Oklahoma: Epic Virtual Charter Severs Ties to Co-Founders’ For-Profit Firm After Paying Them Millions | Diane Ravitch's blog

Oklahoma: Epic Virtual Charter Severs Ties to Co-Founders’ For-Profit Firm After Paying Them Millions | Diane Ravitch's blog

Oklahoma: Epic Virtual Charter Severs Ties to Co-Founders’ For-Profit Firm After Paying Them Millions

After a scathing state audit of its finances, the EPIC virtual charter school cut its ties to the school’s for-profit co-founders.

The governing board of Epic Charter Schools underwent a major overhaul Wednesday night and then declared its independence from the for-profit school management company owned by Epic’s co-founders.

Epic’s seven-member board of education unanimously approved a mutual termination agreement, effective July 1, to end its contract with Epic Youth Services, which reportedly has made millionaires of founders David Chaney and Ben Harris.

“Big day for our school; big shift, obviously,” said the newly seated board Chair Paul Campbell, an aerospace and energy executive who founded the Academy of Seminole charter school.

“This school has outgrown its management company, CONTINUE READNG: Oklahoma: Epic Virtual Charter Severs Ties to Co-Founders’ For-Profit Firm After Paying Them Millions | Diane Ravitch's blog

Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom | gadflyonthewallblog

Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom | gadflyonthewallblog

Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom

This school year has been a failure in so many ways.

But don’t get me wrong.

I’m not going to sit here and point fingers.

The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the public school system like never before.

Teachers, administrators and school directors have been under tremendous pressure and I believe most really tried their best in good faith to make things work as well as possible.

But as the year comes to a blessed close, we need to examine some of the practices common at many of our schools during this disaster and honestly evaluate their success or failure.

Some things worked well. Many made the best of a bad situation. But even more were blatant failures.

We need to know which was which.

As a classroom teacher with 17 years experience who worked through these times, CONTINUE READING: Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom | gadflyonthewallblog

Jan Resseger: Will the Biden Administration Revive the Failed Policies of NCLB and Obama? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jan Resseger: Will the Biden Administration Revive the Failed Policies of NCLB and Obama? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jan Resseger: Will the Biden Administration Revive the Failed Policies of NCLB and Obama?

A few years ago, someone coined the term “zombie policies” to describe policies that fail again and again, yet never go away. One such zombie is “merit pay,” which has never succeeded yet never dies an ignominious death or loss of reputation.

I mention this because our current education system is hampered by at least 20 years of zombie policies, beginning with No Child Left Behind, then Race to the Top, then Trump’s fervent support for privatization.

In 2010, when my book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing abd Choice are Undermining Education” was published, I participated in a debate with Carmel Martin, one of the key strategists of the Obama Department of Education. She defended every aspect of the Bush-Obama approach: high-stakes testing, closing low-performing schools, charter schools, evaluating teachers by student test scores, and so on.

A year or so later, I was invited to the White House Executive Offices to meet Obama’s top education team: Melody Barnes, chief of the White House domestic policy CONTINUE READING: Jan Resseger: Will the Biden Administration Revive the Failed Policies of NCLB and Obama? | Diane Ravitch's blog

‘Ripe for fraud’: Multicounty Grand Jury releases interim report on Epic Charter Schools investigation | KFOR com Oklahoma City

‘Ripe for fraud’: Multicounty Grand Jury releases interim report on Epic Charter Schools investigation | KFOR.com Oklahoma City

‘Ripe for fraud’: Multicounty Grand Jury releases interim report on Epic Charter Schools investigation

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The multicounty grand jury investigating Epic Charter Schools has released a scathing interim report of its findings following the state’s audit report against the school.

According to the report, “Due to the lack of transparency in accounting for the funds, intentional avoidance of disclosure of information by a private entity, and lack of cooperation; the investigation is unable to be completed at this time.”

State auditor spells out questionable practices by Epic Charter Schools for Oklahoma school leaders 

The concerns from the Audit Report and the subsequent investigation by the Multicounty Grand Jury can be summarized as:

• Lack of oversight
• Lack of transparency in operations
• Lack of accountability by for-profit company Epic Youth Services

By failing to provide appropriate oversight, the entities responsible have allowed significant public funds to be diverted into private accounts without transparency. The public has not been served by the incestuous relationship between the for-profit vendor, Epic Youth Services, and the governing board Community Strategies. The system has failed to provide accountability and allowed a company to take advantage and generate a substantial personal profit on the backs of Oklahoma students. This is especially offensive at a time when Oklahoma students and parents are struggling with the weight of the pandemic and its effects on our students’ education and wellbeing.

This interim report focuses on the for-profit vender, Epic Youth Services LLC (EYS).

“The incestuous relationship between the board and a private vendor has resulted in a lack of independent oversight,” the report states. “As designed, this system is ripe for fraud.”

From 2015 to 2020, Epic Charter Schools received more than $458 million in state and federal funds as a  CONTINUE READING: ‘Ripe for fraud’: Multicounty Grand Jury releases interim report on Epic Charter Schools investigation | KFOR.com Oklahoma City

New report provides reality check on virtual schools - The Washington Post

New report provides reality check on virtual schools - The Washington Post

New report provides reality check on virtual schools

Online education has been at the center of the national education discussion since the coronavirus pandemic forced schools last year to close and teachers to find ways to teach virtually — often online. While some students thrived learning virtually, educators and parents around the country have said that most did not.

But online learning has been with us for years before the coronavirus pandemic in the form of virtual schools, many of them operated by for-profit organizations. The growth of these schools has been tracked since 2013 by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a nonprofit education policy research center located in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

This post, written by Alex Molnar and Faith Boninger, explains the findings of a new report about the state of virtual schools that was released Thursday by the NEPC, titled “Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2021.”

The report finds virtual school enrollment growing despite a persistent lag in student performance as compared with brick-and-mortar schools. It examines the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools and reviews relevant research on virtual school practices.

Molnar is a research professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the NEPC publications director, as well as co-director of the NEPC’s Commercialism in Education Research Unit. Boninger is the NEPC’s publications manager and co-director of the Commercialism in Education Research Unit.

(I ordinarily don’t publish footnotes, but I am in this case because the blog is based on a report that includes them and you may find them useful.)

By Alex Molnar and Faith Boninger

“Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2021,” a report released on Thursday by the National Education Policy Center, finds that: New report provides reality check on virtual schools - The Washington Post

Choosing Democracy: Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

Choosing Democracy: Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

The Education Committee of LULAC/Sacramento has recommended for over 4 years that the funds allocated to Sacramento City Unified School District specifically to improve the educational achievement of English Learners be used specifically for that purpose.

( see example below of 2018 submission).  Supplemental funds carried over from one year to the next should not be used for projects other than serving English Language Learners.

 

We note with interest the presentation to the Special Board meeting of 3.11.21 on LCAP draft materials.

The district is now preparing its LCAP plan ( Local  Control Accountability Plan) and it is time for us to again make recommendations.  Our recommendations for prior years have been ignored. We request that our proposals for this year be included in the report to the board scheduled for May 5, 2021, and that our requests be included in the documents sent to Sacramento County Office of Education for their assigned task of monitoring the development of LCAP proposals on matters of accountability. 

 

We  note the requirements of LCAP to include community participation in development of the district plan.  We assert the reflections of the district advisory committees are important but inadequate to the requirements of community participation required for the development of LCAP. 

 

The next presentation will be at the SCUSD Board of Education meeting on May 6, 2021. You can participate on line. 

Education Committee.

League of United Latin American Citizens, / Sacramento 

 

 

Legislative summary.  LCFF

 

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district, or charter school. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt regulations that govern the expenditure of funds apportioned pursuant to the supplemental and concentration grant add-ons.

 

AB 533 Proposal.

 

This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop, on or before January 1, 2022, a tracking mechanism for school districts, county offices of CONTINUE READING: Choosing Democracy: Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering

In March 2019 and October 2019, Democracy Prep charter chain founder and former employee Seth Andrew stole a total of $218K from three Democracy Prep escrow accounts. He was able to do so because two years after leaving Democracy Prep (in 2017), Andrew still had access to his school email account and could falsely portray himself as still associated with the charter chain. Andrew also still had access to the escrow accounts because he remained listed on documentation related to those accounts. Finally, given that Andrew was able to steal funds from the third escrow account five months after he depleted the first two accounts, it is obvious that Democracy Prep officials failed to adequately monitor all of the chain’s bank accounts.

In my May 01, 2021, post on the situation, I surmised that Andrew may have believed that Democracy Prep would not competently monitor its finances, thereby causing him to believe that he could get away with the theft. Indeed, the complaint against Andrew details the passage of 14 months from the first thefts (March 2019) to the maturing of a six-month certificate of deposit (CD) that Andrew purchased using the stolen funds (May 2020).

To lock that stolen money up for six months and patiently wait for it to mature demonstrates a level of certaintly that no one would be coming for that stolen cash.

Examination of Democracy Prep’s tax forms from 2007 to 2018 shows that the charter chain struggled to manage its money and to keep a positive balance CONTINUE READING: Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

MEGAN PRATHER: Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms - NONDOC

Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms

Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms

The governing board of Epic One-on-One Charter School agreed to the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board’s proposed settlement terms Wednesday night, one day after the SVCSB rejected Epic’s initial proposal.

The new settlement agreement (embedded below) still needs to be approved by the SVCSB, but Epic released a statement Wednesday night saying its new “settlement agreement reflects the exact terms proposed by the SVCSB at its April 20, 2021, meeting.” If approved, the Epic settlement would conclude the SVCSB’s charter termination proceedings, which began months ago in the wake of a state audit of Epic’s governance, finances and controversial “learning fund.”

“While we have objected to the politicization of the (state) audit and some of its findings, we have implemented many changes it recommended to strengthen our school and make our operations more transparent,” said Community Strategies Board President Doug Scott in a statement. “We’re in a different, stronger and better place than we were six months ago, and I’m proud of the hard work of this Board and our school leaders. I want to thank the SVCSB and executive director Dr. Rebecca Wilkinson for her leadership during this period of time. Everyone involved has a servant’s heart and wants to serve children and families to the best of our ability.”

Wilkinson did not return a phone call seeking comment about the Epic settlement CONTINUE READING: Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms

Megan Prather: Back to the drawing board: SVCSB calls for new Epic settlement proposals - NONDOC

Back to the drawing board: SVCSB calls for new Epic settlement proposals

Back to the drawing board: SVCSB calls for new Epic settlement proposals

The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board held a special meeting this afternoon where members approved a motion to draft a new consent agreement to conclude charter termination proceedings with Epic One-on-One Charter School.

Epic attorney Bill Hickman and assistant Attorney General Marie Schuble will each submit new Epic settlement proposals with amendments requested by the SVCSB, such as full cooperation with the State Auditor & Inspector’s Office and the appointment of a compliance officer.

Epic’s governing board had proposed a settlement agreement at its April 14 meeting in an effort to resolve the SVCSB’s charter termination case, but the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board declined to accept their proposal today.

“I’d like to make a motion to have the parties, through their designated counsel, submit an amended consent order that includes, but is not limited to the sections that (SVCSB director) Dr. Rebecca Wilkinson will CONTINUE READING: Back to the drawing board: SVCSB calls for new Epic settlement proposals

NYC Educator: What's With Kids Who Hand Us Nothing?

NYC Educator: What's With Kids Who Hand Us Nothing?

What's With Kids Who Hand Us Nothing?

I honestly don't understand why anyone would take the time to submit a blank page, or nothing whatsoever, on Google Classroom. I have to say, while I (relatively, at least) don't much like teaching online, I have made my classes easier than they have ever been. 

Because I've heard so many complaints about students being overburdened with homework, I've taken to doing it in class every second or third day. All my students have to do is write down the answers we've agreed upon in class, and that's 100%. I'm not sure what's more convenient than that.

I haven't given a test in over a year. I give writing assignments instead. Anyone who actually writes four paragraphs, if that's what I ask for, pretty much passes and usually does better. I've taken ten points off for late work. In the past, I probably wouldn't have accepted it at all. Despite this, students hand me nothing, and expect credit for it. Now this would probably be fine if I didn't, you know, read the stuff students give me. But they pay me to do that, so I do, even on a Sunday afternoon. 

Today I got three blank papers. One is from a student who usually does all the work. This student took the trouble of writing "Exercise One," "Exercise Two," and "Exercise Three" in big green letters. Maybe he thought that would be good enough. After all, I had said to do exercise one, two, and three, and who's really to say that this wasn't it? We all have different interpretations of what exercise means. I might take long walks, and you might go to some CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: What's With Kids Who Hand Us Nothing?

MEGAN PRATHER: Epic's controversial 'learning fund' will change, settlement proposed for SVCSB

Epic's controversial 'learning fund' will change, settlement proposed for SVCSB

Epic’s controversial ‘learning fund’ will change, settlement proposed for SVCSB

In meetings Tuesday that lasted until after midnight, the governing board of Epic Blended and Epic One-on-One charter schools, Community Strategies, approved a motion that will move the school’s controversial learning fund from private account management to public bank accounts.

The board also approved items after a nearly four-hour executive session, including a settlement proposal regarding contract termination proceedings with the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.

Epic’s learning fund reimburses the families of Epic Blended and Epic One-on-One students for up to $1,000 of educational curriculum or extra-curricular purchases and is currently administered by the for-profit management company Epic Youth Services, which is owned by Epic co-founder Ben Harris and David Chaney.

Epic’s assistant superintendent of finance, Jeanise Wynn, presented the proposed changes, which would, effective July 1, place all funds allocated to the learning fund in bank accounts owned by Community Strategies doing business as either Epic Blended Learning Charter or Epic One-on-One Charter School, respectively.

“This will also require that all revenue and expenditure records for the public bank CONTINUE READING: Epic's controversial 'learning fund' will change, settlement proposed for SVCSB

CURMUDGUCATION: NH: Another Lesson In Charter School Failure

CURMUDGUCATION: NH: Another Lesson In Charter School Failure

NH: Another Lesson In Charter School Failure

Stephanie Alicea has been around education for a while. She was the Community Service Coordinator at Merrimack Valley High School in Penacook, NH from 2003 to 2007. In 2010 she went back finished a BA in Psychology and went right into a MEd program at New England College. She taught health and phys ed at various high schools. 

In 2016, her son Samuel, a Black football player at Merimack HS, took a knee at a football game. Alicea's teammates were supportive, but the larger community kicked back hard--years later, Alicea talked about a BB gun shooting at his grandmother's car. So Stephanie Alicea pulled her son from the public school and enrolled him in private Tilton. She said she borrowed money from her mother and took five jobs to help pay for the move. And in 2017, when the New Hampshire senate made an attempt to push education savings accounts, Alicea was one of the spokepeople there to support the voucher proposal.

That was early in 2017. By the fall of that year, she was proposing a charter school of her own. Capital City Charter School would be a service learning charter, she told the State Board of education when looking for authorization. The Board expressed concerns--the application looked a little thin on things like variety of board members and some board members were concerned that the financials were not strong enough. "It just feels like it needs more infrastructure," said board member Bill Duncan. It seems obvious that very little in Alicea's background suggested she was ready to start and operate an entire school. The head of the NH Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools said he thought the board was CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: NH: Another Lesson In Charter School Failure

Unity Group in Chattanooga Opposes ASD 2.0 – Tennessee Education Report

Unity Group in Chattanooga Opposes ASD 2.0 – Tennessee Education Report

UNITY GROUP IN CHATTANOOGA OPPOSES ASD 2.0

Amid reports that Gov. Bill Lee is pushing legislation to extend the life of the failed Achievement School District, the Unity Group of Chattanooga has announced opposition to the move.

In an opinion piece, Sherman Matthews and Eric Atkins (Chair and Corresponding Secretary, respectively) expressed the group’s concerns.

A new proposal being pushed through the Tennessee House Education Committee is the latest saga in the long effort to takeover schools through privatization. In order to accomplish this, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the state would create the Achievement School District 2.0. The ASD has been the embattled mostly charter run district, which operates a majority of its schools in Memphis and Nashville; has been plagued by multiple executive directors; constant teacher turnover; funding irregularities; school closures; dwindling student enrollment numbers; and has failed to demonstrate substantial student academic progress as compared to their traditional counterparts. Despite a 2020 announcement that ASD schools could potentially return to their local districts, what has since developed is a replication of prior practices which are aimed at the ultimate takeover of public schools by the state.  

Unlike a phoenix, the Achievement School District 2.0 will not rise from the ashes but will be like embers charred by smoldering flames. If the legislature chooses to advance this and similar bills, they will be striking the albatross, and students and schools will be the worse for it. We are opposed to granting the commissioner of Education the CONTINUE READING: Unity Group in Chattanooga Opposes ASD 2.0 – Tennessee Education Report

Education Matters: Another failure in leadership

Education Matters: Another failure in leadership

Another failure in leadership

The renaming of our schools is another failure of district leadership. 

For ten months, the process to change six of our schools named after confederate era figures has been going on. TEN MONTHS.  

Last June, after the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbury, and Breonna Taylor, the nation had a reawakening of interests in civil rights, and protests erupted all over the nation, not just because of the deaths but because of generational and systematic racism too. Duval County Public schools decided to join in, just in their own slow, disorganized, and painfully awkward way. 

I spoke at the first meeting where the name changes were proposed by Board Member Warren Jones. The gist of my speech was we couldn’t have schools named after people who never did anything questionable because we could never find anyone, but we could have schools that weren’t named after slavers, racists, and traitors. That and sometimes we revere historical figures despite their flaws, see our founding fathers, but confederates were revered because of their flaws.  

This was the beginning of June, and I was optimistic that those schools would open in the fall with new names, but that has been far from the case. 

After months of little or no action, it became obvious that the district did not want to do anything until after the vote on  CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Another failure in leadership

The 10 Most Important Slides from the State Auditor and Inspector’s Epic Presentation | okeducationtruths

The 10 Most Important Slides from the State Auditor and Inspector’s Epic Presentation | okeducationtruths

The 10 Most Important Slides from the State Auditor and Inspector’s Epic Presentation

Yesterday, State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd’s gave a virtual presentation over her office’s findings in the investigation of Epic Charter Schools. The 45 minute video is now all over the World Wide Web Web and continues to be shared. It should also be required viewing for all educators parents, and … well, taxpayers. And probably legislators.

As important as the presentation is, I know that the tl;dr phenomenon applies to video content as well. I taught high school English long enough to understand that just because I assign it, doesn’t mean you’ll read all of it. That being said, let me cut it up into bite-size pieces for you.

I have taken screenshots of what I think are the ten most important slides from Auditor Byrd’s presentation. I’ll do my best to summarize them, but honestly, watching the whole thing (with captioning), is really worth it. After watching it in the morning, I even kept it on loop again yesterday afternoon while working in my office.

1. Governor Stitt initiated the audit process, writing to Auditor Byrd, “I respectfully request an audit of Epic Charter School and all related entities.” This isn’t the first slide in the presentation, but I’m doing the first two in reverse order. Too many times, I’ve seen the state’s leading far-right think tank accuse Epic’s detractors of being anti-choice.

Hardly.

This audit, which began six months into Stitt’s term, is about assuring that tax dollars go where they’re supposed to.

The other notable part here is that Stitt addresses not only Epic, but also all related entities. As Byrd demonstrates clearly, there is  CONTINUE READING: The 10 Most Important Slides from the State Auditor and Inspector’s Epic Presentation | okeducationtruths

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses | Salon.com

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses | Salon.com

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses

The race became somewhat nationalized with the charter school industry fighting Underly, who was backed by unions

Jill Underly has officially been elected as the new Wisconsin state school superintendent, local news stations reported Tuesday evening.

"State superintendent candidate Deborah Kerr solicited clients and organized branding for her private consulting business through her public school district email address, including several times during work hours, prior to her retirement as Brown Deer School District superintendent last year," said the report.

The race became somewhat nationalized with the charter school industry fighting Underly, who was backed by teachers' unions. Ultimately the normally unnoticed state-wide race brought in over $1 million in out-of-state money, TMJ4 reported.

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses | Salon.com

Why the Common Core standards failed — and what it means for school reform - The Washington Post

Why the Common Core standards failed — and what it means for school reform - The Washington Post

Why the Common Core standards failed — and what it means for school reform

A new book tells the story

The Common Core State Standards was one of the biggest initiatives in decades aimed at changing public education — and like many school “reforms” in the era of high-stakes standardized testing, it did not accomplish what its promoters said it would.

(Harvard Education Press)

How and why that happened is the subject of a new book by Tom Loveless, an expert on student achievement, testing, education policy and K-12 school reform — “Between The State And The Schoolhouse: Understanding The Failure of Common Core.” Below is an excerpt.

Common Core was an initiative to create and implement new math and English language arts standards that would be used by all schools. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded their creation, and they were promoted by the Obama administration.

Then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan used a federal grant program, Race to the Top, to pressure states to adopt them — and the vast majority did during Obama’s first term. The Obama administration spent some $360 million for two multistate consortia to develop new Core-related standardized tests, with Duncan promising that the new tests would be “an absolute game-changer” in public education. They weren’t. CONTINUE READING: Why the Common Core standards failed — and what it means for school reform - The Washington Post