St. Louis PD follows the paper trail to investigate for-profit charter schools : BusinessJournalism.org Reynolds Center for Business Journalism

St. Louis PD follows the paper trail to investigate for-profit charter schools : BusinessJournalism.org Reynolds Center for Business Journalism:

St. Louis PD follows the paper trail to investigate for-profit charter schools

By Rosland Gammon on Nov 02, 2011 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation, Rosland Gammon

Elisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looked into Imagine Schools Inc., the nation's largest charter school operator. This image is from Imagine Schools' website: http://www.imagineschools.com.

Elisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch helped me understand why I see so many charter school billboards: it’s a for-profit business. Elisa looks closely at St. Louis schools operated by Imagine Schools Inc., the nation’s largest charter school operator. She finds that the real estate deals often overshadow the students, who haven’t performed well on standardized tests and often lack basic materials. She writes:

“Nevertheless, those schools are generating millions of dollars for Imagine and a Kansas City-based real estate investment company through real estate arrangements ultimately supported with public education money.

“The deals are part of a strategy that has fueled Imagine’s national expansion. In most cases, Imagine sells its buildings to another company that leases them back to Imagine, with the schools themselves shouldering the rent with public funds.”

Imagine operates in 13 states and the District of Columbia; check this map to see if one of its schools is

Experts: Half of Foster Kids Quit High School | EQUAL VOICE

Experts: Half of Foster Kids Quit High School | EQUAL VOICE:

Experts: Half of Foster Kids Quit High School

November 1, 2011 | Filed under: Education,Midwest,Spotlight,West | Posted by: admin

Kelli Kennedy | Associated Press

SACRAMENTO – When Carey Sommer entered foster care in California, he left his mom, his high school and his friends. Bounced from home to home, he changed high schools nine times until the disheartened teen finally dropped out.

“I just started to not really care about high school because I figured I’m just going to move anyway — why does it matter?” said Sommer, who was told it would take an extra year and a half to graduate to make up for credits he lost changing schools.

Sommer, 19, is among the roughly 50 percent of the nation’s 500,000 foster kids who won’t graduate from high school, experts say.

Nearly 94 percent of those that do make it through high school do not finish college, according to a

Educator not always voucher advocate - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Educator not always voucher advocate - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Educator not always voucher advocate

By Jodi Weigand, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 2, 2011

School voucher advocate Michelle Rhee says she doesn't buy claims that using tax money to send children to private schools will worsen the experience for students who remain in low-performing schools.

Rhee once opposed vouchers but changed her stance she became chancellor of the Washington public school system in 2007.

"I'm not going to say to these parents, 'Just give me five years to fix the system,' because their kid doesn't have that time," Rhee, who resigned as chancellor a year ago when a new mayor came into office, told the Tribune

Read more: Educator not always voucher advocate - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_765022.html?_s_icmp=NetworkHeadlines#ixzz1cYliMs2Y

Turning to the Courts to Untangle Texas School Finance Mess | The Transformation Times

Turning to the Courts to Untangle Texas School Finance Mess | The Transformation Times:

Turning to the Courts to Untangle Texas School Finance Mess

by HMoore

Why Am I Here?

Last week, the HISD joined a lawsuit against the State of Texas following the largest funding cuts to public education in the history of Texas. It’s the second time in ten years such a lawsuit has been filed: the last time, school districts prevailed when the Texas Supreme Court declared the school finance system unconstitutional.

Why must our children count on the courts to get a quality education?

A BAD YEAR FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
2011 has been a disappointing year, not only because of the unprecedented reduction in State education funding – a cut of $530 per student per year, or the equivalent of more than $13,000 per classroom per year – but

OCCUPY EDUCATION

OCCUPY EDUCATION:

I occupy education by cautioning parents about the dangers of a...

I occupy education by cautioning parents about the dangers of a standardized, data, not passion, driven agenda in our schools.

I do this by speaking and writing about ways to fix schools, not children as well as providing information about

To whom it may concern,I, April Parent, have learned french as a...

To whom it may concern,
I, April Parent, have learned french as a second language, not in elementary nor secondary school in Ontario, but in an Adult education center in Montreal Quebec. I find the methods easier to understand, it is a friendly

An Unintended Consequence of Policy: Low-Quality Elementary Science Education | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

An Unintended Consequence of Policy: Low-Quality Elementary Science Education | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

An Unintended Consequence of Policy: Low-Quality Elementary Science Education

by obriena

According to a recent report on science education in California, more than half of elementary school principals do NOT believe it is likely that a student receives high-quality science instruction at his or her school.

If anything, I would expect principals to be optimistic about the strength of their schools, so this finding really drives home longstanding concerns about the state of elementary science education.

And it makes sense when one looks at teacher responses to the survey. Forty percent of elementary teachers reported spending less than 60 minutes a week on science instruction. Thirteen percent reported spending less than

This Week In Education: Teaching: Resorting To Heavy-Handed Screening

This Week In Education: Teaching: Resorting To Heavy-Handed Screening:

Teaching: Resorting To Heavy-Handed Screening

by Alexander Russo

Newark isn't the only place where things aren't going particularly smoothly these days. Come to think of it, most big city districts seem full of divisions and disputes. One of several challenges the teachers union in Chicago has made against Board of Education initiatives includes an attempt to block further use of an online survey called TeacherFit (Union files complaint over 'TeacherFit' survey Tribune, Union challenge to teacher screening test faces hurdles Catalyst). Without much explanation or justification, Chicago officials

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Oakland's general strike -- Today's teachable moment

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Oakland's general strike -- Today's teachable moment:

Oakland's general strike -- Today's teachable moment

by Mike Klonsky

"We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%." -- Occupy Oakland General Assembly votes to shut it down.
Teachers and students are playing a central role in today's general strike. Teachers are participating in teach-ins across the city and thousands of students are planning to take part in school walkouts.

Why do wealthy suburban schools really score higher on tests?

by Mike Klonsky

The longer school day propaganda continues

Stupid ed journalism doesn't get any stupider than this. The Chicago Sun-Times annual story about wealthy suburban elementary schools outscoring inner city schools carried this headline: "Top schools have longer

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

John Adams' 276th birthday
“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.” -- The New Civil Rights MovementAnthony Cody
"Bill Gates can produce the

Teach for America teachers outperform counterparts, report says » The Commercial Appeal

Teach for America teachers outperform counterparts, report says » The Commercial Appeal:

Teachers certified through Teach for America and Lipscomb University in Nashville outperform veteran teachers, according to the state card on teacher training released Tuesday.

The report, produced by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, shows which of the state's teacher programs tend to produce highly effective teachers and which do not.

Teach for America in Memphis and Nashville outshone traditional college programs and alternative certification programs statewide.

In Memphis, where TFA members make up 3 percent of the city schools faculty, the teachers showed "statistically significant positive difference" over both veteran and new

Changes coming for struggling RSD schools | wwltv.com New Orleans

Changes coming for struggling RSD schools | wwltv.com New Orleans:

Changes coming for struggling RSD schools

wwltv.com

Posted on November 1, 2011 at 8:58 PM

WWLTV.com

NEW ORLEANS -- New changes are on the way for several struggling Recovery School District schools next year.

The school announced that it will transform nine of its lowest performing schools in New Orleans, including five high schools, three elementary schools and one kindergarten to 12 school.

Changes will include schools being transferred to proven charter systems, removing grade levels or both.

BESE members will have to approve the transfers before they're final.

For a detailed look at the proposed changes, click here.

Make Sure Not to Be Born in Michigan when Poor and Black « Jay P. Greene's Blog

Make Sure Not to Be Born in Michigan when Poor and Black « Jay P. Greene's Blog:

Make Sure Not to Be Born in Michigan when Poor and Black

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

If you want to learn how to read anyway, you need to stay away from Michigan, that is to say Detroit,

Do teacher phone calls to parents work?: What is blocking the research teachers need?

Education Research Report: What is blocking the research teachers need?:

What is blocking the research teachers need?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

Do teacher phone calls to parents work?

In “Studying Teacher Moves", Michael Goldstein offers a “practitioner’s take” on what is blocking the research teachers need and what kinds of useful, empirical studies might help to fill this gap.

“There is almost nothing examining the thousands of moves teachers must decide on and execute every school day,” writes Goldstein. These include decisions such as: whether to ask for raised hands, or cold-call; whether to give a warning or a detention; and whether to accept a student’s answer that is mostly right, or stay with a question until one member of the class reaches a 100% correct answer. One problem with most education policy research is that the element of teacher time is missing. “The return on investment for teacher time and the

British Judges Affirm Importance of Real Consent in Rejecting Assange’s Rape Defense « Student Activism

British Judges Affirm Importance of Real Consent in Rejecting Assange’s Rape Defense « Student Activism:

British Judges Reject Assange’s Rape Defense

by Angus Johnston

A British court has ruled against Julian Assange in his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape and sexual molestation charges against two women.

The two judges ruled on a variety of technical and jurisdictional issues, but the meat of their ruling addressed two questions: whether the complaints against Assange accurately described the behaviors alleged, and whether such acts, if proven, constituted criminal offenses in the jurisdiction in which they occurred.

Rejecting the Assange legal team’s attempt to portray his alleged actions as “disrespectful” or “disturbing” but not criminal, the judges declared (PDF) that the complaint accurately described the allegations and that the behavior described in each of the charges was criminal under the laws of England and Wales:

The first complaint described a situation in which Assange held down the arms of the woman known as AA,

Eduwonk » Blog Archive » Ignoring Red Herrings

Eduwonk » Blog Archive » Ignoring Red Herrings:

Ignoring Red Herrings

Ed Note – This week Eric Hanushek and Diane Ravitch are discussing whether removing the lowest-performing teachers is a good idea. Hanushek started the debate on Monday and Ravitch responded yesterday. Here’s Hanushek’s response below. Ravitch will finish the conversation with a post tomorrow.

By Eric Hanushek

Diane comes back to a simple prescription: We should pursue business as usual with a few extensions of current policy. Unfortunately that is not serving us well, because this is exactly what we have done for several decades. We have developed a system that pays little attention to students and their achievement but that supports any adult who has found a job in schools. This policy does not look good by historical evidence on student outcomes. But it is common to defend this basic lack of management by throwing in red herrings whenever any policy change is suggested.

Once more through the evidence:

We have clear and consistent estimates about the variation in teacher effectiveness that exists in schools. The information comes from

Policy wonk-turned-producer explains new parent activism film | GothamSchools

Policy wonk-turned-producer explains new parent activism film | GothamSchools:

Policy wonk-turned-producer explains new parent activism film

from GothamSchools by Jessica Campbell

Popout

Producers of a new documentary about parent activism say they aim to inspire parents across the country to press for change.

The film, “Parent Power,” traces the organizing story that emanated from an effort to improve a single Bronx school in the mid-1990s and resulted in the citywide Coalition for Educational Justice. Set to premiere on Thursday, “Parent Power” was produced by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, which

Turn on the lights. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Turn on the lights. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

Turn on the lights.

by Fred Klonsky

The Type 75 in charge of the physical plant walks by me as if I were indistinguishable from some piece of classroom furniture.

He looks around my room and the room of my colleague without so much as an acknowledgment that we are standing there.

Naturally, I comment on this.

As if aware of our presence for the first time, the Type 75 asks if I notice the new lights that were installed