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When I Spoke at the Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh, North Carolina

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2014 //
25

This is a video of my speech at the Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 11, 2014.

This was an important challenge because I strongly believe that the state is on the wrong path. Its governor and legislature are far to the right of the Tea Party. They are a government that doesn’t like public education or teachers. They seem to want to drive teachers away. They don’t want good public schools. They want charters–where only half the teachers are certified. And they passed voucher legislation, for schools with no accountability.

I was fortunate in the day’s agenda, because my keynote followed directly after a very interesting panel of teachers who quit teaching because the salaries were so low that they could not afford to teach. Yet all of them loved teaching. North Carolina, once a bastion of forward-looking education, now ranks 46th in the nation in teacher pay. John Merrow moderated the panel and brought out the best in this wonderful group of teachers, whose departure was a loss to the state.

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina, Teachers, Vouchers

North Carolina: How to Lower Standards While Pretending to Improve Education

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2014 //
40

The legislature in North Carolina, apparently joined at the hip with ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), passed legislation establishing charter schools a few months ago.

Buried in the bill is a stipulation that only 50% of teachers in charter schools need to hold a teaching license (see page 7 of the bill).

In public schools, ALL teachers must be licensed.

Apparently in the minds of the North Carolina legislature, the way to “improve student learning” (the alleged goal of creating charters) is to lower standards for teachers.

Perhaps we will soon see the legislature lower the requirements to practice medicine, law, and other professions and occupations in that state.

And they will no doubt say it “improves the profession by letting anyone do it.”

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, North Carolina, Teachers

Durham, NC, School Board Loves Its Teachers

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2014 //
23

Members of the Durham school board voted unanimously yesterday to join a lawsuit against the law eliminating “career status” protections afforded to veteran teachers.

Guilford County and Wake County are also opposing the llegislature’s mandate to identify the “best” teachers and offer them a bonus to abandon due process. Think how dumb that is: find your best teachers and make it easier to fire them.

Members of the Durham board are defending their teachers against the legislature’s nonstop assault on career educators, which is causing an exodus of experienced teachers from the state.

“If the governor and the North Carolina General Assembly won’t stand up for our children’s teachers, then we will,” said Heidi Carter, Durham school board chairwoman. “This 25 percent mandate is not about rewarding excellence in teaching. It’s about coercing teachers to give up a right they’ve justly earned. And that’s a right to salary protection and a right to due process.”

Durham will join a soon-to-be-filed lawsuit by Guilford County Schools asking for an injunction preventing school districts from implementing the provision. A separate lawsuit has been filed against the measure by the North Carolina Association of Educators. The statewide teacher group has also led a “decline to sign” campaign asking teachers to not support the provision.

Lawmakers asked school districts to identify their top 25 percent of high-performing teachers and offer them a new four year contract with a $500 annual salary increase. In exchange, those teachers lose their tenure.The pay provision, included in the state budget last July, aims to reward teachers based on performance instead of having a tenure system that authors of the measure say “fosters mediocrity and discourages excellence.”

“Career status,” or teacher tenure, does not prevent a school board from firing a teacher, board member Leigh Boardley said.

“What career status provides for teachers, among other things, is their right to due process,” she said. “Their right to a hearing if they are fired. I think that’s a really reasonable thing for our staff to get for the hard work that they give us.”

Categories North Carolina, Resistance, Teacher Tenure, Teachers

Newark Plans to Lay Off More than 1,000 Teachers

By dianeravitch
March 1, 2014 //
34

Teachers, students, and parents protested the decision by Superintendent Cami Anderson to lay off about a third of the teachers in Newark, NJ, more than 1,000.

Anderson plans to close many public schools and replace them with charter schools.

Anderson did not attend the meeting of the elected advisory board –and has announced that she will no longer attend such meetings–because she did not like the tone of the last meeting, where residents vented their rage against her and her plan for greater privatization.

Newark has been under state control since 1995. Anderson was appointed by the Chris Christie administration, which favors privatization.

Categories New Jersey, Students, Teacher Tenure, Teachers

Advice for Robert Reich About K-12 Education

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2014 //
47

A reader whose tag is “Not a Public School Teacher” reacts to the news that Robert Reich has come out in opposition to the overuse of standardized testing:

“I was very grateful to see Reich’s stance in “Inequality for All”, but frankly, I think it’s about time he took a stand on K-12 public education. HIgh-stakes standardized testing is not a new issue. We’re talking about 12 years of standardized tests under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), longer in many locations, as well as ever increasing numbers of tests now, with the roll out of Race to the Top (RttT) and the Common Core national standards.

“If you look at the “Inequality for All” website, Reich was curiously silent on K-12 education, so this is a good start. However, Reich does not go far enough. For example, Reich made no mention of the ongoing national assault on public school teachers, the primary aim of which is to break unions and deprofessionalize the field, replacing unionized career educators with low paid non-union workers, such as the five week trained “teachers” from Teach for America.

“Reich also said nothing about the scheme to privatize public education. Does he not realize that, under the guise of “school choice,” neighborhood schools are being closed and replaced with unregulated or minimally regulated charters that have no elected boards or PTAs, which effectively eliminate community participation and democracy in education? That benefits no one more than corporate and entrepreneurial profiteers, such as the 16 charter school CEOs in NY who earn $500K per year –more than Obama is paid?

“On his “Inequality for All” website, Reich indicates strong support for Obama’s new policy plan for higher education. As a college professor, Reich should know about the fiscal issues of colleges, because their funds are certainly not going to the majority of college faculty, 70% of whom across this nation are non-union, low paid contingency workers with no benefits. He should also know better than to support the plan for higher education without very carefully scrutinizing it, because it is as much a TROJAN HORSE as K-12 policies are under NCLB and RttT.

“If Reich does not fully understand what’s happening in education, then he should read Diane’s book, “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools”

Categories Privatization, Teachers, Testing

NC Democrats Blast McCrory Pay Plan

By dianeravitch
February 10, 2014 //
66

North Carolina Governor McCrory tried to defuse criticism of his hostile policies toward teachers by offering a pay raise to teachers in their first five years instead of responding to a call by former Governor Jim Hunt to lift salaries to the national average. NC teachers are now 46th in the nation in salary.

Under McCrory’s proposal, 70% of teachers get no raise. Salaries for teachers have been flat since 2008. It takes 15 years for a teacher in NC to earn $40,000 a year.

This blast just was released about the McCrory plan:

Dear xxxxxxx,

Today, NC Speaker Thom Tillis, along with Governor Pat McCrory and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, unveiled a plan that fails to provide a pay raise to 70% of North Carolina’s hardworking teachers. If you, like us, believe ALL North Carolina teachers deserve a pay raise please sign our petition today and forward to it to 5 friends.

Their plan is simply an election year gimmick. Republicans only want to shield themselves from public backlash over the damage they’ve done to public education. Unfortunately for the Republicans, they have already made it clear during the 2013 Legislative Session that public education was simply not a priority for them. They laid off 3,800 teacher’s assistants, cut $500 million from public education, denied all teachers a pay raise and raised tuition at community colleges – all while allocating tens of millions of dollars for private school vouchers.

This Republican plan only offers a pay raise to a select few teachers at a time when ALL teachers in North Carolina deserve a raise. The plan DOES NOT raise teacher pay to the national average, DOES NOT make teacher pay in NC competitive with other states – like Virginia – that are luring teachers away and DOES NOT offer a plan that will prepare our students for the modern workforce.

Perhaps most appalling is the fact that the money to give ALL North Carolina teachers a pay raise exists in the state budget but the GOP would rather use that money to give tax breaks to out-of-state corporations and millionaires.

Please stand with House Democrats today by signing this petition that demands the Governor and the General Assembly Republicans treat our teachers with respect and helps them to get what we as North Carolinians know they deserve.

We thank you for your continued support as we fight for a greater future for all North Carolinians.

Sincerely,

Rep. Larry D. Hall

Democratic Leader

P.S. This petition seeks to protect the North Carolina public education system by asking for a pay raise for ALL North Carolina public school teachers – not just a select few – to the national average. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TODAY AND FORWARD TO 5 FRIENDS.

Paid for by the NCDP- House Caucus

220 Hillsborough Street
Raleigh, NC 27603

Categories North Carolina, Teachers

Louisiana: Anti-Teacher Law Ruled Invalid, Again

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2014 //
7

In 2012, Governor Bobby Jindal rammed through the legislature his compleat program of privatization of public schools and dismantling the teaching profession.

But things have not gone well since then because of the judiciary.

The funding if the voucher program was held unconstitutional and so was the act that outraged teachers.

The latter was overturned a second time.

The courts continue to be the guardians of due process. They have a habit of sticking to the state and federal constitutions.

Categories Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers

Matt Di Carlo: New Data Show High Teacher Attrition in DC

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2014 //
17

Matthew Di Carlo of the Shanker Institute reports a new study of teacher attrition in the District of Columbia.

The numbers of teachers leaving the district are startling. Whether it is working conditions or policy, the District is not a good place to work.

DCPS has an attrition rate of 25%, far above the national average.

But it is far higher in the highest-poverty schools, as much as 40%.

Di Carlo notes:

“Now, it’s important to note, first of all, that this level of churn, overall and/or in how it varies by school poverty, may not be unusual for districts similar to DCPS (for example, the overall rate of 25 percent is probably roughly comparable to other big city districts). In other words, this may be less a DCPS problem than a large urban district problem (and the raw figures certainly cannot be chalked up to specific policies, in DC or elsewhere).

“Moreover, it’s unclear how much of the discrepancy in attrition/mobility by poverty rates is due to working conditions per se. For one thing, as seen in the DCPS document linked above (see page 36), teachers in higher-poverty schools receive lower ratings, on average, from DCPS’ teacher evaluation system than their counterparts in medium- and low-poverty schools, which means that some of the turnover may be involuntary (i.e., dismissals). Also, leavers and movers have lower evaluation scores, on average, than stayers (see the table above, and also that on page 32). Similarly, there are other variables, such as experience, that may mediate the association between school poverty and teacher turnover.

“In any case, while some turnover is inevitable and some of it (e.g., low-performing teachers) can be seen as beneficial, the situation in the highest-poverty DCPS schools, where around 40 percent leave every year, is at least a cause for concern. It’s difficult to comprehend how schools can function effectively under such conditions.”

Categories District of Columbia, Teachers

Are You Sick of Highly Paid Teachers?

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2014 //
34

Thanks to Jennie Shanker for tweeting this to me.

It appeared in the Daily Kos.

It shows how to adjust the wages of teachers.

Categories Humor, Teachers

Louisiana Court Rules That 7,000 Teachers Were Wrongfully Terminated

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2014 //
30

It is always astonishing to be reminded that the rule of law still exists in Louisiana, despite the authoritarian command of Governor Bobby Jindal.

But it does! Louisiana courts found the funding of the voucher program, using money dedicated to public schools, to be unconstitutional. The courts found Jindal’s law stripping teachers of all legal rights and protections to be unconstitutional because it included too many subjects in one bill.

And now, miracle of miracles, the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that 7,000 teachers who were fired after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina were wrongfully terminated and entitled to back wages. The judgement could bankrupt the Orleans Parish Board.

“In a lawsuit that some say could bankrupt the Orleans Parish public school system, an appeals court has decided that the School Board wrongly terminated more than 7,000 teachers after Hurricane Katrina. Those teachers were not given due process, and many teachers had the right to be rehired as jobs opened up in the first years after the storm, the court said in a unanimous opinion.

“The state is partly responsible for damages, according to Wednesday’s ruling from Louisiana’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. However, its five-judge panel did reduce the potential damages certified by the District Court: Instead of five years of back pay plus fringe benefits, the appeals court awarded the teachers two to three years of back pay, with benefits only for those employees who had participated in them when they were employed.

“During the appeal, lawyers said the damages could amount to $1.5 billion.

“The class-action case applies to all School Board employees who were tenured as of Aug. 29, 2005, the date that Katrina blasted up the Louisiana-Mississippi line and New Orleans levees failed, flooding much of the city. Many employees were members of the United Teachers of New Orleans, but the appeals court ruled that an earlier settlement with the union did not prevent this case from being tried.

“The decision validates the anger felt by former teachers who lost their jobs. It says they should have been given top consideration for jobs in the new education system that emerged in New Orleans in the years after the storm.”

But wait!

Didn’t Arne Duncan say that Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to the schools of New Orleans? Didn’t he celebrate the abrupt firing of all these teachers and their replacement by TFA? Well, yes.

The courts say he was wrong.

The law was upheld. You don’t wipe out the livelihoods of 7,000 people just because you want to. The court said that these men and women were entitled to due process. Justice prevails.

Categories Louisiana, New Orleans, Teachers
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