Shawgi Tell: Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools

Anyone who has carefully followed charter school news and analysis in recent years knows that privately-operated charter schools are not only segregated but actually increase segregation in the sphere of education. It has become common knowledge that charter schools are notorious for consistently under-enrolling English Language Learners, students with disabilities, homeless students, and other groups of students. Even though they are ostensibly public and “open to all,” most charter schools do not serve all students, let alone equally. Privatized education has never paved the way for all students to have an education.

But even when non-profit and for-profit charter schools are publicly exposed, cited, and rebuked for discriminatory enrollment practices, they are usually allowed to operate with impunity and to continue to siphon enormous sums of money from public schools that accept all students at all times. Many are frustrated by this persistent lack of accountability by schools that constantly claim to not only be accountable but to be more accountable than the public schools they continually drain large sums of money from. The public does not want to fund schools that frequently cherry pick students. Publicness is about inclusivity, not exclusivity. Public means for the common good, for everyone. To claim that you are a public entity while acting like a private entity is CONTINUE READING: Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Plagiarism, Accountability, and Adult Hypocrisy – radical eyes for equity

Plagiarism, Accountability, and Adult Hypocrisy – radical eyes for equity

Plagiarism, Accountability, and Adult Hypocrisy

You said “I think I’m like Tennessee Williams”
I wait for the click. I wait, but it doesn’t kick in

“CITY MIDDLE,” THE NATIONAL

A refrain by my father throughout my childhood and into my adolescence has shaped how I try to live my life; it remains possibly the strongest impulse I have as an adult.

My father’s parenting philosophy was possibly as misguided as it was reflective of the essential problem with how adults interact with children and teens: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

As a child growing up in the rural crossroads of Enoree, South Carolina, I witnessed my father announcing his dictum, sitting in our living room with a glass of Crown Royal in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

By the time I was a teen, the scenes were often far more physical, occasionally ending with me on the floor as my father attempted to wrestle me into compliance.

A game of him demanding, “Don’t say another word,” and me replying, “Word,” as he tightening his hold on me against the faux-brick linoleum of a different CONTINUE READING: Plagiarism, Accountability, and Adult Hypocrisy – radical eyes for equity

Wyoming Passes Charter Law that Guts Local Control and Accountability | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wyoming Passes Charter Law that Guts Local Control and Accountability | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wyoming Passes Charter Law that Guts Local Control and Accountability

The Wyoming Legislature passed a charter law that allows new charters to open wherever they wish, without the approval of the elected local school board. Governor Mark Gordon neither signed nor vetoed the law, expressing confidence that kinks could be fixed in the future.

The legislation allows the State Loan and Investment Board to approve a charter school. Typically, local school districts have approved charter schools in the state.

The law allows charter schools to potentially be exempt from teaching standards requirements and oversight from the State Board of Education.

“This bill seemingly makes it easier for charters to be established outside the state’s rigorous educational parameters,” Gordon wrote. 

Wyoming Passes Charter Law that Guts Local Control and Accountability | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Accountability Whiplash

CURMUDGUCATION: Accountability Whiplash

Accountability Whiplash

It's one of the little inconsistencies in the reformster movement. 

Some will point at charts showing that spending on public education has increased steadily (in constant dollars) and ask, "What have we gotten for it?" 

There are answers to that question, including but not limited to A) more education for special ed students previously warehoused in some back room, B) better funding for previously marginalized students and C) more administrators, in part, to deal with increased gummint paperwork. The other part of the answer is that any taxpayer can demand a peek at the school district budget; you can find out where those dollars have gone. 

I've only ever had one beef with accountability hawks. I believe taxpayers are absolutely entitled to accountability by their local school district. My argument is with the instruments used to assess what districts are doing (spoiler alert: the Big Standardized Test is a spectacularly bad accountability instrument). 

But the real whiplash begins when some accountability hawks then stump for school choice and CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Accountability Whiplash