October 3, 2011 - PrivatizationWatch.Org

October 3, 2011 - PrivatizationWatch.Org:

October 3, 2011

by nospam@example.com (Editor)

Headlines

FL: Florida judge rules prison privatization procedure unconstitutional
PA: 17 of 24 on state privatization panel contributed to Corbett's campaign
TX: Rick Perry and ALEC
TX: State set to accept P3s for an array of gov facilities
VA: For-profit colleges grab big share of GI Bill money
MI: Bill would permit the privatizing of teachers
OH: Ohio Dems take policy gripes to court, polls
NY: State borrowing from highway, bridge fund
WI: Gov's chief of staff Keith Gilkes resigns
GA: Circling back on Briscoe plans

News summaries
FL: Florida judge rules prison privatization procedure unconstitutional

solidaridad: Mayberry Street Elementary School Needs Help!

solidaridad: Mayberry Street Elementary School Needs Help!:

Mayberry Street Elementary School Needs Help!

"The original vision of charter schools was that they would help strengthen public schools, not compete with them." — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)

NOTE: This is happening precisely because the deep pocketed CNCA Charter Corporation was allowed to go outside of its attendance boundaries and poach students from neighborhood public schools including Mayberry. LAUSD promissed that CNCA would not effected our local public schools, but clearly that isn't the case. Once more, our neighborhood public schools are being sacraficed so that lucrative charter-voucher companies can increase market share and profitability. — Robert D. Skeels


Mayberry Street Elementary sent out an urgent email asking for help - please read the following communication and help take action:

Hello Everyone - WE NEED YOUR

All Education Matters: Occupy Wall Street, the Obama Campaign, and Everybody Else on the Hill

All Education Matters: Occupy Wall Street, the Obama Campaign, and Everybody Else on the Hill:

Occupy Wall Street, the Obama Campaign, and Everybody Else on the Hill

by Cryn Johannsen

With protests being organized across the nation, it is clear that Occupy America ain't going away. When these things erupt, politicians - especially when it's campaign season and they're up for reelection - go to into a "wait and see" mode. From a strategic perspective, it makes sense.

However, some political leaders have already begun to speak out in support of the movement. For instance, when I was tweeting wildly about the arrests of over 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge, I made an appeal to Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and asked him to help the protesters out. Several others sent the

Democurmudgeon: Reagan a lot like Obama on Taxing the Rich.

Democurmudgeon: Reagan a lot like Obama on Taxing the Rich.:

Reagan a lot like Obama on Taxing the Rich.

Think Progress did a nice job of editing Reagan and Obama together to make their point; tax cuts for the wealthy are fair. This video is easy enough for even a tea party knuckle head to understand.

This Week In Education: Thompson: The Challenges Of Coaching Veteran Teachers

This Week In Education: Thompson: The Challenges Of Coaching Veteran Teachers:

Thompson: The Challenges Of Coaching Veteran Teachers

Atul Gawande says that surgery is not like teaching where your best work is behind you by the age of thirty. Just kidding! In fact, Gawande's New Yorker article, "Personal Best" explains the value of programs for coaching teachers to demonstrate its potential in transforming doctors' practice. As Gawande explains, "coaching" is just a fancy term for "teaching" and its most effective technique "is just conversation." However,

Speak Out for South Milwaukee Schools - SouthMilwaukeeNOW

Speak Out for South Milwaukee Schools - SouthMilwaukeeNOW:

Speak Out for South Milwaukee Schools

Posted by Jerrianne Hayslett on Sept. 25, 2011 | 0 comments

Tony Evers, SMPAC, South Milwaukee education, South Milwaukee schools, Katy Sai

South Milwaukee residents who care about what's going on with South Milwaukee schools and what they can do are invited to a public forum with Wisconsin Schools Superintendent Tony Evers on Monday evening (6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.) at the South Milwaukee High School Performing Arts Center, 901 15th Avenue.

South Milwaukee parents, grandparents, PTA/PTO members, concerned community members, teachers, school officials, support professionals -- all are welcome.

Topics of discussion will include:

• South Milwaukee schools quality and accountability
• South Milwaukee community/parent involvement in South Milwaukee schools
• South Milwaukee student progress
• South Milwaukee teaching quality
• How programs and resources are distributed and used in the South Milwaukee school system

This forum, sponsored by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, will be moderated by former television news anchor Katy Sai and will be attended by state Superintendent of Education Tony Evers.

This is a great opportunity for South Milwaukeeans to participate in the discussion about how to Move Education Forward in Wisconsin.

For questions about the event, contact DJ Holub at (608) 276-7711.

Better late than never - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Better late than never - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Better late than never

by Valerie Strauss

It’s good news that the mayor of Washington D.C. suddenly found enough money to keep open on Sundays the single remaining library in the nation’s capital open that day of the week..

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library had been slated to close on Sundays as of yesterday because of budget cuts, but after public criticism, Mayor Vincent Gray announced Friday he had located funds to keep it functioning. Better late than never.

Read full article >>

Key qualities for next superintendent | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Key qualities for next superintendent | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Key qualities for next superintendent

by thenotebook on Oct 03 2011 Posted in Blogger commentary

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This piece was originally published in thePhiladelphia Social Innovations Journal.

by Marc Manella

This fall our colleagues in the School District of Philadelphia are faced with some significant challenges, including the important task of conducting a search for a new superintendent. While there is much being written and spoken about this abstract idea of “leadership,” I wonder if enough thought is being given to the specific qualities and behaviors that comprise effective leadership.

In the year 2000, when KIPP first considered expanding beyond the original two KIPP Academies that had started in Houston and New York, our co-founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin realized that they didn’t want to expand with a traditional franchise model. They didn’t believe that if you simply told schools what curriculum to use, and what color to paint the walls, that the result would be schools that were significantly better than the status quo. In the years since, KIPP has grown to 108

They Are Occupying Wall Street So That You Don’t Have To. Or Do You? | GoingPublic

They Are Occupying Wall Street So That You Don’t Have To. Or Do You? | GoingPublic:

They Are Occupying Wall Street So That You Don’t Have To. Or Do You?

by Nancy Letts

We just returned from adding our support and thanks to the hundreds of people who are occupying Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. They are among the kindest, most polite people I’ve seen in a long time. The park was immaculate. Volunteers were sweeping the pavement, others were quietly playing music, a few were holding signs. All we said was, “Thanks,” each time we met someone new. Gorgeous smiles erupted, “When people like you thank us it makes sleeping in the rain worth it.”

Sometime during the morning a reporter stopped to ask the usual questions: Where do you live? Why are you

The Promise of Citywide Charter Strategies

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:
http://www.eduwonk.com/

Empire State of Mind

by rbrown

by New York City Charter School Center
Good morning Wonkland! Andy was foolish enough to give us the run of the blog this week, and we intend to fully exploit his hospitality.
We’re the New York City Charter School Center, an independent nonprofit organization that works to ensure a high quality charter sector in NYC. Through our citywide strategy, we help new schools get started, provide sector-wide supports to existing schools and build community support in order to ensure charter schools can continue to flourish.
We think the energy and innovation that is present in the best charter schools can help create more great public schools, both charter and district. We are also painfully aware that both the tenor and substance of much of the present debate (Eduwonk excluded, naturally) is a dead-end. We’re trying to do something about that—we hope that comes through in our work and our blogs.
According to stereotype, New Yorkers think it’s not just the best place to be but the only place.  And while we would like to play against stereotype, fair warning, we are going to talk about New York a lot.  It’s not just that we think New York City is the most fascinating hotbed of educational reform, experimentation, debate, and hope in the country, it’s also what we know.
Thanks for reading, and we hope you’ll stick with us through the week.
General disclosures: our major funders are listed here, and two of our seven board members are from the NYC Department of Education, including Chancellor Dennis Walcott.

The Promise of Citywide Charter Strategies

Given this steady growth of the charter school population, and its concentration in cities, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) anticipated a need for correspondent growth and change of the network of charter support organizations (CSOs). NAPCS works closely with CSOs who provide advocacy and technical support services to charter schools. Most of these organizations are state-based associations and resource centers seeking to serve all the public charter schools in a state. However, in recent years, consistent with the growth of charter schools in cities, several city-based CSOs have been created. As these city-based support organizations are becoming more prolific, NAPCS sought to examine the potential for citywide charter strategies as a key leverage point for increasing charter school quality, and ultimately contributing to an overall improvement in edu­cational outcomes in a city. The Alliance partnered with FSG, a leading nonprofit consulting and research firm, to study existing city support and develop recommendations for how to increase support for public charter schools in cities across the nation. This study finds that city-based strategies have the potential to create a shared focus on high-quality schools and improve charter sector coordination. These city-based strategies can be effective at streamlining the path to improving charter school quality and ultimately lead to improved student achievement for the children we serve.

2011_Final_The Promise of Citywide Charter Strategies.pdf (6.00 MB)

What Happened to My Grade Book?: Senators: VOTE NO on H.R. 2218 - Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act

What Happened to My Grade Book?: Senators: VOTE NO on H.R. 2218 - Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act:

Senators: VOTE NO on H.R. 2218 - Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act

by Della

Charter Schools are not a meaningful direction for education reform for these six reasons:

• Charter schools are an idea, a leap of faith made by MBA-style thinkers. They were not an idea born of educators or learning theory.
• Charter schools are denying access to students with special needs to public education.
• Charter schools are resegregating public schools.
• Charter schools have not outperformed public schools.
• There are no requirements that a teacher be trained or certified to be hired by many charter schools.
• Charter schools are found in strip malls in Florida. After reading proposed HR 2218, I expect to see charter schools expand in this nature.

Voters, join me by signing this petition

1) Charter schools are an idea, a leap of faith made by MBA-style thinkers. They were not an idea born of educators or learning theory.

I learned about charter schools when I was a teacher in Colorado. I wanted to know why charter schools were better than traditional public schools. No Child Left Behind stated that if a school did not meet AYP for three years, all teachers would be removed and the school would become a charter. I had no formulated opinion of charter schools at the time. I simply wanted to know more about what they were and why they were the solution.
I read most of the No Child Left Behind Act and set up appointments with a variety of people. I met with our superintendent, a number of people from the Education Commission of the States and my state representative. Once I became more politically involved, I realized the disconnect between education reform and learning theory. People in the field of education policy were not teachers at one point. Their backgrounds varied but they had no base in learning theory.
When I was asking about charter schools, I was referred to a man from the Education Commission of the States who was the major charter school proponent. He offered no proof to me that turning my school into a charter school would work, but we had an interesting conversation. He now he works for a prominent charter school organization.
Charter school advocates had no promise of a grand plan of how to make a charter school a center of learning. Charter schools simply stripped many of the rules away that apply to public schools. The movie Waiting for Superman, while very gripping, had a very slanted view. It made charter schools into the answer for public education when they have actually exacerbated the problem that No Child Left Behind established.

2) Charter schools are denying access to students with special needs to public education.

A very serious problem is occurring because of charter schools. Public education is being denied to students and students are being asked to leave charter schools. Public schools do not turn students away. We do not send children back. Children are not blueberries. Please read Jamie Vollmer's story about Blueberries.

"When talk-show host Oprah Winfrey handed a $1 million check last September to the principal of New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy, 200 students watched the broadcast from a church and celebrated with a brass band.
Lawrence Melrose, a ninth-grader with learning and emotional disabilities, sat next door in a school office. The staff was concerned his fighting and cursing could be an embarrassment..."- from Oprah-Backed Charter School Denying Disabled Collides With Law
-----
"My son, Matthew, was kicked out of Kindergarten in the fall of 2008 at the Harlem Success Charter. It took a long time for me and Matthew to get over this experience, and for me to feel comfortable talking about it..." Eva Moskowitz
----- "It should be noted—and Guggenheim didn’t note it—that Canada (Waiting for Superman)kicked out his entire first class of middle school students when they didn’t get good enough test scores to satisfy his board of trustees. This sad event was documented by Paul Tough in his laudatory account of Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, Whatever It Takes (2009)." The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch

3) Charter schools are re-segregating public schools.

There an investigation into Florida's charter schools re-segregating public schools in Florida. Florida Charters Less Diverse than Other Public Schools by Dave Weber

4) Charter schools have not outperformed public schools.

"When charter schools started in the early 1990s, their supporters promised that they would unleash a new era of innovation and effectiveness. Now there are some 5,000 charter schools, which serve about 3% of the nation's students, and the Obama administration is pushing for many more.

But the promise has not been fulfilled. Most studies of charter schools acknowledge that they vary widely in quality. The only major national evaluation of charter schools was carried out by Stanford economist Margaret Raymond and funded by pro-charter foundations. Her group found that compared to regular public schools, 17% of charters got higher test scores, 46% had gains that were no different than their public counterparts, and 37% were significantly worse." Taken from Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform by Diane Ravitch

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Teachers join Wall Street occupation

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Teachers join Wall Street occupation:

Teachers join Wall Street occupation

by Mike Klonsky

On Sunday, a group of New York public school teachers sat in the plaza, including Denise Martinez of Brooklyn. Most students at her school live at or below the poverty level, and her classes are jammed with up to about 50 students.

“These are America’s future workers, and what’s trickling down to them are the problems — the unemployment, the crime,” she said. She

Whatever Happened to Local Control? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Whatever Happened to Local Control? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Whatever Happened to Local Control?

by Nancy Flanagan

Like any veteran teacher, I have had occasional doubts about turning Big Education Decisions over to local school boards. I spent thirty years teaching in the same small-town district, which morphed from very rural farmland to the fringes of urban exodus during that period.

The prosperous founding-family farmers who sat on our Board of Ed in the 1970s were supplanted by the "rising tide of mediocrity" hand-wringers in the 1980s, "basic education only" cost-cutters in the 1990s and technology enthusiasts in the 21st century.

I don't believe there has ever been a school year when I wasn't teaching at least one board member's child. I've seen local boards make baseless, idiotic decisions and demonstrate the "I'm only on the board to get benefits for my child" syndrome. I've been asked by an administrator to change the grade of a board member's son, and instructed to "forget" that a board member's daughter stole a musical instrument, when the police report was

Madison Prep – 1,2,3 Yellow Light | AMPS

Madison Prep – 1,2,3 Yellow Light | AMPS:

Madison Prep – 1,2,3 Yellow Light

by Thomas J. Mertz

The Talking Heads, “1,2,3 Red Light” (live, 1977 — click to listen or download).

Big news over the weekend in the Madison Preparatory Academy saga. There has been significant and positive movement on four issues by the Urban League of Greater Madison (ULGM). First, they have changed their request from non-instrumentality to instrumentality, increasing control by and accountability to the district. Second, they have agreed to be staffed by teachers and other educators represented by Madison Teachers Incorporated (MTI) and follow the existing contract between MTI and the Madison Metropolitan School District

Education Reform takes a Corporate Path with help from ALEC - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Education Reform takes a Corporate Path with help from ALEC - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Education Reform takes a Corporate Path with help from ALEC

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by the administrative team of United Opt Out: Shaun Johnson, Morna McDermott, Laurie Murphy, Peg Robertson, Tim Slekar and Ceresta Smith (a website dedicated to ending punitive high stakes testing in public education).

In the past year, a number of states have introduced laws that "reform" education in similar ways. In state after state, teacher seniority and due process has been undermined, and the use of standardized tests to pay and evaluate teachers been expanded. In recent months, reports have emerged of a shadowy group that has developed tremendous influence over legislation in states across the country. This group is the American

School Tech Connect: Things That Didn't Happen, Part 2

School Tech Connect: Things That Didn't Happen, Part 2:

Things That Didn't Happen, Part 2

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

Yes, I am in an endless loop about this study, but I think it's important to point out that here in Chicago, many of the rosy phenomena that Secretary Duncan has long talked about in Chicago did not actually occur, at least according to the most recent comprehensive study. They only happened in the imaginations of the PR people.

One thing in particular is this notion of "absolutely closing the achievement gap." Didn't happen. (p. 79)

At the same time,scores on the ACT rose, even though students were not entering high school better prepared. In the elementary grades, test scores dropped—especially in the lowest-performing schools. Equity declined, so that schools serving African American students, and

All Education Matters: Gregory Warner at NPR's Marketplace Discusses Occupy Wall Street And Student Loan Debt

All Education Matters: Gregory Warner at NPR's Marketplace Discusses Occupy Wall Street And Student Loan Debt:

Gregory Warner at NPR's Marketplace Discusses Occupy Wall Street And Student Loan Debt

by Cryn Johannsen

This is great! Marketplace's Gregory Warner discussed the Occupy Wall Street movement and student loans today. AEM has been covering the way occupy and the student loan crisis are entwined with one another, and I have noted how folks down on Wall Street have been carrying signs about student loan debt. Dustin Slaughter (see links below) has been taking superb snapshots of these signs, and I've been able to share them with all of you. Pssst! Folks, follow him on twitter (@dustinalaughter). He's in Boston now, reporting live about the protests there, and is a great first-hand source about the movement in NYC and now Boston. You can read his accountshere.

My favorite remark on the show? The reporter told Warner that he saw one sign that read: "Honk if you have

Schools Matter: A bogus argument for dismissing teacher experience and credentials in compensating teachers.

Schools Matter: A bogus argument for dismissing teacher experience and credentials in compensating teachers.:

A bogus argument for dismissing teacher experience and credentials in compensating teachers.

by skrashen

A bogus argument for dismissing teacher experience and credentials in compensating teachers.

Stephen Krashen

In a recent article in the Sunday Los Angeles Times ("Just rewards for teachers," October 2), Marcus Winter acknowledges that basing teacher quality on student gains on standardized tests, known as value-added ratings, is "far from perfect and thus should not be used in isolation …".

Should educators just focus on teaching?

by skrashen

This is the third of three posts written in response to a post on the NCTE connected community listserv in reaction to Krashen and Ohanian, "Arne Duncan's position on education and poverty." I will not post the original comment and will refer to it only minimally, because, although I have given my permission to quote and share my posts, others posting on the NCTE listserv have not.

Should educators just focus on teaching?

Educators include those who are with children everyday, as well as researchers who have investigated the factors leading to school success. These are the ones who understand what children need, not distant politicians who have not spent months alone in a room with children, or

Let States Reform Education, Don’t Let Them Set a Low Bar: View - Bloomberg

Let States Reform Education, Don’t Let Them Set a Low Bar: View - Bloomberg:

Let States Reform Education, Don’t Let Them Set a Low Bar: View

By the Editors Oct 2, 2011 5:02 PM PT 5 Comments

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In issuing waivers to states under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka No Child Left Behind), releasing them from a 2014 deadline for achieving 100 percent proficiency on standardized reading and math exams, President Barack Obama rightly chastised Congress for its failure to bring the law’s decade-old requirements up to date.

Unfortunately, neither the president nor Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has given Congress strong guidance on how to proceed.

In fending off the immediate crisis -- Duncan says more than 80 percent of schools would fail to achieve 100 percent proficiency by 2014 -- the administration risks allowing states off the hook