NYC Public School Parents: Federal Civil Rights Complaint vs Success Charter Academy's Systematic Violation of Disabled Students' Rights

NYC Public School Parents: Federal Civil Rights Complaint vs Success Charter Academy's Systematic Violation of Disabled Students' Rights:

Federal Civil Rights Complaint vs Success Charter Academy's Systematic Violation of Disabled Students' Rights

Success Charter Network, founded by Eva Moskowitz, is now facing another investigation. We first reported on a FERPA complaint by Fatima Geidi to the US Department of Education on Eva Moskowitz's violation of student privacy by releasing a student's disciplinary records in October. Yesterday, it was announced that SUNY, the charter chain's authorizer, is investigating the Success Network's disciplinary and suspension practices, including the infamous "Got to Go" list first reported by the NY Times.

Now  parents of 13 special needs students,.along with Public Advocate Letitia James and City Council Education Committee chair Danny Dromm, have filed a formal complaint with the Civil Rights division of the US Department of Education..

Some of the claims include refusing disability services required by law to the students, and harassing parents to force their children to transfer out of the charter chain into public schools. You can read more in this article by Juan Gonzalez here.

From the complaint, it is apparent that Success Academy's systemic violations include pushing students out via repeated suspensions, many times without due process and without reporting them as such, holding them back, denying them services, and shaming them.

You can read the full complaint below.

A, And Parent of a Et Al. 1-20-16

 NYC Public School Parents: Federal Civil Rights Complaint vs Success Charter Academy's Systematic Violation of Disabled Students' Rights:

Gov. Snyder releases all emails sent, received on Flint

Snyder - Gov. Snyder releases all emails sent, received on Flint:

Gov. Rick Snyder releases all emails sent, received on Flint

January 20, 2016

Lansing, MICH - Gov. Rick Snyder today released all emails he sent and received regarding Flint from Jan. 2014 through Dec. 2015. 

On Tuesday evening, he said during his State of the State address:

"Tomorrow I will release my 2014 and 2015 emails regarding Flint to you, the citizens, so that you have answers to your questions about what we’ve done and what we’re doing to make this right for the families of Flint. Anyone will be able to read this information for themselves at Michigan.gov/Snyder. Because the most important thing we can do right now is to work hard and work together for the people of Flint."

A timeline of 2014 and 2015 actions on Flint water is available here.

For more information on the governor's speech, visit mi.gov/stateofthestate.

To learn how to help Flint, or for residents who need water resources, visit www.helpforFlint.com.

To download and read the emails, please click here. Note: Due to its size, this document may take extra time to download.

Snyder - Gov. Snyder releases all emails sent, received on Flint:

UTLA taking aim at ‘Broad-Walmart’ plan in national ‘walk-in’ | Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools

Resources | Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools:

February 17, 2016: Walk In for the Schools All Our Children Deserve

Walk In Resources:

• One Pager: Brief description of the nationwide walk-in action planned for February 17, 2016.
• Walk-Ins in Real Life: What does a walk-in actually look like? Here are links to three short videos taken from past walk-in events in Milwaukee and St. Paul.
  • Video 1 - Milwaukee
  • Video 2 - Milwaukee
  • Video 3 - St. Paul
• Planning Template: Getting ready for a walk-in?  This template will help you think through your goals and steps towards building a successful walk-in. It can be used for a whole district, or a single school.  Adjust accordingly!
• Organizing Timeline: As your walk-in planning gets underway, here’s a sample timeline of activities to get you on the road to a strong walk-in.
• Community/School sign-up template: Here’s a sample template you can use to create a sign-up sheet for community folks, organizational members or teachers, asking them to commit to joining a walk-in.
• Sign-Up Sample #2: Here’s another version of a sign-up card that you can use to get commitments for the walk-ins.
• Building Walk-In Commitment Form: Template you can use to sign up school sites to walk-in on February 17.
• Put ‘em to work! Here is a list of ways that you can put volunteers to work before and during the walk-ins!  These are all critical tasks that someone should be in charge of!
• SAMPLE Day-Of Agenda and Program: The details of your walk-in will depend on the local context.  But here’s a sample schedule for the day, starting when you gather at the site, and ending when you send students and teachers into the school.
• Flyer (Example 1, Example 2): Create a flyer to announce your walk-in! Here are two examples of flyers announcing the walk-in. As you make your own, feel free to use anything you want from these samples.
• Site Coordinator Form: Sample form you can use to collect information from each of your school sites on the day of the walk-ins to document participation, event highlights, and media hits.
• Using ESSA To Demand Sustainable Community Schools: The newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorizes the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This new law opens up opportunities for us to demand sustainable community schools in our cities and states, to reduce the impact of high-stakes assessments, and to redefine which schools need additional support to serve our students. Here are two analyses of ESSA, one from AROS and one from our friends at FairTest.
• • AROS ESSA policy brief 
  • FairTest factsheet

General Materials on Sustainable Community Schools:

• AROS Platform: "The Schools All Our Children Deserve: The Principles That Unite Us" [Brief version |Full version]
• AROS One-Pager: Sustainable Community Schools
• Our Children Are Not Collateral Damage! A Call for Sustainable School Transformation by Journey For Justice Alliance
• A Proposal for Sustainable School Transformation by Communities for Excellent Public Schools
• Power of Community- Organizing for the schools St. Paul children deserve by Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
• Elev8: Lifting Students, Families and Communities by Elev8
• Infographic: Alternatives to School Closure by The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign

Organizing Victories

• Alliance for Educational Justice Accomplishments
• Sea Of Red- Chicago Teachers Union member reflect 

Education Crisis

• Education Crisis Video by Alliance for Educational Justice
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Racism, School Closures and Public School Sabotage by Journey for Justice
• Billions Behind: New York State Continues to Violate Students' Constitutional Rights by Alliance for Quality Education, NY
• The Black and White of Public Education in Chicago's Public Schools by Chicago Teachers Union
• Twelve Months Later: The Impact of School Closings in Chicago by Chicago Teachers Union
• Books Not Bars: Students for Safe & Fair Schools: A Community Analysis of the Implementation of the 2008 Denver School Discipline Policy 
• Public Accountability for Charter Schools: Standards and Policy Recommendations for Effective Oversight

Resources | Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools:

UTLA taking aim at ‘Broad-Walmart’ plan in national ‘walk-in’

Success Charter Network accused of disability violations - NY Daily News

Success Charter Network accused of disability violations - NY Daily News:

Success Charter Network accused of disability violations

The city’s largest charter school chain has been violating the civil rights of students with disabilities for years, a group of parents say in a formal complaint lodged Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education.

The parents of 13 special needs students claim the Success Charter Network, which is run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, “has engaged in ongoing systemic policies that violate” federal laws protecting the disabled. It cites eight Success schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx where the parents’ children were enrolled.

MARCUS WINTERS: A BETTER WAY TO ENROLL KIDS IN CHARTERS

The allegations include:

• refusing to provide special education pupils appropriate services required by law, while often retaining the students to repeat a grade;
• multiple suspensions of students without keeping formal records of all those actions, without the due process required by federal law, and without providing alternative instruction;
• harassing parents to transfer their children back into regular public schools; and even calling 911 to have children as young as 5 transported to emergency rooms when parents don’t pick them up immediately as requested.

“Charter schools like Success Academy should follow the same rules as traditional public schools and protect — not punish — children with disabilities,” Public Advocate Letitia James said.

James joined the complaint, as did City Councilman Daniel Dromm, chair of the council’s Education Committee, and five private non-profit legal advocacy groups. All are calling for federal action.

The charter network did not immediately address the specific allegations.

“We are not in a position to comment on a complaint that we have not seen,” Ann Powell, a spokeswoman for Success Charter Network accused of disability violations - NY Daily News:

CURMUDGUCATION: CA: One More Charter Get Rich Quick Scheme

CURMUDGUCATION: CA: One More Charter Get Rich Quick Scheme:

CA: One More Charter Get Rich Quick Scheme

California's charter law has an odd little wrinkle-- as some folks read it, one school district can become the authorizer of a charter school within another school district's boundaries. Yup. I can sit in my district and give Bob's Big Charter School permission to set up shop in your district, to start poaching your students, and start sucking up your public tax dollars.

You can see why the district that's being raided would object. But why would any district want to get involved in some distant charter school?

Meet Steve Van Zant.

Van Zant acquired a BA in English from San Diego State in 1985 and an MS in Education Administration in 1988. He indicates that he started as "an elementary teacher with leadership responsibilities," but in 1991 he stared his first principal job and worked his way up to superintendent in 2006. In 2013 he was hired at his sixth administrative position-- superintendent of Sausalito Marin City School District, a district with deep pockets but a shrinking student body. He's been working there three days a week, but it was at his previous superintendent gig with Mountain Empire Unified School District that Van Zant really hit paydirt.

Van Zant turned into Mountain Empire into a prodigious authorizer of charter schools in other peoples' districts. And then those charters turned around and hired Van Zant's consulting firm to help them run their schools. He would scratch their back, and they would make it rain all over his. Here's CURMUDGUCATION: CA: One More Charter Get Rich Quick Scheme:



 How Goldilocks Opened a Charter School That Nobody Wanted

Big Education Ape: Charter School Approval Flea Flicker: Three charter schools closed by CPS file appeals with stat... http://bit.ly/1QGhKNd

Big Education Ape: Glendale Unified board denies charter school plans; petitioners say they will appeal to county -... http://bit.ly/1P9tvbD

Big Education Ape: Flea Flicker: Rocketship appeals to state board to build school in Concord - ContraCostaTimes http://bit.ly/1RVCrnq

Big Education Ape: Flea Flicker: Should state be able to approve charter schools in Virginia? - Daily Press http://bit.ly/1QPtgEg

Big Education Ape: Washington Charter Schools Find Another Source Of Public Money | KUOW News and Information http://bit.ly/1QPtknC

How High-Performing Nations Treat Educators as Professionals - NEA Today

How High-Performing Nations Treat Educators as Professionals - NEA Today:

How High-Performing Nations Treat Educators as Professionals

Countries with top-performing education systems in the world all share a key component – high-quality professional development, which is largely missing in the U.S., according to two reports released last week. The studies found that high-perfoming nations include professional learning in the daily work of teachers, where it’s considered a primary practice for school improvement. They also offer career ladders for educators, which has led to higher teacher quality.

The reports were released by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) Center on International Education Benchmarking at a forum in Washington, D.C. on January 14. The authors were joined by leading voices in education, including NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, to discuss how the U.S. could learn from the top nations.

“When teachers have strong incentives to get better and better at their work, and they are given the opportunity to work together every day in teams to improve student achievement, they never stop seeking and finding information that can help them do a better job,” said NCEE President and CEO Marc Tucker.

In Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems, Ben Jensen, an Australian researcher, analyzed the professional learning systems in four high-performing systems: Shanghai, British Columbia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, all of which score near the top of all jurisdictions tested in mathematics, reading and science on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

All of these systems free up time during the school day for collaborative professional learning, create leadership roles for expert teachers to mentor and develop other teachers and lead school improvement teams, and recognize and reward the development of teacher expertise.

“Accountability is also different,” Jensen said at the forum last week. “They have three measures of focus: school performance, quality of instruction, and quality of How High-Performing Nations Treat Educators as Professionals - NEA Today:

PAA calls for an end to test-based teacher evaluation | Parents Across America

PAA calls for an end to test-based teacher evaluation | Parents Across America:

PAA Policy Brief: End Test-based Teacher Evaluation

Parents call for states to take back control of teacher evaluation,

end misuse of test scores

The Every Student Succeeds Act, which became law in December, has given states new control over education policy. Parents across the nation call on state policy-makers to use their restored authority to rein in the high-stakes standardized testing that plagues American education.

Washington still requires annual reading and math tests in grades 3-8, science tests in grades 5 and 8, and three tests in high school. But state leaders now have the power to eliminate dozens of other tests – particularly those whose main purpose is rating teachers. Policy-makers should overhaul teacher evaluation systems immediately.

Starting in 2009, the U.S. Department of Education began pressuring states to add a test-based measurement to teacher effectiveness ratings. There was no solid evidence that the requirement would improve educational opportunities or outcomes. Still, many states bowed to federal pressure. They began to give teachers “growth” or “value added” (VAM) ratings calculated from student standardized test scores.

Producing a VAM rating for every teacher requires a standardized evaluation for every course. As a result, states and districts have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, purchase, administer and grade additional tests. Students and teachers have spent countless hours preparing for and taking those tests.

These efforts have not produced improvements that justify the time, money and energy invested in them. Nor are they likely to, for several reasons.

• The standardized test results used to calculate most VAM scores involve only a few of the skills that twenty-first century students need. According to the National Research Council, standardized tests cover a limited range of knowledge and abilities. They generally omit “the portion of the curriculum that deals with higher levels of cognitive functioning and application of knowledge and skills.”

• Studies of teacher effects on test score gains or losses indicate that only 10-15 percent of the variation in student academic growth is due to variation among teachers.

• VAM calculations are plagued by widely documented technical problems. The number of student test results used to calculate individual teachers’ value-added ratings is generally too small to be statistically meaningful. Even seemingly simple tasks such as assigning student scores to the correct teacher can be quite difficult. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that teachers’ value-added ratings often swing dramatically from year to year.

• The proliferation of high-stakes standardized tests has had many negative side effects. Over-testing has led to increased stress, a narrowed curriculum, and widespread teaching to the test. It has caused students to lose interest in school and learning, driven excellent teachers from the profession, and discouraged young people from pursuing teaching careers. It has fueled the school-to-prison pipeline, sparked cheating scandals, and diverted time, energy and resources from other educational goals. These negative effects have been especially evident in schools that serve low-income children of color. Even if VAM ratings could be calculated accurately, the limited information they provide is simply not worth the effort or the consequences.

In large-scale scientific studies, such as tests of new drugs, periodic review ensures that experimental treatments are not harming participants. If it becomes evident that a new treatment is doing more harm than good, the study immediately ends. In the case of VAM, the evidence is clear. State leaders should act boldly, and stop the damage now.

***

References for the research in this policy brief, and a downloadable pdf version of the full paper with references, are here.

A one-page fact sheet on the dangers of value-added measurement (VAM) in teacher evaluation is here.

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/paa-calls-test-based-teacher-evaluation/#sthash.7P4JSuEl.dpuf

How Illinois’ millionaire GOP governor plans to bust Chicago’s largest teacher union

How Illinois’ millionaire GOP governor plans to bust Chicago’s largest teacher union:

How Illinois’ millionaire GOP governor plans to bust Chicago’s largest teacher union

Illinois Republicans, led by multi-millionaire Governor Bruce Rauner, are pushing a state takeover of Chicago’s public school system.

The Chicago Tribune reported that “Republican legislative leaders on Wednesday proposed a state takeover of Chicago Public Schools [CPS] and permitting the troubled district to declare bankruptcy to get its finances in order”. According to the paper, officials describe the drastic move as a “lifeline”.

The proposal would allow Rauner appointees to the state board of education “to remove the current Chicago Board of Education and create an independent authority to run CPS until it is determined the district is no longer in financial difficulty.”

Democrats, who control the state legislature, have already promised the takeover idea won’t come to fruition. The Chicago Tribune quoted state Senate President John Cullerton as rejecting the proposal forthright in a statement released earlier today:

“It’s mean-spirited and evidence of their total lack of knowledge of the real problems facing Chicago Public Schools. The unfair treatment of pension systems by the state is the immediate cause of CPS’ financial problem. . . That situation ought to be addressed rather than promoting this far-fetched notion that the state is somehow in the position to take over Chicago schools. This ridiculous idea only serves as a distraction from the state’s problems that these two state leaders should be focusing on”.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has presided over the closure of numerous schools that How Illinois’ millionaire GOP governor plans to bust Chicago’s largest teacher union:

BACKPACK FULL OF CASH The Growing Privatization of Public Schools – Rivertown Film

BACKPACK FULL OF CASH – Rivertown Film:

BACKPACK FULL OF CASH 

SPECIAL FINE-CUT SCREENING
Provide your input to the Rockland filmmakers who brought you Megamall.

BACKPACK FULL OF CASH
Directed by Sarah Mondale
Produced by Vera Aronow and Sarah Mondale
Cinematography by Roger Grange
Supervising Editor: Marian Hunter

Narrated by Matt Damon, Backpack Full of Cash explores the growing privatization of public schools and the resulting impact on America’s most vulnerable children. The film follows parents, teachers and activists through the tumultuous 2013–14 school year, taking viewers inside the world of what is now called education “reform.” In Philadelphia and other big cities, public education—starved of resources—hangs in the balance. USA, 2016, 90 minutes

“Terrific! An amazing accomplishment full of meaning and emotion.”  — Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Educator and Author of Taking Back Childhood

“Shocking. . . The film will definitely spur people to action.”  — Public School Parent

Meet the Filmmakers: Post-film discussion with the filmmakers and Fred Frelow, Senior Program Officer for Youth Opportunity and Learning at The Ford Foundation (a funder of the film) and former Director of Curriculum for Nyack Public Schools, moderated by Moriah Olsen, Labor Relations Specialist for New York State United Teachers.

The filmmakers are part of the team that made the 4-part PBS series, SCHOOL: The Story of Public Education, narrated by Meryl Streep, that aired in 2001.  In 2010 they made Megamall, a documentary about the 20-year controversy surrounding the building of Rockland’s own Palisades Center Mall.

Buy tickets in advance for this screening!

- See more at: http://www.rivertownfilm.org/films/backpack-full-of-cash/#sthash.8lRlDp6U.dpuf





Big Education Ape: Matt Damon narrates next Rivertown film http://bit.ly/1Qed12r

CURMUDGUCATION: Drowning Bunnies To Raise Graduation Rates

CURMUDGUCATION: Drowning Bunnies To Raise Graduation Rates:

Drowning Bunnies To Raise Graduation Rates

Mount St. Mary's University is a relatively small school in Maryland, "located in the middle of everything." And their president would like to drown some bunnies.

Okay, only metaphorically. What Simon Newman would like to do is improve the university's retention numbers. And he would like to do it by "counseling out" students early who are judged likely to drop out later. Here's the lead from the college newspaper's story about the plan:

Even before this year’s freshman class arrived on campus in August, President Simon Newman was developing a plan to dismiss 20-25 of them before the end of September as a means of improving the Mount’s student retention numbers.

Newman was hired by the university just over a year ago. His previous experience? Thirty years in finance and investment. Perhaps that's why he used a less-than-felicitous metaphor to explain his plan. Unfortunately for him, the university apparently has a student newspaper that does real reporting, and they reported on Newman's plan-- and a few other things.  As reported in Inside Higher Education:

The student newspaper also reported (and The Washington Post quoted a professor confirming) that Newman told some faculty members they needed to change the way they think of struggling students. He reportedly said, “This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t. You just have to drown the bunnies … put a Glock to their heads.”

The Mountain Echo quotes emails from Newman as they lay out the specifics of the plan to "cull the class." The entering freshmen would take a "survey" that would help decide their fate (it was not CURMUDGUCATION: Drowning Bunnies To Raise Graduation Rates: