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Thursday, September 5, 2019

Why 2020 Dems Should Target the Nonprofit Charter School Industry - LA Progressive

Why 2020 Dems Should Target the Nonprofit Charter School Industry - LA Progressive

Why 2020 Dems Should Target the Nonprofit Charter School Industry

Charter schools, once the darling of politicians on the right and left, have become a hot potato in the Democratic Party 2020 presidential primary with nearly every candidate voicing some level of disapproval of the industry. A common refrain among the candidates is to express opposition to “for-profit charter schools.” Charter school proponents counter these pronouncements by pointing to industry data indicating only 12 percent of charter schools are run by overtly profit-minded entities, and that most charter schools are overseen by outfits that have a nonprofit, tax-exempt status.
But the singling out of for-profit charter schools is somewhat beside the point as residents of a St. Paul, Minnesota, neighborhood learned this summer when a treasured local landmark was threatened by an expanding charter school. The charter was decidedly nonprofit, but as families and preservation advocates would learn from their tenacious, but ultimately unsuccessful, battle to save a beloved, historic church, charter schools, regardless of their tax status, have become powerful players in a lucrative real estate market in urban areas where land values are high and empty lots or school-ready buildings are hard to find.

Tearing Down a Church to Make Way for a Charter

A battle over a beloved church building in the Twin Cities reveals how money can be made from charter school real estate deals.

In the tiny Warrendale neighborhood of St. Paul, St. Andrew’s Catholic Church has stood as a community centerpiece for nearly 100 years. In 1927, St. Andrew’s was designed in the Romanesque revival style by Charles Hauser, the son of German immigrants who became the first city architect of St. Paul at the age of 25.
Today, it’s gone. In 2013, the St. Andrew’s site, which included the church building, a rectory and a small, two-story school, was sold to Kathleen Padian, a charter school real estate developer based in New Orleans. At the time, Padian purchased the site for over $2 million through a nonprofit organization, Educational Properties, Inc., which then leased the CONTINUE READING: Why 2020 Dems Should Target the Nonprofit Charter School Industry - LA Progressive




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Quality Counts 2019: Grading the States - Education Week

Quality Counts 2019: Grading the States - Education Week

QUALITY COUNTS 2019: GRADING THE STATES

The third and final installment of “Quality Counts 2019” offers a comprehensive report card on the nation’s K-12 system, including A-F grades and rankings for each of the states based on a wide range of academic, school finance, and socioeconomic factors.
The report, based on analysis by the Education Week Research Center, sums up how well the nation and the states do on assuring bright prospects for success over the course of a lifetime; how much they spend on schools and how fairly that money is distributed; and the outcomes reflected by indicators such as test scores and graduation rates.
To catch up on the first installment of Quality Counts 2019, click here. For the second installment, click here.

QUALITY COUNTS 2019: GRADING THE STATES

HIGH ACHIEVERS

New Jersey
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Maryland
New Hampshire

CONFRONTING CHALLENGES

Mississippi
Louisiana
Oklahoma
Nevada
New Mexico

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STATE HIGHLIGHTS REPORTS

Assess your state's performance in key areas. Click here.

PAST ISSUES

For past issues of Quality Counts, click here.

REPRINT THIS REPORT

Want to purchase print or digital copies of this report to share with your colleagues or students?
Contact reprints@epe.org.
EDITOR'S NOTE
The Nation's Schools: A Bird's-Eye View


Who's on top and who lags behind when it comes to the nation's K-12 school systems—and why?
September 4, 2019 – Quality Counts
In National Ranking of School Systems, a New State Is On Top


The annual Quality Counts report card ranks states based on dozens of factors that affect the quality of state school systems, including school finance, academic achievement, and socioeconomic indicators.
September 4, 2019 – Quality Counts
Comments (7)
Boosting School Quality Remains a Slog for States, Nation


The nation's C grade on this year's final Quality Counts report card is another sign that pursuing educational progress remains slow and challenging for many states.
September 4, 2019 – Quality Counts
Data: Mapping the States on This Year's Quality Counts


A map of this year's final state scores on the annual Quality Counts report card shows states ranging from a pair of rare B-pluses to a low of D.
September 4, 2019 – Quality Counts
State Grades on K-12 Achievement: Map and Rankings


Examine the grades and scores that states and the nation earned on the K-12 Achievement Index in Quality Counts 2019, along with how they scored on a host of indicators that go into those rankings.
September 4, 2019 – Quality Counts
State and National Highlights Reports


The Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Reports capture the key data you need to assess your state's performance, including on school funding and equity. (National report available as well.)
January 16, 2019 – Quality Counts
Grading Scale and Methodology


Here's a quick and easy guide to the grading scale and each of the indicators that go into making up the 50-state grades for this year's Quality Counts.
September 4, 2019 – Quality Counts
Sources and Notes: How We Graded the States


How does the Education Week Research Center determine the grades given to states and the nation in the 2019 Quality Counts report? Learn more about the report's grading scale, methodology, and sources.
January 16, 2019 – Quality Counts
Quality Counts 2019: Grading the States - Education Week
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Lock-Ins and Walkouts: The Students Changing City Schools From the Inside - The New York Times

Lock-Ins and Walkouts: The Students Changing City Schools From the Inside - The New York Times

Lock-Ins and Walkouts: The Students Changing City Schools From the Inside
Teenagers are helping to lead integration efforts, protesting against discrimination and demanding more inclusive curriculums.




They have locked themselves inside school buildings for days on end to protest discrimination.
They have called into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s weekly radio show to demand action on integrating schools, and have even followed him to Iowa to confront him about arrests and suspensions for students of color.
Education politics in New York City is often controlled by well-connected lobbyists, wealthy benefactors and crisis communications professionals.
But recently, the most prominent — and sometimes most effective — movements for change in the nation’s largest school system have been created and fueled by those with the most at stake: students.
A new crop of student groups, led by highly organized teenagers who have staged major rallies and protests, have helped define a swirling citywide debate about how race and class exclude vulnerable students from accessing all city schools have to offer.

Here’s how six teenagers with different backgrounds, political viewpoints and public school experiences are working to change a public school system of 1.1 million students and 1,800 schools — along with some of the city’s most prestigious private schools.

Chassidy wasn’t nervous about getting in trouble when she and her classmates locked themselves in a building at her prestigious Riverdale private school, sleeping on an air mattress in her principal’s office for three nights in a row.
She was only worried that her group, Students of Color Matter, would be ignored in their fight against what they believe is a racist school culture at Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx.
But by the second day of the protest, prompted by a video in which CONTINUE READING: Lock-Ins and Walkouts: The Students Changing City Schools From the Inside - The New York Times





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Parents Organize Online to Pressure Schools and Get Rid of Bad Teachers | Teacher in a strange land

Parents Organize Online to Pressure Schools and Get Rid of Bad Teachers | Teacher in a strange land

Parents Organize Online to Pressure Schools and Get Rid of Bad Teachers
So there it was, right out in the Twitter open:
Public school parents et al: What if we could use a site like Blind to chat anonymously with other parents at our kids’ school, share concerns and complaints, including about bad teachers, and organize to pressure administrators to do something about it?    @MichaelPetrilli
Appropriately, the very first (polite) comment came from a teacher:
Are you being facetious? @IngridFournier
And…no, no he wasn’t. It’s really frustrating, Petrilli says, to see all the things that are wrong in his child’s public school, and not be able to do anything about it. That weak principal! Etc., etc.
There followed a long string of mostly coherent tweets, centered around salient points: You don’t need an app for that, plenty of ways to form groups. Anonymous chats tend to go sideways, sometimes direly so, and anonymous kvetching solves nothing. This kind of thing is a security/data-sharing nightmare, technologically—especially when you have no idea to whom you’re speaking, online.
That devolved into union-bashing and ‘my kid has a bad math teacher,’ precisely the CONTINUE READING: Parents Organize Online to Pressure Schools and Get Rid of Bad Teachers | Teacher in a strange land

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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter News - State and National

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter News - State and National

Charter News - State and National

 Charter schools in this country reached something of a milestone this year - it's been 25 years since the first one started in Minnesota.  But there is increasing evidence they are either sliding downward and/or stalling out. From the NY Times:

KIPP’s internal reckoning has coincided with a moment in which New York’s elected officials and Democratic presidential candidates have turned decisively away from the charter movement. Both groups are eager to please their allies in teachers unions, which have consolidated power over the last year.
It is also fascinating to watch the Democratic presidential contenders shy away from talking about K-12 public education.  They all seem to just want to talk about higher ed and student debt, a worthy topic.  Cory Booker, who had a very profound effect on Newark public education, is especially not one who wants to talk. He has very little in the way of good outcomes to talk about despite the Zuckerberg dollars poured into NPS.

Beto O'Rouke's wife started a charter school in El Paso.  His kids attend public school in El Paso but it's unclear to me if they are traditional schools or charter schools.

But Bernie Sanders is coming out swinging, calling out both the lack of CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter News - State and National


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Diane Ravitch Joins Nick Hanauer's Podcast, Pitchfork Economics - Network For Public Education

Diane Ravitch Joins Nick Hanauer's Podcast, Pitchfork Economics - Network For Public Education

Diane Ravitch Joins Nick Hanauer’s Podcast, Pitchfork Economics



Episode Info

Like many rich Americans, Nick used to think that focusing their philanthropic efforts in the country’s education system could heal many of our biggest problems. But in The Atlantic last month, he admitted he was wrong—better schools won’t fix America unless we fix inequality first. He’s joined this week by Diane Ravitch, a giant in the education policy world who also changed her mind about what works and what doesn’t. Can these two converts from the theory of educationism find a new way to expand educational opportunity in America while also combating runaway income inequality?
Diane Ravitch is a Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. She is the Founder and President of the Network for Public Education. From 1991 to 1993, she was Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, where she led the federal effort to promote the creation of voluntary state and national academic standards. In her book ‘The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education’, Ravitch examines her career in education reform and repudiates positions that she once staunchly advocated.
Further reading:
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The Back to School Episode – Have You Heard

The Back to School Episode – Have You Heard

The Back to School Episode



In the latest episode of Have You Heard we go back to school. And not to the idealized, romantic notion of school but to the harsh reality that awaits too many students and teachers. But wait! Our special guests are all intent on doing something about it. We hear from four educators who have a keen understanding of what needs to change, both inside and outside of school. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to do what they’re doing! Complete transcript of the episode available here. And if you’re a fan of our work, consider supporting us with a donation.

The Back to School Episode – Have You Heard
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CURMUDGUCATION: Harry Potter and Vouchers

CURMUDGUCATION: Harry Potter and Vouchers

Harry Potter and Vouchers


 The Harry Potter books were back in the news for the six zillionth instance of a ban placed on the Rowling classic novels. The books have been repeatedly banned since they were published, usually because conservative religious folks think the books will normalize wizards and warlocks and witchcraft, but Reverend Dan Reehil, a pastor at St. Edward Catholic School, cites that classic argument, but then ratchets things up a bit:

"These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception,” he explained. “The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text."



The books hit 500 million copies sold in 2018, so it's really, really remarkable that we haven't heard anything about this. With half ab billion copies of conjuring spells out there that can be activated just by reading, it's amazing that the whole world hasn't looked like the third act of Ghostbusters for the last two decades.

In the meantime, it seems unlikely that the Rev. Reehik's unilateral removal of the book from the school library (he apparently didn't consult staff) will serious affect any child's ability to get her hands on a copy.

The story is a slow news day chuckle. Except that I want to point something out.

St. Edward is located in Nashville. And Tennessee just okayed an education savings account program, a version of a school voucher. That means that parents can get a chunk of money from the state which they can then use to withdraw their child from public school and then enroll her in a private school. A private school like, say, St. Edward.

That's what vouchers get you-- a system by which your tax dollars can go to support not just a CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Harry Potter and Vouchers


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Texas: Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas: Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas: Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools

The original rationale for charter schools was that they would be innovative, would be accountable, and would have lessons to share with public schools. We now know that the only innovation associated with charter schools is the adoption of stern discipline, reminiscent of schools a century or more ago.
We now know that charter lobbies fight any accountability.
They no longer see themselves as collaborators but as competitors. If they have anything to share, they are not doing it.
Their biggest innovations are diverting resources from the public schools and choosing the students they want. As a sector, the charter industry has produced a plethora of frauds and scandals, which is what you would expect to happen when entrepreneurs get government money without supervision, oversight or accountability.
Charter advocates claimed they would “save poor kids from failing schools,” but in most states the poor kids are better off staying in their public school.
Texas is about to be flooded with dozens of new charter schools, thanks to recent brats by Betsy DeVos to big CONTINUE READING: Texas: Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

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Continuing to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism Rates - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

Year 2019 - News Releases (CA Dept of Education)

Continuing to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism Rates



September

August

July

Year 2019 - News Releases (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr19/
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Wednesday, September 4, 2019

NANCY BAILEY: Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians

Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians

Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians


My last post listed reasons why many children don’t learn to read. Poverty was behind many of the items.
Poor students attend poor schools where they miss out on the arts, a whole curriculum, even qualified, well prepared teachers. Students might end up in “no excuses” charter schools with only digital learning.
But, next to hunger and healthcare, one of the worst losses for children in poor schools is the loss of a school library with a real librarian.
Stephen Krashen, a well-known reading researcher and advocate for children, provided a study he and his co-authors did as proof why school libraries help children be better readers. He is adamant that children need access to books, and he believes good school libraries are “the cure.” We often hear that getting books into the hands of very young children is important. It’s also critical to ensure that children who are in fourth grade and beyond have access to books!
Many poor schools have closed their school libraries, citing a lack of funding. Oakland, California lost thirty percent of their school libraries. Cities from Los Angeles to New York report library closures.
Chicago has lost school libraries. Some there blame the teachers union who pushed not to replace the librarian at one elementary school with volunteers. But good CONTINUE READING: Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarian




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Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers | EdSource

Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers | EdSource

Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers
Teachers would also need background check in form "Certificate of Clearance" by next July 


As a result of an agreement reached last week between Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders, California charter school teachers will have to get the same background checks and the same credentials, certificates or permits as teachers in regular public schools. 
The agreement, which addresses a major point of contention in the push to reform California’s nearly three decades old charter school law, would eliminate at least one of the many disparities in how charter schools and regular public schools operate, with ramifications for the over 600,000 students attending charter schools in California. These students comprise just over 10 percent of California’s public school enrollment of 6.2 million students.
But if Assembly Bill 1505 is approved by the full Legislature, the changes will happen in phases.  By July 1, 2020, all teachers in charter schools, whether credentialed or not, would have to obtain a “Certificate of Clearance” from the state before they would be allowed to teach.
Currently, all California public school teachers, whether in charter schools or regular public schools, are required to undergo a background check. But only those with a teaching credential or permit issued by the California Commission on Teacher CONTINUE READING: Gov. Newsom, legislative leaders agree on certification for all charter school teachers | EdSource

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