Wednesday Warriors Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Wednesday Warriors Diane Ravitch's blog 

A site to discuss better education for all

ALERT: Federal Voucher Bill Will Suck Money Out of Public Schools and Create Profits for Donors

3by dianeravitch / 8min

The American Association of School Administrators c ommissioned a report about the pending legislation in Congress that would diminish funding for public schools and create generous profits for donors to voucher plans. This is a raid on 

Minnesota: Governor Dayton, Please Veto the Voucher Legislation!

1by dianeravitch / 1h

The Minnesota legislature passed legislation to create “education savings accounts” (vouchers) and attached it to the state budget. Governor Mark Dayton, a Democrat, has said he will veto any legislation that divert public money to 

Illinois: An Urgent Message from Chicago Teachers

1by dianeravitch / 20min

The Chicago Teachers Union called on public-spirited citizens across the state to urge the State Senate to vote for legislation on behalf of Chicago’s students, teachers, and public schools. The end of the session in Springfield draws nigh. 

How to Protect Your Child’s Privacy

5by dianeravitch / 1h

Leonie Haimson and Rachael Stickland of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy created a toolkit for parents to defend against the invasion of children’s privacy by commercial and governmental interests. The toolkit was devised in collaboration with the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. Haimson and Stickland explain why they developed the free toolkit and why parents should use it. They

Cathy O’Neill: Don’t Grade Teachers with Bad Algorithms

6by dianeravitch / 2h

Cathy O’Neill is a mathematician who wrote a wonderful book called “weapons of Math Destruction,” in which she showed how math and big data can be misused to reach very bad decisions. She recently wrote an article for Bkloomberg News in which she explained why VAM is a terrible way to evaluate teachers. She writes: “For more than a decade, a glitchy and unaccountable algorithm has been making lif

Laura Chapman: The Bradley Foundation’s “Enemies List”

2by dianeravitch / 2h

Laura Chapman, our much loved reader and brilliant researcher, dug into the recently released files on the Bradley Foundation. An earlier post described the reach and riches of this very conservative foundation, which has underwritten the proliferation of vouchers. She writes: In August 2014, the board of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation asked for a list of “organizations that attack groups

Inside the Bradley Foundation: Documents Reveal Plan to Spread Right-Wing Ideology, State by State

28by dianeravitch / 4h

Hackers broke into the computers of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and released a treasure trove documenting the aggressive efforts to spread right-wing ideology. I posted about these documents earlier, citing an article called “Weaponized Philanthropy” by Mary Bottari. There is so much material that there will be many articles and books about the political uses of an allegedly charitable

Good News: Supporters of Public Schools Elected to School Board in Ossining, New York

5by dianeravitch / 4h

I know this may seem like small potatoes after the devastating loss in Los Angeles. But it is good news. Two strong supporters of public schools were elected to the school board in Ossining, New York. One is Lisa Rudley, a co-founder of New York State Allies for Public Education, and a leader of the successful Opt Out movement. Her running mate was Diana Lemon, a local civic leader. Both are pare

A Teacher in Florida Reacts to the LAUSD Election

14by dianeravitch / 5h

The good guys lost. The guys with the backing of the billionaires won. The public schools of Los Angeles will shrink in numbers as the charter industry takes charge of the district. Although the charter candidates wrapped themselves in the banner of Obama and Duncan, their victory is indeed a victory for the Trump-DeVos agenda. A teacher in Florida reacted: I am sitting here at 6 am in So. Florid

Charter Supporters Win Control of Los Angeles School Board

100+by dianeravitch / 6h

The two pro-charter candidates swept to victory last night in Los Angeles. Nick Melvoin, the candidate of the charter industry, beat Steve Zimmer, 57-43%. Charter teacher Kelly Fitzpatrick-Nonez beat Imelda Padilla, 51-48%. It was the most expensive school board race in U.S. history. At least $14 million was spent, most of it by the charter forces to defeat Zimmer. Inthe two districts, only 75,00

YESTERDAY

Los Angeles: Early Returns Favor Privatizers

5by dianeravitch / 12h

The results are just starting to be reported in the Los Angeles school board election. First to report are the absentee ballots, which put the corporate reformer Nick Melvoin into a 60-40 lead over Steve Zimmer. The turnout was very low. Imelda Padilla trails 52-48. You can watch the official returns here. They are updated every 40 minutes. http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/results.html Eli Br

Sara Stevenson Writes to the Texas Legislature: Please Say No to Vouchers

9by dianeravitch / 19h

Sara Stevenson is a librarian at the O. Henry Middle School in Austin, Texas. She sent the following letter to members of the Legislature: Dear senators and congressmen/women, Please don’t add private school vouchers (ESAs) onto HB 21. House Bill 21 gives school districts much needed fiscal relief. Here in Austin ISD, we had to give away $406 million of our tax dollars this year. Next year it wil

DeVos Meets with Home School Lobby

14by dianeravitch / 21h

From Politico Education: EDUCATION SECRETARY BETSY DEVOS MEETS WITH HOMESCHOOL ADVOCATES: DeVos spent roughly 45 minutes late Monday afternoon listening to the needs of homeschooling families during a meeting with officials from the Home School Legal Defense Association. William Estrada, director of federal relations with the group, tells Morning Education they sought to convey to DeVos that home

Rachel Levy: Why I Support Ralph Northam for Governor of Virginia

35by dianeravitch / 23h

Rachel Levy is a blogger, a parent of children in Virginia public schools, and a public education activist, though not in that order. In this post , she explains why she is supporting Lt. Governor Ralph Northam in the Democratic run-off for Governor on June 13. Northam’s opponent Tom Periello is presenting himself as a progressive, and he has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Miami-Dade Teachers’ Salaries Are Lower than Ten Years Ago

100+by dianeravitch / 23h

A blogger called Kafkateach writes that teachers’ salaries are lower now than they were ten years ago , with any gains wiped out by inflation. “In 2007, a 15 year veteran would be making almost $47,000. In inflation adjusted dollars in 2017, that amount would be almost $56,000. Most 15 year teachers currently working in Miami Dade currently don’t break $45,000. And apparently, that’s exactly what

Peter Greene: Oklahoma Wants to Save Money by Deporting Kids Who Don’t Speak English

23by dianeravitch / 1d

I know this seems hard to believe, but in recent years we have learned that some state legislators have hearts of stone. Peter Greene writes about Oklahoma’s bold and mean-spirited initiative: Turning non-English-speaking kids over to the authorities so they will be deported, thus saving the state the cost of educating them. He writes: There’s a lot to unpack in the news from Oklahoma’s GOP legis

New York: One Week from Today, Your Chance to Elect a Teacher to the State Assembly on Long Island: CHRISTINE PELLEGRINO!

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

New Yorkers who live on Long Island in District 9 should vote a week from today in a special election. Christine Pellegrino, a Democrat, is running against Tom Gargulio, a Conservative Party member from Babylon. Christine is the real deal. She is a mother, a teacher, a leader in the Opt Out Movement, and a member of the BATs. She was a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention

Texas Southern University Cancels Senator Cornyn’s Commencement Speech Due to Student Opposition

21by dianeravitch / 1d

Texas Southern University canceled Senator Jon Cornyn’s commencement speech, due to student opposition. Trump gave the commencement address at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s university, where he knew he could expect a friendly reception. It appears that neither Trump nor DeVos will be giving many commencement addresses, except at small evangelical colleges. Students are not passive, and they

Steve Zimmer: The Case Against Myself

30by dianeravitch / 1d

Los Angeles votes today on whether to re-elect Steve Zimmer to the board of education or to choose a man who is a puppet of billionaires who want to turn the schools over to unregulated private operators. Steve deserves to be re-

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Major changes could come to L.A. schools after charter school movement's big win - LA Times

Major changes could come to L.A. schools after charter school movement's big win - LA Times:

Major changes could come to L.A. schools after charter school movement's big win

Supporters of charter schools appeared to win control of the Los Angeles school board Tuesday, a watershed moment with huge implications for how students are taught in America’s second-largest school district.

The charter school movement has long been a major force in Los Angeles school circles. But the victory Tuesday night by pro-charter forces — who dramatically outspent rivals in what was the most expensive election in school board history — gives them the opportunity to reshape the district.

The election marks a defeat for teacher union forces, who have long been a power center in L.A. school politics. With their new majority, charter school backers can press their campaign to expand such schools across the city. Charter forces have long been critical of how the LAUSD is run. Now they will have to show they can steer the massive, often frustrating, bureaucracy better.

Some key takeaways:

1) More charter schools for L.A.?

L.A. Unified has more charters and more charter students than any other school system, but they still account for only about 16% of enrollment. With a majority on the board, charter forces could significantly increase those numbers.

Easier to open more charter schools: A charter-majority school board would most likely put up less resistance to new charter schools and could make it easier for existing charters to have their five-year operating agreements renewed. Charters also could get increased access to district-owned classrooms and to school construction money controlled by L.A. Unified.

Charter supporters say these schools offer high-quality choices to parents whose neighborhood campuses are plagued by low student achievement and other problems. Charters have proved popular with many parents and some have waiting lists.

Charter critics question the claims of success and assert that the loss of students (and the funding that comes with them) imperils the ability of the district to offer full services to parents of children in traditional schools, including those with moderate to severe disabilities.

Big push for more charters: This debate comes at a critical time.

Charter backers, including philanthropist Eli Broad, in 2015 circulated an ambitious, confidential $490-million plan to place half of the city's students into charter schools over the next six years.

They later said that plan, which was disclosed by The Times, had been just a draft for discussion purposes. Still, more of the pieces now are in place for rapid charter expansion.Major changes could come to L.A. schools after charter school movement's big win - LA Times:

 

Why so many students hate history — and what to do about it - The Washington Post

Why so many students hate history — and what to do about it - The Washington Post:

Why so many students hate history — and what to do about it

Back in 1982, a survey was taken of sixth and 12th-graders in a Midwest school district to determine how the students felt about social studies.  The results: The kids were “largely indifferent” or revealed “negative attitudes” toward social studies. If you listen to students and teachers, not much has changed since: A lot of kids in K-12 schools find history class boring.

What’s more, the number of college history majors has been declining; the Los Angeles Times reported:

Since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007, the history major has lost significant market share in academia, declining from 2.2% of all undergraduate degrees to 1.7%. The graduating class of 2014, the most recent for which there are national data, included 9% fewer history majors than the previous year’s cohort, compounding a 2.8% decrease the year before that. The drop is most pronounced at large research universities and prestigious liberal arts colleges.

Some college history departments now take pains to woo students, explaining that there is employment for history majors after they graduate. Boston University, for example, has a page on its website that says “So, you think you want to study history? But you’re worried it might not be the right choice.” It then goes on to dispels myths “that make some nervous about majoring or minoring in history” and says history majors do, in fact, get good jobs:

Myth No. 1: History is boring.

Maybe you had awkward experiences in high school. You assume history is going to be all names and dates and “one damned thing after another,” as the saying goes. Maybe, like Virginia Woolf, you’ve concluded that history is too much about old men and their wars or that it is “more or less bunk,” as Henry Ford proclaimed. (Then again, Ford also called physical exercise bunk, so he might not be the best authority.)

But wait … it’s not like that.

College history is not designed around state-mandated textbooks or standardized tests … Historical knowledge is powerful currency for the 21st century.  History increases cultural literacy and sensitivity. You will learn to consider multiple points of view and changing global contexts. And you will get more jokes. It also offers a unique education in the curation Why so many students hate history — and what to do about it - The Washington Post:

 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In L.A. another blow to public education

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In L.A. another blow to public education:

In L.A. another blow to public education

In the most expensive school board election in history, billionaire Eli Broad just bought himself a school system.

Insuring, for the first time, a pro-charter board majority, Nick Melvoin, the candidate of the charter industry, beat Steve Zimmer, 57-43% and Charter teacher Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gonez beat Imelda Padilla, 51-48%.

 At least $14 million was spent, most of it by the Broad-led charter forces to defeat Zimmer. In the two districts, only 75,000 people voted. 

In the 2013 elections, candidates supporting keeping public schools public, were able to overcome the big-money assault on board elections. But this time the flood of campaign spending was overwhelming.

With millions in his war chest, Melvoin was able to run an effective, but dirty campaign against Zimmer, who was backed by the teachers union. He falsely accused Zimmer of responsibility for the iPad debacle, which was in fact the pet project of corrupt former LAUSD superintendentJohn Deasy, a supporter of Melvoin. Deasy currently works for billionaire Eli Broad, who has proposed to put half the students in Los Angeles in privately-run charter schools.

As we work to pass elected school board legislation here in Chicago and put an end to the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In L.A. another blow to public education:

Do education reform right — with an education adequacy cost study (By Jim Finley, CCJEF) - Wait What?

Do education reform right — with an education adequacy cost study (By Jim Finley, CCJEF) - Wait What?:

Do education reform right — with an education adequacy cost study (By Jim Finley, CCJEF)

Despite all the fiscal and other challenges paralyzing Connecticut, there is an opportunity in the 2017 legislative session to take the first real step toward comprehensive, rational and constitutional education funding reform.  That first step is authorizing an education adequacy cost study be conducted in our state as called for in Substitute House Bill 7270 (File 511, House Calendar 351).

Connecticut’s shame is to tolerate among the most economically and racially segregated school districts in the nation.  As pointed out in painful clarity by the plaintiffs in the historic CCJEF v. Rell case now under appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court, too many of our public school students are denied their state constitutional right to an adequate and equitable education.

Connecticut is failing our poor, special need and minority students.  The achievement gap between poor and minority students and other students in our state is among the worst in the country.  The socioeconomic consequences of such unconstitutional indifference are not only dire for the students affected but for our state as a whole.

Our education finance system is broken and needs to be fixed.  Everyone agrees on this.  But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it.

Unfortunately, the wrong way is on full display in the 2017 legislative session.  There are currently at least four proposals to change the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant and special education funding, some public and some not, scurrying around the Capitol.  All repeat the mistakes of the past.

However well-intentioned they may be, all these proposals fail a Do education reform right — with an education adequacy cost study (By Jim Finley, CCJEF) - Wait What?:

School Privatization in the Age of Betsy DeVos: Where Are We in Mid-May? | janresseger

School Privatization in the Age of Betsy DeVos: Where Are We in Mid-May? | janresseger:

School Privatization in the Age of Betsy DeVos: Where Are We in Mid-May?

In a new analysis at Jacobin Magazine, Jennifer Berkshire reports that Betsy DeVos addressed a convention of tech investors and edupreneurs by pushing vouchers as the best form of creative disruption: “Apple, Uber, and Airbnb have worked their disruptive magic on one industry after another. Why aren’t our public schools being similarly disrupted?… But if the nation’s schools are the equivalent of a kitchen-wall rotary phone or the cab that never comes, DeVos was eager to let the audience know that a quick fix is at hand: school choice. The way to disrupt our educational malaise once and for all is to shift the way we think about education to focus ‘on students, not buildings. If a child is learning, it shouldn’t matter where they learn.’  Even the best schools won’t be the right ‘fit’ for all kids, DeVos noted. ‘The simple fact is that if a school is not meeting a child’s unique needs, then that school is failing that child.'”

DeVos’s attempt at sleek packaging of her long and old-fashioned support for the vouchers that have kept religious schools afloat and her endorsements of parents’ right to homeschool their children amuses me. DeVos’s one big idea—giving parents a choice—is definitely conservative, but it’s hard to call vouchers particularly creative or disruptive.  They have been around for quite a while now.

Here in Ohio, where I live, we’ve had private school vouchers for two decades. Tax dollars certainly flow out of the budgets of the state as well as the budgets of the local public school districts to religious schools. In fact, 97 percent of all Ohio voucher dollars pay tuition at religious schools, with much of the money supporting children who began using a voucher in Kindergarten and have kept on attending parochial school—students who whose parents always intended to send them to a religious school and are delighted that tax dollars are helping them pay the tuition. In Ohio, vouchers have been debilitating for public school districts but not particularly disruptive.

Here is a summary of existing school privatization programs, as compiled by the website The 74: “Fourteen states and the District of Columbia provide vouchers that give private schools state funding to pay tuition for students….Seventeen states, including Indiana and Florida, School Privatization in the Age of Betsy DeVos: Where Are We in Mid-May? | janresseger:

Central Park East I: A New Principal! Coming! | Deborah Meier on Education

Central Park East I: A New Principal! Coming! | Deborah Meier on Education:

Central Park East I: A New Principal! Coming!

Dear Friends and colleagues,

I got some encouraging news a couple of days ago that I thought I’d pass on. The Department of Education in New York City has decided to seek a new principal for Central Park East I. As many of you know the school has spent almost two years in a state of crisis as a new principal sought to “”change it.” She believed that progressive education was not suitable for Black, Latino and low-income children. She had other faults that were of a more personal nature. Of course, even with her departure we still keep rebuilding the school. We will keep our fingers crossed and the pressure on to replace her with someone who shares more of our original beliefs and intentions. Rebuilding a school will not be easy and in many ways it requires starting all over again since one cannot replicate but must always invent. For me this is worth celebrating because it represents the power of a community to come together, persevere and eventually be heard.  Of course it should not be so hard to get this kind of change in a public school that belongs to its teachers and families and children. The job ahead of them will not be easy but its friends will hopefully be there to help.Central Park East I: A New Principal! Coming! | Deborah Meier on Education:

 

Jersey Jazzman: U-Ark Screws Up A Charter School Revenue Study, AGAIN: Part I

Jersey Jazzman: U-Ark Screws Up A Charter School Revenue Study, AGAIN: Part I:

U-Ark Screws Up A Charter School Revenue Study, AGAIN: Part I

As someone who spends a good bit of his time debunking many of the claims of the education reformsters, one continuing frustration is how many of them don't seem to learn their lessons. Certainly, we can have good faith debates about education policy, and reasonable people can disagree on many things...

But when you've been called out in public for making a big mistake, and you don't at least attempt to correct yourself... well, it's hard to take you seriously -- even if other, less discriminating minds do.

Case in point:

We parents all have heard the claim that something wasn’t fair. “Suzie got a bigger piece of cake than I did!” “Tommy got to go fishing while I had to clean the garage!” “Malachi had a lot more money spent on his education because you sent him to a traditional public school and me to a public charter school!” Well, maybe we haven’t actually heard that last one very often but it would be a more legitimate gripe than the other ones. 

Students in public charter schools receive $5,721 or 29% less in average per-pupil revenue than students in traditional public schools (TPS) in 14 major metropolitan areas across the U. S in Fiscal Year 2014. That is the main conclusion of a study that my research team released yesterday.

This is from the crew at the University of Arkansas's "Department of Education Reform" -- yes, there is such a thing, I swear -- led by the author here, Patrick Wolf. The study Wolf's team produced purports to show that charters are getting screwed out of the revenues they deserve, which are instead flowing to public district schools.

(Side note: if charters "do more with less," why do they need the same money as public Jersey Jazzman: U-Ark Screws Up A Charter School Revenue Study, AGAIN: Part I:

Big night for charter school-backed LAUSD candidates as Melvoin, Gonez win seats | 89.3 KPCC

Big night for charter school-backed LAUSD candidates as Melvoin, Gonez win seats | 89.3 KPCC:

Big night for charter school-backed LAUSD candidates as Melvoin, Gonez win seats

Two Los Angeles Unified School Board candidates who, with the support of charter school advocates, campaigned on promises to shake up the status quo in the nation’s second-largest school system, won seats on the district’s school board in city elections Tuesday.

Nick Melvoin, a former middle school teacher and one of the best-financed candidates ever in an L.A. Unified race, ousted incumbent Steve Zimmer after a bruising, muddy race dominated by record-setting levels of spending from outside political interest groups.

“I think it is a shake-up,” Melvoin told reporters at a lively campaign party in Venice on Tuesday night. “This election … represents a desire for some new leadership.”

Melvoin will take over the District 4 seat Zimmer’s held since 2009, which covers much of West L.A., Hollywood and a sliver of the southwest San Fernando Valley, on July 1, according to preliminary results.

In the East Valley’s District 6 race, Kelly Gonez bested former labor organizer and city council field deputy Imelda Padilla in a race between political newcomers to fill the open seat left by departing board member Mónica Ratliff.

Board members endorsed by the California Charter Schools Association’s political arm now make up a majority of the district’s seven-member board: Gonez and Melvoin will join Mónica Garcia, who already won re-election outright in the March primary race, and Ref Rodriguez, who won his seat in 2015.

Tuesday's vote caps a disastrous election season for L.A.’s main teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, which backed both Zimmer and Padilla, but also found their normally formidable campaign war chests were no match for much deeper-pocketed charter school groups backing Melvoin or Gonez.

UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl said on Tuesday night that those groups “continue to see Los Angeles as ground zero for attempting to create a [school] system that doesn’t serve all students … and for trying to create a system where elections and school boards can be bought.”

“I fully accept,” Zimmer said at his election night party in Mar Vista, “the mistakes and shortcomings that I’ve made as a school board member and I also own the successes. But this campaign wasn’t about that, and at a certain level, I don’t think any of us should be OK with that.”

Tuesday marked the end of the most expensive campaign season in the recent history of L.A. Unified School Board politics.

Outside political groups combined to spend at least $14.7 million on consultants, canvassers, phone bankers and advertising. This total of “independent expenditures” is more than twice the previous record outside groups have spent on an L.A. Unified race ($6.1 million in 2013).

A collection of interest groups linked to the California Charter Schools Association combined to spend roughly two-thirds of the outside money spent in the race: about $9.5 million.

UTLA’s political affiliates spent a combined $4 million on the race. National teachers unions helped finance the local union’s outside spending, with the National Education Association injecting $200,000 into UTLA’s main political action committee in the campaign’s final week. The American Federation of Teachers supplied another $165,000.

Candidates cannot legally coordinate with groups making these expenditures, which have dominated L.A. Unified politics since voters opted to cap contributions to individual school board candidate campaigns in 2007.

But candidates’ fundraising totals also hit superlative levels this year. Combined, they raised more than $2 million — the highest amount they’ve raised for their own campaigns since the contribution limits took effect in the 2009 race.

L.A. school board candidate Kelly Gonez, left, addresses campaign volunteers before a day of door-knocking on Sunday, March 5.KYLE STOKES/KPCC

Still, it was mostly independent expenditures predominantly filling voters' mailboxes and airwaves — and roughly one-third of that outside money paid for negative advertising. Measured dollar for dollar, most of these attacks came from charter school groups targeting Zimmer, in particular, and Padilla to a lesser extent — but no candidate was exempt from outside mudslinging.

Ads funded by the teachers union attempted to link Gonez and Melvoin — both Democrats — with President Donald Trump because the union views all three as too friendly to charter schools.

During the final weekend of campaigning, both Melvoin and Zimmer took issue with the extent to which this outside messaging crowded out policy debate.

“If I’m an undecided voter,” Melvoin said of the negative ads targeting both him and Zimmer, “I see, ‘They’re both Democrats, they’re both Trump supporters, they’re both bought and paid for!’ It’s just so confusing to cut through the noise.”

“The whole thing is completely surreal,” Zimmer, who alone faced more than $3.3 million-worth of negative advertising, said on Saturday. “If you were to tell me this was a movie, I would be like, ‘Nah, this stuff doesn’t happen in movies.’ … It’s so absurd and so ridiculous, so offensive, and so upsetting that it’s one of those things that if you begin to think about it, you don’t stop thinking about it.”

L.A. Unified School Board president Steve Zimmer, center, campaigning with volunteers in Mar Vista.KYLE STOKES/KPCC

Candidates spent most of the campaign attempting to break out of the framework that tends to  Big night for charter school-backed LAUSD candidates as Melvoin, Gonez win seats | 89.3 KPCC: