Shanker Blog » A Controversial Consensus On KIPP Charter Schools

Shanker Blog » A Controversial Consensus On KIPP Charter Schools:

A Controversial Consensus On KIPP Charter Schools

by Matthew Di Carlo

A recent Mathematica report on the performance of KIPP charter schools expands and elaborates on their prioranalyses of these schools’ (estimated) effects on average test scores and other outcomes (also here). These findings are important and interesting, and were covered extensively elsewhere.
As is usually the case with KIPP, the results stirred the full spectrum of reactions. To over-generalize a bit, critics sometimes seem unwilling to acknowledge that KIPP’s results are real no matter how well-documented they might be, whereas some proponents are quick to use KIPP to proclaim a triumph for the charter movement, one that can justify the expansion of charter sectors nationwide.
Despite all this controversy, there may be more opportunity for agreement here than meets the eye. So, let’s try to lay out a few reasonable conclusions and see if we might find some of that common ground.
When KIPP works, it works very well, but it’s not a sure bet. Regardless of what you think of KIPP’s approach, the evidence thus far suggests that students who attend these schools tend to improve more quickly on tests compared with similar regular public school students. They show meaningfully large relative gains in all 

UPDATE: Department Of Defense Schools Await Furlough News + Military Schools Grapple With Budget Cuts Confusion, Instability

Military Schools Grapple With Budget Cuts Confusion, Instability:

Department Of Defense Schools Await Furlough News; More Early Education Details From Obama Administration: Ed Today

by Joy Resmovits

More Early Ed Details? Yesterday, President Barack Obama's education advisor Roberto Rodriguez addressed the Council of the Great City Schools legislative conference, and gave folks a few more details about Obama's early ed plans, according to Education Week. The program is apparently a full-day preschool program that is to be overseen by school districts, he said. "We want to go beyond the three-hour-a-day preschool model," Rodriguez said. But he still wouldn't provide any details on how much money the federal government would spend on the initiative.

Sequestration Nation? Department of Defense schools stillhaven't learned the extend of the effects of sequestration cuts, a fact that has rankled DoD teachers and families across the globe, we report. DoD schools across the globe could face up to 22 days of furloughs, but the body that governs these schools is still figuring it out. Some teachers want to find other cuts. "It seems odd that we're told we're mission-essential, but now, we can suddenly be furloughed," one teacher in the UK told me.

Middling Reform In Virginia? According to the Washington Post, Gov. Bob McDonnell's attempts to reform 

Military Schools Grapple With Budget Cuts Confusion, Instability

by Joy Resmovits

When BettyLou Cummins became a teacher in Defense Department schools 34 years ago, she knew that her livelihood would depend on the federal government.

"It's been said that Congress is our school board," said Cummins, who teaches at Ramstein High School on Ramstein Air Base in Germany and serves as a vice president of the Federal Education Association.

But now, she said, that school board has failed her. "And the stress level is through the roof."

Over the past week, since Congress failed to prevent the implementation of across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, parents of students in Defense Department schools around the globe have heard all sorts of rumors regarding how the cuts will affect them. Concerned parents have approached teachers raising 

Teachers union still draws support, money from retired members | Hechinger Report

Teachers union still draws support, money from retired members | Hechinger Report:

Teachers union still draws support, money from retired members

by Sarah Butrymowicz

At a synagogue in Surfside, Fla., last month, about 40 former teachers gathered for cupcakes, cheesecake and a PowerPoint presentation by a pair of union representatives from New York. The teachers were members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) retiree chapter, and the representatives had been sent by the UFT and New York State United Teachers to pass along information about budget counseling, Medicare, and pet insurance. Ken Goodman, the UFT Florida retiree chapter leader, called the meeting to order by announcing updates about the following month’s annual retiree luncheon. Buses would pick the members up from Surfside and ferry them to the event in Boca Raton, where UFT President Michael Mulgrew would deliver the keynote address just weeks before his re-election bid. Despite being out of the classroom—in many cases, for decades—retirees make up a 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-12-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Brian Ford Says: Repeat After Me

by dianerav

Brian Ford, teacher and author, writes:
Repeat after me:
THE GREAT MISTAKE AND OVERRIDING DANGER TO PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THAT
THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS WILL BE LINKD TO HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS, TEACHER EVALUATIONS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS
I know it is not catchy, but say it twice more:
THE GREAT MISTAKE AND OVERRIDING DANGER TO PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THAT

Will College Adjuncts Qualify for Food Stamps?

by dianerav

I recently posted a news story from Grand Rapids, about teachers who say their pay qualifies them for food stamps.
Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune writes that college adjuncts are not likely to qualify for health care. At their current low wages, they already qualify for food stamps.
The New York Times wrote recently that the college degree is akin to a high school degree. Just to get a job as 

What If Tom Sawyer Battled the Bronte Sisters?

by dianerav

EduShyster is very excited about Joel Klein’s new product. It is not only software but a real tablet!
And yes, there is even some App where Tom Sawyer battles the Brontes.
The question is whether any of the students have ever read Tom Sawyer or anything written by the Brontes, or were they too busy reading informational text?

Charter Schools and the Future of Public Education

by dianerav

Stan Karp of New Jersey, who taught for 30 years, here explains the long-term impact of charter schools on public education. He understands that the original idea of charters was progressive: they were supposed to be teacher-run schools that reached out to the neediest students.
But now they have become a means of privatizing the schools.
As Karp writes:
“It has become impossible to separate the rapid expansion of charter networks from efforts to privatize public education. Commissioner Cerf has spoken of replacing the current “school system” with “a system of schools.” Former deputy commissioner Andy Smarick campaigned to “replace the district-based system in America’s 

Anthony Cody and I Talk About the Network @TheChalkface

by dianerav

Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson are fearless education activists who operate on many fronts to support public education. They write, they blog, they make videos, they spoof the loony ideas called “reform.”
On March 11, Anthony Cody and I were interviewed @TheChalkface about the new Network for Public Education. We described how we hope to provide a means for grassroots groups to get connected to one another; to supply them with information and research on important issues; and to let them know that they are not alone. We will oppose the misuse of testing to punish or reward teachers, and to close schools.
When we clear away all legal issues, we hope to be able to endorse candidates and to let voters in state ad local elections know which candidates truly care about strengthening their public schools. We even intend to have a Seal of Approval for our allies.
Listen in here.

NASSP: The Danger of Misguided Evaluations

by dianerav

It is rare to see a high-ranking leader of a major association speak hard truths to power. For her courage and candor, Joann Bartoletti joins the honor roll as a champion of public education.
In the March 2013 issue of NASSP’s “News Leader,” Bartoletti, the executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, blasted the new teacher evaluation systems that were foisted on the nation’s schools by Race to the Top and its highly prescriptive waivers.
She notes that these dubious, non-evidence-based evaluation systems are coming into use at the very time that

Why Charter Schools Failed in Louisiana

by dianerav

Mike Deshotels wrote an amazing post about the shortcomings and failures of charters in Louisiana. I asked him for his permission to repost it in full and he graciously granted it. Mike blogs athttp://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/. Mike, an experienced educator, taught high school science in Louisiana.
NOLA.com, Blackboard Wars Reveal Charter Shortcomings
Recent reports in NOLA.com have described California charter school developer Steve Barr’s problems with expanding his charter concept to New Orleans. Barr has a contract with Oprah’s OWN network to produce a documentary series on his efforts to turnaround John McDonogh high school in New Orleans

Diane in the Evening 3-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 54 minutes ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Student Leader Is Running for Board of Education! Please Help! by dianerav Stephanie Rivera is a wonderful student activist in New Jersey. She is a junior at Rutgers and is preparing to be a career educator. Stephanie is running for the New Brunswick, NJ, school board! For the past 20 years, every member of the New Brunswick school board was appointed by the same mayor (you can see how that did not work). Next month is the town’s first school board election. Please help her in any way you can. She is a brave youn... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Professor of Education Policy and Research Written Testimony Supporting the End of Common Core Standards Implementation

Missouri Education Watchdog: Professor of Education Policy and Research Written Testimony Supporting the End of Common Core Standards Implementation:

Professor of Education Policy and Research Written Testimony Supporting the End of Common Core Standards Implementation

by stlgretchen

The following written testimony by Mark Garrison, Ph.D. was entered to support MO SB 210 and HB 616and end the implementation of Common Core State Standards:



EXPERT TESTIMONY OF MARK GARRISON, PH.D., IN OPPOSITION TO THE
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS INITIATIVE (CCSSI).

March 3, 2013

Based on my research, I have concluded that the CCSSI should be opposed for four reasons.*
They are:

1. There is no evidence that the CCSSI will improve the quality of education, reduce
inequalities, or ensure students are prepared to contribute to society or engage in
higher learning. For example, researchers have compared states with higher standards
to those with less challenging ones, and found that the existence of higher, better or
clearer standards did not result in demonstrably better results on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) or other international tests. There is,
however, a great deal of research that suggests the CCSSI will further narrow
curriculum, further mechanizing teaching. It needs to be understood that the archite

Louisiana Educator: Teachers Show They Can Speak Truth to Power

Louisiana Educator: Teachers Show They Can Speak Truth to Power:

Teachers Show They Can Speak Truth to Power

by Michael Deshotels

Please click on this link to read the letter from Abby Breaux that was printed in the Washington Post over the weekend. It is getting rave reviews from educators all over the country. Take a look at the many comments from teachers in other parts of the country that are facing the same impossible challenges as Ms Breaux that are being ignored by our "reformer" power structure. People like Jindal and White have no idea what teachers go through, yet they want to run education. Finally, teachers have decided to speak truth to power! God bless you Abby!

I am reprinting the following from the Lafayette Advertiser:
(click here to see the video provided by the Advertiser)

A group of Lafayette teachers calling themselves the "Fearless Foursome" launched a Facebook page to spark continued discussion about education issues.

Abby Breaux, Andrea Thibodeaux, Linda Rhoads and Jennifer Guillory started the page "Teachers Standing for Solutions" over the weekend. By late Monday afternoon, the page had more than 1,000 "likes."

Guillory said her children encouraged her to start the page after she and the other teachers spoke out last week about the challenges of education. Their concerns include the district's discipline system, a large amount of 

UPDATE: The Expertise Gap + So, is Direct and Purposeful Teaching Anti-Constructivist? – @ the chalk face

So, is Direct and Purposeful Teaching Anti-Constructivist? – @ the chalk face:

Argue with Some of the Logic?: The Expertise Gap

by plthomasedd

While not above criticism himself, Malcolm Gladwell (Time, 20 October 2009) has argued an important point about the importance of topic expertise for journalists:

The issue is not writing. It’s what you write about. One of my favorite columnists is Jonathan Weil, who writes for Bloomberg. He broke the Enron story, and he broke it because he’s one of the very few mainstream journalists in America who really knows how to read a balance sheet. That means Jonathan Weil will always have a job, and will always be read, and will always have something interesting to say. He’s unique. Most accountants don’t write articles, and most journalists don’t know anything about accounting. Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs and go to some other kind of grad school. If I was studying today, I would go get a master’s in statistics, and maybe do a bunch of accounting courses and then write from that perspective. I think that’s the way to survive. The role of the generalist is diminishing. Journalism has to get smarter.

The education debate, specifically the education reform debate, currently confirms Gladwell’s concern because politicians with little or no educational expertise or experience control education policy and journalists with little or 

So, is Direct and Purposeful Teaching Anti-Constructivist?

by Kuhio Kane

“When it is agreed that all students must know the same things at the same times in order to move on to the next thing that all students must know at the same time, you have killed constructivism.  And, as Sir Ken Robinson has virally said, you’ve also killed creativity.” (Quote from Sir Ken Robinson as displayed in Kris Nielsen’s recent blog regarding constructivism and teaching).
Clearly, students move on in their learning, the great hope.  Also, just as clearly, there will never come a time when all students will know all the same thing all at the same time.  Nor move on to know the same things all at the same time. Such a claim is absurd.  I’m sure this quote came with a bit of sarcasm from Robinson.  If not, then I’m confident that what is meant is that schools have been beating the crap out of creativity for some time.  It’s just that now it is becoming that which is levied with an increasing and insidious. fictitious quantitative analysis.  For the metrics to be manipulated to expand a war as specious and phony as the war on drugs.

Beware the Reform-y Types in Constructivist’s Clothing

by Kris Nielsen

There’s been a great way to teach out there in school-o-sphere for quite some time, which we know leads to authentic learning and happy kids.  It’s not lecture.  It’s not worksheets. It’s not even “hands-on.”  (“Hands-on” doesn’t always mean that kids are learning or even engaged.)

Put that away and get back to hands-on learning!

It’s called constructivism, and it is totally awesome.  Seriously, though, it is!  When we hear the buzzwords, like “child-centered,” “inquiry-based,” “student-led,” etc., what we are hearing is an attempt to get kids to lead their own learning path and construct their own understanding.  You know what happens when people construct meaning from their own learning?  They remember.  They transfer.  They apply.
There have been critics along the way, just like there are with everything.  Some suggest that if you allow kids t

UPDATE: 1% + Prejudice Daily Kos: What we need to remember about our students

Daily Kos: What we need to remember about our students:

1 %

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

no, I am not writing about those with incomes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Instead I want to remind people of two other groups of people who represent 1% or less of the population of the United States.
1) those who have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since 9-11.  As of Veterans Day 2011, according to this ABC news story, that number was  2,333,972.  Even with the additional who have served in the 16 months since, that number remains well below 3 million, and thus well below 1% who have borne the direct costs of the stupidity of the Bush administration's military policies
2) those who teach in public k-12 schools, which according to this table from the Census Bureau was in 2009 3,167,000, or just about 1% of our total population.
Two very important roles.
Neither properly respected the way they should be.
I fell in the latter category until I retired.
Make of this what you will.  As a teacher I know that 1% of us cannot fix the problems of society with which students arrive at our schools.  As a former  Marine I know that less than 1% of us should not be required to bear the burdens we imposed through badly executed wars of choice.
Not when the other 1% continues to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth and fails to pay appropriately for the support of the governments at all levels which make their wealth possible.

Prejudice

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I cannot claim I am or ever have been completely free of prejudice, but perhaps I am lucky in the family I lived in and in how I have lived my life.
I just read The Price of Hate: $85 + ? (which if you have not read I strongly recommend that you do) and it got me thinking.
When I was growing up in Larchmont New York it was a period of time where gifted women like my mother rarely worked - when she went back to work as a lawyer when I was around 8 or 9, and then became an Assistant Attorney General for NY State when I was 13, it marked her as very different from the mothers of my friends.  I remember when Michael Mermey's mother Faye became President of Larchmont Temple - not the Sisterhood, but the whole congregration - she was apparently the first such synagogue president in the US.
Perhaps it was our Jewish background that made us more sensitive towards prejudice and discrimination.
As I look at my life, I realize how different are my expectations now than they would have been when I was a child.

What we need to remember about our students

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

is how absolutely unique each one is, which is why we need to stop attempting to impose a standardized education on each one.
Allow me to share two brief quotations from Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, from his famous 2007 TED talk, "3 clues to understanding your brain."

Here is this three-pound mass of jelly you can hold in the palm of your
hand, and it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space. It can
contemplate the meaning of infinity and it can contemplate itself
contemplating on the meaning of infinity.

There are 100 billion neurons in the adult human brain, and each neuron

Perfection

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Torvill and Dean
they had already won Olympic Gold earlier in 1984, at Sarajevo, with perfect scores for artistic performance
on this day day the same year in Ottawa, in the World Championship, in what was then believed to be their final performance, they against scored 9 perfect sixes on artistics performance, and with the four for technical performance on this free dance, became the first to ever score 13 sixes in one competition.
It is arguable that they should have had all 6s for technical, although some judges did not like the one lift.  It may be arguable that their Olympic performance was better.
Be that as it may.   This is style perfection.
Simply watch - Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the greatest ice dancers ever:
Pop

Parent Trigger Would Only Apply to “Small, Narrow Universe” of Schools | Scathing Purple Musings

Parent Trigger Would Only Apply to “Small, Narrow Universe” of Schools | Scathing Purple Musings:

Parent Trigger Would Only Apply to “Small, Narrow Universe” of Schools

by Bob Sikes

Orlando Sentinel education reporter Leslie Postal doesn’t attribute the quote in the title to this blog post to anyone, but it was a point of emphasis that the two top advocates for HB 867 were making at the March 7th hearing.

The bills would give parents a say in the “turnaround” option selected for an F-graded school (there were 34 last year, including Wheatley Elementary in Apopka). The options include closing the school, turning it into a charter or turning it over to an outside management company.
One of the bill’s sponsors said the legislation would apply only to a “small narrow universe” of schools. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a hotly debated bill during the Florida Legislature’s current session.
Proponents say the bill would give parents more power and a voice in how to improve struggling 

The Disempowerment Of Public School Parents - Jeff Bryant

The Disempowerment Of Public School Parents - Jeff Bryant:

The Disempowerment Of Public School Parents

by Jeff Bryant

This post is republished from the Education Opportunity Network, a new online publication edited by Jeff Bryant.

For years, policy initiatives stemming from right wing belief tanks have been wrapped in the rhetoric of positive outcomes that are, in fact, the complete opposite of what the measures are really intended to do.

A bill called Clear Skies that called for more pollution. Another called Healthy Forestsincentivized cutting down valuable trees. No Child Left Behind, perhaps the crowning glory of duplicity, worsened the education of disadvantaged children it was purported to magically improve.

But without a doubt the most enduring of these wolf-wrapped-in-sheep’s-clothing ideas is the promise of “school choice” that’s been promoted to parents since the presidencies ofNixon and Reagan.

Sold as a way to “empower” parents to improve the education attainment of their 

Anybody out there want to rethink middle schools? | Get Schooled

Anybody out there want to rethink middle schools? | Get Schooled:

Anybody out there want to rethink middle schools?

by Maureen Downey

Regular Get Schooled readers know that I have doubts about the efficacy of the middle school model.
Despite decades of experimentation and refinement, middle school still doesn’t work in most places, leading me to conclude that the problem is not with the execution of the concept but with the concept itself.
In 2011, a Harvard study found that students moving from fifth grade to a middle school setting suffer a sharp drop in academic performance in reading and math, compared to peers who attend k-8 schools. The findings of the Harvard study confirmed an earlier Columbia University study.
Writing in Education Next, Harvard researchers Martin West and Guido Schwerdt explained:

Our results cast serious doubt on the wisdom of the middle-school experiment that has become 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Charters grease corporate contracts

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Charters grease corporate contracts:

Charters grease corporate contracts

by Mike Klonsky

Rupert Murdoch (AP photo)

Writing in Salon.com, David Sirota warns us to stop pretending wealthy CEOs pushing for charter schools are altruistic "reformers." They're raking in billions.

 Citing a fact sheet from the for-profit education industry itself, the Washington Post recently reported that “the education sector now represents nearly 9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product” while the “for-profit education is valued at $1.3 trillion, and is one of the largest U.S. investment markets.” Likewise, NPR reports that as he’s launched an education technology division, Rupert Murdoch “has described education as a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.” This is why the tech site Geekwire predicts another full-scale tech industry bubble, thanks to “K-12 and other education segments now being chased by a mob of investment capitalists.”

According to Sirot, contracts are much easier to land in privately run charter schools because such schools are 

A Veteran’s View of Choices Facing Teachers in Implementing Common Core Standards (David B. Cohen) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Veteran’s View of Choices Facing Teachers in Implementing Common Core Standards (David B. Cohen) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

A Veteran’s View of Choices Facing Teachers in Implementing Common Core Standards (David B. Cohen)

by larrycuban

David Cohen has been teaching since 1993. He completed a B.A. in English at U.C. Berkeley (’91) with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and earned a Master’s degree in Education through the Stanford Teacher Education Program (’95).  After achieving National Board Certification in 2004, David served for two years as a support provider for National Board candidates.  As one of the founding members of Accomplished California Teachers (ACT), he helped author the group’s first two policy reports.This post appeared in the ACT group blog on January 24, 2013.
The implementation of the Common Core State Standards is underway, and the imminent transition that will affect most American public schools is sparking a wide variety of reactions among educators I know and interact with, or whose writing I read online.  At the extremes are the enthusiastic adopters and the active resistors, and in between, a wide swath of teachers who are still sorting out their reactions as they learn more about the content of the standards and the implications of their adoption.
In my blog, I haven’t focused on the Common Core at length, but the posts I have written remain some of the 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black, Latino legislators step up to the plate

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black, Latino legislators step up to the plate:

Black, Latino legislators step up to the plate

by Mike Klonsky

Tribune photo

Leaders of the Illinois Legislature’s black and Latino caucuses on Monday accused CPS of preparing to close schools without having a comprehensive plan in place and called for a moratorium on closings for the 2013-2014 school year. They were joined by several member of the City Council's Progressive Caucus

“We’re not gonna sit back and say, ‘OK, Mayor Rahm Emanuel do what you want to do, how you want to do it, when you want to do it at our