NYC Educator: You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time, but You Can't Fool Opt-Out NY

NYC Educator: You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time, but You Can't Fool Opt-Out NY:

You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time, but You Can't Fool Opt-Out NY

Even as UFT leadership breaks out the champagne over NY State's largely meaninglessCommon Core recommendations, Governor Cuomo ought to keep worrying. Because the fact is UFT leadership has played virtually no part in opt-out. They've delayed and prevented meaningful resolutions, and backed up reformy claims that aid would be withheld if not enough kids took tests that Cuomo himself called meaningless, except for rating teachers.

Even if these tests are temporarily decoupled from rating teachers, and even if they change the name of Common Core, opt-out activists will not simply fold their tents and agree to Governor Cuomo's sleight of hand. Not everyone is willing to declare victory every time a demagogue offers lip service. I have no idea why UFT leadership is so anxious to do so, but their need to label absolutely everything and anything as a Great Victory limits their repertoire of responses.

While UFT is willfully and chronically out of touch, our brothers and sisters in PJSTA keep their eyes open all the time and offer a much different interpretation of the task force recommendations. Their President, Beth Dimino, is a tireless advocate for children. She's been an active participant in opt-out, and had no problem whatsoever speaking truth to John King, even as myopic UFT leadership scrambled for that ever-elusive "seat at the table."

You'd better believe, if Cuomo hasn't fooled Beth Dimino, he hasn't fooled parent leaders of opt-out either. Opt-out claimed 20% of New York's children last year, is spreading by leaps and bounds, and aims to get closer to 50% next year. The fact is Cuomo's committee recommended that state test-based junk science be placed on hold for a few years, but allowed the testing to continue anyway. There's not a whole lot of motivation for parents to allow their kids to sit for tests that have no meaning for anyone whatsoever.

A big argument UFT leadership trots out as to why we need this testing is that civil rights groups endorse it. If that is the case (and I'm not completely persuaded it is), then the remedy is to educate said groups as to what these tests actually do. If we wish to correct societal inequality, we certainly won't do so by ignoring poverty and scapegoating teachers and schools. As long as UFT leadership accepts this NYC Educator: You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time, but You Can't Fool Opt-Out NY:

Pondering Chartering: What do we know about administrative and instructional spending? | School Finance 101

Pondering Chartering: What do we know about administrative and instructional spending? | School Finance 101:

Pondering Chartering: What do we know about administrative and instructional spending?

In a recent report, Gary Miron and I discuss some of the differences in resource allocation practices between Charter operators and district schools.  Among other things, we discuss the apparently high administrative expenses of charter operators. But in that same report, we explain that some of these higher administrative expenses, and, as a result lower instructional expenses, result from bad policy structures that constrain resource allocation and/or induce seemingly illogical behaviors.

Some have pointed out to me that this assertion of higher administrative and lower instructional expense by charter operators runs counter claims made by Dale Russakoff in her book The Prize. My doc student Mark Weber has already thoroughly rebutted Russakoff’s anecdotal claims.  Put bluntly. Those claims were supported only by anecdote and run in contrast with the larger body of data in New Jersey (see Mark’s post) and larger literature on the topic. The summary below addresses additional literature on this topic.

[to be clear… and this is a topic for another post, or perhaps Matt Barnum will do a piece on this… there is little if any evidence that administrative expense shares alone are an indicator if “inefficiency,” where inefficiency is defined as a reduction in outcomes produced for the same aggregate dollar input]

In a related recent post, I explain whether “chartering” can tell us much/anything about whether and how money (and resources that cost money) are associated with measured student outcomes.

Below is a section of a separate, forthcoming paper (coauthored with Mark Weber), in which we evaluate school site staffing expenditure differences between district, non-profit and for-profit charter operators.

Charter School Administrative/Instruction Expense

A handful of studies over time have addressed questions similar to those we address herein, asking more specifically about the differences in administrative overhead expenditures of charter schools. Two studies of Michigan charter schools, which operate fiscally independently of local public districts, have found them to have particularly high administrative expenses and low direct instructional expenses. Arsen and Ni (2012) found that “Controlling for factors that could affect resource allocation patterns between school types, we find that charter schools on average spend $774 more per pupil per year on administration and $1141 less on instruction than traditional public schools.” (p. 1) Further, they found “charter schools managed by EMOs spend significantly more on administration than self-managed charters (about $312 per pupil). This higher spending occurs in administrative functions traditionally performed at both the district central office and school building levels.” (p. 13)

Izraeli and Murphy (2012) found that district schools in Michigan tended to spend more on instruction per student than did charter schools, and the gap grew by about 5 percent to nearly 35% percent over the period studied (1995-96 to 2005-06) (p. 265). Further they found the spending gap for instructional spending to be greater than that for general spending. The overall funding gap between district and charter schools was approximately $230. The spending gap for basic programs was $562 and for total instruction $910. The authors note “much like a profit-maximizing firm, charter schools generate a surplus of revenue over expenditure.” (Izraeli & Murphy, 2012, p. 265)

Bifulco and Reback (2014) explore the complex relationship between fiscally dependent charter schools and their host districts in upstate New York cities. Particularly relevant to our investigation is Bifulco and Reback’s finding that having fiscally dependent charter schools separately affiliated with outside Pondering Chartering: What do we know about administrative and instructional spending? | School Finance 101:

Bad Apples | EduShyster

Bad Apples | EduShyster:

Bad Apples

Rutgers Professor Bruce Baker shines a light on some extremely shady charter industry practices—and causes my hair to literally catch on fire…

EduShyster: Your new study, about the policies that charter school operators use for financial benefit, is harshly critical of a few bad apples. But why focus on them as opposed to, say, the high-performing many?

Bruce Baker: The important context for this report is to understand just who are the dominant charter managers in the landscape. You’ve got Imagine, you’ve got National Heritage, you’ve got White Hat and you’ve got Charter Schools USA. A lot of academics and charter advocates are going to think well *those aren’t the big ones like KIPP and Uncommon.* But KIPP and Uncommon aren’t the big ones. The big ones are Imagine, National Heritage, White Hat and Charter Schools USA. If we were to decide that here and now is the time to clean all this stuff up and just shut down a bunch of these operators, we’d be taking out a sizable share of charter schools in Florida and Ohio.

EduShyster: You use the term *subprime chartering* to refer to the massive amounts of debt being accumulated by charter operators. What happens when the bubble pops? And should I add this to the long list of things I lie awake at night worrying about?

Baker: If you look at the escalation of debt being taken out to finance charter facilities, we’re on the front end of that. A lot of the debt doesn’t come due until the mid 2040’s. But the debt is only part of the picture. If you look at what’s happening in many cities, we’re turning over, or *relinquishing*, all of our land and facilities in the urban core to private Bad Apples | EduShyster:

Gary Rubinstein, TFA Critic, Will Attend the 25th Anniversary of TFA | Diane Ravitch's blog

Gary Rubinstein, TFA Critic, Will Attend the 25th Anniversary of TFA | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Gary Rubinstein, TFA Critic, Will Attend the 25th Anniversary of TFA

Gary Rubinstein, the most thoughtful of Teach for America’s critical alums, plans to attend the 25th anniversary of Teach for America. Gary’s blog has punctured the illusions of TFA and other corporate reformers again and again. Will he be shunned? Will anyone speak to him?

When I read Gary’s post, my first reaction was that the party would be “a conclave of losers,” considering how many of the TFA stars have faded or failed or disappeared into obscurity.  Not to mention the fact that TFA has not–in its 25 years–closed the achievement gap in any district or turned any district into a paragon of excellence. “One day,” the TFA slogan (“one day all children will have an excellent education”) seems as far away as ever.

But what a meeting it will be!

Gary writes:

Of the 200 speakers listed so far, there is only one ‘reform critic’ I see, Los Angeles Board President Steve Zimmer. Then there are about 150 people I’ve never heard of, but who are mostly from different ed companies or charter schools, and then there are about 50 A and B list ‘reformers’ and charter leaders. These include Jeremy Beard (YES Prep), Karolyn Belcher (President of TNTP), RiShawn Biddle (Dropout Nation), Tim Daly (Former President of TNTP), Mike Feinberg (KIPP), Heather Harding (former VP of research at TFA, now with Gates), Kevin Huffman (former Tennessee Education commissioner and former husband of Michelle Rhee), Michael Johnston (State senator in Colorado who got a teacher evaluation law passed where 50% of the evaluation is based on value-added), John King (current acting Secretary of Education), Dave Levin (KIPP), Kira Orange Jones (New Orleans Board Member), Paymon Rouhanifard (Camden Schools Superintendent), Alexander Russo (Writer and reform cheerleader), Hannah Skandera (secretary of education for New Mexico), Preston Smith (CEO Rocketship Charter schools), John White (State Superintendent of Louisiana), Joe Williams (DFER and now Walton). Not yet on the speakers page, but listed on some of the panels are Joel Klein (Amplify and former chancellor in NYC), John Deasy (Former head of Los Angeles Schools), Jon Schnur (Architect of Race To The Top), Chris ‘Citizen’ Stewart (blogger who I’ve sparred with on Twitter), and, of course, Michelle Rhee (StudentsFirst and star of Waiting For Gary Rubinstein, TFA Critic, Will Attend the 25th Anniversary of TFA | Diane Ravitch's blog:

No gymnasiums, no cafeterias and no administrators. That’s school policy at AltSchools | TechCrunch

School Districts Are Standing In The Way Of Public School Edtech | TechCrunch:

School Districts Are Standing In The Way Of Public School Edtech

No gymnasiums, no cafeterias and no administrators. That’s school policy at AltSchools, a chain of private, for-profit schools backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Mark Zuckerberg.

At the location I visited, the school schedule was written on a white board and could be changed in real time. Students flowed between grade levels and classes based upon what they wanted and needed from teachers.

To me, it seemed a bit like a 21st-century version of a one-room frontier schoolhouse. But no matter — AltSchools “has been anointed by the top minds in Silicon Valley as the best hope for the future of education,” according to WIRED.

The reason why is AltSchools’ use of technology. Instead of textbooks, students in AltSchools’ mixed-grade classrooms work through “lesson playlists” on iPads or Chromebooks that are tailored to their proficiency level and learning style. Teachers supplement tech time with group or individual instruction, an approach known as blended learning.

My visit got me thinking — how would one of our school districts, which might contain 100,000 or more students, implement AltSchools’ model? Would they need to build small schools on every corner, until they were as ubiquitous as Starbucks?

Based on my experience, the biggest barrier to rolling out an AltSchools model more broadly would probably be the district itself. I’ve found that districts’ layers of complex and siloed workflows and vast systems of checks and balances often get in the way of implementing personalized learning through edtech, especially when technology changes so fast.

Before we revolutionize the classroom or the school, we need to revolutionize the school district.

Tailor-Made For The Factory Floor

Seventy-five to 80 percent. That’s the percentage of high school students who graduated with diplomas in the United States in 2010 — and in 1990. In other words, in the past two decades, graduation rates have barely budged.

That’s not entirely a bad thing. The U.S. educational system was founded on a system of factory-floor efficiency, governed by ringing bells, classrooms specialized by subject and students organized by age. And it’s clear that this system has more or less delivered on its promise of getting a majority of kids the basic math, reading and writing skills they need to face the challenges of the 20th century.

The 21st century, however, is a different matter.

In the workplace of the 21st century, what you know is still important, but what you can learn is just as vital a metric for success. Today’s globalized economy increasingly rewards creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and collaboration. Skills like this aren’t captured by the high school graduation rate, scores on knowledge-based assessments or any of our other standard metrics of education “success.” And none of them are the type of skill one learns in a factory, either.

Before we revolutionize the classroom or the school, we need to revolutionize the school district.

Unfortunately, factories are what school districts are still set up to administer. Take a look at an average school district’s organizational chart, like this one from the school district of Philadelphia. Sectioned into dozens of departments connected by a spiderweb of lines, it’s difficult for an outsider to decipher — and not too different from the charts of old-school industrial corporations like General Motors.

Organizations structured like this often take a top-down, “control” approach to management, based on the Six Sigma model of process improvement. But as I wrote in my 2015 book Personalized Learning Playbook, that is a huge missed opportunity. In an age where not only startups, but established companies, employ increasingly flat management styles, we can do better in managing districts.

Here are three steps to bringing school districts into the 21st century.

We Need To Rethink How Districts Are Organized. Just as at a tech startup, management structures for a school district shouldn’t be one size fits all. Instead of being segmented by geographic attendance zones, for instance, a school district could be organized around student needs, with each department focused on a different learning style or skill set.

The point isn’t that one structure is better than another — the point is that districts, like startups or charter schools, should be free to experiment to find the one that’s right for them. For districts just getting started, implementing the Baldridge Excellence Framework can be a great first step. This system, used by organizations like Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Boeing, focuses less on micro-managing process and more on providing support for reaching high-level goals. We have seen it work in districts like Horry County Schools, South Carolina, which, despite its size, has been able to get a lot done.

Districts Must Recognize That Their Culture Has A Trickle-Down Effect. Personalized learning requires a fluid classroom environment, where students work at a pace individual to them, circulating freely between individual workstations and teams. A responsive district School Districts Are Standing In The Way Of Public School Edtech | TechCrunch:

How far will N.Y. Gov. Cuomo really go in overhauling Common Core? - The Washington Post

How far will N.Y. Gov. Cuomo really go in overhauling Common Core? - The Washington Post:

How far will N.Y. Gov. Cuomo really go in overhauling Common Core?

Last week, a task force created by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to review Common Core curriculum and aligned standardized testing issued a report with a series of recommendations on how to change the standards and assessment. The report, which detailed mistakes in the Core’s implementation in New York, was the subject of stories in the press (including an Answer Sheet post here) that discussed the changes the task force is recommending, and that Cuomo is expected to accept.

Here’s a new piece on the report, which says that there is less there than meets the eye, and that New Yorkers shouldn’t expect big changes. It was written by Carol Burris, who retired as principal of South Side High School in New York last June and is now the executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education Fund. She was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. In 2010, she was selected as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.

By Carol Burris

Poor Andrew Cuomo. He really doesn’t get it. He can’t understand that yet another commission report, with pictures of grinning kids, will not make New York mothers and teachers like him again.

The press release for the New York Common Core Task Force Final Report,  released last week, suggests that New York will create its own standards and abandon the Common Core, assuming Cuomo accepts its recommendations. That is not, however, an accurate characterization of what is in the report. It does a credible job of describing New York’s botched implementation of reform, but if New Yorkers were looking for audacity and clear direction, they will not find it in the task force report.

The report is timid. There is no courage in recounting well-documented mistakes. Parents understand the problems that resulted from goofy modules, mixed up math and horrible tests. There would be courage, however, in charting a bold course forward that provides immediate relief for the students and teachers of New York. Such bravery, sadly, is noticeably absent.

Let’s begin with its recommendations regarding the Common Core. Although the press release characterizes the report as demanding an “overhaul” of the standards, the body of the report calls for minimal change. There are only two specific recommendations: (1) modify the standards K-2 and (2) provide How far will N.Y. Gov. Cuomo really go in overhauling Common Core? - The Washington Post:

Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little | Miami Herald

Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little | Miami Herald:

Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little

TALLAHASSEE 

Less than a mile from the state Capitol, a former steakhouse shows little evidence that it was once part of a movement to change Florida’s schools.

It was on this location nearly two decades ago that the leader of a prominent Tallahassee church put together one of the state’s first charter schools. The space where customers grazed the salad bar became student desks. The parking lot became home to two portables used for classrooms.

The only trace of C.K. Steele/LeRoy Collins Community Charter Middle School is a sign in the parking lot. It closed in 2014.

But over the course of the preceding decade, the school received nearly $540,000 to help with capital purchases under a program enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature and supported by the last three governors. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church owned the building when the school opened and it still does.

So what did get taxpayers get back? Not much. Some televisions, computers and other surplus supplies deemed unusable by the Leon County school district.

The story is repeated across the state: Charter schools, which are public schools run by private groups, have received more than $760 million from state taxpayers since 2000 according to an Associated Press analysis of state Department of Education records. Schools can use the money for construction costs, rent payments, buses and even property insurance.

More capital money has gone to charter schools in Miami-Dade than any other county: about $179 million.

Yet charter schools in 30 districts have wound up closing after receiving as much as $70 million combined in such funding, the AP’s analysis showed. In all, more than $7.5 million went to almost 20 Miami-Dade charter schools that eventually shut their doors.

Taxpayers usually can’t recover the capital money invested in those schools because most of it has been spent on rent or leasing costs. The Department of Education reported it has taken back just $133,000 in the last three years from schools that closed.

“That’s definitely a concern as a taxpayer,” said Jaime Torrens, chief facilities officer for Miami-Dade schools. “If a school closes, whatever property was built with these public dollars, it doesn’t come back to the public. It remains with the owner of property.”

There have been cases where the district recuperated equipment left behind after a charter school closed. When the School for Integrated Academics and Technology abruptly closed its doors last year — after receiving $1.9 in state capital funding — Miami-Dade recovered computers, smart boards and furniture. When that happens, the district usually redistributes the equipment to other charter schools.

In contrast, when Balere Language Academy shut down amid allegations it threw raunchy after-hours parties in the cafeteria, $4,500 in equipment went missing. The school reported the items were stolen, according to Miami-Dade officials.

Democratic lawmakers have criticized the expenditures, especially since Florida legislators have curtailed construction money for traditional public schools in recent years.

The AP’s analysis was derived from department data that lists charter schools that received money set aside in the annual state budget. That data was compared with schools that the state listed as closed. The state listed as closed some schools that had merged with others; the AP did not count money that went to those schools in tallying the total spent on now-defunct schools.

Schools that got money include Miami’s Liberty City Charter, set up with great fanfare by Jeb Bush shortly before he ran for governor in 1998. Liberty City closed after eight years because of severe financial problems, but not before receiving $1.1 million in state capital funds.

Today, the building stands empty in a quiet enclave of El Portal that backs up to hummingFlorida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little | Miami Herald: 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article49565370.html#storylink=cpy

Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 million | The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 million | The Columbus Dispatch:

Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 million

Dozens of Ohio charter schools collectively have failed to repay more than $6 million in misspent tax dollars, a first-time compilation of state audits reveals.

The improper spending involved about 40 of the tax-funded, privately operated schools and was uncovered by audits conducted between 2008 and 2014.

“A majority of the unresolved findings for recovery are against individuals who operated or worked at the schools, and many of these schools are now closed,” according to the report that Ohio Superintendent Richard A. Ross recently submitted to federal officials.

>> Bill would prohibit charter schools from spending tax money on ads

The biggest offender: former school treasurer Carl W. Shye Jr. of New Albany, who misspent a reported $2.1 million while handling finances for more than a dozen former charter schools in Columbus, Dayton and Youngstown, according to state Auditor Dave Yost.

Shye served a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2012 to embezzling nearly $500,000 from four charter schools, including the former George Washington Carver Preparatory Academy in Columbus, between 2005 and 2011.

The charter-school audit findings were compiled by the Ohio Department of Education at the request of federal regulators, who in November placed a hold on a $71 million grant awarded to the state.

The funds were to be used to open new charter schools in Ohio. But officials with the U.S. Department of Education said they were concerned about the state agency’s rigging of charter-school evaluations and wanted assurances that the grant money would be spent properly.

The federal review is ongoing, officials said on Friday.

The Dispatch reported in September that Ohio’s grant application had inaccuracies and questionable claims, including that the state had no “ poor-performing” charters in the 2012-13 school year, even though about a third failed to meet a single standard on state report cards that year.

The application also promised that only the “best-rated” charter-school sponsors would receive grant money for new schools. But former school-choice chief David Hansen, who drafted the state’s application, failed to mention he had left off grades of failing online schools from sponsor evaluations to boost their ratings.

Hansen resigned after admitting he scrubbed the data.

Ohio currently spends about $1 billion a year to educate more than 120,000 students attending about 350 charter schools.

According to the report Ross submitted last week, the auditor’s office conducted 2,315 audits of charter schools between 2008 and 2014. Of those, 347 sought to recover misspent funds.

Most have been resolved or repaid. However, state officials are still seeking repayment of more than $6 million in misspent money uncovered in 99 audits of about 40 schools.

Much of the illegal spending involved undocumented or overpayments to school management companies, vendors and employees.

As Ross works to win back the federal grant, his report noted that Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 million | The Columbus Dispatch:

The fate of Zuckerberg’s “gift” to Newark schools - World Socialist Web Site

The fate of Zuckerberg’s “gift” to Newark schools - World Socialist Web Site:

The fate of Zuckerberg’s “gift” to Newark schools

Five years ago, Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg decided to promote “school reform” by making an unprecedented $100 million gift to the single school system of Newark, New Jersey. A real media event, the announcement was made on a wildly popular national television program, “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” It was also timed as a one-two punch to coincide with the release of the documentary film Waiting for Superman, funded by school privatization advocates, which provided an idyllic portrait of charter schools.

The Zuckerberg gift was hailed, not just as a boon to the impoverished city, but as a turning point for public education in America. His philanthropic experiment aimed—with more than a touch of hubris—to show “how to flip a city and take it from very, very poor schools and poor performance of children to…a model of educational excellence,” in the words of Newark Democratic Mayor Cory Booker, a longtime advocate for dismantling public education and a major co-leader of the city initiative, together with New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie.

The recently released book “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” tells the story of the bequest and its failure to deliver on its promises. Dale Russakoff, a former Washington Post writer, has received much critical acclaim for her exposure of the mechanics of philanthropic school reform, the roles of Booker and Christie and following the lucrative money trail.

But it must be said that on the fundamental issue of the political and economic nature of the “school reform” movement, Russakoff waffles if not capitulates. Despite her critical approach, she is inconsistent, embracing “good” charters, agreeing with some attacks on teachers’ rights, and in general having no answer to the problem of getting more resources to schools and students. Nonetheless, despite its limitations, the book’s detailed account of the events of the past five years in Newark reveals much about the bipartisan attack on public education.

The book’s importance is in its depiction of the ill-fated nature of this political project—the legacy of the “prize” is the fact that one-third of the city’s children now attend charter schools, thousands of students were forced to transfer from their home schools, 1,000 teachers and more than 800 support staff were eliminated, neighborhood schools were destroyed and a system of “school choice” was imposed that determined children’s schools with algorithms. These attacks sparked “venomous” public outrage.

Booker’s goal—that Newark should become “the charter school capital of the nation”—has not been achieved. That statistical place belongs to New Orleans, with 91 percent in charter schools, followed by Detroit at 55 percent. Newark, with 30 percen charters, now joins many other US cities with a hybrid school system: District of Columbia, Flint, MI, Cleveland, OH, Gary, IN, Kansas City, MO, Philadelphia, PA and so on. It is noteworthy, however, that the Newark initiative made huge inroads and played a big role in the ongoing national drive for privatization of education.

As the WSWS predicted at the time, Zuckerberg’s “money will have no measurable impact on America’s crumbling infrastructure.” We cautioned, “The latter requires the application of a massive, coordinated social effort, involving the expenditure of trillions of dollars, which will be possible only as the result of radical wealth redistribution and changes in social policy.”

On this point, Russakoff’s book eloquently demonstrates the relationship The fate of Zuckerberg’s “gift” to Newark schools - World Socialist Web Site:

TFA Tries to Squash Its Critics via Less Than One Degree of Separation | deutsch29

TFA Tries to Squash Its Critics via Less Than One Degree of Separation | deutsch29:

TFA Tries to Squash Its Critics via Less Than One Degree of Separation

 Wonder why this goose is here?

One of the challenges in writing about corporate education reform concerns the complex web of involvement among corporate reformers, which is often evident in their sitting on each others’ nonprofit boards.

Makes it hard to know where one market-worshiping so-called education nonprofit ends and another begins.

One corporate ed reform nonprofit that notoriously spawns nonprofits and overlaps with others is Teach for America (TFA). In fact, many start their corporate ed, “this here’s my nonprofit” careers after serving as TFA temp teachers.

The “just add water” manner in which TFA tosses recruits into classrooms is drawing increasing criticism as the years pass.  So is the manner in which TFA has tried to shut down its critics. Just Google the term “Teach for America criticism,” and you will not want for reading material. Here are some examples:

Washington Post: “Teach for America’s Biggest Problem Isn’t Green Teachers or Failing Schools. It’s That It Can’t Take Criticism.”

The Daily Beast: “Is Teach for America Flunking Out?”

Huffington Post: “Why I Said No to Teach for America, and Why You Should TFA Tries to Squash Its Critics via Less Than One Degree of Separation | deutsch29:

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California approves tougher teacher training standards to help mainstreaming | EdSource

California approves tougher teacher training standards to help mainstreaming | EdSource:

California approves tougher teacher training standards to help mainstreaming

Teachers meet in Burlingame to talk about proposed changes in teacher credentials.

Under federal pressure to increase the amount of time special education students spend in general education classrooms, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing announced it will require  all future teachers to learn techniques proven to foster the success of students with disabilities, including small group instruction, behavior management and using frequent informal assessments to identify and address learning gaps.

The new standards for general education teacher preparation are the first statewide change to emerge from a push to improve the academic outcomes of students with disabilities, prompted in part by warnings from the U.S. Department of Education about the poor academic performance of California students with disabilities, compared to their peers in other states. A second major improvement effort is expected this spring, when new standards for special education teacher preparation are scheduled to be released.

“We have to be more effective in our teaching,” said Teri Clark, director of the professional services division of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which sets California approves tougher teacher training standards to help mainstreaming | EdSource:

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part IV | deutsch29

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part IV | deutsch29:

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part IV

Ann Marie Corgill

On November 20, 2015, I drove from southern Louisiana to central Alabama in order to interview 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year, Ann Marie Corgill, whose resignation three weeks prior, on October 30, 2015, made national news.

I had the privilege of interviewing Corgill for several hours. She detailed an intriguing story regarding her 21 years in the classroom, a story to which I could not possibly do justice in a single post. Therefore, I decided to write a series of posts about Corgill.

This is number four in that series.

The first post concerns how Corgill’s resignation became public. The second details the exasperating events that led to her deciding to resign. And the third post follows Corgill on the path to becoming Alabama Teacher of the Year for 2014-15 and a top-four finalist for 2015 National Teacher of the Year.

In this fourth post, I offer the section of our interview in which Corgill discusses her years as a public school teacher in New York City– both what enticed her to go to The Big Apple and what prompted her to return to Alabama.

Our discussion of Corgill’s travels to New York transpired near the outset of our four-hour interview. Therefore, in this post I begin at the beginning of our talk, which leads Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part IV | deutsch29:

The Dea(r)th of Opinions [TFA and Writing As A Whole] | The Jose Vilson

The Dea(r)th of Opinions [TFA and Writing As A Whole] | The Jose Vilson:

The Dea(r)th of Opinions [TFA and Writing As A Whole]

Back in 2009, ChalkbeatNY fka Gotham Schools had its first fundraiser featuring then-NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and NYU researcher and former education reform cheerleader Diane Ravitch. He was there to give one of many speeches about the disruptive education reform he and former mayor Michael Bloomberg embarked on since the early aughts. Ravitch, on the other hand, read an excerpt on said legacy from her best-selling book The Death and Life of the Great American School Ssytem. By then, my blog was already blocked from all NYC public school computers (except those in central and with administrative privileges), so getting an invite to an event with most of the movers and shakers from NYC’s education sphere felt special for a guy who only had a PC and an Internet connection.

The handful of us who were typing about education policy didn’t see a dime off it, and because it was so new, people didn’t think I had ulterior motives.

Fast forward to today and it felt like everyone finally has attempted blogging, and telling folks you use social media for writing doesn’t shoot giggles up people’s throats. In many cases, folks assure youare getting paid if you’re writing on a regular basis. It’s hard to tell whether someone truly believes the things they’ve written, if the person in the avatar is the author of the piece, or who e-mailed the author on key information in the article. Organizations have teams of folks who write pieces, The Dea(r)th of Opinions [TFA and Writing As A Whole] | The Jose Vilson:

An Urban Teacher's Education: The Critical Link Between Education and Health: Why You Must Watch Paper Tigers

An Urban Teacher's Education: The Critical Link Between Education and Health: Why You Must Watch Paper Tigers:

The Critical Link Between Education and Health: Why You Must Watch Paper Tigers

It was an April morning early in my teaching career when, in the middle of a history lecture, I paused because of an unusual noise coming from the hallway.

"Finish copying down the rest of that slide, everyone. I'll be right back," I told my students.

I poked my head out of the door to find out just what was going on in the hallway. Megan (not her real name), one of my students who'd I'd marked absent at the beginning of the period, lay crumpled near the wall rapidly double breathing. I rushed over to help her up and find out what had happened. Her face was red and covered in tears. She couldn't bring herself to speak, so I quickly called the office for assistance.

After school was dismissed that day, I connected with our school counselor and found that just before arriving at school, Megan's cousin had called to tell her that Megan's mother had attempted suicide that morning. The crippling stress of such news was compounded by the fact that Megan had no siblings and that she'd never known her father. Her mom was all she had.

In the mid 1990's, the CDC and Kaiser Permanente partnered to begin the study of how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact longterm life outcomes. Nadine Burke Harris speaks eloquently about the study and ACEs in the video below.

Recent advances in neuroscience have helped us understand how ACEs, trauma, and chronic stress affect not only life outcomes, but the ability of students to focus and learn. They also affect our physical health. We know now, as Gabor Maté puts it, that humans are bio-psycho-social beings. Our physical health and optimal functioning is affected as much by diet and exercise as by our social-emotional health and vice versa. The implications of this new knowledge are so significant that An Urban Teacher's Education: The Critical Link Between Education and Health: Why You Must Watch Paper Tigers:

Teachers For Social Justice: TSJ Teach-In Elected Representative School Board Campaign

Teachers For Social Justice: TSJ Teach-In Elected Representative School Board Campaign:

TSJ Teach-In Elected Representative School Board Campaign

 

TSJ Teach-In Elected Representative School Board Campaign Sat, January 9, 2016 5:00 - 7:00 PM UIC College of Education 1040 W. Harrison Street Room 3427 All are welcome!

Did you know that Chicago is the only school district in Illinois (of 891) without an elected school board? Enough is enough! Democracy Now!! Do you want to help win an elected representative school board (ERSB) in Chicago? The purposes of this teach-in are: 1. Learn about the bill in the State Assembly-HB 4268; 2. Learn how to counter the arguments against an ERSB; 3. Learn how to work with your school community, elected officials, and groups/people in your neighborhood, to prepare yourself to help organize for the campaign and the bill. We will leave with specific materials and concrete plans to organize, visit legislators, and spread the word so that we can win this major victory. A registration form will shortly be on the TSJ website so you can sign up for the teach-in. We will ask you for your local school (elementary and high school) and state rep/senator on that form to help us better know what areas of Chicago (and the state) we can cover. PS- Mark your calendars for rallies in Springfield as we take over the Capital rotunda with the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) on Feb 10th and April 12th for the ERSB! PPS- There may be phone banking, canvassing, and other ways of organizing as well, so stay tuned!Teachers For Social Justice: TSJ Teach-In Elected Representative School Board Campaign: