Concrete victories won by the anti-testing movement (so far) - The Washington Post

Concrete victories won by the anti-testing movement (so far) - The Washington Post:

Concrete victories won by the anti-testing movement (so far)

It wasn’t that long ago that many school reformers and education policymakers gave short shrift to, or outright ridiculed, parents and educators who fought the overuse and misuse of standardized tests. It was only two years ago almost to the day when Education Secretary Arne Duncan said lots of “white suburban moms” opposed the Common Core State Standards and aligned standardized tests because they realized “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.”

Now, of course, Duncan and President Obama have conceded that kids do, after all, take too many standardized tests, and states and districts are moving to dial back some of the exams while Congress may pass legislation to rewrite No Child Left Behind in a way that reduces federal involvement in testing.

A new report details the advances made by the anti-testing movement in the past year. It was issued by FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which works to eliminate the misuse of standardized tests, and written by Lisa Guisbond with Monty Neill and Bob Schaeffer (all of FairTest). Here are some of the findings:

*A sharp reversal of the decades-long trend to adopt high school exit exams. Policy-makers repealed the California graduation test, while Texas loosened its requirements, joining six states that repealed or delayed these exams in the 2013-2014 school year. California, Georgia, South Carolina and Arizona also decided to grant diplomas retroactively to thousands of students denied them because of test scores.

* Florida suspended Jeb Bush’s 3rd grade reading test-based promotion policy. Oklahoma, New York, and North Carolina revised their test-based promotion policies, and New Mexico legislators blocked the governor’s effort to impose one.

*States and districts that rolled back mandated testing include Minnesota, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Dallas and Lee County, Florida.

*Opting out surged to new levels in New York, New Jersey and across the country – approaching 500,000 nationally – riveting 

Concrete victories won by the anti-testing movement (so far) - The Washington Post:

Colleen Grady Questions Evolution, Is New Policy Adviser in Ohio Education Department | janresseger

Colleen Grady Questions Evolution, Is New Policy Adviser in Ohio Education Department | janresseger:

Colleen Grady Questions Evolution, Is New Policy Adviser in Ohio Education Department

According to the website ballotpedia.org, 24 states have all Republican government, with governor, senate and house all dominated by Republican majorities.  Seven states are dominated by the Democratic Party.  In the recent November 3 election, Kentucky moved closer to all-Republican status, with the election of a Republican governor, but its Democrat-dominated state assembly prevents it’s falling into what ballotpedia calls a Republican trifecta state.  These numbers demonstrate that across state governments, more than half the states have lost the checks and balances provided when both political parties are viable.  Ballotpedia adds, “In addition to having a trifecta, it is also worth exploring which states have supermajorities. The supermajority allows a party in power to further exert its influence over the minority party.” Ohio is one of the states with a Republican legislative supermajority.

In Ohio, education policy is one of the areas where the impact of one-party, supermajority political domination is apparent.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorialized on Sunday about the problems that have arisen in the leadership of state Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dick Ross, who has resigned as of the end of 2015 now that a series of problems have been so relentlessly exposed in the press that his leadership has become an embarrassment.  Ross was hired, as state superintendents in Ohio are, by a state board of education that is also dominated by politics: “The 19-member Ohio school board is nominally Ross’ boss, but it’s long been virtually invisible in state education policy.  Further, the governor (John Kasich) can usually call the shots at the board, since he or she gets to appoint eight members (the other 11 are elected)… Kasich holds most cards in the search to replace Ross.”

The Plain Dealer‘s editors summarize some of what has happened under Ross and Kasich’s tenure: “Observers… were stunned to learn that David Hansen, then the director of school choice for the Ohio Department of Education, had illegally omitted the F grades of online charter schools in evaluating charter school school sponsors—who, in Ohio, include some deep-pocketed donors to the GOP and Gov. John Kasich… But the even more curious part of this episode was that Ross claimed to have known nothing about Hansen’s actions.  At the very Colleen Grady Questions Evolution, Is New Policy Adviser in Ohio Education Department | janresseger:

L.A. Unified explores possibility of becoming an all-charter district - LA Times

L.A. Unified explores possibility of becoming an all-charter district - LA Times:

L.A. Unified explores possibility of becoming an all-charter district

Converting the nation’s second-largest school system into an all-charter district is a long-shot—one that requires state approval and support from a majority of teachers.

But members of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education said they were exploring all options -- even those that are unlikely -- as the district contends with a charter school expansion plan spearheaded by the Broad Foundation. The plan seeks to enroll more than half the district’s students in charter schools over the next eight years.

On Tuesday, a board committee will review a report that outlines the process for becoming an entirely charter school district.

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At a later, separate meeting, board members will continue to define the characteristics they are seeking in a superintendent.

Board member Richard Vladovic said chances of L.A. Unified becoming an all-charter district were “slim and none.” Vladovic said the committee discussion is intended to start a conversation about how L.A. Unified can enjoy some of the flexibility from state regulations that is currently provided to charters.

“The entire purpose is to explore things," Vladovic said. "We’re not voting on policy. We’re gathering information. These committees are trying to really peel the onion back and look at issues in depth. Some you’ll never be able to use, but it’s certainly good to start that discussion about how many regulations we have." Charters are publicly funded, independently operated and free from some regulations that govern traditional schools. Most are non-union.

The district is looking for ways to stem declining student enrollment from a range of factors, including charter school growth.

Critics of the projected $490-million charter expansion plan argue that it threatens the sustainability of the district and could hurt its ability to serve students. Supporters say the plan seeks to improve options for parents who are not satisfied with traditional public schools.

Any decision on whether to begin the process for becoming a charter district would require a board vote.

The school district would then need more than 50% of its teachers to sign a petition favoring the change. It would also have to find alternative options for students who don’t want to attend a charter school, according to the report.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and the state Board of Education must separately approve petitions for all-charter districts. 

California has seven charter school districts that serve between 100 and 1,500 students. The state board has oversight of those districts.

The Times receives funding for its digital initiative, Education Matters, from the California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Broad Foundation to support this effort. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content. 

For more education news, follow @zahiratorres on Twitter.L.A. Unified explores possibility of becoming an all-charter district - LA Times:

Video: The Future of Public Education Policy | The Texas Tribune

Video: The Future of Public Education Policy | The Texas Tribune:

Video: The Future of Public Education Policy

On 11/13, I talked about the future of public education policy in Texas with state. Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, a member of the House Public Education Committee; Lizzette González Reynolds, chief deputy commissioner of the Texas Education Agency; Juan Cabrera, superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District; and Eduardo Rodriguez, interim executive director of the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development.Video: The Future of Public Education Policy | The Texas Tribune:

Please Save and Forward Education Campaign Literature | Crazy Crawfish

Please Save and Forward Education Campaign Literature | Crazy Crawfish:

Please Save and Forward Education Campaign Literature

Please save copies of mailouts, commercials still on your DVR, radio ads, etc. from this last election cycle. In particular I am interested in the literature of the BESE candidates who got elected running on bogus platforms with money from LABI and out of state billionaires.  The reformers are claiming their sweep of our elections is not because they outspent us 100 to 1, but a validation of their work and mandate for them to “stay the course.”  There one problem with that.  Not only did they outspend us 100 to 1, they also ran on our platforms with their campaign materials.

Namely: Local Control, End Common Core, eliminate unnecessary testing, pay raises for teachers (nothing about firing them or evaluating them on test scores),  and being representatives of the people.

Many folks not clued into the education scene already know this is total BS.

Stand For Children actually produced a fake emergency News Broadcast the last week of the election and made claims one sitting member had warrants out for their arrest and was breaking numerous laws, none of which was true. It was impossible to read the line it was paid for Stand for Children unless you slowed the commercial down and forwarded it frame by frame.  Rather than run on any issues they chose to falsly defame someone, the last week of the election, who actually does stand for some of the poorest children in our state.

You can thank Michael Bloomberg, and his enormous check to that organization, for that masterpiece.

That organization is evil, plain and simple and those who facilitate evil are just as culpable.

I will be linking all the billionaires, by name, with their handiwork to show you how they are destroying education across the nation with lies and enormous bribes. They will be using what happened in Louisiana as proof that their agenda is popular. It is important for the rest of the country to understand just what they actually sold to people here. Maybe we can serve as a template for the rest of the nation, like education reformers want?  We are an example of what not to do and an example of the extent ed reformers are corrupt and will lie to get what they Please Save and Forward Education Campaign Literature | Crazy Crawfish:

An Illinois budget deal that will end public employee collective bargaining. | Fred Klonsky

An Illinois budget deal that will end public employee collective bargaining. | Fred Klonsky:

An Illinois budget deal that will end public employee collective bargaining.

Making a deal to end collective bargaining?

In the Fall of 2003 our local bargaining team sat across the table from members of our board of education.

Our contract had expired the previous August and here it was, November, and we were still at it.

And then board member Joe Baldi leaned into the table and said, “You know, Klonsky. Teachers are just another cost that needs to be contained.”

A few days later, at a union local membership meeting, I shared Joe’s bargaining theory with our members. They voted 93% to authorize a strike.

Crain’s Greg Hinz is reporting today that there are serious proposals on the table for a possible break in the budget log-jam in Springfield. It includes something that Joe Baldi might have come up with. Democratic Party Senator Heather Steans’ proposal would create a third tier pension plan and former Rahm operative, Greg Goldner’s would end public employee collective bargaining of  wages.

Neither Rauner nor any of the legislative leaders would comment on the proposal. But neither did they publicly reject it. One top Springfield insider privately griped to me about “a political

An Illinois budget deal that will end public employee collective bargaining. | Fred Klonsky:

The secretive industry of social media monitoring - Yahoo News

The secretive industry of social media monitoring - Yahoo News:

The secretive industry of social media monitoring

Schools and police turn to private firms to help address school violence, but measuring their success is nearly impossible.

It was midafternoon on a Brooklyn college campus when an unexpected phone call sent a chill through the school. The caller warned that a student, shortly before, posted the sort of message that every campus feared – one that threatened mass murder at the school.

"I sit in class and think about how I would kill each person," the student tweeted. Each person would die, he wrote, in their "own special way."

The caller was not a cop, a campus security guard, or even a student. He was an employee of an obscure eight-year-old company called GEOCOP that had no ties to the school.

GEOCOP, short for Geospatial Common Operating Picture, is the oldest of three social media monitoring companies that have gained momentum in the wake of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school, when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults before fatally shooting himself. In the wake of that tragedy, many schools and law enforcement agencies are searching for ways to more effectively detect and prevent school violence before it happens. Catering to law enforcement and school officials, the companies use a combination of open-source feeds, knowledge of school communities, and intelligence strategies gained from military and law enforcement experience.

That incident two years ago at New York City College of Technology, a City University of New York (CUNY) school, illustrates both the promise and the pitfalls of this cottage industry.

On one level, it was a success for GEOCOP. The school eventually confirmed that GEOCOP was legitimate and called the police. The student, Bishoy Elgawly, then an 18-year-old Staten Island resident attending the school, was arrested and charged with second-degree aggravated harassment and second-degree harassment, according to local media reports. Mr. Elgawly did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and his records are currently sealed.

Yet an examination of GEOCOP’s records and history raises questions about the company’s effectiveness, and the ability of this nascent industry to address school violence. The effectiveness of the social media monitoring firms is nearly impossible to measure. False alarms, the firms’ opaque  business and tracking practices, and a lack of legal guidelines for how the companies track and monitor student communications has put privacy advocates on edge.

“We believe that social media monitoring does not foster a hospitable school environment,” said Brendan Hamme, staff attorney at the southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It breeds an environment of distrust between youth and teachers and administrators. And there are far more efficacious ways of getting to the cause of the issue than spying on students.”

An examination of these firms’ business records, promotional materials, and contract bids, along with interviews with company officials, school administrators, and privacy experts, reveals a secretive industry that jealously guards its tradecraft, revenue, and even their physical location.

A TICKING CLOCK

The call to the CUNY school from GEOCOP came a full hour-and-a-half after the tweet originally appeared. It took another four hours for the school to vet the credibility of GEOCOP and the tweet, partly because the caller’s remarks were so cryptic. The caller refused to provide any identifying information beyond a GEOCOP “agent number.” And GEOCOP’s website – which now redirects to a Twitter feed – provided scant details about the company’s operations.

“What makes us unique is we’re used to operating under the pressure of a clock ticking by seconds,” said Bob Dowling, founder of GEOCOP.

Elgawly’s prior threatening tweets also went undetected. According to screenshots of Elgawly’s tweets taken by the Staten Island Advance, Elgawly tweeted three other threats against the school between October 2012 and the tweet he was arrested for in February 2013. In a November tweet, he threatened to “shoot up my school” if his class was canceled after he traveled to Brooklyn during a storm, and just over a week later, “I think I’m going to snap and shoot up my school.”

When asked about the timeline for the CUNY incident, Mr. Dowling said he could not comment on anything that resulted in law enforcement action, nor confirm details, but speculated that the three earlier tweets could have simply slipped through GEOCOP’s system. According to news reports, Elgawly later told police he was “bored and that [he] wasn’t going to do it.”

Lionel Presume, director of public safety at the New York City College of Technology, headed the school’s response to GEOCOP’s call. Despite the delays in confirming the tweet’s validity, Mr. Presume now considers social media monitoring integral to ensuring safety at his school, though the school district still does not have a contract with any social media monitoring company.

“At that time I didn’t know much, but it is very important,” he said. “On our level, at colleges, it’s very important.”

A PERCEIVED NEED

Social media monitoring is not a new phenomenon. Law enforcement officers have used the practice in recent years to suss out potential threats around large events such as the Republican National Convention, and to track protests such as the Occupy movement. More recently, schools have turned to social media monitoring to head off signs of violence that would otherwise have not been detected.

Because of students’ pervasive use of social media, many schools consider the online world an important indicator of potentially concerning behavior that warrants school attention. According to a Pew Research study on teenage social media use, 75 percent of teens age 13 to 17 have The secretive industry of social media monitoring - Yahoo News:

Hillary Clinton Says Exactly What Teachers Unions Want to Hear - US News

Hillary Clinton Says Exactly What Teachers Unions Want to Hear - US News:

Hillary Clinton Says Exactly What Teachers Unions Want to Hear

The Democratic presidential front-runner already has secured key union endorsements.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton so far is saying everything teachers unions want to hear – and a lot of that includes bashing the Obama administration's education agenda.

On Nov. 9 in Nashua, New Hampshire, Clinton met with 25 members of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers to talk charter schools, testing, ongoing congressional efforts torewrite No Child Left Behind, and the state of education after several years of major change to the K-12 landscape. The teachers union released excerpts of the session on Sunday.

"I think there's been too much contention and lack of cooperation when it comes to education," Clinton said, taking both a shot at the administration – which has embraced education policies that run counter to union priorities – and at GOP presidential hopefuls like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said over the summer that "the national teachers union" deserves a punch in the face.

RELATED

Congress Poised to Consider No Child Left Behind Rewrite

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are the two major national teachers unions. Both have endorsed Clinton, and both have called for current Education Secretary Arne Duncan's resignation.

In her remarks, Clinton drove home her eagerness to collaborate with teachers unions, a clear sign she understands how fractured the relationship has become with the Obama administration.

"What I think we have to do is really, starting today and moving through the election into the next administration, figure out what our priorities are, how I can be working with you … and create an atmosphere in which we're all on the same team," she said.

At one point, a teacher from Nashua lamented that the administration's signature competitive grant program – Race to the Top – placed a premium on adopting new education policies without taking into consideration whether they work, while at the same time overlooking effective policies already in place.

"There's increasing pressure to replace things because it's new … and it devalues our experience," said Deb Howes, a teacher at the Amherst Street School who has been a vocal critic of the Race to the Top competition. "It devalues our voice, and it's not good for us or our students because we're always learning something new – sometimes three or four or five new initiatives in the same school year."

In response, Clinton did not hold back in her critique of the corporate style of education that's swept over much of the country, in part due to the administration's K-12 agenda.

"Everybody feels so pressured to produce 'results,' but they then, I think, can be misled into adopting programs that are not particularly evidenced-based, that don't have a track record," she said. "I think we've been doing way too much of that. I think we've wasted a lot of time, and money, and energy, instead of taking this deep breath that I'm calling for and saying what works."

On the subject of testing, Clinton reiterated that students should take fewer but better tests, something President Barack Obama and Duncan have said recently as well.

[READ: Ahead of Departure, Arne Duncan Reflects on Signature Education Programs]

But Clinton said something else very important that teachers unions wanted to hear: "I have for a very long time also been against the idea that you tie teacher evaluation and even teacher pay to test outcomes. There's no evidence."

Using student test scores in part to evaluate and compensate teachers has been a big priority for the administration, and one of the most difficult policies states have taken on over roughly the last seven years.

Clinton also talked charter schools, which have flourished under the Obama administration. Teachers unions have argued that their increased numbers are siphoning resources, as well as some of the top-performing students, from traditional public schools.

Clinton underscored that there are good and bad charter schools and that more needs to be done to hold them accountable. And, she added, if elected president, she would work to revive the original idea behind charter schools: that they are laboratories for testing new educational models and, if successful, those models can be replicated by all public schools.

"A lot of people show up and they want to do a charter, and they don't pay attention to the educational research," she said. "They have a pet idea. They may be, again, motivated to try to help kids, but they don't have the experience, and they don't necessarily know how to do it."

In addition, Clinton talked about the ongoing efforts in Congress to overhaul No Child Left Behind. Arewrite of the federal K-12 law is gaining steam toward the finish line and could be delivered to the president's desk before the new year.

"If that can get passed, then, in effect, my administration will be starting from a different base, and then we can figure out how we really build on some of the changes that are going to be made in that," she said.

She gave some passing hints at how she would build on the changes of a new law, saying she would want teachers unions to have input on the frequency of testing students and what those tests are used for.

[ALSO: TeachStrong: Education Groups Band Together to Overhaul Teaching Profession]

She also noted that a Clinton administration would direct more federal dollars to programs for low-income students and students with disabilities.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act authorized Congress to contribute 40 percent of the national average per pupil expenditure for each special education student, but appropriations have historically ranged from 10 to 20 percent.

"The most we've ever paid is like 17 percent," Clinton said in answering a question from a special Hillary Clinton Says Exactly What Teachers Unions Want to Hear - US News:

Four Ways Hillary Clinton Might Differ From Obama on K-12 Policy - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Four Ways Hillary Clinton Might Differ From Obama on K-12 Policy - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Four Ways Hillary Clinton Might Differ From Obama on K-12 Policy

Having picked up the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers in the Democratic primary earlier this year, Hillary Clinton participated in a roundtable organized by the union on Nov. 9. During the discussion with union President Randi Weingarten and several AFT members, Clinton expanded on her views on charter schools, which have been making waves over the past week, as well as her commitment to increased Title I funding.

The roundtable, which the AFT released excerpts from, also offered an opportunity for Clinton to raise issues where she might depart from President Barack Obama's policies, as well as such issues that didn't come up (at least directly) in her discussions with teachers. Let's look at four of those, and where Weingarten sees perhaps the biggest contrast. 

• She's not as outspoken a charter suppporter: As we noted earlier this month, Clinton's charter rhetoric doesn't match the president's. Whereas U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made expanding opportunities for charters one of his top early priorities, Clinton said in an interview with Roland Martin of TV One that most charters don't serve the hardest student populations. That accusation ruffled some feathers—remember, for the most part in her public career, Clinton has been a supporter of charter schools. 

In her comments at the AFT roundtable, she didn't raise that specific criticism again. But she did take a poke at many charter operators who said she sometimes charge ahead without really knowing what they're doing ."A lot of people show up and they want to do a charter, and they don't pay attention to the educational research. They have a pet idea. They may be, again, motivated to try to help kids, but they don't have the experience, and they don't necessarily know how to do it," Clinton said.

Ultimately, she said that in addition to relying on sound research, charters should serve as a "supplement, not a substitute" for traditional public schools. But "supplement" can mean many different things. So do Clinton's recent remarks signal a drier spell for charter schools if she's elected president? Or is she acknowledging that there are folks who are concerned about charters without really coming over to their side? 

• She's getting early help from teachers' unions: One difference to note isn't really from the roundtable itself, but its timing: Clinton has picked up the AFT's endorsement, along with the National Education Association's official backing, well before President Barack Obama did in the 2008 cycle. In fact, the NEA didn't endorse anyone in the Democratic primary in 2008, only siding with Obama in the general election. And the AFT backed Clinton in the 2008 primary.

The Clinton endorsements this year was despite a push among some union members to consider an endorsement for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. So that's part of the reason you're seeing Clinton do this sort of union roundtable relatively early in the presidential cycle, compared to the 2008 cycle. And it probably doesn't hurt the unions' chances of having a seat at the big-boy table during a hypothetical Clinton administration.

• She is not interested in teacher evaluation through test scores: In making her opposition clear to tying teacher pay and evaluation to test scores, Clinton makes a passing reference to the pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—congressional negotiators have reached a preliminary deal to reauthorize ESEA and official negotiations are set to begin this week. 

Her opposition to such policies is not new. Seven years ago, she pushed for a greater variety of measures to be included in accountability systems beyond test scores. And that sort of skepticism is notably different from the kind of teacher evaluation policies the Obama administration has pushed under the Race to the Top competitive grant program and NCLB waivers. 

She did acknowledge that if ESEA is reauthorized before she takes office, "my administration will be starting from a different base" and will be able to build on the new law. That might be intepreted as a tacit endorsement of the ESEA deal now under discussion, and indeed, if the bill passes, it would make life easier for Potential President Clinton.

"But then we'll have to do the hard work, and I would look to the AFT for advice on this," Clinton said. "OK, what are the tests, because you've got to have something? And what should they be, and how often should they be administered, and what should they be used for?"

This lack of interest in test-score-based teacher evaluation, by the way, is the policy area Weingarten highlighted when I asked her where she saw the biggest difference between Clinton and the Obama administration, even though Weingarten was skeptical of the question's premise. 

"What you see though is that [Clinton] has the opportunity to look at what hasn't worked, and talk about the kind of things that have worked or should work," Weingarten said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. "It's not simply a matter of needing fewer and better tests."

Keep in mind, the preliminary ESEA deal wouldn't do away with the federal testing requirements for grades 3-8 and high school, but it would give much more power over what those tests are used for in accountability systems. (And just to be clear, NCLB does not require test scores to be factors in teacher pay or evaluations. That's an ESEA waiver thing.)

•Early childhood education, not K-12, may be her first priority out of the gate.  

From her push to expand the Head Start program while first lady in the 1990s, to the competitive grant program for early education she proposed in 2007 as a senator from New York state, Clinton Four Ways Hillary Clinton Might Differ From Obama on K-12 Policy - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Unions Eye L.A. Charter Schools - WSJ

Unions Eye L.A. Charter Schools - WSJ:

Unions Eye L.A. Charter Schools

Efforts to organize teachers in the country’s largest system could have nationwide repercussions

As teachers unions ramp up efforts to organize the fast-growing charter school movement, one of the biggest and most contentious fights is taking place at a chain of schools in Los Angeles.

In March, 70 teachers at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the city’s largest charter system with 26 schools and more than 600 teachers, announced they wanted to join United Teachers Los Angeles, the 31,000-member union that represents all of the city’s public school teachers and about 1,000 teachers at 12 independent charter schools.

Alliance officials counter that being free of union rules has helped their charter schools operate with greater flexibility and smaller class sizes and ultimately send 95% of graduates to college each year. They also question why a union fighting the expansion of charter schools wants to organize charter teachers.

“They spent the last 10 years saying how terrible charters are when we’ve been trying to educate poor kids and have been doing a great job at it,” said Catherine Suitor, a spokeswoman for Alliance. “What is it they’re trying to fix?”

The unionization campaign, currently the largest at a U.S. charter school system, could have wide repercussions A union win could validate a new wave of organizing drives at charter schools in Colorado, Michigan, Ohio and other states. A protracted campaign that doesn’t go anywhere would be a costly and demoralizing defeat for unions.

The Los Angeles union, which is affiliated with the nation’s two biggest teachers unions—the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers—has so far not said whether it wants to organize the teachers through an election or an alternative process.

A quarter of the Alliance teachers have signed a public letter supporting the union and asking the charter system to remain neutral.

Tensions have grown in recent weeks amid charges from teachers that administrators have illegally intimidated them, which Alliance denies.

On Oct. 29, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by the union, and ordered Alliance administrators to stay 100 feet away from union organizers and not coerce or threaten teachers for participating in union Unions Eye L.A. Charter Schools - WSJ:

Weighing the value of the new education philanthropy - AEI

Weighing the value of the new education philanthropy - AEI:

Weighing the value of the new education philanthropy

In our just-published volume The New Education Philanthropy, Columbia’s Jeff Henig and I explore the outsized role that philanthropy has come to play in contemporary school reform. Leading donors have influenced policy and practice around the Common Core, teacher evaluation systems, extended learning time, and charter schooling. Major foundations have worked closely with the Obama administration on visible programs like Race to the Top and have aggressively funded advocacy groups, think tanks, and research.

As recently as ten or fifteen years ago, there were concerns that the nation’s philanthropic community was retreating from the K-12 public school arena, frustrated with what they regarded as school districts’ stubborn resistance to change. In March 2002, the $500 million Annenberg Challenge, which had been unveiled eight years earlier at a joyous White House ceremony, petered out on a disappointing note. The Challenge’s own final accounting conceded “repeated setbacks, rapid turnover in leadership and sudden changes in direction… that took everyone by surprise.” Less generous reviewers deemed the effort an outright failure. In the early 2000s, some traditional major funders redirected their efforts away from K-12 to pre-K or to other sectors. In one noteworthy development, three major Pittsburgh-based foundations—the Heinz, Pittsburgh, and Grable foundations—announced they would stop funding the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Education philanthropy has since roared back with a vengeance. Fueled by new foundations like Gates, Dell, Broad, and Walton, the new giving is often targeted and policy-focused. The visibility of philanthropy and the controversy over its role has taken on a shape that once would have been astonishing. Where it was once rare to hear attacks on education philanthropy, today many education funders are subject to furious backlash.

The most vehement critics of contemporary philanthropy have asserted that the newfound emphasis on policy has transformed the nature of giving—turning it into something worrisome and undemocratic. Historian Diane Ravitch charged in 2014, “[Those in] the philanthropic sector . . . are using their vast fortunes to undercut public education and impose a free market competition among competing schools. As they go merrily about the task of disrupting an important democratic institution, they work in tandem with the U.S. Department of Education . . . Big money—accountable to no one—and big government have embarked on an experiment in mass privatization.”

Ravitch is right that today’s new philanthropy reflects a growing emphasis on advocacy, structural reform, and public-private partnership. But it’s not clear that these practices are as dramatic a departure as some suggest. Indeed, while it may be more prevalent today, muscular educational giving is not new.

The Ford Foundation was aggressive and unapologetic about its push to radically restructure New York City’s schools in the 1960s. Ford and other donors spent heavily to bankroll litigation and policy advocacy in the 1970s and 1980s that sought to boost and revamp education spending. The Bradley and Olin Foundations played critical roles in supporting the research, advocacy, and policy experimentation that helped bring school choice to the national stage. If one is inclined to go back further, foundations like Rockefeller and Carnegie are responsible for helping to create much that eventually came to be seen as unobjectionable and even inevitable—from the SAT to the “Carnegie unit.”

We’ve always been a Tocquevillian nation, where progress springs not from the genius of central planners but from the pushing and shoving of a hearty stew of self-interested actors. That said, it’s clear that some things about today’s education philanthropy are distinctive—and potentially worrisome. Ravitch rightly points out the extraordinary closeness of the working relationship between major funders and the federal government. And, while some foundations have always taken an active interest in policy and reform, the shared priorities, prescriptive metrics, emphasis on advocacy, and coordination among several of today’s most prominent and deep-pocketed education donors is a noteworthy development.

This kind of muscular philanthropy can serve as an enormously valuable catalyst amidst the bureaucracy and deep-set routines of American education. A cacophony of funders, marked by competing agendas and visions of reform, can provide a powerful vehicle for supporting promising individuals and ideas that may be a poor fit for education bureaucracies. Of course, it’s essential that other donors provide a balancing wheel that can counter the groupthink of the moment—and that funders take care not to forge too close a partnership with federal officials.

This means that the merits of educational philanthropy don’t exist in a vacuum. They depend on what donors do, the context they do it in, and whether the whole of the philanthropic community provides that balancing wheel. The question that Henig and I wrestle with is how to judge the health of the whole. Because the most interesting question in education philanthropy is not about the merits of this or that foundation, but whether the sum of the whole is doing more to foster dynamism or to chill dissent. Weighing the value of the new education philanthropy - AEI:

Teachers Who Tried to Help Me

Teachers Who Tried to Help Me:

To All the Teachers Who Tried to Help Me

Iam here, sitting in prison when I should be out, following the inspirational teachings and high expectations of so many of my teachers who recognized my potential and believed I would accomplish many good things.

I have no doubt disappointed them and I am so sorry for that. But my life is not over and I intend, during my post-incarceration life, not only to fulfill their visions of me but ultimately to go far beyond them in my achievements.

In the meantime, let me share with you what some of my teachers did for me:

Mr. Harris actually was my first male role model. The first Black man I truly adored, admired, and looked up to, and wanted to please and be like.

When I look in retrospect, Mr. Harris actually was my first male role model. The first Black man I truly adored, admired, and looked up to, and wanted to please and be like. He created an environment for me to learn and excel—that had as a foundation Black history, Black Pride, African culture, and education.

He implanted in me the idea that I had “unlimited” potential and told the youthful me that I could be the first Black President of the United States of America [I missed that one]. When I look back, he may or may not have truly believed this, but that was not as important as the fact that I believed it when he said it. That compliment filled me with pride, and now, as an adult, I understand its underlying message—that I was not limited in potential or achievement because I was Black, poor, and lived in the Public Housing Projects.

Never once did this man acknowledge nor speak to what others may have thought—people who expected so little of people like me who were existing in a place of hopelessness due to our socio-economic environment. And it is because of what he taught me and the pride he instilled in me that, in part, I am the man I am today. And because of his influence, I do not suffer from self-hate nor low self-esteem as so many do who come from the Hood (like myself).

In this sense, he was my first Father-figure. He inspired me in numerous ways, even though I was not conscious of it at the time and maybe was not ready to accept his words.

Mr. Harris was my teacher in South Central Los Angeles, located in the Pueblo Del Rio Housing Projects—known as The Pueblos, and home of the Notorious Blood Street Gang called the 52 Pueblo Bishops. For many of us, Mr. Harris was a Savior (sent all the way from Tennessee), but like the Black Jesus of Biblical times, we did not know his true worth–while he was in our presence.

Perhaps because of his own African roots, he taught us more than the basic curriculum. He taught us to speak English correctly. He was a role model because he spoke English with the same degree of perfection as any scholar. But because he was from Tennessee, we always laughed (because of his accent) when he taught us the specifics of grammar and composition. As an Teachers Who Tried to Help Me:

Brown urged to ‘reaffirm the vision’ of funding law | EdSource

Brown urged to ‘reaffirm the vision’ of funding law | EdSource:

Brown urged to ‘reaffirm the vision’ of funding law

A team of researchers found that, two years into the state’s new school financing law, “nagging concerns” are tempering the enthusiasm that school districts and county offices of education have for the Local Control Funding Formula.

In their final report, due out in several weeks, they will urge Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education to “reaffirm the vision” of the new funding law – shifting decisions to the local level, closer to the classroom – or risk losing the opportunity “if we don’t get it right.”

The researchers – Julia Koppich, president of Koppich & Associates, Julie Marsh, a professor at the University of Southern California and Daniel Humphrey, an independent consultant – discussed their preliminary findings Friday at an event in Sacramento sponsored by Policy Analysis for Public Education, or PACE. Following up on an initial analysis a year ago, they and a team from several think tanks and universities based their new findings on a review of 50 second-year LCAPs, the planning documents that districts must create and update annually, an in-depth analysis of seven to nine districts’ efforts, and interviews, over two years, with 226 district and county office leaders, parents, teachers, school board members and community organizers. The LCAPs took effect July 1.

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Report Says LCAPs Need Tighter Focus

No one, Koppich said, pines for a return to state funding dictates under the former system, or wants to relinquish control over budgeting and planning. District officials see benefits from engaging the community, a core element of the LCAP process.

But the researchers concluded that old habits of mind die slowly. District and county officials trained in complying with state rules have little experience in long-range, creative thinking; the researchers said they saw few districts involved in true strategic planning.

A “mindset shift” will take time, Marsh said, noting that one county leader expressed a hope to become more than an “L-cop” of the LCAP. But district and county officials also told researchers they worry that the additional state money they’ve received in the past few years will not be sustained, that a teacher shortage on the horizon will become a consuming challenge and that the help that the state has promised through a new state agency will not materialize. That agency, the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, with a small staff and budget, is charged with guiding districts’ efforts to improve and will intervene if districts are persistently struggling.

The report will not identify individual districts, and the researchers didn’t single out any by name in their presentation. Among the findings:

Mixed success on engagement: Some districts made a concerted effort to involve parents and the public with surveys, meetings and information translated to languages other than English; some districts have hired full-time community outreach staff or partnered with community groups to reach out to parents. But they also found generally a small turnout for meetings and a low return rate of surveys. In other districts, engagement diminished, perhaps by design, since districts assumed an LCAP update, due a year after the LCAP’s creation, required less participation, Marsh said. A poll last summer sponsored by Policy Analysis for California Education found that two-thirds of registered voters hadn’t heard of the Local Control Funding Formula, a larger percentage than a year earlier.

Advocacy increases: In some districts, teachers unions seeking a larger share of funding dollars collided with wealthy parents asking for more Advanced Placement courses and groups like the American Civil Liberties Unions, which advocate for low-income students and underserved minorities. Reflecting these “adversarial relations,” some LCAPs have incorporated what “the loudest voices” want, at the expense of a more coherent vision, Marsh said.

LCAP complaints: The state board adopted the final LCAP template and regulations a year ago, but the researchers found some district officials still weren’t sufficiently clear about the purpose of the LCAP, and some were confused over what funding to include in it. Despite continuing efforts by the county superintendents association to strive for consistency in oversight, districts complained about conflicting and contradictory interpretations of the regulations.

They found universal frustration with the LCAP template, which district leaders described as “unwieldy,” a “nuisance,” “self-defeating” and a “beast of documents” that does not allow districts to tell their story in a fashion people can read, Koppich said. In the LCAP’s second year, many districts’ LCAPs were hundreds of pages: a record 853 pages in one case, she said. The annual update section became an exercise of “cutting and pasting” material from the year before – not a thoughtful revision.

“One superintendent said he had to provide CliffsNotes to principals to understand” the LCAP, Koppich related.

And yet the researchers found that district and county officials agreed to leave the form alone, at least for now, out of apprehension they’d have Brown urged to ‘reaffirm the vision’ of funding law | EdSource: