It looks like a bunch of interested parties are starting to judge the Obama administration based on its appointments and early policy direction. And that's just fine. But when there's Fordham's Reform-a-meter, and Diane Ravitch proclaims Duncan's USDOE to be Bush's third term, I'll chime in with Fred Klonsky: judge people for what they do, but remember the context.
The good news for Obama is that he needn’t worry about the Republicans. They’re committing suicide.
Wanted—‘more failure’
Right-wing ed blogger Joanne Jacobs thinks there’s “not enough acknowledged failure” in our schools. I wonder how many more high school dropouts would be enough for Jacobs?
It seems that some of the teachers at my favorite, reform, I mean “charter” school have been attempting to - I can barely say the word - unionize! What on earth can they be thinking? Don’t they realize what a poor example that would be for the children in their care?
Friday, new Chicago schools CEO, Ron Huberman, had his assistant, Drew Beres, write a note to Clemente High School Principal Leonard Kenebrew. The letter informed Kenebrew that Huberman will be bringing a couple of research guys over to the school tomorrow from the Police Executive Research Forum. It seems that Huberman wants to use Clemente as his model of school violence prevention in a study that will, “help us bring best practices to the entire CPS system.”
Readers might recall that the recent explosion of violence inside the massive, 7-story complex that is Clemente, was directlyconnected to Daley/Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 closure of Austin High School and the shipping of hundreds of kids from the west side over to Clemente and Wells.
Only Herculean efforts by Kenebrew and his great corps of teachers, plus Clemente’s small-schools plan, kept the situation from deteriorating further into all-out war. Ren10 school closing also caused a spike in school violence across the city, at schools like CVS and Gage Park. Duncan then fired Gage Park principal, Marty McGreal when he protested and refused to allow his school population to swell even larger in the wake of the Ren10 violence.
The real “best practice” might be for Huberman to dump Renaissance 2010 altogether, before more schools are closed and more kids scattered. Not likely though.
Charter schools and traditional neighborhood schools could learn something from this Chicago small school. Telpochcalli kids learn through the arts with support from CAPE. Check out this video on CPS Right Now:
A skilled veteran Chicago teacher, Ladwanna Harrison, makes some great points about AUSL's "turn-around" takeover of several CPS schools. You can listen to the whole interview on City room at WBEZ:
We can start over. I can go to a new school and I can get a new classroom and a new group of kids and I’ll be fine and I can start over. But these 25 kids are going to have to see someone completely different. They’re going to walk into a school where they know no adults. No adults.
Chancellor Michelle Rhee got a kick in the teeth Friday, when congressional Democrats moved to kill her favored D.C. school-voucher program.
Change is in the air…
Paul Krugman offers a balanced view of Obama’s stimulus package and then concludes, “this is budgeting we can believe in.”
Elections have consequences. President Obama’s new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years.
Of course, the two big ifs are: 1) getting the U.S. out of Iraq and, 2) learning from the Russians and not getting into an even worse mess in Afghanistan.
Sebelius is named to lead HHS
I like her.She supports keeping the public in public education. In fact, I wrongly predicted that she would be picked for ed secretary. Shows you what I know. But I do know that the wing-nuts hate herso she can’t be too bad. She also went out on a limb and backed Obama over Clinton in the primaries.
I received an anonymous comment the other day. The writer, was telling me that I was “way off base” on the Rockford charter school debacle and that the current superintendent search and the accompanying imposition of a Chicago-based chain of charter schools was the model of “transparency.” Another writer named Anonymous writes this morning with the same message--the Rockford charter school deal is going to fix the failing school system and make it more accountable.
But Jeff Kolky’s story is Sunday’s Rockford Registar Star pretty much blows both Anon’s arguments away and confirms most of what I’ve been saying for the past month or so. New Orleans school boss Paul Vallas had indeedheld secret meetings with Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, developer Sunil Puri, president of the First Rockford Group, and some loyal board members. Puri is a big player in state politics and contributed heavily to the campaign of former Gov. Rod Blogojevich.
The purpose of the meetings was: 1) to override Hazard & Young’sselections for superintendent and bring in a Vallas favorite, and 2) to help maneuver Chicago International into town in hopes that privately-managed charter schools would attract outside investment into depressed Rockford.Morrissey’s motives may not have been so bad, and I’m not saying he’s been a bad mayor, but he kept his meetings with Vallas and the school board a secret while charter schools were sold, not just as a dubious business move, but rather as an educational reform. Rockford needs an economic fix. It also needs leadership that is open and above board about what it's doing with public schools and public decision-making.
As for “transparency,” Kolky writes:
Rockford dentist Cyrus Oates introduced Vallas to the superintendent search in December. Oates said he met Vallas’ wife, Sharon, while on a private jet[Isn’t it great that Vallas gets to fly around on private corporate jets?—mk] in November en route to a Dollars For Scholars board meeting near St. Louis. That meeting led to an offer from Vallas to consult with Rockford officials.
When first asked about his role by a reporter Feb. 9, Morrissey said he had met with School District consultants as a search firm built its criteria for the next superintendent. Morrissey said he had a chance “to talk with (Vallas) a few times in the past” and that “I think he has some contacts here.” It was only after Vallas confirmed that Morrissey had a seat at the table that the mayor acknowledged his participation.
