Arizona Charter School Officials Are Enriching Themselves With Public Funds | The New Republic

Arizona Charter School Officials Are Enriching Themselves With Public Funds | The New Republic:

How Charter Schools Fleece Taxpayers

• Timothy Noah

• November 20, 2012 | 2:10 pm
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The Two Americas

Small Business Sells John Boehner Out

Fred Barnes: Fine, We’re The Party Of Whitey

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

In government, if I help myself to taxpayer dollars, we call that embezzlement and I go to jail. In the private sector, if I help myself to taxpayer dollars, we call that innovation and I get hailed as a visionary exponent of public-private partnership. That’s the lesson of a Nov. 17 investigation by Anne Ryman of the Arizona Republic into the state’s charter schools.

In her examination of Arizona’s 50 largest nonprofit charter schools and all of Arizona's nonprofit charter schools with assets exceeding $10 million, Ryman found “at least 17 contracts or arrangements, totaling more than $70 million over five years and involving about 40 

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

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CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

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CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Be sure to check out two other Great blogs:

-THE BROAD REPORT (as in Eli) -THE PERIMETER PRIMATE

Jersey Jazzman: "Race To The Top": Segregation Gone Wild!

Jersey Jazzman: "Race To The Top": Segregation Gone Wild!:

"Race To The Top": Segregation Gone Wild!

by Duke

Late last week, New Jersey announced which of it school districts would be applying for Race To The Top grantsin a competition designs for individual districts. The controversial program started at the state level; it rewarded states with relatively small amounts of money for implementing policies like charter school expansion and using standardized test data to rank teacher effectiveness.

There is no evidence that any of this will work, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been completely incoherent on his reasons for pushing the program. No matter: RTTT marches on, now with individual districts vying for grants based on who can most quickly implement these unproven polices.

It's telling that only 21 districts out of the 603 in New Jersey thought enough of the program to even apply. Perhaps that's because so few of the stakeholders see any benefit from the grants: Ronnie Greco, president of the Jersey City teachers union, summed it up well when he pointed out to his fellow teachers that there was no benefit, and possibly great harm, in adopting the policies RTTT would have required.

Still, it appears at least one of the districts - Hamilton in Atlantic County (not Mercer) - went ahead over the objections of their teachers. Gee, great way to build a cooperative spirit, folks; maybe you should have read this message from the other Hamilton superintendent, Dr. James Parla, before going ahead.

But that got me thinking: why would Hamilton in Atlantic County apply, but not Hamilton in Mercer County?What makes a district more likely to apply, and subsequently adopt RTTT's unproven policies, if they win?

Well, all New Jersey school districts are assigned a District Factor Group (DFG) code. This code gives a picture of the socio-economic status of the residents in the district. A DFG of "A" indicates a district with a lot of poverty; a "J" indicates affluence. Which were the districts that applied?*

Look at that: not one district higher than an "FG" applied for the RTTT grant money. And look at the percentage 

What do elite private schools owe the public?:

What do elite private schools owe the public?

Posted by Valerie Strauss on November 25, 2012 at 12:45 pm

Here are some questions about elite private schools that are raised in a probing article in the latest edition of Independent School magazine:

Why aren’t more independent leaders speaking out about the pedagogical perversions of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top?

Why aren’t more independent school leaders speaking out against growing inequality?

As the nation moves deeper into a winner-takes-more economic model, do the possible negative consequences on students’ college admissions cause most heads and other independent school leaders to avoid a difficult topic that might raise eyebrows and hurt admission prospects?

Are many independent schools gilding the lily?

What are independent schools? They are nonprofit private schools that are self-determining in mission and program and are governed by independent boards. Sidwell Friends School, where President Obama sends his daughters Malia and Sasha, is an independent school.

The article is titled, “Our 1% Problem: Independent Schools and the Income Gap,” and is written by Fred Bartels, who teaches online computer programming courses to students at independent schools in New York and Connecticut and who previously worked for 28 years teaching and integrating information technology at Rye Country Day School in New York

Open Letters To Reformers I Know. Part 1: Whitney Tilson | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Open Letters To Reformers I Know. Part 1: Whitney Tilson | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Open Letters To Reformers I Know. Part 1: Whitney Tilson

by Gary Rubinstein

I think what gives me that extra motivation to participate, as much as I’m able to, in this current debate on how to improve this country’s schools (and yes, I do think they need to be improved) is the fact that I know, personally, many of the main people pushing the reforms that I consider destructive.  Some I’ve known for over 20 years.  Some I’ve only met recently.  Some I’ve partied with at TFA events back when I was a corps member or at various TFA reunions.  Some, during their training, attended the workshop I used to present at institute.  Some I consider friends while others are just acquaintances.  Yet these are the people I find myself in opposition with.  People that it sometimes pains me to have to ‘fact-check’ and expose how I believe they are fixing the numbers to fool the public and the philanthropists into believing that they know what they are doing.

Over the past two years I’ve exchanged emails with all the people on my list of reformers I know.  All have, at one time, written back to me.  Many have stopped returning my emails.  The ball, as the saying goes, is in their court.

I’ve written so many ‘left brain’ posts over the years — debunking this schools statistics, analyzing school report cards, investigating value-added evaluations, that I’d like to try something from the other side of the brain.  Debate, like teaching, is more effective when it has a human component.  The relationships between the participants enables each side to see the 

NYC Educator: Obama: Do as I Say, Not as I Do

NYC Educator: Obama: Do as I Say, Not as I Do:

Obama: Do as I Say, Not as I Do

by NYC Educator

Leonie Haimson has a great new piece pointing out that the preposterous things we demand from American children don't apply to the kids of the President of the United States. Sasha and Malia attend the Sidwell Friends School, where they are not subject to high-stakes tests, and where they enjoy small class sizes. Obama was very vocal in criticizing Romney for opposing reasonable class sizes, yet his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, did the same thing months earlier.

One would think this would suggest a change in Education Secretaries for term two, but one would be mistaken. Many public school parents and working teachers are upset with his insane and non-science-based policies, but it appears we're headed for more of the same. I often question why the NEA and AFT supported a second term for such policies and I get varying responses. One is that Romney would have been worse. Indeed, Romney supported not only all the crap Obama supports, but also vouchers. However, 

solidaridad: Refocusing LAUSD on reading and learning instead of testing

solidaridad: Refocusing LAUSD on reading and learning instead of testing:

Refocusing LAUSD on reading and learning instead of testing

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

First published on Robert D. Skeels for School Board on November 24, 2012.

---

It's difficult to explain exactly what being poor is all about, or why access to books and ideas might be as important as a free breakfast. — Walter Dean Myers
Hope Is an Open Book, an op-ed piece by author Walter Dean Myers, was tweeted this morning by educator Susan Ohanian. While written in 2005, Myers' message about access to books is profound and even more urgent today with canned corporate education solutions that narrow curriculum dominating policy. Sadly, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is run by a Superintendent who neither values books, nor libraries. This has to change, and change quickly. We need to shutdown LAUSD's testing-industrial-complex and reopen both our school and classroom libraries. Reopening libraries also means rehiring credentialed librarian-educators. We can pay for that by ditching discredited and expensive attempts to tie teacher evaluations to test scores (VAM/AGT) and use the millions of squandered dollars associated with them. Read with your children, read in front of your children, and let them choose their own reading materials. It's a proven formula for fostering authentic life-long learning.
Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) is a well researched methodology in which students are allowed to choose their own reading materials. Professor Stephen Krashen and his colleagues have found that "[r]ecreational reading or reading for pleasure is the major source of our reading 

Peg with Pen: The Teacher's Voice

Peg with Pen: The Teacher's Voice:

The Teacher's Voice

by Peggy

Just a short note today. I am teaching again as an instructional coach in an elementary school so blogging time is limited, but here are my thoughts this November as I continue to advocate for our teaching profession and our public schools....

Thanksgiving break is over and tomorrow I head back to school - I am partly filled with dread and partly filled with hope. I am surrounded by testing, scripted curriculum, the god forsaken pacing guide and the common bore standards in a Broadie district which has plans to shove more mandates down our throats. But the glimmer of hope is this - my school is filled with brilliant teachers. And I have been charged with supporting them in making professional decisions. And when professional decision-making is ignited through authentic assessment, evaluation and planning.....the teacher's voice emerges and it is powerful. We must support teachers in finding their voices. We are a force to be reckoned with when we remember what we already know. 

Do not let fear and the mandates create mass amnesia and the disappearance of the teaching profession. Resist and Rebuild. 

And join us in D.C. to learn how:  Occupy DOE 2.0: The Battle for Public Schools.

All for now.

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: LAUSD’s REVAMPED TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM GETTING MIXED GRADE

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: LAUSD’s REVAMPED TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM GETTING MIXED GRADE:

LAUSD’s REVAMPED TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM GETTING MIXED GRADE

Teachers are finding value in the new evaluation system as it rolls out, but administrators doing the reviews complain about how time-consuming they are.

BY TERESA WATANABE AND STEPHEN CEASAR, LOS ANGELES TIME3 | SHTTP://LAT.MS/10BCBVS

Eduardo Solorzano, principal of San Fernando Middle School, has taken part in the pilot program for L.A. Unified's new teacher evaluation program. He lauds some aspects of the new system but, like other principals, frets over how time-consuming the process is. (Kirk McKoy, Los Angeles Times / June 20, 2012)
November 25, 2012  ::  Third-grade teacher Kelly Vallianos wanted to find an engaging way for her students to learn about measuring perimeters. One idea — to have students design a restaurant floor plan — was too difficult, she feared.
But with the help of colleagues, she found a way to tailor that fifth-grade idea to her younger students at Dominguez Elementary School, who excitedly sketched out an imaginary pizzeria.
Vallianos credits the Los Angeles Unified School District's new teacher evaluation system for sparking deeper and more collaborative conversations with administrators, who she said gave her ideas to make the lesson work.
The district's new performance reviews have come under fire by United Teachers Los Angeles, which opposes

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Update in the Times

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Update in the Times:

Charter Update in the Times

by Charlie Mas

Linda Shaw, writing for the Seattle Times, reported today on the likely near-term future of charter schools in Washington, Modest start for charter schools expected.

Her predictions and report aligns with our predictions: national charter school chains will hang back, if they come to Washington at all. After all, they didn't have any plans to expand into Washington before the vote and they want to wait and see how the regulations are determined and how the inevitable Court challenges are decided before they spend money on making any plans. They also prefer to work in concert with school districts rather than in antagonistic relationships with them. That's certainly what we were reckoning and it makes sense to anyone who has ever had responsibility for a business. The exception may be Green Dot, which represents a lot

Times Editorial - Wrong Again

by Charlie Mas

I don't know why I even bother, but here is another misguided editorial on education from the Seattle Times.

John Thompson: Are Conservative "Reformers" Bailing Out? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Are Conservative "Reformers" Bailing Out? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

John Thompson: Are Conservative "Reformers" Bailing Out?

by Anthony Cody

Not Really Popular in Red States?

Guest post by John Thompson.
Perhaps because they demonstrably lost the 2012 election, conservative school "reformers" are being much more candid about why bubble-in accountability has failed. A month ago, conservatives were united in their support of Indiana Superintendent Tony Bennett, Idaho's "Luna Laws," and other efforts to dramatically expand high-stakes testing. Now, conservative Mike Petrilli is not alone in admitting that, "Top-down, one-size-fits-all efforts such as formulaic teacher evaluations tend to overemphasize the high-stakes testing that can take the joy out of learning. Parents and teachers in richer areas typically hate this pressure."
Similarly, conservative Andy Smarick can now recognize the scientific fact that, "evaluation-reform laws may have been passed too quickly and that those laws, so certain of their own righteousness and unaware of the 

Ed Notes Online: Leonie Haimson: Educate All Kids Like Sasha and Malia

Ed Notes Online: Leonie Haimson: Educate All Kids Like Sasha and Malia:

Leonie Haimson: Educate All Kids Like Sasha and Malia

by ed notes online

Obama’s education policies are failing children, except for his own.

BY Leonie Haimson
 

Rather than follow blindly in the path of privatization and unleashed free-market competition that led to the collapse of our economy, it’s time for Obama to start listening to parents and teachers. Cramming kids into classes of 30 or more and putting them on laptops while supervised by novices will never enhance their creativity or critical thinking skills.

Now that Barack Obama has been re-elected president, it’s time that he start making good on the education issues he emphasized during his campaign. While in speeches and in ads the president seized on Romney’s statement that class size doesn’t matter, the truth is that Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan has dismissed the importance of class size nearly as strongly. Worse yet, Duncan proposes cutting federal funds that districts can use to hire teachers at a time of sharp increases in class size.

Williamsburg/Greenpt Parents Fight Citizens of the World (Eva's Hubbie)

by ed notes online

The Hearing to co-locate "Citizens of the World Charter Schools" in JHS126 is Wed., December 5 at 6pm (5:30 to speak).

PLEASE COME!!!! Enclosed is a version in English and a version in Spanish. PLEASE distribute! Send this to your friends and colleagues and urge them to attend. If there's one event in this district to come to that will help ALL of our schools, this is it.

The sustainability and health of all of our neighborhood public schools are at risk. The only reason the NYC DOE wants to co-locate this school in our district is because we have space in our 

Short Notes: Why We Shouldn’t Grade Schools | The Jose Vilson

Short Notes: Why We Shouldn’t Grade Schools | The Jose Vilson:

Short Notes: Why We Shouldn’t Grade Schools

by Jose

Before I proceed, dozens of people from various school districts have told me that my site is blocked on their school computers. In the event that it is, you can always get my articles via e-mail by signing up on the right-hand side of this blog or by subscribing via RSS for my savvy readers, also on the right-hand side.  They can block my site’s URL, but they can’t block your e-mails or your RSS reader.
A few notes:

• Michael Brick writes an op-ed on the deleterious effects of grading schools for the sake of grading them. [New York Times]
• Friend Laurie Wasserman and co-teacher Elizabeth Stein write about their experiences co-teaching. [MiddleWeb]
• A group of artists combat the mega-giant Walmart through Tumblr. Intriguing. [Tumblr]
• Michigan’s affirmative action ban was struck down by the federal appeals court this past week. Great fodder for the eugenicists who comment here. [Huffington Post]
• Do you need more writing ideas? Here’s a post that can help with that. [Writing Forward]

Quotable:

“Yesterday, we had a nice conversation on Twitter [with regards to] experience, newbies, and challenges in teaching profession. It’s been a busy semester and what I share online is to try to bridge understanding as to what’s happening on the ground level, the ground zero of education