All you need to know about charter schools, hint, it is not pretty!

Warning, it is not pretty, click the link:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org//archive/28_01/28_01_karp.shtml

Arne “I never taught a day in my life” Duncan’s latest Gaffs.

Arne “I never taught a day in my life” Duncan continues to put his foot in his mouth. On a recent trip to Haiti he suggested one of their the things their education system needed was data systems,

One of the many needs here are clear data systems, having transparency, knowing basic things, like how many children we have, how many schools there are, how many teachers we have.  I think it’s so important that everybody be transparent and honest on the good, the bad and the ugly.

Notice he didn’t mention things like books, desks or even roofs, instead going straight to the need for data systems. I guess they can keep the data on abacuses because computers are in short supply too.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/06/what-arne-duncan-said-in-haiti/

Today however he turned his attention to suburban moms who are against the common core.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/16/arne-duncan-white-surburban-moms-upset-that-common-core-shows-their-kids-arent-brilliant/

That has to be it right; parents can’t be concerned with all the high stakes testing, the teachers who feel they are being rushed into a new system, or all the billions of dollars siphoned out of the classroom and into the bank accounts of testing companies.  No, none of those could be reasons why parents find themselves against common core.

I would say Duncan was a jackass but I don’t want to insult jackasses.

Corporate education reforms, vouchers, charter schools and common core take a beating!

Let’s start with Vouchers, from the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet: More trouble has cropped up for the D.C. school voucher program, the only federally funded program in the country that sends children to private school using public money to pay the tuition.

A new U.S. General Accountability Office report says that  the local agency that administers the program — which has used $152 million in federal funds since 2004 for more than 5,000 students from low-income families – lacks the “financial systems, controls, policies, and procedures” to ensure that federal funds are being spent legally. It also says the U.S. Education Department has not exercised its oversight responsibilities well enough.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/16/report-slams-d-c-s-federally-funded-school-voucher-program/

No good news about Charter Schools either. Two were called educational travesties and ordered to close in Ohio. From the Columbus Dispatch:  In a rare move, the state schools superintendent has ordered the shutdown of two brand-new Columbus charter schools — open for only a few weeks — because of conditions so unsafe they amounted to an “educational travesty.” 

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/10/18/Two_charter_schools_ordered

Sadly something like this happens about once a week in my home state of Florida.

Finally lets talk about Common Core, apparently it is set up so teachers will fail as the Teacher of the Year in New York State couldn’t even register a highly effective while teaching it. From the Diane Ravitch blog:  New York’s Teacher of the Year testified to the State Senate Education Committee that the education evaluation system made it impossible for her to be rated “highly effective” because of the “dysfunctional implementation” of the Common Core standards.

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/11/16/new-yorks-teacher-of-the-year-is-not-rated-highly-effective/

Corporate reform: A lack of financial oversight, charter schools not teaching and public school teaches set up to fail, sounds about right.

Smaller classes are only a waste for public schools

Gary Chartrand, Jeb Bush and the staff from ReDefined Ed (Jebs blog) often call the class size amendment a waste of money when they aren’t ignoring it when talking about Florida’s education improvement. 

They don’t like to mention that Jeb and Gary both sent their children to schools that tout smaller classes. You see for the rich and privileged it is essential but for the great-unwashed masses it’s a waste. 

ReDefined Ed recently ran a piece about why parents pick private schools. http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/11/survey-parents-pick-private-schools-based-learning-environment-test-scores/

Well friends it turns out smaller classes was the third most important reason why parents send their kids to private schools barely behind discipline and environment.

Did the redefined ed bash the private schools for wasting resources? Did they say lets just give the best teachers 7 more students and that will make parents happy? No, not at all.

So remember friends when ed Reformers talk about changing schools they aren’t talking about changing them into the types of schools they would ever consider sending their kids too.  

Alabama says "NO" to Common Core

From Alabama 13.com, by Ashley Roberts

The state of Alabama has opted out of participating in the Common Core English and mathematics standards. 

Last month, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tommy Bice proposed rescinding the 2009 Memorandum of Agreement with the National governor's Association and the Council for Chief State School Officers, "in an effort to reassure the public that Alabama remains in complete control of its academic standards," according to a news release.  

At this morning's meeting, the state board of education voted 7 to 2 to approve the resolution.

"The purpose of rescinding this MOA is to remove any remaining question about whether Alabama's standards in Math and English Language Arts were in fact a state initiated and a state-led effort," Bice said. "Both NGA and CCSSO simply provided the coordination needed to make the development process a reality."

"Some continue to see this collaborative relationship with NGA and CCSSO as one step in some federal overreach to state control of our academic standards," he said. "By rescinding the MOA, this removes the only signed agreement between Alabama, the NGA and CCSSO, even though it was executed solely for the development process only."

Bice has said this move does not "diminish Alabama's working relationship with NGA and CCSSO, who provide exceptional opportunities for states to work collaboratively on a wide variety of topics and policy issues."

"It affirms that the governance of our standards is retained by our Alabama State Board of Education as recommended through our state approved standards development, review and recommendation process," he added. "This was conducted by Alabama teachers, principals, college professors and appointees representing educational experts from throughout our state." 

Abolishing Common Core does away with the current state of Alabama graduation exam. According to the AP, the requirement for graduation is now passing all required courses. 

Comon Core is a state-led K-12 curriculum of English and math standards that aims to prepare students for college or the workforce. Click here to learn more about Common Core. 

http://www.alabamas13.com/story/23970715/state-education-officials-overwhelming-vote-to-abolish-common-core-agreement

Commissioner Stewart congratulates Duval for raises they did not give.

Here’s the press release: http://www.duvalschools.org/static/contact/communications/downloads/floridadepartmentofeducation.pdf

The problem is teachers in Duval did not get a raise. Instead they got a onetime bonus which was about 20% less than what Scott sold to the people of Florida. The reason Duval's teachers received a bonus instead of a raise is the district was afraid the allocation would be a onetime thing and not reoccurring. Other districts have looked at it differently and give their teachers raises but Duval decided to play it safe.  

Just a little note, where grateful and every little bit helps, the bonus only makes up about a third of the money stolen  from teachers over the last 3 years.

Is Pam Stewart ignorant? Is she being disingenuous? In my opinion it wouldn’t be the first time for either.

W.C. Gentry tries to protect his legacy, cover up the truth

I had reservations about Mr. Gentry when he ran for school board only after a failed attempt at the Florida Legislature.  A wealthy man entering his twilight it seemed to me that he was just looking for another feather in his cap.

His term  on the board saw morale of teachers plummet, discipline problems skyrocket and a superintendent incapable of doing the job well. Mercifully he did not run for reelection. Now if only he would have stayed silent in his retirement.

In a recent letter in the Times Union he took to task judge Henry Davis who has been critical of DCPS’s discipline policies. Gentry points to an article in the Times Union that says discipline has improved in the district, unfortunately those same statistics came from the district. This is the same district by the way that pleaded poverty under his watch while sitting on over a hundred million dollars.

Furthermore our new superintendent obviously doesn’t agree with Gentry because if he did why would he increase security and put a dean of discipline and an ISSP teacher in the majority of our schools? The truth is if the district had its act together he wouldn’t have had to do any of those things.

Where I think Judge Henry should give the District more time to see if the measures work I don’t believe he was wrong because discipline was a disaster under Gentry and Gentry should be ashamed for what happened under his watch while he was on the board.

It is unbelievable to think that now removed from the board he suddenly cares about discipline.

Common Core what's it good for?

Religious school advocate wants public money but private curriculums.

While shilling for public money to finance religion based schools, Robert B. Aguirre said it is up to religious schools alone to set curriculum.

During a blog chat on Redefined Ed I asked him if public should pay for classes that present non scientific topics, such as  intelligent design as science. To which he replied: Vouchers - or any form of public assistance for students - should never dictate curriculum. That is the role of the private school.

He then went on to talk about choice as if it was somehow holy saying:  The whole point of educational options is just that - options. The whole point of empowering parents is to give them the power (as opposed to some entity) to determine what educational option is best for their child. This is the very nature of parental empowerment and equal opportunity to education.

Sad to say a lot of parents don’t make the best choice or even informed choices for that matter  and this is made even harder because the forces in favor of school choice have sold the narrative that public schools are failing and private schools an charter schools are doing better and none of that is true.

What Mr. Aguirre and many of the pro school choice advocates often fail to acknowledge is public school aren’t just for a set of parents and their children, they are for all of society to benefit whether they have children in public schools or not. That is why everybody chips in not just parents.

What the supporters of vouchers for religious schools actually want is the ability have cake and eat it too, they want money from the public but also want to set their own standards, hiring practices, certifications etc, that are often in opposition to societies minimum public standards.   

The bottom line is if people want to send their children to private religious schools either they or God, who I am a fan of, should provide.

To read more click the link: http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/11/coming-morning-chat-faith-based-schools/

Why does Florida treat its teachers so poorly?

Florida's teachers are among the worst paid in the nation

There are zero work protections for teachers hired after 2010

There are Odious teacher evaluation measures

Pay based on standardized test scores, coming soon

Often vilified by leaders such as Gary Chartrand and Jeb Bush

It’s NEAP time friends and in case you don’t know that’s the standardized test given every couple years that the powers-that-be use to compare the states and other countries. Since it began in the early nineties, Florida has seen small but steady growth.

Right leaning pundits say this shows that Jeb Bush’s A-F grading scale and school choice options are working. They never mention the class size amendment nor can they prove those reforms didn’t actually slow down Florida’s progress but they beat the NEAP drum never-the-less. But lets put the last part of that aside for a moment.

If people like Jeb Bush and the REdefined Ed blog are continuously pointing to Florida and saying what we are doing is working then why does Florida treat its teachers so poorly? That is a question we should all be asking.