Damage control Mrs. Gates?

There is nothing more bitter to taste than platitudes and phony flattery from those who have already done so very much to undermine confidence in our teachers and public schools.

Now it's time for real teachers who refuse to succumb to high-stake­s testing, scripted teaching, standardiz­ation, and "merit" pay schemes to spit out the ed reform narrative and identify the deformers as the real status quo in the corruption of American public education.

Remarkable that in spite of power and wealth having every conceivabl­e advantage, including control of the media to shape public perception­, the ed reform narrative appropriat­ed by the chattering class is finally being subjected to some scrutiny.

Now we hear subtle shifts in the rhetoric of the ed deformers.

From NCLB to Race to the Top, you folks do not present an education plan but a business plan to corrupt a public good whose most treasured purpose is civic.

Here is irony. It is not poverty alone that has such devastatin­g consequenc­es on academic achievemen­t but the conditions that so often accompany poverty. The most profound need our huge population of disadvanta­ged children have is the deep need for meaningful­, lasting relationsh­ips with trusted adults who care about them in a personal way. And how can teachers give their students the time and attention they need when they are so damn busy being accountable to those of you who impose your will upon them in profoundly undemocratic ways without their consent?

You, the ed deformers and our gutless politician­s would give them a laptop, lots of tests, exploding class sizes, and revolving door teachers.

Want to help our public schools Mr. and Mrs. Gates? Drop out.

1) Teachers will have 50% of their evaluations based on student’s standardized test scores (FCATs).

This is effective immediately and impacts every teacher. Anyone who does not teach Reading or Math will receive a score based upon a calculation of all the teachers. So, to be clear, teacher’s salaries, their ability to be re-hired for one more year, their colleagues’ jobs and the opening or closing of your school itself all fall on the shoulders of that child taking that one test, that one day. How’s that for high stakes for the teachers?

2) This Merit Pay Bill was a moneyless bill.

Legislature admitted they have no money to fund the merit pay. (Yet they still claim they are ‘rewarding effective teachers!’)

3) New standardized tests will be created for every course taught- bill states 1,000 new tests to be created.

Important to note: The State does not fund the creation of these new tests. Each new test is estimated to be between $1M – $1.5M. Taxpayers will be burdened with this mandate.

I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans and this is a tough thing to say but I’m going to be really honest. The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better. And the progress that it made in four years since the hurricane, is unbelievable

A May 15, 2010, Report by the Institute on Race and Poverty, at the University
of Minnesota Law School commissioned by the Loyola Institute for Quality and Equity in Education has some interesting findings. The report is titled: "The State of Public Schools in Post Katrina New Orleans: The Challenge of Creating Equal Opportunity."

Some interesting findings:

The reorganization of the city's schools has created a separate but unequal tiered system of schools that steers a minority of students, including virtually all of the city's white students, into a set of selective,
higher performing schools and another group, including most of the city's students of color, into a group of lower performing schools. The extremely rapid growth of charter schools has not improved this pattern.

In the new system, public schools operate under five distinct governance structures that serve different student populations: Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) traditional public schools(which educate 7 percent of the city's students); OPSB charter schools (20 percent); Recovery School District (RSD) traditional public schools (36 percent); RSD charter schools (34 percent);and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) charter schools (2 percent).

In 2009, 87 percent of all white students in the city attended an OPSB or BESE charter school,while only 18 percent of black students did so. In contrast, 75 percent of blackstudents attended an RSD school (charter or traditional public) in 2009, compared to only 11 percent of white students.

Students of color were much more likely to attend a high poverty school than white students in these two sectors. For instance, in 2009, students of color in OPSB charter schools were nearly 12 times more likely to attend a high poverty OPSB school than white students.

The charter school sector in the city of New Orleans has been growing in a haphazard way in response to strong financial incentives and not because of their superior educational performance. The increasingly charterized public school system has seriously undermined equality of opportunity among public school students, sorting white students and a small minority of students ofcolor into better performing OPSB and BESE schools, while confining the majority of low income students of color to the lower performing RSD sector.

OPSB and BESE schools in the city provide some of the most advantageouseducational settings in the region. However, they do so mostly by skimming the easiest to educate students through selective admission requirements that allow them to set explicit academic standards for incomingstudents. They also shape their student enrollments by using their enrollment practices, discipline and expulsion practices, transportation policies, location decisions, and marketing and recruitment efforts. These practices certainly contribute to the selective student bodies and superior performance of these schools.

RSD charter schools still skim the most motivated public students in the RSD sector despite lacking the selective admission requirements OPSB and BESE charters have. They do so by using their enrollment practices, discipline and expulsion practices, transportation policies, location decisions, and marketing
and recruitment efforts. These practices almost certainly work to increase pass rates in RSD charters compared to their traditional counterparts.

As a result of rules that put RSD traditional schools at a competitive disadvantage, schools in this sector are reduced to schools of last resort. This sector continues to educate the hardest to-educate students in racially segregated, high poverty schools.

The new, post Katrina, public school system in New Orleans is becoming more and more reliant on charter schools. The sector grew rapidly as a result of the coordinated efforts of a number of charter school proponents, in response to strong financial incentives (from the federal government and the philanthropic
community), and not necessarily because of superior educational performance by charters.

As charter schools begin replacing traditional public schools at the district level through school conversions, parents, students, and teachers may be forced to choose a charter school because of the lack of high quality traditional public schools. In fact, this is already happening in parts of New
Orleans, where traditional public schools have not been reopened in the aftermath of Katrina. When charter schools become the only option, rather than being one among many, choice options are narrowed for students.

So the federal stimulus money that’s being offered now to the states is being offered on the condition that they raise charter school caps, that they tie teacher evaluations to students’ test scores, that they close what they call failing schools, that they turn them over to private turnaround operators. So we have a neoliberal project nationally, which was tested out in Chicago and then is now being pushed out nationally.

Yesterday, Judge Joan Lobis of the State Supreme Court ruled that Chancellor Klein's actions to close 19 schools were illegal and should be blocked.

The decision to close these schools has been met with tremendous protest from parents and teachers alike, because of the devastating effect on their children, their communities, and the public school system as a whole.

Neverthless, the Department of Education sent out a message late Friday that the high school admissions letters would go out anyway this weekend, excluding all the schools originally slated for closure.

That is, none of these schools would accept students, even those 8500 students who had listed these schools as one of their choices. Instead, they would receive another letter, "stating that, should the schools remain open, they may select one of them."

Clearly, Klein is trying to ignore the court decision and as a fait accompli, close these schools down no matter what the court says, by starving them of students.

This is similar stratagem to what he did when he lost the court case to close zoned neighborhood schools and replace them with charter schools , because he refused to ask for the mandated approval of the local Community Education Councils--- and then sent letters to all the parents at these schools anyway, recommending that they take their kids out of these schools.

If Klein goes ahead with this plan to send out acceptance letters without the schools he had proposed to close among them, he should be held in contempt of court and thrown in jail; not to mention disbarred.

The arrogance and hubris of those who run our schools never ceases to amaze, and their utter disregard for the views of parents, the law and the truth itself. They have gotten so used to having their way, no matter how arbitrary and irrational , that they act as though immune from all external limits.

The court decision is based on three, clear findings of fact:

1. The Educational Impact Statements required by law were cursory and inadequate. Specifically, they "failed to provide any meaningful information regarding the impacts on the students or the ability of the schools in the affected community to accommodate those students" shut out of these schools.

For example, they did not show where students enrolled in LYFE centers for students who are pregnant or those with small children might find similar programs targetted to their needs elsewhere.

2. Lack of public notice: the DOE failed to provide hard copies of these proposals to CECs, Community boards, Community superintendents, and SLTs. Simply posting them on the DOE website was insufficient.

3. Lack of community involvement: The DOE failed to hold joint hearings with the School Leadership Teams and Community Education Councils of the affected schools, as required by law. Some members of these groups were invited to participate in hearings after the fact; but even then, had no role in running the hearings or devising the way in which they would be held.

Unmentioned in any of the articles so far is that the court decision should nullify all the co-locations of charter schools and other schools approved by the Panel on Educational Policy over the last three months, because of similar deficiencies in the process.

Here is the statement we sent out yesterday, after the court decision was released:

Today’s court decision is an important step forward for the rule of law. It is also a confirmation of the necessity for a genuine public process to inform and improve arbitrary and rash decision-making at the Department of Education.

So far, the process has been a mockery; with no attempt to involve the parents in a meaningful way, or to provide the sort of careful analysis that should precede these critical decisions.

In January, Class Size Matters submitted detailed comments on the school closings, pointing out the utter inadequacy of the educational impact statements, here.

Department officials should take another look, perform the careful scrutiny required by law, and for once, involve the public in the process of decision-making, before taking such ill-considered and illegal actions.

If they did so, they would find that in many cases, it would be far better to support and improve these schools, rather than close them down.

It’s no wonder that many teachers, students and parents feel that public education is under assault in Florida.

Despite a growing chorus of opposition from teachers, students and even school superintendents, the Republican-dominated state Legislature is intent on passing a bill that would make eliminate teacher tenure, link teacher pay to student standardized test scores, and add a heap more tests on already test-plagued students.

Each one of those items will negatively impact every student in a Florida public school. But that’s not all.


Citing terrible budget constraints, legislators are trying to pull back on a decision voters made in a state referendum in 2002 that limited class size. Voters approved a plan for gradual reductions in class size until they reach no more than 18 for grades pre-K-3, 22 for grades 4-8, and 25 in high school.

But that’s not all.

Even though money is so tight, the Republican legislators somehow found money for private schools through tax-credit scholarships, and that bill is moving swiftly too.

With all this work to do, you might think the Florida legislators don’t have any more time to deal with lesser education issues. But you’d be wrong.

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, whose image has been frayed by a series of high-profile news controversies, is turning to former White House communications director and veteran Democratic media consultant Anita Dunn for help.

A D.C. schools spokeswoman confirmed Friday that the agency is negotiating a contract with Dunn's firm, Squier Knapp Dunn. The objective is to more effectively handle the heavy load of local and national news media attention that Rhee attracts and to help roll out major stories to greater strategic advantage. The spokeswoman said Dunn has devoted time to District school issues but would not elaborate.

I have graduated from Central Falls High School and now I am attending an Ivy League University. Every teacher I had at the high school helped get to where I am now. People can look at statistics all they want, but in reality they mean very little. Every teacher at Central Falls High school contributes to the development of the students and strives to help them succeed. From personal experience I know that they are more than happy to stay after school and help any student who needs help with anything. They are there to talk to not only about school matters, but also about personal problems. These teachers are more than educators, they are our family and no one has the right to take them away from our community

There is a method to his madness. Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein have initiated shut down or initiated the closing of more than 100 public schools, many of which have deep roots in their communities. No two situations are exactly alike. Nonetheless, here is a handy template to go by if you are a mayor who is eager to break up large public schools and hand over their buildings to privately run charter school operations, but don’t want to leave your fingerprints at the scene of the crime.

There is a method to his madness. Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein have initiated shut down or initiated the closing of more than 100 public schools, many of which have deep roots in their communities. No two situations are exactly alike. Nonetheless, here is a handy template to go by if you are a mayor who is eager to break up large public schools and hand over their buildings to privately run charter school operations, but don’t want to leave your fingerprints at the scene of the crime.

I've spent a lot of time in New Orleans and this is a tough thing to say but I'm going to be really honest. The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better. And the progress that it made in four years since the hurricane, is unbelievable.

Hurricane Katrina and Disaster Capitalism. It's all about the children, of course. My sense at the time was of mouths watering at the "opportunities" this disaster presented, with all the attendant rhetoric and posturing for poor children.

"Those children were being desperately underserved prior."

I don't doubt that. But it wasn't because the schools were public. Consider all the corruption and failure in the private sector. The ed reformers had absolutely no interest in rebuilding a truly public school system.

"And the amount of progress and the amount of reform we're seeing in a short amount of time has been absolutely amazing."

Maybe, but I wonder. Let's see, there are the Chicago and NYC market style miracles being laid bare as less than miraculous, to put it kindly. And let's not forget the "Houston Miracle", the foundation upon which NCLB was built. Manipulation, gaming, and corruption are the inevitable results of misusing standardized testing.

Now Race-to-the-Top bribery would attach even more life-altering consequences to the results of the tests. The name implies winners and losers but the children, teachers, and communities in the desperately hard-pressed states that accept this dirty money and manipulation of policy will simply be the greater losers.

RTTT is NCLB on steroids, with little if ANY research to support it. On the contrary, there is ample research to suggest it will continue to undermine rather than strengthen and improve public education. That's ed reform for ya, a continued golden goose of opportunism for big private interests, an oppressive and impoverished vision of education imposed on children and teachers.

Remember when Gerald Bracey pleaded with states to "Just Say No" to NCLB? If only they had. All fifty of them.

Resistance is building Arne, and it's long overdue.