From the school house to the jail house

From the NY Times:

The food fight here started the way such bouts do in school lunchrooms most anywhere: an apple was tossed, a cookie turned into a torpedo...

The problem is, this wasn't "most anywhere." It happened at a Chicago south-side charter middle school with the result of 25 African-American students, some as young as 11 years old, being sent off to jail. I'm talking with educators at the school to try and find out how such a thing could happen at a small charter school with a culture built around the slogan is "A disciplined Life" and to find out what will be done to set things right with the kids and parents.

More to come.

VIDEO from Channel 2 News

Down the rabbit hole with Arne

After a year of Arne Duncan's threats to "drop a ton of bricks" (withhold badly needed federal dollars) on states and school districts that resisted lifting charter school caps, ill-conceived merit pay schemes, mayoral control, or school "turnarounds," comes this:

No Child Left Behind expanded the powers of the federal government to impose accountability. That was the consensus at the time – but I’m on record saying that – when I was in Chicago I didn’t look forward to a call from Washington. Now that I’m here I’m even more convinced that our role is to support – not dictate -- education reform at the state and local level.

Report from New Orleans

It was one of those rare years when I didn't (couldn't) make it to the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum. This year's Forum was held in New Orleans in the wake of the death of CES's founder, Ted Sizer. So I'm relying on friends and colleagues to fill me in on the happenings.

This report from Matt Alexander was in mailbox yesterday and was posted on the Smallschools Listserv:

Hi everyone,

I just got back from the CES Fall Forum in New Orleans -- an inspiration as usual! Thanks so much to Lewis Cohen and the folks at CES national for continuing to make this phenomenal gathering a reality.

It was also fascinating -- and depressing -- to learn about the state of public schools in New Orleans 4 years after Katrina. I have always thought that choice was an important component of an effective school system, but what I heard and saw over the past few days made me question my thinking. Despite the many choices available -- numerous charters, plus two different school districts --it seems that a disturbing number of families cannot access public schools, either because nearby schools are full or because they have burdensome admissions requirements. Many of the best choices seem to be in wealthier neighborhoods; the Lower Ninth Ward (where housing is also hard to come by) has only one school (as opposed to 4 before the storm).

After hearing about this at the conference, I saw yesterday's Times-Picayune, which is doing a series on the same subject. The first article, "Selecting a school can be a real test for New Orleans parents," came out yesterday and there are stories coming this week describing 4 families' efforts to enroll their children in a good school.

Matt Alexander
June Jordan School for Equity
San Francisco, CA

Thanks EWA

Spoke at Education Writers Assoc. meeting in San Diego--"Small Schools & High School Reform." Great group of journalists. Lively discussion. Good range of panelists politically speaking. Mostly researchers, but missing teacher voice. I'm heading home but writers are visiting S.D. schools including High Tech Hi & Big Picture.Thanks for the invite EWA.

Gates study to measure teachers beyond the test scores

Bill Gates is putting up $2.6 million for a study on measuring teacher effectiveness "beyond using test scores." The study will be a two-year joint project between the UFT and New York's DOE.

But why? Both Gates and N.Y. Chancellor Joel Klein have long been the main advocates for "merit pay" based solely on test scores. It was less than a year ago that Klein extolled the virtues of THE TEST in his interview in U.S. News.

"...we're kidding ourselves if we don't think these tests are giving us a reasonably accurate prediction of whether we're getting our kids ready for—at least in New York City—ready for graduation with a regent's diploma, which is a meaningful standard."

So if test scores are so accurate, why all the money spent on alternative and varied assessments? Maybe the push-back has been too strong. The line from the top seems to be shifting slightly as NCLB re-authorization time draws nearer.

Push-back is good.

Small Schools and High School Reform: Shrinking Size, Diminishing Returns?

Education Writers Association National Meeting in San Diego

Nov. 8-10, 2009
San Diego, California

Join the Education Writers Association for a three-day seminar exploring issues and story ideas related to small schools and high school reform. Participants will visit schools and take an in-depth look at programs in the San Diego Unified School District, hearing firsthand from teachers, principals, students and parents about their experiences.

Sessions include:

• Left Behind: The Big High School
• Small in Size, but Not in Feel?
• Reporters' Experiences Covering Small Schools
• What Big Districts Can Learn from Small Schools

Featured speakers include Michael Klonsky, Small Schools Workshop and Center for Innovative Schools; Libia Gil, American Institutes for Research; Ash Vasudeva, Stanford University School Redesign Network; Karin Chenoweth, The Education Trust; and Clara Hemphill, New School Center for New York City Affairs.

The seminar is tentatively scheduled to begin Sunday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m., and conclude Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 2:15 p.m.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Hotel Solamar. Contact (877) 230-0300 to make reservations. Let the hotel know that you are attending the EWA seminar. The hotel reservation deadline is Oct. 14.

Start Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009
End Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009

If you'd like to attend this event you can RSVP online.

http://www.ewa.org/site/Calendar/1263685621?view=Detail&id=100501

A terrible loss for DePaul and the entire community

Francisco "Frankie" Valencia


Valencia's friends said his combination of intellect, street smarts and idealism made him a standout at DePaul. He used his ambition, charisma and personal story of struggle to encourage other "young men of color to persevere in their educational pursuits," DePaul spokeswoman Denise Mattson said. Valencia's mother, Joy McCormack, said Valencia also was a role model to his younger siblings. He volunteered at Chicago public schools and for the Barack Obama campaign. He also traveled to Colombia on a humanitarian mission. "His ambition, idealism, intelligence, enthusiasm and commitment made him a natural leader," McCormack said in a statement. "He aspired to have a career in politics and to serve as an example to the Latino community." (Tribune)

Mayoral control? More reasons why not

"At the end of my tenure, if only seven mayors are in control, I think I will have failed." Arne Duncan

Duncan has made mayoral control of the schools a centerpiece of his school reform initiative with Chicago's Mayor Daley and New York's Bloomberg his role models. But there's plenty of evidence to show why such autocratic control fails in practice. The latest has Daley, faced with a City Hall budget crisis, shifting his trusted machine administrators onto the the public school payroll into high-paying, non-educator jobs while hundreds of teachers are being laid off. CPS under mayoral control has become the new patronage hiring hall.

This from today's Catalyst Notebook:

Mayor's Troubleshooter Barbara Lumpkin lands $154,000-a-year job with Board of Education. (Sun-Times)

Lumpkin is the City Hall equivalent of a utility infielder. She has also served as Daley's city comptroller, budget director and city treasurer following the conviction of Miriam Santos...In 2005, her name turned up on city documents as one of four officials who signed off on some of the 14 pay raises over eight years -- three within two months -- granted to former gang member-turned convicted Hired Truck czar Angelo Torres.

This, according to the Sun-Times:

During a brief stint as city treasurer -- before Santos was released from prison and re-claimed the office only to turn around and plead guilty -- Lumpkin downplayed as "routine" $445.6 million in transaction errors that cost a top employee his job and deprived taxpayers of $102,428 in interest and penalties. To plug a $475 million budget gap -- the largest since Daley's 1995 school takeover -- CPS is raising property taxes by $43 million and cutting 450 more jobs. Some of them may be teachers.

Militarization of public schooling

He turned Chicago into a Mecca for military schools. Chi-town has more than any city in the nation. A DOE media advisory informs us that today Arne Duncan will take time out from his Listening Tour with Newt Gingrich to support generals and admirals calling for students to be better prepared for the war machine.

The question arises: Duncan was certainly able, in peak athletic condition with intellectual skills honed at Harvard. Why didn't he enlist?

FYI:

Minorities make up 92 percent of the cadet population. Only 4 percent are white, compared to 8 percent of the general Chicago public schools population.

There are no public school military academies in Chicago's suburbs.

Stimulus 'saved' teaching jobs that never were

Well, I was looking for some way to give Arne Duncan credit for something good. You know me. I always try to be balanced in my criticism of ed bureaucrats and deal makers. So when I read the DOE stats saying that the ed stimulus had "saved 325,000 jobs in education," I believed it and posted the NYT article with only its small disclaimer, that "counting jobs that were saved can be a squishier proposition than counting jobs that were created." Of course, it should have occurred to me that the whole story was pure B.S.

This from today's Trib:

More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers. Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.
(h/t Brother Fred)

Ownership Society News

Should this guy be running the schools?

Bloomberg bought the election for a cool $100 million and still barely won. It was the most expensive race in history outside the presidency and teaching N.Y. students the Golden Rule: He who has the gold gets to make the rules.

Ford Fund puts $100m into urban high school reform

The grants focus on New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago and Newark, N.J. Among the early grant recipients so far: The American Institutes for Research in Behavioral Sciences, to develop new school-finance models; Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, to write a series of papers about assessment methods; and the American Federation of Teachers Innovation Fund. (Gewertz, H.S. Connections)

More charter schools, more cuts at LAUSD

Fewer students ultimately result in staff reductions --- over and above those already caused by the state budget crisis. Even if the charter students are added in, district enrollment is down 1.4% from last year, continuing a recent trend. (L.A. Now)

What tests may really be measuring

90% African-American children on food stamps, lack Vitamin D

I'm no statistician, but I was taken by the statistical correlation I found in two recent studies.

One released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine reveals that half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher.

The other Academy of Pediatrics study, which came out a week ago, shows a similar percentage of children and black and Hispanic children in particular, suffering from Vitamin D deficiencies. Such deficiencies compromise the immune system and can make children more susceptible to diseases like the H1N1 virus.

What's missing is a study of the effect the two above may have on student learning and relative scores on standardized tests. Is it possible that what these tests are really measuring in large part, is the relative health and nutrition levels among school children?

If so, shouldn't the new version of NCLB mandate states to look after the proper nutrition of all students, close the Vitamin D gap, and track annual yearly progress (AYP)?

What's happened to Chicago Vocational?

In the early 90's Chicago Vocational High School became the first large high school in the city to restructure into smaller academies. With strong leadership and a skilled veteran faculty, this massive school, which peaked at 4,200 students, was able to offer students and parents a range of career academies with lots of student choice and personalized learning, while still maintaining after-school activities, sports teams and marching band. CVCA's reputation was transformed from that of, as one student put it, "a thuggy school" to being "the pride of Chicago". The transformation was beautifully portrayed by filmmaker Jeff Spitz in his 1994 documentary, "Tell No Lies" and documented in several case studies, including "Breaking Down the Monolith."

But when CPS and foundation leaders moved away from the small schools strategy to a singular focus on testing and ultimately to school closings, CVCA suffered from an increase in school violence and severe program cuts. Its reputation suffered and its small academies disintegrated.

Flash forward to the story appearing this morning at Chicago Talks.

Teachers at a South Side vocational school last week accused Chicago Public School administrators of creating chaos for students by shifting teachers around weeks into the school year and preventing students from taking courses in their majors. Carol Caref, a math teacher at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the city’s southeast side, told Chicago Board of Education members that the late-September layoffs forced the school to shut down three of its areas of study...But Ron Huberman, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said little can be done to fix the problem. With CPS facing a massive $700 million deficit next year, the district cannot afford to keep teachers with small classrooms on the payroll, he said.