Archives for category: StudentsFirst
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John Merrow’s Investigation of Michelle Rhee

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2013 //
31

John Merrow deserves enormous praise for his dogged investigative journalism in pursuing the allegations of widespread cheating in the DC public schools during the tenure of Michelle Rhee.

Perhaps even more impressive is that he recognized his own error in his past coverage, which had presented Rhee in a heroic light. Merrow, by his account, ran a dozen PBS segments on Rhee, which were very positive. It was only towards the end of his last story that he began to dig deeper, especially after he heard the story of Adell Cothorne. Cothorne was the principal at Noyes campus who says she walked in on a grade-changing meeting of staff; she reported it at once to central headquarters. In no time, she was a pariah. Merrow wanted to know why.

Kudos to John Merrow.

Here is a compilation of his reports: REPORTING ABOUT MICHELLE RHEE.

The curious part of this story is that no one cares. No one is investigating. Even after Merrow’s exposé, even after he reported that the DC schools are worse off now than before Rhee and her protege Kaya Henderson started, Rhee goes on unscathed. She is still claiming dramatic gains on her watch. In one of his documentaries, Merrow showed Rhee confronting principals and demanding higher scores–or else. Beverly Hall used the same tactics to pressure principals in Atlanta and is facing serious jail time. But Rhee is doing well indeed. The far-right, anti-public education Walton Foundation just gifted her organization with $8 million to promote her failed policies across the nation.

John, please keep following the story. It is not over.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Peter DeWitt Calls Out Rhee for Endorsing Anti-Gay Legislator

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2013 //
10

Peter DeWitt writes a regular blog for Education Week. He is the principal of an elementary school in upstate New York. In this column, he says that Michelle Rhee’s organization does not put all students first. DeWitt describes the Tennessee legislator who was named “Reformer of the Year” by StudentsFirst. This legislator is known for his anti-gay proposals, as well as his efforts to increase the number of charter schools and evaluate teachers by test scores. DeWitt had a Twitter exchange with an official for StudentsFirst, who claims that the organization didn’t notice what else their honoree supported, and had they known, well, they would have done something different.

Categories Charter Schools, StudentsFirst

Walton Foundation Gives $8 Million to Rhee’s StudentsFirst

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2013 //
75

Indifferent to John Merrow’s investigative reports on the cheating scandal during Michelle Rhee’s tenure as DC Chancellor, the Walton Family Foundation gave her organization $8 million to continue pushing its radical agenda of attacking teachers and promoting privatization of the nation’s public schools.

StudentsFirst advocates that test scores should count for 50% of teacher evaluation, although most researchers agree that these measures are inaccurate and unstable. It also advocates charters and vouchers, including for-profit charters.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Teacher Evaluations, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

What Did Albert Shanker Say and What Would He Say Now?

By dianeravitch
April 28, 2013 //
16

There is a new parlor game among the cognoscenti called “Albert Shanker Said This 20 or 30 Years Ago So It Must Be Right.”

Last fall, I had a tiff with New Jersey Commissioner Chris Cerf, who invoked Shanker’s name to support the Christie administration’s push for charters. I patiently explained that Al Shanker was indeed a founding father of the charter movement in 1988, but became a vehement critic of charters in 1993. He decided that charters and vouchers were the same thing, and both would be used to “smash” public education. This is not a matter of speculation. It is on the record.

Now the Shanker blog has an article by Lisa Hansel, former editor of the AFT’s “American Educator” magazine and now an employee of the Core Knowledge Foundation, asserting that Shanker would endorse Common Core if he were alive today. (The Core Knowledge English Language Arts program is now licensed to Amplify, which is run by Joel Klein and owned by Rupert Murdoch.)

Hansel also quotes Shanker as a great admirer of “A Nation at Risk.”

But here is the problem. Hansel speculates about what Shanker would say if he were alive today. She doesn’t know.

Would he join with Jeb Bush to endorse the Common Core? We don’t know.

Would he be as enthusiastic about “A Nation at Risk” in 2013 as he was in 1983, now that it has become the Bible of the privatization movement? We don’t know.

However, I can speculate too. Al Shanker cared passionately about a content-rich curriculum. So do I. Would his love for a content-rich curriculum have caused him to join with those who want to destroy public education? I don’t think so.

Would he have come to realize that “A Nation at Risk” would become not a document for reform but an indictment against public education? If he had, he would have turned against it.

Would he have felt good about Common Core if he knew that it had never been field tested? Would he have been thrilled with the prospect that scores will plummet across the nation, giving fodder to the privatizers? I think not.

Would he have been concerned that the primary writers of the Common Core were the original members of the board of Michelle Rhee’s union-busting StudentsFirst? Absolutely.

Would he have allied himself and his union with those who want to destroy the union and privatize public education? No.

Where would Albert Shanker stand on the Common Core if he were alive today?

I don’t know, and neither does anyone else.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Common Core, Curriculum, Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Unions

Rhee’s StudentsFirst Honored Anti-Gay Legislator in Tennessee

By dianeravitch
April 27, 2013 //
7

As Laura Clawson writes at The Daily Kos, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst honored an anti-gay legislator in Tennessee as its “legislator of the year.” Last year, the organization picked a Georgia legislator known for his strident anti-immigrant views.

Rhee supported 105 candidates in 2012. 90 were Republicans.

Her organization spent nearly $1 million in Tennessee legislative races to make sure the state legislature was in the hands of the most rightwing candidates, the ones who would push hard for privatization and for stripping teachers of any job protection and academic freedom.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Tennessee

Shameless StudentsFirst Tries to Buy Iowa

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2013 //
14

Even though Michelle Rhee suffered multiple embarrassments in the past few weeks–with John Merrow reporting her refusal to investigate the cheating scandal that occurred on her watch and the Broader Bolder Approach reporting the failure of her “reforms”—her organization continues to push her failed “reforms” on states across the nation.

StudentsFirst pumped over $317,000 into legislative races in Iowa to ensure that legislators would listen to its radical, anti-public education message. It was the single biggest contributor to state races in 2012.

Now it is filling the airwaves with ads urging the legislature to adopt changes that will advance Rhee’s personal vendetta against teachers and public education.

She demands that teacher evaluations be tied to test scores, even though research and experience have shown that this strategy consistently fails, as it failed in DC. She wants a parent trigger law, so that parents can be duped into privatizing their community public school and turning it over to one of the corporate charter chains.

Iowans should demand that StudentsFirst fully disclose the source of its funding so they can find out who is behind this campaign, other than the former leader of one of the nation’s lowest-performing districts. And Iowans should remember John Merrow’s conclusion that DC is worse off after five years of the Rhee-Henderson leadership by almost every measure: test scores, graduation rates, truancy, teacher turnover, enrollments, etc.

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Be Wary of This Website

By dianeravitch
April 23, 2013 //
28

About once a week, I receive emails from an organization I do not know. It contains beautiful graphics claiming to rate different aspects of education. Usually I delete without opening, but this one caught my eye because it said it was rating the states.

The email says:

“Hi Diane,

“Ever wonder how your state working to create a better education system? Please take a look at this infographic based on data from the State of Education: State Policy Report Card 2013. Feel free to share and discuss the infographic on Diane Ravitch’s Blog as you like.

“Like all of our educational materials, we’ve published this under a free-to-use Creative Commons license. All sources are cited in the footer but if you have any questions, or are open to a guest post on the topic, do not hesitate to get in touch.

“Mu.

—
Muhammad Saleem
http://muhammadsaleem.com
(312) – 576 – 1575”

*******************************

I did open it and found that it rated Louisiana and Florida as the top states in the nation for education policy. Ha! The state where Bobby Jindal and John White are handing out public money to Bible schools and for-profit vendors. And the state touted by Jeb Bush where the graduation rate is lower than that of Alabama.

I quickly looked to the source and realized that it was Rhee’s StudentsFirst, which ranked states based on criteria she likes, such as readiness to privatize and to eliminate all rights for teachers.

So, yes, I decided it was time to cite this info graphic on my blog and warn readers not to trust any of its slick packaging.

Categories Florida, Louisiana, StudentsFirst

Breaking News! California Democratic Party Blasts Corporate Education Reform: UPDATE

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2013 //
26

The California Democratic Party passed a resolution opposing corporate education reform.

It specifically criticized Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group called “Democrats for Education Reform” as fronts for Republicans and corporate interests.

See the story in the Los Angeles Times here. The headline repeats the “reform” claim that they just want to “overhaul” schools, when the resolution below correctly describes their agenda.

The message is getting out. The public is beginning to understand the privatizers’ game of talking “reform” and “great teachers” while dismantling public education and the teaching profession.

This is great news!

Here is the resolution:

Supporting California’s Public Schools and Dispelling the Corporate “Reform” Agenda
Whereas, the reform initiatives of Students First, rely on destructive anti-educator policies that do nothing for students but blame educators and their unions for the ills of society, make testing the goal of education, shatter communities by closing their public schools, and see public schools as potential profit centers and children as measureable commodities; and

Whereas, the political action committee, entitled Democrats for Education Reform is funded by corporations, Republican operatives and wealthy individuals dedicated to privatization and anti-educator initiatives, and not grassroots democrats or classroom educators; and

Whereas, the billionaires funding Students First and Democrats for Education Reform are supporting candidates and local programs that would dismantle a free public education for every student in California and replace it with company run charter schools, non-credentialed teachers and unproven untested so-called “reforms”;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party reaffirms its commitment to free accessible public schools for all which offer a fair, substantive opportunity to learn with educators who have the right to be represented by their union, bargain collectively and have a voice in the policies which affect their schools, classrooms and their students;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party send this resolution to all elected Democratic leaders in California, publicize the corporate and Republican funding of these groups and work with the authors of this resolution to dispel the false reforms and support the real needs of the classroom: trained teachers, adequate funding, safe and clean facilities, diverse and stimulating curriculum and access to pre-school and higher education.

Categories California, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Breaking News: John Merrow Finds Mystery Memo in Rhee Scandal

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2013 //
52

Someone in the District of Columbia education department leaked a memo to John Merrow about the cheating scandal. The memo warned Chancellor Michelle Rhee about the likelihood of widespread cheating in the DC Public schools. Rhee did not act on it. She should have. The allegations were not investigated. They were brushed aside.

This is a very important post.

It is a bombshell.

Merrow calls the post “Michelle Rhee’s Reign of Error.” It is funny that he borrowed the title of my new book, which will be published September 3. The “Reign of Error” applies not only to Rhee but to No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the whole lot of “reforms” that are in reality a soul-crushing, data-driven approach to education. The so-called reform movement is bad for students, bad for teachers, bad for principals, and ruinous to education.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Testing

How StudentsFirst Turns Facts into Myths

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2013 //
6

Matthew Di Carlo dissects the latest effort by Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst to sell the idea that evaluating teachers by test scores is accurate, unbiased, and necessary.

Di Carlo analyzes the “myths” and discovers that some of them are facts.

This is embarrassing. Rhee really needs to hire a competent research department.

 

Categories Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst, Teacher Evaluations, Testing
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