At the 2012 Democratic national convention, the governor of
Massachusetts raved about the success of a school called Olive
Gardens, where the 80% of the staff was fired, and many
inexperienced TFA were brought in. EduShyster points out that
the Charlotte M. Murkland Elementary School is even more
successful, yet there were no shoutouts at the Convention, no trips
to the White House, no national press coverage. I wrote a post about
the Murkland school based on a story in the Lowell newspaper.
EduShyster has visited the school many times. In her post linked
here, she explains the ten ingredients that created a dramatic and
genuine success story. Here is ingredient number 10: “10. Speaking
of Time, this Miracle Didn’t Happen Overnight The Murkland’s
turnaround began in 2009 and the school has showed steady and
impressive growth each year since then. Which means that the
school’s success isn’t short term or illusory. And that may be the
very best part of this story.” Read her post to learn about the
other 9 crucial elements of sustained and sustainable
change.
One candidate in the crowded field running for mayor in Boston has emerged as a clear-headed supporter of public schools: Rob Consalvo.
His statement outlining his plans to support the children in Boston’s schools is coherent, thoughtful, and realistic.
Consalvo has taken a principled stand against outside money in the campaign from groups like Stand for Children and DFER, and set an example that others have felt compelled to follow.
He is a class act. He recognizes that we must address the needs of children, not run away from them.
Bob Somerby, who writes The Daily Howler, covers the media. He is especially good on education. When the TIMSS results came out, showing that the US made a strong showing, he was quick to call out the major media for the usual doom-and-gloom headlines.
Today, he critiques the New York Times article about the Massachusetts miracle. It is an entertaining and insightful critique of our nation’s most important newspaper.
Earlier today, the news broke that the notorious Wall Street-funded corporate Stand on Children had selected John R. Connolly as their favorite for mayor and planned to give him $500,000-700,000.
But it must have played badly in Boston, because Connolly announced that he would reject their campaign contribution.
Surely there are enough successful hedge fund managers in Boston to pay for their guy’s campaign without seeking funding from out of state.
Let’s keep an eye on this and see what candidates actually say, as opposed to ads saying that they love little children and are devoted to improving education.
We have heard that song before.
One of our loyal readers in Boston informs us that one candidate in the Boston mayoral race–Rob Consalvo– has appealed to his fellow candidates to refuse funding from out-of-state groups.
Fat chance.
Not only is Stand on Children (allegedly based in Oregon) throwing in between $500,000-750,000, but other groups including New York-based Democrats for Education Reform (the Wall Street hedge fund managers) have taken a keen interest in the race.
It would not be surprising to see Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst sending money to John Connolly–the choice of Stand on Children–and also to see the arrival of hundreds of thousands of dollars–maybe millions– from New York City Michael Bloomberg, Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad, Netflix owner Reed Hastings, publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch, and the billionaire Walton family. These individuals have added big dough to school board races in Louisiana, Idaho, Georgia, and California.
Local school boards should be chosen by the people of the school district, not purchased by billionaires with a hunger for power and control, which they use to privatize public education.
The corporate reform group, Stand on Children, dumped $500,000 into the Boston’s Mayor Race, and selected their candidate, City Councilor John R. Connolly.
It is prepared to spend even more, dwarfing the spending of other candidates.
This follows the pattern of the infusion of large outside money by corporate reformers in races in Louisiana, Colorado, California, and elsewhere.
After reviewing a large field, Stand on Children decided that Connolly was their man, the one who is likeliest to push hardest for privatization of public schools and to emphasize test scores as the highest goal of public education.
Stand began its life in Oregon as a civil rights group, but then discovered that there was a brighter future representing the interests of equity investors and Wall Street.
Subsequently, many of its original members left, but the budget greatly expanded, allowing them to be a major presence in states like Illinois and Massachusetts, where they promote charter schools and the removal of teacher tenure.
In Illinois, they bought up all the best lobbyists and got passed a law that made it illegal for the Chicago teachers to strike unless they got a 75% approval vote.
The Chicago Teachers Union got more than 90% and went on strike, much to the surprise of the big-money funders who thought they had crippled the union.
Edelman boasted at the Aspen Institute Festival about how he had “outfoxed” the teachers’ union by working with the state’s wealthiest hedge fund managers, buying up lobbyists, and winning anti-union legislation.
Stand pretends to be a “progressive” organization. It is, in fact, as Edelman boasts on the Aspen video, a mouthpiece for the 1%: Pro-privatization, anti-union, anti-public education.
The session title was, “If It Can Happen in Illinois, It Can Happen Anywhere.”
Tom Birmingham was president of the State Senate in 1993 when the state passed its landmark education reforms. From those reforms came a historic new investment in public education and new standards and assessments. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation on NAEP at both grades four and eight in reading and math.
However, the state abandoned its successful standards and assessments to qualify for Race to the Top funding. In doing so, it adopted Common Core.
Birmingham worries about whether the state gave up its successful program for a one-size-fits-all approach in which the children of Massachusetts will meet the same standards as children in Mississippi and Alabama.
He writes, ” In implementing the Common Core, there will be natural pressure to set the national standards at levels that are realistically achievable by students in all states. This marks a retreat from Massachusetts’ current high standards. This may be the rare instance where what is good for the nation as a whole is bad for Massachusetts.”
Governor Terry Branstad pushed through school reform in Iowa that is supposedly sweeping, but I fail to see the sweep in the bill.
It creates new leadership positions for teachers within schools, and that is supposed to be huge, but I am not sure why.
It does not mandate that teacher evaluations be tied to test scores, and that means the state dodged a bullet by doing the right thing. The state will study the issue, much to the disappointment of StudentsFirst.
I was sad to see that former Massachusetts Commissioner David Driscoll told Iowans that Massachusetts achieved high performance because of high-stakes exams.
He knows the improvement of Massachusetts’ public schools involved a huge new public investment, more than $1 billion, equalizing funding across the state; tough new exams for new teachers; a heavy investment in early childhood education; and strong curriculum standards (which have since been abandoned for the Common Core standards). To pick out only testing as the cause of the state’s improvement is misleading.
Homeschooling parents will be pleased to know that they will be allowed to teach driver education.
Parents and teachers in Concord, Massachusetts, are outraged over the firing of the teachers’ union leader, an 18-year teacher of third grade, allegedly for ineffectiveness.
“The catalyst for the protest was the decision by Thoreau Elementary School Principal Kelly Clough not to renew the contract of veteran third grade teacher and Concord Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy.
“Barbara Lehn has been a teacher with Concord’s school system for 25 years. She said she has known Najimy since she was hired 18 years ago. She said the idea that Najimy could have been found deficient in every single area of her evaluation as suspect and “laughable.”
“The evaluation system that exists has been misused and abused,” Lehn said. “It’s not because of her teaching, but because she is president of the Concord Teachers Association. … Merrie has been an exemplary teacher.”
Did it ever occur to any of the proponents of the new teacher evaluations that they could be used arbitrarily and capriciously?
“Imagine that you are possessed of the surname “Walton” and happen to be sitting on mad coin—say a cool $90 billion. How do you celebrate the occasion that is Teacher Appreciation Day? Do you chip in to give the nation’s teachers a raise, knowing they’ve been hard hit by the recession? Do you send them gift cards to Walmart, the store that hath so enrichethed you? If you are a teacher in Massachusetts, the Waltons have an extra special treat in store for you: a fully-funded gala at the Statehouse urging the replacement of the state’s many non-excellent teachers with fresh new innovators who will share their excellence one renewable year at a time. Happy Teacher Appreciation Day, xoxo Walmart!”
EduShyster describes here the Walton family campaign to create new charter schools in Massachusetts.
The billionaire family is funding almost every part of the campaign in the state where Horace Mann created the nation’s first public schools.
I know this is supposed to be funny. It’s not. It makes me very sad.
There must be something that money can’t buy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 