Tuesday, July 24, 2012

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT % OF NEW CHARTERS WILL BE FEATURED ON CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE?

Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

Laboratory Charter School of Communication and Languages

by The Perimeter Primate

“Feds charge Philly charter school mogul in massive fraud.” Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 7/24/2012

A charter school mogul was charged today in a multimillion-dollar fraud case by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Dorothy June Hairston Brown, who received accolades for students' test scores and gained

Theodore Roosevelt Public Community School

by The Perimeter Primate

“Thousands in receipts questioned in school firing - Charter ousts its superintendent after audit finds discrepancies.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, 6/17/2012

The superintendent of two local charter schools has been fired from his $80,000-a-year job because of questionable receipts for thousands of dollars of purchases that surfaced during a routine audit.

Downtown Miami Charter School

by The Perimeter Primate

“Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Assault At Charter School.” CBSMiami (FL), 7/2/2012

The Downtown Miami Charter School knew that a seven year-old student was being bullied and sexually abused by an 11 year-old student and failed to prevent it from recurring. That is the gist of a lawsuit filed Monday in Miami-Dade circuit court on behalf of “John Doe,” the alleged seven year-old victim...

According to the lawsuit the second grader was being bullied on the school bus, operated by

Idaho Virtual Academy

by The Perimeter Primate

“Idaho for-profit online students lag in math and reading skills.” Deseret News (UT), 7/21/2012

BOISE — A new report takes aim at the nation's largest for-profit online education provider and finds students taking K12 Inc. classes in Idaho and four other states are falling more behind in

Burnham Wood Charter School District (three schools)

by The Perimeter Primate

“Problems bring TEA monitor for Burnham Wood Charter School District.” El Paso Times (TX), 7/21/2012

The Texas Education Agency has assigned a monitor to the Burnham Wood Charter School District as a sanction for many problems the state previously found, including school leaders who misused public funds on some business deals and campuses not properly serving at-risk students.

The charter district's Superintendent Iris Burnham did not return phone calls this week, but in an email she said the district is contesting the education agency's decision to assign a monitor...

D.U.E. Season Charter School

by The Perimeter Primate

“Former teacher files lawsuit against Camden charter school.” Courier-Post (NJ), 7/20/2012

CAMDEN — A security worker charged with assaulting a special-needs student in April has faced repeated allegations that he manhandled youngsters at D.U.E. Season Charter School, the school founded and led by his mother.

Victory Preparatory Academy

by The Perimeter Primate

“No Fair,Teachers Tell Charter School.” Courthouse News Service, 7/18/2012

HOUSTON (CN) - A charter school fired three teachers "immediately" after they testified in a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency, the teachers claim in Harris County Court.

Charles Solaris, Sedalia Pippins and Randy Nichols sued Victory Prep Charter School and its

Derrick Thomas Academy

by The Perimeter Primate

“Will low test scores, shaky financial situation spell the end for Derrick Thomas Academy?” KHSB (MO), 7/16/2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A new Missouri law requiring more accountability from charter schools takes effect in August, but is it already too late for a school bearing the name of one of Kansas City’s

Virtual Community School of Ohio

by The Perimeter Primate

“Reynoldsburg board places virtual school on probation.” ThisWeek Community News (OH), 7/18/2012

The Reynoldsburg Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday, July 17, to impose a probation period of one school year for the Virtual Community School of Ohio.

Board members had discussed suspending the online school, which serves 1,300 students from

ISUS Institute of Construction Technology

by The Perimeter Primate

“$2M debt to close charter school; ISUS forced to suspend operations for a year to address its $2M debt.” Dayton Daily News (OH), 6/21/2012

DAYTON — ISUS, an award-winning charter school, will suspend its operations for the 2012-13 school year to address its business plan and a $2 million debt.

“We need to develop a new economic model that will provide a more predictable cash flow,” said

Gulen charter schools in South Carolina

by The Perimeter Primate

STATE	# ACTIVE	# PENDING	# INACTIVE*	TOTAL ATTEMPTS
SC	0	0	2	2

* Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status

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SCHOOLS

===============================================================

GREENVILLE SCIENCE CHARTER SCHOOL (originally called GREENVILLE PALMETTO SCIENCE ACADEMY)
Status	DENIED: continuous attempt from 2006 to 2009
Charter Holder	Greenville Science (originally Palmetto Education Corporation)
Authorizer	Greenville County Schools, following initial review by the State Charter School Advisory Committee
Location/District	Greenville area; originally to open fall 2007
Enrollment	For grades 6-12, 480 students
Individuals involved	Names appearing on 2006 application: Ali Ozer (lead), Guven Yucesan, Mevlut Tascan, Ethan E. Ballard, Ruth Augustin. In 2008 and 2009 documents Augustin has been replaced by Joan Breitenbruck.
Notes	SC charter school law required applicants to first submit their charters to the State Charter School Advisory Committee (SCSAC) for review and recommendation, after which the local school board made the final decision. The school’s 5/2006 application was approved by SCSAC, but rejected in 11/2006 by the Greenville County school board (unsound financial plan and inadequate evidence for community support). That decision was overturned at the state level because of procedural issues and was remanded for a rehearing. The rehearing took place in 4/2009 and the board rejected the school once again. A PowerPoint presentation by the school held up Fulton Science Academy, TEACH (now FSA High School) in GA, plus River City Science Academy and Sweetwater Branch Academy in FL as models. All four are Gulen charter schools associated w/ Grace Institute (see below). http://www.scalc.net/decisions.aspx?q=4&id=10810 http://www.boarddocs.com/sc/greenville/Board.nsf/Public (>Meetings>2009>April 17, 2009 special meeting)

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal

Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below

Please Explain « Diane Ravitch's blog

Please Explain « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Please Explain

by dianerav

No, I am not a Luddite. No one can use technology as intensively as I do and be fairly accused of being anti-technology.
I am just naturally skeptical of the claims made for all miracle cures, whether it is snake oil, video game-playing, or the Land of Oz.
I promise you, when I see a guy with a crown who is buck naked, I’ll be the first to say so even if he is an emperor.
So I want to know: Can you really learn to be a carpenter at an online college? Can you learn HVAC online? Can you become a

Who Is Paying to Privatize Public Schools in Philly?

by dianerav

The William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia paid for the services of the Boston Consulting Group (the group that spawned Bain).
BCG recommended privatization of a large number of schools in the city, allegedly to save money. But as we know, charters don’t save money and on average, they don’t get better results. But they do manage to compete with public schools for limited public funding.
Now we learn that the foundation was not content to bring in the hired

Judge Rules City May Not Close 24 NYC Schools

by dianerav

The city and the teachers’ union went to court to battle over the city’s plan to “turnaround” 24 schools by firing thousands of teachers.
The judge listened to the arguments, retired to her chambers, and returned seven minutes later to say that she was sustaining the arbitrator’s decision. The city may not lay off the teachers. It violates their contract.
This battle involves more than 3,000 teachers and 30,000 students. No one is sure how the schools will be

News from New York City

by dianerav

Copied from website of NYC Educator (Arthur Goldstein):

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

UFT Wins “Turnaround”

NY Post’s Yoav Gonen reports on Twitter judge ruled DOE cannot restaff 24 so-called “turnaround” schools. Big loss for Mayor4Life. All his hopes to revive his flagging reputation now revolve around getting New Yorkers to stop drinking those darn Big Gulps.

If the Public is in the Dark About the Common Core, Just Do Some Poll Manipulation | Truth in American Education

If the Public is in the Dark About the Common Core, Just Do Some Poll Manipulation | Truth in American Education:

If the Public is in the Dark About the Common Core, Just Do Some Poll Manipulation

by Shane Vander Hart

Robert Holland, a senior fellow for education policy with the Heartland Institute, wrote an excellent op/ed in The Washington Times highlighting how the general public is in the dark about the Common Core State Standards:

Achieve, a band of like-minded corporate moguls that formed in 1996 to push national education standards, had to report rather sheepishly last month that its own poll showed Americans are almost totally in the dark about the Common Core juggernaut.
A remarkable 79 percent of registered voters know “nothing” or “not much” about what Achieve calls the Common Core State Standards. Another 14 percent said they knew “some,” and just 7 percent claimed to know “a lot.”
None of that is surprising: Those standards for teaching English and mathematics were put

St.Hope Give Me Strength: Sacramento officials begin to react to credit card scandal

City Beat: Sacramento officials begin to react to credit card scandal:

Sacramento officials begin to react to credit card scandal

Johnson and Serna-Mayorga have been close for many years. She has served on the board of St. HOPE Public Schools - the non-profit founded by Johnson that operates charter schools in Oak Park - worked on Johnson's 2008 mayoral campaign and was one of the mayor's first hires when he was elected.

City officials are beginning to react to the news that a mayoral aide resigned last week after it was revealed she allegedly racked up $9,000 in personal charges on her city-issued credit card. But questions remain on how the charges were made - and how they went unnoticed - in the first place.

City Auditor Jorge Oseguera said today that his office is expected to begin an audit of every city-issued credit card in September. That audit has been planned since February. While Oseguera did not know how many employees are granted credit cards, he said the cards are "used significantly throughout the city."

Meanwhile, City Manager John Shirey's office said he has "conferred with the Police Chief so that the matter can be reviewed for any possible criminal wrong doing."

Shirey's office has also begun auditing the credit card usage of Lisa Serna-Mayorga, a former City Council operations manager and, later, the director of constituent affairs for Mayor Kevin Johnson. Oseguera said

Grades Based on Test Scores Can't Measure a School's Success | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education

Grades Based on Test Scores Can't Measure a School's Success | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

Grades Based on Test Scores Can't Measure a School's Success

by Kate_Lenox

Sacramento's Mayor Kevin Johnson has said that the city should have a greater role in Sacramento's schools. State law, as well as the city's Council Manager form of government, prevents him from wresting control of the schools from the elected school board so he has proposed another means to put his stamp on the city's schools. In keeping with the federal emphasis on test scores and accountability, the Mayor proposed a school grading system in his "Education White Paper" made public in 2009 and announced its development in his 2012 "State of the City" speech. The mayor's grading system would give schools a single letter grade based on test scores. Is this a good idea? Do test scores alone really tell parents if a school is successful?

Viewing parents as consumers, the mayor's organization, Stand Up Sacramento is attempting to create a "consumer report" for schools based on a Colorado model, which is independent of the state system. That model purports to turn the Colorado state school ranking system into a simple letter grade based on growth in performance on standardized tests. A "value added" measurement of academic growth in test scores is given greater weight than academic achievement alone. It also factors in the performance of traditionally disadvantaged students--English language learners, special education students and children in poverty. ColoradoSchoolGrades.com grades on the curve. Schools that might all be graded as "performing" by the state,

Whole Child Network Schools Embark on a New Adventure — Whole Child Education

Whole Child Network Schools Embark on a New Adventure — Whole Child Education:

Whole Child Network Schools Embark on a New Adventure

by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

The 10 schools from across the continental United States and Guam chosen to participate in ASCD's Whole Child Network kicked off their efforts last week with ASCD in Alexandria, Va. Teams of administrators and teachers from the participating schools gathered to formulate strategies and learn tactics for implementing a whole child approach to education in their schools.
The schools chosen to participate in the Whole Child Network have committed to a comprehensive school improvement process using the tenets of the Whole Child Initiative—healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged—and theirindicators (PDF) as a sustainable whole child approach to educating participating schools' students.

The 2012 Whole Child Network Schools are

Albert Harris Elementary School of the Martinsville City Public Schools in Martinsville, Va., which serves grade levels K–5.
Drew-Freeman Middle School of the Prince George's County Public Schools in Suitland, Md., which serves grade levels 7 and 8.
Finegayan Elementary School in Dededo, Guam, of the Guam Department of Education, which provides Head Start and serves grade levels K–5.
Fredstrom Elementary School of the Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Neb., which serves grade levels

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CTU and community protests force more Rahm concessions

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CTU and community protests force more Rahm concessions:

CTU and community protests force more Rahm concessions

by Mike Klonsky

Rahm feeling the pressure

With national elections drawing near and a threatened teachers strike only 30 days away, Rahm is feeling pressure from inside his own camp to reach an agreement with the CTU. The Civic Federation is attacking his proposed school budget from one side while pro-union protests hit it from the other. CEO Brizard can't go anywhere these days without being greeted by community protests, even backing out of a scheduled meeting at UIC last week which was cancelled for "security reasons."

The school board was scheduled to pass it's $5.2 billion 2012-13 operating budget which would have locked in a meager, strike-inciting

From Huffington Post: 7/23/12 Bold Leaders for our Public Schools by Martin J. Blank | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education

From Huffington Post: 7/23/12 Bold Leaders for our Public Schools by Martin J. Blank | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

Bold Leaders for our Public Schools by Martin J. Blank

by jasonhonig

Strong leaders are key to building strong and innovative schools, and so I want to share some insights about the tremendous people who are leading the community schools movement. I'm talking about people like John Porter, Jan Christensen, and Richard Carranza, all superintendents and, all of whom are working to transform their local schools into community hubs.
I had the opportunity to see many of these superintendents in action at the 2012 Community Schools National Forum, which took place recently in California -- a part of the country where the community schools movement is taking off.
As I listened to these superintendents share stories about how they build community schools -- schools that offer an engaging curriculum and surround children and their families with supports, resources, and opportunities offered by non-profit, community, government, and business groups -- I realized that these leaders have a few special qualities in common.
First, they think big and set ambitious agendas. Their agendas don't simply aim to move student test scores up a few notches. Rather, they aim to improve the overall quality of life for children so that children are ready to learn

The cost of the No Child Left Behind Waiver for Washington State | Seattle Education

The cost of the No Child Left Behind Waiver for Washington State | Seattle Education:

The cost of the No Child Left Behind Waiver for Washington State

by seattleducation2011

From a Seattle Times article, Waivers free Washington, Wisconsin from ‘No Child Left Behind’:

In order to get a waiver, each state had to promise to show in other ways that its students and schools are improving, and they were required to more closely link teacher evaluations to student test scores, among other requirements.

And how much will the cost be to link teacher evaluations to student test scores and other requirements?
From the Los Angeles Times:
No Child Left Behind waiver could cost $2 billion, report says

California officials say meeting the federal law’s requirements would be expensive and imply the state shouldn’t seek such relief. Teachers unions and the PTA back the conclusion, but others

Irony In Parent Trigger’s California Ruling: A Disempowering of Parents | Scathing Purple Musings

Irony In Parent Trigger’s California Ruling: A Disempowering of Parents | Scathing Purple Musings:

Irony In Parent Trigger’s California Ruling: A Disempowering of Parents

by Bob Sikes

Yesterday’s odd ruling by a California judge which paved the way for the nation’s first parent trigger to actually occur is based on one startling reality. Explains Parents Across America (PAA) founder Caroline Grannan:

The parent trigger, an idea presented by the voices of corporate education “reform” as parent empowerment, won a round in court this week. Ironically, the court came down firmly in favor of disempowering parents, as the parent trigger’s sponsors had requested.
The ruling by a California Superior Court judge decreed that parents who have signed a parent trigger petition do not have the right to change their minds and may not rescind their signatures. The ruling cast the future of the targeted school, Desert Trails in Adelanto, in Southern California’s high desert, into confusion. Charter operators will now be invited to bid for the school, even though

Bain Plan for Public Schools: Astonishing News from Philadelphia « Diane Ravitch's blog

Astonishing News from Philadelphia « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Astonishing News from Philadelphia

by dianerav

As readers of this blog know, the School Reform Commission of Philadelphia has recommended a vast expansion of charter schools.
It is acting on the recommendation of the Boston Consulting Group, business management consultants with no deep knowledge of education but a deep love of privatization.
The business leaders of Philadelphia are pushing hard for the privatization plan.
But today, the U.S. Attorney for Philadelphia charged a major charter school leader in Philadelphia with multiple violations of the law:
A charter school mogul was charged today in a multimillion dollar fraud case by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Dorothy June Hairston Brown, who received accolades for students’ test scores and gained notoriety for