Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/15/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Jersey Jazzman: How Economists Hired By Hedge Fund Maniacs Justify Shafting Puerto Rico's Students

Jersey Jazzman: How Economists Hired By Hedge Fund Maniacs Justify Shafting Puerto Rico's Students: How Economists Hired By Hedge Fund Maniacs Justify Shafting Puerto Rico's Students Diane Ravitch points us to yet another example of how the very wealthiest in this country are pushing the idea that their having to take a haircut on their investments is a greater threat to our American way of life t

by mike simpson / 24min 

Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization - Living in Dialogue

Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization - Living in Dialogue: Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization By Monty Neill.Testing resistance and reform activists can help determine the result of the House-Senate conference committee that will write a compromise bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, now named No Child Left Behind)

by mike simpson / 44min 

80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours. | Fred Klonsky

80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours. | Fred Klonsky: 80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours..Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of Social Security.It was an important victory for working people during the Great Depression.Today, the average worker who depends on Social Security as their sole retirement pension lives below the poverty line.Teachers in 15

by mike simpson / 4h 

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY? - Perdaily.com

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY? - Perdaily.com: ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY?On Thursday August 13, 2015 the law firm of Geragos & Geragos filed a detailed 91 page cause of action on behalf of nationally acclaimed Hobart Elementary school teacher Rafe Esquith against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Esquith Complaint (Conformed).p

by mike simpson / 6h 

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY + Jeb's Amnesia

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY: VAM on Trial in NYIf you don't know Sheri Lederman's name, you should. She's the New York teacher who, with her lawyer husband, dragged VAM into a courtroom this week and gave it the beatdown it so richly deserved.Lederman's story is, at this point, the story of millions of other teachers. One year, her VAM score indicated that she was awesome. The next year, he

by mike simpson / 7h 

Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO. | Opt Out Orlando

Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO. | Opt Out Orlando: Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO.Across the state of Florida, some parents of rising fourth graders are being informed that their child is being retained in the third grade because their FSA scores were in the bottom 20% of the state – no matter what that score may be. Some middle and high school students are being made

by mike simpson / 7h 

solidaridad: Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school

solidaridad: Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school: Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home schoolPress release – Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school.FOR IMME

by mike simpson / 7h 

Common Core: Standard Children? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Common Core: Standard Children? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.: Common Core: Standard Children?The Common Core Can't Speed Up Child Developmentby Joe GanemRecent evaluations of the state's preschoolers have determined that only 47 percentare ready for kindergarten, compared to 83 percent judged ready last year. This drasticdrop isn't the result of an abrupt, catastrophic decline i

by mike simpson / 8h 

It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore. | deutsch29

It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore. | deutsch29: It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore.Jeb Bush is trying to distance himself from Common Core.He is avoiding using the term, and when he was asked about Common Core while campaigning in Iowa on Friday, August 14, 2015, Bush responded, “The term Common Core is so darned pois

by mike simpson / 8h 

Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results - The New York Times

Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results - The New York Times: Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam ResultsWith 20 percent of eligible students sitting out the New York state standardized tests this year, even some central organizers of the “opt out” movement were surprised at their own success.But those numbers are more tha

by mike simpson / 8h 

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Shame on Noble Street

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Shame on Noble Street: Shame on Noble StreetShame. Shame on Noble St. The Chicago Public Schools is experiencing a manufactured budget crisis of immense proportion leading to truly debilitating cuts to vast numbers of schools around the city. Schools are reporting the loss of teachers and support staff, as well as reductions in after-school programs, elementary sports teams,

by mike simpson / 8h 

Schools Matter: KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David Fox

Schools Matter: KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David Fox: KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David FoxSome hedge fund operators like to point to the evidence of their generosity as measured by huge donations to non-profit charter schools like KIPP.  KIPP's non-profit corporate status, however, only underscores its corporate welfare foundation and its super-lucrative business model.Not only do corporate donors

by mike simpson / 8h 

New Orleans Schools, 10 Years After Katrina: Beacon Or Warning? : NPR Ed : NPR

New Orleans Schools, 10 Years After Katrina: Beacon Or Warning? : NPR Ed : NPR: New Orleans Schools, 10 Years After Katrina: Beacon Or Warning?On Sept. 15, 2005, two weeks after Katrina and the levee breaches, I drove with my parents into New Orleans. It was my 25th birthday.We used my press pass from The Village Voice to get past a military checkpoint so we could assess the damage to their home n

by mike simpson / 8h 

Louisiana Educator: A Practical Approach to Revising Our Louisiana Curriculum Standards

Louisiana Educator: A Practical Approach to Revising Our Louisiana Curriculum Standards: A Practical Approach to Revising Our Louisiana Curriculum StandardsNote to readers: The following is an email I sent to members of the committees of educators and citizens charged with making revisions to the Louisiana Curriculum Standards. I believe that the process for revision of the standards currently bei

by mike simpson / 8h 

Controversial teacher evaluation method is on trial — literally — and the judge is not amused - The Washington Post

Controversial teacher evaluation method is on trial — literally — and the judge is not amused - The Washington Post: Controversial teacher evaluation method is on trial — literally — and the judge is not amusedHere is a report on what happened this week in a New York court where a judge is hearing the case brought by Sheri G. Lederman, a fourth-grade teacher in the Great Neck public school distric

by mike simpson / 8h 

Decision to cancel high school exit exam creates chaos - San Jose Mercury News

Decision to cancel high school exit exam creates chaos - San Jose Mercury News: Decision to cancel high school exit exam creates chaosBig Education Ape: Call for Action for Students Affected by CAHSEE - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education) http://bit.ly/1DOwDYLSACRAMENTO -- A hasty decision by California education officials to cancel the final high school exit exam for the Class of 2015 has unwittingl

by mike simpson / 9h 

A Civil Rights Legacy Squandered? Bilingual Education and the Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind

A Civil Rights Legacy Squandered? Bilingual Education and the Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind: A Civil Rights Legacy Squandered? Bilingual Education and the Reauthorization of No Child Left BehindAs Congress continues its work on the long-overdue reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), debates about Title I funding, testing, standards, accountability and charter schools have captur

by mike simpson / 9h 

Lawmakers finally consider tighter rules on charter schools - Sun Sentinel

Lawmakers finally consider tighter rules on charter schools - Sun Sentinel: Lawmakers finally consider tighter rules on charter schoolsIt's not often that Florida's lawmakers try to further regulate charter schools, which operate with fewer restrictions than public schools.So it's refreshing to see that Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, and Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah Gardens, want to tighten at least on

by mike simpson / 9h 

Opting Out of Standardized Tests Isn’t the Answer - The New York Times

Opting Out of Standardized Tests Isn’t the Answer - The New York Times: Opting Out of Standardized Tests Isn’t the AnswerAn alarming 200,000, or 20 percent, of the students in grades three through eight in New York State public schools this yearrefused to take the state’s standardized tests in reading and math that are supposed to measure progress in meeting national academic standards.This ill-co

by mike simpson / 9h 

Bernie Sanders Explains Puzzling Education Vote – It’s Because Accountability | gadflyonthewallblog

Bernie Sanders Explains Puzzling Education Vote – It’s Because Accountability | gadflyonthewallblog: Bernie Sanders Explains Puzzling Education Vote – It’s Because AccountabilityWhen teachers asked, Bernie Sanders answered.Why, Bernie? Why did you vote this summer against everything you seem to stand for on education policy?You stood against President George W. Bush’s disastrous No Child Left Behi

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Broad's LAUSD WMDs - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association: Broad's LAUSD WMDs by Geronimo, NBCT, Honorary BATThe forces that Eil Broad represents are relentless. Their money buys them access and political clout. We are engaged in an endless war with the privatizers.Eli Broad’s methodology is much like TFA’s. You work and groom your people and offer them to the system so that they can implement their corporate ed reform policie

by mike simpson / 18h 

Los Angeles Unified School District Debates Whether to Shoot Its Own Students–With Department of Defense Weapons

Los Angeles Unified School District Debates Whether to Shoot Its Own Students–With Department of Defense Weapons: Los Angeles Unified School District Debates Whether to Shoot Its Own Students–With Department of Defense WeaponsOn Thursday, July 30, 50 Black and Latino students wearing mock bullet proof vests with stickers that stated #StudentsAintBulletProof #End1033, from the Strategy Center’s Fig

by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/14/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMSacramento school reopening triggers unexpected parent concerns | The Sacramento BeeSacramento school reopening triggers unexpected parent concerns | The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento school reopening triggers unexpected parent concernsWhen local leaders announced plans in June to reopen midtown Sacramento’s Washington Elementary School with an emphasis on rigorous

by mike simpson / 23h 

Jersey Jazzman: How Economists Hired By Hedge Fund Maniacs Justify Shafting Puerto Rico's Students

Jersey Jazzman: How Economists Hired By Hedge Fund Maniacs Justify Shafting Puerto Rico's Students:

How Economists Hired By Hedge Fund Maniacs Justify Shafting Puerto Rico's Students

Diane Ravitch points us to yet another example of how the very wealthiest in this country are pushing the idea that their having to take a haircut on their investments is a greater threat to our American way of life than schools having enough money to educate poor kids:

The New York Times reported in June that hedge funds invested heavily in Puerto Rico, feeling sure that the Puerto Rican government could turn the economic crisis around. 

Now that the debt crisis has worsened, hedge funds are advising the government of Puerto Rico to save money by closing some schools, laying off teachers, and cutting university budgets. Most people think of education as the seed corn of future growth, but not the hedge funds. They want their debts repaid. Maybe they will propose bringing the African model of cheap, for-profit schools to Puerto Rico, which will cut costs considerably while opening new investment opportunities. (See here.)

A side note: as Diane points out, the Times reported that one of the hedge funds with an interest in Puerto Rico has a special place in the annals of New Jersey education "reform":

Hedge funds like Appaloosa Management, Paulson & Company and Blue Mountain Capital gathered in a conference room at the Barclays offices in Midtown Manhattan last September to talk about what was then the hottest trade: Puerto Rico. 

An hour into the conversation, however, it became clear that if things started going bad, not everyone in the room was going to get along. Some had wagered on real estate, while others had bought up the debts of the central government and its troubled electric utility. [emphasis mine]

Appaloosa was, of course, founded by David Tepper, one of the two sugar daddies funding the reformy exploits of B4K. As the Star-Ledger's Tom Moran loves to tell us, Tepper can be trusted on education policy, because only conspiracy theorists would ever believe he has a personal stake in the outcome. I admit I don't know what Appaloosa's position is related to Puerto Rico, but no matter what, try to reconcile Moran's contention with the rest of this post.

Diane points us to a CNN Money piece about how these hedge fundies are prescribing some awfully bitter medicine for Puerto Rico:

Puerto Rico went into default Monday for the first time in its history. The island's governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, has announced a

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-economists-hired-by-hedge-fund.html#sthash.a12tve7D.dpuf

Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization - Living in Dialogue

Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization - Living in Dialogue:

Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization

 By Monty Neill.

Testing resistance and reform activists can help determine the result of the House-Senate conference committee that will write a compromise bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, now named No Child Left Behind).

Both houses of Congress took important steps to end federally mandated accountability, but failed to reduce the amount of required testing. While they do little to advance high-quality education, the bills are a valuable step forward in overhauling the testing and accountability regime that has undermined public education. The new shared version written by the conference committee this fall will go back to each chamber for final votes and then, if approved, on to President Obama for his signature. If a bill does not become law in this Congress, NCLB and the waivers will continue until at least 2017.

FairTest has analyzed the bills (see here) and will work toward these goals in conference:

1) Block NCLB-style accountability provisions. This is the most contentious accountability issue. The Senate rejected a Democratic amendment that would have significantly restored NCLB-style accountability, including a variation of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and mandated school interventions. Democrats from both houses, backed by the Obama-Duncan administration, will try to use the conference process to insert what they could not win in either chamber. They have threatened to block final passage if they do not get their way. However, all but three Senate Democrats voted for the bill, signaling most members do notwant to keep NCLB. Now activists must win over Democrats to counter the threat to reestablish “test-and-punish.” Fortunately, no one is pushing to restore the mandate for escalating sanctions. Both bills leave interventions up to the states and end the federal mandate to use student scores to judge teachers.

2) Retain state power to limit the weight given to test scores in accountability provisions. Both bills leave it up to the states to determine their accountability indices, provided that statewide assessment is part of the mix. Some Democrats will push to give test scores the majority of the weight.

3) Retain as strong an opt-out provision as possible. The House bill allows parents to opt their children out of federally mandated exams. The Senate allows states or districts to decide. Where allowed, opt outs would Next Steps for Test Reform Activists on ESEA Reauthorization - Living in Dialogue:

80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours. | Fred Klonsky

80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours. | Fred Klonsky:

80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours.

.

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of Social Security.

It was an important victory for working people during the Great Depression.

Today, the average worker who depends on Social Security as their sole retirement pension lives below the poverty line.

Teachers in 15 states receive no Social Security, or they have it reduced significantly.

As a teacher in Illinois who contributed into Social Security until I was 38 and began teaching, this is a major financial loss.

Why do I lose a major part of my Social Security benefit?

Because of two Federal laws called The Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP).

In the view of Congress, being paid the Social Security I am owed is considered a “windfall.”

The Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) penalize people who have dedicated their lives to public service by taking away 80 years of Social Security, but we teachers don’t get ours. | Fred Klonsky:

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY? - Perdaily.com

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY? - Perdaily.com:

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY?

On Thursday August 13, 2015 the law firm of Geragos & Geragos filed a detailed 91 page cause of action on behalf of nationally acclaimed Hobart Elementary school teacher Rafe Esquith against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Esquith Complaint (Conformed).pdf More specifically, and in addition to suing LAUSD as a legal entity, the lawsuit also names as individual defendants Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines, Chief Legal Officer David R. Holmquist, and 50 John Does to be subsequently named after they are identified through the discovery process- a process now open to the plaintiffs to finally compell LAUSD administrators and others to tell the truth or face serious and costly- both financial and personal- legal consequencess for failing to do so.

In filing this lawsuit, the Geragos firm is in for a pleasant surprise, since it will soon find as the case unfolds that LAUSD and its corrupt and long bullying administration have literally made no attempt to cover up any of their reprehensible behavior toward Esquith or any of its other unjustly targeted employees. And that literally nobody in LAUSD administration has every had any good faith belief that the vast majority of teachers they have targeted have done anything wrong. Rather, to quote Marlon Brando's Vito Coreleone in The Godfather, what will become perfectly clear is that, "It's just business."

As the trial progresses and LAUSD's usual stall tactics- that have served them so well against defenseless teachers abandon by their union United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)- fail against a Geragos lawfirm with the bank to go against them toe to toe for the long run, what will become abundantly clear in this first neutral forum to dispassionately exam LAUSD's claims against its senior teaching staff is that the charges in the vast majority of cases are completely fabricated and based exclusively on the totally illegal motive of targeting teachers at the top of the salary scale, and/or about to vest in expensive lifetime health benefits, and/or disabled, and/or teachers like Esquith who stood up against ill-conceived and often downright illegal programs.

Simply stated, LAUSD's witch hunt has been about money and has had nothing to do with "child safety" as claimed by both Superintendent Cortines and his predecessor and now Broad Foundation employee John Deasey. And I can not help but wondering if John Deasey might also be one of the to be named John Does 1-50 in this lawsuit.

Furthermore, as more evidence is gathered in the Esquith case, a class action suit is likely to be filed or at the very least many more lawsuits like Esquith's, since a pattern and practice of illegal behavior will clearly emerge. What it will shows is literally thousands of other certificated or classified staff that bullying LAUSD administrators and their coerced subordinates either forced into early retirement or brought up on knowingly false charges. Where this case is likely to break wide open is when some of the coerced administrators, who at the behest or threat of their superiors finally speak up to save themselves about knowingly and with malice aforethought going after completely innocent teachers. Some candidates that the Geragos firm might choose take depositions from are those presently being fired by Superintendent Cortines.

Already in the pleading filed by Geragos & Geragos on behalf of Rafe Esquith, clearly illegal activity has been ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD'S JUDGMENT DAY? - Perdaily.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY + Jeb's Amnesia

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY:

VAM on Trial in NY

If you don't know Sheri Lederman's name, you should. She's the New York teacher who, with her lawyer husband, dragged VAM into a courtroom this week and gave it the beatdown it so richly deserved.

Lederman's story is, at this point, the story of millions of other teachers. One year, her VAM score indicated that she was awesome. The next year, her VAM score indicated that she sucked. Not only was she pretty much the same teacher, but her students got pretty much the same scores.

Because of the importance of the case, lots of folks were there to watch. Carol Burris has a great account in The Answer Sheet, and this blog by Alexndra Milleta who has known Lederman for decades is also worth a read. Audrey Amrein-Beardsley has been following the case for a while.Diane Ravitch provides links to the pertinent documents and experts affadavits in the case.

There appear to be two issues that strike the judge in the case as dopey.

The Curve.

How do you set up an evaluation system that predetermines that some teachers must be bad? Judge Roger McDonough wants to know how you can have a fair system that starts with the premise that even if all the teachers are effective, some of the teachers are not effective. How can evaluations be evaluations is they are not actually tied to a real standard?

The Avatars

New York, like most VAM systems, bases its evaluations on imaginary students. The magical formula CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY:

Jeb's Amnesia

Jeb Bush has developed selective amnesia. It's unfortunate, because the thing that has vanished from his memory used to be near and dear to his heart-- the Common Core.

There was a time when it looked like Bush 3.0 would be the only one to stay true to the cause, but in the end, his Presidential aspirations and his Common Core commitment created such violent cognitive dissonance that his brain just spit the Common Core chunks right out of his head.

I first noticed it in New Hampshire. While vacationing, I ended up watching the August 3 New Hampshire GOP Candidate Beauty Pageant. It was about the most non-hostile venue the candidates could hope for, with balls lobbed so soft that they could have been written by the candidates' staffs. The closest thing to confrontation was when the interviewer gently prodded Carly Fiorina to answer the question she had just ignored (spoiler alert: she didn't). The closest thing to genuinely fun moment was when the interviewer offered Rick Perry a do-over on eliminating three government agencies.

The interviewer asked Jeb Bush, "Would you take a moment to tell us the new talking point you're going to use to try to get the stink of Common Core off of you?" (I'm paraphrasing.) The questionish intro to Bush's talking point ended with, "Should state and local school boards reject any so-called national standards?" (You can watch for yourself here at about the 2:01 mark)

They should. They should. States ought to create standards. They should be high. They should be state-driven and locally implemented. The federal government should have no role in the creation of standards. No role in the creation directly or indirectly, no role in the creation of content or curriculum. 

He goes on to say that the feds should hand over money without any strings attached and references 

Jeb's Amnesia

Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO. | Opt Out Orlando

Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO. | Opt Out Orlando:

Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO.

Across the state of Florida, some parents of rising fourth graders are being informed that their child is being retained in the third grade because their FSA scores were in the bottom 20% of the state – no matter what that score may be. Some middle and high school students are being made to sacrifice electives for remedial or Intensive Reading/Math.

In the absence of a valid FSA score, schools are making these critical decisions based on the data they have, which may be from progress monitoring tests, such as Achieve 3000 or Discovery Ed, etc. In other words, districts are improvising in the face of no real guidance from the state, with little consistency from one district to the next. This is meaningless.  If every student passed the test, there would still be a bottom 20% of those passing students, to whom a test would say, “You failed.” Yet children are being retained and remediated regardless of what their actual scores are – in spite of the fact that the FSA validity report is not due back to the state until Sept. 1.

This is happening in certain districts and within those districts, only in certain schools.

But why is this happening and why is it happening so inconsistently?

From PoliticoFlorida –

Schools in ‘holding pattern’ while they await testing study

Since state law requires the tests be used in determining whether third graders are promoted, the state Department of Education released to schools the lowest quintile of third graders’ scores,

those “at risk” of retention. The department also alerted schools where students passed ninth-grade English and algebra exams, which are graduation requirements.

For other grades, districts may choose whether to use the test scores in promotion decisions. Stakeholder groups said schools had to move forward without the scores…

Vince Verges, assistant deputy education commissioner for accountability, research and measurement, said it will be up to districts what to do with the results.

With that, districts have been left to decide for themselves what to do to promote the children who were flagged for being in the bottom quintile – no matter what their actual scores are.

In spite of decades of solid research by child development and education experts, which overwhelmingly conclude that third grade retention is not onlynot beneficial, but is, in fact, harmful for children, the Florida legislature chooses to maintain this draconian policy. Current research shows that retention is harmful, not only for children in the third grade, but in all elementary grades.

____________________

The ultimate decision for ANY class placement for your child rests with YOU, the parent. Your consent is required. And you don’t have to give it. It doesn’t matter if you are told that your child’s retention or remediation was a state, district or school decision.

You can simply say, “No.”

If you don’t want your child remediated, DON’T give your consent or permission for the school to do so. It may not be easy to do this with your school, but it really is that simple.  If you get resistance from your school, KEEP CALM and remember that YOU are the final authority on the education of YOUR child.  

You may wish to respectfully ask for the statutory citation mandating retention Parents, YOU are the Boss… and you can say NO. | Opt Out Orlando:

solidaridad: Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school

solidaridad: Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school:

Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school

Press release – Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


On Monday, August 17, 2015, the first day of school, from 7:30-8:30AM, the Stoner Elementary School Community and local Del Rey neighborhood will be holding a protest against the co-location of ICEF Vista Charter School on the Stoner ES campus. Stoners parents are upset that the co-location has taken resource rooms including: music, special education, and language therapy among others. Local residents are upset because the co-location will bring traffic and safety issues to their neighborhood.

WHAT: Stoner Elementary Community is holding a:
      RALLY TO SUPPORT STONER ELEMENTARY AND OPPOSE THE CO-LOCATION
WHEN: Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7:30 – 8:30 AM
WHERE: on the corner of Stoner Avenue and Lindblade Street, 90230.
[map]

Media is invited to attend.

There will be speakers. There will be signs. There will be chanting and drums.

Most importantly, there will be calls for better schools, a safer neighborhood, and unity in the community.

---

ICEF Vista Elementary, a neighboring school that is located two blocks from Stoner on the campus of the defunct St. Gerard Majella Elementary School, has taken classroom space at Stoner.  To many people in the neighborhood, ICEF is seen as ‘the school at the church’ and many ICEF families take pride that their school provides benefit to the local parish.  However, ICEF wants to expand and that means leaving the church grounds. Part of ICEF’s expansion plan includes co-locating at another campus to open up space at the St. Gerard campus.

ICEF is “stealing from Peter to Give to Paul”

Stoner ES parents are outraged that ICEF Vista’s will be co-locating this year and has taken set aside rooms that are used for music, art, parents center, and computer lab at Stoner so that ICEF can open up space on the St. Gerard campus to have room for an art room, parents center and computer lab.  ICEF is literally taking away resources from Stoner ES to give those same resources to the ‘school at the church.’

The Stoner parents and local residents are mad about the colocation and are fighting back

In February 2014 when the proposed co-location was announced, Stoner community leaders addressed the ICEF board and asked them to reconsider their co-location plans.    In March 2014, Stoner families and local residents sent over a hundred letters and emails to ICEF and LAUSD Boards urging them to not have the co-location at Stoner.  In April 2014, when a final offer was made for the co-location, the Stoner and local community held a protest in front of the ICEF Vista campus urging them to not co-locate.

The Stoner and local community will be holding a protest on the morning of the first day of school Monday August 17 to let ICEF families know about our concerns with the co-location. More protests are planned for later in this school year.

---

WHAT DO WE WANT:

We want to let the ICEF community know the damage this co-location is causing and the harm it is bring to our community children. The Stoner parents are asking family of ICEF Vista to not support the co-location by selecting another educational option. We are encouraging the families of the 20 ICEF students who pertain to Stoner to consider sending their children to their local community school. We are asking parents from outside the area to consider their local schools or choose a non-colocated charter.

Adam C. Benitez
President, Friends of Stoner Avenue Elementary School
www.friendsofstoner.org

solidaridad: Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school:

Common Core: Standard Children? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Common Core: Standard Children? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.:
Common Core: Standard Children?

The Common Core Can't Speed Up Child Development

by Joe Ganem
Recent evaluations of the state's preschoolers have determined that only 47 percent
are ready for kindergarten, compared to 83 percent judged ready last year. This drastic
drop isn't the result of an abrupt, catastrophic decline in the cognitive abilities of our children. Instead it results from a re-definition of kindergarten readiness, which now means being
able to succeed academically at a level far beyond anything expected in the past.
For example, a child entering kindergarten is now expected to know the difference
between informative/explanatory writing and opinion writing. The concern is that
preschoolers without that knowledge will not succeed at meeting the new higher-level Common-Core standards.
However, I think a more pressing concern is: Why do we have educational standards
that are not aligned with even the most basic facts of human development? Clearly
these test results show that the problem is with the standards, not the children.
Educational attainment is part of human development, and fundamentally this is
a biological process that cannot be sped up. We cannot wish away our biological limitations because we find them inconvenient. Children will learn crawling, walking, listening,
talking and toilet training, all in succession at developmentally appropriate ages.
Once in school, for skills that require performing a physical task, that are in what
Bloom's Taxonomy classifies as the "psychomotor domain," it is understood that
children will only learn when they are physically and developmentally ready.
No one expects four-year olds to type fluently on a computer keyboard, play
difficult Chopin Etudes on the piano, prepare elaborate meals in the kitchen or drive a car.

 Common Core: Standard Children? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.:

It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore. | deutsch29

It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore. | deutsch29:

It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore.

Jeb Bush is trying to distance himself from Common Core.

He is avoiding using the term, and when he was asked about Common Core while campaigning in Iowa on Friday, August 14, 2015, Bush responded, “The term Common Core is so darned poisonous, I don’t even know what it means anymore.”

He’s just a guy who supports “state-created higher standards”:

Bush has previously described the standards as “poisonous politically,” but on Friday, he seemed thoroughly exasperated by the term itself and looked to move past it.

“I’m for higher standards – state-created, locally implemented – where the federal government has no role in the creation of standards, content or curriculum,” Bush said in Iowa.

He doesn’t say that the government should have no role in creating assessments. Strategic omission since the federal government obviously funded two Common Core assessment consortia, PARCC and Smarter Balanced.

Jeb Bush arrived very late to the “I just want higher standards” party, but here he is, nonetheless. However, Jeb Bush knows full well the well-founded criticisms of the Common Core. On December 1, 2011, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization in which Jeb Bush is active and highly influential, actually passed a model resolution opposing Common Core, the purpose of which was for legislators to carry back to their Common Core-endorsing states in order to formally oppose Common Core.

Here is the text of that resolution:

Resolution Opposing the Implementation of the Common Core StateStandards Initiative

Model Resolution

WHEREAS, high student performance and closing the achievement gap is fundamentally linked to an overall reform of our public education system through a strong system of accountability and transparency built on state standards, and

WHEREAS, the responsibility for the education of each child of this nation primarily lies with parents, supported by locally elected school boards and state governments, and

WHEREAS, common standards have resulted in increased decision making on issues of state and local significance without the input of state and local stakeholders, and

WHEREAS, no empirical evidence indicates that centralized education standards necessarily result in higher student achievement, and

WHEREAS, special interest groups can expose the vulnerability of the centralized decision making that governs common standards and lower the standards’ rigor and quality to suit their priorities, and

It’s August 2015, and Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know What Common Core Means Anymore. | deutsch29:

Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results - The New York Times

Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results - The New York Times:

Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results

With 20 percent of eligible students sitting out the New York state standardized tests this year, even some central organizers of the “opt out” movement were surprised at their own success.

But those numbers are more than just a thumb in the eye of state education officials. They also are a significant setback for the educational accountability movement in New York, which has sought to use data to evaluate educational progress on all levels, including the success of districts, schools and individual teachers. Now, in many districts with high rates of test refusals, the data has been badly crippled.

“We always said that compliance just means more of the same,” said Jeanette Deutermann, a central figure in Long Island’s test-refusal movement. “The hope was to disrupt it to the point where it cannot be used,” she continued, to where “there are not enough children taking the test to close a school, or not enough data to fire a teacher.”

Last year, about 95 percent of the 1.1 million eligible students sat for the exams, which test third through eighth graders in English and math. The state reported that 30.6 percent of students passed the English exam that year, and that 36.2 percent were proficient in math.

This year, only 80 percent of eligible students participated. Of those, 31.3 passed the English test and 38.1 percent the math, the state said on Wednesday. And while there are ways to try to account for the differences, with such a substantial gap between the numbers year to year, some statisticians say it is difficult to be sure how much students improved over all.

“Twenty percent is big enough that we don’t really know,” said Elizabeth Tipton, an assistant professor of applied statistics at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

It was even possible, some statisticians said, that the statewide passing rates would have been lower had more children taken the exams, since according to state education data, students who did not pass last year’s tests were more likely to opt out than those who passed.

Jason Schweid, a fellow at the Regents Research Fund, which advises the State Education Department on policy and testing, dismissed that.

“Anything that we project onto those students who did not take the test this year is purely conjecture,” he said.

Even with 20 percent of students sitting out, about 900,000 children still took the test, and there was plenty to be gleaned from them, Dr. Schweid said.

“That is more students taking the New York state test than in many other states with no opt out at all,” he said.

“Would I use these for a high stakes decision in terms of difference in performance from year to year across the entire state? Maybe not. But that comparison isn’t really a high-stakes comparison. It’s really a media talking point.”

When one tries to zoom in, however, say on a district or a school, things can become much more complicated. In areas with extreme concentrations Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results - The New York Times:

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Shame on Noble Street

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Shame on Noble Street:

Shame on Noble Street

Shame. Shame on Noble St.
 
The Chicago Public Schools is experiencing a manufactured budget crisis of immense proportion leading to truly debilitating cuts to vast numbers of schools around the city. Schools are reporting the loss of teachers and support staff, as well as reductions in after-school programs, elementary sports teams, librarians, and special education services. In addition to over $200 million dollars in cuts announced at the beginning of the summer,another round of layoffs-including nearly 500 educators being pink-slipped-took place just this past Monday. The schools hardest hit by these cuts are schools serving high numbers of students with special needs and schools designed specifically for students with significant disabilities.
 
And it was on that date, the day thousands of CPS workers were told they would not be returning to their school communities, that the Noble St Charter organization came out to cheerlead for a new Noble campus on the southwest side at a Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) meeting. 
 
Noble St has an ambitious expansion plan that has nothing to do with community need. In a leaked Teach For America document obtained by the education blogger EduShyster, you can see Noble St and other charter operators' plans for massive growth:


From http://edushyster.com/is-tfa-undermining-the-chicago-public-schools/

Charter operators actually have a financial need to expand at any cost, or risk defaulting on public bonds they have taken out. UNO Charter Network notoriously came under federal investigation for misuse of those government bonds.  
 
And so Noble St has been scouring the city, desperately searching for a site to build, despite the obvious lack of need and potential negative impact to communities. Noble St first tried to open on the northside of the city, but was met with strong community and elected official opposition forcing them to yank that proposal. They also tried to move an existing school to a different location on the northside and again that proposal was yanked after meeting strong neighborhood resistance. Noble then turned its sights on the southwest side, beginning with at least two proposals, then dropping that number down to one after yet more resistance.

Now Noble St is focusing all its attention on a southwest side location at 47th and California. There is absolutely no need for a school just five blocks away from Kelly High School and down the street from a new UNO High School. A number of other new high schools have already been built recently in the area including Solorio and Back of the Yards High Schools. All neighborhood schools in the area will be severely impacted if this Noble expansion is allowed to proceed and students and resources are allowed to be siphoned away. Despite repeated Noble St representative claims, most high schools have space for more students and many are seeing dramatic declines in enrollment. As we saw during the school closings debacle of 2013, CPS utilization numbers are way off as leadership and staff of schools report vastly different realities. Kennedy High School has a whole wing that is currently being rented out to an elementary school and could be re-opened. Kelly High School has lost over a thousand students in the past ten years. And Gage Park High School is dwindling down to a few hundred students, to name a few.

Thanks to CPS' ridiculous and unfeasible student-based budgeting system, even minor Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Shame on Noble Street:

Schools Matter: KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David Fox

Schools Matter: KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David Fox:

KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David Fox

Some hedge fund operators like to point to the evidence of their generosity as measured by huge donations to non-profit charter schools like KIPP.  KIPP's non-profit corporate status, however, only underscores its corporate welfare foundation and its super-lucrative business model.

Not only do corporate donors garner huge tax credits by helping to fund these test prep chain gangs, but the KIPP Foundation and its officers are allowed in the process to amass hundreds of millions each year in "non-profit" dollars from federal, state, and local governments. 

For instance, if KIPP is paid on average $10,000 for each of its 700,000 students nationwide each year, that amounts to $700,000,000 collected from taxpayers in a single year. On top of that are the rich real estate deals that corporate politicians have made possible for KIPP in Nashville, DC, San Francisco, Houston, etc. 

It's no wonder that hedge funds and former hedge funder managers like Nashville mayoral candidate, David Fox, are bullish on the No Excuses charters like KIPP and Rocketship. The potential gain for Wall Street and its investors are simply enormous in tax credits and real estate deals, and those private gains come at the expense of public taxpayers and the most vulnerable children who are dehumanized in the process of being mis-educated within a system of penal pedagogy.

Fox, by the way, is the only candidate who is on record as supporting a non-elected Nashville school board that would be appointed by the mayor, and he is the only candidate who wants to turn Nashville schools into a charter system like New Orleans.

You may be assured, however, that Mr. and Mrs. Fox would never allow their three children to be schooled in these total compliance, lockdown environments like KIPP.  That kind of oppression is reserved for the Schools Matter: KIPP Non-Profit? Don't Ask David Fox: