Stacking in favor of Charter Schools -Chicago Mayor Daley's "last middle finger"...

This is a tip-off from democraticunderground's "Madfloridian":
"Mayor Daley's "last middle finger" to public schools. How the odds are stacked in favor of charters."
Madfloridian wrote:

This story illustrates how easily public schools are painted as the problem, while it is never mentioned how often they get students returned from charter schools....because they are unable to meet the standards.

That Mayor Daley said such a thing shows how clueless some of the political leaders are about what is really going on....how these schools "counsel out" non-performers and send them back to public schools so they won't affect their scores.

From the Chicago Reader.

Charters unload problem students onto neighboring public schools - then reap the benefits.

An earlier post with this contribution at Chicago Teachers Union site:
"Stacking the Odds in Favor of Charter Schools"
BY BEN JORAVSKY FOR CHICAGO READER | 04/14/2011

A key excerpt:

On February 16, the Union League Club gave out its Democracy in Action award to deserving local high school students, and Mayor Daley was on hand to give a rousing speech—calling on regular public schools to make like the charters and transform ordinary neighborhood students into high-scoring, high-achieving, college-bound stars. Specifically, the mayor was hailing Urban Prep High School, a south-side charter school. But his unspoken message to all teachers was "work harder and stop whining."Consider it one last middle finger from Daley to the teachers and their unions because—well, why not?

Watching it all with a mixture of revulsion and disbelief was Eric Wagner, a social studies teacher at Kelvyn Park High School on the predominantly Hispanic northwest side. "I was there because one of my students—Jennifer Velazquez—had won the award," says Wagner. "I'm thinking, this is really inappropriate. There aren't even any charter school kids who won the award. Why is he ripping us?"


A public school student won. The charter students did not. Mayor Daley was either spinning or he actually did not know. Either way is a slap in the face to the public schools and to the winning student.

Prince Michael's Daughter Georgina Writes "Tell-All" Novel on Father Grinch

The New York Times, which used to be a darling of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has allowed some cracks in the relationship.

It published Tuesday May 31, 2011 a notice about how Mayor Bloomberg, is, shall we put it, disappointed in his horse-riding daughter Georgina.

The background article by Julie Bosman and Michael Barbaro, "Mayor’s Daughter, Hints of Family Life."

And excerpts from Georgina's novel, "The A Circuit," introduced by Bosman and Barbaro.

Bush-McGraw-Hill Test, Financial Ties --Be Alert to Pols' Self-Interest with Tests

When there are millions --make that billions, in some markets, such as New York City-- to be made in test to the test, test-driven teaching,
non-stop "assessments," beware!

One blogger picked up on the long, intense financial ties between George W. Bush's family and school test publisher McGraw-Hill:
"McGraw-Hill & Bush: The Graft and the Twig,": "Bush Ties Prove to Be Lucrative" August 3, 2006, William L. Bainbridge of the "[Jacksonville] Florida Times-Union"

Country western singers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have been getting far more attention than the publishing giant with a similar name that has been quietly gathering in our tax dollars like a hungry squirrel getting ready for winter.

With sales of $6 billion in 2005, publishing giant McGraw-Hill, no relation to the talented musical performers, produced an annualized return of 19% last year. Critics of President George W. Bush's administration have been vocal about the Bush and Cheney family ties to defense contractors at a time of war and, more recently, to their ties to the price gouging gasoline producers. Few, however, have noted the close and profitable relationship between the Bushes and the leadership of McGraw-Hill.

President Bush has managed to keep his family's nearly eighty-year relationship- with the McGraws alive and well - - a relationship that, according to THE NATION, began between the President's grandfather, Prescott Bush, and James McGraw Jr., great uncle of current McGraw-Hill Chairman Harold McGraw, III in the 1930's. (Link to Stephen Metcalf's "Reading Between the Lines." in "The Nation" magazine.)

While it is generally understood and accepted that exchanging favors among business friends in the private sector is common practice, the ethics of such practices between government officials and private business interests is another matter. Examples in the defense arena and among Washington-based lobbyists such as Jack Abrahoff have been broadly documented. Such patterns have contributed to the downward spiral that has resulted in record low public approval ratings for the current President..

Less visible are relationships in other sectors that have proven to be no less lucrative. Consider the following:

· Our state governments will have spent as much as $5 billion with private firms in the next two years in direct costs to develop, score and report the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" law tests designed to record student performance. This is the estimate from the federal Government Accounting Office. Only four companies tend to control test development: (1) CTB, a testing division of McGraw-Hill, (2) Texas-based Harcourt, (3) Illinois-based-Riverside and (4) London-based Pearson. McGraw-Hill's CTB division appears to be dominating this lucrative new industry with contracts in nearly half the states. Is it because they have a superior product and entered into the criterion test market arena first? The test publishers have spent millions with officials in government and at some foundations on reforms that produce more corporate profits rather than substantive benefits for students.

· The National Reading Panel adopted standards for a heavily scripted phonics program, favoring the nation's largest phonics publisher, McGraw-Hill's "Open Court." McGraw-Hill's representatives dominated the panel and the same pubic relations firm worked on the federal plan that promoted "Open Court" in Texas, under then Governor George W.. Bush. The findings were billed as "scientifically based" built on its "success" in the Houston Independent School District. This alleged success has since been found to be predicated on an educational statistics numbers scandal.

· U.S. government speakers at conferences have been accused by education leaders of crossing an ethical line by endorsing McGraw-Hill products including "Open Court" and SRA/McGraw Hill's "Direct Instruction."

· The Association of American Publishers (AAP) sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education indicating concern that some programs were receiving explicit preference. "We request that you again clarify that there is no federally approved list, in this case for assessments, for which Reading First funds can be used," AAP said.

· Harold McGraw III, whose companies are major beneficiaries of federal education funds to school systems, was appointed a member of the current President's transition advisory team.
. . .

Read on at original post.

So, activists and other concerned citizens need to ask:
what vested interests do government executives or legislators have in pursuing standardized tests ad nauseum with school-children?

DOE used Parent Advocates in LIFO fight against Teachers

"The Chief" on March 25, 2011 reported, David Sims, "Local 372, UFT Claim Foul: Charge DOE Pressed Staff to Lobby Against LIFO:"
DC 37 President Santos Crespo charged that the New York City Department of Education was using Parent Coordinators to lobby against senior teachers in the Last In-First Out ("LIFO") struggle.
The DOE sent a petition from Jaclyn Berryman at Tweed's Office for Family Information and Action to at least 375 Parent Coordinators to circulate among parents and community activists that read:

We urge our elected leaders to provide New York City with its fair share of state funds and restore the proposed cuts to our public schools; reject the State's proposed changes in Building Aid, which will delay the construction of thousands of new school seats in our neighborhoods, and allow the city to keep its most effective teachers by ending the state's 'last-in, first-out' policy, allowing Teachers to be retained based on their performance, rather than just seniority.

(Notice, also, how there's the implicit pitch to have construction workers and industry people join the DOE's side in combatting experienced teachers.)

Crespo also noted that the city had previously manipulated parents in the fight against schools and teachers. The DOE mobilized Manhattan and Bronx parents to go to public meetings to support the city's plans for school closings.

The United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew also criticized the DOE's directed parent coordinators to mobilize parents and students against LIFO.
Read further, pages 1 and 7 in "The Chief," March 25, 2011.

Charter School horror story: Mismanaged school bungles budget, fires staff

This in from the New York Post:

A mismanaged charter school in Kingsbridge, Bronx has been shuttered by the New York State Board of Regents. It could not manage its budget, it has been without a principal for nearly half a year, and its board of trustees fired five of eleven teachers.
(Need we more proof of the failure of privitization of schools?)

See the report by Yoav Gonen, "The New York Post," May 18, 2011

In an unprecedented move, the State Board of Regents yesterday revoked the charter of a Bronx school that hasn't even completed a full year of service.

The action was sparked by significant concerns about the financial and educational operations at the Kingsbridge Innovative Design Charter School, which has been operating without a principal since January, according to state officials.

Budget shortfalls prompted the board of trustees to fire five of 11 teachers midyear.

"The school is not fiscally sound, and is in danger of not having sufficient cash to meet its payroll and other expenses at any time," read the revocation notice, which was unanimously approved.

Kingsbridge officials and many parents fought the potential revocation since they were notified that the school was being placed on probation in March.

Read more at the original site.

Cutback Consultants, Save NYC Teacher Jobs

CUT CONSULTANTS, SAVE TEACHING JOBS, KEEP CLASS SIZES DOWN, REDUCE CLASS DISORDER
When New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg says that he wants to be "the education mayor."

As the teacher's union's rally this Thursday, May 12 blazed on T-shirts, "really?"

You can see people's priorities are when you see their expenditures of money.
New York City can save everyone of these imperiled teaching positions by eliminating the (no-bid, by the way) consultants and consultant company expenditures. (And by the way, these consultants are often off-shore, and of course paying off-shore programmers. We are in a period of unemployment crisis and revenue crisis. So why are we spending huge sums with companies operating abroad that will not pay New York, let alone New York taxes. Did you buy a shirt in New York City at a store rather than online? If so, you not only helped the local economy, helping to provide income to salesclerks here and tax coffers here.)

Back to the consultants issue, the numbers are huge, regardless of where they are working. In the Friday edition of the New York Daily News, Rachel Monahan reported that $23 million is budgeted for computer services.
If the mayor and his supporters support the classroom experience, they will support the students and their classroom experience. In this decade of mayoral (autocracy) control we can see that there has been dubious improvement: 75% of NYC school entrants to CUNY schools need remedial math and English. The city has to rely on data-fudging (operations that scrub student data, dubiously asserting that students have gone to commercial trade schools when they have dropped out), and has to rely on desperation measures of bogus credit recovery courses (a semester's worth of credit for some crash speed work on make up projects or class sessions). When this is the hallmark of NYC education, we see that the city has moved backwards with the mayor. So, for all the millions that are spent on ARIS and excess consultants and data analysis and collection, there is no significant movement forward.
In short, cut the consultants; divert the money to teachers.
From Monahan's article in the Daily News:
(See the admittedly unscientific DN online poll associated with this article: 96% say divert the $$$ to teachers instead of consultants.)

As the city prepares to lay off 4,100 teachers, the Department of Education is planning to spend nearly $1 billion on consultants next school year, a new analysis shows.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer blasted the agency's budget as a "black hole" and took issue with the 6% increase on consultants, after his office pored over the latest budget documents.

"There are a whole lot of troubling increases that have nothing to do with spending money in the classrooms," said Stringer, noting the city's plans to lay off teachers was "political gamesmanship" and the "solution" may lie in the $20 billion Education Department budget.

"This is a black hole that gets darker and deeper as time goes on," he added.

"It's time to shine some light on what these services really are."

Stringer's analysis, which agency officials dismissed, found the agency is increasing its spending on consultants under the central administration budget by $25 million - with $23 million of the increase spent on computer services.

The analysis also found increased spending on consultants to recruit teachers by nearly $1 million - while the city is cutting teachers.

Education Department officials have said that it's necessary to continue recruiting teachers to shortage areas like special education even during cuts.

City Education Department officials rejected the analysis, saying that most of the consulting budget is for required services and directly goes to serving students with disabilities.

"The Borough President either fails to recognize an important fact about these consultant costs or he is intentionally misleading people," Chancellor Dennis Walcott said. "The truth is that over $840 million of the $981 million he cites are dedicated to direct services for our students with the vast majority going towards our students with disabilities which are services that are required under the law."%A0

Agency officials also disputed that the computer contracts are increasing so steeply, saying instead that they underestimated expenses last year.

Jose Gonzalez, whose sons Alvaro, 10, and Allan, 9, attend Public School 73 in the Bronx joined a protest against budget cuts held yesterday at City Hall.

"We want a better education for our children. How are we going to do that?...They're really wasting money on consultants and contracts," said Gonzalez, a member of the Coalition for Educational Justice.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2011/05/13/2011-05-13_city_prepares_to_spend_nearly_1_billion_on_education_consultants_as_it_fires_410.html#ixzz1MLQ3x6OJ

USA Today: Feds sought for Rhee Erasuregate

USA Today for the past month has been giving attention to the ballooning test scandal of Erasuregate: very high numbers of answer choices on tests erased and changed to the correct answer, during Michelle Rhee's years as schools chancellor for Washington, District of Columbia (DC).
Thursday, May 5, 2011 "USA Today" gave front page attention, in Marisol Bello and Jack Gillum, "Inquiry sought into D.C. test scores." You know that things are bad for Michelle "Taped Lips" Rhee when school-killer comrade in chief Arne Duncan endorses a deeper investigation. (Rhee, power-protecting and defensive, refused to speak to USA Today reporters live; although she did deign to respond to a written set of questions.)
Meanwhile, the number of parent or teacher signatures demanding a federal probe into test scores during Rhee the First's tenure, or should we say reign. (See the fun Rhee-focused site, RheeFirst!, on Erasuregate and skewering Rhee's overall apple polishing.)



And you know things are bad for her when even conservative institutions and one of their staff publicly skewers Rhee.

Rhee's comments have shifted because she is trying to protect her national reputation, says Mike Paul, a crisis management consultant.

According to Rick Hess, an education researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, activists such as Rhee say they have all the answers and when one flaw is found in their approach, it can call into question their entire program.

"Your critics have good reason to try to re-examine your evidence — and if they find problems with it, then your case is dramatically weakened," Hess says.

California Teachers declare state of emergency: May 13

California Teachers Association is having a State of Emergency day on Friday, May 13.

See this education blog:
http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2011/04/11/california-teachers-association-1-million-state-of-emergency-protests-may-include-road-closures-plus-labor-union-flavored-ice-cream/

And the California Teachers Association website:
http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2011/04/11/california-teachers-association-1-million-state-of-emergency-protests-may-include-road-closures-plus-labor-union-flavored-ice-cream/ .

60 Minutes runs piece on Megalomaniac Philanthopist Eli Broad

Local journalist Christopher Knight calls him Eli "Strings Attached" Broad (pronounced as in "road").

As in an earlier post last week dealing with his Broad Foundation's education philanthropy, "No. Denver News: Parents fight back vs. Eli Broad Foundation's wreckage of education,"
real estate mogul Broad gives, with manipulative strings attached, in medicine, education and the arts.
Mysteriously, the 60 Minutes segment just grazed over the topic of education.

Viewer discretion advised: Prince Michael (Bloomberg) speaks glowingly of his methods.

The link: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7363440n.

No. Denver News: Parents fight back vs. Eli Broad Foundation's wreckage of education

The Broad Foundation, the education policy play-thing of billionaire philanthropist / public policy meddler Eli Broad, is influencing education policy nation-wide.
Cities across the country are feeling the chaotic effects of his Foundation's training of superintendents.

Now, parents are fighting back against his manipulation of education, against his free-of-accountability policy influence.
Read this Scribd pdf from North Denver News.
Parents group hits back at billionaire Broad's influence on education
Contributed by Staff
Wednesday, 20 April 2011

A national parent group is attacking the influence of LA billionaire Eli Broad's influence on public education, a reach that extends into Denver with the controversial non-educator Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Tom Boasberg.
Parents Across America have published this parent's guide to the influence of the Broad Foundation:

The question I ask is why should Eli Broad and Bill Gates have more of a say as to what goes on in my child’s classroom than I do? – Sue Peters, Seattle parent

In recent months, three prominent school district superintendents have resigned, after allegations of mismanagement, autocratic leadership styles, and/or the pursuit of unpopular policies. All three were trained by the Broad Superintendents
Academy: Maria Goodloe-Johnson (class of 2003) of the Seattle school district, LaVonne Sheffield (class of 2002) of the Rockford, Illinois school district, and Jean-Claude Brizard (class of 2008) of the Rochester New York school district.
Brizard resigned to take the job as CEO of Chicago schools, but his superintendency in Rochester had been mired in controversy. Another Broad-trained Superintendent recently announced his resignation: Tom Brady (class of 2004) of Providence, Rhode Island.

Three more Broad-trainees have been recently placed in new positions of authority: John Deasy (class of 2006), as Superintendent of the Los Angeles United School District, John White (class of 2010), Superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans, and Chris Cerf (class of 2004), New Jersey’s Acting Education Commissioner. Tom Boasberg was appointed Denver’s Superintendent in January 2009, shortly after taking an “Intensive” training at the Broad Academy. (See map . . . from the Broad website, showing where until recently their trainees served.) (Actually, notice how the cartographer placed Cincinnati in Indiana --maybe he or she thought that geography was too teacher-centered.)

This summary is designed to help parents and other concerned citizens better understand the Broad Foundation’s role in training new superintendents and other “reform” activities, and how the foundation leverages its wealth to impose a top-down, corporate-style business model on our public schools. It is time for communities to become aware of how this major force works.

What is the Broad Foundation?

The Edythe and Eli Broad Foundation engages in venture philanthropy in four areas: education, medical research, contemporary art, and civic projects in Los Angeles. The foundation was established in 1999 by billionaire Eli Broad (b. 1933) who made his fortune in real estate and the insurance business.
. . . .

How the Broad Foundation affects public school families

Broad and his foundation believe that public schools should be run like a business. One of the tenets of his philosophy is to produce system change by “investing in a disruptive force.” Continual reorganizations, firings of staff, and experimentation to create chaos or “churn” is believed to be productive and beneficial, as it weakens the ability of communities to resist change.

As Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, a proponent of this philosophy has said,“…we can afford to make lots more mistakes and in fact we have to throw more things at the wall. The big companies that get into trouble are those that try to manage their size instead of experimenting with it.”

A hallmark of the Broad-style leadership is closing existing schools rather than attempting to improve them, increasing class size, opening charter schools, imposing high-stakes test-based accountability systems on teachers and students,
and implementing of pay for performance schemes. The brusque and often punitive management style of Broad-trained leaders has frequently alienated parents and teachers and sparked protests. . . .

(Read more at the North Denver News site: http://northdenvernews.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=2270)

Breaking: Chicago picks Rochester school-killer Brizard

The unproven prescription of school closing, and cleansing of staff is as in-vogue as ever. New Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has hired former Rochester schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard as Chief Executive Officer [sic] of Chicago Public Schools.

From Rochester City Newspaper:

Update from Rahm Emanuel's press conference follows this story.

Rochester school board President Malik Evans has confirmed that Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard is leaving Rochester [a statement from Brizard is at right]. Brizard will become head of the Chicago schools system, which is under a mayoral control form of governance. The announcement was made by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel this morning.

Evans says that Brizard text messaged him the news this morning. Evans said he felt like he'd been "kicked in the stomach." [Read Brizard's resignation letter to Evans.]

Evans says that the school board will meet in executive session tonight with its attorney to review Brizard's contract with the district. Brizard signed a new three-year contract about four months ago.

Board member Van White says he expects an apology from Brizard to the community for Brizard's abrupt departure.

On Friday, four school board members had a press conference reiterating their support for Brizard. Board President Malik Evans said that he trusted Brizard to tell him if Brizard's career plans had changed. Some board members also said it would be irresponsible of Brizard to leave after initiating so many changes in the district, including opening and closing schools and changing grade formations.

UPDATE: 1 P.M.

It's official. Rochester schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard has been chosen by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel to be the next head of Chicago's school system. The announcement was made in a press conference in a Chicago school and Brizard was present.

Emanuel said he interviewed six or seven candidates, but Brizard was the only one who talked about reform in terms of its benefits to children. Other candidates talked about reform as if the reforms themselves were the most important thing . . .

Walcott's thin resume, padded by Bloomberg in the way Unity did for Weingarten

Those in the know are aware of how former United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten had hardly the resume one would expect for showing experience as a teacher. Remember that her teaching program was part time in her early years.
(From Wikipedia):

From 1991 until 1994 she taught on per diem basis 122 days over the period at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights. In fall of 1994 she taught history full-time at the school. By 1995, after six months of full-time teaching, Weingarten was elected Assistant Secretary of the UFT. She continued full-time teaching, from 1995 to 1997.

As legal counsel to the outgoing UFT president Sandra Feldman, she was being groomed for her position.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the case for Walcott by puffing up limited experience as thorough experience.
Yet, he has far thinner experience in education than Weingarten.
Looking at Bloomberg's text form of Walcott's curriculum vitae, in an appeal to out-going New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner,
the one thing that stands out is that prior to his tenure as deputy mayor, the one thing that is apparent is that Walcott was restless, not staying with a position for any fixed period.

BLOOMBERG'S INFLATING OF WALCOTT'S THIN JOB CREDENTIALS
Most glaring is how Bloomberg puffed up Walcott's hop-scotch time employed with children.
He worked for only one and a half years with children at the private, 90-seat Amistad Child Care Center in South Jamaica. Bloomberg distorted Walcott's position: he said that Walcott worked as a kindergarten teacher at Amistad. However, the center is a child care center, not a school, and the institution is for pre-kindergarten children (Bloomberg, thus, deceived us on two counts, by calling him a teacher and by implying that he worked with kindergarten-aged children).

And remember that state law requires the chancellor to have training in education supervision. Walcott lacks that; his training was in teaching and social work, not supervision.