Since Feb 2018 The CCSA And The LA Advocacy Council Have Been Scheming To Get Jose Cole-Gutierrez — LAUSD’s Chief Charter School Watchdog FIRED

At Least Since February 2018 The California Charter Schools Association And The Los Angeles Advocacy Council Have Been Scheming To Get Jose Cole-Gutierrez — LAUSD’s Chief Charter School Watchdog — Fired 

Since Feb 2018 The CCSA And The LA Advocacy Council Have Been Scheming To Get Jose Cole-Gutierrez

AT LEAST SINCE FEBRUARY 2018 THE CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION AND THE LOS ANGELES ADVOCACY COUNCIL HAVE BEEN SCHEMING TO GET JOSE COLE-GUTIERREZ — LAUSD’S CHIEF CHARTER SCHOOL WATCHDOG — FIRED — AND THEY HAVE BEEN SCHEMING WITH MONICA GARCIA MOSTLY — AND KELLY GONEZ AND AUSTIN BEUTNER — AND FORMERLY REF RODRIGUEZ — THEY HAVE GONE SO FAR AS TO COMPILE LISTS OF POTENTIAL REPLACEMENTS FOR COLE-GUTIERREZ — AND DISCUSSED HOW THEY WOULD LIKE HIS REPLACEMENT TO OVERSEE THEIR OPERATIONS — THE FOXES DON’T WANT TO GUARD THE HEN HOUSE BUT THEY WILL BE HAPPY TO HAND PICK THE GUARDS — AND GARCIA HAS ACTUALLY ADVISED THEM ON WHAT KIND OF EVIDENCE THE BOARD WOULD NEED TO HAVE IN ORDER TO MOVE TO FIRE HIM — WHICH SEEMS LIKE AN EXTRAORDINARILY UNPROFESSIONAL WAY FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO TREAT PROFESSIONAL STAFF

In June I received a massive set of really revelatory emails from Green Dot Charter Schools via the California Public Records Act. There’s a summary of what’s happened since then in this linked post. I have been working on organizing them to publish and at the same time telling stories based on them, and today’s post is another installment in that project.

The California Charter Schools Association sponsors a group of about 20 local charter school leaders, called the Los Angeles Advocacy Council, which meets regularly to plot and plan various pro-charter lobbying activities in LAUSD and a few other districts.1 The LAAC’s workings have hitherto been deeply buried. They don’t issue press releases for the most part, and they’re not really written about very much. As of right now, this blog is the top Google hit for them.

One thing revealed by these emails is that the LAAC is in no sense an egalitarian institution. There are about 20 members, but there is also an inner leadership group, consisting of Cristina de Jesus of Green Dot, Emilio Pack of STEM Preparatory Academy, and a bunch of CCSA flacks.2 This behind-the-scenes cabal shapes the activities of the group through weekly “check-ins,”3 at which they discuss their progress on their most cherished goals, which they call “North CONTINUE READING: At Least Since February 2018 The California Charter Schools Association And The Los Angeles Advocacy Council Have Been Scheming To Get Jose Cole-Gutierrez — LAUSD’s Chief Charter School Watchdog — Fired 

enrique baloyra: Why is ICE shooting at people in the streets? - YouTube

Why is ICE shooting at people in the streets? - YouTube

Why is ICE shooting at people in the streets?

enrique baloyra

On Thursday an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent opened fire in a Nashville immigrant neighborhood after a man refused to show his ID. ICE spokesman Bryan Cox claims the man was attempting to assault ICE agents. But surveillance video obtained by local news station NC5 shows Cox is lying and that at no time were any of the agents in any form of danger.
Nashville Mayor David Briley said, “This is exactly what we don’t want happening in our city.”
Brenda Pérez, of the grassroots group Movements Including X, or MIX, told Latino Rebels Radio agents approached three men, asking for ID, outside the Antioch Food Lion, a well-known carpooling location for immigrants. Two of the men complied, but the third man exercised his right to not show an ID without a proper warrant signed by a judge.
Apparently, defying a direct order by an ICE agent has become a crime punishable by immediate execution, and one of the agents pulled his gun and fired several shots at the victim as he got into a van and drove away.
The FBI has not has not filed any charges against the victim and says he poses no threat to the community, despite Cox’s attempts to smear him. Neither did ICE have a warrant for his arrest. They were just randomly targeting innocent people getting ready for work, completely unconcerned with the safety and well-being of the neighbors or their children.
“The ICE agent who was involved in this incident was one of two agents involved in a prior incident that occurred [in July, when] ICE attempted to use MNPD’s presence to intimidate a father to leave his vehicle after he calmly and lawfully refused.” https://www.latinorebels.com/2019/09/...
The victim, who has three sons, spent several hours in hiding before surrendering himself to FBI agents at the Nashville hospital while seeking medical attention for the two gunshots wounds he suffered, a reminder that there’s an entire population forced live in the shadows, under constant threat. These people become easy prey for shady employers and human traffickers.
And it’s not just a few rogue agents. The entire agency has come under increased scrutiny for widespread abuses, including targeting more than 600 immigrants at a meat packing plant in Mississippi last month, and separating over 2700 children from their parents this summer.
How easily we’ve slipped from rounding u a few “bad hombres” to randomly shooting immigrants in the streets.

Why is ICE shooting at people in the streets? - YouTube

Kentucky: What is the State PTA Hiding? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Kentucky: What is the State PTA Hiding? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Kentucky: What is the State PTA Hiding?

Gay Adelmann, founder of the parent activist group called Dear JCPS, recently requested the financial records of the Kentucky PTA. The PTA refused to turn them over, although they are supposed to be a matter of public record. (Jefferson County is synonymous with Louisville.)

Dear JCPS co-founder, Gay Adelmann recently made a routine records request of the largest school district in Kentucky (27th largest in the nation), to obtain copies of local PTAs’ financial records for the past 5 years. These records, which, according to the “Redbook” are required by Kentucky law to be filed annually with each school’s year-end audit, consist of a preliminary budget and a one-page year-end financial review. Her hope was to identify schools that might benefit from a little extra help with programming or fundraising and raise community awareness so that these disparities could be taken into consideration while the district is actively tackling the bigger picture issues.

As often happens when records are held in multiple locations, or when district personnel are unavailable during summer break, the district notified Adelmann that additional time would be required before these records would be made available to her. They informed her she would receive the documents on August 30.

On August 12, Adelmann received an email from Kentucky PTA attorney Coy Travis informing her that his client had filed a complaint in district court to seek injunctive relief in order to prevent the district from turning CONTINUE READING: Kentucky: What is the State PTA Hiding? | Diane Ravitch's blog

America's Newest Outsourced Job: Public School Teachers - VICE

America's Newest Outsourced Job: Public School Teachers - VICE

America's Newest Outsourced Job: Public School Teachers
American public schools are looking to the Philippines to address a shortage of teachers around the country.

MANILA — Outsourcing jobs is nothing new to the United States. The country has been recruiting foreign labor to do its dirty work for decades — farmers, meat-packers, home healthcare workers, cooks. But now the U.S. needs teachers, and it needs them badly.

The same conditions that have led thousands of U.S. educators to strike and protest — like stagnant wages, underfunded schools, and overcrowded classrooms — have also contributed to a long list of vacancies in virtually every state.

The Department of Education's database suggests there are 46 states with vacancies (47 if you include the District of Columbia). And each of them has sizable needs that span several disciplines. Some states need teachers in all grades for almost all subjects.

So public schools have been getting creative.

Over the past decade, school districts around the U.S. have quietly begun using the J-1 visa program, which was originally created as a means of temporary cultural exchange, to fill persistent teacher vacancies. And no country has stepped up quite like the Philippines. In 2009, there were only a handful of public schools with Filipino teachers on J-1 visas, according to data from the U.S. Department of State. Today, there are more than 500, spanning at least 19 states throughout the country.

VICE News Tonight traveled to Manila to report on what's slowly becoming America's newest outsourced job, and embeds with the first 27 Filipino teachers hired by Chicago Public Schools.

America's Newest Outsourced Job: Public School Teachers - VICE

Oakland Unified to hire investigator to probe grade-fixing allegations | EdSource

Oakland Unified to hire investigator to probe grade-fixing allegations | EdSource

Oakland Unified to hire investigator to probe grade-fixing allegations

The Oakland Unified School District Thursday announced plans to hire an investigator to look into allegations by two former teachers that grades were changed for courses, including those taught online, to allow students to graduate.

The allegations focus on Castlemont High in East Oakland and its use of a district online credit recovery program that allows students to make up credits for failed courses.

Two teachers filed formal complaints with the district in June and July alleging that a teacher, two counselors and the school’s former principal were involved in falsifying district records, John Sasaki, district spokesman told EdSource. Each of the people named denied any wrongdoing, he said.

In addition to investigating the Castlemont allegations, the district may hire an outside investigator to audit grades for all students who used the credit recovery program over the past five years, Sasaki said. The district has not yet decided which outside investigator to hire and has not yet determined a timeline for that investigation, he added.

The teachers, who were not identified, said the grade changes were made with the knowledge of an administrator and other staff members, Sasaki said. He said the complaints alleged the grades of nine students were changed, but the district CONTINUE READING: Oakland Unified to hire investigator to probe grade-fixing allegations | EdSource

Student-loan behemoth tightens its ties to Trump and DeVos - POLITICO

Student-loan behemoth tightens its ties to Trump and DeVos - POLITICO

Student-loan behemoth tightens its ties to Trump and DeVos
The company that rejected 99 percent of applicants for public-service loan forgiveness is leaning on political contacts as it comes under fire.

The company that rejected all but 1 percent of applicants for a popular federal student-loan forgiveness plan — and that manages nearly a third of the nation’s $1.6 trillion of student loan debt — is beefing up its already close ties to President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as it competes for a new contract.

The company, FedLoan Servicing, an arm of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, has been at the center of the growing dispute over why tens of thousands of teachers, public-sector employees and nonprofit charity workers who expected to have their loans wiped out are being denied the benefit. The company has drawn the ire of government watchdogs, state attorneys general and congressional Democrats. And a trove of documents obtained by POLITICO show that Education Department officials, too, have raised serious questions about its performance over the years.

Nonetheless, as its $1.3 billion, 10-year contract expires in December, the loan servicing behemoth will be able to draw on unusually close ties to the administration as it seeks more government business — a fact that has its critics crying foul and citing it as a symbol of revolving-door abuses in the federal government.

“It’s been very clear from day one that Secretary DeVos is only interested in stacking the Department with industry lobbyists and offering a free pass to companies that are ripping off students and families all over this country,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who has sued the company for allegedly mistreating student loan borrowers in the public-service forgiveness program and others.

FedLoan and its parent firm’s ties to Trump’s political organization and DeVos’ Education Department are significant.

A company now led by one of Trump’s most trusted supporters, David Urban, who CONTINUE READING: Student-loan behemoth tightens its ties to Trump and DeVos - POLITICO

Tulsa: How Data and Gates Consultant Persuaded Public to Close Public Schools and Cut Their Budget | Diane Ravitch's blog

Tulsa: How Data and Gates Consultant Persuaded Public to Close Public Schools and Cut Their Budget | Diane Ravitch's blog

Tulsa: How Data and Gates Consultant Persuaded Public to Close Public Schools and Cut Their Budget

This is a curious article about the makeover of Tulsa Public Schools, where the superintendent is Broadie and former Rhode Island Superintendent Deborah Gist.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/columnists/ginnie-graham-tulsa-public-schools-has-gone-through-major-reforms/article_4bc36885-c247-5858-99f1-7387c48b4fab.html

Under the previous superintendent, a plan called “Project Schoolhouse” resulted in school closings and consolidations. The leaders persuaded the public to accept these “reforms.” In the background was a management consultant brought in by the Gates Foundation; he had no education experience but understood how to use data analytics to persuade the public to go along with his ideas.

When the fate of Rogers High School was on the table, the superintendent was stunned that people cared whether the school remained open.

About nine years ago, a public meeting in the Rogers High School library was so packed that former Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Keith Ballard had to shoulder his way to the front.

Alumni drove from out of state to attend. Neighborhood residents, students, parents and community leaders CONTINUE READING: Tulsa: How Data and Gates Consultant Persuaded Public to Close Public Schools and Cut Their Budget | Diane Ravitch's blog

OPINION: National Arts in Education Week celebrates the transformative powers of creative skills - The Hechinger Report

OPINION: National Arts in Education Week celebrates the transformative powers of creative skills - The Hechinger Report

OPINION: National Arts in Education Week celebrates the transformative powers of creative skills
A pathway to careers of the future

This week marks National Arts in Education Week, a time for us to highlight the transformative power of the arts in education. Arts education for all students is fundamental to a well-rounded education. The arts provide dimension and perspective, and they help students develop the critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills they will need to succeed in school, work and life. Students who have high-quality arts learning opportunities may be among tomorrow’s great artists, and they also may be among tomorrow’s health care professionals, engineers and civic leaders. No matter the path, arts education provides a way to creative careers of the future.

EdVestors and Boston Public Schools (BPS) began laying the groundwork for this future more than a decade ago with the creation of BPS Arts Expansion, an initiative that has brought arts learning opportunities to 17,000 additional students annually across the entire school district, ensuring all students receive foundational arts learning opportunities. Now, it’s time to build upon this base and increase opportunities to help students put their arts education into action.

Related: OPINION: It’s time to change the conversation around music education to its positive impact on student success

According to the 2016 World Economic Forum report, “The Future of Jobs,” a majority of employers say creativity is one of the most valued qualities they seek in their employees, along with critical-thinking skills and the ability to solve complex problems. In Boston, our creative economy sector alone is projected to grow by 7 percent over CONTINUE READING: OPINION: National Arts in Education Week celebrates the transformative powers of creative skills - The Hechinger Report

DC Charter School Performance “Almost” Matches Public Schools | tultican

DC Charter School Performance “Almost” Matches Public Schools | tultican

DC Charter School Performance “Almost” Matches Public Schools

By T. Ultican 9/8/2019

Washington DC charter schools did not significantly outperform public schools or even match them on the last two years of PARCC testing. These disappointing results for the charter school industry come almost a quarter-century after Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich teamed up to bring neoliberal education reform to Washington DC. As their “reforms” accelerated, residents were assured that innovative privatized schools would bring better outcomes and performance gaps would close. None of that happened. Instead, public schools have been disappearing; democratic rights have been taken away; “segrenomics” has motivated change and corruption is rampant.

It is important to note that standardized testing data has only two legitimate outcomes. These tests are not capable of measuring school or teacher quality but they do provide a huge revenue stream for companies like the testing giant Pearson Corporation and they create propaganda for disrupting and privatizing public schools. No group has put more stock in standardized testing data than the charter school industry. Since many charter schools are known to center their curriculum on preparing for tests like PARCC, it is surprising that for the last few years, Washington DC’s public schools have outperformed charters.

The PARCC testing consortium claims that on their 5-point scale, “Students who performed at level 4 and above have demonstrated readiness for the next grade level/course and, eventually, college and career.” The Washington DC, Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is in charge of PARCC testing. OSSE reports the data in terms of percentage of students scoring greater than or equal to 4.

ELA Data from the OSSE Report

Math Data from the OSSE Report

In the data above, DCPS indicates the District of Columbia Public Schools; PCS CONTINUE READING: DC Charter School Performance “Almost” Matches Public Schools | tultican

CURMUDGUCATION: Privatization and the Weather

CURMUDGUCATION: Privatization and the Weather

Privatization and the Weather

Like many Trumpian flaps, the recent Alabama hurricane flap du jour directed our attention to things we probably should have already been paying attention to-- in this case, the drive to privatize the US Weather Service.

Barry Myers was the top lawyer for Accuweather, the weather service founded by his brother Joel. This article from Bloomberg Businessweek chronicles the thirty or so years that Myers spent fighting with the National Weather Service. He had a variety of complaints, not the least of which was that while Accuweather was charging clients to get weather reports, NWS was giving away that stuff for free.

It's going to be a bad day for somebody.

There are two things wrong with that argument. One is that one of the people that the NWS gives it away free to is-- Accuweather. NWS has 120 Doppler Radar positions around the country, plus the computer power to process all that information that comes in, and they do, in fact, give it away. Even if your local tv station has its own Super Eye On The Weather Sky Place weather product, chances are good that it depends on NWS data. At one point in his years of kvetching, Myers argued that it was like the US Postal Service vs. FedEx, only with the USPS delivering for free. While his analogy is a bit off, it's self-defeating in one respect-- when FedEx doesn't want to deliver your package to some remote address, it hands the package off to the USPS. Their entire business model depends on using the federally funded service to fill in the less profitable holes, CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Privatization and the Weather

Funds Should NOT Be Pulled From Schools to Fund a Border Wall - Network For Public Education

Funds Should NOT Be Pulled From Schools to Fund a Border Wall - Network For Public Education

Funds Should NOT Be Pulled From Schools to Fund a Border Wall

Last Wednesday, the Pentagon announced it would pull funds from its projects, including schools and daycare centers for military families, in order to comply with the President’s mandate to divert funding to build a border wall.

Under the direction of the Department of Defense Education Activity, the Pentagon operates 163 schools in seven states and abroad for the children of our servicewomen and men. According to our friends at the Schott Foundation who alerted us to this travesty, “DoDEA’s schools showcase the promise of wraparound supports, socio-economic and racial integration, and robust and equitable public funding.”

Send your email today to your members of Congress and demand that the funding for military families’ schools and daycare centers be restored.

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2020 National Conference

Don’t be left out! Register now and take advantage of the Early Bird reduced rate to our 6th National Conference: Neighborhood Public Schools: The Heart of Our Communities, which will take place March 28-29 in Philadelphia.

Make sure you reserve your spot soon. We are limited to only 500 registrations this year, and availability will go quickly. Early Bird registration opened September 1 and 160 tickets have already been sold! Our Early Bird special rate is good only until October 1 for the first 100 registrations only. To get that rate, use this special code: NPEAction2020EB when you register.

After you sign up for the conference, be sure to register for a reduced rate room ($169) at our conference hotel. Our rooms will go fast!

To reserve your hotel room click here.

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Don’t Miss Carol’s New Radio Show, Talk out of School

Carol Burris will be co-hosting a new weekly radio show on WBAI, called Talk out of School, with NPE Board member, Leonie Haimson. Our first show, on school integration in NYC will be aired on Wednesday, Sept. 11 from 10 AM to 11 AM. On every show, we will explore the most pressing issues that face our public schools at local and national levels. We also hope our NPE members will call in with their questions or concerns. Please join us this Wednesday at 99.5 FM or online at wbai.org. Call in number: (212) 209-2877.

Each show will also be available as a podcast that we will post on our website.

Funds Should NOT Be Pulled From Schools to Fund a Border Wall - Network For Public Education

Louisiana Educator: A Guide to BESE Elections, Part I

Louisiana Educator: A Guide to BESE Elections, Part I

A Guide to BESE Elections, Part I

Why BESE is the most critical, yet least understood body affecting public education in Louisiana
The average Louisiana voter does not know what the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education does and most do not even know who represents them on BESE. BESE members historically have been low profile persons who were dedicated to public education. The BESE elections used to attract very low political contributions and were not seen as a stepping stone to higher office. BESE members get no pay for their service and very little news coverage. Thats why in the past, most voters were not very well informed about the huge impact BESE can have on our schools.

But now, almost everyone complains about the very bad decisions being made affecting our children's schools. Almost everyone who has a child in public schools complains about the excessive time spent on standardized testing and test-prep each year. Many parents of school children are alarmed when their children, who once looked forward to attending school, come home crying about the frustrating and incomprehensible material their teachers are forced to teach and test. And recently we learned that our school system has fallen to its lowest level ever in the various rankings of the states on education. We are now tied for last place on the national comparative NAEP test. The Quality Counts rating system which was released last week, covering a wide range of measures rated Louisiana 4th from the bottom of the states, below even Mississippi. These frustrating and damaging changes have happened because our BESE elections have been taken over by a coalition of out-of-state billionaires and the dominant business organization in Louisiana.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) and super wealthy education reformers from out-of-state decided about 14 years ago that with a concerted effort and a huge infusion CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Educator: A Guide to BESE Elections, Part I