Don’t Let Foundation Money Be A Trojan Horse CT News Junkie | OP-ED |

CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Don’t Let Foundation Money Be A Trojan Horse:

OP-ED | Don’t Let Foundation Money Be A Trojan Horse

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 

Sarah Darer Littman: The Gates Foundation as a Trojan Horse, Disabling Democracy

Sarah Darer Littman, who writes about education issues in Connecticut, tells a shocking story here of power and money. The Hartford, Connecticut, schools are under mayoral control; the mayor appoints 5 of 9 members of the board of education. The other four are elected by the public. But the Board is bound by its bylaws to act as a whole. The five are not supposed to hold secret meetings to make p

2 by dianeravitch / 1h 

by Sarah Darer Littman | Sep 19, 2014 11:00am 
(17) Comments | Log in to Post a Comment
Posted to: Education, Opinion

SARAH DARER LITTMAN

I’ve written a great deal — some complain too much — about the corporate education reform issues in our state. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like Cassandra of Greek mythology, but the reason politicians don’t believe me isn’t because I’ve denied them favors like the Cassie of yore. Rather, it’s because I haven’t given them big enough campaign donations.

Then this week I read the Hartford Courant report on the discovery that computers and equipment are missingfrom the Jumoke Academy at Milner, and realized that despite all I’ve written previously, it’s time for this Cassandra to revisit the Trojan Horse story.

Last year, Hartford received a “gift” in the form of a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Hartford is a city where the Board of Education is under mayoral control — a situation the corporate education reformers in this state (and many forces from outside the state) tried extremely hard and spent a lot of money to try to replicate, unsuccessfully, in Bridgeport in 2012

This means that Mayor Pedro Segarra appoints five members of the Hartford Board of Education, and four are elected by the people of Hartford. However, according to its bylaws, the Board is meant to act as a whole.

But that’s not what happened in the case of the $5 million grant announced back in December 2012.

On June 29, 2012, staff members of the Gates Foundation came to Hartford for a meeting. According to a memo former Hartford Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto sent to the Board on October 12, 2012 — which was the first time the wider board knew of the meeting — “Participants included Board of Education Chair Matthew Poland, Mayor Segarra, Hartford Public Schools, Achievement First and Jumoke Academy senior staff members, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Connecticut Council for Education Reform, ConnCAN, and other corporate, community and philanthropic partners.”

The grant was paid through the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, which receives 3 percent of the total ($150,000) for serving as fiscal agent. $150,000. Just think of all the Donors Choose literacy programs in Hartford that money would fund, saving teachers the indignity of having to beg donations for sets of classroom books.

But that’s not the worst part about the Gates grant. What’s really disturbing is that by funneling a grant through another foundation, a private foundation was able to impose public policy behind closed doors, and what’s more, impose policy that required taxpayer money — all without transparency or accountability.

I had to file a Freedom of Information request in order to get a copy of the paperwork on the Gates grant and what I received was only the partial information, because as Connecticut taxpayers will have learned from the Jumoke/FUSE fiasco, while charter schools consistently argue they are “public” when it comes to accepting money from the state, they are quick to claim that they are private institutions when it comes to transparency and accountability.

But what is clear from the grant paperwork is that Hartford Public Schools committed to giving more schools to Achievement First and Jumoke Academy/Fuse, a commitment made by just some members of the Board of Education in applying for the grant, which appears to be a clear abrogation of the bylaws. Further, as a result of the commitment made by those board members, financial costs would accrue to Hartford Public Schools that were not covered by the grant — for example, the technology to administer the NWEA map tests, something I wrote about back in December 2012, just after the grant was announced.

One of the Gates Foundation grant’s four initiatives was to “Build the district’s capacity to retain quality school leaders through the transformation of low-performing schools, replicating Jumoke Academy’s successful model of a holistic education approach.”

I wrote to the Gates Foundation this week asking them what due diligence they did on Jumoke and how a foundation with the legal and accounting resources that surely must be available to them could have missed the kind of financial improprieties that were going on at the charter school management organization that managed the school. They did not comment prior to deadline.

Family Urban School of Excellence (FUSE) — the charter school organization that oversaw Jumoke Academy and Hartford’s Milner Elementary School — no longer manages any Connecticut schools and is the subject of an FBI investigation. It’s also the subject of a state Education Department investigation. Those investigations were prompted after Michael Sharpe, the charter school management group’s CEO, resigned following news reports revealing his criminal past. Sharpe also admitted to a Hartford Courant reporter that he had lied about his education credentials.

I’m also curious as to how the familiar alphabet soup of edreform organizations who were involved in the private meeting in June 2012, and who consistently showed up at Board of Education meetings supporting charter takeovers by Sharpe and FUSE, were so surprised by that organization’s financial and ethical improprieties. Aren’t CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Don’t Let Foundation Money Be A Trojan Horse:

9-24-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Why I Won't Discourage My Students from Becoming Teachers.

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Why I Won't Discourage My Students from Becoming Teachers.

Every day, I get personal messages from teachers describing how their jobs have been turned nightmarish by tests, assessments, scripting and micromanagement and abusive treatment by administrators. When I posed the question here of whether things are better or worse for teachers than they were 10 years ago, well over 95% said they were much worse; many people said they were planning to leave the p

3 by Mark Naison / 5h

9-23-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: The "Data Driven" Nightmare Imposed by the Duncan Regime in the US DOE.

With A Brooklyn Accent: The "Data Driven" Nightmare Imposed by the Duncan Regime in the US DOE.When you base policy on "data" and discount "soft" information such as personal testimony, the hallmark of the Duncan Regime in the US Department of Education, you can produce a policy disaster of epic proportions. Why? Because data can be easily manipulated by self-interest

by mike simpson / 8h 

9-24-14 Curmudgucation - Reforming Accountability: Does CRPE Have Something New To Say?

CURMUDGUCATION:

Reforming Accountability: Does CRPE Have Something New To Say?

News comes this morning of yet another initiative, this one aimed squarely at school accountability. Or as Michael Petrilli put it on twitter, "Not just a change in tone."It's the Center on Reinventing Public Education (and why couldn't they be reinventing Excellent public education, because then they would be CREPE instead of CRPE). And they are going to deserve a look on their own. CRP

4 by Peter Greene / 1h 

9-23-14 Curmudgucation - Can We Be Less Nice, Please and Thank You?

CURMUDGUCATION: Can We Be Less Nice, Please and Thank You?I recently stumbled across a blog by mommy/teacher Katie Knight. It's an interesting read in that we appear to come from completely opposite ends of the bloggy spectrum. "Teacher to the Core" is awash in pink and is so precious that it nearly sent me into sugar shock, and Mrs. Knight is the sort of woman who has tiny dogs that she

1 by mike simpson / 6h 

9-25-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Astorino: Why Are Cuomo And Christie Best Buddies?

GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino makes a very good point: Republican candidate for governor Rob Astorino doesn’t approve of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s recent appearances with Gov. Cuomo to discuss security. “I’m not so sure why Gov. Christie would want to be hanging out with Gov. Cuomo,” Astorino told Time Warner Cable News after an appearance in Kingston. “The governor is under inve

by reality-based edu... / 30min 

Run, Jeb, Run

Jeb Bush is making noises for 2016:A dozen years after he ran his last political campaign, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is gearing up for a 2016 presidential bid – a campaign that would open up a new front in the Republican Party’s ongoing civil war.Mike Allen reports in today’s Politico Playbook that according to Bush’s friends, he’s “leaning more yes than no” on launching a run. He’s campaigning

by reality-based edu... / 52min 

Cuomo, Christie Hold Joint Campaign Appearance

The two governors who can't get the PATH running are going to keep you safe from terrorism - oh, and burnish their "national security" credentials at the same time:New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will appear alongside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday for the second time this month.The governors will make the joint appearance in New York 10 days after coming together to announce a r

by reality-based edu... / 24min 

Cuomo Has Big Lead Over Astorino But His Job Approval Matches All-Time Low

If the election were held today, a weakened Andrew Cuomo would win re-election pretty handily - but that doesn't mean he hasn't been damaged by months of scandal and controversy:New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a wide lead over his Republican gubernatorial challenger even as the governor's job-performance rating has fallen back to its lowest point since taking office, according to a Wall Street Jo

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

9-24-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Cuomo/Hochul Spent $5.9 Million On PrimaryThis says everything you need to know about the corrupt nature of our politics:ALBANY – They were never worried about their Democratic Party primary challengers earlier this month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his running mate, Erie County’s Kathy Hochul, insisted over and over again. Worries aside, Cuomo and Hochul spent about $5.9 mill

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Fear is not an option when it comes to social media in schools - Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator

Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Fear is not an option when it comes to social media in schools:

Fear is not an option when it comes to social media in schools

By Chris Casal + Lisa Nielsen

Cross posted at http://thecasalos.blogspot.com

Innovative educators know first hand that social media like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Instagram can be a powerful tool for teaching, learning, leading, and strengthening the home-school connection. In many cases though, others may need to be brought on board. Especially when parents are expressing concerns and unsure of how a platform can be used successfully.

It is the job of innovative educators to ensure parents, colleagues, and administrators know how to embrace the power of social media and also how to address their concerns.  

Here are suggestions for parents, teachers, and administrators in schools embracing social media.  

Parents
As stated by Tom Whitby in a recent Edutopia article, "Today, educators are doing many things that are not in the education experiences of parents or teachers. We can't expect parents to understand these new dynamics of education if they aren't taught about them." Parents need to ask their child's teacher to help them become smarter about learning in the digital age. Here are some ideas on how to do that. 

• Your child's new teacher tweets but you’re not familiar with Twitter? No problem. Talk to their teacher. Ask how and why they use it. Then step back and get ready for amazing examples (like this: Twitter with Second Graders) of it's benefits.
• You may not be familiar with a particular platform or may have heard negative things about it, but remember a platform has no intent. It is all about how it is being used. Talk to your child's teacher. Like first grade teacher Erin Shoening, they are likely to have a wealth of examples of the positive impact.
• As our world becomes ever more connected using social media is a valuable part of the learning process. You don’t want your child to have to wait for a "better time to learn it." These are resources that can support students in developing a strong learning network today. Teachers like Linda Yollis, who are excited to support a child in communicating and collaborating positively on the global stage, are a powerful resource. Embrace it.
• Social media can be an essential tool in your child’s curriculum and required by the new Common Core Standards. My students do my tweeting is one such example. Social media is real-world resource that teachers are incorporating in powerful ways. With social media students are connecting with politicians, scientists, astronauts, and historians. If you are lucky enough to have a pioneering teacher who understands how to embrace these tools, your child will become prepared for success in the globally-connected world in which they live.
• Your child is living in a world where more than 90% of employers use social media for recruiting.  If students are not savvy users of social media, they can kill their chance of getting many jobs. In fact 1 in 3 employers said candidates weren't hired because of something they said online. This is why you want your child to have a teacher who can support students in using social media to shine.
• Your child's teacher is there to nurture, support, encourage, and protect your child when you are not. Part of that responsibility means guiding them in the digital landscape which is a part of our world. Teachers who are embracing digital media for learning are the most connected educators your children will have. They are ready to ensure your child can safely and responsibly succeed in the digital landscape that is necessary for academic, career, and social success.  

Teachers

More and more educators are becoming connected. Not only is this a good thing, it is supported by the United States Department of Education. In the aforementioned Edutopia article, Tom Whitby explains that teaching in new ways is scary for teachers, administrators, and parents because they, "were educated by teachers who employed 20th century pedagogy and methodology, which means that the 20th century is the basis of our educational experience. Since we are now almost Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Fear is not an option when it comes to social media in schools: 

Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools

“Please to God, if you are going to send … [new teachers] into urban schools, prepare them a bit better than I was prepared.” (quoted inBethany Rogers, pp. 353-354)

If I asked you to guess when this novice teacher said the above words, a good guess might be last week, last month, or last year. Actually, it came from a new teacher who had graduated from a university-based teacher education program in 1967.

I am reminded of this nearly half-century ago quote after reading Dana Goldstein’s book, Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession . In one chapter, Goldstein does a balanced job of reporting on Teach for America, a quarter-century effort that has brought liberal arts graduates from top colleges and universities into teaching. She points out the negatives (five weeks of summer training before assuming a full-time post in an urban school; only a two-year commitment to teach; high attrition rates after two years are completed) and positives (TFA secondary school math teachers outperformed a matched group of regular teachers as measured by standardized test scores; the funneling of TFA graduates into policy posts since the early 1990s). She sums up her experiences as an education reporter by saying:

Teach for America recruits are neither the saviors nor the banes of public education. Rather, like novice educators I’ve observed and interviewed, they run the gamut from talented and passionate to lackluster and burned out. What corps members share is the experience of being introduced to teaching through a truncated training process that stresses strict discipline and quantifiable results (p.197).

I had reached a similar conclusion.

Goldstein then goes on to recommend residency programs where newcomers to the profession are supervised by experienced teachers equipped with the expertise to model effective teaching and skills and be both sandpaper and a pillow to novices. Immersion into full-time classrooms is measured and Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

CPS Blacklist: Meet the People Banned From Board of Education Meetings - Downtown - DNAinfo.com Chicago

CPS Blacklist: Meet the People Banned From Board of Education Meetings - Downtown - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

CPS Blacklist: Meet the People Banned From Board of Education Meetings

Rousemary Vega (r.), her husband and daughter holed themselves in Lafayette Elementary School after its last day of school ever last summer. They both have been banned from Chicago Board of Education meetings.

DOWNTOWN — When Rousemary Vega screamed at a Chicago Board of Education member and called him a "coward" during a meeting, and her husband fought with security guards as the couple were escorted out, they joined a small list of activists who have been barred from CPS meetings in the past year.

Since December, the district has banned four people from attending the typically contentious meetings, documents obtained by DNAinfo Chicago through a Freedom of Information Act request show. They are the first people banned from the monthly meetings — including one Wednesday — at 125 S. Clark St. under rule changes implemented in August 2013.

Ben Woodard explains how he got the blacklist and why people are on it:

The set of guidelines issued by board president David Vitale dictate the terms of public participation at board meetings and prohibit "unsolicited comments and disruptive behavior. ... If any individual is removed from a meeting as a result of disruptive behavior, then the individual may forfeit their right of reentry to future Chicago Board of Education meetings."

A CPS spokeswoman said the rules "ensure that the public's right to be informed of the Board's proceedings and actions is honored, and not impeded."

In addition to Vega and her husband Jesus Ramos, the other bans were issued after one man allegedly got into an altercation with a speaker at a meeting, while another man allegedly threatened to go to an administrator's CPS Blacklist: Meet the People Banned From Board of Education Meetings - Downtown - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

Louisiana Educator: Experienced Educator on Predatory Charters

Louisiana Educator: Experienced Educator on Predatory Charters:

Experienced Educator on Predatory Charters

Note to my readers: The following is a letter to the editor that was printed in shortened form here in The Lafayette Advertiser. This letter by an experienced school principal warns us about the destructive influence of  a special group of charter schools that I refer to as predatory charters. All parents and educators should read and listen to the advice in this letter.

Letter to the editor:
If charter schools can’t deliver high scores, then what? The Daily Advertiser asked this question in its editorial on July 10. As a public educator with 31 years of experience, I have some thoughts.

As stated in the editorial, the students of the two for-profit charter companies that edged their way into Lafayette Parish fared about as well as their counterparts in traditional public schools. The response from the companies was that their students had taken more difficult assessments in 2013-2014. As pointed out in the editorial, So did public school students. So where does this leave us?

There is no magic bullet in education that will automatically produce higher test scores. Research has shown over and over that open admission charters perform no better than traditional public schools. The charter schools that produce higher scores generally have selective admission policies that allow for mostly higher performing students to attend. This gives the false impression that charter schools provide better education than traditional public schools. This is what the out of state for- profit charter companies and members of the privatization movement would have you believe. This is just one more farce of the education reform/privatization movement that has swept across the US and Louisiana.

What will begin to happen, and already has, is that as greater numbers of higher performing students are “accepted” into charter schools, the charter scores will naturally increase. So would any schools. Charters will continue to drain money out of the public school system, as they already have, which will cause teachers, programs, and facility upgrades to be cut. As time goes by, the Lafayette Parish School System will come to look very similar to what has evolved in Recovery School District-New Orleans and RSD-Baton Rouge, the lowest performing public schools in the state. There will come a future day when citizens of Lafayette Louisiana Educator: Experienced Educator on Predatory Charters:

NYC Educator: Chemistry

NYC Educator: Chemistry:

Chemistry

You don't really know what will happen when you place kids together. A kid who's troublesome in one group may be a valuable addition to another. Last year, I had one kid moved from my AM class to my PM class, and I knew it would be a disaster. He was kind of the last straw. The PM class was on the edge and I was absolutely sure his presence would push it over. Surely enough, it did just that.

There are only so many trouble spots you can keep your eye on at one time. That's why so many people will tell me, "I don't know what to do with my 6th period class," or something like that. I'm sure John King would simply conclude they were ineffective and move to have them fired. After all, he taught one full year of public school before his two years in charters, and he knows everything. Surely he could control anyone. Except an audience of parents and teachers with real questions. And they're special interests anyway. If they weren't, they'd send their kids to Montessori schools just like Reformy John.

On the other hand, these teachers are doing just fine with their other four or five classes. So maybe they aren't so ineffective after all. If they were, wouldn't all their classes be bedlam? How do you know where the tipping point is? It really depends on who the kids are. Last year I was in the trailer and I placed the seats in a U shape to encourage communication. After they moved that last kid in, I moved the seats back into rows to discourage communication. It was a lot of work teaching that class.

There's really only one solution to the problem of class chemistry, and no, it isn't Common Core. Kids will be kids no matter how awful you make the curriculum. In fact, if you make them analyze things to death until you squeeze any and all potential enjoyment out of it, you'll likely make things even worse. Teenagers have all sorts of things running through their bodies and minds and that 17th reading may be just the thing to push them NYC Educator: Chemistry:

Are “No-Excuses” Charter Management Organizations the Descendants of Wackford Squeers? | janresseger

Are “No-Excuses” Charter Management Organizations the Descendants of Wackford Squeers? | janresseger:

Are “No-Excuses” Charter Management Organizations the Descendants of Wackford Squeers?

Posted on September 24, 2014 by janresseger

Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby portrays child abuse at Dotheboys Hall, a remote Yorkshire boarding school of the mid-nineteenth century.  Tucked away in the country, such schools were out of sight.  Dickens’ expose of strict authoritarianism, enforced by Wackford Squeers and his wife who starved and beat the children, effectively damaged the reputation of such places, and many were immediately closed.  Nobody today accuses the so-called “no excuses” charter schools of starving or beating children, but like Squeers, several charter chains these days create a school culture based on authoritarianism, strict obedience, and submissiveness.  Such a philosophy of education would be unacceptable to the vast majority of Americans these days.  What does it say about attitudes toward poverty and families of color that there seems to be wide acceptance of such a strategy in urban schools designed for poor black children?

Last Friday in her Washington Post column Valerie Strauss printed a fascinating interview by blogger Jennifer Berkshire with Joan Goodman, a University of Pennsylvania professor of education who has investigated the operation of so-called “no excuses” Charter Management Organizations (CMOs).  These are the charter chains like Kipp, Mastery, and Young Scholars which operate through rigid rules of behavior and enforce obedience with rewards and punishments.  Joan Goodman is the advisor for students from Penn who are entering Teach for America (TFA). While many of the “no excuses” schools have been resistant to external evaluation by researchers, Goodman has, while conducting observations of her students, been able to examine carefully the norms in the schools where many of her students are serving in TFA.

Berkshire’s interview follows up on a longer article published by Goodman in the March, 2013, Educational Researcher.  In that piece Goodman describes the behavioral expectations in the “no-excuses” charter schools: “A conspicuous feature of the regulated environment is an insistence on continuous compliance to pervasive rules that shadow children throughout the day.  The rules, covering even small details of children’s comportment, both in and out of class, move beyond traditional forms of discipline, making these CMOs a rather new model on the educational horizon.  The effort to create totalizing environments using a variety of systemic behavioral engineering techniques represents a significant departure even from traditional schools avowing behavioral methodologies, where the use of reinforcement has been largely limited to achieving specific targeted behaviors…”

In the interview published by Valerie Strauss last Friday, Goodman describes “very elaborate behavioral regimes that they (the schools) insist all children follow, starting Are “No-Excuses” Charter Management Organizations the Descendants of Wackford Squeers? | janresseger:

More LAUSD data system concerns raised after port fire, transcript problems | 89.3 KPCC

More LAUSD data system concerns raised after port fire, transcript problems | 89.3 KPCC:



More LAUSD data system concerns raised after port fire, transcript problems

Citing Tuesday's evacuation of George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School following the Port of Los Angeles fire, school officials voiced concerns that a glitchy data system may hinder tracking students in an emergency. 

“It’s a reminder that emergency situations happen fairly often," said Los Angeles Unified school board member Steve Zimmer at the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Committee meeting Tuesday.

Since the August rollout of  the new student data system, MISIS, teachers and principals reported widespread issues with scheduling classes, updating emergency contact information, and tracking special needs requirements.

"We have students that disappear from the system," said Carol Willis, assistant principal at Griffith Middle School in East Los Angeles. "We obviously cannot take attendance for a student who is not in the system."

"When will we know, in case of an emergency, our student data is accurate?" Zimmer asked the district's chief information officer, Ron Chandler.

Chandler said he didn't have deadlines for the updated software and emergency procedures on hand, but  promised to "have that by end of day tomorrow and communicate to all schools.”

The port fire started Monday night and sent billowing, dark smoke into the air. The fumes forced the closure of Saints Peter and Paul School and the evacuation of students at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary. 

Chandler spoke for an hour on progress updating the data system, including plans for better server performance and increased technical support.

But several data accuracy concerns remain: special education, gifted and talented and advanced placement students as well as those learning English are affected, according to Chandler's report. 

School staffers reported doing students' progress reports by hand because of the faulty system.

Transfer students and those applying to college have been impacted by errors in the transcripts generated by the new system. Technical issues are also affecting class ranking and credits.

Zimmer discovered school staff can also download transcripts in a word processing More LAUSD data system concerns raised after port fire, transcript problems | 89.3 KPCC:

Fewer LA high school students than expected for breakfast in classroom

; Credit: Robert S. Donovan/flickr Creative Commons Los Angeles Unified promised to give all students the opportunity to have breakfast in the classroom, but new figures show only about half of students are munching on French toast, coffee cake, cereal, breakfast burritos and fresh fruit.  The lower turnout is in part because, in its third year, the program is still rolling out to schools.  Many

by Annie Gilbertson / 47min

Sit-In At Chicago Mayor’s Office Over School Closing | PopularResistance.Org

Sit-In At Chicago Mayor’s Office Over School Closing | PopularResistance.Org:

Sit-In At Chicago Mayor's Office Over School Closing

RESIST! EDUCATION, PRIVATIZATION, STUDENT PROTESTS 
By Mike Klonsky, www.michaelklonsky.blogspot.com
September 24th, 2014 

Taking Back Dyett High School And Chicago

Students, Parents and Community Members Chain Themselves to Statute

As I’m posting this, south-siders, CTU members and community activists from around the city are sitting-in outside the mayor’s office demanding that Dyett High School not be closed. If Rahm and Byrd-Bennett carry out their plan to close Dyett and turn it over to private operators, they will leave Bronzeville, Oakland and Kenwood without a neighborhood public high school.

Community activist Bob George writes from the sit-in:

For three years now Dyett students have been without the courses, staffing and funding afforded “normal” High School. They are being phased out. Turned about. Taunted and tempted to attend alternative schools. Abandon your neighborhood school. Close the doors. Shut the windows. Leave your memories behind. Dyett, the Mayor, the Superintendent, and the School Board, deem will not continue to exist. At present, Dyett is the only remaining Neighborhood High School available to the students in the Historic Bronzeville Community. This school is the only one in which students have a legal right to admission. Other learning institutions  insist that students qualify for admission, win a lottery to enroll, or be selected to enter after a rigorous screening.

You can help by calling or texting 312 399-5370 to tell deputy @ChicagosMayor to #SaveDyett high school!

Worth a read is John Warner’s Just Visiting blog series, Excellent Sheep Run the World, Parts 1&2). Writes Warner:

There are perhaps no better exemplars of the products of our current meritocratic system than three of the most important recent figures in the education reform movement: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “Common Core architect” David Coleman, and one-time chancellor of the Washington D.C. schools, Michelle Rhee.

They are also all near-perfect examples of what William Deresiewicz labels as “excellent sheep,” in his new book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite.According to Deresiewicz, one of the chief problems with this miseducation is in these so-called “elite” individuals mistaking “being in charge” with “being a leader.”

Related Posts:

• A New Game Plan For Taking Down Privatizers July 16, 2014
• Local Communities Are Taking Control Of Their Power Supply September 4, 2014
• Ferguson: Example Of Neoliberal State Violence Taking Hold Worldwide August 19, 2014
• 6th Graders Seek Payment For Taking Common Core Field Tests June 4, 2014
• Chicago Fundraiser For Marissa Alexander September 9, 2014