Archives for category: Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes
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Big Phony News of the Day: New York Pretends to “Relax” Gag Order for Teachers

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2015 //
20

Imagine this great victory for teachers in New York: They will now be allowed to discuss test questions that have been released to the public!

 

Is this progress? No. Suppose teachers spot unreleased questions that are clearly wrong, poorly worded, confusing, incoherent. If they have not been released to the public, the teachers are not allowed to criticize them or call attention to errors.

 

Peter Greene wondered if the New York Times recognized the absurdity of its headline, which claimed that the state was going to “relax” the gag order.

 

He wrote:

 

 

See, now the state will allow teachers to discuss items on the test after they have been publicly released, whereas previously, teachers could only discuss test items after they had been publicly released.

 

The gag order protects Pearson. If the gag order prevailed, we would have never known about the nutty question on a Pearson test about “the pineapple and the hare.” That question was not publicly released. It became public not because of teachers but because students complained about it, and it leaked to the New York City Parent blog.

 

This “gag order” is insulting to teachers. It should be eliminated. Its only purpose is to protect the interests of the testing companies. They should release all their questions. No one will know which will be on future tests. If there are thousands of test questions available, students can use them to see what is expected of them. And if they are released, parents and teachers will have a chance to evaluate their quality. That may be what scares the testing companies most.

 

Take off the gag!

 

 

Categories Pearson, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Standardized Testing, Teachers

Ohio’s Teacher Evaluation System Measures the District’s Poverty Level

By dianeravitch
June 19, 2015 //
32

Surprise: Most of the teachers in Ohio are effective or highly effective.

 

However, there are more ineffective teachers in districts with high levels of poverty.

 

Chicken-and-egg? Correlation?

 

Lesson: if you want to be a highly-rated teacher, avoid high-poverty schools and districts.

 

Second lesson: This is a ridiculous way to evaluate teachers, and the results were predictable and flawed. Also meaningless.

 

How many millions were spent to learn this?

 

 

Categories Ohio, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Teacher Evaluations, VAM (value-added modeling)

At Year 10 After Katrina, Assessments of New Orleans Differ

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2015 //
4

Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in September 2005. That means we will see much celebrating or bemoaning the transformation of the New Orleans public schools. The sponsors of the district from a public school district to an all-charter district celebrate the amazing progress that followed the elimination of public schools and the teachers’ union. Because so many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to “prove” that privatization works, we will see many more such declarations of success.

 

On the other hand, critics say that none of the data is trustworthy. They say the state department of education and the Recovery School District (the all-charter district) manipulate statistics.

 

Mercedes Schneider, a Louisiana high school teacher with a doctorate in research methods and statistics, has been relentless in dissecting the narrative produced by apologists for the RSD. In her latest post, she looks at the tale of graduation rates.

 

She writes:

 

The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) hides information and releases delayed or partial information in an effort to keep the public ill-informed regarding the state of education in Louisiana and especially as concerns the now-all-charter Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans, which White and other well-positioned, well-financed privatizing reform cronies actively endeavor to market as a national model.

 

What the RSD is best at, she says, is marketing and sales.

Categories Graduation rates, New Orleans, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Stephen Dyer: Ohio Charters Rip Off Taxpayers and Kids for Profit

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2015 //
9

Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio summarizes what is wrong with the charter industry in Ohio. Under the guide of helping “poor kids escape failing schools,” charter operators have created a profitable business running mostly low-quality schools. Deceptive marketing and contributions to key politicians keep the hoax going, stealing money from taxpayers and public schools to fatten the wallets of entrepreneurs.

 

“Charter schools –alternative schools meant to provide better educational options for parents and children while creating healthy competition for local public schools – have been hijacked in Ohio by profiteers and huge campaign contributors whose great talent is making money and winning elections, not educating kids. The results have been the poorest performing charter school sector outside Nevada.

 

“How bad is it? Some charter schools in Ohio can remain open even though they only graduate 2 out of 155 children. Meanwhile, more than half a billion state dollars that were meant for districts went instead to charters that performed the same or worse than the district last year.

 

“However, there is great hope that meaningful charter school reform is coming to Ohio. This could mean that my home state’s well documented status as the country’s most notorious charter sector could soon change.

 

Senate Bill 148, currently being merged in the Ohio Senate with another reform bill, takes meaningful and significant steps toward fixing many of the most obvious transparency and accountability issues with Ohio law.

 

“Despite its shortcomings on funding and tightening closure standards (due to how far behind Ohio is than any bill weakness), this is without a doubt the most comprehensive and courageous charter school reform effort offered by Ohio Republicans in three decades.”

 

 

Dyer warns that the biggest profiteers and their lobbyists could still weaken or torpedo the reforms, allowing charter scams to continue uninterrupted.

 

 

Nothing will really change, he writes, unless the funding formula for charter schools changes.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, For-Profit, Ohio, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Is It Really “All About the Kids?”

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2015 //
69

This teacher blogger says that the worst line invented by the reformers‘ PR team is “It’s all about the kids,” which seems to imply that teachers don’t care about their students. Right up there among toxic and accusatory lines are “Students First” and “Students Matter.” I would add “Children First” as another insulting trope. Also “Stand for Children,” which critics call “Stand on Children.” All imply that teachers have been putting their own interests first, or they don’t think children matter.

 

 

Who really, truly cares about the kids? Not their teachers, not their parents, but billionaires, hedge-fund managers, entrepreneurs, politicians.

 

 

This insulting rhetoric trips lightly off the tongues of reformers, along with assertions of wanting “to save poor kids from failing schools” by closing their school and handing the kids over to privatizers.

 

 

“Raging Horse” saw this teacher-bashing reach the height of absurdity or the depths of slime in a statement made by Carmen Arroyo, a member of the New York State Assembly, defending Cuomo’s test-based teacher evaluation plan.

 

 

She said:

 

 

“Those teachers that [sic] are responsible and are doing their job, those teachers that [sic] sacrifice their families and themselves for the children they serve are going to be protected. Those that are not good, better get a job at McDonalds…..”

 

 

Raging Horse blogger writes:

 

 

“Any system that demands the sacrifice of a person’s family is deranged and any public official who demands such is unfit for public office. Any people who stand for such deserve what they get.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Stand for Children, StudentsFirst

Michael Fiorillo: The Deception of “Reform”

By dianeravitch
June 9, 2015 //
42

The most hypocritical claim of “reformers” is that they are advancing “the civil rights issue of our time” by defunding and undermining public education and attacking the teaching profession.

 

Reader Michael Fiorillo comments on this deceptive rhetoric:

 

“So-called education reformers have successfully convinced many naifs that undermining public education, via charter schools, high stakes exams, punitive teacher evaluation schemes, etc., is somehow connected to social justice.

 

“Nothing could be further from the truth: destroying a public good for private venal and power-seeking ends, and busting unions, is inherently reactionary.”

 

Say I:

 

“Reform,” as currently defined, is a project of ALEC and every reactionary governor and free-market fundamentalist. Democrats have been conned. Civil rights is the civil rights issue of our time.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Stephen Dyer Summarizes a Bad Week for Charters in Ohio

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2015 //
9

Stephen Dyer helped to create the marvelous Know Your Charter website for Ohio. Here he summarizes the awful week that charters have had in a state where GOP politicians and business leaders have embraced them.

Dyer writes:

“On Saturday, the Akron Beacon Journal (again) led the way on enterprise reporting on this topic by publishing an analysis of 4,263 audits done last year by the Auditor of State revealed that

“No sector — not local governments, school districts, court systems, public universities or hospitals — misspends tax dollars like charter schools in Ohio.”

Yikes.

“Among the findings:

“While charters only accounted for 400 of 5,800 audits, they accounted for 70% of the misspent money

“$25 million in misspent money remains unpaid

“For every $1 misspent found by private auditors, public auditors found $102
The misspending is probably worse than what the audits turned up because so many charters were next to impossible to audit, according to the Beacon Journal.

“Then came a Columbus Dispatch editorial (historically, no friend of the charter critic) that called out charter school sponsors for wanting to hide their expenditures to oversee the sector, except in limited cases — an argument not much different from one I made about the same time.”

Add to that charter school closings, convictions of charter officials for financial crimes, and more.

If this keeps up, the public will begin to associate “charters” with fraud, greed, and corruption.

Categories Charter Schools, For-Profit, Ohio, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Ohio: Charter School Officials Convicted in Bribery Scheme in Dayton, But, “It’s About the Kids”

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2015 //
18

There is a very serious problem associated with deregulation of public school funding turned over to privately managed charter schools. The absence of oversight and auditing facilitates criminal schemes, such as the one that was just revealed in Dayton, where three men were convicted of bribery and other charges.

 

A federal jury in U.S. District Court on Tuesday convicted three men of bribery and conspiracy charges connected to their work for Arise! Academy, a Dayton area charter school that operated from 2004 to 2010.
Federal prosecutors said two Arise board members — Christopher D. Martin, 44, of Springfield and Kristal N. Screven of Dayton — and school superintendent Shane K. Floyd, 42, of Strongsville conspired to steer lucrative, unbid contracts and make overpayments to Global Educational Consultants, which was co-owned by Carl L. Robinson, 47, of Durham, N.C.

 

 

Martin, Floyd and Robinson were convicted Tuesday in a jury trial of the bribery and conspiracy charges and Martin and Floyd were also convicted of lying to FBI investigators. Martin and Floyd face up to 20 years in prison while Robinson could be sentenced to up to 15 years.

 

Screven, 39, pleaded guilty on May 8 to one criminal count of conspiracy to commit bribery and faces up to five years in prison. Screven had originally been charged with conspiracy, bribery and witness intimidation for allegedly telling a witness to lie to the grand jury.
Arise! paid Global $420,919 over 15 months, starting in September 2008 at a time when the charter school had trouble paying its bills and staff, according to federal investigators.
In exchange for the consulting contract, Robinson paid Floyd and Martin thousands of dollars in cash and other benefits, like an all-expense -paid Las Vegas trip taken by Martin.
The defendants may be required to forfeit the $420,919 paid to Global Educational Consultants.
Floyd and Robinson knew one another well and had previously formed another educational consulting firm together — a fact they concealed from other Arise board members, prosecutors alleged.
Martin, who served as Arise board chairman, worked as an aide to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.

 

Beset by financial problems and poor academic performance, Arise charter school closed its doors in June 2010.

 

This statement by one of the men who was convicted is priceless:

 

In 2009, when Arise paychecks were bouncing, vendors went unpaid and staff took a 20 percent pay cut, Floyd told the Dayton Daily News: “These pains, these wounds are great now; I understand that and I sympathize with the staff here to take a cut like that. But I do commend their determination and the willingness to still go about the business of educating our young people.”
“At the end of the day, it’s about the kids,” he said.

 

 

Remember that: “At the end of the day, it’s about the kids.”

 

 

Scoundrels used to wave the bloody flag (the blood of patriots, that is) and wrap themselves in their patriotism; now, they say, “It’s all about the kids.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Wendy Lecker: The Hoax of Turnaround Schools

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2015 //
6

Wendy Lecker,civil rights attorney,says that claims made on behalf of school turnarounds—firing the staff and leaders—are usually inflated or false.

“With their narrow focus on test scores, disruption and structural changes, such as firing staff, education reformers constantly push the notion of school and district “turnarounds.” However, turnarounds been widely proven as ineffective in improving the longer-term educational quality of targeted schools.

“The evidence shows that turnarounds result in, at best, temporary boosts in test scores that often fade after a few years. These policies also often do lasting damage to the school culture by getting rid of teachers and staff who know the students.

“Consequently, experts warn that aggressive turnaround strategies must be viewed with caution. Connecticut’s legislative education committee seemed unaware of this warning as it participated in a day of turnaround presentations, organized by the charter lobby, ConnCAN.

“The failure of the turnaround plan at Hartford’s Milner Elementary was documented in my last column.

“A second turnaround “model” presented by ConnCAN, Lawrence, Massachusetts, had all the characteristics of turnarounds that are more hype the help.”

Despite claims of success without additional resources, Lecker says this is untrue. Lawrence received millions in additional resources, and the results were unimpressive.

“The overall results from Lawrence hardly paint a picture of success. In the majority of subjects and grades reported, there was either no improvement in proficiency rates or an actual decline.”

Even Governor Cuomo of Néw York has looked to Lawrence as a model.

Wendy Lecker says: Keep looking

Categories Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Turnaround Schools

Peter Greene Calls Out the Civil Rights Lie in Newark

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2015 //
7

Peter Greene writes that student protests in Newark have exposed the lie about corporate reform defending civil rights. Thousands of students in Newark, mostly African American, went into the streets to oppose the corporate reform policies of the superintendent Cami Anderson. She was given an assignment by Governor Chris Christie to privatize the public schools of Newark.

The students demand to be heard but no one will listen.

Greene writes:

“As always, the students’ actions were thoughtful, measured and positive. Their message was vocal and clear. Accountability for superintendent Cami Anderson (skewered in one sign as “$cami”). A return to local control. And end to charter takeover of schools that have no need of takeover.

“Imagine you are someone thinking, “I believe that equitable education is the civil rights issue of our era. I believe that students who are not wealthy and not white are not represented and their needs are not respected. I am concerned that without test results, these students will become invisible.”

“Could you possibly have stood in Newark and said, “Boy, I just wish there were some way to find out what black families and students want, or what they think about the direction of education in Newark….

“Reformsters repeatedly claim that they are most concerned about American students like the students of Newark. The students of Newark have given them a chance to put their money where their mouths are, and reformsters have stayed silent. Cami Anderson remains unwilling to so much as talk to the students of Newark, and no leading “reform” voice has stepped up to call her out.

“Newark is a clear and vivid demonstration that reformster talk about civil rights and the importance of hearing and responding to the voices of students and families– it’s all a lie. In walking out, the students of Newark have stood up, not just for their own community and schools, but for students and communities all across the country.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Newark, Privatization, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Students
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