Privatizers pressure L.A. Unified board to step up search for new superintendent - LA Times

Groups pressure L.A. Unified board to step up search for new superintendent - LA Times:

Groups pressure L.A. Unified board to step up search for new superintendent

A Coalition of Los Angeles groups has stepped up pressure on the Board of Education over how it should choose the next leader of the nation’s second-largest school system.

In a letter to the board released Tuesday, the groups requested that a committee of key civil rights and community leaders interview the top three candidates and provide recommendations to the school board.

The board is scheduled to meet next week to hammer out details of the search process, including the dates and locations of community meetings to be held over the last two weeks of October. Current Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, 83, said he would like to retire by the end of the year.

Leaders of the same coalition, in an earlier meeting with board President Steve Zimmer, had pushed for an outside committee to review candidates. One proposal was to have the outside committee control the process, presenting the school board with finalists. Zimmer brought these ideas to the Board of Education in a closed-door meeting, but none won support from a majority of the seven-member body, according to district insiders.

The letter seeks “information on the number of candidates who have applied and a brief profile on their professional backgrounds.” This would allow the coalition -- and others -- to judge how broad a range of candidates was being considered.

Groups signing the letter include: the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Urban League, the Community Coalition, the California Charter Schools Assn., Teach for America-Los Angeles, the California Community Foundation and Public Counsel.

The group said its positions were informed by input from more than 50 organizations that represent over 150,000 members as well as from town halls, a focus group with teachers, students and parents, and surveys of more than 110 civic and community leaders and of more than 450 students from low-income families.

The groups want the next superintendent to support a range of options for parents, including charter schools. Charters were not the only type of school they endorsed, but their inclusion of charters comes as the locally based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is circulating a plan for a massive charter expansion among foundations and civic leaders.

The Broad Foundation did not sign the letter, although it has provided grants to some of the groups that did.

Some of the groups are closely aligned with supporters of former Supt. John Deasy, who resigned under pressure a year ago. He and his allies are associated with a set of aggressive reforms that include limiting traditional job protections for teachers and using student standardized test scores as part of a teacher’s evaluation. Other groups are not associated with pushing for those policies.

In the letter, the groups said the next schools chief should have knowledge about various school models and a history of supporting them. Other types of schools mentioned are those that focus on career training; traditional campuses run by outside groups; and pilot schools, which are managed by L.A. Unified but have some of the freedoms of charters.

Charters are independently managed schools that are exempt from some rules that govern Groups pressure L.A. Unified board to step up search for new superintendent - LA Times:

Common Core and Swing Set Equity? | deutsch29

Common Core and Swing Set Equity? | deutsch29:

Common Core and Swing Set Equity?

On October 06, 2015, I had the following comment to my post, Those 24 Common Core 2009 Work Group Members.

The purpose of her comment is to thank the Common Core creators for their hand in righting the wrongs in American public education, including some unclear connection between Common Core and swing set availability.

With Common Core, the commenter considers that “the secrets of the whites are out”; she apparently expects Common Core to produce educational equity even though Common Core was created to accompany high-stakes testing, and Common Core testing is actually widening the achievement gap between white children and children of color (see here and here, for example).

Finally, the individual writing the comment identifies herself as a tutor, a head-tilting moment for me as I read her comment, which I offer below in full, exactly as she Common Core and Swing Set Equity? | deutsch29:

NYC Public School Parents: My memories of Arne Duncan; why he will not be missed

NYC Public School Parents: My memories of Arne Duncan; why he will not be missed:

My memories of Arne Duncan; why he will not be missed

On Friday, Arne Duncan announced he will leave his post as Secretary of the US Department of Education in December.  Here are some of my memories of his damaging involvement in the divisive politics surrounding NYC schools:

In May of 2009, he personally interceded with the Citizens Union to persuade them to endorse mayoral control without any checks and balances -- so that Bloomberg could continue to fire his appointees on the Panel for Educational Policy at will -- the opposite of what anyone concerned with good government or democracy should espouse.  The organization had previously voted to endorse fixed terms for mayoral appointees, so that the Mayor couldn't summarily dismiss board members who disagreed with him, as Bloomberg had notoriously done when they differed with his decision to hold back third graders on the basis of test scores. Duncan followed up with a letter to the Citizens Union, in which he argued that putting any limits on mayoral control could “turn back the clock and halt progress” and have “profoundly negative consequences for New York City’s students.”

As a result, the organization changed its position on this issue, and mayoral control was renewed without any amendment on the authority of one man to determine the fate of 1.1 million students without any checks and balances..  After the NY Post ran a series of articles full of illusory claims aiming to show the great improvement under mayoral control, and the governance system was maintained by the legislature, Arne Duncan praised the NY Post series as "thoughtful" and thanked the paper for its "leadership", even though these articles simply regurgitated the spurious statistics provided by the city's press office. 

GothamSchools (now Chalkbeat) ran a story examining this phenomenon, entitled the Fruitful Alliance of Arne Duncan and Rupert Murdoch, which pointed out that "New York City newspapers have a proud tradition of waging campaigns both on and off the editorial page, and then congratulating themselves when they hit their marks. But having a cabinet member for a sitting president join the cheering is more unusual." His unalloyed praise for the Mayor was subsequently plastered all over Bloomberg's copious campaign literature, which every voter received at least ten times. 

Another favorite  activity of Arne Duncan was his boosterism of charter schools.  In May 2010, I was standing outside a Brooklyn school NYC Public School Parents: My memories of Arne Duncan; why he will not be missed:

Senate Listening Tour is a Thinly Disguised Push Poll

Senate Listening Tour is a Thinly Disguised Push Poll:

Senate Listening Tour is a Thinly Disguised Push Poll

The Senate Listening Tour will be in Everett tonight, October 6 2015. In case you can't make it, we will review a couple of the most important charts presented at this Dog and Pony show. In the title, I have called the Senate Tour a “push poll.” For those who may not be familiar with this deceptive tactic, a push poll is a poll or phone interview where the person interviewing you pretends to be interested in your opinion on an important topic. But after asking a couple of innocent sounding questions, they then ask misleading and even false questions in an attempt to brainwash you into believing things that are not true and supporting whatever agenda is being pushed by the billionaires who is paying for the push poll. 

For example, a political poll about the Presidential Race might say, “If you learned that Bernie Sanders was actually a Russian Spy, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?” Of course, Bernie is not really a Russian spy, but just hearing this is enough to frighten many poorly informed people away from supporting Bernie – and that is the goal of the push poll – to use misleading claims to manipulate people. 

Here is another one that is harder to spot. Parents have been asked: “Do you support Common Core standards and tests so that all students can be career and college ready?” We all want our kids to be career and college ready. The problem is that Common Core standards written by billionaires and Wall Street consultants and Common Core tests designed to maximize corporate profits do not get students career and college ready. Hiring more teachers and lowering class sizes is the ONLY proven way to help students get career and college ready. The Common Core “Gun to the Head / Test Threaten and Punish” model of education has never helped students learn and never will. Common Core tests are a scam whose only purpose is to increase corporate profits. But you could never tell that from the Common Core push poll question. 

How Much Money is Needed to Restore School Funding in Washington State to the National Average?Now that we have a better idea of how the rich and powerful use misleading “questions” to manipulate the rest of us, let's take a look at the subtle mis-information presented to the public in the Senate Listening Tour. The claimed goal of the listening tour is to get input from the public about the best way for the legislature to meet their constitutional duty to fully fund our public schools. Evidence presented during the McCleary Court hearings indicates that it will take $3 billion per year just to restore class sizes and school operation funding to the national average. More than 10,000 teachers will need to be hired just to lower class sizes down to the national average. It will take another $5 billion to build schools and classrooms for these 10,000 additional teachers and their students. This does not include the fact that 100,000 students in our state are currently “unhoused” and spending their school days in particle board boxes – one of the highest rates of unhoused students in the nation. Building real schools for these kids would cost another $3 billion. Then there's the ugly fact that more than half the schools in our state are more than 50 years old and do not meet health code or earthquake code standards – placing the lives of one million students at risk! Building 1,000 safe schools for our kids is estimated to cost more than $30 billion and perhaps more than $50 billion. For more information on the school construction crisis, see the following article:http://washingtonpublicbankcoalition.org/washington-state-50-billion-school-construction-crisis

To even place a dent in the school construction and operation shortfall here in Washington state will take at least $5 to $10 billion in additional funding per year. But this important fact is not even brought up in the Listening Tour. 

Where did all of the money go?
Our State used to be 11th in the nation in school funding. Our legislature used to pay 67% of the cost of building new schools. Now, our state is 47th in the nation in school funding and our legislature pays for less Senate Listening Tour is a Thinly Disguised Push Poll:

Why we need to fight against charter school growth

Why we need to fight against charter school growth:

Why we need to fight against charter school growth

ll of us — parents, educators, students and community members — need to fight against the growth of charter schools and insist that all students have access to adequate resources and skilled professionals through a truly public education system. We need a system that is paid for by taxpayers and governed by elected representatives who can be held accountable.

The MTA supports a bill filed by Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) that places a moratorium on any new charter schools. The MTA is also working with the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance against proposed law changes, a ballot initiative for 2016 and a lawsuit that would lift or entirely obliterate charter school caps over time, leading to massive privatization of Massachusetts’ very successful public schools.

Be part of the effort to educate your community about charter schools. Talk to neighbors, write letters to the editor and post messages on your social media sites. Here are points to consider when sharing your stories:

• FUNDING. Charter schools siphon hundreds of millions of dollars a year from public schools.
  
• ACCOUNTABILITY: Charter schools are not accountable to their local communities, and are often approved over the objections of the taxpayers and elected officials who have to pay for them.
  
• EQUITY: Charter schools create a two-tiered system of public schools described by the national NAACP as “separate and unequal.” They typically serve far fewer special needs students, English language learners and economically disadvantaged students than their sending districts. Their hyper-discipline policies push out students they don’t want to serve.
  
• QUALITY: Rather than innovate, most charters focus on test prep and drill. In addition, charter schools have very high teacher turnover rates as a result of poor working conditions, long hours and lack of autonomy. This undermines school stability and students’ learning conditions.

Download a PDF with more details and links to sources

Looking for additional information? Visit the MTA's toolkit on charter schools.

Why we need to fight against charter school growth:

Correction: California teacher tenure and seniority system is struck down (Pending Appeal) - LA Times

California teacher tenure and seniority system is struck down - LA Times:
California teacher tenure and seniority system is struck down (Pending Appeal) 

Editors Note: MY BAD  Meant to Reference Earlier Posts  OOOPS!:  (I MUST Fire the Editor - Way Too Much Multitasking) Mea Culpa

Are changing labor laws silencing the teachers’ voice? | Brookings Institution http://bit.ly/1Lg5HCv

The tenure and seniority system that has long protected California public school teachers, even ineffective ones, was struck down Tuesday in a court decision that could change hiring and firing policies nationwide.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu said that the laws governing job security were unconstitutional because they harmed predominantly low-income, minority students by allowing incompetent instructors to remain in the classroom.

The protections "impose a real and appreciable impact on students' fundamental right to equality of education," he wrote. "The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience."

The 16-page decision ends the process of laying off teachers based solely on when they were hired. It also strips them of extra job safeguards not enjoyed by other school or state employees. And, lastly, it eliminates the current tenure process, under which instructors are either fired or win strong job security about 18 months after they start teaching.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the ruling a nationwide "mandate" to change similar "laws, practices and systems that fail to identify and support our best teachers and match them with our neediest students." He said the welfare of "millions of young people" is at stake.

Julia Macias, 13, stands on a milk crate as she speaks at a news conference in Los Angeles held by the plaintiffs in Vergara vs. California, which targeted state laws on teacher job security. (Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times)

The verdict represents a major loss for teacher unions and an undiluted victory by the attorneys and families that brought the landmark case on behalf of a well-funded Silicon Valley group.

Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy, who testified for the winning side, called the ruling "historic" and a "call to action."

Union leaders and other critics faulted the outcome.

"This is a sad day for public education," said Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers. No student should endure an ineffective teacher, "but in focusing on these teachers who make up a fraction of the workforce, [Treu] strips the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing a good job of any right to a voice."

We have to re-create a system that focuses on placing children's interests at the forefront.- Marcellus McRae, co-counsel for the plaintiffs in Vergara vs. California

The state's case was handled by the attorney general's office and joined by lawyers for the California Teachers Assn. and the California Federation of Teachers.

Treu wrote that the laws also hurt teachers, saddling them with poor-performing colleagues and the system with expensive dismissal cases, which drain classroom resources.

If layoffs become necessary, teacher performance should matter, he said. When a high-quality junior teacher is laid off instead of a lesser, more experienced colleague, "the result is classroom disruption on two fronts," he wrote. It's a "lose-lose situation" that "is unfathomable and therefore constitutionally unsupportable."

In his ruling, Treu consistently echoed the arguments of the attorneys who sued California and the top public officials responsible for the state's education laws.

He accepted, for example, that teachers can be evaluated fairly through a statistical analysis based on student test scores, a point of dispute among some educators and experts. He cited testimony quantifying how many months of learning a student can lose because of a bad teacher.

He noted that another expert said a poor instructor costs a class $1.4 million in lifetime earnings.

The judge also cited an assertion from the L.A. Unified School District, the nation's second-largest, that it would like to fire 350 teachers, but restrictions got in the way.

At the same time, he buttressed his ruling using testimony from witnesses called to defend the laws.

Treu wrote that one defense witness "testified that 1% to 3% of teachers in California are California teacher tenure and seniority system is struck down - LA Times:

Big Education Ape: SCOTUS plantiff: 'I dared to stand against union politics' | Washington Examiner http://bit.ly/1MbM8fw

Big Education Ape: Supreme Court Prepares to Take On Politically Charged Cases - The New York Times http://bit.ly/1OgnY51

Big Education Ape: Court Gets Back to Business | National Law Journal http://bit.ly/1OezHkI

Big Education Ape: A U.S. judge blocks the latest attack on teachers' political speech - LA Times http://bit.ly/1MMrwJ9

What’s at stake in the Vergara law suit? http://bit.ly/1MbKpXk

Friends, foes of Vergara ruling file briefs to appeals court | EdSource http://bit.ly/1MbJqq7

Teacher Tenure | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1MbJxlG

Vergara v. California Archives - LA School Report http://bit.ly/1MbJzdb

A judge throws out a challenge to how unions spend teachers' money - LA Times http://lat.ms/1VrBIce

CURMUDGUCATION: Charter Investment Seminar with Walton, Gates and DFER

CURMUDGUCATION: Charter Investment Seminar with Walton, Gates and DFER:

Charter Investment Seminar with Walton, Gates and DFER

Well, gosh. I don't know how I missed this one.

Last March 10, the Walton Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored a seminar in Manhattan about how to make money in the charter school game.

The program was a who's who of charter school profiteers. Whitney Tilson, top dog of D[sic]FER was the keynote speaker for "Bonds and Blackboards: Investing in Charter Schools" His kickoff was followed by such sexy fare as "State of Charter School Facilities Financing," "Authorizers and Lenders: What Can We Learn From Each Other," and "Assessing a Charter School: Investor Voices." A panel on future trends promised to cover this info:

Discussion about tools market participants can utilize to create a more efficient market, such as: pools, credit enhancement, more state involvement, etc. Discussion will include trends in borrower characteristics and continued disclosure needs.

The panels included lots of folks from the financial sector, including Bank of America, Prudential CURMUDGUCATION: Charter Investment Seminar with Walton, Gates and DFER:



Stopping Bad Charters

Over at Campbell Brown's Reformsters R Us PR site, charter fan Richard Whitmire addresses the question of how to handle terrible awful no good very bad charter schools. It's an important question, and his five answers are worth discussing. But it's also worth discussing how his answers direct attention to some fundamental charter issues.

Whitmire starts out by acknowledging that the charter movement keeps getting shot in the foot by its own friends. He drops the ball by characterizing charter opponents as either unions or competition-hating superintendents, skipping right past other opposition from groups like "people who care about public education" or "people who don't want schools to be used primarily as money-making tools for investors" or even "people who think the whole charter-choice approach is grossly inefficient and over-expensive." But he does nail his central point-- when charter foes ask why anyone should approve more charters when "so many crappy charters remain in business," they have a point.

Whitmire offers five ways that charter fans can sweep away the junk that is making Charterville look kind of shady and run-down.

Advocates Need To Change Their Mindset

Whitmire argues for quality over popularity. Filled seats and a waiting list don't prove that a schooStopping Bad Charters

The Malloy Administration’s stunning attack on unions, professors and the future of Connecticut State University - Wait What?

The Malloy Administration’s stunning attack on unions, professors and the future of Connecticut State University - Wait What?:

The Malloy Administration’s stunning attack on unions, professors and the future of Connecticut State University

In a stark reminder that action speaks louder than words, Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s administration has dropped a stunningly anti-union, anti-faculty, anti-Connecticut State University proposal on the table as it begins its contract negotiations with the CSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the union that represents faculty and a variety of education professionals at the four universities of CSU.

This development comes on top of the news that Malloy’s political appointees on the University of Connecticut’s Board of Trustees have authorized a contract with an extremely controversial, high profile, anti-union, Governor Chris Christie affiliated New Jersey law firm to lead the negotiations against the UConn Chapter of the AAUP. That contract could cost taxpayers and students as much as $500,000 or more.

The Malloy administration’s approach to the faculty who teach at Connecticut’s State Universities is particularly troubling since there has already been a growing recognition that Malloy’s initiative to merge the Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Community College System into the Board of Regents has been an utter failure.

In just three years, the first two presidents of the Board of Regents were forced to leave under a cloud and Malloy’s political appointees on the Board of Regents have wasted millions of dollars in taxpayer funds on out-of-state consultants and some of those contractThe Malloy Administration’s stunning attack on unions, professors and the future of Connecticut State University - Wait What?:

Judge: Nashville schools can fire non-teaching staff without appeal

Judge: Nashville schools can fire non-teaching staff without appeal:

Judge: Nashville schools can fire non-teaching staff without appeal

Metro's director of schools has the power to dismiss non-teaching employees without giving them an appeals hearing.

That’s the conclusion of a recent ruling by Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Ellen Lyle, who dismissed the case of two employees saying former Director of Schools Jesse Register fired them without allowing for an appeal to the school board, breaking Metro Charter.

State law, however, supersedes the charter and allows for a board to create policies detailing the process in which the director hires and fires personnel, according to Lyle's ruling. Metro's employee handbook for support staff doesn't spell out an appeal process.

Tanya Aina-Labinjo and Janice Jones chose not to appeal Lyle's Aug. 18 ruling, marking a win for the district in the longstanding case.

The ruling also effectively upholds the board's policy governance model, as well as state law, granting numerous powers over to the board's director of schools. Boards in Tennessee are required to run their district in a corporate-style of governance and must assign a list of powers over to the director, as directed by state law.

MNPS adopted its governance management model in 2003 and sets guidelines for the director.

The board's policies state that the board must not give direction to persons who report directly or indirectly to the director, will not formally evaluate any staff member and, except as required by law, will not participate in decisions or actions involving the hiring, evaluating, discipline or dismissal of any employee.

"The board may change its ends and executive expectations at any time, therefore shifting the boundary between board and director domains," the board's policies state. "By doing so, the board changes the latitude of choice given to the director. However, as long as any board-specified delegation of authority is in place, the board will respecJudge: Nashville schools can fire non-teaching staff without appeal:

Two Edina elementaries hire recess consultant - StarTribune.com

Two Edina elementaries hire recess consultant - StarTribune.com:

Two Edina elementary schools hire recess consultant

Two Edina elementary schools, worried about the politics of the playground, are taking an unusual step to police it: They have hired a recess consultant.

Some parents have welcomed the arrival of the firm Playworks, which says recess can be more inclusive and beneficial to children if it’s more structured and if phrases like, “Hey, you’re out!” are replaced with “good job” or “nice try.”

But some of the kids at Concord and Normandale Elementary say they are confused, or that the consultants are ruining their play time.

“The philosophy of Playworks does not fit Concord,” said Kathy Sandven, a parent of twin boys who attend the school. “It is a structured philosophy — an intervention philosophy — not allowing kids for free play.”

The two schools have joined a growing number of districts that have hired consultants to remake the playground experience into more structured and inclusive play time. The games and activities, like four square and jumping rope, are overseen by adults and designed to reduce disciplinary problems while ensuring that no children are left out.

Edina school officials spent about $30,000 on the recess initiative over the summer, and some administrators are already becoming believers.Two Edina elementaries hire recess consultant - StarTribune.com:

Why There’s Little Demand for Charter Schools in the Suburbs - The Atlantic

Why There’s Little Demand for Charter Schools in the Suburbs - The Atlantic:

Why Don’t Suburbanites Want Charter Schools?
Politics and personal preferences are at play

Soccer or lacrosse, Whole Foods or the farmers market, microbrew or Pinot Noir? Suburbanites tend to relish their many options for food and entertainment. At block parties, neighbors engage in hearty debates about the best place to vacation or the optimal car for shlepping one’s kids. So wouldn’t these very same parents—individuals who likely enjoy the privilege of choosing between a week on a beach or ski slope—want more choice when it comes to their children’s schools?

Not always. The data suggests that one form of school choice—charter schools—are less popular in suburbs than in cities. Why? Experts say that politics and personal preferences are at play.

Charter schools are funded by taxpayer dollars and, as such, can’t charge tuition or discriminate against children based on race, ethnicity, or disability. But as long as they fulfill certain accountability expectations, they’re able to operate on their own terms and, often, under their own governance structures. Some are organized by grassroots groups composed of teachers or parents, while others have been founded by organizations that run networks of schools, often in multiple states.

These schools have been hotly contested since the early 1990s, when Minnesota passed the country’s first charter-education law in the country. Proponents highlight their ability to innovate and serve diverse populations, as well as their freedom from the kinds of rigid bureaucratic rules that constrain traditional public schools. Advocates often cite the successes of well-established charter-school operators like Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). Critics, meanwhile, argue that they drain funds from public schools and “cream skim” the best students from a community. They point to charters that have come under scrutiny amid allegations of corruption or those that have produced poor academic outcomes and consequently shut down.

A little over 6,700 charter schools now operate in the United States, triple the number in 2000,  according to “The State of the Charter School Movement,” a new report from the nonprofit consulting group Bellwether Education Partners. They serve close to 3 million students—or 6 percent of the total U.S. public-school enrollment—in 43 states and Washington, D.C, with most of the growth happening in 15 states, including California, Florida, and Ohio. Bellwether projects that charter schools could educate as many as one- to two-fifths of the country’s students by 2035, though that’s a liberal estimate.

---

Charter schools are concentrated in urban and less affluent areas—and it’s not just because of practical reasons, such as available infrastructure and philanthropic funding. According to the Bellwether report, 56 percent of charter-school students live in cities, versus just 29 percent of all U.S. children. (The remaining charter-school students are about evenly split between rural areas and the suburbs.) Relatedly, nearly two-thirds of the charter-school population is nonwhite, compared to about half of its regular public-school counterpart.

There are, of course, variations in the trends depending on the specific state and city. For example, 7 percent of students in New York City attend charter schools, compared to almost all—91 percent—of their peers in New Orleans. While California opened hundreds of new charters in the last four years, only two dozen were opened in Maryland during the same time frame. And just a small percentage of Colorado’s charter-school population is identified as low-income, versus a solid majority of the students attending charters in D.C.

---

Asked why there are so few suburban charter schools, Michael Petrilli, president of the charter-friendly Fordham Institute, said “it’s by design.” The first few states that signed charter-school legislation—like Wisconsin, California, and Colorado—had broader rules, enabling a wide range of charter schools to exist in those areas, he explained. These early-adopter states were able to enact looser laws because the opposition hadn’t yet fully organized, according to Petrilli. “The teachers’ unions”—which at the time were fighting vouchers—“were caught flat Why There’s Little Demand for Charter Schools in the Suburbs - The Atlantic:

New Orleans Model Is Not Such a Model After All | janresseger

New Orleans Model Is Not Such a Model After All | janresseger:

New Orleans Model Is Not Such a Model After All

In the five years from 2006 to 2011, I visited New Orleans at least twice a year.  I have been baffled since that time by the one-sided research created to paint the transformation of the city’s schools as a sort of miracle.  The reality is very troubling and far more complicated.  I recommend Gary Rivlin’s extraordinary new book, Katrina: After the Flood, because Rivlin’s stories of real people’s return or failure to return—their hard work and their despair—their financial losses—and their courage to keep on keeping on—create a real sense of the depth of the struggle, particularly for African American families in Gentilly and New Orleans East. But Rivlin doesn’t really cover the transformation of the schools.  For an authoritative summary of what has happened since all of the teachers and staff were laid off in the fall of 2005 and the schools progressively turned into a mass of privately managed charter schools, one must read the new brief by Frank Adamson, Channa Cook-Harvey, and Linda Darling-Hammond from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, Whose Choice? Student Experiences and Outcomes in the New Orleans School Marketplace.  (If you want to read further, a much longer report on the research is provided.)  All references in this post are to the shorter research brief.

While the schools of New Orleans are now virtually all charter schools, some schools that were high-performing prior to the hurricane and were not seized by the state remain under the control of the old Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB).  The research brief calls these Tier I schools. Another tier of schools are three kinds of schools authorized by the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD)—charter, stand-alone, and direct run.  Then there is a third tier made up of alternative schools, those students volunteer to attend and those to which some students are assigned.  “It is clear that the organization of schools in New Orleans is highly stratified: The school tiers sort students by race, income, and special education status, with the most advantaged students at the top and the least advantaged at the bottom.  Only the top two sub-tiers within Tier 1 have any appreciable number of white and Asian students and any noticeable number of students who are non-poor.”  The authors remind us that, “Louisiana’s charter law explicitly allows some schools to engage in selective enrollment practices that New Orleans Model Is Not Such a Model After All | janresseger:

Data-Driven Teaching Practices: Rhetoric and Reality | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Data-Driven Teaching Practices: Rhetoric and Reality | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Data-Driven Teaching Practices: Rhetoric and Reality

Much has already been written on the U.S. obsession with standardized test scores.  Add to the obsession the passionate belief that policymakers who gather, digest, and use a vast array of numbers can reshape teaching practices.

I refer to data-driven instruction–a way of making teaching less subjective, more objective, less experience-based, more scientific. Ultimately, a reform that will make teaching systematic and effective. Standardized test scores, dropout figures, percentages of non-native speakers proficient in English–are collected, disaggregated by ethnicity and school grade, and analyzed. Then with access to data warehouses, staff can obtain electronic packets of student performance data that can be used to make instructional decisions to increase academic performance. Data-driven instruction, advocates say, is scientific and consistent with how successful businesses have used data for decades in making decisions that increased their productivity.

Not a new idea. Teachers had always assessed learning informally before state- and district-designed tests. Teachers accumulated information from pop quizzes, class discussions, observing students in pairs and small groups, and individual conferences. Based on these data, teachers revised lessons. Teachers leaned heavily on their experience with students and the incremental learning they had accumulated from teaching 180 days, year after year.

In the 1990s and, especially after No Child Left Behind became law, the electronic gathering of data, disaggregating information by groups and individuals, and then applying lessons learned from the analysis to teaching became a top Data-Driven Teaching Practices: Rhetoric and Reality | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Portland Parent Union rallies for end to expulsions and suspensions | OregonLive.com

Portland Parent Union rallies for end to expulsions and suspensions | OregonLive.com:

Portland Parent Union rallies for end to expulsions and suspensions

Members of the Portland Parent Union advocacy group rallied against exclusionary disciplinary practices Tuesday night. 

The demonstration was part of the National Week of Action Against School Pushout, aDignity In Schools Campaign calling for positive interventions instead of expulsions or suspensions and an end to racial disparities in discipline, according to the campaign's website. The movement is also advocating for student and parent involvement in disciplinary decisions and more funding for counselors.  

About two dozen supporters clad in red shirts gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Portland Public Schools district office before attending the board meeting. Sheila Warren, founder and director of the union, passed around a megaphone for students and parents to speak and led chants for the group. 

Warren said the union supports other options for student discipline, such as restorative justice practices, which focus on relationships and dialogue instead of punitive measures. 

Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith has made reducing exclusionary discipline one of her main priorities. Restorative justice is one method the district is implementing. 

According to a recent district presentation, the percentage of students excluded from school dropped from 7 percent in 2008-2009 to 2.4 percent last year, though Portland Parent Union rallies for end to expulsions and suspensions | OregonLive.com:

Number Crunchers Often Target Support Staff For Pay Cuts - NEA Today

Number Crunchers Often Target Support Staff For Pay Cuts - NEA Today:

Number Crunchers Often Target Support Staff For Pay Cuts

Jeanne Middleton has lived in Brighton, Illinois, for 22 years. For the last seven, she has worked with Southwestern Community Unit School District Number 9 as a bus driver, lunchroom monitor, and utility worker – all at once. Combined, the jobs provide Middleton with enough work hours to qualify her for health insurance and other benefits.

“It’s challenging,” says Middleton, president of the Southwestern Education Support Professionals Association (SWESPA). “You get use to switching from one setting to the next.”

Like so many ESPs in the district, Middleton lives, shops, votes, and worships in the same school district where she works. She spends time with neighbors whose children are among those she drives to and from school.

“I graduated from Alton High School about 15 miles from where we live now,” she says.

Many of SWESPA’s 60 members are also homegrown. They either attended the schools where they now work, have children attending these schools, or have a spouse who was born and raised in this rural farming community. They are rooted.

Yet, in the eyes of the superintendent and school board members, they are expendable. Since June, district ESPs have been working on an expired contract. After meeting throughout the summer, once under the supervision of a federal mediator, SWESPA members overwhelmingly rejected a school district proposal for a two-year Number Crunchers Often Target Support Staff For Pay Cuts - NEA Today:

NYC Educator: Meet the New Boss, Even Worse Than the Old Boss

NYC Educator: Meet the New Boss, Even Worse Than the Old Boss:

Meet the New Boss, Even Worse Than the Old Boss

There's a very interesting piece up at US News by Andrew Rotherham, AKA Eduwonk. I don't agree with Rotherham about a whole lot in education, but I find myself wishing I agreed with a whole lot of this particular column. Rotherham certainly has a way with words, whether you agree with him or not:

It's too soon to fully judge Duncan's tenure. There are lots of strong opinions in Washington and around the country about Duncan. Privately, insiders' views range from "he's the most committed and effective secretary of education in the department's history" to "he's a jock who's in way over his head on policy."

Wow. I wish I agreed with that. But with the entire country embracing Race to the Top, Gun to the Head policies like Common Core, I'm not feeling the love. The high-stakes testing and developmentally inappropriate tasks for our children (and not his, or Duncan's, or Obama's) are intolerable. That's not to mention the junk-science teacher ratings that have been foisted upon us, rejected by none other than the American Statistical Association.

Education is apparently on the president's "Eff-It" list. At this year's White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama said that he didn't have a bucket list, but with time running out on his administration, he did have something that rhymed with it. The president's choice of John King* to oversee the department after Duncan is a signal he's not that concerned with education politics at this point.  

That's clever, but not precisely accurate. It appears to me that President Obama, who's certainly in a position to say "Eff-it" to pretty much anything, has decided to continue with the reformy policies that are King's signature. While it wasn't clear to UFT President Michael Mulgrew, NYC Educator: Meet the New Boss, Even Worse Than the Old Boss: