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Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Inside Philanthropy: Charters Lose Their Luster in the Philanthropic World | Diane Ravitch's blog

Inside Philanthropy: Charters Lose Their Luster in the Philanthropic World | Diane Ravitch's blog

Inside Philanthropy: Charters Lose Their Luster in the Philanthropic World


Caitlin Reilly of “Inside Philanthropy” writes that philanthropies no longer see charter schools as the means to transform American education. Although a few have doggedly doubled down on their commitment to charters, there seems to be a broad shift underway. Reilly calls it an “inflection point,” a point where change is undeniable.
She writes:
“Though charter schools have acquired a powerful ally on the national level in the form of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, local backlash and scaling challenges have led to questions about the future of the publicly funded, privately run schools.
“Philanthropic enthusiasm for the charter movement is at a similar inflection point. For now, support for charters seems to be holding. However, the schools have had trouble reaching scale and have yet to catalyze the system-wide transformation many backers hoped for.
“Some of the field’s champions take that as a sign of the work left to do. Those foundations are doubling down on their support for the schools.
“Other funders, including former stalwart backers of charters, see the failure of this model to scale and spread as a reason to pause and consider their future investments. Those foundations tend to see charter schools as an important part of the education landscape, but not as a means to transform the system.
“Meanwhile, major new donors arriving on the education scene from the business world haven’t gravitated to charters in the same way that many such philanthropists did a decade ago. While these schools remain a growing sector within K-12, drawing political support and philanthropic dollars, the momentum around charters among funders has palpably slowed in recent years.”
The bottom line is that charters have become politically toxic, and its hard to paint them as “progressive” when Betsy DeVos is their most potent champion and striking teachers demand a moratorium on them. What’s CONTINUE READING: Inside Philanthropy: Charters Lose Their Luster in the Philanthropic World | Diane Ravitch's blog

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Chicago scores a win. We don’t want nobody sent. – Fred Klonsky

Chicago scores a win. We don’t want nobody sent. – Fred Klonsky

Chicago scores a win. We don’t want nobody sent

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Lori Lightfoot on Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. June, 2018.

Nobody could have predicted the scope of the election results in Tuesday night’s Chicago municipal election.
There was the defeat of the head of the storied Chicago Democratic Party by no less than a margin of 2-1 in every Chicago ward.
There was the victory of a an African American gay woman who announced her run against Rahm Emanuel – the sitting mayor – when few else would take on the challenge.
The final margin of victory was a whopping 74% to 26%.
Even in my own 35th ward where Alderman Carlos Rosa was one of Preckwinkle’s most aggressive supporters, Lightfoot carried the ward with 66% of the vote. It was a greater vote margin than Rosa received himself in the February primary.
There was the defeat of 40th ward alderman Patrick O’ Connor. He was Rahm’s floor leader. He was Rahm’s choice to replace the disgraced Eddie Burke to head the powerful Finance Committee. O’Connor goes back to the old Vrdolyak 29, which tried to block the reform agenda of Chicago’s first Black mayor in 1983.
O’Connor was beaten handily by a Democratic Socialist, Andre Vazquez.
Other Democratic Socialists who will sit in City Council include the incumbent Daniel Rosa in my 35th ward, Daniel La Spata in the 1st ward and Byron Sigcho-Lopez in the CONTINUE READING: Chicago scores a win. We don’t want nobody sent. – Fred Klonsky

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The Special Olympics funding outcry is over, but it’s been crickets over some of DeVos’s other proposed education budget cuts. Think civics, history, arts . . . - The Washington Post

The Special Olympics funding outcry is over, but it’s been crickets over some of DeVos’s other proposed education budget cuts. Think civics, history, arts . . . - The Washington Post

The Special Olympics funding outcry is over, but it’s been crickets over some of DeVos’s other proposed education budget cuts. Think civics, history, arts . . .



The Trump administration has proposed eliminating a $4.8 million program to enhance American civics and history education. It has also called for making these cuts that would eliminate programs:
  • $1.2 billion for programs that help boost student academic achievement before and after school and during the summer.
  • $190 million to boost literacy instruction from birth to age 20, plus $27 million for grants aimed at improving literacy by supporting school libraries, professional development for school librarians and the provision of high-quality books to children and adolescents in low-income communities.
  • $27 million for arts education programs for children from low-income families and students with disabilities.
  • $10 million to boost community schools, which address the comprehensive academic, social and health services of students and families.
  • More than $207 billion over 10 years from student loan programs, including the elimination of hundreds of millions of dollars that go toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness and of Stafford subsidized loans for low-income students
And there are plenty of other cuts the Trump administration proposed for 2020 for the Education Department. They include a reduction of more than 55 percent in federal funds for the Federal Work-Study program, which helps students who have to work while attending college.
The other cuts just haven’t gotten the same attention as the outcry over a failed attempt to eliminate federal funding to Special Olympics.
Let’s review:
President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget proposed the elimination of the nearly $18 million that goes to Special Olympics.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos went to Capitol Hill last week to defend the budget, as she is supposed to do, though during testimony she conceded she hadn’t signed off on that particular decision. The Michigan CONTINUE READING: The Special Olympics funding outcry is over, but it’s been crickets over some of DeVos’s other proposed education budget cuts. Think civics, history, arts . . . - The Washington Post

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Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure? - Living in Dialogue

Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure? - Living in Dialogue

Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure?

By John Thompson.
As the Network for Public Education documents a billion dollars wasted on failed charter schools, the national news is full of the latest charter financial scandals stretching from New Jersey to California. We can’t forget, however, that virtual charters, like Oklahoma’s Epic for-profit charters, have the potential of producing even more harm to our poorest students. The millions of dollars invested in Epic allow adults to pretend that thousands of students have not been abandoned, merely because they have enrolled in the online school.
In March, Epic Charter School brought about 3,000 supporters to the Oklahoma Capitol in support for school choice and virtual schools. Epic’s well-funded public relations machine also filled the Capitol with the food, tee shirts, talking points, and the “swag” that has become an increasingly criticized part of the for-profit charter’s “aggressive marketing” campaigns. For instance, Todd Ziebarth of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools explains that there are“very significant problems with the performance of the (virtual) schools.” He says, “One of the strategies to remaining open is making donations.” Zeibarth explains, “Epic uses giveaways of big-ticket items like concert tickets to reward referrals, and it recently opened a heavily branded children’s play area at (Oklahoma City’s) Penn Square Mall.”
Epic then tried to counter criticism of its students’ outcomes with the Oklahoma Cost Effectiveness Report, FY2014-FY2016 by Robert Sommers, an ally of corporate reformer Jeb Bush, and a founder and CEO of Carpe Diem Learning Systems, a heavily promoted, failed virtual charter school. 
The Oklahoma Cost Effectiveness Report is a classic example of a “paper” by an “astroturf” political group, pretending to be research. Instead of offering a substantive evaluation of Oklahoma education outcomes, it merely offers graphics to illustrate political soundbites and provide“branded” content for the local press. It claimed that Epic charters rank 19thin the state in cost effectiveness.
Of course, this lobbying effort is nothing new, but it seems to be less effective than it used to be. so far, House Bill 1395 by Rep. Sheila Dills, R-Tulsa, received bipartisan support in a 95-0 vote.The bill CONTINUE READING: Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure? - Living in Dialogue

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NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! | Class Size Matters

NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! | Class Size Matters NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now!
Class Size Matters is proposing that the NYC Council allocate $200 million to be targeted to reducing class size, starting first in the early grades and in struggling schools.
That amount would pay for the salaries of about 2,000 new teachers, which could reduce class size in as many as 8,000 classrooms – as adding a new teacher at a grade level lowers class size for all the other students in that same grade in the school.
These funds would represent less than one percent of the $26.9 billion dollars that will be spent by DOE next year.
Research on class size reduction shows a narrowing of achievement gap and eventual cost savings
As research shows, smaller classes lead to significant improvements in learning, as well as student engagement, disciplinary referrals, teacher attrition, and high school graduation rates, particularly for disadvantaged students. [1]   Economists have estimated that smaller classes have economic benefits about twice the costs, especially for low-income students and children of color, who make up the majority of students in NYC public schools. [2]  This is why class size reduction has been identified as not only boosting achievement for all students, but also is one of only a handful of reforms shown to narrow the achievement gap between economic and racial groups.[3]
Since Mayor de Blasio took office, student achievement has been flat or declining, as measured on the NAEP exams, the most reliable national assessments, and the achievement gap between students of different economic and racial groups has widened.[4]
Smaller classes will also likely lead to substantial cost savings in terms of lowering special education referrals, raising four year graduation rates as students move through the system more quickly, reducing grade retention rates and lessening teacher training costs, as teacher attrition rates decrease.[5]
While the Mayor has focused most of his efforts on expanding preK and now 3K, a letter sent by over 70 professors of education and psychology to then-Chancellor Farina in 2014 emphasized that any gains from preK would likely be undermined without concurrent effort to reduce class size in grades K-3.[6]  The most authoritative large-scale randomized experiment ever done in preK by Vanderbilt University, the gold standard in research, found no academic benefits from the program once students entered third grade.[7]
As Dale Farran, one of the Vanderbilt lead researchers said, “Too much has been promised from one year of preschool intervention without the attention needed to the quality of experiences children have and what happens to them in K-12.” [8]  As both Farran and the other lead researcher, Mark Lipsey concluded:
 “The income-related achievement gap … does not exist solely because children do not have a pre-K experience or even a “high quality” pre-K experience. There are other important factors at play including increasing income segregation in the public schools and the low quality of schools serving the poor.” [9]

History of class size trends in NYC and popular support
In the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, the state’s highest court concluded in 2003 that smaller classes were needed for NYC students to receive their constitutional right to a sound basic education.  Yet class sizes are even larger now, particularly in the early grades. Since 2007, average NYC class sizes have increased sharply and continue to be 13-30% larger than class sizes in the rest of the state.  This fall, there are more than 336,000 students in classes of thirty or more.[10]
The increase in class size in the early grades has been particularly sharp.  Until about 2011, the DOE abided by a side agreement to cap class sizes at 28 students per class in grades 1-3, under an initiative that was originally established by the City Council when Peter Vallone was Speaker.[11] After 2011, the DOE refused to abide by those caps, which has led to the number of students in classes of thirty or more in these grades surging by nearly 3,000%.
In a UFT teacher survey from 2014 – the most recent survey publicly available – 99% NYC teachers responded that class size reduction would be an effective reform to improve NYC schools.  About 90% of teachers said that this would be a “very effective” reform – far outstripping any other proposal.[12]
According to the DOE’s school environment surveys, smaller classes has been the highest or second highest priority of parents out of nine choices when asked what changes they would like to see in their children’s schools. [13]
What about space?
In about half the school districts, there is space to lower class size now. In some overcrowded districts, preK students could be moved into CBOs, many of which are under-enrolled and in danger of closing.  Kindergarten students could also be placed in DOE preK centers where they could be provided with smaller classes and less chaotic conditions. DOE could also choose to move out co-located charter schools.
Overall, there does need to be an expedited capital plan.  The proposed five-year capital plan as currently designed is both underfunded and excessively backloaded, with 50,000 of the 57,000 new school seats not completed until 2024 or later.  Another $100 million in upfront costs amortized over time would fund more than 21,000 additional seats, given the current 50% state reimbursement for capital expenses. And as shown in the preK program, where there is political leadership, space can be found.  The same can happen with a coordinated and prioritized class size reduction plan.

Below are budget comparisons to put the proposed $200 million for class size reduction in perspective:
DOE spending in FY 2019 Education Budget: [14]
  • $89 million for 2nd grade Literacy coaches (without any positive results so far.)[15]
  • $125 million: Increase in fair student funding, without an appreciable impact on class size.[16]
  • $136 million: Absent Teacher Reserve.[17]
  • $192 million per year: Renewal program to turn around struggling schools (without clear evidence of systemwide academic improvement – except for schools that did lower class size.)[18]
  • $195 million for Community Schools. (Results not yet released from RAND evaluation.)
  • $325 million: Tuition reimbursement for private schools for students with IEPs.[19]
  • $878 million for Universal preK.
For FY 2020, the Mayor has proposed:
  • $9.3 million for a new K-8 science curriculum
  • $109 million more for 3K expansion
  • $300 million in projected increases for special education services
Overall NYC DOE budget:
  • Spending on central admin increased by 22% between 2016 – 2018 (by $38.3 M)
  • School support organizations – increased by 30% since 2016 (by $76.6 M)
  • General ed instruction – increased by 10% since 2016 (by $604 M –much of this for preK)

Prepared by Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, April 2, 2019
[14] Much of the data for FY 2019 is from May 2018 NYC Council finance committee report  https://council.nyc.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2018/05/040-DOE.pdf
NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! | Class Size Matters NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019

CURMUDGUCATION: MT: Meat Widgets And Personalized Learning

CURMUDGUCATION: MT: Meat Widgets And Personalized Learning

Meat Widgets And Personalized Learning


In Montana, the connection between Personalized [sic] Learning and vocational training has been made pretty explicit.

There, some leaders are throwing support to PL not because it would be good for students or would solve educational problems, but because it would solve workforce development problems.

Solving workforce shortages one widget at a time.
State Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, recently showed off one of the state's PL systems to fellow legislators:

“We know in the state we have a huge shortage in the workforce. We have a hole, both in meeting our workforce needs and in servicing our students,” Jones said. “We have about 12,000 kids graduate per year. About 7,000 of them go onto a four-year college — and we have good four year programs — but 5,000 are where? We can’t tell you. Schools can’t tell you.”

Ten-- count 'em, ten-- bills have been introduced to push the model across the state. Legislators are also "aiming to remove barriers in the public school system in order to encourage students to seek professional opportunities while they’re in school and to fill community worker needs."

This focus on "advanced opportunities" is a big part of the push, and the PL being emphasized here speaks very little about personalizing to the student's style or interests, and seems mostly focused on letting students set their own pace so that they can rip right through what passes for their education so they can get right out there and start being somebody's useful meat widget as soon as CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: MT: Meat Widgets And Personalized Learning




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