Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart:

FEDS ADMIT U.S. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ‘FORCED’ STATES TO ACCEPT COMMON CORE FROM ITS START

In a remarkable admission, the former director of the Race to the Top (RttT) competitive grant program and chief of staff to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the federal government “forced” full support for adoption of the Common Core standards from each state by requiring its governor, chief state school officer, and head of the state board of education to sign off on the grant application.

Joanne Weiss, who is now an “independent education consultant,” writes at the Stanford Social Innovation Review that the RttT grant program, funded through President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill in the name of helping low-income, poor-performing schools, “offers lessons in high-impact grantmaking that are applicable not only in education but also in other fields.”

She states:

The Department of Education runs about 150 competitions every year. But among those programs, Race to the Top stands out. It had more than $4 billion to allocate to competition winners, and it attracted the participation of nearly every state in the union. It arguably drove more change in education at the state, district, and school levels than any federal competition had previously been able to achieve.

Weiss, who led RttT from its start, explains the federal government took advantage of the fact that states were strapped for cash due to the recession.

“[S]o the large pot of funding that we had to offer was a significant inducement for states to compete,” she writes, adding the surprise number of 46 states willing to sign onto the Common Core standards initiative was due to “our decision to leverage the spirit of competition.”

Though Weiss apparently believes she and the U.S. Department of Education (USED) fostered “competition,” her essay essentially admits to remarkable amounts of manipulation of states, as well as non-transparency, at the hands of a puppeteer federal government:

To help each state bring all parties to the reform table, we deployed four tools.

First, we forced alignment among the top three education leaders in each participating state—the governor, the chief state school officer, and the president of the state board of education—by requiring each of them to sign their state’s Race to the Top application. In doing so, they attested that their office fully supported the state’s reform proposal.

Second, we requested (but did not require) the inclusion of signatures by three district officials—the superintendent, the school board president, and the leader of the relevant teachers’ union or teachers’ association—on each district-level MOU. This approach, among other benefits, gave unions standing in the application process without giving them veto power over it.

Third, we created tangible incentives for states to gain a wide base of community support for their plans. Securing buy-in from multiple stakeholders—business groups, parents’ groups, community organizations, and foundations, for example—earned points for a state’s application. Having the support of a state’s teachers’ union earned additional points.

Fourth, as part of the judging process, we required officials from each state that 

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start - Breitbart:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here:

Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

SPS put out a press release about Advanced Learning and testing.  The Board is due to vote on acceptance of the latest AL plan to OSPI at the Board meeting tomorrow night (and it's not even being discussed - it's on the Consent Agenda).

After you read this thread, my recommendation if you are an AL parent or prospective parent, is to send an e-mail to your own director (or all of them or really just Director Peters who seems to listen on a regular basis) and ask that this item be REMOVED from the Consent Agenda.  That will put it on the path to being actively discussed.

Write to: SPSdirectors@seattleschools.org 

Reader Lynn has been reading and asking questions and it seems that Advanced Learning will be changing policy almost at will (and without much notification to parents).  From AL:

Now that we have formal Superintendent Procedures it will be necessary to update them periodically as do most other programs and services. The current 2190SP was presented to C&I last fall and was made available for public comment prior to being signed in January 2015. The same process will be followed with any revisions to the procedures.

The most recent Advanced Learning Task Force (2013-14) made its recommendations through the equity lens, and these recommendations found their way into 2190SP. Any subsequent adjustments will be made through that same lens, that is, increasing the number of historically Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here:

This is How We Win Newark - on Vimeo

This is How We Win on Vimeo:

This is How We Win Newark

This is How We Win

Public education is a right. The move to Charter Schools in Newark and elsewhere -- whether intended or not -- is destroying public school systems.

This story needs to be told -- especially the story of students, parents and teachers fighting to save their community schools.

Help be part of documenting this story!

We need 

- teachers, parents, and students to share your stories.

- media students and professionals (sound techs, colorists, social media, camera person, editors)

To get involved, contact us at newarkwins@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Tracey Noelle Luz

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!:

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two

Following up on my most recent post, about the “Lawsuit in New Mexico Challenging [the] State’s Teacher Evaluation System,” I testified yesterday for four hours regarding the state’s new teacher evaluation model. As noted in both articles linked to below, I positioned this state’s model as one of the most “arbitrary and capricious” systems I’ve seen across all states currently working with or implementing such systems, again, as incentivized via President Obama’s Race to the Top program and as required if states were to receive (and are to keep) the waivers excusing them from not meeting the previous requirement written into President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2011, that all children would be academically proficient by the year 2014.

I positioned this teacher evaluation model as one of the most “arbitrary and capricious” systems I’ve seen across all states in that this state, unlike no other I have ever seen, has worked very hard to make 100% of its teachers value-added eligible, while essentially pulling off-the-shelf, criterion- and norm-referenced tests and developing (yet not, in my opinion, satisfactorily vetting or validating) a series of end-of-course exams (EoCs) to do this. This also includes early childhood teachers using, for example, the norm-referencedDIBELS. Let us just say, for purposes of brevity, this (and many other of the state’s educational measurement actions) defy the Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing.

Nonetheless, the day’s testimony also included testimony from one high school science teacher who expressed his concerns about his evaluation outcomes, as well as the evaluation outcomes of his high school, science colleagues. And the day ended with two hours of testimony given by the state’s model developer – Pete Goldschmidt – who is now an Associate Professor at California State University Northridge. Time ran out, however, before cross-examination.

For more information, though, I will direct you all to two articles that capture the main events or highlights of the day.

The author of the first article titled, “Experts differ on test-based evaluations at NM hearing,” fairly captures the events of the day, as well as the professional and collegial New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Underway: Day Two | VAMboozled!:

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive:

Progressive Education Fellows 

Introducing the 2015 “Progressive Education Fellows,” an online gathering of prominent advocates, activists, thinkers, and writers in the progressive education movement.

The Fellows come together at a critical time for public education in the United States. Not since the Civil-Rights-era battles over school desegregation has the debate about public education been so intense and polarized. The Fellows come from every region of the country, and from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of expertise. They are teachers, administrators, journalists, parent activists, and leaders of the movement to defend public schools. You can find their writing here at The Progressive website, and also follow them on Twitter. Read what Lead Fellow Jeff Bryant has to say onwhy we need the Fellows project.

 

Jeff Bryant, Lead Fellow and Southeast Regional Fellow 

Jeff is director of the Education Opportunity Network and associate fellow at Campaign for America's Future. He owns a marketing and communications consultancy in Chapel Hill, NC, and has written extensively about public education policy. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffbcdm.

Xian Barrett, Chicago Fellow

 Xian is a founding member of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators and former political director of the Chicago Teachers Union. He previously taught Law, History, and Japanese Language and Cultures in the Chicago Public Schools, and received numerous teaching awards, including being selected as a 2009-2010 U.S. Department of Education Classroom Teaching Ambassador Fellow. Xian founded a citywide youth-led social justice organization and believes that if you ask students what they are passionate about and work with that—their learning will belong to them.

 

Jennifer Berkshire, Northeast Regional Fellow

Jennifer is a freelance journalist who writes about the intersections of race, education reform and the remaking of the urban landscape.  She is the creator and editor of EduShyster, where she chronicles the end of public education with a wry eye. Follow her on twitter.

Ashana Bigard, Southcentral Regional Fellow

Ashana is a life long resident of New Orleans, mother of three, social justice organizer, and advocate for children and families in Louisiana. She currently advocates with the Education Justice Project of New Orleans, and the United Students of New Orleans.  Ashana also organizes with the Woman’s Health & Justice Initiative and for expended housing affordability opportunities for low-income families. 

Peter Greene, Midwest Regional Fellow

Peter has been a classroom secondary English teacher for over thirty-five years. He lives and works in a small town in Northwest Pennsylvania, and blogs at Curmudgucation.

Jesse Hagopian, Seattle Fellow

Jesse teaches history and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School–the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013.Jesse is the editor of, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, a founding member of Social Equality Educators (SEE), a recipient of the 2012 Abe Keller Foundation award for “excellence and innovation in peace education,” won the 2013 “Secondary School Teacher of Year” award, and the Special Achievement “Courageous Leadership” award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.  

 

Sarah Lahm, Northcentral Regional Fellow

Sarah is a Minneapolis-based writer and former English instructor. She is the winner of a 2014 Nation Institute Investigate Fund grant, and blogs about education at brightlightsmallcity.com

Cynthia Liu, Los Angeles Fellow

Cynthia launched her people-powered, national public education news and civic engagement platform, K-12 News Network, in 2011 with a grant from the Ford Foundation. Most recently, K12NN organized citizen media makers to watchdog former Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified John Deasy’s iPad deal, leading to his resignation and ongoing investigations of his apparent bid-rigging. K12NN is a model for community engagement Cynthia hopes will spread across the country.

Sabrina Stevens, Midatlantic Regional Fellow

Sabrina is a mother, writer, education advocate, and former teacher based in Washington, DC. She is a founding member of EduColor, a collective that works to elevate the voices of people of color in the education policy dialogue. Her insight on various educational and progressive issues has been featured in various media outlets, including MSNBC, TIME.com, The Hill, GOOD Magazine, Education Week, The American Prospect, and The Answer Sheet at The Washington Post, among others.

Dora Taylor, Northwest Regional Fellow

Dora established the blog Seattle Education in response to the growing visibility of the corporate and billionaire financed influence on public education.  Along with being a mother and advocate for public education, she is a Founding Member and the first President of Parents Across America, and has co-authored two books, Digital Networking for School Reform and Left Behind in the Race to the Top: Realities of Education Reform

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Westcoast Regional Fellow

Julian is currently a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and the Director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State University Sacramento. He blogs about education and social justice at Cloaking Inequity.

 

 

Jose Vilson, New York City Fellow

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, and activist in New York City, NY. He is the author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education, and has spoken about education, math, and race for The New York Times, Education Week, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Huffington Post, Edutopia, GOOD, and El Diario / La Prensa, NY. 

Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive:

Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in Newark | John Thompson

Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in Newark | John Thompson:

Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in Newark

Dale Russakoff's The Prize is a wonderful account of the way that Cory Booker, Chris Christie, Christopher Cerf, Cami Anderson and other corporate reformers largely squandered the $200 million opportunity created by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to improve the Newark schools. The subtitle of this invaluable book is "Who's In Charge of America's Schools?"

By now, most people interested in education policy are aware of The Prize and its main themes of hubris, and what happened when elites jumped in, imposed their opinions on others (who they knew nothing about), ignored social science and history, and refused to listen to the community or the professionals who they sought to transform. And they did so without even bothering to formulate anything resembling a plan.

When a plan was finally devised, its competition-driven, reward and punish approach was given the unintentionally ironic title of One Newark.

As Russakoff concludes, "For four years, the reformers never really tried to have a conversation with the people of Newark. Their target audience was always somewhere else." Elite reformers were seeking "a national proof point" which would demonstrate how they could provide incentives and disincentives to solve society's problems. As one reformer from the NewSchools Venture Fund explained, the new edu-philanthropy sector "understands leverage. If you get education right, you're going get people jobs, reduce incarceration, et cetera. So the idea is to help people analyze what's not working and inspire entrepreneurs to solve problems."

One of the many great things about The Prize is the way that Russakoff borrows the terminology of educators and reformers to explain both the facts of urban life and the scholarship that reformers dismissed, as well as the mentality that allowed them to be so destructively obstinate. One of the most quotable characters is the past and current czar of other people's schools, Christopher Cerf.

Cerf touted himself as the New York City schools' "chief of transformation." Working for the NYC Chancellor Joel Klein, who embodied the hurried, slash and burn style of school improvement, Cerf learned that the search for consensus was part of the problem. The stacking of casualties was part of the solution, and central to meeting his self-proclaimed "altruistic" goal. Cerf came to Newark to manage its schools because that troubled system "was a perfect test." Transformative change was possible because it had long been under state control and "we still control all the levers."

Weirdly, Cerf also spoke in opposition to "top-down, prescriptive policies" blaming them on bureaucracies. It is hard to square that ubiquitous reform soundbite with Cerf's other statement:

We can't have any more talks about respecting the community. Who is the Dale Russakoff's The Prize and How Corporate School Reform Failed in Newark | John Thompson:

School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyer | The Lens

School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyer | The Lens:

School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyer

The Orleans Parish School Board’s property lawyers are at odds with a charter school’s lawyers regarding a legal memo given to the charter two weeks before it bought a School Board building.

In the April 21 legal memo, which The Lens received through a public-records request, Adams and Reese lawyers wrote to Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans that the charter could easily assign its purchase rights to a third-party development firm.

They finished the memo with what seems like a stamp of approval from outside School Board lawyers.

“Without naming Lycée or Priestly, we also discussed the possibility of a charter assigning its purchase agreement of an OPSB site to a development firm,” the memo states. “OPSB counsel did not think that there would be an issue with such an arrangement.”

But that’s not how the conversation went, according to Rose Hager, a director and attorney with Aaron and Gianna PLC who was on the other end of the line. Her firm frequently represents the School Board in property matters.

Hager recalls having a brief conversation with Adams and Reese lawyer Marshall Hevron about applicable laws, but she says never gave blanket approval on behalf of the School Board.

Charter schools with small budgets may have trouble securing the millions of dollars it would take to renovate a long-empty school such as Priestley. One alternative, is to sell the property to a private developer and then rent the renovated building.

Hager suspects the lawyers were attempting to clear the way for Lycee to sell Priestley directly to a third-party to renovate. In the end, though, the Lycee board bought the property directly for $425,000 on May 4, and is still considering its options for renovation.

Lycée’s Priestley committee meets tonight. There is a discussion item called “financing options,” but no action items are listed.

Attorney Lee Reid, who also works for Adams and Reese, has worked with Lycee for a few years. He and Hevron authored the legal advice to the school.

“We believe that it reflects the conversation we had with them,” Reid said.

Hager thinks the memo is misleading.

“This whole opinion gives your client, and the public the opinion we waved the wand and said OK, and we did not,” Hager told The Lens last week, retelling a conversation she had earlier in the day with Adams and Reese attorneys.

Giving this kind of advice to charter schools is not something the School Board would do, she said, especially because it carries the School Board attorney takes issue with property opinion from charter’s lawyer | The Lens:

Mission Accomplished – Dem Party's Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican Mayor - Wait What?

Mission Accomplished – Dem Party's Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican Mayor - Wait What?:

Mission Accomplished – Dem Party’s Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican Mayor

Democrat Governor Dannel Malloy, Malloy’s entourage of neoliberals and Connecticut’s Democratic Establishment are doing the Happy Dance today with the news that their plan to install Greenwich native and political newbie, Luke Bronin, as the next Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut has taken a giant step forward with the news that Mayor Pedro Segarra has given up his re-election bid and endorsed the Bronin.

If independent candidate Joel Cruz fails to win the November general election, the outcome of the 2015 Democratic Primary will mean that the nation has lost the only Puerto Rican mayor of a major city in any of the fifty states.

An especially serious situation for the national Democratic Party considering the vital role Latino and Hispanic voters will play in the 2016 election.

While Luke Bronin eagerly plans for his installation as Hartford’s next chief elected official, much of the credit for the defeat of Hartford’s Latino Mayor rests with Governor Malloy and his political operatives.

Although Malloy, and to an even greater extent, Malloy’s Lt Governor, Nancy Wyman, appeared alongside Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra dozens and dozens of times over the past five years, always applauding Segarra, Malloy turned on his political ally earlier this year when Malloy’s protégée and lead legal counsel officially announced that having moved to Hartford, he was now ready to seek the Democratic nomination to become Hartford’s mayor.

While every major Democratic leader in Connecticut looked away, Malloy and his political operation kicked into high gear on Luke Bronin’s behalf.

As the most recent campaign finance report reveals, in the day leading up to last week’s Democratic Primary for Mayor, Bronin raised an additional $236,226 for his campaign, Mission Accomplished – Dem Party's Colonialism takes down country’s only big city Puerto Rican Mayor - Wait What?:

Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to 'bring down' LAUSD - LA School Report

Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to 'bring down' LAUSD - LA School Report:

Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to ‘bring down’ LAUSD

Steve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vulnerable to damage.”

A draft report of the plan appears show how the organizations involved would be creating the equivalent of a parallel school district, one with a defined goal of serving half the number of students attending LA Unified schools within eight years.

The “Great Public Schools Now Initiative” says the expansion would cost nearly half a billion dollars by 2023, through 260 new charter schools to serve an additional 130,000 students “most in need — low-income students of color.” Currently, about 151,000 students now attend charters in LA Unified, which has more charter schools, 264, than any school district in the country.

The 54-page report, dated “June 2015,” omits the names of authors or sponsoring organizations. But Eli Broad’s name appears at the end of a cover letter accompanying the report that makes a case for charter schools as “the greatest hope for students in L.A.” And alluding to the number of students on waiting lists to get into existing charters, now about 42,000, the need for more charters, he says, is urgent.

“We are committed to closing the waitlist and ensuring that every family in L.A. has access to a high-quality public school,” Broad writes. “Such dramatic charter school growth would address the needs of families who have been underserved by public schools for years, if not generations.”

He also argues that, “The stakes are extraordinarily high. In all our years working to improve public schools, we have never been so optimistic about a strategy that we believe has the potential to dramatically change not only the lives of thousands of students but also the paradigm of public education in this country.”

But Zimmer characterized the plan as a destructive one that would ignore the needs of thousands of other children “living in isolation, segregation and extreme poverty.”

“This is not an all-kids plan or an all-kids strategy,” he told LA School Report. “It’s very explicitly a some-kids strategy, a strategy that some kids will have a better education at a publicly-funded school that assumes that other kids will be injured by that opportunity. It’s not appropriate in terms of what the conversation should be in Los Angeles. The conversation should be better public education options and quality public schools for all kids, not some kids.”

He added, “To submit a business plan that focuses on market share is tantamount to commodifying our children.”

A spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation did not respond to numerous messages, seeking comment.

The draft report, a copy of which was given to LA School Report, represents the most comprehensive accounting so far of what the organizers intend to do, provided they can raise the considerable funds necessary. Broad says in his letter that $490 million “in new philanthropy” is necessary.

A full list of who is involved in the effort remains a mystery. So far, officials have acknowledged only the involvement of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, along with the W.M. Keck and Walton Family Foundations — all leading players in educational reform efforts around the country. People familiar with the plans say the effort also involves more than a dozen other groups as well as wealthy individuals, some of them from Los Angeles.

The report says the Broad and Walton foundations are the initial funders for the effort.

The rationale for the expansion effort is based on the report’s assertions that charters do a better job of educating children than traditional public schools. Citing data from the California Charter Schools Association, the authors argue that charter students generally score better on statewide tests and have higher graduation rates even though it has widely been demonstrated that not all charter schools out-perform all traditional schools.

In building its case, the report is highly critical of LA Unified, the second-largest Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to 'bring down' LAUSD - LA School Report:

The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social Justice | I AM AN EDUCATOR

The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social Justice | I AM AN EDUCATOR:



The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social Justice

On Sunday evening, thousands of Seattle Education Association members gathered in a general membership meeting and voted to approve a new contract with the Seattle Public Schools. This vote officially ended the strike by Seattle educators, which began on September 10, 2015, and interrupted the first five days of school.

This new contract contains many hard fought wins for social justice that the school district said it would never grant. These groundbreaking victories are against the abuses of high-stakes standardized testing, for more recess, and for race and equity teams in the schools are a dramatic departure from our previous  broken model of collective bargaining and hold the potential to transform educator unionism in the nation. Yet the contract also contained some needless concessions to corporate style reforms—including succumbing to the district’s disrespectful pay raise offer, raising caseloads for some special education teachers, extending the school day and reducing teacher planning time—that could have been avoided if the union had kept the picket lines up for a few days longer and organized mass mobilizations.

But the most important outcome of this contract negotiation won’t be found in the fine print of the agreement. The true triumph of this contract battle was the achievement of solidarity—between teachers, office professionals, nurses, school librarians, instructional assistants, parents, and community organizations—in the struggle for the public schools.

Thousands of parents joined in solidarity with the teachers, including the celebrated “Soup for Teachers” group that formed to bring sustenance and solidarity to picket lines at every school in the district. The Coalition for the Schools Seattle Deserves united community organizations and joined the great Kimya Dawson to host a benefit concert to raise funds for the striking teachers.  The Seattle City Council, led by councilmember Kshama Sawant, passed a unanimous resolution in support of the strike. Marching band students used their pep-band anthems to root on striking educators, and local businesses donated to the picket lines.  Even the mainstream media regularly reported that parents were in support of the strike and that the educators were winning. There can be no doubt that this strike was overwhelmingly supported by the people in the Seattle area–except, perhaps, for the regions’ wealthiest resident, Bill Gates, who has invested his fortune in schemes to privatize education and reduce our schools to test prep centers.

So many of the union’s social justice demands were advanced in the current strike and The Seattle Educators’ Strike for Social Justice | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

The Progressive Launches New Project to Defend Public Education: Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive

The Progressive Launches New Project to Defend Public Education: Progressive Education Fellows | The Progressive:

The Progressive Launches New Project to Defend Public Education: Progressive Education Fellows

ANNOUNCING OUR 2015 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION FELLOWS!

A fundamental struggle for democracy is going on behind the scenes in statehouses around the country, as a handful of wealthy individuals and foundations pour money into efforts to privatize the public schools. The Progressive is launching a new project to help pull back the curtain and reveal what is at stake—to follow the money and expose the privatizers—but also to celebrate the resistance and the hard work of people on the front lines of public education.  Our goal is for all parents, teachers, and concerned citizens to understand what is going on and connect with each other to stick up for schools.

The “Progressive Education Fellows,” is an online gathering of twelve prominent, advocates, activists, thinkers, and writers in the progressive education movement. Throughout 2015 we'll be posting submissions from them on all things public education and democracy. Here's the backstory on why we feel this project is needed.

We're kicking things off with this dynamite talk from Jesse Hagopian, straight from the Seattle picket line (read the story here):

 - See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/09/188323/progressive-launches-new-project-defend-public-education-progressive-education#sthash.enkYNiNS.dpuf

Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’ - The Washington Post

Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’ - The Washington Post:

Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’

Shavar Jeffries took over last week as president of Democrats for Education Reform, the national group that represents the wing of the Democratic Party that has embraced public charter schools, merit pay, mayoral control of urban school districts and other measures at odds with another Democratic constituency, the teachers unions.

Jeffries takes the helm of DFER, founded by a group of New York City hedge fund managers to be a counterweight to the unions, at a time when the movement to change education policy has been  criticized by some for being too white and elitist.

Jeffries, a 40-year-old attorney raised by his grandmother in Newark, N.J., won a scholarship in eighth grade to Seton Hall Preparatory, New Jersey’s oldest Catholic school. He went on to Duke University and Columbia Law School and was founding president of TEAM Academy, a Newark outpost of KIPP, the country’s largest public charter school network.

Jeffries also served as president of the Newark School Advisory Board, an elected body that is supposed to advise the state-appointed superintendent of the Newark Public Schools. The state seized control of the Newark public schools in 1995, citing chronic academic failure and fiscal problems.  Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s failed attempt to radically remake Newark public schools, with a $100 million gift from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has received national attention and is the subject of a current best-selling book “The Prize” by Dale Russakoff.

Jeffries unsuccessfully ran for mayor in Newark in 2014 — with backing from DFER — in a race that became a referendum on Christie’s school reform plan. Jeffries lost to Ras Baraka, a son of the radical poet Amiri Baraka and a former high school principal in Newark, who got heavy support from the Shavar Jeffries and the color of education ‘reform’ - The Washington Post: