Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Walmart, the Walton Foundation, and New York City Schools | Edwize

Walmart, the Walton Foundation, and New York City Schools

by Christina Collins

The conservative Walton Foundation’s education spending has been in the news quite a bit this summer — including recent announcements of a $49.5 million dollar contribution to the expansion of Teach for America and the release of a list of how the Foundation distributed over $157 million in grants to education groups in 2010.

Overall, the Foundation’s largest grants last year went almost exclusively to organizations which support vouchers and charter schools, including over $2 million dollars to two New York state organizations with the most explicit commitments to supporting for-profit corporate charter schools and weakening teachers unions — the New York Charter Schools Association and the Brighter Choice Foundation. And interestingly enough, the $1.3 million that Eva Moskowitz’s Success Charter Network received from Walton almost exactly matches the amount the Network spent on advertising her schools last year — an average of $1,300 per new student:

New York’s $600 Million Fraud Shows Privatization Doesn’t Pay | Labor Notes

New York’s $600 Million Fraud Shows Privatization Doesn’t Pay

Mischa Gaus

| July 27, 2011

After a contracting-out scandal revealed a $600 million fraud scheme, AFSCME rallied in June against the New York City mayor's layoffs, calling on him to "fire crooked profiteers, not city workers." Photo: AFSCME DC 37.

How did New York City plan to prevent time theft by city workers? By hiring contractors who would, it turns out, steal $600 million from the taxpayers. One of their crimes, prosecutors allege, was to file bogus timesheets claiming extra hours.

The payroll and timekeeping system called CityTime was originally supposed to cost $63 million but ballooned to $750 million over the last decade. It introduced biometric palm scanners to ensure city workers punched in and out appropriately. Only rank-and-file workers were subject to the electronic surveillance, however; managers—and contractors—were exempt.

The fraud came as no surprise to Jon Forster. Secretary of

The Billionaire Boys Club | Philanthrocapitalism

The Billionaire Boys Club

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

In her book last year, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”, Diane Ravitch dismissively described the wealthy philanthropists who are bankrolling various efforts to improve the otherwise taxpayer funded school system as the “billionaire boys club”. She argues that the likes of Bill Gates, the Walton family (heirs of the founder of Wal-Mart) and Eli Broad have failed to improve America’s schools system, even whilst wielding considerable anti-democratic influence within it. As she put it in one interview, when asked about her thoughts on the role of philanthrocapitalism: “The power and influence of those foundations challenges democratic control of public education. Are their market-based policies working? It all depends on what one means by ‘working.’ If it means raising test scores, the evidence is not conclusive. If it means strengthening public education, the answer is no.”

We profoundly disagree with Ms Ravitch’s analysis, which is delivered with all the zealotry

Colo. panel reviewing school discipline policies - The Denver Post

Colo. panel reviewing school discipline policies

By IVAN MORENO Associated Press

POSTED: 07/27/2011 03:21:59 AM MDT

UPDATED: 07/27/2011 09:39:52 AM MDT

DENVER—Legislators are analyzing how Colorado schools punish students in order to determine whether changes are needed to policies they say lead to thousands of youth being unnecessarily sent to law enforcement each year.

A panel created by the Legislature this year will begin meeting Monday to look at schools' zero-tolerance policies, some of which were created after the Columbine High School shootings and gang violence in 1993, during the so-called "Summer of Violence."

Republican Rep. B.J. Nikkel, one of the lawmakers on the school discipline panel, said some of the rules implemented after high-profile cases of youth violence have led to the "over-criminalization" of students who get

Read more:Colo. panel reviewing school discipline policies - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/education/ci_18558084#ixzz1TKSIQo2K
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This Week In Education: Video: Another Unhappy Moment For The Edelman Clan

Video: Another Unhappy Moment For The Edelman Clan

by Alexander Russo

"Poor" in America - Peter Edelman

www.colbertnation.com
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Maybe the Edelman men should just avoid cameras for a while. Last night on the Colbert Report renowned anti-poverty advocate Peter Edleman (father of Jonah) seemed unwilling or unprepared to do battle with the host, who pestered him with questions suggesting that the poor aren't really poor and ended by asking: "Did you

Shanker Blog » Success Via The Presumption Of Accuracy

Success Via The Presumption Of Accuracy

by Matthew Di Carlo

In our previous post, Professor David K. Cohen argued that reforms such as D.C.’s new teacher evaluation system (IMPACT) will not by themselves lead to real educational improvement, because they focus on the individual rather than systemic causes of low performance. He framed this argument in terms of the new round of IMPACT results, which were released two weeks ago. While the preliminary information was limited, it seems that the distribution of teachers across the four ratings categories (highly effective, effective, minimally effective, and ineffective) were roughly similar to last year’s – including a small group of teachers fired for receiving the lowest “ineffective” rating, and a somewhat larger group (roughly 200) fired for having received the “minimally effective” label for two consecutive years.

Cohen’s argument on the importance of infrastructure does not necessarily mean that we should abandon the

Anticipating the NBPTS Conference « InterACT

Anticipating the NBPTS Conference

by David B. Cohen

This blog post was written a couple days ago at about 35,000 feet. The pre-conference sessions are now underway. Here’s what I was thinking as I was heading in.

As I write this entry I’m in a plane over the Midwest, en route to Washington, D.C., for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) 2011 Conference. The conference theme is “Reboot! Teaching Transformed,” and of course the implication is that we should take a fresh look at our teaching and our field. The underlying need for a reboot on a computer could be positive or negative. The installation of new software or updates often requires a reboot, one that brings new and improved functionality to the computer. The reboot could also be the last remaining option when your computer freezes, crashes, or seems to be malfunctioning in some other way.

As a teacher, am I seeking to add functionality, or restore it? What about America’s schools? Upgrade, or escape dysfunction?

Individually, I can certainly say that I’m in a situation where I’m always looking to improve, and I have no doubt

“The Cheating Scandal!” Isn’t Cheating a Choice? « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

“The Cheating Scandal!” Isn’t Cheating a Choice?

by Oldschoolteach

I read an article by Jay Matthews of The Washington Post the other day,“Easing Test Pressure Won’t Save Kids”, and it went along with something I had been thinking about ever since “The Cheating Scandals” (in a whisper) broke. I don’t agree with everything he had to say in his article, but there was one element that struck me. Is cheating acceptable because of the enormous pressure put on teachers, principals, and superintendents? Is it alright to

Rep. Luis Guitierrez Arrested, White House Protesting Deportations - Hispanically Speaking News

WATCH: Rep. Luis Guitierrez Arrested in Front of White House Protesting Immigrant Deportations

Yesterday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the Democrat from Illinois, was arrested at 4:40 pm (EST) for protesting in front of the White House with others against the deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Gutierrez, has long been a proponent of immigration reform that includes amnesty and passage of the DREAM Act. Currently he is taking issue with the Obama administration of deportation non-criminal illegal aliens and most of all the separation of families due to the deportation.

Yesterday the Congressman sat in front of the White House fence holding a sign that read “Stop Separating Our Families”. When asked to leave government property Gutierrez refused and he and 11 other individuals were then arrested. In interviews prior to his arrest he is urging the President to use his “broad discretionary powers” in regards to deportations. He also cited the fact that more people have been deported under Obama then any other president.

The protests and arrests took place while hundreds of immigration reform activists

Education Research Report: School Vouchers Have Little Effect on Student Achievement

School Vouchers Have Little Effect on Student Achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

According to Review of 10 Years of Voucher Research and Action

A new report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) that reviews a decade of voucher research finds no clear positive impact on student academic achievement and mixed outcomes overall for students who attend private schools using vouchers.

CEP, one of the nation’s leading sources of education research, also found that much of the recent voucher research has been carried out or sponsored by pro-voucher organizations and urges greater scrutiny to ensure future studies are not biased. CEP’s report comes amid a spike in interest in school vouchers – and disagreement about their merit – that has been fueled in part by Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives and a majority of statehouses.

Keeping Informed about School Vouchers: A Review of Major Developments and Research reviews and synthesizes major voucher studies of the past decade. It also summarizes current publicly funded voucher

ASCD Inservice: Rebuilding the German Education System (1948)

Rebuilding the German Education System (1948)

The October 1948 issue of Educational Leadership, on the theme of "Education's Place in Remaking the World," has several articles of interest to educators looking for some perspective on international education and the degrees to which the U.S. system has learned from and worked with other countries in the past.

Although articles like "We Can Learn from Austria" (PDF) and "Teacher Preparation in Japan" (PDF) make for good reading, one article in particular stands out. Mildred English shares her firsthand experience in "Rebuilding the German Education System," starkly appraising the state of education in occupied, postwar Germany and detailing the steps being

Alfie Kohn: We Have to Take Back Our Schools - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Alfie Kohn: We Have to Take Back Our Schools

by Anthony Cody

Alfie Kohn has been at the forefront of the resistance to test-based reforms for more than a decade. As we approach the Save Our Schools March this Saturday, I asked him to share some thoughts about the challenges we face.

When many of us point out the narrowing of the curriculum that has been the result of high stakes testing, we are told that the next generation of tests, which the Department of Education has invested $350 million to develop, will be far better at measuring complex thinking. What do you think of this?

First, history alone should make us skeptical about the claim that DOE is going to reverse course; as far as I know, there's zero precedent for meaningful assessments sponsored -- or even encouraged -- by federal officials.

Second, the cast of characters currently in Washington makes that claim even less credible. Arne Duncan knows nothing about the nuances of assessment and he's surrounded by Gates Foundation people and others

An Urban Teacher's Education: Why I'm Marching in DC This Weekend #SOSMarch

An Urban Teacher's Education: Why I'm Marching in DC This Weekend

Why I'm Marching in DC This Weekend

by James Boutin

As I wait in the airport for my flight to Washington, it strikes me that it might be worth taking the time to flesh out some of the reasons I decided to blow nearly $600 on a weekend in DC.

At first I thought I would create a list, but then I realized that no matter how many different points I came up with, they essentially all boiled down to one reason.

Public education is worth fighting for.

Few people seem understand the importance of public education. Most people would agree that education is important, but public education almost has a negative connotation for some. Public education means public employees, government involvement, and bureaucracy. For many, that means inefficiency, waste, abuse, and mediocre standards for students. But it is also a test of our ability to act responsibly toward the needs of our

Success Charter Network has been just that for Eva Moskowitz but not for public schools

JUAN GONZALEZ - NEWS

Wednesday, July 27th 2011, 4:00 AM

Alfred Giancarli for News

Eva Moskowitz, CEO, Success Charter Network, spent more money on marketing in the 2009-2010 school year than the previous two years combined.

Talk about inflating demand for your product.

The Success Charter Network, a chain of charter schools headed by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, spent an astonishing $1.6million in the 2009-2010 school year just for publicity and recruitment of new students, the group's most recent financial reports show.

The network spent more on publicity and recruitment that year than it did in the previous two years.

In 2009-2010, the seven schools operated by the Success network admitted 1,200 new

Zero-Tolerance Policies Doing More Harm Than Good : NPR

Zero-Tolerance Policies Doing More Harm Than Good

Nearly one million teens become school dropouts each year, particularly minorities and males. Many students leave school after experiencing strict suspension policies. To learn why and what can produce better learning environments, host Michel Martin speaks with NPR's Claudio Sanchez, who's doing a new series on America's dropout crisis; Deborah Fowler, a consultant on a new Texas study about the effects of school discipline; and Emma Tai, coordinator of Voices of Youth in Chicago Education.

USSA Congress Report, Part One « Student Activism

USSA Congress Report, Part One

July 27, 2011 in Organizing, Student Government, Student Power, Student vs. Student,Students

The 2011 National Student Congress of the United States Student Association is winding down today — as I type this, the group’s newly elected 2011-12 Board of Directors is meeting for the first time. It’s been a whirlwind of a conference, so I haven’t had the chance to update as much as I’d have liked, but I’ll be compiling a full report here over the next few days.

The conference began with a couple of days of speeches and workshops and meetings. The Congress site was Florida A&M University, the first historically black college or university (HBCU) ever to host a USSA annual meeting, and they were wonderful hosts — it’s a hell of a campus, and a hell of a student body. If you’re ever down here, be sure to stop by their archives — it’s one of the best-curated university galleries I’ve ever visited, as well as being a gem of a small museum of the history of race and racism in the United States.

Nothing huge broke in the first few days of the Congress. No huge drama, no

USSA Congress Report, Part One « Student Activism

USSA Congress Report, Part One

by Angus Johnston

Nothing huge broke in the first few days of the Congress. No huge drama, no dramatic developments. The

Bloomberg to tout results of toughened tenure procedures today | GothamSchools

Bloomberg to tout results of toughened tenure procedures today

by Philissa Cramer

All indications suggest that the city is pleased with the results of its concerted effort to make tenure more difficult to receive.

Mayor Bloomberg is announcing details about how many teachers received — or didn’t receive — tenure this year during a midday press conference today at Tweed Courthouse, the Department of Education’s headquarters. In the past, the city has released tenure details by email. The fanfare comes on top of reports from teachers and principals that tenure was awarded far less readily last year after Bloomberg vowed to make the protection tougher to receive.

For many years, receiving tenure has been an almost automatic step that happens at the end of a teacher’s

Walton Foundation Gives Nearly $50 Million to TFA - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Walton Foundation Gives Nearly $50 Million to TFA

by Stephen Sawchuk

The Walton Family Foundation will invest $49.5 million in the national Teach For America over three years, according to a release from the Bentonville, Ark.-based nonprofit organization.

The investment, which makes the foundation the single largest private donor to TFA to date, will help to double the number of corps members placed each year, to 15,000 by 2015, the release says.

About half the investment will support the training and professional development of corps members in Denver; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; Newark, N.J.; New Orleans; the District of Columbia; and the Mississippi Delta region.

Teach For America, along with a handful of other teacher programs, recently lost an annual federal earmark, so this is no doubt welcome news to the program.

The donation also comes at a time in which the role of private foundations in public education has received intense scrutiny. Teachers' unions and other prominent figures, such as NYU professor Diane Ravitch, say that

7 Million Youth in Mexico Do Not Work or Study - Easy Prey - Hispanically Speaking News

7 Million Youth in Mexico Do Not Work or Study - Easy Prey Says Experts

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Published at 8:19 am, July 27, 2011

Photo Credits: 7 Million Mexican Youth at Risk

Seven million young people do not study and are unable to find a job, and risk being sucked into the criminal organizations that perfection their networks to recruit more and more young people who live in this desperate situation. The alarm comes from the weekly “Desde la Fe” of the archdiocese of Mexico, a copy of which was sent to the Fides Agenzia. The magazine notes that, according to official reports, in Latin America there are nearly 40 million young people between 15 and 29 years of age with an uncertain future, because they do not study or work (they are called

This Week In Education: #SOSMarch : What People Are Saying

This Week In Education: SOS March: What People Are Saying

SOS March: What People Are Saying

Here are some of the best / most eye-catching comments on the upcoming #sosmarch - feel free to add more:

Advocating for a Public that Often Disagrees With You EdSector: The American public—that they claim to champion—disagrees with much, if not most, of the K-12 education vision outlined by SOS’s organizers.

Schools march won’t unite us, but so what? Jay Mathews: If I were at the "Save Our Schools" march around the White House, my sign would say “Bring Us Together.”

If dogs became kings And the Pope chewed gum Sara Mead: How do we [bridge] the gap between

This Week In Education: AM News: New Mexico Smashes Duncan AYP Prediction

AM News: New Mexico Smashes Duncan AYP Prediction

In New Mexico, Almost Every School 'Left Behind' HuffED: By the standards of the decade-old No Child Left Behind law, almost 87 percent of New Mexico's schools aren't making AYP.

Atlanta School Board Members To Keep Jobs, On Year-Long Probation HuffED: The board's agreement to state scrutiny comes after the AJC and state investigators revealed a culture of covering up the widespread cheating.

Despite Interventions, No-Show Students Drop Out NPR: Danny Lamont Jones (right) raised lots of red flags not long after he enrolled as an eighth-grader in a Baltimore school. He was quiet, struggling academically, and he didn't show up very often.

Teen Fights To Succeed In Rural S.C. Community NPR: Nearly a third of students in rural areas don't graduate. In states like South Carolina, lots of teenagers just don't think they need a high school diploma.

Memphis Standoff Could Delay Schools' Start AP: The mayor says he doesn't have the money. And besides, the city doesn't usually have to pay until September. The board and council rarely get along, so it's not clear if they will come up with a compromise in time for classes to start.

States fret over 'game of chicken' on federal debt ceiling Stateline: State officials are bracing for the impact of what Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam calls “an incredible game of chicken” over the federal debt ceiling, even going as far as calculating how long they can run programs without federal money.