Archives for category: Tennessee
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Visiting Chattanooga

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2012 //
10

I just arrived in Chattanooga.

I will be lecturing tomorrow night, thanks to the sponsorship of the Benwood Foundation, a very civic-minded local philanthropy.

Michelle Rhee was the last speaker here on education. Her ex-husband is state commissioner of education. Needless to say, teacher evaluation and charter schools are big topics in the state.

I arrived in a huge downpour, am still drying my shoes.

But also found a very fine interview, which you might enjoy reading. I had an email exchange a few days ago and this was the result.

Categories Tennessee

Virtual School in Tennessee Strikes Out

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2012 //
1

The Tennessee Virtual Academy is one of those online for-profit charter schools that are supposed to “save” American education. Bad news for its champions: The scores at the school were in the state’s bottom 11 percent. The sponsors say forget the scores and wait until next year. Right.

Jeb Bush promotes virtual schools from one end of the country to the other. His Foundation for Excellence in Education is funded by numerous tech corporations. He and Bob Wise of the Alliance for Excellent Education published guidelines called the “Ten Elements of Digital Education” urging states to take the plunge and authorize online schools with little or no regulation. Preferably no regulation at all, since regulations are seen as a hindrance to innovation. Teachers need not be certified, and the corporation need not even have an office in the state where it does business. Just hoops and hurdles that hobble true reform.

The push for virtual education takes two forms, both promoted heavily by the corporations that stand to profit: one, virtual charter schools; two, requiring that every high school student take at least one course online.

So far, there is not a scintilla of evidence that virtual instruction is good education, at least not in the way it is being sold by its advocates. Test scores are low; graduation rates are low; attrition is high. And why in the world should children in grades K-8 be isolated from any peer interactions during their formative years?

More and more evidence is emerging about the importance of non-cognitive skills, such as the ability to communicate with others and work with others. Can that be learned in isolation?

Categories Bush, Jeb, Education Reform, K12 Inc., On-Line Education, Technology, Computers, Tennessee

Charter Application Rejected for 4th Time in Nashville

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
8

The Metro Nashville school board rejected the Great Hearts Charter School application for the fourth time. And this time, the charter said it was calling it quits. For now.

One of those times when one must admit, “Four strikes and you’re out.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Tennessee

Why Is the State Commissioner in Tennessee Interfering in Local Decision?

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
6

Kevin Huffman–the Tennessee Commissioner of Education–really, really wants the Metro Nashville school board to approve the Great Hearts Charter School. He ordered them to do it. He monitored their meeting through an aide.

Against his wishes, they turned it down–for a third time.

It will come back for a fourth consideration, and no doubt arms will be twisted.

Why is the State Commissioner of Education–a TFA alum–injecting his personal wishes into a local decision?

Maybe we will learn in future news stories.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Tennessee

Nashville School Board Turns Down Charter for Third Time

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
10

The Metro Nashville school board turned down a charter proposal for the third time, even though the state education department ordered the board to endorse the charter.

The local board feared that the charter would appeal mainly to affluent white families, both because of the curriculum and the expectation that families would make a large up-front “voluntary” contribution.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120911/NEWS04/309110094/Metro-defies-state-denies-Great-Hearts
 
Metro defies state, denies Great Hearts
8:07 PM, Sep 11, 2012 |
 
Written by  Lisa Fingeroot   The Tennessean
In a surprise move, the Metro Nashville school board defied the state’s education power structure Tuesday and denied a controversial charter school for Nashville’s West Side over concerns that it would cater mainly to wealthy, white families.
The vote marked the third time Metro board members denied a charter to Great Hearts Academies, a firm that operates a system of 12 charter schools in Arizona. But the vote also marks the first time a local school board has defied the State Board of Education, which ordered Metro to approve the charter school and hinted at funding penalties if they didn’t.
State officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday, and Great Hearts officials also were unavailable. That left questions about what happens next largely unanswered for the moment.
During the meeting, an attorney for Great Hearts made a last-minute appeal to the board for its approval, but he left soon after the vote.
The vote was 5-4 against Great Hearts, with Amy Frogge, Jo Ann Brannon, Sharon Gentry, Anna Shepherd and new Chairman Cheryl Mayes opposing the school. Jill Speering, Elissa Kim, Will Pinkston, and Michael Hayes voted in favor of Great Hearts.
Frogge, a new board member, said she and others were concerned about the threat of litigation against them, both as board members and personally, but said she felt they had a moral obligation to Nashville’s schoolchildren to vote without fear.
Pinkston, also a new board member, appeared to be leaning against Great Hearts during the board’s discussion, but voted to approve it in the end.
He voted in favor because of the legal threats, Pinkston said. After discussions with the board’s lawyers, he is satisfied the state has the legal authority to demand Metro approve the school and is also concerned about the threats that have been made by state officials.
The repercussions are “the great unknown,” Pinkston said.
Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman accused the Metro board of breaking the law when it delayed a vote on Great Hearts and a State Board of Education attorney said consequences for not following a state directive could include the loss of funding for Metro schools.
In explaining her opposition to Great Hearts, Frogge echoed a concern that has been a sticking point for others who have voted against the school in the past.
The main issue for Metro board members has been whether the school would cater to an affluent, largely white population or work to create a more diverse student body by providing transportation to students from other areas of the city.
If the board sets a precedent that allows charter schools to serve only those who can afford an affluent neighborhood or the transportation there, then the board will leave behind the very kids it must protect, Frogge said.
New member Pinkston suggested the board create a committee to develop a comprehensive diversity plan that could be shown to potential charter school applicants in the future. Metro’s diversity plan is currently spread through many different documents, he added.
Great Hearts has chosen a location between Charlotte Pike and White Bridge Road, which is in the majority white and wealthy 37205 zip code, but also borders the more diverse and less affluent 37218 zip code.
Black community leaders opposed the school because they worried it would become an exclusive charter school catering to wealthy white parents in the area. Parents in favor of the school, however, said they wanted the rigorous curriculum provided by Great Hearts, whose Arizona schools have much higher standards and a faster learning pace than those set by Metro public schools.
The school board has twice denied the charter application and even provoked the ire of state education officials by refusing to vote on the charter school a third time after Great Hearts won a state appeal.
The State Board of Education directed the Metro board to approve the school, but the board delayed a decision, which caused state officials to speculate on the possible consequences that worry Pinkston.
Lisa Fingeroot can be reached at 259-8892 or LFingeroot@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaFingeroot.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012309110022
School board denies Great Hearts charter again

6:25 PM, Sep 11, 2012 |
6 Comments Updated at 6:20 p.m.

The Metro school board denied the Great Hearts Academy charter school again tonight in a vote of 5-4.
Previously reported: Leader says $1,200 donation from parents ‘optional’

A controversial charter school expected to be approved tonight by the Metro Nashville school board asks families in its Arizona schools to ante up a $1,200 gift, a separate $200 tax credit contribution, and a few hundred dollars in book and classroom fees.
However, a Great Hearts Academies official says the schools are free and that even the book fees will be waived if necessary.
“It is 100 percent clear to everyone in our schools that those are optional contributions,” said Peter Bezanson, president of Great Hearts Tennessee, the nonprofit management company set up for the five schools Great Hearts hopes to open in Nashville.
Great Hearts’ requests for parent donations in Arizona are larger than those typically seen in Nashville public or charter schools.
For example, Julia Green Elementary PTO asks for a $300 donation and J.T. Moore Middle asks for $250, parent volunteers said. Meigs Middle, which is conducting a technology campaign, asks for $5 to $500, depending on what parents feel they can afford.
LEAD Academy, a charter school with a campus near Great Hearts’ target area in West Nashville, notes on its website that “we must raise an additional $1,500 per student” to supplement the public funding the school receives, but LEAD doesn’t explicitly request that amount from parents as Great Hearts does.
LEAD is always on the lookout for donors and constantly applies for grants, said Shaka Mitchell, director of external affairs. The school also has an annual breakfast to raise money for students to visit colleges.
Charter schools in Tennessee don’t usually ask for donations from attending families because the population has been traditionally from lower socioeconomic groups, said Rebecca A. Lieberman, chief talent strategy officer at the Tennessee Charter School Incubator. But they do ask for donations from others and participate in fundraising, she added.
The proposed Great Hearts charter became controversial mostly because of the wealth associated with its supporters and the affluence of the mostly white West Nashville area where it plans to locate.
The Metro school board has twice denied the proposed school and even refused to bow to state pressure last month, postponing a vote on Great Hearts because members were not convinced the charter was dedicated to diversity. The board had been ordered by the state to approve the charter after Great Hearts appealed its denial.
Great Hearts officials have promised to market to families in other areas of the city and to supply some transportation for poor children.
Books loaned if students can’t pay

The Great Hearts schools in Arizona ask every parent to participate in two fundraising campaigns. Parents are asked to make a one-time, $1,200 donation — which can be paid in monthly installments during a school year — and a $200 gift that allows the donor to receive a dollar-for-dollar Arizona tax credit. One Great Hearts school requests a $1,500 contribution.
The only mandatory fee is a refundable deposit of $35 per textbook, Bezanson said. If a parent cannot afford it, the fee can be waived without a lot of paperwork, he added.
The websites show different requirements, though. They say parents must submit a $25 application to an outside party along with tax documents. That company will determine whether parents are eligible for a waiver.
The schools also ask students to purchase other books for reading the classics of the Western canon that are so much a part of the curriculum, but Bezanson said schools will loan those books to students if needed.
Class fees of $120 are required for workbooks, student planners, assemblies, field days and ceremonies, according to at least one of the school’s websites, but again Bezanson said the fees are not required.
Great Hearts, like any other school, wants everyone to participate, he added.
“We never send anyone away,” he said. “We have never turned anyone away for not paying.”
Lisa Fingeroot can be reached at 615-259-8892 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 615-259-8892 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or lfingeroot@tennessean.com.

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform, Tennessee

How the Online Industry Moves the Goalposts

By dianeravitch
September 6, 2012 //
6

A reader sent the following comments about the online for-profit schooling industry (by the way, that line about “current performance is no prediction of future performance” comes right from the prospectus of investment funds):

Interesting story about the K12 schools performance in Tennessee: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/31/andy-berke-criticizes-dismal-scores-of-for/?politics

What’s truly stunning is that, according to the article, the K12 schools performed in the bottom 11% of all TN schools tested using the state’s value-added assessment.  As I recall, value-added assessments have been championed by the same reformers who also push for on-lines schools.

K12’s response has been familiar–move the goal posts and change the game.  They claim that current performance is no prediction of future performance–why don’t we who support public education get to use that line?–and their own testing using the private Scranton Performance Series shows they are meeting or beating the Scranton norm group in all categories.   In other words, in their own private world they’re doing just fine. So, why don’t the public schools in TN get to use these tests too?

And they’re making improvements to improve future outcomes.

So, let me get this straight–K12 in TN can’t hack the very performance tests the reformers have shoved down the throats of the public schools.  In response, they get to claim that current performance is no indication of future performance.   But public schools are roundly condemned on the basis of their current performance.  K12 then gets to tout its own private testing results that show–surprise!–K12 is doing just fine, compared to norm among the customers of the private testing service.  But the public schools have to be tested using national and international standardized tests that are not private.  Finally, despite claiming they’re doing just fine in their own little universe, they are working to improve.  Of course, the public schools–that are doing better than K12–are beyond help.

Oh-Kay!

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, On-Line Education, Tennessee, Testing

A Memphis High School Teacher Dissents

By dianeravitch
August 26, 2012 //
5

The Memphis public schools are about to merge with the Shelby County schools into a single district.

The guiding document was written by a 21-member Transition Planning Commission.

The director of the TPC happens to work for the reform group Stand for Children, now best known among educators for its efforts to crush the Chicago Teachers  Union.

Several articles about Memphis have appeared on this blog. The TPC proposed, for example, that the proportion of students in charter schools increase from 4 percent to 19 percent by 2016, even though it is by now clear that charter schools don’t get better results than public schools.

The TPC decided that teachers should have merit pay, despite the fact that merit pay has never been successful in producing anything but demoralization.

The TPC decided that teachers’ education and experience will not count.

This high school teacher says they are wrong.

He writes, “the TPC recommends teachers no longer be paid more for their advanced degrees. They claim master’s degrees and doctorates are irrelevant in the classroom. This is a terrible insult. To assert that education is the cornerstone of success for everyone in our community except teachers disrespects the professionals who teach and care for our children each day. It belittles the years of study and the large sums of money teachers invest in their careers, and it will ultimately run the best and brightest teachers out of our classrooms and into jobs that offer higher compensation and less degradation.”

Why does one teacher know more than a commission of 21 people?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Stand for Children, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching, Tennessee

The New York Times Editorial Is Clueless

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2012 //
21

The New York Times published an editorial calling for “carrots and sticks” for teachers and principals.

What  the editorial means is that professionals should get bonuses for higher test scores, and this would recognize high performance and get educators to work harder and produce more high performance (higher test scores).

As I said in my speech in Detroit to the AFT convention, carrots and sticks are for donkeys, not professionals.

The schools in New York City have been subject to budget cuts for the past few years. The Times’ editorial doesn’t suggest where the money will come from to award bonuses. Should some teachers be laid off so others can get a bonus? Should the schools eliminate the arts so that some teachers can get bonuses?

The Times makes no mention of the long and consistent history of failure of merit pay plans. See here and  here and here and here and here.

After ten years of carrots and sticks in New York City, the Times concludes that what is needed is more carrots and sticks.

Teachers are doing the best they can, with or without bonus pay. I posted several times yesterday about why merit pay doesn’t work. I wish the Times’ editorial writer were reading those posts, and more important, reading the comments by teachers, such as this one:

I work in a challenging inner city school in NYC-DOE. Just about every teacher there works hard. Our administration is ok but not great. Our teachers collaborate and cooperate. I love working in my school.
This past June during our final staff meeting on the last day of school our principal who was thanking everyone for their hard work let slip that thanks to our hard work, she and her assistant principals all received substantial bonuses from the DOE.
There was complete silence in the room. It was a very sad way to end the school year. No one listened much to anything the “suits” said after that. She did say it was part of her union contract and we should pressure our union.
Many teachers were very discouraged. Teachers are between a rock and a hard place. If they don’t work hard and make the administration look great (which is not likely because in the end it would hurt our students) our school will most likely close. If we work hard, the administration will be rewarded for our efforts.
This is not going to do much for morale come September.
If states made it more difficult to enter the teaching profession and provided adequate resources, none of this bonus stuff would be necessary.
Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Merit pay, NYC, Tennessee

The Secret Trick Behind Merit Pay

By dianeravitch
August 5, 2012 //
12

Hardly a day goes by without another politician or businessman calling for merit pay, performance pay, incentivize those lazy teachers to produce higher scores!

The Obama administration put $1 billion into merit pay, without a shred of evidence that it would make a difference.

Merit pay schemes have recently failed in New York City, Chicago, and Nashville, but who cares?

The Florida legislature passed legislation mandating merit pay but didn’t appropriate any money to pay for it. That was left to cash-strapped districts.

So here is the secret trick.

There is no money to pay for merit pay!

In a time of fiscal austerity, the money appropriated for merit pay (when it is appropriated) is money that should have been spent on reducing class size, preserving libraries or school nurses, or maintaining arts programs or other school-based services.

Instead, districts will lay off some teachers so that other teachers get bonuses. That leads to larger classes for the remaining teachers.

That is ridiculous, but that is the way of thinking that is now prevalent among our nation’s policymakers.

A reader knows this:

 I find the whole premise behind merit pay insulting.  If the districts have extra money, let’s use it to improve teaching conditions such as providing class sets of reading books, pencil sharpeners, science materials, or any of the hundreds of items teachers end up paying for out of pocket.

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago, Florida, Merit pay, NYC, Tennessee

Teachers in Memphis Speak Out

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2012 //
11

I have published several posts (see here, here, and here) about Memphis, where a “Transition Planning Committee” devised a plan to merge the Memphis public schools and the Shelby County Schools. The planning was based on work by the Boston Consulting Group; the director of the TPC is the executive director of Stand for Children in Memphis. The plan proposes to shift many children out of the Memphis public schools and into new charter schools, so that charter enrollment will increase from 4% of Memphis students to 19% by 2016. The plan also involves a transfer of $212 million from the public schools to charter schools.

I have received letters from Stand for Children and from both supporters and opponents of the plan. Today I heard from Memphis teachers:

I teach in one of the grades K-3 in Memphis. In addition to the injustice of using test scores at all in making personnel decisions, K-3 teachers are evaluated based on the test scores of students they have never taught.Every teacher in Tennessee who teaches K-3 and every art, music, P.E. teacher, and librarian, instead of using their students’ value-added scores for half of their evaluation (because there aren’t any), is assigned their school’s value-added score for half of their evaluation.This is clearly designed to make the bad schools worse. Already, nearly all of the K-3 teachers at my failing school have transferred to other schools with better school-wide value-added scores. I don’t yet know who the principal has hired to replace them, but I’m guessing many will be TFA types (we also have a TFA-style program here called Memphis Teaching Fellows, run by The New Teacher Project), most of whom will be ineffective their first year.This legislation is designed to make the bad schools worse, so that they can be closed and turned into charters.The same teacher wrote this comment:In the meeting the Transition Planning Commission (TPC) had with teachers, the district strongly encouraged all teachers to go in place of faculty meeting. I didn’t go because I knew it would be a waste of time, but my colleagues went. According to them, it was a waste of time. They had a thousand teachers in the auditorium of a high school and no organization for the meeting. Teachers were not given an opportunity to speak the the group as a whole. Instead, they broke off into discussion groups comprised of a large number of teachers and one staff member. Teachers’ suggestions in these groups were written down and supposedly submitted to the TPC. The teachers I spoke to doubted anyone would read their suggestions. Why couldn’t they just ask teachers to email these suggestions, instead of wasting enormous amounts of time at the end of a long school day to organize a thousand teachers into discussion groups?

This comes from another Memphis teacher:

Let’s clear up the confusion around teacher input and the transition plan. There are NO current teachers on the Transition Planning Commission. The TPC appointed NO current teachers to the work groups who prepared the plan. The only input the TPC got from actual teachers was what they allowed them to say at community “listening tours”. These tours were usually about two hours long and held in various parts of the community. I believe there were six of these events. They were open to the public and teachers could attend and speak. The TPC members present answered virtually no questions as these were listening events. I do not call this teacher input. Additionally the teacher unions were intentionally left out of the discussions and were told their input was not needed even though the two unions involved represent over 7000 teachers. Teachers have no idea what is really in this plan.

 
Categories Boston Consulting Group, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Teacher Evaluations, Tennessee
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