This not local Florida teachers is who Rick Scott is turning too for help. -cpg
From the Huffington Post
by pete Zucker
Sorry if I am late for the party. I'm thinking back to September when I posted on Twitter about a speech Michelle Rhee had made at the Columbia Heights Education Campus in Washington DC.
Rhee before a gathering was recounting her early days as an educator and the miscues that we all have made. I recall, now with a smile, of sending thirty-five fifth graders to the closet at once at dismissal time.
According to audio made by Rhee at the CHEC and reported by Alexander Russo and the Washington Post, Rhee said she, "took little pieces of masking tapes and put them on everybody's lips." At this point in her story the crowd laughs. She goes on to explain that, "their skin is coming off and that they are bleeding," and the crowd still is laughing. This is just wrong.
So why after three months or so of this being reported am I finally sharing my two cents? I guess it is seeing the launching of MichelleRheefirst.org er, I meant, Studentsfirst.org. Even though what Michelle Rhee did can be attributed to inexperience, as an educator, and even more so as a parent, I am uncomfortable about this having happened.
But what has gotten me most riled up, gotten my gander up, has bunched up my Fruit of the Looms is that a close, close person to me in another state has been reassigned because he dared to joke about taping students mouths. Now don't get me wrong, it was stupid to joke in this way. No doubt about it. But it should not involve a police investigation.
I decided to Google past transgressions of teachers taping students mouths and wondered if these teachers were able to skate by as did Michelle Rhee. The names are not meant to "out" these teachers in no shape or form. These names, the accusations are widely available. It is only meant to "out" Michelle Rhee.
In 2008, Pamela Dahnke was terminated for taping a student's mouth shut. She was an eighth-grade health and nutrition teacher at Battle Ground Middle School in West Lafayette, Ind. Did she get the same treatment as Michelle Rhee?
In 2009, Laura Gatlin, a first grade teacher in Cleveland County, Ark. was accused of taping students mouth and to the chair. Her lawyer's comment is here. Has she been afforded the same accolades and laughter as Michelle Rhee?
In 2006, in Katy, Texas, Jennifer Silva reportedly taped some the mouths of several students. When the superintendent got wind, he notified her he would recommend she was terminated. Why was she recommended for termination yet, Michelle Rhee is seen as the savior of education?
Just earlier this year, a teacher was accused of duct taping a student's mouth in Mishawaka, Ind. This student has Asperger's syndrome. The website, care2.com reported, "There are certainly many creative things that people do with duct tape. But using it on a child's mouth, and on the mouth of a child on the autism spectrum, is (serious understatement) not one of them." Does this feel as vehement about what Michelle Rhee did and will care2.com lead the charge to make sure that Michelle Rhee is no longer near students?
And in January 2008, a well-liked Driscoll School, Brookline, MA, science teacher, Christopher Huggins , is out of a job last week after allegedly duct-taping a 12-year-old girl's mouth during class. Michelle Rhee is not well liked. Why isn't she removed from the entire scene?
In 2009, a first grade teacher at Spaulding Elementary School, Emily Metcalfe, in Townsend, Mass., used duct tape on several students' mouths. The principal was quoted as saying, "The superintendent went on to say that the teacher may have thought at first this was a joke, but that there was a lack of professional judgment." Didn't Michelle Rhee show a lack of judgment?
I am in no way condoning, nor condemning what these teachers had done. They have every single right to be proven guilty, not to prove their innocence. That is how the American system works. But, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially in light of Michelle Rhee's acknowledgment of what she has done and the education reformers sweeping it under the rug? Do these teachers not deserve the same benefit of the doubt and second chance that Michelle Rhee has received? No one in this country is above the law!
What is especially galling to me is that no one -- not Oprah, not Bill Gates, not any of the high falutin' power brokers that either interview Michelle Rhee, work with her, or pal around with her -- will bring this abuse of children up with her.
This is all too chilling and reminds me, and for those who are old enough, of when Richard Nixon appeared with David Frost in 1977 when Nixon uttered those famous words: "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-zucker/michelle-rhee-and-masking_b_801339.html
Showing posts with label Oprah Winfrey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oprah Winfrey. Show all posts
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Like Charter Schools or not, You are Paying for them
From the Dallas Morning News
by Terrance Chea
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — As cash-strapped school districts lay off teachers and close campuses, publicly funded charter schools are flourishing and altering the landscape of public education.
Despite a painful economic downturn, the charter school movement is expanding rapidly across the country with support from the Obama administration, wealthy donors such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, and the highly publicized documentary "Waiting for Superman."
Charter schools typically receive a mixture of public and private money and operate free of many regulations that govern traditional public schools in exchange for achieving promised results.
Nationwide, less than 4 percent of public school students are enrolled in charters, but that number is expected to rise significantly because of increased financial and political support.
More than a dozen states loosened restrictions on charters over the past year for a chance to win a share of the federal $4.3 billion Race to the Top school reform competition.
The number of charter schools grew by 6.7 percent to 4,936 in 2009-2010 and is projected to increase by 7.5 percent in the current school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The 2010-11 growth is expected to be dramatic in states such as Florida with a 12 percent increase, Illinois with a 14 percent rise and New York with a 20 percent jump, according to the association's projections.
"Families that have options are increasingly choosing charter schools over traditional schools," said Peter Groff, who heads the national association.
California saw a 15 percent increase, with a 115 new campuses despite budget woes that led to mass teacher layoffs and shuttered traditional schools, according to the California Charter School Association.
Many charter schools are boosting the academic achievement of disadvantaged students, but critics say charters siphon students and resources away from traditional public schools, result in greater racial segregation, block access to certain groups of students and operate without proper oversight.
"What we're seeing basically is an effort to impose deregulation and the free market into education," said Diane Ravich, an education historian at New York University. "The fascination with charters among philanthropists and Wall Street has diverted the attention away from tackling the hard problems of public education."
Charter schools are growing most rapidly in urban districts with struggling schools and large numbers of poor, minority students. In 16 districts, more than one in five public school students attend charters, with 36 percent in Detroit, 38 percent in Washington, D.C. and 61 percent in New Orleans, according to the national alliance.
Much of the growth is being driven by charter management organizations that have received multimillion-dollar grants from the Obama administration and foundations funded by philanthropists such as Gates, Charles Schwab, Eli Broad and Reed Hastings.
San Francisco-based KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, plans to double its national network of schools to 200 over the next decade.
Aspire Public Schools, California's largest charter school operator with 30 campuses, plans to open as many as 45 new campus over the next decade, said CEO James Willcox.
The Oakland-based nonprofit, which offers kindergarten through high school, was recently named one of the world's 20 most improved schools systems — one of only three in the U.S. — by the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. after producing impressive results on standardized tests.
Aspire officials say nearly all of its students are accepted at four-year colleges, and most are their first in their families to attend. They attribute that high rate to smaller schools and class sizes, a longer school day and school year, and its relentless "College for Certain" culture.
"Our entire program from kindergarten all the way through high school is geared toward getting youngsters to go to college and get a college degree," Willcox said.
At ERES Academy, an Aspire K-8 school in Oakland, every classroom is named after a college and students eat in University Hall.
Jorge Lopez, a senior at California College Preparatory Academy in Berkeley, said he didn't think college was possible for him before he came to the Aspire-run high school. He's now poised to be the first in his family to get a college education.
"Upon coming here I found out that college is where you want to be at," said Lopez, 17. "My parents tell me it's an honor that I'm leading the family, that I'm being an example for them."
But not all charter schools produce strong academic results.
A 2009 study by Stanford University found that only 17 percent of charter schools performed significantly better than traditional public schools while 37 percent performed worse and 46 percent showed no big difference.
A 2010 study by the UCLA-based Civil Rights Project found that charter schools tend to be more racially segregated than traditional schools.
"Charter schools are publicly funded schools, and we need to make sure students of all backgrounds have access to them," said study co-author Erica Frankenberg, an education professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Oakland Unified School District has seen a major expansion of charters over the past decade, when it spent years under state control because of financial mismanagement. The district is now home to more than 30 charter schools.
Betty Olson-Jones, head of the Oakland teachers union, complains many charters recruit top students and get rid of poor performers, boosting the schools' test scores and saddling traditional schools with a disproportionate number of students with disabilities, behavior problems and poor English language skills.
"You end up with schools that are filled with kids that are really struggling," Olson-Jones said.
http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/b6c334cfd6284371a1e338bf311d6c17/Article_2011-01-21-Charter%20School%20Boom/id-da93743e01034d408a74cadedf7366a3
by Terrance Chea
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — As cash-strapped school districts lay off teachers and close campuses, publicly funded charter schools are flourishing and altering the landscape of public education.
Despite a painful economic downturn, the charter school movement is expanding rapidly across the country with support from the Obama administration, wealthy donors such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, and the highly publicized documentary "Waiting for Superman."
Charter schools typically receive a mixture of public and private money and operate free of many regulations that govern traditional public schools in exchange for achieving promised results.
Nationwide, less than 4 percent of public school students are enrolled in charters, but that number is expected to rise significantly because of increased financial and political support.
More than a dozen states loosened restrictions on charters over the past year for a chance to win a share of the federal $4.3 billion Race to the Top school reform competition.
The number of charter schools grew by 6.7 percent to 4,936 in 2009-2010 and is projected to increase by 7.5 percent in the current school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The 2010-11 growth is expected to be dramatic in states such as Florida with a 12 percent increase, Illinois with a 14 percent rise and New York with a 20 percent jump, according to the association's projections.
"Families that have options are increasingly choosing charter schools over traditional schools," said Peter Groff, who heads the national association.
California saw a 15 percent increase, with a 115 new campuses despite budget woes that led to mass teacher layoffs and shuttered traditional schools, according to the California Charter School Association.
Many charter schools are boosting the academic achievement of disadvantaged students, but critics say charters siphon students and resources away from traditional public schools, result in greater racial segregation, block access to certain groups of students and operate without proper oversight.
"What we're seeing basically is an effort to impose deregulation and the free market into education," said Diane Ravich, an education historian at New York University. "The fascination with charters among philanthropists and Wall Street has diverted the attention away from tackling the hard problems of public education."
Charter schools are growing most rapidly in urban districts with struggling schools and large numbers of poor, minority students. In 16 districts, more than one in five public school students attend charters, with 36 percent in Detroit, 38 percent in Washington, D.C. and 61 percent in New Orleans, according to the national alliance.
Much of the growth is being driven by charter management organizations that have received multimillion-dollar grants from the Obama administration and foundations funded by philanthropists such as Gates, Charles Schwab, Eli Broad and Reed Hastings.
San Francisco-based KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, plans to double its national network of schools to 200 over the next decade.
Aspire Public Schools, California's largest charter school operator with 30 campuses, plans to open as many as 45 new campus over the next decade, said CEO James Willcox.
The Oakland-based nonprofit, which offers kindergarten through high school, was recently named one of the world's 20 most improved schools systems — one of only three in the U.S. — by the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. after producing impressive results on standardized tests.
Aspire officials say nearly all of its students are accepted at four-year colleges, and most are their first in their families to attend. They attribute that high rate to smaller schools and class sizes, a longer school day and school year, and its relentless "College for Certain" culture.
"Our entire program from kindergarten all the way through high school is geared toward getting youngsters to go to college and get a college degree," Willcox said.
At ERES Academy, an Aspire K-8 school in Oakland, every classroom is named after a college and students eat in University Hall.
Jorge Lopez, a senior at California College Preparatory Academy in Berkeley, said he didn't think college was possible for him before he came to the Aspire-run high school. He's now poised to be the first in his family to get a college education.
"Upon coming here I found out that college is where you want to be at," said Lopez, 17. "My parents tell me it's an honor that I'm leading the family, that I'm being an example for them."
But not all charter schools produce strong academic results.
A 2009 study by Stanford University found that only 17 percent of charter schools performed significantly better than traditional public schools while 37 percent performed worse and 46 percent showed no big difference.
A 2010 study by the UCLA-based Civil Rights Project found that charter schools tend to be more racially segregated than traditional schools.
"Charter schools are publicly funded schools, and we need to make sure students of all backgrounds have access to them," said study co-author Erica Frankenberg, an education professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Oakland Unified School District has seen a major expansion of charters over the past decade, when it spent years under state control because of financial mismanagement. The district is now home to more than 30 charter schools.
Betty Olson-Jones, head of the Oakland teachers union, complains many charters recruit top students and get rid of poor performers, boosting the schools' test scores and saddling traditional schools with a disproportionate number of students with disabilities, behavior problems and poor English language skills.
"You end up with schools that are filled with kids that are really struggling," Olson-Jones said.
http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/b6c334cfd6284371a1e338bf311d6c17/Article_2011-01-21-Charter%20School%20Boom/id-da93743e01034d408a74cadedf7366a3
Friday, January 21, 2011
Education Matters calls for Oprah Winfrey Boycott
Perhaps the biggest appeal Oprah Winfrey has for her millions of fans is her every woman demeanor. She comes across as someone you could sit down and have coffee with, there is an innate connection. Unfortunately when it comes to education and what to do next Ms. Winfrey proves how disconnected she is.
Her stance on education reform puts her squarely in the billionaires for education reform, blame the teacher camp. Her solutions like theirs are punitive and seek to dismantle public schools. In effect whenever she talks about education she snubs her nose at the hundreds of thousands of hard working dedicated professionals nationwide and the children they teach too.
I think it is time we snubbed our noses back.
I think it’s time we said Ms. Winfrey when you want to talk about education bring teachers on your show, not billionaires like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckenberg, or public school hating film directors like David Guggenheim. Teachers more than them will have a better idea what works and what doesn’t. Even Oprah’s education idol Michelle Rhee only spent three years in a class room, before her running a Teach or America like program landed her the chancellorship of Washington D.C.s schools, of which I will add, her tenure was so polarizing that when the people of the capital voted for a new mayor in reality they were voting against her.
Oprah Winfrey has a powerful soap box which she could use for positive change but instead she has used it to denigrate teachers and public education. As a teacher I say enough and hope all other teachers and people who care about and believe in public schools will say enough as well
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Her stance on education reform puts her squarely in the billionaires for education reform, blame the teacher camp. Her solutions like theirs are punitive and seek to dismantle public schools. In effect whenever she talks about education she snubs her nose at the hundreds of thousands of hard working dedicated professionals nationwide and the children they teach too.
I think it is time we snubbed our noses back.
I think it’s time we said Ms. Winfrey when you want to talk about education bring teachers on your show, not billionaires like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckenberg, or public school hating film directors like David Guggenheim. Teachers more than them will have a better idea what works and what doesn’t. Even Oprah’s education idol Michelle Rhee only spent three years in a class room, before her running a Teach or America like program landed her the chancellorship of Washington D.C.s schools, of which I will add, her tenure was so polarizing that when the people of the capital voted for a new mayor in reality they were voting against her.
Oprah Winfrey has a powerful soap box which she could use for positive change but instead she has used it to denigrate teachers and public education. As a teacher I say enough and hope all other teachers and people who care about and believe in public schools will say enough as well
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
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