Shawgi Tell: Charter School Advocates Are Hypocritical and Out-of-Touch | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Are Hypocritical and Out-of-Touch | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Are Hypocritical and Out-of-Touch

On Monday, October 21, 2019, democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren issued her plan for K-12 public education.

In it, she outlines her opposition to charter schools. A brief excerpt from a section of the plan titled, Combating the Privatization and Corruption of Our Public Schools, states:

To keep our traditional public school systems strong, we must resist efforts to divert public funds out of traditional public schools. Efforts to expand the footprint of charter schools, often without even ensuring that charters are subject to the same transparency requirements and safeguards as traditional public schools, strain the resources of school districts and leave students behind, primarily students of color. Further, inadequate funding and a growing education technology industry have opened the door to the privatization and corruption of our traditional public schools. More than half of the states allow public schools to be run by for-profit companies, and corporations are leveraging their market power and schools’ desire to keep pace with rapidly changing technology to extract profits at the expense of vulnerable students. 

Not surprisingly, this important statement generated great ire from supporters of privately-operated charter schools. For example, Amy Wilkins, senior vice president of advocacy at the National Alliance for Public Charter CONTINUE READING: Charter School Advocates Are Hypocritical and Out-of-Touch | Dissident Voice

Charter Schools Cherry Pick Students & Call it Choice – PART 2: The “EVERYONE’S DOING IT!” Excuse | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter Schools Cherry Pick Students & Call it Choice – PART 2: The “EVERYONE’S DOING IT!” Excuse | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter Schools Cherry Pick Students & Call it Choice – PART 2: The “EVERYONE’S DOING IT!” Excuse

“Got school choice?” asks a charter school supporter.

But who exactly is she addressing – families or charter school operators?

Because it is the later group who is offered choice by school privatization – not parents, families or students.

Billionaire investors and charter school managers answer, “Heck yeah – we’ve got school choice! We get to choose to take your tax dollars but not your child!”

As we’ve seen in Part 1 of this article, charter schools unequivocally cherry pick the children who get to enroll there.

These institutions are funded by tax dollars but privately managed – and the private interests who run them get to decide how to spend that money with little oversight or strings attached. As businesses, they can increase their bottom line by letting in only the easiest kids to teach.

This is not opinion. It is fact.

Admittedly, every single charter school in the country is not guilty of this crime. Yet CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools Cherry Pick Students & Call it Choice – PART 2: The “EVERYONE’S DOING IT!” Excuse | gadflyonthewallblog

Education Votes

Home - Education Votes

 Education Votes

Educators running in 2019 eager to fight for public schools

by Amanda Menas / 17h

By Amanda Menas Educators stepped up to run for office in record numbers in the 2018 midterm elections. That trend has continued through 2019 as teachers, administrators, and support staff are running across the country for state offices. Looking to flip key districts, educators are running to support their students and advocate for public schools. … The post appeared first on Education Votes .

Push for census funding for our students’ sake

by Shumway Marshall / 17h

Funding for next year’s census is among the key issues still to be decided as Congress struggles to finalize spending bills for FY2020, which began Oct. 1. The census is vitally important to America’s students because it determines the allocation of billions of dollars in federal funding for public education, including Title I schools serving … The post appeared first on Education Votes .

Support the Voting Rights Advancement Act

by Shumway Marshall / 17h

The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 (H.R. 4), passed by the House Judiciary Committee last week, would once again require states and localities with histories of voter discrimination to seek approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before making any changes in their election laws. The measure is a direct response to the Supreme … The post appeared first on Education Votes .

NEA members discuss homework gap and immigration with Congress

by Shumway Marshall / 20h

Members of Congress featured NEA members’ views on two key issues: access to digital resources in rural areas and the harmful impact of immigration raids. Anthony Angelini, a teacher at New Oxford Middle School in Pennsylvania, stressed the importance of high-speed internet and the role of E-Rate in bringing it to rural areas at an … The post appeared first on Education Votes .

OCT 23

CANDIDATE COMPARISON: Where do presidential hopefuls stand on gun laws?

200+by Amanda Litvinov / 2d

By Amanda Menas In the wake of a record number of school shootings in 2018 and a string of recent mass shootings in communities across the U.S., students and educators are among the millions of Americans pushing elected leaders to 

Home - Education Votes

Political arm of charter-friendly group The City Fund has $15 million — and is now spending on school board races

Political arm of charter-friendly group The City Fund has $15 million — and is now spending on school board races

Political arm of charter-friendly group The City Fund has $15 million — and is now spending on school board races

The political arm of The City Fund, the organization with ambitions to spread charter schools and the “portfolio model” of school reform across the country, plans to spend $15 million to influence state and local elections over the next three years.

That political group, known as Public School Allies, has already directed money toward to school board races in Atlanta, Camden, Newark, and St. Louis, and  state elections in Louisiana, Georgia, and New Jersey. Donations have ranged from $1 million to as little as $1,500.

The information was shared by Public School Allies and, in a number of cases, confirmed by campaign finance records. The $15 million comes from Netflix founder Reed Hastings and former hedge-fund manager John Arnold, the organization said.

“Public School Allies believes deeply in supporting local leaders running for office who share our belief in the need to create higher quality public school systems across our country,” Gary Borden, Public School Allies’ managing director, said in a statement.

The spending offers a window into the strategy of The City Fund, which has been relatively tight-lipped about its work since it launched in 2018. So far, most of the candidates Public School Allies has supported have won their races — illustrating how relatively small donations can have significant influence in elections with low turnout and limited spending.

“School board races have traditionally been very low visibility,” said Rebecca Jacobson CONTINUE READING: Political arm of charter-friendly group The City Fund has $15 million — and is now spending on school board races

Can An Ethically Challenged School Board Member Pass Judgement On Others?

Can An Ethically Challenged School Board Member Pass Judgement On Others?

Can An Ethically Challenged School Board Member Pass Judgement On Others?

District and Personal Integrity. To maintain our integrity, we are committed to making decisions in the best interests of the District. We will avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety.”– LAUSD Employee Code of Ethics

Included on the agenda for the morning meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Board was an item described as “Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release.” For grassroots activists fighting against the privatization of public education, it was ironic that Board Member Nick Melvoin would participate in this conversation given the ethics violations that were revealed by the publication of confidential California Charter School Association (CCSA) documents by Michael Kohlhaas dot org. Before the board retreated into closed session, these parents and grandparents of students enrolled in the district expressed their concerns by reading portions of these charter industry documents into the public record:

Regarding employee dismissals, item number two: should an attorney who is potentially in violation of California Bar Association professional and ethical codes be deciding on the performance of LAUSD employees? Many have suggested that at the very least Nick Melvoin should CONTINUE READING: Can An Ethically Challenged School Board Member Pass Judgement On Others?

NOLA School Admin’s Book-Cooking, “Fix Your Gradebook” Email | deutsch29

NOLA School Admin’s Book-Cooking, “Fix Your Gradebook” Email | deutsch29

NOLA School Admin’s Book-Cooking, “Fix Your Gradebook” Email

New Orleans-based Abramson Sci Academy advertises itself as follows:

Abramson Sci Academy is one of the highest performing open-enrollment high schools in New Orleans. More than 98% of Sci Academy’s seniors received acceptances to college. College acceptances include LSU, Dillard, Bard College, Notre Dame, University of Louisiana Lafayette, Tulane, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Loyola, Morehouse, Xavier, and Amherst.

On October 22, 2019, WWL-TV reported on an email sent by Abramson Sci Academy assistant principal, Whitney Omosefe, to certain teachers whose class grades did not reflect preferred percentage outcomes.

The subject line of the email read, “Fix your gradebook.”

I wanted to read the email and teacher responses for myself, and on October 24, 2019, I submitted a public records request to Abramson Sci Academy. However, I have not received even an acknoledgement from the records custodian, so I searched articles on the incident to see if any linked to the actual emails. The closest I came was the aforesaid WWL-TV article, which includes a video with images of the October 03, 2019, email, sent by Omosefe to numerous teachers.

My goal in seeking the actual email was to offer the full text to my readers.

Below is Omosefe’s complete, “fix your gradebook” email, trascribed using images offered in the WWL-TV video, also linked below.

Date: 10/3/19 7:47PM
Re: fix your gradebook

Hey, Ms. —-

Because the quarter is almost over, I’m taking a close look at gradebook CONTINUE READING: NOLA School Admin’s Book-Cooking, “Fix Your Gradebook” Email | deutsch29

Choosing Democracy: Education Department"s Rip Off on Student Loans

Choosing Democracy: Education Department"s Rip Off on Student Loans

Education Department"s Rip Off on Student Loans

The Education Department’s Rip-Off Schemes Radicalize Its Own Staff

Billionaire daughter-in-law to the Amway fortune Betsy DeVos probably contracts with the U.S. Mint to exclusively reissue $100,000 bank notes so she can light them on fire to light candles in her office. But she’ll have exactly one less, after a federal judge in San Francisco fined her exactly that amount, because the Education Department continues to collect on fraudulent loans issued to students of shady for-profit college network Corinthian Colleges.

Around 16,000 students have been affected by DeVos collecting on illegal loans, so that’s $6.25 each. Nevertheless, seeing any personal liability at all for an Education Department that not only failed to stop Corinthian from lying to students and saddling them with debt for worthless diplomas, but then kept trying to squeeze those students for unlawful payments, must offer at least a little solace. The Education Department resisted compensating Corinthian students at all, until they went on a debt strike. Under Arne Duncan, students ripped off by for-profit colleges were allowed to assert “defense to repayment” to get the loans canceled. 

That process moved at turtle-like speed, with only one-fifth of Corinthian students made whole by the time DeVos took over. She instituted hurdles to prevent loan forgiveness, which Judge Sallie Kim ruled unlawful. This ruling is stayed pending appeal, but DeVos’s department kept trying to collect loan payments anyway, despite the dispute. Three thousand borrowers made these payments. The Education Department even garnished wages on 1,800 students, which it had no right to acquire. 

Essentially nobody abused by Corinthian has had loans canceled during DeVos’s tenure. However, she has created momentum for mass loan forgiveness—inside her own department. A. Wayne Johnson, whom DeVos appointed as chief operating officer for the Office of Federal Student Aid, resigned this week, calling the system “fundamentally broken.” He’s now running for Senate (as a Republican) in Georgia, endorsing the cancellation of $50,000 in student-loan debt for every borrower, while adding a $50,000 tax credit for everyone who had already repaid their loans. This is a more robust student debt cancellation proposal than Elizabeth Warren’s (because it includes no means testing), from a Republican DeVos appointee who’s actually seen the student debt crisis up close. That’s how radicalizing it is. The way we finance higher education cannot sustain itself, and everyone to the left of Betsy Hundred Thousand DeVos ought to demand a reset.

Choosing Democracy: Education Department"s Rip Off on Student Loans

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Times Weighs in on NE Seattle School Board Races

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Times Weighs in on NE Seattle School Board Races

Times Weighs in on NE Seattle School Board Races

I’m not sure you can have a bigger contrast between the Seattle Times’ article about the Board race between Leslie Harris and Molly Mitchell versus this article about the other two races, both in the northend.  The Times is a lot more even-handed here and that’s what you should expect in this kind of article (unless one candidate is severely deficient in skills).

The Times points out that Rankin and Hampson have the support of the teachers’ union (actually the Board because the union membership didn’t vote).

The Times also accurately reports that Rankin and Hampson worked closely together on the SCPTSA.  The Times may not know but, as one reader points out, they both have kids at Eckstein.

The Times reports that Rankin is in favor of dismantling the Advanced Learning program as it currently operates but not HCC “entirely.”  Well, at this point HCC is the whole program. Spectrum was killed off and most schools have no ALO offerings.



In District 2, the Times puts it this way - Experience versus “youthful optimism.”

Here’s the meat of the Times’ discourse on the race:

Muñiz said she is the “product of all the programs Seattle Public Schools is trying to advocate for.”

“I have a really unique perspective coming from a Latinx community, coming from an LGBTQ community, an immigrant community,” she said.

That’s an interesting point from Muñiz as Director Zachary DeWolf has made that point for younger representation on the Board as well as for LGBTQ students and staff. If Muñiz wins, the Board would have three members under CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Times Weighs in on NE Seattle School Board Races

Betsy DeVos’s truly awful week — by the headlines - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos’s truly awful week — by the headlines - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos’s truly awful week — by the headlines

By most any measure of an awful week, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos just had one.

To be sure, it’s not the first time DeVos has seen bad-news headlines.

There were the scornful ones that emerged from her January 2017 confirmation hearing, when she majorly fumbled testimony. For example, she expressed ignorance of the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, and in response to a question about whether guns belonged in schools, she referred to a school in Wyoming and said, “I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”

The Guardian’s headline: “Betsy DeVos suggests guns be allowed in schools threatened by grizzly bears.” And The Washington Post offered this: “Actually, Betsy DeVos, guns are a pretty lousy way to ward off grizzlies.” Comic Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t help himself: “Betsy DeVos Has A Very Good Reason To Fear Grizzly Bears.”

As bad as that was, the next month presented new, really bad headlines. That was when DeVos was confirmed by the Senate — but only, for the first time in U.S. history, after a vice president had to vote to break a tie.

More recently, there was the week this past March when she got excoriated for her defense of the Trump administration’s plan to end Special Olympics funding — even though it wasn’t her idea and it actually came from the White House’s budget office — and then saw President Trump reverse himself after she struggled to defend it for three days.

Forbes: “Why Betsy DeVos’ Proposal To Defund Special Olympics Is Problematic On Every Level.” CNBC: “Trump pledges to fund Special Olympics, reversing proposal by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos."

And then there was this week. Here are some of the DeVos headlines: CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos’s truly awful week — by the headlines - The Washington Post

Shanker Blog: A Problem Hiding In Plain Sight (Guest Post by Natalie Wexler) | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: A Problem Hiding In Plain Sight (Guest Post by Natalie Wexler) | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: A Problem Hiding In Plain Sight (Guest Post by Natalie Wexler)

Our guest author today is Natalie Wexler, an educational journalist who is a senior contributor to forbes.com and whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and other publications. This article is excerpted, with permission, from THE KNOWLEDGE GAP: The Hidden Cost of America’s Broken Education System—And How To Fix It.

In 1987, two researchers in Wisconsin, Donna Recht and Lauren Leslie, constructed a miniature baseball field and installed it in an empty classroom in a junior high school. They peopled it with four-inch wooden baseball players arranged to simulate the beginning of a game. Then they brought in sixty-four seventh- and eighth-grade students who had been tested both for their general reading ability and their knowledge of baseball.

The goal was to determine to what extent a child’s ability to understand a text depended on her prior knowledge of the topic. Recht and Leslie chose baseball because they figured lots of kids in junior high school who weren’t great readers nevertheless knew a fair amount about the subject. Each student was asked to read a text describing half an inning of a fictional baseball game and move the wooden figures around the board to reenact the action described.

Churniak swings and hits a slow bouncing ball towards the shortstop, the passage began. Haley comes in, fields it, and throws to first, but too late. Churniak is on first with a single, Johnson stayed on third. The next batter is Whitcomb, the Cougars’ left-fielder.

It turned out that prior knowledge of baseball made a huge difference in students’ ability to understand the text—more of a difference than their supposed reading level. The kids who knew little about CONTINUE READING: Shanker Blog: A Problem Hiding In Plain Sight (Guest Post by Natalie Wexler) | National Education Policy Center

THIS WEEK Education Research Report

Education Research Report

THIS WEEK 

Education Research Report

Only half of US children get enough sleep during the week

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 17h

IMAGE: Prevalence of childhood flourishing markers by hours of sleep on average weeknight, and adjusted odds ratio of childhood flourishing markers with sufficient sleep compared to insufficient sleep. view more Credit: Hoi See Tsao, MD, FAAP NEW ORLEANS, La. - Only 48% of school age children in the United States get 9 hours of sleep most weeknights, according to new research being presented at t

OCT 23

Variations in High School Course-Taking by Years-as-EL Subgroup

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

English learners (ELs) lag behind their peers in academic achievement and attainment, partly due to limited exposure to academic content. Prior studies that examine high school course-taking find significant course access gaps between ELs and non-ELs but provide little information on the relation between course-taking and time spent as an EL. This study improves upon previous research by addressi

The Effects of Full-Day Prekindergarten: Impacts on Children’s School Readiness

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

This study is a randomized control trial of full- versus half-day prekindergarten (pre-K) in a school district near Denver, Colorado. Four-year-old children were randomly assigned an offer of half-day (4 days/week) or full-day (5 days/week) pre-K that increased class time by 600 hours. The full-day pre-K offer produced substantial, positive effects on children’s receptive vocabulary skills (0.275

Overall time on social media is not related to teen anxiety and depression E

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

The amount of time teenagers spend on social networking sites has risen 62.5 percent since 2012 and continues to grow. Just last year, the average time teenagers spent on social media was estimated as 2.6 hours per day. Critics have claimed that more screen time is increasing depression and anxiety in teenagers. However, new research led by Sarah Coyne, a professor of family life at Brigham Young

OCT 22

Rethinking the role of technology in the classroom

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Preparing elementary school students for active citizenship in an increasingly digital world requires introducing them to the latest technologies, but engaging those same kids in the classroom and involving their parents and caregivers in the process is more than a matter of providing children with access to the latest electronic devices. Tablets and laptops have their educational virtues, accord

College leadership training programs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

How effective are college programs designed to train the next generation of leaders? A new study from psychologists at Rice University found they teach students about leadership, but additional measures are needed to evaluate how they impact students' real-life leadership skills. "The state of higher education leadership development program evaluation: A meta-analysis, critical review and recomme

Report Fails to Muster Solid Evidence to Support Vouchers

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

A recent Manhattan Institute report argues that the idea of what constitutes a “public” school should be expanded to include private schools that receive public funding. The report also contends that public funding for education should in fact be divided between traditional district public schools, charter schools, and private schools, with funding decisions based on student enrollment. Expansion

A new Policy Snapshot on Student Mental Health

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Knowing the importance of addressing students’ mental health needs, state policymakers are making efforts to improve school-based mental health services and supports through a variety of legislative measures. This study reports on 2019 state legislative activity to provide this new Policy Snapshot on Student Mental Health . State examples and links to enacted legislation are included.

OCT 21

Study finds no link between youth contact sports and cognitive, mental health problems

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Adolescents who play contact sports, including football, are no more likely to experience cognitive impairment, depression or suicidal thoughts in early adulthood than their peers, suggests a new University of Colorado Boulder study of nearly 11,000 youth followed for 14 years. The study, published this month in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine , also found that those who play sports ar

My Brother's Keeper? The Impact of Targeted Educational Supports

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

The My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Challenge developed by President Obama supports communities that promote civic initiatives designed to improve the educational and economic opportunities specifically for young men of color. In Oakland, California, the MBK educational initiative features the African American Male Achievement (AAMA) program. The AAMA focuses on regularly scheduled classes exclusively

The Effect of Course Shutouts on Community College Students: Evidence from Waitlist Cutoffs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

One frequently cited yet understudied channel through which money matters for college students is course availability- colleges may respond to budgetary pressure by reducing course offerings. Open admissions policies, binding class size constraints, and heavy reliance on state funding may make this channel especially salient at community colleges, which enroll 47% of U.S. undergraduates in public

National Evaluation of the Comprehensive Technical Assistance Centers

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

State education agencies have generally felt that the technical assistance provided by federal Comprehensive Centers has helped build their capacity to implement education policy, according to a new report. However, states also pointed to a few areas where Centers can improve, such as communicating how states can best use their services. The National Evaluation of the Comprehensive Centers Progra

State of the Period: The widespread impact of period poverty on US students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Complete report Background Period poverty affects menstruating individuals of all ages in communities throughout the United States. Menstrual equity is a question of equity in a broader sense, one that is vital for the health and 

Education Research Report