Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst « Parents Across America

Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst « Parents Across America:

Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst

Thursday, May 31, 2012

For more information contact:

Leonie Haimson: 917-435-9329; leonieh@parentsacrossamerica.org

Julie Woestehoff: 773-538-1135; juliew@parentsacrossamerica.org

Parents flunk Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst

Report card exposes flaws in corporate agenda and failures to push through legislation in many states this year

Parents Across America (PAA) unveiled a report card today that gave Michelle Rhee’s education lobbying organization, StudentsFirst, failing grades.

The report card grades Rhee on her position on issues and on legislation she pushed in states across the country this year.Despite her ability to spend millions to hire professional lobbyists and flood the airways with ads, parents, teachers and community members were able to defeat her in Florida, Connecticut, Tennessee, Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, and Iowa.

Most of Rhee’s agenda runs counter to what parents identify as their top priorities, including small class sizes, less high-stakes testing, improving neighborhood schools, recruiting and retaining strong and experienced teachers, and giving parents a real voice in governing schools.

“Rhee pushed to eliminate class size caps in Tennessee schools – and to cancel a reform that has proven to work. Luckily, the state’s parents were outraged and stopped this from happening. She falsely claims that she has over one million members nationwide, although countless individuals have found themselves wrongly listed as one of her supporters because they signed one of her deceptive petitions by mistake,” said Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a New York-based affiliate of Parents Across America.

Wendy Lecker of Parents Across America- Connecticut pointed out that “Despite about $700,000 spent by StudentsFirst in Connecticut, the rally at the State Capital where Rhee was the featured speaker drew only about 75 people.”

In Alabama, Rhee failed to win charter school legislation that would have drained two million dollars from already cash-strapped public schools. While she claimed her state organization had 17,000 members, only about twenty showed up at a meeting she called at that state’s capital.

“When Michelle Rhee and her Wall Street backers parachute into a state, as they did this year in Florida, it’s bad news for parents and communities,” said Rita Solnet, a Florida parent and PAA founding member. “She turns a blind eye to the issues parents care most about.” Solnet worked with other parent organizations, including the Florida PTA, 50th No More, and Testing is not Teaching, to defeat a StudentsFirst attempt to pass the so-called Parent Trigger, stealth tactics to privatize schools where parents have little voice.

Julie Woestehoff, head of Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), a PAA affiliate in Chicago, pointed out: ”Though Michelle Rhee has consistently refused to disclose her funders, according to press accounts, they include billionaires and hedge fund operators who support a destructive agenda to privatize our public schools. She clearly does not represent the mainstream views of parents or the public at large. According to a 2010 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup survey, 58% of respondents supported helping existing local schools and school staff; only 13% want to close schools down or reopen them as charters. Despite multiple failures getting her legislation passed this year, parents must continue to remain vigilant and fight to protect and strengthen our public schools.”

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Parents Across America is a growing network of grassroots parent organizations with affiliates and chapters in fifteen states throughout the nation. We work for positive, progressive education change that is backed by research and supported by parents. Our report card for Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst in the 2011-12 school year is posted hereLhttp://parentsacrossamerica.org/?attachment_id=4095

For more information on Parents Across America, check out our website at www.parentsacrossamerica.org or email us atinfo@parentsacrossamerica.org

New proposal to evaluate teachers includes student test scores - latimes.com

New proposal to evaluate teachers includes student test scores - latimes.com:

New proposal to evaluate teachers includes student test scores

A coalition of Los Angeles teachers, parents and community members Thursday unveiled a proposal to use student test scores as one measure to evaluate teachers -- a controversial element that many teacher unions have fought. 

The proposal was aimed at breaking what coalition members called a troubling stalemate over a new teacher evaluation system between the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles. Efforts to improve ways to assess teachers have been stalled in part over disagreement on using data that measure the growth in student academic performance, as measured by standardized test scores.

But teachers, who made up a third of the 15 "Our Schools, One Voice" coalition members, said they took great 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Skip the serious face, Arne

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Skip the serious face, Arne:

Skip the serious face, Arne

by Mike Klonsky

How do we as a teaching profession create a climate in which everyone is clamoring to come into schools like this ... where this is a badge of honor?" -- Arne Duncan

Serious face...

Arne Duncan looks so intense, like he's seriously listening and looking for answers. Don't be fooled. He's not. He's done these "listening tours" before. They make for great photo ops.

How do we get more Tamara Raifords “clamoring” to teach in low-performing schools? he asks some New Haven Teachers. Tamara Raiford who teaches pre-K at Brennan/Rogers, introduced herself as the only teacher in the district to leave a top-performing Tier I school to join a low-performing “turnaround.” She says she chose Brennan "because of the challenge."  -- New Haven Independent

But Duncan already knows full well why there aren't thousands of teachers "clamoring" to leave high-scoring, 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Fair Funding for NOVA Issue Explained

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Fair Funding for NOVA Issue Explained:

Fair Funding for NOVA Issue Explained

by Charlie Mas

Folks who watch school board meetings have probably heard students from The NOVA Project speak to the board about how their school is funded. You may wonder what the heck they are talking about. They are NOT talking about the 15% reduction in funding that the state grants to Alternative Learning Experience schools. This has nothing to do with decisions made at the state level. Instead, they are talking about how the District unfairly under-funds NOVA, along with The Center School and South Lake High School. The story is not hard to understand, but it it is tricky because it doesn't make any sense at all.

Nearly every school in the district is funded through the Weighted Staffing Standards. There are, however, a few schools which are not. It might make sense to fund and staff schools like the Homeschool Resource Center, Interagency, and Middle College differently from the way that other schools are funded. They are not organized or structured like other schools. But if you were to go to The Center School, South Lake High School, or The NOVA Project, you would see the familiar structures in place: a principal, teachers in classrooms with students, a class schedule, a library, all of the normal stuff. So why aren't these schools funded as any other school would

(Not at all Devious) Subversive Plan B

by Charlie Mas

If the charter school initiative actually gains the signatures needed to make the ballot, and if it collects a majority of the votes in the election - two pretty big "if"s - it will become the law and we could see up to eight charter schools authorized for Washington State.

We don't know what consequences this charter school law could have for Washington State or for Seattle Public Schools. Maybe some school districts will seek to become authorizers, maybe none, maybe all. It's a wild card that could lead to some seriously uncoordinated charter school authorization. It's pretty likely that some charter school management companies, like KIPP, Green Dot, and RocketShip, will seek to establish charter schools in the state, but there's no telling if they will or not, how many schools they will seek to create, where they will seek to place them, and whether they will seek conversions. The conversion option - making a public school into a charter school - creates all kinds of unknown potential consequences. How could a district manage their 

2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator - Principal Apportionment (CA Dept of Education)

2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator - Principal Apportionment (CA Dept of Education):

2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator

2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator spreadsheet and instructions.

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• 2012-13 Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator (Version 2011 1.0) (XLS; 2MB) Prior to using the estimator the following instructions and assumptions should be reviewed.

This tool is intended to help local educational agencies (LEA) estimate their Principal Apportionment payments for the 2012-13 fiscal year. This tool will also help LEAs prepare a comprehensive cash flow projection should they decide to request an exemption from the expected July, August, October, and March deferrals. It is not intended to be a budgeting tool.

General Assumptions:

In order to estimate future payments without the benefit of knowing the data that determines those payments, various assumptions must be made. When developing factors used within this tool, the California Department of Education (CDE) used the latest Principal Apportionment data available (2011-12 First Principal Apportionment (P-1)) and funding levels in the Governor’s May Revision.

All scenarios assume an on-time June budget, the intra-year deferrals added by Assembly Bill 103 (Chapter 13, Statutes of 2012), and the Department of Finance’s (DOF) estimate of revenue limit entitlements and property taxes for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Additionally, all scenarios assume that the DOF’s estimate of property taxes generated by liquidation of RDA cash assets will not result in a revenue limit offset until the Second Principal Apportionment (P-2) (requires legislation). A trigger reduction of $441 per average daily attendance is assumed under certain scenarios; however, proposed legislation has not been published that would provide details on how the reduction would be implemented.

Note: should the State Budget be delayed, the 2012-13 Advance Principal Apportionment will only include funding for the programs continuously appropriated (e.g. revenue limit and charter school general purpose funding) and will not include any funding reductions that are not codified in statute (e.g. deficit factor, on-going targeted reductions). Once a State Budget is passed, CDE will recertify the Advance Principal Apportionment and adjust payment amounts for future months. This cash flow tool does not account for this scenario.

You may not change LEAs once you have started because data input into cells will clear. You must start from a new version. Before starting a new worksheet you may want to save the previous LEAs version of the worksheet to your local drive for future reference.

Instructions:

Before accessing the Principal Apportionment Payment Estimator, save the workbook to your computer by right mouse clicking on the hyperlink and selecting “save target as”.

• Macros must be enabled for this excel workbook to function correctly. If you cannot select an LEA in the INPUT PA Funding Estimates sheet, macros are not enabled.
• Open the “INPUT PA Funding Estimates” worksheet by clicking the sheet tab at the bottom of the screen. Select your LEA from the drop down list. LEAs are listed in alphabetical order and County-District-School (CDS) codes are provided.
• From the Scenario drop down list select the scenario you want to model. See below for specific criteria about each scenario.
• Verify that the data populated in column C matches the data on the LEA’s 2011-12 P-1 Summary (XLS).   

The factors shown in the “Settings” tab (Column L – AF) are used to derive estimates for the 2012-13 Advance, P-1, and P-2 based on the scenarios listed below under Specific Assumptions. An LEA’s pre-loaded 2011-12 P-1 amount has been multiplied by the associated factors to calculate the Principal Apportionment total used to generate 2012-13 payment information. 

The 2011-12 P-1 data may be overridden by unprotecting the worksheet on the review tab. An LEA may choose to update these numbers with their estimates of 2011-12 P-2 but should note that all the factors from the settings tab are based off of 2011-12 P-1 statewide totals.

More specific assumptions used are noted below. Note that the formulas may be overwritten at any time should an LEA have better estimates of funding than the assumptions provided in the table. However, we caution against changing the assumptions for the 2012-13 Advance.

Limitations:

• The tool does not accommodate for district reorganizations (unifications, lapsations, mergers); LEAs should enter data for each district involved in the reorganization separately and sum the cash flow outputs to estimate the funding the new district will receive in 2012-13.
• Unless noted, the tool does not prevent an LEA from entering data in any field; however, some funding is based on the type of LEA (e.g. only county offices of education should enter data in Line A-1, school districts in Line A-2, charter school in Line A-3.). For a guide, use the data pre-populated in Column C from the LEA’s 2011-12 P-1 data.
• As detailed below, under scenarios D and E an LEA can enter trigger estimates. An excess tax county office of education or excess tax school district can use this feature but the reduction will not be automatically populated on Line A-1 or A-2. The trigger amount can be manual input on Line A-27, Recomputations and Adjustment to derive cash flow under these scenarios.
• Locally funded charter school payments should be calculated separately from school district data.
• This tool replicates the Principal Apportionment Summary; therefore, statewide benefit charters and all charter school districts funded under the Charter School Block Grant will need to calculate estimated funding separately for each site.
• The tool is calculating estimated monthly payments on the individual LEA level; however, in any month if the county subtotal (sum of all LEAs in the county) is negative, no cash will be paid to the county.

The cash payment amounts generated by the calculator are estimates. Actual cash payments will not necessarily match.

Specific Assumptions:

Scenario A, Pass-EPA at P-2

This scenario assumes that the Governor’s tax initiative passes and that the CDE does not incorporate the Education Protection Account (EPA) as a reduction to revenue limit state aid and charter school general purpose block grant state aid until P-2. It assumes the following reductions to the cross-year deferrals: February to July -$1,468.3 million; March to August -$270.5 million; April to August -$502.9 million.

Note that the factor applied at P-2 to revenue limit state aid, in part, approximates the impact of the liquidation of RDA cash assets. As an alternative, an LEA could overwrite the automated number with its own estimate. 

Scenario B, Pass-EPA at P-1

This scenario assumes that the Governor’s tax initiative passes and that the CDE incorporates the EPA as a reduction to revenue limit state aid and charter school general purpose block grant state aid beginning with P-1. It assumes the following reductions to the cross-year deferrals: February to July -$1,468.3 million; March to August -$270.5 million; April to August -$502.9 million.

Note that the factor applied at P-1 and P-2 to revenue limit state aid and charter general purpose block grant state aid, in part, approximates the impact of the EPA. The P-2 factor also approximates the impact of the liquidation of RDA cash assets. As an alternative, an LEA could overwrite the automated number with its own estimate. That estimate should include a state aid reduction for EPA receipts, which is approximately 21 percent of deficited revenue limit or charter general purpose block grant.

Scenario C, Pass- EPA at Advance (requires legislation)

This scenario assumes that the Governor’s tax initiative passes and that the CDE incorporates the EPA as a reduction to revenue limit state aid and charter school general purpose block grant state aid beginning with the Advance Principal Apportionment. It assumes the following reductions to the cross-year deferrals: February to July -$1,468.3 million; March to August -$270.5 million; April to August -$502.9 million.

Note that the factor applied at P-1 and P-2 to revenue limit state aid and charter general purpose block grant state aid, in part, approximates the impact of the EPA. The P-2 factor also approximates the impact of the liquidation of RDA cash assets. As an alternative, an LEA could overwrite the automated number with its own estimate. That estimate should include a state aid reduction for EPA receipts, which is approximately 21 percent of deficited revenue limit or charter general purpose block grant.

Scenario D, No Pass-No EPA

This scenario assumes that the Governor’s tax initiative does not pass and that the CDE does not incorporate the EPA as a reduction to revenue limit state aid or charter school general purpose block grant state aid at any certification. It assumes a statewide trigger reduction to revenue limits at of $441 per ADA times the statewide ADA total beginning at P-1. It also assumes no reductions to the cross-year deferrals.

This scenario requires inputting ADA to approximate the trigger reduction. This can be done by selecting the “Add Trigger” button, which is visible when selecting Scenario D or Scenario E.

Note that the factor applied at P-2 to revenue limit state aid, in part, approximates the impact of the liquidation of RDA cash assets. As an alternative, an LEA could overwrite the automated number with its own estimate.

Scenario E, No Pass-EPA at Advance (requires legislation)

This scenario assumes that the Governor’s tax initiative does not pass and that the CDE incorporates the EPA as a reduction to revenue limit state aid beginning with the Advance Principal Apportionment (reductions would begin to be restored at P-1). It assumes a statewide trigger reduction to revenue limits at of $441 per ADA times the statewide ADA total beginning at P-1. It also assumes no reductions to the cross-year deferrals.

This scenario requires inputting ADA to approximate the trigger reduction. This can be done by selecting the “Add Trigger” button, which is visible when selecting Scenario D or Scenario E.

Note that the factor applied at P-2 to revenue limit state aid, in part, approximates the impact of the liquidation of RDA cash assets. As an alternative, an LEA could overwrite the automated number with its own estimate of revenue limit state aid.

2012-13 Payment Information:

The “OUTPUT 2012-13 Payments” tab provides LEAs with the estimated monthly payments for the 2012-13 fiscal year funding based on the assumptions outlined above tables and data entered by the LEA. Amounts are automatically calculated and are based on one of the three payment schedules identified in Education Code (EC) Section 14041. Additional information about the monthly schedule is available on the Principal Apportionment Payment Schedule.

As noted in the General Assumptions earlier in this document, the tool incorporates the intra-year deferrals added by Assembly Bill 103 (Chapter 13, Statutes of 2012) as well as the reductions to the cross-year deferrals proposed at the May Revision. For additional information about the deferrals see the “2012-13 Deferral” tab.

Confronting challenges of American education, 'civil rights' issue of our time | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Confronting challenges of American education, 'civil rights' issue of our time | The Forum for Education and Democracy:

Confronting challenges of American education, 'civil rights' issue of our time

by Pedro Antonio Noguera

by Pedro Antonio Noguera
Special to CNN 'In America' blog May 24, 2012
For the Past 25 years I have been working as an educator, researcher and policy advocate.
I am also the parent of four children who have attended public schools.
In each of these roles I have tried to improve public education and advance the educational rights of children, particularly those who have historically been poorly served.
Given my background, I was pleasantly surprised by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's recent assertion that education was "the civil rights issue of our time".
Romney is only the most recent politician to connect changes in education to civil rights.  Similar remarks have been made by President Obama as well.
read more

All Education Matters: Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign

All Education Matters: Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign:

Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign

by Cryn Johannsen

Occupy Student Debt Campaign recently released a lengthy statement about their mission. They differentiate themselves from other groups - who are, in my view, reformist - quite well in this manifesto. I applaud their efforts, and encourage you to get involved with supporting and promoting their collective activism. The group truly understands a horizontal approach to attacking this monstrous problem. More than anything, the principles explained below demonstrate a keen awareness of how neoliberalism has destroyed higher education (and education overall) as a public good. This is at the heart of the problem, so no type of reform, which if anything were to pass would be utterly watered down, will suffice. Reform through legislation, though admirable, will not adequately address the crisis we are now facing. 

Here's their statement:

Everybody is now talking about the student debt crisis, but nothing is being done about it.

Thanks in large part to the great public amplifier of the Occupy movement, this year’s presidential contenders 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, May 31, 2012

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Education Headlines

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Charter Oak Unified seeking voter approval for $47 million bond measure

Hoping to raise $47 million to further improve school buildings and buy new computers for classrooms, Charter Oak Unified School District will ask voters next week to continue paying higher property taxes.

Union leader won't 'sit in the corner, purse my lips and not talk to the district.'

The real action at Tuesday's San Diego school board meeting occurred outside the district's auditorium when teachers union chief Bill Freeman held an impromptu forum with staff and parents from Fay Elementary School in City Heights, where 26 of 27 teachers will be laid off effective June 30.

Other districts don’t offer East Coast trips

After San Diego Unified decided this month that it would pull the plug on its traditional 8th grade field trips to the East Coast, The Watchdog decided to check around and see what other districts were doing about the legal issues.

San Bernardino school district set to choose new superintendent

The School Board has finished interviewing candidates for superintendent and will vote to accept one of three finalists at its next meeting Tuesday, according to board members.

D.A. won't charge accused coaches

A group of former Capistrano Unified high school coaches accused of taking part in an elaborate kickback scheme involving a sports equipment company will not face criminal charges, authorities announced Wednesday.

More English learners proficient on assessment test

This year, 43 percent of the students classified as English learners in San Diego County met targets on the test, ranking in the top two of five levels, up from 39 percent last year and 30 percent five years ago, the data show.

Lagunitas parents withdraw charter school petition

A group of Lagunitas School District parents has withdrawn a petition to convert a popular K-5 program into an independent charter school after critics said it could have negative financial consequences.

Test results show California's school-age English learners making progress

English-language learners in California schools showed gains this year, but still fewer than half were ready to join a fluent classroom, according to state test results released Wednesday.

Data: English learners are doing better

Thirty-five percent of Coachella Valley public school students who are learning English as a second language tested well enough to be considered on par with native English speakers.

LAUSD ID's 591 cases of possible teacher misconduct

Los Angeles Unified officials have unearthed nearly 600 cases of alleged teacher misconduct reported over the past 40 years which they think merit investigation by state regulators. Officials with the state credentialing commission who have taken a preliminary look at the cases say 60 percent warrant formal review.

Fluency rates increase in L.A. schools

English-language learners in California schools showed gains this year, but fewer than half were ready to join a fluent classroom, according to state test results released Wednesday.

Dinuba schools sued over ESL instruction

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Dinuba Unified School District, claiming that the district is denying first- and second-grade English learners the opportunity for an equal education by using a flawed teaching method.

Chico schools providing summer meals

Tuesday, the Chico Unified School District's nutrition services department distributed 800 meals on the first day of its inaugural summer food program.

State preparing to fund new round of school construction projects

State officials are preparing to fund another round of shovel-ready school construction projects with $619.5 million received from last month’s sale of general obligation bonds.

California neglects education of English learners, lawsuit claims

State officials are neglecting their legal obligation to ensure that students who are learning English are receiving an adequate and equal education, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the ACLU of Southern California and other advocates.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Calaveras High arts center construction will go on

Calaveras Unified School District trustees on Tuesday night voted to begin work on a long-awaited 500-seat performing arts center to be built at Calaveras High School in San Andreas.

Attorney: Fresno trustee lives inside district boundaries

Despite newly released records that show Tony Vang voted outside the school district, the Fresno Unified school board president maintained through his 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Can A Single District Take Down Standardized Testing?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Can A Single District Take Down Standardized Testing?:

Can A Single District Take Down Standardized Testing?

by Anngie

Everyone knows the image of a series of falling dominos. It's a basic lesson in physics on inertia and gravity, combining linear impulse with angular momentum. I offer this video as a more advanced physics lesson using dominos to demonstrate how today's story may play out.

Popout

Notice how tiny the first domino is. He must hold it with a tweezers. And note how large the 13th domino is.  It weighs 100 lbs yet it is knocked down in the end.

Now let's look at Broward School District in Florida, small in comparison to the whole state, but the 6th largest school district in the country. Broward just passed a resolution asking the Governor Rick Scott, the Florida 

Using Language to Maximize Learning — Whole Child Education

Using Language to Maximize Learning — Whole Child Education:

Using Language to Maximize Learning

by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Post submitted by whole child blogger Paulina Malek, a senior majoring in magazine journalism at Temple University. She hopes to report on poverty, race relations, and animal rights issues in the future.
Educators often worry that what they teach goes in one ear and out the other, but the right language can help produce a more engaged and efficient classroom, said Jenny Edwards in her ASCD Annual Conference session "How to Talk So Students Learn."
Creating a learning environment that conveys excitement, relates content to students' lives, and makes students feel comfortable and intelligent will engage students in the lesson and help them internalize the information.

Edwards, a faculty member at the Fielding Graduate University for the doctoral program in education, leadership, and change and author of Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talking Effectively With Your Students, knows firsthand that a teacher's enthusiasm can change students' 

Pre-order! New book includes chapter on PURE work

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Pre-order! New book includes chapter on PURE work:

Pre-order! New book includes chapter on PURE work

by admin

The book is called “Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education” and includes a chapter I wrote, ” ‘Just parents’ challenge Mayor Daley, Arne Duncan and Renaissance 2010.”  

From the publisher:

A collection of empowering stories bringing together the voices of teachers, parents, and educational activists fighting market-driven educational policies
Lost amid the heated debate over educational policies are the stories of the educators, parents, and students who are most affected by policies such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. In Educational Courage, veteran education scholars Nancy Schniedewind and Mara Sapon-Shevin bring together the voices of those who are resisting market-driven initiatives such as high-stakes testing, charter schools, mayoral control, and merit pay. The diverse narrators who write in this volume confront the educational initiatives that undermine teachers’ judgment and knowledge, ignore the different backgrounds of students and parents, and debase the learning process. These voices offer stories of activism, hope, and possibility. Though these stories describe the negative effects of the corporate-driven educational initiatives of the past decade, they are primarily stories of resistance-of educators, parents, and education activists fighting mightily to uphold the ideals of democratic public education. In doing so, they inspire others to do the same.

Pre-order it from Amazon or the BN. It will be out on September 4. You’re gonna like it.

Schools Matter: Krash Course #10: NCTQ's Gradual Unmasking

Schools Matter: Krash Course #10: NCTQ's Gradual Unmasking:

Krash Course #10: NCTQ's Gradual Unmasking

by P. L. Thomas

With the release of the National Education Policy Center's 2011 Bunkum Awards, I feel the need to join in the spirit of NEPC's excellent work to highlight the gradual unmasking of the National Council on Teacher Quality(NCTQ).

Recently, I charactericed NCTQ's assault on teachers and teacher education as a central player in the bully politics of education reform. Since then, the evidence is gathering, exposing NCTQ as partisan politics masked as scholarly evaluations of teacher education.

NCTQ's first report has already been thoroughly dismissed in a review from NEPC: "Benner’s critique finds fault at every level of the NCTQ evaluation, including development and interpretation of the standards of evaluation, sampling techniques, methodology, data analysis, and findings."

As well, Diane Ravitch, who sat at the table in the beginning of NCTQ, has confirmed NCTQ's bully politics:

"Since then, many institutions announced that they would not collaborate. Some felt that they had 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Matt Farmer's great speech at CTU rally

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Matt Farmer's great speech at CTU rally:

Matt Farmer's great speech at CTU rally

by Mike Klonsky

Matt Farmer is a lawyer and a Chicago Public School Parent. Watch him cross-examine Hyatt Hotel heiress and CPS board member Penny Pritzker in his May 23rd speech to 4,000 union teachers at the Auditorium Theater.
  Popout

BTW, Pritzker is also national finance chairperson of the Obama campaign. She is one of three cousins who manage their dynasty’s financial empire, which includes the Hyatt hotel chain, casinos and many other ventures.

But according to the New York Times, she was also involved in running and overseeing Superior Bank, an Illinois 

Stefan Pryor and City of Hartford Working to hand Hartford’s Milner School to Jumoke Academy - Wait, What?

Stefan Pryor and City of Hartford Working to hand Hartford’s Milner School to Jumoke Academy - Wait, What?:

Stefan Pryor and City of Hartford Working to hand Hartford’s Milner School to Jumoke Academy

by jonpelto

Jumoke Charter School, with no non-English speaking students or any experience with English Language Learners, to take over neighborhood school where 40 percent of the students go home to households in which English is not the primary language.

One of the most contentious aspects of Governor Malloy’s “education reform” proposal was the section granting Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, the power to take over a local district school, ban collective bargaining, fire the staff and hand the school over to a third party who would then be exempt from having to follow Connecticut’s laws about competitive bidding and the law limiting the use of consultants.

Many were concerned that Pryor, a key player behind Achievement First Inc., the large charter school management company that runs twenty schools in New York and 

A scary (and telling) school voucher story - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

A scary (and telling) school voucher story - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

A scary (and telling) school voucher story

By Valerie Strauss

If you are wondering where the new rush to implement school voucher programs in state after state may be taking us, consider these developments from Louisiana.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (Mike Carlson - Associated Press)Gov. Bobby Jindal recently signed a new law that sets up the largest voucher program of any state in the country. It is part of a series of “reforms” that Jindal says will expand school choice for families and critics say is the broadest state assault on public educationin the country.

Louisiana just announced that for 2012-13, 125 private and religious schools from across the state have qualified to participate in Louisiana Believes program, which gives families public money to pay school tuition for their children.

One of those schools is the church-affiliated New Living Word School, which was approved to increase its student enrollment from 122 to 315 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: NEPC announces it annual Bunkum Awards

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: NEPC announces it annual Bunkum Awards:

NEPC announces it annual Bunkum Awards

by Mike Klonsky

For Immediate Release Thursday, May 31, 2012
Contact: Jamie Horwitz (202) 549-492, jhdcpr@starpower.net

BUNKUM AWARDS FOR SHODDY EDUCATION RESEARCH ANNOUNCED

Grand Prize Winner Compares Charters Schools to Cancer – Where Cancer is a Good Thing 


National Education Policy Center for the First Time Awards a “Get a Life(time) Achievement Award” to an Individual – Dr. Matthew Ladner, an Advisor to Jeb Bush’s Advocacy Organization

Boulder, Colo. -- The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder, has announced via online video the winners of the 2011 Bunkum Awards –presented for the most compellingly lousy educational research for the past year.  The video is now available for viewing at http://nepc.colorado.edu/think-tank/bunkum-awards/2011.

The 2011 Bunkum Grand Prize goes to the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), which received the “Cancer is Under-Rated Award” for Going Exponential: Growing the Charter School Sector’s Best. In its report, which advocated the rapid expansion of preferred charter schools, PPI compared those charters to viruses and cancers.

PPI says that it “conducted research about when and how exponential growth occurs in the natural world, specifically examining mold, algae, cancer, crystals and viruses. We used these