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Thursday, October 18, 2018

Charter schools are a hot real estate market — and that’s bad for students

Charter schools are a hot real estate market — and that’s bad for students

Charter schools are a hot real estate market — and that’s bad for students
Where there’s smoke there’s fire — and there’s tons of smoke when it comes to the charter school industry pocketing public money meant for school buildings.
It seems like almost every week another charter school operator is exposed for taking taxpayer money that was supposed to be spent on renting, building, or buying classroom space.
One recent example: a charter school in California, Imagine Schools at Imperial Valley (ISIV), closed its doors in September after years of poor academic performance — but not before its owners made out with a fortune.
ISIV was spending a substantial portion of its annual revenue — all public money — on rent paid to a company connected to its owners. In a labyrinthine scheme, the school subleased a converted department store from a related for-profit corporation that leased from another corporation. As of February this year, ISIV had paid $7.9 million in rent even though the store was originally purchased for $3.1 million.
Such “related-party transactions” are so common that a professor at the University of Connecticut wrote a report last year comparing the charter industry to the energy-trading firm Enron, which collapsed in 2001 under the weight of massive fraud. “Without strict regulation, some bad actors have been able to take advantage of charter schools as an opportunity for private investment,” he wrote.
You might be thinking, aren’t charter schools nonprofit? Yes, most are. But in Continue reading: Charter schools are a hot real estate market — and that’s bad for students



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The History of the Future of High School - VICE

The History of the Future of High School - VICE

The History of the Future of High School
The problem with American secondary education is not that students haven’t learned the “right skills,” as the Betsy DeVoses of the world would have you believe.


This story appears in VICE Magazine's Power and Privilege Issue. Click HEREto subscribe.
High school is broken in America. Its buildings and classes are old and stodgy. As an institution, it’s unchanging, built to crank out factory workers and thus unsuited for our modern, high-tech era.
That’s the convenient fiction repeated by business-minded politicians and philanthropists for some time now. Consider what the US secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, told students in Wyoming last year: “For far too many kids,” DeVos said, “this year’s first day back to school looks and feels a lot like last year’s first day back to school. And the year before that. And the generation before that. And the generation before that.” Later, while visiting a charter school in Florida, DeVos again said as much: “Far too many schools have been stuck in a mode that is basically approaching things that have been done very similarly to 100 years ago, and the world today is much different.”
When folks like DeVos make the inaccurate claim that schools haven’t changed in a century, they often invoke the phrase “factory-model schooling,” implying that schools—the buildings, the curriculum, the practices—were established to prepare students for manufacturing work. America’s first high school opened in 1635, and taught religion and the classics to the sons of wealthy elites. High schools in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the US were likewise not designed to prepare students for work in factories, despite the pervasiveness of that “factory model” myth. Rather, most of these early learning institutions served academically talented students whose parents could afford to have their child pursue secondary education. That is, they could get by without their teenager working. Only a fraction of kids attended high school in those days, and an even smaller fraction of those students went on to university, in part because most professions did not require college degrees.
As the historians David Tyack and Larry Cuban wrote in their 1995 history of school reform, Tinkering Toward Utopia, just one in every ten teens age 14 to 17 was enrolled in high school in 1900. By 1940, that number was up to seven in ten; by 1980, nine in ten. The percentage of kids enrolled in high school has continued to grow in the decades since Tinkering was published, as have graduation rates (8 percent in 1900, 51 percent in 1940, and about 83 percent today). These shifting demographics have transformed what schools do and are expected to do. A century ago, students of color were largely denied equal access to educational opportunities, for example, and special education as we know it didn’t exist. And though it’s not always the way it works out in practice, public high schools are now required to serve all students, and curriculum modifications along the way reflect that.
To meet the needs of these incoming students, schools started offering an Continue reading: The History of the Future of High School - VICE



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Decolonizing Wealth Officially Released! | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Decolonizing Wealth Officially Released! | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Decolonizing Wealth Officially Released!

This is an exciting week at Schott—it marks the official release of Decolonizing Wealth, the provocative new book by Edgar Villanueva, Schott’s Vice President of Programs and Advocacy.  It’s in bookstores nationwide—and is deservedly garnering wide attention, spurring candid assessments and dialogue within philanthropy.


Edgar oversees Schott’s grant investments and capacity-building supports for grassroots-led education-focused justice campaigns across the United States.  "It is important to listen to people who are living with the long-term impacts of colonization, says Villaneuva. “And the best way to learn is to actually begin investing in those communities, and then the community can teach you."John Jackson, Schott President & CEO urges colleagues to heed the book’s insights. “Through Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar Villanueva reinserts purpose and humanity into a philanthropic industry that has too often been driven by wealth accumulation, grant cycles, portfolios and metrics. Inspired by Indigenous worldview, the book pushes philanthropy back towards its original meaning, “love for humanity”. It is a must read for those new and old in philanthropy as well as those seeking to use their resources to create loving systems.”
Released by Berrett-Koehler Publishing, Decolonizing Wealth exposes the racial, class and cultural dynamics that plague institutions like banks, investment funds, and aid organizations, including foundations.
Decolonizing Wealth interweaves personal storytelling with field research and dozens of funder interviews to provide a prescriptive analysis of the challenges facing philanthropy and social finance. In the book, Villanueva outlines “7 Steps to Healing” that funders can use to better serve the needs of Native/Indigenous people, people of color, and other marginalized communities to close the racial wealth gap.
Rinku Sen, author and strategist and former Board Chair of the Schott Foundation:  “Having been both grant-seeker and grant-maker, I welcome any wisdom that can release us from a relationship of paternalism and enable true partnership. Nothing is more important to decolonize than money -- without it, change is slower and harder, and comes too late for too many people. Edgar Villanueva is a fresh voice in the money scene, one we should all heed.”
Villanueva serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Native Americans in Philanthropy. Proceeds from Decolonizing Wealthwill support the Generation Indigenous Fund—a Native-led fund created by Native Americans in Philanthropy that empowers Indigenous youth.

For more information about Decolonizing Wealth, visit DecolonizingWealth.com.


Decolonizing Wealth Officially Released! | Schott Foundation for Public Education



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Spring’s Teacher Walkouts Put Education On The Ballot In Fall Elections

Spring’s Teacher Walkouts Put Education On The Ballot In Fall Elections

Spring’s Teacher Walkouts Put Education On The Ballot In Fall Elections


This year’s Educator Spring that brought teachers into the streets in massive protests has resulted in hundreds of educators running for officein November midterm elections, thrust education issues into electoral contests between Democratic and Republican candidates up and down the ballot, and pushed education-related initiatives on ballots in 16 states, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress. “From taxes to bonds, governance to vouchers, education is on the ballot this November,” says the analysis. “Voters should not miss the chance to make their voices heard.”
In states such as Arizona and Georgia where gubernatorial candidates are locked in tight races and Democrats are anticipating gains in state legislatures, state ballot measures could help provide the difference between victory and defeat.
At least one study on the impact of ballot initiatives on voter turnout has found in midterm elections they can increase turnout at 7 to 9 percent in initiative states compared to non-initiative states, while turnout in presidential elections tends to be 3 to 4.5 percent higher in initiative states than in non-initiative states. Ballot measures have the power to “transform low information midterm elections to high information elections,” according to the study, and the presence of “even one initiative ballot is sufficient” to boost turnout.

School Privatization at Stake in Arizona
In what is perhaps the most-heated ballot initiative contest, in Arizona, voters will decide whether a state school voucher program providing taxpayer money for families to pay for private school tuitions will be expanded.
The massive #RedForEd teacher walkout that occurred in the state this spring resulted in a grassroots campaign to place an Continue reading: Spring’s Teacher Walkouts Put Education On The Ballot In Fall Elections




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Lies We Tell Our Students | Blue Cereal Education

Lies We Tell Our Students | Blue Cereal Education

Lies We Tell Our Students

Lies Lies Sign
I don’t like to lie to my students. I try not to, but it’s not always easy. Sometimes it’s literally required by the folks signing my paycheck, creating what we in the teaching business call “a dilemma.”
My ex-wife and I never told our kids there was a Santa, a Tooth Fairy, or an Easter Bunny, even when they were very little. We tried to make holidays fun, of course, and we played all sorts of pretend games and did traditional things – we weren’t uptight. It just seemed wrong to demonstrate to them early on that we were willing to fabricate stories about invisible beings which they were expected to later outgrow, for no better reason than our own amusement.
Euthanized animals weren’t playing on someone’s farm, pre-teens didn’t always win at games they sucked at, and not everyone is special in their own way. We tried to balance this with some grace and humility – it wasn’t their job to puncture the illusions of their young peers – but we didn’t figure familial festivities required lies and delusion.
(I’m not criticizing those of you who choose to betray your child’s trust repeatedly, by the way – that was just our personal choice. We wanted the truth – whether it be uncomfortable, encouraging, unwelcome, or warm – to mean something. We were odd that way.)
I feel the same way with my kids today – the ones I’m paid to deal with. It doesn’t Continue reading: Lies We Tell Our Students | Blue Cereal Education


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Jeff Bryant: This is Your Future Without Public Schools | National Education Policy Center

OurFuture.org: This is Your Future Without Public Schools | National Education Policy Center

This is Your Future Without Public Schools

‘The Education Debt’

The first report, “Confronting the Education Debt” from the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, examines the nation’s “education debt” – the historic funding shortfall for school systems that educate black and brown children. The authors find that through a combination of multiple factors – including funding rollbacks, tax cuts, and diversions of public money to private entities – the schools educating the nation’s poorest children have been shorted billions in funding.
One funding source alone, the federal dollars owed to states for educating low-income children and children with disabilities, shorted schools $580 billion, between 2005 and 2017, in what the government is lawfully required to fund schools through the provisions of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
The impact of not fully funding Title I is startling. At full funding, the nation’s highest-poverty schools could provide health and mental health services for every student – including dental and vision services – and these schools would have the money to hire a full-time nurse, a full-time librarian, and either an additional full-time counselor or a full-time teaching assistant for every classroom.
State and local governments contribute to underfunding too by keeping in place tax systems that chronically short schools, particularly those that educate low-income students, mostly of color. Two school districts in Illinois are highlighted – one where 80 percent of students are low-income and gets about $7,808 per pupil in total expenditures, while another, where 3 percent of students are low-income, spends $26,074 per student.
The disparities were made worse after the Great Recession in 2008, when most states slashed taxes for funding schools and often gave bigger tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy, while many local governments rolled out tax abatement programs that exclude corporations and developers from paying taxes that fund public schools.
In the meantime, while the nation’s education debt expands, the accumulated wealth of the richest Continue reading: OurFuture.org: This is Your Future Without Public Schools | National Education Policy Center

News about wealthy folks giving millions to education draws both praise and criticism. But two new reports by public education advocacy groups reveal the real impact rich people have on schools and how they’ve chosen to leverage their money to influence the system.




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OPINION: The Opt Out movement is gaining ground, quietly

OPINION: The Opt Out movement is gaining ground, quietly

OPINION: The Opt Out movement is gaining ground, quietly
Concerns go beyond standardized testing



Imagine hundreds of thousands of parents protesting the ways in which schools educate their children.

Now imagine that this protest continues for several years in a row and that it takes place in multiple locations simultaneously.
Wouldn’t you want to know what parents are protesting and why?
New York state is the epicenter of what is known as the “Opt Out” movement. Standardized testing is a common feature in K-12 schooling in the United States, with federal legislation requiring since 2002 that states test virtually all children in grades 3-8 in mathematics and English language arts. But during the past four years, New York parents have actively excluded about one in five students from taking the annual state tests (including 18 percent in the spring 2018 test administration).

Other states have also experienced high rates of opting out. Indeed, in 2016, the U.S. Department of Education warned 11 states that their opt-out rates exceeded five percent. Nevertheless, data from the spring 2018 test administration show that Colorado saw 8 percent opt out in 7th grade and 11 percent opt out in 8th grade; and in Alaska, the state-wide opt out rate is 8.5 percent. Rather than try to understand why parents might opt out of state testing, the federal government simply threatened states that high opt-out rates could affect their federal funding.
Why haven’t we heard more about this? Partly because it’s a grassroots movement without clear leadership or an elaborate organization. Unlike movements such as Occupy Wall Street or Black Lives Matter, “opt out” activism does not take place in the streets. Rather, it is more subdued, and is focused on public schools, which despite their status as public institutions, rarely open themselves up to public scrutiny. Moreover, the movement has yet to form an Continue reading: OPINION: The Opt Out movement is gaining ground, quietly



New Educator Toolkit to protect data privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

New Educator Toolkit to protect data privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy


New Educator Toolkit to protect data privacy
 Guide designed to prevent breaches or abuse of personal information
Today, the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and The Badass Teachers Association released an Educator Toolkit for Teacher and Student Privacy:  A Practical Guide for Protecting Personal Data.  The Toolkit is a comprehensive guide to help educators deal with the complex world of data privacy and the widespread proliferation of education technology.  It is designed to support their efforts to become responsible digital citizens by providing strategies and best practices to minimize the disclosure of personal data and protect the privacy of their students as well as their own.
Through an online survey and focus groups, the authors discovered that most teachers feel they are forced to implement ed tech products which gather and use data in ways they do not understand.  Sixty eight percent of respondents said they didn’t know if the products they used sold student data or used it for marketing purposes, and sixty nine percent said that they felt that their training in data privacy had been insufficient.
Teachers are also being asked to share more and more of their own data in ways that violate their privacy.  The recent strike in West Virginia was in part sparked by a demand from the state that they wear devices to collect data on their movements and physical activities.  In user-friendly terms, the Toolkit explains what federal laws protect student data, what common classroom practices to avoid, and how to advocate for stronger privacy policies at the school and district level.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in support of the toolkit: “As states continue to disinvest in public education, large technology companies have turned their sights on school districts as a lucrative business opportunity. Too often, school districts purchase and implement these aggressively marketed digital programs and resources without having the privacy safeguards and quality-assurance mechanisms in place to protect students and their teachers.
“When used appropriately, technology can be a powerful classroom tool to enhance the learning of students and support the work of educators. But unregulated, technology should never supplant the work that educators do, particularly when exposure to hackers, fraud and infiltration can provide a real security threat. This toolkit helps ensure that digital and new media tools don’t infringe on the safety of our schools.”
Leonie Haimson, the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy explained, “Privacy is a precious if vanishing resource with expanding data collection and use of ed tech tools in the classroom. In a recent public service announcement, the FBI warned that cyber criminals have been hacking into school databases, threatening students with violence and the release of their personal information.  It is critically important that educators learn how to safeguard their students’ sensitive information from breach and misuse, yet up to now, most teachers have felt unprepared to do so.”
“We surveyed and interviewed 365 educators from across the country to find that teachers care deeply about their privacy and want to learn more about protecting their own sensitive information as well as that of their students,” remarked Rachael Stickland, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. She concluded, “Our hope is that this toolkit gives teachers easy access to the resources they need every day to make the best possible decisions to keep personal data at school safe.”
Marla Kilfoyle, former executive director of The Badass Teachers Association explained, “As an educator who has been the victim of an ed tech product that has threatened my privacy, the work that has been done on this toolkit is important to safeguard data for everyone using these  products. It has been an honor to work on this toolkit for over a year. I have been an educator for 30 years and this toolkit has taught me so much about my own personal data, how to protect the data of my students, and how to advocate for data privacy in my district.”
President of the National Education Association Lily Eskelsen Garcia said, The Educators Toolkit for Teacher and Student Privacy” will be a helpful document to educators across the nation as they navigate the complexities of protecting privacy data today. NEA applauds the BATs for their leadership in raising the issue of privacy and creating this resource. This guide can serve as an important tool when used in conjunction with the expertise of local Uniserve [union advocacy staff]  or legal counsel when seeking specific guidance relative to an educator’s unique worksite and legislative geography. Today, we need all the good information we can get!”
Melissa Tomlinson, assistant executive director of The Badass Teachers Association stated, “Working on The Educators Toolkit has been an eye-opening experience for me. Armed with this information, I have changed practices within my own classroom around how I use technology in ways to make sure all of my students’ information remains safe.”
As the FBI pointed out, “widespread collection of sensitive information by education technology vendors, such as web browsing history, biometric data and students’ geolocation, could present unique exploitation opportunities for criminals.”  It is our hope that teachers, administrators, and union leaders will share this Toolkit, and use it in trainings so that educators better understand how to ensure their students’ privacy and their own.
The Toolkit was made possible by grants from the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, the American Federation of Teachers, and the NEA Foundation.
New Educator Toolkit to protect data privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Dolores Huerta Endorses Tony Thurmond for State Schools’ Superintendent  - Oakland Post

Dolores Huerta Endorses Tony Thurmond for State Schools’ Superintendent  - Oakland Post

Dolores Huerta Endorses Tony Thurmond for State Schools’ Superintendent 


Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta and the California Association of Bilingual Educators Political Action Committee have endorsed Tony Thurmond for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“Californians can count on Tony Thurmond to put children first and work each day to ensure every child has access to a quality education,” Huerta said.
“Education is the soul of America and the foundation of our democracy. Tony understands that a quality education has that power to up lift minority and underprivileged communities, and that is why I am so proud to support him,” she said.
“Tony Thurmond embraces opportunities for California students to develop multilingual skills in their Pre K-12 education,” said Rosalia Salinas, president of the Bilingual Educators PAC.
“Assemblymember Thurmond’s extensive experience in public service and track record as an elected official, his passionate dedication to our public school students who are most in need of extra support, and his focus on parent engagement have convinced the California Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE-PAC) that he is the most qualified candidate to Continue reading: Dolores Huerta Endorses Tony Thurmond for State Schools’ Superintendent  - Oakland Post

A Plan to Improve California's Public Schools

Tony Thurmond for State Superintendent of Public Instruction -https://www.tonythurmond.com/

Big Education Ape: Why Electing Tony Thurmond as Superintendent of Public Instruction Is the Most Important Race in California - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/10/why-electing-tony-thurmond-as.html

Big Education Ape: The truth about money in public education politics - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-truth-about-money-in-public.html

Big Education Ape: Tony Thurmond for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction - NPE Action - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/10/tony-thurmond-for-california-state.html



Student data mining: Parents deserve right to refuse | The Edvocate Blog

Student data mining: Parents deserve right to refuse | The Edvocate Blog

Student data mining: Parents deserve right to refuse


Unfortunately, states and school districts are embracing student digital badges, programs like i-Ready, adaptive computer-based education and other Ed-Tech products in exchange for money and/or one-on-one devices. The growing focus on data mining our children’s personal information, sentiments, social/emotional information, even  creating “predictive” profiles,  is something parents deserve the right to refuse for their student.
In Consider Yourself Warned, Deb Herbage explores K-12 data mining and the grave threat it poses to student privacy. Re-blogged with permission:

If you were walking down the street and a stranger stopped you and asked you to hand over your driver’s license and social security card….would you?  Of course, you wouldn’t!  Those two items contain extremely personal information – YOUR personal information.  Your driver’s license has your full name, your picture, your birth date, a unique number (in some state’s it could be your social security number), your address, your height and weight, any restrictions for driving a vehicle and even your eye color.  How about if you put your wallet down for a few seconds and a stranger snatched it, essentially stealing your information.  Wouldn’t that make you feel violated?  You would have to start the whole process of canceling your credit cards, getting a new driver’s license and possibly putting a hold on your credit.  How about if that same stranger who Continue reading: Student data mining: Parents deserve right to refuse | The Edvocate Blog


CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Organization Issues School Choice Guidebook

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Organization Issues School Choice Guidebook

DeVos Organization Issues School Choice Guidebook


The American Federation for Children is a dark money group that advocates for school choice in general, and vouchers in particular. It was founded and funded by the DeVos family (Betsy was chair right up through the summer of 2016), and is well-connected via ALEC, that special organization in which corporate sponsors get to write bills for legislative members. The AFC Growth Fund is another wing of the group, and they produce an annual School Choice Guidebook. This year's book is out, and I've looked at it, but you probably should anyway.

The report is 88 pages of reform chatter, so this trip will be neither quick nor easy, but if you stick with me, you'll get to see some stunning reform logic at work, gather some fun factoids along the way, and see exactly what their idea of a perfect voucher program would be.

It's Not All Awful

Okay, it is kind of awful, but it's worth noting that the guidebook contains a ton of information, much of it arranged in handy charts. If you have questions about, say, which states have which kinds of voucher programs, and how the details of those programs vary from state to state, this guidebook has answers, often arranged so that they can be viewed easily at a glance. I doubt that it's all perfectly accurate, but honestly, this is a resource I'll probably return to for answers to certain questions about the state of voucherdom.

So let's dig in and see what the report has to offer.

Types of Private School Choice Programs and $$$

A whole page of the different flavors of choice, though oddly they lump magnet schools and Continue reading: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Organization Issues School Choice Guidebook