Vouchers

Prediction: Score Inflation in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
January 7, 2013 //
10

A reader forwarded this prediction and analysis of the forthcoming manipulation of school grades in Louisiana.

We will hear that scores are going up and that the achievement gap is closing.

Don’t believe it.

It is what as known as gaming the system.

This analysis was picked up and amplified by a blogger in Louisiana who knows the inside of the state Department of Education. This blogger describes the game as “John White’s White Lies”

Categories Louisiana, Testing

Inside Story on Louisiana Spin and Failures

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2012 //
9

If you are a fan of mystery writing and novels, this will interest you.

If you love non-fiction, it will also interest you.

This is a true-life drama from Baton Rouge about a school that was taken over by the state in 2008 and has seen no improvement. The story involves money, politics, power, hidden agendas, intrigue and data. What could be better?

In trying to get to the bottom of the story, it is mandatory that you read the comments. That’s where the best stuff is.

Categories Charter Schools, Louisiana, New Orleans

Another Way to Crush Teacher Morale

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2012 //
18

The Louisiana Department of Education is bringing to fruition the acme of corporate reform salary schedules for teachers. It may have been jointly designed by ALEC and TFA.

Neither experience nor degrees count. The only thing that matters is value-added test scores. The LDOE recommends big bonuses–merit pay–of $10,000 or more for the teachers whose students get higher scores.

Bear in mind that the budget for the schools is stagnant. The law doesn’t permit salary reductions, so any bonuses will be funded by freezing the salaries of the overwhelming majority of teachers.

This is a recipe for massive demoralization of the state’s teachers.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Education Industry, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Teach for America TFA

This Is What Courage Means

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2012 //
1

Earlier today I posted about four teachers in Louisiana who started a recall campaign against Governor Bobby Jindal and the Speaker of the Louisiana House. The odds against them were overwhelming. They had no organization, no money, and no political experience. They didn’t collect enough signatures to get on the ballot. They confronted a powerful political machine. They filed their reports late and were fined for doing so.

A reader wrote:

“Success is not measured by what a person accomplishes
but by the opposition encountered and the courage that is
maintained in the struggle against overwhelming odds…”
– Orisen Swett Marden

Categories Education Reform, Louisiana

Four Courageous Teachers in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2012 //
14

Last spring, four teachers in Calcasieu Parish in Louisiana decided “enough is enough” when Governor Bobby Jindal rushed through his legislation targeting teachers and attacking public education. They decided they would launch a campaign to recall Jindal and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley. None had ever been politically active before.

You have to understand that Bobby Jindal–at this moment in time–owns Louisiana politics, lock, stock, and barrel. The teachers’ campaign was akin to a petition drive against the emperor of Rome.

Their campaign didn’t get very far. They didn’t have an organization or money, and they didn’t collect enough signatures to get on the ballot.

“The petitions required signatures from at least one-third of the registered voters in an election district. In the case of Jindal, it would have been about 965,000 signatures statewide. For Kleckley, it was roughly 9,000 signatures.

In each case the required reports were filed 56 days late. When they were filed, the reports reflected little financial activity.

The Jindal recall campaign showed $525 in receipts and no disbursement.

The Kleckley effort showed $1,600 in receipts and no disbursements.”

The Republican party spent $100,000 to quash the recall effort, and it filed a complaint with the state Ethics Board because the teachers did not file their campaign disclosure documents in the required 45 day period; they were 11 days late.

The two teachers who led the effort, such as it was, were fined $1,000 each.

I had planned to ask readers of this blog to raise the money to pay their fines, but an anonymous donor in Louisiana has already stepped up and done it.

The teachers were acting on their own, as citizens in a democracy. I would have gladly shown my support for them.

This is the same Ethics Board that ruled a few weeks ago that it was no conflict of interest for a member of the State Board of Education to award a contract to a business that had given him or her a campaign contribution.

Categories Louisiana

Do Conservatives Care about the Constitution?

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2012 //
26

A stunning editorial in the Statesman, a Louisiana publication, raises an important question about Governor Jindal’s voucher program: Why do conservatives remind everyone about the importance of adhering faithfully to the literal meaning of the state constitution except when they choose not to?

The Jindal voucher plan is funded by the Minimum Foundation Funding dedicated specifically in the state constitution to “public elementary and secondary schools.” Private and religious schools do not fit that definition. There is no loophole. They are not public.

A state judge (a Republican, by the way) struck down the funding for vouchers a few weeks ago, declaring that it violated the plain language of the state constitution.

But, say Jindal’s defenders, “it’s for the children.” Who cares about the constitution when the children “need” to attend a private or religious school using money that is taken away from public schools? Why be so picky about the literal meaning of the words?

One conservative quoted here says that since the state is using the same public funding for charter schools, which are not really public schools, why not bend the constitution a bit more to fit those private and religious schools in too?

A good question, and an argument that could be used to argue (in his words) that charter schools are also private and should not take money away from the minimum budget dedicated to public schools.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote many years ago that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” but the very least conservatives could do is be consistent with their fundamental belief that the constitution means what it says. In the case of the Louisiana constitution, there is no wiggle room, no room for ambiguity.

Categories Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers
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