Archives for category: Privatization
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Indiana: Here Comes Carpe Diem, Like It or Not

By dianeravitch
March 1, 2013 //
4

Karen Francisco,  one of our nation’s best education writers, cares about the future of public education. Writing for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, she has closely watched the games that privatizers play.

In this article, she describes a startling decision by a state board to authorize Carpe Diem, an unproven charter school, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

As it happens, Fort Wayne has excellent community public schools. I visited some of them when I was there a year ago.

But Indiana is a red, red state and the legislature and governor are determined to introduce charters and vouchers wherever possible to undermine public schools.

So here is what happened:

That sound you heard Wednesday? That was the sound of the Indiana Charter School Board rubber-stamping a real estate deal to benefit a politically connected Fort Wayne business owner.

How else to explain a 5-1 vote to “replicate” an unproven school that has drawn few students in Indianapolis and met strong resistance from the Fort Wayne community during a public hearing held just 7 business days after local school officials and were notified? The application was approved less than 24 hours after the hearing.

Daryle Doden’s Ambassador Enterprises has been looking to draw a charter school tenant to The Summit, its education center at the former Taylor University campus, for more than a year. Another charter school applicant, Sun Academy, proposed leasing space there in a charter school application last year, but withdrew its bid. (Sun Academy has submitted a letter of intent to offer another application this spring, along with Global Village International Inc., so as many as three new charter schools could be opening in Fort Wayne next fall.)

Doden is the father of Eric Doden, a former GOP candidate for mayor and Gov. Mike Pence’s newly appointed director for statewide economic development. Daryle Doden and his wife contributed $15,500 to Pence’s campaign. Daryle Doden’s company will be paid $1,000 per student up to 550 students, plus “associated property costs”, for providing space for Carpe Diem charter school.

The school hasn’t been successful to date in Indianapolis: It attracted only 87 students and has no test scores yet, but the powers-that-be decided it has to be located in Fort Wayne, despite community opposition. The community understands the score: The property owner is in “the unique position of serving not only as landlord, but also in marketing the school. The more students it draws, the more it collects in rent, given the $1,000 per-head fee.” And every one of those dollars will be subtracted from an existing public school.

And what is Carpe Diem? It relies heavily on online instruction.

As it sucks dollars out of public schools, the loss of those dollars “reduces the ability of the existing schools to offer comprehensive programs – well-stocked libraries, guidance counselors, science labs, drama and music, sports programs and more. Carpe Diem’s computer instruction model includes none of those features. The Indianapolis school has only five teachers for grades 6-10. Its Arizona school at one time had one math teacher for 240 students in grades 6-12.”

This is reform?

There is an expression in Yiddish: What a shonda.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization

Welfare for the Rich?

By dianeravitch
March 1, 2013 //
11

Yesterday, the GOP legislature in Alabama rushed through legislation for tax credits without letting anyone outside their caucus debate or review the bill. This is what you need to know about tax credits and who really benefits. StudentsFirst rushed to applaud this program to benefit the few at the expense of the many, proving that Michelle Rhee deserved her title as a (rightwing) Radical.

Valerie Strauss reviews the various tuition tax credit programs, which are spreading as a form of school choice.

Unfortunately, in some of these states, the tax credits go to wealthy corporations and individuals and in some cases, subsidize private school tuition for families that can afford to pay for it without public help.

And more:

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there were 14 tuition tax credit programs in 11 states as of last fall, and there are now bills in some legislatures to expand to other states, such as in Mississippi. Virginia passed one last year, and a tax credit program in Georgia that “won” an award for being exceedingly wasteful may be expanded.

In some places they are structured to get around state constitutional prohibitions against using public dollars for religious schools. And in many instances, the schools that qualify to accept vouchers aren’t regulated and teach things we know aren’t true, such the creationist notion that humans co-existed with dinosaurs. Many also are not required to administer standardized tests that public schools are required to give for accountability purposes. And in Georgia, as this New York Times story reported, a popular tax credit program is allowing the use of public money to be used for tuition at more than 100 private schools that refuse to enroll gay, lesbian or bisexual students.

Categories Privatization

A Teacher Writes New Book about the Corporate Reform Movement

By dianeravitch
February 28, 2013 //
10

One of the readers of this blog, experienced teacher Brian Ford, has written a new book. It seems to encapsulate the major themes of today’s privatization movement.

Respect for Teachers and the Rhetoric Gap:
How Research on Teaching and Schools is
Laying the Ground for New Business Models in Education

(A New Economy Story about the State of the Union)

Author: Brian Ford
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Summary of Book

For the last 30 years we have been in the midst of a paradox. In the discourse on education reform, national attention in the US has focused on how to improve the education system as a means to keep the US from slipping in international economic competition. It the end we may have actually done the opposite – made the US less competitive economically, with a system that has gotten worse at its core, in its philosophical tenets and in its ultimate effect on children and young adults, by placing unwonted pressure on them and in stifling their creativity.

Still, claims that the public schools in the US are failing are rampant. The teacher evaluation system is broken. America is being out-educated. The bottom rank of teachers are beyond redemption. New, effective teachers can eliminate the achievement gap in four years, but they aren’t given the chance because our education system is in the thrall of teachers unions, ignores our children and emphasizes ‘adult interests.’ ‘Respect for Teachers,’ which takes its title from a phrase President Obama used in a State of the Union address, examines these claims, looking first at the rhetoric and the research that supposedly backs it up. It argues that most of this is not only wrong, but endangers both the egalitarian basis of democracy and broad-based forms of learning which promote creative and critical thinking.

But what is the source? Money changes everything and the book suggests, on the one hand, that we are all connected to money. On the other hand, research on education has been systematically misreported, presenting a bleaker picture overall while ignoring the central problem: our schools are failing in areas of concentrated poverty. It does so by looking at how research is presented, the gap between rhetoric and research and how one hand might be washing the other.

Working as if from a common script, private interests present a false picture. Schooling is big business, after all — two trillion dollars world-wide. Joseph Schumpeter once said, “No bourgeoisie ever disliked war profits.” One would assume no bourgeoisie ever disliked the spoils of school reform, either.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Will the Democratic Party Listen?

By dianeravitch
February 27, 2013 //
17

In this terrific article, you can see the beginnings of a popular uprising against the testing obsession and the rush to put public dollars into private hands.

In Texas, Republicans are paying attention, even threatening to pull the plug on testing. Rural Republicans seem set to ally with Democrats to stop the voucher movement and protect their community public schools.

Will the national Democratic Party pay attention to its base? It’s base is working people, not Wall Street. Educators, not the 1%.

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Race to the Top, Testing, Texas

The Untold Story of NYC’s Charter Success Story

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2013 //
10

Last week, the New York City media and the Department of Education exulted in a new CREDO study showing that charter schools outperform public schools in New York City.

But, as usual, no one bothered to look behind the curtain.

Bruce Baker shows in this post that NYC charter schools enroll significantly fewer students who are English language learners and others who might pull down their scores. This creates “peer effects” that benefit those who are admitted, while overloading the public schools with the neediest students.

But charter schools are different from public schools in other significant ways, and Baker has the data:

Charter schools have smaller classes.
Charter teachers are paid more.
Charters have longer school days.
Charters spend more than public schools.
Charters limit the poorest and most disabled students.
Which of these lessons should public schools learn and apply?

Please, someone, tell that to the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post, as well as the TV stations.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, New York City, Privatization

Who Is a “Reformer”?

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2013 //
53

Gary Rubinstein wrestles with the issue of language and rhetoric of reform.

Long ago, a reformer was someone who wanted to improve the public schools.

Now, a “reformer” advocates closing them and replacing them with privately managed schools.

Once upon a time, a reformer was someone who wanted to raise standards for new teachers.

Now, a “reformer” wants to hire teachers who have only five weeks of training.

The word “reform,” he suggests, has become hopelessly tainted among educators by those who now claim it.

The question today is what to call those who object to the punitive methods of the “reformers”?

They say we are “defenders of the status quo,” when in fact we are opponents of failed ideas.

Gary says we are people who care about evidence.

But what is the one- or two-word description that positively defines those who want to improve schools and teaching, not demolish them?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching

Great Account of “Save Texas Schools” Rally

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2013 //
0

Read it here! And here.

Read how Superintendent John Kuhn said, “There are 5 million kids in Texas waiting for this legislature to keep our forefather’s promises, and to those who want to take away that promise, I’m with the moms and the trustees and local business people who will say what brave Texans have said before, come and take it. Just try to kill that promise of our Constitution.”

Read how State Senator Kirk Watson said, “The verdict is in, and it says the Texas school system is inadequate, unfair and isn’t even constitutional,”

Read how Former State Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said that some people think that the $488 million contract to Pearson was , “the tail wagging the dog…. [but] I don’t. I look at it as the flea at the end of the tail of the dog trying to wag the dog.”

He said, “I had to turn in my reformer card because I looked at it as a flea circus,” he said. “They are selling two ideas and two ideas only: No. 1, your schools are failing, and No. 2, if you give us billions of dollars, we can convince you [of] the first thing we just told you.”

And I said, among other things, “The testing vampire started here,” meaning NCLB. “Kill it.”

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Support for public schools, Testing, Texas

Great News! Investigative Reporting Is Still Alive!

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2013 //
8

Reporter Colin Woodard’s brilliant exposé of the profitable ties between Jeb Bush, Maine’s Governor Paul LePage, and the online industry won the prestigious George Polk award for reporting in 2012.

If you have not read it, do so now. You will be an informed citizen.

More about this great journalist:

Colin Woodard, an award-winning author
and journalist who writes for Washington
Monthly, The Christian Science Monitor,
and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
He is currently State and National Affairs
Writer for the Portland Press Herald /
Maine Sunday Telegram, where he
received a 2012 George Polk Award for
his investigative reporting. A native of
Maine, he has reported from more than
fifty foreign countries and six continents,
and lived for more than four years in
Eastern Europe.

He is the author of the New England
bestseller The Lobster Coast: Rebels,
Rusticators, and the Struggle for a
Forgotten Frontier (Viking Press, 2004),
a cultural and environmental history of
coastal Maine; Ocean’s End: Travels
Through Endangered Seas (Basic Books,
2000), a narrative non-fiction account of
the deterioration of the world’s oceans;
and The Republic of Pirates: Being The
True And Surprising Story Of The
Caribbean Pirates And The Man Who
Brought Them Down , on which the
forthcoming NBC series “Crossbones” is
based.

His fourth book, American Nations: A
History of the Eleven Rival Regional
Cultures of North America (Viking, 2011)
was named one of the Best Books of 2011
by the editors of The New Republic and
The Globalist and won the 2012 Maine
Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

He lives in midcoast Maine.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, On-Line Education, Privatization

Proof: Kindergarten Teachers Know How to Fix the Schools

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2013 //
56

This is a letter from a kindergarten teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, to her state legislators. Nevada has the lowest graduation rate in the nation, lower even than the District of Columbia. As she explains in her post, the schools of Las Vegas are underfunded, and the needs of the children are huge. Please read and remember: Everything you need about school reform may be learned from a kindergarten teacher.

The session has begun and I’m worried. What worries me?

FUNDING

Money. People say money should not matter in education but it does. Money buys stuff and staff. Bottom line: Schools are an expenditure. You get what you pay for.

There is a public school funding unfairness in the state – the Nevada Plan. Frankly, Vegas money needs to stay in Vegas. Our children and public schools need the money. I don’t want to see other schools in Nevada starve, but it’s only fair that the tax dollars made with the labor in my community come back the the families and children in my community. We are last in funding in a state last in funding. And we pay everyone else’s bills?

85% of the total state revenue comes from Vegas. 75% of Nevada’s students and teachers live in Vegas. Only 50% of the general fund comes back to Vegas schools. There is something very unfair about this formula.

Isn’t a student in Vegas worth just as much as a student in Eureaka?

REFORM

I’m worried about the scary reform movement. I have had 6 principals in 12 years, 6 reading programs, 3 math programs, taught 3 different grade levels, and taught at 3 different schools. Reform implies that teachers are not willing to change or are stuck in bad habits. Frankly, I have whiplash.

Screaming reform at 17,000+ teachers in Vegas who experience constant change is …. Ridiculous. Our community only has 50% of the teachers it had 5 years ago anyhow. In a profession with high turnover – in a community as transient as Vegas – who are you demanding reform from? The few that are left? Dumb and a waste of time.

We need security, retention, and better working conditions. Some consistency and balance would be nice. I would like to see some work to KEEP good teachers because we are driving them off.

STANDARDIZED TESTS

25 years ago … During my undergraduate studies the professor who was teaching me about tests said this: Standardized tests are racially and culturally biased. Nothing has changed.

He also said: Be careful what you assess because it will drive your instruction. When we place such high pressure on standardized test scores – we are going to force everyone to teach to the test.

What if the test will not get students ready for life or academic success? A, B, C, D multiple choice questions are not measuring authentic life skills. We all know people who test well who lack skills in other areas.

Currently, I spend 75% of my instructional time testing or preparing for testing. My students are 5 years old and I only see them 2 hours a day. It’s too much. I’m not even teaching anymore.

I’m wondering why my community that is predominantly minority insists on testing our children with biased standardized assessments? Traditionally – these tests have been unfair to minority groups.

We are basing how our students are doing based SOLELY on this kind of assessment. There is no balance in this. Teachers will be evaluated ONLY on these scores and this is fair? We will turnaround our schools, develop charters, and sell more schools to Edison because of these biased scores?

States that have been using these standardized tests for years are now moving to OUTLAW their use at all. Standardized tests do not test higher level thinking skills. Real life skill is not measured by them. Innovation, invention, synthesis, analysis, and creativty are not measured by these types of tests.

There is no balance when you place so much pressure on one type of assessment.

Something is wrong when you can tell how many schools will be privatized by test scores -and you can also predict scores based on race.

Sadly race and poverty are brothers and sisters.

POVERTY

The research says: Household income is the leading indicator of how well students will do academically.

My students are poor. I have homeless students. I have a revolving door. Four students did not come back after winter break – they just disappeared. This is normal. My school has a 75% turnover. My school has a high ELL population. My school has 85% free and reduced lunch students.

Guess what? My school has NOT qualified for TITLE funds because there are so many other schools in the district that are at 95% to 100%. I guess my school is considered normal in Vegas.

Teachers are rowing the boat as fast as we can – but the boat has a hole!

CORPORATIONS

While I’m busy tutoring, furthering my education, and working — the wolf has been in the hen house!

I’m calling out the wolf!

Charter school corporations do no better than public schools. They do not take the high needs students. They are not regulated like public schools. They are resegregating our population by race and interest – sometimes religious interest. Tax payer funds are being misused. Yep – misused. Charters are more expensive and with few exceptions no more effective than public schools. This charter experiment is failing across the nation. Nevada does not need to participate in this movement until it proves to be working someplace.

Using tax payer money to fund someone fancy smancy private school idea aka charter schools – is no good.

Now there is legislation to “empower” parents to pull the trigger and turn their neighborhood school into a charter? I can think of so many different ways to empower parents. Killing public schools is a horrible mistake.

Edison claimed it would make money and fix failing schools. It hasn’t. It won’t. Yet these corporate hybrids expand and continue to receive additional money. Someone is making money – not students or teachers. From my point of view, Edison is an investment scam. Joke on the tax payer.

Giving money to a corporation to run a school – is money that is not spent on kids.

Teach for America claims it will give our schools the best and brightest to teach at-risk for two or three years. TFA come untrained and are placed in the hardest areas and expected to know after 6 weeks of intense training what to do? What could go wrong? I guess this is why so few make it through the first year and it’s a very rare person who stays in the classroom for a career. Tourist teachers?

Inexperienced and untrained teachers – are not worth the three or four times the money it will take to hire through TFA.

Elaine Wynn spent A LOT of her own money and her friend’s money to obtain some board seats for TFA friendly board members. I would question – WHY?

The New Teacher Project is a Michelle Rhee non-profit. Michelle Rhee controlled her students with duct tape when she had her own classroom. Then she became an adminstrator who fired teachers on TV. Now she makes money telling governors how to unionbust and get rid of veteran teachers. Students First lurks around waiting for opportunities in Nevada. They invested heavily in campaigns – for extreme conservatives.

I’m not sure why people listen to this foul Rhee woman or any of her banter? She is cruel and making money. Not unlike Ann Coulter.

These privatizing vultures all have one thing in common – promises they can NOT keep because it’s quick fixes and not research based. And they are earning a lot of money. I’m not a fan of privatizing or spending money on someone or a corporation which is NOT effective.

To get at those education dollars — we need our schools and kids to appear to fail right?

FAILING

Someone explain to me please why Nevada needs a High School Math Proficiency Test that is the third hardest in the nation?

We fund last in the nation – but expect our children to test at the highest levels? Then scream because a high number drop out or do not receive a diploma?

It’s a known fact that you can graduate just fine with a Nevada education – you just need to move to another state your senior year if you can NOT pass the math proficiency. We export our seniors?

We fail most of our kids and no one is questioning the RIGOR of the test? I’m questioning the actual validity of every measurement tool I’ve seen. The tests are — BAD tests.

I’ve challenged every school board member to take the math proficiency – and pass. No takers yet.

The “math” proficiency is actually a very technical reading test – word problems. Statistics, proabability, algebra, geometry – all couched in word problems.

Why would this be a problem? 60,000 language learners? Do you think the large number of kids who are not receiving a diploma are primarily second language students who fail the so-called “math” test which is actually a reading English test? It is not adminstered in Spanish.

EARLY INTERVENTION

Speaking of failing ….

My students fail on the first day of school. Yep. Kindergarten. My students are two to three years behind the nation on the first day of their public school experience. Before the public school teacher ever sees the child – they are behind the nation.

Kindergarten is not mandatory in Nevada. Vegas still has a large number of half day Kindergarten programs. We are supposed to compete with the rest of the nation that invests in early intervention and compete with parents who are placing their children in preschool at age two?

30% of Kindergarten students fail. And go to first grade. They are behind and stay behind. At-risk kids in half day programs, class sizes between 30 to 40, racing to catch-up to the nation who began 3 years ago.

We aren’t failing them in high school; Kids fail before the public schools even know their name.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

60,000 identified ELL students. “Identified” because this depends on self identifying when parents enroll their child. For whatever reason, parents may or may not check the right box on the form.

I have a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language. Research shows it takes students 5 to 10 years to develop the academic language ability to be successful. We are not supporting students so it might even be longer.

Studies show that it would take $175 million to support our language learning students in Vegas properly. $50 million would be the bare minimum.

I’ll say it — $14 million? $10 million? I guess if your name is Sandoval you don’t want to be the only Governor with a significant number of ELL students and give them NOTHING.

Our kids have real needs that are not being met.

MISSION STATEMENT

The reason the business model fails public schools is — mission statement.

Business is about making money – the mission statement is about the bottom line.

Public schools are about helping citizens – all people, the mission statement is about a literate democracy.

Public schools are always going to be an expenditure and investment.

When we try to use only data and scores from a biased measuring tool to evaluate our students and teachers like a business – we will get a privatizing business result.

My students are more than a test score. I am more than a collection of their test scores. My craft is an art more than a science. Hard to measure but still valuable. Learning will still take place in my classroom – even if I never give another test.

POWER

Teachers have very little power. All I have is e-mail. I have worked non-stop since the last legislative session to get to know as many legislators as I could and educate my community. I’m the alarm in my own frenzied way

I’m worried.

I see too much willingness to sell our public schools instead of invest in them. We are giving money to snake oil salesmen instead of getting it to the classroom and kids. It’s wasting our precious limited funds.

I believe we are damaging our kids with excessive data collection and testing. We are failing everyone and I’m questioning this – WHY?

I’m worried about disadvantaged kids.

I’m worried about money. I don’t understand why I live in a state that is so rich in money and gold — and we can’t even fund our schools? What does this say about my state?

And I’m worried about Democrats. Yep. It was Democrats last session who did the damage. Why do Democrats follow the extreme right wing logic when it comes to public schools? Stand Up. We believe in a free public education for everyone. It’s worth protecting and fighting for.

We aren’t here to collect money for our next election by selling public schools down the river in a canoe with a hole and a frantic screaming kindergarten teacher!

Do what is right this time around.

Angie Sullivan

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Why the Parent Trigger is an Empty Promise

By dianeravitch
February 23, 2013 //
13

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform has published an informative review of the controversy over the so-called parent trigger law.

It explains the genesis of the idea, how it evolved, who is behind it, where it has been adopted, and why it offers meager prospects for either parent empowerment or school improvement. The brief includes a good summary of how parents can help improve their schools.

Categories Parent trigger, Privatization
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