Thursday, December 27, 2012

Parent Revolution’s California Parent Trigger Efforts Proved “Bitter, Divisive and Protracated.” | Scathing Purple Musings

Parent Revolution’s California Parent Trigger Efforts Proved “Bitter, Divisive and Protracated.” | Scathing Purple Musings:


Parent Revolution’s California Parent Trigger Efforts Proved “Bitter, Divisive and Protracated.”

Education Week reporter Katie Ash highlights a just released report on Parent Trigger Laws by the Annenberg Institute which concludes “that policymakers can address the shortcomings of academically low-performing schools in more productive ways.” Writes Ash:
Part of the problem, the policy brief asserts, is that parent trigger laws rely on parents to “trigger” the change, but leave them out of the process after that. “Parent Trigger legislation gives parents the ‘power’ to force the intervention but is silent on a continuing role for parents,” it says. “Furthermore, there is no evidence that chartering or closing a school, or replacing a school’s entire staff … create academic improvement in and of themselves.”
Emphasis mine and the implications are damning for proponents’ “choice” arguments. Florida’s republican legislators who attempted to pass parent trigger legislation last spring refused to address such inconsistencies.
The Annenberg brief goes into detail of advocacy group Parent Revolution’s role in two California parent trigger