Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/12/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

 

New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown OregonLive

New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown: Editorial Agenda 2015 | OregonLive.com: New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. BrownOregon Gov. Kate Brown and education policymakers must keep students' needs front and center as they develop accountability measures to track whether schools are making the progress that they should

by mike simpson / 22min 

Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for America - The Washington Post

Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for America - The Washington Post: Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for AmericaA nonprofit group has begun a public relations campaign to defend Teach for America against critics of the program that places newly minted college graduates in teaching jobs in some of the country’s most challenging classrooms.The new campai

by mike simpson / 29min 

Paving the way toward privatization - EducationNC

Paving the way toward privatization - EducationNC: Paving the way toward privatizationLegislators embrace vouchers, charter school expansion, disregard calls for accountabilitySince taking charge in Raleigh, conservative lawmakers have been steering public dollars into a range of alternatives to traditional public schools that march under the banner of “school choice.”“Vouchers = theft” — Teachers

by mike simpson / 2h 

Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog: Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public SchoolsPresident Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) this week.The new legislation reauthorizes federal law governing K-12 public education.In 1965 we called it the Elemen

by mike simpson / 6h 

We hold these truths to be self-evident… - Wait What?

We hold these truths to be self-evident… - Wait What?: We hold these truths to be self-evident…In her latest column on CT Newsjunkie entitled, “The Time Is Now For Moral Courage – Politicians Can’t Be Bystanders To Hate Speech,” Sarah Darer Littman provides readers with a personal and powerful commentary on the rise of Hate Speech and the importance of standing up and speaking out against the fund

by mike simpson / 7h 

Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions? | Bob Braun's Ledger

Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions? | Bob Braun's Ledger: Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions?Two of the largest national charter school chains–KIPP and Uncommon Schools–will be using their students and their students’ parents Monday in a massive lobbying effort aimed at ensuring the expansion of t

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: The Charter Bond Time Bomb

CURMUDGUCATION: The Charter Bond Time Bomb: The Charter Bond Time BombInspired by the stunning NEPC report on just how deeply and thoroughly charter schools are used as a mechanism for sucking public tax dollars into private pockets, I've been trying to read up on this stuff, in particular by looking through the work of one of the reports co-authors, Bruce Baker (Rutgers University). Baker operate

by mike simpson / 7h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Donna More is more of the same -- if not worse

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Donna More is more of the same -- if not worse: Donna More is more of the same -- if not worseAs readers know, I support Kim Foxx in her effort to unseat discredited Cook County State's Atty. Anita Alvarez, who covered up the Laquan McDonald murder. But Foxx is not the only one running. There's also Donna More.I actually think More, who claims to be a "progressi

by mike simpson / 7h 

Can a Supreme Court justice be forcibly removed from the bench? A quick civics lesson. - The Washington Post

Can a Supreme Court justice be forcibly removed from the bench? A quick civics lesson. - The Washington Post:Can a Supreme Court justice be forcibly removed from the bench? A quick civics lesson.There he went again.Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom my Washington Post colleague Robert Barnes called “the reigning champion of provocation at the high court,” just stirred up another controvers

by mike simpson / 7h 

What Scalia’s controversial remarks about African Americans expose about U.S. higher education - The Washington Post

What Scalia’s controversial remarks about African Americans expose about U.S. higher education - The Washington Post: What Scalia’s controversial remarks about African Americans expose about U.S. higher educationSupreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just stirred up another controversy with comments about why African Americans might be better off if they are not accepted into top colleges and univer

by mike simpson / 7h 

L.A. school official criticizes and seeks to limit leaks about superintendent search - LA Times

L.A. school official criticizes and seeks to limit leaks about superintendent search - LA Times: L.A. school official criticizes and seeks to limit leaks about superintendent search important drama involving the Los Angeles Board of Education -- selecting its schools chief -- is playing out in private, and officials this week said they are determined to keep it that way, even though some details a

by mike simpson / 7h 

Detroit school 'sickouts' measure system's dysfunction

Detroit school 'sickouts' measure system's dysfunction: Detroit school 'sickouts' measure system's dysfunctionIf there's any measure of just how bad things are in Detroit Public Schools, it's surely a series of "sickouts" — a coordinated mass absence under the guise of sick leave — which  forced seven schools to close Thursday.Think about that for a minute: Seven schools closed without w

by mike simpson / 8h 

Los Angeles, Oakland Engaged in Broad Charter School War | The California Report | KQED News

Los Angeles, Oakland Engaged in New Charter School War | The California Report | KQED News: Los Angeles, Oakland Engaged in Broad Charter School WarThere’s a new push in the Los Angeles and Oakland public school systems to give charter schools more access to district students — pitting public school advocates against self-described education reformers.In Los Angeles, the Eli and Edythe Broad Found

by mike simpson / 8h 

Recommended school reforms mark shift in attitudes about learning standards - City & Region - The Buffalo News

Recommended school reforms mark shift in attitudes about learning standards - City & Region - The Buffalo News: Recommended school reforms mark shift in attitudes about learning standardsYou can add education reform to the list of life’s certainties, like death and taxes.But what the latest reform might mean for New York classrooms is still being settled.There are many questions, a day after G

by mike simpson / 8h 

How Congress finally killed No Child Left Behind - POLITICO

How Congress finally killed No Child Left Behind - POLITICO: How Congress finally killed No Child Left Behind‘I said, “We’ve got a bill for you,” ’ Sen. Lamar Alexander told Speaker Paul Ryan.House Speaker Paul Ryan holds a bipartisan, bicameral enrollment ceremony for the Every Student Succeeds Act on Thursday at the U.S. Capitol. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICOSpeaker John Boehner's September annou

by mike simpson / 9h 

How the Friedrichs v. Calif. Teachers Association SCOTUS Case Could Actually Be a Boon for Unions - Working In These Times

How the Friedrichs v. Calif. Teachers Association SCOTUS Case Could Actually Be a Boon for Unions - Working In These Times: How the Friedrichs v. Calif. Teachers Association SCOTUS Case Could Actually Be a Boon for UnionsWorks Progress Administration workers march after losing their jobs in 1937. (Library of Congress)  As unions file their legal briefs in the epic Friedrichs vs. CTA anti-union Sup

by mike simpson / 9h 

When charter schools close, millions of state dollars vanish with them

Palm Beach County charter schools' $9 million bill | www.mypalmbeachpost.com: When charter schools close, millions of state dollars vanish with themBOYNTON BEACH —When Charter School of Boynton Beach decided in 2010 to build its own campus in a corporate park, Florida taxpayers pitched in big time.A special state program gave the privately run school hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to help

by mike simpson / 9h 

4 lessons Mark Zuckerberg should learn from Gates Foundation

4 lessons Mark Zuckerberg should learn from Gates Foundation: 4 lessons Mark Zuckerberg should learn from Gates FoundationWhen Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, recently announced that they would donate shares presently worth about $45 billion to good works, they understandably looked for inspiration to the world’s undisputed philanthropy leaders — Bill and Melinda

by mike simpson / 9h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/11/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM ESSA Whack-A-Mole | Save Maine SchoolsESSA Whack-A-Mole | Save Maine Schools: ESSA Whack-A-MoleRecently, I read a comment on Diane Ravitch’s blog that said that with the passage of ESSA, we will now be playing “whack-a-mole” with the American Legislative Exchange Council and host of billionaire-backed foundation-funded groups who – if they have not yet descended upon your neck

by mike simpson / 23h 

New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown OregonLive

New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown: Editorial Agenda 2015 | OregonLive.com:

New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and education policymakers must keep students' needs front and center as they develop accountability measures to track whether schools are making the progress that they should. (Stephanie Yao Long/Staff)

A few hours after President Barack Obama signed a new law that entrusts states with significant education-reform responsibilities, Gov. Kate Brown broadcast her own pledge to Oregonians.  

In a short statement, Brown said she is "committed to ensuring every student graduates high school with a plan and opportunities for his or her future" and that under the new Every Student Succeeds Act, the state will continue its focus on "equity, high standards and continuous improvement in our schools." She lauded the "flexibility" granted by the new law, which, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Betsy Hammond reported, transfers the authority to set goals, define progress and select other accountability measures from the federal government to states. 

Healthy skepticism is warranted. Oregon does not do accountability well, whether it's in education or any other number of areas (see our Department of Energy editorial for an example of a state agency that has long escaped it). But more important, how states use their flexibility under the new law can be the difference between a tailored system that rigorously evaluates and seeks improvement for schools and one that hides its failures – such as Oregon's low graduation rate,chronic absenteeism and persistent gap in progress for low-income students with students overall – behind a façade of weak metrics. Oregon's success under the new law will require strong educational leadership from an administration that has, so far, shown little interest in making politically difficult decisions. 

Editorial Agenda 2015

Make Portland a city that works

Get pot right

Smart choices for education

Help rural Oregon

Keep people and goods moving

Foster small business growth

Track health reforms
_______________________________

Read more about the editorial board's priorities for Oregon.

To be fair, there have been other fires to put out since Brown abruptly became governor last February when Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned amid influence-peddling accusations. But it didn't take long for legislators to roll back, with Brown's blessing, one of his key reforms. The Legislature dismantled the Oregon Education Investment Board created by Kitzhaber in 2011 as an effort to comprehensively remake the educational system for children from birth to age 20. 

Personnel changes also set back educational initiatives. State Schools Chief Rob Saxton, a strong proponent of adopting higher standards and expectations in schools, retired from the state to take a lower-profile position with the Northwest Regional Education Service District. And the state's chief education officer, Nancy Golden, whose position was also pared down after Kitzhaber's resignation, retired three months ago. The position has been filled on an interim basis by Brown's education policy adviser, Lindsey Capps, a former teachers' union leader who has no experience as an educator.  

Brown then delivered her own blow as well. A teachers' union-led revolt against standardized tests took hold, resulting in a bill that would allow families to opt their students out of the new, tougher Smarter Balanced exam for any reason. Despite extolling the need for data from such standardized tests to track how well schools are teaching students – particularly low-income and disadvantaged students – Brown buckled and signed the bill. Both the old New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown: Editorial Agenda 2015 | OregonLive.com:

Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for America - The Washington Post

Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for America - The Washington Post:

Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for America

A nonprofit group has begun a public relations campaign to defend Teach for America against critics of the program that places newly minted college graduates in teaching jobs in some of the country’s most challenging classrooms.

The new campaign, called Corps Knowledge, is an offshoot of the New York Campaign for Achievement Now (NYCAN), a network that supports public charter schools and school choice and wants to weaken teacher tenure laws.

Derrell Bradford, NYCAN’s executive director, said the campaign aims to counter attacks on Teach for America’s image, which some people loyal to the program think has been damaged by “a few disgruntled alumni” and other critics.

Several TFA alumni have written negatively about their experiences, saying that TFA’s five-week training session did not adequately prepare them for teaching in struggling schools and that the two-year commitment that TFA requires adds to the teacher churn in high-needs schools.

[High-poverty schools often staffed by rotating cast of substitutes]

“Some of the best people I’ve ever known have worked for TFA — great, caring, smart — and it’s tough to see your friends get dragged through the mud,” said Bradford, who has $500,000 for the campaign and is aiming to raise an additional $1 million to expand it.

The campaign has one full-time employee, has hired an external public relations firm and will focus initially on social media and on publishing opinion pieces.

The Corps Knowledge campaign is run independently of TFA, although many of those involved in NYCAN and TFA know each other. Matt Kramer, a former co-chief executive of TFA, sits on the board of NYCAN’s parent organization, 50CAN. Kevin Huffman, a TFA alumnus and former Tennessee education commissioner, sits on the board of Corps Knowledge.

“We certainly talk, but this is separate from TFA,” Bradford said. “TFA is letting us take her sister out, and we said we would bring her back on time.”

The campaign plans to highlight the positive stories of TFA, which turns 25 this year. The program is designed not so much to groom career teachers as to inspire recruits to work on the larger issues of urban education in varied ways. And they do: TFA alumni run charter schools and traditional school districts, make state and federal education policy and fill the talent pipeline for an education reform movement that promotes school choice, merit pay and tougher accountability measures for teachers.

But the new campaign also is answering Teach for America’s harshest critics.

One of them, Gary Rubinstein, writes a blog about education that frequently Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of Teach for America - The Washington Post:

Campaign Song to Defend Teach for America

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Paving the way toward privatization - EducationNC

Paving the way toward privatization - EducationNC:

Paving the way toward privatization

Legislators embrace vouchers, charter school expansion, disregard calls for accountability

Since taking charge in Raleigh, conservative lawmakers have been steering public dollars into a range of alternatives to traditional public schools that march under the banner of “school choice.”

“Vouchers = theft” — Teachers gather on the mall outside the N.C. General Assembly in 2013 to speak out against state lawmakers’ cuts to public education. (Photo credit: Clayton Henkel)

Beginning as a trickle, but with the potential to become a flood, spending is growing for vouchers to pay tuition at private and religious schools; an expanded roster of charter schools run by for-profit companies; and two virtual charter schools operated by a scandal-plagued company.

Meanwhile, those same legislators are squeezing conventional K-12 schools with budgets that place North Carolina near the bottom of national rankings for teacher pay and per-pupil spending. A central rationale for providing these alternatives is that traditional schools fall short in educating children from low-income households and communities, children of color and children with special needs.

But even as they cite end-of-grade test results and other data to demonstrate the shortcomings of conventional schools, the legislators are requiring no such accountability from voucher programs and charters. So far, there is no evidence that at-risk children fare better on average in the alternative settings and an abundance of anecdotal examples in which they are clearly worse off.

Vouchers for unaccountable private schools

In 2013, legislators opened the door for sending taxpayer funds to private schools, 70 percent of which are religious in orientation and sponsorship. And some are home schools pretending to be something more.

Public School Forum President Keith Poston discusses the decline in public school support over the last five years, as legislative support has grown for vouchers and charter schools.

School vouchers of $4,200 a year, formally known as “Opportunity Scholarships,” are touted as a way to help low-income and minority children who are falling behind in their local public schools by providing access to better options in private ones. The program is strongly embraced by conservatives, but there is concern about accountability in their own ranks.

Near the end of the 2015 legislative session, a group of Republicans in the House banded together to block a proposal by school voucher champion state Paving the way toward privatization - EducationNC:

Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog:

Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools

President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) this week.

The new legislation reauthorizes federal law governing K-12 public education.

In 1965 we called it the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Until today we called it No Child Left Behind (NCLB). And now after a much-hyped signing ceremony, the most definitive thing we can say about it is this: federal education policy has a new name.

Seriously. That’s about it.

Does it reduce the federal role in public schools? Maybe.

Does it destroy Common Core State Standards? Possibly.

Is it an improvement on previous policies? Potentially.

Will it enable an expansion of wretched charter schools and unqualified Teach for America recruits? Likely.

The problem is this – it’s an over 1,000 page document that’s been open to public review for only two weeks. Though it was publicly debated and passed in the House and Senate, it was finalized behind closed doors and altered according to secure hurried Congressional votes. As such, the final version is full of legal jargon, hidden compromise, new definitions and verbiage that is open to multiple meanings.

How one reader interprets the law may be exactly the opposite of how another construes it.

Take the much-touted contention that the ESSA reduces the federal role in public Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog:

We hold these truths to be self-evident… - Wait What?

We hold these truths to be self-evident… - Wait What?:

We hold these truths to be self-evident…

In her latest column on CT Newsjunkie entitled, “The Time Is Now For Moral Courage – Politicians Can’t Be Bystanders To Hate Speech,” Sarah Darer Littman provides readers with a personal and powerful commentary on the rise of Hate Speech and the importance of standing up and speaking out against the fundamental principles that are supposed to serve as the foundation of our national values.

Sarah Darer Littman writes;

Growing up, I was profoundly influenced by my father’s stories of growing up in the Bronx fearing the hate-filled rhetoric of Father Charles Coughlin’s radio broadcasts. Like his modern day counterpart, Donald Trump, Coughlin was a bona fide media star, with millions of listeners. “When we get through with the Jews in America,” Coughlin spewed, “They’ll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing.” In December 1938, thousands of Coughlin’s followers took to the streets of New York City, chanting, “Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!”

I also remember the deep emotion my father expressed when we found out the method by which his grandparents, who’d remained in Ukraine when my grandfather emigrated to the U.S., were murdered by the Nazis during WWII. Our family knows from personal experience the real consequences of hateful rhetoric.

That is why I am so deeply appalled that the party my father supported is aiding and abetting hate speech. That is why I was so disgusted with former Congressman Rob Simmons’ answer to WPLR’s Chaz and AJ when they posed the question: “Donald Trump calls for a temporary ban on Muslims until our legislators can figure things out — is that nutty?”

Simmons said, “No, it’s not nutty at all.” Simmons claimed that Democrats from “Barack Obama on down” are scared of Trump. I’m an unaffliated voter, and I’m scared of him, but Simmons couldn’t be more wrong (not to 

We hold these truths to be self-evident… - Wait What?:

Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions? | Bob Braun's Ledger

Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions? | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions?

Two of the largest national charter school chains–KIPP and Uncommon Schools–will be using their students and their students’ parents Monday in a massive lobbying effort aimed at ensuring the expansion of their businesses in Newark. The drive comes just as resistance to school privatization in the state’s largest school district has collapsed because of a deal between Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Republican Gov.–and presidential hopeful–Chris Christie.

The lobbying effort–dubbed “Hands Off Our Future–Parent Lobby Day”–is  not aimed at any effort to reduce the number of charter schools in Newark and other New Jersey cities, but rather to block a legislative effort to create a moratorium on new charter schools to study their impact on traditional public schools.

In other words, KIPP and Uncommon Schools, both chains run by boards with close ties to the financial industry, are exploiting parents and students to help grow their businesses–not to protect the education current students are receiving.

 They are being used to advance the financial interests of charter chains, which want to expand.

Diane Ravitch, the former federal education official and now a  nationally known  critic of the corporatization of American pubic schools, pointed out the cynicism inherent in such efforts:

“Your taxpayer dollars have been used to open schools that drain resources from your public schools while selecting the students they want. If your state has charters, you can expect that they will lobby the legislature for more charters. They will close their schools, hire buses, and send students, teachers, and parents to the State Capitol, all dressed in matching T-shirts, to demand more charters.

“Since the children are already enrolled in a charter and can’t attend more than one, they are being used to advance the financial interests of charter chains, which want to expand.”

That’s worth repeating: These children and their parents are not fighting to keep their own schools open, but they are conscripts in a war waged by corporate interests against traditional public schools–a war in which the prize is the $700 billion a year spent annually on public education, a war that can be only be won by the privatizers by expanding their chains and driving out public schools.

What makes the actions of the charter school operators even more cynical is that the moratorium bill is going nowhere–they are using the dead-in-the-water Well-financed charter schools plan lobbying blitz–where are public schools’ champions? | Bob Braun's Ledger: