Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/12/15

Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

solidaridad: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit

solidaridad: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC AuditMay 12, 2015Contact: Bennett Kayser HQCell: 323-535-9930 DEFLATE GATE AT LAUSD AS RODRIGUEZ SUPPORTER GARCIA TRIES TO SQUASH RODRIGUEZ AUDIT SHOWING BAD BUSINESS.  BAD BOOKS AND VIOLATIONS – AUDIT DISAPPEARS, AGAIN!!Los Angeles – Bennett Kayser, Board member of the second largest school district in t

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

Finance reports give insight into at-large City Council race | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Finance reports give insight into at-large City Council race | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Finance reports give insight into at-large City Council race There's only a few days remaining until Pennsylvania's May 19 primary — when Philadelphia voters will choose a new mayor and may elect to dramatically shake up City Council.Council's seven at-large seats are up for grabs and at least one w

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

While many public schools struggle, some charter chains profit - CBS 5 - KPHO

While many public schools struggle, some charter chains profit - CBS 5 - KPHO: While many public schools struggle, some charter chains profitCBS 5 - KPHO PHOENIX (CBS5) -A Valley charter school watchdog is criticizing large charter management chains for directing more dollars away from the classroom than most traditional public schools."These schools are made to make a profit," said Jim

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision. | Reclaim Reform

What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision. | Reclaim Reform: What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision “A hero is a man who does what he can.” – Romain RollandWhat can retired teachers do?Bob Zahniser, John Dillon, Bob Lyons, Fred Klonsky and Glen Brown. Old guys celebrating the pension victory in Illinois.“The Illinois Supreme Court has unanimously decl

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

The Strangely Incurious Bill Gates - Living in Dialogue

The Strangely Incurious Bill Gates - Living in Dialogue: The Strangely Incurious Bill GatesThe latest interview with Bill Gates on CNBC has the world’s richest man discussing education with little evidence that he has learned much over the past six years. Is he paying attention? In a bubble? What the heck is going on?As readers of this blog know, I have been attending to the words and deeds of Bil

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

TAKE NOTE - Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out! - Wait What?

TAKE NOTE - Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out! - Wait What?: TAKE NOTE – Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out!The Testing Opt-Out Movement Explodes, and the Empire Strikes Back is the title of the latest article written by fellow education advocate and blogger Lisa Guisbond.Published in the Huffington Post, it is almost l

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

AFT Releases Results of Groundbreaking Workplace Survey of Educators

AFT  Releases Results of Groundbreaking Workplace Survey of EducatorsWASHINGTON—Today, the American Federation of Teachers  released the results of a survey on well-being, working conditions and stressors for teachers and school support staff across the country. The first of its kind, the 80-question survey was filled out by more than 30,000 educators.After concerns of stress on the job were repor

30 by mike simpson / 4h 

Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yes - The Washington Post

Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yes - The Washington Post: Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yesIn this Friday, June 11, 2014 file photo, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten attends the ATF Reclaiming the Promise convention in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)This story has been updated.A new survey of more than 30,

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

Report slams Louisiana charter school oversight | NOLA.com

Report slams Louisiana charter school oversight | NOLA.com:Report slams Louisiana charter school oversightLouisiana understaffs its charter schoolsoversight offices and, instead of proactively investigating these schools, relies on charters' own reports and whistleblowers to uncover problems, according to a report released Tuesday (May 12) by the Center for Popular Democracy and the Coalition for

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

Raj Chetty Discovers that Poverty Matters After All - Living in Dialogue

Raj Chetty Discovers that Poverty Matters After All - Living in Dialogue: Raj Chetty Discovers that Poverty Matters After All By John Thompson.Hopefully, a new quasi-experimental study, The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children, by Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren and Lawrence Katz will influence the domestic policy of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. Hopefully, Hillary

1 by mike simpson / 6h 

Grassroots Lobbying Charter School Style - $14k for sandwiches, $87k for buses - Wait What?

Grassroots Lobbying Charter School Style - $14k for sandwiches, $87k for buses - Wait What?: Grassroots Lobbying Charter School Style – $14k for sandwiches, $87k for busesCalling themselves a “grassroots movement” in support of Governor Dannel Malloy’s plan to use taxpayer money to open two new charter schools while making historic cuts to Connecticut’s public schools, the New York based charter s

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

How low voter turnout impacts LAUSD schools | 89.3 KPCC

Slideshow: How low voter turnout impacts LAUSD schools | 89.3 KPCC: How low voter turnout impacts LAUSD schoolsVoters in east Los Angeles, the west San Fernando Valley and harbor areas will cast ballots next Tuesday to select their Los Angeles Unified school board members –  that is, if voters show up.Past history shows many won't. Over the last 50 years, local election turnout plummeted from a ab

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Abstinence-only curriculum is not sex education, judge rules - SFGate

Abstinence-only curriculum is not sex education, judge rules - SFGate: Abstinence-only curriculum is not sex education, judge rulesCalifornia’s sex-education law prohibits school districts from indoctrinating students on the need to remain celibate before marriage or teaching them that abstinence is the only safe way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, a judge has ruled.The dec

2 by mike simpson / 8h 

California: Bill to limit how districts investigate school residency - ContraCostaTimes.com

California: Bill to limit how districts investigate school residency - ContraCostaTimes.com: California: Bill to limit how districts investigate school residency Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, has crafted legislation that would place parameters on investigations into school district residency. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)On April 2, a Berkeley Unified School District employee

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Government of MPS schools in GOP plan

County exec would oversee turnaround of MPS schools in GOP plan: County exec would oversee turnaround of MPS schools in GOP planThe Milwaukee County executive would oversee the turnover of up to five struggling Milwaukee Public Schools per year to operators of successful public charter or private voucher schools, according to details of a proposalthat two suburban Republican lawmakers have been wo

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

How meaningful is school choice in New Orleans, the city of charters? - The Hechinger Report

How meaningful is school choice in New Orleans, the city of charters? - The Hechinger Report: How meaningful is school choice in New Orleans, the city of charters? Charter school supporters and advocates frequently point to the broad choices that families have when seeking a school in New Orleans, where most of the 82 public schools are charters and most accept applications from across the city. B

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

NYC Educator: Don't Steal Pissable?

NYC Educator: Don't Steal Pissable?: Don't Steal Pissable? Charter schools can be very popular with parents.  Given the potential advantages, a little wee-in-the-pants accident may not mean so much.  So, "Don't Steal Possible."  And, while you're at it, "Don't Steal Pissable" either.Understandably, parents want to put their children in environments conducive to learning.  High

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

The State of Preschool 2014: State Profiles | nieer.org

The State of Preschool 2014: State Profiles | nieer.org: The State of Preschool 2014: State ProfilesClick a state or region below to view its profile as a PDF document. For assistance with PDF, see the special instructions for viewing the Yearbook PDF.The Roadmap to State Profile Pages describes the data and terminology used in the profiles.Select by State: National Press ReleaseAlabamaProfilePres

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

New Orleans needs to run its own schools - The Second Line Education Blog

New Orleans needs to run its own schools - The Second Line Education Blog: New Orleans needs to run its own schoolsBut what will it take to keep improving education?It’s time to change the image of education reform as a mere takeover and start bringing NOLA schools back under elected, local control.Last week, a Louisiana bill that could help enact this change came one step closer to fruition. If m

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

The Long Haul: ESEA Reauthorization Timeline - Politics K-12 - Education Week

The Long Haul: ESEA Reauthorization Timeline - Politics K-12 - Education Week:The Long Haul: ESEA Reauthorization TimelineBy Lauren Camera on May 12, 2015 6:19 AMU.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., had their fingers crossed that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would schedule their bipartisan Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill for debate

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Washington state schools seek waiver from U.S. test-result penalties - Yahoo News

Washington state schools seek waiver from U.S. test-result penalties - Yahoo News: Washington state schools seek waiver from U.S. test-result penaltiesSEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state, which already lost an exemption from some requirements of U.S. education law, is asking not to be penalized for lower test scores this year as districts switch to a standardized exam tethered to tougher standard

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Gates Foundation pours millions more into Common Core - The Washington Post

Gates Foundation pours millions more into Common Core - The Washington Post: Gates Foundation pours millions more into Common CoreBill Gates famously spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, implement and promote the now controversial Common Core State Standards. He hasn’t stopped giving.In the last seven months, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has poured more than $10 million int

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

We’re boring our kids in school: This easy reform will actually help them learn - Salon.com

We’re boring our kids in school: This easy reform will actually help them learn - Salon.com: We’re boring our kids in school: This easy reform will actually help them learn Excerpted from "The Game Believes in You"In 1967, media critic Marshall McLuhan predicted that within two decades, technology would make school unrecognizable. “As it is now, the teacher has a ready-made audience,” he

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

When Pearson Talks Profit, American Education Is Surely Discussed | deutsch29

When Pearson Talks Profit, American Education Is Surely Discussed | deutsch29: When Pearson Talks Profit, American Education Is Surely DiscussedOn February 27, 2015, Pearson CEO John Fallon led the company’s quarterly meeting over the state of Pearson earnings for the final quarter of 2014. In such meetings, Fallon and other Pearson executives discuss profitability with a number of analysts.In thi

1 by mike simpson / 11h 

YESTERDAY

Teaching While Black: Exposing Institutional Racism at Claremont Middle School | What's Happening Black Oakland?

Teaching While Black: Exposing Institutional Racism at Claremont Middle School | What's Happening Black Oakland?: Teaching While Black: Exposing Institutional Racism at Claremont Middle SchoolClaremont Middle School is nestled in the affluent and predominantly white neighborhood known as Rockridge, Oakland. It is an open enrollment public institution consisting of a diverse socioeconomic populatio

34 by mike simpson / 22h hide  //  save

'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education

'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education: 'No Pineapple Left Behind' and the politics of American education Seth Alter was a teacher for all of six months before quitting his job and going indie to make video games full-time. No Pineapple Left Behind, his second PC title, is more or less the story of why he left his students at a Boston charter school. As a special educati

2 by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/11/15

Special Nite Cap CORPORATE ED REFORMThe Politics of Reform - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial VoiceThe Politics of Reform - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice: The Politics of ReformThe politics of education reform has taken us on a roller-coaster ride for so long that it really behooves us to pause a moment and think about what all the political labels mean.Look at what a purely conservative view wou

5 by mike simpson / 23h

Don’t Teachers Know How to Teach Reading?:

Don’t Teachers Know How to Teach Reading?

MAY 12, 2015 BY NANCY BAILEY LEAVE A COMMENT

To hear parents and the media talk, teachers don’t know how to teach reading. In Alabama, Education Week is bragging about a $48 million literacy program. It teaches teachers how to teach reading.

Why? I find it a strange phenomenon. Reading instruction and identifying reading problems used to be a large part of learning how to be an elementary school teacher.

While it is good of Alabama to train their teachers how to teach reading, if they need to, it doesn’t speak well for the teaching profession, and it raises many questions. Alabama’s program is for disadvantaged children, but why aren’t teachers prepared to teach in their college education programs? The message that teachers don’t know how to teach reading is prevalent, across the board and directed at public schools.

What has happened in the last 30 years? Why don’t teachers seem to know how to teach reading anymore?

Teachers have always picked commercialized programs to teach reading, but it used to be more a professional decision on the part of the teacher. They were given credit for understanding what made a good reading program and they didn’t have to go through massive instruction to learn how to teach the program. A workshop or two, if anything, was good enough.

I like to use the example of when I was learning to be a teacher in the 70s. I student taught, in part, in a third grade class in an elementary school near Detroit. The school served many students whose parents worked in the auto plants. It was not a wealthy public school, but it was a good school. It was especially well-run when it came to reading instruction.

There were three third grade teachers who would meet regularly to discuss the reading progress of their students. They combined their classes and placed students into small groups according to skills the students needed.

There was no Response to Intervention or massive testing to seek out problems. Teachers just figured out where the students were by looking at their work and reading Don’t Teachers Know How to Teach Reading?:

solidaridad: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit

solidaridad: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit:

Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit

May 12, 2015

Contact: Bennett Kayser HQ
Cell: 323-535-9930
 

DEFLATE GATE AT LAUSD AS RODRIGUEZ SUPPORTER GARCIA TRIES TO SQUASH RODRIGUEZ AUDIT SHOWING BAD BUSINESS.  BAD BOOKS AND VIOLATIONS – AUDIT DISAPPEARS, AGAIN!!

Los Angeles – Bennett Kayser, Board member of the second largest school district in the nation, has balanced three, $7 billion dollar budgets affecting 660,000 students, their families and those who serve them.

The report shows that Kayser’s Board District 5 challenger Ref Rodriguez couldn’t keep one school, with only 100 students, balanced for nine years (9) straight! This “insolvent” bad apple is Lakeview Charter, part of the Rodriguez/PUC charter chain. Ham-handed attempts by Rodriguez’s supporter to hide the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) audit of the Rodriguez-run PUC Lakeview Charter School, and affiliated enterprises, have been exposed.

The audit became a hot political football to be deflated by Rodriguez’s ideological ally. Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times first reported last week on the surreptitious attempts to hide the facts: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-puc-charter-audit-20150428-story.html

Under extraordinary circumstances, the independent audit of Rodriguez’s charter was withheld from the public, diverted into a “closed session” of the Tuesday, May 12th Board meeting and shoved under “attorney-client privilege” in an attempt to bury the damning report. The audit was also withheld from the usual public posting on the OIG’s website. Though still not posted, the audit can be viewed here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2070211/puc-lakeview-charter-academy-audit-4-23-2015-1.pdf

The Inspector General's report lays out how Rodriguez's school violated child abuse requirements, the State’s Education Code, State labor rules, best practices, and even its own charter, multiple times. On page three the report highlights “...the fact that for nine straight years of school operations, the Lakeview Charter Academy had poor financial results, and was fiscally insolvent.” (aka bankrupt!)

Perhaps out of fear that the scathing audit would trigger calls for additional investigations and oversite of Rodriguez’s schools, the topic was dropped from the Board’s Closed Session agenda for May 12, 2015.

The fact the PUC audit was pulled from the Board’s closed session agenda is proof-positive that games are being played by political allies to hide poor management, if not serious violations by Rodriguez and his executive team. What the PUC?
 

###

Paid for by Re-Elect Bennett Kayser for School Board 2015 - General – 419 North Larchmont Blvd., #37, Los Angeles, CA 90004 – ID #1375891 – More information available at Ethics.lacity.org – Bennett2015.com – (323) 535-9930

Finance reports give insight into at-large City Council race | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Finance reports give insight into at-large City Council race | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Finance reports give insight into at-large City Council race

 There's only a few days remaining until Pennsylvania's May 19 primary — when Philadelphia voters will choose a new mayor and may elect to dramatically shake up City Council.

Council's seven at-large seats are up for grabs and at least one will be taken by a newcomer.

According to the city charter, at least two of these seats go to Republicans as the minority party. Historically, based on the city's political demographics, Philly's at-large council members typically split five for Democrats and two for the GOP.

To focus on the Democrats: on primary day, voters can choose five candidates from a list of both incumbents and newcomers.

The incumbents are Wilson Goode Jr., Bill Greenlee, Blondell Reynolds Brown, and Ed Neilson.

Based on name recognition and connections to power brokers, incumbents typically win. But, in this race, at least one new face will join the 17-member body because Jim Kenney retired his at-large seat to run for mayor.

On Friday the candidates had to file campaign reports reflecting their fundraising and expenses through May 4.

So what did we learn from poring through tomes of campaign finance reports?

1) Only four of the 16 candidates have more than $100,000 left in the bank.

At-large Candidate	Total cash raised	Cash spent	Cash on hand
Wilson Alexander	$6,982	$6,782	$199
Jenne Ayers	$8,363	$6,978	$1,386
Marnie Aument-Loughrey	$4,817	$2,688	$2,129
Blondell Reynolds-Brown	$133,215	$104,922	$28,293
Carla Cain	$665	$556	$109
Sherrie Cohen	$270,415	$107,854	$162,561
Allan Domb	$926,626	$670,404	$256,222
Wilson Goode Jr.	$95,643	$64,638	$31,005
Derek Green	$129,724	$74,291	$55,443
Bill Greenlee	$201,654	$148,290	$53,365
Helen Gym	$282,452	$71,593	$210,859
Ed Neilson	$201,809	$154,022	$47,787
Frank Rizzo	$29,060	$23,339	$5,721
Paul Steinke	$415,400	$285,049	$130,351
Isiah Thomas	$180,527	$113,149	$67,378
Tom Wyatt	$199,084	$114,945	$84,139

As the chart above shows, real estate developer Allan Domb is in the best financial shape coming down the stretch, with a quarter of a million dollars left in the bank. Domb has already been advertising heavily on television. His stockpile of cash suggests he'll continue pounding the airwaves until the primary.

Public education advocate Helen Gym has the next most remaining cash, with more than $210,000. She's followed by attorney Sherrie Cohen (daughter of former city councilman David Cohen) and former Reading Terminal Market general manager Paul Steinke.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

While many public schools struggle, some charter chains profit - CBS 5 - KPHO

While many public schools struggle, some charter chains profit - CBS 5 - KPHO:

While many public schools struggle, some charter chains profit

CBS 5 - KPHO

PHOENIX (CBS5) -A Valley charter school watchdog is criticizing large charter management chains for directing more dollars away from the classroom than most traditional public schools.

"These schools are made to make a profit," said Jim Hall, the founder of Arizonans for Charter School Accountability and retired longtime Valley school principal.

"Someone needs to find out how they're spending their money, and there needs to be transparency," Hall said.

CBS 5 Investigates examined budget data and IRS tax filings for dozens of charter schools. Among the findings:

• Some charter management chains spend as little as 40 percent of their budgets in the classroom, directing as much as 60 percent of their budgets to administrative expenses, plant operations and debt payments for facilities. Traditional school districts spent an average of 54 percent of their budgeted dollars in the classroom during the 2013-14 school years, according the Arizona Auditor General's Office. The comparison may not be "apples to apples" because charters pay real estate costs out of their operating budgets while traditional school districts do not.
• Some nonprofit chains outsource daily operations to for-profit charter management companies. Two examples in Arizona include the Leona Group and Imagine Schools.
• Nonprofit status allows charter schools and their management companies to avoid paying property taxes.
• The Arizona Auditor General's Office is precluded by law from auditing charter schools the same way it audits public school districts, making it more difficult for parents to learn the breakdown of dollars spent in the classroom versus dollars spent on other expenses, such as real estate and administration.

The Leona Group

One of the largest operators of charter schools in Arizona is a company called The Leona Group, LLC. It provides management services for 23 nonprofit charter schools across Arizona. Until 2007, the company also owned charter schools, but Leona sold its 10 schools to a nonprofit company.

Today, Leona has management agreements with two nonprofits. They are the American Charter Schools Foundation and Kaizen Education Foundation.

According to IRS form 990s, filed by both nonprofits, they took in a combined $64 million in 2013. Almost all of that money came from the state of Arizona. The nonprofits paid a combined $30 million to Leona Arizona Employment Group, LLC and $6.1 million to Leona Arizona Management, LLC, and another $8 million in occupancy and debt service on the facilities they purchased from The Leona Group and the schools they subsequently added.

Because The Leona Group is a privately held corporation, it is not known how much of their fees are profit and how much is paid out for services and employees. But an official with the company told CBS 5 Investigates that all of the money that goes to Leona Employment Group is spent on employees and associated costs.

The Leona Group also issued a statement to CBS 5 Investigates, which reads in part:

"The Leona Group would assert (and experience confirms) that the answer to the inquiry is that our customer public charter schools pay significantly less for those required central administrative services and receive levels of people power, experience and expertise that would be quite difficult to replicate through individuals on staff at the school or through a piecemeal retention of outside firms, whether for profit or not for profit. The Leona Group simply is able to utilize efficiencies and economies of scale (over 60 customer schools across five states) that allow the company to provide its customers a higher level of quality at a lower cost. The Leona Group is able to be successful only when the nonprofit public charter schools who are its customers are likewise successful, and that requires those customers to be financially sound, student-centric educational public institutions."

Critics like Jim Hall argue that the use of management companies creates a way for for-profit companies to make money from their relationships with the nonprofit charter schools they created. In effect, Hall says some of them are "nonprofit" in name only.

Comparing schools

If the staffing size at one of the Valley's alternative high schools is compared with a similarly-sized traditional high school, there might be a disparity.

Sun Valley High School, which is an alternative school run by The Leona Group, employs 12 office personnel and 17 instructional staff. Tanque Verde High School, near Tucson, employs eight office personnel and 31 instructional staff. Tanque Verde also offers after-school sports and other traditional programs that Sun Valley does not.

Officials from the Leona Group argue that the breakdown reported to the state makes it appear that Sun Valley is more administration-heavy than it actually is. According to their breakdown, the school has five office staff, 17 teachers, and another nine staff members who range from reading specialists to curriculum coaches. All are positions that affect student learning, and should be considered "classroom," rather than "administrative" staff.

Other chains face criticism

Imagine Schools is the largest operator of charter schools in the country. It runs 14 charters in Arizona. But in December, a federal judge in Missouri ordered Imagine to pay $997-thousand in damages and refunds to a local charter school it operated. The judge found that the chain engaged in self-dealing, when it required the school to pay above-market rent to another company Imagine also owned.

During the court action, a witness testified that Imagine spends far less in the classroom at that school than the national average. According to the witness, the company spent 27.9 percent of its funds on instructional

Read more: http://www.kpho.com/story/28999644/while-many-public-schools-struggle-some-charter-chains-profit#ixzz3Zy46rDl6

What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision. | Reclaim Reform

What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision. | Reclaim Reform:

What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision



 “A hero is a man who does what he can.” 

– Romain Rolland

What can retired teachers do?

Bob Zahniser, John Dillon, Bob Lyons, Fred Klonsky and Glen Brown. Old guys celebrating the pension victory in Illinois.

“The Illinois Supreme Court has unanimously declared the state’s pension (cutting) reform law unconstitutional.
Friday’s decree puts new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly back at the starting line.”

For years the legislators, while indemnifying themselves from prosecution, have taken money for pensions and used it for whatever sweetheart contracts their political donors wanted. Yes, many legislators were and are thieves.

Today these same elected officials claim that “Illinois Is Broke” and can survive only by raiding pensions while spreading lies via corporate media outlets. Yes, many legislators are liars.

What receives little if any corporate media attention are the immense legislative give-aways of hundreds of millions of tax dollars per year to corporate political campaign donors. Last year alone over $197 million dollars was given to nine corporations in Illinois by letting them keep the 5% state income taxes paid by all of their employees. These nine corporations, in addition to their profits and tax breaks, got to keep all of their employees state income taxes – money that was supposed to pay down state debt. Yes, a few What can retired teachers do? Help win a Supreme Court decision. | Reclaim Reform:

The Strangely Incurious Bill Gates - Living in Dialogue

The Strangely Incurious Bill Gates - Living in Dialogue:

The Strangely Incurious Bill Gates

The latest interview with Bill Gates on CNBC has the world’s richest man discussing education with little evidence that he has learned much over the past six years. Is he paying attention? In a bubble? What the heck is going on?

As readers of this blog know, I have been attending to the words and deeds of Bill Gates for several years. The man is highly intelligent, and describes himself as a “technocrat.” He speaks as if he were a scientist, citing research and statistics to support his views, and even calling the work his foundation sponsors “experimental.” But I have worked closely with scientists before, and one thing I have noticed is how carefully they attend to the results of their experiments. And in medical science, great care is taken to monitor potential adverse effects on human subjects. If there are signs that harm is occurring, experiments must be discontinued, even if they are not complete. Gates has used billions of dollars to promote an experimental course of reforms which are making huge impacts on the lives of students and educators across the country, yet he seems remarkably incurious about the results we are already seeing.

In his most recent interview on CNBC, Gates, alongside fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, was asked what they would do if they were “education czar.” (Ironically, Gates has unofficially functioned in this capacity since 2009.) Gates sad:

Gates: One piece of good news is that charter schools are doing a very good job of educating kids in the inner city. Where typically dropout rates are very, very high, and very few kids go to college. The good charters have overcome that by using long school day, long school year, a different way of working with the teacher, amazing results have taken place. You’re absolutely right, we haven’t moved the needle for most students. Charters are only a few percent, so we have to spread those best practices in order to get real change.

CNBC: How do you do that in the public school system?

Gates: It’s not easy. School boards have a lot of power, so they have to be convinced. Unions have a lot of power, so teachers have to see the models that are working, because although change may be scary, they want to be part of a successful model. So we need 

The Strangely Incurious Bill Gates - Living in Dialogue:

TAKE NOTE - Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out! - Wait What?

TAKE NOTE - Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out! - Wait What?:

TAKE NOTE – Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out!

The Testing Opt-Out Movement Explodes, and the Empire Strikes Back is the title of the latest article written by fellow education advocate and blogger Lisa Guisbond.

Published in the Huffington Post, it is almost like Guisbond has been reading the emails that I’ve been receiving here in Connecticut, when she observed,

“Unable to dismiss the opt-out movement, some officials seek to bully test resisters into compliance.”

With many Connecticut school districts beginning to give the Common Core SBAC test to high school juniors next week, examples are mounting quickly of the number of Connecticut school administrators who have been engaging in inappropriate, unprofessional and unethical attacks on Connecticut’s High School Juniors who have been opted out or wan to opt out of the destructive SBAC testing scheme.

As Wait, What? readers know —- There is absolutely no law, regulation or policy that allows the state or a school district to punish a child (or parent) who has opted out of the Common Core SBAC test.

In addition, neither the state nor a school district may require that a student pass (or even take) the SBAC test in order to graduate!

Period, end of story.

School officials who are telling students that they MUST TAKE THE SBAC TEST IN ORDER TO GRADUATE are lying or so misinformed that they shouldn’t be allowed to hold on to the certification needed to keep their jobs.

Yet despite the undeniable fact, a growing number of school administrators are actually telling high school juniors (and their parents) that failure to take the test will keep them from graduating or are threatening students with a variety of punishments including telling them they will need to take “remedial” courses, hand in special projects or take additional tests in their senior year if they fail to take the SBAC test this year.

Prompted by the misleading information and out-right lies coming from the Connecticut State Department of Education, a stunning number of school districts are attempting to force high school juniors to waste their time on the SBAC test now – at the very time – they should be working to improve their grade point average and focus on the tests that will actually help them get into college, such as the SATs, ACTs and AP tests.

It is simply beyond comprehension that a number of school administrators, who wish to be called educators, would take steps that literally jeopardize the ability for their students to TAKE NOTE - Real Educators don’t punish AND bully students and parents for opting out! - Wait What?:

unitedoptout.com

AFT Releases Results of Groundbreaking Workplace Survey of Educators

AFT  Releases Results of Groundbreaking Workplace Survey of Educators

AFT Website 
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten.

WASHINGTON—Today, the American Federation of Teachers  released the results of a survey on well-being, working conditions and stressors for teachers and school support staff across the country. The first of its kind, the 80-question survey was filled out by more than 30,000 educators.

After concerns of stress on the job were reported to the Badass Teachers Association, the survey was designed by a group of teachers who are members of the AFT or BATs, and it was reviewed and refined by a workplace stress expert and a professional pollster. Circulated via email and social media, the survey was posted online on April 21 and closed on May 1.

Among respondents, the survey found that:

• Only 1 in 5 educators feel respected by government officials or the media.
• Fourteen percent strongly agree with the statement that they trust their administrator or supervisor.
• More than 75 percent say they do not have enough staff to get the work done.
• Seventy-eight percent say they are often physically and emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. Eighty-seven percent say the demands of their job are at least sometimes interfering with their family life.
• Among the greatest workplace stressors were the adoption of new initiatives without proper training or professional development, mandated curriculum and standardized tests.

The survey shows the need for a scientific study. In the coming days, the AFT and BATs will call on the Department of Education to conduct such a study.

Click here to view topline results.

Badass Teacher Association Web Site

Badass Teachers Association on Facebook

Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yes - The Washington Post

Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yes - The Washington Post:

Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yes

In this Friday, June 11, 2014 file photo, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten attends the ATF Reclaiming the Promise convention in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

This story has been updated.

A new survey of more than 30,000 U.S. teachers finds that most of them report high levels of stress and low levels of autonomy, but it also shows that they are not ready to bail on the classroom.

Teachers said they feel particularly anxious about having to carry out a steady stream of new initiatives — such as implementing curricula and testing related to the Common Core State Standards — without being given adequate training, according to the survey.

The online survey was created by the American Federation of Teachers, which acknowledges that it was not a scientifically valid sampling of the teaching profession.

But the AFT, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, said the results were startling enough that it has asked the U.S. Department of Education and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to follow up and conduct a valid survey to determine if there is a national problem of stressed-out teachers.

“We ask teachers to be a combination of Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and, I’m dating myself here, Tony Soprano,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT. “We ask them to be Mom and Dad and impart tough love but also be a shoulder to lean on. And when they don’t do these things, we blame them for not being saviors of the world. What is the effect? The effect has been teachers are in­cred­ibly stressed out.”

The 80-question survey was completed by 31,342 teachers online between April 21 and May 1. It was designed by the AFT as well as the Badass Teachers, a group of teachers that has been aggressively fighting the use of student test scores to measure teacher quality, the rise of charter schools and other market-based education policies.

“What people have to realize is that this new push for corporate reform is decimating the teaching force,” said Marla Kilfoyle, general manager of the Badass Teachers, who has been teaching in New York for 29 years.

Among the survey respondents, 89 percent said they were strongly enthusiastic about teaching when they began their careers but just 15 percent felt the same way today. Most said that drop in enthusiasm has happened in the past two or three years.

[New teacher attrition is far lower than previously thought.]

Most teachers had positive things to say about their supervisors, with 55 Is the classroom a stressful place? Thousands of teachers say yes - The Washington Post:

Report slams Louisiana charter school oversight | NOLA.com

Report slams Louisiana charter school oversight | NOLA.com:

Report slams Louisiana charter school oversight

Louisiana understaffs its charter schoolsoversight offices and, instead of proactively investigating these schools, relies on charters' own reports and whistleblowers to uncover problems, according to a report released Tuesday (May 12) by the Center for Popular Democracy and the Coalition for Community Schools. That allows theft, cheating and mismanagement to happen, such as the $26,000 stolen from Lake Area New Tech High and the years of special education violations alleged at Lagniappe Academies.

The report also casts a skeptical eye on the veracity of the data that Louisiana uses to calculate the performance scores that keep charters open and determine their renewal terms. And it faults the state for closing struggling charters instead of intervening to improve them.

The Center for Popular Democracy's partners include the American Federation of Teachers, which has an uneasy relationship with charters, and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, which studies charter school oversight. Kyle Serrette, the center's director of educational justice campaigns, said its parent members had children in charter and conventional public schools.

That said, one of the report's recommendations is to "impose a moratorium on new charter schools until the state oversight system is adequately reformed."

The Louisiana-based Coalition for Community Schools opposes charter schools outright and filed a civil rights complaint against the state Education Department in 2014. That complaint also included a demand to freeze chartering in New Orleans.

The two groups' report said Louisiana charters could suffer from "tens of millions of fraud in the 2013-14 school year alone," based on the methodology of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. In that time, employees of three New Orleans charter schools stole about $110,000, and two charter operators were accused of meddling with retirement payments.

"The state has invested heavily in increasing the number of charter schools while failing to create a solid regulatory framework that truly protects students, families and taxpayers," the authors write. Furthermore, "oversight agencies play almost no role in helping charter schools improve academic outcomes. ... The state has no system in place to provide a path to high-quality academics for all struggling charter schools."

Charter schools are publicly funded but run by independent non-profit boards. They control their own curriculum and hiring but must meet academic and operational standards to stay open. The state Education Department oversees most of Louisiana's 130-plus charters; local school systems oversee the rest.

However, as of December, the Education Department's charter audit team consisted of only three people, according to a critical December report from the Louisiana legislative auditor's office. Education Superintendent John White defended his team at the time, saying they reviewed charter schools' audits, among other activities.

Tuesday's paper says that isn't enough. Not only do charters hire their own accountants to conduct annual audits, but the audits are not designed to prevent or detect fraud. Indeed, reports typically contain a disclaimer saying they are not expressing an opinion on fraud controls. The legislative auditor's office might dig deeper but rarely does so, the report states.

"The only audits Louisiana charter schools routinely undergo are the ones they pay for themselves," the authors write.

The report faults the Education Department for not spending enough time on-site at charters. Charters receive regular visits and reviews from state inspectors, and Louisiana Recovery School District officials said their own findings of wrongdoing at Lagniappe Academies in New Orleans showed that their oversight procedures worked.

The authors of Tuesday's report disagreed. The state's 2013-14 review of Lagniappe Academies gave full points for special education, the two organizations said, and it was only later that state inspectors uncovered extensive reports of violations during that time period.

"The situation at Lagniappe shows exactly the problems with the state's oversight structure for charter schools," the report says. "The state relies on a
largely self-reporting oversight structure that is easily manipulated by the schools themselves."

The authors doubt the accuracy of the test scores that are used to measure charters' academic performance, writing that the data "is vulnerable to manipulation."

Finally, the authors disagree with the state's readiness to close charters, including Lagniappe.

"Clearly there are times when problems are significant enough that a school must be closed. Yet, the current intervention (process) is designed to make school closure a normal and common part of the state's accountability system," the authors write. "The system needs to be updated to produce more stability for Louisiana children." In six years, more than 1,700 New Orleans students have seen their charter schools close, according to the report.

Louisiana's laws are "designed to set a high standard but not to help," Serrette said.

The state does at times intervene instead of closing schools, although this is not Report slams Louisiana charter school oversight | NOLA.com: