John Thompson: The Negative Effects of Corporate Reform and Disinvestment in Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: The Negative Effects of Corporate Reform and Disinvestment in Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: The Negative Effects of Corporate Reform and Disinvestment in Education
John Thompson, historian and teacher, lives in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma press is focusing on the state’s low level of college readiness as measured by the ACT test, 16 percent, in comparison to the national rate of 27 percent. The state known for dramatic cuts in education funding is ranked 19th in the nation with an average composite score of 19.3. But it is missing the big picture.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/college-readiness-rate-remains-level-in-oklahoma-s-second-year/article_f94e7779-4328-56b4-8b21-a1390a634d4b.html

The average ACT composite for my old school, Centennial, is 14.8, which is above average for the high-poverty neighborhood schools in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Even when we were ranked last in the state, our ACT scores were significantly higher. Since I retired, Centennial received a $5 million School Improvement Grant. I believe that its ACT decline is just one example of evidence explaining how and why tens of billions of dollars of corporate school reform drove meaningful learning out of many inner city schools.

https://oklahomawatch.org/2018/10/11/act-scores-for-public-and-private-high-schools/

The important question is what caused the national decline. Retired PBS education reporter John Merrow argues these ACT-takers “have had 12 or 13 years of test-centric education, and the kids coming up behind them have also endured what the ‘school reformers’ designed.” He also asks, “How much more evidence do we need of the folly of ‘No Child Left Behind’ and Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s ‘Race to the Top’ before we take back our schools?”

As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap…..

Since reformers sought to improve low-performing schools, it is significant that Merrow cites the ACT report on recent outcomes:

A higher percentage of students this year than in recent years fell to the bottom of the preparedness scale, showing little or no readiness for college coursework. Thirty-five percent of 2018 graduates met none of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, up from 31% in 2014 and from 33% last year.

http://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/cccr2018/National-CCCR-2018.pdf

All types of researchers are contributing to the autopsies being performed on data-driven, competition-driven reform. And many of us are especially intrigued by the analyses of corporate school reformers on why test-driven accountability, the expansion of charter schools, and the quest to “build a Continue reading: John Thompson: The Negative Effects of Corporate Reform and Disinvestment in Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

ISTA: Lying Down With Dogs – Live Long and Prosper

ISTA: Lying Down With Dogs – Live Long and Prosper

ISTA: Lying Down With Dogs

The Indiana State Teachers Association is joining with Stand for Children. Why would ISTA join with an ed-reform group?

In case you don’t know, Stand for Children is a pro-ed-reform group deeply involved with the privatization of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS).

With the arrival of Oregon-based Stand For Children, Indianapolis school board elections started to take on a decidedly different tenor. Until 2010, a few thousand dollars was all that was needed to win a seat. That all changed when Stand For Children, an education reform 501(c)(4), started pouring tens of thousands of dollars into the 2012 elections. Stand’s tax return that year reported that the election of three Indianapolis school board members was a top accomplishment for the organization.

The result of this is that Indianapolis has seen school closures and disruptions led by the district superintendent…appointed by the school board purchased by Stand for Children.

DISRUPTED? HOW?

Stand for Children also spent $473,172 lobbying Indiana lawmakers on Public Law 1321, which was passed in 2014. Public Law 1321 was based on a 2013 model policy drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch-funded member organization of corporate lobbyists and conservative state legislators who craft “model legislation” on issues important Continue reading: ISTA: Lying Down With Dogs – Live Long and Prosper

Investigation of Clayton Valley Charter High School extended, referred to DA

Clayton Valley investigation will continue, county votes

Investigation of Clayton Valley Charter High School extended, referred to DA

PLEASANT HILL — After a contentious discussion that lasted roughly two hours, the Contra Costa County Board of Education decided Wednesday night to continue investigating the possible misuse of funds at and alleged mismanagement of Clayton Valley Charter High School in Concord.

A recent audit by the county found that the married former top leaders of the school made almost $850,000 in less than two years before leaving in the spring, secretly hired people and created positions without the school board’s approval.

Among the staff recommendations at the county office of education was to refer some issues — including the salaries of former executive director David Linzey and his wife, Eileen Linzey, the former chief program officer — to the district attorney’s office to potentially evaluate whether any use of funds violated the law.

“The individual and combined salary of the (executive director) and his wife appear to represent the potential for the substantially improper use of charter school funds for the personal benefit of any officer,” a staff memo to the board said.

David Linzey’s salary totaled $312,212 annually for managing the school — a salary that county education staff said exceeded the pay of most superintendents in Contra Costa County who oversee more students, schools and staff than Clayton Valley. Eileen Linzey, who was hired to fill the other top job at the school in early 2017, was paid a yearly salary of $223,392 — also more than what most of the county’s superintendents make.

The audit also found that Eileen Linzey was hired without the school posting the job internally and externally and noted that she reported to the executive director, her husband. However, Clayton Valley’s board members have disputed that, saying she reported directly to them.

An amendment to David Linzey’s contract added health benefit payments and a car allowance to his base salary, prompting county staff to recommend submitting a compensation summary to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to determine if benefit “spiking” — using benefit payments to boost the overall salary base in an effort to  Continue reading: Clayton Valley investigation will continue, county votes

Big Education Ape: Audit finds steep salaries, misuse of funds at Clayton Valley charter school - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/09/audit-finds-steep-salaries-misuse-of.html

Video of Teaching for Black Lives Book Launch: “It really touched my heart more than you will ever know.” – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Video of Teaching for Black Lives Book Launch: “It really touched my heart more than you will ever know.” – I AM AN EDUCATOR
Video of Teaching for Black Lives Book Launch: “It really touched my heart more than you will ever know.”

Video of Teaching for Black Lives Book Launch: “It really touched my heart more than you will ever know.”

Town Hall Seattle recently sponsored the Seattle book launch event for the new Rethinking Schools book, “Teaching for Black Lives,” at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.

It was a sold out forum and turned out to be a wonderful celebration of Blackness, resistance, and pedagogy. It was a special night for all of us editors of Teaching for Black Lives–Dyan Watson, Wayne Au, and myself–who got to come together in celebration of the work we had done to create this book. But the highlight of the evening was the Garfield High School students who opened the event. Their poignant descriptions of institutional racist schooling, coupled with their appreciation for the transformative power of the lessons in Teaching for Black Lives, was truly moving for me.

Janelle Gary, in what I would consider the best praise the book has ever gotten, ended her speech to the assembled audience saying:

There’s this quote on page 10 of Teaching for Black Lives: “Teaching for Black lives also means considering the loneliness of learning about one’s history when you might be one of the few students in class or few teachers in school that this history represents.” And that stuck out to me the most because…I felt alone and I felt like none of my teachers were going to be able to relate to me. And just reading that in the book really lets me know that I wasn’t crazy.

So I just wanted to thank Mr. Hagopian, and I want to thank everybody who’s here. This book is amazing…if you haven’t read it yet, please read it. And if you have, read it again and suggest it to someone because it really touched my heart in a way more than you will ever know. Thank you.

Below is the video of the Town Hall event–featuring the wonderful speeches of Garfield student leaders from New Generation Janelle Gary, Chardonnay Beaver, Ke’von Avery–followed by an edited transcript of the Janelle’s presentation. I hope this book event inspires you to work to dismantle institutional racism in education and teach for Black lives! Continue reading: Video of Teaching for Black Lives Book Launch: “It really touched my heart more than you will ever know.” – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good - kappanonline

Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good  - kappanonline.org

Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good 

When schooling comes to be viewed mainly as a source of private benefit, both schools and society suffer grave consequences. 

We Americans tend to talk about public schooling as though we know what that term means. But in the complex educational landscape of the 21st century — where charter schools, private schools, and religious schools compete with traditional public schools for resources and support — it’s becoming less and less obvious what makes a school “public” at all. 

A school is public, one might argue, if it meets certain formal criteria: It is funded by the public, governed by the public, and openly accessible to the public. But in that case, what should we make of charter schools, which are broadly understood to be public schools even though many are governed by private organizations? And how should we categorize private schools that enroll students using public vouchers or tax credits, or public schools that use exams to restrict access? For that matter, don’t private schools often serve public interests, and don’t public schools often promote students’ private interests?  

In short, our efforts to distinguish between public and nonpublic schools often oversimplify the ways in which today’s schools operate and the complex roles they play in our society. And such distinctions matter because they shape our thinking about education policy. After all, if we’re unclear which schools deserve what kinds of funding and support, then how do we justify a system of elementary, secondary, and higher education that consumes more than $800 billion in taxes every year and consumes 10 to 20 or more years of every person’s life?  

To clarify what we mean by public schooling, it’s helpful to broaden the discussion by considering not just the formal features of schools (their funding, governance, and admissions criteria) but also their aims. That is, to what extent do they pursue the public good, and to what extent do they serve private interests? 

A public good is one that benefits all members of the community, whether or not they contribute to its upkeep or make use of it personally. In contrast, private goods benefit individuals, serving only those Continue reading: Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good  - kappanonline.org

Education May Propel the Blue Wave in DeVos Country

Education May Propel the Blue Wave in DeVos Country

Education May Propel the Blue Wave in DeVos Country
Should Democrats retake the Rust Belt, it may not only snuff out the DeVos legacy but also change the course of education policy in the nation

It’s increasingly clear that if the November midterm elections are to produce a “Blue Wave” for the Democratic Party, then many of the wins will need to come in Midwestern states that Trump carried in the 2016 presidential election. But what’s less well understood is that an issue helping Democratic candidates compete in the region is education. In the stomping ground of U.S. Secretary Betsy DeVos—including her home state of Michigan as well as the surrounding states of Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and nearby Minnesota—Democratic candidates are getting an edge by sharply opposing the DeVos agenda of privatizing public schools.

Up and down the ballots in state contests in the Midwest, Democratic candidates call for an end to school voucher programs that use public taxpayer funds to pay for tuitions at private schools, they propose tougher regulations of privately managed charter schools funded by the public, and they pledge to direct public money for education to public schools. Should Democrats retake the Rust Belt, it may not only snuff out the DeVos legacy but also change the course of education policy in the nation.

Why the Midwest Matters

The need for Democrats to prevail in the Midwest is acute. Trump won Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in 2016 and came close in Minnesota. But a perhaps more important trend in these states is the Republican dominance down ballot where Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature and governors and most of the U.S. House seats in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio.

So far, most Democratic candidates running in state governor races in these states are well ahead or very competitive, and at least 35 seats in state legislatures in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are considered “flippable” by party advocates. Republican candidates are in danger of losing governor elections in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, and elections could give Democrats the upper hand in state legislatures previously controlled by Republicans in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

According to Politico, “Democrats are poised to chip away at Republican statehouse dominance in next month’s midterm elections, with wins appearing likely in some of the biggest states in the industrial Midwest.”

‘Making Education Central’

Even before the primaries were over, the Democratic National Committee declared that education would be “on the ballot” in the midterm elections, according to Education Week. The EdWeek reporter quotes a DNC source saying that Democratic candidates are “running and winning by making education central to their campaigns.” Subsequent Continue reading: Education May Propel the Blue Wave in DeVos Country