KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all

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

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

Jersey Jazzman: The Death of the Merit Pay Fairy in Newark

by dianeravitch / 45min

Jersey Jazzman has posted an obituary for the Merit Pay Fairy. He says it died in Newark, when teachers negotiated a new contract, deep-sixing a Merit Payplan that they endorsed in 2012. JJ demonstrates with facts and evidence that merit pay failed. He begins: The Merit Pay Fairy lives in the dreams of right-wing think tanks and labor economists, who are absolutely convinced that our current teac

YESTERDAY

An Open Letter Against the New Nationalism—An Appeal to Christians

66by dianeravitch / 20h

This Open Letter appeared in Commonweal. Open the link to see the signatories. Each day more signs point to a tremendous shift in American conservatism away from the prior consensus and toward the new nationalism of Donald Trump. This is evident not only in the recent National Conservatism Conference held in July in Washington, D.C., but also in the manifesto signed by a number of Christians who

Providence Plans to Defund Its Public Schools to Expand “No Excuses” Charter

31by dianeravitch / 21h

The evidence is clear that privately managed charters can get higher test scores by culling, exclusion, and attrition. It’s equally clear that charters drain resources from the public schools that enroll most students. Most public officials seem to understand that it costs more to run parallel systems, one public, one private. But not in Rhode Island, where Governor Gina Raimondo is a big fan of

Stuart Egan Fact-Checks Baker Mitchell: He Prevaricates

by dianeravitch / 22h

Stuart Egan read Baker Mitchell’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal defending charters against critics who say they foster segregation, and he was flabbergasted. Here is his post. He includes Baker Mitchell’s Wall Street Journal article, fulminating against the critics. Then he cites the ProPublica article, Lindsay Wagner’s reporting, and John Merrow’s commentary, all reinforcing that Baker Mitche

A Charter Founder Defends His For-Profit Charters in the Wall Street Journal

20by dianeravitch / 23h

The Wall Street Journal editorial pages has been promoting school choice—charters and vouchers—for many years. It sees public education as a government monopoly, not a public service. It has published article after article explaining away the failures of school choice and re-interpreting negative evidence. A few days ago, the paper may have struck a new low when it published a defense of charter

KIPP Co-Founder Sues KIPP for Defamation

27by dianeravitch / 1d

Mike Feinberg, co-founder of KIPP in 1994, was swiftly fired in 2018 after two KIPP graduates accused him of sexual impropriety. Now Feinberg is suing KIPP. Valerie Strauss reports: A founder of the KIPP charter school network who was fired in 2018 after being accused of sexual misconduct is suing the organization, saying the allegations were false and that his career and reputation have been des

AUG 22

Parkland Survivors Offer A True Gun Control Plan

45by dianeravitch / 1d

The survivors of the Parkland (Florida) massacre created an organization called March for Our Lives, which pulled together a massive event on the Mall in DC in a few weeks after the shootings. At the time, Trump promised swift action, then changed his mind, and nothing changed. Since then there have been other mass murders with assault weapons, and once again Trump promises to act, the NRA tells

Pennsylvania: Bethlehem Superintendent Speaks Out Against Harm of Privatization

47by dianeravitch / 1d

Take five minutes and watch as Superintendent Joseph Roy of the Bethlehem Area School District explains how private charters are harming the public schools and the unfairness of the funding formula, which is rigged on behalf of the charters. This year, private charters will subtract $1.8 billion from the budget of public schools in Pennsylvania. Governor Tom Wolf has proposed revising the charter

Hollywood Divided About Charters

by dianeravitch / 1d

As the backlash against private charter schools intensifies, even Hollywood recognizes that the grand experiment in privatizing the nation’s public schools is a dying cause. Reed Hastings, billionaire founder of Netflix, made charters a fashionable thing in Tinseltown, but critics have emerged to shatter the money-powered consensus. Some of them woke when charter founder and LAUSD Member Ref Rodr

The Heiress Who Funded the Anti-Immigration Movement

by dianeravitch / 1d

The New York Times published a fascinating story about the heiress who became obsessed with stopping immigration and limiting population, especially in poor countries. Reporters Nicholas Kulish and Mike McIntire rely on the personal letters and writings of Cordelia Scaife May, the most significant funder of anti-immigration groups, to examine her views. Cordelia Scaife May, an heiress to the Mell

Rhode Island: State Senator Demands Ousting of Achievement First Because of Abusive Behavior Towards Students

37by dianeravitch / 2d

Democratic State Senator Sam Bell called for the removal of Achievement First management after news spread about a pattern of abusive behavior towards students. Achievement First is based in Connecticut and practices “no excuses” discipline. “Dismantling the Achievement First Rhode Island network needs to begin with removal of the Achievement First Corporation from any managerial involvement with

AUG 21

Study: Charters in California Enroll Fewer Students with Disabilities, Fewer with Severe Disabilities

29by dianeravitch / 2d

It has been widely reported that charter schools enroll fewer students with disabilities and few of the students they enroll have severe disabilities. The California Teachers Association and the United Teachers of Los Angeles reviewed public records to document the enrollments of students with disabilities in charter schools in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Oakland. The study is titled “State of De

Michigan: District Designs $48 Million High School Anticipating Active Shooter

24by dianeravitch / 2d

Fruitport, Michigan, will open a new high school designed to offer safe spaces in the event that an active shooter appears on campus. It is quite a commentary on the state of our society. The design of the new sections includes subtle safe spaces that can be used to protect students in the event of a shooting, and long curved hallways that would offer protection too. “To cut down on the sight lin

New York City: Carranza Gives Big Salary Hikes to Top Aides

by dianeravitch / 2d

New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has given fat salary hikes to members of his inner circle. Some are earning more than Superintendents in other districts. Some have never been teachers. Some have odd job titles. What does the “Deputy Chancellor for School Climate and Wellness” do? What does the “Deputy Chancellor for Community Empowerment and Partnerships” do? What does the “Depu

New York City: A Report Card on Chancellor Carranza

by dianeravitch / 2d

Blogger Ed in the Apple reports on education and politics in New York City and New York State. In this post, he reviews Chancellor Richard Carranza’s tenure in the city. This is the most startling insight to me: The dominant education issue last year was the segregated nature of the admission process for the Specialized High Schools, and the entrance examination, the Specialized High School Admis

Jan Resseger: Ohio Expands Vouchers at Expense of Public Schools

70by dianeravitch / 2d

In the latest Ohio state budget, there are big giveaways to religious and private schools. The Legislature expanded the state’s voucher programs. Originally, vouchers were supposed to “save poor kids from failing public schools,” but in the new expansion, vouchers are available to high school students who never attended a public school. That is, they subsidize students in religious and private sc

Texas: The IDEA Charter FlimFlam

200+by dianeravitch / 3d

Betsy DeVos has awarded more than $200 million to the IDEA charter chain to expand in Texas and beyond. IDEA plans to swamp San Antonio, El Paso, and other cities. IDEA promises that all students will graduate and go to college, but it doesn’t promise that all students will make it to senior year, or that they will make it in college (earlier studies by Ed Fuller, then at the University of Texas,

STRIKE POSSIBLE! Teachers in Clark County, Nevada, Announce Plans for Strike

by dianeravitch / 3d

The Clark County Education Association (Las Vegas) announced that teachers will strike on September 10 if they can’t reach a settlement with the district before then.

AUG 20

Harold Meyerson: How the Media Should Cover Corporations

20by dianeravitch / 3d

ON TAP Today from the American Prospect AUGUST 20, 2019 Meyerson on TAP How the Media Should Cover Corporations Now. Yesterday’s restatement of corporate purpose from the Business Roundtable is a clear acknowledgment that America’s economic pooh-bahs have realized they’re about as popular as a strain of bacteria. There is much to be said about this about-face, in which the Roundtable said that th

Please Send $1 to Keep Steve Bullock on the Debate Stage

24by dianeravitch / 3d

Steve Bullock entered the Democratic primary race late, and he starts at the back of the pack. He needs to have 130,000 individuals contributions in order to qualify for the next debate. I am asking you to send Steve Bullock $1 to keep him on the stage and to encourage him to talk about what he has done to improve public schools in Montana. What he has going for him is two things: 1) he is the on

West Virginia: Charter Advocates Are “Perturbed”

by dianeravitch / 3d

When teachers in West Virginia launched the Education Spring of 2018, one of their demands was “no charter schools.” The state’s public schools are already underfunded, and public school teachers had low pay compared to nearby states. The teachers understood that the addition of charter schools would mean fewer resources for public schools. Given that West Virginia is a largely rural state, there

Newark Wipes Out Performance Pay for Teachers

by dianeravitch / 3d

When then Governor Christie and then Mayor Cory Booker persuaded billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to give $100 million to impose corporate reform on Newark, performance pay for teachers was the heart of their plan. Pay the “best” teachers for getting high scores, eliminate “bad” teachers, and Newark schools would be transformed. In a major blow to the corporate reform movement, the latest teacher cont

John Thompson: An EPIC Case of Fraud in Oklahoma

38by dianeravitch / 3d

Fraud after fraud is associated with virtual charter schools, especially when they are created by entrepreneurs with the purpose of making money. They do make money, but they don’t educate students. Why do legislators and governors allow this scam to proliferate? Every educator should shout their outrage at the ripoffs, happening in state after state. Virtual charter schools are the epitome of “e

New Orleans: An Amazing Feat of Spinning Poor Results!

29by dianeravitch / 4d

The Education Research Alliance at Tulane University has accomplished a spectacular feat with its latest report about the “academic progress” (or lack thereof) of the all-charter district in New Orleans. The report claims that the disruption strategy of school takeovers and closures is responsible for the academic improvements in the district, but at the same time admits “The average school impro

AUG 19

Teresa Hanafin of the Boston Globe: Trump’s Vacation Recovery Day and Conspiracy Theories

by dianeravitch / 4d

One of my favorite columnists is Teresa Hanafin of the Boston Globe, who writes the daily Fast Forward, which always cites interesting tidbits from the Old Farmers’ Almanac, plus her observations on the news: Trump has another Golf Recovery Monday, with nothing on his public schedule, although it may last more than one day since it’s actually a Vacation Recovery. A few things from the weekend: —

Trump Equivocates on Gun Control, As Usual

by dianeravitch / 4d

After each mass shooting, Trump promises to take action, to get tough, etc. Then he hears from the NRA and passes the ball to Congress. In the Senate, Mitch McConnell sends any restrictions on guns to the trash heap. James Hohman writes in the Power Post: Following his now well-established pattern after mass shootings, Trump continues to back away from his initial support for “strong background c

New Orleans: 25% of Students are “Chronically Absent”

33by dianeravitch / 4d

In New Orleans, the nation’s first all-charter district, a quarter of students are “chronically absent.” But help is on the way! A new initiative, funded by the DeVos Foundation and the Grand Rapids public Schools, will educate students and parents about why it is a very bad idea to miss school.

Colorado: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

500+by dianeravitch / 4d

The state board of education in Colorado has decided to turn over schools in three districts to a for-profit management corporation that claims it can turn the schools around, at a cost of millions of dollars. Where there the firm has ever turned any schools around before isin doubt. The political connections of the firm are not. Read here about the story and a deep dive into the history of MGT C

Tom Ultican: TFA Is Bad for America

34by dianeravitch / 4d

Tom Ultican has written a scathing critique of TFA as a faux “progressive” political operation whose true goals are to promote privatization and to destroy the teaching profession. TFA supplies the teachers for private charter schools, 90% of which are non-union. TFA is Bad for America TFA is the darling of the billionaires. Almost every billionaire foundation has dropped millions into TFA’s big

SomeDAM Poet on Teach for America

21by dianeravitch / 5d

“To Fail America (TFA)” To Fail America, train five weeks Choose the haughty Ivy geeks Supermen without their capes Climbing down the fire escapes

How Successful Is TFA?

38by dianeravitch / 5d

Teach for America is very successful at fund-raising. It has a very impressive board of directors, chaired by Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and one-time Republican nominee for governor of California. Another board member is Tennessee billionaire Bill Haslam, who most recently was governor of that state and a strong proponent of vouchers. And Greg Penner, a member (by marriage) of the

AUG 18

Florida Will Give $500 Million in Tax Cuts to 1% of Corporations

82by dianeravitch / 5d

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Republican-controlled legislature passed a tax cut of $500 million that will apply only to the state’s biggest corporations, excluding 99% of all businesses. https://digitaledition.orlandosentinel.com/html5/mobile/production/default.aspx?pubid=7f2e94da-42a6-42b3-91be-f4782530a2d0&edid=d491e409-f75d-4016-8652-f74f7e2d6e68 The tax bill was quietly passed last y

Jan Resseger: Tax Cuts in Kansas Produce Civic Disaster

by dianeravitch / 5d

Jan Resseger describes the after-effects of former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s crash program to cut corporate and income taxes and expect an economic boom. The boom never came, but public services were strained to the breaking point. Jan quotes liberally from Governing magazine: Governing Magazine just published an extraordinary profile of Kansas state government —what was left of it after Sa

Los Angeles: LAUSD Ponders Dumb Plan to Grade Schools

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

The reason that parents and teachers are giving Nick Melvoin a rating on YELP is in response to his plan to rate teachers, mainly by the test scores of their students. Jeb Bush invented the template for grading schools from A-F, based mainly on their test scores. It became a convenient way to close public schools and turn them over to charter operators. It is an dumb idea for many reasons, becaus

Los Angeles: Teachers and Parents Rate Nick Melvoin on Yelp

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

Teachers and parents have listed Nick Melvoin on Yelp as a business, and they are rating him. Nick is one of the leading charter advocates on the LAUSD school board. He was elected because of millions from the charter lobby and its billionaire allies. https://www.yelp.com/biz/nick-melvoin-lausd-board-member-los-angeles His ratings are terrible. If he were a teacher, he would be fired.

Economic Policy Institute: CEO Pay Soars, Worker Pay Does Not

by dianeravitch / 6d

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO compensation has grown by 940% since 1978. Worker compensation, however, grew only 12% during the same period. The report was written by economist Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe. Mishel led EPI for many years. The media always describes EPI as “left-leaning” because it is critical of economic inequality. It’s research is impeccable.

AUG 17

Ohio: Gun In Unlocked Case in School Found by First Grade Children

49by dianeravitch / 6d

Two first-grade children found a gun in an unlocked case in South Bloomfield Township last spring. Highland Local Schools officials were alarmed to learn that a gun used as part of a concealed carry program to protect students was found by two first-grade students who removed it from its unlocked case. The incident played out in mid-March in an administrative office beside Highland Elementary Sch

Trump’s Large Union Crowd: “Show Up or No Pay”

300+by dianeravitch / 6d

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Trump’s large crowd of union workers at a Shell plant in Pennsylvania were given an ultimatum: attend the rally or lose a day of pay. The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was clear Tuesday: Either stand in a giant hall waiting for President Donald Trump to speak or take the day off with no pa

Steven Singer: Charter Schools Are Gobbling Up My School District

by dianeravitch / 6d

Do you want to understand why Pennsylvania’s charter school law needs to be reformed? Let Steven Singer explain. Singer teaches in Pennsylvania. In this post, he describes the dangers that privatization poses to his school district. I work in a little suburban school district just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that is slowly being destroyed by privatization. Steel Valley Schools have a pro

Pennsylvania: The Political Contributions of the Owner of the State’s Largest Charter School

55by dianeravitch / 6d

Pennsylvania’s largest charter school is the Chester Community Charter School. It is owned by Philadelphia lawyer Vehan Gureghian, who is a major donor to the Republican Party in the State. He was the biggest contributor to former Republican Governor Tom Corbett. What is surprising about his political donations is how little it takes to win the affection of the party in power. The Chester Communi

Pennsylvania: Governor Wolf Proposes Charter Law Reform, Charter Lobby Cries Foul

36by dianeravitch / 6d

Three years ago, the Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale declared that the state’s charter law was the worst in the nation. The scandals and frauds were frequent, and many public school districts teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. But Republican Governor Tom Corbett and the Republican Legislature had no interest in reforming the charter law. A major charter owner was the single bigge

Betsy DeVos Funds IDEA and Kipp to Saturate San Antonio with Charter Schools

1Kby dianeravitch / 7d

Texas Public Radio describes Betsy Devos’s audacious plan to overwhelm San Antonio with charters created by two corporate chains: IDEA and KIPP. Some of the new charters will open in middle-class areas with good public schools. 

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

A Charter Founder Defends His For-Profit Charters in the Wall Street Journal | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Charter Founder Defends His For-Profit Charters in the Wall Street Journal | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Charter Founder Defends His For-Profit Charters in the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal editorial pages has been promoting school choice—charters and vouchers—for many years. It sees public education as a government monopoly, not a public service. It has published article after article explaining away the failures of school choice and re-interpreting negative evidence.

A few days ago, the paper may have struck a new low when it published a defense of charter schools by Baker Mitchell, the founder of a for-profit chain of charters in North Carolina, a non-educator who rakes in millions of dollars every year by owning four charters.

When he saw the WSJ article by Mitchell, North Carolina Teacher Stuart Egan pointed out that Baker Mitchell was reiterating the talking points created by Rhonda Dillingham, executive director of the North Carolina Association for Public [sic] Charter Schools.

Who is Baker Mitchell? He is a retired electrical engineer and a libertarian in the Koch brothers’ mold. He moved to North Carolina in 1997 and soon became allied with Art Pope, a rightwing libertarian who funded the Tea Party takeover of the state in 2010.

ProPublica featured Baker Mitchell as an example of a businessman who was turning public education dollars into his own private profits.

Here is an excerpt:

The school’s founder, a politically active North Carolina businessman named Baker Mitchell, shares the Kochs’ free-market ideals. His model for success embraces CONTINUE READING: A Charter Founder Defends His For-Profit Charters in the Wall Street Journal | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teachers' Unions Develop Curriculum to Deal with Trauma of ICE Raids – Payday Report

Teachers' Unions Develop Curriculum to Deal with Trauma of ICE Raids – Payday Report

Teachers’ Unions Develop Curriculum to Deal with Trauma of ICE Raids

Earlier this month, a record-breaking ICE raid detained over 600 immigrant workers at several meatpacking plants in Mississippi. Quickly, images of small children stranded at school, after learning that their parents’ detention by immigration authorities, began appearing on TV.

“I need my dad,” one 11-year-old girl Magdalena cried in a viral CBS video.”I am not going to have nothing for the first day of school for me. My dad bought me everything for me to live over here. The rent. Now, I don’t know where I am going to eat.”

Increasingly, teachers are being asked to step in to help children affected by the terror and trauma of deportation. 

“While children in Mississippi were at their first day of school, their parents were being rounded up by the government,” says American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “Those kids came home ready to talk about what they learned at school, who they met and what they saw, only to be greeted with abject fear at the hands of a cruel government policy designed to terrorize an already frightened community.”

Over 2.5 million undocumented youth attend public school in the United States, where they are faced with the constant risk of choosing whether to risk deportation by attending school. An additional  4.1 million public school children, who are U.S. citizens, live in a household, where one or both parents are immigrants.

“As educators, we know that separation from a parent causes trauma for a child that can impede learning opportunities and social and emotional health,” says Jackson Federation of Teachers President Akemi Stout, who was part of an AFT emergency response group that helped respond to the raids in Mississippi this month.  “Our members will do their part as frontline protectors of students.”

With millions of children affected by increasing ICE raids targeted undocumented workers,  many CONTINUE READING: Teachers' Unions Develop Curriculum to Deal with Trauma of ICE Raids – Payday Report

Crime is down at LA schools. But there’s a caveat – Daily Breeze

Crime is down at LA schools. But there’s a caveat – Daily Breeze

Crime is down at LA schools. But there’s a caveat

There were 2,014 crimes reported at school campuses in the city during the 2018-19 school year, a 10.1% drop from the previous year, according to Crosstown, which is based out of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

LOS ANGELES — With Los Angeles schools back in session, parents should find comfort in police statistics showing campuses are getting progressively safer, according to a report released Thursday by a nonprofit news organization.

Crosstown, which is based out of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, reported that based on Los Angeles Police Department data, there were 2,014 crimes reported at school campuses in the city during the 2018-19 school year, a 10.1% drop from the previous year.

The 2018-19 figure was down dramatically — 25.8% — from 2010-11, when LAPD statistics became publicly available, according to Crosstown.

Crosstown’s report noted that the numbers are tempered by a corresponding reduction in enrollment at city schools over the past decade, with the LAUSD projecting this year’s enrollment at 557,560, down 12.4% from 2010-11. The organization also noted that the numbers are based only on the crimes reported to the LAPD. The Los Angeles School Police Department oversees investigations of crimes at LAUSD schools, and that agency reports to the LAPD.

During the 2018-19 school year, high schools were the site of 45.6% of reported crimes, while middle schools represented 28.4% and elementary schools 26%, according to the report. The most common type of crime reported at high schools was theft, while battery/simple assaults were the most common crime at middle schools and burglary most prevalent at elementary schools.

Overall, crimes committed at schools represent a small fraction of the offenses committed citywide. Crosstown’s report found that of more than 2 million crimes reported between Jan. 1, 2010, and July 31, 2019, only 1.37% occurred at schools.

The report also noted that reported crimes are just one measure of assessing safety at campuses. The LAPD data does not, Crosstown reported, take into account other issues that could create challenges for students, such as bullying, fighting or drug use.

According to the report, the five most common types of crimes at schools during the 2018-19 school year were:

Elementary Schools: CONTINUE READING: Crime is down at LA schools. But there’s a caveat – Daily Breeze

Repairing the Damage to Science | Live Long and Prosper

Repairing the Damage to Science | Live Long and Prosper

Repairing the Damage to Science

ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM

The Growing Partisan Divide in Views of Higher Education

In 2012 53% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents in the U.S. believed that higher education was a net positive for the nation and 35% had a negative view. Now, in 2019, those numbers have reversed. 59% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents have a negative view of higher education while 33% have a positive view. Over the same time period, the results for Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents have been consistent — about 66% positive and about 20% negative.

Ed Brayton, who blogs at Dispatches from the Culture Wars “is not at all” surprised by this.

Most Republicans Reject Higher Education

This is not at all surprising. The right, and Trump in particular, have made rejection of expertise and knowledge almost an article of faith. They look at university faculty that leans liberal, decide they’re the enemy and demonize them in every way possible. Trump embodies this with his constant rejection of science, learning and experience. No one knows anything about anything but him, so he doesn’t need no fancy schmancy liberal eggheads telling him that global warming is real or that perhaps he should listen to our career civil servants in the diplomatic corps, who might just know something he doesn’t about the countries they’ve been deeply involved with for decades.

Not only is this not surprising, but, as the surveys have shown, it’s not new either. In 2012 more than a third of America’s Republicans thought that a post- CONTINUE READING: Repairing the Damage to Science | Live Long and Prosper

It's A Structural Thing | Blue Cereal Education

It's A Structural Thing | Blue Cereal Education

It's A Structural Thing

I'm sure it will surprise absolutely no one to learn that I'm not naturally the strict, by-the-book authoritarian type. In fact, I traditionally hate doing things that way – I really do.

That doesn’t mean I think those who manage their classrooms (or families, or companies) that way are necessarily doing anything wrong. I’ve worked with teachers who care deeply about each and every child in front of them but would nonetheless rather burst into flames than hang a motivational poster, let alone bend a rule. It’s their very consistency that works for them. (It’s hard to feel picked on or abused when the Superintendent’s kid is serving the same after-school detention you are for being the same 23 seconds late after lunch a second time.)

One of the best pieces of advice I was given as a student teacher (or as anything else, for that matter) was from a soccer coach and social studies educator who wasn’t even my assigned mentor at the time. It’s been over twenty years, but I remember his name (Coach Kinzer), his voice, and even his face as he spoke. I even remember the school library where we talked while his kids worked on a project of some sort. (The project I CONTINUE READING: It's A Structural Thing | Blue Cereal Education

A Gates-funded program meant to keep low-income students pushed them out instead - Vox

A Gates-funded program meant to keep low-income students pushed them out instead - Vox

A Gates-funded program meant to keep low-income students pushed them out instead
The failure of a college advising program shows why education reform is so hard — and how we can get it right.

Many low-income and first-generation college students don’t graduate from college. One thing that seems to change that? High-quality advising. When a school can offer advisers who work directly with students to address barriers to getting an education, students perform better and are more likely to graduate.

So how can we make advising work better? In 2013, the Gates Foundation started a new initiative called iPASS (Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success) to see if it can make the difference. iPASS funds school efforts to use technology to help advisers identify at-risk students, follow up with them regularly, connect them to tutoring, and otherwise get them what they need to succeed and graduate.

But there’s a problem.

According to a new analysis of the effects of the iPASS program by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University and social policy research group MDRC, it’s not doing anything. “The enhancements have so far had no discernible positive effects on students’ academic performance,” the report concludes. Even worse, at one school the program backfired and made students likelier to drop out.

That’s bad news.

But I come here not to bury iPass but to praise it — or rather its creators. Like the program itself, the study was funded by the Gates Foundation. That’s significant; historically, charities haven’t always been great about funding careful third-party evaluations of their new programs. When the programs fail, they don’t always notice.

By funding such a study, the Gates Foundation was able to realize that iPASS is not yet working. And now, colleges are thinking about how to make it better.

Education research is really hard. Lots of well-meaning programs backfire, do nothing, or are worse than just giving people money. The latest research is a reminder of how hard this is, but also an example of how to do it right.

Can we make advisers better able to do their jobs?

Advisers at colleges play a critical role, but their job is very challenging. They’re often CONTINUE READING: A Gates-funded program meant to keep low-income students pushed them out instead - Vox

How the Koch brothers co-opted minority groups in a push for a profit-based approach to education – Raw Story

How the Koch brothers co-opted minority groups in a push for a profit-based approach to education – Raw Story

How the Koch brothers co-opted minority groups in a push for a profit-based approach to education

Under the mantra of civil rights, billionaires such as Eli Broad, Bill Gates and the Koch Brothers and the powerful corporate-funded lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are using venture philanthropy and the political process to press for school reforms in the United States.

The ongoing Vergara law case in California in which nine students are suing the state over teacher tenure laws, is backed by Student Matters, a non-profit that has received donations from the Broad Foundation and the Walton Foundation, run by the Walton family that founded supermarket chain Wal-Mart.

The driver behind the case is a campaign to loosen labour rules in order to make it easier to fire “bad” teachers, under the argument that their presence discriminates against disadvantaged children. Opponents of the case argue that it is a blatant attempt to change the conversation from the realities of California’s divestment in education — the state is 46th in the nation in spending per student in 2010-11, and 50th in the number of students per teacher.

What these organisations and other others such as the the Koch brothers, Bradley Foundation, Heritage Foundation, Students First and Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education – all supposedly supporters of school reform – have as a common denominator is a vision of a profit-based market approach to education. CONTINUE READING: How the Koch brothers co-opted minority groups in a push for a profit-based approach to education – Raw Story

MGT Consultants: Profiting from the School Crisis in Gary, Indiana and Taking Over Three Colorado School Districts | janresseger

MGT Consultants: Profiting from the School Crisis in Gary, Indiana and Taking Over Three Colorado School Districts | janresseger

MGT Consultants: Profiting from the School Crisis in Gary, Indiana and Taking Over Three Colorado School Districts

This blog will take a late summer break.  Look for a new post on Wednesday, September 11, 2019.

In a blog post on Monday, Diane Ravitch warned: “Colorado be very afraid.”  She is commenting on a decision by the state board of education in Colorado to hire a for-profit education management company to take over three school districts which Colorado’s state board has deemed “troubled.”

Ravitch is writing about an article from Sentinel Colorado, which explains: “As Colorado school districts struggle and fail to raise student test scores in schools with entrenched problems, they’re turning to private companies to fix public schools, for millions of dollars. Some critics question whether at least one of those private companies is qualified for the job based on their track record in another state and their close ties to what some say are anti-public schools alliances.”  The three districts are to be taken over by Florida’s MGT Consulting.

Sentinel Colorado‘s Grant Singer explains: “Leaders of the Florida-based MGT say they specialize in allocating public money more effectively while improving teacher effectiveness in the classroom and school culture. Its management process includes sub-contracting areas of school work to other companies, and it boasts completing over 10,000 projects in many states and abroad over several decades… MGT’s current chief executive officer also co-founded a consulting and lobbying firm tapped into a national network of for-profit education institutions, Republican education reformers, the testing industry and charter schools. That’s part of what draws controversy as public school academia question the motives of a company headed by pro-school voucher officials working to save failing public schools—for profit.”

Colorado state school board members praised MGT’s record in the so-called turnaround of the only whole school district it has managed—for the past two years—in Gary, Indiana.  The fact that MGT Consulting, a for-profit, was praised for work in Gary caught my eye. I have been to Gary, just as I have been to Detroit, whose public schools have shared some problems with CONTINUE READING: MGT Consultants: Profiting from the School Crisis in Gary, Indiana and Taking Over Three Colorado School Districts | janresseger

Seattle Schools Community Forum: SEA Contract Update

Seattle Schools Community Forum: SEA Contract Update

SEA Contract Update

From the SEA Blog:

Aug. 21 was SEA’s initial deadline for a tentative contract agreement. There is no agreement at this point. Bargaining continues today (Thursday, Aug. 22).

Saturday afternoon is the next deadline for the district administration to agree to a tentative agreement (TA). SEA’s bylaws require a TA to be shared with SEA members 72 hours prior to voting, and our next general membership meeting is Aug. 27 at 5 pm.

What’s the problem? So far, district administrators have been unwilling to invest in competitive and professional compensation for Seattle educators or the other support our students need to be successful. Instead, they’ve claimed they don’t have the money – which isn’t true. That’s the same excuse we’ve heard for the last four years. Every year, district administrators predict we’re going to end the school year with a budget deficit. Instead, administrators have built large budget surpluses each year, mainly by spending less on student services than they budgeted.

District budget administrators have consistently made dire predictions about the district’s finances – predictions that never came true.

Based on recent history, SEA members know that we have to constantly fight to get the resources and support our students need. We can’t rely on the district administration to do it on their own. When it comes to budget priorities, we can’t trust the CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: SEA Contract Update

Free Kids From 180 Days Of Stress | Real Learning CT

Free Kids From 180 Days Of Stress | Real Learning CT

Free Kids From 180 Days Of Stress

A recent article in The New York Times claims that our children and adolescents are under great stress because we, as a society, have given up on childhood. While economic, racial, and familial factors contribute to that stress, the education given to our children and adolescents every school day through the application of the Common Core Standards can be a major stress as well. That stress occurs because those standards were created without addressing the cognitive, psychological, and social development of children and adolescents.

We need to investigate how mandating standards that are not based on the needs of  children and adolescents contributes to their stress.

1. Could it be that making kindergarten “the new first grade” is part of the problem?

2. Could it be that focusing on teaching kindergarteners skills to make them “college and career ready” instead of helping them to learn through play and by using their imagination is part of the problem?

3. Could it be that mastering 90 discrete skills in kindergarten instead of learning through active exploration and hands-on play-based learning is part CONTINUE READING: Free Kids From 180 Days Of Stress | Real Learning CT