CURMUDGUCATION: The New Charter Packaging

CURMUDGUCATION: The New Charter Packaging:

The New Charter Packaging

The election of Donald Trump presented nominally-Democratic reformsters with a problem.

How could they put some distance between themselves and Trump and his Ed Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos. Neither one would pass for a progressive in even the darkest alley, and yet their preferred policies are the preferred policies of Trump-DeVos. Charters? Check. Smoosh the teachers unions? Check. Even Common Core, which Trump promised to eradicate, is much beloved by DeVos.

What, exactly, is the policy difference between the so-called progressive reform education agenda and the Trump-DeVos inclination to dismantle public education and sell off the pieces?

The dance of the faux progressives has been interesting to watch.

Some have just said, "Screw it. We love the folks who have the power." Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform took just six months to go from being alarmed that Trump was playing her song to thinking that, well, maybe he was swell after all.

Others, like Whitney Tilson and DFER, hedged their bets by suggesting that nobody should take a job with Trump, but maybe DeVos deserved a chance to prove herself.

But the preferred distinction is slowly being crafted and fine-tuned. Shavar Jeffries and Peter Cunningham tried it out at the end of November, and it is turning up in places like this tweet from the left-leaning thinky tank (and previous holding tank for former future Clinton administration CURMUDGUCATION: The New Charter Packaging:

Digale a su senador que vote no por Betsy DeVos - Network For Public Education

Digale a su senador que vote no por Betsy DeVos - Network For Public Education:

Digale a su senador que vote no por Betsy DeVos

Cuanto más aprendemos, más estamos seguros de que Betsy DeVos es mala para las escuelas públicas y para los niños.
Cuando De Vos tiene que elegir entre escuelas de calidad y el “libre mercado”, elige “el mercado libre” de la privatización cada vez. Los mejores intereses de los niños toman un asiento trasero.
Y sabemos que los DeVos “endgame” – cerrar las escuelas públicas de nuestro vecindario, y reemplazarlos con un mosaico de charters, escuelas privadas y aprendizaje en línea.
No podemos dejar que eso suceda y necesitamos su ayuda. Las generaciones presentes y futuras de niños dependen de nosotros para actuar ahora.
Únase a la Fase 1 de la campaña de NPE para que sus senadores sepan que deben votar “no” por Betsy DeVos. Ahora sabemos que algunos senadores tienen serias dudas. Es nuestro trabajo hacer que estas dudas crezcan en resistencia activa a DeVos. Nuestros senadores están en las oficinas del distrito del 12/17 – 1/2.
Aquí están nuestros tres kits de herramientas para ayudarle a hacer su parte.
Toolkit 1. Llame a las oficinas de sus senadores. El kit de herramientas con números y un script de teléfono se puede encontrar aquí. Incluye un enlace a los números de teléfono.
Toolkit 2. Envíe una carta al editor de su periódico local. Aquí puede encontrar un modelo.
Toolkit 3. Visite las oficinas de sus senadores. Si no puede obtener una cita, entregue una carta. Nuestro kit de herramientas, que puede encontrar aquí tiene un modelo para usar, y direcciones para encontrar oficinas locales. Si no puede entregarlo, envíe su carta por correo.
Cuando entras en los toolkits y te comprometes a una acción, tenemos un formulario simple que nos permite saber lo que quieres. Recibirás una insignia especial para tu página de Facebook o tu cuenta de Twitter cada vez que completes una acción, y serás introducido en nuestro dibujo para una copia de Reign of Error firmado por Diane Ravitch.
Comience su acción hoy. Comparte este enlace [http://networkforpubliceducation.org/2016/12/join-us-in-stopping-the-confirmation-of-devos-npe-toolkit/] en tu página de Facebook y cuenta de Twitter, o envíalo por correo electrónico a un amigo.
Te damos las gracias por lo que haces. Lamentablemente, los hijos de nuestra nación necesitan que hagas más.

Carol Burris

Directora de NPE

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Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Be Afraid of School Choice | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Be Afraid of School Choice | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Be Afraid of School Choice

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel published an opinion article in the Washington Post saying something about how choice is a good thing when it is a good thing, so don’t get your knickers twisted against school choice just because Trump is for it. At least I think that is what he is saying. Read it and tell me why you think he (or someone wrote) wrote this article to get people to think well of school choice.

I think he is saying that when Democrats promote privatization by charter school, that is a good thing, and we must keep doing it even though Betsy DeVos wants to turn every school into a charter school and/or give every student a voucher to attend a religious school.

Sorry, but I have a hard time reading anything allegedly penned by Rahm about schools without thinking of the day of infamy when he closed 50 public schools at one fell swoop. He will be remembered for the brutal, disruptive, heedless closing of 50 community public schools. That, and the awful youth violence that continues to plague Chicago, promoted to some extent by the deliberate destruction of communities.

At the same time that Rahm and his hand-picked board of the city’s elite were closing public schools, they continued opening charter schools. Chicago is not an example of the success of school reform. To the extent that we use the federal NAEP scores as a measure, Chicago is still one of the lowest performing urban districts in the nation. It has some very good public schools, but it also has many very poorly resourced schools. Rahm will not be remembered as an education reformer.

In this article, he boasts again of Urban Prep Academy. This is the all-black, all-male school where 100% of the students who reach 12th grade graduate and go to college. This is a school that Gary Rubinstein researched and discovered its high attrition rate and its low test scores, lower than those of students in Chicago public schools. When I googled Urban Prep to find the links, I noticed that newspapers around the country still report the news of its “100% graduation rate” and “100% college acceptance rate.”

Knowing what Rahm has done to the Chicago public schools, I find it hard to understand why he thinks he is in a position to offer advice to the nation about school reform. The reality is that he is comfortable with Trump and DeVos and the privatization movement and has no qualms about continuing to implement it in Chicago.Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Be Afraid of School Choice | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Michigan, Here I Come! – EduShyster

Michigan, Here I Come! – EduShyster:

Michigan, Here I Come!

Wow—a huge thanks to everyone who chipped in and made my *send EduShyster to the Mitten State* fundraising campaign such a success. In seven days, I raised $5,000 from 100 donors. Make that $5,025 from 101 donors. And while I did get a few three figure gifts (thanks Dad!), most of my contributions were small—$10 here, $18 there—from readers who want to know more about a would-be Secretary of Education and what the hell is going on in Michigan. So in just over three weeks, I’ll be hitting the road. Here’s where I’m headed, who I’ll be talking to and what I’m up to…

First stop: Detroit
Here’s a question for you: do you know how many charter schools in Detroit’s rapidly expanding and radically unregulated charter sector provide bus service? No idea? Don’t feel bad. Turns out nobody knows the answer to this question. Which is one way of conveying the scale of Detroit’s wild West-ish-ness. I’ll be talking to parents about how they navigate this system, and recording their stories to share in a podcast. I’ll have some help from the amazing organizers at 482Forward, a group that’s been pushing back against Detroit’s voicelessness over its own schools, or as they like to say *nothing about us without us.*

Sick out city 
Remember those teacher *sick out* protests last year that, at least for a brief moment, got everybody talking about the deplorable conditions of Detroit’s schools? I decided that I’d like to meet some of the teachers who led the protests because, well, I have Michigan, Here I Come! – EduShyster:

Another Study about Bias in Teachers’ Observational Scores | VAMboozled!

Another Study about Bias in Teachers’ Observational Scores | VAMboozled!:

Another Study about Bias in Teachers’ Observational Scores

Following-up on two prior posts about potential bias in teachers’ observations (see prior posts here and here), another research study was recently released evidencing, again, that the evaluation ratings derived via observations of teachers in practice are indeed related to (and potentially biased by) teachers’ demographic characteristics. The study also evidenced that teachers representing racial and ethnic minority background might be more likely than others to not only receive lower relatively scores but also be more likely identified for possible dismissal as a result of their relatively lower evaluation scores.

The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) authored and U.S. Department of Education (Institute of Education Sciences) sponsored study titled “Teacher Demographics and Evaluation: A Descriptive Study in a Large Urban District” can be found here, and a condensed version of the study can be found here. Interestingly, the study was commissioned by district leaders who were already concerned about what they believed to be occurring in this regard, but for which they had no hard evidence… until the completion of this study.

Authors’ key finding follows (as based on three consecutive years of data): Black teachers, teachers age 50 and older, and male teachers were rated below proficient relatively more often than the same district teachers to whom they were compared. More specifically,

• In all three years the percentage of teachers who were rated below proficient was higher among Black teachers than among White teachers, although the gap was smaller in 2013/14 and 2014/15.
• In all three years the percentage of teachers with a summative performance rating who were rated below proficient was higher among teachers age 50 and older than among teachers younger than age 50.
• In all three years the difference in the percentage of male and female teachers with a summative performance rating who were rated below proficient was approximately 5 percentage points or less.
• The percentage of teachers who improved their rating during all three year-to-year
  comparisons did not vary by race/ethnicity, age, or gender.

This is certainly something to (still) keep in consideration, especially when teachers are Another Study about Bias in Teachers’ Observational Scores | VAMboozled!:

Teachers Are Delusional | Blue Cereal Education

Teachers Are Delusional | Blue Cereal Education:

Teachers Are Delusional

I don’t necessarily mean this in a bad way, although it does have a few downsides. 

As you probably know, public education in general and teachers in particular were thoroughly rebuked in the recent state elections. SQ779 went down in flames after polling rather well only weeks before, largely due to the efforts of mysterious groups who appeared out of nowhere and began panicking on our behalf over the sad, if well-intentioned, error we were all clearly about to make.

They embraced the new, “reality-optional” approach so popular these days with an effective, two-pronged strategy. First, make up a bunch of stuff people could easily refute if they bothered to read the actual question but didn’t. Second, treat this 1% tax as a misguided starting point for growthful discussions rather than a desperate, if flawed, last-ditch effort to overcome a decade of one-party rule and overt hostility towards the idea that every kid deserves committed, effective educators dragging them towards enlightenment. 

They promised a “better way,” which apparently involves disbanding and vanishing as soon as the votes were tallied.

Then again, I guess they didn’t say exactly who it was better for. 

Smirking legislators quickly joined the chorus of assurances that of course they’d immediately be doing everything they possibly could to give teachers huge raises, first thing! For totes realsies this time! Why would we doubt them? They’re our government – they live to serve! 

In their defense, legislators have no real reason to do anything about teacher pay or Teachers Are Delusional | Blue Cereal Education:

What now? | Deborah Meier on Education

What now? | Deborah Meier on Education:

What now?

What few months we’ve been through. No point in rehearsing all the stages I have gone through. But since I am incapable of not being an optimist, even though I know better, I have solved it in this way: I had been thinking that if I made it for five more years I would probably see a great-grandchild or two born. Worth doing. But now I have decided to try to live 12 more years (three electoral presidential cycles) so I can see the pendulum swing and take some healthy breaths before I call it quits. I do envy those much younger for having more time to do this. And, of course, it means that we all, including me, cannot spend too much time grieving and complaining. We do always need smart analyses, thoughtful historical perspectives, etc. (We need, for example, to remember that less than ¼ of all potential voters voted for Trump, and half of the eligible voters did not or could not vote at all.) But we also need motion—action—face-to-face as well as all other ways. We need to bury—or put on the back burner—as many differences on our side that we can tolerate (and which smart strategy suggests doing). We need to build bridges: we need the kind of listening skills that good educator’s work rests on. A good classroom is always building bridges between what different people think—even in a math class. Listening to and taking seriously the absurd, the offensive, and the illogical ideas as I tried to do in kindergarten classes was not a frill. There was always a nugget of truth, an insight that still informs me, and What now? | Deborah Meier on Education:

 

All Things Education: Book Review: The End of Consensus

All Things Education: Book Review: The End of Consensus:

Book Review: The End of Consensus

I wanted to announce my first official academic publication. Woot, woot! 

It's a second-authored book review in Teachers College Record with one of the professors at VCU who I work with, Dr. Genevieve Siegel-Hawley. The book is The End of Consensus: Diversity, Neighborhoods, and the Politics of Public School Assignments by Toby L. Parcel and Andrew J. Taylor.  Here is the first paragraph:

Changes to student assignment policies that determine who goes to school with whom typically engender political controversies around race, class, opportunity and equity. In 2009, North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), which includes the city of Raleigh, drew national attention as area leaders debated over significant shifts to a student assignment policy long been held up as a model for promoting diversity and equity. In a fast-growing city-suburban district historically committed to comprehensive school desegregation, the tensions between old and new, conservative and progressive and narrowly- and broadly-defined community came to a head. North Carolina State University sociologist Toby L. Parcel and political scientist Andrew J. Taylor take us into the heart of these controversies in their recent book, The End of Consensus. Parcel and Taylor’s principal findings, laid out over seven concise chapters, showcase a tension between those who prioritized heterogeneous schools versus those who prioritized neighborhood schools.

If you want to read the whole thing, I think it might be behind a paywall, though I had somehow thought that the book reviews in TCR were open access.All Things Education: Book Review: The End of Consensus:

Can Our Democracy Survive Trump? and a 'Few' Words from Diane

Can Our Democracy Survive Trump? | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Can Our Democracy Survive Trump?

The New York Times contains a column that expresses the fears of many people and asks whether our democracy is sturdy enough to survive the reign of Trump.

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, professors of government at Harvard, write:

“Donald J. Trump’s election has raised a question that few Americans ever imagined asking: Is our democracy in danger? With the possible exception of the Civil War, American democracy has never collapsed; indeed, no democracy as rich or as established as America’s ever has. Yet past stability is no guarantee of democracy’s future survival.

“We have spent two decades studying the emergence and breakdown of democracy in Europe and Latin America. Our research points to several warning signs.

“The clearest warning sign is the ascent of anti-democratic politicians into mainstream politics. Drawing on a close study of democracy’s demise in 1930s Europe, the eminent political scientist Juan J. Linz designed a “litmus test” to identify anti-democratic politicians. His indicators include a failure to reject violence unambiguously, a readiness to curtail rivals’ civil liberties, and the denial of the legitimacy of elected governments.

“Mr. Trump tests positive. In the campaign, he encouraged violence among supporters; pledged to prosecute Hillary Clinton; threatened legal action against unfriendly media; and suggested that he might not accept the election results….

“Mr. Trump is not the first American politician with authoritarian tendencies. (Other notable authoritarians include Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana and Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.) But he is the first in modern American history to be elected president. This is not necessarily because Americans have grown more authoritarian (the United States electorate has always had an authoritarian streak). Rather it’s because the institutional filters that we assumed would protect us from extremists, like the party nomination system and the news media, failed.

“Many Americans are not overly concerned about Mr. Trump’s authoritarian inclinations because they trust our system of constitutional checks and balances to constrain him.

“Yet the institutional safeguards protecting our democracy may be less effective than we think. A well-designed constitution is not enough to ensure a stable democracy — a lesson many Latin American independence leaders learned when they borrowed the American constitutional model in the early 19th century, only to see their countries plunge into chaos.
“Democratic institutions must be reinforced by strong informal norms. Like a pickup basketball game without a referee, democracies work best when unwritten rules of the game, known and respected by all players, ensure a minimum of civility and cooperation. Norms serve as the soft guardrails of democracy, preventing political competition from spiraling into a chaotic, no-holds-barred conflict.

“Among the unwritten rules that have sustained American democracy are partisan self-restraint and fair play. For much of our history, leaders of both parties resisted the temptation to use their temporary control of institutions to maximum partisan advantage, effectively underutilizing the power conferred by those institutions. There existed a shared Can Our Democracy Survive Trump? | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Harvard, write: “Donald J. Trump’s election has raised a question that few Americans ever imagined asking: Is our democracy in danger? With the possible exception of the Civil War

Sheila Resseger on the Expansion of Achievement First Charter Schools in Rhode Island

by dianeravitch / 1h

Sheila Resseger is a retired teacher in Rhode Island. She writes in response to an earlier post about the proposed expansion of the Achievement First charter chain in Rhode Island. The state commissioner, Kenneth Wagner, is enthusiastic about the increase in charter enrollment by 2,000, even though it will strip more than $30 million from the Providence public schools, which enrolls far more stud

The Biggest Problem in Early Childhood Education Today Is….

30by dianeravitch / 2h

In this post, which appeared on Valerie Strauss’s “Answer Sheet” blog, Nancy Carlsson-Paige explains that the biggest problem in early childhood education today is the erosion of time for play. Carlsson-Paige is an emeritus professor at Lesley College, where she taught teachers of early childhood. She explains in this post that the changes in the recent past have damaged children and their classr

Steven Singer: Don’t Be Fooled! Betsy DeVos Loves Common Core!

8by dianeravitch / 3h

Steven Singer wants you to know the truth: No matter how much she denies it, Betsy DeVos really really loves Common Core! He has the evidence to prove it. She’s a board member of Jeb Bush’s pro-Common Core think tank, Foundation for Excellence in Education, where she hangs out with prominent Democratic education reformers like Bill Gates and Eli Broad. But she says that somehow doesn’t mean she l

YESTERDAY

North Carolina: Legislature Strips Powers of Governor

38by dianeravitch / 19h

As threatened, the Republican-dominated Geral Assembly of North Carolina passed legislation to diminish the powers of the incoming Democratic Governor. The outgoing Governor, Pat McCrory, who lost the election to Attorney General Roy Cooper, promptly signed the controversial bills, undermining his successor. The Tea Party Republicans who control the legislature are punishing Cooper for winning. T

K12 Inc. Annual Meeting: Shareholders Demand Transparency

9by dianeravitch / 20h

K12 Inc. is the largest provider of online charter schools. This sector is probably the worst part of the charter industry. CREDO reported last year that for every 180 days of online enrollment, a student will lose 180 days in math, and 72 in reading. At its shareholder meeting on December 15, a group of shareholders proposed that the corporation become transparent as to how much it spends on lob

Update on the Tea Party Coup in North Carolina

15by dianeravitch / 21h

As the North Carolina General Assembly passes legislation to limit the powers of the newly-elected Governor of the state, who is a Democrat, protestors gather at the State Capitol, speak out and are arrested. The General Assembly has been controlled by Tea Party extremists since 2010, when they had the chance to redistrict and guarantee themselves a super-majority. The federal court has ruled tha

Has Trump Outsourced the Department of Education to Jeb Bush?

28by dianeravitch / 22h

The U.S. Department of Education, in the Trump regime, is starting to look like a Jeb Bush sweep. Betsy DeVos was on the board of Jeb’s Foundation for Education Excellence, which is noted for its advocacy for vouchers, charter schools, digital learning, and high-stakes testing. Hanna Skandera, State Superintendent in New Mexico, worked for Jeb Bush, was a member and chair of Jeb’s Chiefs for Chan

Rebecca Mead: Betsy DeVos and the Plan to Break Public Education

11by dianeravitch / 23h

Rebecca Mead, staff writer at The anew Yorker, outlines the advantages that Betsy DeVos offers: She has no ties to Vladimir Putin; she hasn’t spread fake news; she apparently has no plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Of these three “advantages,” I feel confident only about the first one. Her persistent lambasting of public schools is fake news. And it remains to be seen whether

Michigan Charter Founder Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison

34by dianeravitch / 1d

The founder of a small charter chain in Michigan has been sentenced to 41 months in prison. I have written about Ingersoll here and here . Steven Ingersoll founded the Grand Traverse Academy in Michigan. Blogger Anita Senkowski has followed this scandal from its beginnings. She writes about Ingersoll’s sentencing here . In its December 15, 2016 sentencing memorandum, the government stated: In gen

Rhode Island: Commissioner Approves Tripling of No-Excuses Charter Chain

40by dianeravitch / 1d

Kenneth Wagner, Commissioner of Education in Rhode Island, has approved a plan to allow the Achievement First “no-excuses” charter chain to more than triple its enrollment over the next decade to more than 3,000 students. (Other stories say that the number of students will grow from the present 720 to 2,000.) The proposal is controversial because the increase in charter enrollment will cut the bu

Peter Greene: A Rare Occasion When Reformers Admit Defeat

7by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Greene listened to a podcast produced by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and made a shocking discovery : One of the leading figures of the reform movement–Checker Finn–acknowledged that after 20 years of reform, there was no change!

Politico: Trump Considering Common Core Leader for #2 Job at Department of Education

37by dianeravitch / 1d

Politico reports that Hanna Skandera, Commissioner of Education in New Mexico, is being considered for the second most important job in the Education Department. Mercedes Schneider explains that Skandera is a major advocate for the Common Core. She is currently in charge of PARCC, the testing consortium.