Send In the Clowns: 3 Stooges, Gingrich, Sharpton & Duncan Hit the Road For Corporate “School Reform” | Black Agenda Report

Send In the Clowns: 3 Stooges, Gingrich, Sharpton & Duncan Hit the Road For Corporate “School Reform” Black Agenda Report:


"Back in the late 19th and early 20th century heydays of vaudeville, when the singers bombed, when the jokes fell flat and audience attention started wandering, management knew what to do. They would send in the clowns. Some things haven't changed.

Despite a decade of hard sell by right wing think tanks, foundations, and big media, the American people have not bought the corporate version of school reform. Most people just don't believe public schools should be privatized or militarized, or operated by business people like businesses instead of by educators, parents and communities in the interests of children, parents and communities, like the best schools always have been run. And most educators doubt that high stakes testing improves educational outcomes in any meaningful way.

Since the public debates on charter schools and privatizing education are ones that our elite cannot win, they have decreed there will be no debate. Instead of an honest public examination of the disastrous impact of No Child Left Behind, and its attendant decade of creeping educational privatization, corporate media, the Obama administration and its bipartisan allies are sending in the clowns with a 21st century three stooges remake starring the Rev. Al Sharpton, along with Republican former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Obama Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, elbowing and slapping at each other, yukking it up about their supposed political differences while they all come together around the corporate elite's version of “school reform.”"

Stanford U Study Shows Charter Schools Perform Worse Than Comparable Public Schools | Black Agenda Report

Stanford U Study Shows Charter Schools Perform Worse Than Comparable Public Schools Black Agenda Report:

"“The Obama administration position is based on ideology, not empirical data.”

Duncan responded to the study by urging charter school forces to pay more attention to quality. But he continues to demand that 5,000 schools be shut down, their teachers fired, and a quarter million new teachers hired. The Obama administration position is based on ideology, not empirical data, and would lead to a forced proliferation of charter schools in districts eager to hold on to federal dollars. If the Stanford study is any guide, half the new charters will be no better than the traditional schools, and most of the rest will be worse.

Unionized teachers are blamed for all the ills of urban education; it’s not a reasoned argument, but a matter of faith – and political prejudice. Charter schools are not private, but they are the privatizers’ foot in the door, a wedge issue to demonize unions in the Black community – even in those cities where many if not most public school teachers are Black. In Chicago, as Bruce Dixon reported in last week’s issue of Black Agenda Report, the proportion of Black teachers has dropped from 39 to 31 percent since 2002, because of school closings. In New Orleans, most of the school system has been replaced with charter schools, along with a disproportionate share of Black teachers, to the cheers of the Obama administration. It’s the same story all across the country."

Will Advanced Placement Replace the SAT? - Class Struggle - Jay Mathews on Education

Will Advanced Placement Replace the SAT? - Class Struggle - Jay Mathews on Education:

"This is likely to draw more high-profile colleges into the test-choice movement, since it lets them de-emphasize the SAT but still have some national standard to judge applicants. The admissions dean at Harvard, who has so far resisted the test-optional movement, has said he thinks the AP is a better predictor of college performance than the SAT. Switching AP for SAT would allow him and other Ivy deans to look flexible while still providing data for their painful annual culling of applicants."

Student Scores Stagnate: No Country Left Behind? (Education - Change.org)

Student Scores Stagnate: No Country Left Behind? (Education - Change.org):

"We demanded No Child Left Behind, but now it's the whole country may miss out. American children are not be getting any smarter or any dumber, explained Arne Duncan last week, fearing stagnation and complacency would not be good enough for the U.S. to compete globally. Numbers cited by Duncan last week found that in science, the United States is falling behind Canada, Japan and the Czech Republic. Duncan explained 'I think as a real economic imperative we have to educate our way to a better economy.'"

Schools Matter: Segregationist Society Wonders Why Achievement Gaps Persist

Schools Matter: Segregationist Society Wonders Why Achievement Gaps Persist:

"The failure chart here is a snapshot of Arlington, Virginia, but it could be Most Anywhere, USA. While corporate reformers berate public school teachers and castigate parents and abuse children with cram-down testing, the story of the return to apartheid schooling remains a non-story for the media and an unacknowledged reality for the dolts in charge of state testing programs.

Where there is apartheid, there is poverty; where there is poverty, there is the achievement gap. Where there is the achievement gap, there is the preservation of privilege for White America. What could be more horrendously elegant? What kind of democracy so clearly embraces an educational system that defines success strictly by race and income? But then, what kind of democracy puts its future in the hands of corporate oligarchs to decide?"

Going Small: Progress and Challenges of Philadelphia’s Small High Schools

Research for Action

WHAT'S NEW

NEW RELEASE! Going Small: Progress and Challenges of Philadelphia’s Small High Schools examines Philadelphia's experience with small high schools and finds that “going small” is a promising strategy for fostering student success, especially for students who face the most signficant challenges. However, it cautions that size alone will not produce better schools. The report identifies the resources and supports that are needed to make small schools successful.
Download the full report, the executive summary, and the Press release. This multiple-year study was supported by Carnegie Corporation.

Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia is a new Research for Action report that offers insights into how districts might capitalize on interim assessments to promote teacher learning and improve student achievement.
Download the full report or the executive summary

Urban School District Central Offices and the Implementation of New Small Autonomous Schools Initiatives

VUE 22: Honig Excerpt

New small autonomous schools initiatives have spread to urban districts nationwide. While their designs vary, these initiatives generally aim to convert large public high schools into multiple, smaller, more autonomous schools and to create new small autonomous public schools of various types. Initiative advocates argue, in part, that the sheer diversity of students in urban districts – and, arguably, other mid-sized to large districts – increases the urgency to reinvent schools into newer, smaller, more autonomous units that are more rigorous, caring, and responsive to individual students.

In turn, district central offices would expand student learning districtwide if they helped schools build their capacity for making key decisions about how to support their students, rather than mainly directed schools’ decisions. Such forms of district central office support depart starkly from traditional central office roles as regulators of or non-participants in reform efforts. What, more specifically, do urban school district central offices do when they enable the implementation of new small autonomous schools initiatives?

Educational research has shed little light on this question. For example, many studies of new small autonomous schools initiatives focus on school-level outcomes and implementation processes

Op-Ed Contributors - Smart Child Left Behind - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributors - Smart Child Left Behind - NYTimes.com:

"This comes as quite a surprise, as ever since the law was enacted in 2002, analysts and educators have worried that gifted pupils would be the ones left behind. While the law puts extraordinary pressure on schools to lift the performance of low-achieving students, it includes no incentives to accelerate the progress of high achievers.

Yet the new study, by the independent Center on Education Policy, showed that more students are reaching the “advanced” level on state tests now than in 2002. This led the authors to conclude that there is little evidence that high-achieving students have been shortchanged.

If only that were so. But like many miracle-drug claims, this conclusion is deeply flawed, for several reasons."

Local retired teachers stay active, involved :: The Fallbrook Village News

Local retired teachers stay active, involved :: The Fallbrook Village News:

"Board members of the CalRTA Division 81 (Fallbrook chapter) prepare invitations for a ‘Stay at Home Tea,’ which encourages participants to relax and home with a cup of tea and mail in a donation to support the teacher grant program. Board members shown include (seated, from left) Jewell Ford, Jean Whiteside, President Sandra Bell, Bobbie Smith, (standing) Sherry Ludwig, Laura Choate, Sally Whitlock, Lucile Reeder, Arlene Sharpe, Ruth Watto, Gigi Halladay and Joyce Brittain. (Not shown by actively participating: Lenora Sears.)"

School officials going to court for breaking pledge not to pray - Salt Lake Tribune

School officials going to court for breaking pledge not to pray - Salt Lake Tribune:

"Stevenson had alleged that the settlement not only prohibited employee-led prayer, but also kept employees from 'promoting, advancing, aiding, facilitating, endorsing or causing religious prayers or devotionals during school-sponsored events.'

Staver said the banquet was privately funded and argued the court order infringes on the right to free speech of the school employees and their spouses.
'Nobody who has any clue about constitutional law,' Staver said, 'would allow a court order of this magnitude.'"

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Chula Vista Teachers Protest Schwarzenegger Visit

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Chula Vista Teachers Protest Schwarzenegger Visit:

"'What we are saying is, 'Let's slow down,'' Groth said as he left the Chula Vista school. 'Changing the laws at the state would affect all districts. We're talking about local control. Local school boards would not have that control -- it would be dictated by Washington, D.C.'

Look for more debates like this in San Diego and around the state. This is going to be the issue to watch as California vies for more stimulus money. Will the federal pressure win out?"

Schwarzenegger gives case for reform at charter school

Schwarzenegger gives case for reform at charter school:

"We are asking the governor and the Legislature to slow down. Let's have parents, let's have teachers, let's have educators, let's have the public have some input as to how we will apply for the money,” said Jim Groth, a CTA board member who taught in Chula Vista schools for 35 years. Groth said Schwarzenegger's “rush to reform” isn't necessary to qualify for the federal funds because the state can apply for the money as late as next spring. He said tying test scores to teacher pay, promotions and evaluation doesn't account for factors outside of a teacher's control, such as attendance, school environment and demographics."

Sharpton, Gingrich, Duncan to talk school reform | ajc.com

Sharpton, Gingrich, Duncan to talk school reform ajc.com:

"Sharpton kicks off his participation with the tour Friday at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, where he is scheduled to broadcast a live chat at 3:30 p.m. with Duncan and Gingrich on his nationally syndicated radio show during the National Action Network Summer Conference, a meeting of his civil rights group.

Concerned with the inequalities in schools in urban versus suburban areas, Sharpton said that he has been collaborating with Gingrich, whom had he described as his “polar opposite” until they sat with Obama in May to discuss the state of public education."

Pressure-cooker kindergarten - The Boston Globe

Pressure-cooker kindergarten - The Boston Globe:

"Pressure? This is kindergarten, the happy land of building blocks and singalongs. But increasingly in schools across Massachusetts and the United States, little children are being asked to perform academic tasks, including test taking, that early childhood researchers agree are developmentally inappropriate, even potentially damaging. If children don’t meet certain requirements, they are deemed “not proficient.” Frequently, children are screened for “kindergarten readiness” even before school begins, and some are labeled inadequate before they walk through the door."

Time to scrap No Child Left Behind : The Sammamish Review – News, Sports, Classifieds in Sammamish, WA

Time to scrap No Child Left Behind : The Sammamish Review – News, Sports, Classifieds in Sammamish, WA:

"It was a lovely idea. When No Child Left Behind was passed into law, the plan was simple — make sure every student in America gets a good education by holding school districts to ever-tougher standards.

But in practice, No Child Left Behind has not delivered, and has caused more trouble than it’s worth. As a result, Sammamish schools may pay a high price for it a few years down the road.

In some ways, the program actually succeeded. By highlighting problems that hadn’t before been quantified, it has allowed schools across the country to better focus their resources.
The law’s end goal — that 100 percent of America’s students graduate with a set of basic skills and can pass a test to prove it — is laudable, but unrealistic.

It doesn’t require a degree in statistics and educational testing to understand why. If everyone passes a test, all it really means is that the test is too easy to be an adequate measure of skills. No test should expect all students to pass, without regard to their ability to learn."

AP NewsBreak: Wisconsin to phase out student tests -- chicagotribune.com

AP NewsBreak: Wisconsin to phase out student tests -- chicagotribune.com:

"MADISON, Wis. - A 17-year-old statewide test used to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind law will be replaced with a broader approach to judging how well Wisconsin students are performing, state superintendent Tony Evers said Thursday.

Education leaders heralded the move as a step toward more accountability. It may also help put Wisconsin in a better position to compete with other states for $4.35 billion in federal education stimulus money under the government's 'Race to the Top' reform program."

California to move young offenders out of largest, harshest youth prison - San Jose Mercury News

California to move young offenders out of largest, harshest youth prison - San Jose Mercury News:


"The woeful conditions inside the California youth prisons, and their questionable public safety value, were highlighted in a 2004 Mercury News series. The series included reports from Stark and the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in Ione, which will soon assume the dubious title of the state's most violent youth prison.

Warner insists state custody will always be needed for the most serious and violent offenders, who typically suffer from severe mental illnesses, childhood trauma and addictions — those deemed too difficult for counties to handle. But due to falling crime rates and far fewer state commitments, the youth prison population has plunged in recent years — from 5,500 in 2004 to the current 1,680.

Warner said closing Stark allowed him to cut costs systemwide that have shot up to a record-breaking $250,000 per ward, per year. In addition to the expense of overhauling mental health, education and treatment programs, until recently the system was bloated with more than 4,300 staff overseeing 2,000 offenders statewide."

In education reform, some states race from the bottom

In education reform, some states race from the bottom:

"“California will take whatever money it can get,” said Brian Edward, a policy analyst for EdSource, a California education watchdog.

California was one of five states ranked least likely to compete for the money, according to a report released this August by the New Teacher Project. The group, which supports initiatives to train teachers and measure their performance, also rated Nevada, Wisconsin, New York and Pennsylvania as ineligible because state laws and revised stimulus requests disqualify them from the federal competition.

To qualify, states must show reformed education laws fitting four federal priorities: standardized curriculum; building new student data systems; linking teacher performance to test scores, and raising the number of charter schools."

Truancy study urges more parent involvement | LahontanValleyNews.com

Truancy study urges more parent involvement LahontanValleyNews.com:

"“Studies have shown parent involvement is the strongest predictor in student success,” said Jessica Homer, truancy attendance care manager.

Homer said 32 percent of parents reported not attending parent teacher conferences, which is common with older students.

“At the high school level it is just as important, if not more important, as it is in elementary school,” Homer said.

Homer said 60 percent said they do not use PowerSchool, a Web site where parents track students' attendance, grades, disciplinary actions and more. It can be accessed from home or from Churchill County High School and Junior High School.

“Every parent has access to that from the Internet anywhere,” Homer said. “It is such a good tool. If parents can stay on top of those things, they can stay away from court.”"

BeyondChron: San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News » SF Chronicle, LA Times Spread Phony Tax Hysteria

BeyondChron: San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News » SF Chronicle, LA Times Spread Phony Tax Hysteria:

"Our state is in a fiscal crisis, Republicans refuse to let us pass a single tax increase whatsoever, we don’t tax oil companies for their profits, and the legislature just passed a budget that makes $15 billion in dreadful cuts to education and health care, and $11 billion in reckless borrowing. Yet, both papers are alarmed that – due to a technicality in state law – your taxes may go up another $40 this year. California’s income tax brackets get adjusted annually to account for the Consumer Price Index, and it means this year some incomes will fall into a higher tax bracket."