TFA Is Shocked, Shocked To Find That It Is An ‘Arm’ Of The Charter School Movement | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA Is Shocked, Shocked To Find That It Is An ‘Arm’ Of The Charter School Movement | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA Is Shocked, Shocked To Find That It Is An ‘Arm’ Of The Charter School Movement

A few weeks ago an article appeared in ProPublica called ‘How Teach for America became an arm of the charter school movement’.  I found this be a very well researched article which shed light on something that public school advocates like me already knew a lot about — that TFA and the charter school movement are highly intertwined.

For people who didn’t already know about this, this would be truly eye opening.  But even for people like me who have always known about this, this article gave some new details that offered even more compelling proof including a major ‘smoking gun.’

The smoking gun is a contract that TFA signed with the Walton Foundation where TFA would receive $4,000 for each public school teacher they recruit and $6,000 for every charter school teacher they recruit.

I thought the article was great and it got a lot of attention but, for me, the most amazing thing was the reaction by TFA and by the TFA supporters.

Here is what TFA tweeted:

To which I responded: CONTINUE READING: TFA Is Shocked, Shocked To Find That It Is An ‘Arm’ Of The Charter School Movement | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Shawgi Tell: Don’t Be Charter-Fooled | Dissident Voice

Don’t Be Charter-Fooled | Dissident Voice

Don’t Be Charter-Fooled

Major problems in the charter school sector have been detailed by many researchers and writers over the years. In the last year or two, however, persistent charter school problems have been exposed with much greater depth, breadth, and regularity by more individuals and organizations.

It has become abundantly clear to more people that the charter school sector is riddled with too many serious difficulties to hide. The consequences of these problems are just too severe to deny.

In this context, some “leaders” in the fractured crisis-prone charter school sector have remained hidebound, arrogant, and dogmatic, nonchalantly ignoring endless valid criticisms and simply chugging along as if everything is hunky dory.

Others in the charter school sector have feigned concern and expressed an ostensible desire to “acknowledge problems” and “improve.” The hope is to fool the gullible by recasting the heavily tarnished image of these deregulated schools so as to prettify them and counteract growing resistance to them.

But can a charter school not be a charter school?

As a general rule, state laws deliberately and consciously establish charter schools as entities (performance-based contracts) that are destined to have all the problems that they have. Charter schools are deregulated, deunionized, and privatized by conscious design. They are not public schools, no matter how often one claims they are.

The problem is not that charter schools are not living up to their “original promise,” but that they are doing exactly what they have always been carefully set up to do: function as pay-the-rich schemes in the context of a continually failing economy and discredited political system.

Nonprofit and for-profit charter schools have always been neoliberal through CONTINUE READING: Don’t Be Charter-Fooled | Dissident Voice

Teacher credentials come in for tough grading as California rethinks charter school rules | CALmatters

Teacher credentials come in for tough grading as California rethinks charter school rules | CALmatters

Teacher credentials come in for tough grading as CA rethinks charter school rules

Heather Williams knew as a kid that she wanted to be a piano teacher. She earned her music degree with a piano emphasis from Brigham Young University and spent decades honing her craft.

Today she not only runs her own academy near Sacramento, offering private lessons with a special certification in the Suzuki Method of instruction, but also teaches in public schools, though she lacks a state teaching credential.

How? Via a loophole that lets charter schools skip some of the credentialing required of teachers in traditional public school classrooms. The exception has allowed Williams to offer music instruction to homeschool charter students and to group classes in brick-and-mortar charters such as the Sacramento-based California Montessori Project network.

Proponents say it encourages enrichment in that privately-run sector of the public school system. In recent months, however—like many state rules that apply to charters—it has drawn legislative attention. And influential lawmakers say it could be on its way out.

Whether all teachers should need a state credential to teach has long been debated. In California, the answer has been “yes” for teachers in traditional public schools.

But California law grants charter schools “flexibility” in credentialing requirements for teachers assigned to classes outside of the “core” subjects of math, reading, science and social studies, as well as “college prep” courses such as Advanced Placement.

Charter advocates and local school officials say the ability to expand limited applicant pools to include, say, professional artists, helps ensure a breadth of course offerings in areas such as dance, theater and music.

But charter school critics say the exception has been abused, and that standards need to be clarified to ensure that CONTINUE READING: Teacher credentials come in for tough grading as California rethinks charter school rules | CALmatters

Should Non-Citizen Parents Be Allowed To Vote In LAUSD School Board Elections?: LAist

Should Non-Citizen Parents Be Allowed To Vote In LAUSD School Board Elections?: LAist

Should Non-Citizen Parents Be Allowed To Vote In LAUSD School Board Elections?

Los Angeles Unified School Board members each represent thousands of constituents who have a direct stake in the success of the district's schools but who cannot currently vote: parents who are not American citizens.

In a few weeks, though, the board may take a first step toward giving all parents — including those living in the U.S. without legal authorization — a right to vote in school board elections.

LAUSD board member Kelly Gonez formally introduced a resolution last week that proposes exploring a possible measure on the 2020 ballot that would open future LAUSD board elections to "all parents, legal guardians, or caregivers of a child residing within the boundaries of Los Angeles Unified."

"Those parents and guardians have an equal stake in the education of their children," Gonez said, "and I believe they should have a say in who represents them on the school board and who votes on their behalf."

WHEN MIGHT THIS HAPPEN?

The board will take up Gonez's resolution in August. If approved after the board's summer break, the resolution directs district staff to present possible ballot language within 60 days along with "strategies for assuring the confidentiality of the right to vote and assuaging fears of retaliation due to immigration status."

Gonez said the timing of her resolution will allow board members to simultaneously consider two proposals to broaden LAUSD's voting base. The board has already moved to explore giving 16- and 17-year-olds a vote in LAUSD elections.

HOW MANY NON-CITIZENS COULD THEORETICALLY REGISTER?

It's hard to say precisely.

LAUSD — like many school districts — doesn't track the citizenship status of the roughly 570,000 children who attend public schools within its boundaries, including charter schools. The same legal cases that require public schools to educate all students no matter their immigration status also limit districts' ability to ask about it, since prying questions might discourage parents from enrolling their children in school.

Statewide estimates show more than 320,000 school-aged children in California are living in the U.S. without legal permission — the equivalent of 5% of the state's K-12 enrollment. But a larger percentage of California's students — about 1 in 8 — have at least one parent who isn't authorized to live in the U.S.

HAS ANYONE ELSE DONE THIS?

If ultimately enacted, LAUSD would join the San Francisco Unified School District in extending CONTINUE READING: Should Non-Citizen Parents Be Allowed To Vote In LAUSD School Board Elections?: LAist

Why many school districts are being set up for fiscal failure | Salon.com

Why many school districts are being set up for fiscal failure | Salon.com

Why many school districts are being set up for fiscal failure
One urban district faces an especially steep climb out of the abyss of oppressive rule

Former vice president and current presidential hopeful Joe Biden recently caught a lot of flak for saying if President Trump were to be booted out of office, politics would go back to being sane again. He then suggested that his history of being “civil” with avowed segregationists was an asset worthy of the presidency. Biden’s critics were right to point out his “nostalgia” ignores the assault on democracy that occurred during those mythical “good times” before Trump, and a more important concern is whether years of systemic corruption and intransigence toward democracy have become so ingrained that government of the people, by the people, and for the people is no longer possible.

That very concern is currently being tested in an arena long regarded as the foundation of democracy itself — the nation’s public schools. Currently, numerous urban school districts around the country are returning to local democratic control after years of authoritarian, and often corrupt, rule by their respective state governments. In New Orleans, Philadelphia, Detroit, Newark, and elsewhere, school districts that have spent

years under the thumb of state-appointed boards and managers are transitioning to public control through either democratically elected boards or boards appointed by an elected mayor.CONTINUE READING: Why many school districts are being set up for fiscal failure | Salon.com

Consent, Policing, and School Safety | radical eyes for equity

Consent, Policing, and School Safety | radical eyes for equity

Consent, Policing, and School Safety

A recent controversy at an Arizona Starbucks spurred anger across social media:

Starbucks on Sunday apologized after an employee at one of its stores in Tempe, Arizona, asked six police officers to leave or move out of a customer’s line of sight, triggering social media backlash.

The officers had visited the store on July 4 and had paid for the drinks, before one company employee approached them about a customer not feeling safe because of the police presence, the Tempe Officers Association said on Twitter.

Conservative pro-police voices called for a boycott of Starbucks, and eventually, the company issued an apology.

The outrage toward customers in Starbucks finding the presence of police officers intimidating is a uniquely American response, but not one common to all Americans.

Several months ago, I was having a late dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant after I finished teaching an evening course at my university. Just as I was eating chips with salsa and drinking the XX I ordered, in walked four officers with the county K-9 unit.

These men were typically outfitted like militia—several visible weapons and fatigues. They were dressed for war—not to serve and protect.

I was deeply uncomfortable when they sat beside me; in fact, I always find armed police officers intimidating because they have guns.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

For many years now, U.S. police forces have become more and more militarized, through training and acquiring equipment from the military.

The uncomfortable Starbuck’s customers are, in fact, embodiments of what research shows about heavily armed and antagonistic police forces—especially when compared to London policing, which is grounded in policing by consent from 1829:

1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
2. To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their CONTINUE READING: Consent, Policing, and School Safety | radical eyes for equity

Did Jeb Bush Choose Your District’s Superintendent? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Did Jeb Bush Choose Your District’s Superintendent? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Did Jeb Bush Choose Your District’s Superintendent?

Jeb Bush created an organization called Chiefs for Change, whose original membership consisted of state superintendents who shared Jeb’s ideas: high-stakes testing, evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students, school grades of A-F, and school choice (charters and vouchers).

Chiefs for Change has now become a clearinghouse for district superintendents.

You can be sure that anyone recommended by Chiefs for Change is dedicated to disrupting and privatizing your district.

Here are some of the district superintendents that Chiefs for Change points to with pride.

Lewis Ferebee, the new Superintendent of the schools of the District of Columbia.

Susana Cordova, the new Superintendent of the Denver CONTINUE READING: Did Jeb Bush Choose Your District’s Superintendent? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jersey Jazzman: Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Jersey Jazzman: Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Peter Green has a smart piece (as usual) about Elizabeth Warren's position on accountability testing. Nancy Flanagan had some smart things to say about it (as usual) on Twitter. Peter's piece and the back-and-forth on social media have got me thinking about testing again -- and when that happens these days, I find myself running back to the testing bible: Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing:

"Evidence of validity, reliability, and fairness for each purpose for which a test is used in a program evaluation, policy study, or accountability system should be collected and made available." (Standard 13.4, p. 210, emphasis mine)

This statement is well worth unpacking, because it dwells right in the heart of the ongoing debate about "high-stakes testing" and, therefore, influences even the current presidential race.

A core principle of psychometrics is that the evaluation of tests can't be separated from the evaluation how their outcomes will be used. As Samuel Messick, one of the key figures in the field, put it:

"Hence, what is to be validated is not the test or observation device as such but the inferences derived from test scores or other indicators -- inferences about score meaning or interpretation and about the implications for action that the interpretation entails." [1] (emphasis mine)

He continues:

"Validity always refers to the degree to which empirical evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of interpretations and actions based on test scores." [1] (emphasis mine)

I'm highlighting "actions" here because my point is this: You can't fully judge a test without considering what will be done with the results.

To be clear: I'm not saying items on tests, test forms, grading rubrics, scaling procedures, CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Peter Greene: Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

This is part of the value of having a clown car full of candidates for a Presidential primary: the contest becomes a primary of ideas, and certain notions gain traction by spreading across the field of candidates. Not that gaining traction means those ideas will ultimately prevail (a widespread notion among the 2016 GOP field was that Donald Trump was unfit to be President), but it's still an intriguing process.

One up-and-coming education policy idea that was first proposed by Elizabeth Warren, but has now garnered wider candidate support, is the notion that a teacher should be the next secretary of education. At last count, four major candidates were supporting some version of the idea. It's an arresting and appealing idea. Betsy DeVos is widely seen as a controversial opponent of public education, and in many education circles, predecessors like Arne Duncan were not much loved, either. Many teachers feel that the folks in DC just don't get it, so the idea of someone from the trenches who would, presumably, get it--well, it's an attractive idea. Now we have to ask--is it a good idea?

The devil, as always, is in the details. The idea has been expressed variously as appointing an educator, a public school teacher, or CONTINUE READING: Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World – Wrench in the Gears

Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World – Wrench in the Gears

Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World

It was time to say good-bye to the chinstrap penguin. The paper mache model had kept watch over a corner of my sewing room for years, but with our child moving on to college and evidence of flour-beetles impossible to ignore, its time had come. It was an endearing second-grade project, now a decade old. It was the kind of project many of us remember; you know, the ones that start out scrambling around the back of a closet in search of a shoebox? Today, hands-on, creative projects have largely been cast aside in favor of online learning modules that tout their test score-boosting efficacy. There were many thoughts running through my head as I placed the bug-eaten model into the trash that day.

A day or so later, I happened to read a CommonWealth article in which Jeff Riley, education commissioner of Massachusetts, laid out a “radical center” vision for public education outlined in the report “Our Way Forward: For Massachusetts K12 Public Education.” The media outlet, a mouthpiece for privatization interests, framed the piece to appeal to teachers and parents beleaguered by decades of harmful ed-reform policies. There was talk of an unhealthy fixation on test scores, the need for a rich curriculum, and incentivizing teachers to create “innovative” lessons. I sensed a trap, and that trap was “deeper learning” and “project-based learning.”

In the article Riley also spoke of expanding assessments beyond English and math and of new “performance tasks.” His proposal touted adoption of “smart” technology, flexible career pathways, and perhaps most troubling, tracking and measuring “skills and dispositions” for future employers. The need for increased public funding was downplayed, though the possibility CONTINUE READING: Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World – Wrench in the Gears

Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts

Christine Langhoff, retired teacher and education activist in Massachusetts, describes the power elite in the Bay State. After losing the charter referendum in 2016 by 68-32%, they keep pursuing ways to bypass the voters.

Massachusetts has 3 Walton-connected members of the state board of education, appointed by the governor, who was formerly the executive director of The Pioneer Institute. The Pioneers are funded by the Kochs and State Policy Network (worth checking out, as they like to fly under the radar). The Pioneers are affiliated with ALEC. The secretary of education, Jim Peyser, formerly ran Pioneer and in between serving Republican administrations in MA, he also ran Education Next, which posted this bio:

“Jim Peyser is Managing Partner for City Funds at NewSchools Venture Fund, a non-profit grant-making firm that seeks to transform public education by supporting innovative education entrepreneurs. In this role, Jim leads NewSchools investment activity in Boston, Newark and Washington, DC. From 1999 through 2006, Jim served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Prior to joining NewSchools, Jim was Education Advisor to two Massachusetts Governors, where he helped shape state policy regarding standards and assessments, school accountability, and charter schools. In 1995, he served as Under Secretary of Education and Special Assistant to the Governor for Charter Schools. He spent more than seven years as Executive Director of Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, where he helped to launch the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center, which supported the CONTINUE READING: Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts | Diane Ravitch's blog

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups 

 Wejoinin - https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/makgd

We are inviting you to join us in a focus group to provide input on LAUSD’s draft School Performance Framework—a tool intended to inform educators and families on how schools are performing. It is our goal that this new tool will provide comprehensive data including student growth, transparent ratings that allow comparisons across schools beyond the state dashboard, and alignment with district values of equity and inclusion. We are seeking to engage with a variety of parents, principals, and community stakeholders in the process to ensure this tool meets the needs of our communities. We would greatly appreciate your input as part of the process.

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

Breakfast and refreshments will be provided.

Monday, July 8th 12:30PM – 2:30PM

Location: Office of Parent Community Services

Address: 1360 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles CA 90026


Tuesday, July 9th 9:30AM – 11:30AM

Location: Local District Northwest

Address: 6621 Balboa Boulevard, Van Nuys, CA 91406


Wednesday, July 10th 1:30PM – 3:30PM (Translated in Spanish)

Location: Office of Parent Community Services

Address: 1360 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles CA 90026


Thursday, July 11th 4:30PM - 6:15PM (Dinner provided)

Location: Office of Parent Community Services

Address: 1360 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles CA 90026


LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3) | Dissident Voice

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3) | Dissident Voice

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3)

Irrationalism and disinformation manifest themselves in endless ways. While both have intensified greatly in the neoliberal period which began in the late 1970s, the public should brace for even more of both. The obsolete forces who have long benefitted from an outdated economic system that cannot provide for the needs of the people will surely sustain a massive onslaught of irrationalism and disinformation in an attempt to preserve their class power and privilege while keeping people disempowered and disoriented. They see no alternatives to anachronistic arrangements in society and its institutions.

In Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them: Part 1 (November 2018), I highlighted some of the forms of confusion promoted by neoliberals, privatizers, and corporate school reformers in order to block people from concluding that nonprofit and for-profit charter schools are detrimental and must be opposed.

Seven months later, in Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them: Part 2 (June 2019), I highlighted a different offshoot of the forms of confusion highlighted in Part 1.

The core of all these different types of confusion typically takes the form of detailing many damning and indicting problems with charter schools, while still managing to find a convoluted and bizarre way to support them. It is essentially poorly-disguised support for privately-operated charter schools.

In this article, Part 3, I address yet another form of charter school disinformation distorting consciousness, harming the public interest, and enabling school privatization.

In a July 2, 2019 article in the Hechinger Report revealingly titled, “Charter schools aren’t a radical solution and neither is blaming them: Slamming charters won’t address systemic inequality or put families to work.”  Andre Perry correctly notes that social and economic problems; e.g., racism and CONTINUE READING: Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3) | Dissident Voice

Big Education Ape: NYC Educator: Bill de Blasio Offers Valuable Lip Support Against Privatization - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/07/nyc-educator-bill-de-blasio-offers.html

Ed Notes Online: The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books

Ed Notes Online: The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone

The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books
features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone

Now that the ISO has disbanded, its veterans can reach into the rapidly growing ideologically diffuse world of Democratic Socialists of America, using platforms like Socialism 2019 to infect DSA’s youthful core with the imperial politics of regime change – but always “from the left,” and always “from below.”   ....The Grayzone

There were estimates that 300 former ISOers were at the socialist conference in Chicago. Here's an article that raises important issues about sectors of the left and how some organized groups operate. Note this excerpt which has relevance to events that occurred in MORE since the leaders of the split came from ISO, Solidarity and people they recruited from the Democratic Socialists.

This March, the ISO voted to dissolve — in a decision some former members joked was the most democratic act ever undertaken by the organization, which had been dominated by an unelected leadership of veteran Trotskyite activists.
The dissolution was prompted by evidence that the ISO’s steering committee mishandled sexual assault allegations. It also came as the ISO’s membership was shrinking and rapidly being absorbed by a newly burgeoning anti-communist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA.
Now that the ISO has dissolved, some of its past prominent members have entered the ranks of the DSA, burrowing from within to inject their anti-anti-imperialist politics into the group.
Because Trotskyites are so sectarian and notoriously incapable of holding together organizations, they are infamous for infiltrating larger, more popular groups and trying to take them over, in a tactic known as entryism. 
This is precisely the strategy being used by former members of the ISO — and by another tiny US Trotskyite organization, Solidarity, which was led by anti-Nicaragua regime-change activist and Socialism Conference speaker Dan La Botz, now a leader in DSA.
Democratic Socialists of America is the largest self-described socialist organization in the United States, with more than 60,000 card-carrying members. It is also very heterogeneous, with many internal contradictions and conflicting political views.

I joined DSA and have some hopes they can be a counter force to the Democratic Party machine as I've been reporting. But I CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone